The May 24th Edition of New York Jewish Life

Conviction Sealing Provides New Yorkers a Second Chance

A Jewish-Hipster Haven in the Heart of Chabad’s Brooklyn Territory

JNF Builds, Defends Israel

VOL. 1, NO. 12 | MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NEWS THAT MATTERS TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA | NYJLIFE.COM | FREE

PHOTO VIA JTA

Trump, Abroad

Photo: David Rubinger

SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2017

11am - 4pm • 57th-74th St. on Fifth Ave. The world’s largest public celebration of Israel.

Honorary Grand Marshals: Mayor Nir Barkat of Jerusalem, Celebrity Chef Jamie Geller & New York Giant Great, Tiki Barber Featuring: Maccabi & Olympic Athletes, Six13, SOULFARM and more!

CelebrateIsraelParade

CelebrateIsraelNY.org

@celebrateisrael

LIVE on FOX’s My9 or at CelebrateIsraelNY.org starting at Noon.

A special thanks to our partners:

Artwork: Elizabeth Rosen

A project of:

2 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

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

BUSINESS Michael Tobman PUBLISHER

A fellow alumnus of Senator Schumer’s office recently sent a note around, alerting a few of us who were in the office in the early 2000s to the recent passing of a Staten Island 9/11 family member with whom we all worked. I hadn’t thought of Bill Doyle in a few years, but I remember him well, and am sorry to hear he died. I had helped Bill in discussions with AOL to allow him to send mass emails on 9/11 issues that were, at the time, addressed to more people than email limits allowed. Recalling our work together— it was a small issue, but mattered a lot to him—has me thinking of the other families I had the honor of working with back then.

I started in the senator’s office in November of 2001, not long after the horrific attacks on the towers, and was designated one of the primary contacts for 9/11 families. Remains were still being found and sifted through, cleanup was in preliminary stages, and there were funerals and memorials taking place all the time. I attended the funeral service of a firefighter I knew as a college freshman. Newspapers were filled with obituaries, and those in the suburbs were writing about death riding the commuter trains.

Heated policy discussions were taking place on issues impacted by the attacks and their aftermath: airline security, insurance, compensation funds, building safety and liability.

Families had a role in all of those talks. Foreign wars, in which we are still involved, were being preliminarily debated.

Grief and policy were intertwined.

Families needed to be advocates, but also needed to catch their breath.

Children’s parents were killed, parents lost their adult children, and spouses were left widows and widowers. And there were issues—though I wouldn’t say they rose to the level of conflicts— among different groups of 9/11 families.

For many reasons, all understandable, first responders who died received the majority of attention and media coverage. Employees who worked in the companies that called the towers home, regular folks who did nothing more than be at work that day, were similarly eulogized. Lost in the well-intentioned scrum of emotion were the civilian employees in the building: electricians, porters, building service personnel and maintenance staff. I remember working closely with those families, people who didn’t have powerful voices to speak up for them. Those families’ loss was as real as that of any others, and they asked for help.

Some families were hawks for overseas military action; others didn’t want their tragedy to be used as an excuse for war. Some families insisted on the sanctity of remains collection; some accommodated whatever was immediately doable. Mothers and fathers, siblings, children, spouses— some became impressive experts on fire safety in buildings or the intricacies of reinsurance law.

Often, before press conferences or at the start of meetings, Senator Schumer would ask family members to lead our group in a prayer. Tears were

commonplace. Now-single parents asked the senator, and sometimes the staff, to speak with their children privately. We made referrals to counselors. We listened. We made sure that other governmental offices returned families’ phone calls.

Time passed. Soldiers went to Iraq and Afghanistan. New losses compounded 9/11 deaths. Ground Zero became a financing and rebuilding quagmire of its own, with mostly positive results. Some families stayed in touch; others less so.

Years later, long after I had left the senator’s office, I started getting email updates from families I knew back then to share news about new marriages, children going off to college, old notes they’d found while cleaning out old homes before moving, or ancient emails that surfaced. Maybe one of those emails was from Bill Doyle.

9/11 changed America in ways still unfolding. It certainly impacted families who lost a loved one. It changed neighborhoods, our city and all of New York. It changed my understanding of public service, and—I hope—made me a better advocate.

Michael Tobman, Publisher

Andrew Holt SENIOR PUBLICATION ADVISOR

Liza Kramer DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE

Kim Rosenberg Amzallag ADVERTISING CONSULTANT

EDITORIAL Maxine Dovere NYC BUREAU CHIEF

Lucy Cohen Blatter Jenny Powers Tammy Mark CONTRIBUTORS

Marjorie Lipsky COPY EDITOR

LETTER7 DESIGN

Send tips and editorials to news@nyjlife.com. For more information on advertising and sponsored content, email sales@nyjlife.com.

CANDLE LIGHTING

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

Shabbat Ends: 9:06 p.m.

Friday, June 2 Candles: 8:04 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 9:12 p.m.

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3

SCHUMER IN THE NEWS

Grand Slam For South Shore Little League WORK BEGINS ON TOTTENVILLE’S SOUTH SHORE LITTLE LEAGUE JOSEPH A. VERDINO JR. FIELD OF DREAMS BASEBALL GRANDSTAND

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Staten Island Borough President James Oddo, Councilman Joe Borelli, and Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Feniosky PeñaMora today announced that construction has begun on the Joseph A. Verdino Jr. grandstand at the South Shore Little League in Staten Island.

The grandstand, which will open next spring, is named for Joseph A. Verdino Jr., a South Shore Little League player who passed away in 2007. He was 10 years old.

His parents, Robin and Joseph Verdino, created the Joseph Anthony Verdino Jr. Field of Dreams Foundation to build a state-of-the-art baseball grandstand at South Shore Little League and improve Little League and community baseball fields throughout the borough. The project will allow South Shore Little League to host Little League-sanctioned tournaments in an inspiring and functional new grandstand.

“The effort to jump-start construction of this wonderful new baseball stadium for the children of the South Shore and Tottenville was like a Tinker-toEvers-to-Chance double play: The concerned parents told me their challenges at opening day; I called Mayor de Blasio on their behalf; and the mayor sealed the deal by cutting through the red tape and got construction started. That’s how government is supposed to work: responsive and bipartisan. The local champions like Borough President Oddo and Councilmember Borelli were also ardent supporters—and effective,” said Schumer.

Schumer added, “The South Shore Little League is made up of bright-eyed, baseball-loving, hardworking kids in the community, and they deserve a brand-new baseball stadium to call home. For far too long, plans for the new Joseph A. Verdino Jr. Field of Dreams Baseball Stadium have been stuck in the dugout and that’s why Mayor de Blasio and I worked together to make this a priority. After our push, construction on the new stadium is set to begin today, and that’s

4 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

grand-slam good news for the South Shore Little League!”

“I am so pleased that we were able to move this incredible project forward and help build a field of dreams for hundreds of children,” de Blasio said.

“Baseball is a game that teaches kids life lessons, and that makes the Joseph Anthony Verdino Jr. Foundation and grandstand all the more poignant.

This will be an amazing tribute to Joseph’s life and an important resource for generations of baseball players and fans.”

Said Oddo,“When the mayor and I were at Lee’s Tavern having pizza after reviewing snow-removal efforts on Staten Island during the first large snowstorm a few months ago, I brought the issues delaying this project directly to the mayor’s attention and asked him to personally intervene. Now, for the first time in a long time, I feel optimistic that the dream of Robin and Joe Verdino to honor their son by building a state-of-the-art facility for generations of Staten Island young people will finally come to fruition. This is a story that is about so much more than just a field; it is about a mother and a father and a son taken from them way too soon. Thank you to the mayor for hearing me out, and I thank my colleagues Senator Schumer, Councilman Borelli and former Councilman Ignizio for all they have done to get us here.”

“This is a field where I dropped fly balls and grounded out just about every weekend as a kid, but now I simply could not accept a strikeout on this project,” said Borelli. “I am glad we were able to gather enough support from the mayor and Senator Schumer to push it forward and ensure young players, who are far better than I ever was, have a new field to play on again.”

“The current mix of bleachers, press box and dugouts constructed over many years will be replaced with one continuous grandstand that provides superior facilities with a clear sense of identity for the league,” said Peña-Mora. “South Shore Little

League has produced some of the best and most memorable teams in youth baseball, and soon it will have an advanced grandstand that represents those accomplishments.”

“It’s exciting for the children to be able to play in a Little League baseball stadium built for them and future players of Staten Island,” said South Shore Little League President John Iorio. “Many thanks to Senator Schumer, Mayor de Blasio, Borough President Oddo and Councilman Borelli for all their efforts.”

Progress toward construction began shortly after Sen. Schumer’s annual visit to the South Shore Little League’s opening day this year, when he heard from parents trying to navigate construction red tape. The mayor—who also began hearing about construction delays from local elected officials—and Schumer discussed expediting approvals and construction of the stadium. The mayor made the stadium a City Hall priority and agencies involved fast-tracked needed approvals. The project is being managed by the Department of Design and Construction.

The $5.5-million project includes the construction of the grandstand to create a Major League experience at the Larry De Young Field—at the corner of Bedell Avenue and Hylan Boulevard—and at the southwest corner of the Little League complex. The complex has seven fields in all. South Shore Little League has served the Tottenville community since 1954.

The new grandstand will have elevated seating for up to 275 fans; additional covered accessible seating and spectator standing areas along the first and third base lines; a press box elevated above home plate; a conference room below the press box; trophy displays; seating areas; and storage under the grandstand. It will also have recessed dugouts for the home and away players, and more energy-efficient lights.

Funding for the project came from the foundation and from contributions by former Staten Island Borough President James P. Molinaro, current Borough President James Oddo as well as former Councilmember Vincent Ignizio.

BDSWatch

All 50 Governors Sign Anti-BDS Statement

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON’S PARTY WITHDRAWS SECOND CANDIDATE WHO SUPPORTED BDS French President Emmanuel Macron about to meet with Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin, May 15, 2017 PHOTO BY SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES

(JTA) – For the second time this month, the party of French President Emmanuel Macron withdrew from its parliamentary elections ticket a candidate who promoted online a boycott of Israel.

William Tchamaha was removed Thursday from the En Marche! centrist party’s list in the northern SeineMaritime in next month’s elections, the news site Actu reported.

CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, had called for his removal last week on Twitter, citing his support for the boycott campaign.

Promoting a boycott of countries or their citizens is illegal in France, where it is classified as hate speech per legislation from 2003.

“A state outside the law that despises the law,” Tchamaha wrote Feb. 8 on Twitter in a message that has since been deleted. “Boycott Israeli products and [apply] an economic embargo!”

In 2015, Tchamaha tweeted about the slaying by Israeli police officers of Palestinians while they were trying to carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis.

“The massacre continues and the Palestinians get the blame,” he wrote.

A spokesman for the party of Macron, a centrist who won the May 7 elections against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, neither confirmed nor denied to Actu that Tchamaha’s removal from the ticket was in any way connected to the tweets.

“He no longer corresponded with the values that we uphold,” the party’s elections committee said without elaborating.

Earlier this week, Macron presented a diverse Cabinet of 22 ministers, 11 of them women, that features critics of the Jewish state as well as advocates.

Last week, En Marche! withdrew from its list another candidate whom

CRIF had urged the party to withdraw: Christian Gerin, a journalist who was taken off the ticket a day after he was nominated. The removal also was widely understood to be in connection with messages he wrote in 2013, throughout last year and this year on Twitter.

In one tweet, flagged as “antiSemitic” by the LICRA watchdog against anti-Semitism and racism, he wrote, “When will there be a separation between CRIF and state?” Gerin also wrote that Manuel Valls, a former prime minister under outgoing President François Hollande, was “virulently Zionist, racist and an Islamophobe.”

Another tweet said, “The only solution: BDS.” Laurence Haim, a spokesman for En Marche!, confirmed to the France Bleu (a network of local and regional radio stations) that the suspension was over the tweets.

(JTA) — Governors of all 50 states have signed a pledge to reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Governors United Against BDS statement declares that “the goals of the BDS movement are antithetical to our values and the values of our respective states, our support for Israel as a vital U.S. ally, important economic partner and champion of freedom.”

The statement does not commit the governors to specific actions, although signers “reaffirm our support for Israel as a vital U.S. ally, important economic partner and champion of freedom.” At least 16 states have passed legislation targeting BDS, usually by banning state entities from investing in businesses that boycott Israel or its settlements. “[O]ur nation’s 50 governors, as well as the District of Columbia mayor, recognize the pernicious goals of the BDS movement, which singles out Israel from among all the nations of the world for relentless and undue criticism, and whose efforts undermine the prospects for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace,” AJC CEO David Harris said in a statement on May 17.

The signers also affirmed support for the two-state solution.

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5

This special guide provides a unique opportunity to promote your messaging to NYJL’s New York metro area print distribution of 20,000 + thousands of additional parade-goers on Sunday, June 4th.

ADVERTISING DEADLINE: Friday, MAY 26!

Issue In Brief: New York Jewish Life and partners are set to publish a special guide to the 2017 Celebrate Israel Parade featuring original editorial, opinions, profiles of organizers and affiliates, parade information, and related food and entertainment recommendations + more.

Featured Editorial: • Welcoming notes or editorials from: Leaders from New York’s diverse Jewish communities AND Senior members of New York government • Information about the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) and JCRC, the organizations behind the Celebrate Israel Parade • Timeline showcasing the history and success of the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City • Four-page photo spread highlighting great parade moments • Original editorial on history and importance of JCRC in NY and beyond • Parade guide, including route and float information

Special Distribution:

In addition to New York Jewish Life’s NYC metro area distribution of 20,000 copies in highly curated commercial and retail locations, JCCs, Synagogues and Chabads, nonprofits, and government offices, NYJL will print thousands of additional copies to be distributed onsite at the actual Celebrate Israel Parade and surrounding area in an effort to further educate parade goers on the parade organizers and goals of the parade.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO SUPPORT THIS ISSUE PLEASE CONTACT

SALES@NYJLIFE.COM TODAY!

6 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

TRUMP, FAMILY MAKE PRIVATE VISIT TO WESTERN WALL President Donald Trump at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017 PHOTO BY ISRAEL BARDUGO

JERUSALEM (JTA) — President Donald Trump visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to go to the holy site.

Trump arrived there under heavy security Monday afternoon with his wife, Melania; daughter Ivanka; and son-in-law Jared Kushner. No Israeli politicians or officials accompanied the family. U.S. officials reportedly had rejected a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the site with Trump.

Trump was presented with a Book of Psalms with his name printed on it by the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz. The inscription printed inside read: “This ancient book will safeguard you so you can safeguard the entire world. With appreciation and admiration for being the first United States president to visit the Western Wall.”

Following a brief description of the history of the wall, Trump went to the men’s side, with his daughter and wife heading to the women’s section. Trump, who wore a black kippah, stood in front of the wall with his hand resting on it for several moments before placing a note in its cracks and backing away.

The entire Western Wall plaza was closed off, with the area in front of the wall covered by cloths to allow the First Family to enjoy a private visit, except for the pool television cameras.

The Trump family walked to the wall from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites in Christianity, which they visited first, arriving there on foot from the Jaffa Gate.

Most of the major streets in the Old City of Jerusalem were shut down for the visit, preventing store owners from opening their businesses and tourists from visiting the sites.

President Donald Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, left, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017 PHOTO BY ISRAEL BARDUGO

In the guest book, Trump wrote, “This was a great honor — Peace!”

PHOTO BY ISRAEL BARDUGO

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7

Trump Says He “Never Mentioned Israel”

President Donald Trump speaking at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017 PHOTO BY LIOR MIZRAHI/GETTY IMAGES

Trump Insists Israel and Palestinians Ready for Peace JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the major address of his visit to Israel, President Donald Trump called for a coalition of nations to fight against extremism and insisted that both Israel and the Palestinians are ready for peace.

Trump was greeted with an extended standing ovation on Tuesday afternoon by a small audience of Israeli lawmakers and guests at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and his speech was punctuated by applause.

“Conflict cannot continue forever,” he said. The president called for a coalition of partners of the nations of the world “who share the aim of stamping out extremists,” and said diverse nations can unite around such a goal.

Such a coalition, the president said, “requires the world to recognize the vital role of the state of Israel.”

Trump praised the history of the Jewish people as “a story of faith and perseverance.” He added that Jews in Israel are free to do whatever they dream, and that “Muslims, Christians and people of all faiths are free to live and worship according to their conscience” there.

“I call upon people to draw inspiration from this ancient city to set aside our sectarian differences to

8 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

overcome oppression and hatred,” he said.

Trump acknowledged that Israel and Jews throughout the world are targeted by Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic State and Iran, which the president said “will not have nuclear weapons.”

“Iran calls for the destruction of Israel. Not with Donald J. Trump,” he said.

Trump asserted that both Israel and the Palestinians are ready to pursue a peace agreement, and reiterated his “personal commitment” to helping them achieve that goal.

“I’m telling you, that’s what I do, that the Palestinians are ready to reach for peace,” Trump said, adding, “My friend Benjamin, he is ready for peace, he is reaching for peace,” referring to Netanyahu.

“Making peace will not be easy. But with determination, compromise and the belief that peace is possible, Israelis and Palestinians will reach a deal,” he said.

Trump called America’s security cooperation with Israel “bigger than ever” and a difference from the Obama administration.

“A big, big, beautiful difference,” he said.

Trump was set to leave later Tuesday afternoon on his way to the Vatican.

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump told reporters that he “never mentioned Israel” in a meeting with Russian government officials in which he was alleged to have revealed highly classified information.

“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’” Trump said to reporters Monday at a photo op with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel on the second leg of his first overseas trip as president.

“Never mentioned it during the conversation. They’re all saying I did, so you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel.’”

No one had alleged that Trump mentioned Israel in the meeting two weeks ago with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in the Oval Office.

Reports last week said that Trump revealed details of intelligence on the Islamic State that could compromise an ally that had shared the intelligence with the United States. The ally was later reported to have been Israel.

There was no reporting that Trump had revealed the source of the intelligence with the Russians.

Instead, the concern was that the level of detail in Trump’s account could be used to deduce sources and methods.

It was not clear from video of the photo op what prompted Trump’s statement. Just before he brought up the information, Netanyahu said—apparently responding to a reporter—“The intelligence cooperation is terrific.”

There were concerns after last week’s revelations that Israel could limit its intelligence cooperation with the United States because of Trump’s alleged carelessness.

President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an official welcoming ceremony on the president’s arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, May 22, 2017 PHOTO BY ILIA YEFIMOVICH/GETTY IMAGES

Israeli Startups Are Driving the Car-Technology Revolution.

Here’s How.

BY ANDREW TOBIN

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Israeli startups were revving their engines ahead of the country’s largest-ever “smart transportation” event.

More than 200 local companies working in transportation technology were at the EcoMotion Conference on Thursday, May 18, at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa. The plan was to give auto industry giants a look under the hood of “Startup Nation.”

“Companies from around the world want to see what’s happening in Israel,” said Lior Zeno-Zamansky, the executive director of EcoMotion, a networking group for transportation-technology companies in Israel that organized the conference. “The idea is ultimately to make deals, and I can tell you we’ve had a lot of success stories in the past.”

Israel in recent years has become an unlikely center for automotive innovation—unlikely because it has no car manufacturing to speak of, and the country is notorious for its bad drivers.

It started with the electric-car company Better Place, which in spite of its high-profile bankruptcy in May 2013 is credited with putting Israel’s automotive tech scene on the map. The next month, Google bought the Raanana-based mapping company Waze for $1 billion. And in March of this year, Intel agreed to acquire the self-driving–car technology powerhouse Mobileye, located in Jerusalem, for a record $15 billion. BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Uber, Volkswagen and Volvo have also invested in Israeli technology since 2016.

Now that they have the world’s attention, Israeli entrepreneurs have shifted into overdrive. According to Zeno-Zamansky, at least 550 startups now work in the country’s transportation-technology industry.

Here are some of the revolutionary things those attending the fifth annual EcoMotion conference are trying to make cars do.

Run on Electricity with Little or No Charging

The era of the electric vehicle has officially arrived.

A couple of million plug-in cars are now whirring along roads across the globe, consuming a third as much energy as their gasoline-powered counterparts.

Pulling over to recharge them, however, is a buzzkill. So Israeli startups are working on ways to make the pit stops faster and less frequent—or even

But car vision is still far from 20/20, and some Israeli startups apparently think they can do better.

