Memory Of Xmas Past: How A Jewish Storekeeper Changed My Life
How Israel Should Respond To The Houthis And Their Missiles
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Beloved Long Island
Rabbi And Activist
The World Of Jennifer Raab, Leader In Education, Medical Research Page 16
David Blumenfeld
Dies At 89
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Even as we address unprecedented needs in Israel and the fight against antisemitism, it’s vital to come together with allies and give back to our community here at home.
On Monday, January 20, join us for UJA’s annual MLK Day of Service.
People from all backgrounds and walks of life will be giving back through volunteerism. Packing food, toiletry, and blizzard kits. Spending time with seniors. Cleaning up our parks. Or participating in one of our interfaith bridge-building programs.
Together, we’ll serve side by side, and build a world inspired by Dr. King’s timeless vision for unity and equality.
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By DANIEL R. DePETRIS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a remarkably successful few months. The veteran politician, whose political future was hanging by a thread after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, is on the rebound.
After nearly 15 months of war in Gaza, which has resulted in 45,000 (reported) deaths and mass displacement throughout the enclave, Hamas is reportedly easing its hardline negotiating position in cease fire talks. Hezbollah is at its weakest point, courtesy of a months-long Israeli military offensive in south Lebanon
(the two sides signed a ceasefire deal in late November).
Bashar Assad, the murderous dictator who turned Syria into an Iranian outpost, is now
in exile. And Iran, its regional proxies still licking its wounds, looks more like a paper tiger than an aspiring regional hegemon.
Times could get even better for Netanyahu when Donald Trump returns to the WhiteHouse this January. That’s at least the widespread opinion of many commentators, some of whom have argued that Trump’s upcoming second term could provide Netanyahu with the leeway he needs to accomplish his broader goals in the Middle East.
This opinion is not entirely without merit; Trump’s first term was a godsend to Netanyahu in more ways than one. In 2017, Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a long-standing request from successive Israeli governments. He also recognized Israel’s annexation of continued on page 21
President Trump’s first term - when, for example, he brokered the Abraham Accordswas a godsend to Israel and Netanyahu. But past is not necessarily prologue.
By LOAY ALSHAREEF
The new leadership in Syria presents a paradoxical image to the world — a blend of calculated pragmatism and deeply en-
trenched extremist roots. These leaders are far from ordinary figures. Among them is Ahmed al-Golani (formerly known as al-Shaara), the de facto ruler of Syria and a figure with an extensive history in al-Qaeda’s inner circles. His past collaborations with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the early 2000s, during the height of the Iraq War, are well-documented. They fought U.S. forces in battles that were
among the most brutal of modern warfare, including the infamous sieges of Fallujah.
establish a caliphate in Mesopotamia.
These historical ties are es-
now lead Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group that claims to have severed its ties with alQaeda but has yet to convincingly demonstrate a break from the ideology that once defined it. In recent years, alGolani has been making statements aimed at Western media and policymakers, attempting to reframe HTS as a moderate entity capable of governing Syria responsibly. These attempts, however, raise an important question: Are these statements genuine, or are they part of a strategic bluff designed to gain international recognition and legitimacy?
During these years, al-Qaeda attracted a legion of international fighters determined to
sential for understanding the complexities of Syria today. Al-Golani and his comrades
There is no doubt that individuals and movements can
continued on page 23
By GIL TROY
The Houthis’ ongoing missile barrage provides the moral clarity Israelis need in battle and the motivation to keep fighting
this multi-front war we spent years trying to avoid. Soldiers have always reported, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”
Anyone anxious for the war to end should pressure Hamas and their Qatari bankers to release every hostage, insist that Hamas terrorists free Gaza from their grip, and demand that the Houthis and Iranians stop firing deadly missiles.
Never underestimate the Houthi slogan: “God is the greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse be upon
The only response to the Houthis, to their missiles, is to crush them to the point where they fear firing even one.
Having been awakened Friday night by the latest air raid sirens in Jerusalem, I’ve discov-
ered there are no pacifists in bomb shelters, either.
Israel’s war has advanced impressively. Israelis and Westerners are safer today than we were on October 6, even as many now fear many threats they long denied.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relentless pressurecooker strategy has worked, leaving Hamas crushed, Hezbollah eclipsed, Iran exposed, and Syria reeling.
Israel has mistakenly finished other wars prematurely. It cannot repeat those errors.
our borders along with genocidal threats from fanatics. October 7 proved that they took their words seriously. Having been raised to hate the Jews, Hamas terrorists and thousands
Too many Americans keep asking, “Why is Israel still fighting?” It’s as if Israel’s right to self-defense after October 7 had a two-month expiration date. This naive, impatient approach to urban warfare ignores our enemies’ stubborn cruelty. They’re continuing the war they started. The real question is, “How can Israel stop now, with so many homicidal maniacs still trying to destroy the Jewish State?”
The pre-October 7 mentality tolerated arms buildups on
of other Gazans tried crushing us. They raped and murdered wantonly, kidnapped babies, and tortured the elderly, all because they were Jews–or nonJews, sometimes even fellow Muslims, daring to live peacefully with Jews
The terrorists failed miserably, hurting us yet mobilizing us. By joining, cheered on by continued on page 22
47:28-50:26
By SHLOMO RISKIN
“And when the days of mourning for Jacob were over, Joseph spoke to the House of Pharaoh, saying, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, my father made me swear, and he declared: I am dying. In my grave that I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me…’” (Gen. 50:4-5)
Why does Joseph, the usually confident Grand Vizier of Egypt, make such a meek request to Pharaoh to bury his father in his family’s ancestral homeland? Does the number two figure in the most power-
ful nation on earth, who undoubtedly confers with the king daily, need an appointment to see the monarch?
Why is he forced to traverse the usual hierarchy of gatekeepers through whom only junior staff and guests must pass? Why does the Torah even go to the trouble of reporting the process by which Joseph makes this apologetic petition?
Rabbi Ovadia Sforno (16thcentury Italy) explains that in this instance, court etiquette prevented Joseph from making his request personally of Pharaoh because he was dressed in mourning clothes (and presumably needed a haircut and shave). However, Jewish law dictates that whatever one must do to bury one’s dead properly is permissible. Joseph certainly could have
made himself presentable had his external appearance posed a problem, especially since his request was to properly bury his father in the Land of Israel!
Another explanation: Perhaps the obsequious way Joseph must arrange to have his request brought before Pharaoh is not to shed light on a change in Joseph’s political
In contrast, Rabbi David Pardo (18th-century Italy, Sarajevo, and Jerusalem), author of Maskil l’David, maintains that carefully reading the verse indicates a change in Joseph’s status. His sudden loss of access could well be a warning of new palace tremors that would eventually result in the enslavement of his descendants. Joseph seems to have been demoted.
a person wants to be buried in his homeland, where his body will become part of the earth to which he feels most deeply connected. Indeed, in the ancient world, the most critical right of citizenship was the right to burial. Jacob wisely understands that Pharaoh expects Joseph to completely identify with Egypt and bring up generations of faithful and committed Egyptians in return for all his adopted country has given him. However, this is impossible for Jacob, and the patriarch hopes it will
continued on page 26
position, but rather to emphasize the delicate nature of this petition. In other words, it serves as a moment of truth for Joseph as well as for Jews of every generation. Joseph has reached the top of Egypt’s social ladder. He speaks Egyptian, dresses as an Egyptian, is referred to by an Egyptian name (TzafnatPane’ach), and is married to a native Egyptian. From slave to prime minister, Joseph has certainly lived out the Great Egyptian Dream. Now, however, he is forced to face the precariousness and vulnerability of his position.
By SHAMMAI ENGELMAYER
immy Carter may not have been the greatest president we’ve ever had or even the best president. We in the Jewish world view him
fied Judaism’s requirement that a national leader be a role model for the people he leads.
As some of our Sages of Blessed Memory put it, “As the leader, so the generation.” (See
fulfilled that role as no other president before or after him. He did so before he entered politics and continued long after his presidency’s inglorious end.
with disfavor because of the unfortunate comments he all too often made about Israel being an “apartheid” state, and especially because of his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Yet he, alone of all our presidents, best exempli-
Carter did not always get it right, but the Torah’s moral precepts were part of his Southern Baptist’s DNA.
the Babylonian Talmud tractate Arachin 17a.) In other words, the leader must set a moral and ethical tone for the people he or she leads. Carter
Many U.S. presidents have found impactful ways to continue to benefit society long after their terms ended. But Carter surpassed them all.
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It is a “feel good” film with an important moral lesson at its core, leaving audiences elated.
It will be a win-win for the Jewish and Lithuanian-American communities, as well as for lovers of animation of all backgrounds and ages.
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What other president preferred getting his hands dirty by building homes for the poor who needed those homes?
Only Jimmy Carter got “down and dirty” to do that work— which he continued to do into his mid-nineties. Carter and his late wife participated in what became known as Habitat for Humanity’s annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, during which the couple helped build, renovate, and repair over 4,330 homes in 14 countries.
When Habitat undertook its first project in a large city—at 742 East Sixth Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side— Carter jogged past the project
The former president then returned to Georgia, assembled a volunteer work crew, and put them on a bus for a 27-hour ride to New York to help clean up that mess and work on other Habitat projects in the city. His Carter Center has an impressive list of accomplishments in several areas, most notably in public health. Thanks to the center, for example, a debilitating parasitic infection known informally as Guinea worm disease has been 99.9 percent eliminated. That has not happened to any disease since smallpox was eradicated.
and thought, “Rosalynn and I should come up and give them a hand,” according to the nonprofit. He later visited the site on April 1, 1984, and saw that the tenement had spraypainted windows and a fireblackened room with piles of garbage all around it.
