10/25 Edition of NYJL

Swipe Right? Jewish Dating Apps and Global Speed Dating?

NYJL Endorses Jack Martins for New York Board of Rabbis Nassau County Executive Honors NY1’s Errol Louis

VOL. 1, NO. 29 | OCTOBER 25-31, 2017 | NEWS THAT MATTERS TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA | NYJLIFE.COM | FREE

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.

NicoleMalliotakis.com 2 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE: New York Jewish Life Endorses Jack Martins for Nassau County Executive Jack Martins is ready to govern Nassau County, and Nassau County is ready to govern itself.

At his campaign headquarters a few weeks ago, Jack Martins and I had a wide-ranging talk about the state of affairs in Nassau County government and its finances, politics generally, education and schools, the possibility of bipartisanship in addressing serious problems, and a real-life version of kick-the-can. I walked into our meeting skeptical about whether any candidate could have a clear vision of the enormity of the issues facing the diverse suburban community to New York City’s immediate east, but walked out rooting for the Republican candidate’s success. As such, in the race for Nassau County executive, New York Jewish Life enthusiastically endorses Jack Martins.

Since 2000, Nassau County has been operating under the watchful eye of a state authority that must, by law, approve budgets, spending plans and government reform. The Nassau County Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) was created by Governor Pataki and the State Legislature in response to a dire fiscal situation that, back then, could have easily careened into enormous calamity. In the interest of disclosure, I’ll share that I was deputy counsel, and then chief of staff, of the Nassau County Legislature when these issues were being addressed, and was involved in the intergovernmental effort that created NIFA. That, however, was a long time ago.

“NIFA was useful then, no doubt,” Martins agreed, “but now it’s a bit of a dictatorship,” he insisted. “They would say a benevolent dictatorship, which is a too-kind self-assessment in my opinion, but it’s a dictatorship nonetheless, with unelected officials making decisions for 1.4 million people based on faulty presumptions that are no longer operative.

“NIFA also encourages a lack of consensus,” Matins continued, “because ultimate decisions rest not in Nassau County’s neighborhoods and not in Mineola, but in Albany. So it has increased partisan rancor, and decreased productive discussions and deliberations at the local level.

You don’t govern as a Republican or a Democrat, you don’t lecture and you don’t condescend. NIFA has stunted Nassau County politics.”

As a state senator, Jack Martins

supported Scholarship and Education Tax Credits to assist tuition-paying families who also pay significant taxes for schools they don’t use. Asked about the strong opposition teachers’ unions have to this proposal, he lamented the unfortunate tendency towards binary policy thinking: “There are bright lines that need not be there. A dollar for these families is not a dollar less for public schools; budgeting simply doesn’t work that way. The unions have an ideological opposition to tax credits, and that’s their position, but they’re also attributing motivations to supporters of this aid that don’t exist. We see this negativity in too many discussions across a range of issues. For one side to win a debate doesn’t mean the other side has to lose.

It’s not even really about winning or losing—it’s about finding commonality in the middle that emerges from exchanges between people who just do not agree. Ultimately, tuition-paying families need help just like all other parents.”

On the economy, Martins was equally clear: The uncertainty created by NIFA’s oversight is a major contributing factor to, for example, there not being a single Fortune 500 company headquartered in Nassau.

“For businesses to plan, there has to be a certain expectation of consistency, and NIFA prevents that,” he said. “It’s not the entirety of what’s holding us back, but it’s a large part of it….We don’t know how well we can do, it’s been so long.”

As a former state senator, Martins believes he is well positioned to negotiate a new situation concerning NIFA. He has accumulated a reservoir of goodwill in Albany and knowledge of how things get done in the state capital on that issue, and on infrastructure, education funding, transportation and environmental concerns, of which Nassau County has many.

And speaking about the state capital, of Congressman Tom Suozzi, against whom Martins ran for the House, he says he will have an excellent working relationship. “We’ve run out of road to kick the can down. Big decisions need to be made which will require all levels of government.”

I asked Jack about the often-repeated conventional wisdom concerning voters’ making their Election Day decisions based on slogans and little information. He disagreed:

“People—voters—are receptive to information. They want to hear detail; they want to hear how you’re going to get things done. Slogans fit on posters and are necessary, sure, but ideally those slogans remind people of information they’ve already taken in.”

To my mind, as a publisher familiar with politics, campaigns and with the specifics of Nassau County, the Democratic candidate for county executive, Laura Curran, has been running a negative campaign that is thin on specifics. The Curran campaign appears to be clumsily executing against a tired playbook, repeating contrasts that are already obvious. Recent attempts to tie Martins to former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, for example, misunderstands the deep affection Nassau residents still have for their former representative, and voters’ understanding of what that case was really about.

“Nassau County is suburban,” Martins started to conclude. “Our shared suburban priorities are quality of life, our families and children, schools and public safety, access to outdoor space as we protect the environment, and whether we’re taxed fairly. We need to move from a 20th- and in some cases 19th-century governing infrastructure to modern systems. We need property assessment reform; we need to implement town-based—instead of county-based—assessment. We need to aggressively tackle the backlog of tax grievances in a way that’ll keep them from returning in similarly large numbers. We need to get to work right away.”

Wrapping up our talk, I asked Jack Martins about outgoing County Executive Ed Mangano’s corruption indictment and needed goodgovernment reforms.

“It’s sad; it’s a stain on government; everything about it is troubling,” he said. “But let’s agree that Ed Mangano isn’t on the ballot. If my Democratic opponent wants to talk just about Mangano, that’s a disservice to the voters. Folks will be impressed with the governmental reforms I’ll champion as county executive, and I’ll always make them proud.”

Michael Tobman, Publisher

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CANDLE LIGHTING

Friday, Oct. 27 Candles: 5:40 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 6:38 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 3 Candles: 5:31 p.m.

Shabbat Ends: 6:30 p.m.

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 3

SCHUMER IN THE NEWS

Access to the FBI Database Will Help Keep Our Children Safe U.S. Sen. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer announced on Tuesday the passage of bipartisan legislation, following his push, that would, for the first time, close a gaping hole in current federal law that prevents summer camps and other children’s organizations from gaining access to federal sex-offender background checks on new employees and volunteers.

Schumer, who was the original author of the bill, has championed its passage since 2009. He said the bill would address a gap in current federal law, in which many summer camps, daycare centers, charity organizations and many others only have access to New York State’s criminal database.

“There is a serious gap in federal law that makes it hard for afterschool programs, summer camps, daycares and other child-serving organizations to fully screen their paid and volunteer applicants. These groups are tasked with ensuring the safety of children day in and day out, and should never have any difficulty when it comes to accessing the FBI background checks they need to ensure dangerous predators are not allowed anywhere near our kids,” said Schumer.

“I urged my colleagues to pass this commonsense, bipartisan legislation because, as a parent, I know there is nothing more important than keeping our children safe from harm. Parents deserve the peace of mind knowing that their children are in good hands when they drop them off at camp and afterschool programs. The passage of this bill provides just that. I look forward to swift action by the House to get this bill across the finish line.”

Schumer explained that many organizations and programs rely heavily on volunteers and employees to provide services and care to children. These individuals coach soccer games, mentor young people and run youth camps, and are involved with children in many

4 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

Camp Hilltop in Hancock, NY

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

other ways. It’s estimated that over 15 million adults nationwide volunteer for education or youth program groups. Up until now these organizations did not have access to the FBI database, but the passage of this bill through the Senate can help organizations that are tasked with taking care of our children access the most updated and comprehensive sex-offender records.

According to Schumer, the current system of obtaining a background check for child-serving groups is not nearly as accessible as it should be, particularly when it comes to out-of-state records.

Only some states allow a range of youth-serving organizations to access FBI searches, and New York is not one of them. Even when those searches are available, they can be time-consuming and cost-prohibitive for summer camps and organizations on a budget.

Schumer said this has discouraged many groups from obtaining necessary background checks. Under the previous law, an organization had to apply for a background check through its state, and for each employee. Only a handful of states allows access to FBI checks through this process, but this bill’s passage is the first step to increasing access to volunteer and employee records.

Currently in New York State, there

are two ways to get access to background checks: An individual can get access to his own criminalhistory records by requesting them from the state and paying a fee.

In addition, a mentoring organization, like summer camp, can register with the state to get access to state fingerprint checks.

Notably, though, this will only involve an individual’s New York records. According to the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Service, there were 17,117 registered sex offenders in Upstate New York as of June 2017. As of 2010, however, over 40 percent of the individuals with criminal records had committed an offense in a state other than where they were applying to volunteer, meaning that a state-only search would not have found relevant criminal records. Schumer noted that an applicant to be a camp counselor, for example, could have been convicted of an assault in Ohio, or committed a sex crime in Florida, but there may be no record of it in New York’s database.

