The Jewish Star

The JEWISH STAR TheJewishStar.com

Mispatim • Feb. 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779 • Torah columns pages 18–19 • Luach page 18 • Vol 18, No 4

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Jews for BDS cross red line

Boston leads the way in severing ties with Jewish groups that reject Israel

Rabbi Avromy and Sternie Super recently moved to the Caribbean to open Chabad of St. Lucia.

Life’s a beach for Jews on tropical St. Lucia isle Chabad.org When Yaniv and Marcia Gliksman and their children moved a few years ago to St. Lucia — an idyllic island nation nestled among the Windward Islands at the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea — they found warm waters, inviting beaches and tropical forests.

While the towering Pitons — St. Lucia’s

iconic twin volcanic spires — offered scenic vistas, a Jewish community was considerably harder to find.

“We baked bread at home for Shabbat and did not have meat for [the first] several months,” said Yaniv Gliksman, a general manager for Diamonds International. More See St. Lucia on page 23

By Sean Savage, JNS The decision by the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) that any member organization supporting the BDS movement could be expelled from the council has generated a wider discussion among Jewish leaders as to where to draw red lines when it comes to Israel.

The action is seen as setting a red line for the Jewish community to where it should stand on certain issues. In this case, Jewish groups that partner with or embrace antiZionism are viewed as outside of the Jewish “big tent.”

The JCRC’s resolution, adopted overwhelmingly by a vote of 62-13 with eight abstentions, resolves that no member group “shall partner with — in particular by cosponsoring events primarily led or co-led by, or by signing on to statements primarily organized or co-organized by — a self-identified Jewish organization that declares itself to be anti-Zionist.”

The resolution was primarily in response to a move by one of its members, the Boston Workmen’s Circle, in supporting a petition circulated by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace group, that criticized efforts by supSee BDS on page 4

Brandeis Shabbat

Perla Akerman, a Nursey 2 student at the Brandeis School early childhood center in Lawrence, practices lighting candles for Shabbat with her teacher, Erica Fuchs.

Hebron: City without a solution

In Hebron’s history museum, a memorial to the victims of the 1929 massacre, and at the Me’arat HaMachpela, a woman prays at Sarah’s kever. The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

Commentary by Jonathan S. Tobin Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to extend the mandate of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) observers is likely to be denounced as yet another obstacle to peace, as well as being politically motivated. Critics are probably not wrong about the latter point, as Netanyahu is in full campaign mode, hoping to compete for the votes of Israelis who are either residents of Judea and Samaria or their sympathizers. But the idea that the TIPH is a force for peace misunderstands the nature of the problem in Hebron.

After more than 20 years, the TIPH has proven to be anything but temporary. The group was created in 1997 as part of a follow-up agreement to the Oslo Accords signed

by Netanyahu during his first term as prime minister.

Though his critics continue to promote a false narrative that after his 1996 victory he destroyed the peace process begun by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, Netanyahu kept negotiating with the Palestinians. He allowed the Palestinian Authority partial control over Hebron, and he signed the Wye River Memorandum with then PA leader Yasser See Hebron on page 2

A member of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron in the Jewish district last November. The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

Hebron...

Continued from page 1 Arafat that withdrew Israeli forces from part of the city and expanded the TIPH. But as with every other element of the Oslo Accords, that effort to calm the explosive situation in Hebron failed.

While Palestinians and their supporters complained that the TIPH was powerless to resist both the Israeli Defense Forces and the Jewish settlers in Hebron, Israelis saw it as a biased group that supports efforts to evict Jews from the city. In the last year, two filmed incidents in which TIPH staff were seen letting the air out of the tires of a car belonging to a Jewish resident and slapping a 10-year-old Jewish boy raised the hackles of the Israeli government.

In a complex conflict in which both sides have narratives in which they see themselves as victims and their opponents as irremediably hostile and violent, no place reinforces those stereotypes as much as Hebron.

The city of David was home to a Jewish community since ancient times. But in 1929, an Arab pogrom — instigated by Palestinian leader Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who falsely claimed that Jews were planning on harming the mosques on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount — forced the Jews out after an orgy of rape and murder left 67 Jews dead. Jews didn’t immediately return after 1967, when Israeli forces captured the city.

In 1968, Jews sought to reclaim lost Jewish property, including synagogues, and the government eventually allowed them to build a nearby settlement, Kiryat Arba. But settlers refused to be kept out of the city that housed the ancient shrine of the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs — or Me’arat Hamachpelah, which tradition states is the burial place of Abraham, and other biblical patriarchs and matriarchs — and moved into the city in 1979. Thus began the anomalous situation in which a tiny Jewish community (now numbering around 700, including

More than 200,000 Arabs control virtually all of Hebron. The small area where 700 Jews lives is surrounded by the Arab city, a portion of which is seen here from a Jewish rooftop.

The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

about 150 yeshiva students) exists in a city extremely hostile Arabs (the total Arab population is over 215,000).

The restoration of the Jewish community in Hebron is in a place where Jewish nationhood can be said to have begun. But it has also suffered a long list of terror incidents.

Unfortunately, the violence has not been a one-way street. In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a Brooklyn-born Jewish resident, went to the tomb and murdered in cold blood 29 Palestinians.

Goldstein, who was himself killed by some of the survivors of his murderous assault, became something of a hero to Jewish extremists. Like Palestinian murders of Jews, his act of terrorism only fed a mutual narrative of delegitimization and hate that continues to fuel the conflict to this day.

••• The conflict in Hebron is one where both sides can be said to be right and wrong. Palestinians are still determined to drive Jews out of their small enclaves on historically Jewish-

owned property in the city, as well as from the tomb. Yet it’s also true that the security needed to defend the Jews there makes it difficult for Palestinians to live normal lives inside parts of the city.

As for the Jewish residents, they are defending Jewish rights and history by being there — their presence making it clear that Jews will not go back to the pre-1967 situation, when they were forbidden from entering the Machpelah and going past the seventh step of the tomb.

Yet it must also be admitted that if the Arabs of Hebron are among the most radical in the West Bank, then so, too, are the Jews there reputedly among the most radical in the settler movement.

As anyone who has visited the city can attest, while the place resonates with history, it also sizzles with tension as the two sides live uncomfortably close to each other in a toxic brew of anger and violence. While the TIPH was supposed to be a calming influence, it merely supported the Palestinians against the Jews.

Jewish Star Editor Ed Weintrob visited the Me’arat HaMachpela in November.

In that sense, Hebron is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in microcosm. If there is to be peace, then both sides must recognize each other’s right to be there — something that the Palestinians seem unwilling to do. But by the same token, if Jews want to live in Hebron, they can’t think of the 200,000 Arabs there as interlopers and the several hundred Jews as the only legitimate residents. Given the historic significance of Hebron, physically separating the two communities is impossible. Either way, Palestinians can’t remain stuck in their 100-year-old war on Zionism, which simply encourages the far smaller number of Jewish extremists.

In the end, the solution for Hebron involves a commitment to mutual coexistence. Whatever one may think of the hopes that were initially placed on the TIPH, living and working together needs to be done by Jews and Arabs themselves, not by biased observers that have no real stake in Hebron’s future.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.

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Rabbi Yehiel Kalish attends the swearing-in of his sister Dafna Michaelson Jenet at the Colorado House of Representatives in Denver, on Jan. 11, 2017.

journey in which she visited each of the 50 states to meet with people making a difference in their communities. She kept a blog documenting her experience, which caught the attention of writer Maya Angelou, who interviewed her about the initiative on Oprah Radio.

In 2015, while working on a book about her trip, Michaelson Jenet ran into a local politician who suggested she run for office. A year later she defeated the Republican incumbent, JoAnn Windholz, by an 8 percent margin. She was reelected last year, both times earning the endorsement of President Barack Obama.

Michaelson Jenet draws inspiration from Judaism. She recalls that as a 14-year-old, her parents and their friends would have passionate discussions around the Shabbat table about the challenges in Cincinnati. She was troubled, however, that they didn’t take action when the day of rest had come to an end.

“I truly believed that they had the answer to the problems that I cared strongly about, that were plaguing our community, and they didn’t fix them,” Michaelson Jenet told JTA in a phone interview last year.

She pledged to never complain about problems unless she was willing to solve them. It’s a promise she called “a driving factor” in her life.

Her legislative focus — helping struggling children — stems from the difficulties of her now teenage son, Eytan. He has a severe learning disability, and Michaelson Jenet believes the fact that he could not get an individualized education plan in school contributed to his attempted suicide at age 9. She has introduced bills to help children obtain mental health services, expand free school lunches and provide sexual abuse prevention training to early childhood providers.

Though her family was Orthodox, Michaelson Jenet remembers struggling with her faith since she was young. Another challenge came when she met her now-husband, who is not Jewish.

“Why do you put this man in my life who isn’t Jewish and is the best thing that ever happened to me? Clearly he’s my bashert,” she remembers asking God on a visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, using the Yiddish word for soulmate.

Their marriage led to several family members cutting ties with her. Michaelson Jenet calls her husband, Michael, “the greatest enabler of my faith.”

Michaelson Jenet said her younger brother’s run for office came as no surprise.

“My run for public office surprised my family, but my brother’s selection was a long time coming,” she told JTA in an email. “I always knew he’d enter public service when the time was right and Illinois is so lucky to have him. I look forward to mentoring him and learning from him as he grows in his legislative work.”

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By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Only days after being sworn into the Illinois House of Representatives, Rabbi Yehiel Kalish paid a visit to Israel. The father of six said he needed guidance from rabbis in the Jewish state to serve in his new role.

“The immediate reaction of the Chicago political world was ‘Orthodox rabbi chosen for seat in state legislature,’” he told JTA on Wednesday in a phone interview from Jerusalem.

“So that immediately put a microscope on me, and I felt pressure taking the position to begin with, and with that added to it, I felt I needed a little bit of help, so I jumped on a plane [to] give a little bit of strength to my prayer by being in Israel.”

The 43-year-old rabbi, who was appointed to serve in the position after Rep. Lou Lang announced his resignation earlier this month, also has a source of guidance a bit closer to home.

Just a few state lines over, he can consult fellow local lawmaker Dafna Michaelson Jenet, who has been serving in the Colorado House of Representatives since 2017.

Michaelson Jenet is Kalish’s older sister, and he says they have been talking every day since he took office.

“She can be helpful because she’s two years ahead of me, that’s one thing,” Kalish said. “The other thing is that I have someone that I can talk to about stuff. That’s awesome.”

Jeffrey Wice, the executive director of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, told JTA that he believes the pair are the first Jewish siblings to concurrently serve in different state legislatures since his organization’s founding in 1977.

The siblings, who grew up in Cincinnati, are Democrats. Kalish is deeply involved in the Orthodox world and Michaelson Jenet attends two Conservative synagogues. They are united by their commitment to serving their communities and the inspiration they draw from Judaism.

Kalish wakes up at 4 a.m. each day and spends two hours studying Jewish texts before doing the morning prayers.

“It keeps you focused on what’s important,” he said. “To try to keep values important, try to remember that you’re not alone in this world and you have to care for others.”

After receiving his rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, in 1999, Kalish spent three years studying Jewish texts at the Cincinnati Community Kollel and then took a job at Agudath Israel of America, an organization that lobbies on behalf of the haredi Orthodox community. He worked there for 12 years, serving as Midwest Regional director and vice president for development and state relations.

In 2014, he left the organization to co-found a consulting firm, but he remains a member of its board of trustees. Kalish also is involved in Achiezer, a group that provides aid to struggling members of the Orthodox community, and coordinated its hurricane relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy. He also serves as the cantor of Congregation Shaarei Tzedek Mishkan Yair in Chicago.

His district is about 30 percent Orthodox Jewish, he told JTA, and includes Skokie and Rogers Park.

As a lawmaker, he is passionate about issues that matter to the Orthodox community, including support for private religious schools and community nonprofits. But he’s also eager to learn more about other communities in his district — it has large Asian, Assyrian Christian and Muslim populations — and said he is “starting a listening tour” to hear about their concerns.

Kalish says he met recently with representatives from the Chicago Teachers Union and Planned Parenthood.

Like her brother, Michaelson Jenet, 46, took an unconventional path to politics. In 2008, she quit her job at a hospital to embark on a yearlong

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THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

Frum brother, sister make political history

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Fighting BDS: Israel’s existence is not negotiable…

Continued from page 1 porters of Israel to “target organizations that support Palestinian rights, particularly the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement.”

David Bernstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella group of Jewish community relations network made up of 125 community relations councils and 17 national Jewish agencies, said his organization fully supports the move by the Boston JCRC. “[It] is very in line with what JCPA would do as well. We would not support an organization that openly embraces BDS or denies Israel’s right to exist, coming or staying in our network,” he told JNS. Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Great Washington, applauded the work of Boston JCRC and its executive director, Jeremy Burton, for navigating such a loaded issue.

“I have tremendous respect for Jeremy and the Boston Jewish community — one of the leading and most innovation JCRCs the country. Over the years, they have tackled very difficult issues, and I’m sure the decision was done in an inclusive manner and a thoughtful manner,” he said.

Barry Shrage, who served for more than 30 years as president of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies and is now a professor at Brandeis University, told JNS he was “very proud” of the decision made by the JCRC. ‘Precedent’ for Jewish community Shrage believes that the decision by the Boston JCRC may set a precedent for the wider Jewish community on how to handle decisions by member organizations that may partner or align with groups that are deemed anti-Israel, anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic.

“It allows for everyone to take a look at

the issues in a series way,” he said. “I think it should set a precedent; I don’t think many communities would have a problem with it.”

Nevertheless, Halber contends that each Jewish community and its representative organizations are unique — both geographically and demographically — and what occurred in Boston may be different than what other communities face.

“I think that often when a certain JCRC takes an action, that question [of precedent] naturally comes up. The reality is that JCRCs — whether part of a federation or on their own — are autonomous and represent their own communities,” he said.

He added that it does “provide guidance if this situation replicates itself in the future.

Does that necessarily mean if Boston went one way that every other JCRC would follow suit? Not necessarily.”

Halber, who said that his own community hasn’t really had to contend with one of its own members aligning or partnering with an anti-Zionist group, said that this could indeed be a future challenge.

“This is a very new thing, and the situation they dealt with was rather unique. Time will tell whether it really is a local thing that Boston had to deal with or whether something other JCRCs could extrapolate from.”

