Winter 2016

Winter 5777/2016

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

NAVIGATING LIFE

TRANSITIONS

Vol. 77, No. 2 • $5.50

JEWISH ACTION

WINTER 5777/2016

SPECIAL SECTION

50 American Jewry: Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading? Two Views Marvin Schick; Antony Gordon and Richard M. Horowitz

FAITH 10 From West Lafayette to Jerusalem: Revisiting Indiana’s Orthodox Simons

By Steve Lipman TRIBUTE

2

JEWISH HISTORY 18 “I Have Also Engaged in This Work of Heaven”: The Vital Contribution of Women to Hebrew Printing

By Eli Genauer

4

22 Voices of the Past:

Early Orthodox Women Writers

By Faigy Grunfeld

JEWISH UNITY

32 The Kidney Connection:

The Life-Saving Power of Jewish Unity

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

COVER STORY

42 Navigating Life Transitions

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

LETTERS

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Reflections on My Presidency

By Martin Nachimson FROM THE DESK OF ALLEN I. FAGIN

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Fusing Timeless Torah with Tomorrow's Innovation

CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

By Gerald M. Schreck

8

PROFILE 60 Fifty Years of Neshamah: Cantor Sherwood Goffin A legendary cantor retires after fifty years of service

By David Olivestone

JEWISH LAW 28 Zika in Halachah

By Edward Reichman

70 On and Off the Beaten Track Chanukah and all year . . . in Gush Etzion

By Peter Abelow

72 INSIDE THE OU

14 Remembering Rav Yehuda Cooperman

By Immanuel Bernstein

VOL. 77, NO. 2

JUST BETWEEN US 64 Anatomy of a Blessing

By Binyamin Ehrenkranz

THE CHEF’S TABLE 82 Chanukah Specialties—Delicious Spins on Tradition

By Norene Gilletz LEGAL-EASE 88 What’s the Truth About . . .

Standing for a Chatan and Kallah?

By Ari Z. Zivotofsky BOOKS 90 Reviews in Brief

By Gil Student

94 Seminary Savvy: Every Girl’s Guide to a Successful, Safe, and Satisfying Experience—in Seminary & Beyond

By Debbie Fox with Michal Eisikowitz Reviewed by Elisheva Kaminetsky

LASTING IMPRESSIONS 96 Making Latkes in DC

By Steve Lipman

ISRAEL 66 Giving and Getting: Volunteerism in Israel

By Irv Cantor PAGE 22

WELLNESS REPORT 80 Goodbye Soup Mix, Hello Chicken: The Less-Processed Shabbat

By Shira Isenberg

PAGE 32

PAGE 60

PAGE 66

Cover: Andres Moncayo Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism.

Therefore, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

Jewish Action is published by the Orthodox Union • 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 212.563.4000.

Printed Quarterly—Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, plus Special Passover issue. ISSN No. 0447-7049. Subscription: $16.00 per year; Canadian, $20.00; Overseas, $60.00. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional offices.

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 1

Letters Searching for One’s Roots It’s great to see Jewish Action devote attention to the topic of genealogy. Bayla Sheva Brenner has written a number of meaningful pieces on the topic, most recently an article exploring the Orthodoxy of a handful of families who arrived in the US in the early part of the twentieth century or earlier (“Unbroken Faith: American Jewish Families Who Defied the Odds,” spring 2016).

Growing up in my Orthodox family, I often heard that the Harrises had come to America in the late-1800s. I knew bits of information about my great-grandparents from both sides, and some of the stories that were told over. Four years ago, I started genealogical research.

After repeat visits to the Bayside Cemetery in Queens where I discovered the graves of many Harris family members, and after spending time scrutinizing records on a number of genealogy sites, I found additional relatives, my family’s original name (it had been changed to Harris), our family’s town of origin in Poland and stories that would interest not only family members but others as well.

The high point was one Motzaei Shabbat, turning on the computer and reading a Hamburg-outbound ship log from 1887. I looked line by line for my great-great-grandparents, having only their first names to work with. The log was in German, but readable, and I found their first names with their last names somewhere after entry no. 50 in the ledger. Bingo.

While genealogy can become a consuming hobby, replete with sleuthing, it’s really about wanting to connect to the past and the future. It reminds us to take charge now of what messages and meaning we will impart to the generations that will follow us.

Being a photographer and filmmaker with an active interest in genealogy, I started The

c

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Family Documentary Project (http://judahsharris.com/familydocumentary-project) to help other families explore their history and ponder the best ways to share a coherent and accurate message with those who will want to know about us—and thereby themselves—in the years to come.

JUDAH S. HARRIS Kew Gardens Hills, New York.

Women Leaders Your section on eight dynamic women leaders was most interesting (“Women Leaders Speak . . . about Their Work, Their Choices, Their Lives,” summer 2016). Other examples could be added to this roster of accomplished women who make a difference in the Jewish world. My nomination goes to Rebbetzin Pearl Borow.

Pearl has taught a variety of classes on Chumash, Navi, Ketuvim and other Judaic subjects for more than sixty years. Her students, in the US and in Israel, range from those with little or no Judaic background to those who are fluent with texts and commentaries, and have included all ages, from youth to seniors. She is a true role model, representing a forever-young senior citizen who continues to learn, reminding us that learning and teaching know no age barriers. c

ESTELLE P. HARRIS Jerusalem, Israel

I enjoyed the recent symposium on women leaders. However, I was perplexed by the choice of participants. Not to detract from the eight amazing women who shared their stories, I counted two campus educators, two journalists and at least two women involved in adult education, but not even one woman involved in Jewish day school or high school education. As our community is blessed with a plethora of fantastic women who serve as principals, c

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION www.ou.org/jewish_action

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Assistant Editor Sara Olson Literary Editor Emeritus Matis Greenblatt Book Editor Rabbi Gil Student Contributing Editors Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein • Dr. Judith Bleich Rabbi Emanuel Feldman • Rabbi Hillel Goldberg Rabbi Sol Roth • Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter Rabbi Berel Wein Editorial Committee Rabbi David Bashevkin • Rabbi Binyamin Ehrenkranz Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer • David Olivestone Gerald M. Schreck • Rabbi Gil Student Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Director, Design & Branding Carrie Beylus Design Deena Katzenstein Advertising Sales Joseph Jacobs Advertising • 201.591.1713 arosenfeld@josephjacobs.org

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ORTHODOX UNION Executive Vice President/Chief Professional Officer Allen I. Fagin Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Chief Institutional Advancement Officer Arnold Gerson Senior Managing Director Rabbi Steven Weil Director of Marketing and Communications Gary Magder Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer Shlomo Schwartz Chief Human Resources Officer Rabbi Lenny Bessler Chief Information Officer Samuel Davidovics President Martin Nachimson Chairman of the Board Howard Tzvi Friedman Vice Chairman of the Board Mordecai D. Katz Chairman, Board of Governors Henry Rothman Vice Chairman, Board of Governors Gerald M. Schreck Jewish Action Committee Gerald M. Schreck, Chairman Joel M. Schreiber, Chairman Emeritus © Copyright 2016 by the Orthodox Union.

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administrators and teachers in the Jewish school system, I am baffled by the oversight.

Obviously, those in the educational field rarely make headlines for what they do on a daily basis. However, if leadership is about showing others the possibilities that lie before them and giving them the tools to attain those possibilities, then few do it as often or as effectively as those working with our children every day.

AARON ROSS Bergenfield, New Jersey

A Beloved Teacher I delighted in the recent musings about my former English teacher Dr. Susan Katz, aka “Miss G.” (“Tribute to a Teacher,” fall 2016). About twenty years after Miss G. had been my teacher at Esther Schoenfeld High School, she was my “boss” at Shulamith High School for Girls in Brooklyn. Working for her was a pleasure. Dr. Katz always looked for something positive to say to teacher and student alike. She was erudite, fun and firm in her convictions. The curriculum was enriched with trips, performances and unique experiences like an annual trip to a production of Gilbert and Sullivan and a staffstudent baseball game. c

A teacher holds a very special place in the lives of young people: a teacher can make or break a child’s love of learning and desire to explore the world’s wonders. I remember well a trip my family took to Sweden when I was in college, and my father made a special point to find and introduce us to his elementary school Ivrit teacher—a Hungarian refugee from Nazi Europe who instilled a life-long love of Hebrew literature and language in the scant few Jewish students living in Stockholm. So it was a great pleasure to read your tributes to teachers—and to find my own beloved English teacher, Susan Katz, among them.

You missed a portion of her pedagogical life—Dr. Katz taught high school English in HILI in New York (now HAFTR). She opened our eyes to the beauty of literature, poetry and theater.

We presented plays—with great verve, if not talent—for the whole community; we learned to analyze and appreciate poetry and fine writing. But perhaps most important of all, she was the first English teacher I ever had who wore a hat, and who was able to share with us her joy of combining love of Torah studies and secular studies. It was a lesson I carried forward to this day, and I have Dr. Susan Katz in many ways to thank for it. g

c

BARBARA LEHMANN SIEGEL Chair, OU Commission of Synagogue and Community Services Silver Spring, Maryland

SHOSHANA ZAKON Brooklyn, New York

MOST COLLEGE TEAMS PLAY

SPORTS ON SHABBAT MANY UNIVERSITIES HAVE exams on yom tov OTHER SCHOOLS SUPPORT bds on campus

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 3

President’s Message

By Martin Nachimson

Reflections on My Presidency

A

s many of you know, this is my last column in these pages as my term as president will come to an end this January. Reflecting on my presidency, I feel a sense of immense pride. I am truly amazed at the extraordinary changes that have taken place at the OU in four short years. I do not say this boastfully—I give full credit to the talented professional at my side: Allen Fagin, executive vice president of the OU. Remarkably, in a brief period of time, Allen, drawing upon his background as former chairman of a major law firm, has managed to dramatically change the professional culture at the OU. The changes, implemented at a dizzying pace, have not only helped make our programs and services more efficient and effective, they have helped make the OU an indisputable leader in the world of Jewish nonprofits.

The OU is a complex, diverse and multi-faceted organization. With almost 1,000 employees, the OU runs a myriad of programs, ranging from youth work to campus outreach to political advocacy.

Indeed, many of our departments are practically full-fledged organizations in their own right. Under our vast umbrella, we serve the needs of hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world.

4 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Our programs are so effective—we are so good at what we do—there is a constant need to grow our programs and increase our impact. Take OU Advocacy, for example. In the past few years alone, OU Advocacy has helped secure tens of millions of dollars for Jewish communities across the country; but its success in advocating for increased government funding for Jewish schools has simply underscored the need for even greater efforts in this arena. To meet the need, we have established fulltime field offices in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, where our skilled advocacy teams work with government leaders to promote the needs and interests of the local Jewish community.

Eventually, we hope to expand into the mid-Atlantic, New England and West Coast regions.

Four years ago, it was clear to me that to manage this ever-growing, multi-dimensional enterprise, we needed sophisticated and skilled leadership. We needed someone with managerial expertise; someone with vision and a sense of purpose.

Such sophisticated management practices will help keep our programs robust, relevant and cutting-edge.

With Allen at the helm, we got just that.

Together, we set out to professionalize our operations in an unprecedented manner; we consulted with various professionals to assess our programs and create objective evaluation criteria and measures of success.

(How can we, for example, evaluate how effective our campus programs are in supporting Orthodox students on campus? Or how successful our JSU clubs are in bringing public school kids closer to their Jewish roots?) We made strategic planning an integral part of the budgetary process so that senior staff are required to think hard and

deeply about the programs they are running and where they are headed. NCSY, for example, recently completed a five-year strategic plan, outlining its goals not only for the year ahead but for five years from now.

Such sophisticated management practices will help keep our programs robust, relevant and cutting-edge.

We have always believed that our staff is our greatest asset. Part of valuing one’s staff means investing in them. Over the last four years, we’ve put tremendous energy and resources into professional development. We now have, for the first time, several staff members whose sole responsibility is to focus on staff training and development. We send select staff members to high-level management training programs. We are also in the midst of creating career paths so that employees can grow with the organization.

Recruiting, retaining and promoting talented women have also been top priorities for us. We’ve created a more family-friendly work environment, and now offer employees paid parental leave. (The new policy grants up to eight weeks of paid maternity/child care leave to those who have worked at the OU for more than one year.)

Additionally, we’ve established the OU Women’s Affinity Group, a forum for professional women within the OU where, periodically, female employees get together for a management training seminar, networking event or brainstorming session.

This focus on women’s leadership is not limited to professional staff; we have been opening up leadership positions on the lay level as well. I am proud to say that OU officers now include three female national vice presidents and two associate vice presidents.

We are also in the process of a creating a department within the OU—with a senior-level full-time professional at its helm—that will be dedicated to coordinating all OU programming for women. This

department will create exciting new programs for women—particularly in the realm of sophisticated Torah learning— throughout our communities, and will launch novel programming initiatives in shuls and communities that will focus on women’s leadership. While we are still in the beginning stages of this endeavor, this is a very exciting venture for all of us. We have taken a giant first step in ensuring that the Jewish community fully benefits from the dynamic and capable women in the communal talent pool.

I want to add that one of the most gratifying aspects of serving as president of the OU is being able to work so closely with both the highly skilled professional staff and the dedicated lay leadership of this organization. Getting to know many of the professionals personally has truly opened my eyes, and made me appreciate the broad range of expertise and talent they bring to the organization. We are so very fortunate to have such a wonderful staff who are passionately devoted to klal work. I am also deeply impressed with our exceptionally gifted lay leaders.

Bringing an array of knowledge and skills from a variety of fields, our lay leaders selflessly give of their time and resources to the OU, attesting to their passion, dedication and commitment to strengthening the Jewish people.

We have taken a giant first step in ensuring that the Jewish community fully benefits from the dynamic and capable women in the communal talent pool.

A final thought: there is a well-known Talmudic debate concerning the Chanukah candles. The debate between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai centers on the following question: do we light eight candles on the first day, and the number of candles decreases each day (Shammai) or do we light one candle on the first day, and the number of candles increases with each passing day (Hillel)?

The Gemara rules that we follow Beit Hillel, in accordance with the principle

“ma’alin bakodesh, in holy matters, one should increase and not detract.” At the OU, we try to follow this principle as well: we want to continually increase our impact and spread more light. We want to reach more unaffiliated college students and Birthright participants, influence more teens on Shabbatons and summer programs and connect more Jews, at every stage of their lives, to Torah and Yahadut.

This is our mandate and our mission. I am deeply grateful to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for giving me the opportunity to be involved with klal work, and while my presidency is coming to an end, I have no intention of ending my connection with the OU. I have been involved with the OU for four decades and hope to give the organization at least another four more!

A happy Chanukah to all! g

ONLY ONE TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY HAS IT ALL

SACRIFICE NOTHING. ACHIEVE ANYTHING.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 5

From the Desk of ALLEN I. FAGIN, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union

Fusing Timeless Torah with Tomorrow’s Innovation

O

ne aspect of the OU’s operations that continuously intrigues me is the ability to fuse our timeless Torah values with the most modern and innovative methodologies. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has noted: “One of the most striking features of Jewish life is that from Israel to Palo Alto, Jews are among the world’s most enthusiastic users of information technology and have contributed disproportionately to its development (Google, Facebook, Waze).

But we still write the Torah exactly as it was done thousands of years ago—by hand, with a quill, on a parchment scroll.

This is not a paradox; it is a profound truth. People who carry their past with them can build the future without fear.”

As you can see from our Annual Report, which accompanies this issue of Jewish Action, we’ve built an entire infrastructure devoted to enhancing Jewish life and fostering traditional Judaism through the effective use of cutting-edge technologies: Enter our kashrut offices, and you’ll find the industry’s most advanced computerized platform for tracking kosher ingredients, products and clients, servicing some of the world’s most sophisticated companies. Visit our popular web site, OUTorah.org, and join tens of thousands who partake daily of our outstanding Daf

6 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Yomi podcasts by Rabbi Shalom Rosner and Rabbi Moshe Elefant, or who avail themselves of thousands of shiurim in our expanding collection. With our Nach Yomi, Mishna Yomit, and Halacha Yomit e-mails, we bring a daily array of Torah learning to thousands of inboxes every morning. Each week we field hundreds of queries about Judaism, kashrut and halachah addressed to our Webbe Rebbe.

Thanks to our outstanding digital product development team, we continue to roll out mobile apps which seek to enrich Orthodox Jewish life—including our Kosher app, with close to 100,000 downloads, where you can access, at your fingertips, a guide to all products certified by the OU;

We are committed to professionalizing every aspect of our programs and operations, and importing into the OU the techniques and processes utilized by the most sophisticated companies and organizations. our Torah app, where you can listen to shiurim at any convenient time; or our Jewniversity app, where you can research available Jewish resources on college campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Most recently, we’ve announced the NCSY Bencher app, which brings the iconic NCSY Bencher into 2016, including music and lyrics for dozens of the most popular zemirot. Or enjoy our new Nussach HaTefillah database, which brings the beauty of cantorial melodies and appropriate nussach to ba’alei tefillah worldwide, allowing them to expand their repertoire through our growing archive of recordings.

Our growing reliance on the most sophisticated methodologies goes well beyond our use of technology and the

development of new products. We are committed to professionalizing every aspect of our programs and operations, and importing into the OU the techniques and processes utilized by the most sophisticated companies and organizations.

This approach, our commitment to excellence and professionalism in all we do, is now deeply embedded in our organizational culture.

For example, we recognized that if we wanted to achieve truly transformational change in our advocacy efforts designed to bring significantly greater government funding to yeshivot and day schools, we would need to utilize the same strategies undertaken by the most sophisticated companies and advocacy groups. And so we invested—in lobbyists and strategists and in public relations professionals—to help guide our advocacy efforts. We have seen enormous returns on this investment.

During the past year, in New York alone, we brought over $85.8 million in new state and local funding to our schools.

And we are constantly working to further professionalize our management and human resources practices throughout the OU. At the program level, we have implemented comprehensive strategic planning efforts. For example, NCSY has recently completed a detailed five-year strategic plan, “NCSY 2020,” with comprehensive goals and objectives. Yachad, the Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC), Synagogue Services and OU Israel are each in the midst of their own strategic planning efforts. Our new budget process requires that each department at the OU prepare detailed goals and objectives, together with objective, verifiable metrics to measure progress towards those goals; twice annual reviews are conducted with each department to review the results.

Across the organization we are investing in our staff’s professional development through mentoring programs and a wide

array of formal and informal training programs. Most recently, we have introduced a succession planning process to make certain that there is a defined pathway to replace senior leaders.

Our human capital is our key asset, and our human resources policies must keep pace with this critical reality. We have recently enhanced our child care/maternity leave policies to reflect industry best practices. And we have introduced a comprehensive grading system that assigns a salary grade and compensation range to each program position. This will ensure fairness across departments and truly

This is the new OU; we are celebrating our past while building our future. meaningful pay equity. We now engage in a robust evaluation of all our programs to make certain that every dollar is spent wisely and with maximum impact. Last year, for example, NCSY commissioned

Professor Steven M. Cohen and Dr. Ezra Kopelowitz to conduct a longitudinal study of alumni of NCSY’s Anne Samson TJJ (The Jerusalem Journey) summer program in Israel for public school teens.

Cohen and Kopelowitz found that after participating in TJJ, 98 percent of alumni thought it’s important to raise kids with a Jewish identity, 95 percent deemed it important to marry a Jew, and 92 percent attended a Seder the following Passover. A similar study is now being conducted of all alumni in NCSY’s JSU program—our signature program for public school teens, operating in over 200 communities nationally.

This is the new OU; we are celebrating our past while building our future. I’m excited about the new ideas and projects that 2017 will bring—our new Department of Women’s Initiatives, which is currently being designed; our social entrepreneurship incubator; and the launch of the Community Giving Project, which will collect, warehouse and distribute consumer goods of all types to individuals in need.

Each of these innovations requires the encouragement and active support of a

forward-thinking and committed lay leadership. The OU has been truly blessed to have Marty Nachimson at its helm for the past four years. Marty is everything any organization would want in its president.

His decades of business experience, at the highest level, make him the perfect sounding board for management and operational decisions. And his decades of Jewish communal leadership, at the highest levels, make him the perfect sounding board for policy and programmatic determinations that affect the wellbeing of our community and all of Klal Yisrael. Marty has been an inspired leader and visionary, and his wisdom, judgment and impeccable integrity have, consistently, characterized his tenure as OU president.

Marty will step down as president in January. All of us at the OU, and the thousands of beneficiaries of OU programs and services, throughout the United States, Canada and Israel, will forever be indebted to him for his warmth and his leadership.

We wish him good health and happiness as he continues to serve the klal with tireless devotion. g

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 7

Chairman’s Message

By Gerald M. Schreck

“Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la zeh.” We are our brothers’ keepers, and when such an overwhelmingly large number of Jews are so far from Torah and so sadly estranged from our shared heritage, each and every one of us should feel distraught.

We too are engaged in a war— a war against assimilation and ignorance. Our ammunition: education, outreach and, of course, the light of Torah.

H

ow appropriate that as Chanukah approaches, we focus on one of the major themes of the holiday: assimilation. When the Syrian-Greeks ruled over Eretz Yisrael, tragically, many Jews succumbed to fear and oppression. Becoming Syrian-Greeks, they adopted the Hellenistic worldview. Some of these Misyavnim, as they were called, even assisted the Syrian-Greeks in their war to eradicate Judaism.

Remarkably, some of the same issues facing the Maccabees back in 167 bce continue to plague us today—issues such as Jewish continuity, Jewish identity and concern about the Jewish future.

How do we ensure that our grandchildren will be Jewish? This was the question I imagine the Maccabees asked themselves before launching into a courageous war to preserve their Judaism and their way of life. This is the very question we must ask ourselves in 2016.

With an intermarriage rate that exceeds 70 percent, American Jewry is heading on a path toward self-annihilation. Some might have a different perspective on this (see, for example, Dr. Marvin Schick’s essay on page 53 in this issue). But irrespective of the different viewpoints, the question of how to ensure Jewish continuity should trouble every thinking Jew—even those of us not directly involved in kiruv or chinuch.

Some of you may recall the well-known Jewish population chart entitled “Will Your Grandchild Be Jewish?” that vividly depicted the disintegration of American Jewry. Created in the aftermath of the 1990 National Jewish Population Study, the chart caused quite a stir when it first appeared in the mid-1990s.

We are proud to present a new version of the chart, appearing for the first time in print in our pages. Updated by Antony Gordon and Richard Horowitz, the new chart is based on the raw data of the 2013 Pew Research Center’s survey of American Jews.

In the pages ahead, we present two essays—one by Dr. Schick and one by Gordon and Horowitz—analyzing the updated chart and its implications. The essays, entitled “American Jewry: Where Are We Now? Where Are We Heading?,” provide much food for thought.

In the days of the Maccabees, the Jews were engaged in a full-fledged war to preserve the Torah way of life. We too are engaged in a war—a war against assimilation and ignorance. Our ammunition: education, outreach and, of course, the light of Torah.

Perhaps in this ongoing struggle, we can draw inspiration from the Maccabees themselves. They were a small band of Jews, vastly outnumbered and poorly trained, who fought against seemingly impossible odds. Yet they persisted, and mounted battle after battle against the formidable Greek army. Miraculously, the Maccabees won.

In our war against Jewish apathy and assimilation, victory sometimes seems impossible; the situation appears dire and depressing. However, Chanukah reminds us that miracles do happen. They occurred in the past and they still do occur. With much hishtadlus (effort) and prayer, the Maccabees succeeded. With hishtadlus and prayer, perhaps we can succeed as well.

Despite the discouraging statistics and dire predictions, who knows what the future really holds for American Jewry?

Aside from this special section on the future of American Jewry, this issue is jam-packed with an array of thoughtful and engaging articles including a delightful piece on volunteerism in Israel. Author Irv Cantor, himself a retiree who made aliyah, explores how retiree olim are giving back to Israel in the most unique ways. Some of the interesting folks we get to meet include a woman who spends her days as a volunteer zookeeper at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo and an ingenious senior citizen who fixes defective wheelchairs for an organization that lends medical equipment to those in need. Additionally, authors Eli Genauer and Faigy Grunfeld explore a little-known piece of Jewish history: the role women played in early Hebrew publishing. Reminding me of the days I spent as a teenager working for Hebrew Publishing Company in Manhattan (where, no doubt, I developed my lifelong love of the printed word), these articles describe the significant contributions women made to the world of Hebrew printing. This is a fascinating subject we hope to more fully explore in future issues. I also want to mention the profile of my former classmate, Cantor Sherwood Goffin, who recently retired after serving as the chazzan at Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue for fifty years. Finally, please remember to check out our delicious Chanukah recipes, courtesy of Norene Gilletz, and best wishes for a happy Chanukah! g

Gerald M. Schreck is chairman of the Jewish Action Committee and vice chairman of the OU Board of Governors.

8 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 9

Emunah

By Steve Lipman

te t e y a f a L t s e W m Fro lem:

a s u r e J ons m i S to x o d o a’s Orth

ndian I g n i t i s Revi

na, fayette, India a L t s e W in y t famil itted children m omer Shabba m h s o c ly d n n o a e t u th evo How e religiously d is ra to d e g a n ma

Steve Lipman is a staff writer at the Jewish Week in New York and a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

10 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Thirteen-year-old Rashi practices reading from the Torah in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah, October 1974. From left: Rashi, his father, Edward Simon and his brother Hillel, age nine.

Courtesy of Rabbi Rashi Simon

I

n 1988, Jewish Action published an article focusing on the four Simon children who were raised in a mid-western community where they were the only Orthodox kids for miles. Nearly thirty years later, we revisit with the Simons to discover the secret to raising kids Jewishly.

One day this winter Ronit Comrov will make dozens of latkes, and sufganiyot, “just raspberry,” for her friends in Milwaukee.

In London, Rabbi Hillel Simon will host a Chanukah party for friends and Rabbi Rashi Simon, also in London, will sponsor one at the outreach organization he founded. In Bnei Brak, Shira Pollack will arrange her work schedule to get home at the earliest possible moment to light the menorah with her family.

Sounds like typical frum life in a big city.

But the four Simon siblings are products of small-town America.

The family was the subject of an article entitled “Growing up Jewish in Indiana,” which appeared in Jewish Action’s winter 1988 issue. The series of first-person reflections described how Edward Simon, a professor of biology at Purdue University, his wife Cyrelle and their children maintained an Orthodox life in rural West Lafayette. The city’s Jewish population at the time: about 800 to 1,000. Its Orthodox population: the Simons, and the occasional rabbi.

The Simon children attended a public elementary school, where they brought kosher lunches every day and took off for the yamim tovim.

Was it hard to maintain a decent level of frumkeit in what was essentially a spiritual vacuum?

“It was hard—very hard,” said Mrs. Simon, who spoke with Jewish Action a few weeks before she passed away some months ago.

Jewish education: an hour each week in Hebrew school. No strictly Orthodox synagogue—the family belonged to the city’s “traditional” congregation, which offered separate-seating and mixed-seating alternatives in the sanctuary. No eruv. Mrs. Simon stayed home on Shabbat. The closest mikvah, in Indianapolis, was an hour’s drive each way. Obviously, no kosher restaurants.

Today, more than a quarter-century later, all the Simons have left Indiana; Mrs. Simon, a”h, had moved to Jerusalem after her husband died a decade ago. But the four children have remained devoted, dedicated Orthodox Jews. The sons, both rabbis; the daughters, both married to rabbis; all four are involved in chinuch (Jewish education) and kiruv (outreach to less-observant Jews).

How did the Simon parents do it?

The Simon children say they frequently hear that question.

Their answers: Their parents gave them distinctive Jewish names, a constant reminder of their identity.

They lived their Judaism, learning Torah in their spare time and serving as active members of their wider Jewish community. The children talk of their father walking to and from shul, 2.2 miles each way, each Shabbat. “Rain or shine,” says Rabbi Hillel. Or, in the case of northern Indiana, snow or frigid weather.

They drove to Chicago to pick up kosher meat— “a quarter of a cow,” Mrs. Simon said—and had some kosher supplies shipped from Indianapolis.

“

They lived their Judaism, learning Torah in their spare time and serving as active members of their wider Jewish community. The children talk of their father walking to and from shul, 2.2 miles each way, each Shabbat.

The 1988 Jewish Action article focusing on the four Simon children who were raised in a mid-western community where they were the only Orthodox kids for miles.

The Simon family at the bar mitzvah of Rabbi Rashi Simon’s son Yehudah, July 2009. From left: Shira, Ronit, Mrs. Simon, Rabbi Hillel, Yehudah, and Rabbi Rashi. Courtesy of Rabbi Rashi Simon

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 11

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They hosted visiting Chabad shluchim.

They spent Professor Simon’s Sabbatical years in Israel.

They made their home a center of Yiddishkeit. Large sedarim.

Sukkah parties in the backyard. A community Lag b’Omer celebration. Lots of guests on Shabbat.

“

He and his siblings talk about the advantages of growing up as lone Orthodox Jews. There’s more responsibility, there’s a constant obligation to explain one’s lifestyle to outsiders.

Then they sent their children away—to camp each summer, to day schools by the time each child reached high school.

The parents let each child choose his or her level of Jewish involvement. Ronit calls herself “Centrist”; Shira, “open-minded Litvish”; Rabbi Rashi, “mainstream Orthodox”; Rabbi Hillel is Lubavitch.

“We all became more observant while progressing in Jewish education,” Rabbi Hillel says. “We probably all imagined going somewhere else [after growing up and getting married],” he says, “to be part of a frum atmosphere.”

He and his siblings talk about the advantages of growing up as lone Orthodox Jews. There’s more responsibility, there’s a constant obligation to explain one’s lifestyle to outsiders and there’s no opportunity, as in a large Jewish community, to “coast” and let someone else do the work. “I loved when people asked questions [about Jewish traditions and practice],” says Ronit.

Living in the tolerant atmosphere of a college town was an advantage—people from various ethnic and religious backgrounds lived and studied and taught there. Someone wearing a kippah, as Professor Simon did during most of his academic career, did not draw much attention.

