Queens Jewish Link, November 14, 2013

Candle-lighting/Shabbos ends Friday, November 15: 4:19/5:20 Friday, November 22: 4:14/5:16

Special Coverage Of Dirshu Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah See 66-70

Vol. II No. 23 (#46)

November 14, 2013 - 11 Kislev 5774

75th Anniversary Of Kristallnacht Marked At Community-Wide Remembrance In Forest Hills At Congregation Machane Chodosh, Hanne Liebmann Delivers Firsthand Account Of Nazi Terror

Jew In The Pew: Beyond The Numbers Leading Jewish Academic Jonathan Sarna Interprets What The Recent Pew Survey On US Jews Really Means

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Famed Author And Spiritual Guide Rav Shalom Arush Makes Rare Visit To Queens In Speech To Hundreds In Kew Gardens Hills: Utilize Personal Prayer And Gratitude

by Jeff Klapper Slip slidin’ away, Slip slidin’ away, You know the nearer your destination The more you’re slip slidin’ away; Believe we’re gliding down the highway When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away.

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his 1977 hit by Paul Simon, a Jewish boy from Kew Gardens Hills who made up half of the duo known to the world as Simon and Garfunkel, could be the theme song of the recently released Pew Research Center’s study on American Jewish life, entitled “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” which claims to CONTINUED ON P. 48

Members of the younger generation light memorial candles at Cong. Machane Chodosh to honor Holocaust victims as the community marked the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht

Tofutti: How Sweet It Is

Typical of his joyous persona, Rav Shalom Arush, left, shares a laugh with the crowd. Rabbi Lazer Brody, right, translated his speech from Hebrew to English SEE P. 55

Penning Political

A Tale Of Two Cities, A Tale Of Two Communities

by Jared Feldschreiber

by Gerald Harris

“To lose your material things is nothing. It really doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. But if you lose your family, if you see your mother taken away, this is tragic.”

- Hanne Liebmann

ike most CEOs, David Mintz thinks about his business day and night and goes to great lengths to make sure everything runs on schedule. But unlike most CEOs, Mintz wears a kipah at work, and there is a big mezuzah on the doorpost of his office. And when a guest is introduced, instead of

he results are in. Bill de Blasio has won a landslide victory in the race for New York City Mayor. I will leave it to others

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CONTINUED ON P. 29

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n Sunday, November 10, Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills marked the 75-year anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, featuring a keynote speech by Hanne Liebmann, an 89-year old German-born Holocaust survivor. Liebmann’s discussion served as living testimony to one of the worst atrociCONTINUED ON P. 58

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by Manny Behar

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Shabbos Inbox

:-) Not :-(

by Eytan Kobre All sadness is forbidden, except for sadness about sadness.

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ate one night, while learning alone by candlelight, R’ Shlomo of Dvort sensed that someone was seated beside him. R’ Shlomo immediately extinguished the candle and went CONTINUED ON P. 16

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PUBLISHED BY Queens Jewish Link, LLC RABBINIC CONSULTANT Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld MANAGING EDITOR Naftali Szrolovits SENIOR CONSULTANTS Eliezer Szrolovits Yaniv Meirov Cynthia Zalisky Helen Hoffman

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Contents Regular Features As I see it – Cynthia Zalisky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Blue and white – Shmuel Sackett . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Community calendar – Rebecca Wittert . . . . . . 54 Community corner – Susie Garber, Shira Frager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Feelin’ funny – Mordechai Schmutter . . . . . . . . . 51 Financially forward – Gerald Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 For what it’s worth – Warren Hecht . . . . . . . . . . 44 Frontlines – Dr. Joseph Frager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 The fun side – QJL Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 A Healthy Outlook – Dr. Shmuel Shields, Dr. Bo Rosenblatt . . . . . . . . 45 Heartwarming headlines – QJL Staff . . . . . . . . 33 House & home – R’ Gedaliah and Sarah Newcomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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Disclaimer While we make every effort to publish articles that are within the bounds of normative halachah and hashkafah, we cannot take responsibility for every article written. If you feel that anything you read is objectionable, please write a letter to the editor and, if appropriate, it will be published.

Additionally, the views expressed in any political article appearing in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Queens Jewish Link. The Queens Jewish Link does not support or endorse any political candidate.

Thank You.

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Please have all submissions in for next issue by Thursday, November 21 at 8 p.m. for our November 28 special Chanukah edition.

If we have not received your submission by then, we cannot guarantee placement.

Risselle Naimark, Meira Schneider-Atik . . . . . . . . 73 Mitzvos and their meanings – Gabi Gittleson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Musings from Avi’s couch – Avi Shteingart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 A newlywed’s thoughts – Sergey Kadinsky . . . . . 1 Parenting simply – Adina Soclof . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Penning political – Manny Behar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Politics & ethics – Abe Fuchs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 A Shabbat thought – R’ David Algaze . . . . . . . . 23 Shabbos inbox – Eytan Kobre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The shmuz – R’ Benzion Shafier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Shrinking it – R’ Yaakov Adler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Snippets of strange – QJL Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Socially savvy – Esti Berkowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Stories of greatness – R’ Dovid Hoffman . . . . . 10

Special Articles 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht – Jared Feldschreiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Jew in the Pew – Jeff Klapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Rav Shalom Arush in Queens – Shira Frager 54 Bikur Cholim Queens interview – QJL Staff . 57 Cheryl Mandel interview – Shira Diamond . . . 58 THE QUEENS JEWISH LINK IS AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO ACCEPT OR REFUSE SUBMISSIONS AND EDIT FOR CONTENT AND LENGTH. WE ALSO RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ADVERTISING THAT IN OUR OPINION DOES NOT REFLECT THE STANDARDS OF THE NEWSPAPER. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED WITHIN, WHETHER BY PAID ADVERTISEMENT OR EDITORIAL CONTENT, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFL ECT THE VIEWS OF THIS NEWSPAPER. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE KASHRUS OF ANY PRODUCT ADVERTISED IN THE QUEENS JEWISH LINK.

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Stories Of Greatness R’ Dovid Hoffman

The Davidka Miracle

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aakov Avinu teaches us how a Jew prepares himself for war. He first attempts to appease his enemy; then he employs sound battlefield strategies. But most important of all, he davens to Hashem.

When a Jew realizes the awesome power that emanates from the sound of his lips in prayer, he would win the battle without even having to lift a weapon.

In 1948, the Jews of Tzfas (Safed) were outnumbered

by Arabs eight to one. The city’s population then was about 1500 Jews and 12,000 Arabs, with another 40,000 Arabs settled in the surrounding area. As the War of Independence loomed, the Jews of Tzfas nevertheless refused to evacuate the city when the departing British advised them to do so. The British even offered to provide trucks for safe passage but the Jews did not leave.

On April 16, the British evacuated Tzfas, and the small contingent of Jews faced off against the overwhelming presence of the Arab fighters.

The Jewish residents were largely elderly religious people and, when the war broke out, there were only 221 Jews of fighting age, with an additional 136 who were brought in to augment their numbers. 10,700 Arab soldiers were deployed to meet them. It looked hopeless. Yet, the Jews stood their ground, even in the face of severe food shortages.

On May 6, 1948, Arab forces positioned artillery on Mount Meron and began to bombard the Jewish Quarter of Tzfas. Jewish intelligence sources learned that the Mufti of Jerusalem, then in Lebanon, meant to launch a final attack on May 11 and establish Safed as his tempo-

rary capital until he conquered Jerusalem.

The Jewish fighters drew up their battle plans, and on May 10 the Jews were set to launch an attack on three key Arab positions in the city: the Canaan and Jerusalem Street police stations and the Citadel. But suddenly and without warning, Tzfas’ entire Arab population suddenly fled the city. The battle was over practically before it had begun!

Analysis of the battle provided a startling discovery.

The Yiftach Brigade of the Palmach and the Irgun fighters combined forces during the night of May 9-10, and employed a new weapon called the Davidka, a primitive mortar or cannon that was very inaccurate. Its designer, David Leibowitch, came up with the design in secret during the pre-independence period. As a homemade

Suddenly and without warning, Tzfas’ entire Arab population suddenly fled the city.

The battle was over practically before it had begun! weapon, its effectiveness was more in the amount of noise it made, rather than on its ability to deliver a decisive blow. The three-inch shell that was placed inside of the Davidka launcher was filled with whatever the fighters were able to get hold of, and its bark was definitely more than its bite.

During the battle for the Citadel, the fighters set up the Davidka in front of the Ari Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the city and attempted to shell the Arab positions. Due to its ineffectiveness as a weapon, however, most historians are unsure about how much actual damage the Davidka caused. However, when the Arab fighters and residents of the city heard the Davidka fire, the noise that was produced was so terrifying that they thought it was a new secret weapon of the Jews. In fact, a Reuters report from Amman, Jordan, shortly thereafter reported: “The Jews have a new secret weapon.”

A further remarkable occurrence happened that night when an unusual rain shower began to fall shortly after the cannon blast. How often does it rain in Israel in May? The Arabs became convinced that the Jews had acquired an atom bomb and the rain was radioactive fallout. So they fled the city entirely, Arab civilians and soldiers alike, in pure panic, in the midst of a battle in which they had the upper hand. As many as 10,000 Arabs fled the town at this time. Among those who left was the family of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. By the morning of May 11, Tzfas was free.

In recognition of the importance of the Davidka in the liberation of Tzfas, the Davidka monument was installed in Tzfas on April 29, 1956, and in Jerusalem’s Davidka Square. Every year there is a memorial ceremony in front of the Davidka cannon in Tzfas, when the city honors its dead, and a wreath is laid on the cannon itself.

Rabbi Dovid Hoffman is the author of the popular “Torah Tavlin” book series, filled with stories, wit and hundreds of divrei Torah, including the brand new “Torah Tavlin Yamim Noraim” in stores everywhere. You’ll love this popular series. Also look for his book, “Heroes of Spirit,” containing one hundred fascinating stories on the Holocaust. They are fantastic gifts, available in all Judaica bookstores and online at http://israelbookshoppublications.com. To receive Rabbi Hoffman’s weekly “Torah Tavlin” sheet on the parsha, e-mail Torahtavlin@yahoo.com 10

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The Shmuz On The Parshah R’ Benzion Shafier

Going Home: The Merit Of Eretz Yisrael “And Yaakov became very frightened, and it caused him much pain, and he split the nation that was with him, as well as the sheep, the cattle, and the camels, into two camps.”

– B’reishis 32:7

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aakov Avinu received word that his “brother” Eisav was coming to greet him. He understood fully well that this was not to be a warm family reunion. Eisav came accompanied by a band of four hundred armed men, bent on revenge. The Torah describes that Yaakov was “very frightened,” so he prepared for war.

The Rishonim are bothered by why Yaakov would fear Eisav. After all, Hashem had promised to return him to his father’s house in peace.

Throughout the many years, Hashem was right there protecting him, guarding him, keeping the promise. Why should he now fear a mere mortal?

The Daas Z’keinim answers that Yaakov was afraid of the “z’chus of Eretz Yisrael.” For the past twenty

years, Eisav had been living in Eretz Yisrael while Yaakov had not. Therefore, Yaakov was afraid that if he engaged in mortal combat with Eisav, that merit might win the day for him, and Yaakov might die in battle.

This Daas Z’keinim is difficult to understand on a number of levels.

First, the reason that Yaakov wasn’t

has an enormous amount of k’dushah and cannot tolerate wickedness; it is highly sensitive to tum’ah. Eisav’s very presence in the land should have been intolerable. The land should have desired to throw him out. So what type of merit would he have from being in that land? It would seem the opposite. His many years of

What z’chus could Eisav have from living in Eretz Yisrael, since the land hated him? in Eretz Yisrael was not that he had abandoned the land, but because he fled from Eisav. He spent the first fourteen years in the yeshivah of Shem, and then he worked for Lavan.

But even more pointedly, what possible merit could Eisav have from living in Eretz Yisrael? He wasn’t practicing Torah and mitzvos. Quite the opposite, he was a rasha. His entire existence was focused against holiness. Eretz Yisrael is a land that

defiling that holy land should work against him, not for him.

The answer to this question can best be understood with a perspective on capitalism.

The Contribution Of The Private Sector If a man owns a successful small business, he might do a million dollars a year in sales. But that is the gross revenue, not the amount he takes home. As a rule in business, 15% of revenue is a reasonable profit margin. So, if his mark-ups are strong and his expenses are in line, he might bring in a net profit of $150,000. 85% of the monies that he earns go to expenses. And this illustrates an interesting phenomenon. While his only motivation may have been to earn a living for himself, he is providing a substantial gain to those he does business with. In this scenario, $850,000 of his efforts are going to vendors, suppliers, and employees. And while it may not at all be his intention, he is making a substantial contribution to the economy as a whole.

In the same sense, Eisav was engaged in the building of Eretz Yisrael. While his interests may have been strictly his own, he maintained sheep, owned fields, hired workmen, and built fences. His efforts directly benefited the land. It was cultivated and improved because of him. And this was Eretz Yisrael, the land that Hashem chose as the site for the Jewish people to settle, the home of the eventual Beis HaMikdash. Its very ground is holy. While he may not have been a credit to the land, and may not even have felt an attachment to it, because of him, the land was

built up – and that is a great merit.

Yaakov did not in any sense think that Eisav had more merit than he did as a person. He was well aware of the different lives they led. But Yaakov understood that Eisav had a tremendous z’chus: He was responsible for building the land, and because of this Yaakov was afraid. In “times of danger,” a particular merit can stand up for a person, and that can change the outcome of a confrontation.

We Don’t Belong Here This concept is very relevant in our lives. While we patiently wait for the imminent coming of Mashiach, one of the concepts that must be in the forefront of our minds is that we are in a foreign country. We don’t belong in chutz la’Aretz. It isn’t our home. While the United States is one of the most benevolent lands that has ever offered us residence, a Jew doesn’t belong in Brooklyn. When we build up this land, whether with palaces or impressive businesses, we are building other people’s land. We get back nothing for it.

A Jew belongs in his homeland, in Eretz Yisrael. Hashem invested very different properties into the land of Israel. The air there makes one wise.

It is a land steeped in holiness, and when a Jew lives there, it is much easier to experience Hashem, much easier to reach perfection.

We see from this Chazal another advantage of living there. By his very presence, a Jew has the merit of cultivating the holy land. When he rides the buses and frequents the shops, he is supporting the local economy.

When he operates a business there, he isn’t only getting back the 15% of net profit, he is benefiting many others, and his $850,000 goes towards building up the infrastructure, giving jobs to others – he is part of the building process. Because it is the holy land, the mundane becomes sacred, and he is given reward because he is a builder of our sanctified land.

While each individual and family must consult Torah guidance to determine whether living in Israel right now is best for them, one fact is clear: We belong there; it is our home. May Hashem quickly bring Mashiach, and may we all celebrate a new dawn in our most precious homeland.

Born and bred in Kew Gardens Hills, R’ Benzion Shafier joined the Choftez Chaim Yeshiva after high school. Shortly thereafter he got married and moved with his new family to Rochester, where he remained in for 12 years. R’ Shafier then moved to Monsey, NY, where he was a Rebbe in the new Chofetz Chaim branch there for three years. Upon the Rosh Yeshiva’s request, he stopped teaching to devote his time to running Tiferes Bnei Torah. R” Shafier, a happily married father of six children, currently resides in Monsey.

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Shabbos Inbox Eytan Kobre

:-) Not :-( CONTINUED FROM P. 1 to bed. When he related what had happened to his followers the next morning, they were aghast. “How could you have done such a thing? Perhaps the visitor was none other than Eliyahu HaNavi himself?”

“I can assure you, ” answered R’ Shlomo, “it was not Eliyahu HaNavi. Eliyahu is always happy and the fellow seated next to me was in a deep melancholy. He was some personage from the Other Side, sent to have an adverse effect upon me.”

Sadness1 and G-dliness cannot coexist.

Shortly after the sons of Yaakov wreak havoc on Sh’chem, Hashem appears to

Yaakov two times. First, in Beis Kel, Yaakov built an altar to thank Hashem for saving him from Eisav (B’reishis 35:1-7).

From Beis Kel, Yaakov travelled to Padan Aram, where Hashem again appeared to him and blessed him (B’reishis 35:9).

But between Beis Kel and Padan Aram, the Torah relates that Devorah, the wetnurse of Rivkah, passed away, and Yaakov buried her at the base of the plateau of Beis Kel, which he named Alon Bachus (B’reishis 35:8). Curiously, Devorah is not mentioned in the Torah except for this one time, recording her death and burial.

While the Ramban concedes that he “does not know why” the Torah chose to recount the death of Devorah between

Yaakov’s two encounters with Hashem, the S’forno explains that the Torah did so deliberately to teach us something about sadness.

As Rivkah’s wet-nurse, Devorah had been with Yaakov from infancy to adulthood and no doubt became a part of the family. When she died, Yaakov was understandably overcome with sadness, as the name of her burial site indicates: Alon Bachus – “the oak tree of crying.” Because he was sad, however, the Sh’chinah (the Divine Presence) refused to visit Yaakov during this time. According to the S’forno, the Torah introduces the very existence of Devorah to teach us that the Sh’chinah does not rest upon a person en-

gulfed in sadness.

Likewise, when Yaakov believed that his son Yosef had been killed, the Sh’chinah left him because he was depressed. Only after he was told that Yosef was alive did “the Spirit of Yaakov become alive, ” i.e., the Sh’chinah again rested upon him (B’reishis 45:27; see Zohar 1:180).

“The Divine presence does not rest amidst melancholy” (Shabbos 30b; P’sachim 117a).2 Also, much like the insight of R’ Shlomo of Dvort, one cannot receive prophesy in a state of sadness (Rambam, Y’sodei HaTorah 7:4).3 This is because sadness breaks the spirit and prevents attachment to Hashem, and, ultimately, it is debilitating (see Vilna Gaon, Mishlei 15:13; see also Sefer Chasidim 51).

Whether sadness is a sin per se is a matter of some debate. But there can be no doubt that, as Gustave Flaubert would say, “Sadness is a vice.”

“One should not pursue the state of sadness, since it is a physical disease.

When a person is despondent, he is not able to serve his Creator properly” (see Rabbeinu Yonah, B’rachos 31a). In the Kuzari, R’ Yehudah HaLevi posits that, “it is not in accordance with the spirit of the Torah to worry and feel anguish throughout one’s life; one who does so transgresses the Almighty’s commandment to be content with what he has been given, as it says ‘you shall rejoice with every good thing that the Lord your G-d has given you’” (Kuzari 3:11).

R’ Aharon of Karlin famously put it this way: “Atzvus iz nisht kein aveirah, ober vus atzvus ken tsi brengen, ken nisht di greste aveirah tsi brengen! Simche iz nisht kein mitzvah, ober vus simche ken tsi brengen, ken nisht di greste mitsvah tsi CONTINUED ON P. 37 ______________ 1 This article addresses general feelings of sadness and melancholy, or, what I refer to as being “in a funk.” Clinical depression is an entirely separate matter (see e.g. Aruch HaShulchan, Even HaEzer 121:13).

2 See also R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch, Maagalei HaShanah 2:98.

3 See Moreh N’vuchim 2:36 [there is no prophesy while the Jewish people are in exile]).

Eytan Kobre is a lecturer, writer, and attorney, residing in Kew Gardens Hills with his wife and children. He can be contacted at eakobre@gmail.com.

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A Shabbat Thought R’ David Algaze

Weakness And Strength “And he said, ‘No longer will it be said that your name is Jacob but Israel, for you have striven with the Divine and with man and have overcome.’”

(Beresheet 32:29)

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he messengers have returned from their mission to Esau and report that the aggrieved brother, who had vowed to kill Jacob, is coming now toward him with a strong army. Jacob is stricken with fear and, after making various preparations for the feared encounter with his brother, crosses the river and stands alone.

Amid lone trees and a cold wind, a strange figure appears to fight with him. Terrified and surprised, the weak brother who had spent years in study and gentle work as a shepherd summons strength from unknown quarters and eventually prevails. Recognizing something divine in his opponent he asks, “Are you a thief?” and the latter responds, “No, I am an angel, but from the day I was created the time has not yet come for me to join the angels’ chorus [glorifying G-d]” (Midrash). In the struggle, Jacob’s hip socket is dislocated, but he takes firm hold of the angel and does not release him until the latter blesses him with these famous words proclaiming Jacob’s new name: Israel.

also the guardian angel of Esau. His statement, “I have not yet said a song of praise,” means that he is indeed an angel but his mission will not be accomplished until Esau will willingly recognize the divine aspect of Jacob’s mission on earth. This vision has a universal meaning for the history of the world. Jacob demands from the nations that they give him blessing and praise instead of persecution and opprobrium. The people of Abraham were to be the source of blessings to the whole world, and until the nations acknowledge that fact the purpose of history will not be achieved. In lieu of anti-Semitism and Jew hatred, Jacob asks for recognition that it is precisely the values taught by the people of Israel that maintain the world and through which all nations will find their security and happiness.

The ability to perceive real rather than illusory strength is the key to the understanding of the Universe and our place in it. When material things appear invulnerable and

the source of all our security, it is because our vision is impaired. Real strength lies in the spiritual, in the soul that is behind the body. The Jewish People has always appeared as weak and impotent, and this may be one of the factors for our persecution. Yet, Jews are neither weak nor frail, for the protection of G-d surrounds them. The angel of Esau thought that Jacob was easy prey, but in the end it is Jacob who prevails and overcomes. His victory is not for himself alone but a benefit to the world. When Jacob becomes Israel, the nations will finally acknowledge the value of Israel to them and the world. At that moment they will be truly and permanently blessed at last.

Rabbi David Algaze is the founder and Rav of Havurat Yisrael, Forest Hills. He is a noted public speaker and author and is the President of the international Committee for the Land of Israel.

The weak Jew has proven the mighty man of history. Powerful empires have come and gone, but the Jewish People has outlasted them all What is the meaning of this strange occurrence?

Who is this mysterious figure and what is the connection between this struggle and the name Israel that will stay with the Jewish people through the ages? Rabbi S.R. Hirsch (Germany, 1808-1888) takes the whole phrase together to explain its significance. It is not merely a change of name, but it is a statement to be understood as a whole phrase. Jacob means “to hold on to the heel,” meaning that he is weaker, less self-sufficient and powerful. Israel, on the other hand, implies valor and bravery as well as superiority. The blessing is that Jacob will not appear as Jacob alone but rather that he will reveal himself to be Israel. The meaning of this phrase is that only when a Jacob, one who appears weak and feeble and in need of support from others, obtains a victory over the enemies that are equipped with all forms of material strength, that his triumph will be seen as caused by a spiritual power that dwarfs all material might and muscle. When Jacob the fragile one wins, all will acknowledge that there is a G-d in the world.

The confrontation between Esau and Jacob later on expresses a similar idea. Esau is at the head of a powerful and intimidating army, made up of horses and armor, while Jacob is surrounded by women and frail children.

The picture could not be clearer: Here stands a man at the peak of his material powers facing a seemingly puny man, and we wonder who is really stronger. The Torah answers this question for us: The outwardly infirm figure has an inner force that will outlast and outweigh the other. Jewish history is replete with examples of this, as illustrated by the Psalmist, “They [ride] carriages and horses, but we march with the Name of G-d” (Psalm 20).

The weak Jew has proven the mighty man of history.

Powerful empires have come and gone, but the Jewish People has outlasted them all. This is the blessing that G-d imparts on Israel, and Israel’s success testifies to the existence of G-d. When an inquiring emperor asked his mentor what proof he had of the existence of G-d, the philosopher replied, “The Jews, Your Majesty.”

This explanation illuminates also the midrash that presents the nightly personage as an angel of G-d who is

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November 14, 2013

Mitzvos And Their Meanings Gabi Gittleson

T-Bone And Torah A

T-bone steak is supposedly the most-prized cut and tastiest of all meats in existence, primarily due to its location and size. I say “supposedly” because I have never tasted T-bone, as its location poses a halachic difficulty – and it’s not the gid ha’nasheh.

“Many consumers ask why it is that the desirable hindquarter cuts are not available as kosher in the USA. Some are under the erroneous impression that this is because of the prohibition of Gid HaNasheh, the sciatic nerve and its offshoots, referred to at the end of B’reishis Chapter 32. Actually, that is not the case. The sciatic nerve can easily be removed by someone with the proper training. The cheilev (forbidden fats) on the loins is difficult to remove, because it extends into the muscle and meat. Furthermore, the cuts it goes into are precisely the cuts most valued by non-kosher consumers (e.g., the sirloin, fillet mignon, T-bone, porterhouse), and removing all the cheilev would make mincemeat of these cuts.” (from OUKosher.com) OUKosher references the gid ha’nasheh – the sciatic nerve that Jews are forbidden to eat. The source of this seemingly strange commandment is found in this week’s parshah, VaYishlach. After Yaakov finished preparing for his reunion with Eisav, he encountered a mal’ach, an angel, who wanted to harm Yaakov. They fought for hours, with neither one gaining the upper hand. The angel injured Yaakov in the hip area, damaging his sciatic nerve. Yaakov forced the mal’ach to give him a special brachah, and only afterwards released the

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mal’ach to allow him to sing praises to Hashem. Hashem then healed Yaakov’s injury through miraculous rays of the sun. And to commemorate the injury to Yaakov, we are forbidden to eat the gid ha’nasheh.

The Sefer HaChinuch uncovers the mystery of the mitzvah and why we focus on Yaakov’s injury. This incident has a far-reaching symbolism in our life. The mal’ach wanted to remove Yaakov from this world and kill him, but he was only able to wound him. The Jewish nation has many enemies who want to destroy us, yet the mitzvah of Gid HaNasheh constantly reminds us of their inability to do so. Hashem is our protector and He has promised us that we will survive for all eternity.

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Secondly, the mitzvah of Gid HaNasheh reminds us that even though we may experience pain and suffering, we will eventually be healed with the coming of Mashiach, as Yaakov was healed by the miraculous rays.

So the next time you go shopping and lament the fact that you cannot buy that T-bone steak that all of your co-workers are raving about, let’s try to realize what can be gained from not partaking in this delicacy. Life has many difficulties and challenges, and sometimes it can get frustrating and depressing: especially when we are a nation that is constantly besieged by numerous individuals and nations, constantly besmirched and attacked by those who hate us, constantly in conflict contention with our neighboring countries. It can seem dark and gloomy – but the Gid HaNasheh reminds us to always look at the light at the end of the tunnel. We can overcome our feeling of doom-and-gloom, using the mitzvah of Gid HaNasheh as our guide. If we can reaffirm our complete trust and faith in Hashem, then we will definitely be doing our part to hasten the ever-approaching salvation, that light at the end of the tunnel – the ultimate G’ulah, may it happen speedily in our days. Shabbat Shalom!

Gabi Gittleson is currently studying for his Semicha exam at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim. He lives in Kew Gardens Hills with his wife Sarah and their two children, Tovah and Yitzi. He can be reached at Gabigittleson@ yahoo.com

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Blue And White Shmuel Sackett

Sandek Is 52, Baby Is 32 – One Exciting Bris Milah!

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never did it in my life.

While I have attended over 100 bris milah ceremonies, I was never the sandek. I always felt that my day would come and one day I would get to do that incredible mitzvah.

I just never dreamed the baby would weigh 185 pounds and have a beard!

No, I’m not talking about a “Guinness World Records” baby. I am talking about a beautiful 32-year-old Jew from the former Soviet Union who simply never had a bris milah. This young man made aliyah several years ago, with no background in Jewish observance or knowledge. After living in Israel, he became interested in his 5,000-year-old heritage and had decided to slowly connect to his roots.

One of the steps in his journey home was a proper bris milah.

As you can imagine, doing a milah on a grown man is not a simple procedure. Only a few mohalim around the world are certified to undertake such a

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huge responsibility. Yet, even with this great difficulty, over 60,000 of these adult milah procedures have already taken place – and more are on the way! Baruch Hashem!

Let me share my experience with you. The bris was scheduled to take place in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, home to many Russian Jews. Like many innovative projects around the world, this one was held at the local Chabad center. I don’t have to explain the wonderful work that Chabad does. Simply put, they are everywhere a Jew needs with everything a Jew needs. From kosher food in Vietnam, to learning Torah with prisoners in Kentucky, to a Pesach seder with 2,000 people in Nepal, to college campuses in Maine, to a bris milah in Bat Yam… they are there – ready, willing, and able to lead the battle in Hashem’s army.

This Chabad center has a specially designed room for an adult bris milah. While inside the Chabad center, you have

L-R: Shmuel Sackett with the 32 year old “baby” – picture taken 20 minutes after the bris! no idea that this room exists – the place looks like a regular set of rooms for classes and davening. Yet, just around one of the corners, there is a door that leads to a small operating room that cost them close to $200,000 to build and furnish.

The mohel called me to enter the room after the local anesthesia had been applied. I came in and stood behind the young man’s head. The mohel told me to hold his head up during the entire procedure, since this is what a sandek does during an adult milah.

As you may know, there are two b’rachos during a bris milah. The first one, “Al haMilah,” is always recited by the mohel; and the second one, “L’hachniso bi’vriso shel Avraham Avinu,” is recited by the father – in the case of an infant. During a bris milah of an adult, it is the young man himself who says that b’rachah!

Since this particular fellow’s Hebrew was limited, I helped him recite that b’rachah.

What an honor and awesome experience!

Many holy books write about the special prayers that a sandek recites during the bris milah and the subsequent closing and bandaging after the milah has finished.

I had come prepared to say a few t’filos during this time, because it is one of those incredible moments when your t’filos pierce the Heavenly gates. Being accustomed to

an infant’s bris milah – when the bandaging takes about 60 seconds – I came prepared with just a few short and simple prayers. After closing my eyes and saying these t’filos with all my strength and emotion, I looked up at the mohel and nodded my head.

He saw that I was finished and then asked a very strange question: “Why aren’t you davening? This is the time to ask, beg, and beseech the Almighty. Why are you just standing there?” I politely told him that I was finished, only to see him chuckle and say, “My dear friend, in an infant’s bris, the sandek has to daven quickly; but in this case you have at least 15 minutes until I finish medicating, stitching, and bandaging.

Therefore, keep davening!”

Whoops! I didn’t know that, so I quickly returned to my t’filos and prayed – slowly – for everyone I knew. I davened for shiduchim, children, parnasah, health, and spiritual growth. I davened for our nation and the new leadership we so desperately need. I davened for our holy IDF soldiers – may Hashem

protect them and help them destroy the enemy. I begged Hashem to bring every Jew home to the land of Israel, and I thanked Hashem for giving me the opportunity to be the sandek for this special Jew. Finally, I asked for Hashem’s help to allow others to follow in this man’s footsteps. Baruch Hashem, 15 minutes is a lot of time, and I managed to use each and every second.

When the mohel finished, I helped the young man stand up and get dressed. We went into the main room of the Bat Yam Chabad Center and the table was set with a festive lunch. Before eating, I was given one more task: I said the post-bris t’filah, including naming this 32-year-old “baby,” and made a b’rachah over the wine. We then sat down to eat, complete with singing and dancing… yes, even the young man himself!

What can I say except Thank you, Hashem! What an honor to have been involved in this mitzvah, and what an eye-opening experience to see all the wonderful volunteers who do this on a regular basis.

I spoke to the people in charge and found out that each adult bris milah costs them $1,200!!

I can personally testify to the vast amounts of surgical supplies used and the professional expertise involved every step of the way. This was no simple procedure, and I applaud all those involved.

May Hashem give them the strength to continue to do this for hundreds of thousands of others!

If anyone is interested in finding out more – or how you can be a sandek in an adult bris milah the next time you’re in Israel, please e-mail me and I will gladly guide you in the right direction.

Shmuel Sackett is a 100% product of Queens. He was born in Middle Village and moved to KGH shortly before his bar-mitzvah. He graduated from YCQ (1975) and YHSQ (1979). He was Havurat Yisrael’s first Youth Director (4 years) and started the first 2 NCSY chapters in Queens. Shmuel made aliyah in 1990 and co-founded Manhigut Yehudit, together with Moshe Feiglin. His website is www.

JewishIsrael.org Sackett is married with 6 children and 4 grandchildren. He lives in Herziliya Pituach.

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November 14, 2013

Penning Political Manny Behar

A Tale Of Two Cities, A Tale Of Two Communities CONTINUED FROM P. 1 to analyze what it means for New York City as a whole. I want to focus on the results in the Jewish community in general and Queens in particular, and what we can learn from them.

The de Blasio victory cut across racial, ethnic, and religious lines. According to the New York Times exit poll, de Blasio took 83% of the Protestant vote and 66% of the Catholic vote, while winning the Jewish vote by a margin of 53% to 44%. Historically, Jews have tended to vote Democratic in higher numbers than

Midwood, Brooklyn, Joe Lhota took 67% of the vote to 28% for de Blasio. In the largely Russian-speaking Brighton Beach neighborhood, Lhota took 59% of the vote to 37% for de Blasio. In Riverdale, de Blasio took 60% to 37% for Lhota. On the Upper West Side it was 73% to 24% for de Blasio. The pattern repeated throughout the city, with largely Torah-observant and Russian-speaking areas going strongly for Lhota and other areas going strongly for de Blasio.

What about Queens? Bill de Blasio carried most of the Jewish areas in Queens.

In Kew Gardens Hills, de Blasio took 51% of

The most striking result of the Mayoral election may well be the chasm between us and the vast majority of our fellow New Yorkers, including our fellow Jews. The candidate who won close to three quarters of the Orthodox Jewish vote in the general election could not even carry Kew Gardens Hills. Politically, as well as religiously, we are becoming an “am l’vadad yishkon – a nation that dwells alone

all other New Yorkers?”

Part of it is the general trend in the Torah-observant community to vote Republican. Over the past thirty years, degree of religious observance has become a wedge in American politics. People who attend religious services on a weekly basis tend to vote Republican, while those who don’t tend to vote Democratic. This trend cuts across religious lines and has become more pronounced with every election. In a sense, the tendency of Torah-observant Jews to vote Republican, bucking the tide of other New Yorkers is nothing new. Last year, President Obama carried New York City with more than 80% of the vote, while Torah-observant Jews largely supported Mitt Romney.

In large part, religiously-observant people of all faiths have abandoned the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party has largely abandoned us. There was a time when there were many Democrats who were pro-life on abortion and who supported the traditional definition

of marriage. People who disagreed with those points of view at least respected them. Now, people who are pro-life or support the traditional view of marriage are denounced as ignoramuses and bigots.

During a campaign for Mayor several years ago I was instrumental in helping a candidate receive the endorsement of The Jewish Press in the Democratic Primary. The candidate was very thankful and featured the endorsement prominently on his website. About a week later, I noticed that the candidate’s literature listed his newspaper endorsements but left out The Jewish Press. I also noticed that the endorsement was no longer on the website. When I inquired, I was told that the Jewish Press endorsement “doesn’t work in downtown Brooklyn.” In other words, support from Orthodox Jews is a liability among many voters in a Democratic Primary.

In past Democratic primaries for Mayor, newspapers always featured pictures of CONTINUED ON P. 37

Manny Behar is the former Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Counany other religious group. These figures would seem to indicate that Jews in this election were less likely to vote Democratic than any other religious group. But to put those numbers into perspective, one should look at the results by race and ethnicity: De Blasio took 96% of the AfricanAmerican vote, 87% of the Hispanic vote, and 70% of the Asian vote, while winning the white vote by a much smaller margin, 53%-44%. The vast majority of Protestants in New York are African American and the majority of Hispanics are Catholic.

Almost all Jews are white. The bottom line is that Jews voted for de Blasio by about the same margin by which whites in general did. The fall-off in support from Michael Bloomberg, the Republican nominee in 2009, to Joe Lhota in 2013 was larger than in any other religious group: 75% for Bloomberg to 44% for Lhota. The fall-off was smaller among other religious groups because Bloomberg did not fare as well among those groups four years ago.

Clearly, the Jewish community as a whole was part of the overall trend to the Democratic nominee.

But the overall vote in the Jewish community tells only a part of the story. If Bill de Blasio’s campaign theme was “a tale of two cities,” the story of the Jewish vote in this election was a tale of two communities. In the largely Torah-observant area of

the vote to 46% for Lhota. In Forest Hills it was 57% to 41% for de Blasio. De Blasio took 63% of the vote in Kew Gardens, while in Hillcrest and Jamaica Estates the margin was 59% to 38% for de Blasio.

