The Jewish Star

The

Pesach April 19, 2019 14 Nisan, 5779

Chag kasher v’sameach

Vol 18, No 15

JEWISH

STAR

Serving LI’s Orthodox communities HALB’s Lev Chana Early Childhood Center students got to work as Chabad’s Matzah Factory visited.

For second and third grade CAHAL students at YOSS (left), preparing for Pesach was a multi-sensory experience. Early Childhood students from Shulamith visited the matzah bakery in Crown Heights (right).

Youngsters in HAFTR’s Early Childhood Center participated last week in a dress rehearsal for their family Pesach celebrations, previewing the Seder tables that will come to life this Friday and Saturday nights.

Gap year grooms new kind of Euro Jewish leader

By Larry Luxner, JTA For the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation BERLIN — Vanessa Roth planned to go straight to law school after graduating high school in Trier, Germany. But when she saw a flier at her local synagogue advertising a Jewish gap-year program offering professional training within a Jewish milieu, her interest immediately was piqued.

Trier has a tiny Jewish community, and Roth was eager both to meet other young Jews and advance her professional ambitions.

So Roth put off her law school plans. Now in the final weeks of the JAcademy gap-year program, Roth, 19, has spent the last year living and learning with European Jews, and doing internships at a think tank in Jerusalem, a political party in London and a law firm in Berlin.

“Before JAcademy, I wasn’t involved that much in Jewish life,” Roth said. “It’s taught me a lot about myself — my strengths, my weaknesses. I’ve also learned how to speak in public, because I want to go into politics.”

Roth is among 17 young Jews from Germany, Ukraine, Spain, Greece and elsewhere in this year’s cohort of JAcademy, a unique Europe-centered, Jewish gap-year program. The idea is to give ambitious European Jews before university or between degrees the chance to develop professional skills and gain practical job experience within a Jewish context.

The ultimate goal is to help preserve Jewish life in Europe by grooming a young generation of European Jewish leaders. Based in Berlin but including stints in London, New York and Israel, the program has a ninemonth curriculum that includes three internships and instruction meant to bolster leadership qualities and Jewish identity.

The participants are young people committed to Jewish community but from places

The JAcademy gap-year program includes field trips to places like the European Union headquarters in Brussels. Right: In addition to classes in business and leadership, the Berlin-based gap-year program includes classes in Jewish religion, Zionism and modern Hebrew.

Right photo by Larry Luxner

without significant Jewish infrastructure. They need not be very Jewishly knowledgeable, but they must have strong Jewish commitment.

“Sometimes, people are very committed to Judaism, or to professional success, or to being involved in their community. What’s rare is to be committed to all three things,” said JAcademy’s interim program director, Daniel Fabian. “We’re looking for people who are professionally ambitious and seriously interested in dedicating their gap year to discovering their Jewish roots.”

Competition for acceptance into the program is fierce. For this year, its third, over 90 Jews ages 18 to 26 applied for just 17 slots.

The program is funded by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in conjunction with the Genesis Philanthropy Group, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Pratt Foundation, various private funders and student fees of about $16,000 per year. Private funders underwrite scholarships for those who cannot afford the fees.

The highlights of the year are the various trips and internships. Participants spend two months of the year in Israel, including a six-

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week professional internship in the field of their choice.

Louna Kapeta, 26, from Thessaloniki, Greece, recently completed an internship at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, where she helped find and register Holocaust survivors.

“Greece is wonderful, but the Jewish community is really small and I wanted to explore Jewish life abroad,” said Kapeta, who has a bachelor’s degree in architecture. “I grew up in a Christian Orthodox environment, so I had to tolerate people around me who didn’t know I was Jewish.”

This month, students are interning in London. Last fall, they flew to New York to spend two weeks meeting with successful CEOs, managers, rabbis and Jewish leaders, including businessman and philanthropist Ronald Lauder. Later this spring, they’ll do a third internship in Berlin. The year also includes shorter field trips, including to the European Union headquarters in Brussels and to sites of Jewish interest in Poland.

Between trips, the students live in apartments in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood and

S A V E

take classes at the nearby JAcademy building. Subjects include business English, critical thinking, conversational Hebrew and Jewish studies. Classes range from interpretation of Biblical texts to Zionist history.

“I know what it means to have a diploma but not that much experience,” said JAcademy’s project manager, Elmira Tarivierdiieva, 26, who was born and raised in Odessa, Ukraine before moving to Germany. “When you go for an interview, they want to see a CV and 15 years of experience. This project was created to give people different experiences in one year so when they go looking for jobs they’re prepared. It’s something new and unique.”

JAcademy alumni have landed prestigious jobs, including a Greek woman who started her own art gallery and a Ukrainian who became a partner in a local kosher wine venture.

The program’s main focus, however, is to bolster the future of Jewish life in Europe.

“We want people to stay here and build communities in their hometowns and be active,” Tarivierdiieva said. “We’re basically creSee Gap year on page 8

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TASTE THE FREEDOM On Passover, we open our table to all and are reminded of those still enslaved by modern-day afflictions — poverty, illness, isolation, and other challenges they can’t bear alone.

We need your help to care for those who are suffering, so all can savor the taste of freedom.

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Passing the Legacy: Pesach letter to my child

By Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky My Dear Child, It is now a quiet moment late at night. After an exhausting day of Pesach cleaning, you have sunk into the sweetest of sleeps, and I am sitting here with a pile of Haggadahs, preparing for Seder night.

Somehow the words never come out the way I want them to, and the Seder evening is always unpredictable. But so many thoughts and feelings are welling up in my mind and I want to share them with you. These are the words I mean to say at the Seder.

When you will see me at the Seder dressed in a kittel, the same plain white garment worn on Yom Kippur, your first question will be, “Why are you dressed like this?” Because it is a Yom Kippur, a day of reckoning. You see, each one of us has a double role.

First and foremost we are human beings, creatures in the image of G-d, and on Yom Kippur we are examined if indeed we are worthy of that title. But we are also components of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish People, links in a chain that started over 3,000 years ago and will make it to the finish line of the end of times. It is a relay race where a torch is passed on through all the ages, and it is our charge, to take it from the one before and pass it on to the one after.

Tonight we are being judged as to how well we have received our tradition and how well we are passing it on.

It is 3,300 years since we received that freedom in Egypt.

If we imagine the average age of having a child to be about 25 years of age, there are four generations each century. That means there is a total of 132 people stretching from our forefathers in Egypt to us today. 132 people had to pass on this heritage flawlessly, with a devotion and single‐mindedness that could not falter. Who were these 133 fathers of mine?

One had been in the Nazi death camps; one had been whipped unconscious by Cossacks. One had children stolen by the Czar, and one was the laughingstock of his “enlightened” brethren.

One lived in a basement in Warsaw with many days passing with no food to his mouth; the other ran a stupendous mansion in France. One had been burned at stake for refusing to believe

in the divinity of a flesh and blood, and one had been frozen to death in Siberia for continuing to believe in the divinity of the Eternal G-d.

One had been hounded by a mob for living in Europe rather than Palestine, and one had been blown up by Palestinians for not living in Europe.

One had been a genius who could not enter medical school because he was not Christian, and one was fed to the lions by the Romans.

132 fathers, each with his own story. Each with his own test of faith. And each with one overriding and burning desire: that this legacy be passed unscathed to me. And one request of me: that I pass this on to you, my sweet child.

What is this treasure that they have given their lives for? What is in this precious packet that 132 generations have given up everything for?

It is a great secret: That man is capable of being a lot more than an intelligent primate.

That the truth of an Almighty G-d does not depend on public approval, and no matter how many people jeer at you, truth never changes. That the quality of life is not measured by goods but by the good. That one can be powerfully hungry, and yet one can forgo eating if it is not kosher. That a penny that is not mine is not mine, no matter the temptation or rationalization. That family bonding is a lot more than birthday parties — it is a commitment of loyalty that does not buckle in a moment of craving or lust. And so much more.

This is our precious secret, and it is our charge to live it and to become a shining display of “This is what it means to live with G-d.”

132 people have sat Seder night after Seder night, year after year, and with every fiber of their heart and soul have made sure that this treasure would become mine and yours.

Doubters have risen who are busy sifting the sands of the Sinai trying to find some dried-out bones as residues of my great-great-grandfather. They are looking in the wrong place.

Our great secret: Man is more than an intelligent primate.

Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky

The residue is in the soul of every one of these 132 grandfathers whose entirety of life was wrapped up in the preservation of this memory and treasure. It is unthinkable that a message borne with such fervor and intensity, against such challenges and odds, is the result of a vague legend or the fantasy of an idle mind.

I am the 133rd person in this holy chain. At times I doubt if I am passing it on well enough. I try hard, but it is hard not to quiver when you are on the vertical shoulders of 132 people, begging you not to disappoint them by toppling everyone with you swaying in the wind.

My dear child, may G-d grant us many long and happy years together. But one day, in the distant future, I’ll be dressed in a kittel again as they prepare me for my burial. Try to remember that this is the treasure that I have passed on to you. And then it will be your turn. You will be the 134th with the sacred duty to pass on our legacy to number 135.

Rabbi Lopiansky is Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington. This essay is reprinted from his book Time Pieces (Eshel Publications, 2013).

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By Ben Sales, JTA A coalition of more than a dozen conservative groups, most of them Jewish, sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday tacitly asking him to respect a potential Israeli annexation of settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised voters in the runup to his reelection that he would move to annex at least part of the West Bank. Many right-wing politicians in Israel have been pushing annexation of some or all Israeli settlements for years.

The letter comes in response to a coalition of centrist and liberal groups that last week urged Trump not to recognize a potential annexation. The conservatives’ letter never explicitly advocates annexation or asks Trump to support it. But a press statement accompanying the letter said it aimed to urge “President Trump to permit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a free hand to extend Israeli sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.”

“For decades, Israel has attempted to nurture coexistence with Arab communities which desire to live outside Israeli governance, while retaining control over its borders and national security in that very hostile part of the world,” the letter says. “It is unfair and unreasonable to hold these Jewish communities hostage to the continuing intransigence of the Palestinian Authority.”

The signatories include the Coalition for Jewish Values, the National Council of Young Israel, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, along with a range of smaller Jewish groups.

A few non-Jewish groups also signed the letter, including Turning Point USA, a group for conservative college students, and Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a pro-settlement evangelical group.

Tuesday’s letter concludes by thanking Trump for supporting Israel.

“We gratefully acknowledge your ongoing support for Israel’s self-determination and its right to defend and protect itself, and look forward to the continued strengthening of America’s special relationship with Israel in the days and years ahead,” it says.

A separate statement from Zionist Organization of America, also sent Tuesday, endorses annexation of the settlements as “a step that is overwhelmingly desired by Israel’s people, is essential to Israel’s security, and will bring stability to the area.”

The letter to Trump last week was signed by the top Reform and Conservative Jewish organizations as well as the Anti-Defamation League, Israel Policy Forum, National Council of Jewish Women and Ameinu, a liberal Zionist group.

“We respectfully request that you affirm long-standing bipartisan consensus that the two-state solution is the essential path to an Israel existing alongside a future state of Palestine in peace and security,” that letter said, “and that you declare that the United States will not support any Israeli proposals to annex the West Bank, in whole or in part.”

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Chag Kasher V’Sameach from

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The Jewish Star will not publish during Pesach.

Our next edition will be distributed, b’ezrat Hashem, on Wednesday, May 1.

To reach The Jewish Star during Chol Hamoed, please call 718-908-5555.

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Net, Jews are buried in the Al-Sheikh

By Yoni Ben Menachem Hassan cemetery in the Bab Masala Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs The Syrian opposition recently re- area in central Damascus. Civilians ported that the remains of Israeli spy and soldiers, however, are prohibited Eli Cohen were delivered to the Rus- from approaching these graves and sians in preparation for their return photographing them. The graves are to Israel. The reports also gave details separate from others in the cemetery.

The report also said the Syrian about the remains of other Israelis authorities had arrested dozens of buried in Syria.

The Syrian opposition also issued Syrians who had connections with new information on how Syrian in- Jewish families abroad and tried to telligence has been guarding the remains of Israelis in Syria, reportedly at Syrian President Bashar Assad’s bidding.

If Cohen’s remains have indeed been transferred, they will have to undergo identification by Israel.

There has been no clear Israeli comment on these reports.

Intelligence agent Eli Cohen The first Syrian opposition report regarding Cohen’s remains came on Twit- Eli Cohen (center) posing as Arab merchant Kamel Amin Thaabet, with his friends from the Syrian army on the ter on April 14.

The tweet stated: Golan Heights overlooking Israel, mid-1960s. WikiCommons “There are unverified leaks within Damascus itself about a photograph the graves and send the coffin that was transferred with the pictures to their relatives outside of Russian delegation that left Syria. The the country. leaks say the coffin may contain the Timing of the announcement remains of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen.

The timing of the announcement is We are awaiting verification.” apparently related to developments in No other source has verified this Syria involving the return of Zachary tweet, which was first publicized in Is- Baumel’s remains for burial in Israel rael by the Jerusalem Center for Pub- and the ongoing efforts to locate, with lic Affairs. It, too, however, has not the Russians’ help, the remains of the been denied clearly by Israel. two others who went missing at SulSubsequently, the Syrian-opposi- tan Yakoub — Yehuda Katz and Zvi tion website Orient Net posted a de- Feldman. tailed report on the remains of Israelis Some of the reports may be accuburied in Syria. rate. The new information on Orient Details on Israeli MIAs Net about Assad’s role in safeguarding The report quoted Syrian intelli- the Israeli soldiers’ remains is meant gence official Omar Abu al-Abd as say- to highlight the importance the Syrian ing that President Assad had ordered regime ascribes to this issue. his security forces to guard the graves Caution is in order. It is possible of the Israeli soldiers as well as their that the Syrian opposition’s reports personal effects. Overseeing the issue are intended to embarrass Assad’s on Assad’s behalf and in direct coordi- regime and brand Assad as a colnation with the Syrian president was laborator with Israel for helping IsGeneral Ibrahim Hweijah. rael obtain the remains of the missing According to the report, Israeli sol- Sultan Yakoub soldiers and Eli Cohen diers were buried at three sites: the — notwithstanding Israel’s intensive Yarmouk refugee camp, the Al-Maza airstrikes in Syria. military airport and the Bab Masala The Syrian regime has refused for area in the center of the capital, Da- decades to return Cohen’s remains to mascus.