The Child Protection Improvements Act of 2017 will create a nationally accessible background check solution for youth-serving organizations, and ensure access to federal FBI fingerprint background checks. Specifically, this legislation will do the following: Facilitate widespread access to nationwide background searches by requiring the attorney general to designate a team to process state and federal background checks on prospective employees and volunteers

for youth-serving organizations and for employees in the electronic life safety and security systems industry.

Provide participating organizations with reliable and accurate information as to whether an individual’s criminal record bears upon his fitness to work or volunteer with children. After a check is run, an employer will be notified if an applicant has a conviction or open arrest for any offenses like crimes of violence, crimes against children and sex offenses, among others.

The employer can then make the determination of whether or not to go ahead with the hiring.

Schumer said that with the passage of this bill, individuals will be provided with an opportunity to challenge the accuracy and completeness of their records with the FBI and are ensured that the privacy of their records will be protected. This bill is entirely paid for by fees from the entities seeking background checks and requires no new authorizations or appropriations.

In addition, this bill does not impose any new or unfunded mandates on the states.

So, if a summer camp in Central New York wants to hire a paid or volunteer counselor, it could simply contact the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) and find out where to get the background check done locally. Most likely this would be at the local police station, where systems are already in place to make it a smooth process. The organization would pay a processing fee at the police station and would send the counselor’s fingerprints to DOJ. The DOJ would then run the fingerprints through the FBI’s records, which cover both state and federal crimes in every state, not just in New York. The camp would then hear the results from DOJ— not a full personal record, but whether the paid or volunteer counselor had a serious conviction or open arrest for a serious offense.

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OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 5

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

want to get there and those who don’t want to get there,” he said.

On the night of Oct. 16, Gabbay reportedly backtracked in a text message to Zionist Union members. He assured his associates that he is committed to pursuing a peace agreement based on the two-state solution, but said, “There is no point in committing to [evacuating all the settlements] as a starting point for talks.”

Lapid remained silent. But in an essay in The Atlantic magazine two weeks ago, the Yesh Atid leader supported Netanyahu’s hawkish views on Iran.

Lapid accused Tehran of lying to the West and using the nuclear agreement to move toward becoming a regional nuclear power. Iran has denied it seeks nuclear weapons.

“I don’t often agree with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Lapid wrote, “but his description of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ is right on the money.”

In fact, Lapid has found consensus at times with Netanyahu since the start of his political career. After his upstart party’s surprising election showing in 2013, Lapid ruled out trying to form a government with the Joint List. He called its Labor leader Avi Gabbay, left, attending a news conference in Tel Aviv, July members “Zoabis” in reference to the anti-Zionist Arab-Israeli 11, 2017; Yair Lapid attending a conference in Herzliya, June 22, 2017 PHOTOS BY MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90; JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES lawmaker Hanin Zoabi, whom Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to silence. Instead, Lapid became win over some of the prime minister’s traditional Netanyahu’s finance minister.

Lately, Lapid has struck a statesmanlike pose.

Likud supporters, which is why they can sound like In January, he reminded Israelis that Netanyahu is him.

“You really have to control the arithmetic center “innocent until proven guilty” and criticized Gabbay in the Knesset,” Diskin said. “That means attracting for attending a rally demanding the prime minister be brought to justice. In February he expressed hope that defectors from the right wing, including the Likud.”

Gabbay first made headlines last week at a Shabbat Netanyahu would not be indicted.

Stronger opposition has come from Barak, who event in the southern city of Beersheba when he declared that unlike other Labor leaders in the past, has called for Netanyahu to resign and relentlessly he would not join a governing coalition with the flogged him from outside the political arena as a Arab parties that make up the Joint List—of which “feeble lackey of a prime minister.”

Gabbay and Lapid have so far held their fire against Netanyahu is a frequent critic.

On Oct. 15, Gabbay told a crowd in Dimona that each other, too. And when Lapid did attack his rival, he is not sure there is a Palestinian partner for peace. shortly after Gabbay won the chairmanship of Labor in July, Lapid subsequently took back his comments.

Netanyahu has said repeatedly he is sure there is not.

Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy In the interview Oct. 17, Gabbay made another surprising statement in addition to the one about Institute and a former director-general of the nowsettlements: He said Netanyahu should only step defunct center-right Kadima party, predicted that down if indicted on allegations that he took bribes— in the next election—which is slated for November allegations Netanyahu denies. Other figures on the 2019 but could come sooner—voters will rally around left have called for the prime minister’s head in the the most credible centrist. He said that left-leaning voters and leaders will forgive the candidate some wake of the corruption allegations.

Asked how his position on settlements differed Netanyahu-like rhetoric in the interest of ousting from that of Netanyahu, who has said that uprooting Netanyahu himself.

“What will really determine Gabbay’s fate is settlers would amount to ethnic cleansing, Gabbay said he was committed to reaching a deal—unlike the whether he will be seen as a real competitor for power,” Plesner said. “If he is, whether he said this or prime minister.

“There is a huge gap between those who at least that won’t really matter.”

Israel’s Centrist Leaders Vie to Replace Netanyahu—

by Taking His Side

BY ANDREW TOBIN

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israeli political scene has always been one of stark contrasts between the two most iconic, if not always most successful, parties: dovish Labor vs. hawkish Likud.

While Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu drew huge numbers of settlers in his most recent election as prime minister, uprooting Jewish homes in the West Bank was taken for granted in multiple Laborled peace efforts since party leader Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords in 1992.

But the head of the reliably pro-peace Labor Party defied that dynamic in an interview broadcast Oct. 17, saying he would not evacuate settlements as part of a final status agreement with the Palestinians.

Avi Gabbay told Channel 2 that the notion that this is necessary was mistaken.

“I think the dynamic and terminology that have become commonplace here, that if you make peace, evacuate, is not in fact correct,” he said. “If you make a peace deal, it is possible to find solutions that don’t require evacuating.”

Various Labor leaders and others in the opposition distanced themselves from Gabbay’s comments after they were aired Oct. 16 in a preview. Under prime ministers Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak, Labor pushed for peace based on the premise that settlers would have to move across Israel’s new border.

Tzipi Livni of the center-left Zionist Union said Gabbay’s statement does not reflect the position of her party, which is allied with Labor. She said that though Israel would of course retain the major settlement blocs, unfortunately “you can’t promise everyone they can stay in their homes.”

Gabbay’s comments seem to move his center-left party rightward at a time when he is vying with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to be the centrist alternative to Netanyahu. Both men are adopting or withholding criticism of some of the prime minister’s positions in the process.

And with some exceptions, Gabbay and Lapid have refrained lately from seriously attacking the prime minister, even as police investigations swirl around Netanyahu, his family and associates.

According to Abraham Diskin, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both Gabbay and Lapid hope to reach rightward and

6 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Celebrity Chef Alon Shaya: I Was Fired for Speaking Up about Alleged Sexual Harassment (JTA) — Israeli-American Alon Shaya: “I chef Alon Shaya says he was do feel like I was fired from the Besh Restaurant fired for talking...

Group (BRG) for talking to a and for standing New Orleans reporter about up.” alleged sexual harassment in the chain detailed in an extensive exposé published over the weekend.

Twenty-five current and former employees were interviewed for the story in NOLA.com/The TimesPicayune. Shaya, who was PHOTO BY MARIANNA MASSEY dismissed last month, has not been accused of any impropriety. co-owner John Besh and business The article was the result of an eight- partner Octavio Mantilla to set up a month investigation by the newspaper. human resources department in order Nine of the 25 women agreed to have to deal with such issues. The group’s their names published. general counsel, Raymond Landry, Shaya, who was executive chef at disputes the claim. the BRG restaurants Domenica, Pizza Shaya told a Times-Picayune reporter Domenica and his namesake restaurant, in an interview he initiated in August Shaya, said in the story that he asked that the issues of sexual harassment at

the restaurants were “handled appropriately.”

“Being inappropriate, that’s never tolerated, not one single bit. That’s not part of Shaya Restaurant Group culture, and it never has been,” he said.

In a follow-up interview on Oct. 17, a month after he was let go by the BRG group, Shaya told the newspaper, “I do feel like I was fired for talking… and for standing up.”

In a Facebook post Sunday, Shaya acknowledged the experiences and bravery of the women cited in the story.

“No one should feel unwelcome, afraid or unsafe in their place of work.

The restaurant industry does not get a pass,” he wrote.

“I made a decision to proactively engage with the reporter for The Times-Picayune because I believed these stories must

be told. For doing so, I was terminated as Executive Chef at Domenica, Pizza Domenica, and my name-sake restaurant, Shaya. I lost nearly all I had worked for, before I realized what I had gained. As a result of this experience, I have a renewed commitment to do everything I can in the future to prevent the powerful from taking advantage of those that depend on them.”

