The tens of millions of dollars in nasty TV commercials haven’t mentioned Israel or antisemitism, but to many voters in Nassau County’s 4th Congressional District those are the issues that will determine how they vote.
The contest between one-term incumbent Republican Anthony D’Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen, the former Town of Hempstead Supervisor, is considered a toss-up, which is why both parties have committed massive resources to each race.
D’Esposito defeated Gillen two years ago, 51.8 to 48.2 percent. In 2020, Joe Biden carried the district, 55.6 to 43.4 percent, as incumbent Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice defeated Republican Douglas Truman by a similar margin.
Both Gillen and D’Esposito told The Jewish Star they are strongly committed to Israel as well as to the fight against antisemitism in the United States. But during separate interviews in the newspaper’s offices in Garden City last week, they voiced the extent of their resolve in different ways.
This is how Gillen responded when asked if she would give “a blank check to Israel to continue its fight in Gaza, in Lebanon, and ultimately in Iran itself”:
Laura Gillen
“This is the time to stand strong in the face of Iranian aggression. In terms of what kind of a check that would look like, obviously it would be something that would have to be voted on in Congress.”
Asked if she agrees with President Biden’s expressed opposition to an Israeli strike on the Iranian nuclear reactor or its oil port, she suggested that she didn’t know enough to say.
“I am not an expert on military actions, neither is my opponent, and I think you have to have full briefings on what the strategic and the geopolitical impacts of certain attacks would be,” she said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for someone who doesn’t have access to that information to commit to voting for one action or the other.”
D’Esposito said his position is that the US “needs to continue to provide every resource necessary to Israel to eradicate Hamas and any terrorist organization or terrorist proxy of Iran.”
Israel’s next step “should be to take out Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” he said.
Both candidates blamed Hamas for the war and the lives lost since Oct. 7.
Referring to the death toll in Gaza, Gillen said, “We don’t want to see innocent people die. HowSee Rivals in toss-up district on page 18
Jewish Star columnist
We were stationed in Lebanon, and the thought of having no set of arbah minim was really depressing. Somehow, I managed to rearrange the officers’ duty-roster, leaving me an 18-hour window, and convinced my CO that I could make it to Jerusalem and back in time to cover the next patrol.
All told, I ended up in Jerusalem for about three hours, which was enough to pick up a beautiful compact set of arbah minim, as well as some pizza for lunch, and ended up spending a good 15
hours in travel. The challenge of keeping my lulav undamaged and kosher while hitchhiking in a variety of small cars was not simple, but I made it back to base with my arbah minim intact.
All of which gave me a different level of appreciation for the mitzvah that particular year. So on the morning of Sukkot, just back from patrol, I found myself alone in what passed for the synagogue in our base (half a caravan with a 105mm. shell-crate as an ark (with no Torah in it), a couple of benches, and a few dusty prayer books).
It was too hot to pray inside, so I stepped outside and, facing south towards Jerusalem, continued my prayers. There is a point in the Hallel which really hit me: “Ma’ Ashiv La’Hashem? (What have I to give back to G-d?)”
There are moments in life when you appreciate the gifts you have been given. In the middle of a war zone, with men getting killed or injured every day, and the number of close calls and near misses too many to count,
From Heart of Jerusalem
RABBI BINNY
FREEDMAN
Israeli honey now made of ‘blood, sweat and tears’
By Canaan Lidor, JNS
Israeli honey may look like any other, but this year it’s made of “blood, sweat and tears,” according to Yair Schwartz of the Jewish state’s largest honey-making business, in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai near the Gaza border.
Affected disproportionately by the fighting since Oct. 7, beekeepers and honey producers have worked intensively, sometimes risking their lives, to preserve their already vulnerable industry.
“You can make and mix honey anywhere, but this is our place and it was clear to us that we needed to return,” said Oriana Tabul, manager of Yad Mordechai’s honey factory, which has 40 employees and whose establishment in 1936 predated that of Israel by 12 years.
Honey-making has symbolic significance in Israel, where it is one of just a few important products that are produced almost entirely locally. Honey is also emblematic of the beauty and plenty of the Land of Israel, and in Torah, G-d and others describe it as “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
“Returning to make Israeli produce is part of our revival, part of the rehabilitation,” said Ido Dvir, another honey maker from Yad Mordechai.
Stocks needed to be replenished ahead of Rosh Hashana. Israelis consume about 40% of their annual honey intake in the month of Tishrei, according to the Israel’s Honey Council.
Yad Mordechai’s honey makers had other practical reasons for reopening the factory as soon as possible: Farmers in the heavily agricultural Tekuma Region, near Gaza, depend on beehives for crop pollination.
“We’re honey producers but honey is almost a byproduct of what we do,” said Schwarz, referencing pollination.
Avocado groves with beehives produce twice and sometimes three times more fruit than without hives, he noted.
“So we’re the cornerstone for the rehabilita-
tion of the whole region,” where much of Israel’s tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, leafy greens and bananas are grown, he said.
On Oct. 7, Yad Mordechai, which is less than two miles from Gaza, was among the 20 towns and locales that Hamas terrorists attacked after crossing the border.
The local security team kept the terrorists who targeted Yad Mordechai out, preventing the sort of mass murder and atrocities committed elsewhere near the border, where Hamas men murdered
some 1,200 people and abducted another 251.
No one from the kibbutz was hurt, but the apiary and honey factory shut down for the first time in decades amid heavy rocket fire. They remained closed for about a month.
Israeli tanks, often maneuvering at night, ran over some of Yad Mordechai’s 4,000-odd hives. Foreign workers fled Israel in the weeks following the massacre, leaving honey makers understaffed. Often, hives were in areas that the IDF declared off limits for civilians due to
rocket and sniper fire from Gaza.
A few honey keepers “risked their lives and went out to their hives in such territories anyway,” said Schwartz. “They are so attached to the bees that they risked their lives to make sure the colonies didn’t die.”
Kibbutz Yad Mordechai was evacuated once before in 1948, after its fighters and Palmach reinforcements fended off for days a vastly superior Egyptian army force. It was reconquered and resettled months after the evacuation, and it became a national symbol for endurance and revival. After its second evacuation last year, it was among the first border-adjacent locales to return en masse.
“We beekeepers thought we had it tough before Oct. 7. Then we found out how tough tough can get,” said Boaz Kanot in Moshav Avigdor, about 15 miles northeast of Yad Mordechai.
As the fighting spread from the Gaza area to Israel’s north, Hezbollah’s rocket fire from Lebanon has also complicated honey production in the Galilee, Kanot said.
“It was an added difficulty on top of preexisting ones,” he said.
He was referencing the challenges and setbacks faced by beekeepers in Israel and all over the world due to declining bee populations, new diseases and the negative effects of urbanization on apiculture. In addition to that, there’s also the issue of fake honey, often produced in China and marketed falsely as made in the European Union, Kanot said.
Neither those longstanding issues nor the war-related complications will deal a death blow to Israel’s honey-making industry, said Kanot.
“We are here to stay, we are driven by a sense of mission and aided by the best technology, much of it developed here in Israel,” he said. The setbacks, he added, “only mean more hard work. But that’s something none of us has ever shied away from, or we wouldn’t be in this business in the first place.”
A beekeeper near her beehives in Yad Mordechai in southern Israel in 2015. Isaac Harari, Flash 90
Kamala Harris Donald Trump Messages of support from presidential hopefuls
By Andrew Bernard, JNS
Vice President Kamala Harris courted Jewish voters on Friday in a campaign call ahead of Yom Kippur.
Speaking on a Jewish Voters for Harris-Walz livestream, Harris touted her record of support for Israel and accused her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, of trafficking in anti-Jewish tropes.
“As president, it is my pledge that I will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists, and I will always support Israel’s right to defend itself,” she said on the call. “My commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering.”
“As we have seen a rise in antisemitism in our own country, Trump has espoused dangerous and hateful antisemitic tropes creating fear and division,” she added. “He praised some of the neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville as ‘very fine people.’ He reportedly said Hitler did some ‘good things’.”
Harris said that she preferred a diplomatic solution to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but added that “all options are on the table,” an allusion to the potential use of military force.
The Biden administration continues to pursue a ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas to end the war in Gaza, Harris added.
“It is time to bring the conflict to an end, and I am working to ensure it ends, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom and self-determination,” she said.
“I will never stop fighting for the release of all the hostages, including, of course, the seven American citizens, living and deceased, who are still held,” Harris said.
Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish,
said on the call that as president, Harris would be a supporter of the US Jewish community.
Jewish voters could play a deciding factor in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, where they make up 3.3% and 1.2% of the population, respectively, per the 2023 American Jewish Year Book.
Polls show inconsistent results about whether Jews, who traditionally vote overwhelmingly Democratic, are shifting towards Trump and the Republican Party.
In a poll that the Jewish Democratic Council of America released Wednesday of key battleground states, 71% of Jewish voters said that they would support Harris and just 26% said they would support Trump. Those figures would be largely consistent with election results in recent decades.
By Miri Weissman, Israel Hayom
Former President Donald Trump, speaking at an event commemorating the first anniversary of the Hamas onslaught on Israel, declared that the upcoming US presidential election will be “the most important day in the history of Israel.”
He spoke at his golf club near Miami, where he addressed a crowd of supportive Jewish leaders. Trump cast an electoral victory by his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, as an existential threat to Israel.
“If you want to know the truth, I believe that. I think you believe that, too,” Trump said to applause. “If we don’t win this election there is a tremendous consequence for everything.”
Trump blamed the Biden administration for the atrocities that occurred a year ago, saying, “The Oct. 7 attack would never have happened if I was president. The past two years have proven that weakness only begets violence and war.”
Trump described Oct. 7 as “one of the darkest hours in all of human history,” adding, “AntiJewish hatred has returned even here in America” and is “within the ranks of the Democrat (sic) Party in particular.”
The former president made a series of promises to the room, which included Republican lawmakers and prominent Jewish supporters such as billionaire backer Miriam Adelson.
“I will not allow the Jewish state to be threatened with destruction. I will not allow another Holocaust of the Jewish people,” Trump declared.
Both Trump and Harris broke from the campaign trail to attend solemn events marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, in which Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people and sparked a bloody conflict in the region.
spoke at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, calling the massacre “pure evil”
and urging that “the world must never forget” what happened.
She and second gentleman Doug Emhoff planted a ceremonial pomegranate tree “to remind future vice presidents” not to “abandon the goal of peace, dignity and security for all.”
Harris also mentioned Palestinians, calling for “reliev[ing] the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year.”
