Five Towns Jewish Home 8.17.23

Dear Readers,

For many families, the days in between camp and school are ideal to spend time together as a family on a vacation or a getaway. During the summer, many children are in their respective camps – some upstate, some here – and when they come back, it’s time to regroup as a family and reconnect. There is only so much you can hear about camp during their weekly phone calls home. Spending time together allows the conversation to flow, and you’ll hear a lot more about the details of what went on in camp during the past two months.

Little stories and funny jokes that children share help parents to relive their kids’ camp experiences. They’ll tell you about the time that the pool turned green or when the lights went out and they had to eat the Friday night meal in the dark. They’ll talk about friends they made and pranks they played. They’ll share their amazing homerun that they hit in the last minute of the game. And then you really get to understand why they want to go back next summer.

Sometimes, on long car rides with the kids, I like to keep the music off for part of the time so there is opportunity for conversation to flow. You get to hear their observations and insights. They share whatever pops into their minds, whether it’s about their experiences or questions that they may have. And they also get to hear their

parents’ insights and reflections.

Still, listening to music is wonderful on long car rides. I’ve decided (and I haven’t told the kids yet!) that when we get into the car for a longer stretch of time, I’m going to put on some old, good Jewish music that we haven’t heard in a while. I’ve realized that the kids love certain contemporary songs; they can hear them over and over again. But there is so much good music out there – remember Journeys and Miami Boys Choir and Karduner? – and I’d love for them to experience that music as well.

We put on an old Journeys album on one trip this summer. The kids were listening to the words of the songs and sharing their thoughts. I loved hearing what they had to say and reexperiencing the delight of hearing these songs for the first time. I was so happy to share part of my childhood with them. It brought me back to the past – I remember where I was when I first heard that song – and made me gratified that I was able to share part of that past with them.

There are only a few more days (or weeks! for some families) of summer left. Let’s take advantage of the time we have to spend together before the pressures of the school year encroach.

Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern, PUBLISHER publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

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Shabbos Zemanim

Friday, August 18

Parshas Shoftim

Candle Lighting: 7:30 pm

Shabbos Ends: 8:31 pm

Rabbeinu Tam: 9:00 pm

Dear Editor,

I read the article from “Disappointed” in your August 10 issue. While I agree that bullying is out there, I will tell you that I have been teaching at Yeshiva Darchei Torah for the last few years and they have zero tolerance for bullying. There is an in-service given to all teachers at the beginning of the year and what the protocols in place are. So whether we, as teachers see it, or a student complains or a parent calls with concerns, it is addressed immediately. Whether the behavior is sourced at home or the child has issues that need to be addressed, it is not OK on any level in the yeshiva. Principals are brought into the discussion as well as our on-site behavior therapist and of course the parents of the children involved.

So please, take heart, lots of people have their eyes and ears open and care about the safety, both physical and emotional, of our children.

Rachel English

Dear Editor,

I cannot agree more with the letter writer who wrote in about the prevalence of bullying by children in our community. True, it is the exception. There are many wonderful children in our schools and camps. But just one or two bullies in a school or camp can wreak havoc and terror on tens of other kids.

The letter writer asks where these bullies’ parents are. To a certain extent, the parents are to blame. But the culture in a school and in a camp has to be of zero tolerance for bullying. I have seen, firsthand, where adults have been present when children have made bullying comments

to others. And yet, I was the only adult to speak up. I can only think that perhaps the other parents were so shocked by this behavior that they didn’t have the wherewithal to respond to the bully and to stop the bullying.

But we, the adults, need to stop bullying when we see it. In this way, we empower the victims and show them that we support them. We show the bully that their behavior is not acceptable. We foster an environment of acceptance and tolerance.

It’s important to note that bullying takes on different forms in girls and boys. Boys are more “blatant” in their bullying. They’ll throw balls at other kids or punch them in the face. But girls are more “subtle.” They’ll make catty remarks or roll their eyes or deliberately and obviously exclude someone. All of these behaviors are unacceptable.

We, as a community, can work together to make sure that all our children feel safe and accepted. If we keep our eyes open and stand up to bullying, we will make our schools and camps safe places for all children. Sincerely,

Adina R.

Dear Editor,

I often wonder why anger is so common and why those with anger rarely change. G-d created a perfect world (though Rav Soloveitchik zt”l notes that G-d created and destroyed worlds before to create the notion of mistake). In a perfect world, only justice exists. Any error merits destruction. We are in G-d’s image. Inherent in our personality is perfection and justice, and when someone makes

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what we consider to be an inappropriate comment, we berate them for their lack of perfection. However, G-d also added mercy into this world. And it is based on mercy that we must break our middot and overlook non-perfect comments.

Steven Genack

Dear Editor,

I hope all is well and you had an enjoyable summer.

I read your letter in this past week’s issue and could not hold back from giving you my input.

In regard to encouraging people from staying here in the community with the ocean and the boardwalk and waves pounding on the sand: are you saying that it is safe for a family with children ages 5-17 to stay in the city and expose them to the culture that is out there?

The whole reason to go to the country is to not have the kids exposed to what’s in the city, and you know very well that the dress code and language spoken, not to mention mixed swimming on the beach, is not a place for a frum family.

Ari

Dear Editor,

It was shortsighted on the part of MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and LIRR President Catherine Rinaldi to eliminate the LIRR 20-trip ticket discount. In post COVID-19, working part-time from home has become a common practice with more and more businesses. This will only grow as technology continues to evolve. Doing away with the LIRR 20 Trip Ticket is no way to attract new riders.

I remember a brief period in the 1980s when the LIRR offered a one-year ticket which arrived monthly. By prepaying for your monthly pass one year in advance, you received a 4% discount. Sadly, there were only several hundred of us, including myself, who took advantage of this amazing bargain, so it was quickly discontinued. Fast forward today, and 14,000 riders will lose their discounted 20 Trip Ticket.

Sincerely,

Larry Penner Great Neck, NY

Russia Heads to the Moon

sia, was expected to collaborate with the European Space Agency on the development of Luna 25, as well as future iterations of the lander. However, the partnership ended due to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

American Captives Freed in Haiti

On Friday, August 11, at 8:10 a.m. local time, Russia sent Luna 25, a moon-bound lander, into orbit. The craft was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a spaceport located in Amur Oblast, Russia, and traveled in the Soyuz-2 Fregat Rocket. No people were sent along on this mission.

Luna 25’s journey will begin with the craft circling the Earth for some time before launching into a lunar orbit. If all goes as planned, Luna’s destination will be the south pole of the moon.

Once it arrives, the lander is expected to spend a year analyzing lunar soil and studying the moon’s extremely thin atmosphere. Built with an advanced robotic arm, the lander will be able to collect the moon’s materials.

This marks the first time in nearly forty-seven years that Russia has launched a lunar lander into space. The last time it did so was August 18, 1976, when they sent Luna 24 to the moon.

Russia is currently in competition with India to see which country’s lunar lander will arrive on the moon first. Luna 25’s Indian counterpart, Chandrayaan-3, launched on July 14 and is already orbiting the moon. Both crafts are expected to reach their destinations on August 23.

“We’re going to see several spacecraft, some perhaps from other nations, that are going to be landing on the south pole in the near future,” NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, said on Tuesday during a news conference. “There’s a renewed interest in the moon, and of course, it’s there because the potential of water. We’re going back to learn to live in a deep space environment for long periods of time so that we can go to Mars and return safely.”

Roscosmos, the space agency of Rus-

On July 27, Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were abducted in Haiti. Thirteen days later, the two Americans were released from their captivity.

Dorsainvil, an American nurse, works in a Haitian community ministry. The kidnapper’s identity and motive are still unknown, although the Haitian National Police have stated that they are investigating the matter.

According to a patient who witnessed the abduction, the suspect pointed a gun at the two victims prior to the abduction.

“When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” said Lormina Louima. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.’”

“It is with a heart of gratitude and immense joy that we at El Roi Haiti confirm the safe release of our staff member and friend, Alix Dorsainvil, and her child who were held hostage in Port au Prince, Haiti. Today we are praising G-d for answered prayer,” El Roi Haiti, the organization Dorsainvil works for, said in a statement, adding that the two have been returned “healthy and unharmed.”

In response to this news, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that the department welcomes “reports of the release of two citizens from captivity in Haiti” and that they “have no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.”

On the day of the abduction, and amidst ever worsening conditions in Haiti, the U.S. State Department issued an order that all non-emergency government officials leave the Caribbean country.

Since the beginning of 2023, 1,014 people have been kidnapped in Haiti. At least 256 of them are women, 24 are boys, and 13 are girls, according to the UN. The country has been seized by gangs and racked by violence.

Dorsainvil was born in New Hampshire and “fell in love with the people” of Haiti during her college years, said El Roi Haiti. The first time she visited the Caribbean country was after the 2010 earthquake. Since 2020, she has been taking care of the medical needs of Haitian schoolchildren.

Prior to the release of Dorsainvil and her daughter, students at El Roi Haiti and other Haitians held protests in hopes of the pair’s return.

Surprise Primary in Argentina

cy and embraces comparisons to former President Donald Trump.

Javier Milei, 52, a congressman, economist, and former television pundit, secured 30% of the vote with 96% of the ballots counted, making him the front-runner for the presidency in the fall general election.

Polls had suggested Milei’s support was at about 20%, and political analysts had predicted that his radical policy proposals — including abolishing the country’s central bank — would prevent him from attracting many more voters.

But the vote Sunday made clear that Milei has a clear shot at leading Argentina, a South American nation of 46 million with some of the world’s largest reserves of oil, gas, and lithium.

finance minister, finished second in the primary, with 21% of the vote. Patricia Bullrich, a conservative former security minister, finished in third place, with 17%.

The general election takes place October 22, but it appears likely that the race will be decided in a runoff vote November 19.

The Sunday results showed that Argentina’s three separate coalitions have similar levels of support, making it unlikely that any candidate will reach or exceed the 45% threshold necessary to win outright in the first round. (A candidate can also win outright by winning 40% of the vote with a margin of victory of at least 10 percentage points.)

from the rubble.

Eighty people were wounded in the fire.

Search and rescue efforts were ongoing as of Tuesday morning, with emergency workers clearing the rubble and searching for potential survivors.

A statement from the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin “expressed condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the explosion at a gas station in Makhachkala and wished a speedy recovery to the victims.”

The Dagestan government declared Tuesday a day of mourning.

A far-right libertarian candidate won Argentina’s open presidential primary election on Sunday, a surprising showing for a politician who wants to adopt the U.S. dollar as Argentina’s official curren-

Milei has pitched himself as the radical change that the collapsing Argentine economy needs, and he could be a shock to the system if elected. Besides his ideas about the currency and the central bank, he has proposed drastically lowering taxes and cutting public spending, including by charging people to use the public health care system; closing or privatizing all state-owned enterprises; and eliminating the health, education, and environment ministries.

Sergio Massa, Argentina’s center-left

The incumbent center-left party has held power in Argentina for 16 of the past 20 years and has been controlled largely by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

“We’re not only going to end Kirchnerism, but we’re also going to end the useless, parasitic, criminal political caste that is sinking this country,” Milei told supporters in a speech Sunday night.

Argentines who voted for Milei said Sunday that they liked him because he was a political outsider who would shake up a broken system and tell it like it is.

(© The New York Times)

Gas Station Explodes in Russia

Poland Holds Huge Military Parade

At least 35 people were killed and dozens more were injured when a fire caused an explosion at a gas station in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.

The blaze started at a car repair shop on Monday night and then spread to the nearby fuel station on the outskirts of Dagestan’s capital of Makhachkal, Russia’s emergency situations ministry said.

Several children were among the dead, according to the head of the Dagestan republic, Sergey Melikov, and at least three bodies were recovered

On Tuesday, Poland held its largest military parade in decades, flexing its muscles as tensions rise on the border between the NATO nation and Belarus.

Poland’s Defense Ministry said the celebration of Polish Army Day would be marked by a showcase that includes 200 units of Polish and foreign military equipment, 92 aircraft, and 2,000 service members.

The parade includes some of the latest technology Poland has in its arsenal, including U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams tanks, South Korean K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled howitzers, HIMARS rocket launchers, Krab self-propelled howitzers, as well as U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries systems, which are part of the Polish “WISŁA” air defense system.

Poland has emerged as one of Europe’s leading military powers in recent years after pouring billions into new equipment following Russia’s decision to annex the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. Warsaw’s diplomatic clout has also grown in the wake of the instrumental role it has played in supporting Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Last week, Poland announced the deployment of thousands of additional troops to its eastern border as concern mounts over the presence of Russian

16 Wagner mercenary forces in Belarus.

Poland shares borders with Ukraine and Belarus. This parade is bound to send a strong message to Russia about its determination to keep its sovereignty.

“It’s sort of a Soviet thing to do. Russia does theirs on May 8, Belarusians have them, as does North Korea, Iran. It’s kind of reflecting back their language. The adversary states see these [parades] as a show of force, so Poland is going to meet it with a show of force,” Edward Arnold, a research fellow at the British security think tank RUSI, noted.

In addition to sending a message to Russia, a strong military force is also sending a message of security to the Polish people.

Poland has dramatically increased the amount it spends on defense in recent years, from less than 2% of its GDP in 2014 to 4% this year, according to official NATO statistics. That makes it the biggest spender in terms of GDP share, above the U.S. Crucially, more than 50% of Poland’s investment is into new equipment and research and development.

Ecuadorian Pres. Candidate Assassinated

legislator in the National Assembly, was murdered as he was leaving a campaign event near Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

A gunfight between the suspect and police followed thereafter, resulting in the gunman’s death. Additionally, according to Juan Zapata, interior minister of Ecuador, six Colombians, who are part of organized crime groups, have been arrested for alleged involvement with the crime.

and expressed his wishes to put an end to the “political mafia” that, according to him, is responsible for the country’s increasing levels of violence and corruption.

Since the assassination, a few presidential candidates, including Yaku Pérez and Jan Topic, have paused their campaigns as a show of respect for Villavicencio, urging others in the race to do the same.

Last week, Fernando Villavicencio, a candidate in Ecuador’s upcoming presidential election, was shot and killed. Nine others were injured, as well.

In response, current President Guillermo Lasso requested assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and instituted a sixty-day state of emergency and three days of mourning, as well as the rapid deployment of military personnel, throughout the entire country.

“Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law will fall on them,” Lasso declared, promising justice for the fallen Ecuadorian.

Villavicencio, a fifty-nine-year-old

In a series of investigations and raids, officials found that the six Colombian nationals had several weapons in their possession, including a machine gun, rifle, pistols, and grenades, along with ammunition, two motorcycles, and a stolen vehicle.

The officials protecting Villavicencio were no match for the criminal group responsible for his death, said Luisa González, the frontrunner for the upcoming election.

“It’s not a question of how much security you have by your side. My security told me to wear a vest. I said they shoot in the head, and there it is. It’s as simple as that, or a grenade. The criminals are better armed than the police,” González added.

Villavicencio had publicly called the South American country a “narco state,”

Ecuador’s presidential election is set for August 20 and will still take place despite these recent events, said Diana Atamaint, the president of the country’s Electoral Council.

A once peaceful country, Ecuador has been overrun with crime and chaos in recent years and has been made a hub for drug trafficking from Peru and Colombia, two of the country’s neighbors.

Eiffel Tower Bomb Threat

On Saturday, the Eiffel Tower was evacuated for several hours over a bomb threat.

The three floors of the tower, as well as the courtyard, were evacuated while

authorities assessed the threat. Traffic was diverted from the area, and a large security perimeter was established.

A team of deminers was brought in to access the threat.

have to undergo security checks before entry.

Evacuations are very rare. Still, they do occur occasionally. In 2019, the monument was evacuated and closed after a man was spotted climbing up the side .

When the Eiffel Tower opened in 1889, it was the world’s largest structure. At 986 feet, it towered over the 555-foot Washington Monument, which had been the world’s tallest structure. Years later, in 1930, the Chrysler Building, at 1,046 feet, nabbed the title.

U.S.-China Investment Bans

“It’s a usual procedure in this kind of situation, which is rare nevertheless,” a spokesperson for SETE, the operating company for the Eiffel Tower, said.

After determining that all was safe, the iconic landmark was reopened for the public.

About seven million people visit the Paris tourist attraction every year. The monument has a police station at the foot of the south pillar, its premises are under video surveillance, and visitors

In an attempt to protect U.S. national security, the Biden administration has implemented new rules, banning those in

the United States from investing in certain types of technology made in China.

Specifically, for the time being, limits will be made on the types of investments that U.S. joint ventures, venture capital and private equity firms can make in Chinese artificial intelligence and related industries.

Additionally, U.S. companies must inform the government when investing in Chinese technology, in order to allow for better government transparency.

“This is a national security action, not an economic one. We recognize the important role that cross border investment flows play in U.S. economic vitality, and this executive order [is] narrowly protecting our national security interests,” a U.S. government official recently told reporters.

Other officials have repeated the sentiment that the goal is not to hurt the People’s Republic of China but to protect the United States from national security threats. However, China doesn’t see it that way.

These investment bans are a “blatant act of economic coercion and scientific and technological bullying,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, asserting that the U.S.’s goal is to “deprive China of its right to development.”

In October 2022, the government implemented export restrictions, making it illegal for Chinese companies to buy advanced semiconductors or the equipment necessary to make chips unless they have a license to do so.

Most Republicans agree with these new rules but feel that they need to be even stricter. Former South Carolina governor, UN ambassador, and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, for example, has called these new restrictions “not even a half measure.”

“They will do little to stop American money flowing to China’s military through its tech companies. To stop funding China’s military, we have to stop all U.S. investment in China’s critical technology and military companies — period,” Haley asserted.

Junta Accuses Niger’s Pres. of Treason

The military junta that seized power in Niger last month said over the weekend that it would prosecute the deposed president for treason, even as an intermediary said coup leaders were open to talks with West African countries that

had threatened to intervene militarily, the first sign of a thaw after nearly three weeks of rising tensions.

Since mutinous soldiers detained President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger on July 26, they have kept him isolated in his private residence in Niamey, the capital, with his wife and one of their sons; dissolved his government; and, according to U.S. officials, vowed to kill him if West African countries intervened militarily.

On Sunday, the junta member acting as a spokesperson, Col. Amadou Abdramane, said Bazoum would face charges of “high treason” and “undermining the internal and external security of Niger” after the democratically elected president spoke with foreign leaders and international organizations while in detention.

A West African regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS, has said it would activate a “standby force” to intervene against Niger’s coup leaders if Bazoum is not released and reinstated.

But experts doubt that countries already struggling with domestic insecurity and underequipped militaries could mount a successful operation against a Nigerien military that has received years of Western training. They also warn that a regional conflict could have devastating consequences in an area where extremist groups have extended their grip in recent years.

President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, the current chair of the West African bloc, has said that force would be used as a last resort. On Sunday, Niger’s coup leaders said they were open to dialogue with the bloc, according to a religious figure from Nigeria who was received by the junta leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, as part of mediation talks.

On Sunday, Abdramane said the new government had gathered enough evidence to prosecute Bazoum based on his communications with foreign heads of state and international organizations.

He gave no details on the allegations, nor a date for a trial. Under Niger’s penal code, treason is punishable by death. (© The New York Times)

U.S.-Iran Prisoner Exchange

ficials haven’t said how many detainees would be released, the New York Times reported that the number is five.

According to two Israeli officials, this deal is part of ongoing indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Oman, regarding a potential new Iran nuclear deal.

Saudi Arabia Amb. to Palestinians

On Thursday, August 10, it was announced that the U.S. and Iran are currently working out a prisoner swap. As part of this ongoing deal, five Iranian Americans detained in the Islamic Republic have been released from jail and are now under house arrest.

In exchange for the release of the five American hostages, the U.S. will allow $6-$7 billion held back by economic sanctions to go to Iran. According to Iran’s representation in the UN, the funds will first be sent to Qatar, and then, if the deal works out, the money will arrive in Iran.

Additionally, Tehran is negotiating for the return of several Iranians imprisoned in the States. While U.S. government of-

“As part of a humanitarian cooperation agreement mediated by a third-party government, Iran and the U.S. have agreed to reciprocally release and pardon five prisoners. The transfer of these prisoners out of prison marks a significant initial step in the implementation of this agreement,” Iran’s UN mission stated.

Such a deal would not ease U.S. sanctions on Iran, assured Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“We will continue to enforce all of our sanctions. We will continue to push back resolutely against Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region and beyond,” Blinken added. “None of these efforts take away from that.”

“My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of … [the prisoners’] nightmare,” Blinken said. However, there is still “more work to be done to actually bring them home.”

Jewish Iranian Sent to Spy on Israel

Saudi Arabia has appointed its first ambassador to the Palestinians, in a move that comes amid talks with the United States over a possible deal to normalize relations between the Gulf kingdom and Israel.

Last Friday, an Iranian Jew was stopped at Ben Gurion Airport and was deported back to Iran after he admitted to being hired by Tehran to spy on Israel.

According to Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, the man, who has family in Israel, was not arrested for a few reasons. For one, he didn’t present an immediate threat to Israel and likely only agreed to spy because he was promised a large sum of money and was pressured to comply with the demands of Iranian intelligence. Additionally, because he is not an Israeli citizen, the chances of him getting charged with the crime are very unlikely.

“He was stopped before he could do anything. And this is in addition to other operative considerations,” a defense official noted.

The man’s mission was to gather intelligence on several people whom the Iranian government wants to attack or kill.

According to the Shin Bet, Iran gave the unnamed suspect an empty tissue box that would be used to hold hidden tools, such as a cell phone and a mobile power bank.

“It is estimated that these means were handed to him in order to carry out secret espionage on targets in Israel,” the agency added.

“This incident is part of a broad Iranian effort to establish espionage and terror [networks] in Israel, alongside the influence on the internet to widen social divides.”

The Shin Bet usually spends weeks, if not months, before publicizing information on Iranian spies and generally doesn’t resort to immediate deportation.

Saudi Arabia named its ambassador to Jordan, Naif bin Bandar Al-Sudairi, as “non-resident ambassador to the State of Palestine and Consul General in Jerusalem.”

A ceremony took place Saturday in the Jordanian capital Amman, where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s diplomatic advisor received Al-Sudairi’s credentials, reported the Saudi state news agency (SPA).

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the appointment, saying that the “timing of the decision reflects the interest of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Palestinian cause,” the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Tel Aviv’s 103 FM radio station Sunday that Israel was aware of Saudi Arabia’s planned appointment, but that the kingdom did not coordinate with Israel on the matter.

“They didn’t coordinate with us, and they didn’t have to coordinate with us,” Cohen said, adding that the Saudi ambassador’s appointment comes amid “the advancement of talks between the US and the Saudis regarding Israel.”

“The Saudis wanted to send a message to the Palestinians that they didn’t forget them,” Cohen said.

Still, the Israeli official said that Israel would not permit the opening of any diplomatic representations for the Palestinians in Jerusalem.

This is Saudi Arabia’s first ambassadorial appointment to the Palestinian Authority. The kingdom has had diplomatic relations with the PA, but the level of representation and the nature of the relationship between the two have varied over time.

All members of the Arab bloc, including Saudi Arabia, recognize Palestinian statehood, and the kingdom maintains a Palestinian embassy in the capital Riyadh.

The move comes amid reports of a normalization deal in the works between Saudi Arabia and Israel, with the Unites States involved in the rapprochement.

Ethiopians Rescued by Israel

freedom from Ethiopians by banning protests and allowing for more arrests.

Several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have warned their citizens to stay away from Amhara.

Kidnapping of IDF Soldier Thwarted

Last week, Israel carried out a rescue operation, rescuing more than two hundred Ethiopian Jews and Israelis from war zones in the African country.

Those rescued were flown to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. At this point, locals who choose to immigrate to Israel will be able to do so, and Israeli evacuees will be brought back to their homeland, unless they choose to stay in Ethiopia.

“The State of Israel will not stand by and will not leave a single Israeli behind,” asserted Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. “This is the result of successful cooperation and close coordination with the Prime Minister’s Office, the NSA, and the Jewish Agency.

“I am proud of the people of the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Ethiopia for their swift and high-quality action,” added Cohen.

“Israel looks after its citizens wherever they are,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, praising those who took part in the “quick, silent and most importantly, successful” operation. Immigrants will be “warmly” welcomed to Israel, Netanyahu added.

These evacuations come amidst violent struggles between the Ethiopian military and a rebel group. On Friday, August 11, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency in Amhara, after it lost control of the region to Fano, the militia responsible for violence in the area.

