THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION Promoting Classical Judaism
August 2013
Vol. 26 • No. 11
Elul 5773
Rock-Throwing Attacks and Stabbings in Jerusalem Prompt Closing of the Temple Mount to All Non-Muslims; Jews Cry Foul Two problems for Jews are
exploding in Jerusalem, provoking cries of discrimination and the need for better police protection. There has been an outbreak of rock-throwing attacks and other forms of harassment by Arabs against Jews in the city, but the reaction of Jerusalem’s law-enforcement officials seems to be to crack down on the victims.
At the end of July, Jerusalem police took what some observers called an “unprecedented move,” closing the Temple Mount to all non-Muslims at least until the end of Ramadan on August 11th. The announcement provoked anger over anti-Jewish discrimination in the city and sparked calls for mass protests against the Israeli police.
Some observers have said that the reluctance of Israel’s police in Jerusalem to protect Jews who want to ascend the Temple Mount has emboldened Arabs to feel Jews in the city can be attacked with impunity. Other say it may represent the Third Intifada for which Muslim extremists have been clamoring.
“Safest City” Many of the attacks have taken place in neighborhoods and at landmarks that signal the entry into the Old City of Jerusalem, which the Palestinian Authority has claimed for its capital in a future Palestinian state. Despite the growing number of incidents, Jerusa-
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Peace Talks, Sure, but Israelis Want to Know Why Murderers Have to Be Released First Most Israelis are opposed
to their government’s agreement to free 104 terrorist murderers simply as means to woo the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table. However, Israelis have little fear of the agreement that might result. Polls show most of them do not believe the talks will ever get that far. But even if Israel and the PA agree on a pact, it will still be subject to a referendum by Israeli citizens. The Israeli government just made holding a referendum on any such agreement part of the country’s Basic Laws, statutes Israel
Relatives of Israelis killed in terror attacks hold up signs outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem as the Israeli Cabinet voted to approve Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposal to free 104 convicted terrorists
uses in lieu of a constitution. Most Israelis on the right and left favor a referendum, although it was opposed by some Israeli officials—including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of the Hatnua Party. Preventing a Rift Ms. Livni suggested that those on the right seized on holding a referendum as a way to “torpedo the idea of two states for two people.” But MK Avi Wortzman of the Jewish Home party said the real reason for insisting on a referendum “is to prevent a rift in the Israeli nation.”
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Inside the Voice A Muslim’s Requiem for the Dome....5 Kol Ami: Jewish Genealogy................ 6 The Current Crisis............................... 7 On Profiling.........................................17 Ohel’s Bergen Cty Coordinator....20 New Faces at JEC’ s RTMA....................21
Rockland Window Covering...............22 While You’re Away....................................22 The Log..........................................................24 New Classes........................................30 Mazel Tov.............................................31 Ess Gezint: Simanim Tovim.............38
Jerusalem’ s Mayor...........................39 Holocaust Survivors Fight Cancer....40 Index of Advertisers ........................41 Honor the Professional...................43 Letters to the Editor ........................44 Walk To Shul.......................................47
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The Dome of the Rock: A Muslim’s Requiem By Dr. Qanta Ahmed For the past 15 years, Dr. Qanta Ahmed, an associate professor of medicine at the State University of NY at Stony Brook, has been fulfilling her goal of visiting the world’s holy cities. At the turn of the millennium, she made her haj, the pilgrimage to the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia required of every able-bodied Muslim. She then visited Vatican City, and two years ago, went back to Saudi Arabia, to Medina, Islam’s second holiest city. This summer, she traveled to Jerusalem. in addition to speaking at universities and research institutes in Israel, she wrote about her visit to the Dome of the Rock,
where she made a discovery shocking to both Muslims and Jews: Massive pillars in the heart of the Al Aqsa Mosque are much older and clearly do not belong to the building. Even her Muslim guide matter-of-factly told her they mark the entrance to what was the Second Jewish Temple “that was here before Al Aqsa.” The daughter of Pakistani immigrants to Britain, Dr. Ahmed, who practices sleep-disorders medicine in Garden City, Long Island, graduated from the University of Nottingham. In the Old City We walk with purpose. At my side, my Muslim guide, Ibrahim Ghazzawi, walks at a
respectful distance. Underfoot, uneven cobblestones are worn smooth. Wearing low-heeled shoes, I glide along in the centuries-old footfall of pedestrians who have come before me. I am in the Old City. Ibrahim was leading me to the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque— the third holiest site in Islam— both were waiting for me on this Monday afternoon. It was just after noon and I was almost there. As I hurried along, the Muslim Quarter was surprisingly empty. We are approaching Herod’s Gate. The walls of the city ensconce me, their gorgeous Jerusalem stone burnished with
the patina of ages. Even swirling networks of drainpipes and cables cannot obscure Jerusalem’s sacred beauty etched deep, centuries earlier, by the loving stonemason authors of this noble city. People, politics and powers may come and go, but underneath, Jerusalem perseveres. Careworn and battle-scarred, she is eternal. Checkpoint It’s warm. Dressed for the mosque, I am over-dressed for the climate. Long sleeves reach beyond my wrists. A fine woolen scarf swirls at my neck, ready for when I pray. Now and again
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THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION, Inc. © 2013; Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Susan L. Rosenbluth Phone (201)569-2845 Managing Editor: Sharon Beck, Advertising: Rivkie Stern 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 $25. 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: Jewish Genealogy By Paul and Dot Rosefeldt In Jewish communities throughout the world, genealogy has become more than just a popular avocation. It is now something of a cottage industry: in Boston during early August this year, the annual conference of the International Associa-
tion of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) attracted almost 1,200 Jews from around the world. An umbrella group, IAJGS is an important resource for those seeking to research their own Jewish family histories. Our question at IAJGS was: Why did you come and what did you hope to learn? Y
At every IAJGS conference, I learn so much about the countries and communities of my ancestors. I see old friends and meet new ones, and even some new cousins. I love helping others in their quest to build their family trees. These conferences are like summer camp for adults. Nancy Adelson Sammamish, WA
A newbie, I came with my husband because I wanted to learn about the tools available and the way to follow up after making connections. Someone noticed by nametag and the names and towns I am researching and discovered we are cousins. I wasn’t expecting that to happen. Carol Goldman Watertown, MA
My husband, Henry, is chair of the IAJGS’s Latvian Special Interest Group and has been involved in genealogy for long time. He has visited his ancestral home 13 times. I told him he was spending so much time on his family, what about mine? So now he is working on my family as well. Marcia Blumberg Toronto, Canada
I came became I love genealogy and was asked to give two talks: “Using Collateral Resources with Standard Vital Records” and “Landsmanshaftin Records: A Bridge between Two Worlds.” I think it’s important to share our knowledge and promote the field. Avrohom Krauss Telz-Stone, Israel
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The Current Crisis: “Even in Laughter, the Heart Can Ache” Everyone old enough to remember Aladdin before he learned to sing can recall that when the lamp was rubbed, it was no fair asking the genie for eternal life. One pundit figured his way around it. “I wish to die after the Israelis and Palestinians make peace,” he told the genie. “Crafty devil,” our genie replied. *** At the beginning of July, the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot featured a lengthy interview with “Fatima,” a Bedouin mother of 17 who was billed as “the first Bedouin woman of comedy.” We’re not making this up, you know. In the article, Fatima shared her life story, including her marriage when she was in sixth grade, her 17 children, and her life as one of four wives to the same man. She joked about Bedouin crime and Bedouin views on the recent land arrangement in the Negev. Sounds like a laugh-riot, no? The only problem is that “Fatima” was in fact Gila Tzimerman, a would-be comedienne from Ramat Gan, and “Fatima the Bedouin” is one of her characters. Unfortunately for Yediot, the reporter was not in on the joke and ran the interview as though it were real. Now some people want to display “Fatima’s” Abaya as a symbol of Israeli racism. Can we call it “Fatima’s Hoodie?” Al Sharpton, call your office. ***
In the middle of July, some IDF troops stationed in Hebron found themselves in a quandary. A six-year-old boy began throwing rocks at the Cave of the Machpela. A video shot by the good people of B’tselem (the saints responsible for building a case against virtually every security measure Israel dares to take to protect its people) shows the soldiers escorting the boy to his parents’ home, waiting until the father arrived, and then taking them both to the IDF’s central command and turning them over to the PA police. B’tselem filed a complaint against the IDF, saying it is “illegal to detain children under the age of 12.” B’tselem probably thinks it’s illegal for the IDF to detain Palestinians over the age of 18, too, but let that pass. On that same day, another 100 people were killed in Syria, most of them civilians. A “fighter” from one of the jihadist groups among the rebels probably beheaded three women. And in Nigeria, Somalia, and Mali, dozens of children were either slaughtered or died of hunger, mostly because the jihadists running rampant there decided not to transfer food to them., What’s that? You didn’t hear about the human rights abuses in those countries? Maybe that’s because B’tselem is too busy showcasing every step taken by the IDF, which operates under the bizarre notion that one of its job is to keep visitors to Hebron from getting their heads smashed in. Shana Tova. May it be a year blessed with health, happiness, and peace (with security) for you, your loved ones, and Klal Yisrael S.L.R.
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I sip some water. Narrow streets afford little shade. Nearby, a tiny kitten shares my thirst. Perched on the gratings of a drain, she is parched, desperately licking at evaporating drops of water. No one notices the sunken-eyed tabby. She is so tiny; I fear she might fall through. Sadly, already prisoner to my fascination with Jerusalem, I don’t think to stop and share with her my water. I am to live with this regret far longer than I could have guessed. We walk downhill. Soon we have entered a darkened street. At the far end, a steel door admits a bright rectangle of sunshine. Through the aperture, the noon light rushes to assault us. A folding table anchors two Israeli soldiers. Rosy cheeked, their cumulative ages barely amount to mine. Complexions heated from the dusty day, their dark green uniforms are little respite from the ascendant heat of the late Israeli spring. One of them rises. Instinctively, I reach for my passport. Without speaking, the soldier opens the document. He turns, not to the Israeli visa (which is tucked away on a piece of paper unsecured to my passport) but to the page proving my date and location of birth. Seeing my Muslim names, and speaking to Ibrahim in Hebrew to confirm I am Muslim, he waves me through. In a moment, he is returned to his boredom. They don’t question my guide. It appears they know Ibrahim by name. Seventh Century We fall into rank. Stepping over the threshold, I am in the seventh century.
Columns in the Al Aqsa Mosque (photo: Qanta Ahmed) “This was the entrance to the Second Jewish Temple that was here before Al Aqsa. You can see it is absolutely distinct. Without doubt, this had been a place of worship for Jews centuries before.” Ahead, a Muslim woman carries a basket of Arabic tea. Behind her trails the scent of cardamom. Despite her cumbersome abbayyah, she hurries, oblivious to the engulfing sadness. The trees are starved for water; the ground, while free of litter, is hardly beautified. Missing from this mosque, unlike so many others I have visited, is the sound of running water. Al Aqsa is far indeed. The silent groves look on, as we too, like many, who must surely approach the Dome of the Rock from this stark vantage, walk by. No one lingers where there is
no view. I am in a place where political conflict grows faster than grass, where outrage and agony are cultivated with more passion than vines, where brigades bloom in place of blossom. I am in a place where Muslims have neither nurtured themselves, nor the hallowed ground towards which, in the lifetime of the Prophet, our forefathers once prayed. I feel enormously sad. Reaching the Dome “First we go to the Dome,” announces Ibrahim. “It is very important for you as a Muslim, for us as Muslims, to understand this place. Very important.” I was taken aback by the intensity in my guide’s voice. “It is from here that we believe the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW) made the Night Journey around 621. Later, the Dome of the Rock was built here, from 685 to 691 CE. The Dome was meant to be a shrine to commemorate this sacred place. The Umayyad Caliph Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan ordered its construction. Other than the Ka’aba in Mecca, the Dome is the oldest surviving structure in Islam.” Rabbinic Instruction Somehow, this miracle had escaped me during my childhood education in Islam. It wouldn’t be until 2008, when a certain unknown Chicagoan was running for Presidential nomination, that I first heard about the mythic journey. Over dinner in Charleston, South Carolina, I had casually asked about the origins of the young candidate’s name, startling my friend, the late Rabbi Avner Bergman. Just what was the meaning of “Barak,” I asked him. Incredulous that I didn’t know, Rabbi Bergman explained Barak meant “lightning” and was also the name of the winged steed that carried the Prophet Mohammed on his Night Journey. Later, I would learn this was a journey Muslims believe to be both physical and spiritual, but at the time, I didn’t know which was more incredible—the miraculous journey, or the fact that my astonishing rabbi knew more about Islam than I. Muslim Tradition The miracle is recorded in the Quran in Surah Al-Isra. The Prophet, arriving on Barak, the winged horse, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, flew from the Masjid Al
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Haram in Mecca to the farthest Mosque Masjid Al Aqsa, believed to be in Jerusalem. From there, the Prophet and his winged mount traveled onto heaven. As the Prophet Mohammed rose in flight from this same place we were now approaching, some say the Angel Gabriel himself had strained to hold down the rock, preventing it from rising with the heaven-bound steed. Once in heaven, the Prophet would meet with all the great Prophets—Abraham; Moses; Jesus; as well as Joseph, son of Jacob; Aaron, brother of Moses; and John the Baptist. Later, the Prophet Mohammed alone would conference with his Maker. Other reports claim the Rock itself around which the Dome was constructed was the original fragment upon which Adam himself was hurled into exile to earth from heaven. Whatever one believes, that this was an ancient and revered place was without doubt. Preparing Approaching the entrance, I pulled my scarf closer to my throat. The Syrian wool scratched as I tucked every unruly strand of my hair under the cloth. Covered from head to toe, concealed behind oversized shades, only my periodic smile remained visible. I felt exposed. Returning to a legislated Muslim public space, my long-buried anxieties derived from living in Saudi Arabia erupted. Veiling triggers within me a paradoxical sense of exposure, the unpleasant feeling of being subject to scrutiny. But there was no time to investigate the currents of my private distress. A bearded Muslim man at the entrance to the Dome was already appraising me. Sensing my apprehension, Ibrahim, my gentleman guide, addressed the man first. Following his signal, I handed Ibrahim my passport. Proving “She is Muslim,” announced Ibrahim. The man, wearing a shirt but no tie (in the anti–secular fashion beloved of Islamists) remained unimpressed. Slouching in a plastic chair, unsmiling, he looked at my passport. My four Muslim names, my countless stamps from the Muslim world—including several to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar—and my evident ethnicity did nothing to reassure him of my Islamic pedigree. Shifting his significant weight from one laboring buttock to the other, he snapped, “Surah Fateha!”
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Impassive, he waited for me to speak. The first prayer a Muslim learns, the Surah Fateha, is the equivalent of the Shema or the Lord’s Prayer—prayers every Jewish or Christian child memorizes at the earliest age. I was incensed—yet another Muslim the arbiter of my faith! I spat out the verses I had first committed to memory while still cutting milk teeth. Only later did it occur to me this delivery may have been the height of disrespect to my own religion but the bearded sentry—the first, and ultimately only, person to question my religious identity in Israel—had struck a nerve. For a moment, veiling aside, in my anger, our gazes collided. We stared at
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one another, both knew he wielded the power to bar me entry. Convinced Fortunately, my insolent recitation had been sufficiently fluent to convince him of my authenticity. Surprised, I stepped forward toward the door. Again he held up his hand, this time gesturing to his right. Nearby, my guide proffered a laundry basket. Obediently, I reached in, pulling out what at first I thought was a machinemade headdress in the style of a hijab for an ‘Ihram’ (the special covering to visit Mecca during pilgrimages). Instead, the cloth I found had no ties, no elastic, no
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armholes. Stumped, I wondered what to do with a tablecloth. In a bizarre charade, both the sentry—assured now that I was a Muslim lady and thereby suddenly gallant—and my gentleman guide simultaneously demonstrated a universal sign language. I was to take the cloth and tie it around my waist to obscure my trousered legs. Looking more ridiculous than I felt, my anger abruptly washed away by relief, I promptly complied, and, slipping out of my shoes, I entered the Dome. Inside the Dome I blinked for some time before I could properly see. Despite the brilliant Jerusalem sunshine outside, the Dome was weakly illuminated. Inside, the air was dank. I walked briskly across the wallto-wall red-and-cream carpet rather the worse for wear. Ibrahim wasted no time, directing me immediately to the inner sanctum. I followed him down the narrow, uneven but carpeted stairs, finding myself inside a cave barely taller than my 5-foot frame. Within, several women were seated on chairs, chatting between prayers. Too debilitated with arthritis and obesity to be able to pray standing, they were, according to Islam, permitted to pray seated. Choosing a corner that wouldn’t disturb them, I informed Ibrahim I would be offering two brief “rakaats” (prescribed
Distinct brick work of Jewish temple easily seen (photo: Qanta Ahmed) movements and words) in prayer. With the cramped quarters of the cave, my intrusion on the territory of women already settled here, and my recent humiliation on being challenged as an authentic Muslim still smarting to the roots of my hair, I already knew this was not a site in which I could feel at ease. Unique Disappointment Here too, as in Saudi Arabia, my spiritual reverie had been dispelled before it could ever take root, dispelled by other Muslims. I am long familiar with the unique disappointment that a Muslim woman encounters in the Islamic public space, particularly when she is Western. Last time I had been less lucky. Deemed in violation of “Muslim” dress codes, my New York City “Lincoln-Park-After-Dark” manicure had barred me from praying at the Tomb of the Prophet Mohammed in Medina. The disappointment was still keen. I had made the journey at breakneck speed from Jeddah—a round trip of over 700 km—in a precious day carved out of a demanding schedule, but the black-gloved, fully niqab-ed adversary who awaited me was heartless. She blocked me from entering the enormous door with her short body. Roughly, grabbing my ungloved fingers in her black digits and crying out “Haram” as she admonished my flagrant artifice. I was banished outside. The anger of being denied worship
when willingly offered stings like no other. While today I had again been humiliated at the hands of a Muslim, this time by a man invested with the authority of a stacking chair, ultimately, in Jerusalem at least, I wasn’t to be denied worship. I found myself grateful for small mercies. I could have been docked for nail polish. Not Intended for Prayer Making a small space mine, I located the Qibla (the direction to Mecca). Raising my hands to my ears and, symbolically cutting myself off from my surroundings, I began to pray. Ibrahim remained aside. In the small cave, he was no more than 15 feet away, keeping patient vigil. Wishing not to intrude, in keeping with Muslim etiquette, he averted his gaze from me and the several other women who were praying, leaving us to our privacy. Kneeling, I felt the rock formations easily palpable under the carpet. As I prostrated in my rituals, the acrid limestone infused my prayers with dampness of eons. The carpet, cool to my forehead, felt humid. While clean, it was distinctly clammy. A garish yellow light bestowed a gloomy air to the ancient grotto. Try as I might, I felt none of the awe or bewilderment of Mecca. Perhaps I shouldn’t. The Dome was built purely as a means to preserve the cave as a shrine. The Ummayad Caliph had never intended it as a center of worship and, in this sense, while the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa are revered by Muslims, they pale in comparison to Mecca and Medina. Trying to Pray Nonetheless, I was praying at the center of the third holiest site in Islam. Encircling me was the octagonal building, a deliberate resonance with the circumferential Grand Mosque, the Haram Sharif, built around the ancient Ka’aba in Mecca. Soon here too I would be walking counterclockwise around this shrine, if I ever finished my prayers. For now, I tried to concentrate on my lines. With my restless mind, attention in prayer has been a lifetime struggle. My concentration was disrupted by an irritated exchange in Arabic. The voices were predominantly female and coming from the women around me. I hoped their criticism
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com wasn’t aimed at me. My waist wrapped in the tablecloth, my scarf covering even my ear lobes I knew I wasn’t the focus of their irritation (unlike my first day at haj when women around me had angrily protested my praying dressed in trousers. Finishing my supplication, which only my Maker knew how hastily I had offered, I turned to greet each recording angel on my shoulder with salaams, first my right, then my left. Now I could return to my surroundings. Criticism Ibrahim was still waiting patiently but now looking slightly more distressed. The heckling had been aimed at him. “They were protesting, saying I should be praying, not just ‘waiting’ here. I told them I was meditating, in contemplative thought, as any Muslim can be,” I nodded vigorously, “but they felt unless I was engaged in formal prayer, in salaat, I should leave.” He didn’t seem too irritated, but perhaps he was accustomed to this criticism. Personally, I couldn’t wait to leave the cave. As in so many esteemed places in Islam, once again, modern Muslims had made it their business to police each other’s religious expression. Even here, a place to which we had travelled with pure intentions in an effort to reach the origins of our worship, at the very center to which the Prophet Mohammed himself paid homage and prayed until Mecca was consecrated by the new religion, we were not free. The petty complaints of my fellow worshippers, the bureaucratic inquisition of the Muslim in the chair, these form the lowest points in my visit to Israel. The Farthest Muslims After offering prayers in the Dome’s inner sanctum, Ibrahim, my guide, led me up the steps. We were careful not to bang our heads on the low ceiling. Turning around at the top, Ibrahim pointed to the glass-enclosed roof of the cave, the Rock, showing me it remained intact. All I saw was a mass of electrical wiring. The sanctity of the stone was lost amid a spaghetti of cables and energysaving bulbs. I paused to snap the fractured blue tiles bearing the Shahadah, the Islamic creed of belief in the oneness of Allah and acceptance of Mohammed as His prophet, quickly moving on with diminishing hopes of capturing some
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architectural beauty. Upstairs, a maze of scaffolding interrupted the crude fans discrediting every edifice—so many barnacles pock-marking a long sunken ship. Limestone Leaving the Dome, we walked South, on to Al Aqsa. It was hotter still. At the doorway, four men gently chatting took in the scene of the American tourist and her guide. Patiently, they waited for the Asr prayer. My spirits lifted. This was a more animated scene, their expressions refreshingly benign. As we walked in, my eye fell on the
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shelves of books encircling massive pillars. They looked suspiciously homogenous—copies of the Quran, all from the same publisher. No one had moved them from their place. Ramshackle shelves lay bare awaiting shoes of the faithful. We were between prayer times. Al Aqsa was empty. Low-domed roofs arched overhead, each rendered in the same limestone. Pleasing corridors stretched in longitudinal halls. Here and there, a lone woman studied her Quran. Other than that, Ibrahim and I were alone.