Innoviz Technologies, located in Kfar Saba, and Vayavision, from Or Yehuda, are both developing their own lidar laser systems, which use light and radar to determine distance.

Meanwhile, Oryx Vision promises “nanoantenna” sensors that perform 50 times better and cost much less than the technologies used by Mobileye. Last October, the Petach Tikvah-based startup raised $17 million in its first round of funding. If all goes well, it anticipates seeing its product on the road by 2020. By then, some analysts predict, there will be 10 million selfdriving cars in operation.

The Mobileye group has set the following year, 2021, as the target for its technology to take the wheel.

Talk to Each Other and the World

The cars of the future will communicate to avoid crashes and ease traffic jams. Experts predict that some cars will have this ability within a year or two, and that the technology will be commonplace in self-driving cars within a decade.

A simulation of cars using Autotalks’ vehicle-to-vehicle communication Headquartered in Kfar Netter, system Autotalks is making chip sets that can SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE link vehicles not just to each other but also to infrastructure and people. The semiconductor unnecessary. company has collaborated with Audi on “smart Tel Aviv-based StoreDot claims to be developing an electric-vehicle battery that can be recharged in antennae” and started selling to car-equipment five minutes; that’s compared to the hours that are manufacturers. In March it raised $30 million in typically required today. The company says a single funding, touting its chips’ compliance with a rule charge would run a car for about 300 miles—farther proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation in than almost any electric vehicle now on the market December that would mandate the use of vehicle-toand nearly as far as a gasoline-powered car. StoreDot vehicle communication in new cars. The department recently demonstrated proof of the concept on a single estimated that the rule could prevent more than half battery cell, and previously recharged a smartphone a million accidents and a thousand U.S. deaths every year. in 30 seconds.

As cars become more connected, Herzliya-based Electroad thinks its can do away with plugs altogether. At its headquarters in Caesarea, the otonomo wants to provide driver and passenger company developed an under-the-pavement wireless services—from apps to roadside help—via its cloudtechnology that recharges electric vehicles while they based marketplace. It has deals with nine automakers, drive. With “inductive charging,” vehicles can carry but as usual, consumers will pay with their data, which lighter, less-expensive batteries—and never have to otonomo allows automakers to sell.

While Autotalks and otonomo provide their own stop to recharge. Israel’s government is working with security, Argus Cybersecurity designs systems to Electroad to build a half-mile public bus route in Tel Aviv using the technology. If the planned 2018 launch protect the electronics that control a vehicle’s basic goes well, there are plans for more routes, starting functions from hackers. The Tel Aviv company does with an 11-mile shuttle between the city of Eilat and this by analyzing the data that come in and out of a vehicle’s communications systems, which are the Ramon International Airport in the south. otherwise highly vulnerable. Argus CEO Ofer BenNoon came up with the idea while serving in Israel’s Navigate by “Sight” elite 8200 intelligence unit.

Mobileye provides most of the world’s driverFor those attached to their regular old car but fed assistance technology. That includes the sensors— up with driving it, IVO Driver Robot has a solution: mainly cameras, lidar lasers and radar—and a robot that can drive for you. So far, the robot has computing power that cars need to “see” the road. mostly driven a golf-cart–style buggy around a parking And the company is working with Intel and others to lot at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, where the roll out a test fleet of 40 self-driving vehicles later this robot is being developed. But a new and improved year. version is in the works.

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9

A Jewish-Hipster Haven in the Heart of Chabad’s Brooklyn Territory

BY BEN SALES

NEW YORK (JTA) — Soon after Nechama Levy moved to Brooklyn five years ago, she opened a bicycle-repair shop. The spacious, high-ceilinged store was just down the street from a new pub with exposed brick walls.

Like many who have moved recently to the rapidly gentrifying borough, Levy, 33, was drawn to the area’s relatively cheap rents—at least back then—plus its bicycling culture.

Levy also ensconced herself in one of Kings County’s Jewish trends: a curated, artisanal type of liberal Judaism. Like much of brownstone Brooklyn, her neighborhood has a growing galaxy of independent prayer groups, or minyans— one of which Levy herself founded: the Brooklyn Women’s Chavurah, a womenled service.

But what makes her growing Jewish community unique is that it’s on the home turf of Chabad, perhaps the most visible Hasidic Orthodox group in the world.

Welcome to the new progressive Jewish community growing in Crown Heights.

Less than a half-mile away from Chabad-Lubavitch’s global headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway, is the local office of Repair the World, a progressive Jewish community-service group. The Brooklyn Women’s

Chavurah has met there monthly for the past year.

Now Levy is downscaling the group as a new coed egalitarian service, Keter, started up in Crown Heights last week. Other liberal groups in the neighborhood include Kavod, a quasi-egalitarian Orthodox minyan; and Grindr Shabbat, an LGBT minyan named after the gay dating app.

“There’s a very independent spirit here,” Levy said about the neighborhood. “Not only were there a number of spaces that attracted very wonderful people, but there was an ethos of ‘What do you have to offer, and what can you create?’”

Located in central Brooklyn, Crown Heights is a tranquil yet vibrant neighborhood lined with the borough’s iconic brownstones. Home to large West Indian and African American communities, Crown Heights has been Chabad’s base since the group escaped from Europe in 1940. At the time of the UJAFederation of New York’s 2011 study, some 24,000 Jews lived in the neighborhood—about a fifth of its population—with residents saying the number has since risen.

The neighborhood is most infamously known for the 1991 riots in which black demonstrators attacked Jewish residents after a black child died when he was

Manhattanville Coffee, opened two years ago, merges two of Crown Heights’ communities: It’s a chic artisanal cafe with strict kosher certification.

PHOTO BY BEN SALES

10 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

struck by a car in the motorcade of the Chabad rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. A visiting yeshiva student was killed and several people were injured.

Today the neighborhood might be better known for its rapid gentrification. This follows the path of nearby neighborhoods like Park Slope, where rents rose nearly 50 percent between 1990 and 2014, and Williamsburg, where the increase for that period was close to 80 percent, according to a study by New York University’s Furman Center. The study put Crown Heights among the city’s top-15 gentrifying neighborhoods.

Independent minyans are a reflection of the spirit that has made Brooklyn home to hipster trends like matcha cafes and organic-food markets.

Crown Heights is one of the latest frontiers in that process of gentrification, with rents rising and new yuppie arrivals moving into lower-income minority neighborhoods.

“The reality of Crown Heights today is that it’s a vibrant, alive, Caribbean American and African American community,” said Cindy Greenberg, Repair the World’s New York City director, noting the neighborhood’s “small-town feel.” But at the same time, she said, “I think a lot of the newcomers feel uneasy about what it means to move into a predominantly African American, Caribbean American neighborhood and know that they’re part of the wave of gentrification that’s caused all these prices to rise.”

Repair the World opened its Crown Heights office two years ago precisely to recruit young Jews to volunteer amid a lower-income population that could benefit from community service, Greenberg said.

Since then, it has engaged in services like emergency food relief, help with food stamps and afterschool tutoring.

But along with hosting space for community advocacy groups, the organization’s office has increasingly been a meeting place for the neighborhood’s growing ecosystem of independent minyans. While Chabad is known for its outreach to non-Orthodox Jews, its approach to observance is traditionalist Orthodox. Independent minyans tend to emphasize progressive ideas like gender equality and LGBT rights.

There have been some hiccups along the way, e.g., some members of the Chabad community objected to a modern Orthodox synagogue’s erecting an eruv, a symbolically enclosed area that allows observant Jews to carry objects on Shabbat. However, the discord has blown over. Both Chabadniks and the newer Jewish arrivals say their communities get along, even if they mostly operate apart.

“The community somehow becomes more cohesive; it becomes more accepting,” said Dov Alpert, a cofounder of Kavod. “Here, everyone is trying to be more nice and friendly. That’s the M.O.—trying to be nice.”

Sometimes the two communities cooperate.

Mordechai Lightstone, who runs Chabad’s social media, invites independent minyan-goers to his home for meals and, outside his official Chabad role, sits on Repair the World’s young leadership board.

“When you speak of young Jews, the intersectionality of Jewish identity has shifted,” Lightstone said. “They no longer say I go to just this thing.

They’ll go to Repair the World and do social justice stuff and then they express themselves Jewishly, but when they want a Shabbat meal they go to Ari Kirschenbaum or go to me.”

Kirschenbaum heads Chabad Heights, a synagogue and community center serving brownstone Brooklyn.

Ben Weiner, a fellow at Repair the World, welcomes the Chabad teenagers who come to his office on Fridays asking if he wants to put on tefillin.

On a Friday before Passover, after laying the ritual leather straps on his arm, Weiner invited the teenagers to volunteer at a Repair the World event that educated local children—Jewish and non-Jewish—about the holiday.

The teens agreed.

“Whenever I’m around, I like to have them wrap tefillin and engage the conversation to get a little view into what their community does and what they believe in,” said Weiner, 23, a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. “I wasn’t sure they would come. I was really happy they did, and were willing to give that additional perspective, knowing that different customs would be taught that day.”

Young Jews who are new to Crown Heights say the neighborhood’s diversity and open attitude make them feel free to express themselves spiritually.

“It was the first time I experienced a Jewish community that I felt a part of, that reflected my social-justice values and religious values,” said Malkah Nadoff, 27, a Chicago native who moved to Crown Heights in 2014.

“One thing that stands out to me is that there are people with different levels of observance that share community and share space. There’s no pressure around someone being too religious or someone not being religious.”

Still, the newer communities are experiencing some growing pains.

Residents recognize that not all the minyans can survive. Levy, the bikeshop owner, wonders how much the Brooklyn Women’s Chavurah will stay active now that a new egalitarian Saturday morning service has popped up. Rising prices in Crown Heights, along with the transience of prayer groups without physical infrastructure, make the future of all the groups tenuous, said Avishai Gebler, one of Keter’s organizers.

Avishai Gebler is one of the founders of Keter, an egalitarian prayer group in Crown Heights.

PHOTO BY BEN SALES

Plus, he said, while the young liberal Jewish community is active, it’s not all that big. Most of the groups draw a few dozen people.

“We talk about the growth of the community—we’re talking about 30 people—but it’s growing,” Gebler said.