I can already hear the protests: “Those figures can’t be right! I voted for Lhota and so did almost everyone I know.” A look at the results on a precinct-by-precinct level tells the story of what really happened: In the largely Torah-observant areas of Kew Gardens Hills, Lhota won by a huge margin, 78% to 22%. In the rest of the neighborhood, de Blasio won by a 72% to 28% margin, enough to carry him to a narrow victory in the area as a whole.

A look at the precinct-by-precinct results throughout Queens tells a similar story: lopsided majorities for Lhota in the largely Torah-observant and Russianspeaking areas, as much as 90% for Lhota in some precincts, and lopsided margins for de Blasio almost everywhere else.

In Queens and throughout New York City, Torah-observant and Russian-speaking Jews voted for Joe Lhota by huge margins. This puts us at odds with the vast majority of our fellow New Yorkers and even our fellow Jews.

At the seder we ask, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” In the aftermath of the 2013 elections we can certainly ask, “Why are we so different from

cil and a long time political activist in the Queens Jewish community. He was a Special Assistant to the Queens Borough President, the New York City Council Speaker, the New York City Comptroller, and has been involved in dozens of political campaigns.

We at the Queens Jewish Link extend to the Dollman and Bell families our heartfelt condolences on the passing of Miriam Dollman a”h.

May the Almighty comfort you amongst the mourners of Tziyon and Yerushalayim.

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Snippets Of Strange Chicago Lawyer Offers Students $1,000 To Not Go To Law School

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Chicago personal injury attorney is offering students a $1,000 scholarship to pursue an education in any field but law.

“It only makes sense where, I’m a lawyer, so therefore I should be giving a legal scholarship, right?” Matthew Willens said. “I just couldn’t come to grips with that. Not in today’s legal job market.”

Willens instead created the “Anything But Law School Graduate Scholarship,” which launched last week, for students entering graduate school in a non-legal field.

Willens said the scholarship isn’t intended to be “anti-law school,” but rather to encourage some students to consider pursuing alternate options.

“I think law school is a wonderful thing -- it was a wonderful part of my life- this is simply a supply-and-demand issue,” Willens said. “There’s just a lot more lawyers than there are jobs.”

He argues there are few students poised for success in today’s legal job market. Among his criteria for getting a job out of law school is the need to attend a good law school, graduate at the top of the class and have the “holy grail of networks.”

“My thought is, if you’re passionate about the law or going to law school, you have the money, and you have the stomach for severe job market adversity, then by all means go,” he said. “But then there’s the rest of us, which comprise the majority of people getting out of law school.”

Law school applications are beginning to reflect the lack of jobs in the field. The number of applicants for law schools is down nearly 18 percent since 2012.

Willens hopes his scholarship, which is offered to undergraduate students with a minimum 3.0 gpa, will make students think twice about going to law school.

“Hopefully, they don’t,” he said.

Four Apartments, One Bullet: Shooting Leaves Residents Safe But Scared

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esidents of a Denver apartment complex got a scare last week when one bullet shot through four different homes -- all of which were occupied at the time.

Police were processing a crime scene at the apartments for hours in an effort to understand how this so-called accident happened.

The alleged shooter told neighbors her gun went off accidentally, resulting in a stray bullet that ricocheted through four apartments before stopping. Once police locate the accidental gunwoman, she

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could be facing reckless endangerment charges.

Residents are thankful no one was hurt.

“We were just in shock. We didn’t know whether to get down or run,” one resident said. “We are just lucky that it didn’t hit any of us in any of these units.”

“I just got up and I looked and I saw the two bullet holes and was like, ‘Holy [expletive],’” another homeowner said.

She also indicated that the bullet came within about a foot of striking one neighbor in the head.

“It really made me angry because we have a 4-month-old living next door; that they just moved in. We are all safe and I thank G-d for that,” she said.

Robot Can Beat You at Rock, Paper, Scissors – Every Time

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esearchers in Tokyo have created the world’s most formidable rock, paper, scissors opponent.

Invented at the University of Tokyo, the Janken robot can beat a human at the classic game with 100 percent accuracy.

How does it do it?

Instead of using prediction as a human would, the bot uses high-speed recognition and reaction.

The robot can recognize the shape a human hand is making in just one millisecond and display its own countermove before the person is able to finish a gesture. This vision recognition is reportedly impossible for the human eye to detect so the robot has an advantage in the game.

Though the robot was invented in 2012, this year researchers focused on making it an even better cheater. Last year the delay was about 20 milliseconds, which mean the simple robotic hand would complete the gesture right after the human one. Now that the time has been cut down to one millisecond. No delay is detectable.

While a robot that can beat opponents in a schoolyard game may seem like an unusual project, researchers claim it is a small but important step in robotic advancement.

According to a statement by the University of Tokyo, “this technology can be applied to motion support of human beings and cooperation work” between humans and robots “without time delay.”

Fan Injured By Hotdog Sues Major League Baseball Team

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f it had been a foul ball or broken bat that struck John Coomer in the eye as he watched a Kansas City Royals game, it’s unlikely the courts would have forced the team to pay for the surgeries and suffering he’s endured.

But because it was a hot dog thrown by the team mascot — behind the back, no less — he just may have a case.

The Missouri Supreme Court is weighing whether the “baseball rule” — a legal standard that protects teams from being sued over fan injuries caused by events on the field, court or rink — should also apply to injuries caused by mascots or the other personnel that teams employ to engage fans and justify steep ticket prices. Because the case could set a legal precedent, it could change how teams in other cities and sports approach interacting with fans at their games.

Coomer says he was injured at a September 2009 Royals game when the team’s lion mascot, Sluggerrr, threw a 4-ounce, foil-wrapped wiener into the stands that struck his eye. He had to have two surgeries — one to repair a detached retina and the other to remove a cataract that developed and implant an artificial lens. Coomer’s vision is worse now than before he was hurt and he has paid roughly $4,800 in medical costs. His lawsuit seeks an award of “over $20,000” from the team, but the actual amount he is seeking is likely much greater.

The jurors who first heard the case two years ago sided with the Royals, saying Coomer was completely at fault for his injury because he wasn’t aware of what was going on around him. An appeals court overturned that decision in January, however, ruling that while being struck by a baseball is an inherent risk fans assume at games, being hit with a hotdog isn’t.

The Royals, whose spokesman declined to comment on the case while it is pending, have argued that the hotdog toss has been a popular fan attraction at Kauffman Stadium since 2000 and is as much part of the game experience as strikeouts and home runs.

From mascot races and T-shirt cannons to free Wi-Fi and stadium sushi stands, teams have been doing everything they can to convince fans that the live experience is worth the high ticket and concession prices and is better than watching games on television.

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A ruling in Coomer’s favor, or one that at least assigns partial blame to the mascot, could force teams to rethink their promotions, or at least take additional measures to keep spectators safe.

Man Punches Cop He Thought Was In Halloween Costume

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group of men probably weren’t planning to be jail inmates for Halloween this year.

But the holiday festivities did help lead them into trouble. According to the Chicago Tribune, 25-year-old Andres Lopez and a group of his friends were arguing with another group outside a bar near when police officers intervened.

Problem was, Lopez thought the cop was wearing a Halloween costume and punched him. Oy. Three other men were also charged in the fracas and face a variety of charges, including fighting, battery and resisting a peace officer.

Tomahawk-Throwing Champ Scares Off Burglar With Ax

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burglar was scared off early one morning recently when a skilled ax-thrower grabbed the weapon she keeps next to her bed after she felt the man trying to remove her watch from her wrist as she was sleeping.

The burglar, who broke in through a window, had already ransacked other rooms before entering the bedroom. The homeowner awoke at about 8 a.m. when she felt someone touching her wrist.

“I sat up and screamed,” said Robin Irvine. “He was taking my watch off.”

That’s when Irvine reached down and grabbed her bedside ax, which leans against a small table, and took aim.

Wearing a T-shirt and harboring no reservations about unleashing the ax, she chased the man down the hall.

“I would’ve gotten him right in the spine or the back of his head,” she said. “I hit what I aim for.”

Irvine learned to throw the ax when she was growing up in the mountains.

“I’ve always kept it up,” she said. “I’ve had this one for years. It’s old, but it’s perfectly balanced.”

New Hampshire Man Takes Vanity Plate Debate To State’s Top Court

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New Hampshire man who last year changed his name to “human” has gone to the state’s top

November 14, 2013

Snippets Of Strange

court to defend his right to a vanity plate that insults police: COPSLIE. The man formerly known as David Montenegro argued in state Supreme Court last Thursday that denying him the plate is a violation of his right to free speech.

The man, an unemployed accountant, made his request for the COPSLIE vanity plate in 2010, but was instead given one bearing his alternative choice of GR8GOVT. “The Division of Motor Vehicles has a regulation which prohibits vanity license plates containing messages which the DMV believes a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste. That regulation does not meet constitutional standards,” human told a local news station.

New Hampshire Associate Attorney General Richard Head, who argued on behalf of the DMV at the hearing, said the agency was within its authority to deny the vanity plate request.

“The primary purpose of a plate is to identify motor vehicles, not to engage in

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public debate,” he said in a phone interview.

“A statement against an individual would be defamatory. In this case the plate would have insulted an entire class of workers,” he said.

The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union has sided with human. It called the DMV’s standard on vanity plates “unconstitutionally vague, overbroad, and viewpoint discriminatory,” according to court filings.

The court is expected to rule on the case by early next year.

U.S. VP Biden Congratulates Wrong Man In Boston Mayor’s Race

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s he watched the returns in Boston’s most competitive mayoral race in two decades recently, Mar-

ty Walsh’s cell phone rang.

“A 202 number popped up, and I picked it up. It was Vice President (Joe) Biden. He went right into it, ‘Congratulations, Marty, you son of a gun. You did it!’” Walsh recalled two days after the call.

“I said, ‘Mr. Vice President, you have the wrong Marty Walsh.’”

Biden had intended to call labour activist and state Senator Marty Walsh, who had just been elected mayor of Boston. Instead he was on the line with the Marty Walsh, president of Gateway Public Solutions, a public affairs consulting firm in Boston.

“He laughed, and he was great about it,” said non-Mayor-elect Walsh.

He has been getting calls for the other Marty Walsh for more than a decade, he said, and considers him a friend.

He was so used to the drill that he gave Biden the correct phone number, and the vice president signed off by saying, “Congratulations on not being the mayor,” according to Walsh.

This year the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history, Thomas Menino, decided not to seek re-election after 20 years in office. Incumbent mayors in Boston are rarely defeated.

Boston’s political scene is crowded with Democrats of Irish descent.

The consultant Marty Walsh said he was not sure that having a name doppelganger in City Hall would make his life

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any easier.

“I don’t think it’s going to help my parking situation at all,” he joked.

Calif. Thief Gets Away With 140,000 Pounds Of Nuts

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uthorities in California are trying to crack the case of a nut thief who made off with 140,000 pounds of walnuts.

The theft, estimated at nearly $400,000, occurred last Sunday in the small town of Escalon. Investigators say it was one of the biggest to hit the booming industry. Last month, about 12,000 pounds of walnuts worth $50,000 were stolen from a trailer parked on a highway north of Sacramento.

This time several truckloads of walnuts were taken from the facility. Authorities say rising prices — about $2 per pound — is what appears to be driving

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Snippets Of Strange the recent walnut thefts.

No arrests have yet been made.

Walnuts are California’s fourth-leading agricultural export. China remains the world’s leading producer of walnuts.

concealed it. The gun was missing, she said.

The museum interprets the discovery and other details of the women’s lives through re-enactments projected on glass screens.

“They really did an excellent job,” Paine said. “At first, I couldn’t understand why anyone cared about all this but now I’m convinced they do.”

system caused account limits to temporarily disappear, leading customers to load up shopping carts with hundreds of dollars worth of items.

Norwegian Town Home Where Oswald Uses Giant Mirrors Slept Night Before To Combat Winter Kennedy Assassination Walmart Website Error Darkness Now Museum he Norwegian town of Rjukan will be a lot less gloomy this winhe suburban Dallas home where Allowed Customers ter, thanks to a system of giant Lee Harvey Oswald spent the To Buy $600 mirrors installed on a nearby mountain night before he assassinated U.S. that reflects sunlight onto the town bePresident John F. Kennedy opened as a Electronics For $8.85 low. museum last Wednesday ahead of the

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50th anniversary of the shooting later in November.

Oswald stored the rifle he used to kill Kennedy in the garage at the modest tract house owned by Michael and Ruth Paine in a middle-class neighborhood of Irving, Texas.

Its notoriety has continued to draw curiosity seekers ever since, so the city of Irving bought the house in 2009 and restored it to its 1963 appearance, down to the single-pane windows typical of that era.

“We’re trying to tell the human side of this story,” said Kevin Kendro, Irving’s archives coordinator. “The story of the assassination is filled with huge characters but here were two housewives doing ordinary things and taking care of their children but got caught up in it.”

Oswald’s wife, Marina, had met Ruth Paine at a party for Russian immigrants earlier in 1963 and the two became good friends. Marina lived with Paine while Oswald looked for work in New Orleans.

Marina joined Oswald that summer in New Orleans, but they moved back to Texas when he lost his job.

Ruth Paine offered Marina a place to stay while awaiting the birth of her second child. Meanwhile, Oswald moved into a rooming house along a bus route to his job at the Texas Book Depository in downtown Dallas.

Oswald typically spent weekends with Marina at the Paine house. But he arrived unexpected on Thursday, November 21, the evening before the assassination.

Ruth Paine, 81, who moved from the home in 1966 and now lives in California, said nothing seemed out of the ordinary that evening or the next morning.

“Lee went to work and we watched the news about the president’s visit in Fort Worth,” Paine said. “I went to the dentist with the kids and watched the coverage of the motorcade afterwards.”

Paine and Marina learned of the assassination from television news coverage.

“We had no clue that Lee was involved until the police showed up that afternoon,” she said.

Paine also said she didn’t know that Oswald’s rifle was in the garage until she translated the officer’s question for Marina, who pointed to a blanket where he

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almart has said that it has resolved an issue that was causing an online frenzy among shoppers. An apparent glitch on the company’s website early this morning led to $8.85 listings for items that included computer monitors and projectors normally worth hundreds of dollars.

The country’s largest retailer was selling a 24-inch high-definition Viewsonic computer monitor, an InFocus IN2124 Projector digital projectors and other products, many for $8.85. The projector is listed for $578.89 on Walmart.com and $579.99 on Newegg.com.

As customers shared the deals on social media sites like Instagram, wondering if the site was hacked, products sold out in just hours. A spokesman for Walmart said the company was scanning the millions of items on its site to see if there are still any technical errors causing price discrepancies.

“The issue has been resolved and Walmart.com is open for all,” Walmart spokesman Ravi Jariwala said. “Given the wide discrepancy in pricing, we are notifying customers who ordered these items that their orders have been canceled and that they’ll be refunded in full. In addition, we will send these customers a $10 e-gift card that can be used toward future purchases at Walmart stores and Walmart.com.”

Earlier today, Walmart assured the media that the site was not hacked.

When asked if the company will honor items sold to customers at the mistakenly low prices, Jariwala said the company is “still working through those details.”

Just two weeks ago, Walmart stores in Louisiana experienced another frenzied shopping day, but that time with live customers. An error in the food stamps EBT

Here’s how it works, according to the project’s website: The three gigantic mirrors, which are computer-controlled, will follow the path of the sunlight as it moves across the horizon. The mirrors will adjust their aim, reflecting the muchneeded sunlight onto the town square.

Rjukan, which is roughly 90 miles west of Oslo, is located in a valley and is deprived of direct sunlight for much of the year. The mirror project, which officially opens on Oct. 31, will give residents a 6,500-square-foot ray of light.

This isn’t the first time the town came up with the idea. Roughly 100 years ago, the town’s founder proposed the idea of a sun mirror. However, his idea, perhaps too complicated for the time, was never realized. Instead, town officials installed a gondola to take sun-hungry residents up to sunshine in the winter months.

ner learned suddenly it was too late for him to find shelter.

“The sparks came off the tree and then there was a flash by my foot,” he said.

“I heard the bang and I clinched up and the flash was right there and it hit me in the leg,” he said.

As Wagner fell to the ground, he felt another jolt.

“It was like, ‘Bam, bam.’ And when I was going down, another one came up in front of my face and flash bang, And that’s when it just took me down.”

He laid there, unable to move.

A nurse who happened to be there took care of him until an ambulance arrived and took him to a hospital.

Wagner said his muscles are still sore and his hands can’t stop trembling.

“It’s just shaking and numb feeling, like tingly,” he said. “That’s what the whole body feels like.”

Now, he feels closer to G-d, he said.

“I’m going to start going to church more,” he said. “I owe everything to him.”

Wagner said it’s also changed his life in another way.

“I’ll make sure it’s not raining out anytime I go outside now,” he said.

Rabbi Finds $98,000 Cash In Desk Bought On Craigslist

R

The light reflected by the mirrors will lose some of its power in the translation, but not much. According to the project’s official site, “the reflected light will have between 80 and 100% of the effect compared to the light that is captured by the mirrors.”

Man Survives Two Lightning Strikes

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North Texas man who survived two lightning strikes last Saturday night is still shaking and says he is lucky to have survived.

“I was sitting there thinking to myself, this is it, I’m dying,” Casey Wagner said.

As a rodeo clown, the man risks his life all the time. But he thought he would be safe at an off-road big-truck adventure known as Rednecks With Paychecks.

“We had a blast Friday night. And then Saturday, when the rain came, is when everything broke lose,” he said.

A lightning storm moved in, and Wag-

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abbi Noah Muroff of New Haven, Connecticut, bought a desk he found listed on Craigslist and ended up discovering a bag filled $98,000 cash stuffed inside the purchase. Rabbi Noah said that when he got the piece of office furniture home, “The desk didn’t fit into this office by fraction of an inch.” He and his wife attempted to take the hinges off his office door, but that didn’t help. So they unscrewed the desktop and noticed something unusual. “Behind the drawers there is this plastic bag, like a shopping, I’m talking about. And in that bag, I could already see through the bag, there’s it looks like a hundred dollar bill,” said Rabbi Noah. He continued, “We open it up CONTINUED ON P. 38

November 14, 2013

Heartwarming Headlines Omaha Man Getting Back Stolen Motorcycle After More Than 45 Years

zation.

“He called initially to report an extortion,” Master Sargent Gary Knight of the Oklahoma City Police Department said.

“He called back and said he needed to talk to us about a situation. He said ‘I’m a prison escapee from Maryland.’

He was very forthright and forthcoming.”

Going by the assumed name Jack Watson, Rackley told police his fundraising partner knew he was a fugitive and was demanding a large chunk of the money they raised for the charity to keep quiet.

O

maha man Donald DeVault’s 1953 Triumph motorcycle swiped from his backyard 46 years ago but it is cruising back to him after being found in Los Angeles last week.

According to a report he filed with police, the Tiger T 100 bike was stolen on the night of Feb. 4, 1967.

“All these years I’ve told people about it and wondered what ever happened to it,” DeVault, 73, said. “Back then it was baby blue and it looked like a little toy chopper.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the Port of Los Angeles checked the vehicle’s identification number against a list of stolen property and found a match. The blue-and-black bike was on its way to Yokohama, Japan.

National Insurance Crime Bureau investigator Lou Koven said the bike is worth $9,000 compared to its $300 value when it was stolen.

When Koven called to give DeVault the good news, he almost didn’t believe him.

“I didn’t have a clue that I’d ever see that bike again,” DeVault said. “I told Lou Koven that if I ever see him, I will run up and hug him.”

“I’m going to ask her, ‘Where have you been?’ I bet there’s a lot stories she could tell me. I wish she could talk because a lot’s happened in 46 years. After that bike was stolen, I started to ride Harleys.

I rode choppers and I built them back in the early ‘70s.”

Oklahoma Police Arrest Prison Escapee After 33 Years On The Run

O

klahoma City police have arrested a man who escaped from a Maryland prison more than 30 years ago after he contacted them to say he was tired of paying off a business partner who threatened to expose him as a fugitive.

Anthony Rackley, 62, escaped from a Maryland prison in 1980 after being convicted of robbery. He later took on an alias and earned a living raising funds for a community service organi-

11 Kislev 5774

When the man asked for additional money earlier this week, Rackley said he had had enough.

“He was willing to go back to jail to stop it,” Knight said.

Authorities in Maryland are seeking Rackley’s extradition, Oklahoma City police said. Oklahoma City police were investigating the business partner.

er big hit, saying he’ll win either the Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot.

And with seven children and 23 grandchildren – he might have to.

Hotel Goes Above And Beyond To Recover Guest’s Family Heirloom

T

aryn Thompson was astonished and grateful when strangers helped find her lost family heirloom. It was a special ring that her grandmother Louise Thompson left her after she passed away in 2007. The student was attending a wedding in Kentucky when she stopped into the Gratz Park Inn to freshen up.

Taryn realized later that at some point when she was at the inn, she misplaced the sentimental memento saying, “Sunday morning I woke up and nowhere to be found.” So she immediately called the hotel hoping that somehow they could help her. Taryn spoke with Veronica Saylor who was empathetic to her plight. “For her first thing she said, it was her grandmother’s ring. I’ve only got one grandmother left alive, and my mother’s already gone, so I know what it’s like to have sentimental things.”

Michigan Man With 23 Grandchildren Wins Million Dollar Lottery – Again

A

rare double win for a Michigan man who moved to the state two years ago. Shortly after Joseph Palmarchuk’s arrival in the Great Lakes state he found out he had won a million dollars in Tennessee as part of a lottery second chance game.

Then last Wednesday, lightning struck twice when he hit the jackpot of the Classic Lotto 47 game – earning him another $1. 3 million.

Palmarchuk said he felt all along that he’d win another lottery.

After this win he’s predicting anoth-

Veronica enlisted help at the hotel explaining, “In the search we checked the bathrooms, the sinks. We took the sinks apart.” But when the heirloom failed to appear in the sink traps, they thought there was only one other place that the ring could possibly be: the trash in the dumpsters. Dedicated employee Carlos Justo Martinoz went to work and painstakingly searched the Inn dumpsters for Taryn’s ring. A translator explained what Carlos was thinking: “Then he got worried and then he tried, he tried to do his best to look for the ring and tried to find it and make the lady very happy.” The search was fruitful and Carlos emerged with the lost ring. Taryn got the news and gratefully said, “I just could not believe it.

I was absolutely shocked…I think that if more people were willing to go that extra mile and work that hard then the world would be a much better place.”

Recently, several other lost rings were found by good Samaritans who decided to search out their rightful owners. A Tennessee high school state

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championship ring from 2006 was found in furniture at a Colorado Goodwill store. Paul Henry discovered the jewelry and said, “It was stuck at first, but when I got it opened I saw this silver ring. It was so big I thought it was fake, but I kept looking at it and realized it was real.” He turned it over to the Goodwill store manager and they were able to track down the owner who lives in Boulder.

A mom in Florida was inspecting her son’s Halloween candy when she found a woman’s gold ring amongst the candy bars. Jacqui Ricci is on a mission to find the ring’s owner: “I wear my jewelry all the time and I would be devastated if I lost any of it.”

Virginia Woman Cashes $100K Lottery Ticket With Hours To Spare

I

f you’re going to win the lottery, you’ve got to first remember that you’ve played the lottery. Karen Gentry remembered with only hours to spare, and she’s a fair bit wealthier for it.

Last Tuesday, Karen Gentry of Alexandria, Va., just happened to see a news report that a winning ticket worth $100,000 was only hours from expiring.

“Would you leave a $100,000 lying around on your coffee table for anyone to grab?” ran the Virginia Lottery’s plea to players. “Probably not. But one Virginia Lottery player may be unknowingly doing just that.”

Then Gentry remembered that she’d bought a ticket a few months back and had tucked it away in her kitchen.

“So I looked, and there it was!” she told the Virginia Lottery. “I called my husband and he said, ‘Yeah, right.’”

By law, lottery tickets expire 180 days after the drawing. Gentry made it to her local lottery office with just four hours to spare.

If she hadn’t claimed the money, it would have gone to the state’s Literary Fund, which is used for educational purposes like technology upgrades. But don’t get mad at Gentry for claiming what’s rightfully hers: since 1988, the Virginia Lottery has transferred more than $234 million in unclaimed prizes to the Literary Fund.

So, yeah, come on, Virginia: Collect your winnings.

33

As I See IT Cynthia Zalisky

What’s Happened To Our Core Values?

M

y saintly uncle, Rabbi Avraham Kravitz z”tl, who was a rebbe at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph school (RJJ) on the Lower East Side, used to say, “Gott gebt un Gott nempt” (G-d gives and G-d takes away). He was referring to the amount of tz’dakah (charity) that a person is obligated to give. We Jews have to understand that Hashem rewards us by giving us enough money to properly donate to those less fortunate. If we are stingy with our communal giving, then Hashem has a way of taking the funds away from us. I was thinking about that in remembering the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Circumstances made it imperative for all of us to dig a lot deeper into our pocketbooks than we usually do to help those communities tragically ravished by the storm. None of us could sit idly by and not respond to the tremendous need of our brethren in Far Rockaway, Brooklyn, and other Jewish neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey.

I’m proud to say that the Kew Gardens Hills community raised more than $100,000 in one evening for those af-

34

fected in Far Rockaway. Sandy was an “act of G-d” and we could not ignore its ramifications. We, in Kew Gardens Hills, were, baruch Hashem, the lucky ones.

We had electricity and could keep warm.

Our shuls were filled with guests, who had made “aliyah” to the Five Towns to live, and came back to the old neighbor-

shuls destroyed and sifreh Torah ruined?

That is never a good omen.

Could it be that we were not, as a community, giving enough tz’dakah, so Hashem had to create a situation that compelled us to do so? Were we so arrogant and short-sighted in our day-to-day living by spending so much on extrava-

When there is theft in our institutions, the whole Jewish community loses – there is guilt by association.

Why is stealing treated so cavalierly?

hood because they had no electricity or heat. It was definitely a wake-up call. It seemed to be some sort of warning.

There were so many questions that crossed my mind at the time and even today a year later. There were so many lessons to be learned. We can’t comprehend why certain neighborhoods were shattered by the storm and others escaped unscathed. Why were so many

gances – as over-the-top home renovations, expensive cars, and elaborate Pesach vacations to exotic locations – that we have lost sight of the priorities and modes of conduct that we Jews should live by? Think of how many cars were washed away and elegant homes ruined by the “storm of the century.” In a split second all that gashmiyus became worthless.

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Sandy brought out the best and worst in us. There were so many acts of chesed that happened, with thousands of volunteers offering to help with the cleanup and donating goods to those who were totally wiped out; but at the same time there were unscrupulous individuals looting the abandoned homes and price gouging the affected.

I wondered why my colleagues at the JCCs of Coney Island, Lower East Side, Far Rockaway, and Met Council headquarters were directly hit and QJCC was spared? But I didn’t have time then to ponder it all. We couldn’t stand on our laurels; we had to jump right into action. QJCC had phone service and was able to answer the myriad of calls from desperate people who needed help. We were blessed and had the z’chus to be able to help so many people that weren’t CONTINUED ON P. 53

Cynthia Zalisky is the Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community. She can be contacted at czalisky@ qjcc.org

November 14, 2013

Musings From Avi’s Couch Avi Shteingart

Perspective I

magine this scenario: It’s a warm evening with a light breeze. You’re standing on the beach watching the waves crash, listening to the roar of the ocean with the stars overhead. I would assume you’re feeling relaxed and calm, transported away from the worries of the world.

A client recently described finding himself in the following situation, not one too uncommon from something all of us can relate to. He is driving on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn at 10 p.m., when suddenly traffic comes to a standstill. He manages to pull over by the shoulder alongside Plum Beach, a beautiful expanse of sand where the Atlantic Ocean meets Jamaica Bay. He is running on empty; his cell phone has 5% battery strength remaining. As he describes his evening, I’m thinking about all those evenings I drove past that exact spot and how I have never stopped to take in the view. We pay hundreds of dollars to fly to far-off places to sit on beautiful beaches and take in such sights, and yet I speed by nightly at 10 mph over the speed limit.

I’m about to suggest how lucky he is, when he says that as he stood on the beach, with hundreds of idling cars behind him, his anxiety turns to anger. He

Inevitably, we encounter moments throughout our days that are beyond our control. We will get stuck in traffic at the worst moments; planes will be delayed

Watching the different recovering addicts pass through my office, I have found that those who not only live on life’s terms but also embrace them can bask in true serenity questions why he took this route in the first place; he projects how his wife is probably reminding herself how irresponsible he is, and he envisions the fight they will have when he gets home 4-5 hours late. Ten minutes later, traffic is moving at a rapid clip. After processing his feelings with him, I reflect the initial thoughts that had flashed in my head. I explain that he and I took the same situation, and allowed it to affect us in radically different ways. In fact, his thoughts increased the tension and anxiety he was already experiencing, leading to a progressive cycle of negative thoughts, ending hours later.

when we desperately need to make that layover; we’ll even find that the milk is sour right after pouring it into our cereal.

The question is only how we react and respond to these uncertain certainties in life. In Alcoholics Anonymous, there’s a common belief that for true recovery, we need to learn to “live life on life’s terms.”

This means accepting our limits in this uncertain world. However, I think that this only allows us to survive life. For those interested in thriving in life, we need to take it a step further.

Watching the different recovering addicts pass through my office, I have found that those who not only live on life’s terms but also embrace them can bask in true serenity. They can actually relish in those moments when we feel blindsided.

How do they do that, you may ask? They do so by truly understanding their limitations. In those moments we most dread, when circumstances are beyond our control, they appreciate what cannot be changed. Our greatest strength is when we can truly recognize this fundamental fact. It can change our lives and deeply alter our relationships.

Avi Shteingart, LMSW, CASAC, is a licensed therapist practicing in the tri-State area.

He has worked in a number of outpatient rehab centers, and maintains offices in Queens and Bergen County. He specializes in substance abuse, gambling, and other process and behavior addictions, as well as work with adolescents, young adults and adults struggling with anxiety, depression, social struggles, and transitions. Avi can be contacted at avi.shteingart@gmail.com or by calling 201-410-5883.

Shrinking It Rabbi Yaakov Adler, LCSW

Those Silent Messages, Part I S

everal readers have asked me whether I could present some real live case scenarios that might be informative and educational. The case history below is one such situation. All identifying data has been modified.

Upon hearing the scenario, there are some very reasonable questions that an intelligent outsider might raise.

The questions might be of the following nature: What’s the big deal? What is Shaindy’s real problem? So her parents are a bit rigid; they’re good people.

What does she want from them? What was so terrible about the home atmosphere? Nobody’s home is perfect! She did well in school, behaved properly and had friends; what more should she want? Let us proceed with our case presentation and, in the course of it, address these points.

The Case: Shaindy G., 25, was referred by a friend of hers whom I had treated several years prior. Shaindy’s presenting issues (believe it or not) concerned shiduchim. She described that although she has gone out quite a bit, she does not feel comfortable with

11 Kislev 5774

many of the young men she has met.

Initially she felt that the types of individuals she was meeting were not appropriate. However, as time went on, she had a very different read on things.

She could not put her finger on it, but sensed that there was something more fundamental in her background that did not allow her to develop a relationship. Shaindy’s initial self-presentation was rather impressive. She was articulate, insightful, and appeared rather “put together.” One could definitely use the description of “alle maalos” (loosely translated as a young lady or man on the shiduch scene who possesses all the possible desirable traits and attributes, including but not limited to looks, intelligence, personality, yichus, familial standing, etc.). We went on to explore Shaindy’s background, and we will delineate the aspects that appeared to most significantly pertain to her problem and ultimately to the approach taken to assist her.

Shaindy reported that she is the oldest of a family of six children. The family is viewed as quite prominent in her circles: her father, a successful businessman very involved in community

affairs; and her mother, a highly soughtafter teacher. She describes herself as being a very good student in elementary school, “the apple of her teachers’ eyes.” Socially, she admits to not feeling that comfortable with her peers.

She was not quite sure at that time what the source of this insecurity was.

Now, in retrospect, she senses that although a very competent student, she felt that she was “not as good” as her friends. When asked to elaborate, she was ambiguous, but seemed to always find some trait that she lacked when she compared herself to her friends.

The trait was not limited to any particular area and comprised the gamut of intelligence, appearance, personality, and religious observance. At this point in her life this seemed rather unusual, as she certainly possessed considerable gifts in all those areas.

Shaindy, being a thinking, growthoriented, and insightful young lady, was aware at a young age that the in-

security made her unhappy and gave it considerable thought. At one point she decided to broach it rather indirectly with her mother. This was a considerable step for Shaindy, as she did generally not feel comfortable in discussing issues of a personal nature with anybody. She recalls her mother listening but dismissing Shaindy’s discomfort, telling her that it was perfectly normal.

Her father, who had overheard the conversation, asked Shaindy to elaborate to him. He similarly discounted the import of her problem and told her to try harder to be popular and she’d feel better about herself.

Life continued, bas mitzvahs came and went, and she now found herself in high school, continuing to be the good student she was. However, her negative feelings about herself and discomfort and insecurity with her friends continued in a more intense manner.

CONTINUED ON P. 53

Rabbi Yaakov Adler, LCSW, is an internationally renowned psychotherapist and lecturer. He has treated a broad spectrum of the frum community for three decades. For information regarding consultations, appointments or upcoming workshops, please call the Queens office at 718.575.0308 or the Lawrence office at 516.239.3303.

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35

Politics & Ethics Abe Fuchs

We Need Rabbinic Leadership To See Big Picture In Modern Times I

read Rabbi Schonfeld’s recent article in the QJL with great interest. I also have taanos (complaints) about our community, albeit from a political realm – regarding a lack of participation in the political process.

I sincerely believe that there is a crisis in these modern days of the Orthodox community. I think one faction – the modern one – is falling into the pattern of Americanism with a priority towards consumerism, vacationing, and perhaps an overly competitive view towards education and professional achievement, and therefore not developing a kesher (bond) towards the overall community and its needs. I think the chareidi world is similarly preoccupied with stressing Gemara scholarship and not enough time is committed towards Jewish history and the study of our galus.

With respect to young people not

feeling committed to community – this is a lack of hakaras ha’tov. This can be taught by both parents and yeshivos by stressing to children the importance and relevance of the environment that houses our community.

Government, non-profits, and civic associations, as well as the efforts of the private sector, all contribute toward

reservoir is triggered. I think real-life scenarios should be illustrated by rabbis and rebbeim in discussing conflicts that arise between family members, marriage partners, business associates, or between students in school. We’re not paying enough attention to truly develop an internalized and working knowledge of musar and midos.

There is a fine line between not blending in with non-Jews so as to preserve our Torah way of life and being withdrawn from society, which only leads to negative consequences the development of a successful community, our religious institutions, and the prosperity and happiness of families.

In my opinion, even the study of musar is too often turned into an intellectual exercise, as opposed to one where our G-d-given emotional

I am also shocked at the level of scandals of rabbis profiled in the paper these days. Indeed, when was it heard of to read about such a prevalence of molestation of young children from “trusted” rebbeim or leaders in the frum community? We hear too often of financial crimes such as embezzlement/money laundering in relation to non-profits. Recently, we heard of an alleged scheme with financial gain, to terrorize husbands who refuse to give a get.

The problem that Rabbi Schonfeld points to of agunos is indeed very troublesome. Women are the pillars of family life, and for any woman to be treated abusively with respect to obtaining a get is absolutely shameful. Besides any halachic fixes that can be enforced, it should be at the peril of any husband to withhold a get, through shaming of him by the community. The dignity of women in our culture could be even more emphasized than it is today, that the practice of withholding a get in a divorce case would be practically unheard of.

What Rabbi Schonfeld wrote, about the cohesiveness of the family unit, is essential. Parents need to raise children with love and lots of attention, and as he so aptly put it, with “storytelling” in the home, because this is after all, besides role modeling, how parents communicate their values to their children. Children should not be raised as trophy machines for parents, such as they often do in Japan. I do not have children of my own, but

I took a great interest with respect to the needs of young nephews or nieces who wanted my attention or advice.

