April 20, 2012

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Jewish story Page 3 The Kosher Bookworm: Titanic’s Jewish Victims Page 6 Who’s in the kitchen? Going with the dough Page 12 Torossian: Top 10 living ‘tough’ Jews Page 17

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VOL 11, NO 15 ■ APRIL 20, 2012 / 28 NISAN 5772 WWW.THEJEWISHSTAR.COM

It’s the real thing, the one sided right of return

A story of survival and inspiration

By Juda Engelmayer In 2001, Hussam Khader, a Fatah leader, said of Yasser Arafat’s last negotiations with then President Bill Clinton, “If Yasser Arafat or any other Palestinian leader were to relinquish the right of return, I would lead the revolt against him.” This supposed right, one sided as it might be, is the stated reason why the Oslo Accords failed, and is something that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert amazingly offered in a rejected last ditch effort to hand over 97% of Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights in exchange for peace.

The Arabs claim that the the right of return is an individual right, enshrined in international law, which no international or national leader can sign away. This right, however seems only enshrined on a one-way street for Palestinians. For Jews, there is no such right, nor any major calls for justice to be served on the behalf of Jews who were forcibly kicked out of Arab lands after the British and French Mandates created the Arab states of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and so on, following the end of World War I. Syrian Jews, Iranian Jews, and Iraqi Jews all lost property, assets and other valuables, but no one cries for them. There are no movements or United Nations discussions, and in fact, there is no justice in the American courts either, leading one to believe that the right of return is more of a Palestinian ploy than a real international issue applicable to all.

More recently than the end of WWI, General Abdul Nasser came to power in Egypt and ordered the arrests of Jews and confiscated their property, both personal and commercial. He deported thousands, confiscating all their assets. Most of the deportees were limited to one suitcase apiece. Being so bold, in 1964, Nasser declared that Egypt believed in the Nazi cause, saying, “Our sympathy… was with the Germans.”

Fast forward to today, for a case that few are even paying attention to; it is one that reeks of the hypocrisy of the “treasured” right of return law that Arabs so audaciously cling to. It is the illegal trespass of America’s Coca-Cola on property outside Cairo that was taken from a Jewish family by Nasser in 1962.

Coca-Cola built a bottling plant in Egypt in the 1940s when it leased land and buildings from the Egyptian Jewish Bigio family, land it owned since 1929. The Bigios were later expelled from Egypt in 1965, after their property was confiscated. Egypt nationalized their Continued on page 2

By Yoel Moskowitz This past Wednesday night, the Five Towns Community was honored to hear from my father, Rabbi Mayer Moskowitz at the Annual Community Wide Yom Ha Shoah Program. He addressed the community not only as a survivor of the Shoah, but also as a Jewish educator, author and scholar. My father is fond of saying that the tens of thousands of Jewish children who he taught at various Jewish institutions; Hertzliya – Beit Medrash L’Morim, Yeshiva Etz Chaim, Ramaz, Camp Massad, are proof that Hitler failed and that these students are his ultimate revenge.

Mayer Moskowitz is a complex person who navigates his life by weaving in and out of the different worlds he has lived in. The oldest and only son of Reb Avraham Chaim, the Shotzer Rebbe in Chernowitz, Rumania and the scion of a long and noble line of Chassidic Rabbinic lineage, his early education took place in Viznitz.

His childhood memories are vivid and happy and though he only got to spend nine years with his father, Continued on page 6

Rabbi Mayer Moskowitz, pictured at a previous event, was the keynote speaker at the Yom Ha’Shoah annual memorial service at Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence.

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The real thing, but no returns Continued from page 1 property. After the Begin-Sadat talks and the 1978 Camp David Accords brought a treaty, Bigio returned in 1979 and managed to obtain a decree from the Ministry of Finance that the property “had never been legally sequestered or nationalized and accordingly remained” Bigio property.

Yet, a series of back handed deals between Egyptian insurance companies and the government caused the land to fall into the possession of the Misr Insurance Co., a government-owned entity that refused to turn it over to the family. Then, in 1993, Egypt announced the privatization of the bottling facility and Bigio notified Coca-Cola of his family’s interest in the property, but CocaCola closed on a deal to acquire ownership interest in the property anyway. Egypt was not going to offer justice or any right of return to the Jewish Bigio family.

Even so, there was hope that the matter could be settled by the American court system, as Coca-Cola is an American operation. Now, 14 years later and after the United States Court of Appeals has reversed dismissals of the case twice, it was shot down again on the argument that the theft was committed by Coca Cola Egypt and not by the American defendants. Fourteen years through the system; the initial suit was dismissed under the Alien Tort Statute stating that there was no jurisdiction and that the act of state doctrine barred the exercise of jurisdiction. The 2nd Circuit reversed it on appeal.

The Bigios filed again in 2009, claiming “unlawful taking and exclusion of plaintiffs,” citing the trespass and civil conspiracy as well as unjust enrichment. However, the case was dismissed indicating that Egyptian law prevails. Remarkably, it also said the Bigios “have not plausibly alleged that defendants enriched themselves without just cause.”

This was the same Coca-Cola Company that knowingly entered into a lease with the Bigios in the 1930s then ran to buy the land after it was confiscated from them--which they were well aware of.

This past March, the court found that Coca-Cola and its subsidiary occupied the property under a legitimate claim of right for Egyptian law and therefore their possession is not illegal. Then, in what seemed to be an act of kicking a man when he’s down, Coca-Cola filed a “Bill of Costs” to collect the printing costs of its brief from the truly impoverished Bigios. They took the land and now asked for blood.

Fortunately, Coke’s lawyers attached a bill for a completely different brief that was longer than the one Coca-Cola filed. In addition, it never filed a “Supplemental Appendix,” that they also demanded reimbursement for. Diet Coke -- obviously embarrassed -withdrew its request for costs once it was revealed. Minor justice served, while the major offense remains intact.

The family now has until May 2 to request a rehearing.

The final outcome of the case will be interesting, because it speaks volumes of the fraudulent nature of the right of return. What cuts for Arabs, does not appear to cut the same for Jews. If Jews demanded their rights of property, assets and land from Arab countries that threw them out, and the United Nations and world leaders joined in the call for Justice for Jews, how lopsided would this world seem on that day? Perhaps a court can decide once and for all that Israeli Law applies for cases involving Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Juda Engelmayer is an executive with the NY PR agency, 5W Public Relations

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By Malka Eisenberg New York Times bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford is currently on demand by Jewish organizations, crisscrossing the country from Dallas to Chicago, Teaneck to South Florida as a guest at brunches, lunches, dinners and teas in the wake of her new book, “Letter from a Stranger.”

On Tuesday, April 24th, Bradford will discuss and sign copies of her book at the Luncheon and Book Review Series hosted by the Sabra chapter of AMIT of the Five Towns along with members of the Margolit Chapter of Forest Hills at noon at the Sephardic Temple, in Cedarhurst.

This, her 27th book, has a story within a story, with its core a memoir of a 14-year-old girl in Nazi Germany. Readers have emailed her, she said, noting that the seeming authentic and wrenching account has brought them to tears. It is this central story that has brought Jewish women’s organizations clamoring for her presence at their events and book clubs.

Bradford took time out of her busy schedule, currently writing her 28th book, to speak with the Jewish Star by phone from her home office in Manhattan. She described her inspirations for the book, her research methods and her views on anti-Semitism and Israel.

“We’ve got to be very careful what we reveal about the book,” she said coyly in her British accent. The first half of the book introduces the reader to an accomplished 32 year old woman who opens a letter that ultimately changes “many lives irrevocably,” said Bradford. This leads her on a quest to reconnect with a grandmother she believed was dead and to unravel a family secret.

Bradford is not Jewish but her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford is. Born in Germany, he lost his immediate family and was taken out by family during the war. Barbara Taylor was a child during World War II, began writing at age seven and was published at age 10. By age 16 she was working as a cub reporter in Yorkshire and at 20 headed for Fleet Street in London covering varied beats for the London Evening News, Today Magazine and others. After meeting and marrying her husband in 1963, they moved to the U.S. She covered interior design and lifestyles in a syndicated column in 183 newspapers across the U.S. and published her first novel, “A Woman of Substance,” one of the top ten bestselling books of all time, in 1979.

