Five Towns Jewish Home - 6-4-20 by The Jewish Home

June 4, 2020

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STUDENT TO 42 A Parade to Remember

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REMEMBERING Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, zâ&#x20AC;?l Showing Our Appreciation

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STOMP ON STIGMA

A Conversation with Mrs. Jessica Tsur

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Dear Readers,

her. She is such a good human being. She only wants to do good in the world,” adding, “I’m proud of her.” Huh? No one had asked the mayor whether or not he loved his daughter. That was not something the city had to hear. No one had asked if he was proud of her. Most of us don’t really care. And certainly no one thought that he would share that he “honors” his daughter. Honoring a child? Hearing those words – a day after the yom tov that celebrates us receiving the luchos and accepting upon ourselves to honor our parents – made me cringe. I had never heard of anyone “honoring” their children. Loving them? Absolutely. But honoring them? What an upside-down world. And it got me thinking. Perhaps that attitude has led to much of the chaos that we have been witnessing this week. Certainly, the youth are the future of a generation. But when parents allow their children to dictate values and rules, when parents are scared to provide guidance and insist on certain standards being upheld, then we’re left with a generation that runs wild. They roam the streets and smash windows and grab TVs and expensive sneakers – just because they can. They light dumpsters on fire and smash police cars – because they find it fun. Principles and scruples can only be passed down from parent to child – not the other way around. Perhaps it’s time for parents to realize that if you “honor” your children, the only thing they’ll give you back is public disgrace and humiliation. Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

f we thought that the past few months were a bit unsettling, this week truly rocked our world. We came out of a relaxing yom tov spent with family and mounds of cheesecake and were slapped by the news that the country had gone mad. Protests objecting to the callous murder of a black man quickly turned into pillages and chaos. Storeowners that were tenuously holding onto their businesses as the nation slowed down for the pandemic were shattered when they faced the destruction that ravaged their stores. It was surreal seeing storefronts on Central Avenue being boarded up on Tuesday evening. My son, who likes to be on time for everything, kept on reminding me that we had to be in by 7 p.m. for “curfew.” Thankfully, due to the incredible relationships that community leaders have forged for many years with our neighbors, Tuesday night’s protests were peaceful and inclusive. Our elected officials, though, were prepared for the worst, and they jumped into the situation with concern and deliberation. Speaking with them made me feel more secure. They were adamant that they weren’t going to let our streets turn into a war zone. Over the weekend, I watched as Mayor de Blasio spoke about his daughter’s arrest. Chiara, who had been attending a protest, had been arrested after refusing to listen to police who had asked protesters to disperse. When attempting to explain to the city – a city that had just witnessed with horror the destruction of hundreds of businesses – about his 25-yearold daughter’s arrest, the mayor insisted that he would let her (eventually) “speak for herself.” But, he added, “I love her deeply. I honor

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Shabbos Zemanim

June 5 – June 11

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Friday, June 5 Parshas Naso Candle Lighting: 8:04 pm Shabbos Ends: 9:14 pm Rabbeinu Tam: 9:36 pm

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Contents LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

COMMUNITY Readers’ Poll Community Happenings

8 36

NEWS

Global

National

That’s Odd

ISRAEL Israel News

My Israel Home

JEWISH THOUGHT Rabbi Wein on the Parsha

Hold On – Don’t Let Go by Rav Moshe Weinberger

The Three Keys to Happiness by Shmuel Reichman

PEOPLE From Student to Teacher by Rivkah Lambert Adler

Remembering Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, z”l

Stop on Stigma by Rabbi Leiby Burnham

“Murderous Manny” Segal by Avi Heiligman

HEALTH & FITNESS Tips From a Homeschooling Mom, Part V by Sara Rayvych, MSEd

Navigating a Restricted Life by Dr. Deb Hirschhorn 74

Dear Editor, Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, explains that Parsha Naso follows Shavuos to promulgate the message that we can only rise spiritually after a time of Matan Torah. The question may then be asked why Naso is specifically mentioned by the kohanim. Surely Matan Torah affected all the classes. Perhaps we can answer this by looking at the command of “Kedoshim tiyu,” which is equally said to all of Israel and the kohanim. This makes sense, certainly according to Rashi, as this command mandates refraining from immorality which equally applies to all classes. However, it may be suggested that the challenge for kohanim to rise spiritually is greater than the rest of the classes as they are involved with holy service all the time, and to rise further from an already high spiritual level takes greater work and focus. Perhaps the message for “everyone” is that when you’re at a high level of spirituality, growing those few more inches becomes exponentially harder, yet such is the challenge and demand in life – to rise up from an already elevated level. Steven Genack

Dear Editor, I was inspired reading about Ari and Nes Blau in your Shavuos issue. The Blaus did not lead a typical American life – far from it! They were involved in showbiz and saw how vacuous the industry really is. We all look at Hollywood and actors as having “the life.” They seem to have the most charmed life – they always look calm, beautiful, happy. But the Blaus saw that life firsthand and rejected it. I am happy you shared their story. To anyone out there that thinks that being in Hollywood makes you happier, this is proof that that’s far from the truth. Their story is an important lesson to many teens out there that are consumed by social media and follow actors and those in Hollywood and track their every mood. Wake up! Their lives are fake – they post what they want you to see. They are miserable people who know how to look good for the camera. Recently, an actress wrote a book detailing her battle with alcoholism. She shared that in one photo posted on social media, she looked like she posing with her family and having a great time. In truth, Continued on page 10

Super Healthy Seeds by Aliza Beer, MS RD CDN 76 Summer Camp 2020 by Dr. Hylton I. Lightman 78

FOOD & LEISURE The Aussie Gourmet: Breakfast Quesadillas

LIFESTYLES Dating Dialogue, Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW

Buckle Down or Move On? by Dr. Naphtali Hoff

The Sweet Taste of Summer by Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS

Your Money

HUMOR Centerfold 52 POLITICAL CROSSFIRE Notable Quotes

SpaceX’s Success Is One Small Step for Man by Marc A. Thiessen

This Former Intelligence Official Was a Hero by David Ignatius

CLASSIFIEDS 92

June 5 is Hot Air Balloon Day. Have you ever flown in a hot air balloon?

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Continued from page 8

she was so drunk that she couldn’t even remember taking the photo. Our young generation needs to have their eyes opened and understand that their role models are sitting right in front of them. The things that will make them happy are within their grasp. Sincerely, Mordechai Gross

Dear Editor, “It’s All About Perspective” was a wonderful piece with a wonderful message. It changed me – after reading the piece, I made sure to say the bracha of Asher Yatzer with extra concentration and spoke with my children about the importance of saying Asher Yatzer. Kol tuv, Shaya Kornbluth Brooklyn, NY

Dear Editor, There is so much controversy over how/when/if our country should be opening. When I hear everyone’s arguments, I agree with them – all of them! Everyone has legitimate, valid arguments. I think it’s important to note, though, that although this is heated topic, we need to remember that everyone’s concerns are valid. This should not divide us. We all have the same goal in mind, and that’s to open up our country safely and in the right way. G-d willing, in a few months’ time, we will have our country open for business, and corona and quarantine will be just memories. Until then, let’s not let this divide us. Sincerely, Reuven I. Hirsch

Views expressed on the Letters to the Editor page do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jewish Home. Please send all correspondence to: editor@fivetownsjewishhome.com.

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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

The Week In News

China Approves Hong Kong Nat’l Security Law

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) approved a controversial Hong Kong national security law last Thursday, in a move which critics fear threatens civil liberty and political freedom in the territory. The resolution was approved almost unanimously and will allow mainland China’s state security agencies to operate in the city. Only one delegate voted against the proposal and six abstained, while an overwhelming 2,878 voted in favor. Now that it has been approved, the NPC’s standing committee will draft the law in an estimated two months. The law was designed for “Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability,” said China’s Premier Li Keqiang after the parliamentary meetings, invoking the “steady implementation of ‘one country, two systems.’” On the heels of last year’s anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong, the city once more saw people taking to the streets following news of the proposal. Following the arrest of about 300 protestors last Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. would no longer consider Honk Kong, a global financial hub, as autonomous from China for trade and economic purposes. In a statement, Pompeo denounced the law as a “disastrous decision” and called it “the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.” “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a

high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” said Pompeo. Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said the law marks “the beginning of a sad and traumatizing era” for the city. “They’ve practically taken away our soul. Our soul we’ve been treasuring all these years, the rule of law, human rights, they’re taking away all the core values we’ve come to know,” she said. “From now on, Hong Kong is nothing but just another mainland Chinese city.” Hong Kong exists as a Special Administrative Region controlled by The People’s Republic of China and enjoys its own limited autonomy as defined by the Basic Law. The principle of “one country, two systems” allows for the coexistence of socialism and capitalism under “one country,” which is mainland China. The Hong Kong economy is characterized by low tax rates, free trade, and less government interference. The mainland Chinese stock markets are more conservative and restrictive. The relationship between Hong Kong and China goes back to the Opium Wars, which were fought between Great Britain and China in 1839-1860. During these military and trade clashes, China was forced to cede Hong Kong Island and a part of Kowloon to Great Britain in perpetuity. In 1898, Britain negotiated a major land expansion of the Hong Kong colony and signed a 99-year lease with China. The lease ended in 1997, at which time Britain returned Hong Kong to China as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR).

Locusts Take Over

A new kind of invasion is threatening to destroy vital crops and vegetation in India – the worst lo-

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

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Mattos ‫מּטֹות‬ ַ

Parashah Poi nte

Moshe teaches the laws of nedarim the rest of the (promises) to the nesi’im of Jewish people. each shevet and Hashem tells then to all Moshe to go to war against Midian. Moshe tells the Jews to raise an army of 12,000 Moshe sends soldiers, 1,000 Pinchas with soldiers from the soldiers, and each shevet. to the battle. gives him the Aron, Tzitz, and The Jews trumpets to take win the war! They kill all the Bilaam, who was men of Midian in Midian during and their five the war. kings. They also The soldiers kill take the wealth and animals of Moshe, Elazar, Midian and burn and the nesi’im down their cities. of all the shevatim Midian. Moshe is upset that meet the army some of the evil when they return of them had caused Midianite women from Jews to sin and were allowed Midianites should die (see end of to live. Many Parashas Balak). be killed. Moshe said these Moshe warns evil the soldiers who are tamei meis become tahor not to enter the using the ashes Mishkan area of the Parah Adumah Elazar teaches unless they . the Jews how to kasher (make they had captured kosher) the metal from Midian. pots, pans, dishes, He also tells them using them. and cups to put these items into a mikveh The Jews before captured many animals and people. to the Jewish Moshe says that soldiers, and half of the booty the other half Midianites will should go to should go be servants. the rest of the Jews. The survivin The Jewish commanders g are thankful to their gratitude Hashem that , the comman not one of their soldiers ders give an extra The shevatim died. To show gift of gold for of Gad and Reuven the Mishkan. come to Moshe and cattle, and with a request. the lands of Sichon They have a lot and Og are good shevatim tell of sheep Moshe they want for raising sheep to settle there, and cattle. These Moshe is upset. and not go into two He tells them: Eretz Yisrael. “Your brothers will discourage are going to fight the Jews from and you will stay going to Eretz The shevatim behind? This Yisrael. Why are answer that they you doing this?” certainly will cross Eretz Yisrael the Yarden River. together with the other shevatim They will fight divided. But they to conquer . They will stay will leave their with them until flocks and families want to settle the land is down. on this side of the Yarden, where Moshe tells they them that if they agree to go with together with the rest of the them, then they Jews to Eretz can have the Yehoshua about Yisrael lands of Sichon and fight the agreement. and Og. Moshe He commands want, if they keep tells Elazar and them to give Gad to their agreeme and Reuven the nt and fight in Gad and Reuven lands they the wars to conquer build cities. Two Eretz Yisrael. of Menashe’s of the Yarden families conquer for them to live more land on in. the east side

FULL-COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS OVERSIZED 8½" X 11" 150

Also available by Rabbi David Sutton

THE WEEKLY

PARASHAH

RABBI NACHMAN ZAKON Illustrated by TOVA

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Also available: Bereishis and Shemos

In addition to telling over the parashah, The Weekly Parashah includes:  Parashah Pointers A quick review of what’s in the parashah

 Fascinating Facts Interesting information related to the parashah

 Questions Anyone? Thought-provoking questions and satisfying answers  Torah in Our Lives Connecting the Torah’s teachings to our children’s lives  Who’s Who in the Parashah A fascinating look at some of the people in the Torah

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The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Earlier this year, the Horn of Africa was hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, devastating food and pasture in the region.

Many Coronavirus Infections are Asymptomatic

cust swarm the country has seen in almost 30 years. Waves of desert locusts – millions strong and stretching up to 4 miles long – crossed into India’s western state of Rajasthan from neighboring Pakistan in early May and swarms have since pushed into five different states in search of food. The desert locust is the most destructive of all locust species because of its speed and ability to multiply

rapidly, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Adult locusts can fly more than 90 miles a day and eat their own body weight worth of fresh vegetation in that period. A swarm can vary from one to several hundred square kilometers, with each square kilometer containing up to 80 million adult locusts. Much of the locust movements were driven by the strong westerly

winds in the wake of Cyclone Amphan in the Bay of Bengal, which slammed into India and Bangladesh on May 20, killing at least 90 people and causing more than $13.2 billion in damage. The locusts have flown into India from their breeding areas in Pakistan, added Om Prakash, a Rajasthan-based plant protection officer for the Locust Warning Organization.

In a cruise ship coronavirus outbreak back in March, over 80% of people testing positive for the disease did not exhibit any symptoms, according to a new paper published in the journal Thorax. While researchers have known that COVID can be transmitted even by asymptomatic carriers, without population-wide testing it is hard to determine the percentage of precisely how many people are infected despite not showing any symptoms. The new paper suggests just how widespread asymptomatic transmission may be, at least in a contained environment. Furthermore, it suggests that official case counts are quite possibly drastic underestimates. The cruise ship discussed in the paper, while not identified by name, departed Argentina in mid-March and was meant to travel around the Antarctic Peninsula and over to South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic Ocean. Prior to departure, all passengers were checked for symptoms of COVID, and those who had traveled through “hotspots” of the outbreak were not permitted to board. Regardless of these measures, eight days into the trip one passenger developed a fever, which led to a lockdown of the entire ship as additional passengers and crew members began exhibiting symptoms over the next few days. The vessel was not permitted to re-dock in Argentina after the country closed its borders, so it continued on to Uruguay, where eight people were evacuated to a hospital, and Uruguayan officials arranged for

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everyone remaining on board to be tested. Of the 217 people on board, 128 tested positive for coronavirus – of whom only 24 had shown symptoms prior to testing. The remaining 104 people, or 81% of those who had tested positive, had not experienced any symptoms, the report states. As those aboard the ship had been entirely isolated from the outside world for about a month, living in close quarters, it’s difficult to extrapolate these results to the general population. Even so, the results suggest that the rapid spread of COVID may be further reaching than previously suspected.

Austria to Sanction Hezbollah Austria’s parliament passed a unanimous resolution on Friday calling on the government to sanction the Hezbollah terrorist organization. The bill exhorts the government to take action against Hezbollah members operating inside Austria and to change European Union

policy, which separates the Iranian-backed militia’s military and political wing. The EU had defined Hezbollah’s armed wing as a terror group after a 2012 attack in Bulgaria killed six Israelis but has refrained from blacklisting its political division.

“In the application, the National Council acknowledges Austria’s historical responsibility towards the State of Israel. The EU had to deal with Hezbollah again. Its military arm had already been classified as a terrorist organization in 2013 and would threaten Israel’s security,” Austria’s governing coalition said in a statement. The bill was sponsored by the Austrian People’s Party, which said that it was time to end the “artificial” designation separating the organi-

zation’s military and political arms. “Hezbollah wants to destroy Israel and propagates anti-Semitism and spreads radical Islamic ideology,” noted MPs Reinhold Lopatka and Michaela Steinacker. Israel praised Austria’s parliament for the move, saying that recognizing the armed Lebanese militia as a terror organization constituted a valuable step in protecting the lives of innocent Israelis. “This is a significant decision against Hezbollah, and I hope the Austrian government adopts the parliamentary decision and joins the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, which have recognized Hezbollah as a whole as a terrorist organization,” said Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. The move comes after Germany recognized Hezbollah as a terror organization last month and completely banned its activities in the country. The change reportedly followed an intensive campaign by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency that documented Hezbollah’s considerable presence in Germany.

What Happened with Crashed Pakistani Jet?

An interim safety report found that the crew of the doomed Pakistan International Airlines jet put the aircraft on the runway with the wheels still up while moving at 200 miles per hour. The pilots soon aborted their attempt to land, instead choosing to take off again, but lost power shortly thereafter. As the plane attempted to touch down for a second time, it crashed into a neighborhood outside Karachi, Pakistan, killing 97 of the 99 people on board, last month. Speaking with Bloomberg, aviation safety consultant John Cox said that the report suggested highly irregular behavior by the pilot “It is unbelievable to me that an airline crew on a jet like an Airbus, with all the warning systems, would attempt

to land the plane without the gear extended,” he said. Cox added that “the airplane is not happy that you’re this close to the ground without the gear extended” and that there are multiple warning systems which should alert the crew that the landing gear is either not extended or not working. It is not yet clear why the plane’s two jet engines malfunctioned at the same time and so abruptly. In a press briefing on Friday, Pakistan’s Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan emphasized that “the million-dollar question is why the plane landed, touched the ground three times, and then took off.” Furthermore, at no point did the pilots say they were experiencing any type of emergency or that they had any issue with their landing gear. Just before the plane crashed, one of the pilots said, “Sir, we have lost engines” and then called, “Mayday, mayday, mayday,” seconds before the plane crashed. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-8303 had taken off on May 22 from Lahore for the short flight to Karachi with 91 passengers and eight crew members on board. Shortly before its scheduled 2:30 PM landing time, the pilot issued an emergency mayday call and soon disappeared from radar screens. The aircraft then tried an emergency landing at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport but failed and slammed directly into the ground. Videos of the crash showed the crippled jet hitting the ground and then skidding before going up in flames.

Rabbis Can be German Chaplains

For the first time since the 1930s, rabbis will be allowed to serve as military chaplains in Germany. The German parliament unanimously approved an agreement between the government and Germany’s Central

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Council of Jews to permit this. The agreement, drawn up last year, stipulates that up to 10 rabbis will provide religious and spiritual support for Germany’s estimated 300 Jewish soldiers serving their country in missions abroad. The agreement also says that the number of Jewish chaplains can be increased as needed. The German Defense Ministry noted that the rabbis will also provide spiritual guidance to the military and weigh in on ethical questions. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer praised the vote, saying it is “a special sign of solidarity and recognition” of the Jews who serve in the Bundeswehr, Germany’s army, adding that it is a “special moment” for the country as a whole. “With this, Jewish life is demonstratively returning to the Bundeswehr,” she said, noting that the chaplains will provide “a visible contribution against the anti-Semitism that is growing daily in our society at-large.” Germany’s Conference of Orthodox Rabbis praised the move as “an important signal, especially in times as these when there is again fertile ground for anti-Semitism, hate from the far right, and conspiracy theorists.”

Uproar Over Slaying of Autistic Arab

Defense Minister and Kahol Lavan party head Benny Gantz expressed regret over the death of Iyad Al-Halak, an autistic Arab-Israeli with special needs who was shot and killed by police on Saturday. Speaking at the weekly govern-

ment meeting on Sunday, Gantz said that he was “sorry” to hear about the mistaken shooting. While pledging that the incident would be probed, Gantz called on the country’s Arab community to have faith in the police and judicial establishment. “We are sorry about the incident in which Iyad Halak was shot to death, and we share the family’s grief,” Gantz said. “I am sure this matter will be investigated quickly and conclusions will be reached.” Al-Halak, 32, had been on his way to a center for adults with special needs when he aroused the suspicions of two policemen patrolling Jerusalem Old City. Thinking that he was holding a gun, they called for him to stop and identify himself. Rather than stopping, however, Al-Hayak began to run away from the officers, setting off a dramatic pursuit. After cornering him in a small hallway, the officers shot more than seven bullets at him, killing him. A preliminary investigation found that one of the officers had ordered his partner to cease fire but was not heard above the din. The accidental killing sparked anger in the Arab-Israeli sector, with protests breaking out throughout the country on Sunday. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party blasted the “war crime” and called to prosecute Prime Minister Netanyahu over the “execution of a young disabled man.” At Al-Halak’s funeral on Sunday, thousands of Arab youth clashed with police while chanting virulently anti-Israel slogans. Carrying his body, which was wrapped in a Palestinian flag, mourners shouted, “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, Mohammad’s army has begun to return” and “to the street, revolutionaries!” The two officers involved in the incident have been suspended and will not return to duty until the probe’s findings are presented to senior police brass. While expressing his sorrow over the mistaken shooting, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana implored the public not to jump to conclusions before the investigation into the incident was completed. “Police officers are required to make fateful decisions in seconds in an area that has been inundated with terror attacks, and in which there is a constant danger to their lives,” tweeted Ohana.

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Israel Tried to Save Sudanese Diplomat

Israel sent a plane with medical staff and equipment to Sudan last month, in an attempt to save the life of a Sudanese diplomat diagnosed with coronavirus, the country’s Channel 13 reported on Wednesday. In addition to the medical staff and equipment, the Israeli team included a senior official involved in the secret Israel-Sudan relationship. The team had hoped to bring Najwa Gadaheldam, the diplomat who coordinated the clandestine relations between Jerusalem and Khartoum, to Israel for treatment. However, Gadaheldam’s condition deteriorated quickly, and she passed away only a

few days after contracting COVID-19 and just 24 hours after the Israeli team’s arrival. Israel and Sudan are officially at war, and the trip was intended to remain a secret. However, the aircraft was flagged on flight-tracking websites due to its unusual flight route. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his ministers that he had spoken via telephone with Sundanese leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, wishing him a happy Eid al-Fitr. According to Channel 13, it is likely that Gadaheldam’s condition was discussed during the phone call. In February, Netanyahu met with al-Burhan in Uganda. Following that meeting, Israeli flights received permission to use Sudanese airspace.

Corona Law Controversy Activists, politicians, and journalists are up in arms over a proposed law that would dramatically expand the powers afforded to police. Known as the “Corona Law,” the legislation is being promoted by the Justice Ministry and intends to

replace current emergency regulations that must be renewed every three months. Government officials say that a new law replacing current regulations first passed during the British Mandate-era is essential to battling a possible second wave of COVID-19.

to assure the citizenry that he would prevent any legislation from passing that threaten civil liberties. “Passing the Corona Law is necessary but individual rights will continue to be important to us even in the event of an emergency,” said Nissenkorn. “Together with the members of the Ministry of Justice and my partners in the government, I am working to ensure that state powers during an emergency are timely and subject to parliamentary scrutiny,” added Nissenkorn. “The right to protest will not be denied.”

If passed, the law would constitute the most dramatic rollback of civil liberties since Israel’s founding in 1948. The legislation includes allowing police to enter private homes without a warrant, permits the government to pass laws instead of the Knesset, and would be overseen only by the prime minister. One proposed draft of the legislation also includes forbidden demonstrations against the government and suspending due process. Officials would be able to forbid citizens from allowing certain people into their homes, ban traveling to certain parts of the country, and prohibit people from leaving their homes. While existing regulations must be renewed after 90 days, the Corona Law would remain in effect for 10 months. The far-reaching powers the law affords law enforcement has resulted in an uproar, with fears that the government is trampling on its citizens’ civil liberties. In opinion columns, radio interviews, and on social media, an increasing number of people have called on elected representatives not to approve the legislation in the Knesset. “This law allows serious civil rights violations, without a proper process, because the regulations do not pass first through the legislature,” noted Dr. Amir Fox, a researcher at the Israeli Democracy Institute. Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud MK known for his strong libertarian bent, wrote that the measures would allow any police officer to break into private homes at their leisure. “The road to losing our freedom is a slippery slope,” tweeted Feiglin. “We will become exactly like China – the time to fight this is now.” Amid the rising criticism, Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn attempted

MDA Sets up Testing Stations in Congo

Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s branch of the International Red Cross, has helped central Africa’s Congo to set up “drive thru” coronavirus testing stations. Congo’s Honorary Consul in Israel, Dan Gertler, contacted Magen David Adom, seeking advice and assistance in establishing the facilities as part of the country’s fight to contain coronavirus. MDA accepted the request, providing the Congo with assistance and building dedicated software for managing the “drive thru” facilities in the Congo. In addition, MDA members prepared a training program incorporating both videos and written procedures for authorities. This program has been passed on to the medical professionals operating the Congo facilities. “During the long period in which we operated the many ‘drive thru’ sampling facilities, the technology we used proved itself, along with the effective and safe practices, that enabled the safety of the individual suspected of being infected and the testing teams,” MDA Chief of Information Officer Ido Rosenblat said. “From the moment they contacted us, we were ready to help...set up

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the ‘drive thru’ sampling facilities in Congo and to share our knowledge.” Congo Minister of Health Dr. Eteni Longondo and Director-General Sylvain Yuma Ramazani visited the “Drive and Test” facilities, which opened at the end of May, expressing their gratitude to MDA for their cooperation on the project According to MDA Director General Eli Bin, “The medical capabilities and technologies of Magen David Adom, along with the methods we are developing, are among the most advanced in the world. “In light of the fight against coronavirus, we have gained extensive experience in obtaining thousands of samples a day, most efficiently and safely, and now we are happy to share knowledge with other medical entities around the world, for the sake of saving human lives.”

