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Tzav • March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 • Torah section pages 14–16 • Luach page 14 • Vol 18, No 11

Jews revel in Purim at a shul in Beit Shemesh.

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Why Romans banned wild Purim parties in 408 CE Henry abramson Touro College

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very year before Purim, my inbox and social media fill up with dire exhortations from rabbis and yeshivas warning against the dangers of celebratory excess — as if drunkenness on the holiday were something new. In reality, after-Purim regrets have been part of the discourse ever since Rabba drunkenly attacked and inadvertently killed his dear friend Rabbi Zeira in the Talmud (don’t worry — he was revived in the end). Rabbis and communal leaders across the religious spectrum have condemned drunken revelry

on a holiday dedicated to excess and carousing, noting it often leads to harming life and limb. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Chabad Lubavitch rebbi, outlawed more than four drinks at a time for anyone younger than 40. But even before all of that, it turns out that the ancient Romans — who weren’t exactly known for their sobriety — attempted to control wild Purim parties as early as the year 408. An unusual bit of the Theodosian Code (16.8.18) is apparently the first non-Jewish source to document the phenomenon of Purim parties that get out of hand. Specifically, the law prohibited Jews from burning Haman in effigy. For Jews, the practice of symbolically destroying the notorious villain of the See Roman’s Purim ban on page 16

North Shore celebrates 18 years of ‘gantze Megillah’ Purim marks a milestone for the North Shore Hebrew Academy Middle School in Great Neck — the 18th year that eighthgraders and alumni, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, will chant Megillat Esther for their schoolmates, faculty and families. The reading will take place during Shacha-

rit in the synagogue on the Cherry Lane campus. The community is invited and a celebratory breakfast will follow the 8 am service. Over the past 18 years, more than 300 students at the NSHA have been instructed by Dr. Paul Brody (pictured center, wearing See North Shore on page 21


Where does Bibi stand on Palestinian statehood? By Ben Sales, JTA It wasn’t so long ago that most major Israeli politicians supported establishing a Palestinian state. Now it’s not clear that any of them do, including the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu began his political career in the 1970s opposing a Palestinian state, an idea that once had been off the table but was gaining traction. Three decades later, in 2009, he gave a pivotal speech endorsing the idea in principle. In 2015, however, Netanyahu retreated from the idea on the eve of the last Israeli election. Since then, he has made his position clearer: The prime minister opposes full Palestinian statehood, including Israeli withdrawal from any of the West Bank. In Netanyahu’s meetings with his ally, President Donald Trump, both leaders have avoided committing to the idea of a two-state solution. Netanyahu’s right-wing partners are even more opposed to Palestinian statehood, instead pushing Israeli annexation of the West Bank settlements — perhaps with an “upgrade” of Palestinian autonomy with borders and military affairs still controlled by Israel. Netanyahu’s rivals also haven’t come out in support of a Palestinian state. Blue and White, the centrist coalition running against Netanyahu, has not endorsed the idea. One of Blue and White’s leaders is a longtime opponent of the two-state solution. Here’s a short explanation of how the solution that was once taboo, then seemed inevitable, has faded from Israeli politics. Does Benjamin Netanyahu support a Palestinian state? Netanyahu was against a Palestinian state. Then he was for it. Then he was against it again.

AN Explainer

Benny Gantz is challenging Benjamin Netanyahu in the Israeli elections.

In 1978, as a 28-year-old private citizen, he argued against a Palestinian state in a debate on local Boston television. “The real core of the conflict is the unfortunate Arab refusal to accept the State of Israel,” he said, using the Americanized name Ben Nitay. “It is unjust to demand the creation of the 22nd Arab state and the second Palestinian state at the expense of the only Jewish state.” As Netanyahu shot up the ranks of Israel’s right-wing Likud party over the next 15 years, his position did not change: He saw a Palestinian state as an unacceptable danger to Israel’s security and territorial integrity. “I fear for my home, for my land, I even fear for my son,” he said in a speech to sup-

\WikiCommons/Getty Images

porters following the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, which was meant to lead to permanent-status talks on the issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem. “What is at issue here is the essence: The land of Israel is at issue, and we are all standing for the land of Israel.” That changed in 2009. He returned to office that year, and endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state under certain conditions. “[I]f we get a guarantee of demilitarization, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, we are ready to agree to a real peace agreement, a demilitarized Palestinian state side by side with the Jewish state,” he said in a landmark speech at BarIlan University.

But actual negotiations toward a peace treaty went nowhere. A short round of talks in 2010 ended after a few weeks, and a longer nine-month negotiation in 2014 was just as fruitless. Then came the kidnapping of three Israeli teens and the 2014 Gaza War. Since then, there have been no negotiations. All along, Israeli West Bank settlements have expanded. Even during a 10-month settlement freeze in 2009, Netanyahu said, “You might think we’re going to dismantle the settlements, but you must understand that we’re going in the exact opposite direction.” In 2015, Netanyahu was in a tough race to win another re-election. To rally his rightwing base one day before the election, he came out against a Palestinian state, again. “Anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and withdraw from territory is giving territory to radical Islam to attack the State of Israel,” he told the Israeli news site NRG. Asked whether that meant a Palestinian state wouldn’t be established on his watch, he replied, “Indeed.” So what does he believe now? Netanyahu says he wants Palestinians to have autonomy, but not a fully independent state. In October, well before the current election campaign, he said he wanted a Palestinian “state-minus, autonomy-plus, autonomy plus-plus.” And that means? “A potential solution is one in which the Palestinians have all the powers to govern themselves but none of the powers to threaten us,” he said at the General Assembly of the See Bibi on page 7

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

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Pot ‘settlers’ could sway Israel’s election

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anism, pushing for legalization of marijuana, radical reduction of the size of government and an end to state control of religious ceremonies. “The root of freedom is the belief in one God,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a 2013 article, describing the seeds of his libertarianism. “We worship him and therefore we can’t be enslaved to anyone else. An eternal nation doesn’t work against natural history, and our return to our land, to national sovereignty, means we’re connected forever.” These policies, particularly the marijuana angle, are the draw for Israeli voters outside the traditional right-wing. More than half a million Israelis smoke pot, and Feiglin’s wife has used it for medical purposes. Feiglin himself does not toke. “Weed is the biggest symbol of a place where the state can’t get in line with reality, and it’s unclear why,” wrote Gal Ohovsky, a columnist for Mako, an Israeli news website. “Feiglin’s combination between decriminalizing weed and creating a new approach is currently capturing young people’s hearts on every side of the political map.” But in case it wasn’t clear, Feiglin is no leftwinger. His libertarianism is for Jews only. Zehut’s platform, which has been translated to plain English, is a mix of classic American Republican small-government ethos on the one hand, and extreme right-wing policies regarding the West Bank, Palestinians and Israel’s Arab minority. The platform slays several Israeli sacred cows. It calls for an end to almost all mandatory military service, to be replaced by a professional volunteer army. It says Israel should stop accepting military aid from the United States, which, it claims, reduces Israeli freedom of operation on the battlefield. True to its libertarianism, it calls for privatizing Israel’s government-funded healthcare system. And it would

change the Law of Return to stop granting citizenship to non-Orthodox Jewish converts and to non-Jews with Jewish ancestry. Zehut would have Israel declare sovereignty over the entire West Bank, then transform all Arabs in its territory — Israeli citizens and Palestinians alike — into temporary residents, not citizens. It would urge them to emigrate, with financial assistance, and otherwise allow them to be permanent residents — without the right to vote — if they declare loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state. A few would possibly be able to become full citizens after a long process. “There is no ‘Palestinian’ nationality,” the platform reads. “There is an Arab nation that does not accept Jewish sovereignty in any part of the Land of Israel … The State of Israel was established to be a Jewish state. The claim that sovereignty requires the automatic granting of citizenship is not true.” Feiglin doesn’t think his platform precludes joining a left-leaning coalition. He says, “We don’t have right and left” in Zehut. If Zehut is accepted into a governing coalition, its positions won’t necessarily be adopted. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who has been in government since 2013, has long advocated full annexation of all Israeli settlements. Though varying forms of annexation are growing more popular among Likud politicians and other rightwingers, none has been implemented. Ronit Dror, a social worker and former Labor party voter who is now number four on Zehut’s Knesset slate, joined the party because she appreciated Feiglin’s advocacy for husbands’ rights in divorce cases. But what about the rest of his platform? “When it comes to the rest, I’m also worried,” she told Walla. “I don’t know what the implications will be. I assume Feiglin isn’t irresponsible and won’t make unilateral decisions. There’s no reason to quake from fear.”`

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tract votes from every existing bloc on the political map,” according to Walla, an Israeli news website. “Even though people say he’s only emphasizing [pot] legalization, Feiglin has never hidden all of the details of his platform, which also deals with less popular issues.” Feiglin himself has been a side character in Israel’s political drama for more than a decade. He’s a settler who lives in the northern West Bank. He has served as an avatar of the Israeli far-right, advocating formal Israeli sovereignty over all of the West Bank and exclusive Jewish religious control of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, revered by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif. He has also made a number of racist statements about Arabs. “You can’t teach a monkey to speak and you can’t teach an Arab to be democratic,” he told The New Yorker in 2004. “You’re dealing with a culture of thieves and robbers. Muhammad, their prophet, was a robber and a killer and a liar. The Arab destroys everything he touches.” Feiglin was elected to Knesset for one term in 2013 when he placed high enough in Likud’s primary. But during the following election, two years later, he did not receive enough votes to win reelection. He founded his party soon afterward. During the 2014 Gaza War, he called for “concentrating the civilian population” in “tent camps” in open areas, and then shelling the evacuated cities with “maximum firepower.” Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian-American activist and writer who calls for a single PalestinianIsraeli state, wrote that “[c]itizens and public authorities around the world should attempt to have Feiglin arrested and prosecuted under the Genocide Convention for his statements, should he set foot in their territories.” Feiglin was in fact banned from entering the United Kingdom in 2008 due to his activism. Alongside his nationalist policies, he has also long been a leading advocate of libertari-

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By Ben Sales, JTA Stripping Israeli Arabs of citizenship. Eliminating the military draft. Refusing military aid from the Moshe Feiglin United States. Oh, and Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90 legalizing marijuana. This is the party platform of Moshe Feiglin, who could be the next kingmaker of Israeli politics. Feiglin’s party, Zehut, advertises a unique mix of far-right ideology and libertarian policy. In an election where the top two parties have avoided articulating concrete positions on many of the core issues facing Israel, Zehut offers a vision that is as clear as it is controversial. And it’s drawing voters from left and right, enough to potentially decide who will form the next Israeli government coalition. Recent polls have shown Zehut, Hebrew for “identity,” consistently getting four seats or more in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in next month’s election. Four votes can be the difference when a coalition needs a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. “He has succeeded, in recent weeks, to at-

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Egypt won’t save Hamas The The in final faceoff with Israel Chosen JEWISH STAR Paper Long Island’s #1 Jewish newspaper. Some are bigger. None are better.

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near the launch batteries placed in western Gaza, in preparation for a future clash with Israel, apparently fired the missiles mistakenly. According to Sinwar, Hamas detained one operative, and promised to detain others and bring them to justice.” Hamas also acquiesced to the Egyptian demand that it cancel Friday’s “March of Return” border demonstrations, which it conducts weekly, and that its so-called “March of a Million,” planned for late March, either refrains from violence or is also canceled altogether.

