September 13 Edition of New York Jewish Life

The United States Set to Return a Trove of Iraqi Jewish Artifacts

Publisher’s Note: There Is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch in This Town, Unless You’re a Yeshiva Student

Epigenetics: Has Holocaust Trauma Been Transmitted Genetically?

VOL. 1, NO. 24 | SEPTEMBER 13-19, 2017 | NEWS THAT MATTERS TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA | NYJLIFE.COM | FREE

New York State Nurses Association:

40,000 RNs

Standing Strong to Protect Your Healthcare Right now, Congress is considering a bill— the Better Care Reconciliation Act—that would devastate our healthcare system, leaving 22 million people without coverage by 2026.

Older Americans could be charged five times more than younger Americans Children would be among the largest group hit by the Medicaid cuts Essential services may be eliminated, even for people with employer-based health insurance

WWW.NYSNA.ORG 2 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017

STAND WITH NURSES AND FIGHT FOR QUALITY HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

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

De Blasio Preaches Fairness while Practicing Inequity For New York City schoolchildren, there is such a thing as a free lunch in this town, unless you’re a yeshiva student. It’s a shame we’re back at this conversation, treating some of our city’s kids as if they’re a problem to be solved.

As our city and state grapple with the seemingly intractable problem of school segregation, and fight—still!— over equitable funding of school districts, Mayor de Blasio announced that all NYC schoolchildren are eligible, regardless of income, for free lunch.

But not for yeshivas.

With the laudable and appropriate goal of removing the stigma of needing meal assistance, City Hall has also cynically relegated Jewish students to second-class citizenship. This is typical of an administration that announces broad policies sometimes motivated by good intentions, but usually lacking in vital details and being overly political and just three-quarters complete.

This exclusion is based on faulty assumptions that, at this point in our shared civic life, shouldn’t need repeating. Yet here we go again: Yeshiva education is not a luxury and not a choice. It’s a foundational mandate.

Government shouldn’t make it more difficult for tuition-paying families when making it easier would make so much of a positive difference, while already doing so for other students.

I’ve coordinated large-scale policy rollouts, so I know that there are times when everyone involved gets in a room to talk about what’s happening. At some point, someone asks a question

like, “Who is being left out of this, why is that and what’s the story with that?”

Policy specialists, political minds, administrators and decision makers hash it out. It looks like what you’d expect. Or at least it should.

So what happened here? It’s difficult to discuss this when talking about something as positive as free lunch for students, but it has to be said.

It’s an election year, and the incumbent mayor—appropriately— wanted to do something big, but with politically motivated caveats. Free lunch for most—who happen to be my base vote, but not all—who may not be with me in November. And for those not included but want to be, can we talk about the upcoming election? Sure, excluding yeshivas can be explained away by the cost of kosher food, but big, effective programs are supposed to be expensive. Was there ever going to be a cheap citywide meals program?

Wouldn’t it have been easier to get this right from the start?

Or perhaps this was less involved and less thought out than it should have been, aside from the yeshiva exclusion.

Maybe City Hall saw this as an easy “gimme”—add some more meals to already-existing orders for schools, and don’t collect any money from the kids or families. The city was having a hard time collecting the money anyway, so it’d be a quick policy win in an election year. But did anyone speak up, and I’m thinking of one senior aide in City Hall in particular, to say, “There will be enormous blowback from yeshivas; we should include them too”? Or was

it assumed that would be tackled afterwards, when the political message was clearly delivered?

Or did the mayor want to avoid doing for yeshivas while a cloud still lingers concerning two very clumsy donors who happen to be Orthodox?

Do ongoing examinations of secularstudies programs at some yeshivas somehow preclude including all yeshivas in a new lunch program for over 1,800 public schools? By that logic, any union or lobbyist or advocacy group or developer who was ever embroiled in controversy would be barred from policy deliberations forever. Try not to laugh too loudly at that suggestion.

City Hall has already made its opinion known on the issue of equitable city services for yeshivas: Remember its initial opposition to providing school safety officers? For an administration that prioritizes fairness and values communities that speak with an organized voice, this most recent exclusion feels very willful and very deliberate.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and that opportunity has been lost with this program. But apologies are always accepted, and there’s always a second chance to do the right thing.

Michael Tobman, Publisher

BUSINESS Michael Tobman PUBLISHER

Andrew Holt SENIOR PUBLICATION ADVISOR

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Lucy Cohen Blatter Jenny Powers Tammy Mark CONTRIBUTORS

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CANDLE LIGHTING

Friday, Sept. 15 Candles: 6:46 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 7:43 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 22 Candles: 6:35 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 7:31 p.m.

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3

BDSWatch

Jewish Candidate for Illinois Governor Drops Running Mate over BDS

Berlin Mayor Pledges Crackdown on BDS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Jewish candidate for Illinois governor dropped his running mate over a disagreement about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Daniel Biss, a state senator, said in a statement last Wednesday on his campaign website that he had made a “difficult” decision to part ways with Chicago Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa just a week after announcing their ticket.

Biss said that he had raised BDS in the interview process and understood that Ramirez Rosa opposed it, but in subsequent discussions it became clear “that Carlos’ position has changed.”

In a statement last Wednesday to the Chicago Sun-Times, Ramirez Rosa suggested that he opposed BDS on the local and state level—he notably voted against it in a council vote in 2015—but supported it at the federal level.

“The difference of opinion we have on the role the BDS movement plays at the federal level would make it impossible to continue moving forward as a ticket,” Ramirez Rosa said in the statement.

Biss came under pressure after it was revealed that Ramirez Rosa, in an interview a year ago prior to the Democratic National Convention, said that “for too long the U.S. government has subsidized the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), a Jewish Chicago-area member of Congress, dropped his endorsement of Bliss, who is running in a field of nine for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Ramirez Rosa is also a member of Democratic Socialists for America, which endorses BDS. In his statement, Biss, a mathematician running as a progressive, cited his Jewish background in explaining his decision.

“Growing up with an Israeli mother, grandparents who survived the Holocaust and great-grandparents who did not survive, issues related to the

(JTA) — Berlin’s mayor will block the use of city venues and funds by groups or event organizers that support the boycott movement against Israel.

The move, announced Sept. 6, followed pressure by the Los Angelesbased Simon Wiesenthal Center, which had threatened to put Berlin Berlin Mayor Michael Müller speaking with Yehuda Mayor Michael Müller on Teichtal, rabbi of the Jewish Community of Berlin, in its annual list of 10 worst Berlin, July 19, 2017 anti-Semitic incidents PHOTO BY MATTHIAS NAREYEK/POOL/GETTY IMAGES for his alleged failure to strongly condemn BDS and other initiated by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini extreme anti-Zionist activities in the in 1979.

German capital.

In a statement, the Wiesenthal Müller, in a statement co-released Center applauded the mayor’s pledge to with the Central Council of Jews in halt municipal financial and logistical Germany, asserted that his decision support for the BDS movement. In was not a change of heart on his part, its annual anti-Semitism tally, the but rather an intensification of his center often equates BDS activity with already pro-Israel stance. anti-Semitism.

Jewish leaders, including Central “The mayor showed true leadership Council head Josef Schuster, had in denouncing BDS for what it is: an rushed to defend the mayor as a anti-Semitic, anti-peace campaign,” staunch supporter of Israel following said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the the Wiesenthal Center’s accusations. Wiesenthal Center’s associate dean and But they did say they wished he would director of Global Social Action. “He be tougher on virulent anti-Zionism, has emphatically added his important represented by the Boycott, Sanctions voice to the global efforts to defeat and Divestment (BDS) movement extremists dedicated to the demise of against Israel. the Jewish state.”

Berlin is now the third German city, Müller also pledged to continue the after Munich and Frankfurt, to declare fight against anti-Semitism in Berlin plans to stymie such activities. schools.

Müller, who has been supportive The mayor added that he would use of Israel in the past, pledged last all legal methods at his disposal to Wednesday to “continue emphasizing achieve his goal, which would be “at my clear stance for Israel and against best a ban” on such activities and “at anti-Semitism and racism.” the very least strict regulations and BDS tactics of “standing with anti- prosecution of all violations.”

Semitic signs in front of Berlin shops” Schuster described the move as are tantamount to “the intolerable a “positive signal for the Jewish methods used in the Nazi era,” he said. population and for society in general,” “We will do everything in our power to and urged the mayor to follow through prevent the use of our venues and funds swiftly. for BDS’ anti-Israel incitements” and “All political parties must clearly stand against the annual Al-Quds Day decry anti-Semitism, whatever the demonstration, an anti-Israel march origin,” he said.

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Illinois State Sen. Daniel Biss, seen in a 2014 photo, earned unusual support for his decision from his possible opponent in the 2018 gubernatorial election.

PHOTO BT TASOS KATOPODIS/ GETTY IMAGES FOR MOTOROLA MOBILITY

safety and security of the Jewish people are deeply personal to me,” Biss said.

“I strongly support a two-state solution,” he continued. “I support Israel’s right to exist, and I support Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. I also care deeply about justice for Palestinians and believe that a vision for the Middle East must include political and economic freedom for Palestinians. That’s why I oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, as I believe it moves us further away from a peaceful solution.”

Biss earned unusual support for his decision from Richard Goldberg, a former spokesman for Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican whom Biss may face in next year’s election.

