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Achrei Mos-Kedoshim • April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 • Torah columns pages 16–17 • Luach page 16 • Vol 17, No 16

The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities

Yom Ha’atzamut at YIW: Joseph and Hadassah Lieberman with YIW Rabbi Hershel Billet (right) at Wednesday night’s event. Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

Lieberman keynotes 5T Yom Ha’atzamut of Israel is not self-sustaining, it is not guaranteed to go on automatically,” he warned. “The Jewish people are eternal [but] Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel is not guanteed forever. That is up to us.” The program included video interviews with Five Towns residents who made ailyah, produced by Nefesh B’Nefesh. The event was co-sponsored by Religious Zionists of America and 16 shuls in the Five Towns and Far Rockaway.

Israel pride at SKA: From left — sophomores Avigail Razi, Emily Haller, Ahava Rosenberg, Tehila Bitton and Shana Motovich.

Schools cheer Israel at 70 Students at Jewish schools with a Zionist orientation unfurled the blue-and-white throughout Long Island last Thursday, April 19, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the birth of the modern state of Israel.

For many schools, Yom Ha’atzmaut was part of ongoing programing that centers on Israel, leading up to participation in the Celebrate Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Sunday, June 3. More photos on page 21.

6 candles for 6 million

The Jewish Star photos Ed Weintrob

Six yahrzeit candles were lit at the Greater Five Towns Community Yom Hashoah commemoration on April 11 — one candle for each of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. Child survivor Israel Starck, author and lecturer (pictured right), delivered the keynote address. He said that even though the Nazis removed his physical tefillin, he emerged with his commitment to Hashem and to Judaism intact because he never lost “the spiritual tefillin that my father left me.” “The fact that we have today bais Yaacovs, talmud Torahs and day schools” is proof that the mesorah that was handed down to us will continue, he said.

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Formet Senator and vicepresidential candidate Joseph Lieberman delivered the keynote address at the Five Towns communal Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzamut program on Wednesday night, April 18, at the Young Israel of Woodmere. Lieberman spoke about the growing size and role of religious Zionists in Israel, and the importance of Orthodox Jews in America in strengthening the bond between the United States and Israel. “The existence of the state

“The survivors of the generation of the Shoah went on to become an incredible generation,” said Dana Frenkel, who cochaired the event with Nathaniel Rogoff. “The survivors didn’t simply not die, they lived.” Those who lit the yahrzeit candles are pictured here — top row, from left: Cesai Tau, Helena Bomstein and Bertha Bochner; bottom row, from left: Herman Teper, the grandchildren of Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, and Sarah Knecht.

Here’s what it’s like to support Israel at NYU By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Though it was raining, students still gathered to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day at New York University’s downtown Manhattan campus. Passers-by mostly rushed by as organizers blasted pop music, displayed Israeli flags and shouted “Happy Birthday, Israel!” Some stopped to grab a blue-and-white cookie. One person shouted at an organizer of Thursday’s event who was draped in an Israeli flag, and someone else criticized the group for a poster featuring a quote by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. praising the Jewish state, but there were no major disruptions. The relative lack of negative reactions put things in perspective for Adela Cojab, a Jewish student leader on campus who said a recent resolution signed by over 50 student groups pledging support to the movement to boycott Israel had

Barnard alumni call for rejection of BDS Thousands of Barnard College alumni have called on the school to reject a student referendum asking the administration to divest from eight companies doing business with Israel. The petition was launched Thursday, hours after results were announced showing nearly two-thirds of the student body voting in favor of the nonbinding ballot. Its some 2,000 alumni signers, as well as two college trustees, say they are “deeply disappointed with the actions of the Barnard Student Government Association (SGA) regarding the recent divestment referendum.” “By presenting a nuanced and complex issue as one sided and simple, it has biased the student body and failed in its duty to act as a neutral arbiter,” it says. The petition calls the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel “hateful.” —JTA

made it “the worst week of my life.” “Watching people who walk by and smile reminds me that a list of 50 clubs sounds really big, [but] in a school this big, most people have no idea that this is happening,” Cojab, 21, told JTA on Thursday. Last week’s resolution, signed by 53 student groups among the some 300 on campus, was spearheaded by the NYU chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. In addition to calling on the university to boycott companies that do business with Israel, the groups also pledged not to co-sponsor any events with two Israel advocacy campus groups — Realize Israel and TorchPAC — as well as eight off-campus groups, including Birthright-Taglit, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. The NYU resolution is part of a campaign on campuses by BDS activists to isolate Israel and its supporters. On Wednesday, the student government at Barnard College, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University, said that nearly two-thirds of students voted to ask the administration to divest from eight companies doing business with Israel. Both Barnard and NYU have large Jewish student populations, suggesting to some that the tide against Israel has swelled even — or precisely — at campuses that should be friendly to Israel. But the reality is more nuanced. Following the resolution’s publication Cojab, who serves as president of Realize Israel, described the atmosphere on campus surrounding Israel as “one of animosity.” But at Thursday’s event, she felt relief. “The climate that exists is mostly among the activism community and the students who are highly involved in campus life,” Cojab said. The NYU administration criticized the resolution, whose signatories included groups such as the Asian American Women’s Alliance, the Black Students Union and the Muslim Students Association. A university spokesman said that boycotting student groups “is at odds with our traditions and values,” and NYU President Andrew Hamilton

Student organizers of an Israel Independence Day event at NYU on April 19, 2018 include (front frow, from left) Adela Cojab, Jenny Labovitz and Esther Bildirici and (back row, right) Gabe Hoffman. Josefin Dolsten

denounced BDS at a public forum on Friday. (He had previously said in 2016 that the school would not acquiesce to a demand by its graduate student union to cut its Israel ties.) Gabe Hoffman, wtreasurer for Realize Israel, believes that many of the groups who signed the resolution have overlapping membership. “I still think it’s a group of 15, 20, 30 students that are running 50 groups on campus and it’s kind of their choir, and their echo chamber doesn’t like our echo chamber,” he said. Hoffman, 21, said that despite the resolution, he is comfortable identifying publicly as Jewish and pro-Israel on campus. “It’s unfortunate that it happens to be those student groups that are running the [student] government, but I still feel proud to walk around with a kippah on my head, proud to walk around with [an Israeli] flag on my back,” he said.

Still, Realize Israel member Marci Brustman, 19, said the resolution changed her level of comfort about speaking about Israel. “Once this protest came out, I feel like I have to hold my tongue in some places,” she said. Between handing out cookies and singing along to Hebrew songs, Brustman said she was nervous there would be a confrontation at the Yom Haatzmaut event. “There definitely is a pit in my stomach right now,” she said. Earlier this month, the NYU student government passed a resolution urging the university to look into its policies at a program the university runs in Tel Aviv. The resolution cited an Israeli law enacted last year that bans entry into the country for foreigners who call for a boycott against Israel and said that members of NYU’s Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine would be affected by the law.

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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Brooklyn couple building fire station in Maalot A Brooklyn Heights couple continued their ongoing commitment to assisting Israel’s fire and rescure operations on Monday, burying a timecapsule in a new fire station they are helping to finance in Maalot Tarshiha in northern Israel. Stephen and Penny Rosen, who previously contributed to the opening of a fire station in Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev and also helped fund four fire trucks, said the new station will honor the memories of 22 children who were among 31 Israelis massacred in Maalot on May 15, 1974. It will be named after their son — Adam ‘Veritas’ Rosen — who died at a young age. The Rosens explained that their strong connection to the firefighters began when their son Adam would visit

From left: JNF USA CEO Russell Robinson, Lauren Lizerbram, JNF USA President Sol Lizerbram, Penny and Stephen Rosen, Yael Levontin of JNF, and the fire station site.

fire stations as a child. The Maalot project was faciliated through JNF USA. Monday’s ceremony was attended by JNF USA CEO Russell Robinson; JNF USA

National President Sol Lizerbram; Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Nava Boker; Mayor of Maalot Tarshiha Shlomo Buhbut; Head of the Maale Yosef Regional Coun-

cil Shimon Gueta; former Fire Commissioner Shimon Rohm, and others. After dignitaries signed a scroll that was enclosed in the timecapsule, those as-

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By Yori Yalon and Israel Hayom As part of the May 14 ceremony to mark the official opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, a mezuzah will be affixed to the embassy building. Organizers decided on the unusual move of holding a religious ceremony following the recommendation of U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. At a special event to mark the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Monday, Friedman said he sees Jerusalem as a religious place. “I hope that young Jews, in particular children, will connect to their Jewish and Israeli roots,” he said. Meanwhile, preparations ahead of the May 14 transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem are continuing apace. Work is being carried out on the site on David Flusser Street in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood that currently provides U.S. consular services. When the em-

OF RABBI ELI BIEGELEISEN AS RABBI OF LIDO BEACH

Shabbos, April 28th Parshas Achrei Mos-Kedoshim: ~Shachris and Drasha (Sermon) ~Gala Community Kiddush Luncheon

They were founding members and remain mainstays of the Orthodox community in Brooklyn Heights, which now boasts a shul, mikvah, pre-school and day school.

bassy first officially moves, the embassy will be situated in what is now the consulate building. The U.S. later intends to build a larger facility to serve as the embassy on an adjacent property. Prior to the initial opening, the U.S. is paving an additional access road to the consulate building for Friedman and his staff, along with another escape route to be used in case of emergency. In addition, a new lighting system is being installed around the consulate to better illuminate the complex and make it easier to secure the site. A large security team has been stationed on the roads leading to the consulate building to carefully surveil individuals and vehicles approaching the compound. The Jerusalem Municipality, along with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, has been assisting the U.S. to make sure the move of the embassy to Jerusalem goes as smoothly as possible.

New rabbi for Lido

Please join our members, honored Rabbis and leaders of the broader community for a ‫ הכתרה‬CEREMONY and gala celebration to mark this step in our shul's growth. SUNDAY APRIL 29TH 2018, 14TH OF IYAR 5778 10:00 AM AT LIDO BEACH SYNAGOGUE Alex Berkovich, President Bert Fried, Chairman of the Board Ariel Sutain, Vice President Yossi Wexler, Vice President

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sembled sang Hatikvah. In addition to being longtime supporters of betterment projects in Israel, the Rosens are benefactors to Jewish causes in the U.S.

New embassy gets mezuzahs: May 14

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

The Lido Beach Synagogue, on the east end of the Long Beach barrier island, will officially welcome its new spiritual leader, Rabbi Eli Biegeleisen, and his wife Shira and their children (pictured) at an installation and breakfast at 10 am this Sunday, April 29. “Rabbi Biegeleisen and his wife will enhance the quality of the Lido Beach community and will enable our shul to grow spiritually and physically,” said President Alex Berkovitch. “Lido Beach Synagogue is a special makom t’fillah in a lovely community with a long and cherished history,” said Rabbi Biegeleisen. “I especially acknowledge Rabbi Daniel Mehlman, rabbi emeritus, for his many years of leadership. The members are dedicated to tefillah, limud Torah and Jewish causes.”

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‘Schindler’s List’ at 25: Story spoke to the masses By Michael Berenbaum, JTA LOS ANGELES — 1993 was a dramatic year in the memorialization of the Holocaust. In April, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened its doors; 45 million visitors later it is a fixture adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, not only telling the story of the Holocaust but demonstrating the ongoing significance of this Jewish event — this European event — to the American people, to Western civilization and to the world. In November of that year, Steven Spielberg, widely recognized as the most influential director of this generation, released his monumental work “Schindler’s List” to international acclaim. Forsaking many of the tools of his profession, including the beautifying effect of color, Spielberg created a masterpiece. Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, it won seven, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best original score. The overture to “Schindler’s List,” written by John Williams, is routinely played whenever Holocaust events are held. Its haunting tones evoke not only the motion picture but the event itself. Expected to lose money, “Schindler’s List” was probably greenlighted by Universal Studios because Spielberg was Spielberg, a director’s director. He personally vowed not to make money on the film, saying his task was sacred, not entrepreneurial. Yet despite its length of over three hours, which made two screenings an evening difficult, it grossed $321 million in its initial release, more than 14 times its original cost. Spielberg donated his entire share to charity. The story of Oscar Schindler was cherished by its survivors but little known even by experts. For years Leopold Page would tell his story to people who walked into his Beverly Hills luggage store hoping that one of his prominent customers would bring it to the screen. Australian writer Thomas Keneally walked in one day. The result was his 1982 historical novel “Schindler’s Ark.” For decades two New Jersey developers, Murray Pantirer and Abraham Zuckerman, named a Schindler Drive or Schindler Road in each of their New Jersey developments, honoring the man who saved their lives. Only later — much later — did residents of their developments understand who was being honored and themselves feel honored by their address. Schindler, a Sudeten German, was an unlikely Holocaust hero. A philandering Nazi war profiteer, he used Jewish money, Jewish talent and Jewish slave labor to build his metalworks business and his fortune. His transformation was gradual. He saw too much evil

Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler in “Schindler’s List.