Earlier in the day, Trump visited the gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last Lubavitcher rebbe, in Springfield Gardens, Queens. Accompanied by the parents of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, he wore a yarmulke as he placed a note praying for the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with then-Senator Kamala Harris at the PM’s office in Jerusalem on Nov. 20, 2017. Amos Ben Gershom, GPO
Former President Donald Trump attends an Oct. 7 remembrance event at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Doral, Fla. Joe Raedle, Getty Images
Disabled adults volunteer during Birthright trip
Eight days in Israel leading the first-ever Ramah Tikvah Birthright Israel Onward disabilities service trip provided insight into how a group of adults ages 21 to 41 — all with intellectual and developmental disabilities (most on the autism spectrum) — are capable of connecting deeply with the Jewish homeland and its people, and of making important contributions through their volunteer efforts.
The delegation, current participants or alumni of Ramah Tikvah disability inclusion programs, have spent many summers at Ramah camps, where they forged ties with Israelis from their mishlachot (Israeli delegations), learned Israeli songs and dances, and grew to appreciate the importance of the Jewish state in their lives.
After Oct. 7, participants in Ramah Tikvah programs saw community and family members — and friends from their respective camp communities — travel to Israel on service trips. Could they help as well?
Taglit Birthright Israel offers a dozen “classic” trips with necessary supports and accommodations for participants with mobility challenges, as well as an American Sign Language program, a trip for those in 12-step recovery programs and more.
When I pitched the idea of a volunteer trip for people with disabilities, Onward Israel CEO Ilan Wagner immediately gave the green light. This group would need accommodations not usually provided to typical Birthright Israel Onward participants.
Last month, even as the war in the Gaza Strip and the hostage situation continued and
with an escalation looming with Hezbollah in the north, 12 participants and four staff members arrived at a hotel in Tel Aviv, ate dinner, got some rest and hit the ground running the next day.
We began with morning services at the Nahum Gutman Mosaic Fountain in Tel Aviv, reciting the Shehecheyanu prayer. Then we headed out — Bingo cards in hand — in search of various famous Tel Aviv landmarks on the Independence Trail.
Our guide, Caroline, who was born paralyzed, is the No. 6 wheelchair table-tennis player in the world and shared what sports means to her. We watched Israel’s national wheelchair basketball team engage in a tough practice, and after speaking with team members, got to try out their specially designed chairs.
Then it was off to a small Chabad shul in Tel Aviv to do our part for the Tzitzit for Tzahal project, an initiative to prepare 200,000 pairs of ritual army-green fringes for soldiers.
The next day saw us at Pitchon Lev: Break-
ing the Cycle of Poverty in Rishon Letzion, where we assembled 180 large boxes and filled each with diapers and packs of wipes, later setting off for a special tour of the ANU Museum of the Jewish People on the campus of Tel Aviv University.
On Friday, we travelled to Jerusalem, shopping on Ben-Yehuda Street, riding EZRaider electric motorized vehicles, and visiting the Old City and the Kotel before heading back to Tel Aviv in time for prayers, Shabbat dinner and an Oneg Shabbat.
Saturday began with morning prayers at the beach, followed by swimming in the Mediterranean, a walk, lunch and visits by Israeli friends and family members. We ended with a beautiful Havdalah service that reminded participants of the many similar ones at their respective camps.
On Sunday, we set off for the first of two days of olive picking at Harvest Helpers Leket Israel in Rishon Letzion. We learned that our olives would be made into olive oil for Israelis in need. Our participants once again felt a
DESK of
connection between their volunteer work and people receiving direct benefits.
Our afternoon visit to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv was quite emotional. We walked through a makeshift tunnel, looked at the empty Shabbat table and chairs (now under a sukkah) in tribute to the hostages, viewed art installations and purchased “Bring Them Home Now” shirts, dog tags and ribbons.
During breakfast on Monday, the staff learned that beause the situation in the north was heating up, we were being instructed to leave the hotel in under an hour and relocate to Jerusalem after our morning of olive-picking. Participants remained calm, adjusting to an abrupt change of plans (not usually easy for people with autism) and quickly packing up.
Our scheduled culinary tour in Tel Aviv turned into a similar tour in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda open-air market, a walk through the adjoining Nachlaot neighborhood and a stop for some ice-cream.
Our last full day in Israel began at Pantry Packers, where we worked in four-person teams to pack peas and other dried goods for Israel’s needy. After putting on aprons and hairnets, two team members placed separate labels on bags, one operated the machine that dispensed the grains into bags, and one used the sealing machine.
Our tour guide, Rotem, encouraged the group to go home and serve as ambassadors, sharing their experiences. The participants were unified in asking one question: “When can we come back and do this again?”
My hope is that the Jewish community will continue to create meaningful opportunities for adults who have both disabilities and amazing strengths, so as to be fully included and feel a sense of belonging.
Howard Blas is director of the National Ramah Tikvah Network. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
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Volunteers outside a warehouse on a disability inclusion trip sponsored by Birthright Israel. Howard Blas
Ari Brown is Fighting Hate & Keeping Us Safe!
“Ari” Brown is ghting hate and keeping our communities safe. In fact, he has sponsored legislation aimed at stopping hate and prosecuting terrorists and other criminals.
Sponsoring legislation that defunds colleges that allow anti-Semitic and other terrorist demonstrators to run rampant, harassing and terrorizing students.
Working to expand the number of o enses that can be prosecuted as hate crimes.
Supporting legislation to enhance police resources in order to keep our neighborhoods safer.
Fighting to x the broken “cashless bail” laws.
Vote by Absentee Ballot
Dutch eye dialog after cops deny aid to Jews
By Canaan Lidor, JNS
Following reports about Dutch police officers refusing to protect Jewish community events for ideological reasons, the force’s top officer last week said Dutch police will hold “an internal conversation on how to deal with such dilemmas.”
Janny Knol’s statement, which contained no explicit rebuke to the officers in question, followed a controversy that began with a report on Sept. 29 in the NIW Dutch-Jewish weekly newspaper.
Michel Theeboom, a leader of the Jewish Police Network, an association of Dutch-Jewish police officers, told NIW that “Some colleagues don’t want to protect Jewish locations or events. They cite ‘moral dilemmas’ and I’m seeing a tendency to give in [to that], which would be the beginning of the end. I’m really worried about that.”
Two Dutch lawmakers, Ulysse Ellian and Ingrid Michon of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, on Oct. 1 sent a critical query to Justice and Security Minister David van Weel, who is also a member of the party, asking him what actions her office had taken to “make sure that the police are for everyone, including Dutch Jews.”
In her statement, police commissioner Knol wrote that “Police officers naturally have their own opinions and emotions. That’s fine. But if people require our help or protection, they can count on us. Always. We are for everyone. That’s the basis of police work.”
She did not mention any intention to discipline officers who opt out or seek to opt out of protecting Jews.
The report about the opting out of police officers from protecting Jewish events and institutions was widely covered in national-circulation media and shocked many of the country’s Jews, already reeling from a near tripling of recorded antisemitic incidents in 2023 over 2022.
Many Jews in the Netherlands feel that police are too lax in enforcing laws designed to protect Jewish citizens, among others.
Some Dutch Jews have bitter memories of the mass collaboration of Dutch police with the Nazis during the Holocaust, when 75% of the local Jewish population was murdered. It was the highest death rate of any country in Nazi-occupied Western Europe.
An executive at CBS, in an email in August, instructed employees to “not refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel,”The Free Press reported on Thursday.
Mark Memmott, senior director of standards and practices at CBS, acknowledged that the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but added this did not mean that CBS should accept this.
“Yes, the US embassy is there and the Trump administration recognized it as being Israel’s capital. But its status is disputed. The status of Je-
rusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its ‘eternal and undivided’ capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war — as the capital of a future state,” Memmott wrote.
The revelation follows a controversy at CBS involving a Sept. 30 interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates about new book, which features onesided anti-Israel talking points. (See Jonathan Tobin column on page 22.)
Torres: Harvard ‘has no one to blame but itself’ CBS News exec takes Jerusalem out of Israel
Harvard is “confronting a reputational crisis of its own making,” Rep. Ritchie Torres said on Saturday, responding to the disappointment of the university’s President Alan Garber with its fundraising efforts.
“More disappointing than Harvard’s fundraising is its failure to combat campus antisemitism. Therein lies the true disappointment!” tweeted Torres, the Progressive Democrat whose district includes Riverdale, adding that the university “has no one to blame but itself.”
Speaking ahead of the publication of Harvard’s 2024 financial report late last week, Garber told The Harvard Crimson that “there are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future. I can’t get more specific than that right now.”
Garber was appointed to lead the university until at least 2027, after filling in as the interim president following Claudine Gay’s resignation in January. Gay presided over the Ivy League institution during seething campus tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists.
She submitted her resignation following remarks on antisemitism that caused public outrage. Testifying to the House Committee on Education on Dec. 5, Gay said that whether calls to commit genocide against Jews violated Harvard conduct was “context dependent.”
On-campus tensions intensified with an antiIsrael encampment that lasted for 20 days in April and May.
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Three days after the college’s fall semester began, Harvard students again rallied for a proPalestinian protest on Sept. 6. The protest was led by a group named Harvard Out of Palestine, which subsequently held a meeting with Garber and other officials, the Crimson reported.
Manhattan Torah dedication called NY’s
By Vita Fellig, JNS
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Chabad Young Professionals Upper East Side staged what it said was the city’s largest-ever Torah dedication.
The Torah was commissioned to promote “resilience” and “unity,” and an estimated 5,000 people attended the dedication, organizer Yair Klyman told JNS.
“Oct. 7 was a life-changing moment for the Jewish community,” he told JNS. “We wanted to dedicate a Torah that could be passed on from generation to generation, so we never forget all those we lost on that day.”
He added that every victim of the attack, Jew and non-Jew, is inscribed on the inside of the Torah mantle. “Their legacy will forever continue through its presence,” he said.
Torah mantles often bear the names of
donors, who funded the costly sacred text, but this Torah cover bears the names of the victims of Oct. 7, symbolizing the legacies of those murdered and held hostage, Klyman said.
Rabbi Yosef Wilhelm, co-director of Chabad Young Professionals Upper East Side, told JNS that dedicating a Torah is the most “fitting” method to commemorate Oct. 7 victims, because the long-standing Jewish practice is “spiritually significant.”
“We believe that, because every Jew is connected to a letter in the Torah,” he said.
“When you write a Torah scroll in someone’s honor, you elevate their soul.”
The event allowed the community to move forward from the tragedy with purpose, according to Wilhelm.
“Dedicating a Torah scroll requires celebration, and although we mourn those
times, we still have hope,” he said.
Kehilath Jeshurun, Jewish National Fund-USA, the Israeli-American Council and Olami were among those who helped organize the event.
Shira Bratt, of Brooklyn, said that she attended the event to “connect” with the New York Jewish community and support the return of the hostages.
we lost, we gather tonight to celebrate the strength of the Jewish people,” he told JNS. “We have to dance and celebrate specifically for those who no longer can.”