AsThe New York Times reported, Carter told the volunteers, “Well, I can see you’ve got some work to do.”
Also, thanks to the Carter Center, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Mental Health Parity Act in 2022. This act requires insurance companies to provide the same coverage for mental health and substance abuse ailments as they do for physical health problems. The center also helped pass a weaker federal law in 2008 and has championed successive rule changes to strengthen it. Carter not only believed in
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By STEWART AIN
On Jan. 30th, the Rabbinical Assembly(RA) will memorialize colleagues and their spouses who died in 2024. The memorial
will take place during the virtual day of learning held annually by the RA, the Conservative movement’s rabbinic arm. Among those to be remembered will be Rabbi Da-
vid Blumenfeld, who led Congregation Tifereth Israel in Glen Cove for 12 years, beginning in 1964. Blumenfeld died
role. Among his other involvements, Blumenfeld chaired the education committee of the newly formed Solomon
He was a treasured teacher of rabbis and teachers, and not just because of his vast scholarship.
on Sept. 16 at the age of 89.
The late rabbi was active in Jewish life on Long Island well beyond his synagogue
Schechter Day School of Nassau County in Jericho. He also served on the board of the Long Island Board of Rabbis,
was president of the Rabbinical Assembly of Nassau (Suffolk Region), and served as chaplain of the Glen Cove Police Department.
analyst, and best-selling author Laura Weiss Blumenfeld—said much the same thing. He was “a treasured, treasured teacher of rabbis
Beyond Long Island, he was the Founding executive director of the New York Holocaust Memorial Commission, which created the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan’s Battery Park.
“He was a rabbi’s rabbi,” said Rabbi David Schuck in his eulogy at Rabbi Blumenfeld’s funeral, which was held at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle. Blumenfeld and his wife Frances were members there for more than 30 years.
Schuck, Beth El’s rabbi, said that the emails and texts sent by colleagues to Blumenfeld’s children—the noted neurologist Dr. Hal Blumenfeld and the journalist, Middle East
and teachers, not just because of his scholarship, which was vast, but because of his warmth and his sincere concern for others and their development,” Schuck said.
The rabbi then read from a note sent to him by one of his predecessors at Beth El. “I just wanted to share that Rabbi Blumenfeld had a huge impact in my career early on and, truthfully, he was the first rabbi, I believe, to teach me the inner workings of pulpit life,” the note read. “He was incredibly honest and open, and he was very kind to me. He served informally as a kind of rabbinic advisory
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By JOE BROWN
hat comes to your mind when I mention the name Kevin Spacey? Many people will recall his Oscar-winning turn
as Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects or his portrayal of Machiavellian congressman-
guilty of any crime, Spacey suffered irreparable career damage. The accusations, coupled with bizarre cryptic Christmas videos he released during those years, mean that most people view him as unpleasant at best and a predator at worst.
Although I am a fan of his movie and TV roles, Spacey hasn’t been on my radar for
Israel just earmarked a wad of cash to improve its image. But how can it work if the country keeps shooting itself in the foot?
turned-president in House of Cards. But most people associate the name Kevin Spacey
several years. So imagine my shock when, in early December, I saw pictures of him and
with a considerably darker episode in his life.
In 2017, at the height of the #MeToo accusations against Hollywood figures, Spacey was accused by a dozen men of historic sexual misconduct spanning decades. In the following years, charges were brought against him - but in every instance, he was either acquitted or the case didn’t make it to trial.
Despite not being found
pro-Israel commentator Douglas Murray being given a tour of the destroyed Israeli communities on the Gaza border. Spacey claimed to have been in Israel on a solidarity trip and to visit a friend’s daughter serving in the IDF. A few days later, pictures emerged of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana giving him a personal tour of the Israeli parliament.
The latter event was lauded by many pro-Israel activists,
won’t necessarily fix it
including former government spokesperson Eylon Levy. An esteemed Hollywood actor was giving his love to Israel when the rest of the world had turned its back on it. Howev-
er, as I mentioned, most people don’t view Kevin Spacey this way. And those outside of the pro-Israel bubble mocked Israel, which has been accused of giving citizenship to those accused of or charged with sexual crimes, for rolling out the red carpet for a man who was ostracized from Hollywood for his behavior.
continued on page 19
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By CYNTHIA IDRISSMILLER
Alarm bells sounded recently when Vice President-elect JD Vance and Trump adviser Elon Musk praised the far-
right German party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), just weeks before that country’s snap national elections are scheduled to take place.
“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk posted on X, prompting backlash from conservative and mainstream German leaders and the global Jewish community about a key Trump adviser’s endorsement of a party that has flirted with Nazi and white supremacist slogans and espoused de-
humanizing and hateful rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims. In the wake of the criticism, Musk doubled down, writing the next day that “AfD is the only hope for Germany.”
Make no mistake: It is extremely dangerous to have an American vice president-elect and a core Trump adviser voice support for the AfD, therefore normalizing very extreme political positions.
It is extremely dangerous to have an American vice president-elect and a core Trump adviser voice support for the AfD.
Vance’s more tacit endorsement of AfD came in the form of a post responding to claims that AfD is dangerous. “It’s so dangerous for people to control their borders,” Vance tweeted sarcastically Saturday, implying support for the party’s anti-immigration positions. “So, so dangerous.The dangerous level is off the charts.”
The AfD has called for mass deportations, argued that children with disabilities should be removed from regular schools, and runs social media ads blaming immigrants for crime and sexual violence. One anti-immigrant ad run by the AfD showed the belly of a pregnant white woman with the phrase “New Germans? We’ll make them ourselves.”
Another campaign billboard used a 19th-century painting of a slave market — depicting a nude, white woman having her teeth inspected by turban-
tic intelligence authorities formally monitor some local branches of the AfD as extremist organizations that are working against German de-
Protesters, including supporters of AfD, hold German flags that read “We are the people” during a rally of far-right groups in Berlin last October.
clad, brown men — to warn that Europe could become “Eurabia,” a reference to a conspiracy theory favored by white supremacists. State-level German domes-
mocracy. One of the party’s regional leaders has been fined multiple times by German courts for using a banned Nazi phrase, “Everything for
continued on page 26
By DAVID SUISSA
he first thing I got wrong in 2024 was the war in Gaza, which I saw as a “forever war” with diminishing returns. I al-
lowed my skepticism of Bibi’s intentions — the longer he would prolong the war, the longer he’d stay in power — to cloud my judgment about the need to smash Hamas to regain deterrence.
While my heart never stops aching for the victims of this ugliest of wars, I’ve come closer to those who believe that the Oct. 7 Hamas inva-
tent mix of fear and anger that has marked this election season has reached a peak on Election Day,” I wrote. “It shouldn’t surprise us if it feels like a civic volcano is about to erupt.”
The only civic volcano that erupted was a Republican sweep of the Electoral College, the popular vote, and both houses of Congress.
I was wrong to get sucked in by a woke movement that terrorized dissenters with insults. I shouldn’t have waited until Nov. 7 to write, “Can We Stop Walking on Eggshells Now?” I walked on eggshells a little too much,
sion was so uniquely shattering that it required an equally shattering statement to deter Israel’s enemies.
I also misread the threat from Hezbollah. I’ve been terrified over the years by reports of thousands of precision-guided Hezbollah missiles that could overwhelm Israeli defenses, shut down electrical grids, and disable the country. Given that threat, I didn’t think Israel could fight two wars at once. I was wrong. The thousands of pagers that blew up on Sept. 17 led to the decimation of Hezbollah’s leadership and a turnaround that will go down in Israeli military history.
Back home in the U.S., I was wrong about expecting violence in the aftermath of the Nov. 5 elections. “The po-
was in evidence at the very beginning of his term, as confirmed in a recent Wall Street Journal expose. The political bias was not just shameful – it was journalistic malpractice.
Besides getting things wrong, I also had doubts about some of my ideas, like fighting antisemitism like “winners and not whiners.” I’ve written several columns in recent years questioning continued on page 25
Your generosity can deliver meals, clothing, and lifesaving gear to those on the frontlines and Israeli families in need.
not wanting to be accused of being transphobic, racist, or bigoted.
I misjudged Donald Trump’s legal troubles in the year leading to the elections. I assumed that the slew of indictments would consume him and take him down. But his legal hell had the opposite effect, boosting his fundraising and shifting his status as a victim of the establishment. After an assassin’s bullet just grazed him, a halo of invincibility followed him. Given how he hit rock bottom after the 2022 midterms, I never saw his epic comeback coming.
Iwent too easy on the legacy media for not pursuing one of the biggest scandals in recent memory: President Joe Biden’s mental decline that
-
in
means “brightening faces” - was established to promote, support, and further activities which are committed to providing both immediate and long-term relief to the impoverished in Israel. This is done via a dynamic range of food and social service programs, all aimed at helping the needy with dignity and respect. Learn more: meirpanim.org
By SARAH WEXLER
Ask the average American to name a Jewish athlete. For many, the first to come to mind will be Dodgers great Sandy Koufax, even though it’s been nearly six decades since his retirement from major-league baseball.
to mid-1960s baseball was in large part defined by Koufax baffling hitters with a highoctane fastball and a devastating curveball en route to becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer. It remains one of the most dominant peaks for any pitcher.
