Star 07 19 2013

Decorating pupcakes in Kulanu’s kitchen Page 2 A wise and understanding people. Oh, really? Page 6 Missionary fight comes to Woodmere Page 7 Tisha B’Av a mystery to most American Jews Page 11

THE JEWISH VOL 12, NO 28 Q JULY 19, 2013 / 12 AV 5773

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Hatzalah’s rescue at NYC mayoral rally The excessive heat on Tisha B’Av Tuesday dropped a political intern to the pavement in Williamsburg, hijacking a press conference by mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, igniting a debate over New York City’s emergency preparedness, and bringing kudos to Hatzalah for its rapid response.

City Council Speaker Quinn waited 30 minutes for an ambulance to help an assistant to Councilwoman Diana Reyna. The 17-year-old intern collapsed and later fainted even though she was being tended to by a member of Quinn’s security detail who is also a certified emergency medical technician.

When an ambulance did not arrive despite Quinn’s calls to Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Hatzalah was called and promptly responded. They took the woman to Woodhull Medical Center in Bushwick.

“Nobody beats Hatzalah,” Rayna told the Hatzalah volunteers. “Hatzalah is always there when we need them.”

An email from Quinn to Hamodia thanked the volunteers.

“The City is indebted to them for everything that they do every day to help New Yorkers in need of emergency medical attention.”

Comptroller John C. Liu also weighed in, praising Hatzalah. “Many thanks to the Hatzalah volunteers who stepped forward at a moment’s notice, even on their fasting day, when the emergency response system failed and they were most needed. New Yorkers are fortunate that these selfless emergency responders are willing to put it all on the line in order to ensure the health and well-being of those in need.

We all owe you a debt of gratitude. A hearty Yasher Koach to you, Hatzalah.”

Brooklyn Democratic Councilman David Greenfield, an Orthodox Jew, said that Hatzalah’s quick appearance “is even more impressive considering that it occurred on Tisha B’Av, when its volunteers are in the middle of fasting. This incident reinforced what we already knew — our community is extremely fortunate to have capable and dedicated volunteers Continued on page 14

One of the ambulances in Hatzalah’s Far RockwayFive Towns region.

Recalling Al Sharpton’s role in 1991 Crown Heights riots Commentary by Jeff Dunetz Al Sharpton’s incitement of anger and violence in the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman case recalls what he did in Crown Heights.

Twenty-two years ago, a tragic car accident in that Brooklyn neighborhood escalated into a pogrom against the Jewish people. The media gives it a politically correct description — violence between the area’s blacks and Jews. But the violence was not two-sided, it was an attack on the Jews by the neighborhood’s Caribbean community, fueled in part by Al Sharpton, now an MSNBC host and adviser to President Obama.

Black anti-Semitism in 1991 Jews were a key part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous march to Selma, Alabama, he walked hand in hand with many Jews including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Along with the Jews was a contingent of Torahs to emphasize that the quest for Civil Rights was a holy mission for the Jewish people.

Photo by Christian Razukas / Wikipedia Commons

Al Sharpton led marches through Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood after the 1989 stabbing death ofYusuf Hawkins, a 16-year-old black youth.

Sharpton himself survived being stabbed in Bensonhurst in 1991.

In spite of the strong Jewish participation in the civil rights movement, the transformation from the peaceful marches to black power movement introduced

Peace awaits us after Tisha B’Av

By Rabbi Binny Freedman I can still remember the feeling of the weight seeming to lift from my shoulders. It was the summer of ‘86, and I had just returned my gear after four-and-a-half years in the Israeli army. I will never forget the incredible high that lifted my spirits as I realized that for the first time in years, I could do whatever I wanted, without that nagging worry deep inside that I might get a call in the middle of the night.

No more patrols or forced marches, guard duty or inspections, no missions to coordinate or briefings to prepare, and no tanks to service and make ready, nor men to cover or train. After four long years I could finally get back to just being me.

My parents were in Israel that summer, and we had planned an outing for the next day: picnic, rented car and all. I still recall the moment of walking into my parents’ apartment in Jerusalem, with the smell of dinner cooking, and the promise of a real vacation ahead. And I remember sinking down into the easy chair in the living room as my father turned on the news. I figured all that pain Continued on page 5

considerable friction into African American-Jewish relations, especially within the “Black Muslim” movement.

Continued on page 12

Shabbat Candlelighting: 8:04 p.m. Shabbat ends 9:09 p.m. 72 minute zman 9:33 p.m.

Torah Reading Parshat V’etchanan • This Shabbos is Shabbos Nachamu

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By Malka Eisenberg

July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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When it’s this hot, caution is required

By Maimonides Medical Center Everyone should take all possible measures to prevent heat-related illness during the scorching days of summer.

