Five Towns Jewish Home - 2-17-22

February 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

Dear Readers,

A

few months ago, I read about a woman who set out to write 100 thank you cards. She was looking through old photos of herself with friends and set out to thank her friends and acquaintances for all the good times that they shared. And she was going to thank them by putting pen to paper and writing the thank you notes by hand.

When I read that, my hand started hurting. One-hundred handwritten thank you cards sounded like a lot of ink and certainly a lot of stamps. At a time when most people are jabbing into their phones or typing onto keyboards at work, handwritten cards are a lost art.

But they shouldn’t be.

Think about it. Because we are so unaccustomed to ink-smudged thank you notes, they mean so much more to us. And if they are that much more valuable, then we should certainly utilize them more to express our appreciation for those who do so much for us.

When was the last time you wrote someone a card to express your appreciation for something that they did or do for you? I’m not talking about thank you cards for bar mitzvah or wedding gifts (although those are most certain-

ly important). I’m talking about writing a card “just because” in appreciation for the those who are the constants in your life – your spouse, your children, your employees, your parents, your teachers – even your doctors or housekeepers. A handwritten note with just a short line of gratitude makes that person feel so cherished and appreciated.

An acquaintance of mine recently told me that they sent out a few thank you notes for something that they were involved with. They were overwhelmed with gratitude towards those who helped them along the way and felt that dropping a note in the mail was a just small gesture towards showing their appreciation for those who came through for them. A friend of mine was on the receiving end of one of those notes. She was so emotional that the person took the time to write to her and acknowledge her involvement.

Penning a note of gratitude takes just a few moments. But between the few lines that you put onto the paper, you are conveying that this person is worthy of your time – and a stamp, too!

Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

Contents Letters to the Editor

8

COMMUNITY Readers’ Poll Community Happenings

8 42

NEWS

132

Global

12

National

28

That’s Odd

40

ISRAEL Israel News

22

Testing Positive by Rafi Sackville

90

JEWISH THOUGHT Rabbi Wein on the Parsha

78

Raising Holy Tablet Breakers by Rav Moshe Weinberger

82

The “Final” Stage of the Challenge by Rabbi Shmuel Reichman

84

Delving into the Daf by Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

88

PEOPLE FDR’s Jewish Problem – And Its Japanese Link by Rafael Medoff

92

A Bridge Between Two Worlds: Yisroel Katzover

94

The Old Guard by Avi Heiligman

124

HEALTH & FITNESS Living Life by Dr. Deb Hirschhorn

106

Healthy Heart Month by Cindy Weinberger, MS RD CDN

108

FOOD & LEISURE The Aussie Gourmet: Vietnamese Spring Rolls

114

LIFESTYLES Dating Dialogue, Moderated by

124

Jennifer Mann, LCSW

100

Parenting Pearls

110

JWOW!

112

Juggling with Joy Your Money

Dear Editor, I was out of white shirts and having difficulty in finding new ones. After sharing my problem with many, someone recommended Charles Tyrwhitt shirts. I went online and saw their deal – “3 Shirts for $99.” I showed up to the store, and they provided me with exactly what I needed. They were “experts” in this area, measuring me, giving me a sample shirt to try on and pointing directly to the spot where I could find the shirts.

The night before I went to pick up the shirts, I happened to watch a Bill O’Reilly segment where he said that anyone in America can make it if they have a skill. The Charles Tyrwhitt experience and Bill O’Reilly’s soundbite proffered a strong message: specialize and be a master of one thing and you will succeed.

I think the building of the Mishkan carries the same message, but on a spiritual plane: dedicate your finest skill to G-d. In this way, one is offering his “best fruits” to the Divine.

Steven Genack Dear Editor, We are always looking for more time. And we always feel as if there’s not enough time in our day.

Well, has anyone considered that we actually have a lot more time this year? A full month, in fact.

With a double Adar, we have a lot more time to prepare for the upcoming months and yomim tovim.

Don’t waste this time! Take some of it to relax. And use some of it to prepare for the months ahead. You can buy mishloach manos items now and order items that you need.

You can start tidying up and cleaning up your house as well for Pesach (I can’t believe I said that word!).

Utilize your time now so you won’t feel pressured as Purim and Pesach roll around.

B’hatzlacha!

Sharon B. Kohn Dear Editor, Our community is one that knows how to uplift the most mundane of events. Take, for example, the Super Bowl. I don’t have any problem with watching the Super Bowl – yes, it’s large men falling over each to catch a ball and then running to a goal post a few yards away – but it’s (generally) OK to watch what is going on on the field.

But I do have a big problem with businesses promoting watching the Super Bowl as a “thing.” You see, this “thing” takes what could be a family pastime and debases it with a “show” smack in the middle that is certainly not family-oriented, to say the least. The performers have songs that are rife with curse words Continued on page 10

46 132

Some New Instructions by Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS 134

HUMOR Centerfold

76

POLITICAL CROSSFIRE Notable Quotes

116

Hail to the Commies by Marc A. Thiessen

122

Political Infighting Could Complicate War with Russia

by David Ignatius

121

Does Putin Want a Diplomatic Solution in Ukraine?

by David Ignatius

120

CLASSIFIEDS

126

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Continued from page 8

and bad messaging. The costumes they wear are tasteless and tactless.

Is this what we want our children watching? Are these the role models and the performances that we want to uphold?

Kudos to all the organizations who have turned the Super Bowl into a “Kosher Halftime Show” with the speeches and Jewish performances that they offer. But still, let’s stop the messaging that Super Bowl is a “thing” for people to watch. Want to watch the action in

your basement with your family?

Great. But don’t make it the event of the year.

L. Kleiner Dear Editor, This is about this week’s Teen Talk article.

I am a tenth grader in a local school, and I wanted to tell you that I really appreciated Mrs. Isbee’s insights into friendships and how to be a friend.

Although I have many friends, I liked that she was able to pinpoint that being a good friend is about

Make your voice heard!

“giving and positivity.” I am going to keep that in mind as I navigate high school. I think that if I keep that in mind, I will be able to be a better friend and be able to look out for the right people to be friends with.

Sincerely, A Tenth Grader Dear Editor, Shammai Siskind’s portrayal of global dynamics and how China and Russia are moving the chess pieces worldwide was a wonderful read.

I would appreciate more articles on this topic and on other, related topics in The Jewish Home.

Sincerely, Benjamin Plotzker Dear Editor, I love reading your magazine every week. I find it a great read.

But I am puzzled why the cartoons in your quotes page are always so one-sided. Perhaps you can get other cartoonists who can give less of a right-wing slant.

Dalia Thaler

Be part of TJH’s weekly poll.

Views expressed on the Letters to the Editor page do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jewish Home.

Email the editor to be included in the weekly poll at: Editor@FiveTownsJewishHome.com

Please send all correspondence to: editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

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The Week In News

Canada’s Emergencies Act

on crowd-funding sites and payment providers, requiring them to register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada and report any large suspicious donations. Some sites have raised millions of dollars.

“We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy,” she said.

A World Without Democracy?

On Monday, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will be invoking the Emergencies Act to address the impact of continued protests across the country over Covid-19 health measures.

Although the Emergencies Act can involve the use of the military, for now Trudeau said that he will not be bringing forces in. Instead, the government will use the act to suspend people’s rights to free movement or assembly – an attempt to deal with the Freedom Convoy that had blocked commerce in Ottawa’s downtown and at the U.S. border for a week.

“This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people’s jobs, and restoring faith in our institutions,” Trudeau said during a news conference.

He added, “We are not preventing people from exercising their right to protest legally,” he added.

Ambassador Bridge – North America’s busiest land border crossing – reopened on Sunday. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has announced plans to loosen pandemic restrictions.

The government is using the Emergencies Act also to go after those who financially support illegal protests, Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said at the news conference. Financial institutions are being given the power to suspend or freeze personal or corporate accounts they believe are being used to fund illegal protests. She warned truck owners, for example, that if the vehicle is being used in a blockade, the corporate account can be frozen.

The government is taking action

Just 21 of the 167 territories surveyed in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index 2021 were found to be full democracies.

The 21 represent just 6.4% of the world’s population. Another 53 territories were classed as “flawed democracies.”

According to the EIU, the percentage of the world’s population living in any sort of democracy fell from 49.4% in 2020 to 45.7% in 2021.

The top ten most democratic countries in the world are, in order: Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Ireland, Taiwan, Australia, and Switzerland. The United Kingdom was ranked number 18. The United States, which received a “flawed democracy” classification, was placed in the 26th spot on the list.

The least democratic countries, from worst to slightly better, are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, Laos, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, and Hong Kong.

The EIU noted that the results continued to reflect the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Citing measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, the report said that the pandemic had “resulted in an unprecedented withdrawal of civil liberties among developed democracies and authoritarian regimes alike.”

“It has led to the normalization of emergency powers, which have tended to stay on the statute books, and accustomed citizens to a huge extension of state power over large areas of

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

public and personal life,” the report added. “The creeping authoritarianism that has accompanied the pandemic raises questions about whether, in what circumstances, and for how long governments and citizens are prepared to undermine democratic rights in the cause of public health.”

Fishing Trawler Sinks

At least four people died and 15 people are missing off Canada’s east coast after a Spanish fishing trawler sank on Monday.

Rescuers saved three crew members and are continuing to search the area off Newfoundland on Canada’s Atlantic coast where the ship sank The Spanish fishing vessel, named the Villa del Pitanxo, had a crew of 24, including 12 Spaniards, two Gha-

naians, and several Peruvians.

Maica Larriba, the central government representative in Pontevedra in the northwestern region of Galicia where the owners of the trawler are based, told public radio that rescuers had sighted four of the vessel’s life rafts. They had been able to get to three and were still trying to reach the fourth.

“We have been informed that… bodies have been found,” she added.

“Two were completely empty and in one of them were just three survivors in a state of hypothermic shock because the temperature of the water is terrible, very low,” she said.

The Nores Group has fishing vessels operating in the South Atlantic, off the Canadian coast, and between Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau. The company, founded in 1950, has eight freezer trawlers and some 300 employees, according to its website.

U.S.: Iran is “Weeks” Away from Breakout The United States believes Iran may have enough fissile material to

construct a nuclear weapon within weeks if it wants to, U.S. lawmakers were told recently in a closed-door briefing.

Politico cited a House Democrat as saying that U.S. negotiator Rob Malley and National Security Council envoy Brett McGurk told the lawmakers that Iran could break out to a nuclear bomb within “weeks.”

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy described the briefing as “sobering and shocking,” writing in a Time magazine op-ed, “If Iran chose to seek a nuclear weapon today, they likely only need 60 days to develop the fuel to do so.

“That is a scary reality for our friends in the Middle East, especially Israel.”

Speaking to MSNBC News on Thursday, Michèle Flournoy, who was undersecretary of defense in the Obama administration, said,

“Breakout time is down to a matter of weeks, which is truly alarming.”

She emphasized, “We are in a really dangerous situation.”

Meanwhile, officials in the Vienna talks to renew the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have indicated that the talks are drawing to a close, and that within the next few weeks, talks will either fall apart completely or a deal will be reached.

Iran expert Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group told reporter Laura Rozen, “By next week, we should know if there will be a deal or not. Either breakdown or breakthrough.”

Also on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a trip to Israel that the talks with Iran had reached a “very critical point” and were entering the “final phase.”

China: House Arrest for Human Rights Activist Human rights activist Hu Jia is under house arrest in Beijing, China.

Hu told CNN that he has been un-

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

der house arrest since January 15.

“They said Winter Olympics is a very important political event and no ‘disharmonious voice’ will be allowed – like any criticism of the Winter Olympics, or any talk related to human rights,” Hu said.

“In China, people like me are called ‘domestic hostile forces’... that’s why they have to cut me off from the outside world.”

According to Hu, the only exception to his house arrest has been to care for his ailing mother, and he is under 24-hour surveillance. Hu added that he was told to relocate to Guangdong during the Olympic period but an outbreak of Covid-19 prevented him from going.

Hu’s house arrest began after he posted on Twitter about an increase of restrictions and controls on activists in the leadup to the Beijing Olympic Games and used a Winter

Olympics hashtag while noting instances of missing or jailed dissidents. He added that, since then, he has been visited multiple times by security agents. The house arrest is expected to last through next month.

In a recorded video diary he is documenting for CNN, Hu said, “It’s so much better than my friends who are suffering in jail and prison. We are like [the difference between] heaven and hell, so I have nothing to complain about.”

In another entry, he said, “There is some level of stress, for sure, my mental health, and so on. After all, you always want to be able to walk out of your home freely and stand under the bright sky.”

Turning to the world, Hu said, “This might be the only Olympics in history that has drawn so much attention to its host country’s human rights issues. This is a really good opportunity to explore and discover China’s human rights issues, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese...and also citizens, human rights activists, and dissidents like us who are in mainland China now.”

He added, “I hope the world will see this clearly and pay more atten-

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tion to human rights issues...not just during the Winter Olympics...but also keep watching democracy, human rights, and the future of China.”

Iraqi Court Suspends “West-Friendly” Candidate

Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd and Iraq’s longest-serving foreign minister, has had his candidacy for president suspended by Iraq’s federal court.

The suspension was supposedly due to past corruption charges. The election has been indefinitely postponed.

The results of October’s parliamentary vote were only confirmed in December. The country’s new president, when he is chosen, will need to ask the winning bloc to form a government.

Zebari, 68, was accused of corruption and mishandling of public funds in 2016, while serving as finance minister. He has denied the allegations.

Police in NZ Use Songs Against Protesters

Attempts to clear hundreds of anti-vaccine protesters in New Zealand have sparked criticism from police officers for the unorthodox methods officials have been using to disperse the crowds.

The protesters have been camped on Parliament’s lawn for a week. Attempts to move them have included dousing them with sprinklers and

blasting Barry Manilow songs.

Wellington police chief Superintendent Corrie Parnell acknowledged, “It certainly wouldn’t be tactics or methodologies that we would endorse, and it’s something we would have preferred did not occur. But it did occur, so we have to deal with what we’ve got in front of us.”

Parnell also urged those who arrived to move vehicles which were blocking the roads.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told TV3 that although the demonstration began in protest of vaccine mandates, “what we’ve seen out there seems to be much more anti-vaccination than anything else.

“It’s included yelling abuse at people who are walking around with masks on... There are signs calling for the execution of politicians... We’ve seen some horrific behavior down there,” she added.

From Taliban Sniper to Mayor

Damullah Mohibullah Mowaffaq is now the mayor of the town of Maymana in Afghanistan, but he is new to politics. Just a few months ago, Mowaffaq was sitting behind the scope of a rifle, working as one of the top snipers for the Taliban.

Mowaffaq took his mayoral post in November.

“When I was fighting, my objectives were very specific: to end the foreign occupation, discrimination and injustice,” the 25-year-old told AFP. “Now my goals are also clear: to fight corruption and make the country prosper.”

The town of Maymana has around 100,000 residents.

“The new mayor is young, well-educated and, very importantly, from the city,” says his non-Taliban deputy, Sayed Ahmad Shah Gheyasi. “He knows how to deal with people.”

Mowaffaq comes from a family of wealthy traders and grew up in Maymana, where he excelled at school and in sport. After joining the insurgency

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

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Ambassador Bridge Reopens Ambassador Bridge, the busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing, reopened late Sunday evening after po-

lice cleared it of protesters.

The bridge, which carries 25% of all trade between the U.S. and Canada, had been closed by truckers for nearly a week due to protests against Covid-19 restrictions in Canada.

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at 19, he was promoted to command a small unit deployed in Faryab province. It is possible that he killed one of the U.S.’s special forces in 2019 when Mowaffaq was a sniper in Maymana.

mies once again.”

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens thanked authorities “for their determined, yet compassionate” efforts to end the standoff.

Canadian police have emphasized that authorities used a “progressive approach by ensuring open lines of communication and continuous negotiations” with the protesters.

Canada’s Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne tweeted, “Glad to see the Windsor Police & its policing partners com-

On Monday, a few protesters returned to the bridge but heavy police presence is limiting access to the bridge. Intersections near the main road to the bridge are essentially all cut off by police cruisers.

According to Windsor Police, there have been 42 arrests and 37 seized vehicles since the protest began. The large majority of persons arrested have since been released with a future court date and are facing a charge of mischief, police said. Some are also facing a charge of disobeying a court order.

The Freedom Convoy originally began last month in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, but since then moved to the international border, gaining the attention of politicians internationally and the support of fellow vaccine and mask skeptics. Demonstrations at the border were largely nonviolent, with protesters singing, dancing, and waving flags.

The closure of the bridge had an almost immediate impact, as an estimated 10,000 commercial vehicles cross the bridge each day with $325 million worth of goods, according to the Michigan Department of Treasury.

Honduras Ex-Pres. To Be Extradited

Juan Orlando Hernandez, former president of Honduras, is being accused by Washington of ties with drug traffickers. This week, he said that he would cooperate with domestic jus-

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tice in a U.S. bid to extradite him.

Special forces agents encircled Hernandez’s home in the capital Tegucigalpa on Monday after an official confirmed that Washington had asked for him to be extradited.

Hermes Ramirez, Hernandez’s lawyer, said the police deployment constituted an “attack” on the ex-president’s rights as it had prevented advisers from coming to the residence.

Dozens of people with banners celebrated outside Hernandez’s home, while in other cities people took to the streets with loudspeakers singing, “Juancho goes to New York,” using a nickname for the ex-president.

Hernandez, a former U.S. ally who left office last month, officially supported U.S. anti-drug campaigns during his two terms in office. But traffickers caught in the United States claimed to have paid bribes to the president’s inner circle.

Alleged associate Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez was sentenced in the United States last week to life in prison and a fine of $151.7 million for smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States – with Hernandez’s aid, according to prosecutors.

And in March 2021, Hernandez’s brother, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez, was given life in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “according to multiple, credible media reports,” Hernandez “has engaged in significant corruption by committing or facilitating acts of corruption and narco-trafficking and using the proceeds of illicit activity to facilitate political campaigns.”

Hernandez denies the claims, which he said were part of a revenge plot by drug lords that his government had captured or extradited to the United States.

Hernandez’s lawyer says that the former president has immunity from prosecution as a member of the Guatemala-based Central American Parliament, Parlacen. Hernandez joined Parlacen hours after leaving office on January 27, when leftist Xiomara Castro was sworn in with vows to transform the “bankrupt” state he left behind.

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Hats Off for Peru’s Pres.

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has ditched his white cowboy hat

in what is being seen as a bid to raise his popularity.

Castillo had appeared in public for three days straight this week without his hat.

According to reports, Castillo asked advice from leadership and self-improvement coach Saul Alanya after his disapproval rating hit 60%.

Political analyst Augusto Alvarez Rodrich noted, “I suspect that the image ‘coach’ advised him that he had to change and should start with the hat. The problem is that he has taken off the hat but not the ideas that were beneath it.”

Castillo and his associates are being investigated in three separate graft cases. Castillo survived an attempt at impeachment in December.

His hat was a prominent feature in his campaigns, and he was said to only remove it when entering church.

Castillo himself says he is a victim of a campaign by his political opponents and some media actors, who are trying to force him from power.

Bennett Visits Bahrain

This week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the prime minister, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, during his landmark trip to the tiny Gulf state — the first by an Israeli premier.

Arriving at the crown prince’s office in Manama, the Israeli leader was welcomed by a military band playing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

“All responsible nations must make an effort to achieve peace,” the crown prince said, according to a statement from Bennett’s office. “Not that there has ever been a war between us, but relations between our countries have not been sound.”

Bennett thanked Al Khalifa for the “warm and generous welcome.”

“I see a very big opportunity here,” the Israeli leader said. “This is the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister to Bahrain. I come from Israel with a spirit of goodwill, cooperation, of standing together in the face of common challenges, and I think our goal in this visit is to turn this peace from a peace between governments to a peace between people, and convert it from something ceremonial to something meaningful.”

Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in late 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords. Bennett visited an other Gulf state in the Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates, in December.

The premier also met with Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani; Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani; and Transportation and Telecommunications Min-

ister Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed.

Bennett later spoke to Bahraini university students and presented his plan to bolster relations between the two countries. He also fielded questions from the audience.

“The fault lines [in the Middle East] used to be between Arabs and Israelis. But now, the fault lines are between agents of terror and chaos and people of hope,” he said.

“You see, the future of Israel’s relations with the Middle East — they don’t just depend on declarations.

They rely on real connections. Between people,” the premier added, urging the students to visit Israel.

“The Middle East is changing, and I am convinced that Israel’s growing friendships with Bahrain and other countries in the region are a leading force in the profound change.”

Bennett also met with members of the Bahraini Jewish community while he was in the country.

Collaborating with Sudan Intelligence sharing between Sudan and Israel has helped arrest

suspected terrorists in Sudan, a top general in that country said.

Israel and Sudan normalized ties in late 2020, as part of a series of agreements between Israel and four Arab countries.

According to Sudan’s Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council, the intelligence sharing has enabled Sudan to dismantle and arrest groups in Sudan which “could have undermined the security of Sudan and the region.”

Speaking with Sudan’s state-run TV, Burhan said the ties between his country and Israel are legitimate and are not political in nature.

In recent weeks, Sudanese and Israeli officials have exchanged unannounced visits. The latest of these visits was that of a Sudanese security delegation to Tel Aviv last week.

Arab Killed in Home Demolition

A Palestinian Authority (PA) Arab teen was killed on Sunday night in a gunfight with IDF soldiers, as the soldiers attempted to demolish a terrorist’s home, Israeli media reported.

The incident, which occurred near Jenin, left 17-year-old Mohammad Akram Ali Taher Abu Salah dead after he was shot in the head by a soldier, the PA’s health department said. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, four PA Arabs were wounded in the gunfight.

In a statement put out by Palestine Today, the Al-Quds Brigades said, “The Jenin Battalion executed several shooting attacks tonight targeting the occupation army and causing injuries among its ranks.”

According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, “IDF and Border Police forces entered the Palestinian Arab village of Silat al-Harithiya in order to demolish the floor of the building in which terrorist Mahmoud Jaradat, one of the terrorists in the squad which murdered Yehuda Dimentman, resided.

“Violent riots developed in several places in the vicinity, with the participation of hundreds of rioters who threw rocks and firebombs. IDF fighters used riot dispersal means and also fired at gunmen who were identified in the area.”

One Israeli soldier sustained moderate injuries during the operation.

Hamas Terror Cell in the Philippines

The intelligence unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday announced that it has uncovered a Hamas terror cell attempting to enlist Filipinos to carry out terror activities against both Westerners and Middle Easterners.

Police Brig. Gen. Neil Alinsangan, PNP Intelligence Group director, said that the conspiracy was uncovered from information disclosed by a local contact of Hamas and that the plots were meant to “establish a foothold” in the country by inciting violence targeting Israelis in the country.

Alinsangan explained, “Our Filipino source identified the Hamas operative as ‘Bashir’ who was reportedly attempting to establish a foothold in the Philippines with pledges of financial support to some local threat groups including militant extremists with links to the international terrorist organizations.

“This is a stern warning to all terroristic groups who plan to conduct recruitment and similar activities in the country: we have a way to know you and you cannot do your plans here.”

The PNP intelligence report also noted that the source made several trips to Malaysia between 2016-2018, meeting with “Bashir,” who has been identified as Fares Al Shikli, to discuss

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

carrying out attacks against Israelis in exchange for money from Hamas.

Shikli is reportedly the head of Hamas’ foreign liaison unit within Hamas. He is wanted by Interpol on terrorism charges.

Arutz Sheva quoted Shai Glick, CEO of Btsalmo, as saying, “Terror is raising its head. The countries in the world have an obligation to act with an iron hand against terror, without compromise. Anyone who gives in to terror in one place, it will raise its head immediately in another place. The battle against terror is a global battle, and we must act as one against it.”

Tel Aviv Office Prices Soar

A rise in demand for office space in Tel Aviv has created a shortage and exponentially-rising prices for the property spaces, the Times of Israel reported.

In a LinkedIn post, international real estate advisory firm Avison Young noted that over the past 18 months, “real estate in the right location has become…almost as important as [a] company’s patents.”

The greatest demand is for offices around Tel Aviv’s Savidor-Center and Hashalom train stations, near the Azrieli Towers and Sarona.

Guy Amosi, CEO and managing partner of Avison Young’s Israel office, said last week that “quality office space has become like a valuable patent in the sense that it is a gateway to making high quality hires. Office space located near the talent is key to a company’s success.”

According to Avison Young’s Tel Aviv Market overview for the second half (H2) of 2021, there was a temporary softening of the office market at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, followed by a dramatic rebound in 2021.

Rents today would be even higher for Class A office space, Amosi noted. This space can command up to NIS 170 ($53.25) per square meter, but vacancies for such properties are near 1%.

Amosi added, “It is possible to

ask almost any price for office space in these locations because the real estate costs are insignificant in comparison to the cost of hiring and maintaining talent.”

Larry Garner, managing director for C&W|Inter-Israel, explained, “The Ayalon Highway-Menachem Begin corridor office market is the only place to be if you are in high-tech. Some clients have told me that the Ramat Gan Bourse [across the road from North Tel Aviv] is too far away!”

Ben Sand, VP of global operations and compliance at property management software company Guesty, added, “Millennials want to come to work by foot or scooter. If they are software designers, they have the talent we are seeking to attract, and we must cater to their demands.”

He noted that his company is trying to avoid the “elevator pitch,” since “in the new skyscrapers, tenants are approached in the elevator to work at another company, and by sundown, they have moved jobs.”

Relief But Only for Some Israelis

A new economic relief plan announced by the Israeli government last week offers benefits only for a limited sector of Israeli society.

In a press conference, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu), and Economy Minister Orna Barbivay (Yesh Atid) announced that they would work to reduce the cost of living by lowering the price of electricity and various necessities, while at the same time adding tax exemptions for working parents of children ages 6-12 years of age.

The plan is expected to cost the State $1.4 billion (4.4 billion NIS).

According to Bennett, the plan represents “a new contract between the government and citizens, and a rational one.” He emphasized, “Citizens who work and bear the burden — they deserve to save more.”

MK Moshe Gafni, who chairs the United Torah Judaism party, slammed the plan, saying, “For

months you caused unimaginable damage — you raised taxes, issued directives, bills and regulations, passing a bad budget, and hurting middle class working families, independent workers and small businesses. You hurt everyone, and now you’re trying to fix some of it, expecting to be praised. Don’t destroy and don’t fix. Undo everything you’ve done so far, the damage you’ve caused to the Israeli public and economy. Only then you can try and talk about benefits.”

Blue and White MK Michael Biton similarly criticized the plan as benefiting only a small portion of the population and not distributing the benefits fairly, since it gives more money to parents whose children are certain ages but less to parents of younger children. He also noted that the plan does not help the small businesses which suffered crippling losses due to the pandemic.

“You can’t only help salaried employees and not them,” Biton said, noting that Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Blue and White’s chairman, also shared his opinion.

The plan will only provide the additional aid for the duration of 2022.

Out of Israel’s population of nearly ten million, around 530,000 parents are expected to benefit from the tax exemptions.

In addition to the tax exemptions, after-school childcare will be subsidized for another approximately 60,000 children, and some 300,000 lower earners will receive a one-time grant in the form of negative income tax.

Israel to Dispatch Naval Officer to Bahrain

Israel will dispatch a naval officer to an official posting in Bahrain.

This is the first time an Arab country will openly host a stationed Israeli military dignitary.

The naval officer will travel to Bahrain in the coming weeks and will serve as a liaison for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is garrisoned

there, Israel’s Channel 13 News said.

According to the report, the move was agreed on during Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s (Blue and White) visit to the Gulf earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the IDF has denied any arrangements to send an officer but did indicate that such a move was being discussed. In its statement to the station, the IDF said it is “constantly examining opportunities to deepen military cooperation with the countries of the region,” but that “at the moment, it has not been agreed to place an IDF officer in another country.”

Last week, Israel’s Navy, for the first time, began taking part in the International Maritime Exercise (IMX), which is led by the Fifth Fleet. Among the countries participating in the drill are Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Yemen.

Texas Rejects Some Mail Ballots

Some 40% of mail-in ballots received so far in Texas’ Harris County cannot be counted due to the state’s new voting laws.

Harris County has over 2.4 million voters. The mail-in ballots are part of the U.S.’s first primary this year, but around 40% – over 1,300 ballots – were missing information or signatures required under a new law passed in August.

Most of the missing information was needed for identification, such as voter ID or social security numbers, but a few were missing signatures, Leah Shah, spokesperson for the Harris County Elections Administrator’s office, noted.

Under the new law, the voters will be notified if their ballot is rejected and will be able to submit a new ballot so long as it is received by the day of the elections, which, in this case, is March 1.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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“As we get closer to the deadline to return mail ballots, we just want to make sure that everyone understands that these new requirements to include identification are important,” Shah said.

“Take a close look at the envelope and make sure you are filling them out, and when in doubt fill them both out or give us a call so we can help walk them through. It is confusing and challenging, and we are here to help.”

Harris County has sent in over 27,000 mail-in ballots to those eligible, and it is not yet clear how many more ballots may be invalid.

Hawaiians to Live Longer?

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A new report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics shows that Hawaiians have the highest life expectancy in the nation.

According to the report, Hawaiians can expect to live for 80.9 years, while those in Mississippi have the lowest life expectancy, at just 74.4 years.

The data, which examined age-specific death rates in 2019, showed that the national average life expectancy was 78.8 years old and that women can usually expect to live longer than men.

The lowest life expectancies were seen in the South.

Lead author Elizabeth Arias noted, “When you look at the map of life expectancy, and if you were to look at a map of socioeconomic status – which includes poverty, education attainment – you would see that they would look very similar.”

The states with the highest life expectancies were: Hawaii (80.9 years), California (80.9 years), New York (80.7 years), Minnesota (80.4 years), Massachusetts (80.4 years), Connecticut (80.3 years), New Jersey (80.1 years), Washington (80 years), Colorado (80 years), and Vermont (79.8 years).

