The Jewish Star

Reach out and touch a survivor before it’s too late

By Tehilla R. Goldberg As the lush spring color is pushing through the ground, bursting all around us, seemingly meeting endless horizons of azure skies, these moments poised for renewal feel muted by an unsaid yet tangible feeling. It might be springtime outside, but within the Jewish community we are in moments of a descending twilight on the generation of Holocaust survivors, soon to become the next stars in the sky of nightfall.

Yom Hashoah 5775 More coverage on pages 6–8, 11 I never dreamed that last year on Holocaust Memorial Day, when I spoke with my beloved Hungarian grandmother, it would be my ďŹ nal telephone conversation with her on this sacred day. I never dreamed that my conversations with Mrs. Lucie Prenzlau

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and Rabbi Rosenfeld, an Auschwitz survivor, throughout that very week, would be our ďŹ nal Yom Hashoah talk.

In these waning days of the generation of Holocaust survivors, Yom Hashoah takes on additional intensity.

Growing up in the 1970s in Israel, before I had any clue what their sinister meaning was, the numbers I saw burned into their skin was “normal.� I was surContinued on page 7

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Let’s eat!

Gourmet Glatt and Seasons adding new 5 Towns locations Gourmet Glatt, one of three kosher mega-supermarkets in the Five Towns, will open a satellite store in the site of the much smaller Key Food supermarket on Railroad Avenue in Woodmere.

And Seasons is about to open a mini store — Seasons Express — a few steps from the Inwood train station, on Doughty Boulevard in Lawrence (photo).

Gourmet Glatt has stores in Cedarhurst and Boro Park; Seasons operates on Central Avenue in Lawrence, on Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills, on the Upper West Side and in Scarsdale, with new stores in the works for Lakewood, NJ, and near Baltimore.

The third kosher superstore in the Five Towns — Brach’s, in Lawrence — recently sold its original location, on Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills, to another kosher operator.

A 2013 Pew Report found the Five Towns has the third-highest concentration of Jews in the eight-county area of New York City, Long Island and Westchester. Brooklyn’s Boro Park had the highest concentration, and Great Neck, the second-highest.

According to a 2011 United Jewish Appeal study, “The Orthodox Jewish presence is more prominent every year, with a total Jewish population estimated to be as high as 75 percent in some of the Five Towns.�

Leadup to ‘deal’: Sanitizing Iran, demonizing Israel VIEWPOINT

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s expected, the Obama administration is having a hard time selling the American public on the feeble understanding — it’s not a “deal,� since nothing was signed — that was recently reached with Iran over its nuclear program.

Let’s start with President Obama himself.

Interviewed by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times after the understanding was announced, Obama was conďŹ dent and buoyant, declaring that there was no formula “more effective than the diplomatic initiative and

is at least a year ... that — that if they decided to break the deal, kick out all the inspectors, break the seals and go for a bomb, we’d have over a year to respond. And we have those assurances for at least well over a decade.�

It’s painfully clear that the scenario he outlined is one with a deal in place.

So, either Obama doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he’s lying. Either way, his pledge that Iran won’t obtain a nuclear weapon is about as worthless as, well, an Iranian cleric’s signature on a deal. And when you factor in all the other disputes that have emerged PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID GARDEN CITY, NY 11530 PERMIT NO 301

BEN COHEN

framework that we put forward� when it comes to preventing Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Then National Public Radio (NPR) turned up. In that interview, an awkward-sounding Obama admitted that a little over a decade after a ďŹ nal deal is signed, Iran’s advanced centrifuges would have shrunk the nuclear weapon breakout time “almost down to zero.â€? It was a stunning and possibly unintended confession that sent both the White House and the State Department scrambling to offer a clariďŹ cation.

State spokeswoman Marie Harf described Obama’s words as “muddled� and “confusing,� before attempting to persuade us that the president was explaining what would happen without a deal. But look at what Obama actually said: “We’re purchasing for 13, 14, 15 years assurances that the breakout

since the understanding was made public — Iran ruling out the presence of security cameras in its nuclear facilities, Iran’s insistence that all sanctions will be lifted when the deal is agreed despite American assurances that these will be removed in a phased manner, the realization that Iran will continue to operate adContinued on page 15

April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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Another unique aspect of Judea and Samaria is its abundance of sites with biblical significance.

“I just spoke to someone that came from Tennessee, and he said, ‘I read the bible over and over again, and the only thing that happened in Tennessee was the flood. I want to be where stuff really happened, and that’s why I came to Samaria,’” Eldad says.

While residents of Judea and Samaria might be “used to it,” the area’s biblical character doesn’t cease to amaze foreign tourists, the author says.

“This is where Rachel is buried, and this is where our forefathers grew wines,” says Eldad. “It’s not a fairy tale, this is it.”

At the same time, while the Judea and Samaria region is indeed biblically infused, its population is often incorrectly stereotyped as being exclusively religious.

“Even people in Israel, if they never visited settlements, their stereotype of a settler is an extreme right-wing person carrying a very big rifle around, and very religious. And that is very wrong,” she adds.

As far as “Yesha is Fun” goes, the author measures the book’s success not necessarily by sales, but instead by its impact on tourism in Judea and Samaria.

“People that are featured in the guide changed their business to be able to host more crowds, more tourism,” Eldad says.

“They made bigger parking lots, created better access for people with disabilities, more tables, more chairs. They had to build more because people came with the book and said, ‘Hey, we want that! We read that in the book, and we want to try that!’

“I hear that all the time, and that really warms my heart — I didn’t know it would have such an effect.”

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By Jacob Kamaras, JNS.org When Haaretz approved writer Karni Eldad’s idea for an article on B&Bs (bed and breakfasts) in Judea and Samaria, the left-leaning Israeli newspaper probably didn’t envision that the assignment would be the precursor to an entire book on the subject.

But after Eldad discovered the abundance of boutique tourist attractions in the area, that’s exactly what happened. While Judea and Samaria are often scapegoated by the international community — and by media outlets such as Haaretz — for being a territorial “obstacle” to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, Eldad’s “Yesha is Fun: The good life guide to Judea and Samaria” explores a special dimension of the Jewish communities beyond the so-called “Green Line” (the 1949 armistice line). Yesha is a Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, the latter of which has been Palestinian-controlled territory since August 2005.

“Haaretz is probably hating themselves for doing that,” Eldad tells JNS.org, looking back on the B&B article assignment.

“The book has succeeded so much that they didn’t really know what they did when they agreed to let me write this piece.”

Published six years ago in Hebrew but not until last year in English, “Yesha is Fun” (edited by Shlomo Bashan and with art by designer Amasa Menachem) provides a tourist’s guide to the areas of Samaria, Binyamin, the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea, the Etzion bloc, and Har Hebron. Whether it be the medallion-encrusted wines in Binyamin, the branded olive oils in Samaria, a holiday cottage with a jacuzzi under the glow of the Judean desert’s sky, a restaurant on a farm in Gush Etzion, or the cheeses of the southern Hebron hills, Judea and Samaria’s treasures flew largely under the radar among foreign tourists and Israelis alike before Eldad published her book.

“There was no book dealing with tourism on the other side of the Green Line,” says Eldad. “No one had this information.”

In fact, Eldad — herself a resident of Judea, in the community of Tekoa — says she “didn’t know what was going on in the settlement next door” before undertaking the book project. At the same time, business owners in the area may not have been marketing themselves aggressively enough.

“Things are built all the time, and if you want to succeed in tourism you need to put yourself out there, to let people know about [what you offer],” Eldad says. “So I felt that I had to help these people that were very brave starting a business [in Judea and Samaria], so I wrote the book.”

A columnist for Ma’ariv and i24news, a musician, and a mother of two, Eldad had grown up in the Judean community of Kfar Adumim since age 10, but says she was “shocked” to discover the rest of what Judea and Samaria had to offer in the process of writing her book. “[Judea and Samaria] is so much fun,” she says. “Just going around and drinking wine, and picking a restaurant, and having amazing massages, someone has to do that. … Every time I found something, I was shocked by the high level of food and wine.”

When wines produced in Judea and Samaria vie for medals in competitions abroad, they often win because “you don’t know where the wine you’re tasting comes from, so no politics is involved in the tasting,” says Eldad.

The book can never completely cover Judea and Samaria tourism because “things open all the time,” according to Eldad.

In fact, she says she is “ashamed” that a number of attractions in her own community of Tekoa — including a restaurant, a horse farm, a vineyard, and a live-music venue — are not featured in “Yesha is Fun” because they opened after the book’s publication.

From a security perspective, the book says that “responsibility for security is incumbent upon the tourists.” Since public transportation is slow and infrequent in Judea and Samaria, hitchhiking is a popular mode of transport. But last summer, Hamas’s abduction and murder of three Jewish teenagers who were hitchhiking in Judea and Samaria put the hitchhiking practice under the microscope.

“Every time there’s an increase of terrorism, there is a decrease in tourism,” Eldad says. “That’s all over the world, and here [in Israel] especially. It’s not about Judea and Samaria.

There are more terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. But, the fact that I didn’t take responsibility [in the book] and say, ‘Ok, don’t go there without a gun,’ it’s because [the security situation] changes daily. For the past six years since the book was out, we had very peaceful times. So I can’t generalize and say, ‘Everywhere is dangerous and don’t go without an any platoon with you.’ Do what you know, be responsible … but it’s not all dangerous and this is Israel, this is how we live here.”

Whether they are Israelis or visitors from abroad, travelers “can spend weeks” in Judea and Samaria, Eldad says. For instance, she says that Gush Etzion “can be like [the Italian region of] Tuscany” — with a possible itinerary including restaurants, vineyards, many activities for children, swimming in springs, and goat cheese tasting.

THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775

Guide book maps tourism in Judea and Samaria

3

Gaza war adds new gravity to Yom Hazikaron

By Sean Savage, JNS.org Since Israel was founded in 1948, its numerous wars have taken a heavy toll on its small population. With mandatory conscription, most Israelis have lost someone on the battleďŹ eld — a relative, friend, community member, or someone they know more indirectly — and each sacriďŹ ce is highly personal.

Last year has been even more taxing than usual, given the summer’s war with Hamas in Gaza. During the Israel Defense Forces’ Operation Protective Edge, 66 IDF soldiers were killed.

The sobering cost of Israel’s military reality is reected annually on the Hebrew calendar date of the fourth of Iyar, which marks Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day). Established unofďŹ cially in 1948 and then ofďŹ cially in 1963, it is commemorated in conjunction with Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), which falls on the following day. This year, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut come April 22–23. “We didn’t think it would be easy when we decided to reclaim our right to national self-determination after 2,000 years,â€?

Paul Hirschson, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, told JNS.org. “Since the establishment of Israel we have been forced to defend ourselves on too many an occasion,â€? he said. “Some of the ďŹ nest of our children, friends, and colleagues had to pay with their lives to secure that elementary right to national self-determination. We grieve their loss deeply yet remain, always, resilient with a view to the future: building, innovating, creating, and conďŹ dent that we will one day live in both peace and security.â€?

Using information compiled by the Foreign Ministry, JNS.org remembers the Israeli

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soldiers who lost their lives in Operation Protective Edge and in other incidents since last Yom Hazikaron.

