HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
NOVEMBER 2015 | CHESHVAN/KISLEV 5776
Israel reels from new wave of violence By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency Israelis have become accustomed to dismal news in the past few weeks – mornings and evenings punctuated by stabbings, car attacks and rock throwing. The cycle of random violence has left dozens of Israelis and Palestinians dead, and many fearing the worst: The start of a third intifada, or armed Palestinian uprising, that could claim hundreds more lives. But since the second intifada started in 2000, fears of a repeat have proved unfounded. Conditions in Israel and the Palestinian territories have changed since that time, and short bursts of low-level violence are the new normal. "It's a matter of days until this stops," said Nitzan Nuriel, the former head of the prime minister's Counter-Terrorism Bureau. "This has no goal. It will be forgotten. The reality is we have waves of terror. It doesn't matter what the reason is." Israelis have been bracing for a third intifada ever since the second one ebbed to a close in 2005. Waves of terror have risen and fallen, along with concerns that the region is on the verge of another conflagration. Most recently, a string of Palestinian attacks in late 2014, including the murder of four Orthodox Jewish men, including three rabbis, and a Druze police officer at a Jerusalem synagogue, sparked talk of a third intifada. But those clashes died out after several weeks. Another rash of attacks came and went two years ago. Now, after two weeks of near-daily attacks, some Israelis and Palestinians are already calling this string the third intifada. But during the past 15 years, Israel has created safeguards to keep Palestinian violence in check. "Every night we have actions to detain people who are involved in terrorist activi-
MAJOR NATHAN KLINE Shares his story. See page 3.
UNREST IN ISRAEL The community responds. See pages 16-17.
Palestinian stone thrower ties," Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said. "We have operational access at any given time to any place." After hitting a peak in 2002, attacks on Israelis waned the following year when Israel completed the first part of a security barrier near its pre-1967 border with the West Bank. Part fence and wall, the barrier has proved controversial. Its route cuts into the West Bank at points in what critics call an Israeli land grab. And the restrictions on Palestinian movement imposed by the barrier, as well as the fence around Gaza, have led some to call Gaza an open-air prison. Still, the barrier coincided with a sharp decrease in Israeli deaths from terrorism. Terrorists have infiltrated it repeatedly, but successful Palestinian terror attacks dropped
90 percent between 2002 and 2006. Militants attacking Israel from Gaza now shoot missiles over the barrier or dig tunnels under it. The current wave of violence has mostly involved attacks in the shadow of the security barrier – either in the West Bank or in Jerusalem. Both are Palestinian population centers with easy access to Jewish communities. A handful of stabbings have taken place in central Israel, perpetrated by Palestinians who were able to sneak across the barrier. The unorganized, "lone wolf" attacks occurring across Israel have created an atmosphere of insecurity and tension, even as the attacks have been relatively small in scale.
Israel violence Continues on page 7
Judy Diamondstein to lead New Haven Federation By Stephanie Smartschan JFLV Director of Marketing
PJ LIBRARY goes to the art museum! See page 22.
No. 381 com.UNITY with Mark Goldstein 2 Women’s Division
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Jewish Family Service
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Jewish Community Center 18-19 Jewish Day School
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First as a volunteer and later as a professional, Judy Diamondstein has spent more than two decades sharing her family and her passion for the Jewish community with the Lehigh Valley. Her husband, Marc, has been a committed volunteer, most recently serving as a member of the Federation’s Community Relations Council and chairman of its Partnership2Gether Committee. Her children, Noah and Molly, atNon-Profit Organization
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tended pre-school at the Jewish Community Center, Hebrew school at Temple Beth El and were deeply involved in BBYO and USY. For the entire family, Super Sunday was like an annual holiday. With Noah in rabbinical school in Israel and Molly attending Colgate University, Judy and Marc will be moving on this winter as Judy assumes the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have grown up and grown as both a member of this Jewish community and a professional and feel that my ‘lifetime’ of experience has been invaluable to me,” Judy said. “The very very special people of this Jewish community have impacted me in ways that I can’t possibly quantify, but they will be with me always.” The Diamondsteins moved to the Lehigh Valley in 1992. Judy’s early professional activities included Lehigh University Hillel director and director of camp, membership
and program services at the Jewish Community Center of Allentown. As a volunteer, she served the Jewish Federation as a campaign worker, on the Women's Division Board and on the Federation board; at Temple Beth El she was Sisterhood president, a synagogue board member and a member of its Building Committee. As a Jewish Federation professional, Judy served as campaign director from 1998-2000. Following a brief hiatus during which she founded Sweetiepies, Inc., a made-to-order dessert business, she returned to the Federation professional staff in 2005, serving in positions of increasing responsibility. “I am happy for Judy's career advancement, but of course I feel a sense of loss of a good friend and dedicated Jewish communal professional from our community,” said Mark L. Goldstein, Federation executive director. “It has been an honor to work with Judy as a senior member of our Federation staff team these past 10 years; it will be an honor to work with her as a Federation executive peer col-
league in the years to come.” As assistant executive director and chief development professional, Judy has provided exceptional leadership to the Federation’s Annual Campaign enterprise. During Judy's tenure, the Lehigh Valley was the recipient of a national Federation Sapir Award for Campaign Excellence. She was selected to participate in the inaugural class of Jewish Federation of North America's Fundraising University program and this past year
Judy Diamondstein Continues on page 11