Jonathan Sarna, university professor and professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, and director of its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, observed that Torah dedications are not usually attended by other than congregation members.
Whether this dedication was the largest in New York history is “trivial” compared to the deeper message about Jewish belonging, according to Sarna.
“This event was about a community making a statement about Jewish presence in New York in the face of rising antisemitism,” he said.
“People who were not deeply connected to the congregation attended in order to visibly display their Jewish identity and tell the wider public they are not going anywhere.”
Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox congregation on the Upper East Side, told the crowd that it was important for the Manhattan Jewish community to gather in celebration despite the “mournful” nature of the anniversary.
“Tonight with broken hearts, we are going to celebrate this Torah dedication in order to show the world that even in the darkest
“I felt it was important to mark this anniversary together with my community, because we are beginning a new chapter,” she said.
“We have to simultaneously commemorate and honor those who were killed during the atrocities of Oct. 7, while still remembering to fight for the hostages, who can still return home.”
Yoni Skariszewski, whose father was murdered in the Oct. 7 attack and who helped rescue 130 people from the Nova party, told the audience that he was so honored to be part of the Torah dedication that he sought special permission to leave his reserve duty in Israel to fly to New York.
“There was nothing I could do to save my father’s life,” he lamented. “But celebrating this Torah dedication tonight is proof that though one year ago the Jewish people were at their lowest point since the Holocaust, we are now stronger than ever.”
Ronen Neutra, whose son Omer, a dual American-Israeli citizen, is a hostage in Gaza, told attendees that it was a “special moment” for his family to celebrate the dedication of a Torah written in honor of his son. The honor inspires him and his family to continue to advocate for Omer’s release, he said.
“The community gathered here really picks us up,” he said. “We know you care, and we know you fight with us.”
“The only way to bring back the resilience of the people in Israel is to bring back our hostages,” he added.
An estimated 5,000 people gathered on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Oct. 7 to celebrate a new Torah scroll dedicated in honor of the victims of Hamas’s terror attack last year. Vita Fellig
“Rep. Tom Suozzi has been a champion of the U.S.-Israel relationship.” – 2024 AIPAC Endorsement
Iran must be stopped now. Now is the time to degrade Iran’s nefarious network of terror once and for all. Israel’s willingness to respond to Iran’s attack must be embraced and supported by the United States and all freedom-loving countries.
Suozzi’s support for Israel has been admirably strong and consistent, evidence of a deep personal commitment to the Jewish State... it is extremely important to bolster the pro-Israel, centrist majority among House Democrats. Having Tom Suozzi on Israel’s side in the halls of Congress will help offset the increasing influence of extreme left-wing progressives who are hostile to Israel and its interests. At the same time, we know that he will support all efforts to fight the growing antisemitism in this country.
01/24/2024
In October 2022, Tamar Lemoine of Valley Stream felt a lump in her right breast and was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. She had previously put o a biopsy after a mammogram in 2021 detected a suspicious mass, so she knew that this time she would need to act fast.
Tamar was referred to Dr. Christine Hodyl, Director of Breast Health Services at Mount Sinai South Nassau, who created a comprehensive treatment plan that included chemotherapy and breast-conserving lumpectomy surgery along with the removal of several lymph nodes. Her treatment ended with a month of radiation therapy sessions. Now cancer-free, Tamar urges women to get their annual mammograms.
Mount Sinai South Nassau’s cancer program is accredited by the Commission on Cancer and the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, o ering patients a multidisciplinary approach to fight cancer without having to leave Long Island.
WIne AnD DIne
Culinary shortcuts for our sukkah feasts
eThel G. hofMAn
Sukkot is glorious. It’s akin to a Jewish Thanksgiving holiday where family and friends gather in booths decorated with fall fruits, gourds and paper chains (add yellow ribbons and Israeli flags this year).
There’s the excitement of eating festive meals under a leafy roof that lets the stars and moon shine in during a time of year when the skies are resplendent and the air crisp and clear. Some decide even to sleep in their sukkahs. The celebration begins begins this Wednesday evening, Oct. 16.
Besides eating and sleeping, the sukkah has historical roots. The structures that Jews build in backyards and balconies are a reminder of the Israelites 40-year trek through the desert to reach the Promised Land, living in hastily built, temporary huts during their years of wandering.
Feasting in the sukkah is the keynote during the seven days of the holiday. And there is no better culinary season or weather to do this (many of the summer bugs and allergy-causing weeds are gone). At this time of year, fresh fruits like apples and pears, and veggies such as pumpkin and squash, are piled high in markets, offering a huge variety of locally grown items at competitive prices.
At Sukkot time, foods served represent the richness of fall produce; dishes are sweetened with honey or fruit to continue the wish expressed during Rosh Hashana — a good and sweet year, and a peaceful time ahead.
After cooking elaborate, traditional meals for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (pre- and postfasting), convenience is now the top priority. For seven days, dishes are carried from the kitchen to the sukkah or potluck meals are brought to share with neighbors. Packaged broths and soups, pre-cut fruits and veggies, and bottled dressings are everyday market items. For the clever cook, they’re also a timesaver. Prepare items like chicken dishes and casseroles in foil pans, which are easy to transport, serve and discard.
The following recipes use ingredients where much of the grueling labor has been done for you. However, if you have the desire and lots of help, do it the old-fashioned way: peel, core, chop and dice.
But first, check out store shelves, and the freezer and refrigerator aisles in your supermarket. It’s all there to make cooking easier.
That extra time can be spent with family and friends, or ushpizin — traditional “guests” or “visitors” that gather under the open sky. And this year, many will add photos of the estimated 100 hostages still be held by Hamas in Gaza as a reminder that they, too, should share in the joy of Judaism.
If time permits, prepare and cook artichokes.
They’re a powerhouse of nutrients and antioxidants, rich in fiber and vitamins C and K.
Artichokes are the flower buds of a large thistle prickly family plant. Globe artichokes are available year-round.
To prepare, slice off the stem to form a flat base. Snap off the tough outer leaves. Trim about 1-inch from the pointed top. Trim any remaining points with kitchen shears. Rinse under cold running water.
Steam in a steamer basket over a large pot of 4 to 5 inches of simmering water. Add more water as needed. Cover and cook for 50 to 60 minutes or until you can pull off an outer leaf easily.
The artichoke may be quartered before steaming 40 to 50 minutes. Don’t worry if you don’t have a steamer basket; use a metal colander or
mesh strainer. Just make sure that it is heatproof and fits snugly inside the pot.
Good Yom Tov!
Any-Weather Chicken Soup, Israeli-style (Meat)
Serves 4 to 6
Tips and Tricks: •Use food processor with grater blades to grate zucchini or use a box grater.
•Store-bought kosher chicken broth is fine. To make pareve, use pareve powdered consommé.
Ingredients:
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 ribs celery, sliced thinly
• 1 medium green zucchini, coarsely grated
• 1 red bell pepper, seeds removed coarsely chopped
• 1 cups corn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned
• 3 medium tomatoes cut up coarsely
• 2 green onions, trimmed and sliced thinly
• 4 cups kosher chicken broth
• 2 tsp. lemon-pepper seasoning or to taste
• Salt to taste
Directions:
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the celery, zucchini and bell pepper. Cook, stirring often, for 4 to 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add the corn, tomatoes, green onions, chicken broth and seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning; adjust to liking. Serve hot.
Creamy Gazpacho with Toasted Almonds (Dairy)
Cook’s Tips: •To toast almonds, place on a microwave plate. Cook at High for 35 to 50 seconds or until golden brown. Watch constantly. •Soup and vegetable mixture may be chilled and made ahead of time.
Ingredients:
• 2 medium cucumbers, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1-1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1-1/4 cups sour cream
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
See Culinary shortcuts on page 16
Honey.
Monfocus/Pixabay
Artichoke. mlaranda, Pixabay Creamy Gazpacho with Toasted Almonds.
Ethel G. Hofman
Culinary shortcuts for our feasts at Sukkot …
Continued from page 14
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 (6.5-oz.) jar of marinated artichokes, drained and quartered
• 8 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/4 cup snipped parsley
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted (if using)
Directions:
Place cucumbers, broth, sour cream, lemon juice and mustard in the food processor. Pulse until the cucumbers are finely chopped. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
In a small bowl, toss the artichokes with the tomatoes and parsley. Set aside.
Ladle the cucumber soup into serving bowls. Spoon the artichoke mixture into the center of each bowl. Sprinkle toasted almonds on top and serve. Serves 4 to 6.
Pear and Parsley Bisque (Pareve)
Cook’s Tips: •Good vegetable broth is available in markets. •Substitute any fresh herb, such as dill or cilantro, for the parsley.
Directions:
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 5 ripe pears, core removed and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• Salt and white pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup snipped parsley, divided
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the broth, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey and lemon zest. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pears, potato and half the parsley. Cover and cook until pears and potato are tender, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly. Pour into a blender jar or food processor and purée. Taste for salt and pepper. If too thick, add a little more broth. Serve warm or chilled sprinkled with remaining parsley. Serves 4 to 6.
Za’atar Baked Chicken with Green Tomatoes (Meat)
Cook’s Tips: •Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice, a blend of toasted sesame seeds, dried thyme, marjoram and sumac. •Substitute bottled vinaigrette dressing mixed with 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice and 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper for lemon-pepper salad dressing.
Ingredients:
• 4 green tomatoes, cut into thick wedges
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp. za’atar seasoning
• 1 kosher chicken, 3.5 to 4 lb., cut into 6 to 8 pieces
• 1/2 cup lemon-pepper salad dressing
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place tomatoes and red onion in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with za’atar and toss to mix.
Arrange chicken pieces on top. Pierce each piece 5 to 6 times with the tip of a sharp knife.
Pour the salad dressing over spreading with a spoon to coat evenly. Cover loosely with foil.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove foil.
Increase heat to 400 degrees. Bake 15 minutes longer or until skin is brown and juices run clear when chicken thigh is pierced with a fork. Serves 4 to 6.
Artichoke and Mushroom
Casserole (Pareve)
Cook’s Tips:
•Make the day before. Refrigerate. Remove from the fridge 1 hour beforehand. Cover with foil. Reheat in a preheated 325-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes until warm. •Keep kitchen scissors on hand to snip herbs such as dill.
•21 Seasoning is available at most markets, including Trader Joe’s, which has its own brand.
Ingredients:
• 1 (12-oz.) package of frozen artichoke hearts, defrosted
• 5 to 6 white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large beefsteak tomato, cut into 1/2inch chunks
• 1/4 cup fresh dill, snipped
• 1-1/2 tsp. 21 seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
• 1/3 cup vinaigrette dressing
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a 10-inch microwavesafe pie dish or casserole. Toss to mix.
Cook at High for 7 minutes. Stir and cook again for 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are softened. Serve warm.