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THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

By Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom Shortly after 9 pm on Thursday — minutes after sirens blared across central Israel and a loud boom overhead shook the area — senior Egyptian intelligence officers became outraged during a meeting with Hamas officials in Gaza. “Just so you know,” they leveled at Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, “if Israel decides to launch a comprehensive military operation in Gaza, we won’t do a thing to stop it, even if it decides to simultaneously topple Hamas and conquer the Gaza Strip.” The dramatic exchange was relayed to Israel Hayom by a senior Egyptian official who attended the meeting. “The atmosphere at the start of the Yahya Sinwar, leader meeting was very relaxed and cordial,” the of Hamas in Gaza. Egyptian official said. “A short while before the meeting, we had returned from Israel with answers. We believed Hamas would accept them, and facilitate a more stable and long-term ceasefire. A few minutes later, an assistant to the Egyptian delegation entered the [meeting] room with a worried look on his face and handed the Egyptian delegation leaders his cell phone. “The smiles were immediately replaced with grim faces; the delegation heads turned to Sinwar, livid, and told him: ‘How far do you think you will get with this double game of yours? We are sitting here to hammer out the details of a ceasefire with Israel and behind our backs, you are authorizing your people to fire missiles at Tel Aviv?’” The tones grew even more tense, the Egyptian official continued. “If Israel decides to launch a comprehensive military operation in Gaza, this time we won’t do a thing to stop the Israeli attack, even if the Israelis decide to dismantle your rule in Gaza by assassinating each and every one of you. While [Israel] is retaking Gaza, Egypt and its allies in the region won’t lift a finger to stop the Israeli response.” According to the Egyptian official, Haniyeh and Sinwar were no less surprised than the Egyptians upon hearing about the missile launch at central Israel. “Hamas is not behind the launch,” Sinwar reportedly told his Egyptian guests, adding that his organization would conduct a thorough investigation to find those responsible. Sinwar asked the Egyptian officials to contact Israeli leaders and inform them that no order had been given to fire rockets at Israel — and certainly not at Tel Aviv. The Egyptian intelligence officials were unconvinced and continued to assail Sinwar. “You are lying! The blood of Gazans who will be hurt in the Israeli response is on your hands! By your own hands, you will bring about the destruction of Gaza and the fall of your regime, and you’ve also gambled with our own safety in Gaza by shooting at Tel Aviv while we are here!” Sinwar responded to the allegations, glumly telling his guests: “I won’t ask you to risk your lives by staying in Gaza, but before you leave we ask that you contact your Israeli counterparts and stress to them that the missile launch was not intentional and certainly wasn’t planned, and that Hamas isn’t seeking an escalation but to wrap up the remaining loose ends on the cease-fire understandings.” The Egyptian official added: “A short while after we left the Strip, Sinwar contacted the delegation heads and told them that Hamas operatives carrying out maintenance duties

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5 Jewish things about Beto O’Rourke This is part of a continuing series on 2020 presidential hopefuls. To read more, visit TheJewishStar.com By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Add Beto O’Rourke to the already crowded field of Democratic candidates hoping to unseat President Donald Trump. The El Paso native and former congressman hopes to build on the buzz that accompanied his unsuccessful but oh-soclose campaign against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in last year’s Texas Senate race. O’Rourke, a Roman Catholic, has clashed at times with the local Jewish community, particularly his vote in 2014 against funding for Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system. He also has reportedly claimed to have some Jewish roots. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency rounded up and investigated some of the highlights from his Jewish record below. Jewish roots? O’Rourke spoke in 2014 about having “some Jewish ancestry,” in a meeting with local pro-Israel activists after the Iron Dome vote, the Forward reported. JTA was not able to find other accounts or confirm this with his campaign. O’Rourke has Irish and Welsh ancestry — his family came from Ireland to the U.S. four generations ago. If we find a Jewish ancestor somewhere far back in his family tree, we’ll let you know. O’Rourke was one of 8 in House to vote against funding for Iron Dome. His vote stood out because he was among a small group of lawmakers to oppose the $225 million aid to Israel, which was dealing with a barrage of rockets from Gaza amid a military operation. Meanwhile, 395 members of the House voted for the aid. O’Rourke’s vote angered many in the local Jewish and pro-Israel community; some circulated letters expressing their dismay. O’Rourke explained that he did not oppose funding for the Iron Dome, but rather the fact that

ey, and campaign finance watchdogs there had not been a debate about the consider such contributions more spending. Eager to make amends, the transparent than PAC donations. congressman later met with local proInterestingly, Cruz’s attack shed Israel activists and Jewish community light on the fact that O’Rourke picked leaders. up plenty of such conduit contribuThen he visited Israel. tions through J Street. In the 2018 O’Rourke was part of a delegation election cycle, he received $182,000 of Democratic lawmakers organized distributed by the PAC, the third largby the liberal Middle East policy group est amount of any politician after J Street. They met with Palestinians Beto O’Rourke. and Israelis and visited Jerusalem’s Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Democrats Dan Kohl, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Wisconsin, Old City and Yad Vashem. O’Rourke talked about the trip at Congregation B’nai Zion, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, also of Wisconsin, aca Conservative synagogue in El Paso, saying it cording to Open Secrets. gave him hope for peace. He addressed the chal- He has compared Central American migrants to Jewish refugees in WWII. lenges faced by Israelis living under rocket fire. In expressing his support for immigration, “I was looking at the border wall as though I was in Chihuahuita looking at Mexico and talk- O’Rourke has drawn parallels between the two ing to people who lived in that village and what groups. He repeatedly invoked the MS St. Louis, they experienced this last summer and learning a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from them how they literally watched rockets from Germany in 1939 that was turned away arching over their heads, northbound,” he said, from the United States and Canada. Many of the according to the El Paso Times. “And not too long passengers later died in concentration camps. after, they would see missiles and fire coming O’Rourke has made the analogy in social media posts and in speeches. right in the other direction over their heads.” He said this in a call-to-action published on But O’Rourke said he would not have voted differently on funding for the Iron Dome in 2014 Medium: “I know that every single one of us, to a perbecause he believed the topic merited debate. “I think our unequivocal support at times has son, if we were standing here in this Chamber in been damaging to Israel,” he said, according to 1939 when this country was sending back the St. Louis, which had set sail on May 13, 1939, the Times. Ted Cruz attacked him for J Street ties. from Hamburg, Germany, with more than 900 O’Rourke’s Senate opponent called the poli- German Jewish refugees, including children, cy group “rabidly anti-Israel” and claimed that that all of us, to a person, would like to say, if I O’Rourke had accepted money from its political were here, I would have made the case to accept action committee despite saying he did not ac- the St. Louis and those 900 passengers and make cept money from PACs. It turned out that the J sure that they could find refuge and asylum in Street money came from individual donors who this country.” The current migrant crisis, O’Rourke contingave by way of the PAC, so O’Rourke’s claim still ued in urging the passage of a bill to end famheld true. The Federal Election Commission doesn’t ily separations at the border, is “our moment of consider such “conduit contributions” PAC mon- truth.”

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Bibi...

7 THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

Continued from page 2 Jewish Federations of North America. “West of the Jordan” — that is, in the disputed areas where 2.5 million Palestinians and 623,00 settlers live — “Israel and Israel alone will be responsible for security.” Netanyahu added: “It’s not just a question of hot pursuit. It’s also having the ability to be there all the time.” That means Israel’s military will stay in the West Bank, where a Palestinian state has been envisioned. Netanyahu has also said he will not uproot any Israeli settlements. Palestinians have long demanded a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank as a condition of a peace treaty. Many of Netanyahu’s allies on the right want to go further. Education Minister Naftali Bennett for at least six years has supported formal Israeli annexation of all the settlements. Now plenty of politicians in Netanyahu’s own Likud party also support annexation, which would make the settlements — but not Palestinian cities — officially part of Israel. So do Netanyahu’s opponents believe in Palestinian statehood? That’s unclear. Benny Gantz, the main rival to Netanyahu in next month’s elections, wants a peace agreement with the Palestinians. But like Netanyahu, he has stopped short of endorsing a Palestinian state. The Blue and White platform, in fact, sounds a lot like Netanyahu: promoting economic development, strengthening the large settlement blocs and a “security border” in the Jordan River Valley, which is on the eastern edge of the West Bank. The platform says the party will stay open to an agreement in the future, but also rules out a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank. One of Blue and White’s senior politicians, former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, explicitly opposes Palestinian statehood. Does that mean Israelis don’t want peace with Palestinians anymore? Israelis as a whole still want peace. But they don’t believe it will happen anymore. A majority of Israelis (57 percent) want negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which has civil administrative and security responsibility in parts of the West Bank. But only 23 percent believe those negotiations will go anywhere, according to a December survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank. Support for the two-state solution has also fallen among both Israelis and Palestinians. As of last August, only 43 percent of both populations support independent Palestinian and Israeli states existing side by side. That’s “the lowest in almost two decades of joint Palestinian-Israeli survey research,” according to the groups that conducted the survey — Tel Aviv University and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. So what should I expect after the Israeli election? Israelis go to the polls on April 9. As of now, no one knows who will win. But no matter who the next Israeli prime minister is, he probably won’t come into office explicitly supporting a Palestinian state.

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

With Purim done, it’s time to jumpstart Pesach Kosher Kitchen

JOni SChOCKett

Jewish Star columnist

I

t’s that time again — Purim is over, the costumes are away, and the shalach manot are almost gone! It is time to start using up the chametz and preparing for Pesach, as far in advance as is possible. Many of the food customs of our grandparents are as gone as the dinosaurs. Take gefilte fish, for example. When I was a child, there was a fish in my grandmother’s bathtub. I am not sure it was swimming, just sort of slowly moving, but it was alive and had blinking eyes that I vividly remember. Somewhere between then and the first Seder, that fish became “gefilte.” Today we go to the supermarket and can choose from a dozen types of bottled, canned or frozen gefilte fish. I am confident that making homemade gefilte fish is a long forgotten activity. Today, most moms work long, hard hours. Kids are in school and then tied up with afterschool activities and sports. There is no time for a fish in the tub and, sometimes, very little time to prepare those foods we want to make. So right now, I sit here with double pneumonia and wonder: how am I ever going to feed almost 40 people for the Seders? It seems the cold I caught three weeks ago was more than that. It seems to be a mini-epidemic. So I have been commiserating with friends and wondering, between coughs, how we are all going to make this work. But we will. With some planning. Each year, I try to make some dishes ahead of time in a small corner of my kitchen that will be Pesach-ready by Monday. I can make my chicken stock, brisket, some stuffing recipes and desserts far in advance and freeze them for 2 to 3 weeks. No one is ever the wiser, and I save myself a lot of stress and work in the few days leading up to the holiday. If you can, make some dishes in advance and remove some of the stress. You will be far more relaxed at and you may actually be able to sit and enjoy the Seder and your guests. Chicken Stock for Soup (Meat) I make this is a 12-qt. stockpot. I have also made it in a 16-qt. pot. Adjust ingredient amounts according to your pot size. 5 to 6 lbs. chicken frames

1 to 2 lbs. chicken necks 1 to 2 lbs. chicken wings 3 to 4 large onions with dark skin, only very outer skin peeled, ends trimmed 3 to 4 leeks, white and light green parts only 3 to 4 parsnips 2 bunch celery, no leaves 2 to 4 peppercorns 2 to 2-1/2 gallons spring water (tap water is fine also) Place the chicken frames in the pot and press them down to break the bones and compact them a bit. Add the rest of the ingredients and then add water to fill the pot about 4/5 full. Bring to a boil, skim any foam, and reduce heat to simmer. Partially cover and simmer for several hours, adding more water as the liquid boils down. I cook this for about 6 to 7 hours. Turn off the heat and let cool. Remove solids with a strainer, pressing down on the solids as they are removed. Discard solids. When you have removed all the solids you can with a strainer spoon, carefully pour the stock through a strainer into the containers you will use for freezing the soup. I use 2-1/2 qt. commercial non-BPA containers. Refrigerate overnight. Skim any fat in the morning and then freeze until needed for the holiday. To make soup for the holiday, defrost in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days, bring to a simmer and add vegetables, and more chicken. I add a quartered pullet and lots of leeks and onions, celery and carrots. Cook for several hours. Makes about 8 to 11 qts. of stock. Joni’s Signature Overnight Sweet and Sour Brisket (Meat) I make a 10 to 12-lb. brisket and cook it overnight in a very low oven — 225 degrees. Tender and delicious. 8 to 11 lb. whole brisket 3 (or more) lbs. onions thinly sliced 1/8 to 1/4 cup minced garlic, less or more to taste 1/2 cup safflower oil, divided 1-1/2 cups dark brown sugar 1 cup white vinegar 1-1/2 to 2 cups ketchup 1 to 2 cups water NOTE: I use two full steam table pans (doubled) for any large brisket. If the brisket it too big, cut off a large piece from the single end and cook it in a separate roasting pan for fewer hours. Don’t overcrowd the pan or it will spill over in the oven and create a mess. Slice the onions (a food processor makes quick work of this). Add half the oil to a large skillet and heat the oil for 10 to 15 seconds, over medium heat. Add half the onions and cook until the onions are golden. Add half the garlic and mix well. Stir until the garlic is translucent and fragrant, about 1 minute. Scrape into the roasting pan and spread over the bottom. Place the brisket on top and adjust the meat to fit in the pan. Repeat with the rest of the oil and the onions and spread over the top of the meat. Let some fall over the sides. In a large bowl, whisk the vinegar and sugar until smooth. Add the ketchup and water and whisk until blended. Ladle it over the meat. Make sure to leave at least a half-inch of space.

