Jewish Voice and Opinion September 2012

THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION Promoting Classical Judaism

September 2012

Vol. 26 • No. 1

Tishrei 5773

Many “Rabbis for Obama” Support BDS and the Palestinian Cause against the Jewish State: Do They Reflect Their Candidate?

Rabbis for Romney: Rabbi Yehudah Leib Ribiat (right) gives a Rabbi for Obama: Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rabbi Brant Rosen, with Ayatollah Bojnoordi from 2008 trip to Iran. Photo byShalom Rav blog Daf Yomi shiur to members of the Lakewood Kehila attending the Republican National Convention in Tampa

President Obama’s re-election campaign announced

last month the launch of

“Rabbis for Obama,” a group whose stated goal is to rally grassroots support for

the President in the Jewish community. The announcement came amid reports that

Jewish support for Barack Obama, while still strong, is

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Ariel Hopes to Become Israel’s Ninth University This past June, a special com-

mittee was established to determine the fate of Ariel College, formerly the College of Judea and Samaria, located in the Samarian community of Ariel. The committee recommended that the school (now known as the Ariel University Center of Samaria) should have full-fledged university status.

But as often happens in Israel, things did not go smoothly. Two months after the original recommendation, political groups are still squabbling over which of-

ficial body actually has the right to implement the recommendation. The left wing is outraged that a school in Samaria will be recognized as an Israeli university.

The right is outraged that what should be an educational decision is now fraught with political implications. And the presidents of seven of Israel’s eight other universities are collectively filing suit in the Supreme Court to block Ariel’s recognition on grounds ranging from funding to politics.

Bar Ilan University (BIU) was expected to join Hebrew Uni-

The Nachum Segal Network.............. 3 Kol Ami: Shidduch Crisis?.................... 4 The Current Crisis............................... 5 Why Israel’s Land Matters..............10 Kosherica Cruises..............................24 Integrated Camp Kaylie..................25 Gili’s Goodies......................................26

versity of Jerusalem, TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, Weizmann Institute of Science, Haifa University, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the Open University in the suit, but, at the last minute, BIU president, Moshe Kaveh, refused to sign the petition against Ariel.

Without Bar Ilan in the fight, the other schools might not have much of a chance. As leftwing institutions, they were opposed politically to Ariel from the start and their continued argument might not cause too

much of a stir. Because it is an Orthodox school, BIU was more likely to be taken at its word that its problem with Ariel as a university is financial rather than political.

Funding Officials from all eight schools said their opposition to Ariel’s upgrade to a university centered solely on money.

“It has nothing to do with location or politics and everything to do with funding.

Since all these universities are government-funded, [recog-

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Inside the Voice

The Log..........................................................27 New Classes........................................34 Mazal Tov.............................................34 Chesed Ops.........................................35 Useful Information...........................35 Coach Kaplan’s Bball Basics............42 Still The Protocols..............................43

Smilow Tours Sukkoth ...................43 Ess Gezint: A Baker’s New Year .....46 JLE’s New Year Schedule................48 Index of Advertisers ........................49 OHEL & Basketball Stars.................51 Letters to the Editor ........................52 Walk to Shul........................................55

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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On the New Nachum Segal Network, It Will Be Jewish Programming 24/6 Given the existence of the

current 24-hour news cycle, it was inevitable that someone would realize the importance of providing a round-the-clock news network for the Jewish community. It is most appropriate that this “someone” is the very popular radio personality Nachum Segal. For many Jewish listeners, breakfast or the morning commute would not be complete without Mr. Segal’s easy-going manner, taste in music, and penchant for attracting important guests eager to be interviewed and jewish voice oct 2011:Layout debated.

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Nachum Segal receiving 10/3/2011 18:08 Page and 1 award from NCSY

This month, The Nachum Segal Network (NSN) will become the first outside of Israel to offer a 24-hour lineup, six days a week, of original Jewish radio programming. Reflecting Mr. Segal’s tastes, the new network will highlight Jewish music (chassidish, yeshivish, klezmer, Israeli, Jewish-American popular, and anything else that catches his fancy), Jewish and Israeli politics and analysis, interviews, religious programming, and community news that includes birthday wishes, mazal tovs, and other announcements.

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THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION, Inc. © 2012; Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Susan L. Rosenbluth Phone (201)569-2845 Managing Editor: Sharon Beck, Advertising: Rivkie Lichstein The Jewish Voice & Opinion (ISSN # 1527-3814), POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631, is published monthly in coordination with The Central Committee for Israel. A one-year subscription is $18. Periodicals postage is paid at Englewood, NJ and additional mailing offices.

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Kol Ami: Shidduch Crisis?

Is there a shidduch crisis?

It depends whom you ask.

To some, there is a shidduch crisis in the Orthodox community: too many singles who would like to be married and raising families.

To others, there is no shidduch crisis, but rather an identity crisis in which many of the singles themselves are actually happy being single and want only to be accepted

as singles in the Jewish community, while that community believes all Jewish singles should be married.

At the very successful singles ShabbatNachamuprogramrunby

“Flakey”JakeStraussattheHudson ValleyResortandSpainKerhonkson, NY,thequestionwas:Shouldfosteringshidduchimbetheresponsibility of the community and, if so, what should be done?

The community does not recognize the shidduch crisis as its problem. Single women are more eager to be in relationships than are single men, many of whom get what they want without benefit of marriage. Why then do they need to support a wife and children?

The rabbis are hypocritical when they encourage young men to sit and learn rather than engage in a livelihood so that they can support families.

Mazal Levy Far Rockaway, NY

The community does have a responsibility and it is not meeting it, especially regarding single Jewish mothers. Where are the male volunteers to take sons of divorced Jewish women to shul and serve as male role models for these children? Community “shidduch clubs” try to help 20-year-old singles. They do nothing for older, divorced women who do not even get invited for Shabbat or holiday meals.

Henna Sternman Queens, NY

In big cities, communities do try to help singles, but in the suburbs, Jewish singles are very much alone and often lonely. Single men are often invited for Shabbat and holiday meals, but not the women. I suspect it is because wives, unfortunately and for no reason, find us intimidating.

Helene Kaplan West Hempstead, NY

On my own, with comparatively little advertising, my singles weekends regularly draw 500 unmarried Jewish men and women, and that is in this economy. These people do want to meet, marry, and raise families, and the Jewish community needs them. If the community were to subsidize these weekends, instead of 120 marriages to my credit, I’d have 120,000.

“Flakey” Jake Strauss Brooklyn, NY

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The Current Crisis: “Even in Laughter, the Heart Can Ache” Dr. Aref Assaf, president of the Arab American Forum, is Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell’s most notable (and notorious) supporter. Without a word of condemnation from Mr. Pascrell, Dr. Assaf has maligned Jewish supporters of Mr. Pascrell’s opponents for allegedly championing Israel over the US. Ever notice that Dr. Assaf has never suggested that members of his own organization who cheer for Hamas and Hezbollah—sworn enemies of the US—are “Palestine-firsters”?

One can only wonder what the feisty Mr. Pascrell’s reaction might have been if someone had accused Irish-Americans who supported the Sinn Fein of being “Ireland-firsters.”

No one ever has ever charged Mr. Pascrell with reticence.

He is now running for re-election in NJ’s redistricted 9th District, after winning the primary against Steve Rothman. After this election, Mr. Pascrell will probably be best remembered for proving that unchallenged antisemitism can be a viable campaign strategy, even in New Jersey in 2012.

When Dr. Assaf penned an op-ed accusing Mr. Rothman of being “Israel’s Man” in the race, and Mr. Rothman’s Jewish supporters of demonstrating “loyalty to a foreign flag” (Israel’s, rather than America’s), Mr. Pascrell’s reaction seemed to be: the dual-loyalty charge against Jews worked in Paris in 1894 against Dreyfus.

But Dr. Assaf didn’t leave it at dual-loyalty. His accusation was that Jewish supporters of Mr. Rothman were guilty of single-loyalty—to Israel over the US, the classic “Israel-firsters.”

And although Mr. Pascrell was repeatedly asked to denounce the charge, all he would say is that he did not make the accusation.

When told that any decent person would denounce the classic antisemitic canard whether it was made in Paterson, NJ, or Patterson, CA, the heretofore feisty, never-reticent Mr. Pascrell was silent.

He left the antisemitic bigotry lying out in public for all to see, while he did nothing more than lean over it to make sure it was still breathing.

He must have determined it was alive and well, because now Dr. Assaf is at it again. This time his targets are Mr. Pascrell’s GOP challenger, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp, and Mr. Adelson’s wife Miriam.

When it was announced last month that the Adelsons had made a half-a-million-dollar donation to the Patriot Prosperity PAC for Rabbi Boteach’s campaign, Dr. Assaf quickly responded in starkly religious terms: “The Adelson money has effectively sealed the capitulation of Mr. Boteach to the right-wing and Islamophobes in the Republican Party and their financiers. Boteach has sold his soul, and I am afraid no Higher Authority can redeem it.”

The basis for the “Islamophobia” accusation: the fact that the Adelsons and Rabbi Boteach support Israel. Never mind that it has been Rabbi Boteach and not Mr. Pascrell who has made the murder of innocent Arab children in Syria an issue in the campaign.

Maybe the only way Dr. Assaf thinks the Higher Authority might redeem Rabbi Boteach is if he becomes a suicide bomber.

Mr. Pascrell has tried to say that he, too, is a supporter of the Jewish state. Never mind small things like the 2010 letter to President Obama asking him to force Israel to abandon its defensive blockade on Hamas in Gaza, or his happy attendance at a 2002 fundraiser in which businessman Sami Merhi compared then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Adolf Hitler and said he “can’t see the comparison” between the 9-11 terrorists and Palestinian suicide bombers.

Rabbi Boteach is asking Mr. Pascrell to “do the moral thing and denounce Assaf.” Our advice: Don’t hold your breath.

Shana Tova, SLR

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Nachum Segal Network The new online network can be accessed from anywhere in the world at JMintheAM. org or NachumSegal.com. It is available not only by computer, but also on all smartphone browsers and through the JM in the AM IPhone App. A call to 212-419-4241 allows listeners to hear the stream from any telephone.

30 Years The cornerstone of the new network is, unsurprisingly, Mr. Segal’s JM in the AM, a program that has been widely considered the New York metropolitan Jewish community’s radio show of record. Mr. Segal’s father, Rabbi Zev Segal, z”l, of the Young Israel of Newark, is credited with coming up with the show’s name. Originally a nickname for “Jewish Music in the Morning,” it has morphed into “Jewish Moments in the

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Morning,” with Mr. Segal’s introduction of news analysis, Torah discussions, and newsmaker and celebrity interviews.

Those who have regular spots on the program or are frequent guests include Torah personalities and Jewishcommunity leaders who offer spiritual instruction, their views on Israel, and discussions of important organizations and events.

Musicians and authors frequently discuss their newest works.

For almost 30 years, JM in the AM has been heard from 6-9am, Monday through Friday on listener-supported WFMU (91.1 FM) in New Jersey and the New York Metro area; and on 90.1 FM in the Catskills.

That program and Mr. Segal’s evening show, “The Nachum Segal Thursday Night Extravaganza,” which is broadcast over WSNR (620 AM) at 7pm,

will continue uninterrupted, although they will also be carried on NSN. For the past few years, Mr. Segal has been on internet radio at JMintheAM.org.

The live programming that will be offered by NSN takes Mr. Segal’s internet radio venture to a new level.

“Now that he is adding even more original live programming and some amazing personalities, he has decided to unite all the programming under a network banner, NSN, and present the stream as its own entity, with a goal to inform and entertain like never before,” said Miriam L. Wallach, who will serve as general manager of The Nachum Segal Network.

Anniversary Milestone On September 4, Mr. Segal will celebrate his 30th anniversary milestone with notable guests, his longtime staff of volunteers, and many of his listening public at a JM in the AM broadcast from the Jerusalem Café on West 36th Street in Manhattan.

At that time, Mr. Segal will announce the opening of the new network, the schedule of shows its “live stream” will host, and the appointment of Mrs. Wallach as its general manager.

An occasional commentator on the Fox Business channel, Mrs. Wallach, who resides in the Five Towns with her husband and six children, has been working with Mr. Segal for the past three years as the host of the “That’s Life” program. She sees her new role as the opportunity “to develop what is surely the most unique brand in the Jewish world.”

“I am excited to have the opportunity to build an international platform for great programming under Nachum Segal’s good name,” she said.

“Must-Listen” She expects NSN to become “a must-listen in the Jewish world.”

“Exciting personalities and unique shows will be offered, and Nachum will accomplish his goal of providing the best programming out there,” she said.

Many of the people—Mr. Segal calls them his “great, wonderful volunteers”—who have been with “JM in the AM” from the beginning are making the transition to NSN with him. Listeners will still be entertained and educated by Norm Laster, whose Neshoma Program on “JM in the AM” is heard on Fridays at 7am; as well as Mattes Weingast, Mark Zomick, Mayer Fertig, Charlie Harary, Randi Wartelski, Rabbi Steven Burg, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Yossi Zweig, Rivka Abbe, and others.

In addition to his radio work, Mr. Segal is often asked to emcee Jewish dinners, concerts, and other events. It is on these occasions, when Mr. Segal’s audience gets to see as well as hear him, that they finally understand his nickname, “Stretch.” He is six feet, six inches tall.

Busy It all makes for a very busy life.

Married to Staci and the father of six—Benjamin, 19; triplets Chava, Yosef, and Yehoshua, 14; Yonina, 12; and Gavriel, 6—Mr. Segal, now 49, knows his audience well, mostly because he is part of the community that turns in to hear him day after day. Like them, he is unapologetically Orthodox, “modern” in the sense that he knows what is happening in the world and cares deeply about the State of Israel, but unmistakably rightwing in his world view and religious leanings.

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Nachum Segal Network However, he has long enjoyed a reputation for welcoming both Jews and nonJews who wish the Jewish people and Israel well. Mrs. Wallach expects the fact that he has maintained good on- and offair relations with people of many backgrounds and affiliations to continue with his new efforts at NSN. Began at YU Most of Mr. Segal’s longtime listeners and admirers know that their gold-standard Jewish talk-show and music host began his career in September 1981 when, as an undergraduate, he won the opportunity

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to do a Jewish music show on Yeshiva University’s radio station, WYUR. Although he had learned something about the technical side of radio, he knew little about Jewish music. He chose it because the competition to host the rockand-roll segment was “pretty intense.”

“I decided to be strategic about it and sign up for the Jewish music segment, which didn’t have too many people on the sign-up chart,” he recalled.

That was on a Thursday night, and no one, least of all his family, suspected he was interested in doing radio.

“They all thought I was pursuing Talmud and the sciences at Yeshiva College. But two hours after I did that show, the whole world knew, because none of my friends were ever particularly closedmouth,” he said.

Family Support But his friends’ reaction was not the one he dreaded. On Friday, he made his way to Newark to hear what his father would say.

“I was ready to be destroyed. I was ready to hear the speech that began with ‘What are you doing? You’re supposed to be concentrating on your studies’ and ended with ‘radio is not a profession for a nice Jewish boy,’” he said.

Instead, from the beginning, Rabbi Segal understood Jewish radio’s potential for outreach, necessary information, and wholesome entertainment, as well as a tool to produce unity within the community.

Although for a while, especially as an undergraduate, Mr. Segal had toyed with the idea of following his father into the rabbinate with a pulpit of his own, he came to understand that by doing what he loved on Jewish radio, he could accomplish just as much, if not more.

“I do have a pulpit. I have a congregation of tens of thousands of listeners,” he said.

Professional Spot After honing his skills at WYUR for two years, he began his professional radio career in September 1983, the day before Rosh Hashana, when Mr. Laster, a veteran NJ Jewish radio personality, needed someone to take over the Hebrew and Jewish program at WFMU, which was then the radio station of Upsala College (now closed) in East Orange. He reached Mr. Segal through YU’s Student Activities office and offered him the job.

“It was a paid position, and we needed someone who would make it work. All I had to do was listen to Nachum once, and I knew he’d fit the bill,” said Mr. Laster, who has remained very close with Mr. Segal and his family.

Although at the beginning Mr. Segal was not quite sure what tone to set for the new program, he decided deliberately to use his college-radio style, making the show smooth, jovial, and sometimes slightly frenetic.

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Better Than CNN He said it has always been a labor of love, and that the best part of the job is the feedback he receives from throughout the world.

“The show has an influence in the Jewish world. It is not simply banal entertainment. It’s a show that can make a difference,” he said.

It is a sentiment that has been backed up by many in the Jewish community. A frequent JM in the AM guest, Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, admitted to the New York Times that when he is interviewed by Mr. Segal, he receives “more reaction” that when he appears on CNN. “Nachum has a committed audience, more oriented to the issues I discuss. People remember what you say on the program.

It’s an unusual phenomenon,” he said.

Now with the opening of NSN, that influence will probably rise exponentially.

Hard Field But while Mr. Segal has been credited with raising the community’s awareness when it comes to musicians, entertainers, and politicians, he does not encourage other young Orthodox Jews to pursue media careers. He recalled the time Marvin Silbermintz, an Orthodox-Jewish writer for Jay Leno, was a guest on “JM in the AM.” A parent called in asking how her son could find similar work.

Mr. Silbermintz, who began writing for Mr. Leno at the start of his career when he was still doing stand-up comedy, told the woman her son should pick an unknown comedian, write for him, and then pray the comedian gets picked to host a national television show.

“The same is true for my job,” said Mr. Segal. “I tell people, hone your radio skills at school, and then pray G-d orchestrates the perfect Jewish radio talk-show opportunity in New York so you don’t have to move to the boondocks to get on-air.”

Divine Inspiration No one was more certain of the Divine hand in Mr. Segal’s path than his father, and many in the community see the new NSN as simply another platform through which his already established mission will continue.

On March 5, 2008, just a few hours before he died in a tragic car accident,

Rabbi Segal participated in an on-air tribute to his son, Nachum, as part of a “JM in the AM” fundraising marathon. After Rabbi Segal urged listeners to contribute to the “sacred work” accomplished by “JM in the AM” on behalf of the Jewish people, Mr. Segal asked his father, on-air, about his unhesitating support.

“What did you know back then that we did not know?” Mr. Segal asked him.

Pausing for a second, Rabbi Segal again asked listeners to “partner with my great and loving son” and then explained that he and Mr. Segal’s mother, Rebbetzin Esther Segal, “always were confident that no matter what you do,

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it will be in the service of our people, and certainly you have not disappointed us. We are extremely proud of what you are doing for our people, for the land of Israel, and our great wish is that you should continue in good health, you and your family, to serve our people for many, many years to come.”

The opportunity to be of that kind of service to the Jewish community is what drew Mrs. Wallach to NSN. “I feel incredibly lucky and certainly blessed to be part of this endeavor and to work with someone like Nachum who is a true professional and an incredible mensch,” she said.

S.L.R.

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Why Land Matters

by Yedidya Atlas In the years that followed the 1967 Six Day War, a prevailing conventional wisdom developed among Western policy makers, especially in Washington. This wisdom simultaneously contends that a “strong and secure Israel” should have (per UN Resolution 242) “secure and recognized boundaries” or simply “defensible borders.” Yet it calls on Israel to make unilateral territorial concessions (today’s PC term is a return to the pre-’67 lines with “mutually agreed land swaps”) as part of an ultimate peace settlement with its Arab neighbors.

An Inherent Contradiction Strangely few perceive the inherent contradiction between the call for a “strong and secure Israel” and the call to give up the very territory that would – at minimum – comprise said strength and security.

This was the case with Egypt, for example. More than 30 years ago, Israel gave up the entire Sinai Peninsula, including its vast strategic depths and bottleneck passes as well as the Abu Rodeis oil fields, which supplied Israel more than half its energy needs and would have made Israel energy independent within a few short years.

And this is also the case today with the Palestinian Ar-

abs. As long as there are Palestinian Arabs willing to take territory from Israel without making any Palestinian concessions, Israel is expected unilaterally to give up its most strategically critical territory.

