Kol Habirah - March 2017 by Jewish Link Marketing Solutions

Next Issue: May 18th

May 4, 2017 | 8 Iyar, 5777 May 5 | 9 Iyar 5777 Parshat Acharei Mot/Kedoshim Light Candles: 7:47 PM CANDLE LIGHTING Shabbath ends: 8:50 PM

CONNECTING THE DC, MD, & VA JEWISH COMMUNITY

Supporting Our Survivors

ISSUE #7 Published Bi-Weekly

In honor of Yom HaShoah, Kol HaBirah explored the day-to-day experiences of many Holocaust survivors living in our community and the resources in place to support them. See ad on page 16

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By Suzanne Pollak A 100-year-old woman chatted briefly as she got her hair done at the salon in the Charles E. Smith Life Communities’ Hebrew Home in Rockville, Maryland, where she lives. It was just one of the many things she was rushing to accomplish before Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. As one of the dwindling number of remaining Holocaust survivors who lived through the brutality and inhumanity of the concen-

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(PHOTO CREDIT: SUZANNE POLLAK)

JScreen: Improving Access and Dispelling Myths About Genetic Testing By Hillary Kener

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This Holocaust menorah has a prominent place in SmithKogod Residence in Rockville.

Don’t we know all there is to know about Jewish genetic diseases already? Stories of families like Randy and Caroline Gold’s suggest otherwise. The Golds were a typical Jewish couple: active in the Jewish community, hopeful of starting a family someday. They heard through friends

that they should request their doctors screen them for Jewish genetic diseases before getting pregnant. Not really sure how many diseases they were being tested for, the Golds, like many, presumed the panel offered was standard and that they were in the clear when the results came back with no matches.

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‘I Think Striking Syria Was Absolutely Right’ Bret Stephens talks values-based foreign policy with Kol HaBirah at JNF event. By Rachel Kohn On April 23, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens was the guest speaker at the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) annual community breakfast, held at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, Maryland. Stephens spoke eloquently and expertly on American foreign policy and its future under the new administration. Formerly a foreign affairs columnist and the deputy editor of the editorial page at The Wall Street Journal, Stephens raised eyebrows with his recent move to the op-eds section of The New York Times. He was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post from 2002 to 2004, and

holds the distinction of having interviewed every Israeli prime minister since Shimon Peres. After the event, we sat down to discuss his own new transition and his thoughts on Trump, Israel, and the importance of values-based American foreign policy. What prompted you to leave the Wall Street Journal for the New York Times? I had 16 great years at the Wall Street Journal, it’s a fantastic newspaper, but we live in a world where it’s a miracle when people stay in a job for three years. I felt it was time to stretch my legs and speak to a different audience, and offer them

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Their job is to look after Israel. Our job is to look after them.

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STRENGTH. They are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our friends. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers put their lives on the line every day to defend the Jewish homeland on behalf of Jews worldwide. They face the risks involved in dangerous missions and operations to bravely fight threats against the State of Israel and its people. IDF soldiers and commanders can suffer lifechanging injuries at any time of their service: during training, special missions or war. They can leave a range of physical, mental and

emotional scars. They can have long-term and sometimes devastating effects on their lives, as well as the lives of their loved ones. Those who risk their lives for the collective good should not have to take on the burden alone. FIDF ensures that IDF soldiers who have suffered lifelong injuries or losses to protect the state of Israel can continue to live a high quality of life. Soldiers Touched in 2016: 2,061

To help these soldiers today, or learn more, visit www.fidf.org or contact Ari Dallas at 301-960-3531 or ari.dallas@fidf.org 2

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ABOUT US

Kol HaBirah: Mission and Goals

The mission of Kol HaBirah is to serve, connect, and strengthen the Greater Washington Jewish community. To achieve this, we will provide:

33Community Enrichment and Support Kol HaBirah will increase the visibility and utilization of our Jewish community’s businesses, organizations, programs, initiatives, and services. This will be achieved through our news and feature reporting, our robust community resources section, and advertising opportunities. 33A Community Newspaper for All Jews Kol HaBirah will foster connection through the sharing of news, ideas and resources,

traversing various geographic and ideological boundaries and strengthening the bond of community. 33Credible Reporting and Respectful, Open Dialogue Kol HaBirah is committed to fact-based news reporting and providing a space for the respectful exchange of ideas on issues that matter to the broader Jewish community. We encourage diverse perspectives but will strive to avoid including content and views that may appear offensive or hurtful to specific people or groups of people. 33Traditional Torah Values – Kol HaBirah proudly upholds traditional Torah values

(e.g. not employing staff on Shabbat; promoting Kosher restaurants, events, and news) and will strive to maintain these values while respecting the values of the entire Jewish community. 33Support for the Unites States and Israel Kol HaBirah is committed to the safety and support of the government and citizens of the United States and Israel.

We believe Kol HaBirah will further establish the Greater Washington Jewish community’s presence on the map as a leading and vibrant Jewish community in America and beyond. Thank you for your continued support, and keep reading!

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD • Alan Fisher

• Phil Jacobs

• Steven Lieberman

• Ahuva Orlofsky

• Fred Shapiro

An affiliate of the Jewish Link of New Jersey, Jewish Link of Bronx, Westchester & Connecticut & Queens Jewish Link

MEET THE STAFF

KOL HaBirah

ADVERTISER's INDEX

Voice of the Capital

Art

Hillel Goldschein, Publisher

Rachel Kohn, Editor in Chief

Yaffa Koff Photography

Aitana Perlmutter Art

Camp

Uru Adventure Camp

Dr. Alexis Soffler Nominated as Nationally Influential

Clothing

HatBox

STEM Educator by Kol HaBirah Staff............................. 8

Kol HaBirah

Kol HaBirah Distribution Locations

Graduation Issue

Yom Haatzmaut Around the Community.................16-17

Feedback Survey

Israel News.................................................................. 18

Now Hiring

Entertainment

Five Questions with Kami

by Jennifer Helgeson.................................................... 22

Events

EMET 11th Anniversary Dinner

Op-Ed......................................................................24-25

YISE Annnual Banquet

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Capital Commentary.............................................20-23 Assessing Costs and Defining Our Environmental Future

Connecting with Israel’s Fallen Soldiers by Atara Mayer............................................................. 24

Rabbi Lazer Brody at Chabad

Disposing of Middot by Phil Jacobs.............................. 25

of Silver Spring

Features.................................................................27-37

My Beloved Son Erez by Caryn Orbach....................... 29

and Design

Marlo Furniture

‘A Synagogue Without Walls’ by Emma Murray........... 35

Dan Kugler’s Design Center

Torah Perspectives...............................................38-39

BYOB

Mosaic Catering

Health & Wellness.................................................35-36

Hoffman and Co

Why Talk to Your Adult Child About Intimacy?

Goldberg’s NY Bagels

JScreen

Nurture Care

Eyeland Luxoptics

Kindness Animal Hospital

Columbia Group

Joey Franco

Law

Lippman, Semsker, and Salb

Organization

Friends of the IDF

Real Estate

Shonny Kugler

Chelsea Fantl

Barbara Ciment Team

Insurance

Harley Liebenson, Advertising Sales Associate Sarah B. Cohen, Editor Haley Cohen, Community News Intern Abbie Salamon, Photo Intern

Diabetes Research and Advocacy by Oren Litwin........ 12

Kugler’s Home Fashions

Healthcare

Kami Troy, Senior Editor

Fairfax Teen Leading ‘Team Tikvah’ to Support Juvenile

Furniture

Food

Bari Perlmutter, Manager

IN THIS ISSUE Community News....................................................7-17

Keep Your Pence On by Miriam Gross......................... 30

The Two Faces of Sefirat Ha’omer by Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz........................................ 39

By Rivka Sidorsky......................................................... 40 Ravin’s Reads.............................................................. 41 Sports.....................................................................45-47 Gregg Popovich Should be the Coach of the Year by Efraim Andrew Wakschlag....................................... 45 Food & Dining........................................................46-51 Eating Your Way to Healthy by Marina Cowan,with contributions from Seth Cobum.................................... 51 Arts & Entertainment............................................52-55 Larry Shor’s Greater Washington: Indian Spring Country Club.......................................... 55 Fun and Games........................................................... 57 Advice.....................................................................56-61 Carpool Karaoke by Chani Feldman............................ 59 Young Professional Spotlight: Ari Katz.................... 62 Community Calendar................................................. 63

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE I was a big fan of the recent Heineken commercial. Not because I like Heineken — it is actually one of my least favorite beers — but the message of the commercial really resonated with me. For those who haven’t seen it, the commercial featured a social experiment bringing together people who held strong opinions on some of contemporary society’s most divisive issues. They were all strangers, and prior to meeting each pair was videotaped, separately, expressing their opposing views. Next, the viewer watched the pairs meet and engage in a variety of physical tasks and puzzles that required them to work together to overcome them. It was evident that they were bonding during these exercises and were demonstrating signs of mutual respect. Then came the intense part: they were shown the videos of their counterpart expressing his or her opposing views, and soon each individual realized that the person with whom they were bonding just a moment ago held a starkly different conviction on a topic he or she felt strongly about, be it climate change, feminism, or gender and identity issues.

After the videos were over, a voice announced: “You now have a choice. You can go, or you can discuss your differences over a beer.” There was an awkward tension in the room, but in each case the pairs agreed to stay and discuss their differences. They engaged in civil conversation, and one person even admitted that he was raised in a black and white world but is now realizing that the world is not necessarily that way. At the end of the commercial, one gets the sense that the participants will leave the experience with more respect for views that differ from their own, just from the simple humanizing experience of contact, cooperation, and communication. How many of us would have agreed to stay and engage in that conversation? How many of us are willing to discuss our differences and listen to our counterparts who hold differing views from us? How many of us are interested in viewpoints besides our own? We’ve gotten some great feedback thus far from our reader survey, launched the week after Pesach to gauge your thoughts on our content so far. Our aim is for this paper to serve as a vehicle for sharing the diverse views and perspectives within the Jewish community. Check out the survey at www.kolhabirah.com to have your voice be heard and join us at the table.

(SOURCE: COED.COM)

FEEDBACK

Ashreinu, Ma Tov Chelkeinu I was so pleased to read about Ashreinu Educational Programs in Natasha Nadel’s recent article, “Alternative Paths to Jewish Education.” Although this amazing institution is in its fifth year, many people mistakenly assumed that it had closed when its original founder moved out of town. Not only is it still up and running, it is better than ever! The classes are small and the excellent teachers are considered friends by the students. My daughter’s middle school physical science final, for example, was an assignment to build a life-size boat out of paper. The girls then had to actually get inside and float the boat around

a swimming pool, receiving points for their understanding and use of the concepts learned in class! For more information, interested parents can contact Nancy Nelkin, Parent Coordinator at ashreinueducation@gmail.com. Ahuvah Feldman, mother of six children and the satisfied parent of an Ashreinu student “I in fact was not aware of this publication but in perusing some articles, I can see that it is a high quality publication which is quite informative. May you continue to see hatzlacha.” Rabbi Breitowitz

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‘13 Reasons Why’: What Lessons Have We Learned From the Controversy? By Kami Troy On Sunday April 24, I opened an email entitled “Important Message from Upper School Guidance and Administration” from the Berman Hebrew Academy, where my son is finishing 10th grade. It began as follows: “We are reaching out today, not to set off alarm bells, but to raise awareness about an important issue that has come to our attention. Netflix recently released on original series called ‘13 Reasons Why’ and it has become one of their most popular shows to date. The show’s protagonist commits suicide and then sends audiotapes to the individuals she deems responsible for her death. Many people, including mental health professionals, are upset about the potential negative impact this show may have on adolescents who are struggling with mental health issues.” The email goes on to give helpful links and hands-on tips for how to recognize warning signs and how to help someone who expresses the desire to harm themselves. The staff sent a separate email to students without explicit mention of the show, but with similar information about warning signs and how to obtain help earlier. The 13-part series, which debuted in its entirety (the better to binge-watch) on March 31, is based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, written by Jay Asher. When I first saw the preview on Facebook, I became instantly curious, just as I would imagine a teenage girl would be (times 100). And as the mother of two teenagers, and two more coming up the pike all too soon, I jumped in and watched the first episode. I could see why it was so appealing. It was like a lot of teenage shows these days: snappy dialogue, cool clothes, good-looking kids, and a sense that grownups are too dumb to meet teens’ needs. The adults are well-meaning but cannot be confided in and do not know how to effectively help their charges. In one scene, the protagonist, Hannah, is called to the guidance counselor to meet another new student so the counselor can “make” them become friends. Both girls find this ludicrous, immedi-

ately launching into a game of witty repartee meant to make fun of the adult and show how she is literally not in on the joke. After watching that first episode and part of the next, I read the episode-by-episode plot summary online — Hannah and other characters are bullied, sexually assaulted, using/abusing alcohol, and serially betrayed by friends and adults — and decided it was time to talk to people in our community and find out what’s going on out there in the teenage world.

The good news is that there are programs already in place to help kids who are suffering from a variety of issues in our schools and our community. For example, Berman has a robust guidance department, a dedicated Mental Health Day for kids to learn more about a variety of mental health issues, a peer counseling program, and a drug and alcohol awareness program that students must attend with one or both parents as a pre-condition for graduating. The Yeshiva of Greater Washington (YGW) has instituted an integrated curriculum on both the boys’ and girls’ campuses addressing a variety of issues faced by teens. Additionally, two events addressing important mental health topics took place in the past few months at YGW. One was a drug and alcohol awareness program presented by Rabbi Hirsch Chinn in December 2016 at the boys’ campus, with the goal of turning it into part of an array of programming

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throughout the year. Rabbi Chinn is the educational director of Zehayom, which helps Jewish families dealing with issues of addiction to connect with the resources of recovery. At the second event, which took place in February 2017 on the girls’ campus, Dr. Mary Alvord spoke to parents about resilience, coping mechanisms, and how to recognize warning signs of unhealthy behaviors. A psychologist for more than 35 years and director of local practice Alvord Baker & Associates, Dr. Alvord also spoke to teachers and faculty on enhancing resilience in the classroom. Rabbi Yudi Reisel, Greater Washington city director for NCSY, cited four main challenges facing teens today: pressure to succeed, both academically and in their extracurricular activities; social media (wanting to belong, interpersonal drama); wanting respect from their parents, among other parent-child tensions; and the internal struggle to find meaning in Judaism or religious observance. While he stressed that NCSY does not offer mental health services, Rabbi Reisel said it offers “a non-judgmental, inclusive, warm, welcoming place for teens. It creates an environment to reduce stress and anxiety that comes with no expectations.” He also stressed that having mentors — rabbis and others as well as college-aged people they can look up to — are a key component of kids’ ability to reach out to trusted adults, especially for kids who aren’t able to do so with their parents. There is some evidence that religion can be a “protective factor against suicidal behaviors,” according to Kemp Mill resident and child/adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Nomi Schnittman. She cited a study in Israel that found that religious Jewish youth have a lower suicide rate as compared to their non-observant peers. However, she said, the stigma against suicide may lead to under-reporting. “It is important to remember that we in the Jewish community are not immune to this risk,” said Schnittman. “We need to be aware of the risk factors for suicide and get our youth help when it is needed.” “Almost every one of my friends has watched the show, has almost finished, or plans on starting it,” said sixteen-yearold Rachel (name changed at the subject’s request), a student at the Berman

Hebrew Academy. “The trailer makes the show look like a drama mystery, so when kids begin the episodes, I don’t think they realize the bigger message … until they’ve watched the entire season.” One of the most telling scenes in the book/series is when the replacement guidance counselor turns away Hannah just 45 minutes before her suicide. In my mind, this scene epitomizes one of the biggest messages that kids already feel: adults are not to be trusted. Another issue that struck me was how deeply H annah felt the betrayal of her friends and the damage to her reputation, which took no more than a couple of ambiguous pictures sent around to the whole school with one click of a button. Dr. Schnittman concurred. “When a teenager’s reputation is damaged, it can lead to breaks in friendships, a sense of isolation and rejection, withdrawal from potential social supports and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness,” she said. “This, in turn, increases the risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.” Ruby Snyder, an upper school guidance counselor at Berman, said that the danger in a show like “13 Reasons Why” comes not only from romanticizing suicide as an answer to your problems; it could also potentially cause kids to “worry that they may say the wrong thing and a friend may kill themselves,” said Snyder. “If they are supporting a friend who’s going through a hard time, kids may fear that they may not do enough for their friend and feel responsible if a friend hurts her or himself. The reality is, they do not control and are never responsible for what their friend does,” she said. Rachel gave good advice for teens who decide to watch the show: “Please discuss it with your parents first and make sure that you have someone to talk to the entire way through,” she said. And that’s what we should learn from this whole discussion: Open lines of communication are crucial to ensuring the mental well-being of our kids. Is this easy? No. Is this always possible? No. Sometimes the gap can be incredibly large between kids and adults. Teens need adults they can trust. It may sound cliche, but it can be lifesaving. There are essential safety nets in place: guidance departments, youth groups, your local rabbi, and community leaders. Rabbi Reisel said he has seen relationships between kids and parents become repaired when a kid learns to trust another adult. Let’s all try to watch out for each other’s kids, and for each other. For more information on suicide, visit www.jedfoundation.org; to get help now text START to 741-741 or call 1-800-273TALK (8255). Kami Troy is senior editor for Kol HaBirah.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

COMMUNITY NEWS

Dr. Alexis Soffler Nominated as Nationally Influential STEM Educator By Kol HaBirah Staff Dr. Alexis Soffler, Lower School Science & STEM Coordinator at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (CESJDS), was nominated as a nationally influential STEM educator by the faculty at George Washington University and received one of 30 spots for a full scholarship and stipend to last week’s 100Kin10 STEM Summit in New York. The Summit is an annual gathering of organizational leaders from universities, school districts, and federal agencies dedicated to understanding and shaping programs to navigate systemic challenges standing in the way of excellent STEM teaching. “Dr. Soffler’s nomination and recognition as a valued participant speaks to the strength and influence of the CES-

JDS STEM program,” said Head of School Rabbi Mitchel Malkus. In the fall of 2016, CESJDS and George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) began a collaboration to develop a signature JK-5 STEM curriculum to be integrated across general and Judaic disciplines along with cutting-edge professional development. The project will enhance teaching and learning at CESJDS Lower School in all subject areas, but particularly in math, science, art, and engineering, and in using technology as a learning tool. An important aspect of the project will be a research component to measure and document the learning results of the curriculum and professional development on the school’s students.

“STEM is important to CESJDS and Jewish day schools in general. We must be academically competitive with the schools around us, and we absolutely are, but what’s more is we need to teach our children how to live and thrive as Jewish people in a complicated world,” said Soffler. “That means teaching kids how to use all of their learning — social, academic, Judaic, STEM, non-STEM, language, art, music — to make thinkers, innovators, and people ready to solve problems.” Over the course of the next three years, CESJDS faculty will participate in a graduate level STEM seminar/workshop that will focus on developing specific units and lessons for a proprietary curriculum that will be made available to other schools across the country.

Dr. Alexis Soffler (PHOTO COURTESY OF CESJDS)

“CESJDS is a leader nationally among all schools — private, public, Jewish — in this area of STEM,” said Rabbi Malkus. “We hope to help the entire field of Jewish day schools grow from our work and experience.”

Sen. Cardin Discusses Immigration on Holocaust Remembrance Day at Congregation Beth El By Gabe Aaronson BETHESDA (Md.) — Addressing the crowd gathered at Congregation Beth El on April 24, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) described how U.S. immigration quota laws prevented many Jews from escaping the Holocaust. Cardin went on to discuss the border wall with Mexico and the impact of President Trump’s executive orders on immigration and refugees during the course of the interfaith event, which was jointly sponsored by Beth El, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, Saint Mark Presbyterian Church, Bethesda United Methodist Church, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

As ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Cardin’s foreign policy knowledge was on full display. The audience of over 300 people gave him a warm reception, although some questioned his stances during the Q&A portion of the event. Cardin struck a hard line against President Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico. Mexican officials and legislators are offended by the president’s proposed border wall, he said. The wall paints Mexico as the problem, said Cardin, but in fact the US relies heavily on Mexico to stop human trafficking of Central Americans bound for the US. “A wall makes no sense whatsoever” because it won’t stop the trafficking of either drugs or humans, he said. The U.S.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

needs to fix its broken immigration system instead. Cardin also criticized President Trump’s executive order barring citizens from several Arab countries from entering the United States, as well as the president’s plan to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the country from 100,000 per year to 50,000 per year. The travel ban lends credence to Islamist groups’ narrative of a United States that attacks their religion, bolstering their recruitment efforts and making the United States less secure, he said. A Muslim ban is simply “against our values,” he said, arguing that religious tests violate the Constitution. On this, U.S. courts seem to agree — both of President Trump’s travel bans have been halted by federal judges. Cardin’s repudiation of the border wall and the travel ban were met with applause from the audience. When asked whether he would consider funding a border wall in return for concessions on refugees and immigration, Cardin gave an unequivocal no. When the floor opened for questions, some in the audience expressed their misgivings. One pointed to the simultaneous increase of the Muslim population and anti-Semitism in France — could we face a similar trend in the United States? Cardin responded that ultra-nationalism, not Islam, is the root cause of European anti-Semitism. Another person questioned Barack Obama’s plan to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees per year. Cardin responded that if Jordan (with its population of 7.6 million) can host 650,000 Syrian refugees without issue, then the United States

(population 321 million) should certainly host most than 25,000 per year. He also defended the current vetting process for refugees, which includes identity verification by the United Nations, background checks by U.S. Homeland Security agencies, and in-depth interviews. A government contractor asked whether the senator would allow a government shutdown; many Marylanders are contractors, and unlike civil servants they do not get paid retroactively when the shutdown ends. Cardin said that Republicans are to blame for the threat of shutdown, and that he supports legislation to protect government contractors from lost pay in the event of a shutdown. Rabbi Harris wrapped up the event with three takeaways for the audience. First, people can join Beth El, Bethesda United Methodist Church, and Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in supporting refugees already living in the area. Second, people who attend other churches and synagogues should ask their own congregations to join the effort to support refugees in the area. Finally, everyone should return to Beth El on May 10 for a similar conversation with Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), he said. Gabe Aaronson is a special correspondent for Kol HaBirah.

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COMMUNITY NEWS

JCRC Yom HaShoah Events Draw Contemporary Lessons From the Holocaust By Kol HaBirah Staff A Syrian Muslim who was living in Albania and came under threat for organizing against the Syrian regime and speaking out in support of refugees was among the speakers Sunday at a Holocaust remembrance commemoration in Fairfax. The commemoration, which was held at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia (JCCNV) and drew more than 500 people to the main program and an additional 150 at a teen program, was one of two community-wide Yom Hashoah observances led by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington. The other observance took place at Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Bindeman

Center in Potomac earlier on Sunday. As the nation grapples with immigration and refugee issues, both programs focused on “Displaced Persons: Struggles to Find a Home.” “Our focus this year on displaced persons is sadly so relevant to the current world climate, as we are facing the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II,” said Guila Franklin Siegel, JCRC associate director. “As we tell and re-tell the stories of our fellow Jews’ physical and emotional journey from the hell they experienced in the concentration camps to new lives in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere, we remind the world that it must never turn its back on refugees fleeing their homelands to escape violence and death and provide safe futures for their families.”

In Fairfax, Virginia, Syrian Aliaa Noha Khaled said that Holocaust survivors and Syrian victims share a story of “hopelessness, victimology, suffering, and resiliency.” In an interview, Khaled said that her experiences as a displaced Syrian refugee help her “identify with the pain and trauma of the Holocaust victims and survivors.” She also noted that Sunday’s event represented her first encounter with Holocaust survivors. “Our school curriculum in Syria did not disclose to us the scope and the horrors of the Holocaust,” she said. “We were not allowed to speak about the Holocaust in schools .... Today, I feel the survivors of the Holocaust and Syrian refugees are the same family — victims who are pulled be-

toda P V S R

Wednesday, June 14, 2017 Washington, D.C. 6:00 pm

A dinner to honor courageous Speakers of Truth:

Amb. Ron Dermer

Col. Richard Kemp

Nadiya Al-Noor

Senator James Inhofe

Rep. Juan Vargas

Rep. Mark Meadows

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Celebrating 50 years since the liberation of Jerusalem!

Dietary laws observed.

Holocaust survivors light the first candle of remembrance (From left: Col (ret.) Frank Cohn, Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits, Janine Bland, assisted by JCRC’s Steve Adleberg)

tween loss and hope. We must swim together or sink together.” Khaled’s 9- and 10-year-old daughters, Lara and Loor, urged the audiences at both the teen and adult programs to care about the people of Syria. Joan Abend da Silva told of her survival in hiding during the Holocaust, and Leonard Gordon spoke of his experiences in forced labor camps and his liberation just days before a scheduled Nazi death march. Both discussed their time in displaced persons camps as they awaited permission to resettle in the United States. Coming less than two weeks after an arrest was made in an anti-Semitic incident at the JCCNV, the event also drew some 100 interfaith partners and elected officials who stood in solidarity with the Jewish community. “The hate-filled vandalism that targeted the JCCNV and a neighboring church just two short weeks ago, reminds us how important it is for Jews to not become complacent about our sacred obligation to remember the Shoah,” said Franklin Siegel. “The years pass, but hatred against Jews and other groups is sadly alive and well, and we must commit ourselves to eternal vigilance and remembrance, not only for the benefit of our own people but for all humanity.” Readings from members of other faith communities told of contemporary refugees. Those refugees include teenager Pablo who crossed the border to escape Salvadoran drug gangs, and as of this month has been in eight detention centers across the U.S., and Rashid Mohammed, who at age 14 fled the Somali civil war in 1992, making his way to a camp in Kenya where 300,000 refugees await acceptance to a new homeland. He has since married a woman — who was raped in the camp — had three children, and saw his application to settle in the U.S. accepted in 2010. Yet, his family awaits a backlog. The survivors’ Mourners Kaddish incorporated the names of concentration and death camps into the language of the traditional Kaddish prayer, and tribute was paid to Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who died in July, and Liviu Librescu, who also survived the Holocaust and was gunned down in the mass shooting at Virginia Tech 10 years ago. Holocaust survivors’ children pledged “to accept the responsibility to preserve and protect the legacy of the Holocaust” while survivors’ grandchildren pledged to “use lessons of the Holocaust to support justice, tolerance, peace, kindness and compassion” and “to accept survivors’ memories and to pass them on to future generations.”

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

COMMUNITY NEWS

Temple Emanuel Students Collecting Six Million Stamps for Creative Holocaust Education Project By Haley Cohen KENSINGTON (Md.) — Six million is an incomprehensible number, but seventh graders and their teachers here at Temple Emanuel are attempting to make this number a bit easier to grasp. Under the guidance of religious school teachers Richard Sloane and Adam Bobrow and expressive arts teacher Karen Webber, the students have started an ambitious project called STAMP IT! . For the project, they are attempting to collect six million cancelled stamps to honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Sloane, who has taught at the school since 2015, says that he first proposed the idea of STAMP IT! to his students after watching the documentary “Paperclips.” In the film, middle school students in Whitwell, Tennessee, collected six million paperclips to commemorate victims of the Holocaust. “I wish everything was well in the world and we didn’t need this project. A generation has passed since the ‘Paperclips’ project first began and to my knowledge, there have been very few efforts since then to collect six million of anything,” says Sloane. “I thought that it was especially appropriate for a Jewish community to engage in this effort.” The reason they decided to collect stamps, he explains, is that stamps can symbolize “stamping out” negative things such as discrimination, inequality, and bullying, while at the same time “stamping on” positive ideas like education, tolerance, compassion, and faith. Webber had the idea to turn STAMP IT! into a project that not only collects stamps, but also uses the stamps to create meaningful art. After Sloane came to her with the idea stamp collecting idea, she thought the stamps should be used to decorate tiles.

“Before we made the tiles, I asked the kids to imagine coming into a concentration camp and think about what they would lose,” says Webber. “Some chose to make words out of the stamps, and some chose symbols. I was particularly impressed by one student’s idea to make a swastika with tears. It’s an amazing juxtaposition. It’s very poetic. The student asked me if it was bad to use a swastika, and I taught her that symbols themselves are not bad. It is all about how we express the symbols.” Currently, Sloane is undecided about to what to do with the tiles and stamps once the project is completed. Webber says that she would like to see some of the tiles displayed in a nearby Episcopalian church. The students also have some ideas. “I want to try and contact the United States Holocaust Museum. Maybe we could make a symbol out of the stamps and have it displayed in the museum so people there can visualize six million lives,” says student Noah Shap-

iro. “I think that is where this project deserves to be.” Classmate Ethan Weiss says that he has some fears about STAMP IT! being displayed in public. “I worry that people may vandalize it. It’s so sad that there are people who could do that to a project that we worked hard on. It’s not fair that all of our hard work could get ruined.” His worries stem from a recent incident that occurred at his school, Bethesda Westland Middle School, when swastikas were scrawled on the bathroom walls. Regardless of where the project ends up being displayed, student Marissa Krantz has hopes that their work will produce a chain reaction far beyond the classroom. “We, as Jews, have a personal connection to the Holocaust, but I hope that other groups of people hear about our project and decide to do something about other forms of hate,” says Krantz. “The Holocaust was a giant act of hate. If we can show how many people died because of hate, other hate

groups will see what hate can lead to and maybe they will second guess themselves.” Out of the approximately 10,000 stamps that have been collected so far, Sloane said that some of the most meaningful ones are those that were sent from Israel. “There is the argument that the State of Israel would not exist or would not be what it is if it were not for the Holocaust,” he said. “The Jewish people are a tiny fraction of the population but we have this bond across the world to try and breed more compassion.” Stamps have also been sent from Australia, Canada, and six U.S. states. Sloane described the task as “enormous” and expects it will take several years to complete. To contribute stamps to the project, mailed them to: Richard Sloane Temple Emanuel 10101 Connecticut Avenue Kensington, MD 20895 Haley Cohen is a Community News intern for Kol HaBirah.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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COMMUNITY NEWS

Local Congregations Join ‘Paper Clips’ Community for Yom HaShoah By Rabbi Uri Topolosky When you pull up to the Whitwell Middle School, deep in the heart of Tennessee coal mining country, you are immediately taken by the prominent Children’s Holocaust Memorial beside the front entrance of the school building. Its central feature is a rail car; brought over from Germany, it was once used to transport Jews to the death camps. Now it is filled with over 11 million paper clips and other memorial objects, placed there by the school’s eighth-graders to honor the victims of the Holocaust. A sign at the entrance reads, “Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed students can change the world, one class at a time.”

