THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION Promoting Classical Judaism
October 2012
Vol. 26 • No. 2
The EMP Nuclear Option Destroys Electronics but Not People; Will Israel Use It First, or Will Iran? In the war of words against
Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and in light of the Iranian President’s repeated calls for Israel’s annihilation, there has been a lot of discussion about a conventional military strike against the Islamic Republic by the US, Israel, or both. By contrast, there has been little public discourse on the option that many experts believe will be the weapon of choice for whoever strikes first: the electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a burst of electromagnetic radiation that can result from a nuclear explosion detonated at least
twenty-five miles above the earth’s surface. Used as a weapon, EMP would destroy all electronic equipment and modern defense systems that rely on electronics. The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency has said that while the blast of radiation “might not do anything to properly protected troops, it would ‘fry’ anything electronic: laptops, sensors, our highly computerized planes, even a simple cell phone. A weapon that doesn’t kill a single person could still destroy our technology and infrastructure.”
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Cheshvan 5773
Obama Looks to Separate the US from Israel; Romney Wants to Make Sure the World Knows Jerusalem Is a Friend In a conference call to the
“As President, I will restore our relationship with Israel and stand shoulder to shoulder with our close ally,” said Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney
Jewish community, placed on September 20, between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Republican Presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, called for the indictment of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “for incitement under the genocide convention.” “He and the diplomats in Iran should be treated like the pariahs they are anywhere they go in the world. They should be
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The Forgotten Middle East Jewish Refugees Sixty-four years after the
establishment of the Jewish state, the Israeli government seems to have just realized that Palestinian-Arab refugees were not the region’s only penniless displaced migrants in 1948. Last month, despite strong Arab pressure, the United Nations held its first “Justice for Jews from Arab Countries” event. Initiated by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Is-
raeli delegation to the UN and attended by senior UN Secretariat officials as well as Western Ambassadors and law professors, including Irwin Cotler and Alan Dershowitz, the event was broadcast live on the UN Web TV channel under the title: “The Untold Story of the Middle East: Justice for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries.” “Between the walls of the
UN, we are starting to bring justice to these Jewish refugees who were tortured, persecuted, and driven away, and whose rights were revoked,” said Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, who has been leading the battle to ensure that Jewish refugees from Arab countries are given international recognition. He pointed out that the 1967 UN Security Council Res-
olution 242, which calls for a “just settlement of the refugee problem,” means the need for justice for all refugees in the Middle East. Because then-US Ambassador to the UN Arthur Goldberg knew there were Jewish refugees from Arab countries, he rejected a Soviet demand to use the phrase “Arab refugees” in the wording. “We are 64 years late in
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Inside the Voice Subway Ad Wars................................... 3 Kol Ami: Campaign Trip?..................... 4 The Current Crisis............................... 5 Never Again Is Now.........................16 Asifas & Siyyums...............................21 Beth Aaron Boys Choir....................23
The Log..........................................................24 School & Camp Open Houses......30 New Classes........................................31 Mazal Tov.............................................33 Chesed Ops..........................................33 Memo to Jabotinsky, z”l.................36
Ess Gezint: Sukkah Brown Bag .....38 Holy Name Sukkah............................42 Index of Advertisers ........................41 Honor the Professional...................43 Letters to the Editor ........................44 Walk to Shul........................................47
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Is It Anti-Muslim to Call a Jihadist Who Slits a Baby’s Throat a “Savage?” Activist Pamela Geller does not
understand why an ad demanding that viewers oppose US military aid to Israel should be acceptable in the New York subways, while an ad suggesting that people oppose “savage jihadists,” who behead journalists, slit infants’ throats, or bury women in the ground to stone them, is not. Last year, a virulently anti-Israel group, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, mounted an ad campaign demanding that viewers agree to “end US military aid to Israel.” This year, it was the turn of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). This group is currently sponsoring ads which say: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civijewish voice octIsrael, 2011:Layout 1 10/3/2011 lized man. Support Defeat Jihad.” Many observers would say the ads
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are equally provocative. New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) disagreed. It allowed the anti-Israel ad to run without a problem. To get the second one up, Ms. Geller, the executive director of AFDI, went to court. In July, Federal Court Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the anti-savage ad was free speech, and the MTA was forced to capitulate. Who Are These People? The anti-Israel ad features a cleancut young man, identified as a “Palestinian designer” with an angelic little girl at his side. Next to him is a bearded man, an “Israeli social worker,” holding a baby. The ad implies that the Israeli wants an end to US military aid just as much as the Palestinian does. At the top of the ad, the caption reads, “Be on our side. We are the side of peace and justice.”
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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. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Jewish Voice and Opinion, POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631. All advertising in the Jewish Voice and Opinion must conform to the standards of the Orthodox Rabbinic kashruth. Editorial content reflects the views of the writer and not necessarily any other group. The Jewish Voice is not responsible for typographical errors.
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Kol Ami: Campaigning for Romney? There is nothing unusual about Jews working for political candidates, but, as a rule, they don’t board buses a few days before Rosh Hashana to spend two days and an evening donating their time. Last month, however, several hundred Jewish Americans heeded the call from the Republican Jewish Coalition and left their homes to help campaign in the Jewish communities of Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio for GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The question some on the Philadelphia trip were asked was: Why did you do it? Y
This is the most important election in my lifetime. The America that I know and love is in danger of changing unless the current direction and guiding ethos of the regime in power is defeated. that is why I donate my time and efforts to this noble cause! Phil Richmond Wayne, PA
When the RJC gave me the opportunity to volunteer in Philadelphia for the Romney campaign, I could not sign up fast enough. PA is one of the swing states and is so important to the campaign that I wanted to not just make calls from California but to go there and campaign in person. I will work my heart out for Romney to win. Linda Grossman Santa Monica
I have worked on the past two elections because I care passionately about national security. Each election since my Republican conversion in 2004 has become even more urgent, encompassing many more issues important to me. I really enjoyed the experience of working side by side with other like-minded impassioned people, and the RJC gave me the opportunity to meet and work with my own people. Sara Antell Cherry Hill, NJ
I felt I could use political activism to strengthen my Jewish spirituality. While distributing RJC pamphlets, I wore my Republican Jewish Coalition t-shirt with pride, right alongside my tzitzit and Jerusalem-patterned yarmulke. What an empowering event! Rudy Stoler Baltimore, MD
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The Current Crisis: “Even in Laughter, the Heart Can Ache” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, GOP Congressional Candidate from the 9th District, has a great idea on how to reimburse the State Department for the American taxpayers’ loss in Benghazi, allow the Libyan government to do some penance for its failure to protect American diplomats, and help the city of Englewood get a nice property back on the tax rolls. Rabbi Boteach suggested the Libyan government be asked to sell its Englewood mansion, located conveniently right next door to his home. “That would be an incredible gesture to show the American people that the Libyan people care,” he said. Not that the Libyans seem particularly remorseful. As Rabbi Boteach observed, no one in the house thought of flying flags at half-mast in honor of the murdered Americans. We wonder if their families appreciated it when the Obama administration finally came clean and admitted that the late Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and his colleagues were victims of terrorism. Our question was: Did anyone think they had died of the flu? Wasn’t it an act of terror irrespective of how long it took the terrorists to plan it? The amazing part was that after years of watching rampaging Middle Easterners rioting over everything from Danish cartoons to French cartoons and Swedish cartoons to ads they didn’t like, most of us were quite prepared to believe they were now rioting over an amateurish YouTube clip. Why not? Can you imagine if Christians and Jews rioted every time a piece of “art” offended us? When Chris Ofili exhibited his chef d’oeuvre, a Madonna covered in elephant dung, at the Brooklyn Museum, the same New York Times that now excoriates
Coptic “filmmaker” Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (“Innocence of Muslims”) solemnly intoned that it was a museum’s “duty” to offer work that made us “uncomfortable.” Most Christians we know were uncomfortable mostly at the thought that the Brooklyn Museum is a tax-payer-supported facility. Maybe to get into practice for a little rioting, some of our Christian friends should visit the Tyler Nahen Gallery to soak in a little “culture” in the form Andres Serrano’s 1989 photograph of a crucifix marinating in a vat of the “artist’s” urine. If just the thought of what is being exhibited doesn’t offend you, this might: Serrano’s work just received taxpayer funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. So not only is it disgusting, but you paid for it. Now that sounds like a reason to riot. Alternatively, we could all adopt Iranian cleric Hassan Sane’i’s solution. He heads up the Khordad Foundation, which has been wondering why so many Westerners don’t seem to care about the Sharia legal principle forbidding blasphemy. The foundation has concluded it is all Salman Rushdie’s fault, or, more specifically, the fault of those who placed the fatwa on him in 1989 after he penned “The Satanic Verses,” and then didn’t follow through with sufficient cash to make it worth a believer’s while. So, Mr. Sane’i just added another $500,000 to the pot, making the reward $3.3 million. If the reward is insufficient, Mr. Sane’i reminded his flock that as long as Mr. Rushdie is alive, Mr. Nakoula’s film will not be the last. “These days are the most appropriate time to carry [Rushdie’s murder] out,” said Mr. Sane’i. Scotland Yard, call your office. Chag Sameach, Everyone S.L.R.
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Subway Ad Wars The ad is signed www.TwoPeoplesOneFuture.org. There is no indication that the lands the Palestinian desires must be handed to his leaders free of Jews. Nor is there an indication that the Israeli social worker knows the Palestinians want all Arabs who fled in 1948 plus their millions of descendants to have the “right of return” to flood back into Israel, demographically destroying the possibility of a Jewish state. The anti-savage ad has no pictures. It features a black background on which white, blue, and red letters spell out the message. The words “Support Israel” are flanked by two Stars of David. Up Now In Sept. 2011, the anti-Israel ads were placed in 18 subway stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. The anti-savage ads are currently displayed in 10 subway stations. While the anti-Israel ads made some Jews angry enough
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continued from page 3 to write letters to New York officials, asking them to disallow such ads, there is no indication that anyone feared violence from pro-Israel activists. That is not the case with the anti-savage ads. Many Muslims and some Jews have determined that the anti-savage ad is antiMuslim, even though the words “Muslim” or “Islam” do not appear. Dictionary Word The word “Jihad” is in the ad, and some Muslims say that means the ad is calling all Muslims “savages.” Others say the word “savage” is so raciallycharged, it is demeaning. In the dictionary, “savage” means “uncivilized” and “barbaric,” which Ms. Geller said is a pretty good definition of people who slaughter innocent civilians. “There have been close to 20,000 Islamist attacks since 9-11, each one with the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric. That doesn’t mean all Muslims subscribe to this, but there is
a problem and we have to be able to talk about it,” she said. Activist When she is not putting up ads, Ms. Geller blogs at Atlas Shrugs. She was instrumental in the campaign against the Islamic Center which wanted to open near Ground Zero. She received widespread media coverage for her support of Rifqa Bari, a teenage girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and then, in 2009, had to flee for her life from her parents’ home in Ohio to the Florida home of a Christian pastor and his wife. Ms. Geller said she doesn’t understand the complaints against her ads. “What’s controversial here?” she said. “It’s truth. The MTA has run anti-Israel ads before and no one had an issue about it. We think any war on innocents is savagery.” Some complainants say the word “jihad” means “struggle.” Ms. Geller begs to differ. “In the Quran, nothing speaks to a jihad being a spiritual struggle. It’s holy war, and the jihadists who commit jihad cite Quranic chapter and verse for holy war,” she said. Asked if she might feel responsible if some Muslims began rioting because of her ads, she said no. “If someone commits violence, it’s his responsibility and no one else’s,” she said, adding that if Muslims can force Americans to give up their rights to free speech, it would mean acceptance of Muslim Sharia law in this country. Tit-for-Tat For Ms. Geller, the mother of four daughters, the story of the ads began in 2010 when several anti-Israel groups sought to run ads on the sides of buses in Seattle, Washington. The ads they proposed carried the message: “Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work. Stop30billion-Seattle.org.”
Furious, Mrs. Geller submitted her own ad to counter the anti-Israel one. Before the anti-Israel and pro-Israel ads had a chance to go up, The county crafted a new policy banning all noncommercial advertisements. The new policy allowed the municipality to ban all the ads, which delighted Ms. Geller since getting rid of the anti-Israel ads was her motivation. San Francisco AFDI’s anti-Jihad ads are also running in San Francisco, where, last year, the transit system, SFMTA, ran ads calling for an end to US aid to Israel, a state the ad called unfair and unjust. Convinced that they had no choice, SFMTA accepted AFDI’s ads, but next to each one runs a disclaimer claiming the transit system prohibits discrimination and “condemns statements that describe any group as savages.” “Really? Were the Nazis savages? The Taliban? Hamas? Al Qaeda? Daniel Pearl’s beheaders?” said Mrs. Geller. Because the SFMTA did not run disclaimers next to the anti-Israel ads, Ms. Geller is taking out a new ad in San Francisco: “Why is the city of San Francisco enforcing Sharia law? San Francisco is running disclaimers next to our proIsrael ads. Why didn’t they run them next to vicious anti-Israel ads? Stop Anti-Semitism in San Francisco government.” Washington, DC She also plans to run the anti-Jihad ad in Washington, DC, where the transit system had anti-Israel ads last year. Pleading concern for violence, the transit system has asked for a postponement, which Ms. Geller is refusing to give. On Sept 20, AFDI brought a lawsuit seeking an injunction to require the transit authority
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The International Jewish Resource Center for Inclusion & Special Education The New Jersey Association of Jewish Day Schools Divisions of Yachad/NJCD Proudly present:
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The EMP Option
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EMP causes non-lethal gamma energy to react with the magnetic field, producing a powerful electromagnetic shock wave that can destroy electronic devices. Without producing any direct casualties, it can knock out a country’s power grid and communications system for transport and financial services, leading to economic collapse. Who Is Prepared? Two knowledgeable experts have mapped out two very different scenarios for this weapon. One believes the Iranians will use it; the other suggests Israel might do so first in a preemptive strike to protect its own people as well as most of the Western world. While it is not clear if the Iranians are militarily prepared to launch an EMP attack, there is no question Israel has all the necessary equipment and technical expertise. Its dilemma is whether to take action which would be in clear defiance of the Obama administration’s preference to wait for sanctions to take effect. Thus far, Western dependence on diplomacy and sanctions has not deterred Iran from its goal. While the Islamic Republic has complained about their hurtful effects upon the Iranian economy, sanctions have had no serious effect on Tehran’s rush to develop nuclear weapons. Confirmation A report at the beginning of September from the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) said that in spite of UN Security Council resolutions, sanctions, and talk of Israeli, US, or joint Israeli/ US military action, Iran had doubled its uranium enrichment capacity at its underground Fordow facility. Mr. Netanyahu said the report confirmed his warning. “The international sanctions may be weighing heavily on Iran’s economy but they are not hindering the advancement of Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranians are using the talks with world powers to buy time to advance their nuclear program,” he said. Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton blamed both the Obama administration as well as that of the second President Bush. “Sanctions are good only if they are comprehensive, swiftly applied, and rigorously enforced. Obama has met none of those conditions,” said Mr. Bolton. Iran still insists its nuclear program is aimed at developing energy for peaceful civilian purposes, a claim that has been rejected by the Western world and many other nations. Canadian Decision Some say recognition of Israel’s decision to move ahead on the EMP option, perhaps as early as this month, partially accounted for Canada’s decision to increase its own diplomatic pressure on Iran. In September, Canada, whose support for the Jewish state has been consistent and strong, announced it had expelled Iranian diplomats serving in Canada and was closing its embassy in Tehran. Dr. Joe Tuzara, a former clinical research-physician general-surgeon for Saudi Arabian, Philippine, and American healthcare systems and a careful observer of the region, noted that despite Israel’s highly advanced technological and strategic military advantage, the country’s fear of an Iranian existential threat could prompt the surprise attack it has been warning would be the result of a do-little attitude on the
Subway Ad Wars
part of the US and other Western countries. Dr. Tuzara assumed the attack would use EMP and be reminiscent of Israel’s stunningly successful 1981 operation to destroy Iraq’s Osiraq reactor and 2007 attack on the reactor in Syria that was being built by North Korea. “Zone of Immunity” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Iran has entered the “zone of immunity,” meaning a strike against it should be imminent if it is to come at all. Among his reasons was that Iran, with North Korean assistance, has already tested a ballistic missiles delivery system in an EMP mode. In addition, Iran has made clear its uranium-enrichment progress is on the way to 80-90 percent weapons grade. According to the Institute for Science and International Security, its stockpile of lowgrade enriched uranium can be converted to five nuclear weapons if refined further. Iran has already started the process of loading 163 fuel rods into the core of its Bushehr nuclear power plant reactor. “In light of the latest developments, there is no question that Iran is now a de-facto nuclear state—a ‘casus belli’ for Israeli military action,” said Dr. Tuzara, adding that while military action “is unattractive, failure to act would be much worse if Iran got the atomic bomb.” Israeli use of a significant EMP event would “take the Iranians back to the Stone Age,” said Dr. Tuzara. Saudi Arabia According to another expert, the US should hope Israel will act soon, before the Iranians are prepared to launch their own EMP attack. Although some intelligence sources have said that Iran is within two years of an attempt to bring the Islamic revolution to the US by launching an EMP attack on American soil, analyst Mark Langfan believes the Iranians will strike Saudi Arabia first. “This EMP nuclear weapon is detonated at a technically easily reachable high-altitude of about 50 kilometers (31 miles) above
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to run her ads now. She is claiming the transit authority’s reaction is based on a “heckler’s veto,” which is impermissible under the First Amendment. Then, she will be back in New York
where the MTA is trying to revise its standards so that AFDI-like ads will not be able to run. However, said Ms. Geller, it will probably mean anti-Israel ads cannot run either, and that will suit her just fine. S.L.R.
