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Parsha Korach • June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 • Five Towns Candlelighting 8:11 pm, Havdalah 9:20 • Luach page 19 • Vol 16, No 23

The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities

OU mounts Capitol Hill with Orthodox concerns South Shore Rep. Kathleen Rice (above) greets members of the OU Advocacy on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress who addressed the delegates included (from far left) Bronx Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez. OU Advocacy Center

From the OU Advocacy Center More than 125 lay and rabbinic leaders of Orthodox Jewish communities from across the country convened on Capitol Hill and at the White House on June 15 for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center’s annual Leadership Mission to Washington. Throughout the day-long mission, the delegates focused on advocating for three issues critical to the Orthodox community:

•Greater funding for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program to protect Jewish day schools, synagogues and other nonprofits from attacks; •Passing the Taylor Force Act, which will suspend U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends its practice of paying financial stipends to the families of terrorists; •Advancing school choice to empower parents to offer their children with high-quality K-12 education.

his commitment to pass bipartisan legislation. North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the Education Committee, emphasized her commitment to school choice policies. OU delegates met with their congressional representatives in small groups to discuss the policy agenda and afterwards reconvened for a luncheon with senators. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) announced the 98-2 vote that had

“We are grateful that so many prominent leaders of our community came to Washington and successfully advance the critical policy priorities of security for Israel, security for American Jewish schools and synagogues and school choice,” said OU Advocacy Center Executive Director Nathan Diament. Bronx Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke of

just occurred in favor of new sanctions on Iran, for which he received a standing ovation. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the U.S. must make sure Iran is held accountable for its actions. “They haven’t moderated a bit,” Schumer said. “They’re still exporting terrorism.” Schumer was among several senators who spoke about the need to See OU advocacy on page 21

Israel aids ‘settlements’ as U.S. ups peace ante “We are doing this responsibly and with discretion,” Netanyahu added. After Israel’s most recent construction approval—for 2,000 new housing units across numerous settlement communities— the Jewish state has now green-lighted a total of nearly 8,000 units so far this year. High demand for settlement housing For leaders of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria—the biblical provinces that make up what is commonly referred to as the West Bank—permits to build additional housing are not coming fast enough to meet growing demand. Oded Revivi, the mayor of Efrat (one of Israel’s largest settlements) and foreign spokesman of the Yesha Council, a coordinating body for Judea and Samaria’s muSee Israel on page 4

From little HALB … to big HALB

Children from HALB’s kindergarten last week visited HALB’s Woodmere campus — Big HALB, they called it. The annual end-of-year visit enables our kindergartners to experience firsthand what it means to be a first grader. They met HALB administrators, including their principal, Richard Altabe, who entertained the kindergartners with an amusing story of his first day in HALB’s kindergarten when he was their age. The high point of the visit was spending time with the first grade teachers, Morah and Rebbe.

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By Alex Traiman, JNS.org Following commemorations for the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War, when Israel’s territorial victories included taking control of Judea and Samaria, the Israeli government is pledging to strengthen the Jewish settlement enterprise. At the same time, Israel is preparing for the possibility of another U.S. attempt to broker a formal peace agreement with the Palestinians. In mid-February, President Donald Trump had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements for a little bit.” Yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on June 6, “Alongside our desire to reach an agreement with our Palestinian neighbors, we will continue to protect the settlement enterprise and strengthen it.”

Hidden texts prompt a new view of biblical digs By Adam Abrams, JNS.org The recent discovery of a previously invisible inscription on the back of an ancient pottery shard, that was on display at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum for over 50 years, has prompted Tel Aviv University researchers to consider what other hidden inscriptions may have been discarded during archaeological digs, before the availability of high-tech imaging. The ancient shard was uncovered in poor condition at the desert fortress of Arad in 1965 and dates back to 600 BC, before Judah’s Kingdom was destroyed by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, adding to knowledge about the First Temple period in Israel. Arie Shaus, of Tel Aviv University’s department of applied mathematics, one of the principal researchers who studied the artifact, told JNS.org, “The front side of the shard was thoroughly studied, and it begins with some kind of standard letter opening, with one person blessing another using the sacred name of G-d. Shaus explained that this use of sacred language, although a “small detail,” is “interesting and important” because it shows the Jewish religion and laws currently used by modern Jews “are a bit different to what was practiced back then.” The fact that Jews living in Israel 2,600 years ago could “freely” write the full spelling of G-d’s name differs from modern Jewish law forbidding the practice.

The discovery process

Researchers used high-tech multispectral imaging, unavailable 50 years ago, which revealed previously unseen markings on the backside of the shard. The imaging process adds ad-

Steinhardt correction A headline on last week’s story about Birthright founder Michael Steinhardt, in which a view was attributed to Steinhardt regarding the relationship of American Jews and religion, did not reflect Steinhardt’s statement in the article. The Jewish Star strives for accuracy, and we are grateful whenever readers bring errors or imprecisions to our attention. Please direct such notes to Publisher@TheJewishStar.com, or call Editor and Publisher Ed Weintrob at 718-908-5555.

A man named Hananyahu, who may have been a quartermaster in a neighboring fort in Be’er Sheva, wrote the inscription and “had quite a friendly correspondence” with El-Yashiv, Shaus said. “Sometimes with these texts, the opening will show that the person is subordinate or superior, but this one is quite friendly. So it seems like they are colleagues, or the same rank,” he added. The new discovery is part of several large research projects currently underway in Israel to obtain imagery of all available ostraca. “We had this advanced camera, so we said why not?” he said. “It’s not as if there are millions of inscriptions, like in Mesopotamia or in Egypt. Only a few hundred inscriptions exist in Israel. So it’s doable.” While the main focus of the research is to enhance existing inscriptions, the idea to scan the back of the pottery shard in the Israel Museum was prompted when Tel Aviv University technician, Michael Cordonsky, suspected there may have been additional writing on the back. “We scanned the back and we were astounded with Images on the back of ancient pottery shard were discovered using multispectral imaging, revealing text dating from 600 BC. Tel Aviv University/PLOS.org what we discovered. It looked terrific using this technique, and it had not been visible to anyone for 2,600 years,” ditional filters, specifically to scan pottery shards, or pieces of Shaus said. “It is incredible, and we were extremely exstone with inscriptions called ostraca, and uses algorithms to cited to have discovered this kind of material, but it’s also a bit produce an optimal image. tragic because now we think about all of the inscriptions that After deciphering 50 characters on the back, researchers un- we may have lost,” as during archaeological excavations, lots of derstood the previously hidden inscription was a continuation pottery is found and later discarded. of the text on the front. The newly discovered text begins with a As a result of the new discovery, researchers will approach request for wine and a guarantee for assistance if the addressee how they handle pottery shards found during archaeological has any of his own requests. digs differently. “It seems that these guys drank quite a lot, or maybe the “Maybe they should just image everything,” Shaus said. wine was used for antiseptic reasons,” Shaus observed. “Using low-cost equipment like the camera used in this disThe multispectral imaging also improved the reading of the covery would allow each excavation to buy or construct one… front side, adding four new lines of text. According to Shaus, or at least create a filtering system whereby only samples of potthe message was addressed to a man called El-Yashiv, who was tery, which could have been used for writing, are saved and a quartermaster of the Arad fort. scanned. “He had some sort of large storage facility and people brought “Maybe we have lost more inscriptions than we have found, him wine, olive oil and flour, and he was corresponding with but didn’t figure it out until now. It’s tragic, but we are also optineighboring forts and armies around the fort,” he explained. mistic, because now we have the technology to do this.”

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Israel heightens settlement push as U.S. acts… Continued from page 1 nicipal councils, noted that Efrat has a population of 10,000 but is “zoned for 70,000.” “I believe Netanyahu wants to build more across Judea and Samaria, but feels held back by the international community,” Revivi told JNS.org. At an Israeli cabinet meeting June 11, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said construction approvals “for the first half of 2017 are the highest since 1992,” and asserted that “there was and will not be a government that will take better care of the Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.” “Anyone who claims that it was possible to approve more construction in the settlements is not just trying to stretch the rope but to tear it completely, thereby endangering the entire settlement enterprise,” said Lieberman, who lives in the settlement of Nokdim. Revivi countered, “I don’t believe that Jews should be limited from building in Judea. This is our ancestral homeland and no other people have more of a claim to this place. We are living, breathing people with families and businesses, we need to build a lot more to cater to our growing population. In addition, there is a huge demand for property in Judea and Samaria.” According to Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron, demand for Jewish housing in Judea and Samaria is at an all-time high. “The way you can know very quickly if there is enough building is to look at the prices,” Fleisher told JNS.org. “Today the prices for apartments is very high, because the supply of houses is so low, relative to the demand.” Fleisher explained that within the

Construction beginning in the West Bank on the new Israeli settlement Amichai meant for the evacuees of the Amona outpost, pictured on June 20. Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

700-member Jewish community of Hebron— home of the Cave of the Patriarchs, one of Judaism’s holiest sites—“the demand for housing is large,” despite the Jewish community living in a city with upwards of 200,000 Arabs. “We have hundreds of families on a waiting list. We haven’t built anything new since 2005,” said Fleisher. When it comes to government investment and approvals for new Jewish housing, Fleisher said that “many areas across Judea and Samaria are still treated like a stepchild, instead of as part of Israel proper.”

Renewed peace push

Fleisher said contraction in Judea and Samaria is curbed “in order to keep the twostate solution as an option,” even though chances for that outcome “are slipping away.” President Trump, conveying his ambition for the peace process, recently referred to an agreement as “the ultimate deal.” “It’s certainly possible that talks will resume, but to what end?” said Efrat’s Revivi. “If President Trump wants to get Netanyahu and [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas back at the negotiation table to discuss the same proposals that have failed for two decades, we

will be no closer to peace.” “I believe the answer to peace will come from our communities in Judea and Samaria, which create jobs and real hope for Israelis and Palestinians,” he said. “True peace will be built over generations from the bottom up. The sooner the new American administration understands this, the better.” One apparent policy change for the Trump administration is the president’s willingness to break with America’s longstanding firm commitment to a two-state solution. Trump said in February, “I’m looking at two states and one state. I am very happy with the one that both parties like.” Most Israelis say settlements not ‘occupation’ According to a newly released survey conducted by Dr. Nimrod Rosler of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal, founder of “Save Israel Stop the Occupation,” an organization that states it “unites Jewish progressive forces in the diaspora with Israeli initiatives for coordinated action and collective impact to end the occupation,” about 70 percent of Israelis by the end of 2016 did not view the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria as an “occupation,” compared to 51 percent in 2004. Further, the survey said 67 percent of Israelis did not view Jewish settlements as a threat to Israeli democracy, and about 66 percent were not bothered that Israel “is ruling already 50 years over the Palestinians in the territories.” “Within Israel, most people understand that the 450,000 Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria are an irreversible fact,” Revivi said. “The vast majority of Israelis have friends or relatives living in our communities and understand that we are here to stay.”

