The Jewish Star

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THE JEWISH January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • Bo

STAR Vol 14, No. 4 • TheJewishStar.com

Published weekly since 2002 • 516-622-7461

THE NEWSPAPER OF LONG ISLAND’S ORTHODOX COMMUNITIES

Again, Argentina cries Truth assassinated in Jewish ctr probe

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To the 85 people murdered in the never-prosecuted Iranian-linked bombing of Buenos Aires’ Jewish community center in 1994, another victim was added this week: Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who was working to bring to justice both the killers and Argentinian ofďŹ cials linked to a twodecades-long coverup. Nisman died of a single gunshot just hours before he was to testify in Agentina’s congress about his accusation ďŹ ve days earlier that President Cristina Fernandez and other top ofďŹ cials protected Iranian suspects in the case, considered Argentina’s worst terrorist attack. His body was found in his locked apartment, a friend’s gun by his side. Thousands of Agentinians took to the streets in several cities on Monday. In Buenos Aires, they gathered in the iconic Plaza de Mayo and in front of the presidential residence; some protesters, in a twist on France’s “Je Suis Charlieâ€? movement, gathered under the slogan “I Am Nismanâ€? and chanted “Justice! Justice!â€? Nisman’s ex-wife, Judge Sandra Arroyo, was clear in answering reporters who asked on Tuesday whether her ex-husband’s death was a suicide. “No,â€? she said. Argentina has one of the largest concentrations of Jews outside of Israel, with estimates ranging around 200,000, mostly in Buenos Aires. 0RUH RQ SDJH

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Ice storm claims ‘Facebuker’ rebbe The Staten Islander was known to thousands as the “Facebuker rebbeâ€? with a page that encouraged Jews of all religious inclinations to consider the importance of their relationship to Hashem. In his ďŹ nal

Bibi’s DC visit a slap to O and a bid to confront Iran Commentary by Jeff Dunetz You could almost hear the smack across the bow of the Obama administration on Wednesday as Speaker John Boehner invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on Feb 11. Bibi has accepted.

Usually these things are scheduled along with an already planned foreign leader/POTUS meeting. This however was done without any set presidential meeting, or even a consultation with the White House or State Department. The invitation is meant to be a diContinued on page 7

post before setting out for the American Jewish Outreach Professionals event, he is heard on a video studying with his young son and a friend. “Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us a gift for 49 years and he wanted his gift back,â€? his mother, Chaya Subar, said at Monday’s levaya on Staten Island. “He ďŹ lled into these 49 years many lifetimes. That is the gift this neshama left us. Let’s not waste it.â€? Rabbi Winiarz’s oldest son, Shaya, said his father was always planting seeds. “It’s not my job to decide if they grow or not,â€? Shaya recalled his father saying. “That will be Hashem’s job. I just have to plant seeds.â€? Rabbi Winiarz leaves behind his wife Miriam and ten children, seven of whom are still single. Having devoted his life to helping others, now it is his family that’s in need of help. A Winiarz Family Chinuch Fund has been established at www.youcaring.com/winiarz. Also, checks (payable to Bikur Cholim) can be sent to Bikur Cholim of SI, 23 Niles Pl., SI, NY 10314.

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Rabbi Dovid Winiarz, z�l, whose work in chessed and kiruv strengthened the Yiddishkeit of countless Jews, died motzei Shabbat on icy roads in Maryland enroute to a kiruv conference near Baltimore.

Israelis bereaved by Gaza war face lonely journey By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org “There isn’t a day that I don’t think about him. That I don’t think of my pain and the pain of the others whose children were killed. It is not easy,” says Shosh Goldmacher, whose son Nadav, a 23-year-old resident of the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, was killed by an anti-tank missile when he responded to a terrorist infiltration during Operation Protective Edge. The attention of the Jewish community and the rest of the world is transfixed on the three Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris that this month took the lives of 17 people, including four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket. But last summer, a 50-day war with Hamas in Gaza claimed the lives of 66 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and six Israeli civilians. More than four months after the end of the conflict — but still early in the grieving process — the bereaved families are working to pick up the pieces. Last month, OneFamily, an Israeli organization working to rehabilitate families that have seen members killed or injured by war or terrorism, held an event for 160 people from 50 families that suffered a loss from Operation Protective Edge. The event, also funded by the Iranian American Jewish Federation, offered a therapeutic environment for the families to heal together and to receive financial aid for the coming year. OneFamily staff members had visited each home of the families that were bereaved by the Gaza war during the seven-day shiva mourning period, and the organization has offered counseling and other support to these families since last summer. “It gives me tremendous joy to see all of you sitting together, eating together,” Rabbi David Baruch Lau, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi

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of Israel, said at the Dec. 31 event. But in reality, the positive healing energy that the event sought to create is just the beginning of a lengthy process for these families. Rebecca Fuhrman, communications manager for OneFamily, said the families are already experiencing the forgetfulness of society. “Neighbors and friends are moving on and they are left with the loss,” Fuhrman said. “It is the first time they are really experiencing that since the summer. It can be a lonely journey.” “A lot of friends came in the beginning, but everyone has returned to their lives,” said Shosh Goldmacher. “Our friends have moved on.” Goldmacher takes solace in talking about her son, who was in the IDF reserves when he entered the Gaza war last summer. She said Nadav wanted to fight in Gaza in order to give back to the Jewish people.

Chava Noach of Mitzpe Hoshaya lost her 22-year-old son, Oren Simcha, when the armored personnel carrier he and his squad were traveling in was caught in an anti-tank ambush in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza. “It makes you understand what is important and what is not important. Losing a child, knowing he won’t come back every day, that just doesn’t disappear,” she said, with her words coming in between her tears. Noach draws on her faith to get through the days. She believes her son had a job to do in this world. “He fulfilled it and now he is gone,” she said. Goldmacher said it is painful knowing that there is a strong likelihood of future wars in Gaza. But she doesn’t think her son’s sacrifice was in vain. “We are not done [with Israeli-Palestinian wars], there is no question,” she said. “And

every time we go into Gaza more children will die. But what is the other solution? If we didn’t have this war, there could have been the very deadly attack they were planning for the holidays.” Goldmacher’s reference is to a foiled Hamas plan to use the tunnels it dug from Gaza to Israel to execute a massive attack on southern Israel last Rosh Hashanah. Dr. Zieva Konvisser, author of the 2014 book “Living Beyond Terrorism: Israeli Stories of Hope and Healing,” expressed the same sentiment. Konvisser told the story of Dina Kit, who lost one son to cancer and then a second son to a Palestinian suicide bombing in 2001. Kit and her husband, Omer, went through counseling through OneFamily and then began volunteering with the group. Dina Kit ultimately became the full-time office manager at OneFamily’s main office in Jerusalem. Konvisser quoted her as saying, “They see that I lost two sons and I am productive and strong, and they get encouragement from this. They see that when the body begins to strengthen, the spirit begins to work with and take care of the body.” Omer Kit is a member of OneFamily’s male choir along with 11 other fathers who lost children to terror or war. He sings to remember his son, but also to make others like him happy. Konvisser said that the Kit family’s story proves how “alongside the pain and horror and grief, there is a possibility to move forward.” Chava Noach is just beginning this renewal process. She is working with Oren’s friends to commemorate her late son, who loved camping and hiking, through the construction of an observation point not far from the family’s home in Mitzpe Hoshaya. Still, Noach contends that for her, the best kind of support she can receive is “a big hug.” OneFamily distributed $90,000 to the bereaved families attending the event.

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January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

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By Jeffrey Bessen A Cedarhurst man angry about being evicted from an apartment building at 97 Cedarhurst Ave., lit eight separate ďŹ res in his apartment, 3H, which resulted in a blaze that “fully engulfedâ€? the residence and forced the complete evacuation of the 57unit building on Jan. 16, according to police. Douglas Drummond, 53, was charged with second-degree arson and was arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Jan. 17, police said. The ďŹ re was ďŹ rst reported at 2:30 pm on Friday, ofďŹ cials said. Eight ďŹ re departments, including the Lawrence-Cedarhurst department, responded to the scene. Both

using monitored video surveillance cameras on station platforms. “There is no place for any type of hate speech in any corner of Hempstead Town or anywhere else for that matter,� Councilman Anthony Santino said in the release. Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-244-8477 or contact the MTA police Detective Division No. 2 at (516) 222-6501 and refer to PD case No. 12-14636. “Crimes of this nature will not be tolerated in our community,� state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said in the release. “I ask that anyone with information regarding these terrible acts come forward and help law enforcement catch the perpetrators of these despicable acts.�

By Jeffrey Bessen The Nassau County police and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police are joining forces to combat anti-Semitic grafďŹ ti after three new swastikas were found at the Cedarhurst and Woodmere Long Island Rail Road stations this month. County Executive Ed Mangano publicly announced that Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest in these incidents. “It is alarming that Cedarhurst and Woodmere residents have been subject to several hateful symbols on MTA properties,â€? Mangano said. “Nassau County will not tolerate these detestable acts and is partnering with the MTA by offering its intelligence-led policing assets to strengthen the MTA efforts to apprehend those responsible for such hate crimes.â€? Previously, a dozen similar incidents of anti-Semitic grafďŹ ti were reported at Five Towns LIRR stations between late 2012 and throughout 2013. In February of last year an arrest was made after a similar initiative was announced. The individual was charged with committing eight of those acts. Typically these incidents occur after midnight, police said. “Neighbors in our communities have had enough of anti-Semitic grafďŹ ti,â€? County Legislator Howard Kopel (R-Lawrence) said in the statement. “Law enforcement will catch the perpetrator of this hate speech and we’ll get this ignorant person off the streets.â€? Police ofďŹ cials said that recurring incidents of this nature are unusual. With the county police aggressively seeking to deter future acts, identify and arrest those responsible, they are increasing patrols of radio cars, uniformed police and detectives, and

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

Fighting LIRR bias grafďŹ ti

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On the killing fields of Europe … then and now ELIANA RUDEE