The siblings’ love of Judaism, and desire to experience the type of intensely Jewish community they did not have as children, spurred their interest in working with less-observant Jews. “I feel I can relate to them at their level,” Shira says.

Chanukah this year will offer them another chance to share.

As in the past, Ronit’s husband, Rabbi Comrov, will travel one day during Chanukah this year to Oconomowoc, a small city forty-five minutes from Milwaukee, to lead a Chanukah celebration for a twenty-family congregation that lacks its own spiritual leader. He goes there every several weeks to give isolated Jews some chizuk and a shot of Yiddishkeit. “I encourage him,” Ronit says.

She accompanies her husband sometimes. “I feel very at home there,” she says. “Because that’s how I grew up.” g To see the original article that appeared in Jewish Action about the Simons, visit www.ou.org/jewish_action/11/2016/growing-jewish-indiana/.

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 13

Tribute

By Immanuel Bernstein

emembering Rav Yehuda Cooperman

R

A Tribute on His First Yahrtzeit

Thank God, the Jewish people are Michlalah has already been blessed with rabbis, talmidei chathrough all of that. Next door is the chamim, tzaddikim and many, records room; please feel free to many wonderful people—but there photocopy any documents you feel was no one like Rav Yehuda you might need so that it won’t be Cooperman, zt”l. He was unique. so confusing for you.’”

I was privileged to have had a He never sought honor, and very close relationship with Rav when he evaded it, he did so simCooperman. There was a special ply and without fanfare, naturally bond between him and my father, deflecting the honor onto others.

Rabbi Isaac Bernstein, zt”l, who At all the family simchas I was toRav Yehuda Cooperman, 1929-2016 was his first cousin, and so I had gether with him, I saw that his Courtesy of Michlalah/Yossi Klein a natural niche waiting for me instinctive reaction to being ofwhen I came to study in Israel. Soon afterwards we began a fered any given honor was to think of anyone else for whom it chavrusa that lasted more than twenty-five years. During that might be more appropriate. time, I was able to absorb much of Rav Cooperman’s approach He was a rare combination of greatness and humility, as was and methodology in Torah learning, and benefit from his wisdom evident during one of our family visits to his house. At some and advice regarding all manner of things. I was also able to point, one of my children spilled something on the kitchen floor, benefit simply from being in his company, seeing the twinkle in making a terrible mess. I was slightly horrified, as the Cooperman his eye as he discussed his views on life, education and the Land house was always impeccably clean. Rav Cooperman noticed of Israel. His unique perception and vast experience gave him a the mess, and without so much as batting an eyelid, went over fascinating perspective on so many topics and, as is the case with to the bathroom, came back with a bucket of water and a sponga great men, it was often impossible to predict what he might say cloth, and proceeded to clean it up. When he finished, he carried on any given matter. on the conversation we had been having at exactly the point we Rav Cooperman was both extremely gracious and generous. He had left off, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at was entirely removed from any form of small-mindedness or all. This took place when he was in his mid-seventies. contention. He once related to me the following: “During the early Although Rav Cooperman lived with a certain simplicity, he years of Michlalah [Jerusalem College for Women], a certain rabbi was not a simple person. For within his unassuming nature, one opened a school in Israel which you could say was in direct com- could perceive a singularity of purpose and a nobility of spirit petition with Michlalah. I did not believe his approach was alto- that lent a special quality to even his mundane activities. This is gether correct, but it was certainly legitimate, and I called him in part of the reason he left such a deep impression on those who to meet with me in Michlalah. After discussing a few general met him, however brief the meeting may have been. matters, I said to him, ‘Setting up a school in Israel involves a lot Rav Cooperman was a big believer in the effective use of lanof bureaucracy and can often be confounding and frustrating. guage or turn of phrase, and had many trademark sayings and

Born and raised in London, Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein studied at Yeshivas Ateres Yisrael in Bayit Vegan and received semichah from Rabbi Chaim Walkin.

He currently teaches at Yeshivas Machon Yaakov and various seminaries, including Michlalah. He has written numerous sefarim in English and Hebrew, and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and six children.

14 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

aphorisms that he used to communicate key ideas. With his discerning musical ear, he intuited the lasting impact these sayings could have. (Former Michlalah students may recall him urging them to ensure that their days were permeated by Torah, not punctuated by it, or chiding them, once they had received their bachelor’s degrees, to find their Mister before going after their master’s).

A classic example from the Rav Cooperman lexicon is the idea of the musag (concept) versus the mosad (institution).

Every institution is built in order to serve a concept or value, and thus the institution can never be allowed to become the value in itself, for at that point it risks no longer being true to what it was built for. This was an idea that Rav Cooperman himself lived by faithfully. There were a number of times when the Israeli Ministry of Education made demands of the Michlalah curriculum that Rav Cooperman felt were antithetical to its ethos, and he refused to implement them. In one instance, a certain official threatened to withhold crucial government funding that would have made it practically impossible for Michlalah to continue. In response to this threat, Rav Cooperman replied, “This demand is unacceptable to me, and if as a result of refusing to implement it, Michlalah is forced to close, then so be it. Michlalah exists to serve a Torah-true vision of education. It is not a value in itself that has to be maintained at all costs. Should it ever cease to be able to serve its function faithfully, I will close it there and then.” Seeing that Rav Cooperman could not be swayed by any threat to his mosad at the expense of the musag, the official relented.

This clarity of vision and purpose was summed up beautifully on one occasion when Rav Cooperman was showing a visitor around Michlalah’s impressive campus. When the tour was over, the guest commented, “Rav Cooperman, you must be very proud of the buildings you built here.” To which Rav Cooperman replied, “No, I am proud of the homes I built here!”

There were a number of times when the Israeli Ministry of Education made demands of the Michlalah curriculum that Rav Cooperman felt were antithetical to its ethos, and he refused to implement them.

Rav Cooperman’s openness to learning new Torah insights continued well into his eighties and literally up until his final few weeks. He kept a small table next to his desk that was full of new sefarim that he was working his way through. Having mastered so much of the classic Torah commentaries, and having practically “written the book” on how to learn Chumash, it would have been so easy for him to look askance at ideas from younger people who, compared to him, were mere beginners with barely a fraction of his knowledge. On many occasions I came to him with approaches to questions that I knew he had already dealt with and written about, and it was simply amazing to watch how he would listen with full attention and an open mind, endorsing that which he felt had merit, critiquing

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 15

B

orn in Dublin, Ireland, Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Cooperman earned master’s degrees in Semitic languages and education. He also earned a doctorate from the Hebrew Theological College of Skokie. Rabbi Cooperman was well known for his commentary to the Meshech Chochmah and to Seforno, which have become popular throughout the Jewish world. In 1956, he made aliyah along with his wife, and in 1964, he spearheaded a veritable revolution in women’s Torah education by founding Michlalah Jerusalem College for Women, which aimed to teach young Israeli women Torah at an advanced level while enabling them to acquire a profession. In 1977, reflecting its high level of academic studies, Michlalah was authorized by the Israeli Council of Higher Education to grant bachelor’s degrees, and subsequently, master’s degrees.

With non-Israelis seeking opportunities for advanced Torah study, he opened a foreign students program as well. A pioneer in women’s Torah education, Rav Cooperman made Michlalah his life work, and succeeded in giving thousands of women an intensive Torah education while imbuing them with yirat Shamayim. Currently, there are more than 2,000 students in Michlalah’s various programs, which, in addition to limudei kodesh, include the humanities, sciences, arts, expressive therapies and leadership programs.

Through its more than 15,000 graduates worldwide, many of whom are Torah educators themselves, Michlalah continues to have an extraordinary impact on the world of Jewish education.

In 1985, Rav Cooperman won the Harav Kook Prize for Torah literature.

In 2006, he was awarded the Yakir Yerushalayim prize. On January 4, 2016 (23 Tevet 5776), he passed away at the age of eighty-six.

16 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

that which he thought was lacking in substance, and invariably following up with recommendations for further sources relating to that topic.

Rav Cooperman was respected by all. I believe the reason for this is twofold. First, he was a man of absolute integrity, a quality that could not fail to earn him the respect of anyone who encountered him. Second, he himself respected all others, both religious and non-religious, whether he agreed with their worldview or totally opposed it. Ideological differences were never allowed to deny a person the respect that he felt was due to him as a person. He paid personal attention to everyone he met, whether she was a teacher, student or a worker on the campus.

Of the thousands of girls who passed through Michlalah over the years, most—if not all—can remember an encounter, however brief, with Rav Cooperman and felt that for that moment he had something to say to them specifically. This is a testament to the value he placed on every individual.

It is probably impossible to quantify the number of people that he affected, whether it was the thousands of girls he taught personally, the many thousands more taught by the teachers he trained, the Torah learners for whom the words of the Meshech Chochmah and Seforno became accessible, the devotees of Chumash study whose eyes he opened with his methodology of “peshuto shel Mikra,” and countless others who simply heard a shiur from him some place where he was visiting, and thus caught a glimpse of this consummate and unique Torah educator.

In truth, sometimes when I was with him and began to consider all of his accomplishments, I felt as if I was sitting in front of an entire team of people, until I blinked again and it was just Rav Cooperman sitting across the table, with his disarming smile and easygoing manner.

Being very musical, Rav Cooperman made music an integral part of the Cooperman household. He would often quote the Vilna Gaon as saying that understanding music could lead one to a deeper understanding of Torah. In this regard, he would encourage his students to develop what he termed “a musical appreciation of Torah,” identifying emotionally and experientially as well as intellectually with the discussion of the topic at hand. And he led by example. The delight and excitement with which he would teach Torah were both palpable and contagious, and to him this was an inseparable part of the Torah learning experience.

In keeping with this musical approach, he was wont to refer to Torah as “a symphony,” weaving together as he did the disciplines of Torah commentary, halachah and Jewish thought. Upon reflection, it seems to me that Rav Cooperman himself was a symphony, blending together so many facets into a harmonized whole. For those who never met him, they may yet catch some strains of his enchanting melody as they study his works or learn from his students. For those who were privileged to be exposed to the symphony firsthand, it is an experience that will continue to resonate and reverberate with them, guiding and inspiring them for years to come ad bias goel tzedek (until the arrival of Mashiach).

Yehi zichro baruch. g

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 17

Jewish History

By Eli Genauer

LSO A E V A H I “ ENGAGED IN THIS WORK

OF HEAVEN”: en om W of n io ut ib tr on C l a it V e h T to Hebrew Printing

18 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

J

ewish women played a prominent role in the world of Hebrew books from the very dawn of printing. Their contributions to the production of Hebrew books and typography have been noted in numerous scholarly articles. While historically speaking women were usually limited to low-paying menial jobs in printing houses, such as folding printed sheets and sewing bindings, in the world of Hebrew printing Jewish women owned printing shops, set type and financed the cost of printing for worthy authors. The famed bibliographer Avraham Yaari lists 186 women, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who were involved in the printing of Hebrew books from 1477 until 1958.

The first Hebrew books we know of were printed around the year 1475. Two years later, a woman by the name of Estellina, the wife of the physician Avraham ben Shlomo, played a prominent role in the printing of the book Bechinat Olam in Mantua, Italy. An ethical work, Bechinat Olam was written in Hebrew by Yedaya HaBedersi, the thirteenth-century physician, poet and philosopher.

DOÑA REYNA MENDES: CONSTANTINOPLE Some of the earliest Hebrew books were printed in Constantinople. At the time, all the printing houses were owned by men except for one, which was run by Doña Reyna Mendes (c. 1539-1599).

Descended from one of the most prominent Jewish families, Doña Reyna Mendes was the daughter of one of the most extraordinary women of her day, Doña Gracia Mendes. Due to Doña Gracia’s extreme wealth and political connections, she was able to escape along with her daughter from Inquisition-ruled Europe to the relative safety of the Ottoman Empire. Reyna then married Joseph Nasi, an advisor to the Sultan. When her husband died in 1593, the Sultan confiscated his wealth, leaving Reyna only with the 90,000 dinar of her ketubah. She decided to devote the remaining funds to promote Jewish learning. She established a press near Constantinople, which operated for two years; subsequently, she started another press in 1596 in a suburb of Constantinople. In these two shops she published fifteen books, including a commentary on Bereishit by Rabbi Moshe Alshich, a Ladino translation of the book Yichus Hatzaddikim and Masechet Ketubot of the Babylonian Talmud. After Reyna’s death in 1599, her printing shops ceased to function, resulting in a major loss for the world of Hebrew publishing.

RABBANIT YEHUDIT ROSANES: LEMBERG Another woman famous for her involvement in the production of Hebrew books was Rabbanit Yehudit Rosanes. Married to the rabbi of Lemberg, Yehudit produced Hebrew books from 1782 to 1805, first in Zolkiew (now in western Ukraine) and afterwards in Lemberg (Lvov), an important center for the printing of Hebrew books in the nineteenth century.

Avraham Yaari writes that even though there were female printers before Yehudit, she was the first female printer who engaged in the work on a commercial basis.

A true pioneer, Yehudit charged authors money to print their books, and printed popular books that she knew would sell well. She printed over fifty books, and at

An Israeli postage stamp honoring Doña Gracia Mendes (1510–1569), a leader of the Sephardi Diaspora, who escaped with her daughter Reyna from Inquisition-ruled Europe to the relative safety of the Ottoman Empire. Doña Gracia’s portrait is from a medal minted in Ferrara, Italy around 1551.

Courtesy of Eli Genauer

certain points she employed twenty-four typesetters in her printing operation. Her printing house existed for at least twenty-five years, longer than any of her predecessors. Among the books she printed were two editions of Ketzot HaChoshen; Talmud Torah by Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi; and two editions of Tzenah

A woodcut from 1568. The printer on the left is removing a page while the other one inks the text-blocks.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Eli Genauer is a collector of old Hebrew books. He has written extensively on his collection with his articles appearing in Jewish Action, Hakirah and online in the Seforim Blog.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 19

Left: Title page of the Vilna Shas, Masechet Berachot, printed in 1880. The last line on the page states that the volume was printed by “the Widow and the Brothers Romm.”

Courtesy of HebrewBooks.org.

Right: Title page of the sefer Talmud Torah by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, printed in 1799. The name of the owner of the printing house, Rabbanit Yehudit, wife of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch of Lublin, is listed in large letters towards the bottom.

Courtesy of HebrewBooks.org.

U’rena. The title page of one of her books contained the following line: “In the print shop of the wealthy woman, Rabbanit Yehudit, wife of the great scholar Tzvi Hirsch, head of the Beit Din of Lvov.”

DEVORAH ROMM: VILNA Perhaps the most famous female print shop owner was Devorah Romm. The Romm printing shop began in 1799 and continued printing until 1940, when the Russians invaded Vilna during World War II. But the printing house truly flourished under Devorah’s guidance.

Devorah’s husband, David, owned a printing press in Vilna, but he died when she was only twenty-nine. She was left with six children including one from David’s

time from manuscripts as well as other commentaries, and became a model for all subsequent editions of the Talmud from any printing house. Writing about Devorah, the bibliographer Avraham Habermann stated: “Only because of the superior intelligence of Devorah Romm was this print shop able to reach unparalleled heights and make an eternal name for itself.”

Jewish women involved in Hebrew printing in its early years, such as Devorah, exhibited remarkable strength, intelligence and acumen, having the foresight and vision to understand the potential the invention of the printing press held for the world of Torah study.

In addition to the women who ran printing houses, there were also those who used their resources to fi-

A monumental effort on the part of Devorah, the Romm edition of the Talmud, which took six years to complete, included numerous commentaries printed for the first time from manuscripts as well as other commentaries, and became a model for all subsequent editions of the Talmud from any printing house. first marriage. She took over the shop in 1863 and ran it until her death in 1903. Devorah was the main owner along with her deceased husband’s brothers. Devorah owned 40 per cent of the printing plant and her two brothers-in-law each owned 30 per cent. The press, which became known as “the Press of the Widow and the Brothers Romm,” printed thousands of titles during that forty-year period, the most famous of which is the universally acclaimed Vilna Shas. The Shas was a landmark event in the annals of Hebrew publishing. A monumental effort on the part of Devorah, the Romm edition of the Talmud, which took six years to complete, included numerous commentaries printed for the first 20 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

nance the publication of important Hebrew books. One such woman was Eidel, the daughter of Rabbi Yeshaya Menachem Mendel of Prague. In 1665, she underwrote the publication of a book of selichot in Cracow. For her efforts, she merited a mention in the sefer: “A woman who should be remembered for good, the wise, scholarly, wealthy and pious Eidel . . . who did not scrimp with her money to benefit the public through the printing of this book of selichot.”

ELLA: DESSAU One of the hallmarks of early Hebrew printed books was the colophon, an inscription at the end of a book

An etching of printers hard at work, circa 1770. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

or manuscript usually with facts about its production— the name of the printer, the date of the printing and the place of the printing. At times, it lists the printer or editor’s trials and tribulations in bringing the book to see the light of day. For bibliographers, colophons are invaluable, providing a wealth of information otherwise not known about the printing of the book.

One of the most compelling women in the history of Hebrew printing was not really a woman at all; it was a young girl by the name of Ella. The daughter of Moshe ben Avraham, Ella worked as a typesetter in her father’s print shop in Dessau, Germany. We first meet her in 1696 when she is only nine years old and learning the printing business. The only girl in a large family that had emigrated from Holland to Germany, Ella and her siblings assisted in the arduous task of typesetting and printing important Jewish books used throughout Northern Europe. Ella was obviously literate in both Hebrew and Yiddish. In 1696, Ella and her brother worked on typesetting the siddur Drash Moshe. How do we know of Ella’s existence? After stating in the colophon that the siddur was set to type by Yisroel ben Moshe, Ella writes a poem, providing us with delicious details about her life: The poem, translated from the Yiddish, reads as follows: The Yiddish letters I set with my own hand I am Ella, the daughter of Moses from Holland a mere nine years old the sole girl among six children So when an error you should find Remember, this was set by one who is but a child (Translation by Marvin J. Heller in Studies in the Making of the Early Hebrew Book [Boston, 2008], 222) We meet Ella again in 1699; this time as a typesetter working on the famous Berman Shas of Frankfurt an der Oder. This printed edition of the Talmud (1697-1699) was financed by the wealthy court Jew, Yissachar Berman Segal of Halberstadt, who donated half of the 5,000 printed copies to needy scholars throughout Europe. In the colophon at the end of Masechet Niddah, Ella gives herself well-deserved credit: By the hands of the worker in this holy work, the typesetter, Yisrael the son of Moshe. And by the hands of the maiden Ella,

daughter of Moshe.

The colophon concludes with a verse with oversized letters that add up to the year of publication, the standard style used by printers. Generally, printers would choose verses that have some relevance to the specific work. However in this case, the verse appears to be unrelated to the work. It states, in the year of “Nekeivah tisoveiv gever, when the woman will court the man” (Jeremiah 31:21), adding up to (5)459, corresponding to the year 1699. The complete verse as it appears in the colophon reads: “For Hashem has created something new on the earth, that the woman will court the man.”

The verse refers to a time when women will seek out men, metaphorically alluding to Knesset Yisrael, portrayed as a woman, seeking out Hashem.

Perhaps the typesetters deliberately included the verse “for Hashem has created something new on earth,” alluding to Ella’s highly unusual position, and the fact that her work represented a different role for women in the dissemination of Jewish knowledge.

GITEL: PRAGUE Finally, we want to mention Gitel from the city of Prague. In a book published by Rav Yitzchok ben Shmuel HaLevi, entitled Siach Yitzchak, the colophon informs us that the sefer was typeset by Yehuda ben Alexander Katz, also known as Leib Zetzer Katz, as well as by his daughter, Gitel. It includes the highly unusual statement, obviously written by Gitel herself: “V’gam ani oseh b’melechet haShamayim, And I also was involved in producing this work of Heaven.” The enlarged letters add up to (5)388, corresponding to 1628. Gitel, like so many of her peers involved in printing Hebrew works, clearly saw herself as a vital partner in this holy endeavor.

Many of the women involved in Hebrew printing had a sense of the historic role they were playing, and understood they were taking part in a revolution that would dramatically alter the way Jews pray, study and live. These pious and holy women, some of whom were highly educated and knowledgeable themselves, were pioneers helping to pave a new path for Jewish learning and scholarship. g Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 21

WOMEN’S VOICES OF THE PAST: Early Orthodox Female Writers

BY FAIGY GRUNFELD

O

rthodox female writers.

A rarity.

But over the centuries, the few religious women who dared to put their thoughts on paper and expose them to the public ended up bolstering women in a new way, creating a network of sisterly support that only one woman can give to another. What kinds of works did women produce for their fellow women, and how were these writings received?

RIVKAH BAT MEIR TIKTINER (sixteenth century) AUTHORED: Meneket Rivkah “I found a well . . . and drank from it, but was still thirsty. I said in my heart, then I will go there and bring to my neighbors, both men and women, enough to drink throughout their entire lives” (Rivkah bat Meir Tiktiner, Meneket Rivkah, introduction, pp. 80-81).

Rivkah bat Meir Tiktiner, the author of Meneket Rivkah, far exceeded her responsibility as a firzogerin, a prayer leader who would help the many illiterate shul-going women articulate and understand the tefillot. Learned and pious, she preached and spoke before female groups, and was the first woman to author a work of Yiddish for the female community, although it was printed posthumously. Little is known about her life, but it appears that she was married and did not seem to have children (a reality which propelled certain unique women to expand their

Faigy Grunfeld is a teacher of English and history. She lives in Detroit, Michigan.

22 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

accepted roles and become activists). She died and was buried in Prague in the year 1605.

Meneket Rivkah focuses on the ideal lifestyle for a pious woman.

The book starts out with practical advice on health and nutrition, moves on to provide instructions about family purity, kashrut and modesty, and then focuses on a woman’s many relationships.

Her advice on motherhood spans from the practical to the spiritual, such as, “Listen new mothers, children are as fragile as the shell of the egg and can be easily harmed” to “Give your child gifts to bring to his father, so he should learn to honor him.”

She also provides tips on disciplining and empowering sons to devote themselves to study (Meneket Rivkah, introduction, pp.

150-170). She urges women to respect and aid their husbands, and to remember that “an upright woman crowns her husband with her good deeds” (ibid, p. 131). The book also includes tidbits on how to honor parents and in-laws, interact with a daughterin-law and treat servants. With her broad knowledge of Tanach, Talmud, Midrash and works of various Rishonim, Rivkah produced a work of stunning proportions.

How was her work received? The words of her publisher say it all. “Who has ever heard or seen such a novelty? Has it ever happened in countless years, that a woman has written something of her own accord? . . . It shows that a woman can also write words of ethical instruction and good Biblical interpretation as well as many men” (Meneket Rivkah, publisher’s preface, p. 80).

The publisher expounds on why he found this book worthy of publication. “Her intentions were focused exclusively on fear of God day and night, and her thoughts were by no means of gran-

deur . . . . She has read numerous verses and midrashim . . . She was brief and did not lengthen her words” (ibid, pp. 79-80).

Interestingly, her work seems to have been read in the Christian world as well, as a number of Christian authors reference Meneket Rivkah and write admiringly about the fact that a woman could produce such a work.

What makes Meneket Rivkah unique for its period? Its novel outlook on women as intuitive, industrious and innately capable of making the right choices for their families. Unlike its sixteenth-century equivalents, Brant Shpigl and Sefer Middot, which focus on female weaknesses and inadequacies, Meneket Rivkah inspires women to draw on their natural talents and abilities and actualize themselves in their roles as wives and mothers.

GLUCKEL OF HAMELN (seventeenth century) AUTHORED: Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln “I begin this book the year of Creation 5451 (1690) . . . I begin writing it, dear children, upon the death of your good father, in the hopes of distracting my soul from the burdens laid upon it, and the bitter thought that we have lost our faithful shepherd ” (Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln, p. 1).

Gluckel was born in Hamburg to a wealthy merchant family.

When she was twelve, her parents betrothed her to Chaim Hamel, and by the age of fourteen, the pair were married. Gluckel then went on to give birth to fourteen children, two of whom died in childhood, all the while acting as Chaim’s partner and consultant in business. Chaim bought and sold different precious jewels, and occasionally acted as a moneylender, while his wife managed much of the grunt work—interviewing clients, drawing up contracts, bookkeeping, and so on. All the while, she gave birth, raised and educated her children, sought out fitting matches for them and housed them for a period of time after their marriages.

She was a Mother of all Super Moms.

Chaim’s death in 1689 was the most devastating event in Gluckel’s life, and also the catalyst that propelled her to pick up her pen and write her memoir. The couple’s marriage was characterized by solidity and comradery, attested to by Chaim’s last words when asked if he had any final wishes. “My wife, she knows everything.

She shall do as she has always done” (ibid, p. 151). Despite the

Bertha Pappenheim dressed as her ancestor Gluckel of Hameln for this portrait. Bertha translated Gluckel’s diaries from Old Yiddish into German.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

book of morals. Such I could not write, and our sages have written many” (ibid, p. 1). Ironically, she then proceeds to moralize for a few pages, stressing the importance of belief in God, honesty in business and dedication to learning. However, her motivation was to pass the weary hours and relate the events of her life.

The memoir is divided into various sections. The first book deals with her childhood and lineage. In it she describes how

The author of Meneket Rivkah far exceeded her responsibility as a firzogerin, a prayer leader who would help the many illiterate shul-going women articulate and understand the tefillot. harsh reality of having to care for eight unmarried children and to deal with tremendous financial responsibilities, Gluckel did continue doing what she had always done, but this time, on her own. She searched for suitable shidduchim for her children, opened a sock factory, traveled to city fairs, and supported her children.

She did remarry once all her children were settled, but this marriage was like the moon is to the sun, a shadow, a mere reflection, of the light of happiness she experienced with Chaim.

In her words, “I truly believe I shall never cease mourning my dear friend” (ibid, p. 152).

Gluckel began writing her memoir two years after her husband’s death, for it “shortened the sleepless hours” (ibid, p. 1).

In it, she explains her motives. “This, dear children, will be no

her father “gave his children, girls and boys, a secular as well as religious education” (ibid, p. 6), which must have made Gluckel unique amongst her contemporaries (although this education did not include literacy in Hebrew). The second book focuses on her life as a new wife and mother. In it she recounts many anecdotes, such as how she and her mother gave birth at the same time, and shared the same room while resting. At one point, they even mixed up their babies!

Books Three and Four focus on many details about the business.

Book Five describes Chaim’s illness and death, while Books Six and Seven were written over a decade later, after the death of her second husband.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 23

GLUCKEL OF HAMELN Upon the advice of Dr. Lopez I now summoned Feibisch Levi who knew how to be with a man in his dying hour. He arrived toward two in the morning, when I also called in our teacher, a most trustworthy man. Feibisch Levi went at once to my husband. “Reb Chaim,” he said. “Have you any last wishes to give us?” Whereat my husband answered, “None. My wife knows everything. She shall do as she has always done.” And then he asked Reb Feibisch to bring him the works of the learned Rabbi Isaiah Hurwitz.

After he had read in them for about half an hour, he turned to Reb Feibisch and our teacher. “Don’t you see,” he said, “how near I am? Let my wife and children leave. It is high time.” Whereupon Reb Feibisch thrust us by main force from the room.

Reb Feibisch now sought to engage him in further talk.

He gave no answer, but began speaking to himself. They could only see his lips moving. So it was for nearly another half-hour, and then Reb Feibisch said to Dr. Lopez, “Abraham my friend, lay your ear to his mouth, perchance you can hear what he is saying.” Dr. Lopez did so, and after a space he heard him say, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!” With that, his breath ceased and he had breathed away his pure soul.

Thus he died in purity and holiness, and they saw from his end the man he was.

What shall I write, dear children, of all our bitter grief ?

I had always stood so high in his eyes, and now I was abandoned with eight of my twelve forlorn children—and one of them, my daughter Esther, betrothed! May God have mercy on us and be the Father of my children, for He is the Father of the fatherless! I truly believe I shall never cease from mourning my dear friend.

Sunday, the 24th of Tebet, 5449 [January 16, 1689], he was buried with all honour. The entire community was struck with horror and grief at the sudden blow of it.

With my children gathered around me, I sat upon the ground for the seven days of mourning, and a sad sight it must have been to see me sitting thus with my twelve fatherless children by my side.

We immediately secured our ten men for the daily prayers in the house of mourning, and we engaged scholars to “learn” Torah day and night through the whole year—be it not to my reproach! And the children diligently said Kaddish for their departed father. And there was not a man or woman who did not come, daily, to comfort the bereaved among us.

And, alas, there was no dearth of tears. We passed the seven days of mourning as you may only too well imagine.

“I fed on the bread of tears and drank tears in great measure . . . What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem?”

I was “cast down from heaven unto the earth.” Thirty years I have enjoyed my beloved husband and he bestowed on me all that a true wife could want. And he had, as I might say, thought of me after his death, so I could lift my head in honour. But what does this all avail me? The decrees of Heaven cannot be changed.

Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln, translated by Marvin Lowenthal (New York, 1977), pp. 151-153 24 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Cover of Gluckel of Hameln’s diary, published in Frankfurt-amMain in 1896.

Courtesy of the Leo Baeck Institute

In an age before autobiographies, Gluckel assumed her work would serve as a link to the past for her children. She did not expect her writing to be published. However, little snippets from her memoir seem to suggest she was eyeing a larger readership. Perhaps she hoped, or imagined, that her autobiography could touch many rather than just a few. And so it did, but only 200 years later.

Her son and grandson recopied her memoir, until a scholar, David Kaufmann, chose to publish it in 1896. Originally in Yiddish, it was translated into German, and eventually into English, acquiring a vast readership along the way.

While female writers became increasingly prevalent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many chose to use pen names, leave their work unsigned or refrain from publishing their work altogether.

However, perhaps the greatest barrier to female writing was the issue of literacy.

Gluckel’s work is magnificent in its emotional depth, its spiritual richness and its human expression. Unlike most works from this era, which tend to have a strong academic or religious agenda, this memoir is simply a woman’s story. It offers insights and advice, snapshots of daily life, including heartrending moments of despair and pain as well as uplifting times of acceptance and fulfillment.