Territories a Strategic Must Israel without the administered territories is a strategically crippled country. These areas, known historically as Judea and Samaria and labeled “the West Bank” following the Jordanian occupation of said territories in 1949, are the key to Israel’s strategic strength against any attack from the east (Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, et al). An Israel with control of these territories is a strategic asset to the West in defending against radical Islamic expansionism. This is as important today as it was during the Cold War period, when Israel was the West’s reliable bulwark against Soviet expansionism in the Middle East.

Up until the late 1980s, following the outbreak of the socalled “Palestinian uprising” or “first intifada,” everyone viewed the security threat to Israel to be solely by conventional Arab armies who wished to “drive the Jews into the sea,” in the words of the late Egyptian President Nasser. In the following two decades, with the vast increase of terrorist and missile attacks, it appeared that conventional

war no longer threatened Israel’s existence per se. And if the threat was primarily terrorism and missiles fired from afar, territory, with its high ground and strategic depth, no longer seemed as important.

From the standpoint of Israel’s national security, however, this is a misconception.

Territory is not only still vital for national defense, it is even more critical than previously.

High Ground and National Survival The basic premise of Israel’s defense is this: Israel’s security can be discussed only in terms of national survival. It is necessary to understand the price Israel pays if she unilaterally gives up more of these territories and what she benefits by their retention.

Given the three potential threats of missile attacks, terrorism, and conventional warfare, Israel must retain a safety zone with the aforementioned high ground and strategic depth to deal with any potential future threats — even if political agreements are signed with its Arab neighbors.

Israel cannot afford to bet its survival on signed agreements while giving up critical physical strategic assets.

Israel needs to maintain the ability to defend itself under any and all possible circumstances. (Given the Muslim/ Arab history of not keeping agreements with non-Muslims, this is not mere whimsy.)

Israeli policy makers must ask themselves this key question: If Israel were attacked by a combination of a conventional Arab army, ballistic missiles, and terrorist bands, would a truncated border with its lack of strategic depth be sufficient for the IDF’s small standing army to repel the invaders successfully, and do so with minor damage

to Israel’s national infrastructure? Or to be blunt: Could Israel survive such an attack in the event of an all-out war?

Upheavals, Missiles, and Terrorism Let’s review the potential threats. First, the recent upheaval in the Arab countries that surround Israel – both the inside and outside strategic circles – has brought back the high potential of conventional warfare involving armored units, mobile artillery, and fighter/bomber planes.

(Witness for example, the recent IDF emergency reserve call-ups to deal with potential incursions from Egypt and Syria.)

Second, the threat of long-range missiles—with both conventional and nonconventional warheads—either separately or as an extension of said conventional warfare.

Third, the expansion of terrorist attacks, including suicide bombers, shoulder-launched missiles, and ground-to-ground fire (mortars, short-range rockets and medium-range missiles) that use a steep trajectory (meaning they are fired from beyond and over a border defensive line towards internal targets, e.g., from inside Lebanon to hit Haifa).

Defense-Weakening Fallacy It must be understood that the determination of what are “strong and secure” or simply “defensible borders” is based on what potential long-term strategic threats Israel faces. And even though the last twenty years have seen an expansion of missiles and non-conventional weapons by Israel’s Arab neighbors, they have also continued procurement of conventional weapons for their armies.

Some of those who want Israel to give up parts or all of Judea and Samaria attempt to neutralize the still existent threat of conventional Arab invasion

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forces by proffering “advanced technology” as a strategic solution to lack of territory having commensurate strategic advantages.

They claim that the IDF can employ advanced technological capabilities, including precision-guided weapons systems, to replace any loss of territorial superiority by Israel after conceding control of the aforementioned administered territories.

The fallacy in that argument is that it disregards the inevitable acquisition

by Israel’s enemies of similarly advanced technological capabilities. Moreover, topography is directly relevant for the use of precision-guided weapons systems that require ground-based laser indicators. The old infantry saying regarding the importance of holding the high ground in battle – “it is easier to shoot down than to shoot up” – is even more critical in the use of high-tech weaponry.

Strategic Depth Imperative The concept of strategic depth is not an advantage to national defense; it is imperative. As weapons systems improve, it becomes even more so. With the advent of new military technologies the range of effective fire has increased considerably.

For example, US Army planners have doubled the distance of their definition of required minimal defensive depth. In Germany, during the Cold War, NATO planners defined their required defensive depth to be 125 miles (or three times what Israel has, even with Judea and Samaria included). In a defensive battle, this distance would allow an area for retreat, permitting a line of containment to be stabilized closer to the border.

Israel’s post-disengagement-fromGaza experience has established that the terrorists’ weapons of choice for attacking Israel from their own territory are weapons with curved-trajectory fire (mortars, rockets, etc.). Why? Because it is impossible to stop the attacks without Israeli forces striking the territory from where the terrorists’ weapons were fired. So the only limiting factor preventing significant harm to Israeli population centers is sufficient distance – or strategic depth.

And if a terrorist has penetrated a security fence, the greater the distance he has to cover before carrying out his intended attack, the greater the chances of stopping him.

Distance and Mobilization Conceding Israeli control of the 34-milewide area known as Judea and Samaria

to any of Israel’s actual or even potential enemies means a return to the pre-1967 nine-mile waistline across Israel’s coastal strip and a security border of 223 miles to patrol and defend.

Retention of said territories means a mere 62 miles of security border to patrol and defend. It also means Israeli control of vital mountain passes, the 4,200-foot high ground overlooking the Jordan Rift Valley, and the minimal strategic depth between the Jordan River and Israel’s highly populated and industrialized coastal plain.

To comprehend why this is so important to Israel’s security, it is necessary to understand the difference between Israel

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before mass mobilization and afterwards.

When Israel fights a war, it must take into account many factors: weapons technologies, tactical knowledge, motivation and education of the soldiers, etc. However, the prime factor is still numbers. The best equipped and most superiorly trained army cannot win if it is hopelessly outnumbered. This has always been an issue for Israel.

The IDF, as every responsible army, must be prepared for every eventuality.

Israel cannot afford to lose a war. According to reports, the latest annual IDF General Staff exercises dealt with various combinations of possible attacks from different

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Land Matters

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fronts including south (Gaza and Egypt), north (Lebanon and Syria) and east (Iran). Other possibilities were also taken into account, but those were the major ones.

In each of these possibilities, strategic depth is a critical factor. In the south, Israel has already given up its strategic buffer areas, and if the IDF were to fail to take the battle into enemy territory (basic IDF doctrine), the fighting would be within easy range of major Israeli population centers.

In the north, the Golan Heights are, as always, critical, and in the northeast and east, Judea and Samaria are not only vital for defense, but would also serve as passage ways for mobilization and logistics. (The Cross-Samarian Highway, for example, was originally planned by the IDF General Staff following the 1967 Six Day War as the major connecting artery to the Jordan Valley from the coastal plain.)

The IDF’s Backbone Despite the immense security risks Israel faces, the Jewish State’s small population means it doesn’t have the security of a large standing army. For that reason, soldiers who have completed their mandatory service, continue in the reserves – especially in combat units – well into their forties, contributing up to

over a month or more of service each year for both training and active-duty assignments.

In short: the army reserves constitute the backbone of the IDF’s manpower needs.

IDF doctrine encompasses a number of basic security truths. Among them are: that Israel cannot afford to lose a single war; that Israel must have a credible deterrent posture including territorial factors; and that the outcome of war must be determined quickly and decisively.

Proper preparation means Israel’s small standing army must be equipped with an early-warning capability, coupled with an efficient reserve mobilization and deployment system.

Before & After Mobilization Israel, prior to mobilization, is basically a relatively weak country militarily, in terms of all-out war with more than one front involved – which is a distinct possibility that the IDF planners seriously take into account. Post-mobilization Israel, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.

Israel has the potential to mobilize hundreds of thousands of reserves which more than triples the manpower of the Israeli army. This considerably alters the ratio against the enemy. While exact figures are classified, suffice to say the

combined Arab armies outnumber Israel’s standing army by a ratio of approximately 15 to 1. After a full scale call-up of Israel’s reserves, the ratio is reduced to less than 4 to 1.

While these are still great odds against the Jewish State, it is necessary to add into the mix the Israeli army’s strength: superior weapons systems, intelligence and logistics, better training, higher education and motivation (being in a “no alternative” situation, where losing means national annihilation, is a major factor in superior motivation). The result is an army with a better-than-even chance of winning a war.

High Ground as Air and Missile Defense As noted, current Israeli defense doctrine must take into account the vulnerability of its national infrastructure to enemy missile attack. This means reserves’ deployment locations must be sufficiently dispersed and distant from one another and from the border itself, to increase the chances of completing the mobilization and deploying the reserve forces to the war zone, even in the event of a missile attack. If the reserve mobilization were delayed by a barrage of ballistic missiles, then initial terrain conditions for Israel’s small, numerically inferior standing army units would become all the more critical.

Judea and Samaria’s mountain ridge is also crucial to Israel’s air defenses. Israel deploys its air defense facilities along the mountain ridge to enable the interception of enemy aircraft from forward positions instead of from the heavily populated coastal plain. Short-range radar and early-warning systems situated in the coastal plain would have their line-of-sight blocked by the Judea and Samaria mountain ridge.

Without control of this high ground, Israel would have no warning time to intercept attacking aircraft. It takes only three minutes for an enemy fighter bomber to cross the Jordan River and fly the 42 miles to Tel Aviv. If Israel’s strategic depth were 34 miles less (i.e.: without Judea and Samaria), enemy planes could leave Arab air space and reach Tel Aviv in under one minute or less than minimum Israeli “scramble time,” not to mention ground defenses’ reaction time.

Mobilization & Quick Action But to win the war with a better-than-even chance, another agonizing problem must be solved. As noted, Israel requires 48 hours to mobilize fully. It is economically unfeasible for the IDF to be in a state of constant mobilization.

The productivity of the country would grind to a standstill.

No nation could survive such conditions indefinitely. In fact, it was due to this factor that the Soviet Union was able to provoke the 1967 Six Day War. The Soviets informed the Egyptians that Israel was mobilizing on its northern borders opposite Syria. Although untrue, it caused the Egyptians to pull their troops out of Yemen and mass them on the Israeli lines. This in turn forced Israel to truly mobilize – this time opposite Egypt.

Realizing the consequences of long-term mobilization, Israel sent word to Egypt proposing a mutual de-escalation of troops.

Nasser’s response was to close the Straits of Tiran, which was an act of war. Israel—faced with the task of waiting for Egypt to attack, while forced to maintain an unending full-scale mobilization with the consequences of impending national economic disaster—had no choice but to act. Hence, Israel’s preemp-

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com tive attack on the morning of June 5, 1967.

Strategic Land Importace While conventional warfare (Israel’s main threat up until the late 1980s) subsequently became less probable, terrorist attacks together with missiles (from short-range rockets to large ballistic missiles) appear to have become the primary threats Israel faces.

However, the political upheaval in the Arab world in the last few years cannot rule out – especially with the rise in prominence of radical Islamic elements in Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, among others – the potential return of regular Arab armies facing Israel in the near future.

Even in the missile age, wars are still ultimately decided by the movement of armies and not just by air strikes. As long as conventional ground forces remain the decisive element in determining the outcome of wars, such issues as territory

September 2012/Tishrei 5773

and strategic depth are crucial.

Despite the proliferation of missiles and the use of terrorism as a strategic weapon, most of Israel’s Arab neighbors still stress the role of heavy armor in their order of battle. Thus, conventional warfare remains a significant potential threat.

Protecting Mobilization Efforts It is an undisputed fact that Israel’s army reserves are the backbone of the IDF in times of war.

The question, therefore, is: how does Israel buy the 48 hours she must have fully to mobilize and deploy her army reserves?

Israel’s citizen army naturally mobilizes her reserve troops where they live. This means primarily an “L” shaped land mass, from Jerusalem at one end and Haifa at the other with Tel Aviv in the middle.

Along this short and narrow strip resides some 70 percent of Israel’s population (and 80 percent of her industrial base)

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and therefore, about 70 percent of the nation’s reserve soldiers (as well as 70 percent of her labor force).

Even before Israel has the opportunity to field the full complement of her army, including its reserves, in time of war, Israel must prevent this area from being overrun by an invading enemy. Should the enemy forces succeed in cutting into the “L”, the damage to Israel’s mobilization and deployment process might well be beyond repair.

Worse, if the invasion force cannot be stopped before the fighting reached the main cities, Israel would have lost the war.

The Six-Day War This grave situation is recognized by Israel’s military, even if not fully grasped by all its politicians. In 1952, IDF Chief of Operations General Yitzhak Rabin ordered IDF Chief of Planning Colonel Yuval Ne’eman (who helped organize the IDF into a reservist-based army,

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developed the mobilization system, and wrote the first draft of Israel’s defense doctrine) to conduct an exercise to test the IDF under conditions of a surprise attack, under the then-prevailing 1949 ceasefire lines, i.e. the pre-’67 lines known today as the “Green Line.”

The maneuvers were organized, and the ensuing results were a disaster. During the exercise, Israel’s first president, Dr. Chaim Weizman, passed away.

The exercise was then cancelled to deal with the State funeral that had to be carried out. However, by that time the exercise’s “invading force” had conquered Petach Tikva and Ramat Gan, two cities surrounding the approach to Tel Aviv proper (the distance from the pre-’67 ceasefire lines to the outskirts of metropolitan Tel Aviv is a mere 11 miles), and had yet to be stopped in its tracks.

This nightmarish situation hung over Israel’s neck like the Sword of Damocles until the

continued on page 14

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Land Matters

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1967 Six-Day War and the extension of Israeli control over the Biblical mountain ranges of Judea and Samaria.

Imagine further, how much worse in reality the results of the 1952 exercise could have been if Israel’s enemies, large and small, added to the invasion force barrage after barrage of missiles onto Israel’s main population centers.

“Land for Peace”: Foolhardy Concept If implemented, the “Land for Peace” concept, accepted and unquestioned in Western capitals (and by Israel’s political Left) would seriously weaken Israel, even clearing the path to her ultimate destruction. The areas already given over to the control of the Palestinian Authority (and now also Hamas) has considerably complicated Israel’s defense in an all-out war situation. Further territorial concessions would prove catastrophic.

The missile age has not made strategic depth irrelevant; it has made it even more vital. The advanced weapons systems and missiles now in the hands of the Arabs, make the threat of the reduction of Israel’s size back to her pre-’67 dimensions potentially devastating.

Permitting such a diminution would also be a foolhardy move on the part of the Western democracies. A truncated Israel, forced to concentrate all her defenses on her high-population areas, would effectively become useless to those she cur-

rently serves so well as a major linchpin in the Western global strategy against the threat from radical Islamic expansionism.

Buffer Zone Against Attack Advocates of Israeli withdrawal from these critical territories proffer the solution of a “demilitarized zone” in the “West Bank” region. Practically speaking, such a zone is meaningless. Even if members of the more than a dozen official militias and security forces currently operating in the Palestinian Authority refrain from carrying out terrorist attacks themselves, the “unofficial” terrorist groups who operate freely with shoulder-launched rockets and worse, would still fire at Israeli school buses and at aircraft taking off and landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv (about 7 miles from the pre-’67 lines). Thus the threat to Israel’s national security would not be removed.

Even if all of Samaria, for example, was devoid of any military personnel –Arab or Israeli, it would take a motorized Arab invasion force no more than 2-3 hours to cross the Jordan River and roll up at the outskirts of Tel Aviv with any number of armored divisions.

The only way to prevent such an occurrence is for Israel to control the Samarian mountain passes. Without such control, the best intelligence apparatus in the world could not guarantee to deliver sufficient advance warning (48 hours) that would allow for full mobilization and deployment of the necessary forces to repel a full-scale invasion.

Stopping Surprise Attacks The 1973 Yom Kippur War is proof of that. Even when the signs were clear, six hours passed before the Israeli government gave the IDF General Staff the go-ahead for a full-scale reserve call-up.

By that time, it was too late.

Had Jordan entered the war, Hashemite forces would have made it into Jerusalem within a few hours with only a meager IDF force to deal with on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. Imagine today when Jericho and the surrounding areas are potentially and presumably in enemy hands in case of all-out war. Israel can ill-afford to take chances or rely on luck; not with national survival at stake.

A properly coordinated surprise attack by the armies of the main Arab/Islamic confrontation states could easily spell the

end of Israel within 3 hours of the invasion – with Syrian, Jordanian, Iraqi and even Iranian troops battling Israel’s home-guard troops in Afula, Kfar Saba and Jerusalem.

Israel’s only hope, her only possible strategy is for her small standing army to be able to pin down and stop such a surprise attack by invading enemy forces before they reach the Jewish State’s heavily populated areas. The sole solution to Israel’s dilemma is the general retention of the administered territories.

Strategic Territorial Control The way in which a smaller force can stop a larger force is by catching said larger forces’ columns of motorized vehicles (tanks, half-tracks, trucks, etc.) in a bottleneck. The mountain passes of Judea and Samaria are the only such existing obstacles.

Israeli control means a better-than-even chance that the IDF’s small standing army could block the advance columns of a surprise invasion force, thus buying Jerusalem the time required to call up the reserves needed to beat back such an attack.

Israel’s leadership has to remind our friends in the West, and especially in Washington, that responsible national security planning for Israel is based not only on the current political situation, but also on possible changes – even long-term ones – in the intentions of Israel’s increasingly unfriendly Arab neighbors.

It’s an either-or situation: Either Israel retains Judea and Samaria, thereby controlling its vital mountain passes, high ground and strategic depth, or she doesn’t, in which case, the disastrous consequences of Israel’s 1952 military exercise might well become a reality.

Y

Shana Tova.

May it be a year blessed with health, happiness, and peace (with security) for you, your loved ones, and Klal Yisrael.

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Ariel University

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continued from page 1

nizing Ariel as a university] would mean that the already very small pot of funds would have to be divided further,” said Ronni Strongin, vice-president of marketing and communications at the American Association for Ben-Gurion University.

She argued that the current budget allotted to research universities would not suffice if an eighth university were added.

As long as it was not recognized as a university, Ariel, like all such schools in Israel, received funding for 50 percent of its students. Universities, on the other hand, receive budgeting for 100 percent of their students. Recognizing Ariel as a university means that the school would enjoy a bigger budget.

Asked if she expected any financial repercussions from donors in the US who might be upset by academic institutions trying to prevent others from opening, Ms. Strongin said she believed supporters would understand the schools’ funding concerns.

Shameful and Shocking They might, but Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely, co-chair of the new Knesset lobby for recognizing Ariel as a full-fledged university, found the university presidents’ behavior “shameful and shocking.”

“While other countries are proud to have numerous universities, only Israel is ashamed to enlarge the number by even one more. The academic establishment is behaving like a cartel that seeks to preserve its own status. This is an academic putsch against the Israeli government’s

economic and political policy. Ariel is in the heart of the Israeli consensus. There is no Zionist left wing that thinks Ariel will not remain on the map of Israel forever,” she said.

Others joining her in the lobby include Yisrael Beiteinu MKs Alex Miller and Robert Ilatov, Kadima MK Yuval Zeller, Shas MK Avraham Michaeli, and National Union MK Michael Ben Ari. Why BIU Dropped Out It was unclear exactly why BIU’s Professor Kaveh dropped out of the suit. It could have been because he was reminded that many donors to the Orthodox school also support communities in Judea and Samaria. But it might also have been as a result of statements made by some of BIU’s most senior professors, all members of the school’s directorate, who had been supportive of Ariel in its quest to become a university.

Prof Elisha Haas, the head of BIU’s Biophysics Department, said it was important to remember that the president “does not represent the faculty of Bar Ilan on this matter.”

“The majority thinks differently,” he said.

Several Objections Prof Yossi Katz of BIU’s Geography Department is old enough to recall when Hebrew University had fiercely opposed the establishment of both Tel Aviv University and BIU. In both those cases, the issue was fear that there would be insufficient funding for all the schools.

