New York Jewish Life, May 17th Edition

A Hospital Grows in the Negev

Eric Schneiderman Leading the Resistance?

Dignitaries Visit the Harlem Hebrew Public Charter School

VOL. 1, NO. 11 | MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NEWS THAT MATTERS TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA | NYJLIFE.COM | FREE

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Publisher’s Note News that matters to Jewish communities in the New York City metropolitan area

BUSINESS Michael Tobman Aviram Shaul misses his brother Oron. It’s been three years since Oron was, best information suggests, killed in action in Israel, and three years that Hamas is holding his body hostage.

Aviram is building a life for himself, starting law school and soon moving to Tel Aviv from his hometown of Poria Illit, but he is also committed to bringing his brother’s body home.

“He would do the same for me,” Aviram shared. “We were raised to love our country, be loyal and to serve.”

I had the pleasure of speaking with Aviram on Monday, May 8. He and I met at the Israeli Consulate in New York, joined by consular officials, press liaisons and an officer from the Israel Defense Forces. Translation assistance was provided, though Aviram has English enough to have answered my questions ahead of their being relayed in Hebrew.

This awful situation, which is both a public crisis and a family sadness, is common knowledge throughout Israel.

It is, however, not as well known here in America.

“Public memory is short,” consular officials admitted, “so this needs to be constantly discussed at home, and it needs to be widely shared in the United States.”

Their father died recently, and their mother is in poor health. In fact, Aviram hesitated to make the trip to New York as he didn’t want to be too far from his mother for too long.

“You’re in charge now,” their father had told Aviram before he died. “Bring him home.”

Hamas regularly sends video emails to the Shaul family, awful clips mocking their loss, with images, set to music, that I will never forget. I have a brother myself, who served in the U.S. Army, and I have children. I cannot imagine handling what I was shown with as much poise as Aviram. The details aren’t appropriate to share, but it’s worse than whatever you’re thinking.

Since my meeting last week, I have struggled with what this column is about. Is this Oron’s story? Aviram’s?

Israel’s? Is it a Jewish story? A discussion on the disparity of treatment, leaving aside politics, between prisoners? Can the politics be put aside?

As I write this, it turns out that it’s a family’s story of tragic loss compounded by ongoing psychological terrorism. It’s a story of a brother’s dedication, a father dying of cancer and a broken heart, a mother struggling, a young man balancing his own life with a promise he made, and a nation readying itself to help bring a body home.

Oron wasn’t supposed to be on patrol the day he was attacked. He wasn’t initially scheduled for duty that day, but he was taking extra shifts to make up for time he had spent at an awards ceremony, away from his unit. He asked for more work because his colleagues did his while he was away. In fact, because his mother and father were sick, Oron’s commander encouraged him to avoid another dangerous tour in the field. A family medical reason was offered, in response to which Oron gave his commander the silent treatment during a 12-hour patrol. The suggestion

of less-dangerous assignments wasn’t raised again. Isn’t that the way of things?

Aviram doesn’t consider himself a peacemaker.

“My only priority is getting my brother’s body back,” he told me when I asked about a larger meaning or message in all this sadness. “If something good comes of doing that, if peace should come to the region, so much the better for all of us. But I’m not doing this for a bigger reason. My brother should come home as soon as possible. This is what is standing in front of us.”

He is creating ambassadors, informed families comfortable pressing his case, for when public opinion will help shape the role of third parties and foreign countries in this matter.

There are no official negotiations now underway, and all efforts by intermediaries have been rebuffed by Hamas. But public opinion needs to be primed and people educated. New Yorkers are tough and authentic, so we need to believe something if we’re going to be advocates. New Yorkers drive conversations nationally, and worldwide.

“Every Jewish family in New York should know what’s happened here,” Aviram told me. “Three years without news, three years without closure.

People need to know, because they don’t know.”

Michael Tobman, Publisher

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CANDLE LIGHTING

Friday, May 19 Candles: 7:52 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 8:59 p.m.

Friday, May 26 Candles: 7:58 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 9:06 p.m.

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3

SCHUMER IN THE NEWS

Schumer, Gillibrand Announce New Funding For Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Dept.

SCHUMER, GILLIBRAND ANNOUNCE THOUSANDS IN FEDERAL FUNDING FOR 28 NEW SELF-CONTAINED BREATHING APPARATUS U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced last Thursday that the LawrenceCedarhurst Fire Department is set to receive $166,762 in federal funding to purchase 28 self-contained breathing apparatus. The money was allocated through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program.

“This much-needed federal funding will provide the assistance the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department needs to purchase critical firefighting equipment like self-contained breathing apparatus,” Schumer said.

“First responders are our primary line of defense—they safeguard our residents and protect our property.

It’s crucial that we provide our fire departments support to purchase the equipment they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability.”

Said Gillibrand, “These federal funds will allow our first responders to purchase the up-to-date equipment they need to do their jobs safely and effectively. We need to do everything we can to protect our first responders when they risk their lives, and I will always fight in the Senate to make sure they are given the support they deserve.”

“I thank Senators Schumer and Gillibrand for supporting our department and the AFG program,” said David Campbell, chief of department.

“The program is very beneficial to the safety of our firefighters, and now will allow us to purchase new equipment to help us better serve our community.”

The Lawrence-Cedarhurst

4 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

Fire Department serves nearly 15,000 residents and is made up of approximately 80 volunteer firemen who answer more than 1,000 calls each year.

Schumer was an original sponsor of the legislation that led to the creation of this funding program for local governments and fire departments to help defray the rising costs of equipment and fire prevention. Gillibrand is a co-sponsor of the pending bill to reauthorize the program. The AFG Program funds can go towards training, equipment, personal protective equipment, wellness and fitness, as well as modifications to fire stations and facilities.

The AFG Program assists local fire departments in programs and activities to improve the effectiveness of firefighting operations through specialized emergency training for response to situations like terrorist attacks; enhancement of emergency–medicalservices programs; development of health and safety initiatives; establishment of fire education and prevention programs; creation of wellness and fitness programs; and equipment and facility upgrades.

The Assistance to Firefighters grants are administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency in cooperation with the department’s United States Fire Administration. The grants are awarded on a competitive basis to the applicants who most closely address the program’s priorities and demonstrate financial need.

More information on the AFG can be accessed at www.fema.gov/firegrants.

BDSWatch

In Western Europe, Israel Went from Darling to Divisive in 50 Years

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Shortly after the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967, Ronny Naftaniel was soliciting donations on the street and putting a lot of money into a box emblazoned with the words “For Israel.”

An Amsterdam Jew who was 19 that year, Naftaniel was one of many pro-Israel activists across Western Europe who collected the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars from individuals supportive of Israel in its fight against Arab neighbors who were widely perceived as the more powerful aggressors.

In Holland especially, the war triggered a popular mobilization by ordinary citizens that featured massive blood drives, group prayers at churches, solidarity rallies and a bumper-sticker campaign that was so successful that for a time it rendered ubiquitous the slogan “I stand behind Israel.” Dutch corporations and trade unions mobilized their members to raise millions for Israel.

“There was a genuine anxiety in society for Israel’s fate and relief when it prevailed,” recalled Naftaniel, the longtime head of the Haguebased Center for Information and Documentation on Israel until his retirement in 2012. “Both led to extraordinary affection and goodwill, also in the media. It was universal and unifying.”

Today, however, Israel is a divisive issue in the Netherlands and across

Western Europe, where the mainstream media occasionally question Israel’s very right to exist amid criticism over its perceived occupation of Palestinian land captured in 1967. On the street, expressions of solidarity with Israel often invite attacks by pro-Palestinian Muslims and the left, and are dwarfed by mass demonstrations against Israel that regularly feature anti-Semitic chants.

Meanwhile, the continent’s east has made the opposite journey: Whereas in 1967 merely mentioning Israel could lead to imprisonment, the Jewish state is now widely cherished in Eastern Europe and Russia as an ally and model for success.

These profound shifts, which may affect the future of European Jewry, are rooted in changes far wider than merely how certain societies view the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. Indeed, they reflect dramatic developments in the value systems, demographics and economies both of Israel and of the continent to which it has strong cultural ties.

Ervin Kohn, the leader of the Jewish community in Norway, was preparing for his bar mitzvah when the Six-Day War broke out.

“In my family we were deeply worried about Israel’s future before and during the war, and this anxiety was something shared across Norwegian society,” he said. “Today, it would be different.”

Last week, Norway’s largest workers union escalated its anti-Israel rhetoric

Protesters in Paris demonstrating against a new Israeli settlement in the West Bank; April 1, 2017 THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

to include a call for a total boycott of the country. And in Holland, where trade unions in 1967 donated millions to Israel’s defense, members of the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions in January debated boycotting Israel during a workshop. (No decision was made and the federation has no policy of boycotting Israel.)

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators regularly hold rallies calling for a boycott of Israel opposite the main entrance of the Bijenkorf department store in Amsterdam, which in 1967 collected funds for Israel.

Radical changes also happened in Sweden, where Israel was so popular in the 1960s and for decades to come that it was a preferred destination for thousands of volunteers to kibbutzim. Last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Sweden is “not a noted friend of Israel” after its foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, blamed Israel for “executing” Palestinians who tried to kill Israelis and accused Israel of motivating terrorist attacks in Europe.

Kohn traces the change in attitude on Israel primarily to how “Israeli governments were dragging their feet” in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians, he said. Kohn advocates applying equal pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to make peace, but in Norway Israel is “not perceived as having done what they could to fulfill the Palestinian national aspirations,” he added.

Across Western Europe, activists critical of Israel have called the Jewish state on its treatment of Palestinians, including in exhibitions held in churches about the detention of children, alleged torture and the slaying of civilians during rounds of fighting with Palestinian and other terrorist groups.

But the Dutch chief rabbi, Binyomin Jacobs, who

was 18 in 1967, sees the changing attitudes to Israel as attributable also to demographic changes inside Western Europe that have little to do with Israel.

The increase in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment in Western Europe cannot be understood, Jacobs argues, without taking into account the arrival there since the 1970s of millions of Muslim Arabs and Turks.

“The people who riot at anti-Israel rallies, who throw firebombs on houses with Israeli flags, who chant ‘Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas’ on the street, do not act out of frustration with this or that policy,” Jacobs told the JTA. “They are often immigrants from Muslim countries where anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism is just a normal part of upbringing.”

In 2014, demonstrators at an anti-Israel demonstration in Belgium shouted about killing Jews in Antwerp. The Netherlands, France, Germany and many other places saw other anti-Israel events. That year, as Israel was fighting Hamas in Gaza, a woman who flew an Israeli flag in her Amsterdam home had firebombs hurled at her balcony. Nine synagogues in France were also attacked during hostilities.