“Under Governor Rauner’s leadership, Illinois became the first state in America to divest its public pension funds from companies that participate in BDS,” Goldberg said in a statement. “This should always be a bipartisan issue and I applaud Congressman Schneider and Senator Biss for making clear to the far-left that BDS has no place in the Democratic Party.”

BDSWatch

Tufts University Activists Publish Guide Calling Israel a “White Supremacist State”

BY YVETTE ALT

(JTA) — Tufts University’s Hillel is described as “an organization that supports a white supremacist state” in a student-written guide to activist life at the university.

The “Tufts University Disorientation Guide” offers information on social, spiritual, health and academic resources at the Boston-area university, but singles out Hillel for opprobrium, calling it a “Zionist space” and accusing it of “exploit[ing] black voices for their own pro-Israel agenda.” The guide has been widely read and shared on social media.

Tufts’ Hillel’s executive director, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, objected to the guide’s one-sided portrayal of Hillel and Jewish campus life at the private university.

“We have been working so hard to create a positive atmosphere on campus, and we have such a positive Israel presence,” Summit said, adding that over 100 Tufts students visit Israel each year.

The accusation that Tufts’ Hillel exploits “black voices” stems from three years ago, when Hillel brought to campus the parents of Trayvon Martin—the black teenager who was shot in 2012 by a neighborhood-watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida—to speak about gun violence.

According to the guide, “Students were outraged that Hillel, an organization that promotes a white supremacist state, were bringing Trayvon’s parents to exploit black voices for their own pro-Israel agenda.”

Like other campus Hillels, the Tufts center also offers a range of social, cultural, educational and religious events, which are often unrelated to

West Hall at Tufts University PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

pro-Israel activity.

The disorientation guide was created by and for leftist student groups on campus, and suggests resources for students of color, low-income students, the LGBT community and women.

The only mentions of Jewish groups or activities, including Hillel, appear in a section for “Israel Apartheid Week,” a pro-Palestinian event, and in a description of the Pan African Alliance’s 2015 protest of the Trayvon Martin event.

Such guides have been created on other campuses as an alternative to the official student guides distributed by the university administration. The most recent disorientation guide at Columbia University criticized its administration for “supporting the oppression of Palestinians both through its investments and by suppressing anti-Israel speech by students and faculty.” The 2016 version at New York University asserts that students visiting Israel on a Birthright trip are “complicit in the occupation, destruction, and colonization of Palestine.”

The Tufts version does not receive university funding, according to Tufts’

executive director of public relations Patrick Collins, and is not part of the university’s official orientation program.

The disorientation guide “was posted without authorization by students on two official Class Facebook pages and prompted a number of student complaints,” Collins told the JTA in an email. “Although we respect students’ rights to free speech and expression, we also reserve the right to determine what may or may not be appropriate to share through the university’s official communications platforms. The university removed the guide shortly after being made aware of its posting because the guide is unauthorized and because multiple portions of the guide run counter to our community’s shared values and standards and to Orientation’s mission.”

A small group of friends created the Tufts guide after a 2016 edition fell through. They used the 2015 edition as a template.

Emmett Pinsky, a junior majoring in American studies with a minor in English, was among those who worked on the guide. Pinsky, who is Jewish, said that if people feel shocked by the guide’s strong language, it is doing its job.

“The use of strong language is meant to be jarring,” Pinsky (who eschews gender-specific pronouns) told the JTA. “The disorientation guide is meant to be jarring, and is meant to make you stop and think.”

Pinsky’s knowledge of Hillel is limited, the junior said, and stems from attending services a few times in his freshman year. Pinsky has not visited Israel. But the authors stand by the guide, Pinsky said, noting that Tufts’ Hillel is broadly pro-Israel.

“Israel is certainly implicated in systems of white supremacy,” Pinsky said. “The fact that many white Jewish people feel favorably toward the Jewish state and the occupation of Palestine comes from a desire to preserve whiteness in the way it is unfolding in Israel and Palestine.”

If people feel alarm at Tufts’ Hillel’s being implicated in white supremacy, Pinsky said, “I think that feeling of alarm is worth exploring to see if that

has a deeper root.”

The charge that Zionism is tantamount or similar to white supremacy has become increasingly popular on the anti-Zionist left.

Naomi Dann of the pro-BDS group Jewish Voice for Peace argued in The Forward recently that Zionists and white supremacists share “anxiety about demographics and racist and Islamophobic fear of ‘Arabs.’”

The Anti-Defamation League responded to Dann’s piece by asserting that Zionism “is based on providing for equal opportunity for the Jewish people, like others, to have sovereignty in their land while still fully protecting the rights of minorities who live within Israel. At its core, Zionism is a positive movement and is not intended to be ‘against’ anyone.”

For some students, the “Tufts University Disorientation Guide” has made their campus seem a colder, lesswelcoming place.

Sabrina Miller, a Jewish sophomore majoring in computer engineering, said the guide “gave a lot of support to other groups” and that made its negativity about Hillel more painful.

“For freshmen who are Jewish, who support Israel, I think it will make them feel unwelcome or uneasy” at Tufts, she said. “I know it definitely made me feel uneasy” on campus.

For Sophie Saunders, also a Jewish sophomore majoring in computer engineering, the guide brought back memories of a bitter dispute five months ago when the Tufts student senate voted to divest from Israel.

Saunders, who describes herself as a Zionist, attended the debate and was reduced to tears.

Jewish and pro-Israel students were upset that the vote was brought up unexpectedly before the senate by Students for Justice in Palestine just days before Passover.

Jews make up nearly 25 percent of the university’s undergraduate enrollment of 5,290, according to The Forward’s recent college guide. In addition to Hillel, Jewish and Israel-oriented groups include the Tufts American Israel Alliance, Tufts Friends of Israel, J Street U, Jewish Voice for Peace, TAMID and IAC Mishelanu.

Noting that the disorientation guide has caused her to feel “less welcome” at Tufts, Saunders said she has a plan: “I would like to say I’d like to get more involved” in pro-Israel activities at the university as a way to fight back.

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Locals in Sighet, Romania, marching in memory of Elie Wiesel, Sept. 10, 2017 PHOTO BY MOSHE MILNER

In Elie Wiesel’s Hometown, Hundreds Protest Anti-Semitism

by Retracing His Walk to Be Deported

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

SIGHET, ROMANIA (JTA) — More than 70 years after fascists took Elie Wiesel to the train station of this sleepy city in Romania, hundreds of its residents retraced his steps in a march to protest against anti-Semitism.

The march Sunday night was organized by local authorities and the Limmud FSU Jewish learning group, and co-sponsored by the Claims Conference.

It began at the home where Wiesel—arguably the world’s most famous Holocaust survivor and a Nobel prize laureate who passed away last year at the age of 87—was born and ended where in 1944 he boarded a train with his family to the Auschwitz death camp.

The march drew participants, Jews and otherwise, from far and wide. Dozens of them wore traditional

6 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017

clothing in a bid to emphasize that Wiesel is no less a part of the local heritage than its other elements, Sighet Mayor Horia Vasile Scubli said. At the end of the march, the local train station was renamed after Wiesel, a journalist and author whose company and advice was sought by world-renowned philosophers and statesmen alike, including several U.S. presidents.

Occurring amid a rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in Western Europe, the event in Sighet was a “powerful reminder that we are not alone as we used to be,” said Chaim Chesler, founder of Limmud FSU. “When fascists marched Elie Wiesel and his family with the knowledge of the local population, they were isolated, branded and silenced. Now we walk united, loud and hand in hand.”

This message resonated with many non-Jews as well.

Mario Golen, a Romanian homosexual man in his 30s, drove for an hour to Sighet to attend the march with his life partner of three years, John.

“I’m not Jewish but I could have been on those trains as well, or worse, if I were born when Elie Wiesel was born,” he said, referencing the Nazi murder and persecution of homosexuals. “So the least I can do is come to see where Elie was born and walk a mile in his memory.”

But for many of the Jewish participants of the march through the unlit streets of Sighet, a city of 37,000 that used to be part of Hungary during the Holocaust, the event was also a stark reminder of the scope of devastation of Hungarian and Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust, when the Nazis and their collaborators killed a million Jews from those countries alone.

Romania, once home to 800,000 Jews, now has about 7,000 of them, including a few dozen Jews living in Sighet. In Hungary, which also used to have close to one million Jews, there are now only 100,000.

“Nobody speaks of the mass theft, conducted on a state level by private people in Hungary today,” said Robert Frolich, the chief rabbi of Hungary for the Federation of Jewish Communities of that country.

Although Hungary has been more forthcoming than Romania in offering restitution for Jewish-owned property, there too “the issue is taboo,” Frolich said.

Despite the existence of many events in those countries emphasizing the need to fight antiSemitism—the march in Sighet was held under a banner reading “Anti-Semitism led to Auschwitz”— Holocaust denial and revisionism remain a problem in both.

In Hungary, the mainstreaming of anti-Semitic rhetoric appears to be a fait accompli amid a fight for nationalist votes between the ruling Fidesz party and the far-right Jobbik party. And in Romania, which has so far resisted offering restitution for countless assets stolen from Jews during and after the Holocaust, the denial of the Holocaust persists even among some politicians and scholars, despite the fact that it is illegal.