Israel. From the Syrian standpoint, The report also said that the re- Syria’s honor and national security mains of six Israeli soldiers were bur- suffered a huge blow when the Israeli ied in the Yarmouk camp, including spy succeeded in penetrating the rulZachary Baumel, who was killed in ing elite and providing intelligence the Battle of Sultan Yakoub in 1982 of the highest quality to Israel, which and whose body was returned to Israel helped it, among other things, to conat the beginning of April. quer the Golan Heights during the SixThe report conveyed further that Day War. the Israeli soldiers’ remains in Syria If the Syrian opposition’s inforare those of soldiers killed over the mation on the transfer of Eli Cohen’s past 50 years in battles with both He- remains to Russia is accurate, it reprezbollah and Palestinian organizations. sents a very important development.

Their graves are numbered and name- The Syrian regime will be unable to less. Syrian intelligence personnel deny it and will have to provide conguard them, along with members of vincing explanations to the Syrian the Popular Front-General Command people. organization of Ahmed Jibril.

We will have to wait for further deAccording to the report on Orient velopments.

THE JEWISH STAR April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779

Has the body of Israeli hero Eli Cohen been recovered?

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Young Jews committed to Judaism, professional success and community leadership are the backbone of the

JAcademy gap-year program.

who I really am in society, and where I’d like to go in my professional and religious life.”

In Israel, Laiter interned at Jerusalem’s Eyal Hotel, working the reception desk. In London, he’s working at the Athenaeum Hotel. In Berlin, he’ll help plan events for the Central Council of German Jews.

Noam Miller, JAcademy’s director of education, said he hopes to show young Europeans that one can live a Jewish life and succeed in business — whether on Wall Street or Fleet Street. And being an observant Jew doesn’t necessarily mean moving to Israel.

“We’re not against aliyah,” Miller said.

“It’s just that the premise is that Jewish life is going to continue in Europe, and must be strengthened.”

Josh Spinner, CEO of the Lauder Foundation, said that what makes JAcademy special is its unified approach to the opportunities and challenges facing young Jews today.

“To succeed professionally, personally and as a Jew, it is not enough simply to have values,” Spinner said. “You must live those values, and have the tools to do so.”

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Continued from page 2 ating a community of future European Jewish leaders.”

Noemi Becher, 22, of Frankfurt, enrolled in JAcademy after obtaining her bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Frankfurt’s Goethe University.

For her Israeli internship through JAcademy, Becher, who speaks fluent Hebrew, went to Israel’s Finance Ministry, where she helped collect budget data for government regulators. In London, Becher interns at an asset management company. She’s hoping her Berlin internship will be in strategic consulting.

“I was looking to take some time before getting my master’s to figure out where I want to go,” Becher said. “JAcademy has been an amazing opportunity to do just that while staying connected to my Judaism and gaining professional experience.”

Jan Laiter, 18, was born in the small German town of Magdeburg, which is home to only 600 Jews. His parents immigrated there from Ukraine.

“School doesn’t really teach you how to deal with your future,” Laiter, who speaks Russian, German, English, French, Spanish and Hebrew, said in an interview in Berlin. “Here, you have a big Jewish community. It was a good change for me to come here, to find out

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Jonathan Hochman is the only Jewish bull rider in the U.S.

Photos by Lior Sperandeo

Chai Riders, a Jewish motorcycle club, is the subject of an episode of “American Country.”

BBQ to rodeo, culture links Jewish, US cultures

By Linda Buchwald, JTA Bluegrass music, barbecue, rodeo, motorcycle clubs, fireworks: five things one doesn’t normally expect to intersect with Jewish culture. But those are the topics explored in a five-part documentary web series by Oriel Danielson for the Israeli Broadcasting Corp., or Kan — the PBS of Israel.

Jewish Country tells the stories of Jews combining their heritage with Americana traditions in authentic ways. In one episode, we meet a motorcycle club called Chai Riders. In the first one, Danielson stays up all night with RaBBi-Q, a Chabad rabbi and barbecue master who lived in Kansas at the time, as they smoke the meat in a parking lot.

“I found out that there is a whole scene of kosher barbecue,” Danielson said, “and there are festivals and there are hundreds of people Jewish people in America who engage in this part of American culture in their own way.”

One episode follows Nefesh Mountain, a husband-and-wife folk duo who write songs with a

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spiritual bent in English and Hebrew. Jonathan Hochman, the only Jewish bull rider in America, is the subject of his own episode.

“Obviously, you’ll find Jewish people who do anything, but I wanted to find not only Jewish people, but people who combine those things with their Jewish identity,” Danielson said. “It wouldn’t be enough to find a Jewish person who plays the banjo. You can find that. That wasn’t what I was looking for. But I wanted to explore the people who through this music that is very American and Western express their Jewish identity.”

The seeds of the idea came to Danielson after writing about the Jewish community of Fort Smith, Arkansas. It got him thinking about rural Jewish culture in America. He began looking for Jewish people in the U.S. engaged in Americana fields. Before the project, he thought of American Jews as situated in New York, Florida and California — not other places in the West, the South and the Midwest.

Seeing people of all backgrounds (Jewish and

non-) show up for a Nefesh Mountain concert at an amphitheater in Memphis, Tennessee, was moving for Danielson. Some had maybe never met a Jewish person — a common refrain from Americans he met during his travels. But he sees Nefesh Mountain and the other subjects of his series as breaking down barriers.

“They’re talking about these things that are not as easy to talk about in those parts of America,” he said, referring to how open the stars of the show are about their religion.

The series also depicts a road trip of two close friends. Danielson’s best friend, Lior Sperandeo, filmed the series, and the viewer can sometimes hear them conversing, which adds a light, fun touch to the episodes.

“We made a huge effort to make the series visually pleasing. It’s a documentary series, but it’s very cinematic,” Danielson said.

He said one of Kan’s priorities is to keep the connection between Israel and the Diaspora strong. The series is in English and Hebrew with

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“I think this show will be interesting both for Israelis and Americans,” said Danielson said.

“And for Jewish people and non-Jewish people, honestly. When two cultures meet, it creates something new and interesting in my opinion.”

Danielson himself comes from two different cultures: His father is Swedish and his mother is Israeli. He was born in Sweden but raised in Israel.

He is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes the short The Perfect Soda, but this is the first documentary series that Danielson has produced from start to finish.

For now, Jewish Country is a five-episode series. Down the road, however, Danielson hopes to explore the younger generation of American Jews.

“I’m curious about more American pop culture and how young Jewish people in America who are not religious practice and keep their Jewish identity,” he said. “That’s the next step.”

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The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Two new recipe books that speak to the soul Kosher Kitchen

Joni SchocKett

Jewish Star columnist

B

y the middle of Passover, the only thing I crave is lettuce and cucumber. It is the start of my clean eating time; I’m ready to replenish the house with only foods that are clean and fresh and pure — nothing processed and, for me at least, certainly no meat, chicken, or matza balls. I am happiest in a veggie state of mind right after this holiday.

So, instead of recipes this week, I’m presenting a couple of excellent new foodie books that can fill our minds with great reading and let our tummies have a rest. I guarantee no one ever gained weight from reading a book, unless they make all the recipes in it, which you just might be tempted to do.

I loved these books and I think you will enjoy them also. One has lots of recipes, one has just a few, but both are worth a few hours of your time and I promise you will be inspired and entertained.

••• The hottest book to hit the Jewish food book market this spring is The 100 Most Jewish Foods, by Alana Newhouse, editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine. I read this from cover to cover and then made gribenes for the first time in a decade or more. After reading the book, I longed for that special aroma and indescribable flavor of my early childhood in my grandmother’s apartment. I collected the chicken skin with the help of my butcher and added a ton of onions. I rendered and cooked and soon the house was eliciting memories of the tiny white octagonal tiles that made up the floor of her entryway and the smooth marble stairs that led to her apartment — the perfume of rising challot and rendering chicken fat wafting through the air. I will use the chicken fat for my potato kugel for the Sedorim. Why gribenes? Because there are actually two mentions of this long-eschewed delicacy — gribenes and schmaltz!

This book is delicious! It is meant to be read slowly, digested like a big, filling meal. It is purposely designed to bring back those memories of long-gone appetizer stores, delis, and bakeries, meals in Grandma’s kitchens, and foods no longer available.

Another long-forgotten, Jewish food are the chicken eggs — eyerlech, as my grandmother called them — that long ago came with cut-up chickens. Eggs? Not what we know at all. When I was a child, the butcher would bring the cutup chicken; the feet were in the package and so was a small glass jar of these golden egg yolks.

My mother would slip them into the chicken soup, and, once cooked, my brother and I would fight over them.

Somehow, my grandmother always had a large bowl of those cooked golden orbs on the table for Passover. She had to; eleven grandchildren fought over them! She gave them to the youngest or thinnest in the belief that they would make us better eaters or help us grow.

As one of the youngest, and certainly the pickiest eater, I often got them and my older cousins would steal them off the plate! Today these are no longer sold, as they cannot be tested for salmonella, but the entry in the book brought back memories.

As the title states, this is a “highly debatable list,” which may be true depending on your age.

I can still remember calf’s foot jelly, those eggs in the soup, fish in my grandmother’s bathtub, and homemade challah every week. I am less familiar with Sephardic dishes like shakshuka

and adafina and carciofi alla giudia — that’s baby artichokes, Jewish style. Still, it is wonderful to see these dishes from around the world included in this list, which, I am sure, will be the focal point of much debate during the coming months!

The 100 Most Jewish Foods was so much fun that I called a friend and read her some of excerpts. What makes it even better is the recipe that follows each of these iconic foods, so you can replicate each at home.

Are there foods missing? Well, where are the knishes? My brother once alarmed our parents when he announced that he was going to a bar mitzvah with the KKK — kishke, knishes, and kreplach! There was a time when these were served at all such affairs.

Are other foods missing? Probably, but with 100 foods and almost as many recipes, this is a book that will keep a reader busy for a long, long time. And, how can a book that includes Hydrox cookies, black-and-whites, and cheesecake not be fun? There is even the case for making “leftovers” a Jewish food!

Treat yourself to this wonderful, fun book and learn a bit of history, a bit of gastronomy and a whole lot about what makes us all love all those delicious foods that are so much a part of our lives. You may even decide to try some of the iconic foods from the other half of our people, whether Ashkenazi or Sephardic!

••• I love making challah. The perfume of yeast in a warm kitchen is homey and welcoming and, yes, brings back my grandmother. I love the physical activity of kneading bread. I sing while I knead, sometimes out loud, or sometimes in a quiet hum depending on my mood.

I have laughed as I daydream or remember

something funny one of my kids said, and I have cried many times, missing my dad, or a friend, or my dear cousin who died suddenly on the first night of Pesach several years ago.

I used kneading for physical therapy after my shoulder was shattered in a freak accident.

I was told to that, someday, I might be able to raise my arm parallel to the ground. Today, I can easily reach my highest shelf and swim long lazy laps in a serviceable crawl. I credit long hours of kneading challot with strengthening the muscles of my arm and shoulder. I can even pick up my toddler grandson, at 32 pounds, with no pain!

So this all brings me to Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs, by Beth Ricanati, MD. This is not a recipe book — though it does have recipes — but a spiritual journey of how making challah regularly brought stability and calm to the life of a super busy mother and doctor.

I loved this book. I began reading it at my desk and soon took it to my den, where I curled up in a recliner, cuddled up with my furry throw, and read until the last page. Once finished, I wanted to start again. I wanted to go and bake challah immediately. I wanted to make challah every week for the rest of my life.

That was the impact of this book.

We are all too busy. I watch my daughter juggle an intensely demanding job while mothering an energetic toddler, taking care of a new house, driving a long commute, and awaiting the birth of her next child. I wonder how she does it. I worry for her and her friends who are all in the same position. I watch my friends who are still working long hours, fearful of retirement for many reasons. I watch newly retired friends who have been called into action to babysit or pick up grandchildren after school and

more. No snowbird lifestyle for them!

Stress is a major part of our lives these days, and, as Dr. Ricanati states, it is a killer. One Friday, not knowing if she could face another day, she made challah. The act of kneading the dough, the physical pressure and rhythm soothed her. She began to make it every Friday and has continued to do so for ten years.

This is a book that will take you a place of peace rooted in ancient ritual. I know that when I knead the dough, I find that place in my soul that allows me to escape the anxiety-producing moments of life and settle down, as the flour, yeast, and eggs and more become smooth and strong and elastic. I am truly in the moment and I feel the special rhythm as I push the heel of my hand into the soft dough again and again.

As I turn it, oiled side up, I relax, knowing the wonderful smell of yeasty dough fills the house with its wonderful smell.

Ricanati writes about everything, from the honey she uses, which comes from a friend who saved a fallen beehive, to using the same bowl, the same utensils and more. Her “sidebars” are interesting and add much to the tone of this introspective book. One of the moments that resonated with me was when she discovered that she was not kneading the dough long enough.

As she kneaded the next challah longer, she felt the dough change and take on a new feeling. I understood that immediately. Being present in the process allows you to feel when the dough becomes just right, just the perfect consistency for making a perfect challah.

Read this and take it all in, then make some challah. I hope you will be able to find the peace and tranquility that I find when I make a challah, and about which Ricanati has so beautifully written.

13 THE JEWISH STAR April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779

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Wine & Dine

‘Old school’ Passover popovers make a comeback

By Sonya Sanford, The Nosher Passover popovers fall into the category of “old school” Jewish food. Like mandel bread or matzah brei, they’re one of those dishes my grandmother always made during the holiday.

These recipes were popular in a time when every baked Passover dish seemed to be made of matzah meal and before there was an abundance of grain-free flours and quinoa. You’ll find recipes for these popovers in classic Jewish cookbooks, and I think they deserve some renewed attention.

The batter for these popovers is similar to choux pastry. Choux is a pastry dough that consists of flour, butter, water and eggs, and it’s the base for éclairs, gougères and cream puffs. When choux pastry gets baked, it puffs up and crisps on the outside, but is hollow on the inside.

Instead of flour and butter, the batter for Passover popovers is made with oil and matzah meal, making them dairy — and chametz-free.

There’s a little sugar added for flavor, but these skew savory rather than sweet.

Pastry dough might sound intimidating to make, but the ingredients are few, and the only tools required to make the batter is a large pot and a wooden spoon.

The eggs give the popovers their rise, an airy texture and richness. I’ve added turmeric

for a golden hue. There’s no need for a special popover dish — a muffin tray will work just fine. You can use either a standard 12-cup tray or make them in a mini-muffin tin if you prefer.