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a given targeted battlefield area, doesn’t harm a fly, destroys all the electronics within about 750 kilometers (466 miles) of the blast radius, and leaves non-electronic World War II-vintage weapons, like regular guns, such as Kalashnikovs and Katyushas, totally unaffected,” said Mr. Langfan. An attorney who created an original three-dimensional topographic map system of Israel to facilitate a clear understanding of the dangers facing the Jewish state and its water supply, Mr. Langfan has suggested that Iran could use an EMP weapon against US interests in Saudi Arabia without violating the reported dictum of the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei. In February 2012, Ayatollah Khamenei reportedly told a group of Iranian nuclear scientists that “Iran is not after nuclear weapons because the Islamic Republic, logically, religiously, and theoretically, considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless, destructive, and dangerous.” “Even if we take Ayatollah Khamenei at his word that a nuclear bomb, such as the one dropped on Hiroshima, is a ‘great sin,’ the nuclear generation of EMP is a game-changer, a modern nuclear bomb that doesn’t kill human beings or animals or destroy buildings. But with the element of surprise, it would allow the Iranians to follow up with a conventional blitzkrieg, an overwhelming type of ground attack on a localized area,” he said. Shiites, Oil, and POWs Mr. Langfan suggested that, rather than attacking Israel, the Iranians would use this tactic against eastern Saudi Arabia, where 5 million Shiite Muslims could be “liberated” from what the Iranians consider the heretical yolk of Sunni rule. Ninety-nine percent of all Saudi Arabia’s oil is located there as well. Mr. Langfan said an additional incentive for the Iranians would be the 30,000 US troops now defending the Persian Gulf. They could be captured and held as POWs. “Our troops’ modern high-tech weapons and communications equipment would be burnt to a crisp at H-Hour plus three nanoseconds,” said Mr. Langfan. “An Iranian EMP over the Saudi Peninsula would not only blind all US military spy satellites, but also all US CENTCOM Saudi theater communications back to the Pentagon.” Iran’s military task, he said, would be greatly aided by thousands of “sleeper”
cells among the millions of Shiites who form the majority in the very easternmost Saudi Persian Gulf provinces. “Armed with the element surprise, with an EMP nuclear weapon, Iran could militarily very well hand the US a fait accompli on the battlefield before Washington even knew what had happened. The White House would not even know Iran’s EMP attack had begun before it was all over,” he said. Stone Age Precisely because a scenario in which Iran is able to launch such an attack is not so farfetched, Dr. Tuzara suggested that before Iran is prepared with an EMP, Israel might use the weapon itself. Such an attack
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by Israel, he said, could cripple Iran, and, as the London Times reported, send the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Age.” “The wild card is in Israel’s hand— with EMP inscribed on it. If Israel chooses one of its Jericho III missiles to detonate a single EMP warhead at high altitude over north central Iran, there will be no blast or radiation effects on the ground, but Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges in Fordow, Natanz, and widely scattered elsewhere, would freeze for decades,” he said. Most reports indicate that Israel has not ruled out a Jericho III missile launch to detonate such an EMP warhead.
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The EMP Option Cyber-Attacks Dr. Tuzara said, in all likelihood, Israel would couple an EMP attack with cyber-attacks. The result would be similar to what Mr. Langfan predicted would befall US interests in Saudi Arabia. The Iranians, said Dr. Tuzara, “would not know it happened except for a massive shutdown of the electric power grid, oil refineries, and a transportation gridlock.” “Food supply would be exhausted and communication would be largely impossible, leading to economic collapse,” he said. Predicting War It is unclear if Iran is aware of Israel’s EMP capability, but by the end of September, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, seemed certain that an Israeli strike against his country was all but inevitable. Calling Israel “a shameful and cancerous tumor that is
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continued from page 9 seeking war against us,” he admitted not knowing “when that war will happen.” “They [Israelis] now consider war as the only way to confront us, but they are so stupid that their [US] masters should stop them,” he said. He acknowledged that the “war will eventually happen because the [Islamic] revolution is moving rapidly towards its goals and they cannot tolerate this, and finally they will impose a war situation. Even if they [the Israelis] act rationally, this incident will happen.” Retaliation Iranian Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is in charge of Revolutionary Guards missile systems, told Iranian television that if Israel prepares to attack, Iran could launch a preemptive strike. “But we do not see this at the moment,” he said, confirming for some that Iran is not yet
US intelligence agencies recently reported growing concerns that Israel will conduct a strike on Iran using a high-altitude nuclear burst aimed at disrupting all electronics in the country. prepared with an EMP weapon. According to Mr. Jafari, Iran’s first step after a military action against the country would be to abandon the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty. “This is a declared policy by Iran that if war occurs in the region and the Islamic Republic is involved, it is natural that the Strait of Hormuz as well as the energy market will face difficulty,” he said. Blaming America General Jafari’s deputy, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, told reporters that Iran’s “defensive strategy is based on the assumption that we will engage in a war, a massive battle against a global coalition led by the US.” He said the Islamic Republic had made preparations to “crush” the enemy by hitting “enemy bases in the region, the security of the Zionist regime, and the energy market, as well as the lives of enemy forces.” “We will not start a war, but if someone wages war against us, we will launch continuous offensives,” he said. While General Salami’s analysis smacks of conspiracy theories, most Iranian military leaders believe any attack on Iran will come with authorization from the US.
“So whether the Zionist regime attacks with or without US knowledge, we will definitely attack US bases in Bahrain, Qatar, and Afghanistan,” said Mr. Hajizadeh. Mr. Jafari said US bases in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, would also be fair game for Iranian missiles or proxy forces. “The US has many vulnerabilities around Iran, and its bases are within the range of the Guards’ missiles. We have other capabilities as well, particularly when it comes to the support of Muslims for the Islamic Republic,” he said. Ending Peace Treaties In fact, US officials have warned Israel that Egypt and Jordan could annul their peace treaties with the Jewish state if it carries out a preemptive strike against Iran. Yediot Achronot cited a “high-level Israeli official” who said Washington had warned that Arab leaders would not be able to control an angry public backlash if Israel were to mount an attack on Iran. “Today the Arab leaders do not control their peoples, the streets control the leaders,” the official told the newspaper. He added that an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facili-
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com ties would prompt the “entire Arab and Muslim street” to riot. This, he said, would place enormous pressure on Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel, to annul the accords. Vain Boasts General Jafari’s comments marked the first time Iran has acknowledged the probability of armed conflict with Israel. In the past, Iranians dismissed such a scenario as a bluff by Israeli leaders. Only a few weeks earlier, General Jafari had said that Tehran believed Israel was unsuccessfully trying to push the US to take part in military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities. An attack by Israel, he said, would not be carried out “without US permission.” At that time, he warned that if Israeli jets or missiles did strike Iran, “nothing of Israel will be left, considering its size.” “I do not think any part of Israel will be untouched given
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our missile capabilities. Thus, our response is in itself a deterrent,” he had said. At the end of September, he was still demeaning Israel’s military capability, but he seemed worried. “Everyone knows that they cannot confront the power of the Islamic Republic,” he said. “But there is no guarantee of rationality, and it is possible that they will go crazy” and attack. “Futile and Tragic” Dr. Tuzara dismissed General Jafari’s boastful predictions. According to Dr. Tuzara, after an EMP strike by Israel, any response by Iran “would be futile and uncannily tragic.” “Before the elite Quds force could mine the Strait of Hormuz and wreak havoc to Arab Gulf states oil refineries, the Fifth Fleet, or US military installations, Iran’s administrative-industrial-military complex infrastructures would have been laid to waste without the ruling clerical regime knowing about it,” he said.
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Dr. Tuzara’s words clearly struck a nerve in Washington. In August, after Arutz Sheva ran an op-ed by Dr. Tuzara in which he discussed the possibility of an Israeli preemptive EMP attack, the online Washington Free Beacon reported that US Intelligence agencies had concluded that he was reflecting “official Israeli government thinking about a possible preemptive response to Iran’s expected emergence as a nuclear-weapons state in the near future.” According to Beacon reporter Bill Gertz, US officials suspected that either the op-ed was actually written by “someone in the Israeli government who favors such a strike” or that “the Israeli government, at a minimum, encouraged publication of the article.” Making Sense Dr. Tuzara, whose pieces have been published by Arutz Sheva in the past, said he had no idea why US Intelligence officials believed the op-ed was
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an official Israeli message to Iran rather than simply the writer’s own analysis. Arutz Sheva’s Gil Ronen suggested American officials may have thought the op-ed reflected an official Israeli position because the op-ed simply “made sense.” Mr. Ronen noted that Mr. Langfan, too, published several op-eds in Arutz Sheva discussing his scenario. Observers found it strange that members of the Obama administration seemed more concerned with Dr. Tuzara’s suspicions that Israel would attack first than they were with Mr. Langfan’s fears that the US would bear the brunt of an Iranian attack. Repercussions Dr. Tuzara did not suggest that Israel could engage in an EMP strike against Iran without any risks of repercussions. He had no doubt the Jewish state would, at the least, have to
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The EMP Option endure a rain of missiles from Iran’s allies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. However, he said that it is clear that Iran has miscalculated Israeli resolve and that the “diplomatic dance of deceit and empty bluster” that has gone on for years “is over.” “Since diplomacy and sanctions were an abject failure, war has become inevitable and preparations for preventing Iran’s rapid nuclear progress, have, thus far, accelerated,” he said. Israeli Confidence His thoughts were confirmed by a pre-Rosh Hashana message from an anonymous source in Jerusalem who told Voice of Israel governmentsponsored radio that the Jewish state has “an attainable military option that it can implement independently without American assistance” against Iran. The head of Israel’s Nuclear Energy Commission, Shaul
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continued from page 11 Horev, agreed, telling participants at the annual meeting of the IAEA in Vienna that Israel has “the ability to defend itself on its own.” While Mr. Horev did not specifically mention an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facility, his speech more than hinted that the verbal confrontation between Jerusalem and Tehran could escalate into a military conflict that Israel could handle. Syrian Involvement If Iran sees no way to retaliate against an Israeli strike by itself, there is the possibility that Tehran might transfer chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons to Israel’s closest neighbors. In that case, said Dr. Tuzara, Israel might respond with a nuclear attack against Iran. It is no secret that the embattled regime of Dr. Bashar Assad in Syria has a vast arsenal of chemical weapons which he might yet use against his
own people who are struggling to remove him—and his fellow Alawites—from power. He could also use them himself as a doomsday weapon against Israel or pass them on to his Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Mr. Netanyahu have stressed that Israel would attack Syria before allowing the transfer of chemical weapons to Hezbollah. French President Francois Hollande, whose country is providing direct financial and other support to the rebel-held cities in Syria, has warned that any use of chemical weapons by Dr. Assad would be sufficient reason for Western countries to intervene in the civil war. Mr. Hollande said that France was working with several other countries to create a protective zone around Syria to be in position to move in if necessary. A similar warning was issued by Mr. Obama. “We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” he told reporters. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime— but also to other players on the ground—that a red line for us is if we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus; that would change my equation,” he said. American Leadership Dr. Tuzara maintained that, despite Mr. Obama’s public disdain for Israel in general and Mr. Netanyahu in particular, a large majority of Israelis and Americans believe that Israel would be better off if the US agreed to lead the attack on Iran. “The US has much greater military capabilities than Israel. That’s why Israel wants the US to do it. I believe the US should
do it because we’ll get blamed anyway. Therefore, we might as well make sure it gets done right,” said Mr. Bolton. Nevertheless, he said he did not believe Mr. Obama will order an attack on Iran now or in the future, and he urged Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear program on its own. Because the Israeli leadership seems to agree with Mr. Bolton, Dr. Tuzara said Israel seems to be focused on using EMP without informing the US first. Afterwards, he said, the US would have no choice but to support the Jewish state, but the “trust deficit and loss of US credibility compels Israel not to depend on others to protect the Jewish people.” No US Support The US military’s top officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has made it clear that Israel could not count on that support before or after an attack. He told reporters that an attack by Israel on Iran “would clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program.” “I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it,” he said. Most observers said Mr. Dempsey must be assuming Israel would engage in an attack using conventional weapons rather than employing EMP. Helpless Giant Mr. Langfan made clear that if Israel delays taking action, it could leave the US helpless in the wake of an Iranian EMP attack. Satellite imagery has shown that Iran already has mega-fortification of its underground nuclear facilities, making it impervious to US super-bunker-buster bombs. According to Mr. Langfan, the US troops taken captive by Iran after an EMP attack on
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Saudi Arabia would checkmate America’s ability to launch an unconventional counterattack. There would be too great a possibility that its mass offensive war concentrations could be attacked by another EMP nuclear weapon. Even if Iran did not harm the American-soldier hostages, the Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia would send oil prices soaring to, perhaps, $700 a barrel, effectively bringing Europe to its knees. If Iran were to agree to release the captured American POWs, it is not hard to imagine the concessions the Islamic Republic might demand from Washington, including which
alliances it would have to relinquish in the Middle East. Israel’s reliance on the US for protection would be a bad joke. Reading Between the Lines Mr. Langfan said that despite some stern language to Iran from the Obama administration, remarks made in other contexts reveal the government’s true intentions. He took as an example Mr. Biden’s angry accusation that GOP candidate Mitt Romney was “ready to go to war in Syria and Iran.” “Biden’s verbal salvo doesn’t mean that Romney wants to go to war, but it does prove that Obama is not ‘ready to go to war with Iran’ and will do nothing to stop s"xc
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Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” said Mr. Langfan. “The Obama campaign assault proves that when Obama says ‘all options are on the table,’ he means ‘especially the appeasement, Iran-getsthe nuke option.’” Mr. Langfan said Mr. Obama’s nuclear “red line” message is actually “circular logic specifically designed to enable Iran’s acquisition of a full nuclear arsenal.” According to Mr. Langfan, Mr. Obama’s “Red Line” devolves into a tautology: Let’s wait to attack Iran until Iran actually builds a nuclear bomb, and then we can’t attack Iran because Iran has the nuclear bomb. According to an unclassified annual report given by the CIA to the US Congress, when Mr. Obama took office in early 2009, Iran had almost no enriched uranium. The country now has enough enriched uranium so that it is nearly sufficient to make four nuclear bombs. No “Grave Sin” Mr. Langfan said he formulated his scenario in which Iran attacked US interests in Saudi Arabia in response to American policymakers who seemed to grant “grave gravitas and optimistic meaning” to Ayatollah Kahemenei’s informal “grave sin” comment, which some officials translated as an assurance regarding Iran’s disinterest in a nuclear weapon. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for example, told reporters that the Obama administration went into the latest round of negotiations with Tehran, expecting to be “meeting with the Iranians to discuss how to translate what is stated belief into a plan of action.” Mr. Langfan said it was almost as if she had not heard numerous other Islamist clerics, including some who are very close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have sanctioned Tehran’s quest for nuclear weapons. No Deterrence Especially frustrating for the Israelis and their supporters are those who suggest that assurances of swift retaliation should act as a deterrence on Iranian nuclear ambitions. Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Iran’s leaders are guided by “unbelievable fanaticism” rather than rational strategies. “I think Iran is very different,” Mr. Netanyahu told reporters who asked if
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Romney or Obama? treated the same way we treated South Africa during apartheid,” he said. The recognition that there should be a penalty for calling for the annihilation of the State of Israel while rushing to build a nuclear weapon presumably to carry it out was not lost on those participating on the call, which had been arranged by Jewish Americans for Romney, an official arm of the Romney campaign. Not a Fan The call for an indictment is a step even supporters of Mr. Romney’s Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, would have trouble seeing the current administration taking. While Mr. Obama’s press secretary and campaign surrogates try to convey the message that the President is as proIsrael as Mr. Romney, there is simply no shaking the sense Mr. Obama simply is not a friend of the Jewish state.
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Iran could be contained just as the Soviet Union was during the Cold War. The US and Russia maintained “mutual assured destruction,” which meant a massive attack from one side would result in a similar attack from the other. Mr. Netanyahu said the Iranians’ Islamist religious ideology would render MAD useless. “The Iranians put their zealotry over their survival. They have suicide bombers all over the place. I wouldn’t rely on their rationality,” said Mr. Netanyahu. He said critics who argue that taking action against Iran’s nuclear program would be “a lot worse” that living with a nuclear-armed Tehran or who suggest that Iran with nuclear weapons might stabilize the Middle East “have set a new standard for human stupidity.” Mr. Langfan agreed. “In 2012, the ayatollah’s statement that ‘Nuclear weapons are a grave sin’ sounds almost as good to many pundits as ‘peace in our time’ sounded to the useless idiot pundits in 1938. Just like with Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, ultimately, America will pay 1,000 times more in lives and treasure fighting a nuclear Iran in the future than it would if it effectively stopped Iran before it acquires a nuclear bomb,” said Mr. Langfan. S.L.R.
