Publisher’s Note: The Whys of Weinstein and Weiner
Perspective: Sukkot Is a Lesson in Fragility
Shabbos Shorts: NYJL Visited the Old Broadway Synagogue in Harlem Last Shabbos
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THE DAUGHTER OF IMMIGRANTS: Nicole Malliotakis’ father is from Greece and her mother is a Cuban exile of the Castro dictatorship. Her parents came to New York in search of the American Dream. Their dedication and entrepreneurial spirit instilled a sense of ambition in Nicole that has inspired her life in public service.
MEET NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS. Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis is running to become Mayor of New York City to stop Bill de Blasio from his continued practice of protecting criminals at the expense of the New York City taxpayer.
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Publisher’s Note News that matters to Jewish communities in the New York City metropolitan area
Men Behaving Badly: The Whys of Weinstein and Weiner Faced with the consequences of an extensive New York Times report on his decades of sexual harassing, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein couldn’t help himself—he kept talking. Among his responses to this deeply reported news was the threat of legal action against the paper that wrote about his predatory behavior, which included onthe-record remarks from Hollywood stars and staff forced to bear the gamut of his abuse. There was also a bizarre, self-serving statement that contained references to his mother, gun violence and politics, and attempted to explain away his behavior as a relic of a different generation. Harvey clearly didn’t get the memo—nobody wants to hear from him. His job, now, is to stay quiet, not to be clever. His clumsy remarks only generated more rounds of columns and articles, and confirmed the sense that he still doesn’t get it. His arrogance is so great, his dismissiveness of others so ingrained, that he had to mouth off. Anthony We i n e r, former Congressman and mayoral candidate, has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for his illegal communications with a minor. While Weinstein and Weiner’s underlying actions cannot necessarily be equated, their recent reactions to the “next steps” in their difficulties are very similar. It can be said that both Weinstein and Weiner were at the top of their game. The powerhouse with the “touch
of gold” (referring to golden movie awards and coin) and the glib politician who would have been mayor in 2013 had it all, with more good stuff coming their way. Pride, it’s said, comes before the fall, and for these fallen power brokers, it continued throughout. Anthony’s legal team submitted pre-sentencing requests and recommendations that displayed a stunning lack of humility: long on admitting he has a problem; short on accepting tangible consequences beyond the ruin to his reputation. Facing up to 10 years in prison, he countered with an offer of probation, which is to say no time in prison. Unless there was a deal in place ahead of time—“You can get 10; you ask for nothing; we won’t object to the minimum”—this legal posturing made no sense. I do not hold the lawyers responsible, with the limited information the public has, but rather believe this was all Anthony. I can almost see it: the politician who would have thinned out the 2013 mayoral field and then beaten those who stayed in; the Congressman who bullied legislative leaders and lectured policy specialists; the MSNBC regular who was the face of calling for a singlepayer medical system but who had little patience for the actual work of legislating; the guy who tried for a comeback nonetheless. That arrogance is what insisted on asking for probation. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to suggest nine months in prison, one
year of home confinement, followed by—what?—two years of something alongside registering as a sex offender? Doesn’t it seem that would have been better received by the sentencing judge, coloring deliberations to Weiner’s benefit? Perhaps he simply couldn’t do it. Harvey Weinstein should have said nothing. But instead, his response was chaotic, meandering and childish. Deflecting with talk of taking on the gun lobby with the time he’ll have while taking a step back from the movie business sounds like the plot of a bad movie dreamed up by writers he wouldn’t have hired. It was insulting to the substantiated accusations against him, and insulting to the women he victimized. In an increasingly diverse environment with new voices affirming different experiences, Weinstein’s response to the revelations of his behavior serves as a crystal-clear example of why—and how—change happens slowly, and then all at once. Weinstein and Weiner are just two examples of systemic abuse propped up and enabled by structures and institutions with broken priorities. Moving forward doesn’t require their input.
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CANDLE LIGHTING
Friday, Oct. 13 Candles: 6:00 p.m. Shabbat Ends: 6:57 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20 Candles: 5:50 p.m. Shabbat Ends: 6:47 p.m.
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3
SCHUMER IN THE NEWS
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., Sept. 27, 2017 PHOTO BY WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
This Passover Haggadah from 1902, one of very few Hebrew manuscripts recovered from Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters, was hand-lettered and decorated by an Iraqi youth. PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Schumer:
Don’t Return Trove of Jewish Artifacts to Iraq BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN
NEW YORK (JTA) — Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer exhorted the State Department not to send back to Iraq a trove of artifacts that belonged to its now-exiled Jewish community. In a letter shared with the JTA, the New York Democrat on Oct. 3 urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to work with Jewish groups and the Iraqi Jewish community in the United States and abroad to find a place for the Iraqi Jewish Archive. “These items belong to the people
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who were forced to leave them behind when the Iraqi government chose to exile them from their homes. Since the exile of Jews from Iraq virtually no Jewish life remains in the country —this treasured collection belongs to the Jewish community and should be made available to them,” the Jewish lawmaker said in the letter. Last month, the State Department told the JTA that the archive will be returned to Iraq in September 2018, according to an agreement reached
with the Iraqi government. “Maintaining the archive outside of Iraq is possible,” State Department spokesman Pablo Rodriguez told the JTA, “but would require a new agreement between the government of Iraq and a temporary host institution or government.” Discovered in the flooded basement of the Iraqi secret service headquarters by U.S. troops in 2003, the items, many of which were looted, include religious materials, books, personal documents and photographs. The U.S. government spent over $3 million to restore and digitize the archive—which includes a Hebrew Bible with commentaries from 1568, a Babylonian Talmud from 1793 and an 1815 version of the Jewish musical text Zohar—and it has been exhibited around the country. Schumer is among a group of U.S. lawmakers who have joined Jewish groups in lobbying to keep the archive in a location accessible to Iraqi Jews and their descendants, who today live outside Iraq after being driven out amid intense persecution. Iraq and proponents of returning the archive say it can serve as an educational tool for Iraqis about the history of Jews there and that it is part of the country’s
patrimony. “It’s disheartening that parchments of a Torah scroll and prayer books were discovered in such poor condition inside a flooded Baghdad Intelligence Center. After the United States preserved this ancient collection, it makes no sense to return the items to the Iraqi government, where they will no longer be accessible to the Jewish community,” Schumer said Oct. 3 in a statement released along with the letter. Earlier this month, Rodriguez said the United States “will urge the Iraqi government to take the proper steps necessary to preserve the archive, and to make it available to members of the public to enjoy.” Major Jewish groups have remained largely silent on the issue following the announcement of the 2018 return date. The Zionist Organization of America released a statement last month urging the State Department not to send back the archive, and Israeli lawmaker Anat Berko told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pressure the United States not to send back the artifacts. The archive is set to be exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Maryland from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15.
