Five Towns Jewish Home - 12-20-18

December 20, 2018

Distributed weekly in the Five Towns, Long Island, Queens & Brooklyn

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Rav Chanina Herzberg, zt”l

See page 7

A Paradigm of Chinuch

Around the

Community

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52 Hundreds Join in Support of Bikur Cholim

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Sometimes There are No Words Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Kakon Opens up the Hearts & Ears of Those with Hearing Loss

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pg

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Behind the Scenes of a Nazi’s Expulsion

Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato: It’s Time to Educate the Education System

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Passover Vacation Section PAGE 15

Parshas Vayechi 13 Teves 5778 Candle Lighting Time 4:12 pm Sponsored by

See page 14

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Starts on page 111

DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Dear Readers,

O

told us what he was saying.

My children were intrigued. One of them asked the boys if they were allowed to sign to each other between washing their hands for bread and hamotzei. No, he was told. Sign language is a real form communication, they explained, and it’s prohibited just as speaking would be.

One would think that being deaf or hearing impaired would exclude people from the rest of the population. But Rabbi Kakon and his rebbetzin – who are both hard of hearing as well – have built a dream world for these boys. Instead of being ignored, these boys are enjoying the same yeshiva experience as their peers. They are learning the same Gemara as boys their age; they are reading the same books; they are playing the same ballgames.

They’re not alone – they’re in it together.

ver the years, I’ve had the privilege of hosting boys from Yeshivas Nefesh Dovid for a few Shabbosim. And each time they’ve come for a meal, I’ve come away inspired.

Yeshivas Nefesh Dovid is a school in Canada that caters only to boys with hearing impairments. The boys who go there come from all over the world – we’ve hosted those from Israel, and England, and the United States. Where they come from, though, doesn’t really matter to these boys.

You see, they all communicate using the same sign language, and so the languages spoken at home don’t separate them. Instead, their common challenges and their shared language unite them and help them to form strong bonds.

The boys who have sat at my table were of different ages. We’ve hosted a young, Israeli ninth grader who had been in the school for just a few months, along with those who had been there for years. We’ve had boys who came from chassidish backgrounds and those who were more litvish.

But their comradery and connection traversed all external differences. They are a strong group, cohesive, united in their joy and zest for life.

When I first offered to host the boys, I was a bit concerned. After all, I don’t know how to sign and neither does my husband. I thought about taking a book out of the library on sign language or maybe printing up a sign language guide before Shabbos.

But I needn’t have worried. These boys, so connected to each other, managed to communicate with me and my family just fine. They would look to each other to help them understand what was going on. A few of them were able to hear using cochlear implants or lipreading. They helped interpret the conversation for their friends by signing.

And it worked both ways. When one wanted to say a dvar Torah but was only able to sign, his friends

Recently, someone mentioned to me about the mehalech of chinuch that Rabbi Chanina Herzberg, z”l, had. She was admiring his ability to be firm with the boys while couching his discipline with love. Indeed, his talmidim loved him and knew that they were his world. They knew that they could come to him with their problems and that he would understand that they weren’t just coming to him to moan about homework or a classmate who was bothering them. They knew that he would look deeper and see that this talmid was struggling and needed someone to talk to, someone to commiserate.

The community has lost an integral part of our chinuch system with the loss of Rabbi Herzberg.

Yehi zichro baruch.

Wishing you a wonderful week, Shoshana

Yitzy Halpern PUBLISHER

publisher@fivetownsjewishhome.com

Yosef Feinerman MANAGING EDITOR

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Friday, December 21 Parshas Vayechi Candle Lighting: 4:12 pm Shabbos Ends: 5:17 pm Rabbeinu Tam: 5:44 pm

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Contents LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

8

COMMUNITY 8

Readers’ Poll Community Happenings

44

Time to Educate the Education Department by Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato 76 NEWS Global

12

National

29

Odd-but-True Stories

42

ISRAEL

43

Israel News

24

World Builders

86

PEOPLE

Rav Chanina Herzberg, zt”l: A Paradigm of Chinuch by Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky 88 Sometimes There are No Words by Yisroel Besser George H. W. Bush in the Navy by Avi Heiligman

94 124

PARSHA Rabbi Wein

80

The Chizuk of Parshas Vayechi by Rav Moshe Weinberger

82

JEWISH THOUGHT G-d Bless You by Eytan Kobre

84

HEALTH & FITNESS Myth: Self-Exploration is Painful by Dr. Deb Hirschhorn

104

Soy: Friend or Foe? by Aliza Beer, MS RD

106

FOOD & LEISURE The Aussie Gourmet: Pesto Mac ‘n’ Cheese

110

LIFESTYLES Dating Dialogue, Moderated by Jennifer Mann, LCSW 100

106

Tribe Tech Review

122

Your Money

130

Dear Editor, The article in this week’s issue written by Rafi Sackville about Rabbi Natan Gamedze was so inspiring!

Wow, to leave your whole world behind and to start anew because you see the truth in something is incredible. As you wrote in your note to readers, you sometimes wonder if you would have the strength to make these changes in your life if the opportunity would have been presented to you. That’s a deep, philosophical question. And you’re so right that we’re lucky to not have that challenge before us.

Let’s hope that we can always be appreciative of the lives we were given and the gift we were presented when we were born into the Chosen Nation.

Kol tuv, Chana Greenberger Dear Editor, I read Cindy Weinberger’s article about challah. She advises that if people are eating traditional white flower challah “a bite” is enough to be yotzei bentsching.

It would have to be a pretty big bite! Maybe she could print a disclaimer and say that what’s required is a kazayis and people should check with their rav as to what constitutes a kazayis.

Rifka Saltz Dear Editor, To Avi Heiligman: I enjoyed your article and pictures about the “Modern Day Soldiers...” in The Jewish

Home.

I believe you made an error. In the picture on the upper left you write that the soldiers are members of the “Russian Army.” If you look closely, many of the soldiers are wearing the pickelhaub. This helmet was worn by the Imperial German Army from the 1840’s to the early part of 1916 on the Western front, to mid-1917 on the Eastern Front. This photograph is a picture of German-Jewish soldiers celebrating Hanukkah, either in the Western front in 1914 or 1915, or on the Eastern front in 1914, 1915 or 1916.

Yours truly, Dr. Glenn Roeder Dear Editor, As Chanukah just concluded and is now fully encamped in our rearview mirrors, I feel compelled to write to our local yeshivos and share the wonderful feelings I experience as a parent each year on Chanukah not to have to worry about our children’s homework. Chanukah in Orthodox households is becoming synonymous with relief in respect to the ability to spend quality time with our children rather than seeing them spending their waking hours every evening entrenched in schoolwork.

For the life of me, I can’t understand the rationale or see the benefits of flooding our children with work. As a proponent of education, a graduate of a well-respected yeshivah high school with an excellent secular studies reputation and a gradContinued on page 10

Yesterday in the UK by Rivki D. Rosenwald 132 Esq., CLC, SDS

HUMOR Centerfold 78 POLITICAL CROSSFIRE Notable Quotes

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There’s a Word for the Democrats’ Negotiating Strategy: Insanity by 118 Marc A. Thiessen For Taiwan, the Status Quo is an Increasingly Delicate Balancing Act by 120 David Ignatius CLASSIFIEDS

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Continued from page 8

‫בס"ד‬

RABBI NOSSON GREENBERG WILL BE GIVING A TEN-PART SERIES FOR MEN ON TEFILLAS SHACHRIS THE SHIURIM WILL BE HELD IN THE K.M.T. SOCIAL HALL (1A JARVIS CT. FAR ROCKAWAY, NEXT DOOR TO THE SHUL) ON TUESDAY EVENINGS AT 8:45PM (MAARIV AT 9:30)

FIRST SHIUR WILL BE TUESDAY DEC 25TH TOPICS INCLUDE: WHY DAVEN, TIPS FOR KAVANA, ANALYSIS OF THE FOUR-LEVEL STRUCTURE OF SHACHRIS, INSIGHTS INTO SHEMONA ESRAI

million who perished decades ago.

Her pieces are haunting and moving. Each one tells a story – but in so many facets and in so many ways.

Each viewer can take what they can from each piece; it speaks to each person in a different voice.

Tsipora is a very talented individual. May she continue to have the strength to use her talents in a way that brings others closer to Yiddishkeit.

All the best, Shifra W.

uate of college and law school, I am bewildered at the concerted effort of our yeshivos in piling work on our children. No, I am not advocating to completely abolish homework nor am I ignoring the quality time spent with children on weekends, but to saturate their time at home during the week with studying and working on information that is often irrelevant to their ability to live successful and productive lives may not be the best education strategy to employ.

A Frustrated Parent

Dear Editor, We enjoyed the article “Forever Engraved” depicting the magnificent sculptures of Tsipora Karp. The website offered at the end of the article is incorrect. It is judaicaartbytsipora. com. Thank you for your informative and enjoyable newspaper.

Miriam Feller

Dear Editor, Every person is born with their talents and their kishronos. Some of us are blessed to be doctors or lawyers or artists or singers. Tsipora Karp has taken her inborn talents and uses them to spread the memory of her relatives and of the six

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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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

The Week In News

OR IGI NA L

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Sri Lanka’s Surprising Reversal

If you’re getting whiplash trying to figure out what’s happening in Sri Lanka, we understand. This week, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was reinstated by President Maithripala Sirisena. Yes, just two months ago, Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe, a move that plunged the island into political chaos.

Sirisena administered the oath that restored Wickremesinghe to office on Sunday.

“We thank the citizens of the country who fought the illegal seizure of power and ensured that Democracy was restored,” Wickremsinghe’s United National Party wrote in a post on Twitter shortly after he was sworn in.

In late October Sirisena dismissed the cabinet and replaced Wickremesinghe with former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who led the campaign to crush Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009. Rajapaksa stepped down from the post on Saturday.

The country’s Supreme Court had ruled on Thursday that Sirisena’s firing of the prime minister violated the constitution.

At the time of the sacking, Sirisena said he made the decision due to “political problems (and) economic troubles” which he believed only Rajapaksa could solve. The decision created a constitutional crisis, with Wickremesinghe insisting he was still prime minister, leading to mass protests in the capital Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s institutions had fought back in the wake of the president’s decision, with Parliament passing a no-confidence motion in Rajapaksa in November and declar-

Religious Crackdown in China?

At least 100 Christians have recently been detained by authorities in China. Just last week, a prominent Chinese pastor and legal scholar was detained after he was reportedly arrested on allegations of “inciting subversion of state power.”

Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong, were taken into police custody in the city of Chengdu, where they run the Early Rain Covenant Church, according to ChinaAid, a U.S.-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of China’s Christian communities.

Western governments and civil rights advocates outside China have condemned the mass arrest of the Early Rain parish as the latest move in Beijing’s stepped-up crackdown on independent religious practice.

China has been accused of carrying out a systematic campaign of human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang. China says its actions there are meant to combat violent extremism, and it has repeatedly denied claims that the region has turned into an Orwellian surveillance state.

Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, cited the actions against the Early Rain Church and the reports from Xinjiang when announcing that China was one of ten countries designated a “country of concern” when it comes to religious freedom.

“My particular concern now for China is they’ve increased these actions of persecution against faith community,” Brownback said. “China

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

isn’t backing away from the religious persecution; it seems to be expanding.”

China is officially an atheist state, but religious practice is legal in the country, albeit under the central government and Chinese Communist Party’s rules and surveillance.

Some of the country’s faithful attend underground or unregistered houses of worship to practice their religion freely. Police have accused Early Rain of operating without registering with authorities, and Human Rights Watch says Wang and members of his church have been the subject of frequent harassment in recent years.

Rights advocates say the crackdown against underground churches and religious practice that’s not state-sanctioned is less about religious practice itself and more about the Chinese Communist Party making sure it remains firmly in control of civil society.

“Under President Xi, the government has further tightened control over Christianity in its broad efforts to ‘Sinicize’ religion or ‘adopt Chinese characteristics’ – in other words, to ensure that religious groups support the government and the Commu-

nist Party,” Human Rights Watch said. “The shutdown of a Protestant church in Chengdu epitomizes the Xi Jinping government’s relentless assault on religious freedom in China,” it added.

“It makes a mockery of the government’s claim that it respects religious beliefs.”

May Survives No-Confidence Vote

England’s Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly survived a no-confidence vote within her own party as opposition to her Brexit plan grows.

Despite the win, the vote this week exposed May’s shaky support in the party. The no-confidence vote was de-

feated 200 to 117, meaning that more than a third of her own lawmakers wanted May to step down.

Following the vote, May told the nation that she would seek a better Brexit deal with the European Union (EU).

“I am pleased to have received the backing of my colleagues in tonight’s ballot,” said May. “Whilst I am grateful for that support, a significant number of colleagues did cast a vote against me and I have listened to what they said.”

May acknowledged that the vote entrusted her with a “renewed mission: delivering the Brexit people voted for, bringing the country back together, and building a country that really works for everyone.”

The prime minister has grown increasingly unpopular as her party refuses to accept the Brexit deal she negotiated with the EU that would enable Britain to leave the union.

While the EU approved the deal she hammered out last month, Conservative Party lawmakers disparaged the deal as “stay-minus” and made it clear that they would vote against it when it came up for a vote in the House of Commons. May had put off the vote that was set to take place last Monday

after it became clear that the deal was headed for an embarrassing defeat.

May will now head for Brussels to attempt to reach a better deal, despite the EU having said last month that it would refuse to renegotiate should the agreement be voted down.

“It seems there isn’t a majority in the House of Commons at the moment for any solution to Brexit – not for a second referendum, not for a Norway-style deal, not for her deal,” said Conservative MP Stephen Crabb.

“But Parliament has to say yes to something and she has been given a new mandate to get on and find that something.”

Hungarians Protest “Slave Law” Thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest last week to protest a “slave law,” new legislation allowing employers to ask workers to take on up to 400 hours of overtime a year. The protests, which began on Wednesday, eventually turned violent.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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Clashes with police began on Sunday when protesters arrived at the headquarters of state-run television station MTVA and tried to storm the building. Video and images show officers in riot gear firing tear gas into the crowd during the confrontation. Livestreamed video posted by ATV Hungary showed reporters trapped in a crowd of protesters unable to move, as well as people crouched on the ground temporarily blinded by tear gas.

The demonstrations began after Hungary’s Parliament passed legislation pushed through by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s hardline Fidesz party.

The government told CNN that the “voluntary changes to working hours” were “in the interest of the workers” and would allow people to work and earn more.

Hungarian law previously permitted businesses to demand up to 250 hours overtime annually.

Parliament also passed a second controversial law last Wednesday that would create a new system of courts in the country. They will be overseen by the justice minister and handle cases concerning “government business,” such as tax and elections, Reuters reported. The new courts, which are set to begin operating next year, will be independent and “in line with current European approaches and standards.”

Rights groups are concerned that, with Orban’s justice minister expected to oversee the hiring of judges, the new court system will pull the country further down the path to authoritarianism.

Since Orban’s populist Fidesz party swept into power in 2010, and most recently won a landslide victory in April this year, it has come under increasing fire from the European Union over its crackdowns on democratic institutions.

Earlier this year, the European Parliament took the unprecedented decision to trigger Article 7 – a disciplinary process – against Hungary, a rarely invoked process designed to prevent member states from breaching the EU’s “core values.”

5 Killed in Strasbourg Market Attack

The terrorist responsible for the shooting attack at a Strasbourg market last Tuesday was shot dead following a gun battle with French Special Forces.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that officers had noticed Chérif Chekatt near the market that he had attacked 48 hours earlier. After Chekatt shot at police, officers returned fire and killed him after a brief gun fight.

“I think it will help to get back to a life that I would describe as normal,” said Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries. “With the death of this terrorist ... citizens, like me, are relieved.”

The successful elimination of Chekatt came after he furtively managed to evade a massive manhunt for more than two days. Police had set up checkpoints at all the city’s egresses and published fliers in multiple languages asking for the public’s assistance in locating the gunman.

Chekatt had killed four people and injured a dozen more when he opened fire at a Strasbourg holiday market on Tuesday. One person succumbed to their injuries this week, increasing the death toll of the attack to five. Eyewitnesses said that he had first yelled “Allahu akhbar” before pulling out a gun and spraying the crowd with bullets.

Chekatt, a 29-year-old jihadist, had spent time in prison for burglary and assault in Germany, France, and Switzerland and had been put on France’s terror watchlist in 2015. Authorities said that his radical views began while he was behind bars for various infractions.

ISIS said following the attack that Chekatt was a “soldier” who had “carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of coalition countries.”

Experts dismissed ISIS’s claims, however, and pointed at his lack of

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accomplices and training as proof that he likely acted alone.

“It shows that [Chekatt] didn’t have real organizational links with the group, meaning he didn’t have a budget to make this attack. He didn’t have help getting arms. He didn’t benefit from a real web or sleeper cell,” noted FRANCE 24’s jihadism expert Wassim Nasr.

Strasbourg’s famed holiday market is one of the oldest in Europe and draws millions of visitors each year.

Many have visited the market – which has since reopened – to light candles and lay flowers in tribute to the victims.

Iran Steps Up Hacking Efforts

A new story exposes how Iran has been overseeing a massive hacking effort that targets senior U.S.

officials tasked with overseeing anti-Iran sanctions.

The Associated Press report detailed how a malicious hacking group known to experts as Charming Kitten has been systematically targeting influential figures connected to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that lifted sanctions in exchange for Iran capping its nuclear program.

For months, Charming Kitten has been attempting to penetrate the personal emails of over a dozen U.S. Treasury officials charged with coordinating the sanctions that have severely impacted Iran’s economy. The operation didn’t stop at Treasury officials; the targets also included prominent journalists who opposed the 2015 nuclear deal, as well as researchers at Washington-based thinktanks, journalists, and Iranian exiles.

The hacking operation was first exposed by the British cybersecurity company Certfa, which got a glimpse into the cyberespionage effort after Charming Kitten accidentally left its servers exposed to the web in November. Certfa managed to find 77 targeted email addresses which it said was likely only a small part of the total spying effort.

While Iran has denied any connection to the hackers, Certfa says hackers made small mistakes that exposed their allegiance, such as using an IP address that belonged to an Iranian government agency in Tehran.

A report released by Certfa details the scope of the monitoring operation, finding that operators composed comprehensive plans of attack for every individual target prior to the phishing attack.

“The hackers design specific plans for each target based on the level of targets’ cyber knowledge, their contacts, activities, working time, and their geographic situation,” read the report. “We also noticed that, unlike in previous phishing campaigns, in some cases the hackers did not change the password of their victims’ accounts in these latest attacks. This allows them to remain undetected and monitor a victim’s communications via their email in real time.”

According to the cybersecurity firm, “sending links with titles such as share files from Google Drive has been one of the most common tricks that hackers have used in recent years. A unique point of these

attacks in comparison with the previous ones is that they use Google Site3, which allows the hackers to show a fake download page of Google Drive, which tricks the users into thinking it’s a real Google Drive page.”

The reveal of the mammoth spying effort comes just after the United States imposed draconian sanctions targeting Iran this past November.

The new round forbids companies and nations from importing Iranian oil, selling the Islamic Republic tools and replacement parts for drilling oil, and selling airplanes to Iranian aviation companies.

Despite the mounting economic toll, Iran has refused to stop enriching uranium and has vowed to continue with its nuclear program. “It is obvious that we are facing pressure by the U.S. sanctions. But will that lead to a change in policy? I can assure you it won’t,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif last week at a conference in Qatar.

“If there is an art we have perfected in Iran and can teach to others for a price, it is the art of evading sanctions.”

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mate Change Minister James called the pact “a significant win” and alleged that “it illustrates the impact small countries can have.”

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Representatives of 200 nations hammered out a new agreement that would reduce emissions and curb “global warming” following two weeks of marathon talks designed to salvage the Paris Accords.

The new rules mandate signatories to the 2015 Paris Accord to develop uniform standards for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and obligates them to report how they plan on combatting climate change. The agreement also provides a path for countries that are not meeting their emissions requirements to improve their policies and forces wealthier states to assist their poorer counterparts in developing more environmentally-friendly energy policies such as green energy alternatives.

A surprising signatory to the agreement was the United States, which said it would implement the new regulations despite President Donald Trump’s announcement in June 2017 that he would pull out of the accords. Alleging that “the Paris accord will undermine the U.S. economy,” and “puts the U.S. at a permanent disadvantage,” Trump pledged during the 2016 presidential campaign to expand the use of gas and coal.

The fledgling pact was controversial among many nations, who said the agreement did not go far enough in curbing emissions. Many participants agreed to the deal only after negotiators agreed to convene once more in 2020 to discuss further steps in the fight against climate change.

“Through this package, you have made a thousand little steps forward together,” said Poland’s Michal Kurtyka, who oversaw the summit.

Acknowledging that “we will all have to give in order to gain,” Kurtyka said that the international community needed “to be courageous to look into the future and make yet another step for the sake of humanity.”

Nevertheless, New England’s Cli-

A fire raced through a neighborhood in the Brazilian jungle city of Manaus early on Tuesday, engulfing at least 600 wooden houses built on stilts due to seasonal floods and sending thousands fleeing from their homes.

“It’s perhaps the biggest city fire in the history of Manaus,” said the deputy chief of the local emergency service, Hermogenes Rabelo.

The inferno started late Monday and was only brought under control shortly after midnight after a threehour struggle by more than 100 firefighters. Thankfully no one perished in the blaze, although four people were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. More than 2,000 people were forced to flee their homes, grabbing whatever possessions they could manage to hold in the chaos.

The fire took place in Educandos, an impoverished and densely populated district near the center of Manaus that sits on the Rio Negro, a river that joins up with the Amazon River to flow out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Access for fire services was hampered by the narrow alleyways in the district, and tow trucks had to be used to haul vehicles out of the way.

Authorities say that it’s possible that an exploding pressure cooker is to blame for the fire. Gusty winds contributed to the decimation.

Such fires are common in poorer neighborhoods and slums in Brazil, where scant government planning during decades of rapid urbanization resulted in informal settlements sprouting up, housing millions who sought jobs in urban centers.

Rift between Canada and China Widens Relations between China and Canada continues to deteriorate as Canada holds Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in custody at the request of the United States.

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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Meng was released on bail last week but is forbidden from leaving Canada, despite repeated requests by China for her release.

The arrest infuriated China, whose state-run media claims that U.S. President Donald Trump ordered Meng arrested to be used a bargaining chip in trade talks between the two superpowers.

“The Chinese side strongly urges Canada to immediately rectify its mistakes, and release the detained Chinese citizen and truly guarantee their relevant legal and just rights,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. “We strongly urge the U.S. to revoke the relevant person’s arrest warrant immediately.”

China has arrested two Canadian citizens in retaliation for Meng’s detainment. Last week, China confirmed that it is holding former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor until the crisis is resolved. The two are charged with subversion and endangering Chinese security.

China’s ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye called the arrest a “premeditated political action” in a series of op-eds he published in newspapers all across Canada.

“The detention of Ms. Meng is not a mere judicial case, but a premeditated political action in which the United States wields its regime power to witch hunt a Chinese hightech company out of political consideration,” wrote Lu. “The so-called long-arm jurisdiction of the United States, however, has no legal basis in international law.”

Kindertransport Compensation An agreement has been negotiated between the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germa-

ny and the German government for child survivors to receive compensation payments for the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport.

“Our team has never given up hope that the moment would come when we could make this historic announcement,” Julius Berman, president of the Claims Conference, announced on Monday.

The Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”) was a rescue operation that brought to Great Britain more than 10,000 Jewish children under the age of 17 from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig between December 1938 and the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939.

Following Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, the situation of Jews in throughout the Third Reich worsened. An appeal was made to the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Neville Chamberlain, to allow unaccompanied Jewish children, without their parents, into Great Britain. Almost all of them – who were placed throughout Britain in homes, schools, and farms – were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust.

“This payment comes at a time when we are commemorating 80 years since these children took their fateful journey from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain,” said Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Claims Conference special negotiator. “After having to endure a life forever severed from their parents and families, no one can ever profess to make them whole; they are receiving a small measure of justice.”

Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, said this is a time to take a moment to commemorate this recognition and sacrifice. “No one can imagine the pain on train platforms as the Kindertransports began, and the extraordinary steps these parents took to give the opportunity for life to their children – a life those children led without mothers, without fathers, and in many cases, without family of any kind,” he said.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

The Kindertransport Fund will be opened by the Claims Conference on January 1. As of that date, requests for compensation can be submitted for free, without the need for assistance from any agent or lawyer.

In the past, some Holocaust survivors received payment during the 1950s, but previous payments will not prevent those eligible to receive this new compensation. The criteria for receiving the compensation were determined by the German government.

New U.S. Air Base in Japan

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Dump trucks began moving dirt and workers poured cement at the site of a new U.S. military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa this week despite significant opposition from local residents.

The new base is being built at the southern half of the island in order to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan.

Locals have slammed the project as an environmental disaster and want the U.S. troops to move off the island entirely.

The tiny island of Okinawa hosts 47,000 U.S. military personnel.

Residents have long opposed the base due to the noise and pollution the air base brings with it.

Okinawa residents told reporters at a nearby protest that the Japanese government’s decision to move forward with the construction was undemocratic and ignored local sentiment.

“Okinawa is one of Japan’s prefectures,” Nago municipal assembly member Kumiko Onaga said. “Sadly, however, that is not recognized.

“Is Okinawa a colony (of mainland Japan), not one of the prefectures?” Onaga asked. “Does the central government think it does not have to listen to the opinions of Okinawa because it is a colony?”

“I can’t help but feel strong anger at the start of (land reclamation), which ignores the will of the Okinawan people,” added Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki.

Despite the backlash, Japanese officials said that relocating the air base was vital for keeping U.S. forces in Japan. Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya reminded protestors that the nation needed the U.S. presence at the island as a deterrent to adversaries such as China and North Korea. Earlier, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said that relocating the military base is “the only solution that addresses operational, political, financial and strategic concerns.”

Two Soldiers Killed in Shooting Attack

Two IDF soldiers were gunned down while they protected a hitchhiking post at a Jewish village a few miles north of Jerusalem last Thursday.

A preliminary IDF investigation found that two terrorists drove up to the hitchhiking post near Givat Assaf in the Binyamin region and opened fire from point blank range.

Sergeant Yovel Mor Yosef, 20, and Corporal Yosef Cohen, 19, were killed instantly; another soldier was seriously injured when he was shot in the head. Bet El-native Shira Sabag was moderately hurt as well but is expected to make a full recovery.

The two terrorists then fled the scene with a gun belonging to one of the soldiers before abandoning their vehicle near Ramallah. The IDF and Shin Bet internal security service launched a massive manhunt after the perpetrators and have sealed off several Arab villages.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Mor Yosef and Cohen had both served in the Netzach Yehuda-Nahal Haredi unit that caters to ultra-Orthodox troops. The male-only unit offers special conditions for charedi soldiers, such as food with a higher level of kashrut and a unit rabbi who looks after the spiritual needs of the troops.

“They were such sweet boys, always wore smiles on their faces.

Their friends loved and admired them; they were friends with everyone,” Netzach Yehuda Rabbi Yehuda Fuchs told Arutz Sheva. “To hear that guys like that, boys who were so full of energy, happy, upbeat, have fallen is indescribably painful. I met now with their friends; everyone is in terrible shock.”

The attacks came amid an upsurge of terrorism in the Binyamin area. Earlier in the week, a terrorist opened fire at a hitchhiking stop in Ofra, only a mile away from the attack in Givat Assaf. Seven people were injured in the shooting, including 21-year-old Shira Ish-Ran, who was 30 weeks pregnant with her first child. Doctors worked feverishly to save Ish-Ran’s child after performing an emergency c-section but he tragically passed away four days later.

Another soldier from Netzach Yehuda was also seriously injured a day later after he was stabbed by a terrorist in Bet El. The IDF has sent more troops to the area amid fears that a third intifada is underway.

Journalist Who Survived Auschwitz Passes Away

Noah Klieger, a Holocaust survivor who went on to become a prominent journalist, passed away at the age of 92 in Israel last week after battling heart problems.

Born in France, Klieger had been sent to the Auschwitz death camp as a child and was selected for the

gas chambers. Klieger managed to talk his way out of certain death by convincing the infamous Dr. Joseph Mengele that he was an accomplished boxer.

Klieger’s fictitious boxing career enabled him to join the death camp’s boxing team, which enjoyed better conditions than their unfortunate brethren. Following the camp’s liberation, Klieger moved to Israel and fought in the War of Independence in 1948.

Klieger went on to become a celebrated journalist for Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper, authoring a number of books and a weekly column that ran for over 45 years.

Due to his personal experience, Klieger was known as one of Israel’s most preeminent authorities on the Holocaust and covered the trials of Adolph Eichmann and John Demjanjuk, otherwise known as “Ivan the Terrible.” Klieger also covered the trials of other prominent Nazis in Europe.