For the purposes of this article, just as important was his fateful decision to sit out Game One of the 1965 World
His pitching made him an icon, but sitting out Game One of the 1965 World Series because it
Like many of his sport’s alltimers, Koufax maintains an almost mythic status–especially among Jewish baseball fans and the broader Jewish American community. Early
Series against the Minnesota Twins in recognition of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish religious calendar.
Koufax was not the first great Jewish athlete or Jewish
baseball star. Yet the legendary left-hander seems to occupy a special place in the
place as a revered representative of his people.
To understand why Koufax
Jewish American imagination. At the same time, non-Jewish sports fans also recognize his
retains this image as a specifically Jewish superstar, the author talked with a Jewish histo-
rian, a rabbi, a fan who grew up watching Koufax pitch, and several contemporary Jewish major-league players and personnel. Their views offer insight into why Koufax’s legacy as a Jewish American sports icon has endured for so long and with such strength.
Signed by the Dodgers ahead of the 1955 season, Koufax played his first three seasons in his native Brooklyn before the team relocated to Los Angeles in ’58, where he truly made a name for himself. From 1961 to 1966, Koufax won three Cy Young Awards and a National League MVP Award while earning seven All-Star selections. He threw four no-hitters–one a year from 1962 to 1965–culminating in his perfect game
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deny
Someone should write a book on the denial of evil; that would be much more important because while we cannot prevent death, we can prevent evil.
tims of communism, especially the 100 million who were murdered.
tice of
North Korea: 2 million.
Cambodia: 2 million.
rorize people into supporting the communists.
JThe most glaring example of the denial of evil is communism, an
By STEVE LIPMAN
immy Carter, who was laid to rest on Dec. 29, is properly credited with being the first president of the United States to break through the iron wall that kept Israel and its Arab neighbors at daggers drawn ever since the Jewish State was founded, but that achievement almost did not come about. And some of what Carter did in the wake of this accomplishment may have diminished its significance.
Second, the best way to prevent an evil from reoccurring is to confront it in all its horror. The fact that many people today, especially young people, believe communism is a viable — even morally superior — option for modern societies proves they know nothing about communism's moral record. Therefore, they do not properly fear communism — which means this evil could happen again.
That, at least, is the opinion
The Soviet Union: 20 million (many scholars believe the number was considerably higher).
“contentious,” as Siegal openly clashed with White House National Security Advisor
China: 65 million.
the administration announced that it would sell 60 F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia,
The Carter administration was bitterly divided over how to respond to Sadat’s peace offer.
These numbers are quite conservative. For example, in Ukraine alone, the Soviet regime and its Ukrainian Communist Party helpers starved 5 to 6 million to death within a two-year period. It is almost
Zbigniew Brzezinski. While Siegal favored pursuing the Sadat-Begin initiative, Brzezinski opposed it because he feared it would further complicate achieving a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
And why could it happen again?
At first, Carter leaned towards Brzezinski’s position,
which was seen by many here and in Israel as a threat because the kingdom was technically at war with the Jewish state. The administration also announced the sale of 50 F-5
fighter jets to Egypt, which some feared could derail the peace efforts then underway.
Siegal resigned his post a month earlier as the White House was preparing to prepare the arms sales package.
their right to speak freely, to worship, to start a business or even to travel without party permission; no noncommunist judiciary or media; the near-poverty of nearly all communist countries; the imprisonment and torture of vast numbers of people; and, of course, the trauma suffered by the hundreds of millions of friends and relatives of the murdered and imprisoned.
Or Mao Zedong's regular use of torture to punish opponents and intimidate peasants, like leading men through the streets with rusty wires through their testicles and burning the vaginas of wives of opponents with flaming wicks — Mao's techniques to terrorize peasants into supporting the Chinese Communist Party in its early days.
In a meeting with Carter, the transcript of which is preserved in the Carter Presidential Library, he was quite blunt in explaining his decision.
“I want you to understand that my people, the Jewish
ideology that, within a period of only 60 years, created modern totalitarianism and deprived of human rights, tortured, starved and killed
of Mark Siegal, who served as deputy assistant for policy analysis at the Carter White House from January 1977 to March 1978. He recounted his version of events in a never-published interview with me in 2015 after Carter was diagnosed with cancer.
That brings us to reason number three. The leaders of communist regimes and the vast number of people who helped those leaders torture, enslave and murder — plus the many more people who reported on their neighbors for saying something objectionable to the communists — were nearly all normal people. Of course, some were psychopaths, but most were not. Which proves that any society — including free ones —
People associate evil with darkness. But it is easy to look into the dark; it is very hard to stare into bright light.
more people than any other ideology in history.
Why people ignore, or even deny, communist evil is the subject of a previous column as well as a Prager University video, "Why Isn't Communism as Hated as Nazism?" I will, therefore, not address that
On November 9, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat announced his willingness to travel to Jerusalem for peace. Ten days later, standing before the Knesset, he declared, “No more war. No more bloodshed.”
can devolve into communism or some analogous evil.
Now some facts:
As Siegal recalled, the Carter administration was bitterly divided over how to respond. White House meetings were
According to the authoritative The Black Book of Communism, written by six French scholars and published in the United States by Harvard University Press, the num-
but Vice President Walter Mondale forcefully intervened to support Siegal. That led Carter to give the initiative his enthusiastic support, which in turn led to the crucial role he played in crafting the Camp David Accords in 1978 and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty that was signed in March 1979 on the White House lawn. Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978; Carter received his Nobel Prize in 2002, partly for his role in that historic event.
In April 1978, however, months before the Camp David Accords were negotiated,
people, are insecure, and we are insecure for very good and substantial reasons,” he told Carter. “If we are to make leaps of faith toward peace, if we are to be fully able to take quantum leaps of faith that may be necessary, we must proceed from a position of security. And in this regard, that is the fundamental problem with your arms sale’s decision…. The people and government of Israel are generally wary, with good reason, of
continued on page 27
continued on page 16
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international guarantees and commitments.”
That distrust of international guarantees and commitments harked back to May 1967, when the United Nations withdrew its forces from the Sinai at the insistence of then-Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who needed them out of the way so that he could launch what became known as the June 1967 SixDay War.
Said Siegal to Carter: “To retroactively alter the commitments made by the U.S. to Israel [in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War] …, and to link those commitments to other arms sales to other nations, just reinforces that fundamental distrust of anyone’s commitments to Israel. It re-
inforces the notion that Israel ultimately will stand by itself with respect to security; it makes compromise that much more difficult. And when you compound that insecurity, based on history, with arming
The
39th president left the White House. As an elder statesman and frequent commentator on the Middle East peace process, he often drew criticism for taking positions that many viewed as anti-Israel, even
Carter-brokered Israel-Egypt
peace treaty has withstood the test of time and all manner of regional challenges.
nations that Israel still feels are adversaries, you take away military security…. [These] arms sales [will] unite the Jewish community against the Administration because American Jews will always unite and speak with one voice with respect to a security question for Israel….” Siegal was correct in describing how the Jewish community would react, and that reaction contributed to Carter’s mixed legacy as far as Jews are concerned. It only became exacerbated after our
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Carter often persisted in angering Jews here with such comments even after the book was published. In explaining to The Washington Post why he did not request a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel in 2015, Carter said such a meeting “would be a waste of time” because Netanyahu “does not now and has never sincerely believed in a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.”
nate. I said that with Mr. Carter sitting there.”
said that Carter’s “remarkable leadership” at Camp David “changed the dynamics in the Middle East.”
bordering on antisemitic. Particularly infuriating was his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster), beginning with its title, which made Abraham Foxman, the then national director of the Anti-Defamation League, livid. “The title is to delegitimize Israel, because if Israel is like South Africa, it doesn’t really deserve to be a democratic state,” he said. “[Carter is] provoking, he’s outrageous, and he’s bigoted.” Carter was not the first major figure to charge Israel with practicing apartheid. Ironically, it was the “father of apartheid” himself, South Africa’s Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. “Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state,” he said in 1961 after Israel voted for a U.N. resolution condemning South African apartheid. Academics and others, Israelis among them, also accused Israel of practicing apartheid. Most notable among them was the “second Isaiah,” as the late Orthodox philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz was sometimes called. It was Carter’s use of the word in the title of his book, however, that thrust the apartheid charge into the mainstream.
In the book, Carter wrote of “the abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between Palestine’s citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.”
Following the publication of the book, 14 members of the Carter Center community board resigned in protest.
Carter, in fact, was an early advocate of a “two-state solution,” as Siegal maintained in our interview. “He [was] not anti-Israel. He [was] a strong believer in two states. He
He added, “I do not buy the argument that Carter [was] antisemitic. He was a long-time advocate for peace between Israel and Palestine. I reject the idea that he [was] antisemitic.”
“The greatest commitment in my life has been trying to bring peace to Israel,” Carter told the Atlanta Press Club in
[was] against ‘occupation.’”
“He [certainly was] not a bigot,” Siegal added. “There [was] not a bigoted bone in the man’s body.”
The “apartheid” term “creates some clouds” about Carter’s legacy, the late Walter Mondale told me in a telephone interview with him in 2015, “but does not cut across his overall accomplishments. ’Apartheid’ was very unfortu-
2015, adding that Israel was “a wonderful democracy…where everyone has guaranteed equal rights.”
