The Jewish Star

The

Acharei Mot

May 3, 2019

28 Nisan, 5779 Vol 18, No 16

JEWISH

STAR

Serving LI’s Orthodox communities

From left: Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, Hy”d, and 8-year-old Noya Dahan.

Speaking in face of evil From a seemingly endless stream of reactions to the tragedy at Chabad of Poway, we’ve chosen to quote from two — by Rabbi Hershel Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere and Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side.

From Rabbi Billet: After the Shoah, we struggled with the question whether “it” can happen here. Unfortunately, [Pittsburgh and Poway] tell us that it can happen here. But there is still a difference. During the Holocaust, it was a case of state-sponsored racial anti-Semitism.

Here it seems to be a case of individuals who have been inspired by some demons who tell them to murder Jews. … We just never thought that it could happen in the USA. There has been condemnation across the political spectrum. Law enforcement officers in Pittsburgh risked their lives on behalf of the parishioners and the police in California responded judiciously to the attack.

But, we cannot relax knowing this. We should also not forget that the US Congress failed to condemn the anti-Semitism spewed by one of its members. And there is a trio of newly-elected representatives who stand together against Israel on a consistent basis. And they are not the only ones!

Make no mistake. It is okay to be critical of Israel. But certain expressions of anti-Israel dissent are not political but antiSemitic. Anti-Israel too often becomes the cover for anti-Semitism. That is why it is important to support the work of AIPAC and NORPAC. And by support, I mean being present, if at all possible.

It is also important to be supportive of our synagogue security force. … The men and women who volunteer are actually putting themselves in harms way to protect all of us. We should be grateful to them. That is why we are honoring them at this year’s See Speaking on page 18 YIW dinner.

‘Never again’— again

By Gabrielle Birkner POWAY, Calif. — With hundreds gathered to show support for the victims of a shooting inside his shul, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein recounted the moment when he came face to face with the gunman and what happened next: He described watching a congregant’s husband, a doctor, faint as he attempted to give CPR to his bloodied wife, and hearing their daughter call out in terror.

“This is not supposed to happen,” Rabbi Goldstein told the crowd, which had gathered for a candlelight vigil at a park Sunday in this affluent community of 50,000, 20 miles north of San Diego. “This is not a pogrom. This is Poway.”

Poway’s landscape is textbook Southern California with its tract houses, red-tiled roofs, manicured lawns and palm trees off in the distance.

But a day after a gunman entered Chabad of Poway, killing congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, and injuring three others, including Rabbi Goldstein, the Jewish community here teetered between disbelief (“Poway of all places?”) and the conviction that in a post-Pittsburgh world, all Jewish communities are possible targets. (“Yes, even Poway.”)

Rabbi Mendy Rubenfeld, Chabad of Poway’s Hebrew school director, said the city is a warm, welcoming place for religious Jews.

In the 16 years that he’s lived here, “I never received an unkind statement. No one has so much as shown me the finger.”

After a gunman motivated by his antipathy for Jewish support for immigrants killed worshippers inside Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, Rubenfeld knew such an attack was likely to happen again somewhere. He just never thought it would be here.

“We always say ‘never again,’ but here we are,” said Douglas Stone, 70, a friend of Rabbi Goldstein, a member of Adat Shalom and an active participant in Chabad’s programming.

Given the threat, Stone said, “I’ve thought about getting a gun” for protection.

Saturday’s shooting took place on the last

Mourners leave mementos across the street from the Chabad Community Center in Poway.

day of Passover and six months to the day after the Pittsburgh massacre. It closely followed two other deadly attacks on houses of worship, one targeting Muslims in New Zealand and another targeting Christians in Sri Lanka.

Rene Carmichael, who works for the city of Poway, said it’s common to see Orthodox Jews walking to services along Rancho Bernardo Road, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, on Saturday mornings and Jewish holidays. Leah Golembesky, a longtime member of Chabad of Poway, said newfound fear will now accompany the walk.

“Now we are too scared to walk with a kippah,” said Golembesky, 37, whose husband was

Gabrielle Birkner

worshipping at another area Chabad on Saturday. “We saw these type of incidents coming.”

Golembesky said her young children have faced anti-Semitic harassment at area public schools and that a Poway house with Chanukah decorations was vandalized with swastikas in the past year.

At around 11:30 am Saturday, as more than 60 congregants worshipped inside, a 19-year-old gunman identified as John Earnest entered the building and began firing shots. Rabbi Goldstein heard a loud noise, went to investigate and found a bloodied Gilbert-Kaye lying on the floor in the lobby. She had come to take part in the Yizkor service for her late mother, who died last year.

Rabbi Goldstein, who was shot in the hands, lost a finger in the attack. Almog Peretz, who was visiting and originally from Sderot — an Israeli city that is a frequent target of Hamas rockets — was hit in the leg. Peretz’s niece, Noya Dahan, 8, also suffered shrapnel wounds during the shooting.

Gilbert-Kaye, the sole fatality, was remembered as thoughtful and generous. Her friends said she would drop off gifts for no other reason than that she was thinking of them.

“If you were sick, she’d be there giving you chicken soup,” said Michelle Silverstein of nearby La Jolla, adding that her friend “would give and give and give, and she believed that giving anonymously was the highest degree of tzedakah.”

Last year, Gilbert-Kaye and Silverstein celebrated their 60th birthdays together, and they had already begun discussing what they would do when they turned 70.

Gilbert-Kaye is survived by her husband, Howard Kaye, a physician, and their daughter, Hannah Kaye, 22.

The gunman was chased off with the help of two Chabad congregants: Oscar Stewart, a U.S. Army veteran, and Jonathan Morales, an off-duty border patrol agent. Earnest was apprehended and has since been charged with one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. Local law enforcement is treating the shooting as a hate crime.

As unlikely a target as many considered Poway to be, the Chabad convened an event about synagogue security last fall in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting.

“We memorialized the victims of the Tree of Life massacre, and then we gave them tips about what to do if hate comes knocking at the door,” said Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, who attended the meeting with representatives of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. “Tips like, if you can run away, run away; if you can hide, hide; if you can’t hide, challenge the shooter.’”

See Never on page 18

Forgotten miracle: The fight to free Soviet Jews

By Izabella Tabarovsky, JTA In 1989, as the Soviet bloc was falling apart, the sea parted for our family, and we, along with 2 million other Soviet Jews, walked to freedom.

This modern-day Exodus, which writer Cynthia Ozick described as one of the “great liberation strivings of the twentieth century” along with the civil rights movement in America and the end of apartheid in South Africa, was the culmination of a 25-year struggle by the global Jewish community in which American and Israeli Jewry played a leading role.

But most of us ordinary Soviet Jews knew very little, if anything, about it.

Ensconced behind the Iron Curtain, we had no idea that American Jews had taken concerted political action to put pressure on Soviet leadership to let the Jews emigrate. The Soviets were terrified of the campaign for Soviet Jewry and made it a taboo for the state-controlled press to report on it. Unless you were part of a tight-knit circle of refuseniks, had access to “samizdat” literature, or regularly listened to foreign broadcasts — dangerous activities that could have dire consequences — you remained in the dark.

In the Soviet Union, casual anti-Semitism was the stuff of daily life. You could be insulted for being a Jew — a judgment passersby made based on your facial features — anywhere you went. In a country that was the site of nearly half of the Holocaust deaths (2.7 million), memory of the Holocaust was suppressed.

The central principle of Jewish life — the passing of memory, religion and tradition to the next generation — was explicitly subverted. Jewish communal and religious life was absent, and formal religious and secular Jewish education was prohibited.

The KGB harassed those who came together informally to study Hebrew, and the teaching of Hebrew could land you in jail.

Jewish quotas were instituted throughout universities and various professions, shrinking educational and professional opportunities. Between 1965 and 1976, the number of Jewish university students declined nearly 30 percent.

My family wanted to leave, but the doors were closed from the inside. Applying for emigration was itself dangerous business. Applicants were treated as traitors of the state. If you applied and were rejected, you became a refusenik, lost your job and were pushed to the margins of society.

We had the vague sense that decisions about our emigration were tied to Cold War politics, but most of us knew nothing

Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images

First Person

A U.S. demonstration on behalf of the liberation of Soviet Jews.

about American Jewry knocking on every door imaginable to demand that Moscow “let my people go.”

Our family was finally able to leave in October 1989. I was 19 years old. Our journey to the United States ran through the transit stations of Vienna and Rome, where representatives of HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, processed us. In Italy, we had to find a place to stay and wait to be interviewed by U.S. government representatives. No one knew how long the wait would be, nor what would happen if you were rejected. Some people we met had been there for six months.

When we finally did arrive in America, four months after our journey began, the encounter with those who had fought for us was awkward. The cultural gap between Soviet and American Jews was enormous.

After 70 years of religious prohibition, most of us didn’t rush to fill the synagogues. When we did, it could be a disconcerting experience. I remember one of my early attempts, a Shabbat service for young professionals. Being at the service felt foreign, as the Marxist moniker for religion as “the opiate of the masses” suddenly sprang to my mind. The study session that followed was even stranger.

I was in a room with American Jews in their mid-20s, and everyone was engrossed in a sheet of paper with paragraphs of small-print text dancing around a larger-print block of text in the middle. The teacher kept repeating the name Rashi, and everyone beside me seemed to know who he was and spoke with great authority about him.

How could I convey my Soviet Jewish experience to this self-assured group of young American Jews? It was so different from theirs.

Our Jewish identity was strong, but it was purely ethnic. We couldn’t see what religion had to do with being Jewish. When it came to our spiritual tradition, we were like the fourth child at the Passover seder, the one who doesn’t know enough to ask a question.

Perhaps because it felt so hard in those early years — or perhaps that is how refugee experiences go — rather than reclaiming our Judaism, we were preoccupied with the basics: What’s a checkbook and how do you use it? How do you pick a brand of milk from a dozen varieties on the supermarket shelf? What’s the point of saving for retirement when life is so unpredictable?

But I was determined to make this difficult spiritual journey for all those in my family who couldn’t — my grandparents and others who were persecuted as Jews but knew little about Judaism. This Passover, it occurred to me that if I found myself at a table where the Haggadah was read only in Hebrew, I’d be fine.

It was nearly 20 years before I began to think about who had helped shepherd us, along with 2 million other stateless refugees, across international borders and resettle us in new lands.

When I finally knew what questions to ask, the answers overwhelmed me. All around me — at every Jewish event, at every synagogue — were people who had contributed to the campaign to liberate us: had given money, marched, written letters, and had bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs in honor of the Soviet Jewish children who couldn’t. I learned how hard American Jews had worked to keep refuseniks’ names in the headlines. I learned about the campaign’s highest point, the Freedom Sunday rally on the Washington Mall in December 1987, when a mind-boggling quarter of a million people came together to demand freedom of emigration for Soviet Jewry.

Only a person who left the unfreedom for freedom can fully appreciate the meaning of that journey. I never take my freedom for granted.

I feel deeply grateful to all who helped us along the way – those who fought for us, led us on our own trek through the desert, taught us how to live in this American life and, when we were ready, patiently and lovingly showed us the way back to our tradition. All those who were G-d’s mighty hand and outstretched arm on our passage from slavery to freedom.

The campaign for Soviet Jewry was a glorious episode in the history of American and global Jewish history. It’s a story we would do well to remember.

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First Person

joying a Tel Aviv outpost.

Another Tel Aviv-like hotspot, this one in the Marais Jewish quarter. Gourmet pita chain Miznon, founded by Israeli chef Eyal Shani, is packed with people eager to partake of Israeli cuisine — in this case, grilled goodies in pitas. The bohemian-looking tattooed French Jew sporting a chai necklace at the counter was not fazed by warnings of rising French anti-Semitism.

“There’s anti-Semitism everywhere,” said Vincent Boaz as he served a stream of customers.

“We are Jews. French Jews can feel it in France,” though he noted that “American Jews and German Jews also feel it. But we’re still standing.”

Across from Miznon sits L’As du Falafel, considered one of the best falafel joints in town.

Photos of Israel fearlessly decorate the wall. The crowd is international; I even spot a woman in a hijab, which did not surprise the waiter, who said “cousins” come all the time.

Meir, a 23-year-old sitting in a booth, spoke on condition of anonymity. After immigrating to Israel and serving in the Israel Defense Forces, he came back to Paris. He wants to go back one day, he says, but out of love for Israel, not fear.

“In France, there’s a place for Jews, just as there’s a place for other religions. It’s a free country,” he said. “It’s dangerous everywhere in the world. Two years ago, there was an attack with more than 300 dead — not against Jews.”

He means the massacre at the Bataclan concert hall in 2015, which left 130 dead and nearly 500 injured. The need for security in France, he said, mirrors the need for security in Israel.

Walking distance from this food quarter is the Museum of Jewish Art and History, as well as a memorial commemorating the roundup of around 76,000 of French Jews during the Holocaust by French authorities in collaboration with the Nazis.

There’s consensus on one thing: French media seems to incite people against Israel, and by extension Jews, with its skewed reporting.

Michael Amsalem, who recently made aliyah, visits Paris for a wedding in the 7th arrondissement.