I always wanted to be a part of their lives as I am with my siblings as well.

Rabbinic leadership should try to coalesce to whatever extent possible to see that our true and dear values that have sustained us over thousands of years should again govern the spiritual health of our people. I thought the Rabbi’s article was visionary for modern-day Jewry, and the question is how our leadership can build the structure to prioritize a renewed commitment to our sacred and religious values to prevail in our modern times. Rabbi Schonfeld, we need you and likeminded leaders who have a broad perspective on society and modern day Jewry to come together to blaze a path of vitality and integrity to attract and sustain a following to Torah ideals.

In general, as well, Judaism should not be practiced in a bubble, as it was in Eastern Europe. It is high time that the frum community joins the modern world with respect to political participation and not just react once a problem has already exploded in our faces. We cannot wake up to the need of safety of our neighborhood once a pattern of crime already exists. It is too late then, because people will already be hurt. We are too bright a people to be so passive. Insularity has not been a friend to the Jewish people over the years through our galus.

There is a fine line between not blending in with non-Jews so as to preserve our Torah way of life and being withdrawn from society, which only leads to negative consequences.

There is and will always be a need for strict Torah scholars to lead us in Torah law and hashkafah (philosophy) but there will also always be a need for rabbinic leaders to guide us in a sociological sense to attain a healthy and vibrant role in an everchanging world. In my humble opinion, there is a great need in our time for big-picture leadership, and we need more rabbinic minds asking the questions that Rabbi Schonfeld has raised in his article.

Abe Fuchs was born in Wash. D.C. and attended high school at the Mesivta of Forest Hills. He spent three years in yeshiva (Rabbinical Seminary, B’nei Torah and Sh’or Yashuv) in NY. He worked 25 years for the U.S Postal Service, retiring in 2009. In 2012, Abe ran against Nily Rozic for NY State Assembly District 25. He can be reached at aftimes@juno.com 36

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November 14, 2013

A Tale Of Two Cities, A Tale Of Two Communities CONTINUED FROM P. 29 candidates meeting with our community leaders. Candidates looked for opportunities to visit our shuls and attend our events. In this year’s Democratic Primary, only one candidate, Bill Thompson, made a serious effort to reach out to our community. The others were virtually invisible.

When I made suggestions to an aide to one of the candidates in this year’s primary about reaching out to our community, I was told that Orthodox Jews were not going to vote for this candidate anyway and that the candidate saw no reason to waste time reaching out to us. I was told that this person would “remember” the lack of support from our community upon becoming Mayor. Had this person been elected, we could have looked forward to our community having our services and funding cut as retaliation for our failing to vote for this candidate who did not want to waste time seeking our votes.

The trend of the Torah-observant community towards the Republicans, while the rest of New York trends towards the Democrats, is real. There are, in fact, more votes in Greenwich Village and Park Slope than there are in Borough Park and Kew Gardens Hills. The tendency of Democratic candidates to cater to where there are voters is understandable. When some of our rabbanim proclaim that it is asur to vote for particular candidates or that we will never vote for any candidate who holds a particular point of view no mat-

:-) Not :-( CONTINUED FROM P. 16 brengen!” (“Sadness is not a sin; but what sadness can bring about cannot even be brought about by the greatest sin! Happiness is not a mitzvah; but what happiness can bring about cannot even be brought about by the greatest mitzvah!”)

As a matter of halachah, one may not daven in a state of sadness (B’rachos 31a).

Indeed, this is one reason that we recite P’sukei D’Zimrah prior to Sh’moneh Esrei – reciting the great attributes of Hashem and His kindness places us in the proper frame of mind (Rosh, B’rachos 5:2; Maadanei Yom Tov ad loc.).

But for all its deleterious effects, sadness can be a choice. In his book Gateway to Happiness, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin notes that, prior to the book’s publication, he asked two people for their opinion on the topic of sadness. One, a generally optimistic person, responded, “The world is so beautiful, how can anyone be sad?”

The other, a more glum-minded person, answered, “The world is so full of misfortune, how can anyone be happy?”

Sadness does not stem from lacking things; it stems from the refusal to accept lacking things.

R’ Mordechai of Lechivitz had a disciple who was a lumberer. Once, the disciple lost an entire shipment of wood, and he expressed his sadness to R’ Mordechai.

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ter how good they are on other issues, we should not be surprised when those candidates take us at our word and decide to ignore the people who will never vote for them.

But the truth is that while we often tend to vote Republican, we are not kneejerk Republican voters. A look at this year’s City Council elections shows that we are sophisticated voters who know how to split a ticket and vote for the candidate who will best represent our community.

In South Brooklyn, the Council race pitted Chaim Deutsch, an Orthodox Jew who founded the local Shomrim Society, as the Democratic candidate against David Storobin, a Russian-speaking former State Senator, as the Republican candidate.

Deutsch had the endorsement of Gregory Davidzon, a powerful figure in the Russian Jewish community, while many rabbanim supported Storobin as the Republican candidate. Given that Lhota carried the district handily and that Storobin began with higher name recognition as a former elected official, one would have expected Storobin to have the edge. Yet Deutsch won handily.

In the Kew Gardens Hills precincts that Joe Lhota carried handily, Rory Lancman, who is on the wrong side of some important issues but who has an outstanding track record of delivering for our community, won by a clear margin. (Full disclosure: I worked for Rory Lancman when he was a State Assemblymember, and I was active in his campaign).

Clearly, Torah-observant Jews will vote for a Democratic candidate who reaches out to and delivers for our community.

What was more of a factor in the Mayoral election was the fear that Bill de Blasio would be “another Dinkins.” Joe Lhota’s campaign emphasized that he was Deputy Mayor for Rudy Giuliani, while de Blasio was an aide to David Dinkins. He said that de Blasio would bring the city back to the days of high crime and a deteriorating quality of life. While that argument did not appeal to the vast majority of voters, it did resonate in our community.

It is at this point that we can expect to hear the word racist. Many Democrats have charged that our opposition to candidates like Barack Obama and David Dinkins is racist and that Lhota succeeded in our community because of his appeal to racism.

The results of the Democratic Primary for Mayor this past September should forever put an end to the libel that our community is racist.

In the same Kew Gardens Hills precincts where Joe Lhota won handily, Bill Thompson, the only African-American candidate, took 54% of the vote to 17% for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, 14% for de Blasio and 8% for Rev. Eric Selgado.

In other words, the African-American candidate received more votes than all of the white candidates combined.

The results in other largely Orthodox Jewish communities other than in the district de Blasio represented in the City Council were similar. Bill Thompson actually ran better among Orthodox Jews

than among his fellow African-Americans.

Torah Jews will vote for an African-American candidate who reaches out to us and is responsive to our concerns.

The reason that the fear of “another Dinkins” was felt far more strongly in our community is because we were the ones most traumatized by the shouts of “kill the Jews” during the 1991 Crown Heights pogrom. As a result, we are the most appreciative of the achievements of Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, and Ray Kelly in bringing down crime. It would obviously stand to reason that our community would be the most strongly opposed to a candidate who centered his campaign on running against their legacy.

There are many lessons that we can learn from the 2013 election for Mayor.

The Torah-observant Jewish community is becoming increasingly Republican and that many Democrats have decided that it is not even worthwhile to seek support from our community. But the facts show that we are not knee-jerk Republicans.

We will support Democrats, including African-Americans, who are responsive to our concerns.

But the most striking result of the 2013 elections may well be the chasm between us and the vast majority of our fellow New Yorkers, including our fellow Jews. The candidate who won close to three quarters of the Orthodox Jewish vote in the general election could not even carry Kew Gardens Hills. Politically, as well as religiously, we are becoming an “am l’vadad yishkon – a nation that dwells alone.”

What are the implications? That will be the subject of a future column.

The Rebbe responded, “Chazal say that Hashem participates in the sadness of every person. What gives you the right to choose to bring sadness to Hashem over the loss of mere lumber?”

How do we know that sadness is a matter of choice? Well, the Torah promises punishment for “not serving G-d your Lord with happiness and in gladness of heart” (D’varim 28:47). If we are accountable for not serving Hashem with happiness, happiness must be within our control.

The Ben Ish Chai used this concept to explain the statement of David HaMelech that “Atzabeihem kesef v’zahav, maasei y’dei adam…” – “Their idols are silver and gold, the handiwork of man” (T’hilim 115:4). The word “atzabeihem” derives from the word atzvus – sadness. Sadness, in turn, is “the handiwork of man.” Man brings it upon himself, and man can relieve himself of it (see Aderes Eliyahu, Vayakhel).

This idea finds expression in modern day psychology as well. Logotherapy is but one example. Among the most influential books of the 19th Century was Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

In it, Frankl chronicled his experiences in Auschwitz and promoted his theory of Logotherapy. Frankl stressed that we have the final say not necessarily in what happens to us, but in how we react to what happens to us: “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving

away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s own attitude in any given set of circumstances – to choose one’s own way.”

Sadness is no exception. Viktor Frankl knew all too well about sadness and despair, and he recognized that sadness could be a matter of choice.

So, you wonder, if sadness is a matter of choice, how do we free ourselves of its clutches? Yoga? Wheatgrass juice? Ice cream and chocolate? Hardly.

There are, of course, mystical antidotes, such as R’ Nachman of Breslov’s advice to recite Psalms 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150.

Then there are more practical, tangible cures. R’ Tzadok HaKohen advises the use of humor (see MiMaayanos HaNetzach, Avos 6:6). The Rambam suggests that, “if a person is overcome by melancholy, he should endeavor to purge himself of it by listening to songs and music, strolling through gardens and magnificent buildings, and frequenting attractive works of art” (Sh’moneh P’rakim, Chapter 5).

To these remedies, and the countless others, I add two suggestions.

First, recognize and appreciate that sadness is, in a sense, illogical. If you are sad about something that can be changed, change it. If you are sad about something that cannot be changed, stop

wasting time being sad, embrace reality, and work towards betterment of your lot (see Pele Yo’etz, Atzvus). Whatever your cause, sadness does not advance it. I admit: easier said than done.

Second, choose to see the silver lining.

The line between sadness and happiness is often a matter of perspective. You can choose to see the good and be happy, or you can choose to see the bad and be sad.

As Dr. Seuss opined – and as I tell my children whenever we finish doing something fun – “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”

The Baal Shem Tov once visited a town in which the people complained that their chazan behaved strangely: On Yom Kippur, he chanted the Al Cheit confession in a merry melody, rather than in a more appropriate, somber tune. When questioned by the Baal Shem Tov, the chazan explained, “Rebbe, if I was the janitor in the king’s palace, would I not be happy that I was sweeping away the dirt and beautifying the king’s palace? My soul is G-dly. When I confess my sins, I feel that I am cleansing myself and making a better, more appropriate place for my soul. Is that not a reason to rejoice?” Sometimes, it is simply a matter of perspective. * * * Regardless of how you choose to pull yourself out of the abyss of sadness, the first step is to acknowledge that you have the power to change it. Is it easy? No. Is it necessary? It does not matter. There is no other way.

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Frontlines Joseph M. Frager

The Cuban Missile Crisis II: Venezuela/Iran I

t has been nearly 50 years since President John F. Kennedy was shot on a Texas street in a motorcade.

One of John F. Kennedy’s highlights as president was his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He stood up to the Russians and their Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and the president won. The missiles were returned to Russia and a potential world war was averted.

Now, 50 years later, a potential new Missile Crisis may be brewing in Venezuela. This time around, it is not the Russians who are causing all the trouble – it’s the Iranians. It seems at least one boat was found with highly sophisticated missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads in or near Venezuela. These were Iranian-produced mis-

siles. The Iranians play all kinds of games with their ships by changing flags with the wind to avoid detection and sanctions-imposed restrictions. It’s hard to keep up with them, and indeed America was trying to prevent this activity when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went on the charm offensive and completely undid the West with his gamesmanship.

Truth be told, it is not the first time Rouhani has done this. As reports surface daily that President Obama is going to further loosen sanctions and make a bad deal, the Iranians are surging to the finish line in making weapons-grade uranium. It is estimated by some that this red line will be crossed in or around the week of the 50th

anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. Isn’t it ironic that instead of learning any lessons from President Kennedy, President Obama continues his pursuit of a diplomatic non-solution? If President Kennedy was in office today, do you think for a minute he would enable the Iranians to obtain weapons grade uranium and allow

If the president does not take a page out of JFK’s playbook, then he risks not only nuclear weapons pointed at the US from Venezuela, but also a proliferation of nuclear weapons in every country in the Middle East missiles that at the very least can cause an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) blackout across the entire country and pose a threat of nuclear warheads directed at the USA? Obviously, he would take on the Iranians the same way he took on the Russians. President Obama should learn many lessons from President Kennedy.

It is reported that the Saudis have purchased nuclear warheads from Pakistan. If the president does not take a page out of JFK’s playbook, then he risks not only nuclear weapons pointed at the US from Venezuela, but also a proliferation of nuclear weapons in every country in the Middle East. This is an intolerable situation. The president should think twice before he makes a bad deal with the Iranians.

Joseph M. Frager is a physician and lifelong activist.

Rabbi Finds $98,000 Cash In Desk Bought On Craigslist CONTINUED FROM P. 32 and it’s full of cash. We count it up and there’s $98,000 cash sitting in the bag…Right away my wife and I sort of you know looked at each other and said, ‘We can’t keep this money.’”

The Muroffs knew that the money belonged to the original desk owner, who said that she bought the furniture from Staples and assembled it herself. So Rabbi Noah called her and explained his find. The original owner, identified only as “Patty,” was speechless on the other end of the phone only able to say, “Oh my gosh, because I... oh my G-d.” Patty knew she stored the money she inherited in the desk, but she was unable to find it when it fell behind the desk’s filing drawer.

She assumed that the money was somewhere else in her home when she couldn’t locate it and sold the desk never thinking it still contained her nest egg.

Rabbi Noah, a father of four young children and also a ninth grade rabbi at the Yeshiva of New Haven, brought his entire family along when he returned the money, believing it was an opportunity to teach his kids a lesson about honesty and truth. When they arrived, Patty refunded the $150 purchase price of the desk and also insisted that the rabbi accept reward money.

She was overwhelmed with the family’s good deed and wrote a note saying, “I cannot thank you enough for your honesty and integrity. I do not think there are too many people in this world that would have done what you did by calling me,” ending the note, “I will be forever grateful.”

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Financially Forward Gerald Harris

Tofutti: How Sweet It Is

CONTINUED FROM P. 1 saying a simple hello, he greets with a friendly handshake and a warm Shalom Aleichem.

Mintz is the head of Tofutti, a company that makes a wide variety of strictly kosher foods and frozen desserts sold across the US and abroad.

If asked to describe Mintz, most people would probably say that he’s a successful businessman. But he’s also a food expert and innovator. Perhaps the title that best suits him is chasid, because of his unshakable trust in G-d and in the power of the blessing of a tzadik, in this case the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson zt”l.

Mintz speaks about Tofutti with the enthusiasm and excitement of someone just starting out in business. Yet in fact, Tofutti recently celebrated its 30th year as a publicly-held company (stock symbol: TOF) and Mintz has held the reins since he founded it 35 years ago.

The company is doing very well. In the quarter ending on June 29, 2013, the most recent available, sales rose 13% from the comparable earlier period to $4,262,000.

And gross profit jumped more than 30% to $1,489,000.

Leaping Hurdles Although Mintz makes it all sound easy, getting to where he is now has been anything but simple. Starting in the fur business, he worked very long hours for half of the year but needed a source of income for the remaining six months. With the blessing of the Rebbe, he purchased a small grocery in upstate New York, giving him a start in the food business. Then, again on the advice of the Rebbe, he opened Mintz’s Buffet, the first glatt kosher restaurant in Manhattan, and branched into catering.

“It was a gold mine,” he recalls. “People who didn’t know what kosher was came in to eat glatt kosher food.”

While Mintz’s Buffet was open, he observed that many non-Jewish customers were asking for ice cream for dessert.

However, as the owner of a kosher meat restaurant, he couldn’t offer any dairy products. And so Mintz had begun experimenting to find a way to make a dairy-free ice cream.

Like other food experts, he believed that making such a product from soy was possible; however, no one was able to figure out how to do it.

For the following several years, Mintz worked late into the night to find a solution, only to have repeated disappointments. One night he went to the Rebbe to Tofutti CEO David Mintz

wraps with both savory and sweet fillings that will be ready to eat after just three Although Mintz makes it all sound easy, getting to where he is seconds in a microwave oven. A Tofutti now has been anything but simple feta cheese may soon join the other pareve cheeses already being sold. Tofutti is also working on various vegetable protein But an unexpected development say that he was giving up.

“The Rebbe told me not to,” he recalls. products not made from soy. brought that to a halt. Donald Trump purThose familiar with the food industry chased the entire block in order to build “He said in order for Hashem to send a Trump Plaza, and Mintz was forced to blessing you need a receptacle for it. Keep know that competition is intense and trying. It may take time but the break- sometimes ruthless. close the store.

There are other problems, too. For exMintz rejected the sympathy of friends, through will come.”

It didn’t come soon. Mintz continued ample, gaining shelf space in supermarexplaining that “Everything Hashem does is good and something better would come experimenting, literally around the clock, kets can be very challenging and somebut every effort fell short. That prompted times very costly. along.” the head of a food lab, where Mintz had As the head of a food company, Mintz been testing his products, to ask him, is well aware of all of those. Yet, despite it “Young man, you keep failing. Where do all, he is upbeat and optimistic. One of the you get all this perseverance to continue?” blessings Mintz received from the Rebbe Then a new problem surfaced: He ran was that he should never have any seriout of money. Again he went to the Rebbe, ous worries, and when he had concerns, to who urged him to continue. “Have bita- neutralize those by learning Torah. chon (trust),” he was told. “That’s the key.

Mintz follows that advice every day.

The more bitachon you will have, the more When some issues come to mind during G-d will help you.” his trip to work each morning, “I learn ToMonths later, all of a sudden, the break- rah insights, and by the time I get to the through came and all of the blessings be- office I’m relaxed and my mind is clear.” gan to materialize.

Away from the office, Mintz is involved After Mintz began selling the non-dairy in charitable activities. The Rebbe once frozen dessert, he learned that the really urged him to get involved with mikvaos big market for Tofutti’s products was not and, based on that advice, he built Mikvah from the kosher market but rather from Sarah Devorah in New Jersey in memory lactose intolerant and vegan consumers. of his mother. The mikvah was built to According to Mintz, the total number of high standards of beauty, with a waterfall people who want dairy-free products is in the waiting room and stones used in nearly 100 million in the US alone. the project, brought from Jerusalem. The mikvah has become so popular that it was necessary to expand the facilities. InterNon-Dairy Delights Today, Tofutti’s products are sold in 36 estingly, after construction, the mikvah foreign countries, some of which have to was found to be built over an artesian cover the Hebrew lettering on the pack- well, making it one of only five in the ages before they can be placed on store country that have a source of such pure shelves. And there are almost 90 products water. He also assists Lubavitch shluchim consumers can choose from, including dif- and Chabad houses.

“To this day, the blessings the Rebbe ferent kinds of hard cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, pizza, ravioli, and blintzes, in gave me are coming to pass,” says Mintz. addition to a large variety of frozen des- “I owe everything I have to G-d and the serts. And, as a result of the Rebbe’s advice Rebbe, who was His messenger.” to spend 60% of his time on developing Sources: Interview with new products, more are on the way.

David Mintz; Yahoo Finance The company is working on a line of

Gerald Harris is a financial and feature writer. Gerald can be reached at geraldhrs@ yahoo.com

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A Newlywed’s Thoughts Sergey Kadinsky

B

The Agunah Crisis: I Don’t “Get” It

y now, most of you are probably aware that on Staten Island there is a yeshivah student who has been married for nearly five years. In the eyes of Jewish law, he is a husband, but he hasn’t lived with his wife since December 2009 and neither party has any intention of reconciling. In a separate case, a prominent advocate of divorcees was led out of his Brooklyn home in handcuffs for allegedly branding a stubborn husband with cattle prods in order to persuade him to sign the get. In Rego Park, a dozen demonstrators stood outside the home of a man who refuses to divorce his wife.

paths much sooner? Life is short and I appreciate every moment with her. As her grandfather advises me, “You may argue from time to time, but the main thing is that you’re speaking to each other.”

With the rising divorce rate in mind, many couples today are taking preventive measures before the chupah. Some attend premarital counseling, others sign prenuptial agreements, and medical and family backgrounds are examined thoroughly.

Nevertheless, nobody can predict whether a marriage will succeed, even when both parties appear “on the same page” in all matters as they approach the wedding

Nobody can predict whether a marriage will succeed, even when both parties appear “on the same page” in all matters as they approach the wedding date Apparently, while our community is tackling the “shiduch crisis” head-on, in cases of unresolved divorces I keep hearing, “That’s only her side of the story. Perhaps he has a legitimate reason not to give the get. Who are you to take a side?”

My first encounter with an agunah was in high school, where I was introduced to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a novel about a woman in colonial Massachusetts whose husband was presumed missing at sea. Falling to temptation, Hester Prynne had an affair and produced a child. The husband later turned up in Salem but refused to divorce her or confront the other man, who happens to be a respected pastor. Throughout the book, Hester demonstrated fortitude and faith in Puritan religious legalism by refusing to name the other man. It’s terrible enough that Salem has one adulteress living in its midst; why should the public know any other examples, especially one who comes from such a prominent position?

Like Hester, there are agunos who remain observant in spite of stonewalling from their estranged husbands. Their hair remains covered but their fingers have no rings. They look in agony at friends who are in shiduchim and those in marriage as they remain in limbo. They have a supportive network of family, friends, and rabbinic leaders. How can a husband ignore them? Because she has her rabbis and he has his. She has her advocates and he has his. She has her lawyers, and he has his. And with so many people chiming in and offering to mediate, not one inch of progress.

Having been single for so many years, I value my marriage to Keren, knowing the difficulty of securing our match. We both went through numerous disappointments before finding each other. When I wake up each morning, I express gratitude. Where was she all my life? Why couldn’t we cross

11 Kislev 5774

date. One agunah recently wrote to the New York Post how, on her first Shabbos, they disagreed about the order of lighting candles. Perhaps I was naïve in presuming that when a couple marries, they have already settled on which minhag to follow and other hashkafic matters.

Prior to our wedding, Keren and I agreed that Rabbi Shmuel Marcus, the mara d’asra of our shul, would address all of our sh’eilos. If I purchase an item in the supermarket and Keren finds the hechsher unsatisfactory, we would call on our rabbi to evaluate it. I may find the creamy puff pastry tempting and trust its hechsher, but for shalom bayis, I await the rabbi’s psak before eating it. Rabbi Marcus is not our babysitter and neither are our parents or shadchanim. For each sh’eilah, the rabbi provides us a source so that in the future, if a cold milchig spoon touches a warm fleishig pan, we would know whether to kasher or discard these items.

With our five-month anniversary on Shabbos VaYishlach, let’s recall Sh’chem, the Canaanite prince who raped Dinah.

What he initiated in sin, he attempted to rectify under a veneer of legitimacy.

Sh’chem “loved the girl and spoke to the girl’s heart.”

His father Chamor met with Yaakov on behalf of his son: “His soul has a liking for your daughter.” How about it? Sh’chem spoke next. “May I find favor in your eyes?

Whatever you tell me, I will give.”

But Sh’chem “afflicted” Dinah. She wanted nothing to do with him. But how does a newcomer family refuse a seemingly forced marriage to a prince? Shimon and Levi had an answer. A violent reaction today would run afoul not only of secular law, but also the body of halachic common law formulated since the rape of Dinah.

Violence cannot be condoned. However, just as a marriage cannot be forced on an individual, neither can a divorce.

In some of the high-profile agunah cases in the news, both sides argue that they are protecting their children from potential abuse or neglect. For this, a protracted standoff going on for years appears war-

ranted. I disagree. Finality is also important. “It is not good for the man to dwell alone.” The husband would be better off remarrying than cutting off his nose to spite his face.

Sergey Kadinsky is a former editor of The Jewish Star. His articles have appeared in The Jewish Press, Daily News, New York Post, and Queens Chronicle. He is a political consultant and adjunct professor of history at Touro College.

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For What It’s Worth Warren S. Hecht

Proud To Be A Religious Jew O

ne can question the methodology of the recent Pew report.

Even if the numbers may be a little off, the essential facts are correct: Intermarriage is a significant problem and it is getting worse. The younger the person is, the more likely he or she is willing to intermarry, or the weaker his connection is to the Jewish community.

There are no simple answers as to why this has occurred or what can be done to counter the trend, but I have some ideas.

America today is a much less religious place than it was 45 years ago. It is not only the Jewish community that has changed, but also society in general. In order to have an intermarried couple, the non-Jewish spouse has to be willing to marry a Jew. It was not too long ago that when a child married outside of the faith, the parents sat Shiv’ah. It was not only Orthodox parents who did so. Years ago, not only was intermarriage frowned upon in the Jewish community, but it was also frowned upon in the non-Jewish community.

One of the causes for this change is the media. Newspapers, TV, and radio have all

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contributed to the “accept all as equals” concept, and if not implying, then saying it outright. This attitude also lies within the Jewish community. Take, for instance, the opinion of a writer for a newspaper under the auspices of a major Jewish organization who doesn’t see this change in the uptick in intermarriage as a bad thing.

For her, love and trust are more impor-

lyrics: “…nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace.” Similarly, when someone in the religious community is involved in improper conduct, people use it as proof that religion is a fraud or that religious people are frauds. For them, religion is the cause of many problems. At the same time, they extol the idea of alternative lifestyles. It

We should point to the hypocrisy in the PC crowd. When they talk about tolerance, what they really mean is tolerance to their position. Somehow, their idea of tolerance does not apply when dealing with those who are religious tant criteria than being Jewish. The same newspaper also has a columnist who intermarried and frequently supports this way of life. It is unfortunate that such positions have become mainstream in our community.

Moreover, for years, much of the media has been anti-religious. Many will remember John Lennon’s biggest solo hit, “Imagine,” which included the following

is not surprising that those espousing alternative lifestyles would be those who attack religion, since they know that the two are not compatible.

They also have used political correctness as a way to put those who are religious on the defensive. Therefore, it is

not surprising that with this onslaught attitudes have changed.

However, all is not lost. There are ways to deal with the situation. The first thing we have to do is stop playing the victim when it comes to situations when frum Jews are arrested and then convicted. Instead of complaining that individuals such as Sholom Rubashkin were railroaded, we should look inside and have a zero tolerance policy. Not only would it make some individuals think twice before engaging in such conduct, it would serve as a response to those who call us hypocrites.

We should also point out that a person who holds himself out as a religious Jew and engages in criminal conduct is not a reflection on the Jewish religion, but is a personal failing. Religion shouldn’t play a role in the blame-game. When a secular person is involved in criminal or illegal activity, the secularists blame the conduct on the individual – not on the fact that CONTINUED ON P. 54

Warren S. Hecht is President of the Queens Jewish Community Council and a local attorney. He can be reached at whecht@qjcc.org.

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November 14, 2013

A Healthy Outlook

Fact or Fiction: Popular Weight-Loss Myths Demystified

By Dr. Bo Rosenblat, Chief Physician for Dr. Bo’s Diet

I

f you’re trying to lose or maintain your weight, you may have noticed that there is an overabundance of accessible information at your fingertips. Entire magazines devoted to health & wellness line the shelves of your local pharmacy, and new books are published every day about the latest trends and fad diets.

All one has to do is type “weight loss” into Google to be bombarded with a plethora of information. From Facebook to Pinterest and everything in between, the Web is filled with everything from quick fixes to extreme diets to actual medical studies; so how do you know what’s true and what’s false? Which diets are healthful, and which have negative health effects?

While there are many reputable and informative websites, there are also many bloggers and non-medical professionals writing about topics that they are not specialists in. Sorting through the myths and finding what matters can be a daunting task. The following are my top weight-loss myths and how they are both born out of fact and fiction:

Rapid Weight Loss: There has been much debate over whether or not losing a lot of weight quickly is better or worse than losing

more modest amounts over the long term. The argument that rapid weight loss will just as soon result in rapid weight gain has been debunked, for the most part. While many dieters, both rapid and slow losers, will regain some or all of the weight lost, those who see larger initial losses often end up at a lower weight than people who drop smaller amounts. The reason for this is that a bigger change on the scale is more motivating than the slow and steady approach. People are more likely to stick with healthy habits when they are seeing big results.

The one caveat to this is rapid weightloss achieved in an unhealthful manner.

Dieters who choose radical methods such as juice fasting for long periods, over-the-counter stimulants, or other types of unregulated vitamin-deficient crash diets will generally regain all of their weight. Any program that cannot be transitioned into real life habits, once the initial weight-loss has been achieved, will likely result in weight gain in the long term.

Clothes Fit?” test became the popular method for keeping track of one’s weight. Stepping on the scale weekly, let alone daily, was frowned upon by popular culture as something obsessive and unnecessary. While clothing and general appearance can sometimes be used as a barometer for weight gain/loss, more often than not people don’t notice changes in their clothing as soon as one might think; this can be emotionally detrimental and result in the frustration that will ultimately cause one to give up.

Alternately, the “clothing test” can result in complacency in one’s habits, slowing or stunting weight loss. Studies have shown that individuals who weigh themselves at least weekly as a part of their regular routine will catch smaller, more manageable gains and will therefore be better able to keep themselves on track.

The difference between pants sizes can be as much as 10 pounds, so if you wait for your weight to show up on your waist, you are usually waiting too long.

Don’t allow more than a seven-day period to pass without checking the scale; going longer can result in discouragingly high gains or low losses. That being said, weighing every day can also cause unwarranted stress. Certain gains, like water weight for example, will show up

Weighing Every Day: Several years ago, the “How Do Your

CONTINUED ON P. 53

Dr. Bo Rosenblat is a board-certified medical doctor and Chief Physician of Dr. Bo’s Diet Center, with office locations in Hewlett & Manhasset. For more information about Dr. Bo’s Diet program, please call 516-284-8248 or visit www.DrBosDiet.com.

Nutrition For Immunity

by Shmuel Shields, Ph.D., N.Y.S. Certified Nutritionist

I

n September 2003, Consumer Reports on Health documented a series of studies showing how undernourishment can adversely affect immune health. This sounds like a problem that happens only in Third World countries, where a lack of basic staples is common; the problem in those countries is more of malnourishment, where people suffer from full-blown deficiencies. But many people living in industrialized countries today suffer from undernourishment, with widespread shortages of key nutrients.

The most common nutrients that are not obtained from our diets in adequate amounts are zinc, selenium, iron, B vitamins (including folic acid), vitamin C, vitamin D, and beta-carotene (the plant

11 Kislev 5774

form of vitamin A). People who lack any of these typically have fewer and less active natural “killer cells.” These white blood cells are the body’s first line of defense against disease.

Correcting nutritional shortages can restore and strengthen immunity, reducing risks of infection. Canadian research specifically found that that a daily multivitamin-mineral supplement taken for one year strengthened the body’s defenses and reduced infections in individuals with low levels of various nutrients.

Recent studies further point to the important role that vitamin D plays in immune system functioning. People with lower vitamin D levels report having significantly more cases of colds and flu than those with higher levels. Given these findings, it’s advisable to take a high-quality daily multivitamin-mineral supplement with at least 800 IU of vita-

min D. Of course, for optimal health, it’s best to make sure you eat a balanced diet consisting of colorful fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, low-fat organic dairy products, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and

legumes. In well-nourished people— even older adults—immune function is generally strong and multivitamin-mineral supplements are not as vital for preventing disease.

Excerpted from L’Chaim: 18 Chapters to Live By, which is now available online and at Jewish bookstores near you. In this unique book, Dr. Shields gives clear, user-friendly guidelines for becoming healthier, stronger, and more energized while fulfilling the mitzvah to “guard your health” – based on the latest findings, Torah wisdom, and true stories. To order online, visit www.brandnamepublishing.com and click on Books. For more information or to order directly from the author, contact him at rmshields62@verizon. net or call (718) 544-4036.

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11 Kislev 5774

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Jew In The Pew: Beyond The Numbers Leading Jewish Academic Jonathan Sarna Interprets What The Recent Pew Survey On US Jews Really Means

CONTINUED FROM P. 1 be “the most comprehensive national survey of the Jewish population since the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey.”

According to the study, released early last month and based on interviews in English and Russian with over 3,400 Jews across the country, the Jewish community is free-falling towards oblivion with alarming rates of intermarriage and assimilation. Among the startling findings: One third of “millennial “Jews (those coming of age after the year 2000) claim no religion. These “nones” are the fastest-growing Jewish “denomination.”

58% of Jews intermarry today compared to 17% before 1970.

33% of Jews had an Xmas tree this year, while only 22% kept a kosher home.

If you think intermarriage and assimilation is limited to grassy college campuses or affluent suburbia and spares the Orthodox, cloistered in enclaves in Brooklyn, Lakewood, or Kew Gardens Hills, you’re in for a surprise. According to the Pew report, more Jews drop out of Orthodoxy than join it: 78% of those over 65 who were raised Orthodox are no longer Orthodox.

Reaction Of Jewish Leaders The survey sent shockwaves through the Jewish establishment.

Jewish organizations, religious and secular, convened emergency conferences to sort out the results of this meltdown of Jewish identity.

Some Jewish leaders were quick to lay the blame at the doorstep of the organized Jewish community. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, said, “I see the study as a wake-up call for all of us.” Mark Charendoff, President of the Maimonides Fund, which assists those looking to donate to charities, said, “I think it’s an indictment of our collective efforts. I don’t have another word other than devastated.”

Michael Steinhardt, multi-million dollar philanthropist and co-founder of Taglit-Birthright Israel, said, “The leadership in the community is atrocious.”

While many in the organized Jewish community were devastated by the pessimistic results that read like a succession of Job’s messengers, not all read the report as the death knell of American Jewry.

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Sarna’s Orthodox Optimism Jonathan Sarna, an international authority on Jewish history and sociology who lectures on Jewish history at Brandeis University, near Boston, is defiantly optimistic. He believes that despite widespread assimilation, the Orthodox core is stronger than ever and will continue to grow. Sarna points to New York City where, reversing generations of assimilation, most Jewish children are now Orthodox, according to a recent UJA survey.

Sarna is confident the Orthodox will prevail demographically, even though they’re only ten percent, because they marry earlier and have more children.

According to the survey, under “household composition” (not a birth rate but the number of children presently at home), Orthodox households on aver-

the White House has koshered its kitchen for Jewish events.

Reform Movement On paper, Reform Judaism may seem a success story, with a lower attrition rate than that of the Orthodox. Reform has overtaken Conservative Judaism as the largest religious denomination, claiming 35% of the American Jewish pie, while Orthodoxy’s share of the pie is a paltry 10%.

But according to Sarna, “the Reform movement doesn’t seem to have much reason to jump for joy.” They inflate their numbers by filling their pews with congregants who are not Jewish even by Reform standards. Half the people in Reform pews are outright gentiles. Additionally, the Reform intermarriage rate is 50%, compared to just 2% for the Orthodox. They do not retain their youth. Sarna says the Re-

Intermarriage and assimilation are not limited to grassy college campuses or affluent suburbia: According to the report, more Jews drop out of Orthodoxy than join it age have 1.7 children while their Conservative counterparts have 0.3.

How does Sarna reconcile his Orthodox triumphalism with the alarming rate of Orthodox attrition described by the Pew study? The Orthodox attrition rate is even higher than that of the Reform (52% versus 48% for the Reform). If Orthodoxy itself is swept away by the tidal waves of assimilation, what hope is left for the rest of American Jewry?

Sarna is not alarmed. He says the Orthodox attrition rate is declining.

The percentage of those who have fallen off from Orthodoxy is much lower for Orthodox youth than older generations. While only 22% of those over 65 raised Orthodox are still Orthodox, among the under-30 cohort, 83% of those raised Orthodox have remained in the Orthodox camp.