It was a point addressed by Yair Lapid, a prominent opposition lawmaker from Israel with Hungarian roots who attended the march. (Gila Gamliel, Israel’s minister for social equality, was also present at the event.)

Mindful of how hatred of Jews has survived and evolved even in places where few people have seen a Jew in real life, Lapid said, “Now as in the 1940s, anti-Semites only understand force. And this event, it advertises our strength—the Jews and non-Jews who oppose it.”

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Despite Protests, State Department Says It Will Return Trove of Jewish Artifacts to Iraq

Detail of Tik (Torah case) and Glass Panel from Baghdad, 19th20th centuries, part of the Iraqi Jewish Archive PHOTOS COURTESY OF NATIONAL ARCHIVES

This Passover Haggadah from 1902, one of very few Hebrew manuscripts recovered from Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters, was hand-lettered and decorated by an Iraqi youth.

BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

NEW YORK (JTA) — The United States will return to Iraq next year a trove of Iraqi Jewish artifacts that lawmakers and Jewish groups have lobbied to keep in this country, a State Department official said.

A four-year extension to keep the Iraqi Jewish Archive (IJA) in the United States is set to expire in September 2018, as is funding for maintaining and transporting the items. The materials will then be sent back to Iraq, spokesman Pablo Rodriguez said in a statement sent to the JTA on Thursday.

Rodriguez said the State Department “is keenly aware of the interest in the status” of the archive.

“Maintaining the archive outside of Iraq is possible,” he said, “but would require a new agreement between the government of Iraq and a temporary host institution or government.”

The archive was brought to America in 2003 after being salvaged by U.S. troops. It contains tens of thousands of items including books, religious texts, photographs and personal documents. Under an agreement with the government of Iraq, the archive was to be sent back there, but in 2014 the Iraqi ambassador to the United States said its stay had been extended. He did not say when the archive was to return.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Jewish groups have lobbied to renegotiate the deal, arguing that the documents should be kept in the United States or elsewhere where they are accessible to Iraqi Jews and their descendants. The JTA reached out to lawmakers who have sponsored resolutions urging a renegotiation of the archive’s return, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Iraq and proponents of returning

the archive say it can serve as an educational tool for Iraqis about the history of Jews there and that it is part of the country’s patrimony.

In 2003, U.S. troops found the archive, much of it waterlogged, in the basement of the Iraqi secret services headquarters in Baghdad. Under Saddam Hussein’s reign, Iraq had looted many of the artifacts after the dictator drove the Jewish community out of the country amid intense persecution.

In the United States, the artifacts were restored, digitalized and exhibited under the auspices of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Rodriguez was asked how appropriate treatment of the archive will be ensured.

“When the IJA is returned, the State Department will urge the Iraqi government to take the proper steps necessary to preserve the archive, and to make it available to members of the public to enjoy,” he said in the statement.

The archive is set to be exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Maryland Oct. 15-Jan. 15. The exhibit page says the items include a Hebrew bible with commentaries from 1568, a Babylonian Talmud from 1793 and an 1815 version of the Zohar, a Jewish mystical text.

“At this point, we have no new information for you about additional venues,” Miriam Kleiman, program director for public affairs at the National Archives, told the JTA in an email on Friday.

Groups representing Jews from Iraq decried the return date.

“There is no justification in sending the Jewish archives back to Iraq, a country that has virtually no Jews and no accessibility to Jewish scholars or

the descendants of Iraqi Jews,” Gina Waldman, founder and president of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, said Friday in a statement to the JTA. “The U.S. government must ensure that the Iraqi archives are returned to its rightful owners, the exiled Iraqi Jewish community.”

Stanley Urman, executive vice president for Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, echoed Waldman in saying there was no justification for sending back the archive.

“This is Jewish communal property.

Iraq stole it and kept it hidden away in a basement. Now that we’ve managed to reclaim it, it would be like returning stolen goods back to the thief,” Urman told the JTA on Friday.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of international Jewish affairs at the American Jewish Committee, emphasized that the agreement had always been that the archive would be returned.

“Certainly if there are more venues or museums that might wish to host this exhibition, that could be another reason for further deferring returning it to Iraq,” he told the JTA on Friday.

Baker said the fact that materials have been digitized ensures access to the archive no matter where it is physically located.

“Frankly, I would hope that while the position of the State Department is as

has been said, and a date has been given, that there can be and hopefully will be further understanding or agreements that might be reached even informally that would lead to further deferral of any actual return of the archive,” he said.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the archive should remain wherever it is most accessible to the public.

“The Iraqi Jewish community endured for millennia, and the Iraqi Jewish Archive is an important collection of cultural records testifying to their presence in that historic land.

It should be accessible to anyone. If that goal is best achieved by the archive remaining in the United States, then that’s what we should do.”

Marc Lubin, a government relations consultant who has worked on the issue, was critical of the agreement with the Iraqi government to return the archive.

“The Iraqi Jewish Archives case lifts the curtain and exposes the reality that the United States has entered into a number of agreements, in name of deterring looting, that in fact endorse foreign government claims on the property of Jews and other individuals and religious minorities,” he told the JTA in an email. “These provisions violate American principles and need to be rolled back.”

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7

OBITUARY

The standing-room-only crowd who attended Simanowitz’s funeral on Sunday, Sept. 3 PHOTO BY JAMES FARRELL

Queens Remembers Assemblyman Simanowitz, Dead at 46 THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN IN THE QUEENS TRIBUNE, AN EDITORIAL PARTNER OF NYJL.

BY JAMES FARRELL

Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (D-Flushing) died on Saturday [Sept.

2] after a battle with an undisclosed form of cancer. He was 46 years old.

Simanowitz, who represented the 27th Assembly District, took office in 2011 after serving for years as the chief of staff for his predecessor, former Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn.

Simanowitz was an Orthodox Jew and Forest Hills native. Prior to joining politics, he was an auxiliary police officer for the 107th Precinct who had been recognized for his volunteer work after September 11 and during the blackout of 2003.

On Sunday [Sept. 3], hundreds of family members, friends and fellow

8 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017

elected officials attended an emotional funeral service at the Schwartz Brothers Jeffer Memorial Chapel in Forest Hills. They packed the chapel beyond capacity.

Among those who came to pay their respects were Simanowitz’s colleagues from Albany.

“I’m just in utter shock,” Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) told the Queens Tribune after the service.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said that Simanowitz’s death leaves “some really big shoes to fill.”

Heastie told the Tribune, “If there was an issue that he felt passionate about, there was no bigger advocate or

better spokesperson than Mike.”

Simanowitz was especially passionate about advocating for education issues in Albany, said Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Flushing). She added that people would remember him as a problem solver with an “effusive energy” that brought people together.

Many recalled a man whose quick wit brought a unique flair to his work.

“He had one of the best senses of humor that I’ve seen among anyone,” said Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Fresh Meadows).

Jeff Leb, of the government relations firm Capital Consulting, described Simanowitz as a friend and mentor.

In the early 2000s, Leb worked for former Councilman Jim Gennaro and collaborated closely with Simanowitz, then Mayersohn’s chief of staff, on several projects.

“He could be a really tough cookie to deal with, politically or even personally,” Leb said. “But if he had a position, it was a position based on principle. Everything he did was based on his conscience and his principle.”

Following news of Simanowitz’s death, reactions poured in from all levels of government. Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement praising him for working “every day to make life better for his constituents.” U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said she was “shocked and devastated,” and fondly

recalled his “heart of gold,” while U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) called him a “person beyond reproach.”

And Councilman Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens) issued a personal and emotional statement praising his friend.

“May his good deeds live on forever,” Grodenchik said. “May the thousands and thousands of people he helped in his all-too-short life remember his kindnesses and may they be multiplied manyfold. May the life he led inspire all who knew him to live lives consecrated to good deeds and helping others.”

Among those most familiar with Simanowitz’s good deeds was Tim Thomas, Simanowitz’s chief of staff.

Thomas remembered his boss for his staunch commitment to the community that was undeterred by illness.

A month ago, Simanowitz attended a press conference with Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest) to celebrate a new handicap-accessible ramp at Flushing’s PS 201. A few weeks later, he issued a fiery joint statement with Lancman decrying the Queens Museum’s controversial decision to cancel an event commemorating the foundation of Israel.

“He’s been in tremendous pain for over a year now,” Thomas said. “He lived his life in a way that put others before him all the time.”

OBITUARY

JERRY GOTTESMAN DEAD AT 87 The Property Developer and Jewish Philanthropist Jerry Gottesman Dies.

Passed Away on a Private Visit to Israel with His Family (J TA) — Je r o m e “Je r r y ” Jewish camp program in North Gottesman, a property developer and America, according to the Foundation philanthropist who often focused on for Jewish Camp, another of his expanding access to Jewish education, beneficiaries. In 2014 the Gottesman has died. foundation gave a $15 million challenge Gottesman grant as part of died on Sunday a capital and at the age of 87 endowment while on a private campaign to the visit to Israel Hebrew Academy with his family. of Morris County, His body was set which changed to be returned to its name to the New Jersey for a Gottesman RTW funeral and burial A c a d e m y. H i s yesterday. funeral was to Gottesman, be held there along with his yesterday. brother Harold, In 2015 the w a s t h e c o - Jerry Gottesman Gottesman founder o f PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JEWISH foundation gave a FEDERATION OF GREATER METROWEST NJ Ne w a r k , Ne w $10 million grant Jersey-based to attract new Edison Properties, and served as students and to keep tuition flat for chairman of the company until his 10 years at four New Jersey Jewish death. Edison controls more than day schools: the Golda Och Academy, 3 million square feet of property, the Gottesman RTW Academy, the including parking garages and storage Jewish Educational Center and the units in Manhattan and Brooklyn and Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/ several million more square feet in Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School. The Newark, according to the news website overall program became a national NJBiz. model for making Jewish days schools

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HERSKOWITZ SOCIETY OF GREATER METROWEST

more affordable.