Asked if exposure to the war years in her childhood sparked her interest in the Holocaust for this book, she reflected that her strongest impression was during her formative years in Leeds with its significant Jewish community where she was unaware of anti-Semitism and was close with many of the Jewish families there. The tipping point though was on Fleet Street when some of her colleagues went to Israel to cover the Eichmann trial after his capture in 1960, noting that the aftermath of the war had more of an influence on her perceptions of the Holocaust. She pointed out that in her research for a previous book, “The Women in His Life,” she talked to many people who were taken out of Germany during the war and that many “can’t talk about it. It’s something so traumatic, to be without their family, to have their family taken

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Bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford will speak at Sephardic Temple, this Tuesday, April 24th. by the Gestapo, or bombed, and to have to go on; they must cope by burying it very deep inside themselves. My husband couldn’t talk about it, he buried it so he could continue to live.” She said that she read about the Eichmann trial. Adolf Eichmann was behind the persecution and murder of millions of Jews during the Shoah, evaded the Nuremberg trials but was captured and brought to Israel, tried and executed for his crimes in 1962. “He was found guilty and executed as he should have,” she said.

The idea for this book, she said, germinated in 2009. “I was reading in the papers about women who disappear and are found dead or are never found. I wondered what a family must feel if their mother, grandmother or sister disappears into thin air, killed in an accident, lost their memory or run away. It’s a good jumping off point for a novel.” She was also aware of dictators, especially Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, who say that the Holocaust never happened. “I get inflamed by anger when I see denial of the Holocaust. I wanted to focus on the Holocaust and link it with missing women. I was interested in the trauma of a person going missing; many had gone missing in the Holocaust.” In that way she established the character of Gabrielle and the family in this book. She stressed that the creation of a novel starts

with a “flash of inspiration and hard work, working out the drama and the plot line. I’m not a teacher, I’m an entertainer.

Many of my books touched on serious subjects; this is one of those books.””

She said her story is “very dramatic and emotional. I believe a reader gets intrigued—what’s in the letter?’ She didn’t think that people would be “put off” by the Jewish core of the story.

“It’s selling well,” she said. “They pick up a book by Barbara Taylor Bradford and get half way through, they care about the girl, her struggle to live. Readers get involved with the people I create in the book and if they don’t then I’ve failed. My books are mostly character driven. The Jewish part is absolutely necessary. It wouldn’t feel the same way if the character wasn’t Jewish. It’s integral to the story. You need to have the mystery, the dramatic intent to propel the book forward.”

Bradford thoroughly researches her books; she said that way she “knows it’s accurate” and she often gets plot ideas from the research. Typically, in all her books, her main character is a career-oriented woman of strong character. Bradford also typically vividly and colorfully describes the food the characters eat and their often opulent surroundings.

“People like to read about food,” she explained. “I’m competing with TV and I want you to see the room, taste the food, see the garden. Yes, it’s almost like a character in the book.”

She notes that she starts early in the morning writing “maybe because I worked on evening newspapers. I’m a morning person. I worked ten hours a day on this book. I’m a hard worker, I have a work ethic.”

She notes that she worries about England that they “don’t teach proper history.” She thinks positively about Israel. “I believe Israel is very important to America and the West,” she said. “Israel is a bulwark against what’s going on today. I’m a fan of (Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu and am glad America is standing behind Israel. Israel has to be supported by the West, by America and the UK.” “I don’t like anti-Semitism,” she stated. “People are taught, not born with it. The Holocaust did happen, people are forgetting things. I cried when I wrote the memoir because of what my husband and his family went through. It’s wrong.

We have to remind people that six million were exterminated and it can happen again and it is happening in other countries. I chose to write about it because I feel very strongly about it. Such a systematic destruction of people.”

She recalled an incident when she was approached at a book signing by a woman who said she had difficulty getting into one of Bradford’s books but on a rainy day delved into it and came to the part where a child is taken out of Berlin with jewelry stitched into its clothing. “My husband was in shock,” the woman recounted. “I had never cried before and now I cried and cried. I had been taken out of Germany with my mother’s jewelry stitched into my clothing. You gave my emotions back to me.” This woman could not understand how Bradford was able to describe how Jews felt. Said Bradford, “The only difference is religion. We’re all human beings. I’ve never forgotten that, how she couldn’t understand how I could understand. I’ve got to be able to stand in someone else’s shoes to write any novel.”

2nd generation: Each of us is a living memorial

By Dr. Jeffrey Ratz This past week, I seized a rare opportunity to spend a Chol HaMoed evening with my family at Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage. This was a rare opportunity for me for several reasons—I rarely close my office early, now that our daughter Tara is married we rarely have a chance to spend leisure time with her and her husband, and our family rarely visits Jewish museums. My wife and I are “second-generation” survivors; both of my in-laws and my father survived the Holocaust. Growing up in my house was like a permanent visit to the Holocaust museum.

With such profound childhood experiences, few museums captured the terror and the

awful realities of the Holocaust. Despite all of that, we seized the day and explored Jewish Heritage in the Lower Manhattan facility.

As I walked through the museum and saw artifacts and images of our people’s long history, I was brought to the verge of tears. The most powerful moment for me was when we reached the end of the museum and stood at a picture window looking out on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. My wife and I were misty-eyed, and my children who were with me stood awe-struck. The whole experience of the evening together was supremely emotional.

It is this mixture of emotions I am overcome by every year on Yom Ha’Shoah. As Pesach—z’man herutaynu (our time of

redemption)—comes to an end, we are forced to come to terms with another year of Moshiach’s delay. Every year at the Seder we open our door to Eliyahu, and every year I am reminded of how my father-in-law used to shake the table to show my children how Eliyahu drank the wine; every year I am greeted by the black night sky and sometimes a breeze that reminds me that no one stands on the other side of my threshold. Another Pesach is behind us, and the remembrance days of Yom Ha’Shoah and Yom Ha’Atzmaut follow on its heels. Again, growing up as a “second-generation” survivor, every day is a Holocaust remembrance day. Yet, on my Continued on page 6

Yom Ha’Shoah is a day to reflect on, commemorate, and laud the survivors who exited the fiery gates of Hell and continued to live “al kidush Hashem.”

THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772

‘Letter from a Stranger’ ties Barbara Taylor Bradford to the Jewish community

April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772 THE JEWISH STAR

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Opinion Barack Obama’s Really Lousy Week

L

ast Tuesday (4/10) began the first official week of the real Presidential campaign. With Rick Santorum’s announcement that he was suspending his campaign, the battle was finally joined, Republicans ended the circular firing squad of the GOP primary season and turned their attention to President Obama.

Despite the fact that the President’s reelection campaign was ready for the campaign to begin, the first official week of the Obama vs. Romney campaign turned out to be an unsuccessful one for Obama. In fact it was pretty darn lousy.

POLITICO It wasn’t any ReTO GO publican effort that spoiled Obama’s week-the injuries were selfinflicted.

For Mitt Romney to win the election, he needs to keep the attention on Barack Obama’s record as President. On the other hand, Obama strategy is to keep people from looking at his record; Jeff Dunetz instead he relies on “fake issues” to deflect voter attention away from him and on to the Republicans.

According to a March Rasmussen survey, the economy is the number one issue for American voters and, by a large margin, 82% felt the economy was an important issue. The number two issue was healthcare, 20 percentage points back.

With unemployment well over 8%, polls showing most voters want Obamacare repealed, and the feeling that taxes are too high, you can’t blame Obama’s campaign operatives for inventing issues to rally the voters around.

For several months the Obama campaign was cultivating two issues to use in the upcoming general election drive: “the GOP war on women” and “the Republicans only care about the rich.” Both issues were dealt major blows this week.

A Democratic strategist who didn’t think before she spoke blew up that “GOP war against woman.”

What was originally a freedom of religion issue, the Catholic Church objecting to Obama’s rule that they would have pay for sterilization, the day after abortion pill, and

contraception as part of their Obamacare requirements, became a “Republicans hate women” campaign. What was originally a discussion about whether there was a constitutional right to free contraception became a distorted claim that Republican’s wanted to outlaw contraception. This was a trap set by the President’s reelection campaign willingly walked into by the GOP candidates.

However, Tuesday night, Democratic strategist and DNC adviser Hilary Rosen changed all that when she lobbed an insult at Ann Romney, suggesting that the 64-yearold mother of five and grandmother of 16, who recently battled cancer and is still fighting MS, never worked a day in her life. The firestorm was almost immediate.

The Obama campaign was quick to disassociate from Rosen. David Axelrod quickly pointed out that Rosen had nothing to do with the campaign or administration; she was simply an employee of CNN, which proved to be a lie. Within 24 hours it was revealed that Rosen visited the Obama administration in the White House at least 35 times, meeting directly with the President at least five times.