While public attitudes toward Israel have soured in Western Europe, they have improved beyond recognition in the formerly Communist east, according to Jehoshua Raskin, a Chabad rabbi who works in Russia and was born in 1948 in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow.

Raskin and his mother were called traitors by KGB officers who threatened to have them jailed in 1967 over the Raskins’ request to leave Russia for Israel.

“Now Israel, which was demonized during Communism as an archenemy of ‘our Arab brothers’

and as a capitalist villain, is synonymous with success in Russia,” said Raskin, who was 18 when the war hit.

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations at a festive event at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Upon his arrival in the Russian capital, Netanyahu was greeted with a red carpet and marching band. His wife, Sara, was given pink flowers.

“We have a solid foundation of trust and understanding to rely on as we make plans for the future,” Putin said during the visit.

Under Putin, “Jewish communities that once distanced themselves from anything Israeli to stay safe are now celebrating cultural events with Israeli flags,” said Chaim Chesler, founder of Limmud FSU, a Jewish educational group that has been working in the former Soviet Union since 1992.

Previous Soviet hostility to Israel has also made Israel popular with enemies of Russia across Eastern Europe, Chesler said. The same applies to Finland, added Gideon Bolotowsky, a former leader of that country’s Jewish community. Widespread sympathy for Israel exists to this day in Finland, he added, where pro-Israel rallies organized by Christian supporters of the Jewish state typically dwarf anti-Israel events.

“You have to remember that in comparison to other European countries, Finland has very few Muslims,” Bolotowsky noted. (According to a U.S. State Department report from 2016, Finland has 65,000 Muslims, constituting about 1 percent of the population.)

In Western European countries with larger Muslim populations, hostility toward Israel is being adopted increasingly by politicians seeking Muslim votes.

In the Netherlands, the general elections in March saw a radical pro-Islam party win parliament representation for the first time. The party, DENK, supports a blanket boycott of the Jewish state, and its leader last year refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand during a visit to the Hague.

And in France, the current leader of the Socialist Party, Benoit Hamon, spoke with surprising candor about the need to factor in Muslim sensibilities in devising a policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a 2014 interview, Hamon said that supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state was the Socialists’ “best way to recuperate our electorate in the suburbs and the neighborhoods”—code for Muslim voters— “who did not support the pro-Israeli position taken by President François Hollande.”

In Sweden, Israel was popular in ’67 because it was perceived as the underdog, according to George Braun, the leader of the Jewish community of Gothenburg.

“Then, when Israel emerged as a powerful and robust entity, the Palestinians took on that role,” he said. Additionally, “the media in Sweden have become biased against Israel.”

Yet Braun says he does not miss the days when Israel was more popular in Sweden.

“It was nice to have everyone on your side, of course,” he said, “but I prefer a heavily criticized Israel that is strong and viable than a weak and uncertain one that is universally loved.”

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5

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What Trump Told the Russians, and Why Allies like Israel Are Worried

BY RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As of Tuesday morning, thanks to the unfiltered confessional that is Twitter, we now know this: President Donald Trump shared information with Russia about “terrorism and flight safety,” as he put it.

Trump was responding, after about 12 hours, to a Washington Post report that he shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador when he met with them last week. The information, sources told The Post and confirmed to other outlets, could be used to reveal sources of an ally’s intelligence on the Islamic State terrorist group.

The ally in question has not been revealed: The New York Times, in following up The Washington Post’s scoop, said it is a Middle Eastern ally known to be wary of sharing its intelligence. Israeli commentators were already speculating about the impact if Israel was the country in question, although it is hardly the only ally fitting the bill.

Trump in his tweets confirmed that he shared the information but did not say whether or not it was classified. However, he specified that he had an “absolute right” to share the information, which could refer to laws that exempt the president from restrictions on revealing classified information.

“As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety,” Trump said.

“Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.” ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group.

A lot of questions are not yet fully answered: What did Trump reveal?

According to The Washington Post, Trump shared information about Islamic State plans to bomb aircraft with

laptops. The Trump administration has banned laptops as carry-on luggage on U.S.-bound planes originating in some Middle Eastern countries, and reportedly plans to extend the ban to Europe.

The crux is in the details of what he shared.

“He described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances,” The Washington Post reported, and “revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat.” The Times said the information Trump relayed was “granular”—that is, highly specific.

Is the White House denying it?

Not quite. Officials have said the story, “as reported,” is “false”—but things get murkier on the details.

H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, and Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, who were in the room, said Trump did not discuss “sources, methods or military operations.” But the newspapers’ accounts do not allege that sources or methods or military operations are what were revealed.

Instead, the concern is that the Russians and their allies could use details in the information to track down the source.

How likely is it that the Russians could trace the information to its source?

According to reports, the White House is taking seriously the threat that the information could be sourced.

Thomas Bossert, Trump’s assistant for counterterrorism, alerted the CIA and the National Security Agency, and one of his subordinates said the information should be removed from internal summaries of Trump’s meeting.

What are the stakes?

Huge. It’s been enormously difficult to infiltrate the Islamic State, which cultivates only the truest believers for its operations.

Do we know which Middle Eastern ally provided the information?

No. Any one of the United States’

Middle East allies—Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, the Gulf states—could fit the bill of a country that would prefer that the United States closely hold whatever intelligence it shares.

Trump had a call scheduled with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday morning, but it may have been set up previously, ahead of Trump’s Middle East tour next week.

Israelis were wondering if it was their country that was potentially burned in the exchange. Ronen Bergman, the well-connected Yediot Aharonot reporter, reposted on Twitter a January story revealing that intelligence officials in the outgoing Obama administration warned Israeli counterparts to be careful about what kinds of intelligence they shared with the Trump administration because of alleged ties between Russia and some members of Trump’s entourage.

“The president has full authority to reveal classified information, but what will the ally think?” Keren Betzalel, an editor on Israel’s Channel 2, wrote Tuesday morning on Twitter.

Danny Yatom, a former director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, told The Jerusalem Post that he did not know if Israel was the ally, but expressed concerns about Trump’s revelations.

“If the information is sensitive, it can harm the security of the intelligence source or lead to other damage,” he said.

Alan Dershowitz, the pro-Israel American activist and constitutional law professor who has been counseling patience and restraint to a U.S. Jewish community rattled by Trump’s flirtations with the far right, has now had it with the president.

“This is the most serious charge ever made against a sitting president of the United States,” he told CNN. “Let’s not underestimate it.”

Dershowitz also speculated that either Israel or Jordan was the unnamed country potentially compromised as a result of the incident.

So if the ally is Israel, what’s at stake?

One of the closest U.S. intelligence relationships is with Israel. The relationship was launched in 1956 when Israel secured Nikita Khrushchev’s “secret speech” to a Communist congress denouncing Stalin’s reign of terror, signaling an evolution in how the Soviet Union would conduct its domestic and foreign policies. Speech in hand, the first stop for Mossad director Isser Harel was the CIA.

More recent cooperative successes reportedly include Stuxnet, the computer virus that crippled Iran’s uranium enrichment program in 2009’10, helping to bring the country to the negotiating table to talk about curbing its nuclear program; and the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah’s operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, as well as the exposure and frustration of multiple planned Hezbollah strikes in Europe and elsewhere. As bad as diplomatic relations between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government could get, officials in both countries agreed—and often emphasized—that intelligence sharing intensified over recent years.

Why would the Russians burn Trump?

The information is about the Islamic State, purportedly an enemy shared by the United States and Russia. Despite Russia’s claimed aim of crushing the Islamic State, its focus has been on fending off others seeking the removal of Russia’s longtime ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad. Defeating the terrorist groups is not the priority for Russia that it is for the United States, perhaps because keeping the Islamists in place could decrease international pressure to bring down Assad.

How (ticked) off are folks?

(Ticked) off. David Cohen, until recently the deputy director of the CIA and a veteran of both Republican and Democratic administrations, published an extraordinary op-ed in The New York Times on Tuesday lambasting the Trump administration for cozying up to autocracies like Russia’s Putin regime and describing the risks it posed.

Citing the revelations of Trump’s conversations with the Russians as an example, Cohen said, “No one can say how many potential spies will decide that working for America is not worth the risk. But the administration’s rejection of the American idea will surely mean that some will say no.”

Trump’s support among Republicans and conservatives who had backed him through other controversies in his young presidency also appears to be eroding.

“They’re in a downward spiral right now and they’ve got to figure out a way to come to grips with all that’s happening,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was quoted by BuzzFeed as saying.

Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio host, said on Twitter: “This is very bad.

Very, very bad.”

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7

Nissim Mishal hosting a show on Israel’s government-backed Channel 1 in 1984 MOSHE SHAI/FLASH90

The Death of the TV Channel that Once Unified Israel

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — On a chilly fall night in 1993, I learned that the bespectacled army reservist sitting across from me in an Ottoman-era building in Nablus and dining on watery yogurt and hard-boiled eggs was an executive at Israel’s then-nascent Channel 2.

He wanted to continue our chat on Jane Austen— he noticed I was reading Sense and Sensibility—but I insisted that he dish about the new TV channel set to launch just a few weeks later.

It would have ads! It would have original dramatic programming! There would be three different programming companies!

Gone would be the days when you could stroll in any Israeli suburb past 9 p.m. and hear every television turned to state-run Channel 1 and “Mabat la-Hadashot” (“A Glance at the News”), its nightly

8 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

newscast.

Mabat, like Channel 1, survived the new competitor, as it would an invasion of cable channels and media streams over the following decades. But on May 9, after 49 years on the air and with little warning or ceremony, Mabat aired its final broadcast, part of a government plan that will also close down its sister stations on the radio. Israel Radio, launched in 1936, wound down its programming, broadcasting music and news bulletins until May 15.

The Israel Broadcasting Authority, or IBA, will be replaced by Kan, a new system that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants in its place. Or doesn’t — it’s hard to keep track.

“The way the IBA was shut down is neither fair nor honorable,” Netanyahu said in a statement May

10, using the passive voice in a statement about a process he had initiated. A consensus that the public broadcasting authority needed to be reformed broke down among parties angling for political influence and cost savings.

For many Israelis, Channel 1 was like army-reserve duty: It was a necessary evil you were supposed to tolerate, something OK to hate. But secretly, you occasionally longed for it, the way you longed for the surprising joys of watery yogurt and hard-boiled eggs. Channel 1 offered camaraderie and, above all, purpose.

Channel 1, like the 40 days a year you spent in fatigues, surrounded you with less beautiful but reassuringly familiar faces who shared a mission: making Israel a better and more secure place.

It was virtuous to a fault. Israelis bought color TVs when they became available in the late 1970s, but only so they could fully enjoy Jordan TV. Israel TV lacked the technology to broadcast in color, or so we were told.