Some have criticized the Ethiopian government’s response to the conflict, with Human Rights Watch claiming that the state of emergency has taken away

The Shin Bet said on Monday that it had arrested a Hamas terror cell which had planned to kidnap an IDF soldier and to perpetrate shooting and bombing attacks against the IDF in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.

The arrests took place last month. The operation was coordinated with the IDF and Israel Police, which included nine Palestinians affiliated with Hamas from the village of Biddu in the Binyamin Regional Council.

The kidnapping cell was well prepared. It surveilled IDF patrols to gather intelligence. It also manufactured explosives and went as far as to establish its own explosives laboratory. As part of the investigation, the Shin Bet seized the laboratory and explosive materials, including raw materials for producing fireworks, pipes for pipe bombs, and other items, such as Carlo guns.

The kidnapping plans included a place to keep the kidnapped soldier and escape routes as well.

“The General Security Service, together with the IDF and the Israel Police, will continue to work even harder to thwart any attempt by terrorist elements outside to promote terrorist activity against the State of Israel and to bring those involved to justice,” Shin Bet said.

The police undercover border patrol forces and the IDF’s Oketz Unit, along with the police and the IDF’s aerial surveillance units, were critical in carrying out the arrests, based on Shin Bet intelligence.

During the raid, undercover forces burst into three separate locations where the cell members were holed up and apprehended the terrorists.

Soldier Dies in Training

while calling paramedics. Medical forces from the Air Force’s search-and-rescue Unit 669 were also called to the scene.

With temperatures soaring, medical officials have urged the public to stay indoors. The IDF generally avoids outdoor training during extreme heat.

According to the military, there had been a halt of exercises due to the heat wave until 10 p.m. on Sunday. After temperatures fell at around midnight, the Combat Engineering Corps conducted a new assessment and allowed outdoor training to continue.

his deputy, Mohammed al-Hindi, met in Beirut with Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror militia.

A statement issued by Hezbollah said the talks focused on the “latest developments in Palestine, Lebanon, and the region,” as well as “threats facing the axis of resistance during the current phase.”

was attended by Maher al-Helles, member of the Fatah Central Committee, and Sheikh Khaled al-Batsh, member of the PIJ political bureau, as well as several officials from the two groups.

A statement issued at the end of the meeting said that it came “within the context of strengthening bilateral relations between the two movements and strengthening the home front in the face of projects to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”

On Monday, Pvt. Hillel Nehemiah Ofan collapsed and died during a training exercise in a forest near Elad. It is possible that he was suffering from heatstroke or dehydration.

The 20-year-old hailed from the West Bank settlement of Karmei Tzur and was posthumously promoted to the rank of corporal.

Ofan, who recently completed his basic training, served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit. The incident occurred between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. during a crawling exercise as part of Yahalom’s advanced training.

One of Ofan’s commanders spotted the soldier lying on the ground, and began to give him preliminary treatment

Following the deadly incident, the commander of the IDF’s Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, ordered a halt to all training exercises until Wednesday at 5 a.m.

PIJ and Fatah Meet

On Monday evening, the leaders of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the ruling Fatah faction held a rare meeting in the Gaza Strip during which they discussed ways of strengthening bilateral relations between the two sides.

The meeting was held one day after the leader of PIJ, Ziyad al-Nakhaleh, and

The meeting in the Gaza Strip came amid mounting tensions between the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority and PIJ, the second largest armed group in the coastal enclave after Hamas.

The tensions reached their peak last month, when the Palestinian security forces arrested several members of PIJ’s armed groups in the northern West Bank. Since then, several PIJ members have been arrested by the Palestinian security forces in other parts of the West Bank.

The crackdown on PIJ members has sparked a number of limited armed clashes between Palestinian security officers and gunmen in Jenin Refugee Camp. PIJ officials have condemned the arrests and called for the release of all their men from Palestinian prison.

Late last month, PIJ and two other Palestinian factions, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and As-Sai’qa, boycotted a meeting of Palestinian factions in Egypt in protest of the crackdown by the Palestinian security forces. The two terror groups are based in Syria.

The meeting was called by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss ways of achieving “national unity” and forming a new Palestinian unity government.

The gathering, however, ended without agreement after Hamas and the other factions that attended the meeting rejected Abbas’s demand that they accept the PLO’s political platform and United Nations resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict out of fear that such a move would constitute recognition of Israel and abandonment of the armed struggle against Israel. Abbas, for his part, is said to have turned down requests to end security coordination between the Palestinian security forces and the IDF.

Monday’s meeting in the Gaza Strip

Trump and Others Indicted

Former President Donald Trump and 18 others, including some of his former lawyers and top aides, have been indicted by an Atlanta grand jury in a sweeping racketeering case focused on Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.

The indictment — handed down after a single, extra-long day of testimony — is an unprecedented challenge of presidential misconduct by a local prosecutor.

It brings charges against some of his most prominent advisors, including Rudy Giuliani, his former personal lawyer, and Mark Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff at the time of the election.

Trump, running again for president and the early favorite to win the Republican nomination, has now been indicted in four separate criminal investigations since April, including a federal indictment this month over his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 race.

Although that case covers some of the same ground as the one in Georgia, there are crucial differences between state and federal charges: Even if Trump were to regain the presidency, the prosecutors in Georgia would not report to him, nor would he have the power to attempt to pardon himself if convicted.

The indictment laid out eight ways

the defendants obstructed the election: by lying to the Georgia state Legislature, by lying to state officials, by creating fake pro-Trump electors, by harassing election workers, by soliciting Justice Department officials, by soliciting Vice President Mike Pence, by breaching voting machines, and by engaging in a cover-up.

The investigation was led by Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney. It focused on five actions taken by Trump or his allies in the weeks after Election Day, when Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia. Those actions include phone calls that Trump made to pressure state officials to overturn the result, as well as harassment of local election workers by Trump supporters, false claims of ballot fraud, a plan by Trump allies to create a slate of bogus electors, and a data breach at an elections office in Coffee County, Georgia.

A statement from the Trump campaign said Willis’ election interference investigation was based on “fabricated accusations.”

All 19 defendants are being charged under Georgia’s racketeering statute, and each of them has at least one additional charge. (© The New York Times)

Food Prices Increase

While food prices remained stable in June, just one month later, grocery store prices rose 0.3%, mostly due to the increasing cost of beef.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in July alone, uncooked beef roasts went up 6.5% in cost, while uncooked beef steaks and ground beef went up 2.3% and 1.5%, respectively. In all, the price of beef and veal went up 2.4%.

Prices are rising due to beef shortages caused by droughts. The extreme weather has been depleting water resources and grass that cows need for survival, and as such, farmers are being forced to sell their livestock. In fact, according to the USDA, the cattle supply has decreased 3% year over year.

The government recently released similar data. From July 2022 to July 2023, uncooked beef steaks went up 7.8%

in price. Uncooked beef roast became 6.3% more expensive, and uncooked ground beef rose 3.1% in price. The government concluded that, in all, the price of beef and veal went up 5.3% over the last twelve months.

But beef isn’t the only grocery store item getting more expensive. In July, hot dogs became 2.7% more expensive and apples rose 2.4%, while citrus fruit and ice cream increased in price by 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively. Coffee and butter both rose 1% in cost. Other foods have gone up over the past year, including bread by 9.5%, flour by 8.5%, rice by 6.5%, and sugar by 9.7%.

Conversely, some foods went down in price last month, including margarine and eggs, which became 2.4% and 2.2% less expensive, respectively, while chicken, seafood, and fresh fish all decreased by 1.1% in cost. Additionally, milk’s price dropped 0.6%.

As for restaurants, menu prices did go up in the month of July, but only 0.2% higher. However, from the span of July 2022 to July 2023, fast and casual food rose 7.1% in cost, while dine-in restaurants became 5.8% more expensive. Many customers are having enough of the high prices, leading many fast food and restaurant chains to actively lose business.

More Driverless Taxis in San Fran

passengers on San Francisco streets.

The commission’s decision after a seven-hour hearing followed months of protest by city officials and civic groups, who complained that the driverless cars were a potential road hazard. While the autonomous vehicles have not been blamed for any serious incidents, city officials say they often shut down and won’t move after encountering an unexpected obstacle like a fire hose or downed electrical lines.

The expansion plan was the first indication that driverless cars could be commercially viable after billions of dollars in investments by the tech and auto industries. “San Francisco would be a proof of concept” for the rest of the country, said Matt Wansley, a law professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York.

Cruise operates 300 vehicles in San Francisco during the night and 100 during the day, while Waymo operates 250 throughout the day. Neither company expected a significant increase in the number of vehicles.

Waymo said its driverless fleet would “align” with rider demands, while Cruise said it would focus on expanding the market to new parts of the city, since it had offered paid rides only in northwest San Francisco.

Both supporters and opponents of driverless cars — including trade unions, gig workers, disability groups and transportation activists — flocked to the commission’s headquarters in San Francisco on Thursday. In a campaign organized by Waymo, close to 100 employees and riders showed up to the meeting in yellow shirts that said, “Safer Roads for All.” (© The New York Times)

Maui Wildfires

California regulators agreed last week to the expansion of driverless taxi services in San Francisco, despite the safety concerns of local officials and community activists.

In a 3-1 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates self-driving cars in the state, gave Cruise and Waymo permission to offer paid rides anytime during the day throughout the city. One commissioner was absent.

Cruise, a General Motors subsidiary, had been offering paid rides in one-third of the city, while Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was offering free trips to passengers in its driverless cars. The vote had no impact on the frequent test drives that Waymo and Cruise have been conducting without

Several wildfires raged in Maui, the second largest island in Hawaii, over the past week, leading to at least ninety-nine fatalities and countless missing, as of Tuesday.

Thousands of people have been evacuated to emergency shelters, with many left homeless due to the calamity. The fires have caused billions of dollars in damages, said Hawaii Governor Josh Green, adding that “upwards of 1,700 buildings” have been destroyed, with around 80% of

“gone.”

“If you have additional space in your home, if you have the capacity to take someone in from west Maui, please do,” the governor urged. “Please consider bringing those people into your lives.”

Power outages have swept the county, leaving around 11,000 businesses and homes without electricity and making it very difficult for officials to communicate with one another.

“There’s no power. There’s no internet. There’s no radio coverage,” John Pelletier, police chief of Maui County, said two days after the fire began.

The disaster started on Tuesday, August 8, when Maui County announced that the Lahaina brush fire was “100% contained before 9 a.m.” that day. An hour later, another wildfire, the Kula Fire, started becoming an issue, leading to evacuations in certain areas. By the time the afternoon came along, yet another wildfire, the Upcountry brush fire, became problematic, forcing even more evacuations. Then, the Lahaina fire came back to life. The fires consumed the island at high speeds, leaving many with little time to escape.

“Now I want to caution everyone, Lahaina is a devastated zone,” Green said on Friday. Residents of Lahaina “will see

destruction like they’ve not ever seen in their lives. Everyone, please brace themselves as they go back.”

Sadly, the comprehensive emergency alarm system on the islands was not activated during the fires, sitting silent as fires raged. Downed power lines and fire hydrants bereft of water contributed to the intensity of the tragedy.

Of the many people who lost their lives, only a few have been identified. Many of the bodies were so charred they will only be identified with DNA testing. Additionally, there are many people still considered missing.

A resident of Maui said that the town was looking like “a massive grave,” as if “there was a war that happened.”

President Joe Biden has approved a disaster declaration to provide Maui with federal funds needed for the island’s rebuilding, and over 130 members of the Army National Guard and Air National Guard have been sent to the site of the destruction. Additionally, California and Washington have sent search-and-rescue teams, along with search dogs, in hopes of finding survivors in the ruins of Maui.

These fires are now the deadliest natural disaster in all of Hawaii’s history, eclipsing the previous record of sixty-one people killed by a tsunami in 1960.

More Aid For Ukraine?

global opposition to Russia’s illegal war,” Shalanda Young, the budget director of the Biden administration, wrote to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a letter detailing the President’s appeal to Congress.

While President Biden has said that the U.S. will help Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” much of the Republican Party is concerned that the U.S. is paying too much for the war, and with no end in sight or any estimate of how much more money Ukraine will need, some Republicans say enough is enough.

On Thursday, August 10, President Joe Biden asked Congress for over $24 billion to continue helping Ukraine fight against Russia.

In addition, the President has requested a supplement of about $16 billion for other issues, including disaster relief, border security, and assistance to countries hurt by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – specifically so that those countries do not turn to China for help and thus fall victim to the PRC’s predatory lending practices.

In all, President Biden is asking for about $40 billion in funding.

“As the impacts of Russia’s war reverberate around the globe, the United States is committed to maintaining strong

“For people that might be concerned that the costs financially are getting too high, we would ask them to consider what those costs – not just in treasure but in blood, perhaps even American blood –could be if Putin subjugates Ukraine and then sets his sights on our NATO allies because we obviously have a security commitment to protect our NATO allies,” John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, argued. “This is a fight that’s much bigger than just about Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

On one side of the Republican Party, GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said that he isn’t in favor of simply handing Ukraine a “blank check,” especially after the passing of the June 1st debt deal; more aid would be too much. On the

other side, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated that he is in favor of the U.S.’s continued support for Ukraine.

“People think, increasingly it appears, that we shouldn’t be doing this. Well, let me start by saying we haven’t lost a single American in this war,” McConnell said. “Most of the money that we spend related to Ukraine is actually spent in the U.S., replenishing weapons, more modern weapons. So it’s actually employing people here and improving our own military for what may lie ahead.”

According to the results of a CNN poll in early August, 55% of Americans feel that Congress should not approve more funding for Ukraine, while 45% said Congress should. Additionally, the poll notes that 51% of U.S. citizens believe that the country has already done more than enough for the war in Ukraine. In comparison, in February 2022, 62% said that the U.S. wasn’t doing enough.

Say Hi and Be Happy

A recent poll shows that those who say hello to people in their neighborhood have a higher well-being than

those who speak with few or no neighbors. And it’s not just about saying hi to your one neighbor. With 100 being a perfect score, well-being rose from 51.5 among people saying howdy to no neighbors to over 64 for people who regularly greeted six neighbors.

although “presumably, the more people to whom you say hello, the greater the probability is that you’re actually going to strike up a conversation with them as opposed to just wave.”

And how often do you have to be friendly in order to be happy?

“We leave that up to the respondent to interpret, but our intent was for this to mean all the people to whom you greet whenever you see them,” Witters said. “Some days might be zero, some days might be every one of them.”

Gas Prices on the Rise

“The sweet spot, as far as well-being is concerned, is six greetings,” said Dan Witters, research director for the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, a large, national poll on career, finance, social, physical and community well-being conducted quarterly in the United States since 2008.

“After six, there aren’t any greater benefits from greeting your neighbors beyond that,” Witters said. “But six is better than five, five is better than four, all the way down to zero.”

Witters says that it’s more about saying hello than having a chat every day,

Saying hello boosted much more than a person’s social success, according to an analysis of the survey data. Regular greetings also improved a person’s physical, financial, career and community health.

There are a few types of well-being. Community well-being was defined as feeling safe, having an emotional attachment, and giving back to a neighborhood, Witters said. “If you have very strong community well-being, that’s going to increase the chances that you’ll say hello to neighbors and saying hello to neighbors is going to improve your community well-being.”

Career well-being measured a person’s sense of satisfaction, which Witters explained included whether someone was a good fit and utilizing their strengths. When it came to physical well-being, you don’t need to do 100 sit-ups a day; Gallup defined it as “having the energy you need to get things done in your life.”

Financial well-being is defined in the Gallup survey as not how much money you make but having responsible spending habits and building toward financial security, Witters noted.

“It’s probably fair to postulate that the rise in financial well-being due to greeting neighbors is because people with greater levels of financial well-being are more likely to be living in a safer area where they are more comfortable being out and about.”

Most Americans say hi to an average of five neighbors regularly, with 27% reporting greeting six or more people in their neighborhood, the survey found. But younger people are less friendly. Adults younger than age 30 greeted an average of 2.9 neighbors, with only 14% greeting six or more on a regular basis.

In comparison, 41% of adults 65 and older typically spoke to an average of 6.5 neighbors or more, the survey found.

Pump prices are creeping towards $4 a gallon nationally.

The national average for regular gasoline hit $3.85 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. That’s the highest level since October 19 – and comes right before many families hit the road for their last summer vacation.

The national average is up by two cents over the past week.

Gas prices have climbed by 28 cents over the past month and 32 cents since the Fourth of July as a result of higher oil prices caused by Russia and Saudi Arabia cutting supply and extreme heat sidelining some U.S. refineries.

According to AAA, there are now 11 states averaging $4 or higher, including Arizona, Illinois, and Utah. Colorado and Michigan aren’t far away.

OPEC leader Saudi Arabia earlier this month extended its oil production cut at least until September. An official source from the Saudi Ministry of Energy told state-run news agency SPA on August 3 that the kingdom will extend this voluntary cut of one million barrels per day.

An Attack on the Press?

A small town in Kansas has become a battleground over the First Amendment, after the local police force and county sheriff’s deputies raided the office of the

Raids of news organizations are exceedingly rare in the United States, with its long history of legal protections for journalists. At the Record, a family-owned paper with a circulation of about 4,000, police seized computers, servers and cellphones of reporters and editors. They also searched the home of the publication’s owner and semiretired editor as well as the home of a member of the City Council.

The searches, conducted Friday, appeared to be linked to an investigation into how a document containing information about a local restaurateur found its way to the newspaper — and whether the restaurant owner’s privacy was violated in the process. The editor of the newspaper said the raids may have had more to do with tensions between the paper and officials in Marion, a town of about 2,000 north of Wichita, over prior coverage.

“There’s a lot of healthy tension between the government and newspapers, but this?” Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said in an interview about the raid in Marion. She warned that the raid was a dangerous attack on press freedom.

The newspaper’s owner and editor, Eric Meyer, said in an interview that the Record had done nothing wrong. The newspaper did not publish an article about the government record, though Meyer said it had received a copy from a confidential source and one of its reporters had verified its authenticity using state records available online.

In an email, Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody defended the raid.

“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” Cody said. He declined to discuss the investigation in detail.

On Sunday, more than 30 news organizations and press freedom advocates, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, signed a letter from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Cody condemning the raid.

The Marion County Record is uncommonly aggressive for its size. Meyer said the newspaper, which has seven employees, has stoked the ire of some local leaders for its vigorous reporting on Marion County officials, including asking questions about Cody’s employment history. (© The New York Times)

A Bunch of Bologna

injury,” Lakewood police wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The driving school made sure to announce that the person driving the car was not an instructor at the school.

“The person who drove his vehicle into the building was a new employee on his second day. He was observing classroom instruction. He had not started any training to be an in the car instructor,” Community Driving School Owner Steve Rohman clarified.

The employee was driving his own vehicle and not one used by the school.

I guess you can say he failed his road test.

Buried Treasure

An enormous Lebanon bologna sandwich billed as one of the world’s largest was unveiled at a central Pennsylvania fair last week.

The 150-foot-long sandwich was created Tuesday night at the Lebanon Area Fair by a large crew of volunteers known as the “Bologna Security.” Lebanon bologna is known for its distinct smoked and tangy flavor.

Every footlong “bite” was sponsored at $100 per foot. The money was donated to those suffering from poverty.

Lots of stuff went into this overstuffed sandwich. The group used 600 slices of provolone cheese and 1,200 slices of half-sweet and original Seltzer’s Lebanon Bologna to create 900 sandwiches, or six sandwiches per foot. Fairgoers had a chance to enjoy the sandwich for free Tuesday night.

Sounds like a real bunch of bologna.

Student Driver

Recently, a cache of more than 800 Civil War-era gold coins were unearthed in a Kentucky cornfield — a treasure worth millions of dollars that experts are calling one of the greatest finds of the 21st century.

“It’s hard to put this in context because there are so few instances of coins of this nature with this level of rarity being found in the ground in the United States,” Andrew Salzberg, executive vice president of the Numismatic Guaranty Company’s (NGC) Certified Collectibles Group, explained.

A grading service put the value of the coins at $2 million.

“Most of them are gold dollars, which in and of themselves are really interesting pieces of numismatic history,” Salzberg said.

In addition, he added, there were some $20 gold pieces — “a couple of which were dated 1863 and graded MS 64, which is the highest grade that has ever been graded,” he said.

ing able to do so.

“The chances of finding something like this, I would say, are in line with winning the lottery,” Salzberg said.

“It’s a truly historic and rare find. I can’t disagree that, as far as coins being found in the ground, this is one of the most significant finds of the 21st century.”

What a lucky penny.

Seeing Double

Some student drivers have trouble turning, some student drivers don’t know how to park, and others just really shouldn’t be driving.

Last week, an employee at a driving school in Colorado made an unforgettable entrance into the building.

While attempting to park a Hyundai Tucson in a spot in front of the Community Driving School, the driver accidentally drove straight into the building.

“Thankfully, there was only one minor

The story behind who buried the coins, and why, is something Salzberg said he finds fascinating.

“Back in those days, you couldn’t always go to a bank or put them in a safe or store them in a vault,” he said. “Nothing was really available to somebody looking to hide their wealth, so the best way to do it was to bury it in the ground.”

It is unknown to whom these coins belonged. Experts say that the person probably buried the huge chunk of change hoping to return to unearth them. Unfortunately, they must have died before be-

Next week, teachers in a Scottish town are going to be seeing double – lots of it.

Schools in Iverclyde will be welcoming in 17 sets of twins.

The town is known as “Twinverclyde” due to all the multiple births that it has seen. Now, these kids are growing up and about to attend primary school.

The only other time more twins started school in the region was in 2015, when 19 sets of twins started primary school.

On Friday, a week before classes began, the majority of the 2023 class – including all those twins – gathered at St Patrick’s Primary School in Greenock for a dress rehearsal ahead of their first day.

Most of the youngsters were present with 15 of the 17 sets of twins in attendance.

St Patrick’s, along with Ardgowan Primary, is one of two schools in Inverclyde taking in the most pairs of twins, with three sets each joining their respective primary one classes.

The class of 2023 will take the Inverclyde twin count to 147 sets since 2013 –an average of 13 sets each year.

Graeme Brooks, depute provost of Inverclyde Council, said, “It has become an annual tradition in Inverclyde, or Twinverclyde as we’ve become known, to welcome our twins into primary one.

“Excitement is definitely building for the start of the new term next week and what better way to look forward to that than seeing the pupils here looking resplendent in their uniforms.”

She added, “It’s also a good bit of fun for parents, too.”

Sounds like it’s double the fun – and the trouble.

Around the Community

YLX 2023 Grand Finale Celebration

The six-week YLX summer learning program for boys in 6th grade and up celebrated another summer of learning and achdus at the Annual YLX Grand Finale Celebration. The event was nothing short of spectacular. The boys and their fathers were treated to swimming, basketball, a bonfire, music by DJ Akiva Hammond, Rita’s Ices, and a lavish barbecue spread prepared by Rabbi Laz-

er Weiss and Chef Tzachi Gordon. The festivities celebrated six weeks of YLX learning which left the boys feeling their summer nights were well spent.

R’ Dovid Levy, a parent of two YLX boys, said that “YLX changed my boys’ summer.” One of the boys commented that without YLX there is no way he or his friends would learn at night in the summer. Rabbi Yoni Sokol, a YLX Rebbi

and parent, commented on the special, welcoming, one-of-a-kind atmosphere at YLX. He pointed out that YLX was for everyone. There were boys from every local yeshiva, and even a few boys in public school who joined YLX every night. Rabbi Dachs, the founder and director of YLX, spoke briefly, thanking all the rebbeim involved and mostly the boys who came. He told the boys, “The program was only

successful because you put in the time every night to come out and learn!”

R’ Chezky Schreier, another YLX rebbe, encapsulated the feeling of many when he commented that YLX is really “one big Kiddush Hashem.” Boruch Hashem, YLX has been growing steadily for over a decade and is strong in their commitment to providing local boys with a fulfilling summer experience.

A Remarkable Wedding at Camp Kaylie

This past Sunday, Camp Kaylie hosted an incredible wedding on their premises, showcasing the remarkable sense of community and camaraderie fostered within the camp. The campers took charge of all the preparations, resulting in a magical and unforgettable experience for the couple and all attendees. Throughout the day, the campers diligently crafted floral center-

pieces, adorned the chuppah, created a stunning cupcake cake, made signs, prepared water bottles for the chosson and kallah, served as waitstaff, and decorated the “just married” golf cart, among other tasks. The level of unity and collaboration displayed by everyone involved in the camp was truly remarkable, as they worked together to ensure every detail was flawlessly executed. The genuine en-

thusiasm of the campers was particularly heartwarming, as they wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to making this wedding a true celebration of love and unity.