Not that I am trying to imply that the President in any way agreed with the words coming out of Hillary Rosen’s mouth (he did however, approve of what Rosen was supposed to say, that Ann Romney never worked a day out of the house in her life).

Why was this so bad for the President?

First of all, it pulled the rug out from under the “GOP war on women.” In the middle of all the confusion, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, one of the most liberal organizations in Congress declared trying to brand the GOP as conducting a war on women was a false issue. But it no longer mattered what they thought because Hillary Rosen made that issue toxic for Obama.

Even more damaging to Obama’s campaign is what the incident did to the GOP. As a result of Rosen’s statement, conservative Republicans who were slow to accept Romney, rallied around the presumptive nominee and his wife. That would have happened anyway, but thanks to Ms. Rosen this happened much earlier than it would have.

The other leg of Obama’s effort to distract voters from his record is to label the Republicans as interested in protecting the rich at the expense of the poor. A big part of this is the “Buffet Rule.”

The Buffet Rule did not help the President during this first official week of the campaign even though he traveled the country pitching

THE JEWISH

Mitt Romney

Barack Obama

it almost every day. In fact the proposed rule faced derision from liberal commentators.

This rule has nothing to do with reducing the deficit. It will raise an additional $4.7 billion dollars/year for the next ten years from about 400 people. A relatively small amount when you consider that the president’s new budget adds $350 billion/year to the deficit.

The only purpose for this campaign effort is for Obama to position himself as the prophet of fairness against the evil rich-loving GOP. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was among the liberal pundits who criticized Obama’s Buffet push.

President Obama admits it: His proposed “Buffett Rule” tax on millionaires is a gimmick.

“There are others who are saying: ‘Well, this is just a gimmick. Just taxing millionaires and billionaires, just imposing the Buffett Rule, won’t do enough to close the deficit,’ ” Obama declared Wednesday. “Well, I agree.”

Actually, the gimmick was apparent even without the President’s acknowledgment. He gave his remarks in a room in the White House complex adorned with campaign-style photos of his factory tours. On stage with him were eight props: four millionaires, each paired with a middle-class assistant. The octet smiled and nodded so much as Obama made his case that it appeared the President was sharing the stage with eight bobble heads.

Even worse for the Obama campaign is that the President’s Buffet rule push might

end up hurting him with independent voters, the key group in the upcoming election.

A Democratic Party organization called Third Way released a poll last week that showed the Buffet rule might not be a winning one amongst independents. Among voters without a strongly held opinion of either Mr. Romney or President Obama, 80 percent said they’d be more likely to support a candidate focused on economic growth and opportunity, while 15 percent said they would choose one emphasizing income inequality.

Because Obama wants to embarrass his opponents, this week the same Senate that has not passed a budget during Obama’s entire presidency, is wasting time to debate and vote on a Buffett Rule that will not pass.

This week the “battle was joined,” as Mitt Romney became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and President Obama may have lost both of his memes designed to deflect voters away from his record. But this is only week one; there will be plenty of ups and downs for both candidates between now and November.

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com).

Jeff contributes to some of the largest political sites on the internet including American Thinker, Big Government, Big Journalism, NewsReal and Pajama’s Media, and has been a guest on national radio shows including G. Gordon Liddy, Tammy Bruce and Glenn Beck.

Jeff lives in Long Island.

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Karen C. Green Malka Eisenberg Helene Parsons Miriam Bradman Abrahams Rabbi Avi Billet Jeff Dunetz Juda Engelmayer Rabbi Binny Freedman Alan Jay Gerber Rabbi Noam Himelstein Judy Joszef Yoel Moskowitz Dr. Jeffrey Ratz Ronn Torossian Alyson Goodman Christina Daly

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Surviving and inspiring Continued from page 1 it is his father who has left the longest most indelible impression on him. Until this day my father sings the zemirot of his childhood and honors his Chassidic heritage by wearing a “tish” kaftan to his Shabbat table.

As was their wont, the Nazis executed my grandfather along with other communal leaders shortly after marching into town.

This was done in front of my father, his mother and sister; they were then marched, along with the other Jews of Chernowitz to Sharograd a ghetto within the concentration camp area of Transnistria. On a recent heritage tour my siblings and I took with my father, we visited Treblinka, one of the most notorious concentration camps the Nazis built. Inside one of the bunkers my father turned to us and said “I am sorry to say this, but at least here in Treblinka, the victims had a roof over their head and one meal a day; in Sharograd we were left to the elements to die of hunger.”

My father was separated from his mother and sister and sent to a work camp where he was forced into hard labor. One day, while being marched out to his work detail, my father instinctively followed the man immediately in front of him on the marching line and jumped into an embankment on the side of the road that was covered in deep snow. The understaffed guards shot into the snow hitting my father in the arm but did not give chase. My father dug his way to a road, managed to get to Russian occupied territory and was smuggled to Palestine by the Aliyat Hanoar movement. In Palestine, my father, an orphan as far as he knew, studied agriculture at Mikveh Yisrael in Holon, philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was in-

ducted into the Hagganah. He was reunited with his sister in Palestine and she married and settled there. Shortly thereafter they found out that their mother had survived as well and was living in New York. My father, who was single, made the heart-wrenching decision to leave his new life and join his mother here.

Upon coming to New York, my father studied under and received his semicha c from Reb Moshe Feinf stein at Mesivta Tiferet s Yerushalyim.

He also Y taught and studied at t Hertzliya – Beit MeH drash L’Morim. He has d been involved in Jewb ish education for over 60 years and has been at the Ramaz School for almost 50. He was also a director at Camp Massad and is the author of “A Memoir of Sanctity” published in the original Hebrew in Jerusalem and translated into English. The book is available at J Levine Bookstore in New York (http://levinejudaica.com/catalog/ product_info.php?cPath=35_59&products_ id=16602).

According to my father, despite surviving the horrors of the Shoah, the greatest tragedy that he endured was losing his wife, my mother, to cancer at age 46. Despite all he has gone through, he is constantly rebuilding or in his words “surviving.” At 80 plus he still teaches a full schedule, is physically active and does not miss the opportunity to be culturally enlightened, going often to the theatre, ballet, opera, the movies and most recently a Bruce Springsteen concert. Those of us fortunate enough to have been touched by him are now inspired by his vitality and zest for life. May it be a long and healthy one.

The Kosher Bookworm

In tribute to the 100th yahrtzeit of the Jewish victims of the Titanic tragedy One hundred years ago this Friday, April 20th, the 28th day of Nissan, the RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg, killing over 1500 passengers and crew.

The saga that grew out of this tragedy has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and films that, when taken together, serve as a legendary resource for generations present and deep into the future.

Having known personally a survivor of this disaster in my youth on the Lower East Side and having taught both the book, “A Night To RememAlan Jay Gerber ber” as well as the film of the same name at FDR High School for many years, I have come to have a deep respect for what this tragedy has come to represent in the annals of both world, American, and to a more limited, yet important extent, Jewish history.

Recently, a new book was published entitled, “Voyagers of the Titanic: Passengers,

Sailors, Shipbuilders, and the Worlds They Came From” [William Morrow/Harper Collins 2012].Its author is the acclaimed British biographer Richard Davenport-Hines.

Among all the books that I previewed on this subject, this was the only work that devoted respectable space and scholarship to the Jewish victims of this tragedy. It will be my honor to share his take on this with you.

Aside from the now legendary roles played

by Isidore and Ida Strauss and Ben Guggenheim, no more has been noted by most historians of the other Jews, of all economic strata, who were to experience either death or salvation on that shared fateful journey.

This work briefly introduces us to numerous Jewish personalities, from Manhattan affluence to the poverty of the Pale of Settlement, who were to share a vessel of transit to destinations then, as yet, unknown.

Among these are the young diamond dealer, Jakob Birnbaum, originally from Cracow; Samuel Goldenberg, the Broadway lace importer; William Greenfield, the prominent furrier; and garment merchant Martin Rothschild.

And we have a representation of Jews from Eastern Europe. Most of these Jewish passengers embarked at Southampton. A Continued on page 7

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The second generation: living al kidush Hashem Continued from page 3 visit to the Jewish Heritage museum, standing at that picture window with my family all staring at the port that greeted our previous generation’s huddled masses, Yom Ha’Shoah took on a deeper meaning.