Prof Yossi Pinhasi, dean of Ariel’s Faculty of Engineering, said there were just two objections to his school becoming a university.

“First of all, there’s a political objection because we are located in Samaria.

The second part is because existing universities are opposed to having another university in the area. This is why, for 40 years, no new universities have been added,” he said.

12,000 Students Founded in 1982 as the College of Judea and Samaria, the future Ariel University operated initially as a regional branch of Bar-Ilan University. Today Ariel is recognized as Israel’s largest public college and one of the fastest-growing academic institutions in the country. Its 12,000 students represent the full spectrum of Israeli society: Jews and 600 Arabs, secular and observant, new immigrants and veteran Israelis. It has a larger percentage of Ethiopian-Jewish students than any other academic institution in Israel.

Although the school is located outside the Green Line, 85 percent of Ariel’s students live within Israel proper and commute.

He school offers undergraduate studies in 26 separate departments, including all branches of engineering and sciences, architecture, physiotherapy, education, health management, nutrition, social work, behavioral sciences, economics and business management, mass communications, Israel and Middle Eastern studies, Israel heritage, humanities, mathematics, and computer science. It offers graduate degrees in electrical engineering and electronics, industrial engineering, psychology, social work, and business administration.

Offering accredited bachelors and master’s degrees, Ariel is the only nonuniversity in Israel to conduct advanced research.

Proudly Zionist It is also a proudly “Zionist academic institution.” According to the school’s chancellor, former Likud MK and Finance Minister Yigal Cohen-Orgad, each classroom and laboratory has an Israeli flag because this is how the school can best “convey a clear message.”

continued on page 18

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Ariel University

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“Every student, Jew and Arab, is required to take a course in Judaism, Zionism, or Israeli history or culture each semester,” said Mr. Cohen-Orgad.

He said that in its 30 years of operation, the school has not encountered any tension between Jews and Arabs, including the periods during the intifadas.

A Zionist school, said Mr. Cohen-Orgad, does not mean excluding teachers whose political leanings are left of center. “Leftist does not have to mean anti-Zionist,” he said. “It can mean a politically left interpretation of Zionism.”

Keeping Them Home Dr. Moshe Arens, who has served as Israel’s Ambassador to the US as well as Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs, has long been Chairman of the International Board of Ariel.

A former associate professor of aeronautical engineering at the Technion in Haifa and vice-president for engineering at Israeli Aircraft Industries, he said he accepted the position at Ariel for a variety of reasons but chiefly, he said, because Israel needed another institution of higher learning.

“Too many of our young people, if they cannot find a place in an Israeli university, go abroad to study. Given the age at which they leave—just when it’s time for many of them

to get married and start careers—too many never come back,” he said. The College of Judea and Samaria was designed to help stop the loss.

But Prof. Arens, who has long supported the communities of Judea and Samaria, also had a political motivation.

Noting that 85 percent of the school’s students come from within the Green Line and travel over it to come to class, he said that was good for the integration of the country.

“When people go to Judea and Samaria themselves to study or know that their close family member does, it makes it more familiar, less foreign,” he said.

Convenient and Good The college’s road to becoming a university began in 2005, when the Israeli government voted to support upgrading its status. This was viewed by some as a political decision, geared to appease more conservative elements in the government of thenPrime Minister Ariel Sharon just before the implementation of the Disengagement plan from Gaza.

According to Prof Arens, however, the highly successful programs at Ariel coupled with the quality of academic research by the faculty “could not be ignored.”

In July 2006, the school’s

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plans to be a university were shot down when Israel’s Council for Higher Education (CHE) rejected the proposal, deciding there would be no new universities in Israel for the next five years, during which time Ariel’s academic level would be evaluated by Prof Amos Altshuler of Ben-Gurion University.

More Students In order to become a university, the school had to increase the number of students it accepted, but because it was not yet a university, it still received funding for only half its students.

One year later, the College of Judea and Samaria was renamed the Ariel University Center of Samaria, although it remained without university accreditation.

That all changed this past summer when the CHE’s Committee for Planning and Budgeting (CPB) convened to discuss Ariel’s future. The CHE had already heard from its Committee for Monitoring Judea and Samaria (CHE-JS), which had determined that Ariel was in compliance with all necessary criteria to be recognized as a university.

Boycott This did not satisfy the university heads. Weizmann Institute Dean, Dr. Daniel Zajfman, said his school would engage in an official “boycott” of Ariel if it received university status, but he denied that his ire had anything to do with politics.

“There is no place for political debate here. Is there a need for another university in Israel? That question has not been discussed in any forum.

It will be interesting to see if adding a university will be met with an increased budget for higher education,” he said.

He and the heads of the seven other universities—BIU included this time—sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the idea of establishing another university “a grave blow to the higher education system in Israel.”

Even earlier, more than 1,000 university faculty members from throughout the country had signed a letter opposing the upgrade.

Wealthy Schools Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman called the financial issue “a lame excuse” and said the university presidents and professors were “playing a political game in the guise of professors.”

“The schools receive over $1.25 billion every year and they do what they want with it. There is no financial opposition here. It is all politically motivated,” he said.

Speaking for many supporters of Ariel in the Knesset, Likud MK Danny Danon castigated the university presidents for needing “a lesson in civics,” and, he added, their efforts to prevent Ariel from achieving university status would ultimately fail.

“It seems they do not want Jews in Ariel, but we will not let up until Ariel has a university,” he vowed.

Commitment That position was strengthened by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz who made a commitment that the budget for the new Ariel University would not be at the expense of already existing schools.

“Funding for Ariel will be added to the existing budget,” he promised, taking the steam out of the universities’ argument.

He said if Ariel becomes a university, his intention is to give the school a special

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Ariel University

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continued from page 18

$12.4 million grant over a two-year period.

He pledged that Ariel will also receive a special $5 million budget in 2013 and $7.4 million in 2014. The school will continue to receive a special budget which will grow annually for several years, he said.

Making It Easier Mr. Steinitz said he hoped this commitment would “make it easier” for Ariel to become Israel’s ninth university while making it more difficult for the other universities to continue to oppose the addition of Ariel to their ranks.

“It means that most of Ariel’s budget will not come at their expense,” said Mr. Steinitz.

Mr. Miller hinted that if Mr. Steinitz’s commitment is not sufficient, he and other MKs might seek to punish financially the universities that oppose Ariel.

“We should remember that soon the budget of the State of Israel for 2013 will be approved and we will have the opportunity to deal with the budgets of the academic institutions that oppose building a university in Ariel,” he said.

New President With all the pieces falling into place, Ariel appointed a new president, Prof Yehuda Danon (no relation to MK Danny Danon), who had served as the IDF’s Chief Medical Officer, director of Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva, and the founder of Schneider’s Children’s Hospital. A former professor at the Weizmann Institute, he currently heads Beterem, an organization he founded several years ago whose goal

is to promote children’s safety.

He said he sees his new role at Ariel as “a challenge, with the main goal at present to complete the more than 20 years of work by the very serious academics who established the college and turned it into a university center.”

Dr. Danon said he thought the opposing university heads were motivated as much by “jealousy” as by politics, although he acknowledged that some of their anger was masking fear that their budgets would shrink.

However, he said, “it is hard to ignore the political views that are at the base of some of the opposition.”

Easy Evaluation He took some comfort in the fact that none of the opposing university presidents suggested Ariel lacked the necessary academic qualifications to become a university. “They know Ariel is up to par,” he said.

In fact, Ariel had sailed through the evaluation period with flying colors and received high praise from the professors’ committee. The professors noted that a great deal of research is published by Ariel faculty and that there had been a growing number of patent applications as well as convention attendance.

According to Dr. Danon, this activity puts the lie to the university presidents’ charge that a university in Ariel would be of no benefit because it would be boycotted by other universities throughout the world.

“Not Yet” At the beginning of July, CHE’s CPB met and its answer on Ariel was: not yet.

The committee decided to wait a year during which time it would engage in “an in-depth analysis” of the matter and reach a decision sometime in 2013.

Prof Danon saw the decision as kowtowing to the university presidents and “the old hegemony controlled by the heads of the seven universities which operate for their own institutions’ narrow interests and are trying to thwart the growth of higher education in Israel at the expense of Israeli students and lecturers.”

After the CPB had its say, the focus turned to Israel’s Minister of Education Gideon Saar, who, as head of the education ministry, serves as leader of the entire CHE. Mr. Saar said he would disregard the recommendations of the CPB and, in his position as head of CHE, recognize Ariel as a university.

But Mr. Saar did not lock himself into a timeframe. “There will be struggles here, and I do not want to give precise predictions about the time it will take for this process to be completed, but, in the end, Ariel will be a university,” he promised.

Unfazed It was not the commitment Ariel’s students were hoping for, but they found Mr. Saar’s optimism encouraging, and they seemed unfazed by the CPB’s decision not to grant their school university status immediately.

“We’re definitely not giving up, because we know we have the CHE-JS. The CPB only gives recommendations, but we are relying on the Education Minister and on the Prime Minister to reach the right decision,” said Shai Shahaf, chairman of the Student Association of the Ariel University Center.

He said he was certain that Mr. Saar, whom he called “a true friend of Ariel,” would be setting “the tone” at the meeting with CHE-JS. Historic Commitment Ms. Hotovely and Mr. Miller called the commitment from Mr. Saar “historic” and “very important,” but left-wing Meretz MK Zehava Galon called the commitment to Ariel “a crass act of political intervention in academic freedom, which is intended to continue to stuff the bel-

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

The Jewish Voice and Opinion

lies of the settlers in the university that is located on territory whose sovereign future is a matter of controversy.”

Ms. Hotovely, however, called the university heads’ behavior “disgraceful” and “a mark of shame for the Israeli academia.”

She called on Mr. Saar “to continue the processes that will open up the university education market to healthy competition.”

Victory Delayed By the middle of July, the nationalists believed they had won. The CHE-JS, whose members are required by law to be appointed by the IDF, approved Ariel’s request. The IDF must appoint the officials because Judea and Samaria are not legally part of Israel, having never been annexed.

The news was greeted not only by Dr. Danon, but also by Mr. Saar, Mr. Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and many of Israel’s right-wing and moderate MKs. Mr. Lieberman saw it as an achievement of his own Yisrael Beiteinu Party, because, he said, the faction had “set the recognition of a university in Ariel as one of the central conditions for the establishment of the coalition.”

“Today we proved once more that our word means something,” he said.

Rising political star Naftali Bennett, who is a candidate to lead the united Jewish Home Party, saw in Ariel’s victory “an unprecedented opportunity for the Likud to return to power.”

“For the first time, it has been proven that the decisions in Israel are made by the elected leaders, not by the far-left petitions in the media. This is a holiday for those who love settlement in the land of Israel,” he said.

Adding Departments Dr. Danon began making plans for Ariel to develop additional disciplines such as a faculty of humanities and another one of law. He also said he would expand the school’s engineering departments.

Others at the school were more reticent. Engineering Dean Pinhasi said he viewed the CHE’s decision “with mixed feelings.”

“On one hand, we really like this decision, but the truth is, we’ve been behaving like a university for many years now, so this just makes it formal,” he said.

He acknowledged that the recognition will allow students studying for master’s and doctorate degrees to receive more scholarship aid. “This decision will enable participation in conferences throughout the world where students’ work can be presented,” he said.

Calling the Army The fact that Ariel had come that far did not stop the university presidents from trying again to stop the recognition. At the beginning of August, the Council of Presidents of Israeli Universities, headed

by Dr. Rivka Carmi of Ben-Gurion University, approached the head of IDF Central Command, Nitzan Alon, asking him not to

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approve Ariel’s recognition as a university.

In a letter, the university presidents urged Mr. Alon “to act in accordance with the law, exercise your judgment, not be a rubber stamp, and not approve the decision of the CHE-JS, and thus repair the damage and save the future of research in Israel.”

The university presidents said the decision made by the CHE was “fundamentally flawed,” “made without authority,” and “contrary to the professional position of the CPB in the CHE.” The academics charged that the decision to recognize Ariel as a university “ignores the most preliminary question:

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Ariel University

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Is it necessary and possible to establish another research university in Israel?” The conclusion reached by the university presidents was “no.”

Increasing Knowledge Prof Ortzion Bartana, a member of CHE-JS who also heads the graduate Jewish Studies program at Ariel, said the appeal to Mr. Alon would not prevent the school from becoming a university.

Nevertheless, Prof Bartana said he was puzzled by the university presidents’ attitude toward establishing another university.

“Increasing knowledge is the most important resource in our society, why should anyone object to another university? On the contrary, many more universities should be established. A university creates information and thus creates capital. A university not only consumes, but also produces, so adding another university does not mean dividing the resources among more factors but rather increasing creativity and, ultimately, increasing resources,” he said.

He is convinced that the establishment of another university, this one in Samaria, will add substance to the Israel’s academic world.

“Israel has many different regions. There is a university in the Shfela, in the Negev, in

Jerusalem, so there is no reason not to have a university in Samaria. And if someone asks me what about the Galilee and the Golan, then I would say that universities should be established there,” he said.

Asking Barak But ultimately, it was not Mr. Alon on whom the school would depend, but, rather, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, whose record for approvals in Judea and Samaria has been spotty at best.

The thought that Ariel had come so far only to be thwarted by Mr. Barak was especially painful to MK Danny Danon.

Following reports in the Israeli press that Mr. Barak was delaying the decision on whether or not to recognize Ariel as a university, Mr. Danon called Mr. Netanyahu, asking him to intervene on behalf of the school.

“This delay is unacceptable,” said Mr. Danon. “All that is now required is the signature of the head of Central Command, but the defense minister is delaying the signing because of pressure by leftist organizations.”

Why the Delay?

According to Mr. Danon, there is “no doubt that the delay is now political.” He said he called on Mr. Netanyahu to “ensure that Ariel will be a university already in the coming academic year.”

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Mr. Danon said he has demanded that Mr. Barak either sign off on Ariel or resign. “The Minister of Defense is not a Prime Minister. If the Minister of Defense cannot sign, then he should leave this government,” he said.

MK Miller criticized Mr. Barak as well, reminding the Defense Minister that “the coalition agreement signed with Yisrael Beiteinu includes a section regarding recognition of Ariel as a university.”

Going to Court But the Council of University Presidents was also not quite through. On August 20, the eight schools, including BIU, filed a motion with the Israeli High Court to have the decision granting Ariel full university status annulled.

The suit, which demands that the court strike down the decision made by the CHE-JS, has been filed against the CHEJS; the IDF Commander in Judea and Samaria; the Israeli Government; the Ministers of Defense, Finance, and Education; the CHE, the CHE’s Planning and Finance Committee; and the Ariel University Center.

Ariel University President Dr. Danon said he found this latest action by “the cartel of university presidents” sad.

Getting Angry But their action, especially the presence of BIU among the plaintiffs, made Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the recently retired executive vice-president of the National Council of Young Israel, furious.

In an emailed letter to BIU’s President Kaveh, Rabbi Lerner explained that he had been in conversation with BIU donors who are also supporters of communities in Judea and Samaria “and none of us can comprehend the rational of such actions.”

“The Jewish people are known as the ‘People of the

Book,’ and we should be rejoicing upon such advancements in Jewish and secular educational opportunities. Ariel University has earned the right to be fully recognized, and they should be congratulated for their success. But instead, the existing universities seem to be jealous, to be—sorry for the term—crybabies,” he wrote.

He went on to tell Prof Kaveh that he and others found it “hard to believe that Bar Ilan University would object, because of political considerations, that Ariel University is located in the areas of Yehuda and Shomron, of greater Israel.”

Going to Court “The decision to go to court cannot be because of concern for the need to further split the ‘academic financial-resources pie’ because, we understand, new and additional funds have been allocated for Ariel University’s budget,” wrote Rabbi Lerner.

He informed Prof Kaveh that all this “does not and will not sit well with much of my constituency and with the Jewish media with whom I work.”

“We should we working together, not fighting with each other,” he told Prof Kaveh. “We have enough battles from the outside; we do not need any internally.”

He closed his letter with the suggestion that BIU remove its name from the Supreme Court petition.

“Your presence is more than just one of eight; your presence validates the others; your participation is one of leadership, and this is not where Bar Ilan University belongs,” said Rabbi Lerner.

Just a few hours after Rabbi Lerner sent his email, news broke from Israel that BIU had removed its support from the petition against Ariel. S.L.R.

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The Jewish Voice and Opinion

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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Kosherica’s Winter Cruises to Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean

By Yochanan Gordon Everyone who has taken my suggestion to make travel plans with Kosherica, the Jewish travel experts, has thanked me profusely. Work --at home with the children or on the job--is exhausting, and sometimes we could all use a little TLC from Kosherica vacation to rejuvenate ourselves.

Kosherica offers a long list of wonderful destinations. On December 19, 2012, in keeping with the company’s goal of exploring new territory, there will be a 14-night cruise to Australia and New Zealand, aboard Holland America. This is a first in the kosher cruise industry.

The cruise will depart from and return to Sydney, Australia, featuring fascinating ports of call along the way in New Zealand.

Another Holland America cruise will embark for the Panama Canal, on Dec, 21.

This stunning cruise will depart from California and terminate in Miami. It is one of the few such cruises that will actually sail through the Panama Canal.

Jewish Music, Torah, and Current Events For Caribbean excitement, join Kosherica aboard Norwegian Cruises on December 23, 2012. The ship will depart from Miami, with scholar-inresidence Steven Savitsky on board.

On January 18, 2013, Kosherica’s fifth annual Jewish Music Festival at Sea will depart from New York City for the Caribbean. In addition to all the endless amenities, including glatt kosher cuisine and fabulous customer service, this cruise will feature some of the best

and brightest entertainers on the scene today: Dudu Fisher, Avraham Fried, Yaacov Motzen, Lipa Schmeltzer, Colin Shachat, and Simone Cohen.

Aboard the January 18th Cruise to the Caribbean will be a new personality on Kosherica’s roster: Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson.

An educator and the rav of Cong. Beis Shmuel in Crown Heights, Rabbi Jacobson serves as dean of theyeshiva.net, a global classroom of Torah study with a full schedule of live classes broadcast over the internet, and co-editor of the Algemeiner Journal.

Twice chosen to deliver the religious keynote address at the Senior Army Leadership Conference attended by over 1,000 chaplains, he is a popular speaker world-wide. His weekly articles are appreciated by tens of thousands of subscribers.

The chance to spend ten days with Rabbi Jacobson is an opportunity not to be missed.

Luxury As always, the Kosherica staff plans its excursions with the traveler in mind. For more than two decades, the Shifmans and their dedicated staff have always considered the concerns of their traveling guests.

The cholov Yisroel, pas Yisroel cuisine aboard a Kosherica cruise is unparalleled, prepared with an experienced and professional crew of mashgichim on board.

A Kosherica cruise is the perfect birthday or anniversary gift, and the staff on board are experts at helping make the occasion unforgettable.

Call a Kosherica travel expert at 305-695-2700 or 877724-5567, or log onto www.

Kosherica.com to secure your travel plans.

Y

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The Jewish Voice and Opinion

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Children of All Abilities Belong At Integrated Camp Kaylie The organizers behind Camp

Kaylie understood from the beginning that they were daring to do something new, original, and difficult: establish a premium camp in the Catskill Mountains that would fully integrate youngsters of all abilities ranging in age from 12 to 16. a project of the Jewish social services organization, OHEL, Campers would include high-end special-needs youngsters as well as their peers who have no disabilities.

Camp Kaylie was not intended specifically to teach normally developing pre-teens and teens to care for those with special-needs. It was also not designed to separate disabled and non-disabled youngsters, except for a few time periods, like mealtimes or music.

“Camp Kaylie is a camp for children of all abilities. Our goal is to give typically developing campers with no disabilities a truly phenomenal summer alongside high-functioning campers with developmental disabilities,” said Rabbi Peretz Hochbaum, who has served as director of Camp Kaylie for the past three seasons.

A Balance This means striking a balance.

