The Jewish Star 03-21-2025

Boys join Lemmer at YIW dinner

LIer is 10K Birthright volunteer

Long Islander Madison Stock is the 10,000th participant in the Birthright Israel volunteer program. The 22-year-old from Woodbury has extended her visit to Israel after completing work on agricultural projects in Moshav Gamzu, Moshav Zeitan, Moshav Beit Yitzchak, Moshav Gan Haim and Hinanit. Stock participated in the 10-day Birthright Israel trip last summer, fell in love with the country, and decided to return as a volunteer. In the US, she works in event planning and the restaurant business. Read how Birthright impacts the children of participants, on page 8.

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JnS Editor-in-Chief

Alan Dershowitz may have written a book titled “Chutzpah,” but if anyone’s picture deserves to be in the dictionary alongside that idiomatic Yiddish word, it’s that of Sen. Chuck Schumer.

There is fierce competition for such a dubious honor among politicians. But when it comes to the most shameless opportunist, most disingenuous and most willing to betray the principles he never stops telling us he is dedicated to defending, the Senate Minority Leader wins the argument hands down.

Any doubt about that was erased when it was announced that he was writing a book about antisemitism, due to be released this week. But his office just canceled the senator’s book tour, which would have taken him to stops at prestigious Jewish venues in Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and California. The reason cited was “security concerns.”

That really seals the deal. At a time when Jews are facing an unprecedented surge in hate directed against them, that a Jewish leader who is protected around the clock by Capitol Police — and who claims to be a leader of his community, as well as the self-styled shomer or “guardian” of Israel — would choose to hide rather than face his critics says all there is to know about him, his book and exactly why we don’t need to hear a word from him on the subject.

The shomer title is a piece of dishonest shtick that Schumer has been using his entire adult life, all spent in political office. It’s an attempt to cash in on the fact that his name sounds like the Hebrew word for “guardian” or “watchman.” In truth, its meaning derives from a German word that meant “shoemaker” or a good-for-nothing vagabond.

That wouldn’t matter if the 74-year-old

had acted as the shomer of the Jewish community or a valiant supporter of Israel during his 44 years serving in Washington, the last 26 in the Senate. When running for re-election or speaking to Jewish groups, he puts on a show whose purpose is to portray himself as an ordinary guy from Brooklyn determined to look out for other Jews and the most devoted friend of Israel in Congress.

The truth has always been different.

Schumer is — like many in his profession and much of humanity — solely interested in his own interests and professional advance-

The Jewish Star will not publish next week.

We will return

on Wednesday, April 5, with our pre-Pesach issue.

Shulem Lemmer was accompanied by three of Rabbi Shay and Rebbetzin Rina Schachter’s children, as he performed during last week’s dinner marking the Young Israel of Woodmere’s 64th anniversary, at Marina Del Rey in Throgs Neck. Ira Thomas

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol on March 14. Tasos Katopodis, Getty Images via JNS

Woodmere YI marks Rabbi Schachter’s decade

At a fundraising dinner marking its 64th year, the Young Israel of Woodmere celebrated the leadership of Rabbi Shay and Rina Schachter as they marked ten years of service to the shul.

More than 700 people came together to express appreciation for the Schachters’ impact on the Jewish communities in the Five Towns and beyond.

“This is not just a celebration of the past ten years,” Rabbi Schachter said at the dinner. “It is a commitment to the future — to continue strengthening our connection to To-

rah, to one another, and to Hashem.”

“Serving under the leadership of Rabbi Shalom Axelrod, alongside Rabbi Glatt and Rabbi Wolf, and previously under Rabbi Hershel Billet’s leadership, has been an incredible honor,” he said in a message preceding the dinner.

“The opportunity to teach, learn, and grow together has been a source of great inspiration and joy for our family.”

“Our commitment to Torah learning and growth has also been intertwined with our deep love and support for Eretz Yisrael,”

Rabbi Schachter continued.

“As a community, we have stood together in support of Israel, advocating for those in need and acting with compassion and sensitivity during challenging times.

“In recent months, our collective efforts to support the hostages, their families, and others impacted by the ongoing conflict have been a testament to the strength of our bond, both within the walls of this shul and beyond. The values of Ahavas Yisrael and commitment to Torah have guided us through it all.”

evening included a

The YIW said that under Rabbi Schachter’s leadership, the shul community experienced tremendous growth in Torah learning, youth programming, and chesed initiatives; his ability to connect with people of all ages and backgrounds strengthened the spiritual fabric of the shul, while Rina’s dedication to women’s learning and community engagement has served as a role model for many inside and outside the shul community.

News submitted by the YIW.

In Long Beach, it’s a community Purim at the BACH Jewish Ctr

The Long Beach Fire Department helped ignite the ruach at BACH Jewish Center’s Purim celebrations by participating in the shul’s annual Megillah reading and community Purim party.

Festivities began with Mincha, where Sam Pinto, Long Beach’s only Jewish professional firefighter, was called to the Torah. He later participated in the ancient tradition of Machazit Hashekel, symbolically counting halfshekel coins to represent the Jewish people.

The celebration continued with a Megillah reading, followed by a party,

where members of the Long Beach Fire Department engage with community members. Children from across the barrier island dressed up as firefighters and learned about the department’s operations.

While participants dined, BACH Rabbi Benny Berlin took the stage to present a commemorative plaque to the Fire Department.

“Our sages teach us that our forefathers were counted twice in the Torah — once by half-shekel and once by name,” said Rabbi Berlin, who also serves as chaplain for the Long Beach Police Department.

“The latter shows the value of each individual, and the former, by number, demonstrates the strength of unity.

“How fitting it is that our firefighters joined us in this tradition. Their collec-

Amid Abraham Accords, Dubai

By Anna Rahmanan

For $29.99, Oh! Nuts sells a kosher, pareve “Dubai chocolate bar,” a “luxurious confection that blends rich tradition with modern indulgence.” Two North Miami Beach sellers, Sweet Tooth and Le Chocolatier, hawk kosher Dubai chocolate, for $12 to $89 and for $20 respectively.

“Joining the Dubai chocolate bar fever is not difficult,” gushed the Orthodox Union Kosher Certification Service’s blog. What began in 2021 as a TikTok non-kosher phenomenon — chocolate filled with pistachio and knafeh, essentially shredded filo dough — has found its way into the Jewish world. David Meubauei, owner of the kosher, Crown Heights-based ice-cream shop Boozery, calls its Dubai chocolate, which sells for $10, a “delightful blend of creamy and textured bites.”

Meubauei began offering Dubai chocolate last June, “well ahead for the Jewish market,” he said. “I started when it was going viral in the non-Jewish world, and most Jews didn’t know what it was.” The Dubai-based Fix Dessert Chocolatier debuted the treat,

tive efforts give us peace of mind, knowing that if an emergency arises, they will respond without hesitation. Yet, their individual skills and teamwork on the scene make them so effective.”

The evening served as a poignant reminder of the first responders’ essential role in Long Beach, highlighting the city’s spirit of unity how neighbors come together to support each other during times of challenge or celebration.

The Fire Department’s participation in BACH’s Purim celebration is part of the shul’s efforts to include local heroes in its events.

Founded in 1946 as Bachurei Chemed, the BACH Jewish Center is one of Long Island’s most prestigious and oldest synagogues.

News submitted by BACH Jewish Ctr.

inspired by traditional Arabic sweets. Originally called Can’t Get Knafeh of It, it spread on social media, particularly TikTok. The rebranded “Dubai chocolate” took off in 2024.

“I thought the trend would die within a month or two. I’ve worked with viral food trends before, like the Starbucks unicorn drink, and those never lasted long,” Meubauei said. “But Dubai chocolate is still pumping. People are ordering crazy numbers for Purim.”

Jewish consumers have embraced Dubai chocolate because of its familiar flavors, according to Meubauei.

“The funny thing is, Jews don’t do well with unfamiliar flavors. They like what they like,” he said. “The ingredients in Dubai chocolate, like pistachio and knafeh, are flavors that Persian and Syrian Jews already know from baklava and other Middle Eastern desserts. It fits nicely within the Jewish community.”

Meubauei is skeptical about how much longer the trend will last.

“I’m definitely looking for the next viral thing, but right now, people love that I’m making these trends kosher,” he said.

Purim at BACH in Long Beach, counter clockwise from top: Yizchok Klitnick, Yochi Klitnick, Mitch Foont and Long Beace Fire Department Firefighter Sam Pinto.

Colish

At the Young Israel of Woodmere’s 64th anniversary dinner — Left photo, from left: Rabbi Shalom Axelrod, Rabbi Shay Schachter, Rebbetzin Rina Schachter, YIW Executive Director Steven Myers and YIW

President Ari Schulman. Myers is holding a gift to the Schachter’s that reads (in English translation), “He who sows wheat cares for a year. He who plants trees cares for years. He who educates souls cares

for generations.” Right photo, from left: Atara and Ari Stawis, Adam and Daniella Cohen, Elana and Duvie Levine, Michael and Alyse Appelbaum, Sara and Kevin Hagler, and Levi Farkas. Ira Thomas

The

concert by Shulem Lemer.

Dubai chocolate. Courtesy of Garcia Nevett Chocolatier de Miami

• Obstetrics & Gynecology

• Maternal-Fetal Medicine

• Gynecology-Oncology

• Breast Surgery

• Urogynecology

•

• Diagnostic Ultrasounds

• Breast Biopsy Procedures

• Bone Density Testing

• Nutrition Services

Emunah Israel marks milestone anniversary

By Atara Beck, JNS

Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the World Emunah Women’s Leadership in Israel Conference celebrated 90 years since the establishment of Emunah Israel.

“World Emunah has two mandates: to improve the lives of the Jewish people in Israel, together with our supporters from around the world, and to represent religious Zionist women on the world stage,” Tema Klausner, president of World Emunah, told JNS. “We are independent members of the World Zionist Organization, Keren Kayemet LeIsrael, the Jewish Agency for Israel and Keren Hayesod.”

The celebratory event was held at the Nefesh B’Nefesh Jerusalem Aliyah Campus on March 6.

Emunah Israel, a leading social service agency with more than 100 chapters across the country, was founded in 1935 “to deal with the challenges of contemporary society.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s grandmother was among the founders of Emunah nine decades ago.

“As a founding mother of Emunah, she deeply believed in the importance of social welfare and community support,” Herzog said. “The organization grew and flourished, achieving remarkable success. As her grandson and as the 11th president of the State of Israel, I take great pride in Emunah’s ongoing contributions in Israel and throughout the Jewish world.”

The founders’ focus “was on saving children,” Klausner explained. “Children came here from Europe and Arab countries as orphans, or their parents couldn’t come with them, and Emunah saved their lives.

“It was life and death. They established children’s homes, provided food and shelter, and tried to create some kind of home life for these children to relieve some of their trauma.”

Aside from the 12 counseling and therapy centers across the country, World Emunah projects today include daycares, residential children’s homes, high schools, colleges, adult education, crisis centers and women’s shelters, among other initiatives.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, World Emunah has faced extraordinary challenges due to the nationwide trauma and the war effort. “World Emunah has always had a large focus on therapy,” Klausner said.

“I don’t know how they did it, but they did such a good job that the city of Sderot,” which has experienced huge trauma not only since October 7, but also for many years prior, “had them teach their own therapists at the welfare centers about how to be better therapists, having undergone their own trauma, she continued.

Klausner made aliyah in 2009 from Passaic, NJ.

“To me, the most impactful — the project I love most — is the Neve Landy Children’s Village, a residential home for boys in Even Shmuel in southern Israel,” she said. “Many of them had been hospitalized in psychiatric institutions, and they would be lost if they weren’t with us. We’re like their last hope. It’s a unique place.”

“Some of these boys have a home to go back to, but it isn’t necessarily a home they could function in. There are boys who had no hope left for themselves. But everyone who leaves there has become the maximum that he could be, whatever that may be. Many of them go on to be soldiers in the IDF — not necessarily combat, but they enlist, and they’re very proud to enlist.”

“It’s a very high male staff population, and on Oct. 8, they were almost without staff. Everyone was called up. So, what happened was that anyone who had been affiliated in a way that could be helpful came to help. We had volunteers filling in until they could figure out what to do. It was just incredible.”

Stephanie Strauss, executive director of Yeshiva University in Israel and a participant at the anniversary event, said that “the core pillars of Emunah resonate deeply with me on a personal level and with many of our YU alumni in Israel.”

Naomi Maryles, managing director of the global law firm DLA Piper, explained what inspired her to participate.

“I believe that women’s leadership is crucial for fostering diverse perspectives and driving innovation,” she said. “By sharing my experiences and insights, I hope to empower other women to pursue leadership roles, especially in the Jewish olim community, which is obviously close to my heart.”

All funds raised by World Emunah in the Diaspora are spent inside Israel.

“We don’t have any projects outside of Israel, but we do impact outside of Israel,” Klausner said. “We have strong connections with our member organizations. We impact them by helping them be a part of Emunah, and especially now, with all the new challenges facing those communities since October 7. Also, we represent them on the world stage.”

Asked if she had a special message for readers, Klausner said: “My mother was a great role model for volunteering. I would say the most important thing is to just do it. You don’t have to be wealthy, and you don’t have to be brilliant.