Iran Attempted to Attack Water Supply A new report says that the Iranian hackers responsible for the attack on

Israeli water infrastructure in April were attempting to raise the amount of chlorine in the water to life-threatening levels.

Quoting Israeli and U.S. officials, the UK’s Financial Times said that the attack sought to sicken and kill thousands of Israelis at the height of the country’s fight against the coronavirus. Even if the attack failed to poison the water supply, the attack “could have triggered fail-safes that would have left tens of thousands of civilians and farms parched in the middle of an Israel heatwave, as the pumping station shut down when the excess chemical was detected.” According to the report, Iran sent malware around the world via servers based in the U.S. and Europe in order to conceal its origins. The virus then attacked Israel’s four main water plants on April 23 and attempted to fool the computers into increasing the

chlorine levels. The attack is seen as extremely complex, with Iran managing to get hold of the schematics of Israel’s water infrastructure by accessing government tenders that detailed the various computers used to control the water pumps. “It was more sophisticated than they [Israel] initially thought,” an unnamed official told the Financial Times. “It was close to successful, and it’s not fully clear why it didn’t succeed.” Israeli officials warned that the attack “crossed a red line” as it was the first time that Tehran has ever tried attacking the country’s civilian infrastructure. While Israel and Iran are said to constantly battle each other in cyberspace, the Islamic Republic has always kept the attacks aimed at military targets. Israel reportedly launched a retaliatory attack on May 9 that crippled Iran’s biggest port at Bander Abbas. Hacking into the computer system regulating loading times for ships at the Shahid Rajaee port, the cyberattack resulted in massive traffic jams in Iran that lasted for a full week. The decision to respond by targeting Iran’s largest port was the idea of former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who wanted to demonstrate Israel’s considerable capabilities to deter Tehran in the future. “It was small, very small — like a knock on the door,” one official told the Financial Times. “Think of it [as] a gentle reminder. ‘We know where you live.’”

Skirmish on Lebanese Border

Israeli soldiers and a pair of tanks squared off against armed Lebanese troops on Tuesday while operating along the border between the countries. The Israeli forces crossed the security fence near Kibbutz Misgav Am but remained on the Israeli side of the so-called Blue Line, an unofficial but internationally recognized border. The security fence along the border is, in many areas, located

some distance into Israeli territory. This appeared to be the first time that Israeli tanks crossed the fence since the 2006 Second Lebanon War. According to Channel 12 news, this was meant to serve as a show of control over the Israeli enclave on the other side of the barrier. In response to the crossing, a number of Lebanese troops armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers arrived at the scene, standing several meters from the tanks. Peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) also came to the area to act as mediators and prevent violence. Lebanon’s official National News Agency said the Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers were mobilized after “Israeli enemy infantry troops, backed by two Merkava tanks… crossed the technical fence” near the Lebanese village of Adaisseh. No shots were fired, and no injuries were reported. In April, Israel Defense Forces troops and Lebanese army soldiers also faced off in the same area, with photos from that irregular incident showing the two sides raising weapons at each other and UN personnel standing in between. There has been a recent uptick in smuggling and infiltration attempts along the Israeli-Lebanese security fence, which the IDF believes is the result of the Hezbollah terror group either intentionally turning a blind eye to the area, allowing crime to flourish, or losing its control over the border. Israel has fought two wars in Lebanon, one in 1982 against Palestinian terrorists and one in 2006 against the Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as numerous operations against terror groups in the country.

Haredi Parties Are the True Winners

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est-ever cabinet – so large that it was necessary to make across-the-board budget cuts in order to fund the new offices. While Israelis on the left and the right debate which bloc truly won the elections, one group seems to have come out on top: the haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties. These parties control the Housing and Interior ministries, allowing them to help the haredi public and ease their housing crisis. The Religious Affairs Ministry, under control of the Shas party, will be able to ensure that no changes are made to the status quo of how religion is defined and handled in Israel. Five of the seven deputy ministers to have been appointed so far are from the haredi parties, which tend to prefer deputy minister posts, as per their rabbis’ instructions. The committees held by the parties are also influential: UTJ’s Moshe Gafni still heads the Finance Committee, ultimately in charge of writing up budget law, and Shas’ Yaakov Margi now chairs the Economy Committee, giving him influence over any and all economic reforms. The all-important Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee – one

of the Knesset’s most powerful committees – is for the first time in the hands of UTJ. In addition, UTJ’s coalition agreement stipulates that “the status quo on religion and state issues shall be preserved, as was accepted in Israel for decades. The government will act to respect the Sabbath and holidays of Israel, which preserved us as a people. If any change threatens the status quo, the prime minister and the ‘Likud bloc’ shall act together and through mutual commitment to remove the harm in order to preserve the status quo.” In other words, changing the Draft Law to force young haredi men to join the IDF is now a no-go. The haredi parties may not agree with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on everything, but they remained loyal to him throughout three rounds of elections, mostly due to fear of being left without political power were Benny Gantz – now Alternate Prime Minister – to rise to power. The periods in which the haredi parties were not part of the government are remembered as bad for the haredi public – something which the parties and voters themselves prefer to avoid.

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Trump Cuts Ties with WHO

On Friday, President Trump announced that he is “terminating” the U.S. relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO). This decision came just 11 days after the president threatened to permanently revoke U.S. funding in a letter he had addressed to the WHO leadership. The U.S. leader cited the WHO's failure to enact reforms in the face of concerns over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its pro-China bias as reasons for severing the relationship. “Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” Trump told reporters at a Rose Garden event. Trump also announced a number of measures aimed primarily at China in response to its conduct on a number of fronts including trade, the coronavirus, and its recent crackdown on Hong Kong. “The world is now suffering as a result of the misfeasance of the Chinese government,” Trump said. The U.S. had been the top contributor to the WHO to the tune of approximately $450 million a year. China, meanwhile, pays approximately $50 million a year – although Beijing had recently announced a $2 billion injection of funds. The U.S. has raised concerns about WHO officials’ praise of Chinese “transparency,” its ignoring of warnings about the virus from Taiwan, and its repetition of Chinese claims that COVID-19 could not be spread person-to-person. Trump noted that he had received opposition from WHO officials regarding his decision to place a travel ban on China in the initial days of the crisis.

“Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities,” he said. “Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted across the globe.” Targeting the Chinese directly, Trump said he will issue a proclamation to secure university research and to “suspend the entry of certain foreign nationals from China who we have identified as a potential security risk.” Trump also accused China of “smothering” freedom in Hong Kong with its newly enacted national security law that would stifle opposition and criminalize anti-government movements such as the pro-democracy demonstrations seen in the territory in recent years. The State Department this week reported to Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous after a number of moves by Beijing to shut down the freedoms that were agreed to as part of the 1997 handover of the territory by the British. Trump said the move by Beijing was a “plain violation” of its treaty obligations: “China has replaced its promised formula of ‘one country two systems’ with ‘one country one system.’” The president also announced that the U.S. will be eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different and special treatment “from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual use technologies and more with few exceptions.” Trump added that the State Department’s travel advisory for Hong Kong would be revised to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese. Additionally, the U.S. is revoking Hong Kong’s preferential treatment as a separate customs and travel territory and taking steps to sanction officials involved in eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy.

SpaceX Blasts Off SpaceX’s new spacecraft, the Falcon 9 rocket, was designed to fly cargo and supplies to the International Space Station but it also has a window, symbolizing the reason Elon Musk started the company in the first place.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with the goal of enabling human spaceflight and, eventually, bringing people to Mars. The company’s rockets have broken into the Pentagon’s market, which until now had been dominated by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. However, until last week, the company had never flown a human being to space.

On Saturday, at 3:22p.m. local time, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched from Florida, carrying NASA’s Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on their journey to the International Space Station at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour. Although NASA oversaw the program, the one in charge of the rocket is SpaceX, making the company the first private company to launch humans into orbit. “I’m really overcome with emotion, and it’s really hard to talk,” Musk said in a news conference after the launch. “We have not yet docked, and of course we need to bring them back safely. So it’s a lot of work to do. But it’s just incredible.” Though he had been nervous before the launch’s initial takeoff date on Wednesday, by Saturday, when the launch was cleared for flight, he was calm. “I didn’t feel nervous. I felt like it was going to work,” Musk asserted. A mere 19 hours after the launch, the capsule caught up with the International Space Station early Sunday and glided in for a problem-free docking, bringing Hurley and Behnken to the outpost. The historic mission marks a major milestone in NASA’s push to end the agency’s sole reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for carrying astronauts to and from the lab complex. This was the first piloted launch to orbit by a privately owned and operated spacecraft since the dawn of the space age. SpaceX aims to fly another mission to the Space Station by August 30, but officials have said that date will likely change. After that, SpaceX aims to fly people to the moon, and eventually to Mars.

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Help us to continue to provide critical and essential services to our entire community. The Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry

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U.S. Jewish Centers Targeted

A slew of kosher stores, Jewish centers, and synagogues became victims of the week-long violent riots that exploded across the United States. In Los Angeles, rioters defaced a

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number of synagogues with anti-Semitic graffiti, including scrawling pro-Palestinian slogans on Congregation Beth Israel in Fairfax. The city’s oldest synagogue had been empty at the time of the attack. The graffiti was condemned by U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Elan S. Carr, who tweeted that “this graffiti is yet more evidence that anti-#Zionism is #Antisemitism.” Vandals also defaced the nearby Baba Sale Congregation with a fusillade of bricks and painted anti-Israel slogans on its back door. Other synagogues that fell victim to the rampaging mob included Congregation Kehilas Yaakov, also known as

the Rabbi Gershon Bess Shul, and Tiferes Tzvi (Rabbi Ganzweig Shul) In addition, a host of kosher stores serving LA’s Jewish community were torched, including the Ariel Glatt Kosher Market, Mensch Bakery and Kitchen, and Syd’s Pharmacy and Kosher Vitamins. In Virginia, demonstrators hurled bricks through the glass door of Beth Ahava in Richmond. Cities across the United States have become battlegrounds ever since riots broke out early last week to protest the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Starting in Minneapolis, the violence soon mushroomed to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

As the violence refused to die down, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would define the radical left-wing group “Antifa” as a terror group. The classification would give law enforcement more tools to battle the anarchist-led organization, which is said to have taken a significant role in the mayhem.

held in the United States, has been postponed. The announcement on Saturday by President Donald Trump came after it became clear that it would be almost impossible to convene the world leaders in the United States by the end of the June.

Spelling Bee C-A-N-C-E-L-E-D After the official Scripps National Spelling Bee was canceled – for the first time since 1945 – due to the coronavirus outbreak, SpellPundit stepped in to partially fill the gap. The Scripps spelling bee, broadcast on ESPN, offers a $50,000 prize; SpellPundit’s top prize will be just $2,500. The last time Scripps canceled its spelling bee – which has been an annual tradition since 1925 – was during World War II.

Trump added that he would also like to include other countries in the summit. “I don’t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world. It’s a very outdated group of countries,” he said. He named Russia, South Korea, Australia, and India as potential invitees to this year’s gathering. For now, the summit has been pushed off until September. The G7 Summit consists of world leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Years ago, the summit also included Russia.

Trump Takes on Social Media Unlike the Scripps bee, SpellPundit’s spelling bee is online and held person-to-dictionary, so there is no option to “spell down” other contestants. It will also rely on the honor system, trusting that participants are not looking up the answers while being tested. SpellPundit’s bee includes a written spelling and vocabulary test, as well as an oral spelling bee, like Scripps has. SpellPundit’s founder, 17-yearold Shourav Dasari of The Woodlands, Texas, who founded the company with his sister Shobha, 19, told the Associated Press that he doesn’t “think we’re going to replace Scripps. We’re not going to get on ESPN anytime soon.”

G7 Summit Postponed Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the G7 Summit, scheduled to be

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to crack down on social media censorship, promising to pursue legislation on the matter in addition to the order itself. The order reclassifies social media companies as publishers, removing their previous designation of platforms. The move leaves social media giants Facebook and Twitter vulnerable to legal action from victims hurt by material published on the aforementioned websites. Previously, social media behemoths had been defined as platforms under a 1996 law that shielded them from such legal action. In the signing

ceremony at the Oval Office, Trump pledged to “defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history.” “A small handful of social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States,” added Trump. “They’ve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences.” Attending the signing was Attorney-General William Barr, who promised that the Justice Department will seek to sue social media companies that flout the order. The order closely followed an incident in which Twitter added warning links to two of Trump’s tweets, which led to a page describing his claims as “unsubstantiated.” On their fact-checking page linked in the tweets, Twitter wrote that “Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.” The page cited reports from CNN, the Washington Post, and other news outlets. Trump, for his part, accused Twitter of “interfering” in the 2020 presidential election and trying to “censor” his tweets. “If that happens, we no longer have our freedom. I will never let it happen!” he tweeted. Kate Ruane, Senior Legislative Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union, responded: “Much as he might wish otherwise, Donald Trump is not the president of Twitter. This order, if issued, would be a blatant and unconstitutional threat to punish social media companies that displease the president.”

Biden Says He’ll Calm Nation Former vice president and presidential hopeful Joe Biden criticized President Trump’s response to the violence ripping through the country and said that he would be able to console a nation so ravaged by chaos. “When peaceful protesters dispersed in order for a president – a president – from the doorstep of the people’s house, the White House, using tear gas and flash grenades, in order to stage a photo op – a photo op – at one of the most historic churches in the country, or at least Washington,

D.C., we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said, referring to the clearing of protesters from a street in D.C. so President Trump could stand in front of a church with a Bible.

Biden added that Trump appears “more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care.” Biden’s remarks, which also touched on police behavior and historical inequities against minority communities, came after days of peaceful protesting marked with nightly violence which have scarred Philadelphia, where he delivered the speech, as well as cities across the nation. During the roughly twenty-minute address, Biden quoted or echoed civil rights leaders from earlier generations, including Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He also called on Congress to act now to reform policing laws, including a bill introduced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to outlaw choke holds. President Trump’s campaign responded swiftly to the speech, suggesting that Biden is supportive of the destruction of property that has accompanied protests. “He has obviously made the crass political calculation that unrest in America is a benefit to his candidacy,” said Katrina Pierson, a Trump campaign senior advisor. Biden launched his speech by quoting George Floyd, “I can’t breathe.” Floyd was killed in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck. His death has sparked protests and riots throughout the nation. “George Floyd’s last words. But they didn’t die with him. They’re still being heard. Echoing across this nation,” Biden said. “They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million have filed for unemployment – but the disproportionate number of those deaths and job losses is concentrated in the black and brown communities.”

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

He added, “Our country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us leadership that brings us together.” Taking aim at President Trump, Biden vowed, “But I promise you this. I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I’ll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country – not use them for political gain.” Up until Tuesday, Biden had largely avoided calling for specific reforms to deal with the repetitive use of force by police departments, most notably against non-white communities. His criminal justice reform plan, released last summer, lacks many of the proposals that were part of the 2016 Democratic Party platform, including training officers to avoid the use of force, required use of body cameras, and federal investigations of all police-involved shootings. This week, Biden said that every police department needs to undergo a comprehensive review of its hiring practices, training programs and de-escalation tactics – and that the federal government should give cities and states “the tools and the resources they need to implement reforms.” “Bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly,” he said. “We all need to take a hard look at the culture that allows for the senseless tragedies to keep happening. And we need to learn from the cities and the precincts that are getting it right.”

internationally. Five Chinese citizens were also charged. In what appears to be the first case brought against members of the North Korean financial system, the bankers face charges relating to money laundering, bank fraud, and criminal enterprises. The bank in question, the Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea State, is the country’s main financial institution and was designated as a blocked entity by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2013. The money laundering scheme was allegedly built amidst escalating sanctions against North Korea that sought to deter the country’s growing arms capacity and have crippled its economy. According to the indictment, bankers were dispatched to countries including China, Russia, Thailand, Libya, Austria and Kuwait, where they took up residence and operated secret branches as well as over 250 front companies. They went on to work with “third-party financial facilitators to procure commodities and facilitate payments in U.S. dollars on behalf of parties in North Korea,” according to prosecutors. “The defendants and other co-conspirators concealed (Foreign Trade Bank) involvement in U.S. dollar payments from Correspondent Banks in order to trick the banks into processing payments that the banks otherwise would not have done,” the indictment alleges.

N. Korean Bankers Busted for Tax Evasion

Steve King Loses Primary

The U.S. Justice Department unsealed criminal charges last Thursday against twenty-eight North Korean bankers who allegedly moved around $2.5 billion in an international money laundering scheme in violation of U.S. sanctions. The 50-page indictment, which had been signed in February, describes a web of front companies and “cover branches” of a state-sponsored bank to skirt international restrictions on the regime’s ability to spend

In a referendum on Congressman Steve King and his lack of effectiveness in office, the nine-term representative of Iowa lost his Republican primary race to state Sen. Randy Feenstra on Tuesday. King’s racist comments led to his ostracization in Washington. Feenstra had mobilized conservative Republicans to his insurgent campaign, highlighting King’s ineffectiveness. “I called Randy Feenstra a lit-

tle bit ago and conceded the race to him,” King said in a video posted to Facebook early Wednesday morning. “And I pointed out that there’s some powerful elements in the swamp that he’s going to have an awfully hard time pushing back against them.” King’s lack of power, far more than his specific words and history of remarks on race, became a central issue in this year’s race, with opponents arguing that he is unable to represent their views in the House or to the administration. King, an anti-immigration hardliner, had a well-documented history of controversial statements during his nine terms in office. But only after a New York Times interview in January 2019, in which the congressman questioned how “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization” became offensive, did House Republican leaders rebuke him by stripping him of his committee assignments. Last June, the Trump administration barred him from Air Force One when the President visited his state. King has said that his words have been mischaracterized and taken out of context, blaming the media and Republican leaders for leading a vendetta against him. “The Never Trumpers are the people who ginned this all up,” King said in a recent debate, speaking with an air of defiance about the Republicans “who want Steve King out of the way.” In his concession speech, King said those forces pushed him out of office. “This comes from an effort to push out the strongest voice for full spectrum, constitutional Christian conservatism that exists in the United States Congress,” King said. Feenstra was viewed as King’s toughest opponent in a five-way race that included former state legislator Jeremy Taylor, businessmen Steve Reeder, and Army veteran Bret Richards.

Cuomo “Disappointed” in De Blasio “I’m disappointed and outraged by what happened in New York City last night. That criminal activity hurt everyone,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday, hinting that perhaps NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is

not fit for the job after rampant looting and destruction swept across Manhattan on Monday night, overwhelming the NYPD and leaving the city looking like a war zone.

De Blasio had doubled NYPD officers out on the streets to 8,000 on Monday night and had imposed an 11 p.m. curfew after three nights of protests against police brutality were overshadowed by violence. Even so, rampant looters took over the streets of midtown Manhattan. Hundreds of rioters roaming freely for hours through the city, looting countless stores, setting fires, loading stolen goods into SUVs, and damaging cars and storefronts. Protesters tore down plywood that was protecting storefronts and smashed windows of myriad stores. For hours, police were nowhere to be seen. On Tuesday, the NYPD said it arrested 700 people the previous night for looting in Manhattan. An exasperated Cuomo said the police and the mayor failed to protect New York City – a city already on its knees from the coronavirus pandemic. “The police in New York [City] were not effective at doing their job last night, period. They have to do a better job,” he said. “You have 38,000 NYPD. They have protected the city before in these situations... They did not do it last night. But I believe in the inherent capacity of the NYPD.” Cuomo said he had offered all New York mayors the assistance of the National Guard and the state police to help stop looting on Monday, however de Blasio did not take up the offer. The mayor said the National Guard would not be helpful, and that the NYPD was sufficient. “Look at the videos, it was a disgrace,” Cuomo said. “I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem. I think he underestimates the duration of the problem, and I don’t think they’ve used enough police to address the situation because it’s inarguable that it was not addressed last night. Facts.” Cuomo said at some point he may want to “displace” the mayor and bring in the National Guard during a state of emergency, “and basically

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to take action against the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prevent it from trying Israel on war crimes charges. ICC Prosecutor Fateh Bensouda had announced in February that she would explore investigating Israel and Hamas for war crimes committed during 2014’s Operation Protec-

U.S. Will Take Action Against “Corrupt” ICC

tive Edge. In an interview with the American Enterprise Institute think tank on Monday, Pompeo vowed to prevent the “corrupt” ICC from punishing Israel for defending itself. “I think that the ICC and the world will see that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC,” said Pompeo. While refusing to provide further details, Pompeo pledged that the U.S. would take action imminently to prevent the investigation from going forward. “I don’t want to get ahead of the announcements we’re going to make in the coming days but I think you’ll see,” he said. Israel is deeply concerned by the ICC probe, fearing that it could result in IDF soldiers being arrested in Europe on war crimes charges. Israel and a slew of other nations have filed briefs with the ICC arguing that it has no jurisdiction over Israeli citizens and has dismissed Bensoudah as biased and anti-Israel. Pompeo banned Bensouda from setting foot in the United States after she announced her intention to probe U.S. and British troops on war crimes charges relating to coali-

take over...the mayor’s job.” However, he said that “we’re not at that point” and noted that it would be too chaotic right now. He noted that the National Guard would not be needed if the entire NYPD – the largest police department in the nation – were properly deployed.

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tion operations in Afghanistan. Last month, Pompeo threatened that any ICC investigation into Israel would result in “severe consequences” for the court. “They’re doing this not just to us, but to Israel, where they’re beginning to look into what took place in the West Bank. Again, it’s completely inappropriate,” said Pompeo on Monday. “It’s completely inconsistent with international law. And it puts our young men and women at risk, and it’s something President Donald Trump and our team aren’t going to permit to happen.”

Trump Signs Mandated Holocaust Education

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Never Again Education Act into law on Thursday, regulation that aims to further memorialize the Holocaust. Sponsored by New York Democratic Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney, the bill sailed through Congress with 302 co-sponsors and was passed in January by a near-unanimous margin of 393-5. The legislation then passed unanimously in the Senate in early May. The Act provides $2 million to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and requires it to create educational materials to increase Holocaust awareness among teachers across the U.S. The $2 million will be provided annually to the museum’s Holocaust Education Assistance Program Fund by the U.S. Treasury between 2020 and 2024. In addition, an online database with educational materials for teaching middle and high school students will be created to aid teachers in addressing the issue. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will help create the database. The bill is a “first step in centralizing a good quality and authentic curriculum to teach the Holocaust to future generations,” said Senator Jacky Rosen.

40 Years a Charm

For almost 40 years an Australian man has been playing the lotto with the same sets of numbers. This year, his consistency bore fruit and he won a lottery jackpot of more than $300,000. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for many years,” the winner said. “I think I’ve been marking my entries with those numbers for almost 40 years now. This is just amazing. I am over the moon.” The ticket turned out to be worth a total $341,507.65. The man and his wife had just recently retired so the win was more than fortuitous. “We will probably look at buying the home we’ve always dreamt of living in,” he said. “That would be incredible. And when things start to go back to normal, I think there will definitely be a holiday or two.” You know what they say: better late than never.

Chief Hiking Officer

Love hiking? Enjoy a cold one or two? This is the perfect job for you. A Virginia brewery recently announced that it is seeking a “chief hiking officer.” The lucky person obtaining this position will be paid $20,000 to spend five to seven months hiking the Appalachian Trail and drinking beer. The Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co., based in Lexington, said it is accepting applications from people who “love hiking and beer” to take on the

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

unique job. The winning applicant will be granted the “Chief Hiking Officer” title and will be flown out to the trail head in 2021 for a 2,200-mile hike. The hiker, who would tackle the trail between May and September 2021, would be outfitted with equipment by the brewery and treated to “some big ol’ beer parties along the way.” Hope they watch out for bears while they drink their beer.

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A set of dog tags had been buried in a yard for more than 60 years before being reunited with its owner. Recently, Wyatt Macy, a 15-yearold from Montana, said he noticed something shiny sparkling in his yard. Upon inspection, he unearthed a pair of dog tags. Wyatt and his mother, Becky Macy, enlisted the help of the American Legion Post to find the owner of the items. Turns out the Jack Bennetts, now 84 years old, had been the owner of the tags and sergeant stripes. “And he’s still alive,” Becky said. “I mean, that was so cool when Wyatt was like, ‘I found him in Billings, we found him the White Pages.’ No way! That is so cool.” Bennetts had lived in the Macy home after he finished his 1953-1957 tour of duty in the U.S. Marine Corps. He said he doesn’t know how his dog tags and sergeants stripes ended up in the ground, but he suspects his nieces and nephews might have gotten ahold of them more than 60 years ago. Wyatt and his mom mailed Bennetts his long-lost items, which showed up at his home on Saturday. “It’s a pleasant surprise,” Bennetts said. “And I was very happy to get them. I never thought I’d ever see them again. That’s for sure.”