Most French Jews and analysts, like Britishborn Dr. Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, say safety is relative to location. In the suburbs, known for a growing low-income migrant population, Jews and other ethnic groups have been pushed out, fearing anti-Semitism and general disregard for Western values that such migrants bring.

“There is a heavily Jewish population outside of Paris, Sarcelles,” Samuels said from his office in a heavily guarded Jewish community center. “It was wonderful. Many synagogues from different communities. Today, Sarcelles is much more difficult.

It’s a place where, for example, during the 2014 Gaza operation, you had huge marches in Paris.”

But, he warned on a more general level: “This isn’t a question of violence. As Jews, they’re self-effacing because lack of neutrality for the word ‘Jew’.” The word ‘Jew,’ he said, evokes emotions that go back centuries.

Within a mile radius of his office are an array of kosher shops and restaurants. Michael Amsalem, an immigrant to Israel visiting Paris for a

wedding, points out that they’re all packed. We sat at the Cook Restaurant, where you can enjoy a kosher hamburger for 20 euros (about $22.50), surrounded by a portrait of Jerusalem.

Amsalem, an organizational consultant, made it very clear that he left France out of Zionist values. He fears more for the spiritual safety of French Jews.

“You have a lot of hate on the Internet,” he said. “Against Jews and Israel. What do you do?

Instead of simply complaining, ask for practical solutions.”

But Amsalem believes that solutions involve a transformation in French Judaism, not necessarily leaving for Israel — a trend that is in decline.

According to statistics from the Jewish Agency, the peak of French aliyah occurred in 2014, with 7,240 new immigrants, compared to 3,299 in 2013. In 2015, 7,892 left France, followed by 5,127 in 2016 and 3,556 in 2017. It is estimated that about 500,000 Jews live in France.

According to Amsalem, French Jews relate to Judaism as a persecuted religion, rather than as a thriving people or civilization. In France, he knows of few advanced institutes for Jewish learning that delve into the depths of Jewish philosophy and spirituality. French-Jewish rights organizations are often afraid of coming out too strongly for Jewish interests.

“In France, you have to be French, officially French,” he said. “The only way Jews have access to public media is through anti-Semitism.”

French Jews, he said, must move away from a victim mentality, and start embracing the richness of positive Jewish identity. American and British Jews life can provide examples.

“The message of the Jews should not necessarily be anti-Semitic history. Instead of focusing on intellectual anti-Semites and anti-Semitism, we should focus on positive history — the good sides of Jewish history with France. There’s a positive history. You can’t only see the black.”

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By Orit Arfa, JNS My trip to canvass the mood of French Jews began in Israeli-owned restaurant Balagan, near the Louvre. Emmanuelle Mary, a non-Jewish Parisian marketing professional, took me there.

The bar had a cool Tel Aviv vibe, with bartenders shouting “Shalom” as they handed out free chasers. Food offerings fused Mediterranean-Jewish-French favorites: hummus, roasted eggplant, fattoush salad. The place was full.

Jewish media, Israeli politicians, and community leaders paint a picture of a France Jews are leaving in droves. Several incidents have triggered this: the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket attack in conjunction with the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo publication; the brutal murder of Sarah Halimi in her apartment in 2017; the gruesome burning of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, in 2018. More recently, anti-Semites affiliated with the yellow vest movement attacked philosopher Alain Finkielkraut and, around the same time, 80 gravestones were desecrated with swastikas in the Alsace region.

Mary said she never thought much about Jews or Israel before she began working with Jewish clients three years ago. The average French person, she felt, doesn’t have violent intentions, but may joke about Jewish money and power. She visited Israel for the first time last year. Since then, she started paying attention.

“Feeling judged is just the beginning,” she said.

French people, like other Europeans, have been inculcated by media distortions about Israel, which plays into attitudes towards Jews.

“When you read the news, it’s always the Israelis guilty of killing Palestinians. It’s not that Gaza attacked, and Israel retaliated,” she said.

Mary hopes to learn more so that she can better argue against such distortions. At Balagan, however, there’s no arguing. Just Parisians en-

Orit Arfa

Visit to Paris cafes finds not everything’s terrible

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May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Shlomo Deutsch, JNS Israel’s oldest cemetery, Har HaZeitim — the Mount of Olives — will be rejuvenated.

Overlooking the Temple Mount, the 3,000-year-old reservoir of Jewish history is the resting place for more than 150,000 Jews, including the prophets Zechariah, Chaggai and Malachi; former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin; and many leading rabbis and Chassidic masters. The mountain is speckled with many churches, making it a holy site for Christians as well.

Since the birth of Israel in 1948, Har HaZeitim and its surrounding areas have been highly contested. The 1949 Armistice Agreement bifurcated Jerusalem with Israel controlling the west and Jordan the east. Although Jews were promised free access to the holy sites and cultural institutions, as well as use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, the Jordanians — in an effort to delegitimize the indigenous Jewish presence of the area — proceeded to raze virtually all of the Old City’s synagogues, build a hotel on top of Jewish burial sites and destroy more than 35,000 Har HaZeitim graves. In June 1967, Har HaZeitim, the Old City and the rest of eastern Jerusalem were liberated by Israel in the Six-Day War. Although Jordanian rule is long gone from Har HaZeitim, the area continues to face international attention. It has also drawn Arab violence, attacks and graveyard desecration.

Co-chair of the International Committee for Har HaZeitim Menachem Lubinsky, whose parents are buried there, told JNS about what he called a “devastating” 2010 report by Israel’s then State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss, that described the cemetery as a mountain that served as the drug capital of eastern Jerusalem and was characterized by strewn garbage, damaged gravesites and constant Arab rock-throwing.

The report served to compel Lubinsky’s brother, Avraham, to form the International Committee for Har HaZeitim. The committee, which looks to assure that the sanctity of the deceased is preserved — and that Har HaZeitim is a safe and secure site for mourners, local residents and tourists — has installed 176 surveillance cameras, lobbied for the establishment of a police station in 2012, and updated the fencing and gating encompassing the area. Additional security measures have been implemented

by Israel’s Ministry of Housing, which provides a security unit to accompany visitors free of charge.

The city notes that the improvements have been successful, bringing reports of 300 acts of Arab violence in 2013 to just a

View of Har HaZeitim.

International Committee for Har HaZeitim

few instances over the last three years. In turn, police officials say that up to 2,500 people are now visiting Har HaZeitim daily, compared to only 10 percent of that figure five years ago. The International Committee for Har HaZeitim is looking to install additional security cameras on access roads, as well as increase patrolling by Border Police, improve lighting in many areas and restore some 45,000 gravesites.

Lubinsky said the committee hopes to see “the cemetery itself and its environs better policed, and thousands of visitors come, thanks to a new educational center” that’s in the works.

The visitor center is slated to measure 32,000 square feet when done and include a research area, lecture hall and other facilities containing literature about Har HaZeitim.

Those involved with the project hope to use Har HaZeitim to teach Jews, especially the young, about their heritage. That includes Jeff Daube, Israel director of the Zionist Organization of America and co-chairman of the Israel chapter of the International Committee for Har HaZeitim, who calls the cemetery “the greatest educational treasure trove when it comes to Jewish history in the world.”

The visitor center and promenade will also serve a strategic purpose, Daube told JNS. He explained that Har HaZeitim used to be deserted because of Arab attacks, but new facilities and accompanying events will “tell our adversaries that we are here to stay.”

Organizers are planning to place the cornerstone by the end of 2019.

A future Jerusalem cable-car stop is also planned. Its establishment would be part of a developing transportation solution to ease traffic in the Old City area, said Nadav Berkowitz of the Jerusalem Development Company, which is behind the implementation of the project. The NIS 200 million ($55 million) project is estimated to reduce traffic of private vehicles by 30 percent and bus traffic by 50 percent in the Old City area by transporting up to 3,000 people per hour in as many as 72 10-person cabins through the skies of Jerusalem. The 1.5 kilometer (nearly a mile) trip from the Jerusalem First Station railroad site to its final stop at the yet-to-be-built Kedem Center near the Old City’s Dung Gate is geared to take less than five minutes.

Har HaZeitim has also experienced revitalization due to the establishment of two Jewish communities on the mountain: Ma’alei HaZeitim, which houses more than 120 families; and Beit Orot, with 24 apartment units. Israel tour guide Ari Singer described the motivation for building communities near the once-lifeless cemetery, saying “we said enough putting dead Jews there; let’s put some living Jews there. So that’s what we did.”

On June 2, the celebration of Jerusalem Day, the Temple Mount Sifting Project is expected to relaunch on Har HaZeitim at the new Mitzpe Masuot visitor center adjacent to Beit Orot.

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THE JEWISH STAR May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779

Fresh face for 3,000-year-old Mount of Olives

5

5 Jewish things about Joe Biden Golda Meir. A lot. The story he tells about meeting with her in 1973, when he was a 30-year-old senator, is a staple of his Jewish speechmaking.

It was on the eve of the Yom Kippur War. Biden toured Israel and the territories it held and witnessed the chain-smoking, American-raised Israeli prime minister reviewing maps. He could not but notice heightened military tensions.

Meir, meeting Biden at her office, asked him to pose for a photo.

“She said, ‘Senator, you look so worried,’” he recalled, speaking at an Israeli Embassy Independence Day celebration in 2015. “I said, ‘Well, my G-d, Madame Prime Minister,’ and I turned to look at her. I said, ‘The picture you paint.’ She said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. We have’ — I thought she only said this to me. She said, ‘We have a secret weapon in our conflict with the Arabs. You see, we have no place else to go’.”

Biden has a Jewish family. He jokes about it. But it’s complicated.

Biden has three children who grew to adulthood. (His first wife, Neilia, and a baby daughter, Naomi, died in a car crash right after his 1972 election to the Senate.)

Two of them married Jews: Beau Biden, whose mother was Neilia, married Hallie Olivere. Ashley Biden, his daughter with his second wife, Jill, married Howard Krein.

“By the way, I’m the only Irish Catholic you know who had his dream met because his daughter married a Jewish surgeon,” he said at that 2016 Ohio political event.

This is where it gets complicated: Beau died of cancer in 2015. Hallie subsequently had a romantic relationship with his younger brother (also a son of Neilia), Hunter, who was splitting up with his wife, Kathleen. (It’s not clear if the relationship with Hallie precipitated the divorce.) The Hallie-Hunter relationship reportedly is over.

Added ick factor? According to The Daily Mail, the elder Biden confessed that growing

up in Wilmington, Delaware, he had a crush on Hallie’s mother, Joan.

“I was the Catholic kid. She was the Jewish girl. I still tried. I didn’t get anywhere,” Biden said at a Delaware Jewish event in 2015.

Biden-Begin not like Biden-Golda.

In 1982, Menachem Begin met with senators at the U.S. Capitol. The prime minister fumbled when asked about Israel’s recent Lebanon invasion, but rallied when Biden confronted him about West Bank settlement expansion and suggested that new settlements would undercut U.S. support for assistance for Israel. Biden reportedly banged the table as the exchange grew heated.

Begin’s reply has become lore among his followers.

“This desk is designed for writing, not for fists,” he said, according to an account written by a confidante just after Begin’s 1992 death. “Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the U.S. lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. ” Biden was chastened enough that two years later he appeared at the conference of Herut Zionists of America (Herut was Begin’s original party) and blamed the Middle East impasse on Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Biden’s pledge then: “My first order of business in the new Senate will be to educate my colleagues on the financial sacrifices Israel has made as a result of Camp David.”

In 2010, a matured Biden figured out passive aggressiveness worked better than fist banging when it came to settlements. On a friendly visit to Israel, Biden was surprised to learn that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had announced new building in eastern Jerusalem.

Biden’s payback? He made Netanyahu wait 90

Joe Biden arrives in front of a Stop & Shop store in Dorchester, Mass., in support of striking union Scott Eisen/Getty Images workers on April 18.

minutes for a dinner meeting.

He knows his audience.

Within two months in 2013, Vice President Biden spoke to AIPAC and then its bête noir, J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group. The thrust of his AIPAC speech at the beginning of March? Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, want peace, and the Arabs need to step up.

“Israel’s own leaders currently understand the imperative of peace,” he said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, President Peres — they’ve all called for a two-state solution and an absolute secure, democratic and Jewish state of Israel to live side by side with an independent Palestinian state. But it takes two to tango, and the rest of the Arab world has to get in the game.”

The thrust of his J Street speech, mid-April?

Netanyahu was taking the country in the “wrong direction.”

“I firmly believe that the actions that Israel’s government has taken over the past several years — the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures — they’re moving us and, more importantly, they’re moving Israel in the wrong direction,” he said.

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By Ron Kampeas, JTA Joe Biden, a born and raised Roman Catholic who likes to cross himself when making a point, knows what faith he would be if he were ever overcome with doubt about his own.

“If I’m going to switch, I know where I’m going,” the former vice president said in 2016 at an Ohio political event when someone in the audience called him a “mensch.” Biden went on to describe the pile of yarmulkes he had accumulated from attending Jewish events.

His Jewish ties run deep: One of his first overseas visits in his long career as a senator was to Israel, on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Which is all the more remarkable considering that Biden represents a state, Delaware, with a Jewish population estimated at 15,000.

He learned pro-Israel from his dad.