The states with the lowest life expectancies were: Mississippi (74.4

years), West Virginia (74.5 years), Alabama (75.2 years), Kentucky (75.5 years), Tennessee (75.6 years), Arkansas (75.7 years), Oklahoma (75.7 years), Louisiana (75.7 years), South Carolina (76.8 years), and Ohio (76.9 years).

1,430 NYC Workers Fired

On Friday, New York City fired 1,430 city workers for failing to comply with its vaccine mandate. The group firing is likely the nation’s largest mass termination of municipal employees in response to a Covid vaccine mandate.

Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday that 1,428 workers, who had already been on unpaid leave for months, were sent termination notices after they failed to receive a first dose of the vaccine. Two newer hires, who faced more stringent requirements, were also fired for failing to receive two vaccine doses.

Nearly 4,000 city workers had faced a deadline of Friday to comply with the vaccine mandate.

About 95 percent of the city’s workers have received at least one dose of the vaccine, an increase from 84 percent when the mandate was first announced in October.

“Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them,” Adams said in a statement.

About 900 of the fired staff worked at the Department of Education; about 100 worked at the New York City Housing Authority, the public housing agency; 36 were from the New York Police Department.

About 9,000 additional city workers are still unvaccinated, but are seeking exemptions, or working with unions to avoid terminations.

All city workers are required to receive one dose of the vaccine. New hires must get two doses if they received a vaccine that includes a second dose. Booster shots are not required, but Adams has admitted that he is toying with requiring them.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Settlement for Sandy Hook

The families of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have reached a $73 million settlement against the now-bankrupt gun manufacturer Remington and its four insurers.

Remington was the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the 2012 massacre that left 20 children and six adults dead in Newtown, Connecticut.

The families of nine of the victims filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Remington in 2014.

A 2005 federal law protects many gun manufacturers from wrongful death lawsuits brought by family members. But attorneys for the families pushed a different approach: trying to hold Remington partly responsible because of its marketing strategy.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs contended that the company marketed rifles by extolling the militaristic qualities of the rifle and reinforcing the image of a combat weapon – in violation of a Connecticut law that prevents deceptive marketing practices.

In 2020, Remington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in just over two years.

Why Ambassador Bridge is So Important

two countries.

According to CNN, the bridge may be the most economically important 1.5 miles of road in the Western Hemisphere: an estimated 10,000 commercial vehicles cross Ambassador Bridge each day.

U.S. Commerce Department data showed that, in 2021, a total of $664 billion worth of goods moved between the U.S. and Canada. The state of Michigan estimated that 30% of that total moved over Ambassador Bridge.

That same year, the U.S. imported over one million completed vehicles from Canada, worth about $25 billion. Canada imported 750,000 U.S. vehicles, worth about $14 billion, during the same time frame, data from IHS Markit showed.

The recent anti-vaccine mandate protests in Canada closed the bridge to traffic for about one week, by blocking the ramps on the Canadian side. The bridge was fully reopened late Sunday night.

Since goods generally move across the border with limited tariffs or other taxes, factories on one side of the border depend on suppliers from the other, CNN noted.

Bernard Swiecki, director of research at the Center for Automotive Research, explained, “Essentially, automotive supply chains treat that border as it would a state border.

Financially speaking, that international border might as well not be there.”

Michigan workers lost an estimated $51 million in wages due to the blocked bridge. But the effects were also felt in plants in other states, which were forced to temporarily reduce or halt operations.

Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst with IHS Markit, shared, “A lot of manufacturing, a lot of goods, depend on the bridge. It’s not just autos.

“Our supply chain is pretty fragile right now. We don’t need another kink in the works.”

$7B to Victims of 9/11 and Afghani Aid Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner, and Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan, to Windsor, Ontario, moves 25% of all trade between the

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order allowing the distribution of $7 billion in frozen funds to families of victims of the 9/11 attacks and as humanitarian aid to those suffering

in Afghanistan.

The funds, which were frozen from assets in Afghanistan’s central bank, will be distributed inside the country and potentially fund litigation brought by families of 9/11 victims, senior administration officials confirmed.

The monies are held in the U.S. and were frozen following the August 2021 collapse of the central Afghanistan government. They will be split into $3.5 billion to be used as humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, and $3.5 billion to be made available for terror victims. Those claims will still be litigated by a judge.

According to a senior White House official, unfreezing the money was necessary in order to allow the claimants their day in court.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, senior Biden administration officials said that the U.S. will move to put the Afghanistan-earmarked funds in a “separate and distinct” trust that will not be mixed with the ongoing U.S. assistance to the country.

“We plan to consult widely in the coming months, including with the Afghan community, about the governance and use of the funds we are seeking to release,” one official said.

Many have pointed out that there were no Afghan nationals among the 9/11 perpetrators and that the money belongs to the people of Afghanistan. U.S. officials have said that the money must be set aside in order to allow 9/11 claimants to have their day in court.

A White House official pointed out, “Absent action by us, these funds were likely to be tied up in courts for years, while the action we have taken stands the best chance of more quickly freeing up a large portion for humanitarian support.”

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem tweeted, “Stealing the blocked funds of Afghan nation by the United States of America and its seizure (of those funds) shows the lowest level of humanity ... of a country and a nation.”

Did Hillary Spy on Trump Campaign?

According to a bombshell court filing last Friday by Special Prosecutor John Durham, it is becoming more apparent that Hillary Clinton associates spied not only on the Trump campaign but on the Trump White House as well.

Durham, who was appointed in 2020 by then-Attorney General William Barr to investigate matters relating to the 2016 campaign, has reportedly been uncovering an extensive scheme by Hillary Clinton and her associates to sabotage the Trump campaign and to delegitimize the Trump presidency once he defeated Ms. Clinton. The latest filing provides a rare glimpse into the investigation by Durham, who has a reputation as a thorough yet secretive prosecutor.

The filing, which was made in a motion relating to a case against a Clinton campaign lawyer charged with lying to investigators, indicates that Clinton associates engaged in nefarious actions in order to obtain information from Trump Tower, Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building, and the White House itself.

On Tuesday, a Daily Mail reporter confronted Hillary Clinton and asked, “Did you pay to spy on the Trump campaign? When are you going to comment on the spying allegations, Hillary?” but Ms. Clinton ignored the questions. The media, as well, has largely ignored the latest allegations, with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough providing a novel explanation for ignoring this story – that it is “confusing” and “so hard to follow.”

In Trumpian fashion, the former president released a statement criticizing the media’s silence, asserting, “Can you imagine if the roles were reversed and the Republicans, in particular President Donald Trump, got caught illegally spying into the office of the President? ... The electric chair

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

would immediately come out of retirement.”

Trump’s frustration is understandable, considering that the media repeatedly denied his claims that he was spied on by Ms. Clinton. Yet, as is often the case with these “Russian Collusion”-related matters – in hindsight he appears to be proven right. The following exchange in a “60 Minutes” interview with Lesley Stahl during the 2020 campaign illustrates how the media has protected Clinton.

Trump: “The biggest scandal was when they spied on my campaign.

They spied on my campaign.”

Stahl: “There is no real evidence of that.”

Trump: “Of course there is, it’s all over the place.”

Stahl: “No.” Trump: “Lesley, they spied on my campaign, and they got caught.”

Stahl: “Can I say something? You know, this is ‘60 Minutes,’ and we can’t put on things we can’t verify.”

Trump: “You won’t put it on because it’s bad for Biden.”

Stahl: “We can’t put on things we can’t verify.”

Perhaps it is a lesson in circular logic: can’t verify because we won’t verify, so we can’t verify. Or maybe it is a political philosophy lesson: if a tree falls in the proverbial political forest and nobody reports on it, does it make a sound?

U.S. Suspends Mexican Avocado Imports

The U.S. has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados.

Mexico acknowledged that the U.S. government suspended the imports after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat.

The inspectors are employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services.

The report added that the suspension, confirmed late on the eve of the Super Bowl Sunday, struck at the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexico’s avocado growers.

In a statement, Mexico’s Agriculture Department said that the U.S. government had suspended all imports of Mexican avocados “until further notice.”

The statement added, “U.S. health authorities…made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone.”

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy said, “Facilitating the export of Mexican avocados to the U.S. and guaranteeing the safety of our agricultural inspection personnel go hand-in-hand.

“We are working with the Mexican government to guarantee security conditions that would allow our personnel in Michoacan to resume operations.”

Accounting Firm Drops the Don

Mazars, the accounting firm that former President Donald Trump has been using for a long time, informed the Trump Organization this week that it will no longer be acting as its accountant.

The company said that it couldn’t rely on nearly 10 years’ worth of financial statements and that they would no longer be their accountants, citing a conflict of interest.

“We have come to this conclusion based, in part, upon the filings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources,” Mazars wrote in a letter to the Trump Organization chief legal officer, advising them to no longer rely on financial statements ending June 2011 through June 2020.

“While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate.”

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

The company also advised the Trump Organization to inform any recipients of the statements, such as lenders or insurers, to not rely on the statements.

A Trump Organization spokesperson said, “While we are disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways, their February 9, 2022 letter confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies. This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot.”

The New York attorney general and Manhattan district attorney’s office have been investigating the accuracy of Trump’s financial statements to determine whether any insurers, lenders or others were misled. Trump has previously said in depositions in civil investigations that he would give his opinion about the values of certain properties, and it was “predominantly” Trump Organization’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg who decided the final number.

Mazars compiled the statements and included a two-page introduction that stated Trump was responsible for valuations, but they noted that in many ways they did not comply with U.S. accounting rules.

Optimized Diet Can Add Years to Life

A change of diet, especially if it begins when a person is young, can add up to 13 years to that person’s life, a study shows.

The study, published last Tuesday in PLOS Medicine, created a model of what might happen to a person’s longevity if she or he replaced the “typical Western diet” with an “optimized diet.” It found that if a woman

began eating optimally at age 20, she could increase her lifespan by just over 10 years, while a man eating a healthier diet from age 20 could add 13 years to his life.

At the same time, a woman who switched her diet at age 60 was found to be able to add eight years to her life, while a man of the same age could add nearly nine years. At age 80, both genders would gain around 3.5 years from a change in diet.

Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine and nutrition, who was not involved in the study, noted, “The notion that improving diet quality would reduce the risk of chronic disease and premature death is long established, and it only stands to reason that less chronic disease and premature death means more life expectancy.”

He added, “What they define as an ‘optimal’ diet is not quite optimal; it’s just a whole lot better than ‘typical.’ My impression is that their ‘much improved’ diet still allowed for considerable doses of meat and dairy.”

The study suggests that people eat less red and processed meats. If cutting those items out of your diet isn’t feasible, lessening consumption in those categories can also contribute to a longer life expectancy.

Rams Defeat Bengals The Los Angeles Rams on Sunday defeated Cincinnati’s Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI. The game, which took place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, was the second time in Super Bowl history that a team played on its home field.

According to ESPN, the Rams’ pass-rush win rate of 82% was the highest of any team in a single game this season. Conversely, the Bengals’ pass-block win rate was the worst by any team this season.

Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who won the game, exulted, “I’m just so happy. I wanted this so bad. I dreamed this, man. I dreamed this, and it’s, like, surreal. It’s the best feeling in the world. G-d is great.”

Quarterback Matthew Stafford said, “There’s so many guys on our team that deserve this.”

The Rams have made five Super Bowl appearances, with their only other championship at the Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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A Debut Novel

mis” has become a book in demand.

There is now a waiting list – at least 55 people long – for the book.

The library has awarded Dillon its first Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist, a category the library created for him, named after the library’s owl mascot.

Dillon, buoyed by the success of his first book, says he is working on a sequel.

Dillon, your story is certainly one for the books.

An Old Story Dillon Helbig is a second grader who is the author of a special book at Ada Community Library in Boise, Idaho. But Helbig never set out to be a published author. What began as a mischievous act turned into fame for the cute boy.

Weeks ago, Helbig wrote an adventure story in a red-cover notebook and illustrated it with colored pencils. He was so excited about his novel that he wanted to share it with others. What better place to share a book than in a library?

Days later, during a visit to the library with his grandmother, he brought the 81-page book and surreptitiously slipped it onto a children’s picture-book shelf.

“It was naughty-ish,” Dillon, 8, admits. But the result, he says, is “pretty cool.”

The book, titled “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis,” is authored “by Dillon His Self.”

Dillon later confessed to his mother, Susan Helbig, that he slid his book into the stacks and left it there, undetected. But when they returned about two days later to find the tome, it was missing. Susan called the library to ask whether anyone had found Dillon’s notebook and to request that they please not throw it away.

It turns out that the branch manager, Alex Hartman, had not thrown it away. He had found the book and read it and was intrigued, even reading it to his six-year-old son, who thought it was one of the funniest books he’d ever heard.

And so, the librarians thought that others may enjoy Helbig’s book, too. With Dillon’s and his mom’s permission, they added a barcode to the book and added it to the library’s collection. The lone copy of “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Cris-

The older people in the Italian town of Perdasdefogu have put the town on the map.

Out of the 1,765 people who live in town, 10 of them are over the age of 100.

Vittorio Lai celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday. Piuccia Lai, who shares the same last name but is not related, will celebrate her 100th birthday on February 20.

Sardinia, where the town is located, has been identified as one of the five places in the world with the highest concentration of centenarians, with 33.6 people over the age of 100 for every 100,000 residents.

The small town made headlines in 2012 when the Melis family was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest set of nine siblings.

Consolata Melis, the family’s eldest sibling, holds the record for the town’s oldest-ever resident after dying at the age of 108 in 2015.

Scientists who have studied the town said clean air, active lifestyles, and healthy diets all likely contribute to the high concentration of older people.

“The presence of 10 centenarians confirms the exceptional longevity of the inhabitants of Perdasdefogu, and moves the bar even higher,” Luisa Salaris, a demographics professor at the University of Cagliari, noted.

Sounds like the good, old days.

Pig Pen

Wyverne Flatt is probably not someone you’d like to have as a neighbor. But there’s nothing bad about Wyverne; it’s just his pet who may make people look twice.

Wyverne currently lives in the village of Canajoharie in upstate New York. In 2018, while he was living in South Carolina, he bought a cute little pig – as big as a shoe – for a pet. When he moved to New York in 2019, Wyverne brought Ellie with him.

But village officials found out that Ellie is living with Wyverne and say that it’s illegal to house Ellie in Canajoharie. Wyverne, for his part, says that he has registered Ellie as an emotional support animal that helped him get through his divorce and the death of his mother.

“I could never dream of giving away somebody whose part of my family,” Wyverne says. “She’s very smart. She’s more intelligent than my dogs. I think she can kind of hone in on you when you’re feeling bad because she’ll want to come in and snuggle with you.”

Since then, local officials have determined that Flatt is in violation of local zoning laws. Flatt argues that since Ellie is an emotional support animal, the local government has rules saying that it must provide him with reasonable accommodation.

Flatt’s neighbors have signed affidavits saying that they like Ellie.

If the court rules against Wyverne, he could face jail time or could have Ellie taken away from him.

And that would happen when pigs fly, Wyverne says.

Bike Tour Bob Barnes is touring the U.S. and visiting all 50 state capitals – by bike.

Barnes is a former Uber driver but that doesn’t mean he wants to stay behind the wheel. In the “Great

American Triple Switchback” – the name he gave his trip – the 52-yearold has already cycled 7,900 miles and has visited 26 capitals, including Washington, D.C. “It’s awesome to be out here and just have all these experiences in every single little town, every state,” Barnes said.

He started his journey on August 1, 2021 and hopes to zigzag the country in just a year.

“I call it ‘real reality,’” he told Fox News. “As opposed to what’s on TV and the internet.”

Barnes added, “I do consider myself an adventurer. I love to explore, and I like to see things for myself.”

This is not the first time that Barnes put the pedal to the road. He took a similar journey several years ago, and he cycled about 5,800 miles throughout the country.

“I was awestruck; it was so eye-opening,” Barnes said. “I wanted to come back out here and do it again.”

On Barnes’ GoFundMe page, he posts a few times a day about his trip.

“My obligation is to report to ‘you the follower’ 3 times a day promptly showing and talking about what ‘we’ have seen. It’s a very lighthearted, fun and interactive experience,” Barnes wrote. “Basically ‘we’ are touring the entire United States on a field trip, and I am the guide,” he added.

In general, Barnes bikes 44 miles a day.

Biking through the continental U.S. has its challenges, but how will Barnes get to Juneau, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii? Well, he plans on taking a ferry from Canada to Alaska and then biking to the capital. As for Hawaii, he will fly with his bike to the island and start pedaling there.

Biking around the U.S. is a dream come true for Barnes, and he think that’s others should follow their passions.

“It’s everything you think it would be if you get on a bike and start pedaling around the country, that’s what it is,” Barnes said. “It’s just fascinating. It’s like a big neighborhood.…

It’s just the country is the neighborhood.”

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Around the

Community PHOTOS BY NAFTOLI GOLDGRAB

Rav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi Visits Yeshiva Darchei Torah

T

he talmidim of Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s Mesivta Chaim Shlomo and Beis Medrash Heichal Dovid joyously welcomed one of the most senior and illustrious sages of Klal Yisrael, Hagaon Rav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi, shlita, last week.

Rav Ezrachi serves as the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Ateres Yisroel in Kiryat Sefer/Modiin Illit and has taught and developed generations of talmidim. A member of Eretz Yisrael’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, his influence and leadership extend beyond Artzeinu HaKedosha to the global Torah community.

The purpose of his trip to the United States was to raise funds for

Ateres Yisroel and to be mechazeik the Torah community in America.

His shmuess at Yeshiva Darchei Torah touched on the current state of affairs in Eretz Yisrael as well as a

fascinating and instructive story about Rav Shaul Barzam, zt”l, in his youth.

Rav Ezrachi spoke in basic Hebrew; Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh

HaYeshiva, translated throughout.

It was an unforgettable moment – and ma’amad – of kavod haTorah. Watch at Darchei.org/video

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Around the Community Friends, supporters, bnei hayeshiva and alumni all gathered together this past Motzei Shabbos for the second annual Kavod HaTorah Siyum, celebrating Yeshiva Gedolah of the Five Town's 19 Anniversary Celebration

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Around the Community

A CATCH ’22 in the Year 2022

A

fter a successful CATCH (Creating A Team Of Courage and Hope) event that was held on Monday, February 7, we are faced with a catch-22 conundrum. Here is a review of the event itself and then maybe you can help us solve it.

Mrs. Soshie Hirth, CATCH Team Coordinator, opened the evening with a perek of Tehillim. She thanked the White Shul for hosting the event and Yoeli Steinberg and Gourmet Glatt for sponsoring the ad campaign, as well as the hardworking members of the Catch team. She then reminded the over-120 attendees that it was no coincidence that this event took place in the White Shul. She remembered that 48 years ago a group of women led by Mrs. Hinda Karmel, z”l, and Mrs. Selma Weinberg, z”l, who came to the White Shul to introduce the idea of starting a Bikur Cholim in the community. About 28 years ago, a group of women came to the White Shul led by the formidable Mrs. Nechama Wolfson to meet with the Va’ad Harabonim and alert them about battered and abused women, and Shalom Task Force was born. So too, we women have an opportunity to make a difference, and it will be much easier since we do not have to start a new organization because CATCH is already here.

Mrs. Hirth then introduced an amazing woman, the founder of CATCH, Mrs. Jessica Tsur, who captivated the audience with her own journey fighting the demons of mental illness. She learned about the power of connection and was determined to help other sufferers connect by offering support groups led by professional clinicians. Her moving presentation was followed by Mrs. Toby Carrey, who is currently

Dr. David Pelcovitz

leading a support group. She spoke about the bonds of friendship and love that these women of all ages and all walks of life share with each other. To emphasize that connection, there were readings from the women of the support group sharing how important these groups are to them and how much they feel they have benefitted from there.

Rabbi Eytan Feiner, Mora D’asra of the White Shul, shared an amazing insight into the pasuk from Tehillim, “Hashlech al Hashem yehovcha v’hu yechalkilecha., Throw up to Hashem your problems and He will handle them for you.” Rebbetzin Tema Kamenetzky, zichrona l’vrocha, asked why such strong language is used – why are we saying “throw” and not a more gentle “give”? She answered the question herself by explaining that when you “give” something to someone, there is still a bit of it that remains a part of you, but

Did you know?

The longest video on YouTube is 571 hours, 1 minute, and 41 seconds long

Rabbi Eytan Feiner

when you throw something at someone, you do so with confidence that they will CATCH it!

That is what our CATCH groups represent: the ability of someone suffering from anxiety, depression or mental illness to literally “throw” their problems to a group of women who understand them and will support them.

Of course, the keynote speaker, the renowned Dr. David Pelcovitz, spoke about the effects of anxiety and depression and the understandable uptick living in this world at this time. But he also offered moving stories illustrating the power of connection and how potent it can be to reach out and help others, which is the main goal of our organization.

One unforgettable story was about a young boy who underwent tremendous trauma when he saw his father who was high on cocaine kill his mother and then himself. Despite all odds, this boy ended up becoming a most successful person who was presenting a paper on the subject of the homeless, together at the same conference as Dr. Pelcovitz. He said he reached this plateau of success because of four little words.

After his parents’ death, he ran away to numerous homeless shelters. At one shelter, the man behind the counter not only made eye contact with him, he came around and put his arm on his shoulder and

asked, “How are you doing?” No one had asked him throughout this entire traumatic time those simple caring words, which unleashed a flood of tears and pain. This man saw that this boy was very bright and arranged a scholarship for him to attend a prep school in the city where he did very well. He was then able to secure a scholarship to Princeton University and go on to become a leading expert on the homeless.

Just four little words can change a life. That valuable lesson is what happens in our support groups.

So what is the catch-22 conundrum? The evening’s success was evident in the many requests we received for help and that met the goal of the evening to face the reality and understand that there are people who may be your family members, your neighbors or your fellow mispallelim who need help. But if we cannot help them due to lack of funds, why would we consider this a success? In order to pay more clinicians, we need more funds so we can expand our support groups.

The answer is really up to each and every one of us. By going online to www.catchsupport.org and donating money or sending a donation by Zelle at info@catchsupport.org, you can make a difference. You can find the video presentations of Rabbi Feiner and Dr. Pelcovitz on our website as well.

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Around the Community

Juggling With Joy with the JWLC

W

omen juggle. It is one of our great strengths. While no two women have the same combination of balls they are trying to keep up in the air, we all share this special skill. Whether we are single, young mothers or of the sandwich generation, steadily balancing obligations and responsibilities is simply our way of life.

Very often, when shifting our priorities and moving the balls around, we tend to let go of the one with our own name on it. If someone’s needs have to be put aside, it will be ours.

This past Sunday, at the JWLC Juggling with Joy event, scores of women – from our neighborhood and beyond – learned that we can do it differently. In a morning packed with inspiring speakers, delicious refreshments, lots of laughter and a few tears, two hundred women were uplifted as they learned the art of juggling with joy.

The JWLC (Jewish Women Leadership Council), an initiative of the Marion and Aaron Gural JCC, was formed just over two years ago with the assistance of UJA-Federation New York. Combining the insights and visions of local rebbetzins and lay leaders, Juggling with Joy, our

fifth JWLC event, identified the need for women to strengthen themselves so they can continue to be a source of strength for their families and communities.

Despite the cold temperature and falling snow, women of all ages arrived at the JCC’s Harrison-Kerr Family Campusexcited and ready to be inspired. And inspired they were.

And motivated, entertained, and validated.

Upon arriving at the event, each woman received a golden bag filled with goodies, grabbed a delicious breakfast, and joined friends and neighbors to hear our incredible keynote speaker, Mrs. Jackie Bitton, share insights, goals, and personal trials with our audience. As always, her words rang true and touched all.

After a short break where fabulous raffles were won, and a moment to schmooze and to refill plates was had, attendees broke off into two sets of breakout sessions. Each workshop was designed to address a different part of a busy woman’s life and needs.

Living Full ‘n Free speaker, Rorie Weisberg, spoke to her group about how to “Make Healthy Happen.”

Making food prep a regular part of

your daily routine to ensure that healthy food is always available promotes healthy habits. Eating well helps us feel well which enables us to function well. She shared recipes and tips with the captive audience.

Dr. Gila Schwerd spoke about Mindfulness and how to “Tune Out When You Want to Tune In.” She described the Wheel of Awareness and the Healthy Mind Platter, which taught participants how to allocate their time optimally. No matter how much we give of ourselves, we have to give to ourselves to be well.

In a fun and interactive workshop, cookbook author and chef Naomi Nachman taught us how to make Shabbos in two hours and happily shared other time management tips.

We all related to the stress of getting appealing meals on the table for our families when time is short.

JWLC member Rachel Pill, LMSW, had her audience nodding and laughing as she told of her personal experiences and how she’s learned from them in the workshop “Juggling Our Relationships: Practical Tools and Tips.” She described ways to find time to be with your spouse as well as Do’s and Don’ts for sandwich generation caregivers.

Each speaker brought her own expertise and perspective to the table, and together they created a practical strategy for keeping our balls in the air without forgetting the most important one – our own. Women left the program with smiles on their faces and new ideas in their minds, encouraged, excited, and highly motivated.

This very special event was a collaboration of so many wonderful participants: speakers, staff, volunteers, and sponsors.

The JWLC is grateful for all the amazing women who generously gave of themselves and their time to present, to help organize, and to attend this inspiring program. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Special appreciation is extended to the event sponsors: Crossriver Bank, Signature Bank, Gourmet Glatt, and The Jewish Home, and to the raffle sponsors, who generously donated to the event.

For more information about JWLC or other JCC programs, contact Rachayle Deutsch at rachayle. deutsch@guraljcc.org.

The Marion and Aaron Gural JCC is a proud non-profit partner of UJA-Federation New York.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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SKA Students Awarded NYIT Mini-Research Grants

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ongratulations to SKA students Shayna Davidson, Michal Greenblatt, Chaya Sarah Lelonek, Sarah Owadeyah, Lea Septimus, Rochelle Soleimani and Yael Szlafrok on receiving the Fifth Annual New York Institute of Technology College of Engineering and Computing Sciences Mini-Research Grant for their proposals.

Shayna, Lea and Yael’s project, “Smart Mask Respiratory Protection, Air Quality Monitoring, and Reporting System,” won the students $300, as did “True Epi-Pen Autoinjector,”

the project submitted by Michelle, Chaya, Sarah and Rochelle. The two proposals were selected out of 127 entered! The funds will be used to offset the cost of materials and software pertaining to the projects and presentations at the end of the academic year.

The SKA research program encourages students in all grade levels to explore and develop original projects. Our sincere thanks go to Dr. Salvatore Parrino, SKA’s Science Research Mentor, for his help and support.

Health Month at HAFTR

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ebruary has kicked off health month at HAFTR. At our Early Childhood Center, we have been learning all about the different ways that we can keep our bodies healthy. Eating healthy foods, getting a good night’s rest, exercise, visiting the doctor and dentist, and washing our hands are just some of the examples that we discussed that help keep our bodies healthy.

In our classroom, we have been discussing the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Eating

healthy foods, exercising (have you ever watched 15 toddlers attempt to squat and plank?), and getting lots of sleep are very important.

On Wednesday, our classes made their own pizza using whole wheat dough and low-fat cheese. It was a great fine motor exercise spooning and spreading the sauce and pinching and sprinkling the cheese. We had so much fun making and eating them! The results were as delicious as they were nutritious!

December, when the program was forced to cancel despite 3,000 excited young people from North America having registered.

Now, Birthright Israel organizers are optimistic about the future as they greet the February and March participants and look forward to the summer, when they will welcome an additional 15,000 North American young people along with others from around the world. The summer season, which launches in May, will be the last opportunity for young adults aged 27-32 to participate in a Birthright Israel trip. Starting in Winter 2023, the trips will be restricted to those aged 18-26.

“We expect to bring about 3,000 young adults from around the world in the next two months, and during the summer we expect about 15,000 from North America and nearly 20,000 worldwide,” said Mark. “Our summer trips are filling up quickly and we are excited and optimistic

that we will now be able to accommodate the 100,000 North American young adults that signed up for a trip over the last two years and couldn’t travel due to Covid.”

Participants must be fully vaccinated, and Birthright Israel continues to work closely with Israel’s Ministry of Health to ensure a comprehensive and dynamic Covid protocol, taking care of all participants’ needs while in Israel.

Taglit-Birthright Israel offers a free, life-changing trip to Israel for young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 32 and, in doing so, transforms the Jewish future.

Its mission is to give every Jewish young adult around the world, especially the less connected, the opportunity to visit Israel on an educational trip. Today, Birthright Israel is the largest educational tourism organization in the world that has given over 750,000 journeys to the state of Israel.

Birthright Israel Trips to Resume

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bout 2,000 Birthright Israel participants from 45 states and provinces in North America will land in Israel in February and March for the first trips of 2022. The flights, which begin this weekend, mark Birthright Israel’s joyful return after a series of suspensions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“After a long hiatus, we are excited and honored to bring back so many participants from North America on these important and exciting tours to Israel,” said Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark.

The following list represents the number of Birthright Israel participants arriving in February and March from each state or province in North America (in alphabetical order): Alabama: 1; Alaska: 3; Arizona: 1; California: 54; Colorado: 19; Connecticut: 13; Delaware: 1; DC: 10; Florida: 42; Georgia: 1; Hawaii: 1; Illinois: 18; Indiana: 2; Iowa: 2;

Kansas: 1; Kentucky: 2; Louisiana: 2; Maine: 1; Manitoba: 1; Maryland: 17; Massachusetts: 33; Michigan: 8; Minnesota: 1; Mississippi: 1; Missouri: 3; Montana: 2; Nevada: 4; New Hampshire: 5; New Jersey: 28; New Mexico: 1; NY: 100; N. Dakota: 12; Ohio: 20; Ontario: 2; Oregon: 3; Pennsylvania: 30; Rhode Island: 7; S. Carolina: 3; Tennessee: 3; Texas: 16; Vermont: 3; Virginia: 8; Washington:7; Wisconsin: 7.

“I am so excited to go on my Birthright Israel trip next month,” said Kayla Dinsfriend, a chef and culinary educator from Sitka, Alaska.