You may not use all the sauce; refrigerate the rest for later use. Cover the brisket tightly with a double sheet of foil (I often lift the rim up a bit to add more height to the pan to avoid spilling over.) and place in a 325-degree oven. For a very large brisket, 8 to 9 lbs. or more, roast for 1 hour. Reduce heat to 225 degrees and roast overnight for about 8 to10 hours. For a smaller brisket, up to about 8 lbs., roast at 325 degrees for an hour and lower the heat to 300 degrees. Roast for several hours until the meat falls apart when gently pulled with a fork. Carefully remove the pan from the oven and carefully lift a corner of the foil away from you to avoid a steam burn. Test the meat and check the amount of liquid. If the pan needs more liquid, add the sauce from the fridge. If the meat is still tough, return to the oven and cook until the meat falls apart when gently pulled with a fork. Let the meat cool and slice against the grain or break into pieces. Place in half steamer pans (I double them for stability) and fill with meat and sauce. Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, wrap with 2 to 3 layers of foil and freeze. Can be frozen for 2 to 3 weeks. Thaw for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator, add about 1/2 cup of water to each pan and heat in a 300-degree oven until heated through. Each pan should be enough to serve 8 to 12 people. Blonde Brownie Chocolate Chip Bars (Dairy or Pareve) 6 large eggs, separated, room temperature 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract 3/4 cup safflower oil 1/2 cup almond flour 3/4 cup potato starch 1/4 tsp. salt 1 to 1-1/2 cups mini-chocolate chips, or chunks or a mix OPTIONAL: 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 by 13 pan. Set aside. Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on low speed until frothy. Increase the speed and beat until very soft peaks form. Slowly add the half cup granulated sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, brown sugar, vanilla and oil, until blended and smooth. Add the almonds, potato starch, and salt, and mix until blended. Add the nuts and chips and mix to blend evenly. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture and pour into a 9 by 13 pan. Place in the center of the oven and bake for 60 to 70 minutes until golden. Let cool before cutting. Makes 12 to 24 bars. To store, line an airtight container with 2 pieces of plastic wrap crossed in the middle with long ends hanging over all four sides. Place the cut pieces in and cover tightly with the 4 flaps of plastic wrap. Seal the container and freeze for up to three weeks.


9 THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

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Wine & Dine

Chicken fricassee: An authentic Jewish classic By Ronnie Fein, The Nosher Some experts say that food isn’t love, but I disagree. The glorious memories I have of my mother’s chicken fricassee have everything to do with love. This dish of hers was beyond delicious; it showed she cared. We were brought up to believe that the wings were the best, most precious part of the chicken, and here was this wonderful meal that was basically all chicken wings. It couldn’t get better than that. Except that my mother added meatballs, which my father loved, and potatoes, which we all thought was one of earth’s greatest treasures. Gizzards — a leftover add-on from the days when inexpensive filler foods stretched a meal for big families — sure, we ate them too, respecting tradition, loving their chewy goodness. Chicken fricassee was one of the premier family foods of my childhood. I loved it. After I married and had children, I made it for my family. My kids hated it. What’s more, anytime I cooked braised chicken of any sort, they called it fricassee and made snarky remarks about it. That’s basically what chicken fricassee is — braised chicken. Although, technically speaking, in a true fricassee there’s no pre-browning, but who really cares? My mother made it old-fashioned, Ashkenazi Jewish style, with paprika, schmaltz and onions, but the method is simple, no matter what you include: Brown the ingredients, then simmer them slowly with liquid and seasonings. The recipe is amazingly forgiving. You can avoid the centuries-old argument about whether braising is best done on the stovetop or in a slow oven — either will do. You can use wings, as my mom did, or other parts; leave out the meatballs or gizzards if you like; add vegetables such as potato, carrots, mushrooms and peas. My mother

did all that, depending on what she had in the house. You can also cook chicken fricassee in advance. I make a big batch on Sunday and break it into freezer portions. When I need a ready-meal, I’ve got one! Fortunately for me, tastes often change over the years. My kids now like the dish, and the grandkids actually ask for it. So, chicken fricassee is back on the menu for my family! Just the way my mother made it (except for the schmaltz). Ingredients: 16 to 20 oz. chopped beef, veal, turkey or a

combination 1/2 cup matzah meal 1 large egg 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (or melted chicken fat) 12 to 15 chicken wings, cut into sections 1 lb. chicken gizzards 3 medium onions, sliced 1 Tbsp. paprika, approximately salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 cups water, approximately 4 medium all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks, optional 4 carrots, cut into chunks, optional 10 oz. coarsely cut mushrooms, optional

Directions: Preheat the oven to 400 F. In large bowl, combine chopped meat, matzah meal and egg, and mix thoroughly. Shape meat mixture into 1-inch balls and place them on a large baking sheet. Bake the meatballs for 16 to 18 minutes, turning them occasionally, or until lightly browned on all sides. Remove the meatballs from the oven and set aside. Reduce the oven heat to 300 F. Pour the vegetable oil into a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the wings a few at a time and cook them for 6 to 8 minutes, turning them occasionally, or until lightly browned. Remove the wings from the pan and set aside. Add the gizzards to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the gizzards from the pan and set aside. Add the onions to the pan and cook them, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned and softened. Using the same pan (if large enough) or an ovenproof casserole, return the meatballs, wings and gizzards to the pan. Spoon some of the onions on top of the meats. Sprinkle the ingredients with the paprika, salt and pepper. You might have to use layers, depending on the size of the pan; if so, season each layer before adding the next. Pour in 2 cups water. Either cover the casserole and bake the fricassee for 45 minutes OR turn the cooktop heat to low, cover the pan and cook on the stovetop for 45 minutes. Add the optional ingredients if desired, cover the pan and cook an additional 50 to 60 minutes, or until the meats and vegetables are tender. Check the pan occasionally and turn the ingredients gently if the ones on top seem dry. Check fluid levels and add more water if needed.

The secret ingredient for the very best schnitzel By Chaya Rappoport, The Nosher If you love pickles, you might often be left with jars and jars of leftover pickle juice. Before you throw out that brine, there’s actually so many ways to use it. And while you can definitely make a good briny cocktail with that leftover liquid, my favorite way to use pickle juice is actually to brine chicken in it. The acid in the juice helps tenderize and moisten the chicken (it’s especially great for white meat), plus the pickle juice flavors and infuses the chicken with its characteristic brininess. It isn’t overpowering in the least — here it lends a light vinegary undertone to the schnitzels that keep you guessing and wanting more. Make sure you brine the schnitzel the night

before you plan to make it, or at least several hours in advance, so the chicken has time to soften and absorb the flavors of the brine. And don’t forget to serve it with hot sauce, honey and, of course, more pickles. Ingredients: For the brine: 1/2 cup pickle juice 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar 1 Tbsp. pickling spice 1 Tbsp. whole black peppercorns 1 tsp. fine sea salt 1 cup fresh dill leaves For the schnitzel: 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4 thickness

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1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper (or to taste) 2 large eggs 2 cups cornflake crumbs Canola oil, for frying Pickles, hot sauce and honey for serving Directions: 1. Combine brine ingredients in a bowl, stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour brine into a large container, add the chicken breasts, and cover with enough water to ensure the chicken is completely covered. Refrigerate for up to 12 hours, or overnight. 2. Remove chicken from brine and rinse under cool water to remove any brine particles clinging to it. Pat dry with paper towels. 3. Next, set up your breading station. Beat eggs in a shallow bowl. Place the flour in another shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Place the cornflake crumbs in a third bowl. 4. Line a plate with parchment. Working with 1 chicken breast at a time, dredge in flour, shaking off excess, then dip into egg mixture, turning to coat evenly; carefully coat with cornflake crumbs, pressing the crumbs to adhere them to the chicken. Transfer chicken to parchment lined plate.

5. Add 1/4 inch canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 chicken breasts to skillet and cook until golden brown on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken breasts to a paper towellined plate and season with additional sprinkle of salt while still hot. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts. 6. Serve hot with pickles, hot sauce, and spicy honey if desired. Serves 4 to 6.


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Health MInd & Body

United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma K-9s United Hatzalah’s crew of canines, which operates throughout Israel, just got a big push from a dog-loving donor who saw the importance of the unit’s work. The unit, which has been active for the past six months and is now named the Sylvia and Max Shulman K-9 Unit, has received a very large donation in honor of Sylvia and Max, who both loved dogs and understood how helpful they can be in traumatic situations. The unit currently consists of three dogs, one in the north, one in Jerusalem and one in the south. The animals and their handlers respond to calls regionally whenever and wherever needed. “The K-9 unit supports the work of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit,” said Psychotrauma Unit Director Avi Tennenbaum. “We have a small team right now in strategic places in Israel and each of the dogs respond in their region working where they are needed most. Thanks to the support of a generous donor, we are now able to expand this unit and provide more coverage and more care to people who need it.” United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit is now able to expand the K-9 project, which provides emotional and psychological stabilization for people suffering emotional trauma due to traumatic medical emergency. “We have been looking to expand the K-9 Unit for some time now, and are overjoyed that we have found a donor who is interested in this project and wants to help us push it forward,” said Tennenbaum. The dogs have responded to fires, searches for missing people, serious injuries, and car accidents.

“We look for the right type of situation where the dogs can add an extra level of care and treatment for the patients. Not all segments of Israel’s population react well when animals are near, so we are very careful as to which calls we send our dog unit members to. Our aim is always to make the patient feel more comfortable and empower them. In most cases, the dogs help us do that. They are brought in to assist in an emergency to help patients calm down, recover and cope with the incident that they just experienced,” Tennenbaum said. The dogs and their handlers, usually own-

ers, undergo specialized training that enables the dogs to become therapy dogs. For Batya Jaffe (right, with Lucy), who runs the K-9 unit, her course entailed an intensive three-year training course that enables her to train others to become therapy dogs and therapy dog handlers. “One of the basic rules we learned in animal therapy is that animals don’t judge people. While some patients may be hesitant to talk with people, even therapists from our unit, that same hesitancy does not exist with Lucy, or with any of the dogs in our unit,” she said. Over the next few months, the unit hopes to expand the number of dogs in service as well as the situations in which the dogs will be used. “One area in which we believe the dogs will be very useful in the future is with situational debriefings of our own volunteer responders who suffer trauma from witnessing the medical emergency that they responded to. EMS personnel are exposed to an incredible amount of trauma and one method we are employing to deal with that is by having debriefings. We believe that the dogs will be able to assist the first responders to process the incident that they just witnessed in a healthier manner.” The current squad consists of Batya and Lucy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Jerusalem; Ori Weiss and Toffy (left), also a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, in Tzefat; and Netanel and Shekel, a mix between a cocker spaniel and a dachshund, in Be’er Sheva. Lucy has been incredibly useful in many cases where breaking the ice and connecting with patients quickly was important, while

Shekel successfully brought a mother out of a state of shock when one of her children suddenly passed away. Slowly, through connecting with the dog, the mother began responding to her surroundings once again. In Tzefat, Weiss and Toffy have been responding to emergency calls that require an extra level of care for the past nine months, while Netanel and Shekel have been volunteering with the unit for almost a year.

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13 THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

Getting close to G-d T

owards the beginning of Parashat Tzav we find a depiction of the general korban mincha (“meal offering”), and a similar personal offering brought by the High Priest, Aharon. Both of these korbanot are perfect examples of why the word korban is best translated as “offering” (as opposed to “sacrifice”) because there is no animal involved, no slaughtering involved, no blood involved, no taking of animal life involved. Furthermore the Hebrew root K-R-V cannot be translated to mean “sacrifice,” as it is used a number of times in chapter 8 to describe how “Moshe brought Aharon and his sons close.” This depiction closely follows a very common translation of K-R-V, which means “close” (as in “come closer,” not “close the door”). The simple explanation for this is that korbanot are a means of expressing ourselves in the lifelong goal of building a relationship with G-d. While a korban sometimes translates to the death of an animal, the general idea is that the offering — whatever it may be — is meant to give us a leg up in our continued effort to get closer to G-d. This is why when we watch Moshe “bring Aharon and his sons close,” and we see the very same verb as the one used to describe how korbanot are brought utilized to depict how Moshe readies his brother and nephews for their task through bringing them close to G-d, we understand Moshe is not sacrificing them as an offering. “Vayakrev” simply means “he brought them close.” This definition of bringing them close is utilized by Rashi, Rabbeinu Bachaye and others, and simply demonstrates that the concept of a “sacrifice” is foreign to Judaism in all forms. We don’t sacrifice things, we give offerings. And we bring offerings to get closer and closer to G-d. ot living in a time when the korbanritual is active or in line with our cultural sensibilities, it is sometimes hard to relate to the concept of a korban, or what it means to bring one. But is it? Read through chapter 8 of Vayikra, and we find Moshe essentially bringing his brother and his nephews as korbanot through a simple ritual in which he washed them, dressed them in their priestly garb, and anointed each of them with oil, so that they could serve G-d and represent the people in doing so. And so I think that it’s not far fetched to suggest that the korban culture does not have to be a relic of the past. Just like the korban mincha which did not include an animal and was largely eaten by the kohanim following certain rules, and just as “Vayakrev Moshe” (Moshe brought close) his brother and nephews through readying them to serve G-d, the idea of getting closer to G-d can be alive and well even without a Beit Hamikdash. It just depends on what we value, and how much we are willing to give as an offering. Avraham Avinu was willing to offer his son because G-d instructed him to. That story has been analyzed by many thousands of scholars See Getting on page 16

We don’t sacrifice things, we give offerings.