Biden, born in 1942, likes to recall a childhood memory of his salesman father, Joseph Sr., and the international debate in 1948 over whether to endorse the existence of the new State of Israel.

“We gathered at my dinner table to have conversation, and incidentally eat, as we were growing up,” Biden said at an AIPAC annual conference in 2013. “It was at that table I first heard the phrase that is overused sometimes today, but in a sense not used meaningfully enough — first I heard the phrase ‘Never again.’

“It was at that table that I learned that the only way to ensure that it could never happen again was the establishment and the existence of a secure, Jewish state of Israel. I remember my father, a Christian, being baffled at the debate taking place at the end of World War II talking about it” — baffled, that is, that anyone would consider voting no.

That Golda story All rumors you’ve heard about a “Golda” drinking game among reporters who cover Biden Jewish events are utterly baseless.

So, that cleared up, here’s the deal: Joe hearts

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May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

6

Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, who attended the meeting with representatives of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, said law enforcement shared tips, including “if you can run away, run away; if you can hide, hide; if you can’t hide, challenge the shooter.’”

During Saturday’s shooting in Poway, “all of that happened,” the mayor told JTA, “and I have no doubt that that meeting contributed to saving lives.”

Two people intervened with the shooter. One was a community member, Oscar Stewart, who ran toward the shooter and chased him out of the building, according to the county Sheriff’s Department.

“Mr. Stewart risked his life to stop the shooter and saved lives in the process,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Sunday.

An off-duty Border Patrol agent, Jonathan Morales, shot at the attacker, hitting his car.

Friedman says exclusively focusing on arming congregants can distract from other safety measures synagogues can take.

“Weapons certainly have their place in security, but one has to be careful not to substitute the presence of a weapon for triedand-true security theories and training,” Friedman said.

Post-Pittsburgh, he said, the number of synagogues seeking training from CSS “dramatically increased.”

Still, there’s a long way to go.

“I don’t think that there are many synagogues across the country that are really prepared [for an attack],” Friedman said.

The Poway attack came as no surprise to Michael Masters, who heads the Secure Community Network. SCN coordinates security for Jewish organizations across the country and is affiliated with the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“We have seen an increase in targeting of houses of worship generally, and we have seen an increase in targeting of Jewish houses of worship specifically,” Masters told JTA from Poway, where he is meeting with community leaders in the wake of the shooting.

“That coincides with an increase in anti-Semitic incidents around the United States and around the world, as well as am increase in hate crimes against our community and an increase in threats.”

SCN has worked with 147 federations across the country,

as well as more than 50 partner organizations and 300-plus Jewish communities to provide security assessments. After conducting assessments, it recommends security strategies tailored to the needs and circumstances of the particular organization.

Friedman said the threat picture itself has also changed in recent years.

When CSS was founded in 2007, the primary threats came from international terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, as well as large white supremacist organizations.

Now they often come from individuals who aren’t necessarily affiliated with a group. That means the targets have changed too. As a result, less prominent communities, like the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh or Poway, 20 miles north of San Diego, are more vulnerable.

“Ten years ago they probably wouldn’t be identified as targets of this kind of attack,” Friedman said. “Now due to these homegrown violent extremists, they’re able to attack more locally with a focus on their own locale.”

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the federal government has made more money available to houses of worship, especially synagogues and mosques, and other vulnerable institutions. This year’s spending bill included $60 million for fiscal year 2019 to fund the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps synagogues and other houses of worship, religious day schools and a variety of nonprofits improve the security of their buildings.

The Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, awards grants of as much as $150,000 to eligible nonprofits at risk of terrorist attacks. The nonprofits use the funding to acquire and install items ranging from fences, lighting and video surveillance to metal detectors and blast-resistant doors, locks and windows.

The Poway suspect, a 19-year-old nursing student, is believed to have posted an online manifesto on a forum popular with the “alt-right” that said he was inspired by the Tree of Life synagogue gunman in Pittsburgh and the shooter who killed 50 at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The suspect also called President Donald Trump “Zionist, Jew-loving, anti-white.”

Masters said that following Pittsburgh and Poway, the conversation surrounding future attacks has changed.

“We used to say it’s a question of ‘not if but when,’” he said.

“Now we say ‘not when, but when again?’”

Gabrielle Birkner contributed to this report from Poway.

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By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said his Chabad of Poway could not afford to hire an armed guard. Had it been able, or if the government had helped the synagogue bring in one, he believes the deadly attack there Saturday could have been averted.

“If I had the funding, we may have been spared. How many more dead bodies will we have to see before we act?” he told the New York Times.

But hiring a security guard should not be the only priority in terms of security, said Jason Friedman, the executive director of the Community Security Service, an organization that has trained more than 4,000 Jewish volunteers across the country in how to keep their synagogues safe.

Hiring a guard can be “a great first step,” Friedman said, but “if your congregation is not engaged in the security process, you’re not getting the full extent of what you’re paying for,” Friedman told JTA on Monday.

The shooting at the Poway synagogue, in which a 60-year-old woman was killed and three others, including the rabbi, were injured, is the latest chapter in an ongoing American discussion about security in the age of mass shootings. Like the massacre six months ago at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the shooting in suburban San Diego is being mined for lessons in safety by a Jewish community deeply shaken by a rise in anti-Semitism.

The Community Security Service, or CSS, anticipates attacks on synagogues like Poway. It focuses on preventive “boots-onthe-ground” measures by training community members to spot suspicious behavior and thus avert attacks. Synagogues are encouraged to post trained volunteers at their entrances to watch for potential attackers and make their members aware of their surroundings.

“What we’re trying to show is that there are a lot of ways they can make themselves safer, it just takes time and commitment,” Friedman said.

CSS had not worked with the Chabad synagogue in Poway, Friedman said. Neither had the Secure Community Network, a security group that also works with synagogues and Jewish groups.

In the fall, the Chabad did convene an event about synagogue security following the Pittsburgh shooting on what to do in the case of a future attack.

THE JEWISH STAR May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779

Shuls train to prevent shootings like Poway’s

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May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Quick, tasty and colorful dinners for spring Kosher Kitchen

JOni SChOCKEtt

Jewish Star columnist

T

he weather is warmer, the days are longer, and it’s time to get out of the house. When the sun is shining until 7 pm and the winds are warm and beckoning, no one wants to be tied to a hot stove while the simmering food cooks. Once spring arrives, we want fast, healthful meals and we want to be outside.

I used to think that fast food meant pizza or a tuna fish or grilled cheese sandwich. I even thought (mistakenly) that I could serve “healthier” boxed mac and cheese! I may have been a good cook, but I certainly wasn’t as careful or thoughtful as I could have been once spring came and the kids were out as long as possible. When I found I had 15 minutes to make dinner, I usually panicked. I was young and did not have as much information about nutrition as we have now.

By baby number three, I had a better grip on things, more knowledge, and could get a healthy meal on the table in no time. I studied nutrition and learned terms like phytonutrients and more. I watched nutrition news and read all I could, so I could ensure my family was getting the healthiest foods I could give them.

But I still had very few recipes that would please my family, including a husband and kids ages 2 to 13! I tried a lot of homemade pizzas, but by the time the kids finished deciding what they wanted on them, it was past bedtime. I tried a lot of chicken salad and leftovers, but they were just leftovers and usually not enough for more than one meal.

Through years of trial and error — lots of error — I created a lot of quick and easy recipes. Some were no-brainers, like “breakfast for dinner” and such, but others were what my kids called “real meals” and they loved them — usually!

And so I eventually learned to get those warm-weather meals on the table in no time, even if my daughter was almost in high school.

If I can do it, anyone can!

Quick cooking does not have to be fast food.

It can be nutritious and delicious and can still

get you out into the evening sunshine for a nice long walk. Enjoy spring!

Quick and Easy Meatballs (Meat) 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. hamburger meat 2 eggs 2 onions, finely minced 2 to 4 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 Tbsp. parsley flakes 1/2 to 2/3 cup breadcrumbs 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 3 to 4 Tbsp. canola oil or other high-heat oil like avocado or sunflower OPTIONAL: 1/2 tsp. smoked or regular paprika 1 large jar (28 to 40 ounces) your favorite pareve marinara sauce Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly grease the foil. You can line the foil with a sheet of parchment if you do NOT use the sauce.

Finely mince the onion and garlic in a food processor and scrape into a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Form into 20 to 24 meatballs.

Use the oil to coat the meatballs. I use food prep gloves, pour a bit of oil on my hands and then roll the meatball in my hands to give them a light coating of oil. Place in the roasting pan, place in the oven, and cook until golden, about 20 minutes.

Carefully pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs and place back in the oven until the sauce is bubbly and a bit browned in a few places. Serve over pasta in sub rolls. Makes 20 to 24 meatballs.

Simple Chicken Cutlets for Salad, Sandwiches and Dinner (Meat) 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness, about 1/2 inch thick 1 tsp. onion powder 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. paprika or smoked paprika 1/2 tsp. kosher salt 1 tsp. black pepper 1/4 cup canola or other high-heat oil Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Brush a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet generously with oil. Set aside.

Place the spices in a small bowl and mix well.

Brush each breast with oil and place on the prepared pan. Sprinkle the pieces with the spice mix and then turn and sprinkle the other side.

Place in the oven and cook until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Remove from the oven and tent with foil. Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with spicy mayo for a sandwich

or with Orange Apricot Sauce — a kid favorite.

Serves 4.

Orange Apricot Sauce for Chicken Fingers (Pareve) 1 can mandarin oranges, drained 2 Tbsp. canola oil 1 to 2 cloves garlic 1/2 tsp. ground ginger or grated fresh ginger 1/2 cup good quality apricot preserves 1/2 cup bottled teriyaki sauce (the thick kind, not the very liquid kind) 1/2 cup orange juice 1/2 tsp. cornstarch or tapioca starch OPTIONAL: a pinch of cayenne pepper for heat Drain the oranges and set aside. Reserve the liquid.

Mince the garlic. Place the oil in a saucepan and heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir for 1 minute. Add the apricot preserves and mix well until softened and thinned. Add the cornstarch to the orange juice and mix well. Add the juice and the teriyaki sauce to the pan and mix well. Bring to a strong simmer. Cook, stirring frequently, until slightly reduced and thickened.

Taste and add more garlic or teriyaki sauce or the cayenne, if your family likes heat. Add the oranges and heat through. Use as dipping sauce or pour over the cooked chicken, or pour over rice with the chicken. Makes about 1 cup.

Spicy Mayo (Pareve) 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 to 2 Tbsp. sriracha sauce, to taste 1 tsp. grated shallot 1/4 tsp. sugar (scant) Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate until needed. Makes 1/2 cup. Great with chicken breast on a sandwich.

Quick Fish Parmigiana (Dairy) My kids loved this over “pasghetti.” It was a guaranteed way to get them to eat fish.

4 to 6 fish filets, such as flounder or sole 2 eggs 1/2 cup flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. black pepper 1/2 tsp. onion powder 1 tsp. parsley flakes 2 cups Panko breadcrumbs Canola oil Bottled marinara sauce 4 to 6 oz. mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmigiana cheese Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly grease a glass or ceramic 3-qt. dish.

Set aside.

Place the flour in a shallow bowl. Place the eggs in another shallow bowl and add the salt, pepper, parsley and onion powder. Mix well.

Place the Panko crumbs in a third bowl.

Dredge the fish fillets one at a time in the flour, shaking off the excess. Dip in the eggs and then press into the Panko crumbs, pressing on both sides. Place on a plate in a single layer.

Heat a large skillet and add the oil. Add the fish fillets and cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side until deep golden and crisp.

Place into a glass 3-qt. baking dish and pour the sauce over parts of the fish, leaving much of the fish to stay crisp. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the sauce and then sprinkle Parmigiana cheese over all. Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serves 4, depending on size of fillets.

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Roasted vegetables with tahini sauce

By Rachel Simons, The Nosher A colorful spring-inspired platter of roasted vegetables is the perfect side dish for your Seder or any time you are entertaining a crowd. For this particular mix, I chose a whole head of cauliflower, smaller cauliflower florets in purple and yellow, shallots, Brussels sprouts and shishito peppers. But the tahini sauce is perfect with any combination of roasted seasonal vegetables you like. We eat with our eyes, so the more color, the better. (Note that the tahini sauce can be made

at least 2 days ahead and kept refrigerated.)

Ingredients: 1 head cauliflower 1 red onion Shishito peppers Whole carrots Pomegranate for garnish (optional) Fresh parsley for garnish (optional) For the tahini sauce: 1/2 cup tahini 1/2 cup ice water Juice of 1/2 lemon 1 tsp. olive oil Salt and pepper to taste Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 400 F. 2. Place the whole head of cauliflower in a pot of boiling water for 7 minutes. Remove and pat dry. Place the cauliflower head and all other selected vegetables on a parchmentlined sheet pan, drizzle with roughly 5 Tbsp. olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 45 minutes or until browned.

3. While the vegetables are roasting, make the lemony tahini sauce: Whisk together in a bowl until smooth the tahini, ice water, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

4. To assemble: Place the vegetables on a platter with the whole cauliflower as the centerpiece and drizzle with the tahini sauce. Garnish with wedges of pomegranate for extra color if desired. Serves 4 to 6.