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By Adam Abrams, JNS.org During the 20th Maccabiah Games next month, about 7,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries will descend upon the Holy Land to join 2,500 Israeli athletes in the Olympic-style competition. Held every four years, the Jewish multisport competition is the world’s third-largest sporting event. From July 4-18, the Maccabiah Games will have the added significance of coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the reunification of this year’s host city, Jerusalem. “Fifty years after unification, we have finally returned the Maccabiah to its rightful place, Jerusalem—the capital of Israel,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told reporters Tuesday. Tamir Goodman, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker who gained fame during his high school basketball career in 1999, when Sports Illustrated magazine nicknamed him the “Jewish Jordan,” noted that some of the most successful Jewish athletes are “deeply rooted” in their spiritual connection to Judaism or their connection to Israel. Goodman, who in his playing days was known for balancing a busy secular game schedule with his observance of Orthodox rituals, was given the honor of lighting the torch at the opening ceremonies of the 2001 Maccabiah Games in Atlanta. “It’s very exciting that this year’s athletes will be able to showcase their skills in Jerusalem, especially now during the 50th reunification year,” Goodman told JNS.org. “Hopefully the experience will further their connection to Israel and their Jewish identity, and also enhance their skill level.” Basketball player and coach Larry Brown, swimmers Jason Lezak and Mark Spitz, and gymnast Mitch Gaylord are among the many Jewish athletes who have competed in the Maccabiah Games before going on to achieve fame in the broader international sports arena.

BASWIM via WikiCommons

Jewish athletes ‘return’ to J’salem Maccabiah

Ze’ev Barkan, zeevveez on flickr

June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

Top: Medals at the Maccabiah games 2009, with slogan ‫( יח לארשי םע‬Am Israel Chai — “The people of Israel lives”) Left: A sign for the 19th Maccabiah, 2013.

A mix of modern-day Israeli and international Jewish sports stars will compete in the 2017 games and participate in the opening ceremonies, including Israeli Olympic judo bronze medalists Ori Sasson and Yarden Gerbi, Israeli Paralympics rower Moran Samuel, Israeli rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin, Israeli NBA star Omri Casspi, American Olympic gold medalist swimmer Anthony Ervin, and French Olympic gold medalist swimmer Fabien Gilot. Commenting on the significance of diaspora Jews’ participation in the Maccabiah Games alongside Israeli athletes, Jeffrey Gurock, a professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University, told JNS.org, “In the 1930s, when the Jews were vulnerable, the Maccabiah provided an opportunity for Jewish athletes to project strength and pride to the world.” “Today it is no less important for American

Jewish sportspeople to affirm through participation in these games their solidarity with a strong Israel, even as the Jewish state faces foes in so many world arenas,” Gurock added. During the 2017 games, contestants will compete in 43 different sports in the categories of Youth, Open, Masters and Paralympics. In the host city, some 3,000 athletes will participate in 14 sports at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena and other venues. Additional competitions will be held at 68 sports complexes throughout Israel. Soccer is the largest contest in the Maccabiah Games, with more than 1,400 athletes from 20 countries participating. In addition to the athletes, as many as 20,000 international fans are expected to attend the games, injecting around $100 million into Israel’s economy. “I am ecstatic that on the 50th year of the unification of Jerusalem, we are opening the

biggest Maccabiah yet,” Amir Peled, chairman of the Maccabiah Games, told JNS.org. “The Maccabiah is the essence of the values I believe in: Zionism, Judaism, brotherhood, peoplehood and sports. The Maccabiah is the one place that Jews from all over the world can come together and bond, and there’s no better place to do so than Jerusalem.” Yossi Sharabi, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport, said the athletic competition “strengthens the connection between the Jewish communities around the world.” He told JNS.org, “It is only natural that in the 50th year of the reunification of Jerusalem, a significant milestone for the Jews of the world wherever they are, the celebrations will be united and will take place in the city of Jerusalem.”

Kraft brings football Hall of Famers to Israel By Hillel Kuttler, JTA RAMAT HASHARON — An Israeli soldier clapped football great and Vietnam War veteran Roger Staubach on the shoulder at a soccer field here, telling the 1963 Heisman Trophy winner and U.S. Naval Academy grad that he and his brother serve in the paratroopers. The introduction Thursday evening prompted Staubach to hark back to early June 1967, when he was serving in Vietnam and heard a report on his walkie-talkie that Israel was about to be attacked. Staubach recalled being concerned for Israel – and then a week later learning that the country emerged victorious in the Six-Day War. Staubach, who went on to play 11 seasons at quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and win two Super Bowl championships, was among 18 Pro Football Hall of Famers who came to Israel this week on a week-long goodwill visit sponsored by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The group included Jim Brown, Joe Montana, Eric Dickerson and Marshall Faulk. For all but two it was their first time in Israel. Some told Kraft they were afraid to come. Others were drawn by their religious convictions. On Friday, they visited Christian sites near the Sea of Galilee, and many underwent baptism in the nearby Jordan River. “I love bringing people from America to the Holy Land who’ve never been here,” Kraft told JTA in an interview following Thursday’s event in this coastal city near Tel Aviv. “I think bringing these Hall of Famers – it’s a treat for them, and they see that [Israel] is not like it is [described] in the media.” Noting the fear, he added: “If I didn’t come on this trip, they wouldn’t have come. If I was willing to come, they’d come.” The visit was kept under wraps until just before their arrival Wednesday over concerns that

plause from an audience of adult Israeli tackle football players sitting in the grandstand, then settled in to watch a game featuring high schoolers. Nearly 2,000 players -males and females -- participate in adult and youth football leagues in Israel, according to Steve Leibowitz, the president of American Football in Israel. Kraft said such delegations serve to deepen interest in football. “It’s a great thrill for kids in the country, that they can meet guys they look up to,” he said. Jerome Bettis extended his right hand to display the Super Bowl XL championship ring he earned as a running back with Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, right, with the Pittsburgh Steelers in a vicNew England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, drew the loudest ap- tory over the Seattle Seahawks. plause when a group of football Hall of Famers was introduced in It was his final game before retiring in 2006. Ramat Hasharon, Israel, on June 15. Hillel Kuttler Brown, widely considered the greatest running back ever, anti-Israel activists might pressure the players was helped up from his chair by Cris Carter, a to boycott the country. Before returning to America on Tuesday, the wide receiver voted to an all-1990s team, and Hall of Famers will attend the dedication of a waved to the crowd. Dickerson, whose singlesports complex in Jerusalem with a regulation- season record of 2,105 yards has stood for 32 size football field that Kraft is building. In be- years, and then Faulk took bows. Carter was sandwiched between Bettis and tween, the delegation is visiting Tel Aviv, the Brown. “We’ve got some running backs!” he exOld City of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. In Ramat Hasharon, a lineup of Israeli high claimed. Montana, winner of four Super Bowls while school players excitedly awaited the legends on the field as they alighted from two charter bus- quarterbacking the San Francisco 49ers, was es along with their spouses, Kraft and his staff, introduced last, and drew the biggest ovation. As for Staubach, the visit to Israel was and Hall of Fame officials. The heroes of yore fraught with meaning for several of the players. wore their Hall of Fame yellow blazers. Lem Barney, a former Detroit Lions cornerThe group was introduced to hearty ap-

back, and Dave Casper, an ex-Oakland Raiders tight end, told JTA that their religious convictions drew them to accept the invitation from Kraft and the Hall of Fame. “When they talked about coming here, the birthplace of our Lord and savior – I could’ve walked here,” said Barney, who serves as associate minister at Empowerment Church in Southfield, Michigan. As to sites he looked forward to visiting in Israel, Barney wasn’t particular. “Just seeing a puddle of water. Just being here – the great spirituality it holds,” he said. “Being here, where I know my Lord and savior is from, is just so amazing. This is a dream come true.” Barney believes that most NFL players have a religious conviction, and “couldn’t have done what they did in the league without the spiritual” dimension. Casper said he doesn’t like to travel, and 10 years ago he would not have taken off from his job in the insurance industry in his native Minnesota to go abroad for a week. But coming here with his wife, Susan, was different. “Israel is the center of what’s happening, and it’s good to see it,” Casper said. Casper said approximately 25 percent of his clients are Jewish, and he frequently asks them about Judaism. Several urged him to visit Israel, including those with business interests in the Jewish state. Israel apparently is good for the business of the Patriots, too. Kraft told JTA that his team won Super Bowl IL over Seattle ahead of the first visit of Hall of Famers he sponsored in 2015, and Super Bowl LI, in equally thrilling fashion, over the Atlanta Falcons in February. Will he continue the every-other-year pattern of championship wins and Israel trips? Said Kraft: “I hope so.”

A girl standing on the ladder she built in Mitzpe Ramon.

questions. His dog, Laurie, lay nearby in the shade. Hundreds of educators, students and parents have come to Gan Keshet this year alone. The school has become somewhat famous in Israel since the Channel 1 TV station ran a news story about it in April. The video has been viewed 1 million times on Facebook. Yoav Donyets, Mitzpe Ramon’s education director and a committed advocate for Gan Keshet, said a half-dozen families had moved to the city to enroll their children in the school. For the first time this term, Donyets said, he could not accommodate all the requests for new students. And he expects the demand to be higher next year. “It’s crazy a kindergarten in Mitzpe Ramon is so interesting for people,” Donyets said in an interview at his office. “It’s something where people say if they can do it down there, of course we can also.” The visiting instructors agreed that parents at their schools wanted Gan Keshet-like programming. A few educators from rural schools said they had started taking their children outside once or twice a week to learn to live in nature for at least a few hours. But Mitzpe Ramon is a fairly remote town hugging the lip of the vast, crater-like Makhtesh Ramon, 50 miles from the major southern city of Beersheba. Most of the visiting educators come from Beersheba, and they described challenges adapting the model to an urban environment. Idit Harel, a teacher and instructor for 18 preschools in the city, said she doubted she