N

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Jewish Star columnists: Rabbi Avi Billet, spiritual leader of Anshei Chesed Congregation, Boynton Beach, Florida, mohel and Five Towns native; Rabbi David Etengoff of Magen David Yeshivah, Brooklyn; Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem. Contributing writers: Rabbi Marc D. Angel, rabbi emeritus of Congre-

gation Shearith Israel (Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue), New York City; Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, emeritus chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the Orthodox Union. to contact our columnists, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Soldiers for Israel, doing their jobs From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FReeDMaN

Jewish Star columnist

I

noticed the jeep in the distance almost immediately; it was impossible to miss. We were on maneuvers deep in the Negev desert, and there was nothing around but us. Sure enough, 20 minutes later the jeep pulled up alongside our tank and a man with a colonel’s oak leaves on his shoulders got out. Our commander jumped down for a hurried conference. We were only too happy for the brief respite; I was in the middle of tank commander’s course, one of the most depressing experiences I have ever had. A moment later, our commander ordered the gunner off the tank and told us that the colonel would be joining us. We did not need to know why, but for the purposes of our training, we should “treat him like one of the guys.” Yeah, right. A full-bird colonel, one of the guys? We were not even sergeants yet. Our commander, a first sergeant, was the final word, and his commander, a lieutenant, was like the prince whose word is law. The lieutenant’s commander, a captain, was like the king. And the captain’s commander, the battalion commander, a major, was like G-d. So what did that make a colonel? We did our best to stay out of the colonel’s way, though when you share a tank it is not easy. He was not a big talker, and didn’t mix much or sleep in the tank with us enlisted men. This went on for the better part of three weeks. ne day, however, it all finally came to a head. We were on a maneuver and I was acting as tank commander. There are four crewmembers in a tank: driver, gunner, loader, and commander. To become tank commanders, we had to become accomplished in each position, so we would switch off. This was my turn. One of the serious rules of tanks is called gevulot gizrah, or the limited field of the firing range. You can only fire in certain directions, with markers to denote the field of fire. Not only was it forbidden to fire outside the permitted field, it was even prohibited to point your tank gun out of it. This is an issue the army takes very seriously. A shell fired in the wrong direction could easily land in a local town, so the punishment for allowing the tank gun to stray outside the field of fire was the loss of the entire crew’s weekend pass. This becomes challenging. Your job as a commander is to seek out the enemy and bring the main cannon to bear on the target, at which point the gunner lines up his sights and fires. And while you can see the entire horizon from the commander’s turret, the gunner looking through his magnified sights inside the tank

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can only see the limited field of vision in his scope. So if you haven’t managed to place the gun exactly on target, he will begin to sweep sideways in search of it. And if he is moving the gun in the wrong direction, he may continue searching, not realizing that he is turning the wrong way. In fact, when he uses his controls to turn the gun sideways, the entire turret of the gun turns with him. I was acting as tank commander, and the colonel was practicing his gunnery. Sure enough, he began to rotate the tank gun in search of the target, and I could see the gun heading outside the field of fire. ears later, the prospect of commanding one tank crew is relatively simple. But when you are first learning to command a tank, it seems as though there is a tremendous amount to do. The tank is moving very fast, and you have to make sure the driver is headed in the right direction, keep the loader’s machine gun as well as your own facing the right direction, ensure the proper ammo is in the main gun, and communicate with your platoon on the tank radio. In fact, you don’t even have a hand free — one hand holds the radio switch, and the other fires the machine gun. So the armored corps has developed a simple system to tell the gunner to stop rotating: as his seat is in front of your legs, in the belly of the tank, you kick him in the helmet, and he gets the message. But what do you do when the gunner is a full bird colonel? I shouted into the intercom to no avail; with all the noise of heavy gunfire and the tank engine, he couldn’t hear me. In desperation, I decided there was no way I was giving up my weekend pass, so I kicked him in the back of his helmet. I heard a grunt — “ugh!” — over the intercom, and he released the controls. Later, when we all got out of the tank, I discovered he had a huge welt in the middle of his forehead. I had kicked him so hard that his head slammed into the gunner’s console. I was terrified that I would pay a price for this overreaction, but never heard another word about it. Months later, I discovered who this fellow really was: Shaul Mofaz. He had been Yoni Netanyahu’s second-in-command on the famous Entebbe rescue mission, and he would eventually become the Israeli defense minister. That single moment remains with me as a model of leadership. Here was a full colonel, kicked in the head by a private, who offered no more than a grunt. No curse, no formal reprimand or stockade time, not even so much as a dressing-down. In that moment, we were just two soldiers doing their jobs.

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his week, we read the portion of Tzav, which includes the anointing of Aharon and his sons as priests for the first time. To anoint them, G-d tells Moshe to “take the blood from the slaughtered animal and place some of it in the middle part of Aharon’s right ear, upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the big toe of his right foot” (Vayikra 8:23). Some take this to mean that a leader must learn how to listen, know what to do, and be able to choose a clear path on which to walk. Interestingly, this very same procedure is applied to the purification of the metzorah, the leper who, according to tradition, is punished with a spiritual malady due to his sins, which can include slander and evil speech. How can the same process apply to the High Priest and the metzorah? Can two people with such disparate levels of holiness undergo the same procedure? here is an interesting discussion in the tractate of Berachot which may shed light on this anomaly. The rabbis (Berachot 2b) discuss the exact point at which day becomes night. Clearlym until the sun has set it is still day. Once the stars have come out it is night. The question is the status of twilight. Rabbi Yossi is of the opinion that “bein hashmashot keheref ayin,” the transition from day to night is the blink of an eye. There is no middle ground; it is either day, or it is night. Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, in his Ein Ayah commentary, explains the implications of this idea. Imagine a 300-pound person is trying to lose weight. He decides he will start eating healthier and exercising. After three days of daily walks and lots of fruit and vegetables, he weighs himself and discovers he has lost one pound. To everyone else, suggests Rav Kook, nothing has changed yet. No one can tell the difference between a 300-pound fellow and one who weighs 299 pounds. But he knows the entire world has changed, because he is heading in a new direction. Obviously, the High Priest and the metzorah are in two completely different spaces, but they share in common the fact that both are trying to grow, to elevate themselves spiritually, and in that moment they are viewed equally. Perhaps the Torah is teaching us that when two people are trying to grow, Hashem does not see them as different. Just like that moment in the tank: a high-ranking officer kicked in the head by a simple private might have been expected to curse, or at least glare. But in that moment, we were both just soldiers doing our job. It was a valuable lesson on what a leader is really meant to be.

Here was a full colonel, kicked in the head by a private.

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Rabbi dR. Tzvi heRsh weinReb Orthodox Union

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here are certain phrases or expressions that many of us find hard to say. “I love you” is one of them. Another such phrase is “thank you.” Although these words are difficult for us to pronounce, they each reflect powerful emotions and, when finally uttered, have an unbelievable impact upon the person to whom they are addressed. It is wonderful to hear that one is loved, and it is also wonderful to learn that another person is grateful and appreciative of what one has done for him or her. In our tradition, gratitude is a primary value. Bachya ibn Pakuda, in his renowned medieval book Duties of the Heart, stresses the centrality of gratitude in the religious experience. For him, the worship of God begins with a sense of gratitude for being alive, for being healthy, for having one’s needs met. It is no wonder, then, that as the book of Leviticus enumerates the many types of sacrificial offerings which comprise the ancient Temple service, the korban todah, or thanksgiving offering, is prominently included. In this week’s Torah portion, Tzav, in Leviticus 7:11-18, the sacrifice known as the korban shelamim, or peace offering, is described in detail. Generally speaking, when a person makes a

vow to offer such a sacrifice, whether in a time of distress or when remembering God’s tender mercies, he must bring an animal offering. He brings it to the Temple, the priest performs various ritual procedures, and then most of the meat can be consumed by the individual who donated the offering, as long as he finishes it all during the day he brings it, and the following night and day, providing the individual with much more than 24 hours within which to consume the meat. But the passage which deals with this offering begins with a subtype of the shelamim — the todah. In this instance, besides bringing an animal sacrifice, the donor must also bring four types of bread, and ten breads of each type, totaling forty loaves. The meat and the accompanying loaves of bread must be consumed by daybreak after the night following the preparation of the sacrifice. The late 19th century commentator known as the Netziv suggests that the thanksgiving offering, or todah, must be accompanied by a public celebration with many guests invited. Therefore, unlike the ordinary shelamim, the numerous loaves of bread are prescribed so that all the guests can partake of the meal. The time within which the meat and breads can be consumed is limited to much less than 24 hours, necessitating the invitation of numerous guests to share in the thanksgiving celebration. The Netziv teaches us here that expressions of gratitude should ideally not be kept private.

Thankfulness is an emotion to share with others in a public celebration. ot long ago, I came across an article in an academic journal of psychology. The article was entitled Can Prayer Increase Gratitude? The authors quote numerous research studies which correlate gratitude with mental health. They therefore seek ways to promote the feeling of gratitude to foster increased mental health. One way they tried to instill gratitude in their subjects was to encourage them to engage in prayer. their How consistent findings were to the teachings of Judaism! They found that when people engaged in prayer, they became more aware not of what they were lacking, but of the blessings they had to be thankful for. The very act of prayer inculcated an attitude of gratitude. The sacrifices offered in our ancient Temple were forcibly discontinued two millennia ago. Our sages teach us that our prayers, although they are mere words, substitute for the sacrifices of old. Whereas once upon a time a Jew would express his gratitude by bringing a thanksgiving offering, today he recites a prayer instead. The article in the psychology journal teaches us that the relationship between prayer and gratitude is a mutual one. Not only does gratitude lead to thankful prayer, but prayer leads to increased thankfulness. Thus, for those of us who come by our sense of gratitude naturally and with ease, these sacrificial offerings, or these

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Prayer leads to thankfulness.

A gift to all future generations Torah

Rabbi david eTengoff

Jewish Star columnist

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he second verse of our parasha presents the commandment to offer a korban olah, a completely burnt offering, in the Mishkan and later the Beit Hamikdash: “Command (tzav) Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: That is the burnt offering which burns on the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall burn with it’” (Vayikra 6:1). Rashi, basing himself upon the Sifra, the halachic Midrash to Vayikra, explains the word “tzav” in this manner: “The expression tzav always denotes urging [to promptly and meticulously fulfill a particular commandment] for the present (miyad), and also for future generations (v’ledorot).”

The word “miyad” makes perfectly good sense in this context, since our verse is the source of the obligation to bring a korban olah — something that was possible for Aharon and his sons, and during the period of time we were blessed with the Mishkan and Beit Hamikdash. The term “v’ledorot,” however, seems problematic, since we have not had a Mishkan or Beit Hamikdash for nearly 2,000 years, and we have, therefore, been prohibited from offering the korban olah. My rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l, expanded upon our question as follows: “What is the meaning of the word ledoros (for future generations) in this context? The mitzvos of mezuzah, tefillin and Shabbos are clearly ledoros. Thousands of years have gone by, and these mitzvos are observed as they had been when they were originally given. But in what way are the mitzvos of the Mishkan practiced today? There has been no korban tamid [daily offering] for almost two thousand years! In what sense does the

mitzvah of offering korbanos continue?” (Vayikra, Chumash Mesoras HaRav) he Rav answered our question based upon a narrative passage in Talmud Bavli, Megillah 31b that presents a fascinating dialogue between Hashem and Avraham: “Avraham asked how he was to know that G-d would not forsake Israel if they sinned. G-d answered, ‘In the merit of the [Temple] sacrifices.’ Avraham insisted that this merit was fine when these sacrifices are in existence, but what was to happen after the destruction of the Temple? G-d replied that if the Children of Israel learned the laws surrounding the sacrifices, He would consider their study as a virtual sacrificial offering. When we cannot offer sacrifices, we recite the halachos [laws] pertaining to them as a substitute.” In sum, our study of the laws concerning the sacrifices that are found throughout rabbinic literature enables us to bring “virtual sacrificial offerings,” and thereby fulfill these laws in a substitute manner.

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days, the appropriate prayers, can help us express that gratitude. But for those of us whose sense of gratitude is numbed, prayer is one way to free feelings of thankfulness that are otherwise locked up within us. It allows those feelings to well up and to be effectively expressed. e often hear the admonition to “count our blessings.” Many of us, either because of our inborn pessimism, or because of the difficulties of life that seem to overshadow them, find it difficult to acknowledge the positives of our life. Without such acknowledgment, gratitude is impossible. In this week’s Torah portion, we learn not only that gratitude deserves celebration in the holy Temple, but that temple worship can help us feel grateful for what we do have. And we also learn, following the Netziv, of how worthwhile it is to express gratitude in a circle of family and friends. That gratitude is the most pleasant of human emotions is so well expressed in these lines from the poet Thomas Gray’s Ode for Music: “Sweet is the breath of vernal shower, The bees collected treasures sweet, Sweet music’s melting fall, but sweeter yet The still small voice of gratitude.” The sage advice we can derive from this week’s Torah portion is: Express gratitude, and not in a “still small voice” but in a resounding and booming voice for others to hear, so that they can share in the emotions of the grateful person, and so that the grateful person can feel those emotions in every fiber of his being.