YouTube

and then used the same cunning, and daring, to save his endangered Jews. He moved them from Krakow to Czechoslovakia along with his factory, and they survived the war. More than 1,200 Jews were rescued due to his interventions. Spielberg resisted the temptation to valorize Schindler, who was portrayed brilliantly by Liam Neeson, warts and all. Spielberg couldn’t quite end the film, perhaps because he didn’t want to, so he gave filmgoers four endings: Schindler’s final speech wishing he had done more; the Jewish workers walking away into an uncertain future; a segment in color featuring real-life survivors visiting Schindler’s grave; and a closing title card reading simply, “There are fewer than 4,000 Jews left alive in Poland today. There are more than 6,000 descendants of the Schindler Jews.” The film is widely recognized as one of the finest ever made and gained such a moral stature that it was aired by NBC without commercial interruptions. Ford’s sponsorship of the broadcast was perhaps an act of atonement or posthumous justice: Company founder Henry Ford, publisher of the anti-Semitic Dearborn Independent and the American disseminator of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” was honored personally by Hitler. “Schindler’s List” had a monumental unintended consequence.

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Survivors kept coming up to Spielberg and saying “have I got a story to tell you,” and the filmmaker listened with ever-growing fascination. As a man who could move millions with his work and was at the forefront of technological innovation, Spielberg vowed to record the testimonies of 50,000 survivors and preserve them for posterity. Naturally he chose video. The result was what was then called the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which took the testimony of 52,000 Holocaust survivors in 57 countries and 32 languages, compiling the largest collection of oral history of any historical event. Now housed at the University of Southern California, the renamed Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education is pioneering a video dialogue with survivors using voice recognition software. It allows a genuine conversation with holographic images of survivors, drawing on their actual testimonies. It is taking testimony from other genocides, Cambodia and Rwanda and Bosnia, as sadly the list grows. And institutions throughout the world are creating educational programs from this work. Spielberg himself has become a major moral voice of our generation, a voice that only grew with time and with new works such as “Saving Private Ryan,” “Lincoln” and most recently “The Post,” to name a few — films that grapple with racism and slavery, war and memory, freedom of the press and the courage to take a stand. Spielberg himself grew more comfortable and more profound in his Jewish identity and his ability to embrace that identity without being narrowly parochial or limiting the audiences for his films. His name is synonymous with excellence — film excellence and moral excellence. And his stature poses a challenge to filmmakers of all generations to engage their own tradition and speak through that experience to the world. Like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Schindler’s List” demonstrated that a Jewish story could remain deeply Jewish and yet speak to mainstream American society and contemporary culture. In Krakow last week, I stood in line with hundreds of visitors at Schindler’s factory, where a museum has been created. It attracts visitors from throughout the world, all of whom were drawn to the place because of the story Spielberg told as only he could: of a scoundrel who over time became noble. For after all, “he who saves a life, saves the world entire.” Michael Berenbaum is professor of Jewish studies and director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust.

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

US report: It’s not ‘occupied’ The State Department’s annual human rights report has dropped the phrase “occupied territories” when describing the Gaza Strip, Judea, Samaria, and Golan Heights. It is the first time since the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices were first filed in 1977 that the descriptive phrase has not been used. The section on Israel this year is titled “Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza.” The previous year’s report called the section “Israel and The Occupied Territories.” The State Department told the Washington Post that reports issued by other parts of the government no longer refer to the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territories and that the human rights report “is simply catching up to what is now standard practice in the administration.” In December, it was reported that Ambassador David Friedman asked the State Department to stop calling Israel’s control over the West Bank an “occupation” in official documents. He reportedly recommended using the term “West Bank territory” instead of the “occupied territories.” The report said the State Department had rejected the request, but agreed to take up the subject again in the future. A State Department official at the time told JTA that the report was “misleading.” In a September interview, Friedman told an Israeli news website, “I think the settlements are part of Israel.” The State Department later distanced itself from the remark. The Washington Post said it was the “first human rights report to reflect the Trump administration’s views and priorities.” It also said the report on activities in 2017 “focuses less on societal attitudes and discrimination than in previous years and more on governmental actions that encourage or reward violence and bigotry.” — JTA

WASHINGTON — Eighteen Jewish Democrats out of 21 in the House of Representatives said in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they were “dismayed” and “disappointed” over his retreat from a plan that replaced his earlier proposal to deport tens of thousands of African migrants from Israel. The letter said the lawmakers — including New Yorkers Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel — were “heartened” on April 2 when they learned that Netanyahu had worked out a plan with the United Nations to process the half of the migrants through regularized refugee channels only to hear within hours that he had reversed himself. “We were dismayed to hear that the agreement had been suspended, then canceled, leaving the Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers

38,000 asylum seekers living in the Jewish state,” the letter said. Netanyahu announced a plan in January to deport and/or jail the asylum seekers, many of whom have been in Israel for years. That plan was vigorously criticized by the international human rights community, as well as an array of Jewish organizations and figures in the United States, including a number that rarely openly criticize Israel. A United Nations plan would have left half the migrants in Israel with undetermined status while seeking countries willing to absorb the other half, a process that can take up to five years. Netanyahu dropped the U.N. plan and said he would revert to his earlier plan to send the asylum seekers to an unnamed African country, believed to be Uganda. — JTA

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The Scottish man who found guilty of a hate crime for teaching his girlfriend’s dog to do the Nazi salute was fined 800 pounds (about $1,1000. Mark Meechan, 30, taught the pug, named Buddha, to respond with the Nazi salute when prompted by statements such as “Heil Hitler” and “gas the Jews.” Meechan posted videos of the dog performing the trick on YouTube. Meecham has said he will appeal his conviction, saying it sets a dangerous legal precedent against freedom of expression. The original video, posted in April 2016 on his YouTube channel, Count Dankula, was viewed more than 3 million times before it was removed for violating YouTube’s policy on hate speech. Meechan said on the video that he trained the dog to annoy his girlfriend. He later posted a video in which he apologized for the original dog clips, saying it was a joke and that he has no such political leanings. In the sentencing on Monday, Sheriff Derek O’Carroll rejected Meechan’s explanation that the video was made as a private joke and pointed out that he had “not taken any steps to prevent the video being shared publicly.” He added, speaking of the evidence: “I found it proved that the video you posted, using a public communications network, was grossly offensive and contained menacing, anti-Semitic and racist material.” O’Carroll also said the right to freedom of expression was very important, but “in all modern democratic countries the law necessarily places some limits on that right.” — JTA

in limbo, with no clear next step,” said the letter sent Monday and initiated by four of the top Jewish lawmakers: Lowey, the top Democratic appropriator; Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Ted Deutch of Florida, the top Democrat on the House Middle East subcommittee; and Sander Levin of Michigan, the longest-serving Jewish member of Congress. The lawmakers said they were writing as Jewish Congress members and also on behalf of their constituents; the majority of the lawmakers represent districts with substantive Jewish communities. “Many of us have heard in recent months from constituents who care deeply about Israel and who are also gravely concerned with the respect to the future of the approximately

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THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778

18 Jewish Dems express ‘dismay’ over migrants

Krakow Jews celebrate revival amid xenophobia By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA KRAKOW, Poland — At one of Poland’s plushest synagogues, leaders of this city’s small but vibrant Jewish community welcomed visitors from around the world to a celebration of what the hosts call their minority’s “revival” in this country. The occasion for the party on Sunday at Tempel Synagogue was the 10th anniversary of the adjacent Jewish Community Center of Krakow, located in the heart of the city’s historic Jewish quarter, Kazimierz. Since its opening in 2008, the three-story building, with its club for some 60 Holocaust survivors and newly opened Jewish kindergarten, has become a symbol for the return of Jewish community life to the city near Auschwitz, where the Nazis obliterated centuries of Jewish presence. “As we have grown, we have also been able to share the story of Krakow’s Jewish revival with hundreds of thousands of visitors,” a beaming Jonathan Ornstein, the New York-born director of JCC Krakow, told the 200 people attending the anniversary party. “Thank you for letting me be a part of the bright, beautiful Jewish future we are building together.” Many of Krakow’s hundreds of Jewish residents acknowledge the progress made since communism, which drove underground what little remained of its Jewish community. But not all of them share Ornstein’s optimism in a country whose nationalist government recently unleashed what critics say is one of the worst waves of antiSemitic rhetoric in decades. Several blocks from the JCC, volunteers of the Czulent association of Jewish students are converting the cellar of their building — a former apartment synagogue, or shtiebel — into what Czulent founder Anna Makowka-Kwapisiewicz calls a “safe space.” It’s essentially a room where Jews can hole up in the event of an emergency. “It’s not something I thought I’d be doing in Poland even five years ago,” she said about the shelter. Makowka-Kwapisiewicz said her confidence began to recede two years ago, when five men harassed

A participant at the 10th anniversary celebration of the JCC in Krakow blowing a shofar.

and intimidated Jewish boys playing at a playground in a poor area of Krakow because one was wearing a kippah. One of the men spat on a Jewish child at the playground while shouting at both kids. The boys’ parents never pressed charges, which is why the incident was not widely reported in the media, said a mother of one of the boys, according to Makowka-Kwapisiewicz, who works for the international nonprofit National Democratic Institute. After the fall of communism, such incidents were unheard of in Krakow, a tourist magnet for its Jewish heritage sites and one of the few old Polish cities that was spared major damage during World War II. The city celebrates its ancient Jewish heritage at the annual Jewish Festival, one of the largest events of its kind in Europe. The city’s seven large synagogues — of which three are active — swing open their doors for one night a year, attracting thousands of visitors. On the way to the nearby museum on the grounds of the former Auschwitz death camp, hundreds of thousands of tourists pass through Krakow’s picturesque streets, some of them featuring Jewish-flavored shops and restaurants with Yiddish

Jakub Wlodek

signs. Many visit the grounds of Oskar Schindler’s factory, where the German industrialist saved hundreds of Jews. The playground incident came one year after the 2015 election of the right-wing Law and Justice party, which some leaders of Polish Jewry and others accuse of encouraging or tolerating a wave of xenophobic incidents, including against Jews. The taboo on open expressions of hatred toward Jews in Poland, where the Nazis killed millions of Jews in the 1940s, began to loosen in 2015, said Makowka-Kwapisiewicz. That year, a far-right activist burned the effigy of a haredi Orthodox Jew during a march against Muslim immigration in Wroclaw. “I never expected I would live in such circumstances,” she added. More recently, in November, tens of thousands of nationalists marched through Warsaw shouting “Jews out” and other racist slogans while carrying banners against Islam. Two weeks after the march, a Warsaw mosque that for years was targeted with threats was vandalized. “When places of worship are being attacked, we need to prepare,” Makowka-Kwapisiewicz said of

the shelter her group is preparing. Things went from bad to worse following a row between Poland and Israel over Warsaw passing a law in January that criminalizes blaming the Polish nation for Nazi crimes. The dispute unleashed the worst wave of anti-Semitism since the fall of the Iron Curtain, according to Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of the Polish anti-racism group Never Again. Poland lacks a systematic effort by the state to collect data on attacks against minority groups, according to Amnesty International, “meaning that authorities have no way of knowing the scope of the problem,” the group said. The tsunami of hate speech about Jews was conducted mostly on social networks with several politicians and prominent figures joining in. Beata Mazurek, the spokeswoman for Law and Justice and a deputy parliament speaker, favorably tweeted a quote from a Catholic priest who said that the Israeli ambassador’s criticism of the Holocaust bill “made it hard for me to look at Jews with sympathy and kindness.” TVP, a public television station, aired an interview with a priest who said that the Jews’ perception of the truth is whatever is “beneficial” to them or Israel. And the Do Reczy conservative weekly published a drawing showing two silhouettes — one bearing a swastika and the other a Star of David — pointing a gun at a third figure emblazoned with the Polish flag. Despite the rhetoric, many Poles still say their country is safer for their religious minorities than many Western European countries, where Islamists and other extremists are responsible for hundreds of physical assaults on Jews, including deadly ones. “OK, the situation is less comfortable than one year ago,” Peter Nawrocki, a 44-year-old computer science university professor, told JTA at the JCC celebration. “Extremists are a problem. But this is not France.” Nawrocki is confident that Poland is good place to raise his 1-year-old son, Shimon. “I think Poland is one of the safest places in Europe to be Jewish,” he said.

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

What does Portman’s snub really mean?