Rabbi Ben Shull and Rabbi Uri Topolosky at the memorial. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RABBI TOPOLOSKY AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS)

An image of the paperclips displayed in the rail car, along with other artifacts, including a suitcase donated by German students filled with apology notes to Anne Frank. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RABBI TOPOLOSKY AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS)

adult education class this year for our congregations. Thinking about the urban-rural divide in America, we decided a trip like this could be an opportunity to meet folks in a totally different part of the country who, like us, have a connection to the Holocaust narrative. We hoped that the Paper Clips project would provide a mutual starting place for meaningful dialogue and learning. In that spirit, we arranged not only a tour of the Children’s Holocaust Memorial, but also a visit to the Whitwell Coal Miner’s Museum, and a dinner with local residents and students. In one of our early planning phone calls, Linda Hooper, the former principal of the Whitwell

The group inside the rail car. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RABBI TOPOLOSKY AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS)

On April 23, Yom HaShoah, two Rockville synagogues — one Orthodox (Beth Joshua Congregation of Aspen Hill) and one Conservative (Tikvat Israel Conservative Congregation) — traveled together as a group to visit Whitwell. The 25 participants came in part to bear witness to this Holocaust memorial, made famous by the award-winning “Paper Clips” documentary. However, we also came to meet the people who, for the past 18 years, have been supporting, guiding, and participating in the project, and who have succeeded in transforming the culture of their community. The trip was conceived last November with my chavruta (learning partner), Rabbi Ben Shull of Tikvat Israel, with whom I have been co-teaching a joint

school, boomed, “Rabbis, you all are a bunch of Yankees. We don’t even know you, and we may not even like you, but you can be assured that we will feed you!” True to her word, the community trucked in a kosher catered feast from Chattanooga. Describing the origins of the Paper Clips project, Hooper recalled how the teachers “wanted a project to teach tolerance, and decided to develop a course on the Holocaust as a way of exploring the cost of prejudice that goes unchecked.” In the second year of the project, the students struggled to understand the enormous loss of Jewish life, and asked if they could collect something appropriate to capture the idea of six million lost souls. In their research, it was discov-

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Whitwell group photo at the Children’s Holocaust Museum. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RABBI TOPOLOSKY AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS)

ered that Norwegians wore paper clips on their lapels as a silent protest against Nazi occupation during World War II. (The paperclip was invented by a Norwegian Jew named Joseph Valler.) The students decided to write to famous Jews and Jewish communities in an attempt to collect six million paper clips. Fast forward 18 years, and the eighthgrade class has now received over 30 million paper clips, and has catalogued over 30,000 letters from all over the world in memory of those murdered in the Holocaust. Holding up a paper clip, one student shared, “This paper clip represents a soul. He or she could have been a poet, an artist, a doctor … You don’t just see six million. You see 1 + 1 + 1 + 1.” The school continues to receive paper clips, although the Holocaust project is now focused on training each successive class about the memorial, the attached museum (which houses the letters and other artifacts), and how to lead tour groups. The students welcome regional school groups every Friday during the school year, as well as other outof-town visitors throughout the year. The Holocaust class is now taught by two teachers, one of whom is the original teacher who helped birth the project, and the other who was a student in the class herself, a dozen years ago. Whitwell’s commitment to the Paper Clips project has been remarkably sustained, and the values that have emerged from it have helped shape the religious discourse in Whitwell. Speaking to our

Rabbi Uri Topolosky, and his sons, Elyon and Itai, with Mrs. Linda Hooper. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RABBI TOPOLOSKY AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS)

Rabbi Topolosky’s sons, Elyon and Itai, with the entrance sign. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RABBI TOPOLOSKY AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS)

group, Hooper declared, “We are all creatures of G-d, and every person has the flame of G-d burning inside them. In my mind, if you are hateful or disrespectful to people, you are disrespectful to G-d.” Knowing our group was from Washington, D.C., she added her take on the current political climate, “Some people belittle the president, the president belittles them, and everyone’s belittling each other. Where does that get us? Nowhere. I say that if you belittle another person, you belittle the Creator.” Before leaving Whitwell, I led a Yom HaShoah Seder to reflect together on the horrors and lessons of the Holocaust. I discovered that the eighth-grade class had been learning to sing in Hebrew “Oseh Shalom,” and I invited them to conclude the evening in song, offering a prayer for peace, love, and tolerance in the world. Joining arm in arm and swaying in harmony, I thought to myself, “Indeed these thoughtful, committed students are changing the world — one class at a time.” A post-trip screening of the “Paper Clips” documentary is set for Sunday, May 7 at 10 a.m. at the Beth Joshua Congregation of Aspen Hill. Participants from the trip will also be sharing some reflections after the film. All are welcome. Learn more about the Children’s Holocaust Memorial at www.whitwellmiddleschool.org. Rabbi Uri Topolosky is spiritual leader of Beth Joshua Congregation of Aspen Hill, Maryland, and Rav HaKehillah of the Berman Hebrew Academy.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

COMMUNITY NEWS

Bender JCC’s Seventh Annual ‘To Life’ Health & Wellness Expo Coming to Leisure World By Sue Kleit The Bender JCC’s Coming of Age in Maryland program will present its annual expo at Leisure World on Thursday May 18. The expo will include over 50 exhibitors and health screenings as well as workshops on yoga for arthritis, Zumba, mindful meditation, and stress relief. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Clubhouse 1, located at 3700 Rossmoor Boulevard in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Thanks to the event’s many sponsors, including Medstar, Brookegrove, Bedford Court, Ingleside and the Charles E. Smith Life Communities, participants will enjoy a sampling of activities designed to enhance the quality of life. Lectures will include discussion of famous artworks and how the arts are healthy for the brain, body and soul. Complimentary massages, photo booth activities and caricatures will be offered throughout the day. Attendees can also qualify for raffle prizes

including the grand prize: an iPad Mini. The expo will finish with a concert in a separate location in Leisure World by the Seth Kibel Quintet, featuring vocalist Jenny Langer. The concert will take place in Clubhouse 2, 3300 N. Leisure World Blvd., at 3 p.m. Tickets for this concert cost $7 and should be purchased separately at benderjccgw.org. Coming of Age in Maryland offers monthly activities, excursions, and special events to members aged 60 and over.

Activities include theater, museums, lectures, performances, “Food and Fun” restaurant outings that feature a game component, an annual health and wellness expo, and much more. To learn more about the Bender JCC’s Coming of Age in Maryland program. http://www.jccgw.org/adults/seniors/ coming-of-age-in-maryland/ For more information, contact Frieda Enoch at 301-348-3809 or fenoch@benderjccgw.org.

Fairfax Teen Leading ‘Team Tikvah’ to Support Juvenile Diabetes Research and Advocacy By Oren Litwin In June of last year, just before Fairfax, Virginia student Alex Frame had his bar mitzvah, he was diagnosed with typeone diabetes (T1D). An avid sports player and president of the student council at Gesher Jewish Day School, Alex had hoped to join the military and attend West Point when he grew older, a dream that was now out of reach. But Alex isn’t discouraged; far from it. On Sunday, June 4th, he will be leading “Team Tikvah” in the JDRF One Walk, a two-mile walk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. that will support the research and advocacy of JDRF (formerly called the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). “I wanted to get involved in the T1D community,” Alex says, and JRDF had provided tremendous support to him and his family “from Day 1, when I was in the hospital.”

Alex’s parents are grateful for JDRF’s support. In the initial days of uncertainty following his diagnosis, says his mother Beth, “they arranged for us to meet other people who had kids who were type1 diabetic, and then we heard about this walk… I said to him, we could create a team if you want, maybe we can ask some of your friends to walk with us, or some of the family; and he said, ‘why would we just ask family and friends? Why don’t we ask the entire community?’” And so they did. Team Tikvah currently has over 35 participants already who will join Alex in the walk: his entire class at Gesher, as well as other students and community members. Alex also has raised a considerable amount of charity to support JDRF. He was surprised when they reached their initial goal of $1,000 within days; he raised the goal to $1,800, then to $3,000. The support of the community has been “incredible.”

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

That is why they chose Team Tikvah as their name: it represents the hope that regardless of T1D, people like Alex will be able to achieve their dreams.

Alex’s Judaism has played a significant role throughout. The initial diagnosis was right before Yom Kippur, and figuring out how to deal with the fast and with holidays like Simchat Torah that featured lots of sugary candy “was very daunting,” says Beth. “How do you figure out the carb count on cholent?” But JDRF helped, as did a Facebook group called “Jewish Parents of T1 Kids.” Dietary restrictions are normal for Alex, who already kept kosher—which made adapting to his new regimen relatively easy. And his school, Gesher JDS, has given him all the support he could ask for. For example, Alex’s class had an eagerly-anticipated trip to Israel. “The head of the middle school, when Alex got diagnosed last year, she turned around and said, ‘You’re going to Israel with us,’” Beth recalls. “It wasn’t just, ‘we’ll see what we can do’; she was very positive, and I think part of that is the Jewish mentality of, there’s always things we have to work around, and if something’s important you continue to work around them.” Alex and his family often have to correct misperceptions about T1D. Most people associate diabetes with insulin resistance, which is true of type-2 diabetes but not of type-1. In fact, current research suggests that T1D is actually an autoimmune disease, in which the body’s defenses destroy its own insulin-producing cells. Learning this helped

them understand how Alex could have gotten T1D. After all, notes Beth, “In the Jewish community we have so many autoimmune diseases,” and T1D seems to be another. Next year, Alex will be attending the American Hebrew Academy in North Carolina. He hopes to get his new classmates involved with the JDRF One Walk as well. After the incredible success of Team Tikvah, he hopes to make it an annual event. “It gives me a boost of confidence to keep on moving on with this,” he says. Alex encourages anyone to contribute to Team Tikvah, either as a walk participant or a donor. Team Tikvah’s web page can be found by searching for “JDRF One Walk,” selecting the event in Washington, D.C., on June 4, and searching among the teams for “Team Tikvah.” JDRF’s work is critical to supporting those with T1D, and funding research advances to make their lives better, Alex says. That is why they chose Team Tikvah as their name: it represents the hope that regardless of T1D, people like Alex will be able to achieve their dreams.

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A Journey Helped by Eshel By Phil Jacobs lt’s perhaps inarguable that for most Orthodox Jewish parents, the path for their children is to meet get an education, meet the “right” person, get married, settle down and start a family. That’s at least what Mindy Dickler, a Baltimore mother of three and a member of the Orthodox community said she and her husband Marc only had in mind for their three children. But when their son Elie came home from college 5-1/2 years ago over Rosh Hashanah, waited two days and then told his parents that he was gay, Mindy and her husband started on a journey that they are still processing. “Do I tell my rabbi? Who among my relatives and friends do I trust to confide this information with? Suppose someone is critical or hurtful? What about my child? Is he safe? These questions only scratch the surface of what Mindy and other Orthodox parents of LGBTQ children are asking. That is where Eshel, an organization started with the express purpose of helping Orthodox parents of LGBTQ children, find one another and ask questions of people who have had perhaps similar experiences and feelings. “We need to bring the topic out of the closet,” Dickler told Kol HaBirah. “In Baltimore we’re not talking about it. It’s a reality, it’s here, it’s not going away. If we don’t normalize it. We’ll have more broken families.” From May 5-7, Eshel is holding its fifth annual parents retreat in Copake, NY. There are scholarships available for the event for Baltimore, Washington area parents. More information about the conference and a “Meetup” scheduled for May 8 in Baltimore can be found at eshelonline.org. “At the retreat, we get to experience this amazing feeling of community with other parents of LGBT children,” said Dickler. It is common to feel isolated and alone in one’s own home community after a child comes out. Most times you don’t know if any other families are like you in your home community. There is a grieving process when a child comes out, especially if the parent has no idea.” And that was part of Dickler’s experience. She and her husband, she said, had no clue that there son was gay. At the retreats, scheduled monthly conference calls and meetups, parents have an opportunity to come together in a safe space “where they can be their total selves,” she said. “It’s very validating and comforting and supportive.” Dickler said that initially when their son came out, she and her husband reacted with love and acceptance.

(PHOTO CREDIT: SEAN MACENTEE/FLICKR)

“What happened with us, and what happens with a lot of parents, there’s a journey you go on,” said Dickler. “The journey of my future for my family is not going to be what I thought it was going to be.” “When a child comes out of closet, the parent goes into the closet,” she continued. “It takes a child a long time to understand themselves, and come out to themselves. In our case, bam, here’s reality now deal with it.” Dickler also said that when talking to family and to close friends, initially it’s advisable to choose people who will give you a positive response first. “Any time you come out to an aged parent, a grandparent, your frum neighbor, your kid’s teacher, you don’t know if that person is going to give a homophobic reaction. “You add on the layer of Orthodoxy, the stringencies are more part of your everyday life,” Dickler said. So yes, the Orthodox component makes it that much harder.” Some people will say, everyone was created b’tzelem Elohim (In God’s image). Others go with Leviticus. They make that the stopping point.” It’s the observance of Torah that Orthodox parents of LGBT children see sometimes as challenging to negotiate. “It is painful when a person genuinely feels that his or her deeply felt identity is at odds with a deeply felt wish to be within their religious rules,” said Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, a frum social worker who practices in the New York area. “It is natural to wish to come together as a group and support each other. Though I do not know about the work of this group (Eshel) in particular, such organizations can conduct themselves in both a Halachically and psychologically appropriate manner. I am aware

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of individuals who have found various psychological and Halachic approaches, but for many people a solution seems elusive. And for an organization to succeed at this task on a public level is certainly a work in progress.” Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, a psy-

chotherapist and the Executive Vice President Emeritus of the Orthodox Union, said “the whole issue of homosexuality within Orthodoxy is very challenging and difficult. But the Halachic parameters are very clear.” He added that the issue of homosexuality is compounded by religious issues for Orthodox families. And while he wasn’t so familiar with Eshel, Rabbi Weinreb said that “anything that helps diminish suffering is useful. There’s a substantial number of people who want to be part of the Orthodox community in various ways. It’s challenging.” For Dicker, though, Eshel is that safe space she can rely on, be it a meet up or retreat or phone calls, and confidentiality is rule of the game. Everyone is asked to agree to strict confidentially. Nothing said in that space will leave that space. It’s only because of that strict adherence. Only because of the confidentially is reason why people can share things might not be able to share in other circles. Dickler told Kol HaBirah that life has gotten better through her participation in Eshel. She said her best friends are in New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, D.C. and Philadelphia. “We have a common bond to be totally comfortable with one another,” she said. “It’s made all the difference in the world to me.”

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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Local Teens Dance in Memory of Terror Victim By Marnina Cowan Hallel Ariel, a 13-year-old girl from Kiryat Arba, was brutally killed in her sleep in a terrorist attack on June 30, 2016. Hallel was a dancer, and on Sunday May 14 at the DC Israeli dance Festival, local Israeli dance troupes Kesem and Yesodot will debut an original choreography in her memory. Yesodot and Kesem are comprised of more than 40 middle and high school dancers from the DC area who are brought together by a shared love of Israel and Israeli dance. The groups learn and perform original choreography at local venues (Hebrew schools, Jewish senior living centers, etc.) and national Israeli dance festivals. They rehearse once a week in Rockville, Maryland.

“Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn.” — Terri Guillemets While Kesem and Yesodot never knew Hallel personally, over the past three months, the dancers have spent time during their rehearsals learning about her. A lit yartzheit candle at each rehearsal serves as a constant reminder

Members of the Kesem Israeli dance troupe (PHOTO CREDIT: MIKE FOX, PEPE STRAUSS)

of why they are dancing. The choreography Kesem and Yesodot will perform, titled “For Hallel…One of Us,” incorporates steps that Hallel performed at her Bat Mitzvah. A short documentary was created to share Kesem, Yesodot and Hallel’s stories. The video can be watched on Youtube (warning: Kol Isha is not observed) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVlyjoHwVXo.

Rena Ariel, Hallel’s mother, has asked the teens to conduct acts of chesed (kindness) in Hallel’s memory. Kesem and Yesodot decided to raise money for Ginat Hallel, a playground that will be built at the school where Hallel studied and where her sister continues to study. The total cost of construction is $25,000 and the family still needs $15,000 to complete the playground. Kesem and Yesodot know that their greater community can

help bring the Ariels closer to reaching that goal. The dancers are hopeful that one day they will each be able to travel to Israel and visit Ginat Hallel and know that they have contributed to something beautiful. A GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/kesem) was created to raise money for Ginat Hallel. The dancers will be performing at the DC Israeli Dance Festival on May 14 at 3 p.m.

Steven Cohen Takes the Helm as New Director of Israel Bonds Maryland By Kol HaBirah Staff BALTIMORE, (Md.) — This week, the Development Corporation for Israel (DCI)/Israel Bonds welcomed new executive director Steven A. Cohen to its Maryland office, succeeding Alan S. Dorenfeld, who retired in March. “I am grateful for the opportunity to lead Israel Bonds Maryland,” said Cohen. “It is my lifelong mission to support Israel, and this job represents a perfect blend of my Zionist passions and professional experience.” “I could not be more excited for the opportunity to expand the Israel Bonds presence in Baltimore and Steven Cohen throughout the state,” he said. (COURTESY PHOTO) As executive director, Cohen will be responsible for developing, al sales, managing the bond financing managing, and growing the sales cam- program, and working with current and paign, acting as the prime conduit for future lay leadership in the Baltimore high-end individual and institution- community.

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Cohen joins Israel Bonds after serving as president of Hopkins Federal Savings Bank in Baltimore. He was previously a practicing attorney in New York City. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Duke Law School, Cohen is a lifelong Zionist who has been involved in UJA in New York, the Jewish National Fund, The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, the Baltimore Zionist District, and Israel Bonds. As president of Hopkins Federal Savings Bank, Cohen launched a High Holiday matching program with Israel Bonds, through which the bank matched 50 percent of all bonds purchased in the Baltimore community during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with its own Israel bonds purchase. The program was later expanded through a collaboration with The Associated to provide a 100 percent match. More than 2,000 people partic-

ipate in the High Holiday matching program annually, and, since the program’s inception in 2004, it has generated more than $90 million in Israel bond investments. “Steven has been a dedicated supporter of Israel and Jewish causes for many years, and we are pleased to welcome him to the Bonds organization,” said Israel Maimon, president and CEO of Development Corporation for Israel/ Israel Bonds. “Steven joins us following a successful career in the banking and legal professions, a combination of skill sets that uniquely position him to help Israel Bonds Maryland reach impressive new heights.” Cohen’s predecessor, Alan Dorenfeld, took over Israel Bonds Maryland in 2006. During his tenure, Dorenfeld expanded the Israel Bonds’ bond financing program in Baltimore into one of the most successful in the country, averaging between $40 and $50 million in campaign sales annually.

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Celebrating Mimouna at Moishe House By Alyssa Silva A three-century-old North African Sephardic celebration known as Mimouna is now celebrated around the world with parties to mark the return to eating chametz after Pesach. On April 20, Moishe House Columbia Heights teamed up with The Israeli House and Sephardic Jews in DC to bring the tradition of Mimouna to the Greater Washington area.

“Sephardic Jews in DC was thrilled for the ability to co-host and cater a Mimouna party alongside Moishe House and Israeli House,” said Sephardic Jews in DC Founder and Director Jackie Feldman. “Our Mimouna is a new spin on an ancient custom, complete with a mix of traditional tunes and popular Israeli music, lots of delicious freshly made pastries (both home made and catered from Yekta Market), an amazing henna artist, and lots of young professionals from

across the DC metro area.” Moishe House is an international organization whose mission is to provide a vibrant Jewish community for young adults by supporting leaders in their 20s as they create meaningful home-based Jewish experiences for themselves and their peers. With 100 houses (and more on the way!) all over the world, they have reached out to 625,000 young Jewish adults in 10 years. Members of DC’s diverse Jewish community come from different backgrounds. “I grew up in a Sephardic and Ashkenazi household, and my parents gave me the opportunity to experience so many wonderful traditions,” said Sam Itin, a Moishe House Columbia Heights Resident. “Mimouna was always a chance to come together with new friends and family, something I was able to continue to be a part of tonight!” Moishe House Columbia Heights engages over 1,200 young Jewish adults between the ages of 22 and 32 through seven programs a month, ranging from Jewish learning, Jewish culture and hol-

Kosher Food Pantry Opens in New Location By Adam Bashein SILVER SPRING (Md.) — If you have driven down University Boulevard recently, you may have noticed the new Yad Yehuda sign in front of the house next to synagogue Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim. Yad Yehuda recently moved their Capital Kosher Pantry, a project which helps ensure numerous families have food on their tables, to this new location. A few years ago around Purim-time, I was visiting my parents in Potomac and went to our family’s shul , Beth Sholom, where I noticed two tall bins in the lobby. I asked one of the shul members what this was all about, and she said they were Purim Pasta Groggers. She explained to me that every year around Purim they have a food drive, asking members to bring a box of pasta to shul for Megillah reading, to shake the box of pasta as you would a grogger every time you hear the name “Haman.” After the Megillah readings, you place your pasta box in these bins, and after Purim the bins full of pasta groggers are donated to a local food bank, to help those in need. I was intrigued by the Purim Pasta Groggers concept, and thought it would be a nice and easy mitzvah for people in my community of Silver Spring to participate in. The questions I asked myself were how much time, coordination, and effort would be needed to put this endeavor together, and how receptive would the community be to this idea? Would people realize the enormous im-

pact of remembering to bring one box of pasta to shul on Purim or right before Purim? Would people be so busy coordinating their themed mishloach manot, Purim costumes, and Purim seudahs that, while they thought the idea of Purim Pasta Groggers sounded nice to them, they would simply forget to bring a box of pasta to shul? Additionally, would I have the personal time and energy to put in to coordinate and publicize Purim Pasta Groggers in Silver Spring?

(PHOTO CREDIT: SHLOMO KUGLER)

So, there I was with a nice idea, a beautiful endeavor that could be a great community building project in my mind, but I was reluctant to put the idea into action out of fear that there would be a low level of participation. Last year, probably a month before Purim, I decided to make Purim Pasta Groggers in Silver Spring a reality and approached Kemp Mill Synagogue (KMS) to see if they were interested in partnering with me in this endeavor. They were very enthusiastic and encouraging. With

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the participation of a few KMS members and staff, I put the endeavor together and found a local food bank who we would donate the pasta groggers to. For those of you who don’t know me, I spend a little time on Facebook. As one of my status updates, I wrote about Purim Pasta Groggers, and I couldn’t believe the number of Likes and positive responses written in response to my post. To generate momentum and encourage participation, I also sent emails to the local list-serves and received some nice private emails, including one from Susan Koss. Mrs. Koss asked if we could meet so I could learn more about Yad Yehuda and be a part of their endeavors. I told her that it would be a pleasure to meet over coffee at the Kosher Pastry Oven. We had a nice conversation and I decided that time permitting, it was the kind of organization that I would be honored to be a part of. This year as Purim approached, I remembered my conversation with Mrs. Koss about Yad Yehuda and partnered with them on the Purim Pasta Groggers. And, with KMS’s tremendous response last year, I decided to approach other local shuls and make this into a community project. Baruch Hashem (Thank G-d), with the enthusiasm and participation of Silver Spring shuls Chabad of Silver Spring, Kemp Mill Synagogue, Ohr HaTorah, and Young Israel Shomrai Emunah, as well as Har Shalom of Potomac, the response was tremendous. Seeing so many shuls coming together for a community project and the high level of partici-

iday celebration, tikkun olam programming, and social events. Our events are public and open to the Greater Washington area’s entire young Jewish adult community and their friends. Check out Moishe House DC’s Facebook page for a calendar of events and sign up for our monthly newsletter, and visit www.moishehouse.org for more information about our and other Moishe Houses in the area and around the world.

pation was incredibly gratifying. I know how grateful Yad Yehuda is to each and every one of you who brought a pasta box to shul over Purim. Next year, G-d willing, I will once again be partnering with Yad Yehuda on the Purim Pasta Grogger project, and invite your shuls to participate. I encourage you to reach out about helping in this project and other Yad Yehuda endeavors throughout the year. After spending several months helping Yad Yehuda in collecting food, including the Purim Pasta Groggers endeavor, on Monday March 27 I was pleased to able to join several volunteers and local rabbonim at a modest chanukat ha’bayit (housewarming) at the Capital Kosher Pantry’s new location. Yad Yehuda Founder and President, Nechemia Mond, offered a tour of the freshly renovated facility which, thanks to your generosity, was fully stocked with food. Rabbi Yosef Singer of Young Israel Ezras Israel in Potomac, the current president of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington, put up a mezuzah on the front door of the house. This was followed by Tehillim (psalms) lead by Nechemia Mond and then a celebratory dance. Yad Yehuda volunteers would be delighted to give you a tour of their new facility and looks forward to increasing the community’s involvement in the food pantry, which serves as a resource helping so many in the Greater Washington area. For more information about the Capital Kosher Pantry and how you can help, please visit www.yadyehuda.org or email nmond@yadyehuda.org.

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COMMUNITY PHOTOS

Nitzan Productions and Local Caterer Potomac 18 Host Pesach Program at Lansdowne Resort

JPDS Celebrates Yom Ha’atzmaut

Siblings Josie and Gabey Silverberg at the whole school kick off celebration for Yom Ha’atzmaut

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Second Graders (R to L) Noam Trommer, Eliav Goldberg, Dvir Sacho-Tanzer, and Isiah Segal-Geetter show off their new Israel bracelets

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COMMUNITY PHOTOS

Leisure World Hosts Yom HaShoah Event

Contest Winners Benjy Levi and Lucas Druskin enjoying their favorite newspaper at Souper Girl

Beth Sholom Early Childhood Center celebrates Yom Ha’atzmaut with a “trip” to Israel

(PHOTO CREDIT: MEREDITH SALAMON)

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ISRAEL NEWS On Independence Day, UNESCO Denies Israeli Sovereignty Over Jerusalem (JNS.org/Kol HaBirah Staff) As millions of Israeli and Diaspora Jews marked Israel’s 69th Independence Day, the United Nations cultural body United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted Tuesday to adopt a resolution denying Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. The resolution — which passed in a 22-10 vote, with 23 abstentions—called Israel an “occupying power” and said any Israeli efforts to assert sovereignty over Jerusalem are “null and must be rescinded forthwith.” Last October, UNESCO had passed two resolutions denying Jerusalem’s Jewish heritage. The 10 countries voting against the resolution were the U.S., UK, Italy, Netherlands, Lithuania, Greece, Paraguay, Ukraine, Togo, and Germany. Among those voting in favor of the measure were Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Russia, South Africa, and Sweden. Italy was the only European Union country to publicly oppose the resolution ahead of the vote. “Our opinion is very clear,” Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said. “UNESCO cannot be the place for a permanent ideological confrontation.” Israeli officials reportedly successfully lobbied several European countries behind the scenes, including Italy, to drop support for the resolution. Israel succeeded in breaking up a German-brokered agreement between Arab states and 11 European Union countries, in which the EU would have promised to not oppose the UNESCO measure if Arab states softened its language, Haaretz reported. Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called the resolution “distorted” and “shameful,” and said it will “not change the fact that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.” Last October, UNESCO passed two separate resolutions ignoring Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem’s holy sites. Despite the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed stronger global support for Israel. “Today there are more countries abstaining or supporting Israel than countries against Israel,” Netanyahu said at a reception for foreign diplomats marking Israel’s Independence Day. “That is a change, for the first time.”

Abbas Meets Trump Amid Calls to Stop Palestinian Terror Payments (JNS.org) As Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was set to meet President Donald Trump for the first time Wednesday at the White House, U.S. lawmakers called for the PA to end its payments to jailed terrorists and their families.

Palestinian officials expressed uncharacteristic optimism ahead of the meeting. Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil AbuRudeineh, said the PA leader would push for the advancement of a two-state solution based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, an approach that was ratified by this year’s Arab League Summit in late March. Leading up to Abbas’s White House visit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the PA’s payment of stipends to Palestinian terrorists and their families. In an interview with Fox News in mid-April, Netanyahu demanded that the Palestinians stop the payments if they intend to show a genuine commitment to peace with Israel. “President Abbas…How can you speak of peace with Israel and at the same time fund murderers who spill the blood of innocent Israelis at every turn?” Netanyahu said. Republican U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) similarly insisted that Trump “raise this matter with President Abbas during his visit” and to “make clear to him that this practice [of paying terrorists] must end.” According to a White House official, Trump has heeded the calls by Netanyahu and U.S. lawmakers and will request that Abbas stop payments to families of Palestinian terrorists, reported Haaretz.

Hamas Unveils New Policy Calling for Palestinian State Along Pre-1967 Lines (JNS.org) The Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas released a new policy document Monday in a bid to soften its image, while calling for a Palestinian state in accordance with the pre-1967 lines. “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea,” the document stated. “However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity (Israel) and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the fourth of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” Prior to the release of the document, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was quick to dismiss any purported policy changes by the Palestinian terror group, saying, “When Hamas stops building tunnels and spends its resources on civilian infrastructure and ceases educating toward killing Israelis—that will be true change. But that hasn’t happened.” According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washing-

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 22, 2016. (CREDIT: UN PHOTO/CIA PAK)

ton-based think tank, Hamas’s new policy document is a “ploy” by the terror group to gain greater appeal among the international community and the Palestinian population. “This is not a sign of moderation so much as a ploy to end the faction’s international isolation,” FDD said in a memo. “The other element of this new document is the internal Palestinian political angle. In acknowledging the 1967 borders and dropping its call for Israel’s destruction, Hamas is making a play at the rival party Fatah’s supporters.”

Red Cross Head Says Israel Is Not an ‘Apartheid State’ (JNS.org) Jacques de Maio, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation to Israel and the disputed territories, asserted in a rare interview this week that Israel is not an “apartheid state.” The ICRC leader detailed the Palestinian Authority’s attempts at political manipulation, including accusations that Israel is an apartheid state that carries out “extrajudicial killings.” “There is no IDF order to shoot suspects to kill, as political officials tried to convince us,” de Maio told Yedioth Ahronoth. “The Red Cross was very familiar with the regime in South Africa during apartheid … there is no apartheid here [in Israel].” “There isn’t a regime here that is based on the superiority of one race over another; there is no disenfranchisement of basic human rights based on so-called racial inferiority,” he added. According to de Maio, the Red Cross has worked with the IDF to clarify “the issue of shooting assailants who carry out terror attacks, and we reached an unequivocal conclusion that there is no IDF order to shoot suspects to kill, as political officials tried to convince us.”

De Maio said that when the ICRC rejected the Palestinians’ accusation of “extrajudicial killings,” there were “immediately those who claimed we were covering up war crimes committed by the IDF, and that we were serving the Zionists.”

670 Israeli Teens Teach Holocaust Survivors to Use the Internet TEL AVIV, Israel — Students in the Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network are connecting with Holocaust survivors this spring, taking part in a unique program teaching their elderly neighbors to use computers and the internet. The 670 students are paired up with over 360 survivors in 22 cities throughout the country for weekly meetings with local aging survivors of the Holocaust. The program, dubbed Mechubarim (Hebrew for “connected”) is geared towards connecting the students with their local survivors and connecting the survivors with modern technology. Many times, after developing their initial connection during the students’ high school years, the students will continue to visit the survivor even after they graduate. “The Mechubarim initiative bridges our students and local Holocaust survivors together in weekly sit-downs, designed for each to get to know the other,” said Zvi Peleg, director-general of Israel Sci-Tech Schools. “The critical connections created by the program teaches our students, Israel’s future, of the horrors of the past insuring that they are never repeated.” “Their bonding through the teaching technology provides the survivors with the necessary skills to utilize technology to improve their daily lives, communicate with and trace relatives around the world, and share their stories on the worldwide web,” he said.

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CAPITAL COMMENTARY ‘I Think Striking Syria Was Absolutely Right’ ÁÁ CONTINUED FROM P. 1 some different viewpoints on subjects, including Israel. You’ve written extensively about the dangers of isolationism. We are experiencing the first hundred days of a president who was elected on a platform of “America First,” yet his foreign policy seems to be moving in a different direction. I am — at least in the last two weeks — somewhat pleasantly surprised by some of the things the president has done. I think striking Syria was absolutely right. It was an act of moral geopolitical hygiene to make sure that dictators who use weapons like that should not go unpunished.

It’s important to have a foreign policy in which we define our interests according to our values, not our values according to our interests. I’ve been heartened to see Trump come around to the importance of NATO and drop the rhetoric about Iraq’s oil to emphasize the need for allies, including allies that he has previously suggested were moochers (Japan, South Korea, and so on). He should keep it up; that is

to say, he should abandon the hobgoblin of small minds is a kind of isolationist and profoolish consistency. I don’t want tectionist impulses that deto fault Trump too much for flip fined his candidacy and adopt flopping if at least he’s flip flopsome version of robust liberal ping in the direction of sanity. internationalism which repreWhat should the Trump adsents the best American tradiministration’s approach be to tion from Harry Truman on. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? It’s important to have a Unfortunately, the best soluforeign policy in which we tion is to anesthetize the conflict define our interests accordso that it doesn’t become the neuing to our values, not our ralgic point of Middle Eastern polvalues according to our initics. That means telling Israelis terests. What we care about to take it slow on the settlements is democracy, free societies, — I’m not against all settlements, human rights, human digbut not to have a provoking polnity, and when you pursue icy, not to become a flash point, those values, what you will From left: JNF Breakfast Co-Chair Jeffrey Menich, New York not to become a center of converwind up discovering over the Times op-ed columnist and guest speaker Bret Stephens, Cosation. course of time is that your in- Chair Adrienne Rulnick, and breakfast host Dr. Chet Stein. On the other hand, [an additerests will follow. The fact (PHOTO COURTESY OF JNF) tional step is] to speak the truth that in the last two or three to the Palestinians, which is weeks we’ve seen similar movement in When they don’t have it — we don’t that they’re not going to get a state if that direction has given me hope that I want a world in which various countries they insist on a politics that celebrates haven’t had before. more or less freelance their foreign pol- terrorism, violence, and hatred of their What steps can the Trump adminis- icies and do whatever they feel like do- neighbors. tration take to differentiate its Middle ing, because that’s a disorderly world. We What would you say to the arguEast policy from that of its predecessor? want a world in which the South Kore- ment that anything Israel does becomes I think the major problem of the as, and Israels, and Saudi Arabias of the a flashpoint, because that’s the nature of Obama administration, in a word, was world, before they take any precipitous the coverage? Not necessarily. Look, the world has ambivalence. The saying in the Ma- act, say, “Let’s consult with Washington, rines, which would be familiar to Gen- let’s think this through.” That’s a world moved on. When I think of the differeral Mattis, would be, “No better friend, that favors order, and it’s a world that fa- ence between my time in Israel in 2003 and 2004 and now, I think the world has no worse foe.” That would be great for- vors the United States. Do you think that President Trump caught onto the fact that the real story eign policy, so that the traditional U.S. allies have the confidence that the Unit- speaking glowingly of Putin, only to in the Middle East is not in Ramallah or ed States really does have their back. suddenly change his tune, doesn’t re- even Gaza. The real story is in Aleppo and Mosul, and Kandahar. Even journalWhen they have that confidence, we flect ambivalence? It reflects a total flip flop, but I’d rath- ists learn… just slowly. have much more influence in terms of their internal deliberations and the ac- er have Trump flip flop on his previous stance on Putin than maintain it — the Rachel Kohn is editor in chief of Kol HaBirah. tions they choose to take.