“I have been looking forward to this for so long, it almost doesn’t seem real! I can’t wait to step into the life and culture of Israel and eat all I can along the way.”

The 2020 outbreak of COVID led to a break that ended in May 2021, before the Delta variant grounded the trips again. This was followed by a suspension due to Omicron in

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The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Mekor Chaim: A Life After Yeshiva

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ife after yeshiva is a topic we as a klal quietly struggled with for quite some time, and baruch Hashem, as of recent, seforim, shiurim, and many articles have raised awareness of the dire need for an anchor for the working individual.

The problem is it’s hard to do it alone – especially after that sense of community and support which naturally comes in beis medrash becomes increasingly difficult to maintain once the transition to “working guy” is made. Enter Mekor Chaim, a program that is custom-tailored to life after yeshiva.

Mekor Chaim has been in the New York area since Elul 2020, and in just 17 months has organically grown from a handful of guys in a Brooklyn beis medrash to a flourishing network of 70+ young single/ married individuals spanning the New York area.

Led by Rabbi Dov Blumberg, Me-

kor Chaim offers the necessary tools to successfully maintain and further develop life as a ben torah during the transition into the next chapter of life and beyond.

Rabbi Blumberg shares his evenings between Brooklyn, Queens, and the Five Towns, offering thoughtfully curated chaburos with maareh mekomos that tackle perti-

nent challenges alongside great food and even better company.

The daytime is filled with guys learning over the phone or in-person during their lunch breaks, on the way to work, or at a time carved out during their busy schedules to make time for what matters most, and due to the demand in Brooklyn and Five Towns, in-person morning sedarim with a Shacharis in between will be up and running in the near future.

A 30-day challenge that took a deep dive into the priceless middah of bitachon was just completed by 68 participants, and our WhatsApp is constantly active with divrei Torah, divrei hisorerus, and a lot of good laughs.

In an effort to bring all of our divisions together, as well as allow for an informal opportunity to further connect, Mekor Chaim is packed

with guys’ nights out, Shabbatons, and events surrounding just about every yom tov to make them as meaningful as they should be.

Career guidance and job placement assistance are available, as well as chosson classes, shidduch advice, and a listening ear to help guide through everything and anything that might come up throughout the day.

Mekor Chaim is paving the path for a truly successful life after yeshiva, offering a sense of community consisting of like-minded guys, a relatable staff, high-level learning, and instilling the invaluable lesson that where you spend most of your day does not define who you are.

To learn more about Mekor Chaim, feel free to text/call Rabbi Dov Blumberg at (516) 880-4257.

MTA’s Memorable Family Melave Malka

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he incredible MTA energy was felt throughout Washington Heights on Motzei Shabbos, February 12 at the yeshiva’s Family Melave Malka featuring

Eitan Katz. MTA welcomed more than 300 people at this exciting event, including current talmidim and families, as well as eighth grade families. The tremendous ruach and

achdus that MTA is known for radiated during the entire evening, as talmidim, rebbeim, fathers, brothers, and friends sang and danced together to the uplifting music of

Eitan Katz.

The pure simcha and joy felt by everyone who attended were palpable on this truly unforgettable evening.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

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SKA Celebrates Adar with Color War

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o much time and effort went into producing the SKA school video that all the students were thrilled to finally view the finished version. But in a real “v’nahafoch hu,” the video shown actually introduced the Color War ‘22 breakout on Tuesday, February 8!

The theme this year was Women in Tanach: each grade received a special color and different name and middah. The freshmen (otherwise known as the Yellow Team) represented the gevurah of Esther,

the sophomores (the Red Team) invoked the emunah of Miriam, the juniors (the Purple Team) expressed the chessed of Rivka, and the seniors (the Blue Team) embodied the tefillah of Chana.

The school was awash in color the next morning as each team’s hues vied for attention in the hallways and bowling alley of SKA. The teams split into squads to compete at Musical Chairs, Panolopy, Project Runway, Simon Sez and a Brachos Bee. In addition, teams were judged on dvar

Torah videos, cheers, banners and decorations, and a theme song. The SKA judges had difficult decisions to make as the four grades displayed their amazing talents.

Color War ‘22 was finally won by the seniors! Although the other three grades did not win, they were all proud of what they had accomplished in the day and a half of competition.

SKA’s Color War ended with spirited dancing and incredible achdus between the grades!

UJA-Federation of NY Creates $250K Fund for Small Synagogues

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s Jews increasingly fear simply attending synagogues amid escalating antisemitic incidents, UJA-Federation of New York announced this week the creation of an initial $250,000 fund at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY) to implement a program for providing security enhancement packages to at least 50 small synagogues — also known as shtiebels — in Brooklyn. The synagogues, in Midwood, Kensington, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Flatbush, have a capacity of fewer than 200 people and little or no staff.

The program, to be run by the Community Security Initiative (CSI) — a joint initiative of UJA-Federation and JCRC-NY — closes a crucial gap in funding that often leaves out smaller synagogues from accessing funding from government or other sources for physical securi-

ty enhancements. The new security enhancement packages can include the installation of new doors, locks, and video cameras, and will be followed by active shooter and access control training for staff or key congregants.

“No synagogue should be left without proper security measures just because they lack access to necessary funding,” said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York. “Whether praying in the largest shul in Manhattan or the smallest shtiebel in Brooklyn, every Jew deserves the right to worship in peace and security.”

“Unfortunately, since 2018, at synagogues in Pittsburgh; Poway; Monsey; and Halle, Germany, access control and keeping threats from being able to enter our houses of worship has meant the difference between life and death for congregants,” said Mitchell D. Silber, ex-

ecutive director of the Community Security Initiative. “This program will fortify and protect some of our most vulnerable locations and communities.”

There are approximately 250 small synagogues in Brooklyn, and most do not have basic security measures in place to protect against increased threats that Jewish institutions are confronting. The NYPD hate crimes unit reported 22 hate crimes against Jewish people so far this year, compared to eight in the same time period last year.

Small synagogues are left without security funding for many reasons, but notably they are often unable to access funding from federal grants, such as from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, because they lack staff that can manage the arduous grant application process.

The new fund from UJA-Federation at JCRC-NY is intended to

bridge this funding gap for smaller synagogues and offer significant improvements to basic security infrastructure and overall safety. The physical upgrades and trainings will be coordinated in partnership with community groups, including Agudath Israel of America, Boro Park Jewish Community Council, Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, and Council of Jewish Organizations of Flatbush, as well as neighborhood civilian patrols.

Synagogues seeking funding and training can apply online at jcrcny. org/smallshuls. The Community Security Initiative (CSI) will review and process applications and begin to schedule visits by a security consultant. Once the enhancements are complete, CSI will provide training regarding access control and active threat.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Misaskim – Sparks In The Dark

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isaskim is about to launch a 36-hour campaign to raise $1,500,00 for the aveilim, almanos and yesomim in the community.

But…almanos and yesomim? Misaskim?

Misaskim is only about shiva, aren’t they?

Not quite so.

Long after the shiva signs, chairs, and covers have been removed, Project Yedid of Misaskim steadfastly remains at their sides. Throughout the year, Misaskim showers the almanos and yesomim with heartwarming sparks. Sparks of support, sparks of comfort, sparks of relief.

School supplies. Yom Tov meals. Yom Tov

packages. Chol Hamoed events. Camp packages.

A simcha fund. An emergency fund.

For the almanos and yesomim, each spark feels like a giant hug, making them feel embraced, cared for, and remembered.

This is in addition to the services people are more familiar with; the shiva services (with warehouses in 10 neighborhoods), meisei mitzvah and more.

These incredible services amount to an annual budget of $4 million! At Misaskim, the responsibility is enormous, especially since they do not receive government funding. The budget is rising drastically as more families are unfortunately added to the list.

Central Seniors’ Trip

The 36-hour campaign will be starting on Wednesday, February 23, and will be live until Thursday, February 24, at midnight.

There are 3,100 almanos and yesomim who anxiously await Project Yedid’s life-changing services.

Will you help Misaskim generate those sparks?

They cannot do it without you.

To be part of this vital mission, visit charidy. com/misaskim or call 718.540.574.

YOSS Students are Good Citizens

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entral has the unique opportunity of being part of the Yeshiva University family. Last week, the senior class had the opportunity to visit the Beren Campus at Stern College in Midtown Manhattan, followed by a visit to the YU Seforim Sale, in Washington Heights at the Wilf campus. They were welcomed at the Stern Beren campus with a tour, a student panel featuring Central alumnae, and lunch.

The students really enjoyed the opportunity to see former Central students and ask them questions about what their experience has been like at Stern College.

“This trip provided them with insight on what the college experience at YU is really like,” said Mrs. Rena Boord, Director of College Guidance

at Central.

Afterward, they headed to the Wilf campus for a shiur with Dr. Deena Rabinovich, mother of Central’s Dean of Students Mrs. Aliza Gewirtz, and time to browse and shop at the acclaimed seforim sale before boarding the buses and heading back to the Queens campus (a.k.a. Central!).

Talia Hazan, a senior from Queens who plans to attend Stern College, said, “It was so exciting to see the incredible curriculum and opportunities that Stern has to offer.

A highlight from the trip was hearing the inspiring shiur from Dr. Deena Rabinovich.”

This annual trip provided the students with many special opportunities and interactions with staff and students on both campuses.

iddos and derech eretz are the hallmark of the Yeshiva of South Shore. What better way to reinforce this than through a unit on Character Education?

The fourth grade boys at YOSS started a comprehensive unit on what it means to be a good citizen in and out of school. To introduce this new unit, we began with the topic of what it means to be a good citizen.

The students participated in class discussions, brainstormed their own scenarios of when it may be hard to act as a good citizen, and found ways to make it easier to do the right thing while taking their own feelings into consideration as well as their peers.

The boys read newspapers articles about exemplary citizens their own age and reflected on how they too can act with courage and be the best citizens. As a wrap-up project on how

to be a good citizen, the boys created their own slogans to remind themselves that their actions matter and count!

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SHS Brings Relief to NOLA

By Elisheva Jaffa

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ast week, a group of upperclassmen from Shulamith High School were honored to participate in an NCSY Relief Mission in New Orleans. We were led

by NCSY director Rabbi Ethan Katz, Sarah Sklar, Julia Blumenthal, and our very own Esty Munk.

The first day of activities started bright and early with the amazing organization called Nechama. This volunteer group specializes in Jewish response to disasters. What is so special about this organization is not only that the workers are mostly volunteers. They respond to anyone in crisis, not only other Jews. The students split up between two damaged homes, ripping down walls, sweeping the dust, and doing all kinds of labor on behalf of the homeowners who are in desperate need of help. The day continued with a delicious lunch from Waffles on Maple. Later that evening, the students were very eager to go to Kosher Cajun for dinner. Not only was it a delicious meat restaurant, it was also the only kosher supermarket and Judaica store in town. Given that all these fundamental stores are centralized in one building, it gave us the opportunity to meet many of the incredible members of the frum New Orleans community, who were incredibly warm and welcoming to us. But the night was only beginning, as dinner was followed by a very fun surprise trip to Rock N Bowl, which is not only a bowling alley, but also a cool place filled with line dancing

and real New Orleans history.

Although the next day, Friday, was a short day, NCSY and SHS made sure to pack it all in. The day started with a trip to the Common Grounds where we planted over 40 trees in the middle of a swamp. When natural disasters occur in New Orleans, thousands of trees are destroyed. Common Grounds works to plant new vegetation to replace the lost ones to help offset greenhouse gas emissions. We made a forty tree commitment that seemed like an ambitious goal, but thankfully we reached it.

As Shabbos was coming, we headed to Anshei Sefard, a shul near our hotel. Ironically, walking into a completely empty shul was the most meaningful part of the entire trip. Our immediate reaction was confusion, but our amazing leader Rabbi Eitan explained that the shul was empty because, unfortunately, the frum community in that area is rapidly getting smaller and smaller.

This inspired us to sing a beautiful Kabbalat Shabbat because the walls of this shul were yearning for our tefillot.

After an extremely meaningful Shabbos, we had the pleasure of going to the famous Bourbon Street and watching a really cool jazz show.

We ended our trip with a beautiful melave malka that gave us an opportunity to reflect on our trip and fully appreciate what we accomplished in such a short time. This trip to New Orleans taught us that we should never take our homes, communities, and our Yiddishkeit for granted.

Mesivta Netzach Hatorah in Woodmere had the great honor of welcoming Rabbi Moshe Meiselman, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Toras Moshe in Yerushalyim, this past week. Rabbi Meiselman addressed the talmidim of the Mesivta, following which, he sat down with the talmidim and fielded questions in both halacha and hashkafa.

The Year-Round Music of Makor

By Eli Chomsky

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s we look forward with great anticipation to the February 27 th Jewish Music Hall of Fame Show, presented by Makor Care and Services Network, we reflect with pride on the musical talents of our son Ben, a beloved Makor resident.

Everyone who knows Ben immediately recognizes that he has cornered the special-needs music market with his extraordinary natural melodic aptitude.

Ben has a gifted ear for tunes and songs, memorizing their lyrics and nuances. His wide array of “internal storage” ranges from the broad spectrum of Jewish music and Shabbos tefillos to Beatles tunes, and more. Ben has gone from teaching himself to play the keyboard (by ear at near-perfect pitch!) to receiving invitations to sing at his nursery school graduation, summer camp, and family gatherings. His lifelong musical progression has led counselors and others to describe him as “the boy who sings.”

When Ben moved into his Makor residence more than four years ago, the loving staff and his housemates instantly realized that all forms of music were Ben’s forte. Although

Ben’s verbal communication skills are somewhat limited, he enunciates musical lyrics and words clearly.

Makor’s genuine concern and commitment to nurture their clients’ strengths led them to arrange for Ben to continue his musical growth: they have equipped his residence with both a keyboard and a drum set and provide Ben with one-on-one music lessons. These thoughtful and sensitive amenities empower Ben to continue using music as his main form of expression and communication with others.

While no comparison to the greatness of King David is appropriate, Ben and others like him emulate, to a great degree, the final description of David – in Samuel 2, 23:1 – as “the sweet singer of Israel.” That’s quite the renown!

All readers and their friends are urged to show their appreciation for Makor’s dedicated work on behalf of our precious special-needs loved ones by attending the Jewish Music Hall of Fame Show on February 27 th. By doing so, you’ll be practicing the virtuous acts of tzedakah and chessed – while enjoying the Tickets can be purchased by calling 347-304-0180 or online at MakorConcert.org.

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Around the Community

Social Media the Right Way at HAFTR

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hrough the Digital Citizenship curriculum at HAFTR Middle School, students are provided information and tools regarding creating a positive digital footprint. They are made aware of in-

creased vulnerability regarding their digital footprint and given tools to keep themselves safe through social media and the internet.

HAFTR Middle School Principal Rabbi Joshua Gold explained, “We

want to make sure we instill in you the virtues of using these tools to protect yourselves. Every year, there are digital missteps taken by children, and although they may be unintentional, they can have dire con-

sequences. Our goal is to give you the tools to be your best selves.”

To kick off Health Week, HAFTR Middle School held an assembly for each grade to impress upon the students the dangers of making poor decisions with social media. Nassau County police officers from the Problem Oriented Policing office of the Fourth Precinct led the assembly to present information regarding safety on the internet and protecting oneself through social media. Inspector Danny Gluck, father of HAFTR Middle School student Riley, and Officers Zanni, Ruff, and DiLeonardo gave a wonderful presentation with valuable information.

Emet Celebrates Fellowship Graduates

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t was a graduation of a different sort when students of the Emet Outreach Leaders Fellowship celebrated their well-deserved completion of the program. Instead of family in the audience, there was the devoted team of Emet staff who felt emotional. Instead of donning caps and gowns, there were books of Tehillim that were held with pride. Instead of receiving a diploma marking a degree, there was a certificate of distinction to mark a dedication to Torah study.

“We held the graduation to recognize an amazing group of students who spent the last two to three semesters growing in Judaism,” said Rabbi Reuven Kigel, Campus Director. “While it was the end of their introductory fellowship, their relationship with Emet is not over since they are ready to progress to ‘Level 2’ programming in our Men’s and Women’s Divisions.”

The deserving group are part of thousands of unaffiliated, Jewish college students who have participated in the Emet Leaders Fellowship over the past 15 years. The program is designed to provide an introduction to Judaism and their first Shabbos experience. This past semester, there were three fellowships that were run by Rabbi Kigel, Rabbi Mordechai Kraft and Mrs. Hilla Kozuch. The Forest Hills Fellowship for students from multiple colleges took place on Monday evenings at Beth Gavriel Bukharian Congregation. This program attracted about 50 students who enjoyed an opening lecture and then small-group guided discussion by Emet educators. The St. John’s Fellowship was for students on campus on Thursday afternoons. Students from Baruch University participated on Thursday evenings via Zoom.

Over a sentimental dinner at Colbeh in Great Neck, students and staff shared words of inspiration. Many of the students spoke from the heart and some thanked Emet for not only increasing their knowledge of Judaism, but also for chang-

ing their lives by introducing them to Shabbos and mitzvos.

“Everyone at Emet feels incredibly proud of these graduates and we’re happy that we can continue our relationship with them at the next stage of their spiritual journey,” said Rabbi Akiva Rutenberg, Emet Co-Founder and Director. “While our programs start at the college level, we have more to offer students as they become young professionals and when they marry and have families. It’s only the beginning!”

Fellowship students from the upcoming spring semester will be eligible to join Emet this summer

on a transformative trip to Poland and Prague.

“It’s bittersweet to watch these fellowship students graduate, since we’ve gotten to know them so well over Shabbos in our homes and learning together weekly,” Rabbi Kigel said. “Thankfully, it’s not quite goodbye since they are moving on to higher level learning at Emet. We’re ready to welcome the next group of freshmen and sophomores!”

For further information about Emet programs visit EmetOutreach.org, and to experience Emet’s comprehensive video library of Torah lectures, visit EmetTorah.com.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

The HALB Bar Mitzvah breakfast was a beautiful celebration for the seventh grade boys, their parents and rabbeim. The morning was filled with song, divrei Torah, delicious food and energetic dancing. Mazal tov!

SHS Wellness Week

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ast week, Shulamith High School held its biannual Wellness Week, an initiative which serves to balance the academics and rigors of high school with informative and honest conversations about the various pillars of health.

Each day of the week highlighted a different component of a healthy lifestyle, beginning with whole body wellness on Monday and continuing with social, physical, emotional-mental, and spiritual wellness. Aside from the obvious benefit of organizing the week thematically, this structure served to impress upon the students that physical wellness is but one aspect of the complete picture of health; all other elements are equally legitimate and require equal investment.

Speakers throughout the week broached difficult topics, from eating disorders to addiction to domestic abuse,

opening the doors to these sensitive discussions and allowing our girls to feel safe to address them. The heavier sessions were offset by many exciting and relaxing activities, such as professional kickboxing, cake wars, and a grade-wide trip to Central Avenue with respective grade level advisors.

On Tuesday evening, parents were invited to a panel discussion covering hot button topics for teenagers that are just as relevant to adults in today’s world. Dr. Rachel Lowinger spoke about body image and eating disorders, Rabbi Dr. Saul Haimoff addressed anxiety from both a religious and mental health perspective, and Mrs. Simi Polansky-Hoffman shared her personal experience with social media and its segue to the risk of technology addiction. Equipped with professional insights and new perspectives, participants were

encouraged to continue these essential discussions with their daughters at home.

In conjunction with Sharsheret’s breast cancer awareness campaign, Wednesday was “Pink Day,” during which the students decked themselves out in pink and decorated the hallways to match. The highlight of the day’s programming was our women’s health fair, at which several teachers and outside presenters showcased materials and shared tips and important information. Booths included Shalom Task Force, Women in the Medical Field, Heart

Health, and many more.

Needless to say, there was swag; SHS Pink Day shirts were sold to raise tzedakah for Sharsheret and pumped up some extra school spirit as a bonus.

The program concluded on Friday with an uplifting tisch and panel discussion.

As the students processed the many lessons of the week, the panelists reminded them of the blessing of keeping Hashem in the picture as they navigate the challenges of daily life and how powerful it can be to recognize His role in it all.

We would like to pro-

foundly thank the many speakers and presenters who joined us and contributed so much to our program: Mrs. Batshi Bergidah, Ms. Julia Blumenthal, Rabbi Heshy Blumstein, Mrs. Rachel Chafetz, Mr. Moshe Cohen, Erica from Equinox, Mrs. Beth Farkas, Rabbi Dr. Saul Haimoff, Mrs. Simi Polansky-Hoffman, Rabbi David Katz, Dr. Rachel Lowinger, Rabbi Gavriel Munk, Rabbi Yaakov Trump, Mrs. Miriam Schiller, and all the SHS teachers who prepared relevant electives, health fair booths, and clubs.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

YCQ to Celebrate 81st Anniversary Scholarship Dinner

Melissa Cohen

T

he Yeshiva of Central Queens (YCQ) community is eagerly looking forward to celebrating its first in-person Anniversary Gala in over two years. Families and faculty members are excited about the scheduled 81st Anniversary Scholarship Dinner and dynamic performance by singing sensation Gad Elbaz at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation on Motzei Shabbat, February 26, 2022. The theme is “Your Piece Counts,” a reference to the many different community members working to “puzzle” together a complete, successful experience at YCQ. “Our wonderful honorees are enthusiastic in their support of this ongoing mission,” said Dr. Joel Wein, president of YCQ. “The theme ‘Your Piece Counts’ also refers to YCQ’s goal of raising funds to subsidize the cost of educating children from homes where meeting the tuition obligation is an overwhelming challenge,” said Rabbi Lonner, YCQ executive director.

“In Parshat Shekalim, coincidentally the week of the Dinner, we learn that everyone must contribute. Just as we each play an important role

Riva and David Yakubov

in building the Mishkan, we invite everyone to become a piece of our puzzle in contributing to our mikdash me’at and building the next generation of Klal Yisrael.”

Lena and Richard Harris, and her parents Riva and David Yakubov, have been chosen as Guests of Honor. The Harris and Yakubov families share a special bond with YCQ. For close to two decades, there has been a Harris child at YCQ, and the Yakubov grandparents have been a constant presence and integral part of their grandchildren’s educational experience. Lena and Richard are dedicated longtime members of the Jamaica Estates community and have established themselves as leaders and builders.

They have made supporting Jewish education at YCQ a top priority.

In 2004, YCQ was privileged to hire a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Melissa Cohen. With her masterful skills, she brought her class to life and enabled the students under her tutelage to reach their full potential. As a rising star in the field of education and administration, Mrs. Cohen was appointed assistant principal of the General Studies El-

Purim Katan at Yeshiva Ateres Eitz Chaim

Y

eshiva Ateres Eitz Chaim celebrated Purim Katan with a barbecue seudah, divrei Torah, singing, and dancing, as halacha encourages one to do. The pasuk says, “V’tov lev mishteh tamid – and a good-hearted person feasts perpetually.” With regard to food, there is always room for desserts (Megillah 7b), so too, there is always more room for the sweetness of Torah, which is why the learning/ feasts never end!

Lena and Richard Harris

ementary Division in 2013 and continues to flourish in this role. She is well-respected and beloved by faculty, parents, and especially the children, to whom she is committed to providing a warm and nurturing environment. With tremendous hakarat hatov, Mrs. Melissa Cohen has been selected to receive the Distinguished Educator Award.

Devora and Bruce Stiefel have been selected as Parents of the Year for their incredible devotion to their children, the Yeshiva, and the community. They serve as superb role models for Lauren, Eric, and Nicole, all exceptional YCQ students.

Devora has been an active member of YCQ’s Board of Education for the past fourteen years, where she uses her professional talents to enhance the Yeshiva’s curriculum and literacy program, while working closely with and mentoring the Yeshiva’s professional staff. Bruce is involved in neighborhood safety and security programs in the North Woodmere community. YCQ is fortunate to count the Stiefel family, always ready to generously contribute their time and effort, as valued members of the YCQ community.

Devora and Bruce Stiefel

“Following in the spirit of our honorees, we ask the community at-large to demonstrate its gratitude for what the Yeshiva does for the children and the community,” said Israel Glaser, Chairman of the Board.

There are so many ways one can recognize and contribute to the success of YCQ. These include making reservations to attend the YCQ 81st Anniversary Scholarship Dinner and dynamic performance by singing sensation Gad Elbaz. One can also donate to the YCQ Scholarship Campaign and submit a dedication in the Scroll of Honor in celebration of the honorees or in honor or memory of a loved one. Additionally, one can participate in the grand raffle to win exciting prizes (Grand Prize: $10,000, First Prize: Vacation Package valued at $3,600, and Second Prize: Weber Smart Grill Package valued at $1,500) – all online – at www.ycqdinner.com.

“This is sure to be an unforgettable evening for all who attend,” said YCQ Principal Rabbi Mark Landsman.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Motzei Shabbat - February 26, 2022 Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation Reception 8:30 pm www.ycqdinner.com • dinner@ycq.us • 718-793-8500x300

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Around the Community

MAY Annual Dinner: Sunday, February 27

M

esivta Ateres Yaakov will host its annual dinner on Sunday, February 27 at the Sands at Atlantic Beach. Under the leadership of the Rosh HaYeshiva, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, shlit”a, the Mesivta is a warm and inspiring makom torah that strives to shape its talmidim’s lives during their high school years and beyond. Students are instilled with a lifelong commitment to Torah and are provided with a solid educational foundation. Alumni are informed bnei Torah, prepared to succeed as professionals, husbands, fathers and contributing members of Klal Yisroel, and they can count on their dedicated rabbeim to support them throughout their journey into adulthood.

“Our theme for the dinner, ‘Their Future – Our Future,’ exemplifies our commitment to our talmidim from the moment they enter 9th grade and continuing steadfast through the many milestones in their life. MAY’s doors are literally always open, and it is our goal to empower our talmidim to be strong bnei Torah on the varied paths they choose to pursue,” said Rabbi Yaffe. “We feel fortunate to be able to be paying tribute to honorees, who are role models and represent the best of MAY’s values and vision for our talmidim.”

Guests of Honor, Yochanan and Ruchama Frisch The Frisches are a prominent family in the Five Towns community. They are well-known for their involvement in chesed organizations and for hosting fundraising events in their home. They are the parents of three MAY talmidim – Tani (Class of ’17), Dovie (Class of ‘20), and Moshe (Class of ‘25). They are also the parents of Chani (TAG 5th grade) and 4-year-old Rafi. Yochanan is the Executive Vice President of AP&G Co., founded by his grandfather, Moshe Frisch, z”l, where he has the zechus of working alongside his father, the current President & CEO. Ruchama, a creative thinker, who works to find innovative solutions to common challenges, holds three U.S. and international patents for a unique baby bottle concept. Yochanan is a MAY Trustee, and the Frisches are totally committed to their children’s educational success and that of the yeshiva as well.

Guests of Honor, Yochanan and Ruchama Frisch

Parents of the Year, Shlomo and Adina Kapetas

Amud HaTorah Award, Rabbi Yossi Bennett

Appreciation to Mrs. Paula Tausch School building

Parents of the Year, Shlomo and Adina Kapetas Shlomo and Addi are model parents, dedicated to the growth of their son, Zaki (Class of ‘22, ARISTA), and consistently involved in new initiatives on behalf of the talmidim and the community. They are also the proud parents of Shirly who recently married MAY alumnus Aaron Cohen (Class of ‘16). Shlomo, originally from France, is qualified as an IRS enrolled agent and founded KVB Partners, a French-American accounting firm that assists French companies coming to the U.S. The firm has seven U.S. locations, employing more than 70 accountants. Addi, originally from Israel, works at KVB Partners with Shlomo. In 2017, Addi also opened a Lymphedema Management clinic in Manhattan, bringing the European gold standard care for Lymphedema to NY. Shlomo davens and learns at Shaarey Emouna and Aish Kodesh, where Addi is active in the sisterhood.

Amud HaTorah Award, Rabbi Yossi Bennett Rabbi Yossi Bennett first entered our yeshiva as a substitute rebbe in 2006, progressed to a Shoel u’Meishiv role, and then became a valued 12th grade Rebbe. In those roles, his

teaching talent was matched by his versatility and adaptability as each situation warranted. For the last ten years, Rabbi Bennett has tirelessly served as both the S’gan Menahel and Assistant General Studies Principal.

His unique skill set, complemented by his profound understanding of the needs of this generation’s adolescents, has helped shape our Yeshiva into the premier institution it has become. Rabbi Bennett also established the Mesivta Athletic Leagues expanding the Mesivta’s vision to the greater community. Rabbi Bennett currently resides in Woodmere together with his wife, Malkie, and their six children. The Mesivta is honored to recognize Rabbi Bennett for his more than fifteen years of dedication and devotion. His willingness to be publicly honored as our Amud HaTorah recipient is yet another way that Rabbi Bennett demonstrates his commitment to MAY and to serving the Klal.

Celebrating the Classes of 2010, 2011 and 2012 The pandemic forced a hiatus in MAY’s custom of honoring the graduating class at the 10th anniversary of their graduation at each dinner. B”H, we are now able to resume this special celebration, recognizing the graduat-

ing class of 2012, as well as the classes of 2010 and 2011 who could not be honored these past two years. These alumni have continued their growth over the past decade as bnei Torah, become leaders in their respective communities, and have realized the ideals and values instilled in them by their beloved Mesivta.

Appreciation to Mrs. Paula Tausch After having dedicated more than 30 years to our Mesivta, we are pleased to be presenting Mrs. Tausch with a Scroll of Honor for her selfless dedication to both students and teachers. The myriad tasks she completed with consummate professional competence, and the number of people she graciously interacted with on a daily basis, are truly extraordinary.

The Scroll will be signed by generations of students and faculty who have passed through MAY. To add your name, please email dinner@ateresyaakov.com.

The entire community is encouraged to attend and pay tribute to the mesivta, its hanhala and rabbeim, as well as its distinguished honorees. For further information, to make reservations or to place an ad, please contact the Yeshiva office at 516-374-6465 or dinner@ateresyaakov.com.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Books and More at Shulamith Literacy Week

By Margalit Yarmush

I

n Shulamith School, we celebrate Literacy Week annually by doing various activities.