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Dome of the Rock Jewish Temple Columns We walked around the corner and, approaching a smaller vestibule, we confronted enormous columns. Their diameter deeper than the height of a tall man, they were disproportionate to the low roof. Each of the massive pillars was carefully supported by modern concrete abutments and steel girdles. These pillars looked much older. They didn’t belong to Al Aqsa. Nearby, Ibrahim pointed out the roof overhead. A distinct break in the brickwork was evident. “This was the entrance to the Second Jewish Temple that was here before Al Aqsa. You can see it is absolutely distinct,” he said. And without doubt, it was easy to see, this had been a place of worship for Jews centuries before. Perhaps we were standing at the gate. Somehow, these hardy arches, these massive pillars had escaped even the Romans’ determined destruction of the Second Temple. Before this place was made ours, it had clearly been theirs. We were on borrowed ground. Incredible at something so ancient, confronted with the profound reality preceding Islam, we fell into the shared silence of young believers.
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Gifts from Mussolini Retracing our steps, we returned to the main level where Ibrahim pointed out the obscenely lavish series of pillars that stood in stark distinction to the main structure. “Gifts from Mussolini,” he explained. Il Duce had been currying favor with the then-Mufti of Jerusalem, an overt antisemite and eager pro-Hitler fascist. The pillars of Carrera marble had been either a bribe or a pay-off, possibly both. Either way, they were an architectural affront. In the austere seventhcentury structure, theirs was the clarion call for the marriage of arrogance and wealth that would come to define the modern petro-Islamic empire. After viewing the carved staircase of an imam’s pulpit, a gift from Syria, and studying the spectacular stained windows which had somehow remained intact, Ibrahim asked me if I wanted to wait for Asr prayer. I did not. A Prize Political Pawn Leaving the golden dome, it gleamed in the lowering sun; its radiance ever magnetic. Descending the steps, I stole a final, backward glance, just as I do whenever leaving Mecca. Framed by majestic, malachite Cypresses, the liquid disc was made a setting sun. I found my heart sinking in concert.
While the golden Duomo was indeed the jewel in Jerusalem’s extraordinary crown, today Israel’s very diadem, I had seen beyond the symbol. Today, rather than a treasure stewarded by Allah’s Vice-Regents, the Dome was no more than a cipher, a prize political pawn among Islamists. Hollowed by the modern Muslim world that dared lay claim to its legitimacy at the expense of its noble integrity, only memories of an extinguishing, romantic Islam now enlivened it. From afar, our Arab communities gleam like the dazzling Dome. From afar, their golden wealth and power intimidates and defines. In our lurid gold self-reflection, we forget the Dome defines not one, but two peoples. Inside, the most cursory view reveals the patchwork of decay and neglect at our core. A Place to Lament It’s not only Jews who mourn the Temple Mount, but Muslims too. While the followers of Moses weep for the destruction of the second Temple and before it, the first, the followers of Mohammed must lament the remnants of the last revealed faith. Our spiritual values as modern Muslims have died under the suffocation of dim ritualism prizing external religiosity, ill concealing our barren souls. We wither under the impositions
of a harsh, concrete Islam. The austere, if awesomely wealthy, Wahabiism has corralled the Muslims’ global public space at the expense of our noble history. Unchallenged, its Promethean clasp drains us of our last breath. Little thrives under such dominance. Not even the fertile soils of blessed, G-d-given Jerusalem, nor centuries of prayers invested by the loyalmost Keepers of the Covenant in the pristine sanctity of this place, the holy of holies, not even in the seams of the sacred Rock that enclosed Adam, the stone that Gabriel strained to still as Barak ascended, the earth trembled, and Mohammed was launched, not even the shade of Allah himself in which I walked at Al Aqsa that day—none of this can nurture us now. Nowhere in my long ago travels and imperfect memory is the anoxia of Islamism more apparent than the spent bosom of the Farthest Mosque. Here, we have become the Farthest Muslims. I feel our departure most acutely in Jerusalem, the world’s gentle biographer, the beating, romantic heart of all belief, to all People, of all Books. Jerusalem, dear Muslims, is home to a gilded dome rendered hollow, little more than a fading husk to the richness once contained therein. She is ours no more. Y
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Murderers First Despite Ms. Livni’s stand, Hatnua MK Elazar Stern said he favored a referendum for two reasons. His first was the same as Mr. Wortzman’s. “I really think this would be a very painful decision, and in order for us to keep going as a society and a country afterwards, it would help not to have this excuse—which is sometimes a valid one—that it was done in an underhanded way and that the nation didn’t have the final say,” said Mr. Stern. His second reason was that a referendum would give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more freedom to negotiate. “Netanyahu could more easily make decisions on contentious issues knowing that Israelis will have a chance to voice opposition,” said Mr. Stern. Not Too Far Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin of the Likud offered
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continued from page 1 a third reason: Knowing there will be a referendum will affect the negotiators, he said. “They will not offer farreaching suggestions that the public will not support. They will not make fools of themselves,” he said. Mr. Elkin believes Mr. Netanyahu is prepared to relinquish more than 80 percent of Judea and Samaria to reach an agreement. However, the Palestinians have made clear they will not accept anything less than 100 percent. Therefore, there will be no agreement, said Mr. Elkin. 14 Percent Solution Mr. Elkin recalled that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke about Israel’s keeping only 14 percent of Judea and Samaria, an offer that was rejected by the PA. Now the PA is demanding that Mr. Netanyahu start negotiations from where former Prime Ministers
Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert left off. They had agreed to give away much more land, but the current Israeli government has refused, saying the offers by Messrs Barak and Olmert are off the table. If the PA were willing to accept Mr. Sharon’s formula, Mr. Elkin said he would be “worried.” “Netanyahu would go for it, forming a Palestinian state in 86 percent of Judea and Samaria,” he said. Mr. Elkin said that such an agreement would mean evicting from their homes about 70,000 Jews who reside beyond the settlement blocs. “If the Palestinians, G-d forbid, will become flexible and go for it, we will get the worst agreement possible. Upon receiving 86 percent of the land, they will establish a terrorist state.” No Flexibility So far, flexibility has not been the PA’s strong suit. After the resumption of negotiations was announced by US Secretary of State John Kerry last month, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas laid out his vision for a permanent status arrangement that he said he will insist on once the talks start. “We have already made all the necessary concessions,” he told reporters, without delineating any of them. As the PA has demanded for years, he maintained that all land won by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War will have to become Palestine with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. Further, he said, there will have to be a “right of return,” which, for the Palestinians, means millions of Arabs who fled Israel in 1948—and their descendants—will have the right to flood back into Israel proper. Referring to the idea of socalled “land swaps” based on the
pre-1967 borders, Mr. Abbas said, “If there is a need to carry out limited exchanges of territories that are equal in their size and value, we are willing to discuss that, no more and no less.” Judenrein He declared that in the final resolution, “we will not see the presence of a single Israeli—civilian or soldier—on our lands.” Arab affairs expert Dalit Halevy explained that, for Mr. Abbas, “Israelis” means “Jews” just as “Palestinians” refers to residents of the PA as well as to Israeli Arabs. Already Jews are not permitted to reside inside the PAcontrolled territory and the sale of land to Jews is punishable by death. Gil Ronen of Arutz Sheva pointed out that while, in Mr. Abbas’s vision, Palestine will be judenrein, no one is expecting Israel to expel its Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of the Jewish state’s population. “Baffling” Given the situation and the poor prospects for a positive conclusion, many Israelis agreed with Nobel Prize winner Prof Yisrael Aumann, who said he was “baffled” by the Netanyahu government’s decision to release 104 terrorist prisoners, many with Jewish blood on their hands, simply to persuade the PA to return to negotiations. Others, however, agreed with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who said that, as distasteful as it is to release the murderers, all of whom committed their acts of terror before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, “from an international point of view, the Israeli government cannot be seen as the party that rejects entering negotiations.” Minister of the Interior Gidon Saar of the Likud said that,
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On Profiling: A Jewish Perspective By Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz, Agudas Achim North Shore Congregation, Chicago, IL George Zimmerman’s trial is over. Or is it? The announcement by US Attorney General Eric Holder that the investigation regarding the so-called human rights dimension of the case is still ongoing, focusing on the question of whether or not Mr. Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin, and whether that alleged profiling, in and of itself, constituted an act of racism, demonstrates that the case against Mr. Zimmerman is alive and well, no matter its distortion. When I first became the spiritual leader of Agudas Achim North Shore Congregation more than 15 years ago, the shul rented a Sabbath apartment for my family and me in a building at the corner of Lawrence and Kenmore Avenues in Chicago. Our fellow residents in this rather rundown Uptown apartment house were a colorful lot, including dope pushers and a smattering of transvestites and prostitutes. In fact, one of the pastimes in which my sons engaged on long Friday winter nights, was observing the scene playing out in front of their bedroom window as our neighbors pursued their profession. On occasion, these would evolve into physical encounters resulting in four or more squad cars appearing on the scene. This ever-changing panorama of perversion entertained my sons for hours. Inner City We would arrive about two hours before the onset of the Sabbath. We all had Sabbath attire at the apartment. We would shower and dress, and then, as a family unit, walk to synagogue about three blocks away. Uptown at that time was a rather difficult inner-city community, The blessing of gentrification was years away. On several occasions, our walk to and from synagogue on Friday evenings resulted in confrontations with “Uptowners” who made it clear they did not particularly care for Orthodox Jews in their neighborhood. At times, this required my sons, all three of them six-footers, to defend us from the vile language accompanied by physical attacks. On one occasion, my late son Rabbi Yosef literally picked a fellow up and flung him five feet to the ground in front of us. The confrontation ceased.
Looking for Parking Parking in Uptown is still at a premium, and it was not uncommon for us to cruise the neighborhood to find a parking space for the Sabbath. This circling around the block could take as long as 20 minutes. Eventually, this problem was solved when my very good friend Fr. Richard Simon, then of St. Thomas Roman Catholic church, located directly across the street from the building in which we stayed, arranged for us to park our cars over the Sabbath in the church parking lot. On one occasion, my son Levi drove directly from his job and arrived only three minutes before the onset of the Sabbath at sundown on Friday. Very upset, he told us the following story:
After circling the neighborhood block many times, Levi noticed a car pulling out ahead of him and he quickly got to the spot to park his car. Reaching into the back seat for some last-minute items he had brought for the Sabbath, he was grabbed from behind, his hand twisted behind his back and forcefully pressed down on the hood of his car spread-eagle. When he recovered from the initial shock, he realized he was being held down by a policeman, and the policeman’s partner was standing by his side. Interrogation “What are you doing in this neighborhood?” asked the policeman in a very accusative manner.
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On Profiling
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Levi replied ever so innowhite and perhaps because cently, “I live here,” to which he is Jewish. He appeared to the retort was, “White boys professional law enforcement like you don’t live in Uptown.” officers as an individual who I should point out that Levi “didn’t belong in the neighwears a kippah and often his borhood.” tzitzis, hang over his pants. My family spent the entire “You are cruising, looking Sabbath discussing this issue to score some dope.” continued and how we should react to the cop, “Let’s see your ID.” it. Initially, we were outraged. Unfortunately for Levi, he My son was dressed in a shirt had forgotten that his ID listed and slacks, driving a clean latehis address at our permanent model automobile. How dare home on Maplewood Avenue the police profile him, rough in West Rogers Park. him up, and accuse him of being Finding the Truth in the neighborhood solely to make an illegal buy of narcotics! The fact that it was now We determined that I would established that he did not file a formal protest with the live in Uptown and had lied about his residence, infuriated local police district and conthe police. They told him they tact the Alderman about this were going to run him in and outrageous event. then find out what he was reDoing Their Job ally doing in Uptown. As the Sabbath progressed Terrified and upset that and we cooled off a bit, we gave he would be forced to vioit more thought. Why did the late the Sabbath by driving police handle him in such a fashin the sqad car, Levi blurted ion? We realized they must have out, “My father is the rabbi in watched as he cruised the neighthe synagogue on Kenmore borhood for at least 15 minutes Avenue—Rabbi Lefkowitz. before parking his car. A white Please check this out.” young man decently dressed Fortunately for him, one in a late-model car cruising Upof the policemen called and town? To them, it was a simple they learned Levi was telling deduction to determine that he the truth. He was the rabbi’s was obviously seeking a conson. They let him go with a nection for narcotics. perfunctory apology. Their gruffness in grabbing him and pushing him down Profiled on his car’s hood was underLevi had been profiled 1 8/6/13 3:18 PM Page 1 They had no posstandable. byAlonso_JV:Layout the police because he is
sible charge to bring against him. What they were trying to achieve was to strike fear into his heart, so that he never would come to Uptown again seeking narcotics. They were simply doing their job. And so, by the time the Sabbath ended, my family came to the simple conclusion that while, for my son, this was an awful and harrowing experience, nevertheless, in order for law enforcement to provide for a safe community, profiling was essential. Mob Justice Today, while the Department of Justice is revisiting the human rights aspect of Trayvon Martin’s death, prompted, in the main, by the unrest and demands of crowds taking to the streets— for, as we all know, both the F.B.I. and the local states attorney’s office, after extensive investigations, already determined that there was no racism involved in Mr. Zimmerman’s profiling of Mr. Martin—we in the Lefkowitz home think back to my son’s encounter with the Chicago police, understanding, from our own experience, that such situations must be seen from all perspectives. I pray that those Americans experiencing anger will calm down and use their common sense in dealing with this situation. The death of Mr. Martin was a tragedy. The loss of a hu-
man life at the hands of another is always a tragedy, no matter the nature of the individual. Whether or not Mr. Zimmerman was engaged in selfdefense, as he says he was, when he shot Mr. Martin, can never be known beyond a reasonable doubt. We do not know which of them threw the first punch. Mr. Zimmerman says Mr. Martin did. We know Mr. Martin banged Mr. Zimmerman’s head against the pavement. Was Mr. Martin engaged in self-defense? We do not know beyond a reasonable doubt, and, therefore, Mr. Zimmerman had to be acquitted. Introspection We must, however, not add to that tragedy by allowing our society to be further divided along racial lines. This would demean the memory of Mr. Martin. Let the result of his tragic death be greater introspection on the part of every American regarding how each of us can deepen the sensitivity needed to advance the cause of mutual respect and the dignity of each human being in our great society. May Mr. Martin’s untimely death result in America moving ever forward toward the utopia it can be for all of us— truly “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Y
Wishing you and your families a Healthy and Happy New Year District 38: Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, Paramus, New Milford
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Rabbi Jeremy Donath: OHEL’s Bergen County Community Coordinator for Programs and Services the Community Needs Rabbi Jeremy Donath, spiri-
tual leader of Congregation Darchei Noam in Fair Lawn, has just been named by OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services as the organization’s first Bergen County Community Coordinator. Rabbi Donath will undertake to connect OHEL with all the local schools and shuls of the eight towns comprising the Orthodox community of Bergen County: Bergenfield, Englewood, Fair Lawn, Fort Lee, New Milford, Paramus, Teaneck, and Tenafly. He will work to introduce OHEL’s services to the community and identify the community’s needs that can be addressed by OHEL. Minneapolis-born Rabbi Donath is a graduate of Yeshiva University, and has been a teacher and rabbi at the Torah Academy of Bergen County high school in Teaneck,
Empathetic Teacher and Rav In the eighteen months since arriving in Bergen County, Rabbi Donath has drawn attention as a gifted speaker and teacher. While serving as his shul’s rav, he met and married his wife, Shira. They reside in Fair Lawn. Robert Katz, OHEL’s director of development, said the organization is “thrilled” to have Rabbi Donath as a colleague. “I have personally known Rabbi Donath for several years and have watched him become a true community leader with great empathy for the needs of those in distress,” said Mr. Katz. Simcha Feuerman, director of OHEL’s Lifetime Care Foundation, was equally enthusiastic. “Rabbi Donath has a keen interest and insight into the social concerns that affect the families and children in this community, making him a superb partner
in expanding OHEL’s important work,” he said. For more information on OHEL and its many services which can benefit individuals and the community, the organization can be reached at 201-692-3972 or at www.ohelfamily.org. New Apartments The organization is hoping the same contributions OHEL has made to other communities will be duplicated in Bergen County. For example, to accommodate the growing needs of the mentally ill in Brooklyn, OHEL recently opened new apartments for residents who came from more supervised government housing programs, which were based on a transitional housing model. The expected stay in those government programs is 18-24 months, after which residents graduate to permanent housing, which is what OHEL provides along with comprehensive therapeutic services as part of the personal recovery program. Supported housing is a type of permanent housing model which helps residents further integrate into the community and improve their wellness and recovery. Stable and Affordable This process starts with OHEL’s stable and affordable housing program, which recognizes that individuals are loath to relocate
each time they make progress in their rehabilitation. Recognizing this need, OHEL’s new Supported Housing Program has increased housing opportunities for people with mental illness. According to Marc Katz, director of OHEL Access, the men and women who made the move to these beautiful apartments are very pleased with the transition. “After just a few weeks, they already love their new neighborhood and lifestyle. Overall, these moments motivate us further to enhance and expedite the everyday growth of our new housing program,” he said. In June, a group of about 150 adult men and women from OHEL’s residential and psychiatric programs traveled to Bear Mountain State Park for what has become an annual picnic and barbecue. They included residents from OHEL’s Kadimah Clubhouse, Fort Hamilton residence, 41st residence, and OHEL’s supported housing programs, Integrated Chavrusas Other OHEL programs work to integrate individuals with developmental disabilities into the general community. Jennifer Gruenfeld, who serves as OHEL’s volunteers-coordinator, decided it would be nice for students at the Rambam Mesivta in Lawrence, New York, to
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New Faces Signal Positive Change at JEC’s RTMA in Elizabeth return to its Elizabeth campus after summer vacation, Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy (RTMA) will look quite a bit different. RTMA is a division of the Jewish Educational Center. Several recent key appointments have already made changes in the high school, which is set to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2015. Chief among the newcomers to RTMA is veteran educator Rabbi Peretz Hochbaum, who will serve as the school’s new principal. Academic Excellence and Torah Ideals Prior to joining the JEC faculty this past spring, Rabbi Hochbaum was the director of Camp Kaylie. The camp is OHEL’s summer program that fully integrates disabled children with those developing normally. Rabbi Hochbaum brings with him an impressive resume and record of excellence as an educator, administrator, and innovator.