In 2016, Klieger related his own personal story before the United Nations General Assembly. Recounting his hellish experiences at the hands of the Nazis, the journalist said that he was determined to live as long as

he could in order to tell others what he went through.

“When I tell the story, people do not believe me. This chapter is not over. I’m in my 90s and I work for Yediot Aharonot. I was born as a journalist and I will die as a journalist,” Klieger told the UN. “The only thing I could do in Auschwitz was to dream knowing that I could never realize them,” Klieger continued. “When I was in Auschwitz, I had three dreams: the first was, of course, to survive this hell on earth, and I was convinced that I would not because no Jew was brought to this camp to survive, only a few.

“The second was that I would survive because I had to. My mission is to tell as many people as possible what the Nazis did to the Jews, and for 60 years I have been speaking in Israel and all over the world,” Klieger added.

“My third dream was to assist the Jews regain their land from which they were expelled into exile. This dream was realized in Israel, our Jewish historic homeland. I am very proud that I have achieved all my dreams.”

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Special Forces Eliminate Barkan Terrorist

Last week, Israeli Special Forces killed the terrorist responsible for a shooting attack at the Barkan Industrial Zone in October, capping off an intensive two-month long manhunt.

The Israeli Police’s elite Yamam unit had closed in on Ashraf Na’alowa at a factory near Nablus. After Na’alowa had refused to give himself up, Yamam commandos opened fire and killed him after a short firefight.

The Shin Bet security service said in a statement that Na’alowa was about to commit another terror attack, something “which was prevented with the thwarting of the assailant.”

Na’alowa had tied up Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi on Oc-

tober 7 at the Barkan Industrial Zone in Samaria where he worked before escaping. Na’alowa managed to evade an intensive manhunt for more than two months before security forces finally tracked him down.

Na’alowa’s mother, father, and brother have already been indicted by the IDF for being aware of his murderous plans, yet failing to alert authorities. Na’alowa’s father also attempted to prevent the Shin Bet from uncovering his whereabouts by hiding his car and destroying closed circuit television footage surrounding their home in the Palestinian city of Tulkarem.

The successful operation came hours after Yamam killed one of the terrorists responsible for the shooting attack in Ofra a few days earlier that led to the emergency delivery and subsequent passing of an unborn baby.

The families of the Barkan attack victims praised the successful liquidation of the person who had taken their loved ones but decried what they said was the government’s lax policies towards terrorism.

“This won’t bring back Kim or Ziv, but I had preferred that the terrorist not be caught alive,” Levengrond’s husband told Hadashot News. “He would’ve been jailed and released in

ten years with an academic degree, so this is a small consolation. I never thought it would take this long.”

“It’s not consolation, but there is relief that the murderer of my son is no longer alive,” Hajbi’s father added in an interview with Ynet. “We feared he would be captured alive and then we would have to deal with him in court. So I’m happy they killed him.”

Cancer is Israel’s Biggest Killer

A new study has found that cancer is responsible for the most amount of deaths in Israel, followed by heart disease and diabetes.

According to the report, which was compiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics, 43,966 Israelis passed away in 2016. 25% of the fatalities were cancer-related, while 14% died from heart disease, 5.8% from infectious diseases, and 5.2% by strokes and diabetes.

Deaths caused by other people, such as murders or traffic accidents, made up 4% of all deaths.

The report notes that 49.4% of those who passed away were males while 50.6% were women. 80% were older than 65 while 6% were younger than 45; 1.3% were infants under one year of age. Heart disease was the highest cause of death for Israelis over the age of 85.

The most common form of cancer among males was bronchial trachea and lung cancer, followed by large intestine and rectal cancer. Among females, the most recurring kinds of cancer were breast cancer, bronchial trachea and lung cancer, and large intestine cancer.

Cancer took more Jewish lives than Arabs’, with cancer killing 25.4% of Jews to only 21% in the Arab sector, a phenomenon researchers attributed to the Arab community’s lower average age.

With 177 deaths for every 100,000 citizens, Israel has one of the lowest rates of cancer-caused mortality in the world, behind Japan, Finland, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico.

Knesset Confirms Bibi as Defense Minister

The Knesset voted to confirm Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as acting defense minister 5956 this week, giving Netanyahu his fourth ministerial portfolio.

The vote passed following a raucous three-hour debate in Israel’s house of parliament, in which opposition lawmakers repeatedly blamed Netanyahu for a recent spate of terror attacks and alleged that he would be unable to juggle so many portfolios at once. Besides for Defense, Netanyahu currently heads the Foreign Ministry, the Absorption Ministry, and the Ministry of Health.

“He finished off our deterrence in Gaza; [Hamas Gaza chief] Yahya Sinwar is giving victory speeches in the streets,” said Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid. “There’s a wave of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. In the North, he held press conferences...but the idea should be to calm things down, not to heat [them] up and to make it clear the enemy is Hezbollah and not all of Lebanon. Yesterday, half of his cabinet protested against his policies. That’s after a month on the job.

Israel can’t allow him to stay.”

Zionist Union lawmaker MK Tzipi Livni pointed to Netanyahu’s record vis-a-vis Hamas to accuse Netanyahu of being weak on terror on security matters.

“The problem,” said Livni, “is Netanyahu’s personal and political weakness. Once, he was promising in the area of security. He wrote a book on how to fight terror... He told the citizens of Israel, ‘I know how to defeat Hamas.’ But then the promises disappeared, and reality came.”

Netanyahu has been defense minister ever since Avigdor Liberman resigned last month. Alleging that the government’s lack of action towards Hamas constituted a “capitulation to terror,” Liberman pulled his Yisrael Beytenu faction out of the

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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coalition.

Despite threats by Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett that he would topple the government if not appointed defense minister, Netanyahu said in a televised speech that the “tense and delicate security situation” mandated that he head the Defense Ministry.

Due to the overload of juggling four ministries at once, Netanyahu has pledged to appoint a foreign minister and absorption minister within the next month. Likely candidates for the foreign minister position are said to be lawmakers Tzipi Hotovely and Michael Oren.

Snow Days? No Way

Kids love the snow. Perhaps they enjoy the frothy iciness that coats the town as the flakes swirl around. But more than that, children know that once the flurries start flying, they’re bound to hear the sweetest words: no school today. But now, school districts are starting to change that – and we can’t believe that kids are too happy to have snow days taken away from them.

In Anderson School District 5 in South Carolina, students can’t just stay home from school when the snow begins to fall. Instead, they’re sent assignments electronically through their Google Chromebook, which do not require internet service. The Chromebooks are provided to students by the district at no cost.

The district’s first “eLearning Day” was on October 11, when schools were closed because of Hurricane Michael. Pictures of teachers and students doing schoolwork from home circulated on Twitter, using the hashtag #a5elearning. Overall, the initiative involves dozens of

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schools in five South Carolina school districts.

According to Anna Baldwin, the director of eLearning and integration for Anderson School District 5, the first eLearning Day went off without a hitch. She said that the district “feels good about where we are and where we’re going with the program moving forward.”

The eLearning program has been in the testing phase since 2014 in other states like Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Indiana, and Pennsylva-

nia.

Google has been reaching into schools gradually.

“Chromebooks have the ability to make education more immersive, access to information infinite and turn any environment into a learning environment,” Naveen Viswanatha, product lead for Chromebooks & content for education at Google, said.

Apart from the Chromebook, teachers can also use Google’s learning management system

to provide lessons, resources, and support.

“We’ve heard about students using Chromebooks and G Suite for Education video conferencing and tools to chat and collaborate on school work, and even to participate in class when home sick,” said Viswanatha. “Leveraging Chromebooks for eLearning on snow days is yet another example of how the flexibility and mobility are enabling new opportunities for educators and students to connect outside of the walls

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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he was liberated; he weighed just 80 pounds.

Wiener moved to pre-state Israel and then to the United States. He lived for most of his life in New York, where he rarely told his story. But after moving to Oregon, a state with just a few Holocaust survivors, Wiener felt a need to tell of the atrocities he experienced. He eventually become a prominent Holocaust educator, making hundreds of speeches every year before schools, universities, and social clubs about the horrors he went through.

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of the classroom.”

District 5 is not just using Chromebooks for snow days. They say it’s a great way to make sure students are learning in mid-June, when the school has make-up days that only a quarter of the students end up attending. The eLearning days count towards the 180 days required by the state.

Let’s hope that educators in New York don’t get any bright ideas…

Prominent Holocaust Survivor Killed A prominent Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to teaching others about the horrors he experienced was killed last week after being hit by a car.

Police said 92-year-old Alter Wiener died after a vehicle slammed

into him while he was crossing the street in the town of Hillsboro, Oregon. He was evacuated to the hospital but passed away from a severe head injury.

Born in Poland, Wiener spent three years in various Nazi concentration camps. After the Russians liberated Gross Masselwitz, Wiener vainly searched for his missing relatives. Only two members of his family survived.

Wiener was 18-years-old when

He later chronicled his experiences in his book, From a Name to a Number: A Holocaust Survivor’s Autobiography. Earlier this year, Wiener lobbied Oregonian lawmakers to pass a bill mandating the state’s public-school system to educate students about the Holocaust.

“There can be no better tribute to Alter Wiener and all survivors of the Holocaust but for this mandate to come to fruition in the next legislative session,” said a statement by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust. “May the memory of Alter Wiener be a blessing for his family and for those of us who were privileged to know him.”

Wiener’s family said that his longevity was a testament to his love of life and dedication to giving back to the community.

“At 92, and with so many ailments, we did not expect dad to be immortal but are still reeling from the shock of the way that he did leave this earth,” wrote his son on Facebook. “His reputation in the community preceded him; the officers who called me from the Hillsboro PD were very compassionate and one even commented, ‘It’s hard to believe he survived the concentration camps only to die in this way.’”

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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Apple has announced that it will construct a massive operations center in Austin, Texas, in what is its most significant departure from its California headquarters to-date.

Pledging to invest more than $1 billion in a new 133-acre campus, the tech giant said that the new location would add 5,00 jobs, with the possibility of creating another 15,000 after construction finishes in 2021.

Jobs created at the new campus will include a broad range of functions including engineering, R&D, operations, finance, sales and customer support.

The move comes as Apple looks to branch out to other regions in the Unites States. With 7,000 employees already based in Austin, the central Texas city is already Apple’s biggest location outside of its home base in Cupertino, California. Apple said it will also expand operations in Seattle, San Diego, and Culver City.

“Apple is proud to bring new investment, jobs and opportunity to cities across the United States and to significantly deepen our quarter-century partnership with the city and people of Austin,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement. “Talent, creativity and tomorrow’s breakthrough ideas aren’t limited by region or zip code, and, with this new expansion, we’re redoubling our commitment to cultivating the high-tech sector and workforce nationwide.”

Apple also hailed its role in job creation, stressing that it employs upwards of 90,000 workers in all 50 states. Saying that it “added 6,000 jobs to its American workforce in 2018,” Apple alleged that it’s on pace to create even more opportunities within the next few years.

“As announced in January, the company is on track to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2023,” the company predicted.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott greeted the news that one of the world’s biggest tech empires was boosting its

investment in his state.

“Apple is among the world’s most innovative companies and an avid creator of jobs in Texas and across the country,” said Abbott. “Their decision to expand operations in our state is a testament to the high-quality workforce and unmatched economic environment that Texas offers. I thank Apple for this tremendous investment in Texas, and I look forward to building upon our strong partnership to create an even brighter future for the Lone Star State.”

Experts say that Texas’ combination of low taxes, minimal regulation, and elite universities has transformed the state into an increasingly attractive option for large corporations.

Russian “Influencer” Pleads Guilty

A Russian spy who allegedly was tasked with infiltrating the U.S. conservative movement in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential elections has pleaded guilty.

30-year-old Siberia native Marina Butina pleaded guilty on Thursday to engaging in conspiracy against the United States. Butina’s guilty plea makes her the first foreign citizen to plead guilty to attempting to shape the 2016 election since the massive Russian influence operation was first exposed.

As part of her plea bargain, Butina has promised to fully cooperate with investigators “in any and all to matters as to which the Government deems this cooperation relevant.”

Butina was first arrested this past July and charged with violating Section 951, which bans operating as an agent of a foreign government.

Butina had first been sent by the Kremlin to get close to highly influential figures in conservative politics back in 2015. Posing as a graduate student in cybersecurity, Butina grew increasingly close to major power players on the national political scene,

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

including Donald Trump Jr., Governor Scott Walker, and Governor Bobby Jindal.

The Russian spy memorably utilized the National Rifle Association (NRA) to grow her profile and make connections. Pretending to be an ardent defender of gun rights, Butina developed a relationship with donor Paul Erickson, a prominent Republican known for his close relationships with the NRA’s leadership. Butina’s connections to the gun lobby solidified to such an extent that she coordinated a trip for the NRA to visit Moscow in 2015, where they met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Butina reportedly often bragged about her connections with senior officials in the Republican Party and told acquittances during the run-up to the 2016 election that she was playing a central role in relations between the U.S. and Russia.

“She said so in my class. And she said so several times in the last semester. She is a former journalist, so she keeps up her connections in Russia.

And she also works and [claims to] keep connections with a member of the Russian Duma,” a former professor of hers at the American University told the Daily Beast.

Tiny Insect; Formidable Foe

Asked to name destructive factors plaguing the U.S. economy, most people would mention tariffs and high taxes. Few would think of insects, and even less would blame the hemlock woolly adelgid for causing billions of dollars in annual losses.

Yet this insect, which is native to Asia, is causing the U.S. lumber industry to hemorrhage billions of dollars every year. Imported via cargo shipments, these pests have become an unlikely source of economic ruin that has left large swaths of the United States reeling.

According to a recent New York Times report, insects infiltrating the

mainland from overseas have been slowly but steadily wiping out forests all across the U.S. With local agriculture unable to immunize itself from its influence, experts compare the effect the insects have on trees to the diseases the early pilgrims brought to the Native Americans.

The most reviled of the 450 non-native insects is the hemlock woolly adelgid. Imported from Japan in the 1950s, the bug has an insatiable appetite for giant eastern hemlock trees that are prevalent on the East Coast. In 2015, the USDA Forest Service estimated that the hemlock wooly adelgid was infesting 20 states.

“The adelgids defoliate the lower branches of the hemlocks first – they do this in a pretty systematic way – and we often see a tight little clump of hemlock needles at the top of the tree, and then it dies,” Matt Toenies told Forbes. The author of a wide-ranging study on the subject Penn State University, Toenies said that the U.S. government has yet to take the appropriate steps that would counter the problem.

“So far, as far as stopping [the infestation] on a large scale, there is not anything promising that I know

of,” said Toenies.

The pests commonly arrive in the U.S. via shipping pallets and go on to burrow into nearby forests, causing $2 billion a year in damage.

“They’re very tiny, so one of them won’t bother the tree. But when we have millions and millions of them on a tree, it eventually kills the tree,” ecologist Gary Lovett told The New York Times.

Congress had attempted to deal with the issue by regulating pallets as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, something Lovett said was “a small step forward but it’s the first step forward.” The legislation was eventually watered down, however, under pressure from the $11.5 billion pallet industry. The final bill did not contain anything about pallets or the damage the insects cause.

Senior officials in the pallet industry defended the lack of legislation, pointing out that regulations implemented over a decade ago already mandate that pallets are either treated with heat or fumigated.

Meanwhile, the bugs keep on coming, and a coalition of lumber interests and local municipalities are trying to fight back.

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this is a situation where we’re getting a raw deal on trade,” Lovett said.

“Our trading partners are not only — we have a balance of payments problem — but they’re also sending us nasty bugs along with it.”

TSA Officially Scraps Monitoring Program

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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has scrapped a controversial program that monitored millions of innocent travelers who had no known connections to terrorism.

The TSA told The Boston Globe that it will no longer monitor passengers who exhibit behavior the agency defined as irregular, such as strange body language and multiple bathroom breaks during flights.

Federal Air Marshal Service Director David Kohl acknowledged that “any routine passenger behaviors on a plane that would be seen as a normal behavior, we are no longer capturing that.”

“If there’s nothing, there’s nothing,” Kohl added. “We’re not going to follow passengers from curbside to checked baggage areas when there’s no observation that would lead us to say there’s more to this than a normal traveling passenger.”

One air marshal interviewed by The Boston Globe contended that the monitoring remained unchanged, however, saying that the only change was the scrapping of the after-action report. “We still have to monitor these folks to see if they act suspicious,” the air marshal pointed out. “It just takes away doing a report on everyone.”

Under the program known as “Quiet Skies,” air marshals followed certain citizens as if they were dangerous terrorists, including compiling reports on the travelers’ dress, eating habits, facial expressions, and behavior during flights. Marshals would also fill out a report on every traveler it found suspicious along with ad-

ditional reports on anyone the said traveler had interacted with during his journey.

An average of 35 passengers would receive the enhanced screening daily, including fliers who were not on any terror watchlist. The surveillance occurred mainly on domestic flights and was ongoing since 2012.

Civil libertarians and privacy advocates had slammed Quiet Skies after The Boston Globe first exposed its existence in July.

“These revelations raise profound concerns about whether TSA is conducting pervasive surveillance of travelers without any suspicion of actual wrongdoing,” said senior American Civil Liberties Union official Hugh Handeyside.

“If TSA is using proxies for race or religion to single out travelers for surveillance, that could violate the travelers’ constitutional rights. These concerns are all the more acute because of TSA’s track record of using unreliable and unscientific techniques to screen and monitor travelers who have done nothing wrong.”

Senate Scraps U.S. Support in Yemen

The United States Senate recently voted to cut off military support to Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen as backlash to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis grows.

Several Republicans bucked President Trump’s opposition to support the bill, which passed by a margin of 56-41. The non-binding resolution calls on the U.S. military to withdraw any of its personnel from Yemen within 30 days.

The bill still needs to be passed in the House in order to become law and marks the first time the U.S. legislative branch has voted to pull soldiers out of a conflict zone since the War Powers Act passed in 1973.

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human rights disaster today. Yemen has been ripped apart by bloodshed since the Iranian-linked Houthi insurgents overthrew the Yemeni government in 2014.

After the Houthis conquered wide swaths of territory, Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen to support the government out of fear that rival Iran would get a foothold on its doorstep. An ongoing naval blockade led by Saudi Arabia has caused widespread famine that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

According to the UN World Food Program, 15 million Yemeni civilians are already suffering from what it calls a “food catastrophe.” The group estimates that the figure can easily rise to 20 million if the blockade is not lifted imminently.

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“I hope ... we send a loud and powerful message by passing this resolution: that we’re going to bring peace to that country and that the United States Congress is going to reassert its constitutional authority to make the body that makes war not the president,” said Senator Bernie Sanders after the resolution passed.

While admitting that there were “legitimate concerns” regarding Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen, Sen-

ate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lobbied fellow Republicans to vote against the bill in order to protect the United States’ influence in the region.

“We also want to preserve the 70year partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and we want to ensure it continues to serve American interests and stabilizes a dangerous and critical region,” said McConnell.

Saudi Arabia responded by indict-

ing the “interference,” which it said was a result of “untrue allegations.”

In a sharply worded statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry blasted the resolution as “unsubstantiated claims and allegations and contained blatant interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, undermining the kingdom’s regional and international role.”

With hundreds of thousands of Yemeni civilians killed, the civil war in Yemen is seen by many as the worst

A group of Asian-Americans have sued New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over his efforts to diversify New York City’s most elite public schools.

The lawsuit alleges that efforts to ensure that other minorities have higher representations at the city’s top performing academic institutions will lead to fewer Asian-Americans getting accepted.

“We all have the American dream of equal opportunity,” said Yi Fang Chen, a Chinese immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years. “I was able to achieve what my parents came to this country for. But by using race preference to determine student enrollment at these excellent schools, it’s like the mayor is taking someone else’s dream away.”

Joining the lawsuit are organizations such as Asian-American Parents, the Asian American Coalition for Education, and the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York De Blasio and New York City Department of Education Chancellor

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The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

Richard Carranza have received significant pushback from Asian-Americans ever since they announced in September that it would reserve 20% of spots at the city’s nationally recognized high schools for poor students.

The students will be chosen from a group that barely missed the minimum score on the entrance exams for eight academic institutions such as Stuyvesant High School, the Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School.

Competition for a position in the aforementioned schools is cutthroat, as it is seen by many as a path to an elite university without paying the exorbitant tuition that private high schools charge.

In recent years, the student population at New York City’s specialized schools has been dominated by Asians. Despite making up only 16% of the city’s total population, Asians constitute more than 75% of the student body of its top high schools. Their top grades generally guarantee them a spot at the elite schools. Parental pressure and a determination to succeed are the impetus for their higher grades. Conversely, African-American and Hispanics make up only 11% of the schools because of their lower grade point averages despite accounting for 70% of New York City’s total population of high schoolers.

The litigation comes amid an ongoing lawsuit against Harvard University regarding its admissions policies that favor minorities, to the exclusion of Asians. The Asian-American Coalition charges that the elite university systematically discriminated against Asian students during the admissions process in order to include more Latino and black students in the overall student population.

Tuskegee Airman Dies at 100 A fighter pilot who fought with the United States’ first African-American air squadron during World Word II has passed away at the age of 100.

New York City police officers said they found Wilfred DeFour dead in his Harlem apartment after responding to a 911 call. The cause of death is unknown but authorities have ruled out foul play.

DeFour is famous for flying with the Tuskegee Airmen during World

War II, the first-ever flight squadron comprised entirely of African-Americans in the history of the armed forces. Started as a way to recruit more African-Americans into the military, the Tuskegee Airmen grew to include pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and ground support crews and numbered 20,000 personnel at its heights.

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Defour recalled his experiences in November at a ceremony in Harlem to rename a local post office the Tuskegee Airmen Post Office Building.

“We didn’t know we were making history at the time,” said DeFour.

“We were just doing our job.”

He added, “I regret so many of my comrades are no longer here with us.

It will mean there’s recognition for Tuskegee Airmen, and that’s very important.”

Interior Secretary Steps Down

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced over the weekend that he will resign his post amid mounting ethics probes into his personal

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

and professional life.

Zinke’s departure was first announced by President Trump on Saturday, who did not provide a reason for the senior official’s sudden resignation.

“Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure, and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation,” tweeted Trump.

The president added that “the Trump Administration will be announcing the new Secretary of the Interior next week.” Until a replacement is found, the Department of Interior will be run by Zinke’s deputy David Bernhardt.

The Department of Interior is seen as one of Washington’s most powerful federal agencies, as it regulates large amounts of public land and controls the National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Likely candidates to succeed Zinke include Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, outgoing Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, and former Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis.

Following Trump’s announcement, Zinke said in a statement that he was leaving his position in order to fight his growing legal troubles.

“I love working for the president and am incredibly proud of all the good work we’ve accomplished together. However, after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations,” said Zinke.

A decorated veteran of the elite SEAL Team 6, Zinke had headed the sprawling agency since March 2017.

He has been dogged, however, by seven parallel investigations into his alleged improper behavior, with the probes expected to accelerate after the Democratic Party takes control of Congress in January, Among the allegations facing Zinke are accusations that he brought a security detail on overseas trips, used National Park Service helicopters for personal excursions, and permitted his wife to use his government-issued vehicle. The Department of Justice is also looking into whether Zinke interceded to allow a real estate deal to proceed in Montana that would have provided a financial windfall to his family.

Zinke had also received major

pushback for promoting initiatives that would have deregulated large swaths of federal land to enable more oil drilling and construction.

Democrats and environmentalists have charged that Zinke’s moves to expand oil drilling and coal mining would have a destructive effect on the environment.

Murder Charge for Killing Taliban Bombmaker

An elite U.S. Special Forces veteran has been charged with murder for killing a Taliban bombmaker eight years ago.

The U.S. Army indictment accused Major Mathew L. Golsteyn of murdering “a male of apparent Afghan descent known as Rasoul” while deployed in the war-torn nation in February 2010.

The highly decorated veteran has been investigated by the U.S. Military regarding his role in the incident for over seven years. Golsteyn, a veteran of West Point and an officer in the elite Green Berets, had participated in a bloody battle near the city of Marja that killed Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary, 27, and Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, 19.

Following the death of the two soldiers under his command, Golsteyn’s squad found bomb-making materials in the house of a known Taliban supporter that was identical to explosives in the battle. Upon bringing the suspected bombmaker back to base, Goldsteyn’s unit encountered a local warlord who was secretly collaborating with the United States.

Fearful that the Taliban supporter would expose the covert relationship, Golsteyn then shot the bombmaker and buried his body in a garbage pit to cover up his actions.

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He later exhumed the corpse and burned it to destroy any evidence.

Golsteyn’s actions came to light after he allegedly admitted what happened during a polygraph test he took when applying for a job with the CIA. “Golsteyn stated he had no qualms about what he did because he couldn’t have lived with himself if the suspected bombmaker killed another soldier or marine,” read the resulting Army criminal report into the Special Forces veteran.

The investigation couldn’t prove that Golsteyn had killed the insurgent and was closed for lack of evidence in 2014. Golsteyn was, however, stripped of his Silver Star and dismissed from the U.S. Special Operations forces.

The criminal case was reopened after Golsteyn admitted that he killed the bombmaker as part of a Fox News documentary that aired in 2016, giving Army investigators new evidence of his complicity in the murder.

“I’m here right now because of that interview,” Golsteyn admitted to NBC last week. “I did the interview because I wanted to do some advocacy, not talk about my case or what happened in Afghanistan.”

Bambi Sentence

What better way to reform a hunter who kills indiscriminately than by making him watch the movie “Bambi” over and over and over again?

Judge Robert George of Lawrence County in Missouri sentenced David Berry Jr. to a year in jail for illegally killing deer, taking only their heads and antlers, and leaving the rest of their bodies to rot. But living in a prison cell for 12 months is not going to reform this poacher.

Instead, the judge informed Berry that he will be required to watch the Walt Disney movie “Bambi” once a month. In the 1942 animated classic, Bambi’s mother is shot and killed by

hunters. Bambi is left to fend for herself and has to learn to deal with her grief and survive.

“Berry Jr.’s convictions are the tip of a long list of illegal fish and game activity by him and other members of his family,” Lawrence County Conservation Agent Andy Barnes noted.

Wildlife officers had interviewed suspects from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Canada, tying 14 Missouri residents to more than 230 poaching charges across 11 counties.

Berry was arrested on August 31, 2016 alongside David Berry Sr. and Kyle Berry after an almost nine-month investigation, and other Missouri residents were ordered to appear in court on related charges, most having to do with illegally taking deer.

Charges from this group alone total more than 300 in state, federal and international jurisdictions.

Perhaps the prison should rent out a movie theater for all these felons to watch the classic film.

No Fly Fish

Lanice Powless was left fish-less while boarding a Southwest Airlines flight in Denver. The airline told the University of Colorado sophomore that she could not bring her fish onboard when she traveled home for the holidays.

“I’ve taken him everywhere with me,” she said.

Powless bought the fish during freshman year. She was feeling lonely and wanted a pet. Now Cassie, a pink

male beta fish, is her friend and nibbles Poweless’ finger when she puts it in the water.

Despite her deep relationship with the slippery pet, the airline said that only small animals that can fit under a seat can be brought onboard.

Fish can be brought on planes as carryon luggage, according to the TSA. The airline did not allow Powless to leave the fish for someone to pick up. Instead, Powless found a passenger on another airline to take her fish for her. She said she doesn’t have that person’s name or contact information, so she doesn’t know how she’ll get her pet back. Southwest representatives said they offered to book Powless on a later flight; she insisted on flying on her originally scheduled flight.

Powless is home for the holidays but said it won’t be a happy time.

“Everyone’s laughing at me,” she told KGTV. “Yes, it’s a fish. I know.

But dang, it was my pet. And just because it wasn’t a cat or dog, it wasn’t as important?”

In August, Southwest Airlines announced it was limiting passengers to one emotional support animal per person ― and only dogs and cats are permitted.

Sounds like Powless is like a fish out of water with her fish.

A Pearl of a Find

Rick Antosh will remember the lunch he ate earlier this month for a long time.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

The New Jersey man was eating oysters with his friend at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan when he felt something in his mouth that didn’t quite feel right.

“We were engaged in conversation and all of a sudden, whoop, what is that? I didn’t bite on it, but I sensed something was odd. I thought maybe it was a filling or a tooth,” he told CBS New York.

Turns out, it wasn’t a filling or a tooth – it was a pearl, worth thousands of dollars.

“That was the best oyster pan roast I ever ordered,” Antosh laughed.

When he showed the luminous orb with the black dot to the staff, they confirmed that it was a pearl.

Finding a pearl in an oyster is extremely rare.

“The one chef in the restaurant said he’s been there 28 years and this is only the second time this has happened,” Antosh said.