“We have lost a dear friend and a giant in our community,” said Scott Krieger, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, in a statement. “Thinking through the lens of real estate, Jerry understood that building Jewish community meant deep investment today, but always with an eye to the future.”

The Gottesmans have also given

over $500,000 to PJ Library, which provides free books and educational materials to young Jewish families.

At the time of his death, Gottesman’s net worth exceeded $550 million, an Edison spokesperson told NJBiz, who added that he “left a substantial part of his estate to charities.”

He is survived by Paula, his wife of 55 years; four daughters; 17 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

“We have lost a dear friend and a giant in our community. Thinking through the lens of real estate, Jerry understood that building Jewish community meant deep investment today, but always with an eye to the future.”

–Scott Krieger, president, Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9

NEW YORK & NATIONAL

Epigenetics:

Survival from Generation to Generation

BY MAXINE DOVERE

Is it possible for a mother who has been under great stress to pass that “trauma experience” to her fetus through a biological mechanism that alters the genes of her unborn child?

An emerging body of research suggests that survivors of the Holocaust and other traumatic situations—9/11, a devastating storm—can transmit trauma to the next generation physically and psychologically.

“The children of survivors—a surprising number of them, anyway—may be born less able to metabolize stress,” journalist Judith Shulevitz wrote in The New Republic in 2014. “They may be born more susceptible to PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], a vulnerability expressed in their molecules, neurons, cells and genes.”

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Dr. Rachel Yehuda is director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, which includes the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She is a recognized expert in the area of transgenerational transmittance of PTSD. Her research on cortisol and brain function has been termed revolutionary.

In 1993, Yehuda opened the first clinic devoted to the psychological treatment of Holocaust victims.

Her clinic discovered that children of Holocaust victims were affected in “a very coherent and cohesive pattern.” Children of survivors have been documented to be three times more likely to develop PTSD if exposed to traumatic events than other Jews of a similar age, and

exhibited the “same neuro, endocrine or hormonal abnormalities” seen in Holocaust survivors.

“Epigenetic mechanisms,” said Yehuda, “offer an additional explanation for the impact of personal and family history on vulnerability.”

Her study, published in August 2015 in Biological Psychiatry, describes growing evidence that concentration-camp survivors and their children— the “2Gs”—might show changes in the epigenetic regulation of genes.

Elisabeth Binder, director of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and Yehuda’s colleague, defines “epigenetic” as “pertaining to changes in the machinery that controls gene expression, rather than changes in the genes themselves.” Their study concludes that “descendants of survivors of the Holocaust have different stress hormone profiles than their peers of the same age whose parents were not in Europe during the Holocaust,” perhaps predisposing them to anxiety disorder. Production of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body return to normal after trauma, is affected.

The adaptation, according to the study, is believed to have happened in utero. If pregnant survivors had low levels of the enzyme in the placenta, a greater amount of cortisol could make its way to the fetus, which would then develop high levels of the enzyme to protect itself—biologically preparing for an environment similar to that of the parents.

“If you are looking for it all to be logical and fall into place perfectly, it isn’t going to yet,” Yehuda said. “We are just at the beginning of understanding this.”

Epigenetic modifications may alter biological responses to stress without changes to the actual genetic code. Such changes alter genetic accessibility, determining how effectively the organism can react to stress hormones. This, in turn, regulates the entire stress-hormone system. Yehuda’s study indicates that the affected gene, FKBP5, is “associated with intergenerational effects”—what Yehuda termed “an epigenetic inheritance.”

She further noted that parents’ Holocaust experiences can affect the genes of their children, resulting in “gene changes…[that] could only be

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attributed to wartime exposure in the parents. The children of traumatized people have long been known to be at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, mood and anxiety disorders.”

Early detection of epigenetic markers may advance the development of preventive strategies to address the intergenerational effects of exposure to trauma.

In an exclusive interview with NYJL, Dr. Eva Fogelman, a psychologist specializing in the study of the “second generation,” said, “Genetics are not destiny. We are at a preliminary stage of understanding how trauma affects the ability to deal with stress....Traumatized parents’ cortisol levels have been shown to be deficient….When cortisol levels are defective, coping with a stressful situation becomes more difficult.”

Fogelman is the writer and producer of Breaking the Silence: The Generation After the Holocaust, a documentary film about how children of survivors of the Holocaust learn to improve their self-images and relationships with their parents. She is the author of many Holocaust-focused books, some for general audiences and several for professional and academic audiences, including her latest volume, Children in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. The doctor has led seminars concerned with the emotional and factual issues relating to the Holocaust, and noted that “there was no training program for people working with people who suffered this trauma” prior to her work.

She calculated the number of children of Holocaust survivors in the United States at about 200,000. She, too, is a child of survivors.

Fogelman was a leading force in making Holocaust survivors and their children “visible.” She identified a “2G complex,” which “affects identity, selfesteem, interpersonal interactions, and worldview.” She developed awareness groups for 2G children and organized the First Conference on Children of Holocaust Survivors. Four years later, in 1981, 2G children and their survivor parents journeyed to Jerusalem for the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors: The International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.

Fogelman told NYJL, “Preliminary studies show that genes are somewhat transformed by stress, and that such deformed genes can be passed to the next generation.”

When both parents were survivors, there was a significant likelihood

“Any interaction with an authority figure, especially one in a uniform, evokes associations with Nazis in uniform. Survivors may become fearful, afraid for their very lives. The police were not your friends.

They ransacked your home, deported, raped and murdered you. Such experiences leave a ‘hidden trigger.’”

–Dr. Eva Fogelman PHOTO COURTESY OF YOUTUBE

this would occur. If one parent was a Holocaust survivor and the other had “normal” experiences, the problem may not manifest.

“It is not universally applicable,” she continued. “Genes are, of course, inherited from both parents. If children of survivors do not experience significant stress or trauma, they may never be affected by the transformed gene, even if they carry the trait. If, however, those with the gene are traumatized or in a stressful situation, they may experience a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

For example, upon hearing a siren, a Holocaust survivor may become anxious or fearful to a far greater degree than would the ‘average’ person. Survivors may associate the siren with their wartime experience.

“Any interaction with an authority figure, especially one in a uniform, evokes associations with Nazis in uniform. Survivors may become fearful, afraid for their very lives. The police were not your friends,” she noted.

“They ransacked your home, deported, raped and murdered you. Such experiences leave a ‘hidden trigger.’”

The psychologist said that while PTSD is not apparent on a daily basis, incidents that provoke fear of annihilation can result in symptoms of PTSD. NYJL asked Fogelman to comment on survivors’ likely response to the Nazi symbolism displayed during the alt-right march in Charlottesville,

Virginia, and at similar events.

“The situation is awakening fears,” she responded. “More nightmares and a greater level of anxiety are common....

Nazis marching through the streets brings out PTSD that might have been dormant for years. Externally, survivors may look like they have adjusted well; that doesn’t mean there are no consequences of the past.”

Fogelman said that “survivor’s guilt,” probably one of the most blatant symptoms, is a response that goes from generation to generation. She also noted that the nature of the parents’ marriages—sometimes loveless unions directed mainly at rebuilding family— left children without the nurturing needed to develop a positive self-image.

“Children may represent a replacement of what was lost,” she said. “Survivor parents may have been overly sensitive and anxious about their children’s behavior, pushing them to unrealistic goals. They may have been overprotective, distrustful of the external environment.

“The ‘2Gs’—second generation— may have identity issues and experience a continuum from guilt and shame to pride. They may feel they cannot enjoy themselves, but must mourn lost family they never even knew. How the Holocaust is communicated within the family can evoke a tremendous amount of anger and rage. Where there was silence, second-generation children have had a more difficult time.

Trust—or the lack of trust—is an issue.

“2G children may psychologically trade places with their parents, experiencing survivor’s guilt and feeling the effects of the Holocaust as if they themselves had actually been there. 2Gs have found it difficult to trust people outside their family. Separation from parents was often difficult, inherently associated with death.”

Fogelman said good psychological health requires that the mourning process be “integrated in a constructive manner” through such mechanisms as involvement in Holocaust-awareness programs and education, Jewish community participation and “perhaps most important, ‘taking revenge’ in a constructive way, making a positive difference in society.

“Establishing the process of identity is much more important than the genetics. We are at the very early stages of understanding the acute impact of any changes in the genetics. Most of the time, these things are dormant.

The cortisol levels only matter when in a stressful situation; they are not important in everyday life.”

In her article in The New Republic , Shulevitz wrote, “If the intergenerational transmission of trauma can help scientists understand the mechanics of risk and resilience, they may be able to offer hope not just for individuals but also for entire communities as they struggle to cast off the shadow of the past.”