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-XO\ Just a day after Israel began its ground operation to dismantle Hamas’s terror tunnels, the IDF experienced its ďŹ rst casualty of Operation Protective Edge—Staff Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, of Herzliya,

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who was killed in Beit Hannun in the northern Gaza Strip.

-XO\ Four Israeli soldiers were killed in combat. Two soldiers, Maj. (res.) Amotz Greenburg, 45, of Hod Hasharon, and Sgt. Adar Barsano, 20, of Nahariya, were killed by a terrorist who inďŹ ltrated through a tunnel near Kibbutz KissuďŹ m. Staff Sgt. Bnaya Rubel, 20, of Holon, and Second-

Lt. Bar Rahat, 21, of Ramat Yishai, were also killed in operations in Gaza.

-XO\ In the bloodiest single day of ďŹ ghting during Operation Protective Edge, 13 Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in ďŹ ghting in and around the Shujaiyeh neighborhood in eastern Gaza.

The following soldiers, including two American “lone soldiers,� lost their lives that day: Maj. Tsafrir Bar-Or, 32, of Holon Capt. Tzvi Kaplan, 28, of Kibbutz Meirav Staff Sgt. Gilad Yaakobi, 21,of Kiriat Ono Staff Sgt. Oz Mendelovitch, 20, of Atzmon Staff Sgt. Nissim Sean Carmelli, 21, of Ra’anana (originally from South Padre Island, Texas) Staff Sgt. Moshe Melako, 20, of Jerusalem Sgt. Max Steinberg, 24, of Be’er Sheva (originally from Los Angeles) Staff Sgt. Shachar Tase, 20, of Pardesiya Staff Sgt. Daniel Pomerantz, 20, of Kfar Azar Sgt. Shon Mondshine, 19, of Tel Aviv Sgt. Ben Oanounou, 19, of Ashdod Staff Sgt. Oren Noach, 22, Poriah Illit Sgt. Oron Shaul, 19, of Poriah Illit -XO\ On the third-bloodiest day for Israel during Operation Protective Edge, nine Israeli soldiers lost their lives.

Four were killed by a Hamas terrorist who inďŹ ltrated through a Gaza terror tunnel. An additional three Golani Brigade soldiers died in Shujaiyeh, and two more were killed in other battles. The following soldiers lost their lives that day: Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar, 38, from Modi’in Sgt. Nadav Goldmacher, 23, from Be’er Sheva Warrant OfďŹ cer Baynesain Kasahun, 39, from Netivot Continued on next page

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January 28, 2015: Capt. Yohai Kalangel, 25, and Sgt. Dor Chaim Nini, 20, were killed in an attack by Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanese border. An anti-tank missile ďŹ red by Hezbollah struck an IDF vehicle in the Har Dov region, killing those two soldiers and injuring seven.

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Operation Protective Edge also highlighted the unique sacriďŹ ce made by Israel’s “lone soldiersâ€?—the term for non-Israelis who voluntarily join the IDF while their families live abroad.

Sgt. Max Steinberg: A Los Angeles native who was part of the IDF’s elite Golani Brigade, Steinberg was one of 13 Israeli soldiers killed

in the heavy ďŹ ghting in Shujaiyeh on July 20, 2014. Approximately 30,000 Israelis attended Steinberg’s funeral, making it one of the largest in the history of the Mount Herzl military cemetery. He was subsequently honored by thousands at a memorial in Los Angeles.

Sgt. Nissim Sean Carmeli: A native of South Padre Island, Texas, the 21-year-old Carmeli was also among the 13 soldiers killed in Shujaiyeh on July 20. In response to a widespread social media campaign to honor him, some 20,000 people packed the military cemetery in Haifa for Carmeli’s funeral on July 21.

Cpl. David Menachem Gordon: A native of Columbus, Ohio, Gordon was found dead in central Israel last August, with gunshot wounds and his army-issued assault rile by his side. The circumstances surrounding Gordon’s death led to presumptions that he committed suicide, but the IDF has never conďŹ rmed that.

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terrorist at Tel Aviv’s HaHagana train station.

He was stabbed multiple times by the assailant and later died of his wounds.

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Staff Sgt. Eliav Eliyahu Haim Kahlon, 22, of Safed Cprl. Meidan Maymon Biton, 20, of Netivot Staff Sgt. Adi Briga, 23, of Moshav Beit Shikma Cprl. Niran Cohen, 20, of Tiberias Staff Sgt. Moshe Davino, 20, of Jerusalem Sgt. Nadav Raimond, 19, of Shadmot Dvora Sgt. Daniel Kedmi, 18, of TzoďŹ m Sgt. Barkey Ishai Shor, 21, of Jerusalem Sgt. Sagi Erez, 19, of Kiryat Ata Sgt. Dor Dery, 18, of Jerusalem -XO\ Three Israeli soldiers from the Maglan unit died in ďŹ ghting in southern Gaza: Staff Sgt. Guy Algranati, 20, of Tel Aviv Staff Sgt. Matan Gotlib, 21, of Rishon LeZion Staff Sgt. Omer Hay, 21, of Savion -XO\ Five soldiers of the 188th “Barakâ€? (Lightning) Armored Brigade were killed by mortar ďŹ re on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza: Capt. Omri Tal, 22, of Yehud Capt. (res.) Liran Adir (Edry), 31, of Azuz Sgt. Maj. (res.) Daniel Marsh, 22, of Rishon LeZion Staff Sgt. Shai Kushnir, 20, of Kiryat Motzkin Staff Sgt. Noam Rosenthal, 20, of Meitar $XJXVW Three Israeli soldiers of the Givati Brigade were killed ďŹ ghting terrorists in southern Gaza: Maj. Benaya Sarel, 26, of Kiryat Arba Second Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, of Kfar Saba Staff Sgt. Liel Gidoni, 20, of Jerusalem $XJXVW Sgt. Shahar Shalev, 20 of Alonei Habashan, a soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade, died from wounds he sustained during operations in southern Gaza on July 23.

5 THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775

Continued from previous page 1st Lt. Yuval Heiman, 21, from Efrat Staff Sgt. Jordan Ben Simon, 22, from Ashkelon Staff Sgt. Tal Ifrach, 21, from Rishon Letzion Staff Sgt. Yuval Dagan, 22, from Kfar Sava Staff Sgt. Oded Ben Sira, 22, of Nir Etzion Master Sgt. Ohad Shemesh, 27, of Beit Elazari -XO\ Two Tank Corps ofďŹ cers and a paratrooper were killed: Capt. Dimitri Levitas, 26, of Jerusalem, Lt. Natan Cohen, 23, of Modi’in, and Staff Sgt. Evyatar Tourjeman, 20, of Beit Shean.

July 23, 2014: Three paratroopers were killed after entering a booby-trapped house in Khan Yunis: Lt. Paz Eliyahu, 22, of Kibbutz Evron, Staff Sgt. Li Mat of Eilat, 19, and Staff Sgt. Shahar Dauber, 20, of Kibbutz Ginegar.

July 25, 2014: Four Israeli soldiers lost their lives: Master Sgt. (res.) Yair Ashkenazy, 36, of Rehovot, Staff Sgt. Guy Levy, 21, of Kfar Vradim, Staff Sgt. Guy Boyland, 21, from Kibbutz Ginosar, and Staff Sgt. Amit Yaori, 20, of Jerusalem.

-XO\ Second Lt. Roy Peles, 21, of Tel Aviv, Staff Sgt. Avraham Greentzweig, 21, of Petah Tikva, Staff Sgt. Gal Besson, 21, of Holon, and Sergeant First Class (res.) Barak Refael Degorker, 27, of Gan Yavne, were all killed in combat. Capt. Liad Lavi, 20, of Talmei Yosef, and Chief Warrant OfďŹ cer Rami Kahlon, 39, of Hadera, died from wounds sustained in previous days.

-XO\ Ten Israeli soldiers lost their lives in the second-bloodiest day for the IDF during Operation Protective Edge.

Four soldiers were killed by mortar ďŹ re along the Gaza border, one was killed in combat in southern Gaza, and ďŹ ve were killed by a terrorist who inďŹ ltrated Israel through a tunnel to launch a terror attack. The following soldiers died that day:

April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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YOM HASHOAH 5775 • HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2015

HAFTR students return from Poland, Germany HAFTR Eighteen HAFTR students have returned from the mission to Poland and Germany that included visits to machanot hashmada (concentration camps) and mekomot hakedoshim (resting places of the holy).

The participating students — Lauren Berlyne, Moshe Dahan, Esti Ehrenfeld, Ari Eichler, David Ellner, Elisheva Engel, Rose Farkish, Eli Friedman, Marc Generowicz, Jamie Jacobson, Ruth Kopyto, Jordan Levy, Daniel Lewis, Ori Milberg, Rotem Noah, Rami Saban, Danielle SharaďŹ , and Benjamin Sipzner — were led by Principal of Judaic Studies Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen and Rabbi Moshe Hubner, together with Mrs. Yehudis Oppen, Mr. Yehuda Mosesson, and Dr. Marvin Wertentheil.

This second annual Abraham Scharf Z�l Mission exposed the students to knowledge of the vibrant Jewish life in Europe before the Shoah, about the Churban Europa (the destruction) as well as the Gevura (the strength of the Jewish people during the Holocaust), and current Jewish life in Germany and Poland.

The ďŹ rst stop in Germany was davening in a shul that the Nazis used as a storage house.

What a moment it was when the Torah was raised by haggba — in the same place where the

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Nazis tried to eradicate the Jewish people and our history, students from the Five Towns lifted the Torah and proclaimed that the Jewish nation and Torah are here now and will always be.

Next, the group went to the mikveh in Worms, established in 1170, followed by Rashi’s shul and the kever of the Maharam of Rottenberg. The group stopped to daven at the kevarim of the Baal Shem of Michelshtadt, Harav Shamshon Rafael Hirsh, and the Stoliner Rebbe, who was known as the Yanukah. Then they visited the now-destroyed cemetery where the Pnei Yehoshua, the Haah, Harav Nosson Adler and the mother of the Chasam Sofer are all buried. That afternoon, the group davened an emotional Mincha in the location of the Borneplazt Synagogue, which was burnt and destroyed by the Nazis on Kristallnacht, Nov. 9, 1938.

Three days were spent in Poland learning about some of the great Chassidic dynasties that originated there, viewing ďŹ rsthand the destruction wrought upon our nation at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek and 2Q WKH +$)75 WULS WKHUH ZHUH PDQ\ PRPHQWV IRU UHĂ€HFWLRQ +$)75 SKRWR Treblinka.

After Auschwitz and Birkenau, while standing in front of a pond with ashes of the kedoshim and the crematorium on the right, Rabbi Oppen made a siyum in memory of Mr. Abe Scharf z�l and all of the six million kedoshim, H�yd. In Majdanek, standing on the pit where thousands of men, women and children were murdered al Kiddush Hashem, once again a siyum was made and kaddish was recited by the grandson of one of the kedoshim who were murdered in Majdanek.

Standing at Treblinka, which the Nazis completely destroyed to hide the evidence and attempted to turn into a farm, another student spoke about her family members who were murdered there.

On the bus toward Lizhensk, a student who is a descendent of the Noam Elimelech spoke about his illustrious heritage, and how he tries to live up to that great legacy. Other students who recently discovered their own family histories also spoke to the group about their distinguished ancestors.

In Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, a member of the group made a siyum on Masechta Yevamos, and in Krakow, on the day of her 80th yahrtzeit, the group visited the site of Rebbetzin Sarah Schenirer’s ďŹ rst Bais Yaakov, as Mrs. Yehudis Oppen addressed the group, sharing stories of inspiration and the importance of Jewish women’s education.

Tuesday night, the group was led into the woods to Zbilotowska Gura, a mass children’s

grave; Wednesday night they were in the forest and davened by the kevr of the Kutzker Rebbi; and on Thursday they walked through the city of Tykochin and saw the beautiful shul which was built 1642 and only partially destroyed by the Nazis. Then it was on to the Lupochowo forest, where the entire Jewish community of Tykocin was gunned down and buried in three huge pits. On the last day, in addition to davening at the kevarim of tzaddikim buried in Warsaw, visiting the ghetto wall, Zlota Street, Umshlagplatz, Rappaport monument, and enjoying a delicious dinner at the Chabad of Warsaw, the group traveled to Sochotchov and Ger. At each site, the students heard words of chizuk, shiurim and history lessons. One such lesson was a quote from the Haggadah: We say “Vehi she’amdah la’avoteinu� (“this is what helped our fathers and us when in every generation our enemies rise against us�).

The mefarshim explain the word vehi to be an acronym of the six Sidrei Mishnah (Torah shebe’al peh); the ďŹ ve Chumashim (Torah shebiktav); the Aseret Hadibrot, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Throughout history, Torah has been our salvation. By adhering to the Torah, we can, and have, overcome our enemies, time and again.

At many of the sites visited, the students spontaneously erupted into the song “Ve’hi She’amdah,� as well as “Hatikva� and “Ani Maamin.�

On a Legacy tour, the proof was in the ashes RACHELI TUCHMAN

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nder the grey skies of Poland, the Legacy group of 80 girls walked down the streets of history, revisiting the site where our ancestors fell, viewing buildings in famous photographs and seeing places that we have been learning about for years.

Visiting Titkin, Warsaw, Krakow, Majdanek, Birkenau and Auschwitz, we felt the pain that was endured here and the loss of our ancestors who were murdered.

Treading along the train path of Treblinka, ashlights brightening the placement for our footsteps, we were underneath an abundance of stars. These were the stars that watched over the people, that heard the gunshots, that saw the blood. These were the tracks over which traveled cars that carried people to their death.

Approaching Majdanek, we saw the long brown building with the tall black chimney, the building seen in images and ďŹ lms. We

walked past the barbed wire tied to cut, the watchtowers built so high, the train tracks old and rusty, their beds still standing. They were trapped in a world of death. Their only escape was ascending the brick chimney that towered over the camp. Then they were free.

In the front of the camp, two identical buildings stood within a small distance of each other. Each held a sign that read “bathhouse.� Upon leaving their train, riders would enter one of them; unfortunately, only one building allowed their departure. We walked into the building where gas remnants trickled down the walls, one hole in the ceiling for the placement of their poison, a peephole in the door for the eyes of the Nazis as they gazed at their accomplishments of falling families. The grounds were cold as we sat together, singing, praying and shouting the “Shemah� for the people who were unable to do so. The nail marks spoke for the voices that couldn’t. “Arbeit Macht Frei� (“Work Makes You Free�) hung above our heads as we set foot into Auschwitz. The buildings in their deep red brick stood around us, holding history behind their doors. Empty gas cans ripped open on the top, skulls on their labels, “gift

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gasâ€? written in small ďŹ ne letters. Evil hands held these cans.

Seven tons of hair, bundled behind the glass in shades of blondes, brunettes and whites, shaved off only after the chambers, was proof of their extermination. Seventy-

thousand shoes, all old but with air, were left from their feet as proof before our eyes — colored shoes, laces still in the holes, patterns and fabrics of style. They lost what could have kept them alive; shoes could have supported them through the weather, the rock grounds and the pain. There was no grass; they ate it as a means of nutrition.

They risked one comfort for another; both was not an option.

Their bedrooms were dark and dusty.

Walls contained their entertainment as numbers and letters were scattered upon them.

The roofs made with little care, holes in the wall drafting coldness into the room.

Six million. Mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, all discriminated against for their innocence. We walked out of the gas chambers, back on the train tracks. We left the cattle cars and exited the concentration camps. And we breathe.

The country is now modernized, population and nature thrives. However, for those that claim the Holocaust never happened, there is proof. The proof is in the ashes.

Racheli Tuchman, who graduated last June from SKA High School in Hewlett Bay Park, was an intern at The Jewish Star.

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YOM HASHOAH 5775 • HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2015

By Dorothee Thiesing WEIMAR, Germany (AP) — Buchenwald survivor Henry Oster recalls thinking that a fellow inmate had “lost his sense of reality” when he said 70 years ago Saturday that the concentration camp was being liberated, bringing an end to the long ordeal of the 21,000 surviving prisoners.

Oster, 86, visited the site near the German city of Weimar for the first time since its liberation on April 11, 1945 — one of a group of survivors and veterans who came to mark the anniversary of the liberation. Buchenwald was the first major concentration camp entered by American forces at the end of World War II.

“What I see here, where the barracks used to be, at every barrack there was a pile of dead bodies, this is in your memory forever,” Oster said. “When someone asks how Buchenwald was, you immediately see the dead bodies again.”

Around 250,000 prisoners in total were held at Buchenwald from its opening in July 1937 to its liberation. An estimated 56,000 people were killed, including political prisoners, people dubbed “asocial” by the Nazis, Soviet prisoners of war, Sinti and Roma, and approximately 11,000 Jews.

Oster, a Jewish German born in Cologne, was taken to the Lodz ghetto in occupied

Worries over Hungary

By Pablo Gorondi BUDAPEST (AP) — The president of the World Jewish Congress said Sunday he was concerned about the increasing popularity of Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, particularly among young voters.

American businessman Ronald Lauder told The Associated Press that support for Jobbik showed that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party and the opposition Socialists “are not giving them any hope.”

Lauder, whose maternal grandparents were born in Hungary, said that many younger voters were turning to the party led by Gabor Vona not because of anti-Semitism but because “they’re looking for an alternative.

They’re looking for something different.”

Recent polls suggest Jobbik is the second most popular party behind Fidesz and lately has been steadily closing the gap.

While Jobbik is mostly shunned by its critics and opponents in Hungary, Lauder said dialogue was crucial.

“I believe ... that it’s important to speak to them,” Lauder said. “I believe it’s important

to speak to anybody who’s willing to listen.”

Lauder said that it was hard for him, as head of the WJC, to meet with a group like Jobbik, because it could be misinterpreted as condoning their politics.

“But the fact is that we, the Jewish people, and also Christians and other faiths, have to meet together with anybody to talk about what can be done in the future,” Lauder said.

Lauder added that he did not believe that “everyone in Jobbik is anti-Semitic.”

Speaking later during the March of the Living Holocaust commemoration, Lauder said Jobbik was harmful to Hungary’s international image.

“Jobbik hurts Hungary. Do not allow Jobbik to destroy Hungary. The people of Hungary are too good for that,” Lauder said.

Despite Jobbik, “the Hungarian Jewish community is alive and well and ... is not going anywhere,” Lauder told a crowd of several thousand people.

Some 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Around 100,000 live in Hungary now, making up the largest

Touch a survivor…

Continued from page 1 rounded by the numbers.

Each of us in our communities are still blessed to have our “Elie Wiesels,” a flesh face to represent the Holocaust to the world.

This week we come out and humbly pay tribute with our mere presence before these men and women who were stripped of their humanity, stripped of their family, stripped of their Judaism, stripped of everything — yet who overcame. If you truly can’t be there in person, give a call to a Holocaust survivor.

These conversations can be sobering and emotional. Facing a witness to one of history’s most brutal and dark chapters is not easy.

But their days are numbered.

The Holocaust museums around the world are all standing. “Never Forget” has become the mantra. You can walk their dark and silent halls of candles lit for the children, pass over the pits of real live human beings’ shoes — all murdered; learn the history and see the relics, the artifacts, the exhibits. They’re all in place, so that we never forget.

But the people! The actual real life people, the ones who are still with us — this is the time, if you haven’t already, to make the effort to connect with survivors. Whether you are old or young or in between.

It most likely won’t be a conversation about their experiences. No … many of those nightmares are buried deep within hidden rooms of their hearts and the chambers of

their souls. They will never see the light of day or make it from their heart to their lips.

But it’s not about that.

It’s about not waiting for that chance encounter anymore. It’s about consciously making the time to meet and speak and befriend and just be with these treasures among us, the eyewitnesses to the notorious “Arbeit Macht Frei” and the other unspeakable varieties of man-made hell on this earth.

This year when you strike a match lighting a candle to burn in memory of the six million, remember the sunset is sinking faster than ever.

Who of today’s generation of sunset survivors will be next year’s stars in the sky?

Which niggun will be the last that you can close your eyes and hear and be uplifted by, from a survivor? Which frail “Good Shabbos” to you will be the last time those words leave the lips of a survivor? Which one will be that final handshake that warms your skin?

It is sobering to think about. But each year it hits harder than the last.

Time is flowing over all of us.

That moment of departure of this Survivor Generation is fast approaching.

One day, sooner than we believe, it will be the last, the very last.

Come pay respects, listen to their stories, to their testimony, this year. Sing a niggun together.

Zachor.

Copyright ©2015 Intermountain Jewish News

Poland in 1941 and later to the AuschwitzBirkenau death camp. His father died of starvation and his mother was gassed on the day they arrived at Auschwitz, he said.

In January 1945, Oster was sent on a “death march” to Buchenwald as the Nazis forced inmates westward in the face of advancing Soviet forces.

Entering the former camp through the wrought-iron gate that bears the words “Jedem das Seine” (“To each his own”) with its clock stopped at 3:15, the time of the liberation, Oster recalled that moment.

“We had no idea the Allies were in Europe, and when we heard noises at about a quarter past three, we looked out of the window — which took a great effort — and one of my friends said with a weak voice ‘I think we are getting liberated’,” Oster said. “And we thought he had lost his sense of reality like so many people there.”

Oster was taken to an orphanage in France and emigrated to the United States in 1946.

He now lives in Woodland Hills, California.

A minute of silence was held Saturday afternoon at the tree-ringed hilltop site’s former assembly ground, bringing together former inmates and liberators — on whom Buchenwald also left an indelible impression.

James Anderson, a 91-year-old from In-

dianapolis, went in as an army medic on that day and recalled that many prisoners were so weak they could no longer move.

“The devastation was so tremendous,” Anderson said, his voice trembling. “I was a ... kid, and to see this it was hard for me to believe this was actually happening, you know, and the prisoners were so glad to see us, they would hug us and everything.”

Robert Harmon, then a private serving in Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, was deployed in Weimar and first saw Buchenwald survivors a few days after the camp’s liberation.

“They had these thin pyjama clothes, they had terrible food, you can imagine, and of course the men had not shaven forever, and they just looked awful,” said Harmon, from Seattle, who turns 90 on Sunday. “They were stunned psychologically, they were so afraid of authority that they were very careful about speaking to us, but they were so hungry that they dared, and that was such an act of courage, I think, for them to speak to us,” he said.

Patton was so disgusted by Buchenwald that he ordered residents of nearby Weimar to march the few miles up the hill to see what had been going on so close nearby.

