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Joy over early move, concern over Sheldon Adelson’s role Israel Hayom via JNS Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hailing plans to relocate the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as early as May, calling the news, confirmed by the State Department, “a great moment for the State of Israel.”

President Trump’s decision to will make Independence Day even happier, Netanyahu said, noting that the planned relocation will coincide with the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence [May 14 on the secular calendar]. President Trump “Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and for your friendship.”

On Facebook, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat thanked Trump for “fulfilling your promise to bring the U.S. Embassy home to Jerusalem, the eternal, united capital of the Jewish people.

“This gift is a particularly meaningful way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Israel’s indepenSee Bibi on page 21

By Ron Kampeas, JTA Sheldon Adelson’s offer to help pay for the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is getting a thumb’s down from a range of observers who support the embassy’s relocation. State Department lawyers are poring over the law books to determine how to pull off America’s first privately funded embassy.

No one’s saying why the Trump administration would want this, but cost-cutting seems likely. The move to temporary digs, due in May, is expected to cost taxpayers about $60 million. An embassy that will even- Sheldon Adelson tually be built from scratch will be much pricier. The newly opened U.S. Embassy in London cost $1 billion. Adelson, worth an estimated $40 billion, can presumably afford it.

Five people who have been intimately involved in advocating for the embassy move — in some cases for decades — told JTA what they thought of the plan to privatize the embassy.

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Faith is the glue that binds Israel and Korea

By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, JNS International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach closed the 2018 Winter Olympic Games on Sunday, declaring the Olympics “an homage to the past and an act of faith for the future.”

For Israel and South Korea, it looks like faith may indeed be the basis for new ties.

These Olympics, where 10 Israeli athletes competed, were “a big step forward” See Israel-Korea on page 2

OU joins push for new gun laws

Silent moment for gun victims as Nissim rocks Long Beach Chasidic rapper Nissim (pictured with Chabad of the Beaches’ Rabbi Eli Goodman) paused his CTeen concert at Long Beach HS Monday for a moment of silence in memory of the Florida gun victims. At right, students Miriam Feder and Bracha Jacobson enjoy Nissim’s music. Jewish Star / Susan Grieco

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By Rafael Medoff, JNS Major American Jewish organizations — including the Orthodox Union — are calling for stricter gun-control laws in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 14 students and three staff members dead.

Nathan Diament, director of the OU’s Advocacy Center in Washington, told JNS that his organization “will likely support” all three of the legislative proposals under discussion in the capital.

One is a bill sponsored by Senators Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to expand criminal background checks on prospective purchasers of guns. A second, See OU on guns on page 8

Israel-Korea bonds...

Continued from page 1 in opening South Korea to the rest of the world, acccording to Rabbi Osher Litzman, director of the Chabad Jewish community of Korea in Seoul. However, Rabbi Litzman noted that Israel and South Korea have been on a trajectory toward closer relations for at least a decade.

A key catalyst behind Israel-South Korea ties: G- d.

There has been “phenomenal growth” of mega churches throughout Asia, and South Korea is about 25 percent evangelical, said David Parsons, vice president and senior international spokesman with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Evangelicals believe that “G-d restoring the Jewish people to their land and a place like Jerusalem prospering are part of prophecy being fulfilled,” he explained.

“And what we feel is the true church flourishing among the nations is also part of that prophecy — this true church has a heart for Israel.”

Already, Israelis can see the fruits of this shift in the streets of Jerusalem, where Christian groups from Asia visit the holy sites yearround. Israel hit a record 3.6 million tourists in 2017, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Of those, some 54 percent were Christian. The ministry said among its new target markets for 2018 are Chinese, Indian, Romanian and Hispanic religious populations.

“The Ministry of Tourism is struggling to find guides that speak Asian languages,” said Parsons.

The visitors are people like Joyce Jung. She was first introduced to Israel in the Bible in 2008 when a group of Christian Zionists visited her South Korean church. In 2013, she visited Israel for the first time.

“I started praying for Israel, and G-d put such a deep, unexplainable love for Israel in my heart,” said Jung. “When I visited, I knew I was home.”

Soon after, Jung launched Love 153 International, a Christian nonprofit organization that works with the Jewish Agency for Israel to offer various services such as sewing classes, taekwondo and other cultural activities for orphans, widows and at-risk youths in Israel.

“We must comfort the Jewish people, like it says in Isaiah,” said Jung, who also serves as an informal ambassador for Israel to churches in South Korea. She travels there twice a year to share the truth about the Holy Land.

“The movement is growing very fast,” said Jung about evangelical Christianity in South Korea. “The media tries to turn South Koreans against Israel and to the Palestinians. And many South Koreans just don’t know. But when they learn, it clicks right away. The G-d of Christianity is the same G-d of Israel. Really, the South Korean people want to be a friend of Israel.”

Israel and South Korea share some remarkable similarities.

Both have ancient traditions that date back more than 5,000 years and have managed to survive. The state of Israel and the Republic of South Korea were both formally established in 1948. Since then, the two countries have been preoccupied with regional conflicts, forcing both countries to invest a lot of resources, both human and financial, into the defense of their countries. Yet they have both managed to thrive economically in their own ways.

“We are two ancient peoples with histo-

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Rabbi Litzman, who was born and raised in Israel, said the South Korean economy is “very strong.” He regularly hosts for meals visiting Israeli companies interested in doing business in the country.

Dov Moran, founder of M-Systems, which invented the USB flash drive, told JNS that he travels to South Korea at least twice a year by invitation of the government or other professional conferences to talk about innovation, Israel and international cooperation.

“They are hard workers, smart, aggressive — very similar in many aspects to Israelis,” Moran said about the about the people of South Korea.

He hosted a support team for M-Systems in South Korea before selling to SanDisk. He then established a small R&D office for Modu, a company with a new modular phone concept, which Moran founded after M-Systems and eventually sold its patents to Google in 2011.

Another similarity between the two nations? Tense borders, though Rabbi Litzman said people don’t feel the South-North Korea conflict daily.

“It’s like living in Israel, where in the news it looks very bad, but day to day, it is OK, and there is nothing to worry about,” he said. “In the 10 years we are here, there have been no terror attacks, just tranquility.”

He also stated that anti-Semitism is not an issue in South Korea, and that he is seeing more and more Koreans becoming friendly with the Jewish community, which numbers about 700 to 1,000, mostly transplants. Rabbi Litzman said locals now regularly come by the Chabad asking to learn Hebrew, study the Bible and better understand how they can accommodate the Jewish faith.

Likewise, a recent report by the Jerusalem Post showed that students of Asian origin are coming to study in Israel. The University of Haifa currently boasts some 200 Chinese students among its student body, compared to 20 in 2013 — a 1,000 percent increase, according to the Post. The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, also in Haifa, has seen an influx of these students, reaching 117 full-time Chinese students in the 2016-17 school year.

Parsons said he believes Israel will start to see the benefits of the surge in evangelical Christianity not only in tourism and economics, but in politics.

“We are already seeing it from Guatemala, and some other countries in Latin America and Asia,” he said, referring, for example, to Guatemala’s decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem following the recent announcement by the United States to do the same. “It may take a few more years for some of these evangelical communities to mature politically so their voice is heard, but the impact is already starting to happen.”

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Holland threatens grandmom with death in Iran

By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA UTRECHT, Netherlands — To the dozens of revelers at this city’s main Purim party, a Jewish grandmother who cooks the event’s annual Persia-themed holiday feast is a rare communal asset.

Since she immigrated to the Netherlands in 2012 from her native Iran, the soft-spoken newcomer has been volunteering with the local Chabad House, preparing delicious traditional dishes with exotic spices, such as saffron-flavored yellow rice and chicken, for Utrecht’s celebration of the holiday.

Her contribution has added prestige to the event, which has been featured in regional and national media thanks to the authentic touch she adds. (After all, the story behind Purim is set in Persia, celebrating the rescue of that country’s Jews from a communal death sentence.)

But only a few of the locals who know Sipora (not her real name) are aware that she is both an illegal alien in the Netherlands and a refugee with a death sentence hanging over her head in Iran for political offenses.

Sipora, 60, was sentenced in absentia to death by public execution in 2013 by a Tehran court that convicted her of “violating Islamic rules [of the] Islamic Revolution” and “anti-regime activity.” Her crime: running an underground organization that found housing solutions for women with abusive husbands who could not obtain a divorce.

Luckily for Sipora, she had already left Iran a year prior to her sentencing to help with the pregnancy of her daughter — herself a political refugee who has been living in the Netherlands since fleeing her native land in 2010. Sipora’s daughter, Rebecca, fled in connection with her involvement in the making of a documentary film about the fight for democracy in Iran.

“A few weeks after I came to Holland, I called my husband on the telephone. He asked me to go on Skype. I knew something was wrong,” Sipora recalled.

Sipora’s husband of over 40 years, a Jewish building contractor with a heart condition, told her online that Iran’s dreaded secret police were looking for her and other members of her group.

“In that moment I knew there is no going back,” Sipora recalled.

Unfortunately for her, Sipora’s legal troubles back home coincided with a toughening of immigration policies in the Neth-

Sipora, a Jewish refugee from Iran, looking out the window of her Cnaan Liphshiz daughter’s Netherlands home on Feb. 15.

erlands, where the center-right ruling party is bleeding votes in favor of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom, which favors a shutdown of immigration from Muslim countries.

Rebecca received a temporary residency permit and later citizenship without delay even though she had no death sentence against her in Iran. Meanwhile, the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service has consistently declined requests by Sipora two years later. Instead, she is in legal limbo — neither granted asylum nor deported, despite her whereabouts being known to authorities.

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service did not reply to a query from JTA about Sipora’s status.

A teacher of Persian who speaks neither Dutch nor English, Sipora lives with her daughter and grandson in relative social isolation and uncertainty. Her eyes well with tears as she explains through an interpreter that she is getting used to the thought of never again hugging her husband.

Yet Sipora has no regrets over helping the abused wives for whom she found shelter — sometimes inside nearly finished apartments constructed by her husband, a building contractor.

“I would do the same thing all over again,” Sipora said. “For all my problems now I have family who care for me. These women have no one, only enemies hounding them, and no rights before the law.”

Following the latest crackdown on alleged opposition activists in Iran, Sipora’s husband told her he is under close watch and unlikely to be allowed to leave the country. This is part of the reason that Sipora does not want to immigrate to Israel, or make aliyah, though she is eligible for it.

“I could leave for Israel tomorrow, but then my husband’s fate is sealed,” Sipora said. “For a Jewish family to flee for Holland is one thing, but if I go to Israel he will pay the price for what will be seen as collaboration with the enemy.”

Even her involvement with Chabad did not go unnoticed in Tehran, Sipora said.

Secret police in 2016 confronted Sipora’s husband with pictures featuring Sipora from the Chabad Purim feast, he told her.

They demanded he explain why his wife is “working with a Zionist organization. He answered that she was representing Persian Jewish culture in Holland and that Iran should be proud of it.

Trapped in her predicament, Sipora’s only comfort is being with her 5-year-old grandson and her daughter. But this is no remedy against sleepless nights and a constant sense of foreboding, she said, especially before reporting to Dutch authorities as she must do periodically. She could be deported as an illegal alien at any moment. Sipora’s next appearance before an immigration service judge is scheduled for March 2.

Outwardly, though, Sipora puts on a brave face, according to Erik Veldhuizen, who also volunteers at the Chabad House where Sipora is preparing the annual feast.

“She’s a positive and polite person,” he told JTA. “A few of us are of course aware of her situation, but you’d never know that she’s in dire straits by her demeanor.”

Back home, Sipora is discussing her grandson’s Purim costume options with him as a welcome distraction from the fears and doubts surrounding her.

“Just like in Purim, it will all work out in the end,” her daughter tells her. “It just has to.”

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Ramaz will Kids’ #Giveback Sunday in W. Hemp OK gun walkouts Ramaz School, a prominent Modern Orthodox day school on the Upper East Side, said that it would support the student-led campaign calling for gun control.

The school is backing student demonstrations planned in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and teachers. According to an email sent Tuesday to the Ramaz community, Ramaz was also one of more than 155 schools to co-sign a letter to President Trump and legislative leaders protesting gun violence.

“We are committed to working with schools across the country in every effort to ensure the safety of our students,” reads the email, which was signed by Philip Wilner, chairman of the Ramaz board. “Within the confines of our security protocol, we plan to show our support for these walkouts.”

A campaign started by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the shooting occurred on Feb. 14, is organizing at least three major demonstrations. On March 24, there will be a March for Our Lives in Washington, calling for gun control. National school walkouts for gun control are tentatively planned for March 14 and April 20.

“As we begin our week of fun in celebration of Purim, our hearts remain heavy with thoughts of the victims and their families,” Wilner wrote.