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 11

EDUCATION

A New Promised Land

BY BEN HARTMAN, JTA

It has been more than a decade since Curtis “Yehuda” Franks moved to South Bend, Indiana, and most of the time he doesn’t give a second thought to being a visibly Orthodox Jew in this Midwestern city.

Franks teaches philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, a prominent Catholic university known for the Fighting Irish football team, which has helped make the city of 100,000 an island of cosmopolitanism in the rural Midwest. It’s also home to a small yet vibrant Orthodox community.

But leave South Bend and it’s another world.

Franks, who with his beard, white shirt and dark pants looks Hasidic, remembers stopping to buy tires at a Sears in small-town Indiana and being asked by the cashier if he was from a nearby Amish village.

When Franks told her that he had never heard of the town, the cashier told him, “Oh, you’d love it there.”

Franks is among a growing number of Orthodox Jews who have moved to South Bend in recent years.

The city has all of the key infrastructure elements necessary for an Orthodox Jewish life: two Orthodox synagogues, a kosher market, an eruv enclosure, a mikvah ritual bath, a day school and high schools.

But South Bend offers another unique draw for Orthodox Jews: a state-run school voucher program in which public funds can go toward tuition at private schools, including religious ones. That has helped make Jewish day school tuition in Indiana supremely affordable—even free in some cases—for Jewish families that meet certain income requirements.

It’s one of the reasons the Orthodox Union (OU) is promoting South Bend as an attractive option for Orthodox families looking to relocate from the Northeast. South Bend has about 100 Orthodox families, the OU estimates. In addition to the South Bend Hebrew Day School, the city is home to a high school yeshiva for boys and a Bais Yaakov for girls.

Residents say South Bend offers a welcoming atmosphere without the stress and high cost of living in a big city.

Because the city’s Orthodox community is so small, members work hard to make new arrivals feel at home.

Shlomo and Michal Wadler, both Brooklyn natives, moved to South Bend six years ago so Shlomo could study for his doctorate in theology at Notre Dame.

Michal works as a physical therapist, and the couple has a 7-year-old child and a 4-year-old Hoosie —an Indiana native.

“It’s an extremely warm community,” Shlomo Wadler said. “For the first few months, people were bringing us meals for Shabbat. I don’t think we cooked for Shabbat for the first couple of months.”

Zvi Silver, who moved to town from Pittsburgh seven years ago and is now the board president of the South Bend Hebrew Day School, said, “Everyone knows each other and looks out for each other.”

Silver said the school has seen steady growth in recent years, with 170 students enrolled this fall, up from 159 last year.

Of those, more than half were beneficiaries of Indiana’s voucher program. Under the Indiana program, a family of four earning less than $45,000 per year can get a voucher worth the full cost of tuition. Students whose parents make up to $67,000 annually can get a 50 percent voucher.

Standard tuition rates at South Bend Hebrew Day School range from $4,500 to $6,950, depending on the grade. Last year, 57 students were on a full voucher and 26 were on a partial voucher, according to Silver.

Five years ago, Shani and Aryeh Kramer were living in Lakewood, New Jersey, when Aryeh saw a job advertised for a kosher grocer “out of town” and became curious. When their air conditioning broke down on the eve of a July 4 weekend—with no one available to fix it—they decided spontaneously to drive 13 hours to make it to South Bend for Shabbat.

Today, Aryeh manages the local Midwest Kosher & Deli in South Bend.

“We fell in love with the small-town feeling,” Shani Kramer said. “We had lived in a New Jersey town that was big, but I felt that nobody knew I existed there. I missed that feeling of people caring about each other. This is a place where you can be somebody and every single person counts and Michal Wadler can contribute. We’ve never looked back.” with her two The school vouchers also make a huge difference, children. The girl, Shani says. The couple has four children.

4, is a Hoosier—a The vouchers are a boon for South Bend’s native-born Orthodox community, according to Michall Indianan.

Goldman, outgoing executive director of the PHOTO COURTESY Community Development Initiative of South OF THE WADLER FAMILY Bend, which tries to bolster Orthodox Jewish life in the city.

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Shlomo and Michal Wadler moved to South Bend from Brooklyn six years ago. They are part of an influx of Orthodox families to the Midwestern university town.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WADLER FAMILY

“We are a desirable place to relocate because of the vouchers, but our goal is that anyone who has moved here will be successful—either they have a job offer waiting for them here or they are able to continue their work there,” Goldman said, adding that a family with six children can make around $100,000 per year and still afford a decent house.

The median price of homes in South Bend is $99,000, according to Zillow.com, with the median price per square foot at $77. That’s a fraction of the price in the Northeast, where most Orthodox Jews live. In Brooklyn, square footage costs 10 times the South Bend price, according to Zillow.

South Bend also benefits from geography. The city is only 95 miles from Chicago and a four-hour drive from Cleveland and Detroit. The local airport has daily flights to Newark. Notre Dame is a major source of employment for professionals from across the country, and the area has extensive opportunities in the medical and mental health field.

About five to 10 new Orthodox families move to South Bend each year, Goldman estimated.

The Jewish community of South Bend has a storied history and has long been part of the fabric of local life. The Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley, which includes South Bend and the surrounding area, estimates the overall Jewish community at 1,800.

Orthodox Judaism here dates back to at least the 19th century. Hebrew Orthodox Congregation, the black-hat–style Orthodox synagogue in town, was established in 1887. The other Orthodox shul is the Midwest Torah Center.

Rabbi Judah Isaacs, who as the OU’s director of community engagement works to help bolster South Bend and other “out of town” Orthodox communities like Southfield, Michigan; and Overland Park, Kansas, says he highlights the intimacy, low cost of living and anchor Orthodox institutions when trying to sell these Midwestern communities to potential newcomers from the Northeast. He tells the communities they must have jobs available if they want to draw new families.

“Orthodox Jews moving to the Midwest need to go with an out-of-the-box perspective,” he said. “Small can be nice.”

EDUCATION

Yeshiva University Celebrates Investiture of Rabbi Ari Berman as Fifth President (J TA) — Ye s h i v a University (YU) celebrated the investiture of Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman as its fifth president.

More than 2,000 people, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), consul general of Israel in New York Dani Dayan, former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, former Israeli Ambassador Danny Ayalon and Israel’s United Nations Amb. Danny Danon were in attendance at the ceremony at the university on Sunday.

Berman, a graduate of Yeshiva University and its rabbinical seminary, outlined his vision for the future of the Yeshiva University celebrated the investiture of university.

“Most new presidents of Rabbi Ari Berman as its new president on Sept. 10, 2017. universities need to learn the PHOTO COURTESY OF YESHIVA UNIVERSITY story of their institutions to understand their narrative and its purpose, but I do not need Mark Wilf, honorary chair of the to read a history book to understand Investiture Committee and member Yeshiva University—it is in my heart of the YU Board of Trustees, offered and it is in my soul,” said Berman. “In welcoming remarks. Rabbi Jacob an era in which there is a breakdown J. Schacter, university professor of of civic and civil conversation, Yeshiva Jewish History and Jewish Thought, University is uniquely positioned to introduced Berman.

Berman served for 14 years as a rabbi address the most pressing moral issues of the day. Moving forward, we will at The Jewish Center, a prominent continue to be steadfast in bringing modern Orthodox congregation on the to bear our vast, interdisciplinary Upper West Side of Manhattan, before resources on these fundamental issues immigrating to Israel in 2008. He both for the general public and also taught Talmud at YU beginning in 1998.

During his time in Israel, Berman internally for our students. We stand proud as educators, thought leaders earned a doctorate in Jewish thought at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. and moral voices for our generation.”

A special viewing event was held He now serves as rosh hamerkaz, in Jerusalem, preceded by a lecture or head of the center, at Hechal

by Michael Oren, deputy minister of Shlomo, The Jewish Heritage Center public policy in Israel, on the centrality in Jerusalem. He is also an instructor at Herzog College, a teachers’ college of Israel to the Jewish people.

British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis in the West Bank settlement of Alon delivered the ceremony’s invocation. Shvut, outside Jerusalem.

Sober Event at Pier 40 Marks International Overdose Awareness Day BIGVISION EASES TRANSITION FOR MILLENNIALS RETURNING FROM REHAB THROUGH SUBSTANCE-FREE EVENTS

NEW YORK, NY — On Thursday, Aug. 31, 20 millennials in addiction recovery honored International Overdose Awareness Day at Pier 40’s Trapeze School New York. The event, hosted by New York City nonprofit BIGVISION, underscores the organization’s ongoing commitment to providing recovering young adults with a fun and safe substance-free community.

The evening began with a meditation session led by mindfulness instructor Sydney Faith Rose, followed by two hours of trapeze and trampoline training (pictured above and below).

Participants honored those lost to overdoses with a collage to close out the event.

“Recovery is a lifelong process, but it shouldn’t be a lonely one,” said Christine Jeberg, director of operations at BIGVISION. “Last night’s event was a chance to reflect on those we have unfortunately lost to overdoses, and a reminder that a substancefree community is a vital lifeline for young adults post treatment.”