Except it did have the technology. One Friday night circa 1979 or 1980 at the launch of the weekly movie—a 1950s Western—a technician forgot to turn on the switch that washed out the color.

It was corrected to a black-and-white wash within minutes, but the secret was out and it was infuriating: We had been under the impression that Israel’s government-run broadcaster couldn’t afford color TV. But not only could the government afford it; it was actually paying extra money for technology that could keep everything black and white.

If the reasoning IBA eventually proffered was perverse, it was perverse in a way that made sense in a country just emerging from socialism: We are austere.

We are serious. We can’t afford to pretend that we can afford it.

Color soon came to TV and, under the liberal economic policies of the Begin government, markets opened up in Israel. There were more cars available.

Travel abroad was easier, and travelers returned home hankering for—and eventually finding—more varieties of cuisine, more diverse fashion.

Channel 1 persisted, along with its quirks.

Animated cartoons were available just once a week, early Saturday evening, when the broadcast was given over to Arabic-language television. (You knew it was Arabic TV because the subtitles switched places: Arabic was on top, Hebrew along the bottom.)

Why were Popeye and Little Lulu kosher for the children of Umm el Fahm and not of Tel Aviv? (Of course, children everywhere watched.) Who knows, but I’d guess, again, that the ban was a holdover from Israel’s austere beginnings. Arabic-speaking children were not considered part of the socialist experiment and could luxuriate in the decadent joys of aimless, violent humor. Israeli kids deserved stricter fare embodied in the earnest, hectoring young women who helmed Hebrew-language children’s TV. Friday nights were movie nights, consistently heavy, depressing fare—lugubrious numbers like “Lust for Life,” but also classic Westerns like “Shane.”

Comedies were scarce—I can’t recall any—because you were supposed to Learn a Lesson. The movies

were followed by a palate-cleansing if inoffensive sitcom: for years, “Night Court.” (For racier fare, you’d have to switch over to Jordan TV for the inane innuendo on “Three’s Company.” The kingdom descended from the Prophet was more profane than the secular Jewish paradise.) There was a news recap, a reading from the weekly Torah portion and then the national anthem.

Friday afternoons were the country’s guilty secret: the “Arab movie,” ostensibly, again, a nod to the country’s Arabic-speaking public, but really a break for all comers from the channel’s deadly serious fare. The whole country seemed to tune in but, tellingly, each Jewish viewer was certain she was the only one to indulge. These movies were everything Israel did not imagine itself to be. They took place in cities teeming with the very poor and the fabulously rich, they delved into wild romantic transgressions, they were high on physical comedy.

Channel 1’s talk shows treated poets like Yehuda Amichai and Natan Zach as celebrities and berated celebrities like Goldie Hawn for not coming to Israel more frequently.

And the music shows—you had to attend an actual rock concert to find out that Israeli musicians could actually rock, hop around the stage and involve the audience in a good time.

On Channel 1, these same musicians stood in place and barely moved, as if evidence that Israelis could lift their feet off the floor would subvert Labor Zionist notions of Jewish oneness with the earth.

And then there was Mabat. We mocked its anchors as remote and pompous, but goodness, they were Walter Cronkite-level reliable. They did not hold back in interviews and irked politicians of all stripes. They stuck to just the facts, ma’am. When Haim Yavin, who anchored the nightly newscast from 1968 to 2008, pronounced in 1977 and then in 1992 that the elections had produced a “mahapach,” an upheaval— well, by golly, it wasn’t just a change in government, it was indeed an upheaval.

Yavin was consistency incarnate, opening with “Good evening and greetings to all of you” and closing with “Good evening and much peace from Jerusalem.”

Mabat’s independence may have helped kill it. Netanyahu has never made precisely clear why he wanted the Israel Broadcasting Authority replaced, but for a politician who chafes at any

critical coverage, critical coverage from a government-run broadcaster must have been especially galling.

(And now he reportedly fears that Kan will also cover him critically.) Haaretz published a rundown of the competing political interests that doomed the IBA, including haredi Orthodox, Russian and pro-settlement parties angling for a piece of the broadcast spectrum and jockeying over who will lead the news, and general programming divisions of the new channel.

Channel 1 was likely doomed in any case, as ratings had been tanking for years. It ignored the very idea of competition. Channel 2 broadcast its news at 8 p.m.—Israelis like to go out and meet friends after the news, and Mabat insisted on a 9 p.m. broadcast.

By the time Mabat got the memo about competing for viewers and switched its broadcasts to 8, it was too late.

Mabat’s news staff delivered a tearful farewell on the last night. The radio stations ran nostalgic music and news bulletins until they, too, suspended broadcast on Monday, May 15, at 6 a.m.

It’s no understatement to say that a broadcaster that went virtually unchallenged for decades—until the rise in the 1970s of Army Radio and then the launch of commercial broadcasts in the 1990s—shaped the country in profound ways. The modern Hebrew accent itself was forged by two pioneer radio newscasters: Moshe Hovav, of Yemenite origin, and Drora Hovav, his wife, who happened to be the granddaughter of Eliezer BenYehuda, the Vilna-born scholar who almost singlehandedly revived Hebrew as a spoken language. Their Hebrew, combining the Sephardic east and the northern reaches of Europe, reinforced that Israeli Jews were One People.

“This has been like demolishing a house,” long-term anchor Yavin, now 83, told i24NEWS on Wednesday. “You can get me out of Mabat, but you can’t get Mabat out of me.”

You can’t, it’s true, at least for those of us who were raised on Mabat and Channel 1. The IBA sticks to us like dybbuks of our better selves.

Channel 2, and eventually the flurry of cable channels that came in its wake, reflected Israel as it evolved: loud, raucous, international and at perpetual odds with itself. Channel 1 was Israel as it once aspired to be: tough, serious, analytical and infused with the spare sensibilities of modern Hebrew poetry.

May its memory be blessed.

Meet Miss Israel 2017, a Social-Media– Savvy Beauty Queen TEL AVIV (JTA) — To become the Jewish state’s reigning beauty queen, Rotem Rabi first had to conquer the internet.

The 21-year-old Jerusalem-based model won the coveted Miss Israel crown and sash May 9 with the help of an army of online supporters.

“I want to thank all of you for the kindness and support I received from you,” Rabi wrote May 10 on Facebook and Instagram. “Appreciate it and love you very much!”

Her social-media savvy helped Rabi beat out 15 contestants. This was the first year online voting was combined with judges’ votes to pick Miss Israel, and social media was central to the contest. Each contestant was given profile pages on the contest’s website, complete with bios, photos and Instagraminspired modeling videos.

While her competitors waged similar get-out-the-vote efforts on social media, they could not compete with Rabi’s reach. Her Instagram following alone topped 14,000—more than double that of any of the other women who made the final four.

Beauty contests have been a part of Zionist culture since well before “selfie” was a word. In the late 1920s, Tel Aviv hosted the Queen Esther Beauty Pageant centered on the holiday of Purim. Part of a budding Jewish folk culture, it brought together Ashkenazi and Mizrahi contestants and helped officials select an unofficial representative of the Yishuv, or prestate Jewish community.

A recent photo from Rabi’s Instagram account (Rotem Rabi/Instagram) The Miss Israel pageant has been around since 1950, and has launched some of its winners’ careers. Gal Gadot, the Israeli actress who brought Wonder Woman to the big screen, won the crown in 2004.

According to Rabi’s bio, she served as

Rotem Rabi brought in a bevy of online backers on her way to the Miss Israel crown.

MOSHE SASSON/COURTESY OF LA’ISHA

a medic in the Israeli Air Force and has worked as a model while starting the process of joining the Israel Police’s investigative division. She dropped out of the Miss Israel contest last year to accept a modeling contract in Milan.

As is customary, Rabi will represent Israel in the Miss World pageant, which will be held in December in China. She will try to add to Israel’s single win, in 1998.

The Miss Israel pageant has been criticized in recent years for its focus on women’s appearances and allegedly superficial standards—for example, contestants must be 5-foot-6 or taller and never have been married or had children.

Its increased online presence has given Israelis a convenient—and sometimes strange—way to voice their displeasure. When Yediot Aharonot, the Israeli newspaper behind the contest, posted photos of the Miss Israel finalists on its Facebook page Sunday and asked people to vote, commenters responded with a string of shirtless photos of controversial lawmaker Oren Hazan.

“I admit I’m excited to be the public’s choice of Israel’s beauty queen,” Hazan posted on his Facebook page. “I plan to work to reduce world hunger and to bring world peace.”

As for Rabi, she took to social media, too, after her victory.

“I write this post with tears of excitement,” she wrote. “For after a long journey and an amazing experience, today came the big moment.”

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9

Eric Schneiderman Is Leading the Trump Resistance

BY RON KAMPEAS

NEW YORK (JTA) – It was nearly Passover and Eric Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, paused to wish his fellow Jews the best for the holiday.

“We are commanded not only to remember our story, but to imagine that we ourselves were enslaved in Egypt, and then freed—so that we may empathize with the plight of those who are fleeing oppression and danger today,” Schneiderman said in an April 10 statement.

Of course, though ostensibly about Passover, the statement was also a thinly veiled jab at President Donald Trump. After all, Schneiderman was among the litigants who got the courts to stay one of Trump’s first major executive orders, which temporarily banned entry into the United States by refugees as well as travelers from seven Muslimmajority countries.

Since the election, he has been busy attacking Trump in a nearly daily barrage of lawsuits, statements, tweets and news conferences.

“According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees there are now more than 65 million refugees worldwide—the most in modern history,” he said in the holiday statement. “Passover serves as a timely reminder of our obligation to welcome those fleeing oppression, and to fight all forms of discrimination and subjugation in our own time.”

Schneiderman, whom Trump calls a “political hack,” is a leading figure among the assorted activists, influencers, lawmakers and lawyers who have united to undercut, contain and combat the developer and former reality star who is now running the country.

He is the lead strategist among the state attorneys general, all Democrats, who have blocked the Trump immigration bans. Schneiderman has also advised sanctuary cities how to protect undocumented immigrants and launched bids to frustrate the president’s plans to roll back Obama-era reforms in healthcare and consumer and environmental protections, and to protect abortion rights.

Even so, he balked a little when a reporter called him the “Jewish face of the resistance.” It was the “resistance” part that unnerved him: New York’s top lawyer noted that he bucked Obama administration

10 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

policies, too. (Schneiderman wanted more comprehensive bank reforms.)

But the “Jewish” part he liked.

“My work for justice is very much grounded in what I see as the Jewish tradition’s commitment to justice,” he told the JTA recently in his Lower Manhattan office.