“All you need is a pure desire to help the Jewish nation and you’ll be successful at whatever you do. If you can’t do X plus Y, it’s OK to just do X or Y. It doesn’t have to be big, but every little thing makes an impact. Just get involved; Just do it!”

From left: Dina Hahn, chair of the Board of World Emunah and Israel Emunah; first lady Michal Herzog, and Tema Klausner, president of World Emunah.

Courtesy Tema Klausner

Jews guess how new Canadian PM views Israel

By Dave Gordon, JNS

Mark Carney, Canada’s new prime minister — who won more than 85% of the Liberal party votes to succeed Justin Trudeau — has been relatively quiet about Israel and antisemitism in Canada, Jewish leaders told JNS.

“He’s made it his business to say nothing,” the Canadian-Israeli lawyer Vivian Bercovici, who was Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2014 to 2016, told JNS.

Bercovici has asked Carney “on many occasions” on social media to speak out about the “complete lack of law enforcement with respect to the pro-Hamas demonstrations, particularly those in Jewish neighborhoods” but hasn’t received a response back, she said, adding that his silence “left us with a vacuum.”

Trudeau, who has drawn extensive criticism from the right for not being vocal enough about Jew-hatred but whom supporters say has a strong track record on Jewish issues, stepped down from office on Jan. 6. The next federal election is due no later than Oct. 20, but it could be called earlier.

Bercovici thinks that there is “no reason to surmise” that Carney will take “a different view of anything” than Trudeau did. “If he did, it’s difficult to understand why he wouldn’t have said something,” she said.

Avi Benlolo, founding chair and CEO of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative, told JNS that “the Jewish community is on a wait-andsee mode with Mr. Carney.”

“The Liberals have a long road ahead when it comes to proving they see Israel as an ally and want to defeat antisemitism,” he said. “We encourage Mr. Carney to make this a top priority not just for Canadian Jews, but to save Canada itself.”

One of the few times that Carney commented on social media about the Middle East was a Feb. 5 post, in which he wrote that “President Trump’s proposed forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is deeply disturbing.”

“It would violate the rights of Palestinians and international law, and it would set back efforts to promote peace and security for all in the region,” he wrote. “I support the hard work of reaching a two-state solution, with a viable and free Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the state of Israel.”

Carney, who turned 60 on March 16, grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, and has made a career out of finance and public service. The Harvard University alumnus earned both a master’s and a doctorate in economics from University of Oxford. He worked at Goldman Sachs in New York City, London and Tokyo.

In 2003, he moved to the public sector, as deputy governor of the Bank of Canada. He was the Canadian senior associate deputy minister of finance from 2004 to 2007.

“I continue to extend my full support to the Jewish community as we work to combat hate and ensure the perpetrators of these heinous acts are brought to justice,” he wrote.

Warren Kinsella, a Toronto Sun columnist and one of the most prominent, pro-Israel, non-Jewish writers in the country, wrote last month that “it’s no surprise that Carney’s been AWOL on the Israel-Hamas war.”

“Carney has aped his mentor, and observed a total media blackout on — all sides would agree — an issue that has become an important litmus test for one’s morality,” Kin-

Last month, Carney condemned an antisemitic attack on a Montreal synagogue, calling it “reprehensible vandalism” that continues the targeting of Jewish Canadians. “It has to stop,” he said. “As Canadian leaders, we need to say firmly and loudly that the Jewish community has the right to feel safe in Canada.”

sella wrote.

“He has embraced silence when, as the saying goes, silence equals complicity.” Kinsella added that Carney hasn’t said a word about the hostages, whom Hamas kidnapped on Oct. 7.

Jeremy Levi, the Jewish mayor of Hampstead, in the Montreal area, wrote on Jan. 14 that Carney had not mentioned the words “Israel” or “antisemitism” on his X page. Since Jan. 27, Carney has posted three times about antisemitism, but still hasn’t mentioned Israel.

“Silence speaks volumes, and his silence is deafening,” Levi wrote on Instagram. “Leadership demands courage, and on this front, he has shown none.”

In 2007, Carney was appointed governor of the Bank of Canada, a position he held until 2013. During his tenure, he played a role in navigating Canada through the 2008 global financial crisis. (He also visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in that capacity in 2012.)

Carney became the first non-British governor of the Bank of England in 2013, leading the institution through Brexit and the early stages of Covid-19 pandemic. His tenure at the bank lasted until 2020. He has subsequently taken on other roles, including chair and head of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management and board chair at Bloomberg. He also served as the United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance from 2020 to 2025.

Become a Silver Corps member and support your community, while receiving training and credentialling to show employers you are the right candidate for them.

Find out how to become a Silver Corps member by emailing silvercorps@ aging.nyc.gov or call Aging Connect at 212-AGING-NYC (212-244-6469) to learn more.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, gestures during a news conference in London in 2013. Simon Dawson, Bloomberg, Bank of England

Jew-hatred’s long-term psychological impact

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

A clinical psychologist says that Israeli expat children are suffering psychological distress at schools in Massachusetts amid a documented effort by anti-Israel elements of the Massachusetts Teachers Association to inject the public school curriculum with biased content.

Miri Bar-Halpern, director of intensive outpatient treatment services at the Boston Child Study Center and director of trauma training and services at Parents for Peace, told JNS that she has been noticing an increase in mental health issues with her Jewish Israeli patients at the kindergarten through 12th grade levels.

“There is an uptick of anxiety. There is depression. A lot of school avoidance. There is this fear of bullying, both from peers and from teachers,” said Bar-Halpern, who lectures at Harvard Medical School and holds a doctorate in clinical psychology. “They’re just afraid of going to school.”

“I have some patients who started self harming,” she said. “I have patients that are saying that they don’t want to be Jewish anymore, because everybody hates them.”

Sara Colb, deputy director for the Anti-Defamation League’s New England office, said that there has been a significant amount of anti-Israel activity in the union since Oct. 7, which she thinks has spilled over into “more overt antisemitism.”

“The Jewish teachers in the MTA, many of whom have connected with us and who have been keeping us apprised of the developments, have reported feeling a significant amount of hostility being targeted when they speak up against some of this anti-Israel activity within the union, and when they attempt to provide another perspective,” Colb said JNS.

The union’s influence on classroom experiences is having enough of a profound impact that seven or eight Israeli-born licensed therapists, who practice in the state, have shared with BarHalpern that they have had similar experiences

with their patients.

Bar-Halpern testified last month at a Massachusetts legislature hearing by the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism. She cited examples, including an Israeli immigrant child whose classmates told the kid that friends murdered during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel “deserved it.” The classmates also told the child to “stop playing the victim.”

In another school, a map of the Middle East didn’t include Israel, and Jerusalem was labeled as part of “Palestine.” Bar-Halpern testified that in that same school, swastikas were painted on the lockers of Jewish students.

These types of actions, for which Bar-Halpern blames the Massachusetts Teachers Association, have led to a phenomenon called “traumatic invalidation,” she said.

“It’s when someone who’s been traumatized is being gaslit or told that their feelings or thoughts are not important, or they’re not true,” she said. “It can really lead to changes of cognition and change how someone perceives themselves and others, all the way to PTSD symptoms.” (PTSD refers to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.)

Every Jewish person, including those who are not Israeli, who Bar-Halpern has seen recently has met the criteria for traumatic invalidation, she said.

“When it comes from school, which is where they spend most of their day, they really don’t feel like they have anywhere to go,” she said. “They don’t feel protected.”

The union passed a resolution in December 2023 that opened the door for its training and professional learning division to create “resources on Israel and occupied Palestine.”

That’s what the MTA calls a framework “for learning about the history and current events in Israel and Occupied Palestine, for MTA members to use with each other and their students.”

The union didn’t appear to create a similar resource for any other global conflict.

The framework includes one poster of a dollar bill folded up into a Jewish Star, and another with an image of George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a USdesignated foreign terrorist organization, above a silhouette of a terrorist armed with an assault rifle. There are also posters criticizing Zionism and calling for Israel to be erased.

The effects of such materials find their way into classrooms, according to Bar-Halpern.

“When someone is under a state of fear or trauma, their part of the brain that is supposed to be thinking and solving problems and executing functioning skills shuts down,” she said. “So from a physiological perspective, Jewish students cannot function academically like their peers right now, because they’re constantly hyper vigilant.”

Those perpetuating the hate will also feel the impact, according to Arno Michaelis, a rehabilitated former neo-Nazi and current exit interventionist at Parents For Peace.

“The MTA is just a symptom of a much larger problem,” Michaelis said. “There are, unfortunately, teachers unions throughout the country that hold a similar position as the MTA, which is rabid anti-Zionism.”

Those unions “swear up and down” that they aren’t peddling Jew-hatred, but Michaelis said his

challenge to them is, “if it’s anti-Zionism and isn’t antisemitism, then why do anti-Zionists espouse, word for word, the same antisemitic tropes as white nationalists?”

A white nationalist for seven years, which he said were “far and away the most miserable seven years of my life,” Michaelis said that the hate fomented by the MTA, which filters in the classroom, is causing long-term damage in the students the teachers are there to serve.

“It’s a miserable way to live, to see enemies everywhere you look, every waking moment of the day,” he said. “So whether the violent extremism flavor is violent Islamism or white nationalism or antifa, all of these violent extremist ideologies bring the same miserable experience, and all of them are rampantly antisemitic.”

The union head, who is Jewish, did not acknowledge at last month’s statehouse hearing that resource materials are antisemitic, but the MTA announced that it will remove the problematic resources. The union has yet to publish a list of revised resources, however, and a document shared with the Anti-Defamation League “continues to be extraordinarily biased, one sided and includes overtly harmful materials and some materials that were just plainly factually inaccurate,” Colb said.

Bar-Halpern is doing more research on traumatic invalidation among Massachusetts students.

“The research behind it is so profound on other minority groups, but it was never actually investigated on Jews,” she said. “In terms of long term effects, there are going to be chronic mental health issues, long term struggles with anxiety, depression.”

“They might have low self worth in adulthood,” she said. “They’re going to have trust issues, not trusting their peers or authority figures because their institutions are failing to protect them.”

Secure net debuts video-based student training

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

The Secure Community Network, the 21-year-old nonprofit that serves as the North American Jewish community’s official safety organization, wants Jewish students to prepare to keep themselves safe by watching tape like a football team would to prepare for its next opponent or the US Secret Service does during its advance work ahead of a presidential visit.

“College years are meant to be some of the best and most formative times in a young person’s life. Our goal is to equip Jewish students with the tools to fully embrace that experience while giving them the confidence to respond effectively in an emergency,” Kerri Reifel, SCN’s director of campus safety and security, told JNS.

“We want to ensure that fear doesn’t paralyze them,” she added. “It’s not about living in fear but about cultivating an awareness and preparedness mindset that allows them to feel secure and confident in any situation.”

Reifel and SCN walked JNS through an exclusive, first look at the nonprofit’s SafeU training program. It is part of the organization’s larger Operation SecureOurCampuses initiative, which has expanded its intelligence and training efforts across more than 50 high-risk universities. SCN helps Jewish students review video footage of real-life situations in interactive sessions with security experts. Situational awareness is key, according to Reifel.

“Once that becomes second nature, you can gradually add more, such as recognizing potential objects that could be used to protect yourself,” she said. “The key is to move at your own pace so the process doesn’t become overwhelming.”

“This is about fostering a new muscle, which will enhance your sense of confidence and control rather than fear,” she said.

Designed with student input, SafeU centers on participatory dialogue and was created for scenarios that have developed since Oct. 7,

College. It is highly interactive.

“They wanted to make decisions for themselves. They want to feel empowered,” Reifel said of the students. “This is what they’re experiencing. They tell us what they would do, and then we tell them, from all of our law enforcement experience, what we think is the best decision in these situations.”

“At the end of the day, you’re giving students the power to make decisions on their own and feel confident in what those decisions are,” she said. “It’s very unique training.”

Chad Lotman, the nonprofit’s national trainer and curriculum developer, told JNS that the program’s goal, rather than being specific to scenarios, is to ingrain general principles that students can use to make better decisions.

The training has four components: awareness, planning, training and action.

“With all the different things that were occurring on campus, it’s impossible to cover every scenario, so we came up with some scenarios — some generic, real-world scenarios, things that actually happened,” Lotman told JNS. “We found videos on social media and news coverage. We look for different videos of real-world events to focus our attention on.”

Awareness has been hard after Oct. 7, with

SCN tracking a record 5,409 threat incidents and suspicious activity reports in 2024, according to Lotman. Those include vandalism, harassment, physical assaults, terror plots and support for terrorist organizations. SCN referred 1,364 individuals to law enforcement in 2024, including for threats at universities, he said.

SafeU prepares students to be aware of what events, including protests and rallies, are happening on their campus, what threats or risks face the local community, what rights students have as local residents and students, what university codes of conduct are and what the laws are on harassment, stalking and assault.

“That’s good awareness for people to understand. Can I defend myself? What should I be reporting when I see these things happen?”

Lotman said. “Do I have a code of conduct as a student where there are certain things that limit my responses or may put me in a bad light if I do certain things?”

Students are also trained to consider whether the force on campus is law enforcement or unarmed security and whether security will protect Jewish students or leave them on their own.

SCN also teaches students to plan departure routes from events that could become volatile in advance and to know alternate routes around established protest sites on campus to avoid walking into hostile environments.