A total of 500 campers, along with the lower and upper staff members at Kaylie, gathered on the grass to witness the chosson and kallah walking down the aisle in front of Lake Kestenbaum. For many campers, this was their first experience attending a wedding. They observed the chosson being escorted by family and esteemed rabbanim from various parts of the world, including the chosson’s Rav from Quito, Ecuador, and rabbanim from the Morristown Yeshiva. Under the chuppah, Rav Moshe Weinberger, of Aish Kodesh, officiated as the mesader kedushin, while Rav Zalman Wolowik, the rabbi of Chabad of the Five Towns, served as eidei kiddushin. Distinguished guests from around the globe, such as Mrs. Gloria Kaylie, the camp’s namesake, Mr. David Mandel, CEO of Ohel, and Mr. Jay Kestenbaum, co-president of the board of OHEL, graced the event. The wedding was further enhanced by the captivating performance of world-famous singer Eitan Katz, who serenaded the couple down the aisle with a Chabad Niggun. As the night progressed, the dance floor exuded an infectious energy, with campers and

Did you know?

staff joining in to dance the night away.

Rebbetzin Nalini, the kallah’s mentor, expressed her awe at the spectacular event, emphasizing the overwhelming love, generosity, support, and genuine simcha displayed for a couple who were practically strangers just a few hours prior. The wedding exemplified the concept of mitzvah goreres mitzvah (one good deed leads to another), as acts of chessed continued to multiply, culminating in a wedding filled with incredible energy, pure joy, and selfless giving. She extended her gratitude for the meticulous attention to detail, including the menu, flowers, chuppah, golf cart decorations, posters during dancing, and the overall atmosphere of excitement created for the wedding party and the girls in camp. The infectious energy of the campers reverberated on the dance floor and permeated the entire room.

Camp Director Rabbi Eli Brazil regarded this event as one of the most significant moments in Camp Kaylie’s history. Witnessing Gloria Kaylie observing the chosson and kallah walking towards the chuppah on Kestenbaum Lake, along with the campers’ exuberant dancing and the remarkable unity among the staff, made it a night he will cherish forever.

The real name for the # symbol is the octothorpe.

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt Visits the Chazaq Headquarters

Chazaq, a respected nonprofit organization dedicated to youth development and for Jewish children in public schools to imbue them with the richness of their religious, historical, and cultural heritage, hosted Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the White House Delegate on Antisemitism, for a productive discussion at its headquarters. The meeting, facilitated through the support of Congresswoman Grace Meng, aimed to explore opportunities for cooperation in the fight against antisemitism and the promotion of tolerance.

Ambassador Lipstadt’s visit emphasized her interest in gaining insights into Chazaq’s initiatives, which have garnered praise for their impact. The conversation revolved around Chazaq’s diverse range of programs designed to empower young

individuals.

Congresswoman Grace Meng, a steadfast advocate for Chazaq, played a pivotal role in arranging the meeting. Her commitment to community well-being and her alignment with Chazaq’s values led to the fruitful dialogue between Ambassador Lipstadt and Chazaq.

During the meeting, Ambassador Lipstadt toured the facility and learned more in-depth about the behind the scenes that go into all of Chazaq’s amazing programming. Ambassador Lipstadt acknowledged Chazaq’s dedication to education and its efforts to provide inclusive spaces for young people from various backgrounds. She highlighted the significance of education and awareness in countering prejudice and proposed collaborative initiatives to address an-

tisemitism.

The meeting laid the groundwork for future collaborations that will focus on raising awareness, promoting education, and facilitating conversations to combat

antisemitism. The combined determination of

surely will foster positive change.

Warmth and love for all Jews with the Nikolsburg Rebbe in Woodbourne, NY

Ambassador Lipstadt, Congresswoman Meng, and Chazaq

Hillel Day Camp Performs “101 Dalmatians”

Last Thursday evening, Hillel Day Camp’s cast and crew put on an extraordinary performance of 101 Dalmatians. Their weeks of hard work and dedication certainly paid off; their enthusiasm and growth are truly remarkable and showed throughout the entire show. Congratulations to all our talented actors, actresses, and all the support and directorial staff for a job well done!

News From the Duckling Campus by Shana Pollack, Assistant Director

As we look back at this awesome week, it’s amazing to see how much we have done and accomplished. We danced and sang in freeze dance, jumped and swung on the Tumble Bus, had mad pillow fun in Chill Zone, splashed and swam in the

pool, painted and created in art, and sculpted and played in clay play. For Wayback Wednesday we dressed in awesome ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s clothes and earned great prizes for the trivia games. The puppet show was the best! The puppeteer Chad taught us all about Rosh Hashanah and blowing the shofar. In survival, we went on the Ninja Warrior course and learned to make bread, and in Fun with Food and Baking, we made yummy treats of challah and babka, and we enjoyed trying different foods and learning the brachot for them. We ended our amazing week with the Israeli Day parade, where the banners we made were displayed and we marched and sang around camp. We also got to enjoy the

colors in the air and as the older campers ran the color run.

Duck Campus Week 7 Update by Adam Brick, Senior Division Head

We are close to the finish line but not slowing down! This week, our campers went on more extraordinary trips. Our Second Grade campers went to Laser Bounce. Third and Fourth Grades went to XPlore. Our senior division and CITs teamed up again this week at Dave & Busters.

Another trip that we went on this week was a trip back in time for Way Back Wednesday where we got to see what some of our senior staff members looked like when they were campers.

On Wednesday, we had our annual staff appreciation night and dinner as we expressed our gratitude to our amazing staff for all they do. We gathered to thank them for their dedication, energy and smiles and express our gratitude to these outstanding staff who have poured their hearts into making this summer unforgettable.

On Friday, we had our weekly Onegs and award ceremonies. Colors were flying in the afternoon as we had an awesome color run, which led to the breakout of COLOR WAR! Blue vs. Yellow, Artzeinu vs. Amenu – here we go! Stay tuned next week for all the teamwork and results!

Record Number of Bike4Chai Riders Unite to Support Chai Lifeline

More than 675 cyclists with one goal in mind geared up for the largest Bike4Chai experience to date. The renowned, premier cycling event benefiting Chai Lifeline set out from Kalahari Resort in the Poconos to “The World’s Greatest Finish Line” at Camp Simcha in Glen Spey, NY. Riders celebrated their 165-mile journey with campers, staff, family and friends at Camp Simcha.

“Chai Lifeline’s support for more than 6,000 families throughout the year doesn’t take a break, and neither do all those who work incredibly hard to fundraise and train for Bike4Chai,” said Rabbi Simcha Scholar, CEO of Chai Lifeline. “Summers at Camp Simcha are the highlight of the year for our kids and its only possible due to the support of our community and the dedication of our Bike4Chai riders.”

The record number of riders included all ages and skill levels, business executives, rabbis, a NASA rocket scientist,

professional athletes, cancer survivors, and those who ride in honor or memory of a loved one. Joining the peloton were 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and former professional cyclists George Hincapie and Christian Vande Velde.

“Bike4Chai represents the very best of us,” said Rabbi Sruli Fried, Executive Director of Bike4Chai. “In a world often

divided, it is truly inspiring and heartening to see hundreds of people of all backgrounds united in one cause: to support the children and families served by Chai Lifeline.”

Bike4Chai supports Chai Lifeline’s year-round programs and services, including professional case management and counseling, meal delivery to hospi-

Emet Couples Connect at Far Rockaway Shabbaton

“We didn’t want Shabbos to end!” was the sentiment shared by six couples who were guests at a recent Emet Shabbaton in Far Rockaway. While a Shabbos away with strangers can be awkward, this one was actually the beginning of new friendships. The couples represented all stages of marriage, from newly married to those married for a decade, but they all shared having grown in Judaism through Emet. Hosted by Rabbi Nissim Musheyev, Emet’s Community Development Director, and his wife Mazal, the Shabbaton exemplified not only the beauty of Shabbos but also the importance of being in a warm community as an observant Jew.

“My husband and I have loved hosting Shabbos guests since we got married. We believe in ‘mitzvah gedolah l’hiyos b’simch,a’ and it’s important for us to share the joy of Shabbos,” Rebbetzin Musheyev explains. “We’ve lived in Far Rockaway for over 20 years, and our friends and neighbors play a big role in our Shabbatons for Emet students. They not only graciously open their homes, but they are also welcoming as a community.”

Rabbi Musheyev adds, “Our students are able to connect with frum families, and it’s incredible to see members of the

community gain a renewed appreciation for Shabbos and mitzvos through the excitement of students who are growing.”

On Erev Shabbos, after settling in with their host families, the women met at the Musheyev home for candle lighting and the men davened Kabbalas Shabbos at the Sefardi Minyan at the White Shul. This was followed by a wonderful dinner and words of inspiration by Rabbi Musheyev. The evening didn’t end until after midnight since couples were eager to get to know each other. Shacharis on Shabbos day was held at the White Shul, and lunch was enjoyed at the homes of other families in the community. The group reunited in the afternoon at the Schreiber home for a fun oneg. Everyone gathered at the Ribowsky home for the Seudah Shlishis meal. A highlight of the Shabbaton was Rabbi Levi Katlowitz giving an impactful d’var Torah about the example of Avraham and Sarah and the importance of continually working on shalom bayis in the home. The Shabbos experience culminated with a musical Havdalah and plans for the couples to keep in touch.

“It was really a wonderful Shabbos,” Rabbi Musheyev said. “All the couples were eager to learn, and we shared so

many inspirational and interactive discussions. Most importantly, great connections were made.”

Shabbos in Far Rockaway made a lasting impression on the couples. “We thoroughly enjoyed spending Shabbos in Far Rockaway with Emet this past weekend,” Rebecca and Sam Sabzanov said. “The Musheyev family was so warm and inspiring, and our hosts welcomed us with open arms. We loved getting to know other growth-oriented couples and talking about deep spiritual and personal topics together. The food was amazing, the vibe

tals and homes, transportation to medical appointments, emergency financial assistance, crisis intervention and trauma response, insurance advocacy, i-Shine afterschool programming for children living with illness or loss in their families, Camp Simcha summer programming, and more.

was awesome, and it was beautiful to see how a different Jewish community operates.”

Shirin and Rafael Avezbakiyev also appreciated being welcomed and sharing a meaningful Shabbos before chodesh Elul. “We can’t thank you enough for choosing us to be here. We really appreciated the support and smiling faces. It always gives us energy to continue on. We really needed to recharge, especially before Elul starts. The divrei Torah were amazing. Our hosts were so welcoming. We couldn’t have asked for more!”

Overnights & Highlights, Color War & More at Camp Areivim!

100 Years Later History to be Made Again in Same Hall in Vienna Where

Rav Meir Shapiro Proposed Daf HaYomi

Gedolei Yisroel to Lead Siyum on Seder Nashim, Tefillos at Kever of Chasam

Sofer and Dirshu International European Convention

By Chaim Gold

Some locations are so historic that they defy the imagination. One such place is the historic Sofiensäle Hall in Vienna, a concert hall where, during the month of Elul one hundred years ago the groundbreaking, world-changing concept of the Daf HaYomi was proposed by the young Rav of the Polish town of Sonik. This year, on motzoei Shabbos Bereishis, history will once again be made in that very hall in Vienna. That same hall will be filled to capacity once more, graced and

led by leading Gedolei Yisrael and leading Roshei Yeshiva, rabbanim, and maggidei shiur, as they celebrate a siyum on Seder Nashim and half of the present Daf HaYomi cycle.

Even more exciting, a new Klal Yisrael learning initiative that promises to have a transformative impact on Yidden and Torah learning the world-over will be proposed in that very location where Rav Meir Shapiro with his booming voice and optimism launched the Daf HaYomi. The event and the new Klal Yisrael initiative with siyata d’Shmaya will herald a true

manifestation of “netzach Yisrael lo yeshaker.”

Netzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker!

In the aftermath of World War II and the churban of Europe, we are unaccustomed to actually going back and seeing a historical manifestation of the spiritual grandeur of pre-war Europe. Most of the major Jewish landmarks were destroyed by those who murdered, or aided and abetted the murder of the Six Million. Nevertheless, one of the cities that was occupied by the Nazis at an early stage of

the conflict was the city of Vienna, which surrendered to the Germans without a bullet. Thus, all the city’s landmarks remained intact.

On motzoei Shabbos Bereishis, leading gedolim and rabbanim from Eretz Yisrael, Europe and North America representing the entire cross-section of Torah Jewry will participate in the siyum and in what is essentially a celebration of the eternity of the am haTorah.

The siyum will be the climax of a historic mission spearheaded by Dirshu and led by Gedolei Yisrael that will begin

R-L: HaRav Yaakov Meir Stern and HaRav Shimon Galei, Dirshu Mission to Europe, 2022

Partial view of the crowd at the siyum on Seder Nezikin at the Sofiensäl Auditorium in Vienna, 2018

Around the Community

with a visit and special tefillos on behalf of Klal Yisrael at the kever of the Chasam Sofer in Pressburg within three days of his yahrtzeit and continue with Dirshu’s International Shabbos Convention in Pressburg. The climax will be the celebration, the siyum, which will be held at the historic Sofiensäle Hall in Vienna where the first Knessia Gedolah was held in Elul of 1923, when Rav Meir Shapiro proposed the Daf HaYomi.

Among the leading Gedolei Yisrael who will grace the Shabbos and the siyum will be HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron; HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Meir Stern, shlita, talmid muvhak of Rav Shmuel Wosner and one of Eretz Yisrael’s leading poskim and dayanim; HaGaon HaRav Shimon Galei, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Chaim Peretz Berman, shlita, a Rosh Yeshiva at the Ponevezh Yeshiva; HaGaon HaRav Gavriel Knopfler, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah of Manchester; and numerous other rabbanim and Roshei Yeshiva from Eretz Yisrael and abroad.

Leading the delegation of Gedolim from America will be HaGaon HaRav Hillel David, shlita, Yoshev Rosh of the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva of Torah Umesorah, member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, and rav of Kehillas Yeshiva Shaarei Torah.

The mission to Pressburg and the high point in Vienna will be laden with symbolism and inspiration, not only from the past, but perhaps even more importantly for the future.

The First Knessiah: Uniting Klal Yisrael

The deep impression made by the First Knessiah Gedolah on so many was due not only to the fact that so many

Gedolim came together, but also the fact that so many Jews from so many lands who had heretofore little or nothing to do with each other also came together. It was practically the first time that Chassidim, who learned in their shteiblach and those who learned in the Yeshivos of Lithuania came together with Orthodox doctors, lawyers and academics from Germany. All the old battles were forgotten as everyone turned to the dais to hear the words of the Gedolim. They realized that together Torah Jewry had the vitality not only to defend themselves against winds of change, but also to go on the offensive and try to reinstate the crown of Torah and Yiddishkeit to its rightful place. Today in 2023, we may have different battles but the solution, to overcome the hurdles facing Klal Yisrael, are not different. Only with the Torah and achdus among all of Klal Yisrael will we prevail. That is why this year’s siyum in Vienna will not only be a commemoration of the past, of the impact that Daf HaYomi has had on Klal Yisrael over the past 100 years but perhaps even more it will be about the future. It will feature new initiatives in addition to Daf HaYomi that will encourage and facilitate limud haTorah with achdus for all of Klal Yisrael in a new, exciting format that will truly be a gamechanger.

Tefillah at the Kever of the Chasam Sofer

The delegation of Gedolei Yisrael and Rabbanim will arrive in Vienna on erev Shabbos Parshas Bereishis and will visit the kever of the Panim Me’iros followed by davening at the kever of the Ksav Sofer.

The inspirational pinnacle of erev Shabbos will be the special maamad tefil-

lah on behalf of lomdei Daf HaYomi and Klal Yisrael led by Gedolei Yisrael at the kever of the Chasam Sofer. Klal Yisrael is so in need of shemirah, in ruchniyus and in gashmiyus, in yeshuos, refuos and shidduchim, and at the makom Kadosh the burial place of the Chasam Sofer, around the time of his yartzeit is the opportune time to invoke rachamei shomayim.

Shiur Klali Given by Rav Dovid Cohen

The delegation will then make their way to the Marriott Hotel in Pressburg where they will spend Shabbos.

One of the highlights of what promises to be a beautiful and historic Shabbos full of ruchnius will be a shiur klali given by HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita.

There will be shiurim and divrei chizuk at both the seudos and during the davening given by leading Gedolim and rabbanim. In addition, the Malchus Choir led by Reb Zanvil Weinberger will inspire the attendees with their beautiful zemiros.

On Sunday, the three days of non-stop spiritual inspiration will culminate with a trip to Kerister and a special maamad

tefillah at the kever of the great tzaddik and poel yeshuos, Rav Shayele of Kerister, zy”a.

Learning the Same Page Unifies Klal Yisrael

Without a doubt, however, the absolute pinnacle of the entire convention will be the grand dinner melave malka siyum on Seder Nashim, a siyum on half of Shas that will take place in the grand hall of the Vienna Sofiensäle, the very hall where the first Knessiah Gedolah took place in Elul, 5683, 1923, and where the declaration of the establishment of the Daf HaYomi took place.

That announcement actually took place during the historic part of Rav Meir Shapiro’s speech, when he presented the new idea that all frum Jews should learn the same page of Gemara each day. The new project, which he called, “Daf Yomi,” was met with great enthusiasm by all the delegates and became one of the first resolutions passed by the Knessiah.

At this year’s European International Dirshu Convention, there will be a return to history; but perhaps even more importantly, new history will be made.

Stay tuned.

Singles Doing Chesed

Touro University Opens Medical School in Montana

Singles Doing Chesed recently participated in a Kindness Project sponsored by Bear Givers, by decorating adorable teddy bears for children in hospitals. Bear Givers Chairman & Founder Joseph Sprung and President Michele Mirman joined the volunteers, who had the opportunity to connect and network while doing this incredible chesed! The night ended on a high with a dazzling performance by illusionist Ill-

lan Smith. Thank you, Bear Givers, for enabling us to gift teddy bears, and thank you, YILC, for being such gracious hosts.

For more information about it or to register for future events, please reach out to singlesdoingchesed@gmail.com.

Singles Doing Chesed is an organization where Orthodox professional singles (ages 24-32) have the opportunity to help out local chesed organizations and connect with like-minded singles.

Last week, Touro University officially opened the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM)

Great Falls campus, the first nonprofit medical school in Montana. The opening of the school and arrival of its first class was celebrated with a ribbon cutting on its new, state-of–the-art campus featuring a reception and participation from local elected officials, including Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and Great Falls Mayor Bob Kelly.

The new school will help address the local and national healthcare crisis and physician shortage by educating and retaining healthcare professionals in the state and providing much-needed patient care.

“A core pillar of our Touro University mission is a commitment to supporting underserved communities, and the opening of TouroCOM in Great Falls represents a further expression of that,” said Alan Kadish, M.D., president of Touro University. “We are eager to train the next generation of healthcare providers and offer medical care to those in need.

We are thrilled to officially open our newest campus and welcome our inaugural class to the Touro University family.”

The 100,000-square-foot building with state-of-the-art labs and facilities will host up to 125 students and 60 faculty in its inaugural year and up to 500 medical students at full capacity. TouroCOM will clinically affiliate with several area medical providers, to serve the local community and improve access to medical care.

In addition to the Montana location, TouroCOM maintains campuses in Harlem and Middletown, New York. Touro University operates additional Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine in Henderson, Nevada and Vallejo, California, and an allopathic medical school, New York Medical College, in Westchester County, New York.

Like all other Touro schools, the new medical school in Montana will offer a fully kosher cafeteria and a calendar that is in sync with Shabbat and Jewish holidays. For more information, visit tourocom.touro.edu

The Camp Scholarship Fund worked with Camp Hillel over the summer and raised money with a swim-a-thon

One of the Greatest Classic Chassidic Commentaries!

Kedushas Levi – Translated & Elucidated

The New Seminary Programs: What Sets Them Apart

You do research when you are buying a refrigerator or a car. You do the research when you choose a neighborhood and a home. You do the research when you choose your child’s school.

Why do research? Because these are important decisions, some costly and some life impacting.

In other words: You check things thoroughly before making a significant decision. After all, it’s your money and your life that’s being impacted.

When deciding on an educational program, consider the following (carefully):

 Explore the quality of the program, the integrity of the people behind it, the credibility of the credentials you will earn.

 Find out if the degree or certificate will open the doors to future opportunities.

 Will you walk away having acquired both skills and knowledge in your

Did you know?

chosen field?

 Will you save money now only to have it cost you down the line in earning power?

 Will you save time and regret it later because the quality wasn’t there?

Some people just want a “piece of paper,” thinking that they can always “learn on the job.”

Other people want to learn as much as they can in their chosen field so that they can be the best they can be at what they do. They want to be able to do the most good for those they will be servicing. They want ehrlichkeit, integrity They want to know that they have the tools to make a kiddush Hashem in the workplace and wherever they go. And that’s what we mean when we say, “Do it quick! Do it right!”

It’s an important decision. Do your research and choose carefully. You owe it to yourself and your future.

The body has 2.5 million sweat pores.

Who among us has never heard of, and marveled at, and been inspired by Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev? He was “the defender,” who found the good in every Jew, and whose passionate avodas Hashem was combined with an unparalleled love for His people. Known as an ilui from youth, Rav Levi Yitzchak was a close talmid of the Maggid of Mezeritch and one of the foundational figures of Chassidus.

However, perhaps his greatest influence was not in the wondrous stories that grew around him, but, rather, in his classic work, Kedushas Levi. Profound, incisive, and stimulating, Rav Levi Yitzchak’s commentary has been treasured and studied by scholars and gedolim for more than two centuries.

Finally, this classic commentary on Chumash is available in a groundbreaking translated and elucidated ArtScroll/ Mesorah edition.

Reb Moyshe Silk is the only Chassidic Jew who has been confirmed by the Senate for a high position in the U.S. Treasury Department. He has devoted more than a decade working himself and organizing a team of scholars to translate and elucidate Kedushas Levi. He describes Kedushas Levi as “... one of the most profound Torah commentaries of our recent history... Its messages and lessons are

Did you know?

hopeful, heartening, and uplifting, and seek to motivate the reader toward greater and more devoted service of Hashem.”

As important and beautiful as it is, Kedushas Levi is not a simple sefer to learn.

It assumes that the reader has a thorough knowledge of classic sources, and is often written in a cryptic style. The new elucidation includes the original text, a flowing translation, and commentary and explanatory notes incorporated into the text. As an important service to the reader, there is an introductory chapter that explains basic concepts that appear throughout the sefer to make the sefer clear to the reader. The sefer also includes a biography of Rav Levi Yitzchak, as well as fascinating sections on the Yamim Tovim. Kedushas Levi is available in three separate volumes (Bereishis, Shemos, and Vayikra-Bamidbar-Devarim) or in one magnificent three-volume slip-cased set.

You know all about the Berditchever’s unflinching faith and love for his people. You may even recite his beautiful tefillah, Gut Fun Avrohom, every Motzaei Shabbos. But to really know Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and to truly appreciate his greatness, you have to study his masterpiece, Kedushas Levi.

And now you can.

The human circulatory system is more than 60,000 miles long.

Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato congratulates Judge Scott Dunn and his family upon his nomination for New York State Supreme Court justice. “Judge Dunn is a person with integrity and compassion, making him an ideal candidate for this esteemed position. I am honored to have played a role in his nomination, and I am so proud that he has come this far!”

Inaugural Kinus Hashluchim in Queens

The Chabad shluchim in Queens came together for the first ever Kinus Hashluchim in the borough that houses the Ohel of the Rebbe. The Kinus was organized by the duly elected Vaad Hashluchim of Queens.

The Kinus venue was the elegant Adria Hotel and Conference Center owned by a Jewish family who were involved in the construction of the initial expansion of 770 after the Hanochas Even Hapinah by the Rebbe.

The shluchim and shluchos were treated to a series of shiurim and work-

shops on matters pertaining to the enhancement and enlargement of their shlichus. This was followed by a sumptuous banquet.

The banquet was graced by the presence of the vice chairman of Merkos and the driving force behind all the Kinusim, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, who shared warm words.

Rabbi Shmuel Butman together with Board members of Tzach, Lubavitch Youth Organization, participated in the Kinus as well, sharing words of inspiration and farbrenging with the shluchim.

The Kinus was a huge success with the shluchim coming away with a renewed sense of purpose and energy to fulfill their shlichus and bring the Shechinah down to earth with the Geulah Shleimah now.

There are 20 families of shluchim serving Queens from as far east as Little Neck, west as Long Island City, south as Howard Beach, north as Whitestone, as well as numerous other communities throughout Queens. The shluchim serve the various demographics of Jews in Queens which include local Ameri-

can Jews as well as Israelis and the huge population of Bukharian Jews who have found their place within the Chabad Centers in their communities.