I heard a powerful thought about Yom Ha’Shoah in the modern conscience, a great thought by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau when he addressed Beth Shalom Congregation several years ago. His talk centered on what Yom Ha’Shoah must mean to second-, third-, and fourth-generation survivors and beyond. He said that no part of the Holocaust is comprehensible; no loss of human life is explainable.

In spite of this, the day of Holocaust remembrance, he argued, is not about mourning the martyrs. It is not, he emphasized, a day to remember or cry for those victims of the Holocaust who died “al kidush Hashem” (in the honor of G-d). Instead, Yom Ha’Shoah is a day to reflect on, commemorate, and laud the survivors who exited the fiery gates of Hell

and continued to live “al kidush Hashem.”

This is the meaning, Rabbi Lau explained, that it is Holocaust Remembrance Day, not Holocaust Memorial Day. Each of us needs to be reminded that living “al kidush Hashem” is why we are here.

Glancing out that window at the site where my father and my in-laws first stepped foot into the goldene medina and continued to live vibrant Jewish lives “al kidush Hashem” brought the meaning home for me. Each of us who is brave enough to make our actions match their divine inspiration, each of us who proudly upholds halacha and Jewish customs, each of us is a living monument to the Holocaust because we did not allow our neshamas—our spirits—to be dampened.

Every year when we chant “Ani Ma’amin” (I Have Faith) at a Yom Ha’Shoah ceremony, we recommit ourselves to live lives to a higher purpose and to instill in our children pride and joy in their rich Jewish heritage.

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7 THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772

In tribute to the 100th yahrtzeit of the Jewish victims of the Titanic tragedy Continued from page 6 brief notation can be made here of a few of the more colorful personalities; one is David Livshin. According to the author, “We know a little of Livshin’s personal history: he had come to England in 1911, worked in Manchester as a jeweler, and married there a young woman from Lithuania who made sheitels. She was now pregnant. We know nothing of Livshin’s life on board the Titanic: he did not have a future.”

We learn of others; consider the following: “Another Jewish passenger -- they were all supplied with kosher food – was Eliezer Gilinski, a locksmith aged twenty-two from Ignalina, a town in Lithuania…. Doubtless he had left Lithuania to avoid military service under the Russians and racial prejudice.”

There was also Berk Trembisky, thirty-two years old and a native of Warsaw, and Leah Aks also a Warsaw native who had left Poland for London where she married a tailor.

She was to travel on the Titanic with their ten month old son Frank to join him in Norfolk, Virginia. Their saga after their rescue was to be among the great legends of the Titanic experience.

However, what peaked my interest most was the author’s off handed reference above to the availability of kosher food on the Titanic. This led me on an unusual trail of research that I shall now share with you.

This past weekend’s edition of the nation’s oldest Jewish English language paper, The Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, featured an article written by Marshall Weiss of the Dayton Jewish Observer entitled, “Kashrut Aboard the Titanic Sheds Light on Immigration.” This excellent piece of journalism war-

rants your attention. It represents a precious piece of newly discovered Jewish history.

A brief outline of the facts now follow.

Just remember the venue, the historic context, the dire economic state of these Jews, and the sacrifice that they made to eat according to our faith’s strictures.

Weiss goes into great detail describing the history of the recent availability of kosher food on trans-Atlantic ships.

Consider the following: “Charles Kennell was among the nearly 700 crew members to die that night. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, the 30-year old Kennel signed on to the White Star Line’s Titanic on April 4, 1912. He listed his address as 6 Park View, Southampton, the port city in southeast England from which the Titanic would embark.

“Kennel had already served on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, which took its maiden voyage in 1911. Now he came aboard the larger more luxurious Titanic for wages of four pounds a month.

“Kennel was the ‘Hebrew cook’ for the Titanic, which had kosher service.”

Further, according to Weiss, “Before liners offered kosher food, Jews had to fend for themselves, bringing their own food. Some didn’t survive.”

Note is made of a Washington Post article dated, November 2, 1909, about Gisella Greiner, a “young Hebrew immigrant,” who died of starvation in Ellis Island’s hospital.

Kosher food was not available during her nine day journey to these shores and she chose to fast.

Weiss brings to our attention that detailed knowledge about the kosher food situation on the Titanic is scarce. Nevertheless, there

was evidence, as noted in this article of china, stoneware, and silver-plate that were marked in Hebrew and English either “meat” or “milk.” Further, there is a copy of the White Star Line’s food menu for third class that states the following: “Kosher meat supplied and cooked for Jewish passengers as desired.”

It should be noted that Weiss gives credit to much of his research to Charles Haas, president of the Titanic International Society and John Eaton, who together coauthored “Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy”.

One last fact from Weiss’ article that I found most riveting is the following: “A day after their arrival at New York’s Pier 54 at 9:30 pm on April 18th aboard the Carpathia, The New York Times reported that “A score of the Titanic’s steerage were taken to the Hebrew Sheltering Home and Immigrant Aid Society, 229 East Broadway, for the night.”

According to HIAS, the agency assisted 27 Titanic survivors.

My dear readers, 229 East Broadway was soon after the above episode to become the home, for most of the next century to the Young Israel of Manhattan.

This shul was the founding synagogue of the Young Israel movement, and the shul

where I was to be Bar Mitzva on Shabbat Eikev, 1959.

To this day no one knows the full list of names of those of the Jewish faith who perished in this tragedy. This Friday is their yahrtzeit. I intend to light a candle in their sacred memory, Thursday night after Maariv.

I do hope and trust that many of you will do the same.

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Hands on mini-Israel experience opens at Port Washington Chabad

By Malka Eisenberg Close along the shores of Manhasset Bay, nestles the picturesque hamlet of Port Washington, its stately homes, its boats and, seagulls calling, arcing over the rippling glistening blue water in a typical New England style beauty.

Also along the shore on Manhasset Bay, rises a new peach colored smooth stucco building surrounded by a newly asphalted and painted spacious parking lot, the Chabad of Port Washington. Rabbi Shalom and Sara Paltiel of Chabad of Port Washington welcome visitors to “Judaism with a smile” and a jewel housed within: a re-creation of a mini-Israel in the form of an indoor interactive immersive playground for children in preschool and early grades.

The “Florence Brownstein Mini-Israel indoor playground,” dedicated by her son, Dr. Martin Brownstein in his mother’s memory, is accessed through the brightly lit ceramic tiled orange painted hall. The rooms of the pre-school are visible from the hallway through internal glass windows with fake flower boxes beneath.

Visitors to the playground are instructed to remove their shoes and sanitize their hands at a convenient dispenser before entering, “to try to keep dirt and germs out,” explained Mrs. Paltiel. The colors and sights along the playground give a visitor a taste and feel of Israel, from the imitation stone archways and walls to the low-grade sand and stone colored carpet. One area has slides and tunnels in the “stone walls” surrounding a courtyard with an almost full-sized kneeling camel and a “well” with a real but preserved date palm from California. Other rooms include a shuk replica with hats, shawls, tallitot, low tables, rugs and pillows; a candy store with fake colorful candy that can be handled, stacked and arranged; a felafel and shwarma stand with

Children play in the “fruit and vegetable” market

cloth imitation pitot and all the trimmings; a bakery; spice and produce stores, and music and game stores. All the rooms are fully interactive; children can handle and play with all aspects of these spaces exercising their gross and fine motor skills and creative play all while experiencing a taste of Israel.

“It’s a full sensory experience,” stressed Mrs. Paltiel. “With sounds, music, textures and signs.” Other areas have a puppet theater, play tefillin, Shabbat and havdala sets, and a climbing wall. One area has a re-creation of the Kotel with a live video feed from Jerusalem. Visitors can leave notes in the wall in the playground or write out and email a message to be placed in the actual Kotel in

A long look through some of the creative interactive areas in the Florence MiniIsrael playground at Chabad of Port Washington.

Jerusalem. It also has Smulik’s diner, named for Samuel Brownstein, Martin’s father and Marty’s pizza named for Dr. Martin Brownstein, a café area for visiting groups to eat or for birthday parties.

The playground is currently in use by PW Chabad’s pre-school but will be available for rental for class trips and parties. “We look forward to hosting community and school groups, religious groups, private events, visiting dignitaries and others,” said Mrs. Paltiel.

The project cost half a million dollars, she said, and took “eighteen months from idea to actuality. It was my idea.” The Cloudberry Studio, the designers of the interactive playground, bill themselves as designers and

The camel and palm tree by the well.

producers of “experiential exhibits and environments, specializing in young learner’s experiences that appeal to both children and their adult caretakers.”

