The Jewish Light Rosh Hashanah Holiday Issue

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Volume 10, Number 8 Rosh Hashanah

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Doing This Daily Jewish Ritual Has Helped Me Cope With Coronavirus

If your group has an event that you would like for us to include on the Community Calendar please e-mail the information to jewishnews@bellsouth.net. All submissions are subject to acceptance by the Editor. ì

By Rachel Honeyman

(iriselmo/ Getty Images)

This story originally appeared on Kveller.

On March 8, in a bustling and noisy bagel shop in Lawrence, New York, I stood alongside nearly 30 women to recite a prayer called the Hadran. This is a prayer said upon completion of a Talmud tractate, a feat most women never achieve.

Until very recent history, the Talmud was virtually inaccessible to women. Many believed it was illegal by Jewish law to teach the Talmud to women, while others strongly discouraged it. While there has been a growing movement of women studying Talmud over the past 30 years or so, there are still far

more barriers for women than for men. Only a small minority of women begin the process of studying Talmud, and an even smaller minority complete a tractate.

So this gathering on March 8 was a big deal. All of us had taken on a daily Talmud “challenge,” if you will, called Daf Yomi — we committed to studying one front-andback page of the Talmud every single day for 2,711 days. That’s 7 1/2 years, if you’re counting — and that’s how long it takes to complete the entire Talmud. Each tractate completed is an achievement in and of itself, and that gathering in the spring marked the completion of our first tractate (of 38).

As we ate our bagels and got ready to recite the prayer, we introduced ourselves and talked about why we had taken on this challenge. Our backgrounds were about as varied as you could imagine — from unaffiliated women looking to connect with their Jewish roots to ultra-Orthodox women doing the

Daf Yomi in secret. Modern Orthodox me was somewhere in the middle. But our differences didn’t matter that day; we’d all come together to hug and share food in celebration of this communal achievement. I left the celebration feeling inspired to dive into the next leg of my journey, the tractate that deals with the laws of Shabbat.

The tractate of Shabbat begins by introducing the concept that objects cannot be carried from a private domain, like a house or private courtyard, into a public domain on Shabbat. These laws are generally so complex I couldn’t possibly describe them here, mostly because I don’t fully understand them myself.

But just days after beginning this tractate — a 2,000-year-old discussion of public versus private domains — it suddenly became all too relevant, as most synagogues across New York (including our own) shut down services due to

spread of coronavirus, and “NY on PAUSE” went into effect shortly thereafter. We’d all be stuck in our private domains for a long time to come.

Now that we’re months into the pandemic, so much of this COVID19 era can be summed up in one word: monotony. Each day feels much like the last, each week bleeds into the next. But for those of us keeping up with the Daf Yomi these past few months, we fortunately have one different thing to look forward to for 30 to 45 minutes each day.

Studying the Talmud is a window into the complex conversations among rabbis who lived 2,000 years ago, and it’s an opportunity to participate in those conversations in the present day. Each daily discussion unearths a new layer of thought (and often confusion) behind why See DAILY RITUAL on Page

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Table of Contents USA

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Global

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Holiday Features

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Education

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Bookshelf

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Sports

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Arts & Culture

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Entertainment

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Health

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The Nosher

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Kveller

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Jewish Federations Of North America Raising $54 Million For Coronavirus Fund

People wear face masks in Times Square in New York City, March 3, 2020, after the city confirmed cases of the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

(Eduardo Munoz/VIEWpress via Getty Images)

(JTA) — The Jewish Federations of North America is working to raise $54 million to ensure continued human services for Jewish communities and those affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Human Services Relief Fund will offer $18 million in matching funds raised from seven foundations to federations

raising a combined total of $36 million. The funds will be used by agencies that provide emergency financial aid, food assistance, trauma counseling and services, and resources for employees of Jewish communal organizations who have been laid off or furloughed.

Many Jewish community federations already have used their endowment funds and held emergency campaigns to support their local Jewish agencies and Jewish life in their communities, Jewish Federations board chair Mark Wilf said.

“Yet the length and depth of this downturn remains unknown.

We believe this effort will help alleviate Jewish families, seniors and others who have been hard hit by this pandemic,” he said. 

DAILY RITUAL Continued from Page 3 we practice Judaism the way we do.

Of course, the experience of studying Tractate Shabbat since March has been colored in every way by COVID-19.

As we learned about the laws of caring for a sick person on Shabbat, I thought of just how relevant this is in the midst of COVID. Discussions about bathing on Shabbat pulled my attention back to my hands, raw and chafing from obsessive cleansing. A common concern discussed in this tractate is what happens if someone forgets it’s Shabbat and violates certain prohibitions — this concern doesn’t seem so far-fetched these days when it’s nearly impossible to tell one day from the next. The virus has been ever present, even in my Talmud study.

A mere two weeks after that March gathering, I was admitted to our local hospital — not with COVID-19, thankfully, but with a facial infection. While New York’s COVID-19 numbers were not yet at their peak, the virus still permeated the halls of the hospital. I was not allowed any visitors. My only companion was my trusted Talmud.

When I did finally get home, I had to quarantine from my husband, Tzvi, for two weeks — who knew what I could be bringing home with me from the hospital?

We slept in separate rooms and moved our furniture around so we could always have at least six feet of distance between us. Tzvi prepared all of our meals, and I never went anywhere in the house without a trusty package of Lysol wipes.

For our Passover Seder, we sat at opposite ends of our 10-foot dining table, trying our best to share this experience together, while feeling — literally and figuratively — wedged apart.

Three days of heavy antibiotics in the hospital seemed to take everything out of me, and having to do this quasi-quarantining, especially during Passover, really did a number on my emotional state. As much as I wanted to keep up with the Daf Yomi, I lacked the energy,

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strength and motivation to do so.

But Tzvi rallied behind me and said he’d join me in this challenge, at least for tractate Shabbat, since he’d be working from home for the foreseeable future anyway.

And so, Tzvi became my muchneeded study partner. At first, I just needed his emotional support to keep going — but soon enough, this became a shared journey. For the past four months, as we’ve sipped our coffee in the early morning, we’ve weaved our way through the intricate laws of Shabbat, following the meandering discussions and countless tangents as best we could.

After 12 years together, this experience has added yet another layer of depth to our relationship, challenging us to examine what being practicing Jews means to us, especially in a time when we can’t participate in our community the same way we used to. And with being “stuck” in the house together for so long, this shared practice has given us something to work on together, to break the monotony.

Now, with the tractate of Shabbat having coming to a close on Monday, I’m ready again to recite the Hadran prayer along with my fellow Daf Yomi learners. Only this time, I’ll be doing so over Zoom or, at best, wearing a mask in a socially distant backyard celebration. Like so many of our experiences during COVID-19, community is still there for those of us who seek it out, but it’s incomplete, full of holes.

I’d love to celebrate this achievement of completing my second tractate of the Talmud by standing alongside my friends and others who’ve achieved this great feat.

But as we all must these days, I’ll take what I can get.

As I write this, I’m looking over at the volumes of the next tractate, Eruvin, a new challenge that will carry me from Aug. 11 through the next 110 days. It’s hard to picture what our world might look like at the end of November, but my dream and hope — remote as the possibility may seem — is to celebrate that achievement by standing in a bagel shop, arm in arm with my fellows in this challenge, and recite the Hadran again. 

Happy New Year...

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Planning Reopening Amid Pandemic, Jewish Institutions Navigate Minefield Of Challenges

By Michele Chabin

At the JCC in Overland Park, Kan., gym equipment is cleaned between uses to limit the possibility of coronavirus infection. (Courtesy of JFGKC)

When Jewish institutions like JCCs and synagogues shut down this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, it often felt like a wrenching decision arrived at reluctantly after careful deliberation.

Now, deciding how and when to physically reopen Jewish institutions is proving at least as challenging and fraught.

“In this murky interim period — when the pandemic continues even though lockdown orders are relaxing — how can we safely use our facilities?”

That was the question that 44 representatives from schools, synagogues and other Jewish facilities wrestled with when the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati convened an online meeting in June to discuss reopening, according to its CEO, Shep Englander.

“The discussion was very rich,” Englander said. “We all agreed that according to our Jewish values and tradition, we must put the health and safety of our families and community before any other considerations.”

While some Jewish communal

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institutions have been physically open – either partially or completely – since May, others are still planning a reentry or expect to remain shuttered for the foreseeable future.

Many have sought advice from their local federations and the Jewish Federations of North America, the federations’ umbrella organization.

The Secure Community Network, or SCN, the organization that deals with securing Jewish institutions against outside threats, created a working group focused on reopening planning. Comprising security directors, partner agencies, and experts in health, safety and other disciplines, the group produced guidance materials and documents to assist the Jewish community and other faith-based organizations.

“We are helping many Jewish organizations with detailed scenario planning so they can each chart their most effective course for the future,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations. “We trust our communal organizations to make their own reopening decisions. They know the relative risks and needs of their own members.”

With the circumstances of the

pandemic varying in different parts of the country, SCN’s official guide, called “Back to Business: A Jewish Community Guide for Reopening Facilities and Resuming Operations in the Age of COVID-19,” emphasizes that every facility is unique and that “no one else can decide for you when you are prepared to reopen.” The Jewish value of pikuah nefesh – protecting human life – must be a community’s first priority, it says.

“Recognize that many may feel uncomfortable returning, and take care not to pressure anyone to do so,” it says. “Find ways to stay engaged and connected with members who are unable or uncomfortable returning.”

In Cincinnati, the community’s local SAFE Facilities ReOpen group drafted several recommendations. Before reopening, a facility should: • determine how it will clean and sanitize surfaces on an ongoing basis • transition staff working remotely to onsite work while adhering to social distancing • implement entry and screening See REOPENING on Page

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USA REOPENING Continued from Page 5 guidelines for staff and members • supply personal protective equipment (PPE) • implement protocols in case someone working in or using the facility is exposed to or tests positive for the virus • address child care if schools are shuttered.

When the community’s JCC partially reopened, it relocated its fitness center to a more spacious auditorium, and the preschool and summer camp are hosting fewer children than it did prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. The JCC’s senior center remains closed, but social workers are continuing to reach out to elderly members, including Holocaust survivors, and the center provides meals at home in lieu of the onsite senior lunch program.

Food pantry volunteers work outside at the Jewish Federation of Kansas City amid the adoption of new pandemic-era health and safety protocols by Jewish institutions around the country. (Courtesy of JFGKC) In Kansas City, Derek Gale, vice president and COO of the Jewish

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Federation of Greater Kansas City, said his federation’s reopening plans are constantly evolving.

“At any given point it’s up to date and then out of date,” Gale said, based on the number of confirmed virus cases in the area, COVID-positive rates and state guidelines. As of mid-July, no more than five people were working onsite at the federation’s offices at any given time, with distancing and other safety protocols in place.

“No one is forced to work in the office,” Gale said, particularly if they are at high risk of suffering virus-related complications. Those working in the office on certain days have discussed in advance with supervisors and notify the rest of the staff in advance.

He also said that the federation recognizes that employees may have child care issues and offers flexibility. Although the local school year traditionally starts in mid-August, the start date is being postponed by state and municipal governments until after Labor Day, and online, remote learning is figuring in to plans of most districts and schools.

The Jewish Federations of North America’s guidance and weekly

online meetings with planning experts and other functional area leaders have proved invaluable, Gale said.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, which is home to the local federation, Martin Pear JCC, day school and other Jewish facilities, reopened on May 18.

“From the beginning, we took an attitude that it’s about what we can do, not about what we can’t,” said Jay Jacobs, CEO of the campus and the JCC. “The goal was to create an environment people felt safe walking into.”

To get the campus up and running, the facilities director created a reopening plan that was reviewed by a medical task force. The campus held training sessions for all 11 of the facilities it hosts, and the JCC briefed its departments on new protocols.

Ninety percent of the campus’ hallways, staircases and paths now move in one direction to limit interactions and keep foot traffic flowing. In addition to the regular cleaning crew, a full-time crew has as its sole job to sanitize the campus’ doorknobs, railings, counters, sinks, bathrooms, etc. Temperature checks

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are mandatory for anyone wishing to enter, and signage reminds people with symptoms not to enter the facility.

Before the pandemic, the campus saw some 3,000 to 3,500 people per day. Today it serves about 1,000 daily, including the kids at the Shemesh Camp at The J. Unlike regular summers, there are no field trips this year. The limitations have forced staff and counselors to get creative, come up with activities on the sprawling campus and go “back to the basics” of traditional day camps.

“Things are far from how they used to be, but it’s not all bad,” Jacobs said. For example, taking visitors’ temperatures at the entrance “has reminded us how important it is to greet people when they walk into the building. We’ll definitely continue member greeting once the COVID crisis is behind us.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America, which represents 146 local Jewish Federations and 300 network communities. This story was produced by JTA's native content team.

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5 Winners And 4 Losers From The Historic Treaty Between Israel And The UAE

By Ben Sales

President Trump announces the IsraelUAE agreement with, from left to right, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, Aug. 13, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

(JTA) — The treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is a big deal.

The agreement, announced Thursday in a joint statement from the White House and called the Abraham Accord, means that Israel will now have diplomatic and economic relations with a country that had not recognized it. In return for recognition and relations, Israel has pledged to suspend its ambitions to annex parts of the West Bank.

The UAE is a Muslim kingdom in the Persian Gulf made up of seven smaller entities, called emirates, with huge oil and natural gas reserves. Its metropolis, Dubai, is a wealthy city known as a commercial center for the region. The country borders Saudi Arabia and is only dozens of miles across the water from Iran. It has a tiny Jewish community.

It becomes only the third Arab nation to establish official ties with the Jewish state. In addition to trade, tourism and other exchanges, the treaty means the two countries can collaborate on treatment for the coronavirus and countering the influence of Iran, a shared nemesis.

