The Jewish Light Rosh Hashanah Holiday Guide by The Jewish Light

Volume 8, Number 7 Rosh Hashanah 2018

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New Things to Do for Rosh Hashanah By Amy Deutsch

Every fall, the air gets cooler, the kids go back to school, and Rosh Hashanah rolls around. The holiday itself celebrates the Jewish New Year, but also deals with some more serious topics, like renewal, forgiveness, and thinking hard about how to be a better person in the next year. There are many ways to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, from huge family dinners to going to services at synagogue to eating apples and honey. But what if you and your family want to do something different this year? We know that not everyone celebrates in the same way, so we’ve come up with a list of our favorite Rosh Hashanah-y activities that are great to do with young kids. Try one out, and if all goes well, you could have a new family tradition on your hands.

1. Apple picking

It’s tradition to eat apples and honey on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize a sweet new year. Rather than just picking up apples at the grocery store, take the kids to the nearest pick-yourown apple orchard and let them see where apples really come from. When you bring home bushels of apples, try these recipes for a new take on Rosh Hashanah’s traditional apples and honey. Or use a few apples to make apple-print tablecloths or apple-print placemats for your Rosh Hashanah dinner. Or even

better, turn an apple into a honey bowl. Before you know it, apple picking and apple crafting will become an annual tradition– complete with many a great photo op, of course! 2. Honey tasting As it turns out, there are lots of different kinds of honey out there. Because bees suck nectar from all types of flowers, the honey can have a very different taste. Assemble your family for a taste test. Go to the local farmer’s market and buy two or three different kinds of honey. (Not only are you supporting local agriculture, but you’re also showing your kids where food comes from.) At home, arrange a smorgasbord of foods to dip into the various kinds of honey— challah, apples, pretzels, bananas, etc. Which honey goes best with which foods? When you find your favorites, you can put them out at your Rosh Hashanah

table. (Check with your pediatrician, but generally honey is not recommended for children under the age of 1.)

3. New Year’s Cards

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, and it’s a great time to send cards to friends and family. Your kids can write about their summer adventures, their new teacher at school, or even your trip to go apple picking! We love making apple-print new year’s cards–just cut or fold construction paper to the size of your choice, and follow these steps to do apple prints. Your friends and family will love the personalized touch that the homemade apple prints bring to their cards.

4. Challah-baking

On Rosh Hashanah, it’s traditional to make a round challah bread instead of the normal braided shape eaten throughout the rest of the year. Why round? Because the year is a circle,.If

you’ve never made challah before, it’s like many other bread recipes–you get to punch and knead the dough. Which is a great way to get out all of your frustrations before the new year begins! And kids love playing with dough too–try breaking off a little bit and letting your kids make their own challah shapes.

5. Nature Walk

Fall is a great time to be outdoors and appreciate the beauty of nature. Take advantage of the temperate weather and head to the nearest forest, reservation, or park. Walk slowly with your kids, picking out animals, insects, flowers, plants, and trees. Have your kids find their favorite rocks, plants, trees, flowers, or insects along the way. Talk to them about the cycle of the year and the seasons. It’ll keep them engaged and help your simple walk feel like an adventure. 

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Munchkin Minyan

Gates of Prayer invites young families to join us for a Munchkin Minyan (formerly Shabbat Yeladim) Splish Splash Shabbat Friday, August 31, 2018 * 6:00 pm Join with other young families for a unique summer Shabbat experience. We will celebrate Shabbat with songs, prayer, a light dinner and a lot of water fun! Don’t forget your bathing suits and towels! Please RSVP to the Temple office: office@gatesofprayer.org 504-885-2600 Wishing my many Friends & Associates in the Jewish community a happy and prosperous New Year! Thank you for your continued support.

Judge Piper Griffin

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Hanukkah in August; JCRS Program Targets Local Jewish Families Jewish families with minor children, for whom the holiday of Hanukkah presents major economic challenges, are eligible for Hanukkah gifts and Walmart gift cards from the Jewish Children’s Regional Service (JCRS), the oldest Jewish children’s agency in the United States. Interested and eligible families are urged to apply (online) ASAP. Those children, who are registered by the end of August for Hanukkah through JCRS, are not only guaranSeptember 17, 2018 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm Goldring-Woldenberg JCC Metairie 3747 W. Esplanade Avenue Metairie, LA 70002 Movies in Metairie Going in Style Join us on the last Monday of every month for Movies in Metairie. Bring your lunch and see newreleases, the classics, and all your favorite comedies! Movie snacks and drinks will be provided. Free and open to the community Contact: Stephanie Krell Phone: 504.887.5158 Email: stephanie@nojcc.org Date: September 26, 2018 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm New Orleans JCC - Uptown 5342 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70115 RBG at the JCC Come see RBG at the JCC! Contact: Judy Yaillen Phone: 504.897.0143 Email: judy@nojcc.org Tuesdays 1:30 - 3:00 PM New Orleans JCC - Uptown 5342 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70115 Book Club - "Gateway to the Moon" The JCC Book Club meets monthly, on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. to discuss a book chosen by the group. This year the first meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 4 to review "Gateway to the Moon" by Mary Morris. No charge members and nonmembers Contact: Judy Yaillen Phone: 504.897.0143 Email: judy@nojcc.org

teed the early selection of gifts, but they will also be guaranteed Walmart gift cards. Families who live in the seven states served by JCRS (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas) can secure for their children eight small, age and interest-related gifts, one for each night of Hanukkah... While the extensive scholarship programs provided by JCRS require family income documentation, the process to register for Hanukkah gifts does not require income documentation. The Oscar J. Tolmas Hanukkah Gift Program is twenty years old, and has served over this period of time, thousands of Jewish children and youth. Families, who have faced a wide variety of short or long-term economic challenges, as well as natural disasters, have received a large package of gift for each child at Hanukkah time. . In order to register for this program, parents must go to the JCRS

website: www.jcrs.org and fill out an application for each minor child, under the Hanukkah Program Section. Parents will have an opportunity to describe the interests of each child in the application. The Jewish Children’s Regional Service was created in 1855 in New Orleans, where its headquarters still remains. While initially serving as the first Jewish Children’s Home in the US, since 1946, JCRS has operated as a social service agency. In calendar year 2017, over 1700 unduplicated Jewish children and youth were served, including over 300 in the Hanukkah Gift Program. In addition, Jewish adults in long – term care facilities are also eligible for gifts, but not the gift cards. The JCRS address is PO Box 7368, Metairie LA 70010-7368, and the phone number is 1-800729-5277. The email address is: info@jcrs.org 

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Beth Israel Mazel Tov..

To Alan Katz on the marriage of his daughter, Hannah Katz to Doug Voight on June 10, 2018 in Beachwood, NJ. To Dr. Marc & Deborah Fisher on the graduation of their son, Dr. Jonathan Fisher from LSU School

of Medicine and his residency in Neurosurgery at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. To Howard & Susan Green and Emory & Erika Nolan on the birth of their granddaughter/daughter, Cecelia Nolan, on July 11th at 8:20PM, weighing 6 1/2 pounds and measuring 19 inches long. 

To Debbie Schlackman on her retirement after 24 years of serving Mazel Tov... To Rachel & Brad Taquino on as the Librarian at Communal the birth of their son Jarrett Hebrew School and Jewish ComTaquino. munity Day School. To our members, Mindy & Bob To our members, Morris & Caplan on the birth of their Cathy Bart and Jerome & Sandra grandson, Seth Caplan. Parents are Sara & Matt Caplan. Kanter on the birth of their To our members JoAnn & Larry grandson and great grandson Katz on the birth of their grandson Daniel Colledge O’Leary. Parents Maxwell David Goehring. Parents are Michelle & John Goehring.  are Mari & Jim O’Leary.

Happy New Year to all of my friends in the Jewish Community. Thank you for your continued support!

Wishing you happiness, peace and prosperity this Rosh Hashanah!

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Here Are Some Special Gifts for Your Rosh Hashanah Hosts By MJL Staff (My Jewish Learning via JTA) -- Invited to someone’s house for a Rosh Hashanah meal and looking for an appropriate gift? In addition to the always appreciated flowers or bottle of wine, here are some other must-have (or must-give) items for the Jewish New Year. If you’re drawn to the edible items on this list, we recommend you check ahead of time whether your host keeps kosher or has other dietary restrictions. Jewish calendars Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year after all, and every year needs a calendar. While many, if not most, people rely on digital calendars for day-to-day scheduling, a pretty wall calendar makes a nice decoration and can help keep the household organized. Most Jewish calendars sold in the United States list secular dates as well as Hebrew ones (including all the holidays, of course), and run through the end of the next Gregorian year. (So one that starts with Rosh Hashanah in 2018 will last you until December 2019.) You can find a wide selec-

tion online and in Judaica stores and bookstores. Someone with an artistic bent or who enjoys the stress relief that comes with coloring might enjoy this coloring-book calendar featuring intricate Judaic motifs such as Jewish stars and Hanukkah menorahs. And this one from New York’s Jewish Museum showcases a variety of paintings, sculptures and ceremonial objects from its collection. Jewish cookbooks If your host invited you over for a home-cooked meal, he or she probably likes to cook. The four books listed here were published within the last couple of years, so there’s a good chance your host doesn’t yet own them — and what better than a cookbook to subtly convey to your host that you’d love more holiday meal invitations? “Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More” is written by Shannon Sarna, the editor of The Nosher food blog, part of the 70 Faces Media family that includes My Jewish Learning. In this gor-

Best Wishes to my many Jewish friends and constituents for a happy New Year

Charlie Kerner

geous book, she pays homage to

Apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah: So why not provide the honey? (Marco Beltrametti/Wikimedia Commons)

Jewish baking traditions while reinvigorating them with modern flavors and new ideas. The mother-daughter team of Gabrielle Rossmer Gropman and Sonya Gropman in “The GermanJewish Cookbook: Recipes and History of a Cuisine” features recipes for German-Jewish cuisine as it existed in Germany prior to World War II, and as refugees later adapted it in the United States and elsewhere. The dishes are a departure from better-known Eastern European Jewish fare and focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients. Israeli baker Uri Scheft’s “Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli

Baking” offers sweet and savory recipes for European, Israeli and Middle Eastern favorites. For vegan cooks — or those who often have a vegan family member or guest at their table — “The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook: Entertaining for Absolutely Every Occasion” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz offers meatand dairy- and egg-free recipes for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (break-the-fast), as well as dishes for a variety of other Jewish and non-Jewish holidays. Honey dishes It is traditional to dip apples in honey on Rosh Hashanah, and a special honey dish can add extra beauty to the practice. We like this stainless steel and glass one that says “shana tova umetuka” (a good and sweet new year) in Hebrew and this Rosh Hashanah apple plate and honey dish set with a pomegranate design available in red, blue and gray. Food Why dip good apples and challah See SPECIAL GIFTS on Page

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

Thank You for your continued support.

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PAUL CONNICK, JR.

Happy New Year to all my friends in the Jewish Community.

Judge Sidney H. Cates, IV

Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans

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Must-Know High Holidays Words and Phrases By My Jewish Learning Staff (MJL via JTA) – Here are some important Hebrew words and terms you may encounter over the High Holiday season. Akedah — Pronounced ah-kehDAH. Literally “binding,” the Akedah refers to the biblical story of the binding of Isaac, which is traditionally read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Chag sameach — Pronounced KHAG sah-MAY-akh. Literally “happy holiday,” a common greeting on Rosh Hashanah and other Jewish holidays. Elul — Pronounced el-OOL (oo as in food). The final month of the Jewish calendar, it is designated as a time of reflection, introspection and repentance. Het (also chet) — Pronounced KHET (short e). Sin, or wrongdoing. L’shana tovah u’metukah — Pronounced l’shah-NAH toe-VAH ooh-meh-too-KAH. A Hebrew greeting for the High Holidays season that means “For a good and sweet year.” Machzor — Pronounced MAHKH-zohr. Literally “cycle,” the machzor is the special prayer book for the High Holidays containing all the special liturgy. Selichot — Pronounced sleeKHOTE. Literally “forgivenesses,” selichot are prayers for forgiveness. Selichot refers to two related types

of penitential prayers: the prayers that customarily are recited daily at morning services during the month of Elul, as well as the name of the service late at night on the Saturday preceding Rosh Hashanah consisting of a longer series of these penitential prayers. Shofar — Pronounced shoh-FAR or SHOH-far (rhymes with “so far”). The ram’s horn that is sounded during the month of Elul, on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur. It is mentioned numerous times in the Bible in reference to its ceremonial use in the Temple and to its function as a signal horn of war. Tashlich — Pronounced TAHSH-likh. Literally “cast away,” Tashlich is a ceremony observed on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah in which sins are symbolically cast away into a natural body of water. The term and custom are derived from a verse in the Book of Micah (7:19). Teshuvah — Pronounced tihSHOO-vuh. Literally “return,” teshuvah is often translated as “repentance.” It is one of the central themes and spiritual components of the High Holidays. Tishrei — Pronounced TISHray. The first month in the Hebrew calendar, during which Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot all occur.

Unetaneh Tokef — Pronounced ooh-nuh-TAH-neh TOH-keff. Literally “we shall ascribe,” a religious poem recited during the Musaf (additional service ) Amidah that is meant to strike fear in us. Yamim Noraim — Pronounced yah-MEEM nohr-ah-EEM. Literally “Days of Awe,” a term that refers to the High Holidays season. Sometimes it is used to refer to the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, which are also known as the Aseret Yimei Teshuvah, or the 10 Days of Repentance. Yom tov — Pronounced YOHM TOHV or YON-tiff. This is a general term for the major Jewish festivals.

