The September 27 Edition of NYJL

March for Equality?

Our Miriam Levy-Haim Gives Her Take

A Q&A with the New Dean of Touro Law School

Cornell Technion Opens to Much Fanfare on Roosevelt Island

VOL. 1, NO. 26 | SEPTEMBER 27-OCTOBER 3, 2017 | NEWS THAT MATTERS TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA | NYJLIFE.COM | FREE

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

A Productive yet Tranquil New Year to All Though not arrogant enough to think the world revolves around me, I’m certain the universe was trying to tell me something on my Monday-morning commute. Events, and I know it was a random sequence of happenings interpreted by my usual insanity, conspired to convey a clear and needed message: “Calm down.”

Downtime for me is usually reading newspapers and magazines from around the world, or listening to British radio programs on business, fashion, design, media and politics. I try to get to the gym several times a week.

And through all this, I’m constantly thinking about this paper, campaigns, the upcoming legislative session in Albany, business and other projects.

With one exception—a guy I went to college with—all of the friends I now spend time with are also professional colleagues. I’m always thinking of current events in the context of history, the motivations and thinking of actors in these events, and how it all connects up. The books I read, lately, are translations from Italian, German, Spanish or Hebrew.

It’s not the easiest way to live, but I’ve found it’s who I am and what works for me. It can be exhausting, and sometimes I take it too far. Certainly this is the life I’ve chosen for myself, but it often leaves me impatient.

Nothing awful happened this past Monday morning, not even bad—just petty stuff. “First-world problems,” I’ve heard them called. But I’m glad I caught it in time to see it for what it was—a teaching moment for the new year.

NYJL is currently headquartered in Brooklyn’s Industry City. Most

mornings I take the local R train from Montague Street after taking the boy to school. Sometimes I switch at Barclay’s for the express N, which I did on Monday. The R pulled out ahead of the N, never a good sign, and then we sat in the station for five minutes.

The express ran local, waiting at every station for each local R train on the actual local track to pull out ahead of us. Stuck on the proverbial “slow boat to China,” I arrived at the 36th Street station long after I would have if I had just stayed on the initial local R. A New Yorker through and through, I got annoyed.

When I got to Sunset Park, I planned to grab an egg sandwich since I didn’t eat at home. The corner spot nearby had a long line, an already full griddle and just one person working. I figured the food being prepared was for those in the queue ahead of me. No dice: Large orders were just being taken from the first couple of folks in line.

Off I trundled to the café across from our office in Industry City proper, thinking to be healthier by skipping the eggs in favor of a roll and coffee. Smaller line, but again just one person working, and she was tied up with an enormous order of ridiculously involved coffee drinks. (Think half-caffeinated almondmilk lattes, double espresso americanos with coconut-milk froth alongside flavored drinks made with stringent instructions.) The lovely young person behind the counter was apologetic, but brandished a long, handwritten list of drinks. I should have stayed at the first place, no doubt about it. Nothing to do about it, but annoying.

Small issues, as I said, of less-than-no

importance in the context of real life, let alone horrific current events. It was still a moment of introspection, which we should all take when we can. You know the above has happened to you too, and you know you were annoyed. It’s different for everyone, with different triggers, but we’re all susceptible.

Many years ago I was in Washington, D.C., for a meeting in the Capitol, with an hour before the meeting. Grabbing some lunch, I got impatient with some people in line ahead of me who seemed to have never been faced with the decisions usually confronted in the deli line. One of them, a woman with a midwestern accent, turned to her companion and said, intentionally loudly enough for me to hear, “He must work for Chuck Schumer.” I think we know what she meant.

For 5778, in my professional and personal life, I will try to calm down. It’s possible to be driven and kind, rushed but not rude, and ambitious though still patient. As a manager, parent, partner, son, brother and friend, I hope to rise to the occasion. Let’s check in with each other from time to time to reinforce this new year’s pledge. Together, as hokey as this sounds, we can help each other be better.

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CANDLE LIGHTING

Michael Tobman, Publisher

Friday, Sept. 29 Candles: 6:23 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 7:20 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 6 Candles: 6:11 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 7:08 p.m.

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taking his seat before President Donald Trump’s speech to the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 19, 2017 PHOTO BY DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

Why Trump’s UN Speech Thrilled Netanyahu—for the Moment, Anyway

BY RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The number of times President Donald Trump mentioned Iran or its derivatives in his U.N. speech?

Twelve, and each time to emphasize its threat.

The number of times he mentioned the Palestinians or derivatives? That would be zero.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, paying Trump the rare leader-to-leader gesture of attending his speech and applauding throughout, was clearly pleased.

“In over 30 years in my experience with the U.N., I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech,” Netanyahu tweeted immediately after the 40-minute address on Sept. 19. “President Trump spoke the truth about the great dangers facing our world and issued a powerful call to confront them in order to ensure the future of humanity.”

Short term, Trump delivered big time on the Netanyahu wish list: He came closer to pledging to

4 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017

kill the Iran nuclear deal reviled by the Israeli leader and did not even mention peace with the Palestinians, which Netanyahu does not believe has traction at this point.

But wait—there’s more: Trump mentioned the word “sovereign” and its derivatives 21 times on Sept.

19, the first day of this year’s General Assembly in New York.

Long term, Netanyahu and Israel may not be as enthused by Trump’s dream of a world in which nations make a priority of “sovereign” interests—or as the president put it, repeating a campaign phrase that unsettled many U.S. Jews, “America First.”

Trump’s overarching theme was a retreat from the robust interventionist role that to varying degrees has characterized U.S. foreign policy since the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Indeed, that undergirded the U.S.-led effort following World War II and the war’s devastation to establish the United Nations.

“Our success depends on a coalition of strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty to promote security, prosperity and peace for themselves and for the world,” Trump said. “We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions or even systems of government.”

What that means practically is not clear, much like the rest of Trump’s foreign policy nine months into his presidency. But Israel’s security establishment has been wary of an American retreat from world affairs, especially when it comes to its war-torn neighbor Syria and the alliance between Syria’s Assad regime and Iran.

Trump’s emphasis on Syria—the thrust of much of his speech—was the eradication of the Islamist terrorist threat embodied there by the Islamic State.

Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah share the Islamic State’s goal.

Secondarily, Trump said he would intervene when what he called the “criminal” Assad regime uses chemical weapons.

What Trump did not say—and what the Netanyahu government had demanded—was whether or not he would seek the removal from Syria of Iran and Hezbollah, which launched a war against Israel in 2006 and appears to be building a missile arsenal ahead of another war. (Trump did twice attack Hezbollah as a terrorist organization that threatens Israel.)

More broadly, Israeli Cabinet ministers—especially the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman—repeatedly expressed the concern that the Obama administration diminished the U.S. profile in the Middle East. Israel has long considered a robust U.S. profile in the region as key to its security.

On the Iran deal, Netanyahu could only be pleased by what he heard.

“We cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for an eventual nuclear program,” Trump said of the 2015 agreement, which trades sanctions relief for rollbacks in Iran’s nuclear program. Again calling the deal “one of the worst” he had ever encountered, the president said it was “an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it, believe me.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Netanyahu said from the same podium several hours later.

He lavished plenty of praise on Trump in his speech.

Referring to Trump’s visit earlier this year to the Western Wall, Netanyahu said, “When the president touched those ancient stones, he touched our hearts forever.”

Netanyahu also said “we will act to prevent Iran” from establishing a permanent base in Syria, developing weapons to be used against Israel from Lebanon and Syria, and establishing a terrorist front against Israel on the Lebanon border.

The Israeli, who had a long meeting with Trump in the days before the General Assembly launched, suggested that his message was congruent with Trump’s.

“Today I will say things that the rulers of Iran and the people of Iran will remember always,” he said in Hebrew in a social media post two hours ahead of his speech. “I think they will also remember what President Trump says.”

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Germany Defines Anti-Semitism (JTA) — Germany has formally accepted an international definition of anti-Semitism in a move designed to provide clarity for the prosecution of related crimes.

The German Cabinet announced Sept. 20 that it unanimously adopted the working definition promoted by the International Alliance for Holocaust Remembrance, a body with 31 member states.

In addition to classic forms of anti-Semitism, the definition offers examples of modern manifestations, such as targeting all Jews as a proxy for Israel, denying Jews the right to a homeland and using historical anti-Semitic images to tarnish all Israelis.

“We Germans are particularly vigilant when our country is threatened by an increase in antiSemitism,” Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière said following the Sept. 20 meeting. “History made clear to us, in the most terrible way, the horrors to which anti-Semitism can lead.”

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, welcomed the announcement “as a clear signal” that anti-Semitism is not tolerated in Germany. Schuster said he hoped the definition would be “heeded in schools, in the training of public servants and in the courts,” and that it would help police to categorize crimes effectively.

“Cases of anti-Semitism are all too often overlooked or even ignored by authorities due to the lack of a uniform definition of antiSemitism,” said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations in Berlin. “This will change dramatically with the adoption of the working definition, which will make it more apparent when antiSemitism rears its ugly head.

“This decision, coming at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, sends an important and reassuring message to the Jewish community

in Germany.”

The decision’s adoption was recommended by the independent Bundestag Commission on AntiSemitism. The commission also has urged the appointment of a federal commissioner for anti-Semitism affairs—a move the AJC and other Jewish organizations have promoted as essential to “fight[ing] antiSemitism as well as respond[ing] to current manifestations,” Berger said.

According to the International Alliance for Holocaust Remembrance definition, antiSemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Contemporary examples are provided, including the following: • Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor • Applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation • Using the symbols and images associated with classic antiSemitism (e.g., claims of Jews’ killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis • Drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and that of the Nazis • Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel In Germany, recent court decisions reveal the difficulty in finding unanimity on the issue.

For example, while some courts have found anti-Zionist–motivated crimes to be tantamount to antiSemitism—since perpetrators blame Jews in Germany for Israel’s policies—other courts have accepted political motivation as a mitigating factor in sentencing.