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“A Tale of Love and Darkness.” And as a Harvard student, she served as a research assistant to attorney Alan Dershowitz for his 2003 book “The Case for Israel.” Mik Moore, a strategic consultant to liberal groups, including a number of Jewish groups, said Portman’s fame was critical to advancing the topic because it attached a name and face to liberal Zionists. As a group, Moore said, liberal Zionists have felt squeezed by the proIsrael right on one side, and on the other by the non- and anti-Zionist left, including advoSee Natalie Portman on page 15

THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778

Analysis by Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — Natalie Portman’s statement explaining why she declined to attend an award ceremony in Israel in her honor was a pointed rebuke, and of a particular individual. “I did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu,” she said of the Israeli prime minister. But it also was an intimate and tactile embrace of her native land, covering its flavors, its images, its vision, even its movement. “I treasure my Israeli friends and family, Israeli food, books, art, cinema, and dance,” the Jerusalem-born director and actor said late Friday in an Instagram post explaining why she would not take part in the festivities surrounding the 2018 Genesis Prize. The argument that one may love Israel and despise its leaders is as old as the state and has traversed the political spectrum: In Israel’s first years, the famed screenwriter and Zionist Ben Hecht accused the Labor Party leadership there of betraying the country’s rightists. Yet something about Portman’s decision not to travel to accept the Genesis Prize — given to celebrities who exemplify “the core traits of the Jewish character and values of the Jewish people” — has resonated like no similar statement in decades. JTA’s initial story about her non-appearance is among the most-read in the news service’s online history, and the intensity of the response from Israelis was white hot, with government ministers accusing Portman of borderline antiSemitism. “Like many Israelis and Jews around the world, I can be critical of the leadership in Israel without wanting to boycott the entire nation,” Portman said. J Street, the left-wing policy group, has for a decade articulated that principle, and it is one also embraced by Bernie Sanders, the Jewish senator from Vermont. In fact, Sanders anticipated Portman’s case just days before at the J Street annual conference. “As someone who believes absolutely and unequivocally in Israel’s right to exist and to exist in peace and security,” the former presidential candidate said, “we must say loudly and clearly that to oppose the reactionary policies of Prime Minister Netanyahu does not make us anti-Israel.” The J Street crowd ate it up, but the comment went largely unremarked upon outside of the conference. Why did Portman’s comment draw such heat? “We are living in a celebrity media environment, we just elected a reality TV star president,” Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street’s president, said in an interview. “It means a lot more for the debate when Natalie Portman says it.” Ben Ami wasn’t complaining. “This is the most prominent figure in American entertainment who has delivered this message,” he said. Not only has Portman won an Academy Award (in 2011 for “Black Swan”), but her Jewish bona fides are unassailable: She was born in Israel. She made the Hebrew-language movie

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

As Lag B’Omer nears, let’s talk about eggplant Joni SchocKEtt Xx

he eggplant — a beautiful berry — is so popular that its iconic color is instantly recognizable far beyond the food, in paint and fabric and more. My eyeglasses are eggplant as is a pretty serving platter I have. Even Farberware has an entire cookware set in eggplant. Most restaurants have some iteration of eggplant on the menu and most people eat this in some form or another. But at one time, the eggplant was thought to be poisonous and to make people crazy. The eggplant came to us via a long a winding road. It was first cultivated in Southeast Asia, where it’s been grown for 4,000 years. It travelled through Persia and then through Europe. It was once reserved for the upper classes; the peasants believed that it was poisonous and called it “melanzana,” which means “mad apple.” It was believed to make people crazy. Eggplants made their way into Sephardic cooking somewhere around the 9th century in Spain. The fruit was so popular among Sephardim that the phrase, “eating Jewish,” meant eating eggplants. As a result, few people outside of the Jewish neighborhoods, used eggplants in their cooking. When Jews were expelled during the Inquisition, they inadvertently helped popularize the hardy plant, taking eggplants and their tasty recipes with them as they fled. They spread the hardy plant throughout northern Italy and the Mediterranean, cementing its place as a staple in the Mediterranean diet. Still, the name, and some of the myth, continued. The integration of the Jewish population throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, and a few hundred years, helped dismiss that myth of the eggplant as poisonous. However, the name was permanent — it is still called melanzana in many parts of the world and on many menus in America — but the fear and stigma eventually disappeared. arly Israeli settlers took food ideas from their neighbors in what was then Ottoman controlled Palestine. One of those foods was eggplant. Later, during what was called the “tzena,” the austerity, settlers discovered that the strong plant would grow in the desert, making it one of the first crops grown in Israeli soil. Today, chatzilim is still a very popular ingredient in Israeli and Middle Eastern cooking. Many people in that part of the world claim they eat eggplant every day of their lives in many different ways. Eggplant is a nutritious and versatile ingredi-

ent and can be part of a low fat and low calorie eating plan. The berry-used-as-a-vegetable, has about 35 calories per cup and is filled with fiber and lots of nutrients such as Nasunin, an antioxidant that helps fight inflammation in the body. This is found in the deep purple skin which is totally edible, especially in smaller eggplants. Eggplant also has Vitamin B, lots of vitamin K and other nutrients. Eggplants can be cooked to be savory or spicy, or even bland enough for a young child. It can be fried or stewed, baked or broiled, made into a dip, or even a slightly sweet jam. Many eggplant dishes are often loaded with oil which adds a lot of calories. Eggplants are like sponges and will drink in any liquid they come in contact with. A little bit of oil will suffice for frying and lots of flavors like lemon juice, vinegars, and tomatoes will seep into the plant when cooking and will enhance the bland flavor. Enjoy this versatile and delicious ingredient in a myriad of different and scrumptious ways. As we celebrate Lag B’Omer, let’s also celebrate one of the oldest crops grown in Israel and take some eggplant dishes on our picnics. Smoky Roasted Eggplant Dip (Pareve)

Easy to take on a picnic. Extra Virgin olive oil 1 large or 2 small eggplants, about 1-1/2 to 2 pounds 1 head garlic, roasted, 15-30 cloves, to taste 2 to 3 large onions, sliced and caramelized 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste 3 Tbsp. scallions, minced, white parts, to taste 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley 2 Tbsp. tahini, to taste Salt and pepper, to taste Sesame seeds, black and white, to garnish (optional) Sunflower seeds, to garnish (optional) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Set aside. Rub the eggplant all over with EVOO, prick in about 10 places all over and place on the prepared pan. Roast until black, turning every 10 to 15 minutes. This will take about 30 to 60 min-

utes. When charred all over, Remove from the oven and let cool. In a medium heavy saucepan, place 15 to 30 peeled cloves of garlic in enough olive oil to cover. Place over medium-low heat and cook until the cloves turn golden and are softened. Do not let them burn. Turn off the heat and remove from the burner. Let cool. Alternatively, cut the tips off the cloves of a large head of garlic. Place the garlic on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle some olive oil over the garlic, bring the foil up over the top of the head of garlic and place on a cookie sheet to roast. Place in a 375 degree oven for about 50 minutes, until the garlic is soft. Set aside to cool. While the eggplants are charring, thinly slice the onions and place in a skillet with some extra virgin olive oil. Cook over low heat until they become deep golden brown. Stir frequently to prevent burning. If they stick, add a tablespoon of water and scrape with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula. Set aside to cool. Cool the eggplants and remove and discard the charred skin. Place the onions, and scallions in the food processor. Add the roasted garlic, reserving the oil for later. Process with a few on/off motions until the mixture is jut blended, but not pasty. Scrape into a large bowl and add the eggplant. Mash with a fork and add tahini and lemon juice to taste. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with parsley and sesame seeds. Drizzle a bit of the garlic infused olive oil over all. Serve with warm pita or toasted pita. Makes about 3 to 4 cups. Eggplant Fakin’ Bacon Snack (Pareve) This is delicious and has a rich, smoky flavor that is great with dips or alone with your picnic meal. 1 eggplant 3 Tbsp. extravirgin olive oil 2 Tbsp. tamari sauce or Soy sauce 2 tsp. pure maple syrup, Grade A dark Amber 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika 1/2 tsp. liquid smoke 1/4 tsp. grated garlic 1/4 tsp. grated onion Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and then with parchment paper. Set aside. Whisk all the ingredients, except the egg-

plant, in a medium bowl. Set aside. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Cut thin slices and then cut the slices in half lengthwise so you have long, thin strips. Place them on the parchment so that there is a bit of space between all slices. Brush one side with the seasoning mix, turn the slices and brush the other side. Place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Brush the top side once more and place back in the oven for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, until the slices are cooked through and are beginning to get crispy. Makes 30 to 45 strips. Delicious alone or with hummus or eggplant dip.

Simple Roasted Eggplant (Pareve) This is a simple side dish that is delicious and low calorie. Great cut up in a salad to go. 1 tsp. paprika or smoked paprika 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. onion powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper 1 eggplant Extra virgin olive oil Freshly squeezed lemon juice OPTIONAL: Garam Masala, cinnamon, celery salt (omit salt) or any other spices your family likes. Place the first 6 ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and then a sheet of parchment. Set aside. Cut off the ends of the eggplant. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, and then cut each half in half lengthwise. Place on the prepared pan and brush generously with the olive oil. Let sit for 5 minutes and brush again. Sprinkle all sides with the seasoning and place in the oven. Let roast until deep golden brown and soft. Drizzle with olive oil and/or lemon juice. Serves 4 to 8.

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

1 tsp. ground turmeric 1 tsp. ground cumin 1 tsp. ground coriander 1/2 tsp. ground chili powder 1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra if needed 1 tsp. salt 2 cups tahini 1/2 cup slivered pistachios, to garnish (optional) 2 Tbsp. pomegranate seeds, to garnish (optional) 2 Tbsp. chili threads (optional)

By Amanda Ruben, The Nosher via JTA Cauliflower is probably my favorite vegetable, and I could eat it cooked like this every day. One of my chefs, Matthew Wihongi, created this recipe for our catering business and it really wows. If you don’t have time to slow roast the cauliflower, parboil it until it is soft enough to pierce with a fork. Then put it in the oven with the saffron liquid and baste until golden. This recipe is excerpted with permission from “Feasting: A New Take On Jewish Cooking,” by Amanda Ruben, published by Hardie Grant Books in March. Ingredients: 1 large cauliflower head 1 Tbsp. saffron threads 1 Tbsp. sumac

For the tomato salsa: 1/4 red onion, finely diced 5 tomatoes, deseeded and finely diced 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

2 tsp. olive oil 2 tsp. lemon juice sea salt, to taste Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the cauliflower head on a baking tray lined with baking paper. 2. Combine the saffron threads with 2 cups boiling water and set aside to steep for 15 to 20 minutes. 3. In a bowl, combine the saffron liquid with the sumac, ground spices, oil and salt. Pour the mixture over the cauliflower, making sure it is

evenly coated. 4. Cover the tray with foil and roast the cauliflower in the oven for 2 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the saffron liquid. Add more oil if needed to keep the cauliflower moist. 5. Remove the foil and roast for another 10 minutes to brown the cauliflower a little. 6. While the cauliflower is browning, make the tomato salsa. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Season to taste with salt. 7. To serve, spread the tahini dip on a large platter and place the cauliflower on top. Cut out a generous wedge of cauliflower and pile the tomato salsa inside and around the edge of the cauliflower. Garnish with slivered pistachios, pomegranate seeds and chili threads, if desired. Serves 4 to 6.

Homemade kreplach are actually worth the work tise and recipe with us. Ingredients: For the dough: 2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 tsp. salt 3 large eggs, beaten 3 tsp. cold water, approximately For the meat filling: 2 tsp. vegetable oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 medium clove garlic, finely chopped (optional) 3 cups chopped, cooked beef (about 12 ounces — can be either ground beef or finely chopped leftover brisket or roast) 1 large egg 1 tsp. paprika Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Directions:

By Shannon Sarna, The Nosher via JTA Kreplach seem like the kind of dish only your bubbe would make. Especially from scratch. And I always felt intimidated to even try it. You have to make the dough, make the filling and shape it just right. (Turns out, actually you don’t.) But last year I was lucky enough to spend time with a real bubbe and cookbook author (and also my friend), Ronnie Fein, who shared with me her tried-and-true method and recipe. Turns out it’s easier than I thought: The kreplach don’t need to be perfectly shaped to be delicious, and they are definitely something you can tackle with a little planning and determination. You will need to make (or buy) some kind of filling ahead of time. (Note: You can buy some pre-cooked brisket or pot roast instead of making it from scratch.) Many thanks to Ronnie for sharing her exper-

To make the dough: Place the flour, salt and beaten eggs in a food processor. Process while gradually adding just enough water to have the dough form into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 hour. To make the filling: Heat the vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for about 2-3 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened. Place the chopped meat in a bowl. Add the softened onion (and garlic), egg, paprika and salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly. Roll the dough, a portion at a time, on a floured surface until it is very thin (less than

1/8 inch). Cut dough into 2-1/2 to 3-inch squares. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of each square. Fold the dough over the filling to make a triangle. Pinch the dough together to seal the edges (if necessary wet two sides of the square). Bring a large soup pot of water to a boil. Cook the kreplach about a dozen at a time for about 15 minutes, or until they are tender. To serve, place the cooked kreplach in chicken soup and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. You may also fry the kreplach in vegetable oil. Serves 12 to 18 kreplach. Shannon Sarna is editor of The Nosher.

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THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778

Whole roasted cauliflower with tahini, tomato salsa

April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Sale Dates: April 29th - May 4th 2018

Weekly Kellogg’s 9 oz Rice Krispies; 12 oz Corn Flakes; 9.2 oz Corn Pops; 8.7 oz Apple Jacks & Froot Loops; 11 oz Cocoa Krispies $ 99

Liebers Kosher Food Specialties, inc.