Why Pay More for Less, When I Could Pay Less for More? By Ezra Dayanim In March, House Republicans publically released a new bill, entitled the American Health Care Act, and followed it up two weeks later by introducing it in Congress. The proposed bill was backed by President Donald Trump, who has proposed a new healthcare act to replace Obamacare since the presidential primaries. Republicans aimed for the American Health Care Act to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which was passed by Congress in 2010, endorsed by former President Barack Obama. For over six years, Republicans have attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act; however, they have yet to succeed. What exactly does the American Health Care Act do, and how does it differ from the Affordable Care Act? To an-

swer that question, one has to study both, point by point. The average American is concerned first and foremost about cost. Before the Affordable Care Act, roughly 20 percent of workers possessed health insurance policies that included caps on benefits. The American Health Care Act, meanwhile, is significantly more expensive and would make it more difficult for less affluent families to afford healthcare. Not only would it make healthcare more expensive, but before less affluent families could even acquire healthcare, they would be without healthcare for an undetermined period: the American Health Care Act would cause the Affordable Care Act to be repealed, with millions of people suddenly losing their healthcare. Returning to the concept of cost and how much this new healthcare act

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would cost, under the American Health Care Act one of the primary incentives of purchasing healthcare would be the ability for one to write off the full amount of their premiums. What this means is that the wealthy, who are able to afford costlier, and thus more encompassing, healthcare would be able to get a bigger tax break than the less affluent, who can only afford a lower-cost plan. The American Health Care Act is intended to repeal the Affordable Care Act. However, the American Health Care Act, according to conservative political beat writer Aaron Bandler, “leaves the pre-existing conditions mandate in place while repealing the individual and employer mandates.” This new healthcare plan means fewer provisions for a higher cost. Not only is this healthcare plan detrimental to the lower and middle classes, but it also hurts senior citizens. Under

this new conservative plan, senior citizens will be able to be charged up to five times higher than younger folk who enter an insurance plan without any pre-existing conditions. Because of this, senior citizens will be effectively priced out of the market and put in a dire position. Why would the average American wish to spend more money on a healthcare plan containing fewer provisions? The Affordable Care Act may not be perfect — it may be far from it — but it is still significantly more salutary to the average American than this new healthcare plan drawn up by President Trump and Congressional Republicans will ever be. Every American should sit down and ask themselves this question: why pay more for less, when I could pay less for more? Ezra Dayanim is in 10th grade at the Berman Hebrew Academy. He attends both Kemp Mill Synagogue and the Sephardic Minyan at Young Israel Shomrai Emunah. He is also involved in NCSY and Bnei Akiva.

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CAPITAL COMMENTARY EdChoice’s Jason Bedrick Talks School Choice and Jewish Education By Jackson Richman Recently, billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos was narrowly confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of Education. DeVos is known as a staunch advocate of school choice and has elicited both support and opposition from the Jewish community. In an exclusive interview, Jason Bedrick, policy director of school choice advocacy group EdChoice, said that school choice is an issue DeVos must leave to the states, and that will benefit Jewish day schools. “School choice programs can do a lot to make tuition more affordable,” said Bedrick. Formerly an education policy expert at the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank. “Not only will choice scholarships directly relieve the burden of tuition, they’ll bring in more money to cover students whose parents are currently paying very little and who are therefore subsidized by other tuition-paying families.” “That means schools could further reduce the burden on middle-income families,” he said.

Jewish schools in states that implement school choice will reap its benefits, Bedrick continued. “Several states with large Jewish populations already have school choice programs, though value of the scholarships varies by state. In Florida, the tax-credit scholarships are worth about $5,500. Arizona’s [Education Savings Account], which is on the cusp of being expanded to universal eligibility, offers most students about $4,600 for elementary school and $4,900 for high school,” he said. “However, I don’t expect that California, New York, or New Jersey will be getting a new choice program this year,” he added. California, New York, and New Jersey all have Democratic legislatures, which oppose school choice. Jewish supporters of DeVos are mostly from Orthodox circles, such as Agudath Israel. In Ohio, which has almost 150,000 Jews, the Cleveland Jewish News reported that Orthodox Jewish day school educators are elated with the new education secretary’s school choice policies, such as vouchers for parents. “I believe that, first and foremost, it helps the parents, because coming in with multiple children, this is a tremen-

dous help for the families,” Rabbi Eli Dessler, financial director of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News.

Jason Bedrick (COURTESY PHOTO)

Opponents, on the other hand, cry foul at DeVos possibly damaging Jewish day school education. For example, Forward’s editor in chief, Jane Eisner, wrote an article accusing the Trump administration of appointing someone who can continue a “sustained assault on the sep-

aration of religion and state [that] is likely only to exacerbate the already wide gap between Orthodox Jews and the more progressive majority that has, until now, dominated the conversation over the role of religion in the American public square.” “The split over DeVos is but one example,” she added. “I think most people choose Jewish high schools because they are Jewish (particularly among the Orthodox), not because of their secular academic program,” Bedrick said. “In other words, Jewish schools are primarily competing with each other, not non-Jewish schools. That said, parents I’ve spoken with — especially, but not exclusively, among the Modern Orthodox — do consider the strength of a school’s secular academics when deciding among Jewish schools.” With the average price tag of Jewish day school tuition at $15,000 per year, DeVos’ advocacy for school choice may enable competition among both public and private schools; and that would impact Jewish primary and secondary education, for better or for worse. Jackson Richman is a senior at George Washington University majoring in Political Science. His writing has appeared in The Weekly Standard, The Daily Caller, Red Alert Politics, and numerous other outlets. Follow him on Twitter: @jacksonrichman.

Employee Beneﬁts Disability Health Life

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CAPITAL COMMENTARY Assessing Costs and Defining Our Environmental Future By Jennifer Helgeson L’dor vador — from generation to generation. This is a central tenet of so much of Judaism: passing on knowledge, the sense of community, and the world to the next generation. I do not have children of my own at this point in life, but I struggle to recognize that those who do can possibly condone rolling back provisions that are proven to make the environment healthier and safer for humans. There is a sort of symbolism in the Presidential Executive Order (EO) on “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth” that asks the federal government to repeal or re-evaluate several key climate change-related policies. As an environmental economist, I see this EO as a blatant announcement that only the bottom line, short-run financial gain is important when assessing environmental and climate-related regulation, especially where it meets human health.

It makes sense that young people have been invested in acts like the March for Science and filed a landmark lawsuit, Juliana v. United States, set to go to trial in 2017. This lawsuit has been brought against the Trump federal government by a group of 21 kids, teens and young adults, who are suing for their right to a stable climate. It is today’s young people who will shoulder the bulk of future costs associated with the Trump administration’s rollback of climate (IMAGE BY AK ROCKEFELLER/FLICKR)

control policies (not to mention any cuts to research on topics ranging from cancer treatment to infectious diseases to ecosystem preservation). I don’t see this as a partisan issue, but a moral issue. After all, it was under (Republican) President Nixon’s tenure that the EPA was established in 1970, and landmark legislation like the Clean Air Act was passed in 1972. My grandmother grew up in the small Jewish community within the small town of Donora, Pennsylvania. In

It is today’s young people who will shoulder the bulk of future costs associated with the Trump administration’s rollback of climate control policies (not to mention any cuts to research on topics ranging from cancer treatment to infectious diseases to ecosystem preservation). Among other things, this EO specifically asks the federal government to roll back the Clean Power Act that requires substantial reductions in power plant emissions by 2030. The EO also calls for reconsidering the “social cost of carbon” (SCC) used to estimate the value of climate-related regulations and lifting the current ban on federal coal leasing. The EO is defended by President Trump by claims of “eliminating federal overreach” and an “era of production and job creation.” But there are always co-costs and externalities associated with scaling back mitigation and adaptation measures; they need to be measured and considered in full. Just because some costs are secondary or don’t immediately arise, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Most of my colleagues agree that there will not be profound effects in the shortterm, but there are longer-term signaling issues to the rest of the world; collectively there is a lot to lose if our path dependency goes back towards heavily polluting fuels. After living for many years in the EU and doing some work with Asia, I think that it is likely the rest of the world will not follow the U.S. back to fossil fuels, and one day in the future we will be shocked at how far behind we fell.

October 1948, a toxic fog generated by the Donora Zinc Works of the American Steel and Wire Co. settled, directly responsible for the death of 20 people in the first week and 50 more people in the following months. Donora in its current abandoned state is a tragic and clear example of how heavy industry can profit at the cost of the health of the nearby community. This is why environmental legislation should be stringent, and research and investment should continue to be made into cleaner production. I have to fight the urge to send a copy of the UK’s “Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change” (2006) to the White House on a regular basis. For more than a decade, I have dealt with assessing the value of environmental goods and services and the associated SCC. I have looked through the behavioral economics lens at individuals’ perception of these issues across space (different countries and socio-economic demographics) and time (generationally). A very small increase in prices today can translate to greater social equity (and health) and better outcomes for the grandchild of those surveyed in terms of the quality of natural amenities they face. The data supports that in most cases — I would go so far as to say

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almost always —individuals don’t mind this slight shift in order to positively impact environmental and health outcomes. One thing that the EO overlooks is that many energy companies face state requirements to increase renewable power generation and are increasingly under pressure from shareholders and research endowments from universities to cleanup. Cheaper U.S. natural gas has motivated many companies to abandon older coal plants in favor of gas-fired plants, which require fewer workers to operate. Economies of scale and technological advances mean solar and wind farms are becoming more cost-competitive with fossil-fuel generation; companies are taking associated tax credits and switching over to renewable power. In early April 2017, the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, Kentucky, announced that they are modernizing and switching to solar power to save money.

After living in the EU for many years and doing some work with Asia, I think it is likely that the rest of the world will not follow the US back to fossil fuels, and one day in the future we will be shocked at how far behind we fell. The irony. Within the SCC lays the subtler way, the Trump administration threatens to impose future costs on today’s young and disadvantaged. Many laws require administrative agencies to conduct a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) before deciding whether and how to create regu-

lation. But in this EO, the SCC metric is slated for revision; presumably this will artificially minimize the costs imposed by carbon emissions and help justify further rollbacks in the arena of greenhouse gas regulations. Should the consideration of “co-benefits” (i.e. considering incidental benefits from regulation aimed at a different issue) be limited as well? BCAs will no longer consider items like lives saved per year from the particulate matter. Once those types of considerations are formally off the books, changes to the way we calculate the cost of pollution could exacerbate the problems regulation is meant to address. I am not a huge fan of BCA, because it doesn’t always include enough of the non-market values that needs be considered, but such potential changes are just wrong. Not to mention they are subtle enough that they won’t grab headlines — I didn’t see a sign at the March for Science noting that government should keep its “hands off regulatory BCA.” Those who work with BCA for environmental regulation and assessment need to speak out and help educate our friends and neighbors as to how changes may affect policy but also the potential long-term impacts. L’dor vador — to pass on a liveable world from generation to generation. Please note that the public may comment on the EPA’s assessment of regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification in accordance with E.O. 13777. Comments are being taken through May 15 at https://www.regulations.gov/document?D =EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190-0042. Dr. Jennifer F. Helgeson is an environmental economist leading work on the economics of community resilience planning. Views shared in this post are her own and do not reflect the opinion of the organization by which she is employed. She is the founder of Write-It-Forward, which seeks to create a database for writing and sharing letters to members of Congress and the public. Visit writeitforward.org for more information.

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CAPITAL COMMENTARY Connecting With Israel’s Fallen Soldiers By Atara Mayer Dedicated to Second Lieutenant Erez Orbach, who was killed in Jerusalem on January 8, 2017. When I was a commander in the Israel Defense Forces, I gave my soldiers a tour of Har Herzl, Israel’s military cemetery. As we walked through the different sections of the cemetery, I tried to convey to my soldiers the connection between themselves and those buried on that hill. Har Herzl honors Israel’s fallen soldiers by laying them to rest side by side, regardless of rank or distinction. My soldiers, all of whom were privates, walked among the graves and saw colonels buried beside corporals and captains buried beside privates — every soldier respected for his or her contribution to Israel’s military, the same military to which my soldiers were now contributing. Toward the end of the tour, I played a song called “A Million Stars.” This song

was recorded by Amit Farkash at the funeral of her brother, Captain Tom Farkash, who died in a helicopter crash during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Amit sings, “I wanted one second to say goodbye to you... Just give me one second to say goodbye to you,” and at the very end of the song, in a barely audible voice, she says “Bye, Tom.” I thought of my siblings and I cried. I cried for Tom, who would forever be 23. I cried for Amit, who never got the chance to say goodbye to her big brother. I cried for their parents, who no longer wonder if their son is safe. I cried for the men and women laid to rest on that hill. I cried for their families, their wives, husbands, girlfriends, and friends. I cried for those whose stories are well-known and for those whose stories are untold. And my soldiers cried with me. We cried together, breaching the barrier of emotional distance between newly enlisted soldiers and their basic training com-

mander, because the men and women buried around us, unseen but strongly felt, all wore our uniform. And we could relate, even if only a little. Last year on Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, I stopped by a table at the school where I work which depicted the pictures, names, and hometowns of some of the soldiers who died during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Included was the manner in which they fell and their age. I read each card and looked into the photographed eyes of each soldier. Then I went back to the top and started counting how many there were. But the tears came and I stopped. How can I count them, as if they were numbers? They’re not numbers. They were strong, attractive, young men whose lives were cut short because they wanted me to live mine. I tried to choose a story to share for Israel’s Yom HaZikaron this year, but there are too many stories. Too many names, too many pictures, too many vid-

The author as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, visiting Har Herzl. (COURTESY PHOTO)

eos, too many lives cut short or forever altered. But they’re not numbers; they’re brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, grandchildren, spouses, and friends. They’re people. And I wish I could tell you all of their stories. Atara Mayer served as a basic training commander in the Education Corps at Michveh Alon, a base located in the Northern part of Israel.

Defining Originalism, Defending the Republic By Howard Slugh During Justice Gorsuch’s confirmation, Democratic senators expressed concern over his “originalist” judicial philosophy. Senator Feinstein described originalism as “deeply troubling” and suggested that it would harm vulnerable Americans. In her view, by applying the original public meaning of the Constitution, as originalism requires, Justice Gorsuch would prevent America from progressing — trapping it in the days of “segregated schools and bans on interracial marriage.” Instead, Feinstein proposes that judicial interpretation of the Constitution should “evolve as our country evolves.” Superficially, Feinstein’s approach seems appealing. Many Americans enjoy greater freedom and prosperity in 2017 than they did when the Constitution was ratified in 1788. Fortunately, an originalist Justice will not return America to the 18th century. Senator Feinstein misunderstands both originalism and republican government. Allowing judges to bypass the people and unilaterally update the meanings of laws cannot represent evolution in a republic. Such a process represents a devolution away from self-government toward the type of autocratic regimes that preceded the American revolution. The Declaration of Independence states that, in order to be “just,” governments must derive their powers “from the consent of the governed.” This founding idea — that no man is naturally entitled to rule over another — underlies the American republic. American leaders are elected, not

invested with power because of their ancestry, unique wisdom, or alleged divine selection. James Madison wrote that republican government is the only form of government compatible with “the genius of the people of America” and “the fundamental principles of the revolution,” deriving “all of its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people.” America is such a republic because the American people voluntarily empowered the federal government by ratifying the Constitution. The Constitution was designed to ensure that the American republic would persevere rather than slipping toward tyranny like nearly every previous attempt at republican democracy. The peoples’ willingness to empower the new government was contingent on the inclusion of safeguards aimed at avoiding such a fate: The federal government is limited to a list of enumerated powers and cannot accrue new powers in the absence of constitutional amendment. The legislative, judicial, and executive powers are separated. No one branch can easily usurp the other two and dominate the country. The legislature — the only branch empowered to make new laws — is responsible to the people and faces frequent elections. To win final ratification, the framers had to add a Bill of Rights reiterating that certain rights are beyond the reach of the federal government. Under that framework, and only under that framework, is the government empowered to make laws. Alternatively, the American people can amend the Con-

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stitution to directly create new laws. In either the case, the consent of the governed is the ultimate authority behind any new law. In other words, America satisfies the Declaration of Independence’s definition of a “just” republic. Originalism is the only judicial philosophy compatible with republican government. It maintains that, judges must interpret every law — whether a statute or a constitutional provision — as it was understood by the public at the time it was democratically enacted. As Justice Scalia indicated, doing otherwise would transform “democratically adopted” laws into “mere springboards for judicial lawmaking.” The Constitution empowers the legislature, not the judiciary, to enact laws. Allowing judges to exceed their constitutional authority would server the link between the government and the consent of the governed. This does not mean that the Constitution is frozen in amber or that advancement is prohibited. However, progress must occur democratically. This happened when the people adopted the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. It also happened when the peoples’ representatives adopted statutes such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Civil Rights Act. The alternative to originalism manifests in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that created a right to same-sex marriage. Justice Kennedy acknowledged that the American people had not democratically recognized a right to same sex-marriage. He rejected the argument that the Court “should

await further legislation, litigation, and debate” before acting, responding that, “it is of no moment whether advocates of same-sex marriage now enjoy or lack momentum in the democratic process.” Justice Kennedy justified his decision by noting that, “the generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.” Originalists agree with the sentiment expressed by Justice Kennedy. The Constitution does not purport to answer to every question. The Constitution and legal code were deliberately left open to revision by future generations. However, originalists disagree with Justice Kennedy in one critical regard — whom did previous generations empower to make those decisions? Justice Kennedy believes that the framers gave that power to judges; originalists believe that they entrusted it to the American people. In a republic, the originalists must prevail. The American experiment in self-government is an impressive and exciting evolution from the undemocratic governments that preceded it. That experiment is ongoing, but it cannot progress by taking a step backward away from republican government. Proponents of an “evolving” or “living” Constitution are advocating for what amounts to a devolution rather than an evolution. Howard Slugh is an attorney practicing in Washington, D.C. He is a guest contributor to Kol HaBirah.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

OP-ED

Orienting to Israel: Asia, Israel, and the UN By Meshulam Ungar Asian countries have a consistent anti-Israel voting pattern in the United Nations (U.N.), yet Israel’s relationship with several Asian countries is blossoming. Take Chinese imports to Israel, for example: a decade ago, they amounted to about 0.6 percent of Israeli imports, now they comprise more than 10 percent of Israeli imports. We shouldn’t put undue weight on U.N. votes against Israel by Asian countries. Instead, we should look at the strategic reasoning behind Asian votes in the U.N. and the opportunity Israel and Asia see in each other when it comes to economic, academic, and military cooperation.

Israel has responded to the changing and increasingly threatening environment in Europe with a longterm pivot to Asia. Israel has responded to the changing and increasingly threatening environment in Europe with a long-term pivot to Asia. Europe has become a hotbed for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose influence is seeping into its public policy. For example, in 2013, the European Union issued guidelines about Israel to all of its 28 member states, saying they should totally disengage themselves from business or academic relationships in the territories occupied by Israel since the Six Day War. Europe still makes up a sizeable 32 percent of Israeli exports, and 23 percent of their imports, but in the longterm it may not continue be as large a trading partner, so it would make sense to expand to new markets. Besides a weak BDS/anti-Israel movement that is active only in smaller, Muslim-majority nations, Asia offers opportunities in investment, technology, and arms deals. India, the largest buyer of weapons in the world, has Israel as its fourth largest supplier of arms. In 2015, for instance, India bought ten armed Heron drones for $400 million. Overall, the trade relationship with India is now worth two billion dollars per year, and growing. Historically, India has had an anti-Israel stance in the U.N. this is partly because during the Cold War, India was a leader of the Non-Aligned bloc and it was too dependent upon the other leaders of the bloc, Arab countries, to support Israel.

Today it gets 62 percent of its growing oil imports from the Middle East, which affects their public stance on Israel greatly. Israel’s relationship with Malaysia is similar to that with India: Malaysia buys 2.2 percent of Israeli exports, including $1.42 billion worth of integrated circuits for computers, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). But they have also have a dismal track record when it comes to Israel in the U.N. They actually voted for U.N. Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlements. There are two reasons behind this vote and their abysmal voting record: they, like India, were part of the Non-Aligned bloc during the Cold War; and the country’s majority Muslim (60 percent) population, including extremist factions sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, could cause domestic trouble if Malaysia’s openly supported Israel in the UN. With China, the relationship is different. Israel hasn’t sold arms to China in 17 years, unlike many other major countries with whom Israel has economic ties. In 2000, Israel tried to sell upgraded spy planes to China, but the U.S. blocked it, and the Israelis had to pay the Chinese a $350 million cancellation fee. This left a strain on relations between China and Israel, which still influences the partnership today. China voted against Israel in December 2016 on Resolution 2334, but the two countries are involved in growing academic and economic partnerships. These include a deal between China’s largest university, Jilin, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev to build a Center for Innovation to help Chinese and Israeli students learn about the newest technologies. China is now an importer of about three billion dollars of Israeli goods, far more than any other Asian country, purchasing a total of five percent of Israeli exports according to the OEC. In conjunction with this, China has been experiencing Islamist terrorism in Xinjiang province, and is getting assistance from Israel. Today there is some intelligence sharing, but mostly counter-terrorism and prevention. Japan’s relationship with the Middle East is almost solely based on Japan’s need for energy. Japan imports the most energy in the world, largely from Arab countries, buying 16 percent and 21 percent of Iran and Qatar’s crude petroleum exports respectively. It also purchases large amounts of liquified natural gas (LNG) in Asia, which is abundant and cheap. Since the price of oil has fallen, coupled with a glut of LNG, Japan no longer feels as indebted to the Arabs. Although Israel isn’t an oil producer, it still is the strongest military power in the Middle East and still has one of the fastest

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

(SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA.COM)

growing and strongest economies in the world. A new relationship has begun with Japan, who now buys 2.3 percent of Israel’s exports, and supplies two percent of Israel’s imports. Even with falling oil prices and the rise of LNG, keeping the Arab countries on good terms is still important to many Asian countries, mainly because of lack natural energy resources at home. They continue to rely on Middle East oil to fuel their gigantic economies, at least for the foreseeable future. They receive much of Sunni and Shiite countries’ oil exports, meaning Asia has an outsized influence on these countries’ economies and governments that Israel should try to leverage.

In today’s interconnected world, Asian countries are still dependent upon the Middle East for oil, and they don’t want to upset their suppliers by publicly supporting Israel on international stages like the U.N. Behind the scenes though, these countries have thriving relationships with Israel. We should recognize this rather than place an undue focus on superficial gestures of appeasement to some of Israel’s enemies. Meshulam Ungar is in 10th grade at the Berman Hebrew Academy and attends both Kemp Mill Synagogue and Young Israel Shomrai Emunah in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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OP-ED

Disposing of Middot By Phil Jacobs Yes, I know that we’re not allowed to bring up politics at the Shabbos table anymore, lest we offend Uncle Louis who has always insisted that he’s been alt-right while the rest of us are altwrong. Of course, we have a lunatic at the controls of North Korea’s runaway nuclear program who fires off missiles as if he’s auditioning for the second coming of “Dr. Strangelove.” (Millennials, just Google it, and get over it.) And of course, we have the really key American issues, such as what is Sean Spicer’s take on the world going to be today, how much money is Bill O’Reilly getting for being dumped by Fox, who exactly does “own” the brain of deceased thug Aaron Hernandez, and lastly, why Pepsi should stay away from politically-correct commercials. But now for the real point of this op-ed. My Jewish neighbors are literally driving me crazy. I have never seen it worse. Here’s what I mean. Walking to shul for a Friday mincha, I see people not just come to a rolling stop at a stop sign — I see them drive straight through the stop sign. As in 30 mph, no foot on the brake drive through. There is a state stop sign in the mid-

dle of the road. There is a graphic of a pedestrian next to the stop sign. It is there for the express purpose of allowing people walking to a nearby public school or to one of many shuls to get safely across the intersection. Finally, huzzah, a car stops at the stop sign. It is an Asian lady, who waves me across, when all of a sudden, who comes speeding by to her left but a guy in a black hat and beard heading, I’m guessing, to shul. I have to bail out and get back on the sidewalk for safety. The courteous Asian lady and I just shake our heads. That same guy in that car, I’m betting, would fight me over a chavrusah table on any small point of Rashi or Talmud. He made sure that the very last Honey Nut Cheerio was located under his toddler’s car seat before Passover. But he’s not the first person in the community who I’ve witnessed over the years not give a consideration to the basic laws of the state. You may ask where this is coming from. Certainly people from all faiths have driving issues and ignore stop signs and the safety of our children. It can’t just be Orthodox Jews. So humor me. I live in a gated community. We have trash bins on the premises, and for Passover, because we were cleaning our units, the association thoughtfully brought in another bin to help with the excess refuse.

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On the Sunday just prior to yom tov a few of weeks ago, I walked over to the extra bin with a bag of chametz. To my surprise, two teenage boys, both frum, were carrying trash bags from a mini-van and dumping the trash into the bin. We have a sticker on the window of our vehicles identifying them as belonging to residents of the community. No sticker on this van. I asked one of the kids if he lived in the community. He simply said “no” and climbed into the van with his friend, and I watched as they exited the community. I know, I should get a life — but then again, this wasn’t a one-off incident. I would walk outside only to see other vehicles without the condo association sticker and watch the vehicles leaving the community. It doesn’t take a Rashi to tell any of us that this is ostensibly stealing. The residents of our community pay an association fee that covers this extra trash pickup. If I were to drive over to the front lawn of the home where those teens came from and empty my trash can on their parents’ front lawn, I’d expect the authorities to come knocking on my door. I know, I know. There are so many issues of white-hot intensity smoldering on our planet. All that I am asking is that if we are true to the message of Pesach, to rid ourselves of chametz, that we at least include not just the spirit, but the actions of civility as well, as we move forward.

Driving a car through a stop sign is not acceptable, no matter how important getting to mincha might be. Not picking up litter on the ground, even if you didn’t place it there, is also not acceptable. Hashem gave us this earth as a gift. Keep it clean. And for the people who felt it was totally kosher to dump their Passover garbage in dumpsters paid for by my community association on private property, perhaps we will have to leave the garbage containers out there for you post-Passover. You obviously have more chametz to clean. Hashem parted the Red Sea. You can come to a complete stop for safety’s sake at a stop sign. You can legally dispose of your own trash. It doesn’t take a miracle. Phil Jacobs is on the Kol HaBirah Advisory Board. He is the associate editor of the New Jersey Jewish Link. He writes from Baltimore.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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Fact: Genetic testing panels are periodically updated with more diseases – many of which are very common and very serious. It is important to have up-to-date screening through a program that offers expanded testing.

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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FEATURES JScreen: Improving Access and Dispelling Myths About Genetic Testing ÁÁ CONTINUED FROM P. 1 The couple was overcome with joy when they gave birth to their first child, an active, sweet, adorable baby boy. It was only when their second child wasn’t meeting routine milestones that they recognized something was wrong. After months of testing, their daughter Eden was diagnosed with mucolipidosis type IV (ML4), a disease more common in those with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. ML4 is a neurodegenerative disease that significantly impacts both mental and motor skills. Eden is now nine years old and will never learn to walk or talk; doctors say she will probably go blind by the time she is twelve, will reach a maximum mental capacity of 18 months, and is only expected live until early adulthood. How could this happen? Randy and Caroline asked to be screened! For one, their doctors had no idea what to screen them for. Furthermore, the rabbi who married them never mentioned Jewish genetic screening in pre-marital counseling and what diseases they should have on their radar. How were they supposed to know that there are now many Jewish genetic diseases that are known and preventable through a simple test? This testing informs you about whether you are a healthy carrier of a genetic disease, meaning that you aren’t affected by the disease and display no symptoms, but have the capacity to pass it on if your partner is a carrier of the same disease. It’s quite common to be a carrier; in fact, one in three Jews is a carrier

JScreen tests for diseases commonly found in those with Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi backgrounds, as well as general population diseases. Therefore, the test is relevant to anyone with Jewish ancestry — even just one Jewish grandparent — as well as interfaith couples. “I wasn’t aware it was necessary for me to be screened, because I am half Ashkenazi and half Mizrahi,” said Weltman’s sister, Danya. “Thankfully JScreen informed me otherwise and I’m now educated about diseases that are significant to my background for when I am ready to start a family.” JScreen has already screened thousands of people across the country, including a large number from the DC metro area. Two of these individuals, Tamar and David May, a dynamic couple active in DC Jewish life, “got JScreened” and are now expecting a baby this summer.

Hillary Kener, who oversees national outreach and communications for Emory University’s JScreen program. (COURTESY PHOTO)

for at least one of these Jewish genetic diseases. If both partners are carriers for the same disease, then there is a twenty-five percent risk in each pregnancy that the child will be affected with that disease. The problem is that the only way to know if you are a carrier is to have an affected child or to get screened. Their experience led a team of genetic counselors from Emory University to found JScreen, a national, non-profit genetic screening service for Jewish genetic diseases. The concept is simple: educate the community about the importance of proper screening for Jewish genetic diseases and create unparalleled access to genetic screening. JScreen makes testing for Jewish genetic diseases simple by providing an easy-to-use

JScreen staff and volunteers raising awareness. (COURTESY PHOTO)

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at-home saliva test that gives couples planning for children an unprecedented understanding of their own genetic makeup and risks relating to their children’s health. The results are delivered through phone or secure video teleconference by a certified genetic counselor. “I share the importance of screening to both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi/Sephardic populations,” said Ilana Weltman, a JScreen volunteer in Washington, D.C. “I enjoy educating the public on what is screened for and why it is helpful to take action early on. JScreen has attracted the interest of college students, young professionals, and young couples. People now recognize JScreen as it has grown significantly in the past few years thanks to their vast outreach efforts.”

The concept is simple: educate the community about the importance of proper screening for Jewish genetic diseases and create unparalleled access to genetic screening. Tamar reflected on her experience: “When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant, JScreen’s test results provided me with invaluable peace of mind. We got tested just after we were married. All we had to do to assuage my fears was spit into a tube and pay a small fee. This was a no-brainer.” “My husband and I were thrilled to find out that we were both not carriers of any Jewish genetic diseases, and very thankful to JScreen. In fact, we were so thrilled that we marched with JScreen in that year’s Israel Day Parade in New York shouting, ‘Screen your genes!’” While Tamar admitted to worrying about every detail of her pregnancy, “the prospect of having a kid with a Jewish genetic disease is not one of them, thanks to JScreen,” she said. Visit JScreen.org to request a kit anytime, or sign up for the May 17 onsite screening at the DC JCC by going to JScreen. org, selecting “DC JCC” on the “How did you hear about us?” pulldown, and entering coupon code “DCJCC” for a special price of $36 (with insurance), and pick up your kit on May 17 between 4:00-6:30 p.m. For more information email info@JScreen.org . Hillary Kener oversees national outreach and communications for Emory University’s JScreen program. She has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and television for her efforts to generate awareness around the importance of genetic screening throughout the country. Hillary is a published author and is very active in multiple charitable organizations.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

FEATURES Supporting Our Survivors ÁÁ CONTINUED FROM P. 1 tration camps, this woman, who didn’t want her named used for this article, is very much in demand. As a survivor of Auschwitz and a death march, she finds herself being asked to tell her tale of woe over and over again, to any group who asks. And it never gets any easier. “Can a non-survivor ever understand a survivor?” resident Claude Kacser asked rhetorically. “I knew one who was still as angry as hell and had nightmares his whole life.” Kacser came to America on the Kindertransport when he was six years old. “All of this had a great impact on my personality. You can never be normal. You are 98 percent normal, until the moments you aren’t,” he said.