Mrs. Paltiet said that she found them on the Internet, “the Aibishter (G-d) sent them to me; they are real malachim (angels).”

Another project in development is Florence’s Discovery Island, a nautical playground, featuring a sunken ship, to be built on one-third of an acre on Manhasset bay on the grounds of Chabad of Port Washington.

It will absorb Chabad’s current playground.

Mrs. Paltiel noted that they have funding from Dr. Martin Brownstein and have permits for the actual playground. They are awaiting approval for the playground’s abutting the water from North Hempstead.

Rabbi Paltiel notes that PW Chabad has 180 member families and that 170 are not Orthodox, “it’s a secular town,” he points out.

PW Chabad has a magnificent new gym in the Adam Katz Athletic Center, funded by Adam Katz, who also built the beautiful Katz Mei Menachem Mikve. “We have eight teams for eight grades and the kids are wearing Chabad uniforms,” in the Island Garden league, said Rabbi Paltiel. “It takes down the barrier. We have authentic Judaism with a smile. You can’t beat that. The only thing going against us is (people) not walking in through the door. The gym is rocking and rolling with hundreds of kids.” He noted that it is open to the community; members of the police and fire departments play there. People have friends here, he said, and once they come for the gym, they are in the door. “There is no label,” he emphasized. “Jews are Jews. If we remove all the labels, we’ll have a lot less problems. We’re all one mishpocha (family).”

Chabad of Port Wahington is located at 80 Shore Road, Port Washington, NY 11050.

Phone: (516) 767-8672. www.chabadpw. org.

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April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772

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Who’s in the kitchen?

Let’s get on with the ‘dough’ The last of the Pesach dishes, pots, pans, etc. have been stored away. The chametz dishes have been put back in place. The toaster oven, Kitchen Aid mixer and blender are back in their rightful spots on my counter and the cabinets that have been hiding forbidden chametz ingredients are opened.

As I sit down on Sunday morning to write this week’s column, I sigh with relief that my house is now back in order, all my laundry is done and my pantry, refrigerator and freezers are stocked with every chametz food that we were denied these last eight days. But I shouldn’t gloat now, should I? After all, those of us who stayed home and made Pesach should take a moment and think of those who had to start packing the moment Yom Tov was over.

Not easy juggling all that packing and managing Judy Joszef to make it down to the huge chametz parties that the hotels provide as soon as the chametz is bought back. And if that wasn’t hard enough, all those poor souls had to rush to the airport the next morning, deal with long lines and security checks. Then to top it off they have eight days worth of laundry to deal with. All of us who stayed home are sympathizing with you, really.

Ahh, the hustle and bustle after Pesach. How I remember those days back when I was a kid.

My job was to wrap each and every glass, glass dish and plate in newspaper so that they were

insured to make it to the table in one piece the following year. When that was done I got to rip off the contact paper I so meticulously applied just a week before. Then the hard part, making sure no glue remnants were left on the counter.

That was always a challenge. Whose idea was it anyway to use contact paper to cover the counters??? Man had already landed on the moon by that time, couldn’t someone have invented those plastic counter top covers a few years earlier than their 1980s arrival?

By the time all was back to chametz, I was on the phone with my friends making plans to meet at the pizza store on 13th Ave. Were we really dying to have a slice of pizza, or did we just want to socialize? Maybe a little of both. Whatever the reason, I was one of over a hundred crazy kids lined up outside Amnon’s and down the block waiting for the first pies to come out of the oven. Who would think that a slice of pizza would make so many mouths water after just a week of abstinence?

Things have changed a little since those days. Right after Pesach this year my daughter ran out to Dunkin’; pizza is so yesterday I guess.

Also different is that she ran out before helping to put the Pesach dishes away. That’s ok, Jordana, you’ll make up for it when I move in with you when I’m older.

Aside from those coffee lovers, pizza still remains the food that most people crave most of the time. Join me as I trace the history of pizza and then enjoy a wonderful recipe you can make at home.

The common belief is that Italians invented pizza, however, the origins go back to ancient times. It’s known that the Babylonians, Israelites and Egyptians were eating flat bread that had been cooked in mud ovens, topped with ol-

ive oil and native spices.

The lower class of Naples, Italy is believed to have created pizza in a more familiar fashion.

In the late 1800s an Italian baker named Raffaele Esposito, was believed to have created a dish for Italian monarch King Umberto Queen Margherita. To impress with his patriotic fervor, he topped flat bread with the colors of Italy: red tomato, white mozzarella cheese and green basil. The king and queen were so impressed that word quickly reached the masses and iothers began to copy it. By the beginning of the 1900s pizza made it’s way to the inner cities of the United States, thanks to Italian immigrants, most notably New York and Chicago. Small cafes began offering the Italian favorite. Today pizza has become just as American as baseball and apple pie.

Approximately three billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas.

Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.

PIZZA CRUST ■ 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast ■ 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) ■ 2 cups bread flour ■ 2 tablespoons olive oil ■ 1 teaspoon salt ■ 2 teaspoons white sugar

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled

in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface.

Roll out and place on a pizza pan. For those of you who want to simplify this recipe, you can pick up pizza dough from Trader Joe’s. It’s a pretty good substitute for the real thing and it’s under $2.00 a package.

PIZZA SAUCE ■ ■

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste 6 fluid ounces warm water ■ 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese ■ 1 teaspoon minced garlic ■ 1 teaspoon honey ■ 3/4 teaspoon onion powder ■ 1/4 teaspoon dried basil ■ 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper ■ 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper ■ 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes ■ 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and stir until well combined.

Allow to sit for at least a half hour for flavors to blend.

Spread on pizza dough and top with enough mozzarella cheese to cover, approximately 24 ounces.

Bake in preheated oven till crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbling.

Enjoy. For those of us watching our weight because of all the added calories over yom tov, I’m sure those who stayed home burned off enough calories cleaning and cooking to have 2 slices of pizza. For those who were away, umm, well.......what’s another few hundred calories, right?

Judy Joszef can be contacted at Judy.soiree@ gmail.com.

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13 THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772

Last one out of the house… need to do is find one friendly face, just one person with whom to connect, and they’ll be fine. I hope we will be, too!

Like most people I know, I’ve faced some typical changes; moving from Crown Heights to Midwood, graduating high school, advancing to college, commencing a career, moving temporarily to Israel, getting married, traveling abroad, meeting my foreign in-laws, moving to Queens, Brooklyn, the Five Towns, becoming a mom thrice, getting involved in our community, enabling our kids independence, finding a new career.

With each change come “normal” reactions; denial, fear or exhilaration. Joyous events fly by, and I need to slow down to fully savor those incredible moments. As for unfortunate illnesses and G-d forbid, tragedies, I’m only now slowly beginning to accept that I can’t control the world and the best medicine is to try to breathe deeply. In both cases I have to remember the One who is really running the show.

Through all the milestones, I recall lovingly who was there with me; my parents, grandparents, sister, husband, children, cousins and old friends have accompanied me through those special times. It feels safe, comfortable and so easy to hang out with the old timers, those who understand and know me best. But it can also be an incredible rush connecting with someone new who shares my interest.

I’ve heard people say that it’s hard to

make lasting friendships after college but I disagree. I became good friends with a stranger 24 years ago by bumping our strollers together in a grocery store in Briarwood. We were brand new moms with plenty to talk about. I connected with my kids’ friends’ parents at HAFTR’s book fairs and cheering at Beth Sholom’s Little League games. Hadassah and Jewish Book Council brought me opportunities to engage with women passionate about Israel, community and reading. I chat away with my longtime hairdresser, a blonde, Catholic mom who is similar to me. I’m bonding with fellow yoga teachers, hanging out with them in and out of class. Who knew you can cultivate close attachments at my age and beyond?

Despite all this positivity, I’m still nervous about the approaching fall change being overwhelming. It will be hard to downsize grocery shopping and cook for just two. I’ll cry about the absence of the beautiful person living in the other bedroom (and even the hip hop music emanating from beyond her closed door). I’ll long for chatty teens showing up spontaneously for Shabbat lunch. I’ll be thrown off balance by no longer living the school calendar. I may even miss the endless laundry pile and annoying eye-rolling.

I’ve got plans brewing in my head to deal with this lifestyle change. I will immerse myself more deeply in current activities and revive some I’ve neglected. I’ll increase visits to Brooklyn, Princeton and Israel for

more face time with my kids and parents.