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arlier this month, while four Jews were being murdered at a kosher supermarket in Paris, I was visiting the concentration camps Majdanek and Auschwitz II-Birkenau for the first time with a Jewish group of young entrepreneurs and leaders. As expected, what I saw and learned was haunting and devastating. What humans are capable of doing to others is simply incomprehensible and makes one question the nature of humanity, especially walking through a concentration camp — the 20th century’s most profound symbol of the world’s attempt to annihilate the Jewish people. Haunting me throughout the tour was the thought that I would be able to exit the camp so easily, while my ancestors only dreamed of exiting, and what was the message for me? What am I to think when leaving the camp? That the Holocaust of the Jewish people is over? That I am so relieved that I live in a time when I don’t have to experience the suffering of the Holocaust? It is true that much of the world has said “never again” to letting another

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mass extermination of Jewish people occur. It is also true that the Jewish people have lived, often prosperously, since the Holocaust. Yet it is definitely not so simple as the Jewish mantra “they tried to kill us and we prevailed.” Still, to this day, the global Jewish community is threatened by those who act to destroy it. At Majdanek, there is fresh swastika graffiti on a gas chamber. In France, attacks against Jews have driven them from their homes, many finding their new home in the land of Israel. And even in Israel, Hamas intends to annihilate Israel’s existence with a charter that the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman has said “reads like a mod-

Angelo Celedon via Wikimedia Commons

ern-day ‘Mein Kampf.’” While reflecting in the concentration camps after the hostages had been murdered, I could not escape the realization that the Holocaust against the Jewish people is not over. There may be no walls, barbed wire, and barracks, but there certainly are individuals and groups who would love to annihilate the Jewish people. As a Wall Street Journal video discussing the state of French Jewry explains, there is a large exodus of French Jews to Israel, and this trend predates the recent Charlie Hedbo attacks. There has recently been a significant increase in anti-Semitic attacks on Jew-

ish synagogues, schools, and communities. The anti-Israel rallies last summer in France looked a lot like Kristallnacht, and anti-Semitic cartoons that promote stereotypes and mock the Holocaust are resurfacing despite post-production apologies. Sound familiar? It should. Many Jews fled Eastern Europe in the face of growing anti-Semitism before the Holocaust, and pogroms rattled Jewish cities right before Jews were concentrated into Nazi camps. And old Nazi propaganda cartoons show a shocking resemblance to the ones being drawn today. While I view this as how the world is, I do not think this is how the world should be. Anti-Semitic acts and terrorism must be fought in the most committed way possible and should never be given a pass. Many people ask how the Holocaust could have happened. We know that it did not happen overnight. There were countless warning signs and an obvious build-up of anti-Semitic incidents around Europe leading up to the Holocaust. We vow “never again” to the Holocaust, and it is now more relevant than ever to say “never again” to the build-up of anti-Semitism that is festering in Europe today. Eliana Rudee is contributor to Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she studied International Relations and Jewish Studies.

Prosecutor is latest victim of Argentina bombing preliminary autopsy found “no intervention” of others in Nisman’s death. “According to the autopsy, he fired the .22 caliber” handgun, she said. However, Fein said she would not rule out the possibility that Nisman was “induced” to suicide, adding that the gun was not his and he left no suicide note. “The firearm belonged to a collaborator of Nisman” who had given it to the prosecutor, Fein said. She said on Tuesday that no gunpowder residue was found on his hands, but suggested that fact might not be relevant. According to the autopsy, Nisman had a bullet entry-wound on the right side of his head but no exit wound. His body was found inside the bathroom and blocking the door, and there were no signs of forced entry or robbery in the apartment, Fein said. Colleagues said they’d seen no sign he planned to kill himself. In condolence notices published Tuesday in the La Nacion newspaper, Nisman’s family and friends rejected that he committed suicide. “A profound sadness and pain for a death so unjust,” said a notice from uncles, aunts and cousins. Nisman had said he’d been threatened repeatedly for his work and, at the time of his death, 10 The Jewish Star, the preeminent newspaper of Torah Jewry on Long Island, is reviewing candidates for staff and freelance positions federal police officers had been assigned to protect in the newspaper’s expanding editorial department. him. Investigators planned to question the officers, starting Tuesday with those posted outside his Jewish Star staff and freelance correspondents cover local news that’s building the night of his death. important to Long Island’s Jewish communities; additionally, “op-ed” contributors prepare thoughtful Authorities only went to the apartment when opinion pieces on issues of police guarding Nisman, who had received threats, concern to both local, regional, alerted them that he wasn’t answering phone calls. national and international Jewish Arroyo, his ex-wife, who met with investigators communities. to learn about the progress of the probe, said anThe Jewish Star is seeking fastswers would come in due time. paced print-centric reporters and “There is an investigation underway. We must writers and also individuals with let justice proceed. I cannot make conjectures,” she Web and video experience. told reporters. Students at local Jewish high In a letter on her official website, Fernandez laschools who are interested in mented Nisman’s death, saying it generated “stupor contributing stories about their and questions.” She initially used the word “suischools are also invited to cide” in connection with his death but later put a inquire. question mark next to the word. Please send a brief cover note, But doubts remained. resume, and writing samples or Congresswoman Cornelia Schmidt-Liermann, inlinks to Jewish Star Publisher terviewed before the preliminary autopsy finding, Ed Weintrob. said she had planned to pick Nisman up Monday at his residence and accompany him to for his testimony. “Everybody who had contact with him the last 24 hours says he was confident” about his testimony, she told the Associated Press. “There is no indication, under any circumstances, that he killed EWeintrob@TheJewishStar.com himself.”

By The Associated Press Alberto Nisman was found with a bullet wound on the right side of his head, a .22 caliber handgun and a casing next to his lifeless body, in the bathroom of his locked apartment, according to a preliminary autopsy that found no evidence of anyone else’s involvement in his death. But what in other circumstances might have been seen as a clear-cut case of suicide is clouded by the stunning timing of the prosecutor’s death, just hours before he was to give potentially incendiary testimony to Argentina’s congress about his accusation that President Cristina Fernandez had reached a deal with Iran that shielded some officials from punishment for the attack, purportedly in exchange for increased trade, oil and financing from Iran. Investigating prosecutor Viviana Fein said Monday that the

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January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

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Schmidt-Liermann and others who knew Nisman said he lived under constant threats on his life from Iranian agents and pressure from the Argentine government. Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for Secure and Free Society, a Washington-based think tank, said he was to testify with Nisman on a U.S. Congressional subcommittee in July 2013 but Nisman pulled out at the last minute “because of threats from the Argentine government” that he would be fired if he testified. Nisman was appointed 10 years ago by Fernandez’s late husband, then-President Nestor Kirchner, to revive a floundering investigation into the car-bombing of the seven-story Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires. After years of inconclusive investigations, an Argentine judge in 2006 accepted Nisman’s request to order the arrest of a former Iranian president, foreign minister and other officials. Interpol later put most of them on its most-wanted list. But Argentina and Iran reached agreement in 2013 to jointly investigate the attack, a move viewed with skepticism by Jewish leaders who feared it would undermine Nisman’s probe. On Jan. 14, Nisman asked federal judge Dr. Ariel O. Lijo to call Fernandez and others, including Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, for questioning. Dr. Lijo was considering the request. “The president and her foreign minister took the criminal decision to fabricate Iran’s innocence to sate Argentina’s commercial, political and geopolitical interests,” Nisman said last week. On Tuesday, the Argentine Supreme Court disclosed the 289-page accusation that Nisman presented to Dr. Lijo. In its powerful conclusion, Nisman said that Fernandez “gave an express order to design and execute a plan disconnecting the accused Iranians from the case of the AMIA attack.” He added that not only did the president decide to carry out the “criminal plan of impunity” but was in control of it at all times. Fernandez’s cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, said “it is absolutely impossible to accept false accusations” but it is “necessary that the clarification of [Nisman’s death] by the executive power be clear, convincing and undeniable.” On Monday, Timerman said he was sorry to hear of Nisman’s death. “What can I say?” he said from New York. “I’m simply saddened by the death of a person I knew and I hope that the cause of his death can be quickly determined.” A federal judge had begun the process of deciding whether to hear the complaint and whether anyone should be summoned for questioning. Administration officials have called the prosecutor’s allegations ludicrous. Israel’s foreign ministry expressed “deep sorrow” over Nisman’s death.

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we are pleased that the Coast Guard and other agencies were able to clearly lay out the minimal environmental and safety impacts of the project in the document.â€? Opponents criticized the decision to release the 1,800-page report shortly before the holidays and schedule public meetings outside Long Beach and other South Shore communities they say would be affected by the project, saying that it was “unreasonableâ€? to hold a meeting in Queens. “It was done right after the holiday and I, frankly, think it’s not a coincidence, that this was designed so something can sneak by,â€? Kaminsky told the crowd. “But it’s not going to sneak by.â€? “This project jeopardizes the health, safety and security of the coastal communities in my district and threatens the marine environment that deďŹ nes those communities,â€? he added. “Additionally, it is absurd that the LNG facility would be closer to our community than its public hearing was. I call on the USCG and MARAD to hold additional public comment hearings in the communities that this project will impact the most.â€? In a letter to Cuomo, Rice wrote, “There remains a great deal of confusion about the study’s ďŹ ndings and a general sense among community members that they have been excluded from the process.â€? “This project does not reect our priorities,â€? she added. “We want to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lead the transition to clean, renewable energy. We want to invest in wind and solar power and create good, green jobs and new economic opportunities here on Long Island. Those are our priorities.â€? State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos also wrote a letter to Cuomo last week, requesting that he veto the project. The project does have some support, including a number of union leaders and lobbyists for the energy industry who say it would create hundreds of jobs. A Liberty spokesperson told the Herald last month that Port Ambrose would create 20 permanent jobs. “Our economy needs high-wage, permanent union jobs,â€? said Eramo, a ďŹ eld technician for Verizon who is chief steward of his union, the Communications Workers of America Local 1106. “But what we need to get there is robust investment in our renewable resources, infrastructure and conservation, and by doing that, that will create the long-term green jobs that our economy desperately needs.â€? Anthony RiďŹ lato is editor of the Long Beach Herald, where a version of this story appeared.