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5 Tips for Making the Snazziest Rosh Hashanah Cards By Stacey Ilyse

(Kveller via JTA) – Growing up, I remember getting cards in the mail for Rosh Hashanah. They were always the normal, generic, Hallmark Happy New Year-type card. Nowadays, people are much more tech savvy and can create really fun cards that reflect and show off who they are and their adorable kids and family. If you want to give your Rosh Hashanah cards a personal touch this year, here are five tips, plus a few resources, for creating and producing the picture perfect photo card.

images you have taken, but you can use them for many different purposes besides a holiday card. I like the non-traditional type of image, the one that really shows off who the family is and what everyone’s personality is like, but at the same time allows you to see their faces and captures everyone in that moment of time. There is nothing written in stone that says you must have a full family photo for a holiday card. Many parents like to just show off their kids! Taking a photo of just the kids is pretty common. This is also great if you don’t have the time, money or desire to get professional family photos taken, since you can act as photographer. You can do a combination of things for a card. You could take one photo of each child alone, which is generally easier to photograph, or do a shot of your kids together. But remember, they do not have to be facing the camera. People appreciate the candid, trueto-life moments.

1. Type of photo It’s nice to have a photo of the whole family on a card, which is harder to do when you don’t have someone else taking the photo. If you have the luxury of having professional photos done, great! Not only will you be able to cherish the

2. Where to go Make it fun. Maybe take the kids to the beach, a playground they love, go on a picnic. Or maybe play with imagery: Rosh Hashanah is known for its apples and honey, that’s how kids remember it, so perhaps take a shot of a child with a

Apples and honey are a perfect fit for New Year's cards if you don't want to use family photos. (Lilach Daniel/Flickr)

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big apple! 3. What to wear Please don’t be all matchymatchy; just work on coordinating. People look best, and are generally more comfortable, when you allow them to wear the clothes that reflect who they are. If your daughter only wants to be a princess or your son Batman, then maybe that is how you have to photograph them. I would take a happy kid in a costume over a grumpy one all dressed up anyday! Also, yes, a baby might not yet know who they are, but I know that my daughter wears the clothes that reflect me! I am not a white button down and jeans kinda gal, so neither is she. Make their outfits fun, festive and nice, but true to them. 4. Let there be light Do not take photos during midday (noon to 3 p.m.) unless it is overcast. Then you are in the clear (ironically enough). Overcast days – or what is called “open shade” – are the best light. Look for spots that have large blocks of shadow, like that of a large building. Stick your little one in the shadow and shoot! Don’t shoot under a tree unless its leaves are thick enough to create a solid block, otherwise you will

get spotted light all over them in the images. If you are shooting indoors, shoot during the daytime and use natural light – most likely it will be from a window. Lastly, remember if you are trying to capture someone’s face and expression, you will want them to be facing the window light, not with their back to the light. 5. Online resources There are some resources for making already designed cards, where all you need to do is upload your image and tweak your text. Check out sites like Minted.com, TinyPrints.com and even Shutterfly and Snapfish. I use Minted for almost all my own personal photorelated cards. For sites where you can design the entire card from scratch, check out Uprinting.com or Vistaprint. com. However, these sites usually require larger quantities of cards to be purchased. I know Uprinting offers 250 cards as its lowest amount. Thankfully the cost is not that high, it has great quality and gives you the envelopes as well. Now that you have some ideas swirling around in your head, some inspiration to get you going, tips on how to take a nice photo, and resources to get them printed, go for it! 

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Wishing my many friends & supporters in the Jewish Community a happy New Year.

Serving on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) since 2007, Jim Garvey is known as a voice for ACCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY AND CHOICE.

Candice Bates-Anderson Judge Juvenile Court, Section C 6

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Happy New Year to all my friends in the Jewish Community, thanks for your continued support! Jim Garvey Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) District 1

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A Guide to the High Holidays Prayers By Rabbi Iscah Waldman (My Jewish Learning via JTA) -- The High Holidays prayer book, The pages of the Machzor or machzor, Roma on display at the National Library emphasizes the of Israel. (Wikimedia themes of the Commons) Days of Awe — introspection and repentance. Rosh Hashanah as the opening day of a court trial “The great shofar is sounded. A still small voice is heard. This day, even the angels are alarmed, seized with fear and trembling as they declare: ‘The day of judgment is here!'” In a loud and trumpeting voice, the cantor describes the shofar ’s blast, then softly and gently describes a “still, small voice.” This poignant line from the musaf (“additional”) service sets a tone for the High Holidays. It is a dichotomy that is played out over and over throughout the liturgy of the Days of Awe. On these days, we sing of the king, judge and awesome sovereign who sits in judgment over us, while at the same time we appeal to God’s mercy and longstanding tradition of forgiveness, likening God to a shepherd sheltering a flock. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of court. In the liturgy, we see this played out in the number of references to God as sovereign, ruler and a most judicious king. Additions and different emphases start as early as the beginning of the Shacharit (morning) service, with the word “Hamelekh,” the King). While these words also appear in the liturgy of Shabbat morning, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur they are highlighted in such a way that a new leader begins the service with a powerful note on the word “king” itself. Ashamnu and Avinu Malkeinu The structure of the morning service on Rosh Hashanah is similar to weekday and Shabbat services. It is, however, additional piyyutim (liturgical poems) such as L’eyl Orekh Din (“to the God who sits in judgment”) or Adonai Melekh (“Adonai is King”) that evoke the seriousness with which we would approach a trial with the true judge. Torah readings on Rosh Hashanah The Torah reading on Rosh Hashanah is from the story of THE

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Isaac’s birth, describing God’s kindness in giving a child to Abraham and Sarah in their old age (Genesis 21). On the second day we read the story of the binding of Isaac, which ends with a ram as a substitute for Isaac (Genesis 22). The shofar that is so prominent on Rosh Hashanah is considered to be symbolic of this ram. U’netaneh Tokef: Who shall live and who shall die As the continuation of the piyyut U’netaneh Tokef quoted above tells us, on Rosh Hashanah we are inscribed into the book of life, while on Yom Kippur the book is sealed. These simple lines open us up to the possibility of teshuvah (repentance) and of reflection of our past deeds. U’netaneh Tokef is recited on both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as an introductory piyyut to the kedushah (literally, holiness) in the musaf Amidah. The key line of this prayer follows on the heels of a long rhetorical piece that demands to know who among this congregation will be here next year: How many will perish and how many will be brought high? But, the liturgist notes, even those who are fated for the worst can depend on the following precept: “penitence, prayer, and good deeds can annul the severity of the decree.” The shofar blasts The shofar is perhaps the bestknown feature of Rosh Hashanah services. There are two sets of shofar blasts on each day of the holiday. The first follows the Torah service. The second is intertwined with three unique sections in the musaf known as Malkhuyot (verses relating to God’s Kingship), Zikhronot (verses relating to memory) and Shofarot (verses relating to shofar). Each of these sections contains 10 verses on each of the topics – Malkhuyot recalls that God is king, Zikhronot recalls God remembering us for the good and Shofarot gives quotes in which the shofar is sounded, in the past but mostly in the future, heralding future redemption. The sounding of the shofar is interspersed through each of these three prayer sections, showing itself to be a part of the prayer itself. In Reform and other liberal congregations that do not recite musaf, these sections – and the shofar sounding – are added to the morning Shacharit. Rabbi Michael Strassfeld has written in his book “The Jewish

Holidays” that these three sections, unique to Rosh Hashanah, reflect three central principles of Judaism: * The acceptance of God as King of Universe. * The acknowledgement that God intervenes in the world to punish the wicked and reward the good. * The recognition that God was revealed in the giving of the Torah at Sinai and again will be revealed at the end of days. If we were to pick out one piyyut as an archetype of the theology of the Rosh Hashanah, we might choose L’eyl orekh din (“to God who sits in judgment”). The poem begins by declaring that God “probes all of our hearts” and therefore will always divine our most secret thoughts and fears. It moves on to say that God suppresses wrath in judgment, so that regardless of the dark nature of our secret sins, God will suppress anger in discovering them. It ends by announcing that God acts with compassion, accepts God’s subjects and guards those who love God. We may take from this that even while we call Rosh Hashanah “Yom ha Din” (Day

of Judgment), we can look forward to the end of the process in which we will be loved, accepted and forgiven our sins. This is the overall theological message that the Rosh Hashanah liturgy wishes to portray: We still have hope. Yom Kippur: The Day of Judgment If we view Rosh Hashanah as the first day of a court case, then we would see Yom Kippur as the day on which the verdict is handed down. The tension mounts as we near the Day of Judgment, and this can be seen in the liturgy as well. The evening of Yom Kippur begins with a once-controversial prayer, Kol Nidre, that has since become the symbol for the solemnity of the day. In this prayer, repeated three times, we pray that all vows and oaths that we have made throughout the year will be forgiven us, so that we might enter into this coming year with a clean slate, forgiven for any promises we might inadvertently have broken. Many rabbis viewed this as See Prayers on Page

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(My Jewish Learning via JTA) – Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, starts at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Traditionally one of the most somber days on the Jewish calendar, it’s known for fasting and repentance – not to mention killer caffeine withdrawal headaches. However, the holiday has some lesser-known associations as well. 1. The word “scapegoat” originates in an ancient Yom Kippur ritual. Jews historically have been popular scapegoats — blamed for an array of ills not of their creation. But, and we’re not kid-ding, they really do deserve blame (or credit) for the term scapegoat. In Leviticus 16:8 (in the Torah portion Achrei Mot), the High Priest is instructed on Yom Kippur to lay his hands upon a goat while confessing the sins of the entire community — and then to throw the animal off a cliff. 2. Another animal ritual, swinging a chicken around one’s head, has sparked considerable controversy, and not just from animalrights activists. In 2015, the kapparot ritual, in which a chicken is symbolically invested with a person’s sins and then slaughtered, spurred two lawsuits in the United States: one by traditional Jews claiming their right to perform it was being abridged by the government and another by animal-rights activists. Centuries earlier, the ritual drew criticism from notable sages like the Ramban (13th century) and Rabbi Joseph Caro (16th century), whose objections had less to do with animal welfare than with religious integrity 3. Yom Kippur once was a big matchmaking day. The Talmud states that both Yom Kippur and Tu b’Av (often described as the Jewish Valentine’s Day) were the most joyous days of the year, when women would wear white gowns and dance in the vineyards chanting “Young man, lift up your

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eyes and see what you choose for yourself. Do not set your eyes on beauty, but set your eyes on a good family.” Given the aforementioned caffeine headaches and the difficulty of making a decision on an empty stomach, we’re glad this particular tradition is no more. 4. Food and drink are not the only things Jews abstain from on Yom Kippur. Other traditional no-nos on Yom Kippur include bathing, wearing perfume or lotions, having sexual relations and wearing leather shoes. The less-than-attractive aroma resulting from the first two restrictions (not to mention the romantic restrictions imposed by the third) may explain why the day ceased to be an occasion for finding true love. 5. In Israel, Yom Kippur is the most bike-friendly day of the year. Although many Israelis are secular, and there is no law on the books forbidding driving on Yom Kippur, virtually all the country’s Jews avoid their cars on this day. With only the occasional emergency vehicle on the road, bikers of all ages can be seen pedaling, even on major highways. 6. Eating a big meal before the holiday begins will make your fast harder rather than easier. Traditionally, the meal eaten before beginning the fast is supposed to be large and festive, following the Talmudic dictum that it is a mitzvah (commandment) to eat on the eve of Yom Kippur, just as it is a mitzvah to fast on Yom Kippur itself. However, eating extra food — particularly in one last-minute feast — does not help to keep you going for 24 hours, says Dr. Tzvi Dwolatzky of Israel’s Rambam Health Care Campus. He suggests eating small amounts of carbohydrates (bread, potato, rice, pasta), some protein (fish, chicken) and fruit. 7. On Yom Kippur in 1940, London’s Jews kept calm and carried on. In the midst of the Battle of Britain, the relentless Nazi bombardment of London that began in September 1940, the city’s synagogues went on with their Yom Kippur services. According to JTA, while air raid warnings “twice disturbed” See Yom Kippur on Page THE

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Education

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How One Jewish High School Is Turning Students Into Tech Entrepreneurs

50 yrs exCellent serivCe

By E.J. Kessler

About half the graduates of the makerspace program at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester go on to study computer science or engineering in college, with the gender split about 50-50. (E.J. Kessler)

Hartsdale, N.Y. — Morgan Ptaszek has a smooth, “Shark Tank”style business pitch for a therapeutic teddy bear she invented called Happy Hugs. The bear has features that are designed to help children suffering from separation anxiety, muscle pain and insomnia: A heating element promotes blood flow, and an artificial heartbeat and voice recorder make rhythmic noises to help users relax and sleep. “We know from our personal experience how stressful life can be," Ptaszek said, "so we wanted to come up with a product that can help reduce the anxiety that younger children feel during their day.” She even has a PowerPoint presentation demonstrating how her bear is superior to comparable products on the market. But Ptaszek is no professional entrepreneur. She’s a high school sophomore at a Jewish day school who developed her product in class with three other students. Their teddy bear is one of countless inventions that students at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester, in suburban New York, have designed in a class that could serve as a national model for incorporating dynamic STEAM programs in Jewish day schools. STEAM is shorthand for science, technology, engineering, arts and math – hot topics in schools across the country. The brainchild of educator Danny Aviv, 47, the “idea incubator” at Schechter Westchester brings a startup mentality to STEAM education. “It’s the startup experience, but without all the financial and emotional risks associated with that -or the grade risk, either,” Aviv said. Located in what’s known as a “makerspace” – a cross between a computer lab, design shop and art THE