Buried Treasure Officials in a Norwegian county say that they have found an under-

ground 1,000-year-old Viking ship. The ship had been buried on the same island as other ships that had been discovered a few months ago.

The More and Romsdal County Council said the eight-oared vessel measuring just under 40 feet long was found buried on the island of Edoya, less than 500 feet from where a Viking ship from the same time period was found buried in late 2019. The ship was located via georadar survey, officials said. The survey also identified two houses and five burial mounds. Bjorn Ringstad, county conservator for More and Romsdal, said the burying of Viking boats was part of a funeral tradition for the wealthiest members of a community. How oar-iginal.

Flight of Fancy

Last week, another record was made in aviation when the world’s largest all-electric aircraft took off from a Washington state airstrip for its first flight, staying in the air for 28 minutes. The eCaravan plane, a modified Cessna Caravan 208B, was created by a collaboration between engine company magniX and aerospace firm AeroTEC. It took its first flight on Thursday in an event that was livestreamed on Facebook. The companies boast that electric planes are more environmentally friendly and are cheaper than fossil-fueled planes. A smaller plane with a magniX electric engine took its first 15-minute flight in December 2019. The Energizer bunny must be working overtime.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Around the

Community

Drive-Thru Kiddush at MAY

his past Erev Shabbos, Parshas Bamidbar, Mesivta Ateres Yaakov hosted a “Drive Thru Kiddush” for its talmidim. Close to 200 talmidim availed themselves of the opportunity to visit the Yeshiva and receive a kiddush package of cholent, kugel, and soda. But the real treat was the op-

portunity for talmidim to see their beloved rabbeim “in the flesh” and receive warm brachos and wishes of good Shabbos. The Mesivta thanks the Student Government for sponsoring the event and the volunteers who helped with the kiddush organization and distribution.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Around the Community

Shulamith in Full Bloom

earning about Shavuot at Shulamith ECC was Zoomtastic! Despite the need to teach virtually, our wonderful morot were able to keep their young students engaged and busy learning new ideas about this special chag. The morot at Shulamith ECC work hard every single day to design and implement a curriculum that balances young children’s need to learn through hands-on experiences while remaining sensitive to parents who are trying to work full time from home and also managing their children’s virtual schooling. The days leading up to Chag Hashavuot are a good example of Shulamith ECC’s special brand of education. In addition to a very exciting Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, all the ECC classes focused on the season of spring. The children marveled at the amazing changes that were occurring in the world around them. They went on spring walks and created spring-based art.

They germinated bean plants and recorded their observations as the plants grew and changed. The children were amazed at the variety of gorgeous flowers that Hashem gives us to make our world so beautiful. They were especially impressed to hear the Midrash that Hashem chose to “dress up” Har Sinai with flowers for the momentous occasion of Matan Torah. The children were thrilled to make their own unique floral arrangement for Shavuot. Some used coffee filters, some egg cartons, and some tissue paper. Children chose from materials at hand to decorate vases to hold their flowers. No two floral arrangements looked the same. Each reflected the child’s unique vision and creative talents. Our eager learners also enjoyed learning about the special minhag to eat dairy foods on Shavuot. They were very interested to find out where dairy foods come from and had a wonderful time sorting dairy

and non-dairy foods. Many of them even prepared no-bake “Mini Blinis” that were so much fun to make and even more fun to eat. The older children were fascinated to learn the story of Megillat Rut. They were very impressed to hear that Rut sacrificed to stay with her mother-in-law even though it meant living in poverty. She showed such devotion to living a lifestyle true to the Torah. Rut was rewarded with a descendant who became the king of the Jewish people, David Hamelech. The children well understood the reason for reading Megillat Rut on Shavuot, the holiday when the Jewish people accept the Torah each year. The study of Shavuot culminated in a school-wide Zoom Asayfa. The children excitedly came dressed in floral clothing and with flowers in their hair. They pretended to walk (and dance and skip) through the desert until they reached Har Sinai. They watched a fun video about the

Midrash explaining why Hashem chose Har Sinai and sang Shavuot songs along with their friends and Morah Rena Greenberg. What a fun and delicious way to go into the holiday of Shavuot!

SHULAMITH EARLY CHILDHOOD

CONGRATULATES OUR

Pre1A Graduates

Yakira Adelman Gavriella Arguera Sara Hadassah Avrukin Gabriella Begun Brie Benjamini Essy Bienenstock Leora Braun Emma Brown Rebecca Chovev

Layla Cukier Eliana Daniel Nechama Eberstark Atara Gestetner Sari Goldstein Tehila Grossman Dani Herrmann Evie Hersh Yahav Ifergan

Sophie Jaspan Shayna Kirschner Vivi Krinsky Nechama Kunstler Naava Kupfer Sarah Langer Sari Leiner Devorah Levine Shani Levovitz

Batsheva Lipsky Taly Markovitz Tamar Mishkoff Sari Oppenheimer Ella Rosenberg Kayla Saltz Hadass Shamsiav Naomi Shilo Ellie Silva

Annie Singer Bracha Taub Abby Twersky Molly Weiss Yael Weissman Talia Yaffe Leora Yarmish Hadar Yarmush Tzipporah Young

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

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CIJE “Virtual” Celebration of Innovation

Adam Jerozolim, host of the event

undreds of students, teachers, and parents from across the United States convened online on the evening of May 26 to recognize and celebrate the ingenuity, research, and perseverance on the part of close to one thousand young innovators representing Jewish day schools across America. CIJE families tuned in for an amazing lineup of student project highlights, live STEM-related quiz shows, the culmination of the Middle School Extreme Challenge, and the long-awaited announcement of the CIJE Innovation Day champions. The annual CIJE Innovation Day provides an exciting time for students to present the capstone projects which they created, designed and engineered in the areas of innovation in: the Arts, Assistive Technology, Commercial Consumer Products, Environment and Sustainability, Healthcare, Personal Consumer Products, Schooling, and Advancements in Hardware Prototyping. This year’s shift to virtual learning catalyzed our students to represent their work through the use of digital tools to create a logo, webpage, and video pitch. In a time that will change ways of learning for generations, teachers, and students worked remotely alongside the CIJE team of experts to delve into the design thinking process, utilize the resources at-hand, and create an innovative and resourceful project. The teamwork skills and support

Cardiac-A-Vest website from Bruriah

that were modeled for the students throughout the process will surely have a lasting impact on the way in which they will approach problem solving in the future. In order to facilitate the online representation of the students’ work, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) curated offerings available throughout the day for five weeks prior to the event, to cover new topics such as digital design and brand-

ing, hardware simulation software, physical prototyping, and three hours daily of online office hours with an Engineer, a CIJE Mentor. In addition, this year brought about a new Judging Rubric based on Design Thinking and the facilitation of peer-review. Student ingenuity was at its peak with projects such as the PRODUCT[tive] Retail Rack developed by Bruriah (NJ) students, which won

Pursuitcase website from DRS

best Commercial Consumer Product. The student webpage describes their innovation as a “clothing rack that tracks consumer interest and catalogs it for retailers and designers, thereby streamlining inventory purchasing and movement. The Retail Rack monitors how many times a design is picked up off the rack via a contact sensor on the hanger and on the rack. It then sends this information to the store’s database using a Wi-Fi chip.” Students from the Berman Hebrew Academy (MD) won recognition for their website, BuildingBelief.org, that allows Jewish teenagers on a spiritual journey to deepen their faith by reading and sharing stories of inspiration, motivation, and spirituality from other inspired teenagers. Frisch (NJ) students used the current pandemic as a source of motivation in creating a winning innovation in the personal consumer product category, the Clean Machine. The device is an automatic soap dispenser with a builtin countdown, guiding the user to wash their hands for the necessary 20 seconds. The countdown is displayed through an LED strip placed under the soap to make it glow. Take a look at the gallery of student innovation from this year’s capstone projects, thecije.org/innovation2020. It is certain to leave you feeling reassured that the future is looking bright and that our CIJE students are busy innovating towards the future.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

SHULAMITH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

Congratulates OUR 8 GRADE TH

Tamar Abittan Hannah Antonelli Natalie Avitsedek Bayla Axelrod Adina Baum Naava Belsky Avigayil Casden Adina Chait Sarah Farkas Aliza Feigenbaum Mimi Feinberg Malki Friedlander

Dena Friedman Racheli Gelbtuch Chana Gluck Shalva Goldberg Michal Graff Sari Gross Shayna Grushko Chani Heimowitz Shira Hellman Yocheved Jacobowitz Atara Jacobson Eliana Jakubowitz

Adina Krinsky Miriam Landau Yael Landau Atara Lifshitz Reva Liker Talya Lippman Tirzah Luchins Avigail Perlysky Mindy Pfeffer Kayla Prero Tamar Rabinovitz Talia Schecter

Miriam Schreier Leorah Shetrit Adina Ava Spiegel Leora Spirgel Temimah Stern Rebecca Talansky Adina Traube Ateret Tsaidi Tiferet Tuchman Aliza Weinstein Nikki Weiss

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

BYQ Gives Back, Heart2Heart Chessed

MTA Honors

Nesanel Dietz

N Y

eshivos and day schools are being so creative in making students feel connected to school. On Rosh Chodesh Sivan, thanks to the PA, Bais Yaakov of Queens girls were treated to boxes of mini doughnuts. The girls ventured to the closest pick-up point, any one of nine homes throughout the Queens and Long Island communities, to pick up their treats. At the same time of picking up their treats, many of the girls participated in the BYQ Heart2Heart Chessed project and made pictures,

cards, and even baked cookies and cupcakes for the health care providers throughout the five boroughs. The girls’ sensitivity and appreciation to those who help everyone with endless caring for others were obvious in the words of thanks the girls expressed. The treats they prepared looked delicious, too. One of the BYQ moms was kind enough to take the time and deliver the cards and treats to different hospitals. Kol hakavod to applying the lessons they learn at BYQ and show how they can thank others.

Eitan Friedman

esanel Dietz, of Highland Park, NJ, is MTA’s Class of 2020 valedictorian. Nesanel is honored to receive this distinction and feels grateful to everyone who has supported and helped him. Nesanel loved his high school experience, during which he made close friends and met tremendous rebbeim and faculty members who have influenced him greatly. In his senior year, Nesanel served as Captain of the Fencing Club, a member of the College Bowl team, and was involved in the production of the yearbook. He was a member of the Arista National Honors Society, where he was active in its peer tutoring program. Nesanel was a member of the Yeshiva Fellowship program and also enjoyed being a Cub2Lion mentor for Freshmen. Nesanel received the University of Rochester’s Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony award. He plans to study at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh next year, followed by the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program at Yeshiva University.

Eitan Friedman of Jamaica Estates, NY, is this year’s MTA Senior class salutatorian. Eitan truly enjoyed his past four years at MTA, where he made incredible friends and formed close relationships with rebbeim and faculty. This past year, Eitan was a writer for the Academy News, the president of the Sports Management Club, a Cub2Lion mentor for freshmen, and a member of the Varsity Hockey Team. He also served as the Vice President of the Arista Honors Society, where he organized a bone marrow drive. Eitan was part of MTA’s Yeshiva Fellowship and Honors College programs and also received the George Washington University Book Award. Eitan is grateful to everyone who has made the past four years such a wonderful and memorable experience for him. Eitan looks forward to attending Yeshivat HaKotel next year, followed by the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program at Yeshiva University.

ed in the Grannie Annie writing contest and the fourth year that HANC students’ essays have been selected for publication. The authors from HANC, and the titles of their stories that will appear in Grannie Annie, Volume 15, are fifth graders Jake Bench, “The 78th Floor”; Matis Kahn, “The Pawfect Dog Walker”; Benjamin Nathan Mark, “Ridge on the Bridge”; and Judah Weitzman, “The Lucky Escape.” “While some stories published by the Grannie Annie are joyful and lighthearted family memories,” said Executive Director Connie McIntyre,

“others deal with challenges – of war, poverty, prejudice, sometimes even of illness and disease. These are important stories for all of us, including students, especially as together we face the challenges of today’s pandemic.” The students’ stories will be published in Grannie Annie, Volume 15, published on The Grannie Annie website, and shared through social media throughout the year. HANC wishes to congratulate Rabbi Bashevkin and his talented students for this tremendous accomplishment.

Grannie Annie at HANC

arlier in the year, fifth grade students in Rabbi Elie Bashevkin’s Language Arts class of HANC’s Samuel and Elizabeth Bass Golding Elementary School in West Hempstead created beautiful compositions for the Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration. The Grannie Annie invites students in fourth through eighth grade, both in the United States and across the world, to write about something interesting they discovered from their family based on their interviews with older relatives. Each student submitted a

family story for possible publication in the annual Grannie Annie Journal. After reading 403 stories that were submitted, Grannie Annie announced twenty-three winners. The winning stories in Grannie Annie, Volume 15, which represent students from eight U.S. States and Israel, took place in ten countries on four continents over a span of 200 years, and include personal accounts of historic events as well as vivid recollections of everyday activities. This is the fourth consecutive year that students from HANC participat-

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

UL AMITH H S

FOR GIRL OL

H SCHO HIG

‫שו ל מ ית‬

TO THE

2 ND GRADUATING CLASS OF

SHULAMITH HIGH SCHOOL

TAMAR DAVIES

AVITAL MEYERS

ROSIE EDELMAN

SARA NEWMAN

SHIRA FRENKEL

RACHEL SANDLER

SHANA FRIEDMAN

TZIVIE SCHARF

SHAYNA JAFFA

SHIRLEY SHAYESTEH

LEAH KATZ

ILANA SPECTOR

SARA KRAUS

CHANA TEITELBAUM

ADINA LAZAR

ALIZA WEIZBERG

TAMAR MANN

(‫ה‬:‫הזורעים בדמעה ברנה יקצורו )תהילים קכו‬

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

YOSS Pre-Shavuos Parade

t was a pre-Shavuos event to remember at Yeshiva of South Shore! YOSS held an exciting drivethrough parade saluting its talmidim, rabbeim, teachers, and moros on the Monday before Shavuos. Hundreds of cars drove through the yeshiva campus, greeted with live music and an upbeat and lively atmosphere. As the cars drove through, the talmidim and their parents had a chance to greet their rabbeim and teachers “un-virtually.” Each talmid received a bag with treats and giveaways. The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, along with all the rabbeim, menahalim, and principals were there to see each talmid and wish them a good yom tov. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. there was a seemingly endless procession of

cars. Although social distancing and all safety precautions were followed, the talmidim were received a huge smile, a wave, and much needed words of chizzuk from their rabbeim and teachers. The hanhallah especially enjoyed seeing the homemade signs taped to the cars – created by the boys, which served as an expression of their deep hakaras hatov. Fueling the energy at the parade was the live music provided by rabbeim who happen to be musicians as well. Rabbis Shonek, Drebin, Singer, and Wolf had the entire three-block radius tapping their feet and honking their horns to the music. In addition, in the spirit of Memorial Day, the event served as a wonderful opportunity to thank the School District and first responders. Members of the police department

County Executive Laura Curran at the event

Rabbi Kamenetzky with Councilman Bruce Blakeman

and Hatzalah joined the yeshiva and took part in the procession as well. County Executive Laura Curran came to show support to the yeshiva during this time, and she even handed out some treats to the boys!

Councilman Bruce Blakeman joined as well. Without a doubt, the talmidim of YOSS entered Shavuos with a new invigorated spirit and a renewed enthusiasm for kabbalas haTorah!

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Around the Community

Rabbi Samet visits YOSS Mechina talmidim Akiva Krasnovsky and Chesky Singer in honor of their bar mitzvah

Virtual Trip to Eretz Yisroel On Gesher Air

25 storeowners in Cedarhurst joined together to show appreciation to our local heroes. Michael Hirsch of Central Perk personally delivered lunch to police officers in the local precincts in Far Rockaway and Nassau County this week

he remote Rosh Chodesh Sivan assembly at the Gesher Early Childhood Center featured a special virtual trip to Eretz Yisroel. Like any long-haul flight, there was much to be prepared in advance. Several days before the trip, each child received a personalized passport and boarding pass. The built-up momentum for the tour was palpable as many pictures came in of children preparing their sunglasses and suitcases for the special occasion. It was remarkable to see the children so engaged in an event that was being done remotely. And it was gratifying to see how happy they were to be treated with Gesher’s usual firstclass accommodations. Morah Shoshy Schmuckler was the travel agent, head stewardess, and tour guide. Using her shared screen, the children were treated to a video simulator of an actual takeoff and landing as seen from the cockpit. The video ended with the familiar Israeli announcements upon reaching the yiud, destination, Eretz Yiroel. The purpose of the trip was to give the children a greater appreciation and understanding of several significant calendar events that are marked during this time of year. The first being the historically recent recapture and repopulation of Yerushalayim and access to the Old City. And with Shavuos approaching, the students learned about the mitzvah of bikkurim, the bringing of

the first fruits to Yerushalayim, and about the mitzvah of aliyah la’regel, ascending to Yerushalayim for each of the three regalim, including Shavuos. The assembly was a huge hit, including song and dance, children in their special rosh chodesh shirts, suitcases packed, and so many smiling faces!

Did you know? The study of fruits is called pomology

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Pre-Shavuot Boker Iyun at SHS

hulamith High School approaches programming with Shammai’s message: “Make your Torah study a permanent fixture of your life. Say little and do much. And receive every man with a pleasant countenance.” Shulamith students more than just study Torah – they are learning what it means to be Torah committed in a modern world. During the PreShavuot Boker Iyun, students were given a special schedule, dedicated to learning Megillat Rut. Beginning with Perek Alef, students were placed into groups for chabura-style learning, followed by a different chabura group for Perek Bet. Mrs. Miriam Lerner prepared materials for SHS faculty to teach. Not only did students dive deep into the megillah but asked and answered questions that made the learning relevant. One freshman was surprised when she realized how applicable Rut’s story can be to her life. “I was really into it because I felt like I really understood it for the first time. It was interesting because I found it actually relatable,” she said. In between chaburas, groups came together to openly discuss the learning in a more relaxed way. Following Perek Bet’s discussion, Judge Ruchie Frier addressed the student body. Judge Frier is the first female chassidic judge as well as the first chas-

sidic woman to hold public office in the United States. In addition, Judge Frier established Chasdei Devorah Inc, a non-profit organization that helps struggling Jewish families, and founded Ezras Nashim, an all-female Jewish EMT service. An incredible person and role model, SHS students were enthralled by Judge Freir’s speech. After answering many questions, Shulamith students said a reluctant goodbye to Judge Freir and attended a Perek Gimmel and Daled shiur. Finally, the day ended with a full school siyum where students felt a positive and excited energy going into Shavuos. SHS thanks Judge Ruchie Frier for her time and important message, Dean of Students Mrs. Ricky Gaerman, Director of Student Activities Ms. Esty Munk, and incredible faculty member Mrs. Miriam Lerner for their hard work and efforts in planning the phenomenal Boker Iyun, Principal Sara Munk for introducing the day, Rabbi Blumstein for his meaningful closing words, and SHS faculty members Rabbi Jonathan Muskat, Ms. Sara Katz, Mrs. Adina Wolf, Ms. Sara Leah Gulkowitz, Mrs. Naomi Munk, Mrs. Tamara Klein, Mrs. Rivky Rubin, Mrs. Malka Akerman, Dr. Dora Haar, Mrs. Ettie Bersson, and Mrs. Esther Wein for facilitating the learning with excitement and positivity.

Ice Cream for All

“K

um an mach a bracha” has been the jolly tune played often in the streets of Far Rockaway. The ice cream truck is always a favorite treat, from the delicious sweet taste to the activity of chasing the truck. On Sunday, May 31, the ice cream truck brought smiles, laughter, and light to our streets during these challenging days. Abe and Cynthia Hercman, grandparents of the Koppelman, and Edelstein boys in Siach Yitzchok, wanted to bring simcha to the kinderlach in Far Rockaway. Out of the goodness of their hearts, they sponsored the ice cream truck to drive down Beach 9th Street, one of the stops being our new beautiful cheder, stopping every few cor-

ners to give out free ice cream to children – regardless of age or school (even some parents enjoyed the sweet treat!). There was no one who missed out even though the lines were lined up down the block. Each stop was about 45min- 60 minutes long to accommodate the growing lines of children. Mr. Hercman himself rolled up his sleeves and was giving out the ice cream to help the line moving. It was inspiring to see how everyone was makir tov to the Hercmans for the yummy treats and how patient they were as they waited on the long lines. It was a beautiful, and delicious event. It should be a zechus for Klal Yisroel to have the kinderlach back in cheder and bais yaakov, learning the heilige Torah again!

SKA Students Rise Above

irtual classes and programs continue throughout the weeks at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls with exceptional chaburas, art projects, cooking lessons and book clubs enhancing the school experience. Shiurim by SKA’s dynamic Limudei Kodesh faculty about Matan Torah lent meaning and depth to students’ understanding of Shavuout, transmitted through the power of Zoom. Girls in each grade in SKA prepared learning packets for their peers while over twenty teachers shared “The Gift of Torah in Our Lives,” in a video of Torah inspiration for the entire school. SKA’s innovative program, Girls RISE (Reach with Independent learning, Scholars, and Enriching

SKA RISE students visit Columbia University Library Judaic Collection earlier in the year

Experiences), celebrated its inaugural group of RISE scholars with a final presentation on Tuesday evening, May 26. This incredible initiative allowed students to expand their knowledge outside of regular classes and participate in experiences throughout the year through stimulating trips, exciting speakers and

independent projects. As Mrs. Bluma Drebin, principal, general studies, noted in her introduction to the evening, “Everyone in this program has risen beyond themselves and made a choice to stretch and grow.” Each RISE student presented a short synopsis and slideshow of a meaningful project she worked on to

a large group of fellow students, administration and faculty members, and parents. Thanks go to Dr. Chana Glatt, Head of SKA’s Science Department, together with Mrs. Drebin and Mrs. Elisheva Kaminetsky, principal, Judaic studies, for the creation and support of this wonderful program.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Rosh Chodesh Sivan Ice Cream Treat

DRIVE THRU @Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

MAY Arista Honors and Awards Night

ecently, Mesivta Ateres Yaakov held its annual Rabbi Elchonon Zomber, A”H Arista Installation and Awards Night, where tribute was paid to the myriad accomplishments of the MAY talmidim. Consistent with MAY’s emphasis on developing every aspect of each talmid, excellence in many areas was recognized including Limudei Kodesh, Midos, Tefilah, Academics, Athletics, Extracurricular Activities and Community Service. Of course, this year’s event could not be held in person. Leveraging the skills honed delivering the yeshiva’s whole curriculum online these past months, a beautiful participatory online program was developed for the event and was experienced by 400+ participants! Rabbi Yossi Bennett, S’gan Menahel/Assistant Principal, introduced the program with a perek of Tehillim and a short description of how soci-

ety around us has changed. Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, Rosh HaYeshiva, then delivered divrei hiso’rirus and explained how even in these incredibly unique and challenging times it’s important to focus on the small acts of greatness performed by the talmidim at MAY, which can often go unnoticed.

He noted that the Mesivta works not only to encourage that behavior but strives to recognize it as well. “Our Arista night is about recognition,” commented Rabbi Bennett, “Our talmidim are incredible, carefully balancing their curricular responsibilities with their extracurricular. They may not always want

the recognition, but we feel that they deserve it. And, let’s face it, parents and grandparents deserve the nachas, especially in the current social climate.” Awards were presented to over 100 students for excellence and progress in a wide variety of areas. Rabbi Yaffe and Rabbi Bennett were joined by general studies principal Rabbi Sam Rudansky in presenting these awards. Rabbi Rudansky commented, “The evening serves as an opportunity to recognize those students who excel in different areas of the high school experience. For some, it’s academics and for others it can be community service, extracurricular activities or athletics. It’s a very special evening for all involved.” The evening closed with the induction of over 70 Arista honors students led by incoming Arista president Yosef Rabinow and the recitation of the Arista pledge. Mazel tov!