We started the week with a comic book writing and drawing lesson by the famous GORF! In honor of both

Literacy Week and the month of Adar, students of grades 5 through 8 collaborated on creating a Purim megillah, graphic novel style. On Tuesday, there was a Poetry Slam that introduced creative writing and talented poets. On Wednesday, we had a festive dress-up day. Each

grade was assigned to a different book, and, in addition to dressing up, students created books in the series, videos, and artistic tri-fold boards. On Thursday, students and teachers dressed up as their favorite literary characters, and some students presented their costumes in a

Character Pageant. Later in the day, there was a spelling bee for grades 5 and 6 and another spelling bee with competitors from grades 7 and 8.

Finally, we ended the week with a video recapping all of the fun of Literacy Week.

Rambam Mesivta Celebrates Siyum HaShas

L

ast week, students and rebbeim at Rambam Mesivta gathered to celebrate a Siyum HaShas.

The mesayem, Rabbi Ephraim Meth, is a rebbe at Rambam.

At the festivities’ start, Rambam’s principal, Rabbi Yotav Eliach, made the following observation: “You can tell a lot about a culture by the achievements it celebrates. Some cultures celebrate fame, or wealth, or power. But this Siyum haShas celebrates Torah, and dedication, and hard work.” Rosh Mesivta, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, also introduced and congratulated Rabbi Meth and expressed his desire that it inspire the talmidim of Rambam to even greater heights of learning.

In lieu of a speech, Rabbi Meth thanked the administration and students of Rambam for creating a culture where Torah excellence is valued. He also thanked his parents for inspiring him through their dedication, recalling how his father once drove six hours to bring him to a shiur and how his mother spent hours correcting his leining until he knew it perfectly.

Rabbi Meth then read and translated the prayers that are usually said at a siyum and explained that they were a pledge: “We will return to you,

Talmud Bavli. We are thinking of you. We will not forget you, Talmud Bavli, and you will not forget us.”

The siyum was followed by dancing and doughnuts.

“How long did it take to finish Shas?” many students asked. Rabbi Meth learned about one daf per day, so it took eight years. In terms of hours, there are 2,711 dapim in shas, but some dapim need more time, and others less. Indeed, while studying Shas, Rabbi Meth also au-

thored a number of books, including “The King Who Guards the Gate” on the laws and philosophy of mezuzah

and “Bedtime Reading for Briskers” on the parsha.

The first time he finished Shas, Rabbi Meth estimated, took around 6,000 hours, but this time took under 2,000. In other words, Gemara gets easier and easier the more familiar one becomes with it.

What impact did the siyum have on students? “It really made a roshem [an impression],” one parent wrote. Some students said that finishing Shas is now on their radar screen; even if they don’t start at once, they would like to achieve it at some point in their lives. Other students have begun to devote more time outside of class to their Torah learning.

This Siyum HaShas was Rabbi Meth’s third. The first two were celebrated in Yeshiva University, where Rabbi Meth studied for eleven years.

Did you know?

YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by three ex-PayPal employees.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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IVDU LI Hosts Special Guests

S

ophomores at Yeshiva University High School for Girls/Central spent their day of chesed at IVDU LI. The Central students brought an exciting activity that they completed collaboratively with the IVDU students. The students enjoyed the interactive experience of engaging in a creative and individualized craft activity. Once the students completed the project, the

pairs enjoyed playing card and board games. They also shared snacks and read books together.

The Central and IVDU students were sad to say goodbye and are looking forward to another get together in the near future. A special thank you to Ms. Zehava Moskowitz, sophomore grade dean, for chaperoning the trip.

Rebirth at the JCCI

JSL Sports Corner: Week 5

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T

he growth of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway community is no secret, with Inwood becoming one of the most popular destinations for young families looking for more-affordable housing options. Despite the large number of families having moved to Inwood, the shuls maintain their sense of community and friendliness. Bais Tefilla of Inwood, under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchus Weinberger, and Yesod Yosef, under the leadership of Rabbi Simcha Bondi, have brought a tremendous sense of achdus and community to the area.

Many people are unaware of the long history of Inwood’s Jewish community. The original Inwood shul, the JCCI, was also known as Congregation Beth Hadar and was founded in 1952. The original location was a home on Sheridan Blvd donated by Peninsula National Bank. The current location was dedicated in 1958.

However, in 2011, a horrific fire destroyed much of the building. Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, the founder of the Inwood Community Kollel, expended great efforts and mesiras nefesh to restore the building to its original glory. The beautiful new Bais Medrash and Simcha Hall were built

through his relentless efforts.

As Inwood has grown, its Marina neighborhood has expanded greatly over the past few years. In this short time, the JCCI has experienced a rebirth and tremendous growth, which has now led to the appointment of Rabbi Moshe Katz as the Mara D’asra.

Rabbi Katz is a musmach of Rav Henach Leibowitz, zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Chofetz Chaim and received shimush in psak halacha from Rav Usher David, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva of Emek Halacha. He was one of the founding deans of Yeshiva Day School of Las Vegas which was founded with nine children and expanded enrollment to nearly 300 students. Most recently, Rabbi Katz joined the Hanhallah of Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island.

This Shabbos, Parshas Ki Sisa, will be the Re-Inauguration Shabbos, with Rabbi Katz being officially installed as the new rabbi.

We invite families to join us for Shabbos or anytime to experience the warmth and comradery that is Inwood’s trademark. Our shul is bustling with activity and welcoming of all new neighbors and visitors!

For more information, email info@ thejcci.org.

his past week of JSL was super! There were some really close, dramatic games in the younger ages this week.

In K/P Soccer, Camp Funshine and The Rebbe’s Choice beat Simcha Day Camp and KolSave 2-1. In Football, The Designer’s Choice held off Krauss Dentistry 2-1 while the Rebbe’s Choice squeezed past PIP Printing 7-6.

3rd/4th Basketball featured a 2821 victory by Island Roofing over PEYD. RestoMax played tight defense to blow out Maidenbaum 27-9. In 5th grade basketball, The Triple Net Group coasted to a 40-12 victory over 5Towns Central. Wisnicki-Neuhauser crushed AutoClick 42-13.

In Middle School basketball, Gourmet Glatt put up 49 points in a win over John’s Automotive. JRM Development held off Home and Stone in a thrilling defensive match up: 18-12.

Both Hockey games were thrillers.

CNSLT roared back from a 2-0 early deficit to defeat Alpert and Associates 5-4. Believe and Achieve beat Executive Dry Cleaning 4-3.

MVPs Abie Steiner Ezra Moskowitz Avi Hirsh Isaac Belsky Max Reisz Yosef Packer Dovid Perl Tani Dancziger Netanel Kirschner Akiva Leibowitz Shaul Nathan Gavi Hirsch Eliyahu Zachter Rephael Klein Avi Moskowitz Tully Newman Eliezer Zachter Ari Pilavsky Eli Davidowitz

Men’s Recap The Men’s Division played Tuesday night this week.

Games of the Week In Football, Krauss Dentistry was up 1-0 but Dovid Perl led The Designer’s Choice to victory with the game-tying TD catch AND the game-winning catch! 2-1 final score.

In middle school basketball, JRM Development and Home and Stone were tied 12-12 after a tight, defensive-minded regulation. Ari Pilavsky scored all 6 points of overtime to secure the win for JRM. Basketball Fun Fact This year, Steph Curry became the NBA all-time leader in made 3-pointers. He has over 3,000 threes in his career and counting.

JSL can be contacted at 5townsJSL@gmail.com or via Whatsapp at 516-823-5878. More info can be seen at 5tjsl.com or on Instagram @5townsJSL

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The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

i-Shine Bake Sale Support i-Shine, Chai Lifeline’s afterschool program for children living with illness or loss in their family

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM At the home of Bonnie & Heshie Schertz 88 Margaret Ave, Lawrence Bake something delicious.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

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Join in celebration, as tens of thousands worldwide BE”H mark this watershed moment, and prepare to embark on the next journey through Mishnah Berurah.

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The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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STEM at Shulamith ECC

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T

he children at Shulamith ECC are budding scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. They had a wonderful opportunity to strengthen these skills as they participated in our recent Pre1A Loose Parts STEM challenge.

Loose parts have taken the early childhood world by storm. Programs like Shulamith ECC, which are known for implementing best practice, have been using loose parts with tremendous success.

Loose parts are exactly what they sound like: items that children can use in multiple ways. The Shulamith outdoor play space boasts multiple loose parts year-round including tree stumps, tires, cardboard tubes, kitchenware, wooden blocks and boards, and more. The children work together to use the loose parts to create their own play scenarios. As they think about how to construct their games, they are not only using their imagination and creativity, but they are planning like engineers, using math and science skills to measure, balance, and create simple machines.

Loose parts look different indoors but target similar curriculum areas. At the art center, the children

were offered multiple items including various size containers and boxes, string, pipe cleaners, buttons, beads, tape, and cardboard tubes.

The children explored the materials and then got to work on all sorts of things. Some girls designed a hamster house. Others built a music box, a beach complete with button shells, a computer, and a jack in the box. Transforming familiar items and repurposing them strengthens abstract thinking skills which are critical for reading and math. Working with loose parts also provides children with the opportunity to experience trial and error, learn to figure out what didn’t work and fix it and helps to develop persistence and resilience.

At Shulamith ECC we know that children need so many important skills to succeed in today’s fastpaced world. We provide our young students with a strong background in the important curriculum areas as well as “21st century skills”: creativity, problem solving, negotiation, compromising, and resilience.

We strive to create well rounded Bnot Yisrael who will, be”H, make valuable contributions to the world in every capacity.

4.5” x 11.25” The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Around the Community There was lots of simcha at Siach Yitzchok on Purim Katan

Tehillim Kollel is on its way to Lizensk

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718.705.7174 www.TehillimKollel.org Info@TehillimKollel.org

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Around the Community

Superbowl Ruach at HANC The children at Hebrew Academy of Nassau County Early Childhood Center learned about health this month and received visits from the school nurse and other health professionals for some hands-on learning

I

t has been an exciting week in HANC’s Samuel and Elizabeth Bass Golding Elementary School in West Hempstead. With the Super Bowl approaching, the ruach began with the children and staff wearing jerseys from their favorite teams, or any “Super” costume of their choice. The children enjoyed seeing which teams their friends cheer for and were also delighted by all the staff members that joined in on the fun. When the actual Super Bowl arrived, the school shared its own halftime show, featuring many students and staff members. Special thanks to Mrs. Daniella Hirt, Student Activities Coordinator, and Mrs. Lisa Lowy, Director of Admissions, for all of their hard work in producing this special child- appropriate entertainment.

The day after the Super Bowl, exhilarating cheers could be heard in the first grade hallway. The students have been preparing for their very own Math Olympics. The children were split into four teams, and each child wore clothing in the color of his/her team. The First Graders decorated their own paper torch, including the Olympic logo, and held their torches high as they marched with their teammates accompanied

by the Olympic parade music. When the children arrived in the lunchroom, they sat in teams and participated in three different Olympic events mixed with math. Mazal tov to all of the members of the white team, for scoring the most points.

Since everyone participated so nicely, all of the students were presented with an Olympic medal at the conclusion of the event.

Mrs. Dara Reiff, coordinator of the first grade team, reported that this was the second time this event has taken place. “Just like the Winter Olympics, this event takes place every four years. It is just fun for the children to compete and have fun and not even realize that they are practicing their math facts.”

It was evident for all that attended that this exciting program will be a memory from Elementary School in HANC that will remain with the children forever. The team effort to bring this program to fruition also included Mrs. Leah Freeberg, Morah Rivka Goldson, Ms. Deanna Fodera, as well as the gym teachers, Mr. Scott Krump and Mrs. Toby Assor, for sharing their equipment and being flexible with their class schedules. They all deserve to “take home the gold.”

Did you know?

There are over one billion YouTube users

YOSS Mechina students volunteered at the JCCRP

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Around the Community

Rabbi Teitelbaum, sixth grade rebbi, with a talmid at a recent siyum at Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island

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Gedolei Yisroel of Eretz Yisrael Led by Rav Chaim Kanievsky Grace Siyum on Machzor Sheini of Dirshu Daf HaYomi B’Halacha

By Chaim Gold

I

t happened so swiftly, literally from one second to the next. We were about to hear a drasha from one of the Gedolim when suddenly, we saw a commotion. Before we could even process what was happening, we heard the MC exclaim, in a voice shaking with emotion, “With trepidation and with hadras kavod we have the tremendous zechus to welcome and be mekabel panim Maran Sar HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita!”

What happened at that moment in the Mifal Hapayis Arena is indescribable. As soon as the holy countenance of Rav Chaim Kanievsky became visible, it was as if the roof of the entire massive stadium containing more than 12,000 people just blew off!

The place exploded in joy and song with the songs, “Od yenuven b’seivah” and “Tzahali v’roni yosheves Zion” reverberating from the rafters.

The simcha shel mitzvah, the zechus to see the venerated, elderly Gadol Hador, who, despite his advanced age and weakness, came to participate in and recognize the accomplishments of the rivavos alphei Yisrael lomdei Dirshu who have completed the entire six chalakim of Mishnah Berurah, simply defies description. So many eyes glistened with unshed tears at the chance to be in the same mechitza as the Sar HaTorah! The electricity in the room at the realization that Rav Chaim, despite his age and fragility, had come to be mechabed them, to honor them, and recognize their accomplishments was a palpable feeling that permeated the enormous arena.

As Rav Chaim looked around with his penetrating eyes, we all knew we were part of history.

Gedolei Yisrael From Across the Spectrum Attend and Address the Siyumim The remarkable Dirshu World Siyum in Eretz Yisroel celebrating the completion of the machzor sheini of Mishnah Berurah was a historic event that those who merited to attend will never forget. The truth is, it was not one singular event, rather they were world siyumim in the plural.

Even the largest indoor arena in Eretz Yisroel was too small to accommodate the massive crowds of lomdim seeking to attend. Therefore, two separate events were held at the same venue, one this past Thursday night and the second this past motzoei Shabbos.

Many leading, venerated Gedolim from Eretz Yisroel representing the entire cross section of Charedi Jewry attended. On Thursday night, in addition to Rav Chaim Kanievsky, the event was attended by HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shternbuch, shlita, Raavad of the Eidah Hacharedis; HaGaon Harav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Ateres Yisroel; the Vizhnnitzer Rebbe, shlita; the Alexsander Rebbe, shlita; the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Chaim Feinstein, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Shimon Galei, shlita; the Rachmastrivka Rebbe, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Meir Stern, shlita; and the sons of the Gerer Rebbe, shlita,

The Toldos Avrohom Yitzdivrei Elokim chaim said over by the Gedolim. chok Rebbe’s siyum was followed by the hadran and Rav Moshe Shternbuch: words of bracha from HaGaon Building the Most HaRav Yaakov Meir Stern, shlBeautiful Edifice in Olam ita. On motzoei Shabbos, the Habaah siyum was made by HaGaon One of the highlights of HaRav Moshe Shaul Klein, shlthe evening was the arrival of ita, Av Beis Din of Zichron Meir HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shter- and Rav of the Ohr Hachaim nbuch, shlita, Raavad of the neighborhood.

The hadran then was deEidah Hacharedis. Rav Moshe does not often attend major livered by Rav Shmuel Eliezer events such as this, and his Stern, Rav of Western Bnei and the Sanzer Rebbe, shlita, very presence attested to the Brak. Kaddish after the siyum who brought inspiring words importance he attaches to pro- was said with great feeling by of bracha from their respective moting limud halacha. the venerated Rosh Yeshiva of fathers. Rav Gershon Edelstein He said that Chazal uses Mir, Hagaon HaRav Yitzchok videotaped a special message a strong term to describe the Ezrachi, shlita. played at the event.

On motzoei Shabbos, many other leading luminaries of Klal Yisroel attended as well, including HaGaon HaRav Reuven Elbaz, shlita, Rosh Yeshivat Ohr Hachaim and a member of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah; HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron; the Modzhitzer Rebbe, shlita; the Boyaner Rebbe, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Don Segal, shlita, venerated Mashgiach; HaGaAs soon as the Kaddish was on HaRav Yitzchok Ezrachi, importance of learning halashlita; HaGaon HaRav Moshe cha daily. They say, “Whoever completed, the stadium eruptShaul Klein, shlita; HaGaon learns halachos every day is ed in simcha to celebrate the HaRav Shmuel Eliezer Stern, ‘muvtach,’ is assured, a place milestone. The upbeat, simshlita; and Rav Yaakov Co- in the World to Come.” He cha-filled songs, some comhen, a son of HaGaon HaRav related that he once heard posed especially for the siyum, Shalom Cohen, shlita, Rosh from the Brisker Rav that the raised the audience to elevatYeshivat Porat Yosef and Nasi word muvtach means it is ed levels of joy. Spontaneous of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei not a check, it is cash. “When dancing erupted in many parts HaTorah, who publicly read a Hashem says you are assured of the arena. At this siyum, it warm, powerful letter written a place in Olam Habaah you was not an uncommon sight can take it to the bank!” by his father. to see a Yid with Chassidish The atmosphere in the cavclothing dancing with a Litvish The Siyumim Yid with a down hat, holding ernous arena was one of gilu It was with bated breath the hand of another Yid withb’raadah, tremendous simcha and a simultaneous feeling of that the massive assemblage out a hat, grasping the hand of awe at being able to see and on Thursday night watched the a clearly Sephardic Jew who hear from the Gedolei and Zi- siyum of all six chalakim of was, in turn, holding the hand knei Hador of Eretz Yisroel. Mishnah Berurah take place. of a Yid with a knitted kippah.

The beautiful music and the The honor of completing the The achdus through Torah, the multi-piece orchestra with Mishnah Berurah was given to joyous dancing of Jews of all the leading baalei menagnim the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok types, celebrating limud haTosinging songs of deep inspi- Rebbe, shlita, who has strongly rah was a microcosm of Dirration and simcha that were advocated that all Chassidim shu’s mission to bring Torah fitting for such a maamad participate in the Daf HaYomi to all Jews, regardless of who uniquely complemented the B’Halacha program. they are and where they live.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

va, we should open 100. If they want to close 100 kollelim, we should open 1,000!”

The Alexander Rebbe and the Modzhitzer Rebbe The Alexander Rebbe was then asked to begin the new machzor. The Rebbe slowly started learning the first se’if in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim that begins by saying a person should get up like a lion in the morning to serve Hashem. The Shulchan Aruch goes on to say that when a person lies in bed, he should be cognizant of before Whom he is laying. The Rebbe asked, “Shouldn’t the laws of laying in bed be placed with the laws of kriyas Shema al hamittah, of going to sleep, not with the laws of waking up?”

He answered in the name of Rav Meir of Premishlan, “No! The way one wakes up in the morning is dependent on the way he goes to sleep the preceding night. If he goes to sleep like a lion, then he will be able to wake up like a lion! But, if he goes to sleep like a simple horse, he will not be able to wake up like a lion.”

On motzoei Shabbos, the beginning of the third machzor of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha was begun by the Modzhitzer Rebbe, shlita.

Rav Dovid Hofstedter: If They Want to Close One Yeshiva, We Should Open 100 Both on Thursday night and on motzoei Shabbos, the hadran was preceded by a riveting drasha given by the Nasi of Dirshu, Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita.

Rav Hofstedter began with a profound message of chizuk.

He said, “Sometimes people are afraid to undertake goals

in limud haTorah, thinking, ‘How am I going to learn one daf after another every single day? How am I going to be able to review so much, remember so much and then remember so well that I can be tested on it?’ We think that learning so much Gemara or halacha is beyond our abilities. Look at this week’s parsha wherein Bezalel was asked to build the Mishkan, to perform the precise work of an artisan with decades of experience working with pure gold and silver.

Who helped him? Yidden who had spent their entire lives as slaves building bricks and mortar, lime and pitch…and they did it! The message is that Hashem gives chochmai, but we have to do our part. We must invest every bit of effort possible and realize that if we really work hard, it is Hashem Who gives us the ability to acquire Torah on a scope and level that we never imagined!”

Rav Dovid, in both addresses, went on to express the pain of the Torah community over the fact that in many ways it is becoming increasingly difficult throughout the world to live a life as Torah Jews. Whether it is the anti-Semitism that is rearing its ugly head all over the world and that particularly targets visibly frum Jews, or the anti-religious decrees that the current Israeli government is trying to implement.

“The only eitzah,” Rav Dovid cried out with great passion, “is to fight the Amaleks of our time with mesiras nefesh!

To strengthen ourselves even more in learning Torah and halacha with all our strength.

If they want to close one yeshi-

The Power of Zikui Harabbim Another highlight of Thursday’s siyum was the arrival of the senior Rosh Yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi, shlita. “The Chofetz Chaim wanted to give us everything, halacha l’maaseh, bekius and lomdus, and he did it through writing the Mishnah Berurah and many other seforim.”

Rav Ezrachi remarked, “I don’t know if there was a greater mizakeh es harabbim in the last generations than the Chofetz Chaim.” Rav Ezrachi then said, “I think the person who continues in the path of the zikui harabbim of the Chofetz Chaim is my friend, Rav Dovid Hofstedter. He is empowering Yidden all over the world in unprecedented numbers to learn Torah at all levels!”

Three Venues for Women The massive Dirshu events at the Mifal Hapayis arena were for men, but the Dirshu women, the wives of lomdei Dirshu, and their integral role was not at all ignored. In fact, three major women’s events transpired in conjunction with the men’s events. The events were held at the Keter Harimon Hall in Bnei Brak, and two separate events at the large Binyanei Haumah Convention Center in Yerushalayim.

Although the events featured special women’s programming with divrei chizuk from prominent rebbetzins and a musical program that elevated them to

a higher plane, they were also able to participate in the major highlights of the men’s events by live video feed.

The impact of the women’s events was colossal and displayed the value that hanhalas Dirshu has for the integral role played by the heroic Dirshu women in enabling their husbands to acquire Torah at the highest levels.

Rav Reueven Elbaz: Nothing Can Stop the Fire A most powerful, emotional drasha was given on motzoei Shabbos by the famed Sephardic Gaon, Harav Reueven Elbaz, shlita. Rav Elbaz raised his eyes, looked around at the massive crowd and said, “Look at all the thousands who are here and the tens and hundreds of thousands of Dirshu learners who are not here.

Hashem is learning with each and every one of them! Nothing can stop the fire and enthusiasm of our lomdei Torah!”

Rav Dovid Cohen: A Maamid of Kabbolas HaTorah Hagaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, was greeted with an outpouring of song and adulation. In his remarks, he related that Rav Yitzchok Hutner once said that just like there was a kabbolas haTorah at Maamad Har Sinai, so too there was another kabbolas haTorah when the Shulchan Aruch was written. That was when Yidden accepted upon themselves to follow the halacha as codified in the Shulchan Aruch. In our times there was another kabbolas haTorah when the Chofetz Chaim wrote the Mish-

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nah Berurah.

“Today, as tens of thousands of Yidden are accepting upon themselves to begin the new machzor of Mishnah Berurah, we today are participating in in a colossal maamad of kabbolas haTorah!!”

Rav Don Segal: “Chazu, Chazu” In his drasha, the Mashgiach, HaGaon HaRav Don Segal, shlita, related a remarkable story that transpired with the Chofetz Chaim. There were once elections, and the Chofetz Chaim urged all frum people to vote for a certain frum candidate. People came to the Chofetz Chaim and told him, “There are simply not enough frum votes to get the candidate elected against the opposition.

Why is the Chofetz Chaim urging people to vote?”

The Chofetz Chaim replied, “You think my intention to vote is to be able to win the election?! No! I want to show the world how many thousands believe in Hashem! I want the kiddush Hashem of thousands declaring their emunah to reverberate throughout the world and make an awesome kiddush Hashem!”

As Rav Don looked lovingly at the many thousands in the packed arena, he exclaimed, “This night, this Siyum, is a tzaakah, a cry of kiddush Hashem is reverberating in heaven and earth and throughout the world. We say to Hashem here tonight, ‘Chazu, chazu, look Hashem, look Hashem at Your wonderful children who want nothing more than to learn your halacha so that they can serve you properly!”

Indeed, as the massive crowed exited the cavernous arena, one couldn’t help but notice the range of G-d fearing Jews exiting side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Black hats, up hats, down hats, shtreimels and spodeks, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, all united by the Torah that they learn under the banner of Dirshu, the organization that is a great unifier of Klal Yisroel in our times. Ashreichem!

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

TJH

Centerfold

Football Withdrawal Syndrome According to Loyola University Medical Center psychiatrist Dr. Angelos Halaris, millions of Americans are now suffering from “football withdrawal syndrome.” Dr. Halaris provides tips for sufferers, such as don’t go cold turkey – watch old football games in diminishing amounts and share your feelings of withdrawal and letdown with a friend or spouse. Well, here are some better tips for those suffering from FWS from the Centerfold Commissioner: Introduce yourself to the women and children that you find inside your house...they are your wife and kids.

Think about how long the off-season is. Now think about how long the off-season will be for Bengals QB Joe Burrow and count your blessings.

When your kids talk to you, act like you are Bill Belichick talking to the media.

Change the lightbulb that your wife has been “constantly” reminding you about every six months.

Get into basketball and watch the Knicks. They will win at least 12 games this season…which wouldn’t be bad if they were a football team.

If you are a Jets fan, meditate to the numbers 4 and 13… Because that was your team’s record last year and will likely be their record next year.

I’M PUZZLED

The below is a number puzzle.

It should be read left to right, top to bottom.

1 11 21 1211 111221 ?????? ????????

What are the next two rows of numbers?

Invite your friend over and tell him that you want to hear all the stories he has been telling you on Sunday nights (i.e., about the time he was stuck in traffic for two hours; how his cleaners lost his favorite shirt, etc.) because they sounded so interesting during the final drive of football games all season that you just want to hear them again.

Go to the gym and work off the 20 pounds of chili you ate during the season…so that when next season comes around you can put 20 pounds back on.

Read a book. (Start with Dr. Seuss and work your way up to Curious George. By that time, the next football season will certainly be upon us.)

Gather all the pairs of socks from behind the couch.

(Make sure to wear your Hazmat suit, please.)

Consider getting into alternative sports such as competitive eating. You are probably a natural at it.

Answer: 312211 13112221

*

Line 1 is “Two ones” (2 1) Line 2 then becomes “One two, and one one” (1 2 1 1) Line 3 therefore is “One one, one two and two ones” (1 1 1 2 2 1) Line 4 is “Three ones, two twos and one one” (3 1 2 2 1 1) Line 5 is “One three, one one, two twos and two ones” (1 3 1 1 2 2 2 1)

1.

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Great Sports Trivia 1. On September 18, 2006, the Dodgers trailed San Diego 9-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning.

They ended up winning the game in a walk-off two-run homer by Nomar Garciapara in the bottom of the 10th. How did the Dodgers catch up in the 9th inning? a. With 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th, Sandy Alomar hit a grand slam. b. Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson hit back to back, to back to back home runs. c. The Dodgers went around the batting order twice with no player hitting more than a single. d. The San Diego pitchers walked twelve batters.

2. In Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Knicks were up, 105-99, with 18.7 seconds left. Over the next 8 seconds, how many points did Reggie Miller score? a. 4 b. 6 c. 8 d. 9 3. Everyone knows what happened in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the World Series when Boston’s first baseman Bill Buckner attempted to file a dribbler by Mookie Wilson and it slipped right through his legs. What did Mr. Buckner say in an interview with WBZ-TV’s Don Shane several days before that World Series began? a. “I don’t need to be a hero; I just want to hit for a .400 average.” b. “I guarantee we will bring the World Series trophy back to

Boston.” c. “We may not be the best hitters, but we certainly are the best fielders.” d. “The dreams are that you’re gonna have a great Series and win. The nightmares are that you’re gonna let the winning run score on a ground ball through your legs. Those things happen, you know. I think a lot of it is just fate.”

feet onto the court and bumped into a UNC player. b. Chris Webber called timeout, but Michigan had no timeouts remaining. c. Michigan’s center drew a 3 second violation and argued with the ref. d. Chris Webber drove to the basketball, was called for offensive foul, and then punched a UNC player in frustration.

4. With 30 seconds left in the 1972 AFC divisional playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders, and with the Steelers trailing, Terry Bradshaw threw a pass to John Fuqua, who was immediately hit and lost possession of the ball. As the ball fell towards the ground, Steelers fullback Franco Harris scooped it up and ran for a gamewinning touchdown.

What is the name given to the catch? a. Immaculate Reception b. The Hail Mary c. The Catcher and the Rye d. The Steel Town Miracle

6. On June 2, 2010, at Comerica Park in Detroit, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga nearly became the 21st pitcher in Major League history to throw a perfect game. After retiring the first 26 batters, he faced the final batter. What happened? a. He hit the batter with a pitch. b. The batter hit the longest homerun ever at Comerica Park – 542 feet. c. The batter hit a routine groundball and was clearly thrown out at first, but the umpire called the batter safe (and later tearfully apologized for his error). d. He walked the batter, Jason Donald, after a 17-pitch duel (during which Donald fouled 9 pitches).

5. In the 1993 NCAA Championship game, Michigan’s “Fab 5,” led

by Chris Webber, were the clear favorites. With 31 seconds (plenty of time in college hoops), they were down by a bucket (73-71) to University of North Carolina.

However, Michigan was called for a technical foul and wound up losing the game. What happened? a. Michigan’s coach walked three

7. In 2008, the Giants, who were heavy underdogs against the Patriots (who had gone 18 and 0 that season), defeated the Patriots in the final drive of the game. Who caught the winning touchdown in that game? a. Plaxico Burress b. David Tyree c. Amani Toomer d. Jeremy Shockey

31 77

Answers: 1. B 2. D 3. D 4. A 5. B 6. C 7. A Scorecard: 5-7 correct: You are a buzzer beater!; 3-4 correct: Not bad, but I ain’t putting the rock in your hand as time winds down.; 0-2 correct: You don’t know much about finishing games, just like Cincinnati!