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OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5
ISRAEL & THE WORLD
A man praying at the the century-old Ohel Shelomoh Synagogue in Kobe, Japan, June 26, 2009 PHOTO BY SERGE ATTAL/FLASH90
In Japan, Observing Sukkot Requires Creativity— and Sometimes a Bit of Smuggling BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
KOBE, Japan (JTA) — Like many international smugglers, the one servicing the Jewish community of this port city 300 miles east of Tokyo has perfected his poker face to avoid customs inspections. But unlike other smugglers, the one from Kobe, who spoke to the JTA last month on condition of anonymity, carries no cash, drugs or any of the contraband favored by his counterparts. Instead, he brings in kosher meat and, ahead of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, three of the four species— the plants that Jews use for ritual purposes during the weeklong festival culminating the High Holidays
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period. “I don’t want to do it, but it’s the only way to make sure we have these items,” said the smuggler, a tall man in his 50s. Like most Jews who pray at the century-old Ohel Shelomoh Synagogue here—the oldest Jewish house of worship in Japan—he arrived from Israel more than 20 years ago after his army service and ended up staying and having children with his local wife. He sources three of the four species that are carried during Sukkot services: the etrog, a lemon-like fruit; the lulav, a frond from a date palm tree; and leaves
from the myrtle tree. The fourth, willow, grows in Japan naturally, including in a plot just outside Ohel Shelomoh. The synagogue was renovated and rebuilt in 1970 atop the storage basement where the first Jewish settlers from Eastern Europe used to pray when they arrived in Kobe in the early 1900s. It has local and Jewish decorations, including a wall-to-wall gray carpet for walking shoeless, wood lattice in Japan’s signature shoji style, and the flags of Japan and Israel on either side of the Torah ark. Japan’s Jewish community of 1,000 people is a diverse group of expats—Israelis, Americans and French make up a sizable portion—with active congregations in Tokyo, Kyoto and Kobe. They all have trouble obtaining permits to bring kosher food and organic material to the island nation because of its strict limits on importing plants and animals, as well as quarantine requirements that are designed to limit the spread of invasive species and diseases. But in addition to encouraging some Jews to smuggle in literally forbidden fruit and forcing some observant Jews into a vegetarian lifestyle, the obstacles are also creating interdenominational cooperation between Conservative and Orthodox communities that rarely occurs elsewhere. Shortages in the four species mean that in Japan, the Conservative Jewish community in Tokyo—an affluent group of 110 families that includes many executives from English-speaking countries—get their Sukkot kit from Tokyo’s Rabbi Binyomin Edery, a follower of the late Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe. And they buy kosher meat in consortium together with the Hasidic movement’s chief emissary to Japan, Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich. “The Jewish population here is so small that we have to put aside our divisions,” said Kobe’s rabbi, Shmuel Vishedsky, another Chabad emissary and father of four whose congregation comprises 100 members, including non-Jewish spouses. Vishedsky welcomes the non-Jews in a manner that is rare in Chabad communities and more customary in Reform ones. In another liberal-like departure, he also allows women, Jewish or otherwise, to sit in the men’s section—all for the sake of adapting to his congregants. “What matters here in Japan and in life generally is to treat everyone with respect,” Vishedsky said. “So that’s what we do.” Moshe Gino, a member of the Kobe Jewish community who grew up in Israel, attends Vishedsky’s synagogue with his Japanese-born wife, Hanna, and their twin 8-year-old daughters. “It was important to me she convert, and then it became important to her,” Gino said. The girls were born after she became a Jew by choice. Others, including Lior Pasternak, 36, who also has two children with his Japanese wife, come alone to shul. He arrived in Japan in the 2000s, during his post-Israeli Army travels. “This is the profile of most of the members of this community,” Vishedsky said about the Kobe congregation. “By contrast, in Tokyo you will see
ISRAEL & THE WORLD
more American expats with high-power jobs.” On Simchat Torah, a celebration of the Jewish holy book that comes immediately after Sukkot, Vishedsky throws open the doors of his synagogue, sets up a wet bar inside and hosts an alcohol-soaked feast that lasts well into the morning. “You’ll find people sleeping it off as late as 10 a.m. either in synagogue” or on the building’s large terrace, where Vishedsky and his wife, Batya, each year erect a large sukkah, or temporary hut, that is open to all. This welcoming attitude is helping to draw in locals interested in converting, including Igor Iha, a neuroscience student at Kobe University who was born in Brazil to a family of Japanese descent and came to Japan four years ago. “I looked into Christianity and Islam; it didn’t make sense,” he said. “But everything about Judaism felt right.” Near the end of Yom Kippur, a visibly tired and thirsty Vishedsky welcomed into the synagogue a group of 30 university students who came on a tour as part of their intercultural studies. Slightly afraid to offend, they asked
about the religious objects around them and wanted to see a copy of the Talmud, a central Jewish text that commands great respect in the Far East. After they left, Vishedsky watched with an amused expression as the smuggler boasted to a journalist and other congregants about his exploits. “The trick is to mix the forbidden materials with innocuous stuff,” the smuggler explained. “I like to stuff the four species into a bag full of packaged snacks that I bring from Israel—Bamba and Bissli [leading brands of Israeli snacks]. If I get searched, they see it’s food but they don’t see the plants.” As he spoke on the fast day, the synagogue was filled occasionally with the smell of roasting meat from a nearby restaurant serving the highquality beef for which Kobe is known internationally. The smuggler recalled being busted with a pack of kosher steaks, but was allowed to pass through anyway when he explained it was kosher food. “There’s some leniency,” he said, “so even if I’m caught, hopefully they’ll just take my stuff away at worst instead of putting me in prison.” Even so, “it’s not easy to get permits
to bring stuff in,” confirmed David Kunin, the Conservative rabbi from Tokyo whose congregation, known as the Jewish Community of Japan, sometimes gets the four species via the Israeli Consulate. “There’s a ton of paperwork about it, especially with food.” The Jewish Community of Japan, a Conservative congregation of 110 families, meets in a modern building in Tokyo built in 2009.(Abasaa/Wikimedia Commons) But the consulate sometimes does not deliver enough of the four species to his congregation. This year, Kunin’s community received the plants from Edery, the Chabad rabbi. The plants, which Edery brings in using a rare permit, arrived in the nick of time for the holiday, which this year started on Wednesday evening, Oct. 4. Kosher beef is a rare treat here, but chicken is in steady supply for observant Jews thanks to Edery, who brings in shochtim, or ritual slaughterers. He shares the meat with the Conservative congregation. Despite the challenges, belonging to a small but affluent Jewish community has its perks, said Kunin, a Canada-born
father of one who four years ago came with his wife to take up the rabbinical position in Tokyo. He misses being part of “a larger and more vibrant community,” he confessed, but finds “immense satisfaction” in guiding his own farflung parish. Plus, he gets to do it in style. Kunin’s congregation is based in a sparkling and tastefully decorated synagogue and community center—a multimillion-dollar structure with large windows and light colors situated in the heart of Tokyo, near the Shibuya station. Donated by a philanthropist who wished to remain anonymous, the building was completed in 2009 and features classrooms where the community’s elementary-school–age children are taught Hebrew and Jewish subjects twice a week. The community also has televisions with 60-inch screens and a kitchen with the amenities usually seen at prestigious restaurants. “A congregation of 110 families, having a building like this, employing a full-time rabbi and having a Jewish school—in most places this would be unheard of,” Kunin said.