“As things grow, it does feel different.

That’s the nature of any startup effect.

I do wonder about the sustainability of this community. It’s expensive. What’s the model? Is the model to have lots of different minyanim, piecemeal?”

The leadership of groups is in transition. Reform rabbinical student Matt Green, for example, who founded Grindr Shabbat, has shifted his focus to a new project: Brooklyn Jews, a service with musical instruments—prohibited in traditional Shabbat services—and nonkosher food.

“There are an extensive number of nontraditional Jews, secular Jews, Jews that appreciate a guitar on Shabbat,” Green said of his Brooklyn Jews, which draws close to 100 people at some meetings.

Lightstone said the gentrification that’s come along with the new arrivals has made conditions difficult for longstanding Crown Heights families.

But he added that if the newcomers engage with existing residents and get to know their cultures, they are welcome in the neighborhood.

“I don’t think anyone is doing something wrong by moving here,” he said. “If you’re moving to Crown Heights and have a respect for people here before you, and you have the history they have, as long as you do that, you’re doing the best you can.”

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 11

Jonathan Brent, director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in his office PHOTO BY MAXINE DOVERE

Giving History a Future, One Byte and Frame at a Time

BY MAXINE DOVERE

The continuity of Jewish life through the centuries is conveyed by its memories.

History and memory are essential paradigms of the Jewish experience. From its beginnings, with the wanderings of Abraham told in the Tanakh, to the stories of slavery and redemption told in the Haggadah, to commentaries on Jewish history written through the millennia, Jews are a people who have chronicled their experience in oral and written form, and—with the advance of technology—through the

12 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

most modern methods of storytelling.

Technology is making the most historic library of the traditional texts of European Jewry universally available. New York Jewish Life spoke with Jonathan Brent, director of the New York-based YIVO Institute (“Yidisher Vsenshaftlikher Institut”) for Jewish Research, about the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project. The conversation took place at YIVO headquarters at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.

“Jews are a special case,” said Brent, “an extremely literate people.” He noted that Jewish history in the Diaspora is multicultural, multilinguistic and

multinational. Jewish culture, said Brent, “is never pure—not purely German-Jewish or Russian-Jewish or French-Jewish. It’s a mixed heritage.” He explained that even when Yiddish was declared the “language of the people” by Yiddish-language author I. L. Peretz in 1907, multiple Yiddish pronunciations, spellings and vocabulary variations were common. “Jews were never a homogeneous people,” Brent said.

He went on to say that Jews leave few physical footprints, such as a Taj Mahal or a Tower of London.

Without physical structures—concrete references to history—the oral tradition becomes all the more important. Knowledge of the history of the Jews has been transmitted through language—written and, according to Brent, stories and oral history.

“Even today, Jewish history is transmitted orally,” he said. “Jews in the Diaspora, with minor exceptions, are often cut off from their abundant history. The thousand years of tradition of the Jewish people is in danger of being lost or sitting in archives in books that are read by perhaps 300 scholars.”

Brent realized that a different approach was urgently needed. Accordingly, YIVO has created online educational programs that reach a growing audience. When a six-part course by historian Samuel Kassow was presented online, 4,000 people from 53 countries tuned in.

“People cut off from their history have a yearning, a deep desire to know, but are lacking the means to satisfy that hunger,” said Brent. The online courses “are getting the word out.”

Two courses are currently available: the discovery of Ashkenazim and a course on East European Jewish folklore. Additional courses are anticipated to begin in 2018, based on YIVO resources. Brent believes that through such means “we can reach this strange group of people dispersed throughout the world, whether they are in Uganda, Idaho, Uruguay, Colombia, Hawaii or Guam.

“The Jewish phenomenon is so different from any other. The challenge is how do you reach and reconnect these people?” Calling Jewish heritage a fundamental aspect of a Jew’s identity, he said that “for many, there is a profound emptiness because they do not know….But the records survive. Through records, we can connect generations.”

With what Brent termed “the essential support” of Edward Blank, the largest project to save the heritage of the Eastern European Jewish world has begun: the digitization of as many documents as possible from YIVO’s prewar collection, which was based in Vilna, the “Jerusalem of the North.”

YIVO was established in Vilna in 1925. Texts, documents and artifacts were collected from throughout the Jewish world—including Poland and the Pale of Settlement (Russia/Ukraine)—and sent from every place of Jewish learning, including New York. In 1940, the year before the Nazis invaded Lithuania, they sent German scholars fluent in Yiddish to examine the collection. More than 500 linear feet of priceless material was confiscated and removed to Germany. The stolen material numbered close to a million documents, including some 25,000 books. A smaller part of the collection, about 100

linear feet, was hidden in the Vilna Ghetto, buried or given to non-Jews.

When the Germans invaded in 1941, Max Weinreich, the head of the YIVO archive in Vilna, was in Denmark.

He was warned not to return and subsequently came to New York, where the new YIVO headquarters— “a headquarters without a library or archive,” per Brent—was established.

At the end of the war, Seymour Pomrenze, a U.S. army colonel and member of the Commission for the Restitution of Stolen Jewish Objects, found most of the material the Nazis had hidden. It was moved to New York. Part of the collection, however, remained in Lithuania. The “saved” 100 linear feet of the archive were discovered by Avram Setzkezer, who had escaped the Vilna Ghetto and survived in the forests.

Lithuania’s government claimed the archive, arguing that it had never stolen it, but had in fact hidden and protected the artifacts. The archive was hidden once again, remaining in the basement of a Catholic church until 1989.

Since taking his position at YIVO, Brent has worked to warm relations between YIVO and the Lithuanian government, which remains adamant about not relinquishing its treasure. Under Soviet rule, the former Catholic church holding the “protected” 100 feet of the Yiddish YIVO archive had become part of the Lithuanian National Library.

Said Brent, “The idea occurred to me that instead of having the physical property, YIVO’s concern should be about preservation and making the content available to the world.” He proposed a joint project intended to reunite all of the material of the historic archive. Brent succeeded in making a deal with the government to digitize and publish the collection.

“The Lithuanian government loved the project,” he told New York Jewish Life. Emanuel Zingeris, a Jewish member of the Lithuanian Parliament, became the project’s patron. Brent described him as “a colorful figure, witty, full of Jewish irony and a man who loves YIVO.” The proposed US$5.5 million cost was, however, larger than the entire YIVO budget. “I thought that if it could not be paid for, that meant the Jewish people were no longer interested in their history,” said Brent.

“The prophets say the nation will perish for lack of knowledge—the inner spirit, the covenant, the spark.

If the spark is gone, then the building is empty.”

The saga resulted in the creation of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project, a seven-year international project to preserve, digitize and virtually reunite YIVO’s prewar library and archival collections located in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania, through a dedicated web portal. The project will also digitally reconstruct the historic private Strashun Library of Vilna, one of the great prewar libraries of Europe.

“Our history is who we are,” said Brent. “The Jews represent a vital core of cultural activity. Not every Jewish child has a grandfather to tell the story of our people. They do have a YIVO; it’s our obligation.”

He noted that some of the material is difficult for most to understand. Digitizing it is the first step toward the larger goal of building an online museum.

Scholars will prepare a history and analysis of each document with captions in multiple languages.

“Everyone will be able to reconnect and rediscover this vast and vastly important history of the Jewish people.”

As technology changes, so do methods of documenting history. In the 20th century, the immediacy and movement of film allowed a living connection with history. Much of the 20th-century history of the Jewish people, good and evil, was recorded.

Those who would twist history also recognized the power of this tool. The Nazi propaganda machine made historic use of the new medium, promoting itself and recording the horrors it created on the celluloid recordkeeper. However, unless it is carefully stored at very cold temperatures, celluloid very soon begins to disintegrate.

Vanessa Lappa and Tomer Eliav are the initiators of the Foundation for Preserving the Visual History

“Our history is who we are.

Not every Jewish child has a grandfather to tell the story of our people. They do have a YIVO; it’s our obligation.”

–Jonathan Brent of the Jewish People. They state as their mission “to collect, digitize and restore the innumerable amount of hours of celluloid film reels of historical importance that are disintegrating, and make them accessible to the public free of charge.”

While working on “The Decent One,” a documentary based on Heinrich Himmler’s mostly unknown diaries, letters and photographs, they visited more than 200 public and private archives in 16 countries, discovering films documenting “historical events in general and Jewish life in particular.” Lappa explained that those films had not been digitized, and many were in a state of advanced decay.

“If this rare and important historical footage deteriorates further, much of the visual documentation of the Jewish past will be lost to oblivion,” she told New York Jewish Life.

The Museum of Jewish History in New York was the setting for the first gala event of the foundation on May 11. Makers and preservers of Jewish history across the generations gathered to honor the preservation efforts.

Dani Dayan, consul general of Israel in New York, noted that the restored films “will help future generations understand the history of Israel in a way that goes beyond reading….There is no other nation that gives so much importance to remembering, which may be the secret of our continuity.” He expressed hope that the film records of momentous

events in the history of the Jewish people in the past century would be available for future generations to see, warning that “all would be lost...if we do not make an effort to preserve.”

Abe Foxman served as keynote speaker. From 1987 to 2015, Foxman was national director of the Anti-Defamation League. He is a leader in Holocaust education and Catholic/Jewish dialogue and reconciliation.

“As Jews,” he said, “we are a people of history, a history that teaches, instructs, protects, envelopes, enslaves and liberates us….By the oral and by the written word, we have protected our history. In a time period when we are enveloped in one crisis after another—in a tsunami of words—we are awakened that words may not be enough to protect our history and our peoplehood.”

Foxman recalled the sensitivity of General Dwight Eisenhower who, when confronted with the reality of anti-Semitism and hatred, ordered military film crews to photograph and film everything they saw in the camps. “Ike knew there would be challenges, claims that ‘it never happened,’” said Foxman. “To explain the enormity was possible only through the visual. It was seared into everybody’s mind.”

Foxman’s comments on the obligation of the Jewish people “to remember, to teach, to transmit” reflected obligations so passionately conveyed by YIVO Director Jonathan Brent. Each expressed the absolute obligation to use every means available to foster awareness and understanding of the value of memory and documentation of history.

Referring to film preservationists Lappa and Eliav, Foxman said, “They so understood. Everybody will understand the importance….Thank you for making it possible for us to impact the future of our people’s memory.”