Not Your Typical Cancer Organization By Judy Sandman

hen someone works for an organization that supports people suffering from the ravages of cancer, it becomes so much more than a job. It is a twenty-four-hour-a-day mission. Gitti Klein and Devorie Neuman have devoted their lives to alleviating the suffering of cancer patients. For years, they have done everything in their power to help every patient in every way they can. Nearly six years ago, Devorie’s husband, Shalom Neuman, z”l, was diagnosed with cancer. His prognosis was extremely grim; the doctors gave him no more than three weeks to live. Shalom searched for anything that

would help prolong his life. What he discovered was integrative oncology. Treatments dosed and administered by world-renowned oncologists Dr. Howard Bruckner and Dr. Azriel Hirschfeld not only alleviated the horrific side effects of his chemotherapy, they helped Shalom defy the odds, granting him nearly two more years of life. Two years that were not spent bedridden and in pain. Two years in which Shalom was able to travel, marry off his children, and hold his new grandchildren in his arms. The treatments not only gave him life; they gave him quality of life. Insurance does not cover integrative oncology; these types of treatments are extremely costly. Shalom undertook the responsibility to make

Did you know? Strawberries are the only fruits with seeds on the outside

such treatments available to anyone suffering from the harsh side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. When he passed away, patients came to the shiva house desperately pleading that the family continue supporting their care, which is exactly what Shalom requested during his last days. Gitti and Devorie realized that an organization had to be formed. Thus, Aid L’Shalom was born, created in memory of Shalom Neuman, z”l. Aid L’Shalom is a national organization that has assisted hundreds of cancer patients in need. Now, at a state-of-the-art facility housed in the Bruckner oncology office, integrative treatments are administered under the care of top oncologists, along with traditional chemotherapy and radiation. These FDA-approved treatments maximize the curative results of standard protocols while minimizing the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy, often worse than the disease itself. Aid L’Shalom offers Vitamin C infusions, nutritional support provided by licensed dietitians, and acupunc-

ture, as well as financial support to help cover secondary expenses for cancer patients, including personal living expenses, transportation, and specialized food expenses. Gitti and Devorie work tirelessly, day and night, to make sure no patient is ever turned away. They personally knock on every door in the community and are grateful for the generous support of friends and neighbors. “We see the tremendous difference these treatments have on suffering cancer patients. It gives them their humanity back,” says Gitti Klein. “We are helping people in a way that has not been done before.” Join Aid L’Shalom on June 9, 2020, at 7:00 PM EDT, for an all-star fundraising Zoom concert hosted by comedian Modi; Charlie Harary, MC; featuring Avraham Fried, Mordechai Shapiro, Beri Weber, Eli Marcus, Eli Levin, and the Freilach Band. Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro, keynote speaker, will conclude with words of inspiration, Tickets start at $18/family. To purchase or donate, go to aidlshalom. com.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Learning Comes Alive Yehuda (Aaron) Trapunsky – a tenth grader in Yeshiva Nishmas HaTorah – recently received the HewlettWoodmere Citizenship Scholarship Award. Yehuda is the first-ever yeshiva student to receive this award which recognizes students who have made positive contributions to their schools and their community. Yehuda was nominated for the award by his teacher who felt that he exemplifies these ideals.

BBY fifth graders learn about blindness from eye doctor Dr. Gamms

Learn Together While Apart

TA’s Shavuos programming provided a much-needed opportunity for talmidim, parents, alumni, and rebbeim to learn together and prepare for yom tov. The yeshiva hosted an exciting Tikkun Leil Erev Shavuos learning program from Wednesday night, May 27 through 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 28. The program featured guest speaker Rabbi Doniel Kalish, Menahel, Mesivta of Waterbury, shiurim with MTA rebbeim, chaburahs led by MTA seniors, chavrusah learning in breakout rooms, make your own ice cream sundaes, raffles, and so much more. “During this time when we can’t learn in shul on Leil Shavuos, it was particularly important for us to en-

able our talmidim, their families, and our alumni to learn together on erev Shavuos and set the tone for a meaningful yom tov,” said Associate Principal Rabbi Shimon Schenker. “It was so inspiring to watch our talmidim and alumni learn together with their parents and rebbeim and to see the enthusiasm and excitement that everyone had throughout the entire night.” MTA also released a special Shavuos edition of its Torah publication, Shema Koleinu, featuring divrei Torah from talmidim, rebbeim, and alumni, as well as a section of at-home learning to help readers engage in source-based, Beis Medrash style learning at home on Leil Shavuos.

ne of the benefits of Zoom learning is the ability to participate from just about anywhere. Bnos Bais Yaakov’s Morah Kayla Weisz uses this ability to her advantage while teaching the book Follow My Leader to her fifth graders. The book centers on the experience of a blind boy, and the girls are learning about what it means to live with a disability. Mrs. Weisz “brings” a different guest to class every day to discuss their experiences with disability. Many are parents or grandparents of students in her classes. The girls have heard from dozens of guests, including Dr. Gamss, an eye doctor who spoke to them about blindness, Rabbi Haber who has a prosthetic leg, Mrs. Dear who works with a boy who is wheelchair bound, a woman whose hands are paralyzed, and a woman who is deaf. They also heard from people who

work in special education or with the disabled population and from many other relatives, friends, and neighbors of people with disabilities. Through it all, they are learning what it is like to live with a disability, how to relate to someone with a disability, and what it really means to be a good friend. The girls are super-enthusiastic about the program, with many finding guests to address them. The students have come to understand that we all have abilities and disabilities, and it’s important to channel our abilities to positive means and to benefit others. To that end, Mrs. Weisz class also holds a concurrent daily talent show, with students showing a short clip of a talent they possess. Yasher koach to Mrs. Weisz for going the extra mile for her students. Learning really comes alive in BBY!

Kathleen Rice Applauds Signing of Never Again Education Act

.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (NY-04) released the following statement after the Never Again Education Act (H.R. 943) was signed into law on Friday, May 29 by President Trump. Congresswoman Rice is an original cosponsor of the bill and voted in support of it when it passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 393 to 5 on January 27, 2020. The bill will expand U.S. Ho-

locaust Memorial Museum education programming and authorize new Holocaust education training and resources for teachers nationwide: “This past winter, our communities were rocked by the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing, the Jersey City kosher market shooting, and an alarming spike in anti-Semitic incidents on Long Island and throughout the New York metropolitan area. In

the wake of these tragedies, we came together not only to speak out against this hate-fueled violence but to take action to stop it. The goal of the Never Again Education Act is to combat anti-Semitism at its root cause. Education is truly the best tool we have available to prevent history from repeating itself, and by ensuring our children learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust and the meaning of

genocide, we can stop the spread of ignorance and hatred. “I was proud to support this legislation, led by my delegation colleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the House, and I am thrilled it has become law. I will continue to do everything I can in Congress to enact policies that fight anti-Semitism, combat hate crimes, and keep our communities safe.”

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

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darchei.org/photos

30 52

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

TJH

Centerfold

Want to Think About That Again? “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” -Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” -Western Union internal memo, 1876

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” -David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s

“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” -A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp)

“Who wants to hear actors talk?” -H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927, rejecting the idea of sound in film

“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” -Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” -Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” -Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” -Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

You gotta be

kidding

Two beggars are sitting outside the Tivoli Fountain in Rome. One beggar has a sign around his neck which reads, “Please help your fellow Christian with some change.” The other beggar has a big Star of David prominently displayed around his neck. As people walk by, they proudly and generously give to the beggar with the sign, while snarling at the beggar with the Star of David sitting near him. After a while, a priest walks by and sees the two beggars sitting there. The priest turns to them and says, “Dearest beggar, this is a Catholic city and they are not too fond of Jews around here. No one will give you money as long as you have that Star of David around your neck.” The beggar with the Star of David turns to the other and says, “Chaim, look who’s trying to tell the Cohen brothers about marketing!”

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The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Space Shuttle Trivia 1. What was historic about the July 2011 Atlantis shuttle mission? a. The astronauts requested iced coffees from Le Chocolat. The iced coffees were sent up in a refrigerated capsule, which docked at the International Space Station. b. It was the first mission of Atlantis c. It was the first time an issue of TJH was taken to space. d. It was the final mission of NASA’s space shuttle program.

6) 5)

Riddle me this? Sarah needed to go to the store to buy some ingredients to cook with. She started writing them down: Butter Milk Eggs Baking Soda Cashews Oranges Vinegar Lemon Juice What was Sarah making (you don’t need to be a world-class chef to figure it out)? Answer: A shopping list

0-2 correct: You must have inhaled some of Atlantis’ fumes.

D- After 30 years of space shuttle missions, NASA’s space shuttle program had been shut down.

3-4 correct: You’re a little spaced out.

4-6 correct: You are either a rocket scientist or a real nerd

 Switchboard Key

6. An astronaut has to be able to remain calm in tough situations which require quick thinking. Which astronaut is famous for being so strangely calm that he actually fell asleep on the launch pad waiting to launch? a. Neil Armstrong b. Gordon Copper c. John Glenn d. TJH Centerfold Commissioner

5. How many missions is each shuttle expected to fly? a. 25 b. 50 c. 67 d. 100

4. Which of these names was never used for a space shuttle? a. Atlantic b. The TJH Shuttle c. Discovered d. Challenged

B- Gordon “Gordo” Cooper flew on Mercury 9, the last and longest Mercury flight, as well as Gemini 5. He was the last astronaut to fly solo. During his Mercury flight, his blood pressure dropped astonishingly down to 101/65.

3. Space agencies around the globe try to create launch sites as close the equator as economically possible. Which of the below choices is NOT a valid reason for this? a. Rotational velocity of the earth is faster at the equator, allowing for a faster initial orbital slingshot. b. It is easier to keep the rocket fuel cooler in equatorial climates. c. Equatorial launches offer more orbital inclination possibilities. d. Many equatorial locations have nearby bodies of water to launch over for safety reasons.

 Answers A, B, C, D- Although some of the wellknown shuttles were Atlantis, Discovery, and the Challenger. (Learn how to read my friend.)

2. The maiden launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-41D was originally delayed over a month in order to replace a malfunctioning main engine. When finally back on the launch pad, the launch was delayed another six minutes and 50 seconds for what reason? a. One of the astronauts had to use the bathroom. b. A private aircraft had flown into the shuttle’s airspace. c. The new engine wasn’t working properly. d. There was a passing storm.

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

Torah Thought

Parshas Naso By Rabbi Berel Wein

hen the Torah describes the count of the tribe of Levi, at the onset of this week’s reading, it uses the expression “raise the head of the tribe of Levi.” At first glance this is a strange way of to present the matter. The Torah should say directly, “Count the tribe of Levi.” By using the expression “raise the head” the Torah communicates to us a subtle but vital lesson, and that

is that pure numbers by themselves are insufficient when we wish to appreciate the value of tribes, groups, or individuals. For if that group or individual does not have a sense of pride, a sense of mission and purpose, then numbers alone, in the long run, are almost worthless. The Levites were assigned a special role in Jewish society and temple service. They were also to be

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the teachers of Israel and, perhaps just as importantly, the role models for Jewish generations and public service. It is no accident of random choice that the greatest public servant the world has ever known, our teacher Moshe, was a Levite. Unless leadership feels the impetus of mission and exalted responsibility upon itself, it can never achieve the fulfillment of its assigned task. This can only be accomplished by raising one’s head, by having a sense of pride and self-worth and an individual commitment to excellence in the performance of one’s duties and obligations, be they personal or societal. By using the phrase “raise the head,” the Torah emphasizes to us the correct

human beings, yet he realizes that he is Moshe, that his face shines with G-dly eternity and that upon him lies the responsibility for preserving the Jewish people and their loyalty to Torah. Therefore, his head is raised, while at the same time his inner self retains the humility that characterizes his nature. This is a very delicate balancing act and many a potentially great leader has failed because of an excess of pride, on one hand, and meekness on the other. We find, for instance, that King Saul was reprimanded by the prophet Samuel for being overly modest and therefore weak in his response to public pressure. The prophet said to him, “You may be small in your own

Unless leadership feels the impetus of mission and exalted responsibility upon itself, it can never achieve the fulfillment of its assigned task

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and eternal way of assessing human numbers and accomplishments. Modesty and humility are necessary traits for all of us, and they are extremely necessary for those who find themselves in positions of public leadership, spiritual guidance, and education. Yet, in these areas of human character, like in all other areas of thought and behavior, a proper sense of balance is required. Our teacher Moshe is the most humble and self-effacing of all

eyes, but you are the head and leader of the tribes of Israel.” Throughout history all of us, and especially those that find themselves in roles of familial, social, educational, and religious leadership are challenged by this exquisite balancing act – how to have a humble heart and a raised head at one and the same time, a demand that the Torah places upon us. Shabbat shalom.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

From the Fire

Parshas Naso Hold on, Don’t Let Go

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

e have spoken about the trait of “hargashas ha’setirah,” being sensitive to living a life of contradictions in which we do not act according to that which we know is true. Continuing on this theme, we must examine the Nazir’s

obligation to bring a sin offering at the conclusion of his period as a Nazir (Bamidbar 6:14). The Ramban explains the simple meaning of this requirement as follows: the Nazir is not satisfied with “just” keeping the 613 mitzvos of the Torah. The concept

of nazirus resonates with him and he sees the value in a more sanctified way of life. Yet, after living on that higher level of existence, at the conclusion of his nazirus period, he wishes to return to the “regular” mitzvos of every other Jew. The Ramban writes regarding this step-down from his status as a Nazir: This person sins against his soul at the completion of his nazirus period because now [before ending his nazirus], he remains a Nazir in this [higher level] of holiness and service of Hashem. It is fitting for him to remain forever as a Nazir, sanctified to Hashem... Therefore, he requires an atonement when he comes to defile himself with the desires of the world. This Jew desired a higher level of holiness and closeness to Hashem. The Torah even calls him (Bamidbar 6:8) “kodesh hu l’Hashem, sanctified to Hashem.” When he leaves this status, he is somewhat blameworthy for giving up the higher level of existence that he had attained. He wore the crown of G-d on his head (Ibid. at 7) and has now decided to remove the crown to return to pedestrian existence. We must remember that Nazir status means more than the sum of the prohibitions a Nazir takes on. According to the Avnei Miluim (citing the Maharit, Responsum 22), when one becomes a Nazir, it is not because he vowed not to consume foods or drinks derived from grapes, cut his hair, and come into contact with a dead body. Rather, being a Nazir is a special,

holy status. The Nazir’s prohibitions are the result of his special, elevated status, not its cause. Because of his status as a holy person, he must conduct himself accordingly and avoid worldly desires. If someone on this higher level decides to stop, to interrupt his holy life, he is blameworthy. That is why he requires the atonement of a sin offering. We find a thematically similar teaching in the Gemara (Yevamos 48b), which says: “Why do converts these days experience poverty and suffering? ... Because they delayed in coming under the wings of the Divine presence.” The Gemara brings a proof for this explanation from a pasuk in Rus (2:12), where Boaz praises Rus: “May Hashem repay you for your deeds and may your reward be complete from Hashem the G-d of Israel because you took shelter [quickly] under His wings.” Rashi explains the pasuk to mean that Rus was praised for converting as quickly as possible. According to the Gemara, since Rus’s speed in converting after she realized that the Torah was the path of truth was praised, it can be inferred that a convert would be blameworthy if he or she delayed in acting on a newfound belief in the truth of the Jewish life. Rav Yaakov Emden in Haga’os Ya’avetz questions why a convert should be blamed for delaying his conversion. After all, gentiles have no obligation whatsoever to become Jewish. What difference does it make if he or she postpones conversion un-

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

til a more convenient time? As I understand Rav Emden’s answer, it is very similar to the guilt of a Nazir who completes his nazirus period. After a person reaches the conclusion that the Torah is true and that life of Jewish holiness speaks to him or her, what possible justification is there for delaying conversion and living a lie? If the person knows that Yiddishkeit and closeness to Hashem represent a greater way of life, how can he or she take a break from growth (similar to the Nazir who leaves his nazirus) simply to “enjoy” the non-Jewish life a little longer? Certainly, even if his commitment to convert has the status of a vow, there is no halachic prohibition against delaying the fulfillment of his vow (see Mishna L’Melech on Rambam, Hilchos Melachim 10:7). But when a human being recognizes the truth, even if he has no technical obligation to change, he must not interrupt his spiritual ascent for detours. Rather, he must pursue that higher path diligently because he is someone who recognizes its importance.

This is another aspect of what it means to have “hargashas ha’setirah, sensitivity to contradictions.” When a person begins to recognize a more exalted way of life (even though others around him do not recognize it) and has begun to wear the crown of Hashem’s holiness a little bit, he must

he never knew any better? We face this problem after a yom tov like Shavuos. This Shabbos is called the “Shabbos after Shavuos.” It has this special name because after we have reached a greater recognition of the preciousness of Torah, it affects how we act after Shavuos is over. We

When a person desires something more from life, how can he quit and go back to a life of darkness as if he never knew any better? hold onto it. As Shlomo Hamelech says (Shir Hashirim 3:4), “I will hold on and not let go.” When a person recognizes a certain truth, he cannot go on living a life which contravenes that truth. When a person desires something more from life, how can he quit and go back to a life of darkness as if

felt (Shemos 20:19), “You have seen that I have spoken to you from Heaven.” Some people feel nothing on yom tov and have no greater recognition of the truth whether it is yom tov or a regular weekday. But for people who feel something and recognize that a greater life of Torah is for them, that

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person’s sensitivity to contradictions compels him to live in accordance with that greater understanding. The same thing applies to any one of us who experiences some sort of elevation in his thinking. He looks around at his friends and may feel somewhat envious of their seemingly carefree life of the distractions of this world. But a person must retain his sensitivity. He must not abandon the higher path but cultivate an aversion to the emptiness of the more mundane level of existence. When a Jew abandons a higher path which he recognizes to be true, Hashem also loses a good friend. May Hashem find good friends in us and may he send the ultimate friend, the (Menachos 53a) “friend, son of a friend,” Moshiach, to rebuild the Beis Hamikdash soon in our days.

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

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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Think, Feel, Grow

The Three Keys to Happiness By Shmuel Reichman

f you ask the average person what they want in life, they will likely answer with one word: happiness. Many people’s lives are centered around this goal. The big decisions, such as who we marry, where we live, the jobs we take, the people we interact with, as well as the smaller decisions, such as what we eat, how we dress, how much sleep we get, are often made with the goal of attaining a greater level of joy and happiness. However, we often find people who appear set up for happiness living a life stuck in misery and people who seem destined for a life of anguish living lives of great happiness. We all know that person – let’s call him, Yoni – who is good-looking, comes from a very wealthy family, and always has the best of everything in life. He is skilled, capable, funny, and extremely popular amongst his peers. Nevertheless, Yoni spends his entire adult life in and out of drug rehab centers, dealing with non-ending cycles of depression and addiction. How did this happen? Then there is Eli, a boy whose father passed away when he was just three years old. His mother constantly struggled to make ends meet – luxuries were out of the question. At the age of six, Eli’s doctor discovered a heart defect that left Eli in and out of hospitals his entire childhood. After living a life of extreme poverty with very limited opportunity, Eli was able to create an extraordinary life for himself and is the happiest person you will ever meet. What is the difference between Yoni and Eli? What is the source of happiness, and how can we achieve this elusive state? But more fundamentally, is happiness even a Jew-

Growth: Self-Expansion

ish value? We live in a world which defines success in life as achieving happiness. Is happiness the ultimate Jewish goal? Or is it simply a Western value that has been imposed on our view of Judaism? What exactly is the Jewish approach to happiness? In several places, the Torah lists the many curses that will befall Klal Yisrael if they do not observe Hashem’s commandments. When describing these terrible curses, Hashem informs us that we will receive these punishments because we did not serve Him with happiness (Devarim 28:47). Additionally, the pasuk in Tehillim states, “Ivdu es Hashem b’simcha” (100:2) – serve Hashem with happiness. It seems, therefore, that happiness is, in fact, a Jewish value. What then is the deep nature of happiness, and how does a lack of happiness warrant these terrible curses?

Pleasure vs. Happiness Happiness should not be confused with pleasure. Pleasure is instant gratification, a fleeting sensation that is gone as quickly as it

comes. Unhealthy food, meaningless entertainment, and other quick fixes all fit into the category of pleasure. The moment you’ve finished enjoying pleasure, it fades away. Happiness is of a fundamentally different nature. True happiness is what you experience when you are working towards becoming the person you are meant to be. When you use your challenges as a means to grow, when you expand as a person and achieve constant internal growth, that is happiness. You needn’t be smiling every step of the way, for genuine growth usually involves significant pain and hardship. However, as long as you know that you are heading towards where you need to go, that you are building the person you are meant to become, even the pain is accompanied by a feeling of happiness. External displays of success pale in comparison to the joy of true internal progress and growth. Let us expand our understanding of this topic by developing three keys to happiness.

As we have stated, growth is the underlying root of deep existential happiness. This is because the deepest human desire is to express our unique purpose in this world. We therefore experience incredible happiness when we are growing and maximizing our potential, fulfilling our purpose. The Ba’alei Machshava explain that all happiness stems from self-expansion. This is because Hashem is the all-encompassing creator of this world, and each of us, as a tzelem Elokim, has an infinite root as well. As we expand ourselves, we tap into our root oneness, resulting in a feeling of existential happiness. We experience this truth in our everyday lives. When you expand your mind by understanding a new Torah concept or perceiving something new about the universe, human psychology, or about yourself, you experience a deep state of joy. The same is true when expanding your inner awareness of self, or when pushing past boundaries and becoming a greater version of yourself. The greatest paradigm of self-expansion is when you expand your sense of self to include others. Marriage is the ultimate opportunity for this, and having children allows for both you and your spouse to collectively expand outwards into the world even further. However, all forms of giving to others, whether it’s giving time, love, money, or anything else, is a form of self-expansion that allows you to expand your sense of self to include others.

Gratitude: Mindset While happiness results from the

The Jewish | JUNE29, 4, 2020 The Jewish HomeHome | OCTOBER 2015

expansion of self as we actualize our potential, there are a few keys that are necessary to fully experience the happiness we generate when fulfilling our mission. One of those keys is mindset. The same letters that make up the word b’simcha, with happiness, form the word machshava, thought. This is because your thoughts, mindset, and attitude have a tremendous impact on your internal state of being. No matter how much you are growing and achieving, without the right attitude and mindset, you will not be happy. As simple as it sounds, making the decision to be happy is one of the greatest strategies for achieving happiness. We all know people who wait around for something great to “happen” to them, claiming that only when “such and such” happens will they be happy. Proactively deciding to be happy can fundamentally change the way you perceive happiness. Don’t wait for an external reason; just decide. There is, of course, a deeper layer to this. When you apply the principle of hakaras ha’tov, gratitude and recognition of all the good in your life, it fundamentally changes your perspective and allows you to see things as they truly are. In truth, we don’t deserve to be alive in the first place. We never earned the right to exist. There was no guarantee that we would wake up today, and there is no guarantee that we will wake up tomorrow. Our life is a gift, a constant gift from Hashem. We look at a kidney donor as a hero, and are we so moved, so touched by their heroic deed. This is because we are able to imagine what the recipient felt like. He didn’t have a kidney, he was lost, abandoned, destined to die. Only because this generous and loving man donated his kidney is this recipient still alive. We feel the beauty of this gift, the gift of life, the fact that this person now has the rest of his life in front of him. We thank this man for giving this recipient hope, a reason to believe, another chance at life. However, what if each and every one of us could have this feeling of complete and absolute love towards someone who gave us a lifesaving organ? What if each and every one of us was in dire need of an organ transplant? What if we thought that we were on death’s door, and then miraculously received a donation from a loving hero? Wouldn’t we live differently, experience life in a whole new way? Well, what if I told you that we do?

We each think of our lives as our own, our bodies as our own, our existence as our own. But they’re not; we have no right to live, to exist. We never earned it; it is a constant gift from Hashem! Each day, each moment, each second in this world is a gift. Every morning, we are in dire need of an organ transplant. Which organ? All

our life to Hashem – is our purpose in life and should be the focus of all our self-development. We can only be miserable while serving Hashem if we view it as a burden, when we do it robotically, out of habit, just going through the motions. It is only when we realize that the only way to fulfill our purpose and actualize our

No matter how much you are growing and achieving, without the right attitude and mindset, you will not be happy

of them! And every single morning, Hashem gives each one of us a complete life donation, which includes all your organs, your emotional health, a working mind, a sense of identity, and the ability to choose greatness and grow. Each and every morning, when we say Modeh Ani, we should feel as if we are meeting our hero, the One Who saved our life. If we could genuinely feel the joy, gratitude, and bliss that comes from this realization, our lives would never be the same.

Giving: Greater than Yourself The last key to happiness is recognizing that the goal of life is not only self-perfection but devoting all of your self-development into something greater than yourself, contributing it to Klal Yisrael. When you are able to move outside of your own limited self and focus on becoming part of the klal, part of the collective community, you automatically feel an inner sense of happiness. This is why happiness is connected to the chagim in which the Jewish people were oleh regel – when they joined together as a collective whole in Eretz Yisrael. When we expand beyond our own personal struggles and problems and devote ourselves to others, our worries fade away and a rich sense of inner peace is left in its place.