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room – the incubator has students working amid bright pink 3-D printers, scattered circuitboards, work tables strewn with prototypes and a large sign on the wall reading “Tech Style Studio” The school in Hartsdale has three makerspaces, and all 156 middleand high-school students participate in makerspace programs. Aviv says his was the first makerspace in a Jewish day school, designed to adapt the collaborative, innovative approach of a startup company. He sees his role as a “catalyst” for his students’ creativity. “I give them the time to fail, the time to succeed and the time to figure it out,” Aviv said. “We don’t care about the product so much as the process. They learn as a team and together they make something special. By senior year they are way beyond me. All they need me for is to order them supplies.” The approach has fostered a strong interest in STEAM careers among graduates. In the four years since the program was launched, about half the school’s graduates have majored in computer science or engineering in college, and half of those were girls. In the makerspace, the wall is lined with the mugs of the prestigious, science-oriented colleges and universities attended by graduates. The program isn’t just about science and academic advancement. Schechter, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement of Judaism, seeks to infuse Torah values into all its programs. The incubator participates in Tikkun Olam Makers, an international program that harnesses technology to create affordable, customized solutions for everyday challenges facing people with disabilities. These are among the inventions that Schechter Westchester students have designed for people with disabilities during Tikkun Olam “makea-thons”: a wheelchair equipped with a carrying shelf for a teenager with cerebral palsy, custom-adapted crutches for another teen with mobility issues and a sensor for a woman with sight problems. “We can take what we learned here, using the passions that we love, to really make a difference in

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Without Marriage & Kids, How Do We Know When We’re All Grown Up? By Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein When Atlantic articles about single women without children in their 30s started landing on my proverbial desk, I took a long hard look in the mirror and asked myself if I was ready to keep living an “unconventional” life with so few models out there for women like me—“child-free,” nearing my 40s, and single. We were at once a phenomenon, mystery, and problem to solve. Without marriage and children as milestones, how would we know what it meant to be “all grown up”? Cue the brilliance of All Grown Up by novelist Jami Attenberg, who seemed to rummage through the trenches of thoughts and feelings I never knew I had about the “polemic” posed by women like me. Reading this novel, I was both horrified and comforted to recognize parts of myself in Attenberg’s protagonist, Andrea, a single Jewish woman without children nearing her 40th birthday as the novel unfolds. An art school dropout who negotiates relationships with a complicated, overbearing mother as activist and father as jazz musician and drug addict, Andrea spends a great deal of her time seeking sex and love in New York City while attempting to make peace with the fact that she doesn’t paint anymore, works on autopilot at a job she doesn’t even care enough about to hate, and hasn’t yet grieved her father’s overdose and death years ago. In the spirit of Sheila Levine of Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York City, I read this slim novel with deep empathy for Andrea as part of a tribe of women who master the art of loneliness while still attempting to show up for life— first dates, office presentations, family events, parties. We live with crushing and impossible expectations to perform fertility, marriage, and motherhood, but have little proof that these decisions actually make women happy or fulfilled. Case in point: “Indigo Has a Baby,” the chapter about the moment when Andrea’s friendship

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with her best friend Indigo shifts due to impending motherhood. Women are supposed to be joyful and congratulatory toward our pregnant friends, but we also know that motherhood hijacks women— and our relationships with those friends will never be the same. Yet, it’s a taboo so few women want to admit or address. With vivid certainty and hilarity, Andrea describes this dynamic: “It’s not that I don’t care about seeing her baby, it’s that I don’t care about seeing any baby. Also, I know what will happen. I have been down this road before.” Andrea avoids seeing Indigo and her infant until she’s pressured through a series of text messages to show up. She admits, “What will happen after I see the baby is that Indigo will become exceedingly busy with her life for a very long time. Say, five years or so. Then she will have time to see me. Then she will desperately need to see me.” Through Andrea, Attenberg utters what so many of us feel but never say—that we’re experiencing our friends’ foray into parenting in complicated, ineffable ways. Andrea finally makes it to Indigo’s meditative, blissed out nest of breastfeeding, tears, and tea, but not before she has an emergency visit with her therapist, cataloging a series of failed sexual encounters with random men. “If you add them all up, they equal a boyfriend,” Andrea argues to her therapist. Indigo and Andrea remain sealed off in two completely different bubbles of experience, failing to fully comprehend the other. There’s Indigo, shrouded in layers of flowing fabric, a baby attached to her nipple, and then there’s Andrea, her eyes brimming with tears post-therapy session, trying to be a connected and engaged friend. “People architect new lives all the time,” Andrea thinks to herself. Attenberg continues to drop dazzling revelation and insightful humor throughout All Grown Up as Andrea tries to figure out what it means to be an adult. The subject of babies—as symbols of life or See GROWN UP on Page THE

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New Children’s Books: a Magical Shoebox and Animals From Everywhere By Penny Schwartz BOSTON (JTA) – From an African warthog to swinging orangutans, animals from all corners of the planet are featured in two stories among a new crop of children’s books at the Jewish New Year that also includes a lyrical poem of the biblical story of Creation and a magical story about an ordinary shoebox. And a bonus: An illustrated picture book tells the story of Regina Jonas, the German Jewish girl who followed her dream to become the first woman ordained as a rabbi. Young ones can get a jump start on the new year by turning the pages on these entertaining and informative reads. Rosh Hashanah ushers in the High Holidays on Sunday evening, Sept. 9. Shani's Shoebox

"Shani's Shoebox" (Courtesy of Green Bean Books) Written and illustrated by Rinat Hoffman; translated (from Hebrew) by Noga Applebaum

Written and illustrated by Rinat Hoffman; translated (from Hebrew) by Noga Applebaum Green Bean Books; ages 4-8 Prepare to be enchanted! “Shani's Shoebox,” a gently rhyming poemstory for Rosh Hashanah by the award-winning Israeli illustrator and children's author Rinat Hoffman, will kick off the Jewish New Year on the right foot. Shani's “aba,” the Hebrew word for dad, surprises her with a pair of shiny new red shoes for Rosh Hashanah. Naturally she tosses aside the ordinary looking shoebox. "It was only a box after all, nothing more," she says. But on Yom Kippur, Shani finds the box hidden behind stuffed animals and the next day crafts it into a sukkah. During Hanukkah, a cat discovers the discarded box and uses it to stay warm in the winter. Season to season, the box takes on a magical quality, turning up in new guises and THE

JEWISH LIGHT

with new uses throughout a year's worth of Jewish holidays. The next Rosh Hashanah, when Shani's father fills the box with a new pair of shoes -- this time they are blue -- Shani is reminded of the year’s adventures. Hoffman's colorful, animated illustrations draw in readers with vibrant energy. In one scene, as the family prepares the house for Passover, Shani is on a stool cleaning a mirror and her dad is sweeping. It's refreshing to have a children's story that depicts a father in everyday roles more commonly associated with moms, like buying shoes for his kids and cleaning the house Where's the Potty on This Ark? Kerry Olitzky; illustration by Abigail Tompkins Kar-Ben; ages 1-4 Even on Noah's Ark, the animals need to use the potty. Young kids will be delightfully surprised with this inventive spin on the biblical story of Noah, from the Book of Genesis. As Noah and his wife, Naamah, greet each of the animals onto the ark, Naamah makes sure they are comfortable. "Be careful not to hit your head on the ceiling," she warns. The ark comes well designed, with big potties for the elephants and little ones for smaller friends. When a baby raccoon needs to use the bathroom, Mother Hen patiently guides the young one to learn how. The animals offer an empathetic lesson in taking care of one's body, complete with a prayer. And off they sail on the ark as the rains begin. Kerry Olitzky's simple, lighthearted prose is paired well with Abigail Tompkins' playful illustrations. The book makes a timely read during the High Holidays because the story of Noah is read in synagogues on the second Shabbat following Simchat Torah, when the cycle of reading the Torah begins anew. Who's Got the Etrog? Jane Kohuth; illustrations by Elissambura Kar-Ben; ages 4-8 In this brightly illustrated story for Sukkot, Jane Kohuth weaves a playful folk-like tale told in simple poetic verse. In her rural village in Uganda, under a bright and full milk-bowl moon, Auntie Sanyu is preparing for the fall harvest holiday when Jews build a hut called a

Bookshelf

sukkah where they eat, welcome guests and sometimes even sleep. Kids follow Auntie Sanyu as she decorates her sukkah and places a lulav, the bunch of green palm branches, and a bright yellow etrog, the lemon-like fruit, on a tray to be used in the holiday rituals by Auntie Sanyu's animal guests. But Warthog loves the etrog so much, he doesn't want to hand it over to the lion, parrots or giraffe. A young girl named Sara intervenes. The story comes to life in Elissambura's boldly colored, striking collage-style illustrations. The back page explains the history of the Ugandan Jewish community called the Abayudaya, and a glossary explains about the sukkah and lulav and terms like “Oy,vey!” Regina Persisted: An Untold Story Sandy Eisenberg Sasso; illustrated by Margeaux Lucas Apples & Honey Press; ages 7-12 These days, when Jewish-American kids attend synagogue during the High Holidays, it's not that

become a rabbi. Margeaux Lucas' illustrations capture the period, with drawings of Berlin life. Several scenes convey the young Regina as a kind of Disney-like Belle, greeting peddlers at the market, and clutching a book, daydreaming, as she crosses the street. The afterword tells of the tragic ending of Jonas' life in 1944, where she was killed in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. It would be nearly 40 years later until another woman, the American Sally Priesand, is ordained, in the Reform movement. Today there are nearly 1,000 women rabbis around the world, among them the book's author, who herself was a trailblazer as the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the Reconstructionist movement. Eisenberg Sasso also is the award-winning author of the best-selling children's book "God's Paintbrush." 

unusual to have a female rabbi leading the congregation. Older kids may be fascinated to learn about Regina Jonas, the German Jew who in 1935, against many odds and strict gender roles, became the first woman ordained as a rabbi. In this illustrated biography, which garnered a starred review from Kirkus, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso traces how Jonas persisted until religious authorities finally allowed her to take the exam to

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Happy New Year...

...to all My Jewish Friends Steve Stefancik

St. Tammany Parish Council Rosh Hashanah 2018

Sports

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JEWISH LIGHT

In 'Catcher Was a Spy,' Paul Rudd Is a Jewish Baseball Player Turned Nazi Hunter Paul Rudd plays a Jewish baseball player who became a spy during WWII By Curt Schleier

Catcher Was a Spy Sienna Miller stars alongside Paul Rudd in the film about Moe Berg. (Courtesy of IFC Films)

(JTA) — It’s rare enough for a Jewish baseball player to make it to the major leagues. A New York Jew named Moe Berg took it even a step further -- he added war spy to his extraordinary resume. Berg pulled off the feat over 60 years ago. As a catcher in the majors for 15 seasons during the 1920s and 30s, he was known more for his intelligence and introverted personality — famed manager Casey Stengel once called him the “strangest man ever to play baseball” —

than his athletic skills. He read several newspapers each day, spoke more than 10 languages (seven fluently) and graduated from Princeton at a time when Jews normally weren’t admitted. During World War II, after his baseball career, Berg worked for the U.S. government and eventually rose to a position in the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS — a precursor to the CIA. He went on missions in then-Yugoslavia, where he tracked resistance groups, and Italy, where he interviewed physicists about the German nuclear program. The story sounds like great fodder for a movie, and that’s what it has become: “The Catcher Was a Spy,” based on a 1994 biography of the same name by Nicholas Dawidoff, opens Friday in theaters. Paul Rudd (who happens to be Jewish) stars as Berg alongside Mark Strong and Sienna Miller.

The film begins in 1939, his last season as a player, with the Boston Red Sox, before picking up several years later when Berg has a boring desk job at the OSS. His boss, Gen. William Donovan (played by Jeff Daniels), eventually assigns him a mission in the field, and with Sam Goudsmit (Paul Giamatti), Berg helps rescue the Italian physicist Eduardo Amaldi from the Nazis. A more crucial assignment is to kill the famous German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a task with which Berg is not completely comfortable. There is no certainty that Germany has the resources to build a bomb (the Brits don’t believe they do) or even that Heisenberg, despite being a loyal German, will help them build a weapon of mass destruction. But Donovan decides not to take a chance and orders the hit. Berg was an enigma to most who knew him, and the film, directed by

the Australian filmmaker Ben Lewin, paints a nuanced portrait of the complicated character. Though he had a longtime girlfriend, Estella (Sienna Miller), some questioned his sexual orientation. The general asks him point blank at one point if he’s “queer,” but Berg doesn’t answer. (Later in life, Berg became unemployed and subsisted with the help of relatives.) As a whole, though, the movie falls in a bland area between truth and fiction. While Berg’s missions are fascinating on paper, the content isn’t particularly cinematic, the way a good James Bond film is. So while the end product stays honest to the facts, it sacrifices some enjoyment for the viewer. The film does address Berg’s Jewish identity, however, and conveys how uncomfortable he was in See PAUL RUDD on Page

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Arts & Culture

JEWISH LIGHT

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love an Israeli Dance Company By Andrew Silow-Carroll

The Batsheva Dance Company performs "Naharin's Virus." (Ascaf)

(JTA) -- In the quiet opening of "Naharin's Virus," an hourlong dance piece by the famed Israeli choreographer Ohed Naharin, an onstage narrator tells you what the evening won't be about. You the audience will not receive its due. Your curiosity will not be satisfied. You won't agree on the meaning of what you are about to see. OK, fair enough. You don't go to modern dance for the plot, at least not in the conventional sense. You go for the pleasure of seeing bodies in motion, to see how the dancers carve up space and translate relationships into a wordless language. But works and performances by Israeli artists always beg for interpretation. The novelist Amos Oz has spent a career denying that his books are political allegories about the "situation." Nobody believes him. Naharin has usually been coy about the political meaning of his works, but what are you to make of an Israeli-made piece, like "Virus," that is performed largely to Arab folk music and has a large black wall stretching the length of the stage, onto which the dancers chalk the giant word "PLASTELINA"? Is that a corruption of the word "Palestine" or a reference to the popular modeling clay? Is the wall a wall or a backdrop? Is the music homage or co-optation? And what do you make of all this when a crowd of boycott-Israel activists gather outside, as they did Tuesday night in Manhattan when

the Batsheva Dance Company's Young Ensemble performed "Virus" at The Joyce Theater? By attending, are you celebrating Israel's crosscultural diversity, artistic ferment, international appeal and, let's be honest, leftist artistic community? Or are you standing up to its critics under the guise of watching a dance troupe, shaking a fist at the boycotters like the counterprotesters waving the Kach flag? Happily, most of these questions melt away during the performance, itself a revival of a piece Naharin created as Batsheva's artistic director in 2002. ("Naharin's Virus" runs through July 22 at The Joyce.) Based in part on an experimental play by the Austrian Peter Handke, "Virus" includes more than a dozen dancers in tight, khaki-colored leotards and high black leggings that make them look both nude and like dress dummies. Naharin has become world famous for a dance vocabulary he calls "Gaga," which combines tight muscular control with explosive, wild movement. "Virus" begins with a great visual joke: On stage is one of those Inflatable Men that you usually see advertising car dealerships. The way it spasmodically inflates, deflates and waves its nylon arms is pretty much Gaga itself. The Young Ensemble, a developmental troupe, includes dancers from Poland, Holland, Ukraine, Israel, Guatemala, Miami, Paris and South Africa. When they aren't performing in tight, organic unison, individuals break off into crazed solos, or dangle from the wall, or draw on it in chalk. Eventually the narrator, who stands on top of the wall, stops explaining the nature of the theater experience to begin hurling insults at the audi-

ence (Handke's play is called "Offending the Audience"), ranging from "milquetoast" and "pussy-grabber" to "dirty Jew" and "capitalist." Trust me: It's all in good fun. The boycotters were gone by the time the dance ended, and so were

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most of the audience's misgivings about a piece that defies interpretation. The pleasure was in the thing itself. These days more than ever, it's a huge relief to put politics aside, even if it is just for the length of a dance performance. 