Rabbi James Michaels, chaplain at Charles E. Smith Life Communities, helps staff members better understand the residents who are Holocaust survivors. (PHOTO CREDIT: SUZANNE POLLAK)

Rabbi James Michaels at Charles E. Smith Life Communities is well-aware of the struggles Holocaust survivors experience. When he first started work as chaplain in the Rockville facility, there were more Holocaust survivors living there. Most of them had suffered starvation, beatings, and the separation and death of loved ones. Today, the majority of survivors living there were very young when their parents sent them away or hid them. Few ever lived in work or death camps. Still, they grew up with parents who carried physical and emotional scars. Many were one of only a handful of survivors in their families. They spent much of their lives mourning siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles whom they didn’t remember. At every party, family get-together, and holiday, Marsha Leikach Tishler, who lived with a Christian family from the age of three months to three years, continually reminded people of all the family members who perished. During Yizkor (the memorial prayer in synagogue), “everyone became despondent.”

Every holiday reminded Tishler’s parents of relatives who didn’t survive. As a child, and through most of her life, Tishler felt “the burdens of the past.” She recalled how her mother used to chase after trams on the streets, certain she had spotted her niece’s blond hair, but the person she spotted was always a stranger. “My father was always running away from those shooting at him in the dark as he slept,” she said. Whenever he passed a thick group of bushes, he’d point it out to his daughter so she would know “that’s a good place to hide.” Edith Lowy, who survived six concentration camps and a death march, explained that the Holocaust “is not always in my head, but it is a lot in my head.” It also haunts her how little the world has learned. When she sees how unwelcome today’s refugees from war-torn countries are, “it frightens me,” she said. “All the refugees, all the suffering, all the hate. It’s just terrible to see,” said Lowy. A television news clip featuring fleeing refugees is enough to trigger strong emotions from many survivors. While they often led happy, successful lives, when something small happens, it can send them right back to the fear they experienced during World War II. “You never know what is going to trigger a response,” said Rabbi Michaels. He recalled a woman who was singing happily at a Chanukah party when she spotted the Holocaust menorah at the Smith-Kogod residence. “She started screaming. She walked to the menorah and starting hugging it. She made it impossible to continue the program,” Rabbi Michaels said. Dealings with children of survivors is another challenge Rabbi Michaels and his staff face. “There is a sense of obligation, protectiveness. They tend to be more demanding on staff than the average resident,” he said. He attributed it to being raised by demanding parents, or maybe that some of the trauma their parents faced has been passed on to them. He has witnessed family members fight to keep their aging parents off the Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) list. They believe that if their parents survived death camps and all the horrors, surely they could recover from their current illnesses, Rabbi Michaels explained, adding that keeping them alive at any cost isn’t always fair to the aging parents. During orientation for new staff members at the Charles E. Smith Life Communities, Michaels briefly talks about Judaism, Israel, and the Holocaust. Most of the staff are Christians and many did not grow up in America, he said. He helps them understand why some residents are fanatical about lighting their electric candles each Friday night or have a strong connection with Israel. Some staff, especially those born outside this country, have never heard of the

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Survivor Edith Lowy finds it very hard to understand why people never learn: now, once again, there are unwanted refugees from war-torn countries.

Survivor Marsha Tishler, who was hidden with a Christian family, looks over a poster that includes a photo of her younger self in a displaced person’s camp.

(PHOTO CREDIT: SUZANNE POLLAK)

Holocaust, said Rabbi Michaels, who edited the book, “Flourishing in the Later Years: Jewish Pastoral Insights on Senior Residential Care” by Paula David from the University of Toronto. One chapter in the book deals with survivors who suffered “massive trauma.” As they age, they sometimes forget their more recent life filled with family joy and good jobs. Instead, they think they are back in the Holocaust. “They can become lost in the very dark labyrinths of older, long-term memories,” she writes. They may lose the ability to differentiate between the past and present.” Some have become terrified when pets are brought to their residential home. Those dogs conjure up their fears of when Nazi guard-dogs controlled their moves, she writes.

may struggle when a spouse becomes ill, never having experienced death in any terms but sudden and far too young. Survivors can’t be healed, David writes. Instead, friends and caregivers should let them live out their final years with dignity and the least amount of trauma possible. The Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) in Rockville has a Holocaust Survivor Program that casts a safety net out to the more than 430 Holocaust survivors it serves in Montgomery County, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Fairfax County, Virginia. JSSA offers personal care services, kosher Meals on Wheels, and individual care management. The agency works with community partners to provide hearing aids, eyeglasses, and free dental care. More than 85 percent of JSSA’s survivor clients came to the United States from Russian-speaking countries, and, while they suffered through war and starvation, they rarely were in concentration camps. Many, however, witnessed the mass murder of family members. The great majority of them live below the poverty line, often because they came here when they were older and didn’t have long careers or good jobs in their new homeland, said Hileia Seeger, JSSA’s director of senior services. They often didn’t have access to good medical care while living in the Soviet Union, she said. Besides taking care of their needs, JSSA offers social events to foster relationships among survivors. The non-profit also helps survivors obtain the financial restitution from Germany they are entitled to through the Claims Conference. JSSA strives “to establish a relationship. Let them know someone is there for them,” Seeger said. Rabbi Michaels added: “Survivors need to know they still count. They are valued.”

Survivor Claude Kacser believes that after living through the Holocaust, “you can never be normal.” (PHOTO CREDIT: SUZANNE POLLAK)

As they age, and friends and the little family they had die off, survivors often miss out on the benefits of shiva and the comfort of having family members by their side, David writes. They also

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FEATURES

My Beloved Son Erez By Caryn Orbach My beloved son Erez was killed in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 2, 2017. Erez was an amazing person, loved by all who knew him. Erez was 20 years old when he was killed, the oldest of six. When he was twoand-a-half months old, he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease. When we took Erez for treatment, I made a pact with Hashem — I promise to be the best mother I can be, and you will give him as many years as you can. Erez continued his life with the disease. When Erez was 11 years old, he was supposed to volunteer with his friends in a preschool. The evening before he told me that he doesn’t want to go because he doesn’t want the kids to be afraid of him, due of his pale skin that was an outcome of his disease. I told him something that led him through life. “There are no difficulties, there are only lessons to be learned.” I told him that if you look at things as difficulties, it is like putting a wall in front of yourself, causing you to get stuck. If you look at them as lessons, you can overcome, learn new things about yourself and move on. This is how Erez lived his life: quietly, positively, and always with a smile on his face. Erez learned from everything that happened in his life and moved on, knowing that there were always lots of lessons to be learned. When Erez was a junior in high school, he decided to enlist to the army even though he wasn’t obligated to. It took him a year and a half of convincing the army that he could be a soldier. One of the doc-

tors Erez saw during this long process asked him, since most of the people the doctor spoke with looked for reasons not to go to the army, why was Erez trying so hard to achieve the opposite? Erez simply answered that it is his duty to serve his country just like the rest of his friends.

After finishing high school, Erez learned for a little over one year at Yeshivat Maalot. During this time Erez learned a lot and became very knowledgeable. Even being so knowledgeable, he always listened carefully and respected others’ opinions. When Erez was finally accepted into the army, he served in the air force and was in charge of the tools in the base. When he came home for the first time, I asked him what his job was. I was so excited for him! Erez told me that it was a simple job, and seemed disappointed. I told him that the job will be whatever he makes of it, and Erez did make a lot out of it. After a couple of months, Erez decided that every

week he would choose the best soldier of the week. Every Thursday he would send a poem to the unit’s whatsapp group, announcing the “Soldier of the Week.” Three months into his army service, Erez decided that he wanted to become an officer — a very rare thing for a volunteer. He was again living the idea of “there are no difficulties, only lessons to be learned,” When talking to his officer, the answer was, we will see. Erez told him, “You don’t understand, I’m not asking you if I am going to officer’s course; I’m asking you when I will go.” After what would look to all of us like a difficulty, and to him as a lesson to be learned, he was accepted into the officer’s course. When my friends came to visit me during the shiva, we talked about how all of the soldiers that we know that have fallen were perfect in a way: tall, handsome and perfect. Erez was not. He wasn’t very tall, not the best looking, but he was very special, because he overcame and learned lots of great lessons along the way. I think that a big portion of Erez’s strength comes from the way he was brought up. They can be split up into three main points. The first one is unconditional love. Erez was loved all the time, no matter what. At times, when a person dies all of a sudden, his loved ones say that they wish they would have told him how much they loved him. This was not the case with Erez. He knew I loved him, unconditionally, all of the time. The second thing was giving him the power to keep going, and the third thing was believing in him. Ever since he was a child, I trusted him and I knew he would make the right choices. During the shiva, different speakers came to talk and share words of Torah. One night, there were two speakers: Esti

Rozenberg and Hadassa Fruman. They talked about a saying in Masechet Shabbat: “When people cry about an honest man, Hashem keeps the tears in his house of treasures.” This saying tells us first of all that at times like these we are obligated to cry, and that Hashem is, in a way, crying together with us. I cried a lot during my son’s shiva, and I also laughed a lot, I listened a lot, and I talked a lot. I cried when I understood that Erez is not coming back, I laughed when I heard funny stories about Erez and I talked about Erez to whoever wanted to listen and learn about him — family, friends of his from high school, yeshiva, army, and other parts of his life, and high ranking officers, Knesset members, and even President Rivlin. Together with me, all of Am Yisrael was mourning the loss of Erez. I shifted during the shiva from my own personal grieving to giving interviews, talking to members of the knesset, and reporters. It was with clear understanding that other than me being a mother grieving her son, I also had a job: to tell everyone about Erez; what a special person he was, and how much we have to learn from him about ourselves and in our own lives. So many people came to show their condolences, from Israel and abroad, and every person that came gave me more spirit to cope with my terrible loss. Erez had a unique status on his whatsapp, a quote from the Chazon Ish: ‫ להיות‬,‫ כל עוד הנשמה בקרבו‬,‫חובת האדם בעולמו‬ .‫הולך וגדל‬ “A person is obligated, as long as he shall live, to keep growing spiritually.” Erez lived this motto during his lifetime and I think that we should all learn this important lesson. ‫יהי זכרו ברוך‬

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Brave Jew World By Rabbi Jonathan Gross In the dystopian future depicted in Aldous Huxley’s classic “Brave New World,” people are industrially engineered, manufactured, and programmed. Through advanced technology, perfect social stability and harmony is achieved — at the cost of free will and any semblance of humanity. When reflecting on his novel in the preface to the 20th anniversary edition, Huxley acknowledged that his views had evolved over the two decades since he wrote the book in 1931. The book presents the antagonist with the binary alternative of either living in the insanity of the “Utopia” or living a primitive life removed from modern civilization. Later in life, Huxley realized that there was a third alternative, a way to reap the benefits of technology while avoiding or minimizing the adverse consequences. In this third scenario, he wrote, “[s]cience and tech-

nology would be used as though, like the Sabbath, they were made for man, and not as though man were to be adapted and enslaved to them.” A generation before Huxley, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch also addressed the problem of dehumanization of people, particularly in the area of procreation and childbirth. The word tazria appears only twice in the Torah; once in reference to childbirth (Vayikra 12:2) and once referring to the activity of plants in the perpetuation of their species (Bereishit 1:11). The role of the parents, particularly the mother, in childbirth can be viewed as a purely material physiological process. Rabbi Hirsch understood the subsequent impurity and the corresponding offerings that follow childbirth as being a process meant to force the parents, and the reader of the Torah, to consider the human element of childbirth and parenting.

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In his 2001 report on human cloning, bioethicist Leon Kass mentioned, among other things, that one of the dangers inherent in human cloning is the potential for the dangerous shift from begetting children to manufacturing children. To manufacture a child is to determine in advance what the child’s future life will be. “Cloning is thus inherently despotic, for it seeks to make one’s children after one’s own image (or an image of one’s choosing) and their future according to one’s will,” he said. After childbirth, the Torah proscribes an elevation offering and a sin offering. The most basic interpretation of this ceremony is the need for the parents to understand that the child will lead its own life and is capable of both elevation or sin. Parents have an opportunity and an obligation to guide and nurture the child along the path, but ultimately, the life belongs not to the parents, but to the child. Rabbi Hirsch writes, “If anywhere, it

is surely here, that the fact must be established that once born, the child is a morally free agent.” Huxley’s alternative challenges us at all times to consider whether we are controlling technology or if technology is controlling us. One of the earliest and most central teachings of the Torah is that after eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil we can no longer live in the utopia of Eden; instead we live in a world where our moral choices decide our destiny. When we harness technology to improve our lives, and still manage to retain our moral autonomy, we can have the best of both worlds. Rabbi Jonathan Gross was the chief rabbi of Nebraska for ten years and currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of a number of books, including “Ai Vey: Jewish Thoughts on Thinking Machines” and “Values Investing: An Omaha Rabbi Learns Torah from Warren Buffett.” His books and writings can be found at www.ThatsGross.org.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

FEATURES

Keep Your Pence On The Vice President’s commitment to “building a zone” around his marriage has sparked a larger conversation about men and women in the workplace. By Miriam Gross “If there’s alcohol being served and people are being loose, I want to have the best-looking brunette in the room standing next to me.” This quote from Vice President Mike Pence, featured in a 2002 article by Beltway publication The Hill, was recently referenced in the Washington Post’s profile of America’s Second Lady, Karen Pence: “In 2002, Mike Pence told the Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either,” the Washington Post article read. It was only sentence, but it drew a lot of attention and commentary. Not surprisingly, opinions were mostly divided along political lines, with both sides making assumptions about the applications and intentions of Pence’s statement. Pence’s detractors pointed out that he would not be able to meet with female heads of state, and that his policy would exclude women from important career-advancing opportunities. Pence’s supporters were quick to defend his right to a code of ethics and integrity that he found meaningful. Pence himself has not commented on nor clarified the details of his personal practices and the widely-presumed set of intentions guiding them. If the professional workplace standard is to conduct business over dinner, to dine exclusively with only one gender does enter into the realm of gender discrimination. According to former Pence employee Mary Vaught, however this was not an issue for Pence at the time of his statements in 2002: “He wasn’t having private dinners much at all. He had children at home, so as often as possible, after voting and his daily duties, he’d race home to share a meal with ... his family,” she wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post following the Karen Pence profile. “Frankly, he modeled for male and female staffers alike that it was possible to serve in a public role with excellence while being wholly dedicated to his family.” Pence also told The Hill in their 2002 article that he often refused dinner or cocktail invitations from male colleagues. “It’s about building a zone around your marriage,” he was quoted as saying. “I don’t think it’s a predatory town, but I think you can inadvertently send the wrong message by being in [certain] situations.”

Whether you like Pence, or hate him, he confronts a real issue in the professional world. In the context of Judaism, the laws of yichud (seclusion) offer an example of a values-based framework for “appropriate” behavior. Men and women are seen in the eyes of the laws of yichud as equally if differently tempted, and equally vulnerable to character assassination. For example, a widow is advised not to hire a male servant, for the explicit fear that people will gossip that she is using the relationship inappropriately. There is recognition of an unequal power dynamic and concern that illicit sexual behavior should not transpire, but the greater concern is for establishing an environment where reputations are preserved. Ultimately, these laws are formulated to create a more smoothly-functioning community.

Jill Green (COURTESY PHOTO)

“From a halachic perspective, VP Pence’s practice is not mandated, but our tradition has created certain safeguards, such as yichud, preferring that we err on the side of caution,” said Rabbi Chaim Motzen, senior rabbi at Ner Tamid Congregation in Baltimore, Maryland. “Challenging at times? Yes. Too puritanical to some? Sure. But [it’s] an area of life where the alternative has catastrophic consequences.” Really? “My two-word response would be Bill O’Reily,” said Rabbi Motzen. Reported allegations against the former Fox News personality include precisely the type of settings — a one-on-one dinner with a female staff member in a hotel restaurant, for instance — that Pence avoids. The Pence model of behavior of may be old-fashioned, and problematic through a gender discrimination lens, but it does reflect a real concern. A 2010 study from the Center for Talent Innovation (formerly the Center for Work-Life Policy) found that “nearly twothirds of men in senior positions pulled back from one-on-one contact with junior female employees because of fear of

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Mike Pence and his wife Karen at CPAC 2015 in Washington, D.C. (PHOTO CREDIT: GAGE SKIDMORE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

being suspected of having an affair. Meanwhile, half of junior women reported being nervous about one-on-one contact with senior men for the same reason.” These findings suggest that it is concern for one’s reputation rather than actual temptation or fear of infidelity that motivates gender segregation in the workplace. According Sharon Benus, chairperson and co-founder of IMPAQ International in Columbia, Maryland, gender exclusion is less common in companies where the corporate culture emanating from the top emphasizes trust in its employees and values proven ability and hard work. Prior to founding IMPAQ, Benus served for more than 25 years in various senior management positions in state government, at University of Maryland, and in the private sector. She attributes the equal-opportunity environment in her 400-person company to intentional modeling and clear expectations. Every meeting offers multiple opportunities for one participant to set the tone, said Jill Green, Assistant Dean of University of Baltimore Law School. Real power is vested in the one who seizes these moments, and she recommended setting personal policies that make it clear that the encounter is one of a professional nature with social overtones, rather than the other way around. This as an integral part of being an effective female professional, she said, and these standards are equally beneficial to men and women. Amy (last name withheld at her request) started her career at a large investment bank, and is now chief operating officer of a fund managed by one of her former clients. An Orthodox Jew, Amy found her own way to balance personal and religious standards with the pressures of her work environment: “[instead of] pushing my career ahead by going out with my coworkers for drinks, I focused on being an expert in my field, by becoming the person that coworkers and clients needed to call regardless of whether or not we socialized,” she said. There are many ways to the top, said Amy. A fanatical sports fan and a boss who shares the same fanaticism will have

more to talk about, allowing them to interact more, for example. Such face-time, if well-managed, can be a path to promotions and opportunities. Ultimately, however, professionalism and a strong work ethic have the power to level all playing fields in the corporate environment, regardless of gender, she said. In her Washington Post op-ed, Vaught, made the following observation: “With his choice about how to divide up his time, Pence made a strong statement about work-life balance, the importance of family time and respect in the workplace: values we can all get behind.” One potential positive outcome of the controversy around Pence’s comments would be to prompt couples to weigh the impact of their presence at the business dinner table versus the family dinner table. Numerous studies cite family dinners as a primary force in building a strong marriage instilling self-confidence and resilience in children. On the other hand, the lurking sexism and distorted values of this after-hours business dinner culture are not serving women or men well. By focusing on fidelity, Pence’s previous statements and the discussion around them fail to address the other problems that arise if workplace boundaries are left ambiguous. It is easy to applaud Pence’s dedication to his protecting his marriage and integrity and draw parallels between his very Halacha-esque “building a zone” concept and the Jewish laws regarding yichud. Pence has drawn fervent defenders because his statements reflect a stand for values in the face of a professional culture that demands allegiance to self-advancement over personal dignity and work over family. Politics aside, some well-thought out and clearly expressed personal boundaries could be what our society needs in order to confront real issues facing women and men in the workplace. Rebbetzin Miriam Gross lives in Baltimore, and studies Jewish Law at Yeshivat Maharat. She works as the engagement coordinator at The Darrell D. Friedman Institute for Professional Development, an agency of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Selected Highest Priced Sales of Past Week

Recent Market Activity in Montgomery County ADDRESS

6 BR French Country 9300 Rapley Preserve Dr Sold Price: $2,350,000

5 BR Prairie 5619 Marengo Rd Sold Price: $2,000,000

7 BR Contemporary 6901 Whittier Blvd Sold Price: $1,800,000

6 BR Colonial 19117 Jerusalem Rd Sold Price: $1,658,400

5 BR Colonial 7333 Heatherhill Ct Sold Price: $1,450,000

4 BR Colonial 4414 Boxwood Rd Sold Price: $1,430,000

6 BR Arts & Crafts 5911 Jarvis Ln Sold Price: $1,425,000

4 BR Colonial 3902 Woodbine St Sold Price: $1,400,000

4 BR Colonial 13204 Squires Ct Sold Price: $1,365,000

5 BR Colonial 9726 The Corral Dr Sold Price: $1,355,000

6 BR Arts & Crafts 4516 Chestnut St Sold Price: $1,305,000

5 BR Colonial 9225 Cambridge Manor Ct Sold Price: $1,250,000

5 BR Cottage 3809 Woodbine St Sold Price: $1,155,000

7 BR Colonial 12009 Piney Meetinghouse Rd Sold Price: $1,150,000

5 BR Colonial 11013 Homeplace Ln Sold Price: $1,075,000

3 BR Other 9930 Logan Dr Sold Price: $1,025,000

4 BR Traditional 10111 Sycamore Hollow Ln Sold Price: $999,900

3 BR Colonial 5609 Harwick Rd Sold Price: $980,000

4 BR Cape Cod 9407 Wadsworth Dr Sold Price: $869,000

3 BR Townhouse 5459 Whitley Park Ter Sold Price: $780,000

3 BR Townhouse 5345 Strathmore Ave Sold Price: $750,000

3 BR Townhouse 7811 Whiterim Ter Sold Price: $750,000

5 BR Colonial 11432 Frances Green Dr Sold Price: $748,000

4 BR Colonial 1821 Greenplace Ter Sold Price: $725,000

RETS Data of Sales across Montgomery County, provided by MRIS as of May 3, 2017 is subject to change. No inference should be made nor is one intended that properties are from my team's or my broker's activities as listing or cooperating agent. Selection based on highest prices and legible photos from the associated chart to the right.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

9300 5619 8014 6901 8805 19117 7333 4414 5911 13204 3902 9726 4516 12009 9225 11213 7005 9930 11013 3809 10111 4812 5609 9407 4401 5153 10925 5813 5459 5316 5345 7811 11432 1821 8603 6679 17901 18510 22227 13413 12710 19410 21613 14334 5104 7 8808 8 13246 18201 113 11647 614 20624 14007 16520 529 10217 1944 19 8604 301 15413 7748 25113 18613 17713 9528 16404 7809 414 7740 15914 8336 12621 9420 12209 15117 19813 4605 3400 13009 7111 3006 19609 2704 16709 18722 6 19512 4 13619 2702 1132 18107 12812 430 806 1303 17806 13922 1103 13116 11750 12301

LIST/SALE PRICE

Rapley Preserve Dr $2,350,000 Marengo Rd $2,000,000 Glenbrook Rd $1,725,000 Whittier Blvd $1,800,000 Mary Mead Ct $1,562,500 Jerusalem Rd $1,658,400 Heatherhill Ct $1,450,000 Boxwood Rd $1,430,000 Jarvis Ln $1,425,000 Squires Ct $1,365,000 Woodbine St $1,400,000 The Corral Dr $1,355,000 Chestnut St $1,305,000 Piney Meetinghouse Rd $1,150,000 Cambridge Manor Ct $1,250,000 Stephalee Ln $1,125,000 Kenhill Rd $1,025,000 Logan Dr $1,025,000 Homeplace Ln $1,075,000 Woodbine St $1,155,000 Sycamore Hollow Ln $999,900 Derussey Pkwy $1,049,000 Harwick Rd $980,000 Wadsworth Dr $869,000 Gladwyne Dr $885,000 Westbard Ave #15 $800,000 Bloomingdale Dr $824,000 Ridgefield Rd $816,000 Whitley Park Ter $780,000 Glenwood Rd $787,000 Strathmore Ave $750,000 Whiterim Ter $750,000 Frances Green Dr $748,000 Greenplace Ter $725,000 Aqueduct Rd $724,000 Hillandale Rd #123 $735,000 Hickman St $705,000 Rushbrooke Dr $726,000 Overview Ln $681,000 Windy Meadow Ln $695,000 Gorman Cir $690,000 Fisher Ave $690,000 Gentry Ln $668,500 Ashleigh Greene Rd $688,000 Clavel Ter $660,000 Indian Spring Dr $613,000 Grant St $582,500 Stage Coach Ct $595,000 Windsong Ln $600,000 Fountain Grove Way $620,000 Normandy Dr $570,000 Ranch Ln $570,000 Woodside Pkwy $560,000 New Hampshire Ave $535,000 Flint Rock Rd $554,000 Cavalry Dr $551,000 Beall Ave $510,000 Arizona Cir #44 $523,000 Seminary Rd $520,000 Martins Square Ln $515,000 Goshen View Dr $490,000 Opera Ct $510,000 Peach Orchard Rd $480,000 Barnstable Pl $485,000 Seneca View Ct $470,000 Rolling Acres Way $479,900 Parkridge Dr $449,000 Lawnsberry Ter $455,000 Henry Dr $415,000 Coddle Harbor Ln #6 $439,000 Ritchie Pkwy $465,000 Laytonia Dr $455,000 Attleboro Rd $445,000 Marketree Cir $439,000 Montclair Dr $439,000 Elger Mill Rd $435,000 Galway Dr $430,000 Red Cedar Dr $425,000 Sedgwick Way $420,000 Tallahassee Ave $442,000 Island Creek Ct #129 $417,000 Autumn Dr $427,000 Woodmont Ave #917 $415,000 Memory Ln $421,000 Ridge Heights Dr $412,500 Woodedge Rd $420,000 Briardale Rd $412,000 Broken Oak Rd $410,000 Dellcastle Ct $417,000 Laguna Dr $405,000 Linden Hall Ct $395,000 Crusader Way $390,000 Woodedge Rd $383,000 Parrish Dr $389,000 Stags Leap Ter $390,000 Parkland Dr $387,000 Ritchie Pkwy $418,500 Whittington Ter $400,000 Stateside Dr $405,000 Hidden Garden Ln $378,750 Lullaby Rd $371,000 Rosemere Ave $375,000 Midway Ave $375,000 Old Georgetwn Rd#2133 $370,000 Bluhill Rd $380,000

STYLE

BA/ HBA

DOM

French Country Prairie Craftsman Contemporary Transitional Colonial Colonial Colonial Arts & Crafts Colonial Colonial Colonial Arts & Crafts Colonial Colonial Contemporary Rambler Other Colonial Cottage Traditional Rambler Colonial Cape Cod Colonial Townhouse Townhouse Split Level Townhouse Cape Cod Townhouse Townhouse Colonial Colonial Colonial Townhouse Traditional Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Contemporary Colonial Rambler Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Cape Cod Townhouse Rambler Townhouse Colonial Colonial Colonial Colonial Split Level Split Level Traditional Rambler Colonial Townhouse Split Level Colonial Split Level Colonial Split Level Colonial Rambler Colonial Colonial Split Level Rambler Colonial Hi-Rise 9+ Floors Split Level Colonial Rambler Rambler Townhouse Split Level Colonial Cape Cod Townhouse Rambler Colonial Townhouse Rancher Split Level Colonial Colonial Townhouse Townhouse Split Foyer Cape Cod Garden 1-4 Floors Rambler

6 5 4 7 5 6 5 4 6 4 4 5 6 7 5 4 4 3 5 5 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 4 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 5 4 4 4 3 3 5 4 4 3 3 3 5 6 4 3 4 4 2 5 4 6 4 4 3 3 5 3 3 3 4 3 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 3 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 3 4 4 5 3 3 5 4 8 3 2 3 4 2 6

5/3 5/1 4/1 6/2 6 6/2 4/2 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 3/2 5/1 5/1 4/1 4/1 3 2/1 4/1 3/1 3/1 3 3/1 3 3 3/1 2/2 2 3/1 2 3/1 4/1 3/1 2/1 3/1 2/1 3/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 3 3/1 3 2/1 2/1 4/1 3/1 2/1 1/1 2/2 1 3 3/1 2/1 2 3/1 2/1 3/1 2/2 2/1 3/1 3/1 3 2/1 2/1 3 3 2/1 2/1 2/1 2 3/1 2/1 2/1 2/1 3/1 2/1 2 2 2/1 1 2/1 2/1 3 3 3/1 3 3/1 2/1 3/1 3 2 2/2 2 3 2/2 5 3/1 2/1 3 2 2 3

323 36 36 142 285 302 229 29 264 4 2 31 87 486 8 0 1 115 10 5 22 0 0 8 2 77 19 12 21 5 7 2 6 17 11 2 9 7 34 104 8 294 8 5 10 7 62 22 11 7 10 32 24 295 14 8 102 7 11 7 25 35 21 28 38 2 14 0 18 98 8 6 34 34 16 6 35 23 197 20 11 20 20 4 21 6 8 9 41 6 7 11 21 7 5 20 5 5 9 99 74 7 12 18 7

LOT SQ FT

SUBDIVISION

36,938 Avenel 10,629 Springfield 7,086 Bethesda Out Res. 18,858 Kenwood Park 87,120 Falconhurst 871,200 Poolesville Outside 15,097 Bannockburn Estates 5,156 Westmoreland Hills 9,180 Alta Vista Gardens 87,120 Belvedere 7,200 Chevy Chase Sec 4 89,298 Potomac Manor 4,800 Rosedale Park 110,642 Piney Glen Farms 27,485 Potomac Outside 26,934 Luxmanor 14,073 Kenwood Park 42,941 Potomac Outside 87,120 Piney Glen Farms 5,482 Chevy Chase Sec 5-A 209,967 Long Meadows @ Davis Mill 8,348 West Chevy Chase 7,200 Woodacres 8,577 Wyngate 5,884 Glenbrook Village N/A Westbard Mews 2,418 Timberlawn 8,750 Springfield N/A Whitley Park Codm 5,700 Glenwood 2,828 Strathmore Place 3,886 Fawsett Farms Manor 9,480 Potomac Farms 10,202 Fallsmead 8,667 Montgomery Square N/A Kenwood Forest Ii 27,805 Poolesville Town A 10,354 Barnsley Manor Estates 11,799 Clarksburg Heights 6,538 Poplar Run 6,695 Summerfield Crossing 24,162 Poolesville Outside 91,912 Sunshine Acres 11,518 Vistas @ Woodcliffe Park 16,973 Manor Lake 7,250 Indian Spring Terrace 7,250 Huntington Terrace 8,949 Milestone 5,214 Parkside 10,507 James Creek 5,500 Indian Spring Club Ests 7,801 Potomac Ridge 6,171 Silver Spring 206,474 Olney Out Res (3) 8,800 Bel Pre Woods 15,578 Norbeck Estates 8,750 West End Park N/A Bethesda Court 8,124 Montgomery Hills 1,883 Pt Rockville Twn Res. 1 51,189 Goshen Hunt Hills 11,111 Dumont Oaks 20,656 Peach Orchard Heights 8,413 Mill Creek South 58,188 Silver Crest 12,614 Olney Mill 23,650 Parkridge 13,159 Franklin Knolls 25,569 Rosemont N/A Inverness Knolls Codm 8,100 Hungerford 18,584 Mill Creek Towne 40,500 Norwood Estates 4,284 Gable Field M V 11,240 East Springbrook 6,308 Whetstone 15,953 Calverton 4,975 Valley Stream Estates 23,302 Westerly 10,787 Aspen Hill Park N/A Rossmoor Mutual #16 10,567 Woodlawn Terrace N/A Crescent Plaza Codm 9,088 Tanglewood 17,677 Hunters Woods 9,067 Foxhall 21,974 Parkside Estates 1,804 Seneca View Estates 11,162 Fairidge 9,486 Charlene 3,765 Saybrooke 2,400 Germantown Estates 9,448 Foxhall 6,355 Rockcrest 1,780 Village Of Cloppers Mill 7,546 Wheaton Woods 7,738 Hungerford 6,672 Forest Knolls 11,350 Colesville Outside 3,004 Wyndcrest 2,337 Kingsview Ridge 11,088 Hollywood Park 6,329 Twinbrook N/A White Flint Station Codm 8,700 Conn Ave Estates

Report Courtesy Barbara Ciment, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Data provided by MRIS, 5/3/17 subject to change. No inference should be made, nor is intended, that properties are from my team's/broker's activities.