“The younger generation should get to see this,” Anderson said. “It was unbelievable.”

Attacks spiked in 2014

By Ariel David TEL AVIV (AP) — Jewish communities around the world faced an “explosion of hatred” last year, with the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks rising by 38 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by Israeli researchers.

With most of the violence concentrated in Western Europe, Jewish leaders warned that many in their communities are questioning whether they have any future in the region.

The report by researchers at Tel Aviv University recorded 766 incidents — ranging from armed assaults to vandalism against synagogues, schools and cemeteries — compared to 554 in 2013.

Many Jews feel like “they are facing an explosion of hatred toward them as individuals, their communities, and Israel, as a Jewish state,” wrote the researchers from the university’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry.

The center releases the report every year on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, commemorated Wednesday night and Thursday.

The researchers said the increase in attacks on Jews was partly linked to last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as to what they called a “general climate of hatred and violence” fostered by the rise of the Islamic State group in the Middle East.

The report said 2014 was the second most violent year for Jews in a decade after 2009, which also saw a surge in anti-Semitism following an Israeli military operation in Gaza.

The violence in 2014 spiked during the July-August war, particularly in demonstrations organized in France, Germany and other countries, during which protesters chanted anti-Semitic slogans, looted Jewish shops and attacked synagogues as well as people identifiable as Jews.

However, researchers stressed that attacks had been on the rise also before the summer and said the controversy over Israel’s operation was used as a pretext to attack Jews.

“Synagogues were targeted, not Israeli

embassies,” said Dina Porat, a historian who edited the report.

The reported incidents do not include the killing of four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris following the deadly shooting at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, since those events occurred in January.

However, the researchers noted that the wave of attacks has continued this year, and that the gruesome acts and propaganda videos of the Islamic State are also encouraging the radicalization of Muslims in the West.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing communities across the continent, said Jewish life has reached a “tipping point” in Europe.

“Some are choosing to leave the continent, many are afraid to walk the streets and even more are retreating behind high walls and barbed wire,” Kantor told the Associated Press in an e-mail.

“This has become the new reality of Jewish life in Europe.”

Kantor said that while governments have pledged to boost security for their Jewish communities, they must do more at a panEuropean level to share intelligence, toughen legislation and combat pervasive anti-Semitic attitudes in the general population.

“European Jews should not leave out of fear and should push their leaders to defeat anti-Semitism and radical Islamist terrorism,” he said.

As in past years, the highest number of attacks was reported in France, which saw 164 incidents compared to 141 in 2013. In Britain there were 141 attacks, up from 95, and in the United States there were 80 incidents versus 55, including a shooting at Jewish sites in Overland Park, Kansas, that killed three people.

Some western European countries saw even greater increases, with the number of incidents more than doubling in Germany, Belgium, Austria and Sweden. The attacks also target individuals more frequently, with 306 cases involving people as victims, a 66 percent increase.

THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775

Survivors recall Buchenwald horror 70 years on

YOM HASHOAH 5775 • HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2015

Exhibit honors 2 who saved Jews at Warsaw zoo

By Vanessa Gera WARSAW (AP) — It was World War II, Warsaw was under German occupation, and the wife of the director of the Warsaw zoo spotted Nazis approaching the white stucco villa that she and her family inhabited on the zoo grounds.

According to plan, she went straight to her piano and began to play a lively tune from an operetta by Jacques Offenbach, a signal to Jews being sheltered in the house that they should be quiet and not leave their hiding places.

That scenario, repeated over years of war, was one of the tricks that allowed Jan and Antonina Zabinski to save the lives of dozens of Jews, a dramatic chapter in Poland’s wartime drama that was virtually unknown until an American author, Diane Ackerman, published a book about the Polish couple in 2007 called “The Zookeeper’s Wife.�

The Zabinskis’ remarkable wartime actions — which included hiding Jews in indoor animal enclosures — seem certain to gain even more renown with the inauguration Saturday of a permanent exhibition in the villa, an attractive two-story Bauhaus home from the 1930s still on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo. The exhibition pays homage to the couple with photos of them, sometimes with their beloved zoo animals, in rooms recreated to evoke the wartime period. There are sculptures of animals made by a Jewish artist, Magdalena Gross, who stayed there during the war. Visitors will also be able to see basement

chambers where the Jews took shelter, as well as a narrow tunnel they crawled through to reach animal enclosures.

Among those who attended an opening celebration on Saturday evening was 78-year-old Moshe Tirosh, who was hidden there for three weeks in 1943, when he was just 6, as well as the Zabinskis’ son and daughter, Ryszard and Teresa.

There is only one other known living Jewish survivor, Tirosh’s sister Stefania, who lives in Canada.

Tirosh can still recall details, even though his time there amounted to just a short spell in a long and dramatic struggle for survival over years of Nazi occupation. He remembers being taken there by a horse-drawn carriage that carried him over the Vistula River to the green gardens of the zoo. He remembers squatting in the cellar with his sister while his parents hid in animal enclosures. He said he was always putting his hand over his sister’s mouth when she cried to stie the sound, which could have given away the hiding place. He also remembers being well fed, compared to stretches of near starvation during other periods of the war.

When it was time to move on to another hiding place, Antonina brought him upstairs to dye his hair blond, hoping to make him look more “Aryan.� But the color turned out red instead, the inspiration for a secret code name for him: squirrel.

He also remembers Antonina using her piano to send the secret messages, with one melody to warn of danger and a different one to signal that danger had passed. He can’t iden-

5Towns marks Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron, Yom Haatzmaut The Five Towns commemorated Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) on Wednesday night with a community-wide event at Congregation Beth Shalom in Lawrence.

A keynote address was to be delivered by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, a child survivor and former director of the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, and survivor video testimony shown.

The HALB ďŹ fth grade choir was scheduled to perform. (This event

occurred after The Jewish Star went to press. Y�H, coverage will be online Erev Shabbat at TheJewishStar.com, and in next week’s newspaper.)

Next Wednesday (April 22) at 7:30 pm, the Young Israel of Woodmere will host a combined Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut program, featuring “Above and Beyond,â€? the story of American pilots who raced to aid the ďŹ ght for Israel’s independence in 1948.

tify the tunes, but other witnesses say that the warning was “Go, Go, Go to Crete!� from Offenbach’s “La Belle Helene.�

Pianist Janusz Olejniczak, who performed the music in Roman Polanski’s ďŹ lm “The Pianist,â€? played the Offenbach piece at Saturday’s inauguration.

Though he is grateful to both Zabinskis, Tirosh’s fondest memories focus on Antonina, who had closer contacts to the Jews in hiding than her husband, who was more active out of the house in his underground anti-Nazi activities, including by helping Jews escape from the Ghetto. By helping Jews the Zabinskis risked not only their own lives but that of their children. “Antonina is a great woman, a hero,� Tirosh said, speaking in an interview with the Associated Press on Friday in Warsaw, where he traveled from his home in Israel to attend the inauguration. “She was also beautiful, smart and wise.�

The couple is credited with saving dozens of Jews; though the exact number isn’t known it is believed to range from over 100 to 300. They were both honored in 1965 as “Righteous Among the Nations� by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

The development of the exhibition is the work of the zoo and “From the Depths,� an organization that works to preserve Jewish memory. The director, Jonny Daniels, says he hopes Warsaw zoo will now become a key stop on the itinerary of Israelis and other Jewish visitors to Poland. The zoo cafe has even agreed to offer some kosher food choices.

The zoo itself also was the site of horrors during the war. In September 1939, when the Germans invaded the country, they bombed the zoo, killing many animals and wreaking destruction that allowed others to escape. Some of those that escaped — such as bears and lions — were dangerous to humans, and had to be shot. The Germans then took some of the more valuable specimens, like lynx, to zoos in Germany and killed off the rest in a hunting spree at the zoo on New Year’s Eve of 1940.

Zabinski then turned the zoo grounds into a pig farm.

That allowed him to enter the Ghetto on the pretext of gathering scraps for his pigs, something that allowed him to help the Jews there.

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April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775

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April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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YOM HASHOAH 5775 • HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2015

ond, I wanted kids looking for

By June Glazer, JNS.org bar or bat mitzvah projects to When 12-year-old Max Levin do the same with other young was looking for a meaningful Holocaust victims and in that way to celebrate his upcoming way establish a link between bar mitzvah in 2006, he emthem and those who perished,â€? barked on a project in Israel that Levin said. created a link between today’s Since then, more than 150 teens and their peers who died boys and girls have followed in the Holocaust before ever Levin’s lead and commemoratreaching that special milestone. ed their special day with teens “I used to come to Israel evand pre-teens whose names are ery year with my parents, partly inscribed in the Golden Book. because of my dad’s work, but For those who wish, JNF honors mostly because our family is them and their donation with very Zionistic,â€? said Max, toa ceremony at the Wall of Reday a 22-year-old paratrooper membrance. and ofďŹ cer in the Israel Defense Levin attributes his appreciaForces. Max’s father, Bud Levin, tion of remembrance to his famis Jewish National Fund (JNF) ily. “My grandfather died when vice president.

In 2006, when the Levin fam- 0D[ /HYLQÂśV FUHDWLRQ WKH %ÂśQDL 0LW]YDK 5HPHPEUDQFH :DOO LQ WKH YHUGDQW -HUXVD I was six, and on his yahrzeit ily came to Israel searching for a OHP KLOOV QHDU %HLW 6KHPHVK Jewish National Fund every year we light a candle and speak about him,â€? he said. “I bar mitzvah project, they evenTo do this, he created the B’nai Mitzvah Realways felt it was an important tually honed in on the Golden Books of Honor that JNF keeps at its ofďŹ ces in membrance Wall in American Independence and moving way to keep his memory alive.â€?

That’s why, when he ďŹ rst learned about the Jerusalem. Max Levin recalled seeing those vol- Park, in the verdant Jerusalem hills near Beit umes that over the years have documented do- Shemesh. The wall is shaped like a Torah scroll, young Holocaust victims, Levin’s reaction was alnations to JNF, and that by now contain more and glass tiles representing donations to JNF most innate. “I thought it wasn’t right that there are mounted on it, each inscribed with the in- was no one left to remember them,â€? he said. than 200,000 inscriptions.

And with his grandfather in mind, he cre“One of these books contained the names dividual name, hometown, and bar or bat mitzof young people who, during the Holocaust, vah date of a modern-day honoree, as well as ated a way to do just that. “Through the Wall of Remembrance, the donated money in honor of their bar mitzvahs. the name and home country of a “twinâ€? from When I asked my dad what happened to them, the Golden Book. Levin’s was the ďŹ rst tile, and names and lives of these kids will live on,â€? said he told me they all died and that there’s nobody he was twinned with Pinchas Cohen of Ger- Levin. “This is something I did for Pinchas, and now people are doing it for others. The wall is left to remember them. I was very moved and many. “I had two goals in creating the wall. First, I my contribution to Jewish continuity, and anydecided that for my project I would make sure that they were remembered,â€? said Levin, a Los wanted to remember Pinchas and to somehow one who cares to join me in this commitment is continue the life that was taken from him. Sec- welcome to.â€?

Angeles native who made aliyah in 2012.

765257

The National Library of Israel plans to digitize a collection of documents that belonged to the Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever, who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust in the Vilna Ghetto.