Awareness of the dangers and ways to avoid illness are important because longer and more extreme weather is here to stay; climate change likely means hotter summers, higher frequency of heat waves, and more powerful storms that could knock the electricity out for days.

Dr. John Marshall, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in Boro Park, says that the best way to deal with the oppressive summer heat is to take the proper precautions.

“The body has a way of keeping itself cool by letting heat escape through the skin, or perspiring,” said Dr. Marshall. “If the body does not cool properly or does not cool enough, the person may suffer a heat-related illness.”

Under some conditions, sweating just

isn’t enough. A person’s body temperature can rise rapidly, potentially leading to damage of the vital organs. Summertime activity must be balanced with measures that aid the body’s cooling mechanisms and prevent heat-related illness.

Dr. Marshall shared these tips for coping with summer heat safely: Q Drink more fluids (nonalcoholic) regardless of your activity level. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink.

Q Avoid liquids that contain caffeine, alcohol, or large amounts of sugar— these actually cause you to lose more body fluid and can lead to dehydration. Avoid very cold drinks as they can cause stomach cramps.

Q Stay indoors, and, if at all possible, stay in an air-conditioned place.

Q Wear lightweight, light-colored and loose-fitting clothing, and a wide-brimmed hat to deflect the sun’s harmful rays.

Q Cut down on daily exercise. If you must exercise, remember to rehydrate and drink two to four glasses of cool fluids each hour.

Sports beverages can replace the salt and minerals lost in sweat.

Q Pay attention to weather reports. You are more at risk as the temperature or humidity rises and when an air pollution alert is in effect.

Q Avoid hot foods and heavy meals—they add heat to the body. Eat frozen treats.

Q NEVER leave anyone in a closed, parked vehicle.

Q Develop a neighborhood prevention plan. Identify those without air-conditioning and assign neighbors to check in on those who are at a higher risk of heat-illness.

According to Dr. Marshall, it’s easy for people to overlook that they are at risk for heat-illness.

Heat acts as an insidious killer. Anyone can be susceptible to a heat-illness, which can become serious or even deadly if left untreated. It’s important to be aware of the increased risk of heat-related illness among seniors, people with chronic physical health conditions or psychiatric disease, and those

taking medications that can impair thermoregulation.

If you must be outdoors in the heat: Q Limit your outdoor activity to morning and evening hours.

Q Use sunscreen with a minimum of SPF 15. Sunscreen will prevent sunburn, which can limit the skin’s ability to cool itself.

Q Take breaks if you are working outdoors.

Q To get relief from the heat, take a cool shower or move to an air-conditioned area.

Electric fans may provide comfort, but when the temperature is in the 90s or above, fans will not prevent heat-related illness.

Q If your home does not have air-conditioning, go to a nearby shopping mall, public library, movie theatre, or any other venue that’s cooler — even a few hours spent in airconditioning can help your body stay cooler when you go back into the heat.

Q If you suspect that someone is suffering from a heat-related illness, call 911 or Hatzalah to get medical attention as soon as possible.

Dog days of summer: Baking pupcakes with Kulanu kids

L

ast summer, I was offered the wonderful opportunity to volunteer at Kulanu’s summer program, Camp Discovery. I was nervous at first, as I never taught cake, cookie and cupcake decorating to children.

The first day I rushed in with all my supplies and within five minutes my first group of kids bounded in. I was greeted with shouts of glee, high fives and offers of help ranging from helping to distribute the items needed, to help eating all the leftovers. It was love at first sight. They were all different ages and sexes with different disabilities but they were all eager to have fun with the activity as well as each other. Suddenly I wasn’t nervous anymore.

As the summer progressed, I looked forward to coming up with different WHO’S IN THE food decorating ideas and hearing all KITCHEN about the adventures the campers had since the last time I saw them.

Unfortunately, I had to miss one class when I was in Florida for a close friend’s wedding. Upon returning to my group the following week, one of the campers came rushing up to me and said “Judy, Judy Joszef Judy, I really missed you last week, I’m so glad you’re back!” To which I responded “And I missed you, too!” He quickly shouted back, “But I REALLY missed you!” To say my heart melted was an understatement. I have catered parties upward of 400 people that I have worked on for weeks in advance. I have dealt with sleep deprivation, and the desire to have everything just perfect. Not until the end of the event, when the client tells me how happy they are, do I breathe a sigh of relief and that wonderful feeling comes over me knowing I made another person happy. But I will tell you in all honesty when my buddy said that to me that day, it trumped all those other compliments.

Needless to say when I was asked if I would return this summer, I said, “Did you even have to ask?”

This past week, we made chocolate lab cupcakes. I picked that breed, because my husband Jerry had a lab, or should I say a bosom buddy, named Buck. To this day, he still laments the fact that I won’t even consider providing him with a running mate to share in his adventures. That is one subject that is not up for discussion … no dogs! I didn’t give in to my kids when they wanted one and I wasn’t about to change my mind now. Though my kids did have a glimmer of hope when they

found out Jerry wanted a dog — they figured they might have a chance — but it was not to be. I told them when they get married they can have all the dogs they want.