Variation: Thaw 1 (10- to 12-oz.) package of frozen spinach. Squeeze to remove all liquid. Place in a pan with 1 tsp. of all-purpose flour, a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp. of nutmeg. Cook over high heat until beginning to bubble, stirring constantly. Spoon on top of vegetable casserole and serve. Serves 4 to 6.
Prune and Carrot Tzimmes (Pareve)
Cook’s Tips: •Substitute dried apples for prunes.
Ingredients:
• 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 3 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 4 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. honey or to taste
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup pitted prunes, cut in half
Directions:
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions. Cover and cook until onions are softened, 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the carrots, orange and lemon juices, honey and cinnamon.
Bring mixture to a boil and let bubble for 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer.
After cooking elaborate, traditional meals for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (preand post-fasting), convenience is now the top priority for the next seven days of Sukkot.
Cook uncovered for 15 minutes or until carrots are tender. Stir in the prunes. Simmer for 5 minutes more. If excess liquid is still left, simmer for a few minutes to evaporate. Serve warm. Serves 4 to 6.
Downton Pumpkin Honey Cake (Pareve)
Cook’s Tips: •Instead of a Bundt pan, you can divide the mixture between 2 loaf pans (8-1/2 x 4-1/4 x 3), plus 1 mini-pan. •Use baking soda (not baking powder). •May substitute dried cherries or dried cranberries for raisins.
Ingredients:
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin-pie mix)
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup honey (warmed)
• 1 cup dark-brown sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. Chinese 5-spice
• 1-1/2 cups raisins, divided
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour. Whisk eggs, water and oil until blended. Add the pumpkin, molasses and honey. Mix well. Stir in the brown sugar and flour, about 1/2 cup at a time. Add the baking soda and spice with the last 1/2 cup flour. Stir in 1 cup raisins. Spoon batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Scatter the remaining raisins on top.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. A mini-loaf pan will bake the contents in about 35 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Loosen edges by running a round-bladed knife around the sides. Turn onto a wire tray to cool completely. Freezes well. Serves 15 to 18.
To contact Ethel G. Hofman, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Prune and Carrot Tzimmes.
AI, Adobe Pear and Parsley Bisque.
Ethel G. Hofman
Za’atar.
Anna Food, Pixabay
Jordan Wright (AD-70) Stefani Zinerman (AD-56) Michael Benedetto (AD-82) George Latimer (CD-16)
Rivals in toss-up district on LI back Israel…
Continued from page 1
ever, we had an unprovoked attack on Israel that was started by Hamas. Hamas started this conflict. Hamas is a terrorist organization that does not care about its own people and deliberately puts its own civilians in harm’s way to fight a PR war against Israel. So we have to look at who is the cause of all this suffering, and it’s Hamas, and it’s Iran, because Iran has been backing Hamas for decades.”
“I’m steadfast in my commitment to making sure that Israel has the right to defend itself and that Israel continues to exist as a nation,” she said.
D’Esposito was asked, “In light of the large number of civilian deaths in Gaza, possibly now in Lebanon, do you have any reservations about how Israel is conducting its campaign?”
“Absolutely not,” he said.
Each candidate was questioned about the top of their tickets. While Trump is hugely popular in the district’s Orthodox communities including the Five Towns, there’s less love for the former president elsewhere in the 4th CD where Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have more support.
While D’Esposito at first said he didn’t want to talk about Trump — “the conversation that we’re having today is about the work that I’ve done; if we want to talk about what President Trump has done, we should talk to President Trump,” he said — he vigorously affirmed his allegiance to the former president.
“There been very few individuals that have done more for the State of Israel than President Trump,” D’Esposito said. “You may not like who he sur-
rounds himself with. You may not like his tweets. You may not like his red hats. You may not like some of the things he says. But when you look at facts and you want to compare Kamala Harris to President Trump … there is no comparison between the two.”
The Jewish Star asked Gillen:
“Lots of people in the Orthodox community in the Five Towns have what appears to be a visceral distrust of Democrats. Can you understand why they have this distrust of Democrats generically, not speaking of you in particular, and why many of them totally support former President Trump in this election?”
Gillen responded:
“I can’t speculate why people have certain beliefs. What I can say is that I have been consistent in expressing support for Israel. I’ve been endorsed by [Rep.] Ritchie Torres [of the Bronx], who is a Democrat, who … has stood steadfast with the nation of Israel, and I’m very proud of that endorsement, and that’s where I stand. I’m steadfast in my commitment to making sure that Israel has the right to defend itself and that Israel continues to exist as a nation.”
Gillen was asked, “Can you understand why some people support President Trump, given his history overall as president?”
“I don’t think it’s for me to judge who people support one way or the other,” she said. “I do think that a great, significant achievement of the Trump administration was the Abraham Accords and trying to normalize relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It’s unfortunate that now
that progress seems to have been put far back because of the actions of Hamas.”
What about the Democratic Party’s tolerance of radical members of its Congressional “Squad” and others who are unfriendly to Israel and possibly antisemitic?
The Jewish Star referenced Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib. After an uproar followed her antisemitic comments, Congressional Democrats declined to explicitly criticize the antisemitic nature of what Tlaib said, instead resorting to expressing disapproval about hate speech in general.
“I think hate speech and violence caused by prejudice against one ethnic group, one religious group, is wrong on all accounts,” Gillen said.
She was asked, “What type of relationship do you see yourself having with people in the Squad, and particularly Rep. Talib?”
“I’m going to talk to anybody in Congress about why I think it’s really important to take action against antisemitism, about why we need to defend Israel as our ally in the Middle East. So I would have a dialog with Ms. Talib.
“I don’t know if we would agree on many things, but I certainly would have a dialog with her and try to persuade her why I think certain actions should be taken, why we should fund Israel. Again, I don’t know if we’ll agree on much, but I would talk to anyone on either side of the aisle.”
Asked again about Talib, Gillen said, “I don’t know if I’m going to name call her, but I do believe that she is expressing troubling views. In my opinion, yes, antisemitic troubling views.”
D’Esposito was asked whether he understood why some Jews plan to vote for Harris.
“Do I understand it? No,” he said. What about Trump’s legal problems and his support for people convicted of Jan. 6 offenses?
“I’ve said from day one that Jan. 6 was a dark day in American history,” D’Esposito said. “I’ve said over and over again that the individuals who committed crimes on Jan. 6 should be held accountable. And most recently, I joined Republicans and Democrats, probably against the will of our own party, to sign what’s called the Unity Pledge. We signed this pledge saying that following the election and moving into certifying the election, once every legal avenue has been exhausted, we will certify the election. I’ve made it very clear where I stand on law and order. I’ve made it very clear about Jan. 6, it was a dark day.”
Earlier this year, aid to Israel was delayed when House Republicans complained about linking support for Israel with backing for Ukraine. D’Esposito said he objected to the delay, and that “I supported the package that brought aid to the Indo-Pacific, to Israel and to Ukraine.”
“The Biden administration has been perceived as weak across the world,” he said. “I don’t believe we would have seen a Chinese spy balloon fly across the United States if we had different leadership. I don’t believe that Russia would be as aggressive as they are with Ukraine if we had stronger leadership. I don’t believe that Oct. 7th would have happened if we had stronger leadership.”
Finding purpose in unity celebrating Sukkot…
Continued from page 1
you realize that life is a gift and you wonder why you are lucky enough to still be here. In silent gratitude, you pray yet again that you will succeed in making the life you have been given worth living.
“Nedarai’ La’Hashem A’shalem (I will repay my promises to G-d).”
The battlefield is full of promises, and you swear you will do things differently. iI you make it, the time comes when you have to live up to your promises.
In the midst of these thoughts, deep in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, with the Shouf mountain range rising up above, a niggun popped into my head and I began to sing.
And pretty soon, lost in the moment, I began to dance.
It was a powerful experience, until I turned around and realized I was not alone. Standing about 20 feet behind me were the base cook and a couple of soldiers on kitchen detail, including one of my men.
Judging by the expressions on their faces, they must have thought I was absolutely mad. And who could blame them? What would you think if you were on a military base located deep in a combat zone, and you happened across a lieutenant dancing in the dust with a lemon and a palm branch?
What, indeed, is the festival of Sukkot all about? And what lies at the root of some of the rather strange rituals of this holiday?
Imagine you have a Jewish friend who knows next to nothing about his Jewish roots, and he is joining you for dinner on the first night of Sukkot.
Imagine his face as you welcome him into your beautiful home and lead him past the incredible living room, through the magnificent dining hall, round the back of the house to … a sukkah-booth!
One of the most beautiful parts of the Pesach Seder is the moment when our children pose the four questions, the Mah’ Nishtana, asking why this night is so different from all other nights?
Why don’t we sing the Mah’ Nishtana on Sukkot? After all, if ever there was a day that is different, it is the day we shake our four species and sit in booths as the rainy season begins.
What is Sukkot about and what are these four species that we bind together? Jewish tradition notes that the etrog has both a wonderful taste and a magnificent fragrance. The lulav comes from the palm tree whose fruit, the date, has a wonderful taste but no fragrance. The haddasim, or myrtle branches, have an incredible smell, but no taste. And the aravot, or willow branches, have neither taste nor fragrance.
This, suggests Jewish tradition, represents all the different kinds of Jews: Those who sit in yeshivot and devote their lives to Torah study and the transmission and preservation of the intricacies of Jewish tradition, as well as those more focused on Jewish community and action, who may only enter a synagogue once or twice a year
but who fill the boards of Jewish charities or patrol the borders of Israel ensuring a home for the Jewish people.
There are those rare Jews who, like the etrog, have both the fragrance of Jewish action and ethics, as well as the taste of Torah constantly on their lips. And there are Jews who, so distant from their heritages, with no taste or smell, are almost undetectable amidst the foliage.
On Sukkot, we hold all these Jews, represented by the four species, together. In fact, our service — indeed the entire festival — is incomplete without any one of these four species, just as the Jewish people are incomplete without any one Jew anywhere in the world.
We can only become the people we are meant to be when we become one, binding ourselves together in pursuit of the destiny and the dream of a better world as envisioned by the festival of Sukkot.
If on Yom Kippur we come to terms with who we really are, on Sukkot we begin the fulfillment of the dream of who we could become.
We sit in our flimsy huts, next to our beautiful and well built homes, because once a year, during this season of the harvest when it is so easy to get caught up in how much we have and all that we have built, we need to remember what an illusion that really is.
During Sukkot we add a one line prayer to the blessings after a meal:
HaRachaman Hu’ Yakim Lanu Et Sukkat David Ha’Nofalet (May the merciful one raise up the fallen Sukkah of David).
This is a prayer for the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash, the holy Temple, yet it is referred to here as a sukkah. A sukkah is a temporary hut, which the Temple certainly was not. In fact, if there was ever a structure in Judaism that was not meant to be temporary, it was the Temple! Unless that is the whole point — perhaps the message is that even the Beit HaMikdash, meant to stand forever, can be a sukkah.