For First Time Since WWII, a Far-Right Party Will Be in the German Parliament the strong showing of the AfD. Talks will soon begin to form a coalition government, likely between the Christian Democratic Union and two of the smaller (JTA) — Jewish leaders congratulated mainstream parties—the Free Democratic Angela Merkel on her election to a fourth Party and the Greens (Alliance 90/The term as German chancellor while decrying Greens), which earned 10.6 percent and the rise of Germany’s newest right-wing 8.9 percent of the vote, respectively.

The Social Democrats are likely to remain populist party, which for the first time will the chief opposition party, weakening the enter the national parliament.

The Alternative for Germany Party, or political impact of the AfD despite its thirdAfD, finished third with 13.1 percent of the place showing, said Sergey Lagodinsky, a popular vote, according to early election political activist with the Green Party and results. The party, which was founded in member of the Berlin Jewish Community Council.

2013, is likely to have 94 Lagodinsky told the JTA seats in the 631-member that the rise of the AfD was Bundestag. lamentable and yet not a Merkel’s Christian surprise, given the public’s Democratic Union won discontent on economic with what is being seen and political levels. Chief as a weak 32.9 percent of among their concerns is the vote, followed by the the way the government Social Democratic Party, has handled the influx with what observers have of more than 1.5 million called a poor showing of refugees since mid-2015, a 20.8 percent. majority of them Muslim.

Speaking to the German Chancellor Angela Tagesspiegel newspaper Merkel in Berlin, June 12, 2017 Another major concern is the economic future in Berlin, Josef Schuster, PHOTO BY SEAN GALLUP/GETTY of Germany’s industrial head of the Central IMAGES regions.

Council of Jews in “The AfD places more emphasis Germany, called the AfD a “party that agitates against minorities.” For now, their on majorities than on safeguards for minorities, and this is the difference target is Muslims, he noted.

“But I am convinced that when the topic between their outlook and the outlook of of Muslims is no longer interesting, and it many parties,” Lagodinsky said, adding becomes politically and socially opportune that the party has racist undertones and to switch to another minority, they could “appeals to people who feel that their easily do so. And I include Jews in that future is not secure.”

For Jews, what is especially significant number,” Schuster said.

World Jewish Congress President about the AfD is its position against ritual Ronald Lauder congratulated Merkel on circumcision and ritual slaughter.

“It is also a party that wants a 180-degree her victory, calling her “a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people.” He also turnaround of the commemoration policy” sharply denounced what he termed the of the crimes of the Holocaust, Lagodinsky “disgraceful” reactionary party AfD’s said.

“They want Germany to feel more proud “recalling the worst of Germany’s past.”

Moshe Kantor, president of the Brussels- again,” he said, noting that party leader based European Jewish Congress, also Alexander Gauland said Germany “should welcomed the election news, saying be proud of the Wehrmacht soldiers [the Merkel had “shown tremendous courage unified armed forces of Nazi Germany and conviction in her support of the revival from 1935 to 1946].”

Lagodinsky added, “Any anti-liberal of Jewish life in Germany,” as well as being party that challenges human rights and a “strong supporter of the state of Israel.”

Kantor also expressed concern about civil rights is also a challenge for Jews.”

BY TOBY AXELROD

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

IN BELARUS, SOME JEWS DON’T MIND A DICTATOR

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

MINSK, Belarus (JTA) — At the age of 36, Yishai Malkin, along with his family, is leading what millions of people in the former Soviet Union would consider a charmed life.

A web designer, Malkin and his wife, an event manager, earn a combined monthly salary of $2,000.

That’s comfortable enough to allow them to travel abroad and pay the mortgage for the centrally located riverview apartment where they live with their 6-yearold son.

“We have made a very good life for us in this country,” Malkin told the JTA in a recent interview at his home, which is a stone’s throw from this capital city’s main synagogue and several kosher shops in an area where Jews say anti-Semitic harassment never occurs. “Especially as Jews, we are very fortunate to be living here.”

It’s not the kind of statement one associates with members of a minority living in what is often called in the international media “Europe’s last dictatorship”— referring to the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s president since 1994.

Nonetheless, it reflects reality for many Jews in Belarus, where they enjoy less freedom but more stability and security than in some of the region’s chaotic democracies, with their rising xenophobia and

6 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017

nationalism.

Still, critics of Lukashenko’s regime insist that its disregard for civil and human rights inevitably has a negative effect on local Jews—including in the absence of legal protection for their heritage sites.

Last month, a Belarusian court approved a plan to construct luxury apartment buildings on a former Jewish cemetery in the eastern city of Gomel. That prompted the country’s Union of Public Associations and Jewish Communities to signal its “concern”—a rare sign of disagreement with the government in a country where the judiciary is merely an extension of the executive branch.

In recent years, Belarus has seen none of the antiSemitic violence that regularly occurs in neighboring countries like Ukraine—where the revolution triggered an explosion of nationalist sentiment and glorification of some nationalists who murdered Jews during the Holocaust—or Russia, despite President Vladimir Putin’s generally favorable attitude toward Judaism.

Outside Belarus, expressions of anti-Russian sentiment have complicated the fight against antiSemitism across Eastern Europe, notably in Poland.

This summer, the community there became divided over the claim by some Jewish leaders that rising nationalism was generating an increase in incidents involving hatred of Jews.

There is next to no Holocaust revisionism and glorification of pro-Nazi nationalists in Belarus—its government encourages nostalgia for the Soviet Union

A residential building in Minsk, Belarus, July 2017 PHOTO BY DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES

and has kept street names celebrating communist institutions.

In 2016, the lifting of visa requirements for American and EU citizens wishing to visit Belarus as tourists—a concession that had been extended to Israelis in 2014—has ended the country’s relative isolation. Belarus is now attracting large numbers of Western tourists who are fast becoming a major source of income.

Minsk—a safe, clean and inexpensive city—features stunning examples of Soviet architecture. The Minsk Opera is widely recognized as one of that style’s most beautiful specimens. In the summer, the city is full of curious visitors from Italy, France, Israel and beyond who enjoy its casinos, restaurants and cultural institutions, with the latter’s many ballets, concerts and performances.

The Belarus Jewish community of 20,000 is also benefiting from tourists’ visiting Jewish heritage sites which in their significance and beauty easily match anything on offer in Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania or Poland.

Some of the top attractions include the grave of Israel Meir Kagan, or the Chofetz Chaim, one of the most influential rabbis in Europe before the Holocaust. The 16th-century synagogue in Grodno, which UNESCO in 2007 considered declaring a world heritage site, also attracts a steady stream of visitors, as does the Khatyn Holocaust monument. The small Jewish shtetls of Pinsk and Babruysk are among the very last of their kind in Europe.

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Since 2014, hundreds of Jews, including foreigners, have gathered at the annual Limmud FSU Jewish learning festival, which Malkin said has vitalized the local community.

“You see a growing stream of Jews from the West visiting the very rich heritage sites here, and of course this strengthens the Jewish community because it sort of puts us on the world map of Jewish communities,” said Shneur Deitch, the country’s chief rabbi and the senior emissary of the Chabad movement to Belarus.

Deitch and his wife have been operating a Jewish school for years in Belarus, where kosher meat and dairy from Russia is widely available to observant congregants.

But Belarus’ treatment of its Jewish heritage sites in recent months has exposed the government to unprecedented criticism by local and international Jewish groups.

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress voiced its “strong opposition” to the planned apartment building in Gomel. It dismissed the Belarusian government’s claims that the construction on the cemetery site was okayed by Gomel’s Jewish community and was unlikely to disturb the remains there. And the World Jewish Congress said it was “concerned and disappointed” by the plan, saying it was in violation of Belarus’ international commitment to preserve Jewish heritage sites.

A leader of the fight against the Gomel plan is Yakov Goodman, a Jewish-American activist for the preservation of Jewish heritage sites in his native Belarus. He told the JTA that the plan was indicative of “state anti-Semitism” and was one of several cases of disregard for Jewish heritage sites. Such disregard, he said, does not occur with assets that are important or holy to Christians and the general population.

Goodman, who was imprisoned briefly in 2004 for his activism, has called out the Belarusian government for allegedly destroying three synagogues—two in Minsk and one in Luban—and at least three Jewish cemeteries in addition to the former burial ground threatened in Gomel.

Jewish heritage sites are desecrated, destroyed and built over regularly across Eastern Europe, where small communities decimated during the Holocaust struggle to preserve massive properties that belonged to once-huge congregations.

“But the difference is that in Belarus, Jews can’t even speak out against this,” Goodman said.

Sergey Lyapin, a Jewish social activist, said in a statement earlier this month that “the local authorities and state-controlled media are waging an information war against” Jews opposed to the construction. Several Belarusian media described a protest against the project as a “provocation,” with one popular news site calling it a scheme “devised by people with international connections and interests.”

A spokesman for the Belarusian Embassy in Israel told the JTA that his government “rejects all and any expression of anti-Semitism” and insisted the construction plan in Gomel will not disturb the remains. Goodman, the spokesman added, “is a prominent fake-news maker.”

To Rahim Radhani, a Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan who lives in Minsk, the rhetoric in Belarusian media and the government’s refusal to heed Jewish concerns are signs that Jews are ultimately in danger of being targeted by authorities in Belarus, where he says other minorities are already subjected to discrimination.

“As a Muslim with a dark skin, I am

used to being pulled over, questioned and detained here all the time,” said Radhani, a businessman who is training to become a commercial pilot in Belarus. “It’s true that until now Jews have not been treated this way, but they will be as soon as they upset Lukashenko in any way.”

“Such claims are very much exaggerated,” Malkin said about media

coverage of Belarus, where Al Jazeera in June said Lukashenko has a habit of “ruthlessly squashing all dissent.”

Opposition activists may be imprisoned here, but ordinary people, he said, “and especially Jews, who don’t want to do politics but simply want to live in peace, are better off living in Belarus than across the border” in Ukraine.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko at a conference in Beijing, May 15, 2017 PHOTO BY LINTAO ZHANG/POOL/GETTY IMAGES

Participants in the Limmud FSU Jewish learning conference in Belarus posing for a group picture in front of the Vitebsk National Museum of Fine Arts, Sept. 9, 2014 PHOTO BY YOSSI ALONI

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7

NEW YORK & NATIONAL

Against the Wall

BY MAXINE DOVERE

As the month of Elul—a time of preparation of the heart and mind for renewal of the soul—winds down, New York Jewish Life looks at some of the currents in intra- and inter-Jewish community relations. Divisions within the community threaten its unity; attacks from outside threaten Jews in the Diaspora and the existence of the nation state of the Jewish people.