The shluchim pledged to continue with events that unite the family of shluchim especially in this year of Hakhel.

Summer Fun at Simcha Day Camp

TJH Centerfold

Stuck in Camp Mode?

If you exhibit four or more of the following signs, you are stuck in camp mode and are having a hard time integrating yourself back into society at large

 You bring your own jar of pickles to the Shabbos table.

 When your father brings out the ices, you attack him.

 Right when you wake up in the morning you immediately run to see if the day’s activities are posted on the fridge.

 When your father says it’s time to bench, you jump up on the chair (that your mother just reupholstered).

 You brush your teeth once in 60 days and think that you should get a trophy.

 When you want a cup of ice, you tell your mother that you think you sprained your finger.

 You sleep with a flyswatter.

 You show up at your sister’s wedding wearing Natives.

 When your mother tells you to make your bed, you ask, “Why? Is tomorrow visiting day?”

 You eat three hot pretzels for supper (which is the only meal of the day)

Riddle Me This

Miriam, her sister, her daughter, and her son are playing volleyball. Miriam’s sister is directly across the net from her son. Miriam’s daughter is diagonally across the net from the best player’s sibling. The best player and the worst player are on the same side of the net. Who is the worst player?

 You wonder why your family looks at you strangely when you wear the same clothing for six days in a row.

 When you see a chair with a back support on it, you think it may be one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

 When it’s raining outside, you take soap and shampoo and shower outdoors (because you are so funny).

 You don’t like going from the front of your house to the backyard…because you hate walking up “the hill.”

 You take Laffy Taffys from the family’s nosh cabinet and store them under your bed.

 When your mother asks you why you insist on wearing a blue shirt every day, you respond, “Blue rocks, red stinks!”

 When you see someone replacing the garbage bag, you say, “Hey, I didn’t know those things are replaceable!”

Answer:

The worst player is Miriam’s sister. Draw a diagram, putting Miriam’s sister and son directly across the net from each other. It doesn’t matter whether they’re on the left or the right side of the diagram. Now, try putting Miriam’s daughter on the same side as the sister. The daughter will be diagonally across from the son (the best player’s sibling), meaning that the best player is the daughter. Since the daughter (the best player) is on the same side as the sister, the sister must be the worst player. If you put Miriam’s daughter next to the son, then Miriam will be the best player, but the sister will still be the worst.

August Crossword Puzzle

Down

1. “I have a …”

2. A man of many tricks, including staying in a box under water for an hour

4. FDR stricken with this disease

5. Sales that remind us how fast summer flies by

7. Began in Massachusetts as ex-Revolutionary led an armed mob

8. This machine was patented in 1859, and it simply goes up and down

10. Something many of us do on Sundays in August

12. Nixon’s middle name

13. Proclamation announcing freedom of slaves

Across

3. President born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4

6. Francis Scott Key wrote this ever-popular song

9. The first atomic bomb was dropped over the center of this city

11. Games played in August every several years

14. Ends in August, leaving many

with nothing to do for weeks on end

15. Official flower of August

16. This pitcher was so good, an award was even named after him

17. This president signed into law

the first federal income tax, a 3 percent tax on incomes over $800, as an emergency wartime measure

Answers:

DOWN - 1 Dream; 2 Houdini; 4 Polio; 5 Backtoschool; 7 Shaysrebellion; 8 Elevator; 10 Barbeques; 12 Milhouse; ACROSS - 3 BarackObama; 6 StarSpangledBanner; 9 Hiroshima; 11 Olympics; 14 Camp; 15 Gladiolus; 16 CyYoung; 17 AbrahamLincoln

Parshas Shoftim

By Rabbi Berel Wein

This week’s parsha emphasizes, albeit in an indirect fashion, the litigious nature of human society and the requirement for the appointment of judges to decide disputes and for police to enforce those decisions. A perfect world needs no judges or courts, police or bailiffs. Our very imperfect world cannot reasonably hope to function and exist in their absence. Law and order are the requirements for a commercially and civilly successful society. As such, judges and courts are the necessary check to prevent chaos and anarchy. But the To -

rah points out that there must always be necessary restraint on the powers of the courts and the police as well. And that check to judicial power is called justice and righteousness, as these concepts are defined and detailed by the Torah law and its traditions.

There is a special burden imposed by the Torah upon the judicial process, to somehow achieve not simply legally correct decisions, but a broader obligation to accomplish a sense of righteousness and justice in its general society. And the courts are bidden to be pursuers of jus -

tice and righteousness and not to satisfy themselves with seemingly correct legal conclusions, which narrowly construed, unfortunately can many times somehow lead to injustice and tragedy. There are many examples in the history of the Jewish people where judicial and even rabbinic decisions, seemingly legally correct, led to terrible disputes and tragedies simply because the general public did not feel that justice was done in the

true when a family or partnership dispute is involved. Those scars are never completely healed. When I attended law school many decades ago, we were taught to abide by an adage attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “A poor settlement is still better than a good lawsuit.”

Disputes disturb our sense of ego, and we feel that we must prevail, sometimes at enormous personal cost. We become captivated by the sense of our

matter. Without the palpable presence of justice being present in our court system, we become a very divisive and spiritually sterile society.

Jewish tradition encourages compromise over hard and fast judicial decision. In fact, many great Jewish figures of the past and present, though personally involved in the world and practice of commerce, have prided themselves as never having been involved in any dispute that was submitted to a court of law or to a rabbinic tribunal. The emotional and monetary costs of pursuing a matter of contention in a judicial manner are telling and long lasting. This is especially

legal rights and lose sight that justice, righteousness and inner harmony can be better served by realizing that less is more and that legal victories are many times more pyrrhic than real. The prophet Yeshayahu calls to those that “pursue righteousness and justice” for they are the ones who truly seek “to find G-dliness in their lives.”

We need judges, courts and police in all human societies. Nevertheless, the wise person will regard them as matters of last resort and not as the prime solution to the frictions and problems of everyday life.

Shabbat shalom.

Without the palpable presence of justice being present in our court system, we become a very divisive and spiritually sterile society.

Parshas Shoftim

In the Marketplace or in the Shul?

By Rav Moshe Weinberger

Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

This is the parshah of malchus, kingship. In it (Devarim 17:9), we learn that a Jewish king must write a sefer Torah and “it shall be with him and he shall read from it all the days of his life...” This phrase, “all the days of his life,” may sound very familiar to us because we read something very similar twice a day during Elul in the L’Dovid prayer (Tehillim 27:4), “One thing I ask of Hashem, it alone I seek, to dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life...”

We must understand what Dovid HaMelech is asking for in this tefillah. It seems that his desire was to immerse himself in davening and learning all of the time and to do nothing else. But Chazal explain another request by Dovid HaMelech that seems very different. He says (Tehillim 116:9), “I will walk before Hashem in the lands of life.” There are many explanations regarding the meaning of “the lands of life,” but Chazal say (Yuma 71a) this refers to “the marketplaces and streets” of the world. So which is it? Does Dovid HaMelech only want to dwell in shul and in the beis midrash? Or does he want to walk before Hashem in the marketplaces and streets? He seems to be conflicted.

There is another related Midrash (Vayikrah Rabah 35:1) from Parshas Bechukosai on another pasuk in Tehillim (119:59), “I calculated my paths, but my legs returned me to Your statutes.” The Midrash explains that statement as follows: “Dovid said, ‘Master of the World, every single day I would think and say, “I will go to a certain place or a certain residence,” but my legs would take me to shul and the beis midrash.’” On a simple level, this means that even though, as king, Dovid HaMelech had many ap -

pointments and many places to be, he simply couldn’t help himself. He missed all of his appointments and instead went to learn and daven!

The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on Bechukosai explains that he did this because of his great desire for Torah. And the word for “my legs” in Hebrew, ragli , hints at the Hebrew word for habit, hergel, implying that Dovid HaMelech went to shul and the beis midrash instead of to his appointments out of habit because that is where he always went. Whatever the explanation, the simple meaning of the Midrash is difficult. Dovid was the king. He had responsibilities. Could it be that he left everyone waiting for him while he sat and learned? The nation was relying on him. The country would have fallen apart if he had missed all of his appointments and shirked his obligations!

Perhaps the Midrash means to hint at something else. Dovid HaMelech was

a responsible king who loved and felt accountable for the wellbeing of the nation. He certainly kept all of his appointments. So what does it mean that “my legs would take me to shul and the beis midrash”? Because his whole essence was Torah and tefillah, even though he physically went to his conference rooms and meetings, he was just as connected to Hashem while engaging in those activities as he would have been in shul or the beis midrash.

This may also be what Dovid HaMelech meant when he asked to walk before Hashem in the marketplaces and streets of the world. He wanted to be conscious of Hashem’s Presence and connected as deeply to Him when he was in those places as he was in shul. Dovid HaMelech’s desire was to dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of his life through the marketplaces, streets and appointments of life. This was his goal.

Unfortunately, many of us do not follow Dovid HaMelech’s example. We do not take the shul and beis midrash with us when we leave in the morning. A person might dip dozens of times in the mikvah, learn diligently, and sway back and forth during davening, but the moment he leaves shul, it is like he is a different person. An hour after leaving the beis midrash, the same person who was davening with his eyes closed and palms raised in the air is now signing a document filled with falsehood. The same mouth this person used to say, “Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house,” makes crude jokes and speaks flirtatiously with the secretary a few minutes later.

I was in the mountains one summer many years ago in a bungalow colony whose male members took the local softball league very seriously. Baruch Hashem, I was one of the players and very much enjoyed the game. One morning during davening, I noticed that one of the men from the colony, while still wearing his tallis and tefillin, went outside to walk around. At first I thought that perhaps he had gone to do some Breslovstyle hisbodedus – meditation – in the woods. But he returned a few minutes later to announce, while davening was still ongoing, that there was more dew than usual on the grass and that it would be a slippery infield. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, zy”a, might have said that this Jew was so holy that he made sure to wear his tallis and tefillin even when he was doing something as mundane as preparing for a softball game. But for most of us, such activities indicate that we have not yet learned to walk before Hashem in the lands of life. Many of us have left the shul and beis midrash even

while our bodies are still there.

Using the above ideas, we can now understand a previously baffling Gemara (Chagigah 5b):

Rav Idi, the father of Rabi Yaakov bar Idi, [beginning after Pesach,] was accustomed to walking for three months, studying one day in the beis midrash of Rav, [and then walking back home for three month to be with his family for Sukkos]. And the students [in the beis midrash of Rav] would call him, “One-day student of Rav.” He became despondent [because of the nickname] and applied the following pasuk (Iyov 12:4) to himself, “I am as a laughingstock to his friend.”

Rav Yochanan said to him, “I ask of you, please [do not hold a grudge against them in order that Hashem not] punish the students.” Rav Yochanan went out to the beis midrash and delivered a lecture expounding on a pasuk (Yeshayahu 58:2): “They seek Me daily and they wish to know My ways...” Why would they seek Hashem “daily” but not “nightly”?

Instead, [the focus on the word “day” in the pasuk] comes to teach you that if anyone studies Torah, even one day a year [like Rav Idi], the pasuk considers it as if he had studied Torah for the entire year.

Of course, the Gemara is not attempt-

ing to help people rationalize insufficient study of Torah or minimize the importance of learning as much as one is able.

So what is its point? Rav Idi must be one of those unusual tzaddikim whose way of serving G-d involved traveling to many places. Rav Yochanan wants us to understand that if a person must

The Divrei Chaim of Sanz, zy”a, was famous for the fact that at his Friday night tischen he seated the poor people, who depended on the tisch for their meal, around the table, and all of the other chassidim sat in the outer rows. One Friday night, when the assistants brought out the chicken for the meal,

a poor person with torn clothing?” The Rebbe thought for a moment and then answered, “This Yid has a lot of mazel. Whatever he truly wants, he will receive. The problem is that the only thing he wants in life is a big piece of chicken.”

The main question we must ask ourselves is, “What do I want?” Do we want to lose ourselves and forget Hashem in the marketplaces of the world? Or do we want to see G-d and serve Him in the proper way there? Do we desire to sanctify G-d’s name in the way we conduct ourselves at work? Do we act with refinement and honesty because we only want to dwell in Hashem’s house in the land of the living? These are the questions we must ask ourselves.

involve himself in the marketplaces, appointments, and streets of the world, as long as he pines and desires to dwell in Hashem’s house, to seek out the pleasantness of His Face, Hashem considers it as if he is still in the beis midrash or shul, regardless of where G-d’s will in his life takes him. The main thing is where a person’s intentions are. Where does he want to be?

the Rebbe said to his son, the Divrei Yechezekl, zy”a, “You see that poor Jew over there? He has a lot of mazel. Watch. You will see that he will receive the biggest portion of chicken.”

They watched, and sure enough, this Jew received the largest portion. Later in the evening, the Divrei Yechezkel asked his father, “Rebbe, if this Jew has such great mazel, why is he a such

May Hashem help us achieve this goal through the full revelation of His kingship and the kingship of Moshiach, the descendant of Dovid HaMelech in Yerushalayim and Eretz Yisroel soon in our days!

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.

“This Yid has a lot of mazel. Whatever he truly wants, he will receive. The problem is that the only thing he wants in life is a big piece of chicken.”

Lashon Hara

The Ultimate Corruption of Speech

By Rabbi Shmuel Reichman

One day, a young boy came home from school with a note for his mother. He gave it to her with a smile and said, “My teacher gave me this paper and told me to give it only to you.”

His mother read the letter quickly, and her eyes filled with tears as she then read the letter out loud to her son. “Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him, and the teachers are not qualified to teach him. Please educate him yourself.”

His parents embraced this mission, teaching him and raising him to become one of the greatest thinkers of his time. He became a leading innovator, a Torah sage, and inspired an entire generation.

Years later, after his mother passed away, he was going through some old family documents. He noticed a folded paper in the corner of a drawer and opened it.

On the paper was written: “Your son is mentally incapable. The teachers do not want to teach him anymore. Please educate him yourself.”

He cried as he remembered his mother reading the letter to him, realizing the positive impact it had on his life. That night, he wrote in his diary, “I was a mentally incapable child, but because of my hero mother, I became the person I am today.”

This is the power of words. The words of his teachers could have destroyed him, but the words of his mother supported, empowered, and enabled him.

Lashon Hara

Do you ever wonder what people really think about you? Whether they think you’re brilliant, caring, and fun or lazy, self-centered, and boring? The

truth is that you’ll never know; people only talk about you openly when you’re not in the room. In these situations, don’t you think it’s possible that people might put you down, say negative things about you, or even make fun of you behind your back? After all, we have all been in the room when someone else was the subject of gossip. Gossiping is such a common occurrence; it seems to be an almost built-in practice of human nature. We all know people who can find something bad to say about anyone; they criticize anything and everything, anybody and everybody; words of negativity flow easily from their mouths.

But even if we are not negative people, we still experience the desire to occasionally put other people down, to share negative stories about them behind their backs. Why do we feel this compulsion to speak negatively about others, to crit-

icize and gossip about them?

This leads us to a fundamental question: what exactly is the nature of lashon hara (evil speech)? There is a common misconception that lashon hara refers only to sharing false information about another person. People claim that if something is true, however, there is nothing wrong with sharing it. You’ll therefore often hear people say, “but it’s true,” as if this is a good defense, exonerating themselves from any possible wrongdoing. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. There is a separate prohibition of lying (“Mi’d’var sheker tirchak ,” Shemos 23:7). The Torah prohibition of lashon hara refers specifically to sharing true, negative information about someone (in order to harm them). In order to understand the prohibition against lashon hara, we must clarify why we may not

say something hurtful about another person, even if it is true.

In addition to the prohibition itself, the punishment for speaking lashon hara is puzzling as well. The Torah describes a strange punishment for one who speaks lashon hara: In addition to receiving tzaraas (affliction), he must leave the camp of the Jewish People and remain outside, isolated and alone. What is the meaning of this punishment, and why is it fitting for one who spoke negatively about another?

The Power of Speech

In order to understand this topic, we must briefly review a concept we have discussed several times before. As human beings, we are naturally isolated and separate from one another. We are individual beings, all living in our own subjective world and inner universe. We will never be able to experience life through anyone else’s perspective — only through our own inner consciousness. We have our own thoughts and feelings; things no one else can see. We face our own hardships and tribulations that no one else truly understands. This results in several difficulties. If I am trapped in my own inner world, how can I connect with other people? How can I know what’s going on inside their heads? How can I share my inner life with them? How can I overcome the infinite barrier between myself and everyone else?

As we have explained before, this is the gift of speech. Speech is the mechanism that enables us to connect with other people and overcome the barrier between us. You begin with your inner thoughts and experience. You then form the specific words that will encase your

thoughts as you give them concrete form and throw these words out into the world around you in the form of vibrations. If another person is nearby, their ears can pick up these vibrations and translate them into sound. These sounds form words, and the words form sentences. They must then keep track of all the different words and sentences, hold on to them, and bring them back from memory as they work to recreate a complete picture of everything you said. Amazingly, this person can now experience your inner world inside their own mind. They now contain a piece of you within themselves. The barrier between your worlds has been diminished.

The mouth is therefore the organ of connection, holding the potential to create deep, existential connection. As we have previously explained, all the functions of the mouth serve to connect two disparate pieces together: Eating connects the physical body to the angelic soul; if you don’t eat, your soul leaves your body. Speaking connects people’s inner worlds together; when you speak with someone, you share your inner world with them. Kissing connects two physical bodies together, reflecting a deeper form of internal connection and oneness.

The Potential of Speech

Speech holds the power to create relationships, lift people up, expand people’s minds, and enable genuine communication and connection. An interesting illustration of this concept is the fact that a person’s rebbi is considered, in a sense, to be his father. This is because there are two essential aspects of a human being requiring two different forms of creation. A child’s physical makeup is formed from his biological parent’s DNA, but the inner being — the soul, the mind, the consciousness — is yet to be fully expressed and developed. When a rebbi imparts deep Torah wisdom to his talmid through speech, the ideas that were once only in the rebbi’s mind are now within the student’s as well. The rebbi has, through the power of speech, helped create the inner world of his student. In doing so, he becomes a partner in this student’s creation. In a deep way, he has become this student’s father as well.

According to halacha, the rebbi — the spiritual father — trumps the biological father in some ways. The Rambam paskens that if both your father and your rebbi require your k avod , your rebbi’s kavod comes first. This is because your father brought you to Olam Hazeh — this

physical and fleeting world — whereas your rebbi helps bring you to Olam Haba — the eternal World to Come. This process that your rebbi facilitates is realized through the power of speech, as he imparts wisdom and understanding to you. We therefore see the creative power and potential of speech. It connects us together, helps bridge our inner worlds, and allows us to expand our minds as we

While her intentions were noble, and she even intended to help create connection between Moshe and Tzipporah through her words of rebuke, she was judged according to her lofty level. Through her words, she created a rift between herself and Moshe, and potentially did the same between Moshe and Tzipporah, as well as between Moshe and Klal Yisrael. She was therefore pun-

deeper into this fascinating topic and try to understand it on an ever more profound level.

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.

learn from others.

Creating a Disconnect

Once we understand the purpose of speech, we can begin to comprehend just how abhorrent lashon hara truly is. Lashon hara takes the very tool of connection — speech — and uses it to disconnect people from each other. When you speak negatively about someone, you create a wall between the subject of your negativity and the person you are speaking with. The very tool of connection has been corrupted to achieve its opposite goal.

There are examples throughout the Torah illustrating the disastrous effects of lashon hara , showing its power to disconnect:

The first, primal example of lashon hara in the Torah was in Gan Eden, at the very inception of Creation. The nachash is notorious for speaking lashon hara to Adam and Chavah, condemning itself to a life of curse. It is notable that what the nachash said about the Eitz HaDaas was, in a sense, true, but it caused a major disconnect between Adam and Chavah, and between them and Hashem.

Another example of lashon hara’s disastrous effects is the sin of the Meraglim (spies). Again, what the Meraglim said about Eretz Yisrael was technically true. The problem lay in the fact that they used speech to create a separation between Klal Yisrael and the land of Eretz Yisrael, and in doing so, created a separation between Klal Yisrael and Hashem as well.

Another interesting case of lashon hara is Miriam’s criticism of Moshe.

ished for the sin of disconnecting others through negative speech, forced to temporarily leave the camp of Klal Yisrael.

Now that we understand the severity of lashon hara and its devastating effects on those around us, we must ask the obvious question: Why do we feel so compelled to speak negatively about others? In our next article, we will delve

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.

Why do we feel this compulsion to speak negatively about others, to criticize and gossip about them?

Do You Need a Kohein to Perform a Pidyon HaBen?

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

There is an oft repeated story involving Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. Rav Moshe was attending a bris. There were two cartons of chalav Yisrael milk in front of him, from two competing brands with different hechsherim. Rav Moshe picked up one of the cartons, only to put it down and choose the other carton instead. Onlookers noticed, and word spread that Rav Moshe preferred one brand and its hechsher over the other brand. Someone decided to find out why and asked Rav Moshe for an explanation. Rav Moshe was baffled, as he had no idea what the person was referring to.

“But at the bris, people saw you look at the container and return it to the table!”

“I put the container back down because it was empty!” Rav Moshe replied.

Unfortunately, misunderstandings can occur when people try to interpret actions of gedolim. Sometimes, people misinterpret the words of rabbanim. There is a brochure that has been circulating in our area that bemoans the dearth of knowledge about the laws of mikveh in a certain city in Eretz Yisrael. There was a story quoted about the rav of that town. He was speaking on the topic of men using the mikveh on erev Yom Kippur or erev Shabbos. He said that if a mikveh was unavailable, a man may take a shower using nine kavim—roughly six gallons—of water. A man went to the rav the next week to thank him for his good idea. It was very cold outside, so he told his wife to take a shower instead of going to the mikveh. The rav was horrified to hear that his ruling had been terribly misapplied to the use of mikveh by women. The leniency of nine kavim is solely applicable for men (and it also may be used by the chevra kadisha).

Many years ago, the Chasam Sofer was likewise astounded to hear that a nice quip that he uttered had been taken for halacha.

First, some background is in order. The

Torah says, “And the foreleg, the jaws, and the stomach shall be given to the kohein” (Devarim 18:3). These parts of a slaughtered animal are some of the matnos kehunah, the gifts given to kohanim. The Gemara states that Ulla used to give his animal parts that were matnos kehunah to a daughter of a kohein as opposed to the kohein himself.

Rashi comments that even if this daughter married a Yisrael, she could still receive these animal portions. As opposed to terumah, which has innate sanctity, these animal parts do not. They must be given to a kohein, but they can be consumed by anyone. There is no problem of the bas kohein sharing the meat with her Yisrael husband. Therefore, Ulla would even give his matnos kehunah to a daughter of a kohein who was married to a non-kohein.

Rav Kahane took this one step further. His wife was a daughter of a kohein and he would accept these matnos kehunah directly from Yisraelim on behalf of his wife. Though his name was Rav Kahane, which was a name typically used by kohanim, he was evidently not a kohein. (Tosfos kiddushin 8a) (My cousin is named Cohen but

he is a Levi. His full name is Chaim Yisrael HaLevi Cohen!)

Now, back to the story with the Chasam Sofer. A family was celebrating fulfilling the mitzvah of pidyon ha’ben. The lavish seudah was over, and it was time to bentch. The ba’al simcha honored one of the guests to lead the zimun. After the zimun leader finished bentching, one of the other guests asked him, “Why didn’t you start bentching with ‘Birshus haKohanim’?” (It is respectful if you are leading the bentching and not a kohein to humbly announce that you are only leading the bentching with the consent of the kohanim present.)

The zimun leader answered, “How was I supposed to know that there was a kohein here?”

The guest retorted, “We’re at a pidyon ha’ben! Of course, there’s a kohein here.”

The zimun leader did not have an answer.

At this point, the Chasam Sofer interjected:

Maybe the husband of a bas kohein performed the pidyon ha’ben. The Gemara in Kiddushin states that Rav Kahane accepted an item of value in the performance of pidyon ha’ben. How is that possible?

Rav Kahane was not a kohein! Tosefos suggests that he may have been using the same method mentioned in the Gemara in Chullin. He accepted the redemption on behalf of his wife. So perhaps there is no male kohein here who can lead the bentching, but only a Yisrael who is married to a bas kohein who accepted the pidyon on behalf of his wife.