Rabbi Donath learn in chavruas with individuals from OHEL Bais Ezra’s many programs for those challenged by developmental disabilities. According to Rabbi Hillel Goldman, Rambam’s assistant principal, what happened was “a transformative experience that has resulted in friendships being made, barriers being broken, and meaningful Torah being studied and shared.” Most of the Rambam students who participated in the program had no prior experience working with people with disabilities. Yehuda Moskovits and Sam Cohen, who were Rambam juniors last year, became the leaders. Fun and Inspiring “It was a great experience for us as well as the OHEL guys. We couldn’t have done it without
According to Rabbi Eliyahu Teitz, associate dean of the JEC, Rabbi Hochbaum’s creative vision, expertise, and commitment to academic excellence and modern Torah ideals are a natural fit with the JEC’s overarching mission. Becoming principal on July 1, Rabbi Hochbaum has focused on adding to the already strong academic record of the high school. He intends to expand the school’s areas of opportunity and achievement for its students. Other Appointments Other appointments to RTMA this school year include Rabbi Ami Neuman, who will serve as assistant principal of the school; Rabbi Noach Sauber, assistant principal; and Rabbi Sharir Yablonsky, associate principal of the Middle School. For the past ten years, Rabbi Neuman has made significant contributions to RTMA, serving as Rebbe, curriculum coordinator for Judaic Studies, and
continued from page 20 all the guys who were willing to show up every week and learn,” said Mr. Cohen. Mr. Moskovits said getting to know the men from OHEL and learning the parsha with them was “fun.” “It truly was an incredible experience and I can’t wait for next year,” he said. The learning program culminated in a barbecue at Rabbi Goldman’s parents’ home in Lawrence. Rabbi Goldman found the entire experience inspiring. “When I see men from OHEL come into Rambam, their faces light up as they run to hug their Rambam chavrusas. The OHEL advisors tell me that the individuals from OHEL look forward to learning at Rambam all week and talk about it all week. I know our guys at Rambam feel the same way,” said Rabbi Goldman. S.L.R.
director of student activities. “His creativity, commitment, and energy all make him a beloved and successful educator,” said Rabbi Teitz. Guidance and Activities Jeffrey Frank, who has been a respected and successful teacher at RTMA for the past three years, will serve this year as director of college guidance. “He has proven his outstanding commitment and involvement in many aspects of the school, both educationally and beyond,” said Rabbi Teitz. Rabbi Yisroel Rich, another popular RTMA Rebbe, guidance counselor, and athletic director, will now supervise all student activities in his new role as director of student life. Excitement Rabbi Hochbaum said he was excited about the new appointments. “We anticipate tremendous growth and achievement as a
direct result of these important appointments. RTMA is blessed to have an outstanding team of educational professionals who care for every aspect of our students’ development. We are confident that with everyone working together, we will reach even greater heights of educational excellence,” he said. Rabbi Teitz agreed, saying the school has focused on its leadership level. “The JEC is committed to maintaining its long-standing tradition of excellence and achievement, and Rabbi Hochbaum’s appointment is an essential first step to ensuring and strengthening that record,” he said. A JEC parent, observing the inroads made by Rabbi Hochbaum, echoed the school’s enthusiasm. “He has brought an electric charge. This is a really exciting development for RTMA,” said the parent. Y
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Get Inspired at Rockland Window Covering Located on Route 59 in Spring Val-
ley, Rockland Window Covering—the same full-service home-design shop featured on HGTV’s “Home Rules” and in the book, “The Retail Doctor,” by Bob Phibbs—stands ready to help customers visualize how its products will look in their homes. Its devoted customers—old and new—say it is the perfect place to shop for hard and soft window treatments, custom headboards and bedspreads, cornices, pillows, a full line of fabrics and wallpaper, as well as upholstered furniture and reupholstery. Set up as a magnificent multi-room house rather than a simple showroom, the
store features ideas galore with its windows dressed in everything from simple shades to high-end elegant draperies. While this makes the store a cozy, comfortable place to shop, Rockland Window Covering not only furnishes homes, but commercial locations as well, including senior citizen residences striving to ensure their clients’ satisfaction. Rockland Window Covering offers a full team of designers and an expert sales staff ready to offer guidance and suggestions, and is well prepared to allow each customer time for browsing among the many brands as well. Customers love that the store’s wellpriced items are available during the week,
on Sundays by appointment, and even through a shop-at-home service. The owners stress that the Sunday hours are ideal for New Jersey shoppers. Licensed and insured, Rockland Window Covering has an installer on staff who was trained by Hunter Douglas, the industry’s largest manufacturer of custom-made window treatments. The store’s reputation has spread far and wide, attracting customers as well as designers from New York and the surrounding area and as from as far away as Florida. Located at 312 Route 59 in Spring Valley, Rockland Window Covering can be reached at 845-356-5181. Its staff is ready to serve you. Y
Brother-and-Sister Business in Teaneck Helps Others Go on Vacation While most yeshiva students spend
summers at camp or on vacation, a teenage brother and sister team in Teaneck decided to start a business to help with household chores for vacationing families. Called simply “While You’re Away,” the business offers a full range of services to help take care of the simple chores that still need to be seen to whether people are home or on vacation. “We’ll bring in your newspapers, mail, and packages. We’ll feed and take care of your pets in the comfort of their own home. We’ll even walk the dog. We’ll water your lawn and plants, and do much more,” said Yaeli Rothschild, 13. According to her brother and business
partner David, 15, their services allow people to enjoy “a peaceful, worry-free vacation.” “We’ll take care of all your needs while you’re away,” said David Rothschild, a student at the Torah Academy of Bergen County. Finding a Niche Yaeli Rothschild, who attends the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, said that although most of their friends go to camp in the summer, “that is just not something that appealed to my brother and me.” Instead, they observed that during the summer, their shul and even their entire neighborhood in Teaneck empty out. “We decided that the fact that so many people go away provided us with a real
opportunity to form a business. People go away for the summer, and we offer a unique service to help them,” said Ms. Rothschild. Customers Although they started “While You’re Away” only this summer, David and Yaeli Rothschild had little trouble lining up customers. For more information about “While You’re Away” and the young entrepreneurs who run it, contact them at whileyoureaway1@gmail.com. “And bon voyage,” said Mr. Rothschild. S.L.R.
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The Log: Do It Now
If You Are a Vendor, consider the AMIT Chanukah Boutique in West Orange on Nov 10, prodin@rocketmail.com, or the one at Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck on Nov 17, emil.rdh@gmail.com The American Guild of Judaic Art On-Line Mentoring Program, for students in grades 7-12, including special needs, who want to learn how to create Jewish art at no cost to students or parents, 404-9812308 or office@jewishart.org , write “student artist application” in the subject line; deadline to apply is Nov 1, www.jewishart.org Team OneFamily has some spots for those who want to run for the One Family Fund (Israel’s only national organization dedicated to comprehensive help for all of Israel’s victims of terror and their families) in the NYC Marathon on Nov 3, includes online training, racing gear, and personalized online fundraising page, 646-289-8600 ext 201 Applications now being accepted for 18 COJECO (Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations) BluePrint Fellowships for Russian-speaking Jews to receive mini grants up to $5,000 to create a Jewish communal project. After an interview process, selected participants attend 14 sessions throughout the year, are matched with a personal mentor who is an expert in the field of the project, and receive many networking opportunities. Deadline is Sept 30, http://cojeco.org/cojeco-blueprint-fellowship-application-13-14/ or irka90210@yahoo.com
Shabbat, Aug 10
Shabbat Iyun Tefillah, preparatory melodies, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 8:20am, 718-796-4730 Minyan Tiferet Lunch and Learn Shabbat, featuring “Who are G-d’s Enemies and Why Do We Sing about Them on Shabbat,” Prof Shalom Holtz, private home in Englewood, begins 9:30am, minyantiferet@gmail.com Moshava Ba’ir Family Shabbaton, for families with children in grades K-5, includes pre-lunch program and camp luncheon, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:30am, 201-261-3200 “The Human Vision of Beauty: Music after the Destruction of the Temple,” for women, Dr. Rebecca Cypress, private home in Highland Park, 5pm, 732-777-1611, 732-777-1504, or 732-247-0532 Study Group: “The Thought of Rabbi Tzadok from Lublin,” Prof Alan Brill, private home in Teaneck, 5:30pm, safek7@gmail.com “Haggai,” for women, Sharon Weinstein, private home in East Brunswick, 5:45pm, 732-2541860 or 732-613-9511 Likud MK Moshe Feiglin, private home in Teaneck, 6pm, 201-8019060 or ruthy.bodner@gmail.com “Elul Inquiries: Gearing Up for the High Holy Days by Exploring Curiosity in Matters of Religious Piety: Off the Top of My Head: The Origins of the Kippah and Other Religious Head Gear,” Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, followed by seudah shlishit, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 6:30pm, 201-833-0515 “Instilling Midot in Our Children,” Rabbi Chaim Hagler,
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield, 7pm, 201-637-7470 Yael Zand, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:45pm, 718-796-4730
Motzei Shabbat, Aug 10
“My Second Aliyah: Life in Ariel and How the Anglo-Dati Olim Are Helping the City Reach Its Potential,” Elie Hochhauser, private home in Edison, 9:45pm, 732979-4653 or eliehoch@yahoo.com Radio Show: Eligible Jewish Bachelor, with Lori Salkin, featuring Dr. Tova Weinberg, www. JewishTalkRadio.com, 10pm, 845613-2525 or info@lorisalkin.com Tiferes Teleconference: “Effective Parenting for Harmonious Living through Understanding and Action,” a Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation program for women, Dr. Sara Teichman, private home in Highland Park, 10pm, 732-572-4713 Unity Café at Ginger Grill Kosher Restaurant, featuring Pey Dalid in concert, doors open, 10pm; music, 10:30pm, unitycaferiverdale@gmail.com
Sun., Aug 11
Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 9-11:30am, 201-797-1770 or fairlawngemach@aol.com Sofer for Mezuzot and/or Tefillin Same-Day Checking, Anshei Lubavitch Cong, Fair Lawn, 9:20am, 201-794-3770 “Are You Big Enough to Care? On the True Meaning of Greatness,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 Sunday Funday: A Visit to the Eye Doctor, Dr. Shoshana Pinsky, includes tours, face painting, games, and a chance to look at spectacle and sunglass collections, private office in Englewood, 10am-noon, smpinsky@yahoo.com Family Fun Day, spons by Above and Beyond Childcare Center, includes vendors, a Bouncy House, music and dancing, story time, face painting, snacks, and car-seat checks by the Rutgers University Police Dept., at Cong Anshe Emeth, Highland Park, 10:30am-12:30pm, 732-545-5437 Junior Sunday Programs for Special-Needs, for ages 5-18,
includes swim, gym, music, and Jewish education, JCC, West Orange, 12:30pm, 973-530-3400 Cong Beth Abraham of Bergenfield Community BBQ, for adults and children, includes food, Dube Zone activities, and a petting zoo, Veterans Memorial Park, Bergenfield, 3-6pm, 201-384-0270, 201-384-0434, 201-357-8653, or tzipgellman@optonline.net Jewish Summer Fest, includes food and BBQ, music, handson arts and crafts, children’s rides, spons by Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 5:30-8:30pm, 609-8228500 (rain date Aug 25) “The Cries of the Shofar: Pre-High Holiday Program for Bereaved Jews,” Rabbi Steven Exler and Anna Kirshblum, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 6:15pm, 718796-4730 ext 108 or 718-601-9714 Rockland and Bergen County Adoptive Families Meet-Up and Support Group, for those who have already adopted or are in the process of adopting, internationally and domestically, private home, 7:30pm, www. meetup.com/Rockland-and-Bergen-Adoptive-Families Comedians Eli Lebowicz, Eli Shapiro, and Mordechai Schmutter, Teaneck General Store, 7:30pm, 201-530-5046 “Soul Maps: Kabbalah to Navigate Your Inner World: Have a Heart,” Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, Anshei Lubavitch Congregation, Fair Lawn, 8pm, 201-794-3770 “Big Things, Small Package: The Power of Borchu,” Rabbi Neil Lauer, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-836-6210s
Mon., Aug 12
“Jewish Immigrant Experience,” for grades 4-9, Sheryl Intrator-Urman, Arts for Learning Summer Program, Englewood, 9:30am-2:30pm, 201-503-9796 Watercolor Painting Class, for children 10-13, Shana Falda, private studio in West Orange, 10am, also Tues, Aug 13; Wed, Aug 14; and Thurs, Aug 15, shana_falda@yahoo.com Tele-Class: “My Mother, My Father, my Son, My Daughter: How to Understand and Parent Teenagers: A Modern Psychoanalytic
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“Separate Yourself Not from the Community” Perspective for the Modern Jewish Family,” Dr. Yisrael Feuerman, noon, 973-249-8111 “Are You Caring for a Holocaust Survivor in Your Family: Empowering Caregivers,” Harriet Blank of OHEL, JCC, West Orange, 1:30pm, 973-765-9050 ext 1727 “Life on the Line: You Make the Call,” for teens, Chabad Jewish Center, Toms River, 2pm, 732-349-4199 “The Biblical Book of Leviticus: Feeler or Follower?”