Serving Hashem With Happiness We now understand what it means to serve Hashem with happiness. This is accomplished when we realize that being a true eved Hashem – devoting

potential is by completely devoting ourselves to Hashem, to our root, to our source, that we can truly be happy. Happiness is neither a means nor an ends; it is what manifests when you are becoming the person you are destined to become. In essence, happiness is a revelation that you are on the right track. Yoni and Eli are two different people with two different sets of life cir-

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cumstances. We don’t get to control our circumstances – we choose only how to respond to our circumstances. Happiness is not the goal of life; living a life of truth is. But happiness is still important; it is the gift Hashem gives you when you are heading on the right path towards your higher goals in life. It is there to help you continue down the right path. Happiness comes from growth, from enjoying the process, from the right mindset, and from devoting our life towards something greater than ourselves. May we be inspired to serve Hashem with genuine happiness and enjoy the process of becoming the very best that we can be. Shmuel Reichman is an inspirational speaker, writer, and coach who has lectured internationally at shuls, conferences, and Jewish communities on topics of Jewish thought and Jewish medical ethics. He is the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy (ShmuelReichman.com), the transformative online course that is revolutionizing how we engage in self-development. You can find more inspirational lectures, videos, and articles from Shmuel on his website, ShmuelReichman.com.

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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

My Israel Home

Poets and Cash By Gedaliah Borvick

nited States banknotes feature presidents and founding fathers. On the front of every UK banknote is Queen Elizabeth II, and on the reverse side are British giants, such as Charles Darwin and Adam Smith. In Canada, Queen Elizabeth II and previous prime ministers grace most bills. So, whose face would you expect to find on Israel’s banknotes? Since Israel’s inception, banknotes have featured a wide spectrum of Jews: founders of the state, including politicians and pioneers; arts and sciences titans such as Nobel laureate Shai Agnon and physicist Albert Einstein; philanthropists Edmond de Rothschild and Moses Montefiore; and philosopher and scholar extraordinaire, Maimonides. Over the past few years, new banknotes were introduced that honor poets Rachel Bluwstein, Shaul Tchernichovsky, Leah Goldberg, and Natan Alterman. All four are cultural icons, evidenced by the fact that numerous streets across Israel have been named in their memory. The red 20 NIS bill features Rachel Bluwstein, known as Rachel Hamishoreret (Rachel the Poet), and streets in Jerusalem, Petach Tikva, Kfar Saba, Ra’anana and Rosh Ha’ayin have been named for her. A beloved national poet – and considered the “founding mother” of modern Hebrew poetry – her writing impacted future generations of Israeli poets, evidenced by the dozens of books featuring her poetry and other writings that have been published posthumously. Many of her poems, among them Zemer Nogah, Gan Na’ul and Kineret, have

A manuscript of one of Shaul Tchernichovsky’s poems The 20 shekel banknote featuring Rachel Bluwstein which sold a few years ago for $650

been set to music and have become an integral part of Hebrew culture. The green 50 NIS bill features Shaul Tchernichovsky, and streets in Jerusalem, Rechovot, Hod Hasharon, Afula, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ramla, Kfar Saba and Netanya were named for him. Tchernichovsky was trained as a physician and practiced medicine throughout his life. Strongly committed to the idea of

salem, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Lod, Mazkeret Batya and Be’er Yaakov have been named for her. Goldberg’s poetry – many of which have been set to music – addresses themes such as love, artistic creativity, speech versus silence, and the shadows of death. Her most famous novels included Ve’Hu ha’Or (And He Is the Light) and Pegishah im Meshorer (Encoun-

From time immemorial, the Jewish nation has been called the Children of the Book

a national and cultural revival of the Jewish people, Tchernichovsky’s work traces Zionist aspirations through the vicissitudes of Jewish history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the birth of the State of Israel, but many of his works have been widely celebrated in modern songs that use his poetry for its lyrics. The yellow 100 NIS bill features Leah Goldberg, and streets in Jeru-

ter with a Poet). Goldberg wrote hundreds of imaginative poems and books for children, which include Yedidai mi’Rehov Arnon (My Friends from Arnon Street) and Dirah le’Haskir (A Flat to Let). She was also an editor, playwright, gifted translator, scholar (lecturer in Hebrew University), and literary and theater critic. The blue 200 NIS bill features Natan Alterman, and streets in Herzliya, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Hod Hasharon, Kfar

Saba, Gan Yavne, Rechovot, Ness Ziona, Ashdod and Rishon LeZion have been named for him. Known primarily as a poet, Alterman also wrote plays, theatrical sketches, children’s literature, and lyrics for several hit songs and was a distinguished translator. Considered the literary spokesman of the nationalist movement, he expressed the people’s longing for independence, and some of his lyrics, censored by the British, became anthems of the struggle. Following 1948, Alterman tackled social and political issues, and in the aftermath of the Six Day War became a proponent of the Greater Land of Israel ideology. Some of his poems, such as P’gisha L’ain Ketz (A Meeting with No End), have been turned into popular songs. From time immemorial, the Jewish nation has been called the Children of the Book. These new banknotes confirm it. Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency focused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. To sign up for his monthly market updates, contact him at gborvick@ gmail.com.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

WISHING THE COMMUNITY WELL. WE TRUST THAT EVERYONE HAD A WONDERFUL SHAVUOS

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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

his is a story about two American Jews, each raised in traditional Conservative homes, with a fragmented grasp of Torah. Together, they created not just a Torah-observant family, but also a one-of-akind post-high school seminary in Israel for girls from public school backgrounds.

abbi Yaakov Lynn had an unusual introduction to Shabbat observance. Growing up in what he called “the classic Conservative family” in East Brunswick, NJ, he had a solid Jewish identity that included Hebrew school, a bar mitzvah, and membership in United Synagogue Youth (USY), a Conservative youth movement. But it did not include Shabbat. At 16, he attended a USY Shabbaton and met Shomer Shabbat people for the first time. “I knew there was such a thing as Shabbat,” he recalled, but he never imagined knowing anyone who kept it. Meeting public school kids who kept Shabbat was eye-opening. “I was very challenged by that,” he said. “I had this thought going through my mind that never really went away, which was that I always believed in

Judaism. I didn’t know anything very much about Judaism, just what I learned in my Conservative Hebrew school, but I believed in Judaism. I believed in G-d. I believed that Judaism was true. “And now I saw that there was a thing called ‘keeping Shabbat’ and people did it, people who to go to public schools do it. So, if I believe it’s true, and I say I have a strong Jewish identity, and I see that it’s possible, then why don’t I do it?” At 16, Yaakov responded to his theological challenge in a surprising way. “I actually decided that I was going to try. I remember thinking that it sounded like such an awful thing to keep Shabbat. I went to the Conservative synagogue on a Saturday; I’m sure I drove there. And I remember reading things in Mussaf about how great Shabbos is and I was thinking,

apparently it’s supposed to be beautiful.” There was just one tiny detail to be worked out. “I didn’t know any rabbis,” he said. “I didn’t know any religious people I would feel comfortable talking to about it. So, I didn’t tell anybody. I smuggled into my room one of those Hebrew-English Chumashim they have at Conservative temples and a pink bat mitzvah yarmulke, and I hid them in the drawer. “And I would, on Saturday or Friday night – I don’t remember which – I would go into my room. I’d lock the door and open the drawer. I’d take out the yarmulke and the Chumash. I don’t know if I knew what parsha it was. I don’t know what I would read, but I would read from the Chumash.” Rabbi Lynn described this early experimentation as inconsistent. Sometimes he would drive to the syn-

“Mom. Dad. There’s something I have to tell you: I’ve been keeping Shabbat.”

‘I don’t understand. This sounds like an awful thing. How could it be so good?’ “I remember the moment – standing in this Conservative temple, I decided then that I’m going to try it, now that I know it’s possible and

agogue. Sometimes he would stop and buy something on the way home. He was trying to figure out Shabbat all on his own. “I had no idea how to keep Shabbat,” he explained. “I didn’t know about Shabbat meals. I went back and

for t h. I would watch TV if my parents had the TV on, but I kept saying ‘no’ whenever my family wanted to do something. “So my parents were getting concerned about me. I was locking myself in my room every Saturday, and I worked on Sundays in a drugstore, and so they didn’t see me on Sunday. They kept pushing me. ‘You want to do this today? You want to do that?’ And I’d just say no, and go back to my room. And then, finally, one day they confronted me.” Feeling backed into a corner, 16-year-old Yaakov took a deep breath and confessed, “’Mom. Dad. There’s something I have to tell you: I’ve been keeping Shabbat.’ “And I really thought they were going to keel over. They actually weren’t so shocked. And they felt bad that I felt embarrassed about it. But they definitely thought it was a phase.” That was the beginning of his teshuva journey. Today, Rabbi Yaakov Lynn is the founding dean and director of Meorot, a unique Jerusalem seminary designed especially for public school graduates.

A Path to Teshuva Although she never locked herself in her bedroom in attempt to keep Shabbat, Penina Lynn’s teshuva story runs along similar lines. Raised in Columbia, MD, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., she also attended public school. Penina, who serves as the Director of Students at Meorot, described herself as having a “very typical traditional Jewish background. Hebrew

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

Meorot students and staff at the closing banquet

school every Sunday. I was bat mitzvahed. My parents insisted that I be in a Jewish youth group if I wanted to be able to date whoever I wanted when I was in high school.” Her childhood was filled with “really positive Jewish experiences.” She explained, “Through my college years, I became more religious. I knew this was where my life was going, and I just had to get there,” she noted. For Yaakov, Chabad at Binghamton University and his junior year abroad, spent at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, helped solidify his path. A key player was Jeff Seidel, the legendary kiruv personality, who introduced Yaakov to Shabbat in many different home environments. In Israel, Yaakov began learning Torah, wearing tzitzit and davening with tefillin. When he returned to America for his senior year of college, he was unable to sustain that level of observance. Ironically, though he turned down a full-time job in his field and returned to Israel to learn in yeshiva after college, “I actually hated it,” he commented laughingly. He tried five different yeshivot before giving up. “I wasn’t ready to sit and learn Gemara,” he explained. “My mind wasn’t sharp enough. And they didn’t really have beginner tracks back then.” By November, he was back in America. A few temporary positions, a fellowship with the Jewish Campus Service Corps and then Yaakov became the Hillel director at Goucher College in Baltimore, making him, at age 23, the youngest full-time Hillel director ever. After finishing college in Boston, Penina pursued a masters in social work at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. After a somewhat traumatic first day at her first field placement, she was reassigned to Hillel of Greater

Baltimore. That’s when their paths converged.

Heading to the Holy Land Yaakov, recognized early on for being a gifted teacher, knew he wanted to work in Jewish education. After Penina finished graduate school, Yaakov resigned from Hillel and the couple, newly married, came to Israel for a year. The plan was for Yaakov to go to yeshiva, now that he understood more clearly what that involved, and then to return to New York so he could study for semicha. One year led to another, and, in the end, the couple never left Israel. “We came for a year, and it’s been a very long year,” Penina joked. The administrators at his yeshiva recognized Yaakov’s gift as an educator and tapped him for various teaching and kiruv-related opportunities, which he took on, in addition to learning full-time. In the interim, Penina was caring for the first of their six children and found herself with a lot of time on her hands. Initially, she was in a bit of a limbo because the Lynns were still planning on returning to the U.S. She enrolled in an ulpan to improve her conversational Hebrew and then accepted a position as an online matchmaker with a Jewish dating site. Eventually, she was promoted to the Director of Matchmaker Support, overseeing 250 volunteer matchmakers and five paid matchmakers. This position, which she held for several years, allowed her to work while being with her growing family in the afternoons.

23 Girls on Day 1 As Yaakov’s experience, both in learning and teaching, deepened, it was Penina who urged him to focus on teaching ba’alot teshuva. She felt that her husband had the perfect personality for teaching young women, a task not every rabbi is suited for.

uring the coronavirus crisis, Meorot was one of a tiny number of seminaries in Israel that stayed open. “On March 17, I was sitting in my office as new Ministry of Health restrictions were being announced, rumors were swirling about closing borders, and word was coming in that other seminaries were closing,” Rabbi Lynn explained. “For the first time, I thought, despite our efforts to stay open, it was ‘game over’; we’d have to close as well. Just then, one of our teachers came into my office.” That teacher reported that the students were afraid that Meorot was also going to close. “They don’t want to leave,” she shared. “I gathered the students and explained to them that if we stayed open, we would not be able to have any in-person classes, maybe for the rest of the year,” Rabbi Lynn recalled. “I told them I didn’t even know if they’d get to see my wife and me in person again for months, that they might be trapped in their dorms, and that if the borders closed, they might not even be able to go home for many months. “I told them we would not kick them out, and that we’d take care of them and keep teaching them Torah as long as we could. “They wanted to stay. “There were students who wanted to spend a kosher Pesach in Israel and to keep learning Torah. How could I not keep the seminary open? That’s why Meorot exists,” Rabbi Lynn asserted. Dr. Eliana Aaron, a U.S. board-certified nurse practitioner and Israeli nurse, guided the Lynns on Meorot’s healthcare policy. “We took a very stringent approach when it came to the guidelines. For over two weeks, we did not let any student or madricha leave the apartment. “Other than me, all their classes were on Zoom. As I told their parents, they were in the safest place in the world. We provided all their meals (even during Pesach) and even allowed them to add their own requests to our weekly makolet order, which was delivered to their door.” Looking back, Rabbi Lynn commented, “It was a huge achrayus and I did a lot of davening, but I knew the whole time that this was our opportunity to show Hashem why we do this. If Meorot really exists because we believe that it is our obligation to provide public school girls with the opportunity to live a life of Torah in a way they would not otherwise have had, then of course we needed to provide them this opportunity at the time they needed it most! “As I said in my speech at the closing banquet, those two months were the most meaningful of my life. While the rest of the world was trapped at home trying to find ways to stay productive, these girls who wanted to stay and learn gave me the opportunity to wake up each morning with a sense of purpose, knowing there were 18 young women who needed someone to take care of their physical and spiritual needs that day – and feeling a sense of gratitude that Hashem chose me for that role.”

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Penina asserted that it takes someone who’s been there “to really understand the drive of women raised in secular culture.” Yaakov interjected that 80% of the students he worked with as the Hillel director at Goucher College had been women. As the years progressed, Yaakov developed a gratifying schedule of learning Torah in the mornings and teaching in six different programs, five of which were for women, in the

afternoons. And Penina had transitioned into the world of teletherapy, working as a behavioral therapist for an online charter school in Ohio. Life for the Lynn family was very good. Noting that there was no seminary in America for ba’alot teshuva, the couple planned to return to America and establish one. For various reasons, despite early support for the idea, it didn’t come to fruition. “At the same time I was thinking

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about that seminary in America,” Rabbi Lynn said, “there were rabbis who decided that there was a need for a seminary for public school girls, post-high school, in Israel. For whatever reason, the rabbis that were going to start it ended up backing out before it started.” Since girls had already been recruited for the year, and Yaakov was already teaching there, the nascent school, operating under the name Meorot, started as a sister program to a more established seminary. That quickly proved to be an unworkable model. “It was not working. It needed to be its own seminary, and I was watching it die. I wasn’t so invested. One day I came home and I said to my wife, ‘Meorot is dying. Somebody needs to take this program over and turn it into its own seminary, with its own place, and its own teachers and its own staff and its own madrichot (student mentors). I should probably offer to do it. But I’m not going to.’” Man plans, and G-d laughs. A month later, Yaakov was offered the chance to run Meorot. The couple decided to take it on together. “For me, it was almost a bigger investment,” Penina stated, “because I had to close my private practice that I was doing during the day and I had to leave my job working as a behavioral therapist for the charter school in Ohio. I really was changing my life over to make this happen.” This was December of 2017, and the couple hit the ground running. Yaakov booked a flight to NCSY’s Yarchei Kallah, a five-day retreat for public school students who come to learn Torah during their winter break.

“I knew nothing,” he recalled. “I didn’t know where it was going to be. I didn’t know who our teachers were. I didn’t know what our schedule was. I made it all up on the fly. “I was still learning in the mornings. I was still teaching in six places. I would come home at 10:00 at night, turn on my computer and start my full-time job of building a seminary, yesh m’ayin.” Somehow, with a huge amount of work and Hashem’s blessing, on August 26, 2018, “there were 23 girls here. I can show you a picture from that day. It was it was incredibly inspiring,” he said. “There was a stand-alone seminary for 23 public school graduates. It was the first time that ever happened. There had never been a seminary exclusively geared towards public school graduates,” Yaakov noted with pride.

From Aleph to Taf There are a few things that distinguish Meorot students from every other seminary student in Israel. First, according to Penina, “I always tell these girls that you are the only seminary in the world where every single student here is here because you chose to be here. Nobody’s here because it’s what everybody in their 12th grade class is doing. Nobody’s here because that’s what their older sister did or because that’s what their parents say they should do. “They’re all here because they want to be here, and therefore they’re incredibly motivated. And it’s very unique. All of our teachers teach in lots of seminaries and they all say this is their favorite place to teach because these girls are wide-eyed and want to learn. We have no attendance prob-

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Rabbi Yaakov and Penina Lynn Photo credit Rabbi Peretz Rubel

lem at the 9:15 class.” On the other hand, because there is no communal or family pressure to study in Israel for a year, in some cases, the parents are not at all supportive and won’t pay even a portion of their daughter’s tuition at Meorot, so there is a need to do extensive fundraising. Most students are recruited through Jewish youth groups like NCSY and Batya Girls, which has branches in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Illinois and Maryland. “This is not for beginner girls who know nothing. Some of them don’t know the Alef-Beis, but they know they want to learn about Judaism,” Rabbi Lynn explained.

“They’re very intelligent. They’re just missing information,” he elaborated. Katherine Belilty is a current student at Meorot. She was accepted to Princeton University and deferred for a year to pursue a deeper understanding of her Jewish identity. Earlier in her teen years, Belilty entertained the thought that “maybe I’m going to be Christian because my diehard Baptist friends all connect to their religion and I don’t connect to mine.” She had no way to enter the depth of Torah study. “I thought that Torah was just the Chumash. I thought it was just stories.” Then an NCSY advisor introduced her to The Secret Life of God by Rabbi David Aaron.

“Last year, we had a student who completely misunderstood a shiur, because she didn’t know that King David and David HaMelech were the same person.”

In the classroom, the girls are taught skills such as how to reference a certain perek and pasuk in Hebrew. “We can’t assume anything,” he asserted. “Last year, we had a student who completely misunderstood a shiur, because she didn’t know that King David and David HaMelech were the same person. The teacher used them interchangeably and she thought she was talking about two different people.” He cautions, though, that people shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking Meorot students are stupid.

Over the remainder of her high school years, Belilty became very involved with NCSY, taking advantage of many of their programs. With each new program she attended, she grew more connected to Torah and to Israel. By the time she met Rabbi Yaakov Lynn of Meorot, she was ready for something more intensive. “This is my first experience with really organized Jewish learning,” she shared. “It’s made me see Judaism as something that’s woven into my life. This environment is what made it

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This year’s class at Meorot

sustainable for me, because they are teaching me everything that I need to know in terms that I can understand it and keep with me. “Being in Moerot has made me see Judaism as something that’s my own, and that it can be mine forever. And it gave me the tools to continue to develop it, even after I leave. I love it here!” she enthused.

abbi Yaakov and Mrs. Penina Lynn took their own teshuva journeys and the skills, education and opportunities that Hashem gave them and created a brand-new path in kiruv. “We really would like to be the address for public school girls who want to come and learn Torah in Israel for a year,” Rabbi Lynn concluded.

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Remembering Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, z”l By Michael Bettencourt

he Yeshiva University community mourns the loss of Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, z”l, the former president, rosh hayeshiva and chancellor of Yeshiva University. He was an elegant and articulate spokesman for Jewish life in modern times. His oratory, wisdom, and leadership inspired our institution for more than

three decades. A prolific author in the field of Jewish philosophy and law, a distinguished academician and a charismatic pulpit rabbi, Dr. Lamm had an extraordinary impact on the Jewish community. With a rare combination of penetrating scholarship and eloquence of expression, he presented a

view of contemporary Jewish life that spoke movingly to all. Rabbi Lamm was elected Yeshiva University’s third president in August 1976, succeeding Dr. Samuel Belkin (1943-1975) and Dr. Bernard Revel (1915-1940). He became the first native-born American to head the nation’s oldest and most comprehensive Jewish institution of higher learning. He served as president until June 2003, during which time he also became rosh hayeshiva of the affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). After retiring as president, he was elected chancellor,

educated thousands upon thousands of students who now serve as leaders of our community and pillars of our society. His enormous impact is simply incalculable in considering both the influence of his ideas as well as the number of alumni who graduated during his tenure from across our institution’s graduate, undergraduate and rabbinic programs.” He added, “As a visionary leader, sophisticated scholar, master orator and prolific writer, Rabbi Lamm left an indelible mark on Jewish history and was a central architect of the modern Jewish experience. For my

He presented a view of contemporary Jewish life that spoke movingly to all.

serving as both chancellor and rosh hayeshiva until July 2013, when he announced his retirement after being at Yeshiva University for more than 60 years. “Rabbi Lamm was the premier expositor of our community’s worldview,” said Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University. “His teachings and writings anchored modern life in Torah values and taught us how we can grow from the interchange of history’s great ideas. In his decades of leadership as our president, chancellor and rosh hayeshiva, he elevated Yeshiva University to new heights and

part, his loss is deeply personal, as he was a mentor and rebbe. He generously and lovingly gave me much of his precious time, sharing with me his Torah and wise counsel. Our community has lost a legend, and we mourn the passing of our teacher and guide.”

e was born in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, on December 19, 1927, to Pearl Baumol Lamm and Samuel Lamm. Dr. Lamm received his elementary and high school education at Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath. In 1945, he entered Yeshiva

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

A Personal Reflection By Stuart Verstandig

Dr. Lamm with Dr. Ari Berman, president of YU

College, where he majored in chemistry. Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 tested his skills in the laboratory when, as a student, he was asked to work on a secret munitions project for the struggling state. The project was headed by Dr. Ernst D. Bergmann, who later became head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. He graduated summa cum laude in 1949 and was class valedictorian. Upon graduation, Dr. Lamm pursued advanced scientific studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, while continuing his Judaic studies and rabbinic scholarship. At the urging of Dr. Belkin to choose the rabbinate rather than science as his career, he was ordained as a rabbi at RIETS in 1951 and earned a PhD in Jewish philosophy from the University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies in 1966. During the 17 years preceding his election as president, Dr. Lamm served on the Yeshiva University faculty, beginning in 1959 as an instructor in philosophy, culminating in his appointment as the Erna and Jakob Michael Professor of Jewish Philosophy in 1966. He also lectured at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, where he was a visiting professor of Judaic studies. A pulpit rabbi for 25 years, he served as the spiritual leader of The Jewish Center in Manhattan. Prior to that, he served as assistant rabbi of New York City’s Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and then as rabbi of Congregation Kodimoh in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Lamm gained wide recognition for his writings and discourses on the interpretation of Jewish philosophy and law, especially in relation to problems

involving science, law, technology and philosophy in the modern world. He authored 10 books, including his major work, Torah Lishmah (1972), about the Mitnaggedim, and The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary, which won the coveted 1999 National Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought. He also published many articles on Jewish law in many journals, one of which was cited in two separate landmark Supreme Court decisions on self-incrimination. Dr. Lamm edited or co-edited more than 20 volumes, including The Library of Jewish Law and Ethics. He was the founder and first editor of Tradition and associate editor of Hadarom, a journal of Jewish law; founder of the Torah U-Madda Journal; and founder of the Orthodox Forum. He was also active in many educational, religious and humanitarian endeavors, traveled extensively, served on many governmental commissions, and received numerous awards and honorary degrees. Dr. Lamm is survived by his children, Dr. Chaye Lamm (David) Warburg, Dr. Joshua (Rivkie) Lamm and Shalom (Tina) Lamm; son-in-law Rabbi Mark Dratch, husband of Sara Lamm Dratch, z”l, who passed away on February 28, 2013; and his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is survived by his sisters, Tzivia Sittner and Miriam Auslander, and was the brother of Rabbi Dr. Maurice Lamm, z”l. His wife, Mindella (Mindy) Lamm, z”l, passed away on April 16, 2020. This article was originally printed in YU News.