Red Pack Tomatoes

Ronzoni Pasta

Gefen Mushrooms

K124 K117

Stems & Pieces - 8 oz

K118

Nature Valley Granola Bars

Assorted 6.7 oz - 8.94 oz

Item Code Discrip�on

Item Code

K128

4/$

Elbows, Ziti, Ziti Rigate, Rotini, Rigatoni, Penne, Penne Rigate, Thin Spaghetti, Medium Shells - 16 oz

4/$

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Liebers Kosher Food Specialties, inc. Avenue 52-15 Flushing Nabisco Oreos Wesson 52-15 Flushing AvenueMaspeth, N.Y. 11378 Assorted - 10.1Maspeth, oz - 15.35 oz Phone: (718)Canola N.Y. 11378 499-0888 Fax:Oil (718) 499-5636 Phone: (718) 499-0888 Fax: (718) 499-563 48 oz $ 49 New Item $ 99 New Item

Whole, Diced, Crushed, Sauce, Puree - 28 oz/29 oz

K124

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Smileys

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Pack Size Price

UPC

1 oz. 0-43427-22124-5

329

Price $

14.30

19.50

Smileys 60 1 oz. 0-43427-22124-5 $ 14.30 ................................................. K117 Smileys 12................................................. 7 oz. 0-43427-22117-7 $ 19.50 Smileys 12 7 oz. 0-43427-22117-7 $ 19.50

K128 Chocolate Chip Bear Cookie 60Kool 1 oz. 0-43427-12128-6 Pops Lieber’s Chocolate ChipBear Bear Cookieor 60 1 oz. 0-43427-12128-6 $ 14.30 K118 Chocolate Chip Bear Cookie 12 7 oz. 0-43427-22118-4 Chocolate Chip Bear Cookie $ 19.50 Smiley Cookies12 7 oz. 0-43427-22118-427 Count 7 oz $ 99 $ 49

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Gourmet Glatt Mini Chocolate or Peanut Butter Pretzels

14 oz

549

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Crystal Geyser Water 8 Pack

Effective as of 03/29/2018 Effective as of 03/29/2018

Zetov Super Snacks

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Assorted - 1.4 oz

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Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fresca, Dr. Pepper Assorted - 2 Liter

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Paskesz Family Pack Oodles 7.9 oz

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Lieber’s Corn Chips

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Montreal pilgrimage in Leonard Cohen footsteps But Cohen’s connections to the affluent MonBy Ben Harris, JTA MONTREAL — Just inside the gate of the treal Jewish community of his youth was never Shaar Hashomayim synagogue off Boulevard du without complications. He fled the city’s conMont Royal, a gravestone bears an unusual Star fines early and often — first to study literature of David, the sharp angles of its two opposing at Columbia, then to the Greek island Hydra, triangles — one reaching heavenward, the other and eventually to Southern California, where he aimed at the earth — softened into the shape lived in a Zen monastery for years. Montreal was of hearts. A dozen red roses scattered on the a place to which he returned occasionally “to reground are signs of recent visitors, and an over- new my neurotic affiliations,” he once wrote. Liel Leibovitz, author of a 2014 book explorflowing mound of stones on top, in keeping with ing Cohen’s artistic evolution, points to a 1964 the Jewish custom, is evidence of many more. The footstone is engraved in Hebrew with speech that Cohen delivered to a symposium at the name of the deceased, Eliezer the son of Nissan HaKohen. And beneath that, the name by which he is known to the world: Leonard Cohen. The legendary singer, songwriter, poet and novelist was interred here in a private ceremony in 2016, just hours before his family would inform the world that he had died days earlier, at age 82, at his home in Los Angeles. His grave is in the family plot beside three generations of his forebears. Cohen, who had been suffering from cancer and knew his death was looming, died peacefully in his sleep after a nighttime fall. “He came into the world a Montreal Jew and he left the world a Montreal Jew,” said Gideon Zelermyer, the cantor at Shaar Hashomayim, who presided Leonard Cohen’s grave, next to three generations of his over the burial with the synagogue’s family, in Montreal’s Congregation Shaar Hashomayim cemetery. Ben Harris rabbi. It’s little surprise that a steady stream of visitors continues to make its way to Cohen’s the Montreal Jewish Library as the moment he gravesite more than a year after his death. Al- found his prophetic voice. In the speech, which ready well into his 70s, the singer achieved Leibovitz reconstructed from notes found in Cosomething rare in popular music — a late-career hen’s papers, the singer lambasted Montreal Jewrenaissance. It included five years of worldwide ry for worshipping a “hideous distortion” of G-d. “Bronze plaques bearing names like Brontouring, hundreds of sold-out shows and several celebrated albums including “You Want It Dark- fman and Beutel were fastened to modern builder,” which was released just weeks before he ings, replacing humbler buildings established by men who loved books in which there were no died, earning him his first solo Grammy Award. With his passing, interest in Cohen has plaques at all,” Cohen said. Today, the library has migrated from the cold surged even more, particularly in his hometown. Musee d’Art Contemporain du Montreal re- water flat it once occupied to a modern campus cently wrapped up a five-month multimedia in the western suburbs of the city, a symbol of the exhibition that featured works by 40 artists very Jewish fixation on buildings decried by the commissioned by the museum in “loving trib- young poet. Yet Cohen never severed his connecute” to Cohen. A 10,000-square-foot portrait of tion to Montreal and its Jews, and the embrace the singer, barely-there smile shadowed by his only seemed to intensify as the years passed. “There are times when you want to show trademark fedora and hand held over heart, towers over Crescent Street in the heart of down- the flag, when you want to indicate that there is town. Another nine-story mural of Cohen was nourishment to be had from this culture, that it completed last year. And in November, a star- is not entirely irrelevant to the present situation, studded tribute concert at the city’s Belle Centre that it does not serve a nation’s best interests to featured appearances by Sting, Elvis Costello, reject and despise it,” Cohen told an interviewer in 2016. Seth Rogen and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And the synagogue reciprocated, proudly The Montreal Jewish community that nurtured Cohen in his early years has not been over- waving the flag of its most celebrated alumnus. Outside the sanctuary, across the lobby looked in the Cohen surge. For a while, media interest in Shaar Hashomayim was so intense from where the faces of Cohen’s grandfather that the leadership had to issue a statement ask- and great-grandfather, both past presidents of the synagogue, peer down from austere Victoing people to stay away. Inquiring at the city’s Jewish institutions to- rian portraits, a glass case houses a vinyl copy day inspires knowing smiles from people who of “You Want It Darker” and the Juno Award have grown accustomed to fielding questions the album won from the Canadian Academy of about Cohen. “At least the third today,” said an Recording Arts and Sciences. Facing the case is official at the cemetery when a visitor asked for a display showcasing Canadian Jewish history that prominently features a photo of Cohen ondirections to Cohen’s grave. Cohen first encountered the biblical meta- stage in a section about the community’s culturphors and liturgical themes that would inspire al contributions. After Cohen’s death, Zelermyer chanted the so much of his life’s work at Shaar Hashomayim, a fortress of a synagogue built by his ancestors El Malei Rachamim memorial prayer for Cohen that today occupies the better part of a city block. during Shabbat services, sung to the tune of the Cohen’s childhood home, at 599 Belmont Ave., singer’s iconic “Hallelujah.” “It was such a validation of the fact that we is just up the hill, and a photograph of a teenage Cohen in double-breasted jacket at his Hebrew hang on to these traditions,” Zelermyer said of school graduation in 1949 still hangs on the wall. Cohen’s enduring connection to the synagogue. Music remains central to the service at Shaar “I go and I teach cantorial students and I tell Hashomayim, with a cantor leading prayers in them the same thing: You never know who that the now nearly obsolete choral tradition once young person is going to be sitting a few rows prevalent in Europe. It was that sound that Co- away from the pulpit and how the experience of hen sought out for “You Want It Darker,” which being in shul and listening to someone praying features Zelermyer and the synagogue choir with intention, how they’re impacted by that. I just find it remarkable.” providing backing vocals.

Natalie Portman... “People ought not be working overtime to turn an ally into an adversary, and those with special platforms and such deep ties to Israel need to take care that when expressing their legitimate disagreements, they don’t take actions that as Daniel Patrick Moynihan would say, could be seen as ‘joining the jackals’,” he said, recalling the late New York senator. “The better approach for her would be to go to Israel and give a speech and highlight the values important to her in the presence of people she wants to persuade. “The better response is not to disengage and cede the discussion to others, but to engage more deeply, on the ground, in Israel, with the only — and necessarily imperfect — nation state of the Jewish people.”

THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778

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Continued from page 9 cates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, or BDS. “Portman occupies a gray area where many American Jews live: hating Bibi while maintaining love or at least affection for Israel and Zionism,” Moore said. “But this is a space that lacks the clarity of purpose that exists to its left among BDSers, and to its right among love-it-or-leave-it supporters of Bibi and company,” he said in an interview on Facebook. Such clarity, Moore said, “allows people to very quickly identify a point of view that they can claim as their own. And it gives the media a way to categorize this demographic like ‘Reagan Republicans’ did for many years.” Jill Jacobs, the director of the T’ruah, human rights groups, said Portman provided relief from the squeeze that liberal Zionists feel from both sides. “It’s the people on the right and far left who are collaborating to erase this space and to insist on a false dichotomy between pro-Israel and anti-occupation/pro-democracy,” she said on Facebook. Libby Lenkinski, the vice president for public engagement for the New Israel Fund, said her group, which funds liberal Israeli advocacy groups, hoped Portman’s statement would bring attention to its agenda, noting that Portman in her statement said she was exploring Israeli charities to support. “The right celebrity can open up more space on an issue and give more permission to more people to reflect their position,” Lenkinski said. “It can be a catalyst.” A number of liberal Zionists who praised Portman were aggravated by the patronizing responses the actor received from the right and the left, particularly the insistence on both sides that she was indeed embracing BDS, despite her denials. “While the far left and right are bent on mischaracterizing Portman’s stance as BDS, we take her at her word,” Debra Shushan, the director of policy for Americans for Peace Now, said in an email. “Natalie Portman is more dangerous [to Netanyahu] than the BDS movement because she can’t be dismissed as an anti-Zionist Israel hater.” So, like Reagan Republicans, is “Portman Zionism” going to become a thing? Not so fast, said Lev Gringauz, a student at the University of Minnesota and a reporting fellow for New Voices, a Jewish campus magazine. The viciousness of the response from Netanyahu’s defenders, which included calls for Portman to have her citizenship revoked, might discourage like-minded people, he said in a Twitter interview. “When you get attacked quickly on all sides for so much as trying to be nuanced, even if imperfectly so, that means the space for conversation is too narrow for any of us to operate in anymore,” Gringauz said. For the pro-Israel right, Portman was the latest in a long line of liberal posturers, especially when she decried “the mistreatment of those suffering from today’s atrocities.” Many interpreted those words as referring to Israeli troops who have killed more than 30 Palestinians protesting along the Gaza border in recent weeks. (An Israeli television station reported Monday night that Portman originally told the Genesis Prize that she was canceling her participation in the award ceremony over Gaza.) “She didn’t express love for Israel,” Ari Teman, an entrepreneur and stand-up comic, said on Facebook. “At most, she expressed love for hummus and dancing. She stabbed Israel in the back for defending itself from Hamas, a terror organization sworn to kill Jews everywhere, and she knew exactly what message she was sending and how it would be used by Israel-haters.” Josh Block, CEO of the Israel Project, said in an interview that there was a lesson for both Portman and her critics: Portman should be heeded as an intimate of Israel, but should also be cautious in how she expressed her criticism.

April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

‫כוכב של שבת‬

SHAbbAT STAR

If you’re obsessing over sefirah, consider this: There are more important mitzvot Parsha of the week

Rabbi avi biLLeT The Jewish Star columnist

id you count sefirah last night? Did you make it up this morning? Are you still counting with a bracha? Do you have an app reminding you to count the Omer? Do you have a WhatsApp group that helps you count? In the absence of the Temple in Jerusalem, most view the mitzvah to count as a rabbinic commandment, a nod to a different time. And yet people are so very careful to fulfill it. Many mitzvot of the Torah are applicable in our time, no Temple required, and don’t even have a blessing as they can be performed all the time. Why do we not get the same kinds of reminders to fulfill them? We are good at ritual and at fulfilling the “between man and G-d” commandments. But what about the “between man and man” Torahobligations? More than the mistranslation “good deed,” a mitzvah is a commandment, given by a Commander, Who is telling us what we must do. Often the mitzvah might be considered “for your benefit” (see Devarim 10:13). In what way is it good for us? Some of the goodness comes in refining our character. Some of the goodness comes in enhancing our relationships with others. Some of the goodness comes in our rela-

tionship with the Almighty. amban explains in Devarim that mitzvot are not for G-d. The heavens and all the earth bring honor to G-d; He doesn’t need us. He loved the forefathers and chose their descendants to have a mission on earth. The purpose of mitzvot is to help us yearn for G-d more. This is something we ought to think about — how often do we see mitzvot as a means for us to get closer to G-d? In this week’s double parsha — Acharei Mot and Kedoshim — we have mitzvot to love our fellow Jews, not to hate another Jew, not to embarrass another Jew, not to wrong one another through speech, not to curse any Jew, not to give misleading advice, to judge our fellow Jews favorably, to rebuke a sinner (with kindness and in a manner which will be listened to or accepted), not to take revenge, not to bear a grudge, and not to gossip or make up stories about others. How many of us bear a grudge against someone else? How often does a grudge develop, often on account of a misunderstanding? How many people carry a grudge and know that the other person is unaware of the grudge? How many people are victims of a grudge, and don’t know because they were never told, nor given the opportunity to explain and put things right?

While there are certainly some commentators who focus on the appearance of the phrase “I am Hashem” or “I am Hashem your G-d,” who sometimes appear to be randomly assigned. But sometimes it seems that added phrase is G-d’s way of saying “this one is REALLY important.” ’d like to zone in on a mitzvah we would all benefit from being more careful about. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s translation of 19:32 is “Stand up before a white head [meaning a person with white hair], and give respect to the old. You shall thus fear your G-d. I am G-d.” The Hebrew word Rabbi Kaplan translated as “whitehead” is “sayvah.” Ibn Ezra translates the word as “zaken,” an elderly person who is close to death. Were we to accept this definition, no person who might otherwise qualify to be stood for would ever want anyone to stand for them. Rashi defines sayvah as one who has acquired wisdom, without specifying its source, whether from study or life experience. Onkelos says it refers to a Torah scholar. Avot 5:21 defines ziknah as age 60 and sayvah as age 70; this is not a definition based on how one feels (one may feel 70 years old or 70 years young). It’s just a mark of chronological years having passed. The Talmud Kiddushin seems to follow the

What about the ‘between man and man’ Torah obligations?