Despite its worth, Antosh is going to hold onto this prized possession. He hopes it will bring him good luck.

The chance of a pearl forming in an oyster is estimated at 1 in every 10,000. It usually occurs when a piece of sand gets in the shell.

Package Karma

Thieves better beware. Mark Rober is on your case, and it’s not going to be pretty if you start up with him.

The former NASA engineer spent six months perfecting the perfect booby-trooped package for wouldbe thieves who snatch deliveries off people’s porches.

Rober said in a YouTube video that he was inspired to take matters into his own hands earlier this year when an Amazon package was stolen from his porch and police told him they didn’t have time to investigate the theft.

“If you’ve ever been a situation like this, you just feel violated,” Rober says in the video. “I just felt like

something needs to be done to take a stand against dishonest punks like this.”

Rober developed a package that covers anyone who opens it in glitter and envelops them in a sulfurous smell. In other words, steal Rober’s package and you’ll end up smelling like bad eggs with glitter in your eyes – not a good way to spend your day.

Rober left the packages on some friends’ porches to bait thieves, and the resulting instant karma was captured on video by phones hidden inside the boxes, which Rober said were quickly abandoned by the thieves once the traps were discovered.

“So the moral of the story is: just don’t take other people’s stuff. Not only is not cool, but on the plus side, you’ll never find yourself in this situation,” Rober says.

Um, Mr. Rober, I need some of those packages for my porch – pronto.

Fowl Foul Play

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mission is the funniest, or the most original, and the winner will be invited to spend an entire year without a smartphone. If they succeed and can prove it – the company says a lie detector test will be used, which is intense – they’ll get $100,000. Only make it through six months? You’ll still walk away with $10,000.

Lest you think that you’ll miss many important calls if you don’t have a smartphone for a year, Vitaminwater is going to be giving the lucky person a 1996-era cellphone to use throughout the 12 months of the contest. Now, all those important robo-callers will be able to get in touch with you – phew!

To help keep the person in the 21st century, they are also allowed to use laptops and smart home devices. The project is only designed to cut you off from updated technology that can fit in your purse.

Vitaminwater is running the contest to “break the cycle” of obsessive smartphone usage. According to a Nielsen survey, adults ages 18 to 34 spend nearly half their waking hours consuming media on their smartphone.

Vitaminwater wants to set us free and give us money? You really can have it all.

also ordered a kite and a lightbulb. It’s become so overwhelming that Marion has had to go over her Alexa logs each day to cancel the bird’s purchases.

Sounds like Rocco is sending her on a wild goose chase.

$100K for Ditching Your Smartphone

Want to earn a cool $100,000?

Vitaminwater is paying someone 100,000 bucks if they can go a whole year without using their smartphone. Hey, we didn’t say this is going to be easy.

To enter the contest, all you have to do is share a photo on Twitter or Instagram showing “what you’d do instead of scrolling” with the hashtags #nophoneforayear and #contest by January 8. A panel of judges will determine which sub-

Year End Sale Recently, Marion Wischnewski took Rocco, an African grey parrot, home from the National Animal Welfare Trust sanctuary because the fowl was speaking inappropriately in front of visitors at the sanctuary.

Life with Rocco is fun. He is amazing at speaking and imitating voices.

“He knows the telephone and can make different mobile ringtones,” Marion said. “He can do the microwave or the squeaking door on my fridge. He can do the ice cream van in the summer, and a truck reversing so loud you think it’s in your living room.”

Once Rocco was situated in her new home, though, Marion had a big problem on her hands. The parrot became friends with Marion’s smart device, Alexa. Soon Rocco was using Alexa to entertain himself, asking the virtual assistant to tell him jokes and play songs.

But then Rocco went even further.

He began to order some of his favorite items from Alexa, including watermelon, raisins, broccoli and ice cream. He

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Around the

Community Senior Serenade

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group of Shulamith eighth graders were privileged to join the Chaveirim group at the JCC for a lovely classical music

Science at HANC

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he students in Mrs. Cohen’s and Mr. Eisenkraft’s classes in HANC West Hempstead have been studying the use of energy and the importance of using natural resources to create energy. In the science lab with Mr. Eisenkraft, fourth grade students took a day to explore how the energy in potatoes can be used to power a lightbulb. The students connected a series of half potatoes with copper pennies and zinc nails to complete a circuit. At first students were discouraged because they were unable to power the lightbulb using a half a potato. They tried again connecting the wires in different ways; still they were unable to light the bulb. After discussing this issue as a class and through trial and error, students discovered that they would need to add more potatoes in order to provide enough power to light the lightbulb. The students persevered and were astonished when they finally saw the lightbulb light up.

It was amazing to see that an easily available resource can be used as energy. More exploration on circuits to come!

performance. Young and old sat side by side, mesmerized as they listened to the pianist and violinist play a variety of concertos and sonatas. After

the entertainment, the girls helped serve lunch and had the opportunity to spend time with the seniors. The Shulamith girls were overjoyed to

have this opportunity and hope to come back again soon!

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Around the Community

MishnaBoyz Go Hunting

Yeshiva University High Schools Annual Dinner of Tribute

Join Our Journey MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2019 • ‫תשע״ט‬ 6:30 P.M. • MARINA DEL REY

‫ב׳ שבט‬

Honoring

Nazila and Robin Baradarian Guests of Honor, YUHSG

Shuey Jacoby ’02 Alumni Achievement Award YUHSB

Jessica and Jonathan ’91 Landa Guests of Honor, YUHSB

Rabbanit Shani Taragin ’91 Alumni Achievement Award YUHSG

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his past Motzei Shabbos, instead of Ashreinu’s usual MishnaBoyz mishnayos shiur, the boys headed to Amazing Savings for an unbelievable scavenger hunt. Yossi Keilson explained all the rules to the boys, and then they were off to hunt. As one shopper remarked to R’ Daniel Waldman, “These boys are so well behaved and courteous.

It’s so nice to see boys behaving like this.” The first place winning team was Yisroel Dov Farkowitz and Zvi Unger.

Ashreinu would like to thank Leiby Zupnick and the entire Amazing Savings staff.

For more information regarding Ashreinu programs, email ashreinufr@gmail.com.

SKA’s IAC-G.O. Chanukah Campaign

By Talia Wein ‘19

I Liora Haibi Faculty Award YUHSB

Leah Moskovich ’07 Ethel Dworetsky Morrow z”l Faculty Award, YUHSG

#JoinOurJourney The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy/ Yeshiva University High School for Boys 2540 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10033 Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls 86-86 Palo Alto Street, Holliswood, NY 11423 For information or to RSVP, please visit www.yu.edu/hsdinner or contact Elissa Schertz at 212.960.5223

n an effort to take a step back from enjoying our holidays and recognize the chayalim who are away from home fighting this Chanukah, the Israel Action Committee and G.O. of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls joined forces for a wonderful Chanukah campaign.

The two committees set out to raise money for Standing Together, a tzedakah founded by Ari Fuld, z”l, over the week of Chanukah; the funds would enable Chanukah packages to be sent to lone Israeli soldiers.

The campaign was kicked off with an inspiring video made by IAC member Tammy Aryeh on Monday.

Throughout the Chanukah week, tzedakah was collected for this important cause through the SKA Chanukah Auction as all proceeds from the tickets purchased for the auction went toward the tzedakah campaign.

It was very meaningful being able

to donate tzedakah to show IDF soldiers who we care about; some students even went one step further by writing letters which would be delivered to the soldiers with their gifts.

To end off the campaign, Tehillim stickers with the tefillah for chayalim and a picture of a lone soldier who was a SKA graduate were distributed to the entire school to place in their daily siddurim.

The campaign was a major success – over $4,000 were raised to send the chayalim Chanukah presents. Yasher koach to the SKA’s entire Israel Action Committee and G.O.!

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Around the Community

Think Forward: The Jewish Future Fund

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group of young visionaries has joined forces to establish the Jewish Future Fund, a unique initiative that will invest in molding laypeople and leaders for the next century of Yiddishkeit.

As leading business people and forward-thinking idealists, the group set out to maximize the impact of their philanthropy by focusing on the future, not just the present. They sought to make a lasting impression on our children and grandchildren by investing in efforts that maintain a proven track-record of influencing positive Torah-true growth in people of all ages, but especially young people.

The Fund’s mission is to promote a vibrant Yiddishkeit; one that cares deeply for all its members, one that believes in sophisticated Torah study and builds communities that thrive on it, one that is both thoroughly traditional but unafraid of confronting the future, and one that is founded on the principles of

Founding members of The Jewish Future Fund: (L-R) Moshe Adelman; Mordechai Heller, CMO, Four Seasons Healthcare Solutions; Yaakov Adelman; Yitz Kaminetzky, CEO, Kāmin Health Urgent Care Centers; Av Rodin, Founder, Rodco Properties; Pinchos Scharf; Simcha Perkal; and Hillel Adelman

darchei noam.

The Jewish Future Fund will formally launch at its exclusive Inaugural Event in New York City this coming February.

Founding member Moshe Adelman sums up its mission succinctly, “There are many fine organizations that are tackling today’s challenges.

That’s not us. My colleagues and I are looking ahead to tomorrow. We want to take Torah ideals and use them to prepare for the next 25-50 years of challenges.

“More importantly, we’re looking to produce proactive growth.

We are not just tackling problems, we’re training the positive influenc-

ers of the future – the ones who will set the standard in communities around the country for the next half century. We’re an ambitious group.”

Forward-thinking individuals who wish to impact the future of the Jewish world are invited to participate in The Jewish Future Fund’s mission.

LAWRENCE PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE WINTER 2019 SCHEDULE OF FREE REGENTS REVIEW CLASSES, OPEN TO ALL RESIDENTS OF THE LAWRENCE SCHOOL DISTRICT COURSES WILL INCLUDE: Algebra 1 Geometry Earth Science Global History II English

Algebra II/Trig Chemistry Living Environment U.S. History

CLASSES WILL BE OFFERED ON: Saturdays - January 5, 12, & 19 - 8 AM - 12:30 PM Sundays - January 6, 13, & 20 - 8 AM - 12:30 PM For updated schedules & more information, please visit: http://lawrencehighschool.lawrence.org/ Classes will meet at Lawrence High School: 2 Reilly Rd, Cedarhurst, NY 11516 All District #15 students may attend. No reservations required.

ID is required for admittance to Weekend Academy.

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Around the Community

Smiles for Kids Of Courage

PHOTO CREDIT: BENJAMIN KORN PHOTOGRAPHY

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hat a Chanukah it was for Kids Of Courage!

On Tuesday, December 4, Kids Of Courage opened the 3rd night of Chanukah with an evening of laughter and joy. Over 300 people joined the organization at The Mansion at Lawrence for a special night with Elon Gold, renowned comedian and close friend of K.O.C. The evening began with a VIP dinner reception with Elon, the K.O.C. staff, and sponsors alike. Following the latkes, laughter ensued.

Elon’s performance brought happiness to the entire room; a way to remind donors that just like Elon is bringing smiles to their faces, they too are bringing smiles to the many Couragers that K.O.C. helps.

The goal of Kids Of Courage is to open the world to sick children who would not be able to experience adventure otherwise. The K.O.C. family provides practical and emotional support to these kids and their families, while educating the community about inclusion, diversity, and involvement. As a volunteer-driven organization, K.O.C. depends on the many volunteers, donors, and the

community at large to help these Couragers enjoy their childhood with fun, happiness, and inspiration.

In addition to the various events, Shabbatonim, and seasonal trips, Kids Of Courage will be heading south this January for the Miami Marathon. As part of K.O.C., Race For Courage invites campers, staff, families, and everyone who wants to

participate in an extraordinary marathon weekend to support K.O.C. in all their incredible endeavors.

What better way to spend Yeshiva Week and Mid-Winter Vacation than in Miami with an extraordinary team! Join Race For Courage this January 24-27 for 3 days/4 nights at the beautiful Confidante Miami Beach Hotel, with a Shabbos like no other, an invigorating race

to the finish line, and of course lots of sun. Whether you run, walk, or wheel, Team Courage is excited to have you along for the ride!

To register as a racer or to sponsor a racer, please visit www.raceforcourage.org.

For more information on how you can support the many efforts of K.O.C., please visit www.kidsoc.org.

the ninth grade in Yam Hatorah this September. It took a bit of time, but all of a sudden, he was doing well in class and on his tests. This quickly spread to all subjects, and we were so happy.

Today my son came home with two tests. On each he had received a 100. This would’ve been impossible just last year even when I studied with him. This time, though, it was

all on his own. He loves school and is happy to go each day. It has really been amazing for him.

We are so happy with our choice and just wanted to let people know to check Yam Hatorah out. Hatzlacha to everyone in finding the place that’s right for them.

A Happy Parent

A Secret in the Five Towns

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had an eighth grade son last year in one of the local elementary schools who, although very smart, had not done much in his last four years. I was looking for a clean, solid school that was small and warm, where hopefully he could get into things.

I looked into Mesivta Yam Hatorah. I had heard mixed things about it so I checked it out. After meet-

ing the staff and getting to see the program, I was convinced that the school was just what I was looking for. They had cleared out all bad influences and were really trying to be just the place I felt my son needed.

They had amazing rabbeim and a very professional English staff.

I had to first convince my wife, which I finally did, and then my son, which I kind of did. My son began

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Around the Community PHOTO CREDIT: IVAN H NORMAN

Bikur Cholim of Far Rockaway & The Five Towns held their 37th Annual Brunch in The White Shul this past Sunday. Hundreds of women crowded into the simcha hall to support this worthy organization. Rebbetzin Shana Braunstein led the recital of Tehillim. Mrs. Chani Juravel was the guest speaker. Sarah Liss was the Tehillim Recipient; Dr. and Mrs. Hylton Lightman were the guests of honor.

Kicking Out a Nazi – The Inside Scoop

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t 5:23 AM, on August 21, 2018, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman and the students at Rambam received an email from the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., stating that Jakiw Palij, the last Nazi war criminal living in the United States, had been deported to Germany.

This past week, students heard about the “inside scoop” which brought about the deportation. A panel of experts spoke to the students at Rambam during a special assembly, each one in turn congratulating the school for their tireless efforts that played a key role in the successful removal of the Nazi from the United States.

Rabbi Friedman began the assembly by speaking about the importance of commitment to a cause and involving others to make things happen. He also charged the students with the responsibility of continued leadership when anti-Semitism rears its head.

Mr. Neil Sher, a former director of the Office of Special Investigations (a division of the Department of Justice), successfully identified, exposed and deported many Nazis during his tenure at OSI. He lauded the students for their tenacity and reinforced the idea that nothing would have happened without their constant involvement. He sadly noted that this process took much longer than it should have, given the roadblocks put forth by the State Department on this and other cases. He explained that while the case against Nazis is crystal clear, the State Department oftentimes has “other political considerations” when it tries to implement

deportations – requiring the cooperation of other countries. In one particular case, “Germany told me we don’t want to take your garbage back – to which I retorted, you created the garbage,” said Sher.

Councilman Bruce Blakeman praised the students for their nonstop efforts and said that their persistence in working through the political process resulted in things getting done. Mr. Blakeman noted that he had contacted Congressman Peter King who led the charge of lining up political support to oust Palij.

He also mentioned Rambam’s efforts and support to lobby the Town of Hempstead to speak out against Airbnb, resulting in the resolution being unanimously passed by the town condemning Airbnb.

Mr. Michael Aronson, an editor at the New York Daily News, who joined the presentation, spoke about the shock he had when he read Rambam’s press release about the Nazi living in Queens. When he saw it, he

felt compelled to further publicize the story and successfully lobbied his colleagues to put the story on the front page and further supported it with an editorial.

Shortly after the New York Daily News provided the coverage, the New York Times ran an editorial as well. Months later, the Washington Post ran a front-page story on Rambam’s efforts to have Palij deported.

Rabbi Israel Singer, a noted Jewish activist and former head of the World Jewish Congress, spoke about the importance of Jewish activism and speaking out against anti-Semitism.

He recounted the negotiations he held with the Swiss regarding their possession of gold bars obtained from victims of the Holocaust. He explained that initially the Swiss denied that they were accessories to the German killing machine but “when a volunteer dentist examined the gold bars and found DNA present, the link to the gold extracted from the mouths of Holocaust victims was

firmly established.” The negotiations went from $25 million of compensation to $5 billion, said Singer. His message to the students was very pointed. In a nutshell he told the boys that no matter what they choose to do – become a rabbi, doctor, lawyer, etc. – they can, and must, use their talents and time to help Klal Yisrael.

Mr. Ben Landa, a noted activist and supporter of Jewish causes both in and out of the State of Israel, told the boys how important their efforts were. He noted that when he was in yeshiva high school, the talmidim were not permitted to attend rallies on behalf of Soviet Jewry. He told them how fortunate they were to be in a yeshiva that makes concern for other Jews a priority.

Rabbi Friedman summed up the sentiment of the speakers saying to the talmidim, “You have a lot to be proud of, but most importantly, you have a responsibility to always be the leaders in efforts to help klal Yisrael.”

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CHAZAQ Energizes NY Throughout Chanukah

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hanukah in New York was truly something special thanks to an array of riveting programs and events CHAZAQ hosted on the days prior to and throughout the duration of the eight-day holiday. From little children, to men and women, to public school kids and teens, CHAZAQ once again touched them all in a truly remarkable and unprecedented fashion.

Some of the events and programs during this time included a special lecture by Rabbi Mashiach Kelaty on Saturday night, December 1 at the Sephardic Cong. of Hewlett.

On the following day, CHAZAQ held a community-wide Chanukah children’s carnival at Cong. Har Halebanon in Brooklyn. Later that evening Rabbi Mordechai Becher gave a beautiful lecture at the Lido Beach Synagogue while R’ Yosef Palacci lectured at Cong. Kol Yisrael Achim in Great Neck.

On Monday, December 3, CHAZAQ was one of

Chazaq children’s carnival at Cong. Ohr Torah in North Woodmere

approximately 20 community organizations (including the QJCC, Emet, Torahanytime, and Shmira)

that hosted a special Chanukah celebration at the Beth Gavriel Center in Forest Hills with the Kaliver Rav, Rav Noach Isaac Oelbaum, and the Bukharian Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yisraeli.

On Tuesday night, December 4, CHAZAQ partnered with Ohr Navaa for A Night of Gratitude with Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, Charlie Harary, and R’ Weiss at Congregation Aish Kodesh in the Five Towns.

On Wednesday CHAZAQ hosted a special Ladies Paint Night event at the Beth Gavriel Center in Forest Hills which also featured words of Inspiration by CHAZAQ Director Rabbi Ilan Meirov.

CHAZAQ’s children Chanukah Toy Drive was in full swing putting smiles on the faces of many children in Maimonides Medical Center in Boro Park on Friday, December 7. On Saturday night, December 8, CHAZAQ’s Jwave Boys Teens division held a Chanukah Party at the Beth Gavriel Center in Forest Hills.

The following day, hundreds of children from CHAZAQ’s afterschool program for public school kids enjoyed separate Chanukah parties in Forest Hills, Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Kew Gardens Hills, and the Five Towns. Later that afternoon, CHAZAQ hosted a Com-

munity-Wide children’s carnival at Cong. Ohr Torah in North Woodmere.

That night, CHAZAQ’s Jwave teenage girls’ division held a special mother-daughter Chanukah party in Forest Hills while Rabbi David Ashear gave a special shiur on strengthening our emunah at Cong.

Tov in Kew Gardens Hills.

On Monday, December 10, the last day of Chanukah, CHAZAQ ended things with a bang by hosting the Big Apple Circus at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan, which was full of entertainment for the whole family. While all this took place, CHAZAQ continued to host dozens of afterschool programs for public school youth that take place throughout the week all year long, and CHAZAQ’s office staff continued to work tirelessly placing public school students into yeshiva (baruch Hashem well over 500 kids have transferred in over two years’ time!).

Indeed, after all is said and done, it would be safe to say that what CHAZAQ’s staff accomplish in several days others may not accomplish in several years.

To learn about future CHAZAQ events and programming visit www.

CHAZAQ.org or call 718-285-9132.

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Boy, Oh Boy, Scouts

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his past Sunday the Boy Scouts of America troop 1818 met for their honors ceremony. Troop 1818 is a Shomer Shabbos Boy Scout troop chartered through the Marion and Aaron Gural JCC in Cedarhurst. The boys have worked on their fire safety, knife safety, online safety, and outdoor safety skills, and have received their badges as a result of their hard work.

Using her social worker skills, leader Aliza Berkovics leads the boys in this young group of early 10-year-olds to 12-year-olds to self-discovery. Once a week the boys meet to work on their skills and do teamwork exercises. They learn how to shop for food, do price comparisons, being sure to take into consideration any scout’s food allergies.

They learn how to cook healthy food

on an open fire and, of course, clean up when they are done. They learn how to use the buddy system and other safety measures that the Boys Scout of America has created to ensure that no boy is ever in an uncomfortable or dangerous situation.

The boys are planning a Shabbos camping trip at the end of this month to the Pouch campground in Staten Island. They will be learning how to make a kosher eiruv while using the various knots they have learned and practiced. They have previously learned how to use a compass to find mizrach and daven Mincha during their last overnight.

The boys come from various backgrounds and schools including Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Siach Yitzchak, YKLI, HAFTR, as well as some homeschooled boys. They

A UNIQUE EVENING OF

CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR WOMEN, BY WOMEN will be held ‫בע״ה‬ Motzei Shabbos, December 9, 2017 — ‫כ״ג כסלו‬ at the home of Rivkah and Noah Kromholz 405 Oak Avenue in Cedarhurst Doors open at 7:45 PM, Program begins at 8:00 PM

Professional musicians and budding talent Suggested donation: $50 Proceeds to CKI - The Rabbi’s Fund (White Shul) ‫עניי עירך‬

‫לזכר נשמת שרה בת מנחם מנדל ע״ה‬

For further details and to join our email list, call 718-471-7057

come from the Five Towns, Far Rockaway, and Bayswater. Never allowing any of their differences to affect their friendships, they have successfully created a strong bond with each other and admirably created their own small community.

Together, they learn life skills while in a Torah atmosphere. The fact that they have fun doing so is just the cherry on the top of the sundae.

Aliza Berkovics can be reached at 516-476-1071 for information on open enrollment for Troop 1818.

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CAHAL Classes Bring Chanukah Joy

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his Chanukah, the students in the CAHAL classes had a chance to explore their creativity, share in the fun, and enjoy the chag, as they connected more closely to Hashem and to each other.

Mrs. Riva Ratner’s 2nd-3rd grade CAHAL class at Yeshiva of South Shore started the week with a STEM fine motor activity constructing 3D dreidels. The boys used 21 toothpicks and 10 gumdrops to build their own dreidels. The dreidels came out amazing, and the boys were so proud of their hard work. The 3rd grade students joined the mainstream classes in making their own wooden dreidels. Of course, they wrote in their journals about the different Chanukah activities. They really enjoyed illustrating their work.

The class topped the week off with a bowling trip. The boys all cheered for each other and demonstrated great middos and sportsmanship.

At TAG, the 1st and 2nd grade girls in Morah Sheree Samet’s CAHAL

class prepared creative gifts for their families that they designed and decorated on their own.

At YDT, the students in Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs’ 1st-2nd grade CAHAL class joined the entire 2nd grade in assembling, drilling and staining their own wooden menorahs. To culminate the festivities on the last day of Chanukah, all the 2nd grade classes assembled together to say Hallel and then learn a perek from Chumash. Finally, each class lit a candle, followed by a game of bingo and some potato kugel and soda.

Many CAHAL teachers hosted Chanukah parties in their homes.

Among them, Rabbi Dov Langer invited both his current and past middle school YDT students and their teachers. It was both a festive party and a reunion for all. Rabbi Justin Lepolstat and Rabbi Chananya Grinberg joined together to host a party for the 4th-6th grade HAFTR class and the 6th-7 th grade YOSS

class. The boys not only enjoyed the food and games but they delved into the deeper meaning of Chanukah and all it represents.

In the CAHAL junior high school class at Bnos Bais Yaakov, the girls chose to decorate cookies to send to an Ohel residence. While they had a wonderful time with this activity, they felt that the most joy comes from giving to others!

CAHAL, the local yeshiva-based and sponsored community program for children with learning challenges, now in its 27th year, provides smaller, more individualized classes in the local yeshivas catering to

children’s learning styles, where all the students attend mainstream activities daily, including lunch, recess, specials, assemblies, trips and more. When ready, children attend academic classes as well, with support from CAHAL to ensure success.

The experienced and caring CAHAL teachers make it happen.

CAHAL is currently accepting students. For more information about the CAHAL program and to donate to this great community organization, contact CAHAL at cahal@cahal.org or call (516) 2953666.

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Chanukah @Central

HAFTR Beit Hamikdash Fair

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n Motzei Shabbat, December 1, singer Simcha Leiner he came to Central to kick off the Chanukah spirit! The gym filled with students, their families, and faculty, who danced and sang the night away to Mr. Leiner’s music and his special Chanukah tunes.

The first day of Chanukah featured a “Dvar Torah SLAM.” Congratulations to seniors Leah Goykadosh and Hannah Koffsky on bringing down the house with their poetic divrei Torah. On Tuesday, each grade had its own Chanukah party at school, and seniors enjoyed another one at the home of Tamar Levine in the evening.

The week continued with a surprise bowling trip to Jib Lanes, where students were able to spin their bowling balls down the lanes, and with a lively and spirited Chanukah G.O. Chagigah!

During Chanukah, chessed was in full swing. The chessed club planned

several events to bring joy to the community during this festive season.

There were several visits to nursing homes to “Adopt a Bubbie” and share in activities with both “Bubbies” and “Zaydes.” The Chessed team also spearheaded a toy drive for Chai Lifeline and for children in the Briarwood Family Center Homeless Shelter.

They asked for unwrapped gifts to be brought in to be distributed to children in need during this holiday season. The students are bringing “light” to those around them.

he eighth grade girls at HAFTR learned all about the history of the Beit Hamikdash and showcased the various sections and items located in the Beit Hamikdash this week. Each group also presented PowerPoint presentations of the different jobs or roles of the kohanim who worked there. The Middle School students not only attended to observe the projects but also were provided with direct questions to ask and interact with the presenters and complete a survey to share what the “coolest thing” was that they learned today!

Mazal tov to the eighth grade girls for an amazing Beit Hamikdash fair! Thank you, Ms. Alyson Jacobs, for all your hard work organizing this special event!

The Friendship Circle Presents Hama’agal

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he Friendship Circle of the Five Towns presents Hama’agal, a recreational program for adults in their 20s and 30s with developmental delays.

This program is designed to provide high-functioning adults with a social outlet through travel and recreational activities. The program will take the proven model utilized by the Friendship Circle and complete the circle, the ma’agal, the Hebrew word for circle, for adults with developmental disabilities. The goal of

the program is to design events that adults get to enjoy on a regular basis but with the support that these individuals require. Hama’agal will provide programming and a social group that appeals to the adults that they have become in a supportive environment that accommodates kashrut and Shabbat observance.

The first planned event will take place on December 30, 2018. The group will enjoy an afternoon at Dave & Busters and then dinner at Ahuva’s Grill in Hewlett. The participants

will enjoy dinner out and order their own food in the company of others in a relaxed atmosphere.

Hama’agal is the brain child of the Horowitz family, and is being subsidized in memory of their wife and mother Rebbetzin Rita Horowitz, z”l.

Rebbetzin Rita Horowitz, z”l, dedicated over 30 years of dynamic service to her congregants and taught special needs students, helping them build their self-esteem by developing their creative side. In addition, she was also a mother to a child with spe-

cial needs, who is now an adult. The Horowitz family has benefited from Friendship Circle events for years and wishes to pay it forward and support the next stage that is so desperately needed in our community.

For more information, to register or volunteer go to www.FC5towns. com/Hamaagal The Friendship Circle is a project of the Jean Fischman Chabad Center of the Five Towns.

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YCQ JHS Chessed Day Trip

Rabbi Levitin’s fifth grade Darchei Torah class headed to Seasons Express this week to celebrate their accomplishments in Gemara

By Elmira Kohen and Rebecca Guttman, Grade 6

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n Tuesday, December 4, YCQ Junior High School students went on their yearly Chanukah chessed trips. Class 6g1 played Chanukah bingo with the seniors at Atria Kew Gardens. The Chanukah bingo was played by students choosing a resident who would then pick a Chanukah-themed card.

Whichever team was able to get BINGO first won. The students and residents loved participating in this game together, but loved getting to spend time even more.