For its part, the Boston Workmen’s Circle slammed the resolution, saying in a statement by its board of directors that the decision “conflicts with traditional Jewish values that respect diversity of opinion and encourage robust, honest and inclusive dialogue.”

“It sets a dangerous precedent of condemnation by association by placing a political litmus test on Council membership based on partnerships.”

Judaism changing in America The Jewish community has always wres-

tled with its place in American society. Like many other religious groups in the country over the years, it has become increasingly secular and assimilated into the broader American culture.

As such, leaders have attempted to grapple with how to maintain a Jewish identity amid this trend.

Shrage explained that it’s important for the Jewish community to be both particularistic and universalistic in its approach.

“The Jewish community can be particularistic with a concern about Israel, Jewish identity and Jewish education, but at the same time, to be universalistic and express concern about immigrants, human rights and related issues,” he said. “Our credentials as a community that cares deeply about tikkun olam and the world are clear, but that doesn’t mean giving up our own claim on our own identity and our claim on Israel. Those things are not to be sacrificed.”

“The bottom line is we are a community that is Zionist,” he said. “And we are happy to welcome anyone in our tent that is straightforwardly Zionist. We are here to fight for its [Israel’s] existence; we believe in its existence and we believe in what Israel means to the Jewish people and our struggle over thousands of years. That is not negotiable.”

Nevertheless, in recent years there has been growing concern regarding how Jewish communities should handle both Jewish individuals and organizations that are avowedly anti-Zionist.

In 2018, the Jewish community in Durham, NC, came under scrutiny for employing activists with Jewish Voice for Peace.

Additionally, groups such as IfNotNow — an anti-Israel group that has drawn headlines for pushing the Palestinian narrative at Jewish summer camps, as well as accosting Birth-

right groups at airports — have many members who are graduates of very same Jewish institutions, including summer camps, Birthright and campus groups that they now seek to question, undermine or even abolish.

Similarly, Boston Workmen’s Circle, which has deep roots in socialism that was prevalent among early Jewish immigrants from Europe, has now taken on a mantle of extreme progressive politics that has become a bridge too far for most of the mainstream Jewish community.

“I think this is most painful for JCRC because in a way, the Workmen’s Circle is a storied organization with their focus on the disappearing secular Yiddish culture and their outreach to individuals who may not have chosen other forms of Jewish education,” noted Shrage. “But on the other hand, when they choose to align themselves with inherently anti-Israel or anti-Zionist or non-Zionist groups, it means that they chose not to be part of what is virtually a wall-to-wall Zionist commitment of the Jewish people.”

Halber said groups such as the JCRC do not seek to be the thought police of the Jewish community.

“We are here to broaden the table, to bring people into the community and provide a space for them. I deal with everyone from the Americans for Peace Now to CUFI [Christians United for Israel]. And I have no problem working with both groups. That’s a testament to the broad table and nuance we are able to bring,” he said.

Shrage added that Judaism has many different components — religious, spiritual, social — but that is also has a deep commitment to the idea of a Jewish people.

“There are 7 million Jews living in Israel.

Anything that endangers them really endangers every part of the Jewish identity.”

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By Noa Amouyal, JNS In the 1990s show “Beverly Hills 90210,” student body president Brandon Walsh is torn between placating his university’s Black Student Union after they invite a Louis Farrakhan-type figure to address the campus, and his best friend Andrea Zuckerman, who feels threatened by the speaker’s history of anti-Semitic remarks.

Heated words are exchanged, protests ensue, and the tension on campus is thick.

What may have been a moment of fiction on a TV show more than 25 years ago is now the reality on many college campuses. With well-regarded universities inviting controversial figures like former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Holocaust-denier David Irving, and, most recently, at the University of North Carolina, Asheville campus, Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory, pro-Israel advocates are galvanizing to counter what they perceive as an uptick of anti-Semitism in higher-education settings.

The Anti-Defamation League reported that anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses have nearly doubled to 204 in 2018, from 108 in 2016.

In the face of these developments, advocating for Israel can seem an uphill battle.

“I already knew I loved Israel, but I did have trouble explaining to people the complexities of life here and why an ‘answer’ to problems in the Middle East is not as simple as people think they are or wish them to be,” said Leor Clark, a junior in Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Clark was one of the dozens of students who visited Israel this month as part of the Hasbara Fellowships Training program — an intensive, 16-day trip to Israel where students are given the tools to battle misinformation spread against Israel and the Jewish people on college campuses.

In Clark’s school, for example, leaflets with swastikas were found last year near the Jewish student center.

“Our goal is for them to come back to campus

Hasbara Fellows visit an indoor playground in Sderot in Israel’s south, a city in the cross-hairs of Hamas rocket fire.

as ambassadors for Israel, and to educate and inspire their campus communities,” said Robyn Frum, Hasbara Fellowships managing director.

Fellows also learn on the trip to contend with student groups like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, which condemn Israel’s government and side unilaterally with Palestinians. While the former does not have a unified position on the BDS movement, the latter openly supports it.

These organizations are savvy, well-organized and know how to get their message across, both in college campuses on in the media. Now, pro-Israel activists want to do the same.

“We don’t have the same level of experience as students who fight for Palestine, which is a legitimate cause. They are more effective communicators,” David Shraga, a Hasbara Fellow and junior at Santa Monica College told JNS. The prevalence of these groups on campus has caused division among Jewish students and is another confusing element in what is already a very complicated subject to wade into.

“IfNotNow and other organizations like them are prevalent on a lot of college campuses, and students have to deal with that. It’s difficult be-

cause when you have a bunch of students supporting BDS and Jewish students supporting BDS,” said Frum.

What used to be an anomaly is now a growing trend on some campuses. “Over the years, I’ve seen more Jewish students support BDS, and that’s quite problematic. It used to be a situation with Jewish students being tokenized for their opinion, but we’ve seen it’s no longer tokenization because there are a number of Jewish students supporting BDS,” she added.

While students were given advice how to be prepared to counter aggressive, anti-Israel rhetoric, the focus of their training was on building strong, human-to-human relationships with their fellow students — and not go on the attack.

“We tell students that 95 percent of the time they should really focus on educating and inspiring their communities, and controlling the message they want to communicate,” advised Frum.

“Five percent of the time, though, they need to focus on anti-Israel propaganda.”

Taking a page from the social-justice and intersectionality playbook, Hasbara Fellows have learned that speaking from the gut brings results.

“I’ve learned to make your stories personal.

That’s something that can’t be taken away or denied. Oftentimes, these groups talk about their experiences and emotions,” said Shraga. “So if I come to the table with my own personal stories, I think that can be an effective tool.”

From visiting the Gaza border to listening to Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, a reporter from The Jerusalem Post, the students amassed a treasure trove of stories to take home with them.

“There were very different perspectives. We met with people on the right and the left, and some anti-Zionists who didn’t believe Israel had a right to exist,” said Hasbara Fellow Ysbella Hazad of Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec. “It wasn’t a brainwashing trip. They let you learn and explore and gain hands-on experience, which lets you make up your own mind.”

“I just tell it as it is,” Toameh told JNS. “I say look, ‘Here are my impressions. There’s something wrong going on with the other side. It’s easy to blame Israel, but we have to look what’s happening on the other side as well.’”

Which is why when the students visited the site where Israeli American Ari Fuld, 45, was stabbed to death by a terrorist, they listened intently as local citizens recalled the incident.

From the security guard on duty to the woman minding the falafel stand nearby, they spoke in detail about the tragedy that unfolded. It was a chilling moment that Clark will not soon forget.

“Our trip leader was one of the eyewitnesses when it happened and he told his story, and I’ve never been so in shock about the reality here and how close it hits to home,” said Clark. “Suddenly, all the emotions I’ve felt throughout the trip hit me at once, and I felt helpless for a moment. But then I felt hope. Life goes on in Israel, despite constant threats from all sides, and I know that going home and defending the country that I love on my campus will be the greatest mission I could have right now.”

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THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

Students given tools to battle anti-Israel lies

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Lost Yiddish songs win Grammy nominations

By Penny Schwartz, JTA BOSTON — In the despair of the Soviet Union’s fierce World War II battles against the Nazis, a 42-year-old Jewish man from Odessa wrote a song in Yiddish poking fun at Hitler’s failures to seize control of Ukraine’s coal and oil resources.

“On the High Mountain,” written by Veli Shargorodskii about the war experience in 1943-44, ends with the words “Germany is in trouble, Hitler is kaput!”

The satirical song was among hundreds collected during the war by Moisei Beregovsky (1892-1961), a Russian-Jewish ethnomusicologist and Yiddish scholar. Beregovsky led a team of colleagues and volunteers for the Kiev Cabinet for Jewish Culture, a department of the Ukrainian Academy of Science.

Beregovsky and his colleague Ruvim Lerner (1912-1972) planned to publish an anthology of the collected songs. But after the war, their hope was dealt the cruel blow of Stalin’s vicious anti-Semitism. In 1950, Beregovsky was arrested, convicted of Jewish nationalism and jailed for five years. Soviet authorities confiscated his monumental collection, and he and Lerner died believing their work had been destroyed.

Now, following a series of unlikely events, these songs, presumed lost to history, were rediscovered and have been brought back to life in Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II (Six Degrees Records).

The recording has been nominated for a Grammy Award, among five finalists in the world music category.

The winners will be announced on Feb. 10 in a live broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Yiddish Glory is among the fewer than a handful of Yiddish-language recordings to have been honored by the Recording Academy. The Klezmatics scored a Grammy in 2007 for best

contemporary/world music album; at the time, awards in world music were divided between traditional and contemporary. In 1982, the Klezmorim were nominated for best ethnic album.

Yiddish Glory represents a multiyear, ambitious undertaking led by Anna Shternshis, a professor and scholar of Soviet and Yiddish culture at the University of Toronto, and Pavel Lion, a Russian-born musician and scholar of Yiddish literature who goes “Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II,” includes by the pseudonym Psoy Korolenko.

Produced by Dan Rosenberg, the 18 tracks by Jews in the Soviet Union and Ukraine. Anna music was arranged by Sergei Erden- Shternshis, a scholar of Russian and Yiddish studies, led the ko, acclaimed as Russia’s greatest liv- creation of “Yiddish Glory” based on her work with Moisei Beregovsky’s archive nearly lost to history.

Roman Boldyrev ing Roma violinist.

They gathered an all-star band Shternshis learned about the material by including Juno Award-winning vocalist Sophie chance in the early 2000s, when she was doMilman, a Jewish jazz performer based in Cana- ing research at the Vernadsky National Library da who was born in Russia. of Ukraine in Kiev, where librarians discovered The recording, hailed on scores of best of Beregovsky’s collection in unmarked boxes in the 2018 album lists, includes 18 tracks. The exten- 1990s. sive liner notes include lyrics for all the songs in She recognized the find as a historical and English and Russian translation, as well as fasci- cultural treasure trove. nating background material and archival images.

“I was shocked on so many levels,” said Jews from all walks of life wrote the first-per- Shternshis, recalling when she delved into thouson lyrics — from Jewish Red Army soldiers and sands of pages of yellowed, sometimes tattered refugees to victims and survivors of Ukrainian paper with typed or handwritten lyrics. Steeped ghettos. They ring with defiance, revenge, love, in the history of Russian Holocaust literature and hope and Jewish humor. music of the region, she was incredulous that she Shternshis was stunned by the Grammy nom- didn’t recognize a single song. ination. “Given the whole history, where it all The songs were notably distinct from music started … it’s unbelievable,” she told JTA in a from Vilna, Warsaw and Lodz, with references to phone interview.

Stalin and the Soviet Union.

It is an extraordinary tribute to Beregovsky “The music had no parallels,” Shternshis said. and his colleagues, who risked their lives and Only about 10 percent of the songs included suffered consequences for their dedication to musical notation. Some referenced or gave hints Jewish culture and memory, said Shternshis, of popular tunes of the times. the director of the University of Toronto’s Anne After Korolenko immersed himself in the Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. material, a process he described as “musical ar-

chaeology,” he took a leap of faith to compose or adapt melodies, sometimes drawing on popular or folk music.

“On the High Mountain,” the first song, leads with the soulful call of David Buchbinder’s trumpet. The lyrics are a nod to an old Yiddish counting riddle; Korolenko’s lively melody recalls that famous folk tune.

Several songs offer ground-level, vivid descriptions of the massacres in Babi Yar, Tulchin and Pechora in Ukraine.

“Mames Gruv” (My Mother’s Grave) is a child mourning the death of his mother sung by Isaac Rosenberg, Shternshis’ son, who was 11 at the time of the recording. He is beyond thrilled that he’ll be attending the Grammys, said Shternshis, who has to miss the ceremony.

The fifth cut, “Mayn Pulemyot” (My Machine Gun), describes a Jewish soldier’s pride at using his machine gun to kill German soldiers.

“Shelakhmones Hitlern” (Purim Gifts for Hitler) strikes a lighter note in comparing Hitler with Haman, the villain of the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Milman brings smooth, sultry vocals to “Kazakhstan,” a cabaret-style ode of gratitude to the land where a quarter-million Jewish refugees survived. It’s the only song on the album in which Erdenko composed a new tune, combining Roma, Yiddish and Romanian styles. The song is deeply personal for Milman, whose grandmother survived as a Soviet Jewish refugee in Kazakhstan, and for Erdenko, as a tribute to the Roma who were also victims of the Holocaust.

Rosenberg, the project’s producer, often thinks about the composers who took pen to paper, many of whom were killed during the Holocaust.

“They felt it was important to try to share their personal stories, their warnings against fascism, and their dreams for a better future in the faint hope that these stories would someday be heard,” he wrote in an email.

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Wine & Dine

Healthy chia recipes that go beyond pets Kosher Kitchen

Joni SChoCKeTT

Jewish Star columnist

U

ntil recently, my only knowledge of chia seeds came from those commercials about those silly pets. You smeared wet seeds on a clay planter, and chia grass grew.

Today, we know lots more about chia seeds.

They are the new superfood, loaded with nutritional compounds that are known to be healthful. These crunchy, tiny seeds have lots of protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidants, and an amino acid called alphalinolenic acid, which helps hair, skin and nails stay healthy and may help increase athletic endurance, energy and overall health.

Many people feel it is one of the most beneficial foods available and, as a result, it is becoming increasingly popular — especially among athletes, dieters, and those seeking healthier additions to their daily food plan.