Isn’t religious attrition a process that takes time? Logically, wouldn’t a 70-year-old be more likely to fall off after decades of outside influences than a 25-year-old, only a few years after yeshivah? Sarna says while that may be true, the picture of Orthodoxy today is quite different from what it was in the 1940s and ‘50s, when Orthodoxy was considered old fashioned, a fossil from the shtetl. There were almost no Orthodox day schools, and droves of young Jews fell by the wayside. Today Orthodoxy is vibrant and mainstream, with yarmulkes seen in the corporate boardroom, top law firms, and even

form movement never saw itself as a “way station out of Judaism,” but that is what it has become.

Accuracy Of The Pew Report Beyond the pessimistic survey results, does Sarna think the survey itself is an accurate reflection of the American Jewish landscape? Perhaps the survey is inaccurate, a false alarm?

Is all this communal hand-wringing over nothing?

Sarna believes the survey, while not perfect, is remarkably accurate as surveys go and was very professionally done, using sophisticated statistical methodology. The results were very close to other surveys, such as the UJA-sponsored study of New York Jewry and the US Census. Sarna likes the fact that this survey, unlike previous ones, surveyed areas with a known Jewish population: “They didn’t look for Jews in Idaho, making a thousand calls to find one Jew.” Sarna disregards the statistical flukes on the survey, such as the findings that one percent of Orthodox Jews eat treif and have an Xmas tree. One has to look at broad trends and disregard an occasional crank, which he likens to “static on the television screen.”

What did the survey leave out? Even though interviews were conducted in Russian, there was little data on the

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Jonathan Sarna 750,000-strong Russian Jewish community in America. The survey, when discussing “ultra-Orthodox” Jews, did not distinguish between chasidim and yeshivish. Sarna would like to have seen more sophisticated cross-tabulation, such as a comparison of the intermarriage rate between children raised with one Jewish parent compared to two.

The media had a field day with the survey question: “Can a person be Jewish if he or she believes in the Christian messiah? Sarna feels the question should have been stricken from the survey, because, according to him, Judaism is inalienable and defined by ritual practice, not belief. “Greater emphasis [should have been placed] on Sabbath and holiday rituals, [which are] infinitely more important than belief… We should not define Judaism in Protestant terms.”

Survey Describes Two New Categories Assimilation has been going on in America for centuries and intermarriage since Biblical times, when Ezra made Jewish returnees from Babylonia divorce their gentile wives. So, what’s new?

Sarna says what is new in the survey are two categories that were not previously identified. There are two million people of “Jewish heritage” who do not consider themselves Jewish even if they have a Jewish mother.

These people are overwhelmingly the products of intermarriage, with a tiny number of apostates. “That is the cost of intermarriage,” Sarna laments.

There is another class of people who fall under the rubric of “Jewish affinity”: gentiles who for different reasons identify with the Jewish people. They include Evangelicals, Mormons, Seventh-

November 14, 2013

day Adventists, and others who read the Bible and develop a philo-Semitic view of Judaism and Israel. This group was not recorded in previous studies. Under the right circumstances, people of “Jewish affinity” would convert to Judaism. “These people are more religious than some of the Jews of no religion...

Jews are a small people; we can use all the friends we can get,” Sarna says.

Effects Of Intermarriage As optimistic as Sarna is about the future of American Jewry, he is not blind to the injury that rampant intermarriage causes to the fabric of Jewish society. Mixed marriages do not just drastically reduce the Jewish population, but also damage the very integrity of Judaism. Intermarried couples and their offspring Christianize Judaism and Judaize Christianity. As the Yiddish proverb puts it, “When the miller fights with the chimney sweep, the chimney sweep turns white and the miller turns black – Az der milner shlugt zich mitn koymenkerer, vert der koymenkerer veiss un der millner shvartz” Intermarried couples frequently pick and choose from both religious traditions in a “cafeteria-style” religion that characterizes religion in America in general. This religious smorgasbord begins at the wedding itself, where intermarried couples are married by a minister under the chupah and the glass

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is broken. Sarna says in the past the boundary was Christianity itself, but now as a result of intermarriage, Christian behaviors, once extremely rare, are becoming acceptable among Jews. The Pew report bears out this trend: One third of American Jews had an Xmas tree this year, and 15% of Jews periodically attend non-Jewish services.

American Jews More Racially Diverse Another byproduct of the soaring intermarriage rate is the changing complexion of American Jewry. According to the survey, 7% of American Jews are people of color, with many reform congregations looking like a cross section of America. But if a Jew now has roots in Korea, Ecuador, or Nigeria and does not share Jewish origins

to adopt children of color), and immigration of Israelis of color. This will not change the structure of Judaism, says Sarna: “The Jewish People is not based on race at all” and he cites Israel as proof. Israel is much more racially and ethnically diverse in recent years than in the past, but that does not change Israel’s Jewish character. Sarna says that with rampant intermarriage threatening Jewish survival, racial diversity is the least of the problems to worry about.

“Never Give Up On Jews” Trying to stem the tidal wave of assimilation and intermarriage is like the legend of the Dutch boy who held the North Sea back by plugging a hole in a dyke with his finger. How does Sarna

“Jews are a small people; we can use all the friends we can get,” Sarna says in Eastern Europe or Israel, won’t that make him identify more with the third world and its leftist ideology, which may be hostile to Israel and Jewish interests?

Sarna says racial mixing of Jewry is nothing new and has been going on for decades through conversions, intermarriage, adoptions (It’s easier

hope to achieve this Herculean task?

“The more the more,” he says. Any factor that increases Jewish engagement and identity will counter the tsunami of intermarriage: two Jewish parents, Jewish education, youth groups, shul, camp, and trips to Israel. Sarna feels college youth are particularly susceptible to intermarriage, and notes that it

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is crucial that Jewish students attend one of the 30-40 universities with a strong Jewish life.

Sarna says as a historian he views Jewish life differently than the sociologists who devised the survey. Sociologists see things linearly – that societal trends will continue. Sarna by contrast sees Jewish history as cyclical – one can’t predict the future based on current trends. Case in point, according to Sarna: “Who could have predicted the Six Day War and the major baal t’shuvah movement of the 1970s, bucking the trend of assimilation?”

The Pew report is the latest prophet of doom, but as Sarna points out, “as a historian, we’ve heard such things before.” In the 1930s, people predicted Judaism would disappear, as the youth abandoned Judaism for Marxism or became assimilated. In the 1950s, all surveys said that Orthodoxy, devastated by the Holocaust, would never survive in America. The Pew report, says Sarna, is another “self-negating” false prophecy that will not come true.

Jeffrey Klapper is an attorney, librarian, poet and humorist. He graduated from Queens College and yeshiva. Jeffrey has worked at Rikers Island’s law library and has taught sciences in the NY public school system. Jeffrey’s journalism experience includes contributing to the Jewish Student Press Service and interning at the Riverdale Press. He is fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Spanish. Jeffrey can be contacted at klapper.jeffrey@gmail.com

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House & Home Rabbi Gedaliah and Sarah Newcomb

Curb Appeal: Preparing The Exterior Of Property For Marketing And Showing W

hen thinking about putting a property on the market for sale, whether a house, coop, or condo, thought should be given to the appearance of both the exterior and interior of the home. As the saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

When a prospective purchaser approaches a property from the outside, besides appeal, they may size up more about how they assume a property has been maintained or not maintained by its first exterior appearance.

It’s funny really, as I have seen both ends of the above scenario. I have shown property where the outside was very well-kept, manicured, perfectly gardened, and stately-looking, but upon entering the dwelling, the interior left much to be desired.

Alternatively, a property may appear basic and standard, especially in our neighborhood where many of the

typical “row-style homes” have similar exterior appearances. Upon entering one of these homes, people are sometimes very pleasantly surprised with what has innovatively been done with the interior of the home, including expansion and renovation.

Getting back to the exterior, I would say that most importantly the walkway or wherever the access to the entrance of the home is, should be clean, free of debris, free of fallen leaves, and free of snow or ice (as winter approaches). All mail and advertisements, circulars, and flyers should be removed. Garbage should be neat and in order and not the first eye-sore a potential purchaser sees. If a close neighbor’s home is unbecoming, it can be a problem. If people are hanging around outside, making noise or behaving in an unruly manner, it can cause concern as well.

If the property is vacant, have your

licensed realtor or a close neighbor make sure that no one else is placing garbage or debris on or in front of the property. Department of Sanitation loves to give tickets to those who do not conform to sanitation rules, and I recently had a case where a vacant property was being littered with construction debris by contractors working on a house across from it.

If the property is a co-op or condo, there is obviously less control over what can be done to present a good impression. If there are days where the garbage is put out front in bulk, you should schedule showings for other days or times. If parking is unusually difficult on certain days due to alternate side parking, showings should be rescheduled as well. I had one client who would not even consider looking at a certain beautifully renovated apartment in one of the local co-op complexes because the exterior of the building and the condition and cleanliness of the inside of the elevator were so distasteful to her that she found it impossible to proceed. Unfortunately, that is not something that a seller can do much about in a complex or development.

If a property has a driveway and/or garage, ideally it should be kept useful for showing appointments for buyers and realtors to use. This would be even more important in congested areas where parking can be very difficult.

If buyers have to drive around repeatedly looking for parking, they will be less inclined to look favorably upon a property, even when it has its own parking space. They will wonder how any relatives or guests will ever be able to visit and park. The same holds true for delivery people. They will be concerned, if they have more than one car themselves. I hear this often and it is a real concern in our areas.

If a property is vacant, sometimes neighbors believe that they can use a driveway, or block it, since no one is living in the home or using it themselves. They should never do

this without permission from the owner of the property. Even when permission is granted, I have heard concerns raised from potential purchasers about what will happen once the property is sold. They wonder if their fate will be at the mercy of the neighbors who may have gotten used to certain circumstances, or whether they will seem “un-neighborly” when they cannot extend the same courtesy because they will need use of their own parking spaces.

Proper window treatments should be in place. Ideally, this should remain so even in a property that is currently unoccupied. Let the buyer’s first impression of the inside come from the outside. If they see that the interior is clearly visible from the outside, they may feel unsafe or that there is a lack of privacy, especially for those homes that are at ground level or slightly above. In homes that have the flight of steps up to the front door, such as we have, this is less of a concern. However, once people are on our front porch, we would still want to discourage anyone from looking right in our window, and so window treatments are always advisable.

The address of the house should be clearly visible. Hatzolah recommends illuminated address plates, which make it easier to be found in case of emergency. If there is a professional “For Sale” sign on the property, make sure it has been placed properly and remains secure in its place. If the plate comes loose or one side falls, re-secure it and keep it safe.

Last but certainly not least, check that your mezuzos are secure (and checked as required periodically). I witnessed an embarrassing event where a child went to kiss a mezuzah and it fell off at the gentle touch of the hand.

Good luck sprucing up the outside of your house. Seasonal changes require some attention anyhow. Next issue, we will discuss internal property preparation.

Rabbi Gedaliah and Sarah Newcomb are NY State Licensed Realtors for over 13 years. While specializing in Kew Gardens Hills where they are long-time community members, they serve all areas in the Five Boros and Long Island. They hold several specialty certifications and are members of the Long Island Board of Realtors and the Multiple Listing Service of Queens and Long Island. Rabbi Newcomb is a beloved Rebbe at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe. Sarah Newcomb has won multiple awards from RE/ MAX NY and RE/MAX International. They, along with their family, make their home in and are proud members of the Kew Gardens Hills community. You may contact them at sarahnewcomb@topproducer.com, Queensrealtorteam.com or at 9174597549.

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November 14, 2013

Feelin’ Funny Mordechai Schmutter

Sigh-Cology I

s science fair? Science isn’t fair.

No matter how good you are at what you do, and how many discoveries you’ve made, and how long you’ve spent, say, observing the effects of dead laboratory mice on unsuspecting scientists, when it comes to the Nobel Prizes, you’re always going to be passed over for the guy who discovered yet an even smaller unit of matter than he did last year.

Okay, so scientists aren’t in it for the prizes. They’re in it to make the world a better place. Right? But if you spend time researching, say, why people hiccup, who exactly is going to pay for that?

It’s all about grants. And grants are all about name recognition. And name recognition is all about how many awards you’ve won. And if your son, who you know cannot sit still for more than twelve seconds, can come home with a “Student of the Week” certificate toward the end of the year because the morah wants to give everyone a chance, then why can’t these scientists have a chance to win a prize?

Enter the Ig Nobel Prizes. The Ig Nobel Prizes were created to celebrate unique individuals who are the best in their fields, mostly because no one else will come into their fields with them. According to the people who host the awards ceremony, the Ig Nobels are given for research that “first makes people laugh, then makes them think.” Sort of like that time Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

And this year, some people won Ig Nobel Prizes for not managing to do anything either. For example, the prize for Physiology went to a bunch of scientists in England for their study and the subsequent paper they wrote, titled, “No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise.”

No evidence. Wow. So now they’re exactly where the rest of us were, as far as evidence. It’s really more like a Guinness World Record, isn’t it?

“Longest amount of time spent observing tortoises not yawning.” And then they wrote an eight-page paper on it that I tried to read. Talk about contagious yawning.

How do you get that first turtle to yawn, anyway? Especially if they’re not contagious yawners. Do all the scientists stand around yawning and see if it follows suit?

SCIENTIST #1: *Yawn* SCIENTIST #2: *Yawn* SCIENTIST #3: *Yawn* SCIENTIST #4: *Yawn* TORTOISE: “What do they WANT from me?”

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It turns out that they spent six months teaching a single tortoise, named Alexandra, to yawn on command. Then they spent another few months commanding Alexandra to yawn, and seeing if her friends would yawn as well.

ALEXANDRA: *Yawn* SCIENTIST #1: *Yawn* SCIENTIST #2: “The others aren’t yawning. *Yawn*” SCIENTIST #3: “I know *Yawn*. But the paper is due soon, and we have no evidence either way.”

SCIENTIST #4: “Just write it. *Yawn* I want to go to bed.”

But they weren’t the only people who won for not managing to do anything. The prize for Mathematics went to Dorothy Martin, Pat Robertson, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Credo-

the wasabi alarm.”

In other words, they’re waking people up with tear gas. They should totally put this in the vents of yeshivah dorms to wake everyone for Shacharis.

Okay, it’s not technically a sleep alarm. It’s more like a smoke alarm – the kind that goes off when you’re cooking, or at least when I’m cooking, and you have to wave a broom around until the noise stops. This one would just spray wasabi over whatever you were cooking.

It was really invented for the hearing impaired who wouldn’t wake up for regular fire alarms, although it can also be used for people who, when they’re sleeping, become hearing impaired. The team conducted tests wherein they had 14 people go

nia Mwerinde, Harold Camping, and Harold Camping again, all of whom went through major mathematical calculations and figured out that the world is definitely, definitely, no doubt going to end in 1954, 1982, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1999, and 2011, respectively.

Though I don’t know why they bothered. Is life so boring that you’re staring at the clock, like a kid at school, wondering, “When is it going to end already?”

So they won the Mathematics award for “teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations,” or at least not saying it out loud until afterwards. What’s it going to help to tell everyone? Where are we going to go?

I say let us be surprised.

Anyway, none of them actually showed up to accept the award. But it’s not the end of the world.

The Chemistry prize went to like seven researchers in Japan “for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (which is two words that you don’t want to hear in the same sentence) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent

to sleep, and then sprayed various smells into the rooms to see how long it would take until everybody woke up. They went through over 100 different smells before someone thought of wasabi. I don’t know how they got 14 test subjects to fall asleep in a room with several video cameras over 100 times. Maybe they sent Alexandra in to yawn at them.

It turned out that when exposed to the smell of wasabi, people woke up within two minutes. Well, actually, 13 of them woke up. The 14th had a stuffed nose. So yeah, this is designed for the hearing impaired, but if you’re hearing impaired and have a stuffed nose, you’re out of luck. Maybe they should come up with a mattress that ejects you through the ceiling.

The prize for Public Safety went to John Senders of the University of Toronto, for conducting a series of “safety” experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeat-

edly flaps down over his face, blinding him. (“Hey! I had a car like that once!”) Most people would have let it flap maybe three times, and then ripped it out and thrown it out the window. I have a hard enough time with windshield wipers.

The experiment was designed to see if a person can drive based on his last visual memory of where the other cars were. John conducted this experiment in the ‘60s, but it’s finally prevalent today, what with people texting in the car based on their memory of where the cars in front of them were when they started composing the text.

Finally, the prize for Psychology went to Karl Halvor Teigen of Norway for his research into why people sigh.

(Okay, ten points if you just sighed, twenty if you sighed and yawned to see if you could hear the difference.)

Karl says that he doesn’t know what this research will actually accomplish.

He just did some research into things that no one’s done research into yet, and he came up with “sighing.”

“So what are you going to research?” his wife asked. Because the last time she asked him, he said he was doing research into things that no one’s done research into.

“Sighing,” he said.

And she sighed.

“Why are you sighing?” he asked. “I need to know, for my research.”

But she wouldn’t tell him either.

It’s hard to study sighing, though.

You can’t sit people down and tell them to sigh. That’s not going to help you find out why they’re doing it.

“There. Just then. Why did you sigh?

“Because you told me to.”

He decided to give his test subjects really hard puzzles to solve – ones that looked easy but were actually impossible. Kind of like the Sudokus that look really easy, but you start doing them and you realize that there is no way there are not three sevens in the top row. And then he took note of when people sighed. Basically, he says, you sigh when you had a plan but are now discarding it to make room for a new one. A sigh of relief is when you let out your backup contingency plan, and your wife sighs because she had this whole plan of marrying an adult, and now she needs to make do.

Next he’s going to study why people clear their throats.

Mordechai Schmutter is a weekly humor columnist for Hamodia, a monthly humor columnist for The Jewish Press, and has written three books, all published by Israel Book Shop. He also does freelance writing for hire. You can send any questions, comments, or ideas to MSchmutter@gmail.com

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Where There Is A Legal Will, There Might Not Be A Halachic Will

by Rabbi Yehuda Oppenheimer

I

t is apparent in the parshiyos that we are now reading that although the Patriarchs were concerned with many matters, one thing, above all, was crucial. They were determined to pass down to future generations the Birkas Avraham – the blessing that Hashem gave to Avraham Avinu – that of a special relationship between the Almighty and the Jewish People, and between the Jewish People and Eretz Yisrael.

This desire is considered a crowning achievement of Avraham: For I [Hashem] have known him [Avraham] because he will instruct his children and his household after him, that they should keep the way of Hashem to perform righteousness and justice, so that Hashem will bring upon Avraham that which He spoke concerning him.

[B’reishis 18:19]

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This desire – to pass down our legacy to our children – is something that we think about more and more as we get older, which we certainly ought to.

In our society, the main legal vehicle for formalizing the way that legacy is passed down is generally by writing a will. There are three main types of wills that every person should have, in order to ensure that his intent and desire is carried out by his children and heirs. These three types are: Ethical Wills – A document in which one communicates his hopes and dreams for the next generation. This is the type of will that the Patriarchs implicitly provided for their children.

Living Wills – These are documents in which instructions are laid out for decisions regarding health care should a person be incapacitated from making those decisions himself.

Regular Wills – A document that provides instructions for how one’s estate and personal effects are to be distributed after his life ends.

(In the case that there are minor children involved, it is also very important in that a legal guardian can be appointed and methods can be put in place for providing for one’s children should the parents G-d forbid die while the children are still minors.)

Each of these areas should have an article unto itself to describe even the most basic fundamentals. In this essay, I would like to deal with regular wills, and to emphasize the importance of dealing with the halachic requirements of a

will that many people are not aware of.

I hope to get to the other types of wills in a subsequent essay.

A will is a document in which a testator (person wishing to give instructions as to the disposition of his assets) executes a written record of all of his/her wishes, which is signed with appropriate legal formalities, and then set aside in a safe place until the end of the testator’s life. The will has no legal significance until the testator’s death, after which it springs into irrevocable legal effect, which cannot be changed. And this is the source of a very great halachic problem.

The problem we shall describe is only one of several halachic problems.

Among the most significant problems are the following: According to the testamentary system set out in the Written Torah, there is no such thing as a will. The Torah sets out a system whereby a man (who is the sole owner of his and his wife’s possessions with few exceptions) is inherited by his sons (not his daughters unless there are no sons), and if the sons are not available, then successively by various paternal relatives.

The wife’s inheritance is limited to the value of her k’subah (generally understood to mean somewhere in the realm of $25,000 -$50,000). The sons do not receive equal shares; the b’chor – firstborn son – receives a double portion.

Furthermore, there are considerations of how the testator’s debts are to be paid, what bequests might be made for other persons and/or charitable causes, and what arrangements are to be made for minor children. The basic halachic default provisions are generally not consistent with the way that most people today, including Orthodox Jews, wish their estate to be divided.

Unless another halachically legitimate way can be found to effect those wishes, one would be in halachic violation if he does not follow these guidelines.

Of course, this is not a new problem, and various forms of a halachic will, or “tzava’ah,” have been proposed by poskim throughout the centuries.

Nevertheless, of course, people wish to have not only a tzava’ah enforceable in a beis din, but also a legally effective will that can be entered into probate court. And here is where the largest halachic problem lies.

The problem is this: Under the laws of New York State (and every other state), a will is a worthless piece of paper, completely lacking in legal effectiveness, until the moment of death.

The testator is completely free to change it, invalidate it, discard it as he/ she sees fit. In fact that it why wills always begin with the claim of being the “last will and testament”; it is a simple

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way to invalidate any prior will, which is automatically invalidated by the writing of a later one. (One should still get competent legal help to make sure that the previous one is indeed invalidated.)

The point I am stressing is that the will takes effect only after death, not a moment before.

Under Halachah, however, one loses all rights to one’s property upon death; all property that has not been given or sold before death automatically passes to the heirs according to the Torah scheme of inheritance, with no right of the deceased to direct any bequests whatsoever.

In other words, according to Halachah, bequests can only be made while the testator is alive; after he/she dies, there remains nothing for the testator to give. By contrast, under New York law, the testamentary intent as expressed in the will has absolutely no effect inter vivos, while the person is still alive, and takes effect only after death.

Thus a person who relies only on a will that is valid under New York law is in effect setting up a terrible situation for his/her heirs. For example, if a man dies and provides in his will that he wishes his property to go 50% to his wife, and the other 50% to be divided equally among his three sons and one daughter, and does nothing to make this halachically valid, he will be setting up a situation whereby the heirs will be engaged in theft if they follow this plan. Under Halachah, the wife is entitled only to the k’subah, and the estate is to be divided in four parts, with the eldest son getting two parts, the other two sons getting 25% each, and the daughter nothing. (If the daughter is a minor, her brothers would have a responsibility to provide for her basic care from their inheritance.) If the wife or daughter takes under the will, or if the two younger brothers take more than their 25% share, they will be guilty of g’neivah, assuming that the deprived do not waive their rights.

It is thus crucial that when setting up a will there be a consultation with a rabbi and/or attorney who is knowledgeable in Torah to make sure that it will be valid both in the beis din as well as the probate court. This expert can help advise about what should go into a properly executed will and tzava’ah, as well as being knowledgeable about other forms of expressing testamentary intent, such as the many different kinds of trusts that may be more appropriate than a will for a particular individual.

I would be very happy to discuss these matters further with anyone who has an interest in making sure that he or she is providing for heirs in a most beautiful way, both materially and spiritually.

November 14, 2013

Those Silent Messages, Part I CONTINUED FROM P. 35 She had more frequent episodes of feeling “down,” and found it more difficult to let go of them. One day a teacher she really liked and respected engaged her in a conversation. This teacher, besides being an outstanding educator, was very adept at knowing her students.

Unbeknownst to Shaindy, the teacher picked up on the fact that Shaindy did not seem as happy as she should be and simply appeared overly concerned about her studies and grades. Shaindy was comfortable opening up to this teacher as she found her to be sincerely interested in her, non-judgmental, and validating of her feelings. They agreed to continue conversing at regular intervals. What was perhaps most surprising to Shaindy was the vast difference in the approach taken by this teacher in contrast to the denial of her parents.

The fact that she was taken seriously by a respected adult meant so much to her. Furthermore, she clearly got the message that she was no less valued in the eyes of her teacher because of her “problem.” The teacher was more

disturbed at her parents’ denial than Shaindy’s insecurities, which she knew could be addressed. She discussed this concern with Shaindy and asked her if she thought there was any value in talking to her parents about it. Her primary reluctance was that it would hurt her parents too much to hear that they needed to reconsider some of their parenting strategies. She also thought her parents would be angry at her for discussing this with “an outsider,” after they told her it was not a problem.

The conflict was rather disturbing for Shaindy. She well understood that her parents were overlooking a very fundamental role of helping their children. She was greatly concerned, as she had already observed how these parental patterns affected her younger siblings as well. After several months of these informal sessions, Shaindy decided one day that she would bite the bullet. This was precipitated by an incident with a younger brother whom she felt was mishandled by her parents due to their denial and rigidity. She discussed this with her teacher and they decided that she would meet with the

parents. Shaindy also agreed that the teacher would suggest the benefit of Shaindy talking to a therapist. Interestingly, both Shaindy and the teacher did not have any great expectations about a positive response from the parents, yet they both realized that for everybody’s sake, it was time to make a move.

The teacher, Mrs. Goldberg, and Shaindy’s parents met one evening.

Mrs. Goldberg first discussed all of Shaindy’s outstanding abilities and midos, and then delicately discussed her “problem” in a very sincere and open manner, reassuring them that their daughter was perfectly normal. She did stress the import of validating her feelings and the distress that results from denial. The parents listened politely and did not have much to say.

Mrs. Goldberg had the impression that they had little clue as to what she was talking about. This was due to their denial, not a lack of intelligence. At this point, Mrs. Goldberg realized that a professional might be more adept at helping out this family. It was at that junction that the polite disposition of Shaindy’s father transformed into that of a raving lunatic. He first attacked Mrs. Goldberg for playing amateur psychologist and interfering in the lives of other people. He then

Fact or Fiction: Popular Weight-Loss Myths Demystified CONTINUED FROM P. 45 on the scale one day but resolve itself the next. Be careful not to put too much stock in a particular day’s weight. Look at your overall losses weekly to get a true representation of your progress.

Setting High Goals: Setting overly ambitious goals had previously been thought to lead to disappointment and ultimately less weight loss. The truth is, many studies find that setting high goals for one’s self actually aids in losses. When you set your sights high, but also within reason, you are

more likely to do well, even if you fall short of your initial goal. Smaller goals don’t pack as big a punch emotionally, so reaching them has less of an impact overall. When you set goals you know you can reach, achieving them doesn’t feel like an accomplishment; however, when you set goals that are loftier, even if you don’t reach them, you feel pride in working hard for them.

Setting goals that are reasonably high is the key. If you set a goal to lose fifty pounds, but only have twenty-five to lose, you are setting yourself up for failure. If, however, you set an ambitious time-frame to lose the twenty-five

What’s Happened To Our Core Values?

CONTINUED FROM P. 34 even in our catchment. Many remarked with a sigh of relief saying, “Thank G-d someone is answering the phone.” Hurricane Sandy reiterated the fact that we must be a united klal, not just interested in our own daled amos… that we must understand the concept of “Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la’zeh” (Every Jew is responsible for his fellow Jew). Selfishness must be replaced with selflessness. Arrogance must revert to empathy and humility.

Chesed and tz’dakah must be our code of conduct.

As I was reminiscing and reading about Sandy’s recovery and the needs that are still not met even a year later, I came across an article that showed

11 Kislev 5774

me that we still have a lot to learn as a people. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported, on a different topic, that at least 18 Jewish non-profit groups that support Israeli institutions have notified tax authorities of illegal diversions of funds in the past five years. This was extrapolated from The Washington Post on October 27, which published its review of 1,000 nonprofit organizations (few are Jewish) that have reported such anomalies since 2008. “Most such reporting is related to fraud,” the Post said,” with a small number having to do with financial restructuring which is legal.”

A JTA review of a handful of states with large Jewish populations turned up 18 Jewish non-profits guilty of this.

This feeds right into the oldest “anti-Se-

said that his family would never get help from a professional because they were fine. Throughout this tirade, Shaindy’s mother looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, but sat politely, lips pursed. Sadly, the predictions of Shaindy and Mrs. Goldberg were confirmed, yet they had been prepared, and both agreed that planting a seed could never hurt. Shaindy thought that she would hear a mouthful from her parents about it; in reality, they never uttered a word. Yet, to Shaindy’s surprise, she did sense some slight changes in the manner in which they related to her brother.

As a result of Mrs. Goldberg’s continuing assistance, Shaindy progressed through high school feeling somewhat better about herself, but not quite where she wanted to be. The next milestone in her life was going to seminary in Eretz Yisrael. This was something Shaindy was looking forward to, as not only would she have the seminary experience, but also she would be able to separate from the dynamics of her household.

To be continued…

Portions of this article were reprinted with the permission of Mishpacha Magazine.

It had long been thought that the source from which you obtained your calories had no bearing on weight loss.

Essentially, the idea was that if you compared two dieters with similar profiles, both eating a 1,500 calorie diet, it would have no bearing on losses if one dieter consumed mostly lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables, and the other ate primarily processed foods high in fat and sugar. Scientists are beginning to unearth the truth about the value of calories.

Each type of calorie consumed: carbohydrate, protein, and fat, perform and facilitate different bodily functions. A diet deficient in one or more of these will result in one’s inability to appropriately regulate his or her weight and health.

This can result in hair and skin problems, weight gain, low muscle tone, hormone imbalances, and even a weakened immune system. Focus on lean proteins, healthy fats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and whole grain carbohydrates to ensure that you make the most of your calories.

If you feel as though you are working hard to lose weight but can’t seem to get out of a rut, it may be time to reexamine your habits. Focus on the quality of your calories, begin weekly weigh-ins, and set reasonably high goals in order to kickstart your losses again.

mitic canard” that Jews will do anything for money, even steal from the needy.

While some of these organizations were swindled by Madoff, others had funds embezzled by greedy officials who put their avarice before the common good.

This is especially painful and distressing when the parties involved in the theft are Orthodox. It is an absolute chilul Hashem. Where are our values? Why is stealing treated so cavalierly?

The whole idea of theft or fraud is so against our core value system. It must be emphasized in our yeshivos that taking someone else’s property is wrong. I recently attended a workshop on bullying and was terribly disturbed to hear how prevalent the incidents of stealing a child’s snack or tz’dakah money are occurring in the yeshivos. What is equally disconcerting is that this seems to be treated as a regular happening, with no moral indignation.

I’m no saint by any means, but it would not occur to me to take anything that does not belong to me. That musar was transferred to me by my parents and should be emphasized to our children.

“Gott gebt un Gott nempt.” When there is theft in our institutions, the whole Jewish community loses – there is guilt by association. If some Jews are thieves, then all Jews are crooks. We, who represent the Torah ideals, are brought down to the lowest levels of tum’ah by the actions of a few. That’s a shanda. We should have zero tolerance for things like that.

Let’s highlight the goodness and benevolence that Hurricane Sandy evoked in our community and choose to live by those standards. May Hashem bestow his mercy on our collective community and never permit us to experience such devastation again. Let’s grow from this experience and not wait for another “act of G-d” to come to bring out the best in us.

pounds, you will likely have more success and feel more motivation overall.

A Calorie is a Calorie:

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53

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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From 7:00 a.m. until 10:15 a.m., the White Shul in Far Rockaway will host a TeďŹ llin Awareness Project – ‘Hanachah K’Halachah.’ Four sofrim will be available to check teďŹ llin placement and a

Proud To Be A Religious Jew CONTINUED FROM P. 44 he has no religion. The same standard should apply to religious Jews Religion is also blamed for the world’s conicts. People conveniently forget that the two greatest wars – World War I and World War II – were not religious wars.

Likewise, we should point to the hy-

54

pocrisy in the PC crowd. For example, when they talk about tolerance, what they really mean is tolerance to their position.

Somehow, their idea of tolerance does not apply when dealing with those who are religious.

We should also stop inďŹ ghting. When there are programs that unite the Jewish community with a religious component,

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DECEMBER

7

At 8:00 p.m., Congregation Etz Chaim will present a concert by Lenny Solomon and Schlock Rock. At 147-19 73rd Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills.

Tickets in advance: Members $15, non-members $20. Tickets at door: Members $20 and non-members $25. $100 sponsorship gets two reserved center seats and the right to buy more at regular prices. For more information, please contact meletzchaim@ gmail.com or call 718-268-5256 At 8:00 p.m., Chazaq will hold a fundraiser to beneďŹ t Our Jewish Children featuring a talk by Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser on the topic of “Sanctifying Hashem’s Name, Making a Kiddush Hashem Against All Odds.â€? In the Yeshiva of Central Queens dining room. At 147-37 70th Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills. For more information, please call 917-696-2433.

we should embrace it instead of criticizing it, because it includes those whom we might not necessarily agree with. One of these programs is the Global Day of Learning on November 17. It includes Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox synagogues and schools all over the world, including those here in Queens.

We need to understand the importance of education and feel a connection to the Jewish community. These actions are what keep our Jewish community

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Sunday Saturday

Monday

Monday Tuesday

At 8:00 p.m., the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates will present a night of comedy and fun featuring Joel Chasnoff, with Master of Ceremonies Eli Brown.

Refreshments, rafes, and prizes. Sponsorship $180 (includes admission for two). Admission $50 per person. At 83-10 188th Street, Jamaica Estates. For reservations, please contact 718-479-7500.

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At 8:30 p.m., the Chazaq Women’s Division & EMET, in conjunction with Beth Gavriel, will present the ďŹ fth lecture in a 5-part series with Rebbetzin Adina Ribacoff on “Effective Communication – Every Action causes a Reaction.â€? At Beth Gavriel Center, 66-35 108 Street, Forest Hills. Refreshments will be served. Admission is free. All ladies are welcome. For more information, please call 718-285-9132 or contact Info@Chazaq.org.

The Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills will host its 3rd annual Scholar-InResidence Shabbos featuring the founder and director of the National Jewish Outreach Program, Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald. On Friday night, Rabbi Buchwald will speak about “Remaining moral in an increasingly immoral environment.�

At 8:00 p.m., Chazaq will hold a fundraiser to beneďŹ t Our Jewish Children featuring a talk by Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser on the topic of “Sanctifying Hashem’s Name, Making a Kiddush Hashem Against All Odds.â€? In the Yeshiva of Central Queens dining room. At 147-37 70th Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills. For more information, please call 917-696-2433.

14

The Jewish Heritage Center of Queens and Long Island will hold its annual Chinese Auction.

More details to follow.

On Motza’ei Shabbos, the Queens community will hold its 6th annual Asarah B’Teves program at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, with guest speaker Rabbi Paysach Krohn. More details to follow.

15 23

At 7:15 p.m., there will be a peer support group for Jewish adults and families with mental health issues at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills Youth Building, 150-05 70 Road, Kew Gardens Hills.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Linda Katz at 718-261-3772.

Sunday

Thursday Saturday Sunday

At 12:30 p.m., Nefesh B’Nefesh will hold an Aliyah Seminar for Medical Professionals and Students. At the Convene Conference Center, 730 Third Avenue (between 45th & 46th Streets), New York City. To register and for a detailed program schedule, please visit www. nbn.org.il/mdseminar.

23

Beginning at 7:15 p.m., Congregation Ahavas Yisroel Women’s League will hold an Ice Skating Extravaganza. Women, girls, and boys through 2nd grade will skate from 7:15-8:45 p.m. Men and boys from 9-10:30 p.m. At The Port Washington Skating Center, 70 Seaview Boulevard, Port Washington.

Total cost including skates: $5 per person. Pizza and soda will be available at an additional cost.

Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Queens will hold its 80th annual Dinner and Chag Ha’smichah at Terrace on the Park. The honorees are Dr. & Mrs. Herbert Blustein, Mr. & Mrs. Boruch Delman, and Mr. & Mrs. Reuvane Rhodes. Memorial tribute to Rabbi Mordecai Tropper. For more information, please call 718-2684700, fax 718-268-4684, or e-mail dinner@rabbinical.org.

8

At 5:00 p.m., the American Friends of Bet El will hold their 31st Annual Dinner at the Marriott Marquis, Broadway at 46th Street, New York, NY. The Guest Speaker will be Lt. Colonel (retired) Ralph Peters, commentator, author, and Fox News Strategic Analyst. Couvert $500 per couple. For more information, please call 718-482-4134 or 718-2688291.