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By Anthony RiďŹ lato A week after they criticized plans for an offshore liqueďŹ ed natural gas terminal at a meeting in Queens, ofďŹ cials gathered on the Long Beach boardwalk on Jan. 15 to call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to veto the plan, citing environmental, economic and safety concerns. At a press conference led by City Council President Anthony Eramo, council members Fran Adelson and Len Torres, Rep Kathleen Rice, Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky and County Legislators Denise Ford and Laura Curran voiced their opposition to Liberty Natural Gas LLC’s plan to build Port Ambrose, an LNG terminal in the Atlantic Ocean 19 miles southeast of Jones Beach. Liberty, a New Jersey company that Toronto hedge fund West Face Capital Inc. controls, is seeking federal and state approvals to build the terminal in federal waters, which it says would bring much-needed natural gas into the New York area and reduce consumer costs. The plan includes a system of underwater buoys and pipelines. Ships designed to carry tens of millions of gallons of condensed, super-cooled natural gas would dock at the port, heat the LNG into gas and pump it inland through Long Beach and Island Park via the Transco natural gas pipeline, which extends from South Texas to New York and runs under Long Beach. Along with a number of environmental groups, including Sane Energy, the Surfrider Foundation, All Our Energy and Clean Ocean Action, ofďŹ cials are calling on the U.S. Maritime Administration and the Coast guard to deny Liberty’s application and urging Cuomo to veto it, saying that the terminal would hurt the environment, increase the region’s dependence on foreign fuel and create the potential for an offshore catastrophe or terrorist attacks. Adelson said that Cuomo “owesâ€? it to Long Beach to reject the plan, especially as the community recovers from Hurricane Sandy. “We’re at a point in time where if this goes through, it’s going to take away from every single step we’ve made in the right direction,â€? he said. Opponents of the proposed terminal pointed out that the site overlaps with that of a proposed wind turbine farm, and they argued in favor of renewable energy sources over fossil fuels. They also cautioned that an industrial accident or terrorist attack could occur on LNG transport ships. Others expressed doubts that Port Ambrose would provide the economic beneďŹ ts to the region that Liberty has claimed. Some also said they fear that the terminal would become an export facility, to facilitate the sale of gas produced by hydraulic fracturing to overseas markets, a claim that Liberty has strongly denied. George Povall, of All our Energy, said that there are a number of reasons to be concerned, among them the connecting natural gas pipeline that runs beneath Long Beach — and the potential for an offshore or onshore catastrophe. “That alone should have people worried,â€? he said. 4XHHQV PHHWLQJ VSDUNV LUH The project’s draft environmental impact statement was released last month, kicking off a 90-day public comment period that included a hearing on Jan. 7 in Jamaica. “The DEIS conďŹ rms the truth about this offshore natural gas supply project and conďŹ rms that our proposal constitutes no signiďŹ cant environmental or security risk to the region,â€? Liberty’s chief executive ofďŹ cer, Roger Whelan, said in a statement last month. “The release of the DEIS is a major milestone, and

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

South Shore up in arms over LNG terminal plan

January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

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French aliyah: ďŹ nding the delicate balance

Editorial Designer: Stacey Simmons. Photo Editor: Christina Daly. Kashrut: The Jewish Star is not responsible for the kashrut of any product or establishment featured in the Jewish Star. Submissions: All submissions become the property of The Jewish Star and may be edited and used by the Publisher, its licensees and afďŹ liates, in print, on the web, or in any media in any form, including derivative works, without additional authorization or compensation, throughout the world in perpetuity. The individual or entity submitting material afďŹ rms that it holds the copyright or otherwise has the right to authorize its use in accordance with The Jewish Star’s terms for Submissions. Subscriptions: One year by Standard Mail $48 to Long Island, New York and New Jersey, $72 elsewhere in U.S. One year by First Class Mail $150 prepaid anywhere in U.S.. Opinions expressed are those of their authors and do not necessarily represent views of The Jewish Star or its staff. This newspaper contains words of Torah; please dispose of properly. Copyright 2015 The Jewish Star LLC.

Vol 14, No. 4

Friday Jan. 23 • 3 Shevat 5775

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Jewish Star Schools It’s yeshiva break! The Star’s incomparable school coverage will return.

JUDY JOSZEF WHO’S IN THE KITCHEN Judy is on vacation. She’ll be back in 2 weeks with fresh and tasty tales!

DANNY DANON

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ERUSALEM — The moment the news broke about the horriďŹ c attack on the kosher supermarket in Paris, there was almost completely unanimous reaction here in Israel. The expressions of anger and shock at the series of recent ghastly attacks in France were followed almost immediately with calls for the Jews of France to move to Israel. There is no denying that aliyah is a central element of political Zionism. But at the same time, we as elected leaders of the State of Israel must take greater care to ensure the emotional and physical safety, and wellbeing, of our brethren who still choose to live outside the borders of the Jewish state. Such restraint does not come easily for us. Like all Israelis, we were raised in the Zionist ethos and with the understanding that our generation has been blessed with the opportunity to live in the ďŹ rst sovereign Jewish state in two millennia. Through our educational system, and for many of us from hearing the ďŹ rsthand testimonies of those far too few survivors of the Holocaust, we are keenly aware of the horrors that befell our people when the State of Israel did not exist to defend the Jewish people. Throughout its existence, the State of Israel went to great lengths to bring the Jews of the world home to safety. One of the ďŹ rst laws the Knesset legislated was the Law of Return, which ensures that every Jew has the opportunity to become a full-edged Israeli citizen. The wave of Russian immigrants that came to Israel with the fall of the Soviet Union was a dream come true for so many of us. On many occasions, we initiated special missions like operations Magic Carpet, Moses, and Solomon to bring Jews in danger home to Israel. Even today, together with Jewish organizational partners, we are hard at work extracting the Jews of Ukraine from danger and helping them move to Israel. That being said, it is important for us to recognize that the vast majority of Jews in the world today live in countries where they are completely free and only rarely encounter anti-Semitism. This means that “aliyah

by choiceâ€? is the future of Jewish immigration to Israel. We as a country must do all we can to convince the Jews of the world that Israel is the best possible place to live a full life and raise a family committed to ensuring a meaningful future for our people. This also means that even when tragedy strikes, we need to choose our words carefully. It is inherently understood by Jews worldwide that Israel is not only our historic homeland, but also the birthright of all members of our nation. Nonetheless, Jews today are — and will remain for the foreseeable future — loyal citizens in Western democracies where their traditions are respected and their contributions to general society are very much appreciated. Calls for entire communities to pick up and move to Israel due to an uptick in terrorism or anti-Semitism are not only impracticable, but also send a message that extremists have the power to inuence how and where the Jewish people choose to live their lives. Additionally, such statements by Israelis might give the mistaken impression that the nations of the world are not responsible for ensuring that their Jewish communities have the right to live full and public lives with the same safety and security enjoyed by other segments of society. Let me be clear. As an Israeli, a Zionist, and a lifelong student of the teachings of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, I hope and pray that the day will come when all the Jews of the world make the choice that my grandparents did a generation ago and decide to come home to Israel. Moreover, I intend to continue to do all within my power to keep building a stronger, safer, and more prosperous Israel that will serve as a beacon of hope and a dream of a better life for our people. Nevertheless, we must at the same time be realistic and work diligently to ensure that Jews are safe and secure wherever they may live. I realize that this is a delicate balance that must be struck by all Israeli leaders. It is, however, our duty to act responsibly to both continue to build the Zionist dream while at the same time looking out for the wellbeing of our brethren throughout the Diaspora. I have full conďŹ dence that we will succeed in this highly important mission. Member of Knesset Danny Danon is the chair of World Likud and Israel’s former deputy defense minister.

— In honor of Tu Beshvat, The Jewish Star’s cover art is supplied by HALB eighth-grader Aliza Kaye. “Happy Birthday Trees!â€? — FireďŹ ghters from 12 local departments responded to an inferno at a co-op apartment complex on Broadway in Hewlett. Among those drive from their homes: three families from the Young Israel. — The latest Gaza war is over, but its soldiers will need help. The Jewish Star presents ďŹ ve ways Americans can support the IDF. — The Star interviews two HAFTR kitchen employees whose relatives in Haiti died in the island nation’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake. — Opponents of a new eruv in the Hampton point to Lawrence to make their case and residents of Lawrence ďŹ re back. — Columnist Jeff Dunetz is displeased as “former Mayor Ed Koch folds for Obama — again.â€? — Anti-Islam subway ads placed by former Five Towns resident Pamela Geller create a stir. — OU Advocacy trumpets school aid in the new state budget.

JEFF DUNETZ POLITICS TO GO Continued from page 1 rect attack on President Obama’s Iran policy, according to Boehner’s prepared remarks to the House Republican conference. “You may have seen that on Friday, the president warned us not to move ahead with sanctions on Iran, a state sponsor of terror,â€? Boehner said. “His exact message to us was: ‘Hold your ďŹ re.’ He expects us to stand idly by and do nothing while he cuts a bad deal with Iran. Two words: ‘Hell no!’ ‌ we’re going to do no such thing. “So today I will announce that I am inviting the Prime Minister of Israel, a great friend of this country, to address a joint

meeting of Congress next month. And I am speciďŹ cally asking him to address Congress on the threats posed by radical Islam and Iran. America and Israel have always stood together in shared cause and common ideals, and now we must rise to the moment again. Let’s send a clear message to the White House — and the world — about our commitment to Israel and our allies.â€? The invitation for Netanyahu to speak to lawmakers comes hours after the President declared in his State of the Union address that he would veto any sanctions legislation. In a press release announcing the invitation, Boehner was more statesmen-like than his words to the GOP caucus. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is a great friend of our country, and this invitation carries with it our unwavering commitment to the security and well-being of his people. In this time of challenge, I am asking the Prime Minister to address Congress on the grave

threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life. Americans and Israelis have always stood together in shared cause and common ideals, and now we must rise to the moment again. “As many have pointed out, there is no proof that Obama’s action have in fact halted Iran’s nuclear program. Indeed, the diplomacy has worried those who most fear the consequences of a nuclear breakout in Iran, including Netanyahu.� Last week we learned that Iran was building two new nuclear plants “for peaceful purposes.� The Iranians always say they are building new nuclear infrastructure for peaceful means, but in actuality they use it as a pretext for expanding their nuclear stockpile. Indeed, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported late last week that “Iran’s atomic chief said on Sunday that Iran must increase its uranium enrichment capacity to 30 tons per year to meet the fuel needs of its Bush-

ehr nuclear power plant, according to Tasnim news agency.â€? It seems impossible to reconcile the new construction and new enrichment capacity with what we were told at the beginning of the negotiations, that the Iranian program was “frozen.â€? That is not only what the President told us, but also it is the Administration’s big claim as it ďŹ ghts against new Congressional sanctions against Iran. Expect Bibi to address that on Feb. 11. Netanyahu’s acceptance is a signal that he does not believe his relationship with Obama can be ďŹ xed. With his speech — on national TV — he will directly conict with Obama’s policy. The President will not be pleased. But Netanyahu is worried about Iran getting nuclear arms and passing them to one of its satellite organizations — such as Hezbollah — which will detonate the bomb and kill millions of Israelis.