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

3

Torah Thought

Parshas Ki Sisa

By Rabbi Berel Wein

T

he sin of the Golden Calf remains one of the great mysteries in the story of the Jewish people throughout the ages. Flooded with miracles on all sides, unbelievably redeemed from Egyptian bondage, and being sustained daily in a desert, the Jewish people somehow revert to idolatry and paganism. As

illogical as this is, it is, nevertheless, not as surprising as later generations may assess the events.

Human beings are not only influenced, but, to a greater extent, are limited and bound by the norms of the general society in which they exist. How can millions of North Koreans weep at the death of someone

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who was a tyrant and a murderer over them? Yet that is exactly what happened when the two previous Kingdoms finally passed from this earth.

It is exceedingly difficult to maintain one’s individual beliefs, no matter how correct and logical they may be, in the face of contrary opinion held by the majority general society.

There was a phrase in Yiddish that translates as “the general society is malleable and foolish.” Even the most outlandish of ideas – such as paganism itself – somehow will gain traction, even amongst intelligent people, if it is somehow the prevailing attitude that permeates the general soci-

king that if he is such a scholar, how could he follow idolatry and allow it to be rampant in the Jewish kingdom that he ruled? Achov answered: “If you would have lived in my generation, you would have picked up the hem of your robe in order to run more quickly to serve that false idol.”

We look back at so many false idols and beliefs that litter the landscape of human history and especially those of Western civilization. We wonder how people could have been so naïve and foolish and so wrong about such basic matters of faith and perspective. Yet we ourselves live in a society dominated by what we realize to be false ideas,

To be a Jew requires a great moral strength and fortitude.

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ety. In a world of belief and sacrifice for paganism, it is not that difficult to understand that this should affect the Jewish people as well, in spite of their own personal and national history of monotheism, miracles and G-dly deliverance.

The Talmud records that one of the great rabbis of the time saw the wicked king Achov in one of his dreams.

The rabbi asked the tyrant for his help in answering a question in Jewish law, over which the rabbis of the study hall were struggling. The king answered promptly and correctly, as to what the law is according to Jewish tradition.

The rabbi in wonderment asked the

bad policies, and the foolish denial of facts and realities, let alone the obvious lessons of history and tradition.

We know, for instance, that cancel culture is wrong, evil, and counterproductive to the human spirit and belief. Nevertheless, we are all careful not to say and certainly not to publish what we know to be true, because of our trepidation that we will somehow be canceled because of it.

To be a Jew requires a great moral strength and fortitude. We have not always been able to swim against the current tide, and, tragically, we always pay a price for that failing.

Shabbat shalom.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

From the Fire Parshas Ki Sisa

Raising Holy Tablet Breakers

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

O

ur parsha contains a lesson regarding what it means to grow up. Every year, it is so hard to read the story of the Golden Calf and the breaking of the Tablets, the luchos. How could the Jewish people have possibly fallen so far so soon after personally hearing Hashem’s voice on Sinai merely because of a slight perceived delay in Moshe’s return from the mountain?

One way we can understand it is through the lens of the Kuzari by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, zy”a. He explains that the root of the people’s sin was not actually idol worship. Rather, their mistake was that they attempted to channel their faith in G-d into something which they could feel and touch.

This desire, while misguided, is understandable and natural. The reality is that it is very difficult to talk to and serve a G-d we cannot see. In one of my shiurim at yeshiva a few years ago, I asked the boys: “What is more difficult: davening or learning?” They all answered that davening was more difficult. I asked them why. One young man asked me if I was sure I wanted to hear the truth. I confirmed that I did.

He answered, “It is so hard to daven because I feel like I am just talking to the wall.” The desire to see and feel Hashem’s presence is very strong because it is truly difficult to internalize Hashem’s presence before us when we cannot see Him. That is why the Kuzari explains that “the intention of the nation was not to depart from the service of G-d. Rather, they believed that they were working toward the service [of G-d].” They were really saying (Mechilta D’Rabbi Yishmael, Yisro, 2), “Our desire is to see our King!”

The truth is that what the Jewish people went through is the paradigm

for the growing pains every person experiences when he grows up. That is the path from spiritual immaturity to spiritual adulthood. The Torah tells us (Shemos 32:16), “The luchos were the work of G-d, and the writing was the writing of G-d.” Everything came from G-d. And in reality, nothing could be greater than that. But as a person grows to spiritual maturity, he begins to wonder, “Where am I in all of this?” We felt like children whose parents did everything for them. That is wonderful, but as children mature, they will never feel like whole human beings until they begin creating a life for themselves by making their own choices.

Moshe descended from Sinai and saw the people dancing around the work of their own hands. He recognized that a mature nation can only rejoice in spiritual accomplishments it makes on its own. The Jewish people were like children who rejected that which their parents gave them.

Moshe saw that, in the end, forcing us to accept the Torah (Shabbos 88a) simply did not work. That is why he threw down “the work of G-d” and

“the writing of G-d.” And Hashem acknowledged that Moshe did the right thing when He said (ibid. 87a), “You acted correctly by breaking [the luchos].”

We have never had a generation of children when parents were able to give more to their children. We give them everything, including the beliefs and the Torah life of our fathers and mothers. But our children continue to rebel like in previous generations. It is apparent that the problem is not a failure to bring down more Yiddishkeit on our children from above. At some point in their lives, they must make Torah their own. And in order to do so, they feel that they have no choice but to shatter the luchos given to them by their parents.

There are so many ways to serve G-d within the parameters of Yiddishkeit. But we must understand that many of those will not coincide with the exact brand of Yiddishkeit we feel most comfortable in or in which we raise our children. They must blaze their own path in the service of G-d.

Only then will they feel ownership of it. Only then will it last forever like the

second set of luchos which Moshe, not Hashem, carved.

The root of this principle is the fact that (Menachos 99b) “the foundation of the Torah is its nullification.”

While the Jewish people stumbled and sinned grievously by building the Golden Calf, their attempt to fashion their own way in the service of G-d was actually a step toward a more mature, ground-up way of serving G-d.

So, too, when our children stumble in their efforts to forge their own identity, independent from the way we raised them, we pray that they eventually will find a path within Yiddishkeit that they have taken personal ownership of, which belongs to them.

We also find this underlying concept in halacha. When a father redeems his first-born son from the Kohein (the pidyon haben), he makes a festive meal because the child is transitioning from the sanctity of being set aside for holiness to the more permissive mundane life of a regular Jew. But why is this a reason to celebrate? It sounds more like a reason to mourn! The child is going from a state of holiness, with which he was born, to a lower state, one in which he will have to eventually be involved in humdrum physical life. The answer must be that a state of holiness which only exists because one is born with it is like the first luchos which came from G-d. It is wonderful, but it is not the ultimate goal. The pidyon haben ceremony is like Moshe’s breaking of the luchos. It signifies the transition from a G-d-given, unearned Yiddishkeit to one in which a person will work to find his own way toward Hashem’s service.

The breaking of the luchos brings about a tremendous loss of the Torah which came before. But ulti-

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

mately, “the nullification of Torah is its foundation” because that is what gives us the power to choose and toil in Torah, to find the sanctity of Torah for ourselves. It enables us to fashion a path within Yiddishkeit that we have made with our own hands.

That is what it means to leave the sanctity of G-d’s womb and enter a mundane human life which belongs to us. The Yiddishkeit we choose has much more staying power than the Yiddishkeit handed to us.

The Ibn Ezra explains, in the name of the Gaonim, that the second luchos were greater than the first because they were carved by Moshe. They correspond to the Oral Torah, in which we discover and derive the Torah’s teachings on our own. Because we work out the Torah’s message inch by inch, word by word, on our own, it belongs to us.

We acquire it. It is ours. “At the beginning, [the Torah] is called in the name of Hashem, but in the end, it is called in his name [the name of the one who studied it]” (Avodah Zara 19a).

The pre-Golden Calf Torah which comes purely from above does not last. When we mature, we must break the luchos which are the work of Hashem’s “hands” and build our own personal relationship with G-d from the ground up.

Along these lines, the Baal Ha-

The Yiddishkeit we choose has much more staying power than the Yiddishkeit handed to us.

turim offers an amazing explanation of the pasuk regarding the relationship between Yaakov and Yosef, which the Torah (Bereishis 37:3) explains as “because he was a son of his old age [zekeinim].” The Baal Haturim says that the word for old age, zekeinim, lacks the letter Vav. According to this

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never gave over to Yosef. And that is Taharos, the laws regarding that which is holy. A parent can give over all of the “do’s” and “don’ts” to a child.

But he cannot transmit holiness to the child. That is something the child must discover and attain on his own according to his own path in Yiddish-

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keit, a path he acquires himself.

Parents must have the wisdom, gentleness, and patience to give their children the luchos of their beliefs, of their love, and of their own sacrifice for Hashem and Torah. But at the same time, they must have the flexibility, humility, and broad-mindedness to encourage them to forge their own path in Yiddishkeit. That is true wisdom.

May all of us merit to raise our children in this way, and may we merit to see our children successfully fashion a path in Yiddishkeit that belongs to them so that every generation will continue rising higher than the one before, each in its own unique way.

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.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Self-Mastery Academy

The “Final Stage” of the Challenge

By Rabbi Shmuel Reichman

U

ntil now, we’ve spoken about the empowering nature of challenges, discussing how the purpose of a challenge, as the Ramban explains, is to push us to actualize our latent potential, to transform our koach (potential) into po’al (actual). However, there is one last level of nisayon which requires clarification. To address it, we must ask an important question: Why do ordeals sometimes seem impossible, far beyond one’s ability? There is a well-known principle that Hashem only sends someone a test they can overcome. But is this true? Does Hashem ever send us a test which is simply too hard to overcome? If so, how are we expected to overcome such a test?

According to the Ramban’s explanation, an ordeal is beyond our current level but within our capacity to overcome. The nisayon pushes us to actualize our potential, helping us achieve a level we would otherwise not realize we are capable of.

While the Ramban suggests that a test is within one’s capacity, the very Hebrew word for a test suggests otherwise. The root of the word nisayon is neis, the Hebrew word for miracle.

A miracle is that which is beyond the realm of the natural, requiring Divine intervention. We are therefore left with two seemingly contradictory views. Either a nisayon is within one’s capacity, which means that it is not truly a miracle if one overcomes it, or it does require a miracle to overcome, in which case it is not within one’s capacity. Furthermore, if a challenge is beyond one’s capacity, thus requiring Hashem’s miraculous intervention, how can one be expected to overcome the challenge? How

can Hashem give us an ordeal which we cannot (naturally) overcome?

Achieving the Impossible There are three levels of potential ability and understanding these three levels is the key to understanding the true nature of a nisayon: • The first level of ability is the level you are currently on, what you are capable of at this very moment, without any external or internal pressure.

• The second level is what you are capable of reaching but only if you are pushed to your fullest potential. While this level may seem out of reach to your current self, in truth, it isn’t, for when pushed to the extreme, you realize that it was there all along, waiting to become expressed. This is the level the Ramban refers to.

• The third level goes beyond this, into the realm of the impossible. This is the level that we cannot reach, regardless of how much we are pushed or the degree of pressure. Even if an entire herd of bulls was stampeding

towards the high jumper, he would not be able to clear a fifty-foot fence.

This third level is the deepest expression of nisayon, where the spiritual challenge is truly impossible. On our own, we cannot overcome this level of nisayon, no matter how hard we try. But our job is not to overcome the challenge; our job is simply to push ourselves as hard as we possibly can, to the borders of our personal limit, and trust that Hashem will carry us the rest of the way. Our job is put in maximum hishtadlus (personal effort) and trust that the miraculous results will come from Hashem.

Let us illustrate this idea. Imagine that Hashem tells you to walk to the edge of a cliff and then jump across a chasm to the mountain on the other side. Even when pushed to your fullest potential, you can only jump nine feet and the mountain is ten feet away. Under natural circumstances, you would fall short and tumble into the abyss.

But Hashem says, “Jump the nine feet and trust Me; I will carry you the

last foot.” The challenge is not about making it to the other side – it’s about taking the courageous leap. Your job is to walk to the edge of the cliff and jump; Hashem will carry you the rest of the way.

This is the meaning behind the Ramchal’s statement in Mesilas Yesharim, “Techilaso avodah v’sofo gemul,” the beginning is toil, but the end is a gift (from Hashem). In reality, no amount of work that we put in entitles us to the results and rewards we receive. But this is how Hashem designed the world: when we put in the effort and connect ourselves to Hashem, Hashem gives us with the rest, giving us more than we could ever imagine. Similarly, the Gemaraexplains that every day our yetzer hara tries to overcome us, battling us with renewed strength, and if not for Hashem’s help, we would not be able to resist it. On our own, we cannot overcome our yetzer hara, but once we commit to battling our lower drive, Hashem intervenes and allows us to overcome it, “carrying us the rest of the way.”

A True Banner What results when such an impossible nisayon is overcome, when you arrive on the other side, having successfully made the ten-foot jump?

The people around you bear witness to someone who lives by faith, who has absolute bitachon (trust) in Hashem. They see your willingness to take an impossible jump for the sake of Hashem, trusting Him to carry you through. By putting your life in Hashem’s hands, you express your belief that your life is always in Hashem’s hands.

When an onlooker perceives this

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

event, in addition to seeing your faith in Hashem, they witness a revelation of Hashem in this world. Not only do they see you jump into the unknown and amazingly overcome this impossible test, but they also see Hashem miraculously carry you through. Your act has brought a manifestation and revelation of Hashem into this world, the ultimate kiddush Hashem (sanctification of G-d’s name). By seeing your willingness to take the jump, and then witnessing you succeed, they see the miraculous Yad Hashem (Hand of G-d), and your very existence now proclaims Hashem’s existence and hashgachah (providence) in this world!

The Gemara explains that this why we associate Hashem’s Name with the Avos; three times a day in Shemonah Esrei, we say: “Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzchak, v’Elokei Yaakov” (The G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak, and the G-d of Yaakov). Avraham passed his ten tests, Yitzchak overcame the Akeidah, and Yaakov lived a life of constant challenge and hardship. By

undergoing and passing their impossible tests, they brought an awareness of Hashem’s presence and hashgachah into the world. They therefore merit to be identified with Hashem’s Name, a testament to their greatness in revealing and manifesting Hashem in this world.

consider what potential they have yet to fulfill, and to work towards achieving their own greatness as well. When we undergo a challenge, we have the opportunity to become a leader, to inspire others, and to reveal Hashem’s presence in this world. We can use the challenges we overcome to help

Our job is simply to push ourselves as hard as we possibly can, to the borders of our personal limit, and trust that Hashem will carry us the rest of the way.

The Rambam builds upon this idea and explains that ordeals give leaders, such as Avraham Avinu, the opportunity to reveal their tremendous potential and greatness to the world around them. This inspires others to look deeper within themselves, to

inspire others to persevere and fight through their own trials and tribulations. Through Avraham’s success in overcoming his own challenges, he inspired generations upon generations of people to emulate his emunah (faithfulness) and come closer to Hashem.

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The world looks to those of spiritual greatness to learn how to overcome their own challenges.

Rabbi Shmuel Reichman is an author, educator, speaker, and coach who has lectured internationally on topics of Torah, psychology, and leadership. He is the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy, the transformative online self-development course that is based on the principles of high-performance psychology and Torah.

After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree from Yeshiva University, he received semicha from RIETS, a Master’s degree in Jewish Education from Azrieli, and a Master’s degree in Jewish Thought from Revel. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago and has also spent a year studying at Harvard as an Ivy Plus Exchange Scholar.

To find more inspirational content from Rabbi Reichman, to contact him, or to learn more about Self-Mastery Academy, visit his website: ShmuelReichman.com.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

BUILDING BLOCKS OF ETERNITY Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s new capital project will encompass a Mesivta Beis Medrash and its first-ever Residence Hall.

BEIS MEDRASH + CLASSROOM BUILDING Will serve 500 talmidim in grades 8-11 34,200 Total square feet 4 Stories 5200 sq. feet Beis Hamedrash for Mesivta 12 Classrooms

RESIDENCE HALL Will serve 271 talmidim in Mesivta & Yeshiva Gedolah 43,000 Total square feet 4 Stories 68 Dormitory Rooms 271 Beds 4 Student Lounges

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The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

T H E S E V I S I O N A R I E S H AV E A L R E A DY S T E P P E D F O R WA R D. W I L L YO U J O I N T H E M ?

MR. & MRS. BERISH & HANNAH FUCHS

THE BIVETSKY FAMILY SHAAR HATORAH

MR. & MRS. YUSSIE & SUSAN OSTREICHER

RESIDENCE HALL AND TORAH CENTER

‫ה ליב ע”ה‬-‫לע”נ שלום ראובן בן ארי‬

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Dedication Wall Mesivta Beis Medrash Building

Lobby, Mesivta Beis Medrash Building

‫לע”נ נחמן יהודה בן יעקב דוד ע”ה‬ ‫ואשתו לאה בת יהודה אשר ע”ה‬ ‫ולע”נ יעקב ליב בן שלמה ע”ה‬

Dedication of Rosh Kollel’s Office

MR. & MRS. MOTTY & HADASSA JACOBOWITZ Promenade Vestibule

Beis Medrash Vestibule Entrance

MR. & MRS. URI & ESTHER KAUFMAN

‫לע”נ זעליג בן מרדכי ע”ה‬ ‫לע”נ משה אלעזר בן נטע שלום ע”ה‬ ‫לע”נ דוד בן משה ע”ה‬ ‫הר‘ משה נתן בן יחזקאל ע”ה‬ ‫וישראל בן אברהם ע”ה‬ ‫לע”נ‬

‫לע”נ ישראל הלוי לעווין ע”ה‬ ‫ואלישבע בתיה קפלן ע”ה‬

The children, bochurim, and all 45 neshamos of the Miron tragedy, Lag Baomer 5781

MR. & MRS. CHAIM & BRACHA SCHULHOF MR. & MRS. NISSAN & SARAH GITTY PROFESORSKE

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Ner Tamid

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In Memory of Mrs. Marta Schron ‫ע” ה‬

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Entranceway to Mesivta Beis Medrash Building

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Cornerstone, Mesivta Beis Medrash Building

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Delving into the Daf

Who is Obligated?

By Rabbi Avrohom Sebrow

T

he very first Mishna in Chagigah discusses those who are obligated to make the thrice-yearly pilgrimage to the Beis Hamikdash. The Mishna clearly states that the rule is that everyone is obligated except those specifically listed.

Tosfos comments that the rule is that one cannot follow every rule. Tosfos notes that the Gemara (4a) lists a few types of professionals (e.g., a tanner) that are exempt from aliyah l’regel.

Yet, those exemptions are not listed in the Mishna. Hence, Tosfos surmises that the rule is that every rule has unlisted exemptions – even this one.

One possible requirement to be obligated in aliyah l’regel that is not listed in the Mishna is that one must own land in Eretz Yisrael. To be sure, this requirement is the subject of much debate. (See Pesachim 8b, and the Meiri and Tzlach there.) However, one cannot prove either side of the debate from our Mishna, because Tosfos says that there are unlisted exemptions. Perhaps, one who does not own land in Eretz Yisrael is, in fact, exempt, yet the Mishna chose not to list it, just as it didn’t list a tanner as being exempt.

From Tosfos in Bava Basra it would seem that for the vast majority of the Jewish nation, this requirement is most certainly met. (See the Turei Even regarding geirim.) Every family owns a piece of land in Eretz Yisrael even if they can’t identify it. Hashem gave the Jewish nation the land of Israel as an eternal inheritance, so every family owns their ancestral land somewhere in Israel. When Moshiach comes, speedily in our days, all the land in Israel will be returned to the rightful owners. Indeed, this fact may have some interesting halachic consequences. Some advise that one should not pick his own Arba Minim in Israel for use on the first day of Sukkos.

It may be considered tantamount to

first-degree theft. (Inadvertent second-degree theft for this halacha would be okay. A detailed explanation is beyond the scope of this article.)

Tosfos in Chagigah does not mention the requirement to own land. He cites the requirement in Pesachim (3b) in reference to the following story: There was a non-Jew who would go to Yerushalayim every year disguised as a Jew and partake of the Korban Pesach. One year, he boasted to Rabbi Yehudah ben Besaira that although the Torah prohibits a nonJew from eating the korban Pesach, he eats it every year. Rabbi Yehudah ben Besaira asked him whether he ever ate the fatty tail. When the nonJew answered that he had not, Rabbi Yehudah ben Besaira slyly told him that the next time he joins a group for the korban Pesach he should ask for that part.

The next Pesach, the non-Jew indeed asked for the tail. He complained that he paid as much as all the others in the group and didn’t get the best part. The other members of the group were surprised at this request since the korban Pesach is a sheep and the tail is burnt on the Mizbai’ach. They asked him to identify the person who told him to ask for the tail. He

responded that it was Rabbi Yehudah ben Besaira.

The members of the group realized that there was something fishy going on. They investigated and discovered his true identity, and he was never again able to disguise himself as a Jew. They sent a message to Rabbi Yehudah ben Besaira, “Peace to you, Rabbi Yehudah ben Besaira! You sit in Netzivin, and your net is spread in Yerushalayim.”

Whereupon Tosfos asks, why didn’t Rebbi Yehuda ben Besaira himself travel to the Beis Hamikdash?

Tosfos offers a number of answers including that he was too old to make the trip. Yet, interestingly, Tosfos also suggests that Rebbe Yehuda ben Besaira did not own any land in Israel, and therefore he was exempt from making the pilgrimage. This is surprising. According to Tosfos in Bava Basra, every Jew owns land in Israel!

An intriguing answer is cited in the name of the Vilna Gaon. On Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach, we read the haftorah from the 37th perek of Yechezkel. It discusses a valley of dried human bones that were miraculously resurrected. The Gemara in Sanhedrin (92b) cites a dispute if the incident recorded in Tanach actually took

place or if it was a vision that Yechezkel saw in a prophetic state. An opinion there states that, indeed, the very old bones did come to life. They even moved to Israel, married, and had children. Rav explains that the bones belonged to members of the tribe of Ephraim. During the enslavement in Egypt, they made a tragic erroneous miscalculation. They thought that the time for the redemption had already arrived. Therefore, they left Egypt before the correct time. Unfortunately, they were massacred. These individuals received a second chance at life when many years later they were resurrected.

Rebbe Yehuda Ben Besaira opines that the opinion that the bones came back to life, moved to Israel, and married is correct. He states that, in fact, he is actually descended from those very people! Moreover, his grandfather gave him a pair of tefillin that were used by the resurrected people!

The Gra explains that now it is understandable why Rebbe Yehuda Ben Besaira did not have a share in the land of Israel. Israel was apportioned to those who left Egypt at the right time. Alternatively, it was apportioned to those that actually arrived in Israel. Those members of Ephraim who left early never received a share in Eretz Yisrael. Rebbe Yehuda Ben Besaira, who, by his own account, descended from them, likewise did not have a share in Eretz Yisrael. Tosfos suggests that perhaps that was the reason he was not obligated to make the pilgrimage to the Beis Hamikdash.

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 Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Israel Today

Testing Positive

By Rafi Sackville

E

veryone seems to have a Covid story to tell. We’ve all been witness to its lack of discrimination, its carnage, to its victims.

Over the last two years, my wife and I have diligently followed Israeli government regulations. When we were told to stay at home, we did; when the vaccination arrived in Israel, we received it on the first possible day; when the booster shots were offered, we took them without question. For two years we eluded the virus, until one day I didn’t.

By now, readers should be aware that I work in a high school. It’s an environment that can best be likened to a petri-dish. If there’s something out there, it’s going to be found in school.

Not everyone is properly focused when it comes to wearing masks. Unfortunately, not everyone cares.

By the beginning of February, the infection rate in our school was growing rapidly. Teachers and students were “falling” like veritable flies. Including the administrative staff and maintenance, my colleagues number just over sixty souls. Within a threeweek period, almost fifteen came down with the virus. This was in line with the Ministry of Health’s prediction that a third of all school bodies would be infected. The country was about to break an ignominious record of serious Covid cases, and the number of cases throughout the country was rising.

I had been sick twice during January with flu-like symptoms. On both occasions, I drove to the Terem/Magen David Adom station and took a PCR test.

On the first occasion, I arrived at 7:30 a.m. The attendant told me I was early as they were only going to open at 8:00. While I was waiting, he approached me again.

“Because you’re considered an old person [he used the word kashish, which in Hebrew denotes someone very old], we’re going to open up early just for you.”

I might be approaching sixty-five, but kashish! Didn’t that make me feel special?!

Those two tests were both negative, which didn’t make me feel any better, what with a sore throat and general fatigue. Once I came down with a severe case of the shakes. As a result, I stayed home twice during January, both times with a fever and a sore throat.

I thought I was feeling better. So upon returning to school after my first bout of flu, I walked into the principal’s secretary and asked her to give me a Rapid Antigen Test. It, too, was negative. I therefore assumed that upon returning to school after my second bout of flu-like symptoms I would test the same.

The principal’s secretary can act hysterically at the calmest of times.

She’d administered the test so often she was doing it by rote. She wasn’t paying attention to the kit when I asked her about the two lines I was looking at. She began a’yellin’ and a’hollerin’.

“Get out of my office! You’ve got Corona. Get out!” I thought she liked me.

I went back to take a PCR test… again. This time I mistakenly left with one of the usher’s telephone. It rang just as I walked into our apartment. It was the same guy who’d called me kashish a week and a half earlier.

“Hey, kashish,” he said. “Please bring me my phone.”

“I will if you don’t call me kashish,” I replied.

“Hey, man. You are what you are.”

So I went back…again.

Later that night, I received notification that I had officially tested positive. Thus began six days at home.

I have a few takeaways from that week that was. Firstly, I am grateful that our health services provided Israeli citizens vaccinations and boosters shots in a timely manner. I perish the thought of what might have happened to me two years ago without the vaccination.

Secondly, even primitive contact tracing works. Despite the fact that increased testing vigilance has resulted in an increase in the number of cases, it has allowed schools to have greater control over their student bodies.

For example, if a student tests positive, a message will go out informing the entire school body of when he/she was last in school, in attendance in which classes, and who should subsequently get tested.

The 7th of February was a Sunday.

On that day, 17,000 students across the country were found positive after taking a Rapid Antigen Test at home.

Critics were vociferous in suggesting that such testing vigilance was going to crash the entire school system. The Minister of Education’s response to the number was: “Can you imagine what would have happened had those 17,000 students been allowed to attend school?” A fair point.

Thirdly, not getting vaccinated has proven unwise. People falling very ill across the country are predominantly – although not exclusively – unvaccinated. I remain struck by the ob-

stinance of many people. One’s right to act independently while avoiding health risks should not be mutually exclusive. Then again, trusting one’s government is not something that all citizens take for granted.

Fourthly, wearing masks has got nothing to do with politics. Closed environments like school are rife with floating, unseen dangers. Asking students to mask-up is a matter of logic: a basic health requirement. Unfortunately, there are many students who couldn’t be bothered to mask-up for no other reason than they couldn’t be bothered.

Last, but not least, even after being vaccinated and boosted, coming down with Covid is not a pleasant experience.

It was like drinking a non-alcoholic beer; you know it’s a beer, but the side effects are minimal, even non-existent. My breathing wasn’t affected, but I was weak, had the occasional shake, and a headache. I also suffered a residual tiredness for days after I returned to work.

The number of students and teachers on sick leave is slowly returning to manageable levels. I have completely recovered and feel blessed to have come out the other end unscathed.

The worst memory of the experience was being called kashish. I guess that’s something I’ll have to live with.

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

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Jewish History

FDR’s Jewish Problem – And Its Japanese Link

by Rafael Medoff

N

ext week marks the 80th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fateful decision to round up more than 130,000 Japanese Americans and hold them in detention camps, on the grounds that they might be spies for Japan.

What does FDR’s mass internment of the Japanese have to do with his response to the Holocaust?

More than you might think.

President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, issued on February 19, 1942, authorized the War Department to designate parts of the country “military areas,” from which “alien enemies” would be “excluded.” All individuals of Japanese ancestry were considered potential “enemies” simply because of their ethnic background.

Roosevelt explained his view of Asians in series of articles in the 1920s, shortly before he was elected governor of New York. Writing in Asia magazine in 1923, he sympathized with what he said was the widespread view “that the mingling of white with oriental blood on

an extensive scale is harmful to our future citizenship.”

Two years later, in an article for the Macon Daily Telegraph (for which he was a regular columnist), FDR asserted: “Anyone who has traveled in the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results.” The future president warned that “Japanese immigrants are not capable of assimilation into the American population.”

Following the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, some of President Roosevelt’s military advisers began pushing for mass detention of Japanese Americans on the grounds that, as Secretary of War Stimson put it, “their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand or trust [them].” FDR’s belief that “Japanese immigrants are not capable of assimilation” contributed to his willingness to take such a radical step.

Roosevelt’s perspective also helps explain why he authorized the

roundup of Japanese Americans, yet never contemplated similar action against German Americans or Italian Americans, although they, too, had family ties to countries which America was fighting in the war.

“Orientals” were not the only ethnic group whom FDR viewed with automatic suspicion. He harbored similar sentiments concerning Jews. There are more than a dozen documented instances in which Roosevelt made unflattering statements about Jews in private conversations with friends or political allies in the 1930s and 1940s.

His remarks about Jews focused on several specific themes: that Jews possessed certain innate and distasteful characteristics; that it was undesirable to have too many Jews in any single profession, institution, or geographic locale; and that America should be an overwhelmingly white and Protestant country.

Thus, President Roosevelt accused the publishers of the New York Times of using “a dirty Jewish trick” to resolve a tax problem. He told Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Amer-

ica’s foremost Jewish leader, that Jews in Poland were to blame for provoking antisemitism because they dominated the Polish economy. In a conversation with Sen. Burton Wheeler (D-MT), Roosevelt expressed pride that “there is no Jewish blood in our veins.”

