November 8 Edition of NYJL

Publisher’s Note: Lamentations that America Is Spiritually Ill after Sutherland Springs

Who Will Be the Next City Council Speaker? Crain’s New York Business Convenes the Candidates

Council of Jewish Organizations Promotes Civic Engagement on Staten Island

VOL. 1, NO. 31 | NOVEMBER 8-14, 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

Comfort among Friends I was headed for a talk on the popular TV show Richard French Live, soon after the horrific concert shooting attack in Las Vegas. Despite the awful sadness and shock spreading through the country, I knew the panel discussion with friends Andrew Whitman, Richard French and Jeanne Zaino would be both comforting and frank. As the show’s studio is in Rye Brook, and there’s usually traffic headed up there from Downtown Brooklyn, I use the drive to catch up on calls.

Sunday’s church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, an attack also with mass fatalities, reminded me of a phone conversation I had with colleague and friend Isaac Sofer on that drive up to Rye Brook several weeks ago.

Isaac and I agree that sensible gun control has for too long been stuck in Congress. We agree that background checks are appropriate, that assault weapons have no place in the market outside military life, and that the usual public responses to attacks and killings have become too predictable and too hollow. Our call quickly turned away from policy or politics. We had no answers, my good friend and I—just worries.

America is spiritually ill, we lamented. Some sickness has infected our culture in a way that glorifies and celebrates senseless violence. The space between fiction—whether in movies, video games, music or social media—and reality has, for some, blurred dangerously. Is our increasingly confrontational civic life, with its

shrinking middle and diminishing appetite for compromise, encouraging a sort of widespread siege mentality that is breeding nihilism?

Much has been written about the recent collapse of the communal life that used to bind communities and decrease alienation. The demands of modern life, professional and familial, have us home later and more harried. Online connections, though valuable for many, aren’t as real or personal. And the information we get online, recent examinations reveal, reinforces positions and prejudices. Is this separation from others, alongside false connections and an echo chamber of self-selected news, transforming momentary anger into something more seething, dangerous and violent? Does more meaningful time with others short-circuit tragedy?

Of course gun control would help.

Curtailing the civilian availability of weapons that have no rational use other than massacre would contribute to advancing, albeit incrementally, some sort of solution.

But my thinking on this has evolved.

Gun control alone isn’t a fix, since people set on committing these awful acts will get their hands on a gun.

Unless we destroy all guns outside law enforcement and the military, perpetrators will find a way to get armed. My current thinking focuses on mental health, lack of connectivity, social work, the possibility of law enforcement before tragedy, the connection between domestic violence and later carnage, and the overall tone

of our public discussions.

James Baldwin famously said, “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” I’m not suggesting that mass killers are emulating politicians, popular culture or hateful campaign rhetoric, but there has to be a connection.

Endless wars overseas have desensitized us to violence. Our foreign misadventures have produced more chaos and more reasons to stay abroad fighting. We have movies in which the plot revolves around overseas drone strikes piloted from trailers on American soil. Are shootings here a version of violence coming home?

Back to the discussion on Richard French Live about Las Vegas: We were frustrated, and sad. We, the four of us, had been on set talking about the same issues before. Sandy Hook. Orlando.

Charleston. We were repeating ourselves, shared sadness but nothing had changed.

And now Sutherland Springs.

I’ll be skipping the show this week. I can’t bring myself to go. Instead I’ll just call my friend Isaac.

Michael Tobman, Publisher

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CANDLE LIGHTING

Friday, Nov. 10 Candles: 4:24 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 5:24 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 17 Candles: 4:18 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 5:19 p.m.

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3

SCHUMER IN THE NEWS

Trump Attacks an Immigration Program, and Schumer Gets Caught in the Crossfire

BY RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Charles Schumer and Donald Trump like tweaking one another on a broad range of issues.

In October alone, the president chided the New York senator for wanting to preserve the Iran deal he once opposed, and the Jewish Democrat berated the president for not moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Standard stuff for two hard-charging New Yorkers from opposing parties.

But even Schumer was taken aback last Wednesday when Trump targeted the Senate minority leader for his long-ago involvement in setting up an immigration lottery—and tied it to the deadly terrorist attack the day before in New York City.

More than that, Trump’s sweeping condemnation of an immigration program in place since 1990 baffled not only Schumer, but also most Jewish immigration experts, who wondered what, if anything, the program had to do with the attack.

“This whole approach that anytime someone not from this country does something to harm Americans we look at the immigration system and think some adjustment is going to change [things], it doesn’t make sense,” said Melanie Nezer, the vice president of HIAS, the leading Jewish immigration advocacy group.

The latest contretemps was set off the morning after the truck ramming that killed eight and injured at least a dozen people in Lower Manhattan.

On Twitter, Trump repeated an unsubstantiated report that the Uzbekistan citizen suspected in the attack had obtained a green card, or residency permit, in 2010 through the so-called diversity visa lottery program.

“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity

4 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017

Sen. Charles Schumer, left, chided President Trump for “politicizing” the deadly attack by an Uzbeki immigrant in New York City.

SCHUMER PHOTO BY DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES; TRUMP PHOTO BY WIN MCNAMEE/ GETTY IMAGES

Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty,” Trump tweeted about the suspect, Sayfullo Saipov. “I want merit based.”

An hour later, Schumer tweeted back.

“I guess it’s not too soon to politicize a tragedy,” Schumer wrote just past 7:30 a.m.

Schumer, who previously has enjoyed his sparring with the president, was taking this very personally. Speaking from the Senate floor later last Wednesday, he blasted Trump for being divisive during a time of mourning.

By the afternoon, Trump was telling his Cabinet he wants to end the diversity lottery program.

“I’m going to ask Congress to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program,” he said. “Diversary and diversity lottery. Diversity lottery. Sounds nice. It’s not nice. It’s not good. It hasn’t been good. We’ve been against it. So we

want to immediately work with Congress on the diversity lottery program, on terminating it, getting rid of it.”

The program, launched in 1990 as part of broader bipartisan immigration reform sponsored by Schumer— who was then in the House of Representatives—and an array of others, admits up to 50,000 people a year through lotteries. That’s a fraction of the estimated one million green cards issued each year by the United States.

It was meant to redress imbalances in U.S. immigration policy that allowed in masses of immigrants from some countries like Mexico and Canada while neglecting others. In fact, it was pitched at first as a program that would allow in more Irish immigrants.

(Schumer, as a New York City congressman, answered to a substantial Irish-American constituency.) It was

eventually expanded to include an array of countries, including Israel.

Applicants must have graduated from high school and worked a minimum of two years. Those selected are vetted for criminal pasts and ties to terrorist groups.

Trump appears to have been reacting to Fox News commentators who decried the program, and to a former national security adviser, Sebastian Gorka, who blamed Schumer on Twitter the night before.

Until now, the program has not figured prominently in the immigration battles between Trump and his opponents. In fact, Schumer no longer favors it; he was one of the “gang of eight” Republican and Democratic senators who authored immigration reform that passed the Senate and was backed by President Barack Obama.

That deal, killed in the House, rolled back the visa diversity program and instead promoted merit-based green cards—the very program Trump said last Wednesday that he favors.

Jewish groups have mostly objected to the Trump administration’s immigration policy. It includes plans to end a program for “dreamers,” immigrants who arrived here illegally as children; bids, frustrated until now by courts, to block travelers from between five and seven Muslim-majority countries; and attempts to temporarily stop an intake of refugees.

The diversity lottery wasn’t even on the radar.

“As a matter of policy, we’ve been far more focused on family reunification as a principle of immigration reform,” said Richard Foltin, the director of legislative affairs for the American Jewish Committee.

Foltin said it made more sense to fund Homeland Security programs that

SCHUMER IN THE NEWS

prevented radicalization than to target the diversity visa lottery.

“We have to think in a much more logical way, to look for people within communities who are radicalized, and to fund the resources within our government to have a substantial domestic terrorism program,” he said.

Stosh Cotler, the CEO of Bend the Arc, a liberal group that champions the dreamers and has organized actions against Trump’s immigration policies, said the impetuous targeting of the diversity program by the president was of a piece with what she called his “white supremacist agenda.”

“We must always be aware how moments of fear and moments of genuine tragedy can be used to reinforce harmful stereotypes about scapegoated communities,” she said, “and this is what Trump is doing with his inappropriate comments.”

Cotler contrasted Trump’s rhetoric and action following the New York City terrorist attack with his relative sanguinity in August after a white supremacist allegedly rammed a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one. In that case, Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence and also said there were “very fine people” on both sides.

“Trump and his enablers have been aggressive to ensure we are maintaining policies that are xenophobic and Islamophobic,” she said. The suspect in the New York attack, Sayfullo Saipov, was heard shouting “God is great!” in Arabic before he was shot and subdued by police.