Rabbi Asher Herson, Chabad Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7pm, 973-625-1525 ext 227 NJ Yachad’s Fathers Support Group, for fathers of specialneeds children, private home in Passaic, 8pm, herrmann@ou.org “Important Facts We Should Know about the Peace Process,” Dr. Nathan Lander, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:10pm, joshuazelig@yahoo.com, 201-837-2795 West Orange Mayor Robert
Parisi, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 8:15pm, 973-736-1407
Tues., Aug 13
“Pre-Yamim Noraim Shiur: Entering and Exiting the Pardes,” Sara Hurwitz, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 10am, 718-796-4730 “Judaism, Humor, and Why My Rabbi Is Not a Stand-Up Comedian,” Rabbi Ely Allen, Café Europa, for Holocaust survivors, transportation available, Fair Lawn Jew-
ish Center, 11am, 973-595-0111 “1492 and Beyond: How the Jews Emerged from the Ghetto and Entered the Modern World: Out of the Ghetto,” Prof Robert Fierstien, includes dessert and coffee, JCC, Margate, 11am, 609-822-1854 Bereavement Group for the Death of a Spouse, Dr. Sherry Schachter, Calvary Hospital, Bronx, 1pm, 718-518-2125 or 718-518-2674 Klezmer 101: Everything
continued on page 26
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continued from page 25
You Always Wanted to Know, Mark Levy, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 2:30pm, 845-362-4400 Cocktail Reception to Welcome Rabbi Samuel Klibanoff and His Family to Cong Etz Chaim in Livingston, at the Crystal Plaza, Livingston, 6-9pm, 973-597-1655 Theatre Trip to See “Soul Doctor” on Broadway, with Rabbi Steven Exler, leave Hebrew Institute of Riverdale 6:30pm, 718796-4730 “Winning the Muhammad al-Dura Blood Libel Battle: The Hoax That Fueled Violence and Suicide Attacks against Jewish Targets,” Philippe Karsenty, JCC, Scotch Plains, 7pm, 908-889-8800 “Floral Design Jam Session,” for women, including mothers and daughters, Barbara Chinsky Cohen, Dramatic Innovations Floral Design, Suffern, 7pm, 845-504-0833 Musical: “Les Miserables,” presented by Black Box Studios with a cast of 32 children and teens, Cong Beth Sholom, Teaneck, 7:30pm, www. blackboxnynj.com, also Wed., Aug 14, and Thurs., Aug 15, 7:30pm Pilates, for women, Sharon Rynhold, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-907-0180 “Teaching the Whole Child—Is it Really Part of Our Mesorah?” Rabbi Yonah G. Lazar, new dean of the Clifton Cheder and Bais Yaakov, private home in Clifton, 8pm, 973-473-7979 Chai Early Childhood Center, the East Brunswick Chabad Preschool Open House, for parents of children 18 months to 4 years, 8:30pm, preschool@ebchabad.com
Wed., Aug 14
Teach Expo: “Expanding
Teaching Horizons,” Holiday Inn, Cherry Hill, 10am-4pm, 201634-0338 Jewish Folk Music, Mark Levy, JCC, Tenafly, 11:15am, 201569-7900 Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 1-3pm, 201797-1770 or fairlawngemach@aol.com 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 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 NCSY Bible and BBQ, for teens, private home in Highland Park, 7:30pm, 732-227-0270 Flower-Arranging Class, for women, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm, razelk@gmail.com Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David Sisterhood Jazz Night, private home in West Orange, 8pm, 973-325-2712 Tehillim Group, Cong Shaare Tefillah, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-2895474, 917-902-9303, or 201-836-3431 Webinar: “Judeo Psychological Reflections on Suffering,” spons by Project Witness, 8:30pm, http://projectsinai.org/channel. php/project-witness/en/event/166/ judeo-psychological-reflectionson-suffering#.UfF1QmTSNZ8 “Rapid Alert: Webinar on Preparing and Guiding Teenagers,” for Parents, Rabbi Doniel Frank, 9pm
Thurs., Aug 15
Last Day for Donation of New or Like-New Baby Clothes
Sizes Preemie to 12 Months, to benefit Just One Life in Israel, drop off at private home in Edison, 732-572-5241 or abby.hochhauser@gmail.com Men’s Night Out: Skeet Shooting, spons by Cong Arzei Darom, at Thunder Mountain Trap and Skeet, Ringwood, includes BBQ and trap shooting, leave Teaneck with carpools, 6:30pm, sethmg@gmail.com “Soul Maps: Kabbalah to Navigate Your Inner World: Have a Heart,” Rabbi Michel Gurkov, Chabad Center, Wayne, 7:15pm, 973-694-6274 Kosher Cooking Class: Poached Mediterranean Salmon with Vegetables, Bulgar, and Wheat Salad, Chef Meir, spons by Torah Academy of Bergen County Parents Association, private home in Teaneck, 7:45pm, 201-836-9369 or zaklowlevy@gmail.com
Fri., Aug 16
Cantor Sidney S Dworkin, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 7pm, through Shabbat morning services, Aug 17, 201-833-0515
Shabbat, Aug 17
Educational Prayer Service, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, includes discussions and commentary, prayers in English and Hebrew transliteration, at Cong Zichron Mordechai, Teaneck, 9:45am, 201-966-4498 “What’s in a Nickname: Understanding the Acronyms of Elul,” for women, Miryam Kiderman, private home in Bergenfield, 4:15pm, gabrielle.altman@gmail. com or gmkaye1@gmail.com Shifra Rabenstein, for teenage girls and women, includes seudah shlishit, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, “V’Samachta Lifnei Hashem: The Simcha of Being Connected,” 4:14pm; “Olam Hafuch: Our Mixed Up World,” 5:15pm, 973-736-1407 “Zecharia and Malachi,” for women, Aviva Wasser, private home in East Brunswick, 5:45pm, 732-254-1860 or or 732-613-9511 “Stage Theories (Based on the Idea That People Follow a Particular Trajectory Over Time as They Develop) and Teshuva,” Miryam Kiderman, Cong
Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 6:20pm, 201-837-2795 “Elul Inquiries: Gearing Up for the High Holy Days by Exploring Curiosity in Matters of Religious Piety: Can This Get Any More Difficult? A Look at the Matter of Chumrah (Stringency) in Halachic Literature and Religious Thought,” Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, followed by seudah shlishit, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 6:25pm, 201-833-0515
Sun., Aug 18
Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 9-11:30am, 201-797-1770 or fairlawngemach@aol.com “Between One Jew and Another: The Joy of Shared Jewish Experience,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 Creative Movement with Tova and Baking with Rivkie, for children ages 3-5, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 10am, oechildren@gmail.com Yeshiva at the Jersey Shore Golf Outing, at Trump National Golf Club, Colts Neck, includes breakfast, silent auction, shotgun start, and cocktail hour, 10:30am, 732-663-2929 Junior Sunday Programs for Special-Needs, for ages 5-18, includes swim, gym, music, and Jewish education, JCC, West Orange, 12:30pm, 973-530-3400
Mon., Aug 19
Camp Lego Maniacs, for children entering grades 2-8, JCC-Rockland, West Nyack, 9am-4pm, 845-362-5500 ext 111, through Fri., Aug 23 Friendship Circle End-ofSummer Camp, for children and teens ages 5-16 with special needs, volunteers are needed, private location in Paramus, 10am-3pm, through Thurs., Aug 22, and 10am1pm, Fri, Aug 23; 201-262-7172 or Zeesy@BCFriendship.com Lunch and Learn: “Insights into the High Holy Day Prayers,” Rabbi Neil Winkler, includes lunch, Young Israel of Fort Lee, noon, jswilder1@aol.com “The Biblical Book of Leviticus: High Walls and Mighty Wills,” Rabbi Asher Herson, Chabad Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7pm, 973-625-1525 ext 227
Pre-Holy Day Workshop: Machzor Mapping, Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 8pm, 201-833-0515
Tues., Aug 20
“Pre-Yamim Noraim Shiur: Entering and Exiting the Pardes,” Sara Hurwitz, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 10am, 718-796-4730 Women’s Club for Widows, Jewish Federation and Vocational Services, Concordia Shopping Center, Monroe, 10:30am, 732-7771940 or 609-395-7979 “1492 and Beyond: How the Jews Emerged from the Ghetto and Entered the Modern World: Avenues of Escape,” Prof Robert Fierstien, includes dessert and coffee, JCC, Margate, 11am, 609-822-1854 Men’s Bereavement Discussion Group, Dr. Sherry Schachter, Calvary Hospital, Bronx, 1pm, 718518-2125 or 718-518-2674 Tie Dye and BBQ, for ages 22-30, to benefit Nahariya, at the Jewish Federation, Paramus, 7pm, 201-820 3900 Cong Ahavas Achim Sisterhood Book Club: “The Shoemaker’s Wife” by Adriana Tigiani, private home in Highland Park, 8:30pm, 732-572-2285
Wed., Aug 21
Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 1-3pm, 201-797-1770 or fairlawngemach@ aol.com 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
Thurs., Aug 22
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 “Wild Pets,” Bergen County Zoo, Paramus, 6pm, 201-262-3771 An Evening of Entertainment and Tribute, honoring Ron and Barbara Zukin and Jason and Jessica Goldstein, spons by Chabad at the Shore, JCC, Margate, 6:30pm, 609-822-8500 Kaballah and Wine-Tasting: “How Can I Become a Happier
August 2013/Elul 5773
Person,” Rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson, kosher wine tasting with Mike Ryan, Chabad of Upper Passaic County, Haskell Towne Center, 7pm, 201696-7609 Kosher Cooking Class: Poached Mediterranean Salmon with Vegetables, Bulgar, and Wheat Salad, Chef Meir, spons by Torah Academy of Bergen County Parents Association, private home in Teaneck, 7:45pm, 201-836-9369 or zaklowlevy@gmail.com
Fri., Aug 23
Clothing Drive for Yad Leah in Israel, looking for baby clothes, towels and tablecloths, for needy families in Israel, drop offs at private locations in Suffern, Teaneck, and Englewood, 9am-10pm, 845729-5329 or 201-871-2320 Jewish Learning Experience Kabbalat Shabbat Educational Prauer Service, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 7pm, 201836-1606 or 201-543-1959
Shabbat, Aug 24
Luncheon, honoring Fred Hochberg for 25 years of presidency and the shul for 90 years of service to the community, Cong Agudath Achim, Bradley Beach, noon, 732772-2495 or famlevitt@aol.com Study Group: “The Thought of Rabbi Tzadok from Lublin,” Prof Alan Brill, private home in Teaneck, 5:30pm, safek7@gmail.com “Elul Inquiries: Gearing Up for the High Holy Days by Exploring Curiosity in Matters of Religious Piety: Silent Nights and Days: The Role of Ta’anit Dibbur, Fast from Speech, as a Spiritual Corrective,” Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, followed by seudah shlishit, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 6:15pm, 201-833-0515 “Incantations and Dying for Others’ Sins: What Do We Really Mean When We Say Selichot?” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 6:15pm, 201907-0180 Shiur, Abe Mezrich, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:45pm, 718796-4730
Sun., Aug 25
Clothing Drive for Yad Leah in Israel, looking for baby clothes, towels and tablecloths, for needy families in Israel, drop offs at private locations in Suffern, Teaneck, and Englewood,
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Hashana Package of Honey Produced at Kibbutz Ein Harod from Israeli Wildflowers, Young Israel of Teaneck Sisterhood, yiotsisterhood@gmail.com Camp Lego Maniacs, for children entering grades 2-8, JCCRockland, West Nyack, 9am-4pm, 845-362-5500 ext 111, through Fri., Aug 30 “Life on the Line: You Make the Call,” for teens, Chabad Jewish Center, Toms River, 2pm, 732349-4199 Cong Beth Abraham of Bergenfield Family Night, baseball game: Rockland Boulders vs NJ Jackals, kosher food, playground, and kiddie train ride, Provident Bank Park, Pomona, NY, 7pm, 201-384-0434 “The Biblical Book of Leviticus: Sparkling Deeds,” Rabbi Asher Herson, Chabad Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7pm, 973-625-1525 ext 227 Gov Mike Rounds (R-SD) for Senate, spons by NORPAC, private home in Teaneck, 7pm, 201-788-5133 Yom Tov Boutique, featuring Helen’s Hats and Stella and Dot Mon., Aug 26 Jewelry, and GOL_Walk4Life_Ad_Layout 1 7/29/13 10:21 scarves, AM Page 1 handbags, Last Day to Purchase Rosh continued on page 28
8am-10pm, 845-729-5329 Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 9-11:30am, 201-797-1770 or fairlawngemach@aol.com Shiur Reviewing 2nd and 3rd Mishna Sukkah, for incoming 9th and 10th graders and their parents, Rabbi Elie Michel, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 9:15am, 973994-2620 “Children, Health, and Wealth: Why Bother G-d with our Personal Requests?” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 Challah Workshop, Riverdale YMHA, for families, 10am; for adults, 11:30am, 718-548-8200 JACS Meeting, 12-steps meeting for Jews in recovery, Rabbi Steven Bayar, Cong B’nai Israel, Millburn, 6pm, 973-379-3811 Hester Street Klezmer Troupe, in concert, Cong Rodef Shalom, Atlantic City, 8pm, 609-345-4580 Israeli Families Social Gathering, for adults, JCC, 8pm, 201569-7900
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Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
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Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange, 7-9pm, 973-669-7320 Pre-Holy Day Workshop: Nusach Notes, Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 8pm, 201-833-0515 TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO, 9pm
Tues., Aug 27
“Pre-Yamim Noraim Shiur: Entering and Exiting the Pardes,” Sara Hurwitz, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 10am, 718-796-4730 Bereavement Group for the Death of a Spouse, Dr. Sherry Schachter, Calvary Hospital, Bronx, 1pm, 718-518-2125 or 718-518-2674
Wed., Aug 28
Rosh Hashana Luncheon, for seniors, Riverdale YMHA, 11:30am, 718-548-8200 Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 1-3pm, 201-797-1770 or fairlawngemach@ aol.com “Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt Who Photographed the Kiss in Times Square on VJ Day,” Jim DelGiudice, spons by the JCC, Edison, at a private location in Highland Park, 1pm, 732-4943232 ext 614 “Jewish Soul: Hebrew and Yiddish Melodies,” violinist David Podles, Riverdale YMHA, 1:15pm, 718-548-8200 Second Generation, for children of Holocaust Survivors, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7pm, 201-837-9090 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm,
201-837-9090 “Celebrate Hallel,” Elie Lichtschein in concert, Teaneck General Store, 7:30pm, 201-530-5046 “Sweet Beginnings: Inviting Introspecting and Reflection into Creating a Meaningful Rosh Hashana for You and Your Child,” for parents of children 3 years through Kindergarten, Morah Sarah Richter, SAR Academy, Riverdale, 8pm, www.saracademy. org/spiritualsparksrsvp TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO2, 8pm Tehillim Group, Cong Shaare Tefillah, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-2895474, 917-902-9303, or 201-836-3431
Thurs., Aug 29
TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO, 4:30pm “Australian Animal Adaptations,” Bergen County Zoo, Paramus, 6pm, 201-262-3771 “Kibud Av V’Em: Taking Care of One’s Elderly Parents,” Rabbi Hershel Schachter, includes refreshments, CareOne, Teaneck, 7pm, amarkowitz@care-one.com
Fri., Aug 30
Songs by Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, violinist Natalie Kriegler, Riverdale YMHA, 10:30am, 718-548-8200 Sale of Rosh Hashana Honey from Israel, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, noon, 718-796-4730
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
Shabbat, Aug 31
Carlebach Minyan, Cong Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn, 8:45am, rabbidonath@gmail.com Tefilat Shlomo: The Carlebach Tefila of Riverdale, includes light and healthy Kiddush, at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 9am, 718-796-4730 Educational Prayer Service, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, includes discussions and commentary, prayers in English and Hebrew transliteration, at Cong Zichron Mordechai, Teaneck, 9:45am, 201-966-4498 “Standing on the Edge of Life and Faith as the New Year Begins: Uvacharta Bachayim,” Rabbi Jeremiah Wohlberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 10:30am, 718-796-4730 Unity Kiddush, for all minyanim, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, noon, kiddushoe@hotmail.com Cong Beth Abraham Women’s Seudah Shlishit, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 4pm, 201384-0434 Cong Beth Aaron Women’s Potluck Seudah Shlishit, private home in Teaneck, 4pm, 201-836-6210 Cong Beth Aaron Sisterhood: “American Dervish” by Ayad Akhrar, private home in Teaneck, 5pm, 201-837-0651 Children’s Back-to-School Meal, with Rabbi Eliyahu Kaufman, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 5pm, oechildren@gmail.com
Motzei Shabbat, Aug 31 Selichot
Selichot Concert with Dr. Elli Kranzler, followed by Selichot, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 10:15pm, 718-796-4730 Erev Shira v’Hitorerut, spons by Migdal Oz and Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, at Ma’ayanot, Teaneck, Shira, for women only, 10:15pm; “Between Selichot and Tefila: Approaching Hashem during the Yamim Noraim,” Yoetzet Halacha Shoshana Samuels, for men and women, 11:30pm; selichot minyan, 12:15am, 212-732-4874
Sun., Sept 1
Art Exhibit: “Heavens Above and Earth Below,” watercolors by Paula Cantor, JCC,
Tenafly, through Wed., Sept 25, 201-569-7900 TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO, 11:15am Fair Lawn Gown Gemach, private location in Fair Lawn, 9-11:30am, 201-797-1770 or fairlawngemach@aol.com “Children, Health, and Wealth: Why Bother G-d with Our Personal Requests,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 Open House for Cong Kehillas Bais Yehudah, for those considering moving to Wesley Hills, with Rabbi Joshua Blass, at the shul, Wesley Hills, NY, 2-5pm, zdrew1@optonline.net Welcome Back-to-School Fiesta, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, spons by Rutgers Hillel, private home in New Brunswick, 7pm, 732-2460207 or 732-545-2407 Rebbetzin Tehila Jaeger, for women, to benefit the inaugural Teaneck Chai Lifeline Shabbaton, private home in Teaneck, 8pm, 201-907-0919 or Denise_ort@ yahoo.com
Mon., Sept 2
Welcome BBQ and Jewish Activities Fair, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 4-7pm, 732-545-2407 “The Biblical Book of Leviticus: To Live and Die For,” Rabbi Asher Herson, Chabad Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7pm, 973-625-1525 ext 227
Tues., Sept 3
Deadline to apply for the Jewish Federation of North Jersey’s Young leadership Program, for Jewish high school sophomores and juniors, in collaboration with Nahariya, Israel, the course will be held at the Jewish Federation, Paramus on Sundays, 11:30am12:30pm, begins Sept 22, badler@ bchsjs.org or 201-820 3900 Deadline for senior citizens or the physically challenged to request assistance from Jewish Federation of Northern NJ’s Bonim Builders in constructing
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com a sukkah; volunteers are also needed, 201-820-3903 Women’s Club for Widows, Jewish Federation and Vocational Services, Concordia Shopping Center, Monroe, 10:30am, 732-7771940 or 609-395-7979 Men’s Bereavement Discussion Group, Dr. Sherry Schachter, Calvary Hospital, Bronx, 1pm, 718518-2125 or 718-518-2674 “The Threat of Radical Islam: Worldwide Effort to Muzzle Free Speech, Homegrown Jihad, Terrorists Infiltrating Our Borders, Muslim Brotherhood and Creeping Sharia Law, Pro-Islamic Bias and Indoctrination in Public Schools, and how ACT! for America Is Successfully Rolling Back the Tide of Radical Islam,” Guy Rodgers of ACT! For America, Elmer Grange Hall, 7pm, 856-358-8691 or actforamerica@donationnet.net
Wed., Sept 4 Erev Rosh Hashana
Rosh Hashana Celebration, for seniors, Rabbi Gary Katz, JCC, Tenafly, 11:15am, 201-569-7900 TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO, noon Rosh Hashana Dinner, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732-545-2407
Thurs., Sept 5 Rosh Hashana
“I Wish I Understood Everything I Was Saying Minyan,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck 8:45am, 201-907-0180 Jewish Learning Experience Free High Holiday Rosh Hashana Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 10am, 201-966-4498 Rosh Hashana Lunch, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 1pm, 732-545-2407
Fri., Sept 6 Rosh Hashana
“I Wish I Understood Everything I Was Saying Minyan,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck 8:45am, 201-907-0180 Jewish Learning Experience Free High Holiday Rosh
August 2013/Elul 5773
Hashana Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 10am, 201-966-4498 Rosh Hashana Lunch, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 1:30pm, 732-545-2407 Shabbat Dinner, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 7pm, 732545-2407
Shabbat, Sept 7
Study Group: “The Thought of Rabbi Tzadok from Lublin,” Prof Alan Brill, private home in Teaneck, 5:30pm, safek7@gmail.com
Sun., Sept 8 Tzom Gedalia
Whitewater Rafting on the Delaware, spons by Rutgers Hillel, includes Tashlich, leave New Brunswick, 8am, kelsmaxx@sbcglobal.net Yom Iyun: “Everyone for Themselves? The Role of the Shleach Tzibbur on Rosh Hashana,” for men and women, Rabbi Yaakov Blau and other members of the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls faculty, at Ma’ayanot, Teaneck, 9:30am, 201-833-4307 Munich 11 Memorial Ceremony, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 9:30am, 845-362-4400 “More Than Perfect: When Effort Trumps Perfection,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500 Meet the Artist Reception: Paula Cantor and “Heavens Above and Earth Below,” JCC, Tenafly, 1-3pm, 201-569-7900 Art Exhibition: Marilyn and Lewis Cohen, Teaneck General Store, 4-6pm, 201-530-5046 Rockland and Bergen County Adoptive Families Meet-Up and Support Group, for those who have already adopted or are in the process of adopting, internationally and domestically, private home, 7:30pm, www. meetup.com/Rockland-and-Bergen-Adoptive-Families Tzom Gedalia Break-theFast, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, spons by Rutgers Hillel, private home in New Brunswick, 8pm, ravakiva@ rutgershillel.org