I love to serve these as a Passover dinner roll alongside my entrée at the Seder. During the week, the popovers go well with any kind

of soup, or even at your breakfast spread with some jam, served with tea or coffee.

Ingredients: 2 cups water 1 cup oil 2 Tbsp. sugar 1 tsp. kosher salt

2 cups matzah meal 1 tsp. turmeric 7 large eggs Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. 2. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with oil or cooking spray.

3. Add oil, water, sugar and salt to a large pot and bring the liquids to a boil. Simmer for a minute until the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove the pot from the heat and use a wooden spoon to quickly mix in the matzah meal and turmeric. Allow the matzah meal mixture to cool until it is warm to the touch. If the mixture is too hot, it can scramble your eggs!

4. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in each egg with a wooden spoon until fully incorporated.

5. Fill each muffin tin 3/4 full. You will have enough for about 16 to 18 popovers, more if you use a smaller-sized muffin tin. Cook the popovers in batches one tray at a time.

6. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325 F. 7. Bake for 35 minutes or until crisped and golden brown. If you prefer to use a smallersized muffin tin, bake for 25 minutes. Can be served warm or at room temperature.

Decadent red wine braised short ribs with prunes

By Leanne Shor, The Nosher Braised short ribs are a decadent and delicious alternative to brisket for Passover, or anytime you want to serve up a very special meal.

They are so tender from cooking low and slow, they literally fall off the bone. Adding dried fruit to meaty dishes is one of my favorite tricks for creating a sweet and savory flavor profile. Plus, the acidity from the red wine and balsamic vinegar adds an extra special touch of umami.

The trick to a tender and flavorful dish for many kinds of braised meat dishes is creating layers of flavor, which begins by browning the short ribs in a large pan to lock in the juices and caramelize the meat. Then I add a mix of chopped aromatic vegetables (onions, carrots and celery) to cook in the fat rendered by the meat, getting all those “good bits” off the bottom of the pan.

After the vegetables have softened, it’s time to add the liquids — in this case, sweet wine, stock and balsamic vinegar — and then cook it all low and slow until the meat is crazy tender.

I love to serve these short ribs with mashed or roasted potatoes, roasted vegetables and wilted greens. But be warned — they are devoured quickly.

Ingredients: 3 lbs. bone-in short ribs

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves 1 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper 1/4 cup olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 3 medium carrots, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 3 bay leaves 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar 1-1/2 cups sweet wine or 1 cup of port 2-1/2 cups full bodied red wine, Cabernet or Merlot 5 cups beef stock 1-1/2 cups pitted prunes Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish (optional) Directions: 1. Remove the short ribs from the fridge and rub well with black pepper and fresh thyme leaves. Let the short ribs sit out for about an hour while they come to room temperature.

2. In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, then brown the short ribs over high heat on each side. Work in batches and don’t crowd the pan to ensure that each

piece gets good caramelization.

3. Place the browned short ribs in a heavy bottom Dutch oven; set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Add the onions, carrots and celery to the skillet where you browned the short ribs, and cook over medium heat for

about 7 to 8 minutes until the vegetables soften and start to caramelize. Add the balsamic vinegar, port and red wine to the vegetables, then turn the heat up to high, bring the mixture to a boil, and cook until the liquids have reduced by about half. Add the beef stock and bring the mixture back to a boil.

4. Pour the wine mixture over the short ribs and add the bay leaves and pitted prunes to the Dutch oven.

Cover with a tight-fitting lid and braise the short ribs for about 3 hours in the oven.

Remove the lid from the pot for the last 15 minutes of cooking to crisp up the short ribs and ensure that sauce is thickened slightly.

5. Serve with mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables or wilted greens. Be sure to serve each portion with plenty of the pan sauces and a few prunes. Serves 6.

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Buttigieg calls Pence a ‘Pharisee,’ angering Jews

By Ben Sales, JTA Pete Buttigieg has a word he likes to use to describe Vice President Mike Pence: “Pharisee.” Jewish scholars would like him to stop doing that.

Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, running a dark horse campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, has advanced the idea of liberal candidates using religious language to talk about their values. The flip side of that, Buttigieg says, is that Republican leaders don’t practice the religious values they preach. He takes particular aim at Pence, who often speaks of his own conservative Christian values while serving under President Donald Trump. Buttigieg has criticized Trump for paying off an adult film actress with whom he allegedly had an affair. Buttigieg believes that reeks of hypocrisy, so he uses an age-old Christian metaphor for hypocrites: the Pharisees.

“There’s an awful lot about Pharisees in there,” Buttigieg told the Washington Post, referring to the New Testament while discussing Pence. “And when you see someone, especially somebody who has such a dogmatic take on faith that they bring it into public life, being willing to attach themselves to this administration for the purposes of gaining power, it is alarmingly resonant with some New Testament themes, and not in a good way.”

The Pharisees were one of several Jewish sects during the first century, the time of Jesus. They also include the rabbis of the Talmud and the creators of Rabbinic Judaism, the ideological ancestor of mainstream Jewish practice today.

But in Christian discourse, the Pharisees have taken on the role of “hypocrites, fools and a brood of vipers, full of extortion, greed, and iniquity,” wrote Amy-Jill Levine, a professor at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, in an article in Sojourners magazine.

That’s because the New Testament Gospels say Pharisee leaders criticized Jesus, and then lambaste them for hypocrisy.

“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat,” reads Matthew, chapter 23. ”So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”

Buttigieg repeated that idea in an appearance last month on ABC’s “The View,” again right after talking about Pence.

“The Bible is full of — it talks about this,” he said. “It talks about hypocrites. It talks about Pharisees.”

Pence, the former governor of Indiana, responded to Buttigieg’s criticism in an interview with CNBC.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., at a news conference in Alex Wong/Getty Images Washington on Jan. 23.

“He said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally. And he knows better. He knows me,” the vice president said.

Although almost no Jews describe themselves as Pharisees today, the word is still anti-Semitic because it refers to Jews, said Danya Ruttenberg, an author who has criticized Buttigieg in the past for using the term. She compared it to a kid on a playground using the word “gay” as an insult. Even though the kid may not be referring to sexual orientation, Ruttenberg said, using the word in a negative light still perpetuates homophobia.

“When you use that as an insult, you’re saying that Jews are bad,” she said. “It perpetrates anti-Semitism: Jew as bad guy, as Christ killer, is one of the ways people have justified murder and pogroms and the Inquisition and the Holocaust for centuries.”

Over the past two millennia, people have also described the Pharisees as money and power hungry, said Sara Ronis, an assistant professor of theology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

Those traits were appended to the Pharisees over time, she said, in part because they are common anti-Semitic tropes.

Ronis added that many modern depictions of Pharisees show them in striped shawls — what many Jews would recognize as the tallit, or Jewish prayer shawl.

“So many textbooks trace Rabbinic Judaism to the Pharisees,” she said. “Using that language as a negative slur today, when I

think so many people have this stereotype … the associations people have unconsciously between that and Jews certainly doesn’t help with modern stereotypes around Jews and money and control and secret power.”

Chris Meagher, Buttigieg’s national press secretary, said in a statement to the JTA that “Pharisee” is a common expression for hypocritical leaders.

“The mayor expressed his concern about the hypocrisy on the part of evangelical leaders,” Meagher said. “He invoked this Biblical reference, since it is commonly used to show skepticism of hypocritical establishment leaders. That was the way he intended it.”

Buttigieg has criticized Pence in the context of his calls to build a religious left-wing movement to counter the religious right. He says that his religious values — of caring for the poor and helping the stranger — track with liberal policy.

“I do think there are the stirrings out there in our count right now of a religious left that understands that living your faith might also have to do with paying more attention to those most in need and not celebrating those who already have the most wealth and the most power,” he said on “The View.”

That’s similar to what a lot of liberal rabbis have been saying for a while. A range of major Jewish organizations tend to take liberal positions on domestic issues, and the Reform movement, American Judaism’s largest denomination, is vocally left wing on a broad spectrum of issues.

Orthodox groups have tended more to the right, and earlier this year two major Orthodox groups spoke out against a New York law that liberalized abortion policy. But the major American Jewish denominations have found consensus on some issues, like Donald Trump’s 2017 travel ban, which all opposed, and last year’s family separation policy.

Other prominent liberal Democrats, such as the presidential candidates Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, have talked about their Christian faith on the campaign trail.

Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah, a liberal rabbinic human rights group with 2,000 member rabbis, said Buttigieg need only look to the Jewish community for an example of a religious left.

“There’s no need to bring back the religious left because the religious left is out there and it’s strong,” she said. “It’s crucial that those of us who are doing their human rights work out of a religious place are speaking about it in religious terms.”

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Cornell rejects

BDS resolution

Cornell University’s Student Assembly has rejected a resolution calling for the school to divest from entities “profiting from the occupation of Palestine and human-rights violations.”

The final secret-ballot tally was 14 in favor, 13 against and one abstention, plus two “community votes” against the measure.

The “community vote” was 248 in favor, 330 against and four abstentions.

“Good for the students for seeing through the BDS scam,” AMCHA director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin told JNS. “The victory is a tribute to the sustained, collaborative efforts of students and community members at the university, as evidenced by the two community votes against the resolution, which proved to be decisive in the outcome,” Liel Asulin, campus coordinator for CAMERA on Campus, told JNS. “Like all BDS resolutions, its biased, anti-Israel content fuels misinformation on the campus.”

Ahead of the vote, an Israeli student at Cornell, Shir Kidron, whose home was hit by a rocket launched by Hamas from Gaza, was told in a Facebook comment by a pro-Palestinian campus group to “quit complaining about how it ruined your brunch plans.” Kidron wrote in the Cornell Sun about the experience and warned about the growing ramifications of BDS. In March, Cornell University president Martha E. Pollack rejected BDS. —JNS

Anti-Semitic posters that referred to “an evil Jewish plot” were discovered at the Davis Library of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said he was “disappointed and appalled that anyone would write these abhorrent messages and direct them towards members of our Jewish community.”

North Carolina Hillel Executive director Ari Gauss said “the language is reminiscent of centuries-old, anti-Semitic rhetoric that incited the murder of thousands of Jews in pogroms throughout Eastern Europe and the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. This racist, repulsive language has no place on any campus or in any society.”

The incident comes on the heels of an antiIsrael, anti-Zionist conference sponsored by UNC and Duke University in March. A video from that event shows Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian rapper, performing an anti-Semitic song.

UNC at first defended the event, “Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics and Possibilities,” claiming the video and supplemental audio “was heavily edited, and … we do not believe [it] represents the spirit of scholarship at the event.”

But after viewing raw footing from the event, Duke University President Vincent Price and Provost Sally Kornbluth said this: “We want to be very clear: anti-Semitism is one of the great scourges of modern life. Its resurgence, as demonstrated by the worldwide increase in hate crimes and incidents, is deeply troubling and should be of great concern to any civil society. … On our campus and beyond, the lines of politics, trust, activism and civility cannot become so blurred that we lose our commitment to mutual respect.”

North Carolina Hillel slammed the event, saying that its speakers “demonized Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and included too few perspectives from scholars who could have provided balanced context and multiple viewpoints on this challenging subject.” —JNS

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Santa Barbara: No on anti-Israel vote

After more than nine hours of debate, students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, rejected a resolution that, had it passed, would have followed other student governments in the University of California system that already passed such a measure calling on the UC system to divest from companies doing business in Israel.

The final tally was 10 votes in favor and 14 against.

StandWithUs and Students Supporting Israel applauded the result.

“We are incredibly proud of the students at UC Santa Barbara who defeated this campaign of hatred and propaganda for the sixth time in seven years,” said Max Samarov, a UCSB alum and the executive director of research and strategy at StandWithUs. “Resolutions like this one have only served to harm students and hinder efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians together.”

“I am open to reading a neutral resolution,” said SSI co-president Rachel Greenberg.

“Senate should criticize countries that commit human-rights violations without singling out a country: Israel.”

“The resolution continues to fail each year for the simple reason that BDS fails to acknowledge the nuanced and complex nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and aims to place blame solely on one entity in a multi-faceted issue,” she added. “I am incredibly proud that our elected senators listened to the voices of their constituents and said no to this hateful resolution.” —JNS

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Omar Barghouti, founder and leader of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, was denied from entering the United States last week. He was informed by airline staff at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel that U.S. immigration officials told the American consul in Tel Aviv to block him from boarding.

Barghouti had scheduled a speaking tour at places including Harvard and New York universities, meetings with policymakers in Washington, and an appearance at a bookstore owned

by Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, who was fired from CNN in November after addressing the United Nations, where he called for Israel’s annihilation. He was also planning to attend his daughter’s wedding.

The decision to deny Barghouti entry may be part of a larger crackdown on BDS in the United States. House Republican lawmakers are launching a discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor on a Senate bill that would allow state and local governments the right to punish state or local contractors from engaging in boycotting Israel. To date, 27 U.S. states that have adopted laws designed to penalize boycotts against Israel.

Meanwhile, emerging evidence has linked BDS groups in the United States to Palestinian terror organizations.

Barghouti founded the BDS movement in July 2005; later, he co-founded the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) in November 2007. The BNC leads and supports the BDS movement, and according to Barghouti, “sets the overall strategies, the objectives of the movement.” The BNC has been linked to the U.S.-designated terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

According to Canary Mission, Barghouti has “expressed support for terrorism, promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and regularly demonizes Israel. He opposes the Jewish right to self-determination and Israel’s existence, openly calling for its destruction as a Jewish state.”

Born in Qatar and raised in Egypt, Barghouti holds two degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University and resides in Israel.

Hateful posters found at UNC

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Barghouti denied entry to the US

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The JEWISH STAR CAlendar of Events

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Hagalas Keilim: Halacha Hotline offers a community hagalas keilim in the parking lot of Beis Midrash Ishei Yisrael. Kasher your items ahead of Pesach. Items should be cleaned and unused for 24 hours before kashering. 4 to 7 pm.

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Uncle Moishy: Uncle Moishy Chol Hamoed concert, hosted by TAG Girls’ School. Includes free activity book.1:45 pm. 444 Beach 6th St, Far Rockaway. UncleMoishyWorld.com; 844-4862536. $18.

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Holocaust Film: “Who Will Write Our History,” on Warsaw ghetto resistance. Followed by interactive discussion with executive producer Nancy Spielberg. Hosted by Young Israel of Jamaica Estates. 8 pm. 83-10 188th St, Jamaica Estates.