By Ann D. Koffsky Patients at Northwell Health’s North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset will be having an extra happy Purim this year due to the efforts of the children of the Young Israel of West Hempstead.

Over 75 of them came out in force (with their moms and dads) for the third annual #Giveback Sunday event. “#Giveback Sunday is an event designed to do exactly that: give back to the larger Jewish community,” says Ayelet Mottahedeh, who brought her two kids to the event.

Kari Levine, one of the founders of the program, explains that she got the idea from when she received her own hospital gift package.

“When I walked into the hospital on Taanit Esther to give birth to my fourth daughter, I was handed a beautiful Purim package at the door,” she recalled. “That one package was the inspiration behind this program, which I am proud to say has now given out over 300 packages to hospital and nursing home patients.”

As each family arrived at the Young Israel, they were greeted by cheerful background music and the scents of fresh coffee and pastries.

Families were then directed to tables teeming with such craft items as markers, glittery stickers, washi tape and gems. Then they got down to work creating and packing over 100 boxes, to be delivered to patients at the hospital.

“This year, we wanted to connect our chesed to Purim, and so we created boxes to help people who have to be in the hospital over Purim to be able to celebrate the chag with simcha,” explains Jen Toplan, one of the organizers.

Each patient will receive packages that include a tzedakah box brightly decorated with stickers and shiny gems, a mask adorned with feathers, a homemade gragger, and a copy of Megillat Esther.

“This event is so perfect for me to bring my

From left: Ayelet Mottahedeh, Rabbi Dr. Hillel Fox, Kari Levine, Deborah Rockoff and Jen Toplan.

From left: Tamar Frankel, Maya Goldschmeidt and Meira Levine.

kids to,” said Deborah Rockoff, another of the chesed-doers, “I want to teach my kids to think of others, and this event helps me show that in action” Rabbi Dr. Hillel Fox, the Manhasset hospital’s chaplain, agrees.

“It warms my heart to see so many families volunteering their time to decorate and pro-

vide religious articles for the Jewish patients at North Shore,” he said. Your kindness will bring smiles, comfort and joy to sick patients who are hospitalized over the Purim holiday.”

Even the toughest of critics seemed to like it. “I really like doing chesed,” says 9-year-old Meira Levine. “I can’t wait to do it again next year!”

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OU on guns...

Continued from page 1 supported by many Democrats, is to renew the federal ban on assault rifles that expired in 2004.

In addition, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is calling for legislation that would institute universal background checks, ban individuals on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns and outlaw bump stocks, the device that enabled the Las Vegas shooter last October to upgrade his weapons from semiautomatic to fully automatic.

Diament said the Orthodox Union “has long supported common-sense measures to reduce gun violence, including banning certain sophisticated assault weapons such as the AR-15 used in [the Parkland] attack.”

The OU is also seeking additional federal and state funds for schools for their security needs, although “the precise elements of an individual school’s security program should be made by each school’s leadership,” said Diament. Some conservative pundits have suggested stationing armed guards in front of schools, though the logistics and costs for such a policy have not been analyzed.

A spokesperson for Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization, told JNS that the group supports all three of the legislative proposals.

The Orthodox social-justice group Uri L’Tzedek also supports all three proposals and will be promoting them through a beit midrash series of educational programs within the Orthodox community. Participants will “learn and then pick up the phone,” its president, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, told JNS. “We will also be using our email blasts to 10,000 recipients and the thousands

following our social media to get folks to visit senators and congressmen, call them and write to them.”

In addition, Uri L’Tzedek intends to hold public vigils to “mourn the losses [from gun violence] and raise public awareness,” said Rabbi Yanklowitz.

In a statement to JNS, B’nai B’rith International expressed support for “legislation to limit access to the most dangerous weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines whose sole purpose is to maximize death counts.”

It also urged broader background checks, longer waiting periods between buying a gun and taking possession of it, and restrictions on the number of guns an individual may purchase.

A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League told JNS that the ADL “has taken no position on specific legislative efforts” other than those suggested in the group’s 2013 resolution on gun control. That resolution recommended “stricter controls governing the sale, possession and distribution of firearms,” “comprehensive background checks,” and “a responsible conversation on the [gun control] issue that does not further stigmatize mental illness.”

On Feb. 20, President Trump ordered the Department of Justice to take action to ban bump stocks. He also has indicated that he supports some strengthening of backgroundcheck regulations.

Hadassah is urging its members to promote the gun-control proposals at upcoming “Day in the District” sessions, in which its members nationwide meet with Congress members in their local districts.

Parkland students begin to heal at Chabad CTeens

By Ben Sales, JTA Seven survivors of the Parkland school shooting were among 2,500 Jewish high school students who attended the annual conference of the Chabad’s CTeen youth group last weekend.

Responding to the Feb. 14 shooting became an impromptu theme of the conference, hosted in New York by CTeen, which has eight chapters in the South Florida area surrounding Parkland and 100,000 members worldwide.

The shooting, which killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has galvanized a youth-led movement for gun reform. But the students at the conference, each of whom had taken part in previous local Chabad activities, said they appreciated the opportunity to grieve and be comforted.

“We all have been feeling better because we’ve been with other teens who have been supporting us,” Marc Susskind, 14, told JTA. “They’ve been checking in on us, keeping us company.”

On Saturday night, the conference held a moment of silence in Times Square for the murdered teens, and the next day began a campaign for members of the youth group to fulfill one Jewish commandment, or mitzvah, in the teens’ memory. The group also called for schools to institute a moment of silence at the beginning of the day.

Both the mitzvah campaign and the idea of a moment of silence in public schools — in place of prayer, which is prohibited — are longtime Chabad causes.

The movement often encourages doing Jewish rituals, such as lighting Shabbat candles or laying tefillin, as a response to tragedy.

Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, CTeen’s president, said the group tries to avoid political issues like the gun control campaign, but acknowledged the power of the Parkland students’ activism.

“Teens are the leaders of today, not the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. “Many of them are embracing that.

In center, with red beard, Rabbi Shaya Denburg, co-director of CTeen in Coral Springs, Fla., with Rabbi Moshe Klein on his right; Chayale Denburg, co-director of CTeen in Coral Springs, who is standing and second from right; and some survivors of the Parkland shooting. Itzik Roytman/CTeen

The Parkland event is something that brought this onto the national stage. Teens might be getting a bump in being able to mobilize because a lot of people are looking toward them and seeing what they’re going to do.”

“Never before have students across the country mobilized like this, and never before have the eyes of the nation been so closely trained on us as we fight for change,” Zoe Terner, a member of NFTY, the Reform youth group, wrote in an essay last week. “A country-wide call to action roars loudly in all of our ears, and NFTY is heeding the call.”

The students at the CTeen conference said they would also be engaging in activism, including a march in Washington scheduled for March 24. But this weekend, Parkland survivors said, they were just grateful to be among friends who comforted them.

“Everyone knows about the incident and everyone is going to help reconnect,” said Maverick Reynolds, 15, who heard gunshots while hiding in a nearby classroom. “We knew it was real and it was very scary.”

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March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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Two new Israeli Supreme Court justices were confirmed by Israel’s judiciary committee this week, changing the makeup of a historically liberal judiciary body.

Alex Stein, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, will become Israel’s first Supreme Court justice born in the former Soviet Union.

Ofer Grosskopf is a Tel Aviv District judge, who at 49 is younger than most appointments to the Supreme Court, where justices serve until the age of 70. The two will replace justices Yoram Danziger and Uri Shoham, whose terms end this year.

Stein is considered conservative, while Grosskopf is more liberal. Most of court’s justices are liberal, and the court is known to be one of the most activist courts in the Western world, with little oversight combined with broad powers to cancel legislation and overturn agreements signed by Israel’s executive branch of government.

“This is a festive day for the Israeli judiciary.

Stein and Grosskopf are legal luminaries who come from diverse and unique backgrounds and no one disputes their merit,” said Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. “When I took office, one of the goals I set was to increase diversity in the Supreme Court. I have no doubt their contribution to the Supreme Court will leave its mark on the history of the Israeli judiciary.”

Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov, a member of the Judicial Nominations Committee, lauded the successful nomination of Stein as “the correction of a historical injustice toward former Soviet Union immigrants,” who comprise 1.4 million of Israel’s citizens and “until recently have not been properly represented in the legal system.”

Stein was born in the former Soviet Union before he moved to Israel where he finished high school, served in the military and received his law degree from the Hebrew University of Jeru-

Alex Stein

salem. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of London.

He has lived in the U.S. for the past 14 years and joined Brooklyn Law School as a professor

in 2016. While living in the U.S., he maintained his involvement in the Israeli legal academy and practice.

“I am thrilled and humbled,” said Stein. “Leaving legal academia — and, in particular, Brooklyn Law School, where I found a great home and intellectual powerhouse with prolific world-class faculty and highly motivated students — isn’t easy. But I very much look forward to serving the people of Israel and its legal system.”

Stein is considered an expert on torts, medical malpractice, evidence and general legal theory. He has written three books — “Foundations of Evidence Law,” “Tort Liability Under Uncertainty” and “An Analytical Approach to Evidence: Text, Cases and Problems” — and often combines law with economic theories and moral philosophy.

Stein was appointed along with Grosskopf to fill two open seats vacated by retiring justices.

“Professor Stein is one of the world’s brilliant legal minds,” said Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas Allard. “In the short time he has been with us, he has made an enormous positive impact on the Brooklyn Law School community — as a teacher, a scholar and a wonderfully energetic and engaged colleague and friend.

“We could not be prouder of his well-deserved appointment to the Israeli Supreme Court, where we know he will make important and lasting contributions as a jurist — as he has as a law professor and practicing lawyer,” Allard continued.

Reporting by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and JNS.

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THE JEWISH STAR March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778

Brooklyn Law prof a new Israeli Supreme judge

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March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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The JEWISH STAR

School News

Send news and hi-res photos to Schools@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline Mondays at Noon

Pre-Shabbaton chulent mix at SKA

SKA juniors prepared for their Shabbaton weekend by taking part in a chulent challenge on Wednesday.

Although most of the chulent got eaten before it could be judged, some did remain for the contest on Thursday. The Shabbaton began with Kabbalat Shabbat at the home of Tess Shubowitz and concluded with Seudah Shelishit and havdalah in Devorah Schreier’s house, where Rebbitzen Pollakoff spoke.

Silverstein’s Great Neck Torah tots

Youngsters at Great Neck’s Silverstein Hebrew Academy touched and studied from a real Torah, under the guidance of Rabbi Zalman Baumgarten. The Hebrew letters came to life as Rabbi Zalman Baumgarten guided the students in understanding the significance of the Torah to the Jewish people and the practice of Judaism, seamlessly weaving ancient texts into their curriculum.

Mock trial team makes the case for DRS

DRS’ mock trial team defeated the defending state camps. The team was by led by Dr. Janice Oliver and Mr. Blumenthal, captains Sruli Fruchter and Benyamin Bortz, and assistant captains Josh Samet and Jonah Loskove. Lawyers on defense were Fruchter, Benyaim Bortz and Shaya Samet; witnesses were Jonah Loskove, Ari Katznelson and Jonathan Kazlow.

Daughters of Midreshet Shalhevet

It’s all smiles at Midreshet Shalhevet’s Mother-Daughter dinner. Everyone got to eat, talk and watch videos and photos of Shalhevet memories. Menahelet Esther Eisenman delivered an interactive shiur about the secrets of Megilat Esther and how to uncover them.

Debate squad argues at HAFTR

Five students form HAFTR and DRS competed last week in the first South Shore Speech and Debate League Drasha Tournament. Pictured from left: Menachem Neiman (DRS), Miriam Kopyto (HAFTR), Benjy Gottesman (HAFTR), Elliott Ottensoser (HAFTR), Elijah Guvich (HAFTR), Eli Rockoff (DRS), Aaron Nassir (DRS), and Menachem Kunin (DRS).

Rambam champs

HANC chesed

Rambam Mesivta boys enjoyed a “breakfast of champions” after voluntarily learning every morning before Shacharis. Participants included Gavriel Toplan, Marc Landsberg, Dani Jakubowitz, Betzalel Cohen, Avi Koenig, Shlomo Braverman, Binyamin Werner, Uriel Sussman, Moshe Chernigoff, Yosef Fertig, Mordechai Schmerler, Yonatan Beer, Donny Guttman, Eli Orenbuch, Yosef Bluth, Andrew Speiser, Chaim Schreck, and Avi Balsam (not pictured).

Students from HANC Plainview Elementary School recently took part in a chesed mission that brought joy to the Mid Island Y-JCC, delivering to its food pantry dozens of packages of soup, which were collected in a school-wide drive, and visiting with senior citizens who were attending the JCC’s adult respite-care program.