You think the Temple is forever? Even the Temple can be a temporary hut, here today and gone tomorrow. In the end, the foundations of the Temple are not in the ground, but rather in the hearts of the Jewish people.
We sit in our homes with the illusion that they are built to last. And for seven days we sit in what we consider to be a temporary hut.
The message of Sukkot is that our homes are really just temporary huts. We get stuck in the things that hold us down. Sukkot allows us to realize they are temporary gifts. Sukkot challenges us to consider what things in life really do last forever.
This, perhaps, is why there is no Mah Nishtana on Sukkot. Because this idea, that we are only temporary dwellers in this world, that true joy is in the discovery of purpose and that only coming together as one people can help us arrive at true joy, is not something which should be different during this week. Rather, this should be the norm all year round.
Rabbi Freedman is rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Under shadow of war, a sukkah not to be seen
By Rabbi Chaim Goldberg
As tens of thousands of reservists are being called up to the northern front in the battle against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the IDF Rabbinate sought to ensure that every soldier hears the sounding of the shofar — whether in Gaza or on base, in combat or on guard duty. To meet this challenge, the Military Rabbinate supplied of 5,800 shofars. The Rabbinate also sup-
plied 80,000 machzors for Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, including 25,000 pocketsized editions adapted for combat soldiers. This is of particular importance during the holidays because while many soldiers know significant portions of the daily or Shabbat prayers by heart, the holiday prayers include unique additions unfamiliar even to one who prays regularly. Meanwhile, the Rab-
binate has been getting ready Sukkot. How does someone eat in a sukkah while fighting in Gaza or engaged in combat conditions in the north?
The Rabbinate commissioned a special model of an “operational sukkah” — the “Frontline Soldier’s Sukkah.” It meets all the requirements of Jewish law for a traditional sukkah, but it is no traditional sukkah. It can be quickly assembled, disassembled
and carried with one’s gear from place to place to suit the challenging conditions faced by soldiers in the field. Additionally, the Military Rabbinate has issued more than 12,000 sets of the Four Species that have been thoroughly checked by the rabbinate’s branch of Jewish law to ensure that every soldier can fulfill the holiday commandment of waving an etrog, lulav, hadas, and aravah.
The rabbinate notes that the distribution of this equipment has been ongoing for weeks due to the logistical complexity of reaching tens of thousands of regular and reserve soldiers spread throughout the country in various states of readiness. Times like these highlight how privileged we are to have a Jewish army and how vital a role the IDF Rabbinate plays in retaining its Jewish character.
A mobile sukkah supplied by the rabbinate of the IDF for soldiers in the current war. IDF
תבש לש בכוכ
Jewish Star Torah columnists:
•Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native •Rabbi David Etengoff of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn
•Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem
Contributing writers:
•Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l,
Contact our columnists at: Publisher@TheJewishStar.com Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY
Wed Oct 16 / Tishrei 14
Erev Sukkot
Wed Candles: 5:54 • Thu Candles: 6:53
Fri Oct 18 / Tishrei 16
Shabbos is Chol Hamoed Sukkot Candles: 5:51 • Havdalah: 6:58
former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth •Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus •Rabbi Raymond Apple, emeritus rabbi, Great Synagogue of Sydney •Rabbi Yossy Goldman, life rabbi emeritus, Sydenham Shul, Johannesburg and president of the South African Rabbinical Association. rabbi Sir JonaThan
zt”l
What exactly is a sukkah? What is it supposed to represent? The question is essential to the mitzvah itself. The Torah says:
Live in sukkot for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in sukkot so that your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt: I am the L-rd your G-d. Lev. 23:42-43
In other words, knowing — reflecting, understanding, being aware — is an integral part of the mitzvah. For that reason, says Rabbah in the Talmud (Sukkah 2a), a sukkah that is taller than twenty cubits (about thirty feet or nine metres high) is invalid because when the sechach, the “roof,” is that far above your head, you are unaware of it.
So what is a sukkah? On this, two Mishnaic Sages disagreed.
•Rabbi Eliezer held that the sukkah represents the Clouds of Glory that surrounded the Israelites during the wilderness years, protecting them from heat during the day, cold during the night, and bathing them with the radiance of the Divine Presence. This view is reflected in a number of the Targumim. Rashi in his commentary takes it as the “plain sense” of the verse.
•Rabbi Akiva on the other hand says sukkot mammash — meaning a sukkah is a sukkah, no more and no less: a hut, a booth, a temporary dwelling. It has no symbolism. It is what it is.
According to Rashbam, Sukkot exists to remind us of our humble origins so that we never fall into the complacency of taking freedom, the land of Israel and the blessings it yields, for granted, thinking that it happened in the normal course of history.
However there is another way of understanding Rabbi Akiva, and it lies in one of the most important lines in the prophetic literature. Jeremiah says, in words we recited on Rosh Hashana.
Rashbam says Sukkot exists to remind us of our humble origins so we do not take freedom, the land of Israel and its blessings, for granted.
I remember the loving-kindness of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown (Jer. 2:2).
This is one of the very rare lines in Tanach that speaks in praise not of G-d but of the people Israel.
“How odd of G-d / to choose the Jews,” goes the famous rhyme, to which the answer is: “Not quite so odd: the Jews chose G-d.”
At times, they may have been fractious, rebellious, ungrateful and wayward. But they had the courage to travel, to move, to leave security behind, and follow G-d’s call, as did Abraham and Sarah at the dawn of our history. If the sukkah represents G-d’s Clouds of Glory, where was “the loving-kindness of your youth”?
There is no sacrifice involved if G-d is visibly protecting you in every way and at all times. But if we follow Rabbi Akiva and see the sukkah as what it is, the temporary home of a temporarily homeless people, then it makes sense to say that Israel showed the courage of a bride willing to follow her husband on a risk-laden journey to a place she has never seen before — a love that shows itself in the fact that she is willing to live in a hut trusting her husband’s promise that one day they will have a permanent home.
If so, then a wonderful symmetry discloses itself in the three pilgrimage festivals.
Pesach represents the love of G-d for His people. Sukkot represents the love of the people for G-d. Shavuot represents the mutuality of love expressed in the covenant at Sinai in which G-d pledged Himself to the people, and the people to G-d. (For a similar conclusion, reached by a slightly different route, see R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, Meshech Chochmah to Deut. 5:15. I am grateful to David Frei of the London Beth Din for this reference.)
Sukkot, on this reading, becomes a metaphor for the Jewish condition not only during the 40 years in the desert but also the almost 2,000 years spent in exile and dispersion. For centuries Jews lived, not knowing whether the place in which they lived would prove to be a mere temporary dwelling.
To take just one period as an example: Jews were expelled from England in 1290, and during the next two centuries from almost every country in Europe, culminating in the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, and the Portuguese in 1497. They lived in a state of permanent insecurity. Sukkot is the festival of insecurity. What is truly remarkable is that it is called, by tradition, zeman simchatenu, “our time of joy.” That to me is the wonder at the heart of the Jewish experience: that Jews throughout the ages were able to experience risk and uncertainty at every level of their existence and yet — while they sat betzila de-mehemnuta, “under the shadow of faith” (this is the Zohar’s description of the sukkah: Zohar, Emor, 103a) — they were able to rejoice. That is spiritual courage of a high order.
Ihave often argued that faith is not certainty: faith is the courage to live with uncertainty.
That is what Sukkot represents if what we celebrate is sukkot mammash, not the Clouds of Glory but the vulnerability of actual huts, open to the wind, the rain and the cold.
I find that faith today in the people and the State of Israel. It is astonishing to me how Israelis have been able to live with an almost constant threat of war and terror since the State was born, and not give way to fear. I sense even in the most secular Israelis a profound faith, not perhaps “religious” in the conventional sense, but faith nonetheless: in life, and the future, and hope. Israelis seem to me perfectly to exemplify what tradition says was G-d’s reply to Moses when he doubted the people’s capacity to believe: “They are believers, the children of believers” (Shabbat 97a). Today’s Israel is a living embodiment of what it is to exist in a state of insecurity and still rejoice.
And that is Sukkot’s message to the world. Sukkot is the only festival about which Tanach says that it will one day be celebrated by the whole world (Zechariah 14:16-19).
The twenty-first century is teaching us what this might mean. For most of history, most people have experienced a universe that did not change fundamentally in their lifetimes. But there have been rare great ages of transition: the birth of agriculture, the first cities, the dawn of civilization, the invention of printing, and the industrial revolution.
These were destabilizing times, and they brought disruption in their wake. The age of transition we have experienced in our lifetime, born primarily out of the inven-
tion of the computer and instantaneous global communication, will one day be seen as the greatest and most rapid era of change since Homo sapiens first set foot on earth.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have experienced the convulsions. As I write these words, some nations are tearing themselves apart, and no nation is free of the threat of terror.
There are parts of the Middle East and beyond that recall Hobbes’ famous description of the “state of nature,” a “war of every man against every man” in which there is “continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (Hobbes, The Leviathan, chapter X111).
Insecurity begets fear, fear begets hate, hate begets violence, and violence eventually turns against its perpetrators. The twenty-first century will one day be seen by historians as the Age of Insecurity. We, as Jews, are the world’s experts in insecurity, having lived with it for millennia. And the supreme response to insecurity is Sukkot, when we leave behind the safety of our houses and sit in sukkot mammash, in huts exposed to the elements.
To be able to do so and still say, this is zeman simchatenu, our festival of joy, is the supreme achievement of faith, the ultimate antidote to fear.
Faith is the ability to rejoice in the midst of instability and change, travelling through the wilderness of time toward an unknown destination. Faith is not fear. Faith is not hate. Faith is not violence. These are vital truths, never more needed than now.
This column was originally posted in 2013.
Our prayers remind us that past is prologue
Great Neck, Jerusalem
As we concluded the prayers of Yom Kippur, and began the joyous task of building, decorating and ultimately residing in the sukkah, we can reflect on some of the incredible tefillot of the Yamin Noraim.
Though many of us have recited these prayers hundreds of times, since last Oct. 7 they’ve resonated with an emotion that could not have been predicted.
I am sure many of you have had the same expe-
rience. Verses you may have recited (or mumbled) over the years, which seemed to be distant or not relevant in the past, now light up the page with a personal connection and immediacy.
Consider, for example, the paragraph said in the chazzan’s repetition for Musaf on Rosh Hashana and Shacharit and Musaf on Yom Kippur, right after Modim, the paragraph beginning “Avinu Malkenu.” We ask Hashem for mercy and compassion and list a series of calamities including “cherev, raav, shvi (bloodshed, famine, captivity,)” continuing with “every evil mishap … every sort of punishment” and then concluding with sinat chinam, baseless hatred.