Community leaders are seriously concerned about Jewish unity. Gidi Grinstein, director of the Reut Institute, called the cancellation of the Kotel (Western Wall) compromise an “undeniable crisis.” He characterized the language of the proposed amendment to the conversion law— which would invalidate conversions performed by most rabbis outside Israel—as symbolic of the “growing distance” among the Jewish people. He further termed those two developments a “perfect storm” disrupting the relationship between Diaspora Jewry and the state of Israel.

“Against this backdrop, it is essential for Israel and world Jewry to reimagine the essence of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” Grinstein said.

Speaking from the pulpit, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue in New York stated summarily that it had been “a difficult summer.”

On September 7, Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), and Rabbinical Assembly CEO Rabbi Julie Schonfeld presented consul general of Israel in New York Dani Dayan with a letter for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing their organizations’ “dismay, anger and a sense of betrayal” at his Cabinet’s June 25 “freeze” of the long-negotiated January 2016 agreement to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel.

The new conversion law was passed August 31 by the Legislative Committee of the Knesset. It formally established the Israeli chief rabbinate as “the sole authority in Israel for conversion to Judaism.” The Conservative

8 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017

Anat Hoffman

movement’s letter called Israel’s failure to “recognize or support” all Jews equally “unconscionable,” and highlighted the need for “diversity” in determining the definition of a Jew. The politics involved in such divisive decisions are both dangerous and devastating. Arutz Sheva (Channel 7, also known in English as Israel National News), an Israeli media network that identifies with Zionism, said 200 rabbis describing themselves as “halachically observant” accused the Reform and Conservative movements of dividing the Jewish people.

Significant controversy has centered on the religious rights of Jewish women. An ultra-Orthodox group called for maintenance of the status quo, and has invoked police assistance to stop Women of the Wall and other egalitarian prayer groups from praying with the Torah in the central plaza of the Kotel.

Led by founder Anat Hoffman, Women of the Wall is bucking patriarchal tradition. The group has faced psychological harassment and even physical attack to secure the right to read from the Torah and pray as fully respected Jews at the Western Wall.

“Original Women of the Wall,” also an egalitarian organization, demands the right to pray and read from a Torah scroll within the women’s section.

When the Israeli government’s agreement to create a state-recognized egalitarian section at the southern end of the Kotel—secured after two decades of petitions and four years of negotiations—was abruptly suspended

in June, Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative movements petitioned the Israeli High Court for relief. Supreme Court justices Miriam Naor, Hanan Meltzer and Yoram Danziger considered the petition.

The Netanyahu government failed to respond.

Referencing the petition, Chief Justice Naor stated, “Things that are frozen can be thawed.”

The chief justice’s statement was, however, denigrated by Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel, who termed it “unbelievable.” He proposed that “prayer arrangements” be “determined by the rabbinate.”

On Aug. 23, four Hebrew Union College rabbinical students—all young women—were forced to lift their shirts and skirts prior to being allowed entry to the Western Wall plaza; they had gone to participate in the Women of the Wall’s monthly Rosh Chodesh prayer service.

Rabbi Noa Sattath, director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), said that the near strip-search was “a new low for the rabbi of the Kotel in trying to intimidate, humiliate and exclude liberal women trying to pray at the Western Wall. Despite today’s events, these four brave Jewish leaders will continue to love Israel, the Wall and justice.”

Anat Hoffman is a Jerusalem-born sabra. Activism is generational in her family. Sitting at her diningroom table in the southwest Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit HaKerem, enjoying her signature fish dish, Hoffman told NYJL wonderful stories of her mother, a woman who dared to take on the then-communications monopoly, Bezek.

“It was,” she said, “a time of the strong influence of ‘protectia’ [‘protection’].”

Hoffman’s Ramat Rachel-born mother, an Israeli national swimming champion, studied at UCLA. Following her return to Israel, she found herself in conflict with Bezek. When she asked for an itemized bill, Bezek refused, telling her it was busy fighting wars and nation building.

“We don’t itemize,” it said.

“She refused to pay her bill!” said Hoffman with a chuckle.

Instead, she started a movement.

She and 5,000 others took the giant company to small-claims court—and won. Her book about fighting Bezek was a guide to using small-claims court in Israel; in the book, she changed the

name of Bezek to “nezek”—damages.

Nine months later, the CEO resigned.

Eighteen months later, all bills became itemized.

Her mother mastered the ability to fight a monopoly that abuses its power; so has Hoffman.

“I know what to do about it. The more ingrained the monopoly is, the easier it is to make them fall. The rabbinate,” she said, “is very much a monopoly.”

Hoffman said that she would really like to “fix” Israel. She ran for and won three terms in the City Council of Jerusalem. She found she had “a knack for defeating monopolies.” After her time in government, Hoffman became head of IRAC—the legal and political arm of the Reform movement.

Since 1988, Anat Hoffman has been chairwoman of Women of the Wall. When NYJL interviewed her in early July, she spoke with hopeful anticipation.

“July 30 may be the end of the conflict. We have used every tool for a social change available in Israel.”

She was optimistic that the Supreme Court would rectify the Israeli government’s refusal to act on its agreement to provide an egalitarian prayer area at Robinson’s Arch, at the southern end of the Western Wall.

Women of the Wall had submitted a 300-page document containing the full history of the case against the state of Israel, a case focused on demanding equality, tolerance and pluralism.

The prime minister, rabbi of the Wall, minister of Justice, chief rabbinate and others were listed.

“It was a negotiated agreement,” she said, stressing “agreement.” “When you come to court showing you tried everything....We are hoping the courts will force Netanyahu to abide by his own agreement and implement it.

“Once we win, we will be able to break the Orthodox monopoly, including freedom of choice in marriage and divorce.”

She noted that Arabs have a woman who serves as a religious court judge, while Jews do not.

“Woman of the Wall are an engine that carries a very long train,” said Hoffman.

She explained that it is most difficult for the modern Orthodox, who are being told they are not Jewish enough.

And while extremists are always attractive, she looks forward to a time when Israel stops saying that there’s only one way to manage life.

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9

NEW YORK & NATIONAL

March On!

BY MIRIAM LEVY-HAIM

Several Jewish groups are planning to participate in New York’s sister March for Racial Justice on Oct. 1, the day after Yom Kippur, including the American Union of Jewish Students (AMUJS); Truah, a rabbinical humanrights group; and several grassroots groups organized on Facebook. The march rallies in Brooklyn at 1 p.m. at Brooklyn Plaza at Jay Street. The march’s declared mission is to “harness the national unrest and dissatisfaction with racial injustice” and strengthen local and national efforts to achieve racial justice. Local issues highlighted by the march on its official Facebook page include housing and gentrification, broken-windows policing, and mass incarceration and, specifically, conditions on Rikers Island.

The national March for Racial Justice in Washington, D.C., will take place on Saturday, Sept. 30, which is Yom Kippur. The announced scheduling was controversial because the event bills itself as an intersectional action— mobilizing a coalition of gender, class, sexuality, ability, religion and immigration status to fight white supremacy—and yet effectively excludes Jewish participation.

In August, Ben Faulding, a biracial Jew of color, published a post entitled “Black, Jewish, and Left Out of the March for Racial Justice” on his blog writerideordie.com expressing his disappointment at being left out. “It wouldn’t have been my first foray into demonstration. My Jewish Leftist mother and my Black union-member father had me attending events before I could walk. My childhood was filled with Union and Civil Rights era hymns and folk songs, learned both at my Brooklyn daycare center and my Yiddish leftist summer camp. I spent many weekends on buses down to Washington attending peace and human rights rallies that I mostly didn’t understand.”

Faulding also described why the March is important: “Most oppressions toil in obscurity churning out millions of ruined lives with untold wasted potential. This is what I feared; not

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mass executions or re-enslavement, but a pernicious slide into mediocrity and destitution; all accelerated by the neglect and abuse of a malicious executive.”

Following the outrage that erupted, the organizers of the March for Justice released a statement apologizing for the scheduling conflict and calling it “a grave and hurtful oversight.” While they will go forward with the march in D.C. as scheduled on Yom Kippur, sister marches around the country, including New York City, are organized for the next day, Sunday, Oct. 1, so that Jewish people can be included.

The committee also commented, “We are marching in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters, who are observing the holiest of days on the Jewish calendar. Holding fast to Jewish tradition is also an act of resistance in the face of growing anti-Semitism. We recognize and lift up the intersection of anti-Semitism and racism perpetrated by white supremacists, whether they wave Confederate flags, don swastikas, beat and kill people on the streets in Charlottesville, deface Holocaust memorials, or threaten and harass members of our communities and our religious and community spaces.

And we recognize the need for all of us to work together in the face of an administration that condones widespread oppression of all those most vulnerable among us.”

Many of the Jewish groups participating in the March for Racial Justice in New York reference the themes of Yom Kippur. “Torah Trumps Hate” began as a secret Facebook group in November 2016 for Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews upset about Trump’s election, and has grown to comprise close to 2,000 members.

Because of the sensitivity of the positions of some of the people in the group, the group has a strict policy of confidentiality. Its Facebook event page declares it to be “a coalition of Torahfocused Jews who see the current administration as an anathema to Torah values and corrosive to not only

the United States but to the Jewish community. Our spiritual mesorah [the transmission of Jewish religious tradition or the tradition itself ] together with our ancient as well as recent history as a people demand that we stand up to injustice, racism, corruption and fascism whenever we see it.” Citing Proverbs 8:20, “I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the path of justice,” the page concludes, “The day after Yom Kippur, let’s take our kavanah [intention] from the shul and into the streets and fight for a more just world!”