“We must provide an exhilarating camping experience for non-disabled children, one which offers them unparalleled opportunities for sports, learning, music, and all camp activities, while, at the same time, fully integrating high-functioning campers with developmental disabilities,” he said.

While Camp Kaylie’s vision is not always easy, it is important, according to Rabbi Hochbaum.

This is in sharp contrast to some other Jewish camps, whose reluctance to integrate specialneeds and typically developing children has been spotlighted this summer by lawsuits from

From left, Rebecca Smith, Edison; Eliana Adler, Passaic; and Talya Leiter, Passaic, found exactly what they were hoping for at Camp Kaylie unhappy parents—including one who said his special-needs son was unfairly dismissed—and the withdrawal of funds from overseers who expect better.

With almost 25 years of leadership experience in the Jewish community, Rabbi Hochbaum came to Camp Kaylie after having served as a teacher and principal at day schools and yeshivot in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. His extensive camping experience included leadership positions with Camp Morasha and Camp Raleigh.

A Cohesive Whole The camp’s goal is to give youngsters a wonderful time while encouraging them to view the entire Jewish community as a cohesive whole, regardless of individual abilities, backgrounds, or hashkafa. While Camp Kaylie is certainly shomer shabbos and kosher and the girls all wore skirts, the lengths varied and not all of them attend Bais Yaakov institutions.

“Here, we nurture sensitivity and foster newfound friendships.

Camp Kaylie offers a life-elevating experience that will stay with these youngsters forever. All our campers become more understanding and sensitive to others, help realize the potential of one another, and become better people. As a result, they will be better leaders of

tomorrow, the kind of people who enrich the community,” said Rabbi Hochbaum.

Talks with campers— special-needs and nondisabled—makes it clear that Camp Kaylie has met its goals.

According to Rabbi Hochbaum, the proof is that so many want to return next year.

For several weeks this past summer, first boys and then girls came to Camp Kaylie’s spectacular 113-acre campsite, nestled in the Catskills, surrounded by green forests, a private lake for boating, modern bunks, and a pool Campers took advantage of Kaylie’s rock-climbing tower, Go Kart raceway track, multiple sports fields, pole climbing, archery, two hockey rinks, six tennis courts, several outdoor tennis and volley ball courts, as well as a gym with a regulationsized basketball court with four additional hoops, a fitness center, and several athletic rooms utilized for karate, Zumba, and more.

The new synagogue is used for services and learning as well as music and drama.

Happy Campers The hashkafa of the campers is as diversified as their physical abilities. On a day in August, just after a series of thunderstorms blew through the area, a number of girls were delighted to discuss their feelings about Camp Kaylie and each other.

Rebecca Smith, 15, of Edison, said she was attracted to the camp because she is interested in approaching special-needs youngsters as peers. She has a special-needs sister and is convinced that after attending Camp Kaylie, she will be better equipped to relate to her sibling.

Her camp friends, Eliana Alper, 16, and Talya Leiter, 16, both of Passaic, agreed. Miss Leiter said she came to Camp Kaylie specifically because it offered the opportunity to be with special-needs youngsters, and Miss Alper said the experience had been everything she had hoped it would be.

“I loved it,” said Miss Alper.

The counselors felt similarly.

Eliana Weinberg, 19, from Far Rockaway in Queens, is now planning to study to work with special-needs individuals either as an occupational or physical therapist. Batsheva Itzkowitz, 19, from Queens, plans to do some volunteering with specialneeds children this fall.

Belonging The camaraderie between fully-abled and special-needs children was especially noticeable among the younger campers. Rachel Retter, 13, Chana Schapiro, 11, and Neti Linzer, 13, all of Bergenfield, are schoolmates from the Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge. On

continued on page 26

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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At Gili’s Goodies, It’s Always Time for a “Sweet Hug” Eleven years ago, Gail and

David Ehrlich began the baking project that eventually became Gili’s Goodies, a family-owned Israeli enterprise that today is the preeminent online destination for those who want to send sweets and packages to friends and family in the Jewish state.

Gili’s Goodies has become a household name for people throughout the world who want to send fresh-baked gift baskets, birthday cakes, balloons, flowers, and many other items anywhere in Israel.

“Parents of seminary and yeshiva students, parents and grandparents of new— and old—immigrants, and US businesses with affiliates and customers in Israel have come to trust Gili’s Goodies for its high-quality products, reliable, friendly, and personalized service, and, basically, for ‘always being there’ when you need us,” says Mr. Ehrlich.

Suggestions On the website, there are suggestions for every occasion, from birthdays and brisim to shiva and condolence calls.

Not surprisingly, holidays are some of their busiest times.

Visiting their website, www.

GilisGoodies.com, or calling 866-721-7292 is the first step to send sweet “hugs and smiles” across the ocean, just in time for any special occasion.

Choices range from the sumptuous (like a chocolate mousse ganache cake) to a sweet little Brownie greeting card, and there is even a category called “Gili’s Guilt-Free Goodies,” consisting of fresh vegetable and fruit platters or a sugar-free gift basket.

Those who want to avoid calories all together can send flowers or, perhaps, a set of “Beach Matkot,” a paddle game created in Israel that can be

played on the beach, grass, or any other open space.

“It’s a great gift and a great souvenir,” says Mr. Ehrlich.

Not Overnight But success did not come overnight for the Ehrlichs, who reside in Efrat, in Gush Etzion, Judea, just south of Jerusalem. They immigrated to Israel from Queens in 1980. He was a filmmaker and she was an early childhood teacher. By accident—and financial necessity—they became the baker (Mrs. Ehrlich) and marketer (he), of an entirely new business.

Mr. Ehrlich is convinced the success of Gili’s Goodies was directed from Above. The producer of public relations films for high-tech companies, he found the industry collapsing in 2001. Just as he was wondering how the family would be able to afford their mortgage, his wife, who was already famous in Efrat for her prowess in the kitchen, was asked to bake cookies to be sold during performances of the community’s then-new allwomen theatrical company.

In three days, using just her home mixer, she baked 1,000 cookies, which were such a hit—along with the women’s show—that the Ehrlichs went into business. Using Mr. Ehrlich’s pet name for his wife, they called their new enterprise Gili’s Goodies.

Heaven-Sent Before they knew it, their cookies and cakes were being sold in Jerusalem and elsewhere around the country. But Mr. Ehrlich is convinced the credit is not really theirs. He says G-d sent an angel, who

materialized in the form of an old friend from the US who was also living in Efrat.

The friend’s original purpose was to discuss Mr. Ehrlich’s plan to produce a video public relations project to promote Israel. But when Mr. Ehrlich told the friend about the Gili’s Goodies start-up, the financier was riveted.

“He gave us the money we needed for a bigger oven and more space, and all he insisted on was that it be paid back eventually. We saw him as our malach, a friend who wanted to help us. There was no pressure in his approach. That was the help and motivation we needed to make Gili’s Goodies the success it is,” he says.

Another motivating factor was the Ehrlichs’ realization that Jews throughout the world want to support Israel, and by buying from Gili’s Goodies, they are helping a family residing in Judea.

“Gili took her home recipes and began making people smile,” says Mr. Ehrlich.

Chesed Division But those hugs and smiles are not just for family and friends anymore. Through Gili’s Goodies’ Chesed division, the Ehrlichs run holiday campaigns which have resulted in goodie packages

Camp Kaylie

and Gili’s Goodies holiday parties for IDF soldiers. The elderly and homebound receive Gili’s Goodies through Yad Sarah and special-needs children and their families receive through Shalva.

While this is a chesed in which the Ehrlichs engage, people throughout the world can join in by going to the website and deciding to give either to a specific lone soldier (the term for an Israeli soldier in the country without his family) or to an “anonymous soldier,” who will be selected by Gili’s Goodies in conjunction with the IDF. “These are trying times for the Jewish people. Some of you have children in the military.

In today’s times, we feel that all the boys in the IDF are our sons, and we will be sending goodies to soldiers in the IDF on the front lines,” says Mr. Ehrlich.

Popular choices for the IDF include the “Cookie Explosion” (four boxes of an assortment of Gili’s Goodies most popular cookies and small candies wrapped in cellophane and ribbons) and the “Soldier Deluxe Gift Basket,” four boxes of cookies plus a bottle of wine.

Baskets delivered by Yad Sarah and Shalva start at $18.

“Send a sweet hug to someone in Israel today,” says Mr. Ehrlich.

S.L.R.

continued from page 25

that rainy afternoon, they and one of their friends, Shira Miller, 15, who comes from Wisconsin and has Down’s Syndrome, sat in the synagogue, waiting for a drama class to begin.

Speaking for the group, Miss Schapiro said the experience at Camp Kaylie was “wonderful and very exciting.”

“This was my second year here,” she said, with her arm around Miss Miller. “It’s a loving place to be.”

But that’s not all that will draw

her. She also likes the “zip line,” a pulley suspended on a cable that lets campers travel from the top to the bottom by holding onto the freely moving pulley, and she loves the rock-climbing tower.

Miss Miller, who loves Rabbi Hochbaum’s golf cart—his favorite mode of transportation around the camp—simply smiled. “I belong here,” she said.

“They all do,” said Rabbi Hochbaum, who can be reached for more information at director@ campkaylie.org.

S.L.R.

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The Log:“Separate Yourself Not from the Community” Sun., Sept 2

Hudson Valley Blood Drive, in The Wesley Kosher Plaza parking lot, in front of Bubba’s Bagels, Monsey, 8am-2pm, Mir.Hoffman@ gmail.com Kosher Breakfast to Raise Awareness of i-Shine Teaneck, offering afterschool fun, friendship, and support for children living with illness or loss in their homes, in memory of Ilana Michal Schwartz, z”l, private home in Teaneck, 9am, 201-357-8411 Monsey-Rockland County Community-Wide Summer Sale, Flea Market, and Yard Sale, 720 Union Rd, 9am-5pm, skarben@ yahoo.com Blood Drive and Gift-of-Life Bone Marrow Registry Drive, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 9am3pm, ira_rosen@yahoo.com Gathering for Encouragement of Modest (GEM) Tznius Group: Hashkafa and Halacha from Bnos Melachim and Individual Thoughts, for women, private home in Passaic, 9:15am, 973-365-2342

Judaism’s Relevance in Modern Life: “Kosher Pride: Confessiong the Things You Do Right,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, includes breakfast, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500

Mon., Sept 3, Labor Day

“The Gift of Wisdom,” Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, for men and women, includes breakfast, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:30am, 201-837-2795 Traveling Showroom: Backto-School and Pre-Rosh Hashana Sale, includes free food sampling, Cong Ahavas Israel, Passaic, 12-6pm, barenecessities123@gmail.com Rutgers Hillel Welcome BBQ, New Brunswick, 3-6pm, 732 545 2407 Parlor Meeting for Rabbi Meir Schuster’s Women’s Heritage House in Jerusalem a Non-Profit Jewish Youth Hostel, featuring Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski and Rabbi Matan Weisberg, includes Chinese buffet, private home in Teaneck, 7:45pm, 201-837-7246 or DavidFisher100@ gmail.com

Tues., Sept 4

“All You Ever Wanted to Know about Breastfeeding,” Elly Egenberg, spons by the La Leche League, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 10:15am; 845-362-4400 Women’s Club for Widows, Jewish Federation and Vocational Services, Concordia Shopping Center, Monroe, 10:30am, 732-7771940 or 609-395-7979 Elul Tele-Workshop: “A Time for Preparation, Five Steps to Renewal,” Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller, 10pm, www.torahcalls. com or 732-806-1578

Wed., Sept 5

Deadline for Seniors or Those Physically Challenged to Apply for Assistance in Building the Sukkah, through the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ’s Bonim Builders program, volunteers needed, too, 201-820-3903 Trip to Visit the 9-11 Memorial in New York, includes tour of lower Manhattan, with tour guide Marty Schneit, leaves the JCC of Middlesex County, Edison, 9am, 732-494-3232 ext 614

Jewish Women’s Networking Breakfast, Starbucks Coffee Shop at the Meadowlands Sheraton Hotel, E Rutherford, 9:30-11am, 973-902-5932 Webinar: “The Road to Rosh Hashana: How Can I Change for Heaven’s Sake?” Rabbi Doniel Frank, 2:30pm and 9:30pm, http://s396448804.onlinehome. us/Mapseminars/wordpress/?page_ id=1396 Contemporary Israeli Poetry Group, in the original with English translation and discussion, Atara Fobar, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7pm, 718-796-4730 Strength-to-Strength Support Group for Parents Whose Children, Ages 15-25, Are Dealing with Chemical Dependency, Psychological Disorders, or CoOccurring Issues, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-408-1403 Bergen County Dept of Parks Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs Workshop, for applicants to the 2013 Bergen County Arts Grant Program for non-profits with

continued on page 30

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continued from page 30

arts programs, Bergen County Administration Building, Hackensack, 7pm, 201-336-7347 Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-8379090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071 Messilat Yesharim, for women, private home in Monsey, 8pm, 845-216-0714 “A Discussion on Aliyah and Life in Israel,” Marc Rosenberg, spons by Nefesh B’Nefesh Young Couples, private home in Teaneck, 8pm, 866-425-4924 Rav Herschel Schachter, spons by Sherry and Saul Zimmerman in memory of Morris Zimmerman, z”l, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8pm, 973736-1407 “Themes from the High Holiday Machzor and Other Sources in Preparation for the High Holidays,” Rabbi Mordecai Feuerstein, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 8pm, 973-9942620 or 973-994-0122 Halachot of the Chagim, Rabbi Ari Elbaz, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-736-1407 Parenting Tele-Conference: “Connecting: Creating That Lasting Bond,” Rabbi Shmuel Zimmerman, spons by the National Association of Support and Outreach, http://www. nasoamerica.org/recorded-programs. html, 9:30pm, call 712-432-1001, Access Code: 431-701-747#; to playback the shiur anytime, call 712-432-1011, Playback Access Code: 412-184-214#; am@NASOamerica.org

Thurs., Sept 6

Healthy Eating during the Holidays, Yakov Rosenthal, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 1pm, 845362-4400 Kabbalah and Wine-Tasting: “Reincarnation, a Glimpse into the Afterlife, and the Near-Death Experience,” for men and women, Rabbi DovBer Pinson, winetasting with Mike Ryan, spons by the Chabad Jewish Center of Upper Passaic County, Haskell Towne Centre, 7pm, 201-696-7609 Challah Baking, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-545-2407 “New Directions in Holocaust Studies: The History of the Holocaust Revisited,” Dr. Stephen Berk, Center for Holocaust/ Genocide Study, Drew University, Madison, 7:30pm, 973-408-3600 Rep Tim Scott (R-SC), by NORPAC, private home in Englewood, 7:30pm, 201-788-5133 “The Fascinating and Sublime World of the Rosh Hashana Machzor,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-8916 Birthright Info Session, Greg Yellin, Livingston Campus Student Center Coffee House, New Brunswick, 9:30pm, 732-754-8811

Fri., Sept 7

Deadline for Free High Holiday Tickets to Either the Jewish Center of Teaneck or the Chabad Center of Passaic County in Wayne, for those who have lived in the area two years or less, through the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ’s Synagogue Leadership Initiative, 201-820-3904

Israel Update, Nat Cember, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 12:30pm, 845-362-4400 Riverdale Israelis and Friends, for families with young children, in Hebrew, includes gym and programs on Israeli culture, traditions, and holidays, Riverdale YMHA, 4pm, 718-548-8200 “The Two Greatest Challenges Facing Modern-Orthodox Jewry in the 21st Century,” Rabbi Steven Weil, scholar-in-residence, Cong Etz Chaim, Livingston, 8:30pm, 973-597-1655

Shabbat, Sept 8

Rabbi Steven Weil, scholar-in-residence, Cong Etz Chaim, Livingston, “Putting the ‘Fun’ in Dysfunctional,” 10am; “Having an Open and Honest Rendezvous with G-d: The Fascinating World of Rosh Hashana,” noon; “What Does Osama Bin Laden’s Mother Have to Do with Rosh Hashana,” seudat shlishit, 973-597-1655 Women’s Shabbos Shiur, Varda Berkovitz, Cong Adas Israel, Passaic, 5pm, 973-773-7272 Welcome to New Assistant Rabbi Beni and Rebbetzin Chani Krohn and all New Members, seudah shlishit, includes children’s dinner and programming, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-837-2795

Motzei Shabbat, Sept 8 Selichot

“The Great American Gun Debate, Prof Saul Cornell, Jewish Center of Teaneck, lecture, 9pm; selichot, midnight, 201-833-0515 “Just One in a Crowd? Individual vs Community Repentence,” Yoetzet Halacha Shayna Goldberg, spons by Migdal Oz, at Ma’ayanot High School for Girls, Teaneck, shira dancing and music, for women, 10:15pm; shiur, for men and women, 11:30pm, followed by selichot minyan, 212-732-4879 Pre-Selichot Concert, featuring “The Sway Machine” with Jeremy Lockwood, Cong Etz Chaim, Livingston, 10:30pm; selichot, midnight, 973-597-1655 Selichot Services, Rutgers Hillel, 11pm, 732-545-2407

Sun., Sept 9

Mother-Daughter Kosher Cupcake-Decorating Class, Limor Levy, private home in West

Orange, 9am, limormlevy@yahoo.com EMUNAH and Highland Park Garage Sale, private home in Highland Park, 9am-6pm, 732558-4917 Explanatory Morning Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490 or rabbip@jle.org Aish HaTorah’s Project Inspire Breakfast, featuring “How to Ensure a Favorable Judgment on Rosh Hashana,” Charlie Harary, and honoring Shira and Clive Lipshitz, Dena and Mark Levie, and Jordana and Avraham Eliezer Baruchov, private home in Teaneck, 9:15am, 917-992-4962 or 646-461-3316 Jewish Family and Vocation Service of Middlesex County Pre-Rosh Hashana Family ApplePicking, includes hay rides, farm animals, Rosh Hashana Card-Making; participants are encouraged to donate some of the picked fruit to JFVS’s kosher food pantry, Kosher Meals on Wheels, and senior adult socialization programs, at Von Thun Farms, Monmouth Junction, 10am-noon, 732-777-1940 Judaism’s Relevance in Modern Life: “A Sword in the Bedroom: Holding onto Moments of Clarity to withstand Temptation,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, includes breakfast, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 “Countdown Rosh Hashana: The Mirror of Your Heart,” for women, Julie Farkas and Rabbi Ephraim Simon, Teaneck General Store, 10:30am, 201-530-5046 Apple Picking Event, spons by the Riverdale Jewish Center, at Silverman’s Farm, Easton, CT, 11am, 718-548-1850 Challah Workshop, Riverdale YMHA, for families, 10:30 and 11:30am; for advanced adults only, 12:30pm, 718-548-8200 Hadassah of Raritan Valley Picnic and Ice Cream Party, Donaldson Park, Highland Park, 11am, 732-643-1100 The Queens’s Tea, for women, to benefit The Friendship Circle of Passaic County, featuring Master Pastry Chef Paula