In May 2015, Shaya was named best chef in the South by the James Beard Foundation, the top prize for food.

He broke through as the winner after being a finalist in the category for the preceding three years.

In response to the article, John Besh acknowledged “a consensual relationship with one member of my team”; in a separate statement, Landry said the restaurant group has “revamped our training, education and procedures” for dealing with employee complaints.

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 7

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

HOW THIS PRISTINE 15TH-CENTURY HEBREW BIBLE SURVIVED THE INQUISITION António Eugénio Maia do Amaral presenting the 15th-century Abravanel Hebrew Bible at Portugal’s Coimbra University in 2016 PHOTO BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

COIMBRA, Portugal (JTA) — From its mountaintop perch, the University of Coimbra towers majestically over the downtown square that used to be the regional headquarters of the Portuguese Inquisition.

It’s a fitting location for the 737-year-old university, the seventh-oldest in the world, which outsmarted and outlived the campaign of persecution against Jews and freethinkers unleashed by the Catholic Church and Portugal’s rulers in 1536.

“This place was almost literally an ivory tower of knowledge during those dark times,” António Eugénio Maia do Amaral, assistant director of the university’s

500-year-old library, recently told the JTA. Thanks to the university’s undocumented policy of subterfuge against the Inquisition—Amaral said its librarians essentially hid many books that censors would likely have wanted to destroy, reintroducing them to the indexes only after the Inquisition was abolished in 1821—Coimbra was in possession of a collection of rare, pristine Jewish manuscripts found nowhere else.

One such manuscript is the Abravanel Hebrew Bible.

Ranked by the university in a 2012 statement as its rarest artifact, the handwritten bible from the 15th century is perfectly preserved. The book is filled with drawings on parchment that are so vibrant, they seem

The Inquisition Patio in Coimbra PHOTO BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

8 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

to have been recently created.

The Abravanels—a distinguished, wealthy Sephardic family with branches in Spain and Portugal that fled to Amsterdam and the Balkans during the Inquisition—commissioned 20 such bibles. The volume in Coimbra is among the best preserved of the handful whose whereabouts are known today.

The book is worth north of $3 million, according to the university’s Joanine Library, which in 2013 was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

That’s where the bible is kept—along with hundreds of other precious manuscripts—inside a huge vault with special climate control and aerial disinfection facilities.

The vault is typically only opened to scholars.

Yet last year, Amaral took the JTA inside to see the bible. There was a brief moment of confusion when the employee asked to locate the book said she could not find it in the index system. But Amaral, who has worked at the library for more than 20 years, shrugged and said calmly that he would have to “let the fingers do the looking” once inside the vault.

Amaral may have been laid back, but he was anything but cavalier. He expertly navigated the labyrinthine vault—two cards with digital keys are required for access—while donning librarian gloves.

He took care not to breathe directly on the books he handled, so as not to introduce moisture.

Alongside its technological solutions, the library employs a uniquely time-tested and green method for pest control: For centuries, it has been home to a colony of nocturnal, insect-eating bats. In the evenings, when the library is closed, the tables

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

beneath their flight paths are covered with furs in order to protect them from the bats’ excrement.

The University of Coimbra has little information on how exactly it came to possess the Abravanel Hebrew Bible, possibly because it was hidden or scrubbed from the library’s indexes to hide it from Inquisition agents.

What makes the Abravanel Bible so rare, however, isn’t just its age— it’s the pristine condition. Across the Iberian Peninsula, numerous books remain that Jews smuggled out during centuries of Inquisition, at risk to their own lives, but they are damaged.

One such specimen is a 1282 copy of the Mishneh Torah, the code of Jewish religious law authored by Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides. The book has whole passages that an Inquisition censor singed away, making them lost forever. It’s kept at the 400-year-old library at the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, which was founded by refugees from the Inquisition.

The second-rarest specimen at Coimbra’s library is another bible dating to the 15th century. The Latinlanguage volume was one of the world’s first printed books, prepared by partners of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the print machine. Printed in 1462—just 12 years after the original 42-line Gutenberg Bible, which is on display in Mainz, Germany—the one in Coimbra is the only surviving copy of an edition of four 48-line bibles printed by two of his partners.

Language differences aside, the printed book looks similar to the handwritten one. Both have illustrations and hand-drawn margins that writers used to keep their text straight before the invention of print.

That’s no accident, Amaral said.

“The margins and drawings were

added to the printed copy to make it seem as though it was handwritten,” he said.

This retrograding was partly done for aesthetic reasons—readers were used to seeing them—and partly as a “precaution,” Amaral said, because some Christian fanatics considered print machines “the works of the devil.”

Thousands were murdered during a series of Portuguese Inquisitions that followed the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. At least 200,000 Jews fled from the Iberian Peninsula for the Netherlands, South America and the Middle East during the period, which lasted nearly three centuries.

Thousands more stayed and practiced Judaism in secret for generations.

The library’s archives also contain rare, chilling records that reveal the bureaucracy behind the Inquisition’s barbarity. For example, the minutes of a 1729 trial against Manuel Benosh, a Portuguese Jew, indicated that he was “released” by the Inquisition to civil authorities with an instruction that he be “punished in flesh”—a euphemism for a death sentence by burning.

Outside of Lisbon, Coimbra University is the largest owner of Portuguese Inquisition verdicts.

“It was a mission that made this place not only a victim and opponent of the horrors of the Inquisition, but also a witness to them,” Amaral said.

True to its tradition of defiance, the library was also one of the few institutions to openly refuse to comply with the censorship policies of the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal’s pro-fascist dictator of 34 years, until 1968.

“Again there were the same tricks as during the Inquisition,” Amaral said. “In the end, we now see who has prevailed.”

The 15thcentury Abravanel Hebrew Bible at Coimbra University

Martins has led the fight for more resources for Jewish education and successfully secured hundreds of millions more in funding for our yeshivas.

Martins fought for tuition tax credits to relieve the pressure on tuition paying parents. As the product of Catholic schools, and the parent of Catholic school students, he understands the financial struggles of parents in our community.

Martins has led the charge in New York State against those who boycott Israel. He sponsored anti-BDS legislation that Governor Cuomo made into an executive order.

Martins has led the fight in Albany to stop taxpayer dollars from going to anti-Israel organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine.

Martins has vociferously objected to Nassau County allowing anti-semitic singer Roger Waters to perform on government-owned property at Nassau Coliseum.

As Mayor of the Village of Mineola, Martins helped the community erect an Eruv.

R

PHOTO BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 9

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

Why This Sikh Entrepreneur Created a Jewish Dating App ABOVE: KJ Dhaliwal is behind a new dating app for Jewish singles.

BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

(JTA) — At first glance, KJ Dhaliwal and Sukhmeet Toor may be unlikely candidates to create the latest Jewish-themed dating app.

After all, both men are Sikhs. And among the nine other members of their San Francisco-based team, there are exactly zero Jews on staff.

The pair are behind Dil Mil, described as a “Tinder alternative” for the South Asian community. Since Dhaliwal, 27, and Toor, 33, founded the app in 2015, they claim it has made more than five million matches—leading to about one marriage every day.

It’s only logical that Dhaliwal and Toor, two Indian Americans, wanted to build upon their success, and they launched Shalom on Oct. 4. But why start with a dating app for the Jewish community?

“The reason we started with the Jewish community was we saw a lot of similarities in terms of the values around community, the values around family, the values around marriage,” Dhaliwal told the JTA. “It’s a very tight-knit, high-affinity community, just like the South Asian community.”

In addition, Jews and South Asians both tend to be more highly educated and of a higher socioeconomic status than the average American, said Dhaliwal, a self-described “artificial intelligence/machine learning enthusiast.”

The similarities led the founders to conclude that the technology that had been successful in the South Asian community would also work for single Jews.

Shalom, like Dil Mil—which means “heart meeting” in Hindi and Punjabi—positions itself as a happy medium between apps for finding casual encounters, such as Tinder, and ones that are more focused on marriage like eHarmony and Match.com. It has some 15,000 active users from its beta mode run.

“What we’ve done from a branding

10 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

PHOTO COURTESY OF DHALIWAL

LEFT: The Shalom app was developed by the team behind a similar app for the South Asian community.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHALOM

perspective—we’ve placed ourselves very strategically right in the middle of the spectrum, where people are coming to our product to get a longer-term, highervalue relationship,” said Mudit Dawar, vice president of growth and marketing.

The team picked Shalom because of its meaning (both “hello” and “peace” in Hebrew) and because it’s “a word that every single Jewish person understands,” Dhaliwal said.

“We solved a problem in that market where there wasn’t a user-friendly tool that was up to the times in terms of how the youth and our generation are using technology to find potential partners,” Dhaliwal said.