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Shabbat Chazzanut: At Beth Sholom, featuring Chazzan Yisrael Rand of the Great Synagogue in Ramat Gan, Chazzan Shimmy Miller of Beis Naftoli in Los Angeles, special guest Chazzan Joel Kaplan, and the Young Israel Beth-El Choir.

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Yom Hashoah: Rabbi Joseph Potasnik keynotes a Holocaust Remembrance Day program hosted by Shaaray Shalom. Topic: “What is the Message of Yesterday for Today.” 7 pm. 711 Dogwood Ave, West Hempstead. 516-967-0726. Free.

Names Not Numbers: Greater Five Towns commemoration of the six million martyrs. Featuring child survivor Judith Alter Kallman, performance by HALB 5th-grade choir, and “Names, Not Numbers” video presentation by HAFTR middle school. 7:30 pm. 390 Broadway, Lawrence.

Friday May 3

Rubashkin Speaks: Chazaq & Congregation Anshei Shalom present Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, on “Emunah + Bitachon = Geulah.”

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Jerusalem: Lecture series on Sacred Cities of the World by Ron Brown features Jerusalem.

Great Neck Main Library community room. 2 pm.

159 Bayview Ave, Great Neck. 516-466-8055.

Sharsheret Luncheon: Honoring Shari & Nathan J. Lindenbaum, Dr. B. Aviva Preminger, and Racheli Bloom Poleyeff. Teaneck Marriot at Glenpointe; includes silent auction. 10 am. 100 Frank W. Burr Blvd, Teaneck.

Greek Jewish Festival: Celebrating the unique Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue. Authentic kosher Greek food and pastries, live music, dance, synagogue tours, outdoor marketplace. 12 pm to 6 pm. 280 Broome St, Manhattan.

Book Signing: Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County presents “While There’s Life: Poems from the Mittelsteine Labor Camp (1944-1945), ” by Ruth Minsky Sender.

Poetry reading and book signing. 3 pm. 100 Crescent Beach Road, Glen Cove. RSVP 516-571-8040 or info@hmtcli.org. $10 suggested donation.

Monday May 20

Women’s Leadership Summit: OU Women’s Initiative invites female lay leaders who are impacting schools, synagogues, and other community organizations to connect, develop, and grow. Presenters include Erica Brown, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, Leslie Ginsparg-Klein, Allison Josephs, and Chani Neuberger. Space is limited.

Dinner: Mesivta Ateres Yaakov annual dinner.

Honoring Mr. & Mrs. Avi Dreyfuss, Dr. & Mrs. Yechiel Berkowitz, celebrating the Class of 2009, dedication of the Bahn Otzer Haseforim in memory of Dr. Saul Bahn. 7 pm. 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach. RSVP Dinner@AteresYaakov.com or 516-374-6465.

Tuesday May 21

Beth Sholom Supperette: The Sisterhood of Congregation Beth Sholom hosts its annual supperette. Guests of honor Molly Lilker and Carol Small; also honoring Tammy Schreiber with Service Award and Chaya Miller with Special Recognition Award. 5 pm boutiques; 7:15 pm dinner.

Sunday May 26 Cross River Open: Jewish premier tennis experience at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, benefitting Our Place. Men’s singles and doubles and women’s singles and doubles. Family entertainment, deluxe lunch. 516-512-4494.

Memorial Day Parade: Annual CedarhurstLawrence community Memorial Day Parade will march down Central Avenue. 10 am. Begins Rockaway & Central Ave, Cedarhurst. 516-295-5770.

Thursday May 30

FD Dinner: Familial Dysautonomia NOW Foundation hosts its 17th annual dinner honoring Jolyn & Lane Sparber. Support research that will drive better treatments and cures for patients with this Ashkenazi Jewish genetic disease. 6 pm. 775 Branch Blvd, Cedarhurst.

Monday June 3

Sunday May 12

Language of Life: Hatzalah of the Rockaways & Nassau County dinner at the Sands. 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach. HatzalahRL.org.

Beth Sholom Dinner: 67th Annual Testimonial dinner to support Beth Sholom of Lawrence.

Guests of Honor Phyllis & Philip Kerstein; Lifetime Service Award Pilar & Richie Olmedo. 6 pm. 390 Broadway, Lawrence. 516-569-3600 ext. 21.

Wednesday May 15

Tuesday June 4

Night of Heroes: Friends of the Israel Defense Forces hosts its 8th annual community event for the Five Towns & Greater South Shore community at the Sands of Atlantic Beach. Honoring Malky & Jay Spector, and Judith & Zoltan Lefkovits. 7 pm. 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach. 646-2749661; FIDF.org/FTGSS2019.

Sunday May 19 1023175

April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Jewish Nurses: Annual conference of the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association. Workshops on many topics including Jewish issues in the field.

Earn 6.5 contact hours and 6.25 CME. Includes breakfast and lunch. 227 West 60th St, Manhattan. Register at JewishNurses.org.

White Shul Dinner: 97th annual dinner, honoring Rabbi & Rebbetzin Motti & Avigayil Neuberger and celebrating Rabbi Neuberger’s installation as associate rabbi. 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach. 718-327-0500; info@whiteshul. com.

Thursday June 27

Nazi Art: Raymond Dowd speaks on the topic of “From Murder to Museums: Current Controversies over Nazi-Looted Art,” including restitution, advocacy for the return of stolen art, and coverage of ongoing cases. Great Neck Main Library community room. 2 pm. 159 Bayview Ave, Great Neck. 516-466-8055.

By Eliana Rudee, JNS During times of tension and violence between Gaza and Israel, international media tends to focus primarily on the latest destruction and deaths, especially in Gaza, compared to the deep psychological consequences of war. “If it bleeds, it leads,” as New York Magazine journalist Eric Pooley once said.

But even rarer than dialogue regarding longterm social consequences of violence is postconflict discourse of the economic consequences of tensions and terrorism. In the context of the recent economic growth of Israel’s Gaza Envelope region, rockets represent a serious challenge — not only to the physical and emotional well-being of families in the area, but also for the economic well-being of the region.

Over the past year, the Gaza Envelope population has increased, and with it, positive signs of economic growth. Despite the threat of spillover from the Palestinian March of Return on the Gaza border that has taken place nearly every Friday for a year, in that same time frame more than 50 families have relocated to the Gaza Envelope area — 20 to the Kerem Shalom border community alone. A new mayor was elected in Sha’ar Hanegev, Ofir Libstein, whose platform and vision focuses on boosting economic growth in the region. Several hundreds of new housing developments are being built in Sderot and the surrounding communities, and new businesses have emerged to diversify the local industry.

Clearly, the communities in the Gaza Envelope are seeing the fruits of their focus on economic development.

But while they have spent the past year moving forward, when tension increases — as the communities witnessed in the most recent bout of Palestinian rockets in March — the region’s businesses are often thrown back into disarray.

Rockets introduce various challenges to continued economic growth, especially for the shipping

Aerial photo of new neighborhoods being built in the Halutza communities of the Gaza Envelope.

and manufacturing industries that are common in the south.

“Security issues and red alerts have a negative impact on regional economic development,” said Ofer Maimon, CEO of Eshkol Regional Enterprises Company and Manager of Avshalom Industrial Park. He told JNS, “There is a problem with transportation when there are red alerts; meetings are cancelled because nobody wants to drive on the roads.”

“Businesses in the region already experience challenges being far from infrastructure, and then when you add snipers and bombs to that, we see a negative impact,” he added.

Even so, Maimon has witnessed the growth of communities and companies in the region, as well as business cooperation with those companies, “not just as a charity case, but as a good business decision.”

JNF

‘Making the desert bloom’ Similarly, according to Itzhak Oppenheim, American expat and owner of a medical-device factory in the Gaza Envelope, economic growth in the region increases by 5 percent to 7 percent every year — double the rest of the country’s growth rate of about 3 percent. He described what the region was like five or six years ago: “the American equivalent of Wyoming, with a lot of sand, dust, and some agriculture, but not much beyond that.”

But in the last year, Oppenheim told JNS, he has seen startups moving to the region, including a food-technology company, a brewery, and a medical-device research and development center.

“I have seen a tremendous influx of employees moving here seeking economic opportunities, to continue the Zionist vision and [seek] a better quality of life here than in Tel Aviv,” he

maintained, noting that there’s high demand to live in the Eshkol region, with a waiting list for many of the moshavim and kibbutzim (communities reminiscent of Israel’s pioneering, agricultural and close-knit communal beginnings).

Oppenheim moved from Jerusalem to B’nei Nitzarim, a community fewer than 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Gaza, because of the higher quality of life and actualizing his “Zionist vision” of “making the desert bloom by living somewhere where nobody has lived,” he said, recalling his “sand driveway” when he moved in.

“And now we have the best park in all of Israel,” he said, referring to the HaBsor National Park — a green point and source of attraction for tourists in the northern Negev, planted by the Jewish National Fund, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Regional Council.

Amid the economic opportunity, quality of life and fulfillment of the Zionist vision, Oppenheim acknowledged that there are many challenges living and owning businesses in the region.

“Kites, riots and rockets grate on us,” he said.

“If I haven’t slept in two days because my house has been shaking, my kids won’t sleep at night, so I don’t sleep. I can show up to work, but I won’t be very productive,” he explained.

With trauma caused by the rockets, he continued, sometimes his employees’ children don’t feel well, and instead of going to school, the parents will bring the children into work.

“This also economically impacts a business from a productivity standpoint,” he said. “[As] a small-business owner with a heart and living in the area, I try to understand my employees’ struggles and let them come in on a flexible schedule.”

To improve quality of life during difficult times, Oppenheim also mentioned contributions from the government and organizations like JNF that promote growth and jobs in the area.

“I spend a lot of time on the road, and at evSee Gaza on page 20

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THE JEWISH STAR April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779

Communities near Gaza grow despite terror

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Gaza...

pensation when businesses are impacted. As the regional liaison, he encourages nearby communities to continue their vision of being the “pioneers of the 21st century, building the periphery to do something meaningful for the country,” as well as the practical goal of building the Negev “for the next generation that won’t be able to afford to live in the center of Israel.”

He also encourages business and kibbutzim in the region to work together to diversify eco-

Continued from page 19 ery bus stop, there’s a bomb shelter,” he said.

“When I see someone being paid to paint the bomb shelters, I not only see that my employees will be more comfortable driving on the roads and knowing they’ll be safe, but I also see regional opportunity and growth.”

‘Building the periphery’ Yedidya Haroush, JNF liaison for Negev community development, observed similar regional economic growth, challenges and motivations after moving to the Halutza community in the Negev.

According to Haroush, his community — largely comprised of families relocated from Gush Katif, Haroush’s included — has grown since late 2009, thanks to a partnership with JNF. With the vision of “helping people and providing jobs,” the projects have “allowed us to build a state-of-the-art medical center, schools, synagogues, JNF CEO Russell Robinson, JNF Chief Israel Officer Eric Mikindergartens, a community cen- chaelson, Eshkol Regional Council Mayor Gadi Yarkoni, and ter, music and arts center and a JNF National Board Member Ron Werner lay the cornerstone farming incubator.” for the new Halutza Community Center, providing a civic, culturLiving on a triangle border with al, and economic center for the entire Eshkol Region.

JNF Egypt and Gaza, Haroush says that the nearby communities were founded and nomically, so that if one market experiences challenges, the entire region isn’t affected as built “knowing that the threats are there.”

Similar to Maimon and Oppenheim’s as- much as it would be if the entire community’s sessment, Haroush maintained that border economy crashed.

According to Haroush, this mindset and resilviolence “threatens businesses, hurting the economy because of lower production [since] ience to adversity through community-building drivers and shipments won’t risk being on the can act as a model for other peripheral communities in Israel and beyond. “In the time of ‘i’ roads that are exposed [to rocket fire].”

When this occurs, Haroush told JNS, this and ‘i’ that, we understand that it’s actually people in the region band together as a com- about the community — the people of Israel — munity, raising money between friends, tak- and not about the ‘i.’ Once you understand that,” ing out loans and seeking government com- he said, “you’re able to achieve big things.”

Shoah crimes can be forgiven: Brazilian prez JTA/JNS JERUSALEM — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has come under fire for saying that the crimes of the Holocaust can be forgiven.

“We can forgive, but we cannot forget,” Bolsonaro reportedly said at a meeting with evangelical pastors in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday night. “Those who forget the past are condemned to not have a future,” he added, according to the New York Times. His comments drew applause from the pastors.

Bolsonaro, a pro-Israel Christian, visited Israel earlier this month and had a private tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

“It is not the place of any person to determine whether the crimes of the Holocaust can be forgiven,” Yad Vashem said in a statement sent to Israeli media on Saturday night. “From the day of its founding, Yad Vashem has worked for the continuation of the memory and meaning [of the Holocaust] for the Jewish people and for mankind as a whole.”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was very direct in his criticism in a tweet. “What Amalek did to us inscribed in our memory, the memory of an ancient people. We will never aid those who deny the truth or those who wish to expunge our memory — not individuals or groups, not party leaders or prime ministers. We will never forgive and never forget. No-one will order the forgiveness of the Jewish people, and it can never be bought in the name of interests. The Jewish people will always fight anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Political leaders are responsible for shaping the future. Historians describe the past and research what happened. Neither should stray into the territory of the other.”

Brazilain President Jair Bolsonaro, left, with Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and Yad Vashem Director of External and Governmental Affairs Yossi Gevir at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in JeruItzik Harari/Yad Vashem salem on April 2.

Israel’s ambassador to Brazil, Yossi Shelley, quoted Bolsonaro as writing, “Forgiveness is something personal; my speech was never meant to be used in a historical context, especially one where millions of innocent people were murdered in a cruel genocide.”

Following his visit to Yad Vashem, Bolsonaro said that Nazism was a leftist movement.

The far-right leader was asked by reporters hours after his visit if he agreed with a recent claim by his foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo, that Nazis were leftists.

“There is no doubt, right?” Bolsonaro replied. He went on to say that the Nazi party’s official name, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, contains the word “socialist.”

Yad Vashem follows the historical consensus that Nazism was the product of “the growth of radical right-wing groups in Germany.”

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21 THE JEWISH STAR April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779

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Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

Why Judaism counts up T

he concept of “going up in holiness” is one that gains prominence around Chanukah, as we light candles, adding one each night. But the opinion of Beit Shammai is that we start with eight and light one less each night.

Does Beit Shammai not believe in the idea of rising in holiness? He argues that we are mimicking the bull sacrifices of the Temple when we light those candles.