Mon., Sept 9
TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics be-
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
cause he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO, 8am Birthright Israel Registration, for those who have previously applied but, for any reason, did not go to Israel, Greg Yellin, Rutgers Hillel, noon, 732-545-2407 “The Biblical Book of Leviticus: When You Dream a Dream,” Rabbi Asher Herson, Chabad Center of Northwest NJ, Rockaway, 7pm, 973-625-1525 ext 227 Birthright Information Session, Greg Yellin, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 9pm, 732-754-8811
Tues., Sept 10
TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO, 5:15am Birthright Israel Registration, Greg Yellin, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 10am, 732-545-2407 Lunch ‘n’ Learn, Rabbi and Rebbetzin Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 1pm, 732-545-2407 Bereavement Group for the Death of a Spouse, Dr. Sherry Schachter, Calvary Hospital, Bronx, 1pm, 718-518-2125 or 718-518-2674
Wed., Sept 11
Sukkot Celebration, for seniors, Rabbi Gary Katz, JCC, Tenafly, 10:45am, 201-569-7900 Cooking Class: “You’re Hungry, Sit Down and Eat,” for parents and Children age 10 and up, JCC, Tenafly, 6pm, 201-569-7900 Jewish Business Network of Passaic County, for schmoozing, socializing, and networking with likeminded professionals, Chabad Center, Wayne, 7pm, 973-694-6274 Support Group: Strength to Strength, for parents whose children, 15-25, are dealing with chemical dependency, psychological disorders, and/or co-occurring issues, Dr. Jeffrey Berman, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-569-7900 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 Abused Women’s Confi-
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dential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 Makhela Israeli-Style Choir, for Hebrew readers, Zev Klein, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-569-7900 Tehillim Group, Cong Shaare Tefillah, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-2895474, 917-902-9303, or 201-836-3431
Thurs., Sept 12
TV Film: “Glickman,” about Marty Glickman who was denied the chance to represent the US at the 1936 Berlin Olympics because he was Jewish and went on to become one of the most revered and influential sportscasters in history, on HBO2, 9:35m Senior and Active Adult Expo, JCC, Margate, 10am-2pm, jfink@jccatlantic.org “Harry Truman, His Relationship to the Zionist Leaders and Israel’s Founding Fathers, and the Behind-the-Scene Politics Leading to Israeli Statehood in 1948,” Robert Watson, JCC, Margate, 7:30pm, jfink@jccatlantic.org Slichot Ice Cream Pre-Yom Kippur Pallooza, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732-545-2407
Fri., Sept 13 Erev Yom Kippur
Pre-Yom Kippur Meal, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, private home in New Brunswick, 4pm, 732-545-2407 Kol Nidre Service, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 6:30pm, 732-545-2407 Jewish Learning Experience Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 6:45pm, 201-966-4498
Shabbat, Sept 14 Yom Kippur
Orthodox Yom Kippur Service, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8:30am, 732-545-2407 “I Wish I Understood Everything I Was Saying Minyan,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck 8:45am, 201-907-0180 Jewish Learning Experience Free Yom Kippur Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 10am, 201-966-4498 Break-the-Fast Meal, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 732-545-2407
continued on page 30
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August 2013/Elul 5773
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
New Classes This Month Sundays
Exercise on Rockland County’s Many Trails and Parks, private location, 8:30am, yehudisf@yahoo.com Weight Watchers, Riverdale YMHA, 9am, 718-548-8200 The Place to Dance, for intermediate and advanced Israeli dancers, Tamar, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-569-7900 Krav Maga, for men ages 18 and up, Juan Berrios,Young Israel of Teaneck, 8pm, yiotmensclub@gmail.com Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Chaim Jachter, Cong Shaarei Orah the Sephardic Cong of Teaneck, 8:15pm, mjachter@msn.com
Mondays
Mommy/Nanny/Granny and Me Art Class, for children 18-36 months, private home in Teaneck, 9:30am, ndsausen@optonline.net, begins Sept 9 Knitting Club, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 11am, 201-568-1315 Intermediate Israeli Dancing, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, noon, 845-362-4400, begins Sept 9 Karate, for parents and children, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 7:30pm, 201-568-1315 Ladies Tehillim Group, for refuahs, readings in English and Hebrew, Young Israel of East Brunswick, 7:45pm, 732-254-1860 “Orchot Chayim of the Rosh: A Holistic Way of Life,” Rabbi David Bassous, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 8pm, 732-247-3839 Advanced Hebrew, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 8pm, 718-548-2461 Tai Chi, beginners welcome, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 8pm, 201-568-1315 “Four Levels of Gemara Stressing Skills,” Rabbis Eliyahu Zimmerman, Heshy Greenfeld, Avraham Shulman, and Baruch Bodenheim, includes refreshments, Passaic Torah Institute, 8:30pm, begins Aug 19, 973-594-4774
Tuesdays
“Torah Gems,” for men, Rabbi Moshe Goldberger, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 8:30am, 732-247-0532 Mishna, for men, Rabbi Avigdor Weitzner, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 9:30am, 732-247-0532 “Parsha Pearls,” Yehuda Goldin, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 10am, 201-568-1315 “Great Jewish Letters: An Analysis of Fascinating Letters by Great Jewish Personalities,” Yehuda Goldin, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 11am, 201-568-1315 Non-Sectarian Bereavement Group: “Sharing the Journey,” spons by Holy Name Medical Center, at Villa Marie Claire, Saddle River, 10:30am, 201-833-3000 ext 7483 or 7580, begins Sept 10 Teleconference Shiur: “The Teshuva Workshop: Focus Points for a Women’s Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur Avodah,” for women,
Dina Schoonmaker, 2pm, womensvaad@gmail.com Weight Watchers, Riverdale YMHA, 6:30pm, 718-548-8200 Preparing for the US Citizenship Test, for adults 18 and up with permanent-residency status (Green Card), taught by retired educators and attorneys, Monmouth County Library, Manalapan, 7pm, 732-431-7220 ext 7222 or 5483, begins Sept 10 Alateen, confidential meeting for girls ages 9-19 who have friends or family with addiction issues (codependency, internet addiction, gaming, ocd, food addiction, eating disorders, substance abuse, etc), Rikki Wisotsky, LCSW, Cong Tifereth Israel, Passaic, 7pm, 973-249-7435 Israeli Folk Dancing, Tamar, JCC, Tenafly, 7pm, 201-569-7900 Machshava Chabura through the Prism of Rav Dessler’s Classic “Michtav Me’Eliyahu,” Rabbi Benni Krohn, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-837-2795 “Torah with a View,” Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, spons by Chabad of Hoboken, private home in Hoboken, 8:30pm, www.chabadhoboken.com Gemara Kiddushin in Depth, with Chavrusa, Rabbi Shlomo Singer, Passaic Torah Institute, 8:30pm, begins Aug 20, 973-594-4774 Gemara, Rabbi Shlomo Nussbaum, in conjunction with the Highland Park Community Kollel, at the Young Israel of East Brunswick, 8:45pm, 732-254-1860, begins Aug 13 Daf Yomi B’Iyun: Explore a Topic from the Week’s Daf Yomi in Depth, Rabbi Shlomo Landau, Young Israel of East Brunswick, 8:45pm, 732-254-1860 Women’s Tehillim Group, complete Sefer Tehillim as a zechus for a refuah sheleima for cholim, private home in Clifton, 9:15pm, 973-472-1030
Wednesdays
The Shakespeare Group, reading “Othello,” private homes in Teaneck, 9:15am, hfrisch@gmail.com Mommy/Nanny/Granny and Me Art Class, for children 18-36 months, private home in Teaneck, 9:30am, ndsausen@optonline.net, begins Sept 11 “Kohelet: Ancient Solomonic Wisdom for the 21st Century,” for women, Rabbi Yaakov Weinstein, Young Israel of East Brunswick, 9:45am, 732-254-1860 Non-Sectarian Bereavement Group: “Sharing the Journey,” Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, 6:30pm, 201-833-3000 ext 7483 or 7580, begins Sept 11 Intermediate Hebrew, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:30pm, 718-548-2461 “Four Levels of Gemara Stressing Skills,” Rabbis Eliyahu Zimmerman, Heshy Greenfeld, Avraham Shulman, and Baruch Bodenheim, includes refreshments, Passaic Torah Institute, 8:30pm, begins Aug 21, 973-594-4774 In-Depth Talmud, Rabbi Yaakov Weinstein, Young Israel of East Brunswick, 8:30pm, 732-254-1860 “Modern Jewish History,” for men and women, Melissa Ka-
The Log
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Sun., Sept 15
Dog Day at the J, for dogs and their families, includes “Ask the Vet,” “Barkery of Pet Treats,” “Kids Crafts Corner,” “Animal Rescue and Adoption,” contests: “Best Costume,” “Pet Tricks,” “Dog/Owner Look Alike,” JCC, Bridgewater, 10am-1pm, 908-725-6994 ext 210 “Ecology: The Web of Life,” for children ages 10 and under, Riverdale YMHA, 11am, CGalik@RiverdaleY.org Sukkah Building, spons
by Rutgers Hillel, at the corner of College Ave and Stone St, NewBrunswick, 11am, 732-545-2407 Sukkot Celebration, for Israeli families, includes story time for children, JCC, Tenafly, 201-569-7900
Because new events come in all month long, check The Jewish Voice website, JewishVoiceand Opinion.com, to make sure you don’t miss a thing.Y
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com
August 2013/Elul 5773
pustin, Cong Etz Chaim, Livingston, 9pm, Melissa@injurylawyer.com Tehillim Network, for girls and women, for individuals who need refuah, private homes in Highland Park and Edison, 9pm,732-393-1018 or 732-819-7127 Emunah and Bitachon, Rabbi Yisrael Weiss, spons by Khal Chassidim, at Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 9:15pm, 732-586-2005 Live, Interactive TeleWorkshop: “Practical Steps to a New You to Prepare for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur,” Rebbetzin Tzipora Heller, 10pm, 732-806-1578
Thursdays
Gemara, for men, Rabbi Shlomo Nussbaum, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 8:30am, 732-247-0532 Mostly Mishmar, for grades K-3, includes pizza and interactive introduction to various middot, Young Israel of East Brunswick, 5:30pm, 732-254-1860 “Biblical Hebrew and Siddur Study, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:30pm, 718-548-2461 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 (973-773-2552); Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park (732-247-0532); Kehillas Bais Yehudah, Wesley Hills, (917-623-4711), Cong Knesses Yisrael, Spring Valley (845-354-6493), 9pm
Fridays
AM Kollel: “Inyonei Choshen Mishpat: Dealing with Workers and Compensation,” Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 6:20am, 201-836-8916 “Tractate Megillah 3rd Perek,” Rabbi Steven Exler, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:25am, 718-796-4730 Challah Baking Workshop, spons by Chabad at the Shore, private storefront, Margate, 10am, 609-992-4900 Taste of Shabbat, for newborns to toddlers 3 years old, YJCC, Washington Twnshp, 1pm, 201-666-6610
Shabbat
Shiurim, for women, Rabbi Mordecai Swiatycki, private home in New Hempstead/Spring Valley, 5pm, 845-354-1078 Summer Learning for Girls, ages 10-13, Rabbis Yitzi Genack and Aaron Fleksher, Riverdale Jewish Center, 5pm, yg@rjconline.org or schlossd@gmail.com
Motzei Shabbat
Radio: “Shidduch Night Live,” Lori Salkin of Saw You at Sinai with eligible bachelor guests, www.JewishTalkRadio.com, 10pm, 845-6132525, shidduchradio@gmail.com, or info@lorisalkin.com
Sundays-Thursdays
Riverdale Morning Kollel, Young Israel of Riverdale, 8:30-10am, mkolelofriverdale@gmail.com Dirshu Mishnah Berurah: Hilchos Yom Tov, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 35 minutes before mincha and at 9:30pm, 732-985-1111
Special
For Beginning and Advanced Daf Yomi Learners with a PC, IPad, or Galaxy, watch the video and beside the lecturer, there is the Daf being learned, with the discussed topic marked in yellow, http://dafhachaim.org
New Minyanim
Shacharis, Daughters of Miriam, Clifton, 9am, there are men who live in the independent-living apartments and assisted-care residents who rely on this minyan, but they have a difficult time getting ten men, especially in the summer. It would be a mitzvah to help them, 973-772-3700 Metro Park Mincha Minyan, Woodbridge Hilton, Suite 400, 4th Floor, Iselin, NJ, Mon-Thurs, 1:35pm, 732-588-6133 or metroparkminyan@gmail.com Maariv Minyan, Riverdale Jewish Center, 9:30pm, 718-548-1850 Slichot Services, Rabbi Akiva Weiss, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 10:30pm, Sept 1-11, 732-545-2407
Chesed Ops
Donate to the Friendship Circle’s Rummage Sale, looking for used and new clothing, shoes, handbags, small working appliances and elec-
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
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tronics, housewares, glassware, china, CDs and DVDs, books, toys, office supplies, linens, charitable donation receipt, 201-599-0125, 11am-10pm Volunteers are needed for Somaich Achim of the Passaic Jewish Family Services which has enhanced its food-pantry program. This is separate from Tomchei Shabbos. Somaich Achim offers non-perishable food items, produce, and consumer items free of charge. It is held at Cong Adas Israel, Passaic, every other Thursday, 9:30am-1:30pm and 8-9pm, 973-246-7717, 862-703-8578 The Baby Gemach, spons by Chabad of West Orange, has partnered with the Passaic Baby Gemach. They are looking for items such as cribs, car seats, swings, basinets, high chairs, pack ‘n’ plays, and strollers, 973-883-7030 or 973-486-2362 Tomchei Shabbos of Bergen County Bar and Bat Mitzvah Program gives children a way to commemorate their simcha with a chesed project, 973-371-1771 ext 411 Rabbi Raziel Amar, a chaplain in the US Army stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, needs $800 to build a permanent sukkah for the servicemen he leads. He tells us, “In addition to allowing Jewish servicemen to fulfill the mitzvah of Sukkah, it will stand as a reminder to all military personnel that, despite military might, the only true protection comes from Hashem.” Rabbi Amar can be contacted at rz106@aol.com Gently Worn Sheitels needed for Monsey-wide Sheitel Gemach, there is a long list of women in need, 845-270-8484 Rutgers Jewish Xperience is starting its wwn kosher house on campus and needs supplies, all tax-deductible, including crockpot, pots and pans, BBQ grill, bread-maker, mezzuzoth, sukkah, schach, folding chairs and tables, Jacob.binstein@gmail.com Ya’ad of Highland Park will pick up items to be donated in Highland Park’s town-wide garage sale on Sun, Oct 6, 201-4076801 or YAADYouthDirector@gmail.com Koshertroops is raising money to send 400 Jewish US soldiers Rosh Hashana packages, www.koshertroops.com Y
Mazal Tov
Mazal Tov to the Bat Mitzvah Girls: Rebecca Cooper, Meira Gildin, Beth Gononsky, and Sara Tova Singer; and the Bar Mitzvah Boys: Donny Berlinger, Philip Blumin, Gedalia Dock, Eliyahu Goodman, Eli Gross, Daniel Honikman, Ari Katz, Yitzy Kavelson, Eli Rand, Ariel Rivkin, and Yoni Rothberg Mazal Tov to Holy Name Medical Center’s Vice-President Edward Gerity on receiving the Patriot Award from the National Guard in recognition of his efforts to support our nation’s Citizen Warriors. Mazal Tov also to the medical center on achieving Healthgrades’ 2013 Maternity Care Excellence Award. This places Holy Name in the top ten percent of all hospitals evaluated, for the exceptional care provided to mothers during and after childbirth, and to their newborn babies. Mazal Tov to Debbie and Teddy Cohen, Avigayil and Yaakov Cohen, and Norman Gurman on their son and grandson, Juda Cohen, representing and playing basketball with Team USA in the Maccabia Games in Israel and bringing home a gold-medal victory. Other NJ members of the team were Spencer Weisz, Lior Levy, Michael Greenman, and Anthony Firkser Mazal Tov to Judy Goldrich on winning first place for the Young Israel of East Brunswick in YU’s Cholent Competition at the Jewish Future Championsgate Leadership Conference in Orlando Mazal Tov to the city of Margate, NJ, on dedicating the Raoul Wallenberg Plaza at the intersections of Jerome and Fulton Avenues Mazal Tov to JM Sunday, hosted by Mattes Weingast, on its first anniversary Sept 1 as part of the Nachum Segal Network. The show is heard on Sundays on the Internet, NachumSegal. com, from 7-9am Y
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Jerusalem
August 2013/Elul 5773
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 1
lem Mayor Nir Barkat denied last month that there is any problem at all. When asked about security in his city, he cited statistics which, he said, show that Jerusalem “is one of the safest cities in the world.” “Los Angeles has ten times more crime per capita and so does Moscow,” he said, praising the Jerusalem police force, which, he said, is larger than that of any other city in Israel. He included the Old City in his analysis, pointing out that “tens of thousands of people each day go to the Old City and usually have no incidents that are reported to the police.” Stabbings However, the facts point to a different reality. On Thursday, July 11, three Arabs attacked an 18-year-old Jewish teenager, kicking and spitting on him. Although the Arab attackers fled the scene, police found and arrested them. According to the police, the teenager, who did not require medical attention, was attacked simply because he was a Jew. It was similar to another attack in late June on a young Jewish man in his early 20s who was jumped while walking along the promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, a walkway that offers a beautiful view of the city. In that case, the Arabs fled when the po-
lice came and the victim was taken to a nearby hospital. In the middle of July, there was a third incident. Near the Damascus Gate, which is an entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City, a 33-year-old hareidi Jew was stabbed in the chest and back. Taken by ambulance to Shaare Zedek Hospital, he was listed in moderate condition. Slashed Tires The next morning, residents of the Abu Tor neighborhood discovered that the tires of 12 Jewish-owned cars had been slashed overnight while they were parked on the street separating the predominantly Jewish section of the neighborhood from the Arab one. While police were loath to say the attack was motivated by nationalist concerns, residents pointed out that only vehicles belonging to Jews—noted by their license plates—were targeted. Arab-owned cars were untouched, as were vehicles belonging to diplomats and UN personnel. On several occasions this year, Jewish residents of relatively affluent Abu Tor have had rocks and even firebombs thrown at their homes. Arutz Sheva news pointed out that when Arab vehicles were targeted, presumably by Jewish extremists, in the IsraeliArab village of Abu Ghosh, it was front-page news for days
and prompted denunciations from a wide variety of Israeli elected officials. In contrast, the attack against Jews in Abu Tor received a far more low-key response from media and politicians,” said Arutz Sheva’s Gil Ronen. Proud Videos On Wednesday, July 17, a group calling itself “Free Qudss” (referring to the Arab name for Jerusalem) uploaded a video to YouTube that showed a frenzied Arab mob targeting cars driven by Jews as they passed near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. The video began with the words “Destroying the settlers’ cars and arrests.” While no cars were actually destroyed, the scene was one of rioters in pursuit of mayhem. A few days later, Free Qudss put out another video, this one showing Israeli police arresting rioting Arabs outside Herod’s Gate in Jerusalem. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told reporters the video seemed to be of the arrests of four Arabs whom police suspected were involved in the stabbing of the hareidi man as well other incidents. According to Mr. Rosenfeld, Arabs had been rioting virtually every night near the Damascus Gate in the middle of July to protest the ouster of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi. He said another problem was that thousands of Muslims were passing through the Damascus Gate on their way to prayer at the Temple Mount because of Ramadan. “I Said Shema” Visiting the hareidi victim who had been stabbed near the Damascus Gate, Israel’s Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan of the Jewish Home party said it was “impossible to allow an attack