What sets Shalom apart from competitors such as Tinder as well as the Jewish JDate, JSwipe and SawYouAtSinai, they claim, is its use of technology and multiple kinds of data to suggest matches.

While many dating apps used by millennials allow for filtering for categories such as location, height and age, potential users are left with a largely random pool of potential matches on which to swipe right (if they are interested) or left (if they are not). Shalom and Dil Mil rely on algorithms that suggest matches based on user behavior and data, so that people are more likely to see profiles that are to their liking.

“We think we definitely have a better product and the back-end technology stacked to actually match people based on data,” Dhaliwal said. “We do a lot of work in making sure our algorithms are set up in a way

that actually results in people matching with people they end up marrying one day.”

The app takes into account both external data, such as users’ social media profiles, and behavioral data, like how users have interacted with others on the app, in order to make connections. The result, Dhaliwal said, is “a really rich graph of what their intentions are.”

“That’s our secret sauce,” he added.

The app also allows users to integrate their LinkedIn and Instagram accounts in their profiles to build a richer picture of both their professional and social interests.

Users can access Shalom by downloading the app from the Apple Store and Google Play Store, as well as through Facebook Messenger. On Facebook, users chat with a bot that asks them questions about themselves and suggests possible matches.

“The advantage [of Facebook] is it removes the friction of somebody who doesn’t want to download an app and sign up that way,” Dhaliwal said. “It also gives us more exposure if somebody maybe doesn’t have a phone that they use or they don’t have data on their phone, maybe they want to use the desktop version, or they want to use just Messenger.”

Conversing with the bot is counterintuitive at times. For example, users have to follow a specific format when giving their geographic locations.

I experienced some of that confusion while trying

ISRAEL & THE WORLD

to set up a time to speak with Dhaliwal, and I corresponded with his assistant, who signs her emails “Amy Ingram.”

After a few emails back and forth, Amy said she didn’t understand my last message.

“I’m a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that schedules meetings via email and I am only able to respond to messages directly related to scheduling,” she wrote, suggesting I contact Dhaliwal directly.

The encounter with his scheduling

bot left me a bit unsettled and wondering how I could have been fooled so easily, and whether bots are really the way to go.

Still, the bots are only a tool, and it’s up to humans to decide if the app has made the right match. The real test will be whether the Shalom app—bots and all—will have the success of its South Asian sister version, and whether Dhaliwal’s latest venture is an IndianJewish match, or shidduch, made in heaven.

Global Speed Dating Creates Connections NY JCCS, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UJA-FEDERATION OF NY, WILL JOIN UNPRECEDENTED SESSIONS AT JCC GLOBAL’S WORLD CONFERENCE NOV. 5-9 IN TARRYTOWN, NY.

BY STAFF

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Scores of Jewish Community Centers from around the world—including eight from throughout the New York area—in partnership with the UJA-Federation of New York, will go speed dating to create new global partnerships and build an unprecedented network of Jewish Peoplehood during the upcoming JCC Global World Conference in Tarrytown on Nov. 5-9.

The conference will convene 110 Fellows from 52 JCCs in 15 countries, who will undergo an in-depth process to meet global partners and programs.

As part of this process, they will participate in speed dating—intense networking in order to create global partnerships.

The New York-area JCCs include the 14th Street Y and JCC Manhattan in New York City; the Bensonhurst JCC and the Kings Bay Y in Brooklyn, N.Y.; the Mid Island Y JCC in Plainview, N.Y.; the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum JCC in Bridgewater, N.J.; the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, in Tenafly, N.J.; and the JCC Metrowest in West Orange, N.J. In addition to the speed dating, participants will develop their own

Jewish identity and learn more about the Jewish world, while building longterm relationships among the JCCs to strengthen their respective Jewish Community Centers. Ultimately, “Amitim 2.0” aims to allow Jews in different countries to connect, break down stereotypes, and build bridges of understanding and support.

According to JCC Global President Mark Ramer, JCCs are the center of Jewish peoplehood and the ideal venue in which to teach that concept.

“In today’s world, where fear and mistrust often segregate and isolate, the Jewish Community Centers are the big tent under which a wide range of people congregate,” he said. “JCCs, often at the heart of the Jewish community, provide services and programs that build and strengthen Jewish communal life and provide Jewish educational experiences to and for Jews and non-Jews of all ages and orientations.”

Funding for the Global Fellowship programs comes from JCC Global and from a grant allocated by UJAFederation of New York. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and participating JCCs are also supporting the program.

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 11

stance that the Rabbinical Assembly took in 1972, when the association of Conservative rabbis adopted a paper prohibiting interfaith marriage.

Written by Rabbi Aaron Blumenthal, the paper urged, “Every effort should be made to retain contact with the intermarried couple,” who “deserve our deep concern,” according to the Jewish thought journal Zeramim.

Similar language appeared in a June statement from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which restated the ban and urged the movement to “expand our efforts to welcome all families, including those that are interfaith, to explore Judaism together with us.”

Artson said the language of PHOTO BY JUSTIN OBERMAN/CREATIVE COMMONS welcoming is more Alexandria, Virginia, and now a civil- assertive in this letter than in past liberties activist, added, “This is a statements, and that the unanimity phenomenon we’ve been dealing with it represents among Conservative for a long time, and why this particular institutions makes it especially statement was issued at this particular powerful: It was co-signed by Arnold moment is confusing to me.”

Eisen, the chancellor of the Jewish The Conservative movement has Theological Seminary (JTS); Rabbi long attempted to straddle the question Julie Schonfeld, CEO of the Rabbinical of intermarriage—neither accepting it Assembly; and Rabbi Steven Wernick, like Reform Judaism nor declaring it CEO of the United Synagogue of anathema like much of the Orthodox Conservative Judaism. movement. Its ambivalence toward Artson said he consulted with 15 mixed marriages comes from the young, up-and-coming rabbis while movement’s mission to observe Jewish writing the letter. law while embracing the modern “The fact that we periodically world—and from congregations that reaffirm our core convictions is part of include both traditionalists and, being a healthy organization,” he said. like a majority of American Jewish Artson portrayed the letter as another communities, families affected by stage in a long process of reevaluating the interfaith marriage. ban. Conservative rabbis are prohibited Conservative Jewry falls in the from officiating at or even attending middle when it comes to the data intermarriages; failure to heed the ban is on intermarriage. About a quarter of one of three ways a Conservative rabbi Conservative Jews are intermarried, can be expelled from the Rabbinical compared to almost no Orthodox Jews Assembly. The other two are performing and half of Reform Jews, according to a conversion that violates Jewish law the Pew Research Center. and performing a wedding of someone “We are committed to the principles who was married but did not have a of inclusiveness and welcoming and Jewish divorce. human dignity of all people,” said Several rabbis have already run afoul Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, dean of the officiation ban. of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Seymour Rosenbloom, a retired Studies in Los Angeles, who wrote the Philadelphia rabbi, was expelled from letter. “We’re also committed to the the Rabbinical Assembly in December principles of the integrity of Jewish law for performing an intermarriage. and commandedness.”

In June, the Conservative-ordained The prohibiting-yet-welcoming clergy at B’nai Jeshurun, an influential, posture isn’t new; it’s the same nondenominational New York

Conservative Movement Reaffirms Intermarriage Ban

BY BEN SALES

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Conservative movement’s recent major statement on intermarriage reasserts the ban on rabbis’ performing interfaith weddings, while urging its member synagogues to welcome interfaith couples in any and all ways before and after the nuptials.

The letter, signed by the leaders of the centrist movement’s four major institutions and made public Oct. 18, does not reflect a change in policy.

“A lot of rabbis felt like this latest letter really is non-news,” said Rabbi Jason Miller, who serves as a part-time pulpit rabbi in Toledo, Ohio.

The letter was prompted by declarations by a few Conservativeordained rabbis earlier this year that they would begin performing mixed marriages. It affirms “the traditional practice of reserving rabbinic officiation to two Jews,” but emphasizes that its authors are “equally adamant that our clergy and communities go out of their way to create multiple opportunities for deep and caring relationships between the couple and the rabbi, the couple and the community.”

Despite the effusive language welcoming non-Jewish partners, several leading Conservative rabbis are criticizing the letter, questioning why it was necessary and calling for the ban to be either lifted or modified.

Some rabbis say the letter is at best repetitive and at worst damaging— another reminder to interfaith couples that the movement does not sanctify their marriages.

“It comes off as digging its heels in the sand,” said Rabbi Jesse Olitzky of Congregation Beth El in South Orange, New Jersey. “It comes off as trying to be welcoming without being welcoming.”