All trips had a Chanukah celebration. Class 6g2 went to Cliffside Nursing Home; 6b1 visited the Rego Park Nursing Home; 6b2 spent time with residents of Boulevard Alps Assisted Living; 7g1 made a project with students from HASC; 7g2 went shopping for people unable to shop for themselves; and the students in grade 8 had activities and celebrated Chanukah with Bais Ezra students at YCQ. Adi Havivo, grade 6, said, “It

feels good to make people feel good.”

Channah Owadeyah, grade 6, said “I loved this trip and doing chessed because it made people feel good and because I got to make people happy.”

You might question why YCQ is taking the JHS school students these places. The answer is that YCQ wants all their students to be well rounded and to be like Hashem. Hashem does not need anything, therefore He just gives all day long. Another reason that YCQ hosts chessed trips all year long is so students could learn that Chanukah and life isn’t just for getting; it is also for giving. Usually children, especially during Chanukah, like getting more than giving. This chessed trip taught them that even giving can be fun – that making people happy is the best gift of all. This helped teach them to understand the real meaning of Chanukah. Seeing the smile on these people’s faces made them think that even the coolest toy on earth couldn’t replace that wonderful feeling of giving.

MTA Torah Bowl Lions Win

By Shua Pariser (‘20)

More than mac ‘n’ cheese The Aussie Gourmet, page 110

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n Tuesday, December 11, the MTA Lions Torah Bowl team competed in their second match of the season at JEC, where they played against TABC, JEC, and Heichal Hatorah. The afternoon began with all teams davening Mincha together as a group, followed by a series of 4 games. MTA won their first game against TABC, 35-6. In a tough battle against JEC in the sec-

ond game, MTA came up just short.

In the third game, MTA won against Heichal Hatorah, 34-3. In the fourth and final game against TABC, MTA came away with another win, 22-10.

Kudos to Eli Canter (‘22) for scoring the most points, with a total of 61 points at the end of the day. Torah Bowl Coach Rabbi Pearl treated the team to Dunkin Donuts to celebrate.

The team is grateful to Rabbi Pearl and Team Captain Rachamim Seltzer (‘20) for all their hard work!

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

Around the Community

Chanukah at Margaret Tietz

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argaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was proud to host and sponsor Chanukah parties at the facility and in the community throughout the week of Chanukah. We hosted two Chanukah parties for the Rego Park Seniors Club and sponsored Chanukah parties at the Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior Center, Young Is-

rael of Queens Valley Senior League, Chabad of Rego Park Seniors at Self Help, Ohr Natan, Central Queens Y Senior Club, and our own beautiful party for our residents and their family members with Rabbi Pearlman. Latkes and doughnuts were overflowing, and entertainment was enjoyed by all.

Please Join us Sunday, December 30, 2018 ‫כב' טבת תשע"ט‬

Keser Shem Tov Award

Rabbi and Mrs. Ilan and Masha Ginian

Amud Hachessed Award

Mr. and Mrs. Shuli and Pamela Halpert

Reception at 6:30 pm Dinner at 7:00 pm

Parents of the Year

Mr. and Mrs. Aron Tzvi and Briendy Robinson

8

th

Kol Yaakov Hall 1703 Mcdonald Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11230

Guests of Honor

Mr. and Mrs. Leon and Rachel Goldenberg

Chinuch Award

Audio-Visual Greeting

Rabbi and Mrs. Yisroel and Basya Ungar

Guest Speaker

Mr. Chaim Goldbaum

HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky ‫שליט"א‬ Rosh Yeshiva of Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia

Dinner Reservation & Ads Ad deadline: Monday, December 24 Phone: 718-506-1110 Fax: 646-352-0650 dinner@bnosyaakov.org www.bnosyaakov.org

Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser ‫שליט"א‬

Featuring

Bnos Yaakov Slideshow

Dinner Chairman

Executive Board Members Mr. Yankie Elbogen Mr. Avi Schron Mr. Yitzchok Stern

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Last week, the fifth grade classes of Siach Yitzchok took a trip to Brooklyn to visit the Novominsker Rebbe, shlita, in honor of starting to learn Gemara. The Rebbe first farhered the classes and then handed each boy their very first Gemara. The classes then headed over to pizza on 13th Avenue to celebrate this momentous occasion.

Professional Development Day at HAFTR HS

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AFTR High School administrators and faculty members enjoyed a wonderful professional development day focused on enhancing the school’s culture and advancing colleagues’ growth as professionals, educators, scholars, and community builders. Rabbi Shay Schachter, Rosh Bais Midrash of the Young Israel of Woodmere, opened the program with an inspirational message about the paramount value that Judaism places on education and the meaningfulness of dedicating one’s self to education of our youth.

Rabbi Schachter’s keynote address set the tone for the uplifting day of learning together that followed.

During a unique “Teacher Talk” session, colleagues were invited to

share a personal message about a specific skill they mastered that informs their ability to succeed as a teacher or faculty member. This was followed by targeted skill building activities, where colleagues delved into topics such as experiential learning, student engagement, and critical thinking through higher level questioning.

Colleagues then participated in sessions on the use of technology to advance learning, as well as the challenges that technology poses to educators and students, effective communication in the school community, strategies for supporting students with special education needs, and identifying and developing students’ unique strengths. The

day concluded with a “paint night” program, in which faculty had a chance to enjoy each other’s company and experience what it is like to participate in an activity outside

of their area of expertise or comfort zone.

Teachers look forward to upcoming opportunities to connect with and learn from each other.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

Y E S H I VA O F FA R R O C K AWAY

Celebrating a

YOVEL FIFTY YEARS OF HARBOTZAS TORAH ‫אות הכרת הטוב‬ HAGAON HARAV

YECHIEL YITZCHOK PERR SHLIT”A

ROSH

H AY E S H I VA

GIVING THE ROSH YESHIVA THE GIFT OF A MORTGAGE-FREE CAMPUS

‫שע"ט‬

‫ ת‬-‫תשכ"ט‬

BENJAMIN BRAFMAN HONARARY DINNER CHAIRMAN

JONAH LOBELL YESHIVA of FAR ROCKAWAY ⋅

‫איתן‬

‫דרך‬

‫ישיבה‬

⋅

MOLDING TALMIDIM BUILDING GENERATIONS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2019 THE SANDS ATLANTIC BEACH

For reservations or journal ad placement please contact:

P. 718.327.7600 E. dinner@yofr.org W. www.yofr.org

DINNER CHAIRMAN

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Nishmas HaTorah Installs New Board of Directors

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eshiva Nishmas HaTorah has been a fixture in the Five Towns community for eight years. With over a hundred proud alumni since its inception, the yeshiva has made a formidable mark on our entire area.

This past Elul, the yeshiva expanded to its first Mesivta class with 12 boys. It has gotten off to a great start, and the young men are experiencing the warmth and enthusiasm that has become the trademark of the yeshiva.

Indeed, the yeshiva’s reputation has already spread throughout the community. It just held its first Mesivta Open House which attracted a large crowd of parents from across the area who are keenly interested in having their sons benefit from its stellar chinuch.

As Nishmas HaTorah continues to grow, the Roshei Yeshiva, Rabbi Yissachar Blinder and Rabbi Pinchus Weinberger, have turned their focus to the future and formally installed a

Board of Directors.

The Board consists of dedicated local leaders, with the consultation of Rabbi Moshe Bender, who are committed to stewarding the expected growth and bringing the yeshiva to

the next level in enrollment, fundraising, and education.

The Roshei Yeshiva announced the names this week, including: Dr. Abish Mendel, chairman of the Board; Mr. Irving Langer; Mr. Evan Genack; Mr.

Adam Okun; Mr. Chaim Tepler; Mr. M.A. Baumen; and Mr. Sol Werdiger.

They look forward to much hatzlacha and myriads of talmidim in the years to come.

Shaaray Brightens Hospital Stays Through Family Mitzvah Day

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eople who spend Shabbos in hospitals miss family gatherings and the personal touches that are linked in their minds with the holy day of rest – Mom’s chicken soup, the fine china, and that challah knife or board from Israel that graces the table each week. To help personalize the hospital experience, Congregation Shaaray Tefila organized a Family Mitzvah Day where participants designed multi-purpose cloths to be used as challah covers or tablecloths for hospital Shabbos tables.

Crafters ages 2-82 used their creativity to design colorful cloths and included handwritten notes for patients in the hospital.

“Our members truly enjoyed fulfilling the mitzvah of bikur cholim and the knowledge that their handiwork will put a smile on the face of people who must spend Shabbos away from home and in the hospital,” said Rabbi Uri Orlian, Rav of Congregation Shaaray Tefilah.

“We are thankful to our project partner, Achiezer, for suggesting this idea and for arranging to distribute these tablecloths to patients who are staying over Shabbos at South Nassau Community Hospital,” continued

Rabbi Orlian.

At the event, Rabbi Orlian also shared his perspective on bikur cholim. “Although we assume the term bikur cholim means visiting the sick, it actually means inspecting the sick.

The Shulchan Aruch teaches us that there are two objectives of bikur cholim. One is to daven for the choleh at his or her bedside, and the second is to inspect and ensure that the needs of the sick are provided,” Rabbi Orlian said. “Now that we have hospitals, the medical team takes care of the health needs, and it is the job

of those who visit to provide for the emotional needs of the patient. By sending these personalized tablecloths patients can feel that there’s someone who cares for them.”

Family Mitzvah Day events are hosted once a month by Congregation Shaaray Tefila at the shul on 25 Central Ave in Lawrence. These events promote family togetherness and community service at the same time. Previous events included cup decorating for the local police force before Thanksgiving and sukkah decorating for the elderly.

Our next event will take place on Sunday afternoon, January 13. We will team up with the Friendship Circle and pack boxes for Tomchei Shabbos. The event will feature a craft component, as well as a fun game.

Pizza and ice cream will be served.

The December event was sponsored by the Alyeshmerni family l’ilui nishmas Shlomo Yonah ben Aharon Levi. To learn more about Family Mitzvah Days or to sponsor a future event please contact Rebbetzin Orlian at navaorlian@gmail.com.

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Rabbi Nochum Dinowitz presented the melacha of winnowing at the Learn and Live Program this week

HANC HS Donates 150 Bags of Clothing

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ANC High School students and families amazed even themselves, collecting four times as much clothing as originally predicted and donating them to Yad Leah. The drive took place throughout the month Kislev.

The Jewish Poor Committee, under the guidance of co-chair-people seniors Gabby Schoenberg and Daniel Abergel, collected and tallied bag upon bag of new or gently used clothing to be shipped to Israel where it will be distributed to those in need.

HANC students watched in

amazement as the collection box, beautifully decorated by the art committee as a wrapped present, overflowed on all sides, as the clothing kept coming in.

Rabbi Mezei’s girls’ grades 11 & 12 Beit Midrash class took the prize, bringing in 65 shopping bags of clothing, winning a Carlos & Gabby’s luncheon.

Thank you to the Jewish Poor Committee for helping to organize this event, and yasher koach to all those who donated to this important cause!

DRS Gemara Shiur Tested by Rav Meir Twersky, shlita

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ne of the amazing perks of being in Rabbi Dovid Willig’s 12th Grade DRS Gemara shiur is the opportunity to be tested on their Gemara learning by tremendous talmidei chachamim. Last

week, Rabbi Willig’s shiur visited Yeshiva University where they were given an oral bechina on the first seven blatt of Bava Metziah by Rav Meir Twersky, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva in YU. The talmidim were drilled by the

Rosh Yeshiva, and they baruch Hashem passed with flying colors, able to answer Rav Twersky’s hard-hitting questions.

In past years, Rabbi Willig’s students were tested by YU Roshei Ye-

shiva Rav Mordechai Willig, Rav Tzvi Sobolofsky, and Rav Hershel Schachter and Lander College for Men Rosh Yeshiva Rav Yonasan Sacks.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

Around the Community

New Optional Non-Dormitory Mesivta Program at Yeshiva Mercaz Hatorah Belle Harbor

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or more than three decades, Yeshiva Mercaz HaTorah of Belle Harbor has molded generations of talmidim for a life firmly rooted in Torah and the ideals of a ben Torah. The well-rounded shleimus that is a hallmark of the Belle Harbor alumni are a testament to the Yeshiva’s approach that the fundamentals of Torah are ultimately the keys to success in whatever path one ultimately chooses to pursue.

The Yeshiva’s ideal of nurturing the unique strengths and abilities of each individual talmid goes back to its founding Rosh Hayeshiva, Harav Levi Dicker, zt”l. Today, under the auspices of, yblch”t, his son and successor, Harav Shmuel Zev, shlit”a, that approach has been retooled to address the needs of today’s bochurim. The rebbeim and hanhala work closely with each individual talmid to maximize those kochos to their utmost potential.

Adapting to the Needs of Talmidim The Yeshiva’s idyllic location in the safe and serene enclave of Belle Harbor, New York, has always provided the optimum, out-of-town setting for unfettered aliya b’Torah. Yet, although removed from the bustle of the city, Belle Harbor remains close enough to accommodate younger bochurim who prefer to board at home.

Nowadays, many parents want to have their Mesivta bochurim board at home. With this in mind, the Yeshiva is introducing an optional modified program specifically geared towards those bochurim who wish to return home every night. Supervised transportation and other accommodations will be arranged for this group. The Yeshiva looks forward to maintaining its balanced mix of local talmidim, along with a contingents from communities across North America, and beyond.

The transition from a carefree young boy to a mature ben Torah begins in the ninth grade. The menahel, Rabbi Yossi Goldstein, serves as the ninth grade rebbe, lovingly guiding the talmidim through this crucial transitional year. Rabbi Goldstein is known for his trademark geshmak in learning. His passion and exuberance conveys the joy of discovering an illuminating pshat in a sugya. His warm personality endears him to his talmidim and has a way of infusing those around him with sheifos for ever-greater hasagos in Torah. At the same time, Rabbi Goldstein maintains the relationship of a trusted chaver, whom bochurim know they can confide in and share whatever is on their minds.

Accredited General Studies Program A solid secular education is crucial for the success a ben Torah in so many areas of life. As part of its commitment to providing talmidim with the optimum skills for whatever path they choose in life, the Yeshiva offers a first-rate secular academic program in which students graduate with a New York State Regents Diploma. Talmidim are also encouraged to take advantage of the Yeshiva’s fullsize basketball court. In addition, reserved hours are arranged for our talmidim at a nearby, well-equipped gym. Other outlets such as organized trips and kumzitsen provide stimulating fulfillment in a supervised and nurturing atmosphere.

For more information or to receive an application packet with the Yeshiva new brochure and video, please contact the office at 718-4743064 ext. 205 or Rabbi Goldstein at 347-201-3660. Applications may also be requested by emailing office@ymhbh.com or can be downloaded directly from the Yeshiva’s online web portal at www.ymhbh.com.

Three decades of Building Bnei Torah • Focus on the Character of a Ben Torah

New NonDormitory Option

• Warm Kesher with Rebbeim • Ideal Secluded Location • Well-Appointed Dormitory • Accredited Regents Curriculum • Round-the-clock Supervision

For more information or to receive an application, please contact

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at 718.474.3064 option 4 or 347.528.3660 E: applications@ymhbh.com

Brochure and Video

Will the Prince find his Princess?

Dating Dialogue, page 100

Phone: 718-474-3064

available upon request

505 Beach 129th Street | Belle Harbor, NY 11694 Email: office@ymhbh.com | Web: www.ymhbh.com

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

Taking the Air Out of Airbnb

A

few weeks ago Airbnb implemented a change in policy and decided to blacklist Jewish homes located in the West Bank.Upon hearing of this, students at Rambam Mesivta signed a petition and contacted Councilman Bruce Blakeman and Assemblyman David Weprin. Both representatives expressed their strong concern over the issue, realizing that Airbnb was buckling under pressure of Palestinian sympathizers.

Reading that the Beverly Hills City Council passed resolutions condemning Airbnb’s decision, Rabbi Zev Friedman suggested the same could be done on the East Coast.

The Beverly Hills resolution reads in part, “In the event that Airbnb does not stop, we call upon all civilized people across the globe to boycott Airbnb until such time as they desist from these despicable anti-Semitic actions.”

Councilman Blakeman and the Town of Hempstead swung into action. They held a special meeting to formulate a response to Airbnb and invited the students from Rambam to participate. They asked for two students to testify before the committee before a vote was to be held.

Twelfth grade student Eliyahu Levy addressed the assembly and said that based upon their new policy,

Avi Koenig, seated at center, delivers testimony to the Town Board

one would expect to see Airbnb stop listing homes in places like Crimea, Kosovo and other disputed territories around the globe. But that is not the case. Instead they chose to single out Israel. Airbnb lists property in war-torn areas where over 400,000 people have been displaced. “Their boycott of homes is not fueled by a moral compass but rather stems from a thinly veiled anti-Semitic and discriminatory bias against the Jewish State,” he asserted.

Eleventh grader Avi Koenig testified as to the inconsistencies of recent policy – pointing out that the blacklisting only applied to Jewish homes in the West Bank and did not apply to Arab homes in the same

geographic area. He also pointed out to the committee that the new policy violates the export administration act of 1979 and the Ribicoff Amendment of the 1976 Tax Reform Act which states that U.S. firms cannot participate in foreign boycotts that the United States itself does not sanction.

Rabbi Friedman addressed the committee and stated that BDS does not really stand for boycott, divestment and sanctions but rather for Bias, Discrimination and Segregation. He joined all of the Rambam students present, calling upon the members of the Hempstead Town Board to put forth a resolution that condemns Airbnb and put the com-

pany on notice that discrimination will not be tolerated.

Councilman Blakeman put forth resolution which was then unanimously passed.

“Hempstead Town is home to tens of thousands of Jewish-Americans,” noted Councilman Blakeman.

“We oppose Airbnb’s discriminatory decision to remove all listings in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and call upon Airbnb to correct this act of disrespect to the land of Israel and restore its original services immediately. We also call upon all short-term rental accommodation services to ensure that they do not engage in any discriminatory practices.”

From the Files of the Zichron Dovid ChesedShel Emes Division at Achiezer A Final Kindness

S

halom Jaroslawicz was manning the Urgent Line when Mrs. Sheila Kahn* called in.

Her request was indeed urgent, and while she did not know how to proceed, she did know where to turn.

Mrs. Kahn is the only observant member of her family, and she had just been informed that “Dad passed away, and we’ve decided to cremate his body.” The difference in cost between cremation and burial was staggering – $400 compared to $6,000 – and no one was willing to fit the bill. “Dad’s” body had already been taken to a cremation facility

near his home in California, and Mrs. Kahn had no idea if she could still stop the proposed cremation.

But she knew she had to try.

Knowing there was no time to lose, Achiezer staff was off and running. Calls were placed to several organizations in California, as well as to the coroner’s office. The good news was that it was still possible to stop the cremation. The next step was to convince the family to change their plans. Boruch Ber Bender gently pressed them to think of the future. Didn’t they want their children to one day have a place to come

“visit” their grandfather? It was this argument that won the day. That – and the reassurance that they would bear no responsibility for the cost of the burial.

Immediately, a message went out to local community members, informing people of the tremendous zechus available of bringing a meis mitzvah to kever Yisrael. Within an astounding 90 minutes, the requisite amount had been raised!

Two days later, a halachically acceptable burial took place in California, with a minyan of men in atten-

dance, including several members of the Five Towns community who had heard the story and were in the area at the time.

By joining hands with a most supportive community, Achiezer has made an eternal difference to one family. *Name and identifying details have been changed.

Join us at our Gala on January 6, 2019 at the Sands Atlantic Beach. For more information, visit achiezer.org/ dinner or call 516.791.4444 ext. 113.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

Around the Community

Eight Chanukah Parties for Soldiers

O

ver two thousand years ago, Jewish warriors called Maccabees liberated their people from the Seleucid Empire and protected them. Now, in the modern State of Israel, the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are charged with defending the Jewish people against those who wish to harm them.

Yashar LaChayal, a non-profit organization which provides humanitarian support to IDF soldiers, wanted to do something special this Chanukah to show appreciation and love for the ones who ensure that civilians can observe and celebrate the holiday in security. The organization has built and maintains fourteen “Warm Corner” rest stations throughout the country. The Warm Corners are small buildings at the entrances of towns within range of IDF patrols. They provide a warm, comfortable environment for soldiers to relax while on break. Food and beverages are supplied for free, and the Warm Corners are air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter.

Over the course of Chanukah, Yashar LaChayal hosted candle-lighting parties for soldiers at eight of its Warm Corners, one for every night of Hanukkah. Beverages and food including the traditional sufganiot were served to soldiers from the area, and residents of each town came together to celebrate with them and show their appreciation for all they do to defend Israel. At each Warm Corner, the menorah was lit by a soldier.

Some of the parties were sponsored by communities in the United States – the same donors who had funded construction of specific Warm Corners. The East Brunswick Jewish Center in New Jersey hosted soldiers at its rest stations in Einav and Psagot, and Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck hosted one in Ateret. The Young Israel of Holliswood sponsored a party at the Warm Corner in Ma’ale Hever, and the Florida-based Helping Israel Fund funded one in Nokdim.

Yashar LaChayal hopes to replicate the Chanukah campaign in future years and considers it to have been an amazing success. As one of the soldiers at the Warm Corner in Kiryat Arba said, “Thank you Yashar LaChayal! We had an amazing time, with all the dancing and the food.

This all really warms our hearts.

Happy Chanukah!”

For more information about Yashar LaChayal, visit: www. yasharlachayal.org or email info@ yasharlachayal.org.

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Around the Community

MTA Robotics Team Presents STEM Workshops

The children at HAFTR’s pre-kindergarten program delighted relatives with their Chanukah performance

Shulamith Mustangs Win

M

TA Robotics Team members David Kohanchi, Akiva Richman, Netanel Tager, Daniel Rosenfeld, Ezra Muskat, and Binyamin Peretz, recently presented STEM workshops to Yeshiva of Central Queens and Yeshiva Har Torah students. These hands-on demonstrations, which focused on software, gear ratios, and circuitry, showed students how to build their own circuits. Students learned how to build three different types of cir-

T

he Shulamith Mustangs, led by coach Temima Miller and captains Avigayil Mandel and Emma Spirgel, were victorious last week in two successive games.

They outscored Barkai Yeshiva by 35 to 15 and beat YDE the following night by a score of 30 to 12.

Even more impressive than their athletic skills was the team’s sportsmanship. During one game, the

referee approached Coach T and remarked that she was impressed by how the Mustangs helped the other team off the floor and high-fived them when they made a basket. She added that she had never seen such a considerate team in her career.

Clearly, for the Mustangs, this is already shaping up to be a winning season in more ways than one!

cuits: one that lights up using LED lights, one that lights up with the push of a button, and one that uses a photo resistor to dim the light. Our Robotics Team was excited to share their knowledge with younger students, who were incredibly engaged and happy to learn new skills.

If you are interested in hosting a workshop at your school, please email Rivki Schwartz at rschwartz@ yuhsb.org.

Small but powerful Tribe Tech Review, page 122

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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Around the Community

Shevach Bnos Leaders Inspired in Cincinnati

O

n Shabbos Parshas Vayetzei, November 17, six representatives of Shevach High School – Chava Crystal, Shoshana Finkel, Hadassah Gottesman, Ettie Langer, Faiga Raubvogel, and Yael Sommers – were fortunate to join over 300 girls from over 32 Bnos branches around the country at the National Bnos Agudas Yisroel of America Leadership Convention, held in Cincinnati, Ohio. The young ladies were welcomed warmly to the convention by the Bnos Leaders of Cincinnati and, in fact, the entire community, which had spent many months preparing for this special Shabbos.

The theme of the Shabbos was “Veohavav ketzais hashemesh bigvuraso,” with the leaders of Klal Yisrael being compared to the glow of the sun which rises and spreads light to the world. Over the weekend, the girls enjoyed many inspirational speakers, workshops and much more, all designed to help them become better Bnos leaders.

On Thursday night, the girls were fortunate to hear from Rabbi Motzen, Director of Government Affairs for Agudas Yisroel, who spoke about being a true leader.

He focused on the Hebrew word for responsibility, achrayis, and explained how each letter stands for another level of true leadership.

A true leader is one who takes responsibility for her own actions, for her family, for a stranger, for those who follow her, and who simultaneously seeks the guidance of rabbanim, every step of the way. Other aspects of a good leader are setting a good example, as well as being a role model worthy of being looked up to.

Another memorable speaker was Rabbi Yitzchok Preis, Director of Outreach for the Cincinnati Community Kollel. He spoke of the rampant disease of “FOMO,” the “Fear Of Missing Out,” which is spreading in our society. A leader turns those very four letters into the opposite: “Fine On My Own.” A leader who stands up for what is right is the kind of leader who will be followed.

Through the enjoyable and inspirational programming of the

weekend, the girls left the convention with guidance and tools which they shared with their fellow Bnos leaders, family, and even friends who were unable to attend the convention. And in conjunction with

the convention’s theme of “Ketzais Hashemesh,” the Bnos leaders, through all they gained from the convention, hope to cultivate the light of Torah not only within themselves but to spread it to the

world through their young and impressionable Bnos charges.

Thank you Ettie Langer and Faiga Raubvogel for reporting on this special event.

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DECEMBER29, 20,2015 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER | The Jewish Home

Op- d

Time to Educate the Education Department

By Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato

Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato with yeshiva students

I

am appalled, and if the situation was not so serious, it would be laughable. The recent guidelines set forth by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) for all non-public schools strongly insinuate that all yeshivas provide inadequate education. This is wrong on so many levels.

First, in my experience as an assemblywoman representing a strong Orthodox Jewish community and as a lifelong resident of the Rockaways, I can say that the yeshivas’ reputation precedes them. But merit cannot lay in a reputation. Furthermore, the successful products of the yeshivas should be enough verification of the high caliber of what is being taught. During my first term, I have visited classrooms and have spoken

with teachers, parents, students and administrators. I have been so impressed, and I am so proud of each

hard numbers and spreadsheets of accomplishments, I can assure NYSED that the parents and the

The successful products of the yeshivas should be enough verification of the high caliber of what is being taught.

of the schools within the district.

But the facts and figures speak for themselves.

While I am not here to provide

schools are devoted to these children, their education, and their future. I will fight for and defend the rights of yeshiva parents to send their

children to the schools they choose.

Prior to presenting these guidelines, NYSED leadership should have and still must communicate with yeshiva leaders and parents to understand the needs of the Jewish religious population. NYSED should not conduct its business based on insurgent opinion articles and baseless hatred. That is why I have called upon NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia to halt the impending plans and subsequent measures, until she truly understands the incredible services that yeshivas provide to its students and to society as a whole. Let us educate the Education Department to let them know that yeshivas do not need strict guidelines to fulfill their mission of educating the souls and minds of Jewish children.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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OCTOBER | The Jewish Home DECEMBER29, 20,2015 2018 | The Jewish Home

TJH Riddle me this?

One of England’s most famous astronauts, Tim Peake, revealed the following riddle that he had to answer during his selection process.

Imagine that you are facing a cube. This cube can roll to the left, right, forward (towards you) or backwards (away from you). There is a dot on the bottom of the cube. Now in your mind, roll t h e cube: forward, left, left, forward, right, backwards, right. Where’s the dot?

See answer below

You gotta be kidding One sunny afternoon, Bobby and Jimbo are walking down the street. Bobby suddenly points at the sun and says, “Look! That’s the moon over there!”

Centerfold Oxymoronically Speaking Words we use every day, but do they really make sense?

All-natural artificial flavor

Same difference

Temporary tax increase

Sanitary landfill

Plastic glasses

Adult male

American education

Alone together

Affordable housing

Business ethics

Found missing

New classic

Resident alien

Sweet sorrow

Advanced BASIC

Childproof

Genuine imitation

Clearly misunderstood

Airline schedule

Peace force

Good grief

Terribly pleased

Almost exactly

Computer security Political science

Jimbo says: “No, that’s the sun!”

Awfully good

Bobby replies, “No, it’s the moon!”

Act naturally

Jimbo says again, “No, it’s the sun!”

Pretty ugly

After arguing for a while, they decide to knock on a door of a nearby house and ask who was right.

Bubba opens the door and says, “Can I help you?”

Bobby replies, “Excuse us, can you tell us, whether it’s the sun or the moon in the sky?”

Twelve-ounce pound cake

Bubba squints as he looks into the sky and says, “I wouldn’t know.

I’ve only been living here for two weeks.”

Diet ice cream Working vacation Exact estimate Government worker

Answer to Riddle Me This: On the bottom of the cube! (Really? Astronauts have to deal with that too?!

Aaarrrggh!)

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TheJewish JewishHome Home| DECEMBER | OCTOBER 20, 29, 2015 The 2018

What Do You Know About the Apollo 8?