Trump wants to defund Homeland Security programs targeting domestic terrorism—which is usually attributed to white supremacists and “lone wolves”—in order to focus more narrowly on terror directed by overseas Islamists. Gorka has been a key pointman advocating defunding, mocking the Obama administration’s focus on preventing lone-wolf attacks and saying it makes more sense to target terrorist structures overseas.

Schumer chided Trump for defunding the domestic programs.

“President Trump, instead of politicizing and dividing America, which he always seems to do at times

of national tragedy, should be focusing on the real solution—anti-terrorism funding—which he proposed cutting in his most recent budget,” he said in a statement.

According to media accounts last Wednesday, Saipov appeared to have been radicalized after his arrival in the United States. He left a note identifying the attack with the Islamic State terrorist group, although New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that investigators “have no evidence yet of associations or continuing plot or associated plots, and our only evidence to date is that this was an isolated incident that he himself performed.”

“We should look at radicalization and why it occurs,” said Nezer of HIAS. “It happens to people who are born here, people who come here as immigrants.

It doesn’t really relate to immigration policies.”

She noted that Uzbekistan was never among the countries that Trump has targeted in his various executive orders on travel that he claims will stem terrorism.

Morton Klein, the president of the

Zionist Organization of America, who has backed Trump’s immigration policies, said that on the face of it, looking at the immigration lottery made sense. Last Wednesday, he tweeted a video of right-wing talk radio host Mark

Levin saying the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program should be gutted.

“I don’t think America or any country should make decisions on who immigrates to their country based on randomness,” Klein said.

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5

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6 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017

BRIEFING

Shabbos Shorts:

Progress and Prayer at Park Slope’s Beth Elohim

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BY AARON SHORT

A soft rectangle of yellow light illuminated the darkened corner of Eighth Avenue and Garfield Place in Brooklyn, welcoming congregants to the evening’s Shabbat services.

Just past the security desk, a friendly woman with a nametag that read “CBE membership committee” pointed toward the lobby where a gaggle of six dozen people had gathered.

The crowd wore nametags taken from a pile on a wooden table near the entrance, and kibitzed while partaking of cheese, crackers, vegetable sticks and hummus as two cantors plucked acoustic guitars. A number of young couples had brought their preschoolaged children, who scampered about the room before their fathers scooped them up into their arms.

It was new-member weekend at Congregation Beth Elohim, a stalwart reform shul that has served Park Slope’s Jewish community for 155 years.

The congregation’s 108-year-old domed Classical Revival sanctuary opens for Saturday services and seats as many as 1,200 people for special events.

But Friday night services are often held across the street in the temple’s 88-yearold Romanesque Revival community center, which contains a gym, a pool, classrooms and a small chapel.

The building looks even older inside with oil paintings of rabbis emeriti

affixed to dimly lit gray scene, launching retreats and stone walls and wooden social-justice study sessions, Timoner sought to make everyone beams across the ceiling. pushing state leaders on The shul’s senior rabbi, comfortable throughout the night. She criminal justice reform and Rachel Timoner, and the working with Park Slope asked the congregation to welcome the Councilman Brad Lander to cantors led the crowd to the chapel room. make the temple’s sanctuary peaceful vibes of Shabbat, explained “Come sit and fill in a home for vulnerable why certain prayers were read on the circle of chairs in the populations following the front of the room,” she 2016 election.

Fridays, gave a brief synopsis of the said as members handed But you can’t have week’s Torah portion, and provided out prayer books to organizing campaigns and instructions on how to pray during the educational programs guests.

The cantors continued without a steady flow of new silent “Amidah.” strumming throughout members. the service with few Near the end of the service, breaks, the melodious a board of trustees member sounds they produced thanked Rabbi Timoner, the echoing throughout the low-ceilinged she said. cantors and other rabbis in attendance sanctuary. By the time the service began Timoner is a relative newcomer to before talking up a new three-month at 6:40 p.m., the audience had swelled the shul herself. She had worked in class on Israel that culminates in a to some 100 people, about a third of city government for San Francisco summer trip to the Holy Land. whom were new to the synagogue.

Rabbi Timoner opened the ark Supervisor Harry Britt, founded two Timoner sought to make everyone leadership programs for LGBT youth for the only time that evening as the comfortable throughout the night. She and raised money for a women’s congregation sang “Yigdal,” the final asked the congregation to welcome the community center before she became hymn of the night. Everyone then filed peaceful vibes of Shabbat, explained ordained as a rabbi in 2009. When back to the lobby to mingle. why certain prayers were read on beloved rabbi Andy Bachman stepped “I want everyone to introduce Fridays, gave a brief synopsis of the down in 2015 to join the 92nd Street themselves to someone they don’t week’s Torah portion, and provided Y, Timoner moved across the country know,” she said, handing out extra cups instructions on how to pray during the with her wife after serving a six-year of white grape juice to anyone emptysilent “Amidah.” stint as associate rabbi at Leo Baeck handed during kiddush.

“You can read through the whole Temple in Los Angeles.

The cantors laid down their guitars, section, read over one passage or think She hasn’t wasted any time making and the lively sounds of kibitzing of a prayer that you have in your heart,” her mark in Brooklyn’s progressive echoed through the hallways.

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7

GLOBAL BRIEFING

Head of the volunteer department Alla Shakhova, left, with volunteer Adrianna Golubka at the Halom Jewish Community Center in Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 8, 2017 PHOTO BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

Kiev’s American-Style JCC Gives Low-Income Jews the Millionaire Treatment

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

Children entering the Halom Jewish Community Center in Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 8, 2017 CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

8 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017

KIEV (JTA) — This city of 2.5 million residents may be the capital of one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet Union, but it offers a dazzling selection of luxury services to those who can afford them.

On potholed streets where some elderly people are forced to rummage for food in dumpsters, wellheeled Ukrainians can enjoy dining at all-night sushi restaurants, shop at designer bag stores and ride around in 16-seat Hummer limousines.

Their children also get the VIP treatment at worldclass childcare facilities like the Leleka kindergarten—a riverside mansion where the annual tuition easily surpasses the average annual salary of only $3,250. To regular Ukrainians, such Western-standard childcare

is utterly unaffordable.

Unless, of course, they want to enroll their kids at the kindergarten of Kiev’s new Jewish Community Center, Halom—a 17,000-square-foot building that opened last year with funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC. Located in an accessible office district downtown, the Halom center, which has an annual budget of more than $500,000, features what is probably this city’s only subsidized “luxury” kindergarten, allowing working-class parents amenities that used to be the exclusive domain of this city’s wealthiest.

“I could never afford any other place like this,” said Anna Snitsruk, a working mother of two children.

“This place is like a kindergarten for oligarchs,” she said, using a common name for Ukrainians who got rich after the fall of the USSR. The preschool is part of Kiev’s first and only American-style JCC, which is also a rare spot for interactions by Jews of four generations.

The amenities at Halom, where parents pay the equivalent of $900-$1,900 annually depending on how many children they enroll and for how many hours, may appear rudimentary to Western eyes.

But they are “incomparably better” than the local standard, Snitsruk said.

At Halom, which, in addition to the preschool also has entertainment and educational facilities for different age groups, a few dozen children aged 2-7 are divided into four age groups. Each class has a maximum of seven children and a designated teacher.

The children are fed kosher, high-quality food, but parents may also bring their own food from home to be reheated. The curriculum features Hebrew studies, holiday programs, dancing, pottery classes, treasure hunts, matchstick-model–building classes, gymnastics and even rock climbing.

Located one story above the pastel-colored lobby, with its free coffee machine, the preschool is part of a hive of activity at Halom. Parents picking up their kids often stop to chat with elderly Jews gathering for candle-lighting, and teenagers come to hang out after school at the center’s recreational room with its movie library and PlayStation 4 game console.

The building also has free wifi, conference rooms, computer stations and art displays, including an exhibition of hyper-realistic models of famous synagogues made from matchsticks by the wellknown artist Iosif Ostashinsky.

A former teacher herself, Snitsruk opted to become a stay-at-home mom just to avoid sending her eldest, Lev, to a kindergarten “with one teacher per 20 children, where the food is not so great, where he would’ve gotten no attention and zero stimulation,” she said.

“I enrolled him right away” after Halom’s opening, she added. “I can see how he has developed emotionally. It’s a change that has affected our family profoundly.”

Even at a subsidized rate of $90 a month, tuition at Halom is making a dent in the household budget of Volodia Pasternak, a retired athlete and father of three whose youngest, 4-year-old Maria, attends Halom.

“But I wouldn’t call it a sacrifice,” he said. “I’m so

GLOBAL BRIEFING

A Shabbat reception at the Halom Jewish Community Center in Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 8, 2017 PHOTO BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

glad that I get to send her to a place that she actually likes. It’s because of the attention each child gets here. It’s not something I thought I could afford.”

Halom accepts all children regardless of whether they are Jewish, said Anna Bodnar, the 30-year-old director of Halom. Most recipients of Halom services do, however, self-identify as Jewish, she added. Kiev’s Jewish population is estimated at 60,000.