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Why You Should Work with the Barbara Ciment Team “Your Home Team” #1 Office Producer 25 Years in a Row & Counting • Proven professional Excellence with Integrity and Commitment to Ethics • Experience, enthusiasm and negotiation skills ... to help you • Extensive professional contacts to help solve problems • I am an Authorized Leisure World® Specialist

$475 Million and 1,000 Career Sales

• $34 M in Sales and 100 Transactions Sides in 2016, My Best Year Ever! • 100’s of Satisfied Sellers and Buyers Sending Us Referrals

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• Free Market Analysis to Help Determine Buyer Value or Seller Pricing • Condos, Rentals, Refinancing, Relocating, Retirement ... Purchase or Sale

The Barbara Ciment Team • Barbara and Mel Ciment & My Team’s Buyer Specialists: Emily Lurie & Judi Shields

Barbara Ciment

Emily Lurie

Judi Shields

Associate Broker, Realtor Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc 6000 Executive Blvd, Suite 100 North Bethesda, MD 20852 Office: 301-468-0606

barbara@ciment.com

301-346-9126

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Our Current Listings and Recent Sales Across Montgomery County Creekside LW

Dumont Oaks

Fairways South LW

2901 Leisure World Blvd #119 For Sale: $439,000

11455 Encore Dr For Sale: $349,000

3330 Leisure World Blvd #706 For Sale: $279,000

15115 Interlachen Dr #321 For Sale: $279,000

15100 Interlachen Dr #524 For Sale: $179,000

Kemp Mill

1118 Kersey Rd Under Contract Asking Price: $589,000

905 Belgrade Rd Representing Buyer-In Contract Asking Price: $439,000

11728 Kemp Mill Rd For Sale: $549,000

609 Winona Ct For Sale: $445,000

410 Hermleigh Rd For Sale: $595,000

Kemp Mill

Northwood

Springbrook Forest

University Towers

Wheaton Forest Area

907 Holborn St For Sale: $529,000

10802 Cavalier Dr Sold: $390,000

12211 Remington Dr For Sale: $725,000

1111 University Blvd #907 For Rent: $1,325

10905 Pebble Run Dr For Sale: $405,000

Greens At Leisure World Greens At Leisure World

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

FEATURES

‘A Synagogue Without Walls’ Campus rabbis equipped with training as pastoral counselors are a resource for one-on-one and communitywide support for Jewish students. By Emma Murray For many students, college means the opportunity to make new friends, discover a passion for a specific field, get involved with student groups, and experience endless positive opportunities. For many other students, college is also a time when new challenges, mental health issues, conflicts with classmates, friends and family, and the overall stress of academia start to take its toll on many students, regardless of race, gender, age, or religion. With schedules packed with social, academic, and extracurricular commitments, it can be hard for students to pause and think about getting the support they need. Rabbi Aderet Drucker, campus rabbi and Director of Jewish Life and Learning for the Hillel of the University of Maryland, is working to change that. Rabbi Drucker is familiar with pastoral counseling; received her ordination

as a Conservative rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary with a concentration in pastoral care in 2012. She served a congregation in Northern California for four years before joining the staff at Maryland Hillel in August of 2016.

Rabbi Drucker reminds students of the purpose of Shabbat and how it gives Jews the permission to not do work, something that many students have a hard time with. “The human dynamics” of working as a rabbi on a college campus are similar to those of working as a pulpit rabbi, said Rabbi Drucker, only the population she is supporting is students. “There

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

are some differences in the day to day, but if you take a step back you are still working with individuals in a community,” she said. In addition to advising various student groups at Hillel and teaching a variety of classes, she also provides one-onone support to students in her role as pastoral counselor. Pastoral counselors are unique in their counseling approach because of their readiness and ability to incorporate ideas from a specific religion. Rabbi Drucker’s knowledge of Judaism and Jewish culture and texts provides a comfort for many students who come to talk to her about challenges they are experiencing including managing their class load, issues with friends, family members, or sharing about physical or mental health issues. “When students ask about the challenge of balancing parts of their life and taking care of themselves, I reference pikuach nefesh and remind them that their health comes first, they have to take care of themselves,” she said, “so those moments offer an assurance, almost like a proof text. It may be enough that I’m saying it, but it’s nice to bring in the reminder [of the sources] that this is actually from our tradition.” A student’s support team can consist of psychologists, psychiatrists, professors, friends, and/or family members,

Rabbi Aderet Drucker received her ordination as a Conservative rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary with a concentration in pastoral care in 2012. (COURTESY PHOTO)

said Rabbi Drucker. “Rabbinic confidentiality” is incredibly important to her, she said, and she reminds students her office is a safe space for them to share with her. Rabbi Drucker works closely with the other rabbis and staff members at Maryland Hillel, brainstorming events, classes, or Shabbat dinners for students to help them “unplug” from their phones and computers and connect to other

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FEATURES

‘We Are One People. We Take Care of Each Other’ WJC Gathering Confronts Anti-Semitism By Eli Chomsky Shortly after 10 a.m. sirens blared throughout the New York Hilton Midtown’s Grand Ballroom. Images of Israelis standing still and silent were seen on background video screens. Conference attendees followed suit. It was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) 5777/2017. It was only fitting that on this most solemn of days, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) — the world’s leading Jewish organization that counts its advocacy “for justice for Holocaust victims and their heirs, obtaining restitution of, or compensation for, stolen Jewish property, and negotiating a settlement with Swiss banks for assets held in ‘dormant’ accounts,” along with “countering anti-Semitism in all forms” as some of its greatest accomplishments — would hold its 15th Plenary Assembly. Before approximately 600 WJC delegates representing Jewish communities and organizations from more than 90 countries (including newcomers Albania and Bahrain), former U.S. ambassador to Austria Ronald S. Lauder, beginning his second decade as WJC president, described Jews as all having “unique stories; we look different and speak different languages. But in the end, we are one people, and we take care of each other. After the Torah, that is our most important mission.”

‘A Synagogue Without Walls’ ÁÁ CONTINUED FROM P. 34 people around them. Even though she is somewhat new to the staff, Rabbi Drucker says she has found support from within the system and admires the skillset of all of the staff at Maryland Hillel of holding space with students and making it a supportive place. With close to 6,000 Jews on campus, Rabbi Drucker and her colleagues at Maryland Hillel work closely with the many Jewish student groups on campus and student leaders to create events, programs, and opportunities to build community, encourage conversation between the different student groups, and help students feel supported at Maryland Hillel and on campus. Rabbi Drucker and the Maryland Hillel staff also offer events to encourage students to “unplug,” as she calls it. Just last week, Rabbi Drucker led a Kabbalat Shabbat service where she set a kavanah (intention) for the students that Shabbat will be a space to shut down and unwind, to try and be in the moment. Rabbi Drucker reminds students of the purpose of Shabbat and how

Lauder stressed the need to practice the Talmudic tenet that kol Yisrael areivim zeh la’zeh (all Jews are responsible for one another). And while Jews are freer today than ever before, he argued, the battle against new forms of anti-Semitism — on college campuses, on social media and through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel — must be fought with great resilience. Too many quarters are attempting to delegitimize Israel, Lauder said, by spewing anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism. Calling President Trump the “most pro-Israel president ever in the White House,” Lauder expressed gratitude for the president’s strong condemnation of anti-Semitism in his taped message to the WJC gathering. Lauder also announced new WJC initiatives to combat anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist acts: A hasbarah (public relations) campaign, led by a WJC media division, has been charged with ridding hate speech from the internet; all available legal tools will be used to combat BDS movements; and Jewish education will be enhanced worldwide. In Lauder’s words regarding the latter: “If Jewish children have Jewish pride and see beauty in the Jewish religion, intermarriage rates will decrease and the Jewish future will be brighter.” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, in a well-received and stirring address,

it gives Jews the permission to not do work, something that many students have a hard time with. During the week of May 8, Maryland Hillel will be hosting its first “Wellness Week.” Rabbi Drucker and her Maryland Hillel colleague Jessa Cameron have designed the week to include events each day designed to encourage students to take a break. For “Monday Meditation,” Rabbi Drucker will lead a meditation practice and speak on the Jewish roots of mindfulness. “Trail Mix Tuesday” will encourage students to make a healthy snack to take with them when studying. “Tea and Talk Thursday” will give students a break from classes and homework to sip tea and talk with each other. Rabbi Drucker said she hopes Wellness Week will become a regular event each semester, furthering efforts to encourage and support students in some of the most enlightening, challenging, and transformative years of their lives.

assured the WJC delegates that “it’s a new day for Israel at the United Nations. I know it’s a new day for Israel at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.” Before her confirmation as ambassador, she said, “I watched in horror as the Security Council passed Resolution 2334 [reproving Israeli settlement activity in Judea, Samaria, and the eastern sector of united Jerusalem in the waning days of the Obama administration] — and the U.S. stood by and allowed it to happen [by abstaining]. I can say with complete and total confidence that those days are over.” After praising UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the first UN leader to address a WJC conference, as a “good partner” who is “committed to fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its forms,” Haley said that the world body’s anti-Israel bias “is cut from the same cloth as the BDS movement and the global rise in anti-Semitism. They all seek to delegitimize Israel.” She saluted Israel as the only country in the region that grants equal justice under the law while fully respecting the rights of women and religious minorities. “As long as I’m America’s representative at the UN,” Haley declared, “I am going to stand for human rights and I am going to stand for the truth. And that means I am going to stand for Israel.” Ms. Haley’s UN colleague, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, built on her theme about standing for the truth

when he said that “we [Israel] will fight lies [about Israel and Jews] with the truth. Together, we will prevail.” Throughout the WJC Plenary Assembly, break-out sessions featured workshops on diverse topics such as the rise and impact of far right political parties on the global order; what it means to be a Jewish parliamentarian today; Israeli TV and movie success stories in Hollywood; dimensions of learning and discovery through the eyes of Nobel Laureates; and cyberhate and the fight against modern-day anti-Semitism. The resolutions passed by WJC delegates that are now official organizational policy positions include a call for “law-enforcement agencies in all countries to closely monitor all anti-Semitic acts, including Holocaust denial, and to enforce existing legislation proscribing hate speech and acts to the fullest extent.” The WJC is also urging countries worldwide to adopt a common and binding definition of anti-Semitism. On the issue of the Middle East peace process, the delegates called for renewed efforts by Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace agreement based on previous WJC resolutions declaring that “two states for two peoples is the only workable, realistic basis for a true and lasting peace.” (After vigorous debate, the hot-button issue of Israeli settlement activity was withdrawn from resolution consideration.)

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Emma Murray is originally from Monmouth County, New Jersey, and moved to Kemp Mill in August 2016. She currently attends University of Maryland College Park and will graduate with her Masters of Science in Couple and Family Therapy in May 2017.

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

FEATURES LEARNING FROM HISTORY

Struggling for Freedom: An American Journalist’s Visit With Imprisoned Jewish Fighters in 1946 Palestine By Rafael Medoff The fight to establish the State of Israel was waged not only between Jewish underground militias and the British Mandate authorities, but also on the battlefield of public opinion — and public opinion influenced the political and diplomatic struggles that helped determine the fate of the Holy Land. One of those who helped shape the American public’s perception of the fight for Jewish independence was a remarkable journalist named Margaret Ashton Stimson Lindsley. Lorna (as she preferred to be called) Lindsley, a Massachusetts native “of early and distinguished New England descent,” cut her teeth in the 1930s Spanish civil war. She divided her time between serving as a nurse for wounded republican (anti-fascist) soldiers and writing sympathetic articles about them for U.S. newspapers and political magazines. When the Germans conquered France in 1940, Lindsley journeyed to Paris, where she helped smuggle Jewish and political refugees out of the city. Her reports from within the German zone became an important source of eyewitness information for the American and British press.

An Irgun leaflet. (COURTESY OF THE DAVID S. WYMAN INSTITUTE FOR HOLOCAUST STUDIES)

After the war ended, she made her way to Mandatory Palestine, where she championed the cause of Menachem Begin’s Irgun Zvai Leumi militia as it fought the British to achieve Jewish independence. In 1946, when her request to interview imprisoned Irgun fighters was turned down by the British authorities, Lindsley “found a way to go without asking” — by pretending to be a member of the first family of Revisionist Zionism, the Jabotinskys, so she could join them on a visit to jail. Tamir Peleg, a 17-year-old cousin of Revisionist Zionism’s founder, Vladimir Ze’ev

Female Jewish fighters under British arrest, 1946. (COURTESY OF THE DAVID S. WYMAN INSTITUTE FOR HOLOCAUST STUDIES)

Jabotinsky, was one of the Irgun fighters jailed there. Jabotinsky’s son, Eri, had recently been imprisoned there, as well. “I was to be ‘adopted’ by a family for that day, and would enter as one of them,” she wrote, accompanied by Peleg’s grandmother and parents, and Eri, his wife, and their three year-old daughter, Karny. It would be “her first visit to a prison, to get her used to it,” Eri joked. “As we crossed the drawbridge of the ancient [Acre] castle, so handsome to the passing eye, Eri Jabotinsky looked at me and grinned and said, ‘Welcome to the family chateau!’” Lindsley wrote. Years later, Eri told his daughter that when they arrived, the warden said of Karny, “In five years, she’ll be in Bethlehem [the women’s prison].” Eri responded, “In five years, we’ll be the rulers and you’ll be in this prison,” to which the warden replied, “No, I’ll be home in England, because my service ends in three.” Visitors were allotted 25 minutes. “Peleg was at the wire, a handsome dark haired boy with a fine smile, and all the family started talking at once to him till he begged for mercy.” They “exchanged the news from outside the prison for the news inside the prison.” Peleg and 19 comrades had been arrested while undergoing Irgun training in the village of Shuni. The British also claimed they were linked to a cache of arms discovered in the area. They denied the charge but were convicted anyway, and given prison terms; Peleg was sentenced to three years. “On the same day and in the same court, an Arab was tried for keeping an unlicensed gun on the roof of his house,” Lindsley reported. “His defense, uncorroborated, was that the gun had been planted there by a policeman who had a grudge against him. The Arab was released.” This kind of double standard is “what makes for a bitterness [among the Jews] in Palestine,” she noted.

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Also among the Jabotinsky “family” that day was Hassia Hassan, “a 15-year-old Canadian girl, a Jewess, a young sweetheart of Peleg’s,” Lindsley wrote. “She did not speak, she gazed at Peleg and adored him in silence. Because she was his friend, she was now under house arrest in Haifa, which meant ... no movies nor ice cream for her at the corner food shops ... In her the Government of Palestine has another political prisoner in the making.” All too soon, “a guard with a baton started beating on the wooden barricade, our time was up.” Lindsley wanted to leave some books for Peleg, and was annoyed at how carefully prison officials scrutinized them. She wondered, sarcastically, whey they did not object to her leaving “Macbeth,” since, she pointed out, “it’s full of political killings, and plot and subterfuge ...”

A report in the New York Herald Tribune in 1947 about the Irgun’s latest attacks on British targets. (COURTESY OF THE DAVID S. WYMAN INSTITUTE FOR HOLOCAUST STUDIES)

The visit took place during the week of Passover. On the way out, with the sea “pounding against the Phoenician seawall, and the sound of heavy guns from a British artillery school” in the distance, Lindsley and the Jabotinskys spoke about the ancient Festival of Freedom and their generation’s own struggle for Jewish national freedom. Just two years later, that struggle reached its successful conclusion as the State of Israel was established. Eri Jabotinsky was elected, in 1949, to the First Knesset, as a member of Begin’s

Herut Party. Eri’s daughter, Karny, grew up to become a prominent Israeli psychiatrist and for some years served as ombudsman for Israel’s Ministry of Health. Peleg Tamir was released from Acre in 1947, but was then rearrested and placed in the Atlit detention camp, from which he escaped by hiding in a suitcase. He later served as general director of the Israel Manufacturers Association and head of manpower and personnel for the Israel Air Force. And that Canadian teenager? Hassia Hassan, the innocent schoolgirl whose biggest problem, Lindlsey thought, was being deprived of “movies and ice cream,” was actually an active member of the Irgun underground and would herself eventually spend time in prison. Hassia and Peleg were married for 60 years; he passed away in 2011.

When her request to interview imprisoned Irgun fighters was turned down by the British authorities, Lindsley “found a way to go without asking” — by pretending to be a member of the first family of Revisionist Zionism, the Jabotinskys, so she could join them on a visit to jail. The postwar years were not so kind to Lorna Lindsley, however. Her marriage ended in divorce, her daughter Leonora was killed in a jeep accident in Germany, and in the summer of 1956, at age 67, Lindsley herself suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. But it would not have been Lorna Lindlsey’s way to leave this world without one last fight. At the time of her death, she had taken up the cause of the Mau Mau rebels who were battling for the independence of Kenya from its British colonial rulers. Undaunted, as usual, by the dangers of the war zone, Lindsley had recently traveled to Kenya for a firsthand view of the situation. For Lorna Lindsley, the spirit of fighting for freedom that she embraced in Palestine in 1946 continued to echo across Europe, Africa, and anywhere else people struggled against oppressive regimes. Dr. Rarael Medoff is the founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and the author or editor of 16 books, including “The Historical Dictionary of Zionism.”

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FEATURES

The Ten-Day Adrenaline Rush: Part 1 By Devora Jaye The noise is deafening and the chaos is unbelievable as hundreds of college students try to find each other in a crowded, post-New Year’s bedlam. Passports are checked, name badges are given, and the security line is crawling. The excitement in the air is palpable. These students are traveling to Israel, most of them for the very first time, on a tiny little program called Birthright. Day One:

around people that were strangers just 24 hours ago to pose for selfies. I just keep thinking, they have no idea what is about to happen to them. We make our way further north, finally arriving at our hotel. After getting settled, we experience our first Israeli dinner. The hotel buffets in Israel are legendary, and the students pile their plates high, talking and laughing. We get to know each other by getting into age order, height order, alphabetical order, learning each other’s names as we go. Finally, we all head to sleep, exhausted from all the wonder and travel.

Ice breakers and orientation. These Day Two: kids are not going to sleep tonight until they know everyone’s names. The flight After an extensive Israeli breakfast, was long, even with the yoga sessions in the back of the plane. We get our lug- we board the bus for another day of seegage, meet our amazing tour guide, and ing the land of Israel. We started off our hop on the bus, our new home for the day with a stunning hike to the Banias next 10 days. The bus is a magical place Waterfall. We slogged through the mudon Birthright, an opportunity to both dy trail along the river to the gorgeous foster a family atmosphere and delve Falls and then headed up the suspendinto some deep topics in an organic way. ed trail with the rushing water below I rarely sit on the bus; I travel to each row, talking to students and answering their questions, on topics from Israeli politics to feminism in Judaism. I join games, give advice, pass out candy and water bottles. As our bus climbs north, our seasoned guide, Meir, tells us about the landscape outside of the window. We clamber out of the bus and marvel at the Roman aqueduct jutting out of the beach along Mediterrane- Jeeping in the North. an Sea in Caesarea, and toast (PHOTO CREDIT: DEVORA JAYE) (with grape juice) the new exus. These hikes also provide perfect opperience we are about to share. There is an electric current in the air portunities to get to know our program today despite the exhaustion of the stu- participants — music, politics, career dents. I watch them survey the spitting choices, and Jewish backgrounds were waves and dash in and out of the arch- all discussed as we marched through the es of the aqueduct, putting their arms terrain.

A stroll in the Golan. (PHOTO CREDIT: DEVORA JAYE)

Our next stop overlooked the Syrian border, where we spent time learning about the civil war in Syria and the history of the conflict with Syria and Israel. To understand the conflict while actually seeing the physical places we had been hearing about for so long was extremely powerful. The questions flowed, and Meir fielded them all like a pro as we shivered in the cold mountain air. We then made our way to the ancient Talmudic village of Katzrin, where we toured some of the ruins and learned about the history in a unique and entertaining way. Once we had experienced the ancient village, we then drove just a few minutes away to the modern village of Katzrin, where a family welcomed us into their home and talked to us about their experience moving to Israel, life in Israel, and played us beautiful music and fed us delicious treats. Our final activity for the day was preparing for the arrival of some very special people who would be joining our trip the next day — eight Israeli soldiers! Birthright has an amazing program where Israeli soldiers join the trip for the middle five days — as participants. It is one of the most powerful parts of the Birthright experience. They are the same age as the participants, yet instead of pledging fraternities and sororities these young men and women are in the army, putting their lives on the line daily. We broke up into small groups to talk about stereotypes of Israelis and Americans to prepare for the arrival of our soldiers, and created posters depicting these classic stereotypes. Day Three:

Avraham Leventhal in his studio in Tzfat.

We greeted the Israelis with a lot

(PHOTO CREDIT: DEVORA JAYE)

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of energy and excitement, as the soldiers boarded the bus individually amid cheers, with the “Rocky” theme song blasting as loud as the bus speakers would allow. They ran through the bus, exchanging high-fives with Americans who would be their best friends within the next 24 hours. To get to know them, we “speed-dated” the soldiers and learned that we were a lot more similar than any of us would have realized, from television and music, to education and families. We solidified our new relationships as we jumped onto jeeps to explore the countryside, including twists, turns, and dust. We then headed to the mystical city of Tzfat. We had a brief intro to the city, then of course, went right to lunch at an amazing Yemenite restaurant. Then, of course, we shopped, with most of us descending upon the artists’ colony, selflessly supporting the local economy (I tell parents not to worry, since after 11 trips, I get a lot of discounts). We then went to visit some of Tzfat’s iconic sites, including the incredible candle factory and a beautiful synagogue from the 16th century, where we discussed the synagogue’s history and ideas introduced by the synagogue’s founder, Rabbi Yosef Caro. Our final stop in Tzfat was the studio of kabbalist and artist Avraham Leventhal. Avraham spoke about how he connected to his Jewish identity through Kabbalah and explained the meaning behind several of his paintings. He inspired many of us to think about our spiritual selves through his incredible story and artwork. We then switched gears and made a special stop at Nimrod’s Overlook in Rosh Pina. The overlook was dedicated by the father of a gifted young man who was killed in the Second Lebanon War in 2006. We were extremely privileged to meet Nimrod’s father and learn about this young hero.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

TORAH PERSPECTIVES Principles From the Parsha: Do Not Enter By Joshua Z. Rokach The parsha Acharei Mot opens with an admonition for Aaron. After the death of Nadab and Abihu, the High Priest’s two elder sons, G-d commands Moses, “Speak with Aaron, your brother, [and tell him] that he should not enter the Holy [of Holies] at any time. . .” (Leviticus 16:2). Rather, “With this Aaron should enter the Holy [of Holies] a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.” (Leviticus 16:3). The Torah then describes the Yom Kippur service the High Priest conducted every year. It details the rituals and the vestments he should wear as he fulfills his duties on that day The command to Aaron, the High Priest, not to “enter [the Holy of Holies] at any time [he wishes]” requires clarification on two counts. First, the Torah could have omitted the verse entirely. The text could have skipped over the prohibition. After the introduction in verse 1, the text could proceed directly to verse 3, which sets out in detail when and how the High Priest may go into the Holy of Holies. The text would convey the same message as it does in its current form: Aaron, the High Priest, may enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur only, and he must follow the directions the rest of Chapter 16 describes. Ezor Eliyahu (Lemberg 1889) notes a narrower problem here. While conceding the need for verse 2, with its explicit prohi-

bition against the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies, the commentary notes that ‫תע לכב‬, “at any time [he wishes]” seem superfluous. The Torah could say that Aaron may not enter the Holy of Holies, period. The text would continue: however, “with this” — the sacrifices and clad in the appropriate robes — he may do so on Yom Kippur. Ezor Eliyahu explains that the phrase serves an important purpose. The Hebrew language uses the same word, ‫תע‬, for “time” and “season” or “period.” Based on Ecclesiastes (“To everything there is a season ….” 3:1-6), our Sages list 14 favorable time periods and 14 ominous time periods for the Jews. G-d tells Moses to relate to Aaron that he should not enter the Holy of Holies with dark thoughts that he is performing the Yom Kippur service during a period in which Divine Judgment reigns. Rather, he should seek atonement on behalf of the Jewish people with a sense of confidence that G-d’s Mercy abounds. In addition, Aaron should enter with a sense of awe, not fear, of G-d. Bringing a sacrifice induces the former, the antidote to the latter. Ezor Eliyahu takes another approach, which originated with Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, 1700?-1760), the founder of Hasidism. He preached that, whenever someone fulfills a mitzvah, he must pray. The reason: to protect oneself from the smugness and the resulting arrogance that may befall a person who knows he has just done a good deed.

This problem had arisen when G-d spoke to Moses here. Rashi in Shemini lists several causes for the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, who brought unauthorized fire to the altar of the Tabernacle. Among others: their failure to consult Moshe and Aaron before acting. In short, overconfidence in their own righteousness. Therefore, G-d told Moses to relay to Aaron that when he enters the Holy of Holies, he must bring with him sacrifices on behalf of himself and family, his priestly colleagues and the Jewish people. As with the prayer the Baal Shem Tov prescribed, this will ward off smugness and arrogance. Aaron is entering the Holy of Holies, not as a symbol of his greatness, but to serve the Jewish people. Therefore, he may not go in “at any time [he wishes].” It is not about him. He may enter when the Jews need him to do so, on Yom Kippur. In a similar way, we can resolve the broader question of why the Torah includes verse 2 at all. Some authorities hold that verse 2 does not deal with Yom Kippur. Unlike later High Priests, Aaron could enter the Holy of Holies on days other than Yom Kippur. In connection with verse 3, Ezor Eliyahu quotes the Midrash Rabbah in the name of Rabbi Judah ben Siemon. To avoid embarrassing Aaron as a result of the actions of his sons, G-d told Moshe that Aaron could enter the Holy of Holies anytime he wishes; however, he must bring a sacrifice (or, as Rashi quotes

Dvar Torah: Acharei Mot/Kedoshim By Alan A. Fisher At the dedication of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the double parsha of Tazria/ Metzora, Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, bring a “strange fire” that Hashem did not command, and a fire from the alter kills them immediately. The Torah interrupts the story of the dedication and its aftermath for five chapters that discuss various aspects of who is tahor (ritually pure) and who is tamei (ritually impure and unable to participate in the korbanot [sacrifices] at the Mishkan). With no obvious transition, we return to the chronology in Parshat Acharei Mot (ch. 16) with the laws of the Kohen Gadol’s (High Priest) atonement service on Yom Kippur. The Torah adds a prohibition on bringing korbanot any place outside the Mishkan, followed by the well-known section on forbidden marriages and sexual relationships. We read these chapters every year on Yom Kippur. (Many Conservative synagogues substitute chapter 19, from Parshat Kedoshim, for chapter 18 at mincha [afternoon prayer service] on Yom Kippur.) With chapter 18, the Torah changes focus completely, with a rapid rec-

itation of mitzvot. Indeed, Parshat Kedoshim alone contains 51 of the 613 mitzvot (8.3 percent of the annual total), with an underlying message that we should be kadosh (dedicated to a higher purpose) because Hashem is kadosh. The phrase “Ani Hashem” (or “Ani Hashem Elokeichem”), which appears only three times in the first 17 chapters of Vayikra, appears more than 50 times in the remainder of the Sefer. A few observations help one understand the role of Acharei Mot/Kedoshim in the Torah. We read this double portion at almost the mid-point between Pesach and Shavuot — near the very middle of our counting of the Omer. A key reason for counting the Omer each year is to show the connection between Pesach and Shavuot; in brief, Pesach marks our physical freedom, but we do not receive complete freedom until Shavuot, when we receive the Torah. Acharei Mot/Kedoshim is also essentially the very center of the Torah. A common stylistic format for the Torah is a chiastic structure, of the form A-B-C-D-C’B’-A’, where A and A’ contain thematically related material, as do B and B’, and C

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

and C’, etc. The result of this structure is to focus attention on the middle section: here it is D. The books of Shemot and Vayikra are connected in a large chiastic structure that connects all the mitzvot that Bnei Yisrael received from their arrival at Har Sinai through the end of Sefer Vayikra. (Rabbi Menachem Leibtag’s dvar Torah on Behar-Bechukotei, in the archives at tanach.org, presents the details very clearly.) The center of this long chiastic structure is the dedication of the Mishkan, plus the laws of who is tamei and may participate, culminating in the dedication ceremony on Yom Kippur (ch. 1617). In short, Acharei Mot is the central focus of Shemot and Vayikra, and one can therefore understand why we specifically read these chapters on Yom Kippur. The Torah immediately goes on to the key theme of the remainder of Sefer Vayikra: we should be kadosh because Hashem is kadosh. G-d commanded Moshe to present these mitzvot to “Kol Adat Yisrael,” to the entire congregation of Israel. Previously, the only two times when G-d had Moshe present commands to “Adat Yisrael” were regarding

Tractate Rosh Hashanah, incense). Entry to the Holy of Holies in the course of performing a religious service lends a purpose to Aaron’s action. I suggest that verse 2 tells us that Aaron may go into the Holy of Holies any day of the year, but he cannot enter on an impulse, as his sons had done. Whenever Aaron wants to go into the Holy of Holies, he must bring a sacrifice or an offering of incense. G-d required Aaron, the High Priest, to take the time to prepare a sacrifice or an offering. He cannot just walk into the Holy of Holies. By following G-d’s procedures, Aaron would cool the passion so fatal to his sons. Experts teach us the urgent necessity for us to maintain boundaries in order to live a healthy and balanced life. G-d’s message to Aaron emphasizes the need for staying within the lines. We must act: never out of fear, always with confidence in a favorable outcome, knowing our place, putting other people first, and taking care to think through beforehand what we are about to do. Joshua Zev Rokach is gabbai of the Nusach Sefard minyan at Young Israel Shomrai Emunah (YISE) in Kemp Mill, Maryland, and former gabbai of the main minyan at YISE and at Kesher Israel in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He has taught a weekly Talmud class at both synagogues, and has served as an officer and a member of the Board of Directors of both synagogues as well. A retired attorney, Joshua has lived in the Greater Washington area since 1976 and in Kemp Mill since 1986.

the Pesach offering and the construction of the Mishkan. At Har Sinai, G-d commanded Adat Yisrael to be a kingdom of kohanim and a goy kadosh (holy nation) (Shemot 19:6). In Kedoshim, G-d demands that we emulate Him by going beyond the word of the mitzvot to a higher level of spirituality. This demand is consistent with the focus of Jews on tikkun olam, working as partners with G-d to improve the world. On Shabbat Devarim, right before Tisha B’Av, we read Isaiah’s rebuke to the people that G-d doesn’t need the people’s korbanot or prayers — rather, the people should seek justice, strengthen victims, and help widows and orphans. In stressing these themes, Isaiah was reminding the people of the message of Kedoshim, at the heart of the Torah: the central message of the process of personal growth each spring that brings Jews from physical freedom to full freedom as we receive the Torah on Shavuot. Alan A. Fisher, a retired economist with a government agency, is the membership chairman of the American Dahlia Society. He produces and shares a weekly compilation of divrei Torah (Potomac Torah Study Center) and davens most often at Beth Sholom in Potomac, Maryland.

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TORAH PERSPECTIVES

The Two Faces of Sefirat Ha’omer By Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz This issue of Kol HaBirah is dedicated to wellness and health, certainly important factors in our service to Hashem. A healthy body enables the performance of mitzvot and empowers us to accomplish our mission in the world, but I would like to focus on an aspect of psychological health — our perception of ourselves and others — and share an insight that can help us become more loving, giving, and generous people, which in turn will contribute to greater happiness and less stress. And, most importantly, we will be giving great nachas to the Almighty. We are presently in a period of time known as Sefirat Ha’omer (the Counting of the Omer). Starting from the second Seder, we begin a nightly countdown for 49 days that culminates in Shavuot, the anniversary of our receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. Essentially, the Sefira ritual establishes a linkage between the freedom of Passover and the acceptance of G-d’s sovereignty in our lives that occurred on Shavuot, reminding us in a very direct way that there can be no freedom without obligation, no liberty without responsibility, no meaningful autonomy without a commitment to a transcendent purpose that goes beyond mere material gratification. Our Rabbis taught that it took the Jews 49 days to purify their thoughts, speech, and action until they became worthy of receiving G-d’s Torah and during this period of time, we too should engage in this process of spiritual introspection in preparation for our own Kabbalat Ha’Torah (receiving of the Torah). (This is one of the reasons why Pirkei Avot, Ethics of The Fathers, is studied during this period.) One would have expected that these 49 days would be marked by joyous an-

ticipation and excitement, particularly as we get closer to the “great event.” According to Halacha, however, the Sefira period (or at least a significant chunk of it) has a number of observances that are connected to mourning and bereavement: weddings do not take place during this period; we do not listen to instrumental music; and we don’t shave or get haircuts. (It should be noted that even within the halachic tradition there are any number of variant customs. For instance, some commence mourning immediately from the second day of Pesach until the 33rd day of the Omer [Lag B’omer], while others do not commence until after the beginning of the month of Iyar and proceed until shortly before Shavuot with Lag B’omer as a hiatus.) While the actual observance of mourning during Sefira is a post-Talmudic custom, its basis is rooted in an event recorded in the Talmud. According to a passage in Tractate Yevamot, 24,000 disciples of the great Rabbi Akiva died in a plague (or perhaps as part of the Bar Kochba uprising) between Pesach and Shavuot. At some point in the early Middle Ages, mourning rituals were instituted to commemorate the tragedy of those deaths (as well as other tragedies that occurred later during the Crusades). What is especially important is the reason the Talmud ascribes to their untimely demise: that, notwithstanding their great scholarship and piety, they did not show proper kavod (respect, honor) to each other. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the great 19th century leader of German Jewry, explains that kavod is far more than mere civility, politeness, or the thin veneer of tolerance that may mask a barely-concealed disdain; rather, the word kavod is etymologically related to the word for “heaviness,” “weight,” “significance.”