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By Ben Sales, JTA Ilan Cohen loves Kansas. He knows a couple of people in Kansas. He’s currently, officially, running to be governor of Kansas.

And one day he hopes to visit Kansas. And turn 18. And be able to vote. And graduate from high school.

Right now, Cohen is a 17-year-old junior at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in suburban Washington. But that hasn’t stopped him from officially launching a gubernatorial campaign in a Midwestern state he’s never been to. Visit CohenForKansas.com and you will see an honest-to-goodness campaign site complete

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with a biography, links to media coverage (including, um, Wikipedia) and an inspiring photo of corn.

Why is Ilan Cohen running for governor of Kansas? “Because I can,” he said.

“One of the key reasons behind this candidacy is teen participation in political life,” Cohen told JTA in a 20-minute break from his campaign schedule — and 11th grade. “There are many ways of getting involved in the political scene before you’re 18, and oftentimes in ways you don’t necessarily expect. For instance, running for governor of Kansas.”

An apparent oversight in Kansas’ electoral laws has allowed anyone, anywhere, of any age, to become a candidate for governor. A handful of teenagers have jumped at the opportunity.

They include Democrats, Republicans and others. One candidate misspells the word “independent” on his campaign site.

The state did successfully bar a dog from running, and it is now trying to figure out how to keep this from happening in the future. A bill raising the minimum age to 18 and requiring residency in the state is advancing.

“I went on the website, entered my name, my address, phone number and email address, and then I did the same thing for my treasurer, then I pressed submit,” Cohen said. “I didn’t have to show ID or prove that I’m a citizen of the United States or anything. It’s a very easy process.”

The first teen to register to run for Kansas governor was Jack Bergeson, also 17, who began his campaign last year. Bergeson is actually from Kansas and, like Cohen, is a liberal running in a state that’s been red since the 1968 election. Bergeson’s platform is a bit more detailed than Cohen’s: He supports Medicare for all, a $12 minimum wage, and laying highspeed rail between major Midwestern cities.

JTA was unable to reach him directly.

Cohen said his top issue is narrowing the educational achievement gap. Though his campaign is lighthearted, he’s a serious admirer of the current student activism for gun control launched by survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Cohen was an organizer of a planned student walkout last week protesting gun violence that the Charles E. Smith administration ultimately quashed, according to the school’s student paper, the Lion’s Tale.

“I’m inspired by it,” Cohen said of the Parkland campaign. “I think the work they’re doing is very crucial. I think it is beautiful. I think it is important, and I think it set a very important precedent for the country.”

When he’s not in class, Cohen is involved in youth politics back home. He’s a district director of the Junior State of America, which engages kids through debates, model Congress and other activities. He’s an officer on the International Executive Board of United Synagogue Youth, the youth group of Conservative Judaism. And he writes for his school paper and a satirical paper, which he says he likes better.

“Whether it is going to shul and occasionally seeing a Supreme Court justice, or even growing up and just knowing you live right by D.C., growing up surrounded by politics, it really does have an effect on me,” he said.

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THE JEWISH STAR March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778

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March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

16

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Let’s eat BOTH healthy AND tasty JONI SCHOCKETT KOSHER KITCHEN

T

ype 2 diabetes is on the rise. The reasons are numerous; some experts say that high fructose corn syrup is to blame, others that statin drugs have caused a spike, most say that the food choices we make are to blame.

I am NOT a nutritionist, but I have learned a lot from several that I consult on occasion, and I have learned to be aware of those foods that cause trouble.

Sadly, these foods are the ones that we all love and even crave as comfort foods — chocolate chip cookies, pasta, soft white breads, warm Sunday bagels, creamy ice cream, Oreos, chips, brownies. In addition, each year, almost 20,000 new, mostly processed food items, are placed on store shelves; thousands of food choices that are the enemy when it comes to choosing a diet that will help avoid this life-altering and life-threatening illness.

If you have diabetes, you know the drill. If you do not have diabetes, you still need to watch your intake of white foods and sugary treats.

And we have to do a better job of teaching our children. In America, unlike in other countries, we have trained our kids to have a “sweet palate” — preferring ice cream to kale or spinach.

However, we can help our children learn to like healthier foods and make good food choices. We can raise a new generation of healthier kids who won’t face this illness as adults just by making some wiser food choices for them and for ourselves.

(Meanwhile, consult with your doctor or nutritionist about any issue you may have regarding dietary choices and watch for the warning signs such as excessive thirst or urination, blurry vision or rapid, unexplained weight loss.)

The following foods and recipes can be part of a delicious, glucose-healthy diet.

Fish with Sweet and Sour Tropical Fruit (Pareve) Fish is good for everyone, but is especially good for diabetics. It is low in calories and fat and tastes delicious. You can use any fruits you like with this dish and make it as sweet or not, as you like.

1-1/2 to 2 pounds (1-inch thick) thick, firm fish such as halibut, cod or salmon 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 to 1 cup chopped fresh pineapple 1/2 to 1 cup rinsed, drained blackberries 1-2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, parsley, chives or basil (optional) 1/2 to 1 cup fresh orange segments, (grapefruit is OK if you are not taking a Statin drug) 1/3 cup raspberry vinegar, more or less, to taste 1-2 Tbsp. agave syrup, honey or equivalent sweetness in a sugar substitute, to taste OPTIONAL: Pinch cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for a bit of heat.

Preheat broiler to medium or oven to 425.

Rub fish with oil. Place on a greased, foil-lined, rimmed baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Broil or bake until desired doneness.

While the fish is cooking, place the pineapple, blackberries, cilantro and orange segments in a bowl and mash a bit with a fork to release some of the juices from all the fruit. Add the vinegar and sweetener and taste. Adjust to your liking, adding more vinegar or sweetener as desired.

Mix well. Place a piece of fish on each of 6 plates and top with the fruit. Or, if you like, place it over the fish for the last 3 to 5 minutes of cooking. Serves 4 to 6.

Zucchini with Chickpeas (Pareve or Dairy) — got pic Zucchini is a good addition to any diet because, besides being available year round at a relatively low cost, it is easily used in everything from salads to main dishes to desserts. It is very low calorie and high in folate, an essential B vitamin and Vitamin A. 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced 1 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 small zucchini cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices and slices cut in half 1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes 1 can (13 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed Several fresh basil leaves, rolled and cut into thin strips (chiffonade) or 1/2 tsp. dried Several fresh thyme leaves cut as above, or 1/4 tsp. dried Any of your favorite herbs Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste OPTIONAL: Freshly grated low-fat cheese or grated Parmesan Heat oil in a medium-size skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until golden, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and mix until fragrant. Add the zucchini and cook until softened, about 3 minutes, stirring almost constantly. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas and mix well. Let simmer for about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the basil and thyme, salt and pepper, mix well and cover.

Simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes, mixing once or twice. Remove cover and cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. You can top with some grated low fat cheese or Parmesan. Serves 6 Lentil Butternut Squash Chili (Pareve or dairy) Lentils are good for diabetics because they are loaded with healthful nutrients, are low fat, high in protein and high in fiber at 8 grams a serving. Add some delicious butternut squash and some seasoning and you have the makings of great, light chili.

1 Tbsp. canola oil 4 to 8 cloves garlic, finely minced 1 onion, diced 1 to 2 Tbsp. chili powder, to taste 32 oz. (low-sodium if you like) vegetable broth 3/4 cup dried brown or green or red or mixed lentils, rinsed and any debris removed 1 to 2 tsp. smoked chipotle hot pepper sauce or tabasco sauce, to taste 2 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash 1 can (about 14 to 15 ounces) diced tomatoes (low-sodium or salt free)

Chopped fresh cilantro, to taste Optional: Fat-free sour cream Toasted Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, sauté until golden and add the garlic.

Cook about 30 seconds and add the chili powder. Mix for about 30 seconds. Slowly add the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Add the lentils and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, add the hot pepper sauce, to taste and cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the squash and tomatoes and simmer for about 2030 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed and the squash and lentils are tender. Garnish with cilantro, fat-free sour cream and pepitas, if desired. Serves 4.

Stuffed Bell Peppers (Meat or Pareve or Dairy) Use any color pepper and fill with lean hamburger meat, ground turkey, chicken or meat substitute like seitan or tofu. You can go completely veggie and add some cheese. Very versatile.

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1 large onion, diced 2 to 4 cloves garlic, finely minced 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil (additional) 1 to 2 tsp. tomato paste 6 oz. lean ground hamburger meat, ground turkey, ground chicken, seitan, or cubed tofu 1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned, drained 1 cup cooked brown rice Crushed red pepper flakes Herbs and spices such as cumin, oregano, parsley, chives, cilantro, paprika, to taste Salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste 2 large bell peppers, cut in half stem to flower end, seeds and white membrane discarded Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large skillet, add the olive oil and the onion and sauté until golden. Add the garlic and mix for about 30 seconds. Make a space in the middle of the pan and add a teaspoon of olive oil.

Place the tomato paste on the olive oil and let it sizzle for about 10 seconds. Mix into the onions. Add the meat and mix to break up any clumps. Cook until cooked through. Add the diced tomatoes and mix well. Add the rice and mix well. Season as desired and fill the four peppers. Place in a roasting pan and add about 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Place the peppers in the pan and cover tightly with foil. Roast for about 45 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes. Serves 4.

Note: Studies have shown that as little as 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon a day can help control blood sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon has more antioxidants than a full cup of pomegranate juice.

I mix 1 tsp. of cinnamon with 1 packet of sugar substitute and sprinkle it on some low fat cottage cheese or steel cut oats for a delicious breakfast.

‘Pot pie’ recipe offers a new twist for cholent

By Yehuda Sichel, The Nosher via JTA Here is a comforting yet elevated version of the traditional Shabbat dish. In this case, because of preparation requirements, it’s not designed for Shabbat dining.

Ingredients: 1 cup pearled barley 1 cup dried kidney beans 3/4 pound boneless short ribs, cut into 2-inch cubes 1/2 pound kosher salami, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 1 large yellow onion, cut into 8 wedges 1 stalk of celery, sliced 3 cloves of garlic, minced 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 carrot, roughly chopped Kosher salt 1/4 cup ketchup 1/2 cup red wine 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon hot smoked paprika 1 beef bouillon cube

1 quart of water 1 sprig of fresh rosemary 1 sweet potato, cut into 1-inch cubes 1 Idaho potato, cut into 1-inch cubes 1/2 cup chopped parsley Store-bought frozen puff pastry or pie dough 1 large egg, beaten Directions: 1. Combine the barley and kidney beans in a large bowl and cover with several inches of water.

Let soak overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, drain and set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 F. 3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a 4-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

4. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper, then add them to the pot and brown on all sides – about 3 minutes per side. Remove the ribs from the Dutch oven and set aside.

5. Add the salami to the pot and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the salami and set aside. Add the onions, celery, garlic, carrot and a small pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasion-

ally, until the vegetables have softened and are slightly browned, about 8 minutes.

6. Add the ketchup and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the mixture starts to bubble. Add the red wine and bring to a boil for 1-2 minutes to

burn off the alcohol. Add the spices, bouillon cube, water, and stir to combine.

7. Return to a boil and add the beans, barley, short ribs, rosemary and potatoes to the pot. The liquid in the stew should be just covering the meat.

Remove excess liquid and add additional water as necessary.

8. Cover the stew with a lid and place in the oven for about 3 hours or until the short ribs are fork tender. Keep the lid on and let the stew cool in its liquid, then refrigerate overnight.

9. The following day, preheat the oven to 375 F. Transfer the stew to a separate pot and simmer on the stove to bring the mixture back to temperature. Pour the warm stew back into the cold Dutch oven, sprinkle parsley over top and drape a sheet of puff pastry over the sides of the Dutch oven.

Crimp the dough around the edges of the pot and trim away any excess. Brush the top of the puff pastry with egg wash and sprinkle with salt. Place the stew in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

10. Let stand 15 minutes and serve. Serves 4.

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Kosher in National YI gala March 15 in Flushing Israel? App for that JERUSALEM — The Tzohar Rabbinical Organization is launching a new kashrut supervision authority, which will put it in competition with Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

“This program is intended to create competition in a sector where until now there existed a monopoly,” said Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein, Tzohar founder. “This will not replace the current structure, but rather improve it.”

Rabbi Feuerstein’s organization is known for helping Israelis navigate the country’s marriage bureaucracy, which is tightly controlled by the haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate.

Tzohar will call its new service “Food Supervision,” since Israeli law prohibits any supervising entities other than the Rabbinate from using the word “kosher” in their certifying materials. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last year, however, that though restaurants with independent kashrut supervision cannot use the word kashrut or kosher on their signs or supervision certificates, they can tell those who ask where it purchases its foodstuff, how it is prepared and under whose auspices they are supervised.