The American Union of Jewish Students (AMUJS), a peer-led student organization that seeks to unite Jewish students on American campuses, is participating in marches in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. In an op-ed, Misha Vilenchuk, chairman, references the history of American Jewish activism in the labor movements and civil rights movements, as well as the Yom Kippur Haftorah from Isaiah, calling for justice and overcoming oppression: “In part, the justice we seek is for ourselves. Multiple millennia of antiSemitism—political and often violent attacks on Jews wherever they lived, including on my parents as they grew up in the Soviet Union—have shown us that racism never disappeared, simply molding into a new form. The anti-Semitic defacement of fraternity houses, graffiti attacks on synagogues, the mass toppling of matzevot (gravestones) tell us there is no room

for silence. White supremacists and Nazis still march in the streets.”

Vilenchuk continues, “Likewise, we echo our Jewish value of kavod habriyot (respect for others)….Policy rollbacks are terrorizing marginalized Americans, often people of color, and gerrymandering reinforces power in the hands of a handful of decision-makers.

Racial and religious groups are being singled out by our government. The radical, hate-filled ideology that brought so much darkness to the 20th century that led to the death of so many of my relatives emerges in a different form.”

T’ruah—a network of 1,800 rabbis and cantors—and their communities trained and mobilized to advance human rights are also participating.

“As we approach Yom Kippur, I’m thinking about collective atonement for racism,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. “While I’m in shul, I’ll be praying for those taking part in the March for Racial Justice in Washington, D.C., which commemorates the largest lynching in U.S. history. And then, on Sunday, I’ll be joining the rest of the T’ruah group in the New York City March for Racial Justice. If we really want to root out racism, we have to seek it at the core, and acknowledge the ways in which it is built into the key institutions of this country. And, like teshuvah [repentance], fighting racism has to be an ongoing process. During these High Holidays, T’ruah rabbis and their communities are standing up against racism and other collective sins.”

Rabbi Leads NYC’s Annual Muslim Day Parade (JTA) — A rabbi led this year’s annual Muslim Day Parade in New York City.

Rabbi Marc Schneier, the president and founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, served as honorary grand marshal of Sunday’s parade. Schneier was chosen in recognition of his pioneering work in the field of Muslim-Jewish relations in the United States and around the world, according to organizers.

It marked the first time in the parade’s 32-year history that a Jewish leader was chosen to lead the Muslim Day Parade, which this year was dedicated to the plight of the

Rohingya, a mostly Muslim people facing violence in Myanmar.

“This year’s parade is more important than ever before due to the climate we live in,” Imam Shamsi Ali, president of the Muslim Foundation of America, the parade organizer, said in a statement. “Racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, bigotry and hate are on the rise in our country.”

Of Schneier, Ali said: “Having pioneered the field of Muslim-Jewish relations over a decade ago, he has demonstrated his dedication and devotion to the American Muslim community.”

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HIGH HOLIDAYS

What Four Jewish Chefs Served for Rosh Hashanah From kreplach to teiglach, these chefs keep it traditional and delicious.

BY ALY WALANSKY | NOSHER

As you reflect on the Rosh Hashanah meals you prepared for your family last week—and the dishes you will be making for Yom Kippur—you may want to consider what some famous chefs served/will be serving. Take a cue from these recipes and add some chef-worthy dishes to your holiday menu.

Grandma Sali’s Holiday Soup

Ziggy Gruber of Kenny & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen Restaurant in Houston, Texas “For Rosh Hashanah, I always have ‘holiday soup.’ It is a dish that my Grandma Sali made for every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; it has a long tradition in my family,” says Ziggy Gruber of Kenny & Ziggy’s New York Delicatessen Restaurant in Houston.

“It started off our meal and is a hearty soup with flanken (short ribs) in it, and it is just addictive with each and every bite. She only made it for the holidays, so you were always looking forward to them. It is so special to us, and we still make it every holiday in my family.

Other things we always have for Rosh Hashanah are challah-stuffed veal chops, kasha varnishkes, noodle kugel, Manischewitz-braised short ribs and stuffed cabbage.”

INGREDIENTS • 3 lbs flanken (short ribs cut in half) • 8-10 mushrooms, chopped • 2 onions, chopped • 2 cups diced carrots • 2 cups chopped celery • 1 cup green peas • 1 cup medium barley • 1 cup pearled barley • ½ cup of lima beans • 3 quarts of water • 1 Tbsp salt • Pinch of pepper • 1 tsp granulated garlic DIRECTIONS 1. In a large pot combine all the ingredients, cover and bring to a boil.

2. Turn down the heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

3. Adjust seasoning if needed. Serve hot.

Chocolate Babka Bread Pudding

Chef Susan Gould, Finagle a Bagel, multiple locations in Massachusetts “There is no better way to celebrate the coming of the new year than to share a love of food with family and friends. The aroma of chocolate babka baking is a sign that the holidays are here. This recipe calls for the balancing of two favorite flavors: cinnamon and chocolate.

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Last year, Finagle a Bagel opened up a test kitchen at its headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts, giving us the opportunity to create our own chocolate babka for the community. We always look forward to this time of year.”

INGREDIENTS • 1 ½ cups milk • ½ cup heavy cream • 2 Tbsp (¼ stick) unsalted melted butter, more for greasing pan • 1 tsp vanilla extract • 1 ½ tsp cinnamon • ¼ tsp nutmeg • 1/3 cup sugar • Pinch of salt • ½ loaf Finagle’s Chocolate Babka, cut into 2-inch cubes (about 5 to 6 cups) • 2 eggs, beaten DIRECTIONS 1. In a large bowl, combine milk, cream, melted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, sugar and salt. Add eggs to milk mixture and whisk.

2. Add babka cubes to milk mixture and let rest for 1 hour.

3. Meanwhile, butter a 4- to 6-cup baking dish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while mixture is resting.

4. Turn babka mixture into buttered dish.

5. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until custard is set but still a little wobbly and edges of bread have browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Kreplach for Chicken Soup

Jennie Grossinger, The Art of Jewish Cooking While the Grossinger family prepares this recipe for the pre-Yom Kippur meal, many families enjoy

kreplach in their chicken soup for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot.

“Here is life’s irony: Yom Kippur is traditionally known as a Jewish fast day. But equally important is the custom of consuming a large meal before the fast. And many Jewish people eat kreplach, the Yiddish dumpling delicacy with fillings of ground meat or chicken, without knowing why. After all, it’s a tradition, and a tasty one at that,” says Elaine Grossinger Etess, daughter of the famous hotelier and cookbook writer Jennie Grossinger, of her mom’s famous kreplach recipe.

It is time, however, to unwrap the kreplach mystery.

There are many kabbalistic interpretations where the filling and dough represent divine attributes of G-d. But Rabbi Edward David of the Young Israel of Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale offers the most logical explanation: “Once you get three or four interpretations, you know that the source material is nebulous. Bottom line is that we do it because it feels good, or in this case, tastes good.”

Kreplach are traditionally made with a groundmeat filling and were the choice accompaniment to the chicken soup served each year at the traditional dinner before the fast at the legendary Grossinger’s Catskills Resort.

Note: This recipe makes 24 or more kreplach, depending on how thinly you roll the dough.

INGREDIENTS For the kreplach dough: • 2 cups flour • 2 eggs • 1 Tbsp water • ½ tsp salt For the meat filling: • 1 Tbsp chicken fat • ½ pound ground beef • ½ cup minced onion • ¾ tsp salt • ¼ tsp pepper For the kasha filling: • 1 cup minced onions • 3 Tbsp chicken fat or butter • 1 ½ cups cooked kasha • ¼ tsp pepper DIRECTIONS To make the meat filling: Heat the chicken fat in a skillet. Cook the meat and onions in the fat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the salt and pepper Cool before placing filling in the squares of dough.

To make the kasha filling: Lightly brown the onion in the fat. Stir in the kasha and the pepper. Cool before placing filling in the squares of dough.

To make the kreplach dough: 1. Place unsifted flour on a board and make a well in the center. Drop the eggs, water and salt into the well. Work into the flour with one hand and knead until smooth and elastic.

HIGH HOLIDAYS

2. Roll and stretch the dough as thin as possible. (The thinner it is, the better the dough.) Let the rolled dough stand until it feels dry to the touch. (But don’t let it get too dry.)

3. Cut into 3-inch squares and place a tablespoon of filling on each square.

4. Fold over dough into a triangle and press edges together with a little bit of water.

5. Cook in boiling salted water or soup for 20 minutes, or until they rise to the top. Drain, if cooked in water. The kreplach can be fried or served immediately in the soup.

Classic Teiglach

Anna Gershenson, The Natural Cook with Anna Gershenson Anna Gershenson may not make this recipe every year for Rosh Hashanah, but it connects her deeply to her mother, who passed away right before the holiday 19 years ago.

“This recipe is special because of its connection to my mom. She would never make them [teiglach] when we lived in Riga, but instead would order from a Jewish lady who specialized in them. When she knew she would be emigrating out of the country she asked that lady to teach her, and she had been making it in America ever since. I would come to her apartment to help her make them and learn, of course.”

Note: The teiglach will stay fresh for a couple of days, or freeze them for longer storage.

INGREDIENTS For the dough: • 6 large eggs • 2 Tbsp sugar • 2 Tbsp oil • ½ tsp vanilla extract • ½ tsp salt • 1 ½ tsp baking powder • 2 ½ to 3 cups flour For the syrup: • 12 ounces honey • 2 cups sugar • 1 ½ cups water • 1 tsp ground ginger DIRECTIONS 1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until mixed well. Add sugar, oil

and vanilla and continue beating to incorporate. Mix in the baking powder and salt.

Gradually add enough flour to make a thick dough. On a floured board, knead the dough adding more flour as necessary. The dough should be soft and not sticky.

2. Cut off a quarter of the dough and roll it into a rope ½-inch thick. Cut it into 3-inch links and tie each link into a knot. Repeat in the same fashion with the rest of the dough. Place the formed knots on the lightly floured board without touching. Cover them with a cloth towel or plastic wrap to prevent from drying out.

3. In a wide 4-quart pot, combine honey, sugar and water. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring continuously until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup comes to a boil. Add ground ginger and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or longer until the syrup gets more amber in color. Keep skimming off the foam.

