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INBOX
NOTE FROM FOOD EDITOR:
Regarding the cake recipes that call for separated eggs, the egg yolks should be added to the batter along with the other wet ingredients. Thank you to our loyal readership and creative cooks for the opportunity to clarify.
Miriam Pessy Wercberger
CAN’T GET ENOUGH
(Re: Give or Take, Issue 263)
Chany Spira’s serial is fantastic. I love her unusual characters, and how she doesn’t shy away from exploring things that may be out of our comfort zone. But the most amazing thing is how she gets us into the heads of the characters in such a complete way. Even when the characters are at odds with each other, we can completely relate to and understand the thought process of each. Thank you for an unbelievable serial from an incredibly gifted writer. I can’t get enough of it.
BEDTIME OR BEDLAM
(Re: Bedtime Is for Everyone, Inbox, Issue 262)
In response to the letter from the young mother who describes the strict bedtime she was subject to until she graduated high school, I would like to comment that usually children who are controlled to that extent have one of the following outcomes: Either they become resentful and rebel, or they pass on the hurt by controlling others. For that reason, the three parenting experts interviewed did not recommend such an approach for teenagers. Obviously, there’s always an exception to the rule. I’m sure your parents had good intentions, and
baruch Hashem, it worked out well for them and you. But be aware that the interviewees took the approach that works for most people. I hope this helps people make wise decisions about their parenting.
Another Parent
USING THOSE YOLKS
(Re: An Eggcellent Question, Inbox, Issue 261)
In response to the letter-writer asking what to do with extra yolks, below is a recipe, slightly modified, from the original Nitra cookbook. The original recipe is for Linzer tart cookies, but it’s also delicious when made into balls, flattened, and dipped into sprinkles prior to baking.
Ingredients:
1 lb. margarine
7–8 cups flour
8 egg yolks
1¼ cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla sugar
1 cup orange juice
2 tsp. baking powder
Directions: If using as Linzer cookies, roll to ¼-inch thickness. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes.
Thank you for the opportunity to share.
Name Withheld
WORK ON YOURSELF
(Re: Making It Work When Your Husband Works, Inbox, Issue 258)
The discussion about having your husband’s help seems to revolve around the morning rush and bedtime. But if you pay attention, you’ll see that your spouse helps out way more than that. Become aware of it and appreciate it!
Also, if you stop discussing how much your husband helps or doesn’t help compared with how much other people’s spouses help or don’t help (including random strangers writing in a magazine), that might be the greatest help for you in many ways. Everyone has different circumstances and personalities, and different things work for different people. Constant judgement of yourself and your spouse will probably just disturb your equilibrium and ruin an otherwise great day.
Name Withheld
MUSIC LESSONS FOR BOYS
TO ELEVATE SHABBOS
(Re: A Sweet Solution, Inbox, Issue 258)
Let’s not stop the discussion on making nosh and candy wrappers Shabbos-friendly. As a klal, we can make this happen together. If every individual reached out to the large candy manufacturers and hechsherim, we could make a difference. We can’t afford the weekly unintentional chillul Shabbos, chalilah
YOUR SAY
SIMCHAS WITH SIMCHA
The best part of this magazine is that it’s free, totally kosher and everyone reads it. So I can’t imagine a better forum to share this message.
It seems to me that proper etiquette is no longer being widely practiced, especially etiquette around simchas
There were several incidents I observed that prompted me to start this conversation. First: a large group of teens showed up at a vort held in a small hall. They were friends of the chasan’s sister. The hall was uncomfortably crowded.
Is it appropriate for the chasan’s sister to invite a crowd of her friends to her brother’s vort, which is hosted by the kallah’s parents? If such friends attend, should they linger, or stay only briefly?
Second: I heard a woman sharing with her friend that someone they both knew was getting married that evening. It was the second marriage for the kallah, who had lost her first husband. On the spot, the woman called her husband and relayed the good news to him. They began discussing going over to say mazel tov, as her husband had been a chavrusa of the father of the kallah some years ago.
Is it proper etiquette to “pop in to say mazel tov” at such a wedding? Should you only attend if you are invited?
Finally, at weddings, I often see young children (ages 5–7) running around the hall and the lobby. I’ve seen older children (ages 8–10) making “trains” and snaking through the dance floor, weaving in and out of circles. I’ve also seen this age group playing harmless games in the restroom, while guests wait for the restroom to become available.
Should parents bring children in these age groups to weddings? Can we teach our children, and the parents who bring them, proper simcha etiquette?
May we continue to make many simchos! May we share in each other’s simchos! But in order to enhance and not detract from the simcha, can we learn more?
Sincerely,
B.B.
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STRONGER STARTS HERE
WHAT’S A SUPER SIMPLE BALABUSTA HACK YOU LEARNED THAT PROVED TO BE A GAME-CHANGER?
PART II: KITCHEN & LIFEWORKS
KITCHEN HACKS
Filling cupcake liners with batter used to create the mess of the century on my countertops. Then I learned this trick from a neighbor: Pour the batter into a gallonsize Ziploc bag, cut a hole in one corner, and presto! A neat, disposable cupcake dispenser that makes a ladle completely unnecessary. – N.E.
Use an oven liner instead of a cookie sheet when baking pizza. It offers a much larger surface area than a regularsized pan, which means the dough can be rolled out even more thinly. – H.S.
When freezing items in baking pans (such as kugels), I freeze them in the pan first and then remove the frozen kugel from the pan to save space in my freezer. – A Reader
Don’t spend time and headspace on dinners. Select one of these two formats for a literally mindless dinner operation.
Option 1: Sundays call for Shabbos leftovers, Mondays make doubles for Tuesday, Wednesday is dairy, and Thursday is fresh Shabbos food.
Option 2: If you have your Sundays free, prepare the week’s dinners then. Make three mains and a few sides to be rewarmed every day. With picky eaters, you’ll get an extra bonus: They’ll all get what they like every day, and you’ll be free from the kitchen throughout the week! – A Reader
Wash your dishes as you bake/cook. Someone told this to me fifteen years ago, and I still do so today. It saves so much time, energy and — believe it or not — mental anguish! – A Reader
Instead of standing and chopping and crying through the process, run a peeled onion through a blender for three seconds for speedy diced onions! – M.R.
Use goggles when chopping onions so your eyes don’t tear. Also, use a chopper and dice a bunch of onions. Store one onion per Ziploc bag (with a sprinkle of salt) and freeze so you don’t have to chop onions every time you need some in a recipe. – T.C.
Use a bag for mixing sauces or breading cutlets instead of dirtying a bowl and spoon. – A Reader
When a recipe calls for shredded carrots (carrot cake, muffins), I chop a bag of baby carrots in the food processor, and then mix all the ingredients right there in the processor bowl. No peeling bags of carrots, and no extra bowl to wash! (I know shredded carrots from Bodek exist, but baked goods usually call for finer shredded carrots. The processor makes it just right for baking.) – A Reader
Chop onions against the grain to save time. Slice the onion in half from head to head, lay flat side down, and cut a grid of slices vertically and horizontally. It will separate into perfectly chopped cubes. – A Reader I started adding a piece of squash to my potato kugel recipe. It keeps the kugel white, and you don’t even taste it. – A Reader
The pump dispenser for oil is perfect for dispensing small amounts with no mess. – A Reader
When I make a salad, I put all ingredients into a Ziploc bag and add the dressing to the bag so it gets all over the salad and doesn’t stay in one spot. Only then do I put it in a nice salad bowl. – A Reader
Whenever I have extra cutlets in a package, I bread them and freeze them individually in Ziploc bags. This way, they defrost really quickly, and I can pull them out of the freezer and plunk them in the Betty Crocker for those last-minute emergency suppers. – Chana L.
I use a fleishig ice cream scooper to make perfect meatballs without any mess. – A Reader
I freeze cake in slices, so if I want a single piece anytime, I can take one out without having to defrost the whole chunk. Also, it is usually ready to eat within three minutes.
– Chana L.
Mashing eggs for the Shabbos seudah used to take so long and become a messy process. Now I put the eggs in a tall container and chop them using two knives running back and forth. In no time, we have mashed eggs. – A Reader
When I make sesame chicken or poppers or any kind of chicken nuggets, I fry whole pieces of chicken, and then I just cut them into pieces and pour the sauce over them. It is so much easier than cutting chicken into pieces and then frying all those little pieces. – A Reader
I put a bit of vitamin C powder in my potato kugel to keep it white. It’s magic! – A Reader
I bake around ten rolls of gefilte fish at a time and freeze each roll individually in a storage bag without any liquid. The taste is perfect, I never make a pot dirty for it, and I think about gefilte fish literally once in two months! – Etty
There’s a cake recipe in Dinner Done that can be mixed by hand (using gloves) directly in the pan. This means a fresh cake l’kavod Shabbos in less than ten minutes — with no utensils to wash. – A Reader
I stopped peeling the Yukon potatoes used for potato kugel, and it looks and tastes the same! I can’t tell you how many hours of peeling this has saved me. (If someone is brave enough to try it with unpeeled Idaho potatoes, please let us know what the results are...) – C.S.S.
Wet your counter when rolling dough between two parchment paper for a smooth, easy roll. – E.B.
After cooking eggs, put them right under a cold stream of water for five minutes. It makes the peels slip right off. Throwing a couple of ice cubes into the pot also helps. – A Reader
I used to struggle with getting parchment paper to stay put in the pan until I poured cake/kugel batter into it. Then I read that if you scrunch up the parchment paper under running water and then unroll it, it will take the shape of the pan. I found it to be a game-changer! Then I discovered the new pre-cut parchment paper in many sizes. Between the two, using parchment paper became a breeze. – A Reader
Bake gefilte fish instead of cooking it. Put two rolls of gefilte fish with all other ingredients and water into an extra-deep 9x13-inch pan. Bake on 350° for two hours. When cool, cut the rolls into slices, and freeze in portions with some sauce in a container. Also, whenever you freeze food, always double wrap it!
– A Reader
Cook noodles and pasta in a pan. When finished cooking, simply put the pan into the sink, and with the tip of a knife, make small cuts on the bottom of the pan to help the water drain. Rinse with cold water and enjoy. Never use a pot and pasta strainer again!
– A Reader
To divide my soups or compotes from a large stock pot into containers, I use my two-quart pot instead of my regular small soup ladle. Try it, and you won’t take out your soup ladle again. – A Reader
I make farfel in the oven using the recipe I’d do in a pot, but in a disposable baking pan. – A Reader
I warm my food on Yom Tov in the wire baskets caterers have. (You can’t do this Pesach; the Sterno cans are not kosher for Pesach.) – A Reader
How to cook perfect pasta without having to babysit it: Bring water to a full boil in a pot. Put in the pasta, cover the pot, and shut the flame. Set a timer for 25 minutes, then drain. – M.S.
When making a milchig supper and pasta (lasagna, ziti, gnocchi) is on the menu, don’t cook it in water. Cook it in milk. You can’t compare the taste! – Miriam
A hack I love in my kitchen — one-gallon storage bags. I use them to neatly toss salads, coat chicken and mix crumble. I once mixed a dumpling mixture in a bag, snipped off the corner, and squeezed out nice little dumplings into the pot. It’s cheap, it’s handy and it saves so much mess! – R.B.
I line plastic containers with a food storage bag when freezing soup so there is no need to wash or throw out the container. – A Reader
Best hack ever:
Use baby carrots in your chicken soup instead of peeling and slicing all those carrots. – A Reader
The easiest way to saute onions is in the Betty Crocker. I put in diced onions with oil, plug it in for exactly five minutes, unplug it, and keep it closed for ten minutes or until ready to use. A total cooking gamechanger! – A Reader
When baking biscotti, I usually triple the recipe and freeze a few loaves raw. Any time I want some fresh cookies, I just pull a loaf out of the freezer and bake it. I do the same for potato knishes. I make, fill and brush many at a time. I then freeze them raw and take out a few to bake for supper. – A Reader
When you need to wash your food processor, put water and dish detergent into the machine, and turn it on for a few seconds. Watch it wash itself!
– A Reader
Dried minced garlic can be used in place of chopped fresh garlic in so many recipes! As soon as the garlic flakes become moist, they give off an excellent garlicky flavor. – A Reader
I don’t have a big freezer (no space for it in my apartment), and freezing food is always a struggle. I’m forever grateful to my friend who told me about rectangular containers. The Containers Galore is a lifesaver for me. Instead of having to freeze soups in tall, round containers, I am now able to push in five square 32-ounce containers in the place of two round ones. – A Reader
My mother, who was a Holocaust survivor, worked in the American Joint Distribution at a soup kitchen to feed those who came home from the camps after the war. One important thing she taught me is to clean as you cook. If I am finished using an item, I put it away. Even when I cook for a large crowd, my kitchen stays neat. Dirty dishes either go into the dishwasher or are washed right away. – A Reader
Instead of counter savers, I buy the cheapest box of plastic tablecloths and never think twice before using one. The best part is that when I discard it, the kitchen looks like nothing ever happened there.
– A Reader
When I use the Betty Crocker (which is too often), I make sure to line it well on the bottom. If I use oil, I put in two papers, and then add one to the top too. It makes cleanup a breeze. – A Reader
Saute onions faster! Place onions in a pot without oil, and wait until the moisture of the onions evaporate before adding oil. The science is that when the liquid of the onions mix with the oil, it takes much longer to turn golden. Since I started using this method, the sauteing time is much shorter. – Miriam
Transform a a new jar of mayonnaise into a neat dispenser. Instead of digging in with a spoon and making a mess, I simply cut an “x” in the foil cover with a knife. This turns the mayonnaise jar into a squeeze bottle, making it easy to dispense without any fuss. It’s a simple hack that’s truly a game-changer! – A Reader
I like serving all the traditional Shabbos food l’kavod Shabbos. Farfel is one food that I used to cook every week, and most of it ended up in the trash. Now I put a drop of farfel into a mesh bag and add it to my bubbling soup for ten minutes. – A Reader
Dice and cube tomatoes and cucumbers at the beginning of the week and put in separate containers in the refrigerator. Whenever you want Israeli salad, you’ll have it within seconds! – A Reader
Before assembling baking utensils and ingredients for baking, cover both the counters and your mixer with disposable plastics. A shopping bag fits nicely over the mixer base (with a hole punched through for bowl placement), and a plastic table covering cut according to your baking needs is perfect for the counters. When it’s time for cleanup, all you’ll need to do is gather the plastic wrap, pop it into yet another shopping bag, and into the trash it goes. – A Reader
Keeping a recipe book open to the correct page while baking or cooking can be a hassle. Plus, it’s no fun to have your pristine recipe books spattered by oil and whatnot. Copy the recipe (by machine or hand), tape it above the area you’re using, and toss it when you’re done. – A Reader
This may sound simple, but I always struggled with cooling soup for kids until I heard of the idea to put in an ice cube to cool it off. – A Reader
My cleaning help spends an hour a week peeling and chopping vegetables and storing it in the fridge. I find that making myself a healthy salad is so much easier when all components are neatly stored and ready to mix. – M. Mendelowitz
We make egg salad in a large Ziploc bag by putting all peeled and washed eggs into the bag, zipping it up, and kneading and mashing it using hands — from the outside! When it’s done, I add some oil (or mayo) and salt, mix, and then pour the whole thing into a bowl. Mess-free and dish-free! I do the same thing for tuna salad. I learned this from my yeshiva bochurim, obviously. – R.A.
I freeze cookie dough in logs in parchment paper. Any morning that I want to send fresh cookies with my kids to school, I just remove a log from the freezer, slice and bake. I make huge batches of these — I even need to take challah with a bracha. – R.P.
My vegetable chopper is the most worthwhile kitchen investment I have made. It chops everything from fruits and vegetables to onions and potatoes in minutes. – D.F.
GENERAL LIFE AND PARENTING HACKS
I write my kids mitzvah notes at night. Otherwise, it gets too hectic in the morning. – A Reader
Use hooks instead of hangers in the coat closet for the kids. They’re 500 times more likely to hang their coats on hooks than on a hanger. – A Reader
I put on comfortable clothes and strip myself of all jewelry as soon as I walk through my door. It makes everything I do faster and much easier! – Chana L.
I leave ironing, peeling, laundry and other mindless tasks for when I’m schmoozing on the phone in the evening. I don’t get on the phone without having a mindless task to do. I get so much done without even realizing it! – N. Perlstein
Lists! – A Reader
Every Sunday morning, I plan my supper menu for the week and do my grocery shopping for the ingredients and basics I need. No more going to the grocery the entire week! – A Reader
Keep a whiteboard on the refrigerator, and add items you need to buy whenever you notice that you’re running short. There you have your grocery list. – A Reader
Always close a necklace before putting it away; it prevents it from tangling. – A Reader
Hang hooks on every wall and door to make sure there’s no excuse for things landing on the floor. – A Reader
I put my babies straight on the floor from day one — no seats, bouncers or swings — and ka”h, from a young age, my children have excellent motor skills, spatial awareness and play pretty independently. I also put them directly in the bathtub with an inch or two of water — no dealing with bath seats. – D.L.G.
Next question: WHAT DO YOU APPRECIATE MOST IN A NEIGHBOR?
Please submit your answer by Tuesday night, December 24, for a chance to see it in print!
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The Wait Is Over!
We're thrilled to introduce our centrally located crafting haven, where creativity knows no bounds! Whether you’re an experienced artist or just looking for a fun way to unwind, our space offers a variety of engaging activities. Dive into painting plaster molds, explore canvas art, or create vibrant sand bottles. With a diverse menu of crafts to choose from, there’s something for everyone! Gather your friends, unleash your imagination, and join us for a fun-filled crafting experience. Come, create, and celebrate!
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PARSHAS VAYEISHEV
A Preplanned Chain of Events
Y. Levenstein
When Yosef interpreted the dream of the Sar Hamashkim, he said, “In three days’ time… Pharaoh will restore you to your position. You will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you served him drinks.” Then he added, “So if you keep me in mind… please do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh, and thus get me out of this prison” (Bereishis 40:13–14).
There is repetition in his statement. If the royal cupbearer is restored to his position, obviously he’ll be serving Pharaoh drinks again. Why did Yosef repeat himself and say, “You will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand”?
Additionally, why did Yosef ask the Sar Hamashkim to put in a good word for him? How could it be that Yosef Hatzaddik relied on a human being? After all, the pasuk says (Yirmiyahu 17:5), “Arur hagever asher yivtach b’adam.”
IN THE MIDST OF HIS TRAVELS, the Baal Shem Tov arrived at a small town and knocked at the door of a well-to-do resident, Shimon, and asked if he could stay at his home. The Baal Shem Tov asked Shimon to prepare a hearty meal for himself and his shammas. Shimon rushed to fulfill the tzaddik’s command.