Rabbi Jack Moline, the former rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation in

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synagogue, announced that they would begin performing intermarriages. So did Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, a JTS ordainee who heads the experimental congregation Lab/Shul in New York.

“More and more rabbis feel uncomfortable and even brokenhearted at being caught between the call to serve all of their families, and between the requirement of the Rabbinical Assembly,” said Rabbi Adina Lewittes of Sha’ar Communities in New Jersey and an interim rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun.

For intermarried couples, she said, the ban “causes them to question the appropriateness of their belonging in that community. It causes, often, a fatal blow to the relationship.” She announced in 2015 that she would officiate at intermarriages A Rabbinical Assembly commission has been examining the intermarriage prohibition, and Artson expects the group’s Jewish law committee to reexamine the ban soon.

One change might be a lifting of the ban on attending intermarriages performed by others, he suggested, something his letter “cracked open the door” to by recommending that rabbis be present throughout the wedding process for interfaith couples. This year, the movement took another step toward integrating interfaith couples by voting to allow synagogues to admit non-Jews as members.

Some of the rabbis who spoke to the JTA said the movement could go a step further, crafting a ceremony for interfaith couples that does not conform to the traditional Jewish wedding ritual, called “kiddushin.” Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, California, noted that the option for such a ceremony already exists in Conservative liturgy for same-sex couples.

“If the Conservative movement is truly a pluralist movement, there is room for more than one opinion even on the biggest questions,” he said.

“Jewish law and tradition can sanctify anything in the world.”

Miller, the Ohio rabbi, said the ban personally affected him when he couldn’t attend his cousin’s interfaith wedding—an abstention he said he would not repeat.

“I didn’t go to my cousin’s wedding because he married a non-Jewish woman, and it caused an unhealable fissure in our relationship,” he said. “I can’t afford for those relationships to be so hurt.”

NEW YORK & NATIONAL

“Fort Baruch”:

The Challenge of Prayer and Patrol

BY MAXINE DOVERE

Not many years ago, the sight of uniformed police officers on patrol near a synagogue was cause for alarm. Times have changed: In 2017, officers stationed at a synagogue’s gateway provide a level of comfort— assurance that all is well inside. In many synagogues, precinct officers often join house security forces to assure that only congregants and “praying guests” enter.

Community leadership and organizations have had to make safety and security a priority. At the Jewish Community Relations Council in New York (JCRC-NY), David Pollock, associate executive director and director of Public Policy and Security, liaises with the NYPD to develop methods to make Jewish and all community institutions safer and more secure.

A bulletin issued by the JCRC-NY provides several general directives to enhance security.

The power of planning is stressed; having predetermined, rehearsed response plans in place is essential. A chaotic response to an emergency situation is inefficient and can be dangerous.

To handle “ordinary” emergencies, said Pollock, “plan ahead, establish procedures and have someone in charge to make decisions.”

Access and egress control is key. Systems should be in place to authorize every person entering the building. Accommodating “known” persons while efficiently screening people with appointments or irregular work assignments is a vital first-line protection. The JCRC-NY suggests several methods of interior building control, including limited area access and the use of visible identifiers, such as badges, wristbands or ID cards.

The police are an important resource.

“Police are trained to handle emergencies. Build a relationship,” said Pollock. “The local police should be familiar with the building and with the programs and schedules.”

To effectively respond to an emergency or threat, leaders must know what to do. The JCRC-NY offers specific instructions for many types of threats.

Leaders must know what type of threat should trigger

an evacuation.

Every institution should have a pre-planned response to an “active shooter” alert (which includes not only guns but also knives and other weapons).

Have an emergency alert system in place. Panicked parents running towards a school under siege become additional targets. The JCRC-NY suggests establishing notification systems that employ multiple tools: email, text, phone lists, dedicated social media groups, free apps.

Security, done well, must be performed daily and involve everybody. Create a “culture of security.”

Everyone should feel responsible for reporting suspicious activity. “If you see something, say

and anything else that just doesn’t look right.

Stay current; security requires continuous training.

Institutions should “sign up for alerts to learn when the local and/or global security threat conditions change,” advises the JCRC-NY. Sources include JCRC-NY security alerts at jcrcny. org/security; NYPD alerts at https://www.nypdshield. org/public/signup.aspx; emergency alerts from Notify NYC; and your local emergency-management office. Also, be sure to have a weather app on your smartphone to receive warnings about severe weather.

Leadership and staff alike must be prepared; drills, according to Pollock, help people know instinctively what to do, and must be repeated at regular intervals.

Every terrorist attack, anti-Semitic incident or “action” in Israel raises the awareness of communal and lay leaders of the need for more security. A major deterrent to one type of all-too-common attack, “drive through” terrorism, is concrete protective “street furniture.” The late Sally Goodgold, a longtime JCRCNY board member and lay liaison to the NYPD, was an early proponent, encouraging the installation of “hard” barrier systems near vulnerable targets more than a decade ago. The results of her efforts can be seen at the perimeter of Jewish and other community buildings.

Synagogues and institutions should, by definition, be warm and welcoming. Limited access, obtained only after passing airport-style screening, does little to foster that atmosphere. The challenge is to balance the immediate and potential costs with the immediate dividends of welcome and involvement. Resources do exist. Funding, in the form of grants, is available. While people must feel safe, they must also feel the embrace of their synagogue “home.”

Synagogues and all community institutions have an additional resource in the Community Affairs Bureau’s commanding officer, Chief Joanne Jaffe. The chief has been on the force almost 40 years, and is the highest-ranking uniformed woman in the NYPD. She has held key positions in the NYPD, including command of the 19th Precinct on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the Intelligence Division and the Detective Bureau. Prior to her current assignment, she was involved with planning and policy development.

In an exclusive interview, Chief Jaffe told NYJL that Individual vigilance is essential. She stressed that not only synagogues, but all venues—schools and stadiums, hotels and public spaces—had to be considered possible targets.

Asked how the community could best protect itself from attacks, Jaffe replied that “each individual must be diligent, must be responsible. There is power in one.”

She also noted the long-term cooperation between the NYPD and its Israeli counterparts.

Whether it’s an extra layer of security for a building doorway, the officer on duty while Simchat Torah celebrants dance through the night, or a community celebrating the opening of a new religious facility, the NYPD is there to provide protection.

At least once a day, someone familiar with normal conditions should walk around the inside of the building and its perimeter looking for suspicious objects, items blocking evacuation routes and anything else that just doesn’t look right. something” should be part of the culture of security.

The good guys may not be the only ones watching.

“Be aware of hostile surveillance,” said Pollock.

Call the NYPD at (888) NYC-SAFE; outside NYC, call (866) SAFE-NYS. Pollock noted that there is a wide range of advisory material available free online. The NYPD offers “Indicators of Terrorist Activity”; the AntiDefamation League (ADL)—at adl.org/security— provides “A Guide to Detecting Surveillance of Jewish Institutions”; and Global Security Risk Management, LLC, offers “Security Awareness” by Paul DeMatteis.

Things change, even in a known setting. Schedule a “regular walkaround.” At least once a day, someone familiar with normal conditions should walk around the inside of the building and its perimeter looking for suspicious objects, items blocking evacuation routes

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 13

NEW YORK & NATIONAL

Educating the Generations:

PAS Community Dedicates the Eli M. Black Learning Center

BY MAXINE DOVERE

There was dancing in the streets, singing on the stage, and sweets and celebrations for all as over a thousand congregants and friends gathered Oct. 15 on 89th Street to inaugurate the Park Avenue Synagogue (PAS) Eli M. Black Lifelong Learning Center. The center is named in honor of a Polish-born American rabbi turned businessman, for whom, said his son Leon, Jewish education was an essential part of his American Dream.

Educated at Yeshiva University, Eliyahu Menashe Blachowitz—later “Black”—spent three years as a rabbi. Reading from a 1942 sermon presented by Eli Black, then a young Orthodox rabbi in Woodmere, New York, Leon Black conveyed the gratitude his father felt toward America and the important responsibility he believed the American Jewish community has for the continuity of Judaism.

Eli Black was active in Jewish and secular philanthropies including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Jewish Committee, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, Babson College, the Jewish Guild for the Blind and the Jewish

Park Avenue Synagogue

14 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

Museum, and was chairman of Commentary magazine’s publication committee. Black left the rabbinate to enter business, first working at Lehman Brothers and eventually becoming chairman, president and CEO of the international United Brands Company. However, he never abandoned his love of Jewish learning, said Leon, a founder, chairman of the board, CEO and director of Apollo Global Management.

The dedication of the Eli M. Black Lifelong Learning Center was part of the facility rejuvenation of the 135-year-old Park Avenue Synagogue. Founded as Agudat Yesharim, the Upper East Side congregation’s state-of-the-art, multimedia learning, worship and activity center “is the midpoint of the creation of a vibrant campus linking the new LLC with the congregation’s historic home at 50 East 87th St.,” said synagogue chairman Art Penn. The 87th Street community house will be renovated and reconfigured, with project completion anticipated for the fall of 2019.