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Shoyer, honoring Sydell Nadel, Jari D’alessandro, and Sheri Taback, at Vibe Event Space, Riverdale, NJ, 11:30am 973-694-6274 Doggie Swim-K-9 Pool Party, for Rockland residents and non-residents, dogs (limit of 3 per participant, must be accompanied by an owner who is at least 18 years of age, Spook Rock Pool, Town of Ramapo, NY, 12-3:30pm, 845-357-6100 Open House, includes sample classes; health, fitness, wellness fair; water park; pools, JCC, Tenafly, 1-4pm, 201-408-1448 Yeshiva University Day at Citi Field, featuring the New York Mets vs the Atlanta Braves, Corona, NY, 1:10pm, alumni@yu.edu Siyyum of Shisha Sidrei Mishna and Memorial Service in Memory of Dr. Barry Hochdorf, z”l, Community Synagogue of Monsey, 1:30pm, 845-356-2720 Rabbi Eytan Feiner, for men and women, Cong Bais Torah, Suffern, 3:30pm, 845-352-1343 Hadassah of Raritan Valley New Member BBQ, private home in Edison, 4pm, 732-9376124 or 732-819-0593 “The New Face of the Middle East: Threats and Opportunities,” Shani Rozanes, includes wine and cheese reception and art auction, Riverdale YMHA, art exhibition, 4pm; lecture, 4:30pm; wine and cheese reception, 5:30pm; art auction, 6:30pm, 718-548-8200 Pre-Yom Tov Sale, featuring hats, jewelry, kippot, hostess gifts, serving pieces, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 5-8pm, 201-837-2795 or LaurenBethAdler@gmail.com Kol Halayla Auditions: The Voice of the Knight, Rutgers Jewish A Cappella Group, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 5:307:30pm, 732-545-2407 Atara of Cong Keter Torah Pre-Rosh Hashana Hat and Hostess Gift Sale, private home in Bergenfield, 7-10pm, rkschneider@mindspring.com Galina and Zahava Moedler, in concert, to benefit Magen David Adom, private home in Fair Lawn, 8pm, 201-703-0945 “Teshuva: The Art of SelfTransformation,” Rabbi Yitzchok Segal, for men and women, separate seating, Cong Tifereth Israel,

September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Passaic, 8:30pm, 973-773-2552 Writers Group, for sharing, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 347-200-5009

Mon., Sept 10

Deadline to Apply for a Free Taglit Birthright Israel-Orthodox Union Yachad 10-Day Trip to Israel, for special-needs young adults, 18-26, 212-613-8266 or BodnerN@ou.org Pre-Holiday Boutique, featuring costume jewelry and scarves, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 9am-4pm, 845-362-4400 Chabad Center of Northwest NJ Golf Classic, at Picatinny Arsenal Golf Club, registration, 11am; tee-off, noon, 973-625-1525 “Current Events,” Stan Goldberg, JCC, Tenafly, 1:30pm, 201-408-1457 “The East Bound Salt Route and the Crystal Islands,” Sigalit Landau, Israeli Sculptor, Video, and Installation Artist, Special Events Forum, Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Public and Policy, Civic Square Building, New Brunswick, 5pm, 732-932-2033 Pre-Rosh Hashana Hat Sale, spons by AMIT, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 6:30-9:30pm, 973-736-1407 Navigate the Back-to-School Daze Webcast: “Positive Limit Setting with Our Chikdren,” Rachel Pill, LCSW, spons by the Orthodox Union, www.oucommunity.org, 7pm, 212-613-8351 Pre-School Shofar Factory, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3400 Neve Session, for women, Blimi Lampel, spons by Neve Passaic Torah Institute, private home in Teaneck, 7:30pm, 908-278-4059 Theater: “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn,” spons by Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe, NJ, at the New Monroe High School, Monroe, 7:30pm, 732-659-8550 or 732-656-1616 “Understanding the Mitzvot One Mitzvah at a Time,” Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-545-2407 Book Club of the Community Synagogue of Monsey: “The Pursuit of Alice Thrift” by Eleanor Lipman, private home in Monsey, 8pm, 845-356-2720 Imago Method of Building Positive Relationships: The

The Jewish Voice and Opinion

Relationship Miracle, Amy and Michael Sherman, private home in Nyack, 8pm, 845-641-8843 Birthright Info Session, Greg Yellin, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 9pm, 732-545-2407

Tues., Sept 11

“Where Were You On…?

Memory and Meaning,” for seniors, Chaim Lauer, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11am, 973-736-1407 ext 240 “Burnt Offerings: A Rabbi’s Memoirs,” Rabbi David Chanofsky, spons by New Beginnings, at the Jewish Center of Teaneck, 1:30pm, 201-833-0515 Navigate the Back-to-School Daze Webcast: “Improve Your Children’s Self-Esteem and Motivate Them to Learn,” Adina Soclof, spons by the Orthodox Union, www.oucommunity.org, 7pm, 212-613-8351 The Book Club of the Sisterhoods of Congs Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David and Ohr Torah: “My Father’s Paradise”

by Ariel Sabar, a son’s search for his family’s past as a Jew in Kurdish Iraq, private home in West Orange, 8pm, 973-669-0938

Page - 31

“Bakeseh le-Yom Chageinu: The Essence of Roth Hashana,” for men and women, Rabbi Baruch Simon, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-370-2786 Cong Ahavas Achim of Highland Park Book Club: “Growing Up Amish” by Ira Wagler, private home in Edison, 8:30pm, 732-985-3527 Elul Tele-Workshop: “A Time for Preparation, Five Steps to Renewal,” Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller, 10pm, www.torahcalls. com or 732-806-1578

Wed., Sept 12

Transitioning Careers, Avi Roth, Teaneck General Store, 10am, 201-530-5046 Pre-Rosh Hashana Luncheon, for seniors, Rabbi Steven Exler, Riverdale YMHA, 11:45am, 718-548-8200 Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Avrohom Herman, for seniors, Elmora Ave Shul of the Jewish Educational Center, Elizabeth, lunch, 11:30am, parsha study, noon, 908-527-9815 Book Review: “Unorthodox” by Deborah Feldman, with

continued on page 32

Page - 32

The Log

September 2012/Tishrei 5773

continued from page 31

Lucille Schroeder, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 1pm, 845-362-4400 Webinar: “The Road to Rosh Hashana: How Can I Change for Heaven’s Sake?” Rabbi Doniel Frank, 2:30pm and 9:30pm, http:// s396448804.onlinehome.us/Mapseminars/wordpress/?page_id=1396 “Sweet Stories: A Special Story Time for the Jewish New Year,” Barnes and Noble, Morris Plains, 6:45pm, 973-929-2926 “Teenage Witness: The Fanya Heller Story,” JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7pm Navigate the Back-to-School Daze Webcast: “Communicating with Your Child’s School—How to Talk so They Will Listen,” Dr. Alex Bailey, spons by the Orthodox Union, www.oucommunity. org, 7pm, 212-613-8351 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 “Kneading Spirituality: Everything You Need to Know about Challah,” for women, Esty Gurkov, spons by the Upper Passaic County Chabad Jewish Center, at Haskell Towne Center, 7:15pm, 201-696-7609 Mom’s Support Group, for mothers of children with special needs, Amy Brunswick, LSW, spons

by Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-765-9050 or 973-929-3129 Penim of Passaic/Clifton Kinus Hisorerus, for women, spons by Mikvah Yisroel of Passaic-Clifton, private home in Passaic, 8pm, 973-778-6648 “Kosher, Organic, AllergyFriendly, Delicious Baking,” Alexandra Zohn, Cong Ahawas Achim

Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8pm, 973-736-1407 or aabjdsisterhood@gmail.com “Themes from the High Holiday Machzor and Other Sources in Preparation for the High Holidays,” Rabbi Mordecai Feuerstein, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 8pm, 973-9942620 or 973-994-0122 Chani Juravel, for women, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, 8:30pm, 201836-8916 Halachot of the Chagim, Rabbi Ari Elbaz, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-736-1407 Kol Halayla Auditions: The Voice of the Knight, Rutgers Jewish A Cappella Group, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 9-11pm, 732-545-2407

Thurs., Sept 13

“Divorce: What Everyone Jewish Woman Needs to Know,” Andrew Economos, Esq, spons by the Women’s Center at Jewish Family and Vocational Service of Middlesex County, Milltown, 10am, 732-777-1940 Book Group: “This Is Where I Leave You” by Jonathan Tropper, facilitated by Sharon Rogovin, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 10:30am, 973-929-2917 Film: “Watch on the Rhine,” discussed by Renee Weiner, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 1pm, 845-362-4400 Jewish Book Discussion Group, YMHA, Wayne, 1pm, 973-595-0100 Navigate the Back-to-School Daze Webcast: “We’ve Got Ruach, Yes, We Do! Transitioning the Spirituality of Summer Experiences into the Home,” Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, spons by the Orthodox

Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion” Union, www.oucommunity.org, 7pm, 212-613-8351 Larry Cantwell (LC Wells), in concert, Teaneck General Store, 7:30pm, 201-530-5046 Book Group: “These Days Are Ours” by Michelle Haimoff, facilitated by Carol Berman, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3421

Shabbat, Sept 15

Carlebach Minyan, Cong Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn, 8:45am Tefilat Shlomo: The Carlebach Tefila of Riverdale, at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 9am Cong Beth Aaron Sisterhood Book Club: “The Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn,” by Lucette Lagnado, private home in Teaneck, 4pm, 201-837-0651

Sun., Sept 16 Erev Rosh Hashana

Judaism’s Relevance in Modern Life: “Just One More Second Chance: Divine Compassion and the Nature of Forgiveness,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, includes breakfast, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 Teaneck Moroccan Minyan, free services, private home in Teaneck, 6:45pm, 201-836-0429 or merav@dahaninc.com Scholars-in-Residence for the High Holy Days, Rabbi Dr. Irving “Yitz” and Blu Greenberg, at Cong Etz Chaim, Livingston, 973-597-1655

Mon., Sept 17 Rosh Hashana

Teaneck Moroccan Minyan, free services, private home in Teaneck, 8:45am, 201-836-0429 or merav@dahaninc.com Free Explanatory Services, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, includes Kiddush, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, or Torah Academy of Bergen County, Teaneck, 10am, 201-966-4498 or rabbip@jle.org

Tues., Sept 18 Rosh Hashana

Teaneck Moroccan Minyan, free services, private home in Teaneck, 8:45am, 201-836-0429 or merav@dahaninc.com Free Explanatory Services, spons by the Jewish Learning Ex-

perience, includes Kiddush, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, or Torah Academy of Bergen County, Teaneck, 10am, 201-966-4498 or rabbip@jle.org

Wed., Sept 19 Fast of Gedaliah

Webinar: “The Road to Rosh Hashana: How Can I Change for Heaven’s Sake?” Rabbi Doniel Frank, 2:30pm and 9:30pm, http:// s396448804.onlinehome.us/Mapseminars/wordpress/?page_id=1396 “Chicks with Sticks Knitting Circle,” hats for preemies, children with cancer, and IDF soldiers in Israel, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-339-8492 Elul Tele-Workshop: “A Time for Preparation, Five Steps to Renewal,” Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller, 10pm, www.torahcalls. com or 732-806-1578 Strength-to-Strength Support Group for Parents Whose Children, Ages 15-25, Are Dealing with Chemical Dependency, Psychological Disorders, or CoOccurring Issues, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-408-140 Book Review: “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain, discussed

by Arlene Sandner, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7pm, 845-362-4400

Thurs., Sept 20

La Leche League of Bronx/ Riverdale, Mia Damond Padwa, pregnant women, babies and small children welcome, healthy snacks, Riverdale YMHA, 9:30am, 718-543-0314 Film and Discussion: “In the Shadow of the Reich: Nazi Medicine,” by Prof John J. Michalczyk, with Prof of Biology Christina McKittrick, Prof of History Frances Bernstein, and Prof of Religious Studies Darrell Cole, moderated

by Prof Emerita of Psychology Ann Saltzman, spons by the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study, at Rose Memorial Library, Drew University, Madison, 7pm, 973-408-3600 Speed Dating Event for Jewish Modern-Orthodox Singles, 40-60 years old, includes food, Teaneck General Store, 7:30pm, PrinceEvents18@gmail.com

Sun., Sept 23

Areyvut Mitzvah Clown Program Training, for students 6th grade and up, teens and adults to

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com age 120, to learn about the mitzvoth of kavod habriyot (human dignity) and bikkur cholim (visiting the sick) and mitzvah clowning skills, interact with seniors, special-needs children, and others in need of healing and a friendly visit, Young Israel of Teaneck, 8am, 201-244-6702 Explanatory Morning Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490 or rabbip@jle.org Community Yom Iyun, for men and women, featuring “From Robber to Rabbi: The Unique Teshuva of Resh Lakish,” Suzanne Cohen, with Rivka Kahan, Dena Block, Elana Flaumenhaft, Leah Herzog, Melissa Kapustin, Chava Lerner, and Rabbis Donny Besser and Yair Hindin, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 9:30am, 201-833-4307 ext 265 Judaism’s Relevance in Modern Life: “The Pursuit of Happiness: Why Happiness Is So Elusive,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, includes breakfast, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 “Yom Kippur Shiur,” for women, Julie Farkas, Teaneck General Store, 10:30am, 201530-5046 Hadassah Southern NJ Region Leadership and Commitment Award, presented to Gabe Pressman, Forsgate Country Club, Monroe, 11am, 732-643-1100 Building and Decorating the Rutgers Hillel Sukkah, New Brunswick, 11am-5pm, 732-545-2407 Cong Ohav Emeth of Highland Park Apple-Picking Trip, includes hayrides, corn maize, barnyard animals, Moon Bounce, pedal karts, at Von Thun Farms, Monmouth Junction, 1pm, 732247-3038 Film and Discussion: “Leben um Zu Sagen” (Live to Tell), with Dan Bauer, whose family lived in Vienna when the Nazis took over; discussion with Mr. Bauer, Dr. Paul Winkler, and Susan Hoskins, Princeton Public Library, 2pm, 609-924-9529 Sen Kirsten Gillibrand (DNY), spons by NORPAC, private home in Closter, 4pm, 201-788-5133

September 2012/Tishrei 5773

SINAI Special Needs Schools Fall Yom Tov Boutique, at the Torah Academy, Teaneck, 5:309:30pm, 201-387-8218 or 201837-8309 “Kinus Teshuva,” Agudas Yisroel Bircas Yaakov, Passaic, Rav Mayer Twersky, 7:30pm; Rav Hershel Schachter, 8:20pm, 973-6140196 or torahweb@torahweb.org “Body, Ritual, Text: Reconciling Judaism and Feminism in Contemporary Israeli Art,” Paula Birnbaum, Rutgers Student Center, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-932-2033 Writers Group, for sharing, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 347-200-5009

Mon., Sept 24

Deadline for Discount for Any of the Ulpan Classes, offered by the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ in locations throughout Bergen County; classes start the week of Oct. 15, 201-820-3908 or galeetl@jfnnj.org Café Europa Holocaust Survivor Group, Jacob Weiland, MSW, Riverdale YMHA, 1pm, 718548-8200 ext 303 Pre-Yom Kippur Learning, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 11pm, 732-545-2407

Tues., Sept 25, Kol Nidrei

Erev Yom Kippur Meal, with Rabbi Akiva and Nataly Weiss, private home in New Brunswick, 5pm, 732-545-2407 or 732-246-0207 Free Explanatory Services, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, or Torah Academy of Bergen County, Teaneck, 6:15pm, 201-966-4498 or rabbip@jle.org Teaneck Moroccan Minyan, free services, private home in Teaneck, 6:15pm, 201-836-0429 or merav@dahaninc.com

Wed., Sept 26, Yom Kippur

Teaneck Moroccan Minyan, free services, private home in Teaneck, 8:30am, 201-836-0429 or merav@dahaninc.com Free Explanatory Services, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, includes Yizkor, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, or Torah Academy of Bergen County, Teaneck, 10am, 201-966-4498 or

The Jewish Voice and Opinion

rabbip@jle.org Break-the-Fast, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732-545-2407

Sun., Sept 30

Bergen Bike Tour, to benefit the Volunteer Center of Bergen County and the Tomorrow’s Children Fund, featuring 10-, 25-, and 50-mile routes and a kids event for those 10 and under, featuring clowns, fire trucks, face-painting, crafts, and games, Darlington Park, Mahwah, 50-mile, 7:30am; 25mile, 8:30am; 10-mile, 10am; kids ride, 10:30am; 1-877-BER-BIKE HudsonJewish at the Hoboken Arts Festival, between Observer Highway and 7th Street, 11am-6pm, raylie@HudsonJewish.org Columbus Day Parade of North Jersey, includes festival, Bergen County Courthouse, Hackensack, noon, participants, vendors, and volunteers welcome, 201-488-5795 Sukkot-A-Pallooza, featuring the Bossy Frog Band, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 3pm, 845362-4400

Mon., Oct 1, Sukkoth Tues,, Oct 2, Sukkoth

Minyan Tiferet: Shira Hadasha-Style Yom Tov Morning Service, private home in Englewood, 9:15am, minyantiferet@ gmail.com

Wed., Oct 3 Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

Sukkot Carnival, to benefit Magen David Adom, Shearit HaPlate of Bergen County, and the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, includes rides, games, food, sukkah, petting zoo, prizes, and a show, JCC, Tenafly, 11am-4pm, rain date is Thurs., Oct 4, 201-6659085 or info@SukkotCarnival.org Celebrate Sukkot, crafts, edible sukkah, and song, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 3:45pm, 845-362-4400 Story Time in the Sukkah, Aidekman JCC, Whippany, 3:45pm,

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973-929-2926 Euro-Café, for Holocaust survivors to share stories with local teens, includes dinner, at the JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 6pm, 845-362-4400 Contemporary Israeli Poetry Group, in the original with English translation and discussion, Atara Fobar, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7pm, 718-796-4730 Strength-to-Strength Support Group for Parents Whose Children, Ages 15-25, Are Dealing with Chemical Dependency, Psychological Disorders, or CoOccurring Issues, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-408-140 Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201837-9090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071 Movie Night in the Sukkah, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-545-2407

Thurs., Oct 4 Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

Family Sukkot Dinner, JCC, West Orange, 5:30pm, 973-530-3400

Fri., Oct 5 Chol Hamoed Sukkoth

NJ Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism, spons by the Volunteer Center of Bergen County’s Northern NJ Business Volunteer Council, includes building a robust employee volunteer program and the future of volunteering in NJ, at the Hyatt Regency, New Brunswick, 7:30am, 609-633-9627 or 201-489-9454 ext 114

Sun., Oct 7

Debate between Candidates Running for Congress from NJ’s 5th District: Incumbent Scott Garrett (R-NJ) vs Democrat challenger Adam Gussen, Temple Beth Haverim Shir Shalom, Mahwah, 9:30am, 201-820-3946 Y

Female CNA/Home Health Care Aide Available

Very experienced & caring, seeking position with M or F, live-in or 12-hour shifts, refs. on request.

Call 917-566-1427

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”

New Classes This Month Sundays

Boot Camp, for girls in grades 5-8, Arielle Sheinbein, Cong Rinat Yisrael, 9:30am, 201-837-2795 “It’s All in Your Mind: The Power of the Mind in Personal Growth,” for women, Rabbi David Bassous, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 10am, 732-247-3839 Zumba, for girls in grades 3-5, with Shari, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 10:30am, 201-837-2795, begins Sept 9 Avot uBanim, Father-Son Learning, includes snacks and prizes, Yeshivas Bais Mordechai (Yeshiva Gedola), Teaneck, 7pm, 201-833-5920 “Machsheves Hachassidus: The Fundamentals of Judaism from a Chabad Chassidic Perspective,” Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, private home in Fair Lawn, 9:30pm, 201-794-3770

Mondays

Volunteer Training to Mentor Mothers and Their Families, Mentoring Moms volunteers help single mothers cope, Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Hackensack, 7pm, 201-489-9454 ext 124, begins Sept. 24 “Derech HaShem by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto: The Basis of All Existence, G-d Divine Providence, Prophecy, and Religious Observances,” Rabbi David Bassous, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 8pm, 732-247-3839 Torah Class, Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, Anshei Lubavitch Congregation, Fair Lawn, 8pm, 201-794-3770 Basics in Judaism, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8pm. 201-791-7910 Livingston Community Kollel, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 8:30pm, 973-994-2620 or 973-994-0122 Gemara Shiur: Masechet Chagigah, Rabbi Steven Miodownik, private home in Highland Park, 9pm, 732-247-0532

Mazal Tov

Mazal Tov to the Bar Mitzvah Boys: Akiva Bednarsh, Gabi and Yonatan Benchabbat. Daniel Elbaum, Seth Forman, Yitzchok Friedman, Daniel Mazover, Dovy Schabes, Eli and Moshe Schwartz, Benjamin Soclof, and Marc Yarkony; and the Bat Mitzvah Girls: Dalia Lieberman, Talya Markowitz, Elisheva Schild, Abigail Stein, and Leora Wasserman Mazal Tov to Prof of Bible Naomi Grunhaus, one of ten professors who have been newly promoted and granted tenure at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University Mazal Tov to Dr. Bella Tendler, who will join Yeshiva College’s history department in the field of Near Eastern Studies, and to Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Weinberg who will join YU’s Irving I Stone Beit Medrash Program as an instructor of Torah studies.