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continued from page 1 Some analysts say he may be actively trying to separate Israel from the US, especially in light of the Iranian push for nuclear weapons. Blaming Bush In fact, some of Mr. Obama’s critics now say many items on his pro-Israel list are actually holdover commitments that had been made by his predecessor, President George W Bush. While Mr. Obama seems to be honoring these financial commitments, he disregarded Mr. Bush’s policy commitments, laid out in a letter in April 2004 to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he said, “In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome
of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.” When Israeli officials mentioned this letter to the Obama administration, which was demanding an Israeli freeze on all communities in Judea and Samaria, the administration at first denied its existence and then said it did not apply to them. “Pro-Israel” Record The individual most often tasked with repeating Mr. Obama’s “pro-Israel” record is White House spokesman Jay Carney. When Mr. Romney, at the Republican convention, accused the Obama administration of throwing allies such as Israel and Poland “under the bus,” Mr. Carney insisted that “under President Obama, co-
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Romney or Obama? operation with Israel between our military and intelligence communities has never been closer; assistance provided to Israel by the United States has never been greater than it has been under President Obama. We have an extremely close relationship with Israel, which is appropriate given our unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.” According to Wall Street Journal editor Bret Stephens, the security assistance that Messrs Obama and Carney advertise as proof of the administration’s “unprecedented” commitment to the Jewish state was, in fact, inherited from the Bush administration. For example, the increased financial support approved by Mr. Obama for US military assistance to Israel, including funds for the Iron Dome rocket defense system, had already been pledged to the Jewish State by former President George W. Bush. And while Mr. Obama did approve sanctions against Iran (which, thus far have had no effect on Tehran’s nuclear weapons program), he opposed the even stronger variety that were passed with overwhelming support by both houses of Congress. “He had to be forced, kicking and screaming, to sign those sanctions into law. And since he signed the sanctions law, he has used his Presidential power to water them down,” said Jerusalem Post columnist Carolyn Glick. No Stated “Red Lines” On the Jewish Americans for Romney phone call, Mr. Romney made it clear that even when his actions may be no different than those taken by the Obama administration, Israel’s supporters can expect a different tone, attitude, and rhetoric in a Romney White House than
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what they have received from its current occupant. For example, when asked by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, a former Teaneck resident and current spiritual leader of the Orthodox Boca Raton Synagogue, if he would draw a red line over which Iran would cross only at its peril, Mr. Romney said that, like Mr. Obama, he would not be inclined to tell the Iranians exactly what his red lines are. However, he said, to keep Iran from reaching that point, he would have implemented “crippling sanctions” long before Mr. Obama finally did. The tragedy, he said, is that the Obama administration took so long putting the sanctions in place “that Iran is racing forward with a nuclear plan, saying ‘hey, we can hold our breath for a year or two with a tough economy.’” Too Late According to Mr. Romney if the current sanctions had been in place five years ago, “Iran would have already been brought to its knees.” “Every American is less secure today because [Mr. Obama] has failed to slow Iran’s nuclear threat. Obama said years ago that America should talk to Iran. We’re still talking, and Iran’s centrifuges are still spinning,” he said. Another problem, he said, is that there has been little official support for the “voices of dissent and freedom and democracy inside Iran.” “When demonstrators take to the streets in places like Tehran, Americans should be with them,” he said. Loyalty The issue of standing by friends and making certain it is better to be considered a friend of the US than one of its enemies is a theme Mr. Romney has broached repeatedly
during this campaign. “Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty,” he said, making it clear that the ramifications of this general policy would be far-reaching. “In order to dissuade Iran from its course, they must understand that America is going to stand by its friends, that it is better to be a friend of America than a foe of America. That means our relationship with Israel is one the world sees as being extraordinarily close. The Iranians need to understand that America and Israel will not allow Iran to pursue its nuclear course,” he said. Meetings This, he said, would mean that, as opposed to Mr. Obama, he would meet with the Prime Minister of Israel whenever the request was made. Mr. Obama’s decision not to meet with Mr. Netanyahu at the UN last month was, according to Mr. Romney “a mistake that sent a message
throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends and I think the exact opposite approach is what’s necessary.” Mr. Obama then compounded the problem by terming Israel only “one of our closest allies in the region,” implying that the US has other allies in the region with whom it is equally close. A spokesman for Mr. Romney’s campaign, Andrea Saul, said the terminology was “unacceptable.” “This is just the latest evidence of Obama’s chronic disregard for the security of our closest ally in the Middle East,” she said. “Romney strongly believes that Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East and, as President, Governor Romney will restore and protect the close alliance between our nation and the state of Israel.” Private Disagreements On the phone call, Mr. Rom-
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Romney or Obama? ney did not deny that there would probably be times when, as President, he and Israel would not see eye to eye, but, he promised, those disagreements would be kept “private as opposed to airing them out in public in a way that communicates to those who don’t understand us terribly well that it means we don’t have a common vision and purpose.” Although he did not mention Mr. Obama or list the many instances in which the President has paraded his disputes with Mr. Netanyahu, it was clear that Mr. Romney meant his administration would adopt a different style. Those varying styles were apparent at the parties’ respective conventions, especially on the issue of Jerusalem. No Capital In July, just before the convention, Mr. Carney was either unable or unwilling to answer a question from the press regarding which city—Jerusalem or Tel Aviv—the Obama administration considers to be the capital of Israel. The journalist who asked the question persisted for several minutes before giving up. All Mr. Carney would say was that “I have not had that question in a while. Our position hasn’t changed.” He refused to say what that position was. Reporters had the same experience
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continued from page 17 several months earlier when US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also refused to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. She called it “a permanent-status issue” that must “be resolved through negotiations between the parties.” Handwriting on the Wall This was a far cry from the early period of Mr. Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, when he spoke reassuringly about Jerusalem. “Let me be clear,” he told AIPAC at the time. “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper. But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” Almost immediately, he retracted his remarks, saying that the word “undivided” was “poorly chosen.” He said he meant only that there should not “barbed wire” running down the middle. Firestorm At the 2012 Democratic Party convention, a firestorm erupted when it was revealed that the party’s platform had no reference to Jerusalem or G-d. According to the narrative put out by the party, Mr. Obama did not know that Jerusalem had been omitted but that once he became aware, he personally had it reinserted. Against the backdrop of his administration’s refusal even to name Israel’s capital, to say nothing of the uproar in Washington when Israel dared to build in its capital, many observers remained convinced that the President had been aware all along about the absence of Jerusalem in the platform. They believe he put it back in only to quell outraged public opinion. Mr. Romney told the Wall Street Journal it was “unfortunate that the entire Democratic Party has embraced President Obama’s shameful refusal to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.” “Four years of President Obama’s repeated attempts to create distance between the US and our cherished ally have led the Democratic Party to remove
from their platform an unequivocal acknowledgement of a simple reality. As President, I will restore our relationship with Israel and stand shoulder to shoulder with our close ally,” he said. The Republican Party’s 2012 platform supports “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, defensible borders.” It envisions “two democratic states—Israel with Jerusalem as its capital, and Palestine—living in peace and security.” Good in Theory While the GOP platform supports the two-state solution, at least in theory, Mr. Romney told supporters at a private fundraiser that he has doubts about the viability of a Palestinian state right next to Israel. A video of the event shows the Republican candidate musing out loud about the dangers such a state would entail for Israel. His understanding of the parameters of the problem, including geography, and socio-political issues, impressed even some experts. Mr. Romney began by discussing what the borders of such a state would be and the fact that it is only “seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank.” “The other side of the West Bank, the other side of what would be this new Palestinian state, would either be Syria or Jordan,” he said. Keeping Iran Out He understood that the Iranians would view this new state as a fresh opportunity for terror, prompting them to do “exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza…bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel,” he said. Israel’s response he said, would have to be “This can’t happen. We’ve got to keep the Iranians from bringing weaponry into the West Bank.” Mr. Romney said that would necessitate patrols, but the problem, he said, is who would do it. “The Israelis are going to patrol the border between Jordan, Syria, and this new Palestinian nation?” he said. “Well, the Palestinians would say: ‘Uh, uh, no way. We’re an independent country. You can’t, you know, guard our borders with other Arab nations.’”
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Romney or Obama? Airport A further problem, he said, would be the airport. “How about flying into this Palestinian nation?” he said. “Are we going to allow military aircraft and weaponry to come in? And if not, who’s going to keep it from coming in? The Israelis? Well, the Palestinians are going to say: ‘We’re not an independent nation if Israel is able to come in and tell us what can land in our airport.’” On top of these “very hard to solve” problems, he said, is the even more difficult dilemma of deciding whether the Palestinians really want peace. “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say: ‘There’s just no way,’” he said. The best Israel and her supporters can hope for, he
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said, is to “move things along the best you can.” “You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We can live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don’t go to war to try and resolve it immediately,” he said. His words infuriated PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, who said Mr. Romney’s determination that the PA does not want peace was “absolutely unacceptable.” Although he argued that “no one has an interest in peace more than the Palestinians,” he indicated there could be no peace unless Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria were evicted from their homes. Despite the fact that Mr. Erekat seemed to prove Mr.
Romney’s point, the White House criticized the Republican candidate’s remarks. “It’s simply the wrong approach to say, we can’t do anything about it, so we’ll just kick it down the road,” said Mr. Carney. “That’s not leadership. That’s the opposite of leadership.” Not 2008 Mr. Romney’s grasp of the difficult issues made the newly reconstructed Democratic Party platform seem somewhat silly. While the platform now recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it says the city’s final status will have to be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. “No wonder the administration doesn’t know how to answer about Jerusalem,” said an observer. In 2008, the Democrats’ platform recognized that “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel.” The document said the city would remain
undivided and accessible to people of all faiths. There were other differences as well between the 2012 Democratic platform and those from years past. This year’s document does not refer to Israel as America’s “strongest ally” in the region. It does not call for Hamas’s continued status as a terrorist organization and pariah. And it does not mention US opposition to the Palestinian demand for the “right of return,” which the Palestinians see as the right of all those who fled from Israel in 1948—and their millions of descendants— to flood back into Israel proper, changing the demographics and eliminating the entire concept of the Jewish state. The noisy majority of naysayers at the convention who actually voted down reinsertion of both Jerusalem and G-d into the platform but were overruled by convention chairman,
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In London, Another Asifa on the Internet Brings Out Thousands, but No Attendance Can Match the Siyyum HaShas
WWOR’s Noah Gurock of Passaic called the Siyyum HaShas “a scene to tell my children and grandchildren about. And to inspire.”
The Asifa that took place
last month in London attempted to recreate the one held in May 2012, in New York. The New York Asifa, organized by hareidi leaders to discuss the dangers of the Internet and what to do about them, attracted more than 40,000 ultra-Orthodox men to Citi Field in Flushing Meadows Queens. An additional 20,000 men attended at nearby Arthur Ashe Stadium. In addition, thousands of other Orthodox men and women clustered in separate-sex viewing parties so that they, too, could hear the discussion on the potential problems that can stem from unfettered access to pornography and other explicit, uncensored content on the Internet. According to some estimates, there may have been as many as 70,000 people participating in the New York event, albeit in different venues. Using the Internet At the program in London, almost 5,000 hareidi men showed up at Leyton Orient’s football stadium on Brisbane Road. Ironically for a program
called to discuss the dangers of the Internet, a live Internet video system was available so that women and children could watch the meeting from a separate venue. The discussion focused on Internet addiction, the damage improper Internet use can inflict on marriages, and Internet use among children and teenagers. Although in New York, some had hoped the discussion would veer towards how to protect against the potential harm the Internet can do while still recognizing its beneficial and useful qualities, but, for the most part, those seeking safeguards were told only to shut down the machine. In London, representatives from a hareidi company proposed various methods of protecting children from inappropriate material, including keeping computers under lock and key, and finding ways to lock computers against unauthorized use. Earlier in the week, 2,500 hareidi men had met in Manchester, two hundred miles away from London, where rabbis at
the conference called for a widespread ban on “entertainment, social, or similar non-business use” of the Internet. Ingenious System But while the number of people attending the Asifas rivaled attendance at major stadium events, and certainly represented greater interest in any other event the Modern Orthodox could put together (to say nothing of the Conservative or Reform denominations), they all paled beside the number of those assembled for the Daf Yomi Celebration, the Siyyum Hashas, held in May at the Metlife Stadium in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford. Daf Yomi, which literally means “a page (daf) a day (yomi),” refers to the system of Talmud study started on Rosh Hashana in 1923 by Rav Meir Shapiro on Pietrkov and Lublin. His goal was to unite Jews throughout the world by having them study the same page of Talmud the same day. The system enables the Jewish layman to complete the entire Talmud, 2,711 pages, in seven years. While some yeshiva and kollel students spend hours each day poring over their books, the Daf Yomi system is structured such that laymen
can spend an hour either attending or listening online to a class or, as so many do, learning the page with a study group. The “siyyum” or celebration marking completion is joyous, whether held in a small beis medrash or Metlife Stadium. Like a Simchat Beit HaShoeva Noah Gurock may be invited to a Simchat Beit HaShoeva this Sukkot season, but, for the Passaic resident who serves as senior news producer for WWOR-TV, the image of the Simchat Beit HaShoeva in Jerusalem, described in the first Mishnah from Masechet Sukkah, became real when he attended, as journalist and participant, the Siyyum HaShas. The Talmud says concerning the event in Jerusalem that “whoever did not see the Simchat Beit HaShoeva in Jerusalem, never saw unbridled joy in his life.” At the Siyyum HaShas, Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz, the emcee of the program, said, “Fortunate is the person who sees, who experiences, this great gathering. Try to visualize the singing and dancing that’s going on right now in shamayim [heaven] watching tens of thousands celebrating the masechtos [Talmudic
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Asifas and Siyyums tractates] they worked on so diligently.” Commitment Recognizing that this story was going to be far more than a report about a jammed stadium and massive traffic jams, Mr. Gurock thought he might be able to compare his feelings to those experienced by Catholics—83,000 strong—in the old Giants Stadium when the Pope celebrated mass there in 1995; or perhaps to the feelings of the 65,000 people in Central Park who heard the Dalai Lama speak there in 2003. But, for Mr. Gurock, the story was not about the numbers (estimates ranged from 90,000 to 100,000 in the stadium alone, with thousands more watching, again in separate viewings, throughout the tri-state area and around the world) or the fact that the weather, which was predicted to be stormy suddenly morphed into a cool, balmy night. Rather, he said, it was about commitment, “a story about the commitment of people who take time out every day—for seven-and-a-half years—to study the holy books.” Even his hard-nosed fellow newsmen “got into the feeling of the event,” he said. “There was a deep feeling of respect. Something that I rarely see when we talk about news stories that deal with re-
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
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ligion,” he said, adding that at the siyyum he watched with wonder at how impressed his Italian colleague and her Irish cameraman were with the people they met. Head Coverings Reflect Hashkafa Inside the stadium, from the vantage point of his seat in row 8 as a member of the television media, Mr. Gurock felt limited in describing the siyyum. So he walked around to savor the full flavor of the experience. “Up and down the aisles. Around the sides and the back, as people continued to stream into the stadium,” he said. He saw sitting with each other in the same rows, young boys with their fathers and grandfathers, black hats and suits, sweat shirts and baseball caps, crocheted kippahs, colored suede kippahs, and of course brims of hats folded in every way imaginable. In one section, he saw someone fluent in sign language signing the divrei Torah to a group of hearing-impaired men, “making them a true part of the siyyum,” said Mr. Gurock. Respect He was somewhat surprised there were no complaints when men and women had to line up in the rain in order to be checked by security. “One usher
told me he never dealt with a crowd so well-behaved. And this man had worked the stadium for years at all types of events,” said Mr. Gurock. That kind of respect seemed to spill over into the Press Lounge as well, where there were plenty of journalists and photographers, most of them not Jewish. Nevertheless, Mr. Gurock said, there was none of the pushing and shoving he was used to as “photographers jockey for the best angle.” “No yelling. No screaming. Polite requests for interviews. Respectful questions. It was like they were caught up in the feelings of the evening,” said Mr. Gurock. Dancing It all culminated, he said, in the dancing, which took place on the field or in the stands as people rocked back and forth. When the siyyum itself took place, “the entire stadium erupted into the largest simcha dance scene you can imagine. It was impossible not to get caught up in it,” he said He called it “a scene to tell my children and grandchildren about. And to inspire.” There was only one minyan for mincha, and the unity expressed seemed to take his breath away. Answering Questions The next day, Mr. Gurock said, he spent most of his time answering questions, especially why so many people gave up their time at work to participate in the siyyum. Others wanted to know how a stadium could double as a synagogue; why all the men were “chassidic,” and why there weren’t any women in the video. Mr. Gurock decided the real reason it was important to bring the Siyyum HaShas out of the yeshiva and into
the bright lights that lit up the night and the public spotlight was to “spread the concepts of Torah to the entire world.” “For all the events I’ve been privileged to attend as a journalist in my career, including Presidential inaugurations, conventions, Olympics, and many more, this is one I will never forget,” he said. Less Likely to Repeat The same did not seem to be true of the Asifas, whether in Queens or London. One participant at the London event was asked if he thought the ideas discussed at Leyton Orient’s stadium would be sufficiently inspiring to prompt another such evening. “Probably not,” he said. By contrast, since the Siyyum HaShas, new groups of Daf Yomi shiurim are forming and existing classes are growing. In fact, there are many Daf Yomi programs on the Internet itself. For example, Rabbi Dovid Grossman has started such a program on his website. Rabbi Grossman learned in the Beis Medrash program of the Yeshiva of Philadelphia and then went on to learn in the Lakewood Kollel. In 1975, after seven years, he became one of the founding members of the Lakewood Kollel of Los Angeles, helped start the Yeshiva Gedola of Los Angeles, and, in 2009, assumed the position of Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Hechaim, a post-high school beis medrash. Those who want to pursue his Daf Yomi classes, originally given from 1985 to 1992 for the Los Angeles community, can go to his website or call him at 323-422-2009. At Daf-Yomi.org, readers are told that by using the site, they can learn and review the Daily Daf Yomi “in under 20 minutes a day.” S.L.R.
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
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The Beth Aaron Boys Choir Is Looking for New Members: No Fees, Great Rewards The Beth Aaron Boys Choir,
which began a little over three years ago as a group which sang for the Teaneck shul’s annual dinners and Chanukah parties, and occasionally led the congregation in Adon Olam and An’im Zemirot on holidays, is now cutting its first CD. With that success, the choir is seeking to expand its membership. Boys in grades 1-7, not only from Teaneck, but also from Jewish communities in other towns as well, are welcome to join. Yehiel Levy, who conceived the idea of the local boys’ choir and has overseen its progress, said there is satisfaction in seeing his goals for the group realized. From the outset, the Teaneck resident’s plan was to create a vehicle for youngsters who enjoy group singing but who do not necessarily want to compete or perform in a highly charged atmosphere. Mr. Levy also wanted a means to help involve the boys in davening as well as community service. “Together, the boys are a great group. We do whatever we can to encourage their initiative and creativity. There is no doubt those who join the choir will have a great time and bring joy to all who hear them perform,” he said. Thriving The Beth Aaron Boys’ Choir is a group of very happy young-
sters who seem to be thriving in the warm, friendly, and thoroughly enjoyable atmosphere Mr. Levy has created. With the help of Dr. Benjy Rosenbluth, who serves as the choir’s musical director, and Congregation Beth Aaron’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, who gave the endeavor his blessings, the Beth Aaron Boys Choir is making a name for itself, performing in many local venues to the delight of its audiences and the youngsters themselves. “There are no fees and no auditions,” said Mr. Levy. “We require only that the boy be able to carry a tune, love to sing, is serious about what we are trying to do, and comes to practices and performances.” He hopes that with more members, the Boys Choir will be even more successful. The boys are currently working on the Beth Aaron Boys Choir’s first CD. Their first two songs, which have already been recorded, were composed by Dr. Rosenbluth, who in addition to serving as head of the Radiation Oncology Department at Holy Name Medical Center is also a composition graduate of the Juilliard School in Manhattan with many works to his credit. Standing Ovations The choir has already performed in CareOne and Sheli House in Teaneck, the Jewish
Home Assisted Living Facility in River Vale, the Jewish Home in Rockleigh, and Daughters of Miriam in Clifton. For Mr. Levy and Dr. Rosenbluth, there is gratification not only in watching the pleasure residents derive from the young performers, but also knowing that the boys are engaging in the mitzvah of bikur cholim. “When the boys sang at Daughters of Miriam, most of the patients in the audience were suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Singing for these patients was not easy for the boys, but they were rewarded by the glimpse of a smile they received from several patients,” said Mr. Levy. The choir, he said, is always warmly received by seniors who “are delighted to see them dressed in costumes and singing traditional and Chasidic songs, bringing back memories.” The boys are getting used
to receiving standing ovations and giving encores. After the performances, Mr. Levy and Dr. Rosenbluth make certain there is always time for the boys to mingle and visit with the residents. Overwhelming Response Whether on home turf at Beth Aaron or at any of their performances in the community, the response to the choir has been overwhelming. For more information on joining the Beth Aaron Boys Choir, contact Mr. Levy at 201357-5495 or email bethaaronboyschoir@gmail.com. “It is our intention and aspiration that, bi-siyata diShemaya and with the continuing support of our great kehilah kedosha, new members will continue to join the choir and we will continue to add simcha to the Beth Aaron family for many years to come,” said Mr. Levy. S.L.R.