Are we a people ‘in between’? ALAN JAY GERBER KOSHER BOOKWORM

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ecently, a new book was published with a curious title, “The People In Between,â€? by Robert Marx of Chicago’s Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. This interesting work, brought to my attention by Meryl Zegarek, deals extensively with the role that anti-Semitism has played both in the history of the Jewish people and the history of the world at large. A term unique to this book and its author is utilized by him to describe this the Jewish people’s historic paradox “interstitiality.â€? The deďŹ nition of this term as explained by its author goes like this: “As it applies to Jews, interstitiality is the understanding of the ways that Jews occupy unique roles between larger segments of society, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, Protestant and Catholic, Christian and Muslim, black and white.â€? In other words, we as a people and religion have always been caught in an in-between position, which helps explain our predicament in today’s world. Yes? Well maybe, and for certain, we do live in a ‘’bein hashemasos’’ milieu, praying for peace and fully

armed and prepared for war. Given the recent events in France, consider several historical events in this work as well as other essays recently published that involve Franco-Judeo relations as apt examples of how we ďŹ nd ourselves in that socalled in-between ďŹ x. One example that author Robert Marx cites, in detail, is that of Theodore Herzl and his experience with anti-Jewish bigotry in Paris, which inspired him to found the Zionist movement in the mid-1890’s. As a reporter for his hometown, Vienna, newspaper, Die Neue Freie Presse, Herzl covered the infamous Dreyfus trial in 1894. Herzl witnessed, ďŹ rst hand, the riotous Paris street mobs in the thousands who yelled “death to the Jews,â€? “death to the traitors,â€? and of the smashing of windows at Jewish-owned stores, all of which served to increase his determination to resist this bigotry with ever greater resolve. These incidents came a mere 90 years after Napoleon and the French armies, in their conquests of western and central Europe, liberated the Jews of these countries of the servitude that they had lived under for over a thousand years. Napoleon was the ďŹ rst European to give the Jews equal rights. Yet, it was this same France that within a century was to riot in bigoted response to a false judicial process, thus bringing to the fore their hatred and thus a Jewish response through Herzl of what ultimately led to the establishment of

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the State of Israel. Then, less than a half century later, this same France was to be home to the Vichy fascist governance that made France the only country in Europe, outside the direct orbit of Nazi Germany, that willingly deported the Jews under their control for extermina- Robert Marx tion at the hands of the Nazis. Now, fast forward to this year, and the slaughter that we witnessed in Paris. The Zionist dream was to facilitate the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, and so they come. Yet, not all came to reside as productive citizens; some — like the four slain in Paris— were destined to arrive to their ďŹ nal resting places, victims of the age-old plague of anti-Semitism. Even then, things were not destined to be played out with the dignity these individuals deserved. In his essay, “Four Jews Killed in Paris Attack Buried In Israel,â€? Jonathan Spyer made the following sad observation in the Weekly Standard: “The location of the funerals was political in another way too. They had originally been planned to be held at the beautiful, ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. But the Jewish graves in that cemetery, situated close to the Old City, have been the target of vandalism by Arab youths in recent months. Perhaps the families were concerned that such a resting place might lead to further indignities being visited on these murdered ones, even after the great indignity of the fact of their murder. “It’s also possible that since the cemetery on the Mount of Olives is under Israeli control, the French government, and other governments who sent representatives to the funerals, conditioned their participation on the change of location. So, Har HaMenuchot, as safe from the hands of enemies as a Jewish resting place can conceivably be, was chosen as the site.â€? This it but just a hint as to the behind-thescenes antics that must have transpired, out of our sight, at so sensitive and emotionally trying a time for both the families, and for all Jews wherever they lived. For shame!

I conclude this week’s essay with the following exerpt from a Dvar Torah entitled, “Eternal Rest in the Holy Land,â€? by one of our community’s most gifted interpreters of Torah, Michal Horowitz: “But redemption does not end there, for there is a ďŹ fth term: ‘And I will bring you to the Land.’ Without the ďŹ fth stage, redemption is incomplete.â€? “This week, the Holy Land that He promised to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov welcomed four more Jews home, four Jews whose only crime was being Jewish, four Jews who were preparing for Shabbos Kodesh when their lives were horribly, cruelly cut short; four Jews who were brought home this week — Yohan Cohen, 20; Yoav Hattab, 21; Francois-Michel Saada, 63; and Philippe Braham, 45; May G-d avenge their blood.â€? “At the funerals for the four French Jews, PM Netanyahu remarked: ‘Therefore, at this time, we should focus on the great spirit that is present here, the spirit of Israel which is saying: You will never, ever defeat us. The secret of our nation’s strength is our internal unity, our faith and the mutual responsibility that binds us together. This is the source of our power, our resilience — the resilience of an ancient people that has overcome every obstacle and adversity, and has risen from the dirt.’ “May it be soon and in our days, Amein.â€?

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

Bibi slaps prez in DC visit to escalate ďŹ ght with Iran

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January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

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The challenges of beginning never get old RABBI BINNY FREEDMAN THE HEART OF JERUSALEM

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he sport of rapelling (or sneppling, as it is known in Israel), is the art of descending from a cliff by sliding down a rope which is sunken into the mountain above with stakes. Years ago, I had the dubious pleasure of watching all four of our children undertake this “sport” down in the Negev desert over Chanukah. It is one thing to be doing this in the army, or even to tackle an adventure for the thrill of it. But to watch your children lower themselves over a cliff while risking a few hundred foot drop, is not exactly my idea of fun. And yet, there is something to be said for allowing our children to overcome their fears, and certainly for the tremendous sense of selfesteem that comes with such an experience. And make no mistake about it: we are speaking of pure, raw fear. Not so much in the actual descent as in the initial instant of lowering oneself over the side of a cliff. There is a moment, when you are still at the top, and it is all ahead of you, that you have to trust in the ropes, and the equipment, and the instructors directing you, and you have to lean way back over the abyss relying on a single rope to save you from falling over the cliff to the rocks far below. And it was nothing short of inspiring to watch the look of sheer terror on the kids’ faces as they leaned back and battled their fears, determined to overcome them and take this leap of faith on a rope into emptiness. … his week’s portion, Bo, ends with a wellknown section known as “peter rechem” (the first issue of a womb). It is a well-known section because it is one of the four that we store inside the tefillin

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worn every day, and one wonders exactly what it is doing here, smack in the middle of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, At the end of the portion, after the plague of the first born (the tenth plague) and in the midst of the last night in Egypt, after the description of the mitzvah of the Paschal lamb, the Torah shares with us one more mitzvah: “Va’yedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor: Kadesh Li kol bechor peter kol rechem bi’vnei Yisrael ba’adam u’va’be’heimah’: Li hu’.” (“And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying: Sanctify to me very first born, the first issuance of every womb, amongst the children of Israel: amongst man and animal: it is to me.”) (Shemot 12: 1-2) The Rambam (Hilchot Bechorot 1:1) explains: “It is a positive mitzvah to set aside (separate) the first male issue of the womb whether of man or animal, and even of a donkey, for the Kohanim.” And the Rambam delineates that these first born are set aside to be holy. Indeed, when one actually sets aside a bechor (firstborn), he begins by saying: “Harei zeh kodesh…” (“Behold, this is holy…”) (Hilchot Bechorot 1:4). Ultimately, these bechorot belong to the Kohen, though the obligation to set aside bechorot applies equally to kohanim. All of which leaves us wondering why this mitzvah appears here, while the Jewish people are still in Egypt, on the night of Pesach, just as they are about to leave Egyptian servitude forever. What is the message we are meant to glean from this strange juxtaposition? And why is this particular portion (along with the first two sections of the Shema and the paragraph concerning the eventual entry of the Jewish people into the land of Israel) so critical that it is placed inside the tefillin?

Perhaps to understand the nature of this special mitzvah we need to understand the essence of the bechor, the first born. Our rabbis teach us that “kol ha’hatchalot kashot” (“beginnings are always difficult”) because at the beginning everything lies ahead, and there is no accomplishment to lean on, so it requires the most energy, fortitude, strength of purpose, and determination. Ask yourself who was the first bechor (first-born)? You might think it was Adam, but in fact, he was not the first-born. Adam, according to our tradition, was created, he was not born. He never went through the challenges of growing up, and of being relative to others. And even so, Adam did receive the first mitzvah, not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and we all know how that ended up. No, Adam was not the first bechor; that dubious distinction belongs to Cain (Kayin), who struggles almost immediately with his relationship with Abel (Hevel). It’s hard to know how to get it right when you are the first one trying. Perhaps this is why in Jewish tradition the first-born receives a double portion (as indeed Joseph, considered the first-born on many levels, has two sons who become tribes (Menashe and Ephraim), essentially giving to Joseph the double portion. t the same time, Judaism also teaches the concept of first fruits (bikkurim), which are essentially offered to G-d (see Devarim chap. 25), because in our beginnings lie our greatest moments of potential, and precisely when everything lies ahead and we are first tasting the beginnings of the results or rewards of any process (new fruits or new births) we have the opportunity to remember that we are never really alone,

In our beginnings lie our greatest potential, with Hashem as our silent partner.