Mazal Tov to the three Israeli institutions of higher learning ranked in the world’s top 100 universities in the annual Shanghai Jiao Tong Report. Hebrew University ranked 53rd in the world; Technion Israel Institute of Technology was ranked 78th; and The Weizmann Institute ranked 93rd. When the list was narrowed to the areas of science, Hebrew University was ranked 38th and Technion 39th.

Mazal Tov to Israel on being named the Sixth Healthiest Country in the World on a list compiled by Bloomberg. The only ones ahead of Israel were Singapore, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, and Japan. Israel was followed by Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany. The US was 33rd. Among the factors considered are life expectancy, infant mortality, causes of death, mortality rates, number of smokers, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and pollution.

Y

Tuesdays

Torah in the AM, Rabbi Menahem Meier, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9am, 201-907-0180 Women’s Tehillim Group, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 9:15am, 973-994-2620 or 973-994-0122 Shiur, Rabbi Yonah Lazar, for men and women, private office in Verona, 1pm, 973-239-750 or 973-736-1407 English Conversation, beginner level for English-as-a-second language, Manalapan Library, 4pm, 732-431-7220 “Judaism of the Second Temple Period,” Dr. Lawrence Frizzell, Seton Hall University, South Orange, 6:15pm, 973-761-9751 Shiur, Rabbi Meir Goldwicht, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-8916 Women’s Shiur, Rabbi Andrew Markowitz, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 New Women’s Tehillim Group, bring names of cholim for whom you would like tehillim to be recited, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-357-8999 Young Professionals Chaburah, Rabbi Michael Bleicher, private homes in West Orange, 9pm, 973-736-1407

Wednesdays

Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Study Group, Rabbi Mordecai Feuerstein, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 6:20am, 973-994-2620 or 973-994-0122 Women’s Shiur: Sefer HaChinuch, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, 9am, 201-791-7910 Shakespeare Reading and Discussion Group: “Hamlet,” private homes in Teaneck, 9:15am, hfrisch@gmail.com Tele-Shiur, Rabbi Mordecai Feuerstein, 973-409-3117 or 866-2663378, Conference ID 973-994-2620, Pin #994-2629, 12:15pm Lunch and Learn: Parsha, Rabbi Akiva and Nataly Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 12:30pm, 732-545-2407 “Lessons from the Holocaust,” Dr. David Bossman, Seton Hall University, South Orange, 4pm, 973-761-9751 “Jewish History II: Medieval to Modern,” Dr. Alan Brill, Seton Hall University, South Orange, 4pm, 973-761-9751 Heroes for Kids: Training Program for Volunteer Mentors for Children, Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Hackensack, 7pm, begins Sept 19, 201-489-9454 ext 121 Confidential Support Group for Women Affected by Intimate Partner Violence, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7pm, 201-837-9090 Sefer Daniel, Rabbi Menahem Meier, for men and women, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-8916 or dsaks@genesiscm.com Men’s Shiur, Rabbi Andrew Markowitz, Cong Shomrei Torah, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 9:15pm, 201-791-7910

Thursdays

English Conversation, beginner level for English-as-a-second language, Manalapan Library, 10am, 732-431-7220, begins Oct 4 “30-Minute Meals for Your Family,” Chef Amalia Schneider, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 10:30am, 845-362-4400, begins Sept 20 Advanced Yiddish, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 7pm, 973-4288300, begins Oct 4 “Thoughts on the Parsha,” Rabbi Yosef Sharbat, Sephardic Shul of Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8pm, 973-736-1407 Mishmar and Study with a Buddy, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732-545-2407 Israeli Folk Dance, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 8pm, 845-362-4400 Yiddish for Beginners, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 8:10pm, 973-428-9300, begins Oct 4 Chaburah: Daas Tevunos, Rabbi Herschel Grossman, Cong Beth

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com

September 2012/Tishrei 5773

Aaron, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-836-6210 Gemara: Masechet Brachot, Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-736-1407 Chumash Shiur, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, via satellite, Cong K’Hal Zichron Mordechai, Monsey (845-356-7188);Young Israel of Fair Lawn (201-797-1800); Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck (201-907-0180); Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange (973-669-7320); Cong Tifereth Israel, Passaic (973773-2552), Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park (732-247-0532), 9pm Parsha: Chumash and Rashi, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 9:15pm, 201-791-7910 Parsha and Halacha, Rabbi Michael Taubes, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 10:15pm, 201-836-8916

Fridays

Reel Films with Jewish Themes, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 10am, 973-530-3473, begins Sept 28 Shabbat Club, for ages 4-8, JCC, West Orange, 4pm, 973-530-3490

Chessed Ops

Do You Have Yiddish Books, Sheet Music, Newspapers, or other non-religious printed materials you do not need or want? HudsonJewish is collecting them for the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. Contact Raylie@HudsonJewish.org The Chore Service, spons by the Volunteer Center of Bergen County, performs minor household repairs that senior citizens and disabled persons can neither do themselves nor get anyone else to do. Volunteer one day a week, in a crew of 2-4 people, from 8:30am2pm and be assigned 4-5 “service calls.” 201-489-7790 LimoCuisine, Bergen County’s newest and most convenient online ordering and restaurant delivery service, is teaming up with Teaneck’s Helping Hands Food Pantry to fight hunger. Every Monday until the High Holidays, LimoCuisine drivers will be picking up food donations from across the county and delivering them to the Helping Hands Food Pantry, free of charge. Food items must be non-perishable, unopened, and before the expiration date. To arrange a pickup, email info@limocuisine.com and put Teaneck Pantry in the subject line.

Project Ezra is looking for donations of gently worn outfits so that clients can “shop” for new-for-them clothing. Ezrah’s Closet needs a wide selection of styles and sizes, for girls, teens, and women. All clothing in good condition, clean, and not in need of repair, can be dropped off at Project Ezra. Call 201-569-9047 Project Ezrah has also initiated a new Free Loan Society. For eligibility, call Malkie at 201-569-9047 After a simcha, donate leftover food to She’arit HaPlate of Bergen County for distribution to local families in need. The caterer can do it for you. She’arit HaPlate is looking for people to help repack food rescued from local restaurants, stores, and simchas, 201-835-5338 Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley needs someone to coordinate volunteer visitation schedules at St Peter’s Hospital in New Brunswick. Bikur Cholim also needs men who can go to local hospitals and blow shofar for Jewish patients as well as visit on Sukkot with lulav and esrog, 732-690-7193

Useful Information

The Paramus Mikveh, a small, clean facility, conveniently located, will be available in the winter immediately after school, following parent-teacher conferences, and before and after children’s school activities, by appointment only, assuring minimal or no wait time, 201-967-9894 by 9pm the night before use. Leave name, phone number, date and time for appointment, and call will be returned.

Rabbi Shea Buxbaum has opened a new yeshiva in Cong Adas Israel, Passaic. In addition to an open beis medrash, the yeshiva will join the shul for weekday shacharis, 8am; mincha, 3pm; and ma’ariv, 10pm (Sun-Thurs) as well as on Shabbos and Yom Tovim, 973-773-7272 Rutgers, has courses open to NJ residents, age 62 or older, to audit, at no cost, on a space-available, non-credit basis. For information and available classes on the Senior Citizen Audit Program, call Kay Schechter, 732-932-7823 ext 682 or email kays@ur.rutgers.edu Y

The Jewish Voice and Opinion

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

“Rabbis for Obama” dwindling when compared to his numbers in 2008; as well as some hard-hitting ads for GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney targeting Jewish concerns, especially regarding support for Israel.

The problem for the Democrats is that more than one-third of the “Rabbis for Obama” have taken harsh left-wing, anti-Israel positions themselves that they clearly think the President also supports.

This perception will not help Mr. Obama in the normative pro-Israel Jewish community.

According to the Boston Globe, there is speculation that he could lose between three and 10 percentage points among Jews this year. While this seems small, Jews constitute only four percent of Florida’s population yet typically account for between five and six percent of the state’s voters. Even a small tilt could decide which way the swing state goes.

A Gallup poll released in July showed that, nationwide, 68 percent of Jews support Mr. Obama’s re-election. Though a strong number, it represents a sharp drop from his 78 percent showing against Sen John McCain four years ago.

Pro-Obama, Anti-Israel “Rabbis for Obama” was supposed to help stem this

Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”

cont. from page 1

Dr. Richard Roberts,far right, a noted Lakewood philanthropist, hosted a group of fifteen from the Lakewood Kehilla at the 2012 GOP convention. He is pictured here with Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, and Dr. Roberts’ daughters Rivka and Yael. tide, but when “Obama for America” published the roster of Jewish spiritual leaders who have endorsed the reelection of the President, an analysis undertaken by many conservatives showed that of the more than 600 rabbis listed, 225 are also members of the rabbinic cabinet of the notorious J Street, a far-left group supported by George Soros and widely accused of claiming

to be pro-Israel while adopting policies and positions that would harm, if not destroy, the Jewish state.

Others are members of groups that support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) Movement against all or parts of Israel.

Given these rabbis’ views, more than a few members of the Bergen County Orthodox community were surprised to see Rabbi Benjamin Kelsen’s name on the list.

In fact, Rabbi Kelsen, an attorney who, until he recently relocated to Bergenfield, had served as the quasi-official rabbi of the Congregation of the Teaneck Apartments, is not only a member of “Rabbis for Obama,” he is a co-chairman of the group.

Few Orthodox Rabbis A former member of the Bergen County Democratic Committee and currently a consultant to the NJ Democratic Party, he know the number

of Orthodox rabbi on the list can be counted on one hane Another of them is Rabbi Craig Miller of Passaic, who is known in his community for his love of Israel and deep friendships with many residents of Judea and Samaria--areas that Mr. Obama has made clear he wants the Jewish state to relinquish to the Palestinians who will render them Judenrein.

While Rabbi Kelsen was a member of “Rabbis for Obama” in 2008, Rabbi Miller was not.

Rabbi Kelsen said he lent his name to “Rabbis for Obama” because he believes that, despite the fears of the vast majority of pro-Israel OrthodoxJews, “Obama’s foreign and domestic policies are on the right track.”

An ardent supporter of the State of Israel, Rabbi Kelsen said he does not believe the President’s policies and behavior toward the Jewish state are as bad as most of his neighbors feel it is.

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com “Big Joke” It is a position Mr. Obama’s campaign hopes to sell to the Jewish community. While Rabbi Kelsen said he thought it might work, members of the Orthodox community seem more likely to agree with former Republican NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who called the claim that Mr. Obama is a friend of the Jewish state “the biggest joke” he had ever heard.

When asked to be more specific, Mr. Giuliani pointed to Mr. Obama’s position that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority should be based on the pre-1967 boundary lines, a move that Mr. Giuliani said would place Israel in jeopardy and with which no responsible prime minister of Israel could possibly agree.

Asked to comment on Mr. Obama’s border demand, Rabbi Kelsen said it was important to remember that “politics and international diplomacy constitute a complex ballet.”

“Each statement is part of a larger picture. The President was not really asking for a concession from Israel when it is clear the other side would not agree to anything,” he said.

“Few Gestures” Asked about Mr. Obama’s disparaging remarks to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Sarkozy knew their microphones were open, Rabbi Kelsen preferred to discuss Mr. Obama’s efforts to rescue Israeli diplomats trapped in Egypt last spring during the riots.

Mr. Giuliani said that, despite a few such gestures, the President’s actions and statements show he “feels much more empathy and sympathy” for Israel’s enemies than he does for the Jewish state.

“It isn’t just that he doesn’t go to Israel—which I think is

September 2012/Tishrei 5773

very significant—but it’s that he has policies that are against the interests of the people of the state of Israel. I think he’s the least supportive President of the state of Israel that we’ve ever had, Republican or Democrat,” said Mr. Giuliani.

Cold Shoulder While not all Israelis would go that far—many still remember President Jimmy Carter’s term—the consensus in the Jewish state is that Mr. Obama is not as supportive as they would like, and certainly not when compared to Mr. Romney.

Likud MK Danny Danon, who was clearly delighted with Mr. Romney’s visit to Israel in July, said Mr. Obama, in contrast, “has given Israel the cold shoulder.”

“We ask ourselves how come President Obama did not find the time to visit Jerusalem.

He went to Saudi Arabia, to Turkey, to Egypt, but he forgot the US’s ally here in the Middle East. On the other hand, we heard a strong commitment from Governor Romney and we hope to see a change in the American policy towards Israel,” he said.

Polls A recent poll commissioned by the Begin-Sadat Center at Bar-Ilan University and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that only 32 percent of Israelis have a positive view of Mr. Obama, compared to the 54 percent who liked him in 2009.

In July, a poll by Tel Aviv University asked whether Mr. Obama or Mr. Romney “assigns more importance to defending Israel.” 18.6 percent of respondents chose Mr. Obama, while 39.9 percent—more than double—said Mr. Romney would assign more importance to the national interests of the Jewish state.

In the middle of August, the left-leaning Israel Democ-

continued on page 38

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

“Rabbis for Obama” racy Institute (IDI) released a poll which showed that a plurality of Israelis (40 percent) believe a victory on Election Day for Mr. Romney would be better for Israel than second-term for Mr. Obama (only 19 percent).

Videos and Ads In an attempt to correct that view, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) released a short video last month featuring testimonies from ordinary Israelis thanking Mr. Obama for supporting the Jewish state and for increasing military aid for the Iron Dome missile defense system.

Writing about the NJDC’s efforts, the nationalist Arutz Sheva news service suggested the Democrats were forced to “scour the streets of Israel to find Obama supporters.”

The film is probably an attempt to counter a video prepared by the conservative political advocacy organization Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), entitled “Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel,” which shows former Jewish supporters of Mr. Obama who now not only question his commitment to the Jewish state but allege he has “done more to delegitimize and undermine Israel’s position in the world than any other President.”

In addition, the Republican Jewish Co-

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Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”

continued from page 37 alition has released a series of “My Buyer’s Remorse” ads in which Jewish attorneys, housewives, and businessmen explain why they voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, how their perceptions of the President have changed over the past four years, and why they are now supporting Mr. Romney. While the faltering economy is a major factor, virtually all the Jewish voters cite Mr. Obama’s poor treatment of Israel as one of the reasons they will not pull the lever for him again.

Radical Rabbis While Rabbi Kelsen clearly disagreed with the Republicans’ assumptions, even he seemed to be taken aback by the positions of some of his fellow members of “Rabbis for Obama.”

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, for example, is, like many others on the list, a vocal member of the advisory board and rabbinical council of Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), a far-left radical group that opposes Israel’s right to self-defense; supports the boycott of all of Israel (not just the communities of Judea and Samaria); and endorses the so-called Palestinian “right of return,” which would allow all Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and 1967—and their descendants—to flood back into Israel, demographically destroying the Jewish state.

The ADL lists JVP as one of the “top ten anti-Israel groups” in the US, pointing out that its members have not only called for an end to US aid to Israel, but have accused the Jewish state of practicing “apartheid.” JVP endorses anti-Israel BDS campaigns.

“Like other Jewish anti-Zionist groups, JVP uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of antisemitism and provide a greater degree of credibility to the anti-Israel movement,” said ADL director Abraham Foxman.

JVP activists regularly attend antiIsrael events wearing T-shirts and holding signs broadcasting their Jewish identity.

In March and April 2010, JVP leaders unsuccessfully lobbied for the passage of a divestment resolution at the University of California, Berkeley, targeting companies that do business with Israel.

In 2008, Rabbi Gottlieb cemented her anti-Zionist credentials when, as the Jewish representative of an interfaith panel, she

spoke at a dinner in New York given for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Vetting Process?

Asked if the Obama campaign had vetted the members of “Rabbis for Obama” before releasing the list, Rabbi Kelsen said he did not know, and when asked if he thought the campaign would request Rabbi Gottlieb to leave the group, he had no comment.

Rabbi Miller said he had signed onto “Rabbis for Obama” because he is supporting the President, but, he said, he is “not involved with anyone else on the list.”

Rabbi Kelsen said, he hoped the entire rabbinic list would not be tarred for Rabbi Gottlieb’s positions with which he clearly disagrees. He said that in the first week after the “Rabbis for Obama” list was published, he received angry phone calls and emails from members of the community, many of them with a tone and message that he did not appreciate.

The problem for Rabbis Kelsen and Miller and the Democrats is that Rabbi Gottlieb is far from the only “Rabbi for Obama” who shares Rabbi Gottlieb’s positions and the rabbinic group as a whole is being heralded by the President’s reelection campaign team as truly representing Jewish opinion.

Jonathan Tobin, editor of Commentary magazine, pointed out that because the campaign is using the rabbinic list “as a prop in their effort to persuade wavering Jewish voters that they can rely on Obama to stick by Israel, then its roster ought to consist of rabbis who actually do support the Jewish state.”

“If a notorious anti-Zionist like Gottlieb is a member in good standing of ‘Rabbis for Obama,’ it raises the question of what exactly the group stands for.

How can it put itself forward as proof of the American-Jewish community’s trust in President Obama as a faithful friend of the Jewish state when it is willing to embrace a leader of the movement to vilify Israel?” he said.

Raising Eyebrows In a letter to Mr. Obama, William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and co-director of the ECI, said Rabbi Gottlieb is not the only member of “Rabbis for Obama” whose presence should raise

continued on page 40

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The Jewish Voice and Opinion

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

“Rabbis for Obama” eyebrows.

According to Mr. Kristol, members include leaders of the BDS movement, founders of the pro-Hamas “Fast for Gaza” initiative, and one rabbi who has said that the US and Israel bring terrorism on themselves.

Washington Free Beacon reporter Adam Kredo investigated some of those charges. He found that, in 2010, a member of “Rabbis for Obama,” Rabbi David Mivassair of State College, PA, wrote in his blog that “the US and Israel might have done something to elicit such enmity” from terrorists. He complained that those who support Israel and the US against the terrorists “act as though the violence arose spontaneously, a completely irrational aberration in human thinking, with no relationship whatsoever to anything that the US and Israel have ever done.”

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continued from page 38

In 2011, Rabbi Mivassair, also a member of JVP’s rabbinical council, took the side of the terrorists firing at civilian targets in southern Israel. “I have to say about a puny ineffective rocket fired into some place like Sderot, something to think about is very likely the people firing it are the children or grandchildren of people who once lived in Sderot. But it wasn’t Sderot, it was a Palestinian village that had existed there for centuries that had several hundred people who were forcibly expelled at gunpoint and when the place was empty, then Jews moved in and built a town,” he wrote.

In addition to claiming there is “no justification whatsoever” for Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the terror group Hamas, Rabbi Mivassair has condemned Israel as unjustly oppressive.

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Another controversial member of “Rabbis for Obama” is Brant Rosen, who serves as the spiritual leader of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL. According to Mr. Kredo, Rabbi Rosen, a member of the JVP’s rabbinical council, has endorsed the anti-Israel BDS movement and vociferously opposes Israel’s defensive incursion into Gaza in 2008, Operation Cast Lead.

“Israel’s founding is inextricably bound up with its dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants of the land,” said Rabbi Rosen, according to a copy of his remarks found by Mr. Kredo posted on the Fresno Zionism blog.

In his book, Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity, Rabbi Rosen wrote that the Operation Cast Lead, which began after Palestinian terrorists from the Hamas-controlled region sent unceasing barrages of rockets into civilian centers, was “not about security at all.”

“This is about bringing the Palestinian people to their knees,” wrote Rabbi Rosen. “Once I admitted this to myself, I realized how utterly tired I had become.

Tired of trying to excuse the inexcusable. Tired of using torturous, exhausting rationalizations to explain away what I knew in my heart was sheer and simple oppression.”