Snitsruk, who is Jewish, said she is rather indifferent to the kindergarten’s religious dimension. (The children learn about Jewish holidays and customs like candle-lighting and challah baking.)

Pasternak said he approved of such activities, but he too spoke of them as a secondary reason for enrolling his daughter there.

“I came here for the pedagogic approach and facilities,” he said—a sentiment that recalls those Jews, including immigrants from Ukraine, who enrolled at Jewish-run “settlement houses” in America in the early 20th century. The JDC supports efforts that bring nonaffiliated Jews into Jewish life, but also encourages mutual respect among Jews and non-Jews.

The opening of Halom (the name means “dream” in Hebrew) in November was a watershed moment for other age groups as well.

The center, which greets 1,000-2,000 users monthly, instantly became a hit with the golden-age population.

“I used to just stay at home all day; I didn’t go anywhere,” said Valentina Basova, a septuagenarian who lives alone since her son immigrated to Israel with his family four years ago.

“It’s great to also be around young people, Jewish children,” she added.

A regular at Halom, Basova comes nearly every day to participate in intergenerational programs in which elderly people are paired with children or teenagers to exchange skills. Elderly participants are taught to use computers and smartphones, and help youngsters with homework or teach them languages.

The exchange program, and its promise of sign-language lessons, drew Adrianna Golubka, a non-Jewish Ukrainian and college student who became a volunteer last year. Her sign-language teacher, septuagenarian and Halom regular Irina Yosepavna, became an inspiration to Golubka in all areas of life.

“When I’m depressed or tired, I think of Irina, of how positive and energetic she is after leading a long and not-soeasy life, and I snap right out of it,” she told the JTA last month.

Part of Halom’s charm, she says, is its amenities which few public spaces boast in Kiev, including the lobby, wifi, free coffee and art displays. “It’s just very pleasant to come here, interact and relax,” Golubka said.

For the elderly users, Halom is also a promising dating scene.

The center has led to several successful shidduchim, or romantic matches. And last month, Halom celebrated the union of the first couple who married after meeting there: Maya Serebryanaya and Valeriy Utvenko, 68 and 72 respectively.

“Their relationship came as a surprise to me, actually,” said Bodnar, the JCC’s director. “I thought they were just friends.”

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9

GLOBAL BRIEFING

Why Hundreds of Brazilian Immigrants Are Flocking to This Israeli Suburb

BY MARCUS M. GILBAN

RA’ANANA, ISRAEL (JTA) — This small, quiet town with an easy commute to Tel Aviv may not have Rio’s breathtaking landscapes and beaches. It also lacks the culture and nightlife that makes São Paulo famous.

And yet, sleepy Ra’anana—despite its tendency to almost completely shut down for Shabbat—has quickly become the primary destination among the Brazilians who are moving to Israel. Some 220 Brazilian families reside in this town of approximately 80,000 people, and it is now the the first choice among the 1,800 Brazilians who have started the aliyah process with the Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization that assists the Israeli government with immigration and absorption.

Today, from synagogues to schoolyards, the influx of Brazilians is palpable throughout Ra’anana. “You can hear Portuguese on every corner here,” said Oshra Sharvit, the director of the local ulpan, the statesubsidized school where new immigrants can learn Hebrew. Sharvit estimates that about one-fourth of her school’s students are from Brazil.

“Ra’anana has been labeled the chosen city by Brazilians,” Sandro Maghidman, a Brazilian immigrant who has lived in Ra’anana since 2012, told the JTA. Maghidman is an organizer of Kehila Yalla Chaverim, or Let’s Go Friends Community, a Facebook group with more than 400 members that’s a virtual meeting place for Brazilians living in Ra’anana and its environs.

Online, its members exchange experiences, meet for events and advertise services by and for Brazilians, who offer everything from walking dogs to making coxinhas, the deep-fried chicken croquettes that are beloved by Brazilians.

“The large group of Brazilian residents, both ‘vatikim’ [veterans] and ‘chadashim’ [newbies], plays a pivotal role to facilitate the integration of newcomers,” Maghidman said during a picnic this month at Ra’anana Park celebrating the one-year anniversary of the group. “Living in Ra’anana is a privilege.”

Last year, an all-time annual record of 700 Brazilians immigrated to Israel. That made the South American country the sixth-largest source of new immigrants to the Jewish state, after Russia, Ukraine, France, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Violence is the most common reason that Brazilian Jews cite for making aliyah. The country has one of the

10 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017

Brazilian immigrants play soccer weekly in Ra’anana.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KEHILA YALLA CHAVERIM

highest homicide rates in the world—almost 60,000 murders a year, or 26 per every 100,000 residents, according to the Igarape Institute think tank.

By contrast, Ra’anana is considered one of Israel’s safest cities.

“Here I walk on the street without looking back and with my earphones in,” said Denise Faldini, who moved to Ra’anana in 2016 with her husband and kids, ages 5 and 9. “My kids have learned that yes, car windows can be opened.”

“Going back to Brazil is not an option for me,” added Faldini, who spent two years on heavy medication after she was abducted in her armored car in São Paulo and forced to withdraw her own ransom from an ATM. “I don’t want to die because of a cell phone and leave my kids orphans, nor bury them for the same reason. Life is not valued there.”

Michel Abadi presides over a network of 120 volunteers spread across Israel who support Brazilians before, during and after their immigration. Abadi, a venture capitalist, arrived in Ra’anana with his wife and three kids in 2003. His parents and several cousins came years later too, and his fourth child was born in Israel.

“It is a set of factors: political situation, street violence, economy, quality of public services, greater transparency of information about the Israeli reality among Brazilian Jews,” he said of the wave of

immigration. “And even a snowball effect: the more Brazilians come, the more Brazilians they attract.”

These new immigrants are drawn to certain institutions—for example, the TALI school, whose Hebrew acronym stands for “Enhanced Jewish Studies.” Unlike most Israeli schools, TALI emphasizes Jewish and traditional values in the spirit of pluralism—similar to what most Brazilian Jewish schools teach. Israeli schools tend to divide the strictly religious and the purposefully secular.

In 2016, there were three Brazilian kids in the entire school of nearly 500 students. This year, however, there are seven Brazilian kids in the TALI schools first-grade alone.

“We wanted a school that offered a bit of religion, but one that was not religious, as well as a strong English curriculum,” said Lea Kaczemorska, whose two kids attend the school.

Another example of the growing community is Or Israel, a small but cozy 60-family Orthodox synagogue established in January 2017 and led

by Brazilian Rabbi Ivo Zilberman, who gives his sermons in Portuguese.

“It goes beyond being a meeting place for Brazilians to pray,” said Martin Teitelbaum, who serves as gabbai, the one who assists in the reading of the Torah. “There is also the social and community side, where each member feels part of a large family.”

Then there’s that real estate adage: location, location, location. Ra’anana is centrally located—it’s less than nine miles from Tel Aviv and is sandwiched between Herzliya and Kfar Saba. The three cities have the largest concentration of high-tech industries in the country—with high tech a backbone of Israel’s economy.

Ra’anana is also known as a hub for “Anglo” Jews, or those from English-speaking countries. The town was founded in the 1920s by a group of New Yorkers, and some 20 percent of its residents speak English as their first language. For Brazilian Jews who once dreamed of immigrating to the United States but found it difficult to do so legally, living in Ra’anana— with its upscale lifestyle, abundance of single-family homes and preponderance of English speakers—is the next-best thing.

But perhaps Nehama Efrati, manager of the absorption department at the Ra’anana municipality, summarized Brazilians’ interest in the city best: “The Brazilian aliyah matches Ra’anana with perfection,” she said. “Here they have both of the best: keep their culture and integrate. We respect both sides of this identity. We don’t want to be only blue and white; we want all colors.”

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 11

In a Big Anniversary Year for Israel, Christian Zionists See Signs of the Messiah

BY ANDREW TOBIN

JERUSALEM (JTA) — It has been 50 years since the Six-Day War, 100 years since the Balfour Declaration and 150 years since Mark Twain first visited Palestine.

These are just a few of the big Israel-related anniversaries of 2017. To the Jewish state’s most diehard Christian supporters, the barrage of milestones is not mere coincidence but rather prophecy being fulfilled.

Every half-century, many Christian Zionists believe, history makes a concerted push toward its endpoint: the return of the Messiah to Jerusalem. According to this pattern, something momentous should happen to Israel before the end of the year.

“Reading Israel’s modern history, there seems to be something unusual in 50-year cycles,” said David Parsons, the vice president of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. “It means we should expect something incredible to happen this year to further propel Jerusalem and Israel into its prophetic destiny.”

Christian Zionists, most of whom are part of the world’s 700 million-strong evangelical community, view themselves as the Jews’ partners in God’s plan.