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At this juncture, the Rav extends the notion of that which is virtual to include the Beit HaMikdash itself: “There is a Mikdash in our days as well — not physically, but through halachic study. This is the mesorah [the passing down from each generation to the next] of Torah Sheb’al Peh, the Oral Law. Today, we read Parashas Shekalim as if the Beis Hamikdash was still standing; it is ledoros. Parashas Parah reminds us to be ritually pure so that we may bring the korban pesach [Passover offering]. Although we no longer offer a korban pesach, we read Parashas Parah as if the Beis Hamikdash still exists” (brackets my own). Two thousand years is a long time to wait and hope for the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash. Yet, it is a dream that remains indelibly engraved in our minds, and inspires us to say three times daily, “Return in mercy to Jerusalem Your city and dwell therein as You have promised … rebuild it, soon in our days, as an everlasting edifice. Blessed are You, L-rd, who rebuilds Jerusalem.” With Hashem’s help and mercy, may we once again merit to bring korbanot in the Beit HaMikdash, soon and in our days, v’ledorot — and for all generations to come!

Starting each day with the strength of prayer angel for shabbat

Rabbi maRc d. angel

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n 2014, three scholars from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania published an important paper on the science of timing — how temporal landmarks impact on the way we organize our lives. Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis studied eight and a half years of Google searches for the word “diet.” Searches for this word always soared about 80 percent on January 1 of each year. They also found that searches spiked at the start of every month and every first day of the week. (Discussion of their research is from Daniel Pink’s book, When.) In their later research, these scholars found

that people activate new beginnings on days that have special meaning. When they framed March 20 as the first day of spring, the date offered a more effective fresh start than simply identifying it as the third Wednesday of the month. Feelings of renewal also applied to birthdays, anniversaries, or dates connected with a particular event in people’s lives. There seems to be a clear tendency for people to like “fresh starts.” However, just as there is a spike of optimism and resolve at temporal starting points, there is also a steady slackening off with the passage of time. Temporal landmarks energize and renew us; the challenge is to maintain our enthusiasm and optimism as time wears on. One of the ways to

move forward is to draw on many such dates so that we frequently feel the impetus of fresh starts. The Jewish calendar offers us moments of renewal each Shabbat. There is a holiday or fast day almost every month of the year. March 20 and 21 are two special time-related markers: the first day of spring and the holiday of Purim. The genius of Judaism is that it seeks to energize and renew us on a daily basis — not just on calendrical landmarks. This week’s Torah reading focuses on the offerings that were brought in the Mishkan — the Israelites’ sanctuary while they were in the wilderness. The Mishkan’s service took place daily. This practice was followed during the period of Solomon’s Temple as well as the Second Temple era.

Each morning, one needs to renew the commitment.

With the destruction of the Temples of antiquity, the synagogue undertook to maintain the daily service. The Shulchan Aruch opens with this statement: “One should strengthen like a lion to arise in the morning to serve the Creator.” Each morning, one needs to renew the commitment to serve the Almighty, to think about the challenges of the new day. A good start is to devote time each morning to prayer. The daily ritual is more than a recitation of holy words; it is a way of connecting ourselves to the higher meaning of our lives. It is a way of staying in focus and of maintaining the ongoing adventure of life without sinking into a life of bland routine. Scholars have found that many people have optimistic and energizing starts … but they often cannot follow through on their good intentions. Daily prayer each morning can help us start strong … and stay strong.

THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

Tzav: Increasing our gratitude by sharing it

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The destruction and self-destruction of war rABBi sir JonAthAn sAcKs

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his sedra, Tzav, speaking about sacrifices, prohibits the eating of blood: “Wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people” (Lev. 7:26–27). The ban on eating blood is fundamental to the Torah. For example, it occupies a central place in the covenant G-d makes with Noach — and through him, humanity — after the Flood: “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Gen. 9:4). Moshe returns to the subject in his closing address in the book of Deuteronomy: “You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the L-rd” (Deut. 12:23–25). What is so wrong about eating blood? Maimonides and Nahmanides offer conflicting interpretations. For Maimonides, it is forbidden as part of the Torah’s extended battle against idolatry. He notes that the Torah uses identical language about idolatry and eating blood: “I will set My face against that persons who eats

Getting...

Continued from page 14 over millennia. Suffice it to say for now that G-d does not want (and never wanted) human sacrifice. But nowadays people do give of their most precious possessions for G-d. Many people live, at great expense, in the community they feel is best for their family. Many people, at great expense, enroll their children in yeshivas and day schools and summer camps, so their children can have a Jewish education parents are not necessarily equipped to provide or supplement at home. Many people, at great expense, enhance their Shabbos table and their Yom Tov table with delicious food and wine, to make every Shabbos and every holiday special, all in the name of honoring G-d. (G-d bless those who spend between $50,000 and $100,000 to have their family together in a hotel for Pesach. This is a luxury not required by any Jewish law. And for those who take out a second mortgage on their house in order to do this, I don’t know what to say.)

blood and will cut him off from his people” (Lev. 17:10), and “I will set My face against that man [who engages in Moloch worship] and his family and will cut him off from his people” (Lev. 20:5). In no context other than blood and idolatry is the expression “set My face against” used. Idolaters, says Maimonides, believed that blood was the food of the spirits, and that by eating it, they would have “something in common with the spirits.” Eating blood is forbidden because of its association with idolatry. Nahmanides says, contrariwise, that the ban has to do with human nature. We are affected by what we eat: “If one were to eat the life of all flesh, and it would then attach itself to one’s own blood, and they would become united in one’s heart, and the result would be a thickening and coarseness of the human soul so that it would closely approach the nature of the animal soul which resided in what he ate…” Eating blood, implies Nahmanides, makes us cruel, bestial, animal-like. hich is correct? We now have copious evidence, through archaeology and anthropology, that both are. Maimonides was right to see the eating of blood as an idolatrous rite. Human sacrifice was widespread in the ancient world. Among the Greeks, for

Eating blood makes us cruel, animal-like.

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e are at a time in the year when schools (especially high schools) send out their acceptance letters for the coming year. The criteria for acceptance in some schools, in some cases, seems arbitrary, and the fact that some children are not accepted to any school is a shameful stain on a community that is supposed to value Jewish education. The offerings of these families are not being rejected by G-d. They are being rejected by Jewish educators. There is another tragic reality facing many hundreds of families. For reasons beyond the scope of this dvar Torah, they do not want to sacrifice their children in the name of something they don’t believe in. But they do want their children to have a Jewish education. They and their children have been maligned and ostracized, and their offerings to have their children come close to G-d through a Jewish education (and in some cases their being welcome in shul!) is also being rejected by large segments of our community. I am pretty confident G-d wouldn’t throw Jews out of the Jewish community. G-d accepts all offerings that bring his adherents closer to Him. We should too.

Purim Eternal postscript Kosher Bookworm

AlAn JAy GerBer

Jewish Star columnist

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ast week’s Kosher Bookworm featured an excerpt from a new book by Rabbi Avi Feiner of Lawrence, “Purim Eternal: Inspiration and Depth” (Mosaica Press, 2019). This week, in an online interview, Rabbi Feiner explains why he wrote the book. “I decided to write this sefer for the following reasons: “1) When you even mention the word ‘Purim’ to most people, it puts a smile on their faces. There is such an extreme element of simcha on Purim that expands even to the rest of the month of Adar — as we see from the Talmudic statement, ‘Mishenichnas Adar marbim b’simcha.’ These divrei Torah bring simcha to my heart and I truly hope they can bring simcha to your hearts. “2) Related to (and perhaps the cause of)

example, the god Kronos required human victims. The Maenads, female worshippers of Dionysus, were said to tear living victims apart with their hands and eat them. The Aztecs of South America practiced human sacrifice on a vast scale, believing that without its meals of human blood, the sun would die. Barbara Ehrenreich, from whose book Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War these facts come, argues that one of the most formative experiences of the first human beings must have been the terror of being attacked by an animal predator. They knew that the likely outcome was that one of the group, usually an outsider, an invalid, a child, or perhaps an animal, would fall as prey, giving the others a chance to escape. It was this embedded memory that became the basis of subsequent sacrificial rites. Ehrenreich’s thesis is that “the sacrificial ritual in many ways mimics the crisis of a predator’s attack. An animal or perhaps a human member of the group is singled out for slaughter, often in a spectacularly bloody manner.” The eating of the victim and his or its blood temporarily occupies the predator, allowing the rest of the group to escape in safety. That is why blood is offered to the gods. Blood sacrifice appears when human beings are sufficiently well organized in groups to make the transition from prey to predator. They then relive their fears of being attacked and eaten. hrenreich does not end there, however. Her view is that this emotional reaction — fear and guilt — survives to the present as part of our genetic endowment from earlier times. It leaves two legacies: one, the human tendency to band together in the face of an ex-

the centrality of simcha on Purim is the concept of nitzchiyus (eternity). The miracles of Purim are a testament to the eternal nature of Klal Yisrael. Purim, according to Chazal, and as codified by the Rambam, will exist eternally. This concept pervades the day of Purim and allows us to experience a deep connection to Hashem and His eternal world in a way that can be transformative. Some of the divrei Torah in the sefer are intended to bring out this idea, which will hopefully allow the reader to reflect and connect in a deeper way to this amazing day (and month). “3) There is an abundance of sefarim in Hebrew that provide insight into the machshava of Purim and into the mitzvos of the day. However, I have not found many sefarim of that nature written in English. The sefer is divided into 26 essays (in addition to my brother, Rav Eytan Feiner’s, excellent introductory essay) that can be read independently of one another, each focused on a different facet of Purim. I tried to choose topics and express ideas that have relevance throughout the year, not only on Purim.”

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ternal threat; the other, the willingness to risk self-sacrifice for the sake of the group. These emotions appear at times of war. They are not the cause of war, but they invest it with “the profound feelings — dread, awe, and the willingness to sacrifice — that make it ‘sacred’ to us.” They help explain why it is so easy to mobilize people by conjuring up the specter of an external enemy. War is a destructive and self-destructive activity. Why then does it persist? Ehrenreich’s insight suggests an answer. It is the dysfunctional survival of instincts, profoundly necessary in an age of hunter-gatherers, into an era in which such responses are no longer necessary. Human beings still thrill at the prospect of shedding blood. Maimonides was right to see in the blood sacrifice a central idolatrous practice. Nahmanides was equally correct to see it as a symptom of human cruelty. We now sense the profound wisdom of the law forbidding the eating of blood. Only thus could human beings be gradually cured of the deeply ingrained instinct, deriving from a world of predators and prey, in which the key choice is to kill or be killed. Evolutionary psychology has taught us about these genetic residues from earlier times which — because they are not rational — cannot be cured by reason alone, but only by ritual, strict prohibition, and habituation. The contemporary world continues to be scarred by violence and terror. Sadly, the ban against blood sacrifice is still relevant. The instinct against which it is a protest — sacrificing life to exorcise fear — still lives on. Where there is fear, it is easy to turn against those we see as “the other” and learn to hate them. Which is why each of us, especially we leaders, have to take a stand against the instinct to fear, and against the corrosive power of hate. All it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.