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773 Do It Now
10 Jewish Teenagers Who Are Spearheading Volunteer Service Projects Will Win $36,000 Each from the Helen Diller Family Foundation Teen Tikkun Olam Awards. Must be 13-19 (at the time of nomination), who are not being compensated for their volunteer work on behalf of the Jewish or general community; can be nominated by teachers, community leaders, rabbis, and even themselves (but not by family members) by completing the online form at www.jewishfed.org/teenawards/ process. Call 415-512-6437 or dillerteenaward@sfjcf.org Make an Appointment with Ezrah’s Closet Shopping Coordinator Inbar Eshed, 201-5699047. Clothing lovingly donated to help women and children dress with style and dignity, includes designer and designer-inspired clothing, by appointment only, simcha gowns $50, suits $25, dresses $20, skirts $15, sweaters $10, shirts $5, all teens clothing $20 per ensemble, children’s clothing $15 per ensemble, less by calling Susan Alpert, 201-569-9047 The Suburban Torah Center in Livingston is selling reflective belts to make walking at night safer, $10 each or $36 for four. Call 973-534-2291 or 973994-2620 The Rockland and Bergen Adoptive Families Meet-Up is looking for members, http:// www.meetup.com/Rocklandand-Bergen-Adoptive-Families
Wed., Oct 3, Chol Hamoed
National Council of Young Israel-Spons Trip to Sukkos in Hershey Park, PA, for grades 5 and up, includes sukkah and kosher food; bus leaves Young Israel of Teaneck 7:15am, youthyiot@ gmail.com; leaves Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 7:30am, 732-672-5214; leaves the Young Israel of Monsey, 7:30am, 845-3628760; leaves JEC, Elizabeth, 7:45am, 917-583-5963; leaves Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8am, 551-486-7136; leaves Riverdale Jewish Center, 8:30am, 718-548-1850; for family trips on your own, 201-862-0250 Sukkot Carnival, to benefit
Magen David Adom, Shearit HaPlate of Bergen County, and the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, JCC, Tenafly, 11am-4pm, rain date is Thurs., Oct 4, 201-665-9085 Sukkah Party, for seniors, includes music by Laible Ben Moshe and Yoni Leiter, festive lunch, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-736-1407 ext 240 Art Exposition: “The Holocaust Suite and Dante’s Inferno,” by artist Jacob Landau, Kean University, Union, Mon, Tues, and Thurs, 12-7pm; Wed and Fri, 12-4pm, 908-737-0392, through Thurs., Dec 20 Tomchei Shabbos Packing, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 1pm, claben622@aol.com 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, 973-929-2926 “Workshop on How to Search the USC Shoah Foundation Video Collection of Holocaust Survivor and Eyewitness Testimonies: Learn to Be a Trained Facilitator,” for middle, high school, and college educators, Sherry Bard, Stockton College, Galloway, 4pm, 609-652-4699 Bounce for Courage Fundraiser, for sick children and young adults, Basketball, for high school boys, to benefit Kids of Courage for sick children and young adults, at Torah Academy of Bergen County, Teaneck, 5:30pm; Simcha Dancing, for girls in grades 4-7, and Gaga Ball, for boys in grades 4-6, 6pm; Zumba Dancing, for girls in grades 8-12 and Mini-Hockey, for boys in grades 7-8, 8pm, at Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, kocatrinat@ gmail.com Euro-Café, for Holocaust survivors to share stories with local teens, includes dinner, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 6pm, 845362-4400 Sukkah Hop Dinner, for grades 7-8, various homes in West Orange, 6pm, 973-736-1407 Simchat Beit HaShoeva Sukkot Party, for all ages, spons by Mekor Chaim/Steinsaltz Ambas-
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion” sadors Program, at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva, Edison, 6pm, rabbishmulie@steinsaltz.org Teaneck Simchat Beit HaShoeva, for the family, spons by Congs Arzei Darom, Beth Aaron, Beth Abraham, Bnai Yeshurun, Etz Chaim, Friends of Lubavitch, Netivot Shalom, Rinat Yisrael, Shaare Tefillah, Young Israel of Teaneck, and Zichron Mordechai, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 6:30pm, 201-907-0180 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, 201-569-7900 Simchas Bais HaShoeva, Rabbi Avrohom Stone, private home in West Orange, 7pm, 973-243-0468 “Continuing the Conversation: Accessing Testimonies of Holocaust Survivors and Witnesses,” for second, third, and fourth generations after the Shoah, Sherry Bard, Jewish Family Service, Margate, 7pm, 609-652-4699 Jewish Federation of Greater Middlsex County Meeting on Creating a Religious School Program for Children with Special Needs, for parents whose specialneeds children may currently be attending public school, private home in Highland Park, 7pm, 908420-8227 or pgold@goldwasserfamily.org Simchas Bais HaShoeva, Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen, Passaic Torah Institute, 7:30pm, 973-5944747 or 845-570-1502 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, 732545-2407 Euro Café, for survivors of the Holocaust and teens in grades
The Log:
7-12, JCC, Rockland, West Nyack, 6pm, 845-362-4400 ext 103 Sushi in the Sukkah: “Expiration of the Tal Law in Israel and the Potential Impact of Conscripting Hareidi Jews into the IDF,” Rotem Nahum, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 8pm, 845-362-4400
Thurs., Oct 4, Chol Hamoed
Sukkos Party, for seniors, Jewish Educational Center, Elizabeth, 10:30am, 908-527-9815 Sukkoth at Six Flags Great Adventure, spons by NCSY, includes rides, kosher food, and a sukkah, Jackson, NJ, 1-8pm, 201-862-0250 Bikur Cholim in the Sukkah, for children, includes music, craft contests, face painting, stories, and food, CareOne, Teaneck, 2:30pm, shaleimusic@yahoo.com Family Sukkot Dinner, JCC, West Orange, 5:30pm, 973-530-3400 Jewish Music Festival and Dinner in the Sukkah, for families, featuring Gershon Veroba, Chabad Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway Twnshp, 6pm, 973-6251525 ext 202 Simchat Beit HaShoeva, includes dancing, dinner, and dedication of the Youth Mural by Shira Rodriguez, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 6:30pm, 718-796-4730
Fri., Oct 5, Chol Hamoed
NJ Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism, spons by the Volunteer Center of Bergen County’s Northern NJ Business Volunteer Council, kosher food available, at the Hyatt Regency, New Brunswick, 7:30am, 609-633-9627 or 201-489-9454 ext 114 New Jersey Jewish Film Festival Reel Film Series: “Cross Fire,” with Prof Gabrielle Miller, JCC, West Orange, 10am, 973530-3417 Tot and Infant Shabbat, with Greg Shafritz, YMHA, Riverdale, 10:30am, 718-548-8200 Lunch & Learn: “The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti and Beyond,” Ben G. Frank, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 12:30pm, 845-362-4400 Shabbat Sukkot Davenand-Dine, Rabbi Shlomo Marks, services at Cong Mount Sinai, Jersey City, 6:30pm; dinner at a pri-
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
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“Separate Yourself Not from the Community” vate home in Jersey City, 7:15pm, RavShlomo.MtSinai@gmail.com Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot Tish, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-6210 Sukkot Tisch, with Rabbis Yosef Adler and Beni Krohn, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:45pm, 201-837-2795 Sukkah Oneg, for grades 7 and 8, private home in West Orange, 8:45pm, 973-324-0914
Simchat Torah, for grades 7-12, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8:15pm, rjcyouthdirectors@gmail.com Simchas Bais HaShoeva Trip to Crown Heights, includes dancing in the streets, bus leaves Lubavitch Center, West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-486-2362 Sukkah Event: Wine under the Stars, for those 20-40, Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 9pm, 609-822-8500
Bnai Akiva Chadash Sukkah Hop, for grades 1-6 who live South of Route 4 in Teaneck, meet at private homes in Teaneck, 4pm, grades 1-2, 201-836-2126 or 201801-0680; grades 3-4, 201-8360390; grades 5-6, 201-836-3534; at Cong Netivot Shalom with Rany Zeman and Chen Yechye, 6:15pm, pscheininger@hotmail.com Riverdale Jewish Center Sukkah Hop, for grades 4-7, leaves shul at 4:15pm, rjcyouthdirectors@gmail.com
Visiting Residents of Daughters of Miriam in Clifton, pick up at Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15am, davening, followed by breakfast and bikur cholim, 8:45am, samapprais@aim.com 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 Debate between Candidates Running for Congress from NJ’s 5th District: Incumbent Scott Garrett (R-NJ) vs
Shabbat, Oct 6, Chol Hamoed
Sun., Oct 7 Hoshanah Rabbah
Motzei Shabbat, Oct 6
Teen Candy Bag Packing for
Avoid the
Democrat challenger Adam Gussen, Temple Beth Haverim Shir Shalom, Mahwah, 9:30am, 201-820-3946 Breakfast in the Sukkah, includes rolling video truck, petting zoo, and arts and crafts, Chabad Center, Wayne, 10am, 973-694-6274 Friendship Circle Sukkot Party, for special-needs children, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 10am, bethvictor@optonline.net or 201262-7172 Sukkah in the Hay, for children, includes hayrides, corn maze, games, and kosher lunch, spons by Chabad at the Shore, at Butterhof of Shady Brook Farm, Egg Harbor Twnshp, 11:30am, 609822-8500 Can You Dance like a Rabbi? Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, services, dancing, and refreshments, Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 6:30pm, 609-822-8500 Hosting Yachad SpecialNeeds Young Adults, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, through Simchat Torah, Oct 9, brieder@chestnutholding.com
iv s u l c x E r u Lines at o
eC
Mon., Oct 8 Shemini Atzeret
Lunch with the Rabbi and Mrs. Akiva Weiss, private home in New Brunswick, 1pm, nataly@ rutgershillel.org Edible Sukkah-Making, Story Telling, Mini-Hakafot, and Dinner, for children, Riverdale Jewish Center, 4:45pm, 718-548-1850 “Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow: Weaving the High Holidays into our Daily Religious Experience,” Rabbi David Goldfischer, private home in Teaneck, 5pm, 201-287-0778 Youth Hakafot, for children, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-837-2795 Can You Dance like a Rabbi?, Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, services, dancing, hakofot, and refreshments, Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 6:30pm, 609-822-8500
Tues., Oct 9 Simchat Torah
Women’s Hakkafot Celebration, private home in West Orange, 9am, goodman.marina@ gmail.com
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o t n e v E d e hol Hamo
n
h t 4 r e b o t c O , y a nture rsd
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The Log
October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 25
“Set Forever among Choices and Opposites: Multiple Perspectives on the Creation Stories of Parsha Bereishit,” for women, Pearl Mattenson, spons by AMIT, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 10:45am, 973-736-1407 Kol Ha’Nearim Tisch, for children, with Rabbis Yossi Adler and Beni Krohn, shirah and divrei Torah, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, noon, 201-837-2795 Simchat Torah Sit-Down Kiddush, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 1pm, 732-247-3038
Wed., Oct 10
Tomchei Shabbos Packing, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 1pm, claben622@aol.com Art Lecture: “The Golden Girl: Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” Prof Barbara Tomlinson, JCC, West Orange, 1:30pm, 973-530-3400 Bergen County Republican Women’s Organization Candidates Showcase, featuring among others, Rep Scott Garrett (R-NJ) and Republican Congressional candidate for the 9th District Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Bergen County Republican Organization Headquarters, Hackensack, 6pm, rosina0925@yahoo.com Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 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 “Chicks with Sticks Knitting Circle,” hats for preemies, children with cancer, and IDF sol-
diers in Israel, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-339-8492 “Surfing through Shas: ECommerce on Shabbos: May I keep My Website Open on Shabbos?” Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 Hookah in the Hut, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 9:30pm, 732-545-2407
Thurs., Oct 11
Yiddish Vinkle, YMHA, Wayne, 1pm, 973-595-0100 Film: “Portrait of Wally,” retrieving Egon Schiele’s portrait of Walburga Neuzil from Austria, with Sharon Cohen Levin, Esq, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400
Fri., Oct 12
New Jersey Jewish Film Festival Reel Film Series: “The Kibbutz Experiment,” communal living and capitalist reality, with director Toby Perl, JCC, West Orange, 10am, 973-530-3417
Shabbat, Oct 13
Carlebach Minyan, Cong Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn, 8:45am Tefilat Shlomo: The Carlebach Tefila of Riverdale, includes light and healthy Kiddush, at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 9am Help Prepare Kiddush, for girls 7-11, work with Sisterhood to prepare Kiddush, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 10am, 732-247-3038 Kiddush in honor of Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva Students and Alumni, private home in Edison, noon, 732-572-5052
Motzei Shabbat, Oct 13
“In Between,” Ibrahim Miari, son of a Palestinian-Muslim father and Jewish-Israeli mother, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400
The Log is a free service provided to the Jewish community in northern and central New Jersey, Rockland County and Riverdale. Events that we list include special and guest lectures, concerts, boutiques, dinners, open houses, club meetings, and new classes. Announcements are requested by the 25th of the month prior to the month of the event. Due to space and editorial constraints, we cannot guarantee publication of any announcement. Please email them to : susan@jewishvoiceandopinion.com
Theater: “Beau Jest,” a single woman hires an actor to be her Jewish boyfriend, YMHA, Wayne, 8pm, 973-595-0100, also Sun., Oct 14, 1pm; Sat., Oct 20, 8pm; and Sun., Oct 21, 1pm “The Current Situation in Israel from a Torah and Historical Perspective,” Israeli journalist Sha’i Ben-Tekoa, Cong Tifereth Israel, Passaic, 8:30pm, russel@ gmail.com
Sun., Oct 14
Opening of Exhibit: “Memoria: Assisi and the Jews, 10431944: The Heroic Rescue of Several Hundred Italian Jews in Assisi by Catholic Clergy, Private Citizens, and Even a German Officer,” Jewish Museum of NJ, housed at Cong Ahavas Shalom, Newark, by appointment, info@JewishMuseumNJ.org or 973-485-2609 “Issues in Contemporary Beth Din Practice,” spons by the Beth Din of America and the Orthodox Union, at Beis Medrash of Bergenfield, “The Din Process,” Rabbi Shlomo Weissman, 9:15am; “The Prohibition of Litigating in Secular Court,” Rabbi Dani Rapp, 9:35am; “The Role of Secular Law in the Din Torah Process,” Rabbi Yona Reiss, 10:10am; “Q & A: Practical Issues in Beth Din Litigation,” Rabbi Shlomo Weissman and Ilana Blass, Esq; 201-637-7470 or ryan@ bmob.org Ninth District Congressional Candidates’ Debate: Rep Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (R), Temple Sinai, Tenafly, 9:30am, 201-820-3946 Noach’s Petting Zoo, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 10am, 201837-2795 Skype Information Call to Bar-Ilan University Post-Baccalaureate Premed Program, to prepare for American Medical School in one academic year, 11am, http://www.barilanpremed. com/contact_us.htm L’Dor V’Dor Apple Picking, for families, spons by Hadassah, picnic lunch at Federal City Road in Hopewell, Rosedale Park; then afternoon apple and pumpkin picking, wagon rides, corn maze, animal barnyard, pony rides, music, at Terhune Orchards, Princeton,
noon, 609-924-2310 or mollysil@ gmail.com Parent-and-Child Orientation for Food Preparation and Baking Class, for girls 7-11, to learn the art of entertaining by baking and preparing foods for the coming week’s Kiddush, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 1pm, 732-247-3038 “Get Cooking: A Jewish American Family Cookbook Celebration,” with Mama Doni (Zasloff Thomas), the Mama Doni Band, and Rachel Harkham, JCC, West Orange, 1pm, 973-530-3400 eNgageNJ: Volunteer with Friendship Circle for SpecialNeeds Children and Teens, ages 22-30, Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, River Edge, 2pm, 201-820-3936 Bergen County Mitzvah Clown Program, with the Friendship Circle for special-needs children, Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, River Edge, 3pm, 201-244-6702 Hang Out and Learn to Make Sushi, for high school girls, Naomi Nachman, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 5:30pm, 201-384-0434 Jewish Home at Rockleigh Family Gala, at the Rockleigh Country Club, 5:30pm, 201-750-4231 Comedienne Marion Grodin, Teaneck General Store, 7pm, 201-530-5046 Hadassah Book Group: “The Prime Ministers” by Yehuda Avner, private home in Highland Park, 7:30pm, 732-545-3147 “Mitzvot Bein Adam le Chaverio: The Challenges of Being Sensitive in a Confrontational World,” Rabbi Dr. Jacob J Schachter, in memory of Esther Semmelman, z”l, at Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-837-2795 Cecile Salwen Feder Memorial Lecture: “The Ten Commandments: Why These Ten?” Elana Stein Hain, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8pm, 973-736-1407
Mon., Oct 15
“Shooting Under Fire,” photojournalist Gil Cohen-Magen, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Confidential Support Group
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com for Single Women Involved in the Process of Egg Freezing, Izetta Siegal Stern, LCSW, private location in Manhattan, 8pm, 212691-1266 “Why This Rabbi Is a Political Conservative—It’s Biblical,” Rabbi Aryeh Spero, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 8pm, 201-833-0515 Friendship Circle Volunteer Orientation, for those who want to volunteer to work with special-needs children and teens, Cong Beth Tefillah, Paramus, 8pm, 201-262-7172 Parenting Lectures and Workshop: Raising Children Away from Home, in Hebrew for Israeli parents, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1448
Tues., Oct 16
Women’s Club for Widows, Jewish Federation and Vocational Services, Concordia Shopping Center, Monroe, 10:30am, 732-7771940 or 609-395-7979 “A Forecast for the Election: What Polls Tell Us about the Election and How Important Will Be the Votes of Jews,” for seniors, Dr. Ed Shapiro, includes lunch, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange,
October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
11:30am, 973-736-1407 ext 240 Tomchei Shabbos Packing, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 1pm, claben622@aol.com “Arthur Miller through a Jewish Lens,” Prof Benjamin Nelson, JCC, West Orange, 1:30pm, 973-530-3400 “The Music Libel against the Jews,” Ruth HaCohen, Trayes Hall, Douglass Campus Center, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732932-2033 “Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life,” Alicia Oltuski, and “My Charmed Life: Rocky Romances, Precious Family Connections, and Searching for a Band of Gold,” Beth Bernstein, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400
Wed., Oct 17
“Contemporary Jewish Art: Isaac Bashevis Singer and His Artists and Provocative Textiles,” Laura Kruger, JCC, Rockland, West Nyack, 2pm, 845-362-4400 “BESA: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II,” photographer Norman Gershman, Mercer County College Library, West Windsor, 4:30pm, mcholgen@ gmail.com
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
Help-with-Homework, provided by Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls for children in grades 1-5 who need help, at Ma’ayanot, Teaneck, 4:40pm, weineri@maayanot.org Friendship Circle Teen Scene, for special-needs teens 13-21 and high school volunteers, The Frisch School, Paramus, 6pm, 201-262-7172 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 Sisterhood New Members Tea, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 7pm, 973-736-1407 “The Bible in the Ancient Near East: Genesis: The Meaning of Creation in Israelite Thought,” Yoni Brukirer, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1429 “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; those unable to attend but who want
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to knit at home can call 732-5720753 for yarn and instructions Israel Trivia Night, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732545-2407 Bar-Bat Mitzvah for Adults: “Mourning Practices in Jewish Law,” Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-966-4498 “Surfing through Shas: ECommerce on Shabbos: May I keep My Website Open on Shabbos?” Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 Tehillim Group, Cong Shaare Tefillah, Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-2895474 or 917-902-9303