Most of the ghetto’s Jews were killed by the Nazis, but thanks to Sutzkever, some of the ghetto’s rich cultural life was preserved.

Sutzkever managed to preserve the documents from the Vilna Ghetto using a tin suitcase he assembled after he ed the city.

Despite the hardships, the ghetto had a vibrant community that attended concerts and lectures, provided education to its youths, and maintained a functioning library. “The documents indicate that as things deteriorated and food became scarce, people began to read more books,� said Gil Weissblei, who works in the library’s Archives Department. “It was a very moving discovery for me, as a human being.�

Sutzkever would later join the United Partisan Organization, an underground Jewish movement which operated in the ghetto and in nearby forests. It attacked Nazi targets, and in 1944 it took part in the Soviet liberation of the city. In those forests, Sutzkever found the scrap metal to build a suitcase, repurposing what was left of a downed aircraft. —JNS.org

Project links teens, Shoah victims

THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775

Vilna Ghetto digitized

Is ‘Mein Kampf’ a learning tool or a danger?

By Robert Gluck, JNS.org Given the current climate of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere, is it too offensive and dangerous to reissue Adolph Hitler’s “Mein Kampfâ€? autobiographical manifesto? Critics of the book’s ďŹ rst planned republication in German say yes. But others believe that with the proper annotation and commentary, the book can be an important learning tool.

Next year, a new edition will go on sale in bookstores in Germany for the ďŹ rst time in 75 years. The state of Bavaria has owned the German copyright to the book and has legally blocked attempts to print it. The copyright expires this December, and the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) plans on reissuing an annotated version ďŹ lled with criticism and analysis that will stretch its original size from 700 pages to nearly 2,000.

The copyright of the English translation was sold in the 1930s and the book has been in print ever since. The English version has been constantly available all over the world.�

IfZ is regarded as the world’s leading institute for the research of National Socialism — also known as Nazism. Founded after World War II, the institute has the goals of examining how National Socialism took root in Germany and understanding the reasons behind the pre-Hitler failure of German democracy.

As far as “Mein Kampfâ€? goes, its text is widely available even without IfZ’s new edition, although when “Mein Kampfâ€? (translated in English as “My Struggleâ€?) was ďŹ rst published in 1925, it sold poorly. “The book was printed in its German version in more than 12 million copies,â€? said Magnus Brechtken, deputy director of IfZ. “Many hundred thousands of these copies survived the Third Reich and are available in academic libraries and antiquarian bookshops. The German text is also available through the Internet.

Some Jewish leaders have expressed concern. Levi Salomon, a spokesman for the Berlin-based Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism, told The Washington Post, “I am absolutely against the publication of ‘Mein Kampf,’ even with annotations. Can you annotate the Devil? Can you annotate a person like Hitler? This book is outside of human logic.�

Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress,

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wrote in a letter to the New York Times, “Because of Germany’s history, publishing it there again at a time of rising anti-Semitism would be a travesty. Only recently, Germany elected a neo-Nazi deputy to the European Parliament, showing that the Hitler virus has yet to be stamped out.� “What would the Holocaust survivors and their relatives think if they visit a German bookstore and see Hitler’s book on the shelves?� added Lauder. “We must do everything we can to prevent the publication and mass distribution of ‘Mein Kampf.’ We owe it to Hitler’s victims.�

But Dr. JĂźrgen Matthäus, director of applied research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, said that “those who have a right-wing philosophy have access to ‘Mein Kampf’ anyway,â€? Matthäus said. “The general readership would beneďŹ t from this [new] critical edition by ďŹ nding out more about the context in which this document emerged, and also the context that is needed to understand it properly.â€?

To understand “Mein Kampf,â€? experts say, it is important to understand its author. Matthäus and Brechtken agree that one of the most deďŹ nitive books on the subject is “Hitler: A Biography,â€? by Ian Kershaw, a modern history professor emeritus at the United Kingdom-based University of ShefďŹ eld who was given the German award of the Federal Cross of Merit in 1994.

Kershaw believes “Mein Kampf� provides important insights into Hitler’s thinking in the mid-1920s. “By then,� Kershaw wrote, “he had developed a philosophy that afforded him a complete interpretation of history, of the ills of the world, and how to overcome them. Tersely summarized, it boiled down to a simplistic, Manichean view of history as racial struggle, in which the highest racial entity, the Aryan, was being undermined and destroyed by the lowest, the parasitic Jew.�

Many of Hitler’s contemporaries “made a mistake in treating ‘Mein Kampf’ with ridicule and not taking the ideas Hitler expressed there extremely seriously,� Kershaw explained. “Should there be republications of the original text without any comments, it is even more urgent to have a critical edition which is based on the current research knowledge on the origins of National Socialism and the Third Reich, to deconstruct the ideological theories of the book and its racist agenda to prevent further misinformation,� Brechtken said.

But for some whose primary concern is contemporary anti-Semitism, historical details are not the point in any discussion of “Mein Kampf.�

Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Jewish community in Munich, told Time, “This book is most evil; it is the worst antiSemitic pamphlet and a guidebook for the Holocaust.�

Asked to address criticism of the book’s reissuing, Brechtken told JNS.org, “We understand and respect the feelings and views of those who have suffered as victims of National Socialism, and we respect their feelings of uneasiness and concern at the thought of seeing the text being republished.� “The text is a historical source which must be analyzed to understand the link between the formulation of antiSemitism before 1933 and anti-Semitic political actions after 1933,� he said.

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s I finished my last article, I was about to board a plane to Israel for a quick trip and return home two days before Pesach, a whirlwind five days in Israel with my husband Jerry’s son and family in Efrat and daughter and family in Rechavya. We were also able to squeeze in the wedding of our close friend’s daughter in Ceasarria.

We made it to he airport in plenty of time — there was no chance of being late — driven by our good friend David Weber. I think we beat the pilot there by two hours. Checkin was a breeze. There were the usual questions about our bags — who packed them, did anyone give us anything, are we bringing anything to anyone else. I was tempted to say, “OK, now my turn: Is your pilot depressed?

Is your co-pilot depressed?” I thought better than to crack a joke — El Al agents aren’t the type to appreciate humor — so I answered honestly until the “Are you bringing anything” question.

Would they realize one entire oversized suitcase was for the grandchildren? Dozens of robot animal things that turn into transformers and balls that transform into G-d knows what. Then, there were the hardcover books that weighed ten pounds. I could say they were for me to read while I was there (what, like I wouldn’t read all those atlases?). The 15 pounds of kids’ clothing was lost among the toys, but the freezer part for my nephew and some sharp metal objects got me a tad

it was, but when you went to the bathroom before you left I took it out. You had Papa’s phone, why would you need yours?” And so it was a good thing I really love him…

Now that we’re finished with matzoh till next year, here is a great recipe I found online for bread that doesn’t have to be kneaded, and has few ingredients. Credit goes to Jim Lahey and the New York Times that printed it.

So easy even a child (with parental supervision) can prepare it.

INGREDIENTS: 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 1-1/4 teaspoons salt Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed 1-5/8 cup water PREPARATION: In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until

blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.

Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven.

Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is OK. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

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WHO’S IN THE KITCHEN

nervous. As luck would have it though, Jerry, who I always instruct to say as little as possible, decided that when the agent asked were it his children we were visiting in Israel, he felt the need to tell him where the other two children lived in the U.S. Suddenly the agent ended questions about the luggage. Home free … as soon as the bags were weighed. Ahhhhhh…

We had a wonderful time in Israel. The grandchildren adore Jerry and he has a blast with them. They love the ghost stories, especially the one called the Holden Finger, that Jerry’s older cousin Harold used to scare him with. When Jerry asked the 5 year old if he believed in ghosts, he replied, “Yes, but we don’t really get to them. They live in a place called Holloweena, and don’t come out often.” I love those kids!

Other highlights; I lost my pocketbook and it was actually returned with a lot of cash, a credit card, shekels and my phone. Also lost the passport and boarding passes right before the flight. Thankfully I found it as well as Jerry’s cell phone I left charging right near the boarding line … and I’m the organized one!

When we were about to leave for the wedding I checked that I had my cell phone, so that I could take photos with it. It was right there in my bag. When we got to the wedding it was gone. Wasn’t on the bus that brought us to wedding nor in the car that took us to the bus. All my photos and videos of my mom a”h gone as well.

When we returned to the apartment, there on the desk of my stepson was my phone. Just then he woke up and came out of his brother’s room where he was sleeping. “I can’t believe I left my phone in your room, I was sure in was in my bag,” I said to him. He replied, “Oh,

762923

JUDY JOSZEF

THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775

After whrilwind visit to Israel, let’s break bread

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J Street and Jewish stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future TEHILLA R. GOLDBERG VIEW FROM CENTRAL PARK

I

tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to see fellow Jews advocate for the end of Israel. Harder yet to see such claims dishonestly veiled as Zionism and being â&#x20AC;&#x153;pro-Israel.â&#x20AC;?

Yet, J Street advisory council member Marcia Freedman said just that. She is suggesting that if Israel perfects its democracy to the point where minorities are completely protected, then thinking about an end of Israel as a state and instead as a homeland â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a place for Jews to ďŹ nd refuge as a protected minority, living amongst a Palestinian Arab majority â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is ďŹ ne.

Her words: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If we think about Zionism as an attempt to create a homeland for the Jewish people, rather than a Jewish state, we have a lot of space in which to think about Zionism, we have a lot of space in which to think about what this country of Israel ought to look like, in particular with respect to the Palestinians from whom we took the land. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another thing that we have to understand and keep in mind, always, that we took this land and we displaced a people who are now struggling for their place in the world and we are now opposing them.â&#x20AC;?

To think that it is acceptable to put forth such a simplistic and patently false narrative, without such demonization of Israel being contested, but rather accepted and, to boot, to a round of applause, is truly disturbing.

Yet again, this is precisely what took place at the recent J Street conference.

Our fellow Jews at J Street may have good intentions, but I do worry about their extremist position that can seriously damage the wellbeing of Israel, and as far as I am concerned already has.

I believe in the Talmudic style of debating

Does group want Israel to live or (châ&#x20AC;?v) to die? differing points of view. It is healthy, important and interesting. But when such discussions have pragmatic, real life, possibly even suicidal consequences for the Jewish people, it is not the time to focus on the value of increasing the spectrum of Israel-centered discourse, but rather on refocusing on doing what is safe and responsible in advocating for Israel in the world.

There are different ways to end something. A conclusion or destruction is not necessarily achieved by military means alone.

Threatening the end of Israel doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to mean only tossing the people of Israel into the sea. Marcia Freedman is not Hamas.

She is not advocating destroying Israel from

Sanitizing Iran, demonizing Israelâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 1 vanced centrifuges despite (again) American assurances to the contrary â&#x20AC;&#x201D; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tempting to believe that the goal of a ďŹ nal deal by June 30 will collapse amid mutual recriminations and conďŹ&#x201A;icting interpretations of what was agreed to in the framework.

If a deal with Iran canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be sold on the basis of its substance, how can it pass muster? There are two factors that Obama and his ďŹ&#x201A;ock are banking on. The ďŹ rst relies on scare-mongering: if we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make this deal, we may be condemning ourselves to further military engagements in the Middle East. The second relies on a leap of faith: Iran, Obama told NPR, may well become a more open society in the aftermath of a deal, focused â&#x20AC;&#x153;on its economy, on training its people, on reentering the world community.â&#x20AC;? But even if the Iranian regime doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t modify its behavior, he added, it is still â&#x20AC;&#x153;much better if we have this deal in place than if we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.â&#x20AC;?