It was a nice lomdishe retort by the Chasam Sofer to try to reduce the embarrassment of the zimun leader for not realizing that a kohein was present at a pidyon ha’ben. Subsequently, the Chasam Sofer heard that he was being quoted as saying that the husband of a bas kohein may perform pidyon ha’ben. He was horrified. The Chasam Sofer wrote a teshuvah explaining that while in theory according to one answer in Tosefos it is, in fact, true, Tosefos himself and other Rishonim offer another simple explanation of how Rav Kahane was able to perform a pidyon ha’ben. He was in fact a kohein! The sage mentioned in Kiddushin was not the same Rav Kahane as the one mentioned in Chullin. The one mentioned in Chullin was not a kohein, while the one mentioned in Kiddushin was!

Therefore, there is no basis to assume that a Yisrael married to a bas kohein may officiate at a pidyon ha’ben. Nevertheless, the Chasam Sofer notes that if no kohein is around when the day to perform pidyon ha’ben comes, the husband of a bas kohein may temporarily fill in. However, when a male kohein is located, the baby will have to be redeemed again.

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.

The Power of Personal Thanks

Based on a story told over by Rabbi Fischel Schachter

Prepared for print by Daniel Agalar

Heart surgery is an extremely risky procedure for anyone. When Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, at the age of 102, required a heart procedure, no doctor in Eretz Yisrael was willing to take on the risk of performing it. Instead, a world-renowned heart surgeon from America, along with his team of doctors and equipment, was flown in, despite the considerable expense. During their initial conversation, the esteemed doctor was amazed by Rav Elyashiv’s sharpness. Here was a man of 102 years, asking precise questions with a clarity that surpassed even individuals twenty years his junior.

Thankfully, the surgery was successful, and before the doctor and his team returned to the United States, he made a final visit to Rav Elyashiv. Anticipating this visit, Rav Elyashiv turned to someone and asked, “How do you say thank you in English?” He practiced saying the words “thank you” multiple times until he could say them fluently. When the doctor finished his visit, Rav Elyashiv expressed his gratitude in English by saying, “Thank you.”

People around them were surprised because Rav Elyashiv had been communicating with the doctor through an interpreter throughout their interactions.

They wondered why it was so important for him to personally say “thank you” instead of relying on the interpreter to translate “todah rabba.” When Rav Elyashiv was asked this question, he explained a fundamental concept.

entire congregation bows down and says Modim derabbanan, a prayer of thanks to Hashem. In Modim derabbanan, we personally express gratitude to Hashem, recognizing that our lives are solely in His hands.

We can appoint a messenger, the shaliach tzibbur, to beseech Hashem on our behalf for healing or sustenance. The shaliach tzibbur can intercede for us in numerous requests. However, when it comes to thanking Hashem, it must be done personally by each individual. We cannot delegate someone else to say thank you on our behalf because the depth of gratitude varies based on the individual.

The gadol hador referred to a beautiful explanation from the Abudraham. During the chazaras hashatz, the congregation listens attentively as the shaliach tzibbur recites the Shemoneh Esrei. However, when the shaliach tzibbur reaches the bracha of Modim, the

Daniel Agalar is the founder of Stories to Inspire, an organization dedicated to sharing curated inspirational stories from renowned rabbanim. With a widely popular podcast that has surpassed 4 million downloads, Daniel’s passion for spreading positivity shines through. Join the daily WhatsApp broadcast by messaging 310-210-1205 or explore over 4,300 stories on his website at www.storiestoinspire. org. The stories can also be accessed on the hotline at 718400-7145.

He practiced saying the words “thank you” multiple times until he could say them fluently.

Should the New El Al Honor an Overlooked Hero?

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Very often, a particular mitzvah is associated with one particular parsha in the Torah. Pidyon Shvuyim, the rescuing of captives, is one of the greatest mitzvos in the Torah. I would like to suggest that this mitzvah is particularly associated with last week’s

parsha, Parshas Re’eh.

The Rambam writes that whoever fulfills this mitzvah is mekayem no less than eight mitzvos in the Torah. Three of these mitzvos are found in Parshas Re’eh. Before we enumerate these mitzvos, however, I would also like to suggest that there is a

forgotten hero of Pidyon Shvuyim. He is a man that engaged in this mitzvah on his own – on three separate occasions in just one day over half a century ago.

I remember that day, my parents, a”h, talking about that fateful day 53 years ago. And since the day it happened it also my mother’s yahrtzeit, I tried to meet that forgotten hero. Yesterday, I found him and spent a good part of the day with this 91-year-old forgotten hero.

I videotaped Uri Bar Lev for several hours this past Thursday. He revealed to me many details of what had transpired, and a few of them, for the first time.

It was the fifth of Elul, 5730 – September 6, 1970. This was a time when evil people first began to take guns and explosives to threaten human lives – hundreds of innocent human lives. It was also a time when people first began to blow up airplanes.

On September 6, 1970, four planes were hijacked. The planes were flown to an abandoned British airfield in Jordan. Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l, and his daughter were on one of those planes.

But there was another plane that evil people had planned to hijack. It was El Al Flight 219. What follows is a description of three events that took place on that flight and an expression of hakaras hatov to Captain Uri Bar Lev, of whom no book was ever written, no documentary ever made, and no movie ever produced.

El Al Flight 219 originated from Ben Gurion Airport to Amsterdam going onto New York. The new crew, including its

captain, Uri Bar Lev, took over from Amsterdam to New York.

Also boarding that flight were two suspicious people: Leila Khaled and Patrick Arguello – flying under assumed names.

Soon after takeoff, Uri Bar Lev and his co-pilot got word that two terrorists were hijacking the plane. They locked the door to the cockpit. The terrorists had shot and gravely wounded an El Al flight attendant. They put a gun to the head of a stewardess and told her to tell the pilots that if they did not open the cockpit door, they would shoot her in the temple.

Bar Lev had a plan. Years earlier, a Boeing trainer had told him that the new 707 had the versatility of a real fighter plane. Bar Lev, who flew for the Israeli air force, then asked him if the 707 was capable of doing “climbing and diving” maneuvers. The instructor said, “Yes, but don’t go over negative 2-G.”

Bar Lev had to save the stewardess and all of the passengers that were about to be hijacked. He had had enough altitude to put the plane in a steep dive. The aircraft plummeted 3,300 meters in under 60 seconds. His passengers would be in for the ride of their lives, but they were all seated and strapped in.

On the other hand, a terrorist does not strap himself in nor does he or she sit down. They could be easily overpowered. As Uri Bar Lev knew would happen, Arguello and Khaled would be thrown to the floor by virtue of the G forces.

Bar Lev, who had stowed one of the Shabak sky marshals in the cockpit because of his suspicions, instructed the marshal to go out of the cockpit at the mo-

Captain Uri Bar Lev, right, with two flight attendants from the fateful flight

ment that he levelled the plane back. Both that sky marshal and the second Shabak sky marshal, who was in the back, came forward and shot Arguello dead. Khaled was subdued.

Bar Lev’s superiors in Israel were aware of the other hijackings that had occurred but did not tell Bar Lev. They had instructed him to fly immediately back to Israel. But one of the stewards was injured. Bar Lev looked at him and saw that he was a very pale white. The steward said, “Uri, mah yikreh li – Uri, what will be with me?”

A doctor on board told Captain Bar Lev that the steward would be fine. Bar Lev inquired as to the doctor’s specialty. He answered that he was a dentist. Uri Bar Lev then disobeyed the orders of his superiors and radioed into London’s Heathrow Airport, requesting permission for an emergency landing.

It was granted.

When we met this week, I told Bar Lev of the Mishnah in Sanhedrin that says, “Whomsoever saves one life…” – although completely secular, he finished the Mishna by himself. He told me that his zaideh was a rav in Ukraine and Poland. But back on the plane, he knew that there would be an investigation because

there was the matter of the dead body of Arguello. Three months earlier, an Israeli sky marshal had killed a terrorist in France and was placed in jail. Captain Uri Bar Lev radioed another El Al pilot and in coded Hebrew worked out that the two Shabak men would leave the plane via the luggage compartment and enter into the luggage compartment on another airplane. Tickets were issued to the two Shabak men, and they were listed as regular passengers on the second plane.

In the meantime, the steward, Shlomo Videl, was taken to the hospital in London and survived.

What happened to Captain Uri Bar Lev? The Israeli government was not happy with him for disobeying instructions. There were hearings and inquiries, but Bar Lev stood his ground. What is the chain of command in such an event? Is the captain in charge of the safety of his passengers? Or does the Shin Bet retain authority? Ultimately, it was resolved that the captain is in charge, but there were repercussions to his career.

This author believes that from a halachic perspective, Captain Uri Bar Lev did everything right. He was a true hero in every sense of the word. El Al and Shabak did not see things the same way. Captain

Bar Lev retired three-and-a-half years after the incident.

Terrorist Leila Khaled spearheaded the hijacking movement which culminated in what we know as the post-9/11 world we live in today. Every time we take off our shoes, belts, and laptops out of their cases before we board our flights we must thank Leila Khaled. Indeed, a sycophantic adulatory movie was made about her while the Pidyon Shvuyim hero, Captain Uri Bar Lev, remains obscure.

The new administration of El Al should perhaps consider looking into this matter and maybe correct this half-century wrong. The world has gone mad and morally bankrupt. We need true heroes, and Captain Uri Bar Lev is an unsung hero.

What were his three separate actions that day? He saved a planeload of people from becoming hostages – pidyon shvuyim in the most pristine form. He saved the Shabak sky marshals. More pidyon shvuyim. And he saved steward Shlomo Videl death. In each of these three actions, he fulfilled the Rambam’s 8 mitzvos in pidyon shvuyim. (8 times 3 = 24)

1] Lo saametz es Levavcha – Do not tighten your heart (Dvarim 15:7)

2] V’lo sikpotz es yadcha – Nor shall

you tighten your hand (Dvarim 15:7)

3] Lo saamod al dam rayacha – Do not stand idly by your brother’s blood (VaYikra 19:16)

4] Lo yirdeno beferech leainecha – Do not let him go down in excessive labor in front of your eyes (Vayikra 25:53)

5] Pasoach tiftach es yadcha lo –You shall surely open your hand for him (Dvarim 15:8)

6] Vechai achicha imach – And your brother shall live with you (Vayikra 25:36)

7] Veahavta lerayacha kamocha –Love your friend as yourself (Vayikra 19:18)

8] Hatzel lakuchim lemavais – Save those taken toward their death (Mishlei 24:11)

Parshas Re’eh is the parsha of pidyon shvuyim. It isn’t just in paying ransom money. We see from the ge’ulah in Egypt that the verb “pidyon” refers to physically take captives out as well. Some of us can redeem these shvuyim physically, as Captain Uri Bar Lev did.

Wishing everyone a gut Shabbos, and to the Bar Lev family as well.

The author can be reached at yairhoffman2@ gmail.com.

Areader asked me: “I see on the Jerusalem maps that Gonen is extremely well located, so why have I never heard of this community?” The answer is that, despite the government’s new “Israeli” name, everyone still refers to the Jerusalem neighborhood by its original name: Katamon.

Katamon is located in southern Jerusalem and is bounded by Talbieh to the northeast and the German Colony and the Greek Colony to the southeast. The name Katamon is Greek, meaning “below the monastery,” referring to the nearby San Simon monastery which is surrounded by an enormous beautiful public park. Katamon actually branches out into nine neighborhoods, collectively called Katamonim (or officially: Gonenim), with the oldest and most prime neighborhood called Old Katamon.

Katamon was established just before World War I and became a ghost town at the beginning of the 1948 War of Independence after the Christian Arabs fled. Within a few weeks, it was converted to housing for Jews evacuated from the Old City and for many waves of new immigrants, primarily the throngs of Jews who were expelled from Middle Eastern countries after 1948.

During the War of Independence, the Palmach heroically battled to retain

Why Have I Never Heard of Gonen?

By Gedaliah Borvick

control of Katamon and southern Jerusalem. A memorial is located in the large San Simon Park, bordering the San Simon monastery where a number of fierce battles took place. Today, the scenic park is the central park of the neighborhood, and hundreds of locals meet and greet at San Simon Park every Shabbat afternoon.

ects built to accommodate the large influx of new immigrants, were improved.

Today, a number of new undertakings have been launched to upgrade the community’s infrastructure – such as adding a light rail line – and housing stock. The housing projects include a mix of traditional new construction plus urban renew-

ing communities, such as Talbieh, the German Colony and Rechavia. Families continue to move in, but housing prices in Old Katamon are now similar to the more established neighborhoods. In comparison, pricing in Katamonim varies greatly, based on location and proximity to Old Katamon.

Katamon has dozens of shuls, including many with large English-speaking crowds, such as the Shimon Hatzaddik Synagogue, a/ka the Young Israel of San Simon. In addition, the neighborhood is home to a number of post-high school overseas programs, such as Matan, Nishmat, and Midreshet Torah Va’avodah.

Katamon has local supermarkets, cafes and retailers and is a 15-minute stroll from Emek Refaim and a half hour away from the Old City and the City Center.

Prior to the 1967 Six Day War, the Katamonim were located along the Israeli–Jordanian armistice line and had to defend itself against Jordanian sniper fire, hence the name Gonenim, which means “Defenders.” After the Six Day War, the government embarked on a massive urban renewal project in which the neighborhood’s infrastructure and housing stock, much of which was housing proj-

al projects, including TAMA-38 and Pinuy Binuy. Some of these projects have already been completed while others are in various stages of the development process.

With its many tree-lined streets and lovely parks, Katamon is a haven for religious families due to its many community centers and educational institutions and because the cost of housing used to be significantly lower than neighbor -

It is no wonder that many English speakers have moved to Katamon, and many more are interested in joining, as they have found the welcoming community to be a very comfortable fit.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency focused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. To sign up for his monthly market updates, contact him at gborvick@gmail.com.

Prior to the 1967 Six Day War, the Katamonim were located along the Israeli–Jordanian armistice line and had to defend itself against Jordanian sniper fire, hence the name Gonenim, which means “Defenders.”

Let’s Eat

By Barbara Deutsch

For some reason, no matter how many days, weeks or even months are planned for vacation, it all seems to go too fast. Maybe that is true for a lot of things, but for us, no matter how long we stay, it’s never enough.

I guess that’s why we are coming here to stay, hopefully without too many hurdles or glitches. It’s time to make the big move.

What I do know is that while Israel has so much to offer and is our dream home, it’s not all golden and the friends and family who live here have been honest and forthcoming about what it takes. Living in Israel is not for the weak of heart and is a challenge for young to old.

Every age group comes with its own issues. Yet, anyone who has taken the big step tells us that they would not live anywhere else in the world.

When we spend our summers in Israel, we try to mix adventure with hanging out and doing nothing. For me, still busy with school prep, I have trouble figuring out how to relax. I need to have a plan and do something every day. It can sometimes be annoying to those I love.

Some plans are made well in advance –a tour, a long trip or a visit with family who live far away. Some plans are spontaneous – breakfast with friends, a walk or sitting around the pool reading. Whatever the plans and wherever we go, my brain keeps churning and working. It’s a byproduct of my superpower, ADD.

Whatever we do, I’m always observing, processing and filing away for future use. For example:

We went to buy the famous Marzipan rugelach in the shuck; there is nothing better than those gooey, chocolate delights hot and fresh out of the oven. As we were checking out, one of the cashiers called us over to her shorter line; the store was packed with people, and there were multiple lines.

As we turned to get into her line, a short, determined woman pushed me aside, got in front of me, started counting

pennies, finally paid, took my “waiting to be paid for bag,” got yelled at by the rolling-her-eyes cashier quietly observing all of the goings on, responded, “I did not see her” and left in a huff.

There is a tiny coffee shop situated near a bus stop on a busy corner on Usishken in Jerusalem. It only sells coffee. If you are lucky, there may be a hot delicious chocolate chip cookie to grab as well. So far this summer, he has never been open for us. His posted hours are “whenever he gets there” to “whenever he has to get home for his kids.”

When he is open, long lines of coffee connoisseurs wait patiently for his delicious fresh ground coffee. It’s worth the wait, and it seems that there are many who don’t mind his schedule.

Ever-resourceful coffee-loving Israelis have created a Natan’s WhatsApp group to support their coffee cravings.

for the opportunity to sit outside in the blazing sun while indulging.

I was too worried about the street food vibe’s effect on my fragile stomach, so I did not partake. My gluten-free, very careful eater daughter enjoyed her delicious gluten-free wrap.

For those who need to know, there are many places, even in the Golan, where there is delicious gluten-free food available. There is even a store in the shuk called Gluless that is filled with delicious cakes and breads, all gluten-free.

And for those who want to enjoy a nice meal, go to Kazze for spaghetti so good that you won’t taste the difference between what you are eating and what you remember.

Of course, as soon as we got up the steps to the shul, I heard my name called, “Hi Barbara, what brings you here?” by one of the diners sitting at an outdoor sort of table. The person calling my name was a new

and wonder as to what we as a people are doing wrong. In an age of easy access to so much knowledge and information, how is it that an educated person, albeit not connected to Judaism, cannot know the Kotel?

So much heavy lifting to be done.

In Israel, connections can be found in so many ways, especially through food. Night and day, the restaurants are filled with diners young and old, charedi and chiloni, enjoying anything from delicious street food to indulging in fine dining.

The homegrown ripe fruits and vegetables are magnificent in their taste and beauty, especially now that we are post Shemitta.

This summer, we have eaten in almost every Mehadrin dairy and meat eatery in Jerusalem. When we are alone or with friends, we have allowed ourselves to sample Rabbanut approved eateries.

There is a boureka bakery in the shuk that sells piping-hot bourekas by the pound. What most don’t know is that down a dingy alleyway, there is an old time cafe with a few tables and waiters who serve boureka sandwiches which are yummy. You have to look closely for the alley entrance or you might never find it.

When we went to Tzfat, an old city with a complicated story, at the top of the road which leads to the Ari’s shul, a Kabbalist rabbi from the Middle Ages who many turn to in prayer for guidance, adjacent to a famous artists’ colony, is a Yemenite food stand. A pony-tailed vendor makes a concoction that looks like an omelet wrap that he fills with all kinds of Middle Eastern delights. Long lines wait

friend that I had made last year in Israel. Among other incredible acts of chesed, she leads a group of TJJ/NCSY moms whose unaffiliated children participate in a camp group who explore Israel during the summer. The program is so successful that it has expanded to include moms and now the dads of the TJJ campers.

The moms that I met travel up and down Israel connecting with their Jewish roots. I asked one of their leaders if the trip really makes a difference over the long run. My friend responded, “We were at the Kotel and one of the Mom’s asked in all innocence, ‘Why are we here? What’s the Kotel?’”

This response shocked and rattled me; it triggered an overwhelming feeling of loss

It is so much fun to have free rein over the bounty and talent that this nation offers to its citizens and guests. How amazing is it to be able to sample pizza or schnitzel on every corner and not be limited to only the one option in town.

When we look at a map of Israel, we see mountains, deserts, rivers and wide open spaces. Too bad we don’t get a glimpse of the potpourri of the colorful population, their customs and their delicious cuisine.

Mrs. Barbara Deutsch is currently the associate principal at HANC 609 and a longtime reflective educator, parent, grandparent, and new great-grandparent. Even after all these years, she still loves what she does and looks forward to working with kids every single day.

His posted hours are “whenever he gets there” to “whenever he has to get home for his kids.”

What Would You Do If…

Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

My friends and I are in a difficult position and wondering what the panel thinks.

We went upstate this summer and worked at a well-known bungalow colony. One of our friends from seminary is engaged to a guy who was also working upstate at a different bungalow colony. We saw him on numerous occasions talking to other girls and seemingly flirting with them. When our friend came up for Shabbos, he had all eyes for her.

We are all walking on eggshells since coming back because we know their wedding is soon. We know we need to tell her about it, but we just don’t know how to approach it. What do you suggest?

The Rebbetzin

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S.

Call your seminary teacher for guidance. Make sure it is someone who knows your friend well. She also knows the halachos. She should guide you in this matter.

The Shadchan

Michelle Mond

This might come as a surprise, but I bet that your friend knows this part of his personality. There are so many aspects to what attracts one to another.

Whether we could understand it or not, I have spoken to many people who actually enjoy dating very “out there,” flirty personalities. For whatever reason, or whether or not it is healthy, some people like those personalities and connect with them.

What you can try to do at this point is mention to her that you met her chosson on numerous times upstate. Gauge her response. Does she say things like: “Aww, yes, he told me he met you! Isn’t he the best?” This is a sign that she knows he talks to everyone and is very friendly, maybe over-friendly. She knows him; she gets it. If she shuts down and seems surprised that he was out and about socializing, you may want to gently express your concern.

As always, you can speak to a rav as well to get particular halachic guidance. Hatzlacha!

The Single

Tzipora Grodko

What a great question. Here are two hugely different approaches to this scenario:

1. How do you know he was “flirting” with other girls? Some guys have more social (or some may call it flirtatious) personalities, and that’s simply their disposition. Were these girls old friends of his? Was everyone at a meal enjoying each other’s company? Is it “the norm” based on his personality and culture? You need to be 1,000% confident about the answers to these questions before making assumptions. If you’re not confident, you truly can’t assume.

2. If you can’t answer number one,

then it is not your place to say anything. (Honestly, even if you CAN answer number one,) I would ask a rabbi or someone wiser and not assume you can understand what to do in this case.

Any negative reports that you transmit to your friend will be viewed as jealous and malicious gossip.

The Zaidy

Dr. Jeffrey Galler

ing” with other girls sounds like it could be fairly harmless behavior (although I don’t condone that behavior).

No good ever comes from spreading lashon hara. Unless you have information that the chosson is engaged in clearly inap-

Pulling It All Together

The Navidaters

Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

Thank you so much for writing into our panel. What a difficult situation you and your friends are finding yourselves in. Your friend’s fiancé is behaving

inappropri - ately with other women and your question is not whether or not you should say some -

propriate behaviors, or has issues like drug abuse, or is involved in criminal activity, you should say and do absolutely nothing.

Any negative reports that you transmit to your friend will be viewed as jealous and malicious gossip.

When I was in Brooklyn College, one of my best friends started dating a girl that I had once dated. The girl had many qualities that I found absolutely detestable, and I foolishly told my friend how I felt.

Now, many years later, they are still happily married to each other, but my friendship, alas, never survived my poor judgement. I should have kept my mouth shut.

There’s an appropriate Hebrew ex-

thing but how to approach it.

Are you 1,000 percent sure he was flirting and not simply being friendly?

I ask because these situations can often be fairly nuanced…and other times someone is simply being inappropriate, no questions asked. Without having seen it myself and no examples provided, it is hard for me to assess. My response to you is going with the notion that he is indeed being flirtatious and inappropriate with women, as you’ve depicted.

While there is most often no one perfect or right answer in life, there are certain ways of approaching situations that are most appropriate or called for. The first piece of this is the hard job of accepting that your friend may not take well to this. She may be grateful ultimately for the truth, but immediately, she may be upset with you. This is often the hardest part of these unfair and sticky situations. She also may not believe you. And, she also may accuse you of being jealous.

When approaching your friend, let her know that this is simply what you

pression:

You will never regret stifling the urge to say something that you never should have said.

saw. You can’t know for sure and that you have been struggling with how to tell her and ultimately didn’t want to withhold this important information that may affect her throughout her lifetime with this man. And, that no matter what she decides, you will love and support her.

These situations are so complicated. She will likely be hurt and may even need space from you. Give her space if needed. And accept the fact that she may move forward with him regardless.

In my humble opinion, alerting a dear friend to a potential husband’s inappropriate flirting with other women is a kindness. Being kind is not always the easy thing to do. Everyone’s responses to something of this nature will be personal or based on experiences or feelings it brings up for them, which is why you need to evaluate your own motives, what you saw, your friendship, and ultimately go with your own gut.

Good 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.

This might come as a surprise, but I bet that your friend knows this part of his personality.

It’s hard to be certain, but what you describe as “flirt-

“Mei’olam lo hitz’ta’arti ahl davar shelo amarti.”

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Vacation Opportunities

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

We’re reaching that time again when I overhear many families busy finalizing their vacation plans. It’s an interesting time to go away. It’s completely logical to take some time off as the break between camp and school beginning. Alternatively, it’s at a time when the majority of kids – and many adults, too – have usually just completed a relaxing summer and a vacation seems unnecessary.

While many parents will have spent the warmer months at their usual schedules, teachers, therapists and many other professions have a more laid-back environment.

While another trip to relax may seem superfluous at this time, it’s very possible for families to make this time the most meaningful. When everyone is already in a calmer mode, families can utilize this time to focus on each oth -

er and not merely on unwinding – as important as that can be. I’ve written previously on vacations, and I was hesitant to do another article on the topic. But, I still felt there was something to discuss about the unique scheduling of this break period.