like this in a civilized country.” The victim told him that after feeling the knife, he recited the prayer before death, “Shema Yisrael.” The Arabs in the area who watched the incident, he said, “just stopped and stared, and no one was interested in what happened to me.” He was rescued by a passing police patrol. 10-Year-Old Victim While he was still in the hospital, a 10-year-old Jewish girl was admitted to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital after being hit in the head by a rock as she walked by the EMUNAH College of Arts and Technology in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Baka. The child was there for an art exhibit held in the college. A week later, a 40-year-old Jewish man was stabbed at Liberty Bell Park. The victim was discovered in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem attempting to drive himself to the hospital. Instead, he was treated by Magen David Adom medics and rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem. At about the same time, another Jew was also stabbed, but only lightly wounded, again at the Damascus Gate. Police did not know if the two incidents were related. Attacking Police Violence in the city escalated, and on Monday evening, July 29, an Arab attempted to stab an Israeli police officer near the Shimon Hatzaddik neighborhood. The stabbing took place after the officer stopped the man for a traffic violation. According to the police report, the driver attacked the officer with a screwdriver. The officer drew his weapon and ordered the attacker to stop. When the attacker continued to advance, the officer fired shots in the air, which did not serve as deterrence. Although the officer shot
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com the attacker in the leg, the Arab nevertheless managed to climb back into his vehicle and drive away. The car was later found in the same neighborhood in Jerusalem. According to Jewish residents in the neighborhood, the incident was one of many that have occurred in the area. They said that the Friday before, an Arab dragged a Jew into an alleyway and beat him sufficiently to require hospital treatment. When the incident was reported, police insisted it was “crime-related,” rather than a terror attack. Some Shimon Hatzaddik residents say these incidents are a failure of police to patrol the area properly and arrest Arabs who commit crimes. According to one resident, police are afraid that arresting Arabs will lead to riots. Bloomfield Gardens On July 24, a 52-year-old resident of Pisgat Ze’ev was stabbed in the chest and hand while visiting Bloomfield Gardens. He told police that an Arab attacked him in the restroom. The attacker fled toward the Old City and, while fleeing, tried to stab another Jew but failed. Upon reaching the Damascus Gate, he allegedly got into a fight with another Arab youth and was stabbed himself. At the beginning of August, a 22-year-old resident of the Arab neighborhood of Silwan was arrested on suspicion that he carried out several of the stabbing attacks. Bus Attacks Arabs in Jerusalem have also attacked buses with Israeli license plates. On July 25, Arabs hurled large rocks at an Egged bus as it traveled past the Damascus Gate. According to Mr. Rosenfeld, four people were lightly wounded, including a baby. A day later, another bus was attacked as it traveled from the Neve Yaakov neighborhood
August 2013/Elul 5773
towards central Jerusalem. A 15-year-old and a 40-year-old man were wounded and treated at the scene by Ichud Hatzalah volunteer paramedics. According to the paramedics, the window of the bus was shattered by the thrown rocks. Mount of Olives Even visiting a cemetery can be dangerous. According to the Council for the Protection of Har Hazeitim (the Mount of Olives), since the summer of 2012, there have been more than 300 rock attacks and other harassment incidents against Jews visiting the cemetery on the Mount. Now there is evidence that Arab violence is spreading to the roads leading up to the Mount as well. So far, incessant pressure has seemed to have little effect on the response by local police. In early July, a meeting in the Knesset was called by attorney Harvey Schwartz, representing the Council for the Protection of Har Hazeitim, and Jeff Daube, director of the Israel Office of the Zionist Organization of America. They told Shas MK David Azulai, United Torah Judaism MK Menachem Eliezer Mozes, and acting Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Yosef Deitsch that despite the establishment of a permanent police post on the Mount, the officers have failed to deliver on their promise to provide security. “Instead of 24-hour police patrols and a beefed-up presence, there are only two policemen at the post at any given time, and they have proven unable to meet the security needs posed by the site,” said Mr. Schwartz. “Arson Terror” In July, firefighters in Jerusalem were called to put out more than five different fires— all of which they believe are the results of “arson terror” perpetrated as part of the greater nationalist Arab terror movement.
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
In May, Jerusalem’s firefighters dealt with more than 13 blazes deliberately set by Arabs. In some of these incidents, firemen who battled the fires said they were targeted by Arabs hurling rocks and bottles. Temple Mount Problems While most Jewish residents and tourists have been unaffected by the increase in terrorist attacks in the city, Arab unrest prevented Jews from visiting the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av last month. This year, Tisha B’Av coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. On the day before the fast marking the destruction of the two Jewish Temples by the Babylonian and Roman empires respectively, hundreds of Jews came to the Temple Mount, but Muslim worshippers physically blocked their way, and Jerusalem police, fearing the Muslims were preparing to riot, asked the Jews to leave. Even before they were evicted, a group of 150 Jewish children, who had dared to bow
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their heads in respect for the holiness of the site, were warned by Israeli police who then threatened to arrest the tour guides accompanying the students. Although the group had coordinated its visit in advance, police made the children wait nearly an hour before being allowed to enter the Temple Mount. Then the children were divided into three groups and instructed by police not to speak to friends in the other groups during their visit. According to police, the strict separation of the groups was an attempt to make sure the group was not large enough to draw attention or anger from Muslims at the site. Michael Fua, of the Jewish Leadership faction of Israel’s ruling Likud party, videotaped the entire episode. He accused the police of “failing to discharge its duties again.” “It was amazing to see how the Israeli Police plays into the hands of the Muslim rioters and actually encourages them to
continued on page 34
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Jerusalem
August 2013/Elul 5773
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threaten and run amok,” he said. Delaying the Walk On erev Tisha B’Av, the traditional Walk around the Temple Mount was delayed until 11:30pm. Police hoped that, in this way, it would not interfere with Muslim worshippers completing their Ramadan celebrations on the Temple Mount. In 2012, when the two religious dates also coincided, police tried to change the route of the Jewish walk, citing unspecified “concerns for public safety.” When the Jewish organizers appealed to the Supreme Court, the police withdrew their objections, but insisted the time had to be postponed until much later in the evening. Nadia Matar, co-director of the Women in Green, which has organized the yearly walk since 1994, recalled that, at the beginning, the police refused to approve the event at all. “They never imagined that Jews would march there, in what they called ‘East Jerusalem,’ the place where only Arabs roam,” said Mrs. Matar. “We turned to the Supreme Court and said that if this is the sovereign, unified capital of Israel, there is no way we cannot march there, and, sure enough, we won, and the tradition of the Walk set out, literally and figuratively.” Those who addressed the marchers this year included
Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon of the ruling Likud party and his Likud colleague, Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin. They were joined by: Rabbi Ben-Dahan; former MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad, now of Professors for a Strong Israel; and former Prisoner of Zion Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich. Banning Jews Only On Tisha B’Av itself, hundreds of Jews, including Jewish Home MK Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli and Mr. Elkin, were prevented by police from entering the Temple Mount. Although police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told reporters that after “security assessment,” the decision was made “to close the Temple Mount to all visitors, in order to prevent disturbances,” in fact, only nonMuslims were banned from the site. Muslims entered freely. Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute, which is dedicated to every aspect of the Holy Temple including its restoration, and lobbies for greater Jewish rights on the site, called the police decision “a disgraceful and absurd reward to Islamic terror.” Nevertheless, he said, “so many Jewish men, women, and children coming from all over the country at great personal expense and converging on the holy mountain is the clearest
indication that the plight of the beleaguered Temple Mount is becoming an important aspect of the national consensus.” Islamic Control Despite the Temple Mount’s supreme importance to Jews worldwide, the complex is administered by the Waqf Islamic Trust, whose rules are obeyed by the police, allegedly because of threats by Islamist groups. Jews wishing to ascend to the site are subject to draconian limitations. Apart from pressuring Israeli authorities to ban Jewish prayer, the Waqf has been accused by Israeli scientists, particularly archaeologists, of willfully destroying Jewish artifacts on the Mount in a concerted effort to Islamize the site and deny any Jewish connection to it. A popular video on PA television denies any historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem, repeats the libel that Israel is planning to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque, and calls on Allah to protect the mosque: “Oh Sons of Zion, no matter how much you dig and no matter how much you destroy, your imaginary Temple will not come into being. Allah, protect Al-Aqsa from every thief and every oppressor.” Trying Again The day after Tisha B’Av, Mr. Elkin tried once again to visit the Temple Mount. As soon as he arrived, Muslims began protesting his presence and issuing threats, prompting Israeli police to ask him and his entourage to leave. Before leaving, he expressed to reporters his sadness over the “difficult reality on the Mount in which a Deputy Minister cannot complete a tour of the Temple Mount that was planned in advance.” As he was speaking to the cameras, police arrived, and Mus-
lim taunts could be clearly heard as he was hurried away. Court: No Law against Jewish Prayer Although a Jerusalem Court ruled in June that there are no Israeli laws against Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount, police in Jerusalem continue to arrest any Jew who ventures onto the Mount and so much as looks into a book or, in some cases, just closes his or her eyes. Israeli police routinely bypass court decisions by citing unspecified “security concerns” and then either ban individual activists or issue blanket prohibitions on Jews ascending at all. Non-Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount are generally not subject to restrictions. Arrested for Praying The court case last June revolved around a young Jew who had been arrested by Israeli police on charges of praying on the Temple Mount. The police had wanted him to be barred from entering the Old City for 60 days, but the court rejected that request and castigated the police for detaining the young man at all. According to the charges, while the young man was praying on a Friday afternoon at the site, an Arab began kicking him. The Jewish man said he kicked the Arab back and, at that point, was promptly arrested. Despite the late hour, police did not bring the young man promptly to court. Instead, he was forced to remain in lockup for the entire Shabbat. On Saturday night, he was released by the court. “Disturbing the Peace” The ruling was repeated in early July when Dan Tabul, who prays regularly at the gateway to the Temple Mount, was arrested. Police said that although Arabs gathering around him shouted “Allahu Akbar,” it was
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Mr. Tabul whose prayers were “disturbing the peace.” Although the police wanted Mr. Tabul banned from Jerusalem’s Old City, the court instead issued a restraining order barring Mr. Tabul from coming closer than 55 yards to the Temple Mount gate. On appeal, the restraining order was lifted, recognizing that if anyone was guilty of disturbing the peace, it was the Arab mob on the Temple Mount. Demanding Equal Rights It was a theme repeated by Mr. Danon who demanded that Jews and Muslims receive the same rights to free worship on the Temple Mount. “We must take steps to ensure that Jews are able not only to visit the Temple Mount, but also to pray there. I see no logic in allowing Muslims to pray there but not Jews. We don’t need a permit from the Muslim world,” said Mr. Danon, vowing that he is “committed to this idea.” Mr. Danon, 42, is not only Deputy Minister of Defense, but also chairman of Likud’s Central Committee. He insisted it is “the job of our police to take all scenarios into account and to ensure freedom of worship for Jews at the Temple Mount.” “Our rights to Jerusalem are eternal and not dependent on anyone else. When we commemorate the destruction of the Temple, we can put all inter-
national pressures and threats in perspective. Anyone who believes in our historic rights will not be frightened off by these threats,” he said. No More Excuses Rabbi Ben-Dahan agreed. “How can it be that in Israel, in the name of the principles of equality and freedom of religion, Jews can be forbidden from ascending to the Temple Mount, the holiest place for Jews, because of a fear of rioting by Muslims?” he said. He said it is “time to change this reality” and “to stop using various excuses such as security and the inability of the police to protect Jewish citizens.” Agreeing that it was a “complicated step,” he nonetheless vowed to take steps to reinstate the right of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. Contradicting Israeli Law Perhaps the most notorious case involved Likud MK Moshe Feiglin, who heads the Jewish Leadership faction of the party. In June, despite his political position, Mr. Feiglin was banned from attempting to pray on the Temple Mount. According to Mr. Feiglin, who has always visited the Temple Mount once a month, Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein was involved in the decision banning him from the site. In a letter to Mr. Weinstein last month, Mr. Feiglin said the ban contradicted three Israeli
basic laws, which are viewed in Israel as if they were part of a constitution that Israel does not yet have. According to Mr. Feiglin, the ban violates the Jerusalem Basic Law, the Knesset Basic Law, and Israel’s Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom. Mr. Feiglin claimed the prohibition also goes against the US’s freedom-of-religion clause. In his letter, Mr. Feiglin asked for the minutes of the meeting in which it was decided that his ascending the Temple Mount would harm state security. He said he wanted to know when the decision was made, in which forum, and on what legal grounds. He also asked how often the situation would be reviewed. No Cooperation He did not receive a response, but a few days later, Israel Minister of Construction and Housing Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home Party was told that he, too, would not be allowed to ascend the Temple Mount. A few days earlier, with no prior warning and little fanfare, Mr. Ariel went to the site by himself, a visit that angered the police department’s Unit for VIP Security. In a letter to Mr. Ariel, the unit complained that it viewed Mr. Ariel’s “lack of cooperation with gravity.” Sources close to Mr. Ariel said he decided not to inform anyone about his visit in advance because he suspected
the Unit for VIP Security would simply have sabotaged the trip. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, of the Yisrael Beiteinu party did not disagree. His spokesman said merely that Mr. Aharonovich “has asked Minister Ariel to coordinate his ascents to the Mount with him.” A New Policy? The day after Tisha B’Av, Likud MK Yariv Levin filed a query with the Ministry of Public Security, asking if blocking MKs from the Temple Mount had become “a new policy of the Israeli government.” Mr. Aharonovich said there was no decision to prevent MKs systematically, but that security considerations must be addressed. Mr. Feiglin demanded that Mr. Aharonovich admit that the “considerations” were not based on security, but, rather, the fact that the Israeli government “fears a confrontation with the Muslim Waqf and, to some extent, the Jordanians.” Jordanian Efforts At the end of July, Jordanian King Abdullah II added fuel to the ongoing debate in Israel over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount by telling visiting Muslim and Christian dignitaries from Israel that he will continue his efforts to “safeguard” Islamic and Christian sites in the holy city from what he termed “Judaization.”
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ultimately, the vote to free terrorists would redound to Israel’s benefit, mostly because, despite Mr. Abbas’s rhetoric, the PA was unable to force Mr. Netanyahu to accept its other goals. The PA had demanded that before sitting down, Israel would have to ban all construction east of the pre-1967 borders, and agree in advance that territorial negotiations would be based on those lines. Mr. Netanyahu had said all along that he was prepared to return to negotiations “without preconditions.” Refusing the PA’s demands meant he had to stand up to the Obama administration, which “was not easy,” said Mr. Saar. “If we had given in on the matter of settlements, we could
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continued from page 16 have earned more points with the international community. Our refusal to release prisoners would have been accepted under those circumstances. But that would have been a more dangerous concession. It would have been giving our stamp of approval to delegitimizing the settlement enterprise,” he said. PA Strategy No one in Israel seems to understand for certain why the PA agreed to go back to the table without having its demands met. There were reports that great sums of aid had been promised by the US and some of its allies, but most PA officials had publicly turned down that offer, calling it “blood money.” More recently, it was sug-
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gested that Mr. Abbas agreed to return to negotiations as a means of gaining some small, short-term victories over Israel, which could give the PA leader ammunition against rivals from his own Fatah faction as well as Hamas who are striving to unseat him. Others say Mr. Abbas is merely making a show of negotiating, which he will continue until he achieves two objectives: getting the terrorists released and having an official building freeze imposed on Israel. “Once he has achieved that, Abbas will find a reason to break up the talks—blaming it on Israel, of course—and go home with victories in his pocket,” said Arutz Sheva’s David Lev. But even Mr. Abbas’s one
victory—the release of terrorists from Israeli prisons—is not total. The 104 terrorists—25 from Gaza, 55 from Judea and Samaria, 10 from Jerusalem, and 14 Israeli-Arab citizens—will not be released as a unit. According to Mr. Netanyahu, they will be freed in four batches, once every two to four months for about nine months, as the negotiations advance. If for any reason the Palestinians walk away from the negotiating table before that time, the release of prisoners will cease. No Freeze Most Israeli officials doubt that the government would accept a building freeze. While the release of the terrorists was still being discussed in Israel, Mr.
brella group comprising many groups devoted to the Temple, accused the police of failing in their duty to secure freedom of worship and caving in to Islamist threats of violence. Yehuda Glick, a spokesman for the Organization of Temple Movements, slammed the police decision as “illegal.” Mr. Glick and others called on Jews and, especially, MKs and government ministers to begin visiting the Temple Mount regularly, “around the clock,” in response to the police action. Warning that this could be the current Israeli government’s “first step in a process of giving sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians,” Mr. Feiglin called for “thousands of Jews to show up at the Temple Mount ready to make sacrifices, ready to be arrested.” Dangerous Precedent Rabbi Richman of the Temple Institute called the police decision “a new and dangerous precedent.”