In a conversation at Brandies University with then-Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, however, Carter defended his use of the term “apartheid,” calling it “a word that is an accurate description of what has
been going on in the West Bank.”
Carter said his sympathy for the Palestinian cause had increased after he witnessed “the apparently permanent acquisition, confiscation and colonization of choice sites throughout the West Bank. That’s the root of the problem that prevents peace coming to the Mideast.”
During interviews following the publication of his 2007 book, Carter continued to make the apartheid charge, at times calling it worse than the apartheid of South Africa’s white-dominated government.
“When Israel does occupy this territory deep within the West Bank and connects the 200 or so settlements with each other, with a road,” Carter told a Canadian Broadcast Company interviewer, “and then prohibits the Palestinians from using that road, or in many cases even crossing the road, this perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid than we witnessed even in South Africa.”
In an essay published in response to Carter’s Apartheid book, the foreign policy analyst Mitchell Bard criticized the former president for putting “the worst possible interpretation on any Jewish deed or word, while validating anything said or done by Palestinians. He claims that Israel puts ‘confiscation of Palestinian land ahead of peace’ despite the fact that Israel has withdrawn from 94 percent of the territory it captured in 1967.
“Carter returns again and again to the theme that Israel has stolen ‘Palestinian land,’ but he presents no evidence that the land belongs to the Palestinians and ignores all Israeli claims,” Bard added.
In fairness, Carter eventually recognized the hurt the book—its title especially— caused the Jewish community. In a 2009 letter released by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Carter apologized for the title and the stigmatization
that came with it. In that letter, he wrote:
“We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help
tween Israel and Egypt… [that] remains a touchstone of United States security policy in the region.”
It also is an enduring achievement, considering that
In ‘Apartheid,’ Carter wrote of ‘the abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories.’
Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al [C]het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”
it has withstood all manner of regional challenges, including military offensives next door to Egypt in Gaza in 2008, 2012, 2014, and the current war against Hamas.
“The Egyptian-Israel peace treaty…has withstood the test
of Israel’s. [His] views on the Arab-Israel conflict took him outside the mainstream of Democratic Party politics.” That began during his 1976 presidential campaign when Carter urged the creation of a “Palestinian homeland” and called on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. On the other hand, he also supported legislation that would prohibit U.S. corporations from complying with the Arab trade boycott of Israel.
Nevertheless, his support for a “Palestinian homeland” cost him support among many Jewish voters, causing him to underachieve Demo-
promote Holocaust education here. In 1978, he created the Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel. That commission led to the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in Washington.
It is the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, however, that defines his presidency, despite the subsequent controversy over his attitude towards Israel.
Aaron David Miller, a 24year veteran of the State Department who advised six secretaries of state on Middle East issues (he is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), said that the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty “would not have happened” without Carter. And although after Carter left the White House, Miller said, he “lost that sense of a mediator’s balance that served him so well,” that balance will be his legacy unless events in the Middle East spiral out of control.
Al Chet means “for the sin of” and is the opening refrain in the Great Confessional recited on Yom Kippur.
Other observers also have described Carter’s legacy in mixed terms
In a 2015 New York Times op-ed, Stuart Eizenstat, who served in the Carter and Bill Clinton administrations, noted, “Carter produced the first Middle East peace treaty be-
of time, “ wrote Daniel Kurtzer in a 2015 email. Kurtzer served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt during the Clinton administration and as ambassador to Israel under George W. Bush, told me.
“As president,” Kurtzer wrote, “Carter balanced Israeli and Egyptian requirements well enough that both sides saw him as a fair and necessary third-party negotiator. Since leaving office, Carter [was] much more understanding of Palestinian positions and requirements than
cratic totals in most elections. He received 64 percent of the Jewish vote in his 1976 race against Gerald Ford and only 45 percent in his unsuccessful 1980 re-election bid against Ronald Reagan.
Perhaps ironically, the low 1980 total came even though Carter waived visa requirements during the 1979 Iranian revolution to allow some 50,000 Iranians to flee to the United States.
Carter was also a strong supporter of the Soviet Jewry movement and the need to
As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee noted on the 40th anniversary of the Israel-Egypt treaty in 2019, ‘Beyond the direct benefits to the two signatories, the peace treaty has positively affected Israel’s relations with its other Arab neighbors, none of which has engaged in war with Israel since the treaty was signed. Israel’s Oslo Accords with the Palestinians; peace treaty with Jordan; and multiple ties with Gulf Arab nations and North African Arab countries—none of these would have been possible without the precedent of Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous and powerful nation, signing a peace agreement with Israel.”
Mixed reviews notwithstanding, for that, Jimmy Carter deserves our heartfelt gratitude.
Steve Lipman was a staff writer at the ‘New York Jewish Week’ from 1983 until 2020.
continued from page 8
the moral and ethical code of “the Old Testament,” meaning mainly the Torah, but he dedicated his life to fulfilling its precepts. He did not always get it right, but those precepts were part of his DNA, and he even dedicated his presidency to fulfilling them.
Unlike the extremist Christian Right, Carter taught his Sunday School students to respect Jews because Christianity emerged from it. He also was very vocal in warning us about why the Christian Right supports Israel: because it believes that “the Second Coming” depends on Jewish control of all the biblical land of Israel, after which “all Jews will either be converted to Christianity or be burned,” as Carter explained it. He also made clear that he firmly rejects this belief.
Do not get me wrong. Carter had his faults. He was no angel.
Carter admittedly— and even deservedly— gets mixed reviews in the Jewish world. In 1979, he brokered the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state, a peace so well-crafted that it has withstood numerous challenges ever since. For that, he is deservedly celebrated. But he also is deservedly disparaged for his often over-the-top criticism of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians, made most evident by the title of his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
title,” Foxman said, “is to delegitimize Israel because if Israel is like South Africa, it doesn’t really deserve to be a democratic state. He’s provok-
tors the world over. In Judaism, that would make him guilty of the category of sins known as ona’at devarim, verbal wrongs. They are
During the 1979 Iranian revolution, Carter waived visa requirements to admit over 50,000 fleeing Iranian Jews.
ing, he’s outrageous, and he’s bigoted.”
In a 2009 letter released by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Carter apologized for the title and the stigmatization that came with it. In that letter, he praised “Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances” and said that “we must not permit criticisms for improvement [in its relations with the Palestinians] to stigmatize Israel.” Referencing the Great Confessional we recite repeatedly on Yom Kippur, he concluded the letter by saying, “I offer an al chet for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”
lashon hara (bad speech; spreading information about someone for derogatory purposes, regardless of whether that information is accurate), and motzi shem ra (defamation of character, the spreading of false information about someone to disparage him or her).
espionage charges, Carter even set aside U.S. policy to publicly defend Sharansky on television and to deny that he was a U.S. spy. Carter also believed in the need to upgrade Holocaust education here. That is why, in 1978, he created the Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by the late Elie Wiesel, which led to the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in Washington.
During the 1979 Iranian revolution, his handling of which was partly responsible for his defeat in 1980 by Ronald Reagan, he waived visa requirements so that over 50,000 Iranian
the Pharoah’s wrath by coming to the rescue of women shepherds who were being harassed (see Exodus 2:1517).
He also put the interests of the people he led ahead over those of his own. After the Sin of the Golden Calf, for example, God offered to destroy Israel and start over again with Moses and his family. Moses rejected the offer in order to protect the people from God’s vengeance. (See Exodus, chapter 32.)
Carter did his best to emulate the Mosaic ideal of leadership. Compare Carter to Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, Warren Harding and the Teapot Dome scandal, Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, among others.
When his book came out, for example, he told a Canadian Broadcast Company interviewer that Israel often “perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa.”
Jews could flee to the United States.
“No other president” has ever come close to leading us by example on the path God set for us, the path of tzedakah u-mishpat, the Torah’s comprehensive vision of justice and righteousness that is central to its teachings.
Abe Foxman, the then-national director of the Anti-Defamation League, railed against Carter for that. “The
Unfortunately, that apology was too little and too late by then. Not only had Carter used that “apartheid” analogy far too often, but he also put it into the mouths of Israel’s detrac-
His at times outrageous criticisms of Israel notwithstanding, Carter was an ardent supporter of the Soviet Jewry movement. After the most prominent dissident of that era, Anatoly (now Natan) Sharansky, was arrested on
Judaism judges leaders by how they live up to the model of leadership provided by Moses. He took swift and decisive action to correct a wrong, even when doing so worked against his self-interest. He put his exalted status as a prince of Egypt at risk when he saw an Egyptian overseer violently beating an Israelite slave (see Exodus 2:11-12). He put his security at risk after fleeing
Mixed though his legacy deservedly is, Yehi Zichro Baruch, may his memory serve as a blessing, and may all who choose to be leaders of nations in the future follow his example by living lives of tzedakah u-mishpat and encouraging the rest of us to do the same.
Shammai Engelmayer is an award-winning journalist and editor whose biweekly podcast, ‘Keep the Faith with Shammai Engelmayer,’ discusses contemporary issues through the prism of Jewish law and tradition. He leads Kehillat Torat Chayim v’Chesed - a Virtual Congregation.
Ohana’s cozy photographs with Spacey led many Israelis and their friends around the world to ask a question: Why is Israel’s PR so bad?
Following October 7, most of the world lent its sympathies to Israel. But those wellwishes dissipated in the weeks that followed as Israel’s invasion of Gaza began. But if the Internet age has proven anything, you don’t need to be in the right or wrong to earn support. So, why has Israel failed?