The evening was filled with stories about Jewish history. Former Ambassador Marc Ginsberg, America’s first Jewish ambassador to a Muslim country, lauded Andre Azoulay, ambassador at large of King Mohammed IV of Morocco, as someone who has worked to build “peace between nations and peace between peoples.”

Patti Kenner and Doris Schechter, two of the caravan of Jewish children rescued by Ruth Gruber, spoke of Gruber as “a master of recording the history of the time...who taught that being righteous is the most important thing in life...to be righteous, to defy the prevalence of hate, to fight intolerance.”

And Lappa was asked which film was her and Eliav’s most exciting discovery. She responded, “Everything that you see you fall in love with. You want to know what it contains, what is its history.”

Most surprising to the two preservationists so far was a film of the first visit of Winston Churchill to Jerusalem in 1921. The never-before-seen film, found in a Jerusalem archive, had been brought from Czechoslovakia.

“The world needs to see these films,” Lappa concluded. “It is urgent. The amount of hours of film that needs to digitized to prevent its loss to Jewish history is immense. Ten foundations could work in parallel and it would still not be enough!”

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 13

Participants in a past Shavuot program at the JCC Manhattan gather on the JCC’s roof. The JCC’s annual event lasts all night and features an array of classes and workshops.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JCC MANHATTAN

Five Ways to Celebrate Shavuot—Without (Necessarily) Studying Torah

BY BEN SALES

NEW YORK (JTA) — Shavuot is the “Rodney Dangerfield of Jewish holidays,” says Rabbi Shira Stutman of the Sixth and I synagogue in Washington, D.C. Meaning: It gets no respect.

Considered by Jewish tradition to be on a par with the fall and spring festivals of Sukkot and Passover, Shavuot is sometimes ignored because it is six days

14 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

shorter; the holiday celebrating the biblical giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai lasts one day in Israel and two days outside it.

Shavuot, which this year starts on the evening of May 30, also lacks iconic, family-centric rituals. One of its only unique traditions is to stay up until dawn studying Torah on the first night. Because the holiday

demands knowledge and stamina (or lots of coffee), it’s no surprise that pulling an all-nighter poring over the Talmud hasn’t become as widespread as, say, lighting a menorah.

But in recent years, synagogues and Jewish organizations across the country are trying to make the practice more accessible. Here are five ways American groups are reinterpreting the Shavuot all-nighter.

The Biblical Shavuot

What if we celebrated Shavuot the way it is described in the Bible? That’s what a group at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut is attempting to do.

At the Shavuot retreat, while there’s an option to study Torah on the holiday’s first night, there is also a group who will embark on a midnight hike meant to simulate Moses’ trek up Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. Hikers will proceed silently, sans flashlights, to an overlook. Because it will be very dark, the three-quarters-of-a-mile trek will take

approximately two and a half hours.

In the morning, participants will gather for a parade of animals, fruits and grains meant to reflect the ancient Shavuot procession up to the Temple in Jerusalem, when farmers were commanded to give their first fruits as a tribute. At the retreat center, a herd of goats will be decorated with ribbons and shirts. Marchers, singing and dancing to a drumbeat, will carry two large baskets—one with a challah (to represent wheat) and another with seasonal fruits.

“It’s exciting because we’re reviving what Deuteronomy says,” said one of the parade’s facilitators, Sarah Chandler, who also goes by the name Kohenet Shamira. “We’re going to decorate our animals. We’re going to bring the first fruits, and we’re going to make an offering.”

The Mountain Shavuot

The Living Tree Alliance, a Jewish agricultural community who live together on a 93-acre property in Vermont, will spend Memorial Day celebrating the lead-up to Shavuot by preparing for it as the Israelites did in the desert.

The group will hike on Mount Mansfield, the state’s highest mountain, stopping along the way for seven readings of poetry and other texts to reflect the seven divine attributes referenced in Jewish mysticism.

Halfway up, they’ll stop for a Torah service at an interfaith chapel. Ambitious hikers will spend the afternoon scaling the mountain’s peak, 4,300 feet high, to engage in a worship service.

“Moses climbed Mount Sinai, so we wanted to get to a high mountain peak in Vermont,” said Living Tree

program coordinator Stacey Oshkello. “Vermonters like hiking and connecting to nature, so it seemed like a great way to make the holiday accessible.”

The Jewish-Muslim Shavuot

If some people are taking Shavuot back 3,000 years, others want to make it relevant to the present politically fraught moment. Sixth and I, a historic synagogue that has become a center for progressive Jewish activism, will be doing its Shavuot-night learning program a week early—and it will be focused on Jews and Muslims in America.

The program, on May 22, will bring together Jeffrey Goldberg, the Jewish editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, and Duke University’s Imam Abdullah Antepli to discuss similarities and tensions between American Jews and Muslims. Antepli is also part of the Muslim Leadership Initiative, a Shalom Hartman Institute program that brings together young Muslim leaders to learn about Judaism and Israel.

The program will start with a buffet featuring Palestinian, Tunisian, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi— or Middle Eastern Jewish—cuisines. It will also include back-to-back Muslim and Jewish evening prayer services and a joint text study of Jewish and Muslim perspectives on Revelation.

“If one of the things Shavuot is about is learning sacred texts together, struggling with difficult ideas together, sitting together for long periods of time— not just 140 characters of Twitter periods of time— we are taking all of that to this conversation,” Rabbi Stutman said. “It’s a certain type of Revelation that we are hoping for.”

Joshua Molina signs his name on the wall of Sixth and I, a historic Washington, D.C., synagogue, at a Shavuot event last year. The synagogue’s Shavuot event this year features Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, and Imam Abdullah Antepli.

The Feminist Shavuot

Another contemporary take on Shavuot is Feminism All Night, in Oakland, Calif., which shifts the all-night Shavuot learning to the following Friday, June 2.

Creator Hadar Cohen, who runs Pivot to Bloom, an organization advancing gender inclusivity in the tech world, organized the event because she felt there was a dearth of spaces focused on studying and discussing feminism. With this program, she is making that happen in a Jewish context.

At Feminism All Night, participants of all genders will have a Shabbat dinner and prayers, followed by feminist classes and studying from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Topics will include Jewish texts related to women’s rights, such as how a Talmudic chapter on reparations can be applied to gender equality, as well as lessons on political activism and the intersection of gender and spirituality.

“There’s a lot of political urgency around how we decide to live our lives, and I think patriarchy has really kept us down in terms of that and has gotten us into some really bad habits,” Cohen said. “Being an intersectional feminist has shown me the way to heal out of that.”

The New York City Mega-Shavuots

What do you do if you have a lot of Jews living in the same neighborhood? In the Big Apple, two groups are doing big Shavuot all-nighters, with a range of Torah classes and plenty more.

The JCC Manhattan, which has had an all-night program each Shavuot since 2004, has a schedule so full it’s dizzying. Offerings include text study, dance workshops, yoga, film screening and meditation.

On the roof, an installation by artist Tobi Kahn will reinterpret the mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath. And owing to the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot, cheesecake and cookies will be offered.

“A deep value of our community is understanding and celebrating its diversity,” said Rabbi Joy Levitt, JCC Manhattan’s executive director. “We wanted to make sure that we were able to attract the widest number of people with a very expansive view of Torah.”

A similar program will happen across the East River, where Shavuot Across Brooklyn will bring together participants from the borough’s range of synagogues and independent prayer groups. Similar to the JCC array, sessions range from a “Free Minds Prison Poetry Workshop” to one on Hebrew slang.

The top-billed event is a book reading and discussion by the author-couple Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman focused on their thoughts on a recent trip to Israel and the West Bank. The event is sponsored by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans’ group that opposes Israel’s occupation.

“It’s a reflection of the reality of people’s interests,” said Matt Green, a rabbinic intern at Congregation Beth Elohim, the Reform synagogue in the Park Slope neighborhood that is hosting the program. “Many of the participants are familiar and conversant in Jewish texts, but a much greater number of people are not.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIXTH AND I

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 15

Tahini Marshmallow S’mores Homemade marshmallows accented with creamy tahini

BY SHERI SILVER | THE KNOSHER

Tahini is certainly having a moment.

This ancient condiment is just about everywhere these days—most notably on the sweeter side of things, in treats and desserts. Stuffed into croissants. Turned into cake pops. Folded into brownie batter.

And I love it all.

This savory ground sesame-seed paste lends an unexpected flavor and texture to so many different kinds of desserts, without overpowering them. Even better, it can provide some depth and dimension to otherwise “one note” sweets.

Like marshmallows.

Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE homemade marshmallows—and they are miles above and away from the packaged variety. But at the end of the day, a marshmallow is nothing more than a pillow of sweet, spongy sugar—rolled in sugar. So I knew that it would be the perfect foil for a generous swirl of tahini.

And boy was I right. All of a sudden that one-note marshmallow had it all going on. I immediately fired up the stove, roasted a few marshmallows and sandwiched them with graham crackers and squares of semisweet and white chocolate. Delicious.

Individually wrapped “stacks” of s’mores are a fun, easy and different dessert to put out at all of your upcoming warm-weather celebrations, barbecues and picnics.

Ingredients • 1 cup cold water, divided • 3 envelopes unflavored gelatin (Kosher gelatin

is available at natural food stores, some

kosher markets and on Amazon.)

• 2 cups sugar • ¾ cup light corn syrup • pinch of salt • ½ cup + 2 Tbsp tahini • confectioner’s sugar • white- and dark-chocolate squares • graham crackers, cut in half to form squares

Directions

1. Cut two squares of parchment or wax paper to fit the bottom of a 9” x 9” baking pan. Coat the pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place one of the paper squares in the bottom and spray the paper.

2. Place ½ cup of the cold water into your mixer.

Sprinkle with the gelatin and let set.

3. Place the remaining ½ cup cold water into a medium saucepan, along with the sugar, corn syrup

16 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. When the mixture boils, cover the pot and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the cover, attach a thermometer and continue to cook—without stirring—until the temperature reaches 240 degrees.

4. Remove from heat, turn the mixer on low and slowly add the sugar mixture. When the mixture starts to thicken, gradually increase the speed— eventually bringing it up to high. Beat for 5 minutes.