The only people who will be persuaded by this fatuous argument â&#x20AC;&#x201D; support the deal whether or not you trust the Iranian regime â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are those already predisposed to a diplomatic outcome regardless of the medium- and long-term costs.

Those with a more questioning nature will surely understand that a deal based on the conviction that the Iranian regime is more likely than not to cooperate is the ďŹ rst step on the road to hell.

This is why so much of the commentary lauding Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts with Tehran has avoided the details of the agreement, focusing instead on sanitizing the nature of the

Iranian regime while demonizing the Israelis.

Take one of the more dreadful pieces of late by Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cooing admirer, Peter Beinart. Writing in Atlantic, Beinart tried to argue that Iran is not a totalitarian regime, just a brutal one â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the difference being that not all brutal regimes are able to exercise complete control over the inner and outer lives of their subjects.

Is that a reasonable summation of the nature of Iranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Islamist regime? Absolutely not. Glaring by its absence from Beinartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article was the concept of velayat e faqih, or â&#x20AC;&#x153;guardianship of the jurisprudent,â&#x20AC;? a method of Islamic governance devised by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that gives the mullahs custodianship of the entire societyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a totalitarian idea if ever there was one.

The implication in Beinartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article is that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easier to trust bad regimes that are not totalitarian because they are comparatively more sensitive to the desires of their people as well as the imperatives of the international community. Of course, Iranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history since 1979 demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that neither of these considerations weigh heavily on the mullahs, precisely because they run a totalitarian regime. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why they used extraordinary repression to crush democracy protests in 2009, another crucial detail missing from Beinartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s piece.

In tandem with this polishing of the Iranian regimeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image come the appeals to support the deal because the most â&#x20AC;&#x153;dangerousâ&#x20AC;? leader in the Middle East (aka Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) is against it. That was

the core message of an on-air rant by MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who, in addressing Senator Rand Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision to seek the Republican presidential nomination, targeted â&#x20AC;&#x153;neocons and the piggish money behind themâ&#x20AC;? as the true enemy. All the â&#x20AC;&#x153;neoconsâ&#x20AC;? want, according to Matthews, is a foreign policy that creates â&#x20AC;&#x153;pro-Israel democraciesâ&#x20AC;? in the region.

It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require a huge leap of the imagination to ďŹ gure out that â&#x20AC;&#x153;neoconsâ&#x20AC;? here is code for a different word that starts with the letter â&#x20AC;&#x153;J.â&#x20AC;? (Matthews shrieked at one point, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just lay out who these people are!â&#x20AC;?) His words may have been uglier and cruder than the White House would have liked, but the message is the same: you are either with us or against us, and if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not even willing to entertain the idea that Iranâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promises can be taken at face value, then you must be as crazy as Netanyahu.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s little than three months between now and June 30. We can expect much more of the above as we head towards the deadline, which is precisely why pro-Israel voices must not feel cowed or intimidated.

Obama the so-called â&#x20AC;&#x153;peacemakerâ&#x20AC;? is creating a situation that will generate war and conďŹ&#x201A;ict for future generations inside and outside the Middle East. That is why, even though the presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chorus will mock us for saying this, we should say it anyway: Ultimately, we oppose this deal because it condemns our children to growing up in a world where democracies are in retreat, at the same time as totalitarian regimes (like North Korea and, yes, Iran) possess weapons of mass destruction.

without. Destructions and endings can arrive by political means too, without one drop of blood shed in the process.

And that seems to be what Marcia of J Street, is conveying: End Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existence as a Jewish state. reedmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preposterous and delusional â&#x20AC;&#x153;solutionâ&#x20AC;? for the now stateless Jews is, in her scenario, to provide them rights as a protected minority in an Arab state.

Just as the Dhimmi Jews of yesteryear lived for centuries in Iran, Syria and other Arab lands? Oh, they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t there any more, you say? They were expelled? I guess that plan didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work out too well, after all. Oh right, I forgot, that is part of why we are so grateful, after 2,000 years, to ďŹ nally have returned to Israel.

Truly, Freedmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remarks are unsettling.

Because in reality, while in focusing on her academic and theoretical priority of achieving a perfect, pure democracy in Israel, she dismantles the one and only Jewish state for the Jewish people. And letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s be real. Her suggestion would not only dismantle the infrastructure of a Jewish state, but also the Jews as a minority within an Arab majority in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Middle East. Seriously. We all understand it means the physical destruction of the people.

To be sure, the situation in Israel is very complicated with difďŹ cult ramiďŹ cations, even if, as I believe, Israel has no choice how to rule. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what the resolution is or will be; it pains me greatly. I do know that I choose to â&#x20AC;&#x153;errâ&#x20AC;? on the side of standing ďŹ rmly with my people, with Am Yisrael, in the land of Israel, in security, while interpersonally trying to do my tiny part in building trust, friendship and healing wherever possible on both sides.

This is not the ďŹ rst time I have heard this radical idea that Marcia Freedman put forth.

The ďŹ rst time was many years ago from Rabbi Menachem Froman, of blessed memory.

He expressed with painful emotion that as a last resort, if Israel did become a Palestinian state, he would not leave his settlement, but would rather remain on his beloved land of Israel, even under Palestinian rule.

His was a personal choice, reďŹ&#x201A;ecting the expression and sacriďŹ ce he would make for himself (risking his life, basically) out of his profound love and connection to this homeland.

Considering how fraught with obvious risk such a scenario would be, it was not something Rabbi Froman was casually imposing on a people, nationally, as an policy.

Agree or disagree with his controversial positions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; undoubtedly he was a maverick, a special person whose genuine relationship and connection with the land, as well as his inspirational reaching out to his Arab Muslim neighbors, all the while maintaining a staunch commitment to settlements and support of Gush Katif â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they made for a complex, fascinating person, compressed into his radical-sacriďŹ ce-requiring decision (which is precisely why we ďŹ ght for a Jewish state).

In the case of Marcia Freedman of J Street, her casual and dismissive attitude about the very real ramiďŹ cation of the fate of the Jewish people left me responding with the precise opposite reaction that Rabbi Froman generated. She left me uninspired, upset and concerned. Not to mention her historically false and simplistic accusation against Israel (as quoted above), leading up to her comment suggesting the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

I wonder how J Street defends such a point of view, and then claims with a straight face that it is pro-Israel.

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Copyright Š2015 Intermountain Jewish News

15 THE JEWISH STAR April 17, 2015 â&#x20AC;˘ 28 Nissan 5775

ESTABLISHED 2002

April 17, 2015 • 28 Nissan 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

16

Decision moments: What makes a leader RABBI BINNY FREEDMAN THE HEART OF JERUSALEM

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xplosions, gunfire, the sounds of battle, lashab (lechima be’shetach banui) urban warfare. No place to hide, nowhere to run, no time to think.

The army teaches many things; one of the most valuable is the ability to make decisions of life or death in seconds. Such was the moment Lt. Eitan (full name withheld for security purposes) of the elite recon unit of the Givati Infantry Brigade found himself in last summer in Gaza.

The point reconnaissance squad (Palsar Givati), led by Company Commander Benayah Sarel, had just located the entrance to a Hamas tunnel, on the edge of Rafiach in the Gaza strip. Almost immediately the men came under heavy fire from Hamas terrorists. In the ensuing battle, company Commander Sarel and first sergeant Liel Gidoni were killed. Arriving at the scene amidst heavy fighting, Eitan quickly ascertained that Lt. Hadar Goldin was missing.

Under fire, despite clear orders to the contrary, Eitan made a field decision to enter the tunnel with his command squad and give chase to the terrorists, in the hopes of preventing what he thought might be the kidnapping of a fellow IDF officer.

Without a clear picture of how many terrorists were in the tunnel, and no intel on whether the tunnel might be booby trapped, Eitan followed the terrorists for hundreds of yards deep into the tunnel, retrieving evidence of Lt. Goldin’s remains that mercifully would allow the IDF chief rabbinate to declare him dead and saving his family and nation enormous heartache.

The IDF’s subsequent inquiry would later find Eitan’s bravery and heroism worthy of the highest commendation a combat officer can receive, parallel to the medal of valor.

In addition to all this, the subsequent discovery of a dead Hamas terrorist (killed in the firefight) in full IDF uniform, made it clear that this Hamas unit was about to use the tunnel to enter Israel dressed as Israeli soldiers, a potential disaster prevented at the last moment.

Did Lt. Eitan have time to consider his enormous decision? Or did he just trust his instincts and hope it was the right decision? Clearly, things could have ended very differently — the tunnel could have been booby trapped, the Hamas terrorists could have kidnapped more soldiers. There is, after all, good reason that standing orders are not to enter such tunnels under those circumstances.

Far be it from me to question the decision of an IDF officer under such difficult combat conditions, especially given the fact that his actions were examined by the IDF and found commendable. But this incredible story does raise the question: are such spontaneous decisions acceptable? t would seem from this week’s parsha that spontaneity is not commendable at all. The Torah tells us (Leviticus 10: 1-2) that Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu offered an “unauthorized fire before the Hashem.”As a result, “Fire came out from the presence of G-d and consumed them, and they died before Hashem.”

And although there are many different explanations, the clear implication here (and in Bamidbar 3: 4 and 26: 61), is that they acted on their own initiative.

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch suggests that they let the moment of joy over dedication of the Tabernacle carry them away, and their enthusiasm got the best of them. Apparently, the service of G-d and spirituality are not meant to be spontaneous. And this is not the first time spontaneity

ended badly; back in the beginning, when Kayin spontaneously offers the first recorded offering, G-d does not seem pleased (Bereishit 4), leading to disastrous results as Kayin perpetrates the first murder of his brother, Hevel And when Aaron, at the foot of Sinai, impulsively suggests that the people bring their gold, the result is the tragic debacle of the golden calf.

And yet, sometimes, seemingly impulsive behavior is exactly what is called for: When Pinchas is confronted with the brazen licentious behavior of a prince of the tribe of Shimon (Zimri) with a Midianite princess, he impulsively kills them both and is rewarded with no less than the blessing of G-d himself!

Indeed, Moshe’s career begins with such an apparently impulsive moment, when he kills an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Jewish slave; it concludes on the same note, with Rashi on the last verse in the entire Torah (Deut.

34: 12) sharing the midrashic comment that again has no less than G-d Himself commending Moshe’s decision to shatter the luchot at the sight of the people worshipping the golden calf. It would be hard to find a more impulsive and spontaneous act than this in all of Jewish history.

So when is spontaneity a good thing, and when must we subscribe to the orders and tradition we have been given? This is the ultimate dilemma with which every IDF commander must eventually contend, and for which he or she is trained: On the one hand, particularly in a post-Holocaust world, no Israeli commander can ever fall back on just ‘following orders.’ And yet, an army where commanders do not obey orders cannot function. So how does one navigate this conundrum, and how do we determine the distinction that will allow us to arrive at the correct conclusions?

You knew you would be held accountable both for disobeying an order as well as for fulfilling it.