Speaking with audible emotion, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove said, “The Eli M. Black Lifelong Learning Center is an expression of our hopes and dreams toward creating lives of Torah….

At every stage of life, our tradition teaches that each one of us is capable of learning and observing our sacred tradition….This extension of our synagogue will house incalculable opportunities for intellectual engagement, spiritual uplift and communal connection.”

Art Penn, Board of Trustees chairman, explained, “Four years ago, we created a plan to address our need for growth….

We envisioned a new lifelong learning center on 89th Street and a renewed 87th Street building that together would create a center for prayer, learning and community.”

“The payoff will be in 2019. People will see a building with magnificent natural light—a beautiful new chapel and more community rooms.”

–Art Penn, Board of Trustees chairman, Park Avenue Synagogue

Housed in a landmarked 1913 townhouse, the contemporary interior—designed by Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects, specialists in “religious” design—provides 12,000 square feet of accessible learning and community facilities on seven floors and two rooftop spaces. Amy Reichert, an architect and Judaica artist, designed the contemporary art installations, chapel ark, eternal light and reading table “to embody the building’s educational and spiritual mission.” A sky-lit glass stairwell in the building’s core features abstract expressionist artist Adolph Gottlieb’s stained-glass windows depicting Jewish holidays, originally designed in 1954 for the façade of the synagogue’s former Milton Steinberg House, an artistic link to the refurbished 87th Street building.

The center will house the congregational school attended by nearly 500 children.

Honorary co-chairs John B. Hess, Leon D. Black, Ralph Lauren and David Simon headed the capital campaign, “A Synagogue in Action: Building the Future.” Steering committee members included Penn; Cosgrove; Andrea Bauman Lustig, Capital Campaign chair; Marc Becker, Space Committee co-chair; and Beryl P. Chernov, executive director.

In an exclusive conversation, Penn told NYJL, “Our

NEW YORK & NATIONAL

existing facilities were bursting at the seams. Space was needed for more engagement.”

He noted that “the last significant building project was completed in 1982. [The sanctuary was constructed in 1927, and an additional space was added in 1954.] Nothing had been done for a generation.”

The Black building is the first phase. He explained that two years from now, PAS will open a totally revitalized 87th Street facility with totally different space. More than $79 million was contributed by more than a thousand donors.

The site, close to PAS, “meets our space needs and gives us the ability to not be ‘thrown into the wilderness’ during the next two years,” said Penn.

He noted that the sanctuary will remain open throughout the construction. For 16-18 months, congregational activity will be split between the 87th Street sanctuary and the Black Center.

“The payoff will be in 2019,” said Penn. “People will see a building with magnificent natural light—a beautiful new chapel and more community rooms.”

Asked why the synagogue had not expanded its Madison Avenue structure, Penn responded that vertical expansion is a very difficult process involving complicated engineering. He explained that it could involve taking down the existing building, calling it “a project for the next generation, not this time around.”

Asked what the most exciting aspect of the project was for him, Penn told NYJL it was “to see our community’s vibrant engagement. It’s not just about the dollars; it’s about participation. It can never be about bricks and mortar. There’s something more important: our community heritage.”

The youngest member of the current building committee is in his 30s. Of that member, Penn said, “He has to view participation—as did those on earlier committees—not only as sheer engagement, but for his kids and grandchildren as well.”

He added that several members of the 1980 building committee are still active in the synagogue.

“The campaign shows an optimistic vision of an American Jewish community,” said Penn. “When you combine members who prioritize Judaism with terrific clergy, the combination is vibrant. We need members who care and clergy who inspire!

“There’s always the go–no-go decision. It’s a big thing, and it takes a lot of money to engage the community, execute a project, get it done and make it work.

“The go–no-go decision moment for PAS was 2014,” Penn concluded. “We had lay leadership that had conviction to work, wisdom and wealth. We were getting the sense that we could. It’s a team—not only money.”

Said Craig Solomon, co-chair of the Space Committee, “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with extraordinary leadership and to be doing my small part to help the community establish its physical presence. This was an extraordinary collaboration among staff and lay leaders representing all aspects of this vibrant, thriving and rapidly growing institution….I’ve come to understand that PAS has something to offer everyone in an extraordinary community.”

Back to the Basics:

Seeking Security and Civil Rights

BY MAXINE DOVERE

“Every year,” said the New York Board of Rabbis (NYBR) 63rd president, Gideon Shloush, “Jews leave their homes to sit in a fragile place—a reminder that although we all try to build secure structures where we feel safe, the reality is that our security is only an illusion of security….The sukkah reminds us that real security comes from G-d.”

As he raised his voice in prayer, the rabbi remembered those killed and injured in Las Vegas, praised the first responders and called for a prayer for peace.

When Rabbi Joseph “Joe” Potasnik, NYBR executive vice president, took Errol Louis the podium, he, as always, added his special humor: “What is the meaning of the sukkah? It’s the one time of the year when Jewish men pick up a hammer….” On a more serious note, the rabbi called the sukkah “a reminder that nothing is permanent.”

To be a proud Jew is the message of Sukkot, said Potasnik, citing two examples of which Jews in America can be proud: the Supreme Court’s recognition of Yom Kippur by not being in session; and the support lent to the Charlottesville Jewish community by local Christian communities, which formed a protective guard around the synagogue “to ensure the safety of every Jew.” The NYBR honored Errol Louis, host of NY1’s Inside City Hall. In his introduction, Potasnik called him “a great political commentator.”

“As a political journalist,” responded Louis, “it’s fun and fascinating to sort out all the facts. We are in some tough times right now. A spirit of discontent is in the land.”

He cited activism on “the street,” the economic protest against the “financial street” by the Occupy Wall Street movement, Black Lives Matter and other movements that cumulatively helped determine the outcome of the last election.

“There’s no shortage of things to protest about.

Faith communities are leading the way…at a time of great difficulty for many in the city. There is a lot of need and not nearly enough money to go around….We have a lot of work to do,” Louis told the rabbis and other leaders present.

Focusing on New York State voting regulations, he called them “rules devised to keep people from participating…mostly designed to discourage people from voting, creating a system of voter suppression— at minimum, of voter discouragement.”

He proposed that we “amend our bloated state constitution, [one] full of anachronisms. A provision on the ballot asks if we should have a constitutional convention. Voting is a civil right calling for equality both in the voting booth and before the law….We’re all equal in the eyes of G-d.”

“Go back to the original tenet of civil rights—the right to vote and have the vote count equally. It’s a city that needs you, rabbis, more than ever before.”

Honoree Louis and NBC’s David Ushery, the program’s MC, each received tzedakah (charity) boxes presented by Rabbi Lester Bronstein, NYBR vice president.

Said Bronstein, “The spirit of generosity is the spirit that propels goodness in the world.”

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 15

FOOD & CULTURE

Making Havdalah the “High” Point of the Week

BY LUCY COHEN BLATTER

NEW YORK (JTA) — Marijuana entrepreneur Catherine Goldberg was working on an event with the Orthodox founders of Mitzva Herbal, a company that makes kosher-certified cannabis-infused edibles, when she shared her dream of uniting marijuanaloving Jews over Friday-night dinners.

“They were, like, ‘Cat, we can’t smoke on Shabbat,’” Goldberg, 28, recalled. “So I figured havdalah, instead, was perfect.”

Thus “Chai Havdalah”—in which “chai” is pronounced “high”—was born.

Since July it has become a somewhat regular event, advertised by word of mouth, that marks the end of Shabbat with the traditional Havdalah blessing alongside the less traditional acts of smoking marijuana and eating cannabis-infused edibles.

So far there have been five Chai Havdalah events, mostly in the herb-friendly states of California and Colorado. But last weekend, on the second floor of a brownstone in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, about three dozen people gathered to smoke pot, listen to the sounds of a local hip-hop duo, bid farewell to Shabbat and usher in a new week.

“I love being Jewish and I love weed, so it made sense to bring my two passions together,” Goldberg said on the night of Saturday, Oct. 14, wearing a shirt with the words “Let’s Get Chai.” “I wanted to show people that Judaism can be really fun and it doesn’t mean you have to go to temple. I wanted to build a community around food and a new way of doing things.”

She added, “Jewish people have been proven to have high rates of anxiety, and weed helps with anxiety.”

Unlike in Colorado, where recreational marijuana use became legal in 2014, and in California, where

16 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

possession is legal and adults may buy it from licensed retailers beginning next year, marijuana is not legal in New York.

Nonetheless, Goldberg said, “I’ve always wanted to do events in New York because I know there are so many great artists who would take part.”