Wine & Dine

Skillet tahini banana bread: Rich fluffy treat

By Rachel Simons, The Nosher This skillet banana bread might be glutenfree, refined sugar-free and dairy-free, but I can promise you won’t be missing anything with its light and fluffy texture and the rich sesame flavor. Enjoy this snack straight from the oven or reheated and served warm. (Note that the tahini banana bread will last for up to three days if kept in an airtight container.)

Ingredients: 2 ripe bananas, mashed (plus extra whole banana if you want to decorate the top) 1/2 cup tahini (plus extra 1 to 2 Tbsp. for drizzling) 3 large eggs 3 Tbsp. honey or date syrup 1-1/2 cups almond flour (finely ground) 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. sea salt Handful of black and white sesame seeds for decoration (optional) Oil or spray for greasing the skillet Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Whisk together into a large bowl the mashed banana, tahini, eggs, honey or date syrup and vanilla. Add almond flour, baking powder and salt; whisk until combined.

3. Spray the skillet with oil to prevent sticking. Spread the mixture into the skillet and decorate the top with sliced bananas (if using)

and mixed sesame seeds.

4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. You can check doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle.

5. Drizzle with extra tahini and honey or date syrup (if using) just before serving. Serves 6.

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May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

Love the sinner, hate the sin C

hapter 18 of the Book of Vayikra contains a number of negative mitzvot — things we are not supposed to do. Many of the negative actions are labeled to’evot — an interesting word which has many possible meanings: abomination, perversion, disgusting perversion, taboo.

In this chapter, the Torah lists a number of deeds that fit into this category of to’evah, but remains consistent in labeling the deed, not the person engaging in the act.

The comparison is made several times to the inhabitants of Egypt and Canaan, who were guilty of these things, while the deeds of the Canaanites were specifically utilized to prove why they did not deserve to remain in the land bearing their name. A warning is issued that those who follow the ways of these activities will be cut off from the Israelite nation (18:29).

Some of the commentaries (including Ramban and Rabbeinu Bachaye) write of three types of karet — excision from the nation.

The following is Ramban’s take: There are three methods of karet. The first type of karet references someone who is generally righteous but who stumbled in giving way to a karet-inducing sin. He might die young, but his soul will remain intact. This person will have a share in the World to Come.

The second type of karet references someone who is sinful in life. This individual does not die young, but the soul is cut off from any next-world experience.

The third type experiences karet on two different levels, in body and in soul. This aspect of karet is limited to one who commits idolatry or blasphemy. The Talmud in Shavuot extends this punishment to one who throws off the yoke of Heaven and speaks mockingly of the Torah.

Ramban’s analysis continues. He speaks of the different ramifications for the soul and body, some of the other definitions of karet, and what kinds of repercussions a person can experience in this world and in the next. While some definitions do include an impact on the body, most focus solely on the experience of the soul, especially after death. ll of which leads me to a simple conclusion.

In Jewish life, there are very specific directions of behavior that warrant a person being unwelcome in the community. At the highest level, that of karet, the person’s sins need to be so grave, so beyond the pale, that the person might either die young at the hands of G-d (or in some instances, beit din), or the person’s soul is dealt with in the Heavenly Realm, by a divine creature — possibly G-d Himself, as opposed to His angel.

There is no question that the “behaviors” described in this passage, Vayikra 18, are abhorrent or detestable to G-d in one way or another. But does committing these sins always warrant being judged by the community? Being ostracized?

What if a person hasn’t committed a sin at all, but doesn’t conform to a community’s standards?

I believe Torah’s deliberate language choice is teaching us a dictum championed by Bruriah in the Talmud: hate the sin, love the sinner.

We don’t always have to agree with the things people do, or the way they choose to live their lives. But particularly when the choices people make are not criminal at all, and certainly not against the Torah’s rules, at most our right is to privately object, while publically embracing the Jew. Accepting the person while not condoning the behavior is an important distinction in Jewish communal living. The Torah gives us this instruction when it comes to facing the reality of our fellow Jews committing “Torah crimes” we might abhor or find detestable. At the very least, a similar standard should be held for those who look and live differently than we do, but who are nevertheless fellow Jews who have a different way.

A

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Five Towns times from the White Shul

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

Congregations of British Commonwealth; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive VP emeritus of the OU. to contact our columnists, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Channeling the darkness within From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FReeDMaN

Jewish Star columnist

I

once gave a lecture on the ethical challenges of the seventh commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”). Afterwards, I was approached by a fellow from Vienna who was a Shoah survivor.

“Why do you assume stealing is always wrong?” he asked. “Sometimes, it is even an obligation.

“I always had a strong desire to take things, and I never understood why,” he continued. “It wasn’t that I needed things, I just loved being able to steal things from under people’s noses. I became quite good at it, though my conscience always bothered me. I was able to resist the temptation, but it was a struggle.

“I knew it was wrong to steal and never rationalized theft; I just loved the thrill of the take. It wasn’t my fault I loved to steal, G-d made me that way … it just didn’t seem fair.

“And then the Holocaust came. … My skills kept our family alive, and somehow I was always able to find enough for everyone to eat. One day, I was ordered to report to the police station. Did the Gestapo want me? Would I be allowed to leave once I came in? My first thought was to go into hiding, but they knew where my family was.

I had no choice but to go.

“In the waiting hall, every few minutes, a person’s name would be called and a policeman would take them to an office. You could hear the cries of the person being ‘interviewed,’ and sometimes you would see them limping, bloodied and beaten, back down the hallway and out of the building. Sometimes you didn’t see them come out.

“My name was called. I found myself in an office where four or five other policemen sat behind small desks interviewing people. The fellow interviewing me barked out questions, and before I could answer, he would beat me on the head. … Eventually, I was made to sign something and then told I would be ordered to report for a labor battalion. Meanwhile, I could go home.

“All of the interviews ended at around the same time, and as the Jews were allowed to leave, the officers interviewing them also walked out. I found myself alone in the room. And I had a tremendous urge to steal something.

“On one of the desks, I saw a large pile of papers, and next to it an equally large pile of passports and identity papers. Clearly, these were of Jews being made to report somewhere, and it did not bode well for them. Without thinking, I took the entire pile and walked right out of Gestapo headquarters with all those papers under my shirt.

“Not only did I save 70 lives that day, but later in the war, we were able to doctor those passports to save an additional hundred people. From that day, I never had the desire to steal again. I now realize that G-d gave me that desire, not as a curse, but as a blessing.”

W

e struggle with desires that weigh us down. If we didn’t crave chocolate cake, wouldn’t it be easier to diet? How often do we have better things to do, but waste an evening unproductively watching a movie? If we were better off without these wasteful desires, why do we have them?

This week’s parsha, Acharei Mot, begins with a treatment of this topic. G-d tells Moshe to instruct Aaron, “after the death of his sons,” regarding the service in the Mishkan (Vayikra 16:1). Instead of relating the trauma Aaron experienced in the loss of his sons, the Torah begins a discussion of the two goat offerings that form the central part of the service on Yom Kippur. Why is the Torah introducing the Yom Kippur service immediately after the death of Aaron’s sons?

The sacrifices described here (Vayikra 16:5-11) are perhaps the strangest areas of service in all of Judaism, and arguably include the most bizarre sacrifice in the Bible.

Aaron, as the kohen gadol, is told to take two he-goats as a sin offering. He stands before the tent of meeting on Yom Kippur and picks lots for them. On one of the notes is written “LaHashem,” for G-d, and this goat is offered as the central sacrifice of Yom Kippur in the Temple. On the other note is written the word “LaAzazel,” and the second goat is an offering to Azazel.

What or who is Azazel? The verse (16:10) suggests that the goat was taken into the wilderness and cast off the desert cliffs, symbolizing the destruction of our transgressions before G-d. But this leaves us with many questions. Why, in order to attain forgiveness for the Jewish people, must this goat be taken into the desert? Why not offer it up in the temple, like all other sacrifices? Further, what is the significance of the lots? Why not just let the Kohen Gadol choose the goats? And what does all this have to do with “the death of Aaron’s sons”?

The Ramban suggests an idea so at odds with all that Judaism seems to be that it has been labeled one of the most difficult and puzzling comments by this great commentator. He suggests that Azazel is really Samael, the “sar hamoshel b’mekomot hachurban,” the prince who rules in the places of destruction. On Yom Kippur, when we as a people find favor in G-d’s eyes, we need to appease this dark prince, so we offer him a special sacrifice in the darkness of the wilderness. Can the Ramban, one of the greatest rabbis and commentators in Jewish history, be suggesting that we offer sacrifices to the dark side? Is this Judaism? It smacks of paganism! ears ago, in a sermon before Yom Kippur, my teacher, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, shared a beautiful way of looking at this Ramban based on the teachings of Rav Soleveitchik, zt”l, who relates a discussion in the Talmud (Yoma 86b) on the power of repentance: “Gedolah teshuvah,” says Rav Shimon Ben Lakish, “shezedonot nehefachot lezechuyot.”

Great is [the power of] repentance, for it causes premeditated transgressions to become merits.

A challenging statement. If I purposefully transgress, and subsequently repent and regret

my actions, not only is my slate wiped clean and my mistakes forgiven, but these transgressions now serve as a merit to me! Certainly we should not commit as many transgressions as possible simply to subsequently repent and gain merit.

Perhaps what the Talmud in Yoma is saying is: If I have desires that pull me down, I can turn them to merit. Elsewhere, the Talmud advises that one who has the desire to spill blood should become a butcher, and one who has the desire to take other people’s money should become a collector of charity. In other words, take the desires you have, and use them for a good purpose.

Everything we are given in this world, however challenging, is ours for a reason. We each go through life with our own suitcase, full of talents and skills, desires and foibles; all the things that bring us up, and all the things that bring us down. Some are born tall; maybe they will become basketball stars. Some have musical talent, and others, the gift of knowing when to smile. We do not earn these talents — they are ours to develop.

The question, however, is what we choose to do with them. If everything comes from G-d, even weaknesses can be a gift, if only we find a way to channel them for the good.

This, perhaps, is the offering to Samael, the “prince who rules in the places of destruction,” described by the Ramban. There is a place of darkness inside each of us that threatens to destroy us, to bring us down. Some suggest that the only way to combat these desires is to retreat from the physical world, so as not to grant them a place — that if you have physical desires, live in a monastery, desist from contact with the world. Put it out of your head.

Judaism has a different approach: Don’t deny these desires, embrace them — in a healthy manner, channeling their energy to a good purpose. his may be the message behind all the gold used in the Mishkan, despite the debacle of the Golden Calf. If you are going to seek to make Me tangible in this world, says G-d, do it my way, in the Temple. Channel that energy towards light, instead of darkness.

Perhaps this is why this message is given here, to Aaron, so soon after the death of his sons. There is no force in this world with more potential to swallow us whole than death. Confronted by the wall of our own mortality, we easily succumb to the idea that there is no purpose, no meaning, only an untimely end. But if G-d, truly loves us, and only gives us opportunities to grow, then perhaps, however painful, death, too, is an opportunity.

We live in challenging times. Israel, and the entire Jewish world, is fighting for survival. With terrorists opening fire on innocent worshippers in synagogues, and thinly-veiled anti-Semitism finding its way into the media, the crisis today is for the entire Jewish people.

Perhaps Hashem will bless us to, at long last, harness all of our energy for light instead of darkness. And what an incredible light that would be.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

There is a reason for every challenge we face.

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Torah

Rabbi david eTengoff

Jewish Star columnist

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arashat Acharei Mot, known as the parasha of Yom Kippur, focuses upon the manner of observing this Yom Tov in the Mishkan and Beit HaMikdash. One of the many constitutive elements of a Beit HaMikdash-based Yom Kippur is the mitzvah of the sa’ir hamishtalei’ach (the Scapegoat) that plays a crucial role in the day’s atonement process: “And the male goat upon which the lot ‘For Azazel’ came up, shall be placed while still alive, before the L-rd, to [initiate] atonement upon it, and to send it away to Azazel [into the desert] ... And Aaron shall lean both of his hands [forcefully] upon the live male goat’s head and confess

upon it all the willful transgressions of the children of Israel, all their rebellions, and all their unintentional sins, and he shall place them on the male goat’s head, and send it off to the desert with a designated individual [ish iti]. The male goat shall thus carry upon itself all their sins to a desolate land, and [the ish iti] shall send off the male goat into the desert” (Vayikra 16: 10, 21-22).

The mitzvah of the sa’ir hamishtalei’ach, like all chukim (mitzvot whose rationales currently elude us), contains many mysterious elements that are difficult to understand. One of these is the meaning of the expression “ish iti,” which may be translated as “a man, a prepared individual” (Yoma 66b). he key word in this phrase is “iti,” a noun similar in kind to “tzaddik” (righteous one) or “chacham” (wise individual). From a

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f we put together recent discoveries in neuroscience with Midrashic tradition, we may be able to shed new light on the meaning of the central mystery of Parshat Acharei Mot: the two goats, identical in appearance, over which the High Priest cast lots, sacrificing one as a sin offering and sending the other, the scapegoat, into the wilderness to die.