The supervisors in the Tzohar program will be women who recently underwent a training course in kashrut conducted by Tzohar and Emunah Women, a religious Zionist organization. A mobile-based app developed

by Israeli company EyeDo will use GPS technology to “monitor updates from the supervisors and promote transparency and accuracy in their reporting,” Tzohar said. —JTA

The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) will celebrate 70 years of the State of Israel and applaud the United States’ declaration of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel, at its gala diner on Thursday, March 15, at Terrace on the Park in Flushing.

The gala will honor current and former government officials and visionaries and activists who embody the values and core mission of the national council.

The guest of honor will be former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.

Speakers will include Rep. Ron DeSantis of Florida, chairman of the National Security Subcommittee and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees; Stuart Force, father of Taylor Force, whose death led to the landmark legislative effort to defund the Palestinian Authority until it publicly denounces terrorism, works to end violent terrorist acts, and terminates the practice of giving stipends for terrorists; Morton Klein, president, Zionist Organization of America; Sander Gerber, CEO of Hudson Bay Capital; and television news anchor and correspondent Rita Cosby.

Other honorees will include: •Shofar Award recipients Kenneth S. Abramowitz, managing general partner and co-founder of NGN Capital; Morty and Rozi Davis, owner and chairman of D.H. Blair Investment Banking Corp. and chairman of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce; Michael and Susan Gross, active members of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst; Drs. Robert and Jennifer Lebovits, active members of the Young Israel of Greater Pittsburgh; and Stanley Sved, former president of the Young Israel of Elkins Park and the Young Israel of the Main Line, and former regional vice president of the National Council of Young Israel.

•Rabbinic Leadership Award recipient

During a visit to Israel last November, the National Council of Young Israel’s guest of honor, Anthony Scaramucci, is flanked by its Young Leadership Award honoree, Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce founder and CEO Duvi Honig (left), and NCYI First Vice President Dr. Joseph Frager.

OJC

Rabbi Yosef Singer, spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Potomac and president of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington.

•Young Leadership Award recipient Rabbi Duvi Honig, founder of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce and the non-profit Parnassah Network organization.

•Aishes Chayil Award recipients Helen Freedman, co-executive director of Americans for a Safe Israel; and Cindy Grosz, proIsrael and education activist.

The 106-year-old National Council of Young Israel has approximately 135 branch synagogues throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel, with more than 25,000 member families. It is a multi-faceted organization that embraces Jewish communal needs and often takes a leading role in tackling the important issues that face the Jewish communities in North America and Israel. The

NCYI provides religious, educational, Zionistic, social, and communal programming for all its member synagogues and their affiliated families.

Dinner Chairman is NCYI First Vice President Dr. Joseph Frager and the co-chairman is Jonathan Burkan. Program chairmen are NCYI Executive Director Rabbi Marc Volk and NCYI Director of Rabbinic Services Rabbi Binyamin Hammer. Journal and dinner coordinators are Judah and Carol Rhine of the Young Israel of West Hempstead. Master of Ceremonies is Washington Examiner Senior Editor and CNN political analyst David Drucker.

The event begins at 6 pm with an elegant buffet dinner. The program, starting at 7:30 pm, will be followed by a Viennese dessert. For reservations, visit YoungIsraelDinner2018.com or email yi_dinner@youngisrael.org.

Source: NCYI

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18

YU makes Division III

HAFTR honors 6 as gala toasts its 40th year The greater HAFTR community gathered last motzei Shabbat to celebrate 40 years during which the institution, founded in 1978, has grown exponentially.

Guests honored the school’s history and celebrated the future of what is yet to come for students, faculty and parents. “It was an absolute honor to celebrate this incredible milestone with fellow HAFTR parents, HAFTR staff members, grandparents and graduates. I am confident that the next 40 years will be even bigger and better,” said Ari Solomon, newly appointed executive director.

The event took place at the HAFTR Hawks’ Nest where attendees paid tribute to the gala’s honorees.

Pictured, front row from left: Murray Horowitz and his wife, Educator of the Year honoree Phyllis Horowitz; Guests of Honor Arthur and Lisa Perl; and Young Leadership awardees Ariella and Ari Gasner. Back row from left: Chairman of the Board Neil Wiener; HAFTR President Yaron Kornblum, Executive Director Ari Solomon, and Dinner Chairman Josh Glatt.

Anti-Semitic incidents rise The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States spiked in 2017, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

There were 1,986 acts of anti-Semitism in the U.S. last year, according to an ADL audit released Tuesday, comprising the largest oneyear increase in recorded history. That number is more than double the total from 2015, which

was 942. It’s also a 57 percent increase over the 2016 total of 1,267. The audit said that the rise is due in part to an increase in people reporting incidents of anti-Semitism.

The 2017 number includes more than 160 bomb threats sent to Jewish community centers and other institutions early that year. A Jewish teen from Israel was arrested for making the vast majority

of those threats, which were all not credible. Discounting the JCC threats, reported incidents still increased by 43 percent over 2016. Almost all of the instances were either harassment — including the bomb threats — or vandalism, including seven instances of Jewish cemeteries being desecrated.

There were also 19 anti-Semitic physical assaults, a decline of 47 percent from 2016.

“These incidents came at a time when we saw a rising climate of incivility, the emboldening of hate groups and widening divisions in society,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. —JTA

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The Yeshiva University men’s basketball team won’t have to worry about playing on Shabbat in the opening round of the NCAA Division III tournament.

The team announced Tuesday in a post on its Facebook page that its game against York College in Pennsylvania will take place at 1 pm Friday. The original schedule had YU, the flagship university of Modern Orthodox Judaism, playing at 1 pm Saturday.

“They are keenly aware of our restrictions — they’ve been talking about how to accommodate us since at least Saturday evening,” Yeshiva’s athletic director, Joe Bednarsh, told The Times of Israel on Tuesday, hours before the schedule was finalized.

If the Maccabees (18-10) defeat York (23-4), champions of the Capital Athletic Conference, they will advance to play at 8:30 pm on Saturday in York against the winner of the Nazareth-Hamilton firstround game.

On Sunday, YU defeated Purchase College, 87-81, in Purchase, New York, to win the Skyline Conference championship and its first berth in the national tournament.

Bednarsh said after the victory that people from all over the world be following the squad’s run to the championship.

“People have been reaching out to me about this team from Thailand, South Africa, Argentina, Israel, England and more,” he said. “The Maccabees are truly the pride of the Jewish people.”

Division III member institutions do not offer scholarships to student-athletes. —JTA

19

Pole priest AI and robotics aid Israeli security rips Jews on ‘truth’ Representatives of Polish Jews have complained to the state media watchdog about a public broadcaster airing an interview with a priest who said Jews have a unique understanding of the concept of truth.

Henryk Zielinski, editor of the Catholic weekly Idziemy, made the remarks Feb. 24 on TVP, according to the complaint filed by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland.

Jews have “a completely different system of values, a different concept of truth,” Zielinski said. “For us, the truth corresponds to facts.

“For the Jew, truth means something that conforms to his understanding of what’s beneficial. If a Jew is religious, then truth means something G-d wants.” For nonreligious Jews, he said, “the truth is subjective or whatever serves Israel’s interests.”

Zielinski cited the Haggadah, which contains the story of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. “Often these stories have nothing to do with facts,” he said.

The interviewer did not contest Zielinski’s assertions, according to the complaint.

Zielinski’s remarks violated National Council of Radio and Television principles for content on public media, including its ban on ideas that “incite to hatred or discriminate on the grounds of race, disability, gender, religion or nationality,” the Jewish union wrote in its complaint. —JTA

rs 35 Yeagrity e Of Int

In the spring of 2013, a team of robots programmed by Bar-Ilan University Professor Gal Kaminka reached the RoboCup world soccer championship game, the robotic version of the World Cup final. Although Team Israel has never advanced to the playoff stage of FIFA’s international human soccer tournament, the country’s robotic counterparts are consistently ranked as a world power.

In just one of many extraordinary hightech projects which he oversees, Kaminka combines social psychology theories with the best microchips and circuitry Israel has to offer in designing robotic teamwork.

Kaminka works his high-tech magic in the robotics and artificial intelligence lab of the Department of Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan. His technology is helping to keep Israel safe and on the cusp of new scientific breakthroughs. Some of his robotic programming is employed by the IDF in patrolling the dangerous borders and tunnels of the Gaza strip. It’s an invaluable, high-tech alternative that keeps Israeli soldiers from harm’s way.

Since July 2017, the IDF has deployed fully automated self-driving military vehicles, developed in Kaminka’s lab, aimed at keeping terrorists from crossing over into Israel or deploying explosives. Next up for the IDF are plans to equip the vehicles with weapons such as machine guns and deploy them in stages to Israel’s frontiers with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

“My research focuses on social intelligence, specifically the transition from a single mind to many,” says Kaminka. “Such understanding can lead to building robots and virtual humans that are able to collaborate, coordinate, manipulate, and reason.” His recent work has focused on techniques for plan recognition (allowing robots to understand others by observing their behavior), for general teamwork in

Professor Gal Kaminka with some of his robots.

robots, and for simulating human crowds.

Kaminka’s educational roots are in the U.S., where he received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. He won an IBM Faculty Award, the 2014 Landau Award for Arts and Sciences, and served as chair or cochair of several international conferences. He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, and of course, the RoboCup Federation.

In 2012, Kaminka participated in a fellowship program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. His mission: to create a battle plan for ridding the world of “autistic” robots.

“Almost all robots are autistic: they generally do not behave correctly in social settings, whether with humans or with other robots,”

Kaminka explains. “I believe that we must create socially capable robots by building general social intelligence into them. That means using knowledge from computer science, neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science.”

Kaminka feels that the main goal of his research is to always improve and enhance his knowledge, rather than achieving a specific task.

“When the Americans wanted to put a man on the moon, their main objective wasn’t necessarily the symbolic ability to stick their flag on the land of the moon. Reaching the moon was, in fact, a means to an end, which made them enhance and perfect existing knowledge and develop new technologies, to enable this trip as well as many other great uses.”

Currently, Bar-Ilan is in the process of building a new Computer Science Center which will house such top departments as Cyber-Security, Natural Language Processing, plus a remarkable, multi-story drone and robotics lab for Kaminka’s high-tech inventions.

“Only he who sees the invisible can do the impossible,” says Kaminka. “It’s the only way to break boundaries and make new discoveries.

The new building will enable us to achieve even greater goals and remain Israel’s leading technology center.”

Kaminka lives in Kfar Saba with his wife and three kids. He admits that robots are his main interest, both at work and at home.

“I’m the happiest man alive, for being able to work at a job that is both my profession and my hobby. Outside my family, robots are my life. I just can’t believe I’m being paid to do exactly what I love.”

For more information on how to help contribute to Prof. Gal Kaminka’s vital research, please contact American Friends of Bar-Ilan University at 212 906-3900, or on the web at AFBIU.org Source: Bar-Ilan University

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Cash?...

Continued from page 1

The triumph of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem, they tended to agree, is that it came about honestly because recognizing an ally’s capital is the right thing to do. Trump himself said Friday in a speech to conservative activists that he came under intense pressure from the international community not to make the move.

But the optics of a rich donor paying the U.S. government for the embassy, critics said, makes the move look less like a principled policy than a personal favor.

“Citizens volunteering their resources and energies to ease the government’s burdens is laudable,” said Jason Isaacson, the American Jewish Committee’s director of government and international affairs. “But an American Embassy represents — and must be seen indisputably as representing — the United States of America, rather than any generous individual or segment of American society. The American Embassy in Jerusalem – as with all American embassies around the world – should serve, and belong to, every American equally.”

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, who is close to Adelson, referred to reports that Adelson might seek other funders, including among pro-Israel Christians.

“This is a United States government project and policy, I don’t think it should be ‘the evangelicals, the Jews made this happen.’ It should be crystal clear the U.S. government made this happen,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for any private citizen to pay for the U.S. Embassy to be moved.”

Daniel Shapiro, the Obama administration’s am-

bassador to Israel who has since leaving the position advocated for a move, said he did not believe that State Department lawyers would sign off on the arrangement. Once Adelson started funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the U.S. government’s coffers, there would be immediate conflict of interest questions, including, what is the casino magnate and pro-Israel philanthropist getting in return?

“When individuals or corporations are giving something, there’s an expectation they may be getting something in return,” Shapiro said. “That concern about quid pro quo is naturally pregnant in such a proposal.”

Also against the idea was William Brown, the ambassador to Israel under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He wrote memos to both presidents recommending moving the embassy to Jerusalem. “I’ve worked in embassies that could use some money,” said Brown. “But not this way.”