4. Place little knots into the boiling syrup, one at a time. Bring the syrup back to boil, cover with a lid and keep cooking for 20 minutes without disturbing it.

5. Adjust the heat accordingly, making sure the syrup is boiling at all times.

6. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and stir with a wooden spoon. Keep cooking and stirring until you see the teiglach turn dark golden brown. You might need to rotate them during cooking to ensure they are colored evenly.

7. It is helpful to measure the syrup temperature with a candy thermometer to determine readiness.

It should reach the hard crack stage of 300 degrees Fahrenheit. If cooked correctly, teiglach will not be sticky after they cool completely.

8. Remove the pot from heat and immediately place ready teiglach on a marble board or baking sheet moistened with oil to prevent them from sticking.

Cool and store in a covered container.

Makes about 30.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg at an event at the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center in New York City, Sept. 21, 2016 PHOTO BY MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Surprise Rosh Hashanah Speaker at DC Synagogue (JTA) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told Rosh Hashanah worshipers at a Washington, D.C., synagogue that being Jewish has helped her have empathy for other minority groups.

Ginsburg, 84, spoke on the evening of Sept. 20 at Rosh Hashanah services at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in downtown Washington. Her appearance was a surprise to worshipers at the nondenominational synagogue, the Associated Press reported.

“If you are a member of a minority group, particularly a minority group that has been picked on, you have empathy for others who are similarly situated,” she told worshipers during a 20-minute Q&A session.

She also said that Jewish values have guided her work on the Bench.

“The Jewish religion is an ethical religion. That is, we are taught to do right, to love mercy, do justice, not because there’s gonna be any reward in heaven or punishment in hell. We live righteously because that’s how people should live and not anticipating any award in the hereafter,” Ginsburg said.

Ginsburg, who has been on the court since 1993, is one of three current Jewish justices serving on the Supreme Court and the longest-serving Jewish justice. The other Jewish justices are Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Breyer spoke last year at Sixth & I High Holiday services.

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 13

HIGH HOLIDAYS

Yom Kippur Is a Reminder of the Awesome, and Awful, Power of Words

COURTESY OF LIOR ZALTZMAN/JTA

BY JOYCE NEWMARK

(JTA) — For nearly 50 years, my father had a best friend named Al. They grew up in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn, and after returning from the service in World War II, they each married and moved to the same Long Island town and opened related businesses.

They were closer than brothers.

In fact, when my brother and I were growing up, our parents’ wills named Al and his wife, rather than any relatives, as the people who would become our guardians should that become necessary. Even after my parents moved to Nevada, the two couples remained close, speaking on the phone every week or so and visiting back and forth every couple of years.

Almost 40 years ago, Al’s daughter was getting married and my parents were planning to travel to New York for the wedding. One day, the two couples were on the phone talking about the wedding. My mother had recently undergone foot surgery and was walking around in ugly postsurgery shoes.

“I may have to wear blue jeans and sneakers, but we’ll be there,” she told Al’s wife.

The response: “But the wedding is formal!”

My mother was hurt. She thought the only proper response to her statement was, “We don’t care what you’re wearing; we just want you to be there.”

Al’s wife was hurt, too. She felt that my mother had to know how stressed she was trying to plan the perfect

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wedding and shouldn’t have teased her.

Neither would apologize.

The phone calls became less frequent and my parents began saying that traveling to New York would be expensive and uncomfortable—and in early September it would be hot and humid. They decided not to attend the wedding.

Nine months later, Al was dead of lung cancer and my father finally flew to New York—to be a pallbearer at the funeral.

Like many men of his generation, my father wasn’t one to talk about his feelings. But from the day Al died he insisted that when you were invited to a simcha you must go, no matter the circumstances. Still, it was too late to repair what had been broken.

All this hurt resulted because no one involved could take back a few unthinking words spoken in haste.

The power of words has a very real, almost physical, presence on Yom Kippur. Look at the list of “al chets,” or confessions, that we recite again and again on this day. We confess our sins of using foul language, speaking falsehoods, idle chatter, slander, disrespecting our parents and teachers, and spreading gossip. On and on—with perhaps half the sins we confess being sins of speech.

Why? Because, despite our communal confessions on Yom Kippur, most of us are not thieves or doers of violence. We are not evil people, but sins of words are easy to commit. We do it every day.

That’s why at the end of every Amidah (liturgy) we recite the prayer of Mar,

son of Ravina—“My God, keep my tongue from evil, my lips from lies”— rather than praying, “God, help me not to steal; help me not to murder.”

The truth is, you can never take back words; you can’t go back to the time before the words were spoken.

There’s a story about a man in a small village in Eastern Europe who didn’t like the rabbi. No one knew why he didn’t like the rabbi; perhaps even he didn’t know. But there was no doubt that he didn’t like the rabbi. So, no matter what the rabbi did, this man had something nasty to say about it—often, and to whoever would listen.

One year, as the High Holidays approached, the man realized that his nasty gossip was a terrible sin, so he went to the rabbi’s office to ask for forgiveness. The rabbi said, “Of course I’ll forgive you, but first you must do something for me. Go home, take your fattest pillow up to the roof, open it up and shake it out.”

The man thought this was odd, but he did as he was asked. It was a windy day and the feathers from the pillow were blown in every direction. He returned to the rabbi and asked again for forgiveness.

The rabbi replied, “There’s one more thing. First you have to pick up all the feathers.”

Like feathers turned loose, words have a life of their own. You can’t take them back and pretend they were never said because words have power. “Taking back” only happens in children’s games.

You can’t forget, but you can forgive.

The Torah tells us that the first luhot, the tablets of the Ten Commandments that Moses shattered after the sin of the Golden Calf, were made by God. The second luhot, given after Moses persuaded God not to destroy the Israelites, were made by Moses. God said to Moses, “Carve out two stone tablets like the first ones.” The new ones would not be the same because the people’s sin could not be undone or forgotten, but God could forgive them.

Rabbinic tradition holds that the second tablets were given on Yom Kippur as a sign that God forgives and that people must forgive. “Forgive” doesn’t mean “forget,” but it is possible to gather the broken pieces and build a new relationship.

The rabbis teach that both the second set of tablets and the broken pieces of the first were placed together in the Holy Ark. Why? To teach us that just as the second tablets could be broken as easily as the first, relationships are fragile, so we must guard our tongues.

Moreover, even if a break occurs, the relationship can be repaired. It won’t be exactly the same, but a break should not be permitted to last forever.

And most important, the time to do something about broken relationships is now—not next year or someday.

Nothing is more precious than love and friendship. Because words have power, not only to hurt but to heal.

Rabbi Joyce Newmark of Teaneck, New Jersey, is a former religious leader of congregations in Leonia, New Jersey; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

HIGH HOLIDAYS

When I Fainted in Synagogue during My First Yom Kippur as a Jew

BY TARA WORTHEY SEGAL

My first real exposure to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur was when I was dating Matt, my future husband. I didn’t really know what observing these holidays entailed. He wasn’t flying home to visit family during that time, and as he was working and living in my small northern California hometown, he reached out to a synagogue in Sacramento (the nearest “big city”) to find services and a group of people to join for Rosh Hashanah dinner.

The following week he fasted, and I met up with him briefly between classes. He was not in the best mood, understandably.

“You can’t even have water?” I asked.

I was in disbelief, but also intrigued by this custom and by my exotic new Jewish kind-of boyfriend. I relayed this to a friend in one of my classes, who informed me that she herself was half-Jewish.

“But not even water? He must be Orthodox!” she said.

“I…don’t think so,” I replied.

Matt is not Orthodox, but he was the first practicing Jew I had ever met. Not practicing as in strictly keeping Shabbat, but he’s always observed the High Holidays and was set on marrying a Jewish lady.

Enter the Jewish lady—me, four years later, almost converted, about to be engaged, and ready to take on this fasting thing. I had celebrated with Matt the year before as well, but he had dissuaded me from attempting to fast.

“A girl doesn’t need to fast the year before her bat mitzvah. Why put yourself through that if you don’t need to?” he asked.

So I didn’t, and instead set about preparing for the holidays by purchasing challah, baking a flourless

chocolate cake for Matt’s break fast, and generally absorbing as much as I could through osmosis and anticipation of what was to come. We lived in Los Angeles at the time, and the school district where I taught actually gave us the Jewish holidays off, so this was fairly easy.

“L’shanah tova—tell his parents that,” one of my students coached me.

A year later, my first fast was going well. I had the day off, though not everyone at my new school in Nashville was quite as understanding as those in LA had been. (“So I guess this means you’ll be coming in during Christmas break, huh?” one colleague joked.)

The night before, we had friends over for a pre-fast meal and attended Kol Nidre services.

Matt and I had kept our hunger at bay all the next day by, perhaps strangely, preparing for our meal that night. I had, for the first time in my entire life, gone nearly 24 hours without eating or drinking.

But then it happened, despite my earlier bravado.

We were at synagogue and had been standing for almost an hour during the concluding service, Neilah.

As we were rapping our chests for the al chet, I felt myself wilt with each thump. Then it was a ringing sound in my ears and with that, I passed out and slumped back heavily into my seat.

Immediately, people surrounded us, instructing me to put my head between my knees, bringing me something to drink, declaring, “Oh, it’s her first fast!

Of course! Everyone passes out their first time!” My attempts at blending in seamlessly as one of their own had been thwarted.

A lot has happened since that first fast. I’ve converted, dipped in the mikveh, taught temple Sunday school and married under a chuppah. Not only do I have documents that say I’m legit, but our framed ketubah, or Jewish wedding contract, is displayed in our living room. I am, as my rabbi first put it, a member of the tribe. The silver Star of David necklace that my in-laws gifted me declares that to the world.

And during High Holiday services, my husband and I have stood before our congregation and opened the ark together.

This Yom Kippur, I will be fasting again after being pregnant or nursing for the past two holidays. I think I’ll do fine—as I did the year after my fainting incident—but my body has housed and fed a baby since then. For someone accustomed to eating every few hours and addicted to her morning coffee, it won’t be easy.