Like many Orthodox Jews, they believe that after a world war, the Messiah will take the throne of a Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem and lead the world to peace and prosperity.

As Christians, they of course expect the Messiah to be Jesus, whereas Jews are still looking for their redeemer. But Christian Zionists like to joke, “Let’s bring the Messiah, and then maybe somebody can ask him whether this is his first or second visit.”

When Israel captured eastern Jerusalem and its holy sites from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, some Christians saw proof that the messianic era was nigh.

They began scouring history for signs they may have missed.

Many such harbingers were identified, from “blood moons” to stock market crashes. What most inspired Christian Zionists were the half-century cycles that seemed to lead up to the Six-Day War. The proponents of this theory—including Jonathan Cahn,

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Visitors line up at the Tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, June 23, 2010.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL PRIVOROTSKY/FLICKR

who discussed it in The Harbinger, his best-selling Christian novel from 2012—tied it to the biblical “jubilee year,” which involves the reversion of land to its original owners.

So what happened 50 years before 1967?

In 1917, the British defeated the Ottoman Empire and took control of Palestine. On Nov. 2, they issued the Balfour Declaration, pledging to support the establishment of a Jewish “national home” in the territory. Zionists eventually drove the British out of Palestine and, in 1948, founded the state of Israel.

A half century earlier, in 1867, two visitors to Ottoman Palestine separately contributed to the narrative that Palestine had gone to pot since the Jews left. British archaeologist Charles Warren conducted the first major excavations of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem and found what he thought were relics of the biblical city of King David. And the American writer Twain visited the Holy Land and recorded his observations in a hugely popular travel memoir titled The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress.

Twain capped many pages of unflattering observations with this line: “Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince.”

Looking back even further, Christian Zionists singled out 1517, the year the Ottomans conquered Jerusalem. It is also when Martin Luther is said to have posted his protest manifesto against the Catholic

Church, launching the Protestant Reformation.

Although Christian Zionists are apologetic about Luther’s anti-Semitism, they believe that by popularizing individual Bible study, he helped reveal the falsehood of replacement theology. According to this doctrine, which was long a core tenet of the Catholic Church and remains influential, God took the title of the chosen people from the Jews and gave it to the Christians.

Christian Zionists have had decades to speculate about what historic change would happen in 2017, a half-century after the Six-Day War. At a conference for Christian Zionists in Jerusalem last Thursday titled “Balfour to Nikki Haley: A Century of Christian Zionist Diplomacy,” a popular guess among the 100 or so evangelical and Jewish participants was that President Donald Trump would fulfill his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. But with less than two months left in the year, time is running out.

Bob O’Dell, an American speaker at the conference and the co-founder of Root Source—a platform that allows Israeli Jews to teach the Bible online to Christians—argued that the big event of 2017 may already be happening in the hearts of his fellow evangelicals. He said he has seen a surge in the community’s interest in Israel.

“Everyone has a theory, but my view is that what’s happening at this jubilee is a growing realization that Christians are leading the nations in their support of Israel,” he said. “I think this is going to be the most important change of them all.”

A moderator at the conference, Donna Jollay, the director of Christian relations for Israel 365, a fastgrowing Jewish-run media company that targets evangelicals with biblically themed Israel news and information, saw myriad signs that Christians are playing their prophesized role in preparing Israel for the Messiah.

“It’s pretty much everything,” she said, before rattling off dozens of examples and corresponding biblical passages.

On her list were Trump’s Jewish grandchildren, America’s withdrawal from UNESCO over alleged anti-Israel bias (U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley is a convert to Christianity) and growing Christian investment in the Jewish state. Evangelicals from the United States alone bring about $500 million a year into Israeli tourism and charity, and support its current right-wing government.

American Jews, especially the majority who are nonOrthodox and politically liberal, have traditionally been wary of evangelical support for Israel. But Josh Reinstein, the founder of the Knesset’s 19-member Christian Allies Caucus, which seeks to promote Christian advocacy on behalf of Israel, said he has seen a growing willingness among Jews to accept Christian help.

“We’ve seen the results,” he said, citing the anti-BDS laws in the United States and increased cooperation between Israel and African and Asian countries. “We know these are people who stand with Israel based on faith, and they’ll stick around in the long run, regardless of political or economic considerations.”

Jews for Jesus and Jewish Millennials

BY BEN SALES

NEW YORK (JTA) — Are Jewish millennials the most religious generation?

And do one-fifth of them think Jesus was God in human form?

Yes and yes, says a new survey of 599 Jews born from 1984 to 1999. The survey creates a contradictory portrait of Jewish millennials: These young adults describe themselves as religious and practice Jewish ritual, but are unaffiliated. They value tradition and family, but don’t plan on necessarily marrying a Jew. They are proud to be Jewish, but don’t feel that is at odds with practicing other religions.

It’s the kind of survey that could be useful to Jewish planners, if only for the organization that commissioned and funded it: Jews for Jesus, the evangelical group that for decades has been trying to draw Jews toward belief in Christ.

The survey was conducted by the Barna Group, a reputable polling firm specializing in religion— especially conservative Christianity—and was sent to the media with endorsements by Jewish-studies professors. But its goal was to conduct market research for “Messianic Jews.” And Jews for Jesus likes what it sees.

The survey, which was published two weeks ago, is mostly composed of the standard questions, such as How often do you pray? How do you feel about Israel?

Do you date non-Jews? Much of it is a millennialfocused version of the Pew Research Center’s 2013 study of American Jews.

“They are free-thinking and flexible in their spiritual and religious identity, yet they grav itate toward formal customs and ancient expressions of faith,” the survey’s introduction reads. “Often molded by intermarriage and multiculturalism, they reject rigid or traditional definitions of what it means to be Jewish, but—more than any other generation—still consider their Jewish identity to be very important to them.”

But the survey also includes a few unusual entries that Pew didn’t cover, like a detailed section on belief in God and the afterlife, and—no surprise here—an extensive examination of attitudes toward Jesus.

For those accustomed to thinking of millennials as religiously uninvolved and skeptical of traditional practices, the survey has some surprising news: Eighty percent of Jewish millennials self-identify as “religious Jews,” as compared to just a slim majority of all Jews. And nearly half say being Jewish is “very important” to them, a higher portion than that of any other generation.

That commitment to Judaism comes through in specific practices as well. Almost a quarter of Jewish millennials attend religious services once a week, according to the survey, and one in three prays every day. A majority says “God loves people.”

Ari Kelman, a Jewish-studies professor at Stanford University who was interviewed as part of the report, said the study suggests a cohort distinct from all others.

“These don’t look like Jews I recognize,” he said of the millennials surveyed. “I was not willing to just write them off entirely. Maybe these are Jews we’ve never seen before. We know religion is changing; we know parameters of identity are changing. So why would we expect different generations to look exactly the same?”

Some of the findings depart from the Pew study of four years ago. Pew found far lower rates of synagogue attendance among Jews aged 18 to 29, and a much lower percentage of respondents said religion was important to them.

But Pew actually backs up some of the statistics on Christianity. It found that a third of all respondents had a Christmas tree at home, and 34 percent said belief in Jesus as the Messiah was compatible with being Jewish. (“This does not mean that most Jews think those things are good,” Alan Cooperman, deputy director of Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project, said at the time. “They are saying that those things do not disqualify a person from being Jewish. [But] most Jews think that belief in Jesus is disqualifying by roughly a 2-to-1 margin.”)

This recent survey no doubt garnered higher percentages on those questions because it included Messianic Jews—that is, members of a religious movement that combines Christian and Jewish beliefs—whom Pew excluded from some questions.

According to the Jews for Jesus website, 30,000 to 125,000 Jews worldwide believe in Jesus. There are roughly five million to six million U.S. Jews. Some 58 percent of respondents in the Jews for Jesus study are children of interfaith marriages, about 10 points more than in the Pew study, which generally used a slightly narrower definition of “Jewish.”

Jewish sociologist Steven M. Cohen said Pew also did not delve as deeply into matters of faith because theology tends to be more central to Christians than to Jews.

“Christians have a stronger interest in the faith aspect of religion, and being Jewish isn’t only a religion, but it’s also an ethnicity,” said Cohen, a professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion who consulted on the Pew study. “It’s also the case that faith in God for Jews is less predictive of matters of belonging.”

Some results of the survey conformed to expectations of millennials as less affiliated with traditional institutions and more open to multiculturalism and pluralism. A majority of millennial Jews do not affiliate with a major denomination. Only about one in 10 sees affinity to Israel as central to Judaism, though about a quarter have been on Birthright, the free 10-day trip to Israel for Jewish young adults. Nearly 40 percent self-define as liberal and 24 percent as conservative.

And only 4 percent would refrain from a serious relationship with a non-Jew, though 70 percent are committed to raising their children as Jewish. These statistics may be alarming to a Jewish establishment that has worried for decades about rising intermarriage rates. But for Jews for Jesus, which promotes its own brand of interreligious mixing, this is not a problem.