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Sacha Baron Cohen's Newest Character Is an Israeli Gunslinger Taking Aim at ProIsrael Conservatives By Ron Kampeas

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(Reg. $99.00) WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Sacha he is taking aim at a strain of "pro-Israel" thought that has both delighted and unsettled many American Jews: the unconditional love engendered by the country among deeply conservative Americans. In "Who is America?," a show that made its debut on Showtime, the British Jewish comic returns with the shtick that made him famous -- disguising himself in order to prank the famous and notso-famous. Having created Borat (a dimwitted Kazakh journalist) and Ali G (a dimwitted hip-hop journalist), Cohen now rolls out Israeli Col. Erran Morad, a purported terrorism expert. In Sunday's show, Cohen as Morad dupes a few current and recent politicians, as well as gun rights activists, into supporting an initiative to arm toddlers. The gun rights activists, Philip Van Cleave and Larry Pratt, endorse Morad's "Kinderguardian" program. So do Trent Lott, the former senator from Mississippi; Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Joe Wilson, R-S.C.; and a former Rep., Joe Walsh, R-Ill. (Van Cleave stars in a Barney-like instructional video in which he sings a variant of "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes": "Aim at the head, shoulders, not the toes, not the toes") Gaetz acquits himself well: "Typically, members of Congress don't just hear a story about a program and indicate whether they support it or not," he tells Morad. The entire segment appears to have taken advantage of the targets' pro-Israel sympathies. Walsh told CNN that Cohen had fooled him into participating by telling him that he was “getting an award from

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some Israeli TV station because I’m a great supporter of Israel.” For a segment that did not air Sunday night, Roy Moore -- whose bid for a Senate seat in Alabama fell apart over old allegations of soliciting minors -- also said he had fallen for the Israel-award thing. Walsh said he had been asked to read a story off a teleprompter about a 4-year-old Israeli who grabbed a gun and subdued a terrorist. Walsh said he thought, “Well, this is kind of crazy, but it is Israel and Israel is strong on defense.” Cohen apparently intended the segment to be an expose of zealous support for gun ownership, although it could be seen as an example of blind support of everything Israel. In real life, gun rights activists have frequently -- and often erroneously -- cited Israel as an example of a country with few restrictions on gun rights. In fact, restrictions on gun use and ownership in Israel are far-reaching. David Frum, a Jewish conservative who writes for the Atlantic magazine, tweeted that Cohen "repeatedly takes advantage of people's affection and respect for the State of Israel to deceive and humiliate them." Allison Kaplan Sommer, an Israeli American who writes for the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz, was critical, too. "Yes, your satire was outrageously on point and Col. Erran Morad was spot on," she wrote on Facebook, addressing Cohen. "Still -bad enough that Israel gets demonized for the things it actually does -- you have to go and make horrifying fake stuff up? Satire or not, I'm afraid the American public is going to be left with the impression that we are, in fact, gun fans when the truth is our gun control is a million times stricter than in the US." Another Israeli writer, Noga Tarnapolsky, thought Cohen's blows landed on two worthy targets: "Sacha Baron Cohen deployed the weirdo fetishization of Israel & Benjamin Netanyahu personally among right-wingnuts in an utterly See SACHA BARON on Page THE

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‘Maktub,’ an Israeli Comedy About Low-level Gangsters, Makes It to Netflix By Curt Schleier

(JTA) — A deadly terrorist attack might seem like an unlikely starting point for a lighthearted comedy. But “Maktub,” a charming and intelligent film that just debuted on Netflix, is set in Israel, a country where that happens more than most would like to believe. The movie was a box office success in Israel but likely would have been relegated to art house theaters in the United States. A Netflix streaming release gives the film a much broader audience. It stars Guy Amir and Hanan Savyon -- Israeli television stars who co-wrote the screenplay -- as Chuma and Steve, two small-time gangsters who work for an organized crime overlord, Kaslassy (played by Itzik Cohen). They are tasked with collecting protection money from various Jerusalem restaurants. Their lives change when a terrorist bomb goes off at one of their stops while both are in the bathroom. Everyone else in the building is killed, including the one-eyed Chechen thug who served the pair as lookout. Chuma and Steve recover a metal briefcase that contains all the shekels collected earlier in the day, which they were supposed to turn in. They tell Kaslassy that the

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Hanan Savyon and Guy Amir play lowlevel mobsters who change their ways after a terrorist attack. (Idan Milman)

Chechen survived the bombing and made off with the cash. Steve wants to leave quickly, before their boss discovers the truth. He hopes to immigrate to the U.S. and open a fish kebab restaurant. But a reluctant Chuma demands they first go to the Western Wall to give thanks. There they accidentally pull out a note left by a man who asks for God’s help in rekindling the passion in his marriage — he earns little and must work long hours, leaving no time for romance. Chuma sees it as a sign and insists they were spared to become the man’s guardian angels. They visit his boss and use a little muscle to convince him that the employee deserves a nice raise. Chuma also eventually convinces Steve to return to the Kotel and ultimately help a poor Russian emigre pay for her son’s bar mitzvah and a long suffering 40-year-old get pregnant. Acquiring the last two notes requires a little silliness -they dress in drag to approach the female section — but even this comes off as funny rather than crass or disrespectful. Amir and Savyon’s success in Israel — the pair have written over 280 episodes for seven different series that have been viewed over 80 million times — could spill over into the U.S. Producer Uri Singer has tapped them to create a drama in English about the Middle East conflict through the eyes of an American father searching for his missing daughter. The word maktub means fate or destiny in Arabic, so maybe the duo is destined for a hit in the states, too. 

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How the Cast of a New ‘Fiddler’ Learned Their Yiddish in Only a Month By Josefin Dolsten

Steven Skybell, center, as Tevye and ensemble in the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof.” (Victor Nechay/ ProperPix)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s new production of “Fiddler on the Roof” enacts a familiar story in an unfamiliar language. The actors sing about joy and hardship, and argue about the importance of tradition, in the language their characters would have spoken in the Old Country. But before rehearsals started in June, the majority of them had no experience with the language. Of the 26 cast members, only three spoke Yiddish fluently. Another nine had some experience with the mama loshen, but everyone had just a month to memorize the entire script.

The result is extraordinary, giving audience members a new experience and new understanding of one of Broadway's best-loved musicals (For those who don't speak Yiddish, there are supertitles in English and Russian.) This production of “Fiddler on the Roof" — or “Fidler Afn Dakh” — marked the first time the musical was being performed in Yiddish in the United States, and only the second time in its history (a Yiddish version ran for about four weeks in Israel in 1965), according to the New York-based theater company. "Fiddler on the Roof," which premiered in 1964, is based on "Tevye and His Daughters," a series of stories by the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. Created by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein, the musical tells the story of a poor dairy farmer living in the Russian town of Anatevka at the start of the 20th century as he grapples with tradition and the ways his daughters choose to defy it. As part of the auditions for Folks-

biene's production, actors had to prove that they would be able to learn Yiddish quickly. Those called in for auditions were given 24 hours to memorize a recording of a song in the language. From the 2,500 applications, 26 actors were chosen for the production. Once the cast was chosen, each member received a recording of his or her lines and songs in Yiddish in addition to private language coaching. “It was very tedious, and it continues every day," Zalmen Mlotek, Folksbiene’s artistic director, told JTA. "We give little notes here and there because while they know what they’re saying, of course sometimes the accent isn’t quite right.” Members of the cast includes Emmy Award nominee Jackie Hoffman playing the matchmaker Yente and Broadway actors Steven Skybell as the long-suffering Tevye and Mary Illes as his wife, Golde. Award-winning director and actor Joel Grey directs the production, which runs through Sept. 2 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in

downtown Manhattan. The team used a translation by Shraga Friedman, the actor and director who translated the script for and co-directed the Israeli production. Performing the show in Yiddish hearkens back to Sholem Aleichem’s original stories, said Folksbiene CEO Christopher Massimine. But it does much more. Perhaps the biggest difference, according to Massimine, is that the word “tradition” has been replaced by “Torah.” Though a Yiddish word for tradition is used in the iconic song “Tradition,” Torah is used elsewhere. That raises the stakes for characters like Tevye, for whom Torah is not mere custom but represents the ultimate authority: God’s law. “A tradition can start one way and end up another way," Massimine told JTA. "You can argue with the tradition because it's not something that is set in stone — but law is." Folksbiene, the world’s oldest continuously operating Yiddish theSee FIDDLER on Page

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Immunotherapy Treatments Being Developed in Israel Offer New Hope for Cancer Patients

Health TOP RESIDENTIAL PRODUCER

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By Michele Chabin

Neta Milman, a scientist at the Rambam Clinical Research Institute in Haifa, is researching pancreatic tumors with an eye toward developing immunotherapy treatments for cancer. (ICRF)

JERUSALEM – There’s a war raging in Israel with life and death consequences worldwide. This war does not involve tanks, drones or tunnels, and the enemy is not Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah. Rather the war is being waged in science labs and the battlefield is the human body. The enemy: cancer. Israeli scientists are experimenting with a new weapon in this war: immunotherapy, which manipulates one's immune system to identify, fight and destroy cancer cells. While immunotherapy has been around for decades, new advances in the field coupled with recent drug approvals from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration have intensified interest in immunotherapy and its applications for cancer treatment, especially late-stage cancers that resist conventional treatments. Immunotherapy drugs already are helping patients with melanoma, lung, stomach, liver and bladder cancers, as well as some blood cancers. “Recent developments in immunotherapy have ushered in a medical revolution, representing a real paradigm shift in cancer treatment,” said Dr. Mark Israel, national executive director of the Israel Cancer Research Fund, which funds cancer research in the Jewish state. “Cancer immunotherapy is exciting because, as opposed to other forms of therapy, it engages the body’s own highly sensitive system for detecting cancer cells and destroying them,” Israel said. “This area will have a major impact on cancer outcomes going forward.” That potential is partly what drew Dr. Nathan Karin, an Israeli immunologist at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, to immuTHE

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notherapy research. He’s studying whether the cellular mechanisms driving autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis can be utilized to create immunotherapy drugs to fight cancer. Karin and his team are researching the interplay between two types of cells vital to the immune system: regulatory T cells and effector T cells Regulatory T cells help tame immune system responses and prevent autoimmune diseases. But by suppressing effector T cells, they impede the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. “We believe that if you amplify regulatory T cells you can treat autoimmune disease, and if you block their activity you can thwart cancer,” Karin said. Karin is among dozens of Israeli cancer researchers receiving financial support from the Israel Cancer Research Fund. For the organization, which raises money in North America to support cancer research in Israel, one of the big challenges is deciding which promising research projects to fund. ICRF received 160 grant proposals in 2017 alone and can fund only a fraction. That’s where a new partnership with the U.S.-based Cancer Research Institute, known as CRI, comes in. Starting next year, ICRF and CRI will be partnering to identify and fund the most promising immunotherapy research being conducted in Israel. A joint scientific review panel including expert researchers and doctors from around the U.S. and Canada who are involved with ICRF and CRI will meet every fall to evaluate the most promising Israeli immunotherapy research proposals, judging them on the basis of innovation, feasibility and likelihood of impact. The initiative is called The Immunotherapy Promise. The FDA approved the first immunotherapy drug recently, but the field dates back to 1891, when William Coley, a physician and cancer researcher, observed that some cancer patients infected by See IMMUNOTHERAPY on Page