The community and holiness Torah

Rabbi david eTengoff

The Jewish Star columnist

arashat Kedoshim’s verse, “And the L-rd spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the entire congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, “You shall be holy (kedoshim), for I, the L-rd, your G-d, am holy”,” is celebrated for its powerful call to the Jewish people to live lives invested with holiness (Vayikra19:1-2). Rashi, basing himself upon a variety of midrashic sources, explains the phrases, “entire congregation of Israel” and “you shall be holy,” as follows: •Entire Congregation of Israel: [This] teaches us that this passage was stated in the assembly [of the entire congregation of Israel] because most of the fundamental teachings of the Torah are dependent on it. •You shall be holy: Separate yourselves from illicit relations and from sin, for wherever one finds a barrier against illicit relations, one finds holiness. The great mid-18th century Chasidic master, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Halevi Epstein, known to the world as the holy Me’or Vashemesh after the title of his most famous work, raises a key question regarding Rashi’s explication of our verse: “What do we learn by being told that this [specific] parasha was taught in the assembly of Israel — is it not logical to assume that all mitzvot that are universally practiced by the Jewish people were stated before our entire nation?” The Me’or Vashemesh’s answer offers a

deeper understanding of the connection that obtains between the phrases, “entire congregation of Israel” and “you shall be holy,” and informs our comprehension of the pasuk in an entirely new fashion: “And this is the proper explanation of our pasuk: ‘And the L-rd spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the entire congregation of the children of Israel”.” As Rashi elucidates, “[This] teaches us that this passage was stated in the assembly [of the entire congregation of Israel].” This means that this parasha’s statement “and you shall be holy” was specifically said amongst the entire Jewish people, since it is impossible for a person to merit the highest heights of kedushah unless they will be joined together in a gathering of the overall community in the service of Hashem. Why is this the case? As Rashi teaches us, “because most of the fundamental teachings of the Torah are dependent on it” — tefilah b’tzibur (public prayer) and mitzvot which are similar in kind (that require a community for their fulfillment). learly, for the Me’or Vashemesh, kedushah can only be achieved in the context of the tzibur. As such, any notion of ascetic withdrawal from the community is anathema to the authentic Torah way of life — a concept that he crystalizes in the following passage: “The text concludes and states: ‘You shall

be holy,’ which Rashi interprets as ‘and you shall be separate.’ To clarify: This parasha was commanded to the Jewish people in order for them to be holy [as a corporate entity]; a person could mistakenly believe, however, that the correct exposition of ‘and you shall be holy’ is that individuals should remove and separate themselves from the tzibur — and only then will they achieve authentic kedushah.” The deeply insightful analysis of the Me’or Vashemesh is consonant with Hillel’s well-known statement in Pirkei Avot: “Al tifrosh min hatzibur” (“Do not separate yourself from the community,” II:4). In his discursive analysis of this phrase, Rabbi Israel Lipschitz (1782–1860), known as the Tiferet Yisrael after the name of his classic commentary on the Mishnah, challenges us to recognize Hillel’s aphorism for what it truly is, namely, a directive to engage in all aspects of communal activity for the betterment of the tzibur and, ultimately for the benefit of the entire Jewish people. With Hashem’s help and guidance, may each of us strive to implement Hillel’s stirring words in our lives, and may we thereby be zocheh (merit) to see the fulfillment of the pasuk: “I shall be sanctified amidst the children of Israel. I am the L-rd Who sanctifies you” (Vayikra 22:32). May this time come soon and in our days. V’chane yihi ratzon.

Rashi interprets ‘you shall be holy’ to mean, ‘and you shall be separate.’

view of Isi ben Yehuda that a zaken equals any one who is classified as older — however that is defined by society — but it is not determined by scholarship. Two friends who are themselves classified as sayvah or zaken should even respect one another in this way! Don’t avoid doing so because it’s hard; do it because it’s a mitzvah! eyond illness and injury and death and taxes there are few things more painful than the feeling of being ignored, unimportant, or irrelevant. This mitzvah is meant to avoid that in people who, as time passes, might otherwise feel ignored, unimportant, or irrelevant. As 70 becomes the new 50, and as older people don’t like to be called “old,” these are milestones that might be more difficult to pinpoint today. But let us take note: There are people who deserve the dignity of being noticed. And being given at the very least human courtesy and respect. Respect doesn’t mean I don’t hurt your feelings. It means I actively stand, I actively acknowledge the person’s humanity through a kind word, through even a simple conversation — if not more, through tapping into that person’s wisdom. A mitzvah is a commandment which makes us better people. Sometimes it’s between us and G-d. But He doesn’t need the mitzvah! When it becomes something that enhances others’ lives it is a good deed. We should be as careful if not more about reminding ourselves to do these Torah-mandated mitzvot, as we are about sefiras haOmer. And we should become experts in promoting and performing mitzvot between man and man that put other people up. Through this as well, we should merit to bring G-d into our lives.

Luach

Fri April 27 • 12 Iyar

Fri is the 27th day of the Omer Achrei Mos-Kedoshim Candlelighting: 7:28 pm Havdalah: 8:38 pm

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Fri is 34th day of the Omer Emor Candlelighting: 7:35 pm Havdalah: 8:45 pm

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Sat May 19 • 5 Sivan Shavuot begins tonight Candlelighting: 8:51 pm

Sun May 20 • 6 Sivan

Tonight is second night of Shavuot Candlelighting: 8:51 pm Yizkor Monday morning Havdalah: 9:01 pm Monday Five Towns times from White Shul

Kosher Bookworm

ALAn JAY GERBER

The Jewish Star columnist

abbi Hayyim Angel is one of my favorite authors on the deeper meaning of Tanakh text and commentary. In this week’s column, Rabbi Yaakov Beasley, Tanakh coordinator at Yeshivat Lev haTorah who is completing a doctorate on the book of Micah at Bar Ilan University, reviews Rabbi Angel’s new book, “Keys to the Palace: Exploring the Religious Value of Reading Tanakh.” I always look forward to each of Rabbi Angel’s books and essays. I admire that way that he focuses on the deeper meaning of the biblical texts — what we call the peshat. In a personal statement sent to me, Rabbi Angel shares with us the following: “As with all my writings on Tanakh, this collection of 20 essays explores Tanakh and learning methodology through the lens of Jewish tradition and aided by contemporary scholarship. The seven essays on methodology evaluate the works of contemporary scholars and elucidate their core methodologies. The 13 text studies employ a methodology that integrates the best of traditional and contemporary scholarship in an atteempt to determine the eternal religious messages of the biblical texts.”

lenges to students and teachers alike. For hundreds of years, despite being Judaism’s most fundamental text, study of Tanakh has been generally relegated to a secondary role in Jewish curricula. The varying rationales behind this have been explored elsewhere. Fortunately, today there is a renaissance in Tanakh learning in Israel and abroad [and w]ith the renewed emphasis has come new methodologies. Some of these are new reiterations of ancient ideas, while others draw heavily on academia, using new analytic methods and applying terms from literary criticism. … One of the leading scholars in North America in the vanguard of these changes is Rabbi Hayyim Angel, the National Scholar of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Angel has written or edited over 130 scholarly articles and books (mostly in Tanakh), of which “Keys to the Palace” is the latest publication. [This] book collects 20 essays on issues regarding Tanakh study or interpretations of biblical passages, all revolving around the question alluded to in the book’s subtitle, “Exploring the Religious Value of Reading Tanakh.” … Tanakh cannot be studied as one would any other discipline. Without an encounter with the Divine, or at least serving a religious purpose, Tanakh study, if not bereft of value, is at least notably incomplete. he emphasis on the religious aspect of the text comes out in both sections of the book — seven essays that analyze the latest trends and approaches that are prevalent in today’s Tanakh study, and then 13 essays of Angel’s explanations of the Tanakh texts. In the first group, the reader is introduced to the major trends and issues in Tanakh study today. How does one maintain faith in the oral and rabbinic tradition, yet study Tanakh from a historical and literary approach, armed with all of the new discoveries that have been made in Israel in the past half-century? The discussions regarding the contributions of Rabbis Yoel Bin-Nun and Amnon Bazak are particularly important in this regard. Of the second group of essays, one can divide them into two sub-categories. Some are thematic essays that wrestle with moral and ethical issues raised by the texts, and others are Rabbi An-

How does one maintain faith in the oral and rabbinic tradition, yet study Tanakh from a historical and literary approach?

Review by Rabbi Yaakov Beasley Excerpted from Lehrahus “Just as a bride is bedecked with 24 ornaments, so too a scholar is bedecked with (knowledge of) the 24 books of the Tanakh.” — Rashi, Exodus 31:18. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus warned his students, “hold back your children from ‘higayon’.” (Berakhot 28b). Rashi explains that higayon is “excessive Tanakh study that attracts one too much.” At first glance, it appears strange to discover that Rashi entertained a sense of ambivalence, and possibly hesitancy, regarding Bible study. Yet, perhaps more than any other field in Jewish studies, Tanakh provides the greatest chal-

gel’s original interpretative close readings. Though Rabbi Angel is familiar and capable of engaging in the didactic and sophisticated modern literary techniques favored by those from the new school of interpretation (emanating from Yeshivat Har Etzion and the Herzog College from Israel), this is not his style. Instead, he is a patient compiler of all opinions Rabbi Hayyim Angel and approaches, carefully pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each, directing the conversation until his viewpoint is revealed. As an example of this, let’s analyze Rabbi Angel’s essay on Psalm 19. The Psalm begins by declaring, “The heavens recite the glory of God, and the sky tells of the work of His hands” (verse 2). Halfway through the poem, the Psalm switches subject, and the rest of the chapter proclaims that “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, making the simple one wise” (verse 8). The two halves apparently do not belong together. Almost all the commentators, beginning with the medieval commentators and continuing to Rabbi Angel, attempt to account for relationship between the two sections. Critical scholars almost instinctively argue that the psalm was originally two separate works, which were joined together by later editors. Rashi, for example, provides two answers, with the first suggesting that the goal is to compare nature to Torah (see also Ibn Ezra and the Radak), and a second answer that what the psalm is attempting is to contrast the two. o appreciate Rabbi Angel’s methodology, it is instructive to compare his essay with that of Rabbi Elchanan Samet, one of the leading practitioners of the modern approach of Tanakh study in Israel. Samet approaches this psalm scientifically, like a surgeon wielding a scalpel. With a fine ear for literary cues and clues, he meticulously divides the poem into its sections and subsections, noting each of the parallels and the form of parallel used, locating the texts structure — its central axis, around which the opening and conclusion revolve. After a thorough dissection of the Psalm, Rabbi Samet arrives at his conclusion. This would apparently validate the words of Ibn Ezra that the Psalm’s message is that the “heavens and the Torah are two paths to the knowledge of G-d and His attributes.” However,

comparing the second subsection of each half undoes this conclusion. Unlike the sun which fulfills its Divine purpose with happiness and strength, “like a bridegroom coming out his chamber,” man is fallible and imperfect, requiring him to cry out, “Who understands errors? Cleanse me of hidden [sins].” Rabbi Angel’s approach to the text is strikingly different. If Rabbi Samet is a stylistic surgeon, Rabbi Angel is a musician, identifying larger themes that arise from the discussion. In his essay, after presenting a quick synopsis of Jewish commentary regarding the relationship between nature and Torah in the psalm, he draws upon his encyclopedic knowledge of rabbinic texts that address this issue. He begins with the midrash at Sifrei (Deuteronomy 306), which explicates Rabbi Samet’s conclusion: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: ‘Say to Israel: “Look into the heavens that I created to serve you. Have they perhaps changed their ways’?” … [Rather, the sun] is happy to do My will, as it is stated: ‘And it is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber’.” (Psalms 19:6). Surely, there is an a fortiori argument: “If they who do not act for reward nor for loss … then you, who if you merit you receive reward, and if you sin you receive punishment … all the more so you must not change your ways.” After mentioning other approaches in how to divide the Psalm without critique, Rabbi Angel then deals with the larger philosophic question of the relationship between the study of Torah and appreciating G-d’s handiwork through nature, quoting Maimonides, Rabbi Norman Lamm, Pirkei Avot, and his father, Rabbi Marc Angel. Where Rabbi Angel’s modern sensibilities come to the fore are not in his interpretations of text. There his strength is in his careful gathering and analysis of previous commentators, providing a living example of how to approach a text. His strongest essays, in this reviewer’s opinSee Kosher Bookworm on page 20

Holiness in shul? Thoughts for Aharei Mot-Kedoshim Torah

RABBi mARc d. AnGEL Jewishideas.org

story is told of the great Hassidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev. He had been visiting a town and attended prayer services in the local synagogue. One day, he stopped at the synagogue door and did not enter the sanctuary. The many people who were accompanying him were perplexed. Why did the Rebbe not enter the synagogue? Rabbi Levi Yitzhak told them: “I am not entering the synagogue because it’s too crowded.” But the synagogue was empty! The Rebbe explained: “The synagogue is full of prayers, there’s no room left for us. Usually, when we pray, our prayers ascend to the gate of heaven; however, in this synagogue, the prayers are recited without proper concentration and devotion, so the prayers don’t reach heaven. In fact, they are trapped in the synagogue building — so there is no room left for us in the synagogue.”