Truly honoring a human being means you regard them as inherently significant, weighty, worthwhile, having something of value that they contribute to the world. Kavod means you see the other as a beloved child of G-d as indeed he or she is — to not necessarily agree with all they may have said or done but to recognize the essential goodness within their souls, for that, too, is G-d’s will. As parents and teachers recognize, when we strive to see the goodness in our fellow Jew — even if we have to strain our eyes a little bit — the perception becomes the reality and that goodness becomes manifest and actualized. Conversely, when the message we communicate by word, gesture, or just neglect is “you don’t count,” “you don’t matter,” the recipient responds in kind. How many children have failed to reach their potential, how many marriages have been destroyed, how many adults lead lives of “quiet desperation” (to quote Thoreau) because nobody communicated to them the simple message “you matter; you make a difference in my life; you are somebody?” This is kavod as properly understood. Interestingly, it is precisely Rabbi Akiva who vividly experienced the transformative power of kavod in his own life. Until Akiva was 40, he was ignorant, an illiterate shepherd who harbored deep resentments at the perceived arrogance of the learned class. His employer’s daughter, Rachel, saw when no one else did, his qualities of intellect and character. She saw what he could become — indeed she saw what he really was — before he even knew it. She married him over the strenuous objections of her father, who disinherited her and then proceeded to encourage him to study Torah for 24 years. (“My Torah and your Torah,” said Rabbi Akiva to his students, “are hers.”) Having a sense of kavod for one’s fellow Jew was, and indeed is, a nec-

essary prerequisite to be a true teacher of Torah and if, for whatever reason, the disciples of Rabbi Akiva did not absorb the lessons that their master knew so well, the mantle of Torah leadership had to be taken away from them and given to others better suited to carry on this task. We thus mourn during the Sefira period not merely to commemorate an isolated tragedy — which after all is hardly unique in the annals of Jewry’s blood-soaked history — but to remind ourselves that our own ability to re-accept G-d’s Torah depends in large part on unity, ahavat yisrael, and seeing our fellow Jews with kavod. Rather than undermining our preparation for the joyous event of Matan Torah, remembering the sins of Rabbi Akiva’s disciples is part and parcel of that very preparation. In a sense, therefore, Sefirat Ha’omer embodies two paradoxical notions that at first blush appear mutually exclusive. By reiterating on a daily basis that freedom derives its value only when coupled with the discipline and commitment of Torah, Sefira calls upon us to intensify our adherence and fidelity to Jewish ritual and Torah study. By remembering the students of Rabbi Akiva, we are reminded of the imperatives of achdut (unity), ahavat yisrael, and kavod. It is easy to identify in our own experiences zealously-committed Jews, passionate about their faith but rejecting of all who do not share those commitments. There are others who perhaps appear gracious and tolerant, exemplars of ahavat yisrael, but stand for nothing, believe in very little, and essentially subscribe to moral and religious relativism. The period of Sefira calls upon us all to transcend these narrow dichotomies: to have faith without rejection, commitment without intolerance, fidelity without divisiveness, and passion without exclusion. Not an easy task, but who ever said being a good Jew was easy?

The Greatest Parenting Technique That Was Never Seen on T.V. By Rabbi Steven Baars Let me start with a disclaimer: I generally shy away from “parenting recipes” that claim to turn your children into model citizens in five simple steps or less. I tell people all the time, parenting is not like baking a cake. It’s not about just reading the ingredients, adding water, and voila, perfection! There’s no magic formula or pre-programmable process. You just can’t make a script for being a great parent. There’s no one thing you can do that changes everything. But wouldn’t it be nice if there was? What if there was an incredibly sim-

ple technique that required no discerning mastery, no subtle judgment — just a black and white simple rule that would virtually guarantee highly successful and fulfilled children? Well, that’s exactly what we have in last week’s parshas of Tazriyah and Metzorah — one super parenting tool coming right up. And it really is the simplest of advice to follow. With this technique it’s practically “in the bag” that your children will blossom and thrive. What is it? Gossip. That is, don’t. If you and your family vigilantly prac-

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tice the Jewish principle of never gossiping, you will have phenomenal children that are self-motivators, honest, hard-working, and always excel. And just about every ailment parents struggle with their kids today will disappear. Why? You see, every human being has an immense need to be the best they can be (this isn’t just in the army). In fact, this drive is so fierce within us, very few things can really impede us on our life journey. Except gossiping. Let me explain. There are two main ways to win at dieting — the hard way and the easy way. The hard way is to con-

trol our eating, join a gym, and buy lots of celery. The easy way is to “fix” the scale. It may be stupid, but it’s incredibly popular. Many people engage in all kinds of self-denial about all kinds of behaviors they would rather not deal with. Dieting being the least of the issues. It’s a lot easier to simply buy bigger clothes sizes to make a person feel more thin. Every goal we have in life has these two basic options — you can work at be-

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HEALTH & WELLNESS Why Talk to Your Adult Child About Intimacy? By Rivka Sidorsky Here’s a typical scenario I see a lot as a therapist: a young Orthodox couple has been married a year, and unfortunately they have not been successful with adjusting to intimacy. The problem could be with an unconsummated marriage, pelvic pain, or libido concerns. As a parent, what makes this story even more heartbreaking to me is that their parents have no idea that this is happening and that their children are really suffering. Furthermore, the situation the couple has been struggling with was potentially a preventable one. Kallah and chatan teachers (pre-wedding instructors for brides and grooms, respectively) are great, but the burden of educating young Orthodox adults should not lie entirely in their hands. As a kallah teacher myself, I have heard this plenty of times before from parents. Parents say to me, “When my child needs to (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JEWISH WEEK MEDIA GROUP) know the information, then they will be First, kallah teachers often have no told.” In their minds, when their child is engaged to be married is “the time,” and more knowledge, training, or educathe person who will be educating their tion on intimacy than any other married woman. To become a kallah teachchild is the kallah or chatan teacher. However, let me point out some er, most training programs include a vigorous review of the laws of taharat problems with this approach: Introducing

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

hamishpacha (family purity). Most have absolutely no training on biology, physiology, or marital relationships. Are you surprised? Did you think that the typical kallah teacher has some extra knowledge about intimacy that you didn’t? Most really do not. That means that they are relying on their own experience with one man or the experiences of talking to kallahs or other teachers in order to educate your child. Kallah teachers as a group simply do not have enough education to be entirely responsible for your child’s intimate education. Second, the structure of most kallah classes involves six to 10 private sessions. The last session is typically reserved for intimacy. This means that your child will be given maybe an hour of intimacy education, at most. Again, there is a lot to cover in kallah classes, the emphasis is on the halachos, and there is not enough time set aside for this topic. Third, given that the structure of kallah classes is approximately six to 10 sessions with the final session dedicated to intimacy, this means that their education on intimacy happens days or weeks before the wedding. This is not enough time for many young women to fully absorb the new information, ask thorough questions, and begin the transition to accept and welcome intimacy. This is not only a concern about consummation; this is also a concern about accepting and enjoying this new aspect of their lives. Finally, kallahs are incredibly busy and mentally over-stimulated during the period of their engagement. They have a tremendous amount to think about and to do, and a lot on their plate. In a span of just months, they are getting to know their chatan, they are planning every de-

tail of their wedding, they are buying sheitels (wigs), they are choosing furniture and an apartment, they are picking out their wedding dress and their flowers, they are buying new clothes, and much, much more, all while often continuing to attend school and/or work. They have so much on their minds that this is not the best time to fully learn about and absorb what they need to know about intimacy. As their parent, you will be doing them a great service and will truly help them by talking to your young adult child about marriage, relationships, and intimacy. Studies have consistently shown that greater communication from parents on this topic leads to greater self-confidence and healthier choices on the part of the young person. I encourage you to: 1.) Start early and deliver age-appropriate messages throughout your child’s life. 2.) Model healthy body image in addition to healthy relationships throughout your child’s life. 3.) Use books to help you talk to your child about intimacy. 4.) Buy them books on intimacy they can read themselves. 5.) Give them “the talk” yourself, rather than relying on the kallah teacher to do it. You have nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about! Your young adult child needs time to absorb the information and needs to know that you are there to come to if they have any difficulties. 6.) Talk to your child’s chatan or kallah teacher about this topic to make sure the message they are transmitting is the message you want your child to hear. By speaking to your child yourself, you are sending the message that you can handle this conversation and you can be the person they come to if they have any challenges. Although you will feel sad to hear of any difficulty your child may have in marriage, you will be glad to learn about this swiftly rather than many years down the road. Most importantly, you can play a vital role in laying the groundwork for a healthy and loving relationship for your child and their future spouse. Rivka Sidorsky is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, a licensed psychotherapist, a Board-certified supervisor, a published author, a Harvard University research fellowship recipient, and an experienced lecturer. She speaks widely at professional conferences and universities on improving intimacy, female function and dysfunction, and pelvic pain disorders. For consultations and appointments, please visit www.rivkasidorsky.com. Rivka lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three children.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS Take a Hike: Wellness Through Nature By Rabbi Daniel Moses In a recent interview, Richard Louv, co-founder of the Children and Nature Network, was asked about his description of children as having “nature-deficit disorder.” Louv described how recent research is beginning to indicate that several physical and psychological challenges, including attentional difficulty, emotional illness, and obesity, are significantly reduced through the simple act of children experiencing nature personally. Louv pointed out that humans have functioned for the vast majority of history through honing all of their senses, working physically within natural environments, and taking calculated risks to their physical well-being. Abandoning this heritage to a technology-rich world leaves children restless and underdeveloped when faced with adversity later in life. As an educator, informal observations support Louv’s theory. The CDC reports that 11 percent of children in the US aged 4-17 are diagnosed with ADHD. A review of academic literature by Dr. Sheik Hosenbocus shows that the cause of many psychological challenges in children stems from executive functioning deficits. Executive functions are skills managed by the pre-frontal cortex of

(PHOTO CREDIT: ADINA MOSES)

our brains that help us understand cause and effect, create categories, organize, create plans of action, create goals, and use self-restraint. Without this part of our minds firing and working efficiently, it is hard to manage a productive and healthy life. Health and wellness in body, mind, and soul were emphasized by many halachic authorities, including Rambam and the Tur. So, what are we to do when presented with these challenges? How can we develop better-functioning minds and bodies amid strong influences to fo-

cus on our busy urban lives? What can we do to help use the tools we have created without being consumed by them? While there may not be a simple answer to these big questions, I have implemented a plan of action to help provide one solution: Help children experience nature first hand. At Uru Adventure, an outdoor learning program and camp in Silver Spring, Maryland, we take Sunday hikes with children, we balance on logs over rushing rivers, we sometimes fall in, and we get dirty. Children gain physical skills, fo-

cusing skills, confidence, and risk assessment skills every time we enter the forest. Group members support each other and learn more about themselves and their personal limits. Children have an inherent interest in adventure and wonder. Giving children the chance to feel this in a natural setting while trekking through a local forest or scrambling over a rock outcropping helps them connect the thrill of their heightened senses and awe to a real experience. Tracking animals on a trail and observing changes to the same environment over time help root children in a bigger picture of reality. Taking an adventurous and exploratory attitude on hikes and activities with children in natural settings may not guarantee a healthy lifestyle for that individual for life. However, it does make positive memories and builds resilience and character that the child uses in the short-term. The smiles, laughter, and mud on faces on Sunday mornings after an Uru Adventure activity give me hope that together we are building something greater in these children than just a fun experience — we are building lessons for life. Rabbi Daniel Moses has taught in local Jewish schools over the past 13 years. He holds a master’s degree in education and is Montessori Elementary-certified.

RAVIN’S READS

The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls By Rachel Ravin Many parents ask me what book I’d recommend for teaching girls about their developing bodies. I often respond that American Girl has several books that are geared toward providing girls with information and ideas related to the areas of physical and emotional development. One of my favorite books from American Girl is “The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls” by Valerie Schaefer.

Geared for girls ages eight and up, the book focuses on the many physical and emotional changes that girls will experience as they get older. With respect to physical development, there are sections on hygiene, hair care, braces, acne, and sun sense. I especially like how the book includes “how to” sections with pictures and concrete steps for things like how to brush and floss your teeth or how to care for your nails. The book also covers body talk, including puberty, fitness, sleep, nutrition, and eating disorders. There is

also a chapter about the girl “on the inside,” which explores feelings and “talking it out.” In fact, many of the topics addressed are ones parents might not think to cover with their daughters or may not feel comfortable talking about with their daughters. I love that this book is very direct. It has lots of pictures and is relatively easy for a child/pre-teen to pick up and read on her own. In short, the book is a great way to start to educate your daughter on her changing body, and a great way to be-

gin to help her care for herself. I hope you and your daughters enjoy reading this book — either together or separately. Rachel is a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with children and adolescents. She has a private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is in her 14th year working for Sulam, where she meets with students individually on a weekly basis, conducts social skills groups, and consults to teachers and parents. She received her undergraduate degree with a major in psychology from University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the George Washington University.

TORAH PERSPECTIVES The Greatest Parenting Technique That Was Never Seen on T.V. ÁÁ CONTINUED FROM P. 39 ing all you can be, or the easy way, fix the scale. How is this achieved? Gossip. By demeaning others we, by default, feel better about ourselves. When, on the other hand, we forbid gossip from our lips and our ears, we are left with the only way to make ourselves feel better — do better. On the surface, gossip looks harmless, but Judaism says that gossip does

hurt. Not only does it injure the person spoken about, but as I have explained, it destroys the one who says it, and even those who hear it. Every time we speak badly about another, we feel less inclined to improve ourselves. In Judaism, gossip is defined as relating negative information about another, even if it is true. (Slander is when it’s not true.) And not only does the Torah enjoin us not to speak gossip, but even further, we are required not to listen. A family that engages in gossip creates a real fear that any mistake will be looked at in a disparaging light. Chil-

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dren develop a fear of failure, knowing that their faults will be harshly examined, illuminated, and even publicized in a demeaning manner. And, on top of that, they will be discussed behind their backs, with no form of defense or recourse. Closed court and no jury! However, once you train and accustom your home to stay far from gossip, it becomes habitual and subtly forces everyone who lives this way to engage in the only conversation left — productive and fulfilling issues. As the Chafetz Chaim said: “Before you speak against someone else, think

how you would like it if someone said that same thing about you.” This applies even if the information is true, and even if the one spoken about wouldn’t mind. And watch your children bloom. Originally from London, Rabbi Stephen Baars resides in Rockville, Maryland and serves as Executive Director of Aish Seminars. He did nine years of post-graduate studies at the Aish HaTorah Rabbinical College in Jerusalem, and has been an educator and marriage counselor for the past 25 years. Rabbi Baars and his wife, Ruth, are blessed with seven children. Learn more about Rabbi Baars at www. getbliss.com and www.core9.live.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

HEALTH & WELLNESS How to Build and Maintain a Fitness Routine By Justin Walls For some people, it can be easy to find the right balance in their lives to get in enough activity and good food to keep them feeling active and healthy. For others, finding the right balance can be challenging. I’ve found that keeping an account of your workouts and meals each day gives you the clarity to see how well you have been keeping to your activity and meal commitments. The best way to get started is by keeping regular workout or exercise times and managing meals. I’m going to show you how to make a simple spreadsheet to manage this on your own. The first item to build is your person-

alized routine. You can start with something like the running or walking routines I discussed last issue, or you can build another workout. IDEA fitness professionals, such as myself, have software to create video routines for our clients. Popsugar is an example of an online resource of workout videos by fitness professionals teaching classes. The workout could also be as straightforward as pushups, pull-ups, jump squats, and V-ups (where you begin by lying on your back, then lifting your chest and legs at the same time to make a “V” shape with your body), but that’s not a very easy workout. The second thing to design is your meal plan type. You can follow guidelines set up by your fitness professional,

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Here’s an example of a goals chart after two eight-week intervals (16 total weeks): Eight-week interval

Change in walking pace

Change in weight (lbs)

Change in body fat %

1:00 faster per mile

Lost five pounds

Lost 1% body fat

:30 faster per mile

Lost three pounds

Lost 0.5% body fat

follow a prescribed nutrition plan from your nutritionist, or download a meal planning app like Ziplist, Pepperplate, or Allrecipes Dinner Spinner. The plan I tend to recommend is similar to the myplate.gov diet, with the caveat that each meal contain 30 grams of protein. You will be keeping a record of what you eat in your spreadsheet. Create a simple five-column spreadsheet (day of the week, your workout, breakfast, lunch, and dinner) to begin tracking your behaviors. This way you can see if you are meeting your personal benchmarks, and you can review to see which things may need adjusting to help you reach your goal. You’ll also want to create a separate place to track your goals. Your progress toward these goals can be assessed monthly, every six weeks, or at whatever interval you’d like to set for reviewing your data. Setting goals and tracking your progress is a great way to set your inten-

tion to changing the way that you make changes in your life. If you need further guidance in goal setting and building your own programs, then either visit my website justinwallsfitness.com or email justin@rockvillepersonaltraining.com to request a spreadsheet template and other free materials (Protein Diet Meal Plan, 5 Steps to Change). Justin Walls is a certified personal trainer from the American College of Sports Medicine with specialization in youth fitness, senior fitness, myofascial release techniques, joint pain/arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, aqua fitness, running and walking. Justin designs exercise programs for individuals and groups specializing in core and balance, walking, running endurance training, sports-specific training, circuit training, High Intensity Interval Training, and military-style boot camp and obstacle course programs. He also has expertise in lifestyle/health management and meal planning, and a background in psychology. Learn more at justinwallsfitness.com.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS Alternative Medicine: Is Arthritis Stopping Your Fun? By Simeon Pollack Just the other day, my mother sent me an advertorial, written by a naturopath, extolling the virtues of a special herb found in the Chinese medical pharmacopeia. This herb was so effective at treating a certain condition, he wrote, that he was “surprised” that Chinese medicine wasn’t already using it for the condition he had identified. Friends, please know that Chinese medicine is over 3,000 years old, with a long and storied history — a history replete with schools of research and thought, textbooks, and treatises informed by a vast body of knowledge about the human body, the Chinese pharmacopeia, and the interaction thereof. Granted, it is not based on or expressed in modern medical terms, or even in a lexicon that a westerner can easily understand, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t know what it’s talking about. I remember times at school when my initial, utter confusion at the seemingly nonsensical descriptions of body function and disease as understood in Chinese medicine would suddenly resolve into utter fascination and amazement as it all began to make sense. I was blown away by the wisdom and practicality of the approach, as well as by the deep understanding of the human body and disease that was evidenced in the writings of the ancient Chinese medical practitioners. The naturopath who was hawking his “discovery,” this wonder herb, may not have understood why Chinese medicine did not use the herb the way he thought it should be used. Rest assured, Chinese medicine did and does. Ancient wisdom stands the test of time, and is a wisdom worth understanding. With this in mind, let us turn our attention to a common malady that Chinese medicine has been treating for thousands of years: osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the degeneration of cartilage found in a joint. When the cartilage degenerates, bone ends touch and from the friction of bone against bone, the condition worsens and pain is a common result. How does Chinese medicine see osteoarthritis? This is the part where you will have to hold on to your hats. In Chinese medicine, a functional weakness is allowing a pathogen called bi-syndrome to enter the joint’s space. There are actually four types of bi-syndromes: wind,

cold, damp, and heat. Each has its own symptom, but they can easily combine and produce multiple symptoms. The first step in a Chinese medical diagnosis is to figure which bi-syndromes are involved and then to formulate a treatment plan. Chinese medicine never delivers a one-treatment-fits-all approach. Determinants such as lifestyle, the environment in which the person lives (indoors and outdoors), a person’s job, and other factors must be taken into account before a treatment plan can be formulated.

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A variety of herbs used in Chinese medicine. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NUTRITION SMART)

I once treated a patient for osteoarthritis of the thumb joint. It was debilitating and prevented her from using her thumb. This was particularly frustrating to her because she was a classical pianist and could no longer play piano. With dogged determination on both of our parts, we started treatment. With each treatment, which included acupuncture as well as Chinese herbs, she started to feel better. It took some time, but she eventually regained the use of her thumb and resumed playing the piano! When my mother sent me the note about the Chinese herb, the misunderstanding arose from a lack of knowledge. Chinese herbs are rarely used singly and almost always used in combinations called formulae. This allows for synergy of the herbs to benefit the patient, and creates a balance of the properties of each herb. It is akin to a recipe, in which the proper combination of ingredients and seasoning bring out the harmonious taste of the dish. This is what makes Chinese medicine so very interesting, and has for thousands of years! Simeon Pollock, L.Ac., L.M.T. is Maryland-licensed in both acupuncture and massage. He has a private practice in Silver Spring. Simeon practices his unique style of holistic healthcare by blending acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and massage therapy into a wonderful healing experience.

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

HEALTH & WELLNESS Top Tips for Allergy Management By Kol HaBirah Staff/StatePoint Media Allergy symptoms can lead to a major disruption in quality of life. And unfortunately, they affect a lot of people. Nearly 60 million Americans suffer from allergic rhinitis (also commonly known as hay fever), according to the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. Luckily, many allergy sufferers are interested in learning more about what causes their allergies and how they can manage them. In fact, 70 percent of allergy sufferers say they wish they had a better understanding of the science behind their allergies, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 allergy sufferers in the US sponsored by Sanofi Consumer Healthcare. The survey was conducted online using Toluna’s QuickSurveys methodology. With that in mind, Sanofi is sharing some helpful information and tips for allergy sufferers to keep in mind this season: 1.) Know your triggers. Determine what allergens or “triggers” cause your symptoms, whether it’s pollen, pet dander, etc. While you may already have some idea of what triggers your symptoms, an allergist can give you a comprehensive check-up for a proper diagnosis. 2.) Avoid exposure. If pollen is one of your triggers, check the pollen count be-

(PHOTO CREDIT: DJORONIMO/FOTOLIA.COM)

fore planning that picnic. If it’s your furry friend giving you grief, spend some time vacuuming your rugs and furniture. Once you know your triggers, take steps to avoid or minimize them whenever possible. 3.) Learn the science behind your symptoms. When an allergy sufferer comes into contact with certain allergens, their body produces a variety of chemi-

cal responses that cause those symptoms that can make them feel miserable. According to the recent survey of allergy sufferers, more than half of them said histamine is the only chemical response to allergens that they are familiar with, but there are actually several — including leukotrienes, cytokines, prostaglandins, and eosinophils. To relieve allergy symptoms, it’s important to stop these chemical reac-

tions from taking place. 4.) Visit the allergy aisle. Several prescription-strength treatment options are available over-the-counter for the relief of allergy symptoms. This season, be proactive about your allergies. Educate yourself about your triggers and make sure you have an effective treatment on hand to provide symptom relief.

Kol HaBirah’s own Senior Editor Kami Troy presents: “Five Questions with Kami,” a podcast featuring members of the Greater Washington Jewish community.

Listen to an exciting new PODCAST Five Questions with Kami, where she interviews the Kosher Baker Paula Shoyer 44

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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SP RTS

Gregg Popovich Should be the Coach of the Year By Efraim Andrew Wakschlag Gregg Popovich is by far the best coach in the NBA and should win a record-breaking fourth Coach of the Year award. Just like LeBron James should win MVP every season, Gregg Popovich should win Coach of the Year every season. Pop has gotten the Spurs into the playoffs 20 consecutive seasons. He has

Pop has gotten the Spurs into the playoffs 20 consecutive seasons. He has also coached more 60-win seasons than most other franchises have in total. also coached more 60-win seasons than most other franchises have in total. Pop motivates his players to play stifling defense, and inspires them to play team-oriented basketball like no other coach can. He also has developed a system which seems to thrive regardless of which play-

ers are in it. Further, Pop is a master at tapping into the potential of foreign unknown players and getting the most out of their talents. He develops them in his system and turns them into perennial AllStars. Classic examples are French native Tony Parker (28th pick in the draft) and Argentinian native Manu Ginobili (57th pick in the draft). Pop has a history of fitting marginal players into his system so they can maximize their strengths. Pop also somehow convinces players to sacrifice to buy into his team-first style. Players such as Pau Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge left lucrative deals on the table to come to San Antonio and play for coach Pop. Despite losing Tim Duncan, the Spurs’ anchor for the last two decades, Pop still coaches one of the best teams in the league. All his players are always disciplined and respectful and they have a good relationship with him. When coach Pop sat Tim Duncan in the final seconds of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals and Ray Allen hit the game-winning three-point shot, Duncan did not criticize his coach but instead he expressed respect for his judgement. More recently, coach Pop sat his star player Kawhi Leonard just oneand-a-half minutes into Game 3 of this year’s playoffs due to his lack of energy. Kawhi willingly took a seat and returned

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Coach Popovich’s greatest skill may be his ability to regulate his player’s minutes like a computer algorithm.

Gregg Popovich in his natural state of coaching. (PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS)

a few minutes later, acknowledging the time out Pop put him in. Of course, a team needs selfless players who would support their coach through decisions like this, but the mentality of accepting these decisions starts behind the scenes in the locker room. Coach Popovich’s greatest skill may be his ability to regulate his player’s minutes like a computer algorithm. He rests his star players and yet still wins regular season and playoff games. His players are never overplayed and rarely suffer

from injuries because of this. His players are also fresh going into the playoffs and are always poised to make a deep postseason run. Just because I disagree with Coach Pop’s politics — he went on an anti-Trump tirade after the election, and recently called America’s treatment of African Americans a “national sin”— it doesn’t mean I can’t have the utmost respect for him. I hope Pop wins Coach of the Year for yet another years’ worth of unmatched talent at the coaching position. Efraim Andrew Wakschlag is originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, and currently lives in Chicago. He attended the Yeshiva of Greater Washington and graduated from Yeshiva University in 2014. He is a prolific writer on the NBA and authored “10 Squared: An Unconventional Analysis on the NBA” when he was in Yeshiva University.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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SP RTS A Recap of April Baseball By Roey Herzfeld and Ezra Troy

Five Things We Learned From April: 1.) Eric Thames is a beast Even though he got injured for a few days, Thames still has 11 HR’s (home runs), tied for the league lead, 19 RBI (runs batted in) , and would be in the running for NL triple crown if it was the end of the season. He already has more home runs in less than half of the at bats then the last time he played in the majors (2012). No wonder they think he is a god in Korea.

4.) Bryce Harper’s 2016 season was a fluke Bryce Harper had an MVP campaign in 2015, but he followed that up with a disappointing 2016 campaign. But if there is anything we learned from April, it’s that Harper is more like his 2015 version than his 2016 one. He is batting .391, has 26 RBI and 9 HR’s.

10 Weird April Stats:

7.) Ryan Zimmerman Ryan Zimmerman would win the NL triple crown if the season ended today. 8.) Avisail Garcia and Aaron Judge RBI Avisail Garcia and Aaron Judge are both tied for fifth in AL RBI. Judge also is tied for the AL lead in HR’s and Garcia leads the AL in batting average.

1.) Khris Davis HR’s The A’s OF, not really thought of as a HR guy, is tied for the AL lead with ten. 2.) Greg Holland Saves After years of setting up for Wade Davis in Kansas City, Holland finally got to become a closer and leads the MLB in saves with 11.

2.) Edwin Encarnacion is really important for the Blue Jays Last offseason, after the Blue Jays lost in the ALDS, free agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion left the Blue Jays and their 4.11 runs per game offence to go to the defending AL champ Cleveland Indians. This year the Blue Jays are 8 games back of first place and are the second worst team in baseball. Their offense is now also averaging only 3.58 runs per game. The moral? The Blue Jays need Encarnacion and seem destined to have a bad season without him anchoring their lineup.

3.) Ervin Santana ERA (earned run average) Santana, not really thought of as a top pitcher, leads the MLB with a 0.77 ERA.

Aaron Judge (SOURCE: WWW.NJ.COM)

4.) Ivan Nova CG (complete games) Ivan Nova threw two complete games and a shutout in April.

Bryce Harper

3.) Don Mattingly won’t let his pitchers finish no-hitters On April 16th Mattingly pulled Dan Straily, in the middle of the six inning despite Strailys no hit bid. Two nights later, he pulled Wei - Yin Chen in the seventh inning and he was also in the middle of a no hitter. Mattingly’s strategy, while non-conventional, has proved effective as the Marlins went on to win both of those games.

have been doing this all with up and coming star Gary Sanchez out of the lineup and on the DL most of the year. The future of the Yankees looks bright with six top 100 prospects still in the minors. Even if they can’t keep up their torrid pace, they still look to be a top team for 2018 and beyond.

5.) The Yankees will be very good very soon The Yankees are tied for best record in the AL through April and finished the month by sweeping the Red Sox and taking two of three from the Orioles. Aaron Judge looks like the next Babe Ruth and all their pitchers look stellar even though up. The most impressive thing about this run, however, is that they

5.) Jose Quintana, Adam Wainwright, Rick Porcello, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Martinez, Jeff Samardzija and Madison Bumgarner records All of these big name top pitchers remain winless and have a combined 0- 23 record to start the season. 6.) Top nine in MLB batting average Ryan Zimmerman, Justin Turner, Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman, Avisail Garcia, Mike Trout, Brandon Phillips, Zack Cozart and Starlin Castro are the top nine in Batting Average in the MLB. Enough said.

The Bucks and Their Future By Sam Glick The youngest team in the NBA, with an average age of 24.5, the Milwaukee Bucks have probably the best prospects among NBA teams right now, besides for the Minnesota Timberwolves. The team is among the top 10 in allowed points per game because every player in the starting lineup has a 6’10” wingspan or longer. The Bucks are led by one-time All-Star and small forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is 22 years old. Antetokounmpo had his best season of his career this year, and I think it will translate into next year when he is a major contender for MVP. This past year, the Bucks went 42-40, mostly because Khris Middleton, a major asset in the Bucks rebuild, was out for the first half of the year with a left hamstring injury that required surgery. When Khris Middleton was out they were 22-29, and they ended the season

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9.) Rockies and D-Backs division leader, Phillies in second The top two teams in the NL West don’t include the Giants or the Dodgers. Sitting at the top are the Rockies and Diamondbacks, two teams who finished under .500 last year. 10.) The three last place teams in the AL are the Blue Jays, the Rangers and Royals The Jays and Rangers went to the playoffs last year and the Royals won the World Series two short years ago. Roey Herzfeld and Ezra Troy are both sophomores at the Berman Hebrew Academy and avid baseball fans.

on a 20-11 run. This run would have been better had Jabari Parker not gotten injured the same night Khris Middleton returned. Parker’s injury included a yearlong recovery, meaning he was out for the playoffs and the beginning of the 2017-2018 season. I can go on for hours about how good the Bucks will be in coming years, but they also have some shortcomings. For example, since their average age is so low, they have no players with playoffs under their belts, except for Jason Terry and a few others. Aside from the few downers, they are an amazing team, and, in my opinion, will be the second best team next year, behind the Cleveland Cavaliers. Hopefully next year Giannis can lead the Bucks to a better record without Jabari Parker and other players hobbled by injuries. Sam Glick lives in Potomac, Maryland, and is a sophomore at Winston Churchill High School. His family davens at Beth Sholom in Potomac, and he is a member of Greater Washington NCSY.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

WHERE CAN I PICK UP THE PAPER? SILVER SPRING • Wheaton Mall Giant • Wheaton Mall Starbucks • Kemp Mill Synagogue • Silver Spring Jewish Center • Rabbi Chinn's • Chabad of Silver Spring • Young Israel Shomrei Emunah • Shalom Kosher • Dry Cleaners • Ben Yehudas Pizza • Kosher Pastry Oven • Candy Man • Eli Chais • Kemp Mill Optical • Kindness Animal Hospital • Montgomery County Liquers • Max's Restaraunt • Nuthouse Pizza • Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim • Soupergirl Takoma Park • Homecrest • Kugler's Home Fashions • Warwick • University Towers 1 • University Towers 2 LEISURE WORLD • Leisure World Interfaith Chapel • Leisure World Clubhouse 2 ROCKVILLE • Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy • Charles E Smith Day School • Aish Hatorah • Magen David • Chabad Rockville • Chabad Aspen Hill • J-Roc • Motis Market • Sienas Pizza • Café Shawreen • Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and Sunflower Café

• Mocco Movement Center • Bikur Cholim • Charles E Smith Landow House • Charles E Smith Hebrew Home • Charles E Smith Ring House • Temple B'nai Israel • Kol Shalom • Temple Beth Ami • Bender JCC • Montgomery County Liquers Wine and Liquor • Starbucks Montrose Shoppng Center • Shoppers at Montrose Shopping Center • Tikvat Israel • JSSA • Giant at Montrose Crossing POTOMAC • Giant at Cabin John • Bread Smith at Cabin John • Beth Sholom • Young Israel • Har Shalom • Chabad of Potomac • Washington Hebrew CHEVY CHASE • Chevy Chase Library BETHESDA • Adat Shalom • Am Hatorah • Congregation Beth El • Chabad of Bethesda • Bethesda Library GAITHERSBURG • Chabad

DC • Ohev Shalom - National Synagogue • JPDS • Kesher Israel • ADAS Israel • George Washington Hillel • Sixth and I • Hillel International • DC JCC • Agudah Israel • Char Bar • AIPAC • Hillel at Galluadet University • American Friends of Lubavitch FAIRFAX • Chabad Fairfax • Olam Tikvah • JCC of NoVa • Rodef Sholom • Shoppers at Fair City Mall • Gesher Jewish Day School BALTIMORE • The Atrium • Shoppers near the Atrium • Liberty Jewish Center • Beth Tfiloh • Giant • Goldbergs • Mama Leah • Pikesville Library • David Chus • Kosher Dunkin Donuts • Etz Chaim • Park Heights JCC • JCS • Weinberg Park • Tudor Heights • Owings Mills JCC

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND • University of Maryland Hillel • University of Maryland Meor • University of Maryland Chabad

*The list includes many of our major distribution locations but is not exhaustive

Contact editor@kolhabirah.com to request a location 48

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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FOOD & DINING RECIPES

Finding Your Drink: Healthier Options By Armand Kohn Unfortunately, this week’s article starts without a quote. It would seem none of my favorite sources for drinking quotes (Hemingway, Sinatra, and Franklin) were aware of the health benefits of the occasional cocktail. Alternatively, they were drinking regardless of the health benefits which I feel is the more likely option. Most people can agree that binge drinking and drinking too often are bad for you. There are innumerable studies looking at the correlation between binge-drinking and cognitive impairment or binge-drinking and liver disease. There are, however, more recent studies that admit that in small amounts there are some benefits to the occasional cocktail. Most people are familiar with the high level of antioxidants present in red wine. What most people often overlook, however, are the psycho-social benefits of the occasional drink. Aside from making us more sociable, there are relaxing/ sedative effects that can be useful in today’s overstressed world.