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erhaps we can take a cue from Martin Luther King’s battle for civil rights in America. One of King’s principles in advocating for civil disobedience was that a person has an obligation to disobey an unjust law, but a responsibility to pay the consequences for doing so until the law could be changed.

As an Israeli officer, on those rare occasions when you felt an order was mistaken, you knew you would be held accountable both for disobeying an order as well as for fulfilling it, if it turned out to be incorrect or unethical. For me the take-away message was that we would always be held accountable. In fact, in the IDF this holds true not only for commanders but for every soldier. If a soldier is given an unethical order, he or she is actually bound to disobey it, which is a pretty scary thing to do, because he or she will absolutely subsequently be held accountable for that decision.

Perhaps the Torah here is teaching us a powerful message regarding our spiritual journey to connect with Hashem. It is easy to lose ourselves in the euphoria of a spiritual moment, particularly when such a journey is conducted with the understanding that said person is not the goal of the journey, but merely a vehicle who is part of a much bigger picture. But if each of us is created in G-d’s image, then the inner voice that tells us when something is right or wrong is also part of Hashem’s voice which we must heed.

Judaism suggests that the balance of my own inner voice and journey, alongside how that voice and journey serves a bigger picture of the Jewish people, and the entire world, is what distinguishes us as Jews and human beings in the service of a greater good.

Nadav and Avihu, suggests Rav Hirsch, got too caught up in the spiritual journey of Nadav and Avihu. Moshe, on the other hand, was all about how he could be a vehicle for the greater good and journey of the Jewish people and the whole world. And that is what should guide all of our decisions, all the time.

Shabbat Shalom, from Jerusalem.

Eighth day models our best connection to G-d RABBI AVI BILLET PARSHA OF THE WEEK

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his week and next week, the Torah portion begins with the phrase “yom ha shmini,” referring to an eighth day. In this week’s parsha Shemini, the reference is to the eighth day of the miluim, the time when the Tabernacle was dedicated in the wilderness.

Next week in parsha Tazria, we will be reading of the process a woman goes through after giving birth, and how on the eighth day after a boy is born, he is to be circumcised.

Is there a connection between these eighth days?

The Midrash Aggadah makes the connection, quoting a verse in Kohelet (11:2), “Give a portion to seven and even to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth,” as a springboard to saying there are a number of things that are seven, which lead to number eight.

Moshe had a seven-day conversation with G-d at the burning bush before he was ready for his eighth day — to move on to be the deliverer from bondage.

Rabbi Elazar (or Eliezer) said seven refers to the days of a week, and eight refers to bris milah. Rain fell in the times of Elijah the Prophet (after several years of drought), in the merit of these two mitzvot: Shabbos and bris milah.

Rabbi Yehoshua said seven refers to the (Biblical) days of Pesach, while eight refers to

the eight days of Sukkot (which include Shmini Atzeret).

Rabbi Simone said seven refers to the seventh day of the korbanot (offerings) of the n’siim (princes) in Bamidbar 7, and eight refers to the eighth day of the same korbanot, the offerings brought by the princes of Ephraim and Menashe.

Rabbi Yehuda said seven refers to niddah (proper observance of the laws of family purity), which can lead to the birth of a boy who is circumcised on his eighth day of life.

Rabbi Azarya (also attributed to Rabbi Eliezer) said the verse refers to the seven days of miluim (dedication of the Tabernacle), and eight refers to the eighth day of our parsha.

The Midrash Rabba adds to this list: Rabbi Azarya said Moshe supervised over the bris milah of the seenth generation (Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Levi, Kehat, Amram, Moshe), while Yehoshua supervised the bris milah of the eighth generation as they entered the land of Canaan.

Rabbi Levi said there are seven days of sukkot, and eight is Shmini Atzeret.

Rabbenu Bachaye notes the Midrash Mishlei which pointed to a number of mitzvot in the Torah themed around the number seven: Shabbos, Shmittah (seven years), and Yovel (seven cycles of Shmittah). There are seven days of Pesach, seven days of Sukkos. The four species actually have seven items (1 lulav, 1 esrog, 2 aravos, 3 hadasim), there are seven days of

mourning, and seven days of rejoicing after a wedding — with all of this alluding to the seven days of Creation. The reason Aharon was not consecrated as the High Priest during the seven days of miluim is because his role is designated to serve the One and Only G-d. The eighth day, which is seven plus One, serves as a “one up” on the seven, as it focuses on looking back at the seven through the prism of serving the One. The Mishkan highlights the number eight: the number of the High Priest’s garments, the number of spices in the anointing oil (4) and k’tores (4) — combined, the number of poles (two each for ark, table, small and large mizbeachs), an animal can’t be brought as an offering until it is eight days old, the number of instruments/styles of music the Levites used when they sang songs (based on Tehillim 90, 53, 9, 5, 45, 8, 6).

Kli Yakar illustrates how all Moshe’s glorification of G-d came under the rubric of the word Az (alef zayin) (Shmot 5:23, 15:1). The alef (1) rides on the zayin (7), to indicate G-d’s kingship over the seven planets (interestingly, he mentions seven planets in the 1600s, when planet seven — Uranus was discovered in 1781 by Sir William Herschel, and Neptune wasn’t discovered until 1846!), and over the world created in seven days. Eight, therefore, is a reference to godlike qualities that go beyond the base of Creation and of this world. This explains why an animal is not fit to be a sacrificial offering until it is at least eight days old.

The key to understanding the significance of

Seventh day, eighth day: numbers count

seven and eight, however, rests in the verse in Kohelet. In his explanation of the teaching that seven refers to the days of the week and eight refers to bris milah, the Torah Temimah suggests that our goal during the seven days is to be preparing for what’s coming. Every day we prepare for Shabbos. After the birth of a boy, we are preparing for his bris celebration.

Shabbos and milah share a commonality — the merits of both saved the Jewish people in the time of Elijah the Prophet. And the need for preparation in general serves as a reminder that a person should never put off preparing for the future when the opportunity to prepare presents itself. Who knows? Maybe such a chance to prepare will never be available again.

This is the meaning of the second half of the verse in Kohelet; we do not know what the future will bring.

Indeed, all of the holidays (including Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, which are included in the Kohelet verse in the word v’gam (and also), are considered to be days of judgment.

Perhaps the verse is teaching us, the Torah Temimah concludes, that those who observe the laws of the holidays, and of Shabbos and bris milah, are protected from evil, and certainly from any judgment for gehinnom.

In the end the Eighth day of our parsha serves as a model for what the best kind of connection to G-d is, and how to serve Him. We are to do our best to prepare for the eighth day, and we are to highlight the eighth day as the day that demonstrates His power on earth, and what it means to tap into the holiness that goes above and beyond the base of the seven days of Creation.

ALAN JAY GERBER KOSHER BOOKWORM

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rom the book “The Koren Machzor for Yom HaAtzma’ut and Yom Yerushlayim,” edited by Rabbi Reuven Ziegler, we will see an example of poetry as a motivating force for Jewish survival.

The poem, “On Jerusalem Day,” was authored by Nathan Maidenbaum, of blessed memory, a Hebrew poet and businessman of note. Emigrating from Poland as a young man, he would reside on the Lower East Side, in Borough Park, and in Lawrence. His passion for his family, faith, and people knew no bounds — a devotion that drove his life’s agenda and deeply motivated his writings, scholarship, business activities and charitable agenda.

It is a work of heartfelt religiously motivated passion that inhabits the opening gate of this unique machzor. It is a history lesson laced in rhythm and prose poetry. It reads elegantly in Hebrew and translates into English in an elegance that befits its honored place in a book of prayer.

A native of Ostrov Poland, he was educated at the famed Tochkimoni Seminary in Warsaw. Upon his arrival in America in 1932 he enrolled at Yeshiva College’s Teachers’ Institute. He was destined to become a lifelong supporter of Jewish education, with signature contributions to Yeshiva University.

In business, he was one of New York’s leading food distributors and merchants, a legacy that included Met Supermarkets and Associated. Yet, for all this, his true passion was to be found in the Holy Land, and centered in his deep devotion to Jerusalem.

With Yom Haatzma’ut and Yom Yerushalayim now before us, and with the holy festival of Shevuot not far away, we learn from our tradition the value of history, and the family tradition that serves to define each of us in our daily lives.

Rabbi Reuven Ziegler, in his introductory remarks to this work, teaches: “After two millennia of wandering and yearning, the Jewish people have returned to their homeland — a homeland that serves as a haven for Jews and a focus for Jewish

identity, that enables the flourishing of Torah and the living of a holistic life, an integrated religious life. Perhaps the central challenge of our time is to shape our old-new home, to improve it and elevate it, so that, beyond all these, it will become a fountain of holiness, a beacon of justice, and a light unto the nations. This is a challenge and opportunity that calls out to each of us.”

As Shevuot approaches, we become mindful of the Ten Commandments and of the one commandment, the honoring of our parents, that serves as the ultimate anchor of the Jewish household. This divine mandate in its practical application can be seen in the tribute recently written by Nathan Maidenbaum’s son, Shalom Maidenbaum of Lawrence: “To me, as to many children’s relationships with a parent who died too young, my dad was larger than life. Although reflecting back on my growing up years, he was just my dad in all walks of life, community, business, political, etc. Although I was only 20 when he died,

he left me with a great appreciation of the Hebrew language and its literature, as well as an appreciation for the religious roots that were the cornerstone of his Jewish identity.

“He was more concerned that I understood what I was saying when davening than with me actually completing the davening.

He would tell me, ‘what’s the point in davening if you don’t understand what you are saying?’

“His knowledge of the Tanach and his treating it as a guide to living life as well as his concern for people in general served to influence how I came to approach the world today. Zionism was part of his soul and the early study of prewar Polish Zionism accounted for his leaving Poland before the war and always keeping his love of Israel as a focal point of his life.

“He had an appreciation for the continuity of the Jewish people and therefore he respected knowledge. Thus, he engaged with people from all hashkafot, even those people

‘On Jerusalem Day’

By Nathan Maidenbaum Foreigners came to Your inheritance, 2000 years ago, smashed your walls and destroyed you, O city of righteousness, Jerusalem!

Your children were tortured, defiled, and exiled to the ends of the earth. You remained a widow separated from your children, and crushed under foreign rule. The remnants of the heroes of Massada sacrificed their lives by the solemn oath of battle, but still you fell into Ishmaelite and Crusader hands for hundreds of years.

By the streams of our exile we wept, we remembered your suffering and pain. But in our hearts (as Judah HaLevi once said) you were always the focal point and spiritual heart of the nation. We longed for you, we dreamt about you and wove dreams for you, we prayed for you. “For Jerusalem Your city,” three times a day we poured out our hearts in tears and prayers. We have been orphans separated from a loving mother, left for centuries in exile. Until thirty years ago — thank G-d! — our brave young men rose up.

The first time I walked through your outskirts, O Jerusalem, some thirty years ago, I saw you bathed in tears, hurting, plaintive, and with a mournful countenance. Then the underground’s valiant young men fought, without regard to personal safety, courageously losing their blood, against the conquerors, the British soldiers of occupation. You then appeared fettered and shackled while the soldiers of the CID — of the glorious crown of the British Empire — had you in their grasp. In those days, the British maintained their stronghold on the land; how depressed we were, our freedom

with whom he vehemently and intellectually disagreed. My dad was able to navigate the religious and secular worlds and yet still maintain his strong identity with religious Zionism. Many times in life I drew on his life’s outlook in order to guide my own unique view of the world.