Monday

16

At 7:45 p.m., Yeshiva Kesser Torah will hold its Gala Journal Melaveh Malka honoring Mr. & Mrs. Yaakov Gandjian and HaRav Igal Haimoff.

Guest speaker HaRav Aryeh Sokoloff. At the Young Israel of Queens Valley, 141-55 77th Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills. Admission by contribution. For more information, please call 718-793-2890 or contact YeshivaKesserTorah@gmail.com.

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The Rabbi Israel D. Rosenberg Educational Institute of Congregation Etz Chaim will host a Scholar-in-Residence - Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman. Friday evening at 7:30 p.m., he will speak on the topic, “The Beit Mikdash: Just What are We Missing?� at the home of Deena & Larry Rabinovich, 144-33 72nd Drive, Kew Gardens Hills. Shabbos afternoon at 3:10 p.m. at Congregation Etz Chaim, 147-19 73rd Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills, he will speak on the topic “Archeology and Avodas Hashem.� After Minchah, at 4:05 p.m., he will speak on the topic, “Ten Chidushim the Torah Gave the World.�

From 9:15- 11:30 a.m., Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future and the Abraham Arbesfeld Kollel Yom Rishon and Millie Arbesfeld Midreshet Yom Rishon will present “The Legacy of Hakham Ovadia,� a tribute to the legacy of HaRav Ovadia Yosef.

At Yeshiva University’s Wilf Campus Schottenstein Center, 560 West 185th Street, New York, NY. Register online at www.kollelyomrishon.org. For more information, please contact kollelyomrishon@yu.edu.

Fri-Saturday

14

At 8:00 p.m., at its convention, Agudath Israel of America will hold an evening of lectures and panel discussions on the topic, “Nurturing Our Children, Ensuring Our Future� followed by a kumsitz with Eitan Katz. At the Hilton Woodcliff Lake. Limited rooms are still available. For more information, please call 212-797-7380 or contact convention@agudathisrael.org.

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myriad of other issues. Free of charge. For more information, please call 718-377-6735 or contact shelrosh@comcast.net.

Saturday

At 8:30 p.m., Chazaq Women’s Division, in conjunction with the Beth Gavriel Center, will present “Out of the Darkness,� a special program for ladies with Rebbetzin Esther Ovadia. Refreshments at 8:15 p.m. Free admission. Women only. At Beth Gavriel Center, 66 - 35 108th Street, Forest Hills. For more information, please call or text 646-545-6833, contact Info@Chazaq.org, or visit www.chazaq.org.

Fri-Saturday

Wednesday

At 7:45 p.m., Congregation Etz Chaim will present an advanced shiur for women by Judy Klitsner on the topic, “The Tower of Babel and the Midwives of Egypt: Comparing an Unlikely Pair.� At 147-19 73rd Avenue, Kew Gardens Hills. Suggested Donation is $4 for shul members and $5 for non-members.

18

At 7:45 p.m., the Kew Gardens Hills Home Owners Civic Association will hold a community meeting: “All About Mortgages And Credit� with Michael E. Diaz, Vice President and Product Relationship Manager of the TD Bank on Main Street. At the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, 70-11 150th Street, Kew Gardens Hills.

Saturday

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On Mondays and Wednesdays, Congregation Degel Israel (Rabbi Sheinfeld’s shul) is holding an innovative program for seniors. Aides and family members are welcome to assist if necessary. Men and women are separate. Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for women and 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for men. Lunch certiďŹ ed by Vaad Harabonim of Queens.

The shul is on Main Street at the corner of 68th Drive.

For more information, please call 646-543-9818 or contact gottlieb.judy@gmail.com.

Sunday

NOVEMBER

At 8:30 p.m., the Chazaq Women’s Division & EMET, in conjunction with Beth Gavriel, will present the fourth lecture in a 5-part series with Rebbetzin Adina Ribacoff on “Effective Communication – Every Action causes a Reaction.�

At Beth Gavriel Center, 66-35 108 Street, Forest Hills.

Refreshments will be served. Admission is free. All ladies are welcome. For more information, please call 718-285-9132 or contact Info@Chazaq.org.

Compiled by Rebecca Wittert

From 4:30-10:00 p.m., the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills will hold a blood drive. At 70-11 150th Street, Kew Gardens Hills.

72 $'' <285 (9(17 72 285 &20081,7< &$/(1'$5

3/($6( (0$,/

7+( (9(17 '$7( 7,0( 3/$&( $1' $ %5,() '(6&5,37,21 72 &$/(1'$5 4-/#*0$,/ &20 strong and are a bulwark against outside forces. A woman who was on the Kindertransport was asked how she was able to remain Jewish after having been placed with a non-Jewish family. She stated that she did it because her parents, who were conservative Jews, instilled in her the importance of being Jewish and being part of the Jewish community. If we instill these feelings in our children, there is a greater chance we can overcome the forces around us.

November 14, 2013

Community Corner • Recent Happenings

Famed Author Rav Shalom Arush In Rare Visit To Sold-Out Audience In Kew Gardens Hills: Utilize Personal Prayer And Gratitude

by Shira Frager

R

av Shalom Arush, the Israeli Breslov rabbi with a large following around the world, traveled from Israel to Kew Gardens Hills - making his first trip to the US in seven years - to express his ideas live to the community of Queens on November 7, where he talked primarily about the importance of expressing gratitude and appreciation to the Almighty.

Many people know Rav Arush for his renowned book, The Garden of Emuna.

The Rav made a grand entrance as audience members cheered and festive music played in the background, giving him a warm welcome that Thursday evening.

Rav Arush, who does not speak English, was accompanied by Rabbi Lazer Brody; while Rav Arush gave his lecture in Hebrew, Rabbi Brody translated to members of the crowd, anxious to hear some words of inspiration from the well-known Rav. Attended by hundreds people, the event at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills was packed with people of Ashkenazi and Sefardi backgrounds, religious and secular, with ages ranging from the teens to over 70 years old. Many people have read the works of Rav Arush and wanted to hear what he had to say to a crowd looking for chizuk while living in chutz laAretz.

“I don’t know what he will talk about, but I’m hoping to hear good things,” said Rose W. of Queens before the event.

Rose, who came with her daughter, considers herself secular, and had never heard Rav Arush speak; she had heard about the lecture through a friend. “For me, it’s a beginning, it’s an introduction [to Yiddishkeit],” she said.

Leah Koyemov, a hair stylist from Rego Park, was also excited to have had the opportunity to attend Rav Arush’s shiur.

“I read a few books and I like [them] a lot,” she said. Although she couldn’t remember specific ideas that inspired her, Koyemov, who came with her husband,

Rav Arush is greeted by the eager crowd

11 Kislev 5774

said whenever she reads a book of Rav Arush she can’t put it down. Koyemov said that she “wants to learn something new” from the lecture, regardless of the topic, and has confidence that whatever Rav Arush speaks about will be an uplifting experience.

Rav Arush emphasized the power of prayer in expressing thanks, pointing out the importance of people using davening as a response to that which they receive from the Almighty.

“It’s not possible to receive [an] abundance [of gifts] if you don’t have a proper receptacle,” said Rav Arush.

When Hashem provides us with physical and spiritual necessities, the lack of prayer to thank G-d for these gifts leads to negative attitudes, according to Rav Arush.

“When [a person] gets something from praying, he knows he gets it from Hashem. He becomes humble [when he receives] and [therefore] prays. On the other hand, one who receives without prayer… this leads to arrogance,” he said.

Furthermore, when a person does not use prayer as a response, what he receives ultimately becomes detrimental to a person, according to Rav Arush.

We as B’nei Yisrael sometimes feel we lack materialistically and spiritually because we are missing something that Rav Arush considers to be the most important element of our lives: prayer.

The Rav said that he receives visits from people who have developed negative perspectives on their lives – people who are anxious, depressed, and lonely. But if these individuals, many of whom are Torah scholars, were to ask the Almighty for help by praying, Rav Arush said their lives would improve.

“If a person sees that Hashem needs to help him, he will be able to do [whatever it is he strives for]. One doesn’t need to learn Gemara to realize that he should thank Hashem. It’s common sense: One can’t get close to Hashem without prayer.”

But the Rav said that even prayer isn’t enough; it’s sincere prayer that will enable a person to connect to Hashem and continue to receive what he needs.

“When you do a short Sh’moneh Esrei, there’s no [vessel] to put His abundance,” said Rav Arush. While many may believe that praying three times a day is sufficient to express appreciation to Hashem, Rav Arush suggested that an additional 60 minutes of personal prayer would enable a person to sufficiently express thanks.

“An hour to personal prayer is the greatest gift Hashem can give a person,” said Rav Arush.

The difference between davening from a siddur and using one’s own words is represented by mouth verses heart.

While a person may recite the words written in a siddur, his heart may not be fully involved in the prayer. But when one uses personal prayer, it guarantees that his mouth and heart are fully involved in the davening.

According to Rav Arush, the source of everything we do wrong, or everything that goes wrong, is due to a lack of prayer.

Hence, in his teachings he tries to instill emunah in B’nei Yisrael, encourages people to pray, and attempts to bring people closer to Hashem; this, he believes will bring an individual ultimate happiness.

Rav Arush related prayer to the concept of t’shuvah by stating that davening provides a framework for repenting, adding that these both represent a process of spiritual cleansing.

“When a person prays and repents, it is like giving a shower to your soul every day,” said Rav Arush.

The Rav used humor and anecdotes to share his ideas and reach out to the

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broad range of audience members, with the program running until almost midnight. People were impressed with the Rav’s shiur, finding his words to influence their lives positively.

“I found it repetitive but inspiring because of that,” said Briana Katz, a physical therapist in Queens.

Izzy Meyers, who currently learns, had read bits of Rav Arush’s books over the last few years and therefore found that his lecture did not give much more additional information than what Meyers had read previously. But what Meyers didn’t know was the type of inclusive outreach the Rabbi does in Israel, the US, and other countries.

“I wasn’t aware that he spread [his ideas] to non-Jewish people,” said Meyers, who has lived in Queens for the last ten years. He felt that the Rav posed a deep level of sincerity that greatly influenced the audience. Meyers had heard about the lecture after speaking to his brotherin-law, who lives in Israel and is aware of the programs run by Rav Arush there.

Edie Schultz, meanwhile, spent the last moments of the shiur immersed in her own 60 minutes of personal prayer.

She agrees that davening provides a proper means of cleansing the soul, especially for people who find their lives so busy that they have little time to dedicate to sincere prayer.

“I think it’s really good to have 60 minutes of prayer and get your thoughts out,” said Schultz, who came in from Flemington, NJ, with her daughter, Penina. She didn’t expect the lecture to be a light-hearted topic, yet Schultz found that Rav Arush spoke in a manner that was down-to-earth and enabled people to enjoy, but also hear a profound message. “Hashem loves us, has faith [in us], he’s here to love His children,” she said.

“It was a light evening with strong messages.”

Rav Shalom Arush established Chut Shel Chessed Institutions in 1985, which hosts kollelim and yeshivos for young men and boys in Israel. It has grown into one of the most widely-known religious institutions in Israel, and attracted a variety of men in different fields who were drawn to the Breslov teachings. The organization specializes in nurturing youth at risk, and has graduated students who have gone on to become noted writers, actors, and musicians.

Rav Arush is known for his books on marriage, The Garden of Peace for men and Women’s Wisdom for women, Education with Love on parenting, and others, including his latest, The Garden of Knowledge. In his lectures, Rav Arush focuses on Rav Nachman of Breslov’s teachings in having trust in Hashem and improving personal relationships.

The event was organized and sponsored by Chazaq. Meir Goldson and Jason Neuman of Queens also helped sponsor the program.

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Community Corner • Recent Happenings

Explaining Our Mission: Chani Juravel Delivers Powerful Shiur For Women In Jamaica Estates

by Susie Garber

“T

he more we connect to the life force which is Hashem, the more we can live life.”

Mrs. Chani Juravel, a renowned lecturer, presented a powerful shiur for women at Congregation Anshei Shalom in Jamaica Estates on Sunday evening October 26, sponsored by Chazaq.

Mrs. Juravel dwelt on how we define our mission in life and how we go about accomplishing it. She pointed out that the definition of life, according to Rav

Shimshon Pincus zt”l, is having the ability to come close to our G-dly potential by making choices that bring us closer to Hashem. She used Yosef HaTzadik as an example of a person who accomplished his life’s mission. She explained he did this when he overcame a personal challenge. That was the test with Potifar’s wife. It has to do with going beyond our nature.

Mrs. Juravel shared that Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l taught that, in the month of Cheshvan, the true focus should be on how we are building the declarations

we made from Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur into our lives. We need to bring Hashem into our lives. Disconnection is an illusion, and even more so, disconnecting from our source is death to a Jew. The life force is Hashem – the more we connect to Hashem, the more we can live life. In fact, she noted that because of this reasoning, tzadikim are still called alive after they die.

Additionally, she taught that with every choice we make, the only decision that is ours is how much to bring Hashem into the choice. She stated that free

Rav Yechiel Abuchatzeira And Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser Inspire At Yad L’Achim Event In Kew Gardens Hills

by Susie Garber

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ccording to a study by the Israeli government, there are 25,000 Jewish women trapped in Arab villages, which means that there are 100,000 Jewish children trapped there.

How does this happen? Arab men entice young girls who are unaffiliated or in bad straights either financially or emotionally and give them gifts and woo them until they are brought to the Arab village, where they are treated like slaves and abused. Rabbi Nesanel Gantz, Director of Yad L’Achim, spoke at a stirring fundraising event for his organization, which took place Monday evening, October 28, at Congregation Ohel Simcha in Kew Gardens Hills.

Rabbi Gantz showed a video of a woman who had recently escaped an Arab village through help from Yad L’Achim and reunited with her mother and sister after 28 years of separation. Rabbi Gantz noted that redeeming captives is the greatest mitzvah according to the Rambam and is a priority in giving tz’dakah.

He also showed a video detailing the other services Yad L’Achim offers. In addition to rescuing the women and children from Arab clutches, Yad L’Achim offers support for the women and children once they are rescued and brought back to Israel. The organization sponsors a 24hour hotline, social workers, Shabbatons, and other inspiring educational Jewish programs, as well as help with legal issues dealing with the Arab fathers, etc.

Next, Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser shlita, who speaks at every Yad L’Achim event, addressed the large crowd. “If I had the power, I’d go to every city in America, Canada, and South America and tell them the message of Yad L’Achim.” He spoke on behalf of this vital organization with passion, and stressed the importance of Yad L’Achim’s lifesaving work. He asked the audience to imagine that each of these precious Jewish children who are trapped in Arab villages are lying at our feet, pleading for help.

The audience was then graced with the presence of Rav Yechiel Abuchatzeira shlita, who travelled from Eretz Yisrael for the event.

Rav Abuchatzeira spoke in Hebrew and Rabbi Gantz translated. Rav Abu-

New Yeshiva University Certificate Program In Jewish Philanthropy Provides Professional Training In Jewish Fundraising

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s Jewish causes face more fundraising challenges than ever before – including increased competition both within the Jewish world and with other nonprofits and donors hit hard by the economic recession – Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work has launched a new Certificate Program in Jewish Philanthropy to provide talented Jewish communal professionals with the tools they need to succeed in the modern philanthropic arena.

“Meaningful philanthropy will ensure the Jewish future both through raising funds and raising sights,” said YU President Richard M. Joel. “This certificate program seeks to train the best and brightest to do both.”

The Certificate Program kicked off this semester with 20 participants from a wide range of Jewish organiza-

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tions and professional backgrounds, including the UJA Federation of NY, Joint Distribution Committee, American Jewish World Service, Yachad, and American Friends of Shalva, among others. Classes meet twice a week and are offered in two key areas: The Art and Science of Fund Raising and the Jewish Philanthropic Tradition. Both are frequently guest-taught by leaders in the field, including Jeffrey Solomon, president of The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies; Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service; and Yossi Prager, executive director for North America at The AVI CHAI Foundation.

The program also features a 56-hour internship with top-level professional mentoring in a Jewish development office, either within the institutions where Fellows currently work or as an inde-

pendent project.

“We aim immediately to address the chronic shortage of skilled, knowledgeable and committed fundraisers for Jewish organizations by preparing professionals who are firmly grounded in fundraising skills as well as the most current and effective strategies for resource development,” said Dr. Saul Andron, Hausman Chair in Communal Social Work and associate professor at Wurzweiler, the Certificate Program’s coordinator. “Fundraising has become increasingly sophisticated and complex, with new methods of raising money and cultivating and inspiring prospects. Any job-finding site in the Jewish world will starkly demonstrate the lack of and need for fundraisers trained like this in Jewish organizations today.”

“Modern professionals need this kind of program because there are hundreds

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choice means we can go beyond our nature. We, unlike animals, have the ability to choose what we refuse to do, based on going beyond our nature.

Mrs. Juravel also taught that we need to focus on the process, not the result.

She pointed out that Akeidas Yitzchak, one of the greatest moments in human history, was named for an event that never actually happened, meaning Yitzchak was not sacrificed. She emphasized that the process is the purpose, and stated that we should look at life as it is offering us messages to grow. She shared many other inspiring ideas and stories that truly uplifted the crowd. We left the shiur with shining smiles and determination to draw closer to Hashem and to focus on the positive in ourselves and in our lives. chatzeira stated that it is a z’chus to give money to Yad L’Achim. He shared the famous teaching of Chazal: “He who saves a Jewish life, it is as if he saved the whole world.” Yad L’Achim’s work is literally saving Jewish lives. He also shared inspiring stories about his relative, the Baba Sali.

Rav Abuchatzeira stayed to offer brachos to individuals, and also conveyed a beautiful brachah to everyone there, of abundance of blessing and simchah for everyone’s families in the merit of helping Yad L’Achim.

In addition, there was a moving video that depicted Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l handing siddurim and an affectionate slap on the cheek to rescued Jewish children from Arab villages. Rav Ovadia was dedicated to Yad L’Achim and gave a lot of his time to this organization. He said, “Anytime you need me, I’m available to give chizuk to escaped women and children.”

For more information, call Yad L’Achim at 1-866-923-5224 or visit www.YadLachim.org (e-mail info@yadlachim.org) if not thousands of Jewish nonprofits competing for the Jewish philanthropic dollar in New York alone,” said Dan Forman, vice president for institutional advancement at YU, who helped design the program and will lead several of its class sessions. “There is a science to what Jewish fundraising could and should be – for instance, how you communicate and develop a relationship with a donor to balance meeting a need of the organization with fulfilling the wish and desire of the donor.”

The two courses will hit on all the key elements of modern Jewish fundraising from the inside perspective of successful professionals. Sessions on the annual and capital campaigns, major gifts development, legacies and endowments, and women’s philanthropy will go hand-inhand with sessions about how to harness technology and social media for maximum impact and the changing nature of fundraising and motivations of younger generations of donors.

To learn more about the Certificate in Jewish Philanthropy, contact Dr. Saul Andron at sandron@yu.edu.

November 14, 2013

Community Corner • Recent Happenings

Bikur Cholim Of Queens 40th Anniversary Interview n commemoration of the forthcoming 40th anniversary of the Bikur Cholim of Queens (BCQ), the Queens Jewish Link interviewed Helen M. Prager, the current president of BCQ.

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from a hospital or when a mother of young children is hospitalized.

Incidentally, all of our volunteers maintain confidentiality and do not share information even with other volunteers.

QJL: Can you tell us something about the background of the Bikur Cholim of Queens?

HMP: Close to 40 years ago, Kew Gardens Hills residents Avi Berger, Nat Bodner a”h, and Irwin Nathan formed BCQ with the initial goal of visiting patients at what was then called Booth Memorial Hospital (now the New York Hospital of Queens, NYHQ). The late Rabbi I. Usher Kirschblum was instrumental in convincing the hospital’s administration that the new group be enabled to visit Jewish patients there.

Once the BCQ was firmly established, Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld and other Queens rabbanim became involved and have proven extremely supportive over the years. They have also provided halachic rulings when various sh’eilos concerning BCQ arose.

Once BCQ became a regular functioning group at the hospital, Jewish patients were supplied with electric Shabbos candles every Friday. Mrs. Esther Rosoff a”h donated a sefer Torah, which is still in use at the hospital’s chapel. The moving force behind this donation and many other BCQ activities was Nechama Biderman, one of BCQ’s early and very active volunteers.

BCQ grew and developed under the leadership of Rabbi Dr. Zev Goldberg, who was president for over 30 years. Under his administration, the organization grew both in terms of numbers of volunteers and the service provided.

QJL: What do you envision for BCQ in the future?

HMP: In order to more fully provide services, we need more volunteers. We would like to provide two-way transportation to patients both locally and to Manhattan. Indeed, volunteers willing to drive to Manhattan are an urgent priority. We also could use more volunteers to increase our coverage at NYHQ. One volunteer daily is just not enough, especially when patients are not always in their rooms when the volunteer stops by. Ideally, we should have two or three daily volunteers to provide encouraging words and just let our patients know that someone cares about them and is ready to assist. On that note, we would benefit greatly from Russian- and Bukharin-speaking volunteers at the hospital.

In addition, I would love to see our organization expand to regularly visit patients in local nursing homes. Currently, we only visit a specific patient in a facility upon request and on a case-by-case basis.

QJL: What services does the BCQ currently provide?

HMP: We continue to visit the New York Hospital of Queens on Main Street.

We have at least one volunteer who visits most days. Of course, Rabbi David Keehn, the chaplain at NYHQ, visits all Jewish patients regularly, and it is with his support and cooperation that BCQ has been active there. In addition, Rabbi Keehn can be contacted for housing accommodations in the BCQ apartment at NYHQ. BCQ volunteers also visit shut-ins and mothers-to-be on bed rest, helping them out with their other young children.

Our volunteers also use their own vehicles to transport patients to physicians. At this point, because of our limited number of volunteers relative to the transportation requests we receive, we are generally only able to provide one-way rides even to physicians located in Queens and Long Island.

Our capacity to drive patients to Manhattan is limited. But in addition we are fortunate to have some volunteers who drive to work in Manhattan and are able to take patients who can join them early in the morning.

Some of our volunteers provide shortterm cooking after a patient is discharged

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QJL: How is BCQ organized?

HMP: All calls for assistance come into the BCQ HOTLINE: 718-380-7433. Indeed, all contacts must come through the Hotline, and volunteers’ contact numbers are not released to those calling in. This is basically to maintain the volunteer’s privacy.

BCQ suggests to the volunteers that they need not provide personal contact numbers.

To return to your question about our process after a call comes in: The person answering the Hotline assesses the appropriateness of the request – Is this something BCQ can handle? – and then informs the individuals in charge of the various BCQ services. They in turn contact a volunteer and turn the case over to her or him.

For example, Eudice Nathan coordinates drivers, while Linda Davidson arranges for home visits. Both of these giving individuals have many years of experience in their positions, and have ensured that all goes smoothly. For many years Ricky Dreifus has served as the liaison between the volunteers and the patients and their families once BCQ has become involved.

Chaim Blumberg, BCQ’s treasurer, although a recent volunteer, has become an invaluable member of our team.

QJL: How do potential volunteers contact BCQ? HMP: Again, the initial source is the BCQ HOTLINE: 718-380-7433. We will be happy to explain in detail the volunteering possibilities, and will be glad to assist arranging the best fit for us and the prospective volunteer.

The process for those who wish to

visit patients at NYHQ on behalf of BCQ has recently become more structured but streamlined. The potential volunteer will be directed to the Volunteer Office at the hospital, and will be asked to complete an application, have their physician fill-in a required medical form, and take a brief on-line training course. When the volunteer has completed this process, she or he lets BCQ know, and we then contact Rabbi Keehn, who becomes the liaison for visiting Jewish patients.

QJL: You say that you need volunteers.

Do you have any paid employees?

HMP: Absolutely not. All aspects of BCQ are handled by volunteers.

QJL: Finally, do you have any anecdotes that you wish to share with us?

MHP: A recent recipient of our assistance repeatedly said, “I don’t know what I would have done without your help.” The truth is that all of our involved volunteers were delighted and anxious to help this

sweet senior.

Another one of our religiously-unaffiliated patients who was driven to numerous chemotherapy sessions sought a way of honoring our volunteers. She finally requested that a radio station play her favorite song in honor of her BCQ drivers. In another instance, one of our volunteers invited the woman she visited regularly and who was alone to spend the first days of Pesach with her family.

In general, BCQ is pleased that it is so often responsible for a kiddush Hashem, which happens mostly when it provides services to unaffiliated Jews. BCQ demonstrates in a tangible way our commitment to all our Jewish brethren. In fact, all of our wonderful and devoted volunteers feel personal satisfaction from their efforts. Over and over again, I have heard from our wonderful volunteers that they receive more from helping others than the effort they put in. What a lovely feeling – the reward of their mitzvah is the very mitzvah they so graciously perform.

Tuskegee Airman Honored At Queens Breakfast

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall exchanged greetings with Julius Freeman, an original member of the Tuskegee Airmen, during the York College Executive Leadership Breakfast held at the college on Friday, November 8. Both Marshall and Freeman were honored during the breakfast. The legendary Tuskegee Airmen were World War II military aviators and were the first African-Americans to be aircraft pilots in the U. S. armed forces.

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Community Corner • Recent Happenings

Hesped For Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l Given By Rabbi Ilan Meirov At Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim In Kew Gardens Hills

by Susie Garber

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n a hesped for Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, Rabbinical Seminary of America, Rabbi Ilan Meirov, Director of Chazaq, taught that Rav Ovadia was the Avraham Avinu of our generation. He was a fearless poseik, a great gadol, who went from country to country, from city to city, from shul to shul, from door to door, to encourage parents to send children to yeshivah and actively invigorated people to observe mitzvos. The Rav would travel to five or six cities a night by helicopter to try to bring people to Yiddishkeit. His ahavas Yisrael and ahavas Torah were legendary.

Rabbi Meirov once told Rav Ovadia, “Everything we do in Chazaq in Queens is in your merit.” Rabbi Meirov spoke about the vision of Rav Henoch Leibowitz zt”l, Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim/Rabbinical Seminary of America, who brought his vision of kiruv in America to reality with all the Chofetz Chaim branches all over the country. Rav Henoch started a revolution in America, and Rabbi Meirov noted that at the same time, Rav Ovadia started his revolution in Eretz Yisrael. In the late 1940s, when the great wave of Sephardic Jews came to Israel, Rav Ovadia observed that the government was tearing them from Torah and mitzvos, so he formulated a vi-

sion to see these children become baalei t’shuvah and roshei yeshivah. This was his life’s vision. Rabbi Meirov pointed out that it was not a coincidence that Rav Ovadia passed away on parshas Lech L’cha. We know that Hashem was not happy with humanity until Avraham Avinu. This is because, as Rav Moshe Feinstein taught, although there were righteous people before him, Avraham Avinu went out to the people and he did not keep his holiness to himself. He reached out to educate and to inspire them to fear Hashem.

Rabbi Meirov concluded with this thought: In Rav Ovadia Yosef’s merit, “Let’s take on extra ahavas Yisrael, work-

Yaakov Katz Studios

ing on not speaking lashon ha’ra and adding more time to our Torah learning; with this we could bring the g’ulah.”

75th Anniversary Of Kristallnacht Marked At Community-Wide Event In Forest Hills CONTINUED FROM P. 1 ties in human history. About 250 people were in attendance at the shul at a memorable evening, which was co-sponsored by Jewish centers and synagogues throughout New York City. All total, over 15 Jewish community organizations and shuls were responsible for putting together the event, which also featured a speech by Congresswoman Grace Meng and a miniceremony honoring progress made by the new generation of the community. While still on call, members of the New York Fire Department were also on hand.

Four years ago, I covered the Yom HaShoah ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem; I vividly recall a banner outside the museum that read ‘Remembering the Past/Shaping the Future.’ This prevailing motif befit this evening as well, since teaching about the Holocaust underscores the importance of knowing one’s history in order to combat prejudice and ignorance.

On the night of November 9, 1938, gangs of Nazis and non-Jewish civilians attacked Jewish businesses and religious sites around Germany, destroying thousands of stores and synagogues. The violence would continue for nearly two days, and the Nazis chose to name it Kristallnacht, symbolizing the final shattering of Jewish existence in Germany. The pretext for the violent spree was the shooting death of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a Polish-Jewish student, Herschel Grynszpan, on November 7. When news of vom Rath’s death reached Nazi headquarters in Berlin, it became the impetus to urge members to take to the streets and attack Jewish sites. Grynszpan, who had relatives in Germany, felt great anxiety about the fate of his family, as antiSemitism was rampant, and committed “an act of desperation,” as the keynote speaker said.

Sunday’s event featured a short speech

by Congresswoman Meng, whose con-

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Keynote Speaker Hanne Liebmann, who witnessed Kristallnacht firsthand stituents reside in several communities throughout Queens. Meng recalled her second trip to Israel this past summer, where she and her husband, Dr. Wayne Kye, visited Yad Vashem. They were particularly moved by an exhibit honoring the approximately 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust. They lit candles in memory of the children who perished in the Shoah, which remains a symbol to end “all instances of intolerance wherever and whenever,” she said. On Sunday, young children in the community lit candles in memory of those lost in the Holocaust.

Machane Chodosh’s Rabbi Yossi Mendelson advised his congregants that living a meaningful life is not just worthwhile but necessary. “And so this is a time to think about Am Yisrael Chai: The Jewish People Live; not just that we live, but that we thrive, and that we are truly cognizant of what that life means,” the rabbi said.

Senior Rabbi Manfred Gans, the wellknown and respected spiritual leader, who has already completed sixty years at the synagogue, remembered his own childhood in Leer, Germany. Rabbi Gans, who has served as president of the Queens Vaad Harabonim, detailed the economic duress that hit Germany after the Great Depression. The rabbi said that the Jews became the perfect scapegoat.

“And in this predicament arose an evil man who exploited this situation, and he

focused his attention on the lower middle class, on the lower working level, mostly out of work,” the rabbi said. “‘It’s not your fault! It’s the fault of the Jews!’” – so went the Nazi indoctrination.

“The greatest lie – and their philosophy was that the bigger the lie the more people will believe it. As a child, I experienced it... personally.... Nazism flourished. Hitler became a demi-god. And then came Kristallnacht,” Rabbi Gans continued.

“Whatever happened before was mild.

In my hometown, in the middle of the night, I was told, they woke up the people. They hardly gave them a chance to get dressed. Then they marched up, telling them that they should see the synagogues, which they had put aflame.”

When Max Liebmann introduced his wife, the 92-year-old described Hanne as the only woman in his life.

“The speaker and I met in a very romantic place: a French concentration camp.

She was 16 and I was 19, and ever since then, I have never looked at another girl or woman,” he said.

In her 20-minute speech, Hanne Liebmann discussed her life in Germany leading up to Kristallnacht.

Liebmann grew up in Karlsruhe, Ger-

many, not far from the French border, never knowing a time when Jews were not taunted or persecuted, she said. Her father died when she was very young. He ran a photography studio, which later made pictures of Jewish people for their mandatory identification cards.

“Germany never knew real democracy.

They tried and they eventually failed, with the Weimar Republic,” she said. “In January [1933], Hitler came to power. By March, we had the first concentration camp, which by the way, was not for Jews; it was for Communists and Socialists.”

In addition to her father’s death, her brother had already immigrated to the United States in 1937, so she did not have any male family members living with her.

This was critical because in the early hours of November 10, 1938, German police were ordered to arrest as many Jews as the local jails would hold, and the preferred targets were healthy young men. They shattered storefronts of about 7,500 Jewish stores and businesses, most estimates claimed.

All told, more than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps. Many were beaten in the streets, CONTINUED ON P. 72

(L-R) Keynote Speaker Hanne Liebmann with her husband Max, and former Congregation Machane Chodosh President Herbert Jaffe and his wife along with Senior Rabbi Manfred Gans at the synagogue

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November 14, 2013

Community Corner • Recent Happenings

A Talk With Cheryl Mandel, Mother Of IDF Hero were raising our children and when we were mourning Daniel.

by Shira Diamond

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heryl Mandel is the mother of Daniel Mandel, an Israeli soldier killed in the line of duty ten years ago.

Cheryl and her family have embarked on many projects in their son’s memory, and she speaks about her son and the life lessons he can teach us whenever she can.

Our community was honored to have Cheryl speak at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills last Shabbos, where everyone in attendance left inspired. We spoke with Cheryl to learn more about her son and what’s being done in his memory.

QJL: Hi Cheryl, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with us about your son Daniel and your journey. Where did you grow up?

CM: I grew up in Toronto, Canada, in a secular family.

QJL: What made you decide to pack up your family and make the move to Eretz Yisrael?

CM: Our family was moving further away from our secular lifestyle and closer to religious observance. We traveled to Israel to spend a year on Kibbutz Massada and Moshav Amirim and it was absolutely wonderful. We slowly became less comfortable with our surroundings in Toronto and decided that Eretz Yisrael was the right place for us to live.

QJL: What is the core of your speaking engagements and how do they connect to Daniel?

CM: I speak to various groups and inspire them through Daniel’s beliefs. Some of the important lessons are the importance of Israel to all Jews, the love and dedication of IDF soldiers for their country, and the knowledge that we have a choice about how to respond to tragedy.

Daniel’s love for music is the inspiration behind a musical park being built in his memory called Derech Daniel QJL: Was Daniel always so dedicated to Eretz Yisrael? When did he develop such a love for defending his country?

CM: Was he always so dedicated? I don’t know. He was a very principled young man and his year and a half at Atzmona strengthened both his emunah and his commitment to Eretz Yisrael. He spent four years in the army, all the while building himself into a leader and strengthening his dedication.

QJL: Can you tell us more about Derech Daniel and what it aims to accomplish?

CM: Derech Daniel is a way to pay tribute to our son through his love of music.

It is a small but unique park that will accomplish two goals. One is to pay tribute to Daniel’s musical talent and qualities.

The second is to give thanks to our community for all its help and love when we

QJL: What is the most important message you wish to get out to the world about your son and the lessons he taught in his lifetime?

CM: I am so grateful to OneFamily Fund, which has brought me to America to tell my story, and to spread awareness about the wonderful work they do for bereaved families (such as mine) as well as victims (I prefer survivors) of terror.

I would also like to ask everyone to please pray for my neighbor’s son who was injured last week while destroying a tunnel from Gaza. His name is Achiyah ben Nirah. May he have a speedy recovery.

QJL: Thank you again, Cheryl, for speaking with us. May Daniel’s memory continue to spread good and inspire others.

QJL: What happened on the terrible day when Daniel was killed?

CM: Daniel was an officer in the Palsar Nachal, an elite fighting unit. He was sent with his men to capture three wanted terrorists that were hiding out in university housing in Nablus. During a gun battle, one of the terrorists succeeded in fatally shooting Daniel. He was killed instantly.

QJL: How did you receive the news?

CM: We were informed by the Army early morning on April 15, and Daniel was buried in Alon Shvut that afternoon.

Pesach was the next day, so we only sat Shiv’ah for one morning.

QJL: Can you tell us a little about Daniel? What was he like?

CM: Daniel was the type of child where the sun shined wherever he happened to be. He was very attractive, intelligent, popular, sensitive, and a deeply-principled person who was a natural leader. He was a talented musician who played many musical instruments well. After a trip to Scotland, he took an interest in the Irish bagpipes and was learning to play them before he was killed.

QJL: How did Daniel use his musical talents?

CM: His music was such a part of him.

His soldiers told us that during navigation exercises he would sit in his jeep in the moonlight and play the flute, guiding his soldiers home. He played instruments all the time, no matter where he was. The rav at Atzmona, where Daniel learned, said he didn’t just play with his hands, he played with his n’shamah.

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QJL: What have Daniel’s family and friends done to carry on his name?

CM: I believe the saying is that “it takes a village to raise a child,” and we were very grateful for the educational institutions and Bnei Akiva, which helped us produce such an incredible person, so we have been doing projects that benefit these organizations and institutions. We renovated and dedicated the beis midrash of his elementary school in his memory, “Herut Daniel.” We put out a book, a movie and a website, www.daniel-mandel.co.il – all about Daniel and his life. Our big project is a musical park called Derech Daniel in Alon Shvut, where we live. For the past three years, a group called Tzevet Daniel ran in the Jerusalem Marathon and raised money for various charities. Most importantly, there are at least 15 people we know of who were named Daniel after my son.