Chia seeds were used by the Aztecs in many dishes, as far back as 3500 BCE. The most popular usage was a gruel of chia seeds which were roasted and ground into a flour, added to corn flour and mixed with water. After the gruel was used, leftovers were allowed to thicken and were then formed into loaves and roasted over an open fire. In addition, chia oil was used to heal skin irritations, to beautify and moisturize dry skin and as a base for Aztec body paints.

Chia seeds are non-GMO, gluten-free, and anti-allergenic, meaning there is no known allergy to chia. It is very versatile and can be used in anything from chia pudding to muffins, meat loaf, cakes, salads, and even for facials!

The seed has relatively little flavor on its own, but becomes nutty when roasted. The texture it crunchy, so it is a good ingredient to mix into homemade granola. You can simply sprinkle it on your cold or hot cereal and reap the benefits or make some delicious recipes using them in all forms. It is very filling and many people use the filling seed to help with weight loss.

You can add chia seeds to almost any dish in which crunch will be acceptable. The seeds do not lose their crunch, even in liquid.

Simple Chia Gel (Pareve) This may sound a bit strange, but this powerful gel can be used in lots of recipes. Keeps in the

fridge for two weeks.

1 cup cool water 2 Tbsp. (scant) chia seeds.

Mix the chia into the water and whisk briskly with a wire whisk for about 10 seconds. Let sit 3 to 4 minutes and whisk again. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes and whisk again. Cover and refrigerate. Use as needed within two weeks.

Chia French Toast (Pareve or Dairy) 6 to 8 thick slices of your favorite bread or challah 3 extra-large eggs 3/4 cup plain or vanilla yogurt or milk or almond milk 1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 3 Tbsp. pure maple syrup 1-1/2 Tbsp. chia gel Additional pure maple syrup for drizzling.

Place the bread on a tray to dry for several minutes. Whisk the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, maple syrup and chia gel together in a large bowl.

Heat a skillet and coat with cooking spray, butter, or margarine.

Soak the bread slices in the egg mixture coating both sides.

Cook the slices of French toast until golden brown, flip and repeat until golden on both sides. Serve with a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Makes 6 to 8 slices, or 3 to 4 servings.

Chia Seed Morning Blueberry Muffins (Dairy or Pareve) 1 stick butter or trans-fat-free pareve margarine 1/2 cup light brown sugar 2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large eggs 3/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt 2 cups plus 2 tbsp. unbleached flour 1/3 cup chia seeds 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 to 3/4 cup blueberries or other fruit like chopped apples, or bananas 1/2 cup chopped walnuts OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup grated carrot or zucchini OPTIONAL TOPPING: 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 cups finely chopped walnuts or other nuts. Mix together.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12cup muffin tin with paper cups and spray each cup with non-stick spray. Set aside.

Place the butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and yogurt and mix until smooth and blended.

In another bowl, mix the flour, chia seeds, baking soda, nuts and blueberries. Remove the mixing bowl from the stand and, using a fork, blend the dry ingredients into the wet ones just until blended. Do not over-mix. Add the carrots or zucchini, if using. Mix. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full and sprinkle with the cinnamon topping. Bake until golden, about 15 to 25 minutes.

Let cool slightly. Makes 12 muffins.

Chia Caesar Salad Dressing This tastes like Caesar dressing with a bit of a crunch.

2 to 4 Romaine hearts, torn into bite sized pieces 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese 1 to 2 cloves garlic 2 Tbsp. chia gel 3 to 4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Drop Tabasco sauce 2 tsp. Dijon style mustard 1 (scant) tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste Place the garlic, chia gel, cheese and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add the Tabasco, mustard and Worcestershire and pulse to blend. While the machine is running, pour the oil through the feed tube.

Once emulsified, turn off the machine. Pour into a bowl and add salt and pepper and taste. Adjust lemon juice and other ingredients to taste.

Toss some of the dressing with the romaine, add croutons, sprinkle with grated parmesan and serve. Cover and refrigerate remaining dressing.

Use within one week. Makes about 1 cup.

Chia Chocolate Pudding (Pareve) 1/2 cup chia seeds 1/4 to 1/3 cup pure cocoa powder 2-1/2 cups coconut milk or almond milk 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup maple syrup 2 Tbsp. dark brown sugar OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup grated bittersweet chocolate Place the cocoa and the chia seeds in a large bowl and mix well. Add the coconut milk or almond milk, the vanilla, maple syrup, and brown sugar and whisk thoroughly until completely blended. This may take 1 to 3 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Remove the bowl and whisk again until smooth. Add the grated chocolate, if desired, and, if you like divide into separate bowls. Refrigerate for another 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with chocolate curls, whipped cream or mint leaves. Serves 2 to 4.

9 THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

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Wine & Dine

Jewish women baking challah: Instagram stars

By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Mandy Silverman remembers being scared of the kitchen as a child.

“There was a constant joke in my house growing up that I would mess up instant iced tea,” she recalled in a phone interview with JTA last month.

But a glance at her Instagram feed reveals how things have changed. Her more than 15,000 followers have come to rely on her to post photos of mouthwatering and whimsical challah creations, with flavors such as red velvet and marshmallow hot chocolate.

Since starting Mandylicious Challah in 2013, Silverman has seen her enterprise grow both locally — delivering some 50 loaves every week in Sharon, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb — and internationally, dispensing challah-baking advice to people as far away as France, Peru and Thailand.

She spends about two days baking every week and an additional half a day making deliveries on Friday before Shabbat.

Silverman, 40, is among a growing number of home bakers making a business out of their love of all things challah. Most post their interpretations of the traditional braided Shabbat and holiday loaves on social media, and reach local customers through word of mouth.

Silverman is self-taught. The Orthodox baker started baking challah 11 years ago and started to experiment by decorating loaves with sprinkles and stuffing others with meat.

In October 2013, at the urging of her friends, she started selling the challah locally.

A month later, for Thanksgiving, Silverman posted a photo on social media of a turkey-shaped challah with a pumpkin-flavored tummy. The photo was shared widely, leading people from nearby states to drive to Massachusetts to get their hands on one.

“Somehow that picture got very popular, so my business got very recognized,” she said.

Since then, Silverman has been slowly gaining customers.

“This year I got all the way to 250 [orders] for Rosh Hashanah,” she said. “At that point, I was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I hate telling people no.”

Elina Tilipman, left, and Sarah Klegman founded Challah Hub.

Silverman sells her loaves for $5 to $18, depending on flavor and size. But she says money isn’t the reason she does it.

“It’s enough that I feel like it’s worth my time, but it’s definitely not the main source of income for my house,” said Silverman, whose husband works in marketing. “The payment is so much more than money. It’s helping people, being a part of their lives.”

Though her customers are local, the Instagram page has allowed her to connect with others around the world who share her passion, such as Lissette Grobman and Lilianne Braun, two Miami women who recently started selling challah in their community. The pair started Hamsa Challah in November and now sell 150 to 200 challahs a week with flavors such as zaatar, Nutella and cinnamon.

Kayla Kaye, the founder of The Kitch, is a bit further along than Grobman and Braun.

The Oceanside, New York resident takes orders for some 75 to 100 loaves every week and delivers to her town as well as to West Hempstead and the Five Towns. Kaye, 36, sells an array of flavors — from a savory barbecue loaf with crispy onions to sweet ones

Sally Claire Photography

such as pumpkin spice and s’mores.

Though she has amassed more than 3,300 followers on Instagram since founding her company in 2013, Kaye mainly relies on word of mouth. Her home kitchen is at maximum capacity.

“If I was really at a point where I was ready to grow my business, have additional help and work in a different facility and make it a larger scale project, I probably would use Instagram more as an advertising vehicle,” said Kaye, who balances her challah business with a parttime job in sales at Madelaine Chocolate.

Though most of her customers are Orthodox, like her, there are plenty of exceptions. Kaye recently had a number of orders from non-Jews who wanted challah bread for Christmas.

“People love challah, especially in New York where there is such diversity as far as culture and religion and food that you can eat from all different parts of the world,” she said.

Most of Sarah Klegman and Elina Tilipman’s customers are non-Orthodox Jews.

The Los Angeles-based pair are behind Challah Hub, a hip initiative through which they

host host challah-centered events, sell challahthemed merchandise, and deliver unique flavors of challah such as matcha tea and bageleverything spice with turmeric.

Since meeting in 2013, Klegman, 31, and Tilipman, 34, have experimented with different flavors and ways of selling challah, including by hosting pop-up events and delivering loaves in collaboration with the ride-sharing app Uber.

A year ago they partnered with a local bakery, Continental Kosher. Once a month, the shop bakes challahs following Klegman and Tilipman’s recipe that are sold through Challah Hub for $10 to $15.

Finding the right flavors also took some trial and error.

Klegman recalled a mac-and-cheese challah that sounded delicious in theory but turned out less than stellar.

“I was like ‘How did I ruin two of my favorite things?’” Klegman said. “The cheese kind of absorbed into the challah in a weird way, and it sort of became these squishy noodles.”

Though the pair has more than 12,000 followers on Instagram, social media backing doesn’t always translate to sales. One time, Klegman recalled, they did a video for BuzzFeed that received over 10 million views but only resulted in 10 new customers.

“One in a million is not really good odds,” Klegman said. “Right now people come to us to see great pictures of challah, they come to us for recipes, they love going to pop-ups and buying from us in person, but our slow burn has been figuring out how to translate those people and our community there to customers.”

The pair charge $10 to $15 for challahs, depending on the flavor, but they, too, say money isn’t what keeps them going.

“The things that get us through the stuff that’s more challenging, or more time consuming, or more of a learning process, are the look on someone’s face when they try a bit of our mint chocolate chip challah for the first time,” Klegman said. “It’s being able to know that all around L.A. there are Shabbat tables with our challah in the center of it.”

Chickpea Bolognese is a hearty meat-free dinner

By Emanuelle Lee, The Nosher Winter months require a steady stream of comfort food for survival. But the start of the year also brings a time when people are more health-focused, perhaps even cutting their meat intake.

This hearty pasta dish doesn’t compromise on flavor, while using chickpeas instead of ground beef, turkey or lamb. I suggest treating these versatile little beans as you would treat half a pound of ground meat by browning and seasoning well. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how delicious, hearty and meaty this spaghetti really turns out, and let’s face it — that’s exactly what you are craving, right?

Ingredients: 4 Tbsp. olive oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 onion, finely chopped 1 medium carrot, washed and grated finely 1 celery stalk, very finely chopped 7 oz. cooked or canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed if canned 14-oz. can of plum tomatoes 2 Tbsp. tomato paste 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. chili flakes 1 Tbsp. brown sugar 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar 1/2 cup red wine Salt and pepper 1 bay leaf 2 sprigs thyme

Grated Parmesan cheese (optional) 1 lb. spaghetti Directions: Heat half of the olive oil in a medium pot. Add the garlic and onions, along with the chili flakes, and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until softened slightly. Add the chickpeas and sauté for 10 minutes. Allow the chickpeas to soften a little bit and start to mash them and break some of them apart with a spoon or fork, leaving some of them still intact.

Add another Tbsp. of the olive oil and allow the chickpeas to brown lightly, stirring occasionally.

Add the carrot and celery and mix well. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes.

Then add the canned tomatoes and break them apart with a spoon. Add the vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and wine, allowing it all to evaporate and absorb into the vegetable mixture.

Add the bay leaves and thyme and leave to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt and pepper and leave to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the bolognese is thick and has darkened.

Cook the pasta 2 minutes less than directed on the packet, reserving 1/4 cup of the hot pasta water. Drain the pasta and mix with the bolognese sauce along with the pasta water. Mix on low heat until the sauce has once again thickened, about a minute.

Top with the remaining olive oil and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Serves 4.

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School News

Send news and hi-res photos to Schools@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline Monday 10 am

DRS boys put to test Rabbi Dovid Willig’s DRS Gemara shiur was given an oral bechina on seven blatt of Bava Metziah by Rav Meir Twersky at YU. Past students have been tested by Rav Mordechai Willig, Rav Tzvi Sobolofsky and Rav Hershel Schachter, and Lander College for Men Rosh Yeshiva Rav Yonasan Sacks.

Islanders at HANC It was an exciting morning at HANC Plainview as the New York Islanders School Assembly Program, led by hostess Dina and their mascot, Sparky the Dragon, visited to talk about teamwork, healthy lifestyle choices, and making smart decisions. A video presentation featured members of the team, and all the students received a very special take-home gift.

The visit was the idea of fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Jenny DeMeo, an Islanders fan. The smiles on students’ faces throughout the program proved it was indeed a special day.

8th grade shabbaton at HAFTR HAFTR’s 8th Grade Shabbaton began with a Friday morning football tournament for the boys and an ice skating trip for the girls.

Students returned to school for candlelighting, a lively Kabbalat Shabbat, and a Leil Shabbat Seudah. Rabbi Hulkower spoke about our role in Jewish continuity, and the evening ended with an Oneg for parents and students. Shabbat day consisted of Kiddush, lunch, fun activities and culminated with an address by Mr. Ben Brafman, who encouraged the students to lead lives as proud Jews who personify good middot and make a Kiddush Hashem wherever they go.

Blended learning comes to HALB What happens when you combine neuroscience research, state of the art interactive software, and the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach?

For the past five years, HALB has partnered with 2Sigma Education to implement a blended learning educational model leveraging the power of technology to provide students with individualized instruction. Students independently use the software during math and language arts, and the data generated by their work is then analyzed to provide one-on-one or small group intervention and enrichment based on their needs.

Among the programs used by 500 students in K-4th Grade is STMath, a visually based math program designed by Mind Research Institute, a neuroscience research institute at the University of California Irvine.

Hebrew Academy of Long Beach hosted Matt Feldman, Vice President of Product at Mind Research Institute, who said, “Over the years, we have noticed HALB’s innovative, data-driven methods in using STMath to personalize instruction. There is no other school using our program with such sophistication.”

During his visit Mr. Feldman observed classrooms, received feedback from students and witnessed firsthand the data-driven educational model implemented at HALB. He also met teachers and administrators to commend them for their great work, as well as discuss some of the challenges for students and teachers.

Sharing his observations with teachers and administrators, Mr. Feldman remarked, “You hear a lot of talk across the country about using technology and data to individualize learning for every student, but at HALB it’s actually happening.”

Brandeis STEAM

The Brandeis fourth grade was visited by the New York Audubon Society and learned about local nesting birds on our shore lines.