5. Add ½ cup tahini to the mixture and quickly but gently fold in, using a greased rubber spatula.

(Do not overmix; you should still be able to see the swirls of tahini throughout.) Transfer to your baking pan and drizzle the remaining 2 Tbsp tahini over the mixture. Use a thin knife to swirl the drizzle. Spray the reserved piece of parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray and place, sprayed side down, over the marshmallow. Press gently to level and even out the top. Wrap with plastic wrap and let sit overnight.

6. Sprinkle a work surface with confectioner’s

sugar; place some more in a medium bowl. Remove the top sheet of parchment from the marshmallow and invert onto the work surface. Peel off the bottom sheet of paper and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.

Use a greased knife to cut squares. Then roll the cut edges of each square in the bowl of sugar.

7. Make your s’mores by roasting the marshmallows and sandwiching them with a piece of chocolate between 2 graham-cracker squares. Marshmallows may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Carl Reiner, 95, Dishes His Secrets to Longevity

BY CURT SCHLEIER

(JTA) — The first thing Carl Reiner does every morning is pick up the paper and read the obituary section to check if he’s named there.

“If I’m not, I’ll have my breakfast”—or so he says in the charming and appropriately titled HBO documentary “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.”

Then the 95-year-old actor, writer and director, the creator of the “Dick Van Dyke Show”—“my greatest achievement,” he tells the JTA—goes to his computer to work on his latest project, a book. In fact, that’s what he was doing when a reporter calls to talk about the film and their shared genesis in the Bronx (and not necessarily in that order).

Reiner, however, is not entirely in a reflective mood and dismisses the invitation to reminisce.

“You know,” he says, “I wrote three books about growing up in the Bronx.”

Instead, he quickly brings the conversation into the present.

“It’s funny you mention the [Loew’s] Paradise [Theater on the Grand Concourse]. While we’re talking I’m working with a graphic designer,” he says.

“We’re putting together a book of posters of movies that influenced me as I was growing up. Movies and TV moved me more than anything. Eddie Cantor. Jack Benny. Fibber McGee and Molly.”

The book—tentatively titled “Carl Reiner Alive at 95 Recalling Movies He Loved”—is one of several recently published or in the works in his crowded pipeline.

These include a newly released children’s book, “You Say God Bless You for Sneezing and Farting,” and the forthcoming memoir “Too Busy to Die.” Staying busy is one of the bromides offered in the the heartwarming HBO film Reiner hosts. The idea for “If You’re Not in the Obit” percolated from an obituary Reiner read for actress Polly Bergen, who died in 2014 at age 84.

“It scared the bejeebers out of me,” he says in the film. The obit, Reiner goes on, stayed with him.

“How come we got the extra years and we’re thriving?” he wondered.

So at the suggestion of his nephew, the producer George Shapiro, Reiner set out to find what keeps some old people young. For example, he visits 102-year-old Ida Keeling, who does push-ups and jogs daily. She started running at 67 to overcome depression resulting from the drug-related murders of her two sons.

Carl Reiner in the HBO documentary “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast” PHOTO COURTESY OF HBO

Among others appearing in this delightful film are Patricia Morrison, 102, who starred in the original productions of “Kiss Me Kate” and “The King and I”; comic actress Betty White, 95; and fashion icon Iris Apfel, 95.

“People ask me where I get my vitality,” Apfel says, “and to tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue.”

A funny bone is one thing that almost all the people interviewed had in common. For example, the late Fyvush Finkel—who was 92 when he was interviewed in 2015—says, “There’s nothing more boring than a clean old man.”

Kirk Douglas, 100, speaks about how his wife urged him to go on the road with a one-man show to show how he was recovering from a stroke.

“What does an actor who can’t talk wait for—silent pictures to come back?” he asks.

Those interviewed also shared a zest for life, a joie de vivre. Among them were 93-year-old Harriette Thompson, the oldest woman ever to finish a marathon; and Jim “Pee Wee” Martin, who fought in the D-Day invasion and still parachutes today.

The film doesn’t provide a definitive answer to living a long life.

“I think it’s partly your genes,” Reiner says. “Also, it’s your environment. Also, if you have a funny bone; if you grew up in a family with a sense of humor.”

For Reiner, at least, religion or spirituality hasn’t played much of a role in his longevity. He didn’t attend Hebrew school growing up.

Reiner’s spirituality hasn’t increased much with age; his belief in a higher power was a casualty of World War II. “Six million people died in the Holocaust and six

million others yelling to God, ‘Please stop this f***er,’ and He didn’t.”

Reiner does, however, point to family and friendships as an important aspect of achieving old age, noting in the film, “The key to longevity is to interact with other people.”

His support system includes multiple Emmy Award winner Norman Lear and longtime buddy Mel Brooks.

If not reflective about the Bronx, Reiner is more than willing to talk about his 67-year friendship with Brooks.

“Mel and I go back to 1950, the first day I came to the ‘Show of Shows,’” he says, recalling the 90-minute variety show featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.

“I was hired as an actor, to be a straight man for Sid. Mel was in the office. He wasn’t on the [show’s] writing staff yet. He was working for Sid, giving him jokes.

“I came in and didn’t know who he was. But Mel was standing there doing a Jewish pirate, saying, ‘You don’t know how hard it is to set sail. It’s $3.87 for a yard of sailcloth. I can’t afford to pillage and plunder anymore.’

“So I just started interviewing him, and I just interviewed him for the next 10 years.”

The pirate warped into the 2000 Year Old Man—a routine they performed at parties and made into a private recording “for our non-anti-Semitic friends,” Reiner quips. “Cary Grant loved it and asked if he could have a dozen records. He was going to England and wanted it for his trip. You know they speak English there.

“When he got back he said, ‘She loved it.’ We asked, ‘Who?’ and he said, ‘The Queen Mother,’” he says.

“What an endorsement. The biggest shiksa in the world loved it.”

Reiner and Brooks became inseparable buddies, an intense friendship that continues to this day. Reiner says that what helped cement their relationship was that their wives, Estelle Reiner and Anne Bancroft, got along. Bancroft, an Academy Award-winning actress, died in 2005, and Estelle Reiner passed away in 2008.

“It was easy; it was a foursome,” Reiner says. “Mel still comes over almost every night. We watched ‘Captain Blood’ yesterday.”

Who decides what to watch? “We talk it over,” he explains. “We’ll see anything on that’s worth a look.

We also watch journalism—Rachel Maddow, who knows that Trump is a schmuck.”

In addition to his collaborations with Brooks, Reiner has enjoyed a long and enviable career—of which he sees creating, writing and appearing in the legendary “Dick Van Dyke Show” as a pinnacle. Reiner calls Van Dyke, 91, “the most agile human being I’ve ever seen in my life”—a talent that he demonstrates in the film, dancing and singing with his wife, Arlene.

Van Dyke, as it happens, also authored a book on aging, its title encapsulating his philosophy: “Keep Moving.”

Then again, in 2012, three years before Van Dyke’s book was published, he married Arlene, a makeup artist. She happens to be half his age—perhaps another key to a long life.

“If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast” premieres on HBO at 8 p.m. June 5.

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17

“I Have Hidden My Legal Chancellor Fariña Visits Status for 11 Years”: Queens School to Reassure A Disillusioned High Families After Immigration School Senior Speaks Out Agents Come Knocking

BY CASSI FELDMAN / CHALKBEAT NY

New York City schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña was on hand to welcome families on the morning of Monday, May 15, at P.S. 58, the Queens school visited May 11 by federal immigration agents. The agents inquired about a fourth-grade student, but did not have a warrant and were turned away by school officials.

While it now appears the agents were not seeking to question the fourth-grader, Fariña is clearly mindful of how the agents’ visit could impact immigrant families already skittish about President Trump’s immigration reforms. Elsewhere in the country, immigration crackdowns have led parents to keep children home from school.

“The best place for children to be is in their local schools,” said Fariña in a video statement filmed at P.S. 58. “In our schools, we protect our students and our families, and want to reassure parents that no information is ever given to any federal agent” without a “special process.” The May 11 incident is still being investigated, she said.

A statement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), tweeted Monday, clarified the reason for the agents’ visit.

It was “part of an administration inquiry pertaining to an immigration benefit request,” the statement read.

“At no time did the officers ask to see or speak with the student, who was not the subject of the administrative inquiry.”

Later that Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its own statement, which seemed to contradict the city’s version of events.

“The USCIS officers were in plain clothes, properly identified themselves and presented credentials and business cards,” it stated. “They spoke to

18 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

door, I have realized I can no longer blend in.

I have hidden my legal status for 11 years. For 11 years, I have lived in the When it comes to education issues, shadows, and let me tell you something: adults often do the talking. But for one It hurts. evening, New York City students led It hurts when you hear your friends a conversation on race, poverty and telling you about their summers in the immigration status—and the impact countries of their heritage, visiting those have on their family and making own schools. wonderful memories.

A new group called All you can do is listen Teens Take Charge and hide your sadness recently invited high behind forged smiles school students from because you haven’t across the city to read been able to visit your their open letters family for a long time. about what it’s like to It hurts when you learn in a segregated see your friends study school system. The abroad or attend group are working enrichment programs with the creators in other countries, of a new podcast and you can’t because called “The Bell” to you lack the blue share their stories.

American passport.

For now, here’s one It hurts when your of the letters, edited 96-year-old greatfor length, presented William, a senior at Beacon High grandmothe r dies at the “To Whom School an ocean away and It Should Concern” PHOTO BY BRETT RAWSON you can’t even attend open-mic event. her funeral or bring William, age 19, senior at Beacon flowers to her grave. It hurts.

High School Yet it hurts even more when a school I will always remember my first denies you admission because you lack semester in America. My English was legal standing in the country of freedom rudimentary and I was years behind my and optimistic dreams. It hurts when you peers. Since little help could be found apply to more than 20 private colleges at home, I searched for knowledge in a that you are qualified to attend and get public library, my haven for learning. a pile of rejections, few waitlists and no I spent endless hours in library aisles acceptances. When this happens, you feel reading books on American history, as though the plethora of opportunities English poetry, life science—and you imagined when you first moved to practicing proper pronunciation and the country have dissolved. You feel as grammar. if all your hard work has been torn to As I improved on my academics, I pieces. also felt a small, imaginary equality To those of you who know me, I with American students, with whom apologize for hiding my true self. I hope I participated in the same lessons, you can understand. To those who feel discussions and field trips. the same way I do, do not allow rejection Now, with college decisions at the to undermine your potential.