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7
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ISRAEL & THE WORLD
The program has four components: life skills, Israeli culture, social responsibility and scouting. Activities range from learning about Israeli history to making an Israeli flag to, yes, tying a knot or building a tent—though the kids will also play lighthearted games. There will be occasional joint activities with the Hebrew-speaking groups. One of the biggest differences between the Israeli and American Scouts, says Mika Kaminsky, the English program’s director, is that when they graduate, the Israelis will enlist in the army, whereas the Americans will attend college. So while the Israeli kids might focus on physical challenges, the Americans may derive more value from exercises like team-building and leadership training. (At the recent Manhattan session, which took place at the Solomon Schechter School, the Scouts held hands in a circle and tried to maneuver a Hula Hoop around the circle without letting go.) “It was skills we needed for activities, and it helped us during our army service,” Kaminsky said of her own experience in the Israeli Scouts as a child. “If you translate it to the American way of life and college, you’ll be better in college if you know how to manage your time; speak in front of people.” Arielle Geismar, in the Scouting uniform, leading American For Israeli parents in the United States, Jewish kids in one of the first meetings of the Manhattan sending their children to the Hebrewchapter of Tzofim Atid, the Israeli Scouts’ English-language branch speaking group offers a structured way to keep PHOTO BY BEN SALES up a connection to the old country. It also gives secular Israeli parents a way to see their displacement,” said Geismar, who was introduced to expatriate peers without having to join a synagogue. the Scouts at a summer camp run by Young Judaea, an “We need to create these cultural hubs for Israelis American Zionist group. “Growing up in America and because they usually will not go to the synagogue,” watching the current election and everything going on said Eytan Behiri, the adult supervisor of the Hebrew with Israel and Palestine and problems in the Middle chapter on Long Island, whose children are members. East, I felt like a young child: There wasn’t anything I “As much as we don’t like to say it, we are immigrants could really do. After I joined the Scouts, I felt there is in this country. A lot of immigrants want to bring their something I can do.” culture and pass it on to their kids.” In Israel, the Scouts (“Tzofim” in Hebrew) are Anglophone American parents said they also the country’s largest youth movement, with 85,000 appreciated the connection to Israel, where some members from fourth to 10th grade. Youth groups have extended family. Regina Kachkoff-Enk enrolled play a prominent role in the lives of Israeli children, her 9-year-old daughter in the program because she with chapters run by teens aged 15 to 18 meeting twice liked the emphasis on Judaism without too much a week with little to no adult supervision. Unlike religion, unlike some other youth groups. And she other large Israeli youth groups, the Scouts have no chose the Israeli Scouts over the Girl Scouts because political affiliation and have chapters for religious and she saw it as more gender-egalitarian. secular kids. “I don’t want them to just be sewing and doing There’s already a Hebrew-speaking branch of the girly things,” she said. “I want things to be equal for Scouts in the United States for children of Israeli them. I want them to get a sense of the religion and expatriates who are being raised in the language. That the culture, but I don’t want them to get so mired in program has 3,500 participants across 24 chapters in the religion that they feel out of place.” cities nationwide. Geismar, the counselor, who is still in high school The English program, which began this school year, herself, says the supportive atmosphere of the has chapters in Manhattan and on suburban Long group is especially valuable for preteens who are Island serving children ages 9 to 15, with about 60 “undergoing some of the most transformative years participants. of their lives.” And she appreciates the independence “People are looking for their kids to participate in and informality that Israeli culture promotes. something Jewish, but it has to be secular in order to “The willingness and easygoingness of Israelis is attract the unaffiliated,” said Iryna Gubenko, strategic- different than Americans,” she said. “Things don’t partnerships manager at the Areivim Philanthropic have to be set to a schedule. Things can be fun. In Group, which is funding the new initiative. “We see America you get so set in your routine. To be out of Israel as part of the identity of those [people].” that is so liberating.”
Scouting Israeli-Style Comes to America—in English BY BEN SALES
NEW YORK (JTA) — The 16-year-old counselor stands in a tan uniform shirt, untucked, with green jeans, a green kerchief tied around her neck and epaulets on her shoulders. Two patches are embroidered on her chest. And she’s surrounded by a circle of 11-year-olds. Her task on this Sunday morning in uptown Manhattan is to list five sneaker brands before one of the children can run around the entire circle—a slightly more complex version of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” She fails, and the next round falls to one of the kids who wants to one-up her. He promises to name five types of knots before a friend completes a lap around the circle. “Types of knots?” the counselor, Arielle Geismar, shouts as “Golden Boy,” a 2015 Israeli hit sung entirely in English, plays. “I don’t know types of knots. And I’m a Scout!” Welcome to the American version of Israel’s most popular youth group, the Israeli Scouts. “Golden Boy” is an appropriate choice for this youth group, which wants to impart an Israel-centric secular Judaism to American Jewish kids, all in English. In Israel, the group teaches teamwork and leadership, along with Boy Scout-style survival skills. Except for the language, the new American group aims to mimic that curriculum. But in the concrete jungle of New York City, the focus appears to be more on teamwork and Israeli history and culture; less on knots and building a fire. “It’s this bigger idea of connectedness in a time of
Arielle Geismar, right, at a Tzofim Atid meeting PHOTO BY BEN SALES
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9
NEW YORK & NATIONAL
“We should look at the good Israel is doing. We need to speak the language of our audience. SSI’s goal is not to dictate, but rather to tell the story and have people understand Israel. It’s a different approach to activism and providing information.” –Rudy Rothman
Rudy Rothman (r.) with Alan Dershowitz PHOTO BY MAXINE DOVERE
Rothman told NYJL that an anti-Semitic incident in London significantly influenced his Jewish selfawareness. A bus driver identified his family as Jewish and—shouting, “No Jews!”—shoved them off the bus. “The will to fight for justice and for my people started at that moment. I realized who I was—not only because of my religion, but because of who I was, the land that I come from. The reason we are Jews,” he noted, “is because we come from Judea….We are all Am Yisrael. I felt the need to be an Israeli—a descendant of the people who come from Israel…a 4,000-year identity.” At 17, Rothman fulfilled his lifelong dream and became an IDF paratrooper. After his service, he returned to the United States to attend college, where he realized the “anti-Israel side on campus is not pro-Palestinian.…Its real interest is to use legitimate Palestinian suffering only East.” when it has to do with hurting Israel…using the tools The work of SSI has been recognized by national of intersectionality to build coalitions and look for and international organizations. Among many awards, common ground against Israel.” it received the 2015 Outstanding Outreach and ProRather than focus on why Israel has a right to exist, Israel Activism Award from the Israeli Consulate to “we should look at the good Israel is doing. We need the Midwest. The Columbia University chapter, which to speak the language of our audience. SSI’s goal is hosted Alan Dershowitz’s speech on Sept. 27, was not to dictate, but rather to tell the story and have founded by Rothman. people understand Israel. “Even though I was It’s a different approach born in France, I don’t to activism and providing see myself as French,” A bus driver identified his family information.” Rothman told NYJL in Rothman noted that as Jewish and—shouting, “No an exclusive interview. each SSI chapter is Jews!”—shoved them off the bus. part of a network but “As a child of immigrants from two different Jewish operates independently. worlds, and an immigrant At Columbia, almost 800 to Miami, I lived in a mixture of cultures. Even in the students participate in the grassroots group. Jewish community, everyone came from somewhere “The university administration treats us fairly,” else.” he said. “The story of Israel should inspire other In America, Rothman was labeled “the French kid”; minorities on campus. It’s not only about technology in France, he was the American. Only during summers and cherry tomatoes….We have to understand the in Israel was he able to unify the multiple parts of his playing ground and act accordingly—to update our heritage. resources and learn to use them.”