“By granting the Jordanian-run Waqf free reign on the site, even acquiescing to their demands to ban Jews from ascending, the State of Israel has effectively abandoned the Temple Mount altogether. No matter what posturing the government performs and no matter how many times they repeat the meaningless mantra that ‘the Temple is in our hands,’ the fact is that the Temple Mount is actually in the hands of the Waqf and the Jordanian government,” he said. He and others noted that this month marks the tenth anniversary of the reopening of the Temple Mount to Jews after it was closed for three years following the outbreak of the Arab intifada. It was during that period of closure that the Waqf destroyed countless irreplaceable artifacts in an attempt to erase the historic Jewish connection to the site. S.L.R.
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According to a statement released by King Abdullah, Jordan “will not spare any efforts, whether political, diplomatic, or legal, to protect the city, highlighting the Kingdom’s historic role in securing the holy sites.” The king also emphasized his country’s cooperation with the PA in working to assert “Jordan’s role as custodian of the holy sites of Jerusalem and Palestinian sovereignty over all of Palestine, including East Jerusalem.” At their meeting, Sheikh Abdul Atheem Salhab, head of the Islamic Awqaf Council in Jerusalem, was quoted as saying that “attacks” against the Al Aqsa mosque had increased recently “especially by settlers storming Al Aqsa under protection of the Israeli forces.” According to the statement issued by Jordan, Mr. Salhab also cited “attempts by right-wing ministers in the Israeli government to legitimize Jewish prayers inside Al Aqsa” and warned of
an unspecified “era-bound and location-based” division plan of the mosque to “eventually rebuild what they allege to be the Solomon’s Temple.” What Historical Role? Rabbi Richman expressed frustration at “the absurd idea that the government of Israel recognizes the so-called ‘historical role’ of Jordan in Jerusalem.” “Jordan has absolutely no claim to Jerusalem whatsoever,” he said. “The fact that we kowtow and grovel before a foreign element like Abdullah and ascribe some kind of role to him on Judaism’s holiest site, is an illustration of the low level to which we have sunk nationally.” “We are not acting like a sovereign state,” he said. First Step in Relinquishing the Mount? When it was announced that Israeli police had closed the Temple Mount to all nonMuslims at least until after Ramadan, the Organization of Temple Movements, an um-
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Ess Gezint: Simanim Tovim By Anna Harwood Eating foods to symbolize hopes for the upcoming year is first recorded in the final chapter of Tanach: “Go your way, eat fatty foods, and drink sweet drinks, and send food portions to him who has nothing prepared…” (Nechemia 8:10). And so the tradition began of eating and drinking sweet delicacies. The connection between the foods served and hopes for the new year evolved throughout Talmudic times to include an array of items chosen for their appearance and even the sounds of their names. The sages worried that, with these simanim (symbols), Jews would become preoccupied with satisfying their appetite and the symbolism would be forgotten, thus, passages to be recited prior to eating the various dishes were instituted. Customs vary according, but it is possible to produce the perfect Rosh Hashana meal centered on symbolic foods complemented by the finest of seasonal wines. Pomegranates are eaten for their many seeds which are said to be equivalent to one’s merits, and beetroot is eaten due to the similarity between the word “selek” (beetroot in Hebrew) and “silek” (remove). We are asking that our enemies be removed. Together, pomegranates and beetroot, with almonds and lettuce, make an interesting salad. The custom of dipping food (apples or challah) in honey seems to have begun in the 13th century CE when Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg dipped a sheep’s head in honey, referencing the ram that was sacrificed instead of Isaac in the Akeida. We eat carrots because, the vegetable’s name in Yiddish, “merren,” also means “multiply.” May our merits be multiplied. The
Hebrew word for leek, “kresha,” sounds like the Hebrew word “kares,” which means “decimated.” Thus, repeating the phrase “may our enemies be decimated” over the versatile leek makes for a tasty, Rosh Hashana-appropriate substitute for onion. Combining lamb (if you can’t get kosher leg of lamb, try lamb shanks or boned roast of lamb), leek, honey, carrots, and apple will create a succulent, melt-in-the-mouth, simanim-inspired Rosh Hashana dish. For centuries, wine has been a symbol of status and elegance. Debby Sion, head of the education department at the Golan Heights Winery, recommends pairing our beetroot, pomegranate, and almond salad with a white wine such as the Yarden Mount Hermon White. With its fruity flavors, it would make a refreshing start to the meal and, being a light wine, it complements the starter rather than overpowering it. The Syrah is the classic wine-pairing for our lamb dish. The powerful flavor of the lamb needs an equally powerful wine, such as the 2010 Gilgal Syrah, to accompany it. The 12-month aging process in French oak barrels gives the wine a classic smoky, blackberry, and earth character. After the feast and the fulfillment of half of Nehemiah’s decree, all that is left is to end the meal with a sweet drink. Many fine dessert wines are so good, they can stand as dessert on their own. The award-winning Yarden Heights wine was named best sweet wine at the recent Decanter awards in London. Drink this wine as a siman for wealth, prosperity, and class for the year to come. Shana Tova and Simanim Tovim Y
Beetroot, Pomegranate, and Almond Salad
2 heads of regular let⅔ cup toasted sliced or tuce, washed and slivered almonds torn into pieces 2 Tbs lime juice 1½ cups shredded 1½ tsp sugar cooked beetroot ¾ tsp salt Seeds for 1 large ¼ tsp black pepper pomegranate 5 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil Mix together the lettuce, beetroot, and half the pomegranate seeds. Make the dressing by mixing the lime juice, sugar, salt, pepper, and oil, and toss over the salad. Then sprinkle the remaining seeds and almonds over the salad. Debby Sion, head of the education department at the Golan Heights Winery, recommends pairing this salad with a white wine such as the Yarden Mount Hermon White with its fruity flavors.
Rosh Hashana Lamb
1 leg of lamb 1-2 large carrots, chopped 2-3 Tbs honey 1 large leek, chopped 1 sprig rosemary 2 cups apple cider 1-2 parsnips, chopped Preheat the oven to 375º. Place the lamb in a large baking pan lined with foil. Spread the honey evenly over the whole lamb. Score the meat and place rosemary into the small slits. Fill the pan with chopped parsnips, carrots, and the leek. Pour cider over the dish and then cover with foil. Roast for 1½ hours, basting occasionally with the juices in the pan and then cook for a final 20-25 minutes uncovered.
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Jerusalem: Safe, Growing, and a Religious and Economic Powerhouse—Just Ask the Mayor Don’t tell Jerusalem May-
or Nir Barkat that police in his city are discriminating against Jews in favor of Muslims on the Temple Mount, or that Jerusalem has any problems at all. The mayor, who is running unopposed for re-election this October, is focused on dramatically increasing the job market, expanding educational opportunities, and improving the general quality of life. Crime? Not a problem, he said, at least when compared to other major cities. “We need some perspective. There are ten times more murders in Los Angeles, in Moscow, and in other major cities around the world. We have the best police force, and they know how to do their job phenomenally well. Walk the streets of Jerusalem and you see that residents and tourists feel extremely safe, even in the Old City,” Mr. Barkat said. Economic Growth The mayor says continued improvements in every sphere in the city are linked to its economic growth. When he first took office five years ago, Jerusalem was “one of the poorest cities in the country.” “We had a negative migration rate and the job market was not moving anywhere. Within five years, we’ve developed a city with hope,” he said. His numbers are impressive. In 2008, Jerusalem offered about 5,000 new jobs per year. He doubled it in 2010, and, last year, the city had 17,000 new jobs. “That’s more than triple,” Mr. Barkat said enthusiastically. “My goal for the next five years is to dramatically increase the job market. I want to reach 100,000 new jobs.”
Attracting Olim To achieve that goal, his team is investing in culture, tourism, health and life sciences, high-tech, and general services. He is encouraging qualified professionals to offer their services to those looking to outsource jobs. “What you’ll see in Jerusalem is many, many opportunities for people to find jobs,” Mr. Barkat said. A central part of that goal will be played by immigrants to the city, he said. He stressed that trends like olim tending to prefer communities in which their neighbors speak the same language are no problem at all. Relying on Lantzmen The large number of immigrants from Russia as well as French- and English-speaking countries means “it’s relatively easy for people to find olim from their native countries who are already established and willing to help.” “We’re leveraging the already-established olim who are doing well in Jerusalem to enlarge the work places and guide the new immigrants, helping them to find schools, jobs, and cultural advantages for children, young families, and the elderly. We look at every newcomer and tailor services to meet his or her needs. Our goal is to have a very high rate of successful olim who are happy in the city of Jerusalem,” said Mr. Barkat. He stated that sometimes olim have an easier time finding jobs than do long-time residents, especially when companies are looking for “mother-tongue French” or “mother-tongue English” workers. In addition, many of the new immigrants come with strong, marketable skills, he said.
Businessman Mr. Barkat is very comfortable with the rules of business and the free market. Born in 1959 and raised in Jerusalem, he served in the Paratroopers’ Brigade for six years before earning a degree in computer science at the Hebrew University. In 1988, he founded BRM, a software company which specialized in antivirus programs. BRM eventually became an incubator venture firm that invested in several new companies: Check Point, an international provider of software and combined hardware and software products for information technology security; and Backweb, which provides users with a range of communications technologies and solutions, to distribute information to employees and customers. He later helped found the social investment company IVN. From TV to Politics Married and the father of three daughters, Mr. Barkat first ran for mayor of Jerusalem in 2003 on his own Yerushalayim Tatzli’ah (Jerusalem Will Succeed) party. He narrowly lost to Uri Lupoliansky and became head of the opposition on the city council. In 2007, Mr. Barkat took part in the Israeli version of the venture-capitalist television show “Dragons’ Den,” in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas in order to secure invest-
ment from business experts. When Mr. Barkat ran again for mayor in 2008, he took 52 percent of the vote and defeated his chief opponent, then-United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush. Secular Mayor In contrast to Messrs Lupoliansky and Porush, who are both identified as hareidi, Mr. Barkat is secular. However, he is well aware and appreciative of the religious importance of Jerusalem. “Throughout the history of the Jewish people, economic prosperity goes along with holiness and creativity on the religious side, so when our economy rises, so do the religious elements, which, in my mind, are the ‘must’ ingredients for Jerusalem, the Holy City,” he said. He pointed out that there is more tourism in Jerusalem than in either Tel Aviv or Haifa: In 2011, 8 million people visited the Kotel; in 2012, the number of visitors was 10.5 million. “The holy sites are expanding and attracting more visitors. We are reaching the hearts of an increasing number of people in Israel and around the world, and that is my goal: to increase heartsharing. As more people love Jerusalem and come to visit and to live here, the stronger Jerusalem becomes. When we play the role that people expect from us in Jerusalem, it unites the city and the people,” he said. S.L.R.
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New Program to Help Needy Holocaust Survivors Fight Cancer The Blue Card, a national non-profit
financial aid organization devoted to assisting needy Holocaust survivors, has just announced a project to assist men and women survivors who are now battling cancer. The new program will provide financial assistance for treatments, transportation, and even food. Named the Siggi B. Wilzig “Fighting Cancer Together” Program, the Blue Card project was made possible by a gift from Sherry Wilzig Izak, chairman and CEO of the NJ-based real estate investment company, Wilshire Enterprises. Ms. Izak named the new program for her father, a Holocaust survivor, who became a renowned businessman in the United States and an active, hands-on philanthropist. Many secular and Jewish institutions in New Jersey—especially schools, hospitals, and senior citizen living facilities—owe their buildings and financial health to the active guidance and partnership of Mr. Wilzig. At Poverty Level Ms. Izak discovered The Blue Card about ten years ago, shortly after her father’s death from multiple myeloma. She then became a generous donor and enthusiastic supporter. Ms. Izak established “Fighting Cancer Together” to mark her father’s tenth yahrzeit. The New York-based Blue Card recognizes that many Holocaust survivors
are at or near the federal poverty level. Every year, the organization helps about 3,000 survivors in the United States to get basic necessities, as well as some of life’s simple pleasures that they would otherwise find unaffordable. Many people are aware of disasters and tragedies whose victims receive publicity on television and the Internet. However, the public knows little or nothing of the unseen horrors facing Holocaust survivors in their waning years, especially those who are poor, seriously ill, or both. Ms. Izak chose to work with The Blue Card to help educate the world about these challenges, and to increase donations for them worldwide. At Higher Risk According to some studies, Holocaust survivors may be at higher risk for some forms of cancer, said Dr. Yelena Novik, an oncologist and assistant professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. “The effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder alone can result in long-term health problems, and many of these survivors never achieved the means of obtaining proper nutrition, psychological counseling, and medical care after the war. Obtaining access to care can be a critical issue for this population,” said Dr. Novik. Masha Girshin, executive director of The Blue Card, said some Holocaust survivors are so destitute that, even when
diagnosed with cancer, they will skip vital treatments and live in pain. “This would have been intolerable to Siggi B. Wilzig, who was renowned for personally caring about the health and welfare of the close to 1,000 employees of The Trust Company of NJ, the bank he headed until his own death from cancer,” said Ms. Girshin. Co-Pays and Transportation The new program will provide those Blue Card clients who are battling cancer with insurance co-pay assistance and funds toward transportation, special diet requirements, and support group services. According to Ms. Girshin, insurance co-pays present one of the most difficult obstacles for elderly survivors. Expenses not covered by insurance can add up to thousands of dollars, and co-pays can run as high as 20 percent. Transportation can also be problematic, she said. “It can be hazardous to those under the influence of cancer-specific medications and often results in delays,” she said. Only Such Program Ms. Izak said the thought of Holocaust survivors “who have already suffered so much, being unable to receive necessary cancer treatment because of their inability to afford the co-payment brings tears to my eyes.” “I also cannot imagine them having inadequate nutrition at such a critical time or returning home on multiple buses and subways after exhausting treatment,” she said, adding that she feels “honored to support this new program that addresses these concerns and that will bring worthy attention to The Blue Card’s incredible work.” She said that to her knowledge, “Fighting Cancer Together” is the only program of its kind specifically dedicated to helping needy Holocaust survivors with cancer. “To think that this might be the difference between life and death for people who would not otherwise get treatment keeps me up at night. It’s hard enough for any elderly person to deal with cancer, let alone someone without the means. In light of their having all these burdens, as well as the nightmarish memories of the past, The Blue Card and I believe we have a duty to try to lessen the suffering of these elderly survivors,” she said. Giving Back Siggi Wilzig, z”l, was a founding member
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of the US Holocaust Council, an advisor to Elie Wiesel on the US Holocaust Commission, and a founding director and fellow of Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law. In 1998, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and was the first Holocaust survivor to lecture at the US Military Academy at West Point. He was awarded the Prime Minister’s Medal of the State of Israel for raising more than $100 million in Israel Bonds. Born in 1926 in Krojanke, West Prussia, Mr. Wilzig and his family were taken by the Nazis to Auschwitz in 1943. His parents, grandparents, and at least one of his brothers were killed almost immediately. Siggi Wilzig, then 16, survived the initial selection by telling the Nazi guards he was 18, which meant he was old enough to work. After 18 months in Auschwitz, he was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp. By the time the camps were liberated, 59 members of his family had been murdered, two of his brothers just two days before the Americans arrived. He spent the next two years assisting US Army Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) tracking down Nazi guards and Gestapo operatives. In America When he arrived in the US in 1947, he
was penniless, knew no one, and weighed 90 pounds. His first job was shoveling snow in the Bronx. After marrying the former Naomi Sisselman, he held down a variety of jobs, until he became interested in the stock market and invested heavily and well in a number of companies, including the Wilshire Oil Company of Texas. In 1965, at the age of 39, the Holocaust survivor was elected President and Chief Executive of the company. During his tenure, Wilshire Oil acquired a large interest in the Trust Company of NJ, a consumer and small business-oriented bank. As bank director, chairman, and president, Mr. Wilzig watched the bank’s assets grow from $200 million to more than $4 billion. When he retired in 2002 as president and chief executive, he was succeeded by his son, Alan. Siggi Wilzig remained chairman of the bank until his death. Almost one year later, the Trust Company of NJ was sold to North Fork Bank for $726 million in an all-cash transaction. It has since been acquired by Capitol One. Following in His Footsteps Ms. Izak sees her work with The Blue Card and especially “Fighting Cancer Together” as a way of continuing her father’s efforts: to lessen the burden for
those who suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of the Nazis and now wage their own personal war against cancer. While she says she and her family would be “grateful beyond words” for donations to the organization made in memory of her father, the program is not about him “even if the fund honors his memory and the type of fine deeds he did.” “It’s about the thousands of other survivors who still live in poverty today, who have never recovered from the devastation and pain caused by the Nazis, and who now have cancer on top of it,” she said. “I pray the public will recognize the urgency that exists here in terms of generating funding for this program, so we can help more people suffering from these hidden and unspeakable horrors.” For more information about The Blue Card and the new Siggi B. Wilzig Fighting Cancer Together program, visit www.bluecardfund. org or call 212-239-2251. “My father was an incredibly generous man. His desire to help others trumped his desires for success and greater wealth, and I hope to follow in his footsteps, continuing his mission to help those less fortunate, which is why I am thrilled to see this program come to fruition,” said Ms. Izak. S.L.R.
