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THE JEWISH May 6, 2016 • 28 Nissan 5776
Acharei Mos • Candlelighting 7:38 pm • Luach page 15
Vol 15, No. 18 • TheJewishStar.com
THE NEWSPAPER OF OUR ORTHODOX COMMUNITIES
5 Towns set to mark 3 days
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The Jewish Star The Five Towns joins klal Yisroel in marking three important days over the next two weeks, with community-wide events scheduled on two Wednesday evenings, May 4 and 11. The days, which mark points of sorrow and joy for the Jewish people, are: •Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) on 27 Nisan (Wednesday night and Thursday, May 4 and 5). •Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day) on 3 Iyar (Tuesday night and Wednesday, May 10–11). •Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) on 4 Iyar (Wednesday night and Thursday, May 11–12). A Shoah memorial service at 7:30 pm on May 4 is expected to draw several hundred people, from 24 area synagogues, to Congregation Beth Sholom at 390 Broadway in Lawrence.
The Young Israel of Woodmere, 859 Peninsula Blvd., will host two programs on Wednesday, May 11, that will bridge the mourning of Yom Hazikaron and the joy of Yom Ha’Atzmaut. The event begins with Mincha at 7:15 pm (duringYom Hazikaron on the Jewish calendar) and concludes after dark during Yom Ha’Atzmaut. “The message of Jewish hope and survival is something that has to be passed down from generation to generation,” said Dana Frenkel of Woodmere, co-organizer with Nathaniel Rogoff, also of Woodmere, of the Beth Sholom event. “Younger generations, who may not be as closely connected to the events of the Shoah” should “never forget the atrocities that were committed in the Holocaust,” Frenkel said. Rogoff added, “It is imperative for the community to join together to remember the
holy souls who perished in the Shoah, as well as honor the survivors.” Rachel “Chelly” Slagter, a Holocaust survivor who is a lecturer and docent at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, will be the keynote speaker. She is the mother of longtime Woodmere resident Reuben Levine, HAFTR seventh-grader Jordana Mastour will present fourth-generation reflections, and HALB’s fifth-grade choir will perform. The program will also include video testimony from a Holocaust survivor who recounts the story of Le Chambon, a French town populated by Protestants that organized to shelter more than 5,000 Jews. The date of Yom Hashoah is that of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. Other events are scheduled throughout Long Island to mark the three days. See next week’s Jewish Star for coverage.
Nachal recon unit, they had a “masa mesakem,” or final trek. This 90 kilometers (50 mile) march is one of the most difficult experiences in the Israeli army and is a test of endurance. The soldiers are gradually prepared for this grueling experience from the beginning of their army service. One of the heavier items carried in training is a machine gun known in slang as the “Mag.” The Mag is always given to a large solidly built soldier, as it is very heavy and difficult to carry; as such it also is an honor to carry it. The soldier who carries it has been training with it through his entire army service and is ready to carry it for 90 kilometers. That day, the particular solider tasked with the Mag was sick, and collapsed a few kilometers into the march. Daniel, who was nearby, immediately ran to his aid when he collapsed, and his commanding officer said to him “Mendel (Daniel’s nickname in the army): Kach et haMag” (take the Mag). Daniel, a gifted musician, was not a very big boy, and was not trained to carry this heavy load. But if your commanding officer says “Mendel, Kach et haMag,” you take the Mag. So Daniel hefted the heavy machine gun on his back and proceeded to carry it for the remaining 80 kilometers. He succeeded in finishing the trek, after which he promptly collapsed and ended up in the hospital; but he finished the trek and became a legend in his unit. Cheryl looked at the boys in Yeshivat Orayta with whom she was sharing this story and said, pointing heaven-wards with her finger:
“My Commanding Officer (G-d) has given me a great burden to carry. Hashem has, for some reason I will never comprehend, looked at me and said, “Mendel Kach et haMag.” “I was never trained nor was I prepared to carry this burden; but if your commanding officer says, “Mendel Kach et haMag,” you take the Mag. So I am carrying this heavy burden and will, till my last day on earth, carry the burden of having buried a son who fell in defense of Israel. It is not a burden I wanted to carry, and I would gladly give it up, but I will carry it, because that is what I believe my Commanding Officer is asking of me.” For so many families in Israel who carry this painful burden, they will continue to struggle with it every day, and in every moment, long after the sounds of the Memorial Day sirens have faded into memory. And the rest of us, who can only stand in awe at the strength and courage of their silent, dignified conviction, owe it to them, and to all those who fell, to be there with them as best we can, and to never let, even for a moment, the tremendous sacrifice they make every day go unappreciated or forgotten. Translated literally, Acharei-Mot-Kedoshim in this week’s parsha means “after the death of the holy ones.” After their sacrifice we can only contemplate the portion we will read the following week, Emor which literally means to tell over. We must tell their stories and contemplate how we will make sure that their sacrifices were not in vain.
RABBI BINNY FREEDMAN THE HEART OF JERUSALEM As we approach Yom HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day on 27 Nissan), Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day on 3 Iyar) and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day on 4 Iyar), Rabbi Freedman recounts a visit by Cheryl Mandel to his Yeshivat Orayta Jerusalem a few years ago. heryl Mandel’s son Daniel was killed on a mission to capture wanted terrorists in Shechem (Nablus) on the day before the eve of Pesach in 2003. He was serving as an officer in the elite recon unit of the Nachal Brigade. Cheryl was in the kitchen cooking and getting ready for the Seder when the IDF officers showed up at her door with the terrible news. The Seder table was already set, and the next night, having come back from Daniel’s funeral just a few hours before, no one had the heart to remove his place setting, so his chair sat empty, his wine glass unfilled, and Haggadah unopened through a Seder that Daniel’s brother Jonah told me was more like Tisha B’Av than a Pesach Seder. At the end of her presentation, after answering the boys’ many questions, she told us a story: At the end of their training period in the
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Annual Hatzalah BBQ DINNER See Page 3
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By Sean Savage As both the holiest site in Judaism and home to a 1,400-year-old mosque, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound is a natural flashpoint of Jewish-Muslim tension. But the conflict over the holy site has been particularly heated over the past year, with the latest incidents coming during the recent Passover holiday. In late April, a group of Muslims were removed from the Temple Mount for chanting “Allahu akbar” at nearly 1,000 Jewish and Christian visitors who had ascended the site during the Passover holiday. Prior to that, 13 Jews were removed from the Temple Mount for illegally praying at the site. Following those incidents, Jordan’s government warned of “serious consequences” for Israel over what it has described as “the invasion of settler groups and Israeli occupying forces in the Al-Aqsa mosque.” “There’s absolutely no basis for these claims,” Israeli officials countered. “Israel is behaving responsibly, and Jordan knows that.” Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that Israel will not change the Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian status quo—in place for nearly 25 years—of a ban on Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, despite pressure from some members of his own political party and ministerial cabinet to do so. Continued on page 16
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Tensions rise over Temple Mt. We must never forget their sacrifices