Schneiderman switched handily into Hebrew and used the two biblical terms for justice, saying that “‘mishpat’ and ‘tzedek’ are spoken of in the books of Moses.”

If “books of Moses” sounds a little Hollywood circa 1954, that’s the vibe Schneiderman broadcasts: the earnest, slightly nerdy Jewish guy who will quietly but forcefully bring down the crazed and the corrupt.

“You always hold out hope people can change their ways for the better,” he said, and with the barest of shrugs suggested his skepticism at the prospect.

If Schneiderman is obsessed with Trump, he said he comes by the obsession honestly: The two were tangling two years before Trump declared for president, when Schneiderman sued Trump University, which offered real estate seminars, in 2013 for deceptive practices and false advertising.

(Schneiderman and Trump had been in talks to settle since 2011.)

In the lawsuit, Schneiderman sought $40 million.

Last year, after winning the presidency, Trump settled for $25 million, saying it was time to move on.

Schneiderman said in a statement at the time that it was a “major victory” and a “stunning reversal,” and that he had the scars to prove it.

“Having no idea he would become president, I sued him and Trump University in 2013,” he told the JTA. “I got a preview of the scorched-earth tactics he used in the primary and the general election in 2016.”

At the time, Trump’s team set up a website to call attention to what it said was Schneiderman’s “gross incompetence.” The New York Post obtained notes from Schneiderman to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner asking them to donate to his campaign. (At the time, Kushner and Ivanka Trump were Democrats and not as closely entwined with the elder Trump’s political fortunes as they are now.)

The close political combat taught Schneiderman a lesson: If Trump says he plans to scorch earth, get out the fireproof footwear. While pundits and politicos were predicting that Trump, once in office, would moderate his more extreme pledges, Schneiderman

was putting his staff to work.

His office offered guidance to local authorities in New York to resist federal pressure to remove sanctuary protections for undocumented immigrants.

Schneiderman also contacted Democratic attorneys general in other states and prepared the legal framework to challenge the executive orders on travel he was sure would come.

“We weren’t surprised by them coming out aggressively on some of the positions they took during the campaign,” he said. “We have more familiarity with him here than in other places; that goes without saying.”

The legal challenges to Trump’s orders, Schneiderman acknowledged, were deliberately filed in the states covered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, noted as the most liberal-friendly appellate court. (The challenge to the first executive order was filed in Washington State; the challenge to the revised order was filed in Hawaii. Schneiderman also filed his own challenge in New York State.) Trump in a tweet accused the litigants of “judge shopping.”

Schneiderman said it was smart politics.

“We marshaled attorney-general resources as effectively as possible,” he said.

Trump’s defenders have noticed Schneiderman’s central role in the pushback.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal activist group, skewered Schneiderman in April, saying, “New York stands out because it’s the only state in which the top law-enforcement authority, a veteran elected official, is actively encouraging and assisting local governments to violate the law.” A New York Post editorial demanded that Schneiderman recuse himself on all matters related to Trump because “prosecutors aren’t supposed to choose their targets first, then hunt for incriminating evidence. That defines ‘bias.’”

Schneiderman, who attends services at B’nai Jeshurun, an independent Manhattan synagogue, works closely with the city’s Jewish establishment.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the executive director of the New York Board of Rabbis, said Schneiderman was always thoroughly prepared before taking on an adversary.

“He looks at the Torah, the weekly portion, and he also looks at the haftarah,” the reading from the books of prophets, Potasnik said, using a metaphor for studiousness.

Evan Bernstein, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director in New York, said the group appreciated Schneiderman’s focus on hate crimes.

“We’re very supportive of him taking it on,” he said.

Not all Jews are thrilled with Schneiderman’s robustly adversarial relationship with the president, especially when Schneiderman casts it as a matter of Jewish exigency. An Orthodox Jew deeply involved in state politics said Trump, as president, deserved a degree of deference in setting policy.

“Whether you like or agree with Trump, he is the president of the United States, and when the chief law officer of New York has declared personal war on the president, it’s suicide,” said the activist, who asked not to be identified in order not to anger Schneiderman.

An official in Schneiderman’s office said it had

received tens of thousands of messages of support from New Yorkers.

Another area of Schneiderman’s post-election fervor is combating hate crimes. Just nine days after Trump’s election, Schneiderman convened a news conference with representatives of minority groups to announce that he had issued guidance to law enforcement

to better identify hate crimes.

The release did not mention Trump, and minority advocacy groups have longed pressed police agencies to be more aggressive in policing hate crimes.

But Schneiderman said he was spurred, in part, by the new president.

“After the election, there was an uptick in hate crimes,” including

ROD ROSENSTEIN: Five Things to Know About the Man Who Helped Get Comey Fired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., March 7, 2017 ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) — Until this year, Rod Rosenstein was an unassuming U.S. attorney with a reputation for fairness.

Now he’s at the center of the controversy over President Donald Trump’s snap firing of James Comey, the FBI director.

Rosenstein, 52, whose appointment

by Trump as deputy attorney general was confirmed only a few weeks ago, wrote the memo outlining concerns with Comey’s performance, mostly related to his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Based on the memo, said the White House, Trump decided to fire Comey, delivering the surprise decision on May 9.

So who is Rosenstein? Here’s where he came from, his Jewish ties and what people are saying about him now.

Rosenstein was respected as a skilled, by-the-book government lawyer.

Before ascending to the deputy attorney general post, Rosenstein spent more than a decade serving as a U.S.

attorney in Maryland. He is politically conservative and was appointed by President George W. Bush. But when Barack Obama took office, Rosenstein was one of only three U.S. attorneys among 93 to be kept on the job by the new president.

As U.S. attorney, Rosenstein led successful prosecutions for leaks of classified information, corruption, murders and burglaries. He was particularly effective taking on corruption within police departments, according to an essay in Vox by Thiru Vignarajah, a former colleague.

Vignarajah wrote that Rosenstein “made real strides.”

“Over his first decade as the lead federal prosecutor in Maryland, murders statewide were cut by a third, double the decline at the national level.

Other violent offenses like robberies and aggravated assaults also fell faster than the national average,” he wrote.

A sign in Rosenstein’s former office read, “Don’t tell me what I want to hear.

Just tell me what I NEED TO KNOW.” The Senate voted 94-6 to confirm Rosenstein to his new post.

against Jews, he said, citing New York Police Department statistics.

Is it fair to ascribe the increase in anti-Semitic attacks to the election of Trump, who has been friendly to the Jews?

“It took him a long time to condemn anti-Semitism,” Schneiderman countered. “We’re aware in the Jewish

community that bias against one opens the door to bias against all.”

Schneiderman cited Trump’s broadsides against Muslims and Mexicans during the campaign as a spur for hate groups.

“It’s not wrong to lay something at someone’s feet if that’s something they said,” he said.

He played a key role investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Comey was allegedly fired for mishandling his investigation of Hillary Clinton. If that’s true, he may have learned from Rosenstein, who was praised for his own Clinton probe two decades ago.

In 1995, Rosenstein joined the team of lawyers investigating the Whitewater scandal, which involved allegations of illegal real estate dealings by the Clintons. The allegations against the Clintons were ultimately unproven, but they led to the exposure of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and President Clinton’s subsequent impeachment.

Rosenstein headed one of the few successful Whitewater prosecutions, which led to the conviction of former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and Clinton associates James and Susan McDougal. He questioned Hillary Clinton at the White House in 1998 as part of a separate case, according to The Baltimore Sun, but she was never implicated.

He graduated from Penn and Harvard—and he’s a family man.

Rosenstein grew up in the upscale Philadelphia suburb of Huntingdon Valley. He’s a 1982 graduate of the public high school and earned a merit scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Business—also Trump’s alma mater. He later attended Harvard Law School, joining the conservative Federalist Society, which gave him a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006.

Rosenstein is married to Lisa Barsoomian, who also served as a U.S. attorney. The couple have two daughters, 17 and 15, and live in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Bethesda, Maryland. While Rosenstein works late nights, The Sun reported that he would often go bicycling with the family on Sundays.

He used to play sports at the local JCC. Not much surfaces about

Rosenstein’s Jewish involvement online, but he has been affiliated with Jewish institutions in the past. He was a member of Bethesda’s Reform Temple Sinai from 2008 to 2014, and of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum from 2001 to 2011.

According to a questionnaire he filled out ahead of his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this year, Rosenstein also was a member of a “Jewish community center sports league” from 1993 to 2012.

Which JCC? Which sport? An ongoing JTA investigation has yet to uncover the answer.

He wrote a damning letter against Comey—but never explicitly recommended firing him.

Rosenstein didn’t hold back in a 1,000-word letter delineating Comey’s missteps. He lambasted Comey both for his July statement that Hillary Clinton would not face indictment and for his Oct. 28 letter announcing the reopening of the Clinton investigation.

“I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken,” Rosenstein wrote. “Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes.”

But the evisceration stopped just short of calling for Comey to be canned. Rosenstein did write that “the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.”

But just before that, he cautioned, “Although the President has the power to remove an FBI director, the decision should not be taken lightly.” The memorandum is dated Tuesday, May 9.

Trump read Rosenstein’s letter and made the decision.

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 11

Jewish American Heritage Month is celebrated every year in May. TOP LEFT, CLOCKWISE, OBAMA PHOTO: AUDE GUERRUCCI/ POOL/GETTY IMAGES; WASSERMAN SCHULTZ PHOTO: ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES; CALENDAR PHOTO: DAFNE CHOLET/FLICKR, CC BY 2.0; MENORAH PHOTO: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY; TRUMP PHOTO: MARK WILSON/ GETTY IMAGES; MUSEUM PHOTO: JEFF GOLDBERG/ ESTO

May Is Jewish American Heritage Month. Here’s Why You Didn’t Know That.

BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

(JTA) — Only one religious group in the United States has a federally proclaimed month celebrating its history: the Jews. In 2006, President George W. Bush officially declared May as Jewish American Heritage Month.

Yet Jewish American Heritage Month, or JAHM, hardly seems a priority—not in the government, not in the media, not even within the Jewish community. There is not a single paid employee working to organize the commemoration, and neither the federal government nor any Jewish organization or foundation is funding its operations. (By contrast, for example, the organization that coordinates

12 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

Women’s History Month lists four staff members and 16 sponsors.)

“To tell you the truth, I’m very disappointed,” said Marcia Zerivitz, who was one of the driving forces behind lobbying Congress to establish the month. “We have struggled, we have been financially undercapitalized, we have struggled to get any money to do much of anything.”

The current annual budget for JAHM is about $10,000 and consists entirely of individual donations, according to Ivy Barsky, the director of the National Museum of American Jewish History and a member of the JAHM advisory committee.