I also found it ironic that I was writing about vacations again because I rarely go away; our family tends to favor day trips. I am beyond thrilled that we have exciting plans for this time period, attending the chasuna of a close cousin. She is the first of our children’s generation to get married, and we look forward to many more simchas in the future. Mazel tov to Chaya (Cincinnati, OH) and Yussi (Baltimore, MD) and our entire family. May they be zoche to build a bayis ne’eman b’Yisroel.

A Unique Opportunity

Each time period has a unique flavor to it that comes with special opportunities. The yomim tovim are unmatched in their spiritual potential and meaning. It can be challenging to balance meals and snacks around the sukkah or ensure we are in a chametz-free zone on all outings, but it’s part of what keeps the meaning of the chag on our minds.

Winter break is a quick getaway during the school year, and the kids enjoy a little time to rejuvenate before the next period of classes begins. Similarly, right after school has finished, the kids are emotionally winding down after a

full year has been completed. They’ve worked very hard, especially the older students who have just completed finals or Regents exams. They look forward to the time off, and they need a few weeks to get back to themselves after such a full schedule.

It’s only now, when they’ve had camp or those summer weeks off, that they’re already feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to focus on family. It’s during these few days that many may find they’re more emotionally prepared to spend meaningful time with others.

Grabbing the Opportunity

As much as kids enjoy exotic getaways, they really want time where they feel loved by their parents. A trip to the zoo where they’re doted on is more valued than a trip to the Caribbean that dumps them with a babysitter. Planning any trip – near or far – should prioritize bonding with our precious younger travelers. Our children will notice when our focus is on our family and enjoying their company.

Take plenty of pictures and make sure you get into a few of them – smiling with your child. They’ll love looking back on them years later. Within days of returning, the little ones will most likely already be begging to see those photos on your phone. Other than pictures, leave the phone in your bag – it’s incredibly distracting from our precious priorities.

It’s well known that it’s impossible to please everybody and attempting to do so usually results in pleasing nobody, leaving misery in its wake. Don’t set yourself up for failure by attempting this. As long as everybody has something special to do, they can usually handle other outings that are not to their personal taste. Adults, too, should enjoy themselves, and there’s nothing wrong with parents planning something special for themselves.

Plan your trip around your family’s needs – not your neighbor’s. We don’t need to outdo others nor should we be worried what others will think if our destinations are simpler. Let’s do what we know our family will enjoy and leave us with pleasant memories. Estimating in advance what the budgetary limitations are can avoid nasty surprises later.

Future Opportunities

Because of the timing of Elul, many schools are starting earlier this year. Due to the various start dates, some parents will find their children are starting weeks apart from each other. A new school year is a fresh start for children. Even students that struggled last

year have new opportunities this year. Their teacher/rebbi, class and grade all provide a fresh beginning. We want to do everything possible to increase their chances for success.

Parents should be mindful of school start dates when planning their excursions. Kids need to be home a few days before that special first day of class. It

clothes that conform to the dress code. Most likely, they destroyed their sneakers over the summer and are begging for something new to match their outfit. This is in addition to any seforim or other school supplies they may need.

It’s inevitable that anything you need to shop for will take more time than you expect. All the other parents are rushing

good reason for doing so – it eases organization and Crayola crayons do provide a superior coloring experience.) Make sure to eat something before you go and daven for siyata dishmaya.

Some parents are unable to take off and go on trips with their children during this time. Being home doesn’t mean we can’t increase the fun and time together. Make a point of going to the park after work or over the weekend. Take out a board game or just enjoy an ice cream on the front steps. Home may sound “boring,” but most experiences are what we make of them.

Let’s take full advantage of whatever opportunities we have to make these last days of warm weather as meaningful for our family as possible. Take some time to relax, too, and have a great end to the summer vacation!

can be very hard for children to transition from vacation mode to school mode without time to adjust. Being home for a few days will hopefully help ease that.

Your plans ideally should include time to prepare your child and get all their supplies ready without feeling additional, unnecessary stress (there’s plenty of stress that’s unavoidable). They need their school uniforms or

to do the same thing you are. There will be lines and stressed-out parents everywhere you go. Kids will not like what their parents picked out and will insist on a different pair of shoes or looseleaf. The rebbi or morah may have exact requirements for the necessary supplies, and it usually takes extended time to find the correct item. (The teachers request very specific items, but they have

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.

Our children will notice when our focus is on our family and enjoying their company.

Oil You Need to Know The Greasy Truths

By Aliza Beer MS, RD, CDN

Cooking oils are an essential component of any kitchen, used for frying, sautéing, baking, dressing salads, and more. With a wide variety of cooking oils available, it can be challenging to navigate the options. Each oil has its unique properties, benefits, and drawbacks. In this guide, we will explore various cooking oils, their health benefits, potential cons, and how to use them effectively in your kitchen.

Olive Oil

Benefits: Olive oil is a staple in Mediterranean cuisine and is renowned for its heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. It contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties that can protect against chronic diseases. Extra virgin olive oil is the highest quality and retains more nutrients and flavor.

Cons: Olive oil has a relatively low smoke point, making it unsuitable for high-heat cooking. Using it at high temperatures can degrade its healthful properties and lead to a bitter taste.

How to Incorporate: Use extra vir -

gin olive oil as a dressing for salads, a finishing oil on cooked dishes, and for sautéing at medium heat.

Tip: Use extra virgin olive oil spray while cooking instead of a nonstick spray such as PAM. PAM contains processed oils that can negatively impact cardiovascular health and cholesterol levels. Additionally, some aerosols may contain harmful chemicals that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Prolonged exposure to these substances may lead to respiratory irritation, headaches, and other health problems. Lastly, an EVOO spray bottle can help with portion control, limiting the accidental tendency to be heavy-handed with oil.

Canola Oil

Benefits: Canola oil is a versatile and mild-flavored oil high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids. It has a higher smoke point than olive oil, making it suitable for most cooking methods.

Cons: Canola oil is heavily processed, and concerns have been raised

about the extraction and refining methods. Additionally, it lacks the antioxidants present in unrefined oils.

How to Incorporate: Canola oil can be used for baking, sautéing, and grilling due to its neutral flavor and high smoke point.

Coconut Oil

Benefits: Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain triglycerides, which are easily digestible and may provide quick energy. It has a unique flavor and can withstand high heat cooking.

Cons: Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, which has been associated with increased LDL cholesterol levels. Although some studies suggest potential health benefits, moderation is essential due to its saturated fat content.

How to Incorporate: Use coconut oil in recipes that benefit from its distinct flavor, such as curries, stir-fries, baked goods, and as a replacement for butter in vegan dishes.

Avocado Oil

Benefits: Avocado oil is rich in

monounsaturated fats, which can support heart health and reduce inflammation. It also contains vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage.

Cons: Avocado oil is relatively expensive compared to other oils. However, its health benefits and versatility make it a valuable addition to your kitchen.

How to Incorporate: Avocado oil’s mild taste and high smoke point make it suitable for high-heat cooking, roasting vegetables, grilling, and as a base for homemade salad dressings.

Grapeseed Oil

Benefits: Grapeseed oil is high in polyunsaturated fats and vitamin E, contributing to heart health and promoting skin health. Its neutral flavor makes it a versatile option.

Cons: Grapeseed oil is susceptible to oxidation due to its high polyunsaturated fat content, which can lead to the formation of harmful compounds if exposed to heat, light, or air for extend-

ed periods. To slow the rate of rancidity, store grapeseed oil in a cool, dark place. Exposure to light and high temperatures can accelerate the oxidation process, so a pantry or kitchen cabinet is an ideal spot for storage.

How to Incorporate: Use grapeseed oil in light sautéing, baking, making mayonnaise, or as a base for homemade vinaigrettes.

Sesame Oil

Benefits: Sesame oil is rich in antioxidants and has been associated with reducing inflammation and supporting heart health. It comes in two varieties: light (refined) with a mild flavor and dark (unrefined) with a stronger nutty taste.

Cons: Due to its robust flavor, dark sesame oil can overwhelm certain dishes if used in excess.

How to Incorporate: Use light sesame oil for high-heat cooking and dark sesame oil as a finishing touch in stirfries, dressings, and marinades for an intense flavor.

Peanut Oil

Benefits: Peanut oil is high in monounsaturated fats, similar to olive oil, and has a high smoke point. Its neutral flavor allows it to blend well with a va-

riety of ingredients.

Cons: Peanut oil is common in processed foods and may cause allergic reactions in individuals with peanut allergies.

How to Incorporate: Peanut oil is good for stir-frying and sautéing and can be used as a base for Asian-inspired dishes.

Sunflower Oil

Benefits: Sunflower oil is a good source of vitamin E and contains a balanced profile of polyunsaturated and

suitable for sautéing, baking, and making homemade dressings.

Safflower Oil

Benefits: Safflower oil is high in linoleic acid, a type of omega-6 fatty acid that can support heart health when consumed in moderation. It has a mild flavor and a high smoke point.

Cons: Safflower oil is refined, which means it may lack some nutrients and antioxidants present in unrefined oils.

How to Incorporate: Use safflower oil for high-heat cooking methods like

experiences. Make sure to practice moderation. While cooking oils can be nutritious, they are calorie-dense. Also, consider smoke points: Match the oil’s smoke point to the cooking method. Use oils with high smoke points (e.g., peanut oil) for pan-frying and oils with lower smoke points (e.g., olive oil) for low to medium heat cooking. If possible, opt for high-quality, cold-pressed, and unrefined oils whenever possible to retain more nutrients and flavors.

Overall, the healthiest oils to use are extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil for the reasons listed above, but primarily because of the presence of monounsaturated fats in both. Focus on these two, but feel free to incorporate small amounts of the other oils listed to create a diverse and nutritious culinary experience in your kitchen.

monounsaturated fats. Its mild flavor makes it versatile in cooking.

Cons: Sunflower oil is high in omega-6 fatty acids, which, when consumed in excess, can promote inflammation if not balanced with omega-3s.

How to Incorporate: Sunflower oil is

frying, baking, and roasting.

To incorporate cooking oils into your kitchen, remember to diversify. Experiment with different oils to enjoy their unique flavors and health benefits. Rotate between olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil for varied culinary

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

Experiment with different oils to enjoy their unique flavors and health benefits.

End Of Summer

By Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox

As camp season closes and schooltime is on the near horizon, filling the few remaining weeks is a parent’s challenge – and an opportunity. Children who have been away at camp or at day camp, or in learning programs or in summer school have been busy and, we hope, productive. Many of them have had great fun, connecting with friends, off on adventures, and taking a break, more or less, from the intense schedules which make up their lives as Orthodox Jewish youngsters. The challenge begins with downtime. What to do? Beyond unpacking, cleaning, purchasing school supplies and scrambling for chavrusa

choices, how can a parent fill the waking hours of a family of active children?

One important suggestion is maintaining an interest in your kids. Encourage them to share with you their experiences in camp. Show interest in the good times, their growth moments, their insights about life away from home, and their struggles. Camp is a laboratory where youngsters get to experiment with a level of independence blended with a level of rule compliance. It is a chance to experiment with making new friends, encountering new predicaments, adapting to schedules, tasting camp food, and learning to tidy up after themselves. How

did it all go? How did they do socially? How did they do with the various adults and young adults who were their teachers, bunk counselors, team rivals and gatekeepers? Hear them out. Reinforce the positive notes and be supportive of them as they discuss struggles, most of which will be normal developmental struggles as they grow through the camp processes.

A second suggestion is to begin preparing them for return to school and to yeshiva. For some children, the move back to studiousness is an organic one, desired and anticipated. Many young people look forward to reuniting with classmates, meeting the new rebbe,

cess by prepping their child about making the most out of their Torah education in mind, heart and spirit.

A third suggestion is gratitude cultivation. Studies on stress and human development point to the prized role on our resilience and contentment which stems from our learning to notice and articulate our gratitude for the goodness around us. Teach this to your children. Model it for them. Take time with family to share the inspiring lesson, the moving message, the uplifting experience, which helped brighten your day. Have them do the same. This will not only help shape their positive outlook in general but will facilitate them view-

learning the new Gemara. Some are self-starters and will already be tasting the new learning with eagerness before the first day of school. Others are more reluctant about giving up the summer’s relative freedom. A parent’s task is to talk this through, remain supportive yet prepare their child for readjusting to the demands of a full school day. You want to propel them towards some level of enthusiasm and a full acceptance of their commitment to school rules and proper conduct. This is a discussion which all parents want to undertake with their children, partnering in the chinuch pro -

ing parents and siblings with greater appreciation. This anchors children to believe that Hashem’s world is, essentially, a friendly place, one in which they want to take an active role. No time for the summertime blues. End of summer is for the summertime boost.

Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist and director of Chai Lifeline Crisis Services. To contact Chai Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis helpline, call 855-3-CRISIS or email crisis@chailifeline.org. Learn more at www.chailifeline.org/crisis.

Take time with family to share the inspiring lesson, the moving message, the uplifting experience which helped brighten your day.

Summer Thoughts

By Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz

It seemed like the usual litany of complaints you would read about in an article about millennials. Their spoken English is faulty. They are missing soft skills. They come to the job only to leave at the next opportunity. They lack a work ethic.

It was my friend who was sharing with me her need to fill three positions at the end of the school year. She is a veteran principal who strives for excellence and works with her teachers to not only meet the students’ needs but aims to grow them in skills and menschlechkeit.

This was not a venting session. The conversation morphed into a discussion about work values among our own children who are now in their thirties and forties.

Chedva expressed appreciation that her own children work hard for their respective employers. “They give them their all,” she observed. I tried to confirm the nachas moment for this mom of many. I knew that one of her professional daughters is valued not only by the executive management at her company but also by the team that works under her. I reminded her that this is a rarity.

It’s that time of year again when the kids are in camp. The parents vacation if they can, and the grandparents are free to choose their leisure. If you are a midlifer lucky enough to live in the Five Towns, you probably take only one trip all summer. It’s the loveliest time of year to enjoy the amenities of our homes and Long Island’s many blue and green spaces.

As my peers relax at a slower pace, pick up some prepared food, plan boardwalk constitutionals, and pen cards to send to our camping grandchildren, I find a reason to pause. I’m at home this summer recovering from ankle surgery and have ample time to think.

What am I doing to help my grandchildren develop a positive work ethic, I wondered all Shabbos after that Friday afternoon conversation.

“It’s not your job,” said a Shabbos afternoon visitor who is a few short years behind me. “Our children must raise them. It’s their job, “she pointed out.

“But we can influence them, can’t we?” I

argued. “Aren’t grandparents influencers?”

Rivka is smart and challenged me. “Do your kids have a strong work ethic? “

“Yes.”

“Mine do too. The grandchildren see their parents working hard. They see my son getting up early to head into the office and daven early in the city to use his time properly. They see him fitting in learning, family responsibilities, calling his own grandmother, and more. We raised our kids to be responsible and to meet their commitments. That was our job. Now our kids are doing their jobs and modeling these healthy adult values. We need to be grandparents, and that job is different.”

I didn’t argue further. I am well aware of the research of sociologists Samuel P. Oliner and Amitai Etzioni on the altruistic and values influence of close but not immediate family members like grandparents, I thought further. Maybe I could influence my grandchildren’s work ethic. I know that one of my grandmothers influenced mine. She was the one who raised her hands and told concerned community members when she was suddenly left a widow with several children in the sixties: I will not go on welfare. These hands can work and will work.

I found a Harvard Business Review study that supported Rivka’s argument. It looked closely at how the work habits of

parents affected the work habits of children when they joined the work force. There are basically four categories of adult workers. Those that willingly adopt their parents’ model of work-life balance. Those that unintentionally adopt the parental model. Those that consciously and willingly reject their parents’ model. And those that unintentionally reject their parents’ model.

Rivka was right. Our early upbringing by our parents is so influential in our personal development as achieving adults who work. Our own work ethic is a direct reflection of our parents and our reaction to their work values.

I want my grandchildren to be reliable and dependable. I hope they will take ownership, exercise initiative, and take direction from others so that they learn and improve. Being part of a team and working toward the group’s goals I hope will become an overarching value of theirs. Supporting others is so important now and later in their lives. Developing self-mastery will be so critical to their meeting their commitments to others and to themselves. These skills can be learned when they are young, and I want to reinforce them.

So, what can I do as a grandparent? They don’t live in my house and assignment of regular chores is not my role. But I can tell them my expectations about cleaning

up after big yom tov meals and keeping to the house rules when they come. They join me in doing some of the chores that are part of the running of the household. Asking them to help without the expectation of a reward is an effective way to instill pride and a work ethic.

Doing a good job at schoolwork and learning as a value can also be reinforced through the language we use. After all, schoolwork is a child’s first job. We can say: I am proud of the choice you made to study now for your test. The intrinsic value of effort can be bolstered so that they don’t view schoolwork as another job to be finished as soon as possible. Commenting positively on the growth of good study habits should work, too.

Praise for a job well done is an obvious tool. But what if they didn’t set the table properly and some settings are missing cutlery? What if the job we asked them to do is half done? This is a situation I frequently find myself in. It takes careful thinking and communication to frame a response that doesn’t point to what they forgot. Saying, “Let’s look this over before we go forward” might work. “You worked on this; what can be done to improve it?” is another useful comment.

Involving our grandchildren in our volunteering can also demonstrate the value of another form of work. Just because it’s chesed doesn’t mean we don’t give it all we’ve got. Even if we cannot take them along to the board meeting, telling them why we are leaving an event early for a meeting and explaining what the larger purpose of the organization tells them about commitment, values, and the effort that leads to accomplishment.

Teaching by example is, of course, one of the best means to instill a healthy work ethic.

I’m open to suggestions on how to up my game. Got ideas for this grandma?

More than Peanuts and Crackerjacks Eating Kosher at Yankee Stadium

An inside look at the kosher kitchen at the famed ballpark

By Nati BurNside

YankeeStadium is home to the winningest franchise in baseball, a rabid fan base, and a secret elevator.

Well, maybe it’s not exactly a secret, but very few people know where it is. When the building was being designed, they built this elevator to only access a very small part of the stadium that can’t be reached any other way. Even those who might have seen it once by chance (it’s not really in a place many people walk through) likely have no idea where it goes, and only a handful of people are allowed to use it.

And even if you were somehow able to find this secret elevator and use it to get to the secluded location, you’d be met with a door that can only be opened using both halves of a pair of two corresponding keys. Only one of the two keys belongs to the New York Yankees.

This isn’t some top-secret office for the owner. Nor is it some clandestine operation by the team’s analytics department. It’s not even something like the central security hub or the location of a vault.

It’s the kosher kitchen.

The story of how this kitchen came about is fairly simple. Yankee Stadium has always needed a greater kosher component than virtually every other stadium on the planet. Baseball brings 80+ home games spanning half the calendar year. With a capacity over 46,000 in a metropolitan area that features a large kosher-keeping population, kosher food in the ballpark is a necessity.

Unlike the New York Mets’ home at Citi Field, Yankee Stadium isn’t surrounded by kosher options where fans can grab a bite to eat before the game or bring something

with them to the ballpark. Given those circumstances, the Yankees decided to set up what is still an unprecedented operation when it comes to kosher food at a sporting venue.

When it opened in 2009 after three years and $2.3 billion of construction, the newer Yankee Stadium had a kosher kitchen built into it. The idea was that with the new stadium’s multiple premium seating options, something should be available for the kosher consumer as well. After switching hands a few times, the Star-K now provides the certification for the kitchen.

Legends Hospitality operates many things in Yankee Stadium including the food services. The Yankees are a partner in the ownership, but Legends is actually a brand that provides services to stadiums all over the world, though you shouldn’t expect to go to their other stadiums and find kosher kitchens.

The only way the operation works is by

partnership. Luckily, the Star-K and Legends have been able to create a bond that yields an unmatched product as far as stadium kosher food goes. Given that Legends itself isn’t a kosher operation, the functionality of the arrangement is quite the accomplishment.

Chef Matt Gibson has been at Yankee Stadium for 12 years now and is the senior executive chef. He knows a lot about kashrus now, but that wasn’t always the case.

“To be honest, I didn’t know much more than the basics,” Gibson said. “I have enjoyed learning more about kosher food and religion over the years.”

But after more than a decade, the partnership is in a great place, and things are running more smoothly than ever.

“After so many years working closely with Chef Matt Gibson and Legends, they have gotten to the other side of the learning curve,” shared Rabbi Binyomin Steinmetz of the Star-K. “They are very well-versed in the challenges, rules, regulations, and policies, and they are ready, willing, and able to abide by everything. The kashrus aspect is respected by the whole culinary staff, and the cooperation is what makes everything work.”

Speaking of the staff,

one of the most important factors in their success is that the kitchen staff for the kosher kitchen works exclusively there. They don’t rotate to other kitchens in the stadium. It’s much easier to have a staff that knows everything about kashrus when that staff stays the same. They know that they can’t bring in outside food for lunch, to only take vegetables from the bins that indicate they’ve already been checked for bugs, and that nothing leaves the kitchen without a mashgiach sealing it with the stickers and tape that mark things as kosher.

“(Rabbi Steinmetz) has been a great teacher. He is very informative, compassionate, and takes the time to make sure everyone understands the procedures set in place to maintain the highest kosher standards,” Gibson explained. “I am lucky enough to call him a mentor, a colleague, and, most importantly, a friend.”

The kosher kitchen cooks for about 700 people per night. Sometimes that’s too much, and sometimes they are pumping out more during the game to catch up with demand. The menu offerings for the actual Legends Suite Club kosher action station change daily to a certain extent, and everything is getting made fresh daily except the pastries for dessert.

That food has to be shipped out to various locations in the stadium so that it’s available in a timely fashion. One of the difficulties of that process is the size of the venue. Some locations that require kosher food are nowhere near others. Not only that, but the food has to be escorted there by a mashgiach.

“If we are working hand-in-hand that challenge is met,” Rabbi Steinmetz said. “We have a team of five mashgichim who are dedicated to working at the stadium. All equipment is very distinctly marked, and movement throughout the stadium is very closely controlled with mashgichim accompanying any food. As large as the stadium is, we manage to have a very restricted system with a clear flow.”

And while that system for your average game is mostly perfected at this point, they don’t stop there. The kitchen is also able to accommodate very special circumstances as well. There were two games during the Nine Days this year. With most patrons who keep kosher abstaining from meat, the menus were tweaked to include fish (both cooked and raw) and even plant-based chicken nuggets for the lower tier offerings.

The kitchen even has China in the case that they need to cater an event that requires it. You could host a bar mitzvah for 500 people at the stadium during the off-season. Even if it’s something they haven’t done before, they suggest you reach out and ask. They appreciate a challenge.

pulled barbeque brisket on a pretzel bun, deli wraps, sausages with peppers and onions, hot dogs, knishes, and soft pretzels.

“Managing four stands is great,” said Eli Arje of PKS. “Our experience with other venues has made it smooth to operate.”

They even had a custom grill built for the main stand in section 112. The new set-up allows them to make a

The premium offerings in the stadium are a bit more difficult to pin down than finding a kosher stand. The offers vary based on a number of factors, but one rule of thumb is that they are often meant to replicate what the non-kosher customer is getting as closely as possible.

The Legends Suite Club is a two-level indoor area that is accessible for those with seats in the bottom half of the lower bowl between the dugouts. In other words, if you’re sitting in the best seats, you also get the best food.

While it would be impossible to replicate the regular buffet at the Legends Suite Club, the kosher action station is pretty amazing. Located on the lower level of the club, the station can be found just to the left of the stairs as you descend. Here, you’ll find separate disposable plates and plasticware (the other stations have reusables) and a buffet where a server behind the glass will fill your plate with that day’s delicacies.

The menu includes two choices for entrées (one that is either beef, veal, or lamb and another that is chicken), one starch-based side dish, and one vegetable side dish. That might sound plain, but this is a top-quality operation. A menu might consist of herb grilled veal chops or grilled chicken in a lemon caper sauce with sides of garlic herb fingerling potatoes and grilled summer squash with cherry tomatoes.

There are many places in the stadium where you can order kosher food. For most people, that’s probably limited to the kosher stands available on the concourses. But even that isn’t quite as limited as it was before.

This season, Prime Kosher Sports took over the kosher vending at Yankee Stadium. PKS operates the kosher stands at four other sporting venues, and they clearly know their stuff. They upgraded the offerings available at the stands in all four of the locations in the stadium (sections 112, 214, 229, 323). The menu now includes

better product than the previous system where the hot dogs were boiled. PKS hopes to have all the other stands converted by next year as well.

“Servicing the best fans and the best community means having the best equipment to make the best product,” Arje said of the recent upgrades. “The feedback we’ve received has been heartwarming.”