That makes Iran a likely loser in this deal. The dealmakers are, of course, likely winners.

Here’s our analysis of who stands to benefit from this historic accord — and who has been dealt a surprise setback.

Winner: The long view of Israeli history Throughout its 72-year history, Israel has been at war with, or largely ignored by, most or all of its neighbors. The nation has fought THE

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four major wars with coalitions of Arab states that pledged and failed to destroy it. Until this week, Israel had diplomatic relations with only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan. The rest of the region, at least officially, continued not to recognize the Jewish state.

That changes now. Israel and Israelis can now openly trade with, meet with and travel to a third Arab country. Another Arab embassy will open in Israel, and an Israeli flag will fly in that country. This also may open the door for other countries to follow suit.

Yes, the accord merely formalizes unofficial contacts between the two countries for years. It doesn’t meaningfully change the contours of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And like every diplomatic deal, this one has many critics who say it carries risks and drawbacks for Israel and its future.

But the hope for peace in the Middle East is written into Israel’s founding documents. Israel and an Arab nation have taken another step in that direction.

Winner: Benjamin Netanyahu Israel’s prime minister has long argued that Israel can and should pursue diplomatic relations across the Middle East and the globe without making concessions to the Palestinians or withdrawing from territory.

For years, Israel’s allies and neighbors told him otherwise: that to make peace with the broader Middle East, first he needed to reach an agreement on the future of the West Bank. The promise of relations with the wider Arab world was seen as a bargaining chip in Israeli-Palestinian talks.

This accord proves them wrong.

The one big promise Netanyahu made was to temporarily suspend plans to annex parts of the West Bank. In past diplomatic accords, Israel has withdrawn from territory in exchange for peace.

The vow isn’t exactly a drastic See HISTORIC TREATY on Page

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a military base in Ramla, Israel, Aug. 4, 2020. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

change of plans for the longtime leader, as he had already pushed off annexation due to squeamishness from the Trump administration regarding the move.

Netanyahu also gets a boost domestically. He has boasted that his experience and global relationships put him in “another league” diplomatically. Now he enters an exclusive pantheon of Israeli leaders who have signed a treaty with an Arab state, joining the ranks of the admired Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin.

Finally, it’s another way that Netanyahu can distract from his ongoing criminal trial for corruption and from the nightly street protests against him and his government’s coronavirus policies.

Winner: The United Arab

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Emirates As far back as the 1990s, the UAE has sought relations with Israel, and Israel and the UAE have shared military intelligence for decades. According to an extensive 2018 account in the New Yorker, the country appreciated Israeli defense technology and has seen a shared threat in Iran, which the UAE and other Gulf states oppose in part due to the Muslim SunniShia divide. In January, the Emirati foreign minister published an op-ed in an Israeli paper, a major symbolic step, and in June an Emirati plane carrying aid for Palestinians landed in Israel.

The deal promises both symbolic and tangible benefits for the UAE, positioning the country as a diplomatic leader in the region. If others follow suit in establishing formal relations with Israel, the UAE can say it was the catalyst. More immediately, it could mean an influx of Israeli tourists and money, as well as collaboration on medical and other research with a regional economic power as both countries fight the pandemic.

Winner: Donald Trump Since his first presidential campaign, Trump has promised to

deliver a peace deal for Israel, and has expended effort into reaching an Israeli-Palestinian accord, to no avail. Although this isn’t the deal he initially wanted, now he can legitimately claim credit for helping achieve a historic Israeli treaty.

In Trumpspeak, this is a clear win. And it’s a boon for Jared Kushner, a top adviser and his sonin-law, who has succeeded here after failing to secure an IsraeliPalestinian peace deal and drawing criticism for his management of the coronavirus response.

It’s also helpful for Trump in an election year. In a campaign where Israel has come up repeatedly, Trump can position himself not just as a staunch ally of the Netanyahu government, but as a regional peacemaker. It’s not likely to shift votes, though. Trump voters already see him as pro-Israel and probably haven’t changed their minds, while those who oppose the incumbent generally dislike him on issues that range far from the Middle East.

Winner: Liberal Zionists Liberal Zionism is built on the idea that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Israel’s most pressing diplomatic concern. This accord does not do that.

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Yet liberal Zionist groups are celebrating the agreement. After all, their long-term goal is an Israel at peace with its neighbors. This isn’t how they thought they would get there, but a treaty is still a treaty. J Street, the largest liberal Zionist organization, said in a statement that the pact is “just the latest evidence that dialogue and diplomacy, rather than unilateral action and belligerence, are the route to longterm security.”

The suspension of annexation is also at least a temporary win for liberal Zionists, who have been bemoaning that such a move would mean the end of efforts toward a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

For them, this is a temporary reprieve from that threat.

Loser: Liberal Zionists Still, the accord is a major blow to the idea that solving the IsraeliPalestinian conflict is Israel’s most pressing diplomatic concern. Liberal Zionists have warned that without sacrifices on the Palestinian issue, peace with other Arab countries is impossible.

Liberal Zionists have said, too, See HISTORIC TREATY on Page

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HISTORIC TREATY Continued from Page 8 that continued West Bank occupation harms U.S.-Israel relations.

The UAE deal is a major blow to that idea. Occupation wasn’t an obstacle for the Trump administration, and apparently it’s not for the UAE, either.

Liberal Zionists have protested for more than a decade against Netanyahu and his policies. This is a major win for a man they desperately want to see lose.

The suspension of West Bank annexation isn’t a sure thing, either.

Hours after the treaty was announced, Netanyahu said he still hasn’t given up on annexing parts of the West Bank. So the one concession Netanyahu appeared to have made on their issue might not even last.

Loser: The Palestinians

A group of Palestinians protest against the United Arab Emirates and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Jerusalem, Aug. 14, 2020. (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

However tough of a pill this is to swallow for the Zionist left, it’s even more bitter for the Palestinians. Not only do they see their enemy sign another diplomatic accord without promising them anything, they also feel “sold out” by a country that was supposed to have their back, in the words of veteran Palestinian diplomat Hanan Ashrawi.

For decades, Arab countries united around the idea that Palestine must be liberated and Israel was not to be tolerated. Decades ago, as Israel continually proved its staying power and made strides toward peace with the Palestinians, Arab states began seeking an accommodation with the Jewish state — as long as the Palestinian issue was solved.

The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative said that normalization with the Arab world would come only after Israel ended its occupation. Besides Egypt and Jordan, no Arab country bit at the offer of peace with Israel.

Now that has shifted. An Arab country has normalized ties with

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Israel without any concession on the Palestinian issue. More may follow.

Palestinians face the prospect of watching their allies make peace with their enemy without gaining anything along the way and with the eyes of the world focused elsewhere.

Loser: The Israeli opposition For a few moments over the course of 2019 and 2020, as Israelis voted in election after election, it appeared that Netanyahu, after a decade as prime minister, could be replaced by a center-left coalition.

That didn’t happen. But rising public anger over Netanyahu’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, as well as the criminal indictments he’s facing, have led to tens of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets to protest him. Were he to call another election due to domestic concerns, polls showed his chances of staying in power were tenuous.

Now he could take the podium in triumph, announcing an achievement more often dreamed of on the left: a treaty with an Arab nation. If another election is afoot, he now has something positive to campaign on.

Loser: The settlers (or at least some of them) and their American supporters Israel’s annexation plan was never overwhelmingly popular among Israeli West Bank settlers because many of them feared that it would bring along the establishment of a Palestinian state in the rest of the territory, albeit a fragmented one.

Still, for the past few months, Netanyahu was focused on the goal of making some of the territory officially part of Israel, a longstanding goal of many settlers. Supporters of the settlements in the United States, from evangelical Christian Zionists to the Jewish community’s right wing, also cheered on the prime minister’s pledges to annex.

He said he was going to do so in July, but July came and went. Now the prospect seems even more distant. Yes, Netanyahu said he would still deliver annexation. But officially the process has been suspended, when fewer than two months ago it appeared to be imminent.

“They pulled a fast one on the settlers,” one settler mayor said. 

Israeli Scientists Develop Self-Disinfecting Face Mask

By Marcy Oster

Prototype of the self-disinfecting reusable mask developed by researchers at The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. (Courtesy of Technion)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli scientists have developed a selfdisinfecting, reusable face mask as the demand for protective masks has risen dramatically since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The mask was developed at the Haifa-based Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering by a team of scientists led by Pro-

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fessor Yair Ein-Eli. A patent application has been submitted in the United States, the Technion said in a statement. The research team is talking to industrial companies about mass producing the masks, according to the statement. In some countries, demand has far outstripped the supply of face masks amid the pandemic.

Here’s how the mask works: A layer of carbon fibers can be heated using a USB port with a low current source such as a phone charger in a process that destroys viruses that may have accumulated on the mask.

In Israel, wearing a mask in public is mandatory, and those not in compliance can be fined. 

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‘Does He Remember Me?’: For Some Israelis, Covid-19 Has Meant Being Separated From Their Families

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By Ben Sales

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133 Israelis protest being separated from their significant others outside the residence of the foreign minister by having solo romantic picnics on the eve of Tu B'Av, the Jewish day celebrating love. The signs read, "We also want to embrace our loved ones. Open the skies for them. Families want to be together."

(Courtesy of Plia Kettner)

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(JTA) — It has been four months and counting since Yaara Mizrachi has seen her one-year-old son.

Mizrachi and her partner have been together for seven years. But because same-sex marriage is illegal in Israel, and was illegal until 2017 in Germany, the two never made their committed relationship legally official. Her partner, who does not wish to be named in the press, lived in Berlin, Mizrachi lived near the port city of Haifa, and they would visit each other often.

At the end of 2017, they decided to have a child and build a life in the same place. Once the baby was born, they planned to spend six months in Germany and six months in Israel, then decide where to live.

It was during the stint in Israel that the coronavirus spread across the globe. On March 13, Mizrachi’s partner flew back to Berlin to be near her aging parents. Because she was the one who gave birth to their son, and he thus did not have Israeli citizenship, she took the baby along.

Five days later, Israel shut its borders to foreigners. Because Mizrachi and her partner weren’t legally married, there has been no way for them to reunite as a family. So, since March, Mizrachi has watched her son grow via videochat, 2,400 miles away.

“I always ask, does he remember me? Does he recognize me?” Mizrachi said. “We were co-parents and now it’s a situation where she’s raising him alone, and my ability to make decisions is minimized. So my parenting has been minimized

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to watching him develop and crawl and start to walk and grow teeth and wave goodbye. It’s something that I’m not connected to. I can’t tell you how much it breaks my heart.”

Family separations like Mizrachi’s have become another effect of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel, where the country’s Orthodox Chief Rabbinate controls all legal Jewish marriage. That means all recognized marriages need to take place under Orthodox Jewish law, which forbids interfaith and same-sex marriage. So increasing numbers of secular, LGBTQ and interfaith couples instead opt to marry elsewhere and then, eventually, file the paperwork necessary to certify the marriage in Israel. Others, like Mizrachi and her partner, don’t get married at all.

Activists have lobbied against Israel’s marriage laws for years, but day-to-day, couples have found workarounds and taken their time with the bureaucracy. The ease of travel between Europe and Israel also meant that couples who lived in both places could come and go as they pleased.

That all ended on March 18, when Israel shut its borders. Now, couples that hadn’t done the right paperwork, even those who are legally married somewhere else, find themselves in two different countries with no way to reunite.

“It’s really a scandal,” said Gabi Lasky, an Israeli human rights attorney who is preparing to file a suit in the coming days on behalf of the separated families in Israel’s Supreme Court. “We have the right to family, the right to not be discriminated against. This is a disproportionate response that’s without basis and not topical, because there’s no legal reasoning that justifies discriminating against unmarried or same-sex couples.”

In one instance, a three-year-old Israeli girl was taken with her Ukrainian grandmother for a short visit to Ukraine — and then prohibited from returning to Israel for six See SEPARATED on Page THE

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SEPARATED Continued from Page 10 months because, at first, there weren’t flights, and then because her grandmother wasn’t an Israeli citizen and was thus prohibited from boarding a plane destined for Israel, Reuters reported. Eventually, the toddler got home with the help of a special escort.

In June, Israel released guidelines paving the way toward family reunification — for people with recognized marriages in Israel. In July, it updated those guidelines to include married couples where one of the spouses is not an Israeli citizen, but those guidelines still mandate that the non-Israeli needed to have been in Israel for at least 90 days in 2019.

On Tuesday, updated guidelines stated that foreigners who had submitted an application to register their relationship in Israel could enter the country, pending approval of the Interior Ministry. For Israelis like Mizrachi, whose relationships aren’t officially recognized in any way, it doesn’t help at all.

The guidelines also let a variety of other foreigners into the country, including medical tourists, grandparents of people getting married, people studying in Israeli religious academies and more.

Sabine Haddad, a spokesperson for Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, a division of the Interior Ministry, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the couples protesting Israel’s guidelines are only those who have no actual proof that they’re together.

“The Population Authority gives permits to hundreds of couples to enter,” she wrote in response to a JTA inquiry. “You’re talking about couples where no one knows they’re a couple except them and the press.

Because according to the current rules, every registered couple receives a permit.”

Left: Plia Kettner and her partner, Erik, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Kettner) Right: Andrey and Polinka Belikov, who got married in October. (Courtesy of Andrey Belikov) Left: Plia Kettner and her partner, Erik, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Kettner) Right: Andrey and Polinka Belikov, who got married in October. (Courtesy of Andrey Belikov) But even married couples that have tried to register their marriages in Israel have found themselves THE

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stymied and separated. Andrey and Polinka Belikov got married in Cyprus in October because Polinka is not Jewish, making it impossible for them to get married by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

Andrey is an Israeli citizen and Polinka is not. In January, she was living in Ukraine and preparing to move to Israel. In January, Andrey went there to gather the documents necessary to register their marriage with Israel’s Interior Ministry. In February, Polinka received a visa to live in Israel. She bought a plane ticket for March 21, after which they planned to register the marriage.