Every Chai Havdalah has featured some sort of performance. In Brooklyn, KillinH8 rapped about topics including Judaism and gender nonbinary identity. One half of the group, who calls herself “Hila the Killa,” sang some lyrics in Hebrew.

Goldberg, who lives in Los Angeles, is on a mission to spread the gospel of marijuana; she frequently writes about her passion for weed for High Times magazine. In a recent column, she explained how cannabis can help fulfill the Jewish ideal of “tikkun olam,” or healing the world.

“Once we heal ourselves, we can heal our friends and family,” she wrote. “There’s a massive amount of sickness and sadness and suffering in the world.

Cannabis can’t fix any of those problems. But it can help us feel calmer, smarter and more focused. It can help us eat to be stronger and feel less pain. It can help put us in the mindset to perform at our best in order to take on the challenges of the world.”

Goldberg said she grew up “super Reform” in Florida, but started to get more involved Jewishly while at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, when she began attending Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), a Manhattan synagogue with a congregation that is largely gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer.

“I hated going to temple in Miami; I was always worried that someone would find out that I was gay,” she said. “Or I was just frustrated that I had to dress up. CBST was just an amazing place to be myself.”

Around the same time, she got into marijuana— partly, she said, to help with her anxiety and obsessivecompulsive disorder.

Cannabis-infused Jewish delicacies, of various levels of potency, were on offer at the Brooklyn party.

PHOTO BY LUCY COHEN BLATTER

In addition to hosting marijuana-focused events, she curates a cannabis gift box called The Weekend Box and runs BrainBuzz, a content marketing company for the cannabis industry. She’s keen to promote marijuana’s positive effects, especially in helping to reduce pain and “quiet the mind,” which is why she uses it. Goldberg uses cannabis several times a day, starting with her morning coffee.

And there are many applications, she noted.

Cannabis-infused lotion, for example, should be in every old-age home in the country, she said.

“It’s a great, natural painkiller,” she said. (She had some on hand at the Saturday-night event and rubbed it on a reporter’s hands. No immediate effects were felt.)

“I think the sense of joy and warmth and community that comes out of these events is a great way to start the week,” she said of the Chai Havdalah parties.

“Also, since we don’t serve alcohol, no one ever wakes up with a hangover. It’s just a new way to socialize and have fun.”

Of course, as at any good weed event, tasty food is included. The “chef du cannabis” in Brooklyn was Alex Koones, who runs Babetown—a monthly pop-up supper club for queer women and trans and nonbinary people—and also dabbles in weed-infused cooking.

“I use weed oil or butter the same way I’d use regular oil or butter,” Koones said.

For the squash latkes, for example, the onions were sautéed in weed oil. Other edible options included pumpkin blintzes and pear rugelach.

Karen Benezra, whom Goldberg met through CBST, performed the Havdalah service at the event. Holding a rainbow-braided candle, Benezra led the group in tunes from Debbie Friedman as Goldberg stood by wearing a shirt featuring a Star of David drawn with rolled marijuana joints. While Benezra said she’s not a regular user of marijuana the way Goldberg is, she is pro-cannabis.

“I recognize that it has a lot of medicinal purposes we’re just learning about,” she said.

Goldberg is also making her dream of a weedfriendly Friday-night dinner a reality: Her first Elevated Shabbat dinner, which will pair courses with different types of marijuana, will be in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. Adults 21 and older with medical-marijuana cards may smoke marijuana, even though it’s Shabbat, when tradition forbids smoking of any kind.

“It’s a much more laid-back, Reform-type of party,” she said.

Goldberg plans to keep more Jewish-cannabis events coming.

“We’re gonna do a medicated seder, a ‘Let’s Get Lit’ Hanukkah event and something for Purim, too,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff happening.”

“I want weed to be as mainstream as coffee and energy drinks. I want people to understand that this is a plant-based medicine that Hashem grew.”

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.

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www.hispanicfederation.org/unidos OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 17

EDUCATION

New York City Schools Are Preparing to Serve Students Impacted by Hurricane Maria

BY CHRISTINA VEIGA

(CHALKBEAT) — Just weeks after Hurricane Maria traced a deadly path across the Caribbean, The New American Academy Charter School in Flatbush, Brooklyn, got a call.

It was a family member looking for a school for two young relatives after their home on Dominica was wrecked, along with most of the small island.

Before long, the students were enrolled in kindergarten and first grade, respectively. The school quickly gave the family a scholarship for after-school care and provided free uniforms—even including new shoes, socks and underwear.

“They lost everything,” said Lisa Parquette Silva, the school’s headmaster. “As soon as I heard these two students needed a place, it was not a question.”

New York City is preparing to potentially welcome an influx of students fleeing from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands after the powerful hurricane struck in September, knocking out power grids and flattening homes. The leaders of the country’s largest school system insist they are ready for whoever comes.

“We are going to do whatever we can to support and accommodate them,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a recent press conference, “starting with our public schools.”

Hundreds of thousands could flee from Puerto Rico. As home to some of the largest Caribbean communities on the mainland, New York City is a logical place for many of those people to land. They are likely to bring with them an untold number of children who need to enroll in schools—though officials say it’s hard to know how many until they actually arrive.

18 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

Already, the Orlando school system reported enrolling almost 300 students from Puerto Rico as of last week. In Miami-Dade, the number was around 200.

In New York City, schools have not yet seen a significant uptick in enrollment, officials said. The few students who have arrived have landed in Bronx and Brooklyn schools, they added.

Serving students who arrive from hurricanedevastated areas will likely require a host of extra resources. The Miami-Dade school system is expecting to spend $2,200 for every student the district takes in, according to The Wall Street Journal.

New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said the city has sent representatives to Puerto Rico to assess how the situation there could impact schools.

Meanwhile, the education department has begun to survey principals here to find out which schools have space to take in new students—and assured those schools that they would get extra funding. Guidance counselors are being trained to meet storm survivors’ unique needs.

“Money will be allotted to those schools to be able to service those children,” Fariña said at the press conference, “understanding in many cases there may be extra support needed for families and trauma.”

The state education department recently issued guidance for schools, saying children who have fled from a disaster are likely protected by federal law for homeless students. Under the law, districts can waive documentation requirements for school enrollment—which the city is doing at its Family Welcome centers—and students are eligible for free

meals.

Nicholas Tishuk, executive director of Bedford Stuyvesant New Beginnings charter school in Brooklyn, said he is already fielding calls from people who are looking for schools as they consider whether to bring over family members from Puerto Rico.

The independent charter school recently packed a van with donated lanterns, batteries and water to be shipped to the island. School leaders have also put the word out that they are ready to enroll students impacted by the storm.

If the school runs out of space, Tishuk hopes it can still serve as a clearinghouse to put families in touch with other local options.

“A school can be a very powerful place to get extra resources,” he said, noting that New Beginnings has a bilingual staff that regularly collaborates with social-service agencies. “Even if it’s not our school, you should reach out to a school that can help you connect to those resources.”

Schools that take in displaced students will most likely have to offer bilingual classes and provide counselors who can support children who have been separated from their parents and are living in the city with relatives.

Eve Colavito, director of schools for DREAM charter school in East Harlem, said one of the most important things schools can provide is stability.

The school, which encompasses pre-K through ninth grade, enrolled a middle school student from Puerto Rico this week.

“Our goal initially,” she said, “is to make school as normal and predictable as possible for them.”

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

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PERSPECTIVE

Eager for the US to Pull Out of UNESCO? Not So Fast.

BY KENNETH JACOBSON

(JTA) — Here we go again: The issue of how toward UNESCO remain pretty much what they have and why the United States should engage with the been for years.

Those who argue for leaving conclude that America United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural should not be a party to an institution that engages Organization is back in the news.

The announcement by the Trump administration in such egregious behavior. And if we are ever going that the United States will be pulling out of UNESCO to get UNESCO back to first principles we need to over its biased treatment of Israel is only the latest be firm, tough and consistent. The United States manifestation of a fraught relationship between can always return as a full member, and for now can continue to provide American perspective and America and this U.N. body.

Established soon after World War II as an effort expertise as a nonmember observer.

Pulling out is “a courageous and ethical decision to ensure the de-Nazification in Germany and the promotion of democratic values, UNESCO took a because UNESCO has become a theater of the absurd more complicated turn in later decades. While still and instead of preserving history, distorts it,” Israeli doing important work in preserving cultural heritages Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in and reinforcing the value of education, science and response to the U.S. announcement.