Israel has a special word for plans to work on its image: hasbara, meaning public advocacy. This includes anything from public speakers to musicians and social media influencers. They use their voices to fight for Israel on the global stage, whether on TV news channels, debate halls, or even the comments section on TikTok. You’ve almost definitely seen them on your screen at some point, yelling at their opponent in a virtual verbal cage match where whoever shouts the loudest and interrupts the most is the winner.
The talking points are all the same – Jews have the biblical right to the land of Israel, Hamas are terrorists, the Gazans are complicit, Israel is
only acting in self-defense, etc.
If you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all. Yet the points do not stick because they aren’t aimed at the right people.
Having Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas’s founder who spied on Hamas for Israel, appear in his dinner jacket at the Oxford Union calling Pal-
To show the world that we want peace, Israel needs to add nuance to reach those with a nuanced view of the conflict.
Imagine a spectrum of Israeli and Palestinian supporters. On either end, you will get the die-hards, the “my side can do no wrong” people, the “this land belongs to us and us only” people.
From the Palestinian side, you are never going to win them over, no matter what. And on the Israeli side, they are going to support Israel regardless of whatever argument comes their way. But this is only a minority of the global population on both sides. Much of the world is in the middle, either seeing a nuanced view that both sides have valid arguments or being indifferent to or ignorant of the situation.
The issue with hasbara is that it doesn’t target the majority; it targets the minority. And that minority is the die-hard, pro-Israel portion, the choir that does not need to be preached to. Showing off a handwritten letter of support from Kevin Spacey in the Knesset may make some in the pro-Israel camp happy, but it alienates those in the middle.
estinians “the most pathetic people on planet Earth” may provide some hurrahs for avid
arm, his face covered with a keffiyeh, he fights off an IDF drone with a stick. Israel released the footage so the world could see a weak, cowardly man cornered and facing a deserved death. Instead, many – and not just Palestinians - saw a man fighting until his last breath for the liberation of his people.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has reportedly prioritized hasbara and invested a reported $150 million in ef-
anced position on the conflict. We must show the world that we want peace. We must offer more olive branches to the moderate Palestinian peace activists. We must make those who are indifferent and ignorant care.
Jewish and Zionist organizations provide heavily discounted trips to Israel for Jews of all ages to strengthen their bond with Israel. And this works, especially for those who previously had little interest in Israel – I speak from experience. Perhaps some of this $150 million could be spent funding such trips for U.S. college students who are inundated with anti-Israel propaganda daily.
Israel’s hasbara efforts are having some success in demonstrating that it is a modern, democratic, and liberal country in a dangerous neighborhood. This makes it attractive to many, and a substantial number of influencers and public speakers do manage to convince people to consider Israel’s narrative.
hasbara consumers. But the rest of the world sees a man fueled with anger spewing out racist rhetoric (replace “Palestinians” in the Yousef quote with “Jews” and see how it makes you feel).
Takethe video showing the last few moments of Yahya Sinwar, in which, missing an
forts to enhance Israel’s international image. Over the last few weeks, Sa’ar has met with an echo chamber of pro-Israel influencers to develop a new strategy. But instead of looking within, Sa’ar and the foreign ministry need to expand their circle.
Israel needs to add more nuance to reach those with a nu-
But I beg those in the newly rich hasbara department in Israel’s Foreign Ministry to please spend its money wisely and to divert their attention away from celebrities with the word “disgraced” attached to their names.
Joe Brown is a senior producer and correspondent for i24NEWS English.
BY NIR HASSON
About 30 years ago,
an American botanist dug into the mud of a dried-up lake in China and found 1,000-year-old lotus seeds. She studied them carefully and put them in a pot on her lab’s windowsill. They sprouted a few weeks later.
“That took no effort. I thought that if she could do it, so can we,” says Dr. Sarah Sallon, where she founded the Natural Medicine Research Center 25 years ago.
The lotus that flowered on that windowsill in the United States sent Sallon on a yearslong journey to raise date palms based on 2,000-yearold seeds. She even ate the fruit before continuing with her botanical detective thriller. At the end of her quest, she proposed a solution to intrigu-
planted six more seeds. The first female, named Hannah, was fertilized with Methuselah’s seeds, and in 2020, the two scientists ate the first fruits.
After planting, the scientists sent the husks for carbon-14 dating at the University of Zurich to verify that these were kernels of ancient dates. The
The ‘afarsemon’ vanished from history in the eighth century. This is the story of a woman’s dogged search.
ing historical questions: What are the biblical plants tsori and afarsemon?What links them? And where did they disappear to? Appropriately enough, the
results – Methuselah and Hannah were based on seeds 2,000 years old, and other seeds were a bit younger. The date palms were later gene-sequenced, and their DNA did not match
story starts with Methuselah. In 2005, Dr. Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura planted a date seed found during a dig at Masada 2,000 years after the fruit was eaten. The seed grew into a date palm named Methuselah. Sallon and Solowey then
the DNA of modern date palms.
Fourteen years ago, after the success with the dates, Sallon requested access to the findings from a cave in Nahal Makuch in the northern Judean Desert. These remains and artifacts date to the Chalcolithic
continued from page 4
the Golan Heights two years later. The Trump administration wasn’t shy about cutting aid to the Palestinians, nor was it perturbed by shutting down the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) offices in Washington, D.C.
However, past is not necessarily prologue. This is particularly the case with Trump, who doesn’t take kindly to fools, is inherently mercurial, is always searching for big deals on the international stage and is highly sensitive to being slighted.
Netanyahu, of course, has no problem showing up his allies and partners when it suits his domestic political objectives or foreign policy interests. Whether it involved delayingWashington’s three-stage Gaza ceasefire framework by piling on new demands or backing away from the first U.S. attempt at establishing a shortterm truce in Lebanon, Netanyahu has embarrassed President Joe Biden so many times that the relationship between the two men is, at best, highly strained.
But outside of anonymous leaks to the press from Biden’s staffers about the president’s anger over Israel’s war strategy in Gaza and Netanyahu’s moving of the goalposts during ceasefire talks with Hamas, the Israeli premier was largely able to get away with his antics without consequences. U.S. military aid kept flowing, U.S. diplomats continued blocking ceasefire proposals at the U.N. Security Council, and Palestinians in Gaza continued to be pummeled as a result.
Trump is highly unlikely to follow the same script. His personality wouldn’t allow it.
While Biden avoids public confrontation with foreign leaders, Trump relishes it and actually views hard-nosed
tactics as an asset. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and then-British Prime Minister Theresa May were all subjected to Trump’s tongue-lashing on various issues despite their status as U.S. allies.
Among other things, that agreement normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab states, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, as a first step toward paving the way for additional bilateral deals in the future.
While not explicitly men-
Bibi’s take on annexation, Saudi Arabia, and Iran risk getting him a tongue-lashing from a furious Trump– or much worse.
Although some may assume that Israel will be an exception to the rule, this is hardly as-
tioned in the document, Israel also agreed to refrain from annexing the West Bank, a
politics were becoming noticeably more right-wing. Netanyahu, who never really bought into the framework of a two-state solution and actively campaigned against it in the 1990s, is now at the mercy of politicians like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar BenGvir, whose solution to the Palestinian question includes annexing the West Bank outright and re-settling Gaza. The two-state paradigm successive U.S. administrations have advocated for is, politically speaking, dead in Israel. Meanwhile, the settlement
outcome that could collapse Netanyahu’s governing coalition and throw him out of power. Saudi Crown PrincMohammed Bin Salman, once agnostic on the Palestinian issue, is now demanding clear, irreversible concessions to the Palestinians. Considering these realities, it’s not a leap to imagine Trump yelling at Netanyahu to get out of the way and stop spoiling one of his most important diplomatic initiatives.
Iran could also heighten the tension between Trump and Netanyahu. While the two share the same policy position – under no circumstances can Tehran acquire a nuclear weapon – their methods for achieving it may differ.
While it’s true Trump encouraged Israel to strike Iran during the presidential campaign, it’s also true that Trump doesn’t want the U.S. military dragged into another war in the Middle East. Doubly so if that war occurs on his watch. Any Israeli military operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities is likely to entail some degree of Iranian retaliation, both against Israel as well as the roughly 35,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in the region.
This, in turn, would push Trump to retaliate in kind, running the risk of further escalation and perhaps even persuading Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to dash to a nuclear bomb, exacerbating the very issue Trump wants to stop.
sured, particularly when Trump is carrying grand, ambitious Middle East plans with him – most of which require Israel’s cooperation if they are to have even a modicum ofsuccess.
The biggest plan in Trump’s pocket is expanding the 2020 Abraham Accords, which was arguably his most significant foreign policy accomplishment during the first term.
fact Trump crowed about just last week during an interview with TIME magazine. At the time, Netanyahu was willing to give this temporary concession because the benefits of the deal outweighed the costs of putting annexation plans on hold.
Yet the cost-benefit ratio has changed over the last four years. Even before Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli
movement, once a small faction within Israel’s formal political system, now rules the halls of power.
This could pose a big problem for Trump, whose bid to enlarge the Abraham Accords to Saudi Arabia is unlikely to happen if Israel refuses to make concrete moves toward the establishment of a Palestinian state – the one
We must as a nation be more unpredictable,” Trump opined during his first presidential run. “And we have to be unpredictable starting now.”