The truth is that the concept of rising in holiness is relative. For example, we start the holiday of Pesach and then we have Chol Hamoed, which is certainly a less holy time period. When there is a Shabbat Chol Hamoed, we don’t even acknowledge that it’s Pesach in the haftarah. While we may, we are not obligated to eat matzah on the last days of the holiday (unlike our obligation on the first night of the holiday). Those who are strict about not eating gebrokts are often lax about it on the last day of the holiday. That is certainly not going up in holiness.

A tale is told in the Talmud (Brachot) that after Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya was deposed as Nasi, there was debate as to whether he could continue to lecture in the Nasi slot.

They opted not to deny him the Nasi teaching slot, but to only give him less frequent opportunities to teach. Why? Because he couldn’t be brought down from the holiness level he had achieved.

The Talmud in Megillah discusses three options of how people can read the minimal required number of Torah verses, usually 10 altogether. Do we break down their three aliyahs as 4-3-3, or 3-4-3 or 3-3-4? According to the view that praises the last person who reads four, the argument is made that we go up in holiness. But if that is a rule, then neither 4-3-3 nor 3-4-3 should be an option!

Perhaps the principle can be applied in this way: when we’re dealing with an individual’s honor, sometimes “going up in holiness” has repercussions. Sometimes it is a support to a practice, but doesn’t define the practice. efirat HaOmer is a great example.

There is nothing inherently more holy about any day of Sefirah over another.

Every day of Sefirah is the same. And yet, as we know, we count Sefirah upwards, because we are going up in holiness.

How, if each day’s level of holiness is the same? If “going up in holiness” is a principle which supports our halachic practice, we need to understand how it shapes how we observe Sefirah.

Rabbi Soloveitchik had a unique explanation for why we count Sefirat HaOmer up instead of as a countdown. Citing the Ran, See Judaism on page 24

G-d does not always reveal all the details of the endgame.

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

of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president emeritus of the Orthodox Union. to contact our columnists, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

True leadership is humble From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FReeDMaN

Jewish Star columnist

W

hat makes a leader? The question consumes countless books, seminars and leadership training programs in countless universities and business training models.

But it’s worth noting that there are two different types of leaders.

One, the more commonly considered, is the type of person who leaps forward under challenging circumstances, who inspires others to follow behind. I have vivid memories of hearing just that at the end of the IDF’s officer training course, from a commander I greatly respected: “The measure of an officer is whether he or she can become the person others will follow anywhere.”

And yet there is a second type of leader, who accomplishes much more than having others follow; he or she inspires others to leap ahead. Such leaders do not lead; they inspire.

Such a person was Cantor Sherwood Goffin, who first taught me to read from the Torah and whose beautiful Shabbat tunes and guitar playing inspired me in so many ways.

Much of what I am, I owe to him, and every year on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when I have the privilege of leading Yeshivat Orayta in the High Holiday prayers, his melodies still echo in my head. This week’s thought is dedicated to his memory.

There is a fascinating detail in the story of Moshe, which of course is the beginning of the story of the Exodus, perhaps the greatest upheaval in human history. After the brief description of his birth and salvation on the Nile River at the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter, the Torah fast-forwards to his teenage years: “And the lad grew [up] and ventured out to see how his brethren were faring” (Exodus 3:11).

This leads to the famous story of Moshe saving a hapless Jewish slave from the whip of his Egyptian taskmaster. So why is his name not mentioned? Why is he simply called “the lad?” his is not the only time we find Moshe’s name conspicuously missing. In the Haggadah, his name is mentioned only once — describing the great miracle of the Splitting of the Sea: “And [the Jews] believed in G-d, and in Moshe, His servant.”

And as we have previously discussed, there is another place one finds Moshe’s name absent. From his birth in Shemot until the end of the Torah, Moshe receives mention in every portion save one: Tetzaveh.

T

The Midrash suggests that when Moshe, in his attempt to save the Jewish people after the Golden Calf, pleas before G-d to be erased from His book “if You will destroy this people” (Exodus 32:32). The decree of such a righteous person must be fulfilled to some degree, so Hashem leaves out Moshe’s name in this week’s portion.

But why specifically Tetzaveh? Perhaps because this portion, in discussing the mitzvah to build a Mishkan, focuses largely on the role of the kohanim — the daily lighting of the menorah, the special clothing, the ceremony inducting Aaron and his sons into the priesthood. In short, this portion introduces the kehuna, the priesthood, even though the actual dedication and commencement of their service will only begin in the next book of the Torah, Vayikra.

One might have expected to find a hint of jealousy or at least hesitation on Moshe’s part, considering this was a role neither he nor any of his offspring would ever enjoy. Yet he displays no struggle. And, perhaps to make this point, does not even include his own name in the portion. erhaps Moshe was following Aaron’s lead on this topic. When Moshe debates with G-d Himself whether he is the most appropriate person to lead the Jewish people out of slavery, he suggests that Aaron might be a better choice, especially since he had remained with the Jewish people in Egypt while Moshe led a much easier life in Midian. Yet Hashem’s response is that “Aaron your brother will come out to greet you, and he will rejoice in his heart” (ibid. 4:14).

Indeed, Aaron himself displayed no envy or struggle with Moshe’s appointment as leader. He simply rejoiced.

This is especially significant given the enmity found so often amongst brothers in the Torah. In fact, the first murder was between brothers, not to mention the conflict between Yitzchak and Yishmael, Yaakov and Esav, and of course Yosef and his brothers. One wonders where these two brothers, along with their sister Miriam, learned this impressive attitude.

They must have had incredible parents. Yet we know very little about their parents; the first time we find mention of them, they are not even named but are described (ibid. 2:1-2) as “a man” and “a woman” (ish and isha).

Interestingly, this the same term used in Pirkei Avot to describe the value of stepping up when there is no one else to do the job: “Bemakom she’ein anashim, hishtadel lehiyot ish — in a place where there are no men, strive to be a man” (Avot 2:6). When there is no one to do the job, step up and get it done.

O

ne day, now a teenager, Moshe ventures out and sees the suffering of his brothers, sees an Egyptian beating a Jew, and (ibid. v.12) “looks back and forth and sees there is no man [ish].” Here, too, Moshe is not named; he is described as a lad. Because to be a leader, a person has to get his ego out of the way. It has to be about the job that must be done, the greater cause, the people. In fact, the smaller the ego, the greater the leader.

In fact, healthy systems of government inherently have a well thought-out separation of powers, which entail leaders realizing not only what they are meant to do, but what they are not meant to do. When the president interferes with the judiciary, things get complicated. The same is true of healthy institutions in general: if the CEO gets too involved with the accounting department, it doesn’t work.

This, then, was Moshe’s greatness: he knew when to get out of the way; his goal was never the greatness of Moshe, it was always the greatness of G-d. It is indeed no accident that the greatest leader in Jewish history is also described as its most humble. Moshe was a model of selflessness, perhaps the most necessary prerequisite for a truly great leader.

Such a giant of humility was Cantor Sherwood Goffin. I was privileged as a boy to grow up in the incredible community of the Lincoln Square Synagogue. Its great leaders — Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi Herschel Cohn, Rabbi Effie Buchwald and Cantor Goffin — were all giants in their own way, and somehow each knew their role and their gifts, which made it such a special place. Some of us still think of it as Camelot: a magical place, a magical time.

And there is no one I can think of who modeled such pure, sweet humility and fine sterling character more than Chazzan Sherwood Goffin. In all the years I merited to know him, be inspired by his beautiful tefillot, hear his magical music, share his Shabbat table, and imbibe his joy for Judaism, I never once saw him raise his voice, cannot ever remember seeing him angry, and never saw him miss an opportunity to show sensitivity for those less fortunate. He was content to be the musical soul of the rabbis’ teaching, and he inspired many of us to soar through his model of how special a human being could be.

Now, he truly sings with the angels. May his memory be a merit and a blessing for us all.

Wishing his family comfort, and all of us a chag kasher v’sameach and a wonderful Pesach.

The smaller the ego, the greater the leader.

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Torah

Rabbi david eTengoff

Jewish Star columnist

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ne of the best-known parts of the Haggadah is the section known as “Mah Nishtana,” where one or more children at the Seder ask the Four Questions. It is based upon the following Mishnaic statement: “Now we pour the second cup of wine. At this juncture, the son asks his father [the Four Questions.] If the son lacks the ability to ask, his father teaches him, ‘mah nishtana halailah hazeh mekol halailot…’ (‘how different is this night from all other nights’)” Talmud Bavli, Pesachim 116a).

The great Chasidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, asks a fascinating question

on this Mishnah: “Why does the son ask Mah Nishtana on Pesach, and not on the Festival of Sukkot as well?” (This and the following quotes, Kedushat Levi, Drushim l’Pesach.)

This is a very powerful query, since, like Pesach, Sukkot has many mitzvot, including sitting in the sukkah and the Four Species, that differentiate it from the rest of the year. As such, a child’s interest would surely be piqued, and it, too, should generate the recitation of Mah Nishtana. n order to answer this question, the Berdichever introduces a well-known Talmudic dispute regarding the creation of the world — namely, was the world created in the Spring, in the month

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of Nissan and Pesach; or in the Fall, in the month of Tishrei and Sukkot (Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 10b)?

In his analysis of this Talmudic debate, the Berdichever submits that Hashem rules the world in two different ways, corresponding to these two seasons of the year. In his view, Tishrei is universal in nature, in the sense that it is the time when Hashem approaches the entire world in His goodness and mercy. In contrast, Nissan is primarily the time when the Almighty relates to the world through the vehicle of Tiferet Yisrael (the glory of the Jewish nation), and exalts Himself through His inseverable connection to Israel, His chosen people.

The intellectual capacity of the father far exceeds that of the son.

Pesach and the Jewish task Rabbi siR jonaThan sacks

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esach is the oldest and most transformative story of hope ever told. It tells of how an otherwise undistinguished group of slaves found their way to freedom from the greatest and longest-lived empire of their time, indeed of any time. It tells the revolutionary story of how the supreme Power intervened in history to liberate the supremely powerless. It is a story of the defeat of probability by the force of possibility. It defines what it is to be a Jew: a living symbol of hope.

Pesach tells us that the strength of a nation does not lie in horses and chariots, armies and arms, or in colossal statues and monumental buildings, overt demonstrations of power and wealth. It depends on simpler things: humility in the presence of the G-d of creation, trust in the G-d of redemption and history, and a sense of the non-negotiable sanctity of human life, created by G-d in His image: even the life of a slave or a child too young to ask questions. Pesach is the eternal critique of power used by humans to coerce and diminish their fellow humans.

It is the story more than a hundred generations of our ancestors handed on to their

children, and they to theirs. As we do likewise, millennia later, we know what it is to be the people of history, guardians of a narrative not engraved in hieroglyphics on the walls of a monumental building but carried in the minds of living, breathing human beings who, for longer than any other have kept faith with the future and the past, bearing witness to the power of the human spirit when it opens itself to a greater power, beckoning us to a world of freedom, responsibility and human dignity. esach is more than simply one festival among others in the Jewish calendar, more even than the anniversary of Israel’s birth as a free people setting out on its journey to the Promised Land. In this section, I want to show how it emerged, in four ways, as the central event around which most of Judaism turns.

First, close examination shows us that the Torah narrative of Genesis from Avraham to Yaakov is a series of anticipations of the exodus, focusing our attention on, and heightening our anticipation of, what would eventually take place in the days of Moshe.

Second, remembering “that you were once slaves in Egypt” is the single most frequently invoked reason for the commandments. The Exodus was not just an event in history. It forms an essential part of the logic of Jewish law.

Third, key elements of Jewish law and faith are best understood as a protest against and

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Pesach: Imagine that!

Rabbi dR. Tzvi heRsh weinReb Orthodox Union

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here was a time when I would only go out of my way to listen to speakers who were older and more experienced than I. Recently, however, I have changed my preferences and have begun to seek out speakers, rabbis and teachers, who are young and relatively inexperienced. I find their ideas fresh and often on the mark. After all, they are in much better touch with our fast-changing world than I am.

Last year, during a visit to Israel, I sat in on a series of lectures designed to prepare the audience for the upcoming Pesach holiday. The speaker, a brilliant young rabbi, focused upon the Seder night, and particularly upon the text of the Haggadah. He spent most of his opening lecture elaborating upon what he considered the most difficult task with which we are all confronted on the first night of Pesach. The task is described in the following famous passage:

“In each and every generation, a person must see himself as if he personally left Egypt. As it is written, ‘And you shall explain to your son on that day that it is because of what the L-rd did for me when I went free from Egypt’ (Exodus 13:8).”

The requirement is explicit in the biblical text: the L-rd did it for me, when I went free from Egypt.

The young rabbi candidly confessed that he had never been able to fulfill this requirement. Indeed, he didn’t think it was possible, certainly not for most of us, to envision ourselves personally experiencing slavery and redemption. “This,” he insisted, “is the most difficult task we are faced with on the Seder night.” hen I first heard this assertion, I found it quite provocative. I wanted to protest but maintained my silence in respect. I attributed his conviction to his relative immaturity. I have

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As the Berdichever suggests: “He [Hashem] performs their will [the Jewish people’s] by providing them with all that is positive, in response to that which they request from Him.” Little wonder, then, that Pesach, in the month of Nissan, was the time when we experienced “the miracles and great wonders” of the Ten Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea of Reeds, when we cried out to Him, “O L-rd, save [us]; may the King answer us on the day we call” (Tehillim 20:10).

At this point, the Berdichever proceeds to answer his initial question, why the son asks the Mah Nishtana on Pesach and not on Sukkot, by introducing the idea of tzimtzum. This concept maintains that Hashem contracts His Infinite Being in order to communicate with and be “a part of,” our finite world: “This, then is intimated by the [Mishnah’s] phrase, ‘the son asks on Pesach:’ For in truth, [the See Pesach on page 24

alternative to the Egypt of the pharaohs, even where the Torah does not state this explicitly.

Knowledge of that ancient world gave us fresh insights into why Judaism is as it is.

Fourth, sustained meditation on the contrasts between Egypt and the society of the Israelites were called on to create reveals a fundamental choice that civilizations must make, then, now and perhaps for all time. There is nothing antiquarian about the issues Pesach raises: slavery, freedom, politics, power, state, society, human dignity and responsibility. These are as salient today as they were in the days of Moshe.