And ultimately, it reflects real life, interwoven with humor and irony, with an underlying tone of sheer glee at the courageous and joyous act of writing.

THE WOMEN’S WORLD OF TECHINES (seventeenth-nineteenth centuries) We spread out our hands to our merciful Father in Heaven Cause us to return as in days of yore, For the endurance of the tender young kid is failing As in the noon-day heat.1

STUDY TALMUD with unexpected insights & fresh perspectives BACKGROUND

Ring – ‫ט ַ ּב ַﬠת‬:ַ Most ancient rings were signet rings, which its owner used to notarize various documents.

Therefore, it is unlikely that one would lend his ring to another, as doing so would be tantamount to granting another power of attorney.

HALAKHA in is ase, as .‫ינָשי‬ ֵ ׁ ‫ ִּכיס וְ ַא ְרנָ ִקי וְ ַט ַ ּב ַﬠת ָלא ַמ ׁ ְש ַא ִלי ֱא‬:‫ ָא ְמ ִרי‬The Sages say in resonse: There is no onern livingor being that works – ‫ה‬anoer ‫עוֹש‬ ׂ ֶ ‫כל דָּ ָבר ׁ ֶש‬:ָּ If one a purse, a signe ring o ‫ וְ ַט ַ ּב ַﬠת ִמ ׁ ּשוּם‬,‫ ִּכיס וְ ַא ְרנָ ִקי – ִמ ׁ ּשוּם דִּ ְמ ַס ְּמנִי‬people do not loan a pouch, Any an animal that worksoand generates erson. One does no loan isfinds pouch and is purse oers due enough rev.‫דִּ ְמזַ יֵּ יף‬ the costs of its sustenance, to e a that it portends eenue losstoocover is good orune.

And one he tends to months.

Thise is the halakha does no loan is signe ringitBfor otwelve oers due to a that with i regard to both beasts of burden, e.g., a cow or donkey, and chickould be used o forge doumens.

ens that lay eggs. If the finder can earn more by renting

Roman signet ring from the talmudic era

‫ וְ ֶא ְל ָﬠזָ ר‬,‫ ֵאין ְמ ִﬠ ִידין ַﬠל ַה ׁ ּשו ָּמא‬:‫ימא ְּכ ַת ָּנ ֵאי‬ ָ ‫ֵל‬ ‫ ַמאי ָלאו‬.‫ ְמ ִﬠ ִידין ַﬠל ַה ׁ ּשו ָּמא‬:‫אוֹמר‬ ֵ ‫ֶ ּבן ַמ ֲה ַבאי‬ ,‫ימנִין דְּ ַר ָ ּבנַן‬ ָ ‫ ִס‬:‫ דְּ ַת ָּנא ַק ָּמא ָס ַבר‬:‫ְ ּב ָהא ָק ִמ ּ ַיפ ְלגִ י‬ .‫יתא‬ ָ ְ‫אוֹרי‬ ַ ְּ‫ימנִין ד‬ ָ ‫ ִס‬:‫וְ ֶא ְל ָﬠזָ ר ֶ ּבן ַמ ֲה ַבאי ָס ַבר‬

HALAKHA

Mole – ‫שו ָּמא‬:ּ ׁ As a mole is not considered to be a clear-cut distinguishing mark, it is insufficient in identifying the dead husband of a deserted wife.

She remains prohibited from remarrying (Rambam Sefer Nashim, Hilkhot Geirushin 13:21; Shulĥan Arukh, Even HaEzer 17:24).

,‫יתא‬ ָ ְ‫אוֹרי‬ ַ ְּ‫ימנִין ד‬ ָ ‫ דְּ כו ֵּ​ּלי ָﬠ ְל ָמא ִס‬:‫ֲא ַמר ָר ָבא‬ ‫ ָמר‬.‫וְ ָה ָכא – ְ ּב ׁשו ָּמא ְמצוּיָ ה ְ ּב ֶבן ִ ּגילוֹ ָק ִמ ּ ַיפ ְלגִ י‬ ‫ ׁשו ָּמא‬:‫ ו ָּמר ָס ַבר‬,‫ ׁשו ָּמא ְמצוּיָ ה ְ ּב ֶבן ִ ּגילוֹ‬:‫ָס ַבר‬ .‫ֵאינָ ּה ְמצוּיָ ה ְ ּב ֶבן ִ ּגילוֹ‬

146

he should do so. weer If the revenue The Gemara suggess: Let usthe sayanimal, a e dilemma egenerated by greater than the cost ofmars its sustenance, the idenifiaion o an iem on the eanimal basisiso disinguising profit belongs to the owner of the animal. After twelve is b Tora law or b rabbini law is the subject of a disue months, the finder assesses its value, and the finder beween tanna’im, as i is aug in a baraita: One does not tesand owner become equal partners in the animal and eany bod o e deeased deertify on the basis of a moleH onshare future profits (RambamoSefer Nezikin, Hilkhot mine e ideni o a man Gezeila wo died and13:15; ermi isArukh, wieĤoshen o Mishpat VaAveda Shulĥan remarr. And Elazar ben Mahavai says: One testifi es o ideni 267:22 and Sma there). e orse on the basis of a mole. What, is it not with regard Calves and foals – ‫יחין‬ ִ ָ‫ﬠגָ ִלים ו ְּסי‬:ֲ If one finds calves and to this matter that they disagree; as the first tanna holds a foals that graze in the open pasture, he tends to them idenifiaion o an iem on e basismonths. o distinguishing marks he tends to for three If they require fattening, is by rabbinic law and ereore, esimon onerning ose them for just one month (Rambam Sefer Nezikin, Hilkhot mars anno dissolve a marriage Tora13:16; law;Shulĥan and Elazar GezeilabVaAveda Arukh,ben Ĥoshen Mishpat Mahavai holds a idenifi267:23). aion o an iem on e basis o distinguishing marks is by Torah law.

Geese and roosters – ‫גוֹלין‬ ִ ְ‫א ָּווזִ ין וְ ַת ְרנ‬:ַ In the case of one

‫ יִ ׁ ְש ַּת ֵּמ ׁש‬:‫אוֹמר‬ ֵ ‫ַמה יְּ ֵהא ַ ּבדָּ ִמים? ַר ִ ּבי ַט ְרפוֹן‬ ‫ ַר ִ ּבי‬.‫ ְל ִפ ָיכךְ ִאם ָא ְבד ּו ַחיָּ יב ְ ּב ַא ֲח ָריו ָּתן‬,‫ָ ּב ֶהן‬ ‫ ְל ִפ ָיכךְ ִאם‬,‫ ל ֹא יִ ׁ ְש ַּת ֵּמ ׁש ָ ּב ֶהן‬:‫אוֹמר‬ ֵ ‫ֲﬠ ִק ָיבא‬ .‫ָא ְבד ּו ֵאין ַחיָּ יב ְ ּב ַא ֲח ָריו ָּתן‬

If you wish, say insead a everyone agrees a a mole is not often found on one’s contemporary, and here i is with regard to weer e aearane o distinguishing marks on e bod is apt to change after death a they disagree. One Sage, e firs tanna, holds a e aearane o distinguishing marks is apt to change after death, and a onsequenl e are insufiien as a means o idenifiaion; and one Sage, Elaar ben Maavai, holds a e aearane o distinguishing marks is not apt to change after death, and ereore, e are suffiien as a means o idenifiaion.

‫ דְּ כו ֵּ​ּלי ָﬠ ְל ָמא ׁשו ָּמא ֵאינָ ּה‬:‫ימא‬ ָ ‫יב ֵﬠית ֵא‬ ּ ָ ‫ִא‬ ,‫ימנִין דְּ ַר ָ ּבנַן‬ ָ ‫ וְ ִס‬.‫ֲﬠשׂ וּיָ ה ְל ִה ׁ ְש ַּתנּ וֹת ְל ַא ַחר ִמ ָיתה‬ ;‫יפ ְלגִ י‬ ַ ּ ‫ימן מו ְּב ָהק הוּא ָק ִמ‬ ָ ‫וְ ָה ָכא ְ ּב ׁשו ָּמא ִס‬ :‫ ו ָּמר ָס ַבר‬,‫ימן מו ְּב ָהק הוּא‬ ָ ‫ ׁשו ָּמא ִס‬:‫ָמר ָס ַבר‬ .‫ימן מו ְּב ָהק הוּא‬ ָ ‫ׁשו ָּמא ָלאו ִס‬

If you wish, say insead a everyone agrees a a mole is not apt to change after death, and a e idenifiaion o an iem on e basis o distinguishing marks is by rabbinic law, and here i is with regard to weer a mole is a clear-cut distinguishing mark a they disagree. One Sage, Elaar ben Maavai, holds a a mole is a clear-cut distinguishing mark a an be relied uon wiou esiaion even in matters o Tora law, e.g., dissolving a marriage; and one Sage, e firs tanna, holds that a mole is not a clear-cut distinguishing mark. Sine sandard disinguising mars are suffiien b rabbini law, a marriage, wi is in effe b Tora law, anno be dissolved on e basis o a mole.

‫ימנִין ָלאו‬ ָ ‫לוֹמר ִס‬ ַ ‫ ִאם ִּת ְמצֵ י‬:‫ָא ַמר ָר ָבא‬ ?‫ימנִין‬ ָ ‫יכי ְמ ַהדְּ ִרינַן ֲא ֵב ָיד ָתא ְ ּב ִס‬ ִ ‫יתא ֵה‬ ָ ְ‫אוֹרי‬ ַ ְּ‫ד‬ ,‫ימנִין‬ ָ ‫יה ְלמוֹצֵ א ֲא ֵב ָידה דְּ נֶ ֱה ַדר ְ ּב ִס‬ ָ ְּ‫ד‬ ּ ‫נִיחא ֵל‬ ‫יה ְל ִד ֵיד ּה נַ ִמי נֶ ֱה ְדר ּו‬ ‫ל‬ ֵ ‫ה‬ ‫ד‬ ָ ‫ב‬ ְ ‫א‬ ָ ‫י‬ ‫כ‬ ִ ְּ‫ד‬ ‫י‬ ‫יכ‬ ִ ‫ה‬ ֵ ‫ִּכי‬ ּ .‫ימנִין‬ ָ ‫יה ְ ּב ִס‬ ּ ‫ֵל‬

Rava says: If you say a e idenifiaion o an iem on e basis o distinguishing marks is not by Torah law, how do we return a lost item o e resumed owner on the basis of distinguishing marks; eras i will resul in e reurn o roer o one wo was in a no e owner? Rava answers: We reurn e los iem, as i is satisfactory to the finder of a lost item to return i on the basis of distinguishing marks, raer an eerise is rig b Tora law o reain i, so that when an iem is lost from him in e uure, e finder will return it to him on the basis of distinguishing marks as well.

Bava metzia . perek II . 27b . :‫פרק ב׳ דף כז‬

Bava Metzia A Book.indb 146

154

What shall be done with t e animal? Rabbi Tarfon s if e mone is lost, e is l Akiva says: He may not us e is not liable o a restit

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who found ganders and roosters, if they are large, he Rava said: Tha is no neessaril e ru o eir disue, tends to them for thirty days. If they are extremely small, as eras everyone agrees a idenifiaion o an iem on he tends to them for three days and sells them in court. e basis o distinguishing This marks is

by Torah law, animal and here, the halakha for any other whose care costs i is with regard to weermore onethan needs be onerned the o revenue it generates.a The Rema holds a mole is often found on one’s contemporary, i.e., one born that the finder may assess the animal’s value, set aside under e same onsellaion,the rendering useless as a means oSefer Nezikin, money, andikeep the animal (Rambam Hilkhot Gezeila VaAveda 13:16; Shulĥan Arukh, Ĥoshen idenifiaion, a they disagree.

One Sage, e firs tanna, holds Mishpat a a mole is often found on one’s267:24). contemporary and ereore i is insuffiien as a means o idenifiaion; and one Sage, Elaar ben Maavai, holds that a mole is not often found on one’s contemporary, and ereore i is suffiien as a means o idenifiaion.

‫ דְּ כו ֵּ​ּלי ָﬠ ְל ָמא ׁשו ָּמא ֵאינָ ּה‬:‫ימא‬ ָ ‫יב ֵﬠית ֵא‬ ּ ָ ‫ִא‬ ‫ימנִין ָה ֲﬠ ׂשוּיִ ן‬ ָ ‫ וְ ָה ָכא – ְ ּב ִס‬,‫ְמצוּיָ ה ְ ּב ֶבן ִ ּגילוֹ‬ :‫ ָמר ָס ַבר‬.‫יפ ְלגִ י‬ ַ ּ ‫יתה ָק ִמ‬ ָ ‫ְל ִה ׁ ְש ַּתנּ וֹת ְל ַא ַחר ִמ‬ ‫ ו ָּמר‬,‫יתה‬ ָ ‫ימנִין ֲﬠ ׂשוּיִ ם ְל ִה ׁ ְש ַּתנּ וֹת ְל ַא ַחר ִמ‬ ָ ‫ִס‬ ‫ימנִין ֵאין ֲﬠ ׂשוּיִ ם ְל ִה ׁ ְש ַּתנּ וֹת ְל ַא ַחר‬ ָ ‫ ִס‬:‫ָס ַבר‬ .‫יתה‬ ָ ‫ִמ‬

mishna

I on ‫אוֹכל – יַ ֲﬠ ֶ ׂשה‬ ֵ ְ‫עוֹשה ו‬ ׂ ֶ ‫מתני׳ ָּכל דָּ ָבר ׁ ֶש‬ and g ,‫אוֹכל – יִ ָּמ ֵכר‬ ֵ ְ‫עוֹשה ו‬ ׂ ֶ ‫ וְ ָד ָבר ׁ ֶש ֵאין‬,‫ֹאכל‬ ַ ‫וְ י‬ oss o e ood a i eat ‫יא ְך‬ ַ ‫ ׁ ֶש ֶּנ ֱא ַמר ״וַ ֲה ׁ ֵשבוֹתוֹ לוֹ״ – ְר ֵאה ֵה‬finder’s ossession. And a .‫ ְּת ׁ ִש ֶיבנּ ּו לוֹ‬but i does eat shall be sold i ino our ouse, and i s laims i, and you shall retu indiaing a e finder m Sine e owner mus re i eeding e animal oss m ing e animal in is oss reovering i.

:‫עוֹלם? ָא ַמר ַרב נַ ְח ָמן ָא ַמר ׁ ְשמו ֵּאל‬ ָ ‫ו ְּל‬ ‫ ָּכל דָּ ָבר‬:‫ ַּתנְיָא נַ ִמי ָה ִכי‬.‫ַﬠד ׁ ְשנֵים ָﬠ ָ ׂשר ח ֶֹד ׁש‬ ‫ ְּכגוֹן ּ ָפ ָרה וַ ֲחמוֹר – ְמ ַט ּ ֵפל‬,‫אוֹכל‬ ֵ ְ‫עוֹשה ו‬ ׂ ֶ ‫ׁ ֶש‬ – ‫ ִמ ָּכאן וְ ֵא ָיל ְך‬.‫ָ ּב ֶהן ַﬠד ׁ ְשנֵים ָﬠ ָ ׂשר ח ֶֹד ׁש‬ .‫ִיחן‬ ָ ‫יהן ו ַּמ ּנ‬ ֶ ‫ׁ ָשם דְּ ֵמ‬

The gen oss o e ood a i eas s ossession. The Gemara as forever? Rav Naĥman say animal until twelve month I one finds any living bein revenue o over e oss o donkey, e tends to them u oin forward, one assesse e mone aside or e ow

See www.korenpub.com ,‫יחין ְמ ַט ּ ֵפל ָ ּב ֶהן ׁ ְשל ׁ ָֹשה ֲח ָד ׁ ִשים‬ ִ ָ‫ ֲﬠגָ ִלים ו ְּסי‬I one finds calves and foals for details ‫ ַא ָּווזִ ין‬.‫ִיחן‬ ָ ‫יהן ו ַּמ ּנ‬ ֶ ‫ ִמ ָּכאן וְ ֵא ָיל ְך – ׁ ָשם דְּ ֵמ‬he tends to them or three m

From that oin forward, ‫ ִמ ָּכאן‬,‫גוֹלין ְמ ַט ּ ֵפל ָ ּב ֶהם ׁ ְשל ׁ ִֹשים יוֹם‬ ִ ְ‫וְ ַת ְרנ‬ and places e mone aside .‫ִיחן‬ ָ ‫יהן ו ַּמ ּנ‬ ֶ ‫ וְ ֵא ָיל ְך – ׁ ָשם דְּ ֵמ‬roosters, he tends to them ward, one assesses their va aside or e owner.

‫גוֹלת ִּכ ְב ֵה ָמה‬ ֶ ְ‫ ַּת ְרנ‬:‫ָא ַמר ַרב נַ ְח ָמן ַ ּבר יִ צְ ָחק‬ ‫גוֹלת ו ְּב ֵה ָמה‬ ֶ ְ‫ ַּת ְרנ‬:‫ ַּתנְ יָ א נַ ִמי ָה ִכי‬.‫גַ ָּסה‬ ‫ ִמ ָּכאן‬,‫חוֹד ׁש‬ ֶ ‫גַ ָּסה ְמ ַט ּ ֵפל ָ ּב ֶהן ׁ ְשנֵים ָﬠ ָ ׂשר‬ ‫יחין‬ ִ ָ‫ ֲﬠגָ ִלים ו ְּסי‬.‫ִיחן‬ ָ ‫יהן ו ַּמ ּנ‬ ֶ ‫וְ ֵא ָיל ְך – ׁ ָשם דְּ ֵמ‬ – ‫ ִמ ָּכאן וְ ֵא ָיל ְך‬,‫ְמ ַט ּ ֵפל ָ ּב ֶהן ׁ ְשל ׁ ִֹשים יוֹם‬ ‫גוֹלין וְ ָכל‬ ִ ְ‫ ַא ָּווזִ ין וְ ַת ְרנ‬.‫ִיחן‬ ָ ‫יהן ו ַּמ ּנ‬ ֶ ‫ׁ ָשם דְּ ֵמ‬ ‫דָּ ָבר ׁ ֶש ִּט ּיפוּלוֹ ְמרו ֶ ּ​ּבה ִמ ּ ְ ׂש ָכרוֹ – ְמ ַט ּ ֵפל ָ ּב ֶהן‬ ‫יהן‬ ֶ ‫ ִמ ָּכאן וְ ֵא ָיל ְך – ׁ ָשם דְּ ֵמ‬,‫ׁ ְשל ׁ ָֹשה יָ ִמים‬ .‫ִיחן‬ ָ ‫ו ַּמ ּנ‬

Rav Naĥman bar Yitzĥak like a o a large domest suffie o over e os o i i or welve mons. This is a chicken and a large dome twelve months. From tha value, sells em, and places finds calves and foals, he t that oin forward, one a places e mone aside o roostersH and anything tha enue generaed b it, he ten oin forward, one assesse e mone aside or e ow

NOTES

Shall be sold – ‫יִ ָּמ ֵכר‬: Since the Gemara explains that ultimately even animals that work and generate revenue are sold, why does the mishna state only that an animal that does not work should be sold? Some answer that if one chooses, he may keep a working animal even beyond the twelve months stipulated in the Gemara, but he must sell a non-working animal (Torat Ĥayyim; Maharam Schiff ).

One assesses [sh explain that this set the money a ing, and explain word should be r explains the Rif’s mals that may be in tending to th And you shall return it [vahashevoto] to him – ‫וַ ֲה ׁ ֵשבוֹתוֹ לוֹ‬: The value; therefore, mishna’s interpretation is based upon the translation of the word The Ramban hol “vahashevoto,” meaning: You shall return it, indicating that the one can assess any lo who finds the item must return its entire value, not just part of it keep it for himse (Rabbeinu Yehonatan of Lunel).

Bava metzia . perek II . 28b . :‫פרק ב׳ דף כח‬ 20/04/2016 13:28:43

Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Translation, commentary & notes Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Editor-in-Chief Bava Metzia A Book.indb 154

KOREN PUBLISHERS JERUSALEM

www.korenpub.com

Available at www.korenpub.com or at your local Jewish bookstore Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 25

With the rise of kabbalistic teachings in ifying any questions they had), yet at Tzefat (sixteenth century), a greater emphathe same time, she seems ambivalent sis was placed on prayer and spirituality as as to whether the majority of women the mediums to the messiah. Women were should engage in such study. Of one expected to participate in this messianic thing she is certain: a woman has a revolution through prayer and supplication significant role to play in religious life. to the Redeemer, hence the emergence of Perhaps the biggest tragedy about techines (a Yiddish word, derived from the Techine Imahot is its magnificent, Hebrew word techinot, “supplications”). two-page introduction, written in These tefillot were written in Yiddish, and Hebrew, which meant that women dealt with women’s issues, such as “A Techine could not read it, and men most likely for When One’s Husband Is Traveling” or did not want to read it. In later edi“Techine for a Pregnant Woman.” However, tions of this techine, the publisher these were originally written by male writsimply omitted the introduction. In ers, and did not quite get to the essence of it, Leah argues for a greater focus on what a woman’s personal, heartfelt supplifemale prayer and spirituality.

Title page of a handwritten techine by cation would sound like. Furthermore, these There are many beautiful feAharon Ber Segal in 1809. Under the techines focused primarily on the technical male-written techines that were distitle it reads, “Written for the modest, and practical aspects of a woman’s life, necovered and printed by others, prominent woman Esterel, the wife of glecting the spiritual realm. This void inbecause modesty and societal norms Yoel Segal.” Courtesy of Winner’s Auctions spired a handful of learned women to prevented women from taking the and Exhibitions, Jerusalem compose their own techines, which touched steps to publish their work themon the esoteric spheres beyond childbirth selves. Here are a few introductions and making challah, focusing on a woman’s from various techines that illustrate inherent spirituality and ability to connect the point. “The righteous woman who to her Maker in ways that had long been thought this up, because of her natuconsidered reserved for men. ral piety, did not mention her name” The first female-written techine was puband “this was found in the techine lished around 1600, and was called Eyn gor pouch left by the righteous rabbi’s sheyne techine (A Very Beautiful Techine). This wife, Mistress Rachel Hinde.”3 anonymous techine was published with the While female writers became infollowing disclaimer: “This was for a long creasingly prevalent in the eighteenth time kept secret among a pious group of and nineteenth centuries, many chose women. They let it remain among themselves, to use pen names, leave their work and let no one copy it. Now they have reunsigned or refrain from publishing thought the matter.”2 Perhaps the female need their work altogether. However, perfor spiritual connection inspired these writhaps the greatest barrier to female ers to abandon their reservations and publish writing was the issue of literacy. their work. This prayer focuses on many of The question of educating women Title page of a handwritten techine the Jewish women of Tanach, and explains was a centuries-long contentious from Trieste, Italy. how they intercede with the Creator on their waltz, a dance between “teaching Courtesy of The Israel Museum living daughters’ behalf. daughters Torah is like teaching them Sarah bat Tovim composed Techine Shloshe obscenity” and “how can Jewish She’orim (Techine of the Three Gates), and Sarah Rivkah Rochel daughters not be knowledgeable in Torah?” Ultimately, women Leah Horowitz wrote Techine Imahot (Techine of the Matri- from learned families were learned themselves, and invariably, archs), both of which touch on the authoresses’ visions of a learning will not stay quiet. Coupled with a driven soul, the world where women pray and learn like their male counter- learning will pour forth, dashing all those near it with its coolparts. Leah Horowitz is an enigmatic figure from a scholarly ing powers. Women of strength, with a pen to write, a mind to inquire, and a soul to persevere, circumvented communal norms, reaching out to their silent sisters, singing a song in a feminine voice that had never before been heard. g

Unlike most works from this era, which tend to have a strong academic or religious agenda, this memoir is simply a woman’s story.

rabbinic lineage. Sources document her sharp tongue and her ready retorts when men showed surprise at her tremendous scope of Talmudic knowledge (she is also recorded as having instructed her brother’s students while he was napping, clar26 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Notes 1. Shirley Kaufman ed., Galit Hasan-Rokem ed., Tamar Hess ed., Hebrew Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present (New York, 1999), 71.

2. Quoted in Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry and Cheryl Tallan, JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 BCE-1900 CE (Philadelphia, 2003), 161.

3. Quoted in Chava Weissler, “Prayer in Yiddish and the Religious World of Ashkenazic Women,” in Judith R. Baskin, Jewish Women in Historical Perspective (Detroit, 1991), 169.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 27

Jewish Law

By Edward Reichman disease, microcephaly (small brain) and tragically even death for the fetus. When rubella epidemics were common in the mid-to-late twentieth century, a number of halachic issues arose.

u Abortion

IN HALACHAH

L

ast year, in the pages of this journal, we explored the unique halachic issues related to Ebola, a highly contagious and fatal disease.1 The article was accompanied by a photo of me wearing HAZMAT protective gear. The procedure of putting on the gear is called to “don,” and to remove it (ironically a much more complicated process) is called to “doff.” At the height of the Ebola scare, I was doing a “doff” a day. It gradually tapered down to a “doff” a week, and then a “doff” a month. I am happy to report that I am no longer doing the “doff” at all. At least for now, the Ebola scare has dissipated. I am further delighted to report that our halachic discussion about whether one should perform CPR on an Ebola patient has remained hypothetical. This disease, however, is by no means gone, and as it will likely resurface again, to Ebola we bid, unfortunately, lehitra’ot (we will see you again).

As Ebola slips to the periphery of our radar screen, another disease has replaced it front and center: Zika. Both Zika and Ebola are part of a long tradition of infectious diseases that have generated halachic dilemmas, but Zika itself is replacing yet another disease, as we shall see.

u The Halachic Chapter of Rubella (German Measles) Have you ever been stricken with a case of rubella or seen a case of this disease? If you are roughly in your sixties or older, the answer will likely be yes, while for those younger, the answer will be negative.

Rubella is a relatively benign disease that can cause a fever, rash, headaches and eye redness and is spread from person to person through coughing or sneezing. While a mere nuisance for most adults, it is extremely dangerous for a fetus. If contracted during pregnancy, rubella can possibly cause deafness, blindness, heart

One challenging halachic issue was whether abortion could be considered for women who were exposed to or contracted rubella in pregnancy. It is important to note that many of the manifestations of congenital rubella are not anatomical, and while ultrasound did exist at that time, albeit in a less sophisticated form, it would not necessarily have revealed any abnormality.

This discussion needs to be placed in the context of the broader halachic analysis of the prohibition of abortion.2 The nature of the prohibition of abortion is a matter of rabbinic debate, with the classic polar extremes represented by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, who forbids abortion for any fetal indication, such as Tay-Sachs, or as in this case of rubella, and Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, who allows abortion for limited cases of fetal disability, which could include rubella.

To give us a sense of the magnitude of the epidemic, according to an account from the rabbinic court of Rav Shmuel Vozner (1913-2015), over 1,000 cases were presented to the court requesting abortion.

The court prohibited abortion in every single case (consistent with the general approach of Rabbi Feinstein). As a postscript, it is further reported that in all the cases, save one, no harm befell the subsequent children. As this is an anecdotal account, absent any details of the cases, we cannot know whether the women had confirmed cases of rubella, and if so, during which trimester. In any case it is a remarkable number.3

u Contraception

A vaccine for rubella was developed in the 1960s. To prevent birth defects the medical community recommended vaccinations for all women of childbearing years. The

Rabbi Edward Reichman, MD, is professor of emergency medicine and professor of education and bioethics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Rabbi Dr. Reichman received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and writes and lectures widely in the field of Jewish medical ethics.

28 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

vaccine, however, was comprised of a live, attenuated virus (as opposed to a killed virus), and had potential for the transmission of disease to the woman. As such, it was recommended that women practice contraception for three months after receiving the vaccination. This created a halachic dilemma, as one would be delaying the mitzvah of peru urvu (to be fruitful and multiply). Proper treatment of the halachic topic of contraception is beyond the scope of this article.4 Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein responded to this specific query with the following nuanced conclusions:5 1. If the husband already fulfilled the mitzvah of peru urvu, the wife can receive the vaccine.

Just as we are saying goodbye to a disease THAT although benign for an adult, wreaks havoc on a fetus, we read the very next day about a new disease called Zika, with a profile remarkably reminiscent of Rubella.

Is God perhaps sending a not-sosubtle message that while man believes he can claim the eradication of disease, it is perhaps a misplaced arrogance?

2. If peru urvu has not been fulfilled, the woman should not receive the vaccine and “shomer mitzvah lo yada davar ra.”

(One who preserves and performs a mitzvah will not be harmed.)

3. If the woman is extremely fearful or concerned about the risk to the fetus, she can vaccinate and can use contraception.

4. The husband may also refrain from the mitzvah of peru urvu if the wife is extremely afraid of disease transmission to her fetus.

5. One can rely on a ruling stated in the Ezer miKodesh that peru urvu can be delayed for six months to learn a profession. So too in this case.

u The End of Rubella

In April 2016,6 global health officials declared that rubella had officially been eliminated from the Americas.7 This miraculous feat was accomplished through vaccination (the R of the MMR vaccine stands for rubella); this is why those born

in the last few decades have not seen a case of the disease.

u The Beginning of Zika

Behold the following observation: Just as we are saying goodbye to a disease that although benign for an adult, wreaks havoc on a fetus, we read the very next day about a new disease called Zika,8 with a profile remarkably reminiscent of rubella (there are important differences, especially in the mode of transmission).

Is God perhaps sending a not-so-subtle message that while man believes he can claim the eradication of disease, it is perhaps a misplaced arrogance? While this interpretation is purely speculative, the observation nonetheless remains.

u The Zika Virus

Zika (not etymologically related to mazik, a tortfeaser) is a virus named after the forest where it was first identified in Uganda. This mosquito-borne disease has now created an international stir for reasons we shall presently address.

Below are the basics of the Zika virus, highlighting aspects of the disease relevant to the halachic discussion.9 • Zika virus is transmitted primarily through the bite of a mosquito. It typically causes a rash, joint pains, fevers and eye redness and is usually benign, with rare possible neurological effects.

• It can be transmitted through sexual contact, more commonly from male to female, though recently the reverse has been true. (I call this “zikat haba’al,” not to be confused with the term from Yevamot.)