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Chocolate Babka Challah Recipe By Chaya Rappoport (The Nosher via JTA) – There’s nothing more comforting than a slice of babka and a glass of milk to break a long fast on. In my family, it’s pretty much all we eat. But I don’t always make babka, and I do always make challah, especially during the High Holidays season. So, for convenience, I started setting aside one portion of my challah

dough, rolling it out like babka and filling it with chocolate, creating a babka-challah hybrid. It saves me time, tastes delicious and since my challah dough is pretty enriched, works just as well as my babka dough. Here I’ve adapted my challah recipe to yield just one round, perfect spiral filled with chocolate and spice. I’ve found that using both cocoa and melted chocolate in the filling creates the richest, gooiest interiors. I combine chocolate with a bit of olive oil, salt, sugar and spice in a pot, and while they melt,

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Best Wishes for a Happy New Year! Mark Spears Jefferson Parish Councilman, District 3

Best Wishes to my many Jewish Friends and constituents for a Happy New Year! Kirk Talbot

State Representative District 78 18 Rosh Hashanah 2018

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salt. Gradually add flour. 3. When dough holds together, turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl 4. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. 5. Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another hour. 6. While the dough rises, make the filling: Melt the chocolate with the oil in a pot over low heat on the stovetop. Add the sugar, salt and spices to the pot and stir to combine. Refrigerate to cool until needed. 7. On a floured surface using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to an 18- by 10-inch rectangle, with the long side nearest you. Brush the 3 tablespoons of olive oil over the dough. Sprinkle the cocoa over the Ingredients: greased dough. Top with the sugar For the challah: and mix with your hands to combine. • 3 1/2 cups all purpose white 8. Top with the melted, spiced flour, plus more for rolling out chocolate mixture and use a spatula • 1 cup lukewarm water (around to swirl it out over the dough. 105 F.) 9. Starting with the long side far• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast thest from you, roll the dough into • 1/3 cup white sugar a snug log, pinching firmly along • 2 teaspoons sea salt the seam to seal. Coil the log to • 2 eggs form a round challah and place in a • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil pan to rise, around 40 minutes. • 1 egg, whisked, for egg wash 10. Make the crumble: Combine all of the ingredients except for the For the chocolate filling: • 4 ounces dark chocolate, finely butter in a medium bowl and give a quick stir to combine, making sure to chopped break up any lumps of brown sugar. • 2 tablespoons olive oil 11. Add the butter and use your • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt fingertips to mix everything togeth• 3 tablespoons sugar er until crumbs form. Set aside until • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon needed. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375 F. • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg Brush the top of the challah with • 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger egg wash. Sprinkle with crumble. • 3 tablespoons olive oil 12. Bake until the top is a deep • 1/4 cup cocoa golden brown, about 40-50 minutes. • 1/4 cup sugar Transfer the challah to a rack and cool to room temperature. Serve. For the crumble: (Chaya Rappoport is the blogger, • 1 cup all purpose flour baker and picture taker behind ret• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark rolillies.wordpress.com. Currently brown sugar a pastry sous chef at a Brooklyn • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt bakery, she's been blogging since • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2012 and her work has been fea• 1 stick unsalted butter, softtured on The Feed Feed, Delish. ened but cool com, Food and Wine, and Conde Nast Traveler.) Directions: The Nosher food blog offers a 1. Make the challah dough: In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and dazzling array of new and classic the sugar in the water; set aside for Jewish recipes and food news, from Europe to Yemen, from challah to 5 minutes until a bit foamy. 2. Whisk oil into yeast, then beat shakshuka and beyond. Check it out in the eggs, one at a time, with the at www.TheNosher.com. 

I spread the dough with oil, cocoa and sugar. Then I drizzle the chocolate over the cocoa spread dough. Rolled up in a log, twisted into a spiral and baked with a crown of buttery, cinnamon-flecked crumbs, it’s warm, melty and decadent. I can’t think of a better way to enter the New Year. Variations: You can use margarine or Earth Balance in place of oil in the crumble to make it completely non-dairy. Not a fan of margarine? You can also combine 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of vegetable, a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of salt for a butter- and margarine-free topping You could even add a drizzle on top: Combine 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar with 1/4 cup of hot water, a splash of vanilla and a pinch of salt, and whisk it well to combine. Drizzle over the challah while it’s hot.

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Blueberry Honey Cake Recipe

Best wishes to my many friends & associates in the Jewish community as you celebrate the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Thank you for your continued support.

By Emanuelle Lee

For the topping:

Blueberry Honey Cake (Emanuelle Lee)

(The Nosher via JTA) – Rosh Hashanah has a way of sneaking up on you, and it’s a bittersweet feeling when it does. Bitter because it means the summer is over, but sweet because the Jewish New Year is a sweet and delicious time of year to spend with family and friends. One other sweet spot of the Jewish New Year is honey cake — often baked, gifted and eaten in abundance during the holidays. The cake is quite sweet and usually spiked with autumnal spices, almost like a surrender to the season that is approaching. In this embrace of autumn and of the year to come, we often forget to make the most of what’s left of the summer produce. This honey cake recipe combines the best of both worlds: fresh blueberries, moist honey cake and a hint of spice. It’s the perfect sendoff for the last remaining blueberries of the season and the welcoming of a new year.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups self-raising flour • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1 tablespoon baking powder • 3 teaspoons cinnamon • 1 teaspoon ginger powder • 1/4 teaspoon all spice • 1/2 cup brown sugar • 2 large eggs • 3/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil • 1 cup honey • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • zest of 1 orange • 1/4 cup orange juice • 1 tablespoon whiskey • 1 tablespoon almond milk • 1/4 cup coffee, cooled down • 2 cups blueberries (you can use frozen if you need to) THE

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• 1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped • 1 cup confectioners sugar • juice of 2 lemons • zest of 1 orange • additional blueberries

Judge Kern Reese

Orleans Civil District Court, Section L

Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 F 2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, spices and sugar; mix well. 3. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, oil, honey, vanilla extract, orange juice, whisky, almond milk and coffee. Combine the ingredients thoroughly with whisk or a hand mixer until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet mixture into the well. Whisk until you have a smooth cake batter with no lumps, making sure there is no flour at the bottom of the bowl. Add the blueberries and mix well. 4. Grease a 9-inch cake pan with a little bit of vegetable or coconut oil. 5. Pour in the cake batter and allow it to settle and even out for a few minutes. 6. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when pressed into the middle of the cake. 7. Allow the cake to cool a little and then remove from the cake pan. Allow it to cool fully. 8. Meanwhile, make the glaze: Combine the confectioners sugar with the orange zest and the lemon juice. Mix well with a spoon until smooth with no lumps and it has reached a syrupy consistency. 9. When the cake has cooled, drizzle it with the glaze and sprinkle it with blueberries and the toasted almonds. Enjoy for up to 3 days and store it in the refrigerator, covered. Serves 8-10. (Emanuelle Lee is a recipe developer, food writer and food stylist.) The Nosher food blog offers a dazzling array of new and classic Jewish recipes and food news, from Europe to Yemen, from challah to shakshuka and beyond. Check it out at www.TheNosher.com. 

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Happy New Year Thank you to My Many Friends in the Jewish Community for your Continued Support!

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Rosh Hashanah 2018

National

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Poll Shows Deep Divide Between Israeli and American Jews -- on Trump By Ron Kampeas

President Donald Trump gestures during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House, March 5, 2018. (Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Israeli and American Jews disagree on much -- settlements, religious pluralism, even the degree to which they are "family." And now you can add Donald Trump to the mix. Twin polls of Israeli and American Jews published by the American Jewish Committee on Sunday uncovered divides on all these issues, but an especially stark one about perceptions of the American president. Asked if they approved of Trump's handling of the U.S.-Israel relationship, 57 percent of American Jews disapproved while 34 percent approved. Among Israeli respondents, the divide was 77 percent approved while 10 percent disapproved. That gap extended to perhaps Trump's best known Israel related policy, moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. American Jews were statistically evenly split, with 46 percent supporting and 47 percent opposing. Israeli Jews were overwhelmingly in favor, with 85 percent supporting

and 7 percent opposing. There are areas of agreement as well, on the importance of a thriving Israel and a thriving Diaspora to the Jewish future, and on whether being Jewish is a matter of religion or ethnicity. "The surveys reveal sharp differences of opinion between the world’s two largest Jewish communities on President Trump, U.S.Israel relations, and Israel’s security and peace process policies," the AJC said in a release. "On Jewish communal issues, such as Jewish religious equality in Israel, the surveys confirm fissures between American Jews and Israelis, though, at the same time, the data show a degree of commonality in opinions about the vitality of both the Diaspora and the State of Israel and their significance for the future of the Jewish people." There's also a small bright light for Trump stateside: American Jews still overwhelmingly disapprove of him, but not as much as they did the last time AJC polled them -- he gained 6 points, going from 77 to 71, just outside the margin of error of 3.9 percentage points. Favorable ratings climbed 5 points, from 21 to 26. (By way of contrast, a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll last week scored 44 percent approval ratings for Trump among the general population.) Other areas of division included: Settlements: Asked whether Israel should dismantle some, all or none of its West Bank settlements in a peace deal with the Palestinians, 4 percent of Israeli Jews said all, 35 percent said some and 54 percent

said none. Among American Jews, 15 percent said all, 44 percent said some and 35 percent said none. Pluralism: Among American Jews, 80 percent said non-Orthodox rabbis should be able to officiate at weddings in Israel and 17 percent said they should not; among Israeli Jews, the split was 49 percent in favor and 45 percent against. Asked whether Israel should allow civil marriage, 81 percent of American Jews said it should while 13 percent said it should not. A majority of Israeli Jews also favored civil marriage, but it was a closer split at 55-40. American Jews favored by 73 percent "a mixed-gender prayer area adjacent to the Western Wall administered on an equal basis with the services at the Wall itself," while 21 percent were opposed. Among Israeli Jews, the split was 42 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed. Peoplehood: Asked how they viewed Israelis, 12 percent of American Jews said "siblings," 15 percent said "first cousins," 39 percent said "extended family" and 31 percent said "not part of my family." Affections were greater among Israelis: 28 percent regarded American Jews as "siblings," 10 percent as "first cousins" and 40 percent as "extended family," while just 22 percent said "not part of my family." There were areas of agreement, too: The Jewish future: Among Israeli Jews, 78 percent thought a "thriving" Diaspora was vital to the future of the Jewish people, while 15 percent did not. The split among Amer-

ican Jews was 69 percent agreeing and 17 percent disagreeing. The same question regarding a "thriving" Israel had 87 percent approval among Israeli Jews, with 6 percent disagreeing, while among American Jews the split was 79 percent agreeing and 17 percent disagreeing. Jewish identity: 56 percent of American Jews said being Jewish was "mostly a matter of ethnicity or culture," while 24 percent said it was mostly a matter of religion and 17 percent said it was both equally. Among Israeli Jews, the split was 40 percent believing ethnicity and culture were more important, 19 percent listing religion and 37 percent listing both. The Israeli poll, carried out by Geocatography, reached 1,000 Jews over the age of 18 by phone in May. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. The American poll was carried out by SSRS; it reached 1,001 Jews over the age of 18 by phone between April 18 and May 10, and has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points. 

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Brit Milah or Jewish Circumcision and Why We Do It I am saddened to hear that there are a number of young Jewish families who have decided not to participate in the traditional ceremony of Brit Milah or Jewish circumcision. There are very few rituals that are agreed upon by all Jewish denominations. It is not keeping kosher, turning off your cell phones on Shabbot, or lighting candles every Friday night at sundown. No, it’s none of those, but it is the tradition of circumcising every newborn Jewish boy on the eighth day after birth. All three denominations are in complete agreement on the tradition of Brit Milah. This article will discuss the reasons that every Jewish newborn boy should be circumcised. A non-Jewish physician once asked why we have a bris (circumcision). I offered explanations about hygiene, decrease in urinary infections, and decrease in cancer. I mentioned the several thousand-year-old tradition of brit milah and that the ancients wanted us to be different than non-Jews. I am told by learned rabbis that none of those reasons are correct. So, what is the answer? First, it is written in the Torah that God commanded the Jewish people to perform a circumcision on newborn baby boys. The biblical passage is from Leviticus 12-2 and states “On the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” The biblical recommendation teaches us that our spiritual, emotional, and moral behaviors requires human effort. The Lord gave us the ability to decide right from wrong, to make decisions, and to lead an exemplary life. Entering the covenant is a unique opportunity to receive God’s blessing and to make Jewish young boys truly Jewish. The bris is a physical symbol of the relationship between God and the Jewish people. It is a constant reminder of what the Jewish mission entails. The newborn child will continue the chain of Jewish life which has its beginning thousands of years ago with our patriarch Abraham, who by the way circumcised himself at age 99! This new baby boy’s life upon his circumcision is one more link in the chain of Jewish history. Why do we do the circumcision on the eight day? The number seven represents nature—seven days of THE

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the week, seven colors of the rainbow, seven musical notes (do re mi, etc.); the number eight is the number that surpasses seven, and thus represents the miraculous, what is beyond nature. We do the bris on the eighth day because the Jewish people survive on miracles. Our history defies the laws of nature. What other group could be expelled from their homeland for 2000 years and yet maintain their religion and their burning desire to celebrate the next Passover in Jerusalem. The continuous history of Jewish people dispersed for so many years is one of the best examples of Gods keeping his promise to the Jewish people. The circumcision ritual is emblematic of that promise between God and his people. Exceptions to the bris being performed on the eighth day include certain medical circumstances, when there is even a remote possibility that the child is not strong enough to undergo the procedure. Will brit milah hurt the baby? I am reminded of the story of two toddlers in the pediatrician’s reception area. The younger child asks the other why he is visiting the doctor? The older boy said, I’m having my tonsils removed.” The second boy said, “I had my tonsils removed and it was great because afterwards I got soft drinks and ice cream. He then asks the younger boy, “Why are you here?” The little boy says he is having a circumcision. The older boy said, “Oh, I had that procedure when I was just born and I couldn’t walk for a year!” The circumcision is almost painless for the child. Most babies will cry when they are undressed and have their legs restrained on special board so that the baby does not move during the procedure. Most mohels or ritual circumciser and doctors will place a local anesthetic cream on the penis a few minutes before the procedure begins. This makes small amount of skin that is to be removed free of pain. Ritual circumcision is performed using a finely-honed blade or a scalpel, and a non-constricting guard which is placed over the foreskin. The procedure involves the removal of a small piece of skin; no actual flesh or muscle is cut at all. In most experienced hands the procedure