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Murderers First Netanyahu reportedly told the United States that he intended to allow building tenders for 1,000 new homes in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria during the first months of talks with the PA. By the end of July, there were reports that Mr. Netanyahu promised the religious-Zionist Jewish Home party that 5,000 new housing units would be built in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria in exchange for the party’s acquiescence regarding the release of the 104 terrorists. According to a source in Jewish Home, this did not mean the party’s ministers would be required to vote for the release, but, rather, that the faction would not bolt the government because of the measure. Without Jewish Home, the Netanyahu government would probably fall. “The test will be if Netanyahu does not live up to the agreements on construction in the next few months. That is what we will look at and what we will base our decisions on,” said a source within Jewish Home. At the end of July, the decision to release the prisoners passed in the Cabinet 13 to 7 with two abstentions. Economic Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of Jewish Home, and the two other Jewish Home Ministers, Housing Minister Uri Ariel and Pensioners’ Minister Uri Orbach, voted against it, but they did
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continued from page 37 not leave the government. “Joyful News” If PA leaders were secretly smarting from not having all their demands met, they hid it well, while trumpeting their expectations that their prisoners would soon be released. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas told journalists in Ramallah to expect “joyful news.” That the prisoners to be released were murderers of civilians did not interfere with the PA narrative that they were heroes to be welcomed with accolades. Although the PA has signed numerous agreements promising to stop the constant barrage of incitement to hatred against Israel and Jews, the PA’s official media outlets have long celebrated the terrorist activities of many of the criminals who will be released. On an official Fatah Facebook page—updated soon after the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was announced—a picture glorifies five of the suicide bombings for which Abdallah Barghouti prepared explosives and killed 67 people. According to the translation by Palestinian Media Watch, the page describes Mr. Barghouti (who is serving 67 life sentences in an Israeli prison) as a “brave prisoner,” and his attacks as “self-sacrificing activity” and “martyrdom-seeking operations”—a Palestinian euphemism for suicide bombings.
The page also celebrates a series of terror “firsts” achieved by Fatah, including the first suicide bombing against Israel, the first suicide bombing by a woman against Israel, the first missile attack from Gaza against Israel, and others. The page glorifies an attack which it claims killed “the most Israelis in a single terror act”: a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv’s central bus station in 2003. On the page, Fatah boasts that this one attack “killed more than 30 and wounded more than 200.” Next to these texts is a map of “Palestine” that erases and replaces all of Israel. 85 Percent Opposed The overwhelming majority of Jews in Israel opposed the release of the terrorists. According to a poll of Israeli Jews, commissioned by the Israel Hayom daily and conducted by New Wave Research, almost 85 percent rejected the release as a means of facilitating the talks; only 9.4 percent were in favor. A smaller proportion, 78 percent, said terrorists who had committed deadly attacks should not be released even
after the talks resumed and even if progress on the peace talks were contingent on such a release; 13.7 percent said they would support a release under those conditions. Israelis oppose the release for good reasons: the list of those to be freed includes Mahmoud Harabish and Adam IJuma’a-Juma’a, who in 1988 murdered 26-year-old schoolteacher Rachel Weiss, her three young children, and a young soldier. The two Arabs hurled firebombs at a civilian bus, sending it up in flames. Mrs. Weiss and her children ages 3, 2 and 9 months, were unable to escape. Soldier David Delarosa died trying to save them. When Rachel Weiss’s widower, Rabbi Eliezer Weiss, learned that his family’s murderers are slated to be set free, he reportedly told a friend he did not understand why Israel invests millions of dollars searching for Nazi criminals throughout the world. “Why does the Wiesenthal Center track down Nazis who murdered Jews while we have Muslim Nazis who murdered Jews, who burned a mother
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“Honor the Professional According to Your Need”
and three children and an unborn baby alive—and they are released. Is there a difference between them and the Nazi criminals?” Rabbi Weiss asked. Destroying Families Also on the list of terrorists to be released is Daoud Adal Hassan Mahmad, who in 1987 firebombed the Moses family car, killing pregnant Ofra Moses and her young son, Tal. The father, Abie, and three other children were badly burned but survived. Adi Moses, now 34, was 8 when the incident occurred. After the announcement that the terrorist who murdered her family was being released, she recalled her ordeal. “While my father was rolling me in the sand to extinguish my burning body, I looked in the direction of our car and watched as my mother burned in front of my eyes,” she said.
Her younger brother, Tal, died three months after the incident. She recalled being “seated, all bandaged up, on a chair in the cemetery, and I watched as my little brother was buried.” Trauma She herself suffered for years the physical trauma of extensive burn scars and the emotional trauma of losing her mother. When she was 14, she tried to commit suicide. She castigated the cabinet ministers who voted in favor of releasing Mr. Mahmad. He had been given two life sentences plus another 72 years in prison, but the ministers “with the wave of a hand decided to free him,” she said. “You will not convince me that you understand my pain, because you don’t. And no explanations that claim to be rational will help. You are
heartless and abstruse. With your decision to release the murderer, you spit on the graves of my mother and brother. You erase their story from the pages of the history of the State of Israel. And in return for what? I beg you to remove him from the list of those to be released. Leave him to rot in jail. Because if he is released, my father, my brother, and I will no longer be able to live,” she said.
Wasted Money In all, the 104 terrorists to be released were responsible for the deaths of 55 civilians, 15 soldiers, one female tourist, and dozens of Palestinians suspected of “collaborating” with Israel. Clearly frustrated, Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked suggested that since the terrorists were being released any-
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Letters to the Editor End Claims Conference Injustices
The shenanigans going on with the Claims Conference for Holocaust funds is reprehensible. I am 65 years old and was born in a DP camp. My parents, survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, died when I was relatively young. Except for a cousin, their entire families perished in the Holocaust and all their property, including land and businesses, was taken from them. Any elderly Holocaust survivor who is in need of food, medicine, or financial assistance, which Germany made available, should receive additional funding through the Claims Conference. While I realize Holocaust survivors will say that all the money given by Germany belongs to them, and it does, every penny, I can suggest other venues through which this money would help their children, grandchildren, and future generations of those who suffered in the Shoah. For example, there are funds for Jewish education of children and future generations. How many rabbinical schools offer courses in Holocaust history or education? This is the way to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and those who died. Already 20 percent of the funds go to venues which have nothing to do with the Holocaust or the descendants of those who suffered through it. Why shouldn’t these funds go to the Second and Third Generations? Holocaust survivors who can afford it happily help their children and grandchildren. The first—and really only—priority of Holocaust funds should be to help actual survivors in need of food, medicine, and medical care. Are we going to allow the same Claims Conference leadership, those who were at the helm when over $50 million was stolen, to remain in place? It is time for new leadership. Unless others join me in speaking out, ten years from now we will be reading about more theft and misuse of funds while most of the Holocaust survivors will have died. We know the majority of the board of the Claims Conference supports its current leadership, and the recent FBI investigation was not concerned with the organization’s management. Therefore, our only recourse is to ask for the involvement of the New York Attorney General, who can pursue action against the Conference leadership for failing the fiduciary responsibilities expected of a 501(c)(3) organization. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman can be reached at the Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341. The Holocaust community can scream bloody murder about the injustices, but nothing will happen until the authorities intervene. Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg Edison, NJ
Definitions of Longevity
“And give us a long life.” That is the preface to the varied blessings we pray for on the Shabbos before each month. One of the greatest heads of yeshivot from the previous generations, Rav Shlomo Heiman, tz”l, asks how one can seek “a long life” when that prayer is for the duration of one month only. He answers that, for Jews, longevity means a life that consists of basic elements: an ideal, strong principles, and a purposeful goal.
We can achieve longevity if we live every day with the idea that “today” is a connection with the day before and it continues into the “tomorrow.” This way, all our days become a long string of success and accomplishment, a life of satisfaction and pride. With that approach to a “long life,” we may be able to shed light into the beginning of the weekly portion, Parshat Reeh, which also is the Shabbos of blessing the month of Elul. The parsha starts with the words, “Take a good look and understand that Hashem is setting before you today a blessing and a curse”—it all depends on how you treat the “today.” If you take each day as a part of yesterday and tomorrow, then that in itself is the greatest blessing. However, if, to you, the “today” is just meant for pleasure and frivolity, then those “days” are a terrible waste and the outcome may be fatal. This message reaches us every year on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Elul to give us time to do teshuva and listen to the voice of the shofar. We hope for a better outlook during the coming days, when we will add more Torah and mitzvos to the yesterday. This will prepare us for the tomorrow, as we make improvement in our daily lives “day by day.” If we feel that we advance in our Torah lifestyle during the month of Elul, then we are appropriate for the next phase of the message of “today,” which is expressed on the Shabbos before Rosh Hashana, Parshas Nitzavim: “You are standing steadfast all of you from old to young, from the high ranking to the lower ones—all united so that you shall pass into the covenant of Hashem!” All of the nation becomes one element and presents itself with one plan, with one purpose and goal, on which we labored during the “days” of the month of Elul. We may then be suited to chant with the chazan after we conclude the prayers on Rosh Hashana day, the words of the piyut: “Today give us strength and courage.” We hope to live a long life of determination and reach our goal to make each “day” a new accomplishment in our lives. May we all look forward to a year and years to come of a “long life,” with all its interpretations and the arrival of “Mashiach Tzidkeinu.” Rabbi Jacob Eisemann Elizabeth, NJ
Running for Chai Lifeline
Last summer, after years of being out of shape, I took upon myself the most difficult physical challenge of my life: I starting running. My only goal was to get back into shape. A 4-mile run in Central park sponsored by the NFL proved to be exhilarating, and I felt good about my accomplishment. On the heels of that race, I registered for the Half-Marathon in Miami, Florida, with Team Lifeline/Chai Lifeline in memory of my daughter, Alyssa Lauren Gildin, z”l. Through many months of hard training and fundraising, I completed my first half-marathon last year, surrounded by thousands of cheering people in the crowds, and, of course, my family. With the help of many friends, colleagues, and family members, I was able to raise $22,536 for the seriously ill children cared for by Chai Lifeline.
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“Thought Is the World of Freedom” (R’ Dov Ber of Mazeritch) Without hesitation, I have once again made a commitment to run for Team Lifeline on February 2, 2014, in Miami in memory of my daughter. I am running even though it’s Super Bowl Sunday, which is being held in Metlife Stadium near my house, and I am a huge Giants fan. I am hoping that as many people as possible will sponsor me so that I can raise even more for this wonderful organization without which my wife and I could not have survived our ordeal. Please donate as much as you can and share this with your friends, neighbors, and whoever you think would be able to help this very important cause that is so near and dear to my heart. May Hashem shower you and your family with many blessings from above. My Web Page Link is www.teamlifeline.org/my/59138. My email address is Pinny.gildin@gmail.com. I love reading The Jewish Voice for its very open-minded viewpoint. Much continued success in the future. Pinny Gildin Passaic, NJ And we wish the same to you in this important endeavor.
CAIR wants people to believe the Boston terrorist bombers were crazy. The Rolling Stone photo doesn’t help their cause. The true fallacy of the Rolling Stone article is that it tries to provide excuses for this bad kid. The article blames bad parents and a disaffected brother whose boxing career had failed. Then the piece uses the “America-failed-them” argument. The conversation I would love to have with Americans focuses on the fact that Tsarnaev was just a regular American kid who adopted a militant Islamist mindset that justified killing innocent people on the streets of Boston. In my book, I make clear that this is where the true battle lies. The focus on the Rolling Stone photo misses the point of this conversation we in America must have. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser Phoenix, AZ Dr. Jasser is a cardiologist, a former Lt Commander in the US Navy, and the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which advocates for, among other issues, separation of Mosque and State. He is the author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith.”
Rolling Stone’s Photo Was a Positive Move
Dear PM Netanyahu: Don’t Free the Terrorists
What has been missed in the furor over the publication of the glamorized photo of Boston terrorist bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Rolling Stone magazine is that the picture is exactly who this kid is. He represents the true face of terror. We have to understand that terrorists can be boxers, students, or the kid next door. He can be a physician, as we see with Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army physician who murdered 13 and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas. One of the disservices that the media has performed in the Hasan case is to use the photograph of him in his orange jumpsuit and beard. This promotes the boogeyman narrative that is fed to the media by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Islamist organizations that all these terrorists are crazy and deranged. I would prefer that they use Hasan’s army photo, so we can begin to understand that radicalization occurs every day with people who look no different than any other American. It is telling that CAIR has not really weighed in on the issue of Tsarnaev’s photo on the cover of Rolling Stone. This is because
I am not an expert in international power politics or in the labyrinth of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, I am devastated by the decision of the government of Israel, which represents Jews everywhere, to free over 100 convicted terrorist murderers in the name of hopeless political maneuvering. This decision is unjust. These murderers were given legal due process by the Israeli justice system. Freeing them represents a denial of the legitimacy of the system, of all Israelis, and of all Jews. The significance of this is far beyond politics. It is a severe blow to the psyche of the Jewish nation. If we Jews are not entitled to justice we are not entitled to anything. Jerrold Terdiman MD Woodcliff Lake, NJ 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 mail to POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631. The phone number is (201) 569-2845. The email address is susan@jewishvoiceandopinion.com
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Murderers First way, Israel could save money by slashing the budgets for the Shin Bet intelligence services that captures the murderers and the military courts that try and sentence them. “Why does the state invest so many resources in chasing after, catching, and trying terrorists, if they all go free in the end anyway? Why bother? Isn’t it a shame to waste money on the paperwork and the buses that take them back to where they are going? Instead of raising taxes, let’s just cut the defense budget,” she said. She suggested cutting Israel’s public relations budgets, too. “It’s useless. Why do we do a lot of fancy talking and tell the world fables about fighting terror, if unlike the Americans, who refuse to release Jonathan Pollard, we free 104 murderers in exchange for the right to send negotiator Yitzhak Molcho to talk to a
ALAN L. MUSICANT
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continued from page 43 low-level Palestinian representative?” She said. Wanting a Voice But if freeing the terrorists is viewed with repugnance, the idea of a national referendum on any agreement reached with the PA is very popular. The Israel Hayom poll showed that 61.6 percent were in favor, while 30 percent were either opposed to a vote or said a cabinet decision on the matter would suffice. Asked whether the referendum would approve an agreement, 55 percent said it was unlikely and 24.8 percent said it would pass. Twenty percent had no opinion. A majority of respondents, 54.5 percent, said that, in a referendum, they would vote against any deal in which Israel would have to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders; 26.7 percent said they would support such a deal. Nevertheless, 52.7 percent said they favored the two-state solution
“in principle” (36.8 percent opposed), and 62.7 percent were in favor of resuming peace talks (28 percent opposed). But the vast majority of Israelis believe that the coming negotiations have no greater chance of success than all those that came before. According to the poll, 73 percent said the coming negotiations would not lead to a permanent accord that would resolve the conflict. Only 5.3 percent thought the talks would conclude with a peace deal, and 20 percent had no opinion. Mutual Concessions It still seems to be an accepted truth that the most any Israeli government can offer is less than any Palestinian official will accept. Israeli International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz of the Likud told reporters that in any agreement, Israel and the Palestinians would have to make “serious territorial concessions.”
Israel would have to relinquish land, he said, and the Palestinians would have to accept that most settlement blocs and Jerusalem would remain part of the Jewish state. More important, he said, the Palestinians would have to recognize not only Israel’s right to exist, but its status as a Jewish state. They would also have to abandon their demand for the “right of return” and accept a “demilitarized” state as “the only possible solution” to the conflict. Mr. Netanyahu has said that in any settlement, the PA would have to agree that the decision marks the end of the conflict and all Arab claims against the Jewish state. No Compromise, No Deal Mr. Elkin said it really would not matter what agreements, if any, are signed. Like most Israelis, he does not believe the Palestinians would adhere to them. Asked how he thinks the
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negotiations will proceed, he offered three potential scenarios. First was the unlikely possibility that the two sides “could advance towards each other.” The other two scenarios were that “one side insists and the other surrenders;” or that “the talks will explode.” “There will be no real compromise. The Palestinians will insist on getting everything, and then we we’ll either give up or everything will blow up,” he said. He had no hope that the Arabs would “move an inch.” “Half of the Palestinians— that’s Hamas—want to throw you into the sea. The other half is ready to talk to you under the conditions of the pre-1967 borders with minor modifications, threads of Jewish settlement, a division of Jerusalem, and the ‘right of return.’ None of them would be willing to give you 14 percent of the land,” he said. Nothing to be Gained The situation has left many Israelis convinced that negotiations are useless, which means there is no reason to release the terrorists.
“It’s clear as day that any agreement signed with Abbas isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Abbas cannot sign anything real. After all, as soon as we expelled Jews from Gush Katif, Abbas’s Fatah was pushed out of Gaza, so his signature means nothing,” said Dr. Aumann, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1995 for his work on conflict cooperation through gametheory analysis. His work includes the theory that overly simplistic attempts at peace can actually cause war, while credible threats of violence can prevent it. Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria only made things worse, he said. “When you demonstrate weakness, that invites further attacks. Whenever Israel defeated its enemies—after the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1976 Entebbe Operation, the 1981 strike on the Iraqi reactor at Osirak— everywhere on earth people told us, ‘Good for you.’ When we expelled Israelis in the Dis-
engagement, nobody told us, ‘good for you,’” he said. Celebrating Terror Part of the problem is that the PA seems in no way ready to stop its incitement against Jews and Israel, even while its representatives are supposedly talking peace. While PA leaders were discussing peace talks with Mr. Kerry, Mr. Abbas delivered a eulogy for a terrorist who planned a bombing attack in 1975 with a refrigerator filled with explosives that killed 15 and wounded more than 60 Israelis in a central square in Jerusalem. Translated by Palestinian Media Watch, the eulogy characterized the terrorist, Ahmad Abu Sukkar, as “a righteous son and loyal fighter” with a “pure soul.” Mr. Sukkar was captured by Israel and sentenced to life in prison. He served 28 years until he was released as a goodwill gesture to the PA in 2003 when he was appointed to an advisory position to then-PA Chairman Yasir Arafat. Mr. Sukkar died of a heart attack last month.
According to Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik of PMW, this was merely a continuation of the PA’s longstanding tradition of honoring terrorists who have murdered Israeli civilians. “Vile People” At the same time, PA television broadcast a 2011 “music video” in which Israel is referred to as “the snake’s head” which needs to be crushed by Arab rifles. The station also broadcast a Ramadan competition in which contestants had to guess correct answers in a quiz about the geography of “Palestine.” The responses were names of cities, lakes, and mountains that are part of Israel proper, but the program recast them as Palestinian, thus erasing the Jewish state’s existence entirely. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who had voted against the release of prisoners, summed up what many Israelis believe. “Our ‘peace partners’ are vile people,” he said. S.L.R.
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