That Is the ultimate evil.
Given all that was going on amongst us in Israel for the year prior, how can you read this
tefilla and not think of Oct. 7?
As my rav, Rabbi Shmuel Ismach of the Young Israel of Great Neck, noted in his Yom Kippur drasha, we read the long list of the Avinu Malkenus that describe horrors that seem historical, from a distant time, and ask Avinu Malkenu, our Father, our King: Take pity upon us, and upon our children and our infants. Act for the sake of those who were murdered for Your Holy Name. Act for the sake of those who were butchered for Your Oneness. Act for those who went into fire and water for the sanctification of Your Name. Avenge before our eyes the spilled blood of your servants.
But this is no longer are ancient history — it’s happened to us, our brothers and sisters, our loved ones, our fellow Jews, only a short 12 months ago!
How can it not take on an immediacy?
And on a positive note, I remember sitting in shul on Rosh Hashana only a day after Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. As we all know, it was a nes nigleh, and open miracle, that the barrage killed not a single Jew, with minimal structural damage. In fact, the only one killed was a Palestinian Arab.
Twenty-four hours later after the Iranian attack, I was davening, reciting a tefilla Shofarot in Musaf. The paragraph begins, “V’al yedei avadecha haneviim katuv leimor (and through your servants the prophets, the following is written: you shall see [that Israel has been ingathered] as if a banner were raised on mountaintops and you shall hear it as if a shofar were sounded).”
Bereshit’s suggestion of undeserved
The day after Simchat Torah is Shabbat Bereshit, when we begin a new cycle of Torah readings.
Until now, we have been consumed by the range of emotions evoked by Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and are about to the joyous and festive days of Sukkot. Many of us are still haunted by the question, “Did I pass the trials of the days of judgement? Do I really deserve a ‘good and sweet’ new year?”
Thankfully, there is a verse in parashat Bereshit that can provide us hope and com-
fort. It is a verse that seems to indicate that, at least sometimes, the Almighty favors us although we haven’t earned His favor. He “plays favorites” even with those who don’t deserve such favoritism.
Allow me to prove my point by referring you to the very last verse in the parsha. The verses leading up to this line declare that the L-rd regrets that He created mankind and that He’s decided to “blot out from the earth the men whom I created.” Then we read, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the L-rd.”
The Hebrew for “found favor” is matsa chen Did Noah deserve chen? Did he deserve to be favored?
The answer lies in an understanding of the word chen. For this, we must turn to another biblical passage, in Exodus 33:19. There, we find ourselves shocked by the L-rd’s own words:
I will favor those whom I pleased to favor and show compassion to those to whom I am pleased to show compassion.
This is interpreted by the Sages of the Talmud (Berakhot 7a) to mean, “I will favor those whom I choose to favor, even if they are not fit to deserve My favor!”
Do we dare conclude that the L-rd arbitrarily favors whomever He pleases, at His whim? Do humans have the right to favor whomever they please, without rhyme or reason, even if that means favoring those who are not truly entitled to such favor?
To answer the latter question, let us consider the observation of the great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Yochanan (Sotah 47a). I paraphrase his keen insight:
There are three examples of people who display chen, who show favor even when that favor is not
favoritism
objectively deserved. One is the chen that one harbors for one’s own hometown even if that town is a slum; another is the chen that a loving husband shows to his wife even if she is less than perfect; and the third is the chen that a consumer retains for an item he purchased even if that item is deficient. Chen, then, is favor which is bestowed, even when it is not fully deserved. Thus, for example, when the Kohanim bless us in the synagogue, they recite these words: “May the L-rd shine His countenance upon you and show you chen (vichuneka).” The Sifre translates chen in this verse as matnat chinam, an undeserved gift.
So too does the Talmud (Sanhedrin 108a) comment on our verse at the very end of parshat Bereshit:
The heavenly decree to deluge the earth initially included Noah, but although he was undeserving,
Linking Sukkot’s Four Species and Jewish unity
There is an interesting discussion in halacha about whether or not it is appropriate to smell one’s hadassim and esrog. The Shulchan Aruch says you may not smell the hadassim attached to the lulav, while one may smell the esrog, although it is not recommended because it is unclear what blessing needs to be made on smelling it.
Usually, when someone smells a sweet-smelling fruit, they are supposed to say the blessing to G-d, “who gives pleasant aromas to fruits.” The ar-
gument against this blessing in most cases is that people use the fruit for food, and “Borei Pri Ha’etz” exempts them from the bracha on its smell.
But the Mishnah Berurah distinguishes between times you use the esrog and times you don’t, saying that you can certainly smell it when you’re not in the act of shaking the Four Species.
The question is, what’s the difference? And where do the hadassim come in?
Two thoughts contribute to this conversation.
•The first is often taught in schools: each of the arba minim has qualities that distinguish them. The esrog has a pleasant smell and taste, the hadassim have a nice smell but no taste, the lulav has a nice taste but no smell to speak of, and the aravos have no taste and no smell.
•The second point is that there is a difference between how these items are perceived when
engaged in the mitzvah versus how they are perceived otherwise.
The point made by the Shulchan Aruch is that the hadassim’s good quality, its smell, is what designates it for the mitzvah. As such, its smell is designated for the mitzvah and may not be used for other purpose. The main quality and feature of the esrog, however, is its taste. As a result, since the taste is elevated for a mitzvah, the smell is available to enjoy, were it not for the debate mentioned earlier.
This is how the Aruch Hashulchan frames the conversation.
On the surface the question seems silly. It’s obvious that if something has been designated for a mitzvah, it cannot have another use.
But is it really so obvious? Is it even true?
Some might make the argument that marriage
fulfills the mitzvah of procreation. Would anyone argue that a husband and wife may not enjoy each other’s company in other ways?
Some might argue that a synagogue is a place for davening. But in Hebrew, it’s called a beit haknesset, a place of gathering, not a beit tefillah, a house of prayer. Can we really argue that the only use for a beit haknesset is tefillah?
I would like to suggest that there is a distinction between mitzvah and not-mitzvah because there is a profound lesson to be learned from a metaphor.
The qualities of the esrog, lulav, hadassim and aravos remind us that there are different kinds of Jews. Some with entirely good qualities, some with a mix of good and bad, and some who are all bad. The gathering of these
For Samuel Pepys, a wild British Simchat Torah
hat an irony. I always knew that the first commentary on a Sukkot machzor describing the rather sharp medieval reaction to a British-based Simchat Torah service would come from the pen of a former British chief rabbi, in this case, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. This strange chapter in Jewish religious history, and Rabbi Sacks’ interest in it, was foreshadowed last month in an essay by the rabbi on his website entitled, “The Deep Power of Joy,” wherein he re-
lates to us the following:
“On 14th of October 1663 the famous diarist Samuel Pepys paid a visit to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Creechurch Lane in the city of London. Jews had been exiled from England in 1290 but in 1656, following an intercession by Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam, Oliver Cromwell concluded that there was in fact no legal barrier to Jews living there. So for the first time since the 13th century Jews were able to worship openly.”
In the introduction to his liturgical commentary in the Koren Sukkot Machzor, Rabbi Sacks
relates the details — quoted in archaic medieval worded English, from Pepys’ diary — of a visit that Pepys made to this synagogue on Simchat Torah to witness firsthand a Jewish worship service. Pepys’ impressions are quoted at length in the machzor and, separately, in an essay by historian Dr. Eliezer Segal entitled, “Mr. Pepys’ Outrageous Outing.”
After detailing the holiday rituals he observed, Pepys’ sympathies undergo a decidedly weird deterioration and he writes:
But, L-rd! To see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their ser-
vice, more like brutes than people knowing the true G-d, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this. This quote teaches us a sober and somber lesson concerning the raucous behavior that we have come to witness on this feast.
Rabbi Sacks continues his teachings by detailing for us the historical background to Simchat Torah, including the logic behind the holiday, sans some of the craziness that has been prevalent from medieval time unto our own day.
Rabbi Sacks performed a valued service, lending an air of long overdue sobriety to this often misunderstood festival. Both Rab-
See Billet on page 26
Parsha of the week Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist
See Gerber on page 26
Samuel Pepys. Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1689
DR. alan MazuReK
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Ta-Nehisi Coates’ fake 10 days in ‘Palestine’
There are times when terrible books can be useful. In the case of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ truly awful “The Message,” the author has done more than demonstrate how and why America’s chattering classes have not just turned on Israel and are supporting an ideological war against its existence.
During his book tour, he also helped illustrate how a mob mentality and woke bureaucratic structures have gutted a supposedly prestigious legacy outlet like CBS News. At virtually every other stop, Coates was treated as a hero, offered only softball questions and never challenged about the bogus nature of his latest work. But one journalist, Tony Dokoupil, a host on CBS Mornings, had the temerity to ask Coates some tough questions about the inaccuracies in his book and its true intent, which is to delegitimize and amplify calls for Israel’s destruction.
For doing what any honest journalist would do when interviewing an author of an extremist polemic that calls for eliminating the one Jewish state on the planet, Dokoupil was publicly shamed by the network for failing to maintain its “editorial standards.”
Sin against DEI catechism
As the Free Press documented by publishing a tape of the meeting, executives apologized to other staffers (who had reportedly generated this struggle session by swamping the heads of the network’s news division with complaints) for his supposed misbehavior.
Reportedly, Dokoupil responded with tearful regrets. Then, to add insult to injury, he was later subjected to what everyone dreads in the brave new corporate world in which the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) rules supreme — he was summoned to
This is not so much an example of bad reporting or history as a parody of a book about a complicated topic.
a grilling by the network’s in-house “Race and Culture Unit” for offending Coates with his “tone of voice, phrasing and body language” during the interview.
Still, one brave reporter, Jan Crawford, a veteran legal correspondent for CBS, spoke up in dissent. She demanded to know what sort of “standards” were in place that would punish a journalist for actually doing their job. The answer from her bosses was that they would reply to her in private.
The message this sends to all journalists at CBS is that they better not ask any tough questions when interviewing those who advocate for the end of Israel.
Of course, we know that the same program — and every other mainstream corporate outlet — expects their reporters to be aggressive and confrontational when they are talking to those who dissent from leftist fashion or liberal orthodoxy. In this manner, the culture of journalism has changed from one in which those employed by these outlets view their jobs as more one of liberal/leftist activism than objective reporting.
•Anything that advances their political goals is to be praised.
•Anything that tells a different story must be ignored or savaged. I
To fully understand the context of how Coates is mainstreaming the leftist ideological war on Israel and being assisted by the media, it’s important to know more about him.
A literary celebrity
The first thing to understand is that Ta-Nehisi Coates is something of a colossus of contemporary American letters. Since his first article was published in 2008 in the liberal publication The Atlantic, the 49-year-old has been showered with acclaim and every conceivable honor from the cultural establishment, including an obligatory MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award. Everything he writes — from comic books to memoirs about his own brief existence on the planet — is treated as a major literary event.