Once students are aware of potential threats and risks, they can make basic plans, like knowing the locations of exits from campus buildings they frequent and, in some cases, using those exits to make sure they are accessible, Lotman told JNS.

“That’s the type of training we can do that can help us in those moments when things happen suddenly,” he said. “You can make those decisions much faster, which leads to action.”

Lotman cited a video from an October 2024 incident in which Jewish students at Cooper

Union in Manhattan locked themselves in a library for about 40 minutes after Hamas supporters filed past security and pounded aggressively on the doors.

“We start with that interactive piece of our training, asking a lot of questions and trying to get the students thinking about what would they do if they got trapped in their dorm, in the library,” he said.

“The more we think about these things ahead of time and do that planning and training, the more options we come up with and the better options we may have as far as what our actions may be,” he said.

SCN is the official security provider and adviser for Hillel International, but SafeU training is also offered to Chabad branches, Greek life and the larger student population, according to Reifel.

“We tell our students, ‘Hey, bring your friends. They don’t have to be Jewish,’” she said. “This is just training for all college students. Yes, we designed it because of the current climate, but we really try to encourage our students to bring anyone that they want, and we offer it.”

Campus administrators have been helpful in coordinating the training sessions, Reifel said. When schools are presented with data and trend lines showing an escalation from more minor events like vandalism to direct targeting of Jewish students on campuses, they have generally been quick to react, often increasing the security presence on larger campuses substantially at potentially volatile events, she added.

Ultimately, though, SCN officials want students to prepare for anything.

“We can come up with those plans and we put those file folders away in our head, and they pop up when needed,” Lotman said. “I remember where that exit is, and I remember walking to that door, and I know exactly where it’s at, and it comes to us much more readily than if we’ve never thought about it and are under stress.”

2023, including violent protests at Columbia University and Barnard

Birthright impacts children of its participants

By Carin Smilk, JNS

A new study from the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., highlights the impact of Birthright Israel across the generations, revealing how the effects extend beyond participants to their children as opposed to those who applied to the program but did not go.

The study, which tracks long-term outcomes of Birthright participants, found that children of participants are more likely to be raised as Jews, more likely to have had a Jewish circumcision or a baby-naming ceremony, and more likely to be enrolled in formal and informal Jewish education compared to the children of nonparticipants.

Regardless of their partner choice (whether Jewish or non-Jewish), participants are also more likely to raise children who celebrate a bar or bat mitzvah, compared to nonparticipants.

“We have been surveying the same group of individuals — those who participated in the program and similar peers who applied but did not go — since 2009,” said Leonard Saxe, a professor at Brandeis University whose team conducted the study. “We have looked at how our panel members’ lives evolve as they age and the decisions they have made about family formation and engagement in Jewish life. What we have consistently found is that Birthright’s impact continues after the program ends and even for decades later.”

Birthright Israeli alumni, compared to their peers who applied to Birthright but never went, are:

•Raising their children exclusively Jewish, regardless of their spouse’s background (84%)

•More likely to send their children to Jewish overnight camps (65%)

• More likely to place their children in Jewish supplementary education programs (44%)

•More likely to provide their children with informal Jewish experiences (42%)

•More likely to provide their children with formal Jewish education (21%)

Birthright Israel “is the most powerful investment in securing the Jewish future,” said CEO Gidi Mark.

With more than 900,000 participants since the program was established in 1999, he said, “we are witnessing an intergenerational ripple effect — some may have had their bar mitzvah celebration for the first time on their Birthright Israel trip and are now raising their children to have one back home,” he said. “This study proves that Birthright Israel is not just a

journey; it’s a catalyst for strengthening Jewish identity, deepening connections to Jewish traditions and fostering a lifelong bond with Israel.”

Elie and Jenn Zussman are a case in point. The two met on the very first Birthright trip offered in December 1999. Both were enrolled in same-state schools at the time — he at Emory University in Atlanta and she at the University of Georgia in Athens — and were placed on the same bus.

They married in 2006 and have two daughters: Zoe, 13, and Maya, 12. The family, who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., is planning to travel to Israel in December for Maya’s bat mitzvah on Masada, meaningful to their parents because of an early interaction between the

two.

While Jenn Zussman, 45, grew up in a sizable Jewish community in Pikesville, Md., Birthright brought her to Israel for the first time.

She said being in the country reinforced her Jewish identity. “It was a complete shift in the trajectory of my life. It reinforced my time and energy around the Jewish people,” said the magazine publisher. “I knew I wanted to be part of that.”

It was, she said, her “a-ha moment.”

She has been back twice since then — in May 2019 as part of a Momentum women’s trip and again in November 2024.

As for Elie Zussman, 44, and a California native, even though he had been to Israel as a child (his father was born in British Mandatory Palestine), it was Birthright that brought him full circle.

Once there, he said, he felt “his soul was home.”

“I had to feel it and live it to be changed by it,” he said, recognizing even then that his most critical decisions were ahead of him. All these years later, the chemist, husband and father pointed out a key difference of being Jewish in America: “You have to live in the religion and see yourself in it; that is critical.”

The study also found that 35% of Birthright Israel alumni have returned to Israel, and that Birthright Israel alumni:

•Are twice as likely to feel very connected to Israel, even 20-plus years after their trip

•Have a 49% higher likelihood of having a Jewish spouse

•Have a 100% higher likelihood of having chaired a Jewish event

•Have a 150% higher likelihood of being an officer on the board of a Jewish organization.

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Chutzpadik Chuck Schumer not our ‘shomer’…

Continued from page 1

ment. But it has become hard to miss in recent years as his quest to be the leader of the Democratic caucus in the Senate came into conflict with a sea change within his own party when it comes to Israel and the Jews.

That produced episodes like the debate about the dangerous 2015 Iran nuclear deal promoted by former President Barack Obama.

Outside of the far left, the entire Jewish community and almost all Israelis were opposed to this act of appeasement to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Schumer didn’t feel he could get away with voting for it and also rightly feared that if he used his considerable influence to persuade fellow Democrats to join him in opposing it, it would alienate the president. More than that, it would doom his chances of becoming Democratic leader after Nevada Sen. Harry Reid retired after the next election in 2016.

So, he voted “no” but pledged not to advocate against Obama’s pet foreign-policy project.

He survived that slimy compromise in his usual manner in which he sought to assure both factions in his party — the remaining supporters of Israel, and the increasingly powerful and vocal intersectional left-wing hostile to the Jewish state — that they could rely on him.

After the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, it became a lot more difficult for Schumer to keep talking out of both sides of his mouth.

In March of last year, just five months after the slaughter of 1,200 men, women and children on Oct. 7, Schumer gave a speech on the floor of the Senate in which he demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resign and falsely accused the Israeli Defense Forces of targeting Arab civilians.

Why involve yourself in the domestic politics of a fellow democracy and seek to undermine its war of self-defense while it was fighting for its life against Palestinian terrorists?

The answer was that he did it to give cover to the Biden administration’s similar bashing of Netanyahu and the IDF. Schumer was in a position to rally support for the Jewish state during the war. He could have led the pushback against leftists within his own party, who were wrongly blaming Israel for genocide and pressuring President Joe Biden to slow-walk arms deliveries and engage in efforts that hampered Israel’s ability to eradicate Hamas. Instead, he used his unique position as Senate Majority Leader to legitimize critics.

That was a particularly loathsome but also predictably partisan performance for a man who had already shown a willingness to sink pretty low throughout his Senate career if by doing so he could gain favor from the Democratic base. He was, after all, the senator who in 2020 publicly threatened U S Supreme Court justices Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh if they voted against his preferred position on abortion, saying “You will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you.”

But, as he always does, Schumer got away with it.

Schumer has always been the sort of backer of Israel who couched his support in terms that regarded Jerusalem as only truly worthy if it did as its liberal American friends advised it to do. Like many other liberals, he still thinks of the conflict between the Jewish states and its foes as one that can be solved by a two-state solution. The overwhelming majority of Israelis stopped believing that way after the 1993 Oslo Accords proved to be a disaster amid the carnage of the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005. That the 2005 withdrawal of every Israeli soldier, settler and settlement from Gaza led to a Hamas terror state in the Strip solidified that consensus.

Like a great many American Jews, however, Schumer is still stuck in the past and feels that Israel ought to be saved from itself by forcing it to make suicidal concessions to the Palestin-

Schumer failed to lead the fight against Jew-hatred and he sought to undermine Israel’s government for partisan reasons.

ians. He continues to support a policy of imposing a Palestinian state on the region, even though Oct. 7 has demonstrated to Israelis from left to right what happens when the Palestinians get a safe haven from which they can plot attacks on them.

Yet Schumer’s betrayal of the Jewish community would be more fully exposed later in 2024, when a committee of the House of Representatives revealed that the senator was actually advising leaders of Columbia University in New York City not to worry too much about criticism of their failures to protect Jewish students in the weeks and months after Oct. 7 as the campus was turned upside down by antisemitic, pro-Hamas mobs. Schumer told them only Republicans cared about the issue.

The House subpoenaed the text messages from former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik to her board members about the advice given to her by the senator. While he talks a lot about how awful Jew-hatred is — mostly focusing on examples from the far right — he conveniently downplays or ignores what’s been going on inside the mainstream of his own party.

By telling Shafik that Columbia’s leaders should merely “keep [their] heads down,” Schumer showed his true colors. No one who gives a damn about antisemitism or the welfare of Jewish students would have said such a thing. It comes naturally, though, to someone who understands that the primary threat to his status as Senate Democratic leader and potentially to his heretofore safe seat comes from the antisemitic political left that is particularly strong in New York.

Indeed, the alleged worries about Schumer’s “security” this week don’t come from supporters of Israel. Instead, they come from the base of the Democratic Party which is upset that he didn’t use a filibuster to prevent the nation’s budget from being passed last Friday, thereby shutting down the government to spite President Donald Trump and the Republicans.

In the past, left-wing Democrats excoriated the GOP for threatening shutdowns over budget votes and labeled the “filibuster” a vestige of “Jim Crow” racism. But the anti-Trump “resistance” is now warning Schumer that he may face a primary challenge in 2028 from someone like “Squad” leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Queens and the Bronx for not doing their bidding and keeping the government funded.

This demonstrates just how little credit Schumer’s record of moral compromises and undermining Israel has earned him with his party’s base.

In the months after his comments to Columbia were revealed, Schumer twice frustrated friends of Israel. In the last weeks of the lame-duck Congress, he refused to allow a vote in the Senate on the Antisemitism Awareness Act that codified the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of the term into federal law. That measure overwhelmingly passed the House by a large margin and had majority support in the Senate.

Still, Schumer was worried about alienating so-called “progressives” in his party who traffic in the hatred of Israel and Jews.

After the new Congress took office in January, he used a cloture vote and the threat of a filibuster to block the passage of a bill that would have imposed serious sanctions on the International Criminal Court and all who do business with it because of their antisemitic prosecution of the Jewish state on false charge of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.

That’s an impressive list of actions that hurt Israel. And that brings us to his book launch.

After all that he’s done in recent years, he is the last person who should be treated as an authority on the fight against antisemitism or the need to stand with Israel during its war against genocidal Islamist terrorists.

•Perhaps only a man whose only gainful employment during his life has been that of a politician and who has spent the last four and a half decades telling the world how much of a defender of the Jews he is could believe what his press releases say.

•Only such a person so divorced from reality and the truth could have had the chutzpah to have a book published under his name (regardless of which staffers or ghosts actually wrote it) in which he proffers advice about how to fight a surge of Jew-hatred he has done so much to aid. This is the context in which his book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” should be viewed. Its content is irrelevant to the discussion. Any book on the subject from a man, let alone a Jew, who was advising those who enabled and tolerated antisemitism at Columbia to continue to do nothing about the targeting of Jewish students has no standing to speak or write about the subject. Self-respecting Jews and decent people of all faiths and backgrounds should simply ignore the book as the work of a shameless fraud.

His refusal to face his critics — be they in the Jewish community or from his party’s base that thinks he isn’t radical enough to suit them — is just one more indication of the same moral cowardice that he has exhibited time and again.

A fair-minded history of his sorry career will label him as not merely a typical political opportunist. He’s also a disgrace to his people and a crucial ally, whether they appreciate him or not, of those who have fomented an unprecedented surge of hatred against Jews.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

WINE AND DINE

Seder’s smells and tastes: Imprinted memories

Studies have shown that we are hardwired to form memories around food. Often, indelible memories connected to food may be the strongest memories we have. It is why recipes are handed down through generations, why women tried to remember their recipes even during the horrors of the Holocaust, why our children come home and ask for their favorite dishes, and why we make those same dishes for our grandchildren. We have collected those memories of smell and taste from our ancestors, and now we continue the memory trail by continuing to cook dishes that will evoke those memories and create memory “stamps” for our children. While we may remember a beloved breakfast food or dessert, most of us have indelible memories of the foods we ate around our holiday tables, especially, most people tell us, the Pesach tables of our childhoods. If you ask your children about food, they, too, are likely to tell you about the foods they remember from holidays.

Most importantly, the food that makes marks on our memories does not have to be fancy. Most food in the world is simple, what we might call peasant food. Our ancestors did not have spices or other worldly ingredients, but my grandmother made chicken soup I can still taste with only chicken, water, vegetables, and herbs. Nothing has ever tasted as delicious as that cooled soup my grandmother fed me when I was five and very ill with the measles it is a memory that endures decades later.