I’ll coax my boys to come home more for Shabbat. I dream of spontaneous weekend trips away with my husband, with nobody keeping us home. I will do some overdue “spring” cleaning this fall.

I’ll have to deal with a condition I’ve happily avoided for two and a half decades.

When I became the newly married wife of a doctor working all-nighters twice a week, I learned that I don’t like being on my own much, especially at night. I prefer having a loved one nearby, even if we’re in separate rooms in “parallel play” each doing our own thing.

When I kvetched to my mom about this long ago, she wisely told me that once I had children I’d never be lonely. She was so right. These past 24 years I’ve cherished the noisiness of a houseful of kids and barely knew what to do with myself during quiet breaks. Now our home will return to a calmer state and I’ll have to learn to embrace it. Every ending is a new beginning! And as my 9th grade morah said, “kol hatchalot kashot” --all beginnings are difficult.

Miriam Bradman Abrahams is Cuban born, Brooklyn bred and lives in Woodmere.

She organizes author events for Hadassah, reviews books for Jewish Book World and is very slowly writing her father’s immigration story. She can be contacted at mabraha1@ optonline.net.

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he holiday has passed and is over and the next topic of conversation in our home concerns finals, AP’s and high school graduation. I’m more than a bit overwhelmed by emotions elicited by these events, reminders that our youngest child will soon be leaving our nest. With the close of her high school years looming, she’ll soon commence the faraway Israel and college chapters MIRIAM’S MUSINGS of her life. My husband and I will be left home alone for the first time since our oldest son was born in 1988. Like my daughter, I am nervous about the next stage. As for any new situation I find myself in, my immediate gut reaction includes butterflies in the stomMiriam Bradman ach, nausea, sadness, Abrahams apprehension, but also a sense of excitement.

I usually worry about doing something or going somewhere new by questioning who will be there, will I like it, will they like me, how will I cope (and what should I wear?!?). I’ve guided my kids with the advice that they should have a positive attitude, smile and be friendly; that all they

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April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772 THE JEWISH STAR

14

April 19 Yom Hashoah Commemoration – “Rising from the Ashes” Rabbi Steven Weil, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union is the guest speaker who will discuss “The Mesirat Nefesh of Jews During The Most Horrific Times.” His talk will be followed by the internationally-acclaimed film “Israel Inside” (38 minute version), hosted by former Harvard lecturer, Dr.Tal Ben Shahar, who examines the core character strengths that have enabled Israelis to overcome challenges and turn a barren desert into a flourishing nation. This Yom Hashoa Program is being sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Weintraub in memory of his parents, Chaya Bas Yitzchak and Yosef Ben Yitzchak.

David Kallus is the Program Chairman. Program begins at 7:30 p.m.

ON THE

Calendar Submit your shul or organization’s events or shiurim to jscalendar@thejewishstar.com.

Deadline is Wednesday of the week prior to publication.

Sponsored by Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, Young Israel of Plainview and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Co-Producers / Writers will be on hand to introduce the film and to moderate a discussion after the screening. Starts at 4:45 p.m.

Plainview Elementary School – Joshua Waitman Early Childhood Center is located at 25 Country Drive in Plainview. The film is recommended for age 10 and older. The suggested donation is $10 per person, $25 per couple or $50 per family, which will be applied toward covering the costs of the event. Donate at the door or send your check payable to Young Israel Plainview to 132 Southern Parkway, Plainview, NY 11803. Those requiring further information on the screening can call (516) 433-4811.

Yom Hashoah vigil ,12:00 P.M. Members of the Jewish community and others are expecting to gather to commemorate the millions of innocents who perished in the Holocaust and to remind the public and our elected representatives of the imminent danger to the world community posed by Iran’s nuclear program and its anti-Semitic rhetoric. Iranian Mission to the United Nations on Third Avenue and E. 40th Street (622 Third Ave).

For more information about this event, please contact Lynne Bursky-Tammam at 516-521-9333 or hashoah@hotmail.com.

YoLeo Zisman, a Holocaust survivor, internationally-renowned speaker, and author will speak at a program entitled “ I Believe - Ani Ma’amin” at Young Israel of New Hyde Park. The event will begin with mincha at 7:25 PM followed by program and ma’ariv. A collation and book signing will follow the program. The evening is sponsored by

THE JCC OF THE GREATER FIVE TOWNS will sponsor a new support group for the economically challenged as a result of the economic downturn. Key themes will include unemployment, financial issues, empowerment and support. Please join us on Thursday mornings at 10:15 a.m. at Temple Israel, 140 Central Ave, Lawrence until January 20th. This group is part of Connect to Care, an initiative funded by UJAFederation of NY. For further information and to pre-register, please contact Talia Rapps, L.M.S.W. at 516-569-6733 x213.

Movement class for special needs THE JCC OF THE GREATER FIVE TOWNS offers “Movement with Mary Moshos,” a class for children with special needs ages 5 and up, designed to enhance interaction with the environment through work with music, bubbles, and various textures. Wednesdays, 5:30-6:30pm at the JCC, 207 Grove Avenue, Cedarhurst. 12 sessions/$240. Please call Sharona Arbeit at 516569-6733 x218 for more information.

April 22 Community Wide Screening of award-winning film Auf Wiedersehen, Until We Meet Again, in honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day).

Support group

Parkinson’s Support Group

Zachary Finkelstein, 18, of Woodmere, home from Israel from Yeshivah Netiv Aryeh, enjoys the Mets Pre- Pesach opening day at CitiField. Mets beat the Braves 1-0.

National Council of Young Israel, Young Israel of New Hyde Park, Bell Park Jewish Center Queens Jewish Community Council, and Northeast Queens Jewish Community Council and is offered as a community service. Young Israel of New Hyde Park is located at 264-15 77th Avenue, New Hyde Park, NY.

April 22, 24, 29 ,30 CPR and AED Classes at HAFTR Sundays at 10 am, Tuesday at 7:30 pm, Sunday 4/29 10am, Special session in Spanish on Monday 4/30 7:30pm. Cost is $25. For more information and to make a reservation please contact Leslie Gang at 516 569-3370, ext 504

Ongoing Calling all Senior Song Birds THE JCC OF THE GREATER FIVE TOWNS, located at 270 Grove Avenue in Cedarhurst, hosts a choir for seniors every Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. for a joyful hour of singing with choir master Zvi Klein.

We sing songs in all languages and we perform for local venues. There is a $5.00 optional contribution requested per session. For information please call Sheryl at 516-569-6733 x222.

THE JCC OF THE GREATER FIVE TOWNS, located at 207 Grove Avenue in Cedarhurst, hosts every Tuesday a Parkinson’s Support Group from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The purpose of this group is to bring together Parkinsonians, spouses and their families in order to help them better understand the nature of the condition, gain confidence and join in community activities. For further information, please contact Cathy Byrne at 516-569-6733 x220.

15 THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772

Parshat Shmini

Why eat kosher? to attain it. “Tumah� – the spiritual impurity addressed by the Torah – is largely defined as death, and contact with death. But it is also an idea, notion, or conception (as Hirsch puts it) that is not something concrete, that is associated with certain living animals and creatures – the ones we would nowadays call “nonkosher.�

In the Orthodox world, “kosher� does not need much of a sales pitch. Efforts of the kashrus organizations have made accessibility to kosher foods in the United States a fairly easy endeavor. In the non-Orthodox world, there are many who only buy kosher, and there are also many who do not.

Some claim it is too hard, some claim it is too expensive. These arguments are sometimes true and sometimes not true. At the same time, living in a society in which people are well aware of, and on top of outbreaks and scares associated with foodstuffs (including in vegetables), we can drop the notion that some people have that kosher is “healthier.�

With few exceptions, such as the process of manufacturing wine and the mixing of meat and dairy ingredients, “kosher� means that the ingredients do not include “tumah� animals or their byproducts, or that the food in question was not cooked or processed on machinery or in utensils in which the same animals or their byproducts were cooked or processed (unless the machines or utensils were kashered first).

While some may claim to understand all the sentiments behind “tumah,� most will readily admit they do not. At the same time, we are happy to add that if it is important enough for G-d to spend so much time in his Torah discussing these rules, they are clearly there for our benefit.

And if, as Hirsch argues, ingesting only “tahor� animals and ingredients sets our bodies up for, and allows them to achieve a spirituality level that is impossible if we are fueled by “tameh� ingredients, those looking to achieve such a status – whatever it means and however it may be defined, will only view the kosher laws as a gift rather than a burden.