Andrew Tobin

would find support to do more than visit a nearby park. “Our parents are stressed that the kids will come home with sand in their shoes or in their clothes or in their hair. I get telephone calls saying they want their children clean,” she said. “There are also lots of concerns about security.” Meanwhile, the children largely ignored the visiting instructors. A group of boys took a break from wrestling under the tent to show off their technique for checking under rocks for scorpions or centipedes. Carmi, a 6-year-old girl covered head to toe in dirt, offered a tour of the restroom, a clearing at the edge of the kindergarten’s designated area, and explained how to dig a hole to “do a kaki” and then mark it with a stick. “You put it here, so no one else goes in the same spot,” she said, giggling. Meirav Perry, a teacher at a local elementary school, brought her first-grade class to visit Gan Keshet on Tuesday afternoon, as she does every week. She has seen the results of its approach: Two of her daughters have gone through the kindergarten, and her youngest daughter will start in a couple years. “The kids don’t always love it at first. Like their parents, they think they would prefer to be inside in the air conditioning,” she said. “But look, they are very happy and independent. They know how to play alone. They don’t need people all the time to tell them what to do. They are creative, and they are strong.” Meltzer, 33, moved to Mitzpe Ramon in 2011. Having previously lived with cave dwell-

ers in southern Spain and in a yurt in a village in northern Israel, he and his wife were looking for a simple way of life close to nature. They and their year-and-a-half-old daughter still sleep in a yurt attached to their house. Despite having no formal training as an educator, Meltzer was soon hired as a teacher at Gan Keshet. The next school year he took over as the principal and began moving classes outdoors. There was some pushback from parents and local officials, especially during the winter months, but he quickly won allies like Donyets and Perry. By the end of the 2012-13 school year, Meltzer and his allies convinced Israel’s Education Ministry to designate Gan Keshet an “experimental school” and let him move class entirely outdoors. In 2015, the ministry upgraded Gan Keshet to a “model school,” meaning it would support other schools in adopting its approach. A ministry spokeswoman said “a lot of local municipalities” were expressing interest in forest kindergartens and that a new experimental school was approved this term in northern Israel. Donyets and Meltzer said several private forest kindergartens opened this school year, and more public pilots were planned for next year. Meltzer has twice visited forest kindergartens in Germany to get inspiration and guidance. Germany has more than 1,500 such schools, one of which was profiled recently in The New York Times. Forest kindergartens were first developed in Scandinavia and now exist in the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and South Korea. As the Times noted, a study by a German doctoral student found that graduates of that country’s forest kindergartens had a “clear advantage” over their peers who complete regular kindergartens, outperforming them in cognitive and physical ability and in creativity and social development. Forest kindergartens may have an emotional appeal for some Israelis. Living close to the land is a central tenant of Zionism, the country’s founding ideology. But Meltzer said he takes a wider view. “I never meant to be a teacher. I just knew that I wanted to take people from Western society and connect them to nature,” said Meltzer, who is studying education part-time at a local college. “Now I see potential to have a big influence on Israel and the world by helping children build a strong foundation, physically and emotionally.” At 1:30 pm with the instructors on the bus back to Beersheba, Meltzer gathered the children for “afternoon circle,” where they ate roasted potatoes and freshly sliced fruit. About a third went home with their parents, and the rest made the 30-minute walk to their schoolhouse in central Mitzpe Ramon, where they stayed until 4. Almost everyone spent the final hours in the backyard, playing in the dirt.

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By Andrew Tobin, JTA MITZPE RAMON — It sounds like a Jewish mother’s nightmare: a preschool class held outdoors in the desert. But parents in this remote Israeli town drop off their children at Gan Keshet every weekday during the school year, setting them free to cook on a campfire, whittle sticks with switchblades and search for scorpions. Class goes on rain (rare) or shine (intense). “The kids meet real life when they come here,” said Ron Meltzer, the school’s soft-spoken principal and visionary. “Spending time in nature — without an iPhone or computer — gives them many important gifts. I think it’s a solution for a major problem in our culture today.” Gan Keshet, which means “rainbow kindergarten” in Hebrew, is the country’s first “forest kindergarten” — and it’s public. Thanks to local media coverage and word of mouth, parents have lined up to enroll their children and educators across Israel have sought to emulate the model. On Tuesday, school started as usual at 7:30 am. Under loose supervision by Meltzer and two other teachers, the children, aged 3 to 6, played in a grove of pine trees alongside a dusty one-lane road on the edge of town. A group of boys carved sticks to be fashioned into bows and arrows, and a girl built a rope ladder between the branches of a tree. Others sat on picnic mats drawing pictures, reading books and stacking wooden building blocks. Several children helped Meltzer cook Druze-style pita bread over a stone fire pit for breakfast — adding kindling to the fire and putting dough on the convex iron “saj.” Despite the apparent lack of boundaries, there are rituals and rules providing structure. In the rising heat, the children stayed within a mostly shady football field-sized area marked off on each of four sides by trees and rocks that all of them could readily identify. At about 9:30 am, after orderly handwashing and water-drinking ceremonies, everyone gathered around a large ring of stones for “morning circle.” They sang songs and listened to a story ahead of breakfast — vegetables wrapped in the pita. When the story, about a friendly giant, was interrupted by the announcement of an earthquake drill over a nearby elementary school’s loudspeakers, Meltzer explained that outside would be the safest place to be if the earth started shaking. “But we’re already outside!” a blonde 6-year-old named Nomi exclaimed triumphantly. As morning circle wrapped at 10 am, a group of about 30 teaching instructors from the Negev region showed up in a bus to observe the preschool. The idea was to incorporate some of its principles in their own classrooms. Meltzer, shaggy haired in shorts and sandals, gave an overview and fielded

THE JEWISH STAR June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777

Outdoor preschool in Negev shakes up Israeli ed

Israeli advances may transform cancer treatment By Ben Hartman for JTA Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for 22.5 percent of American fatalities. Only heart disease is more deadly. In Israel, cancer is the No. 1 killer. That’s partly why Israel has become a research leader in the fight against the disease. Many of the world’s most effective cancer treatments have roots in Israeli research, sometimes going back decades. The work taking place in Israeli labs today may lead to lifesaving treatments years in the future. Here are five promising areas Israeli researchers are studying in their quest for better cancer detection and treatment. Together they provide a glimpse into the remarkable scope of cancer research being conducted by internationally re-

HEALTH, MIND & BODY Section sponsored by Alina Bergan DDS 650 Central Ave, Suite F • Cedarhurst • 516-203-4556 nowned scientists across Israeli institutions. Mutant reeducation and the fight against ovarian cancer Mutant reeducation may sound like the plot of the next “X-Men” movie, but for a team of Israeli researchers it could be central to finding

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new treatments for ovarian cancer, an especially deadly disease because of the difficulties of early detection. This year, 22,440 women in America will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 14,080 will die from it, according to American Cancer Society estimates. In a program at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science financed in part by the Israel Cancer Research Fund, Dr. Varda Rotter is looking for ways to fight the disease on the molecular level using a protein known as the “king of tumor suppressors.” The protein, p53, stops the formation of tumors. But when p53 mutates, it makes cancer cells more malignant and boosts their resistance to drugs. Rotter and her team have identified a small number of molecules that are able to “reeducate” mutant p53 and restore it to its role scanning for damaged DNA and stopping the development of tumors. “We are trying to find a way to convert or reeducate the mutant p53 to its role as the ‘guardian of the genome’,” Rotter said. Rotter hopes her team’s research will result in methods that can be applied along with immunotherapy to give women with ovarian cancer a better chance of beating the disease. Restoring infertility? Hit restart button. For many cancer patients, surviving is just the first part of the battle. They often face serious lifelong problems, such as infertility or the loss

of healthy tissue that is highly difficult to regrow. “How do you replace damaged body parts?” asked Dr. Jacob Hanna of Weizmann Institute. The key, Hanna and many others believe, lies in stem cells. Stem cells are early-stage cells that are capable of dividing into infinitely more cells and have the potential to become different cell types, such as bone, skin or muscle. Stem cells can help repair damaged tissue. Hanna is using ICRF funding to research ways to take cells from healthy areas of the patient’s body and turn them back into induced embryonic stem cells — the equivalent of the first cells with which each human body begins. Because the stem cells in Hanna’s model would come directly from the patient’s DNA rather than from a donor, the tissue would not face rejection. Reverting the cells to their beginning state would be “like hitting the restart button of your computer,” Hanna said. The treatment would be unique. Currently the only proven stem-cell therapy in use is centered on transplanting bone marrow. There are no stem-cell-based treatments for replacing organs or tissue other than blood. But Hanna believes stem-cell treatments are going to become reality in the next 20 years, and restoring fertility to infertile cancer survivors could be one major benefit. “We want to make mature human cells in the Petri dish,” Hanna said. “If this is successful, it could be a major breakthrough for solving infertility problems in general, not only for women who underwent chemotherapy.” For example, scientists could make an unlimited supply of female eggs by growing stem cells in a dish and freezing them. “This could stop doctors from avoiding doing chemotherapy because they’re worried about damaging the patient’s fertility,” Hanna said. “It would allow them to give longer treatment or stronger regiments.” See Israeli cancer on page 10

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Continued from page 8 To fight brain cancer, think very, very small. Glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer, carries a very grim prognosis: Patients have a median survival time of about 15 months from the day of discovery. Tel Aviv University researcher Dr. Dan Peer is seeking ways to fight brain tumors using a targeted nanoparticle platform to transport drugs directly to the sites that need treatment rather than a more general chemotherapy or surgery. Targeted treatments the size of a nanometer – a millionth of a millimeter — would minimize the effects on the rest of the body by targeting only the cancer cells and avoiding healthy cells nearby. The delivery vehicle would be RNA — ribonucleic acid, whose main role is to carry instructions from DNA. It is one of the three major biological macromolecules essential for all forms of life, along with DNA and proteins. By binding the RNA to a nanoparticle platform, researchers hope to bypass the hurdles that usually thwart drug delivery by specifically targeting the problem areas of the tumor. “The fact that nanomedicine can get around many of the obstacles that hinder drug delivery could mean a greater quality of life and life expectancy for patients suffering from highly deadly forms of cancer like glioblastoma,” Peer said.

He and his colleagues are also using their ICRF research grant to examine ways to design drugs suited to a patient’s specific genetic profile and then develop appropriate nanoparticle delivery vehicles. By carrying the drugs specifically to the cancer cells and not to the healthy ones, the treatment will have fewer adverse effects and toxicities for the patient while maximizing the drugs’ therapeutic effect. “If we can somehow diminish the spreading of the tumor and improve diagnosis and therapeutic effect,” Peer said, “that will be beneficial for the patient.” Fighting carcinomas: Rehab for non-malignant cells We’ve all had moments in life that spark our survival instincts under stress. Humans aren’t the only ones that use chemical processes to survive stressful situations. To survive high fevers, for example, organisms as small as cells deploy the “heat-shock response” — activating proteins called chaperones that help cells maintain their structure and not melt down in the event of high temperatures. Tumors, too, use the heat-shock response to increase their odds of survival and grow ever-more malignant. For tumors to expand and metastasize, they “recruit” non-malignant cells in the tumor microenvironment and get them to work for them and help them evade the immune system. Dr. Ruth

Scherz-Shouval of the Weizmann Institute is studying the tumor microenvironment to determine how the non-cancerous cells get reprogrammed to act against the body and support the tumor rather than defend the body against the tumorous growth. “The cells of the microenvironment don’t have the mutation that causes cancer cells to become cancer cells – yet they do things they are not supposed to do,” she said. “We are interested in understanding how this happens.” Scherz-Shouval compared treatment in the microenvironment to rehabilitating a nonviolent offender who can still be put on the right path — unlike a hardened felon (the tumorous cell) who is too far gone to save. Think rehab for non-malignant cells. The research is relevant to solid tumors and specifically to carcinomas — a cancer arising in skin tissue or the lining of internal organs. Scherz-Shouval has found a correlation between the heat-shock response and poor patient survival in late-stage breast and lung cancer. She hopes her research, backed by the ICRF, will lead to a more generalized way to target cells in the microenvironment that will complement current cancer treatments and give patients a better chance at recovery. Wanted: A better way to fight leukemia Israel has the fourth-highest per capita rate of leukemia deaths worldwide. In America, leukemia kills more than 24,000 people per year. Most leukemia treatments today focus on chemotherapy, steroid drugs and stem-cell transplants.

But Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researcher Roi Gazit is on the hunt for more effective, targeted treatments. “Immune therapies and stem-cells treatments offer great advantages but too many options to choose from,” Gazit said. “Our models will help to better specify which treatment may suit a specific type, and even sub-type, of the disease. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for leukemia. That’s why we need tailor-made models to fit the treatment to the disease.” Gazit is focusing on how to develop targeted treatment of cancer cells using hematopoietic stem cells — stem cells used in cancer treatment because of their ability to divide and form new and different kinds of blood cells. The research involves taking primary cells — cells cultured directly from a subject — and turning them into malignant leukemia growth inside mice. By examining how the leukemia develops, Gazit is exploring ways that hematopoietic stem cells may be deployed to arrest the leukemia. The research models his lab is using, part of a project supported by the Israel Cancer Research Fund, could help scientists develop more types of immunotherapy and more ways to use stem cells to combat leukemia. “With any new information we can gain better understanding, which translates into better treatment,” Gazit said. This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Israel Cancer Research Fund.

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ometimes, the most powerful experiences are the ones you least expect. Such was the case on a recent trip to Poland. Tucked in between our visits to the Lodz Ghetto in the morning and the Warsaw Ghetto in the afternoon, we made a brief stop in a town called Czestochowa where we found ourselves on an innocuous city street off a town square. There were 30,000 Jews in Czestochowa before the war; today it is Judenrein; no Jews are left. We entered an apartment building and walked into the basement where we found ourselves squeezed into a cellar that had been dug as a bunker under the street. The walls were raw rocks and mud, and the musty smell of damp and rot was overpowering. When the last Jews of Czestochowa were being deported to Treblinka in the summer of 1943 a man named Fishman, realizing what was coming, broke through the basement wall and dug this bunker beneath the street. When the Nazis announced that all Jews must report to the Umshtagplatz for deportation he took his family and neighbors — 35 of them — down there and they hid for 12 days. We were claustrophobic after 12 minutes. Mr. Fishman himself had to lock the bunker from outside and pile furniture in front, so people would not see it or would at least think there could not be anyone in there as it was locked from the outside. He himself hid in a crawl space in the attic. When they ran out of food, he managed to forage for food in homes that had been emptied of Jews. For nearly two weeks while they remained in Czestochowa they were completely hidden from the town and thus began a life of being separate, apart and unseen. They would hide in sewer drains and forests for the better part of two years until they were liberated. Sometimes it is good to be apart. his week we read of Korach, whom Jewish tradition excoriates as a wicked man who was looking out for himself at the expense of the wider Jewish community. Korach was put off by the fact that Aaron was designated as Kohein Gadol. Apparently, Korach felt he should have been chosen for this position. So he mounted a rebellion against Moshe and Aaron, ultimately resulting in his untimely demise as G-d created an earthquake which swallowed him whole. Korach was perceived as a wicked man who was out for himself, and although he did contend that “all the members of the congregation (of Israel) are holy” (Bamidbar 16:3) and asked why the priests should be on a higher level, he nonetheless desired the high priesthood for himself. Which makes one wonder why the parsha was named after him. Especially as the Talmud (Yoma 38b, based on the verse in Proverbs, Mishlei 10:7 — “the name of the wicked shall rot”) teaches that we should not even mention the name of the wicked. There must be some redeeming message hidden in his name and in what he did. he parsha of Korach is all about division and separation. Korach’s rebellion was about the feeling (or at least the public contention) that the Jewish leadership of Moshe and Aaron was too separate from the

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people, holding themselves to be above the people (ibid. 16: 3). Even the name Korach means a bald spot (Sanhedrin 109b) describing two sections of hair on a person’s head that are separated or divided. Onkelos, in his Aramaic translation of the first words of the parsha (“and Korach took…” (ibid. 16:1) actually translates it as “ve’itpeleig,” which means to divide. Korach divided the people, trying to cut a wedge between them and the leadership. Perhaps even as we decry Korach’s actions as well as his methodology, the Torah, by naming the portion after him, wants us to remember that division, being set apart, is not always a bad thing. Rabbi Noam Elimelech of Lizhensk (quoted here by the Lubavitcher Rebbe) actually compares Korach’s actions to the second day of creation when G-d divided the waters above and below. That second day (Bereishit 1: 6-8) is the only day of creation which does not contain the words “and it was good.” Rashi (ibid. 1:7) explains that this is because the second day was when the waters separated, and separation is not good. That is also why on the third day when the waters come back together, the phrase “and it was good” is actually mentioned twice (ibid. v. 9-13) the first being for the completion (reuniting of the waters) of the division of the second day. But if separation is not good, why did G-d separate the waters at all? And why wasn’t the re-uniting of the waters done on the same second day? Why wait till the third day? Perhaps separation can be a good thing, as long as it is not the goal. here is an inherent paradox within the role of the Kohein Gadol: on the one hand he is meant to completely separate himself from the people, even confining himself to the temple and its environs (see Rambam Hilchot Klei haMikdash 5:7, and Biat ha’Mikdash 1:10). And yet he was also meant to be the lover and pursuer of peace, and Jewish tradition is replete with the legends of how Aaron would connect with the people and help them to resolve their differences and make peace amongst themselves. Indeed, it is Aaron who remains below Mount Sinai with and amongst the people, leading to the debacle of the golden calf. It seems there are times we need to separate ourselves from unhealthy environments. Indeed, the Rambam (Deot 6:1) suggests that if one lives in a wicked place he is obligated to remove himself and separate from such an environment. Ultimately, however, the goal is to return, better than before, ready to re-engage society and impact the environment (rather than have the environment simply impact us). Perhaps this is why there needs to be a separate day in creation for valuing…separation. And perhaps this is why our portion is named after Korach, the separator, so that we recall that sometimes it is good to be apart, if only to prepare to one day come back together. Seventy five years after the Jewish people — in bunkers, forests, ghettos, and gas chambers — were forced to acknowledge just how separate and “other” we had become, we have with Hashem’s help built a state in fulfillment of the verse (ibid 23:9) that we are meant to be a “People that dwell apart.” After 2,000 years we have become a nation apart — with our own army and economy, judiciary and government. We would do well to remember the lesson of Korach: as a “kingdom of priests,” we are meant to be apart from the world, but a part of it as well. Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem

THE JEWISH STAR June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777

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June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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‘Concert with message’ pumps pro-Israel crowd

From left: Israel singing superstar Elron Zabatani and Chasidic star Beri Weber electrify the crowd, and Rivka Abbe spoke eloquently about the importance of mobilizing young American Jews.

The 24th annual Israel Day Concert in Central Park — billed as a “concert with a message” — drew thousands of rain-defying pro-Israel enthusiasts following the massive Celebrate Israel Parade up Fifth Avenue. A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, the music —Israeli, American, Sephardic and Chassidic — was interspersed with brief speeches. “Coming from the United Nations, I’m not used to seeing so many supporters of Israel,” quipped Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon. “We are here to send a strong message to the U.N. and UNESCO: Jerusalem is the united capital of the Jewish people — period!” “For 2,000 years, they tried to make us forget Yerushalayim,” Danon said. “We returned and we will never leave again.” Other speakers included Dov Kalmanovitz, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, whose face was badly burned by a Palestinian terrorist during the first Intifada; former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton; former top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn; Aaron Klein of Breitbart’s Jerusalem Bureau; FoxNews contributor Pete Hegseth; Farley Weiss, national president of the National Council of Young Israel, who stressed the importance of the global war on radical Islamic terror; ZOA President Morton Klein, who contrasted the historic Jewish connection to the Land of Israel with Muslim indifference to the Land, and Rivka Abbe

Barry Brown

June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

who highlighted the importance of pro-Israel activism among all young American Jews. The concert was arranged by organizer Dr. Joseph Frager of Jamaica Estates; and chairpersons Dr. Paul Brody and Drora Brody of Great Neck. The Brodys coined the slogan, “Concert With a Message,” when they began their tenure 13 years ago. The nearly five-hour-long concert, on the massive Central Park Summerstage adorned by Ameri-

can and Israeli flags, featrured the Shloime Dachs Orchestra and Singers, Michoel Pruzansky, Beri Weber, Dr. Meyer Abittan, Jerry Markovitz, Izzy Kiefer and Heshy R, Avi Kilimnick, “Mr. Shabbos” Josh Alpert, White Shabbos, and Bezalel Levin. Special guest performers from Israel were Mati Shriki, Tal Vaknin, Elron Zabatani, and pianist extraordinaire Shlomi Aharoni. Musical highlights included the public debut of Tivne Chomot Yerush-

alayim, a moving song composed by Duvi Honig, founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, sung by Tal Vaknin. “This concert was a message to the world to strengthen the fact that Hashem gave Eretz Yisroel to the Jewish People,” explained Odeleya Jacobs. “We are here to celebrate the miracle Hashem performed on our behalf 50 years ago when we got Eretz Yisroel Hashleima, all of Eretz Yisroel. May Hashem continue

Barry Brown and Julius Motal

to bless the Am HaYehudi.” Mark Levenson, chairman of the New Jersey-Israel Commission, recounted the legendary words of Har Habayit B’yadeinu crackling over IDF radio at the end of the Six Day War — “the most beautiful words the Jewish People have heard in 2,000 years” — and spoke of the enormous social and economic progress that Israel has experienced since then. But there is still lots of work to be done, Levenson cautioned, especially in the fight against the BDS movement and other anti-Israel forces in the West. Noted IDF combat veteran and former Knesset member Yoni Chetboun, author of Under Fire, was one of many guests who traveled from Israel to attend the event. “In Israel, we see what’s around us,” Chetboun remarked, “but when we come here and see thousands of American Jews and non-Jews coming out in support of Israel, it gives us chizuk.” Dedicated in memory of Carl Freyer z”l, Dr. Manfred R. Lehman and his eishet chayil Anne z”l and Rose and Reuben Mattus z”l, it was emceed by Jewish radio personality Nachum Segal. The concert coincided with the first yartzeit of legendary pro-Israel philanthropist Dr. Irving Moskowitz z”l. A special tribute to the late doctor and his wife Cherna, who is continuing his legacy, was made by their grandson Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz. Source: Michoel Bretter

From left: Israel Day Concert emcee Nachum Segal; organizer Dr. Joe Frager, and Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon; concert Chairperson Dr. Paul Brody and entertainer Shlomie Dachs; ZOA President Morton Klein, millennial activist Dana Brody; Concert Chairperson Drora Brody, and Odeleya Jacobs, media relations. Barry Brown

By Sandy Leibowitz, The Nosher via JTA Even before slow cookers were invented, Jews all around the world were making their slow-cooked meals out of necessity and in observance of Shabbat. And as it turns out, slowcooked meals over a low flame are also incredibly delicious. Cholent and its Sephardic cousins hamin and dafina are ssentially stews — usually containing beef or poultry — braised slowly for many hours and then enjoyed as a warm meal on Shabbat. Jews from every country have their own way to make it, and the ingredients vary. Typically, an inexpensive cut of beef is used; and the long cooking process breaks down the muscle fibers and connective tissue allowing the the meat to fall apart and melt in your mouth. There are also potatoes, sometimes barley or other type of grains. Here, I decided to embrace my South American roots and make a Latin-inspired, vegetarian version of this traditional dish. Not only do these flavors come together beautifully, but you don’t have to worry about breaking down any tough meat!

I used ripe (yellow-brown) plantains, batatas (sweet potatoes) and yuca along with a variety of beans — which are all starches that come to mind with Latin American cooking. You can certainly use the green plantains; just keep in mind that they take longer to cook.