Founded by New York mom Eve Goldberg after her son Isaac Goldberg Volkmar died at age 23 of an accidental overdose, BIGVISION hosts safe, substance-free social events across the city to help young people bridge the gap back into society after treatment.

BIGVISION works with a wide variety of treatment centers and recovery organizations including Caron NY, Educational Alliance, Transcend Sober Living, The Freedom Institute, Hazelden, Tribeca Twelve, Serenity Sober Living, Road Recovery, The Center for Motivation & Change and Friends of Recovery.

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 13

EDUCATION

Campers kayaking at Camp Gilboa near Los Angeles

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAMP GILBOA

New York City students need YOU! Build the school of your dreams, where YOU make the decisions that best support your students.

Learn how to open a public charter school in NYC. www.nyccharterschools.org/ apply-right

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U.S. Jewish Camps Urge Trump to Preserve Visa Program for Israeli Counselors WASHINGTON (JTA) — A number of Jewish camping organizations wrote to President Donald Trump urging him to keep in place a program that grants visas to foreigners who work in summer camps.

“Participation of Jewish counselors and staff from Israel and other countries through the J-1 Camp Counselor and SWT programs is critical to the mission of the Jewish camp field—and the American camp experience as a whole,” said the Sept. 6 letter, referring to the summer work-travel program, which facilitates temporary work visas for camp counselors and other jobs.

“Our camps utilize these programs to bring cultural exchange staff from Israel to summer programs, where they participate in daily camp life, sharing Jewish traditions, teaching about Jewish and Israeli culture, and serving as role models for Jewish campers.”

The letter was spearheaded by the Foundation for Jewish Camp. It is co-signed by the JCC Association of North America, the Union for Reform Judaism, National Ramah Commission, Habonim Dror North America, Association of Independent Jewish Camps and Young Judaea Global.

On April 18, Trump issued an executive order saying he would review policies toward encouraging more “buy American and hire American” practices.

Camps nationwide were alarmed by an Aug. 27 Wall Street Journal article that said that the J-1 program was specifically targeted for review. Some have been urging parents to contact lawmakers to keep the program in place.

The camps are arguing that relatively few Americans apply for the jobs, but in the case of Jewish summer camps there’s another wrinkle—eliminating the program would undercut a key method of building up Jewish identity, the letter writers said.

“Our research has proved that Jewish summer-camp experiences are a significant predictor of Jewish identity formation and whether children will continue to be part of their faith communities as they grow,” it said.

EDUCATION

The ESSA Plan New York Is Sending to Betsy DeVos

BY MONICA DISARE

(CHALKBEAT) — New York’s top education policymakers approved a major plan Monday that could reshape the way the state evaluates schools, intervenes in those that are struggling and several other key education policies.

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires each state to craft a plan and submit it to the U.S. Education Department, which 16 states and the District of Columbia did earlier this year. New York’s Board of Regents voted on Monday to accept its plan, meaning it will now head to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ agency for final approval.

The state’s ESSA plan is hundreds of pages long and packed with technical jargon and formulas. But taken as a whole, it amounts to a roadmap for how the current Regents intend to steer state education policy in a new direction.

Here’s what you need to know about it: 1. The plan stems from a sweeping new federal law.

In 2015, President Barack Obama signed ESSA into law, replacing the controversial No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. ESSA, which is the country’s primary federal education law, sought to remedy problems that had plagued NCLB and made it unpopular with lawmakers from both parties and with many educators.

NCLB was widely criticized for setting unrealistic expectations: By 2014, every state was expected to get 100 percent of students to pass its annual exams. If schools failed to make enough progress towards that goal, they could face a series of consequences including state takeover, conversion into a charter school or closure.

ESSA places more power in the hands of the states to identify and intervene in struggling schools. Yet the law also kept important elements of NCLB intact.

For instance, states are still required to administer English and math tests

in grades three to eight. However, New York is planning to apply for a waiver that will allow it to experiment with new types of assessments, according to draft plans.

The state released a draft plan in May and a revised version in July, which officials sent to the governor. Monday’s approval is the last step before it reaches the U.S. Education Department.

2. The plan centers on evaluating and improving schools.

Under the previous law, schools were rated primarily based on students’ test scores and graduation rates, and the lowest-performing schools were subject to harsh penalties. ESSA gave New York a chance to rethink that approach.

Now when officials rate schools they will look beyond academic outcomes (read: test scores) to also consider other measures of students’ success or struggles, such as how often they’re suspended or miss class or how prepared they are for life after high school. The plan also alters the formula for calculating the bottom 5 percent of schools.

The plan also changes what happens after a school is labeled as

low-performing. Rather than replacing staffers or closing the school, the state will first offer struggling schools more support—though it is unclear what exactly that support, which the plan calls “evidence-based interventions,” will look like. However, schools that receive low ratings for three years can still face state takeover under this plan.

Finally, the plan lays the groundwork for a new way to share its school ratings with the public. An online tool that the state calls a “dashboard” will display information not just about how well a given school is performing, but also about the context in which it’s operating. For example, how much funding does it get and how diverse is its student body? While that context won’t change how schools are rated, it’s meant to provide a fuller picture to the public and prod districts to fund schools equitably and reduce segregation.

3. The plan is a roadmap of New York’s new education approach.

The plan is more than just a technical document; it’s also a manifesto spelling out a philosophy of school change that contrasts sharply with New York’s past approach. When Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa revealed the state’s original draft ESSA plan, she called it a “vision plan.”

Rosa was elected to lead the Board of Regents just as it—along with state lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo— was beginning to amend a slate of controversial policies, including teacher evaluations, learning standards and graduation requirements. For instance, it put a freeze on the use of certain test scores to rate teachers and made it easier for students with disabilities to graduate from high school.

Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa, New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia at Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School PHOTO BY MONICA DISARE

Beyond unwinding the previous chancellor’s policies, ESSA has given Rosa and the current Regents a chance to articulate their alternative vision. At the core of their philosophy is making sure that all schools have the resources they need to succeed.

Ian Rosenblum, executive director of EdTrust-NY, said the plan begins to translate that vision into policy and describe how it will set that policy in motion.

“That is not just symbolic,” he said.

4. There’s disagreement about how much the plan changes and what it will mean for schools.

Is this shift mainly rhetorical or will it make a major difference in classrooms across the state? Advocates have different answers to that question.

Some, like Lisa Rudley, a founding member of New York State Allies for Public Education, which helped lead a movement to boycott state tests, think that the state’s ESSA plan does not mark a big enough departure from the previous law.

“I see the ESSA plan as an extension of No Child Left Behind,” Rudley said. “I do think they missed a huge opportunity.”

Others think the plan reflects an important policy shift that will trickle down to the classroom. For instance, lessening the weight of test scores in judging schools and teachers reduces the pressure on educators to only cover material that will appear on the exams, said Carl Korn, spokesman for the state teachers union.

“I don’t know that you can discount the more holistic, 30,000-foot view of [evaluating] what’s happening in a school, as opposed to [using] simply ELA and math scores,” Korn said.

The education consulting firm Bellwether Education Partners gave New York’s plan high marks for the amount of support it plans to give schools that are struggling, which would include a needs assessment and a team of onsite reviewers.

5. Now the plan must make it past Betsy DeVos. The plan is now headed to the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) by the end of September. The state will receive feedback on the plan, and officials expect it will be officially approved in early 2018.

For states that have already submitted plans, the USDE has provided some pushback but in general has ultimately approved the plans.

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EDUCATION

The Idea of the American Dream Works Against My Students HERE’S HOW ETHNIC STUDIES COULD HELP

BY WILL EHRENFELD

Will Ehrenfeld, public school educator

(CHALKBEAT) — A recent study laid out an my curriculum in every course. uncomfortable paradox: For students of color, In addition, I am grateful for believing in the American Dream—namely the the mentoring of a number of “bootstrap theory” that hard work and perseverance brilliant, experienced teachers and lead to success—predicts a decline in self-esteem and administrators, most of whom are an increase in risky behaviors during middle school. black. They have convinced me that As Melinda Anderson put it in The Atlantic recently, good teaching for all students must be this belief can become a liability for students “once approached in a culturally responsive way.

During my economics class this past semester, we they become keenly aware of how institutional looked not only at Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John discrimination disadvantages them and their group.”

That research only looked at a few hundred students Maynard Keynes, but also at labor organizers such in the Southwest, and it’s always risky to draw broad as Dolores Huerta and A. Philip Randolph. This did conclusions based on a single study. But as a white not require an overhaul of the curriculum, but it teacher of mostly black students in Brooklyn, I’ve necessitated reflection about how best to connect with the students in front of me. This was a simple seen this firsthand.

My students reliably pick up on nuance, particularly first step, wholly insufficient.

In San Francisco, where full ethnic-studies when it comes to issues of fairness. If you are told that your world is a meritocracy, and your neighborhood courses have been offered to ninth-grade students looks like a disaster zone, you may reasonably come for several years, a study conducted by Stanford’s to the conclusion that your options are limited and Center for Education Policy Analysis demonstrated a remarkable, significant positive impact: internalize the idea that they should be.

Educators have a responsibility to confront and fight against these beliefs.

This is where our own curriculum can work against us—and it’s time for that to change.

New York’s students deserve a class dedicated to ethnic studies, focused on the historical struggles and social movements of ethnic minorities, and conscious of the ways in which race and ethnicity intersect with power and oppression. For too many young people, white students as well as students of color, school rarely connects to these critical concerns.