This is a question of spiritual health and not physical health. And as true spirituality is more or less defined by the Torah, rather than an emotional feeling some people who are “spiritual� sometimes speak of, observance of these rules in nourishing the body is the first ticket towards achieving the Torah prescribed nourishment of the soul that we hopefully yearn to achieve in our lifetimes.

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ccording to my Concordance, the root word â&#x20AC;&#x153;kosherâ&#x20AC;? appears three times in the Bible (in Esther and Ecclesiastes) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not once in the Torah. Ask anyone with a decent familiarity with the Torah how many times â&#x20AC;&#x153;the laws of kosherâ&#x20AC;? are discussed in the Torah, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get a few different answers, ranging from three to close to ten.

As much as the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;kosherâ&#x20AC;? is not utilized in the Torah, the terms which are employed are â&#x20AC;&#x153;tumahâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;taharahâ&#x20AC;? as well as the negative form of â&#x20AC;&#x153;not-tahorâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; referring to all the different kinds of permutations of animals which are fit (literal meaning of â&#x20AC;&#x153;kosherâ&#x20AC;?) or unfit for Torah-abiding-consumption.

In its discussion of these laws at the end of Parshat Shmini, the distinction between tameh (oft-translated as â&#x20AC;&#x153;spiritually impureâ&#x20AC;?) and tahor (â&#x20AC;&#x153;spiritually pureâ&#x20AC;?) is invoked, as a distinction is made between animals that are permitted to be consumed and animals that are forbidden to be eaten.

In his commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch has a 17-page Rabbi Avi Billet essay (Feldheim edition) on the lessons and laws that are derived from these distinctions. He also makes reference to a similarly lengthy discussion on the subject in his book â&#x20AC;&#x153;Horebâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Chapter 68, Forbidden Foods.

In Horeb, Hirsch profoundly states that the dietary laws have nothing to do with health. In fact, he claims that if one ingests the â&#x20AC;&#x153;impureâ&#x20AC;? foods, â&#x20AC;&#x153;you may be more nourished and better fed, but the animal instinct will be aroused more strongly within you, and your body becomes more blunted as an instrument of the spiritâ&#x20AC;Ś You become â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;tameh,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; impure, less capable of your holy mission, and you should really be â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;anshei kodesh,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; [people] of sanctity, members of a great, holy institution.â&#x20AC;?

Along similar lines, his commentary on the Torah cries out that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the reason for these laws is not bodily health, but the moral integrity of our soulsâ&#x20AC;Ś to ensure the spiritual and moral health of our souls.â&#x20AC;?

Guarding what one eats doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t assure a spiritual holiness, but it gives one the ability

April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772 THE JEWISH STAR

16

Opinion Making a better world, one day and one person at a time

A

ny serious student of history will recognize that there are moments, all too rare, when a door stands open, waiting for a person, a people, or even the entire world to walk through, and change life as we know it, forever. Such a moment came and went in 1967, when the paratroopers, on the wings of eagles, stormed the walls of the old city of Jerusalem.

There was a magic in the air that day; an indescribable feeling. It was as if anything was possible and dreams could reFROM THE HEART ally come true. After OF JERUSALEM two thousand years of dreaming and crying, longing and waiting, a people who had never let go of a dream were finally coming home.

A friend of mine, who was one of the paratroopers who liberated the old city on that magical day, told me an incredible story.

Most of the paratroopers had broken in Rabbi Binny to the Old City through Freedman the Lion’s gate, but an elite company had come in from the south, storming the Zion gate and gaining a foothold in the Jewish quarter. Lechimah Be’Shetach Banui, (urban warfare), is one of the most difficult types of combat. In addition to the normal pressures of fighting an enemy who is entrenched in his positions, one has the additional tension of worrying about many civilians in the area, as well as the challenge of ensuring, as different units converge on any given objective, that units do not end up accidentally firing at each other. As such, much of the time is spent waiting between taking one position and moving on to the next, to be sure that friendly forces are all aware of each other and not in conflicting positions.

During one such period, with Jordanian mortar shells and sniper’s bullets still taking their toll, Yossi’s unit was taking cover along one of the narrow alleyways of the old city.

Safe for the moment, they were leaning against the wall taking stock of the day, still in awe that they were actually inside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. With the words of the prophets ringing in their ears, and the dream, never lost, of two thousand years, beating in their hearts, there was a sense that anything could happen; redemption was at hand.

At that moment, the sounds of footsteps echoed down the cobblestones of the alleyway behind them, and the soldiers, ever on guard, turned to cover their rear, only to watch in amazement at the sight that greeted their eyes.

A little old man, with a long white beard and black coat and hat, oblivious to the sounds and sights of war all around, with a huge smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes, was hurrying down the street heading for the Kotel, the Western Wall. To a man, the paratroopers rose and simply followed this man towards the Kotel. Though most of them described themselves as completely irreligious, (if such a thing could ever be true of an Israeli soldier in uniform...) they were all absolutely convinced that this was the messiah, come at last to lead the Jewish people home.

In fact, it transpired that this was the sainted Rabbi Aryeh Levine (The Tzaddik of Jerusalem), who, upon hearing that the Old City was in Jewish hands, could not wait any longer and simply walked in to the middle of a war zone to get to the Kotel….

This story speaks volumes of what the sense was amongst the Jewish people on that day…

You may wonder why, as we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, we are discussing the return to the Old City of Jerusalem, an event we will commemorate a few weeks from now?

I often wonder how a concentration camp inmate, or a Jew living and starving in the ghettos during the Holocaust would have reacted to a prediction that five years later they would be dancing in the streets of Tel Aviv in a newly declared State of Israel?

Often, we are so immersed in our own experiences that it is difficult for us to imagine that an entirely different reality is just around the corner. Much has been written about the terrible suffering of the many millions of our brothers and sisters murdered by the Nazis, and the terrible evil the Nazis perpetrated. And we often pay tribute as well to the memory of those heroes who fought the Nazi beast in the ghetto and concentration camp uprisings and as partisans in the forests. Just this week, Gidon Sa’ar, Israel’s Minister of Education, asked the Mayor of Or Yehuda not to name a street in his honor and instead dedicate the street to the memory of Pavel Frankel, the Beitar leader who was murdered at the age of 23 in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

But little has been written about a different type of heroism: the ability of some who were somehow able to see a completely different reality, even in the midst of all their pain.

It is nothing short of incredible, that Jews who considered themselves deeply religious, in the face of all of the Nazi machine’s efforts to de-humanize them and destroy their spirit, were seen walking into gas chambers with the song of the ani ma’amin, Maimonides’ exhortation to believe with complete faith, against all odds, in the coming of the Messiah; in the belief that the world could and would be better, and that just such a world was coming and always just a moment away.

It is so easy, when confronted with murderers on the streets of Toulouse, or madmen building nuclear weapons in Iran or Korea to see the world through a lens of cynicism and frustration, and even despair.

But if countless numbers of Jews, amidst the maelstrom of events that could and should have broken their spirits, were none-

theless able to rise above the desire of their tormentors and see a better world; perhaps we owe it to their memory specifically on Holocaust memorial day, to know that the world can and should be better, and to stretch our imaginations, just like those paratroopers in an alleyway of the Old City of Jerusalem, to decide how indeed we can make that better world, one day and one person at a time.

Shabbat Shalom from the Old City of Jerusalem, Binny Freedman Rav Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City is a Company Commander in the IDF reserves, and lives in Efrat with his wife Doreet and their four children.