Crockpot Israeli-style stuffed peppers: Yum! By Shannon Sarna, The Nosher via JTA Stuffed peppers are a comfort food for both Americans and Israelis. But the two versions vary quite a bit in their spice profiles and methodology. American-style stuffed peppers are often topped with cheese, stuffed with corn, beans, rice and sometimes meat, and feature a more Tex-Mex spice mixture. It’s common to stuff all kinds of vegetables: onions, zucchini, eggplant and, yes, peppers. Filled with rice, meat, pine nuts, raisins, fresh herbs and varying spices, the Israeli and Sephardic versions are saucier than their American counterparts, and often impart a sweet and savory flavor profile. The American version is typically just savory. This version is inspired by a recipe from Janna Gur, a story from a colleague about her weekly stuffed peppers and my desire to make a weeknight-friendly recipe that you can make in your slow cooker. If you prefer to make it in a traditional pot on the stove, or in the oven, cook for approximately 2 hours on mediumhigh heat (or 375 F. in the oven). Gur’s recipe was featured in her second cookbook, “Jewish Soul Food.” Ingredients: For the peppers: 1 small onion (or half 1 large onion), diced 1/2 cup uncooked rice 1/2 pound ground beef 1/4 cup pine nuts 1 tomato, grated (best to hand grate the tomato on a coarse grater) 3/4 teaspoon paprika 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (or 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley) 1/4 teaspoon salt

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1/8 teaspoon pepper 5-6 bell peppers, inside seeds and membranes removed (you can leave top of peppers intact for presentation if desired) For the sauce: 15 ounces tomato sauce 1/2 cup water 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon honey 1/4 teaspoon salt Directions: Spray the inside of a 6- or 7-quart crockpot with a nonstick spray. Add tomato sauce, water, garlic cloves and honey. Stir to mix. Arrange peppers in tomato sauce in the pot. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Saute onion until translucent. Add rice, pine nuts and grated tomato, and stir to coat for 2-3 minutes. Add meat and break up with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook until meat is no longer pink, another 2-3 minutes. Scoop rice-meat mixture into each pepper until filled three-quarters of the way. Place tops to each pepper on top (this step is optional). Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low for 7-8 hours. Serve warm.

Also, the ripe plantains add a hint of sweetness that works well with the other earthy flavors. While portobello mushrooms may not be Latin American, I added them for nutrition and a meatier depth of flavor. The squeeze of fresh lime before serving really brightens this dish and brings it to the next level. Note: The less you cook this dish, the more texture will remain. Cooking longer will decrease the texture but increase the depth of flavor. Substitute parsley for cilantro if you’re not a fan of cilantro, but definitely don’t leave out the fresh lime — it really ties this dish together and makes it taste authentic. Ingredients: 1 portobello mushroom, diced 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 onion, sliced 1/2 green pepper, sliced 1/2 red pepper, sliced 10.5 oz can of black beans, rinsed 10.5 oz can of garbanzo beans rinsed

10.5 oz can of red kidney beans, rinsed 1/2 yuca, cut in 2-inch pieces (make sure to remove the fibrous stem that runs inside the center — it looks like a vine) 1/2 batata, cut into medium dice 1 plantain (choose one that is yellowish and has only a few black specks, or choose a green plantain) 1 Tbsp olive oil 1/4 cup tomato paste 1 tsp oregano 1/2 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp granulated garlic 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional) 1 tsp salt (adjust seasoning as needed) 3 cups of fresh, cold water (it should barely cover your ingredients) Fresh lime for serving Cilantro or parsley chopped for garnish Directions: 1. Saute the portobello mushroom in a small saute pan until caramelized well. Add to the bottom of your slow cooker. 2. Layer all the ingredients on top of the mushrooms. 3. Mix the tomato paste, olive oil, spices and water in a bowl and stir well. 4. Pour water and spice mixture over everything inside the slow cooker and combine. 5. Cook on low for 6–8 hours.

THE JEWISH STAR June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777

Spice up Shabbat with Latin-inspired veg cholent

June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan 5777 • Every week in print and online at TheJewishStar.com • Send news and photos to: Schools@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline: Mondays at 10 am

HAFTR students show entrepreneurial oomph By Tyler Marko, Herald Community News While most elementary students would build a paper mache volcano for their science fairs, fifth graders at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway were creating start-ups for an entrepreneur fair. After a short ceremony celebrating their promotion to the sixth grade, students and their families gathered to admire the work they had done throughout the school year. “Children are inspired to do amazing things during their lives and they don’t even realize where that inspiration comes from … we wanted to introduce these students, specifically to the skills that the market has turned towards,” said Rabbi Baruch Noy, HAFTR’s lower school coordinator for STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Rabbi Noy said preparing the students for the work world after school is the goal. “There was a lot of trying and failing and learning from their failures, which is the business world, so if they have that experience when they’re younger they won’t mind so much when they get older,” he said. “We have to prepare our students for that reality,

A pants prototype created by HAFTR fifth-graders (from left) Monica Fox, Sivan Laniado and Noah Popack. Tyler Marko

if they have a good idea and know the skills they need they can make it on their own.” Students were given a budget, pitched their products and some even completed pro-

totypes. HAFTR hopes to expand this project said lower school principal Joy Hammer. “We want to bring it down to a younger level, let fourth-graders start it next year,

and we want to move it up so that the project and the ideas of developing something continues through eighth grade,” she said. Hammer is hopeful that by the time that these students graduate some will have finished their products. The students were quite eager to show off all their hard work. One of students, Joey Cohen, said he’d probably like to be an entrepreneur when he gets older because, “It’s fun.” The excitement that other students were feeling was palpable, as many were jumping up and down while explaining their ideas and their different roles in their group. Some students said they enjoyed engineering their idea while others had more fun pitching and marketing it, but all played some role. Benjamin Gross, HAFTR’s director of information technology and educational technology was very happy with what the students did with their products. “It’s really inspiring to see these kids come up with these amazing ideas, be excited and want to build on it,” he said, “I think that we’re starting something really special.”

Robotics brings STEM to 4th graders at HALB The excitement was palpable in the Technology Lab as Mrs. Rubel introduced Cubelets Robotics to the 4th grade boys. Cubelets are small blocks that are snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming, no small parts to track, and no wires. Students were grouped in twos and each group received their own Cubelet box to explore the different function of each Cubelet. While each group created their own robots they learned that the Robot they created respond to light and other objects, move, detect temperature, make chirp sounds and have surprisingly lifelike behavior. Teaching STEM lessons with Cubelets gives students a reason to apply knowledge they’ve already learned, to verbalize it, to put into practice new vocabulary and literacy skills about engineering, problem solving, science, and technology.

SKA salutes its athletes By Miriam Koslow, SKA ‘17 The Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls hosted its annual Sports Dinner as a way of acknowledging and thanking their energetic and enthusiastic student athletes on all eight of SKA’s sports teams. The girls were treated to a delicious dinner followed by guest speaker Rabbi Eli Brazil, director of Camp Kaylie and director of student activities at DRS. He emphasized how important it is to act on the court using good middot. Sportsmanship, he said, is more important than the game. The coaches from each team gave out awards, including those for MVP, Rookie of the Year, Sportsmanship, and more. SKA thanks the amazing coaches — Basketball, Naomi Agbashof; JV Volleyball and Varsity Volleyball B, Pammy Soloman; Varsity Volleyball A, Lauren Packer and Tamar Weinberg; Softball, Esther Goldfeder and assistants Nina Meyer and Sarah Sklar;

Tennis, Helene Meyers and assistant Eliana Abbe; Hockey, Tali Weintraub and Jaclyn Wernick; and Soccer, Susie Lewin and Kelly Wright. The SKA Basketball Team received its banner from the championship game that they won in March against Bruriah High School. Captains Chaiy Bodek and Miriam Kazlow and the team retained the championship for the fourth straight year. Everyone had a great time reflecting on this past season while looking forward to next year’s. Thanks are extended to SKA Athletic Director Helene Myers; Head of School Helen Spirn; and Rabbi Yosef Zakutinsky, director of student programming for their support. The SKA Sports Dinner is a wonderful way of showing the student athletes how important each of them is to the team and to the school. SKA looks forward to another year filled with fun and championships.

THE JEWISH STAR June 23, 2017 â&#x20AC;¢ 29 Sivan, 5777

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June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

Tehillim Eis Ratzon and Aneni: Zichron Yocheved AlAn JAy Gerber Kosher BooKworm

ne of America’s premier Jewish publishers, Feldheim Publishers, recently reissued, in a revised edition, its famed “Tehillim Eis Ratzon and Aneni: Zichron Yocheved,” all in one volume, with an English translation by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Iskowitz. This revised edition was edited by the renowned Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, former editor of “Tradition: The Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought,” and sponsored by the family of Yocheved Orbach of blessed memory, whose father, Leo Schlusselberg of blessed memory, was one of Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’s chief security officers in the early years of the state. In his introduction, Rabbi Iskowitz teaches us the following concerning the importance of tehillim in the Jewish liturgical tradition: “Many psalms are found in the siddur, our daily prayer book. An increasing number of us also complete the entire Book of Psalms on

a weekly or monthly basis. In addition, many people recite pertinent psalms for health, sustenance, for the benefit of the deceased, or for countless personal needs. While these are worthy reasons, we ought to bear in mind that the plain meaning of tehillim is ‘praises.’ Do we remember to sing G-d’s praises for the good He bestows on us? “Furthermore, since we are eternally indebted to G-d, we need not wait for a special occasion in order to praise Him. Indeed, the very root of our very name, Yehudi — Jew meant to present the simple — means ‘to give thanks.’ Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Iskowitz meaning of the psalms. … In the words of the psalmist We have spared no effort in [109:30], ‘I will thank the rendering the original into an English that is Eternal exceedingly … and … praise Him.” Further on, Rabbi Iskowitz informs us of inspiring and suitable to sincere prayer.” Rabbi Iskowitz comes to this literary effort the following: “No translation is able to capture all nu- with an interesting and varied background. Born in Pittsburgh in 1941, he attended ances of the original text, let alone the subtleties and profundities inherent in its Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, the University of sacred and prophetic words. This volume is Pittsburgh, Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, and Yeshiva University, where he earned a masters

in Jewish history and semicha from the Rav at RIETS in 1968. From 1968 to 1988 he served as a U.S. Army chaplain with tours of duty at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri, Seoul in South Korea, Stuttgart and Frankfurt in Germany with Noach Lanter of North Woodmere, at Ft. Carson in Colorado and Ft. Monmouth in New Jersey. He retired in 1988 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After moving to Israel in 1988, Rabbi Iskowitz served our people in the following varied capacities: instructor at Yeshiva Ohr Samayach; editor at the Talmudic Encyclopedia, English edition; translator for Feldheim Publishers; lecturer at the OU Center in Jerusalem; and chaplain, U.S. Jewish War Veterans in Jerusalem. Given the importance of Tehillim, the Book of Psalms, in the Jewish liturgical tradition, any new English rendition of high quality and religious integrity — as this book is — becomes a welcome contribution to our religious needs. One last word: It should be noted that there are two local connections related to this new work. First, the translator’s brothSee Tehillim on page 19