Over the centuries, the Sages sought to decipher the mystery. Two animals, alike in appearance but different in fate, suggests the idea of twins. This and other clues led the Midrash, the Zohar, and classic commentators such as Nahmanides and Abarbanel to the conclusion that in some sense, the two goats symbolized the most famous of all the Torah’s twins: Yaakov and Esav.

There are other clues. The word se’ir, “goat,” is associated in the Torah with Esav, who lived in the land of Seir. The word se’ir is related to sei’ar, “hairy,” which is how he was born. When Rivka urged Yaakov to pretend to be Esav in order to take Yitzchak’s blessing, Yaakov said, “My brother Esav is a hairy [sa’ir] man while

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I have smooth skin” (Gen. 27:11). According to the Mishnah, a red thread was tied to the scapegoat, and “red” (Edom) was Esav’s other name. So there was a tradition that the scapegoat in some way symbolised Esav. Azazel, the mysterious place or entity for which the goat was intended, was Samael, Esav’s guardian angel.

In particular, the phrase “two kids of the goats,” shnei se’irei izim, mentioned in the High Priest’s rites, reminds us of the very similar expression, “two kids of the goats,” shnei gedi’ei izim, mentioned in Genesis 27, the scene of Yaakov’s deception. Yitzchak had asked Esav to catch him some wild game and prepare him a meal so that he could bless him. Rivka tells Yaakov to “Go out to the flock and bring me two choice kids of the goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, the way he likes it.”

Such verbal parallels are not coincidental.

The two goats of the service evoke in multiple ways the figures of Yaakov and Esav, specifically the scene in which Yaakov pretended to be Esav, leading Yitzchak to say, “The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esav” (Gen. 27:22).

Who then were Esav and Yaakov? What did they represent and how is this relevant to atonement? Midrashic tradition tends to portray Yaakov as perfect and Esav as an evildoer.

However, the Torah itself is far more nuanced.

A spiritual exit strategy Rabbi dR. Tzvi heRsh weinReb Orthodox Union

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here is much that the Torah leaves to our imagination. Regular students of the weekly Torah portion soon become convinced that the narratives they read each week are deliberately abbreviated, as if to encourage us to fill in the missing links on our own.

One outstanding example of such an incomplete narrative is the story of the death of Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron the High Priest.

Just a few short weeks ago, in Parashat Shemini (Vayikra 10:1-7), we read of their tragic sudden deaths. In their eagerness to draw closer to the Almighty, they brought an “alien fire” to the altar, a ritual procedure that they invented on their own and were never commanded to perform. For that, they were instantly struck down and consumed by a heavenly fire.

This terrifying event occurred during the inauguration of the holy Tabernacle, in the pres-

Esav is not a figure of evil. His father loved him and sought to bless him. The Sages say that in one respect — honoring his father — he was a supreme role model. Moses commands, “Do not despise an Edomite [i.e., a descendant of Esav], because he is your brother” (Deut. 23:8). sav in the Torah is not the epitome of evil. Rather, he is a man of impulse. We see this in the scene in which he sells his birthright to Yaakov. Coming in one day exhausted by the hunt, he sees Yaakov making lentil broth. He says, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!”

Yaakov says, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esav says. “What good is the birthright to me?” He swears an oath, selling his birthright to Yaakov, eats, drinks, and leaves (Gen. 25:30–34).

This vignette of Esav’s impetuosity — selling part of his heritage for a bowl of soup — is reinforced by the unique description of the action in the staccato form of five consecutive verbs (literally, “he ate, he drank, he rose, he left, he despised the birthright”). Every time we see Esav, we see an impulsive figure driven by the emotion of the moment.

Yaakov is the opposite. He does not give way to feelings. He thinks long-term. He seizes the opportunity to buy Esav’s birthright, he works for seven years for Rachel (a period that

“seemed to him but a few days”), and he fixes terms with Lavan for payment for his labor.

Rebuking Yosef for the seeming presumptuousness of his dreams, the Torah tells us that the brothers were jealous of Yosef “but his father kept the matter in mind.” Yaakov never acts impulsively. He thinks long and hard before deciding.

Not only is impetuosity alien to him, he is also critical of it in his children. On his deathbed, he curses his three eldest sons in these words: “Reuven, you are my firstborn … Unstable as water, you will not excel … Shimon and Levi …

Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel” (Gen. 49:3–7).

Acting on the basis of anger and impetuosity is, for him, the sign of an unworthy personality.

What does all this have to do with two goats? ecent years have seen a revolution in our understanding of the human mind. One key text was Antonio Damasio’s book Descartes’ Error. Damasio discovered something unusual about patients who had suffered brain damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Their ability to think remained unchanged, but their ability to feel dropped to almost zero. The result was that they found it impossible to make decisions.

See Thinking on page 17

sha begins “and it came to pass after the death of Aaron’s two sons…” Those words encourage us to believe that the suspense has been lifted and that we are about to learn the rest of the story.

We are teased into supposing that we are about to discover the nature of the emotions that lay buried in Aaron’s silence.

Alas, we are disappointed.

Instead of a glimpse into Aaron’s tormented soul, we are taught in elaborate detail of his newly prescribed ritual role. We read of the Temple procedures he is to conduct on the Day of Atonement. We discover, to our surprise and dismay, that Aaron is to be required to replicate his sons’ behavior, the very behavior for which they were frightfully punished. They lost their lives because they sought to draw too close to the Divine, and now Aaron their father is commanded to draw close to the Almighty. Indeed, he is summoned to enter a sector so sacred that his sons dared not set foot there.

Granted, he is to enter that sacred space at one specific moment in the entire year, and only after many preparatory procedures. But nevertheless, the objective of Aaron’s great mitzvah and privilege, approaching the Almighty as closely as possible, is the identical objective that

his sons desperately strived for, and for which they were catastrophically punished.

We can easily suppose that we are being called upon to imagine how Aaron, in the very act of entering the Holy of Holies, would be overwhelmed by heartbreak, haunted by the image of his children who were cut down in the prime of their lives while performing the very act that he was now commanded to perform!

In what way, however, was Aaron’s entrance into the innermost sanctum fundamentally different from Nadav and Avihu’s attempt to approach the Most Sacred One? The answer lies in a careful reading of the rest of the opening chapter of this week’s Torah portion. For there we learn that Aaron was not only instructed to enter the Holy of Holies. He was also instructed to leave that sacred space.

To use contemporary jargon, he was given an exit strategy. ttaching an exit strategy to an intense and sublime religious experience is one of the secrets of authentic spirituality.

More specifically, the exit strategy is intrinsic to the Yom Kippur experience. Aaron was instructed to enter the inner sanctum, yes. But he was also directed to depart from it and return to the far less sacred world at large.

Seldom do we not enter Yom Kippur with See Spiritual on page 17

The day is creation in and of itself.

Thinking fast and slow Rabbi siR jonaThan sacks

grammatical perspective, each of these stands on their own without the word “ish” preceding them; therefore, why does the Torah combine ish and iti in our verse? (Analysis based upon the exegesis of our term by the Torah Temimah and the Malbim.)

Our question appears to be the driving force behind a Mishnaic period statement found in Talmud Bavli, Yoma 66: “Our Rabbis taught: [Why does the Torah write] ‘ish’? To teach us that even a nonkohen [that is, any Jewish male, can fulfill the obligations of the iti].” In other words, even though the sa’ir hamishtalei’ach is central to effectuating kapparah, and a kohen is necessary throughout the remainder of the atonement process, the iti that brings the Scapegoat to the desert wasteland need not be a kohen. Based upon this approach, iti does not modify ish; rather, the

ence of a throng of celebrants. We can assume that there were at least some eyewitnesses, and we can be certain that many individuals heard about it within mere minutes.

But we know almost nothing about the reactions of those who were apprised of the tragic news that two princes in Israel, two young men who were next in line for the High Priesthood, potential leaders of the Jewish nation, were executed, cremated, by an act of G-d. t is natural for most of us to empathize immediately with the parents of these ill-fated young men. We wonder what they felt when they first learned of their unspeakable loss. But we are left to our own devices by the text and can only imagine their reaction. All we are told is, “and Aaron was silent.” Aaron’s silence leaves us silent, lost in introspection, asking ourselves how we would react to such nightmarish news.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Acharei Mot (Vayikra 16:1-18:30), we read a bit more of the story. The opening paragraph of our para-

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Only human beings are capable of passing judgment on desires.

Aaron’s silence leaves us silent.

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13 THE JEWISH STAR May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779

Yom Kippur, Torah and time

word “iti” itself is the essential term.

In his article entitled Sacred and Profane, my rebbi and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l, known as “the Rav” by his students and followers, understands the expression ish iti in a very different manner. He maintains that it is actually a compound noun where iti modifies the word ish and, therefore, connotes the idea of the “man of the moment,” since the Hebrew root letters of iti are ayin followed by taf, and spell the word “time.”

In the course of his explication of ish iti, the Rav notes that there were significant contrasts between the kohen gadol in the Beit HaMikdash, who offered the sa’ir laHashem as part of the kapparah process, and the ish iti who transported the sa’ir hamishtalei’ach to the cliffs of the desert wasteland. The former, like his sacrificial offering on behalf of the entire Jewish people, was a “symbol of tradition and eternity, of qualitative time,” whereas the latter, like the animal under his charge that was removed from the holiness of the Beit HaMikdash, was a mere “man of the moment, symbol of temporality and quantitative See Yom Kippur on page 17 time.”

May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Yom Ha’atzmaut, Zionism and us Kosher Bookworm

AlAn JAy GerBer

Jewish Star columnist

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ot a day goes by when the State of Israel does not draw some attention somewhere in the world. This has become the norm. Yet not so long ago, mentions of our holy land were restricted to a few lines in our daily prayers. To past generations, the land of Israel was a dream, an ideal to be prayed for and hoped for. For us, an independent Jewish republic in the holy land is a reality and a responsibility.

This year’s independence commemorative is in a climate of crisis and stress. Our responsibility to help assure the state’s continued existence and security is a never-ending task. Literature reflecting on our devotion to that cause continues to be a labor of love to both writers and readers of our people.

The annual commemoration begins with a day of memorial for those who fell in defense of the land, people and state.

This hazkarah does not reflect upon them exclusively, but also upon all who fell victim to our adversaries. Among these are eight young men murdered on March 6, 2008 at Jerusalem’s famed Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav. Even young students sitting in a beis midrash are legitimate targets for murder in cold blood.

An English translation of fellow students’ tributes to those eight young men was published the next year. Titled Princes Among Men (Feldheim, 2009), it richly depicts, through verse, prose, essays and beautiful pictures, their lives, further demonstrating the enormity of the loss that they represented to their fellow students, their families and our nation.

Three of the eight were students at Mercaz

HaRav; five were students at Yeshivat Yerushalayim L’Tzeirim (Yashlatz). According to the school’s communications director, Yaakov Cohne, “a few days after the attack, the twelfthgrade class at Yashlatz sat together and tried to think of a way to memorialize their friends which would also touch upon the difficult period they had just been through, recording their memories of their pain. This was not the pain of discouragement, but a pain characterized by prayer, growth and spiritual ascent.

“Their efforts not only led to the publication of the original Hebrew edition that was widely acclaimed and is already in its second printing, but also spurred an English translation that will serve to help inform others of the tremendous trauma suffered by our yeshiva and the Jerusalem community at large of our precious loss.”

The book is a wellspring of deep inspiration and tribute for all Jews, detailing our ongoing struggles to preserve our people’s rights in Eretz Yisrael.

These tributes read as a kinot for Yom Hazikaron.

Eretz Yisrael in the Parshah

by Moshe Lichtman (Devora Publishing, 2006) is a valued and practical anthology of references to the presence and role that Eretz Yisrael plays in our weekly Torah readings. Organized in weekly parsha installments as well as cameo holiday appearances, Rabbi Lichtman, a musmach of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and Yeshiva University, describes in detail many of the halachic, aggadic and midrashic elements of the Torah texts that relate both directly and indirectly to the laws and history of Eretz Yisrael. Also enumerated within these pages are all the major players found in the Torah and of their roles in the history of our people during our formative years.

Rabbi Lichtman himself puts it best by stating that the Torah text provides for us the proof that “living in the holy land is more than a dry, halachic question.”

A wellspring of deep inspiration and tribute for all Jews.

“It is a fulfillment of the deep yearnings of millennia of Jews, to come to the land in order to perform all of G-d’s commandments especially those that depend on the land. This is the true meaning of Zionism: loving and yearning for Zion, an ideal that all of our sages, throughout the generations espoused.”

This book, filled with Eretz Yisrael-oriented divrei Torah, will make an apt addition to both the Shabbos and Yom Tov table for the family. nother book of divrei Torah in the same literary genre is titled Torah Through a Zionist Vision (Geffen Publishing, 2008) by Rabbi Avraham Feder of Jerusalem.

These two volumes are a bit more expansive and are highly intellectual in their presentations. Based upon his many sermons at Moreshet Yisrael, Rabbi Feder provides a deeply thoughtful series of shiurim that reflect his passion and eloquence on behalf of both Torah and Israel. Taken together with his keen analysis of each parsha’s varied themes, they make for more than just a casual read, meant to be learned and studied.