His weekly Internet ‘Parsha Bytes’ can be found at www.orayta.org

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Top 10 living â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;toughâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Jews the Nazis). As Schreiber says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;this was a remarkable story â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a triumphant story. It sets out to redefine the Jewish image â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that of fighter. We all know tough Jews like that. My own grandfather was incredibly tough and athletic and was the main male role model in my life.â&#x20AC;? For his portrayal and his own pride of his heritage Schreiber makes the list. â&#x2013; Sandy Koufax: Perhaps the greatest known Jewish athlete ever, Koufax was a legendary pitcher â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972 at the age of 36. Skilled and determined on the mound, he had tremendous inner strength to be able to not pitch in Game One of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. As legendary Dodgers scout Al Campanis said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are two times in my life the hair on my arms has stood up: The first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball.â&#x20AC;? â&#x2013; Sam Zell: This business magnate may be the most hated man in the newspaper business â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one damn tough Jew. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m an immigrantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kid. I have a very different perspective on the world than somebody who grew up in Chicago and led what I would call a normal life.â&#x20AC;? Zell was raised in an Orthodox household and is a supporter of Israel, and says no matter where he travels: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In no way, shape, or form do I hide the fact that I believe in Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;open kimono!â&#x20AC;? he declared. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s this Yiddish term, derech eretz, and it means respect. My father and mother, particularly my father, brought us up with the premise that respect was nonnegotiable. Love was optional. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not saying this in a bad way. It was: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I want you to love me, but you have to respect me.â&#x20AC;? A great lesson for all of the Jewish people. â&#x2013; Natan Sharansky, Avital Sharansky, Ida Nudel and the former Russian Prisoners of Zion: The first political prisoner released under the old Soviet regime was Natan Sharansky who was jailed for 13 years on false charges of treason â&#x20AC;&#x201C; when he was sentenced he showed his great courage when he said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;One would think I would be sorry, but I am not. I am happy because I have lived at peace with my conscience... I am happy that I helped people... I am happy to have witnessed the process of liberating Soviet Jewry.

For more than 2,000 years, my people have been dispersed. Wherever Jews were, they would repeat every year, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Next year in Jerusalem.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; At present. I am as far as ever from my people ... and many hard years ... are in store for me. To my wife and my people, I can only say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Next year in Jerusalem.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? This resiliency stayed with him throughout his many hard years in Soviet prisons â&#x20AC;&#x201C; while his wife tirelessly campaigned worldwide for him. These unstoppable dissidents were active and determined to free the Jews of Russia. Ida Nudel is a brave, tough Jewish activist who was called the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Guardian Angelâ&#x20AC;? for her efforts to help the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prisoners of Zion,â&#x20AC;? many of whom called her â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mamaâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;angel of mercy.â&#x20AC;? Today, these Jews who werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t allowed to leave the Soviet Union are the crème de-la crème of the Jewish people worldwide. â&#x2013; Sheldon Adelson: The richest Jew in the world, Adelson is famously resilient, stubborn

E-mail letters to letters@thejewishstar.com or fax to (516) 569-4942.

and focused on winning. The son of Jewish immigrants, Adelson grew up lower class, dropped out of the City College of New York â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and has built one of the largest casino empires in the world. That was not easy, and the man has had to win many stare-downs as the mogul of Las Vegas. As a Jewish man he is the quintessential tough Jew who says his primary personal driving force is the survival of the United States and Israel in the face of an Iranian nuclear weapon â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and he stands up and often speaks truth to power â&#x20AC;&#x201C; no easy feat. â&#x2013; Benjamin (Ben) Brafman: The legendary criminal defense attorney whose grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz is the very epitome of a tough Jew. A proud Orthodox Jew, Brafman grew up on the mean streets of Crown Heights, and he came home with bruised knuckles almost every day. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Trouble would find you without you looking for it,â&#x20AC;? he has said. Brafman is the man you want in your corner in a street fight or battle of any sort. The man put himself through Brooklyn College night school and Ohio Northern University Law School and is now the most well respected criminal defense attorney in the world â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and is tremendously passionate about Jewish causes. â&#x2013; All of the Jews of Eretz Israel (especially Judea & Samaria): Living in Israel, a tough country in a tough neighborhood, makes one a tough and resilient people. Building the center of Jewish life in the center of the Jewish world has been the greatest challenge

facing the Jewish people throughout history; Israelis are some of the toughest Jews.

Honorable mention: Chabad Emissaries worldwide (Can you imagine giving everyone who comes calling an invite to your home? This on top of death threats, and all the places Chabad faces danger), Jonathan Pollard (25 years in jail), Dr. Irving Moskowitz (ensures a united, undivided Jerusalem despite worldwide pressure), famed political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, athletes like Yuri Foreman (how great it is to see a fighter with a Jewish star on his shorts win a world title), Mark Spitz, Omri Caspi, Rabbi Avi Weiss (has protested anti-Semites worldwide to great physical danger), Prime Minister Netanyahu (Former elite Israeli soldier â&#x20AC;&#x201C; can anyone imagine how strong he has to be to counter Obama?), and of course the people we seldom hear of; mothers and fathers who raise families (including my valiant mother Penny Waga), and individuals who channel their skills into making life better for others.

In the Torah, as Moses hands over the mantle to his successor, he says two short yet inspiring words to this future leader, in Hebrew Chazak Ve-ematz - Be Strong and Have Courage. Be strong and have courage are the best words for any Jew to hear â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Jewish people of Israel live: Am Israel Chai.

Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5WPR, a leading PR Agency and a Jewish philanthropist who formerly served as President of Betar, founded by Zeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ev Jabotinsky.

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rom Samson to Judah Maccabee, Zeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ev Jabotinsky to Hanna Senesh, there is a valiant history of tough and brave Jews who made tremendous marks on the world.

While the image of a Jew has not always been that of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;toughâ&#x20AC;? people, it is important that the world sees tough Jews. Owning a PR firm, I help build brands and create personas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and as a proud traditional Jew and Zionist, approaching two important Jewish holidays - Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Yom HaZikaron, (Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Memorial Day for its fallen soldiers), I offer this list in tribute.

The list of the Top 10 Living Tough Jews is not only about brute physical strength â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is about a people who are smart, strong, resilient, rugged, bold and fearless. This is a reflection of good, tough Jews who are positive representations of the Jewish people.

In no particular order hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my List of the Top 10 Living Tough Jews - itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a list compiled by a Public Relations pro, not a Rabbinical Authority.

Open for Debate, (In No Particular Order): â&#x2013; Israel Defense Forces: All of the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces, the holy Jewish army, are the toughest (and holiest) Jews one can ever Ronn Torossian imagine. They protect the people of Israel against tremendous odds and, with Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s survival threatened daily, these Jews are consummate warriors, fighting not only for a country but for an important ideal. â&#x2013; Elie Wiesel & All of The Holocaust Survivors: Elie Wiesel and all of the Holocaust survivors who survived the tremendous inhumanity of the Nazis are tough beyond comprehension. Wiesel said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have tried to keep memory alive. I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are all accomplices.â&#x20AC;? The Holocaust survivors all lost so much and fight on every single day in life; few can imagine how much toughness and inner strength that takes. â&#x2013; Yitzchak Shamir: Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founding father, Shamir served as Prime Minister of Israel in 1983â&#x20AC;&#x201C;84 and 1986â&#x20AC;&#x201C;92. Before Israel became a state he served in the heroic underground, and then in the Mossad (Israel secret service). Shamir is a man with an amazing legacy, elegant, strong and determined, this tough man devoted his whole life to building the land and people of Israel. Shamir, whose name means â&#x20AC;&#x153;hard stone,â&#x20AC;? always said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would like to be remembered as a person who loved Eretz Israel and never ever gave up an inch.â&#x20AC;? Tough man. â&#x2013; Liev Schreiber: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Defianceâ&#x20AC;? is one of the greatest Jewish movies ever, as it makes my point clear for audiences around the world to see, and it can make any tough guy cry.

Schreiberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character in the movie, Zus Bielski, is a real life tough Jew. (Bielski is one of three Jewish warrior brothers who fought

THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ 28 NISAN 5772

Opinion

April 20, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ 28 NISAN 5772 THE JEWISH STAR

18

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550375

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550372

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True freedom is who you are

THE JEWISH STAR April 20, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ 28 NISAN 5772

Hebrew only please!

DIRECT FROM ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SOLD OUT NATIONAL TOUR!

Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of the IDF. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.

By Rabbi Noam Himelstein

120 W. 46 st. (bet 6th and 7th Ave).

Performances begin May 2

550440

OF NEW MATERIAL!

For tickets call 866-811-4111 or online at ajewgrowsinbrooklyn.com Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Theater

The YU Student Medical Ethics Society Presents

(7+,&6 2) $ &+$1*,1* %2'<

+$/$.+,& 3(563(&7,9(6 21 (/(&7,9( 3/$67,& 685*(5<

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Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary

M.D., F.A.C.S., Assistant Clinical Professor Plastic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College.

M.D., F.A.C.S.

M.D., Assistant to the Rabbi, Young Israel of Woodmere

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The story of how Jews in 1942 in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp were able to bake matza and Rabbi Yisrael Shapira led a secret seder where he explained that true freedom doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t depend on where your are but upon who you are.

19

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beautiful... Touching...Funny...

Ehrenreich is DAZZLING!â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

551476

April 20, 2012 • 28 NISAN 5772 THE JEWISH STAR

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