“I don’t see it as a positive or a negative,” Perlman said of intermarriage. “It’s a fact of life, but I think that spiritual harmony is important, so if you’re a Jewishgentile couple, you need to find spiritual harmony or you have a rocky road ahead.”

The survey has a margin of error of 2.5 percent.

Kelman acknowledges that he had misgivings about a survey on Jews funded by a group that essentially wants to convert them to Christianity.

“The fact you’re doing market research on American Jews, their potential adherence to Jews for Jesus makes you uncomfortable,” he said.

A study involving 599 young adult Jews creates a contradictory portrait.

PHOTO BY YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90

POLITICS

NYC Mayor? Fuggedaboutit! Here Is Something Almost as Important.

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS CONVENED THE CANDIDATES V YING TO REPLACE MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO.

BY NYJL STAFF

Only about 25 percent of New Yorkers vote in city elections—which in recent years has fallen below even that of the Moscow city elections. An even smaller number of people vote in a race that some might say is equally important: the vote to determine the next speaker of the New York City Council.

While political and industry publications follow this with as much coverage and fervor as the tabloids and papers of record cover major scandals and national news, many average voters have very little understanding of the process to select the speaker of the City Council, and which powers the position brings with it— let alone the actual council members who are vying for the speakership.

One of those industry publications is Crain’s New York Business. Read by New York’s power elite and chattering classes for decades, Crain’s convened a panel of the current members looking to become speakers.

We followed on social media to give you a flavor of the morning’s events, and maybe some insight into who has the inside track.

14 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017

COMMUNITY

Free Synagogue of Flushing:

Building an Inclusive Future

BY MAXINE DOVERE

PHOTO BY MAXINE DOVERE

A hundred years ago, five members of the Hebrew Women’s Aid Society of Flushing recognized the need for a new synagogue to serve the neighborhood’s rapidly growing modern Jewish community. They formed a new congregation modeled after the Free Synagogue in Manhattan: the Free Synagogue of Flushing.

The congregation quickly moved from meetings in homes to rented space in a pre-Civil War mansion— now known as the “White Building”—to construction of the now-landmarked east-facing sanctuary, replete with Tiffany-style stained-glass windows.

In 2017-2018, the synagogue celebrates its hundredth anniversary. Reaching its centennial was not always a given.

In the post-World War I years, the Jewish population of Flushing grew by 700 percent. The magnificent sanctuary was built to meet the needs of the blossoming community. To enable the sanctuary to face east, the White Building was moved.

“They put it on logs and turned it around,” explained synagogue archivist and historian “Souks” Soukhaseum. The sanctuary building, designed by Maurice Cortland, was completed in two years and dedicated in 1928.

By the mid-1980s through the early ’90s, the Jewish population of Flushing declined dramatically.

A mostly older generation—the “bubbies” and

“zadies”—remained. Membership dropped.

“It was the synagogue’s lowest point,” Executive Director Alan Brava told NYJL. “The Hebrew school building was rented to a local private school. Once the Hebrew school had 700 children.”

By 2000, the congregation numbered less than 200.

In 2014, under the direction of synagogue Executive Director Alan Brava, the future of the Free Synagogue of Flushing began to change The synagogue board’s president, Edward Schauder, senior attorney for Steiner Sports, used his legal and financial expertise to assure that the synagogue was able to sustain itself for the immediate future. The board of trustees agreed to his proposal that a bond to provide operating capital be issued. A contract to sell the religious school building recently closed.

“The sale of the building will ensure the synagogue’s existence in perpetuity,” said Brava.

The synagogue and its congregation are experiencing a renaissance. Young families from Jackson Heights, Forest Hills and Sunnyside are rejuvenating the membership. A new rabbi, Yossi Zilberberg, began leading the synagogue in August 2017. A graduate of Hebrew Union College, he is an ordained Reform rabbi who wears a tallit (traditional prayer shawl) and kippa (skullcap). Brava calls the synagogue “nondenominational,” noting that while the synagogue is a member of the Union for Reform

Judaism, “the rabbi is meeting the needs of the membership, which covers a range of Jewish practice.”

The Hebrew school once again has students; currently, about 40 children attend.

To learn about the synagogue—listed on both the national and New York State’s Register of Historic Places—NYJL spoke with Soukhaseum. A Laotian-born Jew-by-choice, he initially came to the synagogue as a volunteer. He is now very much the shomar (guardian) of its history, with knowledge of every aspect of the congregation and its structures.

Referencing the sanctuary, he said that “many repairs are needed. It’s an old building that needs great care.”

Asked about the Free Synagogue’s future, Brava told NYJL: “We look forward to making this place a central hub for the Jewish population of Queens to explore and enhance the Jewish experience. We want to make this place relevant.”

Board President Schauder sees the synagogue as a “replication of the 92Y, making the FSF a central hub for the Jewish population of Queens—where everyone can explore and enhance their Judaism— and a cultural resource for the entire community. We want to make this place relevant.”

“I’m excited to be part of this,” Brava told NYJL. “I’m happy that the place is flourishing….It’s a team effort.”

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FOOD & CULTURE

Why 30,000 Orthodox Women Belong to This Recipe-Sharing Facebook Group

BY YVETTE ALT MILLER

(JTA) — Getting dinner on the table is a challenge for any busy, modern family.

With larger-than-average family sizes and religiously mandated dietary restrictions, however, mealtimes can be even more complex at Orthodox Jewish homes. There’s a limited number of kosher restaurants in any given area, and home-cooked Shabbat meals are often considered the highlight of the week.

Take the financial burden of kosher dining with large families. Combine that with the demand for weekly delicious meals for a crowd, and the pressures of feeding an observant family can become rather intense.

But what if there was a way to trade time- and family-tested meals with a like-minded bunch of people?

That’s where the Facebook page I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes comes in.

Born in 2007, it’s the brainchild of two Brooklyn sisters—Goldie Adler Nathan, 35, and Esty Adler Wolbe, 30—who created a forum to allow kosher cooks from across the globe to trade recipes, swapping information about everything from chicken soup and cholent to Italian desserts and kung pao tofu.

I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes, however, quickly became more than just a recipe swap site. It has evolved into a full-fledged community of mostly Orthodox women who discuss everything from health issues to the division of labor in families.

Today, its 30,000 members swap tips on marriage, child rearing, holidays and, of course, cooking.

“It’s a support group,” said Wolbe, a mother of four, of the page’s success. “Friday afternoon, when you’re busy cooking [for Shabbat], you know you’re not alone.”

Kosher cooks, she points out, face burdens above and beyond most home cooks, including meeting dietary restrictions and the high cost of kosher meat.

“We’re overcooking, not just on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Wolbe said. “We overcook once a week on average.”

The size and the commitment of the page’s members is particularly impressive considering that the site began as something of a joke: As a 19-yearold newlywed who lived in a cramped basement apartment, Wolbe “hated her kitchen,” per Nathan’s description. Instead of cooking for herself and her husband, Yitzy, a loan officer at a car dealership, the couple would go out to eat or visit relatives for meals.

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So Nathan created I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes to tease Wolbe, who loved dishing out recipes and advice despite never actually using her kitchen.

“My mother is always saying, ‘How can you make fun of your sister like that?’” Nathan said with a chuckle.

At first, the page was simply a forum for family and friends to share recipes or post a photo Sisters Goldie Adler Nathan, left, and Esty Adler Wolbe are the founders of the I of a particularly picture- Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes Facebook page. perfect meal. Soon, PHOTO COURTESY OF WOLBE though, word spread among members’ extended networks, and more “Hosting a bunch of teenagers next Shabbos lunch. people began using the page to post recipes and talk Need ideas for a menu that will go down well with about food on a regular basis. them.”

As it happens, Wolbe was just beginning a cooking However, given that Jewish cooking—along with odyssey of her own. When she had her first baby in home cooking, in general—has become decidedly 2007, eating out wasn’t so easy anymore. more gourmet in recent years, not all of the group’s “It was born out of necessity,” she said of her members enjoy putting meals on the table. cooking, “and soon it became love.”

“The foodie world has exploded,” said Wolbe, Their family, Wolbe explains, moved to the United pointing to the proliferation of cooking shows, States from Ukraine, where their grandmother was magazines and blogs, hers included. “Everyone has known for her cooking prowess, which she passed the ability to be a top chef.” on.

For some Orthodox Jewish women, who typically “I come from a long line of amazing cooks,” she entertain on a weekly basis, it can be stressful to said. “I grew up in the kitchen.” keep up.

Fast forward to 2015, when Wolbe—a full-time “Just wanna say, no other group has made me feel foodie by then with a popular kosher food blog, quite this inadequate,” read one recent I Don’t Cook “Cooking with Tantrums,” as well as an online But I Give Out Recipes post. cooking show—was shocked to discover the page “It makes me want to cry,” declared another. “I had 16,000 members. look at all these masterpieces and feel like a complete That year, Wolbe became administrator of I Don’t failure.”