In one 1941 cabinet meeting, FDR remarked that there were too many Jews among federal employees in Oregon. He also boasted that when he was on Harvard University’s Board of Overseers in the 1920s, he had helped bring about a quota to limit the admission of Jewish students. In 1943, he privately asserted that German hostility toward Jews was “understandable” because (he erroneously claimed) “over fifty percent of the lawyers, doctors, schoolteachers, college professors, etc., in Germany, were Jews.”

Most relevant to the issue of the Japanese internment was what Roosevelt said about Jews to Winston Churchill during a White House luncheon on May 22, 1943. According to the diary of Vice President Henry Wallace, FDR approvingly described

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

a plan drafted by one of his advisers, which “essentially [was] to spread the Jews thin all over the world.

The president said he had tried this out in [Meriwether] County, Georgia and at Hyde Park on the basis of adding four or five Jewish families at each place. He claimed that the local population would have no objection if there were no more than that.”

FDR’s plan for the Jews was remarkably similar to what he envisioned for Japanese Americans. At a November 21, 1944, press conference, the president explained what would happen to the detainees after leaving the internment camps: “A good deal of progress has been made in scattering them through the country…whether it’s in the Hudson River Valley or in western Georgia which we all know, in one of those countries, probably half a dozen or a dozen families could be scattered around on the farms and worked into the community…. And

they wouldn’t – what’s my favorite word? – discombobulate the existing population of those particular countries very much.”

This was the common theme that underlay Roosevelt’s perceptions of both Jews and Japanese Americans. Their “blood” – that is,

to be “spread out thin” so as to keep them in check. The entry of significant numbers of “non-assimilable” Jewish or Asian immigrants did not fit comfortably in that vision.

That explains why the Roosevelt administration suppressed Jewish refugee immigration far below the

In 1943, he privately asserted that German hostility toward Jews was “understandable.”

to support a bill to admit 20,000 refugee children from Germany.

Taking in any significant number of Jewish refugees – even though permitted by the existing quota laws – did not comport with Franklin Roosevelt’s conception of the ideal America.

For Japanese Americans, that meant losing almost all their possessions and being shipped off to detention camps for years. For Jews trying to flee from Europe, it meant America slamming shut its doors just at the moment when they most desperately needed shelter.

This article was originally published in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.

their innate racial characteristics – made them suspect. If admitted to the United States in large numbers, they would overcrowd certain professions, dominate aspects of society, or harm America’s character or culture in other ways. They needed

levels allowed by the existing quota system. Some 190,000 quota places from Germany and Axis-occupied countries went unused from 1933 to 1945. Yet the president turned away the refugee ship St. Louis with its 930 Jewish passengers and refused

Dr. Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and author of more than 20 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust.

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

A Bridge Between Two Worlds Yisroel Katzover Talks About His Adventures and Insights as Israel’s Longest-Serving Defense Correspondent

BY TZVI LEFF

N

ot many journalists manage to change history. Even fewer succeed in doing so while writing for an charedi newspaper largely unknown and unread outside of the insular community.

Yet that’s just what Yisroel Katzover did when he blew the whistle on a massive Shabbos-desecrating ceremony at the Israeli military’s Tel Nof Airbase. The year was 1976, and Katzover was a young military correspondent at the charedi Hamodia daily when he received a strange press release from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The communique was inviting him to cover a gala ceremony honoring the delivery of Israel’s first squadron of F-15 tactical aircraft from the United States. Marking the Israel Air Force’s transition from the old F-4 to the fourth generation fighter jets, the celebration was to be attended by Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, along with the entire Israeli government, the IDF General Staff, and dozens of foreign diplomats.

But upon checking his personal day planner, Katzover discovered something strange.

The ceremony was slated to begin late Friday afternoon, making massive Shabbos desecration at an official government ceremony almost certain. This would be the first time the military openly violated the holy day of rest, as it had until then been extremely careful to respect traditional customs.

“I looked at the event on the invitation and saw that it would begin late on Friday afternoon. I immediately called up the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and informed them that

they made a mistake. This couldn’t possibly be correct,” recalls Katzover in an interview with The Jewish Home.

“They checked, came back and said that there wasn’t any mistake. This is the date,” Katzover continued. “I told the clerk, ‘But it’s Friday!’ but she replied simply that ‘it is what it is.’”

After receiving the less-than-satisfactory answers from the IDF spokesperson, Katzover decided to act. Openly flouting the military censor that had banned journalists from reporting on the event ahead of time for security reasons, he detailed the violation of Jewish law on Hamodia’s front page.

“I debated with myself and decided to go against the instructions – maybe it would in the end prevent Shabbos desecration from happening in the future,” Katzover explained.

The news that the Israeli government would break its longstanding custom of refraining from Shabbos desecration caused a bombshell. An outraged National Religious Party and Agudas Yisrael faction left the Rabin government in protest, leading the premier to call for early elections.

But when the polls closed three months later, the big winner was Menachem Begin and his Likud party. For the first time since the founding of the state, the right wing had ousted the ruling Mapai party from power in what is known until today as the “Revolution.” Katzover’s scoop had literally changed history; a grateful Begin awarded the young reporter his first official interview as premier

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

in a show of thanks.

Additionally, while the army censor refrained from pressing criminal charges against Katzover, his rebellious act determined that the IDF would never again dare openly violate Shabbos.

“The repercussions were enormous,” related the veteran journalist. “Until today, I’ll meet [with senior officers] at meetings and they’ll say that they can’t do certain things because it falls out on a Friday – it’ll wind up ending on Shabbos and that’ll topple the government again.”

Another consequence of Katzover’s history-making scoop was the shattering of his close relationship with Rabin. The two had grown close when Katzover covered the Six Day War while Rabin was IDF Chief of Staff and would frequently talk in the latter’s Tel Aviv apartment. More than once, Rabin asked the young religious journalist about Jewish ritual matters that affected his troops, admitting that he was never taught even the basic components of Jewish faith.

But that all changed after Katzover’s exposed the Shabbos-desecrating ceremony at Tel Nof Airbase. Furious that his friend had caused him to be ousted from the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, Rabin viewed Katzover as ‘persona non grata’ and refused to speak to him for years.

For the next decade and a half, Rabin would refuse to answer Katzover’s questions at press conferences. When unable to dodge inquiries after becoming Defense Minister in 1984, Rabin’s face would turn bright red, a telltale sign of the intense rage he was feeling.

Rabin only forgave him 15 years later, after Katzover hitched a ride home to Jerusalem on the then-defense minister’s military helicopter following a briefing in the Gaza Strip. Furious at being trapped in the aircraft with his nemesis, Rabin turned demonstratively towards the wall immediately after liftoff.

“But as we were passing over Bet Shemesh, Rabin suddenly turned around to me, stretched out his hand and said, ‘Yisroel, what happened, happened. I understand that you were only doing your job, and I forgive you completely,” recalled Katzover. Someone not a party to this reunion was Rabin’s wife Leah, who refused to allow the journalist into their home until the prime minister’s death in 1995.

K

atzover, 76, is Israel’s longest-serving defense correspondent. Covering the IDF for the past 55 years for the Hamodia and the Kol Yisrael radio

station, the journalist known to millions of readers as “A. Pe’er” has reported on every military-related event for over five decades.

Born to Holocaust survivors in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Austria, Katzover immigrated to Israel at the age of three and grew up first attending religious institutions affiliated with the Satmar chassidic sect and then with Religious Zionism.

Katzover’s illustrious media career began almost by accident. In 1967, Katzover began working as the Jerusalem correspondent for a local charedi newspaper, reporting on mundane issues affecting the capital city and its residents.

But only a few months later, the Six Day War broke out. Freshly demobilized from his thre- year compulsory military service in the Nahal Brigade, Katzover’s breathtaking commentary on military matters such as the liberation of the Western Wall left readers spellbound.

Before long, Katzover was given a new gig: covering the military on behalf of the Hamodia, then and now one of the largest and most influential charedi media outlets.

In doing so, he became the first and only journalist responsible for the defense beat for an charedi newspaper. Later, he would host a highly popular radio show on Kol Yisrael.

Katzover’s extensive experiences have now been chronicled in a new book. Written together with author Nachman Seltzer, “The Insider” was recently published by ArtScroll and is a gripping account of the veteran military correspondent’s 55 years of covering Israeli defense issues.

“The charedi community cares about and is interested in the IDF no less and probably even more than the average Israeli,” declares Katzover, highlighting that the charedi media covers military and defense issues in detail.

“A few years ago, a study was published that looked at which newspapers have the highest volume of defense coverage. Surprisingly, it turned out that they received the most extensive coverage in the charedi press, where such issues were written about more than anything else,” Katzover continues.

“Come to think of it, this shouldn’t come as a surprise,” he added. “A charedi paper doesn’t have gossip, there are no movie and cinema reviews, no sports and there aren’t any scandals or articles about things such as Chaim Walder. What else will they write about?”

He adds, “The community also really cares. They are absolutely interested in such issues. It has nothing to do with [the argu-

95 45

Receiving a dollar from the Rebbe

Furious at being trapped in the aircraft with his nemesis, Rabin turned demonstratively towards the wall immediately after liftoff.

Shaking hands with Rabbi Moshe Sherer

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

With Hosni Mubarak

“I’m in the middle – I’m the IDF’s representative in the charedi media and the ultra-Orthodox representative to the IDF.”

With Yitzchak Rabin

ment over charedi drafting into the IDF].

This is a community that lives in Israel and is interested in this.”

Reporting on the military to a charedi audience brings with it special challenges.

While consumers of the mainstream media commonly served in the IDF, the average charedi reader does not. Katzover says that he often has to break down the complex issues into simple and easy to understand vignettes, such as unscrambling the abbreviation-heavy army jargon that is completely unfamiliar to Hamodia’s readership.

“It’s a problem,” admits Katzover. “Often, when I write, I find myself needing to explain things. If there was a battalion-level exercise, I need to write what a battalion is – no one knows what that means. I adapt myself to the target audience.”

K

atzover sports a black-knitted yarmulke, illustrating his strong presence in both charedi and general Israeli society. This dissonance between the two worlds is a theme thorough his life; starting out in hardline Satmar schools, Katzover later spent his formative years in Religious Zionist institutions and served three years as a combat soldier.

As such, Katzover’s unique background made him far more than just a run-of-themill journalist. His position as the only charedi media figure covering the IDF puts him in a unique role to serve as a bridge between the two communities, often serving as a liaison between senior military brass and religious luminaries such as Rav Ovadiah Yosef and chassidic rabbis.

“I understand my position,” Katzover says. “I’m in the middle – I’m the IDF’s representative in the charedi media and the charedi representative to the IDF. “Often, the army calls me in to explain to them different matters concerning the charedi community. They want to understand more about it, and why the community opposes serving in the army.

“On the other hand, every two weeks, I’m by a different Rebbe who calls me in,” continues Katzover, noting that his expertise in military matters and his knowledge of the defense establishment has also made him a valued source of information for top charedi leaders.

“The chassidic rebbes used to ask top army officers to come in order to grant them military briefings on the security situation.

I’m talking about generals,” Katzover says, revealing the covert relationship between

the IDF’s top brass and the charedi leadership. While many rabbis outwardly oppose the military, they, in fact, maintain a flourishing relationship behind the scenes with top IDF personnel.

“I know that the standing order in the army is that if a chassidic leader asks, they send him prominent and high-ranking officers in order to clarify all kinds of issues,” says Katzover. Refusing to name particular examples, he says simply that “this includes almost anyone you can think of.”

But for rabbis uncomfortable with uniformed commanders, Katzover serves as their personal military analyst.

“I show up with maps, pictures, and explain things,” he relates. In one instance, the Vizhnitz grand rabbi decided to establish a new community in Beitar Illit in the West Bank after hearing from Katzover about the low probability of the town being handed to the Palestinians as part of a peace agreement.

Katzover’s role as an intermediary is not restricted to spiritual leaders with a favorable view of military service. Rav Shmuel Auerbach, who founded the “Jerusalem Faction” known for its large protests against the charedi draft, once personally requested that he schedule a meeting with a slew of IDF Generals.

“The five most well-known rabbis in the Jerusalem Faction wanted to meet with senior officers in order to explain why they so opposed the draft,” recounts Katzover. “I organized the sit-down with the commander of the IDF Manpower Corps.”

“They sat together for two hours,” he continues. “It doesn’t matter that the rabbis didn’t manage to convince him; you see that everyone is trying to utilize me from both sides.”

One person with whom Katzover was particularly close was Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, a former Israel chief rabbi and arguably the most prominent leader for Sephardic Jewry at the time of his passing in 2014. Their relationship went back decades, beginning when the two co-hosted a radio show dedicated to halachic matters in the early 1970s.

Later, Katzover brokered a secret meeting between Chacham Yosef and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. During the sit-down, the aged rabbi appealed to Mubarak to prevent the construction of a new highway being built on top of a Jewish graveyard in Egypt, a request to which the Arab strongman acceded to.

In his book, Katzover discloses how Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef personally halted a daring military mission aiming to free Gilad

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Shalit, an IDF soldier held hostage in the Gaza Strip from 2006 until 2011. Israeli intelligence had managed to uncover Shalit’s whereabouts at one point, leading the government to debate sending in an elite special operations unit to attempt a rescue.

“Rav Ovadiah told me how senior IDF officers came to him for a secret meeting.

Gilad Shalit was being held by Hamas and the army knows where he is,” Katzover says.

“They came to ask him because there was a big argument raging within the army whether to do the operation or not.

“The top officers entered his study and presented him with all sorts of maps and plans,” Katzover continues. “But then, Rav Ovadiah banged on the table and asked, ‘Do you know the cost?’ They thought that he was asking about the monetary cost, but the rabbi said, ‘The cost in soldiers’ lives.’”

Upon hearing the army’s estimate of the high number of commandos liable to be killed during the raid along with the low probability of success, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef categorically ruled it out. “‘In no way, shape, or form,’ he said,” recounts Katzover. “The officers accepted his position and decided to scrap the operation.”

A

nother story Katzover unveils for the first time in his book is the fate of his older brother, a personal family mystery that has haunted him throughout his life.

During World War II, before the birth of the younger Katzover, Nazi troops entered the Ukrainian town of Azerian in which the family lived. Rounding up all the Jews, they ordered them to dig a pit and then systematically executed them.

Katzover’s mother was shot in the jaw and survived after the SS guards mistakenly assumed she was already dead. Meanwhile, his father managed to escape together with Shlomo, the young brother that he never merited to meet.

When the Nazis began to hunt down hidden Jews, the elder Katzover handed Shlomo to a Ukrainian non-Jewish neighbor for safekeeping until the war ended. But to their shock, the woman vanished off the face of the Earth.

The Katzovers frantically tried to track down their missing child, at one point going to every single home in the village in a fruitless pursuit after their loved one. The locals had conflicting versions to what happened; some claimed that the Ukrainian woman and Shlomo were gunned down after Nazi

officers discovered that the former was sheltering Jews, while others claimed that his brother was kidnapped.

The question of Shlomo’s fate has gripped Katzover throughout his life. Dedicating mammoth sums to solve the mystery, Katzover made dozens of trips to Ukraine in an effort to find out what happened to his missing brother.

“There is no corner I have not been to. I have wandered endlessly everywhere,” Katzover told Mispacha magazine in December. “I went into the house of the neighbor’s brother who took my brother and tried to find out if he knew what happened to him, if there was any hint that remained. I didn’t find a thing.”

At one point, Katzover hired a Ukrainian private intelligence firm that specialized in tracking down lost relatives. “I’ve already spent so much money on this, what’s a little more?” he shrugs.

After a year and a half, the investigators believed that they succeeded in solving the mystery. Shlomo, they told a spellbound Katzover, had been taken to a nearby city and worked as a water engineer in the Ural Mountains until his death a decade prior.

The analysts estimated with 80% certainty that this man was his long-lost brother.

The private investigators approached the said engineer’s children and offered them considerable sums of money to take a DNA test that could end the traumatic family tragedy for good.

“If he is my brother, there are halachic opinions which hold that he can be taken out of his burial place and brought to a new grave in Israel. I would have brought his bones here,” said Katzover. “In those days, I was in a state of euphoria. I spoke with the Chevra Kadisha about how this could happen.”

But the night before the DNA test was supposed to take place, the Ukrainian investigators received a phone call. The surviving family members reneged on the agreement, refusing to have any more contact with Katzover or the intelligence firm. Their decision didn’t change despite heavy pressure the analysts put on them, including offering to purchase them a new car.

“And that’s it,” Katzover concludes.

“I have been left with no solution to this very day,” the journalist says. “I have pictures of him which the investigators were able to bring. I invested a lot in finding him – I viewed it as my life’s mission, and I failed. But I haven’t given up hope.

“A Jew must always believe that Hashem will help them.”

47

With Chacham Ovadiah Yosef

With Jordan’s King Hussein

Shmoozing with Benjamin Netanyahu on a flight

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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Dating Dialogue

What Would You Do If… Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

I am dating a girl I am very fond of for many reasons.

We connect nicely and have great deep conversations.

She has all the qualities I’m looking for in a wife. An issue arose recently that worried me.

I introduced her to my friends, and she acted very awkward. She was laughing at inappropriate times, didn’t properly answer questions – just generally it was a very weird experience. I felt self-conscious being around her and was embarrassed to have introduced her to begin with. Now, I’m thinking, how can I possibly marry someone I’m embarrassed by?

Is this grounds for a break-up?

Thank you, Moshe T.

Disclaimer: This column is not intended to diagnose or otherwise conclude resolutions to any questions. Our intention is not to offer any definitive conclusions to any particular question, rather offer areas of exploration for the author and reader. Due to the nature of the column receiving only a short snapshot of an issue, without the benefit of an actual discussion, the panel’s role is to offer a range of possibilities. We hope to open up meaningful dialogue and individual exploration.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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61

The Panel The Rebbetzin

The Shadchan

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S. oshe, social skills are important skills for all adults to have.

They are indicators of whether a person picks up social cues and has an understanding of people. In a marriage, they are very important as well.

However, before you drop this girl, ask yourself a few questions: Did I ease her nervousness? Did I introduce her properly and help her feel comfortable? She was the newbie in the group, after all. Did you stay nearby or expect her to become part of it right away?

Give her some more opportunities and be a mensch. At the same time, talk to her about your own anxieties when meeting new people. Be vulnerable, talk, and see what happens when she meets others in the group after an appropriate interval.

I also wonder about the phrasing of your question. Is a wife a social accessory? Are you more focused on impression management than a potential partner? What is more important?

Michelle Mond oshe, your girlfriend is normal. I would like to surmise that your girlfriend is a part of my exclusive club: The Introvert Club. My guess is you are extroverted, which is why you felt it was no biggie to spring a surprise friend’s rendezvous into the mix.

If personality types were exhibits at the zoo, you would find an introvert thrown into an unexpected social situation acting like a monkey in the lion’s den: her mind was going totally meshuga!

Do not judge her by how she acted around your friends; rather, talk to her about it. Apologize for bringing her into an awkward social situation she was obviously not ready for. I wouldn’t be surprised if she would write into the Navidaters next week about her clueless boyfriend who sprung an unexpected curveball at her. Nobody did anything wrong here, so don’t stress it.

It’s very important, though, to learn about the different personality types so you are able to connect with a myriad of people. You have never seen this side to her before simply because what you have done until now is what introverts do best – connect one-

M

M

Pulling It All Together The Navidaters

on-one! As soon as you put an introvert into a social scene, and even more so an unexpected one, you will see a completely different side to the person.

This is not her baseline. This is your girlfriend outwardly exhibiting a reaction while feeling socially uncomfortable on the inside.

To create a successful meet-andgreet for your introverted girlfriend, I suggest easing her into it. Find a host she feels comfortable around and invite her for a Shabbos meal together there. Have the host also invite a few of your friends and tell her that they will be there. Make it a conversation and tell her a bit about them before the introduction, so she has an idea who she is meeting. When you prepare a scenario like this, you will see a dramatic difference in how she comes across socially. She still might not be perfect, because, like I said before, an introvert’s comfort zone is not at a social event.

I also suggest you look at yourself and acknowledge your social comfort flaws. Perhaps you are awkward one-on-one with authority figures or are awkward one-on-one with a boss or someone in position of power. Put yourself in her shoes, and do not break up due to this. Work through problems rather than giving up.

I also suggest you read a book on the different Myers Briggs personality types. You will learn more about yourself and those around you.

Let us know how it goes, and hatzlacha!

It is important to see this other person in several settings and several times over.

The Zaidy Dr. Jeffrey Galler

R

eally? You’ve finally met someone wonderful, and, after one awkward interaction with your friends, you’re thinking of dumping her?

Haven’t you ever found yourself acting inappropriately when in an uncomfortable situation?

Please, Moshe, show some compassion here. She was, understandably, very nervous meeting your friends for the first time.

At this point, you’ve seen her interact with many others: her family, your family, waiters, parking valets, etc. If she acts normally in those situations, give her some time and I’m sure she’ll feel more comfortable mingling with your friends.

My advice? Show some empathy to a young lady who found herself in a new and uncomfortable situation and keep going with what seems like a very promising relationship. I’m sure your friends will get to know her and appreciate her as much as you do.

Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

D

ear Moshe, Thank you for writing! Relationships can be complicated, and people can be multifaceted. The

wom a n whom you have developed feelings for revealed a different side

of herself when around your friends. In my opinion, it is always a good idea to date for a solid period of time before getting engaged. It

is important to see this other person in several settings and several times over. I think your reason for concern is valid; however, if this is

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someone who have grown fond of, it may not be time to give up just yet.

Some ideas to ponder and process.... Does she behave this way around her friends? If the answer is no, then there is a likelihood that she was feeling nervous. If you haven’t hung around her friends yet, it may be a good idea to ask to do so. If your friends were all male, and your girlfriend is of a more yeshivish background, there is a possibility that she is uncomfortable around the guys because she hasn’t spent casual time with guys as it has been frowned upon her whole upbringing, making the interaction

awkward for her.

If you really like this person, and you’re willing to invest more time, it’s time to either set up more socializing to get a better sense of her behavior around others and/ or talk with her about what you noticed with sensitivity and kindness.

If you genuinely care for her and noticed a complete change in her personality and that she was awkward, maybe she indeed was having a hard time. Maybe she is feeling embarrassed or ashamed by her social behavior.

While talking about hard things is…well...hard, communicating is

the only path forward that I know of. We are often worried about hurting the other’s feelings, saying something wrong or potentially losing the person. I think that is so human, understandable, and relatable!

Not talking and burying things or exiting the relationship without talking about hard things does both parties a disservice.

Wishing you much peace and clarity as you take your next steps.

Sincerely, Jennifer

If personality types were exhibits at the zoo, you would find an introvert thrown into an unexpected social situation acting like a monkey in the lion’s den.

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. She also teaches a psychology course at Touro College. 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.

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Dr. Deb

A Life Lived

By Deb Hirschhorn, Ph.D.

T

he tears are just at the edge.

The smallest thing, and they will come out. Filling up the hot water pot for Shabbos, thinking, Wait, a little more for Bobby. No, not true.

A few sprinkles down my cheeks.

A grandson gives me a silent hug.

He used to be a shared grandson, but no longer. My throat tightens. How will we all get through?

Well, I think it goes by days. Every day maybe it gets a little easier.

That’s a tall tale. I’ve been here before. It doesn’t get better so fast.

I miss her, the Bobby of shared grandchildren.

In extending her condolences, a friend of mine noted with shock, “We’re of an age where there are fewer years left than lived.”

Is it possible that that’s a good thing, actually. For all of us.

Close your eyes and think of your most precious possession.

Now imagine someone will take it.

Not that they’re trying to take it right now, but there’s no question; they definitely will. Would you use it more often? Look at it more? Feel the pleasure of it more deeply? Get more satisfaction from it?

But that’s your life. It’s worth everything. Everything. It’s worth more than money. Isn’t it odd that we chase after the dollar, wasting hours, wasting years, allowing the vitality of our lives to slither away?

And for what? What?

Bobby was frugal. She was a

a sister or admiring a brother?

That’s knowing what’s important.

That’s raising children to value time and how you use it.

They use it to build relationships.

Good ones. Because in a contest between time and money, money is the loser. Unless, of course, you use it to

A friend of mine noted with shock, “We’re of an age where there are fewer years left than lived.”

schoolteacher who had to support five kids after she lost her husband.

So she stepped up to the plate, rolling up her sleeves, but never losing sight of what was important. How many siblings raise their own children within five blocks of each other and their mother? How many want that closeness?

How many siblings stand at the podium to eulogize their mother but can’t stop themselves from thanking

create something worthwhile.

Still, if you slave to create a monument to yourself without the love of your family, what do you have?

What, really, was the point?

Some of the things we shared and did: Bobby and I used to take Shabbos walks together. She liked my almost-raw salmon, making a grand two of us who felt that way out of a large table filled with people. I made sure to get a hot cup of coffee for her

when I’d get mine. We both enjoyed ventures into new cuisine that we tried out on our mutual family.

The missing her is painful.

The only thing good about that pain is I’d rather feel it than be numb. Oddly enough, a good percent if people throwing away their lives on things that will never reap any joy are incapable of feeling joy because they cut off their emotions ages ago. Since they are walking around numb, they are out of pain.

But they’re also out of life.

The gift with the biggest potential of all gets lost along the way.

That is truly the saddest thing possible.

At least Bobby lived a full life, loving each and every child, grandchild, great-grandchild, child-in-law and machutanim for who that person really is.

Now, that’s living.

Dr. Deb Hirschhorn is a Marriage and Family Therapist. If you want help with your marriage, begin by signing up to watch her Masterclass at https://drdeb. com/myw-masterclass.

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Health & F tness

Heart Health Month

By Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN

A

lthough February is approaching its short ending, it’s never too late to celebrate Heart Health Month.

Nothing is more important than taking care of your heart. Heart disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in United States. The good news is that healthy lifestyle behaviors such as ideal dietary and physical activity patterns are the cornerstone of disease prevention.

Here are a few foods to include into your diets to help protect your heart: • Salmon: Salmon is one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory agents that help protect the blood vessels and arteries. Salmon is also one of the healthiest protein sources one can eat and is low in calories. Salmon can be eaten raw as sushi, cooked, grilled, baked, poached, boiled, eaten in a salad, eaten as an appetizer or entrée, and even made into salmon patties! Salmon can be prepared in many ways, which makes it such a fun food as well as nutritious.

• Walnuts: Walnuts are packed with nutrients that keep your body healthy and happy, such as manganese, copper, iron, calcium, and phosphorus. Walnuts are packed with healthy lean protein, polyunsaturated fats, and polyphenols. Walnuts also contain more antioxidants, folic

acid, and vitamin E than any other nut. Scientific evidence shows that incorporating walnuts into a healthy diet reduces the risk of heart disease by improving blood vessel elasticity and plaque accumulation. In addition, walnuts have been shown to aid in lowering LDL cholesterol. Lastly, walnuts, like salmon, are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids.

• Blueberries: All fruits contain antioxidants; however, blueberries are one of the best sources. Antioxidants work by preventing reactive ox-

fits of blueberries.

• Oatmeal: Oatmeal is wellknown for its cholesterol-reducing effects. Oatmeal has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol. By reducing LDL cholesterol, oatmeal helps protect the heart, which gives it the recognized title of “heart healthy.” In addition, oatmeal is high in fiber which also indirectly lowers cholesterol by binding to the cholesterol and excreting it from the body.

• Olive Oil: Olive oil is consid-

A healthy heart makes a healthy you.

ygen species from causing damage to cells and clean up the gradual buildup of waste materials in damaged arterial walls, thus lowering blood pressure. Blueberries have been found to improve blood pressure, endothelial function, and arterial stiffness. In addition to the blood pressure-lowering effects of blueberries, blueberries are very rich in other nutrients such as vitamin C, B complex, vitamin E, vitamin A, copper, selenium, zinc, iron, phenolic compounds, and stilbenes, which all attribute to the many bene-

ered a monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fats help reduce cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease and stoke when used as a substitute for saturated fats. Not only do monounsaturated fats indirectly lower your LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, simply by replacing saturated fats in your diet, research has shown that monounsaturated fats help increase your levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol. In addition to cholesterol-lowering effects, recent studies indicate that regular consumption of olive oil

can help decrease both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, thus further promoting heart health.

• Dark Chocolate: Research has found that eating up to 100g of chocolate each day is linked to lower risks of heart disease and strokes.

Experts believe that the flavonoid antioxidants are responsible for preventing obesity and diabetes, which, in turn, prevents heart disease and stroke.

The guidelines for the heart health for both men and women emphasize intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, legumes, nuts, and olive oil and a limited intake of sodium, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, and red meats.

February is Heart Health Month, but these guidelines should be followed all months of the year, all days of week, at all hours of the day.

A healthy heart makes a healthy you.

Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN, is a Master’s level Registered Dietitian and Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist. She graduated CUNY Brooklyn College receiving a Bachelor’s in Science and Master’s degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences. She is currently a private nutritionist.

She can be reached at CindyWeinberger1@gmail.com or at 917-623-6237.

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Parenting Pearls

A Difficult Discussion

By Sara Rayvych, MSEd

T

his is a really hard article to write, and I went back and forth in my mind about whether or not to address this. I eventually decided to put my fingers to the keyboard to discuss this difficult and extremely painful topic.

I am not here to be the final word on this issue. I am certainly not coming to you as the biggest expert on this matter. I am not bringing up this sore wound to make it hurt more.

I’m simply here to keep the discussion going in the correct direction and hopefully add a little more light to a lot of darkness.

This is complicated to write about, not just because of the inherent sensitivity of the subject matter but also because this is a public forum. I want this publication to remain the family-friendly one parents comfortably allow their children to read. My goal in writing this isn’t to decrease tznius, chas v’shalom, but to increase the kedusha within klal Yisroel. For too long, we’ve avoided the topic because it “wasn’t tznius,” sadly that allowed even worse to occur. With that objective in mind, I am writing this article but doing so in a more discreet fashion.

I know it’s tempting to avoid the topic in the hopes of sheltering our children. Truthfully, I’d love it if we could shelter them and keep them pure from all the insanity around us. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s realistic. Children are exposed to the elements of the world, and if we don’t fortify them with the emes then we risk far worse, chas v’shalom. Not being taught about drugs doesn’t prevent a child from being offered them; it simply means they don’t know the dangers inherent to the substance. Similarly, avoiding the discussion on abuse does not thwart it.