Netanyahu would be wiseto remember those words. The second edition of Trump might not necessarily be as rosy for him as the first.
Daniel R. DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs commentator for ‘The Chicago Tribune’ and ‘The Spectator.’
worldwide intifada-enablers, Hezbollah, the Iranians, their proxies, and the Houthis have proven that too many in the Muslim world like to annihi-
versary – the Houthis – against America’s ally Israel – especially after the US’s THAAD air defense system intercepted one super-destructive missile.
On Saturday night, The New York Times website ignored it, reporting: “As Hopes Rise for Gaza Cease-Fire, Conditions There Have Only Worsened.” Hmm.
Americans ask, ‘Why is Israel still fighting?’ - as if Israel’s right to defend itself has an expiration date.
late every Jew “from the river to the sea” and often overseas, too.
Consider how America’s media covered the latest intercontinental ballistic missile launched from America’s ad-
Shifting locally to Haaretz, which at least covered the Houthi attack – and the two Hamas rockets fired from Gaza toward Jerusalem – we also learned that “Netanyahu May Be Making the Same
Mistake with the Houthis as He Did with Iran.” Where did he err? “Iran’s nuclear program was a global issue ‘Is-
The necessary, devasting response to the Houthis should be international, not just Israeli.
raelized’ by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposing the nuclear agreement.”
“We Cure Our Own Corned Beef. Our Chicken Soup Cures Everything Else!” DINE IN • TAKEOUT • ONLINE ORDERING DELIVERY AVAILABLE
Theinvaluable statistics in the INSS Swords of Iron Real Time Tracker show that
ing as patients, at Jabalya Hospital used as command center,” yet BBC screeches, “Israel forcibly evacuates Gaza hospital and detains medical staff,” and even the World Health Organization (WHO) scolds: “Kamal Adwan Hospital out of service following a raid yesterday and repeated attacks since October.”
We count the missiles launched from Yemen and Tehran, overlooking how many thousands they could kill if their payloads of 100 or 200 pounds detonated in a neighborhood.
Houthis and Iran have Israelized the attack, targeting Israel, Israel must respond. Repeated exposure to a negative stimulus reduces emotional responsiveness, creating “desensitization,” psychologists explain.
In politics, overdosing on outrages deadens your conscience. We get used to Hamas hiding in once-sacrosanct civilian sites such as the Kamal Adwan Hospital. We sigh as The Jerusalem Post headlines, “Army arrests 240 suspects, some pos-
One Pentagon weapons specialist, Bill LaPlante, an engineer and a physicist who’s been around missiles his whole career, told Axios, “The increasingly sophisticated Iranian-supplied Houthi now, is to win convincingly, make them fear you more than you fear them, and – as Dayan did – in the afterglow of our victory, if and when they’re finally ready, turn from war-making to peacemaking.
Gil Troy is a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute. His latest book is ‘To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream.’
in Europe and North America have employed similar strategies to gain legitimacy and access to political systems.
a Syria free from Assad’s tyranny, devoid of Iranian influence, and unburdened by Hezbollah’s reach. Such a Syria
The importance of reform in Syria can’t be overstated. But replacing one form of extremism with another is not a solution.
However, in Syria, the stakes are far higher. The prospect of a nation’s future being shaped by such a calculated facade is deeply troubling.
change. History offers examples of former extremists who have renounced their ideologies, embraced reform, and become advocates for peace. But such transformation requires more than superficial gestures; it demands a profound confrontation with the beliefs and practices that once defined them. This is where the skepticism arises with alSharaa and HTS.
To date, HTS leaders have avoided making public declarations that unequivocally denounce the core tenets of their extremist past. Instead, their rhetoric appears calibrated to appease specific audiences without alienating their base. Some officials within HTS continue to disseminate online content that targets the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE, branding them as “tyrants” or “Taghut” (a derogatory term used by extremists to denote infidels). This ongoing hostility raises doubts about the sincerity of HTS’s supposed evolution.
What complicates the situation further is the group’s apparent rebranding efforts. Trading turbans for suits and engaging in polished media campaigns are not new tactics for Islamist organizations seeking to navigate the Western political landscape. Groups
could emerge as a regional partner for peace, even joining the Abraham Accords and establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. Though ambitious, this vision is not unattainable. Yet it hinges on one critical factor: the willingness of Syria’s leadership to embrace genuine ideological reform.
For Syria’s new leadership to prove its sincerity, actions must speak louder than words. Superficial gestures will not convince the world of their
transformation. HTS leaders must take bold, visible steps to confront and reject extremist ideologies. This means issuing unequivocal public declarations denouncing their past and making systemic changes that reflect a commitment to inclusivity and peace. Moreover, these efforts must be backed by tangible actions on the ground. This could include fostering pluralism within Syrian society, protecting minority rights, and establishing governance structures that prioritize the well-being of all citizens. International observers and potential allies will be watching closely for signs of genuine reform, and symbolic gestures alone will not earn their trust.
Despite the challenges, there are grounds for cautious optimism. A better Syria is not merely a dream but a pos-
sibility that can be realized through concerted effort and genuine reform. If the new leadership is serious about building a brighter future, it must rise to the occasion and prove its sincerity through deeds, not just rhetoric.
Syria’s future hangs in the balance. The choices made by its leaders in the coming years will determine whether the country emerges as a beacon of hope or remains mired in the shadows of its past. For alSharaa, the time has come to choose: Will they embrace the courage needed to change, or will they remain trapped in a cycle of superficial transformation?.
Loay Alshareef, a Saudiborn former antisemite, is today a social media influencer who strongly supports Israel and the Jews.
The importance of genuine reform in Syria cannot be overstated. The country has been ravaged by more than a decade of war, leaving it fragmented and vulnerable to external influence. The Assad regime, with its brutal governance and alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, has left a legacy of destruction and repression. For Syria to truly move forward, it must break free from this stranglehold.
However, replacing one form of extremism with another is not a solution. A rebranded HTS that continues to harbor extremist ideologies could pose an even greater challenge, as its leadership would have the veneer of legitimacy while remaining unyielding in its core beliefs. Without meaningful change, Syria risks becoming a failed state under the guise of a reformed one, perpetuating cycles of violence and instability. The potential for a brighter future exists but requires more than empty promises. Imagine
continued from page 20
period about 6,000 years ago –the most famous haul was the skeleton of a man with his weapons, sandals, and other belongings; it’s considered one of Israel’s most important archaeological finds.
Another cave yielded 6,000-year-old skeletons and 2,000-year-old Roman-era artifacts, including dry, large seeds. “I asked botanists from all over the world what it was, but no one knew,” Sallon says. “So I gave them to Elaine. She placed them in warm water, followed by various chemical and hormonal solutions to encourage growth and rooting, and then planted them in fresh potting soil. After five weeks one of them sprouted.”
Sallon sent the husk to Zurich for carbon-14 dating; the result was a bit disappointing: The seed was “only” 1,000 years old. When it sprouted, Sallon didn’t recognize the plant. She sent pictures to botanists all over the world, but no one knew until a colleague from Arizona wrote to her that she had grown Commiphora.
Commiphora is a member of a large plant family with about 200 species, including famed perfume plants of the ancient world, such as frankincense and myrrh, which are mentioned in the Bible. Today, no Commiphora species grow in Israel.
“The big question is whether it ever grew here. But what’s clear is that this is the first Commiphora to be identified from excavations in Israel,” Sallon says.
But first, she had to determine which Commiphora species it was. Sallon sent a samplea to a lab in Virginia. Weeks possesses the most extensive collection of Commiphora DNA, encompassing more than 100 of the 200 known species.
But the Commiphora that
sprouted from the seed at Nahal Makuch matched none of them. “She said that it had some similarities to Commiphora found in South Africa and Madagascar,” Sallon says.
Deep in her heart, she hoped that the sprouted plant
tinct species of Commiphora, similar to frankincense and myrrh, with strong aromatic properties, making it the most expensive perfume in the ancient world. But no one knew exactly which species and what happened to it.
Sallon hoped that the plant
A natural-medicine researcher describes how she planted 2,000-year-old date seeds and eventually solved the mystery.
wouldn’t be another variety of Commiphora but rather the Holy Grail of ancient botany in Israel, the afarsemon. This plant has been a catalyst for botany and archaeology for centuries.
that sprouted from the ancient seed was the afarsemon, so she named it Sheba after the Queen of Sheba, who, according to the Roman Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, brought the first afarsemon cuttings to the
Strasbourg in France,” Sallon says. “They found almost no compounds associated with fragrance but many very medicinal ones, including those with anti-inflammatory compounds.”
Sallon, therefore, has a few key questions about the afarsemon. How does a plant that thrived for 1,000 years on large farms at the Dead Sea vanish without a trace? How has no archaeological excavation in the region, from Qumran in the north to Masada in the south, found any afarsemon seeds?
Tsori is a resin associated with healing that appears in the Bible. It is first mentioned in Genesis; the Ishmaelites who bought Joseph from his
NumerousHebrew and Greek sources describe it.
The afarsemon was one of the most important crops in the Holy Land for 1,000 years, from the Maccabean era to the early Islamic era. It was mainly grown at Ein Gedi and elsewhere on the shores of the Dead Sea. Many researchers say these seem to be the only places in the world where the afarsemon was domesticated, and it was a source of power and prosperity for Judea during the reign of King Herod.