If Adelson really wants to feel useful, there are some limited options, said Shapiro. “Embassy 4th of July parties can receive both cash (usually a few thousand dollars) and in-kind contributions from U.S. companies operating overseas. They are then listed as sponsors, which is a form of promoting U.S. businesses.”

Abraham Foxman, the emeritus national director of the Anti-Defamation League — who also thought private funding for embassies was a terrible idea — had a different proposal.

“It would be nice if the Adelsons could pay for the art in the embassy,” he said. “There’s never a budget for art.”

The State Department runs an “Art in Embassies” program that solicits private money to help create “vital cross-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding through the visual arts and dynamic artist exchanges.”

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tion of Jerusalem not just in words, but in deeds. We look forward to hosting you this year at the Jerusalem embassy!”

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said Trump’s “courageous decision is proof of the strength of the genuine alliance and friendship between the United States and Israel.”

“This is the hour to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the State of Israel,” Danon added.

Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin urged additional countries to follow the American lead and move their embassies.

“We at the Jerusalem Ministry will give any assistance necessary to advance this process, to both the U.S. State Department and to any other country that is interested,” he said.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said, “The people in Israel thank the U.S. president for the friendship, the courage and the determination in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. You will be recorded in the chronicles of Israel.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely praised the Trump administration for its “actions to implement the historic decision” to transfer the U.S. Embassy.

Deputy Minister and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren called the announcement “a great moment for the State of Israel.”

He said he believed additional countries would follow in the U.S.’s footsteps and relocate their own embassies to Jerusalem.

“This is another step that proves Trump is a president who lives up to his word,” he said, adding that Israel was committed to channeling its strong friendship with the U.S. administration to work toward a genuine solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I congratulate President Trump and thank him from the bottom of my heart,” Oren said.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Avi Dichter said, “In a 70-year delay, the U.S. Embassy will be located in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Calling the move “a small step for America, a giant step for Israel and humanity,” he said, “We hope this move will propel other countries around the world to transfer their embassy to Jerusalem.”

According to Likud MK Anat Berko, “This news only proves how important Israel is to the international community and how beloved it is to the U.S.” Likud MK Yehuda Glick hailed the move as “a historic decision of biblical proportions.”

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer said that with the embassy relocation, “The Americans have

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Continued from page 1 dence and the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem,” Barkat added. “This is a recogni-

21 THE JEWISH STAR March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778

Bibi...

proved that the winds that have blown since President Trump entered [office] are genuine.” He hailed his “friends in Congress and the American administration for keeping their promise and their steadfast stance alongside Israel and Jerusalem.”

United Torah Judaism MK Uri Maklev was slightly more cautious in his praise for the move. He said the embassy relocation was “a good thing if it comes from the recognition of the importance of the issue, and not from a demand by Israel and in the hope that we will not end up paying a heavy price.”

Opposition lawmakers also welcomed the move.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said Israel should “thank President Trump for a wonderful gift for Israel’s 70th birthday.”

In a statement, the president of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Dr. Jurgen Buhler, said, “We are grateful to the Trump administration, which has kept its promise to transfer the American Embassy to the capital, the place where it should be.

We join the people of Israel and its government in saluting the gesture.

“The Christian Embassy hopes other countries will join the move and we are acting to achieve this goal through our representatives and activists around the world. It is our belief that the transfer of the U.S. Embassy and other embassies from around the world will bolster the city’s standing around the world and the freedom of religion that the State of Israel grants the city,” the statement said.

Longtime Israeli diplomat Dore Gold, who most recently served as Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Netanyahu and is now president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told JNS: “All I can do is voice my tremendous admiration for the determination of the Trump administration to move forward with moving the embassy.”

He believes Trump’s decision is important domestically and internationally as it shows he can keep his word. Gold explained that for Arab states that rely on “the wings of the American eagle for security,” seeing a U.S. president stand strong, even if it is for Israel, means that he will stand strong for them as well.

“The president made a commitment, and he is keeping that commitment,” said Gold.

Asked if he thought other countries would follow suit in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving their embassies there, he noted “that the U.S. was the first country to recognize Israel — within minutes — after it announced independence in 1948. After the U.S. recognized Israel, other countries followed. So I think it’s likely, yes.”

Professor Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, told JNS he believes the move would be “a historic justice.” He noted that “it is an important step in normalizing the status of Jerusalem,” and agreed with Gold that “other countries will follow the American example.”

Israel Kasnett of JNS contributed to this report.

March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

22

‫כוכב של שבת‬

SHAbbAT STAR

Some holy things are reserved for holy places Rabbi avi billet

Parsha of the week

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ho doesn’t like the smell of freshly made popcorn? Many years ago I remember reading a comic book (I think it was Richie Rich) in which a character was looking to have a popcorn smelling perfume made, arguing that the aroma was so beautiful he would easily be attracted to it.

At the time it seemed a sound argument. But it doesn’t take much thought to realize that while the popcorn smell is one thing coming from a bowl containing popcorn, it might not work in the same way when on a human.

And so we are faced with a most interesting prohibition, Mitzvah 110 in the Sefer HaChinukh, to not measure out k’toret (incense) for ourselves nor to make an aroma that is exactly that of the k’toret: “Do not duplicate the formula of the incense that you are making for personal use, since it must remain sacred to G-d. If a person makes it to enjoy its fragrance, he shall be cut off [spiritually] from his people.” (30:37-38) While popcorn-perfume is not recommended,

k’toret-perfume is forbidden.

Can it be that some things are so holy they are exclusive to a specific time and place? What if I want to imitate holiness? What if I want to get closer to G-d? he Midrash Rabba on parshat Terumah notes in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish that the world was not worthy to use gold. So why was it given to the world? For the sake of the Mishkan and Beit HaMikdash. Think about how much theft and murder has gone on over the acquisition of gold, because people wanted for themselves something which was meant for a specific purpose. This is also one of the reactions to the misuse of gold in the making of the Golden Calf.

Rabbi Yosef Bechor Shor comments on the k’toret rule that the same rule of non-proliferation applied to the anointing oils (Mitzvah 109 in the Sefer HaChinukh), because it is inappropriate to use things designated specifically for the king.

As a brief aside, this was one of the ingredi-

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ents leading to Haman’s downfall in the Purim story: his insatiable desire to be as close to kingly as he could get. When he told Achashveirosh that he wanted to be led through the town on a royal horse, wearing royal clothing and a royal crown, he was quickly put in his place. Mordechai, who ended up being dressed in those clothes, quickly returned to his clothes of mourning after the spectacle was over.

B’chor Shor continues: “The rabbis also instructed that a person could not imitate the shape of the heichal (sanctum), nor a menorah of seven branches (rather make one of 6 or 8 branches), nor wear shatnez (clothing that has both wool and linen) because the holy garments of the Kohanim contained shatnez.” hough aware of the prohibitions discussed here, it never occurred to me that the prohibition we have against wearing shatnez might be because of the ingredients in the clothing of the Kohanim. Which came first — the instructions for these clothes or the shatnez

While popcornperfume is not recommended, k’toretperfume is forbidden.

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prohibition? B’chor shor (citing the rabbis) is suggesting the Kohanim clothes came first, and we are not allowed to imitate those ingredients in our clothes.

There is no prohibition against smelling the actual k’toret if one is near the Temple and the smell wafts along to one’s olfactory senses. But creating it just to know what it was like or to feel as if I’m there is prohibited.

We can talk about praying at home, or even making a minyan in one’s home. Of course there isn’t a prohibition! But comparing these kinds of services to those in a synagogue is an exercise in hyperbole. Even the reading of a Torah can only be done under certain conditions — otherwise, we use a Chumash for our study of the holy text.

We certainly don’t have anything comparable to the Mishkan of old. Absent a Temple, the way we serve G-d and the trimmings of our lives that constitute holiness are much fewer than in the days of old. And while imitation is certainly a high form of flattery, in some cases it falls flat in comparison.

Let us aim for holiness where and when we can. And let us remember that some things are meant to be exclusively designated for one kind of use. We can certainly manage with the kinds of life- and spirit- affirming places and props that are available to us.

Schechinah has come down for the Jewish people Rabbi david etengoff

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lthough our parasha, Ki Tisa, contains numerous themes, it is preeminently associated with the Chet Haegel (the Sin of the Golden Calf). How could our ancestors could have participated in such a heinous activity?

While the people’s actions are difficult to understand, Aaron’s actions were in some ways incomprehensible, with a straightforward reading of the text appearing to place him directly at the center of the sin.

What did Aaron actually do?

•He told the nation to donate gold and bring it to him.

•He collected a great deal of gold from many of the people.

•He had someone mold the gold into the form of a calf.

•He built an altar in front of the Golden Calf.

•He announced that there would be a festival to G-d the next day.

This certainly is not the behavior that we would have imagined from one of our greatest spiritual leaders, the first Kohen Gadol. We would hardly have expected him to accede to the people’s wishes — let alone, seemingly, encourage them! eyond question, Aaron sinned. Therefore, the Midrash Tanchuma to Parashat Shemini asks why does the Torah state, “Take for yourself a bull-calf [as your sin offering]?”

Why does it not say a par (mature bull)? This comes to teach us that through [the golden] calf, the priesthood was nearly wrested from your hands (elah al yedei aegel nitfakfak hakahunah b’yadecha), and via [this] calf the priesthood is firmly established in your hands (u’b’aegel mitbasusah b’yadecha).

Rashi, basing himself upon this Midrash, notes that the phrase “take for yourself a bullcalf [was] to inform [Aaron] that [G-d] had

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granted him atonement through this calf for the incident involving the [golden] calf.”

The theme of Aaron’s sin, and consequent recognition of guilt, is presented in the halachic Midrash to sefer Vayikra known as the Sifra (9:16). Rashi paraphrases this source in his commentary on Vayikra 9:23: “When Aaron saw that all the sacrifices had been offered and all the procedures had been performed, and yet the Shechinah had not descended for Israel, he was distressed. He said, ‘I know that the Holy One, blessed is He, is angry with me [because of my role in the Sin of the Golden Calf], and on my account the Shechinah has not descended for Israel.’ So he said to Moses, ‘My brother Moses, is this what you have done to me that I have entered and been put to shame?’ At once, Moses entered [the Tent of Meeting] with him, and they prayed for mercy. Then the Shechinah came down for Israel.”

Almost all of the classic meforshim agree that Aaron did something fundamentally wrong, where they disagree is in their interpretations of his actions.

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, known as the Kli Yakar after the title of his most famous and beloved work, begins his commentary to Vayikra 9:2 by noting that there are those who ask why, on the day of the establishment of the Mishkan, Aaron brought the bull-calf as his sin offering, whereas the Jewish people brought their bull-calf as an olah (totally burnt offering, see Vayikra 9:3).

He notes that there was a fundamental difference in how Aaron sinned, in contrast to the nation’s sin. He suggests that Aaron’s sin was one of action (kum v’aseh), rather than one of thought (machshavah): “This is the case since Aaron certainly had absolutely no intention of idol worship (avodah zarah)” — instead, the essence of his sin consist-

ed of his action in actively creating the Golden Calf. As the Torah states: “Then the L-rd struck the people with a plague, because they had made the calf that Aaron had made” (Shemot 32:35). Why does the Torah emphasize “the calf that Aaron had made?”

This comes to teach us that Aaron’s only sin consisted in creating the Calf, rather than in any thought-based (machshavah) activity. This is why Aaron brought his bull-calf as a sin offering to bring about atonement for his action-based sin, whereas the Jewish people who sinned in both action and thought — since beyond question they intended to perform idol worship — brought their bull-calf as an olah as expiation for their additional thought-based sin. ccording to the Kli Yakar, Aaron’s violation was a sin of commission, of action, rather than one of thought. His mind remained pure from any thought or intention of idol worship. Yet, although his actions lacked a thought component, Aaron’s feelings of guilt were appropriate and representative of the gulf between G-d and himself that he had caused.

Therefore he declared to Moshe, “I know that the Holy One, blessed is He, is angry with me [because of my role in the Sin of the Golden Calf], and on my account the Shechinah has not descended for Israel.” In order to remove the yawning chasm that separated Hashem from Aaron — and by extension, Hashem from the Jewish people — “Moses entered [the Tent of Meeting] with him, and they prayed for mercy. Then the Shechinah came down for Israel.” Moshe and Aaron prayed together to end the separation that had prevented the Divine Presence from dwelling amongst the Jewish people. By joining forces in prayer, they were able to close the gap that had separated Klal Yisrael from their Creator.

We live in an age of Jewish fragmentation.

Aaron’s violation was a sin of action, rather than one of thought.

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There are seemingly impenetrable walls between Torah observant and not yet Torah observant Jews. Moreover, the Orthodox Jewish world itself is filled with often-warring factions, mistrust, and lack of respect for differing authentic halachic opinions.