The latest is my 5-week-old grandson, Erez Daniel Mandel.

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Community Corner • Recent Happenings

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia And Renowned Attorney Nathan Lewin Discuss Landmark First Amendment Cases At Straus Center Event

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nited States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and renowned attorney and Yeshiva College graduate Nathan Lewin discussed how the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has shaped the interaction of religion and the public sphere in America at an event hosted

by Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought on November 6. A crowd of more than 1,200 attended the event, which took place in YU’s Lamport Auditorium.

Titled “Synagogue and State in America: The Landmark First Amendment Cases of Our Age,” the discussion was part of the Straus Center’s “Great Conversations on Religion and Democracy Series” and was moderated by Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, the center’s director. Noting that Scalia had ruled on Supreme Court cases dealing with these issues and Lewin had argued them before that same court, Soloveichik said, “We are fortunate to welcome tonight two men of faith who have achieved such great knowledge of the law: one who judges this great nation and the other who has distinguished himself by arguing how that nation shall be judged.”

The evening began with an exploration of the original and present interpretation of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, as well as three crucial Supreme Court cases where one or the other had been invoked: Lemon v. Kurtz-

man, which ruled that a Pennsylvania Act that allowed the state to reimburse private schools for the salaries of secular studies teachers was unconstitutional (1971); Goldman v. Weinberger, in which a Jewish Air Force officer was denied the right to wear a yarmulke when in uniform on the grounds that the Free Exercise Clause applies less strictly to the military than to ordinary citizens (1986); and Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet,which held that the creation of a school district designed to coincide with the neighborhood boundaries of a religious group was an unconstitutional aid to religion (1994).

“We have said all kinds of things that don’t comport with Americans’ perceptions of America in the name of the Establishment Clause,” Scalia said. “My approach is to look at the tradition of the American people, because there are

practices which have been engaged in for time immemorial that should not be prohibited. G-d doesn’t have to be driven out of the public courts.”

Lewin brought insight to the discussion from the other side of the bench, touching more specifically on the American Jewish community’s unique relationship with the First Amendment.

“Through all my years of litigating on these issues, I’ve often found Jewish groups, like the Jewish Congress or the Anti-Defamation League, on the other side of the case,” he noted. “I think the Jewish community then was concerned with proselytization, that Jews would become Christians if they attended public institutions where the separation of church and state were not enforced.

Time has proved that we shouldn’t be concerned about that fear so much as assimilation—the PEW study has shown not that people are trying to convert

Jews to Christianity, but that Jews are not being given sufficient knowledge or background to keep them Jewish.”

A diverse crowd came to hear the discussion, including YU undergraduates, students in the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, local high school students, and members of the public.

Fred Mell ‘71YC, an attorney, found the camaraderie between Scalia and Lewin especially interesting. “I liked the back and forth, how even though they didn’t always agree on what the other was saying, they shared the belief that the law is based on interpretation,” he said. “The tension between the balance of the individual’s rights and the community’s rights is fascinating—it’s like the excitement of Yiddishkeit: finding that balance of faith and engagement with the general culture around us.”

To learn more about the Straus Center, visit www.yu.edu/straus.

Community Corner • What’s New In School

Bnot Yaakov Hesed Program

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not Yaakov has an ongoing yearlong Hesed Program that engages students with the needs of others in the Jewish community. During the Aseret Y’me Teshuva, Bnot Yaakov talmidot took it upon themselves to

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raise money for the esteemed Great Neck Community Kollel, Ohr HaEmet. The girls agreed it was a worthy cause and it also gave everyone a chance to show their hakarat ha-tov (appreciation) to those who are participating in the important mitzvah of limud haTorah.

“In our tefilla it tells us: ‘Talmud Torah k’neged kulam,’” Morah Baalhanes told her Kitah Gimmel class. “Learning Torah is as great as all the mitzvoth.” She explained to her class how fundamental Torah learning is to the Jewish people and the girls discussed their own family members who are learning in yeshivot in Israel, learning b’chavruta or are regulars at the Great Neck kollel.

Kitah Gimmel took a special interest in this particular hesed though. Two girls from the

class approached Mrs. Friedman, Associate Principal, and told her they had made a “carwash” to raise money for the kollel.

When they presented her with the money, they told her that the entire class had participated in the carwash. It wasn’t until she went into the classroom to thank the class for their heartfelt mitzvah that the “real” story surfaced – because when she thanked the class, some girls didn’t seem to know very much about the carwash! As the facts emerged, it seemed that the real story of Kitah Gimmel’s hesed was that although only a few of the girls were actually involved with the carwash, those girls wanted to include the entire class so that no one would feel left out. Mrs. Friedman and Morah Baalhaness were genuinely taken aback with the mature middot the girls had exhibited and told them that the hesed done by including everyone in the class rivaled the hesed of their tzedaka collection!

It was fitting, then, a few weeks after Sukkot, when all the monies had been counted, that Kitah Gimmel was the class chosen to go to Rabbi Shaliahsa-

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boo, Rosh Kollel of Ohr HaEmet, and deliver the check to him. The girls got the opportunity to see the kollel and Rabbi Shaiahsaboo greeted them warmly, spoke to them of the importance of learning Torah and of giving tzedaka to support community learning endeavors.

He gave them a brakha that they should be zokhe to continue with their mitzvot and raise Torah observant homes filled with Torah learning. He thanked Bnot Yaakov talmidot for their contribution and complemented them on their ability to understand the value of limud haTorah at such a young age.

November 14, 2013

Community Corner • What’s New In School

BYQ First Grade Students Go Beyond The Five Senses

Guest Speaker Chevi Garfinkel Inspires Shevach High School Students At Recent Chesed “Breakout”

by Susie Garber

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t Bais Yaakov of Queens, teachers encourage students to apply their knowledge to real-life experiences. The first graders completed a unit of study of the five senses. They discovered enriched vocabulary to describe and experience sights, sounds, tastes, and smells. The girls discussed their favorite Shabbos sights and smells. B’samim for Havdalah was one of the scents many of the girls mentioned. The first grade teachers took the initiative to work on something meaningful for the students.

This scientific exploration and ensuing discussion about Shabbos led them to a chesed project for patients and relatives

required to be in a hospital for Shabbos.

The students placed cinnamon sticks in gold, organza bags along with a small, personal note expressing their love and good wishes to the recipients of these special crafts.

Rabbi Daniel Coleman of North Shore Hospital on Long Island was thrilled to learn he will receive more than five hundred B’samim ‘pekelach’ for the Shabbos kits he distributes to the many Jewish patients who remain in the hospital over Shabbos. The children were so glad their efforts will make those in need feel better. What better way to make ‘sense’ of all they learned!

YHT First Graders Adopt An IDF Soldier

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he children at Yeshiva Har Torah not only learn about chesed, they put their learning into practice!

Throughout the year, there are many opportunities for the children to experience “giving to others.” Last week, a young Israeli soldier who made aliyah visited our kindergarten class. The children have “adopted” him and will be in touch during this school year. He is the brother of one of our first grade teachers, Mrs. Lowy. David was in America on leave and took time to come to visit the children. They proudly stood when he arrived and sang Hatikvah. He was welcomed warmly and offered food and drinks, just as Avraham Avinu did when

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he greeted the mal’achim. The children baked and decorated a special cake in David’s honor. Our children had the opportunity to learn about what David does in the army, how he protects the people of Israel, where he sleeps, what he eats, and what his training is like. They asked excellent questions and listened intently to David’s answers. The children promised to write to David this year and will use some of their tz’dakah money to send all the soldiers in David’s unit toothbrushes, soap, socks, and more. We are always happy to learn and always happy to fulfill the mitzvot of hachnasat orchim and tz’dakah. We are always learning and growing!

eople sense the difference between compassion and pity. Ms. Chevi Garfinkel explained this idea when she spoke at the beautifully orchestrated “Chesed Breakout” at Shevach High School on Oct. 9. Ms. Garfinkel stressed that it is important to avoid demonstrating pity, and drew an analogy to a lost object: Just as it is a mitzvah to return a lost object to someone, all the more so it is a mitzvah to return someone’s dignity.

You have the opportunity to do hashavas aveidah. She illustrated this point with a personal anecdote. When her mother was ill and in a wheelchair, Ms. Garfinkel refused to let her mother do her laundry, until her mother said, “Chevi, please do not deprive me of the pleasure of doing your laundry!”

Ms. Garfinkel delved into one’s mindset when doing chesed. She instructed the girls to “Break the Sound Barrier”: Empathize with what others are experiencing, and then act upon it! Let them know they are not alone. “When helping a child, pretend you are that child. As she looks up to you and aspires to be like you, treat her like she is your best friend and she will begin to feel better.”

The Chesed Breakout at Shevach High School reflected the tremendous value the school places on performing chesed with love, caring, and enthusiasm. Seniors Rachel Bakst, Chani Bruckstein, Rivka Sara Noy, and Devorah Panish, guided

by Assistant Principal Rebbetzin Chani Grunblatt, planned this inspiring event.

The Shevach chesed program had its official beginning on Wednesday, October 9. Their theme, “KIDZ at Heart,” truly exemplifies true Torah ideals in performing chesed. As children perform even the simplest actions with passion and energy, so too the Shevach students want to ex-

ecute acts of chesed. KIDZ is an acronym that stands for Kind, Intuitive, Devoted, and Zestful. The students used their creative artistic talents to fashion beautiful bulletin boards. Each student received a perek of T’hilim on a creatively designed project with the goal being that the entire sefer T’hilim will be recited daily.

After a short inspiring video produced by the four chesed heads, many chesed opportunities were delineated for the students. Helping out at JEP (Jewish Education Program), Menucha V’Simcha, and Ateres Bnos are just a few examples of the chasadim the Shevach girls provide the Queens community. The program concluded with a powerful speech presented by Ms. Garfinkel.

The message was clear. As Rebbetzin Hirtz, Shevach’s principal, stated: “Our girls were truly inspired to consider their acts of chesed as one of their greatest pleasures.”

Holocaust Historian Addresses Central Seniors

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oted historian Dr. Michael Berenbaum, former research deputy director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, project director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and director of the USHMM’s Holocaust Research Institute, spoke to seniors at Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central) on Friday, November 8. Berenbaum’s talk was in conjunction with Central’s Names, Not Numbers Holocaust Memorial Project, an innovative oral history program that offers students a firsthand

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education in Holocaust studies. Learn more at www.namesnotnumbers.org.

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Community Corner • What’s New In School

Bnos Malka Academy Hosts Open House Yeshivat Ohr Haiim Sponsors Shloshim Event For Maran Ovadia Yosef zt”l

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nos Malka Academy, with a current enrollment of 344 students, held its open house for prospective parents on Tuesday, November 5.

After being treated to delightful refreshments provided by the BMA Parents’ Association, the visiting parents gathered in the shul for a short program.

Rabbi Michael Weichselbaum, the principal of Bnos Malka, and Mrs. Rivky Babad, the assistant principal for grades K-4, presented the educational philosophy that has made BMA a premier school in Queens. The parents were captivated by the welcoming remarks of 8th grade student, Rachel Deligdish, as she described the strength of the academic programs and the warm and caring atmosphere Bnos Malka is so well known for. The PA co-president, Mrs. Nechama Strauss, emphasized the vital role parents can and do have in the school. Before starting their tour of the classrooms and the facility, the parents enjoyed an informative video presentation showcasing the school’s vision.

Bnos Malka encourages and develops each girl’s self-confidence, self-esteem, and unique potential. Through handson experiential learning in a meaningful context, our girls are provided with

opportunities to explore, analyze, question, be creative, and think independently, while developing requisite social skills, such as cooperating, helping, and communicating.

Walking around the school and looking into classrooms decorated with students’ projects, the visiting parents could see it was really true. Students were interacting with teachers and visibly interested in what their teachers were presenting. One parent commented, “‘It was hard not to notice the way the teachers were able to challenge and excite the children.”

Rabbi Weichselbaum acknowledges that having the Open House on a workday limits the number of people who can attend. “However, seeing our teachers and students in a real classroom setting is our best advertisement.

Interest continues to build for Bnos Malka. Enrollment is at its highest level and with over 30 interviews for next year already completed, BMA should continue to grow.

For those unable to attend, we have scheduled a “Mini-Open House” on November 18 at 8 p.m. at the home of Binyomin and Slava Deitsch, 137-77 75th Road in Kew Gardens Hills.

By Rachel Rambod

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Sheloshim ceremony for Maran Ovadia Yosef zt”l took place on Wednesday, November 6, at the Shaare Tova Synagogue. This event was sponsored by Yeshivat Ohr Haiim and was attended by all the students of the Yeshiva.

Yeshivat Ohr Haiim is located in Kew Gardens, benefitting the Sephardic community of Queens and Long Island.

Rabbi Kashani, the Menahel, along with Rabbi Paysach Krohn, and Rabbi Avraham Nissanian addressed the students, parents, and community members with inspiring words about our holy Chacham. The children were encouraged to answer questions, and some were even lucky enough to receive a CD from Rabbi Krohn. The event concluded with the children saying “Shema Yisrael” and “Hashem Melech.” The k’dushah in the

room was felt by all who attended.

Each child left feeling a unique part of Am Yisrael, and with the chizuk to do more mitzvos to bring an aliyah for the n’shamah of Maran Ovadia Yosef zt”l.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Seasons on Main Street, Kew Gardens Hills, for donating the cookies and water bottles, which were individually labeled with “Don’t forget to say a Brachah!” on each cookie! These were included in a package given to each child along with a Birkas HaBanim prayer card.

PHOTOS BY DOVID SOCLOF

Bnos Malka Pre-1A Goes Shopping

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he pre-1A class at Bnos Malka made a pit stop on their way to school last week to Seasons Supermarket. It wasn’t to pick up extra milk, but to get an incredible tour of the store and all the fabulous departments.

The manager showed the bright-eyed students the produce section where the children compared and contrasted the colors, sizes, and shapes of the fruits and vegetables. They saw (and smelled) the

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delicious bakery and take-out counters.

The butcher showed them the difference in size between a whole chicken and a whole turkey. They even got a chance to play cashier, flipping the switch to start the conveyer belt and scan items into the computer. Morah Cohen was very grateful to Seasons for allowing them to tour the store. “The trip reinforced the concepts we teach in class in a very exciting way. It was very cool.”

November 14, 2013

Community Corner • Upcoming Events

Rabbinical Seminary Of America (Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim) Of Queens To Hold 80th Anniversary Milestone Dinner Event Will Pay Tribute To Cities, Ambassadors, Honorees, And Musmachim

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n Sunday, November 24, Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Queens will hold its 80th Anniversary Dinner at Terrace on the Park. The Dinner will offer a panoramic glimpse of the Yeshiva’s national impact, while celebrating twenty-two musmachim – a new generation of leadership in harbatzas haTorah.

A special memorial tribute will honor the legacy of Rabbi Mordechai Tropper zt”l, whose passing just five months ago left an irreplaceable void in the fabric of the Yeshiva. A lifelong talmid of HaRav Henach Leibowitz zt”l, Rabbi Tropper worked hand in hand with him for four decades, playing a pivotal role in the Yeshiva’s development. As the Yeshiva’s beloved Mashgiach, Rabbi Tropper’s personal involvement in the lives of thousands of individuals had an incalculable impact. The ideals he taught and embodied are an eternal legacy, and his name will forever be associated with the Yeshiva and its identity.

Dr. & Mrs. Herbert Blustein, longtime residents and vital members of the Forest Hills Jewish community for over half a century, will receive the Dr. Raymond Feinberg z”l Chesed Award. Together, the Blusteins serve as role models of a beautiful marriage and a successful partnership, and pool their collective energies for the benefit of the community.

Mr. & Mrs. Boruch Delman will be honored with the Young Leadership Award, recognizing Boruch’s dynamic leadership among the Yeshiva’s alumni community.

Boruch embodies the ideals taught in the Yeshiva, serving as a model of honesty and integrity in the workplace, while he and his wife Chanie together build a home of chesed and tz’dakah, practiced modestly and without fanfare.

Mr. & Mrs. Reuvane Rhodes will be honored as Parents of the Year. A

HaRav Henach Leibowitz, zt’l

The RSA building in Kew Gardens Hills

talmid of the Yeshiva who formed personal relationships with both HaRav Henach Leibowitz zt”l and HaRav Dovid Harris shlita, Reuvane, together with his wife Basi, embodies the middos the Yeshiva strives to inculcate, conveying them to their children in a home infused with Torah, hachnasas orchim and kiddush Hashem.

Special guests will represent eight communities that are home to Chofetz Chaim affiliates; these “ambassadors” will be recognized for their leadership roles in the development of mosdos HaTorah.

Mr. and Mrs. Irving Langer will represent Brooklyn, NY; Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Bock and the Ghermezian Family will represent Las Vegas, NV; Mr. and Mrs. Frank Menlo will represent Los Angeles, CA; Mr. and Mrs. Barry Ray will represent Milwaukee, WI; Dr. and Mrs. Allan Jacob will represent Miami, FL; Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Madeb will represent Rochester, NY; Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Deutsch, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Glassman and Dr. and Dr. Craig Reiss will represent St. Louis, MO; and Dr.

and Mrs. David Freedman. and Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Silber will represent Vancouver, BC. ---------------------Eighty years ago, Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim was founded by HaRav Dovid Leibowitz zt”l, with the goal of introducing to the American continent the concepts of iyun HaTorah in all its depth and sophistication and Slabodka Musar in all its profundity and glory. Rav Dovid’s life was tragically cut short at the age of fifty-two. His son, Rav Henach, only twenty-four at the time, committed himself to perpetuating his father’s legacy, a mission he faithfully pursued for over sixty-six years. HaRav Henach zt”l led the Yeshiva through times of hardship and uncertainty, and ultimately lived to witness the Yeshiva’s dramatic growth in recent decades. Before his passing, HaRav Henach designated HaRav Dovid Harris shlita and HaRav Akiva Grunblatt shlita, as his successors. Under their leadership, the Yeshiva continues to grow in size while increasing the number of communities in the scope of its outreach. As they look towards the future, the roshei

yeshivah draw strength from the strong foundations of the past.

Today, Chofetz Chaim’s main campus in Kew Gardens Hills is home to nearly 400 talmidim, including more than two hundred Kollel yungeleit. A rigorous program of sidrei limud nurtures talmidei chachamim and baalei musar in the glorious tradition of Pre-War Europe.

The Yeshiva encourages its alumni to build Torah institutions from the ground up. Alumni currently serve more than 100 communities internationally; they have founded 10 elementary schools, 20 high schools, 12 beis midrash programs, and 40 kiruv centers, kollelim, and shuls. The Yeshiva devotes a great deal of resources to encourage and support alumni in the field.

---------------------Dinner Chairman Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg, mara d’asra of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center in Cedarhurst, notes the significance of this milestone anniversary: “Eighty is not only a time to recognize past g’vurah, it is a time of renewed commitment to face new challenges in new generations.”

Kew Gardens Hills Homeowners Civic Association To Hold Important Community Meeting All About Mortgages And Credit

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e are bombarded daily by information and suggestions affecting our financial wellbeing.

When does it make sense to refinance a mortgage? What is the importance of your credit score? How is it compiled by credit reporting agencies?

How can your credit score affect your ability to buy a car or remortgage your

11 Kislev 5774

home? When should a senior citizen consider a reverse mortgage?

These and other topics will be addressed by Michael E. Diaz, Vice President and Product Relationship Manager of the TD Bank on Main Street on Tuesday night, November 19, at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, 70-12 150th Street, Kew Gardens Hills, at 7:45 p.m.

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Community Corner • Upcoming Events

Bet El 31st Annual Dinner Featuring Ralph Peters Promises To Be Unforgettable Event

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ne might refer to retired US Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters as a military renaissance man. The strategic analyst for Fox News has authored 29 books. He is a columnist for the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and many other publications. A Pennsylvania native, the son of a coal miner, Peters is also a passionate supporter of Israel. He states quite proudly that his career success has been colored by Jewish formative influences. “I started reading about Maimonides and other Jewish figures and when I was at Penn State, Jewish teachers took extra time with me – they saw something.”

One thing Peters is certain of is the need to protect Israel. “After the Holocaust, the grimmest and most savage event in history, the survivors, sick and emaciated, struggled their way to Israel and joined the Zionist settlers. They proved even with sand, with dirt, with fallow earth, they could build a wonderful postmodern state in a matter of decades.”

He said of Israel’s battle for independence: “They were fighting with homemade weapons against tanks and modern arms. There are few David and Goliath stories in history that are so inspiring. Israel is a miraculous success story, and its neighbors share humiliation over watching the Jewish state ascend from a collection of kibbutzim to what it is now.”

Some of these patriots came to the United States and are doing all they can for Israel. There are many who took on this great challenge. All you have to do is look at the lives of Jean and Eugen Gluck. Look at their never-ending devotion to Israel and Bet El. Look at their great roles and other patriots in the creation and continued flourishing of Bet El. These devoted individuals are what Ralph Peters talks and writes about every chance he can.

At the 31st Annual American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva Center at the Marriot Marquis, on Sunday, December 8, you will witness firsthand the brilliant words of Ralph Peters concerning Israel, the entire Middle East, and the important role of the United States. You will also rejoice with all the supporters of this wonderful place called Bet El.

The Bet El Story: A Modern Day Miracle With all the news being dominated

by Arab propaganda about “Israeli occupation” and “settlements” impeding the “peace process,” here is the true story of what is taking place in Biblical Judah and Samaria. Here there are Jew-

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ish communities who are doing nothing but bringing light and warmth to the world, promoting social justice and compassionate values that we can all learn from.

Bet El’s extraordinary story began 4,000 years ago, when the patriarch Abraham established it as camp along his divinely inspired trek through the land of Canaan. Two generations later, Bet El became the site of Jacob’s famous dream and dramatic wrestling match with an angel – the site where the name “Israel” was coined.

Today, Bet El has transformed from a tiny community of eight families in 1977 to a vibrant Jewish center, which now houses an ethnically diverse Jewish population of 1,300 families. Bet El is home to the world-renowned Bet El Yeshiva Center, which provides a comprehensive education to students from pre-school through post-college. Their

ter citizens and live their lives the way we all should. The people of Bet El are also blazing a trail for the military struggle for the defense of the land and people of Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces Gluck Preparatory Academy did what many thought was impossible: Their mission is to strengthen the adolescent spirit and character before young adults enter the Israeli Army.

There are hundreds of students who changed their lives for the better at Bet El and go on to serve Israel filled with spiritual strength and their desire to serve in elite units and as officers.

How was this spiritual oasis created? What makes it thrive? We have to go back over thirty years ago, when Yom Kippur War hero and Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, along with a few families and yeshivah students, had a vision of what Bet El could be. With three decades of tireless help

Jean & Eugen Gluck, patriots in the creation and continued flourishing of Bet El graduates have become the leading teachers in yeshivos and high schools across Israel, bringing the spirit of Torah to all. The Raaya Girls High School Academy is celebrated as one of the premier learning centers in all of Israel and can’t accommodate all the girls who want to attend. The National Media Network called Arutz Sheva with parallel websites in Hebrew, English, and Russian, brings a message of optimism and hope to supporters of Israel worldwide. It is a major force in the media today, combating the de-legitimatization of the State of Israel, which is so terribly important to our way of life and in fact our existence. Its BeSheva Newspaper is the third largest circulation newspaper in all of Israel, with engaging articles and focus on accomplishments of outstanding individuals and institutions throughout Israel. It encourages all Israelis to be bet-

from Jean and Eugen Gluck and the American Friends of Bet El, the town is now a vibrant center of Jewish life that nurtures all of Israel in a way that no other center of learning matches.

Because Bet El is not just a learning center, it is a way of life.

The story of Bet El is the story of the heart of Israel. It is where Abraham first proclaimed the Oneness of G-d, and it is where Abraham’s children now nurture the passion of Israeli life. When you look at the people of Bet El today, you see the people of four thousand years ago in spirit, and all the generations in between with the glow of G-d around them. You see people smiling with knowledge of the meaning of existence: To help one another, to further the teachings of Torah, to help Israel live and be the foundation of Jewish life in the entire world. The establishment and flourishing of this

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Ralph Peters will be the guest speaker community is a tremendous accomplishment for the entire Jewish people.

All who support Israel should support the heart of Israel – Bet El. On Sunday, December 8, at the Marriot Marquis Ballroom in Manhattan, American Friends of Bet El will honor the residents and supporters of the northern Samarian town who have toiled selflessly for the survival and growth of their community and the State of Israel. Now in its 31st year, the American Friends of Bet El Dinner has become one of New York City’s largest and most prestigious Jewish events, with last year’s dinner attracting an astounding 1500 attendees.

In addition to the guest speaker Lt. Colonel (ret.) Ralph Peters, The American Friends of Bet EL will honor these well-deserved supporters: The Shomer Yisrael Honorees are Barbara & David Bortniker, the Eishet Chayil Honoree is Sylvia Freyer, the Shomer Bet El honorees are Rachel & Joshua Goldsmith and the Young Leadership Honorees are Aliza & Elchanan Romanoff.

Bet El today is living up to its legacy established thousands of years ago – a Divine home, where G-dly lives are being built and are flourishing. Just as Jacob wrestled and prevailed over Esau’s archangel over three millennia ago, Beth El today serves as a reminder of Jewish pride and perseverance – prevailing over all our current enemies.

Israel will survive, prosper, and grow because of the brave souls that inhabit it and its friends and supporters all over the world that will never turn their backs on it. A key reason that Israel will be all these things is there is a place called Bet El. Come join in building Bet El today, and continue the tradition established

by Abraham and Jacob over 35 centuries ago.

The event will begin with a 5 p.m. smorgasbord, followed by dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets are $500 per couple. To make your reservation, call 718-482-4134 or 718-268-8291.

November 14, 2013

11 Kislev 5774

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Ăǀ WĂŵ ŽŶĐĞ ƐĂŝĚ͕ ͞ Ś ŬůĞŝŶĞ ŵĞŶƚĐŚ Ͳ Ă ƐŵĂůů ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ƐŵĂůů ŚĞĂƌƚ ƚŚĂƚ ŝƐ ĨƵůů ŽĨ ĞŵŽƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ͘ dŚĂƚ ŝƐ ŚŽǁ ǁĞ Ăůů ĨĞĞů ƚŽĚĂLJ͕͟ ƐĂŝĚ ZĂǀ Ğǀ ^ŵŝƚŚ͕ ^ŚůŝƚĂ͕ DĂŐŐŝĚ ^ŚŝƵƌ ĂĨ ,ĂzŽŵŝ ͛,ĂůĂĐŚĂ ĂŶĚ /ƌŐƵŶ ^ŚŝƵƌĞŝ dŽƌĂŚ͕ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ŽƵƚͲ ƐĞƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ŬĞLJŶŽƚĞ ƐĞƐƐŝŽŶ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ͘ /ŶĚĞĞĚ͕ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĂƐ ƚŚĞ ŽǀĞƌǁŚĞůŵŝŶŐ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ĞŵĂŶĂƟŶŐ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ŚƵŶĚƌĞĚƐ ŽĨ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ǁŝǀĞƐ ǁŚŽ ƉĂƌƟĐŝƉĂƚĞĚ ŝŶ Ă ^ŚĂďďŽƐ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ŽƵďůĞdƌĞĞ ,ŽƚĞů ŝŶ ^ŽŵĞƌƐĞƚ͕ E:͕ Ă ƚŚƵŶĚĞƌŝŶŐ ƉƌŽĐůĂŵĂƟŽŶ ŽĨ ĂŚĂǀĂƐ ŚĂdŽƌĂŚ ƚŚĂƚ ƐŝŵƉůLJ ĚĞĮĞƐ ĚĞƐĐƌŝƉƟŽŶ͘

ŚĂǀĂƐ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ >ĞĂĚƐ ƚŽ ŚĂǀĂƐ zŝƐƌĂĞů KŶĞ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ůĞĂƐƚ ůŝŬĞůLJ ƚŚŝŶŐƐ ƚŽ Įůů ƚŚĞ ŬůĞŝŶĞ ŚĂƌƚnj ŽĨ ƚŚŝƐ ǁƌŝƚĞƌ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ƚŽƌƌĞŶƚ ŽĨ ĞŵŽͲ ƟŽŶ ǁĂƐ ƐŽŵĞƚŚŝŶŐ ĂƐ ƐĞĞŵŝŶŐůLJ ŵƵŶĚĂŶĞ ĂƐ ŚƵŶĚƌĞĚƐ ŽĨ ĨĞĞƚ ĚĂŶĐŝŶŐ͘ zĞƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ƐŝŐŚƚ ŽĨ ŚƵŶĚƌĞĚƐ ŽĨ ĨĞĞƚ ĚĂŶĐŝŶŐ ďƌŽƵŐŚƚ ŵĞ ƚŽ ƚĞĂƌƐ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐ DŽƚnjŽĞŝ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ĂƚŵŽƐƉŚĞƌĞ ǁĂƐ ƉĞƌŵĞĂƚĞĚ ǁŝƚŚ ƐŝŵĐŚĂ͕ ƚƌƵĞ ƐŝŵĐŚĂ ĂŶĚ / ǁĂƐ ǁŝƉŝŶŐ ƚĞĂƌƐ ĂǁĂLJ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐ ƚŚĞ ĨĞĞƚ͘ dŚĞƌĞ ǁĞƌĞ ƉĂŶƚƐ ƚƵĐŬĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ ƐŽĐŬƐ ĂŶĚ ƚŚŽƐĞ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĞƌĞŶ͛ƚ͖ ǁŚŝƚĞ ƐŽĐŬƐ ĂŶĚ ďůĂĐŬ ƐŽĐŬƐ͕ ƉĂŶƚƐ Žƌ ƐŽĐŬƐ ƚŽƉƉĞĚ ďLJ ďĞŬĞƐŚĞƐ ĂŶĚ ƚŚŽƐĞ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĞƌĞŶ͛ƚ͕ ƚŚŝƐ ŬŝŶĚ ŽĨ ƐŚŽĞ͕ ƚŚĂƚ ŬŝŶĚ ŽĨ ƐŚŽĞ͙ ŝͲ ǀĞƌƐĞ ĨĞĞƚ ĚĂŶĐŝŶŐ ŝŶ ĐŽŵƉůĞƚĞ ƐLJŶĐŚƌŽŶŝnjĂƟŽŶ ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂůůLJ ĂŶĚ ĞŵŽƟŽŶĂůůLJ ƉŽŝŶƚĞĚ ƚŽ ǁŚĂƚ ǀĞƌƐĞ ĨĞĞƚ ĚĂŶĐŝŶŐ ŝŶ ĐŽŵƉůĞƚĞ ƐLJŶĐŚƌŽŶŝnjĂƟŽŶ ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂůůLJ ĂŶĚ ĞŵŽƟŽŶĂůůLJ ƉŽŝŶƚĞĚ ƚŽ ǁŚĂƚ ǁĂƐ ƉĞƌŚĂƉƐ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ ƌĞŵĂƌŬĂďůĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ĂďŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ĂĐŚĚƵƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ƵŶŝĮĐĂƟŽŶ ŽĨ Ă ǀĞƌLJ ĚŝǀĞƌƐĞ ĐƌŽǁĚ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐŶ͛ƚ ĂŶ ĂƌƟĮĐŝĂů ƵŶŝƚLJ͕ ďƵƚ ƌĂƚŚĞƌ Ă ĚĞĞƉ ƵŶŝƚLJ ŽĨ ƉƵƌƉŽƐĞ͕ ĂŶ ĂĐŚĚƵƐ ǀĞƌLJ ĚŝǀĞƌƐĞ ĐƌŽǁĚ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐŶ͛ƚ ĂŶ ĂƌƟĮĐŝĂů ƵŶŝƚLJ͕ ďƵƚ ƌĂƚŚĞƌ Ă ĚĞĞƉ ƵŶŝƚLJ ŽĨ ƉƵƌƉŽƐĞ͕ ĂŶ ĂĐŚĚƵƐ ĨŽƌŵĞĚ ďLJ ŚĂǀĂƐ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ƚŚĂƚ ƚƌĂŶƐůĂƚĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ ŚĂǀĂƐ zŝƐƌĂĞů ŽŶ Ă ƉƌŽĨŽƵŶĚ͕ ĞdžƚƌĞŵĞůLJ ĨŽƌŵĞĚ ďLJ ŚĂǀĂƐ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ƚŚĂƚ ƚƌĂŶƐůĂƚĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ ŚĂǀĂƐ zŝƐƌĂĞů ŽŶ Ă ƉƌŽĨŽƵŶĚ͕ ĞdžƚƌĞŵĞůLJ ƌĂƌĞ ůĞǀĞů͘ ƌĂƌĞ ůĞǀĞů͘ ,ƵŶĚƌĞĚƐ ŽĨ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ ĨƌŽŵ ǀĂƌŝŽƵƐ ĐŽŵŵƵŶŝƟĞƐ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ƚŚĞ hŶŝƚĞĚ ^ƚĂƚĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĂŶ ŝ Ͳ ,ƵŶĚƌĞĚƐ ŽĨ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ ĨƌŽŵ ǀĂƌŝŽƵƐ ĐŽŵŵƵŶŝƟĞƐ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ƚŚĞ hŶŝƚĞĚ ^ƚĂƚĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĂŶͲ ĂĚĂ ǁŝƚŚ ĚŝīĞƌŝŶŐ ŵŝŶŚĂŐŝŵ ĂŶĚ ůŝĨĞƐƚLJůĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŽŶĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ŝŶ ĐŽŵŵŽŶ͕ ŽŶĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ďƌŽƵŐŚƚ ĂĚĂ ǁŝƚŚ ĚŝīĞƌŝŶŐ ŵŝŶŚĂŐŝŵ ĂŶĚ ůŝĨĞƐƚLJůĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŽŶĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ŝŶ ĐŽŵŵŽŶ͕ ŽŶĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ďƌŽƵŐŚƚ ƚŚĞŵ ƚŽŐĞƚŚĞƌ͗ ƚŚĞLJ ƐƉĞŶĚ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ ŝŵƉŽƌƚĂŶƚ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞŝƌ ĚĂLJ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĚĂŝůLJ ůŝŵƵĚ͕ ƚŚĞŵ ƚŽŐĞƚŚĞƌ͗ ƚŚĞLJ ƐƉĞŶĚ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ ŝŵƉŽƌƚĂŶƚ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞŝƌ ĚĂLJ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĚĂŝůLJ ůŝŵƵĚ͕ Ě ƌĞǀŝĞǁŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ŵƵůƟƉůĞ ĐŚĂnjĂƌŽƐ ĂŶĚ ƚĂŬŝŶŐ ƚĞƐƚƐ͘ ǀĞƌLJ ŽŶĞ ŽĨ ƚŚŽƐĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ůĞĂƌŶĞƌƐ ĞŶũŽLJĞĚ ƚŚĂƚ ĐŽŵŵŽŶ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ƚŚĞ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ǀĞƌLJ ŽŶĞ ŽĨ ƚŚŽƐĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ůĞĂƌŶĞƌƐ ĞŶũŽLJĞĚ ƚŚĂƚ ĐŽŵŵŽŶ ĞdžƉĞƌŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ƚŚĞ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ĚĞĮŶĞƐ ƚŚĞŝƌ ĚĂLJ ŵŽƌĞ ƚŚĂŶ ĂŶLJƚŚŝŶŐ ĞůƐĞ͖ ƚŚĞ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ǁŚŝůĞ