After creating signs to teach beachgoers to “share the shore,” students visited the nesting areas. In the art program, students learned to use art apps on school iPads to create self-portraits and edit photos in the camera app.

Top Orthodox mental health experts visit Touro grad school Touro College Graduate School of Social Work students pursuing careers in mental health networked and learned from top Orthodox professionals in the field at the 22nd annual conference

of NEFESH International, held at the Hyatt Regency in Hauppauge.

“Since Touro’s founding over 50 years ago, Touro has taken a leadership role in building Klal Yisrael,” said

Dr. Steven Huberman, founding dean of Touro’s Graduate School of Social Work. He said that the school “addresses each and every day the mental health challenges facing all of us.

Through our extensive support of the NEFESH mental health network, we give our graduate students the opportunity to learn practical skills from Orthodox mental health experts that will

help them throughout their social work careers and serve their communities.”

NEFESH, a global network and training association of Orthodox men-

See Touro on page 13

Touro...

13 THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

Continued from page 12

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tal health professionals, rabbis and educators, brought together a record number of participants this year, including 18 students enrolled in Touro’s Master of Social Work program.

The Touro students interacted with leaders of major organizations in the Orthodox community.

They heard from renowned rabbis and therapists who shared knowledge, techniques, studies, statistics and advice at over 30 workshops and presentations. Among the many topics covered were trauma, marital and family relationships, the interplay between religion and psychotherapy.

“I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It was very informative and it was nice to get to know fellow students and therapists,” said Yisroel Meir Miller, a first-year MSW student from Lakewood. “I felt part of the Jewish mental health community.” Miller works with children on the autism spectrum at Brainbuilders, an agency in Lakewood, and hopes to work with children who suffer from anxiety.

Rabbi Akiva Adelman, another first-year MSW student, was similarly moved. “I was extremely impressed with the resources available to the students and professionals,” he said. Originally from Queens, Adelman lived in Israel for ten years.

Since returning to the United States two years ago, he has been interning as a case manager at Shlomie’s Club in Boro Park, which helps young men who have lost a parent.

“I saw while teaching at the yeshiva in Israel that there is a need for social work expertise and skills to deal with today’s teens and young adults as we help prepare them for life,” he said. At Shlomie’s Club that has been reinforced. “I see needs [that] if I were skilled enough, I could take care of some of their situations without sending them out.”

Both students said the highlight of the conference for them was a packed session entitled “Judaism and Mental Health,” led by Rabbi Elya Brudny, rosh yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn. “He spoke about how to view mental health from an Orthodox religious perspective,” Miller said.

Rabbi Brudny said Orthodox mental health professionals should see their work as opportunities to help others rather than as a source of income, which, while important, should be peripheral to giving, a fundamental precept to Judaism.

“Rabbi Brudny said clinicians should take some time every day to pray for their clients. He said we know [clients’] pain and we wish we could help them more but we should at least take some time every day just to pray for them,” said Miller.

Included among the well-known speakers were Rabbi Moshe Weinberger of Aish Kodesh in Woodmere; Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president, emeritus, of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Dovid Cohen; and Alan Singer, Ph.D., LMSW and Touro Graduate School of Social Work Director of Jewish Community Outreach, Men’s Division.

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Anti-haredi Jerseyites: We’re not anti-Semitic

By Ben Sales, JTA The video, with suspenseful music playing in the background, opens with footage of a crowd of Orthodox Jews. Then it paraphrases a classic poem about the Holocaust. “First they came for my house, but I did not speak up,” the narrator says. “I said I am not willing to sell, and closed my door. … Then they came for my forests, but I did not speak up, because I thought I had no vested interests in the forests.”

It’s a riff on the Martin Niemoller work lamenting inaction in the face of Nazi atrocities.

But the video, posted this month, isn’t denouncing Nazis. Instead its villains are Orthodox Jews looking to move to Central New Jersey suburbs.

“The process by which Lakewood was lost was a simple one and has been seen in other parts of the Northeast over the last few years,”

the description below the video says, referring to a nearby city with a large haredi Orthodox community and rapid population growth. “Offer generous amounts of money to acquire existing homes through pressure sales, build new homes at the expense of the environment, elect a majority to governing bodies and sieze [sic] control.”

The group behind the video is Rise Up Ocean County, which aims to galvanize residents to stop Orthodox families from buying real estate around Lakewood. It says it mobilizes locals to attend town meetings. Rise Up Ocean County, whose leaders are anonymous, wrote in an October statement that it does not want the quiet, comfortable suburbs to go the way of Lakewood.

Lakewood, known as a center of haredi Orthodox life in the United States, has seen its population boom, from around 60,000 in 2000 to

more than 100,000 in 2017. Local officials have predicted that by 2030, the number will more than double, according to the Asbury Park Press.

As the city grows, Orthodox families seeking space have moved to neighboring towns like Toms River or Jackson. The expansion has created a backlash from some non-Orthodox neighbors, who often say their objections are about zoning, housing density and local support for public schools. Rise Up Ocean County insists its objections are about “quality of life,” not religion.

“We acknowledge that corruption of our political system has allowed development in Lakewood at an unprecedented rate and frankly in an unsafe manner,” the group’s statement said.

“What has occurred is tragic, we exist to insure that what has happened there cannot happen elsewhere in Ocean County. We already see signs

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February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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in the northern part of Toms River, southern part of Howell, eastern part of Jackson and western part of Brick … and beyond. IT MUST STOP!” Local Jewish leaders acknowledge that the population spike has posed challenges, like clogged streets and scarce parking. The local school district runs large deficits because it receives funding only for the 6,000 kids who attend public school, but must provide buses for the additional 30,000 who attend private schools.

Nevertheless, the Jewish leaders call Rise Up Ocean County’s rhetoric anti-Semitic.

“It’s a vicious group that’s trying very hard to put a genteel veneer on their deeply anti-Semitic agenda,” said Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a spokesman for the Lakewood Vaad, a local Jewish communal organization. “Using the most vile anti-Semitic methods reminds us of a very dark period of Jewish history.”

In anonymous emails, Rise Up Ocean County agreed to answer written questions from JTA but later reneged.

On its Facebook page, the group repeatedly denies that it is anti-Semitic. And in a post written following the video paraphrasing the Holocaust poem, the group wrote, “We certainly did not intend to draw a moral equivalency between the holocaust and current events in Ocean County. What took place under Nazi rule will forever be known as the greatest human tragedy in the history of mankind …” The video is still up.

The organization claims that it is concerned about what happens when any one ethnic group exercises too much power.

“Whenever a particular group, whether … orthodox Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, black, hispanic, or white exercises complete control over any one element of government it is a danger,” the page says. “Human nature is for that group to advance their own agenda, often times at the expense of the populace.”

Weisberg and others have said that the way the group singles out haredi Jews and generalizes about them is hateful. Another video, posted to Rise Up Ocean County’s YouTube channel, shows a photo of an unidentified group of Orthodox Jewish men with the subtitle “It’s not about religion.” The video then shows an extended shot of unidentified Orthodox children before warning that population trends could destroy the area’s “quality of life.”

Comments on the group’s Facebook page are crude. On one post showing a photo of a local Orthodox real estate agent, a commenter wrote, “They already own so much property over there!

I don’t understand where the money comes from if more than half are on welfare?!!! (I do understand, believe me).” Another wrote “build the wall around Lakewood,” garnering 11 “likes.” A third wrote “Unbelievable. These animals.”

Drew Staffenberg, the executive director of the local Jewish federation, said communal leaders have been in touch with law enforcement regarding the group. The Rise Up Ocean County group has more than 4,000 likes, and Staffenberg says it represents a fringe of the local population, which is generally open and accepting.

“I think his rhetoric spews hate,” Staffenberg said, referring to the anonymous administrator of the Facebook group. “It’s anti-Semitic. I don’t think there’s a question about that. The law enforcement are monitoring this. It’s really one guy and a few other people trying to stir up trouble.”

The real estate agent mentioned in the post, Abba Deutsch, said the Facebook page does not reflect his day-to-day interactions with residents of Toms River, where he lives and works. He said he never hears anti-Semitic comments while soliciting properties and has good relations with his neighbors regardless of religion.

Deutsch said that he, like other haredi residents of the city, was drawn by its quiet streets and relatively spacious homes. “The majority of the people in Toms River are very welcoming and very nice,” he said. “It’s just a couple of clowns who go on Facebook and make noise.”

Deutsch said that people moving to Toms River don’t want to live in high-density housing.

“They want nice, proper houses,” he said.

“They want to live the American dream like the rest of Americans.”

Last year, President Donald Trump signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today Act, which requires the State Department to monitor the activities of European countries on the subject and report their progress to Congress.

Last year, 59 U.S. senators signed a letter protesting proposed legislation in Poland that would have made it even more difficult for most survivors to claim property. The bill eventually was withdrawn.

In 2014, 50 British lawmakers protested in a letter how “Poland stands out in its failure to fulfill — or even recognize — its responsibility to victims.”

In 2016, as part of legislation that was trying to close old moribund claims in Warsaw, the municipality was required to announce that there were still pending claims, many of which

dated to the immediate postwar period. This related to 2,613 properties that had been claimed in the past but where the procedure was never completed.

Once the city announces a claim’s reopening, claimants have only six months to act. Taylor of the Claims Conference says it’s an unreasonably short period of time for claimants and heirs to meet the requirements for original and notarized documents for assets lost decades ago to people who are often no longer alive.

Only about 300 cases have been opened, resulting in no compensation for any claimant. The city recently stopped reopening cases.

In Warsaw, some claimants now have hope of following a restitution procedure — however flawed it may be — but outside the capital “there are no means to recover property,” Taylor said,

except for a handful of cases where claimants can prove that the original process of confiscation was somehow technically flawed.

That’s bad for countless claimants and for Polish-Jewish relations, which last year deteriorated because of government legislation that made it a crime to blame the Polish nation for what happened to its Jews in the Holocaust.

Taylor argues it’s also harmful for Poland itself. “For any society, not resolving major property issues and having them remain open for decades into this era, that’s not a positive place to be,” he said.

“The problem isn’t going away, and the question that Polish governments need to ask themselves is whether they want to continue having long-term ownership challenges going into the future.”

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By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA Lily Widner has cheated death too many times to remember each close call.

The 97-year-old Jewish Floridian survived starvation in the ghetto of her native Polish city of Lodz, two Nazi death camps and one of humanity’s worst aerial bombardments.

By the end of World War II, she was the sole living member of her nuclear family of six.

Widner’s remarkable ability to survive is one reason that her family was outraged to learn recently that Polish authorities in 2010 issued a death certificate for her. She not only is alive but actively fighting in Polish courts for restitution of her family’s assets in Lodz.

After issuing the death certificate, authorities also declared that Widner has no heirs, voiding her restitution claims — despite the fact that she has a son whose existence is known to Polish authorities, documents seen by JTA indicate.

“I think it’s a travesty,” Mark Widner, Lily’s son, told JTA about the pronouncement of his mother’s death by Lodz authorities. “I don’t think it was an honest mistake.” He cited an ongoing restitution trial, dating back to decades-long efforts by his mother to retrieve family property.

The City of Lodz and Poland’s Interior Ministry have not replied to JTA’s requests for comment on the case. As with many claims, part of the problem may have been that Widner, née Miriam Goldring, had changed her name (Polish authorities have been made aware of that).

But to some activists seeking restitution for Jewish property in Poland, Widner’s case is indicative of systemic failures in the Polish restitution process. Its critics say it is Kafkaesque, ineffective and insensitive to survivors.

Widner’s case is “not atypical,” Gideon Taylor, the chairman of operations of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, told JTA. “The bigger picture is that the Polish court system does not act in the interest of justice,” said Brian Kramer, a Florida-based lawyer who is representing Widner and specializes in restitution claims in Poland.

Despite pledges to compensate Holocaust survivors for property first stolen by the Nazis and then confiscated by Polish authorities, post-communist governments in Poland “have constantly been putting hurdles before claimants, and Mrs. Widner’s case epitomizes this,” he said.

Restitution is a painful subject across Europe, but Poland is often singled out for criticism because it is the only major country in the former communist bloc that has “not passed any comprehensive legislation to return private property confiscated by the Nazis or nationalized” by the communists, Taylor said.

Hania Rosenberg, an 84-year-old Polandborn survivor from Sweden, has been fighting for years for restitution for her family’s property in Ledziny, near Krakow. She described her fight as a “carousel.”

“You go around and around and around and around,” she told The New York Times in 2017.

“You have to produce the documents that they need, and then it’s not enough. There are always more documents you need to provide.”

Even families with the required documents, like that of Yoram Sztykgold in Israel, are waiting indefinitely until Polish authorities agree to accept their claims.

It’s a policy with large-scale implications for restitution in a country that had 3.3 million Jews before the Holocaust — by far the largest Jewish population on the continent.

The magnitude of property stolen — estimated in the billions of dollars — is among the reasons that the issue of restitution is divisive and frightening to many in Poland, which is one of the European Union’s poorest nations. It also raises considerable resistance in a nation where 3 million non-Jews died in World War II and whose nationalist government rejects any notion of local culpability for the fate of Jews.

And, finally, acknowledging that Jews have a case for restitution risks setting a precedent for other populations whose property was stolen, principally churches and the Polish nobility.

Notwithstanding, pressure on Poland is mounting.

Photo by Christina Daly

THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

To Shoah survivor Lily Widner, 97, Poland is dead

15

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So that s the Nassau County Tax Assessment roll?

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computing it so far.

…but you can stop them.

The Nassau County Administration wants lawmakers to approve a “Five Year Phase In” for tax assessment changes. But the plan is a poison pill for the county’s working middle class because if you are owed a reduction or a refund you won't get it for years. In fact, you will continue to pay a higher tax rate during the “phase in” period.

Contact your state lawmaker and tell them:

Coalition to Protect Nassau Taxpayers 1225 Franklin Avenue Garden City, NY 11530

“The Five Year Phase In is a trap that will cost me money.”

protectnassauhomes.com also on Facebook 1018599

February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

The next reassessment mistake by the Nassau County Administration is being made in Albany…

+19.04

16

U.S.C. ss 1811 et.seq., with regard to real property under Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC) receivership.