Rabbi Feder’s work was recognized by Bar Ilan University, where he was honored with the Menachem Begin Prime Minister’s Award for his many years of teaching Torah and chazzanut, as well as for his love for Israel.

We conclude with the following observation from Rabbi Feder:

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Burned into Jewish memory View from Central Park

tehillA r.

GoldBerG

Intermountain Jewish News

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ven before I laid eyes on the sorrowful yet mesmerizing photos of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral going up in flames, the iconic cathedral billowing plumes of smoke, my immediate reaction was one of mixed emotions.

As the story broke, knowing what a central Parisian tourist attraction Notre Dame is, all I could think was, “I hope no one is hurt … I hope everyone made it out in time.”

But once the news of no loss of human life was confirmed, the complexity set in.

After all, Notre Dame is a symbol of so much painful anti-Semitism. It is the place that has justified the endless bloodshed of my innocent people in the form of Crusades, pogroms, blood libels, the Inquisition, and, on some level, the Holocaust.

Thankfully, those times are in many ways behind us. For the most part, Christianity has had its reformation, and our faiths have reached a degree of friendship and conciliation that marks our current time.

Yet for centuries, bloodshed committed in the name of European churches such as Notre Dame marked the torture of our exile. The Middle Ages were indeed dark for humankind as a whole, and particularly for the Jewish people. o this day, every Tisha b’Av, as we sit on the ground in the dark, by candlelight, mourning the tragedies of Jewish history, we recite the kina Sha’ali Serufa Ba’esh, recalling the terri-

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ble persecution of the Jews of France in the 1200s at the hands of the Church. In emotional poetry, this lamentation paints the scene of cartloads of painstakingly handwritten Talmuds (a few hundred years before the invention of the printing press) burned by the cartloads as public theater, right there in central Paris, in the courtyards of Notre Dame itself. This mass destruction of the corpus of Jewish law is part of the communal memory we shoulder year to year.

It was not human life that was burned, but the burning of the Talmud was a deeply symbolic persecution and destruction. The Church deemed the Jewish faith deserving of brutal rejection, even to be the devil itself. In other words, this public pyre was a definitive assault on Judaism, a religion whose persecution was justified, encouraged and praised by the Church.

But to hear of a cathedral burning, for a Jewish mind, is to immediately think of a shul burning — to multiple shuls burning. To Holocaust imagery. To Middle Ages persecution. And even to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem going up in smoke.

For Christians, the fire in the Notre Dame was like witnessing their temple going up in smoke.

It was a building that was more than a building; it was spiritual home, a place that holds so much. Watching thousands of people standing, weeping and singing as this architectural masterpiece, to them a home of faith, burned before their eyes, was deeply sad.

The moment the spire fell. Watching it go down. Seeing their pain. It was unforgettable.

Yet this illustrious place, whose destruction caused many innocent hearts to ache the world over, cannot cover up the fact that it is a place that held so much hate as part of its purpose and history. nlike our shuls, unlike our holy places, Notre Dame’s burning was not marked by hate. Notre Dame’s fire was not caused by arson.

In contrast, we have haunting memories of Jews burned alive, of sacred Jewish places and objects burned — of people seething with hate, violence and intentional persecution and destruction of Jews and of Judaism.

The first time I visited the Museum of The Diaspora in Tel Aviv, as a little girl, we entered a silent, sterile room. On display were architectural miniatures encased in glass. I was struck by their beauty — it was almost like a collection of doll houses.

Something was amiss, though.

Even before I knew what was wrong, I had a sad sense about this place. I knew that part of the reason we came here, if not the primary reason, was because my grandparents, my Bubby and Zaidy, were visiting from Brooklyn.

They made the trek from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv to search yet again for surviving relatives. Back then, a computer was a luxury. This museum was the only place that held the possibility of names of survivors, or tragically, confirmation of their dates of death in concentration camps. Back then, though a few decades had elapsed since the war, there was still a flicker of hope that a

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A building that was more than a building.

“A Jew alive at the beginning of this century and new millennium looks at the world –– at his Jewish world. He can summarize his impressions cynically or hopefully: the more things change the more they remain the same –– anti Semitism, assimilation, apathy; or, he can invoke the Psalmist’s ecstatic zeh hayom asa Hashem, nagilah venismecha vo. We have an Israel! And the Israel we have offers us as a people another chance –– another chance to work at fulfilling a covenant we agreed to eons ago ...

“Do we have a Torah adequate to the task and are we adequate to the task? Our answers to these questions should be in the affirmative.

The long exile culminating in the Shoah insists that our answers be in the affirmative. But are we certain?”

That, dear readers, is our challenge every day. It is for us to learn from our sacred writings, and the books we read them in, and to apply it to our daily lives.

A version of this column originally appeared in 2009. living relative would somehow turn up.

I soon learned that these beautiful glassencased structures were like relics. Relics of burned synagogues. Mere memories of oncethriving shuls in Europe. Italy. Hungary. Poland.

So many countries from all over the world were represented.

Now these miniatures were just symbols of past catastrophes. o when you think of the original purpose of Notre Dame — immortalized by Victor Hugo, whose work was in some ways critical of the church — and when you think of the current climate of Christianity, you realize how deep a transformation we have experienced since those dark Middle Ages. In a way, this cathedral, this Notre Dame, while it preserved the history of its hate, also stood as a testament to that hate belonging to a bygone time.

Nostre Aetate was passed in 1965. This transformational document highlights the value in Catholicism that “reveres the work of G-d in all the major faith traditions.” It has helped to heal some wounds and usher in a different era of relationships between Jews and Christians.

Yet Notre Dame was always there as a bitter, tangible reminder of just how destructive two of its artistically rendered statues can be. How the juxtaposition of the figures of Synagoga and Ecclesia at Notre Dame symbolized institutional hate at its core, and all the pain it has led to.

While I marvel at the breathtaking beauty, craftsmanship, and architecture that is a signature of the Middle Ages, and while I feel the pain of so many innocents for whom this cathedral held much deep and personal symbolism, we Jews have a long memory. We live with a shared psyche of centuries of persecution.

And while Notre Dame was burning, some of these moments and images that are forever burned into Jewish memory came alive, and found their way into the fire.

Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

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Jeff DuNetz

Jewish Star columnist

Don’t blame Trump for shooting

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n Shabbos, the last day of Pesach, 19-year-old John Earnest of San Diego walked into the Chabad of Poway synagogue and opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others. Liberal media and politicians practically tripped over themselves as they rushed to politicize the shooting by blaming it on “right-wing hate sites” and President Trump.

During Brian Stelter’s Sunday show on CNN, the Baltimore Sun’s media critic David Zurawik said: “Look, we’ve always been a violent society. America’s history is founded on violence but the underbelly was generally tamped down. We got some with McCarthy, we got some of it with George Wallace, but this era we’re in with Donald Trump — it’s like the gates of hell have been opened and these people get a pass to come on out and do it in public.”

Another guest, Elaina Plott, White House correspondent for The Atlantic, criticized Trump for not saying anything about the attack. This was not accurate; by the time the show was taped on Sunday morning, the president had made a statement as he walked to Marine One. He spoke on the issue during his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin: “Tonight, America’s heart is with the victims of the horrific synagogue shooting in Poway, California. Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community. We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated. Just happened.

Must be defeated. And we are grateful to the law-enforcement personnel for their courageous response. Incredible response today by law enforcement. And I especially want to recognize a certain off-duty border patrol agent who bravely returned fire and helped disrupt the attack and saved so many lives … We stand together. We will all get to the bottom of it. We’re going to get to the bottom of a lot of things happening in our country.”

On the politicians’ end, Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) joined the pile-on, saying, “Let us speak that truth and let us speak it in a way where we all agree that these are borne out of hate, hate which has received new fuel in these last two years.” oth the blaming of Trump and rightwingers are factually incorrect, allowing the murderer off the hook. The only person who should be blamed for the Chabad of Poway shooting is John Earnest, who, just before the attack, posted a manifesto explaining why he didn’t like Trump or conservatives.

In his manifesto, to answer whether he is a Trump supporter, Earnest wrote, “You mean that Zionist, Jew-loving, anti-White, traitorous [obscenity]? Don’t make me laugh.”

And on the question of whether or not he was a conservative, he said, “I am not

The most pro-Israel president since the creation of modern Israel.

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In Polish flames, a deadly trope Viewpoint

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hen I worked for the Anti-Defamation League more than a decade ago, relations between the Polish government and the Jewish community worldwide were incomparably better than they are now. But even then, there were occasions when the anti-Semitism that has been such a fixed feature of religious and political life in Poland for centuries would, when given an opportunity, make itself felt.

One afternoon, I was taking notes of a meeting between a Polish governmental delegation and senior ADL officials led by the thennational director, Abraham Foxman. As I recall it, the atmosphere was friendly and pleasant, and the discussion was briskly routine.

As we were about to finish, Foxman asked his guests if they wouldn’t mind waiting for a moment. He went into his office, promptly returning with an armful of wooden figurines that he proceeded to set out on the table in the conference room. All of the wooden statues were depictions of a stereotypical Orthodox Jew, with the mandatory side curls, an exaggeratedly long nose, a satisfied smile and a pile of shiny coins in front of him. And all these figures, readily available in souvenir shops across the country, had been purchased by Foxman himself on his many trips to Poland.

What might appear as a backhanded compliment in this generation was a warrant for genocide in the previous one.

The confronting of a Polish delegation with evidence of anti-Semitism on its own front door wasn’t an easy sight to witness. Most of them struggled for a response as Foxman explained the anti-Jewish lineage of the images in front of them. One of them did pipe up, however.

“Mr. Foxman, I think you don’t understand,” he said. “This is meant as a compliment, admira-

a useless, spineless coward so no — I am not a conservative. Conservative is a misnomer. They conserve nothing. They’ll complain all they want but they won’t take up arms and threaten their government with death (the only thing that works). Ever heard about the Battle of Athens (1946)?”

The left-wing media is quick to suggest that the president promotes anti-Semitism, although his first UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, fought Jewhatred in the international organization with an effort not seen since Daniel Patrick Moynihan ripped a proposal equating Zionism with racism into pieces on the General Assembly floor.

The media also ignores that Trump appointed

tion that Jews are clever people.”

But Foxman wasn’t having it. “You are rationalizing what cannot be rationalized,” he retorted.

What might appear as a backhanded compliment in this generation was a warrant for genocide in the previous one. In the final analysis, the linkage of Jews with grasping wealth is perhaps the most deadly of all the anti-Semitic tropes out there, and even if you embellish a cartoon Jew counting coins with a smile, the message remains the same. he giant-size effigy of Judas that was ceremonially burned in the rural Polish town of Pruchnik on April 19, on Good Friday, wasn’t wearing a smile.

In fact, as anyone who saw the photos of this wretchedly backwards event would have noticed, there was nothing benevolent about it, with its hooked nose, its sidelocks, its widebrimmed hat, and the words “Traitor” and “Judas 2019” scrawled in black ink across its misshapen, straw-filled body.

Truly ugly, though, was the destruction of this object. Goaded on by adults, a group of children who couldn’t have been older than nine or 10, and some much younger ones, dragged the effigy through the cobbled streets of the town. Along the way, they kicked its head and beat it with sticks. Then some of the adults demonstrated how to really get stuck in — with a sweaty, red-faced venom that suggested they imagined a real Jew under their boots.

Just before the effigy was set alight and thrown from a bridge into the river below, the children punished it one more time with their sticks. As is well known, the Christian Bible claims that Judas betrayed Jesus to the Roman authorities for 30 pieces of silver. Accordingly, the children lashed at the effigy 30 times. A local journalist who was present for the spectacle reported that as the kids whipped the Jewish caricature on the ground in front of them, an

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adult voice urged them to “give him five more for the fact that they” — the Jews, that is — “want compensation from us.”

Just as is the case with the schmaltzy Jew statues sold in Warsaw and Krakow, the effigy of Judas in Pruchnik encapsulated the antiSemitic canard about Jews and money. That canard in particular gave anti-Semitism its murderous character in the pre-World War II period in Poland — to be crystal-clear, a time before the Germans invaded, when anti-Semitic rioting was rife. In 1931, Roman Rybarski, a well-known economist and ultra-nationalist politician, published a widely distributed article blaming the Jews for Poland’s devastating economic crisis. “Polish public opinion will turn against the Jews, and it will be exclusively the result of their own politics,” he wrote.

The sentiment underlying that well-crafted sentence is exactly the same as the “Traitor” scrawl on the Judas effigy almost 90 years later; money is the real deity of the Jews, and the Jews will sacrifice anything and anyone — even the “son” of G-d — if their bottom line instructs them to do so. So, when the chickens come home to roost, they have only themselves to blame for their fate.

This way of thinking about the Jews as a self-interested collective whose aspirations are opposed to those of the larger nation is as old as anti-Semitism itself. Decades of Holocaust education, anti-Semitism-awareness training and emotional mea culpas from clergy and politicians alike have proven unable to sweep it away. Unlike in the previous two centuries, the burning of an anti-Semitic effigy was not followed by an anti-Semitic pogrom because the Jews who lived in that part of Poland are no more; they all perished during the Nazi occupation. Memories of their presence have faded, and yet the hatred that blighted their daily lives remains as fresh as the morning dew.