Interestingly, this duality is mirrored in Judaism as well. According to one source in the Talmud, the tree of knowledge was in fact a grapevine and it was wine that sent Adam and Eve on their downward spiral. Let’s also not forget the story of Noah after the flood and his disgrace from overdrinking. At the same time, Judges 9:13 describes wine as “bringing joy to man and G-d” and wine is integral to numerous of our holiest of traditions. What can take from this is that all the tools to make something good or evil are in our hands. It is up to us to lift drinking to be part of a positive context. It is with this thought in mind that I chose to take two spirits usually associated with partying and created healthier versions of them. These cocktails are perfect for the coming summer and will serve as the perfect accompaniment to your social gatherings.

Vodka Salad

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4 slices of cucumber 2 slices of lime

3 slices of jalapeno 2 ounces of plain vodka Lemon-lime seltzer Cut the cucumber, lime, and jalapeno and place in a tall glass. Fill the glass with ice and add the vodka. If you own a cocktail shaker you can shake the cocktail at this point. Otherwise, simply stir the ingredients vigorously to muddle the ingredients. Finish off the drink by filling the glass with the seltzer and enjoy. The longer you let the drink rest, the more the flavors of the vegetables and fruit will meld with the drink. This recipe can be multiplied to make a great summer punch to place in pitchers.

Green Rum 3 slices of apple 4 slices of cucumber 2 ounces of white rum Lemon-lime seltzer Cut the cucumber and apple and place in a tall glass. Fill the glass with ice and add the rum. If you own a cocktail shaker you can shake the cocktail at this point. Otherwise, simply stir the in-

A fresh Vodka Salad.

gredients vigorously to muddle the ingredients. Finish off the drink by filling the glass with the seltzer and enjoy. The longer you let the drink rest, the more the flavors of the vegetables and fruit will meld with the drink. This recipe can be multiplied to make a great summer punch to place in pitchers. Armand Kohn is a certified bartender and University of Maryland alumnus. He now resides in Michigan where he works as a medical researcher while pursuing a master’s degree in basic medical science.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

FOOD & DINING Kosher Thais By Klaofa (Shira) Kavanagh Twenty-five years ago, I came to the United States from Bangkok to get an MBA, and within a couple of years I was keeping kosher. Since then, I helped set up weekly kiddushes for several years, made a large Thai meal as a fundraiser for Chabad of Seattle, and fried bananas for a Chanukah party at the Young Israel of Elkins Park outside Philadelphia. Frequently, I’m asked about Thai cuisine and where to get kosher Thai ingredients. Growing up, my mother didn’t want me in the kitchen, so as I began to keep kosher I had to learn to cook. People outside of Seattle think there’s a Starbucks on every corner, but the joke in Seattle is that it’s a Thai restaurant. Fortunately, I knew a professional chef who had been brought from Thailand and in exchange for assisting her with utilities and other things, she taught me to cook and eventually even wrote down her recipes for me. Dairy products are not commonly used in Thai cooking, which makes things easier in terms of kashrus. The main kashrus issues are the common use of fish sauce (nam pla) with meat and the use of fermented shrimp paste in some curries. Consequently, shrimp pastes are simply not used in kosher curry pastes. In contrast, fish sauce is commonly used in many dishes and is the most frequent question we get about kosher Thai ingredients. Fish sauce is a salty liquid made from salted fermented fish such as anchovies or shellfish, and thus requires a good hashgacha (kosher certification). The OK has supervised a batch of Red Boat brand fish sauce from Vietnam and it is available. With the exception of a couple of dishes, virtually every recipe that includes fish sauce involves meat; therefore, I simply don’t use it, and instead may add additional salt. Alternatively, you can add a mushroom broth or use a mushroom-flavored soy sauce. There are numerous varieties of Thai soy sauces such as black soy sauce, thin soy sauce, and mushroom soy sauce used in different recipes and they are subtler than Japanese soy sauces. Healthy Boy is a well-known brand and many of their products are under OK supervision. With a little effort, other common Thai ingredients with widely accepted hashgachas including rice noodles (Gefen), canned coconut milk, and various chili sauces (such as sriracha) can be obtained. Specialty vegetables and Thai soy sauces can be found in local Asian markets such as H-mart or Hung Phat Grocery on Fern Street, which is perpendicular to University Blvd opposite Max’s Restaurant, and other sauces, noodles, and coconut milk can be found in local kosher supermarkets, online, or at Trader Joe’s (coconut milk). Thai cuisine is typically served family style, with a number of dishes brought to the table at once and each person taking

some of each dish in whatever order they wish. A family of five might have a meal with five or six dishes, including a soup (in a tureen), a fish dish, a meat curry, a noodle dish, and a stir-fried dish, along with jasmine white rice. Dishes are added for each additional person. In deference to kashrus, the fish would of course be served first before the other dishes. My biggest problem in cooking kosher Thai food is coming up with things for Shabbos lunch because that’s when we are most likely to have guests, but most Thai food needs to be cooked immediately before serving.

or more and used for lahb gai as needed. (The ground rice may be excluded if you don’t want to patchke.) 2.) Slice the white section of the green onions (~2 to 2.5 inches) crosswise into pieces about 1/8 inch thick. 3.) Slice the shallots or red onions into pieces about 1/16th-inch thick and separate the rings or sections. 4.) Wash basil or mint and check. Set aside 1/4 - 1/3 cupful of leaves separated from the stems. 5.) Wash cilantro and check. Set aside 1/4 - 1/3 cupful of leaves separated from the stems. If the cilantro has roots, re-

The Lahb Gai (recipe below) is a dish that can be served for a Shabbos dinner or lunch.

move, wash, and freeze to use in preparing other Thai dishes. The stems may also be saved and used instead. 6.) Extract lime juice by slicing limes in half across the sections. Using a paring knife, make an asterisk in the halved limes, being careful not to cut into the pith. Then, using the back of a spoon, break the juice-containing cells and collect the juice into a measuring cup. Do not go all the way to the pith; otherwise the juice will be bitter. You will get about 1 ounce per average- sized lime. (Bottled lime juice tends to be bitter.) 7.) Also prepare lime quarter or 1/8 wedges by cutting the limes in half across the sections then cutting in half again for quarters, etc. 8.) Remove outer and inner green leaves from a medium to large-sized cabbage. Per the cRc website the inner white leaves only need “a cursory inspection for obvious insect infestation.” Cut the head with white leaves into eight wedges and then cut off the hard core so there are wedges of individual leaves; or use individual leaves from leaf lettuce.

Lahb Gai (Chicken Salad) This chicken salad is moderately spiced and may be served hot or at room temperature. It’s a finger food with a slight crunch and we often make it for Shabbos lunch in the summer, where it can be served at room temperature or warmed on the blech. 1 pound ground chicken breast 2 tablespoons ground toasted rice (may be made in advance) 3 green onions, white part only 1/4 cup sliced shallots or red onion 1/4 - 1/3 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves (Italian basil may be used although Thai basil is milder) (Mint leaves may also be used) 1/4 - 1/3 cup cilantro leaves 1/4 cup (2 oz.) lime juice (~ 1 oz. per lime) (if you like it stronger you can use twice as much) 1 tablespoon (1/2 fl. oz.) Thai soy sauce or 1/4 teaspoon table salt (or to taste) 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes (pizza chili) or to taste Green cabbage or leaf lettuce Additional raw vegetables (optional)

Prepping Ingredients 1.) In a wok or frying, pan toast uncooked jasmine rice over medium-high heat until golden brown, stirring nearly constantly to prevent burning. (You want to avoid browned and burned rice.) When toasted and cooled, grind in a blender until it’s somewhat gritty. (Do not make a powder.) We make 1 - 2 cups at a time as excess may be stored in a glass jar in a dry pantry for six months

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Cooking 1.) Cook the chicken in a wok or frying pan over medium heat with an ounce or so of water, stirring occasionally and covering in between, until the pink color disappears. Then transfer to a mixing bowl. (If ground chicken is not available, use boneless chicken breasts and, using a Chinese cleaver, slice thinly. Then slice thinly across the first cuts. Use the cleaver to then chop the meat, occasionally using the cleaver as a spatula to turn the meat over and around, then chopping from different angles to get something approaching ground meat.)

2.) In a mixing bowl, mix chicken, ground toasted rice, green onions, shallots, cilantro, and basil leaves. Then add and mix in the lime juice, soy sauce or salt, and chili flakes.

Serving Serve in a bowl with cabbage wedges or leaf lettuce leaves on the side, along with a bowl of lime quarter or 1/8 wedges, and chili flakes in a shaker or in a bowl with a spoon. Jasmine rice (see below) is also provided as a side dish. Individuals spoon the lahb gai onto their plates using a serving spoon and then, using their teaspoon, place a small amount on a cabbage or lettuce leaf and add additional lime and chili flakes as desired. The lahb gai is then rolled up in the leaf and eaten with the fingers. Additional cut raw vegetables such as carrots, zucchini squash, yellow squash, broccoli, green beans, or Thai eggplant may also be served with the lahb gai. If making for Shabbos lunch, prepare everything ahead of time and store each prepared ingredient separately. The chicken should be dry before storing if it will be warmed on a blech. Prior to eating, the chicken is either allowed to come to room temperature, or warmed on a blech if desired. (Check with your Rav.) The remaining ingredients are then mixed in just prior to serving.

Jasmine Rice (Khao Hom Mali) (Serves 4) Jasmine rice is served with almost every meal. It is a long-grain variety of fragrant white rice that Thailand is known for, that when cooked has a slightly sticky texture. Due to the loss of fragrance over time, rice from a “new crop” is preferred. If the meal is too spicy, eating rice will cleanse the palate; whereas drinking a liquid will simply spread the capsicum around the inside of the mouth and make the feeling worse. 1 cup Jasmine Rice 30-31 fl. oz. water

Cooking 1.) Place in pot. (A rice cooker is preferred. We use a Zojirushi rice cooker / warmer as it will keep the rice warm for a day or two.) 2.) Rinse rice three to four times with cool water to get rid of excess starch until the water is fairly clear, making sure to drain off almost all the rinse water each time. 3.) Add water and cook per instructions from rice cooker or simply bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes covered. 4.) After cooking, remove from the heat and allow rice to rest for 15 to 25 minutes. Then fluff the rice with a fork. 5.) If planning to have warm rice for Shabbos meals it may be placed on a blech. (Check with your Rav.) Shira Kavanagh is an accountant at DemboJones specializing in nonprofits. She lives in the Kemp Mill, Silver Spring with her husband and two children, Avi (17) and Rosie (13). For questions on Thai food you can contact Shira on Twitter, @Klaofa.

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FOOD & DINING

Eating Your Way to Healthy By Marnina Cowan, with contributions from Seth Coburn Food has been an integral part of Jewish culture for thousands of years. Year after year, we read many Biblical stories about food, such as the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, and of Jacob and Esau and the lentil stew. While the Torah provides specific guidance on the laws of kashrut, it does not include instructions on what it means to eat “healthy.” We are left to ask ourselves — what does a healthy diet look like? The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans enumerates several recommendations for consuming a healthy diet: 1.) Follow a healthy eating pattern across the lifespan. 2.) Focus on variety, nutrient density, and amount. 3.) Limit calories from added sugars and saturated fats and reduce sodium intake. 4.) Shift to healthier food and beverage choices. 5.) Support healthy eating patterns for all. However, these guidelines for a nutritious diet are not “one sizes fits all.” We all come to the table (pun intended!) with different eating restrictions, whether they are medically necessary or not. Can you imagine not eating raw vegetables, beans, lentils, berries, corn,

seeds, nuts, and whole grains? Like many Ashkenazic Jews, I live with Crohn’s disease, a chronic, autoimmune digestive disease that requires me to follow a low fiber diet. Believe it or not, I have not eaten a salad in 12 years. What does my healthy look like? A diet full of low-fiber foods such as fish, meat, tofu, potatoes, lactose-free milk, yogurt, cooked vegetables, rice, fruit without peels, white bread, pasta… the list goes on. If I followed the classic dietitian-approved meal plan for what constitutes a healthy diet, I would probably not have the energy to write this article. I eat what makes me feel happy and healthy. It took years of trial and error to figure out the general rules that seem to govern my own gut. Feel free to think about the types of foods that make you smile inside and out, and try to make those foods the centerpiece of your diet. Despite our many wonderful qualities, Ashkenazic Jews are known for digestive issues, ranging from food allergies and lactose intolerance to inflammatory bowel syndrome to celiac disease and ulcerative colitis. Others live with diabetes or hypertension, which require dietary modifications to carbohydrate or salt consumption. Your diet should reflect your medical needs. My husband, a health coach and aspiring dietitian, tells his patients to eat the rainbow, since the different colors of food represent different compounds within food that provide different nutri-

ents. Those orange carrots and sweet potatoes in your tzimmes? Chock full of beta-carotene, the precursor to Vitamin A. Since I cannot eat many foods, and therefore miss out on many colors, I supplement my diet with vitamins to make sure that my body gets the nutrients it needs. As Jews, we love to eat communally. We frequently share Shabbat and holiday meals with friends and family. Eating out with dietary restrictions can feel burdensome — while you want to make sure you can eat, you do not want to burden the host with preparing special dishes for you. I typed up a list of foods I can and cannot eat, which I share with my hosts in advance. I have found that this makes me less anxious about attending meals when I do not have advance warning about what is being served. I also give the host examples of dishes that are what I call “Marnina-friendly.” Often, the host will then realize that my restrictions are really not that limiting. I also always emphasize that I do not have to be able to eat everything on the table. If there is a salad, I will happily avoid it. In fact, I often cook dishes for my guests that I know I cannot eat (simply because I want others to enjoy them). As a host, try to be mindful that you may have guests coming with dietary restrictions. Ask your guests in advance if there are any restrictions you should be aware of. Feel free to share the menu with the guest(s) in advance or ask ques-

tions about specific ingredients. The internet is a great resource for recipes and inspiration. There are many kosher food blogs and websites that may help. My husband and I started I Be a fooDie (www.ibeafoodie.wordpress.com), a kosher blog devoted to the dietary management of individuals with Crohn’s disease and/or ulcerative colitis. Food blogs are a great source for delicious recipes, such as the gluten-free, pareve, chocolate chip banana bread recipe included below, a recipe we recently featured on I Be a fooDie (the banana bread is so good that it doesn’t taste gluten free!). With Shavuot (and lots of dairy) around the corner, let us be mindful of the guests coming to our tables, let us be proactive about our dietary restrictions, and let us be healthy together.

The Gluten Free Triple B (Best Banana Bread) (Recipe credit: Shira Rosenbaum) 4 very ripe bananas 1 cup sugar 1 stick margarine/Earth Balance 2 eggs 2 cups flour (any gluten-free blend) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder Pinch of salt Chocolate chips (about 3/4 cup) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the first three ingredients together. Mix in the eggs and then the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased (or oiled) loaf pan and bake for an hour or until the top of the bread browns a little.

caterer of distinction

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

ARTS& ENTERTAINMENT

Fashion Entrepreneur Lizz Billington: Be Unapologetically Yourself Interview by Batya H. Carl Lizz Billinson, 30, originally from Virginia and a longtime D.C. resident, added an extra “z” in her name as a child because she wanted to be different. She currently works in human resources at a law firm but continues to embrace her individuality in a her side business, The Twitchy Pixie. The name is a playful nod to her experience of Tourette’s Syndrome at the age of eight. Her parents, the Jewish community, and her teachers at Gesher offered their support and helped shape her positive attitude toward her diagnosis. Since then, she has come to accept Tourette’s Syndrome as an important part of her identity and inspires her clients and customers to “be as weird as they want to be.” How would you describe your business? The Twitchy Pixie is a fashion and accessory resale boutique. I started Twitchy Pixie to celebrate women who are different. We carry all different sizes, vintage, designer, new, or “pre-loved” clothing that each have a story, at prices accessible to the everyday woman. I’ve been interested in fashion my whole life. I started out a year and a half ago when I had cool vintage things I didn’t want anymore or new things I didn’t get to wear and sold them on a site called Poshmark. It’s still in it’s early stages but a lot of fun. How does growing up with Tourette’s tie in with your vision for The Twitchy Pixie? I had trouble expressing myself and had developmental issues; I had trouble buttoning my jeans and would wear shoes with Velcro. Early on I started drawing things I would want to wear and dressing how I felt. I’d wear skirts with pants underneath them or different colored leggings. What is your vision for The Twitchy Pixie? At our core, it’s about being unapologetically yourself. My goal is to flip the switch on the word “weird” and celebrate the things that make us weird. I want to help women express themselves with clothes. I want women to find that confidence, not necessarily the [trendiest] thing, but what feels good to you. We have funky, weird, and classic pieces. It doesn’t have to go together, it just has to be you. For example, I can sometimes be found wearing a leather jacket with pearls. A lot of people like fashion and it doesn’t have to be superficial. It’s about finding your voice, and you can do that with fashion.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

What was it like growing up with Tourette’s? It was a different time. I was eight years old when [symptoms] started coming out and no one knew what was going on. There was not as much dialogue about Tourette’s as they have now. My parents were both supportive and wanted me to be happy. They just fostered my self-esteem and showed me that maybe I’m different but it’s nothing to be ashamed about and is something to celebrate. What are some of the challenges facing your new business? I have so many ideas and I’m so passionate that it’s a challenge to not expand too quickly, but to develop the brand and website, finding people to consign with us, and keep my passion focused. What is the biggest lesson you have learned from your experiences? Most of all, I just learned that I am so appreciative of the people around me, that I’ve met through Twitchy Pixie, who are really excited about being a part of it. With our on-demand consignment, I go over to others’ houses and help them look through their clothes. They tell stories of when they wore them and get emotional. But then they pass them on for a new person’s story. Working with fashion, seeing people happy and love what they purchased is great for me and what it’s all about. What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs? Most importantly, I think the passion has to be

there. People don’t realize how much goes into these things. They have to love it and be organized. What does success mean to you? I love making a positive impact on other people. It’s about making people feel good. I find things people can use to express themselves feel proud of who they are. I want to help create a new generation of girls and women who are empowered to be who they are, who don’t feel the need to change who they are. No one is too old or too young [to shop with us] and if it makes them feel good then that’s what they should wear. I love getting to run ideas by my mom, the woman who has supported me from the beginning. People just really like seeing the progression I was a shy little kid, kind of twitchy, and didn’t have the self-esteem so it’s exciting for them to see the growth. Poshmark Link: https://poshmark.com/closet/lizzlebit86 Facebook Group: @shoptwitchy or Facebook search “Twitchy Pixie,” Twitter: @shoptwitchy Do you have a question, item request, or want to consign with Twitchy Pixie? Email shoptwitchypixie@ gmail.com. When she is not writing, Batya H. Carl works as a school counselor for Prince William County Public Schools. She is a Washingtonian from birth and currently resides in Northwest Washington, where she regularly attends Congregation Kesher Israel.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Coming Soon: The 27th Annual Washington Jewish Film Festival By Alexis Rodriguez The Washington Jewish Film Festival (WJFF) announced the program for its 27th annual event. The Festival will run from May 17-28 in venues throughout the D.C. area, offering 63 feature-length and 18 short films from 25 countries. In addition to the film program, the Festival will host talkbacks and panel discussions with dozens of filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad. “Every year we strive to present new cinematic voices from all corners of the globe that reflect and inform the Jewish identity,” said Ilya Tovbis, director of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. “The 2017 program includes some of the most striking international films of the past year, from both emerging and master filmmakers. In many cases, the Festival will be the only chance for Washingtonians to catch these cinematic gems on screen.” The feature, documentary, and short films in the slate touch on an array of Jewish perspectives from around the world. This year’s WJFF Annual Visionary Awards honorees are two titans of independent cinema: Polish director Agnieszka Holland and the iconic American

auteur Barry Levinson. The award recognizes creativity and insight in presenting the full diversity of the Jewish experience through moving image. In addition to the main film program, the Festival features a series of discussions and screenings to celebrate artists behind the camera, on stage, and even in the kitchen. “As If, A Clueless Night!” is bringing

back the 90s with a party and screening of “Clueless,” followed by a conversation with filmmaker Amy Heckerling. The seventh Annual Community Day of Education on Arab Citizens of Israel pairs a screening of 77 STEPS with a panel discussion on the daily lives and challenges of Arab citizens of Israel. “An Evening of Yiddish Culture” explores the enduring artistic legacy of Yid-

dish film and music. The ever-popular “Two Jews Walk into a Bar (and a Deli)” is a one-of-a-kind cinematic bar crawl. A project of the Edlavitch DCJCC, the Washington Jewish Film Festival is the largest Jewish cultural event in the Greater Washington, D.C. area. Films and programs will take place at AFI Silver Theatre, Bethesda Row Cinema, E Street Cinema, the National Gallery of Art, and the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the Edlavitch DCJCC. A full Festival schedule can be found at www.wjff.org.

AitanaPerlmutterArt.com aitanaperlmutterart@gmail.com WWW.KOLHABIRAH.COM

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FREE TO SEE

Free to See: Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia By Dinah Rokach Spending time exploring new vistas, breathing clean mountain air, contemplating the splendor of a cascading waterfall — what could be healthier? If you are one of those people who finds a long drive to be a great way to clear your head, I have the perfect destination for a terrific daytrip: Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, West Virginia. The park has earned a “gem” rating from the AAA TourBook, its highest accolade for a tourist site. The park is located in the Allegheny Mountains, two miles southeast of the center of the small town of Davis, West Virginia. The town of Davis, incorporated in 1885, grew exponentially during a lumber boom, felling the nearby trees, which attracted to the area thousands of immigrants, including Jews, looking for work. However, according to the Pew survey in 2014, only 1 percent of the population of West Virginia is Jewish. The state park was established in 1937 and its boundaries have been extended ever since. The park is now 2,358 acres in size. As the saying goes, getting there is half the fun: the drive through the majestic mountains and lush valleys of West Virginia will take your breath away, and so will the 65-foot waterfall at your destination.

The drive through the majestic mountains and lush valleys of West Virginia will take your breath away, and so will the 65-foot waterfall at your destination. It is imperative that you plan ahead. Request a free park map/trail guide and brochure — the hard copy is more detailed and easier to read than the online version — by emailing DNR.Parks@ wv.gov or calling 304-558-2764. In addition to providing your mailing address, be sure to specify your interest Blackwater Falls State Park. You should receive the information in the mail in about a week. The park map/trail guide is most helpful as a supplement to your GPS. Before you set out, review the location of the park roads, overlooks, and parking lots. Another tip for seeing the falls at peak flow: visit after rainfall. “Blackwater Falls can be less impres-

sive during the drier periods of the year, which usually occur during mid/late summer through fall,” according to Jeremy White, field office chief with the U.S. Geological Survey in Charlestown, West Virginia. He recommends you Google search the term “usgs water resource davis wv,” click the first result, and scroll down that page for the graph “Precipitation, total, inches.” “Just look at the seven-day accumulation,” he says. A search of “Blackwater Falls State Park, WV” on weather.com the week before your trip is another option. Of course, you’ll want to travel through the mountains on a clear day. If you enjoy driving on long stretches of nearly traffic-free interstate highways and the thrill of steep grades, this trip is perfect. Take a break at the scenic overlooks along the way. Stretch your legs. Absorb the beauty of the verdant valleys nestled beneath the soaring mountains, many of which have been reforested since being strip-mined for coal. The Blackwater River is 31 miles long, and its name originated from the river’s dark reddish-brown hue, the product of tannic acid from evergreens growing along the river banks and iron oxide in the shale. At an elevation of 3,250 feet, the headwaters of the Blackwater River are placid, but then the river descends precipitously to the Blackwater Canyon below. Within the canyon, the river drops 1,500 feet in just over 10 miles. It becomes a raging river with a tumultuous flow as it passes over the falls. It is a sight to behold and well worth the long drive. When you arrive at the park entrance, follow the road to the trading post on Canyon Point Road. Park there. You’ll find restrooms and a gift shop.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Getting to the base of the falls is an easy ¼-mile walk from the parking lot; just follow the trail to a stone patio and the roaring sound emanating from the falls. Find the sturdy, wooden walkway and head down the 200 well-maintained,

You may decide to stay at the lodge overnight and take advantage of the camping and fishing facilities nearby. wide steps. Hold onto the bannister all the way down the 320-foot descent, if you wish. You’ll feel quite secure. The steps lead to the main viewing area for the falls. You’ll be able to sit on a bench just a few feet from the cascading water. Enjoy a memorable lunch there.

Blackwater Falls State Park Intersection of Blackwater Falls Road and Blackwater Lodge Road Davis, West Virginia www.blackwaterfalls.com 304-259-5216 Admission and parking is free. The State Park is open daily 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Features: • Waterfall, 2 Canyon Point Road; accessible 6 a.m. to dusk. • Trading post, intersection of Blackwater Falls Road and Canyon Road; open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. except Mondays and Tuesdays; extended hours and days during the summer.

If time permits, drive two miles to the Blackwater Lodge and Conference Center, where you can check out the Visitor Center and see more spectacular views of the gorge and canyon from the lodge’s backyard. (To get there from the falls, take Forest Road 803 and turn right on Blackwater Lodge Road to number 1584.) ) You may decide to return and stay at the lodge overnight and take advantage of the camping and fishing facilities nearby. More than 24 miles of trails await. (Wear sturdy shoes. Trail surfaces can be damp long after the rest of the area has dried.) Enjoy the drive home refreshed and reinvigorated from your encounter with “the roars of many waters” (Psalm 93, verse 4) at Blackwater Falls. Dinah Rokach moved to Kemp Mill in 2013. She is the sister of Joshua Rokach, a long-time resident, whose minyan she attends. As a retiree, she is free to see the many attractions in the area and is happy to share her discoveries.

• Visitor Center at the side entrance of the Lodge and Conference Center, 1584 Blackwater Lodge Road. Lobby desk of the lodge is open 24 hours every day.

Getting there: Take I-66W to I-81N, Route 50W until it intersects with Route 93W. Follow Route 93 to Davis, West Virginia. Take William Avenue, turn left on Blackwater Falls Road, turn left onto Canyon Point Road for the trading post and falls. About 180 miles from Washington, D.C. Free parking throughout the park: at the falls, trading post, scenic overlooks, and lodge.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LARRY SHOR’S GREATER WASHINGTON

Indian Spring Country Club By Larry Shor A few months ago, there was a big tzimmes brewing about whether or not former president Barack Obama was going to be accepted for membership at the prestigious Woodmont Country Club. I had to laugh because it got me thinking of the country club that my family belonged to, Indian Spring. Not only would Indian Spring have gladly accepted President Obama and anyone else he wanted to bring along, they probably would have sent a car to pick him up! Although for decades they were the only two country clubs in Montgomery County that admitted Jews as members, they could not have been more different. While Woodmont catered to the “upper crust” of Jewish Washington, Indian Spring was the complete opposite. It was heimish, boisterous, and sprawling. Everyone was welcome. If you could afford the very modest fee, you were in. It resembled a college campus more than a country club. There was something for everyone. Golf, tennis, swimming, and many, many social events took place there. The club was known for its legendary gin, canasta, and mahjong games played in the men’s and ladies’ card rooms! The origins of the club go back to the 1920s, and its original location was in the Four Corners neighborhood of Silver Spring. By the late 1950s development of

the area began to squeeze the growing club, but the end came when the new Capital Beltway went right through the golf course! So, in 1958, Indian Spring moved to a larger location on Layhill Road in the Glenmont section of Wheaton. The area

By the 1970s, Indian Spring became the social hub of Jewish life in Montgomery County. Jews were still barred from many social settings, but at Indian Spring they felt right at home. was barely developed then, and they built a beautiful facility. Membership skyrocketed during the 1960s. By the 1970s, Indian Spring became the social hub of Jewish life in Montgomery County. Jews were still barred from many social settings, but at Indian Spring they felt right at home. Thousands of simchas were celebrated there and the club members raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, with celebrity golf and tennis tournaments. Decades before it occurred anywhere else in Montgomery County, Indian Spring was the first country club to admit African Americans as members, be-

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(SOURCE: GOLFCOURSERANKING.COM)

ginning in the late 1960s. But the driving force behind the club was that is brought together Jews from all walks of life and gave them a place to call home. And that it was, for many years. But as the years went by, as the restrictions fell and more social options became available, Indian Spring began to slip in popularity. Its membership aged, and the younger generation took advantage of the changing times and the opportunities that came with them. By the early 2000s, the handwriting was on the wall. The owners sold the land, and Indian Spring closed in 2007. Today, houses stand on the site, and you wouldn’t know it was ever there. My final visit to Indian Spring was

most poignant. In its last years, kosher caterers discovered the venue, and in 2005 I went there one last time because my son Benjamin was playing in the Hebrew Academy Jazz Band at the school’s banquet. I hadn’t been there in a long time and I was feeling very nostalgic when a voice called everyone to go out on the magnificent patio to daven Mincha. When it ended with the Mourner’s Kaddish, I felt tears in my eyes for a place and for people now long gone. Indian Spring was an important chapter in the Jewish history of Washington and all of us lucky enough to have been a part of it will never forget it. NEXT TIME: Eight Million Dollars for a Fish?

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

H E U S ’ S, IT

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May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Sale ends 4/10/17. Must mention this ad. Not valid with any other offer, special or discount. We are not responsible for typos. All prices are subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply.