The County Treasurer reserves the right, without further notice and at any time, to withdraw from sale any of the parcels of land or premises herein listed. The Nassau County Treasurer reserves the right to intervene in any bankruptcy case/litigation where the property affected by the tax liens sold by the Treasurer is part of the bankruptcy estate. However, it is the sole responsibility of all tax lien purchasers to protect their legal interests in any bankruptcy case affecting their purchased tax lien, including but not limited to the filing of a proof of claim on their behalf, covering their investment in said tax lien. The Nassau County Treasurer and Nassau County and its agencies, assumes no responsibility for any legal representation of any tax lien purchaser in any legal proceeding including but not limited to a bankruptcy case where the purchased tax lien is at risk.

The rate of interest and penalty at which any person purchases the tax lien shall be established by his bid.

Each purchaser, immediately after the sale thereof, shall pay to the County Treasurer ten per cent of the amount for which the tax liens have been sold and the remaining ninety per cent within thirty days after such sale. If the purchaser at the tax sale shall fail to pay the remaining ninety per cent within ten days after he has been notified by the County Treasurer that the certificates of sale are ready for delivery, then all amounts deposited with the County Treasurer including but not limited to the ten per cent theretofore paid by him shall, without further notice or demand, be irrevocably forfeited by the purchaser and shall be retained by the County Treasurer as liquidated damages and the agreement to purchase shall be of no further effect. Time is of the essence in this sale. This sale is held pursuant to the Nassau County Administrative Code and interested parties are referred to such Code for additional information as to

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terms of the sale, rights of purchasers, maximum rates of interest and other legal incidents of the sale.

Furthermore, as to the bidding, 1. The bidder(s) agree that they will not work with any other bidder(s) to increase, maintain or stabilize interest rates or collaborate with any other bidder(s) to gain an unfair competitive advantage in the random number generator in the event of a tie bid(s) on a tax certificate. Bidder(s) further agree not to employ any bidding strategy designed to create an unfair competitive advantage in the tiebreaking process in the upcoming tax sale nor work with any other bidder(s) to engage in any bidding strategy that will result in a rotational award of tax certificates.

2. The tax certificate(s) the Bidder will bid upon, and the interest rate(s) bid, will be arrived at independently and without direct or indirect consultation, communication or agreement with anyother bidder and that the tax certificate(s) the Bidder will bid upon, and the interest rate(s) to be bid, have not been disclosed, directly or indirectly, to any other bidder, and will not be disclosed, directly or indirectly, to any other bidder prior to the close of bidding. No attempt has been made or will be made to, directly or indirectly, induce any other bidder to refrain from bidding on any tax certificate, to submit complementary bids, or to submit bids at specific interest rates.

3. The bids to be placed by the Bidder will be made in good faith and not pursuant to any direct or indirect, agreement or discussion with, or inducement from, any other bidder to submit a complementary or other noncompetitive bid.

4. If it is determined that the bidder(s) have violated any of these bid requirements then their bid shall be voided and if they were the successful bidder the lien and any deposits made in connection with said bid shall be forfeited.

Dated: January 18, 2019 THE NASSAU COUNTY TREASURER Mineola, New York 106473

Place a notice by phone at 516-569-4000 x232 or email: legalnotices@liherald.com

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Nassau County does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission to or access to, or treatment or employment in, its services, programs, or activities.

Upon request, accommodations such as those required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to participate in all services, programs, activities and public hearings and events conducted by the Treasurer’s Office.Upon request, information can be made available in Braille, large print, audio-tape or other alternative formats.

For additional information, please call (516) 571-2090 ext. 1-3715.

Dated: January 18, 2019THE N A S S A U COUNTYTREASURER Mineola, NewYork _____________________ TERMS OF SALE Such tax liens shall be sold subject to anyand all superior tax liens of sovereignties and other municipalities and to all claims of record which the County may have thereon and subject to the provisions of the Federal and State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Acts.

However, such tax liens shall have priority over the County’s Differential Interest Lien, representing the excess, if any, of the interest and penalty borne at the maximum rate over the interest and penalty borne at the rate at which the lien is purchased.

The Purchaser acknowledges that the tax lien(s) sold pursuant to these Terms of Sale may be subject to pending bankruptcy proceedings and/or may become subject to such proceedings which may be commenced during the period in which a tax lien is held by a successful bidder or the assignee of same, which may modify a Purchaser’s rights with respect to the lien(s) and the property securing same.

Such bankruptcy proceedings shall not affect the validity of the tax lien.

In addition to being subject to pending bankruptcy proceedings and/or the Federal and State Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Acts, said purchaser’s right of foreclosure may be affected by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act(FIRREA),12

1009606

LEGAL NOTICE PUBLIC NOTICE OF NASSAU COUNTY TREASURER’S SALE OF TAX LIENS ON REAL ESTATE Notice is hereby given that commencing on February 19th, 2019, will sell at public on-line auction the tax liens on certain real estate, unless the owner, mortgagee, occupant of or any other party in interest in such real estate shall have paid to the County Treasurer

by February 14th, 2019 the total amount of such unpaid taxes or assessments with the interest, penalties and other expenses and charges against the property.

Such tax liens will be sold at the lowest rate of interest, not exceeding 10 percent per six-month period, for which any person or persons shall offer to take the total amount of such unpaid taxes as defined in Section 5-37.0 of the Nassau County Administrative Code.

Effective with the February 2019 lien sale Ordinance No. 175-2015 requires a $175.00 per day registration fee for each person who intends to bid at the tax lien sale.

Ordinance No. 175-2015 also requires that upon the issuance of the Lien Certificate there is due from the lien buyer a Tax Certificate Issue Fee of $20.00 per lien purchased.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Nassau County Administrative Code at the discretion of the Nassau County Treasurer the auction will be conducted online. Further information concerning the procedures for the auction is available at the website of the Nassau County Treasurer at: https://www.nassaucountyn y.gov/526/County-Treasurer Should the Treasurer determine that an in-person auction shall be held, same will commence on the 19th day of February 2019 at the Office of The County Treasurer 1 West Street, Mineola or at some other location to be determined by the Treasurer.

A list of all real estate in Nassau County on which tax liens are to be sold is available at the website of the Nassau County Treasurer at: http://www.nassaucountyny .gov/DocumentCenter/View/ 17674 A list of local properties upon which tax liens are to be sold will be advertised in this publication on or before February 14,2019.

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17 THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

LSTA1 0201

‫כוכב של שבת‬

SHAbbAT STAR

February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

18

Mishpatim’s mitvot and the center of Jewish life Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi biLLet Jewish Star columnist

M

ishpatim is one of the more prolific parshiot in terms of mitzvot. Close to 10 percent of the mitzvot of the Torah are in Mishpatim.

What sometimes gets lost in translation is the mitzvot’s focus. Since we view shul as essential to our daily and weekly existence, we somehow get the impression that shul ritual is where most of our day-to-day mitzvot are observed. In that sense, owing to how we conduct synagogue ritual in the Orthodox community, sometimes the feeling is that our community is more male than female-centered in terms of religious obligation.

This would certainly be a valid argument if Judaism were all about the wearing of a tallis and tefillin, and the reading of the Torah and leading the prayers in a minyan.

But here is the secret: Judaism is not centered or focused on the shul. The shul is a means to fulfill a small number of mitzvot in a more special atmosphere, in the presence of a minyan.

It helps elevate davening, but one can pray almost anywhere. It gives those who go daily a mini-structure to the day, but having set times for tefillah can give anyone structure. It gives us a forum to fulfill our mitzvah of reading from the Torah, but full-blown Torah study is available to everyone with a Chumash.

Beyond that, shul is not where the center of Judaism and Jewish practice lies.

It lies in the home. It lies in the world. It lies in how people deal with one another.

It is in the settling of disputes that inevitably rise. hen two people get married, we don’t bless them that they have a great shul life. We say, “You should build a bayis ne’eman b’Yisrael.” A house of faith, of trustworthiness, where G-d is placed on a pedestal, and how people behave and act defines our values.

That’s the difference between middot (model behavior) and mitzvot (fulfilling commandments) as well.

Some mitzvot contain in them good middot. Consider the following mitzvot: Sharing with the needy, standing for the elderly, loving your neighbor, loving the stranger. Mitzvot in general are meant to help us develop our mid-

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dot, to have awareness of our surroundings, our goals in life, our relationship with G-d, and how that relationship is supposed to inform our development as a good person.

And Parshat Mishpatim is a great example for this. How many of the mitzvot in Mishpatim deal with shul? Maybe one. “Three times a year all your remembrances shall appear before the Master, Hashem.” This refers to going up to Jerusalem during the holidays, when there is a Temple. But there is no Temple today.

What follows are mitzvot many of us can relate to on a regular basis.

•Not to strike or curse our parents.

•Not to hit anyone in a manner that may lead to their death. The responsibility to compensate people for injuring them. If your property causes someone else damage, you must pay for it.

•Don’t oppress the stranger, or widow or orphan — these are, in some cases, the most vulnerable people in our society. They need to be treated warmly, welcomed as a part of things.

•Not to tell stories about people — lashon hara, slander, true or false — aimed at bringing people down.

One can pray almost anywhere.

Careers for nice Jewish children Rabbi DR. tzvi heRsh WeinReb Orthodox Union

W

hat do you want to be when you grow up?”

That was once the standard question to ask an eight- or nine-year-old when trying to make conversation. Somehow, every child had an answer, which ranged from “fireman” to “football player” to “nurse.”

It seems to me that we don’t ask that question of children these days, at least not as frequently as we used to. Perhaps we are afraid to pressure them. Or perhaps ambition is no longer viewed as a positive value, as it once was.

The fact is that our tradition does value ambition if it leads to some positive goal. A career that helps a person support himself and his family is one such goal. A career that serves the community is another.

Which careers are especially valued by the Torah? This week’s Torah portion, Parshat Mishpatim, provides us with an occasion to reflect upon one highly valued career, serving as a judge.

Our parsha begins with the verse, “These are the rules that you shall set before them.” Rashi understands the phrase “before them” to mean that questions regarding these rules must be adjudicated by Jewish judges familiar with the rules outlined in the ensuing chapters.

Already in last week’s parsha, Yitro, we learned that Moses saw the role of judge as one of his leadership responsibilities. Only at the advice of his father-in-law did he assign it to a hierarchy of others. Judgeship is thus one of the first careers prescribed by the Torah.

The Talmud has something to say about just how noble a career judgeship is, and in the process recommends several other excellent career paths for “nice Jewish boys.” I am referring to the following passage in the tractate Bava Batra 8b, which in turn interprets two biblical verses: “‘The knowledgeable will be radiant like the

bright expanse of sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever’ (Daniel 12:3). ‘The knowledgeable’ are the judges who adjudicate the law with absolute truthfulness, as well as those who serve the community as trustees who distribute charity (gabba’ei tzedakah). ‘Those who lead the many’ are the schoolteachers of young children…

“And as for Torah scholars? To them, the following verse applies: ‘May His beloved be as the sun rising in might’ (Judges 5:31).”

There we have it. Four admirable careers are set forth by the Talmud: the judiciary, distribution of charity, primary education, and Torah scholarship. osafot, the collection of commentary in the margin of every page of Talmud, suggests that there is a rank order to these “careers.” Starlight is less bright than “the bright expanse of sky.” This implies that schoolteaching is less praiseworthy than acting as a judge or gabbai tzedakah, whereas the Talmud scholar, who is compared to the sun, ranks highest.

Other commentaries interpret the text differently. One interesting approach is taken by the 19th-century rabbi of Lyssa, Rabbi Yaakov Loberbaum, known for his masterwork on civil law, Netivot HaMishpat. He objects to the approach taken by Tosafot. After all, he asks, “Our eyes can see that the stars are brighter than the ‘expanse of the sky,’ and what connection is there between judges and gabba’ei tzedakah that allows us to compare both of them to the celestial expanse?”

His answer is most instructive: “There are materials which are colorless, but which reflect whatever color shines upon them.

An example is glass. It has no color of its own.

Shine a red light upon it, and the color red is reflected. Shine a green light, and green is reflected. The expanse of the sky is itself colorless like glass.

“This is what a judge has in common with

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a trustee of charity. They both must be absolutely neutral, with no color of their own. The judge must be totally unbiased, and so must be the person who determines how charity is to be distributed. He must not favor one needy person over another but must distribute the community funds ‘without color.’

“But schoolteachers are compared to the stars, which glow equally upon all. Whereas judges and gabba’ei tzedakah must discriminate between one party and the other, the schoolteacher must ‘shine’ upon all of his pupils equally, without discrimination.”

Although the Lyssa Rav does not comment on Torah scholars and their likeness to the sun, we can speculate on that connection ourselves.

The sun is the ultimate source of light and heat, and so too the Torah is the ultimate source of intellectual light and spiritual warmth.

Torah study, our tradition teaches us, outweighs all other values in its importance. ach one of us individually must strive to incorporate into our behavior all four of these career roles. We are all “judges.” even if not clothed in judicial robes or sitting in judicial chambers. We are constantly called upon to judge others in all sorts of ways, and we must always attempt to honestly judge ourselves.

We all must decide how to distribute our charitable resources: the time we give to the community and the money we contribute to the needy.

We are all teachers: if not in the classroom, then in the family and synagogue and shopping mall.

And we certainly must all, according to our intellectual limitations and the restrictions that time places upon us, be diligent in our Torah study and become as knowledgeable in Torah as we possibly can.

From this perspective, each and every one of us is called upon to discharge the duties of our

Teachers are compared to the stars, which glow equally upon all.

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•Distancing from falsehood — midvar sheker tirchak. The pasuk doesn’t say not to speak falsehoods, which we are told elsewhere in the parsha, but to distance from falsehood. Sometimes people say things, do things, believe things, talk about things that are untrue. Maybe they live a lie, maybe they create an image.

You have two choices: investigate to find truth, or recognize that without that investigation, you don’t know what the truth is.

•Respect for the ger — the person who joins the Jewish people.

The parsha also mentions resting on Shabbos, observing the holidays, and not mentioning other gods by name.

There are many more mitzvot in the Torah that relate to our relationship with others and with G-d. This list includes the rules surrounding whom we may and may not marry, the rules to not eat non-kosher food, not to murder, not to be a false prophet, not to worship idols.

Our lives are meant to be guided by a thoughtfulness and mindfulness, recognizing and understanding that there’s so much to learn. Too many distractions take us away from fulfilling our mission to learn.