• With the exception of a small area in Florida, almost all of the cases thus far identified in the United States are of travelers from endemic countries. (This, of course, will change.10) • Zika can cause birth defects, typically microcephaly (small brain) in a percentage of pregnant women. The exact percentage remains unknown, with recent studies showing a range from 1 percent to 13 percent.

• There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika as yet.

u Halachic Issues

Zika shares some of the same halachic concerns as rubella, with some variations and additions. While a detailed expansive analysis of the halachic ramifications of

Zika is beyond the scope of this paper, we identify here some of the major issues.11 In an unprecedented move, El Salvador, an area of Zika prevalence, has advised all women living in the country not to get pregnant until 2018 for fear of their contracting Zika through a mosquito bite.12 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also less explicitly advised against conception for those living in endemic areas. Even the Pope suggested that contraceptives may be used to prevent the spread of Zika.13 The Jewish community in Brazil, ground zero for the Zika virus, is struggling with these issues.14 There are, in fact, a number of discussions in rabbinic literature about the concept of communal contraception. When Amram, the father of Moshe Rabbeinu, saw that Paro decreed to kill all the male children, he said, “We are toiling in vain,” and he divorced his wife. All the men of Israel then divorced their wives. However, he subsequently reevaluated his decision, remarried and continued to have children.

The others followed suit.15 In addition, the Talmud learns from Yosef that one should not engage in marital relations in times of famine.16 Both of these cases were invoked in the modern era when discussing the propriety of contraception amid the horrors of the Holocaust and its aftermath. After World War II, Rabbi Hillel Posek convened a congress of rabbis to address the unsanctioned refusal of many women to engage in the mitzvah of peru urvu.17 The major concern with Zika is the transmission of the disease to the fetus.

Depending on the circumstances of travel to infected areas, the suspected or actual infection, and even the gender of the exposed person,18 the recommendations of the CDC differ. There is concern for the transmission of the virus both through mosquito bites and through sexual transmission. There are many variables that are not yet fully understood, and as a result, the recommendations will surely change over time.

In addition, there are a number of tests for the Zika virus, including tests for active infection and exposure. Any halachic inquiry needs to take into account the current knowledge of the time, and accuracy of the testing as interpreted by medical Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 29

experts. All questions should be presented to a rabbinic authority for consultation.

u Preventing Conception

In situations where one of the married partners has either been possibly exposed or confirmed to be infected with Zika, the objective is to prevent conception so as not to risk the birth of a severely diseased child.

Issues for consideration: • Is contraception allowed in general, and if yes, is it allowed in this case?19 • Is abstinence preferable to contraception? This will depend on the length of time involved. If the time period is relatively short, abstinence may be preferred; if the time period is prolonged, contraception may possibly be permitted in consultation with a rabbinic authority.

• Does the type of contraception matter?

Most definitely. There are major differences in the types of contraception that are permitted. In this case, a hormonal method (e.g., the pill) may be halachically least objectionable. However, while transmitting the virus to one’s spouse in the absence of conception may not be as much of a concern, if the woman transmits Zika to the man, it may remain in his reproductive seed for a long period and necessitate the consideration of contraception for a longer period.

• Does testing for Zika impact the halachic discussion? Yes; testing, when done with expert medical consultation, may possibly obviate the need for any form of contraception if it can be reliably confirmed that there has been no exposure to or infection with Zika.

u When the Woman is Pregnant

When the woman is pregnant, and contracts the Zika virus, there is a chance for the disease to be transmitted to the fetus, though the exact percentages remain unclear. A pregnant woman (or one in the age of fertility) should clearly avoid elective travel to endemic areas, due to the potential sakanah (danger) to the fetus.20 Due to the concern of sexual transmission, if the man is exposed or has acquired Zika, the CDC recommends that the couple should use a barrier method of contraception throughout the entire pregnancy. All the same issues mentioned above would apply here, except in this case, the only medically effective method of contraception in order to prevent Zika transmission to the fetus is a barrier 30 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

method. This method is more halachically problematic than other contraceptive forms. There is halachic precedent regarding the use of barrier contraception in cases of AIDS, where the concern is likewise the transmission of disease.21 Rabbinic authorities should be consulted.

Here as well, testing may obviate the need for any form of contraception.

u Freezing Reproductive Seed

An option that some Olympians exercised was to freeze their reproductive seed prior to travel to Rio, a Zika area. This reproductive seed could then be subsequently used for procreation without the fear of Zika transmission.22 There is much to discuss here from a halachic perspective. Egg freezing for women has become much more common recently and is permitted and even encouraged by a number of rab-

Both Zika and Ebola are part of a long tradition of infectious diseases that have generated halachic dilemmas. binic authorities in certain situations, though this specific case has not been addressed.23 The different mechanism of transmission for the Zika-infected woman and the required waiting period for conception would need to be considered.

Freezing of sperm is halachically more problematic, especially for the unmarried man.24 It is unlikely that such a practice would be sanctioned for men traveling to Zika-infested areas.

u Abortion

The issue of abortion in cases of Zika would be similar in concept to cases of rubella. The rabbinic authorities, such as Rav Moshe, who forbid abortion for any fetal abnormality, would similarly forbid abortion in this case; those who allow abortion in cases where a fetus would suffer from a severe disability would consider the possibility of abortion here. Questions

that would need to be addressed for cases of Zika would include: • Is exposure to the virus enough to consider abortion, or is documented maternal infection required?

• Even if the mother is infected, would anatomical evidence of fetal infection (such as an ultrasound showing microcephaly) be required to entertain the possibility of abortion? This is only possible later in pregnancy.

• How does the statistical likelihood of fetal Zika infection with maternal disease impact the halachic equation regarding abortion?

• How will Zika virus testing affect the decision?

May we be zocheh that Zika will not be mazik us, and that, with God’s help, a vaccine should be developed,25 or a method to genetically modify mosquitos26 to render all these halachic discussions moot.27 Hopefully one day soon, iy”H, when the question is asked, “have you seen a case of Zika?” we will answer in the negative, just like for rubella. g Notes 1. E. Reichman, “Ebola: A New Disease with an Ancient Tradition,” Jewish Action 75:3 (spring 2015): 62-69.

2. For a review of the halachic issues of abortion, see F. Rosner, trans., A. Steinberg, Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics (Jerusalem, 2003), s. v., “abortion.”

3. Rabbi Simchah HaKohen Kook, “Abortion and the Treatment of Handicapped Children,” Beit Hillel 6:3 (Tammuz 5745) (Hebrew).

4. See F. Rosner, trans., A. Steinberg, Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics (Jerusalem, 2003), s. v., “contraception.”

5. Shiurei Torah leRofim, n. 225.

6. Another halachic aspect of rubella is the liability for its transmission. See, for example, a New York Times article by D. G. McNeil entitled, “Rubella Has Been Eliminated from the Americas” (29 April 2015). The article states: “Perhaps the most famous American rubella victim was the actress Gene Tierney. In 1943, newly pregnant, she volunteered to be in a show at the Hollywood Canteen, a film-industry nightclub for American troops. She caught the disease that night, and her daughter Daria was born weighing only three pounds, deaf, with cataracts and with brain damage so severe that she never learned to speak.

“According to Ms. Tierney’s biography, two years later, at a tennis match, she met a fan, a former member of the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, who said she had slipped out of a rubella quarantine to go to the Canteen that night.”

For an analysis as to whether this woman would be halachically liable, see F. Rosner trans. and

ed., Y. Zilberstein, Medical Halachic Responsa (Haifa, 2013): 211-212.

7. D. G. McNeil, “Rubella has Been Eliminated from the Americas, Health Officials Say,” New York Times, 29 April 2015. Smallpox was eradicated from the globe in 1979 and polio from the Americas in 1994.

8. On the history of the discovery, spread and diagnosis of the Zika virus, see J. Waggoner and B. Pinsky, “Zika Virus: Diagnostics for an Emerging Pandemic Threat,” Journal of Clinical Microbiology 54:4 (April 2016): 860-866.

9. Further information may be gleaned from the CDC web site. Due to the infancy of this disease and the continuing accumulation of data, it is likely that the information about Zika will have changed from the time of the writing of this article to the time of publication.

10. To date, I have seen less than a handful of cases of Zika, all of which were from endemic countries.

11. There are many aspects of both the medical and halachic aspects of Zika that will not be addressed in this brief article, including details of the viral identification, the nature of the different types of testing, the gender differences of the CDC recommendations, the statistics of fetal infection in the case of Zika infection for the pregnant woman, the halachic issues of traveling to endemic countries and the permissibility to kill mosquitos on Shabbat.

12. A. Ahmed, “El Salvador’s Advice on Zika Virus: Don’t Have Babies,” New York Times, 25 January 2016.

13. Simon Romero and Jim Yardley, “Pope Says Contraceptives Can Be Used to Slow Zika,” New York Times, 18 February 2016.

14. M. Moreas, “Battling Zika at Ground Zero,” JTA, 7 March 2016.

15. Sotah 12b.

16. Ta’anit 11a.

17. See, for example, Rabbi Y. A. Landa, Shu”t Beit Yisrael, E. H. 152; Rabbi Hillel Posek, HaPosek 23:834-837.

18. The disparate recommendations for men and women derive from medical evidence of the lingering presence of the Zika virus, or its remnants, identified in sperm.

19. See F. Rosner, trans., A. Steinberg, Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics (Jerusalem, 2003), s. v., “contraception.”

20. This issue of travel involving danger, either as a result of the journey or the presence of disease at the destination, merits fuller treatment.

Travel for the purpose of one’s livelihood is another matter. See the classic responsum of Noda b’Yehuda, Mahadura Tinyana, YD 10. Regarding discussions of fleeing during a plague, see Rema, YD 116:5. The Rema himself fled from a plague of cholera and, due to his dire situation, wrote a commentary on the Megillah for his father in lieu of mishloach manot.

See the introduction to his Mechir Yayin.

21. See Minchat Shlomo 3:103, letter 16; Shevet Levi 10:238; Assia 61-62, 95ff and 100ff; J. D. Bleich, “AIDS: A Jewish Perspective,” Tradition 26:3 (1992): 49-80, esp. 68-69; G. Freudenthal, ed., AIDS in Jewish Thought and Law (Hoboken, New Jersey, 1998), liv, n. 99.

22. J. Branch, “Among Olympians’ Zika Precautions: Fewer Guests, Frozen Sperm,” New York Times, 15 June 2016.

23. See E. Rybak, “Aging Ovaries and the Age-Old Tradition: Elective Egg Freezing in Jewish Law,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 63 (spring 2012): 22-50.

24. J. D. Bleich, “Sperm Banking in Anticipation of Infertility,” Tradition 29:4 (summer 1995): 47-60.

25. On the halachic approach to vaccination, see E. Reichman, “What Does Halacha Say about Vaccination?” Jewish Action 69:2 (winter 2008): 10-14 and sources there.

26. J. Achenbach, “Genetically Engineered Bugs to Fight Malaria and Zika?

Not So Fast,” Washington Post, 8 June 2016.

27. There is also a halachic question as to whether one can kill a mosquito on Shabbat in a Zika-infested area to prevent it from biting a pregnant woman. If we define this as a case of pikuach nefesh, then the answer will be yes. Further analysis is required.

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Jewish Unity

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

The Life-Saving Power of Jewish Unity

M

ichele London was brought up in a Reform home in Brooklyn, New York. After her son became paralyzed because of a back operation that went wrong, she gave up on God and Judaism.

Years later, one morning, she woke up feeling dizzy. She had no sensation in her legs. Her doctor ordered her to go to the emergency room right away; blood results revealed that her kidneys had completely shut down. It wasn’t clear that she would last the night.

She went on dialysis the next day. She left her job of thirty-five years working as a city planner for the City of New York to spend three days a week, four hours at a time hooked up to a machine the size of a refrigerator, with two six-inch needles in her arm.

The kidneys, a critical part of the body’s cleansing system, eliminate waste products from the bloodstream as well as excess fluid. If they stop functioning, one can’t survive the toxin build up for long. Although dialysis serves as an artificial replacement for the kidneys’ filtration system, it is not as efficient as real kidneys. The average life expectancy of an individual on dialysis is five to ten years, whereas a live kidney transplant could give one decades, and offer a vastly improved quality of life.

While people are born with two of these fist-sized filter systems, one can function perfectly fine with only one kidney, making kidney donation a viable option for the donor and life-saving for the recipient.

London’s friend told her about Renewal, an Orthodox non-profit organization in Brooklyn that helps facilitate

kidney matches within the Jewish community. After countless failed attempts at finding an appropriate donor, she was afraid to hope again, but she called Renewal and placed her name on its list of those seeking a donor.

YYY Every time Esther Elbaum, a young mother of four in a Chassidic enclave in Monsey, New York, saw a newspaper ad publicizing the need for kidney donors, she felt a tug.

She couldn’t stand to think that she could help someone suffering, yet her children were still very young. By the time her youngest turned two and a half, she decided to make the call.

Elbaum’s first match, a two-month-old infant, didn’t pan out; her kidney was too large. She was crestfallen. “We constantly need kidneys,” Renewal assured her, promising to keep her in mind. She heard back a few days later: a sixty-two-year-old woman was in need of a kidney. “Would you consider giving your kidney to her?” she was asked.

Feeling hesitant, she asked to hear more about the critically ill woman. She was told the woman had a hard life. Her only child was born with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare chromosomal defect present at birth that results in a number of physical, mental and behavioral problems. Due to severe scoliosis (another common symptom of the disease), he required multiple surgeries, one of which accidently paralyzed him at age eleven. She had been taking care of him 24/7 for twenty-two years. During his long stays in rehab (sometimes up to a year), she would sleep on a lumpy cot, causing her to have multiple aches and pains and to consume significant amounts of ibuprofen, often known to cause kidney damage.

Still unsure, Elbaum agreed to continue with the preliminary testing. In the interim, her mind ping-ponged

Bayla Sheva Brenner is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Jewish Action. She can be reached at baylashevabrenner@outlook.com.

32 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Mitch Bornstein (left) and A. J. Gindi, six months after A. J. donated a kidney to Mitch. The two are holding a Sefer Tehillim that Mitch had comissioned for A. J. Courtesy of A. J. Gindi

between “yes” and “no.” She thought, “If I’m going to put my family through this, maybe I should wait for someone younger, in her twenties or thirties?” Then she thought, “What’s the problem? The woman could live to be one hundred. Young people pass away; what guarantee does anyone have? Who am I to decide who gets to live and who gets to die?”

Renewal called her back a few days later. “You’re a match, a great match. Are you happy?” She said she was.

And she was.

YYY A short time before the procedure, London found herself sitting in a waiting area packed with other transplant patients about to take some pre-op tests. Trying to contain her anxiety about the procedure and her fear that it might not really happen, she overheard a modestly-dressed young woman talking about being a donor and describing the recipient. She realized the woman was describing her.

“There were a lot of tears and emotion,” says Elbaum.

“Michele had tried in so many ways to get a kidney, with so many disappointments. I told her it’s going to really happen this time.”

London could never have imagined her nightmare would end this way, and that she would become so intimately connected to a woman from a world so different from her own. “This young [Chassidic] woman with four small children was willing to make such a sacrifice for someone she didn’t know,” says London. “I asked, ‘How am I ever

going to thank you for this?’ and Esther replied, ‘How am I ever going to thank you for giving me the chance to do this mitzvah?’”

Shortly after the transplant, London’s son passed away unexpectedly. London decided to give him an Orthodox burial. “Having Esther in my life gave me back my faith in God. Without it, I would have never survived. I could have still been on dialysis, with no faith and my son dying.

What would have happened to me?”

Elbaum, who doesn’t drive, took a bus, a train and a ferry to attend the levayah (funeral) in Staten Island. “Michele became like my sister,” says Elbaum. She sent her new sister an e-mail, “If I were able to, I would give you my heart.”

The Kidney Matchmakers According to Rabbi Josh Sturm, Renewal’s director of outreach, the organization hears from about two to three patients a week, and maybe one donor. “It’s hard to keep up with the pace,” he says. Close to 5,000 Americans die waiting for a kidney each year, as the national average wait time for a kidney is five to seven years. Live kidney donation is ideal. “[Live kidneys] last twice as long as kidneys from deceased donors,” says Rabbi Sturm. “They also work instantly after the transplant over ninety-five percent of the time, whereas kidneys from non-living donors can take a while to start functioning.”

Working to save Jewish lives through kidney donation, Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 33

Renewal has facilitated 345 transplants since its inception in 2006, and the average wait time for those on its recipient list is six months. In 2015 alone, the organization facilitated sixty-four transplants, representing 60 to 70 percent of all altruistic live kidney donations in New York State. (Several hundred Americans donate kidneys to strangers each year.) The majority of Renewal’s donors are Orthodox; however, Renewal’s recipients come from across the entire Jewish world.

Renewal furnishes funds for transportation to and from medical testing for donor and recipient, and provides food and lodging for family members who wish to stay

ing. Rabbi Sturm shares the story of a woman named Shayna,* who was seeking a kidney for her forty-year-old son with special needs. She contacted Renewal and initiated an e-mail campaign to find a donor for her son. The e-mail sailed around the world—from Shayna’s community in Miami to Baltimore, and subsequently to the dean of a seminary in Israel, who forwarded the plea to hundreds of the institution’s alumni. The campaign not only helped Shayna’s son find a donor, it also succeeded in finding kidney donors for two others on Renewal’s list, thereby saving three lives with one e-mail.

In addition to Renewal, there are a few other Jewish

She could never have imagined her nightmare would end this way, and that she would become so intimately connected to a woman from a world so different from her own. with the donor or recipient during his or her hospital stay. It also provides donors with up to a month of lost wages. The recipient’s insurance covers all the costs of the actual procedure, including the donor’s end.

Kindness in the Online Age In today’s interconnected world, e-mail campaigns can have a profound impact on the success of kidney match-

KIDNEY RENEWAL

MATNAT CHAIM

KIDNEY MITZVAH KIDNEY FOR HARRY

organizations dedicated to connecting kidney donors to recipients and to educating the population about kidney donation. In Israel, the non-profit organization Matnat Chaim educates individuals about kidney donation and provides support to donors. Its extensive web site with resources and information provides education about every step of the process.

Two online resources for kidney matchmaking were created by those intimately knowledgeable about the topic—donors and recipients. Chaya Lipschutz created KidneyMitzvah, a web site that aims at spreading awareness and providing information about kidney donation.

Lipschutz, from Brooklyn, donated a kidney herself in 2005. Ever since, she has worked to match donors with recipients and is responsible for many successful matches.

Her web site contains information about kidney donation, resources for potential donors, and inspirational stories of successful matches.

Kidney for Harry is a Facebook page run by Harry Burstyn, a kidney recipient. The page is part support group for those waiting for kidneys, part inspiration to encourage others to donate. Burstyn’s page also shares stories and statistics about other live transplants and organ donations.

Multi-Cultural Kidneys No one knows how A. J. Gindi, a Syrian Jew and resident of West Long Branch, New Jersey, first got into the Renewal computer system. He suspects it had something to do with his participation in a community bone marrow drive. A year and a half after the event, he received a call informing him that he would receive a blood kit to determine if he was a match for a potential kidney recipient. The kit arrived; he put it aside. They called again, instructing that he take the samples to the local lab. He complied.

A month later, he got another phone call: Renewal had found a possible match. Would he be willing to donate?

He said, “Yes, he’d love to help someone.” Then fifty-two, *Not her real name

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Kidney donor Yoel Usher Labin with recipient Robert Sendzischew, as they both recuperate at Mount Sinai Hospital. Photo: VINnews.com/Rafael Lopez JR

Gindi underwent a battery of tests to ascertain if he was physically and psychologically capable of donating a kidney. Only thirty percent pass. He passed.

Dressed in his hospital garb, he met Mitch Bornstein, the recipient, the morning of the surgery. The sixty-yearold resident of Queens, New York had struggled with type 2 diabetes since his forties and high blood pressure since his teens, the two main causes of renal failure. His kidneys started to decline. He lost all desire to eat and he couldn’t sleep. He went on dialysis. “It was horrible; something I truly wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Bornstein says.

He and his wife put the word out for a donor. They advertised in Jewish newspapers, printed flyers, sent e-mails and made phone calls. Gindi’s kidney was a perfect match.

“What can you say to a person who is going to save your life?” says Bornstein, recounting his first face-to-face with his donor. “There’s no way to describe it. We just embraced and I cried. We may come from different places, but we have so much in common. Jews help Jews and that’s why we are still here.”

The two maintain contact via text and frequent phone calls. Their families got together at the Gindi Shabbat table to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their operations. No doubt, Bornstein appreciated the kibe hamda (Sephardic cholent); he also enjoys joking about his new 36 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

kidney. Right after the surgery he asked, “Since I have a Syrian kidney, can I eat rice on Pesach?” And when people inquire about his background, he can’t resist revealing that he’s “part Syrian.”

“Hashem put me into this world to help as many people as I can, with my time, my heart, my mind and my body,” says Gindi.

Defying Stereotypes Robert Sendzischew, forty-one, suffered from high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. He suddenly found it difficult to breathe, and the air felt increasingly and unbearably humid. His kidneys had ceased functioning, causing water to collect in his lungs. He immediately went on dialysis.

Sendzischew remembered a lecture he had attended two years prior to the diagnosis that was given by Lori Palatnik, a prolific speaker, Jewish outreach professional and kidney donor. She described donating a kidney to a Jew she never met as being the greatest experience of her life. Sendzischew and his wife, who were very moved by the talk, had no idea how relevant that speech would become.

He called Renewal to join its recipient list and began the required testing. Within weeks, a Satmar chassid had begun his own testing to qualify as a donor. By the time Sendzischew signed the paperwork, the shidduch was in the works. Sendzischew had hoped to wait until after his

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A KIDNEY

Thirty-five years old and on dialysis, Casey K. hopes to one day live “as normal a life as possible,” including raising a family and pursuing a teaching career. In the meantime, her dreams will have to remain on hold, until she finds a kidney donor.

Casey has never had it easy. Born with a rare genetic disease that causes organ damage, she had two liver transplants by the time she was five.

Unfortunately, the medication meant to prevent her body from rejecting the transplants left her with kidney impairment and hearing loss.

A member of Our Way for the Jewish Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a division of the OU’s National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD), Carey decided to turn to Rabbi Eliezer Lederfeind, director of Our Way, to help with her search. Rabbi Lederfeind urged Casey to reach out to Renewal, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that facilitates kidney-donor matches within the Jewish community. She and her husband traveled to New York from their home in Houston, Texas to meet with the Renewal team.

Together, they strategized on the best ways to get the word out. Part of Renewal’s game plan involves educating the patients’ communities. Rabbi Josh Sturm, Renewal’s director of outreach, brings “awareness campaigns” to synagogues on the patient’s home turf, clarifying the steps of the kidney donation process. Every event is patient-arranged.

“We believe in the zero-pressure approach,” says Rabbi Sturm. “Our goal is that people walk away more open minded towards the idea of kidney donation.”

Along with her Houston-based outreach efforts, Casey also enlisted the aid of relatives in New York to help organize campaigns in the Jewish communities in the New York metropolitan area. Renewal strongly urged her to cast a wide net, and publicize the need via e-mail and social media. Casey is counting on the power of faith, PR and the Jewish heart.

Below is her plea to the Jewish community: Please consider becoming a kidney donor. Your generous help will allow me to reach my dreams. The donor would have to be B or O (positive or negative). If you are considering getting tested to see if you are a match, contact Renewal at 718.431.9831, ext. 209 or e-mail R1124@renewal.org.

38 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

son’s bar mitzvah celebration, but the donor wanted to do the surgery quickly.

“When a mitzvah comes your way, don’t delay it,” says Yoel Usher Labin, Sendzischew’s donor, quoting a gemara. A Yiddish journalist living in Boro Park, Labin sent out an e-mail to family and friends on the morning of the surgery, his thirty-second birthday: “Today, the eighteenth day of Kislev . . . I received a treasure, the brilliant gift of life. Today . . . I’ll be the

“You could take a chronic disease and make it one hundred percent better through the generosity of another. Kidney donors are super heroes; there are no other people I hold [in higher] regard.” lucky one again, by giving the gift of life to a fellow [Jew] . . .”

To assuage his young children’s concerns, Labin bought a doll with removable organs and explained what the kidneys do. “So that person has no kidney and you have two,” said his son, who was six at the time. “It’s like I have two lollipops and another kid has none. The best thing to do is give one to your friend.”

The day after the surgery, Sendzischew shuffled down the hall to his donor’s room, three doors away.

“I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know what kind of Jew would do this.”

A few months later, at the packed bar mitzvah hall, a group of jubilant participants lifted Sendzischew and his son aloft upon their chairs; another group simultaneously lifted up Labin, in his distinctly Chassidic garb, beard and peyot. The guests formed long lines to thank him personally. He made a profound impression on one guest in particular.

“Whenever I saw someone who looked like you do, I would get a very negative feeling,” said the female guest. “Now that I see you and know what you’ve done, I’m changing my mind.”

The significant number of living donors in the Jewish community has not gone unnoticed in the medical community. “I am always pleasantly surprised to see how many people come out to the donor drives,” says Dr. David Serur, medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at the Rogosin Institute of Nephrology, affiliated with New York-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell, in New York City. “It would be great if this could be replicated around the country in different communities.” After twenty-four years in

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 39

the field, he’s still awed by the transplant process. “You could take a chronic disease and make it one hundred percent better through the generosity of another. Kidney donors are super heroes; there are no other people I hold [in higher] regard.”

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Practicing What He Preaches Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, rabbi of Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck, New Jersey, had a dilemma. Donny Hain, a man in his community, desperately needed a kidney donor; dialysis was taking its toll. Hain’s brother asked the rabbi to run a program in the shul to promote the idea of kidney donation and alert them to Hain’s plight. Rabbi Rothwachs, who had never met Donny, jumped at the chance and began planning the event. However, he couldn’t shake the thought that he would be presenting the virtues of donating a kidney, while never having considered doing it himself. Rabbi Rothwachs thoroughly researched the topic, spoke with past donors and physicians and decided it made sense to do it.

He consulted with his wife and his rabbi and then initiated the screening process. Within two months, he was on the operating table. Although he was prepared to give his kidney to any Jew in need, fortunately, Rabbi Rothwachs was a perfect match for Hain.

The two unexpectedly met at the pre-op testing. “It was emotionally overwhelming, in a positive way,” says Rabbi Rothwachs. “It put real meaning and purpose into the entire process, which until then had been more technical. Now there was a face behind it. What this was really about was having the opportunity to save a life. It gave me a tremendous surge of chizuk.”

While in the hospital, Jewish kidney donors whom Rabbi Rothwachs had never met before stopped by to share their experiences. “The night of my surgery, a chasid walked to the hospital from New Square and someone else came the next day,” says Rabbi Rothwachs. “You definitely feel you’ve come into a special family.”

Rabbi Rothwachs’ Shabbat HaGadol derashah reflected his own transformation. “I told the congregation about a part of the screening process that entailed twenty-four hour urine collection. Never in my life had I given a thought to how much one’s body produces. It was eye-opening, awe-inspiring.

Months have passed since I took that test and every Asher Yatzar of mine since then has been different.” Since his speech, several community members have expressed interest in possibly becoming kidney donors and some have started the screening process.

“You can talk to your children about the value of chessed, and what it means to give,” says Rabbi Rothwachs, “[but] I have a feeling [that my children] learned a lot more from this one act [of donation]. My only regret is that I can’t do it again.” g

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Cover Story

Navigating Life

T R A N S I T I ON S

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

42 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

F

rom the day we’re born to the day we die, life takes us through transition after transition. Some are easily navigated, others are not. Like surfers on the ocean, we do our best to ride the waves. W ​ e would all prefer to pass up on life’s big waves. Yet sometimes they find us anyway.

Of all of life’s major transitions, significant losses affect us the most.

Whether it be divorce, job loss or a life challenge as jarring as the death of a child, life-altering transitions force us to recalibrate our perception of God’s world, our place in it and how to carry on. Walking through the unknown without a compass is bewildering, and at times, devastating. Yet there are those who have managed to rise above their ordeals. They grappled with themselves and sometimes with their faith, prevailing over pain and suffering and becoming transformed in the process.

******

Eight weeks after celebrating his bar mitzvah, Michoel Adler collapsed while practicing his clarinet.

His sister found him lying motionless on his bedroom floor; he had suffered a fatal aneurysm.

“The second I knew he was gone, I turned to Hashem,” says Ella, Michoel’s mother. “I said, ‘I won’t be able to survive this unless You carry me and my family through this. Give me the strength of iron to be the wife and mother I have to be now.’ I had no idea what I was facing.”

Rather than deal with her own anguish, she chose to focus on keeping the family atmosphere as normal as possible. “It was way too painful to deal with head on,” she says. “I tried to make everyone feel it was just something in life that people go through, that siblings die.” She encouraged the family to continue talking about Michoel, to

speak about him, to ensure they were keeping his presence alive.

Carrying on with life remained her top priority, as was maintaining her faith. “The transition has to be a spiritual one,” says Adler, who lives in Brooklyn. “If it isn’t, you could fall back into a very bad place.”

Despite the terrible blow, the Adlers made a point to go to bar mitzvah celebrations of Michoel’s classmates to wish them mazal tov.

Adler saw how others who had lost children were uplifted by starting charities in their child’s name. She decided to follow suit.

She launched Matnas Michoel, a tzedakah project that provides needy bar mitzvah boys with a pair of tefillin.

On a flight to Israel, shortly before her son’s first yahrtzeit, she approached a group of young secular Israelis who were mocking Chareidim and gently reproached them. An irreligious Israeli overheard the exchange. “You’re obviously Orthodox,” he said to her. He asked her how many children she had. She burst into tears as she told him her story.

Visibly moved, he said he wanted to do something to help. Adler asked if he would put on tefillin the day of her son’s yahrtzeit. She gave him the date and her son’s name.

The young man turned pale. “My name is also Michoel ben Yaakov!” he said.