On March 17, she quit her job in anticipation of the move. The next day, Israel closed its borders.

The Belikovs are hopeful that Tuesday’s change in the regulations will allow Polinka to enter the country.

“It’s really hard, every day, to just see your wife on a phone screen,” Andrey said. “We just got married and wanted to build a new family. But instead of that, in the hardest era for humanity, we’ve been separated and prohibited from seeing each other.”

No one knows exactly how many families have been separated by the regulations, but a Facebook group for those affected has more than 1,500 members. On Tuesday evening, Israelis who are separated from their foreign partners set up sociallydistanced picnic blankets in a field opposite the residence of Israel’s foreign minister. The event, which took place on the eve of Tu B’Av, a Jewish holiday celebrating romance, was meant to show that the protesters could not celebrate their relationships like other Israelis.

A hearing in the Israeli Knesset on separated families, convened in early July at the initiative of the Facebook group’s creator, Plia Kettner, revealed that the issue affected far more Israelis than the young, urban secular people who eschew Orthodox marriage.

At the hearing, left-wing legislator Tamar Zandberg called the separations a “a vexing and troublesome issue” and a human rights violation.

But the separations were also decried by Israel Eichler, a haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, lawmaker, who spoke of non-Israeli spouses and children of his constituents who had trouble entering the country.

Osama Saadi, an Arab-Israeli lawmaker, said his office was “flooded

with inquiries” regarding the separations. He also raised the issue of families who are split between Israel and the West Bank, who have found it even harder to reunite during the pandemic.

“I can’t remember another hearing where we had everyone around the table, and everyone was in favor of the same idea,” said Yifat Shasha-Biton, a lawmaker from the right-wing Likud Party who chaired the session.

But the affected couples say that the Ministry of the Interior still needs to do more to address their situation. They’re calling for an adhoc committee to examine their requests on a case-by-case basis. If the ministry doesn’t do that, they’re pinning their hopes on a favorable decision in Israel’s Supreme Court.

If activists decide to file suit with the Supreme Court, says Plia Kettner, who created the Facebook group and spoke at the Knesset hearing, that too would be a painful decision.

“We all do this with heartache,” she said. “You’re suing your own country. We’re all people who love the country. We’re all people who chose to be here. I’m here. I’m not in Sweden. That’s a choice, and no

one likes being in a situation where you have to hurt your country because they’re denying you basic human rights.”

If Israel doesn’t change its regulations soon, couples that are able may choose to make their lives elsewhere, Kettner said. Mizrachi is trying to see whether she and her partner can meet up in London and get into Berlin from there. Belikov may move to Ukraine, but that would mean giving up work as a house painter in Israel.

Others simply don’t want to leave their home country. Kettner’s boyfriend Erik, for example, lives in Sweden. While it may be possible for Kettner to move there to be with him, she’s reluctant to, as she’s a local elected official in the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba. All she wants, she said, is for her partner to be able to be with her in Israel.

“Sometimes people approach this as, ‘Oh, all it is is that he can’t see his boyfriend,'” Kettner said.

“But to not see the person who is your support system — that has health implications. They’re trying to protect us from the coronavirus, but they’re giving us other illnesses.” 

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Israeli Scientists Identify New Culprit Behind Cancerous Growths: Tumor-Specific Bacteria

Dr. Ravid Straussman of the Weizmann Institute of Science found that bacteria living inside cancer cells are likely to have a profound effect on how different types of tumors behave. (Larry Luxner)

REHOVOT, Israel — Despite their reputation, most bacteria are harmless. Many are vital to human life.

Others, however, cause infections that lead to fatal diseases ranging from tuberculosis to bubonic plague.

Add cancer to that list, at least indirectly. According to new research led by Dr. Ravid Straussman of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, bacteria living inside cancer cells are likely to have a profound effect on how different types of tumors behave.

“Most bacteria you find in tumors are known to be present in normal people, but there’s also a minority of bacteria that were never described in humans or any other host before,” Straussman said. “Some of these bacteria don’t even have names.”

While bacteria were first detected in human tumors more than 100 years ago, Straussman reported in a paper in the May 29 issue of Science that he found bacteria live

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inside the cells of many cancer types, and that each type of cancer houses unique populations of bacteria.

Breast cancer, which has a relatively high incidence among Jewish women, has a particularly rich and diverse microbiome.

“Overall, this research will change the diagnosis, management and prognosis of human cancer starting now and for many years to come,” said Daniel Douek, a senior investigator in the human immunology division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Straussman inspects images of bacteria in a tumor in his lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. (Larry Luxner)

Straussman began his research into bacteria nearly 10 years ago after wondering why cancer cells in patients don’t consistently respond to drugs the way they do in the lab.

“People think of tumors as a mass of cells that grows uncontrollably,” Straussman said in a recent interview at his 15-person laboratory at Weizmann’s Department of Molecular Cell Biology. “The truth is that tumors are just like any other organ.”

In Straussman’s most recent project, he and his team took tumor samples from 1,526 patients with seven cancer types — breast, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, melanoma, bone and brain — and found different assortments of bacteria that correlated with specific tumor types.

Interestingly, he discovered that about 70% of breast cancer patients have bacteria in their tumors.

“Some of these bacteria could be enhancing the anti-cancer immune response, while others could be suppressing it,” said Dr. Mark Israel, executive director of the Israel Cancer Research Fund, or ICRF. “This is important because specificity in biology means that those bacteria are playing some biologic role.

Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center in Haifa is among a growing number of cancer researchers studying bacteria that live in the gut microbiome.

(Courtesy of the Technion)

In other words, if there wasn’t a reason for those bacteria to persist, the body would reject them.”

Since 2016, ICRF has been funding Straussman’s work with grant funding exceeding $300,000. The See SCIENTISTS on Page

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Happy New Year to all of my friends in the Jewish Community!

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Judge Frank Brindisi 24th Judicial District Court, Div. E www.thejewishlight.org

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Rosh Hashanah Dinner, Yom Kippur Break-Fast, Sukkah Hops: How Risky Are These High Holiday Activities During COVID-19?

By Shira Hanau

Rebecca Crystal blows the shofar in Chicago in preparation for welcoming the High Holidays, August 2020.

(Courtesy of See3 Digital Events)

(JTA) – When Passover arrived just a few weeks after the pandemic set in earlier this year, it was clear that Seders with families and friends would not be happening.

Five months later, as Jews across the country prepare for the High Holidays, calculating risk has become much harder. The pandemic seems under control in parts of the country but is still raging in others; some people are staying home as much as possible while others have practice going out safely; and the costs of disruption and isolation are beginning to feel more acute.

That means the questions surrounding how to observe the holidays have murkier answers: Is it safe to do Rosh Hashanah dinner with the grandparents? What about our annual Yom Kippur break-fast with the neighbors? Can we still go sukkah hopping?

We spoke to two epidemiologists who have been advising Jewish communities during the pandemic about the risks involved in these classic High Holiday traditions and more. Here’s what they told us.

In-person services

A socially distanced outdoor service at the Green Road Synagogue in Cleveland, August 2020. (Courtesy of Rabbi Binyamin Blau)

While most non-Orthodox synagogues are planning to hold services exclusively over livestream, some synagogues, including many Orthodox ones, are planning to gather for in-person services, often truncated or otherwise adjusted to minimize disease risk.

Among the most important ways to keep these services safe are maintaining distance between peoTHE

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ple, requiring masks, screening for illness or exposure to the virus and ensuring proper air flow.

Eili Klein, a professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, said he won’t be attending in-person services this year. But for those who are, he said, outdoors is better.

Klein cautioned that large tents erected by some synagogues to allow outdoor services might carry similar risks to being indoors. You want to be sure you’re not gathering in a place where the air flow might not be very good, he said, and the center of a large tent can easily be one.

“This gets into fluid dynamics and all these things where, if you’re getting to that level, you’re probably getting to a place where that’s not a good idea,” Klein said.

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, the chief of infectious diseases and hospital epidemiologist at Mount Sinai South Nassau on Long Island and an assistant rabbi at the Young Israel of Woodmere, a large Orthodox synagogue in Long Island’s Nassau County, said he would feel comfortable praying at an indoor or outdoor minyan “if they’re done properly.”

How can an indoor service be done properly?

For Glatt, that means screening participants for illness or exposure to the virus, maintaining at least 6 feet of distance between people and keeping masks on while indoors.

And it’s not just about keeping to the guidelines while the services are taking place, he said. The safety of the in-person services depends on people adhering to safety guidelines in their lives outside of synagogue as well.

“If you wish to be in public places like a minyan then you have to take the guidelines seriously, which means you’re masking and social distancing as best as possible at all times,” Glatt said.

Outdoor shofar blowing Hearing the shofar blown on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is considered a sacred commandment, so some synagogues are offering standalone shofar-blowing services outdoors to accommodate those who do not feel comfortable attending services in person.

Both Klein and Glatt agreed that

Hazon CEO Nigel Savage practices blowing his shofar. (Courtesy of Hazon)

a short, outdoor shofar-blowing service would be relatively safe. But keeping people distanced and wearing masks is key.

Some have suggested covering shofars with masks to prevent the virus from being dispersed when they are blown. Glatt has suggested that having someone blow the shofar who has already recovered from COVID-19 would be ideal, but he said the actual blowing of the shofar is unlikely to be a major risk.

“Do it in the street, do it outside, have a set number of people showing up so you don’t have more people than you expect,” he said.

Klein believes that outdoor situa-

tions with proper social distancing and participants largely wearing masks would be a “fairly safe environment,” even with a somewhat large gathering.

“The problem becomes, in any of these situations, if you have people violating those things, then that puts everyone at risk,” he said.

Rosh Hashanah dinner with grandparents Risks are involved in getting together with people outside of your immediate bubble, according to Klein and Glatt. But there are ways to gather in small groups safely, beginning by keeping the gathering outside and guests from different households far apart.

“Outdoors is better than indoors,” Klein said. “That reduces the risks dramatically.”

Both Klein and Glatt said the main problem with big meals is the gathering of people, not the sharing of food.

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the virus, it’s best for everyone to stay home. Andpeople who may be particularly vulnerable to the disease, including the elderly and those with other medical conditions, may want to avoid any risk at all.

Pilgrimage to Uman

Apples and honey are a Rosh Hashanah tradition. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

“There’s been a lot of evidence that this does not seem to be spread by food,” Klein said, meaning that giving gifts of food could be a way to celebrate the holiday without gathering in groups.

Glatt said he would have one family, not a lot of different people.

“Assuming the parties are all responsible, an outdoor meal is doable,” he said.

Still, if you live in a part of the country where the virus is still largely uncontrolled or if someone you’ve invited may have been exposed to

Jewish men walk down a street in the Pushkin area of Uman, Ukraine, Sept.

9, 2017 (Cnaan Liphshiz)

Most Jews don’t include travel to Ukraine as part of their High Holiday traditions, but every year tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews belonging to the Bratslav Hasidic sect head there for a Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the grave of Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav.

Last week, Ukraine decreed that

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foreigners would not be able to enter the country until the end of September, in part to keep out the pilgrims (some have already arrived in the country). But some lawmakers in Israel and the United States are pressing for a small number of pilgrims to be admitted.

“Should I go to Uman?” was one item in Glatt’s latest update to members of his community. His answer: “NO. Absolutely no. …

Uman could be the world’s worst COVID-19 super-spreader event.”

Fasting on Yom Kippur — and breaking the fast

JEWISH LIGHT

buffet setups. The danger in a buffet is less likely to be sharing utensils — although offering hand sanitizer probably isn’t a bad idea — but in the way diners are encouraged to congregate near each other. If you’re hosting, you probably want to think about how your guests will get their food.

Sukkah hopping

Children in St. Paul, Minn., enter a sukkah. (Joey McCleister/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

An Orthodox Jewish woman strolls through the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Yom Kippur. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

There’s no reason to avoid fasting on Yom Kippur during a pandemic if you are otherwise able to do so, Glatt said. But the calculation would be different for someone who has the virus, as it is for anyone with special medical conditions.

“There’s no evidence that if somebody doesn’t have COVID that fasting is a problem,” he said. “If somebody does have COVID, they should discuss with their doctor.”

When it comes to sharing a Yom Kippur break-fast with friends or neighbors, the same guidance would apply as to a Rosh Hashanah dinner: Outdoors is better than indoors, distancing should be in place and the groups of people who do not live together should be kept to a minimum.

This may be more challenging at break-fast, which often features

For some communities, sukkah hopping, in which people (often kids or families) visit several sukkahs and eat something in each one, is a classic Sukkot holiday ritual.

Sukkahs would seem to be perfectly designed for the pandemic because they are not enclosed. Still, because many sukkahs are small in size and sukkah hopping often involves many people, Klein and Glatt said the activity would need to be seriously modified to be safe.

“Any activity which has mixing with a large group of people either serially or in a big group is not a safe activity,” Klein said.

Klein suggested keeping the time spent inside the sukkahs to a minimum so people aren’t crowded in small spaces for prolonged periods of time. If that can’t be done, sukkah hopping should be avoided.

“It’s not something that it’s going to be terrible if we don’t have the children go to a sukkah hop,” Glatt said. “It’s a fun thing, but sometimes we don’t do fun things because pikuach nefashos [saving a life].” 

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Honey And Balsamic Vinegar Bring Some Sweetness To These Brussels Sprouts

By Ronnie Fein

(JTA) -- In 2008, Heinz conducted a survey that identified Brussels sprouts as America’s most hated vegetable. Even people who never tasted them were naysayers, claiming Brussels sprouts were bitter and smelly.

My mother never cooked them.

She feared insects might be hidden among the tightly packed leaves.

And when I got married, my husband refused to eat them and joked that if I cooked any he’d file for divorce.