But rather than sitting down to eat, the Baal Shem Tov made another request. “While on my way, I lost a valuable tabak box in the forest. Please come with me in my wagon, and together we’ll go look for it.”
Shimon could not refuse his holy visitor’s bidding and immediately agreed. He donned his heavy coat and joined the Baal Shem Tov. They rode to the forest.
Suddenly, Shimon heard faint cries. He looked around, try-
ing to discover the source. From a distance, he noticed a Polish prince, mired in the mud. It appeared he had been there for a while and was unable to extract himself. He looked weak and was shivering from the cold, and he seemed to be fighting for his life.
Shimon jumped off his wagon. Mustering all of his strength, he managed to pull the prince out of the mud. He brought him home and gave him fresh clothes, and warmed his frostbitten body until the prince felt like a human being again.
“Serve him the meal you prepared earlier,” the Baal Shem Tov commanded. Then the Rebbe pulled Shimon aside and whispered to him that he should not accept any payment from the prince in exchange for saving his life.
When the prince finally prepared to leave, he indeed offered Shimon a large sum of money, but Shimon followed the instructions he had been given. “It’s enough that I had the honor to save your life,” he demurred.
Decades later, a catastrophe befell Shimon. His non-Jewish neighbor accused him of killing another non-Jew. There was not an ounce of truth to the allegations; the neighbor just wanted Shimon to be arrested or executed so he could enjoy his fortune. Shimon stood no chance in face of his non-Jewish neighbor’s testimony. He was thrown into prison, and a date was set for his trial. The judge, who was no Jew-lover himself, sentenced him to death.
There was one last hope for Shimon: The death penalty needed to be confirmed by the king. If Shimon could convince the king that he had been framed, he could go free. But why should the king believe him?
The prison wardens smirked when Shimon asked to speak with the king, but they granted his request. When Shimon was brought before the king, Shimon immediately recognized him — and the king recognized Shimon, too. He was the very prince, now grown, whose life Shimon had saved decades ago.
“There’s no doubt this is all a false accusation,” the king
Yosef understood that the only reason the fly flew into the cup in the first place was to trigger this chain of events so Yosef’s name would eventually be exposed to Pharaoh
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proclaimed. “This Jew saved my life many years ago, and he wouldn’t even take a penny for it. It’s preposterous to think that such an upstanding individual, who wouldn’t accept money when he deserved it, would take someone’s life just for the sake of some money!”
The king insisted on further investigation, and the truth came to light. Shimon was exonerated.
Only then did Shimon understand the logic behind the Baal Shem Tov’s strange instructions. The tzaddik had brought Shimon to the forest so he could save the prince, and even asked him to prepare a meal in advance so there would be ready food to serve the prince immediately, and then had Shimon refuse payment — all so the king would have proof that he was an honest man.
Shimon immediately traveled to Mezibuzh. He wanted to thank the Baal Shem Tov for the great miracle that happened in his zechus
The Baal Shem Tov explained, “You should know that sometimes a non-Jew is faced with troubles just so a Yid will merit a yeshuah — even years later. You might think that you saved the prince who was stuck in the mud, but in truth, the opposite is true. The prince only sank into the mud so you should be able to save him, and bring about your ultimate yeshuah!”
Rav Akiva Eiger explains that while sitting in prison, it is only natural for a person to contemplate the offense that brought him there, and to staunchly commit to staying far away from it when he will eventually be released.
The Sar Hamashkim was imprisoned because a fly was found in Pharaoh’s cup. During his entire imprisonment, he was preoccupied with thoughts of the day when he would be released from jail, and how he would be extra careful not to allow any fly to come near Pharaoh’s cup.
With his repetitive phrasing, Yosef calmed him down. “You’ll go back to your position, and you should continue doing just as you did before — without worrying that this will happen again.”
Yosef understood that the only reason the fly flew into the cup in the first place was to trigger this chain of events so Yosef’s name would eventually be exposed to Pharaoh. The fact that Yosef asked to be remembered was actually part of the dream and its interpretation. It was not that Yosef decided to rely on a human being; rather, he was explaining that such a mishap would not take place again, since the only reason it happened was to bring about his yeshuah!
Weeks of Drone Sightings Spark Unease
Federal officials have been trying to downplay numerous drone sightings that have been reported in recent weeks, but their reassurances seem to be falling on deaf ears.
The drones were originally sighted flying over New Jersey’s Raritan River, with multiple reports received since midNovember. Later sightings reported drones over the Picatinny Arsenal military research and manufacturing facility in Wharton, and then over the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. Drones were spotted at numerous other locations in the Garden State as well, with more than a dozen reported to have been following a Coast Guard lifeboat near Barnegat Lighthouse State Park and the nearby Island Beach State Park.
The mysterious drone activity hasn’t been limited to New Jersey. According to The New York Times, sightings have come in from Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens’ LaGuardia Airport. Drones were also spotted above Rockland County, near the New Jersey border, on December 12, the same day that National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that investigators have been unable to corroborate reports of unauthorized drones, and that those that have been spotted were likely “manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.” Just over 24 hours later, Newburgh’s Stewart International Airport shut down its runways for nearly an hour because of drones in its airspace.
Elected officials have been quick to demand action, with Rockland County Executive Ed Day firing off a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to have the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation look into the mystery drones, even as he called on area residents to remain calm. Still, Day didn’t hesitate to share his criticism of
the way the drone sightings have been handled.
“The fact that this issue has persisted for weeks without clear answers is completely unacceptable, not just to the people of Rockland County, but to communities across the nation,” said Day. “It’s time for the federal government to step up, take responsibility and provide the answers we all deserve.”
Drone usage is regulated by the FAA, and with federal laws giving states little latitude in dealing with drones, both New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New York Governor Kathy Hochul called on Washington last week to step up its efforts on multiple fronts.
In a letter written to Biden, Murphy noted that FBI officials had told members of a congressional subcommittee that the federal government is unable to address drone-related issues on its own, and that events of the past few weeks have raised “more questions than answers.” A statement released by Hochul said that the drone situation has “gone too far,” and she called on Congress to pass a bill strengthening FAA oversight of drones, while also giving certain state and local law enforcement agencies greater authority to deal with drones.
A day later, a second statement released by Hochul announced that Washington had responded to her calls for additional resources by deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York, calling it a good start to solving the problem.
“We are grateful to the Biden administration for their support, but ultimately, we need further assistance from Congress. Passing the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act will give New York and our peers the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today,” said Hochul.
“Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential,” said Hochul. “Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people.”
Mayor Eric Adams tried to reassure city residents, saying that City Hall is aware of the concerns and that the matter is being actively investigated in collaboration with federal, state and local law enforcement, who do not believe that there is a “public safety threat, national security concern, or any foreign involvement associated with recent drone sightings in the five boroughs.”
While the NYPD reported an increase in reported drone sightings last week, Adams said that the actual number of drone detections in the last month have remained steady and that the drones sighted are most likely “manned aircraft or commercial hobby drones.”
THE SKY IS BLUE YOUR VISION
Stay Tuned for Refund Checks, Says Hochul
New Yorkers could be getting a gift from Governor Kathy Hochul next fall, with a preview of her upcoming State of the State address sharing word of her plan for an inflation refund that would benefit 8.6 million residents.
Individuals earning up to $150,000 per year could be seeing $300 checks, and couples who file jointly and earn up to $300,000 could be receiving $500 checks. The $3 billion plan is slated for inclusion in Hochul’s upcoming budget, which needs to be finalized by the Legislature this spring.
In an op-ed released on December 11, Hochul said that the inflation refund comes in response to the rising cost of living that started during Covid and has yet to fade away.
“In just the last four years, the price of something as basic as a dozen eggs has more than doubled nationally,” wrote Hochul. “Milk costs a dollar more per gallon, hamburger is up nearly two dollars per pound, and diapers are up by seven dollars a pack.”
Recalling how she shopped at discount stores and couldn’t wait till the day that her children no longer needed diapers or baby formula, Hochul said that affordability has always been her top priority. With state residents struggling to cover the cost of basic necessities, the governor said that the extra sales tax revenue collected on today’s higher prices will be used to fund the inflation refund.
“Personally, I don’t think this extra revenue should be spent by the state,” said Hochul. “After all, it’s your money. Instead, it should be heading one place and one place only — back into your pocket.”
Hochul is expected to run for re-election in 2026. Representative Ritchie Torres, who has been considering a gubernatorial run of his own, took Hochul to task, blaming her for New York’s double-digit inflation.
“For three years, the Governor has ignored millions of New York families crippled by the crushing cost of groceries and gasoline,” said Torres. “The Governor has deceptively reframed the cost of congestion pricing as a ‘cost-savings.’ Is the congestion
fee part of her ‘inflation refund’ for New Yorkers? New York has a Governor who gives with one hand while taking with the other.”
The concept of inflation refund checks also fell flat for Representative Nicole Malliotakis, who criticized Hochul for “treating New Yorkers like bottomless ATM machines by hammering them with new tolls and taxes.”
“If she’d allow her constituents to keep more of their hardearned money from the start, there would be no need for these ‘inflation refund’ checks to begin with,” said Malliotakis.
Power Outage Causes Nightmare Commute Home for F Train Riders
Approximately 3,500 Brooklyn-bound subway riders spent more than two hours stuck in a subway tunnel after a power outage left their trains stranded on the tracks.
The New York Post reported that the incident took place on December 11 at approximately 5:30 p.m. as the city was hit with a heavy storm. The two F trains were stuck in a tunnel between the Jay Street/MetroTech and Hoyt-Schermerhorn stations when the electricity went out, leaving them without air conditioning.
Members of the FDNY were dispatched to the trains, evacuating riders through darkened subway tunnels and leading them to safety through service stairs that led to trap doors embedded in the middle of Brooklyn sidewalks. Rider Jennifer Young described the experience, which also disrupted service on the A and C lines, as “absolutely brutal.”
While some riders quickly ran out of patience as the ordeal unfolded, the power outage brought out the best in others who shared water, food and even cookies with their fellow commuters. The last riders were evacuated from the trains by 8:20 p.m., with four minor injuries reported.
NYC Transit president Demetrius Crichlow expressed his gratitude to rescuers in a statement, saying, “We thank hun-
dreds of transit workers, firefighters, NYPD officers and responders from other agencies who worked to quickly assist riders on two trains stuck between stations following a Con Ed power failure.”
Brooklyn Paper reported that the outage was caused by an explosion at a 90-year-old Con Edison substation. Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said that the outage demonstrated the urgent need for repair and investment at the facility, but that part of the blame lay within his own agency, which also has components that are outdated and in need of repair.
Governor Kathy Hochul directed both the MTA and Con Edison to review the incident, which she categorized as unacceptable.
“No one deserves to be trapped underground for two hours, or face such significant delays when trying to commute home from work,” said Hochul.
Fearing BQE Collapse, Elected Officials Call for Short-Term Fix
With plans to reconstruct the deteriorating triple-cantilevered section of the BQE in Brooklyn Heights not scheduled to start until 2029, four local elected officials are calling on Mayor Eric Adams to come up with an interim solution, fearing that the roadway’s useful lifespan is quickly coming to an end.
A letter signed by Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, Representative Nydia Velazquez and Representative Dan Goldman urged City Hall to take prompt action to create “a new stabilization plan to preserve the safety and integrity of the Triple Cantilever for, at minimum, the next 15 to 20 years.” In their letter, the elected officials said that there is no doubt that the current timetable is untenable and that there is no way to know how much longer the roadway can be considered safe to travel.
“We do not know when it will no longer be safe for cars and trucks to ride on the BQE Triple Cantilever,” wrote the group.
Discussions have been held for years about shoring up that section of the BQE. A 2018 plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio to construct a temporary highway on the Brooklyn Heights promenade while repairs were made to the roadway was roundly trounced by area residents. Attempts by Adams to address the situation have yet to succeed, with the federal government giving a thumbs-down to a request for an $800 million planning grant to redesign the highway.
The New York City Department of Transportation has done some repair work on the roadway, which has been trimmed down from three lanes of traffic in each direction to two, and included the installation of built-in sensors to issue automatic tickets to overweight trucks. An agency spokesperson said that the ongoing project review will consider multiple alternatives to the problem, but Restler insisted that a short-term stabilization plan be on the table as well.
“While we work on longer term, more ambitious proposals, it can’t just be the Adams plan or bust,” said Restler.
Recap: Kaily remembers traveling with her ex-husband. Perela is resentful at her siblings, which makes her want to join Tziri on her purchasing trip to China.
This meeting was no less than a miracle. Kaily, Eli, Yiddy and Perela had all made it to the hospital more or less on time.
“That’s what Zoom is for,” Yiddy had said.
“I have to make sure Chuni is still in camp,” Eli had said with a sigh.
“My kids are between school and camp. My house is a virtual zoo,” Perela had grumbled.
It might have required cartwheels on all ends, but now they were all sitting around the small conference table, waiting for their mother’s doctor to start talking. Yiddy, Eli and Perela sat on chairs; Kaily pulled up a stool from the corner and sat down.
“I can bring you a chair,” Eli volunteered.
“I’m good,” Kaily said.
Dr. Sarkos had requested this conference. He felt that having everyone around the table is always best for the patient.
“I spoke to some of you,” he started. “I told you I suspect a neurological disease.” He fiddled with his pen and dropped his gaze for a minute.
“You’re lucky your mother fell,” he continued. His eyes swept the small audience. “Because I suspect she didn’t fall from her primary disease. But that’ll happen,” he predicted darkly.
Kaily wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard Yiddy mutter, lucky, lucky When nobody asked the obvious questions (Then why did she fall? Or, what is her pri-
mary disease?), the doctor continued, “She fell because she can’t see well. That can happen from the Parkinson’s too. Later. But for now, she has cataracts.”
So it was Parkinson’s. She’d known that was what the doctor suspected, but to hear him say it so nonchalantly about her mother—!
Kaily swallowed hard and kept her eyes trained on the doctor’s face, afraid of her siblings’ reactions.
Why did it take so long for you to figure this out, Kaily? Why did she have to fracture her hip in the process?
“Parkinson’s?” Perela was the first to break the silence. Kaily forced herself to look at her little sister. Her face was white and her fists clenched.
“That’s… terrible.” Perela shook her head. “I mean, she’ll need full-time care.”
Kaily’s pity for Perela drained instantly. That’s what she was worried about? The work? It was their mother
She shifted her gaze to Eli. Their eyes met and he just shook his head sadly. Yiddy fiddled with his tablet, likely googling Parkinson’s symptoms or cataracts
“Cataracts?” Yiddy said, looking up. “That’s easy to fix, no?”
Sure. For him, everything was about easy fixes.
“Not a walk in the park, but easy enough. Though you’d have to see an ophthalmologist for that.”
“PARKINSON’S?” PERELA WAS THE FIRST TO BREAK THE SILENCE. KAILY FORCED HERSELF TO LOOK AT HER LITTLE SISTER. HER FACE WAS WHITE AND HER FISTS CLENCHED
CHANIE SPIRA
“We’re in a hospital,” he muttered. Kaily kicked him under the table.
“She was seen by the hospital’s ophthalmologist already. He was the one to determine that it is indeed cataracts. You’ll have to schedule an appointment for surgery, the sooner the better. Poor eyesight and poor balance is a dangerous combination.”
Her brothers nodded. Only she and Perela seemed to have lost their ability to move.
“Parkinson’s disease is a diagnosis of elimination,” Dr. Sarkos continued. “It’s done through lots of testing and neurological examinations. And based on all your mother’s records, testing and results, it seems to be the case here. In fact, I would say she’s been suffering from this disease for at least a year — or two — by now.”
Kaily sat frozen. She was the guilty one. She was the one who saw her mother up close every single day. And she’d allowed her mother’s platitudes to calm her.
“Two years?” Yiddy exploded.
“It’s normal,” the doctor soothed. “The symptoms are very subtle at first. And she’s not young, so these symptoms are often chalked up to age.”
“What’s our next step?” Kaily asked woodenly. Her mouth moved with concentrated effort, and she felt like she was under the effects of hypnosis again.
“There are some really effective medications targeted to treat the symptoms. It’ll slow the progress and maybe reverse some damage, but it can also cause side effects.”
“Like what?” Perela asked timidly.
“We don’t have to talk about that now,” the doctor said, his tone softening. “What we do have to speak about is exercise. Exercise has proven to be extremely effective in slowing Parkinson’s progress. It raises the dopamine level — which is the neurotransmitter in short supply in Parkinson’s patients. Exercise naturally moves those rigid muscles around and slows the progression of the disease.”
Kaily quickly jotted exercise and dopamine onto her little pad, so she would remember these words later.
“I spoke to your mother for a while. She’s a feisty lady. She can do it. It’s up
to her… and all of you. The more she exercises, the better she’ll feel.” He scanned the little room.
Yiddy spoke first. “We can hire someone to help her with it,” he said. Like this was a SolarKing project. Hire a team of workers to install solar panels and… bingo. Job done.
Kaily exploded. Yiddy was all about fixing, hiring, paying. Anything to get out of doing. “Hire? She’s not an invalid!”
“You’re both right,” the doctor said soothingly. “She’s not an invalid, but it’s a lot of work.”
Yiddy looked at her triumphantly. Kaily stared back defiantly. She would not be cowed by her younger brother. Dr. Sarkos coughed. “I understand she’s a widow.”
Yiddy broke eye contact long enough to nod gravely.
“But I live with her,” Kaily quickly said. “She’s never alone.”
“That’s good. That’s good.”
“And I work from home, usually,” Kaily added, trying not to think about what her boss would say if he could hear her now. He allowed her to work from home sometimes. And she had a very strong suspicion that he was livid over her poor performance these past few weeks.
“I got it!” Yiddy stood up. “You know all those ads? Offering family members to be caregivers? Kaily, you can give up your job and get paid as a caregiver!”
* * * * *
The patient transporter opened the door and wheeled Roiza into the physical therapy room.
“You’re good?” he asked.
Roiza nodded and thanked him. For a moment she wondered what it was like to be a transporter. It couldn’t be very rewarding to wheel old, cranky patients like her from place to place without knowing anything about the patient, without connecting in any way.
Oh well. At least he could walk.
While she sat like a useless, helpless scarecrow. She hadn’t looked into a mirror since Mira had painted her up, and Eli had done the night shift, not the best candidate to dress her up
for her first physical therapy session.
“Hi! I’m Diana.” A blond-streaked woman came up to her. “Are you Rose Handler?”
Roiza nodded. The therapist seemed nice enough, about Perela’s age, she estimated.