The public display of arrogance by Korach rAbbi Avi billet Parsha of the weeK

n his challenge against Aharon’s role as High Priest, Korach argues that “All of the nation is holy!” (16:3) — and therefore, anyone should be able to serve as High Priest. Despite R’ Yosef B’chor Shor’s assertion that Korach challenged the kehunah (priesthood) (see 16:10) in order to rally the people, who would surely claim “he is not seeking this for himself,” I am confident that most readers need not take too much of a leap to understand that what Korach is really saying is, “I am holy. And I should be the High

Priest.” We learned two weeks ago that Moshe was the humblest person (12:3), his humility repeatedly demonstrated — he never made a big deal about himself, and sacrificed himself for the sake of the nation. When G-d told Moshe, “I will destroy them and make a new nation from you” (Shmot 32:10), Moshe’s response was, essentially, “Over my dead body.” More than anything, however, is that when he was approached by G-d to be the leader, he did everything in his power to run away from the position, to avoid the limelight. (In the United States, there has only been one unanimously elected president — the only one who did not want the job and who, when given the opportunity to become dictator, chose to go home to live out his life in quiet retirement.)

here is a major difference to be made between someone who seeks out a position of employment versus someone who is a volunteer. Neither gives any allowance for arrogance, but the idea that someone will seek higher employment for the benefit of self and family is nothing to frown upon. While in one’s job one should aim for success, and perhaps even wealth and position, nevertheless humility should dictate that the power never gets to one’s head. When it comes to being a volunteer, even more so, humility should be the rule of the day. In the many shuls I’ve davened in and visited, I’ve seen both types of volunteers. The ones who humbly go about their business — the gabbai who quietly gets the job done, the person who is available to lead the davening or to read the Torah when asked, the individual who fills in for the rabbi be-

tween Mincha/Maariv, teaching a brief matter in Jewish law. And I’ve seen the other type. The gabbai who walks around like he owns the place; the gabbai who doesn’t delegate, or even ask if anyone can lead the davening or read the Torah and simply does it himself; the shulmember who runs to read the Torah without being asked, or who snarkily criticizes the imperfect-reading of another; the one who wants to lead the davening so everyone can hear his beautiful voice (this does not include a hired cantor, whose job it is to demonstrate his skills, while still being humble about his abilities). More of these criteria are spelled out in Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 53:4,5,11. So how do we know who is arrogant? Is there a general principle or definition we can See Arrogance on page 19

Korach: One man’s push for power and glory rAbbi dAvid etenGoff

ur parasha begins with the 16th chapter of Sefer Bamidbar. It tells the story of Korach and his followers, and their rebellion against G-d and His Torah, Moshe, and Aharon. There are countless explanations as to why Korach chose to rebel, including psychological, political, sociological, and economic. In my view, Korach’s mutiny was conceived, planned, and implemented to achieve one overarching goal: Power. Many shades of meaning of the word “power” are found in the opening verses of our parasha: “Korach [and Datan, Aviram and On] … had a confrontation with Moses along with 250 Israelites who were men of rank in the community, representatives at the assembly, and famous. They demonstrated against Moses and Aaron, and declared to them, ‘You have gone too far! All the people in the community are holy, and G-d is with them. Why are you

setting yourselves above G-d’s congregation?’ When Moses heard this, he threw himself on his face. … It is actually against G-d that you and your party are demonstrating! After all, who is Aharon that you should have grievances against him?” A straightforward reading of these pasukim reveals the following: •Korach instigated the rebellion. •Korach, Datan, Aviram, On, and the 250 men of distinction had a direct confrontation (machloket) with Moshe. •The content of the machloket was a direct challenge to the G-d-given authority of both Moshe and Aharon. •The terms of rebellion were couched in ostensibly altruistic language: “All the people in the community are holy, and G-d is with them.” Korach seemingly wanted to

achieve a true populist democracy wherein everyone would be equal in his or her ability to serve Hashem. •The rebellion’s professed focus was against Moshe and Aharon. In reality, however, it was much more. It was a mutiny against G-d Himself: “It is actually against G-d that you and your party are demonstrating!” idrash Tanchuma, Korach II provides us with two examples of Korach’s repudiation of Moshe’s halachic authority that portray his rebellion against Hashem. The first vignette focuses upon Korach’s derision of tzittzit, while the second presents his repudiation of the mitzvah of Mezuzah. In both instances, the operative principle of Korach’s dismissal of Moshe’s (G-d’s) halachic hegemony is sarcasm and

Korach was a self-serving demagogue focused on repudiating Hashem’s dominion and torah. His mutiny was doomed to fail.

ridicule couched as common-sense logic: Korach jumped up and said to Moshe (in front of the assembly): “You have stated: ‘And you shall place on the tzittzit [a thread of techalet, sky blue].’ In the case of a prayer shawl [a four cornered garment] that is entirely colored techalet should it not logically be exempt from the obligation of tzittzit altogether? Moshe responded: ‘It remains obligated in tzittzit.’ Korach then said to him: ‘A garment that is entirely composed of techalet does not make it exempt from tzittzit, yet four threads [of techalet] render it ritually acceptable’?” (See Rashi’s version, as well, on 16:1) Korach continued his harassment and ridicule of Moshe and asked: “A house that is completely filled with Torah scrolls [sefarim], is it not logically the case that it should not require a mezuzah?” Moshe responded to him: “It is obligated in a mezuzah.” Korach responded: “The entire Torah that is composed of 278 parshiot is unable to fulfill the necessary obligation; yet, two sections [of the Torah] that are found in the mezuzah fulfill the obligation!” Korach then said to him: “These things were not commanded to you! You have lied about them on your own!” Therefore it says: “And KoSee Power on page 19

Arrogance… Continued from page 26 follow as a guide to see who humbly represents the congregation and who does not? The answer is yes. And the challenge is discernment. Firstly, the person’s attitude must be, “I’m available if you need me. I am happy not to do it.” Wanting to perform an honor, doubling down on one’s prowess, expertise and ability, is simply a sign of Korach. Sure, everyone is holy. But I am more worthy, therefore more holy, and therefore I should be the representative. This latter example is the kind of “humility” that Rabbi Elimelech of Lishensk warned against (Noam Elimelech, Parshat Bo), when he wrote, “There is a kind of humility that is actually supreme arrogance. This is the person who shows himself off to be humble, but he gets a tremendous thrill out of being able to tell people how humble he is.” More positively thinking, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov explained (as recorded in the Siftei Tzadikkim on next week’s parsha), that the Torah hints to us how to conduct ourselves through the purification process of the Red Heifer. The taking of the cedar wood, hyssop branch, and crimson wool and throwing them into the burning cow (19:6) is a metaphor for elevating laws through holy thoughts and proper intentions. Utilizing an analysis too long for this space, he notes how the hyssop and wool represent a meekness and humility that is demonstrated most clearly in the Mishnah Avot 4:4, which says, “Be very very hum-

ble of spirit.” As Rabbi Ovadiah Bartenura explained, being humble is sometimes extremely challenging! So a person must take extra steps to not only be humble, but to distance oneself from arrogance. This is why it says “very very” — one must tread exceedingly carefully in order not to fall. Korach missed this very simply rule. He could have said, “Aharon — you’re doing a great job. I’m a Levite, I’m available when you need me. I understand G-d appointed you.” Instead he had the insatiable desire to be the person in the spotlight, even as he touted how holy “the entire congregation is.” umility isn’t lipservice. It’s a way of being. It’s about respecting others, and giving others a chance to shine, particularly in the volunteer world of the synagogue. Roles should always be rotated. No one — other than a paid employee (rabbi, cantor, etc.) — should own any job or role. (If the paid employee doesn’t perform properly, employment termination is, for better or worse, always on the table.) To put it another way, as a friend of mine likes to put it, “You never want to be the person who everyone else is waiting for you to die in order that someone else could have that kibbud.” Korach learned that the hard way as nature’s supernatural course removed him from the equation. If we are blessed to practice and live with humility, we should be blessed to find inner peace, and the opportunity to appreciate every honor we are given (and even more so those given to others!) as we embrace our participation in synagogue life with the identifying trait of Moses — being the humblest of people.

Humility is about respecting others and giving others a chance to shine, particularly in the volunteer world of the synagogue.

Luach

Fri. June 23 • 29 Sivan Parsha Korach Rosh Chodesh Tamuz Candlelighting: 8:11 pm Havdalah: 9:20 pm

Tehillim...

Fri. June 30 • 6 Tamuz

Continued from page 26 er, Rabbi Barry Iskowitz, a musmach of Rav Gustman, zt”l, is a resident of Cedarhurst, New York and a member of the Red Shul and the Island Avenue Shul. Also, the noted pediatrician, Dr. Moshe Schlusselberg of Woodmere, a member of the Young Israel of Woodmere, is the younger brother to Yocheved, a”h, after whom this work is dedicated. FOR FURTHER STUDY The latest volume in the “Mesoras HaRav series, Sefer Bamidbar,” published by the OU Press, is finally available at all local bookstores. This English commentary, drawn from various works by Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, zt”l, was edited by Dr. Arnold Lustiger who sought out many relevant commentaries by the Rav from previously unpublished manuscripts, lectures, and reliable notes and reports of the Rav’s thoughts and commentaries. This work joins others in this series including the Rav’s Siddur, the Birkon, the Kinot, and other previous sefarim in the Chumash series. For more information on this series and related writings, see “A Chumash For All Times” by Rabbi Gil Student (bit. ly/2sPBSXX).

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Continued from page 26 rach separated himself.” he depth of Korach’s rejection of G-d and His Torah are reflected in his cynicism regarding the mitzvot of Tzittzit and Mezuzah, whose G-d-given nature he dared to challenge. In addition, it is crucial to note that Korach first assailed the obligation of tzittzit, knowing full well that this mitzvah symbolically represents the entire Torah. As the Rambam states in Hilchot Tzittzit: “A person must be extremely careful regarding the mitzvah of tzittzit since the Torah [symbolically] makes it representative of all of the mitzvot. As the Torah states: ‘You will look upon it [tzittzit] and you will remember all of the commandments of Hashem’.” (Bamidbar 15:39) Korach attempted to undermine this commandment in the eyes of the Jewish people, since he understood that if they were to remain devoted to this mandate, his rebellion would surely fail. What about Mezuzah? What is at the “heart” of this mitzvah? The Rambam suggests the following: “A person is duty-bound to be punctilious in the commandment of Mezuzah, since it is a continuous obligation that is incumbent upon us all. Each time a person enters and leaves his home he encounters the Oneness (unity) of Hashem, the name of the Holy One Blessed be He. [Then] he will remember his love for Him and awake from his “sleep” and the error of his ways [as a result of] following the foolish pursuits of his time (hevlai hazeman). He will then know and understand that there

as the Leader. And wealth and honor are from before You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is strength and might, and it is in Your hand to magnify and to strengthen all.” May each of us be zocheh to recognize the eternal truth of these stirring words, and thereby grow in our dedication and devotion to the Almighty and His holy Torah. V’chane yihi ratzon.