Years later a food editor asked me to write about – yes -- Brussels sprouts. My kitchen became a Brussels sprouts extravaganza. I cooked the vegetable every way possible: roasted, stir-fried, steamed. I halved

them, shredded them, left them whole. I made them with lemon and with hazel nuts, olive oil, Balsamic vinegar. I used them in hash and pot pie.

I never imagined how versatile Brussels sprouts are.

My husband tasted every dish, loved most and became a “Brussie convert.” We’ve been feasting on the stuff ever since.

It helped that there are health benefits: Brussels sprouts have loads of vitamins A, C and K; iron, beta-carotene and folic acid. Also, we discovered that despite the strong “perfume,” Brussies are worth cooking. Also, you get familiar with the odor.

Brussels sprouts are sold loose or on stalks. The stalks are cheaper and last longer. You can cook the small ones whole, but it’s best to cut the larger ones.

Because of the pandemic, we’ll just be two for dinner this Rosh Hashanah. Our menu is braised chicken, egg noodles and this blessedly simple dish of Brussels sprouts

seasoned with Balsamic vinegar and honey, which are lovely, sweet counterpoints the vegetable’s mild sting. Honey signifies the hope that the new year will be sweet.

HONEY-BALSAMIC GLAZED BRUSSELS SPROUTS Ingredients: 1 pound Brussels sprouts 2 tablespoons olive oil salt to taste 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon honey 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange peel Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wash and trim the Brussels sprouts (if large, cut them in half).

2. Place the vegetables on the baking sheet. Pour the olive oil over them and toss to coat them. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, tossing the ingredients once, or until slightly browned around the edges tightly packed.

3. Mix the vinegar, honey and orange peel, pour over the vegetables, toss and bake for another 10 minutes or until the Brussels sprouts are tender. Makes 4 servings. 

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7 Tips For Staying Healthy During The Yom Kippur Fast

By Dr. Tzvi Dwolatzky actually becoming ill as a result of not getting enough liquids and nutrients.

Yom Kippur not only requires emotional preparation, but physical as well. A person can take several important steps before the holiday in order to achieve the best physical (My Jewish Learning via JTA) condition possible to perform better -- There is a marked difference on Yom Kippur, which this year between the intended feeling of falls on the evening of Sept. 27. being uncomfortable with not eatHere are seven tips to prepare ing or drinking for 25 hours and you for an easy fast:

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Ask your physician if your health allows you to fast Many chronic medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart disease or arthritis, do not usually prevent you from fasting as long as your condition is stable.

This is usually the case for pregnant and nursing mothers as well. Clearly an acute illness accompanied by fever, vomiting or diarrhea will prevent you from fasting. Before going any further, you should check with your doctor whether your health allows you to fast.

Prepare early At least a week before the fast, you should cut down on the daily amount of coffee and caffeinated beverages. Also, take it easy with salty foods. Keep away from alcohol because it stimulates the loss of body water. The use of artificial sweeteners should also be kept to a minimum.

Drink a lot of liquids, but don’t overdo it It is very important to be well hydrated before the fast. For at least two days before the fast, make sure to drink adequate amounts of fluids. Remember that the healthiest thing to drink is water. Keep a bottle of water with you and note how much you drink – about half a gallon is generally sufficient. But don’t overdo it. Drinking too much can wash out essential salts from your body.

Eat regular meals before the fast

It is important to get your body into a routine before the fast. Make sure to eat regular meals on the days before the fast. And don’t skip breakfast, which is probably the most important meal of the day.

Keep away from very rich and spicy foods. And eat in moderation.

Take it easy before and during the fast On the day before the fast, refrain from strenuous physical exercise.

Don’t run around too much doing chores – spoil yourself and take it easy. Keep out of the hot sun and spend the day in cool surroundings as much as possible. This is certainly true on the day of the fast as well.

Have a light meal before the fast When sitting down to the meal before the fast, a light meal is preferable. Eating extra amounts of food does not help to keep you going for 24 hours. Rather eat small amounts of carbohydrates (bread, potato, rice, pasta), some protein (fish, chicken) and fruit (grapes and watermelon). Keep spices and salt to a minimum.

The break-fast meal Well, you managed the fast very well, now it is time to eat. Go slow!

Eat some carbs and drink some fluids.

This article was printed with permission from Rambam HealthCare Campus, a 1,000-bed academic hospital in Haifa, Israel. 

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Representative District 61 Louisiana House of Representatives 16 Rosh Hashanah

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With Synagogues Off-Limits For The High Holidays, Attention Is Turning To Jewish Practice At Home

By Shira Hanau

Preschool-age children participate in a morning gratitude session with Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold at home. (Courtesy of Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold)

(JTA) – In Montreal, the boxes will include apple or honey cake mix. In New Hampshire, they’ll include bird seed. And many synagogues will distribute apples and honey, the snack that symbolizes a sweet new year.

The packages are among many that will start to land soon on the front steps of Jewish homes: deliveries of prayer books, art supplies and gifts meant to make a High Holiday season spent at home a little less lonely and a little more spiritually fulfilling.

“What we’ve learned over these months is that to create an online program is not just to take an inperson program and just to put it

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online, it’s a new field of engagement,” said Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal. “You need something tangible.”

The High Holiday boxes reflect a dawning awareness that with most synagogues closed or at least curtailed, homes are now the center of the Jewish experience. Just as people the world over have begun baking sourdough bread during the pandemic, many Jews have started baking their own challah. Now as the coronavirus pandemic extends into the second half of its first year, synagogues and other Jewish organizations are taking new steps to make home practice easier to access.

To some, the shift in focus from synagogues to homes as the center of Jewish life is a healthy recalibration for a culture in which synagogues had become too central.

“We’ve sharply differentiated home from synagogue … and we’ve put all our energy into the synagogue,” said Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, a professor at Hebrew Union

College who researches synagogues, liturgy and ritual. “Instead of two separate entities, we now have the opportunity to share from one home to another.”

Hoffman himself has found that the pandemic has changed the way he observes Shabbat. When the pandemic first started, he started singing Shabbat songs on Friday afternoon with his children and grandchildren over Zoom. Eventually the gatherings became a weekly ritual and incorporated songs, candle lighting and a full Shabbat dinner conducted over Zoom.

“We worry about synagogues … but at the same time we have a strong home ceremony that keeps us going and it’s partially the secret of our success,” Hoffman said. “It’s kind of an exciting moment in time when we’re experimenting with open scripted rituals in our homes that could become anything.”

Kohl Finegold and others in her position are traversing uncharted territory, according to Vanessa Ochs, a professor of Jewish studies at the

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University of Virginia. She said this year’s Passover had effectively been a “Jewish boot camp,” as people who might normally attend a family or communal Seder had to figure out how to make one themselves, and now the lessons are being applied to the High Holidays.

“How do you do Rosh Hashanah on your own? Our community hasn’t invented that yet,” she said.

That invention is underway. A website that sells Passover haggadahs — and allows users to compile resources to create their own — has launched HighHolidays@Home, which invites users to “download a simple Rosh Hashanah Seder & Yom Kippur Guidebook or mix & match to create your own holiday gathering.”

Rabbi Yael Buechler, a school rabbi and founder of Midrash Manicures, a company that sells Jewishthemed manicure kits, said she noticed Rosh Hashanah cards becoming less popular over the years but See HOME on Page

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Education

‘It’s Not The Same And Everybody Knows It’: Jewish Campus Life Goes Virtual

By Josefin Dolsten

Cornell student Aliza Saunders shows off the supplies she got to celebrate Shabbat on her own. (Courtesy of Cornell Hillel)

(JTA) — When Abigail Adams decided to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she thought she would spend the Friday nights of her first year there at Shabbat dinners on campus with other Jewish students, building a close-knit group of friends.

By the time Adams moved into her dorm earlier this month, she knew those dinners would have to wait: The coronavirus pandemic shut down the campus Hillel building. But she was looking forward to taking part in the small-scale, socially distanced events that Hillel had planned.

Adams didn’t imagine that just one week into the semester, she’d be joining her college’s Shabbat celebration from her bedroom at her family’s home two hours away from campus, trying to make conversation on Zoom with students she had never met in person.

But that’s what happened on Friday after UNC abruptly switched to

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online-only classes after an alarming number of coronavirus cases were detected among students during the first week of school. Students — other than those with extenuating circumstances — were told to leave their dorms and head home.

Adams, an 18-year-old political science major, hopes to return to Chapel Hill and live off campus with a few other students once the spike has abated, but until then she’s taking online classes and trying to connect with other students virtually. It’s been “difficult,” she said, and online Shabbat celebrations don’t measure up to the real thing.

“It’s definitely not the same because we’re not having one-onone and smaller conversations,” Adams said.

While some colleges and universities are going completely virtual, others are bringing in students but putting in place stringent social distancing measures. That’s what UNC-Chapel Hill had done before reversing course.

No matter the policy, it’s clear that college — and with it Jewish student life — will look very different this year.

Being involved with Hillel and other Jewish student organizations forms a significant part of the social lives of many Jewish students. At schools with large Jewish populations, Shabbat dinners can draw dozens or even hundreds of students who crowd into a Hillel building or dining hall to eat and schmooze. Yom Kippur services might see a similar number of students crammed into an auditorium or campus chapel, and Jewish sororities and fraternities are usually home to dozens of students living in close quarters. None of that is happening this year. Birthright, the 10-day trip to Israel that is rite of passage for many Jewish college students, is also on hold.

“There’s a real sense of loss,” said Ari Gauss, the executive director of North Carolina Hillel, which serves nine schools in the state, including UNC-Chapel Hill.

In a normal year, Gauss said, UNC’s Hillel would have held high-profile events at the beginning of the year to gain visibility, such as a bagel giveaway in a central location. This year, the efforts are much more targeted and technical.

“We’re doing everything we can trying to be innovative and methodically reaching out directly to as

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JEWISH LIGHT

many students as possible, trying to convene cohorts of students online in medium-sized groups so that they can have an ongoing sense of connection to a micro-community of peers,” he said. “But it’s not the

Abigail Adams, sitting in the chair on the right with a white mask, got to attend one in-person Hillel event at UNC-Chapel Hill before the school switched to virtual classes. (Courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill Hillel)

same and everybody knows it.”

The radical rethinking of campus life this year is giving rise to some notable innovations. Hillel International, which works with Hillels at more than 600 colleges and universities around the world, is teaming with the arts organization Reboot to produce a splashy High Holiday experience for students and others.

On the docket: Kol Nidre by Broadway star Adam Kantor, a Neilah service by the folk band Milk Carton Kids and students from at least a dozen campuses.

At schools that are bringing students back to campus, Hillels are not just revamping how they handle Shabbat meals — they’re also being called upon to support students in new ways.

“Students are increasingly isolated and there’s lots of mental health concerns that we have for students,” said Jen Zwilling, Hillel International’s chief strategy officer. “Our strategy is to be safe, but also to help students not feel so alone or so isolated.”

At Cornell, Hillel staff has found themselves having to counsel students who lost loved ones due to the coronavirus. The Hillel recently hired a new staffer with a social work background who in addition to planning events will be able to join the three rabbis already on staff in counseling students.

“Usually our programming focuses on living a Jewish life fully in a pluralistic setting,” said Rabbi Ari Weiss, Cornell Hillel’s executive director. “One of the things we’ve discovered over the last six months is that we really have to be thinking about even more more basic needs, which is to make sure that our students feel safe and See CAMPUS on Page THE

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4 New Children’s Books To Brighten Up The Jewish New Year

By Penny Schwartz BOSTON (JTA) – Sparkling stars and the light of the full harvest moon comfort a young boy and his older sister as they fall asleep in their family sukkah.

That’s a scene in “Night Lights,” an endearing new illustrated children's book by Barbara Diamond Goldin, one of the country's most highly acclaimed Jewish children's book authors.

It's one of four new engaging books for kids to usher in the Jewish New Year at a time when holiday traditions are being upended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Having to deal with quarantine and perhaps school at home, families can take pleasure turning the pages of these crisp new reads.

“Night Lights” was published originally 25 years ago. The characters of the mother and sister are featured more prominently in the new shorter, refreshed text, Diamond Goldin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone conversation. Amberin Huq's brightly colored illustrations are new, too.

This year’s crop of newcomers also features the latest in the popular Sammy Spider series that has delighted kids for years.

Earlier this year, the Rosh Hashanah middle grade novel "Rachel's Roses," by Ferida Wolff and illustrated by Margeaux Lucas, was named a notable middle grade novel in this year's Sydney Taylor Book Award for Jewish children's books.

The heartwarming immigrant story, set in the early 20th century, is perfect for ages 7 to 10.

Rosh Hashanah begins on the night of Sept. 18. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, starts on the evening of Sept. 27.

Up next is Sukkot, the seven-day fall harvest festival, when Jews build small huts at their homes to recall the ancient Israelites who wandered through the desert for 40 years after the exodus from Egypt. The fall holidays wrap up with the celebration of Simchat Torah, when the cycle of reading the Torah begins anew.

A holiday with ancient roots, Sukkot resonates with many issues of the day, Diamond Goldin observed, from its environmental and nature themes to a reminder of the plight of those who live in temporary shelters today, including refugees, a point she makes in her THE

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author's note.

“Sammy Spider's First Book of Prayers”

Sylvia A. Rouss; Illustrated By Katherine Janus Kahn Kar-Ben Publishing; Ages 3 To 8

Bookshelf

standing on a ladder, Hillel is gleeful as he helps his family build a sukkah, where they will eat their meals for seven days. “'Sukkot means hammers and nails and branches and fruits and lots of decorations,'” Hillel said happily.

“Night Lights: A Sukkot Story”

Barbara Diamond Goldin; illustrated by Amberin Huq Kar-Ben Publishing; ages 4-8

camp out overnight in the family sukkah for the first time without their grandpa, who has a cold. Readers will soon figure out that Daniel is a little anxious. There's no electricity, his sister teases him, so he can't have his night light. He brings his teddy bear, but in the shadows, Daniel imagines scary faces in the squashes that hang as decorations.