Chazal identified such sinat chinam (baseless hatred) as the reason for the destruction of the second Beit Hamikdash (Talmud Bavli, Yoma 9a). This is a grievous sin, and we must not shy away from labeling it as such. Here, as well, we must emulate Moshe and Aaron; and join in prayer and as one united people. If we can do this, if we can close the breaches that separate and alienate us from one another, then we will be able to remove the distance that exists between Hashem and our nation.

With the Almighty’s mercy and our heart-felt desire, may the time come soon when we will join together in prayer and proclaim as one, “The Schechinah has come down for Israel.” V’chane yihi ratzon.

luach

Thurs March 1 • 14 Adar Purim

Fri March 2 • 15 Adar Shushan Purim Parsha KiSisa Candlelighting: 5:29 pm

Havdalah: 6:39 pm

Fri March 9 • 22 Adar Shabbos Mevarchim Parshas Parah Vayakhel-Pekudei Candlelighting: 5:37 pm

Havdalah: 6:47 pm

Five Towns times from the White Shul

AlAn JAy GErbEr

Kosher BooKworm

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his week I bring to your attention the scholarship of Rabbi Baruch Dov Braun, a young and very talented rabbi and teacher of Talmud and Tanach at Woodmere’s DRS High School for Boys. Among the people who helped in the publication of Rabbi Braun’s book, “A Time to Seek: Fascinating New Insights in the Torah” (Mosaica Press), is the Puderbeutel family of Flatbush whose son, Chaim, and his wife, Tzipi, are active members at the Red Shul in Cedarhurst.

This week’s Purim-related excerpt will be followed next week with one themed to the upcoming festival of Pesach.

Rabbi Naftali Jaeger, esteemed rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv in Cedarhurst, stated that “Rabbi Braun’s discourses are captivating and illuminating [and] enable the reader to ascend the ladder of personal growth to greater heights.” I couldn’t agree more in this assessment. Read on, learn, and enjoy.

The U.S. Constitution, Megillas Esther, and Eisav

By Rabbi Baruch Dov Braun

abuse of G-d’s Name and a manipulation of the people. The administrative quality and efficacy of the Constitution should speak for itself without needing sanction from a higher power.

In this view, throughout history, throngs of people have been tricked by those who presumed to speak in G-d’s Name into adopting various systems of beliefs and politics. Invoking G-d’s Name in the Constitution would echo this insidious practice and preclude the masses from examining the document critically and on its own merits.

What this last opinion underscores is that using and speaking in G-d’s Name is not always just. Even G-d’s Name is not immune from exploitation and abuse. We are warned: “Do not take the name of Hashem your G-d in vain” … ashem, as we know, is invisible. It’s His distinguishing feature. Still, His invisibility, as philosophers, psychologists, and anthropologists from Hume to Freud to Becker have noted, is a source of acute anxiety. It’s quite a challenge for human beings to find solace and security in an abstract being.

We should not underestimate the psychological benefits of being able to hug, kiss, bow, and give gifts to a tangible G-d. Just think of how good we feel when we walk into a doctor’s office, of the comfort and security we derive by his mere presence and aura of expertise. For this reason, idolatry was so appealing to Jews throughout Biblical times: it gave Jews the opportunity to represent Hashem in a concrete and visible way.

The next best thing to representing Hashem visually is to do so audibly. By invoking Hashem’s Name, we manifest His presence. Almost as much as an idol can assuage a person’s anxieties and insecurities, so can the articulation of His Name. It’s no coincidence that the prohibition against idolatry and taking Hashem’s Name in vain, together, comprise their own independent section in the Torah. And attaching Hashem’s Name to our opinions and endeavors can be a way to draw not only comfort and security but, as we have seen, validation. By invoking Hashem’s Name, we can free ourselves from the need to justify our views and actions. If Hashem’s Name is associated with it, it must be right and

Mordechai and Esther’s book omits Hashem’s Name. They are acutely aware that Hashem’s Name is vulnerable to abuse,

by Jew and non-Jew alike.

One of the most bewildering parts of the Torah is the passage that details Yitzchak Avinu’s wish to bless and, by doing so, pass on the Abrahamic legacy to Eisav instead of to Yaakov Avinu, the more obvious candidate.

How does Yitzchak get it so wrong? What is it about Eisav that so enamors him? Perhaps, the question should be put differently: What is it about Yaakov that displeases Yitzchak? …

The conspicuous absence of G-d’s name in the [U.S.] Constitution was not lost on its framers. During the constitutional convention and ratification, heated debates erupted over the glaring omission. … There were even some who defended the omission from both a humanistic and religious perspective. To attach the name of G-d to the document, they argued, would be an

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good and true.

What emerges is that frequent usage of Hashem’s Name may indicate overdependency and moral weakness.

Ironically, then, the omission of Hashem’s Name may be a sign not of secularism but religious maturity. This phe- Rabbi Baruch Dov Braun nomenon and the confusion it can create is, perhaps, the basis for Yitzchak’s error. espite Yitzchak’s intentions, Yaakov, as we know, takes matters into his own hands to attain the berachos. During the ruse, however, Yaakov almost makes a fatal mistake. … Asked by Yitzchak how he so quickly found and prepared the game, Yaakov responds, “Because Hashem, your G-d, caused it to happen for me.” Not used to hearing Eisav utter the Name of Hashem, Yitzchak demands that Yaakov approach so he may feel his skin.

The Ramban struggles to follow Yitzchak’s logic. Presumably, Yitzchak does not perceive Eisav as a nonbeliever; after all, Yitzchak is willing and eager to bestow his blessings upon him.

Why, then, is Yitzchak’s suspicion aroused when Yaakov, dissembling as Eisav, pronounces Hashem’s Name? And, if indeed, it was not Eisav’s habit, at all, to mention the Name of Hashem in conversation, why would Yitzchak favor him over Yaakov? The Ramban answers: “Perhaps Yitzchak thought to himself that because Eisav was a man of the field, and his mind was concentrated on hunting, he refrained from mentioning the Name of Heaven out of fear lest he mention it in an unclean place or without the proper intention. And in his father’s eyes this was considered an indication of Eisav’s fear of Heaven.”

Based on our discussion, however, the Ramban doesn’t need to go so far. Yitzchak intends to bless Eisav because he sees his reticence as a sign of righteousness. Eisav, Yitzchak erroneously thinks, has internalized and integrated his awareness of Hashem so thoroughly into his psyche that he needs neither visual nor audio aids in order to engage the world and repair it.

Because of the way Eisav comports himself, he is mistaken for a religiously mature, independent, and courageous individual. Eisav, it seems, has the qualities needed to implement Hashem’s vision for the world. Yaakov, on the other hand — the “pious man who remained in the tents” — comes across as relatively underdeveloped. He

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reminds Yitzchak of Noach, another pious individual who lived in isolation, first in a cave, then in an ark. itzchak, of course, is incorrect. About both of them: •Eisav omits Hashem’s Name from his lexicon because he neglects Hashem, because he is wicked. Indeed, not using Hashem’s Name can be misleading, especially if you take it for granted that your son is fundamentally good.

•Yitzchak also errs in that he underestimates Yaakov. It isn’t until Yaakov’s ruse that Yitzchak (and the reader) sees Yaakov’s potential. It is then, when he dons not only Eisav’s clothes, but Eisav’s identity as a “hunter, a man of the field” that Yaakov demonstrates that he is capable of assuming the mantle of leadership and the responsibility to engage the world and transform it in the image of the Torah.

We live in complicated days: •On the one hand, G-d’s Great Name is abused on a daily basis. Lies, atrocities, and terrorism are all perpetrated in His Name.

•On the other hand, secularism and atheism are on the rise.

Each of these camps feed off the ever-growing extremism of the other. We find ourselves in the midst of a vicious cycle. What are we to do?

Do we consciously refrain from using Hashem’s Name in order to demonstrate that authentic religious living need not rely on (and misuse) G-d’s Name? Or, must we invoke and call out in Hashem’s Name whenever we can in order to show that our wholesome and meaningful lifestyles are an expression of godliness?

When Boaz, in Megillas Rus, perceives that the name of Hashem is becoming obsolete, he institutes the practice of greeting one another with it. Our sages observe that Boaz is well aware this practice is in direct violation of “Do not take the name of Hashem your G-d in vain.” Nevertheless, his policy is a necessary evil; Boaz feels compelled to do so “in order to preserve Hashem’s Torah.” Mordechai and Esther, in contrast, compose a book that omits Hashem’s Name. Writing in a pagan society, they are acutely aware that Hashem’s Name is vulnerable to abuse, by Jew and non-Jew alike.

In our time, when the Name of G-d is simultaneously being abused by believers and derided by nonbelievers what are we to do? How are we to end this vicious cycle that is tearing our world apart? Do we act like Boaz or like Mordechai?

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Purim masquerading: Things aren’t as they seem rAbbi MArC d.

AnGEl

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t least since the sixteenth century, Purim celebrations have included costumes and masquerade parties. Various explanations have been given.

The Purim story is replete with surprises.

Things are not what they initially seem to be.

Esther pretends not to be Jewish and masquerades as a Persian Queen. Mordecai wears sackcloth and ashes but is later dressed up as viceroy to the king. The king appears to be all powerful but he is an indecisive hedonist who allots real power to others. Haman seems to be in control but ends up being hanged on a tree on which he had hoped to hang Mordecai. When the Jews ultimately prevail, many of their one time enemies were “mityahadim,” appearing to be Jews themselves. Even G-d, whose name is not mentioned in Megillat Esther, seems to be hiding.

Masquerade: wearing a costume, playing a role, pretending to be someone other than yourself, hiding your true identity; putting on a mask, camouflaging reality, creating false illusions.

In describing the impact of a mask on its wearer, Elias Canetti notes: “As long as he wears it he is two things, himself and the mask. … Because it can be torn away, its wearer is bound to fear for it. He must take care that he does not lose it; it must never be dropped … While he wears the mask he is thus two people and must remain two during the whole of his performance” (Crowds and Power, Seabury Press).

One wearing a mask wishes to preserve the illusion of being someone else. Being unmasked would ruin everything.

But what happens if the mask wearer comes to identify totally with the mask?

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uch human tragedy is the result of people forgetting who they are at root; they don various masks and personae, pretending to be what they in fact are not. They may imagine that they can only be successful or happy if they adopt a certain persona, if they betray their selves for the sake of winning the approval of others. The psychiatrist, Dr. Arno Gruen, has pointed out: “We establish irrational ideals of the ‘real’ man and the ‘right kind’ of woman, which not only separate us more and more from our genuine potentialities, but in the long run also lead us into self-destructiveness” (The Betrayal of the Self, Grove Press).

People, in their desire to be popular, often end up play-acting. They dress, speak, laugh, socialize — the way they expect that others want them to dress, speak, laugh and socialize. To gain approval, they will wear whatever mask they think will advance them.

Happily, many people are authentic, natu-

Purim is a reminder that there is a fine line between reality and illusion.

ral and good. They strive not to wear masks, not to pose as someone other than who they are. When they do feel that they are acting artificially, they are wise enough to catch themselves. But others seem to be play-acting, pretending to be what they are not. Perceptive people can see through the mask; they pity the mask-wearers who must spend so much energy trying to live up to a false image of themselves. The mask-wearers are terrified by those who would unmask them.

Masquerades are fine if one realizes that they are infrequent descents into fantasy. Masquerades are destructive if the mask-wearers cease to distinguish between themselves and their masks.

Purim is a reminder that there is a fine line between reality and illusion. Blurring that line once a year underscores how easily one might lose sight of truth and authenticity. But after the day of masquerading, we are supposed to have come to a better understanding of who we are under the mask — and who we are when we don’t wear masks.

Rabbi Angel is interim spiritual leader of the Lido Beach Synagogue and rabbi emeritus of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.

THE JEWISH STAR March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778

‘A Time to Seek’: Scholarship of Rabbi Braun

23

24 March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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HaShana B’Yerushalayim: THIS Year in J’salem Jeff Dunetz politics to go

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he check really is in the mail this time. Presidents Clinton, Bush 43, and even Obama gave lip service to moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the political equivalent of “the check is in the mail.” But President Trump not only put the move into motion but on Friday his State Department announced that the move will happen in May as Israel celebrates her 70th anniversary.

According to Channel 10 and Hadashot news, a ribbon-cutting ceremony is being planned for mid-May. Israel proclaimed independence on May 14, 1948, and that might be the day. (Selecting May 14 might soften the blow to the Palestinians since Israel’s official celebration, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, is tied to the Hebrew calendar and

this year falls on April 19.)

This is a wonderful way to celebrate Israel’s 70th and there’s speculation as to the reasons the move is being made so quickly. Some believe that Trump wants to help Netanyahu stay in office and the move will certainly help him politically. Others suggest that he wants to do the move before he presents his peace plan, so more can be demanded of Israel.