“Do you want to tell me a bit about yourself and your goals for physical
her right leg, which was officially her “good” side.
“I can’t,” she whispered frantically as her grip slackened. Diana ran over to support her weight.
“Let’s try again,” she said. “I’ll hold your left side, and you’ll hold the bar to the right.”
Roiza hesitated. Her goals? To continue mothering her children. To make sautéed eggplant with thinly diced vegetables so Eli had where to crash after an arduous day and, of
“To care for my children,” she said slowly. Her eyes filled as she looked at her hospital gown. Who was she kidding? Her hip throbbed, and they considered her fracture “minor.”
“You still have young children?”
“They’re all grown,” Roiza said, “but I still care for them. They’ve all got families of their own…” her voice became wistful, “but they still need
“You’re never too old to need a mother,” Diana said sweetly. “So let’s see how quickly we can meet that
She wheeled Roiza to a set of bars. “So, you’ll hold the two rails at either side, and I’ll walk in front of you in case you need me. And the most important thing,” Diana said, “is to remember your goal. It’s going to be tough, but remember, your kids need
Roiza bit her lip tightly as Diana helped her stand up. Her hip screeched in pain, and she wobbled as her feet touched solid ground. She hadn’t stood since the fall, and the hard floor felt strange.
Her eyes filled, and she couldn’t even wipe her tears because she was gripping the bars so tightly.
“Good!” Diana crowed.
Roiza’s tears blurred her already blurry vision as she labored to move
Roiza dragged her right foot a few inches. Her entire body quivered from the strain, and she closed her eyes. You want to be a mother to your kids. A mother to your kids. She pictured herself on her couch at home, serving the chasan a cup of coffee.
She dragged her foot another bit, and Diana carefully moved her left foot. The pain was unbearable, but she kept whispering, a mother to my kids… a mother to my kids
After the third step though, she could not move another inch. “I’m dd-done,” she said tiredly.
Was she stuttering? Slurring? No!
“One more step. Okay? The quicker you’re back on your feet, the quicker you’ll get to go back home.”
Roiza shook her head. Something within her broke. “T-t-tell me the truth, Diana. Am I slurring?”
“I don’t think so,” Diana said quickly. “You’re just exhausted, and that’s what’s causing it. I see it all the time.”
Roiza looked into Diana’s eyes. She was lying. “Please. Let me sit.”
Diana didn’t protest again and helped Roiza into her wheelchair.
“I-I don’t think I’ll reach my goal.” Roiza averted her gaze.
Diana held her palms and said, “You will, Mrs. Handler. It takes time, but you don’t know how many patients walk out of here on their two feet.”
Roiza looked at her hopefully.
“And meanwhile, Rose, there are many ways to be a good mother. Even while sitting down.”
Roiza shook her head.
So this was it. She was going to become a burden on her kids.
POTATO
YAAKOV ASTOR
Chapter 23
Recap: The Russians drive out the Nazis. Rachel visits Majdanek concentration camp. The Russians send Stephan to Siberia.
Rachel did not want to hear what Mrs. Roluk was about to say. She continued folding clothes.
“Child, please stop folding and look at me.”
Rachel put down the laundry and slowly turned around.
“My child, you are a wonderful girl. And you will make a fine wife one day. But your future is not with us. Your future is not with me. Your future is with your people.”
Rachel tried to hold back tears.
“Yes,” Mrs. Roluk continued, “it is with your people. I can fake it. You can fake it. We can all fake it. But you have a people. And you are part of them. You must leave here and find yourself, find your future with them.”
Rachel began to cry. Mrs. Roluk put her arm around her.
“You must leave tomorrow. There is a rumor that the Russians will close the border, and then you will be stuck
here forever. You must leave tomorrow and head to Poland. I don’t know where you will go and whom you will meet on the way, but if your G-d has let you live and come this far, then He will surely have mercy on you and bring you to the place you need to be. I’ll prepare a sack of food and some clothes, and tomorrow I’ll walk you to the train station. There are a lot of people streaming west, including Jews. I’m sure you will find your way.”
Rachel put her head on Mrs. Roluk’s shoulder and sobbed. Mrs. Roluk patted Rachel on the head and comforted her. “Shhh. It will be alright. It will be alright.”
Then Mrs. Roluk walked away. Once she was out of sight, Rachel broke down and cried a thousand tears — six million tears. They simply poured down her cheeks.
Silently, out of sight, Mrs. Roluk cried too.
Rachel felt like crumbling. She wanted to run after Mrs. Roluk. But she knew she could not
The next day, Mrs. Roluk walked Rachel all the way to the railroad station. Then she said goodbye and walked away. That was it.
Rachel felt like crumbling. She wanted to run after Mrs. Roluk. But she knew she could not.
She was so afraid.
So alone.
She stood at the tracks with some others. There were a few dozen others. More were walking down the road toward the train station. Rachel looked into their faces, hoping to see a familiar face. Hoping to see a friendly face. But they all looked like strangers.
Suddenly, she heard her name. “Rachel?”
She turned, but there was a sea of faces, none recognizable.
“Rachel Blum!” the same voice called. Then, through the crowd, a woman stepped forward. “It is Rachel Blum,” she said.
Rachel rubbed her eyes. “Rivka?”
“Yes!”
“Rivka Wax?”
“Yes.”
They hugged.
In the distance, they heard the horn blast of a train.
A young man emerged from the crowd and came to stand next to Rivka. “This is my brother, Yonah,” Rivka told Rachel. Then, addressing Yonah, she explained, “This is Rachel Blum. We met in the ghetto.”
Yonah nodded. “Where are you going?” he asked Rachel.
“Away from here,” Rachel replied.
“So am I,” Yonah answered.
Epilogue
The story of Rachel Blum’s life after the war merits an entire book unto itself. When Mrs. Roluk pushed her to join her people, that propelled Rachel in a direction that sparked an entire new set of circumstances and miracles that would lead Rachel to marriage and a family of her own.
She married Yonah Szakamer, brother of Rivka Wax, in one of the Displaced Persons (DP) camps in which Holocaust survivors typically found themselves after the war. They had a daughter there, and eventually received permission to go to the United States in 1951 (where they changed their name to Schatzkamer). There they had two more children, including the wife of the author of this story.
There were many people whose stories had intertwined with hers, and Rachel only found out how some of those stories ended. Some of them were happy endings. Kayla, who had been Rachel’s friend in the ghetto for years, managed to join the partisans in the forest, and she found a place with
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She was even an inspiration to strangers. Whether it was the gardener, mailman, handyman or doctor, complete strangers were at ease with her almost instantly
them. She cooked for them, cleaned for them, stood guard duty — anything to make herself useful. In this way, she managed to survive the war. Rachel and Kayla met again after the war and stayed in touch for a while.
Rachel’s sister Chana, on the other hand, did not survive the war. She had been staying in the Ludmir ghetto with a family, helping them care for their five-year-old son and newborn baby. On the day of the liquidation, the family entered their hiding place. But the baby was making noise, so the mother took the baby and left the hiding place. When the murderers entered the apartment, they killed her and the baby. But they did not discover her husband, their five-yearold and Chana. This mother knowingly gave up her life and her newborn’s life to save the life of the other three.
The three of them escaped the ghetto and found temporary shelter on a farm owned by non-Jews. A Ukrainian farmer informed on them, and they, too, were murdered. Rachel only found out this information because the Ukrainian farmer — proud of the absolution his priest had given him — had boasted about this to a friend of the Roluks, who shared the story with Rachel.
Rachel never made contact with Maria or any of the Roluks after the war. She does not know if Stephan was ever freed or reunited with his parents.
Rachel lived to see grandchildren and great-grandchildren before she passed away on June 20, 2013. (Ironically, she never knew her birthday. She believed she was born in 1929, making her 84 years old at the time of her passing, but she did not know for sure.) She was a tower of strength to her family and friends and an inspiration to all those she came in contact with.
She was even an inspiration to strangers. Whether it was the gardener, mailman, handyman or doctor, complete strangers were at ease with her almost instantly. She had a quality that is hard to define, but is captured in the word “chein.” Often translated as “favor” or “grace,” the word is best understood as “a connection that is not visible.” Rachel possessed chein. She had a way of creating an invisible connection. People were drawn to her cheerful, upbeat and positive attitude — even those who did not know of her Holocaust experiences, which certainly would have won her their sympathy. Consciously or not, the people she met absorbed her amazing attitude toward life.
* * * * *
I knew Rachel Schatzkamer for 28 years. She was my mother-in-law. But, in a sense, I only got to know her during the last five years of her life.
I had known that she had lived through the Holocaust. I knew that she had lost her entire family and was alone in the
world against the Nazis. I knew that she had experienced a living nightmare more frightening than any bad dream. I knew enough about her life even in my first year of marriage to know that there was something incongruent about a phrase we all heard her repeat regularly: “Nothing bad ever happened to me.”
The first time I heard her say it, I had to do a double take. Did I hear her correctly?
The more I got to know her, though, the more I realized that it was not just a cliché. She not only said this statement; she lived up to it. Somehow, she was always the one raising the spirits of others. There was no one who was more upbeat and active than her.
I knew it from the early years of my marriage, when our family regularly visited her apartment in Brooklyn. And I knew it from seeing her almost daily during the last decade of her life, when she lived near us. I knew it, her entire family knew it, her friends knew it, and even the elderly women in the assisted living home she moved into knew it. Even the governor of New York, George Pataki, knew it when he awarded her a prize for her outstanding communal work.
My mother-in-law was the most active, upbeat person imaginable. Her greatness was not merely that she said, “Nothing bad ever happened to me,” but that she lived it.
However, until the last five years of her life I never really knew what she went through. My wife and her siblings knew nothing about their mother’s Holocaust experiences. This was the norm for many Holocaust survivors. It was as if there was an unwritten contract to keep their silence.
Then, in 2008, something happened. I asked her if she could repeat a Holocaust story I once heard her say (the story of how she made the Roluks swear on their Bible that when they find Jews after the war, they should tell those Jews to rebury her in a Jewish cemetery), and I asked her if I could record it. She agreed. Once she began telling it to me, she began telling me other stories. And more stories. They just poured out of her and didn’t stop.
I believe I was a distant enough — yet safe enough — family member for her to tell me things she would
never tell her biological children or a non-related interviewer. (I asked her several times if she wanted to be interviewed by an official Holocaust organization; she always strongly refused.) In short, she opened up to me like to no one else. After that first time, we continued almost daily for several weeks until I collected hours and hours of recordings.
I stood in awe as each part of her story slowly came into sharp focus. And it needed to happen slowly because she told her experiences from the inside out, not necessarily chronologically, and often segueing from one story to the next without warning or explanation. Furthermore, she often assumed that I knew the background of what she was talking about, whether it was the background regarding her personal history or the history of the Holocaust. (By that time, I had written one book on the Holocaust, but still had a lot to learn about what went on in the Ukraine.) I often had to hear her repeat a story or part of it several times over several sessions before I fully grasped what she was saying.
One day, as I was rather numbly listening to her segue into a story about a train, I suddenly interrupted her and asked, “Wait a second, Bubby. Did I just hear you right? Did you just tell me that you killed a thousand Nazi SS soldiers?”
“Yeah,” she said matter-of-factly. “What a life,” she added with her signature chuckle.
Another time, after another delay in my comprehension, I suddenly stopped her and asked, “Wait, Bubby, stop. Did you just say that you were in Majdanek [the first concentration/ death camp liberated by the Allies] just after it was liberated?”
“Yeah.” Chuckle, chuckle. “What a life.”
After hours and hours of interviews, an incredible story emerged. Absolutely incredible. From growing up in poverty-stricken Poland during the 1930s to witnessing war, getting locked in a brutal Nazi ghetto, smuggling food for herself and her family, hiding in an attic to escape a liquidation that took some 18,000 lives, being
taken in by a non-Jewish couple whose son worked for the SS, being confronted by an SS General and partaking in an incredibly dangerous scheme to escape a train filled with Nazis, her real-life drama is a case of truth being stranger than fiction, and one packed with non-stop action.
In retelling the story, I took some liberties to flesh it out, such as putting dialogue into the mouths of people. The people and situations are real, and even the gist of their communications are authentic, but I have at times created or expanded upon a conversation. Wherever I could, I have researched the historical background both to verify for myself and understand better the stories she was sharing.
The end result is a real-life dramatic account of one girl’s struggle to survive in a world desperately trying to exterminate her; the true story of an adolescent who managed to answer desperation with ingenuity, suffering with hope. Hers is a story that represents the starkest contrast between two extremes: the weakest and most helpless, a girl alone, versus the strongest and cruelest, the Nazi state.
Although she emerges the victor, she was not initially the tower of strength she became. Her courage and determination evolved through her experiences. From an isolated, frightened girl, her selfless concern for others not only enabled her to make it through alive, but left her with an unbelievably positive outlook on life, one that to her dying day drew others to her like a magnet. She lost everything yet felt she lacked nothing — to the point where she could genuinely say, “Nothing bad ever happened to me.” * * * * *
If there is any merit to my efforts in writing this story, it is in making my mother-in-law’s life an inspiration to others to see the world as she did, a place filled with hope, good, abundance and blessing, no matter how it looks on the outside. In that merit, may her memory be a blessing.
Yaakov Astor
THE END
A version of this story is available under the title Nothing Bad Ever Happens, published by Menucha Publishers.
✓ Sesame Chicken
✓ Brisket roll ups
✓ Choice of side dish
✓ Choice of Salad
Cole sloe, cucumber salad, pasta salad
Sour pickles
15 Kids
Chicken nuggets & french fries
$229 for 15 Adults ✓ Latkes
✓ Sesame Chicken
✓ Brisket roll ups
✓ Wrap platter
✓ Choice of side vegetable
✓ Choice of 2 side dishes
✓ Chicken nuggets & french fries 30 Adults, 30 Kids
Chanukah is light and festivity against a backdrop of dark afternoons. Chanukah is candles in vivid colors to offset the monochrome of wintertime. Chanukah is when we turn the lights on, the heat on, and draw warmth from our homes and families.
This is an opportune time to invite the children to tap into the joy of Yom Tov and to participate in the preparations and celebrations.
I’ll confess: I love serving up festive meals, setting the table in new and different ways, and conspiring with the children weeks in advance as they eagerly look out for new acquisitions for our decor.
But standing in the kitchen for hours on end and toiling over multi-step dishes? Not so much.
The menu here reflects that. Presented in these pages is the kind of meal you can shop for and prepare for all in one day, and there are a lot of details you can get away with in terms of actual food prep.
THE TABLE
CANDLES AND COLOR
It was so much fun to work with the basic mood of Chanukah. Once we had colored candles and a menorah centerpiece, we didn’t need much else — just some fun colored bowls and glasses sprinkled about on muted tones of gray.
A TOUCH OF WARMTH
There are so many beautiful and inexpensive decorative menorahs out there that can serve as a pretty centerpiece. They can be timeless and contemporary all at once. An oversized knit throw or bedspread in lieu of a tablecloth creates a cozy touch, and it can be pretty kind to the pocket, too. The cable knit provides that perfect winter backdrop for the ignited candles.
OFF CENTER
Wanting to veer away a bit from something too traditional, a napkin off to the side and asymmetrically layered dishes lend the table a bit of an artsy feel.
GETTING CRAFTY
If you can’t find what you’re dreaming of, perhaps you can create it! My boys loved stitching a multicolored embroidery thread through these simple, cheap hemstitched napkins, giving them just the right amount of color we needed. And when it came to flowers, I was set on using billy balls in little ribbed bud vases to bring together the winter and colored vibes; the fact that Craspedia is a yellow flower wasn’t going to deter us! My children loved that project too, painting bunches of dried billy balls in all different colors.
THAT FINE LINE
While I didn’t want to overwhelm the table with a contrasting runner, it needed some kind of separation to avoid a visual mess. In the end, a few strands of embroidery thread served as that fine line between the center and settings. You can accomplish this with a ribbon as well, having fun with colors as you create a narrow strip of separation.
THE PARTY STATION
While we tried to keep the tablescape more staid, we unleashed our love for color in the kids’ corner.
The treat bags for the game are stashed out of reach so that curious little hands don’t make their way in prematurely.
These cereal dispensers make great candy and party favor dispensers. (Make sure they are designed to hold the weight of their contents.) Until the meal is over, these are displayed without their stands so no one tries to fiddle with the knobs, because these are so tempting for little (and big) fingers.
gifts wrapped in exciting colors are fun to look at until the lucky recipients open them.
There are so many pretty colored drinks available with which you can create your own rainbow of favorites. Check the supermarket shelves and the refrigerator as well. You may be surprised at the large variety of naturally colored drinks on the market.
Chanukah
DECONSTRUCTED PASTRAMI SANDWICHES
Many are makpid to wash for Hamotzi each night of Chanukah. These deconstructed pastrami sandwiches incorporate bread and dreidels, and can include just about anything. Best of all, they serve as just a taster, so the kids don’t load up on carbs.
COMPONENTS
French baguette slices
Pastrami, cut into dreidel shapes (save the ends for the soup)
Mini gherkins
Sliced onions
Ketchup, mustard or dressings of your choice (You can prepare them in mini bottles or pipettes, or pass around fullsize squeeze bottles)
LOADED INSTANT NOODLE SOUP
Veggies, protein and good-for-you noodles add nutrition and flavor to the dish that no one can say no to, especially when they get to choose exactly what goes into their bowl. The foods should be steeped in the soup for about two minutes for optimal flavor and texture.
SOUP
Yield: 6 portions
The soup is simply some spices dissolved in boiling water, and then served steaming in bowls so the rest of the components can be added. Alternatively, it can be brought to the table in a tureen and ladled into the bowls once they are filled with the desired soup components.
INGREDIENTS
12 cups water
¾ cup consommé
1½ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. black pepper
¾ tsp. garlic powder
¾ tsp. onion powder
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring water to a boil. (You can also use ready boiling water.)
2. Add spices, and cook until fully dissolved.
COMPONENTS
Prepare your family’s favorite add-ins, and arrange them on a tray.
Instant noodles: Crush a mix of ramen and instant soup noodles. They cook faster in pieces.
Vermicelli rice: Soak rice for about twenty minutes before adding to the tray. This gives the noodles a great texture once it cooks in hot water for a minute.
Zoodles: I bought them prepared, but you can spiralize zucchini on your own, too.
Roasted cauliflower, broccoli and vegetable mix: Since these vegetables get steeped in hot water, it’s good to undercook them slightly beforehand. Place a half bag of each of the vegetables arranged in a thin layer on a lined baking pan. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt (the
cauliflower can also get a sprinkling of curry). Bake at 350° for 20 minutes, and then broil on high for 4 minutes. Set the timer!
