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TheJewishStar.com
Shabbos Bamidbar • June 10, 2016 • 5 Sivan 5776 • Fri candles 8:07 pm • Shavuot candles Sat 9:08 pm, Sun 9:09 (Luach page 19) • Vol 15, No 23
BRAINSTORM
The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities
Yehuda Kamenetzky’s book recounts how medicine and emunah beat deadly tumor By Tiferet Schafler ith great tragedy often comes great insight, and such is represented in Rabbi Yehuda Boruch Kamenetzky’s just-released book, “Brainstorm: A deadly tumor. A young man. A story of medicine, emunah — and triumph” (Mesorah Publications Shaar Press). With humor and hodaah, Rabbi Kamenetzky, a former resident of Woodmere, and the son of Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva of South Shore in Hewlett, takes readers on his tumultuous journey which began, at age 19, when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Rabbi Kamenetzky, using a pen name, originally recounted his experiences in a series of articles for Ami Magazine. After receiving much positive feedback, he sought to reach a larger
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audience, primarily so “that people with illness should be able to relate to what I went through, but also as a form of hakarat hatov, and to show the awareness of nature that I gained — how the body and nature is so complex and intricate, how boundless Hashem’s knowledge is,” he told The Jewish Star. In a tight-knit community such as the Five Towns, news spreads fast, and while most people are well-intentioned, everyone wants to know the Who, What and Where, and contribute their advice. “Getting unsolicited advice is like getting hit with those peklach they throw at a chassan: You have to learn to grab the sweets and ignore the nuts,” he writes. It can be difficult for members of the community to “come out” with their illContinued on page 21
Long Island smiles for Israel along a very soggy 5th Avenue
FARHUD: After 75 years, never forget Bahgdad’s pogrom
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fortunate minority. When the Farhud — which means, in Arabic, “violent dispossession” — erupted, there were around 90,000 Jews still living in the Iraqi capital, the main component of a vibrant community descended from the sages who, 27 centuries earlier, had made the land once known as Babylon the intellectual and spiritual center of Judaism. By the time the violent mob stood down, at the end of the festival of Shavuot, nearly 200 Jews lay dead, with hundreds Continued on page 6
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Commentary by Ben Cohen very Iraqi Jew has a tale to tell about the Farhud, the two-day pogrom that befell the Jews of Baghdad 75 years ago, in June 1941. In the case of my own family, it was a matter of heeding the advice of a Muslim business colleague of my grandfather, who told him that dark days were looming for the Jews, and that he would be wise to get his family out of the country as quickly as possible — which my grandfather did. But my grandfather was part of a
An estimated 40,000 people defied the weather on Sunday to march along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in an emphatic demonstration of their love and support for the Jewish state of Israel. Scores of Long Island schools and religious instiututions participated, many deploying young marchers who appeared to relish their steadfastness in the face of downpours and threatened thunderstorms. Smiling girls from the Shulamith school in Cedarhurst are pictured above; happy campers from DRS are at left. More photos on pages 4 and 5.