I fear that lightheaded feeling again.

But what I don’t fear this time is embarrassment in front of the other members of our community. This is, after all, the same community who came to my aid the first time I felt woozy.

These are the same people who helped prepare me for the mikveh and danced at our wedding—the same community who fed us after my father passed away and packed our living room for our son’s bris; with whom we have shared countless Shabbat dinners; who are now some of our best friends. They are the people who now seem happy to claim me as (dare I say it?) one of their own.

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HIGH HOLIDAYS

Lincoln’s Grief, Scrooge’s Journey and Other Great Reads for Yom Kippur

BY ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — I know I am not the only one who brings a book to read in synagogue, especially during the marathon services of the High Holidays.

I don’t do it out of disrespect. I don’t make a big show out of it. (Sometimes I even take off the book jacket, which can transform a lurid potboiler into something that looks like a prayer book.) And I don’t bring lurid potboilers, as I’ll explain in a moment.

Synagogue services, at least in my Conservative corner of the Jewish universe, tend to be long. And repetitive. And long. If you are the kind of person who can remain awake and attentive through all three hours of a typical Shabbat service (that swells to four hours on Rosh Hashanah and essentially all day on Yom Kippur), good for you.

But especially during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when the main themes are repentance and renewal, the hard work of introspection can be undone by my restless, monkey mind. So if anything, a good book with an appropriately challenging message can keep me plugged into the services, as I toggle between the action in the room and the conversation literally close at hand. And no one can tell me it’s worse than napping.

But I do set some rules and boundaries. I sing, respond and stand up when the congregation is called upon to sing, respond and stand up. I don’t read during the rabbi’s sermon. I try to pay attention to the Torah reading (except when the subject is skin disease or animal sacrifice, but even then I am at least aware that the subject is skin disease or animal sacrifice).

The book has to have Jewish content, or at least deal with the themes of the day, or invite a dialogue with Jewish issues or tradition.

I asked my Facebook friends if they planned on bringing a book to services, and apparently they also set limits. Among a flood of excellent, unapologetic suggestions were a number that were pegged to the holidays. A few, including Ruth Messinger, former president of American Jewish World Service, enthusiastically recommended “Zen rabbi” Alan Lew’s now classic This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation. Others are looking forward to the brand-new High Holiday Companion from the faculty, students and alumni of Hebrew College. S.Y. Agnon’s

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Days of Awe, an anthology of High Holidays readings from the Jewish canon, is a perennial favorite. Rabbi Naomi Levy’s new book, Einstein and the Rabbi, offers what one reviewer calls “commonsensical suggestions to forge links to our better angels.”

My go-to guide is The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays, by Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, which is deeply aware of how the traditional meaning of the Jewish holidays relates to contemporary sensibilities.

Others prefer fiction, which may seem frivolous or blasphemous unless you treat a novel or a short story as a kind of midrash, a parable or interpretation that expands on themes ripe for discovery in the tradition itself. A colleague recommended Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, a collection of short stories by the Moscow-born writer Maxim D. Shrayer, because its émigré characters tend to be searching for their authentic selves in ways that are wholly consonant with the High Holidays. I’ll often dip into Israeli writer Etgar Keret’s fiction, perhaps because his short-short stories, like many by Kafka, have the allegorical feel of traditional midrash, and while ruthlessly secular, offer spiritual insights in unexpected bursts, like a prayer or hymn.

I’ve found some of the most effective and moving

synagogue reading to be the kinds of books that seem—“davka,” as they say in Hebrew—to have nothing to do with Judaism or the holidays. My old friend Rabbi Steve Greenberg once recommended A Christmas Carol because, like Yom Kippur, it is about a 24-hour journey during which a protagonist is forced to confront his past and contemplate his future, and as a result vows to become his best self. Another rabbi friend, Daniel Brenner, insists that “the most Rosh Hashanah-themed book ever written” is Frederick, a children’s book by Leo Lionni. It’s the story of a dreamy field mouse who reminds his fellow rodents about the power of poetry and spiritual yearning.

For Yom Kippur this year I am recommending Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders’ haunting (literally), lovely, weird and wonderful novel about love, death, limbo, sin, regret, mourning, redemption, community, purpose and atonement—all the big Yom Kippur themes. Set in Washington, D.C.’s Oak Hill Cemetery, it is ostensibly about a late-night visit that Abraham Lincoln pays to the grave of his 11-year-old son, Willie, who died during Lincoln’s first term of what was probably typhus. The story is mainly told by the restless spirits who haunt the cemetery under the illusion that they aren’t really dead. Witnessing Lincoln’s grief, the guilt he feels in sending other parents’ children to war and his resolve to preserve the union, the spirits are paradoxically emboldened to face their own flaws and regrets and submit to their ultimate judgment.

Yitz Greenberg writes that “the core paradigm of Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur is that of being on trial for one’s life.”

Lew explains that during the 24 hours of Yom Kippur “you rehearse your own death. You wear a shroud and, like a dead person, you neither eat nor drink nor fornicate. You summon the desperate strength of life’s last moments.”

The “Bardo” in Saunders’ title is the Tibetan Buddhist name for the place between death and rebirth. His novel moved me the way prayer is supposed to—not as a substitute for the important work of the holidays, but as an essential complement.

Clockwise, from top left: A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens; COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Lincoln in the Bardo

by George Saunders; and Frederick by Leo Lionni COURTESY OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

HIGH HOLIDAYS

The main prayer hall of the El Ghriba Synagogue on Djerba PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

In Tunisia, an Ancient Jewish Community Braves Uncertain Future

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

DJERBA , Tunisia (JTA) — Anticipating the sun’s rapid ascent in the African skies, six barefoot men align themselves early in the morning in a drafty corridor of the still-cool interior of Africa’s oldest synagogue.

Casually humming a biblical hymn in Hebrew, they and an Israeli journalist hold off on holiday prayers in the hope of performing them in a minyan—the quorum of 10 Jewish men that Orthodox Judaism mandates for certain prayers, and a threshold requirement for any viable community.

Members of a dwindling Jewish minority on this Tunisian island, they wait for hours under the ornate arches of the centuries-old El Ghriba Synagogue in Riadh, a town where thousands of Jews once lived but which now has only a handful of Jewish families. It will take a while for reinforcements to arrive: three more Jews from Hara Kebira, the last remaining Jewish town in Djerba, located four miles north of

the synagogue.

They belong to one of the Arab world’s few active Jewish congregations, and their patience reflects a determination to preserve their ancient tradition in a tight-knit community of 1,000.

Many members feel duty-bound to remain on the island even though they can envisage no future here for their children.

“Everybody’s thought about leaving, myself included,” says Ben Zion Dee’ie, a 30-year-old yeshiva teacher who walked four miles to the El Ghriba Synagogue from his parents’ home in Hara Kebira, where nearly all Djerba Jews live. “The economy’s bad, the currency’s plummeting, tourism’s suffering because of terrorism and jobs are scarce and not well paying. It’s not perfect.”

But leaving “would be very difficult,” adds Dee’ie, who comes each year with other congregants to make sure El Ghriba has a minyan. “It feels wrong to

leave where my ancestors lived for so Then the men head to the home many years.” of Joseph Azria, 42, and his ailing Nonetheless, various factors, parents—three of the few Jews still including state-tolerated violence living in Riadh—to blow the shofar against Jews following Israel’s victory for Azria’s father, who is too old and over its neighbors in the 1967 Six-Day weak to walk to synagogue. The old War, have gradually almost emptied man smiles as his only son still living Tunisia of the 110,000 Jews who lived in Tunisia speaks about his hope for here before 1970. A few dozen families finding a Jewish bride in Morocco and left following the 2011 revolution that possibly moving with her to Israel. briefly installed an Islamist and antiThe synagogue now is surrounded by Israel party in power. anti-tank obstacles and permanently That bout of instability was the guarded by a platoon of soldiers toting latest chapter in the story that led to machine guns. They forbid visitors from the near-total disappearance from the taking pictures and turn them away Arab world of centuries-long Jewish life altogether whenever members of the amid hostility and poverty.

Jewish community are in the building.

Jews on Djerba have also experienced Photography is also forbidden inside these problems, not least in the Hara Kebira, which has permanently explosion that al-Qaida terrorists set manned checkpoints at its two off outside the El Ghriba Synagogue in entrances. Police officers in civilian 2002 in which 20 people died, including clothes patrol the town, quickly 14 German tourists. intercepting and questioning anyone The explosion occurred three weeks who seems out of place. Inside Hara before the Jewish holiday of Lag b’Omer, Kebira, which has a chief rabbi, four when hundreds of synagogues and three tourists, including Jewish schools, Jews from Israel, gather walk around wearing at the El Ghriba for kippahs, greeting a pilgrimage that is passersby with particularly popular “shalom” and wishing among Jews of one another “Shanah Tunisian descent. tovah.”

“It’s the only time Sukkot, huts with of the year that we palm-tree canopies, can count on having are erected in every a minyan,” Dee’ie yard on the Jewish said at the synagogue, holiday, and the whole where the sounds of neighborhood falls the shofar on Rosh silent on Yom Kippur.

Hashanah blended Still, Hara Kebira with the Muslim call residents do not to prayer and the advertise their Jewish chiming of church Ben Zion Dee’ie taking a ide ntity outside bells. their town: The men break from Rosh Hashanah After prayers at preparations in the Jewish town don hats over their the synagogue—a of Hara Kebira on the Tunisian kippahs upon leaving normally quiet place island of Djerba, Sept. 20, 2017 the enclave. where the only PHOTO BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ “It’s a very good sounds are the wind’s thing the police are rustling of the wicker here; they protect us, mats on the floor and the crackling of just like they protect you in Israel,” the glass oil lamps hanging over the said Dee’ie, who studied at a religious windows—the 10 men walk to a deep seminary in Israel in 2007. He returned well nearby to perform tashlich, a ritual to Hara Kebira but moved away last of atonement requiring a large body of year to Zarzis, where his wife was born water. and where he teaches a classroom of Running for 200 feet beneath the 15 children from that city’s Jewish sun-baked desert soil, the well used community of 130 members. to service a complex of communal Dee’ie’s father, the community’s buildings and orchards belonging to most experienced mohel and shochet— the thousands of Jews who once lived respectively the person who performs here. But now it stands at the edge of a barren and open field. continued on page 18

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17

TUNISIA from page 17

circumcision and the ritual slaughter of animals—still lives in Hara Kebira with his wife and Dee’ie’s nine siblings.