Finding His Roots BY MAXINE DOVERE
IDF (Israel Defense Forces) veteran Rudy Rothman is the quintessential wandering Jew—21st-century style. “Both sides of my family have been kicked out of the countries they had called home—my mother from Morocco, my father from Poland. I was born in France, raised in America and hold dual Israeli citizenship.” Rothman, who is completing his undergraduate degree at Columbia University in New York, is president of the university’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI), a pro-Israel international campus movement. SSI was founded March 12, 2012, at the University of Minnesota. Five years later, more than 60 “grassroots” chapters have been established in the United States, Canada, Austria and Israel. SSI’s mission “is to be a clear and confident proIsrael voice on college campuses and to support students in grassroots pro-Israel advocacy.” The organization seeks to “reassure students who oppose the demonization of Israel on campus they are not alone, but are part of a united movement showcasing the story of Israel as an organic part of a united Middle
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NEW YORK & NATIONAL
Shabbos Shorts: Old Broadway Synagogue “SHABBOS SHORTS” IS AN OCCASIONAL SERIES ABOUT SHABBOS SERVICES AT CITY SYNAGOGUES, WHICH ARE A WINDOW INTO CONTEMPORARY JEWISH LIFE IN NEW YORK. Exclusive BY AARON SHORT
Five men in kippot stood on the sidewalk in front of Old Broadway Synagogue waiting for a few more people to join their Shabbat service. “Are you Jewish? Services start as soon as we have a minyan,” said Paul Radensky, the synagogue’s president. He wore a tallit draped over his white dress shirt and slacks. Two elderly men in suits and kippot had rounded 125th Street and sauntered halfway up the block, giving the congregation the numbers they needed to get started. Once inside, Radensky and a gabbai (synagogue official) rushed toward the bimah and began the mincha, the afternoon prayer service before Shabbat, at twice their normal speed. “We’re running 14 minutes behind,” one congregant whispered. Old Broadway is one of the only shuls in Harlem— and one of the few in Upper Manhattan from 110th Street to 175th Street. Members of the 106-year-old Orthodox congregation, founded by Russian and Polish Jews who migrated to New York during the 1880s, met in Harlem storefronts and reportedly the back of a bar before building their permanent house of worship in 1923. Tucked on a side street on the far west side of Manhattan under the Seventh Avenue line’s steel structural arch, the two-story shul lives up
to its name: It is a respite from the bustle of 125th Street and a relic of the Harlem Renaissance. The sanctuary’s eggshell-colored walls and lovely tinpaneled ceilings give the room the look of a roaring’20s speakeasy if not for the 18 rows of wooden pews and a massive Torah-containing ark in the back. A skylight in the center of the roof lets in sunlight during the day, while electric candelabras on wooden posts help light the room at sundown. Tin panels also cover the roof under the second-floor balcony, which contains netting on the edge that resembles the material that protects baseball fans from being hit by foul balls. No such injuries occurred during Shabbat, except for a minor case of whiplash from keeping up with the gabbai, who jumped around the siddur to recite prayers particular to festivals, since it was still Sukkot. Once he finished the psalms, Radensky coaxed one of the elderly men, a rabbi visiting from Israel, to take over. The visitor donned a tallit and plowed through the remainder of the service at a normal speed. Radensky then came to my row and pointed to the open page in my siddur, explaining we’d be skipping a few stanzas of a liturgical song. Several stragglers had arrived by this time, including two women, pushing our numbers up to 16. The shul remains known for the work of its late rabbi, Jacob Kret, who recruited Holocaust survivors
to join the temple in the 1950s and served as a Talmud tutor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Today, the congregation lives largely within 20 blocks of the West Harlem shul. It is also among the most diverse Orthodox congregations in the city. On the Friday I attended, half the minyan were African American and the congregants ranged in age from their 20s to their 80s. Old Broadway is “between rabbis” right now, Radensky said, but it continues to retain a lively community looking for an intimate place to daven. About 60 attended Yom Kippur services the week before. The Sukkot-shortened service ended after 40 minutes, and Radensky encouraged everyone to come to the sukkah for a light meal. Old Broadway’s sukkah is a permanent wooden annex directly behind the ark in a small alleyway on the east side of the property. Hemlock branches were strewn on its roof, and posters of Jerusalem’s Western Wall and the Jewish calendar were tacked onto its lime-green–painted walls. Normally the congregation uses the annex for storage. A dozen people crammed around a table with plastic cups of grape juice as a young African American congregant led the kiddush. The sounds of the minyan’s “Shalom Aleichem” prayer rose above the sukkah roof and dispersed towards 125th Street.
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NEW YORK & NATIONAL
Students from Base Hillel Chicago participating in a Jewish-learning program study Torah from source sheets, November 2016. PHOTO COURTESY OF HILLEL INTERNATIONAL
This Torah-Study Tool Is Everywhere—but You May Never Have Heard of It BY ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
NEW YORK (JTA) — One of these days, maybe ahead of Simchat Torah, you are going to attend a Jewish-studies class. Or not. But let’s say you do. You’ll sit in a classroom, or a lounge or in the front row of a synagogue. There will be a teacher, and he or she will pass around a stapled packet of papers— maybe two sheets, maybe five—with various biblical verses, Talmudic excerpts, examples of Jewish law and perhaps a snippet of a contemporary essay or a quote from Martin Buber or Hannah Arendt. I want to talk about these sheets, why they may be uniquely Jewish, and why they may be the most important and ubiquitous example of Jewish educational technology that you probably take for granted—or never heard of. The packets are known as source sheets, and they’ve been with us since…well, at least since the widespread use of the mimeograph machine in the 1950s. Before that, rabbis or teachers might have quoted from a pile of Jewish books they kept in front of them, and perhaps referred students to a similar pile on the students’ desks. But once teachers could cheaply copy fragments of Jewish text, and cut and paste them in any order they
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wished, the source sheet became a tool for flexibility, convenience and ingenuity in the Jewish classroom. And their current dominance is an example of how technology transformed tradition—and continues to do so in the digital age. “When you are weaving together different threads from different texts composed during vastly different times and places, the best way is to pull excerpts from different texts,” said Sara Wolkenfeld, director of education at Sefaria.org. “There is an art form to it. The way you pull and combine helps express the story you want to tell in the class you are teaching.” Sefaria, a nimble online database of Jewish texts in both their original language and in translation, is rapidly becoming the red-hot center of the sourcesheet universe, which I assure you is a thing. Since Sefaria was founded in 2013, more than 12,000 people have made some 74,000 source sheets using the site’s handy source-sheet builder. Of those, 7,200 of their creations are available online. (Disclosure: Daniel Septimus, Sefaria’s executive director, sits on the board of 70 Faces Media, the JTA’s parent company.) And the range of subjects is a testament not only to the depth of the Jewish canon but to the breadth