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and Hashem is always our silent partner, the accomplishments never ours alone. This may be why this special mitzvah appears here, just as the Jewish people are about to leave Egypt, and just as they are about to be born, as a Nation. At that moment, everything lies ahead; it is a night of pure potential, and it must be, even with all things considered, rather a daunting thought for a nation, really still just a multitude of slaves trying to forge their way into a new world. And at this moment we have the opportunity to remember that no less important than what we are about to do, is why we are doing it. At the moment of pure beginnings we consider that they are truly “kadosh,” that we have the opportunity to dedicate all that we do, to a higher purpose. av Avraham Yitzchak Ha’Kohen Kook, in his Olat Ha’re’iyah commentary on the siddur, points out that the words of the blessing we make when putting on tefillin are “le’haniach tefillin” (“to place [to rest] tefillin”), rather than the phrase “likshor” (“to tie on the tefillin”) that one might have expected. The mitzvah, clearly delineated in the verse is “u’keshartem” (“and you shall tie them [the tefillin] on your hand”). Even though when placing the tefillin on our arms we have not yet fulfilled the mitzvah, because we have not yet bound them to our bodies, nonetheless, it is in this moment that we have the opportunity to pause, and to appreciate both the challenge and the gift of pure beginnings. Indeed, Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch suggests women were not traditionally obligated to wear the tefillin because they carry the message of beginnings in their very essence, in the womb they bear, every day. And of course, we do this in the morning, at the beginning of our day, because every day is whole new beginning. May Hashem bless us all with the power, excitement and joy of beginnings, every day.

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Darkness as a plague for Israelites left behind RABBI AVI BILLET PARSHA OF THE WEEK

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here are many accounts in the midrash about the purpose of the plagues. While the overwhelming approach is that the plagues were meant to be “measure for measure punishment against the Egyptians” for the sin of overplaying their role as taskmasters, there is one plague that doesn’t fit in with the rest in the midrashic depictions: the plague of Darkness. Of course, there are explanations. The midrash Tanchuma in Bo writes that the plagues follow a pattern of how an invading king and his army would slowly destroy a city and its army after putting it under siege. Each of the plagues in this account parallels an attack point, and darkness is compared to imprisonment or solitary confinement of the enemy force. And while it is possible that Darkness was meant to be an attempt at defeating the Sun god Ra, the fact is that in most midrashic accounts, the plague of Darkness is explained as “G-d’s opportunity to kill off the Israelites that would not be leaving Egypt,” so the Egyptians would not be able to see that there were wicked Israelites who were not worthy of Redemption (Midrash Rabba Vaera 14, Tanchuma Vaera 14). Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains the plagues following the mnemonic of Rabbi

Yehuda – D’tza”Ch, Ada”sh, B’aCha”V – that most of us recall from the Haggadah, suggesting that the first plague in each grouping a specific theme of intensity; the middle plague in each group represented a different message, while and the last plague in each group was the punishment. Blood, Beasts and Hail demonstrated to the Egyptians “Gerut” – that they were merely strangers in their own land, at the mercy of G-d, and were hardly in any position to make the Israelites feel as strangers. Frogs, Pestilence and Locusts demonstrated “Avdut,” or “how illusory were the notions that had made them feel superior to the people whom they had reduced to slavery.” Finally, Lice, Boils and Darkness served in the function of “inuyim,” making the Egyptians “feel what it means to have to submit to a systematic regime” of suffering. Rabbi Hirsch further delves in Darkness specifically, comparing it to a divine set of chains which immobilize. “It shackled the whole person, cutting him off from all fellowship and all possessions, so he could move neither hands or feet to obtain the necessities of life. … For three days of hunger, each person was chained to the spot where he happened to be when the plague struck.” It seems from

the text of the Torah, that the use of artificial light, such as a flame, was unavailable to the Egyptian during this plague. While we may have explained how the plague of Darkness was meant as a punishment, and how it may have even been a form of “measure for measure” against the Egyptians or against their gods, we still have not addressed why the midrash, in its multiple accounts of the plagues, refers to Darkness as more of a punishment to the Israelites, and a cover-up period so the Egyptians would not see the devastation wrought upon the Israelites. I am stumped. Unless the midrash is portraying an incredibly valuable lesson. Last Monday night, there was a national screening of a very important film, “Patterns of Evidence: Exodus,” in which the filmmaker, Timothy Mahoney, explored different ways of looking at ancient history in Egypt and Canaan to prove, based on the Torah and historical findings, that the stories of the Torah are true. Not “moral stories,” as some scholars, suggest, but actual events which transpired. In the live televised talkback panel discussion afterwards, Dennis Prager, one of the panelists, noted that one reason to accept the Torah as true is because it does not paint the Israelites in a manner which is all that impres-

One plague for the undeserving-offreedom Israelites, with Darkness a cover so Egyptians wouldn’t see.

sive. All other cultures of the Ancient world, in their own writings and recorded history, only paint themselves as the greatest of the great. But Israel, not so much. In fact,not at all. Stubborn, stiff-necked, difficult, idolatrous in the face of insurmountable evidence that G-d is in the world, complaining all the time. So the midrash fits right into this kind of narrative. Nine plagues for the Egyptians, and one plague for the undeserving-of-freedom Israelites, with the Darkness serving merely as a cover for the necessary deed, so the Egyptians wouldn’t see, with respect to the punished Israelites, how right they (the Egyptians) had been. Intellectual honesty. In the world of ideas, there is nothing quite as impressive as those who can see the views of others for what they are, who support the importance of a variety of opinions, and who understand that there is a world of truth-seeking which must examine all the evidence and information before us, in an unbiased fashion, in order to arrive at the truth. The midrash might be saying – yes, it was a punishment for Egypt. Just as the Egyptians might not have understood how or why the Israelites came down in the first place, opening themselves up to the possibility of one day being slaves, it also wasn’t their place to understand how or why some of the Israelites would disappear a few days before the Exodus. And that while most punishments did not affect the Israelites, the one that did was not to be seen by those who were the guilty party behind the oppressive slavery that had terrorized so many for so many years.

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

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January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

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The Israel organization StandWithUs and the National Information Directorate of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office are partnering in a “Social Media Ambassadors” program to educate young people (with an emphasis on university students) about how to use social media to educate others about Israel. Participants of the year-long educational program will be trained to tell Israel’s story from their own points of view using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. The effort comes against the backdrop of a social media environment in which anti-Israel activists regularly target the Jewish state. “Much of [anti-Israel social media users’] output has no basis in reality, but they don’t care about what is true or not, as long as they take aim at Israel,” StandWithUs Israel Director Michael Dickson said. “But we can redress the balance and make an impact on social media for Israel, too. We need to expose these lies and, at the same time, reach out to people about the real Israel — democratic, diverse, and sizzling with creative energy and the ancient nation-state of the Jewish people that is also the modern, dynamic, start-up nation.” In particular, anti-Israel activists took to social media after the recent Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris to float conspiracy theories that Israel was behind the attacks. StandWithUs, which operates social media accounts in 13 different languages, brings 4,000 followers on Instagram, 61,400 followers on Twitter (with tweets reaching more than a million users), and more than 500,000 “likes” on Facebook (with weekly posts reach-

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

Israel joins StandWithUs to push ‘social’ agenda

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ing as many as 30 million users) to the ambassadors initiative. The Prime Minister’s Office chose StandWithUs as a partner “based on our experience and expertise, to deliver a program aiming at getting Israeli students, as well as some of their peers abroad, to share the reality of Israel,” said Dickson. “The Prime Minister’s Office has rightly identified that the reality of Israel is best portrayed through the eyes of citizens and those who visit Israel,” Dickson said. Dickson said StandWithUs set up the firstever pro-Israel social media situation rooms during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, and has worked with partners to do the same for every similar conflict since. —JNS.org

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Embattled in Cleveland, Blatt’s beloved in Israel By Aron Heller, AP TEL AVIV — Even casual Israeli basketball fans begin their day with an update on the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the newfound obsession with the NBA franchise has little to do with superstar LeBron James. Rookie head coach David Blatt is one of their own, making his name professionally in Israel and raising a family there. Nearly all of Cleveland’s games are broadcast live on Israeli sports channels, and the national morning radio broadcast almost always delivers the score of the previous night’s games. Radio shows feature a daily update segment, and local newspapers have begun to resemble Ohio dailies in their blanket coverage of the drama surrounding Blatt’s talented yet underachieving team. “It’s beyond surreal. It feels almost alienlike,â€? said Gil Barak, who broadcasts Cleveland’s games for the Sport 5 TV channel. “This is a guy we’re used to seeing around here as his everyday self. Now he’s got LeBron and directing the most high-proďŹ le team in the world.â€? And as Cleveland fans worry that Blatt isn’t using his roster properly, Israelis are proudly sticking behind him. Boston-born Blatt, 55, remains one of the country’s most beloved ďŹ gures, thanks to his winning history as a coach in his adopted homeland and national pride in his making it big time. “It means a lot from two perspectives: Number one, I can do something for the people in Israel, and number two, I can do something about bringing seven million new fans to the Cavaliers,â€? Blatt said Monday night after a third straight win put the Cavaliers at 22-20. Israelis went crazy in 2009 when Omri Casspi became the country’s ďŹ rst NBA player, and again when Gal Mekel made eeting appearances for the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans. But those reactions paled in comparison to the hoopla surrounding Blatt’s sudden ascension to become the ďŹ rst coach to jump from the European leagues to the NBA. Learning that he would coach the planet’s greatest player has only added to the excitement. Barak said the channel has experienced a spike in ratings this season, and that he is often stopped on the streets by strangers who want to pick his brain about Blatt. “From our provincial perspective, it is a huge deal and we want to see one of our own succeed,â€? he said. Blatt played his college ball at Princeton under coach Pete Carril. He has called Israel home since 1981, when he ďŹ rst arrived to play for the U.S. at the Maccabiah Games. A solid playing career in the Israeli league followed before an even more successful coaching career began in 1993.