“It’s its own tiny little 501(c)(3), all with people who run their own institutions volunteering some time to work on JAHM,” Barsky told the JTA. “So, like any of these things, until it has a dedicated staff person, it’s always going to be a little patched together.”

Barsky hopes to change that. Her Philadelphia museum recently took over from the Cincinnati-based American Jewish Archives as JAHM’s public face and organizer. She hopes that with the museum’s support, the heritage month can raise its profile both within and outside the Jewish community.

“One of the original goals of Jewish American Heritage Month that we haven’t necessarily realized as well as we’d like is teaching the nonJewish world in America about the contributions of American Jewry to this country,” Barsky said.

The museum is providing some financial and staff support, but Barsky hopes to obtain funding from corporations and foundations.

Manischewitz has served as a sponsor, promoting JAHM on its products, and Empire Kosher Poultry provided funding. But the two kosher food producers are no longer doing so.

Educating the wider American public was the goal of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who in 2005 introduced legislation in Congress to establish the month with the late Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican at the time (he later

switched parties) and also Jewish.

“If you educated and raised awareness about contributions throughout American history all over the country, it would make people more familiar with the Jewish community and our people and hopefully impact a reduction of anti-Semitism and intolerance,” Wasserman Schultz told the JTA about the inspiration for the legislation.

She managed to get 250 Democrats and Republicans to sign on as cosponsors of the bill, which the House passed unanimously. Zerivitz had lobbied for the month to be in January, to coincide with Florida Jewish History Month, but it was changed to May to concur with Jewish Heritage Week, which President Jimmy Carter proclaimed in 1980.

Following the resolution’s passage in the Senate, George W. Bush proclaimed the month. It was observed for the first time in 2006.

Wasserman Schultz, who resigned as head of the Democratic National Committee last year following an email leak that suggested the organization was biased against presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, recalled the joy she felt upon the heritage month’s proclamation.

“It was exhilarating. It was the first legislation that I passed as a member of Congress, and I’m the first Jewish woman to represent Florida in Congress, so it was very significant for me personally,” she said, citing experiences with anti-Semitism both in New York, where she grew up, and in Florida.

But has the legislation lived up to its expectations?

While calling the month “still a work in progress,” Wasserman Schultz said she is “very satisfied with how it’s been celebrated.”

However, Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, disagrees. At the time of the proclamation “there was considerable excitement,” but JAHM has yet to live up to its potential, he said.

“So much money is spent on Jewish education in the United States that the fact that we have not been able to harness this golden opportunity given to us by the government, and really develop a month that would affect every American Jew, is a sign of the disorganization that we’ve seen— ultimately, it’s a sign of a problem,” Sarna told the JTA.

JAHM’s website lists 17 events this month, most of them hosted by local groups, including a poetry reading organized by a social justice group in Connecticut and an event about Jews and jazz at a Florida library. The Library of Congress, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco are each hosting one event, and the National Museum of Jewish History is hosting two events.

“Every Jewish newspaper and media outlet should be focused on American Jewish history during that month,” Sarna said. “Programming materials should be sent to every rabbi, every synagogue. Synagogues should be encouraged to have a speaker dealing with American Jewish history.”

To be sure, JAHM celebrations have had some highlights over the years.

In 2010, President Barack Obama hosted the first Jewish American Heritage Month reception at the White House with such Jewish luminaries as Sandy Koufax and musician Regina Spektor, but the program was cut in 2013 due to the budget sequester. Also in 2010, Jewish American astronaut Garrett Reisman took the original proclamation with him aboard the Atlantis space shuttle.

Jewish groups, however, have been hesitant to commit money to the commemoration.

“I would think that all these national [Jewish] organizations would get behind it, but everyone is struggling for funding,” said Zerivitz, who is on the JAHM board. “[The] Holocaust gets the emotions going in the American Jewish community, and Holocaust things are much easier to fund than American Jewish history things,” she added.

Barsky said she looks to more prominent national commemorations for inspiration.

“We hope we’ll be able to fundraise and get some great attention for Jewish American Heritage Month, so that this can grow into something a little more akin to Women’s History Month in March or African American History Month in February,” she said. “We’ve definitely got a vision for making it pretty big.”

Sarna is also optimistic about JAHM’s future.

“This is a lot easier than making peace in the Middle East, believe me,” he said.

Fire Seriously Damages Historic Lower East Side Synagogue

TOP: Sad sight: Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue (abandoned) goes up in flames on the Lower East Side.

PHOTO VIA @DOCTORGUFF

ABOVE: Fire burned for several hours at Beth Hamedrash Hagadol before firefighters brought it under control.

SCREENSHOT FROM NBC NEW YORK

(JTA) — A fire seriously damaged a historic synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

The Sunday-evening blaze at Beth Hamedrash Hagadol took at least two hours for firefighters to bring under control, according to reports. It burned for several hours afterward.

It is not clear how the fire started, according to reports. An investigation will be led by the fire marshal, though the fire chief said the blaze started inside the building, NBC New York reported.

The Gothic-style building was empty at the time of the fire. Two firefighters reportedly were injured trying to bring it under control.

Built in 1850 as a Baptist church, the building was purchased in 1885 to become the first Eastern European congregation founded in New York City. It served Russian Jews. The congregation closed the synagogue in 2007 after determining it did not have the $3 million to $4 million needed for repairs. In 1967, the building was declared a city landmark, and in 2003 it was designated an endangered historic site.

Local residents told the New York Post that another fire had broken out in the building last week, though it was not confirmed by the newspaper.

The synagogue in recent years has sought to “de-landmark” the building, which would allow for condominiums to be built on the site, with a small synagogue to be built on the ground floor.

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 13

CULTURE & EVENTS

These Seven Smartphone Apps Make Life Easier for Religious Jews Sefaria:

BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

Now it’s easy to study Jewish texts on the go. Sefaria, which was created by the website of the same name, offers a library of works, including the Torah, Talmud and Midrash, as well as Kabbalah, philosophy and a multitude of commentaries. Texts are available in Hebrew and English, and users can search the entire library for specific words or phrases.

(JTA) — These days there are smartphone applications for pretty much anything, from ordering food to finding a date to reporting anti-Semitic incidents.

But what about tools for living a religious Jewish life? Well, there are apps for that, too.

Whereas in the time before smartphones, observant Jews may have had to ask their rabbis certain questions or—gasp!—read a book, now there are apps available that can help with everything from putting on tefillin correctly to finding the nearest kosher eatery.

Here are seven useful downloads for those who lead—or wish to lead—a more-observant Jewish life.

Kosher Near Me:

Tefillin Mirror:

The rules regarding how to put on tefillin can be confusing—for example, the head phylactery has to line up in the middle of the wearer’s forehead and it also has to stay above the hairline.

This app functions as a mirror with three vertical lines that help the user properly align the tefillin.

Shabbat and Holiday Times:

Need to know when to light the Shabbat or holiday candles? This app shows the start and end times of Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Users can enter any location in the world or allow the app to access their phone’s location for accurate times.

Minyan Now:

Time to pray but can’t find a synagogue? This app alerts Jews that someone nearby is looking for a minyan (the quorum of 10 people required to say certain prayers). Users can chat to coordinate a meeting place as they wait for 10 people—men in this case, as the app follows Orthodox customs—to respond.

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This app is perfect for travelers or anyone looking to explore new kosher options closer to home. Users can peruse kosher food selections— restaurants, grocery stores and takeout—around the world, including in the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Ecuador, Gibraltar and South Korea. Listings also include reviews written by users.

@TheKotel:

Jews from around the world visit the Western Wall (the “Kotel” in Hebrew) in Jerusalem to pray. With this app, users can leave a prayer at the holy site without having to leave their homes.

Electronically sent prayers are printed out and placed in crevices at the holy site, as is the custom.

Smart Siddur:

The days of schlepping around prayer books are long gone thanks to this app. This high-tech siddur (prayer book) features the three daily prayers and services for various Jewish holidays in a clean, easy-to-read interface.

It syncs with the Jewish calendar, displaying holiday-specific prayers on the appropriate days so users need not worry about forgetting any special liturgy.

CULTURE & EVENTS

Joan Nathan’s Newest Book Was Inspired by an 800-Year-Old Shopping List AND HER RECIPE FOR KING SOLOMON’S DATE-FILLED CAKE

BY PENNY SCHWARTZ

VIA THE KNOSHER, A JTA PARTNER — Think Shavuot is just about cheesecakes and blintzes? In 13th-century Egypt, the holiday menu consisted of eggplant with chicken, cooked with sesame oil and flavored with garlic, cubeb (similar to black pepper) and garden mallow, cooked as a spinach-like green. This is just one of the many historical morsels tucked inside Joan Nathan’s new book, King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking From Around the World (Knopf; with a foreword by Alice Waters).

This rare glimpse of the medieval Middle Eastern Jewish holiday meal is among the gems that shine through in Nathan’s newest book, a sumptuous, stunning tour de force that traces the roots of Jewish food back to biblical times and earlier, and offers more than 170 recipes that span the millennia.

Tantalizing recipes include Hungarian Apple Pancakes, Yemenite Chicken Soup, Huevos Haminados con Spinaci (Long-Cooked Hard-Boiled Eggs with Spinach) and Libyan Saefra, King Solomon’s Cake. But the soul of King Solomon’s Table radiates from the warmth of Nathan’s signature stories that accompany the recipes.

I had the privilege of speaking with Nathan recently in Boston, where she visited Mamaleh’s Deli for a book signing that included tastes of Nathan’s smooth, flavorful Hummus with Preserved Lemon and Cumin, and her Carciofi alla Giudia (Fried Artichokes Jewish Style.) Nathan, a world traveler familiar to cooking fans across the country from her PBS television series, Jewish Cooking in America, is disarmingly

to the synagogue in Kochi. There was a sign that said Jews had been in India since the time of King Solomon.

That set me on a sort of journey, to learn about King Solomon. I learned that in 1700 BCE was the first known cookbook. It was written on cuneiform in the Akkadian language on three clay tablets. I wasn’t interested in the recipes so much. But I was interested at looking at what the ingredients were.

There was swiss chard, beets; there was even a borscht in one of the recipes.

There was wheat and barley. It was surprising.

You have a recipe for shakshuka [eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce], a food you love. What is up with its surge in popularity?

First of all, I love going to the restaurant Doctor Shakshuka that everyone goes to in Jaffa. Israeli food is suddenly hot. It [shakshuka] was something eaten in Namibia.

Shakshuka was known as a dish women made when they were flirting with another man or were busy with a lover.

It was an easy dish to make.

LI BYA N S A E F R A , K I N G SOLOMON’S CAKE

warm and an engaging conversationalist. Note: This interview has been condensed and edited.

What drew you to Jewish cooking in the first place?