As the night grows darker, Naomi realizes she needs a little reassurance, too. Looking up through the sukkah's branches, the siblings see the glow of the star-filled sky and the bright full moon that coincides with Sukkot.

Maybe their ancestors did have night lights in the desert, after all.

The sweet story will strike a chord with many kids who fear the dark. Amberin Huq's expressive illustrations glow with the golden hues of fall and glisten with the lights of the night.

“Worse and Worse on Noah's Ark”

Young kids are introduced to daily prayers like the Shema for going to sleep, to blessings for Shabbat and special occasions. Each blessing, explained in lively rhyming verse from the point of view of the friendly Sammy Spider, is written in Hebrew, transliteration and a simple English translation. The blessings recited over Shabbat candles, wine and challah are perfect for Rosh Hashanah, which begins this year on Shabbat. Kids will enjoy spotting Sammy Spider dangling from his web on the brightly colored pages that embellish the book.

At the beginning of Sukkot, a young boy named Daniel and his older sister, Naomi, get ready to

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“Hillel Builds a House”

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Max Fried Idolizes Sandy Koufax — And This Year He’s Pitching Like Him

By Marc Brodsky

Judge Ethel Simms Julien Civil District Court Division N

I wish you all Shanah Tovah, and send my warmest wishes to all those celebrating Rosh Hashanah and the start of the High Holy Days.

Thank you for your support and encouragement!

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Max Fried pitches in a game for the Atlanta Braves against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Aug. 9, 2020. (Kyle Ross/ Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The 26-year-old lefty leads the National League in earned run average.

(JTA) — Moshiach, thy name is Max — in Atlanta, anyway.

That is Max Fried of the Braves, who’s been among the most dominant pitchers in this pandemicshortened Major League Baseball season.

The Jewish lefty, in his second full season as a starter, has gone 6-0 after beating the Boston Red Sox on Monday and owns a National League best 1.60 earned run average. Fried has yet to yield a home run in his last 58 1/3 innings, including 45 this season.

Great pitching for sure. But the Messiah?

The 26-year-old southpaw qualifies as that for a Braves squad that saw its top starter, Mike Soroka, go down three starts into the season with an Achilles tear and the rest of the rotation struggle terribly. Still, Atlanta was sitting atop its division, the N.L. East, with a three-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins as of Wednesday.

His teammates and manager are quick to cite Fried as the reason.

“I don’t think we’d be here without Max,” first baseman Freddie

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Freeman told mlb.com when asked who was the team’s Most Valuable Player.

And this from manager Brian Snitker, to the same website: “He was the one guy you could count on and he didn’t disappoint.”

Fried grew up in the Los Angeles area, throws hard, is a lefty – and yes, he’s a big-time Sandy Koufax fan.

In fact his uniform number, 32, is an homage to the Dodgers Hall of Famer who famously sat out a World Series game in 1965 played on Yom Kippur. (Fried did pitch last year on the Day of Atonement; it didn’t go well.)

Fried met Koufax in 2018 when the Braves and Dodgers faced off in the postseason.

“Incredible,” was how Fried recalled the meeting in an interview last year with JUF News.

Fried talked in the interview about the famed Jewish athlete.

“The more success I had growing up, the more I heard about Sandy Koufax in the Jewish community,” he said. “Growing up in Los Angeles and being left-handed, eventually I started idolizing him.

Obviously he was before my time.

But I always strived to follow him.

And everything I ever heard was about how great a person he was rather than how great of a pitcher.”

Now no one is calling the lanky 6-4, 190-pound Fried another Koufax. But great things were expected for the former first round draft choice.

“I’ve been saying it for a few years how special that left arm is,” Freeman said. “We saw it last year and now he’s really putting it together.” 

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‘Unorthodox,’ ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Maisel’ And More: Here Are All The Notable Jewish Emmy Nominations For 2020

Among the 2020 Emmy Awards nominations were, from left, "Schitt's Creek," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Black Mitzvah." (Image design by Emily Burack/Stills via Pop TV/Amazon Prime/Netflix)

(JTA) — Though much about the 2020 Emmy Awards ceremony is not yet known, one thing is clear: Jewish TV stars are well positioned to clean up.

Dozens of Jewish actors and creators were on the list when this This year’s nominations were announced Tuesday. Read through to see who could take home prizes when the awards show airs in September.

One notable show that was shut out: “The Plot Against America,” the HBO miniseries that depicts an alternate history in which isolationist Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election and encourages anti-Semitic attitudes throughout the United States.

“Unorthodox” makes its mark on the drama categories

Shira Haas, right, and Amit Rahav in “Unorthodox.” (Netflix)

“Unorthodox,” the hit Netflix drama based on Deborah Feldman’s memoir of the same name, came away with eight nominations, including best limited series. Anna Winger was nominated for writing, and star Shira Haas was nominated for lead actress in a limited series or movie.

Haas, an Israeli, learned Yiddish for the role. Playing Esty was “probably one of the most, if not the most, complex characters that I had the chance to play. It is so rare to get such a main and amazing female role. I was so lucky to get it.”

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Winger told Kveller that working on “Unorthodox” was the first time she worked with a predominately Jewish cast.

“I usually say it takes a village to make a show,” Winger said. “For ‘Unorthodox’? It takes a shtetl.”

Tiffany Haddish’s “Black Mitzvah” is nominated alongside Jerry Seinfeld

Tiffany Haddish performs in her Netflix stand-up special “Black Mitzvah.” (Netflix)

Tiffany Haddish’s Netflix special “Black Mitzvah” was nominated for outstanding variety special along with fellow Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who was tabbed for his “23 Hours To Kill.”

Haddish spoke with Alma about her journey to claiming her Jewish heritage (her dad was an Eritrean Jew) and her decision to study Torah and become a bat mitzvah.

“When I came up with the concept for my special,” Haddish explained, “I was trying to figure out a way to tell my truth, my experiences in life, and also maybe open other people’s eyes to the fact that in African American culture, there is nothing that says, ‘OK, you’re officially a woman,’ or ‘You’re officially a man.’ There’s no ceremony. There’s no rite of passage …

Knowing who you are, knowing where you come from, that’s what makes you an adult. And being able to share your story. That’s what I love about Judaism, because it’s all about sharing your stories and questioning and learning from each other.”

“Schitt’s Creek” gets recognized for its final season Dan And Eugene Levy “Schitt’s Creek,” created by the Canadian Jewish father-and-son duo of Eugene and Dan Levy, walked away with 15 nominations for its critically acclaimed final season.

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UNORTHODOX Continued from Page 21 The show was nominated for best comedy series, and all four stars were recognized: Eugene Levy, for lead actor in a comedy series; Catherine O’Hara, lead actress; Dan Levy, supporting actor; and Annie Murphy, supporting actress.

Eugene Levy, left, and son Dan Levy speak at the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Jan. 19, 2020. (Rich Fury/Getty Images)

The younger Levy was nominated as well for writing the finale episode, “Happy Ending,” and for his direction of the episode.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” leads the comedy pack Rachel Brosnahan and Tony Shalhoub in a scene from season 3 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

(Amazon Studios) The third season of the Jewish comedy “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” scored 20 nominations, including for outstanding comedy series and

Tony Shalhoub, right, with Rachel Brosnahan in season three of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." (Amazon Studios)

lead actress Rachel Brosnahan in her portrayal of Midge Maisel. Jewish actress Alex Borstein was nominated again in the best supporting actress category — she has won the last two times she was nominated.

Borstein will be competing against her follow “Maisel” star Marin Hinkle. Other “Maisel” acting nominations include Sterling K. Brown, Tony Shalhoub, Wanda Sykes and Luke Kirby.

Amy Sherman-Palladino was nominated for directing an episode, as was her husband and co-creator Dan Palladino. As Sherman-Palladino told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this year, “I’ve always viewed comedy, especially at this time, as a Jewish creation — like the rhythm, the cadence.”

Even more Jewish comedy creators are recognized The vampire mockumentary comedy “What We Do In the Shad-

guest appearance as Sen. Kamala Harris on “Saturday Night Live.”

She was nominated as well for her voice-over work as Connie the Hormone Monstress on the very Jewish animated show “Big Mouth.”

Tracee Ellis Ross received her fourth nomination for lead actress A scene from FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows” (Courtesy of FX) on the ABC sitcom “black-ish.” ows” — co-created by Taika WaitiJulia Garner was nominated for ti, a Jewish Māori director, writer outstanding supporting actress in a and actor, and Jemaine Clement — drama series, a category she won earned eight nominations, includ- last year. ing one for outstanding comedy series. (Waititi was also nominated for his voice-over performance in “The Mandalorian.”)

Waititi tweeted, “The idea that never dies. Congrats to everyone who decided to drag this joketurned-movie into the world of tele- Maya Rudolph is up for three Emmys. vision. Especially to @AJemaine- (John Shearer/Getty Images for People Magazine) Clement who I tricked into doing it in the first place. Suckaaaa!”

And while not portrayed by JewJewish showrunner Liz Feld- ish actresses, Margo Martindale’s man’s “Dead to Me,” which scored portrayal of the legendary Jewish four nominations, is also competing politician Bella Abzug and Tracey in the outstanding comedy series.

Ullman’s of the Jewish feminist Also in the comedy category: Betty Friedan both received nomi“The Good Place,” which ended nations. “Mrs. America,” the FX this year, helmed by Jewish show- show about the fight for the Equal runner Michael Schur. Schur also Rights Amendment, walked away earned a nomination for writing. with 10 nominations.

“The Good Place” earned a total of … As do two shows about seven nominations. cranky old Jews Animated shows by Jewish creators also score nominations

The Seder episode of “Big Mouth,” season 3 (Netflix)

“Big Mouth,” the Netflix animated show about puberty, was nominated three times — including for best outstanding animated program. Season 3 featured a very Jewish episode at a Seder in Florida. The show was co-created by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg based on their Jewish childhoods in suburban New York’s Westchester County.

“BoJack Horseman,” which wrapped up its sixth and final season this year, also will be competing in the best animated series category. The show’s creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, is Jewish.

Jewish actresses make a mark …

Maya Rudolph is competing against herself in the guest actress in a comedy series role — for her role on “The Good Place” and her 22 Rosh Hashanah

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Larry David attends the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” season 9 premiere at SVA Theater in New York City, Sept. 27, 2017. (Mike Pont/FilmMagic)

Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” earned four nominations, including outstanding comedy series, but David himself was not nominated.

“The Kominsky Method” earned three, including one for Michael Douglas‘ portrayal of Sandy Kominsky, a Jewish acting teacher, and Alan Arkin‘s Norman Newlander.

The Emmy Awards will air Sept.

20 on ABC in a virtual ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. 

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Entertainment

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Chaiflicks, The ‘Jewish Netflix,’ Is Here

By Stephen Silver

A screenshot from ChaiFlicks, a Jewishthemed streaming platform. (ChaiFlicks)

(JTA) — It was only a matter of time: A Jewish Netflix has arrived.

That moniker is probably the best description of ChaiFlicks, a film and TV streaming platform focused on Jewish-themed movies that launches Wednesday. It helps that its creators were once in business with the real Netflix.

Neil Friedman, founder of the Jewish-focused distribution company Menemsha Films, said he sold two films to Netflix: the 2015 bakery-set drama “Dough” and the 2016 Israeli film “The Women’s Balcony.” But since then, Netflix has shifted its focus to its original offerings.

In 2017, when Netflix passed on another film that the founders were distributing — “1945,” a rare Hungarian production about the effects of the Holocaust — the idea for ChaiFlicks began.

“We realized then and there that if we were going to have our films on [a subscription video on demand] channel, we would have to initiate our own channel,” Friedman said.

The service was offered earlier this year in a beta version for Men-

emsha Films’ mailing list subscribers, spokesman Gary Springer said.

But on Wednesday, the service will be open officially to all at a price point of $5.99 a month, or $65.99 a year. ChaiFlicks also offers a 14-day free trial.

It’s launching with over 150 titles, including feature films, documentaries, shorts and other entertainment, all of it either Jewish- or Israeli-themed. While it doesn’t have nearly as much content, ChaiFlicks also offers something that newer, bigger streaming services like HBO Max and Peacock don’t: It’s available on every major streaming platform, including Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV, as well as both iOS and Android mobile devices, in addition to a desktop version. The tech for the site is powered by the video platform Vimeo.

“We have not had any issues with Roku or Amazon,” Friedman said.

“We are a small niche streaming service and that has its advantages so as not to affect the preexisting ecosystem in the VOD and streaming worlds.”

The ChaiFlicks lineup at the start includes “Natasha,” “A Home on the Range: The Jewish Chicken Ranchers of Petaluma,” “Holy Land Hardball,” “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel,” the show “Soon By You” and other titles that might be familiar to those who fol-

low the Jewish film festival circuit.

“Shekinah: The Intimate Life of Hasidic Women” and “Bulgarian Rhapsody” are among the titles that will come to the service in the week after launch.

“We started ChaiFlicks … as soon as the pandemic hit in March, as we had the advantage of owning 80 Jewish and Israeli titles of our own,” Friedman said. “Since such time, although still in the beta stage for the channel, we have been acquiring third-party product for ChaiFlicks to the extent that we as of today have 150 titles for ChaiFlicks alone.”

As the service continues to acquire third-party programming, Friedman said, he and his two cofounders expect that Menemsha titles will become a minimal part of the ChaiFlicks presentations. Those co-founders are Heidi Oshin, a fellow Menemsha Films staffer, and Bill Weiner, who once worked for the large production company now called Regency Enterprises.

Friedman estimated that the service will add about three new films per week.

Categories include comedy, drama, documentaries, food, music, sports, LGBTQ stories, shorts, “The American Sephardi Federation presents …” and specific categories for individual countries and regions, which include Israel, Europe, France and South America.