Romans’ Purim ban…

Continued from page 1 story, the paradigm of anti-Semitism, was considered an aspect of the Purim commandment to “erase the name of Amalek,” Haman’s Jew-hating ancestor. The Romans weren’t especially discomfited by the idea of vicariously punishing enemies, or even maintaining fire safety. They were, however, concerned that drunken Jewish celebrants might use the opportunity to mock Christians by portraying Haman as a sacrilegious stand-in for Jesus. This is especially true because the favored method of representing Haman’s death in the ancient world wasn’t hanging by the neck — he was crucified on a wooden cross. The biblical passage that literally describes Haman’s “hanging on a tree” (Esther 7:10) was rendered as “crucified” in the ancient works of the Jewish historian Josephus, the early translations of the book of Esther into Greek (Septuagint) and Latin (Vulgate), and all through the Middle Ages in literary classics like Dante’s “Purgatory.” Artistic representations also depicted Haman on the cross, such as the 15th-century Azor Masters and even by Michelangelo, who painted a muscular Haman on a cross on the Sistine Chapel. t’s not hard to imagine how public Purim execrations of Haman, conducted by an inebriated crowd of Jews, could easily be misperceived by Christian observers, especially if the effigy of Haman is bound to a wooden cross. In fact, only a few years after the law in the Theodosian Code was promulgated, a Church historian named Socrates Scholasticus tendentiously described an event that sounded very much like a drunken Purim celebration gone horribly wrong: In Inmestar, Syria, a group allegedly seized a Christian child, bound him to a cross and scourged him until he died. Socrates Scholasticus is not especially reli-

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able as a source for Jewish history, but as the historian Elliot Horowitz has demonstrated in his masterful studies of Purim violence, it didn’t take much to convince Christian audiences that Jews were in fact bent on committing acts of horrific violence. From Inmestar to Norwich to Nazi Germany and beyond, the noxious lie of the blood libel continues to plague innocent Jewish communities. It’s too awful to think that it might in some way be connected to misunderstood “harmless” Purim festivities. The blood libels were just that. But because the Christian majority was so quick to feel threatened by Jewish revelry, violent or just intemperate, it was better for the Jews’ own sake that they tone it down. Some might be tempted to argue that drunken revelry is essential to the celebration and that non-Jewish viewers should develop a sense of humor about the holiday. Yet isn’t that the same argument recently made by Bram De Baere, the designer of a carnival float in Aalst, Belgium, that depicted Jews in stereotypically ugly ways? De Baere told a Belgian newspaper that “Carnival is a time when everyone and everything can be laughed at. If you were to forbid that, you would be attacking the DNA of Aalst at its core.” Not everything is fair game for mockery, even on Purim. True, there’s a big difference between a tiny, relatively powerless community poking fun at the dominant people on one day of the year on the one hand, and the majority population using their position of power to demean a hapless minority on the other. But I have to give this one to the Romans: The law of 408 wasn’t anti-Purim — it was anti-poor taste. Henry Abramson, a specialist in Jewish history and thought, is a dean at the Touro College campus on Avenue J in Flatbush.


nationality of the country that murdered most of my dad’s family.” Yet getting German citizenship can also feel like reclaiming a part of one’s identity, Julia Neuberger, a member of the British House of Lords, argued in an essay after the Brexit referendum. “It doesn’t make me any less British, but it does allow me to reclaim a bit of my history,” Neuberger, whose mother was a refugee from Germany, wrote in The Guardian. “It also declares a belief in Europe, an admiration for how Germany has dealt with its Nazi past, and a real belief that [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel’s welcome of migrants

was both right and brave.” Still, the dilemmas are “causing internal debates, with some passionate disagreements” among many British Jews who may claim German and Austrian citizenship, Newman, 44, told JTA. Newman, who has two children, is grappling with a related issue. He is entitled to a Polish passport through his mother. But a recent Polish law that outlaws blaming the Polish nation for Nazi crimes “creates a serious moral dilemma,” he said. The law, he added, “places limitations on studying the Holocaust and I’m not sure that’s something I can agree to and just become a citizen of a coun-

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By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA Portugal used to be a sunny holiday destination to Adam Perry, a 46-year-old Londoner. But following the United Kingdom’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union, Perry, a Sephardic Jew, applied for citizenship. Since 2015, legislation there allows for the naturalization of descendants of refugees persecuted 500 years ago. Amid growing uncertainty over Brexit, whose deadline is March 29 (for now), applying to become a Portuguese citizen “was a pragmatic decision,” said Perry, whose 5-year-old daughter may also be naturalized once his application is approved. But, he added, it was “also a form of protest action against Brexit, with which I deeply disagree.” Perry is just one of thousands of British Jews and non-Jews who have been prompted by Brexit to apply for citizenship in other European Union member states — most notably countries from which their ancestors fled to escape persecution. Portugal, for example, last year saw a 25-percent increase in naturalization by British citizens, though only a few dozen of the 3,832 were Sephardic Jews. The others are mostly non-Jews living there long enough to get citizenship. Many more British Jews are becoming citizens of Germany, where their grandparents barely managed to escape alive. Hundreds have asked for assistance from Britain’s Association of Jewish Refugees — a group founded in 1941 by Jews who fled the Holocaust to Britain, according to its chief executive, Michael Newman. “We are well aware of the irony of the situation,” he said. “It’s one of the many unexpected results of this chaotic thing called Brexit.” Since the Brexit referendum in June 2016, the German embassy in London has received more than 3,380 applications for restoring German citizenship under article 116 of the German constitution for descendants of people persecuted by Adolf Hitler’s party. In previous years, only about 50 such requests were made annually. To some applicants, becoming German is a purely pragmatic decision. Gaby Franklin, an author and interior designer, described getting a German passport as “an insurance policy” in an interview published earlier this month with Politico. Beyond ownership issues of family assets in France, she said, “We don’t know what the travel arrangements will look like.” EU countries waive visa and passport regulations for their citizens within the bloc and with some foreign countries. The status of British citizens in the European Union is unclear also because the British parliament has twice rejected a deal worked out between Prime Minister Theresa May and Brussels. May is expected to ask for a delay to avoid Britain leaving the union without a deal — a scenario whose practical consequences are as yet unclear. But getting a German passport specifically can get tricky for some prospective applicants for German citizenship. One prospective applicant, journalist Adrian Goldberg, wrote about his conflicted feelings in an op-ed for the BBC in December, titled “Sorry, Dad — I’m thinking of getting a German passport.” For most of his life, the idea that he might seek German citizenship “would have been utterly laughable,” Goldberg wrote. “I’m British through and through,” he added, and “I can’t deny that a rare England football victory against Germany always brings a special satisfaction.” Brexit, though, “has changed the way I think.” As a German citizen, Goldberg would have the right to work and travel freely across 27 nations without visa requirements, as does any EU citizen. “That might well come in handy if I decide to wind down my radio career on an English language station in, say, Mallorca,” in Spain, he wrote. “Even more importantly, my three young daughters would share the same entitlement.” But “it’s not such a straightforward calculation,” Goldberg also wrote. “Sure, I can get a passport which might conceivably make life easier for myself and my children. But only if I adopt the

Photo by Christina Daly

17 THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

Passports from historically hostile lands eyed by Brexit-worried Jews

try that does that.” Brexit is not the only thing making foreign citizenship look appealing in Britain. Anti-Semitic incidents reached record levels for the third year straight in 2018. According to a September survey, almost 40 percent of British Jews would “seriously consider emigrating” if Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, often accused of condoning or promoting anti-Semitism, became prime minister. Also making Jews uncomfortable is the nativist sentiment that begot Brexit. Harassment of foreigners for speaking languages other than English has become commonplace in the United Kingdom. Applying for a foreign citizenship is not always socially convenient, Perry, the applicant for a Portuguese passport, conceded. “But in London, which is very cosmopolitan, this is not really an issue,” he added. “I speak openly about seeking a foreign passport as a result of Brexit.” Yet upon hearing that Goldberg, the Jewish journalist, is seeking German citizenship, one friend said, “You’d be a traitor, wouldn’t you?”


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Times rewrites Jaffa’s history

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n April 26, 1948, General Sir Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner for Palestine, wrote to Arthur Creech-Jones, the colonial secretary, about the mass flight of Palestine’s Arabs, singling out the port city of Jaffa: “You should know that the collapsing Arab morale in Palestine is in some measure due to the increasing tendency to those who should be leading them to leave their country. For instance in Jaffa the Mayor went on 4 days leave 12 days ago and has not returned, and half the National Committee has left. In Haifa the Arab members of the municipality left some time ago, the two leaders of the Arab Liberation Army left actually during the recent battle. Now the Chief Arab Magistrate has left. In all parts of the country the effendi class has been evacuating in large numbers over a considerable period and the tempo is increasing.” ast-forward 71 years. Contradicting both the High Commissioner and Jaffa Arabs who lived through the events, editors of the New York Times last weekend rewrote history, stating in a travel article: “In 1948, when the State of Israel was founded, most of Jaffa’s Arab residents were forcibly removed from their homes.” (“An Unexpected Pocket of Luxury in Tel Aviv,” March 17). The original digital version by Debra Kamin did not include this false claim. Rather, in response to criticism that the article initially ignored the city’s Arab history, editors revised the digital version, adding in this misinformation. A note was appended to the bottom of the article and appeared in print — on March 17 as a correction, and on March 16 as an Editors’ Note: “The original version of this article, in focusing exclusively on the high-end hotels and other additions, failed to touch on important aspects of Jaffa’s makeup and its history — in particular, the history and continuing presence of its Arab population and the expulsion of many residents in 1948. Because of this lapse, the article also did not acknowledge the continuing controversy about new development and its effect on Jaffa. After readers pointed out the problem, editors added some of that background information to this version.” Leaving aside for a moment the factual problem with the Editors’ Note, the fact that it appeared at all in print (let alone twice) is noteworthy. The New York Times refused to publish in print an Editors’ Note after it whitewashed convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh as a “controversial Palestinian activist.” Odeh was found guilty for her role in a Jerusalem bombing that killed two Hebrew University students and was later deported from the United States for having lied about her criminal past. What considerations prompted Times editors to run the Editors’ Note on Odeh only online while the misinformation had appeared in print, but to share the Jaffa Editors’ Note in print twice although the alleged misinformation had never appeared in print? ost of Jaffa’s Arab residents fled in 1948 — and were not forcibly removed. In City of Oranges: An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa (W.W. Norton & Co), journalist Adam LeBor detailed the flight of Jaffa’s Arabs. LeBor, a journalist who has written for The Independent and The Times (London), and has published book reviews in the Times, reported in his book on Jaffa: “On 8 December 1947, after several days See Jaffa on page 19

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Minn. Dems may challenge Omar Politics to Go

Jeff Dunetz

Jewish Star columnist

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innesota Democratic leaders upset at her public anti-Semitic statements are working to recruit candidates to run against Rep. Ilhan Omar in next year’s primary election. The Hill newspaper is reporting that several party leaders “have had discussions about finding a candidate to take on Omar, just two months into her first term in Congress.” It is extremely rare for party leaders to try to primary an incumbent. “There’s definitely some buzz going around about it, but it’s more a buzz of is anyone talking about finding someone to run against her than it is anyone saying they’re going to run against her or contemplate it. There’s definitely talk about people wanting someone to run against her,” said State Sen. Ron Latz (D), who represents a portion of Omar’s district. A newspaper in Omar’s district, the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, reported that before she ran for Congress, Latz hosted a meeting in his home between Omar and community Jewish leaders. They weren’t trying to change her antiIsrael positions, but tried to teach her not to use hurtful language when expressing them. Latz reported that they “shared with her our concerns for things, including language that has references and meanings beyond just the meanings of words. Tropes, dog whistles — call them what you will. We explained to her how hurtful, and factually inaccurate, they were.” After Omar’s comment that congressional support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins,” the Pioneer Press reported that she had met with the Jewish community again. “Over the past two weeks, Omar had several meetings in Minnesota with local Jewish leaders. It was essentially part of a low-profile, not-on-Twitter, fence-mending tour following Omar’s remarks earlier in the month many saw as anti-Semitic and part of a pattern that dates back several years.” Rep. Omar’s disregard of the community’s advice about hateful tropes suggests that she doesn’t really care about promoting anti-Semitism. The Jewish community in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district is horrified. “Our community is exasperated by Rep. Omar’s unfulfilled promises to listen and learn from Jewish constituents while seemingly simultaneously finding another opportunity to make an anti-Semitic remark and insult our community,” Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said in a statement. Omar met with Hunegs last month after her initial remarks were widely condemned. She has

continued to meet with Jewish leaders both in Minneapolis and Washington, a spokesman said. “Unfortunately, having the opportunity to speak with her about that point didn’t dissuade her making that statement,” Hunegs told The Hill in an interview Wednesday. “We were appalled.” ost recently, CNN reported that some Muslim and Jewish leaders in her district sat down with Rep. Omar together. “Omar Jamal, Steve Hunegs, Mohamed Ahmed and Avi Olitzky agree on the characterization of language Omar used. When Omar talked about Israel ‘hypnotizing’ the world, they said it was anti-Semitic. When she said American support for Israel was ‘all about the Benjamins baby,’ referring to $100 notes, they said it was anti-Semitic. And when she questioned whether American lawmakers and lobbyists had loyalty to Israel, they said it was anti-Semitic. Local leaders want her to understand why her words were causing so much pain.” Omar Jamal explained that Rep. Omar’s election was a cause of great excitement for him and the Somali refugee community in the district. But he has found her actions since she took office disappointing. “When you are elected, you’re supposed to bring people together. You’re supposed to create a sense of unity instead of farther dividing them and pitting one group against the other.” Mohamed Ahmed did not agree that Omar was merely criticizing the Israeli government. “I speak as a friend of Israel and a brother to the Palestinians by faith,” he said. “We believe in Palestinian rights and freedoms, but we will not

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do it denigrating our Jewish community.” According to the Hill, the search for a candidate to run against Rep. Omar in a primary next year continues, but so far no one has publicly expressed interest. If local Democrats do find someone, that candidate will face two significant obstacles: Omar’s Somali background and the history of the district. Minnesota is home to one of the largest Somali communities in America, over 100,000 strong. The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, represented by Rep. Omar, is the heart of the Somali community and is nicknamed “Little Mogadishu.” Even if moderate Democrats in her district can recruit a challenger, it remains unclear if party voters will reject Omar for her hatred in a primary. Her predecessor in the seat was Keith Ellison, a student, friend, and defender of Louis Farrakhan. While subtler than Ilhan Omar, Ellison also had a history of anti-Semitism. During his run for Congress in 2006, the Washington Post reported that Ellison had defended Farrakhan against accusations of anti-Semitism in 1989 and 1990. Ellison has been a featured keynote speaker at many BDS events, including the American Friends Service Committee, which runs a BDS boot camp, and Progressives for Palestine. He is a favorite of the anti-Israel group ironically called Jewish Voice for Peace. Ellison was elected to represent the 5th congressional district six times. When push comes to shove, rank-and-file Democrat constituents in Omar’s congressional district may be very comfortable with antiSemitism.