BY CHRISTINA VEIGA / CHALKBEAT NY

Chancellor Fariña outside P.S. 58

school administrators and left at the conclusion of the conversation. They were not barred from the property nor asked to leave.”

Still, the swift reaction to the incident by city officials—including the mayor, City Council speaker and Queens borough president—speaks to the heightened anxiety around these issues and the city’s desire to preempt those concerns.

In March, the city updated its guidance to principals on immigrant protections, explaining that nonlocal law-enforcement officials are barred from entering schools without warrants except when imminent harm is expected.

That Monday, the chancellor said that the city would be training everyone in schools on the protocol “from the school custodian to the highest levels of school administration,” and would send a letter to principals reinforcing that message.

Mayor Bill de Blasio met with Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that same day to discuss antiterror funding and other safety measures. They also discussed the incident at P.S. 58.

According to a statement from the mayor’s office, “They pledged to work together to ensure that the DHS investigative work in question was performed remotely and without the presence of federal immigration agents in New York City schools.”

JNF Builds, Defends Israel

BY MAXINE DOVERE

Some 600 supporters of the Jewish National Fund strength. Only with strength will the Jewish people (JNF) were welcomed to an early-morning gathering get peace.” at the Pierre Hotel in New York by national President Dershowitz, who designates himself a liberal Jeffrey Levine on May 18.

Democrat, acknowledged that “every liberal cause is In his welcoming remarks, Levine presented a swiping against Israel.” He left the Black Lives Matter virtual catalog of projects fostered by JNF throughout movement when it called Israel “apartheid and racist”; Israel, focusing on the organization’s work as a he criticized the American Civil Liberties Union “builder of Israel.” He described developments in for its attempts to stop a speech by former Israeli Golan, Beersheva, S’derot and the Arava—one of ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren. Said Israel’s harshest regions—emphasizing the need Dershowitz, “Protests against Israel—thoughtless, for continued commitment to helping Israel grow. unnuanced—have to be fought at every level.”

Breakfast Chairwoman Amy Berko The discussion then turned Iles invited everyone present to campus anti-Semitism and “to participate in building our anti-Zionism.

Dershowitz heritage.” Volunteers distributed suggested that faculty members personal Israeli flags throughout were significantly to blame. He the room, and the enthusiasm at listed three categories: those the 7:30 a.m. event was notable. “virulently” against Israel; those The highlight of the event was in the middle “who don’t know a dialogue between Harvard Law anything”; and those who privately professor—and ardent Zionist— support Israel but “refuse—or are Alan Dershowitz and JNF New afraid—to speak out….That’s why York region President Saul Burian the students are so important.” concerning topics of importance Commenting on J Street, to the Jewish community.

Dershowitz described a Dershowitz began with a conversation with Jeremy nostalgic recall of “about 50 B e n -A m i , the advocacy years in defense of the state of group’s president, whom he Israel.” He reminisced about his unsuccessfully tried to persuade to modern Orthodox upbringing in Cantor Shiree Kieron led “Hatikvah,” form a mainstream organization. a multigenerational household the Israeli national anthem, at the “J Street,” said Dershowitz, “where the [JNF] pushke conclusion of the breakfast event. “supported the United Nations [collection box] was prominent,” resolution declaring the Kotel and about Camp Massa, where his illegally occupied territory…. counselor was Noam Chomsky, then, according to You cannot call yourself pro-Israel and support that Dershowitz, “a left-wing Zionist.” resolution.”

Dershowitz said that he “didn’t have to defend Dershowitz went on to criticize the hard-right Israel before the Six-Day War.” He noted that after position of the Zionist Organization of America, Daniel Berrigan, the erstwhile Catholic priest, termed declaring that the ZOA must be open to everyone.

Israel “a criminal Jewish community,” the left began He believes in the “80 percent solution,” a means of to turn against Israel. By the early ’70s, Dershowitz creating unity among the diverse components of the found himself working in defense of Israel, helping Jewish people. He said that the various areas on which Natan Sharansky and the Struggle for Soviet Jewry, there is already consensus should be highlighted: and trying to defend Israel against the attacks of the Israel has the right to exist; the BDS (Boycott, hard left.

Divestment, Sanctions) movement is anti-Israel; the “I believe very strongly in Jewish power,” he said. “Iran deal” represents an existential threat to Israel; “Jews should try to use power to bring about just and Israel should be praised for its accomplishments. behavior for Israel. That will give the Jewish people “But we Jews prefer to focus on our disagreements

Alan Dershowitz delivers remarks to a packed house in support of JNF.

rather than on our agreements,” Dershowitz continued. “JNF is the 80 percent. JNF stands for cohesiveness....There is so much to be proud of….

JNF focuses on building the economy, to provide opportunity for everyone.”

Regarding the possibility of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, Dershowitz said, “My level of optimism has gone up 5 to 10 percent.” He related that when he had met with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and had asked for his recognition of “two states for two people,” the Palestinian had refused. “He would not recognize the state of Israel.”

On the eve of President Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East, Burian asked about the odds of impeachment. “Pretty much zero,” responded Dershowitz. “That’s good news and bad news.” He described the newly appointed special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, as “a very good guy...a person you want to lead an independent investigation.”

Dershowitz termed the Trump leak a terrible problem but not criminal, noting that the president cannot be indicted for obstruction of justice.

“I don’t think, in the end, that the American public will learn very much from the investigation,” he said.

“I think the American public will be disappointed....I do not think there will be an indictment or an impeachment...unless there is something we don’t know.”

Dershowitz may, in fact,“know,” having recently had a private meeting in the Oval Office.

On the matter of Trump’s reveal of highly classified information, Dershowitz noted that American intelligence “advised Mossad not to tell secrets to the president—only on a ‘need to know’ basis.” He added that Trump faced “a rocky road in the next few days” and “a difficult trip.”

Asked to identify the best advice he has given a client, Dershowitz responded, “Not to take the witness stand.” He said he would further advise the president to give up his Twitter account.

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 19

OPINION

The election of Macron gives cause for optimism about the future of FrancoIsraeli relations. His visit to Israel as minister of the economy sent the message that France is eager to renew cooperation.

Dear President Macron: IT’S TIME TO REINFORCE FRANCE’S TIES WITH ISRAEL

BY SIMONE RODAN-BENZAQUEN and JULIE DECROIX

PARIS (JTA) — In the French presidential campaign just concluded, discussion of foreign policy was largely forgotten. Nonetheless, Emmanuel Macron, France’s new president, faces several critical global issues, among them the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

If France would like to play a role, she must rebuild the credibility that was diminished in January when the Paris Peace Conference concluded with declarative statements but no tangible results that might encourage the two parties to work toward peace. By internationalizing the conflict and leading the Palestinians to believe that they can avoid the negotiating table, the French initiative in effect slowed down an already-lagging peace process.

France must appear as an honest broker, an impartial mediator that takes the concerns of both parties into consideration. And France must win back Israel’s trust—especially after deciding to exclude it from the January negotiations—by reaffirming the absolute necessity of ensuring Israel’s security within secure and recognized borders. Macron must approach his relationship with Israel with great care.

Earlier this month, France abstained from voting on the umpteenth UNESCO resolution aimed at denying the historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem. Meanwhile, a number of other European countries (Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Greece and the Netherlands) made the decision to oppose the resolution, one that runs counter to the aim of achieving peace.

20 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

Is it not time for France to reconsider its position on this issue, to dare to oppose initiatives that strive to delegitimize Israel?

In 1967, President Charles de Gaulle officially ended the Franco-Israeli honeymoon period of the 1950s and early ’60s when he imposed an arms embargo on Israel just before the Six-Day War. He explained his decision at an infamous news conference in which he said Israelis were “an elite people, assertive and domineering.” David Ben-Gurion responded, “We do not harbor an ‘ardent ambition to conquer,’ but rather a fervent faith and the vision of peace as described by our prophets.”

Fifty years later, there are vast possibilities for cooperation between France and Israel. The most obvious is the fight against terrorism. France is a target for attacks, and in that regard finds itself in a situation similar to Israel’s. It would make considerable sense to look to Israel for expertise in population preparedness and government resilience in order to combat this scourge.

In responding to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, France has adopted an uncompromising position in opposition to Tehran’s aggressive policies. Surely it would be in France’s best interests to align its strategy with that of Israel—a country similarly concerned by the Iranian threat—as well as with the new U.S. administration, which is eager to address the Iranian nuclear threat.

Moreover, Paris can help broker a rapprochement

between Israel and Sunni Arab countries—powers that already engage in a discrete alliance rooted in distrust of Iran. In recent months, with the new American administration in place, there have been signs that such an implicit alliance is a real possibility.

What remains unclear is whether France will rise to the occasion and play a key role in forming and bolstering this alliance against a common threat.

The election of Macron gives cause for optimism about the future of Franco-Israeli relations. His visit to Israel as minister of the economy sent the message that France is eager to renew cooperation. After all, as Macron has suggested, “French tech” and the “start-up nation” rank among the 10 most innovative economies in the world.

Furthermore, Macron proved himself a friend to Israel during the presidential campaign, opposing any boycott of the country or the recognition of a state of Palestine in the absence of any peace agreement.

As president-elect, Macron has already had discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who congratulated the new French leader on his triumph and highlighted the importance of cooperation between their two nations on counterterrorism initiatives.

Yet we cannot allow these hopeful signs to make us complacent. The history of French diplomacy over the past 50 years offers much evidence of dashed hopes.

At a time when U.S. plans for mediating between Israelis and Palestinians remain in doubt because President Donald Trump has yet to win the confidence of either party—and Germany’s relations with Israel have turned fraught—Paris has a window of opportunity to restore ties and benefit from cooperation with an Israel that can be its ally on many fronts.

Let’s hope that the new president will choose to renew a sincere, solid bond between France and Israel.

Simone Rodan-Benzaquen is director and Julie Decroix is deputy director of the American Jewish Committee’s Europe Office.

OPINION

Rabbis Without Borders: Conviction Sealing What Judaism Can Teach Provides New Yorkers Us About Call-Out Culture with a Second Chance NO PERSON MAY HUMILIATE ANYONE, EVEN MORE SO IN PUBLIC...