Over the next two decades he developed his reputation as a top international coach and offensive wizard whose stock surged dramatically after leading the Russian national team to a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics. His signature moment in Israel came last year when he led Maccabi Tel Aviv to a series of upset wins en route to a dramatic Euroleague championship title. As rumors oated that Blatt would soon head to the NBA, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded with him to stay. His roots in Israel remain deep. He’s married to an Israeli woman, Kinneret, and raised his four children here, with the oldest two having completed their military service. He speaks uent, albeit American-accented, Hebrew and is a popular pitchman for TV ads who has professed a desire to one day serve as an ambassador for the country. A newspaper recently reported Blatt just purchased a pair of high-rise Tel Aviv apartments. Overnight, the Cavs became “Israel’s teamâ€? in the NBA, replacing traditional favorites like the Celtics, Knicks, Bulls and Lakers. Dotan Ben-Yosef, a 25-year-old university student, is among many who can’t wait for the morning highlights and gets up at 3 am to watch the games live. “He’s living out the dream of every Israeli who wants to make it big in the world,â€? he said. “Everyone here wants him to win.â€? So far, it hasn’t worked out that way. With a slew of injuries, questionable team chemistry and a seemingly awkward relationship with James, the Cavs are in the middle of the pack after being favored to win the Eastern Conference. Blatt’s every move in America is scrutinized in the local media with commentators saying the pressure is taking its toll. Known for a demanding, vocal style in Israel, Blatt often appears muted on the NBA sidelines and monotone in postgame press conferences. Devin Smith, his former player on Maccabi, said he’s conďŹ dent once Blatt gets through the growing pains he will thrive. “You’ve got a group of guys who have never played together,â€? said Smith, who played his college ball at the University of Virginia. “It’s a growing process. People expected because LeBron is there for him to go back and win every game, but that is not the case.â€? Guy Goodes, Blatt’s former assistant and successor as Maccabi Tel Aviv coach, said if anyone could withstand the enormous expectations it was Blatt. “David is going through a tough stretch, but he will adjust,â€? he said. “We are all happy for him and proud of him and feel a part of helping him get there.â€?

By Mary Redler Young Israel of New Hyde Park has opened a beautiful Memories Gemach. The Gemach was created as a labor of love by Dr. Beth and Mark Krieger, in memory of family members Dottie & Sidney Bernstein, Mollie & Samuel Krieger, Mollie & Meyer Steinmetz, and Barbara Krieger. The Gemach carries only dress clothing, shoes and accessories, from business casual up to formal wear, including tuxedos, evening gowns and wedding gowns. All of the clothing is offered for free to anyone in need. The name, “Beautiful Memories Gemachâ€? was chosen by Dr. Beth and Mark Krieger because just as they have beautiful memories of family occasions and other simchas, those who will beneďŹ t from the Gemach will be able to create beautiful memories of their own in their new clothing. While the Gemach carries clothing that would be appropriate for a formal event, there is also a practical side to it. They are very well stocked with suits, shirts, ties, slacks, sports jackets, belts and shoes for men, as well as skirts, blouses, dresses, shoes and handbags for women, all of which would be appropriate to wear to work or to religious services. Mark and Beth Krieger are quick to remind us that they did not do all of this alone. In addition to the support of Young

Rabbi Lawrence Teitelman along with members of the staff and congregation of Young Israel 0DUN .ULHJHU ZKR FUHDWHG WKH UHFHQWO\ RSHQHG JHPDFK ZLWK KLV ZLIH %HWK of New Hyde Park and representatives of 14 local synagogues Israel of New Hyde Park, and all those who donated clothing, they had a crew of volun- and JCCs, including Sid Jacobson JCC Enteers — “the Gemacheteersâ€? — who helped gage Jewish Service Corps, Community Syntransport, sort and display the clothing and agogue, Congregation Tifereth Israel Glen staff the Gemach when people come to select Cove, Midway Jewish Center, North Shore Jewish Center, Old Westbury Hebrew Conclothing. The ofďŹ cial launch of the Gemach was gregation, Shelter Rock Jewish Center, Temwell attended by friends, family, volunteers, ple Beth Israel Port Washington, Temple Beth

Sholom Roslyn, Temple Isaiah of Great Neck, Temple Israel of Great Neck, Temple Judea, Temple Sinai Roslyn and Mid-Island Y JCC. Through the efforts of all of the volunteers, the clothing stock of the Beautiful Memories Gemach continues to grow. If you know of anyone who is in need of clothing, whether due to ongoing ďŹ nancial strain or a sudden loss, like a ďŹ re or ood, please refer them to www.beautifulmemor iesgemac h. org or they can call Mark Krieger directly at (917) 703-4694. The Gemach, on Young Israel’s lower level at 264-15 77th Ave. in New Hyde Park, has both day and evening hours, but is open by appointment only for the comfort of those needing clothing and to keep it conďŹ dential. When a person in need comes to the Gemach, they are treated like family, and shown the utmost in kindness and respect. Tuxedos, evening gowns and wedding gowns are loaned, since they are typically worn only once. All other clothing and accessories are given for permanent use.

One woman’s challenge: Jewish eating disorders By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Temimah Zucker, 24, is a modest young woman with an equally modest frame. But her smile, vitality, and drive ďŹ ll a room. Her message and mission — that eating disorders are an expanding challenge in the Jewish community and need to be tackled head on — is not always a popular one, but it is a calling for which she has an intense passion. It is also a ďŹ ght she knows could save lives. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, according to the Journal of American Psychiatry. A report by the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders states that as many as 20 percent of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder. Zucker was almost part of that statistic. She developed anorexia at 18 when she left her Teaneck, N.J., home to attend college in the New York City borough of Queens. Before starting college, she had experienced several social-emotional traumas, such as her grandmother’s passing, betrayal by one of her best high school friends, and a difďŹ cult breakup with a boyfriend. The youngest of three chil-

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dren, she had never been away from home and wasn’t sure she was ready to grow up or that she could handle the responsibility. In a matter of months, Zucker had started restricting her food in what she described as an effort to “take control.� It wasn’t a conscious decision, she says, meaning she didn’t wake up one morning and decide to become anorexic. Rather, she calls it a “natural progression of not feeling hungry, and then this full-blown development of a clinical eating disorder.� Within months, he weight dropped (she doesn’t give out numbers), and she became irritable and withdrawn. Finally, her parents confronted her and “forced� her to see the doctor. “The doctor told me that based on my blood work, that I was hours if not a day away from slipping into a coma that I probably would not have woken up from,� Zucker tells JNS.org. “I was a walking shadow.� Zucker entered treatment and worked through her challenges in a variety of inpa-

tient and outpatient settings, but she says the turning point for her was watching the Orthodox Union-produced documentary ďŹ lm “Hungry to be Heard.â€? “I realized I was not alone,â€? Zucker says. Today, Zucker hopes to inspire others in a similar way to how the documentary motivated her. She is a walking message board, boldly conveying the point that eating disorders exist in the Jewish community—but if treated, they can be managed and even overcome. A student at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Zucker shares her story at day schools, synagogues, and community centers, and has started a peer support group for Jewish teens recovering from anorexia. She says she initially went public with her story because she had a dream of inspiring others. Now, she says it is more about “showing people there is hopeâ€? and raising awareness. The Jewish community, she says, must unite around this issue and talk about what many consider an entire faith’s preoccupation with — and disordered relation to — food. “When I meet people in the Jewish community and tell them I work with eating disorders, they say, ‘Me too! I never stop eating!’ There is an understanding that food plays a central role in Judaism. People overeat, emotionally eat, and it can be life-threatening,â€? says Zucker, explaining there might be challenges speciďŹ c to Judaism, and especially Orthodoxy, that drive eating disorders. There is enormous pressure in the Orthodox Jewish community to marry young and immediately start a family, and an understanding for many women that they will be forced to balance a career with being a consummate homemaker and cook. An eating disorder delays all that. Matchmakers often ask questions about women’s waist size; it’s understood that desired dimensions are 23 to 27 inches. Further, like many other challenging issues—sexual abuse, divorce, and mental illness, to name a few—people don’t like to talk about eating disorders or admit that they occur in the Jewish community, and so the reality of the problem is covered up. While the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)

reports as many as 24 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder, there are no deďŹ nitive studies about eating disorders in the Jewish population. A 1996 study of an Orthodox high school in Brooklyn found 1 in 19 girls had an eating disorder. A 2008 study of Toronto teens found that 25 percent of Jewish girls suffered from the illness. Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, author of the 2001 book “Starving to Live,â€? has been a leading voice for the recognition of eating disorders and their proper treatment in the Torahobservant community for more than 15 years. In the book, he describes situations in which parents have chosen against treating their children out of humiliation. Understanding the severity of the disease, such actions could be tantamount to murder, he believes. Goldwasser notes that eating disorders are rarely about being thin, but as NEDA explains, they are “complex conditions that arise from a combination of long-standing behavioral, biological, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors.â€? Goldwasser advocates for a 12-step program that he has modiďŹ ed from a Jewish lens to help people in their recovery. He says spirituality is an essential component of recovery. “Everyone needs ‌ a connection with a higher level, with God, to feel that the world itself is run by Divine providence and there is substance to my life, even if I don’t feel like a worthy person right now,â€? Goldwasser said. On Jan. 1 in Israel, a law went into effect that aims to prevent fashion models from losing weight to the detriment of their health and the wellbeing of others inclined to follow in their footsteps. The law stipulates that fashion/commercial models should have a body-mass index of at least 18.5 and that computer-generated changes to make models appear thinner need to be noted along with the images. Additionally, several treatment centers have started to offer kosher food at their clinics over the last decade, and a clinic catered to young women from the U.S. opened in Jerusalem in 2010. “There is hope,â€? says Zucker. “I think that is the most important thing.â€?