Roasted mushrooms: Peel and clean large white cello mushrooms. Slice and lay a thin layer onto a lined baking pan. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
Fried pastrami: Coat the bottom of a frying pan with oil. Heat. Add cut pieces of pastrami or deli of your choice (all the dreidel ends from the appetizer go in here) to the pan, and fry for about 5 minutes on medium-high, stirring throughout.
Pulled beef: If you ask really nicely, you can convince most guys at the deli counter to sell you a container of pulled beef. Or you can make your own delicious version by referring to the recipe featured in last week’s food section.
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TANGY STEAK, HOMEMADE FRIES AND RAINBOW CORN SALAD
Timeless classics are the best crowd-pleasers.
TANGY SLICED STEAK
Yield: 6 portions
Serving a standard piece of steak sliced up really changes its presentation. Wait until it cools off to do so, and be ready for some breakage.
You can also use this recipe for minute or club steak. Use steaks that are well marbleized, because otherwise it will separate when sliced where there’s a lot of fat.
INGREDIENTS
6 thick slices Swiss steak
GARLIC RUB
6 T. oil
6 garlic cubes
1½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
TANGY SAUCE
¾ cup honey
3 oz. ketchup
3 T. teriyaki sauce
1 T. deli mustard
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 300°.
2. Lay steaks in a 10x16” baking pan.
3. Rub the garlic rub ingredients onto both sides of all steaks.
4. Combine sauce ingredients, and pour over the steaks.
5. Cover tightly, and bake for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
6. Use sauce to moisten steak when reheating and serving.
Optional: Garnish with crushed roasted pistachios.
HOMEMADE FRIES
Yield: 6 portions
If you ask me, it’s not a legit Chanukah party without some homemade deep-fried French fries, especially since it is the one week in the year when there’s just no guilt in using up a half a bottle of oil for a single recipe.
A mesh pot insert is great for deep frying, but a large slotted spoon works well too.
INGREDIENTS
6 potatoes
Oil
Salt, to taste
DIRECTIONS
1. Fill a 4-quart pot two-thirds with oil.
2. Set flame to medium-high.
3. While the oil heats up (about 15 minutes), peel three potatoes and cut into fries.
4. If using an insert, add it to the pot.
5. First, add one piece of potato to test the oil. If it begins to bubble immediately, your oil is ready. If it bubbles rapidly, lower the heat before adding more. Add just a few fries at a time, allow to heat up, and then add more, until all the fries are inside.
6. Allow to cook in bubbling oil until golden brown, about 25 minutes. If the oil is rolling too much, lower the heat.
7. Prepare a second batch of three potatoes to be ready when the first batch comes out.
8. Line a baking pan with a paper towel or napkins. Remove fries with a slotted spoon or the insert, and pour into the pan. Using additional paper towels, gently pat fries to remove excess oil. Sprinkle with salt.
9. Carefully add the second batch of potatoes, just a few pieces at a time, making sure the oil is bubbling, but not too rapidly, and repeat above directions.
THE MENU
LEMON GARLIC DIP
Yield: 6 portions
The kids might ask for ketchup for their fries, but the adults will probably love this one.
INGREDIENTS
¾ cup mayonnaise
2 T. honey
2 T. lemon juice
2 frozen garlic cubes
½ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. parsley flakes
DIRECTIONS
Mix and serve.
My family has always enjoyed corn salad. Working with dazzling colors only makes it more flavorful!
COMPONENTS
Roasted corn
Diced red pepper
Diced half-sour pickles
Shredded carrots
Pickled onions (You can purchase it readymade or refer to the recipe in last week’s food section)
Purple chips (beet or blue potato)
RAINBOW CORN SALAD
ICE CREAM AND DOUGHNUT TOWER
Pick your favorite ice cream and mini doughnuts, smear some custard on a plate, and create a happy ending to your meal.
PARTY TIME!
LIKE A KID IN A…
Candy store! These party participants are finally doing what they’ve been waiting for all night — filling a container with prizes and sweets (Mommy decides on the permitted quantity).
COLOR-CODED REWARDS
TO PREPARE THIS SIMPLE AND REWARDING GAME:
• We painted each side of wooden dreidels a different color: red, blue, yellow and white.
• I selected some fun prizes from Toys4U that the kids would appreciate, plus a Toys4U gift card, and picked up some treats at the grocery store.
TO PLAY:
• At their turn, each player spins two dreidels. They then check to see on which colors the dreidels landed, and get to choose a surprise treat bag based on the color combination. (Some of the kids might learn how to mix colors for the first time, and that’s exactly the point.)
So if one dreidel lands on red and the other on yellow, they’ll pick an orange bag. If both land on blue, they get a blue bag. The white serves as a blank, so if the dreidels land on yellow and white, for example, the child picks a yellow bag.
• Once the child chooses a bag, they open it to reveal some surprise that is fun to unveil and even funner to receive.
Dairy Donut Edition
LOTUS FILLING
7 oz Bakers Choice
Lotus Cream
6 oz whipped cream cheese
Mix the lotus cream and whipped cream cheese until smooth. Fill the donuts with the filling. To garnish spread a layer of lotus cream, sprinkle with Bakers Choice Lotus Crunchies and use extra filling to pipe lines on top.
Use store brought empty donuts, make your favorite recipe, or use the sourdough donut recipe on the side panel.
OREO FILLING
7 oz Bakers Choice
Vanilla Custard
6 oz whipped cream cheese
� cup Bakers Choice
Chocolate Crunchies
Mix the vanilla custard and whipped cream cheese until smooth. Reserve ¼ cup of the filling for garnish. Stir the chocolate crunchies into the filling and fill the donuts. Garnish the donut with a layer of the reserved filling and sprinkle with chocolate crunchies.
NOUGAT FILLING
¾ cup Bakers Choice
White Chocolate Cream
¾ cup Bakers Choice
Dairy Nougat Cream
Mix the white chocolate cream and nougat cream together until smooth. Reserve about ½ cup for garnish and fill the donut with the rest. Spread a layer of the reserved filling on top, roll the donut in Bakers Choice Hazelnut Brittle, and drizzle with white chocolate cream.
JELLY FILLING
9 oz Bakers Choice
Donut Jelly
7 oz whipped cream cheese
Mix the donut jelly and whipped cream cheese until smooth. Reserve about ⅓ cup filling for garnish and fill donuts with the rest. For garnish, spread a layer of filling, sprinkle Bakers Choice
Vanilla Cookie Crumbs on top, and drizzle extra donut jelly and Bakers Choice
White Chocolate Cream.
Sourdough Donuts
STARTER:
50g active sourdough starter
DOUGH:
253g all-purpose flour
253g high-gluten flour
163g eggs (about 3 large eggs)
101g unsalted butter, room temp.
DIRECTIONS:
100g all-purpose flour
100g water
85g sugar
8g salt
203g sourdough starter (from above)
Oil (for deep frying)
9 AM In a bowl, combine starter ingredients and mix well. Cover the bowl loosely and allow to rest in a warm place (around 75-78°F) for 4-6 hours, until it has more than doubled in size. Remove butter from fridge, cut it into cubes, and set aside.
2 PM In a stand mixer, mix together all dough ingredients except butter. Cover the bowl and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. After the rest, add the softened butter and mix until fully incorporated and smooth.
Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with a towel, and let it sit in a warm place to rise. Perform 6 sets of stretch and folds at 30-minute intervals: stretch the dough on one side and fold it over to the opposite side, rotating the dough and repeating on all sides. After the last set, let the dough rest for an additional 2 hours.
8 PM Place the bowl in a sealed bag and refrigerate for 12-16 hours.
9 AM (NEXT DAY) Divide the dough into 18 equal portions, about 65g. Shape each portion into a tight round. Fold the edges to the center and pinch them together to seal the dough. Roll the dough between your hands or on the counter to form a smooth and tight round.
Place each donut on a separate piece of parchment paper. Liberally dust flour on two baking sheets and arrange 9 donuts per sheet. Cover the baking sheets with a plastic garbage bag or plastic wrap and let the donuts proof in a warm place for about 6 hours or until they have doubled in size. If you're frying them the next day, you can proof the donuts for 3 hours, then refrigerate overnight and continue proofing the following day.
4 PM Heat oil in a deep fryer or large pot to 360-370°F. Carefully invert the parchment paper with the donuts into the hot oil, frying the top side first for 30 seconds. Flip the donuts and fry for 2.5 minutes, then flip again and fry for another 2 minutes, ensuring even golden-brown color. Transfer the donuts to a wire rack to drain excess oil.
WISHING YOU
Chana Levin
Share theJoy . . Serve theCak e
Chanukah 2024
Week 3 of 4
Revisiting the timeless recipes of our beloved food columnist, Leah Stern, a”h
DOUGHNUTS + FILLINGS
When it comes to doughnuts, the choices are endless. And while every local food establishment boasts its specialty, nothing beats a homemade one.
The authentic experience of frying them on your stovetop is an exclusive Chanukah opportunity. Treat your family to this hands-on experience, and while you’re at it, whip up one of the featured fillings for a super treat.
THE ULTIMATE DOUGHNUT
Yields 32 doughnuts
I used to search for a new doughnut recipe each Chanukah, until I tried this one. This dough has a perfect consistency and doesn’t form air pockets, which most doughnuts have, and the results are delicious, time and again.
I like to put some wine into any doughnut recipe, as it helps them retain freshness. You may use water only if you have no wine at hand.
INGREDIENTS
7 cups Wondermills flour
3 T. dry yeast
2¼ cups warm water
½ cup white wine
½ cup sugar
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ cup oil
2 T. vanilla sugar Oil for frying
DIRECTIONS
1. Knead all ingredients into a smooth dough. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
2. Divide dough in four.
3. Divide each quarter in four.
4. Cut each piece in two. You should now have 32 uniform pieces of dough.
5. Roll each piece into a smooth ball.
6. Place on a lightly floured parchment paper, cover with dish towel, and allow to rise for an additional half-hour.
7. Fry in hot oil, covered, for 2 minutes. Turn over and cook until done.
Caution: Never leave flame unattended.
FRYING TIPS:
1. Place one 9x13” pan into another for a sturdy makeshift pot. Fill halfway with oil, and allow to heat before frying.
2. Place a peeled carrot into the pan to prevent smoking and to keep oil clean.
FILLING TIPS:
Doughnuts can be filled with a syringe or a pastry bag fitted with a small, round tip. In a pinch, even a sturdy Ziploc bag with a mediumsize hole will do the job.
Around the Kitchen Table, by Leah Stern, a”h, is available at your local Judaica store.
PEANUT BLISS FILLING
INGREDIENTS
1 container (16 oz.) whip
6 T. instant vanilla pudding
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
DIRECTIONS
Beat whip until stiff. Add pudding and peanut butter, and beat until well combined.
DAIRY CUSTARD
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup Wondermills flour
½ cup sugar
2 T. vanilla sugar
1½ cups whole milk
2 T. butter
4 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine flour and sugars. Pour in milk slowly, and stir to obtain a smooth consistency. Add butter, and cook until mixture begins to thicken.
2. Add egg yolk and salt, mixing vigorously to prevent curdling. Cook until thick and creamy.
3. Transfer custard to a bowl. Cover with saran wrap and cool in the fridge for a halfhour.
CHOCOLATECHEESE FILLING
INGREDIENTS
8 oz. whipped cream cheese
3 oz. bar smooth milk chocolate (either color)
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
2 T. vanilla sugar
2 T. whole milk
DIRECTIONS
1. Bring cream cheese to room temperature
2. Melt chocolate bar, and mix into cream cheese together with remaining ingredients.
Chanukah with
Text and Styling by
Clix Dreidel
The Clix Dreidel is the perfect activity and treat rolled into one! Using delicious Clix cookies and colorful melted chocolate, you can create an eyecatching dreidel-shaped dessert display that’s as fun to make as it is to eat.
You will need Clix Cookies (any flavors)
2 Lieber’s Colored Chocolate (any colors) Large tray
Directions
1 Melt the colored chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals.
2 Dip the tops of the cookies in chocolate (37 of one color and 9 of the other).
3 Arrange cookies in a dreidel shape pattern.
Marshmallow Paint
Turn cookie decorating into a fun and interactive activity with marshmallow paint! This creative twist uses melted marshmallows as a paint-like medium, allowing you to transform sugar cookies into edible works of art.
You will need
∙ 1 bag Lieber’s Large Marshmallows
∙ ½ cup water
∙ 6 Tbsp Corn Syrup
∙ Food Color Gel
Tip: You can make the paint 1-2 days in advance. Microwave for 5 seconds at a time if it needs to be softened.
Directions
1 1.Place a full bag of marshmallows in a microwave safe dish and microwave marshmallows for one minute.
2 2.Mix marshmallows, add water and microwave an additional 30 seconds.
3 3.Mix again and place in microwave an additional 30 seconds.
4 4.Use a hand blender to make the mixture smooth.
5 5.Add the corn syrup and mix again.
6 6.Divide the paint into small containers and add the food coloring.
You will need
∙ Carmit Chocolate Bar
∙ Skewer
∙ Confectioner’s sugar
∙ Sprinkles (optional)
Tip: You can trace cookies cutters and use rulers to help make straight lines.
Chalkboard Chocolate Etching
Directions
1 1.Use the skewer to etch a design or words into the chocolate.
2 2. Rub a little bit confectioner’s sugar across the chocolate so that it fills the grooves.
Take your chocolate to the next level with this fun and innovative chalkboard chocolate etching concept! Whether you decorate an entire chocolate bar or just part, this idea is perfect for adding a personal and artistic touch. You can also use it to create unique seating cards for a party or event. Fun, versatile, and completely edible, this project is as enjoyable to make as it is to share. Get ready to impress with this sweet and creative idea!
3 3. Use a paper towel to clean off the extra confectioners’ sugar.
4 4. Dip the sides of the chocolate into melted chocolate and then into sprinkles (optional)
For the seating cards, cut the bar into three parts. To make them stand, use some melted chocolate to attach a chocolate square to the back of the chocolate.
PENCIL DRAWER
MOTTY ILOWITZ ON THE RHYME AND RHYTHM OF THE YIDDISHE EXPERIENCE
If music pulls at the heartstring, lyrics tug at the soul.
Motty Ilowitz may be known for his masterful grasp of composition and songwriting, but the true secret of his skills lies in the beauty he finds in the tiniest encounters.
From the piety of a simple tailor to the sacrifice of a young widow, Motty’s lyrical songs have gifted the world with glimpses of greatness in the smallest, biggest people: the simple Yid.
Putting Pashut on the Playlist
If someone were to study the selection of songs featured on Motty Ilowitz’s albums, they’d find a pattern in the stories featured.
“These stories were all chosen because everyday people can relate to them,” Motty says. “This is intentional. I want every individual out there to know that there’s greatness right here, among us regular people. Every person has value, has potential.”
Take Zundel. Take Berel. Take Yakel. Or pretend today is your last day, and see what you could make of it.
“The song ‘Letzte Tug’ is a great example of this,” Motty adds. “I didn’t say that if it’s your last day, you’ll sit in the beis midrash and learn from morning until night. The song mentions not speaking lashon hora, being generous with compliments, generous with chizuk, thanking your parents, being kind to your spouse, warm to your children — all those little things that make regular people into good people.”
And this is how Motty’s albums unlock the hearts of his fellow Yidden and make them aspire for greatness.
Foibles of Humanity
Motty’s albums are full of stories, legends and themes related to frum life. When it comes to themes that lean toward the abstract, the big question is: Where do these ideas come from? How does an artist grab hold of those gossamer threads that make up the human experience, and craft them into words with such skill, it’s like the lyrics are talking directly to every Yossi, Yanky and Yehudis out there?
“Songs on abstract concepts are the most difficult to piece together,” Motty agrees. “Other than siyata d’Shmaya, there’s no explaining where ideas come from. I open my eyes, see how people operate, and then I make connections. Somehow, I see the little things differently.”
These observations resulted in the string of Yiddishe taavos listed in the song that goes by the same name, in the pithy misconceptions that appear in the song “Gemeint,” and in the choices made in “Letzte Tug.”
Does his family or partners in the music industry help him spot these idiosyncrasies, habits or choice of priorities in the people around them?
“No,” says Motty. “These are all my own ideas. I have scores of half-developed concepts sitting around, some raw, some half-planned; that’s how I operate. In fact, ‘Yiddishe Taavos’ took years to produce for this reason. The ideas all had to come together, and then I had to pick and choose which ones to use.”
Some taavos were tossed aside simply because they didn’t manage to fit the rhythm or rhyme, and others were nixed for other reasons.
“No one wants to admit that there might be this taavah of hearing that a welloff rosh hakahal lost his money, or that there’s this urge to drive your car into the puddle at the corner so the water soaks whatever (and whoever!) might be standing there. So many ideas were dropped along the way. Even at the last minute, while recording the song, I was still making changes.”
Whether they’re taavos, hasuges or machshuves, once these ideas are robust enough to stand on their own, that’s when Motty can start breaking them down into words in a way that everyone is going to understand the idea and connect with it.
“My goal is using these skills to inspire people, being mechazek people. For me, it’s a calling.” He pauses. “It’s a chov, really.”
ON POETRY
When rhyme and rhythm alone take the cake
Sometimes inspiration strikes in a different way — namely, as poetry.
Every year, before Rosh Hashanah, Motty posts a four- or five-minute message, all delivered in rhyme. It usually discusses the events of the previous year along with observations — a commentary of sorts — and the point is to amuse his listeners and to get people to notice the little things.
“I can take my ideas into the studio and create a professional track,” says Motty, “but I don’t. Because my point is simply to create mind-awakening poetry. This is not about producing professional music.”
In the summer, Motty shared a poem he wrote about his memories of how the world was when he was growing up.
“The poem went viral,” Motty shares. “I totally didn’t expect that to happen. But it was genuine, and people connected to it in a profound way.”
In the poem, the colors and textures of those sweet years come to life. From red towers built with Coca-Cola crates to teeth-pulling Choo-Choo candies, and from the necessity of camp calling cards to the brow-raising use of Bluetooth, those little nuggets of memory were enjoyed with much amusement by those who grew up in the 80s and 90s.
“Some people,” Motty comments, “after hearing a poem, ask me what the tune is. But poems have no tune; they’re complete as they are. They were never meant to be songs.”
Before this year’s election drama, Motty released another poem that took the world by storm. In this candid video, America’s hot issues like the border wall, the economy, the climate and tariffs are all brought to the fore in rhyme so good, politics has never been this much fun to listen to.