I often asked my freshmen college students to write an essay about their favorite holiday food. One student, a new immigrant from Cambodia, wrote about his favorite dish on his new favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. He wrote a beautiful essay filled with pride and love for his mom.

The recipe, as he wrote it, consisted of 3 pounds of potatoes and 6 sticks of browned butter! I am sure there was a misinterpretation of “sticks,” but it did not matter — this was the dish his mom had made for four years! His essay was filled with love and admiration for his mom and for his favorite dish that he will remember and treasure forever.

While we may not make potatoes with six sticks of butter, even the simplest recipe can evoke the love and the wonderful memories we have of holidays and the food that we ate on those holidays. We can make simple recipes that will endure and that will be requested year after year and will become memory “stamps” in the hearts of our family and friends.

We know that Pesach is not a simple holiday, and many feel that it is the most labor-intensive holiday of the year. You may choose to make a lot of complicated dishes, or you may decide to simplify the Seder meal this year. Maybe you will make all the family favorites, or you will make brand new dishes for the holiday. But, whatever you choose, there are ways to simplify.

To make holiday prep easier, make some menu items in advance. Brisket is so easy to prepare even a couple of weeks before the holiday. Cook it. Cool it in the fridge overnight, discard congealed fat, slice, cover with sauce, cover the pan tightly, and freeze. It will make food preparation — even of the most detailed recipe — so much easier to have at least two dishes prepared well before you start the rest of the holiday cooking.

Have a wonderful Pesach!

Red Wine and Honey Braised Brisket (Meat)

This recipe is straight from Chef Gabe Garcia, head-chef at Tierra Sur, the widely acclaimed kosher restaurant (often called the “finest kosher restaurant in America”) located at the Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, California.

• 1 (5 to 6 lb.) Brisket, single or double, trimmed

• vegetable or safflower oil

• 3 Tbsp. coarsely ground black pepper

• 2 Tbsp. kosher salt

• 1 large onion, diced

• 2 heads of fennel, cut into large dice

• 4 large celery stalks, cut into large dice

• 1-lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

• 8 garlic cloves, minced

• 3 Tbsp. fresh ginger, grated or minced

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 cups orange juice, freshly squeezed is best

• 2 cups honey

• 1 bottle of Baron Herzog Old Vine Red Zinfandel (or other red Zinfandel)

• 2 to 4 cups unsalted or low sodium beef stock (IF NEEDED)

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 3 whole star anise (Optional, but better with it)

• 1 chili de arbol or Thai chili (Optionaldon’t add if you don’t like some heat)

Preheat the oven 325 degrees. Season the brisket with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add 1/4 cup of oil. Place the brisket in the pan and sear all sides until you have a golden-brown crust. Remove the brisket and set

aside, add the onions, fennel and celery to the pan. Brown the vegetables, then add the garlic and ginger and stir for one minute. Add the sugar, cook and stir until it melts, then add the orange juice, honey, wine, bay leaf, cinnamon, star anise, and chili.

Cook until the liquid is reduced by 1/4, and place the brisket back into pan. Be sure there is enough liquid to almost cover the meat, if not, add the beef stock. Bring to a simmer.

Cover and place in the oven and roast for 3 to 5 hours until the brisket is tender and shreds easily with a fork.

Remove from the oven and place the brisket on a large platter. Strain the vegetables from the braising liquid and place on a platter. Remove excess fat from braising liquid and place on stove top over medium heat until thickened and reduced by 1/4 to 1/3 or to desired consistency. Slice brisket across the grain and ladle the sauce over the meat. Arrange carrots around the meat and garnish with fresh rosemary and parsley. Serves 8 to 10.

Brisket with Shallots, Cherries, and Wine (Meat)

• 1/4 cup matzah cake meal (see Cooks’ Notes)

• Kosher or fine salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 (6- to 6-1/2-lb.) first cut, second-cut, or whole beef brisket

• 4 to 6 Tbsp. vegetable oil

• 16 to 24 medium shallots (about 1-1/4 lb.) peeled, leaving root ends intact

• 3 to 5 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 2 cups Pinot Noir

• 2 cups chicken stock or reduced to so-

See Seder’s smells on page 14

Kosher Kitchen JoNI SCHoCKEtt

Jewish Star columnist

As children participate in Seder rituals, asking the Four Questions and searching for the Afikoman, the smells and tastes of Seder foods, as much as the evening’s songs and stories, will form imprinted generational memories. Dina, Adobe

Red Wine and Honey Braised Brisket. proportionalplate.com

Seder’s smells and tastes: Imprinted memories…

Continued from page 11

dium chicken broth

• 2 cups (8 to 10 ounces) dried tart cherries (I mix sweet and tart)

• 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

• 1/3 to 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar, to taste

• 2 whole star anise (optional)

• 1 to 2 lb. slim, baby carrots with green tops attached

Heat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Whisk matzah meal with 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Pat brisket dry and dredge in matzah mixture, shaking off excess. Set roasting pan or large Dutch oven on a burner (use two if needed) and add 4 Tbsp. oil. Heat over medium-high heat until shimmery. Add the brisket and brown on both sides, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a large platter. If necessary, add more oil, reduce heat to medium, and add the shallots, stirring often until they soften and brown, 4 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 minute.

Add wine and boil until liquid is reduced by half, then add chicken stock, cherries, sugar, balsamic vinegar, star anise, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and return the brisket, fat side up, to the pan. Cover the pan tightly with a tight-fitting lid, heavy-duty foil or a double layer of regular foil, and place

in oven for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, blanch carrots in a 3-quart pot of well-salted boiling water. Transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking. Drain and pat dry.

After two hours, remove the pan from the oven and carefully remove the foil. Add the carrots around the pot, bury under the liquid as much as possible and recover tightly with foil. Place in the oven for another 2 hours or until the meat is fork tender and falls apart easily.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan, discard star anise and adjust sauce seasonings to taste. Slice the brisket and place the carrots and cherries around the meat. Serve with the sauce. Serves 8-10.

All Day Fall-Apart

Texas-Style Brisket (Meat)

This is not your mother’s brisket. It is spicy and can be as fiery hot as you like it! It involves a double cooking process, but one is simple – place it in a low oven and forget about it.

For the Brisket:

• 4 to 6 lb. brisket, single or double, your choice

• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/4 cup Safflower or Olive oil

• Combine the following in a small bowl:

• 1 tsp. paprika, regular or hot

• 1 Tbsp. chili powder

• Pinch cumin

• 1 tsp. sugar

• 1/2 tsp. sage

• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

• 1/2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

• 1/4 to 3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, to taste (you can leave this out for a milder brisket)

Mix the minced garlic with the Safflower oil and rub all over the brisket. Place the brisket on a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, fat side up, so the fat can melt and baste the meat as it roasts.

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a fork to combine. Rub over the brisket and fold up the long sides of the foil. Close them and tuck in the ends so there is no chance of leakage. If needed, wrap another sheet of foil in the opposite direction. Place the brisket in a shallow roasting pan and place in a 200-degree oven. Let cook undisturbed for 8 to 9 hours, depending on the size of the brisket. Remove from the oven, let cool, and open the foil carefully.

For the Barbecue Sauce:

• 5 Tbsp. Safflower or Olive oil, divided

• 1 large onion, minced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 cup bottled KLP chili sauce

• 1/2 cup KLP ketchup

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 3 Tbsp. dark brown sugar

• 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 Tbsp. KLP Worcestershire sauce (optional) OR

• 2 Tbsp. KLP imitation soy sauce

• 2 Tbsp. unsulphured molasses or 4 tbsp dark brown sugar

• 1 to 2 tsp. salt, or to taste (I leave it out altogether)

• 1 to 2 tsp. KLP mustard powder

• 1/2 tsp. paprika, regular or hot

• 1/4 to 1/2 cup water

OPTIONAL: Honey, to taste, to make it “sweethot”; Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Heat a large, deep skillet and add half the canola oil. Add the onions and sauté until just beginning to turn golden. Add the garlic and sauté another minute.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the water but including the rest of the oil and mix well. Add enough of the water to thin the sauce a bit and mix well. Let simmer for about 30 to 45 minutes, partially covered. Add more water, if needed.

Meanwhile, slice the brisket and place in a non-reactive roasting pan. When the sauce is cooked through, taste and adjust seasonings to taste. Drizzle some of the sauce over the brisket, cover with foil and roast in a 300 to degree oven for 20 to 40 minutes. Uncover for the last 5 min-

utes. Serve with the remaining sauce. Serves 8 to 12.

Chicken Stock for Soup and Cooking (Meat)

This is the first step to my two-day chicken soup.(The second day I add more onions, leeks, celery and carrots and a whole pullet and some chicken legs.) I make this broth often and freeze it in single quart containers for up to 6 months. For Pesach, I make this a week or so after Purim so I won’t have to deal with lots of chicken bone waste during the holiday prep. I start this at about 7 am so I will have the whole day for cooking.

• 4 to 5 lb. chicken frames

• 2-lb. chicken wings

• 1 to 2 lb. gizzards and feet, if you like

• 2 to 4 dark colored yellowed onions, ends trimmed, loose skins removed, the rest left on for golden color

• 3 to 4 ribs celery, cut into inch-long pieces

• 2 to 3 parsnips, peeled and cut into inchlong pieces

• 2 large carrots left whole or cut in half

• 2 leeks, white and light green only, trimmed and washed, cut into 3- to 4-inch pieces

• OPTIONAL: 1 small bunch dill and/or parsley, bound together with kitchen twine

NOTE: You can add salt, but I prefer to salt the broth when I use it in a recipe.

NOTE: You can skip the roasting step if you want. The taste is a bit different, but I often skip the roasting part when feeling a bit pressed for time.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the chicken wings on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Roast in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until golden, but not burned in any places. It is better that the chicken be lighter than burned.

Place the roasted chicken, and the rest of the ingredients in a 12 to 14 qt. stockpot and cover with at least 2 gallons of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a strong simmer, and cook for 1 hour, skimming off any foam as needed. Reduce heat to a steady, but lower, simmer and cook, mostly covered, for 10 to 12 hours, adding more water as needed.

Turn off heat and let cool. Using a slotted spoon, remove solids to a bowl, draining as much liquid as possible. I let the soup solids cool a bit and then I use doubled food prep gloves to squeeze the cooled solids over the pot before discarding. Discard all solids.

Strain the soup through a fine strainer into quart-sized containers. Cover tightly and freeze for up to 6 months or refrigerate if using within 2 to 3 days. Makes 7 to 10 quarts.

Brisket with Shallots, Cherries, and Wine.

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,

former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth •Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh

Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus

Contact our columnists at: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Fri March 21 / Adar 21

Shabbat Parah • Vayakhel Candles: 6:49 • Havdalah: 7:59

Fri April 11 / Nissan 13

Shabbos HaGadol • Tzav Candles: 7:11

Fri March 28 / Adar 28

Shabbat Hachodesh • Pekudai Candles: 6:57 • Havdalah: 8:07

Fri April 4 / Nissan 7

Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY

Vayikra Candles: 7:04 • Havdalah: 8:14

Sat April 12 / Nissan 14

Erev Pesach • First Seder Candles: 8:13

Sun April 13 / Nissan 15

Second Seder Candles: 8:14 • Havdalah Monday 8:23

Mirrors of love that were precious to Hashem

•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

The Torah in Parshat Vayakhel, which describes the making of the Mishkan, goes out of its way to emphasize the role women played in it:

•The men accompanied the women, and those who wanted to make a donation brought bracelets, earrings, finger rings, and body ornaments, all made of gold. Ex. 35:22

•Every skilled woman put her hand to spinning, and they [all] brought the spun yarn of skyblue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool and fine linen. Highly skilled women volunteers also spun the goats’ wool. Ex. 35:25-26

•Every man and woman among the Israelites who felt an urge to give something for all the work that G-d had ordered through Moses, brought a donation for G-d. Ex. 35:29

Indeed the emphasis is even greater than it seems in translation, because of the unusual locution in verse 22, Vayavo-u ha-anashim al hanashim, which implies that the women came to make their donations first, and the men merely followed their lead (Ibn Ezra, Ramban, and Rabbenu Bachye).

This is all the more striking since the Torah implies that the women refused to contribute to the making of the Golden Calf (see the commentaries to Ex. 32:2). The women had a sense of judgment in the religious life — what is true worship, and what false — that the men lacked.

Kli Yakar (R. Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, 1550- 1619) makes the further point that since the Tabernacle was an atonement for the Golden Calf, the women had no need to contribute at all, since it was the men not the women who needed atonement. Nonetheless, women gave, and they did so before the men.

Most moving, though, by far is the cryptic verse:

He [Betzalel] made the copper washstand and its copper base out of the mirrors of the dedicated women [ha-tzove’ot] who congregated at the entrance of the Communion Tent. Ex. 38:8

The Sages (in Midrash Tanhuma) told a story about this. This is how Rashi tells it: Israelite women owned mirrors, which they would look into when they adorned them-

Judaism sees love as supremely physical and spiritual, not in the language of meditation or contemplation, but in the language of passion.

selves. Even these [mirrors] they did not hold back from bringing as a contribution toward the Mishkan, but Moses rejected them because they were made for temptation [i.e., to inspire lustful thoughts].