A synagogue is a holy place dedicated to the glory of G-d. If prayers are to ascend to heaven, the synagogue must reflect sanctity and humility. In some cases, though, synagogues fall short of the ideal. Instead of being dedicated to the glory of G-d, it sometimes happens that synagogues seem more dedicated to the glory of human beings. There are synagogues where the rabbis strive to be quasi-cult figures promoting their own glory—not G-d’s. There are synagogues where the cantors or lay readers strive to show off their voices, promoting their own glory—not G-d’s. There are synagogues where congregants engage in “shul politics” in order to gain power for themselves, seeking to aggrandize their own glory—not G-d’s. Such synagogues are “crowded with prayers” because the prayers do not ascend to heaven. Indeed, it seems that the Divine Presence is absent from such synagogues. The human ego has crowded out the Divine. There’s no room in such synagogues for those who seek to pray sincerely, to serve the Almighty in humility, to live for the glory of G-d. Recent surveys of Jewish life have noted that a vast majority of Jews do not attend syna-

gogue services at least once a week. This does not mean that these Jews lack spiritual yearnings. It does mean, though, that for a great many Jews our synagogues lack the Divine Presence. If and when they do attend services, they do not feel the glory of G-d. They hear too much idle chatter, they see too many people—even rabbis—reading books or journals during services. They experience synagogues as businesses run by people who are interested in promoting themselves. The sanctity, humility and spirituality are missing. appily, though, there are synagogues and prayer groups that strive to keep the Divine Presence among them. They foster reverence, selflessness, and sincerity. Their services are free from external conversations and jesting. They yearn to have their prayers ascend to the gate of heaven. For those fortunate to pray in such an ideal setting, the prayer experience is uplifting and joyful. For those whose synagogues fall short of the ideal, the prayer experience can be frustrating and unhappy. Sincere seekers of G-d must look for communities of worshipers who share their religious

sensibilities. If no such synagogue or prayer group is available, then one should try to internalize prayers to the extent possible, keeping one’s mind free from the distractions that infect the synagogue’s atmosphere. One should pray with eyes focused on the prayer book or with eyes closed. One should sit apart from those who chatter or jest. One should avoid looking at those who are busy reading books or journals rather than devoting themselves to the prayers. Synagogues must be sanctuaries where our prayers can ascend to the gate of heaven, where we can transcend ourselves and reach deeper spiritual insight and fulfillment. If the glory of G-d is forced out by those who promote the glory of humans, then the spiritual seeker must try to forge a private path to the gate of heaven. This week’s Torah reading reminds us of the challenge: to be holy. This may be understood as a prod to spirituality, to a refined and transcendent vision of our relationship with the Almighty and with human beings. If our synagogues reflect genuine holiness, we are uplifted by them; our prayers can ascend. But if our synagogues lack holiness, the absence of the Divine Presence is palpable.

THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778

Rabbi Hayyim Angel’s ‘Keys to the Palace’

April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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Considering Russia and Israel, seven decades on Viewpoint

bEn CohEn

Jewish News Service

mid all the diplomatic maneuverings in the months that led up to the creation of the State of Israel 70 years ago, none are more curious than those undertaken by the Soviet Union. It’s fair to say that Soviet support was a necessary condition for the emergence of an independent Jewish state in what was then British Mandate Palestine. The Zionist leadership certainly understood this, with both Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion courting Soviet foreign ministry officials as World War II came to an end. But until the middle of 1947, the Soviets remained firm opponents of partitioning the country into Jewish and Arab states. The about-turn in favor of partition was announced by Andrei Gromyko, Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, in May 1947, in a remarkable speech that upended decades of Communist doctrine by speaking of “the Jewish people” and decrying the sight of “hundreds of thousands of

with America. So for once during that Jews wandering about in various counterrible decade, the diplomatic stars tries of Europe in search of means of exhad aligned in favor of the Jewish istence and in search of shelter.” o began a period of two or three people, and the votes in favor of paryears when the idea of a Soviettition cast by both the United States Israeli alliance was discussed as and the USSR was one of the last exa serious prospect. Indeed, Gromyko amples of international consensus as turned out to be one of the most aggresthe Cold War took hold. sive advocates of the Zionist cause at the The story ended, as we all know, United Nations, impatiently reminding with Israel firmly in the camp of the United States and the Soviet Union as the American delegation in March 1948 the principle backer of Arab rejectionthat “the only way to reduce bloodshed ism. The Gromkyo who admitted at is to prompt and effective creation of the United Nations in 1947 that it was two states in Palestine.” “difficult to express in dry statistics” “If the United States and some other the “sorrow and suffering of the Jewstates block the implementation of the partition and regard Palestine as an el- From left: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Ben- ish victims of the fascist aggressors” ement in their economic and military- jamin Netanyahu, Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin, and was the same Gromyko who served strategic considerations,” said Gromyko, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance as Soviet foreign minister when that same world body passed a resolution expressing the sort of indignance that Center in Moscow on Jan. 29. Kobi Gideon/GPO in 1975 equating Zionism with racism. might come from an American delegate USSR had come to the end of the war without In any case, Israel’s leaders undertoday, “then any decision on the future of Palestine … will mean the transformation of a coherent policy towards the Arab world, but stood pretty clearly by the early 1950s that the Palestine into a field of strife and dissension be- with a basic distrust of the pan-Arab pretensions Soviet embrace could easily turn into a noose. tween the Arabs and the Jews and will only in- of the newly-formed Arab League. Moscow was In his monumental history of the State of Israel, also keen to hasten the decline of the British the late Martin Gilbert writes of an October 1955 crease the number of victims.” The principal reason behind this brief flash Empire in the Middle East and saw the State of conversation between Israeli Foreign Minister See Viewpoint on page 20 of Soviet support for Israel was geopolitical. The Israel as a potential ally in its emerging contest

The Portman factor An editor’s report

JonAthAn S. tobin JNS editor-in-chief

hat so many Jews care so deeply about what an actress has to say about the State of Israel and its prime minister tells us a lot about Jewish insecurity in 2018. But while this isn’t the earth-shattering event some on both ends of the political spectrum are claiming it to be, the issue is still worth discussing. When it comes down to it, it’s not as much about the intrinsic importance of one Jewish celebrity’s opinion as it is about the way the reputation of Israel’s prime minister is becoming more of a hindrance than a help to the Jewish state. Natalie Portman’s decision to boycott the ceremony during which she was to be bestowed this year’s Genesis Prize—and $2 million to distribute to worthy Jewish causes—set off a wave of commentary. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political opponents, as well as advocates of the BDS movement, cheered her statements while his supporters

and others angered by anything that can be perceived as contributing to the Jewish state’s isolation responded with criticism that ran the gamut—from mild disappointment to accusations of anti-Semitism. Whether you think Portman is a self-involved celebrity more interested in virtue-signaling than doing anything of value for Israel or a great artist sending an important message, the notion that whether she was willing to receive a meaningless honor that organizers call, without a trace of irony, the “Jewish Nobel Prize,” is a matter of transcendent importance is patently absurd. Nor should Netanyahu’s camp be treating the 36-year-old sabra as a threat to Israel. As she explained, her snub of the ceremony had to do with the presence of the prime minister. Since she detests Netanyahu, she refused to be a prop in what she considered an event that would, as is always the case with appearances by political leaders of any political stripe, be exploited by the government. Far from hurting Netanyahu, in one sense Portman actually played right into his hands. The perceived insult to him is the sort of thing that will rile up Israelis who bitterly resent liberal elites, without doing a thing to help his op-

made that clear in a follow-up statement, even if a number of Israel’s foes are disingenuously treating her stand as a form of BDS. ortman has already called Netanyahu a racist and clearly identifies with the Israeli left. Like many others in the Diaspora, she doesn’t think much of the premier’s policies. Unfortunately, her statement, which denounced the current government’s “violence, corruption, inequality and abuse of power” as being not in line with her “Jewish values,” could also be interpreted as a criticism of the Israeli army’s use of force to prevent violent demonstrators organized by Hamas marching for the “right of return”— i.e., the destruction of the Jewish state—from breaching the border with Gaza. That’s the only part of this kerfuffle that matters because it shows that Netanyahu’s toxic reputation abroad is helping to blur the lines between fair comment about his leadership concerning corruption charges and other issues that seem to undermine the country’s right of self-defense. As such, it illustrates a dismaying fact about the prime minister. One of his greatest strengths—the ability to eloquently make the case for the justice of Israel’s cause in flawless English—has been undermined by the steep decline in his image abroad. Yet the problem here is not just that Portman is wrong about Gaza. It’s that the prime See Portman on page 20

Hollywood Actress Natalie Portman and Israeli actor Gilad Kahana in Jerusalem’s Nachlaot neighborhood during the filming of a movie based on a book by Israeli author Amos Oz in February 2014. Hadas Parush/Flash 90

ponents. The talk from some Likudniks about revoking her citizenship is nonsense, however—in the same way that the animus towards President Donald Trump from liberal celebrities in the United States reinforces his base’s resentment toward his critics—it’s just one more excuse for the Israeli right to rally around a man who has become a polarizing figure. Nor, despite their wishful thinking, has Portman done much to help the BDS movement. As someone who has been clear about her love for Israel and who actually has made a film there, the notion that she is boycotting the country doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. She

View from central park

TEhillA r. goldbErg

Intermountain Jewish News

ot too far off, I hope to live the words of hashiveini v’ashuva el ha-aretz ha-tova, a phrase from Naomi Shemer’s song, “Al Kol Eleh,” that I think of often. “Bring me back, that I may return to the good land.” This has layers of meaning for many of us, whether our return to the Land is primarily physical, spiritual or emotional. The Kululam choir, which orchestrates special songs in special places, gifted Israel with a breathtaking rendition of “Al Kol Eleh” for Israel’s 70th birthday gift. Anyone can join the Kululam choir, even on a one-time basis for a specific gig. For Israel’s 70th, 12,000 Israelis showed up and joined, including President Reuven Rivlin. Scarf-clad wrinkled women, young soldiers holding their little girls, teenagers, Ethiopians, Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, young and old, came together to sing Naomi Shemer’s iconic “Al Kol Eleh.” Like so many of her songs, in Hebrew it reads like a lyrical prayer. What a 70th birthday gift to the country! When you think of 70 years you think of a human lifetime, “of the bitter and the sweet.” An innocent childhood, the angst of teen years, the discovery of young adulthood, the nesting years of parenting, of work and anchoring family, the nachat of grandparenting, the weariness of old age. In Ethics of the Fathers, when the stages of life are named decade by decade, 70 is described the time of ripe old age, preceded by ages for understanding and counsel. Indeed, the Sanhedrin, the council of sages who played a key role in the rehabilitation of the Jewish people after the Bar Kochba revolt, numbered 70. Of course, life doesn’t go in such clean sequences for all. One can be ravaged by old age at less than 70 and today 70 years can seems young. Yet, 70 is symbolic of the length of a life, of a generation. A milestone. In the Talmudic legend of Choni Ha-Meagel, the Jewish Rip Van Winkle of sorts, it was for 70 years that he fell into slumber in a field

of planted seeds before he awoke to groves of grown trees and the dialogue he then has with grandchild, who benefits from the fruit on the trees planted decades earlier. here was the Jewish world just 70 years ago? It was on the brink of collapse and utter devastation. It was a different place than the one we know today. Israel has two memorial days in quick succession: the price we paid for not having Israel (Holocaust Day), and the price we paid for having an Israel (Memorial Day). For me personally, Israel is not only a homeland, it was my actual home, the place that raised me. As laureate Leah Goldberg says, “eretz ahavati,” my longing and love for my land. Yet, in a different poem, “Oren,” Goldberg concludes with two lines whose duality resonates in my life as well: “With you I have been planted twice, With you I have blossomed trees, And my roots lie upon two separate horizons.” Developing in formative years in two places, Israel and Colorado, among the sea and the snow, there’s a duality. An abiding love for two places that have been called home, a sense of a double planting. Still, Israel eclipses all, not only because it came first in my life, not only because it became the compass of my life, not only because there’s no other place that makes me tick like Israel, that brings me close to the noblest, holiest of people, peddlers and prayers, in Israel. Simply, because I am a Jew. or thousands of bitter years of exile from Israel we were a persecuted pursued minority. To have the dignity of a sovereign state, a return to our homeland, is a miracle that my great-grandparents, who were murdered in Auschwitz just for being Jews, could have only dreamed of. The seeds were scattered 70 years ago, and of course it was long before that too. Today the crop yields beautiful fruits. But as in every garden, things are not perfect. There are beautiful flowers to be seen, luscious fruits to be picked (we pray, not beterem et, before their time), fragrant blooms to be had, and the shading of trees to protect. Like every garden, it needs constant vigilance, weeding, nourishing, watering, pruning and

refining. A sterile manicured garden it is not, and ought not to be. Israel is a real place. But when it’s a 70th birthday celebration, although the reality is always both “bitter and sweet” — replete with both “sting and honey” — and while Israel is still a place where we must in one hand hold an olive branch while in the other, a sword, now is the time to see the honey for what it is and appreciate all the sweet. Now is the time to gather and collect the bouquets and pause and pray in joy for all the good in our collective Jewish homeland’s life and people, while staying the course in commitment to repairing and refining our homeland of Israel to which we stand indebted. Despite our endless overtures, efforts and sacrifices, we are not yet living out the prophecy of “each person lying under their fig and grape arbors” in neighborly harmony. Much work is still needed within too: our discourse, our understanding of the many different communities (the 70 faces, so to speak) that stitch together into our diverse fabric that is our one people of Am Yisrael. True, 70 years is symbolic of a lifetime. But just one lifetime. Yet, in one lifetime one person can change the world. So here’s to many more endless lifetimes for the State of Israel that has already made us all so immensely proud on a Jewish and human level. Israel has already changed the world for the good. As on any birthday, with celebration comes a deeper appreciation of how fragile life can be, to which Naomi Shemer’s “Al Kol Eleh” gives voice. It is the perfect anthem for Israel’s 70th, second only to Psalms, of course.