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

‘Beautiful Memories Gemach’ in New Hyde Park

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New to on and YILC, who led the shuls and organizations including will beofafag baum A laminated American and Israeli community-w the Young Israels of Woodmere ide gatherwith blue four-seaters ďŹ xed to each of the single engine ing, wings, said that the three and West Hempstead and the Five of both and white ags taped to the underside the “should have ags assouls Towns JCC; others traveled by car see the boys’ enabling people on the ground to page 5 noting that and train. Three Zionist Orthodox Continuedanon aliyahâ€? they served Hakodosh Bacamps — Moshava, Mesora and Mo 2UHQ 2U %LWRQ 7D]SLW 1HZV $JH QF\ $ PRWKHU SURWHFWV KHU EDE\ GXULQJ D URFNHW ruch Hu and that the tragDWWDFN LQ %HHU Continued on page 11 U 6KHYD ZKHUH UHVLGHQWV KDYH ÂżQG VKHOWHU ZKHQ D UHG DOHUW VRXQGV DV PLVV DWWDFN LQ %HHU edy of their blood brought LOHV IURP *D]D DSSURDFK 6KHOWHUV DUH QRW DOZ VHFRQGV WR D\V DYDLODEOH Am Yisrael together. 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By Tia Goldenberg, AP TEL AVIV — A knife-wielding Palestinian stabbed 11 morning commuters on and near a bus on Wednesday, striking in the heart of Tel Aviv and reigniting fears of continued violence ahead of Israeli elections in March. The attack was the latest in a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis over recent months, which has been largely reserved to Jerusalem but also has spilled over to the West Bank and Tel Aviv. Tuesday’s stabbing took place near a busy intersection during morning rush hour. Police identified the attacker as Hamza Mohammed Matrouk, 23, from the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Police said Matrouk confessed to the attack, saying this summer’s Gaza war, tensions surrounding the Temple Mount, and extremist Islamic videos promising him an “arrival to heaven” fueled the violence. Gaza’s ruling Hamas praised the attack, calling it “brave and heroic,” but did not claim responsibility. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Palestinian incitement for the

ongoing bloodshed. Police and witnesses said Matrouk was riding on the bus when he began stabbing passengers and the driver. He fled the bus but was chased down and shot by prison service officers nearby. They shot Matrouk in the leg and arrested him. The bus driver, Herzl Biton, was stabbed in the upper body and liver and underwent surgery, his niece Cheli Shushan said. Witnesses said Biton used pepper spray to deter the attacker and slammed on the brakes to jar him. After being stabbed, Biton flung open the doors to allow passengers to flee. At the scene of the attack, a Jewish head covering lay beside headphones on the floor of the bus, with blood splattered nearby. Video aired by Israeli television station Channel 10 showed Matrouk running down the street and stabbing a woman in the back as he tried to escape. The violence comes weeks ahead of March 17 elections, in which Netanyahu, a security hawk, is facing a challenge from a joint list headed by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, who

support negotiations with the Palestinians. The attack sparked heated rhetoric ahead of the polls, with Herzog blaming Netanyahu for a “strong lack of personal security” among Israelis. “The reality is very clear. There is no sense of personal security. Not in Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem which is divided by concrete barricades and not (in the communities) near Gaza. This is a real problem and the citizens of Israel will need to make a decision,” he told Israel Radio. The stabbing appeared to be the latest in a series of “lone-wolf” Palestinian attacks that have plagued Israel in recent months, killing about a dozen people, including five people killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue. Police have said the attacks are almost impossible to prevent. In Jerusalem, the violence came after months of tensions between Jews and Palestinians in east Jerusalem — the section of the city the Palestinians demand as their future capital. The area saw a wave of violence last

summer, capped by a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Much of the recent unrest has stemmed from tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. It is the holiest site for Jews, because it is the site of the revered Jewish Temples. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and many consider it their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, condemned the violence but said it came as a result of the Israeli occupation. “You cannot have a violent military occupation with full impunity and then expect all its victims to be calm and quiet,” she said. Netanyahu has blamed the attacks on incitement by the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. “The terrorist attack in Tel Aviv is the direct result of the poisonous incitement being disseminated by the Palestinian Authority against the Jews and their state,” he said. “This same terrorism is trying to attack us in Paris, Brussels and everywhere.”

Cartoonist urges restraint — except re: Israel RAFAEL MEDOFF

O

ne might think cartoonists, as champions of irreverence and untrammeled free speech, would be unanimously resolute in defending their martyred comrades at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Yet Joe Sacco, one of the most popular and outspoken of today’s political cartoonists, is actually constructing an argument for selfcensorship. What Sacco prescribes is a kind of selective selfcensorship, in which cartoonists refrain from insulting Muslims—but are free to target Israelis. Showered with accolades and awards for his book-length graphic stories about serious historical topics such as World War I, Bosnia, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Sacco has emerged as one of the most influential figures in making the comic art form respectable beyond the confines of comic fandom—and providing educators with an effective new way to teach history. Thus it was no surprise that Sacco was a much-sought after commentator on the Charlie Hebdo slaughter. He told the New York Times that he was, of course, “disgusted” by the “really contemptible” killings. “But,” he hurried to add, “I also come from a position of trying to understand why people are affected by images, and not just say, ‘Why can’t you take a joke?’ An image of Muhammad in some compromising position isn’t meant to be just a joke.” Salman Rushdie, perhaps the world’s most famous target of Islamist intolerance, recently referred to these rationalizers as “the ‘but’ brigade.” For Joe Sacco, Charlie Hebdo’s satirical portrayals of Islam’s founder were not satirical at all. They were not “meant to be just a joke.” They were meant to inflict harm. He is suggesting that it was the Charlie Hebdo staffers who started it, and the men who gunned them down were guilty—but with extenuating circumstances. Sacco elaborated on his point in the way a cartoonist does best — by creating a 10-panel comic strip for the British newspaper The Guardian. Sacco’s piece, “On Satire,” attempts to discredit critics of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, both among his fellow cartoonists and the wider public. He begins by contrasting the response of other cartoonists to his own. The others are depicted as self-righteous cavemen, obnoxiously beating their chests in affirmation of free speech; he is a sober, thoughtful visitor to the graves of the victims, respectfully doffing his hat. Sacco then shifts into “Oh yeah? Let’s see how you like it” mode. He presents distasteful caricatures of blacks and Jews, accompanied by two sarcastic questions. Next to the black man in a tree with a banana, Sacco asks, “I’m allowed to offend, right?” Next to the hook-nosed Jew counting money, he asks, “If you can take the ‘joke’ now, would it have been as funny in 1933?” There are two glaring problems with Sacco’s comparison of the Muhammad cartoons to racist cartoons about blacks or Jews. The first is that a cartoon about Muhammad is not ipso

facto a racist attack on Muslims or Arabs. It is a satirical poke at a religion. A cartoon satirizing, for example, Moses, is not automatically antisemitic. Mocking the tenets of a religious faith is not the same as making negative statements about all members of a particular race or ethnic group. The second problem is Sacco’s superficial understanding of history. Of course, neither blacks nor Jews find it funny when a cartoonist depicts them in a bigoted fashion—but they do not murder the cartoonist. Sacco asks if his grotesque depiction of a Jew “would have been funny in 1933,” that is, the year the Nazis rose to power. It certainly would not have been funny. But German Jews did not murder antiSemitic cartoonists in 1933. Civilized people respond in a civilized way when they are offended. In the free world, the answer to Sacco’s sarcastic question, “I’m allowed to offend, right?” is a resounding “yes.” The climactic scene of The Guardian cartoon shows the infamous photograph of the hooded Abu Ghraib detainee with his arms spread, with Sacco commenting, “Perhaps when we tire of holding up our middle finger we can try to think about why the world is the way it is—and what it is about Muslims in this time and place that makes them unable to laugh off a mere image.”

But the Abu Ghraib abuses took place 12 years ago. The Paris killers were not yelling about Abu Ghraib. They shouted, “We have avenged the Prophet!” Sacco is literally inventing excuses for the killers. In the final panel of Sacco’s cartoon diatribe, men with axes are chasing two unarmed Muslims, one of them a woman carrying a baby. Sacco sarcastically declares, “If we answer ‘Because something is deeply wrong with them’—certainly something was deeply wrong with the killers—then let us drive them from their homes and into the sea, for that is going to be far easier than sorting out how we fit in each other’s world.” Those who are familiar with Sacco’s graphic novels about the Arab-Israeli conflict will note the irony of that “driving them into the sea” reference in The Guardian. In Sacco’s vivid imagination, Westerners are shown driving Muslims into the sea. But in the real world, that phrase is best known in connection with an historical event where it was actually employed: the attempt by five Arab armies, in 1948, to slaughter the Jewish residents of the newborn state of Israel—to perpetrate a Charlie Hebdo massacre, writ large. Yet Sacco’s 2009 magnum opus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the 388-page Footnotes in Gaza, contains exactly one panel about the 1948 war, and even there Sacco cannot bring himself to acknowledge that the Arabs’ intention was to destroy Israel. The centerpiece of the book is an Arab claim that Israeli soldiers massacred 275 Arab civilians in the Gaza city of Khan Younis during the 1956 war. Sacco, who accepts the Arab version hook, line, and sinker, says this explains why Arabs hate Israel—the killings in Gaza “planted hatred in their hearts.” That’s why he skips over the 1948 war. It would disrupt his narrative that the Arab-Israeli conflict essentially began in 1956. Sacco was unable to locate a single Israeli soldier who witnessed, or even heard about, the alleged massacre. He relies entirely on his interviews with elderly Gazans, who regale him with gory (but often implausible or contradictory) tales. The reader is inundated with so many images of Israelis beating, harassing, and generally humiliating defenseless Arabs that it is not hard to believe the Israelis massacred some of them, too. The notion that an anti-Jewish cartoon must include a hooked nose and some dollar bills, as Sacco suggested in his cartoon for The Guardian, is passé. In today’s world, the monstrous Israeli mass murderer can serve a similar purpose. Sacco’s definition of cartoons that are racist provocations in effect preserves an important exception: slandering the Jewish state is legitimate. Joe Sacco has sharpened the lines of the post-Paris debate. Do provocative cartoonists share the blame for their own grisly deaths? Should satirists restrain their pens when the offended parties have at their disposal armies of jihadists—or, in the case of North Korea, nuclear missiles? Thanks to Sacco, perhaps this is also the moment to consider whether malicious cartoons of Jews are illegitimate only if the targets are Diaspora Jews. Dr. Rafael Medoff is a historian who has worked with Marvel Comics and Disney’s educational division to create comics and cartoons about historical topics. He is the coauthor of the forthcoming book “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust.”