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “Accept [them], for these are more precious to Me than anything, because through them the women set up many legions [i.e., through the children they gave birth to] in Egypt.” When their husbands were weary from back-breaking labor, they [the women] would go and bring them food and drink. Then they [the women] would take the mirrors and each one would see herself with her husband in the mirror, and she would seduce him with words, saying, “I am more beautiful than you.” And in this way they aroused their husbands’ desire and would be intimate with them, conceiving and giving birth there, as it is said: “Under the apple tree I aroused you” (Song 8:5).

The Egyptians sought not merely to enslave, but also to put an end to, the people of Israel. One way of doing so was to kill all male children. Another was simply to interrupt normal family life.

The people, both men and women, were laboring all day. At night, says the Midrash, they were forbidden to return home. They slept where they worked. The intention was to destroy both privacy and sexual desire, so that the Israelites would have no more children.

The women realized this, and decided to frustrate Pharaoh’s plan. They used mirrors to make themselves attractive to their husbands. The result was that intimate relations resumed. The women conceived and had children (the “legions” referred to in the word tzove’ot). Only because of this was there a new generation of Jewish children. The women, by their faith, courage, and ingenuity, secured Jewish survival.

The Midrash continues that when Moses commanded the Israelites to bring offerings to make the Tabernacle, some brought gold, some silver, some bronze, some jewels. But many of the women had nothing of value to contribute except the mirrors they had brought with them from Egypt. These they brought to Moses, who recoiled in disgust. What, he thought, have these cheap objects, used by women to make themselves look attractive, to do with the Sanctuary and the sacred? G-d rebuked Moses for daring to think this way, and ordered him to accept them.

The story is powerful in itself. It tells us, as do so many other midrashim, that without the faith of women, Jews and Judaism would never have survived. But it also tells us something absolutely fundamental to the Jewish understanding of love in the religious life.

In his impressive recent book, “Love: A History” (2011), the philosopher Simon May writes: If love in the Western world has a founding text, that text is Hebrew.

Judaism sees love as supremely physical and spiritual. That is the meaning of “You shall love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart and all your soul and all your might” (Deut. 6:5).

This is not the language of meditation or contemplation, philosophical or mystical. It is the language of passion.

Even the normally cerebral Maimonides writes this about the love of G-d: What is the love of G-d that is befitting? It is to love G-d with a great and exceeding love, so strong that one’s soul shall be knit up with the love of G-d, such that it is continually enraptured by it, like a lovesick individual whose mind is never free from passion for a particular woman and is enraptured by her at all times … Even more intense should be the love of G-d in the hearts of those who love Him. They should be enraptured by this love at all times.

Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah, 10:5

This is the love we find in passages of Tehillim such as, “My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:2)”

Only because the Sages thought about love this way, did they take it for granted that the Song of Songs — an extremely sensual series of love poems — was about the love between G-d and Israel. Rabbi Akiva called it “the holy of holies” of religious poetry.

It was Christianity, under the influence of classical Greece, that drew a distinction between eros (love as intense physical desire) and agape (a calm, detached love of humanity-ingeneral and things-in-general) and declared the second, not the first, to be religious. It was this self-same Greek influence that led Christianity to read the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit as a story of sinful sexual desire

— an interpretation that should have no place whatsoever in Judaism.

Simon May speaks about the love of G-d in Judaism as being characterized by, “intense devotion; absolute trust; fear of his power and presence; and rapturous, if often questioning, absorption in his will. … Its moods are a combination of the piety of a vassal, the intimacy of friends, the fidelity of spouses, the dependence of a child, the passion of lovers.”

He later adds, “The widespread belief that the Hebrew Bible is all about vengeance and ‘an eye for an eye,’ while the Gospels supposedly invent love as an unconditional and universal value, must therefore count as one of the most extraordinary misunderstandings in all of Western history.”

The Midrash dramatizes this contrast between eros and agape as an argument between G-d and Moses. Moses believes that closeness to G-d is about celibacy and purity. G-d teaches him otherwise, that passionate love, when offered as a gift to G-d, is the most precious love of all. This is the love we read about in Shir haShirim. It is the love we hear in Yedid Nefesh, the daring song we sing at the beginning and toward the end of Shabbat.

When the women offered G-d the mirrors through which they aroused their husbands’ love in the dark days of Egypt, G-d told Moses, “These are more precious to Me than anything else.” The women understood, better than the men, what it means to love G-d “with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.”

Are we viewing the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’?

Everyone loves a spectacle. “Step right up ladies and gentlemen! The most astounding, mysterious, exciting, terrifying, yet exhilarating event you’ve ever seen!”

Crowds gather. They ooh and ah! “Wow, did you see that? “Unbelievable!”

Last week’s haftara was just such a spectacle.

Eliyahu HaNavi, disgusted by the behavior of the evil king Achav, and his even more evil wife Jezebel, from the Northern kingdom of Israel, has had enough. He knows that most of the 10 tribes

of the north (all the tribes, except Judah and Benjamin), while not as evil as their royal rulers, have been “straddling the fence,” on the one hand paying lip service in worshipping Hashem, but keeping their idols, especially those of the idol Baal, handy.

Eliyahu challenges them:

How long will you dance between two opinions? If Hashem is the G-d, follow Him! And if Baal, follow him! (Kings 1 18:21).

The people are silent, so Eliyahu tells them he will challenge Baal to a showdown. Let’s go up Mount Carmel, he says, and the 450 prophets of Baal will take a bull, put it on an altar of wood, and I will take another bull and put it on another wooden altar. Neither of us will apply any fire; instead, we will simply pray to our divinity and see which one responds with fire to consume the bull offering (ibid 18:22–24).

You can imagine the scene. It must have been a sellout crowd. The great challenge! Hordes of people — men, women, and children; young and old, gathering at the foot of the mountain. Probably all sorts of treats and foods for sale, magicians, jugglers, clowns, a feeling of excitement in the air! A festive, grand affair worthy of PT Barnum and Cecil B DeMille combined! From morning till noon, the Baal prophets

pray, shout, dance, and beat and cut themselves till they bleed. Eliyahu taunts them — maybe your god went out “to relieve himself or is sleeping” and that’s why he doesn’t respond (ibid18:27). By afternoon, it is clear that Baal is not going to respond, and Eliyahu asks everyone to “gather ’round” (ibid18:30). Like the “Greatest Showman” he makes the event even more difficult. He creates a trench around the wooden altar and fills it with water (to make it even more difficult for fire to appear). With real drama, he says, fill the trench once, twice, three times! Then he steps forward, and says “Hashem, G-d of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yisrael, today it will become known that You G-d, are with Israel, and I am Your servant, and at Your word, I’ve done all these things. Answer me, Hashem, answer me —

Sacred moments for ‘the Congregation of Israel’

Rabbi DR. tzvi

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This week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, begins on a familiar note. After all, it was just last week, on Purim, that we read Queen Esther’s dramatic response to Mordechai’s request that she personally intervene with King Achashverosh on behalf of the Jewish people. Initially, as you will surely remember, she is quite hesitant to accede to his request. But finally, she agrees, with these resounding words: “Go, and gather all the Jews found in Shushan and have them fast on my behalf, nei-

ther eating nor drinking for three days, day and night. I too, and my entourage, will likewise fast!” (Esther 4:16).

With these inspiring — even poetic — words, she accomplishes a truly rare occurrence. The Jewish people, already slandered by Haman himself as a “dispersed and disunited people,” unite and accept her request totally. The entire Jewish population, without exception, gathers in prayer at her behest.

Wonder of wonders! But Esther was not the first to achieve such a result. That honor goes to Moshe Rabbenu, as we read in the opening verse of this week’s parsha:

And Moshe assembled all the congregation of the Children of Israel and addressed them. Moshe and, long afterwards, Esther were both capable of this unique feat. They both

united the entire Jewish community — Esther in a moment of impending doom, and Moshe at a much happier occasion, laying the foundation of the Mishkan, the Holy Tabernacle.

What was the content of Moshe’s address to the entire congregation? He prefaced the body of his remarks by stating that he was about to inform them of the very words of the Almighty Himself. He begins, predictably, with perhaps the most important mitzvah of all — Shabbat, the Sabbath. His message is forceful but quite brief.

He then continues at greater length to educate them about the structure and content of the Mishkan. He delineates the metals, oils, spices, fabrics, furs, lumber, and sacred garments that will be required His ultimate message is his appeal for generous contributions

by, again, addressing all the Congregation of the Children of Israel. He does not limit his request to the rich and mighty. Rather, he stresses that all “the generous of heart” have a role to play in the construction and maintenance of this sacred sanctuary.

The culmination of his address is stunning: “And all the Congregation of the Children of Israel departed from Moshe’s presence. They returned, all whose hearts moved them, and all the generous of spirit, and brought with them copious gifts… men and women responded together…” (Exodus 35:20-22).

It is at this point that we must familiarize ourselves with the comments of Rabbi Chaim ibn Atar, the eighteenth-century author of the classic Ohr HaChaim commentary on the entire

See Weinreb on page 22

At Vayakhel, working to build our community

In the fall of 2012, Israel was again preparing for war in response to the thousands of missiles being fired indiscriminately from the Gaza Strip into the population centers of southern Israel. As Eva Zrihen was posing for wedding photos in Tel Aviv, not 50 miles south her younger brothers, Sergeant Eliahu Zrihen and Captain Emmanuel Zrihen, were donning flak vests and ammo pouches for the challenge of entering Gaza in what was expected to be one of the most intensive and costly ground operations in modern warfare.

The Zrihen family was torn between tears of

joy at Eva’s wedding and pangs of worry at her two brothers’ engagement in Operation Pillar of Defense.

Eliahu and Emmanuel sent Eva a message telling her how sad they were to be missing her wedding, but that they expected there to be only tears of joy. They were all at a mitzvah party, they wrote, just celebrating two different mitzvot.

As the family headed to the wedding hall, sirens wailed and rockets began falling. Everyone had to take cover in the bomb shelters. The wedding celebrations would have to wait.

Meanwhile, at around 9 pm, just outside Gaza, it was decided that Eliahu and Emmanuel’s unit would not be going in before dawn. Their base commander found Eliahu Zrihen with a message: “You have 15 minutes to find your brother. Take my car keys and go dance at your sister’s wedding.”

Open a chumash with Rashi on this week’s parsha, Vayakhel, and the first thing you notice is … there is no Rashi.

You can count on your hand the number of comments Rashi provides on chapters 36 and 37; after all, he’s already commented on these topics in parshat Terumah, chapters 25 and 26. Why does the Torah painstakingly repeat every detail of the Mishkan? It could have written, “They did exactly as they were instructed to do?” Were the Torah to have done so, there would be

no question as to Rashi’s whereabouts, because the summary verse would speak for itself.

There are other places in the Torah where a tale or episode is recounted, either by the narrative or a narrator in the text. Some examples are the Creation story, told differently in Bereshit chapters 1 and 2; the introduction to the flood tale in Bereshit 7:6-19; Avraham’s servant’s experience finding a wife for Yitzchak in Bereshit 24. In each case, Rashi has a field day with the retelling.

In our parsha’s repetition of the Mishkan details, however, Rashi is silent.

One example where details are not repeated is when Moshe is given signs to convince the people of his divine calling. He turns a staff to a snake, his hand becomes afflicted with tzara’at, and he is told to spill river water to the ground

Their cell phones had been taken away in preparation for entering Gaza, and there was no time to find them, so no one knew they were coming. Normally, the dancing would have long been over by the time they got there, but a few missiles had delayed everything.

At 11 pm, Eli and Emmanuel walked into the wedding hall. They had not had time to change out of their combat gear or even wipe the camouflage paint off their faces. But when the two exhausted, dusty soldiers with grins as wide as the sea walked into the hall, everything … stopped. The band stopped playing, the people stopped dancing and parted, and for a moment no one moved, until the bride turned around and let out a shout of joy, and then the entire hall erupted.

And one family, symbolizing an entire people, separated by 50 miles and seemingly in two entirely different worlds that night, be-

came one.

This week’s portion begins as Moshe gathers the entire people together. It’s from this moment that the portion takes its name, Vayakhel, which means “to gather.”

The commentators ask why this special gathering was necessary. Why didn’t Moshe inform the Jewish people as he normally would? Rashi points out that this actually occurred on the day following Yom Kippur, which seems to be his response to this question. But why does the day after Yom Kippur engender a gathering?

Some historical context is helpful here. The Jewish people received the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai on the seventh day of Sivan. Forty days later, on the 17th day of Tammuz, Moshe came down from the mountain to find the people frolicking with the Golden Calf, and

See Freedman on page 22

where it will become blood (Shmot 4:1-10).

When he actually performs them, the Torah summarizes saying, “He did the signs.” (Shmot 4:30-31)

Perhaps the difference between the signs Moshe performs and the building of the Mishkan rests in who was instructed to carry out the tasks. The details of Moshe’s signsperformance were a formality in a task that was his alone. We saw the instructions and we know what it means when we’re told “He did the signs.”

The Mishkan, on the other hand, was instructed to Moshe, but it was not Moshe’s job to build and to create. Thus we must see that every detail is followed according to the instruction, so we can be the auditors who ensure that all was done correctly.

Here it is not just the actions of one man. There is much more chance of error and of the possibility of instructions not being followed properly.