I was living in Jerusalem. I was 26, working for the mayor [Teddy Kollek, Jerusalem’s mayor from 1965-1993]. He loved food. I realized two things: One, for Teddy Kollek, food broke down a lot of barriers…cultural barriers, political barriers. But the other thing was, I always thought of Jewish food as my mother’s chicken soup and her challah.

Also, [the woman who cleaned my house] was Jewish and she was from Morocco. She made stuffed vegetables and all kinds of delicious foods that were not Jewish, to my mind. She opened the whole world for me.

Are you surprised all these books later that you still find the subject of Jewish cooking and this cuisine engaging?

It’s amazing. I learn more every day.

Why did you set out to write King Solomon’s Table?

Well, I didn’t set out to write it. I signed a contract for a modern Jewish cookbook. But then I went to India,

The following recipe is excerpted from King Solomon’s Table with permission from Knopf.

Many families in Libya used to squeeze oranges and bottle the juice to be used all year round. According to Claudia Roden in her Book of Jewish Food, using oranges in cakes was a particularly Jewish practice. These cakes, usually prepared with the tart Seville oranges that had to be boiled for hours to tame their bitterness, have been enjoyed for centuries. With sweeter oranges and commercial juice available today, we don’t have to boil them.

King Solomon’s Cake, popular in Libya and attributed to King Solomon himself, is also called saefra (yellow) cake—the yellow comes from saffron.

Many versions are studded with raisins, but I prefer this spiced date filling instead. This delicious dairy-free cake was a must for the Sabbath and special occasions. I assume it predates the more elaborate baklava we know today. It was also, according to the late cookbook author Copeland Marks, an aphrodisiac—and, as such, it was served on the eve of the Sabbath to husbands needing help in their conjugal duties.

Ingredients: For the date filling: • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil • 1 pound pitted dates, chopped • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon • ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves For the cake: • 2 cups (440 grams) cream of wheat • 1 cup (225 grams) coarse semolina • ½ cup (100 grams) sugar • 1½ teaspoons baking powder • 1 cup (235 ml) vegetable oil • 1 cup (235 ml) orange juice • Grated zest from 1 orange • ½ cup blanched whole almonds for garnish • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds for garnish For the syrup: • 1½ cups (300 grams) sugar, or ¾ cup (150 grams) sugar and ¾ cup (175 ml) honey • Juice of 1 lemon • ¼ teaspoon saffron threads Directions: 1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9- or 10-inch springform pan.

2) To make the filling: Pulse the oil, dates, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves in a food processor with a steel blade until a thick paste has formed.

3) To make the cake: In a medium bowl, mix together the cream of wheat, semolina, sugar, baking powder, vegetable oil, orange juice and orange zest to create a thick batter.

4) Spread half the batter into the prepared pan and then top with the date filling, spreading the mixture with a spatula to the edges of the pan.

Pour the remaining batter over the top, smooth the surface and score the top of the cake into 2-inch diamond shapes.

5) Gently push one whole almond vertically into the center of each diamond; then scatter the sesame seeds over all. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden on the top.

6) Fifteen minutes before the cake is done, make the syrup. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar, honey (if using), 1⁄2 cup (120 ml) of water and lemon juice to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat, add the saffron. Let steep for 5 minutes.

7) Pour the warm syrup over the cake when it’s done. Let stand for 6 hours or more, so the cake completely absorbs the syrup.

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 15

One Way to Boost Test Scores? Make Sure Students Get Morning Sunshine, New Research Shows

New York City’s Special-Ed Tracking System Malfunctioned More Than 800,000 Times Per Day, but Changes Are Underway

BY MATT BARNUM

BY ALEX ZIMMERMAN

When teens complain that school starts too early, they’re not wrong, according to new research.

This comes as school districts across the country—including in Colorado, California, Indiana and Tennessee— consider starting school later.

The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Resources, looks at districts in Florida and uses a novel approach: the fact that some areas in the state operate in the Central time zone while others use Eastern time. That means that if one district starts school at 8 a.m. Eastern and one right next door starts at 8 a.m.

Central, students are actually heading to school at different times, relative to the sunrise—creating a natural experiment for the researchers to study how that affects student achievement.

Study authors Jennifer Heissel and Samuel Norris of Northwestern University followed students who moved between schools in different time zones; they expected that students going from Eastern time to Central time would see their test scores improve because they got more sunlight prior to school.

In fact, that’s exactly what they found, particularly for older students.

When older students move to a district that starts school later, their standardized test scores improve in the year they move and in later years.

The effects are notable, but not huge— roughly equivalent to the impact of a substantial reduction in class size.

The research finds that the improvement is driven by the changes in ideal sleep patterns resulting from entering puberty. That means girls are positively impacted by late start-times beginning around age 11, and boys at age 13.

The study posits a straightforward

16 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

way to improve student achievement without changing a district’s average start-time: ensuring that a district’s high schools start the latest and elementary schools the earliest. Most Florida districts examined don’t do that, but if they did, the researchers predict that it would improve average test scores.

Those results are consistent with past research, which has driven past efforts to start school later. As the authors point out, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends starting high school no earlier than 8:30 a.m., but as of 2012, the average start-time for American high schools was 7:59, with the vast majority beginning before 8:30.

One Colorado school district, Cherry Creek, currently starts at 9 a.m. for elementary school, 8 a.m. for middle school and 7 a.m. for high school— precisely the opposite order that the research suggests is ideal for improving achievement. The district is currently considering a move that would start elementary school earlier, and middle and high school later.

In practice, though, when schools try to change start-times, they run into logistical challenges: parents’ work schedules, sports-events timing, bus coordination, and before- and afterschool activities.

Indeed, the proposed change in Cherry Creek has already provoked protest from parents, although an online survey of students and staff showed support for the changes, according to the district.

“If the new start-time is adopted, young children will be waiting at the bus stops or walking to school in the dark/dawn during some months of the year,” according to a Change.org petition opposing the change. “This is unsafe for our young children.”

CHALKBEAT NY — Ever since New York City’s special-education data system launched in 2011, it has been mired in technical difficulties.

But a new report shows just how pervasive those glitches have been.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PATRICK WALL The report is the first release from a multiagency group databases means officials don’t know within the city that is working to fix the exactly how many students don’t reSpecial Education Student Information ceive mandated special-education System (SESIS)—a key piece of infra- services.

The city is investing millions of dolstructure that is supposed to electronically track learning plans for more than lars in staff and upgrades that officials have said will help solve some of these 200,000 students with disabilities.

And while the report found that the longstanding problems. In a statecity has made some strides in overhaul- ment, education department spokesing the system, it also paints a bleak pic- woman Toya Holness said the city was ture of what special-education teachers “working to implement these changes and administrators have been wrestling as quickly as possible,” though she with. Here are a few examples from the did not provide an exact timeline for upgrades. report: The city’s efforts are earning some One category of user queries related to special-education programmatic praise, including from the public advoservices on IEPs (individualized educa- cate, who sued the city last year claimtion programs), which previously failed ing SESIS had caused $356 million in about 800,000 times a day, no longer lost Medicaid reimbursements.

“The new assessment and recomhas any failures.

A “Missing Files” issue that resulted mendations from the DOE show a clear in HTTP 404 errors about 10,000 times trajectory towards fixing this broken a day now occurs just eight times a day. system, in line with what my office A search-related problem that used has called for,” Public Advocate Letitia to result in about 3,100 timeouts a day James said in a statement.

Maggie Moroff, a disability-policy exis down to just 600 timeouts a day.

Errors like these have long frustrated pert at Advocates for Children, said the educators. At a forum last year, one report validates the idea that problems teacher said she faced 41 error mes- with SESIS have persisted for years sages over a single two-hour span. Early without being adequately addressed. on, the flaws forced so many educators But the bigger issue, she emphasized, is to input data at night and on weekends that many students with disabilities are that an arbitrator required the city to going without services they need.

“We can’t wait,” Moroff said. “They pay $38 million in overtime.

The system has contributed to an- have to be fixing [SESIS] and fix the other major problem: SESIS’s inabil- service deficiencies in the system at the ity to communicate with various city same time.”

Harlem Hebrew Public Charter School Hosts High-Profile Delegation

BY STAFF

A joint delegation from the United Nations and the American Jewish Committee visited the Harlem Hebrew Public Charter School, located in the northern part of Manhattan, to hear ideas from children as young as second graders including how to “help the world get along” and “bring fresh water to Africa.”

Harlem Hebrew is a dual-language public charter school that serves a deeply diverse student body. Students become proficient in modern Hebrew, learn to become global citizens and benefit from classes that are diverse ethnically, economically and racially.

RIGHT United Nations delegates and AJC (American Jewish Committee) guests visit one of Harlem Hebrew’s kindergarten classes for a Hebrew lesson.

TOP: U.N. delegates and AJC staff join a second-grade social studies class.

LEFT: Harlem Hebrew students bond with U.N. delegates and AJC guests from Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico and Costa Rica.

TOP: Second-grader shows Rafael Conde, delegate from Spain, his plan to build a lemonade and brownie stand.

LEFT: Diplomats from Hungary and Switzerland along with AJC staff

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17

A Hospital Grows in the Negev

BY MAXINE DOVERE

The American Friends of Soroka Medical Center—a nonprofit that seeks to increase awareness of Soroka Medical Center—gathered at the Pierre Hotel in New York April 26 for the fifth annual gala benefiting Soroka Medical Center’s women’s health initiatives: Breast Health Center, Negev Center for Eating Disorders, and the Saban Birth and Maternity Center.

Dan Abrams, national-television legal correspondent, was the evening’s master of ceremonies.

The event, a celebration of the fashion industry, honored Soroka Medical Center’s American founding father, the late David Dubinsky. Dubinsky was honored with Soroka’s Statesman for Israel Award, accepted by Ryna Appleton Segal, his granddaughter.

A video tribute detailed the life of the man who changed the garment/fashion industry in New York and worldwide. Dubinsky served as president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), was vice president of the AFL-CIO and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Shouly and Abraham Maslavi, principals of Jovani Fashions, received the Fashion Industry Leadership Award. A fashion show featuring glamorous Jovani special-occasion dresses was a highlight of the evening. The brothers expressed their deep support of Israel, as well as their appreciation of the work of the state-of-the-art medical facility. A fashion- and entertainment-filled “silent auction” added to the fundraising excitement.

The inaugural Dubinsky Humanitarian Award was presented to Sonia Gardner, president, managing partner and co-founder of Avenue Capital Group.

Gardner, a noted humanitarian committed to women’s issues, health care and social justice, spoke of the need to “give back.” She has received numerous leadership awards recognizing her philanthropic work.