THE JEWISH STAR June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777

Power…

is nothing that remains forever, except for the knowledge of Hashem (Tzur Ha’olam). Immediately, he will return to the knowledge of Him and follow the proper and righteous path.” As Rashi notes, Korach was blessed with a prodigious intellect (Sefer Bamidbar 16:7). Accordingly, he recognized that if the Jewish people would remain loyal to the commandment of Mezuzah, their dedication to Hashem, Moshe and Aharon would never falter. Therefore, he sought to ridicule this precept in particular, in order to foment an attack upon the underlying rationale of the Torah. orach was a self-serving demagogue focused on repudiating Hashem’s Dominion and Torah. As such, his mutiny was doomed to fail. Chazal emphasized this idea in Pirkei Avot 5:17. “Any dispute that is for the sake of Heaven is destined to endure; one that is not for the sake of Heaven is not destined to endure. Which is a dispute that is for the sake of Heaven? The dispute(s) between Hillel and Shamai. Which is a dispute that is not for the sake of Heaven? The dispute of Korach and all his company.” Chazal have a general rule of Torah analysis: “M’klal lav atah shomeah hane” (from a negative formulation one can derive a positive idea) (Talmud Bavli, Nedarim 14a). If we apply this principle to Korach’s actions, we can deduce a positive message: We must continuously strive to live lives that are authentically dedicated l’shame shamayim (for the sake of Heaven). In so doing, may we come to recognize that true power and glory belong to Hashem. As Dovid Hamelech beautifully stated: “Yours, O L-rd, are the greatness, and the might, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth [is Yours]; Yours is the kingdom and [You are He] Who is exalted over everything

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An Israeli official speaks out about Linda Sarsour Dani Dayan

Linda Sarsour speaking at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health’s inaugural commencement ceremony at the Apollo Theater on June 1.

Israel Consul general In ny

ow that the furor over Linda Sarsour’s commencement speech at CUNY’s Graduate School of Public Health is over, it is the right time for me to draw some conclusions and express some thoughts surrounding the event. I had intended to weigh in earlier, and I could. It is not a domestic American issue in which a foreign diplomat is not entitled to intervene; it involves my country. Sarsour, the former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, supports calls to boycott Israel. She shows understanding, to say the least, toward acts of terror targeting Israelis and defames Zionism, the national liberation movement that established Israel. Most important, she implicitly and sometimes explicitly advances the heinous idea that Israel has no right to exist. Therefore, as the senior diplomatic envoy of Israel in New York, it was my right — and probably my duty — to intervene. Nevertheless, except for raising the issue once when CUNY Chancellor Michael Milliken called me on a different issue, I did not intervene. The

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June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

main reason was the anti-Sarsour rally that took place outside CUNY premises on May 25. Some of the speakers there engaged in blatantly racist rhetoric, above all Milo Yiannopoulos, the “altright” personality. The mere participation of Yiannopoulos in the rally — let alone his words — was abhorrent: He is on record defending pedophilia. The moment this individual and his followers coopted the cause against Sarsour’s invitation, I felt compelled to step back. Add the reports about

physical threats against Sarsour and her family, and I decided to keep silent. It was not the first time, nor unfortunately the last, in which extremists damage a just cause. Among the other events surrounding the affair, the most annoying was the letter signed by more than 100 Jewish leaders — some of them my personal friends — in defense of Sarsour. Obviously I agree with their condemnation of threats to Sarsour, but I read with great consternation the following paragraph:

“We may not agree with Sarsour on all matters. We do not offer our stamp of approval to every tweet or message she has ever posted. But in this time … we are committed to bridging communal boundaries and standing in solidarity with one another. With Sarsour and others, we work as allies on issues of shared concern and respectfully disagree when our views diverge.” Every tweet or message? Respectfully disagree when our views diverge? Condoning terrorism, embracing convicted assassin Rasmea Odeh, excluding Zionists from the feminist movement and denying the right of the Jewish state to exist can be minimized that way? Are not these morally abhorrent positions of the same magnitude like the apologetics for pedophilia? That is not “bridging communal boundaries.” It is coming to terms with bigotry. There are positions — like those of Yiannopoulos — that make collaboration with their holders on any matter an ethical wrongdoing. For example, you do not collaborate with a racist on any matter. You do not collaborate with a sexual offender on any matter. And as Jews, as lovers of Israel, as progressive Americans and above all as ethical human beings, you should not collaborate — on any matter — with a person that condones terrorism, excludes Zionists and wants Israel eliminated. It is not about “approving a tweet.” It is about your moral priorities as a Jew and as a human being.

Don’t ask Ivanka to oppose religious freedom Commentary by Jonathan S. Tobin, JNS.org Ivanka Trump is more than just the First Daughter. As a key adviser as well as the wife of Jared Kushner, the president’s Jewish son-in-law and point man on a host of issues, she has become a major political figure. More than that, as the country’s most famous convert to Orthodox Judaism she is a flash point for the hostility many of her co-religionists harbor for her father. Nothing she does, including her level of Shabbat observance and Instagram posts about the presidential grandchildren, is off limits for cheap shots by the media and members of the antiTrump “resistance.” But more importantly, liberals are also using her status as the most prominent woman inside the Trump camp as a club with which to beat her and other Republicans. This was highlighted lately as Jewish women’s groups including Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women, Jewish Women International, as well as Reform and Conservative Jewish women’s organizations sent her a letter about the ObamaCare contraception mandate. The issue concerns the decision by the president to set in motion a change in the rules by which the federal government enforced compliance with the Affordable Care Act. While Trump is hoping that

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walking down the West Wing Colonnade on Feb. 10. Getty Images

Congressional Republicans will pass a repeal and replace bill for ObamaCare, it’s not clear when or if he’ll get his way — so until that legislative catastrophe is sorted out, he wants to create room for religious groups and individuals to opt out of the contraception mandate. The controversy over the mandate was a key

element of the battle over ObamaCare. Conservative Christians fought to allow those who objected to being made to pay for a service that violated their religious beliefs the right to opt out of the mandate. That led to a long struggle that was only partially resolved when conservatives won a signal victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case. In that case, the owners of the arts and crafts chain stores successfully fended off the government’s effort to make them pay for both contraception coverage and abortioninducing drugs for their employees despite their faith-based opposition to them. But while Hobby Lobby and the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor won their fight, others with similar principles continue to be under pressure to conform. or liberals, the issue revolves around the right to contraception and they have framed their disagreement as one in which they are defending women against those who wish to deny them essential care and services. One doesn’t have to oppose or wish to limit access to contraception or abortion to understand that forcing those who do object on religious grounds to be morally complicit in their use abridges their right to religious freedom. You may believe the cause of expanding access

should take precedence over other concerns. But religious freedom means enabling Americans to live a religious life in the public square not just in private. Compelling people to violate their beliefs even to advance what you believe to be a good cause is not consistent with the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment. So, whether someone regards Ivanka as a role model or a false front for a president they consider unfit for office, the willingness of Jewish groups to use her religion or her role as the most influential woman in the White House against her on this issue is unfortunate. Even if someone believes that great good may come from forcing everyone to pay for contraception, that doesn’t take precedence over what we have always termed our first freedom. No one ought to understand that better than the Jewish community, which has always prided itself on defending the rights of other faiths as well as our own. We know that if anyone’s religious liberty is threatened, it imperils the rights of all. Jews who let their views about the culture wars against conservative Christians take precedence over that great truth are making a mistake that equals any blunder made by any of the Trumps. Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.org and a Contributing Writer for National Review.

analysis By Steven Cohen, Sylvia Barack Fishman, JTA On Jan. 16, 1949, Toby Fassman married Max Cohen (Steven M. Cohen’s parents, now both of blessed memory). At 24, Toby was among the last of her circle of friends in Brooklyn to marry, and several jokingly remarked that Max had rescued her from lifelong singlehood. Today, if a 24-year-old Jewish woman were heading for the chuppah, most would presume that she’s either Orthodox or reckless. Indeed, of 25- to 54-year-old American Jews who are not haredi, fully half are unmarried. While marriage rates peak around age 40 at 71 percent, they drop again to just 57 percent among those 10 years older. Of those 45-54, 13 percent have never been married and another 21 percent are divorced or separated. These patterns of marriage — and non-marriage — are just a few of the startling findings we reveal in a new report published by the Jewish People Policy Institute in which we analyze data from the Pew Research Center’s Portrait of Jewish Americans survey. Of course, the rise of singlehood, late marriage and non-marriage is not at all unique to American Jews, but is endemic to American society in recent years. As the Pew Research Center reports, “The share of Americans who are married is at its lowest point since at least 1920.” But for Jews and Jewish life, the postponement of marriage or lifelong singlehood hold disturbing consequences for Jewish community. While intermarriage has long been understood as inhibiting Jewish engagement and connection, the same is almost as true of non-marriage. Take, for example, synagogue membership

Jonathan Roos blows shofar for nursery children in Washington. Evelyn Hockstein/Washington Post via Getty Images

among non-haredi Jews aged 25-54: It reaches a healthy 65 percent among the in-married, but only a paltry 22 percent among the nonmarried and an even tinier number, 13 percent, among the intermarried. While almost all inmarried Jews attend Passover seders (93 percent), that’s true of just over half the intermarried or non-married (53 percent and 59 percent, respectively). And not only do the in-married act more Jewish, they feel more Jewish. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) say that being Jewish is very important to them, as compared with just 40 percent of the singles and 25 percent among the intermarried. All over the Jewish world outside of Orthodoxy, we see shrinking numbers and older participants and fewer young Jews involved in or-

ganized or institutional activities. That’s true of Reform temples, Conservative shuls, membership organizations and federation campaigns. And all the wonderful alternative innovations — independent minyans, Chabad Houses, Base Hillels, Moishe Houses, social justice initiatives, Israel advocacy left and right — are simply not anywhere near compensating for the losses in legacy institutions. To understand why non-Orthodox Jewish activity at home and community is in such decline, we need only look at diminished numbers of young adult and middle-aged Jews who live with a spouse, and specifically a Jewish husband or wife. Child-rearing strongly shapes stronger connections with things Jewish, even beyond marrying someone Jewish (by birth or conversion),

OU advocacy… Continued from page 1 pass legislation like the Taylor Force Act. “Abbas has to stop making payments to terrorists and their families, and all elected officials should call them out” for this practice Schumer said. “We’re going to find a way to pass the Taylor Force Act,” said the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Making the cause bipartisan, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), noted he was one of the original sponsors of the legislation, and that Congress must take action immediately to stop funding Palestinian terrorism. Cruz also spoke about his support to relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel. “Now is the time to recognize Jerusalem as the one eternal, indivisible capital of Israel,” Cruz said. “It is long past time to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, where it belongs.” Other senators who spoke during the lunch were Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Bill Nelson (R-FL), John Hoeven (R-ND) and Debbie Stabenow (DMI), all of whom voiced their strong support for OU Advocacy’s work and their ongoing efforts on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people. The OU leaders then traveled to the White House where they met with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to discuss school choice initiatives; Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, who spoke about advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; and Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, who provided insights into national security policy. “Coming to Washington reminds all of us

OU Advocacy Center Executive Nathan Diament addresses the Washington mission. At right, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos addresses delegates in the White House’s Indian Treaty Room. OU Advocacy Center

that we have great strength when we join together and speak with a unified voice in our nation’s capital,” said OU Executive Vice President Allen Fagin. “[We] appreciated the many

representatives and senators who met with us and will be our partners on our policy priorities. And we were all honored to meet with such senior administration officials.”