For All These … Al Kol Eleh For the honey and the bee sting For the bitter and the sweet For our precious baby daughter Grant a blessing of protection, dear G-d, please For the blazing fire For the crystal clear water For those returning home from travels afar For all these — Over all these

Grant a blessing of protection, dear G-d, please For the honey For the bee sting For the bitter For the sweet Please do not uproot what’s been planted Do not forget our hopes and dreams Lead me home And I shall return To this (wonderful) good land Shield, dear G-d, this house of mine This garden and these walls From sorrow, grief, and sudden fear And from wars Protect the little I have The light, The fruit not yet ripened Picked before it’s time For all these For these Grant a blessing, dear G-d, please For the honey and the bee sting For the bitter and the sweet Please do not uproot what’s been planted Do not forget our hopes and dreams Lead me home, And I shall return, To this good good land. A tree rustles in the wind A star falls from afar And in the darkness I wish upon the star Please watch over them all for me My cherished ones Bless the quiet the cries and this very song. The flag with the Star of David is already waving high in the spring air. Let it keep waving in the wind with immense joy for another 70 incredibly wonderful years! Thank you Israel. Thank you Am Yisrael. Thank you G-d. And Happy Birthday!! Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

How Shoah education distances Jews from Israel opinion

EVElyn gordon

Jewish News Service

olocaust Remembrance Day is observed in Israel just a week before Independence Day, and for Israelis, those days are thematically as well as temporally connected: One of many reasons why a Jewish state is needed is to save Jewish lives. Shockingly, the way this connection is taught may have led many young Jews to conclude that the Holocaust is why a Jewish state should not actually exist, or at least why they as Jews shouldn’t care about it. Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed this. But then I read the column in Haaretz on April 11, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. In it, Steven Davidson described the standardized Holocaust-education curriculum he teaches his sixth-grade Hebrew-school class in Brooklyn. As he noted, he is just “one of hundreds of Jewish educators across Canada and the U.S. to utilize the Holocaust curriculum developed by the nonprofit organization, Facing History & Ourselves.” Since 1976, this curriculum “has educated over half a million students in the U.S. and Canada about the Holocaust.” So what does it teach Jewish students? “The lesson,” Davidson explained, “tasked

me with writing a quote on the board: ‘I love my daughters more than my nieces, my nieces more than my cousins, my cousins more than my neighbors. But that doesn’t mean that we detest our neighbors’.” He asked his students’ opinion of this sentiment; unsurprisingly, all but one approved it. And then, “I revealed to the class who said that quote: Jean-Marie Le Pen, Holocaust-denier and renowned xenophobe.” And also renowned anti-Semite, though one can see why Davidson didn’t mention that. After all, the whole point of this lesson is that loving some people more than others is evil—the kind of thing only a Jean-Marie Le Pen would do. Why confuse the message by mentioning Le Pen’s hatred for Jews, in particular, as if that were something Jewish students should care about? he ensuing discussion drove the point home. One student soon “realized” that this quote is “like America First,” Donald Trump’s slogan, and Trump is a far greater symbol of evil to these students than Le Pen, whom most had never heard of before. As Davidson noted, “My sixthgraders generally hate Trump because nearly all their parents do.” Soon, students were explicitly connecting Trump to the Nazis: “During another lesson, a couple of students related the Brownshirts and Nazi rallies to Trump encouraging and retweeting violence.” The conclusion of this logical progression was clear: Loving some people more than others is Nazi behavior—something no good Jew can countenance.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the official state ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, as Israel marked annual Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 11. Sindel/Flash90

Of course, any parent who actually cared no more for his own child than for some random child down the block would probably be indicted for child neglect. But the curriculum’s designers know the instinctive parent-child bond is strong enough to overcome such indoctrination; that isn’t their target.

Rather, their target is the bond Jews feel for their fellow Jews. Because that isn’t one of humanity’s deepest instincts; it’s very much a learned behavior. The canonical Jewish texts taught it by intertwining universal principles with particularist messages about the special obligations owed one’s own people, like “All Israel are responsible for one another” (Talmud Shevuot 39a) or “The poor of your own city take precedence” (Talmud Baba Metzia 71a). Yet even American Jews who never studied these texts used to be taught this behavior. Most Jews of my generation can remember charity boxes at home in which we put money for Israel or Hebrew-school events when we wrote letters to imprisoned Soviet Jews; the unambiguous message was that we had a responsibility to our brethren. Today, many American Jewish children are taught the exact opposite: that feeling any special responsibility toward their fellow Jews is Nazi-like behavior, and only if they eschew such feelings can they be good Jews who have internalized the Holocaust’s lessons. Given this, is it any wonder that in a 2013 Pew Research poll, 73 percent of American Jews deemed remembering the Holocaust an essential part of being Jewish, but only 43 percent said the same for caring about Israel and just 28 percent for being part of a Jewish community? See Shoah on page 20

THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778

On her 70th b’day, celebrating Israel from afar

Kosher Bookworm...

April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Continued from page 17 ions, are those that directly deal with the more difficult questions that arise from plain readings of the biblical text. The challenges can be those dealing with the age of the universe and texts which prima facie are difficult for a modern person to accept, at least on a literal level. ven more revealing are Rabbi Angel’s treatment of moral questions, whether Jacob’s deception of his blind father Isaac in Genesis 27, misleading him so that he would receive the blessing Isaac wanted to give to Esau, or the theological questions posed by the Akeidah, when Abraham bound Isaac as a sacrifice in Genesis 22. For many, the questions cannot even be asked. If our righteous forefathers performed it, they must not be asked. How much more so if G-d commands something, that it must be moral. Rabbi Angel notes these views, but then demonstrates the multi-faceted nature of Jew-

ish thought and commentary, providing opposing viewpoints and fulfilling the popular dictum that “where there are two Jews, there are three opinions.” Each of the opinions is evaluated, based on its plausibility from both theological and literary aspects. But Rabbi Angel does not limit himself to “kosher” thinkers. Every voice that has something to add to the discussion is invited to participate. The discussion of the Akeidah includes the views of Immanuel Kant, Maimonides, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Moshe Halbertal, Soren Kierkegaard, David Shatz, and Shalom Carmy, for starters. It is this willingness to learn from everyone that makes Rabbi Angel one of the great Tanakh teachers of our time, and this accessible volume a necessary resource for anyone wishing to understand the Tanakh on a sophisticated level, yet as a book that ultimately strengthen one beliefs.

Viewpoint...

Soviet Union emigrated to Israel in the decade following its collapse in 1990, bringing to a democratic resolution the so-called “Jewish Question” confronted by Tsarists and revolutionaries alike for over a century. Even without the issues of anti-Semitic persecution and bans on Jewish emigration to deal with, Israel’s present-day relations with Russia are complicated by many of the same issues that prevailed during the Cold War—foremost, its continued investment in Syria’s Assad dynasty. Some might argue that’s a good thing, in that Vladimir Putin will act as a restraining influence on Assad and on the Damascus regime’s allies in Iran. But it also demonstrates that the historically fraught relationship between Jews and Russians continues in the sphere of international politics. Seventy years after Israel’s creation, Russia remains the world power that is closest to the Jewish state’s most implacable enemies, providing them with diplomatic and military sustenance—and keeping those old memories alive.

Continued from page 18 Moshe Sharett, and U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, in which the former complained that Israel had “lost everything” with regard to its relations with Soviets “without gaining a thing” from the Americans. At the same time, Sharett was under no illusions about Soviet totalitarianism, telling Dulles that Israel only maintained an embassy in Moscow “in order to encourage the Jews of Russia to hold out—so that they can see before them a mark and token that the day will come when their link with Israel and the Jewish people will be renewed.” By the time that day actually came, Israel’s embassy in Moscow had been shuttered for more than 20 years. Still, Sharett’s broader hope was fulfilled as nearly 1 million Jews from the former

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tend that his once-impressive ability to sway U.S. public opinion with American-accented English speeches is not a thing of the past. Many of the comparisons between the embattled Israeli leader and Trump are both inaccurate and unfair. But it is true that, like Trump, Netanyahu now seems disinterested in appealing to anyone but his base, and that is taking a toll on American Jewish support for Israel. After more than a dozen years in power, including the last nine consecutive years, Netanyahu may still be the only plausible candidate for prime minister in terms of his experience and ability, and polls of Israeli voters reflect that. Israelis can dismiss the substance of Portman’s critiques and probably be right or ignore the Diaspora altogether. But if popular figures like Portman think treating Netanyahu as if he were radioactive won’t hurt their image, it’s no use ignoring the fact that the prime minister’s sagging image doesn’t come at a cost for his country.

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country on earth belonging to their own people is doubly wrong. In fact, the Jewish state’s very existence is wrong, because states shouldn’t be concerned with the fate of one particular people any more than individuals should. Thus it’s no surprise that when the National Survey of American Jews asked respondents in 2007 whether they would see Israel’s destruction as a personal tragedy, about 80 percent of Jews aged 65 or older answered yes, but only 50 percent of Jews under 35 did. After all, why should Jews who have been taught that particularism is evil feel bereaved at the loss of the world’s only Jewish state? And that is the tragic irony of Holocaust education in America today: Young Jews are being taught that the only way to internalize the Holocaust’s lessons is by becoming indifferent to the possibility of a second one. For the destruction of Israel, with its 6.6 million Jews, would assuredly be nothing less. Evelyn Gordon is a journalist and commentator living in Israel.

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THE JEWISH STAR April 27, 2018 â&#x20AC;¢ 12 Iyar, 5778

Long Island schools cheer Israel at 70

The JEWISH STAR

CAlendar of Events

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Zachary Schechter Wednesday April 25

Nassau will take place at Sands Atlantic Beach. 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach. See ad on page 3.

Thursday April 26

Timely Torah: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, assistant rabbi of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, for a shiur on relevant Halachic and philosophical topics related to Parsha Moadim and contemporary issues. Coffee and pastries. 8 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst.

Parsha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Michal Horowitz at the YI of Woodmere for a special shiur on the parsha. 9:30 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Iyun Tefilah: [Weekly] Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst. 9:45 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. Learn Maseches Brachos: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf at the YI of Woodmere for a shiur on Maseches Brachos. 5:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Bret Stephens at Touro Law: New York Times columnist and author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism” will receive the Bruce K. Gould Book Award. Free, by RSVP to events@tourolaw.edu ot 631-761-7066. Touro Law Center, 225 Eastview Drive, Central Islip. Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Yoni Levin at Aish Kodesh for a halacha shiur. 9:30 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Friday April 27

Learning Program: [Weekly] At Aish Kodesh led by Rav Moshe Weinberger following 8:15 Shacharis including 9 am breakfast and shiurim on subjects such as halacha, gemara and divrei chizuk. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Torah New York: The Orthodox Union presents Torah New York at CITI Field with 30 different speakers. $50. 8:45 am-6 pm. 123-01 Roosevelt Ave, Queens. Gemara Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff at the YI of Woodmere for a gemara shiu.r 9:15 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Torah 4 Teens: [Weekly] Yeshiva program for high-school age boys & young adults with Rabbi Matis Friedman. 9:15 am-12:30 pm. 410 Hungry Harbor Rd, Valley Stream. Torah4teens5T@ gmail.com. A Hidden Gem: The JCCRP 40th Annual Legislative Breakfast at the White Shul. 9:30 am. 728 Empire Ave, Far Rockaway.

Erev Shabbos Kollel: [Weekly] Eruv Shabbos Kollel starting with 6 am Chassidus shiur with Rav Moshe Weinberger and concluding with 9 am Chevrusah Learning session with Rabbi Yoni Levin. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Talking to Our Youth: YI of Kew Gardens Hills will be holding a talk on “Talking to Our Youth About Puberty and Mature Relationships.” 8 pm. 70-11 150 St, Kew Gardens Hills. Magennewyork@gmail.com.

Sunday April 29

Never Give Up: CHAZAQ and Torah Ohr Hebrew Academy present Rabbi Eliezer Zeytouneh with “Never Give Up.” 8:15 pm. 575 Middle Neck Rd, Great Neck.