One more way that PKS services the fans is by hosting minyan during the seventh inning stretch of every game. It’s Mincha for day games and Ma’ariv for night games. This takes place right across from the stand in section 112, though sometimes there are minyanim at the other stands if there are enough people around.

Then there are the auxiliary menu items. These include a salad (usually something interesting), the “ballpark frank” section (hot dog or sausage with sauerkraut, peppers and onions, chili, etc.), a Mediterranean Mezze selection (usually one item like kibbeh, a dip like hummus, and something to dip in it like pita), and dessert (a selection of pastries and fresh fruit).

If you really want to lean into the experience, the bar actually carries mevushal wine. It may only be available for purchase by the bottle, but the fact that it’s even an option is impressive.

There’s always a Star-K mashgiach there to answer questions if a guest isn’t sure about something, though certain things fall outside their purview. For instance, there is also plenty of packaged food at Legends that is included with the ticket. But for that, every person is their own mashgiach. In terms of beverages, you’ll find soda and water for the taking. If you’re inclined to try to eat dairy before venturing to the action station, there’s ice cream by the scoop (currently Blue Bunny, but make sure to check for yourself) as well as packaged ice cream bars, not to mention the buckets of fun size candy bars. As for pareve snacks to take to your seat, there are chips, peanuts, and pretzels available as well.

Far away from home plate, you might want to check out the Audi Yankees Club. This prestigious lounge sits on the suite level behind the left field foul pole. It fea-

They know that they can’t bring in outside food for lunch, to only take vegetables from the bins that indicate they’ve already been checked for bugs, and that nothing leaves the kitchen without a mashgiach sealing it with the stickers and tape that mark things as kosher.

tures a bar when you first walk in, followed by a dining room with indoor tiered seating below and a buffet on the concourse. Sadly, the only way you’ll see a kosher buffet up here is if you get a large enough group and tell the kitchen in advance.

That said, if you have a ticket to a tiered seat (they have a countertop in front of them), you’re entitled to Legends food to substitute for the high-end buffet behind you. Even without a ticket for tiered seating in Audi, you can book a table there if you have “Audi Club Access” listed on your ticket. This usually comes with some of the better seats in the park. If you book a table, you can also get kosher Legends food for your meal. Just keep in mind that eating at Audi is $75 per person plus tax and tip – not cheap.

If you’re waiting for your meals to arrive from Legends and you’re wondering what there is at Audi that’s packaged and kosher, you’re limited to water, soda, chips, and scooped ice cream (just remember that those things aren’t overseen by the Star-K).

Next door, the Budweiser Party Deck is a unique spot in the park. Located just off of the Audi Club, it’s an outdoor area that can be booked by one group (minimum 40 people) per game. Those on the Budweiser deck have access to the buffet from Audi, which also means that you can get Legends food as an individual or even as a buffet if the whole group is kosher.

The rest of this level of the ballpark is occupied by the three different sizes of suites in the ballpark. Luxury suites hold 16-36 people, party suites are for groups of 25-80, and club suites can accommodate 45-100 guests. Any kosher-keeping patron in a suite can ask the attendant to bring kosher food. Hot dogs, chicken tenders, and pastries are available free of charge. Only the luxury suites include domestic beer, but all the suites are stocked with water, soda, and chips.

In the event that a person in a suite wants food from Legends instead of the basic offerings, that can be accomodated as well. The suite manager can charge the guest for any of the Legends options ($25 for entrée and side dishes and $7-$9 for auxiliary items) and have the food brought up to the suite.

If the suite is being reserved for a group that wants only kosher food, that’s not an issue. The kosher team will work with the suite hosts to put together a kosher buffet. Just like any non-kosher group, the customer can ask for different types of food to be added to the buffet on an a la carte basis with a few days of advance notice.

in the sections in the bottom half of the lower bowl between the dugouts and the short outfield, these sections come with food and drinks as well.

back to their seats. Some of the kosher options there include soda, water, packaged ice cream bars, chips, and peanuts.

As far as the kosher options for delivery to your seat, you can order everything from Legends other than the main entrée and side dishes. So they’ll bring you the salad, loaded hot dog or sausage, mezze platter, and dessert, but not the lamb chops. In place of that entrée, you can order off a menu that includes hamburgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, sausages, French fries, and knishes… so you definitely won’t go hungry.

Another premium spot is the Delta SKY360° Suite, which is located behind home plate in the second deck. If you purchase group tickets to Delta (ten people or more), your ticket includes a food and beverage package. That entitles you to hamburgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, sausages, French fries, and knishes just like those in Champions. But whereas Champions includes the auxiliary Legends food, Delta does not. Still, if there’s something from Legends that you really want, you can purchase it a la carte from the counter in Delta.

The food and beverage package in Delta covers pretty much everything available to purchase when it comes to food behind the counter. That means scooped ice cream, bags of M&Ms, Cracker Jack, bagged cotton candy, chips, and peanuts are all available to you…just make sure to double check for a hashgacha. The liquid component of the package includes water, soda, and domestic beer.

Those with individual tickets to Delta are in the same boat as everyone in the Jim Beam Suite (behind home plate on the third deck) and the Ford Field MVP Club (top half of the lower bowl between the dugouts). Water, soda, and peanuts are free, and Legends food can be ordered a la carte from the counter.

But unlike Legends, there’s no buffet. Servers will take orders and bring food to your seat free of charge. There’s also a bar under the stands on each side where Champions ticketholders can grab fare for free to take

With so much going on surrounding the kosher operation, it’s hard to see how things might get better. But that’s the goal.

“We hope that the Legends kosher offerings continue to grow with creative menus and gourmet offerings,” Rabbi Steinmetz said. “As seasons pass, there’s more options at more locations, and we get more efficient at providing them.”

Not only that, but they are getting better when it comes to the small things. For instance, the rabbi now makes sure that any time a whole suite is kosher, the kitchen sends cut lemons and limes for the bartenders to use in drinks. And Gibson has learned to make sure that whenever the kosher action station is serving lamb, veal, or prime rib, the treif stations have a similar quality selection. Otherwise, the kosher station gets raided by those who don’t keep kosher but understandably want amazing food.

“I think the ultimate goal is to provide the best kosher dining experience available in the sports world at such an iconic venue,” said Gibson. “We continue to push the envelope and raise the bar with our kosher offerings.”

Back down near Legends, there are the Champions Suite seats. They might be the next best thing to Legends, and that’s not just because of the view. Located

The bar likely can’t be raised that much more, but it sounds like they are going to give it a shot. After all, you can’t hit the pitch unless you take a swing.

“The ultimate goal is to provide the best kosher dining experience available in the sports world at such an iconic venue.”

 Rabbi Binyomin Steinmetz of the Star-K in front of the Legends Suite Kosher Action Station

Legends Hospitality's Senior Executive Chef for Yankee Stadium Matt Gibson

A minyan during the seventh inning stretch

Spinach Feta-Stuffed Mushrooms

Dairy / Yields 8 servings

By Naomi Nachman

These are my favorite ingredients all rolled up into one fantastic dairy recipe for the summertime. Summer also means tomato season, with their flavor peaking during July and August. My family loves feta cheese in salads, with pasta, or with this winning combo of spinach and mushrooms. Serve this dish with a nice chilled late Harvest Riesling. The saltiness of the feta and the sweetness of the wine are a perfect marriage of flavors.

Ingredients

◦ 8 portobello mushrooms, cleaned and gills removed

◦ 1 cup cherry tomatoes on the vine

◦ 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

◦ 1 medium onion, diced

◦ 2 cloves garlic, minced

◦ 2 tablespoons butter

◦ 1 (24-oz) bag frozen chopped spinach, defrosted

◦ ½ teaspoon kosher salt

◦ ½ cup heavy cream

◦ 1 container (8 oz.) feta cheese, drained and crumbled

◦ 1 teaspoon kosher salt

◦ ¼ cup panko

◦ 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

◦ 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and coat with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place portobello mushroom caps and tomatoes on baking sheet; drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. Set aside. Do not turn off oven.

3. In a small bowl, mix panko, parsley and parmesan cheese. Set aside.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing: Heat remaining olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add onion; sauté for 5-8 minutes, until lightly browned.

5. Add garlic and butter and sauté for an additional 2-3 minutes.

6. Add spinach and cook until the liquid cooks off, about 5-8 minutes.

7. Add heavy cream and season with salt and pepper. Add feta and tomatoes.

8. Divide stuffing among the portobello mushrooms and top with the seasoned parmesan panko, return to oven. Roast for 15 minutes.

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.

Food styled by Renee Muller, Photo by Hudy Greenberg

O

Mind

Y

** *

RR: Change is neither good nor bad. It depends on what the change is and what the merits of that change are.

I remember my senior vice president

of operations had around 400 people reporting to him and manufacturing about 2 billion tablets and capsules a year. I once asked him, “Why do we do the process this way, and not that way?” He said, “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” I thought to myself, “I’m going to have to terminate him because he can’t be forward thinking.” Now, if he had said, “Well, we’ve looked at these four other technologies available, evaluated them, and here’s the analysis of why what we’re doing now is better,” great. That would have been a different story. But let’s say, you were running a brickand-mortar bookstore, and all of a sudden, you saw online businesses, like Amazon, starting to increase in popularity.

If you said, “This is the way we’ve always

done it, we’re not changing,” you’re heading towards disaster. Someone who won’t change is, in almost all cases, doomed.

There has been a tremendous increase in wealth and income in the U.S. because of all the advancements in technology that have enabled people to produce more and more, making things less costly and more accessible to the public. So, as these things change and get bigger, we need to analyze every one of those changes. Some transitions are good, and some are not. Your success or failure as a CEO is going to be based on your ability to accurately determine that.

What are the key points someone must be cognizant of when trans-

his 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.ferring leadership to the next generation?

Number one, they have to be capable. If you transfer leadership to your child who’s disorganized and isn’t prepared for the job, you’re going to lose the company. Eventually, it’s going to spiral out of control.

Number two, they need to show respect to everybody. When I took over as CEO at my family’s company, when the sirens went off at the end of lunch break, I held the door open for all of the hourly workers. I didn’t do it to deliver a message. I did it because I respect them. They’re good human beings. They’re working for a living to try to support their families. They’re totally deserving of our full respect.

Number three, you need the next generation to work harder than anybody else. A leader needs to lead by example by demonstrating that they work hard.

Number four, the next generation has to be highly credentialed. Now, credentialed doesn’t necessarily mean that they have a medical degree or a doctorate. It means that they’ve shown that they have the ability to work hard, build up the company, and be successful. If you put in someone who has no credentials and never accomplished anything, you’ll find that the people that are the most talented and the most capable in your company will leave for other jobs. Headhunters are calling your talent all the time, and if those workers decide to leave, all you’ll be left with is the ones who couldn’t get other jobs. That’s going to be a drain of talent from your company.

When transitioning a business to the next generation, is it better to keep using the strategies or processes that were developed over the years or to start from scratch?

If the new generation comes in and says, “There’s a new sheriff in town and we’re going to start from scratch,” you need to remove him from the company immediately. It’s unlikely that he knows what he’s doing. But he may have enough arrogance to think that he does and then run the company into the ground.

There are two extremes in businesses, each with their own types of processes that the incoming generation needs to fully learn before implementing any changes. There’s the smaller mom-andpop companies (such as a person who owns a small store), all the way up to the larger, sophisticated corporations. In the smaller mom-and pop-businesses, it’s the entrepreneur that is doing most things, working like a maniac, and paying all the bills. In a large corporation, you have different levels of signatures required as you get to higher and higher amounts of money. So, when I first joined my father’s company, I would sign off on a check for $500, but towards the latter part of my career, I wouldn’t get involved in anything less than $1 or $2 million. And to make sure that nobody’s absconding with company money, you also have process control and an accounting department auditing and putting those controls in place. So, your processes are different depending on the scale of the company. For example, when we tried to do business with some of the larger pharmaceutical companies,

in order to make a decision, they had to have sign offs from the legal department, the regulatory affairs department, the marketing department, the finance department, and everyone else to actually sign off on the deal.

The bottom line is, whatever your processes are, when this new generation comes in, they better not say, “We’re changing everything right away,” because you’re likely going to end up spiraling out of control. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean that changes don’t need to be made. It depends on the merits of what changes they want to implement.

How should a business owner navigate transferring leadership to a new generation whose morals, values, or leadership styles may differ from their own?

First of all, before you turn the reins of a business over to the next genera -

and make off-color jokes or use curse words, but I wouldn’t respond. I would just move on to the topic that had to be addressed. When you’re President or CEO, people look up to you. From a psychiatric perspective, there’s even some transference going on and you end up as a somewhat parental figure. You have to set the right tone. So, remember that you can’t just assume the next generation has lesser or worse values; it can sometimes even be the opposite.

How can new leadership deal with the delicate balance of managing employees who have already been at the company for years prior to them?

It depends on the types of employees you’re dealing with. When you’re looking at hourly employees and people on the lower end of the salary, their main concerns are generally job security, pay, and respect. And that’s critical, because you might have a new kid that comes in

them right at the top, that’s a big mistake.

What are your final tips for bringing a family member into your business?

tion, you better make sure that they have the correct values for the protection of the business, of the employees, and even of themselves. You could have some new guy that comes thinking that he can do a bunch of dishonest things, and then gets himself into criminal trouble. You could have someone that is not at all respectful or sensitive to the needs of the employees, and then gets himself into labor trouble. So, you don’t turn the reins over to someone until they’ve demonstrated those values for a long time and proven that they can do it. On the other hand, you can’t just assume that the next generation might be lacking the values that the first generation had. In my case, it was actually kind of the opposite. I was the first Orthodox Jew in the family in four generations, and there were many things that I simply would not do or ways that I behaved that were radically different from the way that the family business was being run before me. When I joined the company, there were multiple gender discrimination lawsuits against the company. People would come up to me

and thinks that because he’s the son of the original boss, he can now treat people disrespectfully, which just shows a defect or deficiency in that person’s value system. For those employees, it’s really just about giving them respect and security. But for middle to upper management, they’re also going to be concerned about opportunities for career advancement. So, for them to see that the dynamic, smart, and capable entrepreneur that started this company has now turned it over to their child, who is now tearing the place up and making a big joke out of everything, that will make them feel that the stability of the company is poor. And there might also be resentment from any employees that were looking to advance, only to see the boss’s child suddenly get that position. So again, as a business leader, you have to make sure that the next generation that comes in has proven themselves. And one way to do that is to have them work up through the ranks and make sure that they actually perform at each stage. They don’t have to go on the same 20-year career path, but if you just put

You need to be aware of the risks before deciding to work with family. There are so many stresses and complications that can result from that kind of relationship. The risks are huge. If you bring your child into the business, say they’re 35 years old and you’re still making the decisions, that child might feel like they are being undermined or emasculated. They want to be treated like a grownup, but you might not be ready to hand over that responsibility. So, in general, it’s better not to put a relative into the business if you can help it. Especially if they’re not so capable. The stakes are high because you could end up destroying your relationships with your family, which are really the most valuable things that you have in this world. But people do it, and sometimes it works. For Orthodox Jews, there’s a very strong attitude or value that’s instilled our children from when they’re about two years old called “kibbud av va’em (honoring your mother and father).” For the most part, these kids don’t have the same kind of resentment towards their parents that you might see in the secular world. They value their parents, value their grandparents, and value their elders. So, bringing in a child with that kind of respect stands a better chance of success than in more general cases. And there are plenty of cases where the next generation came in, worked together great with the previous generation, and accomplished great things.

“A leader needs to lead by example by demonstrating that they work hard.”

Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

No comment.

– President Joe Biden after a day of lounging on the beach, when asked about the horrific fire in Hawaii that has killed more than 100 people

I campaigned for you. Now, when I lose dozens of my friends, family, and neighbors, this?

- Tweet by former Hawaii Democrat state Rep. Mark Kaniela Ing, in response to Biden’s “no comment”

No, that’s not appropriate.

- Chicago’s radical left mayor Brandon Johnson objecting to a reporter referring to a group of around teenagers that ransacked a convenience store as “a mob”

It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.

– Ibid.

I couldn’t care less about the loss… They didn’t have their eye on the ball. They had their eye on their woke activism.

I think all of the evidence I’ve seen so far, in this case, is that Hunter Biden – he could be a terrible guy, I don’t know, never met him – is being treated worse than anyone else would be. He’s being treated worse the way Donald Trump claims he’s being treated worse. But he actually is because normally this would just be misdemeanor stuff that would be done with. Instead, he’s endlessly investigated because of politics.

- Joy Reid gaslighting on MSNBC

It’s not about race; it’s not about color. A lot of people make a lot of money off of the races fighting against each other and bickering. They’re the ones pushing it in our face all the time, that we’re separate.

- Rapper Ice Cube in an interview with Tucker Carlson

- Megyn Kelly responding to the U.S. Women’s soccer team's shocking early round loss in the Women’s Soccer World Cup

Today, I am pleased to announce that the next steps in our work together will be about further expanding our partnership. In particular, we will discuss the work that we will do together to strengthen our space cooperation. You and I spoke briefly about the beginning of the next era — and, for you, what that means, in terms of your leadership and your vision for the future, and certainly, strengthening our space cooperation would be a part of that agenda — including, of course, using our space cooperation to think about how we strengthen the economic prosperity and development of our nations.

I told you LA was finished.

- Rapper 50 Cent posting on social media accompanying a video of a mob of thugs ransacking an LA Nordstrom and stealing $300,000 worth of merchandise last weekend

They are gonna have to lock the doors, appointment only.

- Ibid.

For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to [Mark Zuckerberg’s] house. If we get lucky and Zuck…actually answers the door, the fight is on!

- Tweet by Elon Musk on Monday, continuing to hype a possible cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg

Mark is traveling right now and isn’t in Palo Alto. Also, Mark takes this sport seriously and isn’t going to fight someone who randomly shows up at his house.

- Statement by Mark Zuckerberg’s representative

My policy is clear: Anyone who defends himself from stone throwers should receive a medal. I expect the police chief Uzi Levy to advance the investigation quickly and conduct a comprehensive investigation also of all the Arab rioters who threw stones and tried to murder Jews.

As I am sure you have heard – the island, Maui, where I own a house I have been staying at since the ‘80s – and the small village, city, most magical place on earth, Lahaina, burned to the ground over the last few days. And to make the situation worse, my young niece, her husband, and their little boy had just arrived for a very needed vacation before she started up her school year (on her way to becoming a psychologist) for 10 days. They had one and a half days of fun and then — the fire started.

- Vice President Kamala Harris during a White House press conference with the Prime Minister of Mongolia

- National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responding to the arrest of Israelis who were apprehended after defending themselves from Arab stone throwers

– Social media post by Singer Stevie Nicks telling the sad saga of her relative’s vacation that was inconvenienced by the terrible fire that killed over 100 people in Hawaii

I think, and forgive me for being blunt, I think Bibi is an Iranian spy.

-Attorney Ofer Bartel, a former candidate for the High Court of Justice, in an interview about judicial reform on Israel’s Channel 12

If there’s anything that harms the country’s security, economy, society, and every other basic thing in the country, it’s the prime minister. The damage done is so much more harmful than if Iranian rockets were falling here. - Ibid.

Folks, it’s not hyperbole to suggest that there is no national treasure — none that is grander than the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon — one of the Earth’s Nine Wonders, Wonders of the World, literally. Think of that. You know, it’s amazing. An enduring symbol of America to the entire world.

- Pres. Joe Biden, during a speech in Arizona, talking about the “Nine Wonders of the World” which is news to all of those who are only aware of the Seven Wonders of the World

To be honest with you, I can’t relate to what [Joe Biden’s] son was doing when he was vice president. When I was vice president, my son was flying an F-35 for the Marine Corps defending this country.

- Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence

A Humanitarian Catastrophe is Unfolding in the Caucasus

By David Ignatius

Accept Azerbaijan’s political control or leave Nagorno-Karabakh. That’s essentially what Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is telling the Armenian population of this remote enclave that lies within Azerbaijan’s borders.

But leaders of the Armenian majority there argue that Aliyev’s tactics amount to genocide – and many residents appear ready to starve rather than submit.

Aliyev was emphatic in an August 2 interview with Euronews: “People who live in Karabakh … they live in Azerbaijan. They should choose whether to live as citizens as [an] ethnic minority … or to leave. So this is their choice.”

In an apparent effort to enforce sovereignty, Azerbaijan has been blockading the road from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, known as the “Lachin Corridor,” since June 15. Without this route, the Armenian population has lost access to food, fuel, medicine, and other essential supplies. The Azerbaijanis say they are ready to ship food from Azerbaijan, but Armenians fear it might be a trap – a first step toward integration by force – and they have blocked the Azerbaijani entry routes with concrete barriers.

Arayik Harutyunyan, the president of “Artsakh,” as Armenians call this region, appealed for international support against what he called a “genocidal policy” in a statement last week: “The blockade of the Lachin Corridor is not an isolated incident. It should be regarded as part of a planned, large-scale and coordinated policy by Azerbaijan aimed at the destruction of the people of Artsakh as a whole.” He requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

State Department officials have been

working with European partners and Russia to try to reopen the Lachin Corridor and end the humanitarian crisis. The plight of residents there has raised growing international concern for the welfare of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 residents. Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, issued a report this week alleging that “there is a reasonable basis to believe that a genocide is being committed.”

U.S. officials believe that Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are managing to survive only because of backyard gardens and other home-produced food. They fear that within two months, as winter approaches, the population could face starvation. Armenians dread a repetition of the Ottoman genocide of 1915, an ever-present historical memory for Armenians around the world.

The blockade of fuel supplies is already having a crippling effect inside

Nagorno-Karabakh. According to an Armenian official, “even ambulance vehicles are not able to operate within Nagorno-Karabakh because there is simply no fuel.”

The humanitarian crisis surrounding the Lachin Corridor is the latest chapter of a decades-old struggle over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Armenia won control in 1994, but skirmishes continued for the next 25 years. Azerbaijan regained power in a 2020 war that left Armenia dazed and defeated. Russia brokered the deal that ended that war and has a nominal peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh. But Moscow’s ability to maintain peace and stability has been severely weakened by the Ukraine conflict.

The Armenian government in Yerevan, headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has said it is ready for a broad peace agreement with Baku. The two sides have held repeated negotiating

sessions, including three in the United States organized by the Biden administration. But this diplomatic process has been ruptured by the Lachin crisis.

An Armenian diplomat told me this week in an email message that her government continues to seek normalization with Baku. But she said Yerevan wants “international guarantees” that a peace deal will be “fully implemented” and “guarantees of rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The Lachin crisis is a distillation of what has been the core issue from the beginning. Nagorno-Karabakh had long been recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan; but the Armenian majority there wants some form of political self-determination, rather than dictation from a hostile government in Baku. There’s abundant food waiting at various border crossings. But Azerbaijan needs to build some trust by ending the Lachin barricade that started this crisis.

When I visited Stepanakert, the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh capital, in April 2016, I saw a monument to the spirit of resistance there that Baku evidently wants to break. On the road to the airport stood an immense stone statue of an old man and woman, seemingly buried in the hillside. The name of the monument was “We Are Our Mountains.”

The message to the world was simple, as I wrote at the time: We aren’t moving. That’s still true. Nagorno-Karabakh may be part of Azerbaijan legally, but it’s going to be populated by ethnic Armenians who need protection of their human rights. It’s time for all parties to accept both sides of that equation.

Putin Chokes on the Ukrainian “Porcupine”

By David Ignatius

As the Ukrainian military grinds forward in a costly summer offensive that hasn’t yet produced a breakthrough, there’s a palpable frustration in Kyiv and in Washington. Maybe it’s a useful moment to recall one of Ukraine’s hidden strengths. Biden administration officials called it the “porcupine strategy.”

Here’s how I paraphrased one White House official’s description of the challenge ahead in January 2022, a month before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale attack: “How can the United States and its allies help Ukraine become a porcupine – a prickly, stubborn nation that would be hard for an invading Russian army to digest?”

Whatever else you might say about the Ukraine war, that strategy has worked. Ukraine has proved utterly indigestible for the Russian military. Putin’s assault on Kyiv in the early months was a disastrous failure. The porcupine pushed the invaders back last year in Kharkiv and Kherson. And now, kilometer by kilometer, Ukraine is slowly advancing in the south and east.

“We adopted a strategy to make it as challenging as possible for Russia” if it invaded, explained Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser. And it worked: Russia didn’t swallow Ukraine, and it probably never will.

Ukraine’s goal has now shifted from blocking the invaders to driving them out. But breaching Russian minefields has been agonizingly difficult – and costly in lives and equipment. Ukraine might yet achieve its goal of cutting the Russian corridor to Crimea this year and putting that prize at risk. But in just three months, October’s mud is likely to stall Ukraine’s advance.