I met Dr. Lamm in Israel in the summer of 1977. Dr. Lamm was staying at the same hotel in Yerushalayim when my parents came to visit me during my year at BMT. At breakfast just a few tables away, Dr. Lamm was sitting reading The Jerusalem Post. I remember my father taken me to say hello to Dr. Lamm. In a short conversation, Rabbi Lamm asked me where I am studying/learning, and then Dr. Lamm invited me to attend Yeshiva University for college. I was not enrolled in Yeshiva University. Dr. Lamm’s warm personality and words encouraged me to put YU on my radar. I then continued my learning at BMT for another six months. During these months in Israel, I asked my parents to apply to YU. Upon my return in January 1978, I enrolled at YU. After graduating Yeshiva College, I enrolled in RIETS and FGS. I remember during the first year at RIETS, Dr. Lamm invited all first year semicha students to his apartment on Central Park West for a reception. I remember the warm welcome given to each first year semicha student. Upon completion of our rabbinical studies (in those days it was a threeyear program), Dr. Lamm invited each student to meet with him in his office. During my presidency of the Yeshiva College Alumni Association, I was honored to introduce Dr. Lamm three times. First, at a YU Alumni gathering, celebrating the publication of the two-volume set on The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik written by YU and RIETS alumna Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff; secondly, at the annual Revel Awards Ceremony honoring Dr. Lamm for his twenty-five years as president of Yeshiva University and presented him with a silver dreidel; and thirdly, coordinating and arranging a book reception in Belfer Hall in honor of Dr. Lamm’s publication in 2000. I invited Dr. Lamm to address YU alumni in honor of his publication of The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism. Thank you Dr. Lamm for inviting me to yeshiva. Thank you Dr. Lamm for expanding the work of Presidents Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel and Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin. Your contribution, your vision, had a major impact on my life. I will always be appreciative and remember of all that you have done by your total dedication and commitment to Yeshiva University and Am Yisrael. May your neshama have an Aliyah. May your teachings, writings, and recorded shiurim live on and continue to inspire all those that know you.

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Dating Dialogue

What Would You Do If… Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW of The Navidaters

Dear Navidaters,

I went out on four dates with someone last month. He was nice and a “perfect on paper” person but there was zero chemistry. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him in between dates, and I felt no chemistry. A few weeks went by since the last date, and he has been texting me and calling me, asking to go out with him again. He said that he was shy around me and it just takes him time to come out of his shell. He thinks I’d really like the “real him.”

I must say that I find his reaching out to me to be rather attractive and masculine. He seems like a different person than the guy I dated last month. I have done a little research and the feedback is that he is a very quiet and shy person. I guess my question is whether you think I should go out with him and give him another chance. I know that I have nothing to lose. I just don’t know if I can be with someone who is open and himself around me but shy and quiet in public. I’d appreciate any feedback – blunt, direct feedback. If I’m missing something or not seeing something, please tell me. Thank you! Amanda

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.

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The Panel The Rebbetzin

The Shadchan

Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S. manda, I will keep it blunt per your request. See him again and discover him for himself. Discover yourself at the same time. In other words, take the time to move through the process of dating, which is a journey of self-discovery. It’s not just a matter of ticking things off a list that you created in your mind a while back. It’s not about imagining the ideal guy with the same sense of humor, a great career, and a winsome personality and seeing if the young man and you have chemistry. It’s about drilling down into yourself and your own strengths, values, and priorities as you get to know many young men. While I am not sure that ultimately you will find a deep connection with the young man who called you back, I think it’s important for you to know that chemistry generally builds up over time. While you find the young man’s assertiveness manly, you are thinking in stereotypes which are neither mature nor healthy. It’s not about giving him a chance; it’s about giving yourself a chance to open yourself up to connection with others but focusing on the other person. Dating is not just about wondering if he is for me; it’s about really getting to know the other person, and quick dismissals of too quiet or no chemistry is not smart. You have gone out four times and that should be enough generally to see whether a connection is there. However, the fact that he took the lead and pursued you and was open tells you that he can allow himself to be vulnerable. He is honest and courageous – two very strong values. Question yourself then: are they not important values? Shouldn’t I get to know him better and see what else is there? Should I see what else is there? I think you have answered the question yourself already. Go out with him again and embark on a journey of discovery of him, yourself, and the building of connection.

Michelle Mond ou have been very honest with the panel and you ask for blunt feedback in return, which shows you are a truth seeker. I will not sugarcoat this. Sometimes the second time around is the charm. I know countless couples who broke up and things worked out a second or even third time around. He is pursuing you now, which seems to be very different than the way you dated the first time. As you mentioned in your letter, the first time around you felt no chemistry. This could have occurred due to insecurities on your part, wondering deep down whether he likes you. Perhaps he seemed very neutral on those first four dates, which left you uninterested. It could be he recognized his mistake and is upping his game, hence his sudden pursual. You certainly have nothing to lose by giving this another shot. As to whether or not you could handle a guy who is quiet in public? That is something for you to explore, not to nix. If you give this a second chance, try to go on some social distancing public outings. I say often that the shidduch system breeds a disposable mentality. People are way too quick to make decisions about prospects they met for merely a few hours. Try again and see what happens. Hatzlacha and keep us posted!

The Single Rena Friedman manda, stop running around and getting information about him from other people. Stop with the overthinking and waiting for him to chase you. Go on another date with this guy and sit with your feelings about him. I typically structure my responses in a specific way, but you have made a request and who am I to deny you of

that? Now that you have your blunt, direct feedback, let’s delve into how we got here. It sounds like you gave the relationship a fair shot by going on four dates with him when you felt no chemistry and were dreading the dates. However, it also seems like this new side of him that you are seeing gives you enough to believe that you may indeed be interested in getting to know him more. Well, the only way to get to know him more is by going on more dates with him. References can tell you a lot of things about guys that are either what they think you want to hear or just not true. Throw in the fact that everyone defines “a good ben Torah” and “someone who is serious but also chill” in a multitude of ways, and you have at best an overinflated description of the guy and at worst the

Take the time to move through the process of dating, which is a journey of self-discovery

description of a completely different person. Listen to the boy and, more importantly, watch what he does. He could be a shy person who needs time to warm up to new people or just doesn’t feel comfortable in large

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crowds. We have all been there. It is clear that he is showing you that he has some sort of gutsy side by calling and texting you after you rejected him. There is something about that masculinity which you find attractive. If you are willing to, give the man some time to show you other sides of his personality. Also, remember that the quietest of people tend to be the deepest and most profound. Your request for this type of feedback leads me to some insights into your personality. Be patient. Slow it down. Strengthen the muscles of working with people who are different from you. The guy you end up with may not be exactly like you. They say opposites attract for a reason. Lastly, enough with the chase. To be entirely

straight, you enjoy being pursued. Who doesn’t? It feels really good to be wanted and sought after. Life is not all about the romantic gestures and hot air balloons. Real life is full of those mundane days with loving family and friends who help you through it. You yourself say that you have nothing to lose. The only way to know if you are okay with dating someone who is open around you but shy and quiet in public is to continue dating him. Just him. Not his friend from yeshiva or his mother’s friend from shul. All feedback, thoughts, and ideas are welcome: renafriedman2@gmail. com.

Pulling It All Together

The Zaidy Dr. Jeffrey Galler manda, you seem to have two very real but very different concerns here. First, you just don’t feel any chemistry with this young man. Second, you worry about how the public would perceive him. First, everyone can remember meeting someone who, initially, seems very quiet, shy, and uninteresting. However, after getting to know the person a bit better, that same person can turn out to be a very profound and fascinating individual. As you have noted, you have absolutely “nothing to lose” by going out again and giving the young man another chance to thrill you. Second, for some young women, it seems important to have a boyfriend, and

The guy you end up with may not be exactly like you.

eventually a husband, who can impress others and help maintain or raise their own social standing. I am not being judgmental here. But, if this is important to you, then this young man is clearly not for you. Note that there is some truth to the old aphorism: a woman marries a man expecting that he will change, but he does not; a man marries a woman expecting that she will not change, but she does.

The Navidaters Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

ear Amanda, Let’s give this gentleman props! How refreshing and masculine, indeed! He feels as though he didn’t give off a proper impression and he’s asking for a second chance. My blunt feedback to you is that you should go out with him one more time and see him in this new light. Be in the moment. You don’t need to know

Have a question for the panel? They’re here to help you with your dating conundrums. Email your questions for the panelists to Jen at thenavidaters@gmail.com.

anything right now. How often do we get to say that, huh? First, see if you like him. Some women enjoy a husband who is out there, rubbing elbows and is the life of the party – a macher, if you will. Some enjoy being with a man who is slightly more subdued but enjoys being around others and who is comfortable working a room or just generally outgoing. If being quiet or shy publicly is a personal deal breaker, then that is your choice and comfort. No one lives your life other than you. You were born with intuition. When the time comes to know this answer, if you listen closely enough to yourself, you will know. Some general advice is to let go of

perceived expectations of what you know you will like or not like when it comes to personality. Sometimes that “perfect on paper” person is not perfect for you. Sometimes someone comes along who is nothing like the person we envisioned ourselves with and there lies a match made in heaven. But always (always, always) follow your intuition...after the next date. I help people follow their intuition, tune out the well-meaning noise, and be open to meeting the right person. Sometimes I get angry calls from loved ones of my clients thinking I am breaking up couples or encouraging “pickiness.” The opposite! The more people are encouraged to go against their intuition, the more problems people run into down the line. The more we encourage listening to our inner voice, the more we increase the likelihood of happily ever after. For every upset phone call of this nature

that I receive, I get handfuls more of “Jennifer, I’m engaged! I listened to myself, finally!!” Ultimately, even with all the advice in this column (mine included), I would still advise you to go with your gut. We need to start trusting ourselves a bit more. Sincerely, Jennifer Jennifer Mann, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist and 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 516-224-7779, ext. 2. Visit www.thenavidaters.com for more information. If you would like to submit a dating or relationship question to the panel anonymously, please email thenavidaters@gmail.com. You can follow The Navidaters on FB and Instagram for dating and relationship advice.

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TIPS FROM A HOME SCHOOLING MOM PART V: YOUR PRESCHOOLER BY SARA RAYVYCH, MSED

s a professional educator I’ve been fortunate to see students at various stages of learning, but as a homeschooler I’ve been privileged to be with my children from the very start. Our community is blessed to have very talented and hardworking morahs for our preschoolers. Even so, virtual learning can be an extra challenge for our youngest students – more so than older students. Because of this, many parents will feel the need to play a greater role in their preschooler’s learning. I will confess; as a homeschooling mom, I do little, if any, formal education at the preschool age. This doesn’t at all mean my little ones aren’t learning. I make my home into a “rich learning environment.” Kids, as you know, are like little sponges. What they hear you say today is what you’ll hear them repeat tomorrow (for good and bad). Adults underestimate just how much kids learn from play and experience. As a parent, you can set up your home to be a natural learning environment for your child. Providing hands-on toys such as blocks, crayons, dolls

(for both genders), and kitchen and pretend play items can create an environment that will give your child many of those crucial pre-learning skills. Put on music, stories or an audiobook, even if it’s just on as background noise. Children learn from observation, especially watching their parents. If you’re cooking in the kitchen, hand them a bowl and spoon to mix their pretend cookies. If you’re cleaning, hand them a broom. Preschoolers are busy learning many of the skills that will prepare them for the bigger kid subjects they will encounter when they get older. These crucial beginner skills set the stage for more mature learning.

PRE-READING AND KRIAH SKILLS Books are amazing, and kids of all ages love books. Read to your child, and let them “read” picture books to themselves and let them see how much you enjoy reading books or periodicals. This early love of reading

can become a gift of lifelong learning. When you read to a child, they begin to make the connection between letters and words and that words have meaning. Pointing to words as you read them out loud makes this connection even clearer. Many curious little ones will even ask about the letters, their sounds, and what the words mean. Many children’s books contain repetitive words or phrases, and children enjoy being able to join in and “read along.” Point to pictures as you go along and ask basic questions to help with comprehension. The questions don’t need to be complicated; you want them to enjoy and follow along, not get stressed. Many songs and books contain rhymes and playful sounds. Kids benefit from learning how to hear the sounds in isolation and pick up on the different sounds within a word. In order to read, children need to not only hear a word but recognize the distinct sounds made by each letter. Games that revolve around rhymes and sounds further encourage this skill. The sillier it is, the more they’ll enjoy it.

Singing the alef bais or ABCs gives the child familiarity with the names of the letters. Many songs that are readily available online give playful ways to sing the alphabet and teach the letters’ sounds. You can sing as you cook, sing when you’re stressed or whenever; it doesn’t need to be a formal lesson. If they can hear it, then they’re absorbing it. Many puzzles, magnets, games, cookie cutters, coloring sheets and other toys or household items come in letter shapes that kids enjoy.

PRE-MATH SKILLS

Math is everywhere and shouldn’t cause the fear that it does. It’s one of the subjects parents are most afraid to teach, yet is naturally in your home environment. Especially at the preschool age, math should be hands-on. Children need to see it and touch it in order to learn it. Many pre-math skills are easily taught in the home such as shapes, patterns, matching and counting. Count out loud with your children whenever it comes up and let them see you point

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to each item as you count. Sorting teaches children to differentiate based on different criteria. Folding laundry and putting away groceries and toys all teach kids to separate and sort items based on size, function, or purpose. Talk out loud as you go so they learn why things are being grouped together; socks by color and size, fruits with fruits or Legos separate from dolls. Cooking is math in action. Whether it’s figuring out how many eggs you need or counting cups of flour, math is involved. Simply thinking out loud such like, “I have two eggs but I need three. How many more do I need?” is an opportunity to teach. These are just some of the ways you can foster pre-math skills in preschoolers.

PRE-WRITING SKILLS

Children naturally enjoy coloring, and it’s a great way to encourage pre-writing skills. Crayons, markers, paints, and chalk are all tools a child can use to create their own masterpieces.

Besides being a helpful way for children to express themselves emotionally, coloring and doodling encourages many of the skills they will later need when writing. Lines, zigzags and circles are some of the basic shapes

or opened paper/plastic bags to make clean-up easier. Different colored paper adds variety. Your child may enjoy showing off their artwork, and it makes a great gift for grandparents or loved ones.

AS A PARENT, YOU CAN SET UP YOUR HOME TO BE A NATURAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUR CHILD

they will eventually use to form letters and numbers. Playdoh and blocks are examples of toys that help build fine motor skills. Make sure that all supplies are washable and non-toxic as crayons look surprisingly tasty to toddlers, and walls appear as the perfect blank canvas to a little one. Before putting out paints or other messy items, put down a disposable plastic tablecloth

LIMUDEI KODESH The frum household is a natural learning environment for teaching children about our beliefs and customs. Parsha and Jewish-themed books and stories are readily available as are coloring sheets (aish.com and chabad.org are two sites that have

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coloring sheets). The Shabbos table is a perfect opportunity to give over a little parsha, it doesn’t need to be too long. Daven and bentch out loud so your kids hear. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much limudei kodesh was covered in the kitchen. Parsha- and yom tov-themed desserts are so much fun. For years, making Har Sinai cake has been a highlight of our Shavuos celebrations and the kids remember so much from the project. I know parents are busy, stressed, and overwhelmed now. I don’t expect parents to do everything on this list. Look at the basic things you are already doing and try to find the learning inherent in them. Talk to your children and involve them in your everyday tasks whenever possible. They will easily absorb the learning and love much more than you anticipate. 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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Dr. Deb

Navigating a Restricted Life By Deb Hirschhorn, Ph.D.

here have, actually, been some amazingly good outcomes from this corona thing. Someone threw away his cigarettes so he would be better able to make use of a ventilator should he need one. That’s cool. My neighbors don’t fail to ask if I need anything or to just chat. There’s a lot of love that has been shown

throughout this ordeal. But the best story came out of the news. Since Jews, especially in Crown Heights, were the hardest hit by this, according to “public health data,” there was a literal flood of volunteer blood plasma donations from the Jewish American world to help hospitalized individuals who simply couldn’t pull through without that assist. Accord-

ing to CBS News, tens of thousands of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews came forward to donate blood. This is the largest use of plasma transfusions to date in the world. What an incredible kiddush Hashem. There’ve also been positive changes in the way we do things that, perhaps, are for the good. For example, I’ve been seeing people around the country and overseas for 20 years, although back in the “old” days it was just by old-fashioned phone. The thing is that the fields of therapy didn’t know what to do with this concept. Over the last decade, many people would write articles in the professional magazines about how useful such a practice is, for example, to people in rural places, or they would make other positive points about tele-health, but the field seems to be kind of clunky and wasn’t able to wrap its collective head around such things. Well, those days are past. Even my recent issue of the AAMFT (American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy) magazine noted that we’re now taking this telehealth thing for granted – and it’s a good thing. The same thing happened with the even more entrenched medical field. Thank G-d for that. I have been able to do doctor visits by computer, and it saves hours of travel time and parking when you don’t have to go into the City. I imagine many businesses will be far more relaxed about working from home going forward, too. Zoom certainly made out well. I used to use it myself, but no one knew what app I was talking about. Now it’s a household word. Using this great method of communicating has been a most pleasant part of the whole pic-

ture. In spite of all that, we wish this problem weren’t here. It has completely put a stop to so many pleasurable activities, and it has come between family members, dividing and separating them. I’m an example of that, unfortunately. So I wanted to explore with you how to navigate that piece. Just to lay the groundwork, I heard an interesting lecture recently. The guy was and is a public speaker and he was talking about mindset having a much bigger impact on how we feel than other things that we think weigh heavier on us than they actually do. He gave the following example: he said that he used to be very annoyed and insulted when he was publicly speaking and someone would interrupt him. It’s rude, it’s a distraction, it’s whatever terrible things. Then he decided that having that mindset wasn’t helpful. You hear this? He decided what his mindset should be based on how useful to him it was. So, he asked himself, what if I told myself that being interrupted was a good thing? A great thing? Why? Well, because if I am just up on stage doing a monologue, then I’m talking to myself, pretty much. I can get disconnected from my audience. But if you interrupt me with a question or a comment, then it forces me to be present, to hear you. He decided that interruptions would, from that moment on, be amazing experiences and opportunities to connect in a real way with the people he was talking to. That’s sort of like the decision to throw away your cigarettes, isn’t it?

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

They go from good to bad. Here, the interruptions go from bad to good. They’re all decisions. This brings me to the point here: how can we make what has seemed bad – being stuck at home – good? How can we think of it differently so that it comes out well? I interviewed some people just to get a diversity of opinions. Grandchild #1, age 7 – “Oh, school is over at 3:30 and then we get to go outside and ride our bikes till 7. I used to think bike riding would be boring and I didn’t want to learn. But I learned and it’s so much fun!” Grandchild #2, age 5 – “There’s nothing good about the corona virus.” Me – “Well, is there anything good about being home so much?” Grandchild #2 (with a big smile) – “Yeah, I really have to get along with my brothers and sisters.” Neighbor – “Initially, the first weeks were really hard. I thought: ‘Sunday is hard to get through with these little kids. How will I get through two weeks of Sundays?’ But it taught me to stretch muscles I didn’t know I had. I’m actually enjoying it. It’s true, I can’t minimize the pain that other

people have gone through who lost someone, but for me it is wonderful for family to be together like this, deepening family connections. I’ve had more quality time with the kids. Like, for example, one of my kids needed OT. But with me, I’m working with him on coloring and I see his grasp has gotten

efficient use of time.” Son #2 – “I’ve enjoyed the time with the kids.” This particular son never got time to sleep because he was watching the home-schooling all day, starting with exercise class in the morning! He would get to work remotely when his

How can we make what has seemed bad – being stuck at home – good?

better. And my baby – I get to nurse her and put her down instead of pumping. Or, usually I never have enough time to walk with the kids. Now I do. Kids at this age are meant to be home. And the good part is that I am still able to work from home.” Son #1 (who is an attorney) – “I used to find it totally unnecessary to always have to go to court just to get questions answered or to answer questions by the court. It took a lot of time. Now, working remotely is a far more

wife came home from work as a nurse and would take over the child supervision. I know it wasn’t easy for him. His most frequent answer to “How are you?” is “Tired.” Friend – One of my friends is also a widow and she thought it was so nice that people are checking in on her more than usual, either just to check or to see if she needs anything from the store. After all, we are alone the rest of the time, too, but now this virus has brought a lot of warmth out in peo-

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ple. It’s warmth we would appreciate any old time. I took the liberty of asking Shoshana Soroka, the editor of this paper, if she could see anything good in the business during this time, given that so many advertisers have not been in a position to advertise during this corona siege. She pointed out that because there was less work to do for some people at the paper, staff are able to put more effort into projects that had been pushed off previously. Now, when things are back to normal, “it will be wonderful” to have these projects “ready to go.” And that’s from someone who most likely has lost revenue during this time. If Hashem is tov and does tov, then there’s got to be good we can find, somehow, in this mess. But seeing it and choosing to act on it is a decision.

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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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Health & F tness

Super Healthy Seeds By Aliza Beer MS, RD, CDN

eeds contain all the starting materials necessary to develop into complex plants. Because of this, they are very nutritious. Seeds are great sources of fiber. They also contain healthy monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and many important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. When regularly consumed as part of a healthy diet, they have been shown to help reduce blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Let’s talk about some of the healthiest seeds and why you should start including them in your diet.

FLAXSEEDS: Flaxseeds are also known as linseeds and are a great source of fiber and omega-3 fats. However, the omega-3 fats are contained within the fibrous outer shell of the seed, which humans can’t digest easily. Therefore, if you want to increase your omega-3 levels, it’s best to eat flaxseeds that have been ground. Flaxseeds contain an important antioxidant called lignans, which help reduce cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease. One

large study found that consuming flaxseeds reduced levels of LDL, aka the “bad” cholesterol. Analysis of 11 studies found that flaxseeds may also help reduce blood pressure when eaten every day for 12 weeks. A couple of studies have shown that eating flaxseeds may reduce markers of tumor growth in women with breast cancer and may also reduce cancer risk. This may be due to the lignans, which are phytoestrogens and are similar to the female hormone estrogen. Additionally, similar benefits have been shown regarding prostate cancer. Sprinkle some ground flaxseeds into your yogurt, oatmeal, or smoothies for added flavor and wonderful health benefits.

EPA and DHA, which are the omega-3 fats found in oily fish. Additionally, some studies found that whole and ground chia seeds are equally effective for reducing blood sugar immediately after a meal. Another study found that chia seeds may reduce appetite, thereby promoting weight loss. A study of 20 people with type 2 diabetes found that eating 37 grams of chia seeds per day for 12 weeks reduced blood pressure and levels of several inflammatory chemicals. Consume chia seeds in the same way as flaxseeds, or make balls with flaxseeds, oats, unsweetened chocolate chips and pb2 peanut butter, and freeze them.

CHIA SEEDS:

Hemp seeds are an excellent source of vegan protein. They contain more than 30% protein and are one of the few plants that are complete protein sources, meaning they contain all the essential amino acids that your body can’t make. Most plant-based protein sources contain incomplete proteins, such as chickpeas and legumes. Studies have also shown that the protein

Chia seeds are very similar to flaxseeds in that they are also a good source of fiber and omega-3 fats. A number of studies have shown that eating chia seeds can increase ALA in the blood. ALA is an important omega-3 fatty acid that can help reduce inflammation. Your body can convert ALA into other omega-3 fats, such as

HEMP SEEDS:

quality of hemp seeds is better than most other plant protein sources. Hemp has much less fiber than flaxseeds and chia seeds, but does contain what is considered a very good ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats. Hemp seeds also contain gamma-linoleic acid, an important anti-inflammatory acid. The anti-inflammatory action of hemp seed oil may also help improve symptoms of eczema. One study found that people with eczema experienced less skin dryness and itchiness after taking hemp seed oil supplements for 20 weeks. They also on average used less skin medication. Don’t take hemp seed oil supplements, or for that matter any kind of supplements, without first discussing it with your primary care physician.

SESAME SEEDS: These are commonly consumed as a topping or in a paste called tahini or techina. Like flaxseeds, sesame seeds contain a lot of lignans, particularly one called sesamin. In fact, sesame seeds are the best-known dietary source of lignans. Some studies have shown that the sesamin may get con-

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verted by the bacteria in the gut into another type of lignin called enterolactone. Enterolactone behaves similarly to estrogen – lower than normal levels of this hormone have been associated with heart disease and breast cancer. Another study found that postmenopausal women who ate 50 grams of sesame seed powder for 5 weeks had significantly lower blood cholesterol. Sesame seeds may also help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress. One study showed that people with knee osteoarthritis had significantly fewer inflammatory chemicals in their blood after eating about 40 grams of sesame seed powder every day for two months. Another recent study found that after eating about 40 grams of sesame seed powder per day for 28 days, semi-professional athletes had significantly reduced muscle damage and oxidative stress, as well as increased aerobic capacity. I sprinkle them over my eggs, chicken and fish for extra crunch, taste, and nutrients. Tahini also makes a great salad dressing!

PUMPKIN SEEDS: These are good sources of phosphorus, monounsaturated fats, and

omega-6 fats. Pumpkin seeds are also very good sources of phytosterols, which are plant compounds that may help lower blood cholesterol. One observational study of more than 8,000 people found that those who had higher intake of pumpkin seeds had a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer. Another study in children found that pumpkin seeds may help lower the risk of bladder stones by reducing the amount of calcium in urine. Other studies have shown pumpkin seed oil can improve symptoms of prostate and urinary disorders. These studies also showed that pumpkin seed oil may reduce symptoms of overactive bladder and improve quality of life for men with enlarged prostates. Pumpkin seeds are great as a topping for any salad, but are especially delicious when roasted. Toss them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and roast at 300°F for 30-40 minutes.