Hatzalah Event: The annual dinner to celebrate and support Hatzalah of the Rockaways and

Monday April 30

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Dr. Anette Labovitz’s women shiur will continue at Aish Kodesh. 10 am. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Seeing Things Clearly: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Shalom Yona Weis at Aish Kodesh for a shiur for women and high school girls titled “Seeing Things Clearly- Learning to View Our World and Our Lives Through Positive Lenses. 8:45 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Tuesday May 1

Breakfast Connect: [Weekly] Breakfast Connect is a business and networking group that meets for breakfast at Riesterer’s Bakery and to discuss business and networking opportunities. 7:30-8:30 am. 282 Hempstead Ave, West Hempstead. 516-662-7712. Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Rebbetzin Weinberger of Aish Kodesh will give a shiur on the “Midah of Seder in our Avodas Hashem.” 11 am. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Jewish History: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Evan Hoffman at the YI of Woodmere for a talk on Jewish History. 8:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff at the YI of Woodmere for a halacha shiur. 8:40 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Gemara Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt at the YI of Woodmere for a gemara shiu. 9:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516295-0950.

Wednesday May 2

Timely Tanach: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump of the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedar-

hurst for a shiur on Sefer Shoftim. 8 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. Chumash and Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Shiur with Rabbi Yosef Richtman at Aish Kodesh. 8 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Escape From Iran: The Sisterhood of the YI of Woodmere presents “Escape From Iran” the inspiring story of Malka Sombolian. 8 pm. 845 Peninsula Blvd. Shiur and Tehillim Group: [Weekly] Join the women of YI of Woodmere at the home of Devorah Schochet. 9:15 pm. 559 Saddle Ridge Rd.

Thursday May 3

Murderous Night at Museum: The HAFTR Players present “Murderous Night at the Museum.” $12 advance, $20 at the door. 8 pm. 389 Central Ave, Lawrence. 516-680-6423.

Sunday May 6

Wellness Event: 5th Pregnant Island Health and Wellness Event will take place at HANC. $25. 12-2:30 pm. 25 Country Dr, Plainview.

Tuesday May 15

Gift of Clarity: CHAZAQ and Shaare Emunah present an all women event with Rebbetzin Tzipora Harris with “Shavuos- The Gift of Clarity.” 8 pm. 539 Oakland Ave, Cedarhurst.

Note from the editor

List your event here (it’s free!): Long Island’s most complete calendar of Jewish events welcomes submissions from shuls, schools, nonprofits and others whose events are relevant to our community. Please send your listing by deadline (see above) and include contact info.

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R’ Rubashkin: R’ Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin will be visiting Bayswater and speaking to the community at the Agudah of Bayswater. 8:15 pm. 2422 Bayswater Ave, Far Rockaway.

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April 27, 2018 • 12 Iyar, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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Teach our childre n well 5 Towns conferenc e told: Deliver Tora with joy to h • 6 Tamuz, 5777

• Five Towns Candlelighting

8:11 pm, Havdalah

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19 • Vol 16, No

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By Celia Weintrob Photos by Doni Kessler note remarks that opened the fourth While Torah is nual an- passed down way for the mesorahforever true, the ideal tive Five Towns Community Collaboraaccording Conference on to be conveyed the time, emphasizing to the middah of children — and Sunday. “What is the Torah how an everlastingto our that the primary of Torah and the kids need now?” ingredent needed in Yiddishkeit is embeddedlove he asked. “What today’s chinuch simcha. their beings — worked in 1972 is in necessarily changes won’t work today.” Twenty-six speakers, “You’re still talking over time. Rabbi Weinberger, about what rebbetzins, educators, including rabbis, for you in 1972 and insisting thatworked d’asrah of Congregationfounding morah ers and community leadwhat should work lecturers that’s Woodmere Aish Kodesh in and mashpia at sue that challengeeach addressed a key isMoshe Weinberger, for your kid,” Rabbi the YU, reminded families and parents Shila”a, said in key- that Torah and educators in attendance frum communities. The event, schools in will not be received the Young Israel hosted at of Woodmere, if it’s not was orgaSee 5 Towns Rabbi Moshe hosts on page Weinberger, of 15 Kodesh in Woodmere, Congregation Aish delivered keynote

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Presenting their topics, from left: Baruch Fogel of Rabbi Touro College, “Motivating our children to motivate themselves”; Reb-

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Star the loss, By The Jewish to remember Cedarhurst pausedmiracles of 9/11, at the the n on Sunday. the heroism, and commemoratio village’s annual Rabbi Shay Schachter of WoodIn his invocation, of the Young Israel the Master and (top right photo) pray that G-d, all the strength mere said, “we world, grant us Creator of the to stand firm together against of and the fortitude of extremism, of bigotry, all forms of terror, and of all evil that can be hatred, of racism, forms in our world.” who found in different obligation to those “We have a solemn on Sept. 11th to never injured were or died said Mayor Benjamin but we also forget what happened,” “We saw evil, Weinstock (bottom). America.” survivor saw the best of (middle), a 9/11 78,” reSchonburn Ari Fate of “Miracle and waitand author of that day. He was called his experiences on the 78th floor when elevators ing to change

TheJewishStar.com

to an — we believe investiture speech Delivering his Wilf Campus in at YU’sThe Newspaper of our Orthodox communities with many assembly of 2,000 Washington Heights, in by livestream, more listening spoke of the Rabbi Berman the five central “Five Torot, or institution.” teachings, of our believe in Tor“We do not just Chayyim — Torat at Emet but also and values must that our truths he said. live in the world,” teachings, YU’s other central Adam,” “Torat he said, are “Torat Tziyyon, the Chesed,” and “Torat Torah of Redemption.” formal cereFollowing the community parmonies, the YU street fair at an “InvestFest” Am- tied street fair on Amsterdam Avenue. 11 was a along at the “InvestFest” See YU on page

Jewish of Yeshiva UniversiVayera • Friday, November 3, 2017 • 14 Cheshvan 5778 • Luach page By The president 21 • The fifth Torah columns pages 20–21 VolSunday 16, No 41 said •on

ceremony, YU’s new president, after the investiture for a selfie. sterdam Avenue who happily posed sought-after celebrity

Ben Cohen

t was a minor news story when it broke in the summer of 2016. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced he was suing Great Britain over the Balfour Declaration, issued on Nov. 2, 1917. But as we observe the centennial of the document this week, it’s important to understand that although his lawsuit was a stunt, Abbas was serious. More than that, the symbolism of his See Tobin on page 22

photos by Ed

The Jewish Star

Corbyn boycotts B’four event

Britain Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn— who in 2009 called Hezbollah and Hamas his “friends” — said he would not attend a dinner commemorating the centennial of the Balfour Declaration. Prime Minister Theresa May she would attend “with pride” and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would be her guest. “We are proud of the role we played in the creation of the State of Israel and we will certainly mark the centenary with pride,” May said. “I am also pleased that good trade relations and other relations that we have with Israel we are building on and enhancing.”

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IsraAID brings relief to U.S. disasters

By Ron Kampeas, JTA Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and WASHINGTON — For 17 years, the then the wildfires in northern California. Israeli NGO IsraAID has been performPolizer recalls that he was wrapping ing search and rescue, purifying water, up a visit to IsraAID’s new American providing emergency medical assistance headquarters in Palo Alto on Oct. 8 and and walking victims of trauma back to was on his way to a flight to Mexico to psychological health in dozens of disas- oversee operations after a devastating ter-hit countries. No 25 earthquake there when he got word of • Vol 16, But no season has been busier than the wildfires. “I literally had Luach page 19 9:15 • to do a Uthis past summer and fall, its co-CEO Yo- turn,” he said Havdalah this week in an interview 8:07 pm, tam Polizer said in an interview — and ting Candleligh at the Israeli embassy in Washington. Towns nowhere more than in the United States. Polizer spoke with the exhilaration 5777 • Five Tamuz, “The last few months have been un- of an executive whose team has come 2017 • 20 believable,” he said, listing a succession through a daunting challenge. “We’re Parsha Pinchas of disasters that occupied local staff and the people who stay past the ‘aid festiNiveen Rizkalla working with IsraAID in Santa Rosa, Calif., in volunteers since August: Hurricane Har- val’,” he said, grinning, describing the the wake of deadly wildfires there. vey in Texas, Hurricane Irma in Florida, See IsraAID on page 5

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Leah in sec-t. (with mom of Woodmere for Girls in Cedarhurson Feinberg photos School said. More ar-old Elishevah at the Shulamith now there,” she The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob trip” and a student out. Thirteen-ye came from year-long had been home. magic “on a 30 as olim, to come ond photo) love for Eretz Yisroel Nefesh B’Nefesh’s left Israel of my land. Jonawho flew promised Her parents her family’s journey fulfill “Part was she said. Long Islanders aliyah to the for a enough to flight page 16. through Al’s charter the smiling in” and making he’s waited long will follow,” to do this it’s time, NBN’s El to Israel the first some of “all said she’s wanted family, friends, “Hopefully, everyone t of boarding boarding the move Here are on July 3, going Hills (left) and was land, said excitemen olim, for others Shpage 16 through on July 1 carpet ride of Kew Gardens While the olim on emerged the promised of the and her school, from teaching See. 201 carpet to Her love of Israel for many than Yehoshua holy land, — he retired palpable time. visits to the the dream

The JEWIS

Monday, May 7

wanted her long y, repeated t, she said. “we’ve always aliyah with , making “Why now?” communit Cedarhurs Gardens Hills said ulamith in of Far Rockaway of Kew By Ed Weintrob to the question, Newman Danit Tayri it’s finally time.” the answer For Chani , joinbut now she said. and children, of Woodmere magic to go, husband “We’re Jewish!” Feinberg July 3rd was obvious. ear-old Elishevah B’Nefesh’s Thirteen-y olim on board Nefesh ing 201 other

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or the Palestinians, the year zero is not 1948, when the state of Israel came into being, but 1917, when Great Britain issued, on Nov. 2, the Balfour Declaration—expressing support for the establishment of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine. So central is the Balfour Declaration to Palestinian political identity that the “Zionist invasion” is officially deemed to have begun in 1917—not in 1882, when the first trickle of Jewish pioneers from Russia began arriving, nor in 1897, when the Zionist movement held its first congress in Basel, nor in the late 1920s, when thousands of German Jews fleeing the rise of Nazism chose to go to Palestine. The year 1917 is the critical date because that is when, as an anti-Zionist might say, the Zionist hand slipped effortlessly into the British imperial glove. It is a neat, simple historical proposition upon which the entire Palestinian version of events rests: an empire came to our land and gave it to foreigners, we were dispossessed, and for five generations now, we have continued to resist. Moreover, it is given official sanction in the Palestine National Covenant of 1968, in which article 6 defines Jews who “were living permanently in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion” as “Palestinians”—an invasion that is dated as 1917 in the covenants’ notes. As the Balfour Declaration’s centenary approached, this theme is much in evidence. There is now a dedicated Balfour Apology See Cohen on page 22

hit. Chief the first plane hurst Fire Department Lawrence-Cedar the playing of saluting during victims. David Campell, 9/11 names of local Taps, read the

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of YI LawrenceYaakov Trump director From left: Rabbi Shenker, executive Cedarhurst; MarvinWeitz; Dr. Herbert Pasternak; of YILC; Dr. Mott Lance Hirt; and Rabbi Aaron / Theresa Press HALB Board Chair The Jewish Star Fleksher of HALB.

Sivan, 5777

• Shavuot

week • Candleligh

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8:58 • Luach

page 31

• Vol 16,

No 20

ab ups $10M ER reh role 5T St. John’s

√ HS and College Interns

wedding TheJew on the 70th Bonnie ishStar.c EpisStar reported survivors 93rd om ty News s and St. John’s The Jewish and Shoah The Newspape , the Far residents years ago Herald Communi Last March, Woodmere of Jack Rybsztajn’ Bessen, closed five Rockaway Peninsula y of r of our Orthodox in patients Hospital the By Jeffrey communit On the occasion anniversar hospital on percent jump Rybsztajn. his story continues. ies When Peninsula and Jack to get became the experienced a 35 million on July 12, center was desperatelocated. copal Hospital a $10.15 birthday medical Weintrob obtaining to help complete Jack Rybsztajnrelatives were which Rockaway y services. By Celia a few war ended, emergenc week celebrated nt of Health creating primary After the to Brussels, where cargo trains, during legal using its officials last Departme given on ld hospiSt. John’s New York State that will also include from Stuttgart daring voyages then ultimately sister-in-law s the The 111-year-o Turntwo grant from services renovationacross the street. and arrested, and their future to Brussels Through y at 275 Rockaway headed y center the couple emergenc in a building right for he was discovered . ambulator in Brussels, journey. They had dismay had left on page 14 care space an off-site sites on the peninsula residence the who to their See St. John’s Cyla, tal also operates and similar finally completed kosher restauJack’s sister they arrived. pike in Lawrence to meet s ate at a stating that a one day before wall the Rybsztajn Palestine Brussels, a placard on the looking for anyone While in this was they saw address, wrote to rant, where with a Brooklyn been Rybsztajn , who had survived. Mr. Jacobs, JN who Yechiel Rybsztajn containson of s, a package plus named RYBSZTA he is the afterward Brussels, man, saying nephew. Not long was received in Mr. Jacobs’ and a pair of tefillinto the United States. Rybsztajn ing a tallis g his travel for five years,” which in Belgium were so nice, papers authorizin Brussels “we stayed Poland. So However, gentile people of went through in Shaydels, the “The what we recalled. their after mentioned He s into a relief was such coming to America.” the Rybsztajn on page 7 who welcomed See Shoah we stalled Isaac. a well-to-do couple

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son, great-grand holds his he holds his grandson, Jack Rybsztajn in inset below, father. Years earlier, is Isaac’s Marc, who

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