“That’s when I knew that helping needy families pay for their sons’ tefillin was the right path,” says Adler. “These are the things that helped me transition to living again.”

Adler stresses that support from family and friends was vital to the healing process. Before Michoel’s first yahrtzeit, a group of friends secretly made arrangements for the

Adlers to travel to Eretz Yisrael to daven. They spoke with Adler’s husband’s boss to ensure he could get time off. They booked tickets and hotel reservations and then informed the couple of the trip. Such acts of chesed from friends and the community helped the couple enormously. But Adler says that even the simple “I’m-thinking-of-you” phone messages helped get her through some of the bad days.

Six years after her son’s death, she decided it was time to face her pain. She joined a support group for parents who had lost children. It’s not a club any parent wants to join, but the bond of grief ran deep and strong. Nowadays, Adler pays shivah visits to parents who have lost children, her very presence demonstrating that people suffering such a loss can eventually come to terms with their pain.

One would imagine that it saddens her to watch her son’s former classmates, now twenty-one, marry and start families. She manages by keeping his presence palpable. A large photo of Michoel hangs prominently on her dining room wall.

“He’s with me all the time,” she says.

“My grandchildren speak about him as if they knew him. They call him ‘Michoel from the Wall.’ I say, “Right Michoel from the Wall was a very good juggler? Right his favorite ice cream was . . . Right he finished this mesechta.’

We would all prefer to pass up on life’s big waves. Yet sometimes they find us anyway.

Bayla Sheva Brenner is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Jewish Action. She can be reached at baylashevabrenner@outlook.com.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 43

“To forget all his antics and adorable ways would have [left] . . . a big gaping hole for me. When people don’t keep the child’s memory alive, the pain is a lot worse and they regret it. He is still very much part of our family. I want people to know that it’s doable.”

She admits that “deep down” not every parent transitions from the loss completely.

“You could fall; we all do. I take solace in the memories before it happened. I don’t let it hurt me; I let it help me. He came down to fulfill those thirteen years.

It’s very difficult [to overcome the pain], but it wouldn’t be a nisayon [spiritual test] otherwise.”

came to comfort the family with personal accounts of Shaya Dov’s myriad acts of kindness, Rabbi Eckstein began to fully grasp the essence of his son—how much he achieved, who he had become.

Time passed and life went on; he and his wife assumed the children were adjusting to the loss. Then it occurred to him that their silence didn’t necessarily indicate tranquility. He knew the consequences of suppressing feelings.

Born to two Holocaust survivors,

******

Parents don’t expect to outlive their children. It defies life’s natural order.

“Because it’s an unnatural loss, there’s no intellectual understanding,” says Rabbi Dr. David Fox, a well-known forensic and clinical psychologist in Los Angeles. “Very often parents struggle with the final stages of grief, acceptance and resolution. It can haunt them for decades.”

After a loved one’s death, people come to realize the extent to which the departed affected the lives of others. Children are no exception.

In fact, this aspect of the transition can bring parents even closer to the child they lost.

“The truth is I didn’t really know my son,” says Rabbi Yitzchok Eckstein, a British expatriate living in Brooklyn. His nineteen-year-old, Shaya Dov, died in a car crash. “Do we really know our children?”

When friends and classmates

44 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Rabbi Eckstein had learned to keep his emotional life under lock and key. Unfortunately, he paid a price for this, and contracted an ulcer at the age of eleven, England’s youngest case on record.

His son’s death loosened Rabbi Eckstein’s grip on his inner life.

“I’ve changed,” he says. “I cry easily now. I’m much softer. I look carefully [at] each child and listen completely.”

The Torn Ketubah Not all transitions hit us from behind. Sometimes we initiate life’s tidal waves. But even if someone chooses to leave a stressful situation—as in the case of divorce—welcomed change is still change. It

Life-altering transitions force us to recalibrate our perception of God’s world, our place in it and how to carry on. necessitates entering the world of the unknown. And that’s scary.

Rabbi Dr. Fox, who also serves as the rav of the Hashkama Minyan at the Young Israel of Hancock Park in LA as well as a dayan, sees many divorces in his line of work. For a lot of people, he says, the dissolution of a marriage can create a crisis that could work its way into trauma. Like the death of a loved one, divorce often triggers not only feelings of grief over the loss, but also a sense of failure.

“They think, ‘I’m an oddity, people won’t know what to say to me.

I’ll be the fifth wheel,’ explains Rabbi Fox. “There’s worry about public shame, and that they will no longer be included. And what will their children say to their friends at school? It’s a reframing of one’s personal identity. Who am I now? Can I accept myself without condemnation? Sadly, the fault lines from a broken marriage can endure for years to come.”

Determined to avoid any messy repercussions, Chana Gilman and her husband decided on an elegant exit, keeping the pain and disappointments to themselves. Nonetheless, with divorce comes the inevitable aftershocks.

“I’m just starting to get back out there,” says Gilman, six years after the breakup of her twenty-year marriage.

“I went off the grid the last few years.

When I began to own my part in his unhappiness, that’s when my healing began. It’s never one person’s fault.”

She says the first step in the transition from wife to single mother was getting over her fear of falling into a deep malaise, one she’d never come out of. From the start, she sought support in her close friends. One friend accompanied her to the beit din for the get process, another took her out to dinner afterward and slept over; another treated her to lunch the next day.

Part of her self-care regimen involved building emotional boundaries. She actually role-played with a friend so that she would be prepared for the inevitable onslaught of intrusive questions.

“People are well-meaning, but they can be extremely insensitive,” she says.

“They would ask me, ‘Do you think you guys will remain friends? Is he paying child support? How are the kids feeling about all this?’ They’re normal questions, but none of their business. My rote answer, which is a shocker to most, is ‘Oh I don’t talk about that.’

Believe me; it takes courage. You have to create a community that speaks your language, knows your pain, and doesn’t judge you.”

Gilman pursued the guidance of women who not only survived the initial agony of divorce, but grew in the process. A few weeks after she received her get, she made plans to go to an upcoming wedding she thought she “had to attend.” After all, that’s what everyone was telling her; she needed to get out and be with people. She boarded her friend’s van, and waited for the rest of the passengers to arrive for the ride to the wedding. Suddenly she felt her eyes welling up; she didn’t want to go.

She reached for her cell phone and dialed a friend who had been divorced for a number of years.

“She told me to get out of the van,” says Gilman, “and stayed on the phone until I got home. You can’t force the timeline; you have to trust yourself.”

Another friend, seasoned in the divorce transition, likened the first week after the split to the shivah phase and the first month to the sheloshim. “There comes the day you want to get dressed and live life again,” says Gilman. She gave herself one year.

In an effort to repair the diminished self-esteem that frequently accompanies divorce, Gilman participated in myriad personal-development programs. She views this stage of her transition as a crucial time of self-investment, and has since gone on to coach other women.

“I learned we live in our heads. If I wake up and say, ‘Oh no, another day; I’m so sick of doing this alone. This is

Looking Ahead During a difficult transition, it is essential to maintain a sense of hopefulness. Say to yourself: I look at my current situation and trust it will not be permanent. I look ahead and anticipate that the future will bring an improvement in my circumstances.

– Rabbi Dr. David Fox

so hard,’ then it will be [hard],” says Gilman. “I wake up now and say ‘I love my life.’ Do I wish I were married? Of course I do. Am I happy in my life? Absolutely.”

Despite the increased incidences of divorce within the Orthodox Jewish community, many still feel a profound sense of shame.

When Yaakov Edelman* moved out of his house and ended his twenty-fiveyear marriage, he not only felt he failed as a husband and father, he felt he had failed as a Jew. “Setting a goal to have a family is something that is deeply ingrained in us,” says Edelman. “I knew the relationship with my [now] ex-wife was deteriorating, but I lived with the situation anyway. I hoped it would get better. I never thought that divorce was inevitable until I actually moved out.”

When he left, he felt at once liberated and lonely. He remembers a friend asking him when he would be vacationing in Florida that winter. Edelman answered, whenever he wanted and for as long as he wanted. He realized he no longer had to answer to anyone about his comings and goings.

Although he felt free of the stresses of a rocky marriage, it pained him to come home to an empty apartment each night. Against his therapist’s advice, he asked his ex-wife if she would consider reconciling. She turned down the offer.

Gnawing questions filled his head.

How are my Shabbatot going to look *Not his real name

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 45

Emotional Shifts When dealing with tough life transitions, the ability to acknowledge and feel the pain, fears and whatever the emotions might be, without buying into them as the new reality is really important. Experience the feelings, don’t become the feelings.

Then they can shift and change, as all emotions eventually do.

– Aviva Biberfeld, PsyD Brooklyn, New York

now? Will I stay single? Will I remarry?

What kind of woman should I look for?

Painful life transitions can also test an individual’s relationship with Hashem.

Difficulties could compel one to turn to God or, sometimes, away from Him. “No one should look down on someone who has faith questions after a traumatic loss,” says Rabbi Fox. “The one struggling shouldn’t feel guilty either.” He points to a verse in Yeshayahu that says: “Peace to those who are near; peace to those who are far from Me. I will heal them.”

“The Navi acknowledges that in times of great strife, one could feel closer to or estranged from God, but he has to go through this process.”

In Edelman’s case, despite his bouts with loneliness, he began to feel more at peace with himself and he strengthened

himself spiritually.

“When you’re unhappy, you don’t daven well, you don’t learn well, and the yamim tovim aren’t joyful,” he says.

“When you’re more in harmony with yourself, all that improves.”

My Job/My Self Although losing one’s livelihood obvioulsy can’t compare to the agony of losing a child or the pain following the breakup of a marriage, it’s a transition that sets off multiple losses. The unemployed struggle with diminished self-esteem, lack of daily structure and a missing sense of purpose.

Work often influences how we view ourselves, and how others view us.

Up until his fifties, Gavriel Cohen* had spent his career working his way up the corporate ladder as a financial analyst. He

owned a spacious home, his children attended yeshivah day school and the family rarely worried about expenses. Then his finances took an abrupt U-turn. He lost his job.

Initially he took it well. He left the position with a sizable severance package and figured he had time to search for his next opportunity. His years of experience would surely render him a top candidate.

But the calls didn’t come. He realized the transition would not be as easy as expected. But he hung onto a sense of emunah, the belief that there was a bigger plan, and that it would all end well.

Cohen did all the right things; he polished his resume, networked and searched online—but he got no responses. “[Failing to get a job] was definitely age-related,” he says. “Interviews where I really should have gotten my foot in the door, I didn’t. I had the experience they were looking for but they wouldn’t return my calls.”

The severance pay was quickly coming to an end.

Children do not take well to changing a lifestyle they have grown accustomed to. This is especially true for teenagers, who tend to be overly concerned about what their friends will think. The clothing stores Cohen’s children used to frequent were now beyond their means. The family had to start thinking about money in a new way.

“It’s a tremendous shift for everyone,” says Dr. Aviva Biberfeld, a clinical psychologist in Brooklyn. “I have had cases where parents were advised to make arrangements with a store owner to allow them to shop before the store actually opens—so that they wouldn’t be seen shopping in a lower-end store. The pressure to keep up a pretense takes a tremendous toll.”

Close friends and family did their best to reassure Cohen that it was only a matter of time before he would land a position. He wasn’t so sure, but he continued saying Tehillim, working on maintaining a positive outlook and believing it would all work out. *Not his real name

46 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

“Interviews where I really should have gotten my foot in the door, I didn’t. I had the experience they were looking for but they wouldn’t return my calls.”

He tried his hand at odd jobs when he could find them, but felt no sense of accomplishment or stability.

Heading for financial ruin, the family was enormously relieved when Cohen finally landed a job. A former colleague suggested him for a position and kept

Emunah Boot Camp Big losses can shake a person to the core. He perceives that God has deserted him or that His hand is undeniably close.

Perhaps too close for comfort.

“A lot of people say they believe in Hashem, but their belief has never been put to the test,” says Gedalya Engel, fifty-five, who was laid off and faced many months of joblessness.

He likened his year of pounding the pavement as “living out of a suitcase,” waiting for life to move on.

“People would ask me how I was. I’d put on a brave face, but felt more desperate as time went on,” he says. “It’s a painful discovery; you went to yeshivah and heard the shmuzen [lectures]. You fancied yourself to be a maimon [believer], and then something happens and you’re second-guessing God. If I really believe in

Taking it Slow

ones. But he feels prepared; he’s already been to emunah boot camp.

“I talk to Hashem constantly now,” he says. “I guess [my being unemployed] was a berachah. I gave someone a driving lesson the other day who, because of a bad accident, was terrified of driving.

After the lesson she told me, ‘My fear of driving is gone!’ It’s those days that I say baruch Hashem, I’m making a parnassah and helping people. I had to go through that year of seeming exile, but He hasn’t forgotten about me.” g

Transitioning often requires a process of mini-steps. Reaching out for help, for some, can be a significant first action.

–Yocheved Sampson, LCSW Passaic, New Jersey

after the contact, moving things along at every opportunity.

“This was a very busy guy, yet he took the time and did this. He kept after everyone, that they shouldn’t forget me, [reminding them] that I was looking for work,” says Cohen. “I learned how you could really change someone’s life if you make the effort.

After nine months at his new position, Cohen admits to a residual fear of falling back into joblessness. But he feels the experience changed him for the better. “I wake up every single day with a feeling of gratitude, appreciative for what I have.”

Hashem, why can’t I sleep at night?”

Around the time his severance package ran out, he took a job as a driving instructor, something he had never done before.

“I used to meet people who have a business and I would tell them, I know you daven a good Shemoneh Esrei, but you never know what your day is going to bring. I used to get a regular paycheck. I would say to Hashem, ‘I’m good for now.

If I have a problem, I’ll be in touch.’ I think Hashem got tired of my joke.”

As a driving instructor, Engel gets paid according to the number of lessons he gives. He has busy days and unproductive

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 47

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 49

Special Section

AMERICAN JEWRY:

WHERE ARE WE NOW? WHERE ARE WE HEADING? TWO VIEWS

I

n the aftermath of the devastating revelations of the 1990 National Jewish Population Study, Antony Gordon and Richard Horowitz, Los Angeles-based businessmen and Jewish communal activists, co-authored “Will Your Grandchild Be Jewish?,” a chart that vividly depicted the disintegration of the American Jewish community. The chart was translated into several languages and appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times and The Vanishing American Jew by Professor Alan M. Dershowitz. Gordon and Horowitz had based their projections on the 1990 study; subsequently, when the National Jewish Population Study of 2000 was released, they updated their chart, using fresh data.

On the facing page is the latest version of their now-famous demographic chart.

This version, which took months of research, is appearing for the first time in print in these pages. The chart is based on the raw data of the most recent national demographic study of American Jewry—the Pew Research Center’s 2013 survey of American Jews. Working for months with Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew Research Center, and other sociologists and demographers, Gordon and Horowitz recently completed this version.

In the pages ahead, Dr. Marvin Schick, the well-known Jewish educational expert and devoted communal leader, and the authors of the charts analyze the extrapolations and conclusions of all three charts, created over three decades. Essentially, they seek to answer one overriding question, burning in the hearts of all thinking Jews: Where is American Jewry headed? Somewhat surprisingly, Dr. Schick and Gordon/ Horowitz arrive at different conclusions. We invite you, our readers, to submit your own thoughts and perspectives about this vitally important question concerning the future of American Jewry.

50 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

WILL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN BE JEWISH? REVISITED II BASED ON THE 2013 PEW RESEARCH CENTER SURVEY OF US JEWRY

With the exception of the Orthodox, the chances of American Jews having Jewish grandchildren and great-grandchildren are becoming increasingly remote, based on the following: 1. Intermarriage rates 2. The increasing percentage of Jews that do not marry or choose not to have children

This chart illustrates the effects of intermarriage and birthrates in the American Jewish community. According to the chart, based on the raw data of the Pew Research Center’s 2013 survey of US Jewry, after four generations, secular Jews will produce 4 Jewish great-grandchildren while “Hasidic/Yeshiva Orthodox Jews” will produce nearly 3,400 Jewish great-grandchildren.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 51

WILL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN BE JEWISH? (REVISITED) BASED ON THE NATIONAL JEWISH POPULATION SURVEY (NJPS) 2000

2005

WILL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN BE JEWISH? BASED ON THE NATIONAL JEWISH POPULATION SURVEY (NJPS) 1990

52 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

A cursory comparison of the three charts (produced in 1990, 2000 and 2016) would seem to indicate that there have not been any major demographic changes from one survey to another. According to Gordon and Horowitz, this is due to the fact that over time, the definition of Jewish identity has become more widely construed.

The sad reality is that save for the Orthodox denomination, fertility rates remain below zero population growth and intermarriage rates continue to rise. Moreover, the 2013 Pew Research Center’s survey of American Jews highlights additional disturbing trends, including the fact that many couples who choose to marry do so at an older age, and even then, often choose not to have children.

T

By Marvin Schick he achievement of Antony Gordon and Richard Horowitz is extraordinary. In a community blessed—and some may say inundated—by millions of printed words describing and discussing in every possible way the state of American Jewry, in a single chart they have focused our attention on the stark statistics of American Jewish loss and they have compelled us to contemplate what the Jewish future in the US will look like.

Their work is a seminal development in recent Jewish history.

Their chart—or perhaps more accurately their charts, as there now have been three—is the handiwork of two dedicated persons. Because none of us is blessed and imbued with the capacity to attain perfection, what we produce and write is open to analysis and even challenge. It is no service to Messrs. Gordon and Horowitz and certainly not to our community to refrain from subjecting their statistics to the scrutiny that commonly is directed at important demographic research. Precisely because their statistics and analysis deal with a matter of transcendent concern to our people, we are obligated to carefully examine what they have presented and, when thought necessary, to raise questions.

There is also the consideration that because we cannot predict the future with anything approaching exactitude, their work is subject to questioning and even challenge. It is also relevant that their statistics have had three incarnations and that the second revised what was presented in the first, and the third revised what was presented in the second.

There cannot be a clearer indication that their work is not imbued with certainty.

What is certain is that as has occurred throughout the entire American Jewish experience, there will be substantial losses from our ranks. What I question is the timetable that Gordon and Horowitz put forth, as well as the numbers that are the bread and butter of their timetable.

Demography or population studies are the starting point for any analysis of the future of American Jewry. We have had quite a few Jewish population studies, my hunch being more than any other American religious or ethnic group. All contemporary demographic discussion of American Jewry focuses on the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) which showed that in the period immediately preceding that research, the intermarriage rate among American Jews, excluding the Orthodox, had

reached the 50 percent level. This set off alarms that continue to ring.

Although it may be obvious, it needs to be mentioned that demographic research is predicated on identity and, more accurately, on self-identity. Judaism is a religion, but our demographic research is not predicated on an halachic determination of who is Jewish, but rather on what may be referred to as a sociological definition under which essentially persons who say they are Jewish are regarded as Jewish. Intermarriage is a subject that is crucial to Jewish demographic research but it does not determine who is included. Accordingly, intermarried Jews and their offspring, as well as spouses and others who live in a Jewish household and identify themselves as Jewish are regarded as Jewish by our demographers.

Interestingly, our demographers exclude persons born to two Jewish parents who have embraced another religion or aver that they are of no religion. This results in the curiosity that if we reckoned our numbers using the halachic standard, there would be more American Jews than are currently indicated by our demographers.

For decades, our population research has hovered at the six million figure, this despite there being at least two million Americans who were Jewish by birth but who are not included because they say they are not Jewish. The stability in our numbers is also fascinating in view of a fertility rate for the non-Orthodox that is significantly below zero population growth. Another factor that should reduce our numbers is aliyah. Nefesh b’Nefesh recently announced that since 2002, 50,000 persons have made aliyah through its auspices. These olim are primarily from the United States and are mostly younger persons. Of course, many American Jews who have not used Nefesh b’Nefesh have settled in Eretz Yisrael.

On the other side of the ledger, there are Russian Jews as well as yordim or ex-Israelis who arrived here after 1990.

They obviously have added to our statistics, although Jews from the Former Soviet Union have abandoned in droves any sense of Jewish identity. The large network of activities aimed at strengthening their Judaic ties is nearly all gone with the wind. I take no satisfaction in noting this.

However we look at these demographic pieces, at the end of the day we are left with the familiar six million Jews statistic. Put otherwise, as we enter the third generation

Dr. Marvin Schick, a senior advisor to the Avi Chai Foundation, has been active in Jewish communal life for two-thirds of a century and for nearly half a century, he has served as president of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, a voluntary undertaking.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 53

previously outlined in the Gordon-Horowitz chart, each of its versions projected far greater losses than have occurred.

The lesson is that we can project and predict, but even if we are as careful and faithful to the data as Gordon and Horowitz are, we are in the territory of “mensch tracht, und Got lacht” [literally, man plans and God laughs], which means in the context of demography that as meticulous as we may be with our methodology and as faithful as we may be to the data, there are severe limits to our ability to divine what lies a generation and more down the road.

The question therefore is why this staying power of American Jewry, at least in demographic terms? Why in the face of an intermarriage rate of 70 percent (as per the 2013 study by the Pew Research Center) are we resilient, not in a religious or traditional sense, but certainly in terms of identity?

Why have we not assimilated far more rapidly?

Part of the answer, again, is the nature of our demographic research. It readily accommodates what can be termed “Jewish lite.” Membership in our community comes on liberal terms and so there is less of an incentive to leave. We should make no mistake about this: for a generation or even longer we have watered down what it means to be a Jew and this watering down helps us keep our numbers up.

It is telling that no one in the Orthodox community is objecting to the statistic of six million Jews, nor is the suggestion being made that an asterisk should be placed next to the number, pointing out that the data conform to a non-halachic version of Jewish identity and that if halachic criteria were employed, our numbers would be substantially lower.

But Messrs. Gordon and Horowitz say that this cannot last. They are right. It cannot. If present conditions are maintained, the prospect is that our numbers will be somewhat lower twenty years down the road, but certainly not anything as close to as low as they have projected.

Let’s focus on a single statistic: the rise of the intermarriage rate in the recent period among the non-Orthodox to 70 percent. This represents a remarkable increase of nearly 1 percent per year since the frightening 50 percent intermarriage rate indicated by NJPS 1990. Yet nearly a generation after that research and all that it disclosed, our demography continues to indicate that there are about six million American Jews.

This is an epic development, even as we may strongly disapprove of intermarriage and aver that there will be a day of reckoning when those who have married out and their future generations will be nearly entirely gone from our ranks. For all of our sincere concern about the Jewish future, we live in the present and what we do is in the present. Right now, the likelihood is that the profile of the Jewish community saturated with non-halachic Jews will have greater staying power than had been thought possible. This is an astounding development, something not seen with such force or consequence for more than two thousand years or since the inter-Temple period when a large proportion of Jews living in exile in Babylonia were intermarried and, nonetheless, there were many who affirmed their Jewish

54 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

commitment and identity. These included community leaders and many who yearned to return to the Land of Israel.

In a word, we are losing millions who have rejected Jewish identity and we are retaining several million who have retained their Jewish identity even if they have walked away from much of what this identity has encompassed. This development seems more remarkable when we reckon the vast size of the United States and the dispersal of Jews throughout the continent, factors that should contribute to the total abandonment of Jewish identity.

What accounts for the determination to cling to Jewish identity in the face of an assimilatory avalanche that has throughout nearly all of our history triggered immense Jewish loss and abandonment? The answer is certainly not mystical, meaning that one of the blessings inherent in our peoplehood is the guarantee that we will not vanish entirely from the face of this earth. This blessing—covenant may be a more appropriate term—is assuredly critical to our survival, yet it obviously has not been a surety against massive demographic loss due to Judaic abandonment. Too much of our history tells us otherwise. We have been promised that the Jewish nation will survive, not that we will not suffer the loss of much of our population.

What then is the explanation for the endurance, at least in a sociological sense, of several million American Jews

WE HAVE BEEN PROMISED THAT THE JEWISH NATION WILL SURVIVE, NOT THAT WE WILL NOT SUFFER THE LOSS OF MUCH OF OUR POPULATION. who care little about the religion that has been the foundation for Jewish survival over the centuries? Why haven’t most of us vanished into the great American melting pot?

We have been treated ever since the 1990 NJPS to confident predictions of the vanishing American Jew, and although the predictions are still with us, so are about six million Americans who continue to identify as Jewish.

One certain factor is the highly positive image of Jews in the American mindset. We must never underestimate how strong antagonism toward Jews contributed mightily to the abandonment of Jewish identity for several generations in pre-Holocaust Europe. The perception among many was that the cost of remaining Jewish was too high.

The favorable attitude toward Jews in this country has contributed greatly to the retention of Jewish identity in the face of fierce assimilatory forces. While there may not be specific rewards in being identified as Jewish, certainly among the general American population this identity is

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regarded as meritorious. These lines were written shortly after the two presidential nominating conventions. It is telling that each of the major candidates is a Christian who has an avowedly Jewish son-in-law.

This remarkable circumstance is testimony to the American ethos of tolerance, of accepting persons as they choose to be identified, provided that they do no harm. I believe that this also tells us that despite their rigorous standard of Jewish identity, so that only a person born of a Jewish mother or has converted according to halachah is Jewish, the Orthodox have managed to be dualistic in their reaction to intermarriage. They continue to employ the halachic definition, even as there is tacit acceptance of sociological reality. Put otherwise, I do not know of a single instance where an Orthodox Jewish writer has declared that the figure of six million American Jews is false and that, in truth, the number is no more than half that figure.

We can contrast this experience with what transpired in preNazi Germany. The community led by Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch, an epic religious figure in nineteenth-century Germany, insisted on separation from much of the rest of German Jewry, including other Orthodox Jews, on theological grounds that certainly would not be accepted as reasons for separation within American Orthodoxy. The contrast between what had occurred in Germany and what we are experiencing here is accounted for by the part that tolerance plays in the American mindset, something that was far from the case in Germany.

Israel serves as a strengthening agent for a large number of American Jews for whom religious commitment has withered

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56 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

away. It’s true that only a relatively small proportion of non-Orthodox Jewish Americans have visited Israel. Yet, its existence and achievements reinforce whatever elements of Jewish peoplehood remain alive in the minds and hearts of many of these Jews. It is relevant that the American Jewish population includes a large number of ex-Israelis or yordim, as well as their spouses and offspring. Although unfortunately they have not been immune from the strong assimilatory forces that have swept through American Jewish life, the fact that many have family in Israel obviously reinforces their ties to the Jewish State and, in turn, this reinforces their identity as Jews.

OUR OVER-ORGANIZATION PROVIDES MULTIPLE ENTRY AND CONTACT POINTS FOR JEWS OF ALL STRIPES AND COMMITMENT. Perhaps the most fascinating and, indeed, compelling factor restraining the abandonment of Jewish identity is the staggering size and character of our organizational and institutional life. Our multi-billion dollar communal edifice of activities and organizations that for good reason has often been derided as duplicatory and ineffective has in some dialectical sense served as a magnet to draw Jews closer to feelings of Jewish identity.

As the role of once seemingly imperious national Jewish organizations fades, what remains are robust manifestations of local community life, including community centers, Federations, synagogues, camps, chapters of major organizations and a great deal more. In the aggregate, our over-organization provides multiple entry and contact points for Jews of all stripes and commitment, specifically including those whose identity falls into the sociological category.

Logic and experience suggest that this cannot last. After all, each successive generation has been weaker in its attachment to meaningful Jewish life. The low American Jewish fertility rate and the continued losses that will occur among those who have abandoned nearly all of what constitutes Jewish identity make it certain that the ranks of ex-Jews will swell and the number of sociological Jews will decline.

But logic and experience do not necessarily govern history going forward. We are a generation after the 1990 NJPS. Our numbers have held up, even as religious commitment and the number of halachic Jews have declined. As long as the overall Jewish community embraces the notion of sociological Jews and the factors that contribute to Jewish losses are themselves somewhat retarded, we shall remain distant from the moment when the number of American Jews plummets to the point that has been predicted.

I imagine—and certainly hope—that Messrs. Gordon and Horowitz will continue to carefully monitor what is occurring in American Jewish life. If they do, it is more than a good bet that they will see that life has a way of playing tricks and that although for a very long while American Jewry has been in trouble, somehow their projections did not quite hold up. g

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N E W

Y O R K

By Antony Gordon and Richard M. Horowitz

W

e are honored and humbled by the complimentary words stated by Dr. Marvin Schick in his thoughtful piece in response to the publication of our 2016 chart “Will Your Grandchild Be Jewish?”

We owe Dr. Schick a debt of gratitude, not only for his magnanimous comments, but also for taking the time on several occasions to participate in conference calls with us during the course of the most recent iteration of the study as well as the prior iterations. The decades of research and commitment that Dr. Schick has invested in klal-related material is outstanding, and no intellectually honest researcher or lay leader involved in American Jewry today can ignore the unique insight and wealth of knowledge that Dr. Schick has to offer.

IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE SO-CALLED “JEWS BY IDENTITY ONLY” GROUP ARE NO LONGER CAPABLE OF OR INTERESTED IN PASSING ON OUR RICH HERITAGE TO THE NEXT GENERATION. Before commenting on Dr. Schick’s remarks, we want to make a few points: Firstly, as Dr. Schick mentioned, at all times we were “. . . careful and faithful to the data” in our research. More specifically, the most recent version of the study was the culmination of many months of exhaustive research based on an analysis of the raw data of the 2013 Pew Report entitled “A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” Secondly, the clear premise of the three versions of the chart which was clearly corroborated by Dr. Schick, is the fact that “. . . we are losing millions who have rejected Jewish identity . . .”

Any differences in the approach between us and Dr. Schick are at best illusory and perhaps come down to mere semantics.

The overriding theme of Dr. Schick’s article is that there exists in America today a significant portion of Jews who while they identify as Jews, have negligible involvement in Jewish life and do not adhere to mitzvot or a Torah lifestyle.

When it comes to any major Jewish population survey, this portion of American Jews results in the creation of a kind of “sociological optical illusion” which masks the fact that over the next three generations, the majority of American Jews are on track to disappear into spiritual oblivion.

Simply stated, the only point which Dr. Schick takes issue with in our most recent version of the study is his belief that the so-called twenty-year timeline is too pessimistic. In real terms, there is very little disparity between our conclusion and the comments noted by Dr. Schick, as explained below.