Pesach can never be obsolete. t the heart of the festival is a concrete historical experience. The Israelites, as described in the Torah, were a fractious group of slaves of shared ancestry, one of a number of such groups attracted to Egypt from the north, drawn by its wealth and power, only to find themselves eventually its victims. The Egypt of the Pharaohs was the longest-lived empire the world has known, already some eighteen centuries old by the time of the exodus. For more than a thousand years before Moshe, its landscape had been dominated by the great pyramid of Giza, the tallest manmade structure in the world until the construc-

tion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. The discovery in 1922 by the English archaeologist Howard Carter of the tomb of a relatively minor pharaoh, Tutankhamun, revealed the astonishing wealth and sophistication of the royal court at that time. If historians are correct in identifying Rameses II as the pharaoh of the exodus, then Egypt had reached the very summit of its power, bestriding the narrow world like a colossus.

At one level it is a story of wonders and miracles. But the enduring message of Pesach is deeper than this, for it opens out into a dramatically new vision of what a society might be like if the only Sovereign is G-d, and every citizen is in His image. It is about the power of the powerless and the powerlessness of power. Politics has never been more radical, more ethical or more humane.

Heinrich Heine said, “Since the exodus, freedom has spoken with a Hebrew accent.” But it is, as Emmanuel Levinas called it, a “difficult freedom,” based as it is on a demanding code of individual and collective responsibility.

Pesach makes us taste the choice: on the one hand the bread of affliction and bitter herbs of slavery; on the other, four cups of wine, each marking a stage in the long walk to liberty. As long as humans seek to exercise power over one another, the story will continue and the choice will still be ours.

This article was excerpted from the KorenSacks Machzor.

never found this obligation difficult. Personally, I have found it quite easy to imagine myself as a slave and to personally exult in the emotional experiences of redemption and freedom.

I usually forget the content of most lectures almost as soon as I leave the lecture hall. This time, however, I could not rid my mind of the young rabbi’s statement. I began to question my own inner certainty. Had it really been so easy for me all these years to envision myself as one of those who had experienced both slavery and the Exodus?

In the midst of my preoccupation, a long-forgotten memory suddenly surfaced in my mind. I was taken back in time to another lecture I had heard just before Pesach many years ago. This time, the speaker was not a young rabbi at all. Rather, he was an old and revered Chasidic rebbe, a survivor of the Holocaust who had spent years in Auschwitz and witnessed the murder of his wife and children with his own eyes.

That old rebbe was Rabbi Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam, may his memory be blessed, who

was known as the Klausenberger Rebbe, after the small town in the Balkans where he had served prior to World War II. In that lecture, Rabbi Halberstam recounted his own puzzlement over a lecture he had heard very long ago from one of his mentors. I no longer remember the name of that mentor, but Rabbi Halberstam was careful to identify him in detail because of the strange and almost unbelievable experience that he reported.

The mentor said that he had no difficulty at all imagining himself to have been in slavery in Egypt and to have been redeemed. In fact, this mentor reported that he could clearly remember the experience. He could recall in great detail the burdensome work he had to perform, the dirty hovel in which he was forced to live, and the sighs and groans of his companions.

He could even still see, in his mind’s eye, the cruel face of his tormentors as they sadistically whipped him for not producing his daily quota of bricks.

The Klausenberger Rebbe confessed that when he first heard his mentor make those claims, he had difficulty believing them. He thought that his mentor had made such a claim just for the effect it would have upon his listeners. He stressed that sometimes it is justified for a speaker to resort to hyperbole to make his point See Imagine on page 24 more dramatic.

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We are often restricted by our tendency to rely upon reason and rationality.

The Exodus was not just an event in history.

THE JEWISH STAR April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779

Why do we say ‘Mah Nishtana’ only on Pesach?

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April 19, 2019 • 14 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The Observant Jew Kosher Bookworm

AlAn JAy GerBer

Jewish Star columnist

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ecently a fascinating book of essays was brought to my attention, titled The Observant Jew, by Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz. In this volume there is an essay titled “Pesach: Being Machmir,” dealing, obviously, with the holiday of Pesach, an essay that I am certain that you will come to appreciate.

The author, Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz, received his semicha from the famed Telshe Yeshiva. He lives in Monsey, New York and is the author of the weekly column Observant Jew, as well as Migdal Ohr, a weekly publication on the parsha distributed worldwide.

This week’s The Kosher Bookworm column will be devoted to this unique brief essay that this writer believes is not only timely but also timeless. In “Pesach: Being Machmir,” the author, with an obvious smile, imparts to us a humorous, yet sober picture of what Pesach should represent to us in terms of our religious beliefs and the historic context within which we observe this holiday.

The author told me that he defines his theological views as follows: “One thing that was life-changing was my study of Chovos Halevavos, especially Shaar Habitachon. It taught me to look at life as if G-d was running the show, because He is! In that case, when things happen, it is not in a vacuum. I began to look for G-d in the most mundane situations and ask what I was really looking at and what G-d is trying to tell me. It’s part of a conversation where you get better and better at understanding the other party the more you interact with them, or in

this case G-d.”

The following timely essay by Rabbi Gewitz will give you a sample of his thinking on theological issues as interpreted by our sages and applied to in the proper manner in which we come to the observance of the Pesach holiday. *** esach is the festival of our freedom. It’s supposed to be that, actually, though it seems more like when we left the servitude of Mitzrayim for the servitude of our kitchens and housecleaning.

This topic has been written about to death, but every year, men and women, or at least, women, make themselves and their families crazy getting ready for Pesach. “Oh no! Purim is next week? That means Pesach cleaning is around the corner! Oh man, that’s not fair.

How much can one woman/man/child/nuclear physicist attempting to negate chametz molecules with WD-40 and a blowtorch do?”

I really wonder if this is what Chazal had in mind when they discussed eliminating chametz. Of course, in those days it was much easier. You could just wash off the floor (literally), put on a new layer of dirt, and if worse came to worst, just burn down your hut and start again. But not so today. Now we have things like cinder block, linoleum, and arson laws.

But what would they say if they saw the things we do? Well, of course you should vacuum out the back of your closet, isn’t that where you eat cookies when you’re hiding from your kids? And cleaning between floor tiles with toothpicks is obviously of utmost importance. And who knows how much cha-

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Pesach is the festival of our freedom.

Judaism... Pesach..

Continued from page 22 he said we count the Omer today to reenact the counting of days from leaving Egypt until receiving the Torah. The people were not told on which date they’d receive the Torah, because G-d does not always reveal all the details of the endgame.

Just as we don’t know when the Messiah will come, and we count years upwards, the Jews had to count upwards to the receiving of the Torah because they did not know exactly when it would take place. When we reenact our ancestors’ count-up to Matan Torah, we count upwards as they did. There is an element of uncertainty in the religious experience.

The Ktav V’hakabalah notes that the word used to describe the 7 weeks from Pesach to Shavuot is temimot, which more often means perfect or wholesome, and not shleimot, which would specifically mean complete or full. He defines temimot as complete in quality, while shleimot is a completion in quantity. Seven weeks temimot means you haven’t missed a day of the 49.

Quoting Rabbi Chiya in the Midrash, the Ktav V’hakabalah says, “Seven temimot weeks are in fact temimot when the Jewish people fulfill God’s will.”

In the end, we need to recognize that holiness is less about trimmings, and more about what we can achieve when we use our time well.

Rabbi Soloveitchik talked about counting up because that is how we look forward to Sinai.

Maybe each of us can take upon ourselves a personal learning project in preparation for Shavuot. That is one way to “go up in holiness.”

Another way is to do less judging of our fellow man, more putting the other person up than putting them down.

Through this we will not only enhance our relationships, but bring holiness into our dayto-day encounters.

metz built up in the furnace? But what about some of the crazy stuff we do?

I know the prevalent minhag is to go a little crazy to avoid chametz, and it was in this vein that the custom of not eating gebrokts (basically, no more matzah balls) was established. But, I sometimes wonder how much of what we do borders on bal tosif (adding new mitzvos) — a big no-no. number of years ago, I was at a supermarket in Baltimore the week before Pesach and a woman was holding her items instead of putting them on the conveyor belt. I moved my groceries to make room for her but she said, “No, thanks, this is my Pesach stuff, I don’t want to put it on the chametzdike conveyor belt.”

Now, at the time, I was learning Yoreh De’ah and the halachos of such things as mixing meat and milk, and I knew that there was no magical transference of chametz possible from the clean and dry conveyor to her closed packages of Pesach socks or whatever she had, so I told her so. “There’s really no problem,” I told her. “Halachically speaking there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I know,” she replied, “but I’m being machmir.”

Machmir? Machmir! What does she mean machmir? Machmir is when something is a she’eilah, or even a remote possibility. Not when it’s nothing. Jokingly, my father said, “Next year they’ll cover the conveyor belt for Pesach.” We had a good laugh, but the joke was on us. The next year, they did!

A few weeks ago, just before Rosh Chodesh Nissan, I went to my local kosher supermarket and saw that two lanes were covered with contact paper and had special signs designating them for “Passover Use Only.” Even with all the other lanes full, and nobody in those lines, people couldn’t use the Passover lanes.

Continued from page 23 notion] that the Holy One Blessed be He runs the world through [the principle] of Tiferet Yisrael actually means that He contracts Himself [in such a manner that His Divine Presence inheres] in the Jewish people’s worship of Him. He, in turn, has ‘great pleasure’ from this [worship] and consequently fulfills their will and desire.” he Berdichever asserts that when the son asks his father the Four Questions at the Seder, the two of them are engaging in the exact same approach that has always existed between the Jewish people and Hashem: “And this model [of the Jewish people requesting their needs from Hashem,] is repeated [at the moment] of the son’s question to his father [at the Seder table]. For, [in truth] the intellectual capacity of the father far exceeds that of the son, and it is only because of the father’s love for his son that he ‘contracts himself’ to provide answers to his son’s difficulties. This is the selfsame model that we have already discussed, wherein the [Infinite] Holy One blessed be He ‘contracts Himself’ within [the finite] boundaries of the Jewish people, in order to glorify Himself amongst them by fulfilling their will [and providing for their needs].”

The Berdichever has now provided us with a solid understanding as to why the son asks the questions of the Mah Nishtana solely at Pesach.

During this Yom Tov, the principle of Tiferet Yisrael is particularly pronounced, for, as we have seen, this is the time when Hashem performed His countless wonders and miracles for us, both in Egypt and at the Sea of Reeds. We beseeched our Father in Heaven, and He answered us in an unprecedented manner.

What better moment exists, therefore, for children to ask their father to explain the amazing events of the Exodus other than at the Seder itself? For this, too, must surely bring joy to our Father in Heaven.

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Imagine...

Continued from page 23 But then the rebbe continued to say that after many years, he had come to realize that his mentor was telling the absolute truth. “It took the experiences I had during the horrible years of the Holocaust,” he exclaimed, “for me to realize why my mentor was able to recall his experiences in ancient Egypt’s tyranny.”

The rebbe then went on to elaborate upon two psychological processes that are necessary to invoke on the Seder night. He used two Hebrew and Yiddish terms respectively: koach hadimyon (the power of imagination) and mitleid (empathy). he lesson that the old Rebbe related to me and to the dozens of other eager listeners that evening so long ago was that we are often restricted by our own tendencies to rely upon our reason, rationality, and intellectuality. We underplay the powers that we have to fantasize, to imagine, to dream freely.

In a sense, we are slaves to reason and need to learn to allow ourselves to go beyond it and to give our imaginations free rein. Only then can we “see ourselves as if we had personally endured slavery.” Only by cultivating our imagery can we ourselves experience the emotions of freedom and liberty.

We are all required to imagine ourselves as the other person. If the other person is poor, the mitzvah of charity demands that we feel his poverty. If he is ill, we must suffer along with him.

This is empathy, and to be empathic, one must rely upon a well-developed imagination.

Imagination and empathy are not words one often hears in rabbinic sermons, but they are the words that the Klausenberger Rebbe used that evening. And, as he concluded in his remarks, he learned about those words through the bitter suffering that he endured in Auschwitz, and he appreciated redemption when he himself was finally freed.

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I couldn’t convince the Hispanic cashier to scan my non-chametz items and let me wave the chametz items over the scanner without touching it, even if I removed it toch k’dei dibbur. Well, at least she didn’t stop to wonder if my green beans were kitniyos.

Perhaps the store had to do it for people like my “machmir” friend in Baltimore. I suppose it’s mostly harmless, as long as we understand that this craziness is self-imposed and not what the Ribono shel Olam demands.

I wonder sometimes if He shakes His head at us and wonders, “That’s not MY Torah; what are they thinking?!” n the other hand, it is well known that many noble Jews have always been more careful regarding Pesach. Many European Jews would not eat dairy the whole Pesach for fear of chametz-contaminated milk products.

R’ Gifter z”l once told me the story of when his mother came to visit him and he had gone to a farm to get milk. They had been there as the cows were milked so it was chalav Yisrael and there was no worry of chametz. But she wouldn’t eat it. She said, “Nein, mein teiyera.

Fahr dir iz kosher, fahr mir nisht (No, my dear.

For you it is kosher, but not for me).”

So, next year, when you’re chasing your neighbor’s cat to clean the crumbs from the bells in his collar, remember that Pesach is really supposed to be a joyous holiday celebrating our Redemption, not a time of reluctant drudgery. Keep in mind that it’s about removing the chametz from your neshama, and cleaning house internally as a preparation for living a Torah life, the only real way to be free.

And if you see me put my shrink-wrapped box of potato starch on the uncovered conveyor? “Fahr mir iz kosher, fahr dir nisht (For me it’s kosher, maybe not for you).”

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The young rabbi had, through his good fortune, never experienced anything remotely resembling slavery. Naturally, he was thus deprived of the ability to really appreciate freedom.

After a few days, I approached the young rabbi and shared with him the words I had heard decades ago, before he was even born.

I told him what the Klausenberger Rebbe had said about empathy and imagination.

But with a gentle smile, the young rabbi had the last word: “The Klausenberger Rebbe didn’t say that learning to imagine and to empathize were easy.”

I had to admit that he was correct. Creative imagination and compassionate empathy are not easily attained. Achieving them may indeed be the hardest task of the holiday of Pesach.

But I feel confident that the young rabbi agreed with my assertion: Learning to use one’s powers of imagination in order to empathize with the plight of others is the essential objective of this magnificent holiday, zman cheiruteinu, the season of our freedom.

BeN COHeN

Revisiting Assange’s anti-Semitism

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hen the fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange first holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London seven years ago, “Brexit” was an unknown word, Donald Trump was still hosting The Apprentice, and the Iran nuclear deal was just a twinkle in the eye of President Barack Obama.