There are those who simply believe there was no reason to wait; the interim site in Arnona is very secure, and by making the move now, Trump can excite his evangelical base prior to the midterm elections. Sadly, it will not affect the Jewish vote, which will continue to go Democratic despite that party’s obvious disdain for Israel. ith the exception of Senator Charles Schumer, well-known Democrats trashed Trump’s announcement that the embassy was moving (including House minority leader Nancy Pelosi; senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein; Richard Blumenthal, the stolen valor senator from Con-

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One happy Bibi.

Pool/Flash90

necticut; Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Democrat in the Senate behind Schumer; Corey Booker of New Jersey, and socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont. New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been silent, perhaps because she is still trying to figure out whether or not she supports anti-BDS legislation.

The congressional Black Caucus was also si-

lent on the move, perhaps because around the same time as the Jerusalem announcement, pictures of many of their member smiling alongside famous anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan was released.

The U.S. Consulate General Building in Jerusalem (which is inside the 1949 armistice line) will formally be renamed the U.S. Embassy. Staff at the building were told on Friday that as of mid-May, they would be considered employees of the embassy. Ambassador David Friedman will move there, occupying a small suite of offices that will be retrofitted for the ambassador and his key aides. Friedman will still also maintain an office at the current Tel Aviv embassy, which would become a branch of the Jerusalem embassy. The Jerusalem consular staff will continue to provide normal consular services such as issuing passports and visas.

The rest of the present embassy staff will remain America’s current facility in Tel Aviv. Over time, the Arnona facility will be expanded to See Jerusalem on page 25

Calling it ‘Polocaust’ doesn’t change the facts T

Ben Cohen Viewpoint

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interviewed Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister of Poland, during his September visit to New York. The public-relations maven who arranged the meeting pitched Morawiecki — then still deputy prime minister — as a rising star anxious to allay concerns in the Jewish community about controversial legislation (which was signed into law on Feb. 6) regarding terminology and the Holocaust.

Indeed, when we sat down for our conversation, Morawiecki advanced the case that Jews and Poles have a common interest in commemorating the brutalities of the Nazi occupation together. Phrases like “Polish death camps” and “Polish concentration camps” (which the new law now considers a crime to actually use) should be excised from public vocabulary, he said, because they do a disservice to both Jews and Poles. (Nodding while taking notes, I told him that most Jews agree wholeheartedly with that complaint, and that it really wasn’t so controversial.) He wanted more understanding and more attention paid to the sufferings of the Polish nation during the war. (Again, I briefly interjected that this was also a goal that Jews could empathize with — just as we commemorate dis-

Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki. Flickr

abled victims of the ghastly eugenics program launched by the Nazis and gay men incarcerated in concentration camps, as well the 500,000 Romani gypsies exterminated on the grounds of their “racial impurity,” and so on.)

The way Morawiecki spoke, you would have thought that the Holocaust was an exclusively Jewish affair. But no credible Holocaust scholar has ever argued that the genocidal anti-Semitism that drove the Nazi conquest of Europe claimed only Jewish lives. As smooth and as polished as I found Morawiecki — who, like many of Eastern Europe’s more capable politicians, is well-traveled, speaks excellent English and, in his case, studied at Northwestern University outside Chicago — I left our encounter mildly disturbed by some of the questionable, even bizarre, claims that punctuated a message that was on the surface reasonable, even to the point of being unremarkable.

hat unease has been borne out by the manner in which Poland has revised the Holocaust in the intervening time frame. The right-wing nationalists currently ruling Poland want to recast the Nazi extermination program as the “Polocaust,” a word coined this week by the country’s Deputy Culture Minister Jarosław Sellin when he urged the construction of a new museum dedicated to this topic.

In this rubric, talking about the suffering of ordinary Poles isn’t enough. The aim is to present the Holocaust as a largely Polish affair, with 6 million Polish victims, half of whom happened to be Jews but who are being reclaimed, in keeping with the Warsaw government’s present imperatives, as Poles first. Ironic really, given that many of the Poles who lived through the Nazi occupation — such as the pro-German Swietokrzyska Brigade, which fled westwards with the Nazis in 1945, and whose graves in Munich were visited by Marowiecki on Feb. 17 — would violently disagree with that assertion.

A good deal of the motive here is financial.

Although Germany paid out more than $1 billion

to Poland in wartime compensation in the mid1990s, the country wants more, and its leaders hold up the reparations paid to Jewish communities as an example of how Jewish victimhood has been elevated above Polish victimhood.

And while Morawiecki told me in September that he could foresee some of that money going to Jewish individuals and institutions, the way the legislation has been framed means that it’s virtually impossible for anyone who is not a Polish citizen to receive any future compensation.

On top of this comes a slew of myths and half-truths, all of which help to shape our understanding of the “Polocaust.” ne of the stranger assertions I heard from Marowiecki was that non-Jews who rescued Jews from the clutches of the Nazis elsewhere in occupied Europe were, if caught, subjected to a mere fine. But in Poland, he continued, saving Jews was a much riskier business because it brought a death sentence. This is dangerous nonsense, of course, and an insult to citizens in countries across Europe who were murdered because See ‘Polocaust’ on page 25

European governments have looked the other way as Poland reinvents the Holocaust as the ‘Polocaust.’

O

tehilla r. goldberg

view from central park

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’d rather be writing about the breathtaking Olympics or about baking scrumptious hamantaschan for Purim. Honestly, what can I add to the conversation about the gruesome massacre in Florida? The photos are heartrending. The fear is stomach-turning. The heroic staff and those beautiful dead children make you weep.

Clearly there is no simple answer to this deadly plague that has taken hold of America.

Indeed, the causes are many: A violence-infused video game culture seems to have desensitized youth to the value of life; mental illness sufferers are not getting sufficient services and are going under-treated; the breakdown of the core American family has had serious repercussions; the FBI can sometimes drop the ball; there currently are countless AR-15s already in circulation; and schools are frighteningly unguarded gun-free zones (I don’t think teachers ought to have guns, but schools ought to have armed guards).

These issues must all be addressed. But to address them to the exclusion of guns, wielded by people who may have been influenced by the causes listed above, strikes me as idiotic and obtuse at best.

I’ve heard pro-gun Americans cite Israel as an example of how, when guns are ubiquitous,

it makes for a safer society. The truth is more complex. Yes, in Israel guns are ubiquitous, but the culture and reality of guns in Israel couldn’t be more different than it is in America. on-military gun ownership in Israel is virtually banned. In Israel, owning a gun is not a right but a privilege, one that’s granted only when the need to own a gun has been justified for self-defense or safety.

The gun culture in Israel is entirely different from America’s because terrorist threats loom on Israel’s borders and, unfortunately, from inside the country as well. So in Israel the desire to procure guns is most often a military one, not an elective for hunting or hobby.

Due to compulsory military service, one is accustomed to seeing assault rifles slung across the shoulders of young Israelis serving in the IDF. These soldiers are legally required to carry their weapons with them.

However, rather than sowing seeds of fear, seeing these rifle-clad soldiers engenders a feeling of safety because you know they have been subjected to intense medical and mental evaluations in order to be admitted to the military. Also, once soldiers complete their tour of duty, or reserve duty, they are legally required to return their weapons to the military. They don’t own the weapons. They are not free to keep them in their homes.

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The process required for an Israeli civilian to receive a permit to carry a weapon is multilayered and highly regulated. Criminal and psychological assessments are part of it. Many applicants are rejected. If one passes these initial screenings and is granted a permit, further regulations apply. For example, 50 bullets is the supply for a lifetime. Training hours are required. Most often, only one firearm is permitted. There are rare exceptions. And automatic assault weapons is banned.

And this entire process must be repeated every three years.

Once a civilian elects to be a gun owner, he or she waives the right to confidentiality. Authorities cross reference for new information on a gun holder every three months. And at no time is the sale of a weapon to a private dealer allowed; a weapon must be sold through the police. ow many times have you passed the falafel stands at the central bus stations and they are teeming with youngsters who are hungrily yet ever-so-casually chomping down on their tahini-dripping falafel pitas — while carrying rifles? You do feel safer — because you are secure in the knowledge of the tight circles of security that surround gun policy.

Same goes for seeing an Israeli civilian with a weapon. You know they are likely living near one of the borders of the country or on a settlement. Civilian gun holders have often times

Nonmilitary gun ownership in Israel is virtually banned.

H

saved lives. Many a terrorist attack was halted earlier rather than later because of the proximity of someone who was able to intercede even before emergency services arrived.

When Israeli gun holders need to refine their shooting, or release some of the PTSD anxiety they might be carrying, they need to find their way to a shooting range because they need to conserve their lifetime supply of 50 bullets for those moments of “just in case I need it.” The reality is that, unfortunately, there are times when the bullets are needed.

Perhaps therein lies the difference.

In America, many people own guns for the fun of shooting at targets, or for the hobby of hunting, as well as for the security of knowing they are armed in the event they might ever need it for their safety, although for most that possibility is pretty remote. In Israel, unfortunately, the guns are actually needed. You never know what day it will be that a gun owner or a soldier on leave will be the one to halt an attack and save lives. Many people know someone who knows someone who did.

Although America and Israel have their cultural differences, I agree that looking toward Israel as a model for a ubiquitous yet responsible gun culture can be a good idea. It will lead to tighter, tougher and more responsible gun restriction laws in America.

Of course, the best of all would be if we lived in the world of the Prophet Isaiah, where “no weapon … will prevail …”

Our reality, for now, is a different story.

Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

Embassy will move and the world won’t end Jonathan S. tobin

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aybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all.

Instead of waiting until 2019 or 2020, the U.S. embassy to Israel will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. Unlike Trump’s initial announcement recognizing the holy city as Israel’s capital, the reaction to this latest one turned out to be substantially low-key. The Arab world and Muslim populations didn’t take to the streets to protest or commit mayhem. Countries that were already critical of Israel and of Trump’s stand issued pro forma statements.

All of which ought to alert the peddlers of conventional wisdom about the conflict that this isn’t the only thing they’ve been wrong about.

The notion that Palestinian grievances are the sole or even main cause of instability in the Middle East was always a myth. So is the idea that peace can happen before the Palestinians admit defeat in their century-old war against Zionism. Yet by creating a fact on the ground that does nothing to impede a theoretical peace agreement, the U.S. has exposed the hollow nature of the anti-Israel consensus

that holds that any Western recognition of reality that forces the Palestinians to give up their illusions is inadmissible.

The problem starts with the fact that sovereignty over the city was never settled by an international agreement. Jerusalem was designated as an international zone by the 1947 partition agreement set forth by the United Nations.

Not only was that scheme a nonstarter, Israel’s War of Independence ended with the city divided — with the Western part under Israeli control and the eastern part, including the Old City, under illegal Jordanian occupation.

The world held off on recognizing western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in part because of the expectation that a peace treaty was inevitable, and because others were simply waiting for the next war to result in the extinction of the Jewish state. Nothing changed after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War that united the city. Some continued to wait for a peace the Arab world pledged not to make, while others still clung to the fantasy.

The problem with waiting was that holding off only served to reinforce Palestinian rejectionism. That became especially true since

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Creating a fact on the ground does not impede peace.

Jerusalem...

Continued from page 24 accommodate more embassy personnel. And eventually, a new embassy will be designed and built.

The East Jerusalem consulate will continue to serve Palestinians, and Friedman, for security reasons, will continue living in a residence in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. He will commute to the Jerusalem embassy.

As one would expect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the announcement with approval: “President Trump’s de-

the Oslo Accords in 1993, which had the unintended consequence of encouraging Palestinian intransigence rather than ending it. othing Trump is doing precludes the possibility of a two-state solution, if indeed one were otherwise possible. All the United States has done is to recognize what has been the truth on the ground for 70 years. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Once the U.S. consulate puts a new sign on the building declaring it the official embassy, the Palestinians will still be free to negotiate a two-state solution that could, in theory, redivide the city and allocate part as the Palestinian capital.

If they don’t, it won’t be because U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman no longer has his desk in Tel Aviv. It will be for the same reason they’ve consistently rejected peace all along: They’re locked in the same tragic mindset that has continued to nurture their failed war against

cision to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem on the coming Independence Day follows his historic declaration in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, this decision will turn Israel’s 70th Independence Day into an even bigger celebration. Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and friendship.”

Indeed, all supporters of Israel should be echoing those sentiments: Thank you, President Trump for keeping the promise so many other presidents broke.

Israel.

Peace will have to await a sea change in their culture that will make it possible for their leaders to choose peace, rather than, as Abbas has consistently done, to pander to religious and nationalist fantasies that preclude it. The first step toward that goal can only be taken once the international community that has enabled them to hold onto their destructive vision begins telling them to accept the reality regarding Jerusalem, as well as to give up subsidizing and fomenting terror.