of Jewish obsessions. There are sheets for lessons on sex, death, love, money, family strife and sibling rivalry, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. For Simchat Torah, which begins this year on the evening of Oct. 12, there’s a sheet on the rules about women’s dancing with a Torah scroll. There’s even a sheet about whether or not Jews should take part in Halloween. Other sites share their source sheets online. The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute posts sheets on animal welfare. American Jewish World Service offers material on social action. The Orthodox NCSY youth group has sheets on a range of topics. Rabbi Dan Epstein, the senior Jewish educator at the George Washington University Hillel, also refers to creating a source sheet as an art form. Epstein should know: He’s shared nearly 100 source sheets on Sefaria, and they’ve been viewed collectively more than 72,000 times. To teach a lesson on Jewish views on the afterlife, for example, he might include verses from the Bible; Talmudic passages known as Mishna or Gemara; perspectives from the medieval sages Maimonides and Saadia Gaon about the soul and reincarnation; and a teshuvah, or rabbinical ruling, from the 20th-century Modern Orthodox authority Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. These would form the basis for a guided classroom discussion, perhaps after the students had had a chance to review the material and a few key questions in chavruta—that is, in pairs or small groups, a staple of yeshiva education going back centuries. Epstein might not get to every text in a lesson, but that’s OK. “The lesson is like a concert and the source sheet is more like a set list,” he explained. “You’ll get to it, but maybe you’ll cancel some songs or just play a few of the longer songs.” The key, he said, is knowing your audience—the languages they understand, their level of knowledge and their interests. “You need to make the students feel connected and touch the head and the heart and the hand,” Epstein said. “And not just teach them new info, but teach them to do something. That’s what I based my lessons around.” Rabbis and teachers had always done this kind of layered Jewish teaching, building an argument or lesson out of centuries of Jewish writing on a topic the way a geologist describes a mountain by pointing to the layers of rock beneath the surface. But the source sheet revolutionized Jewish learning by making sure every student was literally on the same page. Many educators credit Nechama Leibowitz, a legendary Israeli teacher, with popularizing and democratizing Torah study in Israel with the distribution of her mimeographed worksheets, or gilyonot. Sent to subscribers by mail between 1941 and 1971 (and later collected between hard covers), Leibowitz’s worksheets offered Torah verses and rabbinic commentary, and questions quizzing students on the connections between them. Leibowitz, who was teaching nearly up to the moment she died in 1997 at age 92, would comment on the students’ answers and mail them back. Barry Holtz, the Theodore and Florence Baumritter
NEW YORK & NATIONAL
professor of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), Members of Hillel’s Ezra Fellowship program study from source sheets during remembers learning Torah from a training event in 2016. original texts and all-Hebrew textbooks in the 1950s at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, Massachusetts. But the assistant rabbi there, Joseph Lukinsky, introduced new ways to teach his Hebrew-school classes. “He was an incredibly creative young rabbi, maybe ahead of the curve,” Holtz recalled. “He must have been one of the first people to introduce a tikkun leyl Shavuot”—an all-night study session on the spring holiday of Shavuot— “outside of the Orthodox world, in 1962, just for the teenagers. “It’s weird that I can remember this, but he had created a packet I suspect is someplace in a closet in my house, with texts that we studied all night long, and the title was ‘Gods Jews Have Known, and Jews God Has Known.’ It was so radical and amazing and interesting at the time.” Lukinsky, who died in 2009 at 78, became a revered professor of education at JTS. Source sheets have spread to all the PHOTO COURTESY OF HILLEL INTERNATIONAL Jewish movements, and to classrooms where the often that source sheet,” Stein esoteric Talmudic texts and recalled. “It threatens them medieval commentaries may the most because it is using be daunting or unfamiliar. their own text. “I am a lover of rabbinic “Usually they are very text—particularly in the dismissive. Here when I Reform movement that show them a text from a often finds it less accessible,” Hasidic rabbi saying a man said Rabbi Sari Laufer, [can be] in the wrong body, director of congregational or from Zohar saying an engagement at the Stephen ideal person has to balance Wise Temple in Los Angeles. femininity and masculinity “People aren’t as familiar at all times, or a wife can’t [with Talmud or rabbinic have kids because she is a text] or feel that it is not male, they can’t just dismiss ours in some way. I am very it as BS.” committed to using and One of 7,200 source sheets available at Sefaria.org Sefaria is trying to chart a unlocking a lot of rabbinic PHOTO COURTESY OF JTA future for a study tool that is text.” itself the product of a midA prolific poster to Sefaria, Laufer Abby Stein, a transgender activist and 20th–century information revolution. has created source sheets on work- teacher who grew up in a prominent Its library of online source sheets is life balance, the theology of food and Hasidic family in Williamsburg, interactive—that is, every source on a seduction, and the imagery of darkness New York, uses a source sheet in sheet links to the database of myriad in Jewish thought, among many others. classes she teaches on Judaism and Jewish texts. Working through the multiple layers gender. The sheet, titled “Changing “When you put a bunch of sources on of Jewish learning, she said, “grounds us the Conversation: Jewish-Gender IS paper, the audience can only see what’s in an entire history—a great reminder Queer…and Feminist,” is available on on the sheet,” Sefaria’s Wolkenfeld that questions we think of as modern Sefaria and linked to her Facebook said. are questions people have been asking page. Using the database, however, “you for thousands of years with incredible “After everything I had done to are in control of the story. You can open insight.” enrage the Hasidic community, the up a chapter and see the larger context,” And sometimes a list of sources can most negative, most hate I ever got she said. “From three commentaries I be a powerful tool for conversation— was for that Torah sheet—not media, can navigate to 10 others.” and even change. And if students have tablets or not transitioning, but for publishing
laptops, they can do all that exploring during the lesson itself. The JTS’ Holtz warns that if there is a downside to the source sheet, it’s the temptation by a teacher to pick and choose from the wide and woolly corpus of Jewish text to prove a dubious point. “Some would argue…that you don’t cherry-pick,” said Holtz, who wrote a popular beginner’s guide to studying Jewish text, Back to the Sources. “And Jewish study accor ding to this argument should not be about all the good parts or the cool parts or obviously meaningful parts, but you should work hard through all the parts as you encounter them.” And as seductive a tool as source sheets can be, many teachers don’t want them seen as substitutes for the real thing. “A source sheet, as critical as it is, is a tool but no replacement for the text in the original,” said Tzvi Sinensky, the rosh beit midrash, or dean of Jewish learning, at the Kohelet Yeshiva High School in suburban Philadelphia. “We want our students engaging with the original texts and having the skills to parse the Gemara—not to know about the text, but to know it.” The source sheets Sinensky has posted to Sefaria have been viewed nearly 95,000 times.
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 15
FOOD & CULTURE
How to Make Black and White Cookies LOOK TO THE COOKIE, AND MAKE IT IN YOUR OWN KITCHEN.
BY SHANNON SARNA | THE NOSHER
The black and white cookie is an iconic, delicious symbol of New York and beloved by Jews. Can you remember the last Kiddush, bat mitzvah or bris when there weren’t black and white cookies served?! To be frank, I was seriously intimidated at the prospect of making these cookies. It seemed daunting. It seem unreachable. But it was much easier than I thought. You see, the name “black and white cookies” is a bit misleading. The batter for these cookies is closer to a thick cake batter, and they bake up quite fast. What is essential is to allow the cookies to cool completely before icing. I recommend using Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder for a delicious, chocolatey flavor. I also recommend two tools: an icing spreader/edge scraper for creating a very straight edge in the middle (though you can also use parchment paper) and a small offset spatula for spreading the icing.
You will be amazed how easy it is to make these treats. Look to the cookie, indeed. Ingredients • 1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour • 1/2 tsp baking soda • Pinch baking powder • 1/2 tsp salt • 1/3 cup buttermilk • 1/2 tsp vanilla • 1/3 cup (5-1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened • 1/2 cup granulated sugar • 1 large egg • 2 tsp grated lemon zest For the frosting: • 2 cups confectioners sugar • 1 Tbsp light corn syrup • 1/4 tsp vanilla • 2-3 Tbsp milk • 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
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Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. 2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir together buttermilk, vanilla and lemon zest in a small bowl. 3. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and mix again until well combined. 4. Alternate adding flour and buttermilk mixture on a low speed until batter is well combined and smooth. 5. Using a cookie scoop, place batter about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Dipping your pointer finger in water, smooth the edges of each cookie. (This step is optional, but will ensure a slightly more even shape). 6. Bake 15-17 minutes, until tops are puffed and golden.