I’ve seen the promise of this approach, thanks to my experience working with children who do not look like me. Their engagement in lessons that deal explicitly with ethnicstudies content convinced me that this emphasis should become part of PHOTO: STEPHANIE SNYDER

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“Assignment to this course increased ninth-grade student attendance by 21 percentage points, GPA by 1.4 grade points, and credits earned by 23. These surprisingly large effects are consistent with the hypothesis that the course reduced dropout rates and suggest that culturally relevant teaching…can provide effective support to at-risk students.”

In the past year, California passed a law that will bring ethnic studies to every school in the state, building on popular programs in many of the state’s largest districts.

The most controversial discussion of ethnic studies at the K-12 level has taken place in Arizona, where state legislators banned a popular Mexican American studies program in the Tucson public schools in 2010.

That ban was just overturned last week— making this an important moment to discuss how these classes could help students across the country.

Meanwhile, for my students of color in New York City, racist violence animates their lives to a degree many fail to appreciate.

I was struck recently by two stories in the news: reflections on the death of Mike Brown three years ago on August 9, and a look back at the brutal assault of Abner Louima by the NYPD 20 years ago on the same date. Sadly, the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville will join our collective memory, to be filed next to these two important parts of our history along a continuum that also includes Medgar Evers, Emmett Till and the victims of race riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Wilmington, North Carolina; and so many others that do not appear in our standard history books. These omissions must be corrected.

White students as well as students of color will benefit from ethnicstudies courses, which expand on the core curriculum by including diverse voices and perspectives. Most importantly, these courses analyze power structures in a critical way, empowering students to challenge the status quo.

That’s what the state of New York should want for all young people. The 44 credits now required for a high school diploma, including courses in economics and a foreign language, are missing this component that is key to creating good citizens. In 2017, we can no longer suffer public schools that fail to meet this crucial obligation.

Will Ehrenfeld is a social studies teacher at Pathways in Technology Early College High School in Brooklyn.

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17

EDUCATION

Anne Frank’s Diary Is Now a Comic Book

Healthy Teeth, Happy Kids

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

PARIS (JTA) — In a bid to preserve interest in the Holocaust on the part of future generations, the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation unveiled the first authorized comic book based on the teenager’s famous diary written in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

The 148-page adaptation, which is to be published Sept. 18 in France and in some 40 languages worldwide, was presented to journalists in the French capital Thursday by the diary’s illustrator, David Polonsky, from Israel, and its writer, the Israeli film director Ari Folman, who is working on the first full-length authorized animation film based on the comic book.

The comic book, referred to as a graphic diary by its developers, was produced in cooperation with the Anne Frank Foundation, or Fonds—the organization that Anne’s father, Otto, entrusted with preserving her memory.

It contains colorful illustrations both of realities described in the book, including the teen’s difficult relationship with her mother and sister, and her dreams and fantasies.

One full-page drawing, based on Anne’s writing about wanting to become a journalist, shows an older Anne sitting at her desk with framed newspapers in the background, including a Life magazine cover featuring a picture of her. Another shows her family members and other Jews with whom they lived in hiding for two years in Amsterdam depicted as animals, corresponding to Anne’s humorous anecdotes about their personalities. Other drawings feature allusions to great visual artworks, including by Edvard Munch and Gustav Klimt.

“I’m worried we’re coming to an era where there won’t be Holocaust survivors on Earth, no living witnesses to tell the story,” said Folman, who was born to Holocaust survivors who he said told him and his sister “way, way too many”

18 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017

BY DR. MELISSA LEVINE

The comic book directed by Ari Folman is the first such publication authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation.

COURTESY OF ARI FOLMAN

horrible stories from the genocide. As they disappear, “the entire story of the Holocaust risks becoming something ancient so it’s essential to find ways to preserve” interest in the Holocaust, he said during a Q&A in Paris.

Anne, her sister and parents and several other Jews were deported in 1944 to be murdered following a raid by Nazi soldiers on the so-called secret annex where they lived in hiding with help from the Dutch resistance. Anne died seven months later in a concentration camp. Her mother and sister also died.

Only Otto survived, and he edited his younger daughter’s writings and had them published in 1947.

Folman, who is well known internationally for his film about Israel’s Lebanon War, Waltz with Bashir, said his first reaction was to “immediately say no” after being approached by the Switzerland-based Anne Frank Foundation, or Fonds.

Folman and Polonsky initially turned down the offer, they said, because artistically they doubted their ability to make a contribution that would stand out from the many films, books, theater shows, operas and musicals that have been produced about the story of

Anne Frank—perhaps the world’s most famous Holocaust victim following the publication in dozens of languages of her diary over the last seven decades.

There has been “too much done around the story,” Folman said. But he reconsidered after talking to his 95-year-old mother, who he said is now “living with the goal of seeing the premiere” of the film he is making about Anne Frank.

Since the 1940s, many authorized and unauthorized adaptations of the Anne Frank story have been created in many media. In Japan alone, the Anne Frank story has been the subject of several comic books—graphic novels in the Japanese manga style. But these publications were not authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation for historical accuracy corresponding to Anne’s actual writings.

The film, Folman told the JTA, will also treat the last “horrendous” seven months in Anne Frank’s life, despite the absence of material on this period written by her.

“We used other historical sources to address this part of her life,” he said.

“It was a condition of mine to work on this.”

With kids around the country returning to school, now is the perfect time to kick off the school year with some good dental habits for your children. Here are some tips to make sure your kids’ teeth are happy and healthy.

1.

When packing your children’s lunch, avoid anything sticky. While raisins and “fruit snacks” might seem like a healthy option, these sugary foods will stay stay stuck to the teeth for unnecessarily long periods of time and can lead to cavities.

2. For drinking fruit juice or soda, encourage the use of a straw. This minimizes the contact of sugary or acidic liquid with the teeth.

3. When it comes to snacking, it’s not just about the kind of snack, but the frequency. One large snack is preferable to multiple small snacks throughout the day because it limits instances of acidic erosion.

4. If your kids are on the baseball or soccer team, make sure you invest in a mouthguard to help prevent oral injuries. While a custom-fitted mouthguard is ideal, a store-bought one is better than nothing, especially for elementary- and middle-school kids whose teeth may still be changing.

5. Brushing twice a day—morning and night—is always recommended.

Parents of children under the age of 7 should help their children brush, as they have not yet developed the dexterity to adequately brush by themselves.

6. And always remember to see a dentist every six months for checkups and cleanings so problems can be dealt with when they’re small—or, better yet, can be avoided altogether!

Dr. Melissa Levine is an associate professor of Dental Medicine and director of Pediatric Dentistry at Touro College of Dental Medicine.

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SEPT. 13 – 19, 20170 | NYJLIFE.COM | 19

OPINION

Objections to Israel’s BDS Law Are Overwrought and Hypocritical

BY ANNE HERZBERG

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In July, five leaders of the virulent BDS groups Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine were barred at Dulles International Airport from boarding a flight to Israel. The move reportedly was the result of an amendment to Israel’s Law of Entry denying admission of senior activists of leading BDS organizations to the country.

Predictably, the incident raised the usual hysterical chorus that Israel was attacking free speech, banning dissent and no longer a democracy.

Despite these exaggerated charges, the decision to deny these BDS militants entry and the amendments to the law must be seen in context.

From its very inception, Israel has been faced with conventional and asymmetrical military and political threats from its neighbors, coupled with organized economic and diplomatic boycotts spearheaded by the Arab League and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. The ArabIsraeli conflict is unique, however: In conjunction with this state action targeting the country, an army of political activists is provided tens of millions of euros, dollars and francs by the European Union, European governments, the United Nations, churches and private foundations to produce rank propaganda, harass and seek arrest warrants of traveling Israeli officials, and advance economic warfare against the state of Israel.

These campaigns go far beyond a critique of specific Israeli policies; they are aimed at the country’s very existence.

In several cases, the organizations involved in these campaigns advise their members to game Israel’s border controls and lie about their purpose for coming to the country. Many of these

20 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017

Gilad Erdan, left, Israel’s interior security minister, is with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, April 10, 2016. “No sane country would grant entry to central, pro-BDS figures who want to harm it and isolate it,” Erdan said in March.

PHOTO BY AMIT SHABI/ POOL/FLASH90

political warriors also come to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to riot, destroy property and engage the police and military in violent confrontations and directly participate in hostilities.

Networking with NGOs and other organizations affiliated with terrorist groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a regular staple of these visits. The International Solidarity Movement is perhaps the best known of the groups engaged in this activity.

For years, the Israeli government expressed extreme frustration in response to these campaigns, registering countless complaints with its European counterparts and other funders.

Unfortunately, Israel’s objections went largely ignored, and the funding and political support continued. The Israeli public was angered by the invasion of these political combatants, the false and disproportionate attacks on their country under the guise of human rights, and the double standards applied to the Jewish state. This outrage was not confined to the right, but rather shared by the majority of the Israeli public. Centrist politicians like Yair Lapid and journalists such as Ben Dror Yemini began to highlight the impact of these damaging campaigns

and funding.