May we be blessed to find incredible ways to fill the precious time we have, as we grow in knowledge and in our connection to G-d. “careers:” judge others without bias; distribute our resources compassionately and fairly; teach little children in some appropriate manner; and, above all, study Torah.

If we do, then we are all worthy of being called luminaries as bright as the bright expanse of the sky, shining like the stars at night, and lighting up the world like the sun by day.

Luach Fri Feb 1 / 26 Shevat Mishpatim Candlelighting: 4:54 pm Havdalah: 6:04 pm

Fri Feb 8 / 3 Adar 1 Terumah Candlelighting: 5:03 pm Havdalah: 6:13 pm

Fri Feb 15 / 10 Adar 1 Tetzaveh Candlelighting: 5:11 pm Havdalah: 6:21 pm

Fri Feb 22 / 17 Adar 1 Ki Tisa Candlelighting: 5:20 pm Havdalah: 6:30 pm

Fri March 1 / 24 Adar 1 Vayakhel Candlelighting: 5:28 pm Havdalah: 6:38 pm

Fri March 8 / 1 Adar 2 Pekudei Candlelighting: 5:35 pm Havdalah: 6:46 pm Five Towns times from the White Shul

The legacy of Rabbi Berel Wein AlAn JAy geRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

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legacy is something to be appreciated by all who benefit from a person’s teachings and personal example.

One such person is Rabbi Berel Wein, whose life’s work as a rabbi has impacted many over his eight decades of spiritual service to the Jewish people both in the United States, and, for the last twenty years, in Jerusalem as rabbi of Beit Knesset Hanassi — Young Israel of Rechavia.

In honor of his twentieth anniversary as rabbi of this iconic shul in Jerusalem, his congregation will celebrate Rabbi Wein’s many literary and communal contributions through the writing of a new sefer Torah and the establishment of a Jewish History Scholarship Program to encourage the learning and teaching of Jewish history.

Sponsors plan to provide scholarships to enable young students to continue their studies in Jewish history at a recognized institution of higher learning. A committee will select the appropriate recipients for these grants and invite them to give shiurim and lectures at Beit Knesset Hanassi at the conclusion of the scholarship period.

Rabbi Wein’s 20 years of service in Jerusalem have seen continued growth in shul programs. Currently, the shul has over 400 members and a full educational program that includes a morning kollel and stimulating shiurim for both men and women, daily. The shul is home to three minyanim every Shabbat that welcome hundreds of visitors from all over the world. mong the many books authored by Rabbi Wein are two that I wish to bring to your attention.

Patterns in Jewish History (Maggid Books, 2014) gives us an eloquent thematic exploration of the history of the Jewish people. Rabbi Wein teaches us the values that have enabled us to survive and thrive for over 3000 years.

This work explains how religious practice, rit-

The Jewish faith is home to unchanging ideals.

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ual observance, traditions, and responses to historical influences have varied over time and location.

However, it should be noted that the Jewish faith is home to unchanging ideals and deep religious beliefs that have united Jews throughout history — from the Exodus and Mt. Sinai to historical events worldwide.

Rabbi Wein’s career demonstrates the inner resolve of the Jewish people though his use of historical and theological depth and deep love of Torah as the base for his work on behalf of our people.

In his autobiography, Teach Them Diligently (Maggid Books, 2014), Rabbi Wein gives us a very personal glimpse into his life as a rabbi, with all the pressures, dilemmas and organizational politics that he encountered throughout his career. Within this narrative Rabbi Wein shares sound advice and lessons learned, some, honestly noted, the hard way.

He writes with a smile, and his tone is laced with passion and zeal.

These two books should serve as apt introductory material of the fine example that Rabbi Berel Wein serves as one of the leading rabbinic figures in our times.

Rabbi Wein made aliyah in 1997 and assumed his new pulpit in Jerusalem soon thereafter. Prior to making aliyah, he was executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

He also served as a pulpit rabbi in Miami Beach and Monsey.

To join in this historic tribute to Rabbi Wein’s legacy, contact Henry Israel of Beit Knesset Hanassi: henryisr@actcom.net.il.

Why ‘distance’ ourselves from falsehood?

Torah

RAbbi dAvid eTengoff

Jewish Star columnist

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ur parasha, Mishpatim, contains the ethically-infused mitzvah “mi’devar sheker tirchak” (“Distance yourself from a false matter,” Shemot 23:7).

In his Torah commentary HaKatav Ve’Kabbalah, Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg raises a fundamental question regarding the phraseology of this commandment: “Why does the Torah use this indirect terminology, rather than the standard formulation, ‘lo tedabar sheker (do not tell a lie)?’” I believe his answer informs our understanding of this Divine directive until the present moment: “The reason the Torah changes the text of

this commandment and does not say, ‘lo tedabar sheker,’ is quite clear,” he writes. “For in truth, there is no more commonly found violation of Torah law than telling a lie. This is illustrated in [Talmud Sanhedrin 97a] chapter Chalek, wherein it states: ‘At first I thought there was no truth in this world.’ Rashi explains that this means, ‘There is no person who always speaks the truth.’ Therefore, the Torah uses the [unusual] formulation in order to create an even greater gap between ourselves and this violation.”

The Maharal of Prague underscores the importance of the Talmudic phrase cited by Rav Mecklenburg, “At first I thought there was no truth in this world.”

He suggests that its primary purpose is to stress

the value of emet (truth): “One must know that the essence of this expression is to make known the great value of emet, for everything that follows the truth is fitting to be permanent in nature. As our Sages taught us, ‘The truth remains, whereas a lie will not endure’ (Talmud Shabbat 104a).

This is the case, since truth is fitting for existence, and falsehood is destined for destruction” (Chidushei Aggadot).

In the Maharal’s estimation, emet is one of the constitutive elements of existence itself, for only that which is built upon truth will continue to endure. Little wonder, then, that the prophet Zechariah adjured our nation: “Speak the truth each one with his neighbor; truth, and judgment of peace you shall judge in your cities” (8:16).

Only that which is built upon truth will continue to endure.

Perhaps most important of all, when we seek to live lives that embody emet, we are emulating the Almighty Himself. As the prophet Yirmiyahu proclaimed, “the L-rd G-d is emet (true)” (10:10).

The Talmudic sage Rabbi Avun interprets Yirmiyahu’s use of the term “emet,” in the following manner: “For He is the [eternally] living G-d and the King for all time” (Talmud Yerushalmi Berachot 1:5). Rabbi Chanina further explicates the relationship that obtains between Hashem and emet when he teaches us, “The seal of the Holy One, blessed be He, is emet” (Talmud Shabbat 55a).

In other words, emet is one of the markers of Hashem’s presence in the world, and, therefore, the standard by we should judge our daily actions.

May the time come soon and, in our days, when the entire world will live in truth and recognize the one true Master of the Universe.

Mishpatim: A parsha with a divine reminder Angel for Shabbat

RAbbi mARc d. Angel

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he Kotzker Rebbe offered an imaginative scene relating to the Revelation at Mt. Sinai. While all the Israelites gathered to receive G-d’s words, a group of elitists started to leave in the middle of the event. They reasoned: why did we bother to come to hear that we are not allowed to murder or steal or commit adultery? We knew these things on our own.

But then the Almighty told them to return to the site of the Revelation. He told them that they, too, needed to hear these commandments.

Why? Because they sometimes have murder, theft and adultery in their hearts! They, too, need to hear directly from G-d that these actions are reprehensible. They, too, need a powerful reminder to live moral, upright lives.

The Torah portion last week reported on the Revelation at Sinai and the receiving of the Ten Commandments. This week’s parasha focuses on ethical business dealings and practical, everyday moral behavior. Here, too, people might

think: why do I need to read these passages relating to damages, loans, business dealings? We could figure these things out on our own!

But, as the Kotzker Rebbe suggested, everyone needs to be reminded of the Divine commandments relating to upright and honest dealings. Why? Because people sometimes have tendencies that lead to dishonesty and immoral behavior. The Torah gives a powerful reminder to rise above negative tendencies, and to live honest lives.

Moral conflicts arise in life.

Should we make a profitable deal, even if it entails dishonesty? Should we try to cause damage to someone we dislike, even if that would entail transgressiona of basic Torah laws?

People have a way of justifying their behavior, even when that behavior is destructive, dishonest, immoral. n his play All My Sons, Arthur Miller portrays a family coping with a deep secret.

The head of the family, Joe Keller, was a manufacturer of engines for airplanes. During World War II, the government needed war

material, and Keller’s business boomed. In the midst of heavy production, a batch of engines came out with cracks. The cracks were covered up superficially and the engines were sold to the government, leading to the deaths of 21 pilots.

When the government investigated, Keller managed to get exonerated, shifting the blame to his partner — who was imprisoned. Keller and family continued to live well; Keller’s son Chris totally believed in the innocence of his father.

But the ugly truth could not stay buried forever. Chris became suspicious of his father’s claims of innocence, and finally confronted him. Keller could no longer hide from the truth.

“You’re a boy, what could I do!” Keller tells Chris. “I’m in business, a man is in business; a hundred and twenty cracked, you’re out of business … You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes, what could I do, let them take forty years, let them take my life away? … I never thought they’d install them. I swear to God. I thought they’d stop

Why did we bother to come to hear that we are not allowed to murder?

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‘em before anybody took off … Chris, I did it for you, it was a chance and I took it for you. I’m sixty-one years old, when would I have another chance to make something for you? Sixty-one years old you don’t get another chance, do ya?”

After this admission, things spiral downward. Joe Keller commits suicide. He had lived a seemingly happy and successful life, all the while knowing that he was responsible for selling defective engines, for causing the deaths of 21 pilots, for foisting the entire blame on to his partner. He maintained an illusion of innocence. Once that illusion was destroyed, so was his life.

How did he manage to maintain that illusion of innocence for so long? How did he sleep at night knowing the terrible things he had done?

Like many people, Joe Keller was able to lie to himself, to block out feelings of guilt or personal responsibility. But the truth will out … and the consequences can be devastating.

The Torah reminds us to strive to be good and upright people, to overcome negative temptations. No one should assume that these lessons are not relevant or not needed. They are relevant and are needed.

Happy is the person who can stand before the Almighty with clean hands and pure heart.

THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

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February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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‘Never forget’ is being forgotten Politics to Go

JEff DuNEtz

Jewish Star columnist

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his past Sunday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Set on the anniversary of the Russian Army’s liberation of Auschwitz, the day was created by the United Nations to remember and honor the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazis.

On April 12, 1945, General Eisenhower personally visited the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, bringing senior generals Patton and Bradley, along with military photographers. Anticipating that people would deny the Holocaust one day, he wanted to document the horrors.

Eisenhower ordered every American soldier in the area who was not on the front lines to visit Ohrdruf and Buchenwald. He wanted them to see what they were fighting against. Members of the U.S. Army Signal Corps recorded approximately 80,000 feet of moving film, together with still photographs.

Eisenhower understood that people would be unable to comprehend the scope of the horror.

He also realized that human deeds that were so utterly evil might eventually be challenged or even denied as being literally unbelievable. For these reasons, he ordered that all the civilian news media and military combat camera units

be required to visit the camps and record their observations in print, pictures, and film.

As he explained to General Marshall, “I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”

The future president was correct. In recent years, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial have become more mainstream. hankfully, those groups who attempt to deny that the Holocaust ever happened must confront the massive official record, including the evidence that Eisenhower ordered assembled. But despite the pictures, videos, and written records, Holocaust denial is alive, well, and mostly ignored in today’s society.

Holocaust denial is even prevalent at the UN, which established the Remembrance Day. For example, Richard Falk, a former professor at Princeton, was a high-level employee of the UN from 2001 to 2014, the last six years as UN Special Rapporteur to the Palestinians. Falk wrote on his website that “the Holocaust is a massive fraud on the rest of us, with their lavish, selffinanced Holocaust Museums all over America and the world.”

Look to the media. Pat Buchanan was kicked out of National Review because of his anti-Semitism, and wrote in the New Republic about Treblinka, “Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody.” This does not stop otherwise respectable media such as Rasmussen

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Reports to pay for his syndicated column.

Across the Atlantic, nearly 90 percent of European Jews feel that anti-Semitism has increased in their home countries over the past five years, and almost 30% say they have been harassed at least once in the past year. But despite the increase in anti-Semitism, a Eurobarometer poll released the week before Holocaust Remembrance Day shows that the hatred is going unnoticed by the general population. Only around a third of Europeans (36 percent) believe that anti-Semitism has increased in their country over the past five years. Even more (53%) believe that Holocaust denial is a problem in their country.

As reported in the Jerusalem Post on Holocaust Memorial Day, “One in 20 people in the United Kingdom doesn’t believe the Holocaust really took place, according to a poll. This finding indicates there could be more than 3 million Holocaust deniers living in Britain in 2019.”

When it’s convenient, the Holocaust becomes a political weapon. In 2016, the Washington Post ran two different opinion pieces comparing then-candidate Trump to Hitler. The media also ignores inappropriate Holocaust references directed toward the president by a wide range of people, including Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto, the Huffington Post, comedian Louis C.K, and Rachel Maddow. Most recently, on his HBO program Bill Maher compared Trump supporters to “Mrs. Goebbels in the bunker with the cyanide giving the cyanide to the children because she does not want to live in a world with-

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out national socialism.”

The inappropriate Holocaust references are not only directed toward the president. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown compared Republican governors John Kasich, Scott Walker and Chris Christie to the Nazis. The media was silent when Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) compared conservative bloggers to Hitler. n International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Trump’s statement demonstrated that he hasn’t forgotten.

“On April 27, 1945, a young soldier of the 12th Armored Division of the United States Army wrote these astonishing words to his wife in the United States: ‘Although I may never talk about what I have witnessed today. I will never forget what I have seen.’ Aaron A. Eiferman’s division was moving to a new position near Dachau when they ‘came across a prison camp.’ His historic account, like all subsequent descriptions, lacked the words to adequately convey the horror and the suffering that occurred at Dachau and in the other concentration and death camps of the Holocaust.

“The Third Reich, and its collaborators pursued the complete elimination of the entire Jewish people. Six million Jews were systematically slaughtered in horrific ways. The Nazis also enslaved and murdered Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their cruel regime. The brutality of the Holocaust was a crime against men, women, and children. It was a crime against humanity. It was a crime against G-d.

“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we hold in our hearts the memory of every man, woman, and child who was abused, See Never on page 22

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Behind Europe’s anti-Semitism ‘perception gap’ Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

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comprehensive survey of European attitudes to anti-Semitism released last week by the European Union displays what its authors call a “perception gap.”