Parshat Vayakhel is therefore presenting one of the first examples of a true transmission of mesorah. Perhaps Rashi remains silent because he does not want to distract us from the important details that are taking place. He explained it for us already, and now he wants us to do our legwork and to check for ourselves if the instructions were carried out properly.

The Talmud (Yebamot 87b) says “silence is like agreement.” Rashi agreed with the importance of the transmission of the mesorah and felt no need to comment because the notion stands for itself.

In this case, his silence speaks volumes, loud and clear.

See Mazurek on page 22

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Trump anti-woke war key to Jew-hate fight

In demonstrations at Columbia University and Trump Tower in New York City, as well as on the op-ed pages of liberal newspapers and websites, leftist anti-Zionists headed to the barricades this past week, both literally and figuratively. They did so on behalf of the new hero of both the struggle to “free Palestine,” which means to destroy Israel.

They are not alone in rallying to the cause of Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the proHamas and antisemitic mayhem that has gone on at Columbia since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. American liberals are also all-in on the effort to free Khalil.

Khalil was arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, foreigners who come to the United States to study but use that privilege to advocate for a terror group and to engage in illegal activities, as well as fomenting hate against Jews, have forfeited that right. And so, at the government’s discretion, those persons will be deported.

Trump’s cultural revolution

For those opposed to the president’s policies across the board, Khalil is as much a martyr to the “resistance” to the Trump administration as he is to the cause of eliminating the Jewish state. To them, the president’s push to punish schools that tolerate antisemitism and to deport those terror-supporting foreign students who have helped drive the surge of hate against Jews on campuses throughout the United States is deeply offensive. They assert that Khalil’s arrest and potential deportation are evidence of Trump’s authoritarianism and willingness to trample on the right to free speech.

Yet instead of destroying learning, the president is trying to rescue American education from “progressives” who have subverted it by imposing woke indoctrination throughout the system — from grades K-12 all the way up to the most elite universities. What the left is doing is part

of an effort to undermine the entire edifice of Western civilization and the American republic. They’re doing that by seeking to replace the Western canon and its belief in equality with the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). It is rooted in the toxic myths of critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism that preaches an endless race war between “people of color,” who are always victims, and the so-called white oppressor class.

Canaries in coal mine

That the Jews and Israel have been falsely labeled as “white” always in the wrong (let alone oppressors since Jews have suffered persecution for two millennia), and the Palestinian Arabs their victims who are always in the right, is incidental to the damage that woke ideology seeks to do to all Americans.

As is always the case, the Jews are the canaries in the coal mine. They saw themselves as at home in institutions where they have thrived for more than a century once the old quotas against Jewish admission were toppled. Now Jews are targeted by the progressives simply because — as the object of the world’s oldest hatred — they are uniquely vulnerable to be made to suffer for the sin of that success, both in the United States and in Israel.

In a less hyper-partisan era or one in which hatred for Trump was not so integral to political discourse, extremists like Khalil and his cheering section on the left would be isolated, and those who today call themselves liberals would realize how much of a threat the toxic ideas of progressives are to everything they cherish. They would understand that these radicals should not only be shunned but actively resisted.

But so many political liberals have either embraced those ideas to stay in sync with political fashion on the left or have been indoctrinated in them in their own schooling. As a result, they instinctually identify with the notion that a foreign terror supporter is somehow the poster child for free speech.

Pro-Hamas mob’s goals

Khalil is the grandson of Arabs who fled what is now Israel when the war to destroy the newly established modern-day Jewish state in May 1948 failed. He was born in Syria but subsequently acquired Algerian citizenship.

After being educated in Lebanon, he moved to the United States to seek a graduate degree via a student visa in 2022. While in America, he acquired a green card via marriage to a US citizen. That enabled him not only to remain in the country legally but also to get a job. One job that he held was as a public affairs officer for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the Hamas-associated agency that helps perpetuate the conflict with Israel.

At Columbia, Khalil was one of the most visible organizers of the pro-Hamas demonstrations since Oct. 7 that included illegal encampments, in addition to takeovers of university buildings and libraries.

While portrayed in liberal outlets as an expression of idealism by those who sympathized with suffering Palestinians, Khalil and those who joined him made no secret of their ideological goals. They are not peace activists. Their literature and chants made it clear that they supported Hamas, a terror organization that led the mass murder of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 others on Oct. 7. They explicitly supported terrorism, as even the New York Times reported.

That Khalil’s pregnant wife speaks about his being kidnapped by ICE and the cruelty of such an action remains deeply ironic since her husband and his confederates have no problem with the kidnapping of Israelis — not to mention the slaughter, rape and torture of those Jews whom they targeted on Oct. 7.

They supported its genocidal goal to purge

the Jews from their ancient homeland (“from the river to the sea”) and their terroristic methods (“globalize the intifada”). Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that these “mostly peaceful” protests sometimes crossed over into violence and acts of intimidation that at times led some to advise Jews to flee the campus.

While politicians praised them as idealists who should be “heard,” their goals made it obvious what was driving these protests.

Their takeover of parts of the campus made them virtual “no go” zones for Jews not willing to abjure their faith or their identification with their people.

There should be no misunderstanding about this. Their effort to silence and shun Jews was not incidental to their purpose. It was integral to their protests and in keeping with the general woke intolerance for those who dissent against their ideology or can be smeared as members of the oppressor class.

Free-speech hypocrisy

Nor should we take seriously the loud clamor about Khalil’s arrest being a Trumpian campaign against free speech.

The same voices loudly clamoring on behalf of Khalil’s right to torment Jews and support an Islamist movement that is designated as a terror organization were silent during the years of the Biden presidency when it colluded with social-media platforms and Internet providers to

See Tobin on page 22

People protest the arrest of former Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil during a “Fight for Our Rights” demonstration by Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P) at the University of Washington campus in Seattle on March 15. Jason Redmond, AFP via Getty Images via JNS

Time to quash UN’s pro-Hamas bureaucracy

GLOBAL FOCUS BEN COHEN

We are currently experiencing the worst surge of antisemitism in living memory.

But that realization shouldn’t lull us into thinking that the world prior to October 2023 was a relative bed of roses for the Jewish people.

From the end of the Second World War until the Hamas massacre in Israel, there were myriad episodes and events which underlined that hatred and suspicion of Jews as a collective did not die out with the Nazis.

Later this year, we’ll mark the 50th anniversary of one of the most heinous of those outbursts, whose fallout we are still living with: the passage by the UN General Assembly of Resolution 3379 of Nov. 10, 1975, which determined that Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jews, was a form of racism.

Israel and its allies have eight months to decide whether that anniversary will be marked as a posthumous victory or as a day of mourning.

Sure, one could argue that victory already came in 1991 when, in the wake of Iraq’s expulsion from occupied Kuwait and the consequent US attempt to convene regional peace negotiations, American diplomacy — which, in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, was without a serious rival — secured the General Assembly’s

Fifty years later, the world body still behaves as though ‘Zionism is racism’ remains on the books.

repeal of its 1975 resolution. But that, sadly, was a fleeting victory for two reasons.

Firstly, the anti-Zionist ideology underpinning the resolution persists. Orchestrated by the Soviet Union, Resolution 3379 denounced Zionism as a “threat to world peace and security.” It drew an explicit linkage between Israel and the former white minority regimes in South Africa and Zimbabwe to demonstrate its charges of “racism” and “apartheid.” Those charges will sound eerily familiar to Jewish college students now weathering the pro-Hamas onslaught, all born long after 1975.

Secondly, while the General Assembly annulled Resolution 3379, the pro-Palestinian bureaucracy created within the United Nations at exactly the same time also persists. As a result, the world body still behaves as though “Zionism is racism” remains on the books. If the November anniversary is to carry any message of hope for Israelis and Jews, then it’s imperative to tackle and dismantle that bureaucracy, and its associated propaganda operation.

In the 18 months that have lapsed since the Hamas pogrom in Israel, we have seen that bureaucracy in action. UNRWA — the agency originally created in 1949 to deal with the first generation of Arab refugees from Israel’s War of Independence — has been a mainstay of antiIsrael messaging, unphased by the unmasking of dozens of its employees as Hamas operatives.

The UN Human Rights Council, which dedicates an entire agenda item to Israel alone at its thrice-yearly deliberations while ignoring serial violators like Russia, Iran and North Korea, last week released a litany of fabricated accusations in the guise of a “report” that amounted to what Israel called a “blood libel.” One of the more noxious Israel-haters on the scene, Francesca Albanese, continues to serve as the UN special reporter on the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

It’s now time to focus on those elements of the Palestine bureaucracy that are comparatively hidden. The UN’s Department of Political Affairs operates a subsidiary Division for Palestinian

Rights, whose job is to carry out the agenda of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, consisting of 25 members and 24 observers drawn from the member states.

Abolishing that committee, and therefore the division along with it, should become an explicit aim of the State of Israel, the various Jewish nongovernmental organizations with observer status at the United Nations, and the broader community of research and advocacy organizations pushing for Israel’s sovereign equality within the UN system.

The committee was created on the very same day as the passage of the “Zionism-is-racism” resolution to give concrete expression to the anti-Zionist manifesto the resolution embodied. The “inalienable rights” that this committee rep-

The nuts and bolts of the Mahmoud

resents include the “exercise by Palestinians of their inalienable right to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted.”

Note the terminology used here — not “Palestinian refugees of the 1948-49 war,” but all Palestinians, including those born after 1948 in the Arab world, Europe, North America and Latin America. It doesn’t take tremendous insight to realize that it is a formula for the elimination of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel — the very same formula that drives the present proHamas solidarity movement and gives it the undeserved gloss of human rights.

The costs of running this committee are estimated at $6 million annually.

As I wrote a few months after Donald Trump’s

See Cohen on page 23

Khalil case

Diplomat

American diplomats are supposed to serve at least one tour on the visa line overseas, interviewing would-be visitors. It’s important work that has the side benefit of supplying some good stories. The Mahmoud Khalil case reminds me of a story from my first tour at Consulate General Jerusalem in 1990, interviewing mainly Palestinians from the West Bank.

One day we received a handwritten letter in Arabic addressed to the American Consul. It was from a woman in a small West Bank village who wanted to inform us of the visa fraud perpetrated by her husband. When they married over 20 years before, he had promised her that he would get a visa, go to the United States, marry an American woman, become an American citizen, then divorce the American and bring her over to the United States.

The US media have misleadingly reported Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation proceedings as the Trump administration punishing his protected speech.

He used to visit her in the family house in the village once a year, bringing presents for their children. But eventually she came to realize that her no-good husband had no intention of bringing her to the United States. So she wanted to let us know. An experienced visa officer told me this kind of letter was not uncommon.

This guy was living the dream of multiple wives in different countries. Multiple wives are of course permitted in traditional Muslim societies, though not in most Arab countries outside the Gulf. A young British-educated academic in the West Bank once introduced me to his “mums” (plural). In the United States, hiding this practice constitutes fraud, resulting in the revocation of US residence and deportation.

The relevance of this story to Khalil is the possibility of fraud in his visa application. That form asks: “Have you ever, or do you intend, to provide financial assistance or other support to terrorists or terrorist organizations?”

Less than a year after arriving at Columbia on a student visa, 30 year-old Khalil was leading American undergraduates in actions in support of Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Hamas is a charter member of the US terrorism list. Had he truthfully answered the questions on the visa form — or perhaps had the visa officer checked out his social media — then he should have been denied a visa.

But Khalil slipped through the visa vetting process. Then he married a US citizen, which allowed him to adjust status to permanent resident and get a pathway to citizenship. Now he will get his day in immigration court facing deportation. The US media have misleadingly reported his subsequent deportation proceedings as the Trump administration punishing his protected speech.

If Khalil had merely led peaceful pro-Hamas

demonstrations, then deporting him would indeed raise an interesting freedom of speech issue: Can an alien (in this case a lawful permanent resident alien) be deported solely for speech that would be protected for US citizens under the First Amendment? That is not clear.

Certainly lawful permanent residents don’t enjoy all of the rights of US citizens (e.g., they don’t vote). But the specific issue of deporting an alien solely for protected speech hasn’t been directly addressed by the US Supreme Court.

Some lower courts have said you can do this,

on the theory that since pro-terrorism speech is a valid basis for excluding someone from entering the United States, so it is also a basis for deporting someone who has already entered. Other courts say no, that once an alien enters the United States, he or she enjoys the same speech protections as a US citizen.

Two recent podcasters worth listening to on this are former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy and law professor Eugene Volokh. I could argue it both ways, but it’s not relevant to the Khalil case.

See Silverman on page 23

A protest against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, at Foley Square in Manhattan, on March 12. M. Santiago, Getty Images via JNS

The United Nations headquarters in New York. WikiCommons via JNS

Consequences for hate conduct, not speech

Many in the media have spent the last few days debating the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and activist who led tension-filled campus protests in the past year that targeted Jewish and Zionist students and faculty. Much of the discussion has been on the First Amendment and freespeech rights. Surprisingly, the elephant in the room has been largely ignored.

After the December 2023 congressional hearings that saw three university presidents grilled over their inaction to protect Jewish American students and faculty from discrimination and harassment on campus, one would think that our collective memory would not have forgotten one of the most jarring lines of the hearing. In response to a question by Rep. Elise Stefanik, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, said calling for the

genocide of Jews would violate Penn’s harassment policy when “speech turns into conduct.”