For percentages and other important details, I used the American Academy of Pediatrics (aap.org) and RAINN (rainn.org). There’s so much to say, and one article will not cover it. Thank you to the mental health professionals and abuse survivors that took the time to review this article before we went to print.

The Basics Let’s get through some of the basics quickly and hopefully clear away many of the misconceptions.

Abusers come in all ages, genders, and types. For too long, we

assumed the risk came from some scary outsider. Now we know that, sadly, the greatest threat is from within, chas v’shalom. A perpetrator is generally someone that knows their victim well, often a friend or family member, so it’s usually someone the victim trusts. The frum abuse survivors that I know were attacked by other Jews, almost always a “frum Jew.” This makes it both easier for the victim to initially trust their abuser and harder to report them afterwards.

Most perpetrators are male but there are some that are female. Victims can be any age at the time it occurs, and we now know that males can also be victimized, not just females. I will be focusing on children because this is a parenting article but please remember that abuse is painful at any age.

Most abuse – more than twothirds – is not reported. Even those who do report the abuse may not do so for a long time. There are many reasons why victims don’t come forward and not being believed is one of them. Obviously, we can’t go around randomly accusing people of various crimes, but every allegation needs to be taken seriously. We certainly

don’t want to punish a guiltless person, but for too long we’ve taken the other route and erred on the side of protecting the guilty while ignoring the true innocents. It’s important to remember that false allegations are exceptionally rare. While everyone talks about “fake victims” and “lying,” the many resources I viewed all used the term “rare” while stressing that false allegations are highly unlikely.

Abuse comes in many forms and not all involve physical contact, as many assume. Also, there is often a grooming period which serves as a precursor to the abuse, and parents need to know what that entails. Due to the nature of this publication, I will simply urge you to ask a mental health professional or research using a reputable website for examples. It’s important for parents to know how to recognize abuse in its various manifestations and how to properly educate their child in the appropriate nuances.

Victims need to be believed and trusted – not just to prevent further abuse but also to begin their healing. It’s tempting to find fault with the victim, but it’s never the victim’s fault. Nothing that the victim could

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do gives someone else the permission to hurt them. Usually, the attack is planned in advance, and the abuser is a predator preying on his victim; it’s not a sudden “taivah” but a form of control. Victims don’t need mussar or criticism; they need support, therapy and to be believed.

What Can Parents Do? Parents need to be informed and have this talk with their child.

Children need to know they can tell their parents anything – even, or especially, if you won’t like it. They should feel comfortable discussing with an adult anything that happened to them or that they did to others.

Parents, in turn, need to respond appropriately when their child comes to them. As an example, a parent may be upset if their child drank too much on Purim, but they certainly would prefer being called to give their child a ride home rather than the devastation of drunk driving. A child who knows they can speak to their parent about anything is a child that has help when needed.

Additionally, children should know to never keep secrets from their parents and that it’s a red flag to be told to not tell their parent something.

There are books and other resources available to help parents.

Examples include two books by Bracha Goetz, Talking About Personal Privacy and Let’s Stay Safe. Both books contain further resources.

There are many appropriate lectures online. Rachel Tuchman, LMHC has a discussion with Rahel Bayar on this topic posted to her Instagram account.

It’s hard to hear your child made a mistake or is in a bad situation, but if we’re not someone they can go to, then who can they trust? And, if they come to us and all we do is yell or panic, then what happens the next time they need our help? You don’t need to go it alone. Your child’s pediatrician, Achiezer, Ohel, SOVRI and Amudim are among the many organizations that have hotlines or mental health professionals available for questions and to help. If you’re unsure how to talk to your child or interpret their response, then please ask. If you see anything

concerning, then please take your uncertainty to someone who is experienced in this.

Using the correct name for body parts shows you’re comfortable discussing all parts of their body with them. Children should know that nobody may touch them in a covered area. Doctors are an exception – and only when the parent has given permission.

Children should be trained to trust their instincts. If something

cha is clear that we are to protect people from danger. One can ask a rav for the exact halachos but we’re not being frum by misreading the kadosh words of the Chofetz Chaim.

I urge everyone to study and/or ask what the halacha actually requires and not make assumptions or act “l’chumra” (which, in this case, would be “l’kula”). As important as it is to know when we shouldn’t speak, it’s also crucial that we know when we should.

A child who knows they can speak to their parent about anything is a child that has help when needed.

feels uncomfortable, even if seemingly innocent, it is something that needs to be taken seriously. Children should be encouraged to speak up when something makes them feel uneasy.

There are a few things to look out for as red flags. Be cautious of someone showering your child with special gifts or special outings. If a child knows too much about certain things they shouldn’t know about, then you want to know how they found out about those topics. Children may show behavior changes such as withdrawing from family/ friends, doing poorly in school, experiencing anxiety or depression, or behavior that is aggressive or self-destructive.

Abuse creates lifelong trauma that is indescribable in words. It further affects their spouse and children, in addition to those close to them. Due to the nature of this publication, I won’t focus further on the devastation abuse causes but I urge you to read the stories of survivors.

Halacha We are not doing anyone, other than abusers, any favors by creating an environment that allows the worst of aveiros to go unchecked all while screaming lashon hara, mesira, or other holy words. Hala-

Many people have blamed the victim when the abuser has been punished or his family hurt. It’s not the victim’s fault if an abuser faces consequences for their own sick behavior. Additionally, it’s the abuser that shamed their own family, not the victim. Please note that the abuser’s family is often additional victims to their kin’s disturbing behavior. Protecting the klal from an abuser does not mean we need to further shame their loved ones by pointing, commenting, or excluding their child from parties.

Yichud Yichud is exceptionally important, and the halachos are something we all should learn. But yichud isn’t sufficient to prevent abuse. It’s easy to think that victims just weren’t careful in halacha or that they made some error – this couldn’t be further from the truth. I prefer to think of yichud, like many gedarim, as something there to prevent those that don’t want to sin – not as guaranteed prevention for all ills. There are a number of reasons that we can’t rely on yichud to protect our children, even if we should all learn and follow those halachos diligently.

Those who want to hurt others will find a way. It’s simple to blame the victim by saying he/she didn’t

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follow halacha but that’s rarely the truth. The victim could’ve done everything possible to follow the law scrupulously, but the perpetrator has the upper hand in this one.

Abuse is usually planned in advance by the guilty party and an innocent victim won’t know that coming into a situation.

Additionally, the perpetrator has often been someone the victim trusts to know the halacha and may not realize they’re being lied to. Remember, abusers have usually earned their victim’s trust first.

When someone you know to be a yarei Shomayim does something, you don’t ask as many questions. How often do you ask about the kashrus of someone that you know to be reliable? You don’t check because you assume they know and diligently follow the halacha. Why should a victim assume that someone they know to be frum – perhaps even a talmid chachom or rebbi – can’t be trusted when they say something is OK? Yichud is also not enough for another basic, yet crucial reason.

Often the victim is someone that is permitted to be in yichud with the abuser. Sometimes, the abuser is the same gender as the abused.

Sometimes, the victim is too young for yichud to apply. Too often, the victim is a close relative of the one who hurts them, such as a sibling, parent, or grandparent. Disturbingly, I know of actual cases of inappropriate actions done by a “frum” relative against their close kin. Yichud could not have prevented any of this. Still, yichud, like all gedarim, should be taught and scrupulously followed, just know it’s not the end of your hishtadlus. Ask shailos when necessary.

Let’s do all we can to protect our holy nation from unholy behavior.

Emotionally support those affected and daven always for the healing and safety of klal Yisroel.

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 RayvychHomeschool@ gmail.com.

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jewish women of wisdom

A Laborious Journey Births a Website

By Miriam Hendeles

M

uch has been written about our brand new JWOW! website, Jew ishwomen ofwisdom.org, that launched February 2022 ,1. We’ve had press releases and ads; social media posts and flyers; and email newsletters sent to our list.

Some of us (that would be me!) have blogged, bragged, and boasted, going on and on about it. But it’s kind of like our baby. My friends and I who are behind the organization of Jewish Women of Wisdom have had true labor pains in the almost nine months since we conceived of this website.

Now, many of you are probably thinking, “How ridiculous – this is just a website,” but actually it’s not unusual. When people write books, create films, or produce any piece of creativity, they feel that they’ve gone through labor pains and thankfully have come out with a bouncing beautiful baby. And they’re not being overly dramatic, because birthing a book or a website is huge.

So what was so laborious about the building of our website? I’d like to tell you our labor story. If you’re bored, then so be it – consider how many of my fellow Lamaze classmates back when I had my first child regaled long

and detailed labor and birth stories complete with details about Epidurals not working to relieve back labor and water breaking and other details that would qualify as TMI these days. Or was TMI a thing back in the day? Or

various topics.

Our organization, JWOW!, has been around for more than two years, but the website is brand new and it opens up a whole new world of opportunity to women of our age. Women

From glitches and snafus and bugs and bytes and code and software and edits and pixels, we had our share of dizzying technology.

was a thing such a thing back in the day? I don’t think so.

But, I digress. Our JWOW! website. Our cute, adorable website. What does it do already? Does it smile at you? Giggle? Talk baby talk? No, it does much more. It’s a place for midlife women to experience high quality content that is relevant to their age and stage. It’s a place for women to gather on forums and talk about what’s on their mind, exchanging ideas, thoughts, and experiences on

who may be home more due to Covid or women who want to get opinions and ideas from like-minded women of their age and stage.

We are thrilled to share this website with you as we recall the adventures we experienced during the journey. From picking colors, designs, fonts, photos, and text, we had our share of discussions and indecision. From keeping up with our schedule, but then falling behind because life gets in the way, we had

our share of disappointments. From needing to write and rewrite, revise and review, approve and give feedback and make decisions at every step, we had our share of frustration.

From late night talks, early morning Zoom meetings, myriad emails and texts and WhatsApps and message boards and phone calls, we had our share of all kinds of communication.

From glitches and snafus and bugs and bytes and code and software and edits and pixels, we had our share of dizzying technology.

And we had our joy, our laughter, our fun meetings, our joking on text, emails and WhatsApp. And now, we look forward to our many members interacting on the unique membership forum on our website. On that curated forum that’s full of relevant categories, women can share insights with each other...let’s all join. Become a member.

And now that we’ve given birth to this website, let’s hope for a long life of bringing joy to frum women of midlife.

Join the conversation and email list of JWOW! by writing to hello @jewishwomenofwisdom.org.

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

In The K

tchen

Vietnamese Summer Rolls Pareve • Yields 10 summer rolls

By Naomi Nachman

These delicious rice paper rolls are perfect for

the gluten-free diet. Rice rolls are also called

“cold rolls,” as they are not cooking or fried like so many other spring rolls. They are served at

COHE N

most Vietnamese restaurants. Now we can have

IA M PA SC AL

eclectic Vietnamese food at our table, too. It’s

super healthy, and I serve it at seuda shlisheet

PHOT O BY MIR

during the long New York summer Shabbat afternoons.

Ingredients ◦ 10 spring roll rice paper wrappers ◦ 5 large romaine or butter lettuce leaves, torn in half ◦ ½ cup fresh cilantro or parsley, finely chopped ◦ 2 large carrots, peeled and julienned ◦ 2 large Persian cucumbers, julienned ◦ 1 cup shredded purple cabbage ◦ 2 avocadoes, sliced ◦ 5 pieces kani (kosher mock crab sticks), shredded ◦ sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

Preparation 1.

Prepare the rice paper wrappers: Pour warm water into a large bowl or 9-inch square or round baking pan.

2. Dip 1 rice paper wrapper into warm water for 10 seconds, till it becomes pliable.

3. Quickly remove from water, pat or shake wrapper slightly dry, and place flat onto a work surface, such as a large plastic or ceramic cutting board.

4. Filling and rolling: Place prepared rice wrapper on the work surface.

Place halved lettuce leaf over the rice paper; sprinkle with cilantro, 5. Add a few julienned carrots, cucumber, and shredded cabbage to the bottom third of the lettuce leaf; top with a slice or two of avocado. Place half a shredded kani stick onto vegetables. Do not overstuff the roll.

6. Roll wrapper tightly by gently pulling up the bottom and rolling it over the fi lling, tucking in the sides as you go, similar to rolling a blintz. The wrapper should be very tightly rolled.

7. Repeat with remaining wrappers and fi lling ingredients. Slice in half on the bias when ready to serve.

8. Serve with peanut dipping sauce.

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.

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Visit Us At: 513 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst NY 11516 | yaelivogel.com

Fine Art and Collectibles

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Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

Encouraging people to shoot police officers apparently earns you a spot as a headliner at the Superbowl. If you choose to watch the game at all (we won’t be), halftime is a great moment to shut your TV off in honor of those men and women in blue who gave their lives for us.

- From an Instagram post by the Suffolk County PBA, which included the lyrics of a song by one of the rappers that performed at the Super Bowl that refers to black people in a derogatory way and calls on them to shoot police officers

China can be a little tone-deaf with optics. Did you see the ceremony? It was beautiful, but to symbolize peace, they released hundreds of bats. That’s not good. But it was beautiful, come on.

The pageantry, did you see, the flowers, children, so many children.

Somewhere on an iPhone assembly line they were going, “Where is everybody?”

For Instagram to censor a post that condemns Snoop Dogg for encouraging the killing of police officers is evidence that Instagram is complicit and condones such violence. This is a slap in the face to everyone who has ever worn the uniform and put their lives on the line for the safety of others and is an example that Instagram enables, if not encourages, harm against police officers. They should be ashamed.

- Lou Civello, vice president of the Suffolk County PBA, after Instagram removed the above post because they “don’t allow content that may lead to a genuine risk to physical harm or direct threat to public safety”

- Bill Maher, HBO

It’s funny…. [China is ] putting Uyghurs into camps. It’s a 1984 surveillance state. It’s — there’s just so much wrong with China, and yet, it’s an issue that really confuses the woke. Because Chinese are Asians, and Asians are not white. So, if you criticize them, it’s racism.

That’s — I mean, that’s really where we are with the level of thinking with a lot of people in the country.

- Ibid.

Yesterday, as I hope you know, was Super Bowl Sunday, also known as — a.k.a.

“Cryptocurrency Awareness Day.” — Jimmy Kimmel

It’s all crypto now. Even the halftime show, bloods versus the cryptos.

— Ibid.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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I mean, in the Iraq War, I was on the side of what you would think – on the mainstream – is misinformation. I was promoting what they would call misinformation, but it turned out to be right years later. And the establishment media was wrong, and not only were they wrong in some respects, you could make the case that they enabled a war that killed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people and never paid a price for it and never had accountability.

- Jon Stewart, defending Joe Rogan who has come under attack for supposedly spreading false information about Covid by interviewing some medical professionals who don’t think that it is imperative for young and healthy people to get vaccinated

The New York Times, right, was a giant purveyor of misinformation, and disinformation. And that’s as vaunted a media organization as you can find, but there was no accountability for them.

– Ibid.

The podcaster Joe Rogan did not join a mob that forced lawmakers to flee for their lives. He never carried a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda. No one died trying to stop him from using the n-word.

But what Rogan and those that defend him have done since video clips of him using the n-word surfaced on social media is arguably just as dangerous as what a mob did when they stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 last year.

– From a CNN article equating Joe Rogan’s use of a derogatory term in the context of a race discussion to the January 6th riot

What triggered the violence in part were the messages that came from people in positions of power in Rwanda. Many, like Rogan, had a public megaphone and an audience.

– Ibid., suggesting that Joe Rogan’s discussion on race can lead to what happened in Rwanda in 1994, when almost a million people were killed in a civil war

We stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation. So we’d like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place. How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years?

- Streaming platform Rumble making a public offer to Joe Rogan after the left made a push to get Spotify to drop his podcast

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It’s been very odd, to tell you the truth, this idea of “identifying as something.” I think people identify me as something, but I identity as a human being.

- Miami Dolphins new head coach Mike McDaniel at his introductory press conference when asked about the fact that he is mixed race, with a white mother and a black father

I just try to be a good person.

– Ibid.

The fact that people have jobs always contributes to an increase in inflation, and that’s a good thing.

- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos extolling the virtues of inflation

We don’t want to say some of the things that are obvious, like, gee, the child-tax credit just ran out on December 31, and now people are stealing baby formula.

- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Dem/Socialist-NY) in a recent interview with the New Yorker talking about the recent spike in all types of crimes, including homicides, and blaming it on children not having formula

Well, you’re being a wise guy with me a little bit. And I understand. That’s your job.

- Pres. Joe Biden responding to Lester Holt who asked him: “I think it was back in July, you said inflation was going to be temporary. I think a lot of Americans are wondering what your definition of temporary is.”

Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks.

- CNN’s Juliette Kayyem’s “really brilliant idea” to remove Freedom Convoy trucks from a bridge between Canada and the U.S. that they are blocking in protest of vaccine mandates

It’s my favorite bourbon.

– Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in an interview with the Washington Examiner responding to former President Donald Trump calling him an “old crow” and criticizing his performance as Senate minority leader

To be clear, LeBron is a well-meaning person, and I don’t think LeBron means to do bad. I just don’t think he’s that smart… I think LeBron James is low IQ. - Candace Owens on the Full Send Podcast

That is the price that I’m willing to pay…. Because the principles of decision making on my body are more important than any title or anything else. I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.

- Tennis star Novak Djokovic on possibly skipping Wimbledon and the French Open because of his vaccination status

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Political Crossfire

Does Putin Want a Diplomatic Solution in Ukraine?

By David Ignatius

R

ussian President Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian saber dance continued Monday, with his top aides suggesting the possibility of diplomacy and de-escalation even as Russian troops remained poised for attack on the border of Ukraine.

Will he or won’t he invade? Putin loves to keep the world guessing.

Biden administration officials, knowing they can’t read Putin’s mind, continue to prepare for both possibilities – a Russian invasion or a round of diplomacy.

Monday’s contradictory signals illustrated the strange shadow play of the Ukraine crisis. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Putin in a televised meeting that diplomatic possibilities were “far from exhausted” and recommended “continuing and intensifying them.” And Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that some of the “exercises” that have sent more than 130,000 Russian troops toward attack positions would be ending soon.

Yet U.S. intelligence detected no signs Monday of de-escalation on the ground. Instead, some Russian units continued to move forward. And the Russian news agency TASS quoted the leader of a Russia-backed separatist enclave in eastern Ukraine, saying that the situation was “unstable” and Ukrainian “professional saboteurs” might be preparing to attack. That sounded like a version of the “casus belli” that Russia seeks.

Putin seems convinced that this ever-intensifying war of nerves is helping Russia. But White House officials believe this tactic may be backfiring in two ways: Some Russian officials, uncertain of Putin’s endgame, are questioning his brinkmanship; and Western nations, unsettled by Russian bullying, are rallying around

a NATO alliance that seemed depleted just two years ago.

The Biden administration may be overly optimistic about a crisis that could still be in its early stages. But officials believe that Putin’s threats have made U.S. allies in Europe and

this year. He has the military power to flex his muscles and burnish his legacy by regaining a piece of the old Soviet Union. Putin operates in such isolation that foreign visitors sometimes aren’t allowed to see him; instead, some are instructed to fly to Moscow and talk by

Only Putin knows what he will do next in this self-created crisis.

Asia recognize the importance of U.S. leadership and military power, galvanizing partnerships abroad that the Trump administration severely weakened. Officials see Putin’s actions as a wake-up call for the West – and in that sense, a big strategic boost for what had been a sagging United States.

For the Biden administration, the underlying puzzle in the Ukraine crisis is what might be called the “Putin factor.” The Russian leader turns 70

a dedicated landline to the invisible, unapproachable Kremlin leader.

U.S. officials believe that some of Putin’s advisers see danger ahead if Putin invades but they aren’t able to get this message to the boss. The sanctions that would follow an assault on Ukraine would make it hard for Russia to sell its energy abroad or to buy the technology it needs to supply its defense industry, let alone the rest of the economy. Russia’s financial reserves

are large, but they would quickly be depleted as it seeks to bolster its currency and pay its bills. U.S. officials reckon that under sanctions, Russia would be starved of inputs, and China, its only major ally, couldn’t fill the gaps.

President Biden has looked for a pathway for Putin to back away from this crisis. In a phone call Saturday with the Russian leader, Biden is said to have countered Putin’s claims that the West doesn’t address his security concerns by summarizing the ways America is prepared to discuss shared stability for Europe. To Putin’s insistence that the United States ignores Russia’s “red lines,” Biden counseled continued dialogue. The leaders talked about follow-on meetings, but no real channel for discussion has opened yet.

An impasse remains on Putin’s fundamental demand for a NATO guarantee that Ukraine won’t ever become a member. A statement by Ukraine’s ambassador to London that Kyiv was ready to give up its aspirations for NATO membership was quickly disavowed Monday by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government in Kyiv. But even on this question, formulas may be found to finesse the difference – stating the widely understood reality that Ukraine won’t join NATO any time soon without formally guaranteeing it.

Putin’s course may already be set for Kyiv. It’s hard to imagine that he has moved a vast army to the Ukraine border twice in the past year, only to retreat. Only Putin knows what he will do next in this self-created crisis. But even he can’t answer the classic question: Tell me how this ends?

(c) 2021, Washington Post Writers Group

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Political Crossfire

In Ukraine, Political Infighting Could Complicate War with Russia

By David Ignatius

O

n the eve of what could be a Russian invasion, Ukrainians appear united against the threat from Moscow – but also battling among themselves for political advantage in Kyiv. The political infighting is one more liability for a disorganized democracy up against a ruthless authoritarian state.

Concern about Ukraine’s fractious internal politics prompted a delegation of American diplomats to visit Kyiv late last month to show support for Ukraine – and appeal to President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet with opposition politicians and form a unity front. He refused, at least for the time being, apparently worried that his rivals might exploit his concessions.

William B. Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, represented the group of former U.S. envoys who visited Zelensky on January 31 on a trip organized by the Atlantic Council. Despite the current impasse, Taylor told me last week that “if the Russians come across the border, I am confident that they [opposition politicians] will rally around Zelensky.”

Ukraine’s struggle for political unity is a reminder of its fragility in what’s likely to be a continuing confrontation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine is long on patriotic fervor but short on internal organization – at once a vibrant democracy and a country manipulated by wealthy oligarchs.

It’s “Western democracy” in its most disheveled form.

Ukraine’s array of feuding politicians, backed by rival oligarchs, marks the biggest political difference with Putin’s one-man show in Moscow. “In Russia, by 2004, Putin and his former

KGB co-workers had effectively neutralized the [Russian] oligarchs, ensuring that Russia’s economy and politics were completely under their purview.

In Ukraine, in contrast, this did not happen,” writes former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in a revelatory new memoir, “Lessons From the Edge,” which will be published next month.

The internal drama in Ukraine is worth examining now, before there’s an outright Russian invasion, because it shows the fault lines and cleavages that Putin might seek to exploit. While Ukraine’s political fabric is frayed, its recent history shows that its people are surprisingly tough and resilient in countering Russian attempts to manipulate their country, which have been almost constant since 2004.

If Zelensky and other Ukrainians appear less agitated about the Russian invasion threat than U.S. officials, it’s partly because Kremlin pressure has been a chronic condition – something people have learned to live with.

Ukraine defied Russia in the “Orange

Revolution” that brought a pro-Western president to power in 2004; in the Maidan Square “Revolution of Dignity” that drove a pro-Russian president from office in 2014; and in the past eight years of armed resistance to Russia-backed rebels in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Putin’s attempt to suppress this pro-Western drift in Ukraine has only deepened his unpopularity there.

Ukrainians disagree about many things these days, but they appear united in their dislike of Putin.

Zelensky might be the world’s most unlikely president. He’s a television comedian who came to power in 2019 after his show, “Servant of the People,” captured the nation’s imagination. He played an idealistic schoolteacher who is elected president after a student posts a viral video of him denouncing corrupt oligarchs. Ukrainians adored the show, with Zelensky’s wisecracks about local pols and even a swipe at Putin that got the show banned from Russian TV.

It’s a measure of Ukrainian idealism that a whopping 73 percent of the country voted to make him a real-life president. Inevitably, he had an oligarch backer of his own, billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, who owned the 1+1 TV station that broadcast “Servant of the People.” (The genially manipulative Kolomoisky was known as “Special K” within the U.S. Embassy, according to Yovanovitch.)

Zelensky’s biggest rival now is probably his predecessor, former president Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire candy-maker who also has a media empire. Another player is Rinat Akhmetov, a controversial billionaire who owns Ukraina, perhaps the country’s most influential TV station.

Russia is unpopular, even among Ukrainian oligarchs. When I met Poroshenko this past month in Kyiv, he alternated between blasting Zelensky for mismanaging the confrontation with Putin and pledging that he would join a unity coalition to save the nation.

But rather than drawing his rivals into a unity alliance, Zelensky has attacked them – accusing Akhmetov of plotting a coup in November and placing Poroshenko under investigation in December. That might have made good TV, but it’s unwise now.

It falls to Zelensky, the former comedian, to confront the stone-cold menace of Putin. But Zelensky isn’t strong enough to do this alone. He needs help, and he can get it at home and abroad if he’s willing to put national unity first. In the real-life version, as in the TV show, people want the good guy to win. (c) 2021, Washington Post Writers Group

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Political Crossfire

Hail to the Commies!

By Marc A. Thiessen

A

fter 18 months of careful and deliberate study, Washington’s National Football League team finally unveiled its new name: The Washington Commanders. “No more ‘get a name’ jokes,” the team’s official Twitter account boasted.

Fine. Then let the nickname jokes begin!

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are known by fans as the “Bucs.” The New England Patriots are the “Pats.” The Minnesota Vikings are the “Vikes.”

And the San Francisco 49ers are “Niners.” So, what will the Washington Commanders be known as?

As die-hard Washington fans, displeased with the new name, immediately pointed out, the Commanders’ obvious nickname is…the “Commies.”

In a way, the name is perfect. At a time when President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are seeking to insert the heavy hand of government into every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave with multi-trillion-dollar socialist spending plans, there could be no better nickname for Washington’s football team than the “Commies.” Hey, the team’s colors even match the Soviet and Chinese Communist flags.

Disgruntled fans had a field day on social media. One tweeted: “Nothing

symbolized the commies better than a dilapidated stadium, bad leadership, and the best years of the franchise left back in the ‘80s.” Others created their own logos featuring the hammer and sickle and the Bernie Sanders mittens meme. Still others adapted the team’s old fight song: “Hail to the Commies!

Hail CCCP! Comrades on the Warpath! Fight for old D.C.!”

How could the marketing geniuses behind the name change mess this up so badly? According to The

mets, and uniforms were designed for each finalist and “tested in every way imaginable: how they would appear on a TV screen crawl, in a lineup with other NFL logos, or in a social media avatar.”

And yet, in nearly two years of the marketing meetings and focus groups, apparently no one ever raised a hand and said: “Hey, if we pick ‘Commanders,’ won’t people call us the ‘Commies’?”

The team had better get used to

What’s wrong with a little socialist realism on the Potomac?

Washington Post, 40,000 fan submissions “and ‘thousands’ of others sent in by snail mail” were whittled down to 1,200 potential names. Then a “group of executives from the team’s marketing, legal and fan experience departments, worked with the digital creative company Code & Theory as well as designers from Nike and the NFL to narrow the list to three finalists.” Each “was put through an extensive vetting process.” Logos, hel-

Commies. The nickname is not going away. Even if D.C. does not embrace it, crowds in opposing stadiums will.

The same NFL fans who regularly chant “Let’s go, Brandon!” will not hesitate to greet the visiting Commanders with chants of “Commies stink!” And if they do (they were 7-100 this season), it would not be at all surprising to see hometown fans join in on the chants as well.

So perhaps the team should just

embrace the nickname. The possibilities are endless. Daire Carragher of 247 Sports suggested on Twitter that if “the Washington Commies [do] get a really good defensive line…we can call them the Iron Curtain.” The city’s Major League Baseball franchise, the Washington Nationals (a.k.a. the “Nats”) have the “Racing Presidents” featuring mascots of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. Perhaps the Commies can have the “racing dictators” featuring Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro racing during halftime.

(As an added twist, they could be chased by Joe McCarthy.)

Of course, there will be challenges. When New England comes to town, and the “Patriots” face the “Commies,” whom are freedom-loving D.C. residents supposed root for?

It’s a problem. On the other hand, Communism is enjoying a bit of a moment in the sports world today. After all, the Chinese Communist Party is hosting the Winter Olympics. What’s wrong with a little socialist realism on the Potomac?

So, get used to your new nickname, comrade Commanders.

Hail to the Commies! (c) 2021, Washington Post Writers Group

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Forgotten Her es

The Old Guard: The 3rd Infantry Regiment

By Avi Heiligman

V

isitors to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia notice that there is always a guard on duty pacing back and forth in front of the tomb. Guard duty is a great honor for those soldiers that pass the rigorous training, and they all come from one specific unit in the army. The 3rd Infantry Regiment’s responsibilities include ceremonial duties that many train their whole careers to perform perfectly in addition to their traditional combat roles. The regiment has many functions in both combat and ceremonial roles and can trace its history back to the end of the Revolutionary War. At the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, Congress disbanded the Continental Army, and George Washington left his post as the commander of the army. A few units remained, but these were soon disbanded as well because Congress did not want a standing army during peacetime. In 1784, Congress reversed this potential disastrous decision and allowed for one regiment of eight companies to be formed. The unit became known as the First American Regiment and was under the command of Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar.

The regiment was active in several battles with the Native Americans, with the Americans losing a number of

these battles. In 1815, after the conclusion of the War of 1812, all remaining units, including the First American Regiment, were consolidated into the 3rd Infantry Regiment, and since then – except for a year and half following World War II – the regiment has been in active service. These soldiers fought in every major conflict since their inception except during World War I, when they were stationed on the U.S.-Mexico border and during the Korean War. During a victory parade following the Mexican-American War, General Winfield Scott gave the regiment its nickname, the Old Guard.