Judaism takes 2-3 minutes. Most babies are given a drop or two of wine during the procedure by the zondeck or XXXX. I don’t know if the drop of wine helps but as my wise Jewish mother would say, “It may not help, but it voidn’t hoit!” I suggest that the parents apply the anesthetic ointment for a day or two after the procedure and then can use either Vasoline or K-Y jelly for a few days until the area is completely healed. Bottom Line: It is my hope that Jewish families return once again to this age-old tradition by performing the ritual circumcision on newborn

baby boys. This tradition is a symbol of our partnership with God. And it is God’s promise that pledges unconditional devotion, no matter what may transpire between God and the Jewish boy for the rest of his life. The circumcision of an infant demonstrates that the connection between the Jews and God is inviolable. Neil H. Baum, MD Neil Baum Urology Direct: (504) 891-8454 doctorwhiz@gmail.com Website: www.NeilBaum.com Blog: Dr. Neil Baum's Urology Blog 

Wishing my many friends & supporters in the Jewish Community a happy New Year

Judge Joe Landry

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Kveller How a DNA Test Made Me Feel More Jewish Than Ever By Zibby Owens

(Kveller via JTA) – I had a lifechanging experience recently that transformed how I feel about my body, my health, my sleep and my identity. And it all started with a gob of spit. I don’t know why I bought a 23andMe DNA kit. Maybe I saw an ad. Perhaps a friend recommended it. I can’t remember, but I’ve always been curious about my ancestry, my background and my health. (I mean, who isn’t?) So I went online and bought a kit. When it arrived, however, I let the small, square white box sit in a drawer beneath my sink for at least a month. Maybe two. I was eager to try it but could not mentally prepare for having to decipher what I assumed would be complicated instructions. Plus, I knew I had to do the test after 30 minutes of not eating and drinking — and, seriously, when does that ever happen? At the urging of my 10-year-old daughter — an inveterate snooper — I finally decided to take the plunge. I opened the box, read the (surprisingly simple) instructions, then spit into the little test tube.

Later that morning I tossed the completed kit in a nearby mailbox. That’s it. Then, between raising four kids, hosting a podcast and writing, I forgot all about it. But six weeks later, as I was emailing various moms about play dates, I got the email: “Your reports are ready.” I stared at it in my inbox. At first I felt paralyzed: What if it was bad news? Could I handle knowing I was at a higher risk for Parkinson’s? What if I carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene? It was like one of those movie scenes where my index finger hovers over the keyboard, and all sound and motion stops. But then I clicked. First I clicked on the Ancestry report. The result? My background is — wait for it — 98.4 percent Ashkenazi Jewish. Though this wasn’t exactly a surprise, I discovered I found power and meaning in that statistic. Even though I’ve always known that I was Jewish, seeing it written like that — in my DNA, the very fibers of my being — made me pause. This wasn’t just about “tradition, tradition, tradition,” this was my blood. A heritage, a culture, a background — the very core of my being. Seeing these results somehow strengthened my resolve to observe Shabbat every Friday night, which despite always buying the challah and planning on it, I occasionally forget. I mean, this is who I am! It’s more than a religion; it’s my entire

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body. I’m not even just Jew-ish; I’m like, really Jewish. A 98.4 percent felt like getting an A in Judaism. Observe — or else. The result also reinforced all my decisions to enroll the kids in Hebrew school (b’nai mitzvah booked for 2020 — stay tuned!), take them to Tot Shabbats and kiss the mezuzah every time we enter our home. It made me feel a renewed kinship with all other Jewish people — a feeling that’s not only cemented by a legacy of surviving persecution but by our blood ties alone. Of course, the results of the DNA test weren’t all positive. I held my breath as I clicked on Health Reports. One by one, I scrolled down the tests. All was well — until I got to late-stage Alzheimer’s. I learned I have a copy of the E4 gene variant, which means I have a “slightly increased risk” of developing late-stage Alzheimer’s. This means that while the population at large has a 3 percent chance of Alzheimer’s by age 75, I have a 5 percent to 7 percent chance. By age 85, the odds increase. Thankfully, I don’t have two variants — that would have further increased the odds — but still. My great-grandmother had Alzheimer’s. Seeing this, my anxiety got the better of me. (I mentioned I was 98.4 percent Jewish, right?) I quickly did the math and calculated, worst-case scenario, that I have just just 33 more years left with my memory intact. (If you could even call it that now.) That’s 33 more Hanukkahs, 33 more birthdays for each kid. My youngest child will only be 36 then! Will he have kids by then? Will any of my kids have kids? How can I live my life better

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now to prepare for this? As my panic subsided, I resolved to live more for the moment — or try to, anyway — and to appreciate life events more as they rolled around. I told myself we’d celebrate Shabbat no matter what, even if it were a makeshift affair at a Benihana knockoff along Route 27 late on a Friday night. I vowed to thank God when my little guy — my fourth child, my miracle baby — said something sweet, like earlier this evening when he looked up and said, “I just want to snuggle with you, Mama,” and hugged me close. I’m clinging to moments now — recording them, writing them down, savoring them. Who knows how many I have left? (And, just to be safe, I’ll start to give to some Alzheimer’s charities, too.) The 23andMe test opened my eyes to many things: I now know, for example, that my weight is genetically exactly average for others with my ancestry, so I can stop beating myself up for not looking like those skinny, blonde WASPs. But also I’m sporty, and I learned I carry the same gene that many elite athletes do. Also, incredibly, both poor sleep and drinking lots of coffee also were in my DNA results. So now I know: I’m a forgetful, size 8, athletic Jew who sleeps badly and drinks lots of caffeine, and this isn’t just thanks to my behavior but due to my entire genetic makeup. I’m ready to embrace all that that means. Thanks, 23andMe. (Zibby Owens is a freelance writer and mother of four in New York City. She also co-authored the book “Your Perfect Fit” [McGraw-Hill]. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens.) Kveller is a thriving community of women and parents who convene online to share, celebrate and commiserate their experiences of raising kids through a Jewish lens. Visit Kveller.com. 

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Is 'Non-Jew' an Insult? By Andrew Silow-Carroll

NEW YORK (JTA) -- A few months ago I wrote a humor piece titled "Don’t eat off the seder plate and other tips for non-Jews attending their first seder." It drew a miffed response from a rabbi friend who often works with interfaith families and suggested "it’s time to drop terms like 'non-Jew' and gentile." At the time I scoffed. Yes, it is a little weird that a people who represent less than 0.1 percent of the world's population define everybody else as "not us." It's like someone with lactose intolerance saying he doesn't eat "dairy ice cream." Which is technically true, although it tends to over-privilege Tofutti. And yet non-Jew and gentile have their uses, especially if you write about Jews for a living. Whether you are making demographic distinctions, writing about Jews in relation to their neighbors or talking about Jewish practices that cross over into wider culture, non-Jew comes in handy. Unless you want to pretend there are no distinctions between people who identify as Jews and people who identify as something else -- and making such distinctions strikes me as about 85 percent of the entire Jewish enterprise, starting at Sinai -- why would you retire two perfectly serviceable words? Who do you offend by keeping them? Then I met Lindsey Silken, the editorial director at Interfaith-Family, a resource for people in interfaith relationships. Lindsey and I sat on a panel at a Jewish journalism convention last week, and she passed around her inhouse style guide. It explained why they don't use terms like "half-Jew," "shikse," gentile and, yes, non-Jew. I get why half-Jew could be offensive in that is assumes the subject can't possibly identify as fully Jewish. (And here I am obligated to quote the famous Groucho Marx quip, when an anti-Semitic swimming club refused admission to his daughter: "She's only half Jewish," Groucho said. "How about if she only goes in up to her waist?") Shikse that awful Yiddish term that derives THE

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from Hebrew for blemish or abomination, is obviously beyond the pale. And gentile just feels so smug and fusty, like, I don't know, a 20th-century anti-Semitic swimming club. But what's wrong with non-Jew? Interfaith-Family says it is about the feelings of partners involved with Jews. "By constantly leading with the negative in reference to a Jewish person’s partner, it can be perceived as derogatory," according to the guide. "It can make the people it is referring to feel excluded and on the outside of the Jewish community." Instead of non-Jew, the guide suggests "partner who is not Jewish, partner from another faith, not Jewish, person from a different background, person who isn’t Jewish." In other words, don't reduce someone to what they are not, as if their entire identity is defined by their inverse relationship with a Jew. There are a few centuries of debate behind the words InterfaithFamily hopes to retire. At the core of the debate is the traditional taboo on interfaith marriage. Traditionalists want to reinforce the notion that Jews should marry Jews in the interest of continuity. Isaac Herzog, the newly elected chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, announced his membership in the traditionalist camp this week when he referred to interfaith marriage as an "actual plague," adding "there must be a campaign, a solution. We have to rack our brains to figure out how to solve this great challenge." Other traditionalists nodded, noting that support for Israel and engagement with Jewish life plunges outside of Jewish-Jewish marriages. Interfaith activists want to make the community welcoming to mixed families. They also talk the language of continuity, saying that mixed families certainly will not raise their children as Jews if they don't feel comfortable in Jewish settings. And they talk the language of post-modernity, saying Jews can't stand at the shores of multiculturalism like King Canute, wishing away the inevitable waves of diversity that come with a free society. For those of us who do write about Jews and their significant others, that means taking sides. Sort of. It's not our job to judge the debate between the traditionalists and the activists. But our language

has nonetheless evolved along with the Jewish community. Non-Jews itself replaced gentiles over the years. "Jewess" went the way of the corset; "goy" shows up only in a direct quote or if modified by "Shabbos," which is a term of art and not a slur. We now use "haredi" instead of "ultra-Orthodox." And we long ago stopped assuming "rabbi" denoted a male, a "minyan" meant 10 men and "congressman" is the default for a lawmaker. This week we've been sharing around the office a JTA dispatch from 1934 that is harrowing in its casual racism. (Residents of Harlem are referred to as "the dusky, happy-go-lucky denizens of Africa in Manhattan." Wow.) How will we be judged in 84 years? What words will mark us as hopelessly mired in the prejudices of our times?

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So I am not scoffing anymore. I think we can reduce the use of nonJew, especially to refer to individuals. It still remains a useful distinction if, for instance, we are reporting on a study comparing Jewish communities to the mainstream, on subjects like religious practice, genetic differences and voting patterns. But if it avoids insulting someone, why not refer to individuals as the "partner from another faith" or a "person from a different background"? As for humor? A little flexibility is called for. I am reminded of the Jewish man who converts to Christianity and becomes a minister. Giving his first sermon, he stands before the congregation and says, "Fellow ..." Oh, wait. Never mind. It's sort of offensive. And kind of hilarious. (Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of JTA.) 

Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends! Louis Fitzmorris Assessor St. Tammany Parish

Rosh Hashanah 2018

Israel Under Radar

Does Israel Need a Law to Define Itself as the NationState of the Jewish People? By Marcy Oster

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seated second from left, leading a Likud faction meeting in the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, July 16, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel is debating legislation that supporters say states the obvious. Critics, meanwhile, say the measure will divide Israeli society and damage its relationships with the rest of the democratic world, especially Jews in the United States. The premise of the so-called Nationality Law is simple: It enshrines in Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Law that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. But after that it gets more complicated. Much of the bill, sponsored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, deals with obvious signs that Israel is a Jewish state, such as affirming the symbols on the flag and shield, setting the Hebrew calendar as the country’s official calendar, recognizing Jewish holidays and days of remem-

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brance, and naming Jerusalem as the capital. Other parts of the law, however, have raised the hackles of segments of Israeli society and the Jewish Diaspora. These include clauses relegating Arabic to a “special” status instead of an official language, promoting the establishment of Jewish communities throughout Israel and addressing the state’s relationship with Diaspora Jewry. That the words "democracy" and "equality" do not appear once in the text have sounded alarm bells among its critics. Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, called the law a “weapon (for) our enemies.” Outgoing Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky said it would end up “driving a wedge between Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora.” And thousands of Israeli protesters, Jewish and Arab, marched through Tel Aviv over the weekend to protest discriminatory aspects of the legislation. In the 11th hour before the Knesset was to vote on the legislation -it is expected to pass -- a leader of American Jewry flew to Israel and spent nearly two days discussing the bill and criticizing it face to face with Israeli lawmakers. Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JTA on Mon-

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day that the Nationality Law “took over the agenda” of his trip. Prior to leaving for Israel, he spoke to the major Jewish organizations about their concerns over the legislation. While he was not permitted to address the Knesset joint committee working to massage the language of the legislation before it comes to the plenum for a vote sometime this week, Silverman said he sat in on the meetings and was recognized publicly as a representative of Diaspora Jewry. He said he discussed the concerns of American Jewry with many lawmakers and key members of the Knesset, as well as the Prime Minister’s Office. Silverman told JTA he is concerned that the legislation, with its focus on the Jewish aspects of Israel, will alienate young American Jews who are “so social-justice conscious today” He said there are several parts of the legislation that “American Jews would struggle with.” Changing the status of the Arabic language is being seen as “discriminatory,” according to Silverman. Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's population. A section stating that Israel is responsible for preserving the con-