The term means that Jews in Europe regard the problem of anti-Semitism as far more immediate, pressing and urgent than do their nonJewish fellow citizens.

From a Jewish perspective, the survey — carried out in all 28 EU member states, and involving more than 27,000 respondents — is a welcome clarification on where Europeans stand on the matter of resurgent Jew-hatred, a trend that nearly two-thirds of respondents say has not increased over the past five years.

It can also be seen as disturbing confirmation that opinion in Europe about “the Jews” and

their troubles is much more divided than one might have hoped, despite all the memorials to the Holocaust, Jewish museums, restored synagogues, film and food festivals, and other historical and cultural markers that help immunize the continent from a revival of Nazi barbarism.

Because of the vast scope of the survey, I want to focus here on what it reveals about the three EU countries with the largest Jewish communities in order of size: France, the United Kingdom and Germany. Even combined, the overall size of these communities is about half of the 1.5 million Jews in New York alone, but their modest presence in numbers is offset by the enormous contributions they have made to their respective countries, as well as the knowledge that the roots of modern Jewish political emancipation can be found in all three Western European nations. hat impression has this history, on top of the turbulent present, made on how the non-Jewish population views the antiSemitism now manifesting in their societies?

Here are some key indicators from the EU sur-

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vey, which was conducted just last month.

In France, 71 percent of survey respondents agreed that anti-Semitism was a problem on a scale from “fairly” to “very” serious. The equivalent figures for Germany and the UK were 66 percent and 62 percent, respectively. Those who thought the problem was “fairly serious” outweighed those who considered it “very serious.”

In France, which has a Jewish community of 460,000 out of a total population of 67 million, 36 percent of respondents said that they had Jewish friends or acquaintances. In the UK (with 270,000 Jews out of a total population of 66 million), that number was 32 percent, while in Germany (with 117,000 Jews out of a total population of 83 million) it was 11 percent.

Despite the consistent presence of the word “anti-Semitism” in the news cycles of all three countries, there was notable dissonance between them on whether anti-Semitism had increased over the past five years. Some 61 percent of Germans agreed that it had risen, compared to 51 percent of the French and 44 percent of the British respondents.

The “perception gap” identified by the EU becomes very stark when these figures are compared with the responses given by European Jews on the same subject. A full 85 percent of the Jews surveyed regarded anti-Semitism as a growing threat; broken down nationally, 95 percent of French Jews saw the problem in those terms, compared with 85 percent of Jews in Germany and 75 percent of those in the UK. That survey also quoted from the daily experiences of its Jewish respondents, much of which sounds distressingly familiar. Like the woman in her 60s living in Germany, who remarked that “for the past 12 years, anti-Semitism has no longer been a taboo in Germany, and so it occurs more often — verbally and physically, on German streets and in social media.” Or the woman in her 40s living in France, who said that “at work and in the media and social media, antiSemitism is a daily and unrepressed occurrence.”

Or the woman in her 20s living in the United Kingdom, who revealed that she had to put up with “anti-Semitic comments made to me at See Europe on page 22

daniel PiPeS

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ote the contrast: When Matteo Salvini, Italy’s interior minister, recently visited Jerusalem, which he hailed as the capital of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him a “great friend of Israel.”

Back home, however, Italy’s liberal Jews denounced Salvini for, among other things, his Roma policy and his alleged “racism against foreigners and migrants.”

A similar battle, pitting the mighty State of Israel against small and shrinking Jewish communities, takes place in many European countries, invariably arguing over the same subject: what the press calls far-right, populist, nativist or nationalist parties — and what I call civilizationist parties (because they primarily aspire to maintain Western civilization).

Israelis unsurprisingly focus on these parties’ foreign policy, broadly seeing them as its best friends in Europe, while Europe’s Jewish establishment no less predictably emphasizes the parties’ domestic profile, portraying them as incorri-

gibly anti-Semitic, even auguring a return to the 20th century’s fascistic dictatorships.

However parochial and marginal this intraJewish battle may seem to the larger world, it actually matters greatly, potentially influencing the future course of Europe.

That results from the unique moral authority bestowed by the Holocaust on Jews to judge who is a fascist and who is not. Or, in the more subdued phrasing of The Wall Street Journal, “While Jewish voters may represent a relatively small portion of the electorate in many European countries, winning their support could help improve the public image of far-right parties.”

If Jerusalem prevails, civilizationists can more easily and quickly join Europe’s political mainstream, reach power, and tackle their priority issues of controlling immigration and combating Islamization.

If the local Jewish establishment prevails, civilizationists will struggle longer to gain legitimacy, and thus will reach power more slowly and attain their goals with far more pain.

europe Jews in Europe, excluding Russia, number about 1.5 million in a population of some 600 million, or 0.25 percent. That’s about the same as the number of Hindus and one-twentieth the number of Muslims.

Unlike those new religious communities, Jews have endured a troubled two-millennium history in Europe, marked by blood libel and other conspiracy theories, Crusades, ghettoes and pogroms, culminating in the Holocaust.

Also unlike those growing immigrant communities, the simultaneous challenges of mass Muslim immigration, rampant anti-Semitism, and leftist anti-Zionism render European Jewry’s condition so precarious that in France, where Jews make up less than 1 percent of the population, they experienced nearly 40 percent of racially or religiously motivated violent acts in 2017. A recent poll finds 38 percent of Europe’s Jews contemplating emigration from the continent.

This historically fearful community at pres-

The unique moral authority bestowed by the Holocaust on Jews to judge who is a fascist.

ent keeps its head down. With the partial exception of France, Europe’s Jews tend to adopt quasi-anti-Zionist views to appease Israel’s critics. This explains such outrages as the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam comparing former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Hitler, while a Jewish Museum in Berlin exhibit on Jerusalem almost exclusively emphasizes that city’s Muslim history and character.

Jewish leaders also stay largely mute about mass immigration and direct their collective hostility to civilizationist parties, an act of Jewish civic virtue required by the European establishment if Jewish leaders are to stay respectable, keep their access to the government, and be treated gently by the mainstream media. In France, for example, Gilbert Collard of the National Rally may be “an unconditional defender” of Israel, but praising what he says means finding yourself promptly called a racist and excluded from polite society.

To be sure, some civilizationists retain racial, conspiratorial and bigoted views of Jews; vigilance is needed to ensure that their professed friendship is not just a tactic to win approbation and legitimacy. But civilizationists are not the Jews’ major problem. On the political level, they do not promote unfettered immigration and a See Israel on page 22

Intersectionalism undermines legacy of MLK Jonathan S. tobin

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he alliance between African-Americans and Jews during the struggle for civil rights has often been invoked when tensions between the two have arisen in the years since the 1960s.

Yet the memory of blacks and Jews working together is important not so much for what a few heroes did a half-century ago, but because it sets an example for subsequent generations. Since then, Jews and blacks have sometimes fallen out over issues like affirmative action, but have still generally found themselves on the same side of many, if not most, of the great issues of the day.

However, intersectional ideology may succeed where others who sought to sow strife failed. That theory declares that the struggle for civil rights in this country is linked to the Palestinian war on Israel. Championed by leaders of

the anti-Trump resistance, it has gained notoriety in the last few years.

The attempt to tie civil rights, as well as the cause of equality for women, to anti-Zionism and the BDS movement received an airing at demonstrations organized by the Women’s March and related groups last weekend. Speeches and statements by leaders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour illustrated how hate for the Jewish state has become integrated into the agenda of the left.

Indeed, those themes were sounded even at events that sought to disassociate themselves with the national group after it became tainted by anti-Semitism, as Nicole Guzik of Sinai Temple noted in an open letter explaining why she walked out of the Los Angeles March. ut even more disappointing is the attempt to use Martin Luther King Jr. Day to twist the great civil rights leader’s legacy and put him on the side of BDS and the war on Israel.

In a New York Times op-ed, columnist Michelle Alexander on Sunday claimed that King would have joined the attack on Israel if he were alive today. King was inexorably drawn to fight

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injustice. But the idea that he could have been convinced that the Jews — alone of all people in the world — should be denied a state and rights denied to no one else requires not merely a suspension of disbelief, but a deliberate attempt to deny things he actually said and believed.

Speaking of those who were early champions of what we now call intersectionalism, King said: “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity … Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world …

Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”

He also famously responded to a questioner who attacked Zionism by saying, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”

But as Alexander’s article illustrates, those who seek to reimagine King as an enemy of Zionism, rather than as its friend and advocate, are not deterred by the facts.

Alexander’s depiction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a compendium of half-truths and

Is the baby crying inside?

View from Central Park

tehilla r. goldberg

Intermountain Jewish News

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robably the purest image in the world is that kidney-bean shaped baby in utero, cozily nestled in its mother’s womb. When I heard of the new abortion law passed in New York this week, in my mind’s eye that sacrosanct image was now punctured with blood.

It is now legal for a woman to abort her baby all the way through the final trimester. Performing an abortion is no longer limited to doctors: from here on in, in New York State, any healthcare practitioner can perform an abortion.

Disturbing, to say the least.

To add salt to the wound, one of the women involved in the legislation was quoted as saying that its passage was a dream come true. I was appalled.

Third trimester. A full-term baby can be disposed of, as if it were an inanimate object. How

is that any different from murder? What’s the difference between nine months in utero and nine months outside of the womb? Nine months is nine months.

And the dissonance. Preterm babies are being born earlier and earlier, saved by prenatal care.

These babies go on to survive and thrive.

If an early-delivered fetus is a life worth fighting for, and a life saved, what changes, biologically, deem another fetus less human enough for its abortion not to be deemed murder?

When does life start? If a baby in utero is fully developed, with its own facial features, hair, hands and toes and a heart, and can live on its own, how is killing it not murder?

How is this new law not an accessory to infanticide?

Just because something is legal does not make it right. And when we think of the kind of society we want to have, we think of standing for what is right — or at the very least, for being a voice for the voiceless: a baby.

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bviously, choosing to abort, at any point, is one of the most ethically and emotionally complex conversations. But that is a separate discussion. And Jewish tradition and theology approaches it differently from the Christian faith. But it is such an emotionally fraught topic, no matter what we believe intellectually.

As I process the news, one thing I keep wondering about, regardless of one’s political or religious views, is the one thing we all realize: By nine months, a baby is a baby. It is as developed as it will ever be. It can feel pain.

None of us would dare prick a day-old baby with a pin. Yet how does the baby feel whatever abortion method is used? The first sound we associate with a live baby is its crying. When it’s being aborted, is the baby crying inside?

Abortion should be for difficult situations where carrying a baby to term is not possible.

Instead, in our culture, it seems to have become See Baby on page 22

New law an accessory to infanticide.

outright lies. The struggle is a complex one in which both sides of suffered, but in Alexander’s cartoonish version, only Palestinians have rights.

That they have repeatedly refused offers of peace, including statehood, is never mentioned.

Nor does she (or her editors) think it necessary to detail that the Israeli security measures she laments were rendered essential by terrorism.

But her column is not about ending the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank or Jewish settlements. Her beef is with Israel’s existence as a Jewish state in the pre-1967 borders. Her support for BDS is rooted in the same conviction that motivates its other supporters: a false vision of Israel as a colonial state and the imperative to eliminate it, rather than merely to place a Palestinian state alongside it.

In Alexander’s reading, Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, is illegitimate. So while she pays lip service to concerns about anti-Semitism, she ignores the fact that a movement dedicated to destroying the sole Jewish state is an expression of Jew-hatred. nterestingly, Alexander cites the controversy over rescinding an honor to Angela Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA and a supporter of the Black Panthers, a violent group that preyed upon blacks and whites in the 1960s as King advocated non-violence. Davis, who was personally involved in terrorist activity, was going to be honored by the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, but the plans were canceled when members of the Jewish community protested. They rightly considered her backing of BDS, as well as her support for the Soviet regime’s repression of Jews and other dissidents, to render her ineligible for such an honor. That has provoked a backlash from the pro-BDS left.

We don’t have to engage in counter-factual theorizing about what King would have done had he not been assassinated to understand that his faith in nonviolence and support for the rights of the Jewish people would have always placed him opposite Davis and BDS supporters who wish to wipe Israel off the map.

A lot has changed since King was murdered in 1968 — a point in time when it would have been unimaginable for the Times to publish a screed calling for Israel’s destruction. That it thinks it appropriate to attack Jewish rights on a day dedicated to commemorating the struggle for civil rights for all people is a bitter irony that Martin Luther King Jr. would have viewed as a betrayal of the legacy of brotherhood for which he gave his life.

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THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

Europe’s Jews and Israel don’t see eye to eye

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February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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CAlendar of Events Thursday January 31 Public Safety: Active shooter workshop, sponsored by White Shul and JCCRP. Be prepared in case of tragedy. 6:30 pm. 728 Empire Ave, Far Rockaway. 718-471-7014.

Jews and Marijuana: How high is too high? Rabbi Manis Friedman explores the Jewish view on marijuana. 7 pm. 117 Remsen St, Brooklyn Heights. 718-596-4840.

Saturday Feb. 2

Tehillim Shiur: Join the 23rd season of the community-wide Motzei Shabbos Tanach shiur, hosted by Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum will be learning Perakim 56-57 of Tehillim. 7:15 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. 516-295-5700.

Sunday Feb. 3

Rambam Exhibit: Rambam Mesivta hosts an exhibition “Who Will Write Our History: Resistance comes in many forms.”

10 am. 15 Frost Lane, Lawrence.

Kids Bake: Chabad of Five Towns’ Mega Kids Challah & Babka Bake for kids in local public schools, ages 5 to 13. Children must be accompanied by an adult. 2 to 3:30 pm.

25 Frost Lane, Lawrence. $10 per child.

Tuesday Feb. 5

Evening with PEYD: Learn to take your family on vacation using miles and points, and best use credit cards for business success. Program to benefit the Levi Yitzchak Library. Space is limited. 8:15 pm. 564 Central Ave, Cedarhurst. $36.

JEP/Nageela: “Building a Bridge from Generation to Generation: An Evening of Real Estate Networking.” JEP/Nageela’s biggest fundraiser, supporting hundreds of children a year through Joyfully Jewish outreach programs and Camp Nageela. 6 pm to 9 pm. 26 Bridge St, Brooklyn. RSVP at jepren.org; sponsorships at realnetwork@jepren.org.