Also on the way, according to the spokesman Springer, is a partnership with the Jewish Women’s Theater in Santa Monica, California, and agreements with some Israeli film companies.

Eventually there will be content that premieres on ChaiFlicks, mostly special live debut events.

“We will need to provide that ‘wow’ factor to the subscribers with premieres on ChaiFlicks,” Friedman said. “However, for now we want to retain the sequential windowing not to upset existing relationships in the first four stages of release.” 

Happy New Year!

Thank you to my friends in the Jewish Community for your continued support.

I appreciate your vote!

Judge Piper Griffin Candidate for Louisiana Supreme Court 7th District www.PiperGriffinforJustice.com Paid for by Judge Piper Griffin Campaign Committee

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!

Thank you for your continued support!

Judge Rebecca M. Olivier First Parish Court Division A THE

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Rosh Hashanah

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Entertainment

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Your Reviews Are In: JTA Readers Grade ‘An American Pickle’

By Shira Hanau

Seth Rogen as Ben and Herschel Greenbaum in "An American Pickle."

(HBO Max)

(JTA) – There was already some buzz around “An American Pickle,” the biggest Jewish movie of the year, before the movie’s star Seth Rogen made comments about Israel that seemed to set the Jewish internet on fire.

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In the new movie, Seth Rogen plays Herschel Greenbaum, a Jewish immigrant who is preserved in pickle brine for 100 years and emerges to meet his app developer great-grandson Ben, also played by Rogen, in modern hipster Brooklyn.

The movie seems to exist in a world where Israel doesn’t exist – Herschel Greenbaum fell into the pickle brine before Israel was founded and Ben doesn’t seem to think it’s important to tell Herschel about all the Jewish history that’s transpired since.

But the movie was released into a world in which Israel certainly does exist and where opinions about its existence rankle. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Rogen’s Israel comments made it into some of the reviews that JTA offered one week after its release.

After the movie was released on HBO Max last week, we asked JTA readers to share their impressions of the movie with us. Some decided not to watch the movie at all after Rogen’s Israel comments while others were happy to watch the hour and a half long pickle and seltzer-fueled comedy.

Here’s what you need to know before you watch the pickle movie this weekend: Good for the Jews “Loved it; the perfect thing to watch with your Jewish family

when Fauda is too intense for your mom.” – Joseph Eherenkranz, New York, New York.

“Sweet but Rogen should have introduced the benefits of weed to Herschel.”– Richard, Los Angeles, California.

“It was ridiculous but an exquisite escape from my political and pandemic obsessed life and it had a very satisfying ending.” – Judy Simon, Monterey, California.

“This movie, that made me cry and respect Seth Rogen as an actor, was surprisingly entertaining and heartfelt, despite how terrible it sounds on paper.” – Susan Wolper, New York.

“A funny and surprisingly heartfelt movie that touches on the nature of family, legacies, and the ways Jewish folks honor both.” – Joseph Freundel, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“An American Pickle ranks with Fiddler on the Roof and Yentl– among others as one of the most Jewish films ever.” – Danielle Solzman, Chicago, Illinois.

“Loved the movie, made me want to eat matzo ball soup.” – Jaden B., California.

Constructive Criticism “Not enough pickle and seltzer content.” – Shayna Weiss, Somerville, Massachusetts.

“Wonderful hipster satire but not Jewish enough.” – Madeleine Tress, New York, New York.

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“Strong start, sweet finish, the middle went sour.” – Rea Bochner, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Bad for the Jews “Man that sucked! What an embarrassment!” – Eric Leibman, Portland.

“The movie was lame – not really funny. Herschel was portrayed as an angry Jew prone to violence.

The woke Seth Rogen was the good guy with a silly ending. I give the movie 1 sour pickle out of five.” – Mike Hilert, Burke, Virginia.

“No mention of 2 of the most dramatic and important events that transpired in Jewish history; no wonder Seth Rogen does not understand why Israel is so important to most Jews.” – Micha Danzig, San Diego, California.

“One syllable: Oy!” – David Marcu, Jerusalem, Israel.

“The 90-minute therapy session for Seth Rogen, in which he acts like a spoiled child on a tantrum, never breaches the surface of the intergenerational disconnect it aims to explore.” – Roei Eisenberg, Los Angeles, California.

“This movie is an embarrassment and is mediocre on every level — poorly conceived, poorly written, poorly acted, poorly directed, and poorly cast (should I continue?).” – Harvey J. Kirsh, Toronto, Canada. 

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‘Hello Darkness, My Old Friend’ Recounts A Blind Man’s Friendship With Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel and Sandy Greenberg in the 1970s. (Courtesy of Greenberg)

(Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle via JTA) — Sandy Greenberg recalls walking along Amsterdam Avenue in New York City with his best friend Arthur back in 1959 after they had just completed a humanities class at Columbia University. During the trek, his friend stopped to point out something that caught his eye. “‘Sanford, I’d like to show you this patch of grass and I’d like you to really look at it,’” Greenberg recalled Arthur saying. “At first I was stunned, then he was pointing out how the light illuminated the beauty and complexities of its colors. I was absolutely mesmerized.

No one I had known would take time out to admire a measly patch of grass.”

Greenberg’s best friend and college roommate would soon be better known to the rest of the world as Art Garfunkel, one half of the popfolk duo Simon & Garfunkel. His recollection of that shared moment is ironic since less than two years later, Greenberg would be blind.

“I was pitching in a baseball game right before my junior year,” Greenberg, a native of Buffalo, New York, told the Chronicle.

“Suddenly, in the seventh inning my eyes became very cloudy, very steamy, and I was having a hard time concentrating on the batter. I knew there was something very bad going on. I stumbled to the sideline and dropped to the ground.”

An ophthalmologist diagnosed Greenberg with allergic conjunctivitis. After two treatments, one he labeled as “ineffective” and a second of topical steroids, his condition worsened. A different doctor told the American history major that he was actually suffering from glaucoma and, due to the previous treatments, would soon be blind.

In his memoir, “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend” (Simon & Schuster, June 2020), Greenberg credits Garfunkel with lifting him from the pits of despair and helping him to THE

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begin navigating life as a blind man at just 20 years old.

“He changed all of his habits to help me out,” Greenberg said of Garfunkel. “He would take me out in the city, walk me to class, help me fix my tape recorder.

“Most importantly, he would read to me regularly. He’d walk into the room and say, ‘Sanford, Darkness is going to read to you from “The Iliad” today,’ or ‘Sanford, Darkness is going to read to you today.’ I suppose he meant that, for me, his voice was emerging from the darkness. Because he called himself Darkness, I decided that should be the title of my book.”

Greenberg eventually graduated from Columbia and earned a doctorate from the Department of Government at Harvard University. He married his high school girlfriend, Sue, and along the way he owned various businesses and became an inventor.

He also was chairman of the board of governors of the John Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute; served on the Mac Science board, which operates overseas as the National Science Foundation; was the chairman of the Rural Health Care Corp., which brought telemedicine to rural parts of the country; became a member of the Council of Foreign Relations; and worked in the White House under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

His father, Albert, moved to the United States in 1939 to escape the Holocaust and became a tailor, but he died when Greenberg was just 5.

His mother remarried and raised three children with her second husband, Carl.

The family seemed predisposed to unusual and unlikely eye crises.

Carl was hit in the eye by a disgruntled employee and required a prosthetic. Greenberg’s grandmother, Pauline, also lost an eye from a broken spring in a cradle while babysitting at the age of 8 in her native Poland.

Greenberg, a member of the Conservative Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., considers himself both religious and very spiritual. “‘The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious,’” said Greenberg, quoting Albert Einstein.

“‘It is the fundamental questions which stand at the cradle between true art and science. Whoever does not know it can no longer wonder, can no longer marvel. He’s as good as dead and his eyes are dim.’ He was talking about God and religiosity.

“For me, being religious means you must wonder at the blessings all around us. We must model God’s creation, otherwise we miss the magic of daily living.”

Memories of davening with Garfunkel at the window in their college dorm room ignite that wonder for Greenberg.

“Anyone hearing his voice singing the prayers, they would be in simple awe,” Greenberg recalled.

“Throughout life I have been blessed with music, music that came from the sweetest singer in the universe.”

He recalled Garfunkel’s voice as “displaying deep and warm love I could actually feel.”

After graduation, when the singer decided to leave architecture school and follow his dreams to create music, Greenberg had the opportunity to pay back his friend.

“One day, after we graduated and I had gone on to Oxford, I got a call from Arthur, who said he was dropping out of architecture school, which I was opposed to, but that was his decision,” Greenberg relat-

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ed. “He said, ‘I want to go into the music business with my friend Paul.

But I need $400.’ Before he finished, I told him he would have it.

Sue and I had $404 in our checking account and I sent it.”

The two had made a pact back in their dorm room that if either ever needed help, “the other would come to his aid regardless of circumstance.”

Though Greenberg has a deep and abiding love and friendship with Garfunkel, there is one partner that has provided the cornerstone to his life.

“I have to talk about the centrality of my then girlfriend, now wife, Sue. I dedicated the book to her and I said, ‘For Sue, the one who has always been there.’ She has,” Greenberg said.

“When I went blind, I was convinced that she would leave me.

She stayed with me through the ugliest part of my life. She was valorous and, in my mind, the hero of the book, certainly the center of gravity for my life. You can read it, she’s on every page in the book.”

In 2012, the Greenbergs created the Prize to End Blindness by 20/20.

On Dec. 14, the award of $3 million in gold will go to the individual or team of researchers that does the most to end blindness across the globe. 

It is an honor to serve the citizens of New Orleans!

Happy New Year to all of my friends in the Jewish Community!

Thank you for your support!

Judge Monique Barial Domestic Section 2 Orleans Parish Civil District Court

Rosh Hashanah

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THE

NOSHER

(food)

Icelandic Jewish Cookies: A Dessert With A Fascinating Story To Tell This recipe originally appeared on The Nosher.

By Rachel Ringler

an echo of a world that once was.

Such is the case of the “Jewish cookie” from Iceland.

Recently I learned of a cookbook, “The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg,” compiled by (Getty Images) Kristin Olafson Jenkyns, a writer You’ve heard of the wandering with forbearers from Iceland. Her Jew, but have you heard of the wan- book documents the history and dering Jewish cookie? culinary traditions of immigrants As Jews move from country to from Iceland who settled in North country, they pick up recipes, spic- America at the end of the 19th cenes and dishes along the way. Some- tury. Many of them moved to Mantimes, even after a Jewish commu- itoba, Canada, on Lake Winnipeg, nity is no more, their food remains, where they formed a community

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that came to be known as “New Iceland.” In the section of the book titled “Cakes and Cookies,” following classic Icelandic foods like skyr, smoked fish, and brown bread, are recipes for cookies traditionally eaten on Christmas. Their name in Icelandic is gyðingakökur, which translates to “Jewish cookie.”

How did “Jewish” cookies end up in a cookbook filled with the food of Icelandic immigrants to the New World? You can be sure that there weren’t many, if any, Jews among those settlers 150 years ago.

Yet there are three recipes for Jewish cookies nestled between other traditional sweets like Vinarterta and ginger cookies.

Olafson Jenkyns is not sure how they came to be part of the culinary canon of the New Icelanders. Her guess is that the Jewish cookies came to Iceland by way of Denmark. For hundreds of years, Iceland was closely tied to Denmark; traders and merchants, some of them Jewish, moved back and forth between the two countries. Perhaps the cookies came via that trade route.

And how did those “Jewish” cookies land in Denmark in the first place? According to Gil Marks, author of Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Jewish butter cookies originated in Holland. Many of the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries found a safe haven in Holland.

There they merged, “…their Moorish-influenced Iberian fare with the local Scandinavian cuisine. Instead of olive oil, they used the butter found in great quantity in Dutch cookery to create small rich morsels, still called Joodse boterkoeke (Jewish butter cookie) in Holland.”

Until today, Dutch Jews serve those cookies on Hanukkah and Shavuot and at other dairy meals.

From Holland, the cookies spread to Denmark where they became a traditional pre-Christmas treat.

As is the case with all immigrants, when the Icelanders left their homeland in 1875 for the New World and created the community of New Iceland in Canada, they brought their culinary traditions with them. Gyðingakökur were part of that tradition. “The cookies must have been popular for them to have made it from Denmark to Iceland to New Iceland,” said Olafson Jenkyns.

In scouring through old cookbooks from the New Iceland community, Olafson Jenkyns found

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these three recipes for Jewish cookies – slightly different one from the next but all most definitely known as “Jewish.” One recipe was from a cookbook, circa 1915, from Reykjavik, Iceland. The other two came from community cookbooks from New Iceland from the middle of the 20th century. In Gil Marks’ book, the Jodekager, or Jewish cookie recipe, was attributed to Denmark.

His recipe is very similar to the Icelandic ones — all have lots of butter, all are rolled out into a thin dough, and then cut into rounds.

And all are topped with a wash and a sweetener that combines sugar and nuts.

Are the cookies Icelandic? Canadian? Dutch? Or Danish? No matter where you find them, the name is the same, hearkening back to a Jewish presence and the Jewish bakers who created them.

This recipe for gyðingakökur comes from “The Culinary Sage of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg.”

Ingredients:

For the dough: 2 1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cardamom 3/4 cup butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 1 egg For the topping: 1 cup cold, strong coffee 1 cup blanched slivered almonds, coarsely chopped 1 cup crushed sugar lumps (coarse bits, not fine)

Directions:

1. Stir flour, salt, and cardamom together.

2. Work the butter into the flour mixture by rubbing it between your fingers, as if you were making a pie crust.

3. Beat egg with a fork and add to dough. Combine well.

4. Wrap in wax paper. Chill thoroughly (at least 1 hour) until firm.

5. Roll out dough on wax paper until 1/8 inch thick. Cut in 1 1/2 inch rounds with a cutter. Brush tops with coffee; mix the almonds and sugar and sprinkle generously on top. Press down gently with your hand to help the almond-sugar mixture stick. Place on greased baking sheets and bake at 350 F. for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. 