The punchline, however, makes any ehrliche Yid sit up straight. Because at the very end, Motty shares that this poem was in fact written eight years ago, and that elections is a wheel that turns… with the same heat and drama being regurgitated each election cycle anew. That leaves us with some food for thought.
A Storied People
Motty’s albums contain many stories told in song. Where do these stories come from? How were they developed? And are they all true?
“Other than stories that are obviously legends, every single story is true. In fact, when I was working on the stories in Hasuges, I verified all details by speaking with the individuals involved,” Motty says. “I’d put out a message saying that I was seeking true stories of greatness, and I was inundated with responses.”
In the same album, there’s a Zundel who doesn’t interrupt his davening, even though he was forfeiting a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity, and a Yakel, who was informed of a huge monetary loss and continued teaching his cheder class as usual. Is this theme of bitachon as it relates to money an especially meaningful one?
“I never made the connection,” remarks Motty. “To me, they’re two different themes. First there’s Zundel, who is full of temimus — davening is davening. Then there’s Yakel, who understands that he’s been confronted by a nisayon and gathers the strength to overcome it.”
However the stories are interpreted, their intent is the same: to inspire people to be the very best versions of themselves.
A Place for the Poignant
On any given album, listeners will find a balance of both slow and quick tempos. And even on an album like Hasuges, which contains stories told in song rather than traditional hora or kumzitz-style numbers, one will find more upbeat tracks and slower tracks. But what is the purpose of truly heartbreaking tales? What is their tafkid ?
“Some songs may tell sad stories,” says Motty, “but the songs themselves aren’t sad. Take the song ‘Mochel,’ for instance. If you listen to it, you’ll find that the track isn’t depressing — davka because the point was inspiring people to see what wonderful Yidden there out there. Look at the kochos of our people!”
The other tafkid of these songs is obvious when reflecting on the feedback they generate.
“Many people in certain situations find these songs so meaningful,” Motty says. “The songs help them make peace with their reality.”
In one example, an older girl who is wheelchair-bound called Motty to tell him about an incident that occurred to her the night Hasuges debuted.
“That night, at a family simcha, she underwent horrific tormenting — at the hands of girls, also guests at the simcha, who should have known better. They teased her, threw things at her, grabbed hold of her wheelchair and spun her around and around — and the girl had no way of stopping them. She yelled for help, but the music was louder than her cries.
“She went home that night,” Motty continues, “went straight into bed, and cried bitter tears.”
Hasuges debuted that night, and the girl’s mother brought the album into her daughter’s room so she could hear it. Eventually, she reached the song “Mochel.”
Motty continues the story. “After hearing that song, she thought, ‘If that father could be mochel the driver who killed his child, then I can be mochel those girls.’ She opened a Tehillim, told Hashem that she forgave them, and, in her words, ‘I felt like a new person.’”
So, yes, when it comes to feedback like this story, we know that the potential inspiration overweighs the question of including tragic stories on an album.
The song “Durechgang” also generated a rush of feedback. Many people in unfortunate situations were so grateful for the lines of genuine empathy that finally gave them permission to cry.
“‘Ich gei dir nisht zugen az di zulst nisht zein tzibruchen…’” Motty intones. “So many people connected to this song.”
FARSHTEIN
I didn’t know why I was there. Until I understood.
Motty was once in Eretz Yisroel to sing at an event, and after hearing about a choleh who loves his music, he adjusted his schedule to accommodate a visit to the hospital.
“In the hallway, outside of the patient’s room,” Motty says, “I met the yungerman’s father. While we were waiting for a doctor to leave his son’s room, he asked me if I’d mind listening to a song that his son drew a lot of chizuk from. He wanted me to sing this song for his son.”
Of course, Motty agreed.
“I don’t even know where the song comes from,” the patient’s father said, pulling out his phone. He played a clip of a man being wheeled into brain surgery, all the while singing the lyrics of “Durechgang.” “Even so, I listen to this song every day, and my son does too. I don’t even have the original version.”
“I know the song very well,” Motty replied, awed. “In fact, I’m the one who wrote it.”
The man couldn’t believe his ears. He and his son listened to this song every single day, without knowing its source, and here was its original composer!
“Go into my son’s room,” he told Motty, “and please, sing him this song.”
Motty complied, of course, and after singing for this patient, he left the hospital. That’s when his day took an even stranger twist.
“I’ve never shared this story,” Motty admits. “I was afraid people wouldn’t believe me. But this is what happened.”
Upon leaving the hospital, Motty took a wrong turn, and soon he found himself completely lost. The day was unbearably hot, and Motty walked around, unable to get his bearings.
“Suddenly, a car pulled to a short stop next to me,” Motty says, “and a yungerman jumped out from the driver’s seat. He looked extremely agitated and said, ‘Are you Motty Ilowitz? From America?’
“‘Yes,’ I told him. ‘What’s going on?’”
The yungerman pulled Motty to the side and said that he wouldn’t believe
what just happened. He was a mashgiach in a local yeshiva, and in his car was a bochur who was struggling with Yiddishkeit.
“I try to be him mechazek,” the mashgiach told Motty, “and I take him out often. Just now, this bochur tells me that he wants a siman that there’s a Bashefer. ‘Oh, yes?’ I asked him. ‘What would the siman be?’
“‘I want Motty Ilowitz to show up here,’ the bochur told me.
“Obviously,” the mashgiach added, “he takes tremendous chizuk from your songs. And then, a moment later, we noticed you walking by!”
Motty glanced into the yungerman’s car and saw a bochur in the front passenger seat. He was bawling his heart out.
“It’s all min haShamayim,” Motty told the yungerman. “It took a schedule change and a couple of wrong turns, but here I am.”
Motty took the bochur’s number, and they still keep in touch.
That encounter was a turning point in the young boy’s life. On that sweltering afternoon, this bochur learned that there’s a Bashefer Who loves him so much that He bothered pulling strings to make the right person appear at the right place at the right time — especially for him.
through Chanukah
Art in an Album
When it comes down to it, how does pen come to paper? Do the words flow from start to finish? Or does the middle ripen first, and only then does the song come together?
“There’s no formula,” Motty says. “Songs that tell a story generally get written in the order, even though it takes a lot of time to find the starting point and build it up from there. But songs that are based on ideas can go either way. ‘Brive’le’, for instance, which I wrote for Motty Steinmetz, had its chorus before the first line was written.”
All of Motty’s songs are his own compositions. While both, individually, are bound to touch the heart, which comes first, the lyrics or the melody?
“It all happens at the same time,” Motty says. “I start writing with a little melody in my head, and once the lyrics are fleshed out and perfected, the melody will also be tweaked so they can work together.”
This is the point where the mood of a song gets established. When the idea behind the song “Letzte Tug” was conceived, for instance, Motty immediately knew that he wanted this to be a quick song, not a mournful dirge.
“When I thought about the maamar Chazal, I knew that I wanted the song to be positive and encouraging. The idea is that if someone dies tomorrow, they’ll be glad to have chosen to be the best person they could possibly be. The point isn’t to be depressed because there’s a chance they might die tomorrow. That’s why the tempo is fast and geshmak.”
Rhymes, too, get developed without a strict formula.
“I don’t intentionally choose one rhyme scheme over the other,” says Motty. “I look at the concept, start to build the lyrics, and it takes off from there.”
Sometimes the inspiration results in a back-and-forth ABAB rhyme scheme, or the easy-to-follow AABB, and other times, the song will come together in snappy stanzas, rich with internal rhyme and the AABCCB rhyme scheme that bounces back onto itself.
With all the precision these songs contain, many take years to complete. The lyrics might be developed, and then put aside for a while so Motty could return to it at a later point with fresh eyes. In one case, however, a song practically wrote itself.
“Motzei Shabbos, right after the Mumbai attack — sixteen years ago this week — I sat down to write ‘Har Hamoriah’, which is about places throughout history where Yidden were killed al kiddush Hashem The final place mentioned is Mumbai, of course — especially relevant now after the recent attack in the United Arab Emirates.
“That Shabbos, sixteen years ago, the entire Yiddishe world was on tenterhooks, waiting to hear the sad ending of the attack on the Beis Chabad. Motzei Shabbos, when the news came in, I remembered the concept of the Beis Hamikdash being built on the spot where the akeidah took place, and the song was completed so quickly, it shocked even me. Usually these songs take me a very long time to write.”
Interlude: The Depth of Silence
Some songs feature brief interludes, or a pause in the singing, and instead of nearly empty space, a flute playing a lone row of notes will bring the listener to rapt attention. Same with the sound of a train chugging down the tracks — or even the surprise of sudden silence.
What role do these interludes play? What stories do they tell?
“I usually know what we need to hear,” Motty says. “Sometimes I’ll tell the arranger, I need a pause here — or the sound of a train, or an alarm clock. In the song ‘Kleine Mentchen’, for instance, I wanted the silence that follows a bomb that obliterates everything. The song was ready, and we added the sound of birds flying away, which was reminiscent of a field being left completely empty.”
Other times, a song might be delivering a concept so huge, or so heavy, that the listeners need a break so the message could sink in.
“That’s when we’ll have a guitar or other instrument playing some notes,” Motty says. “In one especially heavy song, the interlude features a guitar that seems to be crying. The effect is so powerful.”
Other times, it’s silence that does the talking. The song “Di Mama’s Oigen,’ which tells the story of a mother who gave up her own vision so her daughter could see, is so heartrending that Motty felt like all the song needed was to be built up to a startling finish — and then stop. Listeners can sense the tug of the story and follow that crashing crescendo, where both the story and song simply end.
GEMEINT
I thought I knew why I named him Yakel Samet
The story behind “Yakel Samet” is one that’s been told by Reb Meilich Biderman, shlit”a Even though it had already been told in the past, Motty chose it as one of the tales featured on the Hasuges album.
In the story, Yakel, a melamed, hears midmorning that he’s lost a significant sum of money, and then he returns to class and continues teaching as if nothing has happened. When the mehanel later asked him how this was possible, Yakel said that he was taught by his rosh yeshiva, Reb God’l Eisner, zt”l, that sometimes one is confronted by a nisayon that serves as the singular reason this person was sent down to This World.
“This song has an interesting postscript,” says Motty. “The album was released the week before selichos, and alef selichos, I received a phone call from a Gerrer yungerman living in Yerushalayim.”
This yungerman told Motty that when he heard the song, as well as the mention of Reb God’l Eisner, zt”l, he knew that “Yakel” must be a Gerrer chassid. Because Reb God’l was a rosh yeshivah in Ger, and the concept of “the one nisayon that matters” was one he taught.
The next time he met up with his fellow Gerrer yungeleit, said the caller, they discussed this — that “Reb Yakel” must be someone they knew. Finally, one person said, yes, he remembers that this story happened to an older Gerrer chassid by the name of Zeidman.
Alef selichos found this Gerrer yungerman in the overcrowded beis midrash, which was filled with chassidim who’d come to their Rebbe for the Yomim Nora’im. After selichos, he noticed an American chassid and his sons pushing their way through the row behind him, until they stopped at an elderly chassid
“We’d like a bracha from a voile Yid l’kavod di heilige teig,” said the father.
The elderly Yid bentched him and his children, and when he was done, the father of the boys said, “May I ask your name?”
“Yisroel Zeidman,” the elderly Yid replied.
When this yungerman sitting one row away heard this, he spun around.
“Were you once a melamed ?” he asked Reb Zeidman.
“Yes,” said Reb Zeidman. “Do I know you?”
“No,” said the Gerrer yungerman who later called Motty, “but I think there was just a song released about you.” He repeated the story, and Reb Zeidman confirmed that he was indeed the melamed in the story.
“When I tracked down the people to get the details for this story firsthand,” says Motty now, “I spoke to other people who verified the details for me. I didn’t even know who Yakel himself was. And now this Gerrer yungerman found him. Personally, what struck me about this encounter was that I named the melamed Yakel Samet. Samet means satin, or zeiden… And Yakel, or Yaakov? That’s essentially the name Yisroel…”
The Joy of Spreading Light
According to Motty, the greatest joy of delivering a night of music is leaving his listeners feeling uplifted by his performance. Whether it’s a fifteen-minute Mekimi visit done as a chesed, or a mitzvah tantz honoring a slew of grandparents, when he sees a face in the audience light up because he sang the right song, or chose the right word, he’ll feel the tremendous gratification of a job well done.
“It might be a baal teshuvah watching his first mitzvah tantz and who gets called up in English, or a bochur who needed that extra word of chizuk. Whatever it is, it’s that one line or word that makes the entire night worthwhile.
“Hashem gave me a gift: the ability to bring meaningful music to people,” Motty continues. “No matter the setting, no matter the audience — using my music to bring joy to people is priceless.”
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WHAT’S IS HALLEL?
Rav Avigdor Miller explains that the word hallel means more than just “praise.” It comes from the word holel, which means “wild.” Dovid Hamelech said, “Amarti laholelim al taholu” — I said to those who are jovial and wild, ‘Don’t be wild’ (Tehillim 75:5). The word holel comes from ho, “to shout.” When drunken revelers are dancing and singing they shout “Ho! Ho!” — that’s holelus
Rav Miller says, “A Yid’s job in this world is to shout — shout in happiness. But to whom should you shout? Not like those drunken revelers who shout over nothing. Our shout is not holelus, but hallelu Kah — praise of Hashem! Shout out in wild simchah to Hashem! He’s the Author of our happiness. He is the One — the only One. Therefore, shout out in happiness and gratitude to Him, and only to Him.”
When they first brought the aron of Hashem to Yerushalayim (Shmuel II 6:16), Dovid Hamelech danced in the street, jumping up and down wildly, among the common people. This image should be burned into our minds. Dovid’s love for Hashem was unmatched, and that’s why we use his words to express our feelings toward Hashem. Dovid Hamelech set ahavas Hashem aflame in our hearts forever and ever.
“Hallelukah, hallelu avdei Hashem, hallelu es shem Hashem” — You servants of Hashem, be wild over Him (Tehillim 113:1). Whom do we praise? Hashem. And who praises Him? Avdei Hashem That’s our job in this world — to thank Hashem.
Thank him for what? For everything.
Dovid Hamelech said, “Kol ha’neshamah t’hallel Kah” — every soul, praise Hashem (Tehillim 150:6). The Midrash says that the word neshamah can be read as “neshimah,” breath, rendering the pasuk, “Kol ha’neshimah t’hallel Kah” — Praise Hashem for every breath.
The purpose of life is to say Hallel with every breath we take. Hallel should be said with great enthusiasm; we are the Chosen People performing our highest mission — to praise Hashem.
YAAKOV ASTOR
THE SERVANT CANDLE
Rabbi Berel Wein tells a powerful story that took place on the final night of Chanukah in 1934, in the heart of Brno, Czechoslovakia. The city’s Jewish community was filled with anticipation. The president of the country, Thomas Masaryk, was coming to visit their shul. Masaryk, already advanced in years, had been traveling across the country, bidding farewell to the nation he had led with wisdom and compassion.
The atmosphere inside the shul was electric. The menorah stood tall in front of the aron kodesh, its golden arms illuminated with the full glory of the lit candles and the humble shamash standing off to the side.
Masaryk walked slowly, taking in the beauty of the room, his eyes lingering on the menorah. He turned to the rabbi. “Tell me,” he asked, “why is one candle separated from the others?”
The rabbi explained that the shamash is the “servant candle.” Its sole
purpose is to kindle the others.
Masaryk fell silent. The weight of the rabbi’s words seemed to press on him. Finally, he spoke, his voice heavy with emotion. “This servant candle reminds me of your people. The Jewish people have brought the world the greatest light — faith in one G-d, morality and justice. And yet, you are pushed aside, forgotten, unacknowledged for the light you’ve given to the nations. You are treated as outsiders.”
Tension filled the air. Masaryk’s words, spoken with
THE ATMOSPHERE INSIDE THE SHUL WAS ELECTRIC. THE MENORAH STOOD TALL IN FRONT OF THE ARON KODESH, ITS GOLDEN ARMS ILLUMINATED WITH THE FULL GLORY OF THE LIT CANDLES
kindness, carried a warning. He saw what was on the horizon. Hitler was already in power, and Masaryk feared for the safety of the Jewish community.
Yet his metaphor hit the mark. This is the mission of the Yidden: to be avdei Hashem, loyal servants of Hashem, to shine the light of His greatness even in the darkest of times and places. The menorah’s shamash, the servant candle, captures this beautifully. It doesn’t take center stage in the mitzvah, yet its role is essential: It kindles the other flames and ensures they burn brightly.
We are tasked with illuminating the world with the light of Torah and emunah, serving as a reminder of Hashem’s presence even when the world seems at its darkest. And in our role as the shamash, we do it not with quiet resignation, but with hallel — a joyful and unrestrained gratitude to Hashem.
THE 60/40 RULE
Rabbi Daniel Glatstein shares the following story (originally published in Powerful Moments by Rabbi Yitzchok Hisiger).
Usher had several daughters over the age of 28 and was struggling to marry them off. This preoccupation took up much of his time and weighed heavily on him. Usher also had a chavrusah whose daughter had recently become engaged. To secure an apartment for her in Yerushalayim, he needed a cosigner. Out of kindness, Usher agreed to be the guarantor.
However, when his friend couldn’t keep up with the payments, the responsibility fell on Usher, who couldn’t afford it either. Subsequently, the bank repossessed Usher’s home. Now, not only did he have unmarried daughters, but he was also homeless. A friend suggested he go see the Gerer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel, for advice.
THE CONVERSATION ENDED, AND USHER WAS LEFT FEELING CONFUSED. HE HAD BEEN DAVENING FOR HELP, BUT HAD HE EVER REALLY THANKED HASHEM FOR WHAT HE ALREADY HAD?
During their conversation, the Rebbe asked, “Usher, do you daven?”
Usher was taken aback. “Rebbe, of course I daven! Every day, I ask Hashem to help me marry off my daughters and resolve my debts.”
The Rebbe pressed further, “Yes, but do you daven?”
Usher, feeling puzzled, replied, “Yes — I daven every day.”
The Rebbe then clarified: “Davening isn’t just asking Hashem for what you need. Davening is also thanking Hashem for what you have. Do you thank Hashem for all the blessings He has given you?”
The conversation ended, and Usher was left feeling confused. He had been davening for help, but had he ever really thanked Hashem for what he already had? Thinking further, he asked himself with a sense of despondency: I’ve lost my house, I have unmarried daughters; what do I have already?
He shared this encounter with a friend, who pointed out, “You have clothing, health, a beating heart, functioning lungs. You can see, hear, talk and think. Every day, trillions of processes in your body work perfectly. There are many people who can’t say that.”