Resentment and exasperation further increased in the wake of intensive Palestinian terrorism and wars emanating from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip after Israeli withdrawals and peace offers. Rather than acknowledge Israel’s efforts to resolve the conflict, there was only an intensification of NGO attacks, U.N. initiatives like the Goldstone report, lobbying of the International Criminal Court to accuse Israel of war crimes, and BDS efforts to demonize and isolate the Jewish state.

Thus, the amendments to the Entry Law, as well as other legislation addressing these campaigns, were the foreseeable end result.

On the one hand, NGO Monitor generally opposes such legislative measures. The revised law has given BDS activists unwarranted publicity, allowing them to position themselves as martyrs and deflect the conversation from their destructive goals.

Moreover, we believe a systematic and intensive diplomatic process with government officials and international organizations, along with naming and shaming of funders, is a more constructive way to effect change.

We also think it is more effective in fighting BDS for Israeli politicians to educate and, where necessary, confront

European counterparts about absurd NGO funding policies. Education has proven highly successful in exposing BDS and has led to positive legislation and court rulings in Switzerland, Spain, Germany and France. In the United States, a majority of states have passed laws countering BDS, with many more bills pending at both the state and federal level.

On the other hand, the breast-beating and condemnations regarding the legislation, particularly from Europe, are also overwrought and hypocritical.

It is hard to think of any other country, including every democracy, that would countenance such active campaigning to deliberately harm the state. Nor would any country—again every democracy included—tolerate a mass influx of foreign protesters to engage its military and police forces in an active conflict zone.

In addition, under international law, all countries have the express right to control their borders and bar entry to anyone, at any time, for any reason. European countries do this routinely for ideological and public safety reasons. For instance, the United Kingdom barred for three to five years two U.S. activists from the organization Stop Islamization of America on the basis that it was a hate group and their presence would “not be conducive to the public good.” The group cannot appeal.

Similarly, thousands of soccer hooligans are barred from traveling to prevent trouble at international matches. Just as these countries have acted to maintain order, so, too, has Israel.

The law and its implementation will continue to evolve, and policy to be clarified, including with vigorous checks and input from Israel’s independent judiciary. What type and level of activity is sufficient to preclude entry? How and when will such determinations be made? Who will make such determinations? What avenues are available to challenge a denial?

At the very least, the amended law has forced a necessary and longoverdue debate on foreign interference and funding in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

If it took a controversial action to spark this conversation, it may have been worth it.

Anne Herzberg is the legal adviser to NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute.

OPINION

The Left Has an Israel Problem. Does That Mean Colleges Have an Anti-Semitism Problem?

The Tufts University campus in Medford, Mass., is pictured on Aug. 31, 2017.

PHOTO BY JONATHAN WIGGS/THE BOSTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES

BY ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — The JTA story on page 5 of this week’s issue of NYJL concerns an alternative students’ guide published by student activists at Tufts University that labels Israel a white supremacist state. The so-called disorientation guide also reduced the university’s Hillel to a “Zionist” organization that offers nothing of value to the private campus’ diversity or culture.

The authors of the guide might deny that, of course.

But what else do you make of a guide to campus diversity that does not discuss Jewish social, cultural or religious life? And one that takes at face value complaints from an African American organization that a Hillel-sponsored event about gun control was meant to “exploit” black people “for their own proIsrael agenda”?

After all, what’s a Jewish organization doing promoting liberal causes, right?

The conflation of “Jewish” and “Zionist” (and “racist” and “colonialist,” while we’re at it) is hardly a new thing on the left, although the guide was a pretty stark example of an entire campus minority group’s being erased or devalued with a few taps of a keyboard by those who purport to stand up for religious and ethnic minorities. That’s why we considered it an important story, and that’s why we published it.

Still, a few things bothered me about the story— and the issue itself.

First, just because an activist group says dumb and misguided things about Jews and Israel, that doesn’t mean the campus in question is “hostile” or “uncomfortable” for Jews. Too often groups, mostly on the outside, seize on incidents like these (and articles like ours) to tar the school or administration as unfriendly or anti-Semitic. Last year, The Algemeiner published a list of “The 40 Worst Colleges for Jewish Students,” which was really just a list of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic incidents at various campuses.

Missing was any sense of how Jewish students actually experience Jewish life at these colleges.

As the student magazine New Voices recently put it, “If Columbia University—home of kosher dining, multiple minyans and a joint program with Jewish Theological Seminary—is the worst school for Jewish

students…you’re probably defining ‘bad for Jewish students’ wrong.”

Indeed, Tufts, no. 23 on the Algemeiner list, has a student body that is 25 percent Jewish. Our article noted that it has a range of Jewish and pro-Israel clubs, including Hillel, the Tufts American Israel Alliance, Tufts Friends of Israel, J Street U, Jewish Voice for Peace, TAMID and IAC Mishelanu. Hillel offers Reform and Conservative Shabbat services, and there’s a Chabad. The Forward, which took into account many more factors than pro-Palestinian activism when assembling its own list of top colleges, named Tufts the 13th-best school for Jewish students.

That’s not to say that “Israel Apartheid Week” demonstrations, BDS resolutions and screeds like the “disorientation guide” aren’t upsetting. Or that a strong reaction isn’t called for when anti-Zionists slander Israel, Jewish groups and individual Jews.

But colleges are also places where students are supposed to encounter upsetting or uncomfortable ideas. You can’t ridicule a leftist campus like UC Berkeley when it offers counseling to students offended by a talk by a conservative like Ben Shapiro, and then demand that a university “protect” Jewish kids from a pro-Palestinian message. (I mean, you can—but just watch out whom you are calling a “snowflake.”)

On the other hand, the Tufts “disorientation guide” itself also failed the test of university-level inquiry.

There are already enough reasons to be critical of Israel, if you are so inclined, without inventing slanders like “white supremacy.” Liberal Zionists, for example, see Israel’s control of millions of non-citizen Palestinians not only as a hardship for Palestinians but as a threat to Israel’s own Jewish and democratic character. Their critique—shared with a weakened but persistent left in Israel itself—is one side of a debate in which reasonable people can take part. You can disagree, but you understand that the critics are serious in their concerns and can summon a strong factual argument in their defense.

But by accusing Israel of “white supremacy,” the anti-Zionists sound like that old tongue-in-cheek definition of anti-Semitism: “disliking Jews more than is necessary.” They yank the debate into a territory where it doesn’t belong. Nothing in Zionism

assumes Jews are white, and indeed Israel’s Jewish population—four-fifths of a country that includes a substantial minority of Arab citizens—includes a range of ethnic groups hailing from Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Ethiopia and India.

And the “white supremacy” gambit is shoddy scholarship and a tactical disaster. It casts the conflict as a simple case of segregation and civil rights, and not as a clash of national identities. So you can be proud of yourself as a good leftist if, in the name of intersectionality, you rally all kinds of dispossessed groups and discriminated-against people behind your anti-Israel cause, but you do nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians any closer to peace.

Because the Palestinians aren’t looking for equality; they are looking to fulfill their nationalist aspirations, just like the Jews. Palestinians—I am talking about those who live in the West Bank and Gaza, not Israel’s Arab citizens—don’t want to vote or serve in the Knesset. They want a country—some, a country coterminous with Israel; some separate and side by side. But if you delegitimize Israel— and that can be the only motivation behind calling it “white supremacist”—it can mean that you are wishing for only one outcome: the end of the idea of a Jewish homeland, and the elimination of the political sovereignty of one national group, the Jews, in favor of another, the Palestinians.

Then you would have to explain why Palestinian nationalism is any less “racist” or supremacist than that of the Jews.

Anti-Zionists, selective in their nationalisms, have found an easy and fashionable metaphor into which to plug their anger at Israel and solidarity with the Palestinians.

As a former colleague put it on Facebook, “They’re not really interested in doing good; they’re interested in feeling good. And forcing complicated realities into simplistic moral frameworks helps them feel good about themselves and their ‘activism.’”

What’s more, by hating Israel more than they have to, they have managed to discredit the left in ways that are spreading into the center, and handing a huge victory to a pro-Israel right that is only too happy to paint its adversaries as unserious, uninformed and anti-Semitic.

SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21

BACK TO SCHOOL

Back to School for HAFTR! HAFTR is thrilled to welcome back over 750 families and more than 1,400 students to our campuses for another incredible year. Over the summer, HAFTR renovated several of its facilities including the Middle School STEM Center and the Early Childhood Library & STEM Center, which invite our students to experience learning on a completely new level as they are exposed to state-ofthe-art technology while delving into the curriculum. Our High School Campus put the final touches on the Student Center and the Satran Arena. Our Middle School opened the doors of its new Rebecca Goldberg a”h Beit Midrash, a space designed specifically for middle school girls to learn Torah and daven to Hashem.

Our administration, principals and lay leaders have collaborated throughout the months of July and August to ensure that our students continue to be challenged, encouraged and nurtured from the moment they step foot on our campus. With more than 100 new families joining the HAFTR community, we look forward to seeing the immense growth of each and every one of our students from N-12.

Back to School at Hebrew Public Charter Schools

Below are pictures from Hebrew Public’s first week at its three schools in NYC: Hebrew Language Academy in Mill Basin, Harlem Hebrew in Manhattan and Hebrew Language Academy 2 in Coney Island.

22 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 13 – 19, 2017

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