Rationalizing what cannot be rationalized.

Ken Marcus to head the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Marcus, who spent much of his career fighting anti-Semitism, was confirmed despite objections from Democrats who didn’t like that he had labeled some antiIsrael incidents as anti-Semitic.

It is indisputable that President Trump is the most pro-Israel president since the creation of modern Israel in 1948. In fact, when liberals criticize Trump’s Israel policies, it’s because they believe they are too pro-Israel.

Blaming Trump for the shooting at Chabad of Poway is wrong. But it is also wrong to blame political Jew-haters — people like Barack Obama, or presidential candidates who rushed to pay trib-

ute to Al Sharpton, or Rep. Omar, or the Democrats who refused to explicitly condemn her — for causing the shooting. It is wrong to blame any of the hate-spewing members of the Democratic Party I’ve been identifying since 2017, or the Congressional Black Caucus’s affinity for Louis Farrakhan, or Rep. Hank Johnson for calling Jews termites in 2016, or the Women’s March, or even the editor of the New York Times international edition, which published an anti-Semitic cartoon two days before the shooting. None of them caused the shooting.

The only person who can be blamed for the horrible shooting at the Chabad of Poway is the person who pulled the trigger.

15 THE JEWISH STAR May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779

Politics to Go

May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Is racist-labeling Sanders really ‘pro-Israel’?

Jonathan s. tobin

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he man with the best chance to be the first Jewish president of the United States is someone who thinks the prime minister of Israel is a racist.

To say that is not to predict that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will win the presidency. But with polls showing that the Democratic Socialist remains in the top tier of his party’s presidential hopefuls for 2020, the 77-year-old’s chances of being the person to challenge President Donald Trump shouldn’t be underestimated.

Prior to his giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the 2016 Democratic primaries, few would have thought the aging radical who had spent a lifetime on the margins of American political life would still find himself in the middle of a similar conversation. But among the many interesting questions his success raises is what impact his positions will have on a Democratic Party that is increasingly divided about whether

to support the Jewish state.

At a CNN town hall event this week, Sanders was asked how he planned to maintain the U.S.Israel relationship while being among the Jewish state’s most outspoken critics. His response was to claim that there was no contradiction between support for Israel and opposing its government.

In answering the question, Sanders noted, as he often does, his experience working for months on an Israeli kibbutz when he was a young man. More to the point, he said, “I have family in Israel. … You know I am not anti-Israel. I am 100 percent pro-Israel. Israel has every right in the world to exist, and to exist in peace and security and not be subjected to terrorist attacks.”

But he also said he thought the goal of U.S. policy should “deal with the Middle East on a level playing-field basis. In other words, the goal must be to try to bring people together and not just support one country, which is now run by a rightwing, dare I say, racist government.”

In speaking in this manner, Sanders seemed

to be articulating views not dissimilar to those of the leaders of Reform and Conservative Judaism, as well as a number of liberal groups, who wrote a letter following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisive victory in the April 9 Israeli elections to disassociate themselves from him and to urge the U.S. government to pressure the Israelis to accept a Palestinian state and to refrain from extending Israel’s laws to West Bank settlements.

As such, Sanders’s position would seem to be, as he put it, “not radical” and in line with the criticisms voiced by many other Democratic contenders.

Sanders is right when he says that one can be “100 percent pro-Israel” and not be a fan of Netanyahu. Just as Americans can bitterly oppose their own government — whether run by Trump or Barack Obama — while still being patriots, the same is true of Israelis.

The Vermont senator also deserves credit for standing up to fellow left-wing radicals who oppose Israel’s existence, and for sometimes pointing out that the goal of Hamas is to destroy the

The debate with the Palestinians isn’t about Netanyahu.

2 Somalis, and their dark upbringing andrea levin CAMERA

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n commentary on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s denigrating of Jews, a vital dimension of her outbursts has been largely overlooked.

Pundits have seen her motivation as a deliberate rejection of the norms of political discourse to push the Democratic Party into radical anti-Israel positions. And it may be true that she seeks to drive the old guard away from traditional alliances and protocols.

She outfoxed senior members of Congress, who had aimed to issue a censure of anti-Semitism and assure the public they deplore the resurgent Jew-hatred. Omar and her allies flipped the script and neutered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s resolution, adding Islamophobia to the language and removing the focus on bigotry against Jews. The maneuver was greeted gleefully by Omar and company, who defy the traditions of melting pot America.

But a question that hasn’t been asked is what

prompts her anti-Jewish prejudice? Whence comes the voluble contempt for another people tweeted in brazen, ugly tropes? nother Somali refugee of an altogether different cast of character, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has written extensively in her autobiography, Infidel, and elsewhere about the pervasive anti-Semitism around her in the Muslim world. She’s observed that “as a child growing up in a Muslim family, I constantly heard my mother, other relatives and neighbors wish for the death of Jews, who were considered our darkest enemy. Our religious tutors and the preachers in our mosques set aside extra time to pray for the destruction of Jews.”

She noted that “all over the Middle East, hatred for Jews and Zionists can be found in textbooks for children as young as 3, complete with illustrations of Jews with monster-like qualities. Mainstream educational television programs are consistently antiSemitic. In songs, books, newspaper articles and blogs, Jews are variously compared to pigs, donkeys, rats and cockroaches, and also to vampires

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and a host of other imaginary creatures.”

Hirsi Ali described a school during her years in Kenya in which the teacher taught that Jews, monstrous in shape, controlled the world, and “only if all Jews were destroyed would peace come for the Muslims.” Like the other young students, she feared and dreaded this pervasive menace.

Both Somalia and Kenya were also home to Ilhan Omar, whose now-famous comments include claiming that “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

She’s tweeted regarding the focus on Israel in Congress that, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” — it’s all about the nefarious money-wielding Jews.

Omar’s ignorance extends to basic political facts related to Israel and AIPAC, seen in her tweeting that “AIPAC and Netanyahu openly opposed the Oslo Accords … ” AIPAC did not oppose Oslo, but supported this policy of the government of Israel. Likewise, she claims: “AIPAC and Netanyahu openly opposed President Obama’s modest proposed settlement freeze in

Omar would have likely been exposed to this bigotry.

ADL distorts the annexation debate stephen M. Flatow

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ome liberal American Jewish organizations are urging President Trump to oppose Israeli annexation of any part of Judea and Samaria. Some conservative Jewish organizations are urging the opposite. Good. It’s time we had a full debate in the American Jewish community about this issue. Serious dialogue and a meaningful conversation are long overdue.

Unfortunately, the Anti-Defamation League has gotten the conversation off to a poor start by distorting and misrepresenting some of the key facts that need to be considered.

In an op-ed in The Forward, ADL spokesman Kenneth Jacobson began by noting that the ADL was one of the signatories on the letter denouncing “any steps by Israel to annex territory in the West Bank.” But as the op-ed progressed, Jacobson’s language became more and more slippery.

By the third paragraph, he had gone from “steps to annex territory in the West Bank” to talking about outright “annexation of the West Bank” — that is, the whole thing.

That’s a red herring because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never called for “annexation of the West Bank.” What he actually said was that he might propose extending Israeli law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Not content with having altered Netanyahu’s words, the ADL spokesman then proceeded to argue against what Netanyahu didn’t say. Jacobson listed all sorts of frightening things that might ensue as a “result of annexing the West Bank.”

By paragraph nine, he was dramatically warning that “the greatest threat to the continuing fulfillment of [the Zionist] dream would be the annexation of the West Bank.” Scary stuff — except that the so-called threat is imaginary.

The reason the prime minister isn’t talking about “annexing the West Bank” is because 40 percent of Judea and Samaria is already occupied by the Palestinian Authority. And that’s where 98 percent of Palestinian Arabs live. Netanyahu is not interested in having Israel return to the pre-1995

situation of governing all those Arabs. That’s why the P.A. was created in the first place.

All the talk about “annexation” leading to a “demographic time bomb” and an “apartheid state” is nonsense. The notion of Israel annexing the areas where the Palestinian Arabs live is not what Netanyahu was talking about.

What’s actually under discussion concerns the 60 percent of Judea and Samaria that Israel still rules. There are only a small number of Arabs living there. They do not pose a demographic threat to Israel. Within the Israeli-controlled regions, there are many miles of uninhabited land.

There are also a number of Jewish communities. That’s the real issue — whether Israeli law should be extended to those communities.

Which brings us to the key questions that the ADL and its allies have so far failed to address: 1. In 1995, the Palestinian Authority extended its laws to the cities in which 98 percent of the Palestinian Arabs live. So why can’t Israeli law be implemented in the Jewish towns? Why do the Jews still have to be governed by the arbitrary and cumbersome system of the old Israeli military administration, while the Palestinian Arabs

Jewish state and slaughter its people.

But the problem is that the debate about Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians isn’t about Netanyahu. It’s about the existence of Israel.

When those who claim to support its existence delegitimize its government and the large majority of Israelis who support it, they are setting the stage for a debate in which its right to existence will be questioned. t’s true that Netanyahu took some well-deserved criticism for enabling one of his rightwing partners to form a pact with an extremist party led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, some of whom might be termed racist.

But none of them wound up winning Knesset seats, let alone a place in the prime minister’s government. The claim that Netanyahu is tainted by their existence is no different from arguments that Democrats willing to work with Sanders are now by definition Socialists. Does the fact that two of the Democrats’ rock stars — Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — are supporters of the BDS movement and guilty of spewing Jew-hatred mean that all Democrats are anti-Semitic?

Claims that applying Israeli law to existing See Sanders on page 18

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2009 — as part of the 2010-2011 peace talks.”

On the contrary, AIPAC did not oppose the policy and Benjamin Netanyahu instituted a 10-month settlement freeze — the first-ever of its kind by an Israeli prime minister.

As Hirsi Ali relates, “millions of Muslims have been conditioned to regard Jews not only as the enemies of Palestine but as the enemies of all Muslims, of God and of all humanity.” Their leaders have raised “generations to believe that Jews are ‘the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs.’ ” mar would have likely been exposed to this bigotry in Somalia and Kenya, and might not have escaped it even when she got to America. As MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) has documented, numerous mosques in the United States echo the same messages. In Omar’s hometown of Minneapolis at a mosque this March, an imam declared, “Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is a ‘terrorist son-of-a-terrorist’ that is carrying out the ‘ZioCrusader agenda’ of the Zionists, and the tyrannical and criminal Templar Crusaders.”

At other mosques around America, anti-Jewish messages are proffered to congregants. In Detroit in January, the imam stated: “Look at the global banks, the billionaires. … All those are from among See Somalis on page 18

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get to live under their own laws?

2. There are large swaths of completely uninhabited land throughout Judea and Samaria.

Anybody who has ever driven in those territories has seen the empty countryside with their own eyes. So even if you oppose extending Israeli law to Jewish communities, what’s wrong with extending Israeli law to the empty land? Who, exactly, would be harmed by that?

3. By saying that Israel should never annex any part of Judea and Samaria, no matter what, Israel’s left-wing Jewish critics appear to be taking the position that the claim of the Palestinian Arabs to Judea and Samaria is superior to the Jewish claim. Where’s the proof of that? I would like to see just one shred of evidence — from international law or the historical record or the Torah — to back up that claim. And if there is no evidence to support that claim, then there should be no opposition to the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria becoming part of Israel.

So please, Mr. ADL spokesman, go ahead and make your case, but do it honestly and responsibly. Quote your opponents accurately. Answer the real questions. Engage in a real debate.

American Jewry and Israel deserve no less.

Attorney Stephen M. Flatow is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iraniansponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Thinking...

Continued from page 13 They would reason endlessly but fail to choose a course of action.

Subsequent work has shown that Descartes and Kant were wrong. We are not rational animals. David Hume was right; we are primarily emotional beings who make decisions on the basis of feelings and desires of which we may be barely conscious. We justify our choices, but brain scans show that we may make those choices before being aware that we have done so.

We have, in fact, a dual-system or twin-track brain. This is what Daniel Kahneman refers to in the title of his famous book Thinking, Fast and Slow. One track is rapid, instinctive, emotional, and subconscious. The other is slower, conscious, deliberative, and calculating.

The former allows us to react quickly to situations of immediate danger. Without it, we and our ancestors would not have survived. Many of our instinctive reactions are benign. It is natural to have empathy, and to feel other people’s pain and come to their aid. We develop a strong sense of attachment that leads us to defend our family or community.

But not all instincts are benign. Anger, envy, jealousy, fear, hate, and the desire for revenge may once have been functional, but they are often deeply destructive in social situations. That is why the ability to “think slow,” to pause and reflect, matters so much.

All animals have desires. Only human beings are capable of passing judgment on desires — of asking, should I or should I not satisfy this desire?

These discoveries do not tell us something new. Rather, they have vindicated an ancient insight often obscured by Enlightenment rationalism. We cannot live, choose, or love without emotion. But one of the fundamental themes of Genesis is that not all emotion is benign.

Spiritual...

Continued from page 13 an attitude of remorse and solemnity. But we exit Yom Kippur with the confidence that our sins have been forgiven and that we can now embark upon the forthcoming joyous Succoth days.

Nadav and Avihu, on the other hand, entered a “no exit” situation.