Usher realized there were countless blessings in his life that he had taken for granted. He made a list of the things he was grateful for and began to see how much he truly had.
Rabbi Glatstein explains that the Rebbe had shared a secret with Usher: the key to davening is a balance of hakaras hatov and bakasha, gratitude and requests.
How much? Usher noticed something hinted
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at in Hallel, which we recite every day of Chanukah. We ask Hashem to save us and give us success — “Ana Hashem hoshia na,” and “Ana Hashem hatzlicha na” — four times. But we thank Hashem with the words “Hodu LaShem ki tov” six times. Out of ten pesukim, six express gratitude, while four are requests — a 60/40 ratio.
This 60/40 balance reminds us that while it’s important to ask Hashem for what we need, the foundation of our tefillos — and our lives — must always be gratitude for the countless blessings we already have.
A LIGHT IN THE DUNGEON
Chanukah is our expression of gratitude for how Hashem saved the Yidden and how He stands with us today even in the darkest of times, showing us that His light is eternal.
Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin shares a powerful story about experiencing Chanukah in prison. He begins by explaining that, during his time in prison, he faced many challenges, one of which was not being allowed bail because he was deemed a “dual citizen” solely due to his Jewish identity.
As Chanukah approached, he desperately wanted to perform the mitzvah of lighting the menorah. He reached out to the Aleph Institute, hoping they could secure permission for him to light an oil menorah. Incredibly, they succeeded, but there was one condition: He had to light it in a fireproof room, which was deep within the old wing of the prison. It was a dark, dungeon-like room, with cold stone walls and minimal furniture — a place far removed from the warmth of a home.
out asking for further permission, led Rabbi Rubashkin to a smaller, private room. Rabbi Rubashkin couldn’t believe it. “It was like a miracle straight from Hashem,” he recalls.
Once inside the new room, he felt closer to achieving a true Chanukah experience. But there was still one more challenge. The prison had given him only 30 minutes to light the menorah, yet according to his custom, he wanted the candles to burn for at least 50 minutes. Nervously, he asked the guard, “Could I please have a little more time? At home, I let it burn as long as possible, sometimes even two and a half hours.”
The guard was clearly puzzled by this additional request, but after a pause, he said, “All right. You can light it here just as you would at home.”
THE GUARD WAS CLEARLY PUZZLED BY THIS ADDITIONAL REQUEST, BUT AFTER A PAUSE, HE SAID, “ALL RIGHT. YOU CAN LIGHT IT HERE JUST AS YOU WOULD AT HOME”
The officers escorted a handcuffed Rabbi Rubashkin to this room, though with permission to remove his cuffs just for the mitzvah. He felt a surge of joy. “A mitzvah is a connection with Hashem,” he thought.
As he prepared to light the menorah, he noticed an Lshaped partition in the corner, behind which was a lone, grimy toilet. This troubled him deeply. “How can I make a bracha here?” he wondered, horrified at the thought of saying Hashem’s name in such a place. Summoning his courage, he turned to the guard. “I can’t light here,” he said firmly.
“Why not?” the guard asked, taken aback.
Rabbi Rubashkin explained: “I’m speaking to G-d. I’m blessing Him by name. It isn’t right to do that next to a toilet.”
To his surprise, the guard understood. After a moment of consideration, the guard signaled to his colleague, and with-
Rabbi Rubashkin related that he felt Hashem’s presence so powerfully in that moment. For each of the eight days of Chanukah, he was allowed to light his menorah and sit alone in that little room, watching the flames flicker and feeling, even in the cold and isolation of prison, the warmth and light of freedom and connection to Hashem.
Fittingly, his Chanukah miracle came full circle. Hashem granted him the ultimate gift: freedom. And it happened on Zos Chanukah 5778, the final day of Chanukah that year.
In those days, in this time. Just like during the time of the Yevanim, miracles can happen even in the darkest of times and places.
PINK
CANDLES
Rabbi Fischel Schachter tells a powerful Chanukah story, which further illustrates this idea.
One cold night in Vienna, a dedicated teacher returned home after a long day, ready to light the Chanukah candles. As he prepared to set them up, his three-year-old daughter burst into tears. She had wanted pink candles, but her father had only brought blue ones. Despite the cold outdoors, and his wife urging him to stay in, he insisted on going back out to find some pink candles, because, as he said, “Chanukah comes only once a year.”
After much effort, he found the shamash of the shul, and even though the shamash initially refused, the father finally convinced him to get him some pink candles. He returned home, and his daughter was delighted.
Years later, during the Holocaust, this man’s life took a tragic turn. His wife was killed, and he was left running with his daughter from place to place, trying to stay alive. They ended up at a farmhouse, where the farmer, who recognized the man from his time as a teacher, agreed to shelter the little
this Chanukah Gifting Made Easy
THE MENORAH’S FLAMES TELL THAT STORY, AND HALLEL GIVES US THE WORDS TO EXPRESS IT
girl, whose blonde hair and blue eyes allowed her to pass as an Aryan. However, he warned the father to leave immediately, as the Germans would kill him if they caught him harboring a Jew.
The father didn’t want to leave his daughter, but the farmer insisted, eventually forcing them apart. The separation was agonizing, and the father fled.
Miraculously, he survived the war. After many years, he returned to the farmhouse, desperately searching for his daughter. When he knocked on the door, a teenage girl with long braids answered. She didn’t look Jewish, and when he told her, “I’m your father,” she ran inside, frightened, and told her mother there was a crazy man outside. The mother, realizing what was happening, called for her husband, who came out with a shotgun, threatening the father.
As he stared at the barrel of the gun, the father knew he had only one chance to save his daughter. In desperation, he shouted, “The pink candles! Do you remember the pink candles?”
The girl froze. Memories flooded back. She ran toward him, crying, “Father, father!”
The farmer and his wife knew then that they couldn’t keep her. All those years later, the pink Chanukah candles spawned another Chanukah miracle.
ILLUMINATING THE DARKNESS
The menorah’s flames proclaim Hashem’s miracles in a world that often tries to extinguish them. They teach that the victory of the Chashmonaim wasn’t just military; it was spiritual. Against all odds, the Yidden rekindled the flame of Torah and mitzvos, a flame that continues to burn in every Jewish home.
Chanukah isn’t just a celebration of an ancient miracle; it’s an annual reminder of how Hashem stands with us in the darkest times. The menorah’s flames tell that story, and Hallel gives us the words to express it.
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As we light the menorah, we’re not just making a statement about the past, but also about the present and the future. Each flicker of the flame declares that Hashem is with us in every generation, and every word of Hallel reminds us to thank Him for the miracles we’ve seen, as well as the ones yet to come. Hallelu Kah!
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Can you write a good limerick?
It’s a poem with a bit of a trick
Read the ones we gave
And vote for your fave
Can’t wait to see the poem you will pick! ILLUSTRATIONS
THE BORO PARK VIEW’S VOTE-TO-WIN POETRY CONTEST
Frum life is full of meaning… and very unique. In honor of Chanukah, we present eight limericks that celebrate the fun, funny and unique things we do (usually for no good reason).
WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE? LET US KNOW!
Email your response to comments@thebpview.com, or fax it to 718-408-8771, by Tuesday, December 31, 2024, for a chance to
Name:
Phone:
Title of my favorite poem:
Read, vote and enter to win!
EISHES CHAYIL
Hadassah Steinman
Wig sporting neither stripe nor curl A once-upon flighty young girl
Many balls midair Clown skills disappear
Worth exceeds a mountain of pearl
PRACTICAL ADVICE
Sarah Moeses
They say, “Sleep while the baby is sleeping”
Like it’s the simplest rule to be keeping
Also mop when he mops
And shop when he shops
And you’ll weep while the baby is weeping
IN THE MOMENT
Sandy Eller
Peeling, frying, grating, chopping
Kids all home, the house is hopping
Relax and pause
Enjoy — because
Soon we’ll all be Pesach shopping!
PUT TOGETHER
You matched up the sock to the shoe
The hair bow and yarmulke too They wore it – you blinked You washed it – it shrinked
And now there’s more shopping to do
If they deny there are piles — not true
LAUNDRY LIES
Mindy Perl
They’re in the same situation as you It may be folded just fine
For a moment in time
Before the piles start sprouting anew
Simcha Kahn
IN SEASON
The wind blows and the snow is heaped high
But spring shopping season is nigh
Just why is it the norm
That we’re bundled up warm
To buy rompers for far-off July?
FOOD FIGHT
Esther King
All morning you bake cakes and sweets
Afternoon it’s chicken and meat
You fill pantry and fridge
But it helps not a smidge
The kids claim there’s nothing to eat
THE SHTREIMEL
Shevy Hollander
To my wedding how I counted down
To at last don that regal fur crown
But my pride grew smaller
As shtreimlach grew taller
And mine is now the flattest in town
Mindy Perl
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Our Pride And Glory!
The Torah states:
Holy You Should Be!
By wearing immodest clothing, we distance the Shechina (Divine Presence) from us.
As the Torah states:
Immodesty should not be seen amongst you!
Or Hashem will withdraw his presence from you!
When the Shechina departs, we are stripped of our protection ו''ח Maybethisiswhysomanyunbearablecrushingtragedies,illness,tzoros, poverty have befallen us.
In the words of the Holy Chofetz Chaim Tzl in a famous letter:
“A huge fire has broken out in many places through the despicable styles which the power of impurity has unleashed”…
THIS IS WHY BLESSINGS HAVE LEFT US…
To a large degree, these loathsome styles contradict the statement of the Torah:
“Your camp should be holy and there should not be found therein erveh”
Tight fitting, short, (Including Maternity Wear) flashy clothing, low cut necklines, long extravagant looking sheitels made to look as if not married, gaudy cosmetics etc. are contrary to our values and moral code, besides being the cause of other people’s sins.
Dear Sisters!
Let us wear refined clothes that are appropriate for the Jewish Princess. Let’s not lose our sense of proportion and get excited by immoral low life fashion designers!
This will cause the Shechina to reside in our midst.
This will bring many blessings upon ourselves, and ultimately bring the Geulah Sheleima א''בב
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PARVE: Creme Brule
Strawberry Shortcake
Ferrero Rocher
Cinnamon Bun
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Caramel Salted Pretzel
White Chocolate Mocha
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unique Chanukah Donut flavors.
Bringing together old and new, this fritlach board brings the warmth of tradition and presents it in a fresh, fun and interactive way. A party on a board!
The heirloom fritlach recipe below is all about tradition and technique. For perfect, crispy results, roll the dough quite thin (but not paper thin), and make sure the oil is sizzling hot throughout, but not yet smoking.
Special thanks to Mrs. Greenfeld for sharing this original, traditional recipe.
MIRIAM PESSY WERCBERGER AND CHANA N. GLUCK
As she shares the special techniques used when preparing fritlach with us, Mrs. (Babby) Greenfeld remembers the culinary efforts of women in the previous generation.
“A brownie cake was a project that took half a day! My mother would prepare a certain cake for Shabbos when afternoons were long, and her hand would tremble as she served it.”
Babby’s fritlach are drenched in personal mesorah as well. “I know that most people serve it on Chanukah, but I make it for the first night of Sukkos, because that’s what my mother did. And I only make them then, because foods that are not served often have chashivus.”
Fritlach today bring a wistful reminiscence of that long ago time where there were no readymade doughs in the freezer section of the supermarket, and no one had heard of “hacks.”
There was just the simple wholesome goodness of a Yiddishe mamme lovingly and painstakingly rolling, cutting and frying her fritlach just so, like her mother did, l’kavod Chanukah.
THE HEIRLOOM RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
3 cups Wondermills flour
2 eggs plus 1 egg white
2 T. oil
3 T. sugar
1 T. vinegar
¼ cup white wine or white cooking wine
½ cup seltzer
DIRECTIONS
1. Place all the ingredients into the bowl of a mixer, and knead to form a smooth dough.
2. Cover, and allow the dough to rest for a half hour.
3. Divide the dough into three evenly sized balls.
4. On a well-floured surface, roll one-third of the dough into a large rectangle of approximately ⅛” thickness.
5. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut into small rectangles measuring approximately 1½ x 2½ inches.
6. Cut a diagonal slit into the center of each rectangle.
7. Take one corner, twist it into the slit, and gently pull it out to form a shape resembling a bow.
8. Heat a few inches of oil in a frying pan set over medium heat until very hot, but not smoking.
9. Place a few fritlach into the hot oil and fry in batches, taking care to maintain the oil temperature at a constant, but not frenzied, sizzle.
10. Fry until fully and deeply golden on each side. Remove and place on a cooling rack to drain. Before serving, dust with confectioners’ sugar by letting the sugar fall through a sifter held over the fritlach.
In addition to doughnuts and latkes, fritlach are another delicious way to commemorate the neis of Chanukah. Unlike fritters, their universally known counterpart, which are any small, fried food and often include a main ingredient surrounded by batter, fritlach are simple goodness: strips of deepfried batter dusted in powdered sugar.
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On a well-floured surface, roll the dough into approximately ⅛” thickness. Carefully cut shapes with a dreidel mold. Cut a diagonal slit in the center to prevent the dreidlach from puffing up while frying.
FRITLACH WRAPS
The easiest, crunchiest addition to your fritlach board. Try them and you’ll be hooked.
Cut up wraps into desired shapes, and deep fry for a few seconds on each side until golden. Drain.
DIPS ‘N SAUCES
This board is all about the dips and sauces. Here we’ve got five times the fun and five times the flavor with enough variety for all.
DOUGHNUT JELLY
Put juice of one lemon into a container of Baker’s Choice Doughnut Jam, and blend with a hand blender until smooth.
CHEESECAKE DIP
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 T. milk
Mix cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until combined. Add vanilla and milk and mix until smooth.
DULCHE DE LECHE
Mix Baker’s Choice Dulce de Leche Caramel Cream with a bit of milk until a smooth, dippable consistency is reached.
LIQUID MARBLE
This is as easy as opening a can of ready, melted, luxurious Baker’s Choice Liquid Marble.
RAZZLE MIX
And then, to hit a home run, dip it all into Baker’s Choice Razzle Mix.
HEAT CONTROL
When frying, the temperature of the oil is key. Oil that is too hot will cause food to smoke and burn while the inside remains raw. Oil that is not hot enough will penetrate the food and make it soggy. Preheat your oil over medium heat for a few minutes, and maintain a strong and steady sizzle throughout.
Small and sweet as they are, fritlach are mesorah pastries that have been privileged to grace rebbishe tischen. Fritlach carry nostalgia into modern times by conjuring up di bubbe’s kitchen, and the loving toil inherent in each dish of that time.
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CHAPTER 3 OF 6
We
use the first session to establish Moshe’s baseline. Moshe is surprised at how challenging working out can be.
On the way to Moshe’s place for his second session, I couldn’t shake the memory of our session the previous week. I knew Moshe wasn’t fully sold on this whole exercise thing, and today felt like a crucial point.
Moshe opened the door, and for a second, I thought he might be in a better mood than usual. But as he led me in, I could see that his usual impatience was still there.
“I don’t know what you did to me last week, but for about three days, my legs were killing me.” He rubbed the back of his legs. “Every time I had to go up the stairs, I felt like I was learning how to walk again.”
“That’s totally normal,” I said, setting up a twelve-inch step box on the floor. “How do you feel about that?”
Moshe shrugged. “On one hand, it was so annoying. You know... I don’t want to be limping around like an old man,” he said, exaggerating a limp. “On the other hand, it was... I don’t know, I felt like I accomplished something.”
Before I could respond, Moshe pointed at the twelve-inch box with his foot, almost kicking it. “What is this? Some kind of booster seat for spices? My wife has something like this in the kitchen.”
“This?” I said, laughing lightly. “We’re going to use it for step-ups. Let me show you. You’re going to step up on the box and then step down. Simple.”
“You just want me to step up and down?” Moshe asked, looking at me like I was wasting his time.
“Exactly. Let’s get going.”
Moshe rolled his eyes but got going. He put his right foot on the box, stepped up, then stepped back down with a sigh. “Do I need to switch legs or what?”
“For this warm-up, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “The
goal is to get your blood flowing and prep you for what’s next.”
“I was thinking,” Moshe said, after about 30 seconds of stepping, “if I do this more often, I assume my body will just get used to it, right? No more limping around like an old man?”
“Good question,” I said. “We’ll discuss it in ten seconds. Let’s finish this set first.”
Moshe smirked but nodded, finishing his last couple of step-ups. His breathing was slightly heavier, but he tried not to let me see that.
“All right,” I said, “next up is a toe touch. Bend forward as far as you can, reach for your toes, and come back up. But don’t rush it; control the movement.” I demonstrated the exercise.
Moshe bent forward, his shoulders shrugging toward his ear like he was bracing for a swim. His back curved awkwardly.
“Hold on,” I said, walking over. “When you bend, let your arms slide down your legs, and keep your shoulders pulled down towards your hips. Otherwise, your back will do all the work.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Moshe muttered, adjusting. He tried again, his back looking a bit better, though his shoulders still wanted to creep up. I let it go — for now.
“So, to answer your question,” I said as he straightened up, “you’re right. Exercising regularly will reduce soreness. Would you consider doing more on your own?”
“WHAT IS THIS? SOME KIND OF BOOSTER SEAT FOR SPICES? MY WIFE HAS SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN THE KITCHEN”
“Even though my legs were sore, I felt more energized for a day or two.” He looked like it was hard for him to admit it. “But if you’re telling me I won’t feel like I’ve been hit by a truck every time, I might consider it.”
“Good. Let’s do three more reps,” I said, coaching him through the movement. “Pull your shoulders down as you bend.”
As Moshe worked through the reps, I decided to push a bit. “You know, there are ways to ensure it happens. When you’re ready to go for it, we should discuss it.”
Moshe grunted. “Just tell me.”
I shook my head. “Only if you’re serious about implementing it.”
“How can I tell you if I will or won’t if I don’t know what it is?” Moshe shot back.
“Fair point,” I said. “But for now, let’s get into a plank.”
Moshe glared, but he dropped into a push-up position as I instructed. “Five seconds holding, five seconds with your knees down. Let’s go.”
After a minute, Moshe stood up, slightly out of breath but still trying to hide it. “This is good,” he admitted. “What’s next?”
“We’ll do a few more rounds of this, then move into strengthening,” I said, pleased with his effort. “But first, back to the step-up for some active recovery.”
“Fine,” Moshe muttered, catching his breath. “I’ll implement it.”
“You sure?” I asked, locking eyes with him.
“Yep.”
“Okay. When it comes to exercise,” I began, “you need to
start small and build up. The goal isn’t to dive into 45-minute sessions right away. Let me ask you: What are you more likely to commit to — a 45-minute workout or a five-minute one?”