Remove cookies from sheet and place on cooling rack to cool for at least 1 hour before icing. 8. To make icing: whisk together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and 2 Tbsp milk in a small bowl until smooth. Transfer half of icing to another bowl and stir in cocoa, adding more milk, 1 tsp at a time, until consistency is the same as white icing. 9. Turn cookies upside down. Place icing scraper tool (or parchment paper) over half of each cookie and spread the uncovered halves with white frosting using a small offset spatula. Allow to set 10-15 minutes. When icing has set, frost the other side of the cookies with chocolate icing. Yes, you should start with the white icing. 10. Allow to set another 10-15 minutes until serving. 11. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
7.
FOOD & CULTURE
Matzah Ball Pho Recipe SONYA SANFORD | THE NOSHER
Jewish and Vietnamese comfort food meet in one delicious bowl. Growing up in Seattle, it’s easy to fall in love with pho. Nearly as ubiquitous as coffee shops or teriyaki spots (yes, teriyaki), pho restaurants seem to be just around every corner of the city. They welcome you in from the cold and the rain with their steamy glass windows and equally steamy giant bowls of soup. Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a traditional Vietnamese soup that was popularized around the world by Vietnamese refugees fleeing from the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Pho ga is the chicken noodle variety of the soup. For me, pho is the perfect meal: a big bowl of rich, aromatic, sweet, salty broth filled with satisfying rice noodles and tender meat, and balanced by toppings of fresh herbs, crispy bean sprouts and tart lime juice. Some feel that any mash-up of two differing traditional dishes is a crime against all that is holy in food. I am not trying to provoke traditionalists, but
I do believe that learning from other strong culinary traditions can enrich our own. In that spirit, I started experimenting with homemade pho. It was a revelation to learn that the broth is made by charring onions and ginger before adding them to the stock, the depth of the broth’s flavor transformed by their smoky sweetness. And after making pho a few times, it occurred to me that the broth would go well with dumplings. Matzah balls are dumplings by definition. What would happen if they showed up? Why not combine my two favorite soups? The outcome: Matzah ball pho is a highly compatible marriage of comfort food meeting comfort food. Like traditional matzah ball soup, this dish is nourishing, filling and warming; but its flavors are also complex and unexpected together. The matzah balls are nutty and hearty, in contrast to the simple
rice noodles one usually finds in pho. The broth has the spice of ginger and sweetness of cinnamon and anise—which is nothing like classic matzah ball chicken broth. Like any other pho, matzah ball pho can be served as a complete meal in and of itself, which makes the labor of this dish a little more worthwhile. There are enough toppings and additions to make this satisfying to eat, especially served with a side of toasted challah or crusty bread. For all these reasons, this dish has quickly become a new classic in my home. Note about the recipe: Traditional pho ga calls for fish sauce in its broth. Fish sauce is made of fermented anchovies. Red Boat makes one that is certified kosher, but many who keep strictly kosher will not combine fish and meat in the same dish. To make this kosher, you can use tamari in lieu of fish sauce for extra umami flavor in the broth.
Ingredients For the broth: • 2 medium unpeeled yellow onions, halved • 1 large 4"-5" piece of ginger, cut in half lengthwise • 5 quarts cold water • 1 4-5 lb. chicken, cut into parts • ½ lb. chicken wings • 2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste • 1 Tbsp rock sugar or Turbinado (raw) sugar • 1 cinnamon stick • 2 star anise • 1 tsp whole coriander seeds • 2 Tbsp fish sauce or tamari • 1 small white onion, thinly sliced • 4 scallions, thinly sliced For the matzah balls: • 1 cup matzah meal • 1 teaspoon kosher salt • 1 teaspoon baking powder • ½ teaspoon baking soda • 4 large eggs, beaten • ¼ cup schmaltz or oil (vegetable or safflower) • ¼ cup minced scallion For the toppings: • 1 large bunch of fresh Thai basil • 2-3 limes cut into wedges • 3 cups mung bean sprouts • 2 Fresno chilies or jalapenos, sliced thin • Hoisin sauce, to taste • Sambal oelek (garlic chili sauce), to taste • Sriracha, to taste
Directions To make the broth: 1. Char your onions and ginger by either placing them on a baking sheet under a broiler for 8-10 minutes or by charring them over a gas flame on your stovetop for a few minutes on each side. The onions and ginger should be nicely charred but still firm—this essential step will deepen the broth’s flavor. Once the onions and ginger are charred, remove the skin from the onion. Rinse the onion and ginger, and use a small knife to scrape off excess charred bits to prevent your broth from getting murky. 2. Cut your chicken into parts, separating the breasts, legs, wings and backbone. This will ensure that your chicken cooks evenly and that the breasts will not become dry or tough when simmered. 3. In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the cinnamon, anise and coriander until lightly browned and fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to burn the spices. Add the onion, ginger and chicken to a large pot. Fill the pot with 5 quarts of water. Bring the water to a simmer; skim the impurities as they rise to the top. 4. After 20 minutes of simmering, or once they’re cooked through, remove the chicken breasts and allow them to cool. Add the toasted spices, salt and sugar to the pot. Continue to gently simmer the mixture for 1 hour. 5. Remove the remaining chicken parts and strain the liquid through a fine meshed sieve. Bring the liquid back to a simmer for another 20-30 minutes,
or until the liquid has reduced by about a quarter. This step will further deepen the broth’s flavor. 6. While the broth is simmering, shred the chicken meat and reserve for serving. Once reduced, turn off the heat and add the fish sauce or tamari to the broth. Taste, and add additional seasoning if desired. To make the matzah balls: 1. While the soup is simmering, in a large bowl whisk together the matzah meal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the beaten egg and schmaltz/oil. Add the scallions. Mix everything together until just combined. Do not over-mix. 2. Refrigerate the mixture for at least 30 minutes and up to a day. 3. Form the matzah ball mixture into even-size balls. The size of the balls is based on your preference, but know that they will double in size when cooked. It makes it easier to form the matzah balls if you rub a little oil on your hands beforehand. 4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Lower to a simmer and gently drop the matzah balls into simmering water. Place the lid on the pot and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Once cooked, matzah balls are best stored in their cooking liquid. 5. To serve the matzah ball pho: 6. Add the shredded chicken, raw sliced onion and scallions to a bowl. Ladle hot broth into the bowl. Add the matzah balls to the soup. 7. Serve along with basil, bean sprouts, lime wedges, hoisin and hot sauces. Allow people to garnish and customize their pho to their liking.
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17
EDUCATION
Emily James is one of the New York City teachers behind a petition for paid maternity leave.
“We Will Get This Done”: Union Chief Vows to Fight for Paid Maternity Leave After Teachers Take Up the Cause BY CHRISTINA VEIGA
(CHALKBEAT) — Emily James is one of the New York City teachers behind a petition for paid maternity leave. Two weeks ago, Emily James took the stage at a teachers-union meeting and described what it’s like to work in a school system where teachers get no paid maternity leave. “My decision with my husband to create a beautiful family of four,” she said, “has left me with my life savings depleted.” James and Susan Hibdon, a fellow high school teacher in Brooklyn, created a viral online petition calling attention to New York City’s lack of paid leave and demanding that the teachers union negotiate with the city for it. More than 80,000 people have signed on and shared stories about missing rent payments, dipping into savings and even leaving the profession because of the financial burden.