Thurs., Oct 18
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 “Jewish Views on Issues Facing Seniors,” Rabbi Gary Katz, JCC, Tenafly, 11:15am, 201408-1448 “Through the Eyes of a Friend: The Holocaust and Anne
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The Log
October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
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Frank,” for 5th grade through adults, Churchill Junior High School, East Brunswick, 4:30pm, 800-331-5716 “Everything You Wanted to Know about Your Family but Were Afraid to Ask,” Libby Klein, LCSW, Teaneck General Store, 7:30pm, 201-530-5046 Chulent-Making for Chulent Cookoff Competition, Dessert Baking, and Basketball, for teens, Riverdale Jewish Center, 7:30pm, rjcyouthdirectors@gmail.com Film: “Jascha Heifetz, Gd’s Fiddler,” with director Peter Rosen, Lafayette Theater, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400
Fri., Oct 19
NJ Jewish Film Festival Reel Film Series: “Yossi & Jagger,” with Israeli journalist Yoav Sivan, JCC, West Orange, 10am, 973-530-3417 Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Allen Schwartz, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, through Shabbat, Oct 20, 201-907-0180 Teen Minyan and Dinner, includes chulent cookoff tasting, Riverdale Jewish Center, 5:45pm, rjcyouthdirectors@gmail.com
Shabbat, Oct 20
The Three C’s: Cholent, Cugel, and Conversation: “Whatever Became of Election Financial Reform?” Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, Jewish Center of Teaneck, noon, 201-833-0515
Sun., Oct 21
Visiting Residents of Daughters of Miriam in Clifton, pick up at Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15am, davening, followed by breakfast and bikur cholim, 8:45am, samapprais@aim.com
Early Chanukah Book Fair, JCC, Tenafly, 9am-4pm, also Mon., Oct 22, 9am-4pm; Tues., Oct 23, 9am-1pm, 201-408-1438 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 Holocaust Museum Annual Benefit Brunch, at the Holocaust Museum and Study Center, Spring Valley, 10am, 845-356-2700 Children’s Book Reading: “Once Upon a Vegetable,” P’nina Seplowitz, Teaneck General Store, 10:30am, 201-530-5046 Bnai Akiva Chadash, for grades K-6, Cong Ohr Saadya, Teaneck, 10:30am, val@mileslevin.com Raritan Valley Hadassah Year of the Woman Mitzvah of Love Luncheon, featuring Barbara Littman and Sarri Singer, and honoring Shirley Greene, Sarah Grow, Sylvia Kirshner, and Tillie Pass, Cong Ohr Torah, Edison, 11am, 732-339-8492 or 732-257-1525 Parshat Noach Exotic Pet Show, for ages 2-11, with parent, Riverdale Jewish Center, 11am, 718-548-1850 Ben Porat Yosef Carnival, includes games, arts and crafts, rides, a show, and petting zoo, Paramus, 11am-2pm, 201-845-5007 Training Session for a Paid Position with Areyvut’s Mitzvah Clowning Program, travel will be required, private home in Bergenfield, 1pm, 201-244-6702 Friendship Circle Children’s/ Teen’s Circle, for special-needs children and teens, includes music, art, baking, science, sports, and
entertainment, Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, River Edge, 2pm, 201-262-7172 Sisterhood Event: Glassworks, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-836-6210
Mon., Oct 22
Friendship Circle Mom’s Lunch Break, for mothers of special-needs children and teens, Friendship Circle, Paramus, noon, 201-262-7172 Ninth District Congressional Candidates’ Debate: Rep Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (R), at the Daniel F Ryan School, Passaic, 7pm, 973-779-4019 or 973-249-1019 Jewish Women’s Circle: “Recipes Remembered: A Celebration of Survival,” June Hersh, spons by the Chabad Jewish Center of Upper Passaic County, Haskell Towne Centre, Haskell, 7pm, 201-696-7609 “Red States, Blue States, and the Jewish State,” Gil Hoffman of the Jerusalem Post, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1429
Tues., Oct 23
Jewish Business Network Breakfast, Whole Food Market in Bergen Town Center, Paramus, 8:15am, 201-966-0800 or 646-233-2031 “Arthur Miller through a Jewish Lens,” Prof Benjamin Nelson, JCC, West Orange, 1:30pm, 973-530-3400 Cong Ahavas Achim Book Club: “The Lost Wife” by Alyson Richman, private home in Highland Park, 8:30pm, 732-339-9196
Wed., Oct 24
Friendship Circle Cooking Circle, for special-needs children and their siblings, Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, River Edge, 5:30pm, 201-262-7172 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: Uniquely Human,” Rabbi Mordechai Baumgarten, Chabad of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7:45pm, 973-625-1525 ext 202; Rabbi Chanoch Kaplan, Chabad, Franklin Lakes, 8pm, 201-848-0449
“An In-Depth Analysis of One of the Sugyos That Comes Up in the Daf Yomi Studies,” Rav Tanchum Cohen, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 8pm Bar-Bat Mitzvah for Adults: “Practical Laws of Family Purity,” Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-966-4498 “Surfing through Shas: Conversion and Controversy (Bechoros),” Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 Parenting Tele-Conference: “Communicating: Exploring the Dynamics of Dialogue,” Rabbi Shmuel Zimmerman, spons by the National Association of Support and Outreach, 9:30pm, call 712-432-1001, Code: 431-701-747#; to playback the shiur anytime, call 712-432-1011, Playback Access Code: 412-184-214#; am@ NASOamerica.org
Thurs., Oct 25
Ninth District Congressional Candidates’ Debate: Rep Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (R), at Gallery 1&9, Ridgefield, 6:30pm, 201-945-8270 “Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released,” Helene Aylon, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Theater: “Imagining Madoff,” by Deborah Margolin, about an imaginary encounter between Bernard Madoff and an Elie Wiesel-like client, Garage Theatre, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, 8pm; also Motzei Shabbat, Oct 27, 8pm; Sun., Oct 28, 3pm; Thurs., Nov 1, 8pm; Motzei Shabbat, Nov 3, 8pm; Sun., Nov 4, 3pm; Thurs., Nov 8, 8pm; Motzei Shabbat, Nov 10, 8pm; and Sun., Nov 11, 3pm, tickets@garagetheatre.org
Fri., Oct 26
New Jersey Jewish Film Festival Reel Film Series: “Everything Is Illuminated,” with Prof Eric Goldman, JCC, West Orange, 10am, 973-530-3417 “A Taste of Shabbat,” for parents and children, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 10:45am, 845362-4400
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, scholar-in-residence, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, includes Friday night dinner and shiur, 5:40pm; Shabbat sermon, Shabbat, Oct 27, 11am; Melava Malka, Motzei Shabbat, Oct 27, 8pm; adult.education@SuburbanTorah.org Shabbat Sukkot Davenand-Dine, Rabbi Shlomo Marks, services at Cong Mount Sinai, Jersey City, 6:30pm; dinner at a private home in Jersey City, 5:40pm, RavShlomo.MtSinai@gmail.com Minyan Tiferet: Shira Hadasha-Style Yom Tov Morning Service, private home in Englewood, 5:45pm, minyantiferet@ gmail.com, 201-567-2820, or 201567-3323 Tisch or Treat, Rabbi Akiva and Nataly Weiss, private home in New Brunswick, 9:30pm, nataly@rutgershillel.org
Shabbat, Oct 27
Bnai Akiva Snif Chadash, for grades 1-6, Cong Netivot Shalom, Teaneck, 5:30pm, val@ mileslevin.com
Motzei Shabbat, Oct 27
MetroWest Hakoah Sports Club: Baseball, for grades K-1 and 2-5, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3425 Comedy Night: Avi Lieberman, Adam Oliensis, Alex Barnett, and Marion Grodin, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400
Sun., Oct 28
American Cancer Society’s Making Strides against Breast Cancer Walk, spons by Bikur Cholim of Raritan Valley, NJ Expo Center, Edison, registration, 7:30am; walk, 9am, 732-819-7842 Blood Drive, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 9am-1pm, 973-736-1407 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: Uniquely Human,” Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, Chabad of Fair Lawn, 718-839-5296; Valley Chabad, Park Ridge, 201-476-0157; Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale, Rabbis Levi Shemtov and Hershel Weiszner, 718-549-1100, 10am Healthy Shabbos Food Workshop, Yaakov Rosenthal, Teaneck General Store, 10:30am, 201-530-5046
October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
Friendship Circle Walk and Friendship Fair, to benefit special-needs children and young adults, includes 1-mile walk, food, acrobat show, rides, video games, batting cages, petting zoo, and DJ, at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, Livingston, 12-5pm, 973-251-0200 or www.fcwalk.com Friendship Circle Dance Club, for special-needs children, Friendship Circle, Paramus, 2:30pm, 201-262-7172 Composer Daniel Cainer, in concert, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 3pm, 845-362-4400 JACS Meeting, 12-steps meeting for Jews in recovery, Rabbi Steven Bayar, Cong B’nai Israel, Millburn, 6pm, 973-379-3811
Mon., Oct 29
Café Europa Holocaust Survivor Group, Jacob Weiland, MSW, Riverdale YMHA, 1pm, 718548-8200 ext 303 Friendship Circle Mitzvah Volunteer Program, for boys and girls in grade 6, to learn how to interact with special-needs children, Cong Beth Tefillah, Paramus, 6:30pm, 201-262-7172 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: Uniquely Human,” Rabbi Mendy Kasowitz, Chabad Center, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-486-2362 Parenting Lectures and Workshop: Raising Children Away from Home, in Hebrew for Israeli parents, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1448
Tues., Oct 30
Deadline to Apply for a $350 Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center of Rider College Teaching Grant, for K-12 teachers who want to include the Holocaust, holctr@rider.edu “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: Uniquely Human,” Rabbi Chaim Zvi Ehrenreich, Nyack Library, 845-356-6686, 7:15am; Chabad of Union County, Fanwood, 7:30pm, 908-790-0008, Rabbi Dov Drizen, Valley Chabad, WoodCliff Lake, 8pm, 201-476-0157 Jewish Business Network Breakfast, Starbucks Coffee Shop, Meadowlands Sheraton Hotel, East Rutherford, 9:30am, 973-902-5932 or 646-233-2031
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
“Age-Related Hearing Loss and Hearing Technology,” Maris Appelbaum, AuD, for seniors, includes lunch, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-736-1407 ext 240 “Arthur Miller through a Jewish Lens,” Prof Benjamin Nelson, JCC, West Orange, 1:30pm, 973-530-3400 Friendship Circle Sports Night, for special-needs children and their siblings, with teen volunteers and a professional sports instructor, Yavneh Academy, 5:30pm, 201-262-7172 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Orchestra of Exiles,” story of Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman who rescued musicians from Nazi Germany and founded the Israel Philharmonic, with director Josh Aronson and Doris Straus, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-940-8343
Wed., Oct 31
“After the Holocaust: The Courage to Rebuild,” includes “Using National Archives Documents in Holocaust Education,” Christopher Zar, “Caring Makes a
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Difference,” Peppy Margolis, “The Internet: Holocaust Denial and More,” Dr. Marlene Yahalom, “Case Study: Using Primary Source Documents to Uncover Personal History during the Holocaust,” Ryan Lillienthal, “The Liberators’ Project: Using Testimony of Liberators and Survivors in Holocaust Education,” Dr. David Machlis, and “The State of Holocaust/Genocide Education,” Dr. Paul Winkler, College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, 8am3pm, HolocaustCenter@cse.edu Help-with-Homework, provided for children in grades 1-5 by Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, at Ma’ayanot, Teaneck, 4:40pm, weineri@maayanot.org Friendship Circle Teen Scene, for special-needs teens 13-21 and high school volunteers, The Frisch School, Paramus, 6pm, 201-262-7172 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: If I Am So Good, Why Am I So Bad?” Rabbi Mordechai Baumgarten, Chabad of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7:45pm, 973625-1525 ext 202; Rabbi Chanoch
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
The Log
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 29
Kaplan, Chabad, Franklin Lakes, 8pm, 201-848-0449 “The Bible in the Ancient Near East: The Sojourn and Exodus: Egyptian Details in the Torah,” Yoni Brukirer, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1429 Bar-Bat Mitzvah for Adults: “The Traveler’s Prayer and Blessing Gomel,” Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-966-4498 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: Uniquely Human,” Rabbi Ephraim Simon, Chabad of Teaneck, 8pm, 201-907-0686 “Surfing through Shas: Conversion and Controversy (Bechoros),” Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 Tehillim Group, Cong Shaare Tefillah, Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-2895474 or 917-902-9303
Thurs., Nov 1
Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Music Man Murray” and “Life in Stills,” The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 12:30pm, 732-940-8343 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Five Brothers,” an AlgerianJewish family, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 3:15pm, 732-940-8343 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “The Flat,” a German-Jewish family in Tel Aviv, with director Arnon Goldfinger, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-940-8343 “The Kosher Nostra: Is This a Job for a Jewish Boy?” Edith Sobel, JCC, Tenafly, 7:30pm, 201408-1457
Fri., Nov 2
“Echoes and Reflections: A Multimedia Curriculum on the Holocaust,” for middle, high school, and college educators, Stephanie McMahon-Kaye, Stockton College, Galloway, 9am, 609-652-4699 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Grace Paley: Collected Stories,” with Susan Werk, JCC, West Orange, 10am, 973-530-3417 Kids of Courage Shabbaton, to raise awareness of this organization dedicated to improving
the lives of very sick children and young adults, at Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, through Shabbat, Nov 3, bethvictor@optonline.net
Motzei Shabbat, Nov 3
Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “My Australia,” children raised as Catholics discover they are Jewish, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 7:15pm, 732-940-8343 Friends of the IDF Tribute Dinner, featuring keynote speaker Lt. Gen (Res) Gabi Ashkenazi, Sheraton Meadowland Hotel, East Rutherford, 8pm, 1-888-318-3433 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Remembrance,” The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 9:30pm, 732-940-8343
Sun., Nov 4
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 Jewish Federation Mitzvah Day, includes many programs, http://www.jfnnj.org/local_includes/downloads/59168.pdf, 10am-4pm, 201-820-3921 Passaic Community Health Fair, spons by Bikur Cholim of PassaicClifton and Haztzolah of PassaicClifton EMS, at Yeshivat Beit Hillel, Passaic, 10am-2pm, 973-249-8811 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hidden Potential: If I Am So Good, Why Am I So Bad?” Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, Chabad of Fair Lawn, 718-839-5296; Valley Chabad, Park Ridge, 201-476-0157; Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale, Rabbis Levi Shemtov and Hershel Weiszner, 718-549-1100, 10am Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Nicky’s Family,” with Peter Rafaeli, Hon Consul General of the Czech Republic, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 11:30am, 732-940-8343 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “The Flat,” a German-Jewish family in Tel Avi, with Prof Michael Levine, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 11:45am, 732-940-8343 Film: “In Darkness,” with Krystyna Chiger and Daniel Paisner,
School and Camp Open Houses Sun., Oct 14 Camp Shalom, separate programs in Old Tappan for boys and girls from nursery (3years) to 8th grade, private home in Bergenfield, 8:30pm, 201-624-2331 Sun., Oct 21 Kushner Yeshiva High School, Livingston, 9am, 862437-8000 Mon., Oct 22 Frisch Yeshiva High School Parlor Meeting, private home in Teaneck, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Tues., Oct 23 Yavneh Academy, preschool through 8th grade, Paramus, 7:30pm, judy.friedman@yavnehacademy.org Frisch Yeshiva High School Parlor Meeting, private home in Englewood, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Wed., Oct 24 SAR, preschool through 8th grade, Riverdale, 7pm, 718-548-1717 Moriah School, preschool through 8th grade, Englewood, 8pm, 201-5670208 ext 376 Sun., Oct 28 Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 1pm, 201-833-4307 Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, preschool through 8th grade, River Edge, 7pm, 201-986-1414 Frisch Yeshiva High School Parlor Meeting, private home in Spring Valley, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Mon., Oct 29 Yeshiva Noam, preschool through 8th grade, Paramus, 8pm, 201-261-1919 ext 380 Cong Bnai Yeshurun Nursery School, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-6871 SAR High School in Riverdale Parlor Meeting,
private home in Teaneck, 8pm, 718-548-2727 Tues., Oct 30 Ben Porat Yosef, preschool through 8th grade, Paramus, 8pm, 201-845-5007 ext 16 Wed., Oct 31 SAR High School in Riverdale Parlor Meeting, private home in Englewood, 8pm, 718-548-2727 Frisch Yeshiva High School Parlor Meeting, private home in West Orange, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Sun., Nov 4 Torah Academy of Bergen County, boys high school, Teaneck, 9:15am, 201837-7696 Bruriah Yeshiva High School for Girls, Elizabeth, 9:30am, 908-355-4850 Mon., Nov 5 Frisch Yeshiva High School Parlor Meeting, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Sun., Nov 11 Frisch Yeshiva High School Open House, Paramus, 9:15am, 201-267-9100 Tues., Nov 27 Informational Meeting for Parents Going through the Yeshiva High School Admissions Process for the First Time, Frisch Yeshiva High School, Paramus, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Wed., Nov 28 Informational Meeting for Parents Going through the Yeshiva High School Admissions Process, Frisch Yeshiva High School, Paramus, 8pm, 201-267-9100 Mon., Dec 17 SAR High School in Riverdale Parlor Meeting, private home in Riverdale, 8pm, 718-548-2727 Y
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
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New Classes This Month Sundays
Be Familiar with the Gemara Your Child Is Learning in 6th Grade: Gemara Eilu Metzios, Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim, Passaic Torah Institute, Shacharis, 7:15am; breakfast 7:45am; chavrusa, 8:15am; shiur, 9:15am, 973-594-4774 Father-Son Learning, with Rabbi Yehuda Minchenburg, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 8am or 8:45am, 201) 384-0434 Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Posen, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 9am, ubenjamin@msn.com Jewish Education for Special Children, held at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, River Edge, 9am, 201-986-1414 Jump Rope with Lucie B, for girls ages 7 and up, Riverdale Jewish Center, 9am and 10am, begins Oct 14, 718-548-1850 Ballet/Tap, Tami, Riverdale Jewish Center, ages 2 & 3, 9am; ages 4 and up, 10am; 718-548-1850, begins Oct 14 Israeli Dance Class, for girls, Tzippy Gellman, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, grades 1-2, 9am; grades 3-4, 10am; 201-936-0319 Boot Camp for Girls, grades 5-8, Arielle Sheinbein, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 9:30am, 201-837-2795 Simcha and Israeli Dancing, for girls, Dassie Schuster, Rodda Community Center, Teaneck, intermediate in grades 5 and up, 9:30am; beginners in grades 5 and up, 10:35am; beginners in grade 4, 11:40am, 201-836-3383 or 201-993-9411, begins Oct 14 Gemara, Zev Felsen, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 9:45am, 732-247-3839 Shir HaShirim, for women, Rebbetzin Rivka Eichenstein, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 10am, ubenjamin@msn.com “It’s All in Your Mind: The Power of the Mind in Person Grown,” for women, Rabbi David Bassous, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 10am, 732-247-3839 Zumba for Girls, grades 3-5, Shari Bursztyn Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 10:30am, 201-837-2795 Basketball League, JCC, West Orange, kindergarten, 2pm; grades 1-2, 3pm; grades 3-4, 5pm; 973-530-3496 Israeli Scouts: Tzofim Shevet Mezada, in Hebrew, JCC, Tenafly, 4pm; counselors “Shachbag,” 6pm, 201-408-1448 Yoga for Kids, for girls and boys in grades 2-5, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 6pm, sheri678@gmail. com, begins Oct 14 Tanach: Sefer Shmuel I: “The Power and the Glory—Between David and Saul,” Rabbi Nati Helfgot, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8pm, begins Oct 21, 201-837-2795 ext 101 Pilates, for women, Arielle Sheinbein, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-837-2795 “Machsheves HaChassidus: The Fundamentals of Judaism