In 1955, as part of the effort to “make the desert bloom,” Moshe Soroka, a major pioneer of health services in Israel—together with Israel Barzilai; David Tuviyahu, the first mayor of Beer-Sheva; and David Ben-Gurion—asked Dubinsky to help. He raised $1 million to build a hospital in Beer-Sheva. The Central Hospital of Negev, initially a 250-bed facility, opened in 1956.

Some 60 years later, it is one of Israel’s largest, most strategic hospitals, serving one of Israel’s most diverse regions. The almost 1,100-bed facility, renamed Soroka Medical Center after the 1972 death

18 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

Jerusalem Post Conference 2017: Seeking Unity Despite Differences

BY MAXINE DOVERE

Dr. Ehud Davidson, director general of the Soroka Medical Center

of Moshe Soroka, is home to Israel’s busiest maternity center. Per the American Friends of Soroka Medical Center, the hospital provides “prevention, research, diagnosis, education and integrated care for all, regardless of race, religion or politics in medical areas including cancer, genetics, brain and trauma” and “is essential to meeting the medical needs of the Israel Defense Forces.”

Dr. Ehud Davidson, director general of Soroka Medical Center, served as the gala’s keynote speaker.

He described the wide range of facilities provided by the medical center, noting that it is “a pioneering and preeminent teaching hospital...improving the lives of some of Israel’s most vulnerable citizens.”

Emphasizing the center’s inclusiveness, Davidson concluded, “When one person is in pain, it hurts the rest of us. It is much more than just a hospital. Soroka is a place where the Negev heals and grows stronger together.”

Angela Retelny served as the gala chair. The evening’s co-chairs were Nira and Ken Abramowitz, David and Hengameh Kimiabakhsh, Caroline and Shlomo Freidfertig, and Ruth and Jeffrey Steinberg.

Rachel Heisler is executive director of the American Friends of Soroka Medical Center.

Each year for the past six, The Jerusalem Post has gathered Israeli and American politicians and community leaders—the personalities who fill its daily pages—and the generally right-leaning (mostly) paying audience at a daylong conference in New York.

Topics focus on the relations between the Jewish communities (Diaspora and Israel-based), political approaches to Israel’s on-the-ground realities and, in 2017, a strictly positive approach to the Trump administration in anticipation of its wholehearted support of the Jewish State. Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz called the upcoming presidential trip to Israel “an opportunity to strengthen the alliance.”

The reality of the challenge to achieving a “deal” was strongly noted by former generals Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz. The question of whether Mahmoud Abbas—Abu Mazen—can be trusted as a reliable or even able partner for peace and security was part of every conversation.

During past years, sparks have flown from the stage, igniting a fiery audience response. At the 2017 conference, clearly under the control of The Post’s recently appointed editor-in-chief, Yaakov Katz, most presenters elicited a generally polite response.

When Larry King, the American broadcaster known for expressing strong opinions, offered his thoughts about what “really drives” evangelical support of the Jewish State, those thoughts were not well received.

“Never has Israel been less isolated,” said the consul general of Israel in New York, Amb. Dani Dayan, humorously noting that, together with allies India and China, Israel comprises one third of the world’s population.

Dayan was followed to the podium by Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources. He focused on maintaining “the greater Jerusalem,” emphasizing the need for a Jewish majority in a united Jerusalem that “is and will be the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”

The minister discussed the serious challenges facing Israel, including terrorism and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. He advocated for the United States and Israel to reach

OPINION

an understanding regarding Syria, and offered a five-point plan. Included was recognition of Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan heights—“an indivisible part of the state of Israel.”

Steinitz stressed the importance of sanctions against nations supporting terrorist organizations in the region, saying bluntly, “Iran must be stopped.” He believes that Iran is taking advantage of the nuclear deal, and that the pressing issue is not to allow nuclear development. He stated that Israel does not want Iran to have air bases in Syria.

He said the United States and Israel should work together against Iran’s aggression in order to achieve stability in the region and foster security and regional economic initiatives focusing on the civilian economy.

He further proposed a regional transportation initiative that would connect the Palestinians and strengthen their economy. He suggested the construction of an artificial island three miles off the coast of Gaza, which “would provide an economic and transportation outlet for Gaza without endangering Israel’s security.” He stressed the need to continue to build and develop Israel “because when we are united inside, Israel is strong outside.”

To achieve positive conditions, said the minister, “Abu Mazen should put an end to the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incitement.” The Palestinian Authority, he continued, is not only paying terrorists being held in Israeli jails, but is also inciting children in the schools. “Though we always want to promote peace, I am not that optimistic unless these two conditions are met.”

Turning positive, Steinitz noted that most of the energy in Israel is being produced with its own natural gas.

He said that the country is exploring ways of becoming an energy exporter, and listed regional and European market possibilities. “We are building the longest and deepest pipeline...to export gas to Western Europe.”

Isaac Herzog, Israel’s opposition leader, spoke next.

He has been both a critic and a supporter of the sitting Israeli government and its policies. He sees in the Trump administration “a spirit of change that needs to be seized.”

Herzog is a firm believer in a two-state solution. He said, “There is no other choice but to move towards a break with the Palestinians.” He stated that he is “building a political block to replace Netanyahu as soon as possible.”

The opposition leader commended former generals Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi for being ready to “present a separate, clear vision both on social and economic issues.” He recognized the United States as a “vital partner,” but expressed concern that

President Trump does not understand “the facts on the ground....Our ‘potential partner’ is difficult, if not impossible.” Israel, he assured the audience, “will work with the facts on the ground and recognize the political realities.”

Ronald Lauder, the newly re-elected president of the World Jewish Conference (WJC), took the podium next. He was strident in his denunciation of “anti-Israel” activities. “Being anti-Israel is being antiSemitic, plain and simple. There is no difference,” he said. “You can disagree with Israeli policies but you cannot disagree with Israel’s right to exist.” He assured the audience that the WJC would combat anti Semitism.

Lauder, who through the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation has funded the construction of 37 Jewish schools, stressed the need to “teach young people to be proud of their Jewish heritage. Our real asset is our children.” He concluded, “We, the Jewish people, must advance a strong and united front....We are one people.”

Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, came to the Jerusalem Post conference to affirm his rejection of antiSemitism. In dialogue with Yaakov Katz, he was questioned about wearing the Vitezi Rend award given to his father in 1979 by the group. (Vitezi Rend is a Hungarian nationalist group with alleged historical ties to Nazi Germany.) Gorka defended the group, claiming that one of its members had been recognized by Yad VaShem.

Asked if he would be leaving the White House, he said, “There’s fake news and there’s very fake news….I will be there as long as the president has use for me….If there’s a man who can make peace it’s Trump.”

Katz asked about the strategy the United States would take in confronting radical Islam.

Gorka responded adamantly, “We don’t talk about what we are going to do; rather, it’s about the objective. The objective is to stop the ISIS.” Gorka said the President has been explicit: He has absolutely no interest in invading and occupying. “We will help our friends fight the war themselves....We will show we have won when the black flag of ISIS is as the swastika.”

Ayelet Shaked is Israel’s minister of justice. At the conference, she contended that “both Israelis and Palestinians deserve better….The new battlefield is in the courts. Our enemies are changing their tactics and we have to adapt.”

Noting that Israel’s enemies are trying to use international jurisdiction against Israel, she said, “All efforts against Israel are doomed to fail. The United States and Israel are like a family. Discussions with

“There’s fake news and there’s very fake news….I will be there as long as the president has use for me….If there’s a man who can make peace it’s Trump.”

–SEBASTIAN GORKA, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump

the Trump administration are promising.”

The head of Shaked’s party, Naftali Bennett, acknowledged that “the right does not have a monopoly on patriotism; the left does not have a monopoly on peace.” Noting that the Palestinian Authority rewards terrorists based on how many Jews they kill, Bennett said, “The first fact all must recognize is that Abu Mazen is an ardent anti-Semite.”

Bennett continued, “There is a Palestinian State: Gaza….There is a full-fledged Palestinian State with borders, a central government, a military….Founding a second Palestinian state in the heart of Israel would flood Israel with refugees. The Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel....It’s not only about security but about our home….All must realize Israel is here to stay!”

Bennett concluded by saying, “We should focus on improving and making everyone’s life better. That’s what peace is about—peace is about no war and good lives.”

Also in attendance at the conference was Danny Danon, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations. He said, “The main goal of the multilateral relations is the same; changing the direction is difficult. I don’t accept it. I believe we will see changes with Russia and China.”

Danon, the first Israeli to be appointed chairman of a United Nations committee, heads the U.N. Legal Committee. He noted that 109 member states voted for him. “Good Diaspora relations lead to changes, even in the U.N.,” he said. “Some support is quiet, not public....Hopefully, with Nikki Haley [the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations] we will be able to change at the U.N.” U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) addressed an audience that included a significant number of her Queens constituents. She stressed the importance of “the safety and security of our close ally, Israel.” The congresswoman has worked to ensure that resources needed for security are available. Meng noted that she was the first member of the New York congressional delegation to oppose the Iran Deal, and continues to strive to “ensure that Iran isn’t able to subvert the goals of the deal.” She has introduced legislation that tracks “not only who is coming and going, but where they go before and after their stops. Following their path allows us to better monitor activities to ensure Iran isn’t trading illicit and dangerous materials.”

Meng noted that in the Foreign Affairs Committee, hearings were held questioning State Department and think tank officials. She added her name to a bipartisan congressional letter to the White House about the issue of Palestinian payments to terrorists.

As a new member of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, she will continue that inquiry.

Reminding the audience that she is the mother of two sons, Meng called for an end to raising children while surrounded by hatred. She stressed that the BDS Movement “at its core is about delegitimizing Israel,” and noted that the Department of Education has been asked to “look into anti-Israel activity that overlies anti-Semitic activity….Most anti-Israel activity manifests itself as anti-Semitism.”

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 19

OPINION

Making the Most of Technology in Jewish Education

BY LEWIS J. BERNSTEIN and SHIRA ACKERMAN

(JTA) — You’ve seen the advertisements: A fit young woman pedals a stationary bicycle while an instructor on a video screen shouts encouragement.

The company, Peloton, promises “fitness at your fingertips,” and both “live and on-demand” spin classes and “world-class instructors,” all from the comfort of your own home.

What does a stationary bike company have to do with Jewish education?

We believe that Judaism, a 4,000-year-old endeavor, has something important and timeless to say about building character and values; about dignity, persistence and survival skills; about humor, art and joy—all necessary attributes to build that better future. And we believe that media and technology have a place in this process to engage, model and teach.