As Trump has proven, doing so won’t blow up the world. The only question now is whether he understands what he’s done.

If, as reports indicate, he pushes forward a new peace deal predicated on more Israeli concessions, he will only encourage Palestinian illusions and repeat the same errors made

by Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton. If that happens, it will prove that even Trump can still fall prey to the influence of outdated and discredited “experts,” whose myths about the conflict should have been discarded long ago.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS

‘Polocaust’...

Continued from page 24 they were caught sheltering Jews. As sensitive and angry as Poland’s leaders are about their own wartime record, they have few qualms about belittling the contributions of others in those long, dark years of resistance to Hitler.

Ultimately, this is not a bad-tempered debate about history, but a concerted political campaign about the present. A number of Polish politicians, including a senior adviser to the president, have turned on Israel in the process, surmising that its policies toward the Palestinians are the result of the shame that Jews feel from having passively gone to the slaughter during World War II. Small wonder, then, that someone in Israel decided to daub the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv with obscenities, even if a

more constructive response would have been to ask where, exactly, the Polish resistance was in April 1943, when the Jewish fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto rose in a heroic, bloody uprising against the far better-armed and more numerous Germans.

Only one other country today wields the Holocaust as a weapon to bash Israel and the Jews: Iran. That a member state of the European Union now finds itself in the company of Tehran’s deniers and revisionists should give pause. Yet European governments have looked the other way as Poland reinvents the Holocaust as the ”Polocaust,” conveniently deciding that this is one of those things that should be written off as an “internal matter.”

Of such platitudes are moral disasters borne.

THE JEWISH STAR March 2, 2018 • 15 Adar 5778

In Israel, there’s a 50-bullet lifetime quota

25

The JEWISH STAR

CAlendar of Events

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Zachary Schechter Thursday March 1

Chabad Megillah Readings: Chabad of the Five Towns will be holding a megillah reading every hour on the hour. 12 to 5 pm. 74 Maple Ave, Cedarhurst.

Friday March 2

Erev Shabbos Kollel: [Weekly] Eruv Shabbos Kollel starting with 6 am Chassidus shiur with Rav Moshe Weinberger and concluding with 9 am Chevrusah Learning session with Rabbi Yoni Levin. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Saturday March 3

Steak House Purim Party: Don Gaucho Steak House will be having its first annual Purim party with an all night DJ. $100 admission. 8 pm. 1230 Broadway, Hewlett. 516837-0510.

Sunday March 4

Timely Torah: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, assistant rabbi of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, for a shiur on relevant Halachic and philosophical topics related to Parsha Moadim and contemporary issues. Coffee and pastries.

8 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst.

Learning Program: [Weekly] At Aish Kodesh led by Rav Moshe Weinberger following 8:15 Shacharis including 9 am breakfast and shiurim on subjects such as halacha, gemara and divrei chizuk. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Gemara Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff at the YI of Woodmere for a gemara shiu.r 9:15 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

516-295-0950.

Torah 4 Teens: [Weekly] Yeshiva program for

high-school age boys & young adults with Rabbi Matis Friedman. 9:15 am-12:30 pm. 410 Hungry Harbor Rd, Valley Stream. Torah4teens5T@ gmail.com.

Monday March 5 Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Dr. Anette Labovitz’s women shiur will continue at Aish Kodesh.

10 am. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Seeing Things Clearly: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Shalom Yona Weis at Aish Kodesh for a shiur for women and high school girls titled “Seeing Things Clearly- Learning to View Our World and Our Lives Through Positive Lenses. 8:45 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Tuesday March 6 Breakfast Connect: [Weekly] Breakfast Connect is a business and networking group that meets for breakfast at Riesterer’s Bakery and to discuss business and networking opportunities.

7:30-8:30 am. 282 Hempstead Ave, West Hempstead. 516-662-7712.

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Rebbetzin Weinberger of Aish Kodesh will give a shiur on the “Midah of Seder in our Avodas Hashem.” 11 am.

894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Jewish History: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Evan Hoffman at the YI of Woodmere for a talk on Jewish History. 8:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950.

Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] With Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff at the YI of Woodmere. 8:40 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950.

Gemara Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt at the YI of Woodmere for a gemara shiu.

9:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516295-0950.

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note remarks that opened the fourth While Torah is nual an- passed down way for the mesorahforever true, the ideal tive Five Towns Community Collaboraaccording Conference on to be conveyed the time, emphasizing to the middah of children — and Sunday.

“What is the Torah how an everlastingto our that the primary of Torah and the kids need now?” ingredent needed in Yiddishkeit is embeddedlove he asked. “What today’s chinuch simcha. their beings — worked in 1972 is in necessarily changes won’t work today.”

Twenty-six speakers, “You’re still talking over time.

Rabbi Weinberger, about what rebbetzins, educators, including rabbis, for you in 1972 and insisting thatworked d’asrah of Congregationfounding morah ers and community leadwhat should work lecturers that’s Woodmere Aish Kodesh in and mashpia at sue that challengeeach addressed a key isMoshe Weinberger, for your kid,” Rabbi the YU, reminded families and parents Shila”a, said in key- that Torah and educators in attendance frum communities. The event, schools in will not be received the Young Israel hosted at of Woodmere, if it’s not was orgaSee 5 Towns Rabbi Moshe hosts on page Weinberger, of 15 Kodesh in Woodmere, Congregation Aish delivered keynote

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By The Jewish to remember Cedarhurst pausedmiracles of 9/11, at the the n on Sunday. the heroism, and commemoratio village’s annual Rabbi Shay Schachter of WoodIn his invocation, of the Young Israel the Master and (top right photo) pray that G-d, all the strength mere said, “we world, grant us Creator of the to stand firm together against of and the fortitude of extremism, of bigotry, all forms of terror, and of all evil that can be hatred, of racism, forms in our world.” who found in different obligation to thosenever solemn a have “We 11th to injured on Sept. died or were said Mayor Benjamin but we also forget what happened,” “We saw evil, Weinstock (bottom).

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Arthur James Balfour

t was a minor news story when it broke in the summer of 2016. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced he was suing Great Britain over the Balfour Declaration, issued on Nov. 2, 1917. But as we observe the centennial of the document this week, it’s important to understand that although his lawsuit was a stunt, Abbas was serious. More than that, the symbolism of his See Tobin on page 22

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Jonathan S. toBin

or the Palestinians, the year zero is not 1948, when the state of Israel came into being, but 1917, when Great Britain issued, on Nov. 2, the Balfour Declaration—expressing support for the establishment of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine.

So central is the Balfour Declaration to Palestinian political identity that the “Zionist invasion” is officially deemed to have begun in 1917—not in 1882, when the first trickle of Jewish pioneers from Russia began arriving, nor in 1897, when the Zionist movement held its first congress in Basel, nor in the late 1920s, when thousands of German Jews fleeing the rise of Nazism chose to go to Palestine.

The year 1917 is the critical date because that is when, as an anti-Zionist might say, the Zionist hand slipped effortlessly into the British imperial glove. It is a neat, simple historical proposition upon which the entire Palestinian version of events rests: an empire came to our land and gave it to foreigners, we were dispossessed, and for five generations now, we have continued to resist. Moreover, it is given official sanction in the Palestine National Covenant of 1968, in which article 6 defines Jews who “were living permanently in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion” as “Palestinians”—an invasion that is dated as 1917 in the covenants’ notes.

As the Balfour Declaration’s centenary approached, this theme is much in evidence.

There is now a dedicated Balfour Apology See Cohen on page 22

YU

Dealer on Long

Sukkah To Abbas Largest and Hamas, it was ‘original sin’

Ben Cohen

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At declaration’s centennial, a source of joy and derision

To British, Palestine just another colony

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Corbyn boycotts B’four event

Britain Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn— who in 2009 called Hezbollah and Hamas his “friends” — said he would not attend a dinner commemorating the centennial of the Balfour Declaration. Prime Minister Theresa May she would attend “with pride” and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would be her guest.

“We are proud of the role we played in the creation of the State of Israel and we will certainly mark the centenary with pride,” May said. “I am also pleased that good trade relations and other relations that we have with Israel we are building on and enhancing.”

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IsraAID brings relief to U.S. disasters

By Ron Kampeas, JTA Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and WASHINGTON — For 17 years, the then the wildfires in northern California.

Israeli NGO IsraAID has been performPolizer recalls that he was wrapping ing search and rescue, purifying water, up a visit to IsraAID’s new American providing emergency medical assistance headquarters in Palo Alto on Oct. 8 and and walking victims of trauma back to was on his way to a flight to Mexico to psychological health in dozens of disas- oversee operations after a devastating ter-hit countries.

No 25 earthquake there when he got word of • Vol 16, But no season has been busier than the wildfires. “I literally had Luach page 19 9:15 • to do a Uthis past summer and fall, its co-CEO Yo- turn,” he said Havdalah this week in an interview 8:07 pm, tam Polizer said in an interview — and ting Candleligh at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Polizer spoke with the exhilaration of an executive whose team has come through a daunting challenge. “We’re the people who stay past the ‘aid festival’,” he said, grinning, describing the See IsraAID on page 5

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Timely Tanach: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump of the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst for a shiur on Sefer Shoftim. 8 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst.

Chumash and Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Shiur with Rabbi Yosef Richtman at Aish Kodesh.

8 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Shiur and Tehillim Group: [Weekly] Join the women of YI of Woodmere at the home of Devorah Schochet. 9:15 pm. 559 Saddle Ridge Rd.

Thursday March 8

Parsha Shiur: [Weekly] Michal Horowitz at YI of Woodmere for a special shiur on the parsha.

9:30 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd. 516-295-0950.

Iyun Tefilah: [Weekly] Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst.

9:45 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst.

Learn Maseches Brachos: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf at the YI of Woodmere for a shiur on Maseches Brachos. 5:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950.

Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Yoni Levin at Aish Kodesh for a halacha shiur. 9:30 pm.

894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Saturday March 10

Five Towns Community Shabbaton: In commeration of the 25th Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”L several rebbeim from Yeshiva University will be giving lectures and drashas in a several of Five Towns shuls.

Sunday March 11

Cahal Concert: Cahal presents a special concert featuring Uri Davidi, Lipa Schmeltzer and 8th Day at Lawrence High School. Tickets starting at $36. 2 Reilly Rd, Cedarhurst. 516-295-3666.

YILC member recounts a life ‘Plucked from Fire’

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STAR

Teach our childre n well • 6 Tamuz, 5777

Wednesday March 7

Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst member Moshe Rubin, accompanied by his wife Elaine, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, at the launch of his book, “Plucked from Fire,” at the shul.

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The Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst recently hosted a book launch for “Plucked from Fire,” the memoirs of YILC member Moshe Rubin.

Mr. Rubin, now 90 years old, was a young teenager when he was taken to Auschwitz where his mother and siblings were all murdered. After the war, the only survivor of his large family, he traveled to America on the same boat as the Klausenberger Rebbe with whom he forged a close relationship.

Rabbi Yair Hoffman was instrumental in arranging the material for publication. Dr. Jonathan Liederman was behind the scenes encouraging Mr. Rubin to discuss and then record his life experiences for posterity.

Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, Rav of the Young Israel, introduced the book launch program, highlighting Moshe Rubin’s exceptional simchas hachaim. Having known Moshe for three decades, Rabbi Teitelbaum spoke of the many notable personal and communal achievements of the survivor. He described how Moshe’s father disappeared when Moshe was barely bar mitzvah and how Moshe was left to fend for his family before being deported to the death camps himself.

Feigning to be years older than his true age, Moshe was selected for slave labor. After numerous encounters with death, both in Auschwitz and on the Death March from Auschwitz, Moshe was finally free. He arrived in the United States, virtually alone, on Chanukah, erev Shabbos Dec. 20, 1946. His first home

in America was the yeshivah of the Klausenberger Rebbe.

In spite of being a young orphan with no immediate family, Mr. Rubin, together with his beloved wife, Elaine, raised a beautiful Jewish family. Rabbi Teitelbaum pointed to Mr. Rubin as representative of the Jewish people as a whole, forever resilient in faith and possessed of strength of spirit.

Moshe Rubin then spoke passionately about his experiences and the importance of memory.

He talked about how, trapped in the gas chambers as poison poured out instead of water, people used their last seconds to write in their own blood on the walls the Hebrew word: “Zechor!” — “Remember!” He entreated the audience not to forget.

Mr. Rubin talked about the brachos of Hashem and how he was able to build his family and support the Sanz-Klausenberger hospital in Netanya and Yeshivat Maarava Mechon Rubin in Israel.

The program closed with Mr. Rubin and his wife Elaine surrounded by many of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Mr. Rubin went on to sign books and give brachos to the many people in attendance.

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