1. On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 was the first U.S. mission to orbit the moon. How many astronauts were on the Apollo 8? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 2. Approximately how long did it take Apollo 8 to enter orbit around the moon? a. 17 minutes b. 4 hours

d. 21 days 3. How much fuel did the Saturn V rocket, which propelled the Apollo 8, use per second?

b. 747 gallons c. 1 ton

4. Apollo 8’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean took only minutes. After settling into orbit around Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 received the “go” from NASA for trans-lunar injection. This meant they were clear to fire their engines and aim for the moon. But 18 hours after launch there was a problem that almost caused the mission to abort. What happened? a. Spacecraft commander Frank Borman fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea

c. 69 hours

a. 27 gallons

d. 20 tons

b. The crew discovered a crack in a fuel tank c. Upon exiting the atmosphere, the temperature dropped precipitously, causing icing

d. Waze stopped working and the crew was not sure how to get to their destination 5. How many times did the Apollo program land astronauts on the moon and bring them safely back to Earth?

exploded on a mission to the moon, causing the crew to abort the mission and return to Earth in a lunar module.

During which Apollo mission did this take place? a. Apollo 1 b. Apollo 9

a. 1

c. Apollo 11

b. 3

d.

c. 6

Apollo 13

d. 13 6. “Houston, we have a problem” is a popular quote from the radio communications between NASA Mission Control Center (“Houston”) and astronaut John (“Jack”) Swigert after a faulty oxygen tank

 Answers

 Wisdom Key 5-6 correct: You are a space cadet, in a good sense of the word!

3-4 correct: You are not here and not there...orbiting nowhere.

0-2 correct: Five Towns, we have a problem.

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3. D- The night before launch, aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh paid a visit to the Apollo 8 crew and noted, “In the first second of your 2. C 1. C

4. A- The commander felt better after getflight tomorrow, you’ll burn 10 times more fuel than I did all the way to Paris,” referring to his historic solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean.

ting some sleep, but as a precaution, the other crewmembers radioed to Earth on a private channel and explained Borman’s predicament.

NASA performed a private medical consultation for Bor-

6. D 5. C man. When hearing that Borman’s health had improved, NASA cautiously gave the approval to continue with the mission.

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

3

Torah Thought

Parshas Vayechi

By Rabbi Berel Wein

T

he era of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people ends with this week’s Torah reading. There are times when the passing of a generation happens without even notice. But there are other times when even a casual observer of the world scene realizes that the old era has ended and that a new one is about to begin.

The passing of Jacob and his children, in the entire generation of the 70 souls that descended into Egypt, was noticed by both their descendants and by the Egyptian government and people as well.

The benevolence extended to Jacob and his family – albeit because of Joseph and his act of saving Egypt from starvation – was to end.

The Torah does not expand on this attitude change except to remark the ancient anti-Semitic canard, that there are too many Jews and that they are too influential and not loyal. This excuse would be used to enslave the Jewish people and persecute them.

In history, sometimes things move slowly from one generation

to the next, whereas at other times they move rapidly and uncomfortably. By ending the book of Bereishis with the death of Jacob and Joseph, the Torah prepares us for the next book which will show the

be, Jacob and his descendants will continue to live.

Jacob has his wish fulfilled and is buried with his ancestors in the land of Israel. However, when it came time to bury Joseph, it is obvi-

Even after centuries of exile, after moments of terrible forgetfulness and confusion, somehow the Jewish people remembered where their true home was.

Jewish people in a completely different state of being. It is most interesting that the Torah calls this story of the end of the era by the word that indicates life. Life is always seen as a new beginning. No matter what the changing circumstances may

ous that the Pharaoh and the Egyptian people will not allow him, even in death, to leave their borders. But Joseph has a strategy that he knows will outlive the decrees and policies of any of the pharaohs of Egypt. He has his descendants take a solemn

oath that they will take his body from the sealed casket of the Nile River and return him to the home of the Jewish people, the land of Israel.

Joseph is confident that this oath and the memory of it within the psyche of the Jewish people will be enough so that even centuries later they will see to it that his body is removed from Egyptian exile and reburied in the land of his fathers, the land of Jewish eternity. After generations of slavery, idolatry and forgetfulness, the Jewish people will be redeemed. When that happens, they will recall the ancient oaths that they took, that they would take Joseph out with them and bring him to the land of Israel.

This is a paradigm, an example for all Jewish history and life.

Even after centuries of exile, after moments of terrible forgetfulness and confusion, somehow the Jewish people remembered where their true home was, where they would achieve great and mighty accomplishments against all odds. That is why this holy book describes life itself.

Shabbat shalom.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

From the Fire

The Chizuk of Parshas Vayechi

By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf

T

he entire parsha is filled with chizuk, encouragement. It says (Bereishis 48:2), “And Yisroel strengthened himself.” We also end the parsha with chazak, chazak, v’nizchazek, be strong, be strong, and be strengthened. Even in the haftara, as Dovid Hamelech is approaching his death, he says to his son Shlomo (Melachim 1:2:2), “Strengthen yourself and be a man.”

When Yaakov blesses his children in this week’s parsha, it says (Bereishis 49:28), “All of the tribes of Yisroel are twelve and this is what their father said to them and blessed them, each man was blessed according to his blessing.”

According to the mihsrafem, Yaakov gave each one the barcha that was coming to him, each one according to his own nature and his own character traits. That is why, with regard to Yaakov’s bracha for Ephraim and Menashe, Yaakov told Yosef (Bereishis 48:19), “I know my son, I know.” In other words, Yaakov was telling Yosef, “I know the nature of each child and I cannot switch one bracha for another.

Each one must receive the exact blessing which is fitting for him based on his particular nature.” A particular blessing can only take effect in one whose nature fits that blessing, “each man according to his blessing.”

This means that each of the blessings were already natural to each person. Yosef inherited his tzidkus, his righteous ability to separate from immorality, from his mother Rochel, who was a tzadeikes, a righteous woman.

Yehuda’s ability to admit, which made him fitting to be the father of Jewish kingship, was natural to him because

he inherited it from his mother Leah, who said, (Bereishis 29:35), “This time I give thanks [lit. “admit”] to G-d.”

According to Esther Raba 6:12, Binyomin’s inherited his ability to stay silent about what really happened to Yosef from his mother Rochel who stayed silent in order to avoid embarrassing her sister Leah. That is why Binyomin’s stone in the Choshen is the yashpeh, which stands for the words, yesh peh, he has a mouth, as if to say that he has a mouth but he keeps silent about the sale of Yosef. Mordechai and Esther, also descendants of Binyomin, similarly inherited their ability to stay silent by not revealing the fact that Esther was Jewish from Rochel. Shaul also inherited his ability to be silent about being appointed king from his great-grandmother Rochel.

Why then is it so great that Yehuda merited kingship because he confessed publicly in the story of Tamar? That trait was natural to him because he inherited it from his mother! One can ask the same question about Binyomin, Yosef and the other sons of Yaakov as well.

They were blessed according to traits they possessed naturally, so why all the fuss over accomplishments which came naturally to them?

Reb Yerucham Levovitz of Mir explains the meaning and essence of chizuk, encouragement, and his explanation will resolve all of the foregoing questions and teach us what we need to know to become great and reach sheleimus, the fulfillment of our personal potential. According to Reb Yerucham, chizuk means that a person takes the natural strengths Hashem planted within him, and then guards and

strengthens them. If a person does not abandon those strengths, but instead strengthens and increases them, then he will attain greatness. If he does that, then even his natural negative character traits will be transformed for the good.

The area in which a person is strong has a special chein, a charm in that person’s eyes, to the extent that he cannot see how other people, who weak in his area of strength, can be so weak in that area. If two people are talking, and one of them is very talkative and the other is more inwardly focused, the quiet one will think, “How can this guy talk so much?” and the talkative one will think, “Doesn’t he have anything worthwhile to say?”

It is Hashem’s will, however, that each person embraces and strengthens his natural strengths and build his entire life around them because if he does so, he will become great in those areas – “strengthen yourself and be a man.”

Ostensibly, it sounds very easy to embrace what you are naturally inclined to do anyway and strengthen that. But this is not so. One’s friends, other people, and even certain inclinations within oneself try to pull him away from his inner nature and to do things that are against his nature.

Avoiding that requires tremendous chizuk, encouragement, and strength.

One experiences many tests in life which are designed to tempt a person to rebel against his own nature.

When one strengthens himself in the areas where his natural talents and inclinations lie, he will become great. It is very tempting to dismiss the things which come easily to a person precisely

because they are easy and come naturally. That is why one must strengthen himself by realizing that he does not need to seek out new and novel things to focus on. Rather, if he guards, develops, and strengthens his natural strengths and talents, he will become truly great. One does not need to become someone else to become great.

Rather, he must become great in who he already is.

Perhaps this principle can also explain the Gemara in Megila 28a, where a number of Amora’im are asked to explain what they did to merit a long life.

One of the exchanges went as follows: “He asked Rabi Yehoshua ben Karcha, ‘With what did you merit length of days?’ He answered him, ‘In all of my days, I never gazed into the face of an evil person.’” Each one of the Amora’im cite one specific detail of halacha that they observed very carefully as the reason for their old age. For Rabi Yehoshua ben Karcha, it was the fact that he never stared intently at the face of a wicked person.

Superficially, it is a difficult Gemara to understand. These sages spent their entire lives immersed in Torah and tefilla. Why would anyone wonder how they attained their long life? They were righteous people who lived every moment in the service of Hashem. Of course they lived a long life.

With Reb Yerucham’s teaching, however, we can understand the Gemara. Rabi Yehoshua ben Karcha, for example, must have seen from a very young age that he had a natural aversion to evil. He naturally understood the difference between good and evil, between holy and the profane,

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

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and between the Jewish people and the nations of the world. Because he strengthened that trait, guarded it, and increased it, he was able to build up a life around that trait and make himself into a Reb Yehoshua ben Karcha.

Reb Tzadik Hakohen in Tzidkas Hatzadik 213 quoted Divrei Hayamim 2:4:10, where the judge Yaavetz asked Hashem, “Expand my borders.”

On a simple level, Yaavetz was asking Hashem to expand the borders of Eretz Yisroel. But Reb Tzadik explains on a deeper level that he was asking Hashem to take who he was and help him grow and expand that aspect of himself so that he could build an even greater self on the foundation of his own inner strengths.

One must be very careful, however, to use his natural inclinations for good. A natural inclination like Rabi Yehoshua ben Karcha’s, to turn away from anything evil, can be used to build a truly great person and build Yiddishkeit or a person could use that inclination the wrong way, spit on little

children in Beit Shemesh, and destroy Yiddishkeit.

I will share you the following story, the message of which is essential to successfully implement Reb Yerucham’s principle. If one does not understand this, everything said before will not amount to anything.

I recently read a story about the first

iner Rov was going to talk in learning with the up-and-coming young ilui, genius, Rav Shternbuch. At the meeting, the Tchibiner Rov asked Rav Shternbuch an extremely difficult question.

None of those present knew the answer but Rav Shternubch immediately gave a brilliant answer which resolved the difficulty.

One experiences many tests in life which are designed to tempt a person to rebel against his own nature.

meeting between Rav Moshe Shternbuch, one of the foremost poskim in the Beis Din of Yerushalayim and the Tchibiner Rov, the gadol hador in Eretz Yisroel at the time. People were excited about the meeting because the Tchib-

All of those present were amazed at the answer but the Tchibiner Rov pointed accusingly at Rav Shternbuch and told him, “That’s not your answer!” as if to imply that he had seen the answer somewhere before but presented it as

if it were his own. Rav Shternbuch remained silent because he knew that he had just thought of the answer on the spot. After a short while, the Tchibiner Rov explained to Rav Shternbuch, that he was only able to give such a brilliant answer because of his mother’s tefillos for him during candle lighting on Friday nights.

We all have our own unique talents and inclinations which we must develop and guard in order to become great. You also have to realize that it is the tefillos of our parents who constantly daven for our success that are the source of some of those strengths.

We should all merit to embrace and strengthen our own natural kochos, the strengths that Hashem gave us, so that we will become great people and merit the geulah sheleima.

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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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Between the Lines

G-d Bless You

By Eytan Kobre

B

y the time he turned 16, Andor Foldes already was a skilled pianist, despite a troubled childhood. At the time, Emil von Sauer, one of the foremost pianists of the day, visited young Andor’s hometown of Budapest, Hungary. Von Sauer was revered not only for his own talent, but also as the last surviving pupil of the great Franz Liszt.

When the two met, Andor sought to honor von Sauer by playing the most difficult works of Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann.

As Andor finished, von Sauer kissed him on the forehead. “Bless you, my son,” he said. “When I was your age, I became a student of Liszt. He kissed me on the forehead after my first lesson, saying, ‘Bless you, my son. Take good care of this blessing, for it comes from Beethoven, who gave it to me after hearing me play.’ I have waited many

years to pass on this sacred blessing to another.”

While one should seek out the blessings of the elderly and the pious (Rus Rabba 6:2 and 7:14), and even “the blessing of a simple person should not be taken lightly” (Megilla 15a; Berachos 7a), blessings that are genuine and heartfelt – the product of a sincere personal connection – are most powerful.

That is the reason, explains R’ Simcha Zissel Broide, Yaakov exerted himself to sit up when Yosef brought Ephraim and Menashe for a blessing, to form a personal connection with them before blessing them (Bereishis 48:2).

And when he could not form that connection due to his poor eyesight, Yaakov kissed and embraced Ephraim and Menashe to develop the requisite bond (Bereishis 48:10).

Yaakov went even further. Not

content to bless Ephraim and Menashe simply by virtue of being their grandfather (Chofetz Chaim, Bereishis 48:10), Yaakov asked Yosef who they were so that he would know and approve of them, and only then bless them (Ohr HaChaim, Bereishis 48:8-9; Tanchuma, Vayechi 6). All this, because a blessing is not a prayer: the latter depends upon a connection between man and G-d; the former depends upon a connection between man and man.

When R’ Shlomo Zalman Weissfish was a young boy, he often sought out the blessings of sages that he be successful in his Torah studies. His father regularly attended a shiur given by R’ Yehoshua Leib Diskin, whose blessing the young Shlomo Zalman very much desired. But his father never permitted Shlomo Zalman to tag along, unsure how his son’s request would be received by R’ Yehoshua Leib’s strict

temperament.

One day, the boy decided to follow his father to R’ Yehoshua Leib’s home, where he would sneak in to request a blessing. But, upon reaching the home, Shlomo Zalman was too intimidated to enter. Instead, he stood out front, sobbing loudly.

R’ Yehoshua Leib’s wife ran outside to find out what was wrong. When the boy eventually calmed down, he explained that all he wanted was a blessing from R’ Yehoshua Leib. Moved by the boy’s sincerity, R’ Yehoshua Leib’s wife brought him into the house and directly into the room where R’ Yehoshua Leib was delivering a complex shiur.

When R’ Yehoshua Leib heard Shlomo Zalman’s explanation, he too was overcome with emotion at the young boy’s sincerity, and he blessed the boy happily with all his heart.

AS with the Priestly Blessings, “the

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receipt of blessing does not depend upon the Priests but upon G-d” (Rambam, Nesias Kapayim 15:6-7). Even the personal connection between the giver and receiver of a blessing is intertwined with, and must acknowledge, the blessings that emanate from G-d (Pele Yoetz, Berachos). “The blessor recognizes that the blessing and the impact that he desires on behalf of those dear to him comes only from G-d. Through this recognition, the blessor attaches to and makes himself insignificant in relation to G-d, the source of all blessing. And who causes [the blessor] to be able to do so? The blessed, whose needs bring the blessor to this level” (Michtav M’Eliyahu, Vol. 2, pg. 207). While the power to bless once belonged to G-d alone, He ceded that power to Avraham Avinu, and, by extension, to the Jewish people (Bereishis Rabba 39:18). Man’s power to bless – no matter how great the man – is derived from G-d.

A woman once came to the Maggid of Kozhnitz to receive his blessing for an urgent matter. The Maggid told the

woman that he would gladly give her the blessing, provided she gave him the (immense) sum of 100 gold coins. The woman was appalled, but the Maggid remained steadfast.

The woman later returned and dumped 80 gold coins on the Maggid’s desk. “I went to great lengths to pro-

You’ve wasted your time in bringing me a mere 80 gold coins. Take it back.”

Now the woman lost it. “Oh, really? I’m done with you! Forget it. I’ll just rely on G-d for my needs; He will help me!”

The Maggid’s demeanor was transformed instantaneously. “That is what

“Is it possible that where the King is available, people make requests of His servant?”

cure this large sum,” she explained, “and I simply do not have 100 gold coins. Please consider this as payment in full.”

But the Maggid insisted on the full amount. “I will not give you a blessing for anything less than 100 gold coins.

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I was waiting for you to say. You see, when you first came to me, it was clear that you were placing all your trust in me. One must never forget that G-d is the source of all blessing. I never wanted your money. I demanded it only so that you would adjust your attitude and

place your trust in G-d. Now that you have done so, my heartfelt blessings are yours.”

Indeed, the Chofetz Chaim would often pose this question to those who sought his blessing: “Is it possible that where the King is available, people make requests of His servant?”

Fortunately, G-d’s blessings do not require us to travel great distances or even make donations to shadowy charities. G-d Himself offers the straightforward formula: “In all places that [you] mention my name, I will come to you and bless you” (Shemos 20:21).

So mention His name. Pray. Learn.

Do acts of kindness. Obey His commandments.

Because when we do those things, “G-d bless you” is not just a nicety – it is a guarantee.

Eytan Kobre is a writer, speaker, and attorney living in Kew Gardens Hills. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? E-mail eakobre@outlook.com.

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World

Builders

Moshe Levy Lifesaving with a Mission

By Raphael Poch

M

y name is Moshe Levy and in addition to being a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, I am also the Director of National Logistics & Development.

On Tuesday, I headed to the Golan

Heights in Israel’s northern region to meet with someone who could help us set up a home base for our volunteers in the region. We call these base volunteer centers in Hebrew Beit HaMitnadev, and they are spread across the country

to help build our volunteer network on a local front. The meeting took place in his office and I explained to the person I was meeting with what United Hatzalah does and why having a local chapter headquarters is important.

We use these headquarters for training, volunteer appreciation events, an equipment center, and as a local branch of operations for anything and everything that can help our volunteers in the region.

I spoke about our goal of responding to emergency medical calls in less than 90 seconds, our achievement of cutting down the average emergency response time throughout the country to less than 3 minutes, and the history of why and how we were founded. I further explained why it is important for us to a have a local headquarters in each city across the country in order to continue to expand our operations to meet the goal of providing a 90 second response time.

After talking with the man for more than an hour, I found that I still had not quite said everything that I had wanted to explain, but found that we were both hungry. So we adjourned for a time and headed to a local restaurant. We ordered food and continued our conversation. Just as I was answering one of his many questions, my radio buzzed to life and alerted me that there was a person nearby suffering a heart attack.

I, together with local branch head, Aviad Gadassi, jumped up from our seats, apologized for the interruption,

and asked that the man wait for us to return from the emergency.

We rushed over to the location of the emergency. We were met by two United Hatzalah volunteer paramedics who also responded and some recent EMT graduates. As a team, we treated the man for over 30 minutes while waiting for the intensive care ambulance to arrive. It had come from Tzfat, a city located in the Upper Galilee. This was in spite of a closer ICU ambulance being just 700 meters away in the local ambulance station. It seems that there was no local driver available, hence the elongated drive. Had we not been there, the man would not have stood a chance of surviving that long. Because we were there and treated the man quickly, we were able to revive him and stabilize his condition until the ambulance arrived and transported him to the hospital.

We returned back to our meeting at the restaurant. The food was cold, but our hearts were warmed by the knowledge that we had just saved a man’s life. As we sat down, the person we met with, who waited for us patiently, turned to me and said: “Moshe, brother, please eat. You don’t need to explain anymore to me about what United Hatzalah is. I just saw it in action. Whatever you need I’ll make sure that you get it.”

There is a sense of pride in working for an organization such as United Hatzalah. An incident that occurred not long ago exemplifies the work that

we do here for me.

One Thursday afternoon, a man walked into United Hatzalah’s headquarters in Jerusalem where my office is located. I was the first person he saw so he asked me, “When someone calls in an emergency, who answers the phone? Where is your dispatch center?”

I explained to him how the dispatch center works and where it is located. I asked him why he was so interested in understanding how the dispatch center worked.

The man replied by telling the following story: “About 45 minutes ago, I was riding in a taxi by the entrance to the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. I saw a friend of mine sitting by himself at a bus stop. I asked the driver to pull over so that we could give my friend a lift. The driver pulled over to the side of the road, and my friend got into the car. After approximately 400 meters, my friend collapsed inside of the taxi. I immediately called United Hatzalah’s dispatch number at 1221, and within 30 seconds, not one, but

two ambucycle EMTs arrived and performed CPR on my friend.

“My friend received a shock from the defibrillator, and then another and another. His pulse finally returned after the third shock. He suddenly began

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“I thanked the EMTs over and over again for saving my friend,” he said, “but I felt that I had to come here to your dispatch center and say thank you to the dispatcher who helped with the call as well. I want to shake his hand.”

The food was cold, but our hearts were warmed by the knowledge that we just saved a man’s life.

to breathe once more. I am completely overwhelmed with emotion right now, and I feel that I have been a part of saving his life.”

The man continued to overflow with emotion as I continued listening to his story.

I asked the dispatchers who answered the call as well as the dispatcher who sent the volunteers to step away from their desks for a moment. I introduced the excited gentleman to Ophir Yitzchak who received the call and instructed the man what to do and to Ye-

chiel Stern who guided the volunteers so quickly to the location.

“Thank you. From the bottom of my heart thank you,” the man said over and over again. “You saved the life of my friend, and there are not enough words in our language to say how much gratitude I have right now. All I can say is that you are doing the work of G-d by saving lives, and that those of us you help, as well as our families and friends, all say thank you.”

After the man left, I took a moment to reflect on the incident. Here I was, in the middle of my workday, when a stranger walked into the door and filled me with such a sense of pride and gratitude that I felt I simply had to share this story with whomever I could. It is no small feat to save a person’s life. You, as a stranger, walk into someone else’s life and help them in any way that you can. That is inspiring. But for us as responders to have someone walk in outof-the-blue and say thank you in such a way inspires us to be better at what we do – saving lives.

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Rav Chanina Herzberg, zt”l A Paradigm of Chinuch

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eshiva Toras Chaim Bais Binyamin, together with the Five Towns and Far Rockaway community and the entire Torah world, suffered a tremendous loss this past motzei Shabbos with the petirah of Rav Chanina Herzberg, Menahel HaYeshiva for nearly forty years.

Rabbi Herzberg was a master mechanech and a strong leader. He guided the yeshiva through many generations of talmidim, working hand-in-hand with the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l, with extreme devotion and care. He always kept the talmidim foremost on his mind, and he would often repeat to the rabbeim, “Remember, you work for the talmid! Not for the board of directors and not for the parents!”

Keeping to a cherished mesorah, his chinuch career focused on the “core curriculum,” ensuring that his

By Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky rabbeim spent their time teaching the basics of reading, Chumash, Mishnayos, and Gemara, first on an elementary level and then on a deeper level. Although he was always ready to improve and innovate, he would not lose focus with the myriad new curriculums introduced by many organizations over the past two decades which required the talmid to spend large amounts of time on additional subjects and projects. His goal was to incorporate everything –from learning about lashon hara to yedios klaliyos – within the context of the main limudim in yeshiva.

A Strong Influence

His warm embrace and acceptance of almost every child who walked the portals of the yeshiva germinated from his encounter with one of the gedolei Yisroel while he

was still a young boy. It changed his attitude toward Jewish education, and it altered the direction of his life.

Young Rabbi Herzberg, then known as “Charlie,” grew up in the East New York section of Brooklyn and attended Yeshiva Toras Chaim of East New York as a child. His future at the time did not seem that it would lead him in the direction of chinuch.

The great marbitz Torah, Rabbi Yitzchok Schmidman, told his parents not to worry about tuition costs and to send their son, Charles, to yeshiva. When he was ready for high school, his menahel, Rav Yitzchok Schmidman, took him to Rav Hutner, zt”l, in the hope that he would be accepted to Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin. Rav Hutner farhered young Chanina, but, as Reb Chanina admitted many times, he did not do well.

Then Rav Hutner asked him one final question, “Do you want to learn?” “Yes!” young Chanina replied.

“Well, then you’re in!” Rav Hutner replied with a smile.

This encounter changed his life.

He often repeated that question to boys who were old enough to understand that will to learn is the key.

When speaking to his talmidim about the importance of choosing the right mesivta, he would often repeat to his talmidim that when he was in eighth grade he wanted to go to the yeshiva with the best basketball team. But when he met Rav Hutner, that all changed.

A Rebbe for Life

Rabbi Herzberg enrolled in Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, where he admittedly spent quite a lot of time in the office of the menahel, Rav Shlomo

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Freifeld, zt”l. When Rabbi Freifeld opened Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, Rav Chanina was from the original talmidim who joined him.

From that moment on, he never left his Rebbe. In fact, many years after Rav Friefeld’s passing, he mentioned to Rav Aharon Schechter one time, “I was a talmid of Reb Shlomo.” To that, Rav Aharon responded with conviction, “Was a talmid? You are a talmid. Leolam va’ed!” Indeed he was. And that was a message he imparted to all the boys at Yeshiva of South Shore.

Just a few years ago, with only two weeks left to the school year, a boy was acting out of line. When his rebbe reprimanded him, the boy shot back, “You’re not my rebbe anymore, anyway!” The rebbe brought the boy to Rabbi Herzberg, who asked the talmid, “How much longer will your rebbe be your rebbe?” “Only two more weeks,” the talmid replied. Rabbi Herzberg paused, then banged on his desk and looked into the talmid’s eyes before teaching him a lifelong lesson, “Your rebbe is your rebbe for the rest of your life!”

Rabbi Herzberg became a talmid muvhak of Rav Shlomo and did not make a move without him. Any talmid who learned in Yeshiva of South Shore heard many stories about Rav Shlomo, zt”l. Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, rosh yeshiva, noted that there was hardly a serious conversation with Rabbi Herzberg in

which he did not “shtell tzoo” an idea from his rebbe, Reb Shlomo.

When he would interview a potential rebbe, he made sure to ask two important questions: First, “What are you learning?” And second, “Who is your rebbe?” If the candidate did not have an adequate answer, the inter-

the boy would love Rabbi Herzberg.

Rabbi Herzberg’s son, Yudi, repeated at the levaya how he one time received a 55 on a math test and nervously showed it to his father. Rabbi Herzberg, noticing his son’s disappointment, complimented him, and said, “55%! If you were playing for the

Alumni would often joke how the more trouble a boy made, the more the boy would love Rabbi Herzberg. view was over immediately.

In the early years of Mesivta Ateres Yaakov, Rabbi Herzberg would join the high school boys on their visits to Reb Shlomo in which, despite his illness, the Rosh Yeshiva of Sh’or Yoshuv would spend hours discussing hashkafa with them.

Master Mechanech

Rabbi Herzberg was a master mechanech. He did not look at any external factors and make a judgement about any talmid. He looked at a talmid, and he saw a Yiddishe neshama. He made it his mission to reach out to every talmid in his yeshiva. Alumni would often joke how the more trouble a boy made, the more

A young Rabbi Herzberg learning, as his Rebbe, Reb Shlomo Freifeld, looks on

Mets, that would mean you’re batting 550! That’s amazing!”

He looked at every talmid and saw potential. He believed in every boy and did not give up on anyone.

As a menahel, there were many times when he had to discipline a child. But he did it in the most loving way. He was tough, and he would not back down on what he believed was true or proper. He would look at a talmid with a sincere look, penetrating to the talmid’s very essence – and there was so much love in that look.

His talmidim understood everything from that gaze, and even before he gave his rebuke – and sometimes his consequence, which he dutifully carried out – that talmid understood

As a seventh grade rebbe years ago

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that it came along with a genuine love.

Once, a rebbe caught a talmid playing hangman in class. The rebbe took the paper from the boy and told him, “Go show Rabbi Herzberg what you’re doing in class!” The boy entered the menahel’s office, sheepishly gave him the paper, and explained that he was there to show the menahel his “work.” Rabbi Herzberg, knowing that this boy could use some chizuk, looked at the paper, grinned, and with a twinkle in his eye told the boy, “Ah! You’re playing hangman?

Give me a ‘K!’” He then rebuked the boy before offering him chizuk and sent him back to class.

Rabbi Herzberg stood behind his rabbeim and backed them under almost every circumstance. A young, fresh rebbe once had to discipline a talmid and received a threatening phone call that night from the boy’s parents. After voicing his disapproval over the rebbe’s actions, the father threatened that he would ensure that the rebbe lose his job. The next day, this rebbe verified that, indeed, this father was an active board member and a big supporter of the yeshiva.