Wednesday Feb. 6

Networking: At Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, with guest speaker Ambassador Dani Dayan. Hosted by the Queens Jewish link and the Bukharian Jewish Link. Free parking available. 7 pm. 7011 150th St, Flushing. 718-880-2622. $15 in advance; $20 at the door.

Saturday Feb. 9

Chai Dinner: Chofetz Chaim Torah Center of Cedarhurst-Woodmere holds its 18th anniversary dinner at Lawrence Country Club, paying tribute to dedicated members and friends. 101 Causeway, Lawrence.

CCTCdinner@gmail.com

Sunday Feb. 10

Celebrating a Yovel: Yeshiva of Far Rockaway 50 years of Torah. Dinner chairmen Benjamin Brafman and Jonah Lobell.

The Sands, 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach.

Dinner@YOFR.org; 718-327-7600.

Monday Feb. 11

Inaugural Event: Yeshiva Nishmas HaTorah hosts its first dinner at the Seawane Country Club. 1300 Club Dr, Hewlett Harbor. 516-939-1526.

Tuesday Feb. 12

Good Times Roll: Gourmet Glatt 9th Annual Bowl, to benefit Madraigos. Strike a better future for our youth. Registration at 8 pm; bowling begins at 9. 948 Broadway, Woodmere. Contact rlock@madraigos.org or call 516-371-3250 ext. 102.

Never...

Continued from page 20 tortured, or murdered during the Holocaust. To remember these men and women — those who perished and those who survived — is to strive to prevent such suffering from happening again.

Any denial or indifference to the horror of this chapter in the history of humankind diminishes all men and women everywhere and invites repetition of this great evil. We remain committed to the post-Holocaust imperative: Never Again. “‘Never Again’ means not only remembering — in a profound and lasting way — the evils of the Holocaust, but it also means remembering the individual men and women in this nation, and throughout the world, who have devoted their lives to the preservation and security of the Jewish people and to the betterment of all mankind.”

While too many others are trivializing or denying the horrors of the Holocaust, President Trump remembers.

Europe...

Continued from page 20 work such as ‘all Jews are rich.’”

It is not, of course, surprising that non-Jews are less sensitive than Jews to the prevalence of anti-Semitism; they are not its targets. But the anti-Semitism “perception gap” is as significant in terms of demography as it is in terms of the political questions it raises.

What the EU’s 28-country survey revealed — and emphatically so in the case of the three countries under discussion — is that older, better-educated Europeans with friends and colleagues of different religious and ethnic backgrounds are far more likely than any other demographic category to understand why Jews on the continent are so fearful these days. And this group, it must be stressed, is at best about 25 percent of the overall population.

Meanwhile, about half of the population in France and Germany, and more than half in the UK, don’t believe that current anti-Semitism is anything to be alarmed about. It is among these respondents — most of whom also say they are not familiar with the Jewish religion or Jewish history — that you will find the people who are most receptive to anti-Semitic messages in the future.

Jews on the other side of the Atlantic are likely wondering how to close this gap and blunt anti-Semitism’s appeal, while many Jews in the United States and Israel will conclude — much to the irritation of their European cousins — that Europe is a lost cause, and the sooner the Jews leave, the better.

Far more productive than handing out unsolicited advice is to concentrate on the nature of the problem. European anti-Semitism today is a social phenomenon from which Jews are in principle protected by the law. A significant minority of Europeans correctly understand that antiSemitism is a social poison, but the younger and less educated they become, the less likely they are to grasp that.

Most importantly of all, a majority of Europeans — even when confronted with daily headlines about anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party, in French inner cities, or in Italian soccer stadiums and so forth — remain unconvinced that the problem is as bad as the continent’s Jews believe it to be. That has to be the starting point for any response.

Baby...

Continued from page 21 another form of birth control.

But as I kept thinking about it, I wondered, what if someone is struggling with a fetus who is ill, has decided to keep it, but then later in the pregnancy has a change of mind and feels the

baby is something they can’t handle? What if a danger to a mother only presents itself later in a pregnancy? Wouldn’t that constitute a medical emergency, and under a doctor’s care the mother’s life would take precedence, whatever procedures it might entail?

I decide to take a closer look at the law.

“The law for the first time allows abortions after the 24 weeks mark to protect the mother’s health or in case where the fetus won’t survive.”

So later-term abortions are regulated, limited in scope to those two extenuating circumstances. Somehow all the articles I read neglected to mention that.

As a woman who does believe in the right to make decisions about reproductive health, I was glad to read that. his actually fits, in part, with Jewish law: In rare instances, when an agonizing situation threatens the life of the mother, physically or psychologically, the life of the mother trumps that of the baby.

To think of the intimately harrowing situations that couples endure together, or a woman might face alone, is so profoundly painful.

Instead, there is this detached discourse, emotionally and ethically glib, about late-term abortion. You would never know the emotional and ethical struggles this law unleashes. Its passage is simply described as “a dream come true.”

It’s more like a nightmare.

It’s one thing when something so difficult is necessary, gut-wrenchingly necessary, but it has been mischaracterized and distorted to mitigate the emotional and ethical impact of it.

Sometimes, painfully, for various reasons, abortion might be necessary. There are times when it is the right decision to make. But the culture of abortion in the United States is wrong.

The staggering numbers are horrendous, nothing to be proud of. The lightness with which abortion is discussed is terrible and speaks volumes about our society.

With the procedure no longer limited to doctors, the system may be set up for abuse. While the law qualifies and limits when a late-term abortion can be legally performed, the cavalier attitude toward abortion may cause reckless decisions in situations that don’t meet the law’s definition.

A mother’s womb, growing new human life, truly is the holiest of sanctuaries.

In today’s progressive culture where “safe space” is an obsession, to the point of limiting people’s right and ability to express their opinions lest someone be offended, there is dissonance now.

Because if there’s one space in the world that should absolutely be deemed the safest, it ought to be that of a voiceless baby in its mother’s womb.

Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

T

Israel...

Continued from page 21 multiculturalism that tolerates or even encourages Islamization, the twin existential threats to Jewish life in Europe.

On the personal level, civilizationists do not pose the main danger to Jews; a massive survey of discrimination and hate crimes against Jews, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that “the most serious incidents of anti-Semitic harassment” are perpetrated 30 percent by “extremist Muslims,” 21 percent by left-wingers, and 13 percent by right-wingers. In other words, Islamists and leftists together harass Jews four times more than civilizationists.

Despite this, many European Jews — and their leaders especially — engage in a humiliating courtship of the Establishment — political parties, media, educational institutions — paying homage to the moral superiority of precisely those forces ruining their lives.

To use Bat Ye’or’s terminology, they have adopted the behavior of dhimmis (the historic second-class status of non-Muslim monotheists living under Muslim rule).

For a prime example of this, note Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis. He ever-so-mildly warns that a Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn would cause Jews

to leave the United Kingdom while emotionally vilifying civilizationists for posing a threat to return to “total dictatorships” and denouncing their pro-Israel policies as illegitimately pursuing a “kosher stamp” of approval.

Israel The Netanyahu government appreciates that anti-establishment parties bucking the verbally warm but substantially cool pattern of Europe’s legacy parties: Whereas the 3Ms (Theresa May of the United Kingdom, Emmanuel Macron of France and Angela Merkel of Germany) speak positively of Israel, they more significantly participate in its delegitimization at the United Nations and support the Iran deal that most Israelis see as a mortal threat.

More generally, Israel Hayom journalist Eldad Beck points to “the duality of the German position that sees Berlin declare its commitment to Israel’s existence and security while at the same time throw its support behind bodies that undermine the existence and security of the Jewish state.”

Unlike such platitudinous policies, civilizationist parties (again, with a French exception) view Israel as a moral partner in arms and an ally against Islamism. They show this by fighting anti-Semitism, building Holocaust museums, denouncing the Iran deal, urging the move of their embassies to Jerusalem, learning from Israel’s security services and protecting Israel’s interests within the European Union.

Geert Wilders of the Netherlands lived in Israel for a year and subsequently visited it dozens of times.

That Europe’s Jews live more safely where civilizationists impose strict controls on migration only reinforces Israeli appreciation; as Evelyn Gordon notes, in 2017, “Hungary’s 100,000 Jews didn’t report a single physical attack, while Britain’s 250,000 Jews reported 145.”

Responding to this warmth and security, Israel’s government increasingly cooperates with civilizationists — but then faces the wrath of Europe’s Jews whom it has vowed to protect, leading to something of an impasse. For example, Jerusalem clearly wishes to work with Austria’s pro-Israel Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, the appointee of that country’s civilizationist party, but Austria’s Jews have strenuously denounced this prospect, going so far as to warn that “they’ll fight” Jerusalem.

Conclusion Two preliminary points: Of course, neither European Jews nor Israel’s government are monolithic. Paula Bieler in Sweden, Gidi Markuszower in the Netherlands, and Davis Lasar in Austria represent their civilizationist parties in parliament; Juden in der AfD supports Germany’s civilizationists.

In contrast, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin acts like a dhimmi: writing about anti-Semitism in a London newspaper, he politely avoided even mentioning Corbyn’s name while elsewhere viciously characterizing civilizationists as “neo-fascist movements … that have considerable and very dangerous influence” (this despite his acknowledging “their strong support for the State of Israel”). Consistent with this attitude, Rivlin refused to meet Salvini.

Second, this European tension has an American parallel: Israel’s government has far better relations with the Trump administration than does the U.S. Jewish establishment. When Donald Trump went to Pittsburgh to mourn the massacre of 11 Jews at a synagogue, the local Jewish community protested his presence, leaving Israel’s ambassador to the United States alone to welcome the president.

If the battle is heating up, the outcome is virtually foreordained: raison d’état eventually will propel Israeli governments to override local Jewish concerns and work with civilizationists while Europe’s Jews will continue to emigrate, causing their voice to grow ever weaker. This will be a good thing, for civilizationists are not the 1930s-style threat portrayed by opposition politicians and the mainstream media, but a healthy response to an extraordinary problem.

Indeed, the more rapidly the Israeli voice predominates, the better for everyone: Europe, its Jewish population and the State of Israel.

The only question is, how soon will this happen.

Daniel Pipes is president of Middle East Forum.

rs 35 Yeagrity e Of Int

By Ron Kampeas, JTA Prominent Democrats are launching a pro-Israel group to counter a drift away from Israel on the party’s left.

The Democratic Majority for Israel will be led by Mark Mellman, a longtime party pollster who has been active in the proIsrael community. The group seeks “to strengthen the pro-Israel tradition of the Democratic Party, fight for Democratic values and work within the progressive movement to advance policies that ensure a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,” Mellman said.

“Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel and we want to keep it that way,” Mellman told the New York Times. “There are a few discordant voices, but we want to make sure that what’s a very small problem doesn’t metastasize into a bigger problem.”

More than half the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate has accepted the endorsement of J Street, a group that says it supports Israel’s existence but encourages robust criticism of its settlement policies.

Polls have shown declining support for Israel among younger Democrats. This year for the first time, two freshmen Democrats, Reps. Ilhan Omar,

D-Minn. and Rashida Tlaib, DMich., have embraced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Leading Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have robustly criticized Israel, particularly its treatment of the Gaza Strip.

Joining Mellman in the leadership will be Jennifer Granholm, the popular former governor of Michigan; Henry Cisneros, a Housing secretary under President Bill Clinton; Ann Lewis, chief of communications under Clinton and a longtime leading supporter of Hillary Clinton; Todd Richman, a J.P. Morgan executive who is also a major donor to the party; Paul Begala, a former top Clinton adviser who has become a leading cable TV combatant for Democrats; and Shelley Berkley, a former congresswoman from Las Vegas.

The group plans to launch a political action committee to protect friendly Democrats from primary challenges; Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a moderate who is the fourthranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and who according to reports faces a challenge from progressives, said he welcomed the new group.

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Continued from page 1 challenging was the couple’s desire to “maintain the Jewish identity of our three kids.”

While other islands, such as Barbados and Jamaica, have Jewish communities that date back hundreds of years to Sephardic Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition, St. Lucia never had a dedicated synagogue building or an active Jewish community. Save for visits from rabbinical students in the Merkos Summer Visitation program, there were never ongoing Jewish guidance or activities. Until now.

Rabbi Avromy and Sternie Super recently moved to the island to open Chabad of St. Lucia. The Supers, who first visited in December 2017, have begun to assemble an eclectic Jewish community of locals, snowbirds and tourists. Their posting was formally announced at the last week’s International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries in New York.

“There was never a Jewish community here,” says Avromy Super. “So there’s this real sense that we’re building something new.”

The island nation has attracted foreign business and investment, especially in banking, but for the most part its economy is based on tourism and the local banana industry.

Avromy Super estimates that about 200 Jewish residents live on the island at least part of the year, with tens of thousands of Jewish vacationers passing through St. Lucia annually.

With its capital of Castries, the island covers a land area of more than 200 square miles and has a population

Dems launch a pro-Israel group

23 THE JEWISH STAR February 1, 2019 • 26 Shevat 5779

St. Lucia

of about 180,000 and growing.

On an island where all roads eventually lead to the sea, the Supers have found people interested in joining Chabad’s activities simply by walking the sun-drenched streets.

“Every day, we meet new Jews that tell us despite coming to St. Lucia every year for years, even decades, they thought they were the only Jews here,” says Sternie Super. “We’re introducing these people to their neighbors, building a community from the ground up.”

The Supers have tapped into the island vibe in crafting their programming. In addition to Torah classes and Shabbat meals, they host weekly barbecues that have been attended by 30 or so people. Sternie even uses her shopping at the local market with friends she’s made in the community as an opportunity to bond and teach.

“People come here for a few weeks or months, and all they do is go to the beach; the range of experiences on the island can be very limited,” she says.

“Chabad offers something fresh and exciting. It’s so outside of what they expected to see and do in St. Lucia.”

The Supers also run a small Hebrew school attended by the Gliksmans’ 10-year-old triplets — Avigail, Michael and Matan — that meets every Wednesday after school.

“We love the fact that my kids can have Jewish class during the year and Jewish activities in general,” says Gliksman. “It is very important for us to have a sense of community, and the Supers are doing that.”

Chabad of St. Lucia is under the auspices of Rabbi Mendel Zarchi of Chabad of Puerto Rico, the point person for Judaism in the Caribbean, and made possible in part by the Gad brothers, owners of Diamonds International.

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