The Arch of Titus in Rome, which depicts the victory parade over the Great Jewish Revolt in Judea, shows three women carrying afarsemon branches. The problem is that no one knows for sure what this afarsemon was.
Researchers have believed that the afarsemon was an ex-
country as a gift to King Solomon. A clue to this effect can be found in the Book of Kings, which lists the Queen of Sheba’s gifts to Solomon: “There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. (I Kings, 10:10)
The fact that the Commiphora that sprouted 1,000 years later resembled varieties found in Madagascar, not far from Sheba, adds to the hope that maybe the tiny plant is the legendary afarsemon that vanished from history in the eighth century. But alas, the plant at Kibbutz Ketura produced no aroma.
“We waited several years hoping it might become fragrant as it grew. And we also sent specimens to chemists at the University of Western Australia and the University of
time of the Patriarchs.
At some point, possibly during the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Jerusalem or later, afarsemon seeds—a different and very aromatic species of Commiphora—arrived in the country. Local farmers tried to grow them, but they struggled in the harsh conditions of the Judean Desert. Then, in the first century B.C.E., a unique botanical technique arrived from Greece: grafting.
That is, the farmer or gardener combines the root of one plant, called the stock, with the branches of another. In this way, farmers can use the roots of strong plants to grow other fruits.
Most of the fruits we eat today originated in grafting. Oranges were grafted onto bitter orange (hushhush) stock; sweet almonds were grafted onto bitter almond stock.
Sallon, therefore, believes that Sheba is the local variety of the Commiphora that grew in the wadis around the Dead Sea. Ancient farmers used it as the stock for the aromatic Commiphora – the legendary afarsemon.
brothers carried tsori. Elsewhere, it is noted as a synonym for the afarsemon.
Unlike the afarsemon, tsori is considered to possess healing, not aromatic, properties. It’s also believed to have originated in Gilead, east of the Jordan River.
Then there’s another mystery: The descriptions of the afarsemon vary in the historical texts. In the centuries before the Common Era, the sources describe it as a plant the size of a tree. But in the first century C.E., it’s described as a bush, or like a grapevine.
So, cautiously, Sallon proposed a hypothesis for all the mysteries. She believes that the plant she found is a Commiphora that grew naturally at the Dead Sea, and that it may be the healing tsori mentioned in the Bible and known since the
This grafting allowed Judean farmers to grow large afarsemon fields and become a perfume powerhouse. This solution solves all the mysteries: Grafted plants often don’t bear seeds, so no afarsemon seeds have been found at archaeological digs.
Granted, plants change and often shrink over the generations, hence the change in the descriptions of the afarsemon over time. After the communities that grew afarsemon at the Dead Sea collapsed, the afarsemon fields collapsed with them. Commiphora also suffered – climate change may have played a role – and went extinct.
Nir Hasson writes breaking news, features and analyses from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world for Haaretz.
continued from page 13
our obsession with “condemning” and “calling out” every little incident of Jew hatred. The more we do this, I argued, the worse things
Jews look weak and worried only about physical safety. Am I right about this? I’m not sure. I know that Jew-haters need to know there are consequences to their actions, but beyond that, are we going too far with the paranoia? I’m open to being wrong.
Same with pro-Israel Israel activism on college campuses. Should we fight back with
As we say goodbye to a topsy-turvy year, it’s a perfect time to look back with a bit of humility.
seem to get. I’ve also argued that we may be paying a price for this obsession, as it makes
fear, pride, protests, or parties? “Let the cops make the arrests. Let the legal eagles
the streets and campuses and party. You do happiness. You show fun and love of life, not fear.”
Am I right? Again, I don’t know. Maybe such ideas need to be tested on campuses. I’m open to being wrong. I also had errors of omission.
its vitality, why we need a Jewish Comedy Museum, or the new phenomenon of antiwhite racism, among many others.
and activists do their thing,” I wrote to Jewish college students in a column. “You hit
I waited all year to write a funny column about my obsession with YouTube clips of Third World food markets and survival camping in Alaska, but I never got around to it. I also never wrote that column about whether I will ever be able to write my columns, how Jews can revive the American Dream, how prayer is losing
So yeah, I missed a few. When you write week after week to readers who are engaged with everything under the sun, finding column ideas is like drinking from a fire hose. But that also makes errors more likely. So, as we say goodbye to a topsy-turvy year, it’s a perfect time to look back with a little humility.
David Suissa is the Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Tribe Media/Jewish Journal.
continued from page 12
Germany” (Alles für Deutschland), prompting another politician to refer to the AfD itself
avowed the party as too extreme. In May, the far-right coalition in the European Parliament expelled the AfD after its leading candidate stated that not all Nazi SS members were criminals. On Dec. 20, an AfD supporter, a doctor and self-described “former Muslim” who was angry at the “Islamification” of Germany,
victory in the upcoming February snap election is very low. Most Germans view the party
system of checks and balances. Musk has already demonstrated that his social media en-
as a “Nazi” party earlier this year.
Even other European farright parties have dis-
drove his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five, including a 9-year-old girl, and injuring dozens.
The overall risk of an AfD
negatively, and thousands have marched in protest of its normalization of racist and xenophobic rhetoric. Still, the AfD has steadily gained voters, although it’s currently polling in second place nationally (with 19% support), trailing a conservative alliance that is widely expected to win. The bigger risk is the normalization of democratic interference that falls outside any
continued from page 7
also be impossible for his children and grandchildren. True, they were in Egypt, but they were not of Egypt. They might contribute to Egyptian society and the economy, but they could never truly become Egyptians. Jacob understands that his burial in Canaan would be the most significant test of Joseph’s career and would define the character of his descendants forever. Hence, he makes his sons swear not to bury him in Egypt (ibid., 49:29-32).
Joseph, too, understands that Pharaoh would be shocked by the request—a petition expressing the Hebrews’ rejection of the
as “childless cat ladies,” share widely debunked claims about immigrants eating pets in Ohio, and argue that American men have suppressed their masculinity.
We now have two key incoming administration officials using a private social media platform to tacitly or explicitly endorse an extreme foreign political party in ways that could impact a foreign election and geopolitics more broadly.
gagement can shape political outcomes. In the weeks before and after the U.S. presidential election, he used his platform X to help amplify false election claims and push his preferred Cabinet picks for Trump’s administration. Vance has used X and other public venues to describe professional women who prioritize careers over children as choosing a “path to misery,” deride Democratic leaders
world’s greatest superpower. Indeed, it is such a difficult and sensitive matter that Joseph cannot confront his patron directly about it.
At that moment, Joseph understands an even more profound truth: neither he nor his progeny will ever ultimately identify with Egypt. If he, his brothers, his children, and grandchildren were to choose to live as Jews, with their concepts of life and death, they would never be accepted and would likely be persecuted. It is this realization in the aftermath of Jacob’s death that can be seen as the beginning of the slavery of the Israelites (Rashi to Gen. 47:28).
In Egypt, Joseph’s kinsmen may have everything: Goshen Heights and Goshen Green, progeny and patrimony. But if they are determined to remain Jews - to live as Jews and to die as Jews - servitude and persecution are never far off.
That should worry us all. America’s founding fathers sought to build a system of checks and balances to ensure that no single arm of government could operate without constraint or accrue too much power. However, those founders could not imagine a world in which the most influential axes of power might not be in any single branch of government but in privately owned virtual platforms with unimaginable global reach.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an award-winning author and scholar of extremism and radicalization.
They may rejoice in their preferred Egyptian status, where “they took possession of it and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly” (ibid., 47:27), but they can never pause to enjoy this good fortune.
Upon Jacob’s death, the realization of their good fortune’s transient and illusory nature comes upon them inexorably and imperceptibly, as in the blink of an eye. Such is the fate of the Jewish people in every exile. The roller-coaster experience in Egypt, foretelling future exiles, teaches that we have just one true national home: Israel, where we can fully live the ideals of the Torah and serve as a model nation for all the peoples of the Earth.
Shlomo Riskin is the founding rabbi of Efrat and founder and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone.
continued from page 14
against the Cubs. He was a four-time World Series champion.
Location somewhat explains Koufax’s national prominence, as he played in the country’s two biggest Jewish communities and the two largest media markets. But even more so, the era in which Koufax played enabled him to build his legend–and not just because the advent of televised games afforded greater exposure than previous generations of players had.
“Koufax would have been part of this assimilating impulse of his parents’ generation, seeking to balance full allegiance and loyalty to the United States and holding onto some measure of Jewish identity–particularly, Jewish religious and ethnic identity–and that piece of the puzzle was becoming smaller than the American piece,” said David Myers, distinguished professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. “It was a period in which those two dimensions of identity were being balanced, rebalanced, and recalibrated.”
is a doubleedged sword. While it’s hard to argue against certain privileges, like greater safety and opportunity, a loss of cultural identity is difficult to reckon with. The mid-twentieth century saw a rediscovery of Jewish pride in America, in no small part due to events following Israel’s establishment.
Compare Koufax to Hank Greenberg, the only other Jewish player enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The son of Romanian Jewish immigrants, Greenberg broke into the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers for good in 1933. He played until 1947, missing the 1942-44 seasons
due to service in the US Army. Like Koufax, Greenberg also once sat out on Yom Kippur–but that came during a pennant chase in 1934 rather than the World Series.
Essentially, because Jews of Greenberg’s day had even greater outsider status than Jews of Koufax’s day, his affirmations of Jewish identity didn’t register in the way Kou-
‘For him to … sacrifice maybe what would be a [championship] to respect his religion shows the kind of person he is.’