THE

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The Nosher

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Spelt Banana Bread With Chocolate, Dates And Tahini Lends A Twist To 2020’S Quarantine Darling This recipe originally appeared on The Nosher.

Maybe it’s the home comfort it exudes, maybe it’s how easy it is to make, but for a variety of, mostly inexplicable, reasons, banana bread has become everyone’s quarantine darling. There were a couple of weeks where I couldn’t scroll through Instagram without seeing at least three loaves on my feed.

Google confirmed it: Banana bread searches are way up compared to other baked goods.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t get on board until recently. Besides for having a serious aversion to all things banana, I just couldn’t see the appeal of a loaf made of overripe, mushy fruit. Where was the razzle-dazzle, the sex appeal?

It wasn’t until I made a batch of spelt banana muffins for my mom that I slowly began to change my mind. The muffins were delicious, the bananas a mere background flavor against the maple syrup, tahini and chocolate I added. Those flavors inspired this banana bread.

Made with spelt flour and olive oil for a tender crumb, and tahini and sesame oil for savory nuttiness, this is a loaf I can truly get behind.

The chopped dates bake up chewy and caramelized, the chocolate melts into pockets throughout the bread, and the sesame seeds on top add a subtle crunch. I like toasting slices and serving them with pats of butter and maple syrup, but it’s excellent on its own, warm from the oven.

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups spelt flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/3 cup olive oil 2 teaspoons sesame oil 1/3 cup light brown sugar THE

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1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs, room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup tahini 3 very ripe bananas, mashed 1 cup pitted dates, chopped 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 tablespoon black and white sesame seeds 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar To serve: • butter • maple syrup Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt until combined.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oils, light brown and granulated sugars, and eggs. Pour in the vanilla and tahini, and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the mashed bananas and mix.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold together with a spatula.

Add the chopped dates and chocolate. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get any bits of flour that might be hiding, stirring until the last pockets of flour are incorporated.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Smack the pan against the counter to even out the top of the batter. Sprinkle the top with the sesame seeds and turbinado sugar. Transfer to the oven to bake for 60-65 minutes, or until the loaf has risen, golden brown, and a skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool the banana bread for 5 minutes in the pan, then invert the loaf and cool it on a rack.

7. Serve slices with pats of butter and maple syrup. The banana bread keeps for 3-5 days on the counter, tightly wrapped. 

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The Indian Jewish Chicken Recipe You’re Going To Crave A simple dish with big flavors from the Jews of India.

By Sonya Sanford

Shalom and Best Wishes to my many friends in the New Orleans Jewish community for a Happy New Year Thanks for your continued support

Judge Karen Herman Criminal District Court, Section I

28 Rosh Hashanah

There is no substitute for eating a dish in its place of origin, preferably made in a home kitchen by hands that hold the muscle memory of thousands of meals. For me, a close second is stumbling across a recipe, trying it out, and feeling transported to a new place by its flavors. The vastness of the Jewish diaspora has gifted us with a wealth of interesting types of culinary mergers, and I particularly love exploring the Jewish food of India, where Jewish communities date back thousands of years.

There are three distinctive Jewish Indian groups that happened to be largely isolated from each other: the Cochin Jews of Kerala in South India, the Bene Israel Jews of India’s West Coast and Mumbai, and the Jews of Kolkata in East India (formerly known as Calcutta).

In The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden recounts how Shalom Cohen from Aleppo was the first known Jew to settle in Kolkata in 1798. Soon after, Syrian and Iraqi Jews followed and developed a strong community there, where they worked as merchants and traders and lived in harmony with their neighbors. Things changed in 1947 when India gained independence, and again in 1948 with the creation of the State of Israel; anti-Semitism grew as the Jews became associated with the colonial British power.

During that time, most of the Jews from Kolkata immigrated to Israel, the U.S., England and Australia.

This once vibrant Jewish Indian community is now all but gone from Kolkata.

While only a handful of Jews still live in Kolkata, the food from this community has traveled with its people. Their style of cooking involves a combination of ingredients and preparations from the Mid-

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dle East, with the spices and techniques of Indian cuisine. There are several cookbooks and articles devoted to Sephardic foods and Indian Jewish cookery that have documented some of the dishes of the Jews from Kolkata. I was first struck by a recipe I found in both Copeland Marks’ book, Sephardic Cooking, as well as in Indian Jewish Cooking, by Mavis Hyman.

Mukmura (or Mahmoora) is a dish of chicken and almonds in a slightly sweetened tangy lemon sauce. I like any recipe that looks like it is simple to prepare but still offers big flavors, and this was clearly that.

This chicken dish calls for easy to find bold ingredients like ginger, garlic, ground turmeric, lemon juice, and fresh mint. The chicken is braised, which means the meat won’t get dry, and it can easily be made in advance for entertaining, Shabbat and holidays. By slowly simmering all of the ingredients together you develop a slightly sweet and sour sauce with all those

warm spices and aromatics. This dish is simultaneously comforting and exciting.

Ingredients • 4-5 lb. chicken, cut into 8-10 serving pieces • 1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste • 2-3 Tbsp oil • 1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped fine (about 1½ cups) • 2 large garlic cloves, minced fine • 1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger • 1½ tsp ground turmeric • 1 cup water • ¼ cup raisins, rinsed • ¼ cup sliced or slivered unsalted almonds, without skin See CHICKEN on Page THE

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CHICKEN Continued from Page 28 • ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, about 2 lemons • 1½ Tbsp agave syrup (nectar) or 2 tsp sugar

• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint, or to taste • lemon wedges, for garnish

Directions

1. Cut the chicken into 8-10 pieces; reserve the backbone for chicken broth if desired. You can also find a pre-cut whole chicken, or you can use 4-5 lbs. of your preferred bone-in skin-on chicken parts.

2. Season the chicken pieces with a teaspoon of kosher salt.

3. On medium high heat, heat a large Dutch oven or deep skillet with a lid. Add a drizzle of oil to the pot and then brown the chicken pieces on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown.

Brown the chicken in batches if needed so as not to overcrowd the pot. Remove the browned chicken and reserve.

4. Over medium heat, add the diced onions to the same pot so the browned bits that remain on the bottom c a n absorb s o m e onion f l a v o r.

Add an additional drizzle of oil if there is n o t enough remaini n g chicken d r i p pings.

Sauté t h e onion u n t i l softened

and beginning to turn golden but not browned, about 5-6 minutes.

5. Add the minced garlic, grated ginger, and turmeric to the onion mixture. Sauté for another 1-2 minutes, or until fragrant.

6. Add the reserved browned chicken back to the pot in a single layer. Pour the water over the chicken.

7. Bring the liquid up to a simmer and then lower the heat and cover the pot. Simmer for 20 minutes.

8. Add the raisins, almonds, lemon juice, and agave syrup to the pot. If your water has significantly reduced, add a little more water so there’s liquid in the pot. Cover the lid again and simmer an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through with an internal temperature of at least 165°F. Taste and season with more salt if necessary.

9. Transfer the chicken to a serving dish, pour the sauce over the chicken, and top everything with freshly chopped mint and a few lemon wedges. Serve with rice or your favorite side. Note: Chicken can be made a day in advance and reheats well. 

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Kveller My Children Have Become Nocturnal During The Pandemic — And It’s Working For Our Family

This article originally appeared Over the past few months, my in Kveller. children have slowly become nocturnal. Not in the cute “my kids go to bed late and then sleep in” kind of way. Nope. My kids are actually keeping nighttime hours: These days they are going to bed at 5 a.m. and waking up after 4 p.m. When I confess this to friends, their reac(Rudall30/Getty Images) tions range from laughter to confuIt started out innocently enough. sion, but here’s the truth: With a “Can we stay up late?” my kids, few exceptions, this arrangement is ages 7 and 9, asked the first evening working for our family. And, truthback in March after in-person fully, it’s the only way I’m survivschool was canceled. “We don’t ing the quarantine. have real school tomorrow.”

Like families across the country, “Sure, why not?” I said. I couldn’t once we no longer had the daily have guessed what that answer get-up-early, get dressed-packwould eventually lead to. lunches-eat-breakfast hustle so we can rush-to-school-and-get-to-theoffice, bedtime was stretched later.

The kids started to sleep in during the mornings. And once the Zoom school calls ended in late June, what motivation did I have to wake them up? So I could repeatedly nag Seafood & PoBoy Restaurant them about going outside, or remind Dine in...or Take Out! them again that they weren’t going to spend the entire day watching Call 985-893-9336 shows on their iPad? Throughout the past month, I * Cuban Sandwich * * Muffalettas * haven’t seen my kids much at all * Black Beans & Fried Plantains* during daytime hours — hours that Mon-Thurs 10:00 - 8:00 I typically devote to doing (and Friday 10:00 - 9:00 keeping) my job. I check in on my Sat. 10:00 - 3:00 Closed Sun. kids in the middle of sun-drenched 515 E. Boston St. Covington - Menu Express Delivery Available afternoons, only to find them asleep mediterranean israeli street food on their floors (which they apparently find more comfortable than their beds) cuddled up with stuffies, blankets, and often each other.

When they wake up for the “day”

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— which, as we’ve already established, is the nighttime — they are generally happy and ready to play with Legos, listen to audiobooks, and sort endless piles of Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I’m reminded of the verse from Proverbs, “hanoch l’naar al pi darko” — “teach a child according to their own way.” While I know our schedule won’t work for most children, mine seem to be thriving for now.

As a working mother, I have no idea how else I could actually pull off working if it wasn’t for this crazy schedule. I have a supportive partner, but he also has his own job and daily demands. Because my kids are generally asleep during daylight hours, I’m able to balance a demanding job with hours of conference calls, writing, and supervising. Unlike so many of my peers, I have enough focus time to get most of my work done most days.

Just as I’m wrapping up the end of these long workdays, I wake up my kids and my parenting day begins. We enjoy the last few hours of fleeting sun for late afternoon swims, dusk bike rides, and reading stories well into what used to be the “night” for my children. Normally by 10 p.m., the adults in the house go down for their bedtime, and the kids have the evening to themselves to continue to play together.

They’ve certainly become more independent, figuring out ways to resolve their own fights, make their own snacks, navigate Netflix, and keep themselves busy enough that they don’t need parents hovering over them.

What do they do all night? Who knows? I see clues of their activities scattered around the house: iPads charging near their bed, a half-eaten bowl of cereal in the kitchen sink, Lego pieces scattered in the hallways, a broken milk-crate fort in one of their rooms. It’s clear they are safe and busy (if not exactly tidy).

Look, this approach wasn’t intentional nor is it conventional. But let’s be honest: We’ve never seen a parenting moment like this. The demands are nonstop and are physically, emotionally, and mentally draining to the core. Then we get up and do it again the next day, and the next day, and the next day — with no end in sight. It’s awful, and yet, we are the lucky ones. We are the ones who get to stay home and don’t have to go to workplaces where we may be exposed to coronavirus. The ones who have secure

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jobs that allow us to work from home and financially take care of our family. The ones whose kids are old enough to understand what’s going on and young enough to not see milestones they’ve worked toward for years be canceled.

There are some misfires, of course. They sometimes wake up in the afternoon, confused not only about the time of day but also clearly in need of some outdoor Vitamin D or some form of food other than a carb. Other days, my kids stomp downstairs to eat “breakfast” before heading to bed for the day, and they are so loud they wake me up, just a few hours after I’ve fallen asleep. Just a few days ago, I again reminded my kids that while I was happy their schedule was working for them, they needed to consider the adults in the household as well, which in this case meant not yelling while overflowing giant bowls of cereal.

They came back 10 minutes later with breakfast in bed for me: toast, banana yogurt, jellybeans, and a salad of Israeli pickles, blackberries, cheese, and cinnamon raisin bread crust that isn’t likely to appear on your favorite Jewish food blog anytime soon.

They apologized, gave me kisses, and soon went to sleep. I thought to myself, “They have become more independent. They have developed a deeper sense of empathy. They are fighting less. I should be thankful.”

And I am thankful. I’m also really, really tired.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. 

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How Rosh Hashanah Became New Year’s Day

Jewniverse

In the Torah, the beginning of the year was clearly set in the spring. So what happened?

By Michele Alperin

Yemenite Jews observe Tashlich in Tel Aviv, 1926. (Shimon Korbman/ Wikimedia)

The effort to strike a balance between a particularistic loyalty to Jewish religion and nationhood and a more universalistic commitment to the human community played itself out in the struggle to set a date for the beginning of the Jewish calendar year. The two possibilities were Nisan , the month of Passover, and Tishrei , the month of what is now known as the festival of Rosh Hashanah .

In the Torah , the beginning of the year was clearly set at the first of Nisan, in the context of a description of the first Passover. “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you” (Exodus 12:1-2). This new year celebrated the creation of the Jewish nation through the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt. Nisan, as the first of the months, coincided with the beginning of Jewish national history.

But it is surprising that the Torah made no mention of a new year at 1 Tishrei, which today is so central to the Jewish religious experience. The Torah’s reference to 1 Tishrei is sparse altogether, describing a holiday characterized primarily by the blowing of a shofar . “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. You shall not work at your occupations, and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Lord.” The name “Rosh Hashanah” is not mentioned, nor is there a reference to its function as a day of judgment and anniversary of the world’s creation.

Yet by the period of the Mishnah at the beginning of the second century, the outlines of today’s Rosh Hashanah holiday are clear; and discussions about the prayers of Rosh Hashanah appear as early as the teachings of the schools of Hillel and Shammai, which date to the first century CE. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 specifically defines Rosh HashaTHE

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nah’s “new year” status. “The first of Tishrei is the beginning of the year [rosh hashanah] for years, sabbatical cycles, and the jubilee.”