Moshe looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Five minutes? What is five minutes going to do for me?”
“Aha,” I said, tapping my head. “This is where mindset comes in. Right now, you think five minutes is a waste of time, right?”
“It is a waste of time.”
“But the goal isn’t to do five minutes forever,” I explained. “The goal is to build the habit of exercising. Once the habit’s there, you can increase the time. Tie it to something you already do — like after shul or learning. Keep it easy to stick to.”
Moshe’s expression shifted slightly, the wheels turning in his head. “That actually makes sense.”
“Now let’s finish with those lunges.”
When we were done, Moshe wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Phew, this session was tougher than last time.”
I nodded. “Yep. So, are you going to do five minutes or 45?”
Moshe smirked. “All right, five minutes.”
“And when can you fit it in?”
“Probably when I get home from shul.”
“Great. I look forward to hearing how it goes next week.”
I knew it was premature to celebrate, but I couldn’t help grinning as the door closed behind me. Moshe was starting to get it.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Tzviki Smith is the owner of Smith System, which helps busy Jewish business owners bring fitness into their lives with personalized training at their home or office. He can be reached at 845-671-9945.
WEEK 3: BEND
The bending movement is super important because we do it all the time — whether it’s tying our shoes or picking something up. The muscles used for bending are similar to the ones used in squats, but the main difference is that when you bend, your body leans forward, while in a squat, your body stays upright.
To improve bending, start by practicing reaching for your toes. Once you feel strong, you can try bending while holding something for an extra challenge.
Here’s how to do the bend exercise:
1. Stand with your feet hip- or shoulder-width apart, toes pointing forward.
2. Start to bend forward from your hips, keeping your back mostly straight.
3. As your body lowers to where it’s almost parallel to the floor, let your back bend a little more as you go down further.
4. Once you reach the point where you can’t go any further, hold for a moment.
5. Slowly and while maintaining control, come back up to a standing position. Do this ten to fifteen times. Once you feel strong and in control, you can try it with some weight to make it more challenging.
“IF YOU REALLY CareD ABOUT ME, YOU WOULD...”
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C Red flag
D Maybe I should speak to someone?
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WHAT AN EXHAUSTING JOURNEY THAT WAS. TRAVELING BY SEA, THEN THE TRAIN…
IT’S NOT MY FAULT. PIETRO TOOK HIS HAPPY TIME PACKING UP HIS BOMBS.
BUT SOON I’LL SEE TATTY, MISHA, LEIB AND ESTERINA! I MISS THEM SO MUCH.
IF THE BOOM-BOOMS AREN’T PACKED PROPERLY, THEY’LL MAKE A SERIOUS BOOMBOOM ON THE TRAIN!
I DON’T CARE! NOW WE’LL HAVE TO TRAVEL THROUGH PARAGUAY. HURRY!
FINALLY! I MADE IT HERE!
I JUST NEED TO FIND A RIDE TO MONIGOTES. LET’S GO!
LET’S GO, LAZYHEADS! COME ON! YOU MADE US MISS THE TRAIN, AND NOW THE RUBINOVS ARE A STEP AHEAD OF US!
WE’LL CATCH THOSE PESKY RUBINOVS IN SURINAME AND SHOW THEM WHO WE ARE.
ONE TRAIN LEAVES; ANOTHER ONE ARRIVES.
OFF CLIMBS…
RECAP: ABUELO JOSÉ MORENO SUGGESTS THAT THE RUBINOVS TRAVEL TO FIND THE TREASURE AND USE THE MONEY TO HELP THE RUSSIAN IMMIGRANTS. BEHIND THE DOOR, PEDRO HEARS THE PLANS AND DECIDES TO FOLLOW THEM AND GRAB THE TREASURE FIRST.
THEY’RE HARDLY GONE, AND ALREADY I MISS THEM.
UH… NOTHING. I JUST THOUGHT I SAW ZUSHA FOR A MOMENT. BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. RIGHT?
WHAT IS IT, SONNY?
IT’S MAKING ME THINK OF ZUSHA.
ON THE TRAIN, A FEW HOURS LATER:
I WISH ZUSHA WERE HERE.
BITS OF WITS
SHEVY HOLLANDER
A LITTLE BIT OF SCIENCE WONDER
Teeth are the only body parts that cannot heal themselves.
Though the phrase “poisonous snake” is engraved in our collective consciousness, it’s not technically correct. Most dangerous snakes are venomous. The word poisonous is used for something noxious that is consumed, and venomous is used for something noxious that bites a person.
FLOWER POWER
Use the following letters to list 5 words, each using 7 letters and up. Only the center letter must be used, and letters can be repeated. Bonus points for pangrams (words that use all seven letters).
TANACH TEASER
WHO IN THE TORAH HAD A NAME THAT WAS HALF OF HIS GRANDFATHER’S
NAME?
MARK THE SPOT SNAPSHOTS OF THE WORLD’S BEAUTY
These cube houses in Rotterman, Netherlands, were designed for the way it maximizes interior space, even though from the outside they don’t look liveable at all. These, built in 1970, were the first of its kind, but cube houses can be found in several countries by now.
N C I F T E V
THINK OF THE LINK
Find a common factor for this group of four words
1. compass
2. pine tree
3. sewing kit
4. porcupine
TEASE YOUR MIND LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS
THINK OF THE LINK
Find a common factor for this group of four words:
1. cabinet
2. board
3. panel
4. council
These are all groups of advisors.
PANGRAMS: hometown townhome
OTHER WORDS: memento monotone tenement
WHAT IS 3/7 CHICKEN, 2/3 CAT, AND 2/4 GOAT?
Answer: Chicago
TANACH TEASER
Parshas Vayeitzei has a total of 148 pesukim, which is the gematria of its last word:
ADD TO DICTIONARY
WORDS YOU MAY NOT KNOW THAT SAY THINGS IN A WHOLE NEW WAY
Peripeteia ( per-eh-peh-TEE-eh) is a sudden unexpected turn of events or change in circumstances, especially in literary work.
Serial writers use peripeteias to keep us on our toes.
WHICH SANDWICH DOES THE WITCH WISH FOR? SAY IT WITH A TWIST
Do you find box drinks frustrating because the kids inevitably spill the sticky contents just by squeezing it while holding it when it’s full? The box drink is actually designed to avoid that. Pull out the two triangular flaps at the top, and teach kids to hold it that way. You’re welcome!
WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
THE WORLD’S LARGEST MENORAH IS 32 FEET TALL, WEIGHS 4,000 POUNDS AND GETS LIT EACH NIGHT OF CHANUKAH IN MANHATTAN AT FIFTH AVENUE AND 59TH STREET NEAR CENTRAL PARK. ISRAELI ARTIST YAACOV AGAM SAID ITS DESIGN WAS INSPIRED BY A HAND DRAWING BY THE RAMBAM OF THE MENORAH IN THE BEIS HAMIKDASH.
We welcome local trivia, historical facts and photos, and Torah-themed riddle submissions. We’d also love to hear if you have additional answers to our puzzles! Email comments@thebpview.com to add your very own bits of wits. Please include your name and contact information.
BOGGLE TOURNAMENT
HOW TO PLAY:
1. Gather round the table to play a family game of Boggle, using this Boggle board.
2. Once you have a winner, fill out the form below in its entirety
3. Email the form to comments@ thebpview.com or fax to 718-4088771 by Sunday at midnight.
4. Two winners will be drawn each week, each of whom will receive a $15 gift card at Judaica Corner!
PLAYING RULES:
Find words on the board containing four letters or more. Letters of a word must be connected in a chain (each letter should be adjacent to the next either vertically, horizontally or diagonally), and each letter can only be used once in a given word. The following are not allowed in Boggle: Adding “s” to a word • Proper nouns • Abbreviations • Contractions • Acronyms
Each Boggle board hides a word of nine letters or more!
F P I S U O C R H D A V U S A B O N E Z M I Y T R
Full mailing address:
Full name of winner: _________________________________________________________
Amount of points:
Full names of competing players:
List some words only the winner found:
FAMILY NAME: Hochman, 718-xxx-1983
NAME OF WINNER: Goldie
AMOUNT OF POINTS: 65
NAMES OF COMPETING PLAYERS: Sarah Hochman, Tzirel Pries
entertainment
FAMILY NAME: Knopfler, 718-xxx-5358
NAME OF WINNER: Yocheved
AMOUNT OF
85
Bracha
Yehoshua Mordechai Wertheimer
Naftuli Rapaport
Shmeil Yitchok Reich
Family Jacobowitz
Sruly & Esty Pinkovics, 6 & 4
Shloimy Rapaport
Ruchala & Etty Kohn & Ruchala Fishbein
Moshe Meyrowitz
Shloimy Stein
Shloimy & Moishy Langsam, 4
Avrumi Jakubowicz, 7
Moshe & Yossi Bochner, 10 & 5
Yitzchok & Avrumi Kirschner, 9 & 11
Malky Stein
Dovy Rosenberg
Miri Steinmetz, 4
Leibel & Mechy Friedman
Chany Klein, 5
Moishy Tishler, 5
Arala Solomon
Mendy Fried
Avrumi Goldfinger
Motty Weber
Moishy, Breindy & Yanky
Esty & Rivka’le Lieberman Daniel Biegeleisen
Binyamin Ackerman & Moshe Yanky Noe
Hershy & Simchy Igel
Michael & Isaac Lieberman
Moishy Klar & Mordche Aron Oberlander
Yossi Weber
Blimi & Zelig Wajsbaum
Menashe & Mayer Goldberger
Eliezer
Itzikel Rabinowitz, 5
Avrumi Burger,4
Family Friedman
David Klein
Ovadia Ungar, 7
Classifieds
FOR SALE
NEOCATE/BABY FORMULA
Neocate $46.99 per can. Kendamil Similac L’Mehadrin in stock!! We buy off any formula for a good price and trade as well. Call for other types of formulas. New! Option of shipping case of 6 Kendamil directly to you from England. Formula Trade 347.369.4886
BEBE ORGANIC SET
Looking to sell a natural color bebe organic set, size 3 mths, with matching bonnet and blanket, beautiful for vachnacht. Please call 347 382 0905
CANON CAMERAS 2ND HAND
Snap Source 87 Penn St suite 111 Sunday 1:30-2:30, Tue 8:30-9:30. 347-871-2330
Shipping $10. Beautiful G16 in stock
TREADMILL
Almost new heavy duty foldable treadmill for sale. Company Horizon. Call or text 19298845693
LOOKING TO SELL
3 adorable and elegant navy girls gowns. two are size 2-4 one is size 8-10 Please call or text 718-344-0407
FOR SALE!
Top-quality velvet powderblue three-seater couch in brand new condition; modern sleek look for a dining room. Selling for half price. (Delivery not included.) Serious inquiries only. Reach out to (917)8284007
MIAMI APARTMENT
Spacious 2 bdrm, 2 bathroom apt for rent. newly furnished, brand new appliances. 36th Street corner Collins Ave.
Available for Jan, and Feb. Please call or text 646-3457817
WOODBOURNE NY
House for sale in Woodbourne, almost 2600 sf 4 bed. 2 bath surrounded by other Yiddish families, going for just $450k. Text@ (347)292-1326
SHORT TERM RENT
BP 41 12&13 Beautifully updated full 1st floor apt. Modern Kitchen, 1 1/2 bedroom + living room optional as another bedroom. Linen and towels provided. Daily / Weekly / Short term rentals. Call 718-915-7401.
MONTICELLO-WEEKEND
a private 4 bedroom house is available for weekends,linen and towels etc. included $549 please call 718-614-4368 ”come and relax”
Beautiful 3 bedroom 3 bath villa with inground heated pool and hot tub available in North Miami, Price per night $389. Pictures available. Call/ Text 845-327-7153
FURNISHED 2
BEDROOM APT
2 bedroom basement furnished apt for rent long term, 57th St 11& 12 Ave. 7188517563 9177550573
WEST PALM BEACH FLORIDA
For the best Real Estate deals call Mrs. Debby Schwartz 203.667.2785
BEAUTIFUL
VILLA RENTAL
Beautiful villa in serene area outside Monroe. 9 couple rooms, teen room 8 beds and many kids mattresses. Huge private pool with stunning grounds. New!!! Jacuzzi Hot tub. Pictures at hotelfifteen. com .still avail for sukkas 845 837 5662
6 BEDROOM VACATION RENTAL
New luxurious house near KJ available for day, week, weekend. Stocked kitchen, linen, towels. Beautiful outdoor furniture. Call/text 917-652-1468
PRIVATE HOUSE SHORT TERM
Fully equipped furnished 7 bedroom house (18+beds) with linen/towels hotel style in Blooming Grove. Rent for days, weeks, or weekends. Breathtaking beautiful grounds. Call/text 845-2385633
VILLA IN CASA GRANDE ARIZONA
Gorgeous upgraded villa available. 14 comfortable beds, 3 baths, kosher kitchen. Beautiful private backyard with heated pool. Near Shul & Grocery. Call/ text 929-592-0368 / 929-4415709 Arizonakoshervilla. net. Villa in Tuscon also available.
COO (Healthcare)
$250k Brooklyn, NY
E-Commerce Account Manager (Construction Supply)
$150k+ Williamsburg
SR ABA Medical Biller
$120k-$150k Brooklyn, NY
HR Manager (ABA)
$100k-$130k Brooklyn NY
Salesman
$100k Brooklyn
Program Supervisor (Mental Health)
$90k-$100k Williamsburg
Secretary
$25-$35/Hourly Boro Park
Email: RL@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Controller (Construction)
$175k-$225k Staten Island
Controller (Healthcare Startup)
$100k-$150k Brooklyn, NY
Interior Designer
$70k-$100k Brooklyn, NY
Email: Yisroel@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Life Insurance Agent
Commission Base NY/NJ
Email: ChanaF@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
COO (Healthcare/Nursing Home)
$200k-$300k Hybrid
Nurse Practitioner (Wound Care)
$150-$190K Brooklyn
Email: AdinaS@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
IT Tech
$150k Brooklyn
Accountant (Healthcare)
$90k-$120k+ Benefits Brooklyn, NY
Service Coordinator
$55k Williamsburg
Sales Rep/Outside Sales
$80k-$100k+ Commissions WoodRidge NJ
Property Management Secretary (Male Environment)
$75k Boro Park
Salesman (Construction)
$1000/ Weekly + Commissions Tri State
Email: Rivka@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
IT Tech Level 3
$180k-$200k Brooklyn
Executive Assistant (Female Office)
$75k Brooklyn
Email: EstyR@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Director Of Marketing & Business Development (Home Healthcare)
$150k-$220k Travel
Accounting/ Bookkeeping
$60k-$70k Boro park
Licensed Teacher (Preschool UPK)
$68k Manhattan, NY
Inside/Outside Sales (Low Voltage)
$52k Or Commissions Brooklyn
Inside/Outside Sales (Trucking)
$1000/Weekly +Commissions NY
Office Secretary (RE)
$25-$30/Hourly Boro Park
Email: Sophia@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Bookkeeper
$70k Passaic
Email: Brocha@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Controller
$120k-$150k Brooklyn
Director Of Operations/ office Manager
$70k+ Great Neck NY
Bookkeeper (Exp Required)
$65k-$70k Linden/ Hybrid
Traveling Medical Assistant
$30/Hourly Brooklyn
Loan Processor (Entry Level)
$23-$25/Hourly Linden
Email: Peri@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Team Lead (IT)
$100k-$150k Brooklyn
Salesman (IT)
$60k-$100k Brooklyn, NY
Email: RickyR@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
HR Manager (Homecare)
$70k-$90k Brooklyn/Five Towns Salesman
$50k + Commissions Remote
Email: Hindy@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Homecare RN
$140k-$150k Manhattan
Commercial Lines Dept Manager (Insurance)
$95k-$120k Brooklyn
Personal Lines Dept Manager (Insurance)
$85k-$110k Brooklyn, NY
Account Manager (Insurance)
$70k-$85k Brooklyn, NY
Account Manager (Logistics)
$40k-$50k Boro Park
Traveling Medical Assistant
$25-$35/Hourly Brooklyn
Front Desk Receptionist (Healthcare)
$25/Hourly Brooklyn
Customs Broker
$25/Hourly Boro Park
Email: ChanaG@ SwiftStaffingGroup.com
Classifieds
WEST PALM BEACH
No. 1 Real Estate Broker. Aaron Rose 561.308.5766
SHORT TERM RENTALS
Luxurious vacation properties some with pools available for short-term rentals in the Monsey area, perfect for accommodating 20 to 150 guests. Designed for large families, Shabbatons, etc. conveniently located. Great Minds 845-520-3250.
LAKEHOUSE VILLA
Luxurious 3 bedroom lake house villa in Case Grande Arizona. Private pool fully stocked kosher kitchen. 520.251.4459
WEST PALM BEACH APT. FOR SALE
Century Village-Golf Edge, 1 ½ bedroom apt. 2 baths, Brand new appliances, Ready to move in now. Price $200K or best offer. Call: 845.325.0500
NEW TO MARKET
Coop for sale, 15 mid 50s, 1 bedroom apt. fully renovated approx. 800 sq ft , asking 550k. 7189542978 leave msg.
NORTH MIAMI FL
2-bedroom, 2-baths with private heated pool and spa. Call/Text: 917-382-4810, email: 1752nmb@gmail.com www.themangotreat.com
FURNISHED BASEMENT
56, btwn 17&18 Brand new furnished basement apartment. 3475852838
MIAMI BEACH FLORIDA
Carriage Club North, beautiful 2 bedroom, 2 bath, ground floor, for rent. Call: 347.499.0031
WEST PALM BEACH FOR SALE
Wellington M, 2 Bedroom apt. Ground Floor FOR SALE. Call: 347.760.0639
LINDEN VACATION
Exlusive brand new fully- furnished house, all amenities. included, sleeps 11 +2 cribs 7 min walk to shuls option to add shabbos food (monthly rates available)/Text 601- 675-2665/ Crownprincevilla@gmail.com
Dream Vacation Rental. Short or long-term stays available. Sleeps up to 21 guests. Located at 315 Morningside, across from Bobov. Special discounted rates! Call: 917633-6607
AIRMONT RENTAL
Book your next vacation! 5 bedroom 3 bathroom magnificent villa serene property in Airmont. Fully furnished ALL amenities included! 347-420-4945
HELP WANTED
FRIDAY TEACHER
Seeking high school girl to work in a playgroup Fridays. 718-854-1092
IT TECHNICIAN
Heimishe office in Boro Park is seeking a full time IT technician. Must have experience in Azure. Please send resume to: itjob0924@ gmail.com or fax to: 718-2286350
Full time receptionist position for a busy office. If you are very tech savvy with great communication skills email your resume to chana@ hiresolutionsny.com or call 845-422-8098 ext 105
JOBS AVAILABLE
Part-time & Full-time jobs available. Email TopPartTimeJobs@ gmail.com
WORK FROM HOME
Great opportunity to manage your own business from home. No experience needed, no computer necessary. Huge potential to grow big. Call: 438.529.1216
BUS DRIVER
The driver is responsible for driving older adults to appointments and other such errands. Must have CDL Class B with Passenger endorsement, Clean driving record, ability to lift 30 pounds. Sensitive to older adults, ability to drive 16-30 passenger vehicles. Full Time. Pay $22-$26 per hour. Email to: careers@jccgci.org or call: 718.449.5000 Ext. 2298
ABA IN FLATBUSH
Now hiring evening ABA support staff, we`re expanding our team and looking for experienced ABA professionals to onboard for our Flatbush families. No direct ABA experience? No problem. If you are passionate and have a desire to make a difference, Call/ Text/WA: 917.968.2292 or email to: Scaplan@yeled.org
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Find a position that suits you
BEGINNER OR EXPERT, FULL OR PART TIME, EXTROVERT OR INTROVERT – WE HAVE A POSITION FOR YOU.