Though a talented writer who styles himself as a journalist, Coates mostly pens words about himself and his personal impressions of the world without bothering much with grounding his work in facts or trying to place his ideas in a context that tells more than one narrow side of a story. Indeed, he is someone who thinks writers and journalists should not be seeking to tell both sides of complex stories, believing that they should boil everything down to conform to simplistic left-wing conclusions, whether accurate or not. (That is exactly how toxic ideologies like critical race theory and intersectionality work.)
That philosophy is fine for comic books, such as Coates’ best-selling “Black Panther” series, which imagines a fictional high-tech African kingdom that was made into a blockbuster action movie. However, when it comes to his interpretations of American society and foreign conflicts, he seems to view the real world with all of its complexities as just another graphic fantasy populated only by heroes and villains.
But such is the prestige that Coates has acquired everything he writes is not merely taken seriously but usually trumpeted as revealed truth, whether an essay advocating reparations for African-Americans or his writings about contemporary racism, which he never fails to point out is written from the perspective of someone raised as a black man in “Jim Crow” America.
The fact that he was born a decade after the triumph of the civil-rights movement and the actual end of “Jim Crow” throughout America, including in his hometown of Baltimore, is — for him and his fans — one more inconvenient fact among so many others that shouldn’t spoil a good story that confirms their pre-existing prejudices.
A more instructive biographical detail is that he is the son of a former Black Panther Party member turned black nationalist publisher whose most recent effort is reviving an antisemitic screed called “The Jewish On-
slaught.”
In this way, Coates has made a career out of getting away with egregious omissions to further his racialist polemical goals. With his latest effort, “The Message,” a tendentious triptych to Africa and the Middle East, he hasn’t just applied his usual distorted standards but produced a book that tells us everything we need to know about the intellectual war on Israel and the Jews.
Ignoring most of the story
Coates’s specific conclusions about Israel, the Palestinians and the conflict in the region are of little significance. His entire personal experience on this topic consists of a single 10-day trip to “Palestine” from which he extrapolated not just 150 pages of text but a series of damning conclusions.
For Coates, everything he saw in “Palestine” — whether on Palestinian-guided tours of places like Hebron or even time spent in Haifa or Tel Aviv — was a reflection of the historical American experience of “Jim Crow” discrimination. Woke ideologues falsely analogize the Palestinian war to destroy Israel to the struggle for civil rights in the United States. In this way, Coates superimposes his own beliefs about an America that is an irredeemably racist nation onto the complex conflict between Jews and
Ta-Nehisi Coates (left) and Edgar Villanueva, founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project, onstage in Atlanta on June 7. Carol Lee Rose, Getty Images for Decolonizing Wealth Project See
JOnATHAn S. TObIn
JnS Editor-in-Chief
In his New York Times column on Oct. 7, of all dates, Thomas L. Friedman stated that the Palestinian Authority “has endorsed the Oslo peace process.”
The Oslo Accords require the PA to disarm and outlaw terrorist groups, arrest terrorists, and extradite them to Israel. It has not done any of that, which is what compels Israel to occasionally send its forces into PA-governed territory in pursuit of terrorists. Friedman knows this and yet ignores the fact.
Next month will mark the 50th anniversary of Friedman’s launching his public career as America’s most prominent defamer of Israel. Perhaps it’s fitting that in his Sept. 25 column, he sank to what may be his moral low point when he characterized Israel’s anti-terror operation in the Gaza Strip as “killing for killing’s sake.”
A person or country that kills “for killing’s sake” represents the essence of evil. The last time Friedman used that phrase was to describe Muslim terrorists who slaughtered 170 civilians in
He launched his career as America’s most prominent defamer of Israel as a student at Brandeis in 1974.
India. That’s what Friedman thinks of Israel defending itself against mass murderers and gangrapists in Gaza.
And it is essentially what Friedman has been saying about Israel, sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly, for half a century now.
It was on Nov. 12, 1974, that Friedman began his career in attacking Israel. That was the day he and some fellow students at Brandeis University placed an open letter in the Brandeis Justice, the school’s student newspaper, denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the American Jewish community for opposing PLO head Yasser Arafat’s appearance at the United Nations.
Friedman and his friends declared that the mass Jewish rally outside the United Nations would “only reinforce Jewish anxiety and contribute to Israel’s further isolation.” They demanded that Rabin “negotiate with all factions of the Palestinians, including the PLO.”
Remember that it was a time when the PLO was not even pretending to be moderate or ready to live in peace with Israel. Just months earlier, PLO terrorists had proudly massacred dozens of Israeli schoolchildren in the towns of Kiryat Shmona and Ma’alot.
[Editor’s note: Arafat’s speech at the UN General Assembly was made famous by his wearing a gun belt and holster, “reluctantly removing his pistol before mounting the rostrum,: according to the Associated Press.]
Friedman was very proud of his extremist position — until a few years later, when he realized that it would be to his advantage to pretend that he had never criticized Israel before.
In 1982, Friedman was a junior reporter on the staff of the New York Times when he was assigned to cover the Israel-Lebanon war.
He wrote a series of front-page articles denigrating Israel and then turned those articles into
Palestinians have a custom of celebrating in the streets Israel is attacked or a Jew is murdered by terrorists.
The latest such celebrations took place on Oct. 1, 2024, when Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. The celebrations occurred even though some of the missiles fell in Palestinian areas; the only person killed was, ironically, a Palestinian man in the city of Jericho.
In one West Bank village, Palestinians erected a monument from the tail of an Iranian missile to celebrate Iran’s attack. Similar celebrations took place both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip when Iran launched its first direct missile and drone attack against Israel in April. According to a report by Iran’s Tehran Times: It was also a sleepless night in Ramallah and other cities in the occupied West Bank, that saw excited crowds of Palestinians gathering in the streets and pointing to the skies amid the visible trails of Iranian missiles flying, with a celebratory mood until the early hours of Sunday morning.
The largest celebrations occurred on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas terrorists and “ordinary” Palestinians invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip and murdered 1,200 Israelis. During the attack, thousands of Israelis were raped, tortured and burned alive, while 251 others were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. A year later, 101 Israeli hostages are still being held by Hamas terrorists.
Avideo from the Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera television network titled “Palestinians overjoyed with the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation” (the name Hamas uses to describe its Oct. 7 attack) showed celebrations in the
a best-selling book, “From Beirut to Jerusalem.” Its theme was that he was a strong supporter of Israel until he saw Israel’s actions in Lebanon, which “disillusioned him” and made him a critic of Israel. And that has been the leitmotif of his very lucrative career ever since.
The entire premise of the book was a lie, as his attacks on Israel at Brandeis demonstrated. But in the pre-Internet era, reporters weren’t going to take the trouble to comb through back issues of a student newspaper in Massachusetts. So Friedman got away with it.
As the Times’ bureau chief in Jerusalem
from 1984 to 1988, and then as a Times op-ed columnist ever since, he has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in America. He has even tried to influence US foreign policy. According to thenSecretary of State James Baker, Friedman would feed him anti-Israel policy advice when the two played tennis.
Baker credited Friedman for the notorious episode in which Baker publicly humiliated Israel by sarcastically announcing the White House phone number and declaring that the Israelis should call when they got serious about peace.
Thomas Friedman: Hating Israel for 50 years Palestinian tradition of cheering death of Jews
Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The Iranian-affiliated Lebanese TV station Mayadeen aired a report about Palestinian celebrations in the West Bank, where sweets were handed out in Nablus and guns were fired in Jenin “in jubilation.” A little girl can be seen waving a rifle and a handgun in the air.
Palestinian activist Omar Assaf praised the Hamas attack:
The resistance has proven today, once again, that the only option the people support is the option of resistance and confrontation, and proved, once again, that this occupation is weaker than a spider web, like [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah said.
In 2004, thousands of Palestinians spilled onto the streets of the Gaza Strip to celebrate a twin suicide bombing in southern Israel that killed 16 people. The Palestinians celebrating, estimated to number about 20,000, threw sweets in the air and chanted slogans in support of Hamas, which took credit for the terrorist attack.
The Palestinians are also happy to see Americans targeted by terrorists. While Israel declared a “national day of mourning” in solidarity with the United States after the 9/11 attacks, Palestinians celebrated by handing out sweets, firing guns in the air and chanting Allahu Akbar (Allah is the greatest).
The Palestinian Authority has since been celebrating the 9/11 attacks with cartoons glorifying Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or mocking and attacking the United States.
The PA’s official media outlets made a concerted effort to bash the United States by rubbing salt in its most sensitive wounds, and by depicting America as evil, while appropriating Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims as the victims.
After the massacre and atrocities committed by Palestinians on Oct. 7, Fatah Revolutionary Council member Adnan Al-Damiri,
repeated the accusation (Facebook, Dec. 20, 2023) that the US knew about the 9/11 attacks but wanted them to happen: They [Israel] knew about this [Oct. 7 attack] and were silent because they wanted that what happened would happen, just as their teacher [America] did in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
It is hard to forget how the Palestinians also celebrated when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired Scud missiles at Israel more than 30 years ago.
Here is what the Washington Post wrote about the celebrations back then
As Iraqi missiles fell on Israel’s coastal plain Friday and Saturday, Palestinian residents
here huddled in rooms sealed with masking tape and bleach-soaked cloths, in case the warheads contained deadly chemical agents. Still, when they heard the thud of explosions, they cheered for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. ‘We were happy. A little scared, maybe, but mainly happy,’ said May, a shopkeeper, during a two-hour break today in the military curfew imposed by occupying Israeli forces. Added Amer, a 15-year-old boy who stood nearby: ‘It’s wonderful that missiles hit Tel Aviv’.”
Last month, PA.President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, ignored Hamas’ Oct. 7 attroci-
See Phillips on page 26 See Tawil on page 26
Palestinians celebrate in Gaza City following a terror attack in Jerusalem that left seven Israelis dead, on Jan. 27, 2023. Atia Mohammed, Flash90
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (right) with Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron, at the Cave of the Patriarchs on Dec. 1, 2022. Courtesy
BassaM Tawil
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Continued from page 21
This is talking about Kibbutz Galiyot, the ingathering of all the exiles at the time of the Final Redemption. It continues, quoting two verses from Zechariah (9:14-15): “And it is said, And Hashem will appear to them and His arrow will go forth like a flash of lightning, and my L-rd will sound the shofar and shall go southward with storm winds. Hashem, Master of Legions, will shield them.”
But if you look at the Hebrew, the word for southward is not darom or negba, but teiman — the Hebrew name for Yemen.
How can you read these pesukim in our tefilla and not see that is exactly what happened!