The Log
from a Chabad Chassidic Perspective,” Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, private home in Fair Lawn, 9:30pm, 201-794-3770
Mondays
Torah Tuesday on Monday, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 9am, 201-791-7910 Beginners Aleph Hebrew Ulpan, Drora Arussy, Jewish Federation, Paramus, 9:30am, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 15 Beginners Bet Hebrew Ulpan, Galit Avishay-Cohen, JCC, Tenafly, 9:30am, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 15 “Understanding the Hebrew of the Torah: The Book of Genesis from Joseph to the End and the Laws in the Torah,” Etia Segall, JCC, Tenafly, 9:30am, 201-408-1429, begins Oct 15 Israeli Dance, for women, Sara Burnbaum, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 10am, 845-362-4400, begins Oct 15 Advanced Beginners Hebrew Ulpan, Galit Avishay-Cohen, JCC, Tenafly, 11am, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 15 Advanced Beginning Hebrew Reading: Pirket Avot and Book of Proverbs, Etia Segall, JCC, Tenafly, 11:30am, 201-408-1429, begins Oct 15 Intermediate Israeli Folk Dance, Sara Burnbaum, JCC Rockland, noon, 845-362-4400 Bereavement Group for Those Who Have Suffered a Loss in the Last Year, Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, 1pm, 201-8333000 ext 7483 Widows and Widowers Support Group: You Are Not Alone, Judy Brunner, LCSW, JCC, Tenafly, 6pm, 201-408-1456, begins Oct 29 “The Biblical Book of Genesis,” Rabbi Asher Herson, Chabad Educational Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway Twnshp, 7:30pm, 973625-1525 ext 227, begins Oct 15 Beginners Aleph Hebrew Ulpan, Nava Regev, JCC of Paramus, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 15 Intermediate Bet Hebrew Ulpan, Pirhla Rozman, Fair Lawn Jewish Center, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 15 Advanced Hebrew Ulpan, Orna Green, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 15 Parsha, Rabbi Zev Reichman, East Hill Synagogue, Englewood, 7:30pm, 201-569-4008 Ladies Tehillim, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 7:30pm, 201-791-7910 “Understanding the Mitzvot One Mitzvah at a Time, Rabbi Ari Ginsberg, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-545-2407, begins Oct 15 “Moreh Nevuchim: Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed,” Rabbi David Bassous, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 7:30pm, 732-247-3839 Uncoupling: Coping with Divorce and Separation, Judy Brun-
continued on page 32
continued from page 30
JCC, Tenafly, 1pm, 201-408-1429 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “”Dusk,” with Prof Yael Zerubavel, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 2:15pm, 732-940-8343 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “”Remembrance,” The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 2:30pm, 732-940-8343 Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Foreign Letters,” with director Ela Their and actress Dalena Le, The Regal Cinema Commerce Center, North
Brunswick, 4:45pm, 732-940-8343 “Strategies for Success in Today’s Economy,” for Orthodox-Jewish single professionals 21-29, Charlie Harary, spons by Bergen Connections, kosher dinner included, private location in Teaneck, 5pm, BergenConnections1@gmail.com Rutgers Jewish Film Festival: “Hava Negila,” the power of one song to transmit lessons and bridge cultural divides, with director Roberta Grossman, The Regal
Cinema Commerce Center, North Brunswick, 7:15pm, 732-940-8343 Live from the 92nd Street Y by Satellite: “Mind, Body, and Soul,” Eric Kandel, Elie Wiesel, and Gail Saltz, at the JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400
Mon., Nov 5
“Jewish Views on Issues Facing Seniors,” Rabbi Gary Katz, JCC, Tenafly, 11:15am, 201408-1448 “The Kabbalah of You—A Guide to Unlocking Your Hid-
den Potential: If I Am So Good, Why Am I So Bad?” Rabbi Mendy Kasowitz, Chabad Center, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-486-2362 Community Synagogue of Monsey Sisterhood Book Club: “She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb, private home in Monsey, 8pm, 845-425-7935 Parenting Lectures and Workshop: Raising Children Away from Home, in Hebrew for Israeli parents, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1448 Y
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New Classes
October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 31
ner, LCSW, JCC, Tenafly, 7:45pm, 201-408-1456, begins Oct 29 Parsha, for women, Rebbetzin Rivka Eichenstein, Cong Ohr Torah, Edison, 8pm, 732-777-6840 Basics in Judaism, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8pm, 201-791-7910 Zumba, for women, with Shari Bursztyn, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-837-2795, begins Oct 15 Hebrew Club, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732-545-2407 Navi Shiur: Sefer Melachim Aleph, for women, Aviva Orlian, private home in New Hempstead, 8:15pm, 845-364-0572 or 845-300-4880 Tefillah, Dr. Chaim Presby, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 8:30pm, ubenjamin@msn.com Weekly Torah Portion, Rabbi Moshe Yasgur, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, at Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, or on the phone, 8:30pm, 201-966-4498, by phone: 218-862-1001, code: 947046# Gemara Masechet Chagagah, Rabbi Steven Miodownik, private home in Highland Park, 9pm, 732-247-0532 Maseches Beitzah, Lieber Schachter, Bais Medrash of Bergenfield, 9:20pm, ryan@bmob.org Hilchos Shabbos, Avi Bodlander, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 9:30pm, ubenjamin@msn.com
Tuesdays
Torah in the Morning: Chavrusa Studying Divrei HaYamim II, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9am, 201-907-0180 Talmud: Tractate Ketubot Chapter 2, Rabbi Menahem Meier, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:45am, 201-907-0180 Parshat HaShavua, for women, Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 10am, 973-7361407, begins Oct 16 Lunch and Learn, for seniors, Rabbi Michael Taubes, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, noon, 201-836-8916, begins Oct 17 Intermediate Yiddish, Rebecca Levine, JCC, Whippany, 12:30pm, 973-627-4386, begins Oct 16 Shiur, Rabbi Yonah Lazar, private office in Verona, 1pm, 973736-1407 Parsha Shiur, for women, Rabbi Eliyahu Kaufman, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 2pm, begins Oct 16 Jump into Judaics, for typical-developing and special-needs children in grades K-1, includes crafts, cooking, games, music, Jewish stories, and holidays, JCC, Tenafly, 3:45pm, 201-569-7900 ext 1489, begins Oct 16 Advanced Hebrew, Taly Schwartzer, JCC, West Orange, 6:30pm, 973-669-1096, begins Oct 16 Israeli Dance, JCC, Tenafly, beginners, 6:45pm; intermediate/ advanced, 7:45pm, 201-408-1448 Beginners Hebrew Reading, Laurette Sasson, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-408-1429, begins Oct 16 Beginners Bet Hebrew Ulpan, Atalya Nevo, Cong Beth Shalom, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 16 Beginners Gimmel Hebrew Ulpan, Ornit Michael, Jewish Federation, Paramus, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 16 Intermediate Aleph Hebrew Ulpan, Orna Green, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 16 Shirah Community Chorus on the Palisades, Matthew Lazar, Yddish, Hebrew, English, and Ladino music, JCC, Tenafly, 7:30, begins Oct 16, 201-408-1460 Divorce Support Group for Orthodox-Jewish Women, Dr. Carol Glaser, private home in Teaneck, 8pm, 201-833-8822 Yeshiva Night, learn with a student from the Rabbinical College of America on an array of topics, Lubavitch Center, West Orange, 8pm, 973-486-2362, begins Oct 16 Tefillah, Rabbi Moshe Silver, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park,
8pm, 732-247-3839 Pilates, for women, Arielle Sheinbein, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-837-2795 Halacha, Avi Kamelhar, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 8:30pm, ubenjamin@msn.com Women’s Tehillim Group, for cholim, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-836-6210 Parsha, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8:30pm, 718-548-1850 Telephone Shiur: “Jewish Philosophy,” Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, 8:45pm, 218-8443366, code: 86724123# Young Professionals Chaburah, Rabbi Michael Bleicher, rotating homes in West Orange, 9pm, 973-736-1407 Shiur, Rabbi Moshe Stavsky, Bais Medrash of Bergenfield, 9pm, ryan@bmob.org
Wednesdays
Parsha, for women, Rebbetzin Miri Cohen, private home in Highland Park, 9am, 732-249-5116 Intermediate Gimmel Hebrew Ulpan, Orna Green, JCC, Tenafly, 9:15am, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 17 Intermediate Bet Hebrew Ulpan, Nava Regev, Bergen County YJCC, Washington Twnshp, 9:30am, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 17 “Kosher Pride: Confessing the Things You Do Right,” Rabbi M Kasowitz, Lubavitch Center of Essex County, West Orange, 10am, 973-731-0770 Advanced Hebrew Ulpan, Orna Green, JCC, Tenafly, 11am, 201820-3908, begins Oct 17 Lunch ‘n’ Learn with Rabbi Akiva and Rebbetzin Nataly Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 12:30pm, nataly@rutgershillel.org Beginner’s Hebrew, Rachel Kushner, JCC, West Orange, 6pm, 973-530-3490 or 845-425-1375, begins Oct. 10 Bereavement Group for Those Who Have Suffered a Loss in the Last Year, Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, 6:30pm, 201833-3000 ext 7483 Gym Night, Riverdale Jewish Center, grades 1-3, 6:30pm; grades 4-6, 7:30pm, rjcyouthdirectors@gmail.com, begins Oct 17 Matan Mother-Daughter Bat Mitzvah Program, Rebbetzin Debbie Baum, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 7pm, 201-907-0180 or ydembaum@aol.com, begins Oct 24 Intermediate Hebrew, Rachel Kushner, JCC, West Orange, 7:15pm, 973-530-3490 or 845-425-1375, begins Oct. 10 Hebrew Institute of Riverdale Choir, with Jonathan Dzik, reading music not necessary, sings Jewish music in Hebrew, English, Ladino, and Yiddish, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:30pm, 718-549-8520 Beginners Gimmel Hebrew Ulpan, Ornit Michael, Temple Beth Rishon, Wyckoff, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 17 Intermediate Gimmel Hebrew Ulpan, Pirhla Rozman, Fair Lawn Jewish Center, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908, begins Oct 17 Sefer Daniel, Rabbi Menahem Meier, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-8916, resumes Oct 10 Beginners Talmud, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, nataly@rutgershillel.org Halacha Shiur, Rabbi Ari Elbaz, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8pm, 973-736-1407 Halacha, Rabbi Yisroel Hoffman, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 8:30pm, ubenjamin@msn.com Gemara Shiur: Bava Kama, Rabbi Lawrence Rothwachs, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-836-6210 Shiur in Moreh Nevuchim, Dr. Isaac Chavel, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8:30pm, 718-548-1850
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
Thursdays
Torah in the Morning: Chavrusa Studying Divrei HaYamim II, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9am, 201-907-0180 Torah Tuesday on Thursday, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 9:15am, 201-791-7910 Talmud: Tractate Ketubot Chapter 2, Rabbi Menahem Meier, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:45am, 201-907-0180 Women’s Discussion Group, East Hill Synagogue, Englewood, 10am, 201-569-4008 Book of Daniel, Rabbi Menahem Meier, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 10:50am, 201-907-0180 Intermediate Yiddish, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 12:30pm, 973-428-9300, begins Oct 18 Israel Coffee Break, to meet the Israel community at Rutgers University, Au Bon Pain, New Brunswick, 4pm, 732-545-2407 Advanced Hebrew, Taly Schwarzerr, JCC, West Orange, 6:30pm, 973-530-3490, begins Oct 18 Advanced Yiddish, Rebecca Levine, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 7pm, 973-428-8300 or 973-627-4386, begins Oct 4 Zumba, for teenage girls, with Shari Bursztyn, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-2795, begins Oct 18 Latte and Learning, Senior NCSY, Dov Carpe, Starbucks, East Hanover, 7:30pm, 551-486-7136 Biblical Hebrew and Siddur Study, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:30pm, 718-548-2461 Chumash Shiur, by satellite, Rabbi Eli Mansour, Cong Beth Tefillah, Paramus, 7:45pm, 201-265-4100 Kol Dodi Community Chorus, Joel Caplan and Riki Lippitz, JCC, West Orange, 7:50pm, 973-762-7067, begins Oct 11 “Thoughts on the Parsha,” Rabbi Yosef Sharbat, Sephardic Shul, 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 Beginners’ Yiddish, Rebecca Levine, Lautenberg JCC, Whippany, 8:10pm, 973-428-9300 or 973-627-4386, begins Oct 4 Chabura: Daas Devunos, classic work of the Ramchal, Rabbi Herschel Grossman, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-836-6210 Parsha Chumash and Rashi, Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910 Gemara Shiur: Masechet Brachot, Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-736-1407 Gemara, Rabbi Shlomo Nussbaum, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 8:30am, 732-247-0532 Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Menachem Genack, Cong Shomrei Emunah, Englewood, 9pm, mark@shomreiemunahnj.org Rambam on the Parsha, Rabbi Yossi Strassfeld, private home in Englewood, 9pm, 201-567-3962, 305-534-2655, or 201-569-4484 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 Maseches Beitzah, Lieber Schachter, Bais Medrash of Bergenfield, 9:20pm, ryan@bmob.org Parsha, Rav Yosef Eichenstein, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 9:30pm, ubenjamin@msn.com Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Lawrence Rothwachs, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 9:40pm, 201-836-6210 Parsha and Halacha, Rabbi Michael Taubes, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 10:15pm, 201-836-8916
Fridays
“Taste of Shabbat,” for newborns-36-months, with a parent,
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
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Bergen County YJCC, Washington Twnshp, 1pm, 201-666-6610
Shabbat
Teen Minyan, for boys and girls in grades 6 and up, Dovie Drelich, includes cholent Kiddush, Riverdale Jewish Center, 9am, 718-548-1850 Teen Minyan, Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange, 9:15am, 973-669-7320 Mishna Berurah, for teenagers, Rabbi Robert Grosberg, Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange, between mincha and ma’ariv, 973-669-7320 Gemara Shiur: Sukkah, Rab Avi Kuperberg, includes shalosh seudos, private home in Fair Lawn, 5:45pm, avikuperberg@gmail.com Pirkei Avot with the Insights of Rabbeinu Yonah, for high school students, Rabbi Jonathan Schachter, includes singing and shalosh seudos, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 201-836-8916
Motzei Shabbat
Navi, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, live via satellite, Young Israel of Fair Lawn (201-797-1800); Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park (732247-0532); Cong Tifereth Israel, Passaic; JEC, Elizabeth (908-591-5929); Cong Khal Zichron Mordechai, Monsey (845-356-7188); Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck; Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange (973-669-7320), 8:30pm
Special
Online Class: “Sabbath Days and Extinguished Stars: The Life and Work of Chaim Grade,” four lectures: “Rediscovering Chaim Grade,” Joseph Berger; “Grade and Young Vilna,” Prof Justin Cammy; “Grade and the World of the Yeshiva,” Prof David Fishman; “Grade and the World of Memory,” Profs Justin Cammy and David Fishman, spons by the Yiddish Book Center, registration by Oct 15, classes can be heard online from Oct 22-Nov 18, 413-256-4900 or yiddishbookcenter.org/chaim-grade-online-registration
New Minyanim
Shabbat morning Hashkama Minyan, Cong Bais Torah, Suffern, beginning Nov 3, 845-352-1343 or aviva@baistorah.org B’nai Torah Shabbos Minyan, West Orange, 917-669-1513
Chesed Ops
Drivers Needed for Kosher Meals on Wheels Deliveries, spons by Jewish Family Service, looking for drivers who will spend one or two hours per week delivering frozen meals to isolated, homebound seniors in Fort Lee, Ridgefield Park, and Paramus, call 201-837-9090 ext 238 Students in Grades 10 and up are eligible to work with Jewish Education for Special Children in River Edge, Sundays 9amnoon, nancyzwiebach@yahoo.com Y
Mazal Tov
Mazal Tov to the Bar Mitzvah Boys: Yaakov Fisher, Seth Forman, Jamie Frame, Eitan Gerszberg, Reuven Gorlin, Dov Greenwood, Shlomo Hirschey, Binyamin Jachter, Seth Jacobs, Jordan Kleinhaus, Yoni Laub, Moshe Yosef Nissanoff, Yitzchok Nussbaum, Efrayim Saks, Robert Schwartz, Yair Shavrick, Elchonon Smolen, Max Srulowitz, Zeck Steiner, Matthew Waizer, Dovid Aryeh Werzberger, Daniel Zolty, and Ben Tzion Zuckier; and the Bat Mitzvah Girls: Deena Berman, Chana Chen, Kayla Forman, Molly Gelman, Kayla Glass, Anna Jonas, Adira Levine, Atara Neugroschl, Emily Ratzker, Atara Perel Rothwachs, and Alyssa Schnipper Mazal Tov to Yeshiva University High School students Nathaniel Piskun, Yosef Sklar, Dovid Schwartz, and Yisrael Snow on being named semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program Mazal Tov to Ariella Friedman on election to International President of NCSY Mazal Tov to Bruce Prince and the glatt kosher Teaneck General Store on being named Business of the Year at the Teaneck Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner Y
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
Romney or Obama? Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, were not reassuring. Not an Accident According to some analysts, Mr. Obama’s often deliberate attempt to sour relations between his administration and Jerusalem is not accidental. Ms. Glick said, regarding Iran, his intention is, first, to “decouple” the national security issues of Israel and the US; and then to try to diminish popular support for Israel by presenting the Jewish state as a country that is pushing the US into an unnecessary war. Even his list of “pro-Israel” achievements has been put to use for these goals, she said, explaining that the list “transforms Israel in the public mind from a strategic ally into a strategic basket case in need of America’s constant assistance.” This, she said, explains why Mr. Obama—and the 2012 Democratic Party platform—no longer characterize Israel as America’s “strongest ally” in the Middle East. Turkey over Israel Mr. Obama’s new relationship with Turkey fits Ms. Glick’s scenario. Several months ago, when asked to name his five favorite world leaders, Mr. Obama chose Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 20 Some supporters of Israel worried that Mr. Obama had chosen to cement a relationship with Mr. Erdoğan simply because ties between Turkey and Israel frayed after the Jewish state’s 2009 incursion into Gaza to defend itself against the daily barrage of missiles and rockets targeted against civilian centers from the Hamas-run area. In 2010, Israeli troops killed nine proPalestinian Turkish activists and militants when their ship, part of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla,” tried to break through Israel’s defensive blockade against the terrorist Hamas regime. US-Sanctioned Exclusion Just this summer, Mr. Obama allowed his Turkish friend to exclude Israel from two counterterrorism conferences held with a large number of long-standing US allies. The first was held in Istanbul in June, and the second in Madrid in July. At these conferences, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Maria Otero, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, discussed the state of terrorism in Mali, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, and Turkey. They also discussed the victims of terrorism. At no time during these meetings did either member of the Obama administration refer to Israel. Pointing out that Israel has been one of the key counterterrorism allies of the US for 30 years, Dr. Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, said, “Israel’s absence from an American-sponsored counterterror conference raises questions that need to be answered.”.