The rebbe approached Rabbi Herzberg trembling and repeated the conversation he had last night, asking him for advice. He was very nervous about his future. Rabbi Herzberg looked him in the eye and told him bluntly: “There is one person here who makes the decision to hire or to

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fire a rebbe. That person is me! Don’t worry. Your job is secure!”

He was a true hatznea leches.

Rabbi Herzberg was not a public person, nor did he want any kavod. He had much chinuch wisdom to share, but he did join the lecture circuit. He was also an amazing speaker, and every parent asked him to enhance their simchos with his wonderful divrei Torah, yet he shied away from public speaking.

Rabbi Herzberg was from the biggest mechanchim in our generation.

One of his sons asked him why he never spoke publicly or lectured at public chinuch forums.

“I have one mission,” he answered, “to be the menahel of Yeshiva of South Shore. If I start speaking here and there, I will not be able to use my full energy for the boys in yeshiva. It will distract me from my purpose!”

His devotion to his talmidim was inspiring. When he was able to, he would go to every bar mitzvah, even if it meant walking to Woodmere or Hewlett, some miles from his Far Rockaway home. Rabbi Herzberg even left his own son’s vort to speak at a weeknight bar mitzvah of a talmid who was having his bar mitzvah in Brooklyn.

Once, one of his children noticed that he was not himself for a few days.

He was not eating, and he was spending a lot of time pacing the floors.

After inquiring what the matter was, Rabbi Herzberg responded, “There

With his Rebbe, Reb Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l

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is a boy in yeshiva, who, for various circumstances, had to be asked to leave. It pains me greatly, and it’s not a simple matter. But I had to do it. This week I received a phone call from a local rav, berating me for my decision. Does he know that I spent three days agonizing over it? Does he know that I secured a place in another yeshiva for this boy? Does he know

plary rebbe. In fact, a talmid of Rabbi Herzberg from Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe some forty years ago requested, on the spot, to give divrei hesped at the levaya this week. He spoke to the assembled about how close he still feels to his rebbe and how he still feels hakoras hatov to him – decades after he had left his class.

Rabbi Herzberger was eventual-

“Does he know that I fasted on the day I asked the boy to leave?”

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who came back to the levaya attest to that respect and admiration.

Teaching by Example

At home, Rabbi Herzberg was an amazing father to his children. His sons repeated how he did not preach; he led by example. According to his son, Reb Eli, the beloved Pre-1A rebbe at Yeshiva of South Shore, he taught tzedaka by true example. One Purim, Rabbi Herzberg handed Reb Eli $500 and told him, then a teenager, to distribute the money to poor people in Far Rockaway.

In addition to the erev yom tov tzedaka that the yeshiva gave out to needy families, Rabbi Herzberg would purchase hundreds of dollars of gift cards from his own money and gave them to almanos before Chanukah, allowing them, in their dire financial state, to give gifts to their children.

Though he thought about the yeshiva 24 hours a day and had conversations late at night with the Rosh Yeshiva and other rabbeim on a daily basis, Rabbi Herzberg generally did not bring his work home. He did not diminish the focus and attention he wanted to give to his family, and he focused tremendous energy on raising his children and giving them the attention they deserved and needed.

He was always focused on personal growth. One Yom Kippur, in his shul which he founded, Ohr Shlomo, he got up in front of the crowd and made a shocking statement. While

that I fasted on the day I asked the boy to leave?”

Even on the rare occasion when, over his 38-year tenure as menahel, he had to ask a rebbe to leave his position, it was with the most serious consideration and thought. Rabbi Herzberg also made sure to arrange another source of parnassa for that rebbe.

Rabbi Herzberg began his career teaching seventh grade in Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe in Queens. His first year was not an easy year for his class, nor for him, as the yeshiva split the class and appointed him to teach a group of boisterous weak students.

Yet, despite all the challenges, he persevered and grew into an exem-

ly promoted to assistant menahel in Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe. A few years later, Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l, asked him to join Yeshiva of South Shore as menahel. He was excited at the thought of joining Yeshiva of South Shore, which had already merged with his alma mater, Yeshiva Toras Chaim of East New York, but was a bit apprehensive. He was younger than most of the rabbeim in Yeshiva of South Shore and was nervous about accepting a position of leadership under such circumstances.

He asked his rebbe, who assured him that in no time he would earn their respect and admiration. The tears in the eyes of many of the older rabbeim who are still in the yeshiva and those

Rabbi Herzberg with Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l

Rabbi Herzberg with, ybl”ch, Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky and Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky

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speaking on the topic of hakoras hatov and self-improvement, he told the tzibbur, “Many people have criticized me for not thanking my rebbeim in yeshiva enough and not recognizing their devotion to chinuch. I am publicly saying that I realize that and that I am going to change that!”

He had tremendous respect for talmidei chachamim. Besides his own rabbeim, he would honor any talmid chacham and rav. He internalized many of the messages and stories of gedolim that he heard.

Rabbi Herzberg had heard the story of the rebbetzin of Rav Yonasan Shteif, who approached the mechitza to get a glimpse of Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, at a wedding. People asked her what she was doing, and she responded, “I want to see the tzaddik, for whom my husband puts on his hat and jacket whenever he talks to him on the phone.”

Hearing that story made a tremendous impact on Rabbi Herzberg. His son, Rav Yitzchok Herzberg, menahel of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, told how one time he noticed that his father put on his jacket and walked into his study and made a phone call. He came out a few minutes later and took off his jacket. Noticing that something was strange, he asked his father to explain what that was about. “I had to

call Rav Hillel David about a shaila,” Rabbi Herzberg said. “When I speak to Rav Hillel, I put on a jacket.”

Rabbi Herzberg had the ultimate chashivus for tefilla, and he taught by example to his talmidim. He made sure that Shacharis and Mincha in yeshiva began on time consistently, and he was at the helm, standing in

remembered davening without a hat.

Talmidim remember how he would wear Rabbeinu Tam tefillin and then lovingly choose a different boy every day to have the zechus of wrapping his Rashi tefillin during chazaras hashatz. The class that sat in front of his seat would relish this opportunity and would consider it an

honor to sit in front of the Menahel during davening.

A number of years ago, Rabbi Herzberg suffered a heart attack. As he was about to undergo a serious procedure, he told his son, “The biggest zechus I have is that I always try to make people feel good when they see me.”

He remarked to his son only a few weeks ago, “I am not afraid of dying.

I have a rebbe who taught me how to live and who taught me how to die. I am only bothered that I can’t perform

With some of his beloved talmidim

mitzvos properly…”

During the last two years, despite his progressing illness, he would come to yeshiva as often as he could.

During his illness, in his weakened state, his wife and children would try to dissuade him from going to yeshiva, citing how he must relax and take it easy, “The yeshiva is my life!” he said. “They need me there. The talmidim are waiting for me!” Indeed, Yeshiva of South Shore needed him, and we are all awaiting his return at techiyas hameisim.

R

“The yeshiva is my life! They need me there. The talmidim are waiting for me!” front by the amud, ensuring proper kavod ha’tefilla. He was there – every single day.

Once, on vacation, it was close to shkiah, and there was a group forming a minyan. They pushed him to join the minyan and did not want to wait for him to go back to the car which was parked some distance away. He reluctantly agreed, and noted to his children that he had his hat in the car but was afraid that the minyan would break up if he went to get it. It was the only time in memory he

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abbi Herzberg is survived by his dedicated wife, Mrs. Naomi Herzberg, daughter of Rav Moshe Spiegel, zt”l, and granddaughter of Rav Elchonon Yochonon Spiegel, zt”l, the Ostrove-Kalushiner Rebbe, and their children, Reb Moshe Herzberg, Reb Mendy Herzberg, Rabbi Eli Herzberg, Rabbi Yitzchok Herzberg, Reb Yudy Herzberg, Mrs. Brocha Kaplan, and Mrs. Rivky Nachman. May Hashem bring them a true nechama, as only He can.

Yehi zichro baruch.

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky is a talmid of Rabbi Herzberg and is currently the Director of Development at Yeshiva of South Shore.

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The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

‫בס"ד‬

You set tables, bussed, cleaned, sang, danced and most of all, helped with a smile for over 500 women!!

We are grateful for your hard work, enthusiasm and commitment to chesed.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO

FOR THEIR SPONSORSHIP!

The Leon Leif Fund {R' Dovid Greenblatt, Dr. Deborah Leif-Dienstag, Leah Potash} Sister-to-Sister {Chanie Neuberger, Yehudis Robinson, Shaindy Shain}

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DECEMBER29, 20,2015 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER | The Jewish Home

SOMETIMES THERE ARE

NO WOR

By Yisroel Besser

“B

esser, I have a scoop for you.”

The caller was a leading rosh yeshiva – not the type who shares scoops or calls writers.

Rav Elya Brudny had been at a wedding, and the mesader kiddushin had been an out-of-town rosh yeshiva, a tall, distinguished looking man.

He walked up to the chuppah, and took his place behind the microphone: when he said the brachos, it was immediately obvious that he had trouble articulating his words, and it seemed somewhat garbled.

“But then I saw him by the dancing, leading a chasunah, his talmidim around him,” Rav Elya continued, “and I realized that he was getting through to his talmidim better than many of us.”

It sounded dreamy — the plot of a kid’s book or maybe an Abie Rotenberg song — a sweet tale of a rosh yeshivah who doesn’t hear and his devoted talmidim.

But this is the real world, where things aren’t so sweet and neatly packaged.

And so I flew down to Toronto to see. You know how people say “no words”? Like, when they want to convey their astonishment speechlessness becomes a way of expressing an awe that words would only limit? In a humble trailer just west of Bathurst Street, I found a world where that awe never fades. No words.

B

ack when Brownsville was the place, when pushcart peddlers along Pitkin Avenue haggled with customers in Yiddish, the Brooklyn neighborhood had a real rebbe.

The Brownsviller-Mezhibuzh Rebbe, Rav Shmuel Avrohom Rabinowitz, was a son of Rav Eliezer Chaim of Yampola, a grandson of the rebbe of Ropshitz. He was reputed to be a ba’al mofeis, a healer, a writer of kabbalistic amulets. His son, Rav Dovid Eliezer, was born in 1917 – deaf.

Rebbes work with words: a child deprived of words, the building blocks of connection, the invisible ropes with which to draw others close, has no future working with people.

He can be a craftsman, perhaps, or even a successful peddler, but not a rabbi.

Right?

No, not really.

Rabbi Dovid Eliezer Rabinowitz would become an effective and respected shul rabbi, leading a community of deaf and hard-of-hearing Jews in Brooklyn: he taught many lessons, but perhaps the greatest lesson of all was about perseverance.

His young grandson, Chaim Tzvi Kakon, was also born with hearing challenges – and with that very same determination.

The Kakon family lived in Denver, and then in Detroit. The zaide, Rav Dovid Eliezer, moved away from Brooklyn twice, following his grandchildren so that he could be near them, part of their lives.

Many things were confusing to the child. Days were spent in public school, where he mastered sign language as part of his total communication education, while nights were filled with dreams of learning Torah.

Tough as it was, he came home to his parents, to love and warmth and encouragement, each evening. But then he wanted to go to summer camp.

Young Chaim Tzvi Kakon joined hundreds of other boys in the Mogen Av shul on the first day of camp as head counselors called out names, assigning a bunk to each camper – but he couldn’t hear. He sat on the bench with no clue where he belonged.

In his seforim-lined study, the rosh yeshiva of Nefesh Dovid looks like he’s sharing a routine childhood memory, but when he reaches that recollection, the first day in camp, there is an unmistakable flash of pain. “It was very bewildering. I had no idea where to go, didn’t know who my counselor was or who was in my bunk.”

On a bench near Chaim Tzvi on that summer day sat eleven-year-old Normie Lowenthal. Today, a respected social worker at Baltimore’s Talmudical Academy, Rabbi Lowenthal remembers the moment well. “It’s important to appreciate what Mogen Av was doing. Way before other camps followed suit, Camp Mogen Av was accepting boys with disabilities and special needs, mainstreaming them before it was even a term.”

At camp the previous summer, young Normie had made friends with

a boy who did not hear: the boy taught Normie the basics of sign language as a means of communication. “So when I saw Chaim Tzvi looking bewildered and alone, I recognized that he had a hearing impairment, and I was confident that I could communicate with him. I introduced myself and we became friends.”

That act of kindness welcomed Chaim Tzvi to the camp experience.

The painful start gave way to a spectacular few weeks: while the boys around him were celebrating home runs, Chaim Tzvi was breaking his own barriers. A walk with a friend.

A meal at which he’d been attuned enough to pass the milk to a bunkmate. The happy exhaustion at the end of a hike, flopping on the grass, feeling connected by a current of shared satisfaction with others.

T

he gifts he’d discovered in camp came in handy in school, and that summer reinforced his willpower to keep trying. The evening learning sessions allowed his dreams to expand, visions wide as the grassy lawns in camp: finally, at the age of sixteen, he articulated that secret hope.

His father, Rav Yosef, is a talmid of Rav Moshe Schneider and Rav Aaron Kotler, an accomplished talmid chacham: all the teenager wanted was to go to a real yeshiva and learn Torah like his father. His parents were ready to let him try, but where would a bochur who couldn’t hear feel welcome?

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RDS Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Kakon

A friend, Yossi Bienenstock, was learning in Toronto’s Ner Israel, and he suggested that Chaim Tzvi join him.

Weak in learning, with no experience with serious yeshiva-style study, the bochur arrived for his bechina with little other than the fire in his eyes.

The rosh yeshiva saw nothing else.

“At the shiva for my rosh yeshiva, Rav Naftali Friedler, I learned what really happened that day,” says Rabbi Kakon. “I came and begged to be accepted, but I wasn’t on the level: when I left the office, some of the hanhala members expressed the opinion that, ‘he is really a nice boy, but…’ The rosh yeshiva banged on the table and said, ‘I’m not asking you. I’m telling you that we’re taking this bochur!’”

(Years later, Rav Chaim Tzvi and Rebbetzin Libbi Kakon would be blessed with a son: the child would be named Naftoli, for the rosh yeshiva who’d welcomed his father to the halls of Torah.)

In Ner Israel, Chaim Tzvi Kakon made two discoveries that would make a big difference to his future.

“I learned that a yeshiva is a magical place; it’s not just about the learning and growth, but about being part of something, the friendships and connection.”

And he learned that Toronto is a wonderful community. “I’d never been there before, but I felt at home.”

In Ner Israel, the new bochur was placed in ninth grade, with boys several years his junior. “I didn’t care,” he

says emphatically, “it was fine. I wanted to learn. I didn’t see the ages of the boys around me, didn’t let it affect my excitement at learning.”

Rebbetzin Libbi Kakon, who has been listening to his account, interjects, “That’s so typical,” she says, “nothing bothers my husband.”

“Not true,” he shoots back.

I

n Ner Israel, with the help of devoted friends, Chaim Tzvi became a yeshiva bochur: the deafness was no longer the story, because there was a Tosfos and a Rashba and a K’tzos to worry about.

Those glorious years in Toronto came to an end when it became evident that Chaim Tzvi needed to move on. Toronto friends Dov and Nancy Friedberg sent him to join their sons, who were learning in Baltimore’s Ner Israel.

And once again, he felt overwhelmed. “It was a much bigger yeshiva than Toronto, with so many new faces, so much going on.”

He was sitting on a bench on that first night when a familiar face appeared in his line of vision.

Just as he had a decade earlier, in Camp Mogen Av, Normie Lowenthal welcomed his friend to this dizzying new world.

Rav Shragi Neuberger, the new talmid’s maggid shiur, remembers that first zman. “He couldn’t hear, but that was just a detail, it didn’t define him. What made him unique was his kishron, what made him unique was

his desire to learn, and what made him unique was his ability to understand other people.”

The boy who couldn’t hear somehow heard the needs of everyone else, becoming a star. “He was popular, not because he was different, but because he has this special chein, the smile and warmth,” recalls a Ner Israel talmid.

So popular, in fact, that the other bochurim voluntarily learned sign language so that they could communicate with him, be in his circle as well.

Another of the heroes that would appear along the journey was Dr. Leonard Siger, a professor at Gallaudet University for deaf students.

Dr. Siger had learned in yeshiva but then drifted away from Orthodox life.

The brilliant professor knew sign language, and since retirement, he’d been interpreting Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Thursday night shiur for others in the community. Someone suggested that Chaim Tzvi ask Dr. Siger to come to yeshiva to help him learn Torah.

Chaim Tzvi summoned up the courage to approach this brilliant, irascible, ponytailed academic and ask. “Of course,” Dr. Siger answered.

“I was waiting for you to ask.”

The professor didn’t drive, so he would walk two hours each day to give over the shiur: it was he who opened the gates of real comprehension in learning to the determined talmid, exposing the full flavor and depth of the shiur. In time, Chaim Tzvi and the professor became chavrusos for the early morning daf yomi shiur as well.

They would review the shiur each evening. Soon enough, Dr. Siger shed the ponytail and became a complete ba’al teshuva: when he passed away two years ago, it was Rav Chaim Tzvi Kakon and his talmidim who came in from Toronto to perform the levaya and kevura, a final gesture of friendship from a grateful chavrusa.

E

ventually, it was time for the tall, handsome yeshiva bochur to find a shidduch.

Libbi Spitzer did not hear well and, like him, was unconstrained by expectations and perceptions. Able to speak, she was a successful teacher at a school for special needs children at the time the shidduch was suggested.

“My husband,” she says with a smile, “makes goals for himself and then ticks them off, one by one. He decided we were getting married, and I was just another box to check off.”

(The rosh yeshiva is beaming as she says this, nodding as if he still can’t get over his good fortune.)

Rebbetzin Kakon continues the story. “I was a Hungarian girl, I knew what I wanted. He told me he planned to become a lawyer, and he would buy me a house and a car.”

The chasunah in the winter of 1989 was joyous – a popular chassan, a popular kallah, beloved families: but in the festive dancing, there was a sense that two worlds were merging, two young people burning with purpose coming together to create something new.

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Moshe, a talmid in the yeshiva, getting Gemara instruction from his rebbe

“I LEARNED THAT A YESHIVA IS A MAGICAL PLACE; IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE LEARNING AND GROWTH, BUT ABOUT BEING PART OF SOMETHING.”

T

hey also knew, this young couple, exactly what it was they wanted to do.

Over the first few years of their marriage, Libbi continued teaching while Chaim Tzvi learned in kollel, eventually earning semicha: in the summers, they allowed their dreams to flourish. Chaim Tzvi’s rabbeim at Ner Israel allowed him space on the yeshiva’s campus to host a summer program called Gesher L’chaim, a sort of yeshiva camp for deaf boys. Reb Chaim Tzvi also used the time to earn a master’s in Social Work and he took a position as a therapist at a psychiatric inpatient unit, also sitting on the State of Maryland’s mental health board.

And the zaide, who’d moved to Denver and then Detroit to mentor his

Yechiel, who is engaged to be married, returns for a visit to yeshiva

Yehuda, an Israeli talmid at Nefesh Dovid, in discussion with one of the Rebbeim, Rabbi D. Friedman

grandson, moved yet again: he and his rebbetzin moved to Baltimore, into the house across the street from the young Kakon family.

Seven years of those summer programs created an informal chaburah, a wide group of hearing-challenged talmidim who felt close to this dynamic couple: in 2001, the yeshiva was founded in Toronto.

Neither of them were locals, but the Canadian city had a certain appeal.

“Rabbi Naftali Neuberger thought it was a good idea, and he always saw further than most people,” Rabbi Kakon recalls. “I had close friends there from my years in yeshiva, and my wife had family there, but it was my grandfather who really pushed us.

The yeshiva was a realization of his dream – and he felt Toronto was the right place for it.”

Rav Yaakov Moshe Kulefsky also encouraged the reluctant rebbetzin, assuring her it was the right path, and Rav Menachem Goldberger told them of the great things accomplished by those who find the strength to follow their destiny.

With these brachos and words of chizuk, the young couple took their young children and their dreams and moved to Toronto.

There, the rosh yeshiva worked with a passionate partner, Dr. Hartley Bressler, a prominent physician who has been deaf since birth; like Rabbi Kakon, he’s been proving people wrong since childhood. Dr. Bressler had previously invited Reb Chaim Tzvi to Toronto to join a Shabbaton for deaf participants. At the time, he introduced the Kakons to Mr. Joe Ber-

man, a local philanthropist who provided the seed money for the yeshiva’s establishment. Rabbi Kakon and Dr. Bressler, two people who never heard the pessimism, linked arms and established Yeshiva Nefesh Dovid.

“The name is based on a pasuk in Tehillim, 56: ‘Ki hitzalta nafshi mimaves, You saved my soul from death, even my feet from stumbling to walk before Hashem in the light of life.’

“This is what a person with hearing loss feels,” the rosh yeshiva explains, “when he is alone, he is isolated, cut off from what’s going on around him.

When a person doesn’t feel part of something larger, he doesn’t feel alive: so through the yeshiva and the network, a young man comes alive, experiencing the light of life.”

R

ather than try to describe what makes it special, the rosh yeshiva invites me to join him on a surprise visit to the yeshiva: it’s afternoon, general studies time.

I already know not to expect a massive building – after all, these are the people of substance, not style, the ones who’ve transcended externals rather than getting trapped, but still…

It’s a trailer, really, a small structure in a parking lot.

“But look where we are, who our neighbor is,” the rosh yeshiva proudly indicates the impressive building next door.

Yeshiva Gedola Zichron Shmayahu, the community’s flagship yeshiva, saw the opportunity early on. “We could never have opened our yeshiva if not for them,” Reb Chaim Tzvi says, “they made it possible.”

Rav Chaim Mendel Brodsky, the

rosh yeshiva of Zichron Shmayahu, welcomed Nefesh Dovid to his grounds – opening up the dining room, gym, and beis medrash to its talmidim. “We eat with them, daven with them, and in general, their bochurim make sure to make our talmidim feel welcome,” says Rabbi Kakon. “They make it possible.”

It doesn’t surprise me that the yeshiva in the trailer feels just like a real yeshiva: the jackets strewn over chairs, the smell of black binding tapes on Gemaros, the delighted laugh of the bochur who’d been swinging from a coatrack as the rosh yeshiva suddenly comes in.

The rosh yeshiva introduces me to the secular studies teacher, an affable Ontarian who teaches math in sign language. “I’ve done this for years, but these are the first group of yeshiva boys,” he says.

I ask him what sets them apart, and he doesn’t hesitate. “Their optimism: they want to do it all and believe that they can.”

The bochurim themselves are a charming group, a young man from the hot, dusty streets of Bnei Brak – his father still learns in Ponevezh – and a Chabad chassid from Europe sit near me. (Although there are different forms of sign language in different countries, the rosh yeshiva and most talmidim are fluent in all of them and are able to easily communicate with each other.)

Some of the boys can’t hear at all: many have cochlear implants and speak flawlessly – but they are all tuned in. The rosh yeshiva insists that I speak to the talmidim. A confident young man takes his place at my side

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

and interprets for those who need, moving his hands in concert with my words.

I tell the boys that Rav Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l, would say that just as we believe that the match between man and woman is divine, the “shidduch” between rebbi and talmid is equally divine: it takes real siyata dishmaya for it to work. The boys smile and nod.

Don’t they know it.

After, they gather around the table and field my questions. I ask an Israeli bochur what it is they do differently in Nefesh Dovid, why he feels like his life started the day he arrived – his words – and he looks at the others, as if for encouragement.

Finally, he tells me that as a child he spent many hours out of school, trapped in a world of his own: he passed the time by playing soccer and became quite good at it. He makes an imaginary kick right there, in the beis medrash.

Rabbi Kakon found out about the soccer thing. He called different baale batim in Toronto and learned that there was a soccer league: not everyone was thrilled about admitting a fifteen-year-old boy, but, as the rebbetzin says, when the rosh yeshiva wants something…

“That is different. No other rebbi ever thought to do that for me. I play soccer and it feel so good, it spills over into everything else,” the young man says.

When Gemara is taught in yeshiva, I learn, the words are shown on the screen so the boys all see the daf. “And even while there’s debate whether it’s better or not to teach in sign language,” the rosh yeshiva says, “for Gemara it’s certainly better because it becomes visual, you see the concepts. The machlokes is set up on the screen, Abaye here, and Rava there. The talmidim follow along and really get it.”

He shares a personal tidbit. Sometimes, the rosh yeshiva goes to a shiur, and his own friend and personal interpreter, Dr. Mitchell Sutton, comes along to translate what the maggid shiur is saying. “And inevitably, other people thank me after, telling me that the presence of the interpreter – the gestures and signs – made it easier for them to follow along too. It’s easier to absorb information when you see it.”

“I

n chinuch, the most important thing is to be attuned, a rebbi has to hear a talmid, what he’s saying, what he’s not saying,” reflects

Rav Shragi Neuberger, the rosh yeshiva’s rebbi. “Rav Chaim Tzvi is unique in his koach hashmia, he picks up nuances. It’s a mix of really caring about talmidim and being very sharp. He’s a natural mechanech.”

But talmidim agree that it’s the rebbetzin who gives the yeshiva its heart. Along with creating the home that’s as much a part of the yeshiva as the dormitory, she will often reassure worried mothers that their sons will flourish in the yeshiva. At the request of the yeshiva’s board of directors, she handles all the fundraising. “My husband is simply too busy with his boys, he wakes them up in the morning and is with them all day, Shabbos too. That’s his mission, and this mine,” she smiles.

The Kakon family has embraced their role as well. “The bochurim come over Friday night after the seudah,” the rebbetzin says. Two of the Kakon daughters, who do not hear, married talmidim of their father’s yeshiva.

The rebbetzin serves as a surrogate mother to many of the foreign bochurim and is a respected teacher in the local Bais Yaakov as well. She is also unafraid to be honest: it’s her willingness to share her own struggles that makes her call to be strong so much more effective.

The Kakons have several children – two with hearing loss, some who hear perfectly. And then, just around the time Nefesh Dovid was born, they were blessed with a little baby girl, Devoiri.

The rebbetzin’s face visibly lights up when she mentions the name.

But, as she often concedes in her popular lectures, it wasn’t always easy.

Devoiri was born with Down syndrome and was later diagnosed with autism as well.

Those first few months were very difficult: there were older children; there was a yeshiva…and then Devoiri.

In a written tribute to the family’s rav, Rav Menachem Adler, the rebbetzin – a gifted writer – recalls: I remember when we were poor and downtrodden. What to do? Where to go? The Rav turned his kind eyes to us and helped us rebuild. He believed in us. He believed in our children and he believed in our future when we could not see past the day.

When our severely disabled daughter was born adding more weight to my heart, the elderly Rav shuffled his way down the street to our Shabbos table week after week, 52 consecutive weeks, on the way

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One of the ingenious methods utilized by Rabbi Kakon to optimize the astonishing success in the Gemara skills of the talmidim

An elective photography course with teacher, Rick Barrow, who also cannot hear

A talmid of Nefesh Dovid davening in the Yeshiva Gedola of Toronto, where Nefesh Dovid is situated

home from Friday night prayers. He gazed at the candles that were so hard for me to light, gazed at our table that almost did not get set, gazed at our family that almost did not grow to be strong and capable.

Then he turned around and left, slowly heading on to his own home

and his own table where his Rebbetzin waited, unbending and loyal. His children did not know until I told them.

He is the unknown, the status of the true faithful.

Is this what G-d does? Visit us week after week, moment after moment? Does he wait and watch and we

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Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Kakon with Rabbi Chaim Mendel Brodsky, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah of Toronto, which has welcomed Nefesh Dovid for so many years

“PEOPLE FROM OTHER YESHIVOS SEE OUR BOYS IN THE STREET OR AT WEDDINGS, AND THEY WONDER WHY THEY SEEM SO MUCH MORE ALIVE THAN BOYS WHO CAN HEAR PERFECTLY!” do not turn to see Him? In the early months of Devoiri’s life, the rebbetzin – undaunted for so long, rising above her own challenges to teach, marry, mother and build a yeshiva – felt like she would give up.

“The rosh yeshiva reminded me, he encouraged me, he inspired me.

He lifted me. And he waited for me,” she recalls.

The rebbetzin mentions another of those figures, Divine messengers to offer encouragement or assistance at the right time. “My great-uncle, Rav Avrohom Chaim Spitzer, the old Vienner dayan, was a big part of our lives.

I grew up revering him, we knew he was a tremendous talmid chacham, but he was so approachable, so easy to

connect with. After Devoiri was born, he sent me a message, along with the funds: I was to get more household help, he paskened. He became a big part of the yeshiva too, and many of my husband’s talmidim would go to him for brachos.”

Family, faith, patience – and a sense of humor.

One day during Devoiri’s first few months, Rav Chaim Tzvi welcomed a visitor to his home: Dr. Leonard Siger, his old chavrusa from Baltimore. The rosh yeshiva was holding the newborn infant when he opened the door, and he informed the guest that the baby was born with Down syndrome.