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nection of Israel with worldwide Jewry also has drawn criticism. Critics fear it is worded in such a way as to weaken the ability of Jews in the Diaspora, and even in Israel, to promote pluralism inside the Jewish state or petition the Supreme Court in Israel to hear cases on issues that affect Diaspora Jewry, such as the establishment of the egalitarian prayer section of the Western Wall. The wording of a clause that would have allowed for the establishment of communities based on one religion or nationality was changed Sunday to instead reflect “national value in developing Jewish communities and will act to encourage, promote and establish them.” Haaretz said the clause nonetheless promotes the establishment of "Jewish-only communities." The previous wording of the clause would have “emboldened and given a lot of fuel to the BDS movement,” Silverman said, echoing the statements of many on social media and even in the halls of the Knesset. Some, especially Arab Israelis and their supporters, have See NATION-STATE on Page

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SPECIAL GIFTS Continued from Page 4 in mediocre honey? The Savannah Bee Company, a gourmet honey purveyor, sells a variety of beautifully packaged artisanal honeys, including several variety packs. Or encourage your host to sample some raw honeycomb. The company also sells numerous other honey-based products, like body lotions and soaps. All honey is KSA kosher-certified. For Rosh Hashanah, Zingerman’s, a Michigan deli and mailorder gourmet superstore, bakes its own honey cakes, round challahs, mandelbrot and rugelach, and sells an array of gourmet honeys from around the world. Love marzipan? Try Rosh Hashanah “Marzipops.” A gift set of these marzipan lollipops contains 10 lollipops: two each of a honeypot, a red apple, a challah, a pomegranate and a shofar. They are gluten-free and vegan, but are not certified kosher. Assorted items Barbara’s Gifts is based in Israel but ships to the United States. Its Rosh Hashanah gift box contains a pomegranate hand towel, pomegranate challah cover, Jewish cal-

PAUL RUDD Continued from Page 12 his Jewish skin. At one point he tells a new acquaintance: “I’m a Jew. Not a practicing Jew. But I was different than the other boys. I never even told them my real name. I wanted to blend in .. I don’t fit in even now.” (Rudd’s personal story mirrors Berg’s a bit on this front — he explained last year on the genealogy show “Finding Your Roots” that he grew up in places with few Jews and was called “Jew boy” despite his attempts to blend in to his communities.) Lewin, 71, the son of Polish Holocaust survivors, migrated with his family at a young age to Australia, where he grew up in an observant Jewish household. He had never heard of Berg before the film opportunity arose and, though now Los Angeles-based, has never been to a baseball game other than his sons’ Little League contests. But he told JTA his Jewishness informs his “sense of connection with the subject matter.” In 1985, THE

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endar tea towel, pomegranateshaped trivet, pomegranate fabric placemats, a pomegranate notepad and set of Rosh Hashanah greeting cards. If your host likes scented candles, try this apples-and-honey one. Just make sure you don’t try to eat it after reading the description: “Brown sugar glazed apples blended with warm cinnamon, golden clove and grated nutmeg wrapped in sweet caramel honey drizzles and hints of pure maple syrup.” You can also find a variety of pomegranate-scented candles here. Off the beaten path Who doesn’t need a Rosh Hashanah-themed smartphone cover/ case? These Luxlady ones come in various sizes for popular iPhone and Android models. Children and adults alike will enjoy accessorizing with High Holiday-themed nail decals from Midrash Manicures. Nothing quite right? Try searching for Rosh Hashanah on Etsy or visit The Sabra Patch, an Etsy-like online store for Israeli artists. Whatever you buy, best wishes for a sweet and happy New Year! 

Lewin directed the award-winning “The Dunera Boys” a miniseries about 2,000 English Jews who were somehow suspected of being Nazi spies and deported to Australia. In one scene late in “The Catcher Was a Spy,” Berg attends a Kol Nidre service at a Zurich synagogue during his mission to kill Heisenberg. While the film is based on true events, the Yom Kippur moment almost certainly never occurred. It was a conceit added by Lewin (even though Robert Rodat wrote the script). Lewin doesn’t know whether Berg actually attended services, but he finds it a plausible possibility. “[Berg] was a very modern and secular Jew, but at the same time he couldn’t escape his Jewishness,” the filmmaker said. “Before going out to kill someone, I don’t know that he didn’t go inside a synagogue. I know myself as a secular Jew that I find comfort in that kind of environment. I go to Kol Nidre services every year even though I’m not a believer because I have that one day to reflect on my life.” 

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PRAYERS Continued from Page 7 an unnecessary absolution that might lead people to sin by taking their vows too lightly in the future. However, this prayer had already proven to be so popular and powerful among the people, it has become a centerpiece of the holiday. Forgiveness and confessions All five services on Yom Kippur include a section known as Selichot (forgiveness prayers) and another one called the Vidui (confessions). The Selichot include a basic confession of sins, an expression of our contrition and reflections on God’s forgiving nature. We recite the 13 attributes, which are taken from a prayer that Moses recited in Exodus 34. In it, we assert that God is compassionate, patient and righteous. Included in the Vidui is the Ashamnu, which is an alphabetical acrostic of different sins we have committed. It is said in first-person plural because while each individual may not have committed these specific sins, as a community we surely have, and on this day our fates are intertwined. We also read the Al Chet, a prayer that similarly lists transgressions we have made over the year. These two sections best reflect the theology of the day: We are in a state of self-reflection. We admit our sins fully, and even beat our breasts while doing so. We place our fates in God’s hands, for God is Tov V’Salah (good and forgiving). Yom Kippur musaf (Shaharit for Reform synagogues) is different from Rosh Hashanah in that we do not add Malkhuyot, Zikhronot and

Shofarot, but instead include a section on the Avodah, a description of the sacrifices and rituals performed by the High Priest in the Temple on Yom Kippur. We also add a piece known as the martyrology, a solemn section where we recall 10 martyrs who were killed in most brutal ways, giving their lives while declaring their faith for the world to hear. Neilah: The gates are locked It is the final service on Yom Kippur, Nei’lah — literally “locking” (of gates) — which paints an image of the gates of heaven closing, lending urgency to our prayers and our need for repentance and forgiveness. We begin the service with a piyyut that asks God to “open the gate” and let us enter so that we might have a final appeal before God’s decree is sealed. There is a silent Amidah prayer, like at all services, which is repeated by the cantor. Throughout Neilah, the language of being “written” in the book of life used thus far in High Holiday liturgy shifts, as we instead speak of being “sealed” in that book. The final section of Neilah includes a recitation of the Shema (“Hear O Israel …”) and these lines: Baruch Shem K’vod (“Blessed be God’s name …”) three times, and Adonai Hu HaElohim (“Adonai is our God”) seven times. We conclude with a long blast of the shofar. Thus ends the period of the High Holidays. We begin with contrition and awe as we enter the courtroom for our trial. We end with the acceptance of our verdict and the assertion that Adonai is our God – powerful, all knowing and of course, compassionate. 

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GROWN UP Continued from Page 10 doom—is a taut thread plucked throughout the novel. Entrenched in her singularity, Andrea boldly tells a new lover with children from a previous marriage that she “doesn’t like kids that much.” Her best friend Indigo has a healthy, fat baby but faces the eventual unraveling of her nascent marriage to a rich, aloof husband, sending enlightened Indigo spiraling down a tunnel of self-centered despair. Andrea’s sister-in-law Greta, once a vivacious young editor in love with David, Andrea’s rock-nroll older brother, gives birth to a baby with complications. The couple moves to New Hampshire in an attempt to stabilize and raise their baby together. Much to Andrea’s dismay, her mom follows to fortify against the madness, but Greta falls apart and David throws himself into a state of creative self-exile to stay sane. Meanwhile, Andrea dreads leaving NYC to visit, and Sigrid, the baby, “fails to thrive.” Instead, the baby stagnates, withers away over five years, and eventually dies. Sick babies are another taboo that most women won’t talk about, at least publically, yet Attenberg handles it with searing honesty and grace. Sometimes having a child is nightmarish, horrifying and totally defeating, and this, too, is parenthood. And sometimes being the family witness to all of this can be just as exhausting and depleting but in ways that can’t be spoken. Doing so triggers questions about boundaries, personal autonomy, and tapping into the empathy well when it seems to have run dry in your direction. Andrea confesses, “I always reel for a few days after I witness someone’s personal truth. I walk around feeling like I’m wearing their

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essence like a tight sweater. With Greta, it’s a wetsuit. It takes a week until I can finally peel her off me, but I wake up one morning, naked in the apartment, and it’s all me again, and she’s gone. No more Greta, I think. No more sick babies, no more sad brothers, no more lost mothers. They’re there and I’m here. I’m free.” Yes. This book calls freedom itself into question. Women without children crave autonomy and singularity but we also long for deep connections that require us to surrender to the complications and vulnerabilities of relationships that tax our status. We wish we could be alone, together. Andrea acknowledges, “I miss them [her family] so much, and if I don’t see them again soon, touch them and talk to them, I’ll never survive this life.” Attenberg’s terse, fine-tuned, luminous writing operates at the highest frequency, teasing out the barbarity and beauty of being human. Andrea, with all her imperfections and anxieties, has gathered a unique stockpile of wisdom from her perch at the farthest edges of feminism, and as a reader, I want to meet her there and listen to everything she has to say. She speaks for so many of us, revealing feelings we never knew we had, and recognizing this is proof enough that we’re all grown up. Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein is a writer, editor and educator from Chicago, IL with a heart tilted toward the Swahili Coast. Poems and essays appear most recently in Fortunate Traveller, Punch Drunk Press and Hypertext. Follow her @ travelfarnow. Top image via Flickr/Helena Perez García 

Wishing my many friends & supporters in the Jewish Community a happy and prosperous New Year. Judge John Molaison

Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals THE

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YOM KIPPUR Continued from Page 8 the morning services on Oct. 12, 1940, “most synagogues carried on regardless” and a “large proportion of the men attending services wore uniforms of the various forces.” 8. Yom Kippur’s Kol Nidre services are the only night of the entire Jewish calendar when a prayer shawl is worn for evening prayers. According to the late Rabbi Louis Jacobs, the tallit (prayer shawl) is worn during Kol Nidre as “a token of special reverence for the holy day.” It is traditional to wear a tallit or a white garment for the entire holiday, with the color white symbolizing both our spiritual purity and our removing ourselves from the vanities of the material world. Many people actually wear a white robe called a kittel. 9. A Virginia rabbi’s pro-civil rights movement sermon on Yom Kippur in 1958 riled up local segre-

FIDDLER Continued from Page 16 ater, was able to acquire Friedman’s director’s notes, which helped shed light on his translation and how the changes sometimes shift the play’s meaning. One such instance is at the end of the play, when the Russian government orders Jews to leave Anatevka. While Tevye, his wife and two of his daughters head to America, another daughter, Tsaytl, and her husband say they are leaving not for Poland, as in the original production, but specifically the city of Warsaw. To a modern audience the mention of the city, which was home to the largest Jewish ghetto in Europe during World War II, is likely to bring memories of the Holocaust. “That being said in Yiddish, it brings it all full circle,” Massimine said. Friedman made other choices to preserve the rhyme scheme: “If I Were a Rich Man” becomes “Ven SACHA BARON Continued from Page 14 clarifying way," she tweeted. "How Bibi became a cult-like object for the gun rights people is beyond me." Cohen, for sure, is a shock comic. But he is also a satirist, and one intimately acquainted with Israel: He speaks Hebrew, grew up in a THE

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gationists and sparked fears of an anti-Semitic backlash. JTA reported that Virginia’s Defenders of State Sovereignty group demanded that local Jews “move quickly to refute and condemn” Rabbi Emmet Frank of Alexandria’s Temple Beth El for his sermon criticizing the state’s “massive resistance” to school desegregation and said that if he had intended to destroy ChristianJewish relations, “he could not have been more effective.” While a “leading member” of the Reform temple reportedly said a “considerable” number of congregants worried Frank’s stand “might result in increased anti-Semitism,” others “sided with the rabbi, holding that he held a spiritual and moral duty to speak out for social justice.” The congregation stood by Frank, and The Washington Post published an editorial calling him a “courageous clergyman.” 

Ikh Bin a Rothschild” (If I were a Rothschild), which is also the name of another story by Sholem Aleichem. With a $750,000 budget, the show is Folksbiene’s largest and most expensive production. Massimine says the show has already earned back its production costs in ticket sales. Regarding the supertitles, Mlotek said, "We have a significant amount of Russian-speaking Jews whose English isn’t the best, so there’s a population that we wanted to serve." He said he wanted to add additional languages but the technology did not allow for it. In addition to showing Tevye and his family speaking in what would have been their historic language, the production makes a point about Yiddish and its state today. “It’s also a portrait of the initial decline of Yiddish and why that happened," Massimine said, "and why it’s important that we treasure this language and this culture.”  Zionist youth group and spent summers there. His mother was born in Israel and he has family there. It appears on early evidence that Cohen's target is not "pro-Israel" per se, or even "right-wing pro-Israel," but a strain of Israel support that imagines Israel as its own distorted reflection -- and not what it is. 