Putin still seems to believe he can ex-

haust Ukraine. Perhaps he imagines that if his battered army holds on, a pliant Donald Trump will return to the White House and give him what he wants. But Putin must contend with what I’d call the “three Ps”: a propaganda battle that he’s losing; a partisan warfare campaign inside territories Russia claims to have annexed; and growing political fragmentation at home.

“‘Waiting us out’ may be a bad bet on their part,” argues one senior administration official. I think he’s right.

On the propaganda front, the fence-sitters of the Global South appear to be leaning toward Ukraine. Representatives of Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey met this past weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to hear Ukrainian officials outline a peace proposal that centers on full withdrawal of Russian forces. A Chinese representative attended the gathering, which Ukraine’s foreign minister called a “breakthrough” and “a historic victory.”

Russia’s response has been denial: Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov

sputtered that the “futile” meeting was “doomed to failure.”

Let’s turn to partisan warfare and Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russia’s attempts to swallow the four regions it “annexed” last year. Social media reports describe a string of guerrilla attacks this year. Take the Zaporizhzhia region that borders the Sea of Azov: Russian officials or collaborators there were hit by two car bombs in January; an IED in February; a car bomb in March; a bomb in April; and two car bombs, a blown railway line and a sniper attack in June.

Partisans in occupied Crimea reportedly blew up a gas pipeline in March and attacked railway lines in May and June and an ammunition dump in July. It’s a dirty war. Fighters are said to have attacked one collaborator while he was in a barber shop in Luhansk; they reportedly poisoned Russian officers who were celebrating Russian Navy Day in Mariupol, killing two and wounding 15.

Russia has cruelly tried to suppress resistance in these regions – transporting children from the occupied areas to Rus-

sia and forcing residents to obtain Russian passports for medical care. These ghastly tactics are reminiscent of Joseph Stalin’s attempts to transfer populations and redraw borders. But the result now for Russia will probably be to create more indigestible lumps of opposition.

Putin might imagine he can turn Ukraine into another “frozen conflict” if he drags the fighting on. But a generation of Ukrainians is learning to hate Russians, and the guerrilla-style combat will continue. Ukraine’s goal “is to put the lie to Russia’s claim of annexation and show how costly this will be,” says the senior U.S. official.

Finally, Putin faces increasing problems at home because of the convulsions created by his misadventure in Ukraine. A brilliant summary of Russia’s growing political disarray was published in Foreign Affairs last week by Tatiana Stanovaya, a well-connected analyst with the Carnegie Russian Center.

“The war has begun to change Russia, and profound internal shifts are likely underway – in Putin’s regime, in the elites’ perception of Putin, and in the public’s attitude toward the war,” she writes.

A fragmenting, demoralized Russia is a devil’s playground. In their disorientation, Russians seek order and victory. According to internal polls cited by Stanovaya, Russians support Putin more strongly than before the war, they’re angrier at the West, and they express strong support for their troops. Russia’s internal disarray poses a severe dilemma for Putin, but it’s very dangerous for the West, too.

The simple fact is that Russia is choking on Ukraine. The porcupine won’t get any easier to swallow, no matter how long the war lasts.

Poland’s President Says America and Poland Must Stop Russian Imperialism

By Marc A. Thiessen

With some on the populist right in the United States agitating against aid to Ukraine, I asked the leader of a populist conservative government in Europe why American conservatives should support Ukraine.

“It is very simple,” Polish President Andrzej Duda told me last week. “Right now, Russian imperialism can be stopped cheaply, because American soldiers are not dying.” But if we don’t put a halt to Russian aggression now, “there will be a very high price to be paid.”

During an hour-long conversation in the Presidential Palace here, Duda noted that Poles have experienced 600 years of Russian efforts to subjugate them and their neighbors. In the 18th century, Russia helped partition Poland, wiping it off the map for 123 years. In 1920, the Bolsheviks attacked “in the hope of spreading communism across the whole of Europe” but were stopped by Polish forces in the Battle of Warsaw. In 1939, the Soviets attacked again alongside Nazi Germany and “Stalin seized half of Poland, bringing it under Soviet occupation” – until Hitler turned on his Soviet allies. Then in 1945, the Red Army retook Poland and “pushed the German occupiers out only to replace them with their own occupation,” resulting in “an additional 44 years behind the Iron Curtain.”

Now, Duda says, we are witnessing a “resurgence of Russian imperialism” –starting with Moscow’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, its 2014 attack on Ukraine, its full-scale invasion last year – and its “repeated threats directed at the Baltic states, Poland and all of Central Europe.” Vladimir Putin and his cronies “are dreaming of power of the czars and the restoration of czarist territory.” We must stop Russia’s advance in Ukraine now “so that it does not come to pass, as

it did in World War I and World War II, that American soldiers have to shed their blood and to lose their lives in Europe to restore peace and liberty to the world.”

When I pointed out that about onethird of House Republicans recently voted to cut off aid to Ukraine, Duda showed no concern. “This is because you have democracy and you are free not to be like-minded,” he told me with a smile. Indeed, Duda is facing an anti-Ukraine revolt of his own. The far-right Confederation coalition – which has promised to “stop the Ukrainization of Poland” – is at 13 percent in the polls, making it the third-most-popular in Poland. If neither Duda’s Law and Justice party nor the centrist opposition secures an outright majority in October’s parliamentary elections, Confederation could become kingmaker in the new Parliament.

In other words, Duda’s bold support for Ukraine is politically courageous. Unfortunately, in the United States, most of the leading Republican presidential candidates are not showing similar courage. Is Duda worried what will happen to Amer-

ican support for Ukraine if Republicans win in 2024?

“No,” he said, “I have no doubt that the United States understands perfectly the threat posed by Russian imperialism.

“And it is my profound belief that the United States also understands how important it is to make sure that democracy does not disappear from Central Europe. Everyone knows that where Russia is, there is no democracy.”

With military support, humanitarian relief and taking in refugees, no nation has done more for Ukraine than Poland. “Just our military assistance to Ukraine alone, we have sent more than $2 billion,” he said. Poland has also accepted more Ukrainian refugees than any other country, and an estimated 77 percent of Poles have been involved in helping these refugees in some way, including donating more than $2 billion out of their own pockets.

Though the vast majority of Poles still welcome Ukrainians, “there is definitely a problem of war fatigue,” Duda said. “There are families in Poland who have had Ukrainian families living in their

homes, sharing the same space, for a year and a half now.”

Despite these challenges, Poles “are helping Ukrainians because they understand the Russian threat,” Duda said. “We know that when the Russians come, they attack women, they kill people, they deport people to the East. … [We] know that the Russians must be stopped.”

Ultimately, he said, this requires Ukraine’s admission into NATO. “I’m among those who hoped Ukraine would be given more than they actually got” at last month’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the Biden administration scuttled efforts by the majority of allies to set a specific timetable for Kyiv’s admission. “Of course,” Duda said, “we cannot accept a new country into NATO while there is still war going on in that country. … But I had hoped that we would be able to get an invitation extended to Ukraine to shut down any question of whether Ukraine will be a member of NATO sometime in the future.” He said he will push the Biden administration to make sure Ukraine gets that invitation at the alliance’s 75th-anniversary summit next year in Washington.

If it doesn’t have NATO’s mutual-defense protections, will Putin ever give up on his quest to conquer Ukraine? “It isn’t a matter of whether Putin or other Russian leaders will stop wanting to rule Ukraine one day. They may want to rule the whole world,” Duda said. “The question is: Will we let them? … I think we mustn’t allow them. We must not tolerate the changing of borders in Europe by force.”

He is right. It would be nice to hear the leading Republican presidential contenders speak with similar moral clarity – and for President Biden to finally back concrete efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO.

Israel’s B-17 Bombers

By Avi Heiligman

Following World War II there was large supply in surplus aircraft in the United States. More than 300,000 planes and aircraft of all types had been produced during the war, and with the downsizing of the Air Corps, a lot of the planes were destined for the scrapyard. One of the few aircraft that served from the beginning to the end of the war was the Boeing B-17 bomber. Over 12,000 of the heavy bombers were built, and after the war some of them were being employed in interesting roles. In 1948, Israel was on the hunt for any aircraft when agents received word that there were four that they could possibly obtain. Their journey to Israel and subsequent combat is a story often overlooked in IAF history.

The B-17 Flying Fortress was first introduced in 1938 and was a workhorse for the Army Air Corps throughout the war. It was a four-engine bomber that had a 2,000-mile range, flew with a crew of ten airmen and could carry up to 8,000 pounds of bombs. During battle, the high-altitude bomber was used extensively against German and Japanese targets that other bombers couldn’t reach. As World War II ended, most of the planes were flown back to the U.S. where they were sold for scrap. Some were used for transportation, search

and rescue, or stayed in the newly formed Air Force until the 1950s.

Four demilitarized B-17s caught the attention of businessman and engineer Al Schwimmer in 1948. He was on a mission to acquire planes and crews for the IAF, and after tracking down these four planes, they were secretly sold to bolster Israel’s fledgling air force. Two of these planes were bought for $30,000 and had belonged to a company based out of Miami that used them as freighters between the United States and Puerto Rico. Together with another two bought from a businessman from Tulsa, the bombers flew to Puerto Rico and then to the Azores.

At the time, the U.S. had an arms embargo on Israel, and Portuguese authorities impounded one of the bombers. Many other countries also had an arms embargo on both Israel and her Arab neighbors, but Czechoslovakia wasn’t one of them as it was openly friendly towards Israel. The three remaining planes then flew to Zatec, Czechoslovakia, where they were fitted for military use. Although the planes were airworthy, they had holes that needed to be fixed, guns and bomb racks to be placed, and proper military gear to be put into the cockpit. In a twist of irony, German-made bomb racks were

used. Once the planes had the weapons placed and the problems fixed, they were given a new paint job and deemed ready for combat.

The pilots of the planes were instructed to fly to their new bases in Israel but to make a bombing run on the way. On June 15, 1948, they took off from Czechoslovakia and were then given the order to bomb targets over Egypt on their way to Tel Nof Airbase. Only one of the bombers had a working oxygen system and an adequate bomb sight, and it was sent to target the king’s palace in Cairo. The other two were sent to bomb an Egyptian air base. While the bombing runs caused minimal damage, they were a morale crusher for the Egyptians who left their airspace wide open with no air defenses. The planes then landed safely at Tel Nof Air Base in Israel.

The three bombers were the backbone of the 69 Squadron, known as the Hammers, throughout the rest of the Israeli War of Independence and flew over 200 sorties. The squadron transferred the bombers to the Ramat David Airbase where they staged for long-range missions. Many of the airmen that flew on the B-17 were Machal volunteers from outside of Israel and had bomber experience in World War II. The commander of the squadron was Ray Kurtz who had

been a B-17 navigator who had flown 31 bomber missions during World War II.

Most of the aircraft utilized by the IAF in 1948 were fighters, transport and reconnaissance, as most of the fighting was within the borders of Israel. The usage of the long-range bombers was to bomb enemy targets as well as to support missions like Operation Yoav in September and Operation Chorev in late December. There were some missions to bomb locations like Damascus in an effort to strike fear in the enemy. After the war, the bombers stayed in the air force until 1958 – they were used on a small scale during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Early Israel Air Force missions were a vital part in the success during the War of Independence. While most of the media attention is placed on the fighters, the story of the B-17 bombers is one that needs to be remembers as well. The Machal volunteers that served on the bombers are Forgotten Heroes whose story is finally coming to light in recent documentaries.

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.

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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

HOUSES FOR SALE

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

HEWLETT

Lovely & Spacious 2 Bedrooms, 2 Updated Baths Unit on First Floor with Wonderful Terrace to Enjoy The Outdoors. Formal Dining Room Leads to Large Living Room, Granite Countertops in Kitchen. Prime Location. Steps Away From LIRR, Parking, Shopping, Restaurants + More! Don’t Miss Out! Must See!!! Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

HEWLETT

Exquisitely renovated and modernized residence situated on a picturesque 50x200 lot. 4 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms. First floor features dining area, huge living room, expansive kitchen with modern cabinetry, two sinks, two ovens, and two islands. Second floor features 4 bedrooms, a nursery, primary suite with WIC. Private backyard with 400 square foot inground pool house/ guest house, cabana with a kitchen and grill, playground, basketball court. Fully paid solar panels. A fully renovated basement featuring a wet bar, separate outside entrance. Close to all houses of worship. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

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

HOUSES FOR SALE HOUSES FOR SALE

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

Beautiful, brick, colonial boasting 5 bdr 3.5 Bth in pristine condition. Excellent location, near all! Move right in! RCUSA 516-512-9626

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. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

BY OWNER

CEDARHURST HOUSE FOR SALE

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

HOUSES FOR SALE HOUSES FOR SALE

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

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

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

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

CEDARHURST

Open house on Sunday 12 - 2 !! Completely renovated 5 bdrs, 3.5 bath in the heart of Cedarhurst. High end kitchen, radiant heated floor, fire place, low taxes and much more. Just turn the key and move. 322 Madison Avenue for private showings call Alexandra at Realty connect usa at 516-784-0856

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

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

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 516298-8457 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

LAWRENCE

3BR, 2bth, LR, DR, Kitchen, Family Rm, Office, Attached Utility Shed

• Huge backyard, 9600 sq ft lot

• 5-cars parking • Walk to all!

• Priced to sell! . . $1.69M Interested or know someone who might be? Reach out for more info! Steve 516-371-5522, please leave message.

HOUSES FOR SALE

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

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

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

Introducing a desirable colonial located in the heart of Old Woodmere, situated on an oversized lot. This charming home boasts 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths, along with a full finished basement. The first floor features a formal living room, dining room, kitchen with a breakfast room, and a spacious den. It is conveniently located in School District #14. Don’t miss out on this must-see property! Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

HOUSES FOR SALE

CEDARHURST

Move Right into This Very Spacious & Renovated 6 Bedroom, 3 Full Bath, Colonial on a Lovely Quiet Street. 5 Very Large Bedrooms All on 2nd Floor. Beautiful Den W/Fireplace & Playroom; Both on 1st Floor. Gorgeous Hardwood & Granite Floors, New Wood & Granite Kitchen With Stainless Steel Appliances. Great Backyard For Entertaining! Very Low Taxes. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE

1st Showing

Introducing a stunning 14-side hall colonial home in the Hewlett Woodmere School District. Formal living room, formal dining room, den with a skylight. Eat in Kitchen, two sinks, a double oven, a warming draw and a microwave. First floor bedroom, a full bathroom and laundry room. Two-car garage. Upper level has four bedrooms, two full bathrooms. Finished basement with playroom, storage and utilities. Well-groomed exterior with porch adjoining the master bedroom. Hardwood floors and back patio. Central air conditioning, inground sprinkler system, alarm system. Close proximity to schools, shopping centers, restaurants, and transportation options. OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY, AUGUST 20 • 11:30-1:00PM

1016 SOUTH END • Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

CEDARHURST NEW TO THE MARKET!!!

Completely redone 5 BDRS, 3.5 BATH in the heart of Cedarhurst Open House Sunday, August 20 from 11:30 TO 1:30!!! 322 Madison Avenue, Eat in kitchen with high end appliances, radiant heated floor, formal dining room with fire place, master bedroom with walk in closet, finished basement with two additional rooms and outside enterance. Plus much more! Prime location, Walk to all For private showings CALL

Classifieds

HOUSE FOR RENT APT./COOP/CONDO SALE

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

SHORT TERM RENTAL WOODMERE

Prime location.short terms. 2 bd apartment (hotel style) furnished, fridge, micro coffee stand. $150 a night. Pls call/text 917-600-1983

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

FAR ROCKAWAY

Beautiful 2 nd floor Condo on Reads Lane, in Far Rockaway Center hall, 1 bedroom, full den, 2 full baths, washer dryer room, total open floor plan of the living room, dining room and kitchen. Floor to ceiling windows. Deck off the kitchen. Phenomenal location, with beautiful view. Asking $599,000. Please email all inquiries to: Shira@bestdevco.com for more details

WOODMERE

Exquisite and expansive 1 Bedroom co-op in Heathcote. Recently renovated. Large foyer, vast Eat-InKitchen. Classic pre-war building with elevator. Private storage room. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the perfect combination of space, style, and convenience in the most desirable location. Mark Lipner

Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

APT./COOP/CONDO SALE 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

LAWRENCE

1 bedroom apartment, elevator building, eat-in kitchen, full bath, hardwood floors, plenty of closet space. Ceiling fan in bedroom & kitchen, laundry room in the basement. Close to the railroad, shopping, and houses of worship $179k Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

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

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

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

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

SALE

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

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

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

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

RAMAT BEIT SHEMESH G1

*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

HELP WANTED

NONPROFIT

Seeks highly organized administrator for managerial staff. Job includes maintaining spreadsheets, compiling data and assisting with grantrelated processes. Email resumes to RybsteinR@ou.org

CAREER OPPORTUNITY

Home-visiting Social Worker/Case Worker position in Brooklyn, NY working with Holocaust survivors. Caseload involves case-management and supportive counseling. Hours 9-5 with flexibility. Car required. Friendly environment. Please email resume and cover letter to ababich@bicco.org

HELP WANTED HELP WANTED HELP WANTED HELP WANTED

BOOKKEEPER

Excellent growth potential, Frum environment, Excellent salary & benefits. Email resume to: resumetfs1@gmail.com

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

BAIS YAAKOV

in Far Rockaway seeking experienced first grade limudei kodesh teacher for the coming school year. E-mail resume and references to teachingpositions1@gmail.com

SEEKING ELA TEACHER

Teaching position for Gr. 6. Mon.-Thurs., afternoon hours. Far Rockaway/5T area. Great salary, warm, supportive environment. Training in our curriculum is provided. Teachersearch11@gmail.com

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

IMMEDIATE OPENING

ELA teaching position for Gr. 5. Mon.-Thurs., afternoon hours. Far Rockaway/5T area. Competitive salary, warm supportive environment. Teachersearch11@gmail.com

SEEKING 6TH GRADE SOCIAL

Studies/science teacher. Positive and professional work environment. E-mail tackerman@tagschools.org

SHEVACH HIGH SCHOOL, the Bais Yaakov High School of Queens, seeks a dynamic, warm, and experienced Limudei Kodesh teacher for Chumash and additional subjects. Full morning hours, Monday through Friday. Please send resume to rwittenstein@shevachhs.org.

YESHIVA OF SOUTH SHORE

Seeking the following positions: Assistant teachers

Learning Center Teacher for ELA and Math, MS Science Teacher

Please send resume to: monika@yoss.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

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

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

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.

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

ESHET CHAYIL BOUTIQUE

Is looking to hire a full time sales lady!  504 Central Ave, Cedarhurst, NY. 10am-6pm Sundays-Thursdays Please call: 516-612-2797

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

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Local school looking to hire a capable administrative assistant.  Job responsibilities include data entry, database management, assisting the administrator in his daily tasks.   Candidates must be detail-oriented, organized, and have the ability to multi-task.  Prefer full-time but would consider part-time for the right individual. Proficiency in Microsoft Office required. Enjoyable working environment, personal, sick, vacation days offered, Yom Tovim and certain legal holidays off. Salary commensurate with experience. Please email resume to admin@ shoryoshuv.org

EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER HEAD & 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

GROWING YESHIVA IN QUEENS

SEEKING: 1st Grade Boys General Studies Teacher, Pre1A Girls Morah for Limudei Kodesh, Pre1A Girls General Studies Teacher, Preschool Assistants Secretary Positions part/full time Great pay-on time! Please email resume and references to staffing@ ybtschools.org

MISC.

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!

Sports fans love when new stars join their teams. Sometimes it’s a promising rookie called up to the majors, like Elly de la Cruz lighting a fire under the moribund Cincinnati Reds. Sometimes it’s a mid-career trade, like Justin Verlander taking the Houston Astros to the World Series. And sometimes it’s a grizzled veteran pining for one last shot at glory, like Tom Brady leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to one final Super Bowl win. (Can Aaron Rodgers do the same for the lowly Jets? Stay tuned!)

Rarely, though, does a single move have the potential to upend a league and change an entire sport. Jorge Mas, owner of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami club, hopes signing Argentinian forward Lionel Messi can score that goal. The Miami deal should raise the -36yearold Messi’s career earnings to over 1.6$ billion, which, yeah, obviously. But Mas also convinced Messi that playing here as opposed to accepting offers in Barcelona or Saudi Arabia—gives him a legacy-defining chance to score an even bigger goal. Can his brand of magic finally make elevate American soccer to the same level as football, baseball, basketball, and hockey?

Messi is off to a great start, winning his first game with a last-second free kick goal. But it turns out that while he loves

Your Money Goal!

By Allan Rolnick, CPA

scoring, he doesn’t love paying his taxes.

In 2013, Spanish authorities accused Messi of using companies in Belize, Uruguay, and Switzerland to evade €4.1 million in tax on endorsement earnings. Messi, an Argentinean who at that time played professionally for Barcelona, said he wasn’t involved in the details. (Like a player faking injury for a ref, he said,

suspended under Spanish law) and fined the pair another €3.1 million.

Not to be outdone, Messi’s arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese forward who played professionally for Real Madrid, announced later that he would pay Spain 18.7 € million to settle tax charges centered on his endorsements. That meant fans who debated over who’s

bribes, keeping two apartments at New York’s pricey Trump Tower: an $18,000/ month three-bedroom for himself and a $6,000/month one-bedroom next door for his cats. (Must have been quite the cats, right?!?)

IRS Criminal Investigation head Richard Weber couldn’t resist some obvious puns after the eventual arrests, announcing “This is the World Cup of fraud, and today we are issuing FIFA a red card,” he said. But really, the jokes just write themselves. How about “Corrupt soccer officials couldn’t keep hands off the cash”? Maybe “Prosecutors score GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL against corruption”?

“I just played football,” and claimed he signed whatever documents his father dropped in front of him.) Nevertheless, he made a €5.3 million “corrective payment” equal to the tax plus interest to settle the charges.

But prosecutors insisted on penalty kicks, and in 2016, a court found Messi and his father guilty on three counts of fraud. (Clearly not Messi-ing around, right?) The court imposed a 21-month prison sentence (which was automatically

the better player could start bickering over who’s the better tax evader.

Players haven’t been the only footballers to get yellow-carded for tax offenses. In 2011, IRS investigators used tax charges to “flip” Chuck Blazer, a member of soccer’s international governing body, into wearing a wire to help indict 14 other officials on charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. Blazer, a 450-pound Lincoln Navigator of a man, lived large on his share of those

Soccer is having a moment here in the States. The Messi deal can’t help but bring more enthusiasm and excitement to the sport. The fans at the IRS will love taking a run at the inevitable millions in endorsements and merchandise. Just remember as you sit down to watch that we’re here to help you score your particular financial goals, too!

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.

That meant fans who debated over who’s the better player could start bickering over who’s the better tax evader.

Don’t Be a Crystal Ball

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

Is it possible to appreciate what we’ve got while we’ve got it?

Do we need those epiphany moments, when we think that it may be taken away from us, to wake us up?!

I’m not berating us for taking things for granted. Certainly, we should work, consciously, not to. Yet, sometimes we just do. And it’s not good that we do! It’s not great that we do! It is a fantastic goal to try not to. Yet, we often are people who process our gifts as givens.

We wake up and breathe every morning. That’s awesome! Such a miracle! Do we stop and just celebrate that? Do we?!

Yet, I’m focusing on something even more self-defeating. Something that we often get stuck in, that may be even more detrimental – worrying! Doting on what may go wrong and thus getting into double trouble, because simultaneously we overlook what’s going right.

We fill our heads with what-ifs, or “it seems inevitable,” or “there’s just no hope.”

How does one know?

Are we fortune tellers?

Should we trust ourselves?

We, who do not even take the time to

recognize the daily absolutes, i.e., that we can walk, that we can talk, that we can use our fingers, etc. We, the people who focus so hard on the possible negative outcomes or even get stuck thinking it’s a probable outcome, so much so that we actually miss the realities of the present…

Lately, I’m around so many worriers that I’ve begun to rebel!

I’m not hopping on their bandwagon. I’ve decided to go rogue.

I’m not going to join them in the future thinking.

I’ve decided to stay right here in the here and now, since worrisome things may possibly not occur as much as they may possibly occur and it’s just not worth exhausting my energy.

If I can do something positive that’s proactive? I’m in! But, otherwise I’m refusing to ruminate as if I’ve got a crystal ball on hand.

So how about joining me in my rebellion?

Let’s defeat worry by pulling ourselves forward one positive focus at a time.

One foot forward at a time turns into a giant feat towards the future.

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 917-7052004 or at rivkirosenwald@gmail.com.