BY RABBI ALANA SUSKIN | MY JEWISH LEARNING

Rabbis Without Borders is a dynamic forum for exploring contemporary issues in the Jewish world and beyond. Written by rabbis of different denominations and viewpoints, Rabbis Without Borders is a project of CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

There are few things as irritating as people nattering on about “political correctness.” Generally, as soon as someone mentions that phrase, it’s a good bet that it will be followed by a story of questionable provenance where an individual—who in the story will represent some wider class of person, such as women, African Americans and so on—will have made some sort of over-the-top complaint about a perfectly normal behavior.

On further examination, the story will turn out to have been rather more complicated. The joke that prompted the over-the-top response will turn out to have been egregiously racist, making the exit from the room significantly less over-the-top–looking.

Or the door was held while the holder ogled the holdee’s body, making the demand to “stop it” significantly more understandable. And so on. The very idea of “political correctness” and reaction to it seem to have spawned a societal response that has even had political consequences.

But when people bring up political correctness, sometimes there is another underlying problem that perhaps we would do well to examine further.

The Torah instructs: ‫אֹל‬-‫תֶא אָנְׂשִת‬-‫ָךיִחָא‬, ‫תֶא ַחיִכֹוּת ַחֵכֹוה ;ָךֶבָבְלִּב‬‫ָךֶתיִמֲע‬, ‫אֹלְו‬-‫ְטֵח ויָלָע אָּׂשִת‬.

You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear guilt because of

him. (Leviticus 19:17) The rabbis had a great deal to say about what this verse meant. From it, they drew the idea that not only do you have the obligation to rebuke another for wrongdoing, but if you fail to try to correct this person’s behavior, you yourself bear responsibility for the wrong committed. According to the Talmud, in fact, you are obligated to rebuke anyone who has committed a wrong—from your family even up to the entire world, if you are able.

(Shabbat 54b) However, the rabbis also recognized something equally important: that rebuke is actually extremely difficult to do well. Maimonides, in his great work, Mishneh Torah, adds instructional advice to the obligation to rebuke.

He says that the rebuker “should administer the rebuke in private, speak to the offender gently and tenderly, and point out that the rebuke is offered for the wrongdoer’s own good, to secure for the other a life in the World to Come.”

He adds that the first time one rebukes the person: “He must not speak harshly and humiliate him, as it is said: ‘Do not bear guilt because of him.’ Thus said our Sages: ‘Can it be that you rebuke him until his face becomes white?’”

“Thus it says, ‘Do not bear guilt because of him.’ From here we learn that no person may humiliate anyone, even more so in public…whether of low or high social status…”

(Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Dayot, Chapters 6:7-8) Maimonides’ focus on how one rebukes is important. While it’s important to act against wrongdoing and to fix it, particularly when it involves harming others or redressing social wrongs, we seem to have entered a time in which the act of rebuke has become a sort of gleeful attack mode.

BY ROGER BENNET ADLER

The state Legislature recently enacted a conviction-sealing law tucked into the state budget bill. The legislation, for the first time, actively applies principles of rehabilitation and atonement to New York residents who have been convicted of not more than two nonviolent crimes, and who have been crime-free for more than a decade since their release from custody.

This groundbreaking legislative initiative follows the adoption of the New York State Bar Association’s identification of the sealing of prior convictions as a legislative imperative.

It importantly follows on the heels of local “ban the box” legislation enacted by the New York City Council, which prohibits employers from inquiring about the existence of prior convictions unless (or until) a job offer has been conveyed to the job seeker.

Sponsored by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Kings) and Senator Patrick Gallivan (R-Erie), the legislation, when effective this fall, will enable rehabilitated persons to petition the court of conviction to seal their prior conviction. Like a discharge in bankruptcy, this will allow thousands to approach life, school, bank loans and insurance forms with a “clean slate,” and enable them to answer pesky questions on job applications—if the petition to seal is granted—truthfully (and accurately) in the negative.

Long-recognized barriers erected as “collateral consequences” for those with a criminal record will now essentially qualify for vacatur (a court announcement declaring the record annulled), giving applicants a “second chance.” While law-enforcement agencies will be afforded access to records, the soon-to-be–available benefits have the potential to give fresh opportunities to people whose prior convictions used to be a permanent collateral consequence of a criminal

conviction, similar to the indelible scarlet letter made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This includes applicants for public housing, academic grants and scholarships, car insurance, and bank loans, as well as undocumented aliens seeking adjustments in their immigration status.

The genesis of conviction sealing (earned amnesty or conviction expungement) can be traced in New York to Kings County Assistant District Attorney Aaron Nussbaum’s book A Second Chance . It detailed the initiative to permit conviction expungement for state law crimes with legislation sponsored by then-Brooklyn state Senator (and late Supreme Court Justice) Harry Gittleson. That legislation passed both the Assembly and state Senate, but, sadly, was vigorously opposed by the media and vetoed by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

While an individual with two or more felony convictions is deemed ineligible to apply for conviction sealing, for the untold thousands who may have made one or (at most) two mistakes that resulted in conflict with the criminal-justice system, a new day of personal redemption has surely arrived. The sealing statute is not automatic, and does not require the court, to whom the application is made, to seal an applicant’s prior conviction. Rather, the statute requires the court to consider the application.

Accordingly, this legislation is likely to spur a “cottage industry” within the legal profession to address the probable pent-up demand.

At a time when “mass incarceration” is recognized as counterproductive, New York’s sealing statute shines a bright light into the darkness of despair for those at the margins and in the shadows of society.

Roger Bennet Adler is a practicing attorney in New York City, and previously served as counsel to various state Senate committees.

MAY 24 – 30, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21

OPINION

Keeping the Refugee Cause Alive on a Local Level

BY HOLLY ROSEN FINK, WESTCHESTER JEWISH CENTER & WORLD JEWRY COMMITTEE

In November of last year, I went to Eastern Europe for three weeks with my mother. Together, we explored our roots and tried to put together the pieces of our past. As we went through concentration camps and ghettos across Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Germany, we felt our hearts break into pieces. We hadn’t expected to stand where six million Jews whose lives were needlessly taken once stood.

We heard the echoes of their screams and cries. We stood in their shadows. We sensed their presence every which way we went.

Most importantly, we felt a deep sense of loss for the world. I developed a more profound resolve to return to America to commit myself to the cause of helping refugees. Already involved in and empowered by the work of HIAS—a resettlement organization that rescues people whose lives are in danger for being who they are, with deep roots in World War II—I decided to help form a local group dedicated to the cause.

When I became aware of a new group, Neighbors for Refugees, I knew where I needed to dedicate my time.

It’s a grassroots organization made up of individuals from congregations, civic groups and student groups in southern Westchester. The organization is focused on refugee resettlement using a co-sponsorship model in cooperation with the State Department and affiliated organizations, and is in the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status.

Neighbors for Refugees grew very quickly into an organization of 15 impassioned leaders and 175 dedicated volunteers. We welcomed our first refugee on March 7 of this year, working through Catholic Charities Community Services. It has been a joy to watch him settle in so nicely with the help of this committed group of volunteers.

Naturally, there have been bumps along the way.

Even still, several months after President Trump’s proposed travel bans, Neighbors for Refugees continues to focus on refugee resettlement. As an organization, we have been eager to help, but the bans have disrupted our work as part of the humanitarian effort to resettle refugee families fleeing persecution.

The court ruling enjoining the enforcement of the ban has fortunately allowed refugee resettlement to resume, and some families have been able to get to America for now. However, the administration issued a second order last month and is still defending it in court. Nonetheless, we march on and continue

22 | NYJLIFE.COM | MAY 24 – 30, 2017

“Welcoming Refugees— What You Can Do” will take place at Westchester Jewish Center in Mamaroneck from 2-5 p.m. on June 11.

to work directly with HIAS and Catholic Charities in hopes of receiving a refugee family and helping whomever we can.

On this note, we will be hosting a communitywide event that will allow the community at large to participate in the work of welcoming refugees on a real, actionable level. More than anything, we are hopeful that this event will inspire and educate people to advocate for refugees and know that every action counts.

“Welcoming Refugees—What You Can Do” will take place at Westchester Jewish Center in Mamaroneck from 2-5 p.m. on June 11. This will be an interactive event with hands-on activities for all, and boasts inspiring journalist Jodi Kantor from The New York Times as our keynote speaker. She covered the Canadian refugee experience last year and wrote an engrossing, compassionate story. Student groups from both Mamaroneck High School and Scarsdale High School, local elected officials and clergy will also be in attendance. This event for the entire family is an opportunity to get everyone involved so we can continue our work in changing the lives of refugees

who are here and those in refugee camps.

We will be sending postcards to the White House asking that the immigrant ban be lifted; we will have a Wishing Tree, where people can make pledges on items needed by refugees either here in the United States or in camps or in transit in Syria and surrounding countries; we will collect goods from our community members and organize, sort, bag, label and box them, and drive them to a collection warehouse with guidance from Greater NYC Families for Syria and NuDay Syria; and much, much more.

We can’t sit still while there are people suffering around the world. Volunteerism is everything. It’s important never to forget what happened during the Holocaust. We must remind the world that “never again” means #NeverAgain and we stand #WithRefugees.

If you want to get more involved, be sure to visit the Neighbors for Refugees site at NeighborsForRefugees. com or join the Neighbors for Refugees Facebook page: h t t p s : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / g r o u p s / NeighborsForRefugees. Or to volunteer, sign up here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HHR-LM.

CLASSIFIEDS HEALTH ELDER CARE

REAL ESTATE REALTOR

SPEECH THERAPY

JERRY FINK

MEDICAID PROFESSIONALS • Over 18 years experience filing Medicaid Home Care and Nursing Home applications • Protect your income, home, life savings Jack Lippmann • Apply for Medicaid, medical assistance

2.5% LISTING SPECIAL Call For Details

FREE Consultation

HOWARD BEACH

www.eldercareservicesny.com

(718) 575-5700

Totally Renovated Hi-Ranch, 3BR, 2Bth, Open Floor Plan, Raised Ceilings, SS Appli, Granite Counter-Top, Deck Leading To Bkyd.

Surround Sound, Security & Alarm System, 3 Skylights.

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

R E A L E S TAT E

BEST REAL ESTATE AGENCY

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

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 24 – 30, 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 24 – 30, 2017