The JEWISH
STAR
TheJewishStar.com
Matos-Masei • July 13, 2018 • 1 Av, 5778 • Torah columns pages 18 –19 • Luach page 19 • Vol 17, No 27
The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities
Five Towns confronts drug woes By The Jewish Star While drug abuse may not be out of control in the frum community, “it is out there and rising,” an organizer of next Monday night’s Five Towns awareness-raising event told The Jewish Star. “We are trying to educate the community at large to be aware of it and what to do when help is needed.” The evening, co-sponsored by shuls, schools and organizations in the Five Towns area, will begin at 8 pm on Monday, July 16, at Congregation Beth Sholom, 390 Broadway in Lawrence. Some shuls prepped their members by addressing the issue in broad terms on Shabbat Chukat, June 23. In advertisements headlined in red, “Our Kids Know About Drugs. Do We?” organizers proclaim, “Only as a community can we stand strong.”
Speakers will include rabbanim, physicians, first responders, law enforcement and mental health professions, and parents who have lived through the heartbreak that substance abuse can cause. “Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about this scourge, but most importantly, to hear the message of hope and find out about the many critical resources available right in our community to help address this growing problem,” organizers said. A seven-member panel, moderated by Rabbi Boruch Ber Bender of Achiezer, will include Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, assistant rabbi at the Young Israel of Woodmere and, at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, chairman of the Department of Medicine, chief of infectious diseases, and hos-
RBG: Judaism shaped my life
KAVANAUGH:
The reaction
By Josefin Dolstein JTA President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a Republican establishment favorite who worked in the George W. Bush administration, has triggered reactions from Jewish groups ranging from furious to relieved. Groups on the left spoke out against the pick, saying Kavanaugh’s record shows he would be a threat to reproductive rights and the separation of church and state, while the Agudath Israel of America Orthodox spoke favorably of his record on religious liberty. Judge Brett KavaTrump announced on naugh at the Capi- Monday evening that he was tol on Wednesday. nominating Kavanaugh, a Chip Somodevilla/Getty federal appeals court judge in Washington, D.C., to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy upon his retirement at the end of July. Within an hour of the announcement, the National Council of Jewish Women released a statement saying it was “incensed” by the See Supreme on page 4
pital epidemiologist; Rabbi Kenneth Hain, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Sholom; Rabbi Dov Silver, founder and executive vice president of the Woodmere-based Madraigos, an organization whose programs help teenagers and young adults overcome challenges; Karen Bayer, LCSW, a social worker with more than three decades of experience who practices in Lawrence and Manhattan; Rivka Drebin, LMSW, a social worker and parent; Shlomo Katz, a senior Hatzalah paramedic; and Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. “Unfortunately, substance abuse, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs are a problem,” Rabbi Glatt said. “We need to make sure that everyone is aware of this.” See Drug woes on page 23
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discusses her Jewish pride, after a screening of “RGB” in Jerusalem on Thursday. On July 4th, she accepted the Genesis Prize for Lifetime Achievement. The text of her Genesis speech is on page 4.
By Sam Sokol, JTA JERUSALEM — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described her gratitude for her Jewish heritage during a screening of a new documentary film about her life and career at the Jerusalem Cinematheque last Thursday. “The demand for justice, peace and enlightenment runs through Jewish history and tradition,” she said, describing how she is reminded of this fact every day when she enters her judicial chambers and is confronted with a poster proclaiming the biblical verse “Justice, justice thou shalt pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). “My room has the only mezuzah in the U.S. Supreme Court,” she said, noting that “growing up Jewish, the concept of tikkun olam, repairing tears in the community and making things better for people less fortunate, was part of my heritage. The Jews are the people of the book and learning is prized above all else. I am lucky to have that heritage.” In Jerusalem to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Genesis Prize Foundation, Ginsburg — who is equally well known for her scathing dissenting opinions as for her lifetime commitment to gender equality — was feted by the Jewish state’s political and judicial elites. In a speech honoring her American coreligionist at the award ceremony on Wednesday, Israeli Supreme Court President Esther Hayut praised Ginsburg as a spokeswoman for the marginalized See RBG on page 4 and ignored.
‘Never Again’ means don’t let memory die Commentary by Gila and Adam Milstein “History repeats itself because nobody listens the first time.” —Erik Qualman ast month, we had the opportunity to delve deeper into the devastating truths of the Holocaust. Traveling to six countries — the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany —together with 100 leading American philanthropists and scholars, we attempted to comprehend the scope of the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany and its European collaborators. We bore witness to the inhumane conditions suffered by the Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which existed for a single purpose: to eradicate the Jewish and Romani peoples. We visited mass graves in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish families perished at the hands of firing squads. At the Rumbula Forest Memorial,
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we commemorated some of the 2.4 million Jews who were murdered in the hidden Holocaust by bullets, some betrayed by neighbors they had grown up alongside. Far too many people view these places as historical sites, where you can learn something about the past but nothing about the future. Many, including some within the Jewish community, can’t grasp that the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany might one day exist again. Seeing these horrors with our own eyes focused our attention on the relevance of the Holocaust to our lives. How can we ensure that “Never Again” isn’t just a slogan, but a mindset and an action plan? hree lessons from our journey stand out. First, events like the Holocaust don’t happen overnight. They result from a process of systematic racism, intimidation and discrimination that lasts over the course of many years. See Never Again on page 21
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