Elected officials are supposed to bring people together.

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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JONatHaN S. tOBiN

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he announcement from J Street that it plans to sponsor a free trip this summer for college-age students, to compete with the popular Birthright Israel program, provoked predictable outrage. Many in the pro-Israel community already despise J Street as a Trojan horse that seeks to undermine support for the Jewish state. The idea of it shepherding Jewish kids around the West Bank to meet Arabs who will trash Israel infuriates, and deepens the resolve of some to exclude the left-wing lobby from communal organizations. But while any efforts to undermine support for Birthright — one of the most successful programs ever devised by the organized Jewish world — should be opposed, those who are blowing their top over this can calm down. As J Street indicates, their trip has room for only 40 students, and those who want to go will have to compete for their ticket. Compare that to the hundreds of thousands who have gone on Birthright during its history, and it’s clear that J Street’s effort will be a drop in the bucket by comparison. More to the point, rather than an effort to influence impressionable youths who might otherwise have emerged from a Birthright trip with their Jewish identity and connection to Israel strengthened, those who go on the J Street tour will probably be a self-selected group who are already radicalized.

But the key point to take away from this effort is that what J Street is doing, albeit in a backhanded way, is to affirm a basic Zionist principle that is undermining their efforts to compete with even more radical groups: the centrality of Israel to Jewish life. As Stephen M. Flatow wrote for JNS, if their tour of the West Bank is comprehensive rather than merely a token effort to inculcate sympathy for Palestinians in the hearts of visitors, they will not only see that Palestinians control their own local government, but that their political culture and national identity is inextricably linked to hatred of Israel and the glorification of terrorism aimed at spilling Jewish blood. irthright stays out of the West Bank. That means it doesn’t take participants to visit Palestinian Arabs and also avoids seeing settlements. Despite J Street’s moaning about Birthright subjecting young Jews to pro-Israel propaganda unleavened by dissent, most of those who go on the trips are far more likely to be familiar with critiques of Israel, which are routine fare in the U.S. media and liberal Jewish venues, than they are with the views of Israelis who will vote for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his right-wing allies next month. Contrary to the complaints of leftist critics, Birthright does offer lectures about the conflict with the Palestinians that show all sides of the issues. But it tries to avoid rooting the venture

in politics because its purpose is to help young Jews understand that the country is much more than the setting for news stories about a conflict. The verdict is still out on how much impact a few of weeks of touring (which always seems to include some partying) will wind having on the future of North American Jewry. But we do know that Birthright is a positive and enjoyable experience for the overwhelming majority of those who participate. Will the alumni of J Street’s trips be able to say the same about what will probably be a drearier politicized journey that also looks to be far less balanced in terms of content? The irony is that they will still be reaffirming the same basic truth to which Birthright is dedicated: the importance of Zionism and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life. The notion that the debate about Israel hinges on criticism of Netanyahu or settlements — the whole point of J Street’s existence — is outdated, in terms of both Israeli and American politics. The entities that agree with J Street’s positions on the conflict are already marginal, with polls showing that their already shrinking influence will be reduced even further after the voters have their say next month. Most Israelis no longer take J Street’s land-for-peace mantra seriously because they understand how unrealistic such a policy is in the absence of a credible Palestinian peace partner.

Worry less about J Street and more about our real enemies.

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ut while the liberal Zionist faith in a twostate solution is still supported by most American Jews, the real debate about Israel isn’t so much about where the Jewish state’s borders should be drawn, but whether there should be such a nation in the first place. The recent disgraceful retreat by Democrats during the controversy over Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic rants illustrated the growing strength of left-wing opponents of Zionism. J Street’s competition isn’t so much the mainstream AIPAC pro-Israel lobby, which dwarfs the influence of the left-wing group, as it is far-left anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. These two groups offer an attack on Israel’s existence that has a strong appeal among those who have been raised to view with suspicion any affection for parochial Jewish interests, such as the right of a Jewish state to exist and defend itself against foes determined to destroy it. J Street is losing ground to organizations that traffic in anti-Semitic invective and propaganda precisely because — even though it makes common cause with pro-BDS hate groups on many campuses — J Street’s worldview still revolves around life in the Jewish state. In the context of the battle about BDS, even a critical trip to Israel puts J Street on the other side of the fence from its putative left-wing allies and the mindset that drives support for people like Omar. That’s why it’s losing the battle for left-wing youth. Its mainstream critics should worry less about J Street and more about the real enemies of Jewish life that are fighting for BDS and Israel’s destruction. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.

Christchurch and a changing face of extremism Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

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y the time America woke up on Friday, Mar. 15, Google’s search engine was jammed with news of a mass shooting at another place of worship in the world. Counts of 49 dead and dozens wounded were being reported at the Al Noor Mosque in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Doubtless, many people were looking for the manifesto penned in advance of this atrocity, titled “The Great Replacement,” in which the gunman had apparently issued. The text was easy to find and nauseating to read. To summarize its ideas at any length would endow them, and him, with a dignity that is unwarranted; suffice to say, this man believes that “high fertility rates” among Muslims are at the root of an Islamic war against Western civilization, and therefore justification for the mass murder of innocents worshipping at a mosque. “I only wish I could have killed more invaders (Muslims) and more traitors (western converts to Islam) as well,” he wrote. adman? Psychopath? Fool? All of those things are painfully obvious. Still, I would argue that as diseased as the perpetrator’s mind is, it is worth dwelling on the way that he depicts himself in his manifesto. It provides an important snapshot of the sorts of influences and obsessions that animate racist violence and terrorism today. The picture that emerges does not sit easily with any political worldview — a fact that might, ironically, help to bridge the many and real divides that presently exist between Jewish and Muslim communities living in the West. In both the selection of the target and the justification for the shooting, there was an unmistakable parallel. Last October, white supremacist Robert Bowers chose to express his opposition to immigration by murdering 11 Jews worshipping at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa. Now, just months later, this latest gunman chose a mosque to level the same protest, fueled by con-

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spiracy theories about “invaders” and an uncontrollable rage triggered by Islamist terror attacks in the West (in this case, the truck bomb attack in Stockholm that claimed five lives in April 2017.) Like Bowers, the New Zealand shooter sees himself as a member of a select group of alert white citizens who perceive a critical truth that everyone else is simply too brainwashed to recognize; and that is enough to justify an act of slaughter. But unlike Bowers, Jews do not lie at the center of this man’s paranoid universe. Whereas Bowers, who now awaits trial, is a true believer in the Nazi caricature of a Jew — the source of all the injustice, decadence and racemixing in the world — for the New Zealand gunman, Jews are relatively incidental. his isn’t because he likes Jews. As with most anti-Semites these days, he says in his manifesto that he is not one, and then adds right afterwards that “a jew (sic) living in israel (sic) is no enemy of mine, as long as they do not seek to subvert or harm my people.” But subversion and harm, in the mind of the anti-Semite, is precisely what “the Jews” cannot stop themselves from doing! One can safely imagine that were our community’s “fertility rates” on the same scale as the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, such contemptuous indifference would mushroom into outright hate. There is also the matter of the political positions that this man identifies with. What it demonstrates is the strong degree of cross-fertilization between different, even contradictory, strands of extremism on both right and left that has been enabled by the Internet. He tells us he is a fascist, and specifically an “eco-fascist.” His main political influence is Sir Oswald Mosely, the British socialist leader who evolved into a blackshirted, fascist anti-Semite during the 1930s. The New Zealand gunman doesn’t object to being called a “socialist”; he can be, he says, both right-wing and leftwing depending on the context. The country he most identifies with is the People’s Republic of

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China, but he quotes a cult slogan of Neo-Nazi groups — “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” — as the basis of his worldview. For someone who clearly exposed himself to a great deal of information about the world around him and yet understood almost none of it, this man underlines an awkward truth with this last aspect of his confession, albeit by accident. It is this: the ideas, images, buzzwords and symbols of extremism are interchangeable. That’s why white identitarians, for whom Jewish power and influence are not the most pressing concern, have come forward. But it is also why you have left-wing socialists, like several members of the British Labour Party, who conduct social media campaigns against “the Rothschilds,” “the Zionists” and the other alleged instruments of “Jewish supremacism.” It why two anti-Semites from France with far-right connections, Alain Soral and Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, were warmly welcomed last December in Communist North Korea. It is inadvisable to assume that extremists believe with any consistency. here is only one line from the latest gunman’s manifesto that I will quote in full. “There are no innocents in an invasion, all those who colonize other people’s lands share guilt,” he wrote. Those words convey the torrent of angry emotions that drove, in Friday’s case, a white racist, but they can serve a Hamas suicide bomber or an Iranian military commander just as well. It is an argument that many Islamists in the West, along with their non-Muslim fellows, frequently advance to rationalize and justify terrorist attacks against Israel, or anti-Semitic violence against Jewish communities in the West. What the massacre at the Christchurch mosque shows is that this very same argument, based on similarly warped ideology, can be deployed to justify the murder of Muslims in a Western city. The doctrine that there are “no innocents” is not so

The ideas, images, buzzwords and symbols are interchangeable.

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much a political red line as a civilizational one. In that sense, after the horrifying murders in New Zealand, Jews and Muslims find themselves on the same side of the line that separates civilization from barbarism. If we are to achieve greater understanding between our two minority communities, then that is as good a place as any from which to start.

Jaffa... Continued from page 18 of skirmishes between Arab fighters and the Haganah, hundreds of Arab fighters attacked the Tel Aviv quarter of Hatikvah in a major frontal assault. The attack was repulsed, with sixty Arabs and two Jews killed. The Arab exodus from Jaffa began. Much of the middle class and the a’yan, who could have provided leadership in the testing days ahead, relocated to relatives or to their summer homes in Cairo and Beirut, believing they would return once the situation calmed down. Flight, like panic, is infectious. When Jaffa’s artisans and workers saw that their bosses were leaving, they too began to desert their homes. The Haganah’s intelligence service reported that inhabitants of Manshiyyeh and Abu Kabir, to the south, were moving out of the city, pushing handcarts full of their possessions.” The next month, after a deadly attack targeting the Arab High Committee, but which took the lives of 26 mostly civilians, LeBor said: “The exodus of the middle class further accelerated, angry accusation of abandoning Jaffa following in their wake. ‘Whoever could leave [Jaffa] has left, there is fear everywhere, and there is no safety,’ an Arab informant told Elias Sasson, head of the Jewish Agency’s Arab Affairs department, in January 1948.” LeBor recounts the fateful day of Sunday, April 25, 1948, when fighting for Jaffa itself began. He tells of the flight of the Hammami family, whose son Fadwa remembers, “In one day, my parents decided to leave. But not for good, because we left See Jaffa on page 22

THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

J St B’right move affirms centrality of Zionism

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Lawsuits in motzei Shabbos loss of Dr. Friedman By Jeffrey Bessen, Nassau Herald A Garden City attorney has sent a notice of claim on behalf of Cedarhurst resident Cheryl Friedman to several government entities and two utilities that a $35 million wrongful death lawsuit will be filed by the end of the year, after Friedman’s husband, Dr. Richie Friedman, passed away after being struck by a car in the Village of Lawrence as he walked home from shul on mottzei Shabbos, Dec. 1. The notice of claim made a number of agencies aware that they could be liable for Friedman’s death: Lawrence’s Department of Public Works; the Town of Hempstead’s street lighting and traffic control divisions and its departments of buildings, engineering, highway, public safety, public works and sanitation, as well as the Town Board and the commissioner of highways; the

Nassau County Department of Public Works, traffic safety board and Police Department; the Long Island Power Authority; PSEG Long Island; and the state Department of Transportation. The car that struck Friedman was driven by Eric Stern, 44, who was not named in the claim notice because that is a legal requirement only for the government entities. Stern will more than likely be added to the lawsuit, according to Steven Fink, who represents Cheryl Friedman. “You never want to miss an opportunity to include a party, and ultimately I’m sure that several of the entities will be responsible,” Fink said, adding that after all the required hearings are completed, the suit will ask for compensation severe and prolonged pain and suffering and death, economic losses and loss of services, “as a result of the negligent, careless, reckless and

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wanton conduct,” as stated in the claim. Fink said he anticipated that investigative hearings would take place in the next 90 days. After that, the lawsuit will be filed against the entities believed to be at fault. Friedman, 55, was walking north on the Washington Avenue roadway, between Donmoor Road and Broadway in Lawrence, at 5:39 pm when he was struck by a northbound 2016 BMW driven by Stern, who remained at the scene, according to police. Friedman suffered a traumatic head injury and was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Friedman was a bariatric surgeon at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, and the medical director of Hatzalah of New York City, which includes the five boroughs; Monsey, in Rockland County; and the Catskills. Before moving to the Five Towns, he was an East Side Hatzalah member, and was one of the founding members of Hatzalah of the West Side more than 30 years ago. Hundreds of people mourned his passing at the Bobover Beis Medrash, in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, on Dec. 2, and then at Yeshiva Darchei Torah, in Far Rockaway, later that day. “He was a very, very significant person, a leader in the community and a top surgeon, with eight children, and grandchildren,” Fink said, explaining the $35 million figure. “His loss is very, very significant to many people, who partially and exclusively depended on him.” Philip Katz, an attorney and an adjunct professor of criminal justice at Farmingdale State College, said that the large number of parties named in the notice of claim is to “cover all the bases,” but “at the end of the day,” he added, “the proper litigants” will be uncovered. Noting the high dollar amount, Katz said that it was more than likely that the suit would go to trial, because none of the entities would want to settle. “With that kind of number, no munici-

Dr. Richie Friedman

pality will be talking those kinds of numbers,” he said, adding that the number of investigative hearings would depend on the availability of all of the agencies and individuals named in the claim. The Herald attempted to contact all of the potential defendants, but only the Village of Lawrence, the Long Island Power Authority, Nassau County, PSEG Long Island and the Town of Hempstead responded to calls for comment. “We do not comment on pending litigation,” said county spokeswoman Karen Contino. Lawrence officials echoed those words. “The town attorney has advised that this accident happened in the Village of Lawrence, therefore the town of Hempstead had no jurisdiction,” town spokeswoman Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky said. “PSEG Long Island does not comment on pending litigation,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler, adding that LIPA would not comment, either.