BASIL SEEDS: The latest, and quite possibly the greatest, basil seeds are also called sabja, falooda, or turkmaria seeds. The basil plant is native to India, and

these seeds are commonly found in many Indian households, but have only recently become popular here in the U.S. They look very similar to chia seeds, but have more fiber than chia seeds, particularly soluble fiber like pectin. Just one tablespoon of basil seeds has 7 grams of fiber. Test-tube studies suggest that pectin has prebiotic benefits, meaning it may nourish and increase beneficial gut bacteria, like anti-inflammatory bacteria that support gut health. Pectin may also help with weight loss by making you feel full. It delays stomach emptying and increases hormone levels that promote a sense of fullness. One study showed that when people with type 2 diabetes ate ¾ of a tablespoon of basil seeds in water after each meal for a month, their post-meal blood sugar was lower by 17% than at the start of the study. Pectin may also help lower blood cholesterol by inhibiting cholesterol absorption in the gut. Another study showed that basil seed extract killed harmful bacteria and helped trigger the death of cancer cells. Because basil seeds are so fibrous, they make excellent food thickeners. They’re great in salad dressings, yogurt, ice cream, smoothies, puddings,

and soups. You can’t eat basil seeds raw but have to soak them first in water. Strain the soaked basil seeds and add them to your recipe. If your recipe contains a lot of liquid, such as soup or a smoothie, then pre-soaking is not necessary. Seeds are a healthy and delicious way to add more nutritional value to your diet. They are all great sources of antioxidants, fiber, vegan protein, omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Furthermore, they can help reduce the risk of many diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. They are easily added to almost any kind of food, from yogurt to oatmeal to salads, and even baked goods. A little goes a long way, and you can derive enormous benefits from even just one tablespoon a day. So stock up your pantry and sprinkle away! Aliza Beer is a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition. She has a private practice in Cedarhurst, NY. Patients’ success has been featured on the Dr. Oz show. Aliza can be reached at alizabeer@gmail.com, and you can follow her on Instagram at @alizabeer

TIME TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT ESTATE PLANNING AND ELDER LAW

‫בס״ד‬

We are here to serve you. Amid these turbulent and uncertain times, Monet Binder Law, PC is committed to being flexible and accommodating, when working with our clients and prospective clients. During this time of concern, with travel restrictions and social distancing, we want you to know that virtual meetings are available. Web conferencing meetings enable us to connect, review your unique circumstances and evaluate your needs, all from the comfort of your home or office, without delaying your planning objectives. Further, we are available to conduct phone or other safe meetings. Your safety and peace of mind is our top priority. We wish you and your loved ones good health and well-being. If you have any questions regarding Estate Planning, Elder Law, Medicaid Planning, Special Needs Planning, or Probate, do not hesitate to reach out to us. Serving Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island

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All halachic documents are under the supervision of the Bais HaVaad in Lakewood.

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JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Health & F tness

Summer Camp 2020 By Hylton I. Lightman, MD, DCH (SA), FAAP

“D

r. Lightman, will there be camp this summer?” This question rolls off every parent’s tongue nowadays, together with a look of longing that rivals that for a rebuilt Jerusalem replete with the Beis HaMikdash functioning at full capacity. I sure hope that summer camp happens. This important tool for lifelong growth could possibly happen this summer if we are creative.

Why is summer camp important? Many of us have experienced loads of family time the last almost three months. It’s great. It’s fabulous. It’s beautiful. And, honestly speaking, we need a break. Our children need a change, and, please G-d, camp will provide that change. For generations of children, summer means unlimited free time to play, explore and make memories that can last for a lifetime. It’s about learning to swim, play tennis, doing arts-andcrafts that can lead to hobbies, Jewish learning – and so much more. In other words, camp allows for a deep dive into new skills and reviewing in a nonthreatening atmosphere. The benefits can have a ripple effect that can help learning throughout the year. Under the guidance of skilled instructors and talented artists and separated from the competitive environment called school, children can discover and develop new skills that may well prove beneficial into adulthood. As long as the camp provides a positive and nurturing environment, children can figure out who they are, manage their daily chores, and discover new skills that can shape their identity. Once a person tastes success, he will want more success. The only failure in camp is missing the opportunity to try new things.

In addition to the “skills” stimulation and exploration, camp can provide physical activity that is typically lacking for our children during the school year. It entails unplugging from technology: our children, due to Covid-19 circumstances much larger than them and us, have practically overdosed on technology the last several months. Children who are disconnected from their smartphones, tablets and computers can focus on their creative talents, engage with other children and explore the outdoors. Summer camp offers a structured opportunity for children to grow. This venue for growth allows children to become independent and self-confident by gaining proficiency and prowess while socializing and making new friends. Regarding the social component, many children are labelled during the school year – “studious,” “rambunctious,” to cite but a few examples. Once labelled, it is hard for the school and the child and his peers to move past that label. The camp set-

ting should be a nonjudgmental one (as should school, for that matter). Because children in camp can make new friends, thereby moving beyond the same group of peers (which tends to reinforce the labelling), they are given the opportunity to break out of the categorizations, spread their wings and fly. Camp allows kids to get out and into an environment filled with people who see what is in front of them, rather than what they have been trained to see through years of false reinforcement. Not enough can be said about the benefits of removing a person from a familiar environment (which has become hum-drum for so many), which means getting them out of their comfort zones and expanding their boundaries. They take risks with their new skills without the looming fear of failure and repercussions. Camp then reinforces independence and empowerment. Nothing brings out and tests children’s independence than giving them time away from Mommy and Abba.

Without our ubiquitous presence, children can learn to bring tasks to completion. They can begin to understand the thought that goes into a good decision and then learn more about themselves in the process. They can learn from other adults and from peers. When children are away from home, they tend to grow in appreciating their Imma and Daddy, belongings, and homemade chicken for Shabbos. Warning: the appreciation is not permanent. At best, it’s ephemeral. But it is there, and it will grow over time. As a result, this amalgam called camp builds resilience. New (or renewed) friendships, confidence, independence, and sense of belonging only enhance a child’s development. It helps them to grow from a kid into a strong, competent adult.

So how can we make camp happen this summer? Unbelievably, overnight camp might be simpler to bring into reality

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than day camp. Why? Because overnight camp can be a self-contained happening. With tremendous planning, the camp can be sequestered from everyone but staff and campers. Possibly all staff and campers should have a Covid nose swab test well as an antibodies test prior to arriving in camp. Although no one knows what having or not having antibodies means (or does not mean), at least a baseline has been established. Overseas staff must arrive two weeks in advance and quarantine. In addition, both staff and campers must have health forms with physical exams dated within the last 12 months together with vaccines. The flu vaccine must be required. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urge people to have flu vaccines through June 30, 2020. It is one of the first lines of defense during this pandemic. When campers board buses for camp, temperatures must be taken. Temperatures should be taken again upon arriving in camp. Once on camp grounds, no staff or campers can go off grounds and re-enter. This means finding roles for the swimming staff during the Nine Days. Medical staff would have to stay put. Of course, camps must have bona fide plans to handle Covid, should it rear its ugly head in camp. One more thing – no nosh packages. This is step 1. Step 2: no Visiting Day. Period. Visiting Day = germ potential. Let’s wipe out the potential proactively by not having Visiting Day. I’ve never understood the concept of Visiting Day. When I was a doctor at Camps Bnos and Agudah, it was one of the worse days of the summer. Parents schlepped from wherever and kids were miserable, nagging for trips off grounds to shop for what they already had. How about parents chartering buses to bring their kids home Visiting Day? Doesn’t that defeat trying to foster independence and resilience in our children? The goodbyes at the end of Visiting Day – the drama. The tears. It was (almost) like how Tisha B’Av should be. As a father, I experienced those dreadful goodbyes in several camps. My wife and I still chuckle about the “To the worse parents in the world because

you didn’t bring me home at the end of Visiting Day” letters we received. Visiting Day does not benefit kids nor does it help parents. Visiting Day helps the local eateries (and they work hard for parnassa). If camps open, perhaps they can order lunch or dinner from the local eateries as a treat for what would otherwise be the dreaded Visiting Day. Step 3 has to do with programming. In my opinion, camps should go “back-to-basics.” The basics include food and shelter together with physical activity and loads of teamwork. Based on the ages of bunks, camps

learning practical and relevant. Academic studies have demonstrated that most children learn something better when it is relevant to them. I am picturing the math that would be done by junior high school girls together with the camp’s hanhala to determine how much food items to order in order to feed the camp. I am not a complete ogre. Bring in one night per trip one of the wellknown singers/entertainers with their entourage. Just keep them separate from campers. Nearly forty years ago, I met the

Difficult times – and no one will argue that we are in difficult times – create opportunities.

should empower kids. One week, put a bunk in charge of food inventory, while another inventories crafts supplies, while another is in charge of peeling vegetables, while another takes on learning an art project or two and then teaching it to other bunks. Get outdoors. Hike. Explore nature. Put on the rain boots and get out there to see the beautiful world that our L-rd has created for our children and all others to learn, explore and enjoy. Make beds. Clean bunk houses (in addition to doing so on Erev Shabbos). Get in the kitchen and learn how to cook and bake. Of course, everything should be age appropriate. Summer camp this year might be used to help stem the “Coronavirus slide.” Readers have heard about “summer learning loss,” a time when achievement in areas like reading and math decline over the summer months. The declines tend to be steeper for math than for reading and the extent (proportionally) of loss increases in the upper grades. Educators are concerned about Coronavirus slide combined with summer learning loss this year. Studies show that the summer slide can result in 2-3 months of learning, while other studies show declines of no more than one month. Camps could make some of this

late Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald, a”h, when he had traveled to South Africa on business. He invited me to the United States to be a camp doctor in Camp Sternberg. I came but was unable to work as I did not have American malpractice insurance. Under his tutelage, Camp Sternberg, which then was a federation owned and operated camp, was open to girls of all socioeconomic backgrounds. The tuition was within financial reach of most families, thereby creating a blend of girls from different backgrounds. Camp Sternberg personified “barebones.” The bunk houses were what we’d call “dumps.” Toilets flushed yet barely. Showers had running water but not much more. Every morning (other than Shabbos), girls woke up, exercised old-fashioned calisthenics, davened, and only then did they eat breakfast because they had “earned” it. Sternberg food was basic, wholesome and not fancy. I cannot imagine they were offered too many choices at meals. The day’s program was filled with Jewish learning, art programming, and lots of physical activity. Rain boots or galoshes were put on, and off the girls went hiking through rivers and G-d knows what else, learning

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about nature and the wonders of the outdoors. Other than hikes, there were few trips off grounds. Evenings and Shabbos were filled with singing and dancing and plays put on for the girls by the girls. And there was no canteen! In other words, no junk food! It is no wonder why, in the words of a Sternberg alumna who thrived during her years there, she left home “chubby” and, between the physical activity and healthful eating (with the Shabbos cake as a treat), she returned home slimmed down, happy as could be, her creative juices flowing and brimming over. Difficult times – and no one will argue that we are in difficult times – create opportunities. Summer 2020 could be our opportunity to shift our society onto a more wholesome, healthy plan. Making day camp happen does not appear to be as “easily” attainable, although as I pen these lines there are rumblings that Governor Cuomo might allow the opening of day camps for June 29. This would be fabulous. Kids need camp, and their parents need kids in camp even more. I implore that, if day camps open, there are plans to assure children’s health. We know that we can take every precaution, and things can still happen. I am not prepared at this time to tell people to live “as usual” (meaning pre-Covid), and let the chips fall where they may. That responsibility is too huge. Yet I also realize a properly planned and well-run camp that has health policies that are clearly stated and carried out consistently is better than kids and parents be program-less the entire summer. Beyond the summer is the school year. I sincerely hope we can return to some sense of normalcy on that front. Allow me to take this opportunity to emphasize that, by no means, are we done with Covid. As a community, we need to begin preparing now for the flu season and, G-d forbid, a Covid resurge. As always, daven.

Dr. Hylton I. Lightman is a pediatrician and Medical Director of Total Family Care of the 5 Towns and Rockaway PC. He can be reached at drlightman@totalfamilycaremd.com, on Instagram at Dr.Lightman_ or visit him on Facebook.

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JUNE 4, 2020 The |Jewish HomeHome OCTOBER 29, |2015 The Jewish

essica Tsur is not just the founder of Levli Gemach in Bayswater, NY. She also has given voice to an invisible disease that many in our community struggle with.

Mrs. Tsur, you are the founder of the Levli Gemach. Levli is a clothing gemach that provides new and gently used clothing for children and women. We have the unique ability to give stores and manufacturers a full tax-receipt for whatever they donate to us, which gives us the ability to access a high volume of new, good quality clothing. We are particular about what is kept in the gemach, so that families who come can shop with pride and dignity. Our customers are hard-working families doing their very best to provide for their families and struggling at the same time. Levli tries to take a small burden off their shoulders. No one is embarrassed to come. In fact, so many tell me they look forward to our gemach events as they get beautiful merchandise and an opportunity to connect with others in similar situations. We sell items at rock bottom prices from fifty cents to just six dollars, and all proceeds go towards our camp scholarship fund.

What is really unique about Levli is that it’s a triple win! Stores and manufacturers get a tax receipt while helping others and we accomplish two mitzvos – clothing families and helping send kids to camp. How long ago did you start Levli, and what made you start it? I started Levli during Hurricane Sandy. Our community was hit hard, and many families lost all their belongings. But there are no other people like the Jewish people. From near and far, people were sending clothes to families in need. These clothes needed a home. We all had jobs during this time, and this was the job I took upon myself. I quickly learned that this need wasn’t exclusive to Sandy; there were so many families that needed this yearround! I began to brainstorm how to bring in new merchandise and expand the gemach’s services. We are so grateful to the Bayswater Neighbors Fund for allowing

us to write tax receipts under their organization. This has allowed us to get beautiful, in-style merchandise for our families. It brings such joy and glowing smiles to so many faces. That is quite remarkable, to take a one-time crisis and turn it into a full time chessed! How did Levli get involved in summer camp scholarships? We are a hard-working family that struggles financially. I run an at-home day care and summer camp. One summer, a parent of a camper of mine asked why my own children, not age appropriate for my camp, were with me. I explained that camp simply wasn’t in the budget. This mother went above and beyond, and the next day told me my kids were enrolled in day camp for the remainder of the summer! That’s when it hit me. What do parents who don’t work from home do? Their children need to be in a safe and healthy environment! We all know how important camp is for all children and families!

This is when phase two of Levli began. With the proceeds of the clothing and a little side fundraising we are able to offer small camp scholarships to dozens of families. Baruch Hashem, in the last five years, we’ve been able to give over 150 summer camp scholarships! Our mantra is “dress in style, give a smile.” How has running the gemach affected your family? I think everything we add to our plate puts a strain in our family but it also adds a great deal of value to our family’s internal makeup. There are times when my children need to wait for my attention as I’m busy with the gemach. The gemach was in my living room/playroom for a few years and took up some of their playing space but they also got the joy of seeing how many people benefited from this chessed. Now, my five children are constantly asking, “Are we having gemach hours today?” They are active participants in counting and sorting and greeting people by

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the door. The gemach has become a part of their lives and has been an incredible opportunity to teach them the importance of chessed and helping others. What is your greatest dream for Levli? Of course, we all have dreams. My aspirations for Levli would be to have a larger space with enough new merchandise and a range of sizes for every family who walks through our doors. Ideally, I would love to have it opened a few hours a day so individuals can come at times that work for them. We will get there. Hashem has guided us in the right direction, and I’m confident He will continue to support us so that we can grow and meet the needs of the community. You’re an incredible success, a mother of five, dedicated wife, active community member, and a person who helps thousands of people each year on a level that is matched by very few in our community, and yet there is a dark side to your story, a struggle that you courageously share in the hope of helping others, and that is in the area of mental health. I have always struggled with clinical anxiety, ever since I was very young. Only now, with the help of therapy, am I able to recognize that so much of my childhood struggles were due to the disease of anxiety – difficulty in social settings, absolute inability to eat in public, constant fears of illness and dying just to name a few. Despite these struggles I managed to persevere and overcame many obstacles. Three years ago, I had a mental health “crash.” An event in my life

Jessica with her therapist doing “exposure” to panic and social anxiety, running a 5K in the July heat

seemed to trigger a downfall. I had no appetite and lost incredible amounts of weight. I developed a panic disorder and Hatzalah was on speed dial as I constantly thought I was having a heart attack. I began to avoid everything and everyone – shopping, carpools, friends, etc. I shut down and became severely depressed. I began engaging in harmful coping behaviors and had very intense thoughts of causing permanent damage. My emotional pain became almost unbearable. I knew if I wanted to get out of this gehenom I needed to speak up and ask for help. That I did, and because of an incredible and selfless community member, funds were raised for me to enroll in a proper

about it. Many people reading this are likely incredulous. They understand intellectually that depression and anxiety is a serious crisis in our community, but they expect to see it in people who are not achieving their goals, who are not living successful lives. But you are living an extraordinarily successful life, yet you still suffer from depression and anxiety! The first thing we need to understand is that mental health challenges are a disease just like cancer. It doesn’t care how successful you are; it doesn’t care how old you are;

No one should feel guilty or ashamed if they are struggling with mental illness.

DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) program. The treatment was costly and time-consuming, but it saved my life. That is why I decided to speak up. The silence MUST be broken. There are too many people in our community suffering in silence, and we cannot help them if we aren’t willing to talk

it doesn’t care what gender you are. A certain percentage of people suffer from cancer and a certain percentage of people suffer from mental health challenges. No one blames anyone for getting thyroid cancer, and no one should feel guilty or ashamed if they are struggling with mental

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illness. And just as our community raises enormous sums of money to help people struggling with cancer, recognizing what a life-threatening disease it is, we should be raising similar amounts, if not more, to help people struggling with mental health challenges, as it is truly a life-threating disease as well. Cancer is usually invisible to most people until it reaches a truly dangerous state. Many people are unfortunately not diagnosed until their cancer is Stage IV. Mental health challenges are also usually invisible until they reach a critical state. People appear to be functioning, successful on the outside, and yet internally they are drowning and may even be losing their will to keep going. It is so important that we talk about our struggles and stop hiding them, so that we can beat mental illness before it metastasizes. We have to take off our masks and get real. There is treatment available and skills can be learned to live with this often-debilitating illness. We have to remember this is a disease and is not in our control! We need to empower the sufferers with strength. Reaching out for help is NOT a weakness. It is the strongest thing you can do for you and your loved ones. Thank you so much for being so candid about your journey, and courageously pulling the veil of secrecy off of mental health challenges. How can we be more aware of what others around us are feeling? How can we make sure we don’t pass by people struggling without recognizing their silent scream? The most obvious signs to look for are when people stop interacting

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socially and start withdrawing themselves, not showing up to work, and spending a lot of time in bed. It is rarely laziness; it is usually a mental health challenge. They may also exhibit increased irritability, decreased appetite or increased appetite, or frequent crying. People suffering from anxiety may have a marked restlessness, pacing, and difficulty sleeping which can lead to other symptoms like impatience or hallucinations. Anxiety is often felt in the belly, so there are many somatic symptoms like stomachaches, nausea and indigestion. Whenever these symptom present in a dilute form, people tend to tell people to “just get over it!” but that only exacerbates the problem. You can’t tell people to get over cancer, and the earlier you detect it and start treatment, the more likely you are to succeed. Most importantly, make sure you ask the people close to you how they are doing and truly mean it! Don’t just

ask it in passing, as a prelude to your next question. Ask it with sincerity and listen carefully to the answers, and you will likely start to hear a lot more than you’ve heard in the past. Thank you so much for clarifying it for us. Even being a social worker myself, I find myself at times blind to the reality you describe, and I am grateful to you for being willing to come out and talk openly about it – we all are better for it. Now that you have begun speaking about the mental health realities that most of us miss, what would you like to build to address this? My new endeavor is called S.O.S., Stomp On Stigma. Through my struggles I have searched for an organization that is solely dedicated to offering services to those struggling with mental illness. It does not exist, at least not in the Jewish communal world. When I was at my darkest

points, there were so many services that could have benefited me and my family – homecooked meals when all I had energy to feed my children was cereal and milk, chessed girls to help with homework or play a game because getting through my work day was the maximum I was able to do, hospital visits and people reaching out to lift my spirits and show their support, funding for therapy and support groups showing me I wasn’t alone when I felt so desperately alone. These are some of the goals for SOS. I have had many conversations and meetings with prominent individuals in my community. I have their support to move forward as we all know the tremendous need within the Jewish community. That sounds amazing, but it also sounds so daunting! There are so many mental health needs in our community. Do you really think you’ll be able to address them all?

No, I don’t think I will be able to address them all. But if I open the door and minds of others, then maybe, just maybe, they can help me. Each person we reach is one step closer. Each person we touch spills over to the next. We can do this together. We can all have our part. The sufferers can begin to feel more comfortable sharing and reaching out for help. The volunteers will come forward for cooking and hospital visits and those that are able will donate funds so people can get proper treatment. SOS isn’t my organization – it will be OUR organization. And if we help just one person suffering in darkness, it will all be worth it. Jessica can be reached at info@levli.com and on Instagram at @levligemach. Support groups are being formed. Contact Jessica for more information. Reprinted with permission from Binah Magazine.

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PHOTOG

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BY MIR IAM

By Miri am

CALL OR TEXT MIRIAM JACOBOVITS 347–572–8973

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In The K

tchen

Breakfast Quesadilla By Naomi Nachman

his is the ultimate “breakfast of champions.” It is loaded with eggs, tortilla, and cheeses, and it’s cooked in butter (butter is better!). The great thing is that it keeps you full most of the day.

Ingredients 2 large eggs Kosher salt 4 TBS butter at room temperature, divided 4 flour tortillas 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1 cup black beans Pinch cumin Pinch chili powder

Preparation Whisk together the eggs and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the eggs and cook, undisturbed, until a thin layer of cooked egg appears around the edge of the skillet. Using a rubber spatula gently swirl the eggs around the skillet until fluffy and almost set, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle

some cheese, beans, spices, salt and pepper over the egg. Fold egg in half with spatula and push egg to the side. With your spatula, cut folded egg in half and remove one half and set aside. Add some more butter. When butter has melted, place egg that is in the pan on top of the tortilla. Add some more cheese, then add another tortilla to make a sandwich. After a few minutes (watch for burning as things in butter cook fast), flip the quesadilla over and cook other side. For the remaining egg that was set aside, heat another tortilla in some butter, place the egg on top. Sprinkle with cheese and cover with tortilla. After a few minutes flip, cook and remove from pan. Once the quesadilla have cooled slightly, cut each one into quarters.

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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Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care. -Congressman Elliot Engel overheard on a hot mike asking Bronx President Ruben Diaz to allow him to speak at a news conference about the shooting of George Floyd and the ensuing unrest

For a while after the pandemic began, Zoom seemed new and fun. We rearranged our lighting to our best advantage and made sure our cameras weren’t shooting directly up our noses. We put up funny background screens, even on work calls. “Hey Rob, is that a brontosaurus in your swimming pool?” we cackled stupidly. It was during this period that endless jokes were made about not wearing pants. Burn that [stuff] down. Burn it all down.

-Nicholas Goldberg, Jewish World Review, in an article titled “Zoom was fun at first. But it wouldn’t be 2020 if we didn’t figure out a way to ruin it”

-ESPN reporter Chris Palmer tweeting a photo of a building burning in LA during a riot

They just attacked our sister community down the street. It’s a gated community, and they tried to climb the gates. They had to beat them back. They destroyed a Starbucks and are now in front of my building. Get these animals [expletive] out of my neighborhood. Go back to where you live. – ESPN reporter Chris Palmer tweeting several hours later, when the rioters came into his neighborhood

I’m really quite overcome with emotion on this day. It’s kind of hard to talk, frankly. I’ve spent 18 years working toward this goal, so it’s hard to believe that it’s happened. - SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, after the launch of astronauts in a Falcon 9 rocket, made by his company, to the International Space Station

I don’t want to rush everything. – Jack Rico, age 13, who just graduated college in California with his fourth college degree

In 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface. There is no excuse for this. I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable. - Comedian Jimmy Fallon apologizing on Twitter after a video surfaced this week of him wearing blackface while playing fellow comedian Chris Rock in a Saturday Night Live sketch twenty years ago

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Wikipedia is badly biased. The original policy long since forgotten, it no longer has an effective neutrality policy. It now touts controversial opinions on politics, religion, and science. - Wikipedia’s co-founder Larry Sanger writing about how the site now has a leftist bias

Knowing it wouldn’t make a difference, he jokingly asked if being married to me might move him up in the queue. Obviously, with the motorized boating prohibition in our early days of COVID-19, he thought it might get a laugh. It didn’t. - Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer talking to the press after a video surfaced of her husband trying to get a marina to put his boat in the water, despite the state prohibiting that due to corona and showing him arguing that the marina better do it because “my wife is the governor”

Black Rifle Coffee Company - Name of a coffee company that was accidentally banned in Canada when they implemented an assault weapons ban several weeks ago

Why is the media no longer concerned, and often almost gleeful, about all the mass gatherings that would have been so deadly due to COVID 19 just a few days ago? - Tweet by Donald Trump Jr.