So when, last week, British police officers carried a horizontal Assange out of the embassy’s doors and into a world greatly changed since the last time he breathed in the fresh morning air, one couldn’t help reflecting that those changes would not quite have been the same without his contribution.

That observation should not be taken as an expression of admiration. Among his many detractors, Assange has been variously painted as a clown, a devious sex offender, a Russian dupe (some might even say “operative”) and an unprincipled publicity addict. That image is hardly relieved by the stories of riding a skateboard along narrow corridors, playing indoor soccer with visiting friends and verbally abusing security guards — apparently among the less obnoxious behaviors exhibited by Assange during his embassy sojourn. till, none of that changes the fact that Assange is an influencer. Through the medium of the leaked private communications of governments and political leaders, he has championed the notion that politics in the digital age is an especially dirty game of murky money trails, corrupt elected officials, heinous violations of individual privacy and a foreign policy that is owned by corporate and special interests.

As Assange faces conceivably lengthy extradition proceedings in the United Kingdom and then a possible criminal trial in United States, those themes will surface again and again, mainly to reinforce the sense among his supporters that Assange is a fighter for free speech and a speaker of truth to power.

Assange knows from experience that his way of viewing the world resonates with lots of people. It was a worldview that tapped into the public disgruntlement that influenced two key electoral tests in the Western world in 2016: the U.S. presidential election and the British referendum on leaving the European Union. Assange and his WikiLeaks project provided as-good-as empirical evidence for politicians as diverse as Trump, Democratic contender Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Brexit advocate Nigel Farage and British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to depict cosmopolitan, transnational and unaccountable “elites” as the alleged source of the rot in public life.

Critically, Assange does not belong to the right or the left politically because he speaks to both sides; he speaks more so to their extremes. In many ways, Assange personifies a zeitgeist in which genuinely divisive and important arguments about the limits of national sovereignty — or the erosion of personal privacy by national-security imperatives — have been intensified by more exotic claims See Assange on page 26

Assange does not belong to the right or the left.

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Crown Heights honor for Sharpton Politics to Go

Jeff DuNetz

Jewish Star columnist

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edgar Evers College, a branch of CUNY, the public City University of New York system that’s located in the middle of Crown Heights, has proposed granting an honorary doctorate to Al Sharpton. That’s the same Al Sharpton who fanned the flames of anti-Jewish hatred during the 1991 Crown Heights riot.

Keep in mind that CUNY is no longer primarily funded by New York City. Per the CUNY website, “public funding from New York State covers 60% of the operating budget for CUNY senior colleges and their entire capital budget.” In other words, Long Islanders, Al Sharpton’s honorary degree will be an example of your tax dollars at work.

Any public college honoring Al Sharpton is terrible, but a publicly-owned college in Crown Heights, where he is famous for inciting violence, is particularly egregious.

Per the New York Post, Sharpton would be honored as a man of “unwavering commitment to racial, educational and socioeconomic equity” at the school’s June 5 commencement. If approved by the CUNY board in May, Sharpton would get his honorary doctorate less than two miles away from the corner of President Street and Utica Avenue, the site of the 1991 car accident that ignited the riot. ewish-black tensions began to heat up in late July 1991 when CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries, who had a history of anti-Semitic slurs, presented a two-hour long speech claiming “rich Jews” financed the slave trade, control the film industry together with Italian mafia, and use that control to paint brutal stereotypes of blacks. After pressure from New York’s Jewish community, Jeffries was fired for his bigotry.

The city’s two black newspapers, as well as black radio station WLIB, joined activists such Sharpton, Colin Moore, C. Vernon Mason, Sonny Carson, and Lenora Fulani to showcase their approval of Jeffries’ scholarship and denounce his critics as race baiters. As part of the protest, the day before the riot began, Sharpton said, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”

Things in Crown Heights were tense when, on Monday, Aug. 19, 1991, a station wagon driven by Yosef Lifsh hit another car and bounced onto the sidewalk at 8:21 p.m. The station wagon was part of a three-car motorcade carrying the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, who was in a different car.

The station wagon struck two black children, 7-year-old cousins Gavin and Angela Cato.

Lifsh got out of his car and tried to help

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— but the gathering crowd started to attack him. Within minutes, an ambulance from the Hasidic-run ambulance service, and two from the city’s Emergency Medical Service arrived.

The police who showed up radioed for backup, reporting the station wagon’s driver and passengers had been assaulted. Police officer Nona Capace ordered the Hasidic ambulance to remove the battered Yosef Lifsh and his passenger from the scene. The injured children went by separate city ambulances to Kings County Hospital. Tragically, Gavin Cato was pronounced dead; his cousin, thankfully, survived.

A false rumor began to spread that the Hasidic ambulance crew had ignored the dying black child in favor of treating the Jewish men. Other rumors sprang up that Lifsh had been intoxicated (a breath alcohol test administered by the police proved his sobriety). More falsehoods circulated: Lifsh did not have a valid driver’s license; he went through a red light; the police prevented people including Gavin Cato’s father, from assisting in the rescue. gnited by falsehoods, resentment exploded into violence.

Groups of young black men threw rocks, bottles, and debris at police, residents, and homes.

And 29-year-old Australian Jewish scholar Yankel Rosenbaum was attacked by a gang of black teens. He was stabbed four times and died at approximately 2:30 am the next morning.

Despite some claims, Al Sharpton had nothing to do with the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum. The tax-dodger and racial agitator didn’t show up until the second day. On that second day of the riot, according to the sworn testimony of former Crown Heights resident Efraim Lipkind, Sharpton started agitating the crowd.

“We had a famous man, Al Sharpton, who came down, and he said Tuesday night, kill the Jews, two times. I heard him, and he started to lead a charge across the street to Utica.”

For three days following the accident, African and Caribbean Americans of the neighborhood, joined by growing numbers of non-residents, rioted. A Jew who ventured outside risked his life, though being in a home identifiable by a mezuzah made him a target anyway. On the third day of the pogrom, Al Sharpton and Sonny Carson led a march of protesters chanting, “No Justice, No Peace!” “Death to the Jews!” and “Whose streets? Our streets!” The mob displayed antiSemitic signs and burned an Israeli flag.

A week after the accident that started it all, at the funeral of Gavin Cato on Aug. 26, Sharpton gave a eulogy which fueled the fires of hatred.

“The world will tell us he was killed by accident. Yes, it was a social accident. ... It’s an acci-

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dent to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights. … Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights. The issue is not anti-Semitism; the issue is apartheid. ... All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it.

No compromise, no meetings, no kaffe klatsch, no skinnin’ and grinnin’. Pay for your deeds.” eacting to the honorary degree, Rabbi Eli Cohen, executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, told the Algemeiner that the award would undo years of efforts to rebuild relations between the Crown Heights communities.

“For more than 25 years we have worked closely with Medgar Evers and others to bring the community together. The idea of a college in Crown Heights honoring a man who incited anti-Semitic violence here goes against everything we have accomplished.

Honorary doctorates should be awarded to individuals who are role models for the students of today. Sharpton does not fill that role. He has not even expressed true regret for his actions.”

Sharpton denies that he had anything to do with the riot.

But does he sound like a man with “unwavering commitment to racial, educational and socioeconomic equity”?

Norman Rosenbaum, brother of the murdered Yankel, was shocked that Medgar Evers College would honor Sharpton. Rosenbaum told the Post, “This is not a person you honor. Within the last 27 years, he hasn’t changed. The same character is there. I think he’s a fraud and a charlatan whose actions over the years speak for themselves, and they’re not good actions. He’s a man who does not promote peace. He’s not told the truth.”

Rosenbaum is correct. Sharpton is a man who, throughout his public career, has had an unwavering commitment to racial divisiveness and anti-Semitism.

The Medgar Evers proposal needs to be approved by CUNY’s Committee on Academic Policy, Programs, and Research and then by the full CUNY board in May. It is very likely the board will approve the Sharpton doctorate. After all, less than two years ago they approved Linda Sarsour as commencement speaker for CUNY’s Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.

If a Crown Heights-based public university honors Al Sharpton, what’s next? A statue of Osama Bin Laden on the footprint of the Twin Towers he destroyed? A Hideki Tojo statue atop the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor? How about a statue of Yasser Arafat outside the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem?

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‘Tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.’

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We need another Reagan plan for Israel stephen M. Flatow

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ince Ronald Reagan is by far the president most admired by Republicans in modern times, perhaps GOP leaders and members of Congress should remind the current president of Reagan’s long-forgotten proposal for Israeli-Arab peace.

I’m not talking about the awful plan that was foisted upon Reagan in 1982 by Secretary of State George Shultz and other senior officials, whose attitude towards Israel was lukewarm at best.

No, I’m referring to the amazing speech that then-presidential nominee Reagan delivered to the B’nai B’rith International convention in Washington on Sept. 3, 1980.

Reagan denounced President Jimmy Carter for undermining Israel’s control of Jerusalem (Carter had supported a U.N. resolution calling it “occupied territory”). He criticized Carter for providing advanced weapons to Arab dictators. He accused Carter of “weakening Israel” by trying to “force” Israel back to the precari-

ous pre-1967 lines. Reagan also accused Carter of committing yet another “major foreign-policy blunder” by inviting the Soviet Union to participate in Arab-Israeli negotiations.

Reagan also strongly challenged Carter for “refusing to brand the PLO a terrorist organization.” The Republican nominee said he had “no hesitation” in calling the PLO terrorists.

“We live in a world in which any band of thugs clever enough to get the word ‘liberation’ into its name can thereupon murder school children and have its deeds considered glamorous and glorious,” said Reagan. “Terrorists are not guerrillas, or commandos, or freedom-fighters or anything else. They are terrorists and they should be identified as such. If others wish to deal with them, establish diplomatic relations with them, let it be on their heads. And let them be willing to pay the price of appeasement.” hen came what I would argue was the most significant part of the speech.

“Israel and Jordan are the two Palestinian states envisioned and authorized by the United States,” Reagan said. “Jordan is now rec-

ognized as sovereign in some 80 percent of the old territory of Palestine.”

Therefore, he suggested, the Palestinian Arab refugee issue could be solved through “assimilation in Jordan, designated by the U.N. as the Arab-Palestinian state.”

What Reagan was saying was something that every historian of the Middle East and every socalled “expert” on Israel knows but is afraid to say: Throughout history, the Land of Israel always included the areas on both sides of the Jordan River. The British Mandate for Palestine, as decreed by the League of Nations in 1920 (and subsequently endorsed by the United States), likewise treated the entire territory as a single, indivisible unit.

In other words, Reagan was pointing out that the claim by the Palestinian Arabs that they are stateless — and therefore, in need of a state — is a fraud. An Arab state was already established in almost 80 percent (to be precise, it was 78 percent) of Palestine when the British created the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan in 1922. They conjured up the name “Trans-Jordan” out of thin air. No such kingdom had ever previously existed. They

The nominee had no hesitation in calling the PLO terrorists.

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could just as easily have called it East Palestine.

Or Atlantis.

Reagan understood that the demand to create a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria is a demand for creating a second Palestinian state.

And Reagan opposed doing that — because the Palestinian Arabs already have a state in most of the territory, and because creating a second state in Israel’s backyard would reduce the Jewish state to just nine miles wide. That’s not even as wide as the Bronx.

Reagan’s audience at the B’nai B’rith convention that evening interrupted him with applause more than 30 times that evening and gave him three standing ovations. They were listening to words of unparalleled truth and power, and they knew it.

So please, Mr. Trump, before you unveil your much-discussed Mideast peace plan, take a moment to consider what your most illustrious and beloved predecessor had to say on the subject.

Nearly 40 years have passed since Reagan’s truly historic speech, but his words still ring as true as ever.

New Jersey attorney Stephen M. Flatow is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He recently published A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.

Why is Omar’s Islamophobia dodge working?

Jonathan s. tobin

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magine if there was a member of Congress who openly supported an anti-Semitic movement, issued multiple statements promoting traditional themes of Jew-hatred and then gave a speech at a fundraiser for an organization founded as a front group for terrorists in which the 9/11 attacks were described as merely as “some people did something.”

And then imagine if the person who did all these things was embraced as a heroine and, more importantly, a victim of hate.

That’s the enviable position that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) finds herself in after doing all of the above in the space of just the three months since she was sworn in as a new member of Congress in January.

Her latest surge of publicity involved a speech she gave for the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the pushback about her 9/11 comments, whereby many Democrats embraced her as the victim of a hate crime because the New York Post published a cover reminding her about the horror that “something” entailed.

Omar has received death threats in recent months, and there is no excuse for that. No one should be threatened for expressing their views, even when they are hateful as some of Omar’s have been. But what demands our attention here is not the contents of her CAIR speech or even the Post cover with its iconic photograph of the World

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about the reach of the “deep state,” or the extraordinary influence of “special interests” smart enough to avoid public scrutiny.

Not everyone who sees the world in these rather brutalist terms is an anti-Semite, of course. But because anti-Semitism is in essence a conspiratorial fantasy, those who are afflicted with it tend to gravitate to the political poles where their anxieties about Jewish power receive greater sympathy.

Assange himself has spoken about Jews several times, with plain and heartfelt hostility. The first oc-

Trade Center towers in flames, but rather a curious process by which a person who has made a name for herself largely on the strength of anti-Semitic incitement has been transformed into a victim.

In doing so, those who have rallied to her defense have resurrected the myth of a post-9/11 backlash against Muslims. That has shifted the narrative of that trauma from one of an Islamist terror war against the West into one that focused on the victimization of Muslims. But the ability of Omar and her defenders to use it to effectively deflect charges of anti-Semitism and to essentially legitimize her as a public figure is something that ought to alarm everyone. mar, like her fellow controversial Democrat freshmen Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), has gotten far more publicity than she probably deserves for her meager accomplishments so far.

Still, the trio of radicals have not only mesmerized the media, but also proven to have considerably more influence over their party than political observers would have thought.

Nothing demonstrated their unexpected power more than the way that Omar’s allies were able to prevent the House of Representatives from condemning her after she slandered supporters of Israel and Jews by claiming that they were buying Congress (“It’s all about the Benjamins baby”) and exhibiting “dual loyalty.”

Omar refused to back down and found herself the object of much public sympathy for what sup-

porters claimed was an attempt to single her out solely because she was black, Muslim and an immigrant. Omar emerged triumphant from that fiasco. If there was any doubt about that, it was removed by the way Democrats instinctively moved to protect her from criticisms of her 9/11 remarks, and instead condemned the Post and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) as racists for calling her out.