Cook But I Give Out Recipes. She switched it to a However, these and similar posts garner hundreds closed group—vetting new members to make sure of responses—with some users sharing tips (such they actually exist—keeping it focused on kosher food as “start simple” or choose just one or two standout and insisting on a high level of courtesy from users. dishes), and others providing reassurance that not “Esty does a fabulous job of setting and keeping everyone is busy producing restaurant-quality the tone friendly, fun and helpful,” said member meals.

Vichna Belsky, 35, of New York. “Plus, it’s fun to “I remember one post by a mother saying, ‘I just sometimes bump into a random person someplace had a baby and I don’t know how people do it, I’m so and discover you’re both in this group.” exhausted,’” Wolbe said. “And within a few minutes, While the focus is on Jewish cooking, its emphasis she had three weeks’ worth of meals. These [the is the unique needs of religiously observant Jews. people who responded] were total strangers.”

“Fake shrimp ideas needed!” read one recent post Over the years, users have asked for help finding (shellfish is a kosher no-no). Another declared, kosher accommodations while traveling or posted

FOOD & CULTURE

pictures from the supermarket inquiring about unfamiliar kosher symbols on packaged foods. Some have also tried to find jobs for members.

One common post on I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes: “Taking challah in an hour.

Please send names.” That’s a reference to the mitzvah, or commandment, of separating a piece of dough as one makes challah, in remembrance of the portion of dough that used to be given to the Temple priests in Jerusalem during ancient times. It’s a key mitzvah among observant Jewish women.

Many women pray for others before “taking challah,” and the requests for names can generate up to a hundred requests for prayers.

The requests from page members include those for recovery from illness, for children and fertility, and for young women to speedily

find a marriage match.

“It can take 20 minutes or more” to recite all the names, Wolbe said, “which is a long time when you’re trying to make dinner for your kids.”

Yet week after week, members continue to ask their fellow kosher cooks around the world for the names of loved ones for whom to pray. It’s that community-minded spirit that keeps I Don’t Cook But I Give Out Recipes alive.

“It’s like being friends with a huge bunch of really savvy, smart and experienced cooks who are available 24/6 to help you,” said member Nechama Samuels, 42, who lives in Israel. “In return, we try to chip in and do our part to help others.”

She adds, “All in all, it’s a wonderful resource and even—dare I say it?—family.”

Esty Wolbe on the set of her Kosher.com show “Easy Does It” PHOTO COURTESY OF WOLBE

Chocolate, Pecan and Banana Cookies Recipe CLASSIC CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES GET A LITTLE FLAVOR BOOST.

BY YOTAM OTTOLENGHI and HELEN GOH

(MY JEWISH LEARNING) — These cookies were introduced by Jim Webb, an original member of the Ottolenghi team along with Sami, Noam and Yotam.

Jim mostly worked on pastry, bringing with him some brilliant ideas, along with a serious knowledge of bread and viennoiserie (pastry in the Vienna style).

It was Jim’s suggestion to add banana to the dough here, both for the moisture and distinct flavor it brings. Pecans are classic, but walnuts can be used if you prefer.

The secret here is to slightly underbake the cookies, which keeps them soft and fudgy. It’s for this reason that they’ve never become a feature in the shops, particularly in the summer, when they’d bend and break after an hour or two piled up in a bowl. There are worse things that could happen, though, than to be told you need to eat a whole batch of cookies within a day or so of their being baked.

Make Ahead: Once the unbaked dough has been rolled into balls, they can be kept in the fridge for up to two days, or frozen for up to three months. You can also bake them from frozen; you’ll just need to add an extra minute of cooking time.

Storage: These cookies are best eaten within a day of being baked.

Ingredients • 8 Tbsp (110 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed • ½ cup plus 2 tsp (110 g) granulated sugar • 1 large egg, lightly beaten • 1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour • ½ tsp baking powder • 3-½ Tbsp (20 g) Dutch-processed cocoa

powder ½ tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp salt ¾ cup (100 g) dark chocolate chips (70 percent cocoa solids), or 3-½ oz (100 g) dark chocolate, cut into ¼-inch (0.5-cm) pieces • 2 oz (55 g) mashed bananas (about ½ small banana) • 1-1/3 cups (165 g) pecan halves, finely chopped • ¾ cup plus 1 Tbsp (100 g) confectioners’ sugar Directions 1. Place the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Then gradually add the egg and continue to beat until incorporated.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. Then add to the butter and sugar. Mix on low speed for about 15 seconds. Then add the chocolate chips and banana. Beat until combined. Then transfer to the fridge for two hours to firm up.

2. When firm, use your hands to form the dough into 1-inch (3-cm) round balls, about 2/3 oz (20 g) each; you might need to wash your hands once or twice when making the balls, if they get too sticky. Place the pecans in a medium bowl and drop the balls into the nuts as you form them, rolling them around so that they are completely coated and pressing the nuts in so that they stick.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• • •

Place the cookies onto the sheet—there is no need to space them apart—and transfer to the fridge for an hour.

4. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Place the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and roll the cookies in it, pressing them in as you go so that the sugar sticks well. Place on the lined baking sheets, spaced 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart, and flatten the cookies to 1/3 inch (1 cm) thick.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Cookies will be soft to the touch when they come out of the oven, so allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before gently transferring to a wire rack. These can be served warm—when they will be a little gooey in the center—or set aside until completely cool.

This recipe is excerpted with permission from SWEET

by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, copyright © 2017.

Photography by Peden + Munk. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17

EDUCATION

Student activists held a conference outside City Hall Oct. 30 ahead of a City Council hearing on school bullying.

PHOTO BY ALEX ZIMMERMAN

After Fatal Bronx School Stabbing, New York City Launches New Anti-Bullying Programs

BY PATRICK WALL, ALEX ZIMMERMAN

(CHALKBEAT) — The city education department unveiled a suite of new anti-bullying initiatives on Oct. 30, just over a month after a student who claimed to have been the victim of bullying stabbed a 15-yearold classmate to death inside their Bronx school.

The $8 million package of programs includes a new online tool for families to reporting bullying incidents, anti-bullying training for students and school staff members, and funding for student-support clubs such as those for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. In addition, the department will begin allowing bullying victims to request school transfers, will require schools to come up with individual plans for dealing with students who bully others, and will provide extra training and support to the 300 schools

18 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017

with the highest bullying rates.

“These new initiatives will build upon ongoing work to ensure that all schools have safe, supportive and inclusive learning environments,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said Oct. 30 during a City Council hearing on the issue of bullying, which was scheduled after the Bronx stabbing that also left a 16-year-old student seriously wounded.

Last Friday, Fariña announced that she had removed principal Astrid Jacobo from the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, the school where 18-year-old Abel Cedeno is accused of stabbing two classmates on Sept. 27. The local superintendent will help find a replacement and support the school in the interim, a department spokeswoman said.

Soon after the stabbings, reports of pervasive bullying and discipline problems at the school emerged; on surveys, just 55 percent of students there last year reported feeling safe in the school’s hallways, bathrooms, locker rooms and cafeteria, compared to 84 percent of students citywide. In a jailhouse interview with the Daily News and the New York Post, Cedeno said schoolmates had long taunted him with racist and homophobic slurs. (Meanwhile, the slain student’s family has filed a notice that they plan to sue the education department for $25 million for failing to protect the victims, according to their lawyer.)

Fariña visited the school several times after the stabbing, which was the first student-on-student killing in a city school in over two decades. Still, as recently as two weeks ago she suggested during an interview on NY1 that no “red flags” had been “really apparent” before the violent episode, and that what had been reported by the media was not “necessarily the whole story”—though it was unclear to what additional information she was referring.

During the Oct. 30 hearing, Bronx City Councilman Ritchie Torres criticized the department for failing to publicly explain why Principal Jacobo was removed from the school, and what discipline problems existed there prior to the stabbing.

“I’m concerned about the lack of transparency from the DOE,” he said.

Torres also asked the chancellor whether there was a “systemic” problem of bullying at that school. She responded that “there is obviously a problem” but that “‘systemic’ is a very big word,” adding that she would reserve judgment until the investigation is complete.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Fariña did not offer any explanation as to why she chose to remove the principal other than to say it provided the school a “fresh start.”

“I think it’s a fresh start for everyone and I think it’s an opportunity to start with a clean slate,” she said.

Throughout last Monday’s hearing, City Council members raised questions about how the education department responds when school surveys reveal large numbers of staff or students who feel unsafe, and whether the city’s bullying statistics are reliable.

Councilman Daniel Dromm, chair of the education committee, rattled off statistics from multiple schools where large numbers of students and staff reported that they did not feel safe or faced bullying.

Fariña said the city does review survey data, and that troubling results prompt extra scrutiny from education department officials.