CURRENT “DEMOGRAPHIC TOPOLOGY” VERSUS PREDICTING THE FUTURE We wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Schick’s comment that “there are severe limits to our ability to divine what lies a generation down the road.” That said, we have been at pains to point out that our chart is not intended to be a prognostication but rather the functional equivalent of a “screen shot” of sorts, intended to illustrate the consequences of people’s spiritual decisions or denominational affiliation.

One need not look further than the fact that the only denomination whose average family size exceeds zero population growth and whose intermarriage rates are negligible is the Orthodox denomination.

It follows, and is borne out by the data, that when Jews make the kind of decisions that cause them to move further away from a traditional Jewish lifestyle of adhering to mitzvot, the chances of having an identifiable Jewish grandchild with the ability to “carry the torch” of traditional Jewish teachings and values diminishes exponentially.

“A MILE WIDE BUT A HALF-AN-INCH THICK” While we have only respect for Dr. Schick, his remarks about the “staying power of American Jewry, at least in demographic terms” because American Jews still have the proclivity to “identify” as Jews albeit “not in a religious or traditional sense” flies in the face of thousands of years of Jewish history. One need look no further than the arrival of millions of Jews in America between 1882 and 1922 to see the fallacy of this line of thinking.

Rabbi Berel Wein has been known to remark that for many of the Jews who arrived in America during this period, Judaism may have appeared to be a “mile wide” but it was only “a half-an-inch thick.” By the latter quip, Rabbi Wein meant that while a large portion of Jews who arrived in the United States during the turn of the century and after World War I may have identified as Jews, they did not have a deep religious connection to Judaism. Understandably, therefore, there was no compelling reason for them to remain within the fold when they arrived in the “melting pot” of America at a time when observing Shabbat meant more often than not being unable to hold down a job.

In other words, even if the point Dr. Schick articulates so well—i.e., that against many odds, a large percentage of American Jews still identify as Jews in response to a question in a population survey—history has shown that this portion of Jews are standing on demographic quicksand and sadly, it is only a matter of time before the vast majority of the so-called “Jews

by Identity Only” group are no longer capable of or interested in passing on our rich heritage to the next generation. g

Antony Gordon is a Sir Abe Bailey fellow, Fulbright scholar and graduate of Harvard Law School. He was a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley before launching Stealth Capital Management, LLC, a merchant bank and wealth management consulting firm. Mr. Gordon is a sought-after speaker and has been active in Jewish outreach for more than twenty-five years.

Richard M. Horowitz received his MBA from Pepperdine University in California. He is the president of Management Brokers Insurance Agency and chairman of Dial 800 L.P. A well-known philanthropist, he is very active with a number of Jewish nonprofit organizations.

58 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 59

Profile

By David Olivestone

FIFTY YEARS OF NESHAMAH: CANTOR SHERWOOD GOFFIN A legendary cantor retires after fifty years of service

F

or over a decade in the 1970s and 1980s, I had the privilege of sitting in the first seat in the inner circle, immediately to the right of Cantor Sherwood Goffin as he davened at the bimah in the center of the old, round Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. From this vantage point, I witnessed his kavanah, his mastery of nussach hatefillah, and the unassuming, yet penetrating and powerful way he was able to inspire all those around him.

You could tell how carefully prepared he was for each Shabbat or yom tov service. Our davening is full of nuance, so if a chazzan deviates ever so slightly from the familiar theme, the mood of the shul can be instantly impaired.

“The Chaz” would never allow that to happen.

These recollections were echoed by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Lincoln Square’s founding rabbi, who for the last three decades has served as chief rabbi of Efrat in Israel, when he spoke some months ago at a tribute to Cantor Goffin for his fifty years of service to the shul. “He has an amazing gift,” was the way Rabbi Riskin put it. “He is always certain to have the right nussach, but with the ability to make everyone ecstatic through his tefillah.”

It was Rabbi Riskin who first called him The Chaz, as he has always been known at Lincoln Square. Rabbi Riskin recalled how the two of them became close friends when

Cantor Sherwood Goffin at Lincoln Squa

they were students at Yeshiva University and worked together at the twice yearly, week-long YU Torah Leadership Seminars, famed for their achievements in kiruv.

“We always said that if ever I would have a shul, he would be the chazzan. I knew that it would be an outreach shul teaching Torah, but I also knew that it’s far easier to teach Torah than it is to teach how to daven.”

Sherwood grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, in a home where both his parents appreciated chazzanut, and he was put into a choir when he was around eight years old. Sherwood’s maternal grandfather was a Slonimer chassid, who was very involved in neginah (music). “Whenever the Bostoner Rebbe would come to New Haven, he would stay with my grandfather. When I was twelve, he told my parents they had to send me away to Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn to learn.” A cousin, Pia Weinstein, a former director of Camp Sternberg, recalls that “this was very hard on his parents, as he was an only child.”

Sherwood spent every Shabbat with the Bostoner Rebbe.

“I had never heard singing like his long preludes to kiddush,” he says. “It made me feel like I was flying in heaven.”

The Rebbe was a wonderful baal tefillah. “The intensity of his davening has stayed with me all my life,” notes Sherwood. Later, he would make Bostoner niggunim popular around the world.

David Olivestone, former senior communications officer of the OU, and his wife Ceil, were active members of Lincoln Square Synagogue from 1973 until 1985. They now live in Jerusalem.

60 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

are Synagogue in more recent days. Photo: Michael Datikash/the New York Jewish Week

While attending YU, he took courses at the Belz School of Jewish Music and, having taught himself to play the guitar, began performing as a folk singer.

In 1964, Glenn Richter, one of the founders of the Soviet Jewry movement, asked him to sing at the very first solidarity rally in New York, and Sherwood became the musical voice of the movement. “These were not pro forma appearances,” says Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who then headed the Greater New York Council for Soviet Jewry. “He was deeply committed. I can’t tell you how many times we called on him, and I can’t recall him ever saying no.”

His concerts and records earned him a reputation as a talented Jewish folk singer, whose sincerity was palpable.

“In many ways he was a transformational figure for my generation,” says YU President Richard Joel, who became a great admirer of Sherwood as a young man at Torah Leadership Seminars. “In one of the songs that he popularized, The Little Bird, he made us feel a closeness both to Netzach Yisrael and to Medinat Yisrael as the culmination of the hopes of our people.”

Sherwood sang at many OU national conventions and, from 1962 until 1990, he was at every NCSY national convention. “Sherwood Goffin in concert was the magical, musical highpoint of every NCSY national convention,” says OU National Vice President Dr. David Luchins. “The rest of us teach in prose; he teaches in song.”

When in 1965 the call came from Rabbi Riskin that the newly formed Lincoln Square Synagogue was looking to hire a chazzan, Sherwood was set on a career as a psychologist. Since his teens, however, he had been taking part-time cantorial positions, first in New Haven, and then in the Bronx.

Stanley Getzler, later to become Lincoln Square’s president, and his wife Phyllis, were both members of LSS’s selection committee for the position of cantor. “Two other candidates came in who looked and sounded just the same as each other,” they remembered. Then Sherwood came in and he was different. “His voice was simple and pure, but what really got all of us was how his neshamah shone through.”

It seems that no one can talk about Sherwood Goffin without mentioning his neshamah. Even when I asked Sherwood’s wife Batya how he was when he returned home from shul each Shabbat morning, she told me, “Sometimes he’s a little too critical of himself. But the neshamah—I tell him this all the time: it’s your neshamah that really counts.”

To the Getzlers, it was very apparent that The Chaz would grow with them in the way they wanted the community to grow. For Sherwood himself, that meant getting more professional training: “I said, ‘If I’m going to do this, I must do it right,’ and so I took a leave of absence from City College where I was studying psychology, and got a degree in cantorial music at the Belz School, and I never went back.”

While the charismatic pull of Rabbi Riskin’s innovative teaching kept the shul filled each Shabbat way beyond

Cantor Goffin in 1961 at the onset of his cantorial career.

Courtesy of Cantor Goffin

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 61

PRESERVING OUR

MUSICAL

TRADITION: The OU’s Nussach HaTefillah Initiative Cantor Goffin performing with his guitar at a Soviet Jewry rally with two Russians dressed in prisoner uniforms, circa 1970. Courtesy of Cantor Goffin

capacity, everyone agrees that it was Sherwood’s innovative davening that fashioned its heart and soul.

Heavy cantorial pieces were never his style. “We encouraged congregational singing far more than most other shuls did at the time,” says Sherwood, “but the niggunim had to be from a kodesh source, and not from any outside source.”

The providential partnership with Rabbi Riskin at LSS lasted nineteen years, a period the rabbi calls “a Camelot era in our lives.” Then, in the summer of 1985, tragedy struck when the Goffins’ daughter Nisa suddenly became ill and, after two harrowing weeks, passed away. The love and support that welled up from the synagogue was overwhelming, says Sherwood. “Somehow I managed to make up with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And tefillah kept me going; if I hadn’t continued davening, I couldn’t have made it.”

With Rabbi Riskin having made aliyah, Sherwood, now grieving for Nisa, felt a little unstable, unsure what

“THE REST OF US TEACH IN PROSE; HE TEACHES IN SONG.” the relationship with the new rabbi might bring, and so he asked the shul for a lifetime contract, which was readily granted.

But he need not have worried. His relationship with LSS’s second rav, Rabbi Saul Berman—and all those who succeeded him—was characterized by close friendship 62 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

The Orthodox Union is aiming to restore the ancient melodies accompanying the Jewish prayers via its newly launched cantorial program, the Nussach HaTefillah Initiative.

“A lot of people who daven don’t know [the nussach] because they didn’t learn it,” says Joel Kaplan, cantor at Congregation Beth Shalom in Lawrence, New York and honorary president of the Cantorial Council of America. Kaplan founded the program in conjunction with Rabbi Judah Isaacs, director of community engagement at the OU. “Chazzanim don’t produce aids for it and unless [lay people] are taught it, how are they supposed to learn it?”

The Nussach HaTefillah Initiative, spearheaded by Cantor Chaim Dovid Berson of Manhattan’s Jewish Center, offers an online database of chazzanut recordings and lectures by world-famous cantors, ensuring that the melodies are accessible to both professional cantor and lay person.

The initiative also arranges community events around the country about nussach. This past October, Cantor Joseph Malovany, longtime chazzan of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, demonstrated the singing of niggunim and nussach for the Yamim Noraim at Teaneck’s Congregation Keter Torah. The event was also a tribute to Malovany’s close friend, the late Eli Wiesel. Malovany is on a personal “crusade to convince congregations all over the world to preserve, develop, [and] make people aware [of ] how important the ancient motifs are to chant for every prayer.”

The program’s resources can be accessed at ou.org/community/programs/nussach-hatefillah/.

and great mutual admiration. According to Rabbi Berman, who now teaches at both Stern College and Columbia University, “Sherwood avoids saying or doing anything that could possibly upset anyone in the universe.” And he recalls, “Davening with The Chaz, watching pathways to God open and shift, was a powerful experience that I’ve never had anywhere else.” The shul’s very popular current rav, Rabbi Shaul Robinson, considers himself to be “the most fortunate Jew, because I get to daven next to him. He radiates ahavat Yisrael, ahavat Hashem and sheer goodness.”

In 2014 Sherwood, now in his seventies, began to limit his duties at the shul, and a new chazzan, Yanky Lemmer, was appointed to gradually take over. Cantor Lemmer told me that, in a situation that could have been fraught, “we had a lot of conversations because our styles are very different, and the Chaz was amazingly supportive.”

Cantor Bernard Beer, director emeritus of the Belz School, where Sherwood continues as coordinator of

“HIS VOICE WAS SIMPLE AND PURE, BUT WHAT REALLY GOT ALL OF US WAS HOW HIS NESHAMAH SHONE THROUGH.” outreach and teaches nussach hatefillah, relates that Sherwood Goffin is the model of a chazzan that shuls seek.

“Don’t send us a Rosenblatt-wannabe,” they tell him, “send us a Sherwood Goffin.”

While Sherwood is mostly retired from the shul, he is still much in demand as a “chazzan-in-residence,” teaching the art of davening and leading Belz School’s outreach seminars in communities all across North America. But nowadays, he and Batya are able to spend more time in Baltimore with their children and ten grandchildren.

So after a career of fifty years, what, I asked, does he reflect on?

“My part in the Soviet Jewry movement, my involvement in NCSY and in the YU Seminars, my teaching at the Belz School and, of course, my role at Lincoln Square Synagogue—all these made me who I am,” he told me.

“They made me into a personality that I would never otherwise have become. I feel comfortable that I will be able to stand before Hakadosh Baruch Hu after 120 years and say that I had a chelek in all these things. And I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I had all these experiences; the rewards were far and above anything else that could have happened.” g

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ADAS TO R AH B ETH JAC O B B EVE R LY H I LLS B NAI DAVI D –J U D EA LI N K KO LLE L & S H U L M O G E N DAVI D S HA AR EY Z E D E K TH E W E STS I D E S H U L W E ST WO O D K E H I L A YAVN E H W E ST WO O D VI LL AG E SYNAG O G U E Y O U N G I S R AE L O F C E NTU RY C IT Y YO U N G I S R AE L O F N O RTH B EVE R LY H I LLS YO U N G I S R AE L O F N O RTH R I D G E YU L A H I G H S C H O O L

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 63

Just Between Us

By Binyamin Ehrenkranz

W

hen I started working full-time, I noticed something was different: with only so many hours in a day and being, thank God, in a job involving tasks I typically enjoy, the impulse to constantly race back to my desk became quite strong. Whereas school and part-time roles usually made meal breaks or even just taking a walk pleasant and relatively unhurried respites, the pressures, rush, or just sheer “flow” of full-day commitments robbed me of such leisure.

In some ways, this was a good thing: uninterrupted stretches of time committed to single projects allow for greater feelings of accomplishment and productivity. But in other, personal respects, the toll is much harder. Davening is a big one.

Finishing Shacharit in a hurry to make the bus and, especially in the wintertime, “catching” a nearby Minchah minyan can sometimes be frustrating. Sure, they say most of the words at these minyanim, but the precision with which it all begins and ends, and the hurriedness of so many of the participants can easily supplant the passion and excitement at an opportunity to speak with Hashem. And anyway, is tefillah something we should be catching, like a commuter train or fly ball?

Berachot, too, sometimes get short shrift. To their occasional disadvantage, FFBs (i.e., Frum From Birth-ers) know them so well and are so used to saying them—it often appears bizarre to see someone (Jewish or not) not recite a berachah before eating.

After a while of religiously unsatisfying moments, in coping with and working to break free from cycles of rote, I started to notice an unexpected but regular opportunity that for me personally was still a break, a spiritual “speed bump” along the bustling highways of busy workdays: Asher Yatzar.

“FORGET KOL NIDREI” To a secular ear, the notion of saying a blessing following relieving oneself rings pretty absurd. Prayers are for synagogues, not outside lavatories.

I once heard a story of a shul with a very “modern” membership, where a new rabbi had been appointed. Since he was a bit more scrupulous about shemirat hamitzvot than his predecessor, many of the senior shul members grew skeptical of some of his practices. So one does not have to work hard in imagining their utter surprise upon discovering their new rav closing his eyes and quietly reciting a prayer after using the bathroom. A prayer for that, too? Hilarious! they said to themselves.

Until one day. The president, most distinguished among those amused, had to have . . . a catheter.

When the rabbi came to visit him in the hospital, the older man turned to him and opined: “Forget Kol Nidrei, rabbi! Asher Yatzar. That’s where it’s at!”

While our siddur is magnificent in affording every Kol Nidrei

Anatomy of a Blessing and Asher Yatzar their rightful place throughout each day, week and season, there’s something about that shul president’s stark discovery that may resonate within the rest of us, something worth pondering during those ostensibly mundane, prosaic moments in our daily lives. Something embedded into the text of the berachah, as well.

YEARNING TO BE GRATEFUL Did you ever wonder why only in Asher Yatzar do we refer to that which is “revealed and known before the throne” of Hashem? Of all the areas of life, need we really remind ourselves that the precariousness of our health is something obvious to the Almighty?

We are hardly in doubt anywhere in the siddur that He is aware of all our needs, material and otherwise. That He knows how fragile our bodies are would likewise seem self-evident.

But while all berachot convey appreciation for God’s munificence, Rav Aharon Kahn, a rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva University, once pointed out that Asher Yatzar in particular goes even further.

It touches upon an especially vast ignorance of the depth of His gifts to us.

Science is constantly discovering new layers of our biology and chemistry and their processes. Yet as much as we know about the human body already, still so much of what happens inside of us is a total mystery, transpiring without our awareness of its true precision, power or intricateness. Which, in turn, begs the question: how can we possibly acknowledge that which we cannot really fathom?

In Asher Yatzar, then, we profess that our acknowledgement is hardly what it should be, and moreover, it is actually impossible for it to be otherwise. The text of the berachah signals not only a thankfulness for the wonder that is the human body, but also our yearning to be grateful for even so much of its workings about which we are entirely unaware.

Since the total grandeur of our functioning bodies is known to God alone, in Asher Yatzar we beseech that our gratitude for them be accepted based not on what little we can perceive, but instead on account of His own singular knowledge—that which is “revealed and known” to Him alone—of the breadth and sophistication of what He has given us.

In light of this aspirational plea, it seems fitting that such a tefillah be in our consciousness so routinely, no matter where we are, in obviously very naturally called-for pauses.

Midstream in busy days of quotidian life, when often far from the peaceful pace of a respectable davening and away from the unharried joys of delving into a sefer, there may yet be at least one space in which we can consistently find an “escape” to serve Hashem with genuine feeling and gratitude. However improbable the venue may seem. g

Binyamin Ehrenkranz is a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Board. He lives in New York.

64 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 65

Israel

&GETTING:

VOLUNTE E R ING IN ISR AE L

More and more retirees are deciding to make Israel their home and spend their days giving back to the country they love

By Irv Cantor ost mornings, from 5:00 to 7:00 am, when the city of Jerusalem is just starting to wake up, Richard Corman can often be found sporting plastic gloves and lugging large heavy trash bags, picking up scraps of garbage on the streets of North Talpiot, Baka, Arnona and other Jerusalem neighborhoods. “Do you work for the iriyah [as a garbage collector for the municipality]?” curious passersby often ask him. “No,” he explains, he does not. So why does he set out on this garbage-hunting crusade in the early dawn? Because Richard is on a mission to keep the holy city of Jerusalem beautiful.

At the same time, he wants to educate its residents about treating their “collective Jewish home” the same way they treat their private homes.

“I love getting my hands dirty,” Richard says. “[I love] doing things and not just pushing paper. This country gives you so much freedom to think and dream and make your dreams a reality. It’s like a large laboratory for ideas.”

Richard, who retired from a stellar career in Jewish communal leadership and fundraising, made aliyah from the United States in 2011. Soon after he arrived in Israel, he grew tired of hearing people complain about the garbage littering the streets of Jerusalem.

He decided to spend time clearing away the litter in the local streets, parks, bus stops and lots in his neighborhood.

Richard’s concern for the environment eventually led to a meeting with Naomi Tsur, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem who oversaw the sanitation and environmental departments of the city. Tsur subsequently created Jerusalem Green Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping Jerusalem clean and to enhancing the environment in the city. She invited Richard to join her. Tsur serves as the chair and Richard as vice chair.

M

Richard is part of a growing number of retiree olim who are choosing to spend their time giving back to the country they love. Drawing upon their professional skills or their inborn talents, these high-energy retirees are happily giving of their time and expertise to contribute to Israeli society.

Nearly 600 Anglo retirees made aliyah in 2015, according to Nefesh B’Nefesh. Many volunteer at museums, charity organizations, children’s organizations or food kitchens, developing a new network of friends while doing so. “There is a growing trend of empty nesters and retirees who are making Israel their home,” says Miriam

Richard Corman, who spends his mornings picking up litter, is on a crusade to keep the holy city of Jerusalem beautiful.

Irv Cantor is retired and made aliyah in 2012. He is an active volunteer in Jerusalem.

66 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Photo: Yehoshua Halevi

Naiman, post-aliyah advisor for Nefesh B’Nefesh, who specializes in working with the retiree population. “Some come on aliyah because their children are already here; others are finally living out their dream.”

Miriam maintains that volunteering is a great way to help the senior olim population acclimate into Israeli society.

Making aliyah at an older age presents numerous challenges, admits Miriam, even for those who have spent significant time in Israel vacationing. “You don’t have to pay the bills when you are a tourist,” she says. Volunteering helps olim integrate culturally and socially, assists them in acquiring the language and gives them the feeling that they are needed.

“We all need to feel needed, and to feel like a successful member of society.”

Retiree olim can also use volunteering to explore new facets of themselves. “One of the beauties of starting a second chapter of life,” says Miriam, “is that you can take a totally new direction.”

Chana Spivack (right) volunteers at the OU Israel Center. Courtesy of the OU Israel Center

Annie’s favorite part of the job is being outside in the fresh air and learning about the animals.

“They are used to being with humans,” she says.

The first day we walked out to the animals, and they were all lined up, like children in the schoolyard. You clap your hands and announce ‘habaytah’ [go home], and they go to their areas to get fed. When I’m cleaning, they know to move aside and let you clean. The animals that misbehave, usually the males during mating season, are separated for a while. When I saw them for the first time enclosed in this restricted area, and didn’t know why, the staff told me those animals are ‘b’galut’ [in exile].” She laughs. “So now I’ve been b’galut twice in my life.”

******

The variety of volunteer opportunities in Israel is truly remarkable. Annie Hersovitz, a recently retired American olah who had been living in England, made aliyah in 2014. Her career had been a stressful one; she had been a social worker consultant in cases involving domestic violence against the elderly and the mentally challenged. In Israel, she was looking for something different. A friend recommended she volunteer at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem, an easy commute from her apartment. As Annie puts it, “Being a child of European Jewish parents who taught me that no respectable Jew has anything to do with something that has four legs, I thought, ‘I have to give it a go.’” On her first day, she was introduced to the staff of eight. While trying to remember all the names of her new colleagues, Annie was taken by her supervisor to a section where the animals were kept. Her supervisor began the introductions: “That’s Moshe,” he said pointing to a giraffe. “This is Naftali . . .”

Annie could barely maintain her composure.

Annie looks forward to her weekly visit to the zoo, where she is responsible for feeding and cleaning up after the goats, sheep, rabbits, miniature horses, alpacas and kangaroos. She arrives at 7:30 am and helps get the animals ready prior to the zoo’s opening.

******

“This country gives you so much freedom to think and dream and make your dreams a reality. It's like a large laboratory for ideas.”

Volunteering seems to have no age limitations. If you can make a contribution, you are welcomed.

Consider seventy-seven-year-old Eric Woolf.

Eric, from London, has been living in Israel for the past two years. In 1968, he traveled to Israel with his parents and fell in love with the land, promising himself to return some day. It took a few decades, but he kept his promise.

Eric’s daughter, who lives in Israel as well, volunteers at Yad Sarah. The largest national volunteer organization in Israel with more than 6,000 volunteers, Yad Sarah provides free or nominal cost services designed to make life easier for sick, disabled and elderly people and their families. Inspired by his daughter’s work, Eric decided to volunteer there as well.

Yad Sarah is most known for lending medical and rehabilitative equipment—from crutches and wheelchairs to oxygen concentrators—on a shortterm basis free of charge to anyone who needs it; the organization boasts a stock of over 250,000 items.

This proved to be a perfect fit for Eric, who in his youth had worked in his father’s real estate business, becoming very skilled in home improvement and construction.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 67

When Eric first arrived at the Yad Sarah offices, he was put to work repairing wheelchairs.

“The wheelchairs come in by the hundreds, and I work on them with a group of about twenty men, most of whom are in their seventies and eighties,” he says. “We work in a huge room.

We look at what needs replacing—wheels, brakes, handles— whatever. We get the spare parts needed, replace the parts, give the wheelchair a good washing and it’s like new. I volunteer one morning a week for three hours. During that time, I can fix between one and four chairs, depending on what needs to be done.” Eric gets most emotional when he sees a chair is beyond fixing, or when a small child’s wheelchair arrives. Chairs that cannot be fixed are disassembled for parts. He recalls one child’s chair that needed a new tire. Despite searching through hundreds of boxes of used tires, he could not find what he needed. Finally, in a moment of inspiration, he knew what to do: “I had to be creative and use a tire from the bicycle shop.”

Working in Yad Sarah gives Eric a fresh perspective. A recent experience left a deep impression on him: He saw a woman in a wheelchair who had no lower legs. “I immediately thought about my hands,” he says. “I thanked God for my hands and for giving me the ability to do useful things with them.”

******

Finally, there’s Chana Spivack, an olah who arrived from Boca Raton, Florida to Jerusalem in 2011. Chana remembers when she was a child attending Hebrew school in Ellenville, New York, receiving wildflower bookmarks made by young girls Seventy-seven-year-old volunteer Eric Woolf spends his days repairing wheelchairs.

Photo: Yehoshua Halevi

68 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Eric saw a woman in a wheelchair who had no lower legs. "I immediately thought about my hands," he says. "I thanked God for my hands and for giving me the ability to do useful things with them."”

in Israel; the girls invited their American counterparts to become pen pals. “I was fascinated by the stories I heard of pioneers forging a place for themselves in this new land, our Jewish State,” Spivack says. “I wanted to be one of those pioneers; I wanted to make a difference.”

Life, however, got in the way. She married, divorced and moved to Florida to raise her son near her parents. “It just never seemed to be the right time [to move to Israel]; until it was.” When her parents passed away at the age of ninetyone, Chana decided to take early retirement and fulfill her aliyah dream.

Chana’s love for learning Torah brought her to the Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center (the OU Israel Center). Subsequently, she began to volunteer for the Travel Desk, an ideal position for the outgoing olah who was looking to meet new people and learn about her new country. A busy department at the OU Israel Center, the Travel Desk plans tiyulim for tourists and Israelis, covering the full expanse of Jerusalem and Israel.

Chana recently expanded her responsibilities by becoming volunteer coordinator of the OU Israel Center, where she oversees a cadre of individuals who dedicate their time and skills to enhance the Center’s multi-faceted programs. While the Center boasts hundreds of volunteers who assist in its various programs, the majority are involved with Torah Tidbits, a widely read weekly publication. A group of 225 volunteers comes to the center every Wednesday to pack and deliver Torah Tidbits to over 400 synagogues and communities throughout Israel. “Chana’s work recruiting and overseeing our volunteers is expanding our reach, and is crucial in our mission of making the OU Israel Center a second home for Anglos in Israel,” says Rabbi Avi Berman, executive director of OU Israel.

With people living well into their eighties and nineties and the senior population on the rise in Israel, there is a great need to tap into this reservoir of talent and skill and encourage this population to explore new adventures in volunteerism. “Seventy is the new fifty,” says Miriam Naiman of Nefesh B’Nefesh. Volunteering, she says, can be a very fulfilling way to “blend one’s experience and knowledge within a new framework. It’s a wonderful way to integrate into Israeli society, while giving and getting at the same time.” g

team

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Yachad, the National Jewish Council for Disabilities, is dedicated to enhancing the life opportunities of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their participation in the full spectrum of Jewish life.

Yachad is an agency of the Orthodox Union.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 69

On and Off the Beaten Track

Chanukah . . . and all year . . .

in Gush Etzion

By Peter Abelow

A young boy at The Workshop glues letters onto the base of his candle holder.

Photos courtesy of Mandy Broder

70 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Gush Etzion, between Jerusalem and Hevron, familiar to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, was the birthplace of King David and served as the heart of ancient Judea in the time of the Second Temple. Today it is once again alive with people and activity.

I

nstead of merely focusing on an interesting place to visit in this column, I decided to make an exception and focus on the people behind the place.

This past summer, Mandy and Jeremy Broder, a British-Israeli couple who are skilled artists, turned their personal dream into reality by opening “The Workshop” (“The Sadna”) on the grounds of Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim in Gush Etzion. Remarkably, in only a few short months, the Broders’ attraction has proven to be wildly successful and is captivating visitors of all ages (from four to ninety and beyond!). Located less than an hour away from Jerusalem, this Judaica workshop enables children and adults to design their own beautifully crafted projects, such as a honey dish, Shabbat candle-holder, benchter holder or, with Chanukah approaching, a holiday-related work of art. In the process, one not only learns skills associated with woodworking, including using lathes, drills, sand paper and sanding machines, but one also gains an appreciation for the unique qualities of wood and the significance of wood in the region.

Three generations of my family recently participated in the hands-on woodworking workshop, and we were amazed at how engaged we were in the activity. From the moment we entered The Workshop until we completed our art project some two and half hours later, we were busy cutting, sanding, filing, gluing and varnishing, using highly specialized woodworking machinery throughout.

When we arrived, Mandy greeted us at the door and invited us to take seats around the large worktable. Jeremy then provided us with an informative introduction to woodworking. He explained the various types of wood and their particular properties (that particular day, we could choose to work with either cherry wood or pine).

Jeremy also provided us with background on the “Lone Tree” (“Etz Haboded”), which we passed along the road to Rosh Tzurim. More than 500 years old, the tree, an oak (alon), stands across from the entrance to nearby Alon Shvut (hence, the name of the yishuv). It stood at the center of the cluster of the four kibbutzim built in Gush Etzion in the 1930s and 40s, which were destroyed in the War of Independence in May 1948. Over the years, the tree became a symbol of the yearning to return to Gush Etzion and to rebuild—a dream that took nineteen years to fulfill. Today, the tree is the symbol of Gush Etzion—a flourishing cluster of communities just south of Jerusalem.

The origin of the term “Etzion” is also rooted in history.

The first kibbutz established in the area in 1935 (and one of the four to be destroyed thirteen years later) was named Kfar Etzion in honor of Shmuel Holzman, one of the founders of the kibbutz. The word for wood or tree is “holz” in Yiddish; it’s “etz” in Hebrew. Etzion is a contraction of two words: “Etz” and “Zion.”