Although the functions of this new year relate primarily to the agricultural cycle and the beginning of a new harvest year, the Mishnah also begins to assign to it conceptual and theological meaning.

“On Rosh Hashanah all human beings pass before Him as troops, as it is said: The Lord looks down from heaven; He sees all mankind.

From His dwelling place He gazes on all the inhabitants of the earth?

He who fashions the hearts of them all, who discerns all their doings.

(Psalms 33:13-15)” (M. Rosh Hashanah 1.2) Sometime between the Torah and the codification of the Mishnah, the autumn new year gained ascendance, now transformed into a major celebration, and the Nisan new year was left as a marker of the months and festivals in the calendar year. Although theories abound about the causes of this transition, the mechanics are lost in the web of historical change. The talmudic rabbis analyze the text of the Bible as they argue about when the new year should began, yet different sets of verses yield different answers. Historians cite evidence from the ancient Near East, looking at the new years celebrated by neighboring peoples, but nothing is conclusive. Others look to archeology for support. But the truth remains murky.

Some ancient Semitic peoples considered the year to begin around the autumn harvest and the beginning of the rainy season, which both signified the start of a new agricultural year. Although the Torah never explicitly refers to an autumn new year, some scholars see in the Torah’s apparent timing of the fall harvest festival (Sukkot) a small hint of a possible fall new year. According to (Exodus 23:26), the Feast of the Harvest, which closely follows Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, occurs, b’tzayt ha-shanah, at the going out of the year, signifying the close of one agricultural year and the beginning of the next. Similarly in (Exodus 34:22), the Feast of the Ingathering is said to occur t’kufat hashanah, “at the turn of the year.”

Further evidence of the fall as the beginning of the agricultural year in Palestine is a calendar from the 10th century BCE found at Tel Gezer,

which begins with the two Months of the Ingathering.

Scholars looking for biblical precursors of today’s full-blown Rosh Hashanah holiday also look to the text ofNehemiah 8:1-8, although it never refers to a new year celebration. Rather, it describes Ezra reading the book of the law before the people on the first day of the seventh month. Some wonder, given this accumulation of hints about the importance of 1 Tishrei, whether this day was a new year in biblical times and the Torah “covered it up” because the pagan connotations of the day were too strong to acknowledge it as a Jewish new year.

Other scholars, however, believe that the existence of pagan new year celebrations influenced the timing of the Nisan and Tishrei new years, yet the evidence is contradictory. The Akitu festival that celebrated the Babylonian and Sumerian New Years generally occurred in the spring, although there is some evidence of autumnal Akitu festivals.

H. Tadmor argued that in the biblical

period, Nisan was the new year in the kingdom of Judea while Tishrei was new year in the northern kingdom of Israel. In the Qumran literature, Nisan is always the new year.

According to Yehezkel Kaufmann, some scholars claim the autumn festival described in the Torah to be a new year “on the basis of its supposed correspondence to the Babylonian new year, in which the myth of the creation and ancient Babylonian god Marduk’s battle with Tiamat play a central part.” These scholars envisioned a yearly dramatization of the battle of the Israelite God with Tiamat and his “subsequent enthronement as universal king.”

Giving further credence to this view are a series of psalms that focus on God’s kingship (47, 93-100, 149, etc.), which were thought to be part of this new year ritual. Recurring themes in these psalms reflect ideas important in the rabbinically created holiday of See NEW YEAR'S DAY on Page

34

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Holiday Features

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HOME Continued from Page 17

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thought this year would be the perfect opportunity to bring them back. She collaborated with a New Yorker cartoonist to create Rosh Hashanah cards that feature an apple and honey separated by a Zoom screen.

“This is a really unique opportunity for young people to use cards — hand-written notes are really powerful — to reach out to family and friends they haven’t seen for months,” Beuchler said.

Support is also coming from the synagogues that congregants this year cannot enter. In addition to making sure they have easy-toaccess Zoom setups and prayer books to follow along with at home, many congregations are distributing supplies aimed at enriching the holiday experience.

At Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, New Hampshire, Rabbi Robin Nafshi is planning to send congregants a package of materials for tashlich, the ritual in which Jews throw bread crumbs into water to symbolize the casting away of sins.

With the day when tashlich would be performed falling on an early-fall Sunday this year, Nafshi was concerned about trying to assemble the congregation with proper social distancing at potentially crowded local bodies of water.

So congregants at the Reform synagogue will get packets of bird seed in their holiday boxes, which volunteers will hand deliver through-

out the region. (The synagogue has used bird seed in place of the traditional bread, which can be harmful to birds and fish, for years.)

“Like everyone, we’re trying to figure out this online world where we’re trying to find ways to make this more personal,” said Nafshi. She said she hopes the packages will “remind them that our clergy and board and staff are thinking of them.”

At Kohl Feingold’s synagogue, where she is director of education and spiritual enrichment, families will get a box before Rosh Hashanah that will include chocolate bars for the kids and conversation starters to fuel meaningful conversation during holiday meals.

Families will also get a glass jar filled with premixed dry ingredients for a honey or apple cake. The idea is for families to bake together for the holiday, then use the container to keep notes marking things to be grateful for or good deeds to bring the lessons of Rosh Hashanah into the rest of the year.

Kohl Finegold plans to use the box model in the synagogue’s religious school this year, creating kits for each of the school’s four- or five-week-long units.

“It’s opening up a world of possibility that brings us into the children’s homes in ways that I think just weren’t as easy to do before,” she said. 

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author Leslie Kimmelman infuses a kid-friendly Jewish sense of humor.

The story imagines how bad things can get when Noah and his family shelter through 40 days of the biblical flood in the ark's crowded quarters along with pairs of all their animal

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friends. The story of Noah is read aloud from the Torah in the synagogue two weeks after Simchat Torah.

In “Worse and Worse,” the animals get seasick, peacocks bicker with the zebras and the skunks make quite a stink. As the troubles amass, Noah's wife and sons complain, “Could things get any worse?” -- a refrain that kids can repeat page after page.

Just when readers think the kvetching will never stop, Noah gets the crew working together to fix a leak that threatens them all.

They begin to cooperate and care for each other.

Kids will dive in to Mineker's cartoon-like illustrations of zebras, parrots, growling lions and sloths hanging upside down. An author's note prompts conversation about empathy. 

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Israel

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SCIENTISTS Continued from Page 12 organization, which raises millions of dollars in North America for cancer research, supports scientific investigations at more than 20 institutions across Israel.

“The unique finding of Straussman’s paper is that the collections of bacteria within tumor cells vary from tumor type to tumor type,” Israel said. “They must be providing some sort of advantage to the tumor cells, or doing something that contributes to the tumor’s behavior. Therefore, there’s a lot of interest in getting rid of them, and hopefully having a therapeutic effect.”

Straussman said his latest study may also shed light on why some bacteria are drawn to certain cancer cells and why each cancer has its own typical microbiome.

Tumors are complex ecosystems that are known to contain immune cells, stromal cells, blood vessels, nerves and many more components in addition to cancer cells. They’re all part of what’s known as the tumor microenvironment.

“Our studies, as well as studies by other labs, clearly demonstrate that bacteria are also an integral part of the tumor microenvironment,” Straussman said. “We hope that by finding out how exactly they fit into the general tumor ecology, we can figure out novel ways of treating cancer.”

Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center in Haifa is doing related research.

She’s one of a growing number of cancer researchers worldwide who

Happy New Year

study bacteria that live in the gut microbiome.

Supervising a 10-person lab, she has tested at least 60 types of bacteria that thrive in the human gastrointestinal tract. Geva-Zatorsky hopes to learn whether the immune effects of gut bacteria can be used either to prevent cancer from forming or to increase the efficacy of cancer treatments.

“We believe we can induce an environment where cancer cannot develop,” she said. “Maybe in the future bacteria that stimulate the immune system can be added to immune therapy, so that the cancer can be eradicated more quickly and efficiently.”

Her work, too, is being funded by the Israel Cancer Research Fund.

“We’ve known for centuries that the bacteria in your gut play important roles, but in the last three to five years it’s been discovered that a collection of bacteria influences your immune response,” Israel said.

“That’s important now because of the major new modalities of treatment that modify the immune system to fight off the tumor.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Israel Cancer Research Fund, whose ongoing support of these and other Israeli scientists’ work goes a long way toward ensuring that their efforts will have important and lasting impact in the global fight against cancer. This article was produced

by JTA’s native content team. 

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Jewniverse NEW YEAR'S DAY Continued from Page 31 Rosh Hashanah: God as creator, God as king, and God as judge.

Several of the psalms also allude to the sounding of the shofar.

Kaufmann, however, does not accept this explanation, calling it “one of the most remarkable products of the creative imagination of modern biblical scholarship.”

Kaufmann sees no biblical evidence of a battle between God and any Babylonian deity, and he maintains that the enthronement psalms focus on God’s kingship over creation, not a victory over a divine enemy.

Moving from the theories of Bible scholars to the interpretations of Jewish commentators, we see an acknowledgement of the existence of the two new years, Nisan and Tishrei, along with attempts to derive meaning from this doubling. Because Rosh Hashanah occurs at the beginning of the seventh month, counting from Nisan, Nachmanides (Ramban), a 13th-century commentator, tied the two together by positing that

THE

the very process of counting tied Rosh Hashanah to the redemption from Egypt. This, suggests Ramban, is similar to the tie between the weekday and Shabbat that is also accomplished by counting: Just as we remember the Sabbath day by counting according to the first day of the Shabbat cycle, the second day of the Shabbat cycle [in Hebrew, the weekdays do not have names, they are numbered in relation to the coming Shabbat], as I will explain below, so we remember the Exodus from Egypt by counting the first month, and the second and third month from our redemption. For this is not the enumeration that we apply to the year, for the beginning of our years is in Tishrei, as it is written (Exodus 34:22), “the Festival of gathering, at the year-season,” and it is written (Exodus 23:16), “at the going-out/ changing of the year.” Therefore, when the month of Nisan is called “first” and Tishrei “seventh,” the meaning is: the first from the redemption and the seventh therefrom. And this is the meaning of

CAMPUS Continued from Page 18 secure and supported.”

Students are in the middle of moving in at Cornell, which is conducting some classes online and others in person. Hillel has been providing “Shabags” — Shabbatto-go bags featuring a kiddush cup, challah, grape juice and candles — for students who are quarantining as they come from states with high coronavirus rates.

The university’s kosher dining hall, which usually hosts hundreds of students for Friday night dinner, will be operating at extremely limited capacity — only allowing 30 students to eat at a time with everyone sitting 6 feet apart. Once the dining hall is at capacity, students will have to pick up Shabags and celebrate Shabbat outside or in their dorm.

“We’ve been working with dining to capture as much of the Friday night experience as possible,” Weiss said.

At the University of Kansas, Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel and his wife, Nechama, have been hosting socially 34 Rosh Hashanah

Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel and student Kyle Gold at the University of Kansas measure a 6-foot distance for a socially distanced Shabbat dinner. (Courtesy of Tiechtel)

distanced Shabbat dinners for no more than 35 people outside the Chabad house. The couple is providing Shabbat-to-go bags for those who don’t get a spot.

“Before the pandemic, at a typical Shabbat dinner we had around 80 kids crammed into one room, really tight, one big happy family, lots of singing, lots of dancing, lots

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“the beginning-one let it be for you.” For it is not the beginning of the year, but the beginning for you, for it is thus-called in memory of our redemption.

Modern interpreters of Judaism also look for meaning in the existence of two new year festivals. Ismar Schorsch and others focus on the roles of the two new years as exemplars of the particularist/universalist balance in Judaism — the relative weight Judaism gives to an inward focus on the Jewish people vs. an outward focus on all of humanity.

Schorsch points out that although R. Eliezer and R. Yehoshua argued in the Babylonian Talmud’s tractate Rosh Hashanah about whether Nisan or Tishri was more significant, they both accepted the existence of a calendar with more than a single new year. Both cite verses purporting to prove that a series of critical events took place in their favored month: the creation of the world, Israel’s future redemption from exile, the birth and death of the patriarchs, conception of a child by the matriarchs, and Joseph’s

release from prison.

The reason, maintains Schorsch, was to give greater weight to either the nationalist or the universalist trend in Judaism. Because R. Yeshoshua saw national redemption as the fulcrum of Jewish history, he held with the Torah that Nisan was the first month. Nisan’s role as the new year for Jewish kings as well as the anniversary of Jewish nationhood reflects Yeshoshua’s national focus. With his more universal thrust, R. Eliezer supported Tishrei as the anniversary of the creation of Adam and hence of all humanity.

Within the universalist compass of Tishrei, issues of sin and renewal applicable to all human beings were emphasized. The fact that Tishrei is the new year for counting of the reigns of gentile kings also reflects this worldly perspective.

By attributing different yet complementary roles to the new years of Nisan and Tishrei, teachers of Torah have helped integrate perspectives of world, nation, and individual within the Jewish religion. 

of food, lots of energy,” Tiechtel said. “And now … a typical Shabbat dinner is 35 kids sitting very spaced out 6 feet between each one, and the food is packaged.”

Still, there are some silver linings.

Tiechtel has been working with a nationwide initiative, Chabad Cares, to provide resources to students to feel connected to the Jewish community. And while North Carolina Hillel typically hosts separate events for each of its nine schools, the organization has now been holding some joint events, allowing students to make connections across campuses.

“The name of the game this year is going to be flexibili-

ty and innovation,” Gauss said.

Though Adams hasn’t been able to make many new friends yet, she found that she has grown closer with several other students at UNCChapel Hill whom she knew from her synagogue, youth group and elementary and middle school.

“The few Jewish students that I knew before coming on campus, I’ve connected with them more,” she said. “They aren’t getting to meet many new people either.” 

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