It is astonishing that so many people refuse to acknowledge that it is Khalil’s conduct that led to him being taken into custody and facing deportation. His attorneys and supporters tout his role as the lead negotiator for the pro-Hamas crowd that occupied a university building during the 2024 anti-Israel demonstrations. But there is a counter-narrative, largely ignored in the mainstream media, that recognizes that Khalil’s conduct includes handing out pro-Hamas pamphlets calling for the destruction of the United States.

There are a number of questions one must answer when applying for a green card for permanent residency in the United States. Many of them are related to the security of the United States, including the following:

Do you intend to:

•Engage in any activity that violates or evades any law relating to espionage (including spying) or sabotage in the United States?

•Engage in any activity whose purpose includes opposing, controlling, or overthrowing the US government by force, violence or other unlaw-

HS students show resiliency in post–Oct. 7 world

Vicious antisemitism that was once relegated exclusively to the halls of higher education is now tragically found in high schools nationwide. Jewish students are facing an increasingly hostile environment, one where fear often stifles their ability to explore their own heritage and identity.

Yet despite these challenges, we are witnessing an extraordinary response: a resurgence of Jewish pride among high school students who are eager to connect with their roots and stand strong in the face of adversity.

Jewish Student Union (JSU), a program of NCSY, is the gateway for many Jewish students seeking to understand what their heritage

means to them. Our mission is simple: to create a welcoming space where Jewish teens — regardless of background, denomination or affiliation — can explore their Jewish identity in an inclusive and supportive environment.

For years, JSU has provided a critical entry point for thousands of Jewish teens looking to strengthen their connection to Judaism. However, the events of Oct. 7, 2023, and their aftermath have propelled our work into an urgent new reality.

Before the Hamas-led terrorist attacks that Black Shabbat in Israel, JSU would receive two to three online requests per month from students interested in starting a club at their high school. In the weeks and months following that tragic day, we have seen an unprecedented surge in demand with four to five new requests per week. This phenomenon speaks volumes about the resilience and determination of Jewish teens across North America.

In a world where antisemitism is no lon-

ger a distant concern but a daily reality, many students are not retreating but addressing the issues head-on, seeking knowledge and community, and the strength that comes with understanding their heritage.

With more than 400 schools benefiting from JSU’s direct staff support and an ever-growing number of students reaching out for guidance, we recognized the need to

expand beyond in-person programming. In response, we launched the JSU Global Campus, a digital initiative designed to equip Jewish high school students with the tools they need to be effective community organizers on their campuses. Through leadership training, educational modules and hands-on support, students are learning not only to navigate their Jewish identities but also to become advocates and leaders within their schools and beyond.

JSU’s commitment to Jewish students does not stop at the gates of their high school campus. Evening social and educational programs, weekend retreats and our flagship trip to Israel — “The Jerusalem Journey” — provide immersive experiences that allow students to deepen their connection to their Jewish identity. The trip has become a transformative experience for so many Jewish teens, allowing them to explore the depths of ancient and modern Jewish history, as well as connect with their heritage in a way that is tangible and personal.

Law, not rhetoric, applies to green-card holders

Here’s what happened: An actual enforcement of immigration law. Mahmoud Khalil, a native of Syria who has spearheaded the anti-Israel movement at Columbia University, is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

And what do I see? Jewish organizations are losing their minds, calling it a disgrace.

What so is disgraceful? That actions have consequences? People have lost their green cards over traffic violations (repeated DUI, for instance), but this is an overreach?

Let’s go over some facts about Khalil before we go any further.

•He is a Syrian-born Palestinian refugee, as per the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) status.

•He earned his master’s in public administration from Columbia University, class of 2024.

•He was the lead negotiator for Columbia’s Apartheid Divest.

•He spearheaded the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia, though he argues he did not participate in them, just organized them.

•He was reportedly suspended and later reinstated as a Columbia student.

•He worked as a former UNRWA political affairs officer from June to November of 2023.

This is the same UNRWA whose personnel were found actively participating in the Oct. 7 massacre, a fact that is worth repeating, since the agency somehow continues to operate despite this proven fact.

Now, let’s talk law because unless you went through a visa process yourself, people love to misrepresent it:

•Though a student, Khalil wasn’t on an F1 student visa. He held a green card through marriage.

•F1 visa holders are prohibited from even verbally supporting a designated terrorist organization.

•Green card holders have more rights than visa holders, yes, but supporting terrorism isn’t one of them.

•Green card holders are not citizens. They remain subject to deportation if they break the law.

•The Immigration and Nationality Act (Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i))clearly states that a noncitizen whose activities pose serious foreignpolicy risks to the United States is deportable. So, let’s stop the nonsense. This isn’t about Israel vs. Gaza. This isn’t about Khalil vs. President Donald Trump. This is about the law. If you break the rules, you face the consequences. That’s not a disgrace, it’s reality.

Ihave one thing to say about this: America, you or I are not responsible for someone else’s reckless decisions. If I know I am on a green card and expecting a child, I make adult choices that ensure I don’t end up in an incriminating position. It’s not a difficult concept. Ac-

Protests in the Thomas Paine Park in New York on March 10 against the detention of Mahmoud Khalil. SWinxy via WikiCommons

Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University on April 21.

Abbad Diraneyya, WikiCommons via JNS

Mazurek…

Continued from page 17

Suddenly, Hashem’s fire descends from the heavens, consumes the wood, the stones and the earth, and certainly the bull offering, and it “even licks the water in the trench” (18:38).

The people fall on their faces and twice exclaim: “Hashem Hu HaElokim (Hashem, He is the G-d; Hashem, He is the G-d!).

Wow! What a story! Those of us who are looking for a sign that G-d is out there listening, this was the greatest, most visible sign of all! These Children of Israel finally get it, they believe! Or do they?

The haftara ends there, but if we continue chapter 18 in Kings, we see that the very next day, nothing had changed — the people continued their two-faced behavior, Achav and Jezebel remained evil, and Eliyahu had to run for his life. The “grand spectacle” achieved nothing. Why?

As Eliyahu the Zealot ultimately realizes (after being personally schooled by G-d), Hashem is not found in the spectacle — not in the “powerful wind”, or the “earthquake” or the “fire” but in the Kol Demama Daka (the “still, small voice”) (ibid 19:11–12). The belief in Hashem does not develop by exposure to great flashes of wonder and excitement, but within us as that still, small voice in our souls, hearts and minds.

This is echoed in the words of the Torah, that we should not say “Kochi v’otzem yadi asa li et hachayil hazeh (my strength and might of my hand made me all this wealth)” but rather Hashem did this all for me (Devarim 8:17). It is echoed in the words of the prophet, Zechariah, “Lo b’chayil v’lo b’koach, Ki I’m b’ruchi amar Hashem (not through armies, and not through might, but through My Spirit says Hashem)”(4:6).

We all marveled with justified delight at the incredible beeper and walkie-talkie operations, the destruction of Hezbollah and Iran’s air defenses, the killings of Nasralla and Sinwar and the great military victories. But the source of our belief in Hashem comes from within us, quietly, without fanfare, and the source of all our success comes from Hashem.

It is time to stop our own “two-faced” behavior, relying on presidents or prime ministers or kings and armies, or even our own might. Yes, all these things are vital and important, but recognition that belief in G-d, Hashem is the source for all things must be primary.

As Tehillim admonishes us: “Al tivtichu bi’nedivim, b’ven adam sh’ein lo teshua (do not have faith in princes, for in the son of man there is no salvation)” (146:3). Let us seek out G-d with one face, one heart and as one united people. Shabbat Shalom.

Dr. Alan A. Mazurek is a retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida. He is a former chairman of the ZOA. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

community overcame their judgement to the extent that they departed hastily. They neglected to ask Moshe’s permission to leave his presence because they were completely absorbed in the task he assigned. Their only concern was to donate, as quickly as humanly possible, the materials necessary for the holy task with which they were now charged.

connection between gathering and Yom Kippur, but rather between this gathering, the day after this particular Yom Kippur.

Tobin…

Continued from page 18 and let this people know that You are Hashem, the G-d, and You will turn their hearts back“ (18:36–37).

This enthusiasm was not short-lived, as such enthusiasm typically is. Quite the contrary, as the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh points out. Their enthusiasm grew with time, as we see in so many subsequent verses. In fact, their enthusiasm motivated them to donate far more of the materials than were necessary. They had to be ordered to halt their donations, to dim their fervor, to restrain their enthusiasm, although it was commendable.

Others have referred to the comments of the Ohr HaChaim HaKodesh as illustrating the power of what I call “the sacred moment.”

The experience of even a fleeting spiritual experience, in this case the phenomenon of authentic community and the commitment of an entire nation to a sacred task, can “snowball” into a constantly evolving dedication to the common good. (Hence a good title for this column might be “Snowballs and Sacred Moments.”)

A wise man whose works I’ve quoted here in the past, Rav Chaim Zeitchik, of blessed memory, elaborates upon this “snowball” concept. He refers to passages in Talmudic works, such as, “If one sanctifies himself just a bit in this lower world, he will be sanctified so much more in the world above;” or, “If one opens himself up like the eye of a needle, I [the L-rd] will open up for him the gates of the Temple hallway.”

These sayings, and so many others like them, can easily be described as the “snowball effect.” As the tiny snowball, in one sacred moment, rolls down the snow-covered hill, it grows to a mammoth snowball.

Perhaps this is what is meant by the adage in Pirkei Avot: One mitzvah results in another mitzvah, mitzvah goreret mitzvah. Or in our jargon, “Roll a snowflake downhill and it will develop into a snowy boulder.”

Life, particularly Jewish life, is rife with such “sacred moments.” They can be found in the beauties of nature, in the study of Torah, in words of prayer, in watching little children play, in reciting Psalms, in festive melodies, in moments of sadness, and in dancing with joy.

But the lesson of Esther’s request, and perhaps even more so in Moshe’s ability to bring us all together, provides us with model “sacred moments,” moments of achdut and togetherness. If only we could grasp such moments, even if they are but fleeting moments, and allow them to expand and grow like snowballs rolling downhill, we would be better individuals and develop into a true am kadosh, a holy people in every sense of the word.

Let’s preserve the sacred moments that we all experience on occasion and allow them to expand, develop, and grow like snowballs. We will all be the better for it.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

You see, six months after the great Exodus from Egypt, the people, like the first set of luchot, were broken. On the seventh of Sivan, G-d Himself had spoken to them from Mount Sinai. Moshe brought the luchot to the Jewish people encamped at the mountain’s foot — “as one, with one heart,” writes Rashi. But with the Levites meting out justice to idolaters, the dream of Sinai seemed far away and … broken.

So Moshe gathered everyone together and, at the behest of G-d, gave them a special mitzvah: to build a Mishkan together. Because for any community to accomplish its goals, it must work together as a team.

This word, vayakhel, to gather, appears in almost exactly the same form at the beginning of the story of the Golden Calf: When the people saw that Moshe was returning, “vayakhel ha’am al Aharon,” “the nation gathered around Aharon” (32:1).

So, before the Golden Calf they gather as an am, a nation. But on the day after Yom Kippur, they are gathered by Moshe as an eidah, a congregation. Perhaps, when coming to Aharon after Moshe did not returned, the people gathered for a mission — what unites a nation is its purpose, its mission.

Here, however, the purpose is actually to gather. How do you rebuild a broken people? Your bring them together. Perhaps the Torah is alluding to the fact that they are not gathering just to build a Mishkan, they are building together in order to rediscover the beauty of being “gathered.”

I read a wonderful book on the value of team building by Patrick Lencioni, in which he describes the five dysfunctions of a team.

The first dysfunction, he suggests, is trust — not trust in the conventional sense, which is about assumptions of a person’s future behavior based on their past behavior; but trust as in the confidence among team members that all their intentions are good and are pursued for the good of the team or a higher purpose than themselves.

This includes the willingness of team members to be vulnerable and share their mistakes, confident in the knowledge that they will not be judged, because all the team members simply want to help each other and become better in the interest of the team, or of a higher purpose. It includes the ability to engage in healthy conflict and even point out other team members’ mistakes and flaws, secure in the knowledge that no one is making it personal, but that it’s always about the team.

As an example, if a basketball player is more concerned with his own scoring than whether the team wins, then something is dysfunctional in the way that team works. On the other hand, the coach has to be able to tell a team member where he messed up without his taking it personally, because it’s not about him, it’s about something much bigger.

This is true of every team setting and every healthy relationship. Your spouse or parent has to be able to tell you where you need to improve without you taking it personally, secure in the knowledge that they love you and have no axe to grind; they simply want to help you become even better.

squelch those who opposed them in an unprecedented program of government censorship. Some on the left, like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were explicit about abandoning their former stance in which they supported all those whose speech was under attack, be they on the right or the left. Now they only defend speech when it conforms to their political opinions and are happy to stand on the sidelines or support the suppression of conservative or other non-leftist views.

Violence isn’t protected speech

Still, that raises the question as to whether conservatives are themselves free-speech hypocrites by supporting Trump’s plan to deport foreign Hamas supporters. It’s a fair question to pose, but the answer is that the accusation is false.

Khalil and other foreign supporters are not being deported for their opinions. Any American or, for that matter, foreign resident can think and say what they like, no matter how hateful or abhorrent.