When the Broders are not running workshops, they are busy creating a wide variety of beautiful Judaica including

A ninety-year-old woman smooths a piece of wood on the oscillating spindle sander.

challah boards, wall hangings, invitations and hand-crafted wood creations. For more information about The Workshop, visit its Facebook page at The Workshop Gush Etzion or visit its web site at mandybroderjudaicacreations.com. Sessions are two-and-a-half hours long and cost a reasonable 150 shekels per person, minimum of six participants. Call 972.54.678.5813 for information and reservations.

The Workshop joins the ranks of the many great family activities located in the Gush Etzion area. Other activities in the immediate area include Pat BaMelach, an artisan bread bakery located just a few hundred yards from The Workshop.

The bakery offers hands-on, family-friendly workshops led by professional bakers on how to make fresh rolls, focaccias, sour-dough pretzels and more. For more information, visit www.patbamelach.com/#workshops.

And once you are in the area, stop for a visit to Deer Land.

Set in a forest, Deer Land (Eretz Ha’ayalim), located about ten minutes from The Workshop and Pat BaMelach, features a variety of fun, sports-based activities including bungee trampolines, a climbing wall, horseback riding, and a zip line—the longest one in Israel. You can find everything it has to offer at etziontour.org.il/attraction/deer-land-park/.

Of course, any visit to the area must include a stop to see the new, redone audio-visual presentation in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, which tells the dramatic story of the growth of the Gush Etzion kibbutzim in the 1940s, their tragic end on the very day that Israeli independence was declared and the rebirth and growth of the region after the area was liberated in the Six-Day War in 1967. A visit to Gush Etzion should be on your “must-do” list on your next trip to Israel. g

Peter Abelow is a licensed tour guide and the associate director of Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israel. He can be reached at 011.972.2.671.3518 or at peter@keshetisrael.co.il.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 71

INSIDE The risk [of terrorism] is real. The imminency of it; I don’t want to be an alarmist, but we must treat the imminency of it as real.”

Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the US Department of Homeland Security discussing the importance of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) during OU Advocacy’s annual leadership mission to Washington DC. NSGP, spearheaded by OU Advocacy and administered by the Department of Homeland Security, provides grants of up to $75,000 apiece to nonprofit institutions in security funding.

“

“

Rabbi Ethan Katz, New Jersey NCSY Regional Director, who led a three-day disaster relief mission to flood-ravaged Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this past August.

Rabbi Eli Mansour, rav of The Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Brooklyn, New York, praising OU Advocacy for its critical efforts in addressing tuition affordability. He spoke during a visit Maury Litwack, OU Director of State and Political Affairs, made to the Sephardic community in Deal, New Jersey.

We model ourselves on Israel—one of the first countries to respond to worldwide disasters. We teach our NCSY participants that we too are ambassadors of the Jewish nation to communities in their time of need.”

“

These [melodies] have been preserved through centuries of tragedy and catastrophe, through exiles and pogroms and a Holocaust . . . .

We must preserve them.”

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU Executive Vice President, Emeritus, on the importance of the OU’s Nussach HaTefillah Initiative. Coordinated by Cantor Chaim Dovid Berson, Cantor of the Jewish Center in Manhattan, the initiative aims to restore the ancient melodies accompanying the Jewish prayers. The project includes a vast online database of chazzanut recordings by world-famous cantors (ou.org/community/programs/nussach-hatefillah/).

72 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

We are all very excited about this crucial initiative. Yeshivah education is a must, but it has to be affordable.

Kudos to the OU for its efforts.”

“

Poland is a major producer of kosher food, and we keep expanding.

Training such as ASK OU helps to ensure that we have the highest level of certification possible.”

Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, who sent three members of Poland’s Jewish community to participate in the Harry H. Beren ASK OU (Advanced Seminars on Kashrus) Internship Program.

in the the NCSY across KAHAL FELLOWS US and CANADA

Campuses with Kahal Fellows Kahal Fellows aims to empower students to create religious communities on campus. The fellows, part of the OU’s Kahal Fellowship Program, receive leadership training and run activities on campus, such as Shabbat meals and learning programs. Now in its third year, Kahal Fellows are found on thirty campuses across the US and Canada.

Arizona State University Baruch College Carleton University Dartmouth College Emory University Florida International University Georgia State University Harvard University Indiana University, Bloomington Johnson & Wales University Kean University Massachusetts Institute of Technology McMaster University Muhlenberg College Northeastern University Parsons School of Design Suffolk University University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of Delaware University of Kansas University of Oregon University of South Florida University of Southern California University of Virginia University of Waterloo University of Wisconsin Washington University in St. Louis Western University Worcester Polytechnic Institute

AZ NY ON NH GA FL GA MA IN RI NJ MA ON PA MA NY MA CA CA DE KS OR FL CA VA ON WI MO ON MA

OU by the

35,939

People who viewed the OU Tisha B’Av Kinot Presentation on Facebook Live, delivered by Rabbi Steven Weil, OU Senior Managing Director, and Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU Executive Vice President, Emeritus. The webcasts were broadcast from two locations: Jerusalem and Boca Raton, Florida.

8,420

Number of times the OU Torah app has been installed by mobile users since its launch in June 2015.

1,350

Number of YachadGifts baskets sold this Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot season. YachadGifts, a project of Yachad, provides job training and meaningful employment to individuals with disabilities, while supplying the public with hand-crafted gift baskets for special occasions (yachadgifts.com).

18

NCSY summer programs for 2017

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 73

NEW FACES Rabbi Sam Shor (a.k.a. “Rabbi Sam”) is the new Program Director for the Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center (OU Israel Center). He most recently served as Educational Director at Shir Hadash in Jerusalem, where he oversaw an extensive variety of educational programming. Rabbi Shor’s passion is introducing Jewish adults of all backgrounds to Torah learning, particularly Jewish ethics and spirituality. He’s also a die-hard fan of the Denver Broncos, thanks to his years as an advisor for Denver NCSY. Rabbi Shor lives in Jerusalem with his family.

FAMILIAR FACES NCSY Summer welcomes Yoni Colman as Director of Organizational Innovation and Professional Advancement. Colman gained experience in leadership and education through his work for NCSY Canada and Torah High over the past nine years. His favorite Jewish music artist is still Uncle Moishy, a passion that he shares with his three children through his enthusiastic and frequent impersonations.

Penny Pazornick has been promoted to North American Director of OU Israel Free Spirit: Birthright Israel.

As Director, Penny oversees recruiting, registration, marketing and staffing for Israel Free Spirit trips. She previously served as North American Associate Director of Israel Free Spirit: Birthright Israel.

Penny is also an avid fan of the Baltimore Ravens football team.

Meet Scott Shulman, the Manager of OU Marketing and Communications. He works directly with several OU departments to help market their programs effectively. Scott previously served as Program Director of OU Israel Free Spirit, where he helped send over 12,000 participants to Israel over a period of seven years. Scott made aliyah with his wife and children in 2015.

74 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

The Department of Synagogue Services welcomes Rabbi Gedalyah Berger as Adult Education Coordinator. Rabbi Berger has particular experience in women’s education, as he also serves as a Rosh Mesivta in the Graduate Program for Women in Advanced Talmudic Studies at Yeshiva University (GPATS) and as a Maggid Shiur at the Yo’etzet Halakhah program of Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center. Rabbi Berger is a proud father of five and die-hard Mets fan, a passion passed down in the family from his Lithuanian grandmother.

Danielle Michaels is excited about joining the OU Marketing and Communications Department as Marketing Coordinator and Social Media Manager. A native of Great Neck, New York, she took a special interest in social media at a young age. She's freelanced as a social media manager for a variety of Jewish causes and was a marketer for Lyft, the popular ride-sharing service.

Rabbi Ilan Haber has been promoted to Director of NextGen. As Director, he will supervise all NextGen staff and programs, which include Heart to Heart, Open Up Washington Heights, and Young Professional programs. He will also continue to serve as National Director of the Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC), a post he has held for twelve years. Rabbi Haber is a proud father of five and lives with his family in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel.

Rabbi David Felsenthal (“Rabbi Dave”) has been promoted to OU Chief Innovation Officer. In this position, Rabbi Dave is responsible for developing a vision for how the OU should expand, direct and interconnect its programming resources to best serve the Jewish people. Rabbi Dave has proudly been involved at the OU for thirty-eight years as a student leader and a professional.

RECENT SNAPSHOTS

ASKING THE EXPERTS A participant asks a question during the Harry H. Beren ASK OU (Advanced Seminars on Kashrus) Internship Program at OU headquarters in Manhattan. The three-week summer kashrut internship features presentations from senior OU Kosher experts on the practical applications of the laws of kashrut to modern technology. It also provides opportunites for mashgiach fieldwork in OU-certified factories and restaurants. Photo: Josh Weinberg

GUIDANCE FOR GABBAIM Rav Hershel Schachter, a rosh yeshivah at YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and OU Kosher Senior Halachic Consultant, presenting at the“Seminar for Gabbaim: Tools and Techniques for Today’s Gabbai” held this past September at Beth Jacob of Beverly Hills (BJBH) in California. Organized by the OU’s Department of Synagogue and Community Services and chaired

by Dr. Sandy Small, weekday gabbai at BJBH, the conference drew gabbaim from OU-member synagogues in Southern California and JLIC-UCLA Hillel, as well as several teenagers who serve as gabbaim at their schools’ student-run minyanim.

Photo: Lewis Grone

OPERATION FLOOD RELIEF NCSYers and Jewish day school students from New Jersey traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in August to assist in clean-up efforts after the city was devastated by a flood. Seen here, Ma’ayanot student Shira Glicksman sweeps debris in a flood-ravaged home. The relief mission was coordinated by NCSY and Nechama, a disaster response organization. Photo: Rabbi Ethan Katz

LEARNING FROM ONE ANOTHER Rabbi Micah Greenland, International Director of NCSY, speaking to NCSY staff at an orientation program for new employees at StaffCon 2016, an annual three-day retreat that affords the NCSY staff an opportunity to learn from one another and share ideas. Photo: Josh Weinberg

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 75

Highlights of the 2016 OU Advocacy Leadership Mission More than 100 Orthodox rabbis and lay leaders from around the country attended the Twentieth Annual OU Advocacy Leadership Mission to Washington, DC this past September. The mission brings OU and community leaders from around the country to the US capital to present the needs and issues of the Jewish community to our nation’s decision makers. Participants heard from several members of the House and Senate on a range of issues, from combatting BDS to funding for Jewish day schools.

The mission was launched with a Leadership Conference attended by OU Advocacy state leadership. Participants discussed current communal issues, such as school choice, and best practices in their advocacy efforts on behalf of their respective communities.

OU leaders present an award to Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) for championing the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. From left: OU Executive Vice President Allen Fagin; OU Chairman of the Board Howard Tzvi Friedman; Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas; OU Advocacy Center Executive Director Nathan Diament; Senator Hoeven, Chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee; and OU President Martin Nachimson.

US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) addressing participants about pending legislation to prohibit the use of American tax dollars to fund the Palestinian Authority (PA). From left: Mr. Diament, Senator Graham and Rabbi Yaakov Gibber, rav of the Boca Jewish Center/Shaaray Tefilla in Boca Raton, Florida.

76 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Mr. Diament speaks with US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mr. Fagin following the senator’s address on education and school choice.

Along with other New York community leaders, OU Past President Stephen Savitsky presents US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) with a token of appreciation for promoting the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) discussing her work with OU Advocacy to create a federal grants program to help make synagogues and schools more energy efficicient.

From left: OU Advocacy New York Co-chair Neil Cohen; Pennsylvania Co-chair Elliot Holtz; New Jersey Executive Committee Member Cheryl Rosenberg and Maryland Co-chair Sam Melamed discuss the need for greater government funding for Jewish education during OU Advocacy’s pre-mission Leadership Conference.

SAVE THE DATE

JANUARY 15TH, 2017

THE ORTHODOX UNION BIENNIAL CONVENTION 2017

“TORAH AT CITI FIELD” www.ou.org/convention

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 77

Essays on Ethics: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible

By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks OU Press and Koren Publishers

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is widely acknowledged as one of the leading spokespeople for religion in our secular age.

Possessing the keen ability to translate Torah-based concepts into universally understood insights, Rabbi Sacks serves as a one-man fulfillment of the Jewish mission to act as a “light unto the nations.” In Essays on Ethics and Lessons in Leadership, a pair of companion volumes to his acclaimed Covenant and Conversation series on the weekly Torah portion, Rabbi Sacks again demonstrates his ingenuity in communicating Jewish ideas in a way that will resonate with people of all persuasions.

In Essays on Ethics, Rabbi Sacks focuses on those Jewish ideas which have transformed the world for the better since this numerically insignificant nation, “the fewest of all people,” first appeared on the world stage. For instance, although Thomas Jefferson considered it to be a self-evident truth that “all men are created equal,” Rabbi Sacks notes that it is, in fact, nothing of the sort. It is, instead, a deeply Biblical truth which in time became embedded in the consciousness of humanity. In the ancient world, the emperor alone reflected the image of the gods.

The Torah’s teaching, that humankind as a whole is created in God’s image, represented a revolutionary departure from that view.

Yet if Biblical principles form the basis of much of what Western society takes for granted, these same principles are also under threat in our society today.

In an introduction identifying what he sees as the seven distinguishing features of Biblical ethics, Rabbi Sacks

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argues that “many—perhaps all—of these beliefs are currently at risk in the contemporary West.” To understand what Rabbi Sacks would suggest we can do to address this crisis, let us turn to his Lessons in Leadership.

In Lessons in Leadership, Rabbi Sacks mines the weekly parashah for insight into the principles of Jewish leadership. Drawing, as always, on the best of contemporary thought and the classic sources of our tradition, as well as his own experiences over a distinguished career, Rabbi Sacks extracts key concepts of leadership from the Torah.

One recurring theme which Rabbi Sacks identifies is the concept of “servant leadership,” in which the leader puts the needs of others before his own. Illustrating this notion, the Talmud records the story of two sages who were offered a position of leadership by Rabban Gamaliel, but refused out of a sense of modesty.

Rabban Gamaliel responded firmly: “Do you think that I am offering you authority? I am offering you servitude.”

Jewish leadership is not about authority and self-aggrandizement, but about service and responsibility.

Another related theme emphasized throughout the book is the distinction between power and influence, between those who possess formal authority and those who lead by the force of example alone. According to Rabbi Sacks, “Judaism has tended to be critical of power. Kings had it and often abused it. Prophets had none, but their influence has lasted to this day.” Furthermore, whereas formal authority is only granted to a select few, every individual can achieve influence through his actions.

This brings us back to our society’s ills and the role of the Jewish people in ameliorating them. The nation of Israel has never been a powerful empire, but throughout history the Jewish people have had an outsized influence. Reflecting on the verse “The Lord did not. . . choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you are the fewest of all peoples” (Deut. 7:7), Rabbi Sacks comments: “Israel will be the smallest of the nations for a reason that goes to the very heart of its existence as a nation. It will show the world that a people does not have to be large in order to be great. . .Israel’s unique history will show that, in the words of the prophet Zechariah (4:6), ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord Almighty.’”

If the role of the Jewish people is to lead by example, it is our good fortune that we can turn to leaders as gifted and articulate as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to show us the way.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 79

Wellness Report

By Shira Isenberg

Goodbye Soup Mix,

Hello Chicken:

T HE LESS- PROCES S ED S H AB BAT

My husband is after me to make a “processed food-free Shabbat.”

How do I even do that? nything boxed, canned or bagged would be processed, including canned vegetables and bagged salad. Pre-cut vegetables? Processed. Box of whole-wheat crackers? Processed.

Sometimes the processing that the food undergoes actually makes it safer to consume, like pasteurization of milk. It may also increase its nutritional value—like the addition of vitamin A and D to many different milk brands.

There is a hierarchy, though, within the world of processed foods. The more pro-

cessed a food is, the more likely it is to include more of the ingredients we want to limit—namely, sodium, sugar and fat.

• Minimally processed foods: That’s where your salad bags, prewashed veggies or cut-up fruit would fit in, along with ground nuts or coffee beans. These foods are not changed all that significantly, just prepared to make them easier to use.

Though processed, these would not be considered unhealthy since they have no added sugar, sodium, fat or other undesirable additions.

• Foods “processed at their peak”: These are the vegetables that are frozen when they are fresh to preserve nutritional quality. Same thing with canned beans, tomatoes, fish and jars of baby food. These would also be considered fairly healthy foods for the most part; some may run high in sodium and, in some cases, sugar and fat as well.

• Foods with added ingredients like spices, flavors or preservatives, but are not considered “ready-to-eat”: Rice, salad dressings and pasta sauce are a few

Shira Isenberg is a registered dietitian and writer in Memphis, Tennessee. She has a master’s degree in public health nutrition from Hunter College in New York.

80 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

examples; cake mixes and gelatin are too. As you can see, some of these could be wholesome options, while others can be quite the opposite. Now we are starting to get to the processed foods you’ll want to limit.

• “Ready-to-eat” foods: You may need to heat it or add water, but it’s basically edible straight from the package, like cereal, crackers, jam and peanut butter, granola bars, cookies, deli meat, cheese spreads and much

Crack Down on

Sugar and Sodium

Even foods that don’t taste that sweet, like tomato sauce and salad dressing, can still have added sugar.

The nutrition facts panel will tell you how much sugar, in grams, one serving contains, so get in the habit of checking and comparing brands. You’ll also want to scan the ingredient list for sugar.

This will help you figure out if the sugar is added or found naturally in the food.

For example, foods that contain fruit may contain natural sugar as opposed to added sugar. Here are some “code words” for sugar on the ingredient list: dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, cane syrup, brown rice syrup, cane juice, rice syrup, sucrose, fruit juice concentrate.

S The content of this mineral will also be clearly marked on the label.

To give you an idea if a food contains a lot of sodium—the recommended intake is less than 2300 milligrams per day. (Most of us take in much, much more, and mostly from processed foods.) Canned foods are going to be one of the biggest offenders, so look for “no salt added” or “low sodium” on labels. Also rinse your canned vegetables and beans before using to cut sodium content by about 40 percent.

more. These are more likely to have the additional sodium, sugar and fat, not to mention preservatives, flavorings or additional chemicals you want to avoid.

• Heavily processed foods: Packaged ready-to-eat meals, including frozen pizza, are typically the worst offenders when it comes to added ingredients you don’t want.

If most of the processed foods you purchase are from the first two categories, you’re doing pretty well. When you need to get foods from the third and fourth categories, check the label and ingredient list.

(See sidebar for tips.) Avoid the fifth category if at all possible.

Now, on to Shabbat. Unless you live on a farm, your husband probably means that he wants a generally healthier, more nutritious Shabbat meal with fewer foods from the latter categories above. So let’s go through some of the Shabbat staples: Grape juice or wine: Most likely you are not pressing your own grapes. This is probably non-negotiable (unless you want to ask your rabbi if you can make Kiddush on challah.)

Challah: Your least processed option would be making your own from scratch.

The more processed a food is, the more likely it is to include more of the ingredients we want to limit, namely–sodium, sugar and fat.

Second choice, buy from a local bakery versus a packaged challah from the supermarket.

Fish: A frozen gefilte fish loaf is out. If you want to grind your own fish, by all means, go ahead. Many recipes call for matzah meal, which means using a processed ingredient that’s not too bad, along with eggs and often sugar and salt. That’s why I’d recommend getting a slab of fresh fish (salmon is my pick) and preparing it with fresh herbs and spices. Much less processed and more nutritional bang for your buck.

Soup: Pass on the soup mix and use plenty of chicken, vegetables, herbs and spices to flavor your stock.

Main Course: Let’s say it’s chicken. Skip the jarred sauces, the onion soup mix, fancy breadings and other packaged ingredients that you’ll often find in cookbooks. Opt for a basic recipe that uses salt and spices and maybe a little oil. My go-to Friday night chicken dish is a large whole

chicken rubbed with paprika, cumin, turmeric, garlic salt (okay, so I cheat a little there—you can use fresh garlic and salt) and olive oil, surrounded by sliced onions.

Sides: If you’re a kugel family, make them yourself—don’t buy takeout. Think fresh ingredients to start. That’s your clue for less processed. If it comes in a bag or a box, it’s processed. No crust needed for your kugel. Ditto for topping. Or substitute fresh roasted vegetables for the kugel altogether. No time on Friday to make them?

Cut them all up Thursday night and bag and refrigerate, so all you need to do is spice them and throw them in the oven Friday afternoon.

Salad: I prefer starting with fresh romaine leaves that I check myself, but bagged salad or pre-checked lettuce mix is fine. If it makes you more likely to eat salad, go for it. Do add more fresh vegetables. It’s okay to cut in some pickles or throw in some nuts or even sliced olives if you need a little more flavor. Go easy on craisins, croutons, crunchy noodles, potato chips or who knows what else people add to salads lately! When it comes to dressings, toss the bottle and make your own with basic ingredients like lemon juice, vinegar and oil.

Cholent: Start with onions, potatoes, meat and spices. Dried beans, sans flavors, are not the worst processed food to include. Pass on the ketchup and barbecue sauce and it probably goes without saying, but pass on the kishka, hot dogs and sausages as well. Eggs are okay; if you have access to free-range eggs, use those. You might consider forgoing cholent completely and opting for warmed chicken prepped with spices and oil, as you had on Friday night.

Dessert: You knew I was going to say fruit. Truth is, a cake baked from scratch is less processed than one from a cake mix or a packaged cake from the store. Keep your home-baked goods “cleaner” by staying away from ingredients like frozen whipped topping, frostings or margarine.

Shabbat party: Not sure how this tradition started exactly, but you don’t really need this. If you have already gotten into the habit of giving the kids in your life a treat on Shabbat afternoon as a “Shabbat party,” make some homemade frozen fruit popsicles before Shabbat. Or dress up plain old fruit by putting several types together on a skewer or sticking in cute toothpicks. g

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 81

The Chef’s Table

By Norene Gilletz

CHANUKAH Specialties

Delicious Spins on Tradition

Harvest Squash With Pecans & Feta Food photography: Andrea Gibson Food styling: Abraham Wornovitsky

Tradition, tradition! For most people I know, the quintessential Chanukah dish is potato latkes. Daniella Silver, my creative co-author for our new cookbook, Simple Elegance (ArtScroll) has created a winning selection of terrific toppings for her Classic Potato Latkes that are truly top-notch. And since Chanukah always includes dishes made with cheese and olive oil, Daniella’s recipe for Harvest Squash With Pecans & Feta fits the bill! Simple Elegance at its finest.

Chanukah desserts feature even more cheese, along with chocolate, in a variety of shapes and sizes. Small bites are always a good choice—then you can sample

a little bit of everything! Daphna Rabinovitch’s mouthwatering rugelach, with a selection of six fabulous fillings, are sure to satisfy the palates of your most discriminating guests. Her Peek-A-Boo Chocolate Cupcakes combine cream cheese and chocolate—a winning combination. These make a fun treat for kids, big and small—and their parents as well! If you’re looking for the perfect pareve chocolate cake, Daphna’s show-stopping Dairy-Free Chocolate Coconut Cake is a wonderful way to create a scrumptious spin on your usual pareve chocolate cake. These creative new spins on tradition will be winners on your Chanukah table!

Norene Gilletz is the leading author of kosher cookbooks in Canada. Visit her web site at www.gourmania.com or e-mail her at goodfood@gourmania.com.

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Daniella’s Classic Potato Latkes with Assorted Toppings Adapted from Simple Elegance (ArtScroll) Yields about 2 dozen You really can’t go wrong with classic potato latkes. I’ve added four unique toppings to serve alongside, each with its own flavor, but they’re all beautiful when presented together on a platter. Make a different topping every night and delight your guests!

6 large potatoes (preferably Idaho/russet), peeled and cut into chunks 1 large onion, cut into chunks 2 eggs 1/4 cup potato starch 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp kosher salt 1/4 tsp black pepper Grapeseed oil, for frying Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a food processor fitted with the shredding disk, shred potatoes and onion, using medium pressure. Transfer vegetables to a large colander set in the sink or over a large bowl; press firmly to drain excess liquid.

Place drained veggies into a large bowl. Add eggs, potato starch, baking powder, salt and pepper. Mix well.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, drop large spoonfuls of batter into hot oil to form pancakes, flattening them slightly with the back of the spoon.

Do not crowd the skillet. Fry for 3-4 minutes per side, or until crisp and golden.

Drain well on paper towels. Transfer to prepared baking sheet; place into oven to keep warm.

Norene’s Notes: Freeze with Ease: Arrange latkes in a single layer on a baking sheet; freeze until firm. Transfer to resealable plastic bags, press out all air, and freeze. To reheat, place frozen latkes onto a large baking sheet. Bake, uncovered, at 400°F (204°C) for 12-15 minutes, until hot and crisp.

Toppings (Yields 4-6 servings) Sour Cream with Pomegranate or Lox 1 cup sour cream (regular or low fat) 1 Tbsp lemon juice, preferably fresh 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or dill* Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds, for garnish or 1/4 lb (125g) fresh smoked salmon, thinly sliced * Must be checked for bugs. See oukosher.org/ou-guide-to-checkingproduce-and-more/ for information on how to check herbs.

Norene’s Notes: For a dairy-free version, use Tofutti sour cream instead of sour

cream. For a lighter version, use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

Avocado Topping 1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and diced 1/4 cup minced red onion 1 tomato, diced 1 Tbsp lime juice, preferably fresh 1 tsp kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper Norene’s Notes: Place plastic wrap directly onto mixture to prevent it from darkening. Right before serving, top latkes with avocado mixture.

Deli Topping 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 2 tsp honey 1/2 lb (250g) deli meat, diced (e.g., corned beef, salami, turkey or pastrami) 3 Israeli pickles, diced Norene’s Notes: For a pretty presentation, spoon desired toppings into small serving bowls and center on a round large platter. Surround with overlapping layers of latkes.

Daniella’s Harvest Squash with Pecans & Feta Adapted from Simply Spectacular (ArtScroll) Yields 6-8 servings This simple roasted squash dish is divine. As the sugars in the squash begin to caramelize, the oils in the warm pecans and salty feta cheese become perfect flavor counterpoints. Great for Chanukah!

1 butternut squash (about 3 lb/1.4 kg), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks 1 1/2 cups pecan halves 2-3 Tbsp olive oil 3-4 Tbsp pure maple syrup 1 cup crumbled feta cheese Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread squash and pecans on prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and maple syrup; toss to combine.

Bake, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 35-40 minutes, or until squash is tender-crisp and pecans are a deep amber color.

Transfer to a serving platter; sprinkle with feta cheese. Serve immediately. Do not freeze.

Norene’s Note: Microwave Magic: For easier cutting, slash squash in several places with a sharp knife. Place on a paper towel or plate; microwave on high for 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Cut squash in half at the neck, making two pieces: a round ball and an elongated Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 83

piece. Cut the round bottom part in half; use an ice cream scoop to scoop out and discard seeds and stringy fibers. Peel both halves of the squash and cut it into chunks.

Daphna’s Peek-A-Boo Chocolate Cupcakes Adapted from The Baker in Me (Whitecap) Yields 18 cupcakess The deep and delightful chocolaty flavor of these cupcakes comes from the fact that very warm water is the main liquid in this recipe.

The warm water intensifies the flavor of the cocoa powder, allowing it to swell and release all of its essential properties.

Cream Cheese Filling 8 oz (250g) block cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg, at room temperature Pinch of salt Cupcakes 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted 2 tsp baking soda 2 cups warm water 2/3 cup canola or vegetable oil 2 Tbsp white vinegar 1 Tbsp vanilla 1/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly grease 2 muffin tins so that you have enough for 18 cupcakes. Line with paper muffin cups.

Cream Cheese Filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a hand-held mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sugar; beat until smooth, 2–3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Beat in the egg and the salt, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure the filling is as smooth as possible, but not liquid; set aside.

Peek-A-Boo Chocolate Cupcakes Food photography: David Scott Food styling: Olga Truchan

84 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

Cupcakes: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking soda until the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Whisk in the wet ingredients until a smooth batter is formed.

Evenly divide the cupcake batter among 18 muffin cups, filling each three-quarters full. Evenly spoon the cream cheese filling over the cupcakes. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the cream cheese filling.

Bake in the center of the preheated oven until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pans on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes.

Remove cupcakes to the wire rack to cool completely.

Daphna’s Dairy-Free Chocolate Coconut Milk Cake Adapted from The Baker in Me (Whitecap) Yields 1 cake I urge you to try this incredibly moist chocolate cake that just happens to use coconut milk, making it an exceptionally delicious pareve cake.

Cake: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 3/4 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup coconut milk (not light) 3/4 cup water 3 large eggs, at room temperature 2 tsp vanilla

cake layers. Place directly on a cake plate or a decorating turntable. If the cake has domed significantly, use a serrated knife to even it off. Using a long metal palette knife, spread about 1 heaping cup of the icing over the top of the cake layer.

Remove the parchment paper from the second cake layer.

Again, if it has crowned significantly, use a serrated knife to even it out. Invert and place on top of the icing, so that what was previously the bottom of the cake is now actually the top.

This will ensure that you have a flat, even surface to ice. Ice the sides and top of the cake with the remaining icing. Bring to room temperature before serving.

My Favorite Rugelach (Dairy) Adapted from The Baker in Me (Whitecap) Yields 4 dozen

Frosting: 12 oz (360g) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 2 cups non-dairy whip or whipping cream, cold, divided 2 Tbsp light corn syrup Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly grease the bottoms and sides of two 9-inch (23 cm) metal cake pans. Line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper.

Cake: Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl, until the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, coconut milk, water, eggs, and vanilla. Pour the coconut milk–oil mixture over the flour mixture; whisk gently until thoroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans.

Bake in the center of the preheated oven until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed, 25–30 minutes.

Cool the cakes in the pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Run a small knife around the edge of the cake pans to loosen the cakes from the pan. Remove the cakes from the pans and cool completely on the wire racks, parchment side down.

Frosting: In the top of a double boiler set over hot, not boiling water, melt the chocolate. Remove from the heat. Stir in 1 cup of the non-dairy whip and the corn syrup. Set aside momentarily. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using hand-held beaters, beat the remaining non-dairy whip until peaks form. Replace the whisk attachment with the paddle attachment. Add the chocolate mixture to the mixer. Beat until thoroughly combined and smooth.