11 Kislev 5774

ŝƚ ŝƐ ƌĞůĞŶƚůĞƐƐ͕ ĂŶ Žů͕ Ă LJŽŬĞ͕ Ă ƐŚŝďƵĚ͕ ƐŽŵĞƚŚŝŶŐ ƚŽ ǁŚŝĐŚ ŽŶĞ ĨĞĞůƐ ƐƵďƐĞƌǀŝĞŶƚ͕ ŝƚ ŝƐ ƐŝŵƵůƚĂͲ ŶĞŽƵƐůLJ ĂŶ ĂǀĚƵƐ͕ ƚŚĂƚ ĐŽŵĞƐ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ƚƌĞŵĞŶĚŽƵƐ ƐŝŵĐŚĂ ŶŽƚ ŽŶůLJ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ƉĂƌƟĐŝƉĂŶƚ ďƵƚ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞŝƌ ǁŝǀĞƐ ǁŚŽ ĞƋƵĂůůLJ ƐĂĐƌŝĮĐĞ ĐŽƵŶƚůĞƐƐ ŚŽƵƌƐ ƚŽ ĂīŽƌĚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚƐ ƚŚĞ ƌĞƋƵŝͲ ƐŝƚĞ ƟŵĞ ĂŶĚ ŵĞŶƚĂů ĞŶĞƌŐLJ ƚŽ ĨŽƌŐĞ ĂŚĞĂĚ͘ tŚĞŶ ƚǁŽ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ ũŽŝŶ͕ ĂƐ ǁĂƐ ƐĞĞŶ ŚƵŶĚƌĞĚƐ ŽĨ ƟŵĞƐ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͕ ƚŚĞ LJĂƌŵƵůŬĞ ƚŚĞLJ ĂƌĞ ǁĞĂƌŝŶŐ͕ ƚŚĞ ŚĂƚ͕ ƐŚƚƌĞŝŵĂů Žƌ ƐƉŽĚĞŬ Ăůů ďĞĐŽŵĞ ŝŶƐŝŐŶŝĮĐĂŶƚ͖ ŝƚ ŝƐ ůŝŬĞ ŽůĚ ĨƌŝĞŶĚƐ ĐŽŵŝŶŐ ƚŽŐĞƚŚĞƌ͘ ůů ŶĂƚƵƌĂů ďĂƌƌŝĞƌƐ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĞ ƵŶĨŽƌƚƵŶĂƚĞůLJ ƐĞĞ ŝŶ ƐŽ ŵĂŶLJ ƐĞŐŵĞŶƚƐ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ƐŽĐŝĞƚLJ ũƵƐƚ ĨĂůů ĂǁĂLJ͘ ƵƌŝŶŐ ƐŚĂůŽƐŚ ƐĞƵĚŽƐ ŽŶĞ ĐŽƵůĚ ƐĞĞ Ă ^ŬǀĞƌĞƌ ŚĂƐƐŝĚ ĂŶŝŵĂƚĞĚůLJ ĐŽŶǀĞƌƐŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ^ĞƉŚĂƌĚŝĐ ďĞŶ dŽƌĂŚ͖ Ă ŵĞĚŝĐĂů ĚŽĐƚŽƌ ŝŶ ĞĂƌŶĞƐƚ ĚŝƐĐƵƐƐŝŽŶ ǁŝƚŚ Ă >ŝƚǀŝƐŚ ďĞŶ dŽƌĂŚ ĨƌŽŵ >ĂŬĞǁŽŽĚ͕ ĂŶĚ Ă ^ĂƚŵĂƌ ŚĂƐƐŝĚ ŬŝďŝƚnjŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ Ă 'ĞƌƌĞƌ ŚĂƐƐŝĚ͘ ĞƌƚĂŝŶůLJ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŶǀĞƌƐĂƟŽŶ ƐƚĂƌƚĞĚ ǁŝƚŚ dŽƌĂŚ Ͳ Ă 'ĞŵĂͲ ƌĂŚ͕ Ă ĚŝĸĐƵůƚ ^ŚĂĐŚ ŝŶ zŽƌĞŚ ĞĂŚ͕ ďƵƚ ŝƚ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞĚ ĨĂƌ ďĞLJŽŶĚ͘ &ƌŝĞŶĚƐŚŝƉƐ͕ ďŽŶĚƐ ŽĨ ƚƌƵĞ͕ ĂƵƚŚĞŶƟĐ ĂŚĂǀĂƐ zŝƐƌĂĞů ǁĞƌĞ ĨŽƌŐĞĚ ĂƐ Ă ƌĞƐƵůƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĂŚĂǀĂƐ dŽƌĂŚ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ Žů dŽƌĂŚ ƚŚĂƚ ŝƌƐŚƵ ĞŵďŽĚŝĞƐ͘

LJĞƐ &ŽĐƵƐĞĚ ů ŽŶ DĞƐƐĂŐĞƐ ŽĨ 'ĞĚŽůĞŝ zŝƐƌĂĞů ŝŶ ƩĞŶĚĂŶĐĞ dŚĞ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵů ŵŝnjƌĂĐŚ͕ ƚŚĞ ĨƌŽŶƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ^ŚƵů ĂŶĚ ĚĂŝƐ ĚƵƌŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĚƌĂƐŚŽƐ ǁĂƐ Ă ŵŝĐƌŽĐŽƐŵ ŽĨ ƚŚŝƐ ŐĞŶƵŝŶĞ dŽƌĂŚ ĂĐŚĚƵƐ͘ dŚĞƌĞ ǁĂƐ ƚŚĞ ƐƉĞĐŝĂů ŐƵĞƐƚ͕ ŽŶĞ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ ĚŝƐƟŶŐƵŝƐŚĞĚ ZŽƐŚĞŝ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ ĨƌŽŵ ƌĞƚnj zŝƐƌĂĞů͕ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂZĂǀ ^ŚŵƵĞů zĂĂŬŽǀ ŽƌĞŶƐƚĞŝŶ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ZŽƐŚ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ ŽĨ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ <ŝƌLJĂƐ DĞůĞĐŚ͖ ƚŚĞ ĚŝƐƟŶŐƵŝƐŚĞĚ ^ŬǀĞƌĞƌ ĂLJĂŶ ĨƌŽŵ ŽƌŽ WĂƌŬ͕ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂƌĂǀ EĂĐŚŵĂŶ zĞĐŚŝĞů DĞĐŚĞů ^ƚĞŝŶŵĞƚnj͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂƌĂǀ zĞƌƵĐŚĞŵ KůƐŚŝŶ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ,ĂƌĂǀ EĂĐŚŵĂŶ zĞĐŚŝĞů DĞĐŚĞů ^ƚĞŝŶŵĞƚnj͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂƌĂǀ zĞƌƵĐŚĞŵ KůƐŚŝŶ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ZŽƐŚ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ ŽĨ ĞƚŚ DĞĚƌĂƐŚ 'ŽǀŽŚĂ͕ >ĂŬĞǁŽŽĚ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂZĂǀ ŚĂŝŵ ŽŚĞŶ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ǁĞůů ŬŶŽǁŶ ĂLJĂŶ ĂŶĚ ZŽǀ ͛ ŚĂƐŝĚĞŝ 'Ƶƌ &ůĂƚďƵƐŚ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂƌĂǀ ZĞƵǀĞŶ &ĞŝŶƐƚĞŝŶ͕ ƐŚůͲ ŝƚĂ͕ ZŽƐŚ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ ŽĨ ^ƚĂƚĞŶ /ƐůĂŶĚ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂZĂǀ zŝƚnjĐŚŽŬ ^ŽƌŽƚnjŬŝŶ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ZŽƐŚ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ ŝƚĂ͕ ZŽƐŚ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ ŽĨ ^ƚĂƚĞŶ /ƐůĂŶĚ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂZĂǀ zŝƚnjĐŚŽŬ ^ŽƌŽƚnjŬŝŶ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ZŽƐŚ zĞƐŚŝǀĂ dĞůƐŚĞ ĂŶĚ DĞƐŝǀƚĂ ŽĨ >ĂŬĞǁŽŽĚ͖ ,Ă'ĂŽŶ ,ĂZĂǀ ^ŚůŽŵŽ ĂĨƌĂŶŝ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ ^ĞƉŚĂƌĚŝĐ ZŽƐŚ <ŽůůĞů͕ <ŚĂů ŶĞŝ dŽƌĂŚ ĂŶĚ ƐŽ ŵĂŶLJ ŽƚŚĞƌƐ͘

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ŚĞ ŝŶǀŝƚĂƟŽŶ ǁĂƐ ĂƉƉĞĂůŝŶŐ͕ ŝƚ ďĞĐŬŽŶĞĚ ƵƐ ƚŽ ĂƩĞŶĚ ƚŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ʹ Ă ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ƚŚĂƚ ƉƌŽŵŝƐĞĚ ƚŽ ƌĞũƵǀĞŶĂƚĞ ďŽƚŚ ŵLJ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚ ĂŶĚ / ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂůůLJ ĂŶĚ ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂůůLJ͘ zĞƚ͕ / ǁĂƐ ŚĞƐŝƚĂŶƚ͘ ĞŝŶŐ ƐŽŵĞǁŚĂƚ ŵŽƌĞ ŽĨ Ă ƐŚLJ ƉĞƌƐŽŶĂůŝƚLJ͕ / ĐŽƵůĚ ŶŽƚ ŝŵĂŐŝŶĞ ĮŶĚŝŶŐ ĐŽŵŵŽŶ ŐƌŽƵŶĚ ǁŝƚŚ ĂŶLJ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ŽƚŚĞƌ ǁŽŵĞŶ ǁŚŽ ǁŽƵůĚ ďĞ ŝŶ ĂƩĞŶĚͲ ĂŶĐĞ͘ /ƚ ĚŝĚ ŶŽƚ ĞǀĞŶ ŽĐĐƵƌ ƚŽ ŵĞ ƚŚĂƚ / ǁŽƵůĚ ĮŶĚ ŵLJƐĞůĨ ĂŵŽŶŐ ƐŝƐƚĞƌƐ ŝŶ ĂƌŵƐ͕ ĂŵŽŶŐ ǁŽŵĞŶ ǁŚŽ ǁĞƌĞ ůŝǀŝŶŐ ƐŝŵŝůĂƌ ůŝǀĞƐ ƚŽ ŵŝŶĞ͕ ďƵƐLJ ůŝǀĞƐ ǁŝƚŚ ŶĂƌLJ Ă ŵŽŵĞŶƚ ƚŽ ƐƉĂƌĞ͕ ďƵƚ ůŝǀĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĞƌĞ ĨƵůĮůůĞĚ ďLJ ŽŶĞ ƵŶŝĨLJŝŶŐ ĨĂĐƚŽƌ ʹ ƚŚĂƚ Ăůů ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚƐ ǁĞƌĞ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ͊ EŽǁ͕ / Ăŵ ƐŝƫŶŐ ŚĞƌĞ ƌĞůŝǀŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͕ ǁĂŶƟŶŐ ƚŽ ŐƌĂƐƉ ŽŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŝŶƐƉŝƌĂƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ŚŽůĚ ŽŶƚŽ ŝƚ ĨŽƌĞǀĞƌ͊ ͞<ŝ ŚĞŝŵ ĐŚĂLJĞŝŶƵ ʹ dŽƌĂŚ ŝƐ ŽƵƌ ůŝĨĞ͊ dŽƌĂŚ ŬĞĞƉƐ ƵƐ ĂůŝǀĞ͊͟ dŚŝƐ ǁĂƐ ƚŚĞ ŚĞĂƌƞĞůƚ ŵĞƐƐĂŐĞ ƚŚĂƚ ƌĞƐŽŶĂƚĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ŚĞĂƌƚ ĂŶĚ ƐŽƵů ŽĨ Ă ǁŽŵĂŶ ǁŚŽ ůŝǀĞƐ ĚĂŝůLJ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂů ŵĂŶŝĨĞƐƚĂƟŽŶ ŽĨ Ă ŚƵƐďĂŶĚ ǁŚŽƐĞ ĞǀĞƌLJ ƐĞĐŽŶĚ ŽĨ ůŝĨĞ ŝƐ ĂŶŽƚŚĞƌ ƐĞĐŽŶĚ ŽĨ dŽƌĂŚ͖ ǁŚŽƐĞ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚ ŝƐ ŝŵƉƌŝƐŽŶĞĚ ďLJ Ă ďŽĚLJ ƚŚĂƚ ŶŽ ůŽŶŐĞƌ ĨƵŶĐƟŽŶƐ ŽƚŚĞƌ ƚŚĂŶ ƚŚĞ ŵƵƐĐůĞƐ ŽĨ ŚŝƐ ĞLJĞƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ǁŚŝĐŚ ŚĞ ůĞĂƌŶƐ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶǀĞLJƐ ŚŝƐ ůŽǀĞ ŽĨ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ͖ ǁŚŽƐĞ ŚƵƐͲ ďĂŶĚ ĐĂŶ ĚĞƌŝǀĞ ŶŽ ƉŽƐƐŝďůĞ ƉůĞĂƐƵƌĞ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚŝƐ ǁŽƌůĚ͕ ŚŝƐ ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂů ďŽĚLJ ďĞŝŶŐ ŬĞƉƚ ĂůŝǀĞ ǁŝƚŚ ůŝĨĞ ƐƵƉƉŽƌƚ͕ ĨĞĞĚŝŶŐ ƚƵďĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶƐƚĂŶƚ ŵĞĚŝĐĂů ĐĂƌĞ͕ ĂŶĚ LJĞƚ ǁŚŽƐĞ ůŝĨĞ ƐƟůů ŚĂĚ ŵĞĂŶŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ǁŚŽ ƐƟůů ŚĂĚ ƌĞĂƐŽŶ ƚŽ ǁĂŶƚ ƚŽ ůŝǀĞ͊ EŝŶĞ LJĞĂƌƐ ĂŐŽ͕ ZĂǀ ǀƌŽŚŽŵ ŽǀŝĚ tĞŝƐnj ǁĂƐ ĚŝĂŐŶŽƐĞĚ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ĚƌĞĂĚĞĚ ŝůůŶĞƐƐ ŬŶŽǁŶ ĂƐ >^ ΀>ŽƵ 'ĞŚƌŝŐ͛Ɛ ŝƐĞĂƐĞ΁͕ Ă ĚŝƐĞĂƐĞ ƚŚĂƚ ƐůŽǁůLJ ƌŽďƐ Ă ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ŽĨ Ăůů ďŽĚŝůLJ ĨƵŶĐƟŽŶƐ͕ ŝŵͲ ƉƌŝƐŽŶŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ďƌĂŝŶ ŝŶ Ă ďŽĚLJ ƚŚĂƚ ǁŽŶ͛ƚ ŽďĞLJ ŝƚ͘ dŚĞ ŚĞĂƌƚ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞƐ ƚŽ ďĞĂƚ͕ ƚŚĞ ĞLJĞƐ ƚŽ ƐĞĞ͕ ƚŚĞ ĞĂƌƐ ƚŽ ŚĞĂƌ͕ ƚŚĞ ďƌĂŝŶ ƚŽ ĐŽŵƉƌĞŚĞŶĚ͕ ďƵƚ ƚŚĞ ƌĞƐƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ďŽĚLJ ƐůŽǁůLJ ƐŚƵƚƐ ĚŽǁŶ͘ dŚĞ ƐƚƌŝĐŬĞŶ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ŝƐ ůĞŌ ǁŝƚŚ ŽŶůLJ ŚŝƐ ĞLJĞƐ ƚŽ ĐŽŵŵƵŶŝĐĂƚĞ͘ tŚĞŶ ƚŚĞ tĞŝƐnjĞƐ ŚĞĂƌĚ ƚŚĞ ĚŝĂŐͲ ŶŽƐŝƐ͕ ƚŚĞLJ ǁĞƌĞ ĚĞǀĂƐƚĂƚĞĚ͕ ďƵƚ ƚŚĞLJ ǁĞƌĞ ĚĞƚĞƌŵŝŶĞĚ͘ ͞tĞ ĐŚŽƐĞ ůŝĨĞ ʹ ͚<ŝ ŚĞŝŵ ĐŚĂLJĞŝŶƵ͛͘͟ DƌƐ͘ tĞŝƐnj ĞdžĐůĂŝŵĞĚ͕ ͞ ĂŶ ƚŚŝƐ ďĞ ŵŽƌĞ ĐƌLJƐƚĂů ĐůĞĂƌ ƚŚĂŶ ŝŶ ŽƵƌ ƐŝƚƵĂƟŽŶ͍ ͚h͛ǀĂŚĞŵ ŶĞŚŐĞŚ LJŽŵĂŵ ǀĂ͛ůĂLJůĂŚ ĂŶĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞŵ ΀dŽƌĂŚ΁ ǁĞ ƚŽŝů ĚĂLJ ĂŶĚ ŶŝŐŚƚ͕͛ ǁĞ ǁĞƌĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĚĂƌŬ͕ ƚŚĞ ĚĂƌŬŶĞƐƐ ŽĨ ŝůůŶĞƐƐ͕ LJĞƚ ǁĞ ƐƟůů ŚĂĚ ƚŚĞ dŽƌĂŚ͕ ƚŚĞ ŵĂŝŶͲ ƐƚĂLJ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ĞdžŝƐƚĞŶĐĞ Ͳ ƌĞĂƐŽŶ ĞŶŽƵŐŚ ƚŽ ǁĂŶƚ ƚŽ ůŝǀĞ͊͟ /ŶĚĞĞĚ͕ ŽǀĞƌ ƚŚĞ ĐŽƵƌƐĞ ŽĨ ƚŚĞƐĞ ŶŝŶĞ LJĞĂƌƐ͕ ZĂǀ tĞŝƐnj ĂŶĚ ŚŝƐ ǁŝĨĞ ŚĂǀĞ ĨŽƵŐŚƚ ĨŽƌ ŚŝƐ ƌŝŐŚƚ ƚŽ ůŝǀĞ͕ ĨŽƵŐŚƚ ůŝŬĞ ůŝŽŶƐ ĨŽƌ ŚŝƐ ƌŝŐŚƚ ƚŽ ĚŽ ƚŚĞ ŽŶĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĞ ŚŽůĚƐ ŵŽƐƚ ĚĞĂƌ ʹ ƚŽ ůĞĂƌŶ ƌŝŐŚƚ ƚŽ ůŝǀĞ͕ ĨŽƵŐŚƚ ůŝŬĞ ůŝŽŶƐ ĨŽƌ ŚŝƐ ƌŝŐŚƚ ƚŽ ĚŽ ƚŚĞ ŽŶĞ ƚŚŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĞ ŚŽůĚƐ ŵŽƐƚ ĚĞĂƌ ʹ ƚŽ ůĞĂƌŶ dŽƌĂŚ͊ ĞƐƉŝƚĞ ĞǀĞƌLJƚŚŝŶŐ͕ ĚĞƐƉŝƚĞ Ăůů ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ŵĞĚŝĐĂů ĚŽŽŵƐĂLJĞƌƐ͕ ŚŝƐ ůŝĨĞ ŚĂƐ ďĞĞŶ ƌĞǀŝǀĞĚ͕ ƟŵĞ ĂŌĞƌ ƟŵĞ ĂŌĞƌ ƟŵĞ ĂŶĚ ĞĂĐŚ ƟŵĞ͕ ƚŚĞLJ ũŽLJŽƵƐůLJ ƉƌĂŝƐĞ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ ĨŽƌ ŐƌĂŶƟŶŐ Śŝŵ ĂĚͲ ĚŝƟŽŶĂů ƟŵĞ ŽŶ ƚŚŝƐ ǁŽƌůĚ ƚŽ ůĞĂƌŶ͘ DƌƐ͘ ZĂĐŚĞů tĞŝƐnj͛Ɛ ƵƉůŝŌŝŶŐ ǁŽƌĚƐ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŽŵĞŶ ĂŌĞƌ ƚŚĞ &ƌŝĚĂLJ ŶŝŐŚƚ ƐĞƵĚĂŚ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ DƌƐ͘ ZĂĐŚĞů tĞŝƐnj͛Ɛ ƵƉůŝŌŝŶŐ ǁŽƌĚƐ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŽŵĞŶ ĂŌĞƌ ƚŚĞ &ƌŝĚĂLJ ŶŝŐŚƚ ƐĞƵĚĂŚ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ĞůĞĐƚƌŝĮĞĚ ƚŚĞ ĞŶƟƌĞ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ůĞĂǀŝŶŐ ŶŽƚ Ă ĚƌLJ ĞLJĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ĞůĞĐƚƌŝĮĞĚ ƚŚĞ ĞŶƟƌĞ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ůĞĂǀŝŶŐ ŶŽƚ Ă ĚƌLJ ĞLJĞ ĂŵŽŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĐƌŽǁĚ͘ ǀĞŶ ŵŽƌĞ ƚŚĂŶ ƚŚĞ ĞŵŽƟŽŶƐ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĞƌĞ ƌƵŶŶŝŶŐ ŚŝŐŚ ǁĂƐ ƚŚĞ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ŝŶĚĞĞĚ͕ dŽƌĂŚ ŝƐ ůŝĨĞ͕ dŽƌĂŚ ŝƐ ŽƵƌ ůŝĨĞ͘ dŚĞ ĨĞĞůŝŶŐ ĐĂŵĞ ĂĐƌŽƐƐ ůŽƵĚ ĂŶĚ ĐůĞĂƌ͗ dŚĞ dŽƌĂŚ ŽĨ ŽƵƌ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚƐ ǁŚŽ ĂƌĞ ŵĂdžŝŵŝnjŝŶŐ ƚŚĞŝƌ ƟŵĞ ďLJ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ͕ ǁŚŽƐĞ dŽƌĂŚ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ǁĞ ĂƌĞ ƐƵƉƉŽƌƚͲ ŝŶŐ͕ ƚŚĞŝƌ dŽƌĂŚ ŝƐ ŽƵƌ dŽƌĂŚ͕ ŝƚ ŝƐ ŽƵƌ ĐƌŽǁŶŝŶŐ ŐůŽƌLJ͘

ƉƵƚ ŚĞƌ ĚŽǁŶ͙ / ƐĂƚ ĚŽǁŶ ĂŶĚ ƐĂŝĚ͕ ͚/ ũƵƐƚ ĐĂŶ͛ƚ͛͘ DLJ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚ ƉƌŽŵƉƚůLJ ĐůŽƐĞĚ ŚŝƐ 'ĞŵĂƌĂ ĂŶĚ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ĚĞĞƉ ƐĂĚŶĞƐƐ ŝŶ ŚŝƐ ĞLJĞƐ͕ ďƵƚ Ă ƐƵƌĞƚLJ ŝŶ ŚŝƐ ŵŽǀĞŵĞŶƚƐ͕ ŚĞ ƌĞƉůŝĞĚ͕ ͚K͘<͘ / ǁŝůů ƐƚŽƉ͛͘ Ɛ / ǁĂƚĐŚĞĚ͕ ŚĞ ƚŚĞŶ ďĞŐĂŶ ƚƵƌŶŝŶŐ ƉĂŐĞƐ ŝŶ ŚŝƐ 'ĞŵĂƌĂ͕ ŽŶĞ ƉĂŐĞ͕ ĂŶŽƚŚĞƌ ƉĂŐĞ͕ ĂŶŽƚŚĞƌ͙ ,Ğ ƚŚĞŶ ŐƌĂƐƉĞĚ ƚŚĞ ĞŶƟƌĞ ƉŝůĞ ŽĨ ƉĂŐĞƐ ;ǁŚŝĐŚ ŚĂƐ ŐƌŽǁŶ ĞdžƉŽŶĞŶƟĂůůLJ ďLJ ŶŽǁͿ ĂŶĚ ƉĂƌĂƉŚƌĂƐĞĚ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌĚƐ ŽĨ ZĂďŝ ŬŝǀĂ͕ ͞^ŚĞůŝ ǀ͛ƐŚĞůĂĐŚĞŵ ƐŚĞůĂŚ Ͳ dŚĞƐĞ ƉĂŐĞƐ ŽĨ 'ĞŵĂƌĂ ƚŚĂƚ / ŚĂǀĞ ůĞĂƌŶƚ ƵŶƟů ŶŽǁ ĂƌĞ LJŽƵƌƐ͊͟ ͞dŚĂƚ ǁĂƐ Ă ƚƵƌŶŝŶŐ ƉŽŝŶƚ͘ / ŝŶƐŝƐƚĞĚ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĞ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞĚ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ŝƌƐŚƵ ĂŶĚ LJĞƐ͕ ĂůͲ ƚŚŽƵŐŚ ůŝĨĞ ŚĂƐ ŐŽƩĞŶ ŝŶĐƌĞĂƐŝŶŐůLJ ďƵƐLJ / ŚĂǀĞ ŶĞǀĞƌ ƚƵƌŶĞĚ ďĂĐŬ͘ dŚĞ ŐƌĞĂƚĞƐƚ ƌĞǁĂƌĚ ƚŚĂƚ / ĨĞĞů ŝƐ ǁŚĞŶ ŚĞ ĐŽŵĞƐ ŚŽŵĞ ŝŶ Ă ĐĞůĞďƌĂƚŽƌLJ ŵŽŽĚ͕ ĞdžĐůĂŝŵŝŶŐ͕ ͚DĂnjĂů dŽǀ͊ / ĮŶŝƐŚĞĚ ĂŶͲ ŽƚŚĞƌ ƉĞƌĞŬ͊͛ tŚĞŶ / ĐŽŶŐƌĂƚƵůĂƚĞ Śŝŵ͕ ŚĞ ůŽŽŬƐ ŵĞ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ĞLJĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŶŐƌĂƚƵůĂƚĞƐ ŵĞ Ͳ ŽŶ ŚĂǀŝŶŐ ĮŶŝƐŚĞĚ ĂŶŽƚŚĞƌ ƉĞƌĞŬ͊͟

ŚŝnjƵŬ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ EĞƐŚĂŵĂ͖ ZĞůĂdžĂƟŽŶ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ 'ƵĨ dŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ŽīĞƌĞĚ Ă ƌĂƌĞ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ǁŝǀĞƐ ŽĨ ŝƌƐŚƵ ŵĞŵďĞƌƐ͕ ŵĂŶLJ ŽĨ ǁŚŽŵ ĂƌĞ ďƵƐLJ ǁŝǀĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŵŽƚŚĞƌƐ ǁŝƚŚ ǀĞƌLJ ůŝŵŝƚĞĚ ƟŵĞ ĨŽƌ ĞŝͲ ƚŚĞƌ ƉŚLJƐŝĐĂů Žƌ ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů ƌĞũƵǀĞŶĂƟŽŶ͕ ƚŚĞ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ ƚŽ ĞŶũŽLJ Ă ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ǁŝƚŚ Ăůů ƚŚĞ ƉŚLJƐŝͲ ĐĂů ĂŵĞŶŝƟĞƐ ĨŽƌ Ă ƉĞĂĐĞĨƵů͕ ƌĞůĂdžŝŶŐ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ĐŽŵďŝŶĞĚ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ƉŽƚƉŽƵƌƌŝ ŽĨ ƐƉĞĂŬĞƌƐ ǁŚŽ ŽīĞƌĞĚ ĐŚŝnjƵŬ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ŶĞƐŚĂŵĂŚ͘ WĞĂŶƵƚ ƵƩĞƌ ^ĂŶĚǁŝĐŚĞƐ ĂŶĚ dĞƐƚƐ͊ /Ŷ ĂĚĚŝƟŽŶ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƐƉĞĞĐŚ ŽĨ DƌƐ͘tĞŝƐnj ŽŶ &ƌŝĚĂLJ ŶŝŐŚƚ͕ ZĞďďĞƚnjŝŶ ŝŶĂ &ŝŶŬ͕ ĐĂƉƟǀĂƚĞĚ ƚŚĞ ǁŽŵĞŶ ǁŝƚŚ ŚĞƌ ŵĞƐƐĂŐĞ ŽĨ ŚŽǁ ƉŝǀŽƚĂů Ă ǁŽŵĂŶ͛Ɛ ƌŽůĞ ŝƐ ŝŶ ƉƌĞƐĞƌǀŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ƚƌĞĂƐƵƌĞ ŽĨ zŝĚĚŝƐŚŬĞŝƚ ĨŽƌ ŚĞƌ ĨĂŵŝůLJ͘ ,Ğƌ ƉĞƌƐŽŶĂů ĞdžĂŵƉůĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĚŝǀƌĞŝ dŽƌĂŚ ƚŽ ĞůƵĐŝĚĂƚĞ ŚĞƌ ƉŽŝŶƚ ďƌŽƵŐŚƚ ŚŽŵĞ ƚŚĞ ĨĂĐƚ ƚŚĂƚ ĂůƚŚŽƵŐŚ ĐĞƌƚĂŝŶůLJ͕ ŝƚ ŝƐ ŵƵĐŚ ĞĂƐŝĞƌ ƚŽ ĨĞĞů ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂůůLJ ĐŽŶŶĞĐƚĞĚ ƚŽ dŽƌĂŚ ĂŶĚ zŝĚĚŝƐŚŬĞŝƚ ďLJ ĞŶŐĂŐŝŶŐ ŝŶ ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů ƉƵƌƐƵŝƚƐ͕ ĚĞĂůŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ŵƵŶĚĂŶĞ ĂĐƟǀŝƟĞƐ ŽĨ ĐĂƌŝŶŐ ĨŽƌ Ă ŚŽƵƐĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ĂŶĚ ĞŶĐŽƵƌĂŐŝŶŐ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚƐ ĂŶĚ ƐŽŶƐ ƚŽ ůĞĂƌŶ dŽƌĂŚ͕ ŝƐ ŶŽ ůĞƐƐ ŽĨ Ă ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů ƉƵƌƐƵŝƚ͘ ^ŚĞ ƋƵŽƚĞĚ ZĂǀ ĞƐƐůĞƌ͛Ɛ ĞdžƉůĂŶĂƟŽŶ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌĚƐ ŝŶ ŝƐŚĞƐ ŚĂLJŝů͕ ͚sĂƟƐĐŚĂŬ ů͛LJŽŵ ĂĐŚĂƌŽŶ ʹ ĂŶĚ ƐŚĞ ǁŝůů ůĂƵŐŚ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ůĂƐƚ ĚĂLJ͛͘ ZĂǀ ĞƐƐůĞƌ ĞdžƉůĂŝŶƐ ƚŚĂƚ ůĂƵŐŚͲ ƚĞƌ ŐĞŶĞƌĂůůLJ ĐŽŵĞƐ ĂŌĞƌ Ă ƐƵƌƉƌŝƐĞ͘ tŚĂƚ ƐƵƌƉƌŝƐĞ ŝƐ ƚŚŝƐ ƌĞĨĞƌƌŝŶŐ ƚŽ͍ tŚĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĞŶĚ ŽĨ ĚĂLJƐ ĐŽŵĞƐ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ǁŝĨĞ ǁŝůů ƐĞĞ ƚŚĞ ƌĞǁĂƌĚ ƐŚĞ ĞĂƌŶĞĚ ĨŽƌ ĞǀĞƌLJ ƉĞĂŶƵƚ ďƵƩĞƌ ƐĂŶĚǁŝĐŚ͕ ƐŚĞ ǁŝůů ďƵƌƐƚ ŝŶƚŽ ůĂƵŐŚƚĞƌ͊͟ dŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ƚŚĞƌĞ ǁĞƌĞ ĐŽƵŶƚůĞƐƐ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƟĞƐ dŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ŝƌƐŚƵ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ <ŝŶŶƵƐ KůĂŵ ,ĂdŽƌĂŚ ƚŚĞƌĞ ǁĞƌĞ ĐŽƵŶƚůĞƐƐ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƟĞƐ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ǁŝǀĞƐ ŽĨ Ăůů ƚŚĞ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ ƚŽ ƐŚĂƌĞ ǁŝƚŚ ĞĂĐŚ ŽƚŚĞƌ ƚŚĞ ŵĂŶLJ ƐƚŽƌŝĞƐ ŽĨ ŚŽǁ ƚŚĞLJ ƉĂƌƚŶĞƌ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚƐ ƚŽ ĞŶĂďůĞ ƚŚĞŵ ƚŽ ůĞĂƌŶ͖ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ũŽLJƐ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ĚŝĸĐƵůƟĞƐ ŽĨ ƚƌLJŝŶŐ ƚŽ ƌĂŝƐĞ ƚŚĞŝƌ ͚ƉĞĂŶƵƚ ďƵƩĞƌ ƐĂŶĚǁŝĐŚĞƐ͛ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ŵƵŶĚĂŶĞ ƌĞĂůŵ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů ƌĞĂůŵ͘ dŚĞ ŬŶŽǁůĞĚŐĞ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŚĞƌĞ ĂƌĞ ƐŽ ŵĂŶLJ ŽƚŚĞƌ ǁŽŵĞŶ ŽƵƚ ƚŚĞƌĞ ǁŚŽ ƐŚĂƌĞ ƚŚĞŝƌ ŐŽĂůƐ͕ ĚŝĸĐƵůƟĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĂƐƉŝƌĂƟŽŶƐ͕ ǁĂƐ ĞŶŽƵŐŚ ŽĨ Ă ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů ƐƚĞƌ ƐŚŽƚ ƚŽ ŚĞůƉ ƚŚĞŵ ĨŽƌŐĞ ĂŚĞĂĚ͘

ĐĐĞƉƟŶŐ KƵƌ EŝƐLJŽŶŽƐ ĐĐĞƉƟŶŐ KƵƌ EŝƐLJŽŶŽƐ ĂŶĚ ůĞǀĂƟŶŐ KƵƌƐĞůǀĞƐ ƚŽ Ă ^ƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů WůĂƚĞĂƵ

DƌƐ͘ ŚĂŶŝ &ĞůĚďƌĂŶĚ ĞdžƉůŽƌĞĚ ƚŚĞ ƚŽƉŝĐ ŽĨ ŚŽǁ ŶŝƐLJŽŶŽƐ ĂƌĞ Ă ƐƉƌŝŶŐďŽĂƌĚ ĨŽƌ ŐƌŽǁƚŚ ĂŶĚ ŚŽǁ ĞĂĐŚ ĂŶĚ ĞǀĞƌLJ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ͛Ɛ ŶŝƐĂLJŽŶ ŝƐ ƚĂŝůŽƌ ŵĂĚĞ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĂƚ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ͘ ͞/ƐŶ͛ƚ ŝƚ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵů ƚŽ ĂŶĚ ŚŽǁ ĞĂĐŚ ĂŶĚ ĞǀĞƌLJ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ͛Ɛ ŶŝƐĂLJŽŶ ŝƐ ƚĂŝůŽƌ ŵĂĚĞ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĂƚ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ͘ ͞/ƐŶ͛ƚ ŝƚ ďĞĂƵƟĨƵů ƚŽ ͞ ƚ ŽŶĞ ƉŽŝŶƚ͕͟ DƌƐ͘ ůďĂnj͕ Ă ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ǁŝĨĞ ĂŶĚ ŵŽƚŚĞƌ ǁŚŽƐĞ ŚƵƐďĂŶĚ ĚĞǀŽƚĞƐ ĞǀĞƌLJ ƐƉĂƌĞ ƚŚŝŶŬ ƚŚĂƚ ,ĂŬĂĚŽƐŚ ŽƌƵĐŚ ,Ƶ ůŽŽŬƐ Ăƚ ĞĂĐŚ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ĂƐ ĂŶ ŝŶĚŝǀŝĚƵĂů ĂŶĚ ĐƌĞĂƚĞƐ ƚŚĞ ƐƉĞĐŝĮĐ ŵŽŵĞŶƚ ŽĨ ŚŝƐ ƟŵĞ ƚŽ ŚŝƐ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ŝƌƐŚƵ ĞdžƉůĂŝŶĞĚ͕ ͞/ ũƵƐƚ ĨĞůƚ ƚŚĂƚ / ĐŽƵůĚŶ͛ƚ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞ͘ /ƚ ƉĂĐŬĂŐĞ ƚŚĂƚ ƐŚĞ ŶĞĞĚƐ ƚŽ ŐƌŽǁ͍͊͟ ^ŚĞ ĐŽŶƟŶƵĞĚ ďLJ ĞdžƉůĂŝŶŝŶŐ ƚŚĂƚ ǁŚĂƚ ĞdžĂĐƚůLJ ƚŚĞ ƚĞŶ ŶŝƐLJŽŶŽƐ ŽĨ ǀƌŽŚŽŵ ǀŝŶƵ ǁĞƌĞ͕ ŚĂĚ ďĞĞŶ Ă ǀĞƌLJ ĚŝĸĐƵůƚ ĚĂLJ͘ / ĐĂŵĞ ŚŽŵĞ ĨƌŽŵ ǁŽƌŬ ĞdžŚĂƵƐƚĞĚ͕ ŵLJ ĐŽůŝĐŬLJ ďĂďLJ ŚĂĚ ŶŽƚ ůĞƚ ŵĞ