They meet on holidays for elaborate meals rich with alcohol, including a kosher wine that the Dee’ies produce themselves because importing it is too expensive and complicated in Tunisia, a Muslim country where many oppose the sale of any alcohol.

Despite the challenges of living here, Djerba is one of the few spots in the region where a sizable Jewish community persists, thanks to what locals—Jews and non-Jews alike—say is a special set of circumstances: the local population’s relative immunity to waves of xenophobia and political agitation seen on the mainland.

Pretty much all aspects of life in Djerba bear the effect of centuries of interaction among Muslims, Christians and Jews, who have lived here since Roman times.

Whereas elsewhere in Tunisia, the traditional bean stew known as tfina pkaila is considered a typically Jewish dish, here in Djerba everyone makes and eats it. The island’s best makers of blousas—a traditional Djerban woolen robe that Muslims wear on religious holidays—are all Jewish. (One Jewish tailor, Makhiks Sabbag, and his son Amos are widely considered the very best.)

The symbol of the menorah is a local icon adopted by the general population and featured in decorations of government buildings such as clinics and schools. And non-Jewish locals are surprisingly familiar with the Jewish calendar and customs.

Muslim customs clearly have also rubbed off on Jews here: They take off their shoes before entering their synagogues the way Muslims do before entering a mosque.

This familiarity breeds intimacy and mutual assistance, according to Ridha Arfaoui, a non-Jewish resident of Riadh who owns a small restaurant near the El Ghriba Synagogue.

“I grew up with the Jews. We had a Jewish neighbor on all sides of our house and on Yom Kippur we would not turn on the radio out of respect,” he said.

But in Tunisia, expressions of antiSemitism, often featuring anti-Israel

18 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017

vitriol, continue to occur, reminding the country’s remaining 1,700 Jews “that the Arab, he is very easy to incite,” Dee’ie said.

A recent example came when Tunisia joined several other countries in banning the film Wonder Woman, apparently because its lead character is portrayed by the Israeli film star Gal Gadot. The Jewish-French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who is not Israeli, was greeted during a 2014 visit to Tunisia by dozens of Islamists carrying signs calling on “Levy the Zionist” to leave.

The invitation to a Tunisian festival in July of the Jewish comedian Michel Boujenah provoked protests in Tunisia that local anti-racism activists said were anti-Semitic. Tunisia has several pending bills, introduced by Islamist and secular nationalists, proposing a blanket boycott on Israel and a ban on any Israelis from entering the country.

Nevertheless, Tunisia’s government is showcasing its Jewish heritage sites, including Djerba, whose ancient synagogue is on Tunis’ list this year for locales put forth for recognition as world heritage sites by the United Nations. The government has made several statements about the positive role of its Jewish citizens; has invested considerable resources in renovating sites of worship; and is considering allocating two seats in parliament for representatives of the Jewish community.

But in parallel, authorities in Tunisia are “quietly confiscating” Jewish antiques, including a 15th-century Torah scroll whose whereabouts the government is refusing to disclose, according to an exposé published last month by the French news site Dreuz.

The effects of anti-Semitism in Tunisia may be “unpleasant at times, but they are not a threat to the survival of this community,” said Dee’ie, who was ready to immigrate to Israel last year with his wife because they could not find an affordable apartment to their liking in Zarzis.

“Practical things matter: whether Jews can find a Jewish partner, make a living and live a comfortable life,” he added. “I grew up here, but I don’t know if this is the place where my children will grow up.”

EDUCATION

Here’s What Carmen Fariña’s Top Deputies Have on Their Plates This School Year

responsible for making sure the rollout goes smoothly. She’s also working on efforts to make the city’s specialized high schools more diverse, and oversees the city’s network of field centers designed to provide teacher training and other support services to schools.

PHOTO BY CHRISTINA VEIGA

Elizabeth Rose

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEW YORK CITY

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

PHOTO BY PATRICK WALL

Corinne Rello-Anselmi

BY ALEX ZIMMERMAN

(CHALKBEAT) — As the person responsible for 1.1 million students, 75,000 teachers and 1,800 schools, Chancellor Carmen Fariña can’t have eyes everywhere.

She has surrounded herself with a small team of key advisers tasked with executing her vision—a group that has stayed put during Fariña’s tenure. As Fariña’s fourth school year kicks off, here’s what her core group of deputies have been working on, and what’s on their agenda this school year.

PHOTO BY PATRICK WALL

Dorita Gibson

Senior Deputy Chancellor, Division of School Support Salary: $225,948 Her story: Gibson has served at virtually every level of school leadership—after starting out as a teacher in Queens over 30 years ago, she rose to become an assistant principal, principal and a high-level

superintendent. She’s helped lead big changes in the way the education department supports schools, reempowering superintendents to directly oversee principals instead of the more diffuse system of networks that was created under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

She’s also partly responsible for overseeing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $383 million Renewal turnaround program— an ambitious effort to improve schools that have long struggled, which is approaching a key three-year milestone.

But despite being Chancellor Fariña’s second-in-command, she has managed to keep a fairly low profile and rarely appears in the press (except when she does).

What’s on her agenda: The education department is dramatically expanding the number of schools with embedded social services—known as community schools—this year and Gibson will be

Deputy Chancellor for Specialized Instruction and Student Services Salary: $216,219 Her story: A nearly 40-year veteran of the city’s public school system, Rello-Anselmi got her start as a special-education teacher at P.S. 108 in the Bronx. After a dozen years of teaching, she worked her way up into supervisory positions, eventually becoming the school’s principal and revamping its literacy program. She made the jump to administrator in the Bloomberg administration, and was promoted to deputy chancellor to help oversee reforms designed to integrate more students with disabilities into traditional classrooms.

Advocates have repeatedly pointed out problems with the city’s specialeducation system, including lack of access to key services. But some say Rello-Anselmi tends to be open to criticism and is receptive to proposed fixes.

“She has acknowledged the problems,” said Maggie Moroff, a special-education expert at Advocates for Children. “She’s not closing her eyes and wishing they would go away.”

What’s on her agenda: As the city continues to push all schools to serve students with a range of disabilities, Rello-Anselmi has said she will provide training and support to help schools adjust to the change. Although a working group is responsible for overseeing fixes to the city’s notoriously dysfunctional special-education data system, Rello-Anselmi will be watching those changes closely.

Deputy Chancellor, Division of Operations Salary: $197,425 Her story: Before joining the education department in 2009, Elizabeth Rose had a 20-year career in the media industry including at Vault. com, a website that ranks employers and internship programs, and the vacation-planning site Travelzoo. After turning to the public sector and cutting her teeth under Kathleen Grimm, the long-serving official in charge of school operations, Rose was elevated to deputy chancellor in 2015. She has frequently been called on to manage difficult problems, including the city’s much-criticized lead-testing protocol and a controversial rezoning on the Upper West Side.

Joe Fiordaliso—who sat across the table from Rose during the Upper West Side rezoning negotiations as the District 3 community education council president—said Rose was particularly adept at handling contentious conversations with parents.

“I’ve never heard a word from her that doesn’t have purpose,” he said.

“She’s not someone you’re going to knock off her game.”

What’s on her agenda: Amid a citywide homelessness crisis, Rose is responsible for connecting the one in eight students who have faced housing insecurity with social workers and other services. She’ll also supervise the rollout of the city’s universal freelunch program, which began this school year, and would be involved in any new rezoning efforts.

This article was edited for space. For the full article, please visit NYJLife.com.

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 19

EDUCATION

Technion and Cornell Open Joint New York Campus

BY MAXINE DOVERE

The initial results of the creative genius and foresight fostered by the Bloomberg mayoral administration were formally inaugurated Sept.13 as Israel’s Technion and Cornell University opened the first phase— there will be two more—of the the high-tech research center housed on the gleaming “green,” net zero carbon footprint, solar and geothermal, wellenhanced, energy-efficient campus the two share. The $2 billion enterprise is built with efficiency, energy, cooperation and ardent belief in future accomplishments. The glass walls of the interior spaces reflect the design style Bloomberg has used for decades—both in his corporate offices and mayoral headquarters—and afford privacy while encouraging interaction.

The physical campus is amazing: an academic oasis in the midst of the city, a separated yet wholly integrated resource not only for Israel and America, but also for the international community. Bloomberg, a lead speaker,

20 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017

was deservedly honored, enjoying the festivities from his first-row seat. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Technion President Peretz Lavie were among the speakers.

Lavie stressed the valuable integration of Israel’s “startup” initiatives and Cornell’s technological expertise.

Former Mayor Bloomberg said, “In many ways, this project helps bring New York City back to the future.”

Bloomberg’s administration provided the project’s initial stimulus, offering a “land grant” of acres once occupied by Goldwater Hospital, financial support from New York City and, eventually, a personal contribution of over $100 million. The Bloomberg Center is named in his honor.

His challenge to academic institutions was to make creative use of these resource—and of the technical talent of the city. Within two years, the winning partners, Cornell and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, had initiated classes in space lent by Google.

As the campus formally opens, 300 graduate students taught by 30 faculty members are already in residence, and the excitement is palpable. Technion

professors are full faculty members, and Jacobs Institute (Technion) graduates also receive a degree from Cornell. The fields of healthcare, business, education, law, architecture, media, urban studies, computer science and engineering are included in the center’s curriculum.

Academic advances are directly tied

to improving real lives. Even prior to its official opening, 34 practicalapplication patents had been registered.

Furthermore, the “open campus” philosophy welcomes use of the center by those connected as well as those not connected, allowing it to benefit both corporate sponsors and community members.

EDUCATION

Q&A with Touro Law Dean Harry Ballan NYJL: In a sentence, what does Touro Law School mean to you?