“Most of all, my dad demonstrated to me to never give up my hopes and dreams and never to be a quitter. He believed in being flexible and being willing to bend. However, he also believed that you should never compromise your core values.”

This is a legacy that we can all learn from and pass on down to our own progeny. This new machzor from Koren Publishing celebrates the legacy of a generation that after the Holocaust, simply refused to give up. With G-d’s divine guidance they did the impossible. This machzor reinforces this through prayer and study. The late Nathan Maidenbaum’s poem truly sets the tone for all of us to emulate without equivocation.

being scorned, with little or no hope for our liberty.

I saw you then, Jerusalem! A divided city, and inside it Bevingrad, surrounded on every side by General Barker’s thousands of soldiers and tanks. And in the year 5708, “G-d of vengeance, shine forth!” — we were the first generation of the Redemption. Then your sons and daughters gladly mobilized for the great event, but after the Day of Independence, you were still cut by a dagger in your back. On your walls stood the Arab Legions’ units ready to do battle; on your right were Abdullah’s columns. In the middle lay the empty expanse of No Man’s Land and from afar we gazed at the Kotel with a mixture of disgrace, bitterness, and tension.

Exactly ten years ago, your sons, in an enthusiastic deed of glory, stormed and took the Old City. Fighting with self-sacrifice and love, they liberated you from your enemies and united your wounded body. Now joined together, you are whole — a Golden City.

For me each visit to Jerusalem is pleasant, as each year I trod your soil from Bait Vegan to the Kotel, such a wondrous path of feelings — the air superb and Godly. There is none like you in beauty or character. From the time of David, you are Jerusalem the capital! And let it be told to the “civilized world” today and to “our friends” that by their blood the heroes of Tzahal have sworn that not one inch of Jerusalem shall ever be taken.

You will be ours, forever and a day! United!

“A Faithful City,” for us you are a gracious divine inspiration!

As the Prophet Hosea said, in this week’s Haftarah, the heart of each Jew says to Jerusalem, “I will betroth You unto me forever.”

In a note of joy with gleeful hearts you are the hope of our lives – you are as a mother to us, as a mother.

Translated by Rabbi Pesach Tarlow on behalf of Nathan Maidenbaum

Foes of deal include lefties in Israel and America JEFF DUNETZ POLITICS TO GO

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oy oh boy, some politicians have no sense of loyalty. Benjamin Netanyahu’s major opposition, which received support and advice from some of President Obama’s campaign people (as well as some State Department dollars) during the recent Israeli election, presented an Iran plan on Sunday that was more “hawkish” than that of Netanyahu.

Leaders of the Zionist Union opposition demanded that the United States “give legitimization ahead of time to any action Israel will need to take to protect its safety,” Ynet News reported.

The bottom line of the plan set forth by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni is a demand that the American government pre-approve an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Iran violates the framework agreement signed in early April.

Others in the Israeli left have spoken out as well. Eitan Cabel, leader of the Labor Party’s

Knesset delegation said on his Facebook page, “I refuse to join those applauding the agreement with Iran, because the truth is it keeps me awake at night. President Obama promises that if the Iranians cheat, the world will know, but isn’t that exactly what the Americans promised after the agreement with North Korea? When a crazy religious regime with a proven track record of terrorism and cheating receives permission to get that close to a nuclear bomb, I am very worried. The fact that the man who is in charge of making sure the deal won’t be broken has a proven record of mocking his own redlines, makes me even more worried.”

Cabel wrote he is “standing behind Netanyahu” because “in the face of a nuclear Iran, there is no coalition and there is no opposition — we are all Israelis.”

Aluf Benn, editor of the leftist Haaretz which criticizes nerly everything Netanyahu says and does, wrote on April 5 that Netanyahu’s call for Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist as part of the deal was so good because it was originally the idea of Labor Party chairman/Zionist Union leader Yitzhak Herzog.

“Netanyahu hinted at a possible political ram-

ification of the interim nuclear agreement when he adopted Herzog’s proposal to demand that Iran recognize Israel as part of the final agreement. Netanyahu is demanding a recognition of Israel’s ‘right to exist’ and is not stating what Israel will give in return for such recognition, but a statement he made at the end of Friday’s cabinet meeting indicated some moderation of his demands. A month ago, in his speech before the Congress, Netanyahu demanded that Iran desist from its ‘aggression against its neighbors’ and from its support of international terror. Now he is justifiably focusing on Israel’s interests rather than on his touching concern for the well being of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates.”

Israeli author Ari Shavit who has won favor with the American left by writing about the need for Israel to make more concessions to the Palestinians, slammed Obama’s deal in Politico: “Iran is not an Israel-only issue. Iran should not be a Republican, or conservative or a hawkish issue. If Iran goes nuclear, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and the Gulf states will go nuclear. If Iran goes nuclear, Israel will have to change its responsible and restrained nuclear policy. If Iran goes nuclear, the Middle East will

become a multi-player nuclear arena that no one can manage and no one can control.

“Worried about ISIS? Anxious about Al Qaeda? Shocked by the carnage in Syria? Imagine what will happen when the most unstable region in the world becomes nuclearized. One outcome will be even more extremism. A second outcome will be unceasing conventional wars. A third outcome will be the proliferation of nuclear capabilities in the hands of non-state players that will use them, sooner or later, to catastrophic results. The overall outcome will be a strategic nightmare that will first disrupt the everyday life of Tel Aviv and Riyadh, then Paris and London and finally New York and Chicago.

“So the most urgent issue of day should not pit Israelis against Americans, Democrats against Republicans, liberals against conservatives. If Iran is nuclearized, everyone’s values and way of life will be endangered. If the Middle East is nuclearized, the 21st century will become a century of nuclear terror and nuclear horror.”

Read more at The JewishStar.com — plus find a late-breaking report by Dunetz on this week’s Senate co dmmittee action on the CorkerMenendez sanctions review bill..

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Nathan Maidenbaum’s poetry of Jewish survival

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Jewish Star Schools Israel ed and advocacy lives everyday at HANC HANC Israel is an important part of everyday life at HANC High School. Throughout the year students are involved in academic and co-curriculum programs related to Israel education and advocacy.

This year, HANC was selected to pilot a program sponsored by Our Soldiers Speak, an intensive six month Zionism course given to all seniors.

HANC’s Israel Advocacy Committee plans programs throughout the year to engage and educate the student body about Israel and what they can do to make a difference. From organizing a BIG Day to sell Israeli products to counter the BDS movement, to screening “Beneath the Helmet,” a film about Israeli teens’ struggle to transition from civilian life to the army one, the Israel advocacy program is always looking for ways to involve students.

Each year HANC students are selected to participate in the prestigious Write On for Israel Program featured by the Jewish Week. Noted author Yossi Klein Halevi captivated students with his talk about his book, “Like Dreamers,” the story of seven paratroopers who fought for the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967.

Recently, students initiated a campaign to write letters to soldiers stationed on the Syrian border. The organization Stand With Us gave a

seminar on how to respond to anti-Israel questions on campus. These types of programs inspire students to take action.

When the anti-Semitic opera, The Death of

Klinghoffer, was to be performed by the Metropolitan Opera, a group of seniors went to protest the performance.

The Israel Action Committee and HPAC

(HANC’s Policy Awareness Committee) inviting students to participate in a series of “Lunch Talks” that included the screening of “Crossing the Line2,” a documentary about the BDS movement on college campuses across the country, and “Israel Election for Dummies,” which helped students further their understanding of the Israeli Political Process.

HANC alum and lone Israeli Soldier, Kevin Hochhausser, stopped in as a surprise for the crowded room of students. The entire studentbody and faculty also watched Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

In reaction to the tragic acts of terror in Har Nof, HANC brought in the brother of one of victims who related the impact his brother had on the Jewish community. In addition to lunchtime tehillim groups, a school-wide siyum mishnayot was arranged in memory of the three teenage boys who were murdered last summer.

Most notably this year, HANC High School was awarded AIPAC’s first ever Early Action Exemplar Award, presented to a school for outstanding efforts to improve the American-Israel relationship by fulfilling fall and spring student initiatives to spread awareness to core student leaders and student body members.

HANC is looking forward to celebrating Yom Haatzmaut with an Eitan Katz in concert.

Shulamith to Philly Shulamith The seventh graders of Shulamith Middle Division traveled to Philadelphia on March 26 for a day of touring in the City of Brotherly Love.

Bustling with excitement, the girls boarded buses at 7 am for a ride that was blessedly uneventful, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the first stop of their whirlwind tour: The Franklin Institute.

From the human heart to the brain, to principles of gravity, the girls had the opportunity to learn about science in a new way. They also enjoyed socializing during lunch in the cafeteria and then watched an IMAX movie about sharks.

The girls also visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States.

Tour guide Mrs. Sheila Schwebel, of Tourrific Travel, arranged for the group to visit the Mikveh Israel Synagogue, the oldest continually used synagogue in the United States, where they were addressed by the rav of the shul, Rabbi Gabbai, who shared both historic details and divrei Torah. The tour ended with a delicious dinner of pizza and French fries, and a chance to visit the gift shops in the Bourse.

Thanks go to the chaperones: Mrs. Billet, Mrs. Steiner, and Morah Tali Sasson, and parents of our students, Mrs. Eichler and Mrs. Kramer.

HAFTR Congress HAFTR HAFTR High School hosted the 25th annual Yeshiva League Model Congress on March 25. Over 200 students attended from yeshiva high schools in New York and New Jersey.

Presiding were co presidents Jonathan Greenberg, Renee Frenkel, Joshua Lederer and Yonina Keschner. Hon. Ronald Goldman, administrator of the Village of Lawrence, was the keynote speaker.

Model Congress is a simulation of a congressional conference where students are placed on various committees where they prepare and debate bills.

This year students debated bills in the following committees: Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Environment and Public Works, Ethics, Foreign Relations, Homeland Security, Intelligence, Judiciary, Science and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure and Ways and Means. There was even a Crisis Committee.

Congrats to freshman Chloe Gottlieb on her Best Delegate win.

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We are very proud of our students from the classes 2014 and 2015 who have been accepted and enrolled in the following universities Adelphi University

Harvard University

Stony Brook University

Albany University

Hofstra University

SUNY-Purchase

Bar Ilan University

Hunter College

Syracuse University

Barnard College

John Jay College

Tel Aviv University

Baruch College

Johns Hopkins University

The Cooper Union

Binghamton University

Kingsborough Community College

Touro College

Boston University

LIM College

University of Connecticut

Brandeis University

Long Island University/Brooklyn

University of Maryland/Honors

Brooklyn College

Macaulay Honors College/CUNY (Baruch, Brooklyn, City, Queens)

University of Maryland Gemstone Program

California Institute of the Arts

Nassau Community College

Carnegie Mellon University

New York Institute of Technology

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

City College of New York

New York University

University of Miami

Columbia University

Parsons School of Design

University of Michigan

Cornell University

Princeton University

University of Pennsylvania

CUNY Scholars Program

Queens College

University of Pittsburgh

Dartmouth College

Queensborough Community College

Yale University

Fashion Institute of Technology

Rutgers University

Yeshiva University

George Washington University

St. Johns University

Yeshiva University Honors

Buffalo University

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