Hashem sounded an alarm “as if a shofar was sounded” (the warning sirens in Israel). Then “His arrow will go forth like a flash of lightning.”
The Arrow missile interceptor system took out the missiles fired from where? from teiman, from Yemen! The videos we all saw show multiple interceptions taking out missiles and their fragments like “flashes of lightning” in the sky.”
Hashem went in “b’saarot teiman (like storm winds heading south)” to Yemen. And then the verse continues, “Hashem, Master of Legions, will shield them.” Isn’t that truly what happened? As we said, no Jew was killed, not one!
And finally the prayer ends with the plea, “So may You shield Your people with Your peace.” Isn’t that precisely what we need most right now?
How many times in the past have I read these verses in tefilla, understanding it perhaps as a metaphor, only now to be revealed by the power of hindsight granted to us by Hashem, that it is literally true.
My friends, if you want to truly understand what is happening, keep your eyes and ears open. Hashem is constantly broadcasting to us in real time. The frequency and platform is Tanach and tefilla
Dr. Alan Mazurek is a retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida. He is a former chairman of the Zionist Organization of America. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Weinreb…
Continued from page 21
he found chen in the eyes of the L-rd.
One particularly insightful commentator, however, will have none of this. I refer to Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, the eighteenth-century author of the work Ohr HaChaim, who does not wish to define chen as unearned favor.
Rather, he suggests that there are virtuous behaviors which are performed so simply and so modestly that they are not seen as such. They are taken for granted by the observer and even by the virtuous individual himself. These actions seem petty and trivial to us mortals, but to the Almighty, they are shining and glorious deeds, deserving of the highest rewards.
The author of Ohr HaChaim maintains that there are several, although few, such mitzvos that we take lightly but which are of great spiritual significance. There is no explicit list of these mitzvot, or else we would concentrate on fulfilling them, and only them, to the exclusion of all other mitzvot.
Noah was thus an individual who seems quite ordinary in the eyes of others, but the L-rd viewed his ordinary deeds with divine eyes, and in His eyes, Noah deserved to be spared.
All of us can be comforted, then, that although we may often judge ourselves to be undeserving, we are unduly harsh in our self-judgement. For surely there is much that we’ve done in the way of charitable and otherwise praiseworthy deeds that we have underrated but which merited inclusion in the divine list of deeds deserving chen.
We pray that the Almighty “plays favorites” with us and judges us less harshly than we sometimes judge ourselves, and grants us a good and sweet year, beginning with Parshat Bereshit.
To reach Rabbi Weinreb, write: Columnist@ TheJewishStar.com
Continued from page 21
items display a unity that we ought to have, particularly after Yom Kippur, when we vowed to be better to one another.
But it goes deeper. The esrog proves that a fruit can have more than one of good quality, and that if one good quality is unavailable, that doesn’t take away from our ability to find others.
And I would argue that the same is true of the hadassim, lulav and aravos. If they are meant to be metaphors for people, we need to see them as possessing more qualities. We can limit the appeal of a myrtle branch to one or two things, but that’s a branch. People are much more complicated.
This is one reason why the deterioration of dialogue between opposing views is so devastating to a culture. Instead of hearing another person and properly weighing pros and cons, considering the other side and refining one’s own viewpoint, we tend to put people who think differently into boxes, dismissing their thought process and their feelings without getting to know them.
How many intelligent people have been unfairly painted as fools, as uncaring, as childish, for simply having a different viewpoint?
People are more complex than that.
I promise you that if the hadas had another quality other than its smell, we would be allowed to benefit from it — certainly when not engaged in the mitzvah.
This holiday of simcha gives us an opportunity to walk around, knock on busy sukkahs, and try to get to know one another, even just a little.
And who knows? While we can easily find points to disagree, with the right attitude and direction of conversation, maybe we can find so many more to agree. We can find perspectives we never considered before.
We can take the lesson of the arba minim, the different kinds of Jews, and create a tapestry of unity that weaves different groups together, differences and all, into a cohesive embodiment of mitzvah-fulfilling kiddush Hashem makers.
If we can do that, we will have earned the right to gladden others and celebrate the holidays with joy.
Avi Billet, who grew up in the Five Towns, is a South Florida-based mohel and rabbi of Anshei Chesed Congregation in Boynton Beach. This column was previously published. To reach Rabbi Billet, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Gerber…
Continued from page 21
bi Sack’s work, and that of Dr. Segal, deserve your attention and study.
Another feature in Rabbi Sack’s Sukkot machzor is his excellent introduction and commentary to the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). Given the joyous nature of this holiday, the reading of this somber book benefits from this sober interpretation by one of this generation’s leading theologians. This feature is not some sidebar interpretation, but long overdue expansive interpretation.
“Sukkot is the time we ask the most profound question of what makes a life worth living,” writes Rabbi Sacks. “Having prayed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to be written in the Book of Life, Kohelet forces us to remember how brief life actually is, and how vulnerable. ‘Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom’.”
Further on we learn that, “Most majestically of all, Sukkot is the festival of insecurity. It is the candid acknowledgment that there is no life without risk, yet we can face the future without fear when we know we are not alone.
“G-d is with us, in the rain that brings blessings to the earth, in the love that brought the universe and us into being, and in the resilience of spirit that allowed a small and vulnerable people to outlive the greatest empires the world has ever known.”
This column was originally published in 2016. To reach Alan Gerber, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Continued from page 22
Arabs over possession of the land of Israel. The fact that the conflict isn’t racial doesn’t matter because to speak of this reality would prevent him from painting a largely fictional picture of a Jewish state he would like to see destroyed.
Coates dismisses Zionism as mere colonialism. He does this by misconstruing the writing of Zionist founding fathers who used the word in a very different way than he does or by simply falsely claiming that Israel’s birth was somehow the work of imperialism rather than by an act of what can only be fairly described as decolonization.
He ignores or dismisses the fact that by any objective standard, the Jews are the indigenous people in that small country with millennia of ties illustrated by archeological evidence as well as the historical narrative of the Bible. For him, the archeological park at the City of David is mere Zionist propaganda.
In this way, Jewish rights and history aren’t so much misinterpreted as denied altogether.
Literally whitewashing Jews
The fact that Israel is the most successful multicultural country in the world outside of the United States is similarly denied. Those Israelis who are not identifiably “white” — whether they are part of the Mizrachi majority (coming from other countries in the Mediterranean or Arab Mideast) or Ethiopians — are merely the moral equivalent of blacks who served the Confederacy or Jim Crow governments with no legitimacy.
Equally telling is his view that the Palestinians, who play the role of oppressed former slaves in his personal psychodrama version of the Middle East, have no agency, and their actions don’t matter.
Hard as it may be to imagine, his book never mentions terrorism, the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis, the numerous rejections of peace offers and independence by the Palestinians. Hamas and Oct. 7 rate not a single mention anywhere in his text. It is not so much an example of bad reporting or history as a parody of a book about a complicated topic.
All of this leads him to believe that Israel has no right to exist, and nothing will shake him of this conviction that one Jewish state on the planet is one too many. In the context of current conflicts with Hamas in the south, Hezbollah to the north and other Iranian proxies bent on Islamizing the region, that makes him a tacit supporter of the genocide of Israeli Jews.
As such, it is, as Dokoupil pointed out, an extremist text that is pure polemic.
Serious people and responsible media ought to treat his book as unworthy of comment. The legacy media, however, sees it as a meditation of great importance that must not to be probed in the same way any book that brings a funhouse mirror look at a complex set of issues would be.
Collapse of mainstream journalism
The fact that, for example, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria (someone the foreign-policy establishment wrongly treats as the gold standard in journalism) gave Coates a lengthy interview during which he allowed him to spout his hate for Israel almost unchallenged is significant. That Zakaria gave far less time to the 75-yearold French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy — the author of a much more important book about Oct. 7 and its ramifications titled “Israel Alone” — on the same program spoke volumes about Coates’s celebrity and the distorted values of the news network.
So, while this latest book by Coates will not likely be remembered, its reception and the opprobrium directed at Dokoupil deserve to be noted as yet another moment in which the moral bankruptcy of American journalism was made obvious.
A generation of young journalists — educated largely in elite institutions of higher learning where they were indoctrinated in the same toxic theories that animate Coates’ writing — are not only ready to applaud such tripe. They believe that anyone who calls him out is,
by definition, a right-wing racist whose views must be suppressed.
Though reportedly, Shari Redstone — the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, which owns CBS — told network executives that she disagreed with how the situation was handled, such interventions aren’t nearly enough to reverse the damage being done to American journalism by the woke tide. The tipping point at outlets like CBS and the New York Times was reached four years ago during the Black Lives Matter riots as “progressives” took over newsrooms, intimidating editors and publishers alike. It is way past time to stop treating these outlets as journalism and view them, as we should Coates, as simple purveyors of woke propaganda.
The problem today is not just the fact that intellectual quacks like Coates are embraced by literary fashion and reflect what has become orthodox beliefs at most colleges and universities. It’s that the best defense any republic has against the spread of such myths — a free press — has already capitulated to the liars.
To reach Jonathan S. Tobin, write: Columnist@ TheJewishStar.com
Phillips…
Continued from page 23
Over the years, Friedman’s rhetoric has become more and more extreme.
In his New York Times column of Feb. 5, 2004, Friedman declared that Israel’s prime minister has “had George Bush under house arrest in the Oval Office … surrounded by Jewish and Christian pro-Israel lobbyists, by a vice president, Dick Cheney, who’s ready to do whatever Mr. Sharon dictates.”
Friedman also claimed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Jewish lobbyists, Vice President Cheney and unnamed “political handlers” were “all conspiring to make sure the president does nothing [regarding Israel].” Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch called Friedman’s statement, with its conspiratorial allegations about Jews, “an anti-Semitic slur.”
In his Dec. 13, 2011 column for the Times, Friedman wrote that the standing ovations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received when he addressed Congress that year were “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.”
On Nov. 19, 2013, Friedman wrote that there is “a growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations.”
If a white supremacist accused Jews of bribing Congress, controlling the president and “killing for killing’s sake,” he would be universally denounced as a bigot. It’s hard to see why Friedman doesn’t deserve to be described the same way.
To reach Moshe Phillips, write: Columnist@ TheJewishStar.com
Tawil…
Continued from page 23
ties and instead accused Israel of committing “massacres,” “crimes” and “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian leaders who do not have the courage, or are unwilling, to denounce terrorism will never be able to call on their people to recognize Israel’s right to exist, let alone make peace with it. Palestinians who celebrate the murder of their neighbors are not ready for a state, which would undoubtedly be used as a springboard to slaughter more Jews and to try to destroy Israel.
There is no excuse for celebrating murder. A society that celebrates murder will never be a partner for peace. True peace will only come when Palestinian leaders value their people’s lives more than celebrating the murder of Jews.
Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East published by Gatestone Institute. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