Advocates of continuing support agree that culture, UNESCO also entered treacherous terrain in two areas: Reflecting its huge expansion in the 1960s UNESCO does disturbing things, particularly through and ’70s consisting mostly of new emerging states, it resolutions passed by various committees, including began to challenge Western notions of a free press and its executive board, that condemn Israel and even, at the independence of journalism from government; times, seem to deny the legitimacy of Israeli historic and, echoing the trend in the General Assembly and claims to the land of Israel. Still, they argue, the other U.N. bodies, it singled out Israel as an alleged organization does a lot of good work in the scientific, major violator of cultural and religious sites dear to educational and cultural fields that particularly benefits less-developed nations. This work includes Muslims and Palestinians.

This combination of behavior led the United States to take action on three occasions. The first was in 1974, when Congress suspended appropriations to UNESCO because the U.N. body had excluded Israel from a regional working group.

The second was in 1983, when the United States pulled out of UNESCO, saying the body has shown hostility to a free market and a free press.

And in 2011, Congress again cut funding to UNESCO, citing the organization’s recognition of the Palestinian Authority as a member, in violation of U.S. law going back to The UNESCO the early 1990s, requiring cuts to any headquarters in Paris U.N. agency if the “State of Palestine” was accepted as a full member.

The arguments about U.S. policy PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

20 | NYJLIFE.COM | OCT. 25 – 31, 2017

Holocaust education and efforts to counter violent extremism.

Moreover, proponents argue, even though the United States loses many votes, it should stay in and fund the body because the potential for influence and changing minds is far greater from inside than outside. And since most of the voting decisions are made by member-states themselves, the United States is best positioned to change behaviors through direct diplomacy with those countries and not through punishing UNESCO itself.

Then there are questions of timing and context.

UNESCO’s executive board just elected a new director of the organization, turning down the original favorite, Qatari diplomat Hamad bin Abdulaziz alKawari, who is known for his history of anti-Semitism.

Instead they chose a French diplomat, Audrey Azoulay, a former culture minister who also happens to be Jewish. While Azoulay has voiced criticism of Israel in the past, she at least offers the possibility of tempering the institution’s bias against the Jewish state.

While the director-general does not have the power to cancel votes, the outgoing diplomat in that position, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, was an outspoken critic of anti-Israel politicization at UNESCO and made great efforts behind the scenes to mitigate extreme campaigns. Should we not give Ms. Azoulay a chance to improve the situation?

On a broader scale, the Trump administration’s decision comes at a time when our allies and adversaries are questioning American leadership in the world. With all the mistakes of our foreign policy, U.S. leadership for almost 70 years has been good for the world and good for the Jewish people.

In that regard, this move may well be seen as inconsistent with American values and tradition, and one more step of dismantling the unique role America has played on the world scene for decades.

In sum, despite its legitimate concerns, America will be shooting itself in the foot by leaving.

Both sides make valid claims. This is no slam dunk.

It is always encouraging to see a U.S. administration taking a strong, principled position based on its rejection of institutional bias against the state of Israel. This sets a good example.

If only many of our allies would be as interested in standing up for Israel when it is under unfair attack, Israel not only would be in a better place, but chances for peace would increase and the reputation and functioning of the United Nations would rise to a higher level.

The most recent UNESCO vote condemning Israel for its actions in Hebron did show more nations willing to abstain or even vote “no,” but not nearly enough to change the outcome.

The U.S. decision on UNESCO has been announced, but there is still time before it is implemented. A further discussion and assessment are in order even if we end up in the very same place.

Ken Jacobson is deputy national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

PERSPECTIVE

Israel and Africa Need Each Other

BY YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Jewish month that began this week, Cheshvan, has traditionally been dubbed “mar” (bitter), because it alone among the months is devoid of any holidays.

It is time for the Jewish people, and the Jewish calendar, to drop mar from Cheshvan, since it is blessed with one of the most remarkable and sweetest Jewish holidays: Sigd.

At the end of Cheshvan for well over a thousand years, the Jewish community of Ethiopia would dress in white, climb Mount Ambover in Gondar and pray for their redemption and aliyah to Jerusalem. The miraculous airlifts and rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, and the subsequent aliyah of tens of thousands more, stands as one of the proudest moments in Jewish history and a shining example of what Jewish peoplehood can accomplish against great odds. Now the Ethiopian community celebrates Sigd en masse on the Haas Promenade, overlooking the Old City, with prayer, music and speeches. Israeli schools are starting to celebrate Sigd, as should Jewish schools worldwide.

Africa has gifted to the Jewish people sweetness and hope on Cheshvan, which is also Jewish Social Action Month, when we turn outward as a community.

I have accompanied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to Africa over the past several years, promoting not only a solarpowered vision for the continent but an enlightened Israeli policy of becoming a superpower of goodness. Israeli water-, agricultural-, medical- and greenenergy technology and investments can play a transformative role by uplifting the dignity of hundreds of millions of people. And with a quarter of the votes in the U.N. General Assembly belonging to Africa, as well as two swing votes

on the Security Council, there are diplomatic benefits for Israel as well.

It is no wonder that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby), had for the first time an African head of state— President Paul Kagame of Rwanda— address 15,000 activists at its annual policy conference earlier this year. And the African Institute of the American Jewish Committee has not only lobbied African ambassadors to the United Nations, but also has been sponsoring them on transformative fact-finding missions to Israel.

The push into Africa has deep roots in the Zionist narrative. In Theodor Herzl’s day, Africa was ruled and exploited by European empires.

“There is still one other question arising out of the disaster of nations which remains unsolved to this day, and whose profound tragedy only a Jew can comprehend. This is the African question,” Herzl wrote in his diary in 1901. “Once I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my people, I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africans.”

While Herzl himself didn’t witness the creation of the state of Israel, Golda Meir did. And when she became foreign minister, she set out in 1958 on an African tour that led to the creation of Israel’s famed international agency for international development, Mashav.

When Netanyahu declares that “Israel is coming back to Africa,” he is channeling Golda. And when he says that “Africa is coming back to Israel,” he’s channeling Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the “Lion of Judah,” who claimed King Solomon as an ancestor.

The challenges facing Africa, and the potential for African-Israeli partnerships to address them, are staggering. There are 600 million Africans without access to electricity

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeting Liberians upon arriving at the airport in Monrovia, June 4, 2017 PHOTO COURTESY OF PRIME MINISTRY OF ISRAEL/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

and 300 million without access to clean water. A famine sweeping East Africa affects 16 million people, including the hungry 2,000-member Abayudaya Jewish community in eastern Uganda.

At the same time, Africa boasts 11 of the 20 fastest-growing economies on the planet, according to the World Bank, and its billion-plus population will double by 2050.

For this economic and humanitarian potential to be unleashed, at least two obstacles have to be overcome—oneself-inflicted, the other political.

The self-inflicted thorn in the side of Israeli-African relations has been the treatment of African asylum-seekers in Israel. The Israeli High Court has consistently ruled against the government’s treatment of the 46,000 people considered “infiltrators,” as if those fleeing Eritrea and Sudan— both cruel dictatorships—are simply economic refugees.

A new strategy is needed: turning over to Mashav the Holot Detention Center to train Africans in the latest Israeli water-, agricultural- and greenenergy technologies. Those who would graduate and leave voluntarily could be emissaries from Israel on how to transform Africa, and they would have the skills to begin their lives anew and prosper. Plenty of African countries would line up to woo these newly skilled Africans if they brought the blessing of Israeli knowhow, technology and investments with them.

Mostly political threats led to the postponement of an Africa Israel Summit with African heads of state and Israeli leaders that was supposed to

take place in Lome, Togo, at the end of October. The postponement was due to a toxic combination of political unrest in the West African state, a concerted effort by South Africa and Morocco to undermine it, and the mounting political and legal challenges that the Israeli prime minister faces at home.

Even so, the pace of African-Israeli engagement on many levels continues to increase, especially with Christian heads of state.

The best answer to the diplomatic pressure that caused the postponement of the Africa Israel Summit would be for Netanyahu to appoint Knesset member Avraham Neguise as Israel’s foreign minister. Dr. Neguise, a Likud member, is the only Ethiopian member of the 20th Knesset and was seated strategically next to Sara Netanyahu when her husband wowed the Ethiopian parliament last year.

Netanyahu currently holds the foreign minister portfolio.

Sixty years after Golda Meir’s historic mission to Africa, it is time for Israel to have an African foreign minister. This will be met joyfully by world Jewry and the world at large, sealing Cheshvan’s transformed sweet status and elevating the Israeli-African story into our mainstream consciousness.

Yosef I. Abramowitz serves as CEO of Energiya Global Capital, a Jerusalembased impact investment platform, and is a founding partner of the U.S. Power Africa program. He is co-author with Sharon Udasin of the forthcoming Shine on! A Solar Superhero’s Journey to Save the World. Follow Abramowitz @ KaptainSunshine.

OCT. 25 – 31, 2017 | NYJLIFE.COM | 21

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