“Okay,” the professor didn’t miss a beat as he looked at his old friend, “but you know that everyone has some sort of challenge in life, don’t you?”

“It’s true at home and it’s true in yeshiva,” the rebbetzin remarks. “My husband teaches the boys to laugh, to accept themselves for who they are.

Go live. There’s too much beauty and meaning to get stuck on the things that don’t work. People from other yeshivos see our boys in the street, or at weddings, and they wonder why they seem so much more alive than boys who can hear perfectly!”

To live in the light of life…

In her inimitable style, the rebbetzin writes: The boy, Shmili, who comes in sad.

His eyes. I cannot look at his eyes.

I see him Friday night. I say to him, something happened to you. You look different. One week you have been here. You look different.

He smiles slightly. The first hint of a smile.

He quips, I must have grown taller. Oh my. Don’t we have a sense of humor?

Rabbi Kakon learning with a talmid who is also his son-in-law

He did grow taller.

Eitan.

His eyes. Dark. They brighten noticeably week by week. Dark like a night sky, not the dark of tar on the ground.

Kindness. Acceptance. Letting dreams free.

Yisroel Avraham.

I am not going to Toronto to a “DEAFO YESHIVA”! He yells. I am not DEAF – I am fine! Everyone can go fly a kite. His parents drag him to Toronto.

I am not going home! I want to stay here at Nefesh Dovid. Forever.

My husband drags him to the airport after reassuring him he will be back in two weeks to continue watering his dreams. He is coming back not to a deaf yeshiva, but a yeshiva for those with hearing loss.

They all come back.

“S

o many of the lessons we preach, what we expect from our children, are relevant to all parents, not just in the special needs community,” the rebbetzin says. We are back at her home, where the dining room table is elegantly set.

(Remember, I’m an old Williamsburg girl, she laughs, and she insists I accept a slice of cake.)

“The rosh yeshiva always tells the boys that they’re not nebach cases, that rachmanus has its time and place.”

There was a bochur who had trouble speaking clearly: years of hard work and therapy paid off, and he developed the ability to articulate himself. Not long after he received the gift, he spoke with chutzpah to his rebbi.

“On one hand, it was a great simcha to hear him speak so fluently,” the

rosh yeshiva recalls, “but at the same time, I realized I would be doing him a disservice if I wouldn’t point out that he’d behaved improperly. ‘I’m so happy you speak so clearly,’ I told him, ‘but there are also expectations about what you can say and what you can’t say,’” he chided.

I tell the rebbetzin that one of the boys in the yeshiva, learning that I worked for a magazine, urged me not to write about the yeshiva. “Then everyone will come, not just boys who can’t hear, and we don’t have room for all of them,” he said.

The rosh yeshiva and rebbetzin laugh. The rosh yeshiva jokingly puts a finger to his lips, as if charging me to keep his secret.

“Who doesn’t need someone to believe in them?” the rebbetzin asks. “So many boys come here dying inside and waiting for someone to tell them it’s okay; they can fly as high as they want to. That’s what we do.

“Parents don’t mean to limit their children, they just worry too much about reputation, so they try to conform without giving the child enough space to be himself. And then there are others, parents so scared of disappointment that they discourage them from trying. It’s easier not to try than to fail, they think, but it’s not true.”

She shakes her head. “It’s better to fail, though. You know why?”

“Because,” Rebbetzin Kakon, wife of the rosh yeshiva of Nefesh Dovid, speaks softly, “because then you tasted the joy of trying, and once you’ve worked hard, you’ll do it again.”

This article and the accompanying photos were originally printed in Mishpacha Magazine and are reprinted with their permission.

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Dating Dialogue

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

Dear Navidaters,

I am the oldest son in a family of five, and I have four sisters. For that reason (and I guess I have to admit I’ve always been a pretty good kid), my parents have always put me on some type of pedestal. My sisters and even some of my parents’ friends like to joke around and call me “The Prince.” It’s probably not too far from the truth. Not that I’m any kind of prince, but my parents do seem to see me that way. They expect less from me than they do from my sisters and are very quick to accommodate me in every way. I don’t take advantage, though. I really do try to always do the right thing.

But there is a downside to this situation. I’m 21 and really interested in starting to date. Meanwhile, I haven’t gone out once because despite my parents getting plenty of resumes, no one seems to be good enough in their eyes for me. I guess they’ looking for a “princess,” whatever that means. I’m glad they are looking out for my best interests, but honestly, I want to go out with a nice young woman who has good middos and similar values and aspirations as me.

I know I’m still young, but it sometimes feels as though no one will ever be good enough and that I’ll be single for a very long time, if not forever! Recently, I was at my friend’s wedding, and from the dozens of singles there, one young woman really caught my eye. I asked around about her and heard only wonderful things. When I got home, I asked my mother if she could look into her. And as you would imagine, my mother did her research and came up with some lame excuse why she (or more specifically) her family wasn’t good enough for me. I’m not buying it – it was a silly reason, which I’m too embarrassed to even mention.

So what are my options? Do I figure out a way to be set up with this young woman without my parents’ involvement?

I’m sure I could make that happen, but I don’t want to be disrespectful. On the other hand, many of my friends are starting to date, some even to marry, and I feel ready to get moving. What do you suggest?

Disclaimer: This column is not intended to diagnose or otherwise conclude resolutions to any questions.

Our intention is not to offer any definitive

conclusions to any particular question, rather offer areas of exploration for the author and reader. Due to the nature of the column receiving only a short snapshot of an issue, without the benefit of an actual discussion, the panel’s role is to offer a range of possibilities. We hope to open up meaningful dialogue and individual exploration.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

presenting

RUCHI DUNN ad He

CHANI JACOBS

Upper Div isio n

Lo

nH ivisio ead D er w

CAMP DIRECTOR: LEEBA BRISK PROGRAM DIRECTOR: ELISHEVA SEGELMAN phone: 718.324.6724(ORAH) EMAIL: ORAHDAYCAMP@GMAIL.COM W E B S I T E : O R A H D A Y C A M P. C O M

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The Panel The Rebbetzin Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz, M.S. hank you for your frank question.

Here’s a frank, concise answer from me. It’s high time to deal with your relationship with your parents.

Even though you sound self-aware about the family dynamics, your parents treating you like a “prince” is now affecting you in a concrete way – and not positively.

It’s time to address this in therapy.

Efforts at communication are probably not going to work when there is a two decade-old dynamic at play. It’s going to be work on the part of the three of you, and it is going to take commitment.

My suggestion to you is to suggest

T

to your parents that you go for some dating coaching from a mental health professional. It’s a popular thing these days. Don’t sock it to them directly by saying you are holding me back because you think no one is good enough.

Make yourself the one who needs help and ask them to pay for it. After a while you can ask them to participate. Even if they don’t agree to do so, you will receive the support you need to deal with things maturely. You can use some help to deal with your criteria and your impatience with them at 21. Saying, “I’ll be single for a very long time, if not forever” is rather dramatic and immature.

You need to learn to deal with them, your own role in the family, your role in the shidduch process, and your skills in communication. Just because you’re 21 and haven’t dated yet doesn’t mean that you are ready to “get moving.”

Emotional Support for Unwanted Touching

MOUNT SINAI BETH ISRAEL

The Mother Sarah Schwartz Schreiber, P.A. ith apologies to Meghan Markle…

Even the Queen of England could not control her grandson’s choice for princess. Wrong family, tainted bloodline, an absolute shanda.

Back to you. You may be your family’s prince, but it sounds like you have a healthy, down-to-earth mindset regarding dating and what you’re looking for: “A nice young woman with good middos and similar values.” You needn’t fear the fate of the Elter Bochur – the eternal bachelor – who revels in his “lists” and sits atop his piles of resumes while he futilely pursues the elusive Ms. Perfection.

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All too often the approach of “nobody is good enough for my son” will end up with the some meeting, well, nobody.

One of these days your mother will relent – either due to your urging, her friends’ insistence, or communal pressure – and will let you go out. The rest will be up to you. If you keep your priorities straight, you’ll beat a short path

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to a beautiful chuppah. But if you see your mother begin to flex her Shvigger Biceps and blithely reject suitable shidduchim, sit her down and respectfully remind her that, yes, Mommy, even little princes grow up and follow their hearts.

The Shadchan Michelle Mond nfortunately, as a shadchan, I see this scenario play out way too often. I have met many guys who seem open-minded and realistic about what they are looking for but once I speak to their mothers, I realize I have my work cut out for me…

This phenomenon seems to be a common natural, maternal instinct, and it comes from a good place. But all too often the approach of “nobody is good enough for my son” will end up with the son meeting, well, nobody.

You are an adult and are capable of taking shidduchim into your own hands.

On the other hand, you want to at least

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try and attempt to do this in a way that retains shalom bayis with your parents. It’s not easy; welcome to real life!

They say there is strength in numbers. Right now, it’s you “against” your mother (and sisters, perhaps?) who seem misguided. I can count on more than two hands the stories I know personally of shidduchim that were stopped initially by a sibling, parent, or other close relatives who thought they knew all too well that the shidduch wasn’t shayach for one reason or another. In many cases, over a year of bad dates with the wrong people goes by before the single starts to use a more hands-on approach with his/her shidduchim. It’s then, when the said single goes out with the person who was previously nixed by a relative that a smooth path to engagement and marriage follows.

In terms of how to approach your mother, you should not have to confront her on this alone. Where is your father in all of this? He might be more grounded, and you should be able to get him on your side. Most importantly, speak to your rebbe or mentor and discuss

Pulling It All Together

how you together can bring this up with your mother.

If things do not change, you may have to take shidduchim into your own hands. Ask a rav or mentor to be the person to guide you through the dating process. It is important to have someone levelheaded to speak to during this process.

Much hatzlacha!

The Single Tova Wein t 21, you’re still quite young, and I wonder whether it’s possible that your mother isn’t rushing to find someone for you to go out with because she feels that there is still time for you to further mature. You may want to be clear on whether this is partially or totally getting in the way of you dating already.

So that brings me to the importance of having an open, honest degree of communication with your mother, and I’m assuming there is a father somewhere in the mix to also weigh in with his opinion. You need to sit down with your parents and find out whether the issue is age-related, or whether, as you suspect,

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Make sure that no one is sabotaging your future - even if it’s with the best of intentions.

they seriously believe no one will ever be quite perfect enough to deserve a man like you!

If it’s age-related, consider whether or not your parents have a point. If it’s because they are holding out for a “princess,” it’s time to break the news to them that they will not be gaining a princess as a daughter-in-law and that it’s time they realize that their fantasy is not about to happen so fast. Explain to them that if they don’t allow you to have a strong say in who you go out with, you may be forced to give over this job to someone else who is more realistic and on the same page as you.

It’s good that you’re aware of this potential problem and haven’t lost important years, which is sometimes the case with other young men like yourself. Now is the time to become proactive and make sure that no one is sabotaging your future – even if it’s with the best of intentions.

The Navidaters Dating and Relationship Coaches and Therapists

I

t’s time for you to sit down with your mother and father and have a heart-to-heart. Find out what your parents are looking for in a potential wife for their “prince.” Then, tell your parents what it is you are looking for and that you want to date this girl. If your mother is a domineering woman who rules the roost and you have historically had trouble communicating your desires to her, then you may need some time in therapy to “find your voice” and speak up for yourself. You may want to invite your parents to a therapy session to discuss your concerns. I think now is the time to get to work on

this because one day, G-d willing, you will have a wife who isn’t going to want t o feel as though she is never good enough for her mother-in-law’s precious son. Oy! When the mother always thinks her child is too good for his/her spouse, one of two things usually happens: the couple stays away from Mom by means of not picking up the phone or moving. Or it causes problems within the marriage when the child of the overbearing parent doesn’t know how to manage or set boundaries

with the parent.

Tova Wein mentions the possibility that your parents don’t think you are ready to date. I have seen parents “play games” to try to push off shidduchim when they believe their children aren’t ready. And I always encourage open dialogue with the adult child. Through the conversation you will have with them, you will find out what their true motivation is. If the conversation feels unmanageable or is circling the drain, get a third, neutral party involved.

Ultimately, if you want to date and you believe you are truly ready for the life-altering commitment that marriage entails and your parents are somewhat sabotaging your efforts, then you will have to find other means

to meet women. Speak with your rav, mentor, siblings, cousins, shadchanim, etc.

All the best, Jennifer

Esther Mann, LCSW and Jennifer Mann, LCSW are licensed psychotherapists and dating and relationship coaches working with individuals, couples and families in private practice in Hewlett, NY. To set up a consultation or to ask questions, please call 516.224.7779. Press 1 for Esther, 2 for Jennifer. 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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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Dr. Deb

Myth: Self-Exploration is Painful

By Deb Hirschhorn, Ph.D.

H

ere are four categories of people running away from themselves: 1. People addicted to one thing or another – alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, working exceptionally long hours, explosive anger/rages, lying, or cheating.

2. Schizophrenics, narcissists.

3. Those who are emotionally cut off but not to the degree that they would receive a diagnosis.

4. Those who refuse therapy, coaching, or even self-help when their spouse begs for it.

Each of the people for whom these categories fit has an excellent reason for their fears: they’re afraid that what they will find will get to the core of their very identity and cut it to ribbons.

Or worse, they’re afraid to discover that there’s nothing “there” when they look inside, or what is there is such a huge indictment of themselves that they could not possibly go on living if they looked at it.

The good part of this is that they’re choosing to live. They’re choosing a

fake life in which something – their addiction, their mental illness, their numbness, or doing everything but look inside – keeps them very busy and distracted. They’re not fully alive but at least they’re alive.

The bad part of this is that they’re not fully alive, so what’s the point?

This is an enormously serious question because, really, what is the point of a non-life? True, one is alive. But so what? Are we not here to do something? Weren’t we created to leave some sort of stamp on the world? And to enjoy it? To truly wake up every day being grateful to have another chance?

Every person in the categories above functions more or less well.

They hide their addictions, their craziness, their emotional vacancy, their hidden self-loathing, and no one knows. They go to work, possibly doing very well in that arena, and no one would guess.

What is it they don’t want to discover? Here is a random list of things people have said: • At the core, I’m no good. I

“know” I’m good, but at the core, I feel like I’m not.

• I’m a bad person. The list of good things doesn’t outweigh my list of bad.

• My parents rejected me so I can’t be good.

• I’ve suffered so much; the fact that G-d gave me this means He doesn’t like me.

• My own mother/father beat me/ left me/put me down so I know I’m a piece of garbage.

• To this very day – I’m an adult – my parent screams disgusting things at me; I am worthless.

• I had a bad childhood and now I have a bad marriage. G-d is punishing me for the evil that I am.

• Even my kids have turned against me. Everyone hates me. Why would I look inside?

Now, most people who are severely cut off from themselves would not even say these things. These statements – or something like them – have come from people who were reluctantly willing to look inside. Those are the brave ones.

People in my four categories haven’t made these pronouncements, at least not at first.

Narcissists will say they are “fine,” for example. There is nothing wrong with them. Please don’t mention feelings to them, or your need to believe you’re talking to another human being as opposed to the wall. They’re not listening, they’re not connected, they’re not attuned, and they don’t “care.” All that is their phony façade.

The reality is they’re scared to look and find that their hype is built on a foundation of quicksand, forever sinking.

Schizophrenia is a blatant agreement that reality is not the place they want to go; it – and especially their own Self within “it” – is not for them.

Then there are the regular people without any kind of discernable diagnosis who simply want to remain emotionally cut off – from themselves especially, but also from those who want the most to know them better and deeper.

Every one of them is scared.

The fear is totally understandable

since they actually believe the messages – spoken or implicit – that got them to agree to how horrible they are. Their parents surely did not mean to brainwash them, but that is exactly what they did. And they did a top-notch job. Their children are stuck in a world of hidden self-loathing, which they generally deny with a laugh, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Then why don’t you want to engage in self-reflection?

Oh, I don’t want to.

Like the kind of conversations I might have with my three-year-old grandson: Me: “Why did you think that was funny?”

Him: “Because it was funny!”

The very lack of logic betrays the problem. (Not of the three-year-old; that’s normal.)

The Solution I have found a simple solution to things that are ultra-difficult. Like

flossing. I wasn’t in the habit of doing it, so getting into that habit has been a challenge. I mean, there’s an extra minute to add on to daily chores.

Sheesh.

I found that if I turn off all inner debate and just mindlessly reach into

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tion. As soon as you start discussing the pros and cons with yourself, you lose. Guaranteed.

This is particularly important because what you will in fact experience in this self-exploration process is quite the opposite of painful.

In the process of self-exploration you discover how silly it was to conclude all these awful things about yourself - and you can laugh.

the cabinet for the floss thingy, the rest follows. It’s that first step that’s difficult and the way to overcome it is to just turn off inner arguments and take the first step in the right direc-

All that no-good, bad, evil, horrible, empty, worthless stuff is not there. It just isn’t. You, like any other human being, may have made mistakes.

Welcome to the club. But none of

that makes you bad. Even if you hurt someone with evil intent in the throes of anger. Most of us have been there.

It’s not a permanent blemish on your soul. To the contrary, in the process of self-exploration you discover how silly it was to conclude all these awful things about yourself – and you can laugh.

You laugh from a genuine place of happiness and the release of all the worries and fears that were blocking you from living a true, complete, zestful life. It’s quite liberating.

Dr. Deb is a Marriage & Family Therapist.

Book a consultation with her to get clarity on the issues in your marriage and learn about her innovative program at: https:// drdeb.com/book. To book a call with Dr. Deb, go to her scheduler, https://drdeb. com/book, but if you want more information about her new program, please first watch the Masterclass on “Getting The Marriage You Want” at http://drdeb. com/myw-masterclass.

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Health & F tness

Soy: Friend or Foe?

By Aliza Beer MS, RD

O

ver the years, soybeans have become one of the most popular foods. Chances are, some form of it is sitting in your pantry right now. Originating from Asia, soy has been transformed into a number of products including tofu, protein powder, and meat replacements.

Soy first became really popular in the U.S. around the 1990s after research suggested it’s a heal-all plant.

However, the bean’s fans have dwindled in recent years. Despite being the number two crop grown in the U.S. after corn, soy is perhaps one of the most controversial foods to-date.

Health professionals and researches can’t seem to agree on whether or not we should be eating more soy or banning it altogether. This confusion has painted the soybean in a bad light, and many people avoid it without really understanding why. Many of the claims for and against soy are just talking points that are thrown out there without being backed by evidence or research. So what’s the deal with soy? Should we shun it from our diets or start adding edamame to every smoothie?

Pros & Cons For starters, soybeans boast an

impressive nutritional profile. One cup of edamame beans, which are basically young soybeans, have 189 calories and 17 grams of protein.

Aside from the whopping plant protein content, they also contain fiber, polyunsaturated fats (the “good” fat), and loads of vitamins and minerals.

Perhaps the real controversy began with the discovery of isoflavones in soy. Isoflavones are phytoestrogens that act as a weak estrogen in the body. It was speculated that they can sometimes mimic the effects of estrogen. People began to claim that soybeans will cause breast cancer, specifically the type that needs estrogen to grow. However, some recent studies now show isoflavone intake from soy may reduce breast cancer risk. Soy has even been linked to longer life expectancy after diagnosis. Estrogen levels begin to decline in menopausal women, and soy has been linked to helping counteract effects like hot flashes. Studies show that this little bean may also increase fertility!

However, some worry that these phytoestrogens will mess with male hormones. In one animal study involving male mice, 20 mg of soy per kg led to a decrease in testosterone

levels. But, if you look closer, the equivalent of that amount in human consumption would mean 57 cups of soymilk per day, which seems a bit excessive. When consumers drank only 3 cups of soymilk, no effects were seen at all. And, as a bonus, soy consumption in men even reduced the risk of prostate cancer.

Another claim people often say about soy is that it will affect your thyroid health. If you have thyroid issues, there is research to suggest that soy intake should be limited because it can possibly interfere with thyroid medication, particularly iodine. However, that doesn’t mean you need to avoid it altogether or that the research is conclusive. Think of it as a preventative measure until more research is done. If you don’t have thyroid issues, a serving of tofu won’t do any harm to your thyroid.

Soy is an incredible plant-based protein. It’s also a complete protein, making it perfect for main meals.

Replacing meat with healthier protein options can lower risk of heart disease. Reducing saturated fat intake and subbing it for polyunsaturated (again, the “good” fats) is a heart-healthy move. However, soy won’t counteract the effects of meat

so eating a bag of edamame beans won’t exactly undo the burger you had earlier. For an easy lunch or dinner, try a salad with cubed, marinated tofu.

GMOs Despite being a healthy powerhouse, the soybean does have a few drawbacks. We’ve all heard the word GMO before. When we see packaging labeled “GMO-free,” we feel better about the item we’re purchasing despite not really knowing what the word means. The World Health Organization defines GMO as “organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural combination.” Simply put, some aspect of a GMO food has been engineered or altered. We’re still working on figuring out the effects of GMOs on our bodies and environments but many recommend to try and avoid foods that are genetically modified, since the long term effects are still unknown.

Unfortunately, soy is one of the most genetically modified foods grown in the U.S. About 94% of all soy grown here is GMO. Many GMOs are engineered to withstand a lot of

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pesticides, one of which is glyphosate, which has been linked to cancer. Small amounts of glyphosate have been found in some non-organic soybeans. I’d recommend choosing only organic soy, which is widely available, to avoid any possible GMO side effects.

It’s important to note that all soy products are not created equal. Perhaps this is where the bean gets its bad rap. Because soy is such a fantastic source of so many nutrients, food industries chose to capitalize on it.

Today, the supermarket shelves are lined with many soy products like

soy bars, soy-based meat, and soy protein. These foods almost always contain the most processed versions of soy. Many of them boast soy content but most of the good stuff has been stripped. A slice of whole grain bread and a frosted cupcake both start out as wheat. Same goes for comparing soy and soy products.

Most are laden with added sugars, bad fats, preservatives, and other ingredients no one can actually pronounce. Avoid anything that contains textured vegetable protein. A popular protein supplement is soy protein isolate which is perhaps the

worst of all. It’s made by stripping the bean of all its good properties and then heavily processing the remaining part.

Eat – in Moderation So what’s the bottom line? Soy in its most natural state is the healthiest. Moderation, as with any food, is key. If eaten regularly, soy can help combat some cancers and other diseases. It’s also super versatile.

Fermented soy, like soy sauce, has been linked to good health for years especially in Asian countries. Try using the low-sodium version to con-

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trol all the added salt. Other options like tofu, soy milk, and tempeh are a great way to get your soy fix. Steer clear of the GMO and processed versions of soy, found in veggie burgers, “fake” chicken nuggets, bars, cookies, and chips.

Aliza Beer is a registered dietician 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.

Here’s a great recipe you can incorporate into different dishes this coming week

BAKED TOFU FOR SALADS, SANDWICHES & SNACKS

Ingredients

Preparation

1 or more (16-oz.) containers extra-firm tofu 1 TBS cornstarch, optional for crispy tofu Marinade (optional): 1 TBS sesame oil 1 TBS soy sauce 1 TBS rice vinegar 1 TBS water Other marinade ideas: minced ginger, minced garlic, lemon or lime juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce (thinned with water)

1. Press the tofu: Remove the tofu from its packaging and pat dry with paper towels or a dish cloth. Line a plate with a paper towel and set the tofu on top. Set a small plate on top of the tofu and weigh it down with something heavy, like a 28-ounce can of tomatoes. Press for 15 to 30 minutes.

You will see liquid collect around the tofu.

2. Cut the tofu into pieces: Remove the weight and drain off the excess liquid. Slice the pressed tofu into cubes, thin slices, or sticks, depending on how you plan to use the tofu.

3. Marinate the tofu (optional): To give the tofu extra flavor, marinate the tofu pieces for at least 30 minutes or as long as overnight. Whisk together the marinade ingredients. Transfer the marinade and the tofu to a shallow container. Gently toss the cubes until coated with the marinate.

Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. If marinating longer, toss the tofu occasionally to marinate evenly.

4. Heat the oven: When ready to bake the tofu, heat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

5. Toss with cornstarch (optional): If you’ll be serving the tofu right away, tossing the cubes with cornstarch will make them crispier. (The cornstarch doesn’t make a difference once the cubes are cooled and refrigerated.) Transfer the tofu to a bowl with a slotted spoon and sprinkle with cornstarch. Gently toss until the outside of the tofu is sticky and coated.

6. Bake the tofu: Arrange the tofu on the baking sheet in a single layer. The tofu can be close, but try to avoid pieces touching each other. The pieces will shrink as it bakes. Bake until the outside of the tofu is golden and the pieces look slightly puffed, 20 to 45 minutes depending on the size and shape of your tofu. Toss the tofu every 10 minutes so the pieces bake evenly. The longer you bake the tofu, the chewier it will be.

7. Cool and store: If serving immediately, serve while still warm. If saving the tofu for later, let it cool on the baking sheet, then transfer to a container and refrigerate. The tofu will keep refrigerated for up to a week.

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FINAL STRETCH

HELP BRING THIS BEAUTIFUL BASTION OF CHINUCH TO THE FINISH LINE

BUILDING

CA M PA I G N

An opportunity for partnership!

This is a historic opportunity to partner

with Siach Yitzchak and earn a share in its perpetual impact on the future of Klal Yisroel!

For 39 years, Siach Yitzchok, under the leadership of its dedicated Menahel, Rav Dovid Sitnick, has been a dynamic chinuch anchor of our community. The Yeshiva’s pioneering chinuch achievements are part of the beautiful spectrum of the Five Towns/Far Rockaway community’s essence and identity.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

-

‫ה ב נ י ן‬

‫ז ה‬

‫ה ש ל ם‬

Dedication Opportunities Cheshek Shlomo Building Dedication ........ $2,000,000 Junior High School Name .............................. $1,000,000 Early Childhood Learning Dedication ...... $1,000,000 Bais HaMedrash Name ..................... $360,000 Reserved Main Entrance ..................................................... $360,000 Dining Hall / Auditorium .................................. $360,000 Harav Shlomo Freifeld zt”l Memorial Wall ...... $250,000 Founders Wall in Main Lobby ..................... $250,000 Gymnasium .......................................................... $250,000 Aron Kodesh ........................................ $100,000 Reserved Kitchen ............................................................... $100,000 Classrooms (18) ................................... $50,000 8 Reserved Limudei Kodesh Conference Room .. $36,000 Reserved OT/PT Rooms (5) ................................ $25,000 2 Reserved Bais HaMedrash Menorah .................. $18,000 Reserved Yizkor Plaque (2) .................................................. $10,000 Mezuza at each Floor’s Entranceway (5) ............. $10,000 Mizrach Wall Decorative Panels (12) ..... $7,200 1 Reserved Otzar Haseforim Bookcase (6) ....................... $7,200 Bais HaMedrash Bookcase (18) .......... $7,200 1 Reserved Bais HaMedrash Window (12) .............. $5,400 7 Reserved Classroom Mezuzah (18) .................... $5,400 6 Reserved Pre-School Netilas Yadayim Stations (6) ... $5,400 1 Reserved Classroom Windows (18) ...................................... $3,600 Classroom Cubbies (18) .................... $2,500 2 Reserved Set of Table & 4 Chairs in BM (50) ..... $1,800 1 Reserved Water Fountain (8) ................................ $1,800 1 Reserved Mezuza (50) .............................................. $1,800 4 Reserved Classroom Clocks (18) .......................... $1,000 3 Reserved

For information on dedication and additional sponsorship opportunities please contact Rabbi Mordechai Stein at the Yeshiva office at 718.327.6247 ext.16 or mstein@siachyitzchok.org

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In The K

tchen

Pesto Mac ‘N’ Cheese Dairy • Yields 8 servings

By Naomi Nachman

Every American kid I know loves mac ‘n’ cheese, and I wanted a really great cheesy recipe. I asked my friend, Melinda Strauss of Kitchen-Tested, for her recipe and added a pesto layer of flavor to her recipe to make it a bit more sophisticated.

I wanted to share this recipe from my book, Perfect Flavors, with my readers as it’s a warm comfort food during this cold winter season.

Ingredients Mac ‘N’ Cheese 5 TBS unsalted butter, divided 2 TBS all-purpose flour 2 cups whole or 2% milk 2 tsp Dijon mustard 1 TBS kosher salt ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg ¼ cup store pesto sauce 2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 4 slices American cheese, torn into quarters ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 TBS breadcrumbs 4 cups (16-ounce box) cooked elbow pasta

Homemade Pesto Sauce 2 cups fresh basil leaves (no stems) 2 TBS pine nuts or walnuts 2 large cloves garlic ½ cup extra virgin olive oil ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare a béchamel cheese sauce: In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter for one minute. Add flour; stir with a wooden spoon until thick, about 30 seconds.