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toward active improvement of the world,” Kay said. “In today’s market, in which families choose every year from among dozens of outstanding schooling options, it is more important than ever for Jewish day schools to offer a signature program that clearly distinguishes them from other local schools.” Aviv says he would love for his school to be known as the Jewish high school that helps people with physical challenges. The students work on inventions that seek to tackle real-world prob-

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timed pill bottle that promotes the proper use of prescription medications. The students’ parents funded the lives of others,” senior Eitan the patent application. The protoAbecasis said. type sits in a hallway vitrine near the Ptaszek said that “Schechter has makerspaces, pointing the way forboth taught and shown us, time and ward for other promising inventime again, the Jewish value of tions. kindness and of helping others.” Gigi Weissman, a mother of one The head of school, Michael graduate and two current students Kay, said the idea incubator proin the STEAM program, credits gram is both about actualizing JewAviv with sparking interest in techish values and distinguishing the nology in her eldest daughter, Lauschool as a place of excellence. ren, who now studies engineering “The Jewish tradition has at Northwestern University. always valued ingenuity and the The program, Weissman said, application of academic skills awakened her children’s “desire to tinker.” “Their formulation of business plans has been an amazing exercise to think through an idea and an enhancement to their education at Schechter,” PLACE YOUR ORDERS BY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH PLACE YOUR ORDERS BY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH Weissman said. PICK UP SEPTEMBER 17TH THROUGH 19TH PICK UP SEPTEMBER 8TH THROUGH 11TH Aviv, a geneticist SOUP SOUP by training who Matzo Ball • Chicken Noodle Matzo Ball • Chicken Noodle graduated from the Mushroom Barley • Extra Matzo Balls Mushroom Barley • Extra Matzo Balls Bronx High School APPETIZERS of Science after APPETIZERS Herring in Wine • Creamed Herring attending Kinneret Brisket Pierogies • Reuben Eggrolls Chopped Herring • White Fish • Gefilte Fish Day School in the Chopped Herring • Chopped Chicken Liver Chopped Chicken Liver Riverdale section of Gefilte Fish • Stuffed Cabbage Rolls the Bronx for eleSALADS ENTREES mentary school, said Relish Tray • Coleslaw • Pasta Salad Goldbergs Famous Brisket • Honey Roasted Turkey Breast Redskin Potato Salad • Egg Salad he is awed by the Bubbe’s Roasted Chicken Quarters Tuna Salad • Israeli Salad students’ growth and creativity. SIDE DISHES SMOKED FISH “They come in Sweet Potato Soufflé • Roasted Redskin Potatoes Nova • Sable • Kippered Salmon • Sturgeon scared kids and they Roasted Vegetable Assortment White Fish Salad • Whole White Fish Bulgur Wheat • Squash Casserole come out fearless Stuffed White Fish men and women,” KUGELS DAIRY ENTREES he said. “I’m overGoldbergs Sweet Noodle Kugel • Spinach Mushroom Kugel Potato Latkes with Sour Cream or Apple Sauce whelmed with pride Blintzes with Sour Cream • Sweet Noodle Kugel DESSERT over what these kids DESSERT Seasonal Fruit & Berries • Rugelach Assortment produce.” Seasonal Fruit & Berries • Rugelach Assortment Honey Cake • Chocolate or Cinnamon Babka (This article was Honey Cake • Chocolate or Cinnamon Babka sponsored by and GOLDBERGS FAMOUS CHALLAH produced in partnerGOLDBERGS FAMOUS CHALLAH Plain Round • Raisin Round • Decorated Round ship with the Avi Plain Round • Raisin Round • Decorated Round (One size only - 2lb) (One size only - 2lb) Chai Foundation, FINE FOODS which is committed to the perpetuation FOR ORDERS & INFORMATION CONTACT: HOWARD AARON (404) 256-3751 CATERING@GOLDBERGBAGEL.COM of the Jewish people, Judaism and the ATLANTA centrality of the State of Israel to the ALPHARETTA (770) 663-8555 NEW ORLEANS Jewish people. In BATTERY PARK (770) 485-9570 North America, the BUCKHEAD (404) 256-3751 (504) 267-3564 foundation works to DUNWOODY (770) 455-1119 925 Common Street advance the Jewish EAST COBB (770) 578-3771 New Orleans, LA 70112 day school and TOCO HILLS (404) 329-5000 overnight summer nola@goldbergbagel.com WEST PACES (404) 266-0123 FINE FOODS signa ture brews camp fields. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.)  lems. Sophomore Molly Schwartzberg developed the Rock n’ Rest smart crib that automatically rocks with an infant’s cries. Junior Ben Landau designed a fire extinguisher that he says uses less water and fuel than the air tankers that now fight at the edges of forest fires. Junior Lily Khabie conceived a coffeemaker for high-traffic areas such as airports and hospitals that can scan a code to quickly produce coffee to preset specifications. One of the inventions even has a patent pending: Recap is a locked,

Wishing Everyone a Healthy, Sweet, Happy & Joyful New Year

ROSH HASHANAH

28 Rosh Hashanah 2018

Break The Fast

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IMMUNOTHERAPY Continued from Page 17 Streptococcus bacteria experienced a dramatic and spontaneous improvement. He began injecting the bacteria into his patients, with mixed results. The treatment was nearly abandoned amid skepticism from Coley’s peers and the advent of radiotherapy and improved surgical techniques. Today, however, new avenues of immunotherapy research are underway, and the field is considered among the most promising new approaches to cancer treatment, according to Jill O’DonnellTormey, CEO and director of scientific affairs at CRI. “There’s still more research that needs to be done in order to realize immunotherapy’s full potential,” O’Donnell-Tormey said. “By partnering with the Israel Cancer Research Fund, which is well known among Israel’s top academic research centers, we will be able to support more lifesaving science in a country that is home to some of the world’s most talented research scientists.” Neta Milman, a scientist at the Laboratory for Applied Cancer Research at the Rambam Clinical Research Institute in Haifa, is among ICRF’s recent grantees. She is studying tumors called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, or PDAC. These tumors contain mostly noncancerous cells that include a group of immune cells that promote tumor growth by producing small particles that transport genetic information to cancer cells. The small particles are called exosomes. “We’re trying to figure out what the exosomes are sending to the cancer cells,” Milman said. Exosomes one day could be a cancertreatment delivery system because they can be engineered to target cancer cells, she said. Dr. Michal Lotem, who heads the Center for Melanoma and Cancer Immunotherapy at Sharett Institute of Oncology at Hebrew Universi-

ty’s Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, is receiving funding to support work on a new checkpoint receptor called SLAMF6, a protein found in immune cells. When activated, these receptors modulate the immune response so that there isn’t too strong a response against normal tissues But when it comes to cancer, the goal is to inhibit these receptor proteins so that the immune response against cancer will be as strong as possible “If you target this protein effectively, it can double or triple the effect of immune cells when they attack their target, Lotem said. Gideon Gross and his team at MIGAL-Galilee Research Institute in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shemona are developing immune gene therapies, a treatment where a patient’s T-cells are modified in a lab in order to attack cancer cells. Gross, a pioneer in the field, together with Z. Eshhar at the Weizmann Institute of Science created in the 1980s the first chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs – cancer-fighting molecules constructed in the laboratory and inserted into T-cells. For his ICRF project, Gross hopes to improve the performance of CAR T-cells. For Karin of the Technion, who is well known for cutting-edge research into autoimmune diseases like MS, the Israel Cancer Research Fund’s backing enabled his first foray into cancer research. “ICRF’s support was the motivation for me to get into cancer immunotherapy research,” Karin said. “Now most of our attention in the lab is on melanoma. Without them we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.” (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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Happy New Year to my friends in the Jewish Community. Thank you for your support!

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Volume 8, Number 6 CRG 2018-2019

JEWISH LIGHT

In last month’s print edition of The Jewish Light’s 20182019 Community Resource Guide We, along with a good friend of the Jewish Community pointed out some errors that needed to be corrected. Here are the following in- print corrections. Our online edition has been updated as well. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. You can view our revised online edition at www.thejewishlight.org Sincerely, The Jewish Light

JEWISH CEMETERIES Ahavas Shalom (Orthodox) 4100 Frenchmen St. New Orleans, LA. Contact: Ken Pailet 504-837-0770

Community Resource Guide of Southeast Louisiana 5778-5779 • 2018-2019

SYNAGOGUES ORTHODOX METAIRIE

Congregation Beth Israel 4004 West Esplanade Ave, South Metairie, LA 70002 Phone: (504) 454-5080 Fax: (504) 883-8010 Email: office@bethisraelnola.com Rabbi Gabe Greenberg Email: RabbiGabe@BethIsraelNOLA.com CONSERVATIVE METAIRIE

Shir Chadash 3737 West Esplanade Avenue Metairie, LA 70002 Phone: 504-889-1144 Fax: 504-889-1146 Email: shirchadash@shirchadash.org Executive Director: Bruce Yaillen Email: execdir@shirchadash.org Rabbi Deborah Silver Email: rabbids@shirchadash.org 30 Rosh Hashanah 2018

JEWISH CEMETERIES BATON ROUGE

Jewish (Hebrew) Cemetery 1400 block of North Street Baton Rouge, LA.

Liberal Synagogue Cemetery 9665 Florida Street Baton Rouge, LA. NEW ORLEANS

Northshore Jewish Congregation (Reform) 2260 West 21st Ave. Covington, LA 985-951-7976 or 985-778-7899

Anshe Sfard (Orthodox)

Shir Chadash/Tikvat Shalom Cemetery (Conservative)

4400 Elysian Fields Ave. New Orleans, LA Contact: Sandy Lassen slassen@cox.net 504-782-7218

Jefferson Memorial Gardens 11316 River Rd.; St Rose, LA Contact: Sandy Lassen slassen@cox.net 504-782-7218

Chevra Thilim Cemetery Touro Synagogue and Temple Association (Conservative) Sinai (Reform) Old Chevra Thilim 4800 Block of Canal St. New Orleans, LA. New Chevra Thilim 5000 Iberville St. New Orleans, LA Contact: Sandy Lassen slassen@cox.net 504-782-7218

Dispersed of Judah 4737 Canal St. at N. Anthony St. New Orleans, LA Contact:Herb Barton 504-861-3693

FUNERAL HOMES Lake Lawn Funeral Home & Congregation Beth Israel Cemeteries (Orthodox)

4444 Elysian Fields, CHEVRA KADISHA OF New Orleans, LA GREATER NEW ORLEANS 4800 block of Canal St We provide service to all of the New Orleans, LA. Jewish Community. We wash, Contact: Marshall Gerson sanctify and dress the deceased 504-523-1155 with prayers and rituals that are beautiful, dignified and according Congregation Gates of to the oldest of Jewish traditions. Prayer (Reform) At some point, you might want to 1412 Joseph St., New Orleans, LA list us under Jewish organizations 4800 block of Canal St. as that is what we are and i would New Orleans, LA be happy to write an article about Contact: 504-885-2600 us. We are over 100 years old and are made up of members of all the Hebrew Rest Cemeteries I, different sectors of the New Orleans II, and II Jewish Community. We are truly a 2100 Pelopidas at Frenchman community organization. New Orleans, LA For further information, please Contact: Herb Barton contact: Sandy Lassen 504-861-3693 slassen@cox.net, 504-782-7218 www.thejewishlight.org

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NATION-STATE Continued from Page 24 used the word "apartheid" to describe the provision. The author of the original Nationality Law nearly a decade ago -Avraham Diskin, a political scientist and Hebrew University professor -- rejects criticism of the legislation, which he calls “declarative” and “without a lot of practical" consequences. Diskin told JTA that it is “high time” for a Basic Law that specifically identifies Israel as a Jewish state, in addition to the many Israeli laws that mention Judaism and the Jewish character of the state. There are “many people around the world outside of Israel, mainly Arabs, who are not ready to accept allowing the Jews to have their own nation state,” Diskin said. He added that in Israel, some challenge the notion of Israel as a Jewish state -Jews among them. Diskin said the law is most needed, however, because of the Israeli Supreme Court. He and other critics of the high court say it has ignored the Jewishness of the state, for example in cases of Palestinian residency rights in Israel, rights of foreign converts to citizenship, land purchases by the Jewish National Fund, draft deferments to haredi Orthodox youth and the deportation of illegal migrants. Israel’s Declaration of Independence repeatedly notes the connections of the Jews to Israel and that Israel is being established as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Unlike the Basic Law, however, the Declaration of Independence is not a legal document Diskin said there is nothing in the legislation that violates human rights or the rights of minorities. Amir Fuchs, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the legislation resembles the preamble of an as-yet unwritten Constitution, and that “there is no [democratic] country in the world that has not specifically enumerated the right of equality in its constitution.” The legislation has “no clear statement that the state will have equal rights for all its citizens," he told JTA. "This is what is missing. This is the problem,” Fuchs said. He acknowledged that other Basic Laws deal with Israel’s democratic nature and individual rights, including the one on human dignity and liberty. At least two other Basic Laws refer to Israel as both Jewish and democratic. THE

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Fuchs, who heads the Defending Democratic Values Program at the Israel Democracy Institute, said there is no need for the new legislation since it is clear that Israel is a Jewish nation-state based on its symbols, language and holidays, among other things. He said he does not oppose the idea of a law stating that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, but that such a law should also ensure that the state will have equal rights for all its citizens. But Fuchs does not believe that Israel will look substantially different after the passage of the legislation and disagrees with those who say it will turn the country into an apartheid state. The tipping point, he said, will be in close Supreme Court decisions, where the "Jewish" element could take precedence over the "democratic"element. The legislation is set to come up for a final vote before the end of the Knesset’s summer session on Sunday. The coalition has enough votes for passage because the haredi Orthodox parties are willing to support it. The haredi parties in the past have opposed the legislation due to its nationalist nature. But the addition of the word "religious" to a clause on the right to self-determination in part softened their stance. Silverman said that as a sovereign state, Israel has the right to pass such legislation. The Israeli and the American Jewish community are “pretty young environments for the two major Jewish communities in the world. And we are both going through growing pains.” Jewish organizations in the United States will be watching to see how the law is applied practically, particularly in cases involving Diaspora Jewry. “Israel has to be the nation-state for all Jews,” Silverman said. “That cannot be limited in any way.” 

Best Wishes to my many Jewish friends and constituents for a happy New Year Marlin Gusman Orleans Parish Sheriff

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Patrick M. Schoen

From our family to yours, we invite you to join us in this renewal by visiting Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home. Please give me a call at 504-482-2111 and I will personally arrange a tour for you. Sincerely, Patrick M. Schoen Managing Partner www.schoenfh.com

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