Thanking Goldstone In blog post this past June, Rabbi Rosen wrote that BDS is an appropriate response to Israel’s “brutal occupation.”

According to Mr. Kredo, Rabbi Rosen lent his name to a 2010 missive expressing “deepest thanks” to Judge Richard Goldstone, author of the Goldstone Report, a widely disputed UN account that falsely accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.

Mr. Goldstone later retracted most of the report’s claims.

Just this past summer, Rabbi Rosen advocated against the Jewish community’s efforts to secure a moment of silence at the 2012 Olympics for the Israeli athletes who were murdered

by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich games.

“At what point does our need for the world to acknowledge Jewish suffering give way to a collective victim mentality,” he wrote on his blog.

Fighting Bingo and Jerusalem Another anti-Israel “Rabbi for Obama” uncovered by Mr. Kredo is Haim Beliak of Los Angeles. A co-founder of “Jews on First,” a left-wing First Amendment organization established to counter “the Christian Right” and its “theocratic agenda,” he has been a longtime foe of pro-Israel philanthropist Dr. Irving Moskowitz.

Rabbi Beliak tried unsuccessfully to force the closure of Dr. Moskowitz’s legal bingo parlors in Hawaiian Gardens, CA. Although Rabbi Beliak’s aim was to deny Dr. Markowitz funds that were used to purchase properties throughout eastern Jerusalem, the rabbi’s efforts evoked the ire of many Hispanic residents who depend on the bingo parlors for their livelihoods.

In recent years, Rabbi Beliak joined Rabbi Rosen in signing the pro-Goldstone letter and was a principal participant in the 2009 “Fast for Gaza,” which Mr. Kredo described as “a daylong fast aimed at highlighting opposition to what they allege is Israel’s unjust blockade of Gaza.”

In fact, the blockade does not prevent food, medicine, and other essentials from reaching residents of Gaza. The blockade was designed to keep weapons and explosives from the terrorists. All items sent to Gaza

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com are checked by Israeli security personnel first.

Nevertheless, Rabbi Beliak’s group called the blockade “an act of collective punishment, denying the entire population of Gaza with necessary food, medicine, fuel, and other basic necessities.

How can we—rabbis, Jews, human beings—be silent?”

Supporting the Flotilla Still another of the “Rabbis for Obama” who serves on the JVP rabbinical council is “Jewish Renewal” Rabbi Chava Bahle from northern Michigan.

In 2010, she supported the Turkish-run “Gaza Freedom Flotilla,” which carried a delegation of pro-Palestinian militants into waters patrolled by Israeli security. When Israeli security teams boarded the ships to force then to turn back, armed militants on the Mavi Marmara attacked, forcing the Israelis to react. Nine of the militants were killed, souring relations between Israel and Turkey.

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

all cargo from the ships and offered, after an inspection, to send permissible items to Gaza. None of the items bound for Gaza qualified as humanitarian aid.

Nevertheless, after the incident, Rabbi Bahle signed a letter which claimed the main mission of the “Freedom Flotilla” was to carry humanitarian aid. “We call upon our [Jewish] community not to turn away in denial or blame those of good will and good purpose who risked their lives to relieve the beleaguered people of the Gaza strip,” said the letter.

Another name on President Obama’s list is Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow of Philadelphia.

He has been associated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that is also on the ADL’s most anti-Israel group list.

“Deep Hostility” The participation of these rabbis and others like them in “Rabbis for Obama” raised Mr.

The Jewish Voice and Opinion

Kristol’s suspicions.

“Far from demonstrating a ‘deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel,’ these figures have demonstrated a deep hostility to the state of Israel and a deep commitment to demonizing the Jewish state and undermining the US-Israel alliance,” he told the President, adding that the ECI “cannot imagine their endorsements are ones you welcome.”

Mr. Kristol suggested Mr. Obama “have an urgent and serious conversation with whoever in your campaign thought it appropriate to trumpet their support as a way of making your case to the pro-Israel community.”

Commitment to What?

Mr. Kredo pointed out that while the number of rabbis who signed onto “Rabbis for Obama” has doubled since 2008, 88 Jewish spiritual leaders who had been members during Mr. Obama’s first election campaign declined to re-

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new their membership in 2012.

Nine of the 16 co-chairmen from 2008 are not listed this time around.

It is unclear if those who are missing have rethought their support for Mr. Obama or simply would not participate with some of the more problematic members on the list.

From the praise given by Ira Forman, Jewish outreach director for the Obama reelection campaign, it would be hard to imagine any afterthe-fact cutting of names from the list of Rabbis for Obama.

“These rabbis mirror the diversity of American Jewry.

Their ringing endorsement of President Obama speaks volumes about the President’s deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel and his dedication to a policy agenda that represents the values of the overwhelming majority of the American-Jewish community,” he said.

S.L.R.

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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Coach Bobby Kaplan Publishes Bball Basics Handbook It is not hard to find athletic coaches

in elementary and high schools who know something about their sport.

It is difficult to find coaches who understand not only the rules and skills of the game, but also how to imbue their players with love of the game, good sportsmanship, and general menchlischkeit. By consensus of parents, students, and administrators, Teaneck resident Bobby Kaplan—affectionately nicknamed Coach K—embodies that ideal.

Mr. Kaplan has been a basketball coach and athletic director for numerous day schools and yeshivot, camps (including the Israel Basketball Academy), and extracurricular programs for boys and girls. He is now the author of Bball Basics, a basketball handbook written for youngsters of all ages. Parents and schools trying to start or improve their own sports programs will also appreciate the book.

“Playing the game of basketball, the most popular game in the world, is not hard to learn, and it can be lots of fun,” says Mr. Kaplan.

Easy Read His Bball Basics is an easy-to-read, step-by-step manual. With the help of a cartoon character called “Hoops,” it demonstrates how to acquire the most important skills of the game, including dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding, and playing defense.

By the time young readers complete

the book, they should understand the triple-threat position, ball handling, free throws, and how to move without the ball.

Fun and easy to read, the book meets Mr. Kaplan’s goal of “speaking to kids on their level as they learn the basic skills of basketball.”

“If you pay attention, try hard, and practice the right way, you can be a good player,” he tells them.

Mr. Kaplan’s book also contains important personal information for youngsters, such as how to warm up correctly and eat right. He has included a practice plan, a number of inspirational stories to keep his young readers motivated, and a glossary of basketball terms to help them— and the adults who love them—speak intelligently about the game.

Respect For more than forty years, Mr. Kaplan has been imbuing his young charges with respect.

“I figure I have coached more than 1200 games,” says Mr. Kaplan, who continues to coach boys’ and girls’ varsity high school teams. At the Torah Academy of Bergen County, he is still remembered for not only bringing his team to many victories, but also, in 2000, for arranging a pair of exhibition games between the TABC Storm and the Knights of the AlGhazaly Muslim High School.

“Give respect and you will receive respect,” is the motto hundreds of young ball players have learned from Coach Kaplan.

Over the years, his teams have played in and won numerous championships, some of them held before scheduled New York Knick games at Madison Square Garden and others at the Continental Arena (now the Izod Center) in East Rutherford, NJ. At the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for girls, he guided his team to win the Yeshiva League Girls Championship.

Personalized Book In writing the book, Mr. Kaplan thought also of the adults who help youngsters form their own basketball teams. To that end, Bball Basics can be customized and reproduced by any basketball program to fit individual needs.

“Organizations can substitute their players’ pictures for those in the book, and a page can be added at the beginning to describe a particular program,” says Mr. Kaplan.

This customization feature can potentially transform Bball Basics into a memorable keepsake or gift or even a valuable marketing tool.

“How many kids can say their picture is in a published basketball book? How many youth basketball programs can boast that their program is highlighted in a published book? Think of the marketing potential. Such a customized book will help coaches, school administrators, principals, camp directors, youth organization leaders, and parents with recruiting, publicity, and community awareness,” says Mr. Kaplan.

Better Than Trophies Bball Basics has been designed to make the cost of personalizing reasonable and fast. Easy-to-follow instructions are included in the book.

“Trophies are nice, but why not reward your coaches and players with this basic basketball book containing their pictures inside? What a great way to publicize your program while producing a memento for years to come. The kids will treasure this keepsake forever,” he says.

Bball Basics has already been recognized with an “Editor’s Choice Award” and the prestigious “Rising Star” designation from iUniverse Publishers. The book will be available online through Amazon and in Barnes &Noble stores across the country. For more information, visit bballbasics.net S.L.R.

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After More Than a Century, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” Still Must Be Debunked

By Dr. Alex Grobman, executive director of the America-Israel Friendship League Antisemitism has existed in one form or another throughout much of human history. My new book, License to Murder: The Enduring Threat of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, examines some historical examples of this particular strain of hate, focusing especially on the “Protocols,” the most deceitful, dangerous and pernicious of the libels ever used to incite hatred and violence against the Jewish people.

The myth of an international Jewish conspiracy to control the world, as advanced in the “Protocols,” has been exposed by historians, journalists, politicians, police, and religious leaders. In November 1937, the Court of Appeals in Berne, Switzerland, concluded: “This scurrilous work contains unheard of and unjustified attacks against Jews and must without reservation be judged to be immoral literature.”

In the introduction to a 1964 report

of the US Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the “Protocols,” the senators stated: “Every age and country has had its share of fabricated ‘historic’ documents which have been foisted on an unsuspecting public for some malign purpose…One of the most notorious and most durable of these is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

Yet the “Protocols” continues to be published in practically every language, in hundreds of editions, in hundreds of millions of copies, and in very compelling videos on the Internet.

Inestimable Danger The potential danger of the “Protocols” in shaping public opinion should not be underestimated. When Jews are portrayed as manipulators who seek power over other people’s lives, they come to be perceived as dire threats. The Nazis recognized this phenomenon and exploited it, using the “Protocols” to rationalize the destruction of European Jewry.

It is, therefore, particularly discon-

certing that this false and harmful perception of the Jews is embraced even today by leaders of the Arab-Muslim world, where the “Protocols” continues to be published in vast quantities, and cited in the writings of mainstream academics, who lend credibility and legitimacy to this utter falsehood.

Failure to respond to the “Protocols” risks suggesting that there simply is no good response.

Hatred of Jews Since the third century BCE, when the Hellenists first advanced the case against the Jewish people, an underlying animosity toward Jews has remained basically constant, no matter what the grievance.

Pagans disliked Jews for being aloof, for refusing to worship their gods, for their practice of marital exclusivity, dietary restrictions, and missionizing; Christians accused them of killing Jesus; Enlightenment theorists blamed them for giving a foundation for Christianity; populists,

continued on page 44

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The resort itself offers a full variety of on-site ocean and water sports, golf, world-class salon and spa services, and many land activities and local excursions.

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Holiday Spirit Smilow Family Tours will imbue this rich ambience with the spirit of yom tov, offering the finest baalei tefillah, shiurim, and classes by renowned rabbis and lecturers. On yom tov and chol hamoed, day camps and babysitting will be offered for the littlest guests, who will also be tempted by Smilow’s kid-friendly menu.

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The “Protocols”

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who supported the right of the people to fight against the privileged elite, blamed them for being part of the elite [modernity]; and Islamists depicted and continue to portray them as epitomizing the evil [the vanguard] of Western ideas and values.

During the medieval period, Jews were blamed for causing the Black Death by poisoning Europe’s wells.

They were accused of engaging in black magic, witchcraft, and profanation of the host (the Christian sacrament); of scheming to destroy Christendom, and of committing ritual murder in order to obtain the blood of non-Jews for use in religious rituals. This latter accusation became so common that it earned a name of its own—the blood libel.

Other Blood Libels Despite having originated among Christians, the blood libel began to appear in the Muslim world during the reign of Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481), almost certainly emanating from the substantial Greek-Christian community that had fallen under the Ottoman regime. During the Byzantine Empire blood libel allegations were common. Under the Ottomans, blood libels were unusual. When they did arise, they were normally

denounced by the Ottoman establishment.

In the 19th century, however, blood libels reached epidemic proportions and occasionally led to outbreaks of violence throughout the empire. The Damascus Affair in 1840 was most likely the first such accusation. It began on February 5, when Father Tomaso, a Capuchin monk, inexplicably disappeared along with his servant. After being falsely arrested and tortured, a Jewish barber pleaded guilty.

The French consul, Ratti-Menton, persuaded Father Tomaso’s fellow monks to declare that the Jews had killed him in order to use his blood for their religious rituals. The consul also pressured governor Sharif Pasha to imprison a significant number of Jews including those who were influential. After being tortured, one Jewish leader died, another converted to Islam, and still others confessed to various spurious charges.

To justify this and other measures against Jews, the French consul launched a vigorous press campaign in France targeting the DamascusJewish community and Jews in general. Only intervention by the British, with the support of other European governments and the US, convinced Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman

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governor of Egypt, to order the release of the surviving prisoners.

The blood libel was ultimately denounced by the Ottoman sultan who condemned the accusation as unfounded, and acknowledged the Ottoman’s determination to protect Jews and their property.

Instigated Libels During the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th, blood libels in the Muslim world were widespread. A few examples: Aleppo (1810, 1850,1875), Antioch (1826), Damascus (1840, 1848, 1890), Tripoli (1834) Beirut (1862, 1874), Jerusalem (1874), Cairo (1844, 1848, 1890, 1901-1902), Port Said (1903, 1908), Istanbul (1870, 1874), and even more often in Balkan and Greek provinces.

Though extensive antagonism toward Jews existed in Iran and Morocco, blood libels there were almost nonexistent, probably because of the limited presence of Christians and the absence of European influence. This would come later.

Four points are important to understand. First, blood libels were invariably instigated by the Christian community, and frequently promoted in the Greek press. Second, these allegations were at times backed and even prompted by foreign diplomats, principally Greek and French representatives.

Third, the Jews could generally rely on Ottoman officials to help them. Lastly, the British and sometimes Prussian and Austrian representatives could be counted on for their active assistance in defending against the libels.

Backwater Problem The libels did not remain within the Christian community.

By the early 20th century, some Egyptian-Muslim newspapers

were using them in anti-Jewish campaigns. They became a frequent subject of Muslim anti-Jewish writings in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.

The myth of Jews using blood for sacred purposes distanced them from Christians. Blood libels had invariably emerged during times of anxiety. At the end of the 19th century, charges of ritual murders swept through Eastern Europe. Between the two world wars, there were no fewer than 12 trials involving allegations of ritual murder. Even as late as 1930, Jews in Czechoslovakia were accused of having murdered two children, aged 10 and 11, in Subcarpathian Ruthenia.

The blood libel continued to endure primarily in the backward areas of Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. The Russian government exploited this myth to incite pogroms, but the accusations eventually lost their potency, especially in secular urban areas. In rural regions, the legend persisted through the encouragement of the Catholic Church, whose local priests continued to attest to their veracity throughout the 19th and well into the 20th centuries.

The Wandering Jew Just as the blood libel led Christians to view the Jew as the “harbinger of evil,” the medieval myth of Ahasverus, the wandering Jew, represented to them the curse that Jesus had placed on the Jewish people.

The legendary Ahasverus was said to have rushed Jesus to his crucifixion while denying him consolation or refuge, for which he was cursed to wander the rest of his life without a place to live, loathed and

continued on page 47

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Ess Gezint: The Kosher Baker’s Sweet New Year Paula Shoyer’s book, The Kosher Baker, published by Brandeis University Press, is so good it should come with a warning label.

A graduate of the Ritz Escoffier École de Gastronomie Française in Paris, a former recipe taster and editor for the “Kosher by Design” series, and the founder of Paula’s Parisian Pastries Cooking School, Ms. Shoyer says, “Parve desserts are no longer something less than their dairy counterparts.” Shana Tova. May it be a sweet year filled with only good things for you, your loved ones, and Klal Yisrael. Y

Apple Upside-Down Cake 1½ tsp ground cinnamon 2 cups plus 3 Tbs sugar, divided 2 cups all-purpose flour 5 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 4 apples (McIntosh, Gala, Fuji, Golden Delicious) 1 Tbs confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a 9x13-inch pan with spray oil.

In a small bowl, mix the cinnamon with 3 Tbs of sugar. Sprinkle on the bottom of the prepared pan. In a large bowl, beat the flour, remaining 2 cups of sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla on medium-high until well mixed. Peel and core the apples, halve them, and then cut into ¼-inch slices. Place the slices on top of the cinnamonsugar mixture in the pan in 3 rows of overlapping slices. Pour the batter over the apples and spread evenly. Bake for 1 hour or until the top is browned and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes. Then turn over onto a large serving platter. Serve at room temperature. Before serving, sift confectioners’ sugar on top to heighten the taste.

Honey Cake with Pecan Swirls 1 cup pecan halves ⅓ cup dark brown sugar ½ cup plus ⅓ cup sugar, 2 large eggs divided 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 Tbs ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground cloves 1 tsp instant coffee granules ¼ tsp ground cinnamon in ⅔ cup boiling water ¼ tsp ground ginger ¾ cup honey ¾ tsp baking powder ½ cup vegetable oil ¾ tsp baking soda Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour (spray oil with 2 Tbs flour) a 12-inch loaf pan. Place the pecan halves in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin until the largest pieces are between ¼ and ½ inch long. Add ½ cup sugar and 1 Tbs cinnamon to the bag and shake to combine. In a large bowl, whisk together the coffee and honey. Add the oil, ⅓ cup sugar, brown sugar, and eggs, and whisk well. Add the flour and rest of the ingredients. Beat on medium high for 2 minutes until batter is smooth. Scoop up 1 cup of batter and pour into pan. Tilt the pan in a circle so the batter covers the entire bottom. Sprinkle on ⅓ cup of the nut mixture, covering the entire batter. Repeat with another cup of batter and ⅓ cup of the nut mixture. Repeat again. Pour remaining batter on top and spread gently to cover the nuts. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes and then turn out of the pan. Serve warm or room temperature.

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The “Protocols”

continued from page 44

disowned. In Christian folklore, his presence portends horror and emptiness.

The myth of the “wicked Jew” became emblematic of the condemned destiny that Jews were supposed to inflict on themselves and all they encountered. The Jew was depicted as the eternal, rootless foreigner who never finds his home or develops roots anywhere.

A living Jew was a much greater symbol of enduring Jewish treachery than a dead Judas Iscariot, who, according to Christian tradition, was one of the 12 Jesus apostles and who eventually betrayed him.

Responsibility for the Crucifixion was no longer viewed as personal and pardonable like Judas’s transgression; instead Ahasverus exemplified the collective responsibility intrinsic in the nomadic Jewish nation.

In the 19th century such images were readily acceptable to a culture that celebrated the romantic and the unusual, where the mythical Frankenstein and human vampires captured the imagination of those enthralled with horror tales in which humans were the foil.

The blood libel and concept of the wandering Jew provided convincing explanations for societal problems at a time of industrialization, confusing social change, and general upheaval in the same way that they had been used in the past to account for plagues and natural catastrophes.

Racial Antisemitism Racists viewed Jews as a satanic force and the source of practically all evil in the world.

Jews were allegedly involved in an eternal conspiracy to control the world using any nefarious methods necessary.

Communism and capitalism

were said to have been created as a means to manipulate the world and dominate its people. Jews were accused of infiltrating modern society and using their skills to direct the government, the stock exchange, the press, the theater, and literature.

Jews also were and are still are accused of having been part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, of owning slaves, and being involved in creating the Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation, sharecropping, the labor movement, unions, and general mistreatment of black people.

On an entirely different level, some feminists claim that Jews are responsible for patrimony and male domination, since they worship a male G-d and are said to have dethroned the Mother Goddess of the ancients.

Slave Trade The canard of Jewish involvement in the slave trade has been debunked by a number of historians as well as the Council of the American Historical Association (AHA).

Historian Seymour Drescher, a noted expert on slavery and antislavery movements, found that it is unlikely that more than a fraction of one percent of the 12 million enslaved and transported Africans were purchased or sold by Jews even once.