“Once the numbers skew in any one direction we have at least one person who’s looking at them very closely,” she said.

Officials also faced questions about whether the city’s bullying statistics reflect the true number of incidents.

Last school year, 3,281 incidents of bullying, harassment or intimidating behavior in city schools were reported to the state, Fariña said. But more than 700 schools reported zero incidents of bullying, Dromm said, and a 2016 report by the State Education Department and attorney general found “significant underreporting.”

EDUCATION

Education officials emphasized that many incidents of bullying are never reported to school personnel or are not serious enough to merit reporting to the state.

The new online bullying-complaint tool is set to launch in 2019, officials said. Families who report bullying or harassment will be informed within one day that their complaint was received, and within 10 days will be told the outcome of the investigation.

In the past, families could request that their children be transferred to a different school if they were the victims of a violent crime in the school or if the families felt their children were unsafe there. The new policy will now allow “safety transfer” requests by any student who has experienced bullying, the department said.

In addition to the new programs and policies, the education department will begin publicly reporting the number of substantiated incidents of bullying, harassment, intimidation or discrimination at each school. City Council members had previously proposed a bill that would require the department to release that information; last Monday, the department said Fariña supported the bill.

The anti-bullying measures announced last Monday drew mixed reactions from advocates, who said they were glad the city is taking action, but questioned whether these steps are enough to root out systemic problems.

Dawn Yuster, the school justice project director at Advocates for Children, said that elements of the city’s plan were not yet clear, including precisely how the city will intervene in the 300 schools it plans to identify with higher rates of bullying.

“All of this is coming out on the day of a hearing prompted by a tragedy, and we don’t know some of the details behind these initiatives,” Yuster said.

“It’s promising, but it’s not enough.”

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said she appreciated that officials are devoting more resources to bullying prevention, but said a larger investment is needed to fundamentally change how schools respond to student conflicts and misbehavior.

“There are still a thousand more school safety agents than guidance counselors and social workers,” she said. “And that speaks too loudly about where the city is investing its resources.”

Twenty-five Struggling New York City Schools Are Safe from Takeover, State Officials Say

BY ALEX ZIMMERMAN

(CHALKBEAT) — New York City will not be forced to close or cede control of 25 low-performing schools targeted by a state program that threatens longfloundering schools with takeover by an outside manager.

State officials said on Oct. 31 that all city schools in the “Receivership” program’s crosshairs met enough of their goals to avoid more serious consequences. In total, just two of 63 schools statewide did not meet their 2016-’17 goals, the officials said; neither school is in New York City.

“I have visited many of these schools, and I am seeing schools tackle their issues in new and positive ways, which is encouraging,” State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said in a statement. “At the same time, much work remains to be done in many of these schools.”

In 2015, state officials identified 62 city schools that for years had ranked among the bottom 5 percent statewide.

The schools were given at least 10 improvement goals each, including measures like attendance, suspension and graduation rates. If they failed to make “demonstrable improvement” in those areas, the state could force the city to appoint an outside manager to run them.

But so far, almost all of the schools in the program have managed to avoid serious interventions. To date, just one New York City school has been threatened with outside takeover: a middle school in the Bronx that the city closed last year and replaced with a new school. (City officials also decided to to close another Receivership school, the Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design—a move that state officials did not publicly demand.)

At the same time, state officials have gradually reduced the number of city schools in Receivership over the past two years—from 62 to 25—a fact that drew criticism from Gov. Cuomo’s office.

New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE SNYDER

To avoid interventions, schools in the Receivership program must earn at least 67 percent on a grading scale that factors in their goals. Districts must review the performance of schools that fail to meet that threshold, determine why they struggled, and “monitor and support” them over the current school year, according to state officials.

In New York City, five schools fall into that category. They will not face immediate takeover, but will be subjected to ongoing scrutiny this year.

Among the five city schools that fell below the 67 percent threshold are DeWitt Clinton High School (45 percent) and Flushing High School (62 percent). The city recently announced that the staffs at both schools will be forced to reapply for their jobs.

The state education department’s decision to force so few schools to undergo takeover has previously frustrated the governor. But Cuomo, who pushed for the Receivership law as a more aggressive intervention for struggling schools, has warmed to the approach favored by Mayor de Blasio and the state’s unions: infusing lowperforming schools with resources

instead of shutting them down.

Aaron Pallas, a Teachers College professor, said the state officials’ decision not to intervene in most Receivership schools could reflect their desire to move the state away from more aggressive, top-down reforms.

“One easy way to do that is to declare victory and say schools have met the targets we set even if they’re not actually meeting those targets,” said Pallas, adding that the complexity of the state’s benchmarks make it difficult to know for sure.

But the 25 city schools in the Receivership program may not be completely out of the woods. All of those schools are also part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Renewal” turnaround program. Earlier this year, the mayor said more Renewal schools will be closed.

“These schools have made an important step in the right direction,” schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement. “I will continue to closely monitor these schools on a range of factors including academic outcomes, teacher retention, attendance and the ability to engage families as partners.”

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 19

PERSPECTIVE

Nine Tips for Raising an Anxious Child —From a Mom Who’s Been There

BY BETHANIE VERDUZCO

Being a mother of an anxious child has taught me many things. It’s taught me new forms of empathy, tolerance and the depths of real parental love. And it’s also taught me how easy it is to quickly crumble into a million pieces and completely lose your sh*t.

Anxiety can feel like a roller coaster—a very unpredictable roller coaster that can speed up or come to a grinding halt at will. Some weeks or months feel really dire and others totally manageable. And you might never know why. After riding this roller coaster with our amazing daughter, Noa, for the past six years, I know we’re in a good place right now, and for that I am grateful. Anxiety isn’t something you can cure—the key is discovering ways to cope.

And she is doing beautifully. So for now, I can sit down, take a nice, deep breath and share a few things I’ve learned along the way.

1. It’s not about me. It’s just not. As much as I love to feel sorry for myself and lament all of the ways my life as a parent could’ve been different, I know that things are a hundred times worse for her than they are for me. She is the one who has to live inside her anxious brain. She is the one who has to make sense out of this world that she is so afraid of.

When she kicks, bites, yells and loses control, I have to remember that she isn’t consciously choosing to do any of this. Her anxiety is not an attack on me.

Although it might seem unbearable to me at times, I know she is desperately trying to communicate her chaotic feelings and alleviate the pain any way she can.

2. Stop the judgment. Before having kids I was totally one of those people who would get all hot and bothered about America’s overmedicated kids.

They just need to stop playing video games and get outside; it’s that simple! Then I became a mom to an anxious kid and learned that nothing, literally nothing, is that simple. I’m sure there are kids who

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are on meds who might not need to be, but hey, there are some who do. When you’ve sat by your baby and watched her struggle to get through the day without hurting herself, you start to realize why the medications are there.

So let’s try to pause before judging other parents for their choices; let’s think before spouting off other, less-socially taboo alternatives for these parents to consider first. We never really know what’s going on in someone else’s home. So we’ve got to summon up our stores of compassion before jumping on the judgment train and really be there to support other struggling parents (so that they can be there to support their kids).

3. Try, try and try again when it comes to different therapies and techniques. We’ve had to sort through many different things in order to find something that worked for Noa. Over the past three years we’ve taken turns with occupational therapy, nutritional therapy, play therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, sensory therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), as well as chiropractic and psychiatric care. When one no longer seemed to be helping, we’d move on to

the next. Most seemed to help her a bit initially but then taper off after a few weeks or months.

It was exhausting trying to find well-respected care providers and getting up the oomph to go through the intake process yet again. But what was the alternative? To stop trying? Not a chance.

We’ve gotta keep going for our kids and know that eventually something will stick.

4. Sit with her in her pain. This is so hard. I am a mother and, by nature, I want to fix things for my kids. When my daughter is screaming at the top of her lungs, panicking at something that from my perspective seems trivial, all I want to do is make it OK. But instead of pleading with her to “calm down,” or trying to change her mind, the best I can do is to meet her where she is—to sit with her, listen, notice her pain and validate her experience as real.

5. Anxiety can be a gift as well as a curse.

When most of us think about anxiety, we think of panic attacks, stress and emotional outbursts. But there’s an upside to anxiety, too. Anxious people experience life on a spectrum of sensitivity, which means that while they struggle with the negative

PERSPECTIVE

side of anxiety, they can have a remarkable talent for empathy as well. These are your intuitive, caring, compassionate kids. When it comes to reading another’s body language or understanding the root cause of someone’s emotional pain, they are highly tuned in. These kids are the next generation of social workers, activists, counselors and doulas; they are our future doers of tikkun olam (acts of kindness performed to repair the world).