History of Omission Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, found it “hard to believe that mere oversight” accounted for the omissions, especially because Mr. Obama has left Israel out before. In 2008, while running for the Presidency, then-Senator Obama said in Berlin that the US and Europe should join in “a new and global partnership to dismantle the [terrorism] networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman, in London and Bali, in Washington and New York.” Mr. Klein suggested the Obama administration omitted mentioning Israel at the counterterrorism conferences because “Arab and Muslim societies do not regard the murder of Jews as terrorism.” “Rather than confronting that ugly fact and challenging those who subscribe to such heinous views, Mr. Obama prefers not to offend their sensibilities. There are many words that can describe this sort of sin of omission, but ‘leadership,’ ‘honesty,’ ‘and ‘moral courage’ are not among them,” he said. In 2010, Mr. Obama again conspicuously omitted mention of Israel when he discussed those nations who had contributed to the relief efforts in Haiti after the massive earthquake that year. Although Israel’s relief efforts were early and exceptional, matched only by those of the US and warmly praised by former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Obama mentioned seven nations, but did not include Israel. Scaled-Down Exercises Just this past September, Washington announced that it is greatly reducing the scale of US participation in an annual massive joint military exercise with Israel scheduled for October. Instead of the approximately 5,000 US troops that were originally slated to attend, the Pentagon will send only 1500 at most. Patriot anti-missile systems will arrive in Israel as planned, but the crews to operate them will not. Instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships being dispatched to Israeli waters, perhaps only one will be sent. According to the report, the official explanation for scaling back the exercise is financial. However, many observers believe it has more to do with growing tensions between the Obama and Ne-
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
tanyahu administrations over a potential airstrike on Iran. Israeli analyst Efraim Inbar said the Obama administration’s message is that “they don’t want to insinuate that they are preparing something together with the Israelis against Iran.” Bad-Mouthing Bibi For the most part, the administration does not seem concerned about how it appears to pro-Israel voters. Many of Mr. Obama’s critics believe his attitude towards the Jewish state is embodied in the comments he made last November to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Messrs Obama and Sarkozy blasted Mr. Netanyahu. The private conversation was inadvertently carried by open microphones as the two men waited to begin a news conference during the Group of 20 economic summit in the French resort of Cannes. Mr. Sarkozy began the discussion by casting aspersions on Mr. Netanyahu’s character. “I can’t stand him. He’s a liar,” said Mr. Sarkozy of Mr. Netanayhu. Rather than defending the prime minister of an American ally or, at the very least, recognizing that he is doing his best to represent his beleaguered country, Mr. Obama responded, “You’re tired of him? What about me? I have to deal with him every day.” Rachel Corrie It seemed to be the same for Ms. Nuland last month, when a court in Haifa ruled that American pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie was responsible for her own death. Ms Nuland, speaking for the State Department, said the US had worked with the her parents “all through this process and we will continue to provide consular support.” Miss Corrie, who was 23, was killed in Gaza in 2003 when she tried to block an Israeli soldier in a bulldozer from dismantling a house in Rafiah. The house was one of many that concealed tunnels used by terrorists to smuggle weapons and gunmen into Israel in order to murder Jews. Judge Oded Gershon supported the IDF claim that the driver of the bulldozer could not see Miss Corrie. The judge ruled that Miss Corrie understood the danger in which she was placing herself and that she could have prevented her own death by moving out of the path of the bulldozer.
ISM Ms. Nuland said nothing about the anti-Israel activities in which Miss Corrie was engaged or that she had died while participating in a demonstration organized by the International Solidarity Movement. ISM describes itself as “a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.” ISM founders, Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf, said in 2002 that they recognized people involved with the ISM “will be killed and injured,” but, they said, these deaths “are no less noble than carrying
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out a suicide operation.” Nevertheless, Ms. Nuland continued her sympathetic support for the Corries in their ongoing quest to damage the State of Israel. Miss Corrie’s father was quoted as saying two years ago that he is certain the soldier who killed his daughter did so deliberately. Rather than contradicting him, Ms. Nuland expressed her sympathetic support for the family. “We understand the family’s disappointment with the outcome of the trial,” she said. “Under Israeli law, the family has the right to appeal the verdict and we’ve seen reports that they are considering doing that. So we will see how this proceeds going forward.”S.L.R.
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October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
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Ze’ev Jabotinsky Would Be 132 This Month; 32 Years Ago, Menachem Begin Spoke to Him at His Grave Site This October 18, Ze’ev Ja-
botinsky, z”l, the legendary Zionist activist, orator, writer, soldier, founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa, and formulator of the Jewish Legion of the British Army in World War I, would be 132 years old. Thirty-two years ago, on the occasion of Mr. Jabotinsky’s centennial birthday, Menachem Begin, z”l, Israel’s sixth Prime Minister, whose own election to office as a member of the nationalist Likud coalition would have greatly pleased Mr. Jabotinsky, delivered a speech at his graveside on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. It was no secret that Mr. Begin regarded Mr. Jabotinsky, the founder of the nationalist Revisionist Zionism movement and its Betar youth wing, as his mentor and superior in the struggle for the State of Israel. As a young man still living in Warsaw, Mr. Begin had served as head of Betar’s Polish branch. Mr. Jabotinsky died in August 1940 while visiting a Jewish self-defense camp run by Betar in New York. Blocked by the British from returning to Palestine during his lifetime, Mr. Jabotinsky instructed his heirs not to bury him in the Holy Land. “I want to be buried
outside Palestine, may not be transferred to Palestine, unless by order of that country’s eventual Jewish government,” he wrote in his will. While Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, made no attempt to transfer his rival’s remains to Israel, in 1964, shortly after his election to Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol ordered the re-interment of Mr. Jabotinsky and his wife, Jeanne, in Jerusalem. State of the Jewish Homeland In this little-known talk, given on October 18, 1980, Mr. Begin, who died on March 9, 1992, delivered what was essentially a report on the state of the Jewish homeland to the man he called “Adoni Rosh Betar.” The speech was translated and published with permission of Mr. Begin’s former Chief of Staff and longtime personal secretary Yechiel Kadishai. During Mr. Begin’s lifetime, Mr. Kadishai monitored all official requests for meetings. In Mr. Begin’s final years, after he withdrew from politics following the 1982 death of his wife Aliza (and, some say, his own heartbreak at evicting Jews from Sinai as part of the 1979 Camp David Accords with Egypt), Mr. Kadishai monitored his seclusion. Mr. Begin died of a heart attack in March 1992.
Mr. Begin began the talk with a reference to Jerusalem: United Jerusalem “Upon completion of the centennial of your birth—and this time only—we have come to address some remarks at your graveside. We report to you, Rosh Betar, that Jerusalem, the city that has become bound together, the eternal capital of Israel and of the Land of Israel, shall not be subjected to any division and is our liberated and indivisible capital and so it shall remain from generation to generation. “The western part of the Land of Israel is entirely under our control and it shall not be partitioned anymore. No part of this land shall be given over to a foreign administration, to foreign sovereignty. “We believe that a day will come when the two parts of the Land of Israel shall establish, peacefully, in agreement and understanding a covenant of alliance, a free confederation, for the purpose of joint cooperation, and then we shall see the fulfillment of the words: “‘From the abundance in our land/ Shall prosper/ The Arab, the Christian and the Jew.’ Safeguarding the Jewish People “We defend the dignity of Jewish people wherever they
may be, since that is the basis for safeguarding the existence and future of our nation. We shall remember until the very last day of our lives and shall bequeath to our children after us, that those who arose against us in this generation to annihilate us, did not carry out their evil designs until they had succeeded in debasing our condemned people and depriving them of their human dignity. “We guard the security of our nation as the pupil of our eyes. Many are those who wait to entrap us. The path of tribulations has not yet come to an end. “We shall, however, ensure our national security with all the means at our disposal, with the heroism of our children, for whom you sang from the depths of your loving and believing heart: Do not say that there is no more within us The blood of our father, the Maccabee, For three drops from him Have been mixed into my blood. When the enemy shall break from ambush, We shall rise and we shall fight Long live the youth: love live the sword, Long live the Maccabean blood.
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Ze’ev Jabotinsky “We will continue to pursue peace and to act by virtue of our inalienable right, for its realization; for wars are abhorrent to us, and the vision of eternal peace, conceived by the Prophets of Israel, the Prophets of truth and justice, dwells in our hearts and appears before us always. Hebrew Language “We undertake a continuous endeavor in the rejuvenation of the Hebrew language, which today we and our children use fluently. It is beautiful in content, and not merely great in its expression, as you have taught us— “‘The most wonderful of all languages, the language of thousands of opposites, hard and strong as steel and at the same time soft and illuminating as gold; poor in words but rich in concepts; cruel in anger and living in ridicule as well as dainty in a mother’s song at a time of comfort and conciliation. “‘It is a language whose voice often echoes like that of stones falling steeply from the mountain and often as the rumblings of grass in a spring morning. An unwieldy language, with bearlike fingernails and widespread wings of birds in flight. “‘The language of the Ten Commandments, and the song of Moses on the day of his death; the language of censure and the language of the Song of Songs; the language of David’s lament
October 2012/Cheshvan 5773
and Isaiah’s song of comfort; the language forgotten and unforgotten, already buried and yet living eternally.’ Social Justice “We will continue to act for the promotion of social justice in the lives of our people so that there be light for Jew and Gentile together. The vision of justice, as we received it from you, Adoni Rosh Betar, is that poverty shall vanish from the face of the earth. “The return to Zion of most of the Jews from the West, the East, the North and the South is our aspiration, and it shall continue to serve as a beacon of light for our guidance. “We observe the ancient traditions of our people, the faith in the G-d of our fathers, since these are the sources of Israel’s eternal existence. That Day Has Come “One more message from our lips, Adoni Rosh Betar: “In those difficult days we saw you in your pain and suffering. We heard you calling our people, who did not wish to heed: ‘Save yourselves, liquidate the Diaspora before the Diaspora liquidates you.’ In those days, on the threshold of those awful days, you told us, your pupils, your children: ‘A day will come when our people will call upon you to conduct their affairs, to take responsibility for their future.’ “That day has come. To them, to your pupils, our nation in its homeland has again given the trust to bear the responsibility for assuring its liberty, its security, its peace, dignity, welfare and future, in the Land of Israel restored. “Blessed are the pupils, Adoni Rosh Betar, for whom a teacher like you arose and who continues to live in their hearts. Blessed be the teacher, whose pupils carry aloft his flag, believe in his vision and diligently fulfill his tenets.” Y
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Ess Gezint: Brown-Bagging It to the Sukkah Dr. Mona Meighan, author of “What Are You Doing for Lunch: A Friendly Guide to Brown Bagging as a Better Way to Lunch” (Book Publishers Network), is convinced most people spend about $10 per day on lunch in restaurants (and that’s not for kosher meals) and consume an astronomical number of calories in the process. Her book brings the cost down to under $5 and does nice things for the waistline at the same time. These would actually work well in the sukkah, too, and she has some nifty ideas on how to transport those lunches to work. Chag Sameach, everyone. Y
Pesto and Tomato Sandwich 2 slices whole-wheat bread Pesto: 2-3 Tbs prepared pesto 1 Tbs chopped almonds (store-bought or recipe ½ cup fresh basil leaves below) 1 garlic clove, cut up 1½ Tbs plain or vanilla yogurt 1 Tbs plus 2 Tsp olive oil 1 thinly sliced tomato Pinch of ground nutmeg Salt and pepper to taste Make the pesto by preheating the oven to 350º. Bake almonds on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. In a blender or food processor, combine all the pesto ingredients and mix until it forms a spreadable paste. Store in an airtight container. For lunch, toast the bread and add yogurt to 2-3 tablespoons of the pesto. Spread the bread with the pesto and add the tomato slices. The sandwich could be in a toaster oven for another 2-3 minutes if desired. One portion (two of the pesto) for about $2.50. In a restaurant, it would cost you at least $10. Calories: 326 (less than a bagel)
Egg Salad with Apples and Almonds 1½ Tbs plain yogurt ¼ tsp curry powder Salt and pepper to taste 2 hard-boiled eggs ½ small onion cut in pieces
½ small apple, cut into pieces 2 Tbs almonds, toasted and chopped 2 large lettuce leaves
Mix yogurt, curry powder, and salt in a small bowl. Crack and peel each egg and place in a medium bowl. Chop eggs with a fork and add the yogurt mixture, onion, apple, and almonds. If it needs more moisture, add a little more yogurt. Spread on lettuce leaves. Add salt and pepper to taste. One portion for about $1.50 ($5.50 in the restaurant) and 225 calories.
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At Holy Name Medical Center: A Sukkah and Recognition For many years, Jewish
doctors, patients, families, and visitors to Holy Name Medical Center (HNMC) in Teaneck have enjoyed amenities not always expected at a venerable Catholic institution founded 88 years ago by the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace. There is a Sabbath room well-stocked with kosher food, and dedicated to Jewish visitors who stay overnight on Shabbat or holidays; a Sabbath elevator that stops automatically on each floor, allowing guests and patients not to violate Shabbat and holiday laws; a Sabbath lounge; and kosher meals for patients, visitors, and staff. This year, there is a sukkah standing on the Lobby level patio. Jacqueline Kates, a former mayor of Teaneck and now the medical center’s community relations coordinator, said the idea was generated by Debbie Ross, RN, MS—a longtime staff associate of HNMC’s President and CEO, Michael Maron—and executive vice president and chief medical officer, Adam Jarrett, MD. Ms. Ross, who serves as Nursing Informatics Specialist at the hospital, knew that a sukkah would be deeply appreciated at Holy Name. She approached Mr. Maron and Dr. Jarrett, who readily approved
the purchase of the sukkah. It was decorated by students of Ivy Weiner, community service coordinator of Teaneck’s Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, and will be available for all employees, students, and visitors to the medical center. For more information about visiting the sukkah, Holy Name can be reached at 877-HOLY NAME, or holyname.org. Tradition of Service Over the years, HNMC has increased its services, making the medical center increasingly user-friendly to the observant-Jewish community. Mammograms are available on Sundays, and the hospital’s hospice programs are accredited by the National Institute for Jewish Hospice. According to Mrs. Kates, several Bikur Cholim groups visit Jewish patients every Shabbat and make sure the Shabbat refrigerator in the Shabbat Room is full. Even before the advent of the medical center’s ubiquitous availability of kosher food and Shabbat conveniences, Holy Name had a Jewish presence. The hospital’s first Jewish chaplain was Rabbi Stanley Fisch, z”l, of Teaneck, whose wife Molly, a pharmacist, used to work for Holy Name. Their son, Rabbi Dr. Shalom Fisch, blows shofar for Jewish patients at Holy
Name every Rosh Hashana. “Top Performer” News of the appearance of the sukkah came just as Holy Name Medical Center was named one of the America’s “Top Performers on Key Quality Measures for 2011” by the Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in the US. One of only two hospitals in Bergen County and 14 in NJ to be recognized, Holy Name was cited by the Joint Commission for exemplary performance in using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for certain conditions. HNMC was recognized for its achievement in heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. To be recognized as top performer, a hospital must meet or exceed 95 percent performance thresholds for its composite performance on all reported accountability measures, as well as its performance on every single accountability measure for which it reports data to The Joint Commission. This is the second consecutive year that HNMC has been recognized as a “Top Performer.” It is now one of only 244 hospitals in the US to earn that distinction two years in a row. “The Top Performers on Key Quality Measures program is an
important initiative because it provides transparency to the public,” said Mr. Maron. “We understand that what matters most to patients is safe, effective care. That’s why Holy Name has made a commitment to accreditation and positive patient outcomes through evidencebased care processes. We are proud to be among The Joint Commission’s top performers.” A Vehicle for Welcoming Over the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, another sort of transparency will be visible to the community: The hospital’s insistence on sensitivity to the many ethnic and religious groups it serves. “The sukkah is another vehicle for being welcoming to our incredibly diverse community and another opportunity for us to learn about one another,” said Dr. Jarrett. “We can’t change the world, but we can ensure that in our little community, we respect one another.” Sister Breda Boyle, director of Pastoral Care at HNMC, agreed, explaining that providing a sukkah for the medical center’s Jewish staff and patient family members is “very much in keeping with the Holy Name tradition of caring that addresses the medical, cultural, and spiritual needs of every patient and our mission to serve every member of our community.” Y
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Jewish Refugees
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this effort, but it’s never too late to bring justice and discuss the historic facts,” said Mr. Ayalon. Pogroms and Riots Between 1948 and 1952, 856,000 Jews, whose families had been living in Arab countries for generations, were driven from their homes in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. They fled for their lives with little more than the clothes
of testimony from these Jewish refugees. Listed in Israel’s Ministry of Justice as “Registry of the Claims of Jews from Arab Lands,” these testimonies record the trauma experienced by hundreds of thousands of Jews whose homelessness was the final chapter of a once-glorious diaspora. Mr. Ayalon, whose father’s family was forced out of Algeria before settling in
they wore in the wake of antisemitism and anti-Jewish riots that broke out throughout the Arab world following Israel’s declaration of independence. Expelled from their homes and their countries, their property and businesses confiscated, and their rights stripped from them by the countries’ rulers, about 600,000 of these Jews made their way to the newly declared state of Israel. The others emigrated to Western Europe, especially France, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Wherever these Jews went, they were absorbed into the societies of their host countries. Until now, there have been no discussions on how to compensate them or their families. Documentation However, there is a great deal of evidence and documentation. Since the 1950s, various government offices in Israel have collected thousands of pages
Israel, called the Jewish state “the model of how to receive refugees and absorb them so that today the former refugees and their children are part and parcel of Israeli society.” “You cannot tell any difference. This should have been the model for other refugees, most notably the Arab refugees,” he said. “Farhud” One of the worst antisemitic Arab pogroms took place in Baghdad on Shavuoth, June 1 and 2, 1941. Called “Farhud,” or “violent dispossession” in Arabicized Kurdish, the pogrom led to the death of 141 Jewish men, women, and children and the injury of 1,000 more at the hands of Muslims carrying machetes, axes, daggers, and guns. Nine hundred Jewish homes were torched and destroyed and Jewishowned stores that were shut for the holiday were looted.
Synagogues were burned with their Torah scrolls. When the British finally stopped the violence, it was too late. After 2,600 years, the Baghdad-Jewish community was ready to flee. Within ten years, 80 percent of the IraqiJewish community was in Israel. Mr. Ayalon has proposed that a date as near as possible to the Shavuot pogrom be declared Jewish Refugee Day. He has already submitted a proposal for a memorial day to Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, who heads the Knesset’s Symbols and Rituals Committee. Throughout the Arab world, there are only a few thousand, mostly elderly Jews. “Emigration of more than 99 percent of the Jewish population in such a short time is unparalleled in modern-Jewish history. Even the Jewish communities of Europe, which experienced the most extreme iteration of antisemitic violence, did not vanish entirely or so abruptly,” said Dr. Ron Jager, an Israeli columnist. Jewish Naqba Day In fact, the idea of a special memorial day for Jews from Arab countries is not new. Egyptian-born Israeli Professor Ada Aharoni has suggested a “Jewish Naqba Day” (“catastrophe”) to coincide with “Palestinian Naqba Day,” which is how the Arabs commemorate Israeli Independence Day on May 15. Prof Aharoni believes a special day to mark “the uprooting of Jews from Arab countries” would publicize the historic record not only abroad, but also in Israel, where
statistics show a growing number of children are unaware of what happened. Jewish Refugee Day would prompt schools in Israel and abroad to teach the neglected history of pre-Islamic, millennia-old Jewish communities that were native to the Middle East and North Africa. Diaspora groups throughout the world would probably mark the day with films, lectures, and exhibits. Some Israelis have suggested that Jewish refugees from Arab countries should be remembered at Passover, when Egyptian Jews in particular can point to the irony of their “Second Exodus.” Others say Mr. Ayalon’s idea of tying the memorial to Farhud makes more sense. Although some argue that the Palestinians were not responsible for that pogrom, others beg to differ. The Palestinian leader of the time, the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, had spent two years in Baghdad before eventually joining Hitler in Berlin. There is evidence that he had a direct hand in whipping up frenzied Jew-hatred in Iraq, which led to the 1941 Farhud. Not Refugees Israel’s enemies, while unable to dispute the fact that 856,000 Jews from Arab countries disappeared from their homes in the 1940s and 1950s, now insist that these Jews were not refugees. Representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab League denounced the UN Jewish refugee conference as well as the calls to recognize the suffering of those Jews and their material claims. According to Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, “those Jews are criminals rather than refugees.” “Those Jews were not
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Jewish Refugees refugees as they claim. They were actually responsible for the displacement of the Palestinian people after they secretly migrated from Arab countries to Palestine before they expelled the Palestinians from their lands to build a Jewish state at their expense,” he said. According to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency, Mr. Zuhri said it was the fault of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands who “turned the Palestinian people into refugees.” Hamas, he said, views the UN conference “as a dangerous, unprecedented move which contributes to the falsification of history and reversing of facts.” Not Like “Palestinians” While not calling them “criminals,” PA politicians, such as Hanan Ashrawi, have argued that Jews from Arab lands who now live in Israel cannot be refugees. “If Israel is their homeland, then they are not ‘refugees;’ they are emigrants who returned either voluntarily or due to a political decision,” said Ms. Ashrawi. She insisted that Israel is using the claims of Jewish refugees from Arab countries “only as a counter-balance to those of Palestinian refugees.” Mr. Ayalon does not deny that recognition of Jewish refugees from Arab countries will make a difference in final status agreements with the Palestinians and normalization with other Arab countries. For most of the world, he said, the Palestinian refugee issue is an even greater obstacle to peace than Jerusalem is.