Gradually add milk, mustard, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and pesto sauce; stir until bubbling and thick, 5 minutes. Add cheddar, mozzarella, and American cheeses; stir to combine. Pour the sauce over the pasta.

In a small bowl, combine the Parmesan and breadcrumbs; sprinkle over the cheesy pasta.

Dollop remaining 2 tablespoons butter over the crumbs.

Baked, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes.

Prepare the homemade pesto sauce: Combine basil leaves, pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor fitted with the “S” blade; process until very finely minced. With the machine running, slowly dribble in the oil; process until the mixture is smooth.

Add the cheese and process very briefly, just long enough to combine. Store in refrigerator or freezer.

To keep the pesto pareve, omit cheese.

Recipe shared with permission from ArtScroll.

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.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

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OCTOBER 29, DECEMBER 20,2015 2018| The | TheJewish JewishHome Home

Notable Quotes “Say What?!”

We’d love for Mr. Curry to tour the lunar lab at our Johnson Space Center in Houston, perhaps the next time the Warriors are in town to play the Rockets. We have hundreds of pounds of moon rocks stored there and the Apollo mission control. During his visit, he can see firsthand what we did 50 years ago, as well as what we’re doing now to go back to the moon in the coming years but this time to stay.

Peter Morgan, an author, said, “No family is complete without an embarrassing uncle.” We have too many embarrassing uncles in the United States Senate.

-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MI) in her farewell address after losing her election

- NASA spokesman Allard Beutel responding to NBA superstar Stephen Curry who said in a recent podcast that he does not believe the U.S. really landed on the moon in 1969

Obviously, I was joking when I was talking on the podcast.

- Stephen Curry, on ESPN

“My supervisor says we cannot accept international driver’s licenses. Do you have a New Mexico passport?” she asked. They went back to a supervisor to check if New Mexico was a state ... twice.

- Gavin Clarkson, of New Mexico, relating on Facebook what a clerk said when he and his wife recently applied for a marriage license in Washington, D.C.

I have noticed that Junior here has a habit of posting nonsense about me whenever the Mueller investigation heats up. Please, keep it coming, Jr. – it’s definitely a “very, very large brain” idea to troll a member of a body that will have subpoena power in a month.

- Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threatening to abuse the powers of her elected office to retaliate against Donald Trump Jr., after the president’s son trolled her on his personal Instagram account

He was thanking me for a birthday to remember…. He said it made him and his wife cry, and he said, “I am so glad we were on the same flight.”

- Kelsey Rae Zwick – who was switched to first class while flying with her sick 11-month-old daughter from Florida to a hospital in Philadelphia after a first class passenger asked the flight attendant to give Zwick his seat – recalling what the man, whom she did not cross paths with on the plane, told her when she was finally able to talk to him on the phone several days later after the random act of kindness went viral

MORE QUOTES

27 113

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Our future is: Female Intersectional Powered by our belief in one another.

And we’re just getting started.

- Pandering tweet by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who is considering a run for president in 2020

Our future is: AMERICAN An identity based not on gender, race, ethnicity or religion. But on the powerful truth that all people are created equal with a G-d given right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness.

The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?

– President Donald Trump on Twitter

– Sen. Marco Rubio’s tweet in response

Good to know. My girls will be excited about this. When is it appropriate to let my boys (9, 7 and 6 years old) know that there’s no future for them? Not sure this is a winning platform but you be you.

- Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet in response to Gillibrand

Gillibrand has two sons, who apparently aren’t part of the future their mother imagines. They won’t be saved by intersectionality, either.

White male sons of senators will find winning the grievance Olympics to be nearly impossible.

- Karol Markovitz, New York Post

I will prove to them, I will show them. I will bring many more babies into this world. Am Yisrael chai.

- Shira Ish-Ran, the pregnant woman who was severely wounded and lost her baby boy in a West Bank shooting attack last week, in her first comments after the attack

I served in the IDF and became religious after the Yom Kippur War. I am an Israeli; I am the product of a crisis in secular Israeli society. I understand that everyone has to live by his faith and values, but mutual respect must be preserved – this hatred must end.

It is impossible to build a home and a state like this.

Beyond all the arguments, why do we only meet after a bereavement and say, “We are brothers”? Let’s meet at celebrations.

- Rabbi Eliyahu Merav, the stepfather of Yossi Cohen, one of the soldiers who fell in the shooting attack at the Givat Asaf junction last week

We undertook a very thorough investigation, and in 2016 we now know there were two main ad accounts linked to Russia, which advertised on Google for about $4,700 in advertising.

- Google CEO Sundar Pichai disclosing last week during a congressional hearing the amount of money that Russia spent on Google for political ads to “influence the U.S. elections”

People would more readily take a selfie outside the Rijksmuseum than really look at or care about the paintings within.

- The Telegraph’s travel writer Rodney Bolt explaining why he supports Amsterdam’s removal last week of the iconic “I Amsterdam” sculpture located in front of the Rijksmuseum in the city’s center, since it became too much of a selfie attraction

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Workaholism is a contagious disease. You can’t stop the spread if you’re the one bringing it into the office.

- Basecamp cofounder and CEO Jason Fried, who doesn’t want his employees working more than 40 hours a week, in his recent book which the Economist called the best book on management published in 2018

It is unfortunate and unfair that over a petty offense Pedro is forced to spend more time behind bars instead of attending the Kennedy event tonight, where he would have had the opportunity to spend time with President Obama.

- Lawyer Alex Spiro talking about his client, Pedro Hernandez, who was supposed to meet Barack Obama at an event which highlights unfair incarceration of inner city young adults but was unable to attend the event because he was arrested hours before the event for driving a car with stolen plates while his license was suspended – marking his 13th arrest

The Constitution technically says he cannot run unless he’s 35.

- Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipping that even though she is only 29 she can run for president because the Constitution only prohibits men from running until the age of 35 (Article II Section I of the Constitution actually says “… neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years”)

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Political Crossfire

There’s a Word for the Democrats’ Negotiating Strategy: Insanity

By Marc A. Thiessen

G

ood news for the incoming House Democratic majority!

They have something President Trump really, really wants: money to build a border wall. Trump is desperate for this money. Mexico won’t give it to him. Only congressional Democrats can. Without their consent, he can’t deliver on one of the key campaign promises he made during the 2016 election.

There’s a name for this in classic negotiating strategy. It’s called “leverage.”

Good negotiators use leverage (something they have, which their adversary wants) to obtain what are called “concessions” (something their adversary has, which they want). The result is what experts call “compromise.” This is how the civilized world gets things done.

But in a fit of pique, Democrats are throwing away their leverage, insisting that they will never – under any circumstances – give Trump the wall he so desperately wants. The reason? Because he wants it and they despise him.

There is a name for this in negotiating strategy as well. It’s called “insanity.”

It would be one thing if Trump was demanding that Democrats make some great moral compromise. But he is not.

Democrats say they are for border security. They may think that a wall is

a costly and inefficient way to secure the border, but there is nothing inherently wrong with a wall. In 2006, 26 Senate Democrats – including Sens.

Charles Schumer, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton – voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which required the Department of Homeland Security to build two layers of reinforced fencing along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico

majority next year, they could offer him the remaining $15 billion to $20 billion he needs to finish the wall, in exchange for legal status for the other 11 million people here in the country illegally. The wall could buy legal status for every illegal immigrant living in the shadows – a longtime Democratic priority.

Again, Trump would likely be willing to cut such a deal. He is on record

Don’t refuse the wall; use the wall.

border. Is there some profound moral difference between a fence and a wall?

No. So why not give Trump his wall in exchange for something they want?

They could give Trump the $5 billion he is asking for to begin construction of the wall, in exchange for a path to citizenship for the nearly 2 million “dreamers,” illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children through no fault of their own.

Trump would negotiate on this basis in a heartbeat.

Then, when Democrats take the

repeatedly saying that he wants to find a way for the vast majority of illegal immigrants (the “good ones,” he calls them) to get right with the law and secure legal status, so long as we get rid of the rapists, murderers and drug dealers (aka the “bad ones”) and secure the border. That is what Democrats claim they want to do as well. So take him up on it.

Or, if they don’t want to use their leverage to solve the illegal immigration problem, then Democrats could use the wall as leverage to win concessions from Trump on something else.

Democrats have laid out an ambitious agenda – from shoring up Obamacare, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and Medicare-for-all to modifying Trump’s tax cuts, increasing the minimum wage, strengthening environmental rules, tackling global climate change and enacting paid family leave.

The possibilities are endless. If Democrats don’t use the wall as leverage, they won’t get any of this.

In their Oval Office meeting, Schumer told Trump that “elections have consequences” – echoing the infamous words spoken by Obama to congressional Republicans in 2009 when they presented him with their ideas for a stimulus package. Back then, however, Democrats controlled not just the House but the Senate and White House, too. Today, Republicans control the executive branch and have an expanded Senate majority. So if Democrats want to get anything done, they can’t ram it through over GOP objections, because Trump has leverage, too – in the form of a pen he can use to sign or veto legislation. To get anything done, Democrats have to negotiate – and compromise.

The answer for Democrats is simple: Don’t refuse the wall; use the wall. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

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Political Crossfire

For Taiwan, the “Status Quo” is an Increasingly Delicate Balancing Act

By David Ignatius

I

f you like betting on embattled underdogs, President Tsai Ingwen is worth a look. She’s tempting the wrath of her powerful neighbor in mainland China by arguing that Taiwan must maintain its own open culture, democratic values, and, yes, its sovereignty.

Tsai is a petite woman, dressed in a plain black suit, who speaks the careful language of a Cornell-educated lawyer. But her low-key message of self-determination makes her something of a rebel in an Asia where China’s autocratic President Xi Jinping is an increasingly dominant presence.

Tsai’s modest demand is to preserve the status quo in Taiwan – namely, the ambiguous formula that allows Taipei and Beijing to agree that there is one China, and that Taiwan is part of it, but allows them, while waiting for an eventual “peaceful settlement,” to go their semi-separate ways.

Like nearly every Taiwanese I met during a visit here this week, Tsai affirmed this “status quo.” Never has the bland phrase sounded so luminous. To the Taiwanese, it means freedom and a kind of quasi-independence, so that the island continues to benefit from its cultural and economic ties with a rising China but isn’t subjugated by Beijing’s authoritarian

political system.

Tsai describes herself as a “balancer” in a world where Taiwan is caught between two battling giants, China and America. She explains Taiwan’s dilemma: “China is here, and the U.S. is far away. When you have a big neighbor, you have a reality to face. People here like the U.S. because it’s a democracy and it’s affluent. On security issues, we work with democracies such as the U.S. And on trade, we still consider China an equally important partner.”

Not exactly revolutionary stuff, but as the trade war intensifies between Washington and Beijing, it’s getting harder for the pragmatic balancers to keep their footing. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party have faced a barrage of criticism from Beijing since her election in 2016, including what her advisers say was a calculated effort to meddle in last month’s local elections, which Tsai’s party lost badly to a pro-Beijing slate.

Tsai blames that recent political defeat on domestic issues that “are not universally popular” – such as pension and labor-law reform – rather than on the great game between Beijing and Washington.

The real political test will come in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential elections, when many predict Beijing

will push for a more China-friendly government. Security officials here have prepared a detailed factsheet showing how Beijing directs money, social media and political action to back pro-China candidates.

Argues Tsai: “People will be more mindful of Chinese influence [after last month’s local elections], and they will be more careful. This is a test of the maturity of Taiwanese democracy. This is about sovereignty, and whether we want to bow to China.”

Taiwan’s deeper problem is that U.S.-China engagement, launched by a 1972 communique and its ambiguous language on Taiwan, is giving way to a new strategic consensus that China and America are headed for “competitive coexistence,” as Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s top foreign policy adviser in 2016, describes it.

My fear is that in this more combative world, typified by recent news that the Trump administration will condemn China for its hacking and economic espionage, there may be less space for Taiwan’s straddle – and more pressure on Taipei to accept Beijing’s line.

A senior Taiwanese official explains what he fears is ahead: “Xi is a disciple of Sun Tzu’s line: To win a war without launching a battle. That is what Xi is trying to do with Tai-

wan. He’s aiming at a 2014 Crimea solution, by using hybrid tactics against Taiwan.”

What can America do to help Taiwan, whose plucky spirit is impossible not to admire? One thing is simply to pay more attention to the island, which exists in a kind of political netherworld. That was one purpose of the bipartisan trip here this week organized by the German Marshall Fund and led by Sullivan, which I accompanied. (I’m a GMF trustee.)

What else makes sense, if you’re betting on the underdog? America should think about signing a free trade agreement with Taiwan, which could encourage other countries to do the same. Hopefully, China won’t seek a military confrontation. “I don’t think Xi is there yet,” said Tsai. “He thinks there are other ways to attain the same objective.”

Sometimes just treading water is the best strategy. As Tan Sun Chen, head of a government-linked think tank here called the Prospect Foundation, told us: “Status quo is a major word. It means we get to preserve our country. If we say ‘independence,’ that goes too far.” That sense of balance has allowed Taiwan to survive. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group

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Tribe Tech Review

A Wyze Investment in Security

By Dov Pavel

T

here are many smart security cameras on the market. Nest is a popular brand offering cameras at $199 and $299. Netgear, another popular brand, offers the Arlo camera at $199, while Amazon offers the Cloud Cam for $119. Nest requires a subscrip-

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Interested? Keep reading.

When the Wyze Cam camera arrived in the mail, I was shocked at how small the box was: literally a two-inch cube. Do good things come in small packages? My wife Bibi’s reaction was, “Wow, this camera is cute.” The camera comes with a flexible stand which allows it to be raised, tilted and swiveled to point in any direction. It also comes with a magnetic base and an adhesive for wall mounting (although I did not mount mine). The camera requires a nearby power outlet (it is not battery powered) and, of course, a Wi-Fi connection.

Once plugged in, a simple application of the camera is like a baby monitor that will allow you to view your little ones from anywhere. I recommended this to a colleague who is a new father and he loves it. There is also a two-way voice connection that allows you to speak to the camera and hear sounds along with viewing live images.

Right out of the box the camera offers both sound and motion detection options. When movement or sound is detected, the camera records and uploads to the cloud 12-second clips,

which are saved for 14-days without a subscription. That is a huge advantage over some other services that charge hefty fees for a similar feature.

I found the motion sensor to be accurate, detecting primarily actual movement. Occasionally, I received empty motion clips that seemed to be triggered by cloud movements and shadows. There is a sensitivity option that I dialed down to address this. The sound clips did not seem very helpful, in my experience, though I did discover that houses make sounds — be it the air conditioning or heating or the refrigerator compressor switching on. I dialed down the sound sensor drastically, hoping it would still capture a glass breakage or other loud sounds and not be sensitive to the rest.

There is a separate smoke and carbon monoxide alarm sensor that will notify you if any of your external house alarms are triggered, which can be very helpful in a real emergency. The camera also has wide-angle (110 degree) viewing capabilities. When I placed it in my foyer, I was able to monitor both my front and side doors simultaneously, since they are set at a 90-degree angle from each other. If you require coverage of angles wider than 110 degrees, you can use two cameras and daisy chain from one power source to multiple cameras, avoiding extra wires.

There is also a night vision mode that I set to auto; it produces high quality videos even with all the lights in the house switched off.

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

The camera is only for indoor use, so I placed it on a windowsill facing the street to capture activity outside my front door. It worked well during the daytime, capturing all movements to my front door. The camera is also compatible with Alexa, so I can ask to view a live image of my front door from a compatible Alexa-enabled device (Echo Show). The wide angle and motion detection works against you in this scenario as the motion sensor picks up each car traveling on your block. Fortunately, a recent update to the software allows you to set a specific zone for motion detection. I set it to the narrow view of my front path while excluding any movement beyond the curb. This defines the motion detection zone but once motion is detected in that zone, the full camera view is recorded. Night time video, however, was a little bit of a disappointment from my window due to the reflection of the glass.

Motion detection on Shabbat poses the big challenge for this camera as well as other smart cameras and

smart home devices. When speaking with halachic authorities, the common opinion is that triggering motion detection that is not for your benefit is not a problem. (Please consult with your rav about this topic.) However, where the trigger is for your benefit it can be problematic. For example, if your neighbor’s motion light sensors are triggered when you pass on your way

In a previous article, I quoted rabbinic authorities who believe keeping an Amazon Echo listening in your home on Shabbat is problematic for similar reasons (see tribetechreview.wordpress. com for archives).

The app allows for turning off the motion detection at certain times during the day but does not allow you to choose the day of the week or to

My wife Bibi’s reaction was, “Wow, this camera is cute.”

home, this may not be an issue since the motion detection is for your neighbor’s benefit and not yours. However, setting up a motion sensitive camera in your own home is clearly for your benefit and this may not be permissible if it will trigger events on Shabbat.

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choose times based on sunset for Shabbat. Plugging the camera into a smart switch that turns the entire camera off for Shabbat is a solution (one that I previously recommended for the Amazon Echo, itself). I did this for a while, and it rebooted after Shabbat without issue.

25 123

However, I wanted to find a way to keep the safety of the recording going 24/7 but to just turn off the motion detection triggers over Shabbat and yom tov. I believe I have found a solution and it is a solution that may work for other smart device integrations. It is a bit elaborate, so it will require a second article. Please visit my blog at tribetechreview.wordpress.com or stay tuned for Part II in two weeks’ time.

Shabbat shalom!

Dov Pavel is a tech enthusiast who reviews personal technology and home automation through the lens of a shomer Shabbos consumer. He is not affiliated with any of the companies whose products he reviews and the opinions he expresses are solely his own. Dov is not a halachic authority and readers should consult their own rabbi as needed. Dov lives in Teaneck with his wife and three children. Previous articles an be found at TribeTechReview.com. Follow @ TribeTechReview on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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124 32

DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home

Forgotten Her es

George H. W. Bush in the Navy

By Avi Heiligman

O

ne of the duties of the president is as the commander-in-chief of all armed forces. Although it’s not mandatory to have army experience, thirty-two of the forty-five presidents had prior service records in the military.

Some presidents did more in the military than just wear a uniform.

It helps a presidential contender if the candidate has a military career, as that makes him a hero in the eyes of Americans. The recent passing of George H. W. Bush brought forth the story of his World War II service in which he narrowly escaped being captured and executed by the Japanese to the headlines once again.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the 17-year-old was just a senior in high school. Bush said later of his thoughts about America being attacked, “After Pearl Harbor, it was a different world altogether. It was a red, white, and blue thing. Your country’s attacked; you’d better get in there and try to help.”

Upon his graduation and 18 th birthday, Bush enlisted in the U.S. Navy and began flight training. The course took place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Bush completed the training in ten months.

Commissioned days before his 19th birthday, Ensign Bush was one of the youngest naval aviators to earn his wings. His first assignment was as a photographic officer for Torpedo Squadron 51.

In the spring of 1944, Air Group 51 was stationed on the light carrier USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) with Bush as the pilot of a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. The carrier participated in air actions over Mar-

Bronson but the plane sank. Six days later Bush, along with another pilot, was credited for sinking a small Japanese vessel.

On September 2, Bush, who had been promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade, Bush took off from the USS San Jacinto in an Avenger with Radioman Second Class John Delaney and Lieutenant Junior Grade William G. White. His section of four torpedo bombers was to strike

“It was a red, white, and blue thing. Your country’s attacked; you’d better get in there and try to help.”

cus, Wake and the Mariana Islands.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19, 1944 saw the destruction of three Japanese carriers and over 550 planes with their irreplaceable pilots. Hailed as the Marianas Turkey Shoot, it proved to be too much for the Japanese airplanes. Over 100 American planes were lost, including that of Ensign Bush. He was forced to make a water landing. The entire crew was saved by the destroyer USS

a radio station on Chichijima in the Bonin Islands (Iwo Jima was a neighboring Island). On the bombing run they were hit by intense anti-aircraft fire but Bush continued to press the attack. After releasing the bombs and scoring hits on the targets, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to make it back to the carrier.

The engine was on fire with smoke filling the cockpit. Bush flew as far away from the island as he could be-

fore parachuting out of the doomed plane. On the way out, he hit his head and was bleeding when he reached the water. His fellow crewmembers perished during the landing but Bush was spared the fate of many downed flyboys (the nickname given to pilots flying off of carriers).

That day, eight other flyboys were captured by the Japanese near the island and were executed. Bush was fortunate and was able to stay afloat in the water in an inflatable life raft.

Four hours later, he was rescued by the submarine USS Finback who was on “lifeguard” duty.

For the next month the future president remained on the Finback helping to rescue other downed pilots. In November he returned to the USS San Jacinto to participate in the actions in the Philippines. Soon the squadron was replaced and was sent back to the United States.

Bush flew 58 missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for his heroism. For the rest of the war he was a trainer for new torpedo bomber pilots and later was assigned to a new torpedo squadron VT-153.

During this time he married future first lady Barbara Pierce Bush. One month after the Japanese surrendered, Bush, along with much of the military, was honorably discharged.

George H. W. Bush sitting in the cockpit of his Avenger torpedo bomber

Less than a year later, his eldest child and future president, George W. Bush, was born.

Most of the presidents who served in uniform had to make critical military decisions as presi-

dent. Being the commander-in-chief meant a great deal to those who knew what it meant to serve on the frontlines. President George H. W. Bush exemplified this trait as he was the president during the inva-

The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

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The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018 The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

125 33

The future president being rescued by the USS Finback

sion of Panama and Desert Storm.

USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77), an aircraft carrier named in 2009, is a fitting tribute for a former commander-in-chief who started his career on an aircraft carrier.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home The Jewish Home | OCTOBER 29, 2015

Your

15

Money

Gifts Tax-Free

By Allan Rolnick, CPA

T

hese days it seems like every day brings new controversy to further divide Americans: red states squaring off against blue states and partisanship crossing the line into tribalism. And that’s just as true with the holidays as with anything else. Are we spending too much on toys for our kids? Do we give one big present or eight smaller gifts? Does anyone even like jelly doughnuts?

Fortunately, there are still some headlines that can bring us all back together. So this holiday season, we’re especially delighted to remind you that there won’t be any Form 1040-GIFT to file after the wrapping paper is cleaned up.

Taxable income generally includes all income, from whatever sources received. However, the tax code carves out several exceptions to that rule, much like Grandpa grates the potatoes for the latkes. A “gift” is something of value, given without expecting anything in return. IRS Publication 525 states that “in most cases, property you receive

as a gift, bequest, or inheritance isn’t included in your income.”

“Ok, then, what about the gift tax?” you might challenge us next.

Well, for starters, that’s a levy on

Form 709. But even then, you won’t owe actual tax until your lifetime taxable gifts exceed $11.18 million.

With those rules in mind, you’ll have to be awfully generous be-

The tax code carves out several exceptions to that rule, much like Grandpa grates the potatoes for the latkes.

your right to give, not receive. So there’s never any tax due to the recipient. You can give up to $15,000 each to as many people in a year as you like. If you’re married, you and your spouse can join together to give up to $30,000 to every lucky winner. If you give more than $15,000 to a single recipient in a single year, you’ll have to report the excess on

fore Chanukah turns into a taxable event. (Granted, a trip to Tiffany’s might do the trick.) But there’s one last scenario to address — and one last loophole to highlight — before we finish our discussion. That’s if you want to gift someone with a car, an advertising staple since Lexus launched their “December to Remember” campaign back in 1998.

What happens when Uncle Isidore leaves a shiny new car wrapped in blue and silver in the driveway?

This is the part where we’re going to have to shatter some precious childhood illusions. Generally, Uncle Isidore doesn’t buy you cars – it’s usually Mom buying the car for Dad, or Dad buying it for Mom. And transfers between spouses are tax-free up to any amount. Which means, once again, that the IRS won’t be taking a bite out of your latke cheer.

Like everyone else, we wish you the best this holiday time, whether you celebrate Chanukah, or even Festivus. But we want to offer something a little more tangible. Help us give you the gift of proactive planning. Call us when you’re ready to save, and together we’ll make the season even brighter!

Allan J Rolnick is a CPA who has been in practice for over 30 years in Queens, NY. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at 718-896-8715 or at allanjrcpa@aol.com.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20,2015 2018| The | TheJewish JewishHome Home OCTOBER 29,

Life C ach

Yesterday in the UK

By Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., MFT, CLC

I

’m not the biggest world traveler.

In fact, New Jersey is usually a major excursion for me. But this past week I went to London and Liverpool.

The importance of getting there was not about seeing the queen. It’s not like I’m worried about her not being around for me to see at some later date. Her hubby is 97 and her Mum was 102 when she passed on. And that was years ago. Therefore, at 92, the queen’s practically a spring chicken, so no rush to get there on her account.

There was no rush to get there before Brexit is resolved. They’ve been struggling with that for months. In fact, while I was there, they somehow voted the prime minister back in. So, I think that for now the struggle with how to move forward on Brexit is not at risk of being resolved so suddenly that I needed to run over there for the hoopla.

I’d like to say it was a pure vacation! But that’s not how I travel. It’s usually part of some agenda. And this time it was to see my husband’s childhood heroes, the Beatles, perform.

Whoops, did I say Beatles?! I meant to say Beatle! Yes, Paul McCartney was performing in his hometown of Liverpool.

Therefore, hours before the concert, we made our way to Liverpool

to tour all the Beatles’ famous haunts: the places where they grew up, wrote their songs, and got their inspiration.

I felt, l’havdil a thousand times, like it feels when I go to Israel and visit all the kevarim of the great rabbis.

Of course, it wasn’t the same thing. But tell that to the hundreds of other fans who were there and they’ll surely disagree, or more likely, do worse to you.

This band – more accurately, its songs and its members – moved a

er. There were at least two. And they all actually wrote and sang some of the songs. Therefore, no one made the other feel small; no one stood out as the star to the exclusion of the other members. (Except the most background person, the drummer, Ringo Starr.)

• They knew to work hard on being in harmony.

• They chatted with their audiences and made them really feel that they mattered.

They knew to work hard on being in harmony.

whole generation, maybe even two or three, to deify them.

What was it that they had that other groups did not?

I’m not sure. Perhaps their combinations, manners, and style role-modeled good relationship skills and good habits. Here are some examples: • There was not just one lead sing-

• They used humor to lighten things up.

• And through their lyrics they supported and inspired: • They encouraged: “Don’t be afraid. Take a sad song and make it better.”

• They didn’t get overly aggravated: “They let it be.”

• They appreciated getting home:

“They knew everything would be alright, yeah!”

• They knew friends are important: “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.”

• They even ate healthy! They espoused “strawberry fields forever.”

• And ultimately, they knew it’s all about love: “I love you, yeah, yeah, yeah!”

Now, I know, it could be that they simply became popular because they were talented. And for some, because they were all just so cute and charming. But I’d like to think that it was those exceptional qualities I’ve highlighted that have people connecting to them time and again....

Alternatively, perhaps, I could postulate that they secretly had become ordained. And that’s what keeps fans following every move they made or make, even now, years after two are gone and two are separately still spreading their words.

So, my fans ... ta-ta for the moment. And I do hope you enjoyed this simply brilliant insight. Well, I’m off now for a spot of tea!

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 TheJewish JewishHome Home| DECEMBER | OCTOBER 20, 29, 2018 2015

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home

Which one of these children needs Chai Lifeline?

(Hint: They all do.)

Chai Lifeline is renowned for the care and love it bestows on children fighting cancer. But that’s only the beginning.

Chai Lifeline serves thousands of children with medical challenges that aren’t evident on the outside, everything from Crohns Disease to cystic fibrosis to heart disease and illnesses so rare only a handful of children have been diagnosed. And still, that’s only the beginning.

Chai Lifeline includes siblings and parents, too, with programs geared towards the entire family.

We care for more than 5,000 children and their families around the world and across the street.

Chances are, you know them. They just don’t look sick.

Whenever, wherever we’re needed, Chai Lifeline is there.

Chai Lifeline. Comprehensive, compassionate, professional assistance for families facing illness, loss or trauma.

151 West 30th Street, New York, NY 10001 I (877) CHAI-LIFE I (212) 465-1300 I www.chailifeline.org

Regional Offices: Greater New York I Southeast I West Coast I Midwest I Mid-Atlantic I New Jersey I Canada I England I Israel I Belgium Hospital Support: Meals | Transportation Assistance | Hospital Visits | Respite Children’s Programs: Arts and Recreational Activities | After-school programs | Sibling Programs | Educational Assistance in Limudei Kodesh Counseling for patients and siblings | Camp Simcha/Camp Simcha Special Family Programs: Advocacy and Information | Retreats | Insurance Advocacy | Family Recreation | Family Counseling | Bereavement Services Community Programs: Project CHAI, support for schools, camps, and communities facing crisis or trauma.

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 20, 2018

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DECEMBER 20, 2018 | The Jewish Home