The Tomb of the Unknowns is a worldwide concept, and the American version is in the Arlington National Cemetery. The remains of three servicemen were interred there from World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. A fourth tomb was in place for the Vietnam War, but DNA samples determined the identity of the deceased. The body was reinterred, and the tomb remains empty.

The main tomb was from World War I and originated from someone who was interred at the military cemetery in Meuse Argonne, France.

Elite soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Regiment are designated as Tomb’s Guards and follow a rigid procedure in honor of their fallen comrades-inarms. Soldiers guarding the Tomb of

the Unknown Soldier are called sentinels, and they watch over the tomb 24 hours a day no matter the weather (there are exceptions for hazardous weather patterns like blizzards and hurricanes). The sentinel walks 21 paces on the rubber walkway, then faces the tomb for 21 seconds, turns, and waits another 21 seconds before walking another 21 steps. Tomb’s Guards carry an M14 rifle that is always inspected before going on duty and is always carried facing away from the tomb.

There are several other special units within the 3rd Infantry, and they participate in over 6,000 ceremonies annually. Caisson Platoon soldiers perform military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery with six horses pulling the casket. Behind the caisson is a riderless horse with an empty saddle and boots reversed in the stirrups.

The platoon will also perform at other ceremonies other than funerals including presidential inaugural parades.

Most of the time, the Tomb’s Guards and the Caisson Platoon operate in complete silence since they are usually at ceremonies honoring those fallen in combat. There are a few exceptions, for instance, if a guest walks too close to the tomb or guard, the guard will yell at them to remain at a distance.

The U.S. Army Drill Team is an-

other specialty platoon within the 3rd Infantry Regiment. They perform incredible routines with bayonet-tipped 1903 Springfield rifles that can last several breathtaking minutes. Performances can be not only for military purposes but for government and even civilian functions as well.

Ceremonies can sometimes be musical and performing a unique routine for the 3rd Infantry is the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.

Formed in 1960, the corps wears uniforms and uses instruments similar to those used during the Revolutionary War. Drummers and fife (a wind instrument) players were common in the Continental Army, and the current unit pays homage to those who served under General Washington. The flamboyantly dressed corps can be seen around the world, at sporting events, and have been a mainstay during presidential inaugurations since Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

Two other specialty units within the Old Guard are the Continental Color Guard and the Presidential Salute Battery. The Continental Color Guard wear the same style of uniforms worn in 1784 and serves to showcase the rich history of the regiment while displaying the flags of the army, regiment, and the Stars and Stripes. The famous 21-gun salute is fired by the Presidential Salute Battery. Assigned

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to fire at ceremonies and funerals for presidents, dignitaries, and select members of the Armed Forces, the battery uses ten 3-inch M5 guns. The battery is also present at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and maintains battle readiness training with M252 mortar systems.

The Old Guard is also operationally ready to respond to threats. Within the regiment, the 289th Military Police Company operates a military police K-9 unit and has a special reaction team to respond to high-risk situations in the D.C. area. The Command-

er-in-Chief’s Guard has riot control responsibilities in addition to their ceremonial roles that include presidential inaugurations. This particular unit while on ceremonial duties wears black tricorn hats with powdered wigs and carries weapons modeled on the 18th century Brown Bess muskets.

The 3rd Infantry Regiment maintains a balance of being the official ceremonial unit of the army while continuing to be battle ready when they are needed. Currently, the 1st and 4th Battalions of the regiment are comprised of the specialty units while the

2nd Battalion, stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, is an infantry battalion of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division. The 2nd Battalion most recently deployed to Iraq in 2009 and to Afghanistan in 2011.

Many famous soldiers have served with the Old Guard, and four soldiers from the regiment have received the Medal of Honor. Three of the medals were awarded during the Indian Wars in the latter half of the 19th century.

Corporal Michael Follond was posthumously awarded the medal for smoth-

33 125 33

ering the blast of enemy grenade and saving the lives of his fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War. The soldiers who serve with the Old Guard both in combat and in ceremonial roles are continuing the legacy for one of the most storied regiments in American history.

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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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

Classifieds classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com • text 443-929-4003

SERVICES

SERVICES

SERVICES

HOUSES FOR SALE

PEACEFUL PRESENCE STUDIO Men's private yoga, Licensed Massage & Holistic Health Guidance 436 Central Ave, Cedarhurst Info. & free video training www.peacefulpresence.com 516-371-3715

VACUUM SALES AND REPAIR All areas call Max Flam 718-444-4904

For all your Property Management Services Call/Email ALL AMERICAN PROPERTY SERVICES allamericanpropertyservices99 @gmail.com. 516-400-0487

WOODMERE PRIME LOCATION! 5 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths, LR, DR, EIK, pool, stucco siding Patino, Fenced yard. 2 car Garage, big driveway, must see!

Call now All Going Realty at 516-206-2005 Hurry won't last!

Alternative Solutions Geriatric Care 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 SHALOM HANDYMAN Plumbing, heating, boiler, installation, sewer, locks, dryer vent cleaning and more…

CALL 917-217-3676

HANDYMAN AVAILABLE For big or small jobs, Sheetrock, carpentry, painting, electrical, plumbing, install & repair appliances Call Ephraim at 347-593-4691 MOONBOUNCE FOR RENT $100/day.

Holds up to 500lbs.

Perfect fun for ages 3-8 Call or text 516-220-0616 to reserve your date GERBER MOVING FULL SERVICE MOVING Packing Moving Supplies Local Long Distance Licensed Insured 1000’S Of Happy Customers Call Shalom 347-276-7422

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

Small Ads at Work Classifieds

WOODMERE

Expanded Cape w. 4 bdrms, 2 baths, on quiet ABC block, renovated kitchen and baths.

Chana (516) 449-9692 $840K

WOODMERE

Mint ranch w. 4 bdrms, 4 baths, radiant heat, quiet block. Call Raizie (917)903-1778 $1,299M

FAR ROCKAWAY New to Market, Single Family Home on Great Block!

Renovated, 4BR 3BA, MBR with full BA and porch, Finished attic, Finished basement with BR/BA, Hardwood Floors throughout, New Deck off main floor, Maintained Boilers, A/C System, Roof, Pvt. Drvwy.

Open Layout-Asking $749k.

Moller Realty Group, Chaya Moller.

Call 516-506-3347 CAN’T AFFORD YOUR PROPERTY TAXES? MORTGAGE? Must sell for any reason?

Call for FREE Consultation.

Call now 212-470-3856 Cash buyers available!

CEDARHURST

WOODMERE

New to Market! 4 bdrm 3.5 bth mint colonial in the heart of Cedarhurst! Low

CEDARHURST

Taxes! Call Miri 646-515-8813 $1.490M

New to Market! 12 year old colonial on quiet street in Woodmere Park. 6 bedrooms, 3.6 baths. $2.150M

CEDARHURST

FAR ROCKAWAY

Newly renovated 3 bdrm, 1 bth duplex.

Call Ludwing (516) 757-4570 $3,100/m

Renovated 6 bdrm, 4 bth duplex w nice yard & private driveway. Call Malka 516-967-1967 $1,075M

4 bedroom, 2.5 bath expanded ranch for rent in the heart of Cedarhurst. Bryna 516-322-4831 $4,500/M

CEDARHURST

1 bedroom apartment in the heart of Cedarhurst. Bryna (516)322-4831 $1,895/m

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

127

Classifieds classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com • text 443-929-4003

HOUSES FOR SALE

HOUSES FOR SALE

LAWRENCE NEW TO THE MARKET MOVE RIGHT IN!!!

1st Floor apartment, elevator and doorman building, underground parking, in-ground pool.

1 Bedroom 2 Full bathrooms, CAC, terrace facing courtyard, laundry room, storage. Close to railroad, shopping & houses of worship.$379k Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

LAWRENCE: JUST LISTED JR. 4 furnished apartment, doorman, elevator, garage parking, gym, card room central air conditioning, terrace, hardwood floors, custom closets, built ins, kitchen with quartz countertops, 2 sinks, 2 dishwashers, sub zero refrigerator, washer/dryer close to railroad, shopping and houses of worship $3,200 month Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

WOODMERE JUST LISTED Beautifully maintained Split Level home in the heart of Woodmere.

This home boasts 4 Bedrooms, 2.5 Baths, Eat-in Kitchen, Formal Dining Room, Living Room, Finished Basement and office.

Beautiful and spacious Backyard.

Great location, SD#14. Close to all & houses of worship.P.O.R. Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

Don’t Get Stuck With a Two Story House Ya Know, It’s One Story Before You Buy It But a Second Story After You Own It! Call Dov Herman For An Accurate Unbiased Home Inspection Infrared - Termite Inspection Full Report All Included NYC 718-INSPECT Long Island 516-INSPECT www.nyinspect.com

HOUSES FOR SALE HEWLETT: Home in SD#14, 4 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, finished basement with separate rooms.

Detached garage and park-like private backyard. Upgraded CAC, hardwood floors, hi-hats all around, ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, security system, inground sprinklers, new washer/ dryer, many closets, PV solar electric panels, and smart home features. 200 amp service, auto surround sound system. Kitchen with granite countertops and custom-built wood cabinets, top-line appliances. First-floor bedroom has adjacent full bathroom. Master bedroom with en-suite bathroom with radiant heat. Close to schools, shopping, and transportation.$799k Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

HOUSES FOR SALE LAWRENCE: Resort style Colonial.

8 bedrooms, 2 story grand entrance, extremely large dining room, family room. Expansive chefs kitchen, rotunda breakfast, top appliances 3 sinks 3 ovens 2 dishwashers, lime stone floors and granite countertops.

First floor with 10 foot ceilings with 3 more guest bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, den, billiard room and laundry room. Radiant heat.

Master suite with 2 terraces, large walk in closets and master bath.

Additional 4 bedrooms walk-in closets and bathrooms in each.

Call for a private showing.

Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

128

FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

HOUSES FOR SALE

HOUSES FOR RENT

APT FOR RENT

APT FOR RENT

WOODMERE BRIGHT AND SUNNY 3 BEDROOM 3 BATHROOM TOWNHOUSE Central air conditioning, hardwood floors, skylights, eat in kitchen , formal living room and dining room, finished basement , enjoy the community pool and tennis court, close to the railroad, shopping, and the houses of worship $719k Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

Far Rockaway: House For Rent.

On Beach 12th. 3 1/2 bedrooms.

Just renovated, Central HVAC,LR/Dr, Finished basement..Call Raphael 917-822-1726 $3800/m

SF MEDICAL OFFICE SPACE Available, Reception Area, Waiting Room, Kitchenette, 2 Consult, 4 Exam Rooms, 2 Bathrooms, 30 Car On-Site Parking, For Lease …Call Ian 516-295-3000 www.pugatch.com

FAR ROCKAWAY: New. Just painted, floors polished, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in Darchei area, HUGE Master bedroom with own bathroom, dining room with high ceiling, kitchen with double sink, hookup for washer/dryer, yard 2200/month Call 917-620-0917

CEDARHURST - 100' X 100' corner property for sale!! Large living rm, FDR, Kosher kit + den. En suite mstr bdrm plus 3 additional bdrs, fin bsmt, 2 1/2 bths, central air, sprinkler system, fully alarmed. Front porch, rear deck, Pvt drv + 2 story 2 car gar.

Generator. Excellent cond!

Brisman RE/Raizy - 718-677-0988 or 917-975-8550

INVESTORS WELCOME GREAT DEAL IN WOODMERE, amazing location, double lot, low taxes ,SD 14 Asking $599, won’t last 25 CONKLIN AVE, WOODMERE Call Alexandra at Realty Connect 1-516-784-0856

WOODMERE: Beautiful, brick, colonial boasting 5 bdr 3.5 Bth in pristine condition.

Excellent location, near all!

Move right in!

RCUSA 516-512-9626

COMMERCIAL RE STORE FOR RENT BORO PARK 4406-16 ave. Bet 44 and 45 st.

700 square feet.

Ideal for Jewelery store.

2300 dollars monthly rent.

Call 917 833-3838

LOWEST PRICES IN TOWN! 500-7000 Square feet gorgeous office space with WATERVIEW in Inwood! Lots of options.

Tons of parking. Will divide and customize space for your needs!

Call 516-567-0100

EAST ROCKAWAY: Retail Stores on Busy Corner, 1000SF& Up Available, Great High Visibility Location, For Lease…

Call for More Details Broker (516) 792-6698

APT FOR RENT CEDARHURST: 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, totally renovated NO FEE 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

HEWLETT two 3 bedroom 2 bath co-ops with central air conditioning, terrace, washer/dryer, hardwood floors, recessed lighting, magnificent kitchens, ss appliances, l/r, d/r, close to the railroad, shopping, and houses of worship.

Mark Lipner Associate Broker Berkshire Hathaway Laffey International 516-298-8457 mlipner@bhhslaffey.com FAR ROCKAWAY: House For Rent. On Beach 12th.

3 1/2 bedrooms.Just renovated, Central HVAC,LR/Dr, Finished basement..Call Raphael 917-822-1726 $3300/m

PRAYING FOR LOWER RATES?

Weekly Classifed Ads Up to 5 lines and/or 25 words 1 week ................$20 2 weeks .............. $35 4 weeks .............. $60 Email ads to: classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com Include valid credit card info and zip code

Deadline Monday 5:00pm

5:45 6:00 6:00 6:00 6:00 6:05 6:05 6:10 6:10 6:15 6:15 6:20 6:20 6:25 6:25 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:30 6:35 6:50 7:00 7:00 7:00 7:00 7:00 7:00 7:00 7:00 7:00

Young Israel of Woodmere The White shul Young Israel of Woodmere Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv Congregation Shaaray Tefila Bais Medrash of Cedarhurst Congregation Shaaray Tefilah Beis Medrash Heichal Dovid Congregation Aish Kodesh Young Israel of Far Rockaway Irving Place Minyan (IPM) Anshei Chesed Kehilas Yagdil Torah Chabad of Five Towns Beth Sholom The White shul Young Israel of Woodmere Young Israel of L-C Chofetz Chaim Torah Center Yeshiva Ateres Shimon Agudath Israel of LI Agudath Israel of LI The White shul Bais Medrash of Cedarhurst Congregation Aish Kodesh Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv Young Israel of Hewlett The Red Shul Young Israel of Woodmere Beit Ephraim Yitzchok Young Israel of L-C

7:00 7:00 7:30 7:30 7:30 7:30 7:30 7:30 7:30 7:30 7:45 7:45 8:00 8:00 8:00 8:00 8:00 8:00 8:00 8:15 8:30 8:30 8:30 8:30 8:45 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:15 9:30

Congregation Shaaray Tefila Agudath Israel of the FT The White shul Irving Place Minyan Beth Sholom Agudath Israel of LI Beis Medrash Heichal Dovid Young Israel of Woodmere Chabad of Five Towns Yeshiva Ateres Shimon Congregation Shaaray Tefila Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv The White shul Agudath Israel of LI Yeshiva Aish Kodesh Young Israel of Woodmere Beit Ephraim Yitzchok Bais Medrash of Cedarhurst Young Israel of L-C Beth Sholom The White shul The Red Shul Yeshiva Ateres Shimon Young Israel of Woodmere Bais Ment The White shul Bais Medrash of Cedarhurst Young Israel of L-C Young Israel of Woodmere The Red Shul The White shul

Jordan Goldschmidt VP of Mortgage Lending, Guaranteed Rate (516) 998-6201 | (212) 318-9432 Jordan.Goldschmidt@rate.com

NMLS 2012660 Licensed by The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. nlmsconsumeraccess.org 1400 Old Country Rd Suite 206N, Westbury, NY 11590, (212) 318-9432, Guaranteed Rate, Inc. NMLS 2611 3940 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613 (866) 934-7283 • rate.com Equal Housing Lender www.rate.com/privacy

Post your Real Estate, Help Wanted, Services, Miscellaneous Ads here.

Weekday Shacharis Minyan Times * Some of these time may vary for leining days, hodu/ brachos, and Rosh Chodesh. We have always shown the earliest time.

TJH Classifieds

YOU’VE BEEN ANSWERED...

129

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

APT FOR RENT

HELP WANTED

HEWLETT Totally renovated 2 Bedroom, 1 Full Bath Apt 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

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

HELP WANTED Gesher (located in Cedarhurst) is looking for a part-time Rebbe beginning in January for First Grade boys. · Approximately a half-hour a day, Monday through Friday · Small group lessons · The goal of the Rebbe is to provide faster paced exposure to higher level kriah and chumash skills · Curriculum support provided · One-on-one private pay tutoring opportunities may also be available Please email your resume to jobs@gesher-ecc.org or contact (516) 730-7377 to set up an interview.

Local Yeshiva looking to hire a mature, capable F/T front desk receptionist. Job responsibilities include answering phones and door, data entry & database upkeep, & mail responsibilities.

Candidate must be detail-oriented, organized, and have the ability to multi-task.

Proficiency in Microsoft Office preferred.

Enjoyable working environment, personal, sick, vacation days offered, Yom Tovim and certain legal holidays off.

Please email resume to admin@shoryoshuv.org

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS CAHAL is seeking a secular studies MATERNITY SUBSTITUTE for February for a small boys 6th grade class and a PERMANENT AFTERNOON SUBSTITUTE. Email resume to shira@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666.

SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS CAHAL is seeking afternoon maternity leave substitute secular studies teacher for a small 6th grade boys class and PM secular studies permanent substitute.

E-mail resume to Shira@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666.

ASSISTANT REBBEIM and TEACHERS CAHAL, the community Special Ed program in Five Towns and Far Rockaway yeshivas has immediate openings available for: AM ASSISTANT REBBES for a 4th-5th grade class and a 6th grade class PM ASSISTANT TEACHERS for a 2nd-3rd grade class and a 6th grade class We have small classes and flexible hours.

Email resume to shira@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666.

General administrative support needed for busy Five Towns office.

Part-Time, in-office position.

Flexible hours.

Looking for someone who is detail-oriented, dependable, and dedicated. Proficiency in Excel/ Word a must.

Please send inquiry/resume to flexiblestaffpositions21 @gmail.com BAIS YAAKOV IN FAR ROCKAWAY seeking experienced Preschool Social Worker to start immediately.

Please email resume to teachingpositions1@gmail.com

ASSISTANT TEACHERS CAHAL is seeking PM Assistant Teachers for young classes in 5-Towns and Far Rockaway.

E-mail resume to Shira@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666.

Whether buying or selling real estate get...

Give me a call today!

516-298-8457 Licensed Associate Broker, G.R.I.

mlipner@bhhslaffey.com

I am proud to be recognized as a top Berkshire Hathaway network agent for 2021.

Top 1/2 of 1% of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network agents nationwide!

OPEN HOUSE SUN 2/20 - 2:00-4:00PM

OPEN HOUSE SUN 2/20 - 11:30-1:30PM

OPEN HOUSE SUN 2/20 - 12:00-2:00PM

5 CLUBSIDE DR., WOODMERE

1589 HEWLETT AVE., HEWLETT

1215 E. BROADWAY, APT A12, HEWLETT

3BR, 3 Bath Bright & Sunny Townhouse with a Finished Bsmt, Garage, MBR Suite, Formal L/R & D/R, EIK, CAC, Community Pool & Tennis Court.

Close To All. $719,000

1589 Hewlett Ave, Hewlett 4BR, 3Bath & Finished Bsmt, Smart Home, CAC, IGS, Surround Sound System, Kitchen with Granite & More! $799,000

Co-Ops:

HEWLETT HARBOR

Exp Ranch with 7 B/R & 4 Full Bathrooms, H/W Floors, New EIK with SS Appliances, L/R - Fplc, FDR, Main Floor Master Suite & Full Finished Bsmnt. P.O.R.

LAWRENCE

1BR, 2 Full Bath, Elev. Building, Doorman, U/G Parking, IGP CAC, Terrace $379,000

WOODMERE

4BR, 3FBath Beautifully Maintained Split Level Home in the Heart of Woodmere, EIK, F D/R, L/R, Finished Bsmt., CAC, P.O.R.

Cedarhurst Cedarhurst Hewlett Hewlett Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence Woodmere Woodmere Woodmere

1BR • 1BA 2BR • 2BA 2BR • 2BA 3BR • 2BA 2BR • 1BA 1BR • 1BA 1BR • 1BA 3BR • 3BA 2BR • 1BA 2BR • 1BA 3BR • 3BA

$219k $364k $199k $339k $299K $339K $379K $P.O.R. $199k $349k $719k

And many more...Call for details!

3BR, 2Bath Co-op, Magnificent Apt on the 1st Fl., CAC, HW Floors, Kitchen w/Granite Countertops, SS Apliances, W/D, Spectacular Moldings, Built Ins, Close To All. $319,000

Homes:

Atlantic Beach Lawrence Lynbrook

4BR • 4BA 8BR • 9BA 3BR • 2BA

Hewlett Harbor Inwood Woodmere Woodsburgh Woodmere Woodmere

7BR • 4BA 4BR • 3BA 4BR • 3BA 4BR • 4BA 4BR • 3BA 7BR • 6BA

Cedarhurst

2BR • 2BA

Rental:

$1,695,000 $P.O.R. $699k

$1,299,000 $599k $849k $P.O.R. $P.O.R. $P.O.R.

$3,495/monthly

130

FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

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

BUSINESS MANAGER P/T (mostly) Remote Legacy 613, a dynamic Jewish outreach organization based in the NYC metro area, seeks a Business Manager.

The successful candidate will be responsible to oversee the budget.

We are looking for a dynamic selfstarter with excellent people and organizational skills.

Experience in not-for-profit Jewish organizations is a plus.

Excellent part-time opportunity with competitive hourly compensation.

Candidate will work with the director in developing budget and fundraising initiatives and generating reports to present to our Board of Directors.

Send resumes to info@legacy613.org

JOB OPPORTUNITY Are you looking to make a difference in the life of someone special? This job may be for you!

Seeking: a female worker for a high functioning 6 year old female in Far Rockaway, twice a week from 2:30-5:00pm.

Hours are flexible. Great pay!

Please call: 718-854-2747 Ext 1110.

Refer to job ID 6666

Nursing Home Management Company in Brooklyn Looking to fill the following positions: Administrative Assistant MS office suite proficiency required Administrative Assistant experience required WE ARE LOOKING FOR AN EXPERIENCED FULL TIME BOOKKEEPER Excellent growth potential Frum environment Excellent salary & benefits Email resume to: resumetfs1@gmail.com Please put position title and FTJH in subject line

HEBREW ACADEMY OF LONG BEACH, Woodmere, NY is seeking a part time Kriah teacher 8:00 am - 12:00 pm. Will train. Resumes to bkresch@halb.org SHULAMITH EARLY CHILDHOOD is looking to hire a full time teacher assistant for the current school year.

Please email resume to earlychildhood@shulamith.org JOB OPPORTUNITY Are you looking to make a difference in the life of someone special?

This job may be for you!

Seeking: a female worker for a high functioning 9 year old male in Cedarhurst area Shabbos and Sunday hours after 12:30pm Hours are flexible. Great pay!

Please call: 718-854-2747 Ext 1110.

Refer to job ID 11111

SPEECH THERAPIST CAHAL is seeking a Speech/ Language Therapist for Special Ed classes in 5-Towns /Far Rock yeshivas. E-mail resume to Shira@cahal.org or call 516-295-3666

Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Woodmere NY seeks Limudei Kodesh and General Studies substitute teachers for grades 1-8.

Resumes to hweiselberg@halb.org 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 Special Care seeks patient Male or female com/hab worker 5:30-7:30 P.M. for 7-year-old boy with autism in Bayswater, full or partial coverage.

718-252-3365 ext: 102 or renay@specialcarefor.com Lower Manhattan Orthodox Non-Profit Seeks Administrative Assistant to provide high-level administrative support. (FT) Prior office experience and attention to detail required.

Resumes to aklein@ou.org.

NEW YESHIVA IN QUEENS SEEKING SECRETARY Must be detail-oriented, have great organizational skills, able to multi-task. Experience in school programs a plus.

Send resume to: office@yeshivatbneitorah.org or call/text: 347-351-4573

MISC Gemach Zichron Yehuda In memory of R’ Yehuda Aryeh Leib ben R’ Yisroel Dov We have a library of books on the subjects of loss, aveilus, grief, & kaddish. We have sets of ArtScroll Mishnayos to assist with finishing Shisha Sidrei Mishna for Shloshim or yahrtzeit.

Locations in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway, & Lakewood.

Email: zichronyehuda@yahoo.com COTTON CANDY PARTY MACHINE FOR RENT $100 an event.

All Proceeds to tzedakah For more information call or text 917-923-0011

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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131

132 14

FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Your

Money

Odds are Good

By Allan Rolnick, CPA

L

ife is full of mysteries that we may never solve. Nature or nurture? Growth or value? “Tastes great” or “less filling”?

But last month, one fortunate gambler proved it’s better to be lucky than smart. He started with a $20 credit on the FanDuel betting site – house money! He bet that the underdog Cincinnati Bengals would beat the hometown Kansas City Chiefs by 27-24, and the favored Los Angeles Rams would beat the visiting San Francisco 49ers by 2017. Amazingly, he called both games, and turned that $20 credit into $579,020. Who needs smart when you’ve got that kind of luck?

The Rams were 4.5-point favorites to win this weekend’s Super Bowl. But savvy gamblers know the point spread isn’t supposed to predict the winner. It’s there to balance the action, so that bettors wager equal amounts on each team.

That way, the bookies get to line up in the neutral zone and walk away with their 10% vig on everything. As any stat geek can tell you, the best way to win is to be the house.

The fans at the IRS are delighted our lucky bettor’s win, too. They’ll take a big chunk of that payoff even though they took none of the risk.

But if you look a little closer, you’ll see that the folks who write our tax laws have given the IRS an unfair advantage in a lot of situations where taxpayers take the risk.

Start with the rules for gambling. Winnings are taxable as ordinary income. But losses are deductible only up to the amount you win. If you lose more than you win,

bookie might buy you a beer to cry in – but he’s still going to break your knees if you don’t pay.)

That’s not the only situation where Uncle Sam has an unfair edge. If you invest in rental real estate, which is comically treated as a “passive” activity no matter how many hours you spend on your back under the kitchen sink, your income

As any stat geek can tell you, the best way to win is to be the house.

which happens enough that Las Vegas is a thing, those excess losses are nondeductible. You can’t even carry them forward like you can with business net operating losses, capital losses, or charitable gifts.

Watch your kicker split the uprights as the clock winds down and the IRS cheers with you. Watch your quarterback throw an interception in overtime, and you lose alone. (Your

is fully taxable. But if you lose money on your property, your losses are deductible only up to the amount of passive income you earn from other activities. Any remaining losses get “suspended” until your property starts making money, you sell it in a fully taxable transaction or (*checks notes*) you die.

The same principle applies with capital gains. If you make a for-

tune in crypto and get out before the market collapses, as it seems to do fairly regularly, your gains are fully taxable. But if you buy before the collapse, your net losses are deductible only up to $3,000/ year. Anything more than that gets carried forward to future years and future gains. And if you die with a boatload of carryover losses waiting to eat up gains that never come, well, you know what they say: “You can’t take it with you.”

Sports gambling is legal in 30 states now, with online betting available in 18. And sites like FanDuel do something Bernie the Bookie down at the corner tavern never did – they send out W-2Gs to report winnings. So we know the IRS was celebrating Sunday’s Super Bowl results, no matter who won. Here’s hoping you got to celebrate a win, 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.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO

t h e Ai s h Ko d e s h 2 9 th a n n u a l d i n n e r MONDAY,

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

43

Life C ach

Some New Instructions

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., LMFT, CLC, SDS

T

hings used to come with instructions. They were written out, and they included stepby-step numbered diagrams. No one loved them, but everyone had equal access to them.

Today, somehow, young people understand new technology without instructions – almost as if it’s wired into them.

Older people – and that can even be someone nearing their late twenties – have access to only one easy instruction manual – and it usually looks like any kid under ten or twelve.

The younger a kid is, the more we are at their mercy.

Parents sometimes feel their usefulness waning and dependence growing. Not the best way to parent the young!

Of course, we can avoid asking our kids and ask Siri. But she’s usually slow and inquisitive and has you taking a lot more steps to get things done. In truth, that still might be the better route to take, because what does a young person do?

Do they patiently stand there to give you step-by-step instructions?

Do they demonstrate any interest in allowing you to learn so you can do it

yourself next time?

Of course not!

They usually grab your phone or computer. Then reset, reroute, or rearrange, based on what you asked of them, and although you do get your query solved, you have no idea how you got there.

your phone and begin “double-thumbing” the outcome onto your phone at the speed of light.

Their torture at watching you slowly and mechanically accomplish what it takes them seconds to achieve does not allow them sit back passively as you take your time to get it done.

Older people – and that can even be someone nearing their late twenties – have access to only one easy instruction manual – and it usually looks like any kid under ten or twelve.

You could attempt to encourage them to try to let you do it yourself and to just guide you. However, after painfully observing you pounding away with your index finger for about 20 seconds, you can rest assured that they will robotically reach across for

They can’t help but do it for you and then move back to complaining about “being bored” and asking you what there is to do.

And you’re thinking, “Well, if you’re only in a rush to be bored again, couldn’t you have allowed me

to learn something instead of rushing to erase my opportunity?”

We are so torn by the joy of recognizing how adept they are so young and the fear that they are being overtaken by technology. We love seeing the natural ease with which they pick something up, yet wish it were anything but a thing that will consume them. And though we love their help, sometimes we’d rather it just be in the kitchen or with the laundry. Because, with that, they’re always still willing to let us be the experts.

So alas, what’s my instruction to you? Keep loving them through all life’s changes and twists and turns, and hopefully they’ll turn out just the way they should.

Rivki Rosenwald is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist working with both couples and individuals and is a certified relationship counselor. Rivki is a co-founder and creator of an effective Parent Management of Adolescent Years Program. She can be contacted at 917705-2004 or at rivkirosenwald@gmail. com.

The Jewish Home | FEBRUARY 17, 2022

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FEBRUARY 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home

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