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continued from page 40 “Everyone says the conflict cannot be achieved without settling the Arab refugee problem. Okay, there is another side to this coin, and this is the Jewish refugees. So when we settle and solve the Arab refugees by compensation, the same accord should be granted to the Jewish refugees,” he said. Population Exchange Statistics show that about 500,000 Arabs living in what became Israel fled in 1948, most of them at the behest of the invading Arab armies who urged them to leave their homes temporarily until the new Jewish state could be destroyed. Then, the Arab leaders promised, the Palestinian-Arabs would return as conquerors, confiscating Jewish property whose owners presumably would have been massacred. “The Arab refugees were not deported. They left of their own accord or they heeded the calls from Arab leaders at the time. They left the country to let the Arab armies—seven of them—in. They just cleared the way to let them push us into the sea,” said Mr. Ayalon. Most of the Palestinian refugees went to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan where, Mr. Ayalon pointed out, they speak the same language, enjoy the same heritage and culture, and practice the same religion. Refugee Camps “They should have been absorbed by their Arab brethren just as our Jewish brothers were received here. But here, the Jewish refugees became part of Israeli society. Over there,
in the Arab countries, the Arab refugees were denied citizenship and any civil rights. They were kept in subhuman conditions,” he said. He pointed out that the dilapidated refugee camps did not persist only in foreign Arab countries. In the territories under Palestinian control, there are still Palestinian refugee camps. “Why?” said Mr. Ayalon. “We know that they were used as pawns against us, to delegitimize us. Well, no more. We have to tell the story. First of all, because it’s a story about truth and recognition. Secondly, it’s a story about justice and rights.” Growing Numbers The Arabs offer two reasons to explain why the Palestinians were not absorbed into their new host countries: first, because the children and grandchildren of those who fled Israel in 1948 are still recognized as refugees; and second, because they want “to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland.” In contrast to the fate of the Jews in Arab countries, virtually all of whom left, 160,000 Arabs accepted Israel’s offer to remain in the Jewish state. Today, Israeli Arabs number more than 1.2 million with full property, education, and voting rights. The Palestinians say that the original number of Arab refugees has now swollen to almost 5 million, because they maintain that refugees are defined not only as those who fled, but also their descendants,
most of whom were never absorbed into their host countries. One of the reasons the Palestinians and their supporters have been able to make that claim is because it is also accepted by the major international body still responsible for the Palestinian refugees: the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Created in 1949, UNRWA was originally intended to provide jobs on public works projects and direct relief for the Arabs who fled from Israel. Today, it provides education and social services to them and their descendants who are still trapped in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the areas under the control of the PA and Hamas in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. New Definition This past spring, the US Senate passed a bill requiring an accurate accounting of the number of actual “Palestinian refugees” who receive American tax-supported aid. Prompted by Sen Mark Kirk (R-IL), the bill came after the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved language that will distinguish between Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and their descendants. Mr. Kirk said it is important to distinguish between those “whose place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and who were displaced as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict; and those who are descendants” of these people. Among those who objected strenuously to the new language and the bill were the US State Department and the Jordanian government, which receives a large portion of UNRWA expenditures for the country’s so-called “refugee camps,” but Mr. Kirk has prevailed.
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Letters to the Editor Getting Rid of Ahmadinejad and His Threat
As citizens of the United States our allegiance to protect the Constitution is sacrosanct. America, like Israel, is now under an imminent threat from Iran. We must not wave the white flag of surrender to Obama or Iran. We must overcome Obama’s Shariacompliant foreign policy, or we will lose our independence. Demand that he destroy Iran’s nuclear terrorist war machine now. Make no mistake, American is under an imminent threat. And still, as the centrifuges in Iran are spinning, the Obama administration is fiddling. Have we lost our minds? This is our generational moment: Stopping Iran must be our top priority. We need to shake up America! Never again should we hear Netanyahu pleading with our politicians and pro-Israel groups to wake up and pressure Obama into taking action against Iran. This is shameful. I want to stress to citizens of America: Obama is one step away from ceding victory to Islam. His cancerous appeasementenablement foreign policy must be severed before it morphs any further, and becomes inoperable. Thus there is only one way to end the Iranian nuclear nightmare and the spread of radical Islam: Only a payload of destruction directed into the heart of Iran ‘s nuclear facilities will eliminate the hub in the wheel of an emerging Nuclear Terrorist Empire. America is not in the business of nation building, but, rather, putting out of business those nations whose constitutions honor the subjugation of humankind. What is in the best Interest of the United States? To immediately attack and destroy Iran’s nuclear war machine and put Ahmadinejad and his criminal enterprise out of business. Start now, tell your representatives to demand that President Obama must launch a strike against Iran’s Nuclear War Infrastructure now. Call 202- 224-3121 Ahmadinejad is constructing chambers of death where nuclear bombs will replace Zyklon B. How dare any nation or any party say we should not immediately demand the destruction of Iran’s nuclear war terrorist machine? At a ceremony held at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, Elie Wiesel confronted President Obama over his inaction against Iran. “How is it that the Holocaust’s No. 1 denier is still a president? He who threatens to use nuclear weapons to destroy the Jewish state. We must know that when evil has power, it is almost too late. Please send out to your Facebook and twitter lists. Stanley Zir Seaford, NY
An Apology for Jerusalem
As a Jewish public official who views Israel as a priority and a personal passion, I must speak out with deep concern over how my party handled the platform plank on Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. I was appalled that the plank had been taken out. Let me make this clear: To me and millions of other Jews around the world, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and of our hearts, period. I was gratified President Obama ordered the plank to be reinserted—it would have been deeply troublesome to me had he not done so. I also I believe he would be wise to travel to Israel as President, as soon as possible, to see
first-hand the political, strategic and spiritual role that Jerusalem plays as Israel’s eternal and united capital. State Sen. Bob Gordon Fair Lawn, NJ
Ariel University
Regarding your article on Ariel, I thought you might be interested in knowing about a recent New Wave Poll, which was taken in Israel on the issue of support for changing Ariel from a college to a university {“Ariel Hopes to Become Israel’s Ninth University,” Sept 2012). This was a telephone poll of a representative sample of 500 Hebrew-speaking adults Israeli adults, carried out by New Wave for Yisrael Hayom on September 3 and published on September 7, 2012. The question was: Do you support or oppose changing the status of the Ariel University Center to a university? Support, 51.9%; Oppose, 21.7%; Don’t know, 26.4% Dr. Aaron Lerner Independent Media Review & Analysis Kfar Sava, Israel
A Hillel Encounter
I had one of the most amazing things happen to me recently at the local Acme when I went to pick up the baked goods for Shabbat, below is the short version of the story. As I was waiting on line to check out at Acme with the sheet cake and cookies, the man behind me commented on all the dessert I had and asked if I was hosting a big party. I explained to him that I work for Hillel at Rutgers and it is dessert for 200300 student who will be at Shabbat dinner tonight. He asked if it was a special Shabbat, I said it was the first of the semester so we usually have a slightly larger crowd on the first weekend. As I began to pay he said, “No let me.” I told him he didn’t have to, but he insisted. After I thanked him a number of times, I asked for his name, he told me it didn’t matter. He said he put had three sons through college, one at Muhlenburg, one at Tufts (and I forgot the third) and that they had all been involved in Hillel. “It’s the least I can do for you guys,” he added. I thanked him again and wished him a Shabbat Shalom. Every day, we have an impact on a huge number of people. Sometimes direct, and sometimes indirect. I think my interaction with this gentleman is an example of “why” we do what we do. Greg Yellin Senior Birthright Engagement Associate Rutgers University Hillel New Brunswick, NJ
A Coach Correction
Thank you so much for your article on my new book [“Coach Bobby Kaplan Publishes Bball Basics Handbook, Sept 2012] The article was very comprehensive in describing my book. However, I coached the Frisch girls varsity basketball team to four league championships - not the Ma’aynot Yeshiva. Bobby Kaplan Teaneck, New Jersey
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“Thought Is the World of Freedom” (R’ Dov Ber of Mazeritch) Visiting Cuban Jews
We are very excited to be going on a humanitarian mission to visit the Jews of Cuba in early November. We are each required to bring 15 pounds of supplies, the most important and most needed are prescription medicines. Following is the list, if any doctors have samples, or anyone has left-overs of these medicines. (I don’t even know what some of these are!). All medicines must be current, nothing expired, half used bottles are ok. Much needed are medicines for asthma, high blood pressure, and diabetes 2. Recent specific requests: Zithromax, Cipro, Amoxicillin (children and adults), Azitromycin 500 mg., Mesalamina (Canusa, Rowasa), Advair; Enalapril (Vasutec), Diclofenac, Singulair, Beclometasone spray (Beconase AQ). We will be happy to pick up any of the above if you just call 973-736-5169. Thanks in advance! Daryl and Edward Shapiro West Orange, NJ
An Open Letter from the Chief Rabbi of Israel
To Mr. Geert Wilders, Leader of the Freedom Party House of Parliament The Hague, The Nethetlands Dear Mr. Wilders. The Dutch rabbinate, as well as the leadership of the DutchJewish community, have extensively updated me on the status of the political debate on ritual slaughter in Holland. I am aware of the fact that the bill to ban ritual slaughter was initiated by the Animal Party and managed to get a majority in the Lower House. Before the bill went to the Senate, a compromise was worked out by the deputy minister of agriculture that was accepted and signed by the leadership of the Dutch Jewish and Muslim communities. Because of that, all the parties in the senate—with the exception of the initiator of the bill and your Freedom Party— voted against a ban and in favor of the compromise. I am shocked and upset to learn that your party once again has adopted a total ban on ritual slaughter in its platform for the September 12th upcoming general elections. By doing so, [it] makes the Freedom Party (except for the Animal Party) the only one in your country that excludes the Jews of [sic] the “Freedom” you claim to stand for.
Ritual slaughter and kosher food are an essential part of Jewish life, religion, and tradition. By denying Jews [the right] to live according to the Torah, you will eventually force them to leave the Netherlands where they have lived since the 12th century enjoying religious freedom for centuries. Furthermore, the animal rights spokesman of your faction, Mr. Dion Graus, has announced in various statements and interviews that after a total ban on ritual slaughter has become law in the Netherlands, he will also work on legislation to prohibit import of kosher meat from abroad. Not a single party in Europe has gone that far. I am shocked to read the statements Mr. Graus made during the parliamentary debate. He repeatedly kept on accusing Jews of “ritual torture” of animals. This is the classical antisemitic way our rites have been targeted and demonized throughout history. Jews torturing animals or murdering non- Jewish kids because their blood was needed to bake matzot for the Jewish Passover! Dear Mr. Wilders, I am fully aware of your firm support of the Jewish state of Israel and do respect and thank you for this. But one cannot separate between the Jewish state and the Jewish people. I therefore do urge you strongly to remove the total ban on ritual slaughter from your party platform and publicly disassociate yourself from Dion Graus who is called by the president of the Amsterdam-Jewish community “a danger to the interests of Dutch Jews and Jewry in Europe at large.” It is obvious that one cannot be at the same time a friend of Israel and the Jewish people and on the other hand support an anti- Jewish law and be friends with Dion Graus. I hope to hear from you quickly. Rabbi Yonah Metzger Haifa, Israel 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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Jewish Refugees “The amendment simply demands basic transparency with regard to who receives US taxpayer assistance,” said Mr. Kirk. Refugees in Jordan Almost 2 million of Jordan’s 5.9 million citizens are formally defined as “Palestinian refugees” by UNRWA. The Senate’s bill could cost Jordan financially, legally, and politically. Like other Arab countries, Jordan defines the children and grandchildren of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 as “refugees” even though they were born in Jordan. It is estimated that by using the new language, the US definition of who is a “Palestinian refugee” will drop from 5 million to about 30,000. This will impact greatly the $1.2 billion in aid the US pumps into UNRWA each year. “Right of Return” UNRWA’s acceptance of
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the Arabs’ narrative assigning refugee status to the descendants of those who fled the area during the 1948-1949 war, makes it unique. All non-Palestinian refugees throughout the world, including those from Bosnia, the Congo, and Darfur, receive assistance from the UN High Commission for Refugees, which conforms to international conventions and does not confer refugee status on the descendants of the original refugees. Mr. Kirk’s new Senate bill will effectively allow the US to defund UNRWA. This will not only save billions of US tax dollars; it will also realign US and Israeli policy, providing Jerusalem with diplomatic leverage to nullify the Palestinians’ socalled “right of return.” The Israelis say this “right,” which the Palestinians have made the key to any peace negotiations, is more than a play
on the Israeli “right of return” law, which allows all Jews to enter Israel with full rights as citizens. The Palestinian “right of return” would allow the Arab refugees and their descendants to flood back into Israel proper, changing the demographics and destroying the possibility of a Jewish state. Political Reasons According to Mr. Ayalon, the Palestinians and their supporters, including those in the US State Department, have resisted all efforts to dismantle UNRWA and allow the Palestinians to share the UN High Commission for Refugees with the rest of the world’s displaced people. “Why can’t the Palestinian refugees share an agency with the refugees of Bosnia, the Congo, or Darfur?” said Mr. Ayalon. The answer, he said, is political: “The UN High Commis-
sion for Refugees helps resettle refugees, but the separate UNRWA agency helps perpetuate refugees’ status by applying unique criteria.” For the UN High Commission for Refugees, refugees lose their status as displaced persons after they receive citizenship from a recognized country. UNRWA, which makes rules only for Palestinians, says that even though Palestinians may be citizens of other countries—for example, Jordan—they retain their status as refugees. All other agencies hold that refugees cannot transmit their status from generation to generation. This means that while a person may be a refugee, his descendants who have grown up in the host country are not. The status of “refugee” that UNRWA applies to children and grandchildren of the original Palestinian refugees is unique.
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Live Where You Can Walk to Shul
Blocked Chances According to Mr. Ayalon, the 500,000 Arabs who fled Israel for neighboring Arab countries “never had a chance.” In contrast to Israel, which welcomed the Jewish refugees and absorbed them into the country, the Arab host countries enacted discriminatory laws aimed at blocking any attempts to resettle the Palestinians. All Arab countries, except Jordan, banned the Palestinians’ from obtaining citizenship; blocked them from entering many professions; restricted their right to own land; restricted their very movement out of the decrepit refugee camps; and denied them education and health services. In 1960, then-Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser explained these laws as a weapon, aimed at overwhelming Israel demographically. He recognized that generations of refugees could be cultivated to hate. “If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist,” he said. “Voluntary Migration” Nevertheless, Ms. Ashrawi argued that Arab Jews “began migrating to Israel after its establishment” voluntarily. “They did so in accordance with a plan by the Jewish Agency to bring Jews from all around the world to build the State of Israel,” she said.
Ms. Ashrawi’s explanation sounds very much like praise of Zionism. “At the very core of Zionist ideology is the idea that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. If this is the case, and Jews living in Israel are citizens of their singular national homeland, then the state cannot consider them refugees—they cannot be returnees to Israel and refugees from another homeland at the same time. Demanding that the international community treat Jewish immigrants as refugees is therefore an act of ‘de-zionization.’ If, however, they are refugees and Israel is not their homeland, then their primary right is the right to return,” she said, arguing that an Israeli citizen “cannot be both a refugee and a Zionist.” Compensation While neither Ms. Ashrawi nor PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat would grant any similarities between Palestinian and Jewish refugees, they both support this Jewish “right of return.” “We are not against any Jew who wants to return to Morocco, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere. I believe no Arab state rejects the Jewish right of returning to their native lands,” said Mr. Erekat. Mr. Ayalon said no Jews from Arab countries would be interested in returning. However, he said, they should be
eligible for compensation just as Arab Palestinian refugees say they are. “In 2000 at Camp David, when President Bill Clinton talked about solving the refugee issue, he called for an international super fund that will compensate the refugees. This should be for both the Arabs and the Jews,” said Mr. Ayalon. One-Sided History One of Mr. Ayalon’s strongest supporters on this issue is Ron Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress. “Israel’s detractors have spent decades infusing the courts of international public opinion with a one-sided history of the Middle East refugee problem. This will not bring justice or closure to this painful conflict. It is now time to set the historical, diplomatic, and legal record straight. Lasting peace can be built only on historical facts. The issue of the Jewish and Palestinian refugees must be addressed,” said Mr. Lauder. He pointed out that the world has long recognized the Palestinian refugee problem. Now, he said, after 60 years, the UN “should finally recognize the 860,000 Jewish refugees who suffered during those times.” Mr. Ayalon sees himself as evidence that, throughout the world, “history has proven that resettlement and integra-
tion helped millions of refugees during the 20th century reclaim their lives.” “However, the Palestinian refugees are trapped between Arab leaders unwilling to accept their brothers and UN agencies that do not apply equal and universal principles to all refugees. Is this just?” he said. Eye-Witnesses The reaction at the UN to the “Justice for Jews from Arab Countries” event may be indicative as to how the various players will view this new take on the refugee issue. After an Arab demand to cancel the event entirely was rejected, the Arab League asked the UN Secretariat for permission to hand out press releases at the entrance to the conference, but that request was turned down as well. The evening before the conference, the Palestinian UN observer’s office emailed reporters Ms. Ashrawi’s article from the Huffington Post in which she accused Israel of cynically using the term “refugees.” But against her cries were the testimonies in the UN of Jewish refugees who are now full citizens of Israel: Rabbi Eli Abadi, who was born in Beirut, Edwin Shuker who fled Baghdad, and journalist Shalom Yerushalmi, whose parents were forced to leave their property in Damascus and flee with nothing. S.L.R.
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