6. When it comes to advice, take some, but ignore most. Well-meaning friends and family have suggested so many possible “solutions” to our daughter’s anxiety over the years that have led to ultimately solving nothing, but creating more stress to deal with instead. We have been told about taking fish-oil supplements or trying the GAPS diet; others have mentioned folic-acid deficiencies and the genetic mutation MTHFR. There have been a few suggestions/referrals that have actually made a difference, but most of the time it just feels overwhelming. It’s one more trail to follow. So listen to your gut, and try to see others’ advice for what it really is: simply an act of support for you and your family.

7. Stop feeling guilty. For years I felt terrible for having to say ‘no’ to play dates, birthday parties and synagogue events because I knew they would end with us leaving in a blaze of fire. One year, I took Noa to our synagogue’s annual all-city sing-a-long

(yes, it is as spectacular as it sounds!). After a few songs she began to panic—the hundreds of people in the room coupled with the din of the music were just too much for her. I carried my kicking, shrieking 4-year-old daughter out of the sanctuary in the middle of the show, apologizing to everyone I passed (who covered their ears or were bracing themselves for a foot in the face). But afterwards I felt so guilty—guilty for taking her to an event I should have known would cause a meltdown, and guilty for not being able to help control her behavior when she did have that meltdown. As parents of anxious kids, we feel guilty for doing too much and for not doing enough. Unfortunately, this guilt is not so constructive and we need to check it at the sing-a-long’s door.

8. Always be on your child’s side. A couple of years ago, we had an occupational-therapy session that really went wrong. Noa’s therapist wanted to speak with me in the hallway for a few minutes, and Noa began to worry about what we were going to talk about without her. Quickly, this worry turned to panic. Her therapist shuffled me into her office, then closed the door and stood with Noa on the other side. Noa, seeing me but not being able to reach me, pounded on the window for minutes, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her therapist wouldn’t let her through, and I was paralyzed.

I deferred to the therapist’s judgment on how

to handle the situation when I should have burst through the door, snatched up my daughter and gotten the F out of there. When it comes to my child, I will never again value an expert’s opinion over my own. We parents know what’s best for our kids, and we’ve got to be ready to speak up and advocate for them at all times.

9. Educate others about anxiety and mental illness. It’s been surprising to me how few people in our community really understand childhood anxiety and mental illness. We’ve had teachers dismiss Noa’s anxiety as a lack of parental discipline or structure in the home, and preschool friends who have disappeared after seeing her lose control on the playground.

It’s important to talk with others in our communities about what childhood anxiety is and how to deal with it. My hope is that we can start to take shame and judgment out of the equation and simply open ourselves up to learn. The more we talk about it, the more parents, teachers, care providers and community leaders will take notice and begin to better support our children—and the parents who love them.

This article is part of the Here. Now. essay series, which seeks to destigmatize mental health treatment and improve accessibility to treatment and support for teens and parents in metropolitan New York.

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21

COMMUNITY AND EVENTS

Disabled activists blocking a road near the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem during a protest calling for better healthcare and allowances, Oct. 24, 2017 PHOTO BY YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90

Too Few Israelis with Disabilities Live in Their Own Homes. Here’s How to Change That.

BY JAY RUDERMAN and AVITAL SANDLER-LOEFF

(JTA) — In recent weeks, we have seen Israelis with disabilities closing down highways and raising their voices and public profiles in unprecedented ways to demand better services, better treatment and a role in Israel’s destiny and economic successes.

In many ways, they are fighting for personal freedom, to feel a part of a community and at home in their own country. For some Israelis with disabilities, such goals can only be achieved by starting with a literal home of their own.

Some 10,000 Israelis with disabilities are living in institutions. While this may not sound like a lot, remember that in the United States, where the general population is 40 times larger than Israel’s, only 29,000 people with disabilities live in state institutions. For them, life is heavily restricted, without basic freedoms like choosing their own bedtime, finding a spouse or even having a key to their own rooms.

Many Israelis with disabilities who live with family members lack the kind of support that would enable them to handle their personal finances, seek employment and find a place to live on their own. This is

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especially poignant for young adults with disabilities who are eager to set out on their own and build lives filled with friends, romantic relationships and families.

Added to these challenges are Israel’s rising cost of living and housing, and even more tragic, pervasive stigmas about people with disabilities. That sentiment surfaced most recently when some 53 percent of Israelis reported that they would not rent an apartment to a person with disabilities.

Israelis with disabilities need services to support their autonomy and to gain access to affordable housing. They deserve welcoming neighbors who recognize their value to the wider community.

To tackle these issues, Israel Unlimited—a strategic partnership between the Ruderman Family Foundation and the government of Israel to promote a more inclusive Israeli society and independent living for Israelis with disabilities—is focusing on housing.

To achieve this, we first need a new generation of social services tailored to individuals so they can find a home and live independently. Through Supported

Housing, a program we launched in 2015, teams of mentors and care coordinators provide assistance to young adults with disabilities in finding suitable apartments, adapting to an independent lifestyle, planning finances and housekeeping.

Recognized as one of the most innovative programs in the disabilities field by the Zero Project, the global initiative to create a world without barriers for people with disabilities, Supported Housing has already assisted hundreds in finding homes and beginning new lives. Next year we’ll join the emerging trend in the rest of the Western world by assisting people with more challenging disabilities, including those requiring nursing care, to find a home of their own.

Second, we need affordable housing alternatives for people with disabilities, especially given a shortage of long-term rentals in Israel and rental prices that change on a whim. Through a creative initiative with the Ministry of Housing and Construction that is being signed in the coming days, we will ensure that people with disabilities have stable housing alternatives in Israel.

We’ll make this happen by matching philanthropic funds to the ministry’s pool of rent subsidies. This will result in a one-time payment for an apartment.

We’ll start with 25 apartments—providing security to people with disabilities so they don’t have to fear sudden rent increases—and will also explore social impact investment models for future purchases.

Third, we need to build inclusive communities and enlist the support of clergy, students and business leaders to fight negative perceptions and make our neighborhoods truly welcoming. We’re doing this by training rabbis and imams in the principles and practices of inclusivity; creating partnerships between people with and without disabilities in the area of sports and exercise; and forming grassroots student groups to advance accessibility and inclusivity on campus. We will work with artists and designers, with and without disabilities, to create social media campaigns to erase stigmas.

Progress in these areas can often mean the difference between meaningful lives and those filled with frustration and heartbreak.

Take Lior and Lotem, a 20-something couple from Rehovot. They long desired to live together on their own, but Lior’s group home and Lotem’s parents were resistant to such a move. With our support, Lior and Lotem persuaded their families to help them fulfill their dream.

We deployed our program staff to talk with their caretakers, ensure they had the life skills necessary to foster independence, and help them find a home.

A few months later they moved into their first apartment. And right before Rosh Hashanah, they married.

Lior and Lotem are but two of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis with disabilities who desire access to the kinds of freedoms we all enjoy.

Let’s join with them to make this a reality and give new meaning to the phrase “home sweet home.”

Jay Ruderman is the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. Avital Sandler-Loeff, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s disabilities expert, is the director of Israel Unlimited.

COMMUNITY AND EVENTS

COJO Annual Legislative Breakfast On Sunday, Oct. 29, at the Arden Heights Boulevard Jewish Center on Arthur Kill Road, the Council of Jewish Organizations (COJO) held its 51st Annual Legislative Breakfast featuring elected representatives, governmental officials and candidates running for office.

COJO President Mendy Mirocznik is proud that COJO, the central coordinating agency for the Staten Island Jewish community, has “brought together members of all communities in Staten Island for the specific purpose of civic engagement.”

Mirocznik added, “Through civic discourse, the various communities of Staten Island are able to express their concerns with an eye towards improving the quality of life for all of Staten Island.”

Assemblywoman and mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis addresses a crowd of COJO supporters.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF COUNCIL OF JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS

Nicole Malliotakis and COJO supporters caucusing

Assemblywoman and mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis listens to updates from COJO President Mendy Mirocznik.

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer (second from right) and COJO supporters pose for a photo.

NOV. 8 – 14, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 23

PUERTO RICO NEEDS OUR HELP.

Support the Hispanic Federation’s UNIDOS Fund. One hundred percent of contributions to the UNIDOS Fund goes to help the immediate and long-term recovery needs of children, families and communities in distress from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

WAYS TO DONATE TEXT

WEBSITE

BY CHECK

IN PERSON

Compose a new text message to number 41444.

Visit hispanicfederation. org/unidos

Check payable to: Hispanic Federation

Visit any Popular Community Bank

Type UNIDOS (space) YOUR AMOUNT (space) and YOUR NAME For example: Unidos 100 John Doe

Select the amount you want to donate

Memo: Hurricane Relief Fund

Account name: Hurricane Relief Effort

Enter your credit card information and your contact information

Mail to: Unidos Disaster Relief Fund c/o Hispanic Federation 55 Exchange Place, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10005

Checking account number: 6810893500

Press “send” and click on the link to complete your donation.

Designate your gift to Hurricane Relief Effort

www.hispanicfederation.org/unidos 24 | NYJLIFE.COM | NOV. 8 – 14, 2017