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Long Island nice :) Brody has read the Megillah for more than 45 years. He first lained it in 1973 at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills (YIKGH), reading it there and at Kehillas Aderes Eliyahu (Rabbi Teitz’s shul) until 1993, when he and his family moved to Great Neck. He has chanted Megillat Esther at the Great Neck Synagogue since. Despite great peril, Brody chanted the Megillah at the Great Synagogue in Leningrad in 1985, where the gabbaim were members of the KGB. “Better read than dead,” he figured.

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Continued from page 1 his maternal grandfather’s centuryold tallis and surrounded by his students). Brody’s grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Brown z”l, convinced him to learn to read the “gantze [entire] Megillah,” after Brody learned the initial Megillah trope at the Cantorial Training Institute, now the Belz School of Jewish Music of Yeshiva University. The North Shore program was introduced by Brody, a dermatologist by profession, in 2002, together with Rabbi Dr. Michael Reichel, then principal of the Middle School. It has become part of NSHA’s curriculum, potentially enabling students to read the Megillah at various shuls, hospitals, nursing homes and private homes, for those unable to attend public readings. This year, in addition to 18 eighth graders and four alumni who are reading in the morning, Brody recruited nine recent alumni whom he previously instructed, plus two current eighth graders, to share a Megillah reading on Wednesday, Purim night, at the Great Neck Synagogue. Another alumnus of the program, Eli Mendelson (‘09), will follow this cadre of NSHA alumni and chant the gantze Megillah at the Great Neck Synagogue’s late reading. Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin (at right, back row, in photo), the head of school, and Rabbi Adam Acobas (not shown), the Middle School principal, facilitated the students’ hectic schedules to enable adequate review time with Brody. Rabbi Acobas makes the initial recordings for the Sephardic students.

Everyone feels proud! And PSEG Long Island is proud to help. When Tara McGinn saw an empty downtown storefront, she envisioned a place where friends and families could hang out and be creative together. When PSEG Long Island heard her idea, we were glad to help out by lowering her electric costs through our Main Street Revival Program— and turn an empty space into a thriving new community business. It’s one more way that PSEG Long Island is helping people like Tara make our communities even better.

See our many programs at PSEGLINY.com/Community

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Tara McGinn – AR Workshop, Port Washington

THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

North Shore celebrates...

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CAlendar Jaffa...

The JEWISH STAR

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday Thursday March 21 Purim

Italian Celebration: Purim at Chabad of Merrick- Bellmore-Wantagh. DIY pizza bar, wine tasting, acrobat show, mishloach manot at the door. Bring a box of raw pasta for a gragger, and donate to the Bernard Pechter kosher food pantry. Begins with Megillah at 5:30 pm. 2250 Clubhouse Rd, Merrick. 516-833-3057. $15 for child; $22 for adult. Arabian Nights: Purim at Chabad of Hewlett. Hear the Megillah and enjoy authentic Persian cuisine. Fire show, glass and tile art, music, henna, and more. Door prizes for guests in costume! 6 to 8 pm. 44 Everit Ave, Hewlett. RSVP at JewishHewlett.com.

Sunday March 24

Mitzvah Morning: Join your kids and grandkids to create and present gift boxes for residents of the Boulevard Alp Assisted Living. Transportation provided. 9:30 am. 83-10 188th St, Jamaica. Young Women’s Learning: Prepare for Pesach with the YIW Maor Program. Mrs. Esther Wein speaks on “The Development of Am Yisrael: From Childhood to Maturity.” 10 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Bialystoker Fundraiser: Celebratory event honors Laurie Tobias Cohen and the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, with a special tour of the Bialystoker Synagogue by Rabbi Zvi Romm. 1 pm. 266 East Broadway, Manhattan. 212-374-4100. Tickets start at $54.

Tuesday March 26

Homestretch with the Hochbergs: Join Rabbi Shlomo & Karen Hochberg for an interactive discussion and Jewish reflection on life issues we

confront daily — loss, financial temptation, challenging children, de-stressing marriage. 9:30 to 10:30 am. 188-02 Union Turnpike, Jamaica Estates. Chazaq Lecture: Rabbi Bentzion Klatzko on thinking positive at Congregation Beit Eliyahu. 8 pm hot food; 8:30 pm lecture. 71-52 172nd St, Fresh Meadows. 718-285-9132. Free admission.

Wednesday March 27

Chabad Hewlett: Join friends and neighbors as we celebrate our past achievements and look forward to growing in the future. Honoring Ron & Nataly Austin; Alex & Miriam Bronfman; Dr. Adam & Shirley Boris; and Assemblywoman Melissa Miller. 6:30 pm. 1300 Club Dr, Hewlett. Dinner@JewishHewlett.com. $225 per person. JNF: Dessert reception and inspiring guest address by IDF soldier Izzy Ezagui, sharing his story of returning to battle after losing an arm. 7 pm boutique, 8 pm program. 620 Central Ave, Cedarhurst. JNF.org/LIdessert. $100; $180 per couple. Sunday March 31 Young Women’s Learning: Prepare for Pesach with the YIW Maor Program. Harav Asher Weiss speaks on kitniyos and the importance of minhagim, as well as insights on the Haggadah (open to entire community). 9:15 to 10:15 am; 10:15 am to 11 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. NCYI Annual Gala: National Council of Young Israel hosts its annual gala at the Marriott Marquis. Guest speakers: Honorable Kevin McCarthy and Governor Mike Huckabee. Buffet dinner. 5 pm. 1535 Broadway, Manhattan. Dinner@YoungIsrael. org. $500.

Tuesday April 2

Tikkun Hamiddos: Michal Horowitz’s series

“Tikkun Hamiddos: Measure of a Man,” continues with a class on anger and calmness. 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. 207 Grove Ave, Cedarhurst. 516-5696733 ext. 222. $15 per class, $65 for full series.

Thursday April 4

Bialystoker Tour: Join us for a 1-hour tour of the historic Bialystoker Synagogue and presentation of Lower East Side history. A portion of the proceeds are returned to the synagogue. 7 pm. 7-11 Bialystoker Pl, Manhattan. NYCJewishTours. org. $10 in advance; $13 at the door.

Sunday April 7

Young Women’s Learning: Prepare for Pesach with the YIW Maor Program. Ms. Chevi Garfinkel speaks on “What Pesach Teaches Us About Bitachon and Hishtadlus.” 10 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. MAY Madness: Mesivta Ateres Yaakov’s alumni basketball tournament. Sponsor or register at MAYalumni.com. 131 Washington Ave, Lawrence. 516-374-6465 ext. 4016. Player registration $50; admission $18; alumni admission $10. North Shore: Celebrating 64 years of excellence in yeshiva education, and the 18th anniversary of North Shore Hebrew Academy High School. Guests of Honor Dina & Jonathan Ohebshalom; L’dor V’dor Award Shoshana & Martin Sokol; Distinguished Faculty Award Sandy Sudberg. 5 pm. 21 Old Westbury Rd, Old Westbury. NSHA.org/giving/dinner.

Monday April 8

Holocaust Education: The Tolerance Center of Nassau County present a professional development workshop for educators entitled Teaching Schindler’s List: Using Film to Explore the Holocaust. 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. 100 Crescent Beach Rd, Glen Cove. 516-571-8040. $25.

Continued from page 19 everything in the house. They said we were going on holiday, to Lebanon” (p. 125). Ismail Abou-Shehade also relays, “If you ask me about this time, I can tell you about it, like it happened an hour ago. I can still see the people leaving, the women and children shouting, ‘To the sea, to the sea’” (p. 127). LeBor reports that Jaffa’s Arab mayor at the time, Yousef Heikal, abandoned the city. His detailed book contains many descriptions of the Arab flight, and no indication of forced expulsions. Historian Dr. Petra Marquardt-Bigman has noted that Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, a political-science professor who left Jaffa in May 1948 (and was also quoted by LeBor), likewise documented the flight of Jaffa’s Arabs. He wrote in an Egyptian newspaper special in 1998 that the Arab National Committee levied a tax on those who left, an exodus that began with the wealthy, and that he himself volunteered to help collect the fee. “Our job consisted mainly of harassing people to dissuade them from leaving, and when they insisted, we would begin bargaining over what they should pay, according to how much luggage they were carrying with them and how many members of the family there were. At first we set the taxes high. Then as the situation deteriorated, we reduced the rates, especially when our friends and relatives began to be among those leaving. “We continued collecting this tax until 23 April, when the combined force of the Haganah and the Irgun succeeded in defeating the Arab forces stationed in the Manshiya quarter adjacent to Southern Tel-Aviv.” On what basis does the Times report that “most” of Jaffa’s Arabs were “forcibly removed”? What historical documentation substantiates this claim, contradicted by Arab eyewitnesses? Tamar Sternthal is director of the Israel office of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG ISRAEL

ANNUAL GALA

COLORYOURDESIGNPORTFOLIO.COM

3.31.2019 ◆ Marriott Marquis, NYC

Pete Hegseth Host, Fox and Friends

GUEST SPEAKERS

MASTER OF CEREMONIES

5:00 PM Buffet Dinner ◆ 6:30 PM Program

Honorable Kevin McCarthy House Republican Leader

Governor Mike Huckabee

Former Governor of Arkansas

GUESTS OF HONOR

Tommy Hicks Jr.

Co-chair, Republican National Committee

Guardian of Israel Award

Rabbi Zvi & Aviva Gluck

Moses H. Hoenig Award

Dor L'Dor Rabbinic Leadership Award ◆ Rabbi Yoel & Peri Schonfeld YI Kew Gardens Hills

◆ Rabbi Nachi & Michelle Klein YI Northridge

Laurie Moskowitz Hirsch Bonei Yerushalayim Award

David & Michelle Katz Shofar Award

Chovevei Zion Award ◆ Dr. Alan & Deborah Berger ◆ Dr. Marc & Judy Berger ◆ Igor Fruman ◆ Lev & Svetlana Parnas

Eve Stieglitz

Young Visionary Award

Friend of Zion Award ◆ Charles Gucciardo, Esq. ◆ Dan K. Eberhart

Honoring NCYI WWII Veterans Stanley Feltman ◆ Louis Goldstein ◆ Paul Kaye ◆ Edmund Rosenblum

Dinner Chairman ◆ Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz Dinner Co-chairman ◆ Dr. Joseph Frager Master of Ceremonies ◆ Pete Hegseth Journal Chairman ◆ Jonathan Burkan President ◆ Farley Weiss Esq. Executive Director ◆ Rabbi Marc Volk Director of Communications ◆ Nachman Mostofsky Journal & Dinner Coordinators ◆ Judah and Carol Rhine

Couvert: $500 per person VIP Reception: $10,000 per person Reservations and Journal Ads: www.yngi.srl/dinner Email: dinner@youngisrael.org Phone: 516.707.2638 Parking voucher with reservation.

Tommy Hicks Jr. is appearing at this event only as a Guest of Honor and is not asking for funds or donations.

All attendees will receive a free 6 month subscription to the Jewish Press.

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Black tie optional, modest dress requested.

THE JEWISH STAR March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779

‫בס”ד‬


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March 22, 2019 • 15 Adar 2, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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