Ballan: When I am asked what Touro Law Center means to me, I think of words that were spoken at the funeral of Touro College founder Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander in 2010: He was motivated by a compelling desire to treat every person with dignity and respect. Respect for every person is the animating spirit of TLC, a truly studentcentered school in which attention is paid to the needs of everyone in our extended family of professors, faculty, staff, students and our surrounding community. The responsiveness of faculty, staff and administration to students is unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. So too is the focus on teaching and learning as the most important activities of the school, together with service to our neighbors through clinics and volunteer work.

NYJL: You mentioned Touro founder Rabbi Bernard Lander, who passed away in 2013. What legacy of his remains with regard to a connection to the Jewish faith?

Ballan: Dr. Lander’s legacy remains central to everything we do at the Law Center. I am continually moved by his beautiful interpretation of the words of the great sage Hillel to mean that Jewish people and institutions have a dual obligation that requires us not only to perpetuate Jewish learning, but to do so in order to serve all of humanity. Dr. Lander exemplified this respect for every human being in every facet of his life and career, from his service on New York City’s first human-rights commission, to his groundbreaking scholarship on juvenile delinquency, to his work on behalf of the civil-rights movement, and in his creation of educational institutions for the neglected and underserved.

NYJL: What percentage of graduates from Touro Law School are female? What does that say about Touro as an institution?

Ballan: Touro Law Center’s student population is approximately 50 percent women. (In fact, the 2017 entering class is exactly 50 percent male-female!)

And both the law school and Touro College and university system have an unwavering commitment to race and gender diversity. Women have attained the highest academic honors and occupy senior leadership positions throughout the university. For example, my predecessor as Touro Law dean was Patricia Salkin, who is now Touro College provost for Graduate and Professional Programs; and Sabra Brock is the dean of the Touro College Graduate School of Business. Dr. Marian Stoltz-Loike serves as the vice president for online education.

NYJL: You have practiced law for more than two decades, and will now be dean at a law school. What do you think will be the biggest difference in how you approach each day?

Ballan: It is difficult to summarize the differences between practicing law and being a dean. Both, for me, involve excitement, unpredictability and constant challenges. Both involve meeting and working with intelligent and lovely people. The speed at which things happen at a big law firm is dazzling. The care for every single student at TLC is equally dazzling.

NYJL: What are the three key things that make up the soul of an educational institution?

Ballan: If I had to identify three key things that make up the soul of an educational institution, I would point to the students, the professors and staff, and the alumni. What make these successful are great and sustainable traditions, including, at Touro, that students are always heard and paid attention to. Indeed, it is probably the close relationship between students and their professors that most distinguishes Touro from other law schools.

NYJL: On a lighter note, we

Touro Law School Dean Harry Ballan PHOTO COURTESY OF TOURO LAW SCHOOL

always love asking which restaurant recommendations our interviewees would make to our readers. Any thoughts?

Ballan: My favorite restaurant is the Prime Grill in Manhattan, not so much for the food, which is wonderful, but because it is part of our tradition of food and fellowship, a social gathering place for the Kosher-observant community and a constant reminder of the closeness of that community.

NYJL: What is your elevator pitch as to why our readers should consider attending Touro Law School?

Ballan: My elevator pitch for TLC would first be to draw attention to the student-centered nature of the school.

Second, I would point to the way in which our teaching and learning is based on scientific principles: It is all

evidence-based, for example, enhanced formative assessment and flipped classrooms, and that is exciting to students and professors. Third, I would point to the diverse neighborhood in which the law school is situated, and the vital services provided by our clinics to our neighbors, including veterans, others who suffer from the ravages of war and natural disasters, the elderly, immigrants and many others. I look forward to major initiatives both in the classroom as well as in the form of clinical outreach that will touch the children in our neighborhood, and I hope that that becomes a strong theme in our future clinical work. Fourth, for our students who are observant, our Sabbath and holiday-observant calendar and Kosher cafeteria, together with traditional learning opportunities, make Touro a welcoming place.

SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21

EDUCATION

kid who comes out with a diaper.”

But much of its approach is uniquely Israeli. The Purim celebration emphasizes clowns—an Israeli staple on the holiday—and Pinto wasn’t even aware that the Hanukkah songs she taught were rarely sung in the United States.

On Israel’s Independence Day, Pinto takes out a huge map of the country and points out where everyone’s family hails from. The kids bake pita bread on a traditional Druze oven (they’re kept far from the flame) and eat an Israeli salad with tahini sauce they mix themselves.

“The kids, they squeeze lemons, chop garlic, they do the whole process,” she said. “Kids need to learn through their senses, not by seeing me do something but in that they taste, touch, get dirty, listen—to really experience it.”

The Israeliness also shows up in daily activities. One recent morning, the kids all played on a playground and ran around a fencedin yard. Pinto supervised from a distance and her adult daughter and assistant, Doron, kept a closer but still hands-off watch. Everything is up to code and safe, Pinto says, but the freerange Israeli style encourages independence, responsibility and problem solving.

Tamar Pinto, who founded and runs the Gan Gurim preschool, The preschool’s embrace of Israeli pedagogy teaching a student the Hebrew days of the week comes along with an eyeroll at mainstays of PHOTO BY BEN SALES American parenting. Pinto disdains timeouts—“It doesn’t have meaning”—and chafes local JCC to design a Hebrew preschool curriculum, at the constant American emphasis on sharing. It’s and the family eventually landed in suburban OK for kids to play exclusively with toys sometimes, Washington, D.C., where Pinto stayed home to raise she says, as long as they don’t monopolize them. the couple’s youngest child.

Free range is also the approach at Organi Day Care, In 2003, an Israeli acquaintance heard about Pinto’s the Israeli preschool in Los Angeles. Organi has a teaching background and hired Pinto to watch her child, half acre filled with animals, including a turkey, two too. By December, five other Israeli families h ad hired dogs and a guinea pig. The school is taught in Hebrew Pinto to take care of their children. When the families all save for a session in English in the afternoon so the asked Pinto to keep going for another year, she obtained children don’t fall behind their peers. On Israel’s a license to open a daycare in her home. Since then, Gan Independence Day, they simulate a flight to Israel and Gurim has accepted 12 children a year. The current class dress like soldiers. On a normal day, the teacher, Ori ranges from ages 18 months to 4 years.

Nottea, will let the kids run around.

The area attracts many Israelis because it is home “They can explore the sandbox looking for chickens, to the National Institutes of Health, which employ for guinea pigs, they can water the plants, they can international postdoctoral students, and is also close play outside,” Nottea said. “I think the idea of nature to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. According and farming, there’s something Israeli in it.” to estimates, some 15,000 people in the area have But the Israeli identity comes with its downsides. lived in Israel. Some Israelis stay on a temporary visa Although Pinto lives on the quietest of streets, she and go back, while others bounce from job to job and doesn’t put her address on her website and asked that remain stateside. her location—town included—be left out of this article.

Both types send their kids to Gan Gurim: Those She is afraid of being hit with a bomb threat or some who plan to return and want their children to have other act of harassment, which is why she has kept the an easier time reintegrating into Israeli schools, and exterior of the home looking so generically suburban. those who expect to stay and have their kids keep up a Being Israeli also means that Pinto’s class has a connection to their birthplace–and grandparents. high turnover. Kids come into the school from an Aside from the language, much of Gan Gurim’s ocean away and can leave after a couple of years. programming would fit into an American Jewish Even Pinto’s own 23-year-old son has gone to Israel preschool. (For example, the Rosh Hashanah songs this year, to enlist in the elite Israeli Air Force’s pilots’ focused on apples and honey.) course. The upside, Pinto says, is that while she may “If it was just the Hebrew, maybe I would have not be in Israel to care for him, her preschool alumni given up on Hebrew,” said Itamar Simhon, an Israeli and their families are. expatriate who has sent three kids to Gan Gurim. “But “I’m creating a community here,” she said, but she this preschool has everything. It teaches independence, also has one there. “I got 50 or 60 offers to take care confidence. She potty-trains everybody. There’s no of him, to drive him around.”

This U.S. Preschool Is So Israeli It May as Well Be Tel Aviv

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) – It’s the most picturesque of American scenes: a single-family home on a cul-de-sac in a suburb of the nation’s capital, a small American flag stuck in a wooden gate that leads to a backyard with a deck. An orange SUV is parked in the driveway.

But walk through the door and you may as well be in Tel Aviv.

A sign draped from the ceiling wishes all comers, in Hebrew letters, a “Shana Tova,” Hebrew for “Happy New Year.” In the corner is a map of Israel with Hebrew place names common in Israeli parlance that most American Jews would not recognize (Gush Dan, for example, Hebrew for the Tel Aviv metro area).

Another Hebrew sign says, “Welcome to Gan Gurim,” which translates roughly to “Bear Cubs Preschool.” Laminated stars display each of the 12 children’s names, all distinctively Israeli: Shai-li, Adva, Yuval, two Amits.

In the next room, Tamar Pinto, the preschool’s founder and head teacher, welcomes each child into a circle through song, calling them by name and wishing them a good morning. Surrounding her are Hebrew kids’ CDs; Hebrew board games; Hebrew signs bearing days of the week, seasons, letters and numbers. Even the coffee on offer–instant with sugar and milk–recalls an Israeli teachers’ lounge.

Pinto runs what may be the only fully Hebrew preschool in the country, explicitly meant for children of Israelis in America. Another, in Los Angeles, is mostly conducted in Hebrew and run by another Israeli expatriate.

Jewish preschools across the United States integrate varying levels of Hebrew into the day, if only to teach holidays and prayers. But at Gan Gurim, though many of the children were born in the United States and may well live here for most of their lives, you’ll have trouble finding English—or American childrearing norms—anywhere.

“Most of the parents want to talk to their kid in the language they feel most comfortable in,” Pinto said.

“They want kids to talk to their relatives. Being Israeli is your identity, and the central piece of identity is language.”

Pinto grew up near the northern port city of Haifa, studied education and moved to Dallas in 1997 when her husband took a job there. She was hired by the

22 | NYJLIFE.COM | SEPT. 27 – OCT. 3, 2017

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516-612-2009

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917-748-7225

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