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FUN & GAMES

THEME: EARTH DAY ACROSS 1. Old European thrusting spears 6. Art degrees 9. Slight amount, pl. 13. African sorcery 14. *Snowy one is endangered 15. Prince’s «Raspberry ____» 16. Former Greek coin 17. Hawaiian token of farewell 18. Make one 19. *No more 21. *Meatless day? 23. Unknown power 24. Texting button 25. Roll of Benjamins, e.g. 28. Noisy talk 30. First among siblings 35. Black tropical cuckoo 37. Not Sunni 39. Comforter stuffing 40. *Outer layer of Earth’s crust 41. *Gardener’s cover 43. Australian palm 44. 2nd T in a T&T 46. Jane Lynch’s high-school musical TV show 47. Newts in terrestrial stage 48. Bewitch 50. Consequently 52. Kum Ba ____ 53. Like vacation day, sometimes 55. Old-fashioned «before» 57. *Driver’s bad habit 60. *It’s changing 64. Anemic-looking 65. Grazing area 67. Arabian chieftain 68. Sound of colliding pots 69. Roman goddess of fertility 70. Smart candy? 71. Snaky swimmers 72. Acorn tree 73. Rendezvous

DOWN 1. *South ____, Amundsen-Scott Station location 2. Wild goat 3. Best ____ secret 4. Dine at home 5. Ice fishing shelter 6. World’s fastest man 7. Leave speechless 8. Snail trail 9. Be inclined 10. «Tosca» tune, e.g. 11. What oppositions do 12. Chester White’s home 15. ____ of joy, a.k.a. baby 20. Difference of opinion 22. Comes before first Mississippi 24. Like an expert 25. *____-free lifestyle 26. Opposite of cation 27. Prince William’s mother 29. Chihuahua-Pug hybrid 31. Have supper 32. Instruct 33. Anatomical divisions 34. *Treasure to some? 36. Whitman of «Indian Love Call» fame 38. Tennis serving whiz 42. Father of dialectical idealism 45. Dealing with difficulty 49. Famous Akira Kurowasa movie 51. Home to superb rugs 54. Meltable home 56. Type of wheat 57. Capri, e.g. 58. Lentil soup 59. Carl Zeiss’ product 60. Wine container 61. Insubstantial 62. Kennedy and Turner 63. Formerly, formerly 64. Highest card in «War» 66. *Now headed by Scott Pruitt

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Answers to crossword

Answers to sudoku

● Each row and each column

must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to

produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.

● Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

ADVICE DEAR RIVKIE

Dear Rivkie: A Weighty Issue I’m continually frustrated at attempts to control my weight! I have to make sure to pack up all my food for the day each morning because I work far from any kosher food options; when I don’t bring food, I am forced to grab unhealthy packaged snacks or starve. And don’t even get me started on Shabbos, yom tovim, simchas… I feel as if I don’t stand a chance on holidays and special occassions. How do I get my diet under control while still participating in all the beautiful food-related aspects of Jewish life? Please help! Defeated Dena

2.) Slowly adapt things from this plan to fit your own life. There is no law that says you must follow every aspect of the diet plan you have chosen. Conventional wisdom these days is: more fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean proteins, good fats, and a lot less sugar and processed products. Start with that. Slowly. Did I say slowly? If you suddenly adopt a huge radical change in your life, generally it doesn’t end well.

Dear Dena, This is a perpetual conundrum! How do we enjoy our food, Shabbos, and yom tov, yet still manage to maintain a relatively healthy diet and keep our (SOURCE: HOMEGYMR) weight in the normal range? There are no easy answers; but there 3.) Plan in advance for the day. You are ways to strike a balance and keep say you can’t get food at work and if enjoying life. you don’t pack it ahead of time, you’re 1.) Find a diet plan that works for doomed. Well, you’re kind of right. you. I am not talking paleo/vegan/glu- Think about it, would you send your ten free (although if you want those, zi kids to school without lunch? Don’t gezunt), I am talking a healthy, reason- send yourself off for your day without able approach to eating that you can lunch (and a couple of healthy snacks) maintain. See what I did there? You. Be- too! Big no-no. Some ideas: hard-boiled cause what works for me may be totally eggs, whole fruit (apples, bananas), Greek yogurt, string cheese, almonds, different from what works for you.

oatmeal packets (if you have access to hot water you can make it at work). These are all healthy, filling, and graband-go items. If you have more time, make a real lunch: wraps on whole-wheat tortillas with tuna, egg, or turkey and veggies, salads with a protein, soup in a thermos if you don’t have access to a microwave. In a pinch, a skim latte can be a meal or snack depending on how many calories you are eating. 4.) Ramp up your activity if you’re not already active. Obviously, working out at a gym or at home (I personally love PopSugar Fitness on YouTube, they have amazing workouts of all time periods, levels, and types) is the ideal. But start slowly (sensing a theme?). If you haven’t started working out at all, start with getting up from your chair and walking around the office frequently throughout the day. Sitting for long periods is our worst enemy. Take a few breaks a day to walk up and down the stairs in your building (I used to do this when I worked in an office). That’s a pretty good workout. Slowly incorporate one workout a week, and then add on until you get to 4-5 per week. Find something you like and stick with it. And allow me to let you in on a little secret: I don’t espe-

cially enjoy working out all the time, but I just budget time to do it and stick with it. The health benefits outweigh any loss of sleep, time, or dreadfulness of it. Working out has been proven to prevent and control many diseases and health issues— and keep you sharp! About Shabbos and yom tov: it’s hard, girlfriend. Again, start small. Maybe give up dessert on Friday night (my husband started doing that a few years ago). Keep in mind what/how much you plan to eat Friday night and Shabbos lunch and try to stick with it as much as possible. Pick one or two “bad” foods and eat those along with healthy chicken, veggies, salads, etc. Walk to a friend’s house. And don’t beat yourself up. If you don’t do so well one week, guess what? Shabbos is just around the corner, and you can try again! Overall, this is a big challenge. We all know what we “should” do, but eating is fun and we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of fattening foods entirely. It’s all about making small changes that eventually lead to bigger changes. Eat clean during the week, and not as much on Shabbos. Get and keep moving, and don’t get discouraged. None of us is perfect, and we are practically commanded as Jews to eat potato kugel. Right? Good luck. All the best, Rivkie Have a question for Rivkie? Email her at askrivkie@kolhabirah.com

Teaching Your Children About Money By Kol HaBirah Staff/StatePoint Media April is Financial Literacy Month, an ideal time to think about the lessons your children are learning about money. Setting a good financial example is just the start. Parents should also actively engage children on the topic. These lessons can help put kids and teens on the right path towards a financially responsible adulthood.

Play “grocery store” or other games that involve buying and selling items. Take turns being the cashier and the customer.

How Money Works Now that consumers use credit or debit cards, buy things online, (SOURCE: FAMILYMINT.COM) and even purchase movies on their televisions and mobile devices, children Saving for a Goal may not realize when you are actualTeach your children that some things ly spending money and that money is cost more money than they may have needed to buy things. now, and that saving means putting Take time to explain to them that some money aside a bit at a time until products and services have different pric- you have enough to buy what you want. es. They also need to learn that money can Kids can learn to keep money in a safe be spent only once, and that after buying place and practice their math skills by something, a person needs to earn more keeping track of the amount saved for money in order to buy something else. future spending.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

To maximize the benefits your child receives for saving money, you may want to consider an In-Trust-For (ITF) or custodial bank account. Those offered by Ally Bank, for example, earn a competitive rate of interest with no monthly maintenance fee. Plus, there’s no minimum balance to open the account. When opening such an account, use this as an opportunity to discuss interest and other basic banking concepts.

The Importance of Self-Control Help your children learn the difference between needs and wants or wishes. Explain that although everyone really wants things like toys and electronics, you have to pay for needs — things like food, shelter and heat — before you can buy items that are wants. Help your children come up with a plan to save and spend their own money that takes into account their wants and needs.

Making Spending Decisions The next time you need to make a big purchase, use it as a learning opportunity for your children. Explain how you weigh the pros and cons. Show how taking time to ask questions, learn about different choices, and compare what’s good and bad about each choice helps you reach good decisions. “Financial literacy ideally begins in childhood. Even young children should learn about basic concepts like saving for a goal and spending only what you can afford,” says Jacqueline Howard, director of Corporate Citizenship at Ally Financial. There are many resources to help you talk to your kids about money and finances. You can download a free e-book aimed at elementary school-aged children from Ally Bank at allywalletwise. com or visit fdic.gov/moneysmart for resources for all ages. This April, take the time to boost your children’s financial literacy and enforce the concept of smart money management.

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ADVICE

Carpool Karaoke By Chani Feldman I love driving carpool. Would you like to know why? I love how clean my car is after each kid diligently takes his or her trash out upon exiting the vehicle. Who can forget the completely peaceful negotiations about who sits in which seat? Each child is more willing than the next to let a sibling sit in the front. The fresh smell of teenage boys at the end of a long and sweaty day of class and basketball practice is especially nice. Finally, there is the punctuality of all the kids that I drive each day, never once tempting me to beep the…beep beep beep…the horn… beep beep beep… THE ALARM! We are late! Hurry, kids! Your carpool is going to be here any second!!! Peter De Vries quipped that “a suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.” What about suburban fathers? Let me be truthful here. I don’t drive carpool. Very rarely, anyway. I drive carpool just a little more frequently than the occurrence of a total solar eclipse. (This, by the way, is one of the many benefits of being

married to a teacher. Corporate America’s salary it ain’t, but I don’t have to drive carpool so I will gladly take the tradeoff!) Being that carpool is a thorn in the sides of so many, I thought I would poll my organized and saintly friends and compile a list of helpful hints to make driving carpool like my dream sequence described above (without using Uber). To get your kids out of the house on time: 1.) Pack backpacks the night before. It is super easy to NOT do this since there are so many other things to do at night. However, make this a condition before screen time or other desirable activities. 2.) Have a set place to keep the packed backpacks and shoes and ensure they are in that place before you head to bed. (Someone I spoke to called it a launching pad. Maybe not the comparison to use if your home resembles the SpaceX rocket explosion in the morning!) 3.) Have a morning schedule with fixed times so expectations are set. For example, out of bed no later than 7:15 a.m. By 7:30 a.m. you need to be at the

table eating breakfast. By 7:40 a.m. you need to be getting on shoes and coats. By 7:42 a.m. you need to be heading to the car. Make adjustments to times if things are not working well. 4.) Use a timer on the oven to help prod the kiddies into moving a little faster, or set standing weekday alarms on your cell phone. Even parents get distracted in the craziness and can lose track of time. Having a timer will assist in keeping everyone on track (if nothing else, so you don’t have to listen to another round of the morning flower alarm). 5.) Pack lunches the night before. Everyone knows this, but it is so hard to do. At one point in my life when I had a litter of small kids, I would line up the lunch bags on the dining room table for the entire week on Sunday. I would put the non-perishables in them for the entire week and then in the morning I only had to add the “main” and the produce. I called it… survival. 6.) Charts. Incentives. Bribery. Whatever it takes for you to get to school and work on time! Ideas for turning down the volume on carpool karaoke (aka the cacophony

of voices that turns your vehicle into a vessel of impenetrable sound)? Fresh out, sorry. Tips on how to keep your car clean? Good luck with that. They sell trash cans for cars, or you can reuse those precious plastic bags for which you shelled out five cents and hang it from the head rest. Whatever you do, however, will only improve trash minimally. You will still find crushed Cheerios and pretzels ground into the floor in a stunning pattern of haphazard mess. The smells of teenage boys? Arrid XXX can be left in cup holders as a hint. Seating fights? Good luck with that one, too — a parenting article may appear somewhere else in this fine publication. Just think, soon the school year will be over and you will free of school carpools. You will be free to enjoy a carefree summer of… Camp carpools! NEXT COLUMN: Please Mr. Postman — what do I do with all this mail? Chani Feldman is a registered nurse. She is currently involved in state lobbying and healthcare public policy for a national home healthcare company, but her greatest satisfaction comes from a clean kitchen sink and empty laundry baskets. She can be reached at feldman10711@gmail.com.

ASK THE MORTGAGE EXPERT, WITH CHAD FREEMAN

Don’t Forget Your Financial Health Chad, I have been A home provides the following ecoa renter for my en- nomic benefits: tire adult life. My It is a forced savings plan. Part of each accountant is rec- mortgage payment goes to pay down the ommending that I principal of the mortgage, which means purchase a home. I that you build more equity every month. don’t understand why When you pay rent, 100 percent of the this would benefit me financially beyond rent goes to benefit your landlord. serving as a tax break. Can you help? — It enables you to enjoy leveraged Sarah M. Being wealthy is not worthwhile if we aren’t healthy enough to enjoy our lives. Likewise, not having enough money to support our families means that we can’t enjoy our good health as much. Furthermore, the stress that financial problems cause can also lead to physical health issues as well. When we think of wealth, we think of cash in the bank, stocks, mutual funds, and other liquid assets. Most of us do not realize, however, that our home (SOURCE: BASSAMSALEM.COM) is typically the most important financial asset the average Ameri- gains. Owning represents the ability to can has when it comes to building long- own a larger asset with your money and term wealth. The reason a home is most thus receive larger gains when that asset important has to do with more than the appreciates. The gain on a $400,000 home size of the asset. There are several rea- is ten times the gain on $40,000 in stocks, sons that the Federal Reserve Board’s even when both grow at the same rate. In statistics has found that the homeown- the long-run, even when taking into acers have over ten times the average net count the costs of acquisition and sale, worth of renters. real estate is a great long-term investment.

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It is a tax deduction. The great majority of a mortgage payment is tax deductible for owner-occupied properties. Rent is not tax deductible. It provides inflation protection. Only a small portion of a fixed rate mortgage payment is subject to inflationary increases while your rent is 100 percent subject to inflation. This means that a home becomes more affordable when compared to rent as time goes on. Taken all together, you can see why owning should be a very important part of anyone’s financial plan. On the other hand, I don’t want to down play the social-economic benefits of owning. These benefits can also affect your health directly and indirectly. A home provides these benefits as well: Security. Having a roof overhead with no landlord to ask you to pack-up and move makes a family unit more secure. Freedom. You have the ability to personalize your home inside and out, as well as to own pets. Community. Owners become part of a neighborhood and develop life-long relationships. Pride of ownership. Homeowners generally take better care of their properties and their neighborhood.

Safety. Communities of homeowners tend to be safer than communities of renters. In fact, a University of Southern California survey showed that children of homeowners tend to fare better than the children of renters – including performance in school and even lower teen childbirth rates. Yes, homeownership can affect the health of a family! Many do not realize how close they are to achievement of the goal of becoming a homeowner. I hope this information answers your questions. Certainly, if you have further questions about homeownership and whether to qualify, please do not hesitate to contact me. Or, I would be happy to speak with your accountant or financial planner. Note: there are no guarantees of investment gains with any investment vehicle. We suggest you confer with your financial planner or accountant to determine if you are eligible for tax deductions and how owning fits into your overall financial plan. McLean Mortgage Corporation | NMLS ID: 99665 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org) Chad Freeman NMLS #458481 is Branch Manager with McLean Mortgage in Potomac Maryland. He a member of the Beth Sholom Congregation and a long-time veteran of the mortgage industry. You can reach Chad for more information or to submit questions for future columns at (240) 800-4504 or cfreeman@mcleanmortgage.com.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

ADVICE JOB SEARCH NUGGETS: STEALTH RECRUITING

The Right Social Media Accounts and Profiles Can Help Your Next Job Find You By David Marwick for KempMillJobAssist Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are an increasingly important tool in any job search. As a job seeker, you can publicize your past successes, sign up to receive alerts about relevant jobs in your area, and check out people who work at a potential employer. As an employer, you can check out prospective employees and look for candidate who may fit your needs — even if they are not looking for a job right now. This is called stealth or passive recruiting. What is stealth recruiting? For example, if an employer wants to hire a chef in the Philadelphia area who speaks French, he has two choices. First, he can advertise the vacancy and receive a large number of applications, perhaps hundreds, from people who meet or nearly meet his requirements. Because the cost of submitting an online application is so low, applicants don’t seriously consider whether they are well qualified, and therefore an employer may receive many applications. Dealing with this flood of applications can be time-consuming (read: expensive) for an employer.

(SOURCE: GOOGLE IMAGES)

An employer who has premium access to LinkedIn, on the other hand, can comb through LinkedIn members’ profiles, even if they are not currently seeking a job, to find the relatively small number of people who clearly meet all of the job’s criteria. This allows the employer to avoid the time and expense of screening so many applications. The following four recent articles — three on LinkedIn and one on Facebook — are well worth your time: 1.) “7 LinkedIn Hacks That Will Help You Get Noticed by Recruiters,” by Marguerite Ward, published March 2017.

(SOURCE: WWW.LINKEDIN.COM)

“If you maximize your LinkedIn profile, you may not be looking for your next job; it could come find you.” This advice comes from Suzy Welch, a best-selling management author. Welch’s seven suggestions will not surprise those who are diligent about maintaining their LinkedIn profile. But for the casual user, they can make the difference between being found and not being found by a recruiter. For example, include your location. “Recruiters screen by location,” Welch says. “Leaving your location off leaves you out of the running for a lot of jobs.” Also, include your education. Adding your school(s) makes it more likely that hiring managers and former classmates will find you in searches. 2.) “Older Workers Rebuild Professional Networks With the Help of LinkedIn,” by Mary Kane, published March 2017. Kane focuses on Mark Stein, a communications professional in his late fifties, who, through no fault of his own, needed to find a new job. Social media platforms are not only for the younger generations. Kane cites a Pew Research Center finding that 21 percent of LinkedIn users are 50 to 64 years old, and another eight percent are 65 and older.

Surviving the Biological Clock: Religious Considerations Around Egg Freezing By a Kol HaBirah Guest Contributor In Orthodox Jewish circles, early marriages and large families are the norm. Dating is oriented towards marriage, as family is the foundation of the Orthodox Jewish way of life. At present, single Orthodox women are going through a crisis of sorts as there are significantly more single women than single men. This imbalance leaves many young women single late into their 30s and 40s, a problem

the Orthodox community is grappling with although it is unclear how it started in the first place. Dating in their mid 30s to late 40s leaves women and any potential partner they meet unsure of whether to ignore or address potential fertility issues that may occur with the “older” single woman. Does one bring it up while dating? Is it timely and appropriate to deal with while dating or should the focus be more on the relationship, and fertility left in the hands of G-d?

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

Women often ponder these questions about their fertility. It is established that after the age of 35, the average woman begins experiencing a progressive decline in her chances of achieving a healthy pregnancy. This stems from a quantitative and qualitative decline in the available supply of eggs — the ovarian reserve — which can become precipitous after this age. The decision to take steps to preserve one’s fertility also raises multiple questions. For instance: should a wom-

She details how Stein dramatically improved his LinkedIn profile and made LinkedIn a part of his daily job search routine. He set criteria for notification of job openings and used his connections to learn more about those openings. Using those connections helped him land a job. In one way, your age can be an advantage — after decades in the work force, you (potentially) have a massive network. Kane provides specific suggestions on how to activate your network. 3.) “3 LinkedIn Updates You Need to Know About for 2017,” by Sara McCord, published March 2017. McCord explains three new features recently rolled out by LinkedIn. They are intended to help users connect more easily with other users, make it easier to navigate someone’s profile, and connect better with recruiters. 4.) “Will Facebook Make Looking for a Job Easier — Or Just More Social?” by Willam Arrude, published April 2017. Arruda discusses the launch of Facebook’s job board and its implications for passive recruiting. As Arruda notes, Facebook’s reach is astounding (1.9 billion active users), about six times as many as Twitter (about 320 million). It remains to be seen, he concludes, how effectively Facebook will help connect employers to the right applicants and whether it will be an efficient use of time for recruiters and applicants. My own two cents: Facebook may not “get it right” from the outset, but that much brainpower is sure to improve the product over time. David Marwick is KempMillJobAssist’s workshop coordinator. He studied economics at George Washington University and worked as an economist for George Washington University and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

an electively freeze her eggs? In addition to the logistical, emotional, and financial issues, an Orthodox Jewish woman may face religious dilemmas as well. One dilemma for Orthodox women is with the actual surgical procedure. The surgical egg retrieval process involved in egg freezing is physically invasive, but it can emotionally invasive as well for women who typically remain celibate until marriage. Furthermore, undergoing an elective surgical procedure under general anesthesia, which is part of elective egg freezing, poses two potential prob-

ÂÂ CONTINUED ON P. 61

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ADVICE

Dating With Disabilities By Rachel Burnham Most of us have been set up with someone who was not a match, but with whom we shared maybe one or two commonalities; family history, or height, for example. Don’t we wish people would reflect on the inner intricacies of our personality, interests, goals, and values to find us an appropriate, balanced shidduch? Anyone struggling with a physical, psychological, or medical condition can relate. As an occupational therapist, I know that individuals with disabilities want to be seen for the contributions they can make to a marriage, a home, and a community. Too often, individuals with disabilities are set up with another disabled person, based on the fact that they both have limitations. This can be deeply degrading to people with such differences, making them feel like all they are is their disability. Ironically, we all have disabilities, although some are more visible than others. Many of us struggle with interpersonal relationships, time management, decision making, or even basic math. If we were to list each of our limitations, we’d likely have a sizeable collection. Somehow, when considering a potential marriage partner, physical, psychological, and medical diagnoses seem to have more significance in comparison to “normal” weaknesses. Being mindful

of our own shortcomings may help us appreciate and not judge the limitations of others, who may have strengths complementary to our own. A good zivug (match) is not only someone who possesses wonderful qualities but also balances their partner’s weaknesses. This builds healthy give and take in a relationship. People with impairments can often be highly functional and capable. Here are some helpful questions to ask when exploring such a shidduch: 1.) How does this person operate in everyday life? 2.) Can they hold down a job? 3.) Are they under medical management? 4.) Is their condition being monitored consistently? 5.) How would this disability affect a marriage? 6.) Can their condition get progressively more difficult? 7.) Do they have healthy relationships in their life with friends, family, and coworkers? 8.) Are they fit for marriage, physical, psychologically, and so on, and or they able to care for another person? Entering into a marriage without the feeling that one can gain from the relationship in addition to give can lead to resentment and destroy the fabric of a relationship. To ensure that you can be a giver in marriage, making sure that your own needs will be met, so you are

better equipped to take care of another’s needs. It is important to mention the topic of honesty and integrity. Some people date until they feel attraction is gaining momentum and then drop a “bomb” like infertility, genetic disease, or medication dependence. While I will not tell you when to share sensitive medical, psychological, or family information with a dating partner, I will repeat the sage Hillel’s lesson: “Do not do unto others what you would not want done to you.” Honesty is the best policy, and if someone is going to turn you down because of your limitations, they are not for you! As I’ve mentioned before, go where you are wanted, and know that you will not be wanted by everyone. Some conditions are virtually always better shared up front. These include: infertility, serious chronic illness, and serious physical limitations. Whether the dating partner will accept those limitations or not should be clarified up front. Sometimes, individuals with similar limitations are attracted to each other because of their shared experience. Balance is healthy in a marriage, but two people who are clinically depressed, for example, might not create a very stable marriage. If one person has diabetes and the other a medically managed mental health disorder, that may be more suitable. Often therapists are called in to discuss whether a marriage between a couple would be viable, given their challenges.

Surviving the Biological Clock: Religious Considerations Around Egg Freezing ÁÁ CONTINUED FROM P. 60 lems in Jewish law (Halacha). First, the issue of “self-endangerment,” meaning putting oneself in a situation that can potentially bring harm to oneself; and second, the issue of “self-injury,” meaning causing bleeding/harm to one’s body. There is a generally accepted opinion cited in the Talmud that one may rely on G-d to protect a person from the risks inherent in generally accepted practices. If one believes that egg freezing has minimal risk and that this risk is assumed for the sake of fertility preservation, a rabbi may conclude that undergoing the procedure does not fall under the category of “self-endangerment,” as God protects us from common risks. Regarding the subject of “self-injury,” the surgical procedure of egg retrieval does cause bleeding. However, many rabbinical authorities allow egg freezing as the process can spare a woman from the psychological pain of fertility decline, thereby preventing injury to herself. Furthermore, the egg retrieval process is not what is considered in the context of Halacha a

(SOURCE: YOUTUBE.COM)

self-inflicted or “degrading” pain, and is therefore permissible. There are, of course, counter-arguments, and other religious authorities feel that egg freezing falls into the aforementioned category of prohibitions and is therefore not allowed. (For further reading, see “Aging Ovaries and Age-Old Tradition: Elective Egg Freezing in Jewish Law” in The Journal of Halachah and Contemporary Society, 2012.) In attempt to prioritize egg freezing as a back-up rather than insurance, preliminary testing must take place. This in-

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cludes the usual initial medical exam and tests involved in determining a woman’s fertility, which may reveal several other factors about her health. Diminished ovarian reserve or endometriosis are examples of conditions that inhibit fertility and would be cause for concern. Ideally, a woman should freeze her eggs when her ovarian reserve is highest and fertility potential strongest (i.e. in her 20s). Many rabbis who recommend egg freezing suggest doing so between the ages of 32 and 35 years old, 35 being

Many individuals with disabilities live long, healthy lives and build happy families in loving relationships. We need to be as open minded as possible, while being mindful and honest about our own limitations. If we turn down a match, we should be particularly sensitive so as not to define anyone by their disability. If we are the one being turned down, we must recognize that we all have qualities that make us unique. We need to accept the way Hashem made us and date those who are interested. Finally, I like to say that Hashem always gets his way. Even if you are afraid you have traits that make your options limited, there are many people who are happily married with the exact circumstances. Luckily, we need to find only one person for us! If Hashem wants it to happen, it can. When I was 19, the first girl to get engaged my age was a blind girl who got engaged to a deaf boy. Nobody would have thought that they would be the first shidduch, but Hashem had other plans. We all know many people who have “everything” going for them, and are still single so “Let go and let G-d!” Rachel Burnham earned both her BA in psychology and MA in occupational therapy in New York City. While OT may be her profession, her deepest passion lies in Jewish outreach, which she’s been active in her entire adult life. Rachel also coaches Jewish singles to successful marriages, giving them clarity and peace of mind as they navigate the path to love, connection and lifelong companionship. You can reach her at Rachel@d8gr8.com.

considered the late end, or to freeze earlier if there are known fertility issues. It is also recommended that a woman have the procedure done under the auspices of a rabbi, as doing so would dissuade her from eventually having her eggs fertilized using a sperm donor, an issue which is highly controversial in Orthodox circles. The Jewish tradition involves a continuous analysis of precedent law to adjust ancient tradition to the challenges of modern day life. Orthodox Jewish authorities continuously dialogue to analyze new situations that arise, including those that impact the lineage of the Jewish people. Many Orthodox Jewish community leaders along with ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine) see the benefits of elective egg freezing at a certain point in a woman’s life, but emphasize that this must not be misconstrued as a guaranteed “insurance” against future infertility. The author, who prefers to remain anonymous, is a medical professional with a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins who has been working in the field of reproductive endocrinology and infertility for eight years. The author has worked closely with the Orthodox population.

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS SPOTLIGHT

Ari Katz Ari, 27, has worked in consulting for defense and homeland security solutions development since college. A Maryland native, he attended Berman Hebrew Academy and Churchill High School and spent time learning in Israel. Ari currently works in data science and strategy for Scale Up Global, a startup that specializes in bringing global cybersecurity innovation into the U.S. commercial and government markets. He loves science and philosophy, and the philosophy of science; he also loves basketball, hanging with friends, eating, learning Torah, playing guitar, cracking jokes, and singing and thinking about cross-domain problems and ideas.

rectly from his texts. The concepts and language are notoriously difficult, but his learning his insights on the metaphysical and Torah significance of things like evolution, science, pluralism, meaning, and the search for knowledge has been massively rewarding. 4.) What student activities were you a part of in college/graduate school? Not too many. I had my hands full early on with the fire department, paramedic class, and later with work. 5.) What is your favorite Facebook group? I enjoy sometimes posting in “God Save Us From Your Opinion: A Place For Serious Discussion of Judaism.” Since we are on the general topic, here are some highlights from an excellent “If Chuck Norris was yeshivish” thread I found on Facebook:

Questions: 1.) What energizes/motivates you? I feel driven by playing a critical part in interesting, challenging, important, and dynamic work. This has previously manifested in things like being core staffing on a fire truck [Ari used to work as a volunteer fireman and paramedic], spearheading a client consulting engagement, helping direct rescuers in Japan, learning about a new technology or trying to harmonize approaches in philosophy, Torah, or both. Also steak and potatoes. 2.) What memory would you relive if you could? Learning about David and Goliath from Tanach, on my grandfather’s lap. The combination of our strong connection, his love for Torah and insight into what aspects of Tanach would hold the interest of an elementary school boy was formative for my faith. 3.) What will be your next adventure? There are some big things on the horizon for work, but I’m also looking forward to learning more Rav Kook di-

“He would be koneh his house with a kinyan hagbah.” “When he says he’s staying by you, it’s grammatically correct.” “When he does hagbah, he opens from Bereishis to V’zos Habracha.” Geshmak, no? 6.) You are hosting a dinner party. Who do you invite if you can invite anyone? At the risk of sounding pretentious (though that ship has probably sailed) I would invite people I consider intellectual luminaries such as Max Tegmark (physics, Theory of Everything), Andrew Gelman (Bayesian statistics), Scott Aaronson (quantum computing), Deborah Mayo (frequentist statistics philosophy), etc. on the one hand, and others that would balance this with levity and humor — many of my friends fall into this category. 7.) What are your family origins? My father is Ashkenazi by way of eastern Europe. My mother’s family hails from the current cities of Tehran and Esfahan, in what was once the Persian empire. 8.) What is a pet peeve of yours when it

Interview by Batya H. Carl

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

comes to dating? What makes a good impression? My dating history has been relatively pleasant and date dead ends have been generally due to broader compatibility issues. The pet peeves have been mostly with the (mostly amateur) shadchanim who gave me lots of “you’re looking for a wife, not a chavrusa.” Well, I’m looking for both. 9.) What personal value is the most important to you? Singling one out is tough. Loyalty comes to mind first. Loyalty to G-d, country, morality, friends, etc. 10.) Where would one find you when you aren’t at work? Either learning with a chavruta, playing basketball, furthering work-related skills, eating, or hanging out with friends, while eating. 11.) What was your favorite part about growing up in Maryland? Montgomery County has almost everything, including proximity to DC. I like to explore the arts, chill in the suburbs, hang out in the city, and shteig in the yeshiva. 12.) Name a fun fact about Ari. John Travolta flew me (and parenthetically, other medical providers) to Haiti as a rescuer on his private 707. We chilled on the tarmac a bit and discussed his firefighter movie, “Ladder 49.”

13.) Three things on your Amazon wish list: Every “Star Wars” movie — self-explanatory. “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid” — classic must-read book about logic, meaning, intelligence, and formal systems. “Homo Mysticus: A Guide to Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed” — an illumination of Moreh Nevuchim by Hacham Jose Faur, a rav and scholar with a strong connection to the Maimonidean Gaonic tradition. 14.) What do you miss the most during Sefirah? Kumzits jam sessions with friends. Helps me relax and connect in a different way than learning Torah. 15.) “What’s love got to do with it?” Generally, a fair bit.

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COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Community Calendar May 2017 Sunday

Monday

11 Iyar

“Simple Things Everyone Can Do to Declutter Their Life” by Jamie Selvin at Am HaTorah 11:00am

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

5 Iyar

6 Iyar

7 Iyar

8 Iyar

9 Iyar

10 Iyar

12 Iyar

13 Iyar

14 Iyar

15 Iyar

16 Iyar

17 Iyar

22 Iyar

23 Iyar

24 Iyar

29 Iyar

1 Sivan

2 Sivan

Navigating Niddah Two-session course with Maharat Dasi Fruchter at Beth Sholom 8:00-8:15pm

Congressman Jamie Raskin to Hold May 8 Town Hall at Tikvat Israel 8:00pm

Defending Democracy in the U.S. and Abroad: Reflections on My First Hundred Days in Congress with Congressman Jamie Raskin at Congregation Beth El 7:30pm

18 Iyar

19 Iyar

20 Iyar

Contracts; The Intersection of Torah Law and Secular Law, by Rabbi Yitzchak Grossman, Senior Lecturer, GWCK, and Mr. Adam Marker Esq., Associate, The Goldsmith Law Firm at BCC Regional Services Center Conference Room West A, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814 7:30pm

25 Iyar

26 Iyar

21 Iyar

Navigating Niddah Two-session course with Maharat Dasi Fruchter at Beth Sholom 8:00-8:15pm NORPAC’s Annual Mission to Washington 2017 Warner Theatre, Washington, DC 11:00am

27 Iyar

28 Iyar

The Women of Temple Rodef ShalomFalls Church, VA 8:30am-2:00pm Brunch & Learn: “Why did G-d give an Oral Law?” by Rabbi Singer at 7411 Arrowood Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20817 10:30am Young Israel Shomrai Emunah Annual Banquet 6:00 pm

Want your event included? Please email your community event to communitycalendar@kolhabirah.com Events are subject to change; please visit host website before planning.

Mazal tov to Benjamin Winters on becoming a bar mitzvah. Mazal tov to parents Gary and Shanna, brothers Zachary and Daniel, grandparents Sandy Winters, Joette Blaustein and Norman Blaustein, and all the family and friends joining for the simcha. WWW.KOLHABIRAH.COM

Exp. April 30, ‘2017

May 4, 2017 • 8 Iyar, 5777

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