‘Dead’ man still living By JTA The wife of a Brooklyn man on life support has asked the borough’s Supreme Court to rescind a death certificate that she said was issued in error. NY-Presbyterian Hospital issued a death certificate May 31 for Yechezkel Nakar, 68, several weeks after he was admitted to the hospital and suffered a stroke, the New York Post reported. He was placed on life support. Doctors at the hospital declared him brain

dead on the first day of Shavuot and issued an electronic death certificate. But Nakar remains on life support at Maimonides Medical Center, where NY-Presbyterian sent him after the death certificate was issued. His wife, Sarah, who objected to taking her husband off life support for religious reasons, filed a lawsuit against the hospital late last week. She is asking the court to rescind the death certificate so she can file insurance claims for his current treatment.

in dramatic contrast with being single or married to a non-Jew. Those raising a child in the Jewish religion vastly surpass childless adults in Jewish engagement, and the childless in turn surpass those raising non-Jewish children. Take, for example, synagogue membership: 65 percent among those raising Jewish-by-religion children, 25 percent for those with no children at home, and 0 percent for those raising non-Jewish children. We see the same pattern for seder attendance: 96 percent, 56 percent, 28 percent. And so it goes for one indicator of Jewish engagement after another. In displaying a close connection between family status and religious involvement, Jews are not at all unique or even distinctive. Religious engagement has long been linked to life cycle. Americans — including Jews — increasingly join religious institutions and practice home-based rituals shortly after they have children. Sylvia Barack Fishman’s research found that intermarried Jews and spouses are often surprised at the strength of their feelings about religious identification after — but not before — their children are born. The baby boom of the postwar years occasioned a building boom of churches and synagogues. For Jews (and others), what is new is the extended years of singlehood and religious detachment, posing unprecedented challenges to Jewish families, communities and institutions. So, recognizing that children — specifically Jewish children — are so vital to Jewish engagement, we can ask: How many Jews in the parenting years (25-54) outside of the haredi world are raising Jewish children? The startling answer is less than a third, and even less (21 percent) if we’re talking only about children whose religion is Jewish. Fully 60 percent of this 30-year cohort has no children at home and 8 percent are raising non-Jewish children. What will it take for Jewish engagement at home, in the community, in institutions and elsewhere to thrive? Probably the most critical answer: Jews will need to start marrying, marry younger, marry Jewish spouses and raise Jewish children. Over the past few decades, among those Jews outside of Orthodoxy, the relevant trend lines have moved in the opposite directions: less marriage, later marriage, intermarriage and fewer Jewish children – probably about 1.4 for non-Orthodox Jews, far below the 2.1 needed for population replacement. There are strategies that reverse these negative trend lines. It turns out that Jews who are more connected to other Jews through their adolescent and young adult years are more likely to marry, to marry younger, to marry Jews and to have Jewish children. Camps, youth groups, Israel travel, campus activities and young adult communities all build Jewish social networks – more Jews in relationships with more Jews. These interventions of course contribute to Jewish cultural capacity and religio-ethnic commitment. But as important, if not more important these days, is that they build friendships that lead to marriage or romantic connections. Only by increasing the opportunities for Jews to marry, and to marry Jews, will we be able to significantly bend the trend lines. Creating more Jewish marriages and filling more Jewish baby carriages inevitably leads to seeing more Jews in the pews, as well as other places where Jewish engagement gets acted out. We may not be able to move the average age at marriage below 24. But perhaps by providing opportunities we can increase the sheer number who marry and who marry at a younger age, when they stand a better chance of becoming engaged Jewish parents. Steven M. Cohen is research professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at Stanford University. Sylvia Barack Fishman is the Joseph and Esther Foster Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, and also co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.

THE JEWISH STAR June 23, 2017 • 29 Sivan, 5777

Outside frum world, fewer marriages mean fewer births, and fewer Jews doing Jewish

Trump Jr. rips BBC for ‘misleading’ tweet attack By JTA In several tweets, Donald Trump Jr. condemned the BBC for a tweet that observers had criticized as biased against Israel. The BBC tweet, coming Friday night after two simultaneous terror attacks in Jerusalem left an Israeli border policewoman mortally wounded, read “Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem.” President Trump’s oldest son, like others, noted that the tweet emphasized the death of Palestinian assailants over their Israeli victims. “You mean after they stabbed a female Israeli police officer to death ... right?” the younger Trump tweeted Saturday. “This is as close to being misleading as possible.” The BBC later took down the tweet.

briefs

Israel aids Syrian rebels

New Zealand apologizes The longtime director of an arts festival in New Zealand has apologized for removing “Israel” from a song in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” scheduled to be performed there. May Pritchard, who has coordinated the Artsplash festival for 30 years, said in a letter to the Wellington Regional Jewish Council and other critics of the change that the original words would be reinstated for the performance that will take place in September, the JWire Jewish news website reported. The phrase “Children of Israel are never alone” in the song “Close Every Door,” which features Joseph and a choir of children, was altered to “Children of kindness.” Pritchard said she takes “‘full responsibility for this unfortunate and regrettable error.” “You have my complete assurance that this was an unintentional and innocent error on the part of one of my team, and I apologize for it,” she said. “The person concerned, and myself for that matter, are religious people and would never consider intentionally doing anything racist or anti any religion.” “There has never before been an incident of this sort, and I don’t expect there will be again,” Pritchard wrote, adding: “Action has been taken over the weekend to ensure that the original song words are all reinstated, with immediate effect.”

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Israeli Border Police officer Hadas Malka, who was stabbed to death in Jerusalem by a Palestinian terrorist. The funeral at a military cemetery in Ashdod began just after midnight Sunday, about 24 hours after she died of her wounds sustained during the Friday night attack near the Damascus Gate in the Old City. Malka, 23, was killed as she responded to a Palestinian shooting attack at the nearby Zedekiah’s Cave. Israeli forces killed her two assailants and the one in the cave incident. “You cared for everyone, always lent a helping hand; your joy for life swept everyone away,” Police Chief Roni Alsheich said at the funeral as part of his eulogy. “You loved everyone. You stayed away from gossip and speaking ill of others. You were a fighter who loved people.” Malka is survived by her parents and five siblings. JTA

Scholars defend pro-BDSer A group of Jewish academics who oppose the boycott Israel movement decried a campaign against a Dartmouth professor who backed BDS. N. Bruce Duthu, an associate dean and faculty member in Native American studies at Dartmouth College, declined his nomination as dean of faculty earlier this year due to intense controversy over his past statements supporting the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel. In response, eight members of the Alliance for Academic Freedom, a proponent of Liberal Zionism, noted Monday in an opinion piece in Inside Higher Education that while Duthu signed a petition supporting academic boycotts of Israel, he “embraced” Dartmouth’s official opposition to academic boycotts and pledged to continue to do so as dean of the faculty. Pro-Israel critics of Duthu, the op-ed writers suggested, treated Duthu “unfairly” and did a disservice to “the cause of Jewish studies [and] Israel studies.” Signers of the op-ed included Deborah Dash Moore, a professor specializing in Jewish history at the University of Michigan, and Cary Nelson, the former president of the American Association of University Professors.

Teachers’ unions rip Israel The heads of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors jointly condemned a law proposed by Israel’s education minister that would bar the expression of political views in classrooms.

“The ‘code of ethics’ that the government of Israel is considering for the country’s academic institutions is a threat not only to academic freedom in Israel, but to Israel’s standing as a democracy,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten and AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum in a joint statement Monday. Both Weingarten and Fichtenbaum are Jewish. The proposed code of ethics for institutes of higher education, spearheaded by Israel’s education minister, Naftali Bennett, has spurred a fierce debate in Israel about the role of politics in the classroom. An organization of Israel’s university chiefs has rejected the code as governmental overreach. “A careful study of the code shows that although it is defined as an ‘ethical code for appropriate behavior in the areas of overlap between academic activity and political activity,’ many of its articles deal with general activities in academic research and lectures,” the Committee of University Heads, which represents the nation’s seven universities, said in a statement last week. “As such, this code is a collection of state rules to dictate our conduct as faculty members.”

Haredi parties: no deal The Haredi Orthodox parties in Israel’s government have proposed a new resolution that would rescind a government decision to create an official egalitarian section at the Korwl. The United Torah Judaism and Shas parties submitted the proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office in recent days, Army Radio first reported Sunday. The plan would return the “status quo” to the Western Wall, keeping in place the egalitarian prayer area erected at Robinson’s Arch, Army Radio reported.

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Blame ‘Zionists’ in fire Marchers in the annual Al-Quds Day parade in London blamed a fire in a low-income apartment complex that left at least 58 dead on “Zionists.” Al-Quds is the Muslim name for Jerusalem. The annual march is a call for the destruction of Israel. Hundreds marched Sunday afternoon behind the Palestinian flag and behind a flag of Hezbollah, which Britain designates as a terror organization. Many marchers also carried paper versions of the Hezbollah flag. No effort was made by London police to stop them, the Jewish Chronicle reported. One man shouted into a microphone during the march: “This demonstration calls on justice for Grenfell. Some of the biggest supporters of the Conservative Party are Zionists. They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell. The Zionist supporters of the Tory Party. Free, Free, Palestine!” Other chants included “Zionists/ISIS are the same. Only difference is the name.” Supporters on the parade route held up banners reading “Zionism is racism” and “We are all Hezbollah.” Hundreds carrying Israeli flags attended a counterdemonstration, and some marched along the parade route. More than 15,000 people had petitioned London Mayor Sadiq Khan to stop the march from taking place.

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The rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, approved the proposal. In a statement issued Sunday, Women of the Wall group called it “outrageous” that the government would consider the proposal more than a year after approving an agreement for an egalitarian section governed by the liberal Jewish movements. “Israel’s prime minister, who encouraged the various parties to reach an agreement, has yet to harness the courage to enforce it,” the statement said. “Netanyahu now cowardly continues the discrimination and exclusion of women at the Western Wall. In submitting to the will of the Haredi parties, the PM is sacrificing women’s rights to pray as they wish, be it egalitarian or traditional prayers.” An agreement passed in January 2016 by the government for an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall was negotiated by the Reform and Conservative movements, the Women of the Wall, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli government. Under the agreement, which was approved by the Cabinet, the egalitarian section of the wall near Robinson’s Arch would be expanded and placed under the authority of a pluralist committee. The section would have a common entrance with the rest of the Western Wall plaza. The plan also called for solidifying Haredi Orthodox control over the site’s traditional Orthodox section. Haredi Orthodox lawmakers and some from the Jewish Home and Likud parties in December submitted a bill to the Knesset to prevent non-Orthodox public prayer at the Western Wall.

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Israel has been secretly providing aid to Syrian rebels on the border in the Golan Heights for several years, the Wall Street Journal reported. The aid includes cash, as well as food, fuel and medical supplies, the newspaper reported in an article that first appeared on its website Sunday night. The story cited interviews with about half a dozen Syrian fighters. The Israeli army is in regular communication with rebel groups and its financial assistance helps pay the salaries of fighters and buy ammunition and weapons, according to the report. In addition, Israel has established a military unit that oversees the support in Syria. Israel’s military neither confirmed nor denied the Journal report, telling the newspaper that the Israel Defense Forces is “committed to securing the borders of Israel and preventing the establishment of terror cells and hostile forces … in addition to providing humanitarian aid to the Syrians living in the area.”

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