“At no point along the continuum of the slave trade were Jews numerous enough, rich enough, and powerful enough to affect significantly the structure and flow of the slave trade or to diminish the suffering of its African victims,” he said.

On January 5, 1995, the Council of the AHA passed a policy resolution relating to the alleged role of Jews in the slave trade. It read as follows:

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“The AHA deplores any misuse of history that distorts the historical record to demonize or demean a particular racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural group. The Association therefore condemns as false any statement alleging that Jews played a disproportionate role in the exploitation of slave labor or in the Atlantic slave trade.

“The claims so misrepresent the historical record, however, that we believe them only to be part of a long antisemitic tradition that presents Jews as negative central actors in human history. In such scenarios, Jews are the secret force behind every major social development from capitalism to democracy, every major cataclysm from the Medieval Pandemic of the plague through the French and Russian Revolutions to the collapse of Communism, and now, incredibly, appear for the first time, as the secret force behind slavery. Unfortunately, the media have given the latest charges wide currency, while failing to dismiss them as spurious.”

Zionism Equals Racism On November 10, 1975, the 37th anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, declaring Zionism to be a form of racism and racial dis-

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crimination. The resolution was part of a carefully engineered worldwide campaign to undermine the basic legitimacy of the State of Israel, after her enemies tried and failed to have her expelled from the UN. Branding Israel as a racist state portrays her falsely as a country that freely harms civilians, oppresses minorities, and restricts immigration. With this view, Israel’s wars, its response to terrorism, and the laws passed by the Knesset must be racist and thus illegitimate.

A significant danger today is that this charge has become the new stereotype of Israel in popular culture, the media, literature, and daily speech, tainting the Jewish state.

Durban Just prior to September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, the United Nations held its World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa (August 31-September 7, 2001).

Six thousand delegates from around the world attended what turned out to be an almost exclusively antisemitic and antiIsrael forum that singled out the Jewish State for special reprimand for wrongdoings.

continued on page 50

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

The “Protocols”

continued from page 47

What distinguished the Durban conference from other assaults on Israel by the UN was the particularly virulent language used and the underlying, but fundamental, principle that Israel should not only be censured, but also no longer allowed to exist.

Governments that persecute their own citizens, including some that give sanctuary to international terrorists, sought a formal declaration to delegitimize the Jewish state, demonize her people, and initiate a world-wide movement against her right to remain a country at all. Acts of terror against Israel were rationalized, justified, and even applauded.

9/11: September 11, 2001 Not long after the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed close to 3,000 people in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, rumors began to circulate that 4,000 Jews and Israelis had been warned by the Mossad, Israel’s CIA, to stay home that day because of an impending attack the Mossad itself was about to launch.

Many Muslims wondered whether the Mossad had infiltrated or even created Muslim terrorist cells to carry out the bombings. On October 4, less than a month after the attacks, Sheik Muhammad Gemeaha, former leader of the Islamic Cul-

tural Center on East 96th Street in Manhattan, was quoted on an Arabic-language website saying that Zionists in control of the country’s air traffic system had aided the hijackers; that the Zionist-controlled media were tarnishing Muslims’ image; that Jews were spreading their corruption; and that Jewish doctors were poisoning Muslim children in American hospitals.

The idea of a Jewish 9/11 conspiracy and other theories about Jewish attempts to control world affairs generated an entire cottage industry of books, pamphlets, videotapes, websites, and “expert” speakers on the subject. The charge that Jews were behind 9/11 revived, in modern form, the classic old lies about Jewish pursuit of world domination by any means necessary.

The Israel Lobby In this environment and in view of the impending war in Iraq, John J. Mearsheimer, professor of political science and co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, professor of international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, began to examine the Israel lobby, its alleged “profound” influence on United States foreign policy, and the conten-

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tious issue of dual loyalty.

Mearsheimer and Walt further argued that the very significant level of American assistance to Israel, both of financial and diplomatic, was unjustified on moral grounds or even by strategic need. Instead, they theorized that the “largely unconditional” aid was granted primarily because of the “political power of the Israel lobby, a loose coalition of individuals and groups that seek to influence American foreign policy in ways that will benefit Israel.”

The professors argued that, beyond trying to persuade the United States to support Israel “more or less unconditionally, the groups and individuals in the lobby played key roles in shaping American foreign policy” with regard to the Arab/Israeli conflict, “the ill-fated” invasion of Iraq, and the “ongoing confrontations” with Iran and Syria.

According to Mearsheimer and Walt, these policies were not only contrary to American interests but “in fact harmful to Israel’s long term interests as well.”

In a March 23, 2003 essay in the London Review of Books, Mearsheimer and Walt were careful to disavow any connection between their views and the “Protocols”: “[T]he Lobby’s activities are not a conspiracy of the sort depicted in tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. For the most part, the individuals and groups that comprise it are only doing what other special interest groups do, but doing it very much better.”

Favoring Disappearance Though Walt and Mearsheimer claim to uphold Israel’s right to exist, their biased assault on the Jewish state and their holding her to a higher standard of conduct

than asked of any other nation, suggests they favor the country’s disappearance entirely.

Israel’s enemies have embraced this view because it conveniently corresponds to their own conspiratorial fantasies about American Jews controlling US foreign policy.

Josef Joffe, publisher and editor of the German weekly Der Zeit, calls this form of antisemitism “neo-antisemitism,” a variant lacking genocidal intent, but with historic themes of exploitation, manipulation, avarice, “worship of false gods,” and absolute wickedness.

What is new about this form antisemitism? According to Joffe, it is the projection of old fantasies on new targets: Israel and America.

“The US is an antisemitic fantasy come true, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in living color,” he said.

Isn’t it true that Jews, who owe their primary allegiance to Israel, control the banks, the Pentagon, universities, the media, and the Congress? The conspirator this time is not “World Jewry,” but Israel.

Finding “Examples” The charge that a small group of Jewish officials working in the American government were secretly responsible for engineering the invasion of Iraq in 2003 added weight to Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s assertions. Elliot Abrams, Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz, all working in senior Pentagon positions along with Jewish intellectuals and commentators outside the government, including William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, and Robert Kagan, were accused of subversively operating not for the benefit of the US, but for Israel and particularly Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

continued on page 54

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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Letters to the Editor “Rabbis for Romney”

With the announcement that there is now a “Rabbis for Obama” list and organization, it is safe to assume there will soon be ads making it seem as though all Jews support this President who has refused to visit Israel while in office, blatantly insulted Israel and her elected leaders, and publicly demanded that the Jewish state retreat to the 1948 “Auschwitz” borders. He even made a tremendous fuss when Israel dared to announce a building plan in her own capital. The announcement came just as VicePresident Biden was visiting, and Obama reacted as if Israel had announced that Arabs would no longer be allowed at their holy sites. Indeed, it is the Arabs, presumably with Obama’s approval (because he has never said a word against it), who do not allow Jews or Christians to so much as think a prayer on the Temple Mount. Closing one’s eyes and standing still (never mind carrying a prayer book) is an offense that can lead to arrest.

I appeal to all rabbis, of all denominations, whether working in the pulpit, as I do, or not, to band with me to form “Rabbis for Romney.” It is imperative that all Americans understand that there are passionate Jewish spiritual leaders who care very much about the wrongs done to the Jewish state under this administration.

Every time Obama sounded as if he finally understood the problems, he almost immediately issued a retraction. I refer specifically to his address at AIPAC when he said Jerusalem was the undivided capital of Israel. The next day, he said he meant only that there shouldn’t be “barbed wire” running through the city.

When he said Israel did not need to worry because “America has your back,” everyone at AIPAC thought he was ready to defend Israel against Iran in every way, not just diplomatically. The next day, he corrected himself, explaining he had not meant there was “a military doctrine we were laying out for any particular action.”

Some of the rabbis who signed onto “Rabbis for Obama” have told me they do not object to Israel’s existence per se, but rather to Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian land.” “Rabbis for Romney” could show our misguided colleagues that every time Israel has ceded territory to the Arabs, they have turned that land into a base from which to launch terror attacks: Gaza, Judea and Samaria, South Lebanon, and now Sinai. Forcing Israel to surrender will never bring about peace. It will only facilitate her enemies’ destructive promises.

But Israel would not be our only issue. Americans must see that “Rabbis for Romney” understand why the principles of ObamaCare are in opposition to Jewish traditions. Who better than rabbis to explain what this economy is doing to so many of our people, and why it is being made worse by this administration’s policies, not better.

Many of us also know that vouchers and school-choice programs are the only way to make sure all children—including our own—receive a proper, appropriate education. We will never get anywhere with this idea as long as Obama is in office.

Please do not misunderstand. I do not think Romney is, le havdil, Moshiach ben Dovid. I know, as President, he will, as he should, do what he believes is in America’s best national interest. But his and his running mate’s backgrounds and statements

make it clear that their response to Israel, especially when the chips are down, will be far more favorable than anything we can expect from Obama.

If you’d like to join me in this effort, please contact me at 732-572-2766 or by email at chaimdov@aol.com Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg Edison, NJ

My Own Miracle on 34th Street

Friday morning, August 24, started out as a beautiful day.

I went to work as usual, got to the city early, and, therefore, had extra time to walk around before I went to my office. As I passed the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Empire State Building, the shooting started right behind me. I had never heard live gun shots before, but I immediately knew this was real and started running along with the other startled people. I smelled the gun powder and saw the smoke.

In the matter of those 120 seconds, my loved ones flashed in front of me. While running, I prayed not to get shot in the back: Please G-d, I don’t want to die.

We stopped running as the shooting stopped. I turned around and saw the gunman laying on the ground with the police pointing their guns at him. I also saw three other people on the ground.

Then I noticed that the woman right next to me was shot. She didn’t even realize it at first, but as we stopped running, there was blood dripping from her thigh and as we sat her down on the ground, we noticed the deep wound that was gushing blood. I tried to calm her down and gave her some water. As I heard the police car sirens, I ran into the street to get their attention to come help this woman. Four officers came running and started treating her. I stared at what was happening and slowly turned away, not believing the events of the past few moments.

When I reached my office, I realized the seriousness of what had just happened, and I broke down crying. I remembered my mother telling me the story of the last time she saw her mother before the Nazi’s took her away. My grandmother told my mother, “When they start shooting, remember to say Shema.”

I remembered, and I recited the Shema over and over again.

As I recollect those frightening moments, I remember how we all instinctively ran up Fifth Avenue, crossing the busy intersection on 34th Street. The east-westbound traffic lights must have turned red at that very moment to enable us to run away from this dangerous, life-threatening situation. There were no cars preventing us from running straight onto 34th street. I am certain that it was G-d’s Hand that was with us as we ran for our lives.

Now is the month of Elul, when we reflect on the past year and try to make amends and prepare to do teshuva for the coming New Year. I had a very hard year: my mom was very sick, I divorced my husband, and life was very difficult. I felt very much alone, as many of us often do when we go through hardships and challenges in life. So many times I asked myself, why was G-d so hard on me?

Friday morning I realized I am not alone. G-d is with me.

He protected me from harm. He has plans for me. It’s not yet my time to go. G-d loves me! This was my miracle.

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“Thought Is the World of Freedom” (R’ Dov Ber of Mazeritch) May G-d continue to protect us all, and may we all be blessed with a Shana Tova.

Kathy Goldfein Kew Gardens Hills, NY

Scheduling Sensitivity

The Certified Public Accounting (CPA) profession has always enjoyed a significant Jewish presence. At least one past president of the Bergen County Chapter of the NJ Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA) is Jewish. Nevertheless, the Bergen Chapter consistently schedules some of their meetings on the Jewish holidays. They consistently schedule their annual tax seminar on Shabbos.

For several years, I have repeatedly raised this issue with various presidents and other officers of the Bergen Chapter of the NJSCPA, only to be repeatedly told to keep quiet and stop rocking the boat. The attitude is: If you do not like when we schedule our meetings, you do not have to come, and perhaps you should resign from the NJSCPA. One past president even went so far as to try to prevent me from speaking to the NJSCPA Executive Director about this issue.

When I did, I was met with courtesy, but received no satisfaction.

This year’s meeting schedule is no different. The Bergen Chapter of NJSCPA has scheduled meetings on Sukkot and on Shavuot.

The date of the annual tax seminar has not been released yet.

If anyone would like to join me in this effort to help the organization meet the needs of many of its members and show respect to all, the president of the NJSCPA Bergen Chapter is Charles A. Lota of the CPA firm of Lota & Bernard, LLC. The firm’s email address is info@lotacpa.com.

Thank you in advance.

Gary Konecky, CPA Fair Lawn, NJ Remembering Gush Katif and the Lessons of Expulsion Kol hakovod on your August issue. Very few editors of Jewish publications saw fit, as you did, to give extensive coverage to the 7th-year anniversary of the expulsion from Gush Katif [“Seven Years Later, Former Residents of Gush Katif Still Suffer,” August 2012].

I was in Nevei Dekalim during the expulsion, and the wound still festers in me. It is remarkable that those taken forcibly from

their homes and communities have had the courage and fortitude all these years to continue in their battle to rebuild. We wish them continued strength of purpose and great success.

I understand the frustration of those who question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that he would “fire any minister who votes to legalize Ulpana homes,” the neighborhood in Beit El that was ordered destroyed this summer. Those certainly aren’t the words of someone who was forced to destroy the Ulpana homes, and his actions in continuing to demolish Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria do not inspire confidence.

If PM Netanyahu were truly in our corner, he would have jumped on the findings of the Levy Report as evidence of Israel’s biblical, historic, and legal rights to the entire country and would have adopted them immediately. Now we are in the process of petitioning for the adoption while Jewish homes continue to be threatened with destruction. I congratulate Susan Rosenbluth, editor of The Jewish Voice and Opinion, who joined me and 63 other Jewish-American leaders, for being among the first to sign this petition, which can be found at http://www. goshomron.com/policy/petition-levy-report/.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of life-anddeath threats from Syria, Egypt, Iran, and now Sinai, as well as from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Arabs inside Israel. Does any of this make sense?

Helen Freedman Executive Director, Americans for a Safe Israel, AFSI New York, NJ SLR Responds: Thank you so much for your kind words. Netanyahu commissioned the Levy Report. Therefore, we can hope that, with our continued prayers and pressure, he will use it to legalize all building and residents in the, as the Levy Report says, “nonoccupied” regions of Judea and Samaria. Shana Tova, everyone.

The Jewish Voice and Opinion welcomes letters, especially if they are typed, double-spaced, and legible. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and style.

Please send all correspondence to POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631.

The phone number is (201) 569-2845. The FAX number is (201) 569-1739.

The email address is susan@jewishvoiceandopinion.com

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

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The “Protocols”

continued from page 50

Richard Perle, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, was also supposed to have been part of this cabal that conspired to dupe Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and President George W. Bush into attacking Iraq.

On this basis, anyone wanting to discredit the Bush Doctrine could “expose” the Iraq invasion for what they believed really was—a war initiated by the Jews and fought entirely for the benefit of Israel.

To shield themselves from being labeled antisemites, promoters of this theory use the term “neoconservative” as a euphemism for “Jew.[,]” [which is what they really mean.] But using a subterfuge like “neoconservative” does not hide the standard “Protocols” canard that Jews are disloyal citizens

and always plotting clandestinely to manipulate humankind for their own evil goals.

The very idea that seasoned politicians like Bush, Rice, Cheney, and Rumsfeld could be so easily deceived and manipulated into initiating action against their better judgment and starting a war in which the US had no apparent interest is, of course, simply absurd.

The Arab Lobby As political scientist Mitchell G. Bard revealed, it is the Arab lobby, especially from Saudi Arabia, which is quantifiably the most potent influence on American foreign policy.

Working behind the scenes, the lobby ensures that Arab interests—including oil sales to the US and military assistance—are given “disproportionate attention” by decisionmakers in order to influence

ALAN L. MUSICANT

American foreign policy and “manipulate” public opinion.

The Arab lobby, with its deep pockets, long reach, and allegiance to theocratic despots, poses an actual danger to American democracy, Bard asserts: “One of the most important distinguishing characteristics of the Arab lobby is that it has no popular support. While the Israeli lobby has hundreds of thousands of grassroots members and public opinion polls consistently reveal a huge gap between support for Israel and the Arab nations/ Palestinians, the Arab lobby has almost no foot soldiers or public sympathy. Its most powerful elements tend to be bureaucrats who represent only their personal views or what they believe are their institutional interests, and foreign governments that care only about their national interests, not those of the United

States. What they lack in human capital in terms of American advocates, they make up for with almost unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on the merits of their arguments.”

Bard notes that in promoting Arab interests “the Saudis have taken a different tack[t] from the Israeli lobby, focusing on a top-down rather than bottom-up approach to lobbying.” He cites a proposal written for the Saudis by “hired gun” J. Crawford Cook: “Saudi Arabia has a need to influence the few that influence the many, rather than the need to influence the many to whom the few must respond.”

The Arab Lobby represents the interests of repressive Arab regimes that frequently stand in opposition to America’s core values and undermine America’s security by supporting terror-

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September 2012/Tishrei 5773

The Jewish Voice and Opinion

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ism and distorting America’s understanding of the nature of radical Islam and the Middle East by infiltrating extremist viewpoints into the American educational system, and seeking to weaken support for the longstanding friendship between America and Israel.

War in Iraq When the US went to war against Iraq, a number of Americans believed this was because of the key political roles played by American neoconservatives i.e., Jews who had instigated the conflict. This view held that Jews were also to be blamed for past wars, and will be held responsible for future conflicts.

When Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was asked on an AfricanAmerican talk radio program about Jewish responsibility for the war, he offered a detailed refutation of the charge. But nothing he said persuaded the callers, until he finally pointed out that the Secretary of State was Colin Powell and the National Security Advisor was Condoleezza Rice.

“It seems to me that it is more of a black conspiracy,” he quipped, and the questions ceased.

Fitting the Pattern Hoenlein’s exchange illustrates the danger of

Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s claims about Jewish political influence when seen against 2,000 years of Jewish and antiJewish history.

Even Mearsheimer and Walt have acknowledged that any claim appearing to impugn the Jews for policy failures is a highly sensitive issue reminiscent of the conspiracy theories found in the “Protocols.”

Before Mearsheimer and Walt published their “exposé” of the alleged Jewish Lobby, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz recognized that this kind of allegations and criticism of excessive Jewish influence in American politics was usually the domain of hard left American academics such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein and hard rightists such Pat Buchanan and the late Robert Novak. The fact that Mearsheimer and Walt are mainstream American academics from the realist school of US foreign policy, gave their thesis added authority and credibility in the academic and general community.

Context To counter the lie that Jews seek to control the world, it is necessary to understand the historical context in which the “Protocols” were written, why they continue to be disseminated, and why they still endure even after being so decisively

and repeatedly debunked.

The still widely held belief in the mystical power of the Jews allows the virulent conspiratorial fantasies featured in the “Protocols” to affect even people who aren’t aware that such a book exists. Those who have not read the “Protocols,” but know it exists, are easily convinced of its veracity because it maintains that everything abhorrent in the world is simply “the result of an unspeakable Jewish plot.”

The “Protocols” shape the way Jews, Israel, and the West are viewed by the rest of the world. Given the danger Jews are thought to pose, the only way for believers in the “Protocols” to combat this ruthless enemy, this “omnipresent Satan in human flesh,” determined to harm and enslave all nonJews, is to destroy them by any means available—a clear warrant for genocide.

The Question We Face In his book, Warrant for Genocide, which exposes the “Protocols” for the myth it is, Norman Cohn concludes that this fabrication “is the story of how in 20th century Europe, a grossly delusional view of the world, based on infantile fears and hatreds, was able to find expression in murder and torture beyond all imagining. It is a case-history in collective psychopathology and its deepest implications reach far beyond antisemitism and the fate of the Jews.”

Cohn wonders whether it is naïve or utopian to expect that the more the destructive and false nature of the “Protocols” is acknowledged, the greater the possibility of recognizing, limiting, and perhaps even forestalling, similar aberrations in the future.

By examining the “Protocols,” this is the question my book seeks to answer. Y

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