Because antisemitism in the United States was worse preWorld War II, Greenberg routinely faced anti-Jewish abuse from opposing players and fans in ways that Koufax didn’t (although Koufax did endure some, including from his own teammates and in the form of hate mail, as well as stereo-
fax’s did. In a time when Jews were more integrated into the mainstream, it was hugely impactful for Koufax to assert that Jewish religion and culture mattered and deserved respect, even when they stood in contrast with societal norms.
“It’s precisely Koufax’s act
discussion.
“Sandy Koufax is always the guy,” said Bregman. “I think it’s just passed on from generation to generation. I’ll teach my son about Sandy Koufax as well.”
The complex nature of Jewish identity makes it hard to pinpoint just how many Jewish players there have been throughout major-league baseball history. But it is pretty widely agreed that, at least on the athletic side, Jews have been underrepresented in both baseball and sports as a whole.
That’s a big reason so many Jewish major-league players have long looked up to Koufax–there haven’t been many others to look up to, certainly
types in the press related to his purported intellectualism).
But there’s no doubt it was a society more accepting of Jews overall.
“A significant tide of sympathy moves toward Jews and the Jewish experience after the Holocaust,” said Myers. “[Before World War II] there was fear, on the part of some, that Jews would assert their collective interest and drag the United States against its will into a major global conflagration. So, there was that aura of suspicion. Whereas after the war, after the full excesses of the Holocaust became known, that sense of suspicion gave way to a greater sympathy for Jews.”
in the midst of this assimilatory era that I think lent it a particular power,” said Myers. “It may, at least for Jews, grant him a measure of immortality.”
Sportsfandom usually runs through families, with an oral history component of parents telling children about stars of their youth. That was the case for Astros second baseman Alex Bregman, whose family admired the Dodgers pitcher so much they even named their dog Koufax. When Bregman learned about Koufax from his father and his grandfather, Jewishness was regularly part of the
ing. Doctors suggested that he risked losing the use of a limb or finger amputation if he continued, leading Koufax to retire at just 30 years old. As much as Koufax’s statistics explain why he is admired, those years he didn’t get to play also contribute to the baseball world’s fascination.
“There’s a little bit of like, ‘what could have been,’” said Fried. “… He was so dominant for a really good amount of time, and he had to pretty much retire in the middle of his prime. … That leaves a lasting impact. Most people, you see [them] have a little bit of decline, but for him, it still feels like he was on an ascent.”
The baseball calendar has also changed substantially. The postseason has expanded from just the World Series to several rounds. It now takes a few weeks of playoff games to reach the fall classic, which comes in late October. Although the High Holy Days move each year on the Gregorian calendar, they almost always occur in late September or early October, with October 14 being the latest date on which Yom Kippur can fall. So, unless the major-league schedule or the postseason format shifts drastically again, no player will get to make an impact statement like Koufax in 1965.
not those who could be argued as the best at their position. Take left-hander Max Fried, who just signed a longterm contract with the New York Yankees. The LA native modeled his own curveball on Koufax’s–despite the fact that even Fried’s father was too young to have watched Koufax.
As much as broader midcentury American society shaped Koufax’s story, some baseball-specific aspects also factor in. For one thing, 1960s sports medicine was not advanced enough to keep Koufax healthy, and he spent his last few seasons dealing with extreme arm pain and swell-
But that decision still speaks volumes to Jewish players, even those who don’t make the same choice for themselves.
“The biggest [act] that made him a legend was the ability to put his faith before baseball and sit out on Yom Kippur,” said Fried. “[The World Series was] something that is obviously a big deal and a lot of people really care about, but … for him to be able to take that and sacrifice maybe what would be a [championship] to respect his religion, it just shows the kind of person and the man he is.”
Sarah Wexler is a reporter/ producer for MLB.com.
continued from page 10
committee for me. We had a very close relationship. His honesty steered me to deeply understand the complexities of rabbinic life. He was deeply invested in my growth, and I’m forever grateful.”
Schuck also spoke of Blumenfeld’s love for Israel and how the rabbi would write letters to politicians urging them to “align their policies with what he saw as critical for Israel’s safety.”
“I remember he wrote a very forceful letter in 2015 about
New York Times article that featured his efforts a year later—the headline read “One Man’s Mission for six million Jews ”—described his work in establishing a memorial to the Six Million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
came popular.
Schuck pointed out that Blumenfeld’s work at the commission was perhaps the “most important to him…. He had to raise money, he had to envision this museum, and he had to
His work at the New York Holocaust Memorial Commission was perhaps the most important to him.
“We envision a living memorial…,’’ he was quoted as saying, “a center that would incorporate an exhibition area, research facilities, archives, lecture and conference halls; an auditorium for creative presentations in art, drama and
navigate the challenges of New York City politics.”
Schuck recalled “a wonderful picture of him” taken during the signing ceremony that paved the way for the construction of the museum. “He had to navigate and negotiate
student at the time and later became a Washington Post reporter. She wrote a book about the shooting and the anger she felt. Revenge: A Story of Hope is part memoir, part cultural study. It was described by Elie Wiesel as a “remarkable suspense story…written with great sensitivity and compassion.”
In it, she describes flying to Israel on her honeymoon with her new husband, attorney Baruch Weiss, son of the revered scholar, the late David Weiss Halivini. During the trip, she visited with Khatib’s family in Ramallah without revealing her identity; she only said that she was an American journalist.
Through her interaction with
the Iran deal and sent it to a senator,” Schuck recalled in his eulogy. “He didn’t mince words and at the end, it was very rabbinic. He wrote, ‘I do wish you many, many future successes in the years to come and that you will be remembered as a courageous person who stood up for Israel in the time of their terrible peril.’”
“We’re saying goodbye today to a real gadol, a real great rabbi whose impact was immense,” Schuck told the funeral’s attendees.
Much of Blumenfeld’s work dealt with the Holocaust. In 1982, he became the founding executive director of the New York Holocaust Commission, created by Mayor Ed Koch. A
music; and a space for prayer and meditation.
“NewYork is demographically the greatest center of concentrated Jewish population outside of Israel. It is also the largest community of survivors of the Holocaust outside of Israel. Major agencies dealing with the scholarship of the Holocaust are located in New York City. You have 17 universities that have Holocaust studies in one form or another in the metropolitan area.”
While at the commission, Blumenfeld secured major gifts for its work and began leading Jewish missions to Eastern Europe before they be-
with a group of New York politicians,” Schuck said. “That itself is a tremendous feat [and] it was for a purpose that gave deep meaning to him—the preservation of memory of the Shoah.”
Blumenfeld is also remembered for being shot during a walk through the Arab market in Jerusalem by a member of a Palestinian terror cell in 1986 while doing research for the planned Holocaust museum. The gunman was targeting tourists, and his bullet grazed the rabbi’s head. He made a full recovery. The shooter, Omar Khatib, was arrested and sentenced to prison.
Laura Blumenfeld, the rabbi’s daughter, was a university
“One of them was called ‘the forces of nature’. ...He was a passionate intellectual and teacher. I admit to sometimes—when I was giving sermons or teaching—I would sort of look at him out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes [I would get] a little smile and I was encouraged. Sometimes [there was] a head nod in the other direction, not so encouraging.…”
In 1990, Blumenfeld became director of the Department of Services to Affiliated Congregations at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, where he created the popular weekly Shabbat Torah commentary, “Torah Sparks.”
He also created the Imun program of United Synagogue, which taught lay leaders the skills necessary to lead prayers and ritual life.
For nearly three decades, Blumenfeld also led High Holy Days services in Cliffside Park, N.J., which were held in a building on the site of what was once Palisades Amusement Park.
Omar’s family, she began corresponding with Omar himself. When she asked about his feelings about the shooting, he answered with the usual rhetoric about the Palestinian struggle for freedom.
Schuck pointed out that “as much as he was a builder of communities and Jewish organizations, Rabbi Blumenfeld was never more filled up than when he was teaching. He lectured all over the world…. He could teach the basics, and he could teach them in nuanced and complex ways. And he could also introduce some more ethereal topics. And I know this because for the last nine years he would forward me lectures that he was giving.
Schuck noted that Blumenfeld was a “deep believer in the importance of small synagogues. He dedicated many years to supporting small synagogues, trying to inspire their rabbis and leaders. He provided a physique to many who face the challenges of holding small communities together with few resources.”
In recognition of his years of service, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he had been ordained in 1960 after earning his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, awarded him a Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, in 1986. During the same year, he received a degree in Museum Studies from New York University.
Blumenfeld is survived by his wife, children, two stepchildren, and 10 grandchildren.
Stewart Ain is a veteran reporter who writes about Long Island and Jewish affairs.
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Notice of Formation of Metcalf Architecture & Design, PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/19/24. Office location: 73 East Street, Litchfield, CT, 06759. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 73 East Street, Litchfield, CT, 06759. Purpose: any lawful activity.
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Notice of Formation of Empire Physiatry, PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/05/24. Office location: 165 Madison Avenue, #602, New York NY. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.
SSNY shall mail process to: 359, 56th st, Brooklyn NY 11220. Purpose: any lawful activity. W:12/06, 13, 20, 27; 1/3 10, 2025
OWNER
Appl. for
filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/03/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/02/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. JW:12/13, 20, 27; 1/3, 10, 17, 2025
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