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“I wanted to print out the petition comments so you could read all of the stories yourself,” James said during her speech. “But the document was 684 pages long.” James and Hibdon made their case during the United Federation of Teachers’ (UFT) executive board meeting on Sept. 25. Their demands drew applause—and a promise by UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “He looked me in the eye,” James recalled, “and he said, ‘We will get this done.’” City and union leaders were scheduled to meet Thursday, Sept. 28, to negotiate paid leave—just as the women’s petition had called for. In the past, the union has said the city “failed to come up with a meaningful proposal.” On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Mulgrew said that the union continues to press the city on paid leave—and is waiting for a response. “We are trying to determine if the city is actually serious about getting this done,” he said in an emailed statement. In an email, city spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein called paid parental leave “very important to the
mayor.” “But it has to be negotiated as part of collective bargaining, which is ongoing,” she wrote. The de Blasio administration has already extended paid leave to nonunion city workers, a benefit that came at the cost of a scheduled raise for managers and fewer leave days for veteran employees. But New York City teachers do not receive any paid leave after having a baby. Instead, teachers must use their sick days. In her speech to union leaders, James highlighted the financial burden that creates for families. The policy creates gender inequities, she said, since only birth mothers are allowed to use sick days after having a baby—leaving women less able to save up time that could be cashed out at retirement. Mulgrew called James after her speech to assure her that the union is committed to negotiating for the benefit, she said. “I’ll be skeptical until the day something happens,” James said. “But I’m happy to work with him.” For James, a change in the policy would amount to “the biggest accomplishment of my life so far—and probably Susan’s too,” she said of Hibdon, “other than giving birth to all these kids.” Here’s the speech James made at the recent UFT executive board meeting: Thank you for having me. I’m here to shed light on an issue that has long been important to the parents and children of the DOE. In 2012, I got pregnant with my first daughter. I was so excited, like most first-time mothers are. But I didn’t realize then what I know now: that pregnancy marked the beginning of new life for me, not just because I would become a mother, but because I would embark on a long financial struggle that would continue with me for years. My decision with my husband to create a beautiful family of four has left me with my life savings depleted, and in a constant state of panic over not being able to get out of my negative balance. My story is not unique. Back in May, I started a petition to ask our union to help fight for paid parental leave. Since then, it has exploded— receiving almost 80,000 signatures and still growing. When I began this petition, I had no idea how many thousands of other women and men were affected by this poor policy. They wrote story after story of how much they have struggled and are still struggling. Women wrote that they are scared to begin a family at all because of this policy, and keep putting it off out of financial fear. Some wrote about missing rent payments and fearing eviction because they had medical complications before birth and just did not have a cushion to lean on. Some wrote about leaving the profession altogether because they could not fit motherhood into their lives with this lack of support; it was easier for them to turn somewhere else. I received email after email of story after story about people who were so horribly affected. I wanted to print out the petition comments so you could read
EDUCATION
UFT President Michael Mulgrew
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UFT
all of the stories yourself. But the document was 684 pages long. This should not be a thing! It should not be a choice for women to be excellent teachers to the students of NYC or to be mothers for their own children. As you know, when we become mothers to our babies, we have to use our sick days in order to be paid for up to six weeks; eight weeks if a C-section. Most of us do not have enough days to cover that time, and if we already had a child, then forget it. Having a baby is not a sickness. Borrowed time is not maternityleave time. It is a loan that many women are never able to pay back. I have been buying back one day a month for a whole year and am still in a negative balance. I need that money to help with my two daughters, my mortgage, my life. This also becomes an issue of gender equality. Men are able to retire with many more days that they can cash in. When we retire, if we have decided to have and raise children, or stay with them until they are 6, 8 or 12 WEEKS old, we will have so many fewer days than most men. Have you seen what a 6-week-old baby looks like? Have you held one? Most of us have to drop that tiny child off to strangers and return to work, and we have had to pay out of pocket just to stay home with them for that short time. They do not sleep through the night. They are still breastfeeding. And when we return, in the negative balance, we are further penalized when we get sick, or when they get sick. Sending a mother of a 6-week-old back to work
to teach America’s youth, financially strapped, ridden with anxiety, exhaustion, isn’t just bad for that mother: It’s bad for everyone. I’m sure I don’t have to point out the irony here. But I will. We dedicate our lives to taking care of other people’s children; we become second mothers to them, sometimes first. The system expects that from us, and we deliver. But when it comes time for us to do the bare minimum for our own children, the system forgets us; makes it impossible for us; tells us we are on our own. This petition is not for me: I am done having children. But this needs to be changed for all of the mothers and fathers of our future. There are close to 80,000 signatures for this petition. It has gained media attention, national attention, international attention. People are watching us; they are expecting more from us. Studies have shown time and time again that babies benefit immensely from being home with their mothers for the first year of life. The teachers of the DOE need more. They deserve more time; they deserve to be paid for it. Why aren’t we fighting for them? Let’s not let them, or their children—who become our children—let’s not let any of them down. We pay you our dues dutifully month after month, year after year. You are the only voice we have. We are here in numbers, 80,000 strong, demanding in the most polite way we know how, that you stop ignoring us, that you help us begin this fight, and don’t stop fighting for us until we make the situation right.
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 19
PERSPECTIVE
Why I Traveled to Las Vegas to Help After the Deadly Shooting BY ALISSA THOMAS-NEWBORN
LAS VEGAS (JTA) — We just got with local hospitals and synagogues of into our car and drove. Going to Las different denominations and learned Vegas after the deadliest mass shooting that every house of worship in the city in modern American history felt like would be offering a prayer vigil. Everywhere we looked, the billboards the right thing to do. As Americans and as Jews, we wanted to be a source flashed not with advertisements, but of support and love in the face of with thanks to the first responders with terror. We wanted to stand with the the words, “Pray for Las Vegas.” Hotels victims and their families. With Yom provided complimentary housing for victims and their Kippur only two families from days behind us and around the country, Sukkot on its way, and people in the we saw a window street stopped to to show up—and so check in with each we started to drive other. from L.A. We participated Rabba Ramie in a city candlelight Smith and I are prayer vigil for all graduates of faiths and provided Yeshivat Maharat, one-on-one the first school spiritual counseling to ordain Jewish for those present. Orthodox female We prayed from our spiritual leaders. Jewish texts, and we Our rabbi and Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn heard the prayers teacher, Rav Avi traveled to Las Vegas to help out of others and their Weiss, taught us after the deadly shooting there. to show up. As PHOTO COURTESY OF THOMAS-NEWBORN stories. One woman who Jews, we are called to walk in God’s ways, which means managed a local restaurant opened her being with the brokenhearted and the doors to the victims until 4 a.m. on the vulnerable—to be present with an open Monday after the shooting. She had heart and open arms—even when we been supporting and welcoming the are not sure what lies ahead. And so, victims into her restaurant when they when our fellow Americans, of all faiths could not get into their hotels—when and backgrounds, are in need, it is our they had nowhere else to go. She came to the vigil to get support for herself duty as Jews to be by their sides. So what happened when we got and to process all that she had seen and heard. there? One local young man shared We delivered food and water (donated by Yeshivat Maharat) to a local church, frustration at how helpless he felt to whose representatives told us over the want to do something for the victims phone, “We will be open for whoever and families but not knowing what to needs us for as long as is needed.” do. He said just bringing positive energy That church took a truckload of food and presence to the vigil was his way to victims and their families, as well as of praying. Tourists from all over the to volunteers around the city. We spoke world signed posters and lit candles.
