A Pesach tribute to Rav Scheinberg Page 5 Miriam’s Musing: Pensando en Pesaj Page 8 HAFTR Flames are hockey champions Page 10 Who’s in the kitchen: home for the holidays Page 11
THE JEWISH
STAR
VOL 11, NO 13 ■ MARCH 30, 2012 / 7 NISSAN 5772
How Free is Free?
Reflections on Toulouse, Sanford and Israel By Juda Engelmayer Next weekend the holiday of Passover begins. For Jews, it is a celebration of freedom from bondage, the acceptance of God’s law and the beginning of the reign of the nation of Israel. It is one of the happy holidays where wine and song mark the weeklong festivities. Yet, set to the backdrop of the murders in Toulouse, France last week, and the barrage of bombs falling from Gaza into Israel, as the four cups are drunk and the passage, “We were slaves to Pharaoh, now we are free” (Avadim Hayinu), is read, Jews should stop and reflect about how free they really are. Freedom from the bondage of servitude, but not so free that children can attend school feeling safe. When the Islamic radical Mohamed Merah shot those children and a rabbi at school, he not only snuffed out precious lives, but he instilled fear in every Jewish child that it could easily be them. Schools as far away from France as New York and California were holding seminars for parents to explain the measures they would take to keep their children safe from harm. Freedom? Two days before the freedom is celebrated on Passover this year, on April 4 everyone in this country should take a moment to reflect on the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., killed in 1964 for believing in freedom, fighting for equality and challenging the fearful to embrace change. It is significant that these events fall out so close to one another, but almost fitting as we are all suffering the tragedy of the death of a young black man in Florida in what may have been a racially induced confrontation. We cannot yet know what happened that day in Sanford, Florida, last February, but we can safely say that Treyvon Martin, the 17 year old boy, stirred an emotional reaction within George Zimmerman, his killer. Whether Mr. Martin did something to incite, or Mr. Zimmerman over reacted to the apContinued on page 2
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Supreme Court: birthplace not political By Malka Eisenberg Yesterday’s 8-1 U.S. Supreme Court decision determined that having Jerusalem, Israel on a citizen’s passport could be decided in federal court. The opinion in Zivotofsky vs. Clinton, lauded by the Orthodox Union and the World Jewish Congress, overturned an earlier lower court statement that courts could not decide the case citing it as a political issue involving a foreign policy disagreement between Congress and the President. NY-6 Congressional candidate Rory Lancman, Rabbi David Algaze and local Jewish leaders gathered in front of Congregation Havurat Yisrael in Forest Hills to call on the State Department to abandon its policy of pretending that Jerusalem isn’t a part of Israel. In light of the Supreme Court’s rejection of the State Department’s argument, Lancman, Algaze
Photo courtesy of Eric Walker
From left, Yaniv Meirov,Judy Rosen, Rabbi David Algaze of Congregation Havurat Yisrael, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, Jan Fenster Queens Representative for Americans for a Safe Israel and Rabbi Yossi Mendelson of Congregation Machane Chodosh. and other leaders called on the federal government to simply comply with the law and allow parents to include Israel as the
place of birth for American children born in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan in
1947 and reunited and annexed by Israel following the Continued on page 21
Walking flotilla is “scare of the month” By Malka Eisenberg The same anti-Israel agitators who brought the flotillas and forced border crossings into Israel are now pushing for a “global march to Jerusalem” on March 30th. Their goal is to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from the surrounding countries, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, in an attempt to reach Jerusalem and holding demonstrations in Arab areas in Israel as well as by Israeli embassies around the world. According to CIF Watch and Hadar Sela, an Anglo-Israeli writer living in Israel who
worked with CIF Watch reporting on the GMJ, its organizers include members of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, far-left extremist groups and received backing from the Iranian government. The CIF Watch fact sheet states the “official statement of the organizers of GMJ attempt to portray the movement as a peaceful protest aimed at highlighting the so-called “Judaization of Jerusalem.” “A great deal of time energy, publicity and money has been invested in the GMJ project by its organizers,” said Sela via email, “too much for them to allow it to fade away without anything happening.” The Muslim Broth-
erhood backers are looking for “results,” he said, meaning, “blood, intense world-wide media coverage and some sort of international condemnation a la Goldstone Report.” He also noted that it would be in the interest of Bashir Assad, Iran and Hizbollah to have this distraction turn world eyes on Israel. Sela predicts that Egypt will contain protesters in Cairo, Jordan will allow some agitation. Syria had government sponsored demonstrations and border breach attempts last May. Sela anticipates trouble on the Lebanese border from Hizbollah and Moslem foreigners. Their goal is to create a violent
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Photos from Project Frumway event, page 15.
Continued on page 21