I guess these people magically aren’t “killing their grandmas” by going outside anymore?!? - Ibid.

Perhaps the most nonsensical talking point offered by Antifa apologists was to claim that the group couldn’t possibly be nefarious or violent because its members are anti-fascists — it says so right there in the name!... As the prominent anti-fascist Joe Stalin supposedly said, “Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.” - David Harsanyi, National Review

I was very confused because I hadn’t ordered anything from Well.ca in a while. -Elliot Berinstein, of Toronto, after a package from Well.ca was delivered last week – eight years after he ordered a product from there

The longer and weirder a word is, the easier it is to spell. Take, for example, the state fish of Hawaii, the humuhumunukunukuāpuaa. That’s an easy word to spell; it’s just long. -Dr. Jacques Bailly, the official pronouncer of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, on CNN

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Political Crossfire

SpaceX’s Success Is One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Capitalism By Marc A. Thiessen

t was one small step for man, one giant leap for capitalism. Only three countries have ever launched human beings into orbit. This past weekend, SpaceX became the first private company ever to do so, when it sent its Crew Dragon capsule into space aboard its Falcon 9 rocket and docked with the International Space Station. This was accomplished by a company Elon Musk started in 2002 in a California strip mall warehouse with just a dozen employees and a mariachi band. At a time when our nation is debating the merits of socialism, SpaceX has given us an incredible testament to the power of American free enterprise. While the left is advocating unprecedented government intervention in almost every sector of the U.S. economy, from health care to energy, today Americans are celebrating the successful privatization of space travel. If you want to see the difference between what government and private enterprise can do, consider: it took a private company to give us the first space vehicle with touch-screen controls instead of antiquated knobs and buttons. It took a private company to give us a capsule that can fly entirely autonomously from launch to landing – including docking – without any participation by its human crew. It also took a private company to invent a reusable rocket that can not only take off but land as well. When the Apollo 11 crew reached the moon on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong declared “the Eagle has land-

ed.” On Saturday, SpaceX was able to declare that the Falcon had landed when its rocket settled down on a

of 95%. And while the space shuttle cost $27.4 billion to develop, the Crew Dragon was designed and built

It took a private company to give us the first space vehicle with touch-screen controls instead of antiquated knobs and buttons barge in the Atlantic Ocean – ready to be used again. That last development will save the taxpayers incredible amounts of money. The cost to NASA for launching a man into space on the space shuttle orbiter was $170 million per seat, compared with just $60 million to $67 million on the Dragon capsule. The cost for the space shuttle to send a kilogram of cargo into space was $54,500; with the Falcon rocket, the cost is just $2,720 – a decrease

for just $1.7 billion – making it the lowest-cost spacecraft developed in six decades. SpaceX did it in six years – far faster than the time it took to develop the space shuttle. The private sector does it better, cheaper, faster and more efficiently than government. Why? Competition. Today, SpaceX has to compete with a constellation of private companies – including legacy aerospace firms such as Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance and innovative start-ups

such as Blue Origin (which is designing a Mars lander and whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post) and Virgin Orbit (which is developing rockets than can launch satellites into space from the underside of a 747, avoiding the kinds of weather that delayed the Dragon launch). In the race to put the first privately launched man into orbit, upstart SpaceX had to beat aerospace behemoth Boeing and its Starliner capsule to the punch. It did so – for more than $1 billion less than its competitor. That spirit of competition and innovation will revolutionize space travel in the years ahead. Indeed, Musk has his sights set far beyond Earth orbit. Already, SpaceX is working on a much larger version of the Falcon 9 reusable rocket called Super Heavy that will carry a deep-space capsule named Starship capable of carrying up to 100 people to the moon and eventually to Mars. Musk’s goal – the reason he founded SpaceX – is to colonize Mars and make humanity a multiplanetary species. He has set a goal of founding a million-person city on Mars by 2050 complete with iron foundries and pizza joints. Can it be done? Who knows. But this much is certain: private-sector innovation is opening the door to a new era of space exploration. Wouldn’t it be ironic if, just as capitalism is allowing us to explore the farthest reaches of our solar system, Americans decided to embrace socialism back here on Earth? (c) 2020, Washington Post Writers Group

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Political Crossfire

This Former Intelligence Official Was a Hero By David Ignatius

or intelligence officers, there’s a special horror at abandoning colleagues who helped fight common enemies. There’s a sense of moral betrayal and shattered trust – a violation of the unwritten rules of the spy trade. Some former senior U.S. and British spymasters are feeling that shock to the conscience now, as they watch the plight of Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence officer who helped build the kingdom’s counterterrorism capability – and, in the process, provided what intelligence officials describe as invaluable help to the West. Aljabri’s son Khalid, a cardiologist who lives with his father in Toronto, said during interviews that two of his younger siblings – Omar, 21, and Sarah, 20 – were seized and imprisoned in mid-March by the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is often referred to as MBS, as leverage to force their father to return to the kingdom from exile in Canada. MBS’s squeeze on a former pillar of the kingdom’s counterterrorism program stuns those who have dealt with Aljabri. The crown prince’s allies have circulated accusations: that Aljabri knows about theft of operational funds by him and his patron, deposed crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and that he’s a sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood. Khalid Aljabri rejected the allegations: “These are baseless claims, and we have proof that they are politically motivated. Whatever allegations they make, nothing justifies holding his children as hostages.” Saad Aljabri declined to comment, as did a senior Saudi official. “What is happening to him and his family is wrong,” Michael Morell, a former acting director of the CIA under President Barack Obama, said

Then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, with then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, in 2016 of Aljabri in a text message. “His work saved Saudi and American lives, in the kingdom and outside. I would trust him with my life, with my own family. I can’t fathom that he would ever plot against his own government.” George Tenet, who served as CIA director during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, expressed similar confidence in Aljabri. “He was just a very solid person,” Tenet said during an interview. He worked with Aljabri, starting in 2003, to build a modern Saudi security system that could combat al-Qaeda and penetrate the ranks of the terror group’s affili-

Abdullah. At first, things seemed to be going well for Aljabri. His patron, Mohammed bin Nayef, also known as MBN, was named crown prince. But the bad news for Aljabri was that one of the new king’s young sons, Mohammed bin Salman, became deputy crown prince. The power play was beginning. Khalid Aljabri recalled that his father had forebodings of the trouble ahead. “I don’t want to get caught in a royal ‘Game of Thrones,’” Aljabri told his son. The rupture came during the summer of 2015. King Salman was vaca-

“I don’t want to get caught in a royal ‘Game of Thrones,’” Aljabri told his son. ate in Yemen. Aljabri helped oversee a network of informants that exposed a 2010 plot by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to send undetectable bombs in computer printer cartridges on American airplanes. Saad Aljabri, 61, wasn’t born to wealth and privilege in Saudi Arabia’s insular society. He was a policeman with an unusual aptitude for computer science. Early on, he became a protege of Prince Nayef, the interior minister, and his son, Mohammed, who was an assistant minister, then head of counterterrorism, then minister himself, and finally the crown prince. In the courtier society of Saudi Arabia, commoners such as Aljabri rise and fall with their royal patrons, a fact of monarchal life that is central to the tragic end of Aljabri’s career. In January 2015, King Salman assumed the throne after the death of King

tioning in Morocco, and MBN, then the crown prince, was acting king. He approved a visit by Aljabri on July 2 with then-CIA Director John Brennan at Langley. MBS evidently thought Aljabri was plotting behind his back on behalf of his rival, Mohammed bin Nayef. Aljabri’s troubles deepened the following month, when he visited the White House to discuss the Yemen war, accompanied by Khalid bin Salman, MBS’ younger brother, who was then the Saudi defense attache in Washington, later ambassador, and is now deputy defense minister. Aljabri briefed MBN and the royal court when he returned from the trip, but that didn’t satisfy MBS. Aljabri was sacked on September 10, 2015, as MBS was returning to Riyadh from a visit to meet with Obama in Washington. On May 17, 2017, just before Pres-

ident Trump’s visit to Riyadh, Aljabri fled the kingdom to a vacation home in Turkey, and later moved to Toronto. Sensing disaster ahead, Aljabri tried to get all eight of his children out of the country, but several remained. Here’s where this story of palace intrigue becomes a humanitarian tragedy. On June 18, 2017, according to Aljabri’s son Khalid, MBS communicated with Saad Aljabri in Toronto. The gist of the message, said Khalid, was that the crown prince wanted Aljabri back in government and would offer him a better job than he’d held before. Aljabri stalled for time. He told the crown prince that he would return in two weeks. His son Saleh left the kingdom that day, but two teenagers, Omar and Sarah, were waiting for U.S. visas. The coup happened June 20. Mohammed bin Nayef disappeared for eight hours, and when he emerged, he swore allegiance to the new crown prince, MBS. Omar and Sarah had booked a flight from Riyadh the next morning, June 21, but they were stopped at the airport and prevented from leaving the country – on orders, it was said, of the Mabahith, Aljabri’s former service. The family stayed silent for 2½ years. Omar and Sarah attended school in Riyadh and got good grades. U.S. officials quietly sought to intervene in the case, with no success. MBS still wanted Aljabri back, and he was preparing to increase the pressure. On March 16, at 6 a.m., dozens of security officers raided the family compound in northeast Riyadh and arrested Omar and Sarah. They were taken to an undisclosed location. No charges have been filed. “They are hostages,” Khalid Aljabri said. “The ransom is my father’s return.” (c) 2020, Washington Post Writers Group

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Forgotten Her es

“Murderous Manny” Segal Double Ace By Avi Heiligman

oon after the Wright brothers flew on their famous first flight in 1903, the military came calling, looking to add planes to their arsenal. The first U.S. Marine Corps pilot took to the air in 1912 after being trained by the navy. By 1914, the Marines wanted to separate their aviation wing from the navy, and they did this by establishing their own aviation school. Marines flew with some success during World War I and sent eight squadrons into battle. By the outbreak of World War II, the Marine Corps air arm consisted of over 230 planes. This number would grow rapidly during the war as they were heavily relied upon during many of the battles against the Japanese. One of the highest scoring pilots in the Marines was a Jewish officer who flew with one of the most storied squadrons in the Corps. Harold Segal was born in Chicago in 1920. His family moved first to Boston and then to New York. In 1941, he enlisted in the Navy but he realized that flying was for him and soon entered flight school for the Marines. He received his wings in October 1942 and was commissioned as lieutenant. By May of the next year, Segal was transferred to the veteran Marine Fighting Squadron VMF-221. The Navy mostly flew off aircraft carriers, and the Army Air Corps flew off land bases with the exception of Doolittle’s Raid in April 1942. The Marines, in contrast, were trained to fly off of carriers and land bases. In the vast spaces of the Pacific Campaign, this was called upon time and again. VMF-221 was formed in the month prior to World War II and within three weeks of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor had sent fourteen Brewster Buffalo fighter planes to Midway Island. They remained stationed there for several months and had received seven more Buffalos and seven Wildcat fighters. The planes weren’t in the best of shape but managed to shoot down a Japanese flying boat in March 1942. On June 4, 1942, the Marines stationed at Midway were given an alert that a large formation of Japanese planes was headed their way. In addition to the fighters, there was a Marine bomber squadron, but it would be up to VMF-221 under Major Floyd Parks to handle the 36 Japanese Zero fighters in addition to the enemy bombers coming from four aircraft carriers. The American planes, especially the outdated Brewster Buffalos, did not

stand a chance. Only two planes from VMF-221 were airworthy by the end of the battle. Parks and thirteen other airmen had been killed in battle, although they managed to knock down several Japanese planes. This action part of the Battle of Midway heavily favored the Japanese aircraft five to one. However, the Japanese were not aware of the planes coming from the American carriers. In total, all four Japanese carriers were sunk and the battle in the Pacific was slowly turning in the American’s favor. As they prepared for their next assignment in the Solomon Islands, the decimated VMF-221 desperately needed reinforcements. In May 1943, the squadron had the new F4U Corsair fighter bombers and had Harold Segal assigned to their ranks. Segal was given his nickname “Murderous Manny” after downing two Japanese planes, a bomber and a Zero fighter, off of Rendova and Munda Islands on June 30. On July 11, Segal was flying as wingman for Captain James Swett. In April 1943, Swett had the distinction of becoming an ace, shooting down five enemy aircraft, in his very first mission. He was shot down and rescued and later received the Medal of Honor for this action. Now flying with Segal off the coast of New Georgia near the Kula Gulf, they saw a formation of Japanese Mitsubishi AM6 Zeros and Mitsubishi GM4 Betty Bombers. The pair attacked and Swett shot down two bombers and fighter. Segal shot down three Zeros and later reported, “I caught the top Zero first. He blew up like matchwood. The second Zero never knew what hit

him. My dive practically carried me into his cockpit – he hit the sea…” Segal shot down a third Zero before his Corsair, named Ruthie after his mother, took too much punishment and could no longer remain airborne. He made a sea landing and sustained facial injuries. Swett also was shot down, and they both spent the next day waiting to be rescued. Swett was eventually rescued by indigenous fishermen in a canoe while Segal was picked up by an American destroyer. Both returned to the squadron. This eventful mission made Segal an ace for shooting down his fifth enemy plane. Over the next several months, Segal racked up five more kills to become a double ace. Two of these came when he was escorting a photographic mission but his plane was badly damaged in the melee. He was able to nurse his plane back to base where he landed safely. In November, he rotated home. Segal wanted to return to the front lines and was assigned to VMF-211. In January 1944, he shot down two Mitsubishi A6M3 “Hamp” fighters (a version of the Zero). A few days later, his plane went down due an oil leak off Torokina, Bougainville, and he was rescued. Segal now had twelve enemy planes to his credit and became one of the highest scoring aces in the Marine Corps. In March 1944, Segal returned to New York as a hero, and hundreds of people came out to greet him. He returned to the Pacific the next year and primarily flew ground support missions. Promoted to captain, he finished the war having been awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and an Air Medal. Only a few military units are remembered for generations for their service. Information on VMF221 is scarce despite scoring 185 air-to-air victories – the second-most of any Marine squadron. Nine of their pilots had the distinction of being called an ace. A lot of pilots have hair-raising experiences, and Segal said his survival was because of “G-d sitting beside me.” All of these men and their ground crews that kept the planes of the squadron airborne are Forgotten Heroes. 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.

The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

A Fulfilled L fe

Buckle Down or Move On? By Rabbi Dr. Naphtali Hoff

ne evening not long ago, I was out driving on the highway during a rainstorm. I signaled right and started to switch lanes. The problem was that, due to low visibility, I failed to see a van that was moving into the same space. Its tail swiped the front side of my car. For the next few days, I drove around with increased hesitation. Before turning, I would double and triple check. My driving speeds were down a few miles. In general, I was more cautious. After a while, however, I was back to my New Jersey driver self, navigating the streets with (semi) reckless abandon. It’s common for people who experience a setback to be more cautious the next time. The problem is that many folks will often view a single failure as an indictment on past efforts and not try again. For example, they make many sales calls that don’t convert. Or they produce a product, service or program that they believe will sell and get almost no response. So, they throw in the towel and give up. While there is merit to failing fast, which encourages us to quickly identify when an approach won’t work and move on before investing large quantities of time, capital, and other resources, we also need to be able to persevere in the face of adversity and try again when the situation calls for it. In Think and Grow Rich, author Napoleon Hill tells the story of a man who traveled from his home in Maryland to Colorado in pursuit of gold. After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his

footsteps to his home, and told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery and had it shipped. He and his nephew went back to work the mine. The first car of ore was mined and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big profits. Down went the drills. Up went the miners’ hopes. Suddenly, the vein of gold ore disappeared. They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again, all to no avail. Finally,

The question is, how do we know that we need to buckle down and give it another go or when it’s time to cut our losses and move on? Here are some questions that can help add clarity: 1. Do you offer a product people are willing to pay for? If you’ve done your research and people said that they would pay for what you’re making/selling, then you may be closer to succeeding than your initial sales indicate. Try to determine what prevented them from stepping forward the first time and adjust your approach accordingly.

Many folks will often view a single failure as an indictment on past efforts and not try again they decided to quit. They sold the machinery to a junkman for a few hundred dollars and took the train back home. The junkman called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed because the miners were not familiar with fault lines. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the others had stopped drilling. That is exactly where it was found. The “junkman” took millions of dollars in ore from the mine because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

2. Are you making progress? Use the business goals that you set and measure your progress. The benchmarks you set for your venture should give you an idea of your progress. 3. Are you/can you be better than your competition? You don’t have to be MUCH better. Just 1% or 2% will suffice. And it can be in your service as much as your product. 4. Have you cultivated die-hard fans? If you can’t even get a small group of people to love your product, there is almost no chance that your business will succeed.

5. How passionate are you about your business? Without passion, you will most likely fail. If you are not getting pleasure out of your business, it may be time to try something else. No matter how much you love your business, there will be ups and downs. Passion helps you get over the downs, and there are many. 6. Is your business relationships-based? The more that your product or service depends on how much trust people need to have in what you’re offering, the longer it will typically take for you to gain traction. 7. How would you advise someone else? It’s often much easier to look at your situation objectively when you take a step back and remove the emotional triggers, such as how much time, effort and emotion you’ve already invested. 8. Is it in you? Much of success is based on your capacity to push ahead. If you don’t have the skills required, can you build the team that does? If you don’t have the right connections, can you hustle to open the right doors?

Naphtali Hoff, PsyD, is an executive coach who helps busy leaders be more productive so that they can scale profits with less stress and get home at a decent hour. For a free, no obligation consultation, please call 212.470.6139 or email nh@impactfulcoaching.com. Buy his leadership book, “Becoming the New Boss”, on Amazon. Download his free productivity blueprint at ImpactfulCoaching.com/ Productivity-Blueprint.

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

Classifieds classifieds@fivetownsjewishhome.com • text 443-929-4003

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The Jewish Home | JUNE 4, 2020

HOUSES FOR SALE

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OCTOBER 29,|2015 2015 |The TheJewish Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, JUNE 4, 2020 The |Jewish HomeHome

Life C ach

The Sweet Taste of Summer By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., MFT, CLC

e will not be deterred! They are here! Colorful, juicy, actually, even alluring. Yes, summer fruits have arrived! First, let’s discuss those amazing, delicious, juice-filled cherries. Mmm, so good. And so well made. They even come, conveniently outfitted, with a little sticklike extension to deliver them easily to your mouth. And how about those peaches? So sweet and perky. And if you don’t like the thick fuzzy exterior, no problem! They come side by side with their sister fruit, the nectarine, designed sleek and shiny, just to ease the tactile tension. Can we talk about the purple,

poppy, pungent plum? So juicy you suddenly find your forearms bathed in the purple, pulpy drippings, yet,

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worth the entire cleaning bill, just to ingest the taste of summer. These are the fruits we dream about all winter long. They are the signal that summer is here! They herald it in.... Just the same way that: The beach openings do. The graduations do. The barbecues do. The June weddings do. The ice cream trucks do. And so many more simple pleasures, do.

shows. -Beaches, which are now guided by their 10-foot apart rule, have turned into “you alone with nature” moments. -Friendly barbecues have turned into private family dinners! -And the friendly ice cream man is now forced to show up as a masked marauder. So, the fact that one can easily eye or, even better yet, bite into, a sumptuous summer fruit is a huge deal. No modifications necessary. As long as you can get to the supermarket, or have the supermarket items somehow get to you, you can start celebrating the sunniest time of the year. You can start feeling the summer ease just with a simple routine: see, bite, chew, swallow, repeat! So, if you can’t: -Get to the beach. -Don’t have a wedding invitation coming your way. -Are not being asked to a neighborhood barbecue. -Or are grieving a missed graduation. Perhaps, you can sink your face

No one is stealing that summer feelin’ from me

Yet, somehow, seeing these fruits fanning out across the rows in the supermarket or simply gracing the shelves of my fridge is the pinnacle representative for me that summer’s arrived! And that is just great! Because some of those other summer treats are not playing out the way they have in the past: -Graduations are being replaced by lawn signs. -Weddings are turned into reality

into the biggest, drippiest peach you have ever indulged in and think: “No one is stealing that summer feelin’ from me. I’ve got it right here flowing through me. No matter what happens on the outside, I’ve got it spreading all through me on the inside!”

Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or rivki@rosenwalds.com.

The Jewish HomeHome | OCTOBER 29, The Jewish | JUNE 4,2015 2020

Your

43 95

Money

When Does 1918 + 1968 = 2020?

By Allan Rolnick, CPA

n China, it’s a curse to say “may you live in interesting times.” If that’s so, 2020 is surely cursed. It all started with coronavirus in January or thereabouts. April brought the murder hornets to Washington State. (They might still be only in Washington, but they’re murder hornets.) And last week brought news that yet another unarmed African-American man died in police custody, sparking unrest across the country. You can’t be faulted for thinking the two smartest men in the universe right now are the Space-X astronauts who literally left the planet on Saturday afternoon. With all of that grim fare getting grimmer, it’s good to know there’s some lighter news to put a smile on our faces. Last week, we saw one we knew we had to cover: a singer selling a piece of her soul for the bargain price of $10 million (or best offer) as part of a sale of her artwork at a gallery in Los Angeles. Claire Elise Boucher — better known as Grimes — isn’t afraid to march to the beat of a different drummer. She and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk just changed the spelling of their newborn baby boy’s name to X Æ A-Xii (pronounced “Ex-Eye Eye,” of course) because the state of California churlishly wouldn’t let

them go with first-choice X Æ A-12. (It seems they don’t allow numerals). But her offer to sell her soul raises so many tax questions we don’t even know where to start.

soul? Surely, they’ll want to depreciate their investment. But how long do you depreciate something like a soul with no useful life? Would that make it non-depreciable like land? (Don’t

You can’t be faulted for thinking the two smartest men in the universe right now are the Space-X astronauts who literally left the planet.

For starters, what exactly is a soul, and how should that sale be taxed? It’s certainly not a tangible asset like a business, real estate, or a Picasso. Tax professionals are mainly looking for guidance from Section 197, which governs self-created intangibles like goodwill. Her soul might also resemble intellectual property, like patents, trademarks, and logos. Sadly, for Grimes, she can’t have any basis in the asset, which means she’ll owe tax on her entire $10 million. How will Grimes’ buyer treat her

get caught up in the technicalities here. We’re just riffing.) Grimes may be the first celebrity to offer her soul for sale, especially at such a high price. But soul-selling has a long, distinguished history. In Christopher Marlowe’s tragic play Doctor Faustus, the title character strikes a deal (in blood, no less) with the devil: 24 years of life to command a demon as his servant and use magic, in exchange for his soul at the end. That transaction, of course, is covered by Section 83, which governs property transferred

in connection with services. Tax treatment changes again if you gamble your soul. In Charlie Daniels classic barn-burner, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the devil tells Johnny: “I’ll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, ‘cause I think I’m better than you.” Hell breaks loose in Georgia and Johnny wins, or it wouldn’t be much of a song. Gambling wins are taxable, of course. But odds are poor that the devil issued a W-2G, which is required for bets that pay $600 if the winnings are more than 300 times the original wager. And we can assume the unsophisticated Johnny neglected to report his win on his own return. Here’s hoping Grimes is getting smart tax-planning advice before she sells. You should do the same any time you sell a business, real estate, or any other big-ticket item. You don’t want to turn 2020 from the biggest payday of your life into the biggest tax bill of your life. (Did we mention the murder hornets?)

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

JUNE 4, 2020 | The Jewish Home

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Five Towns Jewish Home - 6-4-20

Articles inside

Y our Money

The Sweet Taste of Summer by Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS

Buckle Down or Move On? by Dr. Naphtali Hoff

This Former Intelligence Official Was a Hero by David Ignatius

Murderous Manny” Segal by Avi Heiligman

SpaceX’s Success Is One Small Step for Man by Marc A. Thiessen

Notable Quotes

Summer Camp 2020 by Dr. Hylton I. Lightman

Stop on Stigma by Rabbi Leiby Burnham

RD CDN

Hirschhorn

Remembering Rabbi Dr . Norman Lamm, z”l

Tips From a Homeschooling Mom, Part V by Sara Rayvych, MSEd

F rom Student to Teacher by Rivkah Lambert Adler

The Three Keys to Happiness by Shmuel Reichman

Hold On – Don’t Let Go by Rav Moshe Weinberger

My Israel Home

Centerfold

Global

National

Tha t’s Odd