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

11 hurt in terror attack in heart of Tel Aviv

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THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

ClassiďŹ eds

Observation

17

January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

18

Turkey, terror, tirades: Paris attacks, Erdogan By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org The European Union has announced it is partnering on counter-terrorism projects with Middle East countries — including Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, and the Gulf states — in the wake of the Islamist terror attacks in Paris at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket. But is Turkey a suitable partner for that initiative? Turkey’s inclusion in the EU’s counter-terrorism plan comes despite longstanding reports of jihadists using the Turkish border to cross into countries where they join Muslim terrorists. In particular, a Turkish ofďŹ cial recently admitted that Hayat Boumeddiene —girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly, the Kosher supermarket terrorist — had crossed into Syria through Turkey. Boumeddiene was being pursued by authorities as a suspected accomplice in the attack. Since Boumeddiene was not listed on any no-y list, there is no way that Turkey could have known to watch her, according to Michael Koplow, program director of the Israel Institute think tank. But at the same time, Koplow said, “There’s no question that Turkey has turned a blind eye in a lot of ways to the rise of ISIS (Islamic State) in Syria ‌ and jihadists who [are] crossing into Syria over their border.â€? “In the past few months it seems that Turkey has tried to crack down on [these] jihadi highways to Syria a bit, but it’s difďŹ cult,â€? Koplow told JNS.org. “Turkey has an extremely long border with Syria. It’s nearly impossible to police all things, so people are going to get through.â€? Turkey, added Koplow, “doesn’t seem to recognize the extent of the [border] problem, or at least doesn’t want to acknowledge it.â€? Western nations, and Israel in particular, should be concerned that Turkey is “clearly supporting radical extremist groups in the Middle East, be it in Syria, in Libya, among the Palestinians, [or] of course, helping Hamas,â€? said Efraim Inbar, a professor of political studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA). Turkey is hosting the new Istanbul headquarters of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that governs Gaza. Additionally, the Paris terror attacks have elicited a series of inammatory comments about the Jewish state by Turkish ofďŹ cials. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu last week accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing “crimes against humanityâ€? equivalent to the Paris attacks, citing Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas last summer and the 2010 Gaza otilla incident (in which Israeli forces were attacked by Turkish militants aboard the Mavi Marmara vessel and subsequently killed nine of those militants). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Netanyahu for attending the Jan. 11 mass anti-terrorism rally in Paris, accusing the Israeli prime minister of carrying out “state terrorism.â€? Additionally, a member of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Ibrahim Melih GĂśkçek, promoted an anti-Israel conspiracy theory when he told a gathering of youths that because Israel is angry with France for supporting a recent Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations, it is “certainâ€? that Israel’s Mossad spy agency is behind the Paris attacks. Israel is “bewildered that the U.S. and the Europeans allow a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member [such as Turkey] to behave in such a way, but we see the inability of the Americans and Europeans to call a spade a spade,â€? Inbar told JNS.org. The Israeli-Turkish relationship has been deteriorating since Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza from 2008-09. Erdogan publicly chastised Israeli president Shimon Peres in 2009 during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, saying, “When it

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comes to killing, you (Israel) know well how to kill people.â€? The Gaza otilla incident further strained Israel-Turkey ties, but Koplow cautions against the notion that their relations were bright before 2008. “Israel and Turkey had a strong relationship in the 1990s,â€? but it was mainly a military relationship. When the AKP party ďŹ rst came to power in Turkey in 2002, it sought to address Western skepticism about its rise and presented “a very moderate frontâ€? during its ďŹ rst term, meaning it did not “rufe any feathersâ€? internationally nor antagonize Israel. But when AKP was re-elected in 2007, its foreign policy became more outward facing and Turkey became more involved in Middle East issues, in part by brokering talks between Israel and Syria or the Palestinians. Erdogan began to support the Palestinian cause, largely due to the desire to expand Turkey’s global footprint. “There’s this idea oating around that Israel and Turkey were steadfast allies up until the AKP. I’m not sure that’s an accurate picture,â€? Koplow told JNS.org. Nevertheless, Turkey and Israel “were never at each other’s throats until the late 2000s and the AKP,â€? he said. Koplow explained that opposing Israel has political beneďŹ ts for the AKP. “Turkey is in the middle of what has essentially been a two-year election cycle,â€? he said. “There were local elections last spring, there was a presidential election last summer, and there are parliamentary elections coming up this summer as well. In the context of that, it plays very well for the AKP base to bash the Israelis and to play up the AKP’s ‘nationalism’ by going after Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu.â€? But Dr. Harold Rhode, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute think tank and the former Turkish Desk OfďŹ cer at the U.S. Department of Defense, views the current Turkish leadership’s stances within the prism of religion rather than politics. “Erdogan is an Islamic fundamentalist who is anti-Western and anti-American,â€? Rhode told JNS.org, noting that both Erdogan and Prime Minister Davotoglu “grew up in what are called Imam-Hatip schools, which are religious schools in Turkey that preach a form of Islamâ€? that is “doctrinaire.â€? That doctrine, explained Rhode, teaches that “Islam is the

only way.â€? The modern Turkish republic was founded by Mustafa Kemal AtatĂźrk, who tried create a secular geographic entity. Before AtatĂźrk formed what is today known as Turkey, the Ottoman Empire promoted Sunni Islam there—and while AtatĂźrk had some success in secularizing Turkey, Rhode described a mistaken tendency in the West to “think that once AtatĂźrk snapped his hands, that all Turks began to think in a different way.â€? Islamic fundamentalists ďŹ rst came to power in Turkey in the 1990s under prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, who Rhode called “the intellectual godfather of President Erdogan, former president Adbullah Gul, and the present Prime Minister Davotoglu.â€? “Erbakan tried to re-Islamify the society quickly ‌ but the military overthrew him by what the Turks call an ‘e-coup’ (electronic coup),â€? said Rhode. Erbakan’s failure taught Erdogan not to confront secular authorities and risk immediate defeat; therefore, Erdogan’s method was “slowly but surely to push, and push, and pushâ€? Islamization, Rhode said. In Rhode’s estimation, Erdogan was always “a vicious antiSemiteâ€? and very intolerant of religious diversity in general. “I speak Turkish and I have a personal experience standing with him [waiting to be introduced to Erdogan by a friend], when he thought I was just one more dumb American bureaucrat, and he had no idea I was understanding exactly what was going on in the conversation. ‌ One of his advisors and he are having a discussion ‌ and all of a sudden he blurted out, ‘Alevi (another branch of Islam) KĂśpek.’ KĂśpek means a dog, which is a horrible thing to call someone in Turkey,â€? Rhode recalled. America chose “to put its head in the sandâ€? about Erdogan’s true views—as did many past Israeli leaders—while Erdogan “pulled a fast one on the outside worldâ€? and on many Turks “who desperately wanted to see him as an Islamic reformer,â€? said Rhode. Yet despite their diplomatic dysfunction, trade between Israel and Turkey is at an all-time high. Last July, a report in Haaretz cited Israeli Ministry of Economy ďŹ gures showing that Israeli exports to Turkey in the ďŹ rst four months of 2014 had climbed nearly 25 percent (to $949.2 million) from the same period in 2013. Israel’s imports from Turkey grew to $956 million over that span, a 21 percent from the ďŹ rst four months of 2013. Neither Israel nor Turkey has an interest “to stamp out trade between the two countries because it beneďŹ ts both economies,â€? especially because Turkey is not energy independent, the Israel Institute’s Koplow told JNS.org. “Below the government level ‌ there’s been a lot of effort to try to ďŹ gure out a way for Israel to export natural gas to Turkey,â€? he said. On the political level, BESA’s Inbar believes there is “a struggle over the soul of Turkey within Turkey.â€? “This is an issue of identity, [of] where Turkey is going,â€? he said. “I am not optimistic, but there is a possibility that maybe the more Western elements of Turkish society will gain the upper hand, and then of course we will see entirely different relations between Turkey and Israel, and Turkey and the West.â€? Rhode is even less optimistic, offering an analogy on the increasingly contradictory behavior of the Turkish government. He quoted the Turkish satirist Aksakalli from the 1940s: “Turkey is like a ship, a big ship, where the captain and crew are leading the ship to head westward while the boat is traveling full speed ahead eastward.â€? “That summarizes Turkey very well,â€? Rhode said.

Lebanon freaks over Israeli selďŹ e at Miss Universe

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JERUSALEM — Explosive confrontations are nothing new for Israel and Lebanon, but the latest spat between the longtime foes is perhaps the ďŹ rst to have been caused by an alleged photo-bomb. A seemingly innocuous selďŹ e at the Miss Universe pageant in suburban Miami has sparked criticism in Lebanon because it featured a smiling Miss Lebanon alongside Miss Israel. The Israeli beauty queen, Doron Matalon, posted a picture of herself with colleagues from Japan, Slovenia and Lebanon on her Instagram account.

Matalon said the joint photo was genuine and was saddened that Greige was under ďŹ re at home. “I hope for change and I hope for peace between us, and even just for three weeks, just between me and her,â€? she told NBC News. “We need to remember that we represent the country and the people, not the government and not the political issues.â€? Under ďŹ re from critics angered by her fraternizing with the enemy, Greige took to Facebook to defend herself. “The truth behind the photo: Since the ďŹ rst day of my arrival to partici-

pate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me),â€? she wrote. “Suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selďŹ e, and put it on her social media.â€? In a statement, the Miss Universe Organization said “it is unfortunate to know a photo of four smiling women from different parts of the world, working together at an event, could be misconstrued as anything other than what it is, a celebration of universal friendship.â€?

19

KUWAIT pop. 2.6M

ISRAEL LEBANON pop. 4.1M

(Judea & Samaria)

pop. 2.1M TUNISIA pop. 10.7M

SYRIA pop. 22.5M

GAZA STRIP pop. 1.7M

IRAQ pop. 31.1M

MOROCCO pop. 32.3M ALGERIA pop: 37.4M

BAHRAIN pop. 1.2M

pop. 7.9M WEST BANK

THE JEWISH STAR January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775

David? Goliath?

who is who is

LIBYA pop. 5.6M

IRAN pop. 78.9M

EGYPT pop. 83.7M SAUDI ARABIA pop. 26.5M OMAN pop. 3.1M

The Jewish News Service (JNS.org) was created to correct that. Our weekly reporting, including exclusive distribution rights for Israel Hayom, Israel’s most popular daily, now appears in 31 Jewish weeklies. We invite you to join us in getting the truth out about Israel. To receive our FREE weekly newsletter go to jns.org/ subscribe-to-our-newsletter today!

jns

JORDAN pop. 6.5M

QATAR pop. 1.9M YEMEN pop. 24.8M

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES pop. 5.3M

.org

jns.org/subscribe-to-our-newsletter

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There’s no lack of media coverage on Israel, the Middle East’s sole democracy with civil rights and a free press. What is lacking is objective coverage. This tiny Jewish nation, the size of New Jersey, with less than eight million people, a quarter of them non-Jewish, generally receives inaccurate, harsh, even hostile coverage from the world’s press.

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January 23, 2015 • 3 Shevat 5775 • THE JEWISH STAR

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