Assembly: Remove the parchment paper from the bottom of one of the

My Favorite Rugelach

Food photography: David Scott Food styling: Olga Truchan

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (8 oz/250g) 8 oz (250g) block cream cheese, softened 3 Tbsp icing sugar 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest 2 cups all-purpose flour Pinch of salt 1 large egg, lightly beaten, at room temperature 3 Tbsp coarse sugar (optional) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a hand-held mixer, beat the butter with the cream cheese for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar; beat for another 2 minutes. Beat in the lemon zest.

Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour and salt and mix just until combined and a dough is formed.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead very lightly into a ball. Cut the ball into quarters; shape each quarter into a ball and flatten into discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before rolling.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients of your chosen filling (see next page), except for the jam or peanut butter.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 85

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On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the discs to a 10inch (25 cm) or 11-inch (28 cm) circle. Spread 3 Tbsp jam or peanut butter evenly over the surface, to act as glue for the filling ingredients. Sprinkle with one-quarter of the filling. Cut the dough into 12 pie-shaped wedges. Starting from the wide end, roll up each wedge to form a crescent shape. Transfer to the prepared cookie sheets, spacing each one about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Brush the egg over 1 tray of rugelach.

Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. One sheet at a time, bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown, about 20–25 minutes. Cool the cookie sheet on a wire rack for a while. Transfer the rugelach to the wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat with remaining trays of rugelach, cooling the pans slightly before adding unbaked crescents to them.

Fillings Apricot Walnut Filling 1 1/3 cups finely chopped walnuts 1 cup golden raisins 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup apricot jam Peach Macadamia Nut Filling 3/4 cup chopped toasted macadamia nuts (or almonds) 1/2 cup golden raisins 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup peach jam Raspberry Chocolate Filling 1 cup chopped pecans 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup seedless pure raspberry jam Cherry White Chocolate Filling 1 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts 1/2 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate 1/2 cup dried sour cherries 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup cherry jam Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Caramel Filling 1 cup chopped unsalted peanuts 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup Skor bits 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter Marmalade and Almond Filling 3/4 cup chopped blanched almonds 1/2 cup currants 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup orange marmalade

86 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

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Legal-Ease

By Ari Z. Zivotofsky

What’s the Truth About . . .

Standing for a Chatan and Kallah?

Misconception: There is an obligation to stand for a chatan and kallah when they walk down the aisle to the chuppah.

Fact: Traditional sources state that one should stand during the recitation of the berachot recited under the chuppah, but the practice of standing as the chatan and kallah walk down the aisle seems to be a newer innovation.

Background: The question of whether to stand while the chatan and kallah walk down the aisle presupposes that the celebrants are otherwise seated and that there is a formal processional in which the chatan and kallah walk to the chuppah. While both assumptions are true for most twenty-first century weddings that take place in the US, this may not have been the case in other times and places. Even in contemporary times, in certain locations, this is not the custom. For example, nowadays, at many weddings in Israel, there are few chairs at the chuppah.

A modern Jewish wedding consists of two primary components: kiddushin (the giving of the ring and the recitation of Birkat Erusin) and nissuin (the recitation of the sheva berachot under the chuppah).

Various sources discuss the need for guests to stand during the recitation of the sheva berachot under the chuppah.

One of the earliest sources to mention this practice is Rabbi Aaron HaKohen (Provençe, fourteenth century; Orchot Chaim vol. 2, Hilchot Kiddushin 21) who, quoting Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer (chap. 16), states that a chatan is compared to a king1 and therefore2 should be praised and dress honorably, and should not go to the market alone, et cetera. According to Rabbi HaKohen, the universal practice is that everyone rises for a chatan when he walks on the road, when Birkat Erusin and nissuin are recited and when the chatan gets an aliyah. Thus it appears that 700 years

ago in certain parts of France, the practice was for guests to stand during the chuppah.

Rabbi Mordechai HaLevi (Egypt, d.

1684; Shu”t Darchei Noam, OC 3) records that the custom in his country was not to stand for the recitation of Birkat Erusin; however, he writes that it is appropriate to do so during the recitation of the sheva berachot because these berachot have the status of a davar shebikedushah3 [such as Kaddish and Kedushah]. He also notes that the custom to stand, as suggested by Rabbi Yaakov de Castro (d. 1610, Egypt; Erech Lechem, EH 61; see Yabia Omer 6: EH 8), may be due to the fact that the sheva berachot include the blessing of “Asher Bara,” which is directed to all of the Jewish people, similar to Birkat Kohanim, for which the universal custom is to stand. It thus seems that in seventeenth-century Egypt, guests stood during the recitation of the sheva berachot but did not do so for Birkat Erusin.

Rabbi Chaim Benveniste (d. 1673; Turkey; Knesset Hagedolah, Tur 62:2; quoted in Be’er Haitev, EH 62:1) observes that in Constantinople (Istanbul) the custom was for all assembled to stand for the sheva berachot recited under the chuppah,4 while in Salonika, also under Ottoman rule, the prevailing custom was not to do so. Rabbi Benveniste suggests that the reason for standing is to honor the chatan and kallah who are standing themselves. Furthermore, Rabbi Benveniste says, since a chatan is compared to a king (Shiurei Knesset Hagedolah, Beit Yosef, OC 282:11), just as one would stand when a king would read from the Torah, one should stand when a chatan gets an aliyah. He personally stood up whenever a chatan walked by.

Rabbi Chaim Palagi (Turkey, d. 1869; Chaim v’Shalom, EH 28) understood from the Knesset Hagedolah that the obligation to stand applies to the sheva berachot only,

Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of brain science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

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and he thus wondered about those who stand during the kiddushin, a custom which he observed in his day in Izmir, a city in Turkey. He suggests two reasons for the local custom. First, he cites the position of Rabbi Benveniste in Knesset Hagedolah that standing is required because the chatan resembles a king. However, he notes that halachic authorities differ as to when the groom assumes the status of a “chatan.” Many opinions, including one cited by the Knesset Hagedolah, state that the groom assumes the status of chatan/king with nissuin, that is, with the recitation of the sheva berachot. On the other hand, there are those who maintain that the groom attains the status of a chatan/king once the kiddushin is performed.5 A different approach is taken by Rabbi Palagi, who explains that one should stand for the chatan and kallah because they are in the midst of performing a mitzvah. The Mishnah records that when the shopkeepers and artisans of Jerusalem would see the throngs of people bringing bikkurim to the Beit Hamikdash, they would cease working and stand in their honor (Bikkurim 3:3; cf. Kiddushin 33a and Chullin 54b). The Mishnah does not provide an explanation as to why they stood. Rabbi Ovadia Bartenura (d. 1515, Jerusalem) explains that they stood out of respect for those actively engaged in performing a mitzvah.6 He says this is similar to the well-known practice of standing for those engaged in various mitzvot, such as carrying a body for burial (cf. SA, YD 361:4, Taz, YD 361:2) and carrying a baby for the purpose of performing a brit milah (cf.

Rabbi Akiva Eiger, YD 265:1).7 There are those who question this opinion since there is no custom to stand when observing individuals engaged in most other mitzvot. However, Rabbi Palagi maintains, though no previous commentator on the

Mishnah in Bikkurim suggests as such, that since the chatan is engaged in the mitzvah of getting married, we stand for him.

There is also a kabbalistic tradition to stand during the sheva brachot recited under the chuppah. Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (d. 1869; Shu”t Haelef L’cha Shlomo, EH 115) notes that he found in the Tikunei Zohar that all are obligated to stand with the chatan and kallah when the sheva berachot are recited under the chuppah, and that one should follow this custom. Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Teshuvot v’Hanhagot 4: EH: 286:6) records that this is indeed the custom in Yerushalayim, based on the Tikunei Zohar.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yabia Omer 6: EH 8) notes the custom in Jerusalem is that the entire assemblage stands from the beginning of the Birkat Erusin until the conclusion of the sheva berachot; he adds that if someone is seated during the sheva berachot, he should be rebuked and asked to stand.

After reviewing the halachic literature on standing during the chuppah, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Toledano8 (d. 1960; Yam HaGadol 72), notes that in the 1940s, Egyptian Jews stood for the duration of the chuppah. Yet he argues that despite this, there is no obligation to stand9 and the custom probably started because there is simply no room to seat all of the guests. In addition, he argues that because weddings tend to take place in a synagogue10 and the ceremony is held on an elevated bimah, there is no need for the assembled to stand, similar to the exemption from standing for a Torah or a sage on an elevated platform. He concludes that in order to prevent mixing of the genders and to keep the event dignified, only the chatan, the kallah, the rabbi and a minyan of people near the chuppah should stand; everyone else should remain seated.

While there seems to be plenty of discussion in halachic literature regarding the need for guests to stand during various parts of the chuppah, none of the sources discuss the requirement to stand for the chatan and kallah as they walk down the aisle.11 If the requirement to stand is based on respect for the berachot recited under the chuppah, there is certainly no reason to stand while the chatan and kallah are walking down the aisle. If it’s due to the fact that a chatan is compared to a king, then, as noted, he does not really have the status of a king until after the ceremony. If, however, the reason for standing is because

the chatan is engaged in a mitzvah, then his marching to the chuppah is an integral part of the performance of the mitzvah; this may, in fact, be the basis for the practice.

In his sefer Chazon Yeshaya (Brooklyn, 1988), Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi Gold mentions the custom of standing during the chuppah. Seeking to explain why people sit during the chuppah—even during the recitation of the sheva berachot—despite the extensive halachic literature discussing the obligation to stand (siman 35, in section Shaarei Teshuvah [p. 104 in back]), he suggests that the reason for standing is to show respect for the bride and groom.

Possibly, he posits, the respect due a chatan shares similarities with the respect shown to a Torah. In shul for example, when the Torah is in motion, there is a requirement to stand; however, once it arrives at its destination, there is no longer a requirement. Similarly, when the chatan and kallah walk to chuppah,12 one must stand. Once they reach the chuppah, only those under the chuppah need to stand in their honor.13 With regard to wedding celebrations, the overriding mitzvah is to bring joy to the new couple. The Talmud (Berachot 6b) states that anyone who brings joy to a chatan and kallah merits Torah, and it’s as if he sacrificed a korban todah and re-built one of the ruins of Jerusalem. The Tashbetz writes (end of 467) that all who add happiness to the chatan and kallah will merit to see the joy of the Livyatan [i.e., the messianic era]. If rising for the bride and groom as they walk down the aisle puts a smile on their faces, then it is a very worthwhile act indeed. g Notes 1. Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer does not mention that a kallah is like a queen, but it seems logical that the wife of a king is a queen.

2. One might have thought this statement is allegorical, an Aggadic and not an halachic statement.

Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (Salmat Chaim 335) says that it is absolutely halachah, and ruling like the Tashbetz (467 [not 465, as written in Salmat Chaim]), he maintains that this means that a chatan, like a king, is not obligated to stand for a talmid chacham. Actually, the Tashbetz says that because he is like a king, he has “chen” (charm) and he should not go out alone. While he does not explicitly state that a chatan need not rise before a talmid chacham because he resembles a king, that seems to be the reason.

3. For Birkat Erusin, ideally there should be a minyan (SA, EH 34:4), albeit it is not essential (Beit Shmuel, EH 34:7); sheva berachot require a minyan (EH 62:4) and thus are considered by some a

davar shebikedushah. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yabia Omer 6: EH:8) is not satisfied with this reasoning.

4. Note that all these sources discuss sheva berachot under the chuppah. None of them say that it is required to stand for the sheva berachot recited during the week at the festive meals following a wedding.

5. He is certainly not a chatan prior to that, and hence on a chatan’s wedding day, Tachanun is recited at the Shacharit minyan in which he davens (Mishnah Berurah 131:21).

6. The Gemara adds that in the case of bikkurim, respect is offered to the farmers to encourage them to bring bikkurim in the future. Rambam (to Mishnah Bikkurim 3:3) says that with regard to bikkurim there is the added element of kavod hatzibbur because of the large entourage engaged in doing a mitzvah together.

7. Cited also by Knesset Hagedolah (YD, Beit Yosef 265:2). The Taz (YD 361:2) extends this obligation to stand for anyone doing a mitzvah. Some feel this obligation applies to a gabbai tzedakah as well (see Pitchei Teshuvah, YD 256:1; Shu”t Minchat Yitzchak 10:86).

8. A fascinating talmid chacham, he was a native of Tiberias who wrote this responsum while serving as chief rabbi of Cairo. He later served as Sephardi chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, and from 1958 until his death in 1960, he was minister of religious affairs.

9. This does not seem to be the objective reading of the earlier sources. Indeed Rabbi Chaim David HaLevy (d. 1998, Sephardi chief rabbi of Tel Aviv; Mekor Chaim, vol. 5, 237:24) objects to wedding MCs who request people be seated. He writes that there is an obligation to stand during the chuppah. Rabbi Daniel Terni (d. 1814, rabbi of Florence; Ikrei Hadat, Dinei Kriat HaTorah: 15 [p.

19a]) notes that the Knesset Hagedolah required guests to stand during the sheva berachot recited under the chuppah because most people had the custom to stand, and thus it was inappropriate for one to remain seated. This implies that standing was a custom and not an absolute obligation.

10. While that must have been the practice he was familiar with, in many places, weddings were specifically not held in synagogues. See for example: David Katz, “Performing a Wedding in a Synagogue,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 18 (1989): 47-60.

11. There may be a reason to stand for others who walk down the aisle. This might include the grandparents, as there is a mitzvah to honor the elderly, which includes standing for any man or woman over age seventy (Vayikra 19:32; Kiddushin 32b-33a; YD 244:1-2; Yechave Daat 3:72).

12. He does not address the issue that they are not yet technically chatan and kallah.

13. An additional point worth considering: is this practice borrowed from the surrounding culture?

There is a custom at American non-Jewish weddings to rise when the bride walks down the aisle; it is possible that the custom of standing while the chatan and kallah walk down the aisle at Jewish weddings is based on a non-Jewish custom.

Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 89

Reviews in Brief

By Gil Student

Where Halakhah and Philosophy Meet

By J. David Bleich Brill Publishers Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes, editors Boston, 2015 • 168 pages Rabbi J. David Bleich is a leading intellectual figure who serves as a prolific and authoritative scholar of philosophical halachah. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that while he did not create the genre of English halachah, he defined it and continues to provide the gold standard against which all others are measured. For over forty years, Rav Bleich has proven the intellectual respectability of an unabashed Orthodox Judaism. In the introduction to one of his volumes of Contemporary Halakhic Problems, Rav Bleich tells the story of a professor of medicine who said that the intellectual rigor and excitement of one of Rav Bleich’s books convinced him to become Orthodox. This rings true to me. I remember when I was a teenager exploring the library of my Conservative synagogue, finding inspiration in the confidence and coherence of Contemporary Halakhic Problems.

Rav Bleich has published numerous books on halachah in Hebrew and English. His recent book The Philosophical Quest and his earlier book With Perfect Faith present some of his philosophical work. A new short book, Where Halakhah and Philosophy Meet, part of a series on contemporary Jewish philosophers, shows how Rav Bleich powerfully combines these two areas of expertise, merging them into a sharp comment on contemporary religious politics.

This volume begins with a biographical essay of Rav Bleich, written by Professor Steven Resnicoff, professor of law and co-director of the Center for Jewish Law and Judaic Studies at DePaul University College of Law. Then follow selected essays that show Rav Bleich’s halachah-based philosophical work on topics including the halachic process, medical ethics and natural law. In the final section, Rav Bleich provides reflections on a number of contemporary issues. Here he explains the basic contours of his beliefs and describes the challenges facing the Orthodox Jewish community today. These challenges include anti-intellectualism in halachah, communal boundaries, women’s ritual inclusion and the limits of moral initiation in halachah. This short book showcases Rav Bleich’s amazing career of developing a completely traditional halachah within a modern scholarly framework.

A Taste of Eden: (More) Torah for the Shabbat Table

By Ari Kahn Kodesh Press New York, 2016 • 235 pages

Much of classical rabbinic Torah commentary consists of complex distillation and expansion of midrashic and Talmudic interpretations. Comparing explanations from across the midrashic literature, these commentaries have built vast and intricate theories that shed halachic light on the ancient texts.

After erecting these impressive structures, often building on the commentaries that recently preceded them, many commentaries proceed to deduce profound moral and religious lessons. Because of its complexity, this genre delights the Talmud scholar but remains largely off limits to the layman. For years, Rabbi Ari Kahn, the director of foreign student programs at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he also is a senior lecturer in Jewish studies, has been engaging in this traditional commentary in English. He has not been popularizing the insights of others but expanding the literature, creating his own insights in English so that a broader audience can understand. However, readers without a strong yeshivah background may find the journey through texts and concepts overwhelming.

In his latest book, Rabbi Kahn takes a further step in broadening the audience of his popular rabbinic Torah commentary.

Omitting the hard textual work, he presents short interpretations of the weekly Torah reading that contain the messages and the Biblical insights in a style tailored to the non-specialist. He quotes midrash and Talmud with a light touch, without posing contradictions and proposing reinterpretations, and in a way that directly sheds light on the Biblical passage he is addressing. The reader is left with a taste of the classical rabbinic method. Most remarkably, Rabbi Kahn accomplishes this without short-changing the reader. The brief interpretations are succinct and complete, standing firmly alone without the need for additional study. A Taste of Eden is an attractive presentation of an old method dressed in contemporary language and style.

Jewish Action

Rabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and runs Torahmusings.com. He is a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Board.

90 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 91

The Six Steps of Bitachon: A Practical Guide to Divine Providence

By Chaim Goldberger Mosaica Press Jerusalem, 2016 • 80 pages

The precise terms belief and faith, emunah and bitachon, can be distinguished in a variety of ways. Some consider emunah an acceptance of abstract ideas and bitachon an integration of those beliefs into your life.

In that sense, Rabbi Chaim Goldberger’s The Six Steps of Bitachon is the best—most practical—book ever published on the subject. Through careful textual study and a lengthy process of trial and error, Rabbi Goldberger has developed a detailed method of utilizing bitachon in practical settings.

This book is not a marketing gimmick. It is very practical and eminently usable by anyone, scholar or layperson, righteous or—believe it or not—wicked.

Without giving too much away, I can reveal that the method involves calculating what you need, the maximum effort possible for acquiring it and then your own prescription for achieving it. Along the way, you need to consult with a like-minded friend to ensure you remain within realistic boundaries. Rabbi Goldberger assures us that if you follow the six steps, God will provide what you need—not necessarily what you want, but what you need.

At first I was skeptical but then I realized that overall, this method is a wonderful way to integrate bitachon into your life. Rabbi Goldberger adopts halachic terminology for his approach, referring to a lack of bitachon as a violation of the prohibition against idolatry and certain decisions in the six steps as a form of pesak, halachic ruling. This overreaching is fine in a homiletic sense, as long as it is not taken literally.

Additionally, the Torah (Devarim 6:16) forbids testing God. As Ramban (ad loc.) and others explain, God does not want to perform miracles for everyone at every time. The six steps of bitachon seem to come perilously close to testing God. However, the six steps are a wonderful way to bring God into our daily needs. The Rema writes in the very first paragraph of the Shulchan Aruch that a great principle of Judaism is found in the verse, “I have set God before me constantly” (Tehillim 16:8). When we think about God, we magnify His role in our lives, even in the mundane aspects.

While a master of bitachon may not need these six steps, the rest of us can use help in remembering God and truly trusting in Him. This alone is a worthy outcome. Rabbeinu Yonah (Mishlei 3:6) says that the reward for bitachon is much greater than whatever physical need we are pursuing.

Rabbeinu Bachya Ben Asher (Kad HaKemach [Jerusalem, 1970], p. 73) adds that even if God does not fulfill our specific need, we still have this reward for our bitachon. Therefore, whether or not these six steps work in satisfying our needs, they accomplish something even greater by bringing bitachon into our lives.

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Learning to Grow: A Spiritual Guide to Your Year in Israel

By Gamliel Shmalo Kodesh Press New York, 2016 • 366 pages

Rabbi Gamliel Shmalo’s Learning To Grow is billed as “a spiritual guide to your year in Israel” but do not be fooled.

This book is a guide to a meaningful life regardless of your circumstances. The structure of the book revolves around the progression of the year in Israel, from the initial flight to the return home.

This framework, in addition to the occasional expert tip on living in the country, makes the book uniquely valuable to someone attending a gap year Israel program. However, the vast majority of the book consists of important guidance to anyone looking to grow.

Rabbi Shmalo, who teaches Jewish philosophy and law at Yeshiva University and serves as educational director of Meor NYU, offers a light mussar touch to the year in Israel. For most students, the year after high school is one of challenge and maturation. Reaching an age of adulthood, living in a new environment, studying with a newfound independence, receiving influence from unique personalities—everything about the year speaks growth. Students need to evolve responsibly, focusing on the most important aspects and proceeding steadily. Lasting change comes slowly and thoughtfully, with a careful plan. Focusing on oneself can lead to narcissistic religious change, which is both wrong and unstable. True religious growth requires concern for others.

However, we all need to improve our behavior, not just the yeshivah student in Israel. We all can improve our prayer, better control our appetites, reflect on our daily successes and failures. Every Jew needs to focus on the themes Rabbi Shmalo addresses: listening to wise authority figures while resisting controlling personalities; developing oneself both emotionally and intellectually and making a Kiddush Hashem. Rabbi Shmalo teaches every adult how to live a more purposeful and committed Jewish life without taking drastic measures. If we improve our various religious devotions even a little, we transform our lives. Little steps add up to cover a lot of ground. g

Books Seminary Savvy: Every Girl’s Guide to a Successful, Safe, and Satisfying Experience—in Seminary & Beyond

By Debbie Fox with Michal Eisikowitz Menucha Publishers New York, 2015 • 172 pages Reviewed by Elisheva Kaminetsky

W

hen you ask most high school seniors applying to seminaries in Israel what their goals are for their gap year, they usually respond with variations on some common themes: to study more Torah, to improve their textual skills, to live in the land of Israel, to meet new people and to have new experiences.

The Israel seminary experience is certainly an opportunity for yeshivah high school graduates to do all of the above.

It is also an opportunity for young women to learn about themselves.

With every opportunity comes responsibility, and responsibility often comes with obstacles. Some of the challenges students face during their year in Israel, such as communicating with family overseas and getting American products, have become easier over time. While, to its credit, our community has developed greater awareness about certain more sensitive challenges facing the seminary student, it still has a ways to go in dealing properly with them. In their book Seminary Savvy: Every Girl’s Guide to a Successful, Safe, and Satisfying Experience—in Seminary & Beyond, Debbie Fox, LCSW, and Michal Eisikowitz detail effective ways Rebbetzin Elisheva Kaminetsky is the director of religious guidance at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls in Hewlett, New York.

94 I JEWISH ACTION Winter 5777/2016

to responsibly navigate difficult and delicate situations during one’s year in Israel.

Seminary Savvy is an easy read about difficult topics. Each chapter is dedicated to empowering young women to confront challenging situations that may arise during their first long-term experience living away from home. Young women living and learning together over the course of a year or more can find themselves in complex social and emotional situations.

While the year away from home affords the opportunity for personal independence, it can be ripe for social codependence as well as for intense feelings of competition between girls. These dynamics likely existed previously in school, in camp or both, but manifest more acutely when girls are together 24/7 for an extended period of time. They can also be exacerbated by the tension of being far from family. The book draws attention to these issues and provides clear examples of healthy and unhealthy relationships.

In a non-alarming but direct fashion, the book dedicates chapters to inappropriate relationships with adults, from taxi drivers to Shabbat hosts to mentors whom students turn to for advice. The authors point out that visiting families, participating in chesed opportunities, having chavayot and establishing relationships with Torah mentors are some of the most impactful aspects of the year in Israel experience. All parties involved, however, must approach these interactions with appropriate boundaries. Furthermore, students during this year away from home may be feeling particularly vulnerable and needy.

The authors depict appropriate and inappropriate scenarios, and encourage young women to get the most of their experiences without being compromised.

A running theme in the book is the “fifth volume of the Shulchan Aruch: common sense;” the authors implore young women to listen to their inner voice, a vital message for them to hear at this crucial time in their lives. It stresses that if something feels wrong and uncomfortable, “never ignore that inner voice.”

At the same time, Fox and Eisikowitz emphasize that going to Israel with a list of trusted adults whom one can turn to with questions may be among the most important things on one’s packing list. How one chooses

a trusted adult and what happens if he or she disappoints one are also discussed.

Seminary Savvy is written for students, but parents are encouraged to read it as well; reading it together with one’s daughter, in fact, provides a wonderful opportunity to discuss sensitive matters. At the end of each chapter there is a “Make It Real” dilemma.

The scenarios are realistic and often do not have obvious resolutions.

If young women are aware of some of the potential dangers before they get to Israel, they are more likely to recognize the red flags. But might it be too little too late? Perhaps parents should consider conveying these important messages of empowerment, smart choices and proper boundaries to their daughters at an earlier age so that it becomes second nature to them way before their year in Israel.

One minor criticism of the book is that it does not address some of the negative effects social media can have on the seminary experience. This too is an area where students require a certain level of savviness.

The year in Israel can provide young people with a chance to experience greater independence; but this process can be curtailed if students are constantly in touch with their parents and include them in making every minor decision. Our children need to know that their parents are available and are trusted confidants, but for too many, the cord is not the least bit frayed, let alone cut, as they enter into adulthood.

Moreover, with the rise of social media, time for personal reflection and privacy have become increasingly scarce, all of which takes a toll on opportunities for personal growth and development. A chapter on tools to avoid the pitfalls of social media would have been beneficial to both parents and students.

Fox writes, “Go b’shalom and return b’shalom.” Seminary Savvy allows one to do just that, serving as an invaluable resource for those heading to Israel for the year. The book provides excellent advice to young women on how to steer clear of unsavory people and unhealthy relationships, and how to find peace within themselves, allowing them to take full advantage of the wonderful opportunity to learn Torat Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael. g

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Winter 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 95

Lasting Impressions

By Steve Lipman

Making Latkes in

F

or a kosher-observant Jew, traveling is often an adventure. Not just the usual problem of missed flights, disappearing luggage and exotic diseases.

There’s also the challenge of food—what kosher items will be available in scattered locales? What variety will be offered? How dependable will the hechshers be? What has to be schlepped in a suitcase?

Even in the United States, where capitalism has bred an infinite number of certifying organizations, kashrut can be a challenge outside of the largest metropolitan areas that lack a critical mass of traditional Jews.

So I was delighted when I discovered, while working in Washington, DC many years ago, that the nation’s capital had a new kosher restaurant, which meant some fresh meals, instead of simple sandwiches or TV dinners.

I took the Metro one evening after work to a block in the middle of the city. The staff was friendly and efficient, the food Sephardic and delicious. The menu offered fare from the world of pita and hummus; people interested in pastrami and rye need not apply.

I introduced myself to the owners, a middle-aged couple who were born in Yemen, and to their twenty-ish-year-old cook who sported a large, colorful kippah and long swinging peyot. We chatted in Hebrew; I returned occasionally, when my limited budget allowed.

A few weeks before Chanukah I inquired, rhetorically, if they’d be offering latkes during the upcoming holiday.

The husband shrugged. “What are latkes?”

I thought he was kidding.

Who doesn’t know from latkes?

Jews from Yemen don’t, I discovered.

The owners had grown up in, and emigrated from, the Arab country on the Saudi Peninsula that boasted one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities—a Jewish community, diminishing in recent decades, which had faithfully maintained Jewish tradition. Originally, they had settled in Israel, surrounded by fellow olim from Arab lands who also followed their own traditions.

Latkes weren’t one of their traditions.

The fried potato pancakes, which commemorate the Chanukah miracle, are strictly Ashkenazi fare. In Sephardi circles, as in Israel today, donuts, sufganiyot, are more common.

In the old days, Jewish children in Yemen would go chanting from house to house on Chanukah, tin can in hand, to collect wicks for the menorah. If they received wick ends, along with fruit and candies and coins, they shouted, in Hebrew, “Sleep

well.” If they left empty-handed, they yelled, “You miser, may your wicks be as dry as your bones.”

Yemenite children had the tradition of dressing in blue, for the color of the heavens, on Chanukah. They had the tradition of receiving coins on each of eight days with which to make a sugar-flavored mock Chanukah wine, rendered red by food coloring. They had the tradition of simple Chanukah fireworks.

They had the tradition of eating a donut-like pastry.

But no latkes.

What is Chanukah without latkes? I wouldn’t have a latke-less Chanukah. If the Yemenite owners didn’t know about latkes, I would teach them—if they were interested.

I offered to teach them. They accepted. I called my mother, who makes the world’s greatest latkes. She sent her favorite recipe.

The restaurant’s customers would need their latke requirements fulfilled in December. I certainly would.

I gave the owners the recipe and a shopping list.

They bought the potatoes, the eggs, the oil—all the ingredients on Mom’s list.

One late afternoon before the first night of Chanukah, I went back to my apartment in DC, changed into jeans, and took the Metro downtown to the restaurant. For one night, a journalist would become a short-order cook.

The owners were glad to see me. They had already advertised the availability of latkes to an eager public.

I put on an apron, reviewed the recipes and went to work. I showed the owners how to do what I had done my whole life.

We cut piles of onions and potatoes (work I did not find grating).

We mixed in the eggs and matzah meal. We fired up the grill.

We made little potato patties and flipped them till they were sizzled brown.

The owners caught on. By the end of the night, they were flipping and flying latkes like pros.

We lit a menorah in the restaurant before sitting down to sample our work.

Which was delicious.

I went back the other nights of the holiday, and left with a bag full of potato pancakes.

The owners left Washington soon after I did, and I lost touch with them. I don’t remember their names or the name of the long-gone restaurant.

If they’re still in the restaurant business, I hope they still remember how to make potato latkes.

But I have a wonderful memory of Chanukah in DC. For eight days, I had all the free latkes I could eat. g

Steve Lipman is a staff writer at the Jewish Week in New York and a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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DC