SERVICE COORDINATOR
Help children and adults acquire services for multiple types of challenges.
Requires communication skills, problem solving, efficiency and attention to detail.
BP/WB Full Time No Degree
FI COORDINATOR
Help clients with fiscal intermediary services
Great communication and written skills needed. Needs to be a team player, detail oriented and adaptable to change.
Five Towns Full Time No Degree
NHTD COORDINATOR
Help enhance quality of life for elderly people
Experience working with the disadvantaged population. Driver's license needed.
BP/Flatbush Part Time Degree Needed
EI SERVICE COORDINATOR
Walk parents through the process of having their child evaluated for therapeutic services and then to oversee that services are administered correctly.
Williamsburg Part Time Degree Needed
HBCI SUPERVISOR
Oversee and provide support to a team of workers. Ensure the smooth running of all team operations. Experience in management and crisis intervention.
Five Towns Full Time Degree Needed
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Support the team with administrative tasks and assist at meetings.
Requires computer skills, being a team player and attention to detail.
Boro Park Full Time No Degree
TECHNICAL BUSINESS ANALYST
Understand technical business needs and recommend solutions between stakeholders and technical team.
Review clinical documentation to ensure compliance Must be detail oriented and analytical. LCSW degree and experience required.
Boro Park Part Time Degree Needed
NISCHAZEK OFFICE MANAGER
Oversee office staff and the daily operations in the office.
Support team with administrative tasks and department management.
Boro Park Part Time No Degree
NHTD INTAKE COORDINATOR
Assist clients in determining eligibility and enrolling in services.
Requires excellent communication skills, writing skills, and efficiency needed. Driver's license needed.
Boro Park Part Time No Degree
Classifieds
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Are you in need of extra income with not a lot of time? Then this is for you! Create a successful retail business in the comfort of your home with full training and support. No risk. To hear more, call - 605-3134101 6036621- Ref 1#. Done listening? Call 347-756-2666 and leave a message.
JOB OPPORTUNITY
Att Ladies!! Are you looking to help people and make some money on the side? Text job offer to 347-669-9177
F/T EMPLOYEE
Real Estate mgmt office seeking full time employee with basic computer skills. Email: toby@mprealtyny.com or call 718 972 7660
TECH SECRETARY
Music ‘n Motion is seeking a part time secretary that is organized, efficient, responsible and detail oriented. Call 929-322-4202 ext 202 or email gela@ mnmotion.com
JOB OPPORTUNITY
Seeking Paraprofessionals - Girls 18+, grads or women. Excellent training and support. No degree required. Boro Park, Flatbush and Staten Island. Call 718-6141191 or email resume info@ flyingcolorsaba.com
ASSISTANT TEACHER CANARSIE
Yeled V`Yalda Canarsie location seeking an Assistant Teacher Full Time, must have High School diploma, excellent salary & benefits. Send resume to: Bcunin@ yeled.org or call: 718.686.2415
COOK WANTED
Brooklyn based older-adult center and Home Delivered Meals Program, seeking cook to do menu planning, submitting orders, coordinate food preparation and take inventory. Prior experience as a cook, valid food protection certificate, Ability to stand for long hours and lift heavy objects. Can read and write in English, knowledge of kashrus laws. Full Time. 30 hours a week Pay $29. per hour. Email resume to: careers@jccgci.org or call: 718.449.5000 Ext. 2298
JOB OPPORTUNITY
Were you wondering why so many people are joining forever? Why not?! You can only gain! No investment! Join now! 929-559-4887
BUSINESS
Work from home with your own hours! Interested in making some extra money? Send a text to 929-683-6384 with the word SIGNUP and we’ll get you started. Hatzlacha!
FRONT DESK RECEPTIONIST/ TECHNICIAN
For immediate hire, looking for a front desk receptionist/ technician for a growing optometry practice located in Boro Park. No previous experience required, training provided with excellent opportunities for growth as the practice develops. Starting salary $20/hour. Small office, with primary oversight by a female optometrist. Required hours 9-4 Tues-Thurs, with option to expand hours to a full-time position. Email resume drsharvit@ nyretinainstitute.com
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM – FUNSHINE
The HCS After school Program is looking to hire Paras for Funshine. Monday – Thursday 3 - 6PM. Sunday 10:30 – 3 PM- part time or full time. Flexible schedules. Great pay! Exciting atmosphere! Please call Rivky at 718-510-3002 or email R.Rubinstein@hcsny. org If you are going for your BCBA licensure and need a place to acquire hours, please call to inquire about our partnership program!
WIG STYLIST
Looking for a wig stylist to work PT at a busy salon in BP. Must be very experience email info@tobywigsalon.com
COMPLIANCE DIRECTOR
Large healthcare company seeks Compliance Director. Experience in managed care compliance required. Email jobs@hamaspikchoice.org
EXTRA INCOME
Join our fun and risk free business and work from home. For more details listen to our business presentation at 605-313-4101 access 6036621# then 1#. Inspired? Call 845-376-9448
BP HIGH SCHOOL
Looking for an efficient computer literate secretary from 2:30-5:30 Mon-Thurs. Please email resume to afternoonschoolsecretary@ gmail.com
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM – FUNSHINE
Seeking ‘volunteers’ for Funshine after school program from 4:30 - 6. Please call Rivky at 718-510-3002 or email R.Rubinstein@hcsny. org
DIRECT SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL
Shirienu Dayhab is looking for an enthusiastic energetic counselor for our growing womans Dayhab Program. 1-5 PM daily. Please forward resume to R.Walzer@hcsny. org or call 718-854-2747 ext. 1322
Classifieds
SECRETARY
WANTED
BP Insurance office. Email resume brandy@ sdfassociates.com
DIRECT SUPPORT
PROFESSIONAL
HCS is seeking male DSPs to work at our Flatbush residence for afternoon shifts 3-11 pm daily. Please forward resume’ to jobs@hcsny.org Please call 718-854-2747 ext. 1114
ABA PARAS
Aba Center seeking ABA paras for After School Program. Hours 3:00-5:00. Please Email resume to blew@mypalyroom.org or call 718-522-4900 x906
YOUR DREAM JOB
Woman, Looking for pocket money to become big money? Please call 347-638-4236
FEMALE SALESLADY
Looking for a female to do sales from the comfort of your home. No investment necessary. 929-617-9511
ATTENTION
LADIES!
Do you need an extra income? Work only a few hours a week, no risk, full training and support provided. Call/text 845-3245182
Looking to share an amazing babysitter for newborns in my house on 49 and 14. Please call 347-880-6748
COCOON DAYCARE
Do you love children? This job is for you!! Come join our staff at cocoon daycare!! Teaching positions available! Reach out to us at 718-5178282
SERVICES
DOULA
Lifsha Kleinman, Experienced Doula 718-744-7135. Doula on Demand - Call even in labor. Medicaid accepted. LaborSweetDoulas@gmail. com
LIGHT ALTERATIONS
Please Call: 718.450.4700
GRAPHIC DESIGN
For all graphic design needs! Design by Devorah 929-3274621
1 ON 1 HOMEWORK HELPER
Experienced English teacher will do boys/girls, 3rd, 4th & 5th grade. After school or Sundays. Also experienced in teaching Math, Reading and Writing skills. 347-452-8930
MR. WERTZBERGER’S RENTALS
We rent out wireless wi-fi, tablets, laptops, clarinets, violins. Prices are between $13-$25 per week. Clarinet and violin comes with free MP3 lessons in Yiddish or English. We also offer private keyboard lessons on the phone. Call hotline 718-4351923
GARTLECH
We fix knitted & crochet Gartlech & make beautiful professional fringes. We also teach how to knit & crochet. call: 917-414-3281
All Electrical work, outlets, switches, fixtures, new lines for washer/dryer or a/c, shabbos clocks, circut breakers. 718.951-0090
HANDYMAN & PAINTING
Experienced & Reliable handyman. Small jobs our specialty! Plumbing, Electric, construction, Locksmith, painting, plastering. Shabbos clocks, outlets/switches, call: 347.275.5408
PHOTO EDITING
Professional photo editing, many years of experience. Special rate for photographers. Also specializing in Custom photo albums, Chosson, wedding, etc. Photo Dreams 347.563.5153
AYIN HORAH
The renowned Rebetzin Aidel Miller from Yerushalayim Is now available to remove “Ayin Horah” over the phone. Call: 718.689.1902 or 516.300.1490
BEAUTIFUL HANDMADE GARTLECH
Hand crochet, Hand knit, Silks & more with beautiful Gartel bag. Text or call: 718.283.4589 Wholesale orders available.
MASSAGE THERAPEUTIC
For women. Lymphatic, Ache healing, sciatic pain relieving, deep tissue relaxing, circulation improving, sport injury repairing, toxin/stress releasing. Sigal 347-4097709
GOODBYE, FOREVER!
Classifieds
FURNITURE REPAIRS
Furniture, Cabinet & General Repairs, specializing in Chosson-Kallah Apartments. Call: 718.633.6231
WOOD REPAIR
PROFESSIONAL REVAMPING, REPAIRS & TRANSFORMATION TO UR KITCHEN THRU DESIGNER COLOR CHANGE. WE ALSO RESTORE ESTATE FURNITURE, REFURBISH, REDECORATE UR EXISTING DRM, CHAIRS, BDRMS, LIBRARIES, STAIRCASES, EXTERIOR WOOD DOORS. UPGRADE UR ORIGINAL PCS. THE QUALITY OF YESTERYEAR, DESIGN OF TODAY! TXT FOR DECORATORS CONSULT, BEST PRICING & SVC. 212-991-8548.
HANDYMAN & ELECTRICIAN
Electrician, plumber, sewer service, Carpentry, sheetrock, locks, etc. 718.9510090
MAKEUP ARTIST
Certified makeup artist for all your special occasions. Call: Yides Neuwirth 917.309.6000 or 718.858.0815
NEW WEBSITE?
Get your Beautiful, Fast, SEOFriendly Website done in 14 days, guaranteed. Email efraim@ rapidquill.com
HANDYMAN/PROF CARPENTER
Repair all cabinets, Table & chairs, doors, locks, hinges, tracks, drawers, blinds, shelves, bookcases & furniture assembling and cutting, hang pic frames & more, free est, warranty on service, 917-704-3514 YEHUDA
WHOLESALE FISH
Buy by the case & save. Baby & Regular Salmon. Hashgucha Volove Rav. Free delivery to your home. Call Eli: 516-2706755
RESUME WRITER
Need a great work resume? Resumes are what we do! All levels including new-grad and experienced. Call/text 845-554-5778 or email info@resumakerpro.com
ELECTROLYSIS
16 and 54 day and evening appt. avail. call 917-474-2398.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Specializing in Custom Photo Albums, Chosson, Wedding, etc. Also professional Photo Editing, many years of experience. Special rate for photographers. Photo Dreams 347.563.5153
GARTEL FRINGES
We make professional gartel fringes and mend gartelach. Same day service. In the heart of BP. (347) 693-4920 or (718)4357644
COUPLES MOVING TO ISRAEL
Offer your couple the comfort of home with a stocked, organized, and set up apartment. Ready upon arriva. Call 718916-9736/ 055-333-8603. Call/Text 929993-5208 landinleisure@gmail.com
CUSTOM PHOTO ALBUMS
We specialize in custom Photo Albums, Chosson, Wedding, etc. Also professional Photo Editing, many years of experience. Special rate for photographers. Call: 347.563.5153
LULL-A-BABY
Dreaming of enjoying your happy baby who goes to sleep independently, and sleeps peacefully for long stretches? Make it a reality! Call R. Berger at 845-366-6706 and watch the transformation happen
LADY DRIVERS
Reasonable Rates! Long Distance, Errands & Shopping. Yiddish & English. Call/Text/ WhatsApp 845-866-3218. Credit Card, QuickPay & more
REPORT EDITOR
Looking for a skilled writer to edit/ organize an evaluation report to follow a flow. Needs to have attention to detail, responsibility, and organization. Text: 347-480-4922
KRIAH TUTORING
Skilled Kriah tutoring available in Boro Park, proven method. Call 718-419-7004
ROOM DIVIDER
We make WALL to split existing room and make second bedroom. It includes regular or sliding door. We also install plastic ACCORDION partitions that fully fold to one or both sides. LIGHT-fixture+switch+outlet in new room . We work Sunday too. Call/ Text:929-430-7551 /646-288-0185. E-mail:roomdividers11219@gmail.com
Classifieds
FENCES
A fence that’s strong, lasting all year long! Catskill Fence Co. 845-53-FENCE 845-5333623
HALL AVAILABLE
Small Hall upstairs Bais Esther/Presitge caterers is available shabbos parshas veyechei Jan 10/11 call or text 6462349654
MOONWALK TO RENT
Great for Chanukah, Shabbatons, or Melava Malkas. Please call 718-4351464
PHOTOGRAPHY
Portraits, Family, Upsherin, Lifestyle. Special service for newborn, we come to you with all the props. Photo Dreams 347.563.5153
PHOTOGRAPHY
For all your photography needs! (Portrait, Family, Upsherin, Baby, etc.) May props avail! Great rates! Photos by Devorah 929-3274621
DRIVER AVAILABLE
Driver with many years exp. available to do long distance trips with brand new minivan. Reasonable rates. 917.405.8469
ROWENTA REPAIRS
Expert repairs on Rowenta steam stations. Reasonable prices. Fast service. Located in boro park. Call 646-2613809
SPRINTER & MINI VAN SERVICE
Heimishe driver available to do deliveries. Local & long distance, we shlep with a smile! Call: 718.951.0090
VAN SERVICE
Yossi`s Van Service 15 Passenger van Local & long distance Airports & delivery. Call: 718.962.4664
CHANUKAH PARTY ENTERTAINMENT
JOIN THE TREND! GREAT CHANUKAH PARTY ENTERTAINMENT! TRANSFORM FAMILY PORTRAITS INTO LINE ART. $10 per photo. Email cytpics@gmail. com/ call 917-685-3572
LOCAL FULFILLMENT CENTER
Small Business Owner? Need Packages? Need Product Fulfillment, Labeling, Shipping setup etc. Please text us for best price at 917995-2822
RETURNS & LIGHT ERRANDS
Do you have any returns? Light errands and returns done in Boro Park,Williamsburg, Flatbush and Manhattan. Please call 718-303-9107 x 1 Between the hours of 11:00am-3:00pm
JOB TRAINING FOR BOYS
Does your Son Need a Part time Job? We are the answer. Day Hab Job Training in a real work environment for OPWDD individuals. •Communication skills •Expressive language •Task completion/ Receptive language •Problemsolving •Daily Shiur •Time management Please call 718-541-1538.
BLEI GIESSEN ACCORDING TO MESORAH
With our mesorah, we clear the way, And bring you blessings that come to stay. Call 718-400AYIN, just $72/session, or $50 Monthly. we keep shpreching until it’s GONE!
WASH & SET
Give Your Wig A Fresh WASH & SET. Special: $45. Text /Call 347-581-0495. 15/56 st. Wigs By Yides
DYSLEXIC CHILD?
Experienced certified Wilson dyslexic practitioner, trained in LIPS & Feuerstien is available after school p3/ private pay 347 762-3529
chairs, single or sets of 4 & upscale tables, wood & glass finishes can be picked up within the next week @ dinetc. - 4402 New Utrecht Ave, lower level
LATE ADS
AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM TEACHER
Are you passionate, invested, and love teaching? Naaseh Afterschool is seeking to hire a teacher for our center. Great work environment. Excellent pay! Hours: 3-5:45. BA required. Email resume to t.wosner@naaseh.org or call 718-500-3765 ext. 102
WHOLESALE JEWELRY
Massive wholesale custom jewelry sale open to the public! Monday and Tuesday December 23 and 24 7301030pm 1359 42 street first floor. Most thing below $25 3476613346
Group forming now for our baking course
This Chanukah, by donating to Kupath Rabbi Meir Baal Haness-Kollel Polin, you have the opportunity to be the miracle for someone else— and, in turn, merit your own yeshua.
“It is appropriate and fitting for every person in Klal Yisrael to donate on Chanukah, and specifically on תבט ח”ר, to the Kupah of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness.” — Rav Chaim Palagi ZT”L, Sefer Moed Le’Kol Chai
VELVET COLLECTION
Yiddishkeit
A daily dose of wholefood goodness.™
C-ya Later, Cold Season
Pure Harvest Vitamin C encapsulates 300 mg of Vitamin C sourced from Camu Camu berries and other plants, providing 100% of the recommended daily value. It helps your body fight infection, boosts your immune system, is rich in bioflavonoids, and is naturally buffered to ensure it’s non-acidic.
Smiling Herbs® supplements are pure whole-food with zero synthetics. While mainstream wholefood brands use synthetic vitamins fermented with yeast with an herbal blend added to their products, Smiling Herbs Vitamins are made from real food and nothing else. 100% whole food, 100% of the time.
Menorah Stand
A STURDY AND RELIABLE TABLE, THOUGHTFULLY DESIGNED FOR YOUR MENORAH.
Year Round
A REVERSIBLE LEATHER SURFACE, PERFECT FOR WEEKLY CANDLE USE OR AS A VASE BASE.
Serving Tray
INCLUDES A DETACHABLE TOP THAT TRANSFORMS INTO AN ELEGANT SERVING TRAY.