20 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 11 – 17, 2017
Mourners attending a candlelight vigil in Las Vegas for the victims of the mass shooting there, Oct. 2, 2017 PHOTO BY DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
And locals spoke about how proud they were of this Vegas, this America, which was united and, though hurt, would never be broken. And perhaps the most heartwrenching experience was providing spiritual care and counseling at the family crisis center, where families of those who had not yet been found were waiting for news—waiting for 15 hours in limbo, in the greatest nightmare, not knowing if their loved one was alive or dead; in a hospital or in a morgue. One high school girl who was waiting to hear about her sister said, “Where is she? My sister is supposed to go to my graduation. I didn’t tell her I loved her enough.” I held her as she sobbed. So what can we do as a larger Jewish community? It is clear that Las Vegas will continue to need our support in the days and weeks to come. The victims and their families, as well as the local volunteers and laypeople, will need ongoing support in a variety of forms as the city mourns and heals. As Jews and as Americans, we can each walk in God’s ways by showing up in whatever way we can. We just celebrated Sukkot, a time of year when we are acutely aware of our vulnerabilities and fragility, so much so that we dwell in fragile booths. And at the same time, the sukkah itself is a symbol of comfort and guidance, a commemoration of the clouds of glory that God sent to lead and support us in the desert. The sukkah embodies our connection with God in the face of fragility, and as
we sit in it with friends and family, it informs our relationship to each other. I hope that this Sukkot, we brought the mitzvah of the sukkah to life— extending the idea of the sukkah beyond the usual; going outside of our regular dwelling places; walking in God’s ways; and being a source of comfort, guidance and support to our fellow Americans. Let’s continue to show up. Here are some ideas for how to help out: • If you are able to volunteer in person, presence is incredibly powerful. The convention center, where the support and relief efforts are being run, has been organizing volunteer needs (e.g., professional chaplains, lay volunteers, clergy). Rabba Ramie and I will continue to work on this together with Chaplain Rocky Dickerson, our contact in Las Vegas. • Donate food, water, blood and money. Last we heard, thank God, the blood banks and food donations were sufficient. But the need for support will certainly be ongoing. In the meantime, the Clark County Commission chair from Las Vegas has set up a fundraising campaign for relief and financial support for the victims and their families. • Host a prayer vigil in your community. There can be words of Torah shared, Psalms recited and, depending on your community, interdenominational and even interfaith involvement. This is the time when we must unite. Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn is a member of the spiritual leadership at B’nai David-Judea Congregation in Los Angeles.
PERSPECTIVE
Fragile Construction BY LIZ FISHER
A few weeks ago, I attended a devastating funeral for a friend, a member of my community, who died way too young (maybe it's always too young?) after an eight-year–long battle with breast cancer. The funeral was heart-wrenching, and I'd give anything to get this woman back; to continue a friendship that had really just begun; to return her to her husband, children, parents and friends. But the theme of the funeral was really the power of community. Person after person told stories of when our friend took them in—when they were recent immigrants, when they needed a meal, when they needed a person to listen. She was warm and witty and there for people. The feeling of community in all its messiness and wonderfulness was evident throughout: An Orthodox rabbi led the service, while our Reform rabbi sat in the pews. People spoke in English and in Russian. People called her husband by his full name, his American English nickname and his Russian nickname. I left the funeral and went directly to the airport to visit with the Jewish community in Houston. Much has been written about the impact of the storms in Houston—especially in one neighborhood where many Jewish families live, a neighborhood so often flooded that FEMA is considering buying up the housing and making the area a flood pond. The streets are still full of rubble. The kids are in preschool on a repurposed indoor tennis court. The seniors are spread across town as their program space remains inaccessible. The people in Houston are tired, worn out, traumatized. And resilient. Focused on rebuilding. Unusual partnerships have arisen. Schools are squished into other school spaces. Every place where it is possible to open for programming is open—at no cost regardless of loss of revenue. The largest synagogue moved into a mega church for the high holidays—rent free. Volunteers from around the country and world are sleeping on mattresses in churches and
on people's floors and mucking and gutting houses all day long. “In the days after the storm,” a colleague told me, “everyone was either a floodee or a volunteer.” I came back to NYC for Yom Kippur and then got back on the road. To Miami. In the Miami Jewish community, people greet each other with, "How'd you make out in the storm?" in much the same way they might ask about the horrific Miami traffic. They are focused on rebuilding in communities near and far that experienced far greater loss than they did. In a meeting while in Miami, I heard about children and families who are homeless and those who aren't technically homeless but are couchsurfing, or living with several other families in tiny apartments. I heard from a woman who is quietly helping these families—one cash payment or
hotel room at a time. Several times, she noted that she isn't a professional, or an educator, but that she is there to provide a Band-Aid when needed to get these families through the day. In a room with nonprofit colleagues, where people could have been looking to her for funds for their own very worthy causes, the conversation was wholly focused on brainstorming ways to get her more financial resources, more volunteers, more help for the work she is doing. On Oct. 4, we began the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, for which many of us build or visit temporary huts, created to dine and dwell in. I love Sukkot. I believe that it would be more popular were it not for its unfortunate timing on the back of the exhaustion that is Yom Kippur. Most years, Sukkot is for me a lesson in fragility and temporariness. Life right now feels as fragile and temporary as ever. This year, though, I'm thinking not about impermanence, but about building. Each year, we build these temporary huts. They are similar to the year before, but not exactly the same. They are created for a period of time. They don't fully protect us from the elements, but they create a space in which to experience the world around
us. We decorate them and try to make them beautiful. We invite in guests and symbolically invite in the memories of others who inspired us. On Sukkot, we learn what I learned at the funeral, in Miami and in Houston: We have the ability to create shelter in times of need—however imperfect, however temporary, however fragile. We are in the elements, but we have the ability to try, within that context, to create something to protect us. That “something” might be community; it might be family of birth or family of choice; it might be the actions of giving or volunteering. It never fully protects us. It sometimes doesn't even partially protect us. When we can't build our own shelter, people do it for us. That's what shiva in the Jewish tradition is: people feeding us, caring for us, building a hut around us while we sit in our devastation unable to build anything for ourselves. Sukkot is about creating the shelter we need. It's about rebuilding. It's what makes the impossible time possible. It's a small piece of technology in a very fragile existence. Liz Fisher loves living in Brooklyn, and frequently publishes her thoughts on finding meaning in Judaism and seeing the glass half full.
PHOTO VIA ALEXANDER RABB ON FLICKR
OCT. 11 – 17, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21
COMMUNITY AND EVENTS
The Stars Come Out at Night The fourth annual Algemeiner J100 event was held last month at Cipriani’s downtown location. Guests in attendance, according to the publication, included Israeli consul general in New York Dani Dayan, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaorálek and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro. Past honorees and participants of this impressive annual event have included Elie Wiesel, Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Michael Gove and Joan Rivers, among others. Here is a selection of photos taken by Maxine Dovere of the evening gala.
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