͞^ŚĞůŝ s͛^ŚĞůĂĐŚĞŵ ^ŚĞůĂŚ͊͟

11 Kislev 5774

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\ + '+/ *#;'+07 h 14#* +5 74 +('^ 14#* ''25 5 .+8'^[ ŝƐ Ă ƐƵďũĞĐƚ ŽĨ ĚĞďĂƚĞ͘ dŚĞ ZĂŵďĂŵ ĚŽĞƐ ŶŽƚ ĐŽƵŶƚ hŚƌ <ĂƐĚŝŵ ĂŶĚ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝnjŝŶŐ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ ĂŵŽŶŐ ƚŚĞ ŶŝƐLJŽŶŽƐ͘ ZĂǀ zŝƚnjĐŚŽŬ <ŝƌnjŚŶĞƌ͕ njƚ͟ů͕ ĐůĂƌŝĮĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ŝĨ ƚŚĞ ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ďĞŝŶŐ ƚĞƐƚĞĚ ƵŶĚĞƌƐƚĂŶĚƐ ǁŚĂƚ ŝƐ ďĞŝŶŐ ĚĞŵĂŶĚĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ Śŝŵ͕ ŝƚ ŝƐ ŶŽƚ ĐŽŶƐŝĚĞƌĞĚ Ă ŶŝƐĂLJŽŶ͊ ǀƌŽŚŽŵ ǀŝŶƵ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝnjĞĚ ƚŚĂƚ ĞǀĞƌLJƚŚŝŶŐ ĞůƐĞ ǁĂƐ ŚĞǀĞů ŚĂǀĂůŝŵ͘ dŚĞƌĞĨŽƌĞ ƌĞĐŽŐŶŝnjŝŶŐ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ ĐŽƵůĚ ŶŽƚ ĐŽŶƐƟƚƵƚĞ Ă ŶŝƐĂLJŽŶ͊͟ tĞ Ăůů ŚĂǀĞ ŶŝƐLJŽŶŽƐ͕ ďƵƚ ŝĨ ǁĞ ƌĞŵĞŵďĞƌ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŚĞLJ ĂƌĞ Ă ŵĂƚĂŶĂ ĨƌŽŵ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ ĂŶĚ ŝĨ ǁĞ ƚƌLJ ƚŽ ƵŶĚĞƌƐƚĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ŵĞƐƐĂŐĞ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ ŝƐ ƐĞŶĚŝŶŐ ƵƐ͕ ŝƚ ǁŝůů ĞůĞǀĂƚĞ ƵƐ ĂŶĚ ŽƵƌ ĨĂŵŝůŝĞƐ ƚŽ Ă ŚŝŐŚĞƌ͕ ƐƉŝƌŝƚƵĂů ƉůĂƚĞĂƵ͘ &ŽŽůƉƌŽŽĨ DĞƚŚŽĚ͗ ƌŝŶŐ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ tŝƚŚ zŽƵ tŚĞƌĞǀĞƌ zŽƵ 'Ž /Ŷ ĂĚĚŝƟŽŶ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŵĂŶLJ ŝŶƐƉŝƌŝŶŐ ƐƉĞĞĐŚĞƐ ďLJ DƌƐ͘ ŚĂŶŝ :ƵƌĂǀĞů͕ ZĞďďĞƚnjŝŶ ŝŶĂ &ŝŶŬ ĂŶĚ DƌƐ͘ ŚĂŶŝ &ĞůĚďƌĂŶĚ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚŽƵƚ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͕ ƚŚĞƌĞ ǁĂƐ Ă ǁŽŶĚĞƌĨƵů ŚŝŶƵĐŚ ƉĂŶĞů ŽŶ ŵŽƚnjŽĞŝ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ĐŚĂŝƌĞĚ ďLJ ƚŚĞƐĞ ƐƚĂƌ ŵĞĐŚĂŶĐŚŽƐ͘ dŚĞ ƋƵĞƐƟŽŶƐ͕ ƉƵůůĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ĂƵĚŝĞŶĐĞ͕ ĐŽǀĞƌĞĚ ƐƵĐŚ ƚŽƉŝĐƐ ĂƐ ƐŝďůŝŶŐ ƌŝǀĂůƌLJ͕ ĐŽŶƚƌŽůůŝŶŐ ŽŶĞ͛Ɛ ĂŶŐĞƌ͕ ƌĞůĂƟŽŶƐŚŝƉƐ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ůŝŬĞ͕ ƚŽ ƋƵĞƐƟŽŶƐ ŽĨ ŚĞůƉŝŶŐ ŽƵƌ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ŵĂŝŶƚĂŝŶ ƚnjŶŝLJƵƐ ƐƚĂŶĚĂƌĚƐ͘ DƌƐ͘ ŚĂŶŝ :ƵƌĂǀĞů ƚŽůĚ Ă ƐƚŽƌLJ ŽĨ Ă ĨƌŝĞŶĚ ŽĨ ŚĞƌƐ ǁŚŽŵ ƐŚĞ ĂůǁĂLJƐ ĂĚŵŝƌĞĚ ĂƐ ďĞŝŶŐ ďŽƚŚ ƚnjŶŝLJƵƐͲ ĚŝŐ ĂŶĚ ĂƉƉƌŽƉƌŝĂƚĞůLJ ĚƌĞƐƐĞĚ͘ ͞tŚĞŶ / ĂƐŬĞĚ ŚĞƌ ŚŽǁ ƐŚĞ ŵĂŶĂŐĞĚ ƚŽ ƐƵĐĐĞƐƐĨƵůůLJ ĮŶĚ ƚŚĞ ƉĞƌĨĞĐƚ ĐůŽƚŚŝŶŐ ĨŽƌ ŚĞƌƐĞůĨ ĂŶĚ ŚĞƌ ĚĂƵŐŚƚĞƌƐ͕ ƐŚĞ ůĂƵŐŚĞĚ ĂŶĚ ĚŝǀƵůŐĞĚ ŚĞƌ ƐĞĐƌĞƚ͘ ͚tŚĞŶ ǁĞ ĞŶƚĞƌ ƚŚĞ ĐĂƌ ŽŶ ŽƵƌ ǁĂLJ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƐƚŽƌĞ͕ ǁĞ ĞĂĐŚ ƚĂŬĞ ŽƵƚ ŽƵƌ ^ŝĨƌĞŝ dĞŚŝůůŝŵ ĂŶĚ ĚĂǀĞŶ ʹ ͚,ĂƐŚĞŵ͕ ǁĞ ǁĂŶƚ ƚŽ ĚƌĞƐƐ ŝŶ Ă ǁĂLJ ƉůĞĂƐŝŶŐ ƚŽ zŽƵ͕ ƉůĞĂƐĞ ŚĞůƉ ƵƐ ĮŶĚ ƚŚĞ ƌŝŐŚƚ ĐůŽƚŚĞƐ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ƌŝŐŚƚ ƉƌŝĐĞƐ͊͛ dŚŝƐ ŵĞƚŚŽĚ ŚĂƐ ŶĞǀĞƌ ĨĂŝůĞĚ ƵƐ͊͟ DƌƐ͘ :ƵƌĂǀĞů ĐŽŶĐůƵĚĞĚ͕ ͞ ƌŝŶŐ ,ĂŬĂĚŽƐŚ ŽƌƵĐŚ ,Ƶ ǁŝƚŚ LJŽƵ ǁŚĞƌĞǀĞƌ LJŽƵ ĂƌĞ͕ ǁŚĂƚĞǀĞƌ LJŽƵ ĂƌĞ ĚŽͲ ŝŶŐ͊͟ ƐŚĞ ƵƌŐĞĚ͕ ͞dŚĂƚ ŵĞƚŚŽĚ ĐĂŶ ŶĞǀĞƌ ĨĂŝů͊͟ /ƚ ǁĂƐ ǀĞƌLJ ůĂƚĞ ŽŶ ŵŽƚnjŽĞŝ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͘ dŚĞ ƐŽŶ ŽĨ ZĂǀ ǀƌŽŚŽŵ ŽǀŝĚ tĞŝƐnj ĐĂŵĞ ƚŽ ZĂǀ ŽǀŝĚ ,ŽĨƐƚĞĚƚĞƌ ĂŶĚ ŐĂǀĞ Śŝŵ ƚŚĞ ůĞƩĞƌ ĐŽŶƚĂŝŶĞĚ ďĞůŽǁ ƐĂLJŝŶŐ͕ ͚DLJ ĨĂƚŚĞƌ ǁĂƐ ǀĞƌLJ ƟƌĞĚ ĂŌĞƌ ƚŚĞ ǁŚŽůĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ďƵƚ ŚĞ ǁŽƵůĚŶ͛ƚ ŐŽ ƚŽ ƐůĞĞƉ ƵŶͲ Ɵů ŚĞ ƐĂƚ ĚŽǁŶ ĂŶĚ ǁƌŽƚĞ ƚŚŝƐ ůĞƩĞƌ͕ Ă ůĞƩĞƌ ƚŚĂƚ ƚŽŽŬ Śŝŵ ƚǁŽ ŚŽƵƌƐ ƚŽ ǁƌŝƚĞ͊͟

dŽ ZĂǀ ŽǀŝĚ ,ŽĨƐƚĞĚƚĞƌ͕ ƐŚůŝƚĂ͕ Ś ŐƵƩĞŚ͕ ĨƌĞŝůŝĐŚĞŶ ǀŽĐŚ͘ /ƚ ŝƐ ŝŵƉŽƐƐŝďůĞ ƚŽ ĚĞƐĐƌŝďĞ ƚŚĞ ƉůĞĂƐͲ ƵƌĞ ƚŚĂƚ /͕ ŵLJ ǁŝĨĞ ĂŶĚ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ŚĂĚ ŽŶ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ WĂƌƐŚĂƐ <ŝ ^ĞŝƚnjĞŝ͕ ϱϳϱϰ͘ /ƚ ǁĂƐ Ă ƉůĞĂƐƵƌĞ ŽĨ ďŽƚŚ ƌƵĐŚŶŝLJƵƐ ĂŶĚ ŐĂƐŚͲ ŵŝLJƵƐ͘ zĂƐŚĞƌ ŬŽĂĐŚ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ ĂŶĚ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ ƚĞƐƚƐ ƚŚĂƚ ǁĞƌĞ ƚŚĞ ĐĂƚĂůLJƐƚ ĨŽƌ ŵĞ ƚŽ ƐƉĞŶĚ ŵĂŶLJ ŚŽƵƌƐ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ΀ŐŝǀͲ ŝŶŐ ŵĞ ƚŚĞ ĂďŝůŝƚLJ΁ ƚŽ ĐůĂƌŝĨLJ ŵĂŶLJ ĂƌĞĂƐ ΀ŽĨ dŽƌĂŚ΁͘ DĂLJ ,ĂƐŚĞŵ ďĞŶƚƐĐŚ LJŽƵ ĂŶĚ LJŽƵƌ ZĞďďĞƚnjŝŶ ƚŽ ƐĞĞ ŵƵĐŚ ŶĂĐŚĂƐ ĨƌŽŵ LJŽƵƌ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ĂŶĚ ĨƌŽŵ ůŽŵĚĞŝ ŝƌƐŚƵ͘ /Ŷ ƚƌƵƚŚ͕ ŝƚ ǁŽƵůĚ ďĞ ĂƉƉƌŽƉƌŝĂƚĞ ĨŽƌ ŵĞ ƚŽ ĚĞƚĂŝů Ăƚ ůĞŶŐƚŚ ŵLJ ƚƌĞŵĞŶĚŽƵƐ ƉůĞĂƐƵƌĞ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ŐƌĞĂƚ ĐŚŝnjƵŬ ƚŚĂƚ / ƌĞͲ ĐĞŝǀĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ^ŚĂďďŽƐ͕ ďƵƚ ŝƚ ŝƐ ĚŝĸĐƵůƚ ĨŽƌ ŵĞ ƚŽ ǁƌŝƚĞ͙ ďƵƚ ŵLJ ŚĞĂƌƚ ƐĂLJƐ Ă ƚƌĞͲ ŵĞŶĚŽƵƐ ĂŵŽƵŶƚ͘ tŝƚŚ ůŽǀĞ ĂŶĚ ŚĂŬŽƌĂƐ ŚĂƚŽǀ͕ ǀƌŽŚŽŵ ŽǀŝĚ ďĞŶ ^ĂƌĂ ůƵŵĂ tĞŝƐnj ĂŶĚ ĨĂŵŝůLJ

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November 14, 2013

Socially Savvy Esti Berkowitz

Third Annual Pre-Kosherfest Media Dinner Honors Kosher Industry Pioneers, Attracts Record Crowd O n the night before Kosherfest, nearly 100 worldrenowned kosher food personalities, cookbook authors, brands, and kosher foodies gathered to honor eight kosher food industry pioneers who have each achieved significant milestones in the kosher food industry.

Those recognized include two James Beard award winners, best selling cookbook authors, innovative chefs who have gained fame serving International dignitaries, pioneering restaurateurs, the founder of the world’s largest kosher food trade show, and the individual who changed the global perception and availability of kosher wine. The honorees included: Susie Fishbein, Laura Frankel, Norene Gilletz, David Herzog, Levana Kirschenbaum, Menachem Lubinsky, Gil Marks, and Joan Nathan. Each was presented a keepsake Rosle soup ladle, especially engraved for the occasion. I was so fortunate to have had Roberta Scher, co-founder and executive editor of KosherEye.com, co-produce this event with me. Even as these pioneers were being recognized for their contributions to the kosher food industry, announcements of new projects were revealed.

Gil Marks and Susie Fishbein will be collaborating for Zman Magazine, a monthly column featuring a unique presentation of Jewish culinary history and culture with panache. Joan Nathan shared news that the milestone series, Jewish Cooking in America, which was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best National Television Food Show, will soon be available on DVD.

ed Diversified Business Communications, Jack’s Gourmet, Lekue, Jelly Belly, Walkers, Matzolah, Char Crust, Melt, Rachel Willen, Swirl Whirl Yogurt Buffet, and The Jewish Daily Forward. A portion of the evening’s proceeds is being donated to The Met Council, a New York area organization focused on Jewish Poverty.

Esti Berkowitz blogs about how she found kosher food, a husband, and had kids after 35 at www.primetimeparenting.com. Esti is also a part of TrumpetingMedia.com, a social media events company she started with three other New York-area moms.

Joan Nathan, left, and the author at Kosherfeast 2013 In addition to the Kosher Pioneers, there were surprises for those newer on the kosher scene. Several individuals were recognized for their vision, their entrepreneurial skills, and their success in paving new paths in the kosher world. The 2013 Cutting Edge Kosher Awards went to Gloria Kobrin, developer of KosherCookbook.com; Jesse Blonder, founder of the Kosher Culinary Institute, the first state-of-the art culinary institution especially for the kosher-minded chef; Jamie Geller of the Kosher Media Network; and Alex Rapaport of Masbia Soup Kitchen.

Each was presented a specially selected chef’s knife provided by Shun of Japan. The Manischewitz Company was a premier sponsor of the event. The company, an icon in the kosher food industry, has recently launched the new Recipe & Holiday Guide Free App. A highlight of the evening included a wine tasting by Royal Wine, and Heering aperitifs presented by the Peter F. Heering Co. Additional sponsors and partners includ-

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Parenting Simply Adina Soclof

Want Resilient Kids? Promote Flexible Thinking I

am in the midst of doing research for a course about promoting resilience in our children. The latest information that has me hooked on this topic is this: One way to foster resilience in our kids is to aid them in thinking flexibly.

This helps children become creative problem solvers. That means they will hopefully look for “out of the box” solutions in difficult situations. They will be more likely to view their big and small challenges as opportunities to grow and learn.

Here are ways to teach our kids to be flexible thinkers:

Role Model Kids don’t do as we say; they do as we do. When we think in flexible ways, we can share our experiences with our kids. We can say: “Today, I tried to write an article for work but I couldn’t think of any topics. So I took a walk, and read some other articles online to get ideas. That did the trick. The article is finished.” Or, “The traffic was going to be awful today. So I decided to ride my bike to work.”

Use language with our kids that promotes flexible thinking “This puzzle piece is giving us a hard time. Let’s see if we can do this another way.”

“Since we are allergic to chocolate, I wonder what would happen if we tried

to make a different cake.”

“Let’s see what else we can do to help baby Sara calm down.”

“If we hold the dirty laundry in our hands, we can hold only so much laundry. If we put the dirty laundry in the basket, we could get all of it to the laundry room in one trip!”

Talk about our choices and options “I can wear my blue skirt or my denim one. I think I will go with the denim one.

What will you be wearing today?”

“You can choose carrots or string beans for your vegetable. Which do you choose?”

Let them know there are different ways, and more positive ways, to look at situations “Sara wanted to stay home because her grandmother is visiting. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t like you anymore. She will play with you tomorrow when her grandmother leaves.”

“You really wanted to go the park today and now it’s raining. It does give us an opportunity to cuddle on the couch and read our new library books.”

Adults who are able to think in flexible ways are happier and are able to roll with the punches of life more easily.

Kids will benefit from parents teaching them some simple techniques to keep their thinking creative.

Adina Soclof, a certified Speech Pathologist, worked as a Speech Pathologist in preschools for the developmentally disabled in the New York area. She then worked as a Parent Educator for Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau facilitating workshops. She has been featured at numerous non-profit organizations and private schools in Cleveland.

Adina developed TEAM Communication Ventures and conducts parenting and teacher workshops via telephone nationwide. For more information, visit parentingsimply.com.

75th Anniversary Of Kristallnacht Marked At Community-Wide Event In Forest Hills CONTINUED FROM P. 58 Liebmann described.

“The night of November 9-10, 1938, the perpetrators were mostly party members.

Hitler Youth had been involved, and women took to looting. [In the morning of November 10], Aryan school children were given time off to participate in the riots.

Synagogues were vandalized and set on fire. Thirty thousand men were arrested and were sentenced to Dachau concentration camp,” Liebmann said.

The Germans eventually stripped Liebmann’s family of its business as part of the 1938 pogroms, and soon deported them and thousands of other Jews in southwestern Germany in October 1940, when the girl was 16-years-old. Their train took them to the Gurs detention camp near the French-Spanish border. For Liebmann and other children, social service organizations and charities in the area persuaded camp officials to let them keep many of the children in homes in the village of Le Chamber-sur-Lignon, which became a haven for Jews.

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Liebmann eventually made her way to Switzerland, using forged papers.

In Switzerland, she reunited with Max, whom she had met at the detention camp.

They married in Geneva in 1945 and had a daughter a year later. In 1948, they arrived in the United States.

Liebmann’s mother, however, was killed at Auschwitz.

“We have to keep the history alive. It was the biggest organized genocide ever and there are people who deny it happened. We have all this proof from German documentation, and yet, you have people who deny… and the neo-Nazis,” Liebmann said in an interview just a few years ago.

Sunday’s discussion was marked by a resilient and brave woman who remains both defiant and equally committed to the urgency of educating people of the horrors of the Holocaust. Ignorance and hatred must never be tolerated.

Hanne Liebmann’s story provides living testimony to an otherwise ineffable subject of one of the darkest chapters in human history.

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November 14, 2013

The Informed Woman Meira E. Schneider-Atik

Style Myths Debunked Myth 1: Whatever jewelry pieces you’re wearing have to match each other.

Myth 2: Whatever jewelry pieces you’re wearing have to match your outfit.

Truth: When jewelry pieces match each other, it doesn’t necessarily work.

And jewelry should never match your outfit too closely.

I

was brought up with a very conservative, “old-school” attitude toward clothes and jewelry, which meant that everything had to match or it wouldn’t look right. But as a fashionista, and then as a jewelry designer, I learned that matching is rarely a good way to go. All those old rules just limit you and your wardrobe and force you to spend more time, effort, and money to get the right look. Not good.

From me, you get the truth.

Jewelry is one of the easiest ways to expand your wardrobe and express your personal style. You can wear the same skirt and top ten different times, but with different jewelry each time, the outfit will look different. And there are so many options with jewelry that you never have to settle for something that you don’t like or that isn’t you.

Start by considering what flatters Risselle Naimark

B

eautiful eyes come in all shapes and sizes, and makeup is certainly not a one-size-fits-all situation.

The key to enhancing your look is to apply your eye makeup in a manner that puts your best face forward. The idea is to lessen the shadows on the inside corners of the eyes. You want to avoid making the area under the brow bone look more recessed than it presently is. The following five tips are designed to make the most of your individual features.

Apply a very light neutral eye shadow to the inside corners of your eyes to lessen the shadow

1.

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you most. Consider your bone structure: Larger frames need bigger pieces (which won’t get lost) while smaller frames need smaller pieces (which won’t overwhelm). If you have a long, slim, firm neck and firm jaw line, you can wear shorter necklaces and chokers, but if you don’t, you’re better off with longer necklaces. Stud earrings flatter everyone and go with everything, but longer earrings (not too long) can visually lengthen the neck and draw attention to a great smile.

If you plan to wear more than one jewelry piece at a time, the key is to use only one dramatic, “showstopper” piece and keep other pieces small and subtle. If you’re wearing large earrings, then keep your necklace and bracelet small (or don’t wear them at all). With a dramatic necklace, wear only small earrings and a very delicate bracelet (if anything). With a big cuff bracelet or several smaller ones, go with small-tomedium earrings and a delicate necklace (if anything).

As for matching, well... I won’t tell you to never wear matching jewelry pieces, but be warned that it can look very contrived and old-fashioned. If you have a matching set (By all means buy the set if you love each piece in it), it’s best to break it up a bit. Wear the earrings and/or the bracelet minus the necklace, or wear the necklace by itself with or without stud earrings and a delicate metal bracelet (bangle or chain).

Those are neutral, so they’ll go with the necklace. In general, your jewelry pieces should coordinate with each other, but they actually look better if they don’t match exactly.

As for matching your outfit... if jewelry matches your outfit too closely, it will disappear into it, and then it can’t set off the outfit or draw attention to your best features, which is the purpose of wearing jewelry in the first place.

Instead of matching, you have better options: Wear jewelry in the same color family, but a different shade. If you’re wearing light blue, wear jewelry in dark blue.

Wear multi-colored jewelry that includes the color of your outfit. If you’re wearing blue, wear jewelry that has blue along with other colors like green and purple. The green and purple will

set off the outfit, but the blue will pull it together.

Wear jewelry in colors that are analogous (close on the color wheel) to your outfit’s color. If you’re wearing blue, wear jewelry in green or purple. Green and/or purple blend well with blue, so they’ll set off the outfit without looking too far off.

Wear jewelry in colors that are complementary (opposite on the color wheel) to your outfit’s color. If you’re wearing blue, wear jewelry in orange or coral. This is best if you like high drama, but it really does look amazing. I wore a purple outfit for my sister’s wedding, and I dressed it up with tiger eye earrings and bracelet. Tiger eye is medium golden brown, which, along with yellow, complements purple, and it set off the outfit beautifully.

Once you’ve found jewelry that flatters you and expresses your personal style, go ahead and have fun with it. If it makes you happy, then that’s what’s going to work for you.

Meira E. Schneider-Atik is a wardrobe organizer and personal shopper. She helps women weed out their wardrobes, shop smartly, put together outfits, and save time, effort, and money, all within tz’nius. Her writing on fashion and style within tz’nius has been published both in print and online. She is also a jewelry designer and co-founder of RenaMei Jewelry – Designed Just for You. Her pieces can be seen on www.etsy.com (just look up RenaMei). She can be reached at 718-644-6135 or at MESAtik@gmail.com.

How To Play Up Those Deep Set Eyes and make them come forward. Next apply a light/neutral base color from lash line to brow, and blend the two colors together.

Apply your contour shadow out along your lash line and in along your crease, stopping just above the outer edge of your iris (colored part of your eye). Next, sweep a bit more color under the lower lashes, from below the inside edge of the iris and extend up above the outer corner of your eye.

Blend up to emphasize the outer third of your eye. Use a clean sponge tip applicator to soften the contour below your lower lashes.

Line the upper lashes from the inside corner to slightly past the outside corner of your eye.

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3.

4.

Lift at the ends of the eye and line below your lower lashes from the outside corner in – to just below the pupil (half way).

Then gently smudge the line with a clean sponge tip applicator or cotton swab.

Apply mascara to upper and lower lashes, concentrating more on the outer lashes, to pull the emphasis away from the shadows near the inside corners of your eyes. Then use a lash comb to separate the lashes.

5.

Variations: If you want to add color, there are a few things you can do to draw even

more attention away from the deepset appearance of your eyes. You can apply extra shadow along your crease – one that is brighter than your base color, but not a dark color that creates a shadow. Another idea would be to add an accent to the brow bone above the crease. Still another possibility would be to contour your lash line with a color and contour your crease with a neutral color. Remember that whatever you choose, be sure to keep it light on the inside third of your eyes or you will succeed in making your deepset eyes appear even deeper.

Risselle Naimark is a Professional Freelance Makeup Artist and Skincare Consultant. She carries an extensive line of personalized skincare, cosmetics, and anti-aging products. Risselle is also available for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, makeup lessons, and all of your beauty needs. She can be reached at 718 263-5517.

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Gefen Brings Café Flavor Into Your Kitchen

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here is nothing more exhilarating than the morning’s first cup of coffee in the hands of a true addict. Except maybe for the afternoon pick-me-up of ice coffee, cappuccino, frappes or latte.

Coffee just got a whole lot more exciting with the unveiling of Gefen’s newest product. Years in the making, the research and experimenting have finally paid off with a product of unmatched excellence. Sure to become an instant staple, Gefen Ice Coffee Mixer is perfection in a bottle. Top grade coffee flavors and additives are expertly combined to create the intense, richly flavored syrup, bound to upgrade any cup instantly. When you’re aiming for something more

than your ordinary beverage, just add a splash of Gefen Ice Coffee Mixer to a cup of hot or cold milk or water for that upscale café flavor in the comfort of your kitchen. Available in 3 delicious flavors: pick between Vanilla, Hazelnut and Caramel for your favorite magical cup.

The magic doesn’t end in the cup though. Give homemade cakes and ice creams that extra zing with a dash of Gefen’s syrup, and turn ordinary yogurt into an extraordinary treat.

In Irish coffees or with vodka on the rocks, the syrup’s versatility earns it a place of honor in every pantry.

Since 1995, Gefen has made it their mission to bring the kosher consumer high quality and innovative products. Always on the lookout to make life tastier and easier, Gefen Ice Coffee Mixer is really just an extension of this ongoing desire for innovation and growth. With hundreds of successful products, from canned goods to fresh juices, Gefen continues to uphold a tradition of excellence and the newest Ice Coffee Mixer just proves that again.

Your morning cup of coffee might be a real necessity. This is a real treat.

Mehadrin Presents Real Greek Yogurt

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or the first time ever, Mehadrin fans are about to enjoy delicious Greek yogurt, a perfect product the community will love.

Larry Farkas, CEO of Mehadrin confided: “This has been one exciting year. We have devoted days, weeks and months researching the best method, the authentic recipe needed to produce a quality, carefully perfected yogurt—delicious and healthy. It totally consumed us, but we know it will have been worthwhile.

“We have invested in expensive, specialized machinery required to manufacture an excellent product,” he smiles. “We know yogurt-lovers will rave about it. It’s not only about Greek yogurt. It’s about putting out a tasty and nourishing product.”

Our 6 oz. cups are available in ten popular flavors. They are produced with fresh, bursting-with-flavor fruit. Enjoy plain, vanilla, cappuccino, black cherry, strawberry, blueberry, honey, pomegranate, peach and blood-orange. Cappuccino, vanilla and plain are also available in economical 32 oz. containers.

“Even the farms that supply our fruit were visited to reassure us that we are getting the very best. We want yogurt lovers to enjoy the tangy taste of fruit at the peak of ripeness in their yogurt,” says Larry.

What’s the current rage about Greek yogurt versus traditional yogurt?

Going Greek is the dairy trend and this distinctive option has made its grand ap-

pearance in refrigerator shelves in groceries and supermarkets around the country. Most appreciate the taste--not as sweet as regular yogurt, yet definitely tangier and creamier.

Is it healthier?

Both yogurts are healthy, but Greek yogurt prepared the authentic way, is strained extensively to eliminate liquids like whey, lactose and sugar, giving it a thick texture and a better taste. It may also be a good choice for those suffering from lactose-intolerance.

Greek yogurt is high in protein—20 grams vs. 9 grams in regular yogurt, and low in carbohydrates which curbs hunger and lets you feel satisfied longer.

Mehadrin’s real Greek yogurt is produced authentically utilizing centrifuge technology, which gives our Greek a silkysmooth and creamy consistency. Mehadrin hopes to introduce a lighter version in the near future.

Look out for Mehadrin’s Greek yogurt in supermarkets everywhere.

One taste and you will understand our slogan: “When it’s Real, the taste speaks for itself.”

Protect Your Greatest Business Asset: Your Employees

By Ariel Tavor

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s a small business owner, you know how important your employees are to your success. You depend on their knowledge, experience, talent, and loyalty to keep your company running smoothly and efficiently.

But, like many businesses, you may have been hit hard by the recession, and trying to keep expenses down—making cuts, freezing payrolls, and streamlining operational costs—means your employees may be assuming heavier workloads, longer hours, and broader responsibilities, often for the same paycheck.

So, in these tough economic times, how can you show your workers just how much they’re appreciated? Small gestures, like movie tickets or a night at a local restaurant, can help improve morale; but if you’re looking to offer something more substantial, consider supplementing

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your employees’ benefits package with life insurance through a voluntary payroll deduction program.

Voluntary payroll deduction is one of the simplest ways employees can purchase permanent life insurance to protect their loved ones, and a smart way to supplement the benefits you already offer them. It can usually be set up using your existing procedures for payroll deduction, and, best of all, there is virtually no direct, out-of-pocket costs to the employer.

Remember, when you invest in your employees, you invest in your business. That is just good business sense.

Note: Employee participation in a payroll deduction insurance program is completely voluntary. Since this program is not intended to be subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), employers cannot contribute to, or endorse, this program.

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6LGH 6SOLWWLQJ 6WDQG 8S “Marvel Comics is introducing its first major superhero who is a female Muslim.

The female Muslim superhero can fly, which comes in handy because she’s not allowed to drive.”

“That same study also found that fruit has become the second most popular food in the U.S. The first most popular food in the U.S.? NOT fruit.”

– Conan O’Brien

“A school in Tennessee is facing criticism for separating students with bad grades from students with good grades at lunch. That’s crazy! You don’t use grades to separate kids. Everyone knows that kids should be separated by clothes, looks, and how much money their parents make.”

“What the president should do is put the NSA in charge of the website. That way there’s nothing to fill out. They already have all our information. You just put your name in.”

–Jay Leno “Saudi Arabia is now threatening to sever diplomatic ties with the United States over Syria. I hope that doesn’t cause them to do something drastic, you know, like overcharge us for oil.”

–Jay Leno “Astronomers have discovered 40 billion planets just like earth. And the remarkable thing is, they’re all just like earth. As a matter of fact, each one has several TV shows about storage units. It’s uncanny.”

– David Letterman “New Jersey re-elected Governor Chris Christie. Or as Christie put it, ‘I came back for seconds.’”

– Jimmy Fallon

– Jimmy Fallon “Yesterday everybody gained an hour from daylight saving time. Well, now you’re about to waste one, so it’s going to come out perfectly even.”

– Conan O’Brien “You have to turn your clocks back this weekend. You might think you’re gaining an hour, but trying to get the clock back on that nail actually makes you lose an hour.”

“There’s now growing concern in Iran about the health of 74-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader.

He has a chronic illness. You think healthcare is bad in this country, try seeing a doctor under Ayatollah-Care. See how that works.”

–Jay Leno “NSA whistle-blower and traitor Edward Snowden, living in asylum in Russia, has released a manifesto directed at

hear that — but only because he thought someone said ‘margarine.’”

–Jimmy Fallon “According to CBS News, only six people enrolled in Obamacare on the first day of the rollout. Six! That means more people have walked on the moon than have signed up for Obamacare.”

–Jay Leno “People are already talking about next presidential race which is still a few years

“It’s really trick-or-treat time at the White House.

President Obama tricked us into thinking we’d be able to afford treatment.”

–Jay Leno

– David Letterman

–Conan O’Brien “Mayor Bloomberg has been mayor of New York City for 12 years. We’ll all miss Mayor Bloomberg. But he says 12 years is plenty. That’s three terms. He now just wants to settle down and spend more time with his money.”

–David Letterman “One year ago today President Obama won re-election. And it’s been smooth sailing ever since.”

–David Letterman

“Sunday in New York is the marathon.

Today Donald Trump accused the runner from Kenya of actually being born in the United States.”

– David Letterman

“President Obama is still in trouble for this spying stuff. You can tell he is getting tired of talking about this scandal.

Today he said, ‘Anyone want to talk about my birth certificate?’”

–Craig Ferguson

–Jimmy Fallon “So the winter Olympics are right around the corner, and this is cool - the U.S. Olympic team just announced that its new uniforms are all made in America, after last year’s uniforms were criticized for being made in China. Which got awkward when they realized the “Made in America” tags were actually made in China.”

–Jimmy Fallon the United States claiming that telling the truth should not be a crime. And believe me, there’s no better place to celebrate free speech, truth, and equal rights than in Russia.”

–Jay Leno “Chris Christie has really worked hard on the campaign. I heard he spent all weekend shaking hands and kissing bagels.”

–Jimmy Fallon “New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is hoping to win re-election tomorrow, and polls show that he’s winning by a 19-point margin. Christie was really excited to

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away. In fact, a new poll found that 48 percent of New Jersey wants Chris Christie to run for president in 2016. Which isn’t surprising, since Christie actually makes up 48 percent of New Jersey.”

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“Have you tried to get on the Obamacare website? Oh, it is slow! It is so slow that by the time you sign up for Obamacare you’ll be eligible for Medicare. It’s slower than a ticket scalper at a Jacksonville Jaguars game.”

–Jay Leno “Obama said they’ve had some glitches with the Affordable Care website. I’ll tell you something. If you order a pair of pants online and they send you the wrong color, that’s a glitch. This is like a Carnival cruise, for G-d’s sake!”

–David Letterman

November 14, 2013

$PXVLQJ ,QWHUQHW 0HPHV

True or False Crossword In this crossword there are two clues for each word.

Can you work out which is true and which is false?

Across

Down

1. Star / Planet (5) 4. Alert / Unwitting (7) 8. Discovers / Misplaces (5) 9. Piece of poetry / Piece of cake (5) 10. Tardy / Ahead of time (5) 11. Nine-sided shape / Square (7) 12. River / Street (6) 14. Dog house / Stable (6) 17. Fruit / Vegetable (7) 18. Headwear / Footwear (5) 20. Angry / Happy (5) 22. Lift / Lower (5) 23. Young / Old (7) 24. Comfortable / Spooky (5)

1. Fish / Bird (5) 2. Player / Umpire (7) 3. Useful / Useless (5) 4. Relating to bears / Relating to cats (6) 5. Go forward / Retreat (7) 6. Atmosphere / Water (3) 7. Fleeting / Everlasting (7) 12. Generosity / Greed (7) 13. Ill-defined / Well-defined (7) 15. Type of power / Type of song (7) 16. Flimsy / Hardy (6) 18. Capture / Release (5) 19. Push / Pull (5) 21. Append / Deduct (3)

Broadly speaking, a meme (pronounced: “meem”) is an idea or thought (an image, quote, symbol, joke, etc.) that spreads from person to person in school, work, the media or society at large – becoming popular and easily recognizable.

In our social media era, memes are mostly user-generated and shared through meme sites, as well as through Facebook and Twitter. Online memes give the user power and control. The user takes elements from popular (or unpopular) movies, TV shows and politicians to mix them into creative and hilarious pictures with quotes, jokes or statements that can go “viral.” Here are a couple of great ones.

SOLUTION WILL APPEAR IN NEXT ISSUE.

Solutions to last issue’s puzzles

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