What if Jewish funders and educators were to adapt the Peloton model to Jewish learning, offering longdistance classes as well as opportunities for in-person connections and interactions? Such a combined model could provide opportunities for learning and community building for families with young children or college-age students, building on already-existing physical institutions such as JCCs. The Peloton model is only one of dozens we explore in a new report, Smart Money: Recommendations for an Educational Technology and Digital Engagement Investment Strategy. Together with several colleagues, all of whom work in the world of secular education and entertainment media, we advised the Jim Joseph and William Davidson foundations on the potential of ed tech and digital engagement to help the foundations’ missions to create meaningful Jewish learning experiences—for people on the margins of Jewish life and those deeply immersed—and vibrant Jewish communities.

The report provides a detailed roadmap for Jewish funders as they consider investing in this area and look to leverage new technology and media in Jewish learning. Here are some key points: Define your mission, a vision of what you want to accomplish.

• Jewish educators and researchers tell us that American Jews have decreasing connections to other Jews, Jewish communities, institutions and Jewish

20 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

life. Technology provides a means to reach all Jews with Jewish wisdom related to values and character, and “life lessons” on topics such as patience, showing kindness to others and managing emotions. Jewish community-building and social interaction are essential; technology cannot replace them—but it can be used to enhance them.

• Balance the need to engage Jews who are uninterested and uninvolved in Jewish life—providing them with authentic learning experiences—with deep educational experiences for those already interested and invested in Jewish learning.

Media is not an end. It is a means, a tool that can reflect reality, but with imagination, can also shape a new reality.

• Nurture young and established talent to experiment fearlessly.

• Insist on quality and dream big.

• Infuse a spirit of innovation into all efforts.

• Be willing to fail and learn from failures.

• Engage and educate through joy, humor and fun.

• Perform research that is formative, iterative and summative.

You can’t teach if you can’t reach. Be marketknowledgeable and -sensitive.

Create a solid distribution plan: All successful impact is dependent on reach and scale. In fact, it is as important as the quality of the content created.

With these guiding principles, we hope creative minds and funders will consider developing these types of Jewish ed-tech opportunities: A blended Jewish lifelong-learning academy The Khan Academy is an educational organization that produces short video lectures, practice exercises and tools for educators in math, science and the humanities. Envision a Khan Academy-like resource with personalized instruction on Jewish education topics taught through video and supplemented by virtual and in-person mentoring and community meetings.

Narrative stories to engage audiences and link them to an ecosystem of learning and community Just as masterful storytellers have adapted Shakespearean classics for the stage, film and television, so should Jewish educators and ed-tech producers adapt Jewish stories, whether biblical,

historical or contemporary, for digital media distribution.

Innovative Israel education and partnerships Advisers stress an urgent need to address the changing views toward Israel and Zionism. They explain that though this is difficult, ignoring these ideas will be detrimental and lead to a decline in people’s—especially young people’s— positive feelings for Israel and, by extension, Judaism.

Create partnerships with Israeli tech and media companies, schools and universities for mentorship, exchange programs, virtual courses, joint storytelling and productions, and more.

A “J-Game Lab” that focuses on integrating curricular content into a game format Experiment with virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR) to teach Jewish history, values and conflict resolution to give a sense of presence and empathy. VR and AR can be used for virtual visits to Israel, important Jewish sites and landmarks, or for virtual interactions with events in Jewish history.

They can also be used to build empathy and an understanding of others through virtually walking in someone else’s shoes.

These could serve as stand-alone experiences or supplement others as introductions to or follow-ups for programs such as Birthright Israel, camp or Poland trips.

Empower and appeal to young people’s comfort with creating and using technology.

Encourage young Jewish talent by building a pipeline for Jewish college students and graduates to professionally explore new technologies in a variety of ways—for example, by creating a Jewish Imagination Fellows Corps.

Launch community building projects around Jewish and general social activism.

Create a Jewish Community Virtual Boomer Corps where retirees virtually mentor younger people and the younger people mentor the boomers, helping to improve their use of technology.

Invest in educator training.

Support Jewish learning through training educators, specifically teachers who work in schools. If educators are not well trained, confident and competent in their use of a technology, the technology will not be used.

We are living in a complex world filled with information, accessibility and opportunities on the one hand, and with uncertainty, intolerance, fear and upheaval on the other. The need to empower children and adults to build a better future could not be more dramatic and urgent.

Our vision for this report is to stimulate funding to harness ed tech to transform Jewish learning and engage all Jews, whatever their beliefs and practice, with knowledge about Jewish values, legacy and teachings. How else will we transform this world for the better for our children and grandchildren?

OPINION

No Room for Racism

BY REBECCA HARARY, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, NY CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 4

Simply put, there is no room for hateful speech or racism. The justices of the United States Supreme Court, whether conservative or liberal, have consistently held that states can prohibit hateful and racist speech when it is meant to incite violence.

The court has zero tolerance. Zero.

Anti-Semitism in any form falls under these categories.

Anti-Semitism affects Jews directly; historically, it is the leading indicator of future oppression for all minorities.

If the hateful spewings of Linda Sarsour are tolerated, New Yorkers open the door to oppression of Jews, African Americans, the LGBTQ community and any other group that does not practice Sharia law. Linda Sarsour doesn’t believe women who are Zionists should have rights. She “would rather take their vaginas away.”

Her reward for this hateful vitriol? An invitation to be the graduation speaker of the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and

Health Policy on June 1.

Thomas Lopez-Pierre, candidate for NYC Council in Harlem, also spews hate with fraudulent accusations against “greedy Jewish landlords” who, he says, are guilty of “ethnic cleansing” in his district. He screams these lies standing on the streets of New York City, asking voters to support his candidacy and his antiSemitic, hateful views. What is his reward for this hateful vitriol? He is allowed to continue inciting hate

against his opponent—who is Jewish.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney got In times like these, New Yorkers need it right when she said, “Couldn’t CUNY a true leader, not a mayor who grants do better?” hundreds of thousands of taxpayer NYC Councilman David Greenfield dollars to groups that support hate, added, “At a time when anti-Semitism anti-Semitism and ignorance. De Blasio in New York City is up over 200 percent, has remained silent we should be using on these issues. Why our taxpayer-funded hasn’t he told taxpayerinstitutions to unite our supported CUNY city, not further divide to rescind Sarsour’s it.” invitation?

Why Why haven’t others hasn’t he demanded stood up against this that Lopez-Pierre be hate? prohibited from running De Blasio’s silence is for office? How can indicative of a man with de Blasio call himself no backbone. Today he a Progressive liberal ignores anti-Semitism, if he actively ignores hijacking our collective Sarsour’s attacks against morality. If he becomes the rights of Jewish New emboldened by “getting Yorkers and women? away with it” today, what NYC Councilman David Greenfield New York might he do tomorrow?

Harary says CD-4 candidate Thomas Lopez-Pierre promotes hate speech.

Rebecca Harary

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21

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Hardwood & Tile Flrs, Cac, Anderson Windows, Radiant & Cast Iron Radiators, 3 Heating Zones, Paved Bkyd w/ Beautiful Pond w/ Waterfall, Pvc Fence. MUST SEE!

108-18 Queens Blvd. Suite 801, Forest Hills, NY 11375

HEALTH PHYSICAL THERAPY

HOME SERVICES CUSTOM BLINDS

UNABLE TO TRAVEL TO PHYSICAL THERAPY? “We Come To YOU!!”

Medicare Covers the Services!

Schedule with a Licensed Physical Therapist Call for a FREE Consultation Offer!

IN HOME PHYSICAL THERAPY

800-803-3385 www.iasorehab.org

OFFICE 718-766-9175 • CELL 917-774-6121

NOW • Custom Window Treatments • Drapery • Shades OPEN! • Upholstery • Measuring & Installation Available Visit Our Newly Opened Discount Fabric Store Monday Thru Saturday

HUNTER DOUGLAS light can change everything

Call now to reserve a FREE Shop-At-Home Appointment with Our Fabulous Designers

JO-VIN

GENERAL DJ SERVICES

AZAMRA Your Premier Jewish DJ AzamraDJ.com 516-771-9388

718-441-9350 www.jo-vin.com

94-23 Jamaica Ave., Woodhaven

HELP WANTED POSITION WANTED WOMAN SEEKS POSITION To Care For Elderly Mon-Fri

EXCELLENT REFERENCES Call V: 516-943-3172

REAL ESTATE APT FOR RENT

BAYBRIDGE/BAYSIDE

OVERLOOKS THROGS NECK BRIDGE $3,350

3 BR, 2 Baths, Just Completely Renovated 2 Car Parking & Garage

718-2 25-474 0 JDBayside@verizon.net

RENTALS QUEENS STUDIOS APTS AVAILABLE ONLY affordably priced 197-30 Jamaica Ave Hollis, Ny 11423 NO BROKERS FEE

718-776-5050

GENERAL HOME SERVICES WE HAVE THE

HELP YOU NEED

Child Care, Housekeepers, Elderly Care & Companions Excellent References No Fee to Employers Live In or Live Out Also, Housecleaners (Day Workers)

Evon's Services

516-505-5510

22 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017

R E A L E S TAT E

BEST REAL ESTATE AGENCY

EMAIL: Jfinkre@yahoo.com • www.jfinkre.com

GENERAL WANTED TO BUY

Old Records 33 - 45 - 78

• Doo-Wop • Rockabilly • Rock & Roll • Heavy Metal • Punk • Disco • Latin • Soul • Jazz • Blues • Gospel • Reggae/Calypso • Ethnic Music • Classical • Soundtracks • No Pop Music Charlie

516-612-2009

TOP DOLLAR 4 ANTIQUES WE PURCHASE ANTIQUES Furniture, Paintings, Rugs, Sterling Silver, Bronzes, Jewelry, Bric-a-Brac, Marble Figures & Marble Top Funiture, Entire Contents of Estates. Rugs Wanted Any Size, Any Condition.

Paid Top $$$

Est. 1950

917-748-7622 718-762-7448 Andrew Korman, Proprietor

ABE BUYS ANTIQUES Silver, Paintings, Rugs, All Furniture till 1960.

Estates & all contents from homes!

Looking for antiques & Modern Designer Names also, Lucite & Chrome, Iron Garden furniture.

718-332-9709

MAY 17 – 23, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 23

…25,000 owners of 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in the five boroughs…

• The largest providers – the backbone – of quality, affordable housing in New York City.

• In good times and bad, a vital economic engine for New York City – we pay hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes and water rates that help fund police, fire, sanitation, public education and other municipal services.

• A vast majority of small owners have buildings with 20 apartments or less – many of them immigrants, and all of us committed to providing quality, affordable housing to our tenants.

• We put the rent money back into our buildings for repairs, maintenance and upgrades – that’s the formula to maintaining and preserving affordable housing for New Yorkers.

Owners of Rent-Stabilized Apartments…

Good for Neighborhoods, Good for Tenants, Good for Affordable Housing

WE HOUSE NEW YORK 24 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 17 – 23, 2017