The lesson is clear: spiritual ecstasy is wonderful. But it can never be an end in itself. It must be but a means to an end, an opportunity to become inspired with the purpose of bringing inspiration back to a mundane and imperfect world.

This was the example that Moshe taught when he entered a realm even more sacred than the Holy of Holies. He ascended to the peak of Mount Sinai, and even further upwards to the very heavens on high, to the realm of the angels and the site of the divine throne of glory. But he never lost sight of his goal of returning to his people with the message he received from on high. His intent was always to descend, to ultimately reunite with the people who sought to cope with the problems of ordinary existence.

This is also the central message of Yom Kippur. It is a day of atonement and repentance, of introspection and awe. Our spirituality that day is akin to that of the angels, removed from the human body’s physical requirements of food and drink. But the climax of Yom Kippur must be the image left to us by Aaron and all the subsequent high priests. That image is described by our Sages as “the Yom Tov of festivities that the High Priest celebrated when he exited safely from the Holy of Holies.” The exit strategy from Yom Kippur is a festive and joyous meal, a return to reality, a reconnection to the ordinary, to the vulnerable, to the human.

Our religion has its serious, even somber, occasions; we know well days of self-examination and of longer periods of time dedicated to remorse and self-criticism. We know well days, months, and even years of grief and mourning.

But for all these, our religion prescribes exit strategies: forgiveness for the sinner, return for the wayward child, and consolation for the mourner.

Nadav and Avihu were guilty of a truly fateful error. They wished to enter the spiritual state of no return. Our religion teaches us that spirituality must never be a condition of “no exit.”

Authentic spiritual experience must be designed to culminate with a return to the real world with song for those formerly sad and speech for those once crippled by silence.

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Continued from page 13 In his posthumous work The L-rd is Righteous in All His Ways, the Rav expands upon the differences between quantitative and qualitative time in a profound manner. He states that for Kant and other philosophers, “…a day is nothing. Time is nothing more than a frame of reference, part of a coordinate system. For them, an event is registered in the context of space as well as time. You locate or localize an event, separate it, and study it. That is all. But there is no essence, no substance to time … It is a number, nothing whatsoever but a number” (page 210). n stark contrast to the philosophic view of time, the Rav asserts that Judaism views this dimension of existence as a precious entity with potential value unto itself: “In Yahadut [Judaism], time is something substantive. It has attributes. There is a ‘good time,’ Yom Tov. There is something called yom kadosh, ‘holy time.’ Indeed, the whole concept of kedushat ha-yom (holiness of the day) is reflective of our approach. It indicates that there is substance to the day that can be filled with sanctity. Days and hours are endowed or saturated with holiness...The day is not just a number. It is a creation in and of itself” (page 211).

Based upon the Rav’s analyses of the ish iti, kohen gadol and Judaism’s concept of time, we are in a much better position to understand a life choice that we face on Yom Kippur and, perhaps, each and every day.

The Torah, I believe, is subtly asking us to choose between engaging in the ephemeral and fleeting life of the ish iti, for which time is a mere number, or, with the kohen gadol as our model, living in a manner that sanctifies and endows life with meaning and the potential of unlimited possibilities.

The choice is truly within our grasp, for if we choose to keep Hashem’s Torah, our entire people can ultimately serve Him as “a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation.”

17

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THE JEWISH STAR May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779

Yom Kippur...

Instinctive, impulsive behavior can lead to violence. What is needed to be a carrier of G-d’s covenant is the ability to “think slow” and act deliberatively. hich brings us to Genesis 27, and the moment Yaakov dressed in Esav’s clothes and told his father, “I am Esav, your firstborn.” The two goats of the High Priest’s service and the two goats prepared by Rivka symbolize our duality: “The hands are the hands of Esav but the voice is the voice of Yaakov.”

We each have an Esav and Yaakov within us, the impulsive, emotional brain and the reflective, deliberative one. We can think fast or slow.

Our fate, our life-script, will be determined by which we choose. Will our life be lived “to the L-rd” or “to Azazel,” to the random vicissitudes of chance?

This is the moral drama symbolized by the two goats, one dedicated “to the L-rd,” the other “to Azazel” and released into the wilderness.

The power of ritual is that it does not speak in abstractions — reason versus emotion, instinctual deferral rather than gratification. It is gripping, visceral, all the more so when it evokes, consciously or otherwise, the memory of the twins, Yaakov and Esav, together at birth yet utterly divergent in their character and fate.

Who am I? That is the question Yom Kippur forces us to ask. To be Yaakov, we have to relinquish the Esav within us, the impulsiveness that can lead us to sell our birthright for a bowl of soup, losing eternity in the pursuit of desire.

Reaction...

Continued from page 1 We should always remember that the strength of our people comes from our faith in Hashem.

It also comes in our support for our brothers and sisters all over the world. And our strength comes from prayer and attending synagogue every day. … Am Yisrael Chai!

From Rabbi Steinmetz: It is agonizing to have say never again, again and again. Whenever an anti-Semitic attack occurs around the world, Jewish communal institutions scramble to put out statements.

Unfortunately, with no shortage of attacks, statements have become a ritual, each with their own vocabulary and style. …

Some organizations feel compelled to universalize the message, and while condemning attacks like that on the Chabad of Poway, mention other xenophobic attacks in the process. …

When a family is mourning their own loss, we don’t tell them about another family’s sorrows; and the Jewish community must not reduce the battle against the world’s oldest hatred into a struggle with ordinary bigotry. I find it particularly disconcerting that Jewish organizations feel compelled to universalize anti-Semitism

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before condemning it, looking for permission from others before they can speak about their own pain.

So what can be said then? What needs to be said is that anti-Semitism — in all its ugly forms — is unacceptable, and that we will shout in rage when the media, spin doctors and politicians minimize anti-Semitism. Clear messages must be used to counter an era filled with evasive language and non-apology apologies. …

Instead of apologizing directly [for its anti-Semitic cartoon, the New York Times] initially said the cartoon contained “anti-Semitic tropes,” turning public anti-Semitism into a mere mis-trope. This outrageous non-apology is even more damaging than the cartoon, because it treats anti-Semitic propaganda as if it were an abstract discussion of literary theory.

But Jews know better, and they know Der Stürmer-type cartoons can be a matter of life and death.

We need to say to the world that anti-Semitism is more than another news story; for Jews, it is a communal tragedy. It resulted in a congregation being attacked while praying — an attack that is part of a 2,000 year history of anti-Semitism which has claimed the lives of millions of Jews, and threatens Jews everywhere, even in the United States.

Above all, we must not bury the human side of this tragedy under a mountain of platitudes. A beloved wife and mother, Lori Gilbert Kaye, was murdered in cold blood. The rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, had his fingers shot off in front of his four-year-old granddaughter. An eight-year-old girl, Noya Dahan, had a piece of shrapnel pierce through her leg, and her uncle, Almog Peretz, who shielded children, has multiple shrapnel wounds. It is for them that we cry, and for them that we shout out in grief and outrage that the attacks must stop. Even if it seems quixotic to do so, we will demand nothing less than an end to anti-Semitism.

Yes, we will continue to declare never again, even if we have to say it again and again.

Never...

Continued from page 1 During Saturday’s shooting, “all of that happened,” the mayor said, “and I have no doubt that that meeting contributed to saving lives.”

At the vigil Sunday evening, which brought together Jews and non-Jews — the crowd included Muslim women in hijabs and Sikh men in turbans — Rabbi Goldstein recounted what he said before being transported to the hospital following the shooting.

Looking out at the congregants who had made their way out of the synagogue, the rabbi got up on a chair, his hands bleeding badly.

“I said, ‘Guys, Am Yisrael Chai.” —JTA

Sanders...

Continued from page 16 settlements in the West Bank is akin to setting up an apartheid-like situation are equally disingenuous; doing so would not prevent the Palestinians from having a state if they were prepared to accept one alongside a Jewish state.

Love him or hate him, Netanyahu is the head of a democratic government that upholds the rule of law and equal rights for all.

When Sanders balances his avowed support for Israel with false claims of racism, in addition to advocacy for lifting the blockade on Hamascontrolled Gaza, and false accusations that the Israeli army has committed atrocities, he isn’t being even-handed. Instead, he’s providing ammunition to those who wish its destruction. The same is true of Jewish groups that echo such stands.

Calling Netanyahu’s government racist is the moral equivalent of terming Zionism racism. That is a calumny — not the act of someone who is “100 percent pro-Israel.”

Democrats like Sanders, as well as Jewish

groups that echo his equivocal stands, are entitled to disagree with Israel’s government as much as they like. But when they ignore the truth about Palestinian intransigence and seek to lecture Israel’s voters rather than to listen to them, they aren’t acting as supporters or friends. When they cross the line that separates legitimate criticism from words that call into question Israel’s right to exist, they are doing more to help those who wish to see it destroyed than to defend its existence.

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

Somalis...

Continued from page 16 [the Jews]. Their culture is a culture of usury.”

A Houston imam told his flock: “Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and the Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”

Omar’s utterances are stunning on many counts, but they should raise questions about the influences in her life that have instilled bigotry against Jews and Israel. Her preliminary responses to criticism were equivocal apologies, then further slandering of Israel’s supporters. Perhaps being so imbued with the lessons of her youth in Somalia and Kenya — and possibly America, too — the ethos of the wider culture stressing tolerance and respect has yet to be learned.

The question is: Will Omar shed the old hatreds and genuinely — not just perfunctorily — accept others of all faiths with respect, as Hirsi Ali and others have done? And what forces today are fueling anti-Semitism in America? As Ilhan Omar continues to offer distorted claims against Israel and Jews, these issues need media sunlight and exposure.

Andrea Levin is executive director and president of CAMERA.

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May 3, 2019 • 28 Nisan, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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CAlendar of Events

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Rachel Langer Wednesday May 1

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

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

Thursday May 2

Key Challah Bake: There is a custom to bake a house key into your first challah after Pesach — join Chazaq and Bat Melech for a post-Pesach challah bake at Derech Etz Hachaim. Women only. Ingredients supplied. 8 pm. 215-05 86th Rd, Queens Village. RSVP 718-285-2066. Free.

Friday May 3

Mammogram Awareness: The Rockaways have the highest breast cancer rates in Queens, but lower rates of early diagnosis. Hospital hosts a press conference and women’s health symposium to educate the public on the importance of mammography screenings. Elected officials and clinicians will be on hand. 10 am. St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, 327 Beach 19th St, Far Rockaway.

Shabbat Chazzanut: At Beth Sholom, featuring Chazzan Yisrael Rand of the Great Synagogue in Ramat Gan, Chazzan Shimmy Miller of Beis Naftoli in Los Angeles, special guest Chazzan Joel Kaplan, and the Young Israel Beth-El Choir. FServices Friday evening and Shabbat morning. 390 Broadway, Lawrence. 516-569-3600.

Sunday May 5

Israelfest: Celebrate Israel’s birthday with family activities, food, and dancing. Free admission and parking. 12 to 4 pm. North Hempstead Beach Park, Port Washington. SJJCC.org/israelfest.

Rubashkin Speaks: Chazaq and Congregation Anshei Shalom present Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, on “Emunah + Bitachon = Geulah.” Sushi. 8 pm. 80-15 Kent St, Jamaica.

Tuesday May 7

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

Great Neck Main Library community room. 2 pm.

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

Sunday May 12

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

HANC Gala: 66th anniversary gala. Guests of Honor Faige & Akiva Lefkowitz; Grandparents of the Year Joanne & Bill Mlotok; Family Legacy Award to the Rudansky and Wyner families. Special tribute in memory of Rabbi Moshe Gottesman zt”l. 21 Old Westbury Rd, Old Westbury. HANC. org/dinner2019. $500 per couple.

Wednesday May 15

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

Sunday May 19

Jewish Nurses: Annual conference of the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association. Workshops on

many topics including Jewish issues in the field.

CME. credit; breakfast and lunch. 227 West 60th St, Manhattan. Register at JewishNurses.org.

Madraigos: Five Towns annual breakfast to benefit Madraigos, a nonprofit organization supporting teens, young adults, and their parents.

Hosted by Dovid and Chavie Klein. 9:30 am. 183 Harborview North, Lawrence. 516-371-3250.

5 Towns 5K: Tenth annual 5K. Run or walk to support Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans. Kids FunRun at 9:30 am; race begins at 10. Register online at 5towns5k.org.

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

Book Signing: Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County presents “While There’s Life: Poems from the Mittelsteine Labor Camp (1944-1945),” by Ruth Minsky Sender. 3 pm.

100 Crescent Beach Road, Glen Cove. RSVP 516-5718040 or info@hmtcli.org. $10 suggested donation.

Tuesday May 21

Monday May 20

Tuesday June 4

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

Dinner: Mesivta Ateres Yaakov annual dinner.

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

Beth Sholom: Sisterhood annual supperette.

Guests of honor Molly Lilker and Carol Small; also honoring Tammy Schreiber with Service Award and Chaya Miller with Special Recognition Award. 5 pm boutiques; 7:15 pm dinner.

Sunday May 26

Parade: Central Avenue. 10 am. Begins Rockaway & Central Ave, Cedarhurst. 516-295-5770.

Thursday May 30

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

Monday June 3

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

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

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

Thursday June 27

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

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