But Khalil and his mob of antisemitic leftists at Columbia — and others like them around the country — turned their support for the genocide of Jews into acts of harassment and violence, breaking not only the rules of the university where they worked and studied (albeit rules that a school administration that was both tacitly in sympathy with the Israel-haters) but the law. That rendered those among their number who were not citizens liable to be expelled from the United States under long-recognized rules and regulations. Foreign residents are in the United States only with the permission of the government. Even green-card holders can have that permission revoked if they violate the law or otherwise act in a manner that violates the terms under which they were admitted.

And not only did Khalil violate them. It’s a dead certainty that he lied about his affiliations and intentions in order to gain entry to the United States and to get a green card even after he married a citizen.

Yet the point to focus on isn’t immigration law. Advocacy for Israel’s destruction is speech. The acts of violence and intimidation committed by the pro-Hamas mob Khalil led were not speech.

Foreign students take over

The more germane issue, however, isn’t really about the fate of Khalil or any of the other antisemitic thugs who are either self-deporting or liable to get the same treatment from federal authorities. It is how progressives and their Islamist allies have taken over American higher education in such a way as to make so many colleges and universities hostile environments for Jews.

Part of this is the result of the way foreign students have impacted American education.

Continued from page 17

Chumash. His piety and sagacity earned him the title Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, the Holy Ohr HaChaim. This is how my grandfather, himself a pious and sagacious Jew, referred to him, and so will I.

The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh is astounded by the phrase “and all the Congregation of the Children of Israel departed from Moshe’s presence.” He remarks: “Did they all rush away hurriedly without taking leave of their leader? Did they not respectfully ask permission from Moshe to depart from his presence? Are we not taught by our sages in Tractate Yoma that a disciple may not depart from his master without first asking permission to leave?”

He responds to these questions by suggesting that the spiritual enthusiasm which pervaded the spectacle of a totally united Jewish

Continued from page 17

he hurled the tablets of the law (luchot) to the ground.

Three days later, on the 20th day of Tammuz, after the principal perpetrators were been dealt with, Moshe ascended the mountain a second time to gain forgiveness for the Jewish people. Forty days later he descended on the first of the month of Elul to announce that the people had been forgiven. Then he ascended a third time for another 40 days to receive the second luchot. Finally, Moshe descended from Mount Sinai for the third and final time, on Yom Kippur, the tenth of Tishrei.

Thus, it was on Yom Kippur that the Jewish people realized they were really forgiven and had been given a second chance, with a second set of luchot. What Rashi points out is not the

And so, 3,200 years ago, with the first tablets shattered at the foot of the mountain, and the dream of a better world at risk, Moshe gathers together the entire Jewish people and tells them to build a Mishkan, a special place, together.

And here is some food for thought for the Shabbat table: Seventy years ago, with the Jewish people and the Torah communities of Europe in tatters, Hashem tells us to build a State of Israel … together. And here we are, living the dream; we just have a bit of a ways to go to build it … together.

Perhaps this Shabbat of Vayakhel, we might all consider thinking how to get a little better at the “together” part.

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Freedman is rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Most Americans probably assume that students at one of the nation’s most venerable and respected institutions of higher learning are peers who gained admission on the basis of merit. They would probably be astonished to learn that, according to the university’s website, a majority of its students and scholars are not US citizens but foreign nationals.

Unlike many Americans, foreign students, especially from Middle East countries other than Israel, pay the full tuition fees with few of them on scholarships or other programs that reduce costs.

The transformation of schools like Columbia into bastions of hate for Israel and Jews is thus not entirely the function of the American left’s long march through our institutions, but also the product of the Muslim and Arab world’s successful campaign in which they have sought influence in the United States by one means or another.

Still, the stakes involved in Trump’s plans to defund schools that have tolerated and enabled antisemitism are bigger than Khalil or the infiltration of other Islamists and terror supporters

Continued from previous page

into the country.

The left’s promotion of toxic theories aimed at smearing Western civilization and the United States as irredeemably racist has done incalculable damage to the humanities and, as author Heather Mac Donald has written, to the sciences as well.

What happens at Columbia, Harvard, Yale and other elite schools doesn’t stay there. It seeps into the rest of society because their graduates have so much influence on how the country operates.

Jews may be most vulnerable now, but the left’s takeover of the education system threatens all Americans. If Trump’s efforts fail and the woke orthodoxy that targets basic American values like personal liberty and equal opportunity prevails, this will call into question the nation’s future in a way that few other threats can.

The president’s attack on these schools isn’t a war on education. It’s a battle to save education and America itself at a time when a countercultural revolution on the nation’s campuses is desperately needed.

Those liberals who say that they oppose Khalil’s views but will fight to defend his rights (even though they wouldn’t do the same for conservatives) and do their best to thwart Trump’s defunding campaign aren’t just undermining Jewish security. They are betraying the basic values of Western civilization that are the foundation of their own freedoms and the existence of the American republic.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Cohen…

Continued from page 19

first-term presidential inauguration, “In international organizational terms, that’s unremarkable, but when you consider how the money is spent, it’s little short of obscene. One would like to imagine that fact is one that President Trump will grasp instinctively, and act upon accordingly.” Trump’s dislike of bloated, politically charged bureaucracies hasn’t wavered in the interim. For that reason and assorted others, it is reasonable to expect that when former New York Rep. Elise Stefanik is finally confirmed as the administration’s choice as ambassador to the United Nations, she will make dismantling the committee a priority.

Last September, when the General Assembly passed a resolution demanding Israel’s immediate withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, warning that the Jewish state “must bear the legal consequences of all its internationally wrongful acts,” Stefanik issued a scathing response.

“The United Nations overwhelmingly passed a disgraceful antisemitic resolution to demand that Israel surrender to barbaric terrorists who seek the destruction of both Israel and America,” she stated. “Once again the UN’s antisemitic rot is on full display as it punishes Israel for defending itself and rewards Iranian-backed terrorists.”

The “rot” Stefanik was referring to is (as she no doubt realizes) institutionalized and structural, embedded within the organization’s heart for 50 years, if not longer. In 1965 — two years before the Six-Day War brought Israel control of the West Bank, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem — the Soviets insisted at the drafting sessions for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination that a condemnation of “Zionism” be included alongside “Nazism” and “antisemitism.”

As the Israeli scholar Yohanan Manor observed, the convention debates “showed the Arabs and the Soviet Union that it was possible to have Zionism condemned if they could just find a way to secure the support of the Afro-Asian bloc.” Ten years later, they achieved just that with the passage of Resolution 3379. How would the abolition of the committee be achieved? Many years ago, the late American diplomat Richard Schifter told me that “a significant number of ambassadors in New York vote against Israel without instructions from their governments.

Because these resolutions involve budgetary questions, they require a two-thirds majority vote under the provisions of the UN Charter. So the answer to the problem is that you reach out to heads

of government. You get them to give instructions to the ambassadors on how to vote.”

There is now a precedent for that: In August 2020, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy withdrew his country from the committee just a few months after his election.

Given its commitment to protecting Israel within the United Nations, and its associated agencies and departments, the United States must pursue the same outcome with as many states as possible — between now and November and, if necessary, beyond.

Ben Cohen is a senior analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Silverman…

Continued from page 19

•Khalil was involved in illegal occupations of buildings (Alexander Hall at Columbia, which was vandalized and a school janitor injured, and the Barnard library, where classes were disrupted).

•He served as the negotiator on behalf of the occupying students with the university, pressuring the administration to accommodate student demands based on their illegal activity.

•He helped organize an illegal encampment on the campus that denied access to “Zionist” students.

Therefore the First Amendment defense will not get him off, because many of his actions are not protected speech. (Note: These are state crimes, but no one expects Alvin Bragg, the partisan New York County district attorney, to follow up in these cases with prosecutions.)

Secretary of State Rubio did not rely on either Khalil’s potential criminal activity (aiding and abetting break-ins) or his possible visa fraud to explain the decision to deport. Instead Rubio cited this provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act:

An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.

Does Secretary Rubio have reasonable grounds to believe there are potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences in this case? I believe so.

Allowing pro-Hamas actions on US college campuses that incite violence (such as occupying university buildings) and threaten Jewish students undercuts the US policy of combating antisemitism overseas. Passivity could also hurt relations with allies that oppose Hamas, e.g., Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Ultimately Khalil’s deportation may present a constitutional issue, but that would be a separation of powers issue. Can a federal judge substitute her or his judgment for that of the secretary of state on what is a reasonable decision in foreign policy?

The constitution gives the president (and designees) plenary power in the conduct of most foreign affairs. In the statute cited above, the Congress recognizes that power in deportations. Thus I feel confident that the federal bench — at some level — will side with the secretary of state’s judgment in this area.

It would be more difficult to deport a foreign student who had solely expressed antisemitic hate speech or expressed support for Hamas. That free speech issue, however, is not what we are facing in the Khalil case.

Robert Silverman is former US diplomat and president of the American Foreign Service Association. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Shufutinsky

Continued from page 20

ful means while in the United States?

•Engage in any activity that could endanger the welfare, safety or security of the United States?

Other questions include:

•Have you ever served in, been a member of, assisted (helped), or participated in any armed group (a group that carries weapons), for example: paramilitary unit (a group of people who act like a military group, but are not part of the

official military), self-defense unit, vigilante unit, rebel group, or guerilla group?

•Have you ever been a member of, or in any way affiliated with, the Communist Party or any totalitarian party (in the United States or abroad)?

On last week’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host defended Khalil, stating “I don’t support his point of view, but you know what, if you’re an honest person you have to defend him, if you believe in free speech because that’s what free speech means. I say it all the time when it’s on the other foot, and I can’t change because it’s now this guy. It’s defending the dirtbags you hate.”

Like many, Maher misses the elephant in the room. Khalil engaged in conduct that violated the conditions of his green card. Maher goes on to tout the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) statement on Khalil, “If the government has got anything other than just somebody who is saying things that they don’t like … they need to show it now because, otherwise, the harm to First Amendment freedoms will be serious.”

Maher ends the segment with the following statement, which may be a forewarning of what’s to come if liberal democracies continue to ignore illiberal conduct from those who are in our country by invitation, “… he hates this country, he hates Western civilization, and I defend to his death his right to say it.”

I fear that we are being led down the path of homicidal empathy by those in power who are not only putting themselves at risk but are gambling the entirety of Western civilization.

Brandy Shufutinsky is a social worker, writer and researcher working to counter the illiberal takeover of our education system.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Gormin…

Continued from page 20

These programs serve as a critical next step for students who first encounter Jewish engagement in their JSU clubs. Whether it’s a local event that builds Jewish friendships, a weekend retreat that fosters community or standing at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for the first time, students gain a sense of belonging and pride that will remain with them for a lifetime.

Of course, the challenges extend beyond the classroom. Supporting students in their quest for Jewish learning and engagement has evolved into a responsibility that staff never anticipated: ensuring their physical safety on campus. Liaising with school administrations and districts to combat antisemitic incidents, advocating for students’ rights and providing families with critical resources have become integral aspects of JSU’s mission. Parents, too, are looking for guidance, seeking reassurance that their children are not alone in the face of rising hatred.

Recognizing this need, JSU has expanded its support for parents and families.

We provide educational workshops, parent training sessions and resources to help families navigate difficult conversations about antisemitism and Jewish identity. These programs offer parents the tools to empower

their children to stand strong in their Jewish pride while also helping them understand the issues their teens face. Parents are not just bystanders in this struggle; they are partners in fostering resilience, confidence and a deep-rooted sense of identity in their children.

Antisemitism does not discriminate based on denominational affiliation. To that end, our programs welcome students from all walks of Jewish life, as well as allies who stand with our community. We invite all students — whether from a traditional Jewish background, those who have never stepped into a synagogue or others who are simply curious — to find a JSU club near them and welcome others to join them.

So many of our students are not merely surviving but thriving. They are filled with drive, curiosity and passion.

They refuse to be silenced by hate and instead embrace the challenge of standing tall as young leaders. They are eager to learn, grow and build a future where Jewish identity is celebrated, not hidden. They are stepping forward — not just as participants but as builders of the Jewish future.

And JSU stands with them every step of the way.

Rabbi Derek Gormin is managing director of NCSY. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Gulyas…

Continued from page 20

tions have consequences.

Yet here we are. The liberal outrage brigade stands with Khalil, claiming his wife’s pregnancy erases the legal reality. These same people, ironically, are calling for Elon Musk, an actual US citizen with eight children, to be deported. The mental gymnastics are exhausting. I see this all the time. As a legal alien in the United States, my accent is constantly called out. I’m told to “go back to Hungary” when I discuss immigration laws. Meanwhile, those same activists are protesting ICE and supporting illegal immigrants who often don’t even speak English at a basic level. These contradictions are impossible to ignore.

If you want to debate immigration laws, fine. But don’t conflate it with Trump-hatred and selective outrage. Because like it or not, this is the law and it must be upheld. It goes without saying that any deportation or green card revocation must follow due process protections (when applicable). But, as long as that is the case, the issue is not ICE, Trump or the law. The victim isn’t the perpetrator. For me, this is personal. I spent years on an F1 visa (honestly, without the ability to “sneeze”). So, if you are an American, I suggest you read the actual documents that people need to sign when petitioning for a visa to the United States. Then tell me again why Khalil deserves a free pass.

Virag Gulyas is an expert on international Jewish, EU and UN affairs, who challenges misguided narratives on Israel, Hungary, communism and beyond.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com