In one sense, the kerfuffle is a typical insidethe-Beltway absurdity, with Ocasio-Cortez asking Crenshaw — a decorated former Navy SEAL who lost an eye fighting in Afghanistan — what he has ever done to fight terrorism. But this is more than just the usual political tit-for-tat on Twitter.

In her speech to CAIR, Omar claimed that the group had been founded after 9/11 in order to defend Muslims against a backlash after the attacks. This is patently false. CAIR was founded in 1994 as a political front for the Holy Land Foundation, a group that raised funds for the Hamas terror group that was eventually shut down by the Treasury Department. Her support for CAIR is consistent with her backing for the anti-Semitic BDS movement. ut the broader point to be made here is the way the effort to shift the discussion about 9/11 from a seminal moment in the long struggle against Islamist terror to a mere excuse to discriminate against Muslims is now being used to downplay Omar’s anti-Semitism.

The debate about this mythical backlash has been going on for a decade, especially during the

controversy over an abortive attempt to build an Islamic center within the shadow of the fallen World Trade Center towers. At that time, I wrote in Commentary magazine that false fears were being used to make Muslims appear to be the true victims of the slaughter. The mainstream media had accepted as truth the claims that Muslims had been the subjects of a wave of discrimination after 9/11, even though there was no objective proof to back up that assertion.

To the contrary, the U.S. government, mass media and American popular culture bent over backwards to avoid stigmatizing Muslims. As FBI hate-crime statistics in the years after 2001 showed, there was no evidence of a backlash of hate. During those years and the following decade since the World Trade Center mosque debate, statistics consistently showed that Jews remained the prime focus of religious hate in this country with anti-Semitic attacks or incidents of any kind far outnumbering those against Muslims.

While all forms of bias are despicable, the backlash narrative was, as I noted in 2010, a successful effort to “redirect, redefine and rewrite the unambiguous meaning of an unambiguous event” in order to defame the United States. But it’s now being weaponized again to portray an unapologetic anti-Semite like Omar as a victim.

The point of this campaign is to protect her and all others who seek to delegitimize Jews and supporters of Israel with an impenetrable cloak of immunity that belongs to victims.

Decent persons — Jewish and non-Jewish, Republican or Democrat — cannot allow this lie to stand unopposed.

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

casion was in 2011, when he phoned Ian Hislop, the editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, to complain about a piece that highlighted Assange’s friendship with a notorious character named Israel Shamir. (A Russian Jew who converted to Orthodox Christianity, Shamir has been writing unhinged missives denouncing Judaism and Zionism for 20 years, mostly for far-right websites.) By running the item, Assange said, Hislop had joined an international conspiracy against WikiLeaks led by journalists, all of whom, Assange emphasized, “are Jewish.” When Hislop challenged this invocation of a classic anti-Semitic trope, Assange replied, “Forget about the Jewish thing.”

But Hislop didn’t forget, and Assange promptly accused him — as is the fashion among those charged with making anti-Semitic statements — of engaging in a smear campaign. Those who gave

Assange the benefit of the doubt on that occasion were, however, stumped in 2013, when WikiLeaks employee James Ball resigned from the organization precisely because of Assange’s relationship with Shamir, whom he described as “an anti-Semitic writer … and a man with ties and friends in the Russian security services.” Then, in 2016, four years into his residency at the Ecuadorean embassy, Assange picked up on the social-media meme of placing parentheses symbolizing an echo chamber on either side of the names of Jewish writers.

“Tribalist symbol for establishment climbers?

Most of our critics have 3 (((brackets around their names))) & have black-rim glasses. Bizarre,” Assange said on Twitter, in a routine example of antiSemitic dog-whistling. Shortly afterwards, and getting a taste of his own medicine, a private message

sent by Assange in which he insulted the Jewish journalist Raphael Sutter was leaked online. “He’s always been a rat,” Assange said of Sutter. “But he’s Jewish and engaged with the ((()))) issue.”

It would seem, then, that what most agitates Assange about Jews is their clannishness and tribalism, their habit of sticking together politically, their notorious practice of smearing critics as “anti-Semites” and their penetration of the establishment. It’s probably not coincidental that these supposed traits are exactly what Shamir detests about Jews, too, as will be demonstrated by a quick perusal of his ravings.

When the next chapter in the Assange saga begins — and it is already being cast by the WikiLeaks faithful as the trial of the century, with their hero muzzled by an American flag — get ready for more of the same.

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This is more than just the usual political titfor-tat on Twitter.

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Analysis by Josefin Dolsten, JTA Benjamin Netanyahu won the election. Benny Gantz, his rival, came close but lost. That much we know.

But why did Israelis vote the way they did on Tuesday?

What issues drove the prime minister’s victory?

We took a look at a recent survey that examined Israeli voter attitudes. Here are some of the highlights based on data published last month by the Israel Democracy Institute.

The issues.

Israel can seem like a country that is perpetually obsessed with security, terrorism, war and peace. But the survey showed that for both Israeli Jews and Arabs, bread-and-butter issues were most on their minds in the voting booth. Approximately one quarter of both groups said their “party’s position on socioeconomic issues” was their main consideration in voting.

The second-most important consideration wasn’t an issue at all, but rather the person who stood at the head of the party. That tracks with much of the campaign news in Israel, which focused on the Netanyahu-Gantz rivalry. Gantz, of the newly formed Blue and White party, tried to put Netanyahu’s corruption scandals front and center, and the Likud leader tried to paint Gantz as not up to the task of governing in the most volatile region on the planet.

Only then does war and peace appear — in third place. Just 19 percent of Jews and 3 percent of Arabs prioritized their party’s “position on foreign and defense issues,” according to the survey.

Here’s the complete response to the survey’s question of “What is your main consideration in voting”: 1. Party’s position on socioeconomic issues (26 percent of Jews and 24 percent of Arabs) 2. Who stands at the head of the party (19.5 percent of Jews and 11 percent of Arabs) 3. Party’s position on foreign and defense issues (19 percent of Jews and 3 percent of Arabs) 4. Quality of party’s list of Knesset candidates (11 percent of Jews and 5 percent of Arabs) 5. The party’s chances of being in the next government (8 percent of Jews and 10 percent of Arabs) 6. The party’s activity in the outgoing Knesset (5 percent of Jews and 15 percent of Arabs)

A woman votes in Rosh Ha’ayin, Israel, on April 9.

Amir Levy/Getty Images

Of course, this was the case a month before the elections, and Israelis are known to change their minds at the last minute (they also tend to be particularly untruthful during exit polling after voting).

Another often-cited poll, conducted by Mitchell Barak of Keevon Strategies before Tuesday’s vote, showed security issues were the No. 1 topic for voters. As CNBC’s Jason Gewirtz wrote last Friday: “In every Israeli election since 1948, the top issue has been security.”

But Israel’s economy is also stable and in its 16th year of upward economic growth. Housing prices are high, but its stock market is booming.

Still, it might be worth taking it all with a grain of salt.

Gideon Rahat, director of political reform at the Israel Democracy Institute, says that even though Israelis say they vote on issues, they mostly vote based on how religious they are. More religious voters tend to support parties in the right-wing bloc and secular ones support center-left parties.

“If you look at the demographics, it’s clear that people vote according to their social identity and maybe later on they justify their choice by relating to issues or by relating to the specific properties of the leader of party,” Rahat told the JTA.

Israelis were conflicted this election.

More so than in previous years, due to the sweeping changes in the political landscape.

Among the most conflicted were those identifying with the right-wing Jewish Home party. That pro-settlement party saw some upheaval in recent months after Netanyahu brokered a deal to merge it with Jewish Power, a far-right party led by disciples of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane’s previous party, Kach, was banned from the Knesset under a Basic Law outlawing incitement to violence and later exiled entirely in Israel.

Jewish Home’s former leader, Naftali Bennett, also broke away from the party to form a new one months before the election.

However, Rahat said that though parties tend to shift in certain ways, which may prompt voters to feel conflicted about how to cast their ballots, the actual governing blocs remain similar in makeup at the end of the day. Netanyahu’s coalition may not include any new parties this time around.

“When I looked at results of the election, I was kind of shocked to see how it’s similar to previous election in terms of blocs,” he said.

Arab voters weren’t feeling too confident in the integrity of the election.

The integrity of the election was on many voters’ minds — especially among the country’s Arabs.

Thirty-nine percent of Arab respondents asked last month had little or no trust that the results announced would be accurate. That number represented an increase from February, when 32 percent of Arab respondents had little or no trust in the results. The number was significantly lower among Jews, with 25 percent of respondents last month saying they felt doubtful about the election’s integrity.

The distrust in the vote showed in the Arab voter turnout, which was historically low — nearly half the traditional rate.

The difference is also striking in light of news Tuesday that Likud had placed some 1,200 cameras in polling stations in Arab communities. Netanyahu said that they had done so to “ensure a fair vote,” but Arab Party head Jamal Zahalka called the cameras “an illegal measure meant to scare away voters.”

Kids are all right, more conservative over time

By Laura E. Adkins and Ben Sales, JTA Like lots of millennials who have catapulted to fame, May Golan got her start on the Internet, blogging about life in her South Tel Aviv neighborhood. From there she gained a platform as a social activist, with 25,000 followers on Facebook and 16,300 on Twitter.

On Tuesday, hours before she won a seat in Israel’s Knesset, she reached out to voters in one last Facebook video. “The right wing government is in danger,” she warned viewers, wearing a T-shirt with the words “Netanyahu. Right-wing. Strong. Successful.” emblazoned in blue and white block letters.

“There could be a leftist government here,” she said. “We have so many hopes and dreams. We have hoped for a secure future, to return governance and sovereignty from the legal activism that’s strangling us, and those leftist nonprofits that end up making the most important decisions here.”

Golan, an incoming legislator for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, will be one of the youngest members of the Knesset at age 32. She has spent years protesting against African asylum seekers in her Tel Aviv neighborhood. In 2017, she said: “A Palestinian state is a terror state.” She has appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” and criticized Hillary Clinton.

In other words, Golan is staunchly right wing. She’s also a lot like many Israeli Jews of her generation.

While American millennials have a reputation for liberal politics, young Israeli Jews have gone the opposite direction over time.

For at least the past 10 years, these voters have identified as right wing at much higher levels than their parents.

According to the 2018 Israeli Democracy Index (an annual study by the Israeli Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan Israeli think tank), approximately 64 percent of Israeli Jews aged 18-34 identify as right wing, compared to 47 percent of those 35 and older. An Israeli Democracy Institute survey conducted just one week before Tuesday’s election likewise found a direct correlation between age and support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: 65 percent of Israeli Jews aged 18 and 24, and 53 percent of those 25 to 34, favored Netanyahu winning re-election, while 17 percent and 33 percent, respectively, preferred his more centrist rival, Benny Gantz.

“There are young people who like Netanyahu’s ideology,” Eli Hazan, a Likud campaign spokesman, told the JTA. “They see the diplomatic achievements of Netanyahu and believe in him. Those are the facts and that’s the reality.”

In addition to Likud, Israel’s youngest Jewish voters — they are increasingly Orthodox due to high birth rates in the haredi Orthodox and religious communities — likely helped Israel’s

Likud supporters wave party and national flags as they gather at its headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 10.

Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

two haredi parties pick up three additional Knesset seats (for a total of 16) in Tuesday’s election. Other right-wing parties likely benefited from the younger, more religious vote as well.

Younger voters in Israel have been disproportionately right-wing for a while.

“There are two main theories about age,” Tamar Hermann, coeditor of the annual Israeli Democracy Index and a professor of political science, told JTA. “One theory says when you are politically socialized, between 18 to 34, then it stays with you throughout your entire life. The other theory says that your political views change with age in a specific direction; people become milder with age.

“I cannot tell you whether they are more to the right because young people tend to be more radical, and certainly the left right now doesn’t offer a radical left-wing worldview, or because they are just young and this will change.”

The trend might have to do with the events that shaped their formative years. An 18-year-old Israeli wasn’t alive during the heyday of the peace process in the 1990s, nor when the Israeli left last won an election, in 1999.

Young Israelis grew up during the second intifada, which saw hundreds of Israelis killed in suicide bombings. The aftermath of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, which occurred when this group was between 4 to 20 years old, has led many young Jewish Israelis to resent any leader who is willing to cede any more land currently under Israeli control. Since some of this group has served in the army, successive wars in Gaza have only hardened that perception.

“They were born after the Oslo process started, they were exposed to the bloodshed during the second intifada, they are coming right after military service,” Hermann told JTA. Hazan, the Likud spokesman, said that “people who grew up in the middle of the Al-Aqsa intifada don’t trust the Palestinians, don’t believe in peace. They really want there to be peace, but there is no partner.”

For younger religious Zionist voters in particular, the disengagement, which displaced some 8,000 Jewish settlers, “was considered an absolutely devastating moment that they’ve vowed never to return to,” Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli political analyst and a public opinion expert, told JTA. “The general narrative is, we gave up this land, they sent rockets in return,” Scheindlin said. “The national religious have considered it a national trauma ever since then.”

Scheindlin said that what younger voters haven’t experienced might matter even more.

“There’s been no peace process, no handshakes, no agreements,” she said. “Any negotiations have been zero-expectation negotiations.”

But along with being children of the conflict, this cohort is shaped by their religiosity. A larger percentage of young Israelis is haredi Orthodox and religious Zionist than in previous generations, and religious Jewish Israelis tend to be more right wing. “[How religious you are] is the best predictor of whether someone is left, right or center,” Scheindlin said. And the age divide is growing, she added, “given that religious people have more children and higher population growth.”

Right-wing parties have also attracted young voters because they prefer the same platform: social media. Netanyahu, who is famously averse to speaking with the Israeli press, is most comfortable tweeting and posting videos to Facebook. Those happen to also be networks popular with young Israelis.

“Bibi hates interviews and he very much prefers to have a completely controlled narrative, which is why he’s made enthusiastic use of social media,” Scheindlin said. “Every word is measured. Two of his closest advisers are his social media advisers. So much of his personality is on social media.”

So did Jewish millennials deliver Netanyahu this election?

It’s a bit too soon to tell. But Scheindlin said that while exact figures aren’t out yet, it’s safe to assume that the right wing had youth on its side.

“I don’t think a Likud victory will be driven by young people because religiosity will scatter their votes” across a variety of right-wing parties, she said, “but they will definitely be helping a right-wing bloc.”

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Here’s what Israelis had in mind on election day

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