Jerry would regale us with stories of his Teaneck legend, Buck. He was huge and good-natured but not very well behaved. He faked being asleep while slyly eyeing the door, waiting for it to be opened a crack and then he would bolt out like a racehorse. One of his favorite hangouts was a doggie playgroup about a mile and a half from home. Many a morning, Jerry would receive a phone call informing him that Buck had shown up in the middle of the night waiting for playgroup.

Buck chased any moving creature; his favorites were skunks. His low point came when he got sprayed twice during one walk. Buck never actually caught a skunk, but once, he leapt in the air and Jerry was convinced he would actually get him. Suddenly there was a yelp, and a tumble and then the skunk triumphantly, slowly walking away in skunk glory while Buck was writhing on the ground. Two minutes later, he saw another skunk and immediately went into attack mode — again — only to be defeated in identical fashion. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and Buck was young at the time.

Same actually goes for Jerry, and G-d knows I try!

Also worth noting, is at any given day when the school bus stopped on his block, a bunch of kids could always be seen running down the block in terror with Buck in pursuit. There were always Buck sightings. ”He went that way” “We just saw him around the corner” “He was on Cedar Lane a few hours ago.”

He was also a homebody and loved to share in family meals. He towered over the table and was thus able to snatch steaks off unsuspecting guest’s plates and swallowed it before he could be stopped. That was his lone indication of intelligence.

He would wait until the person was engaged in conversation for the briefest of moments and would finally be able to catch his prey.

Like many other legendary heroes, Buck was a romantic and believed in chivalry. He would often be found outside the gate of his favorite maiden in the neighborhood barking sweet nothings in her ear.

In memory of Buck 1992-2003

To say my heart melted was an understatement.

When my buddy said that to me that day, it trumped all those other compliments.

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pastry chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro and T42 in the Five Towns, before launching her current business, Soiree. She can be reached at judy.soiree@ gmail.com

Chocolate Lab Cupcakes Ingredients 1 bag mini marshmallows 4 Double Bubble, bubble gum pieces (each cut into three slices and rolled with a rolling pin, it will look like a tongue) 1 small bag of black jelly beans (you will need 10 whole jelly beans and 20 halves) 10 cupcakes made with your favorite recipe or you can use a cake mix.

1 can Pillsbury Easy Frost (decadent chocolate fudge) 20 mini Tootsie Rolls (each softened in the microwave for 2-3 seconds, then rolled out between two pieces of waxed paper) to look like floppy ears, check the photo) Optional, 3 strands of black string licorice

Directions Spray the frosting in the center of the cupcakes and spread till covered and smooth Place 3 mini marshmallows in the center and cover with additional frosting Place a whole black jelly bean on top of the covered marshmallow for the nose.

Place the two jelly bean halves above the nose for the eyes Place the “gum” tongue below the nose Optional; you can use black string licorice under the nose as I did in the photo but it looks fine without it as well.

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THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

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of the

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July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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This idea is not far-fetched: The Islamist era may be over

THE JEWISH STAR Independent and original reporting from the Orthodox communities of Long Island and New York City All opinions expressed are solely those of The Jewish Star’s editorial staff or contributing writers Published weekly by The Jewish Star LLC, 2 Endo Boulevard, Garden City, NY 11530 Phone: 516-622-7461 ■ Fax: 516-569-4942 News releases: Newsroom@TheJewishStar.com ■ Calendar listings: Calendar@TheJewishStar.com Letters for publication: Letters@TheJewishStar.com ■ Ads: Advertising@TheJewishStar.com Publisher Editor Account Executive Editorial Designer Photo Editor

Ed Weintrob Malka Eisenberg Helene Parsons Kristen Edelman Christina Daly

EWeintrob@theJewishStar.com 622-7461 ext.291 MEisenberg@theJewishStar.com 622-7461 ext.240 HParsons@theJewishStar.com 622-7461 ext.241

Contributors: Rabbi Avi Billet, Jeff Dunetz, Juda Engelmayer, Rabbi Binny Freedman, Alan Jay Gerber, Rabbi Noam Himelstein, Judy Joszef, Rabbi Simcha Weinstein.

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Copyright © 2013 The Jewish Star LLC. All rights reserved.

Article on Rabbi sparks memories To the Editor: Your article about Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Leib Schwartzblatt, a mashgiach at the JASA kosher kitchen in Far Rockaway, brought back memories [“From Holocaust’s ruins, a life of learning and teaching,” July 5].

The Rabbi Shulman, to whom he referred, who asked him to take on the position of mashgiach, was my late husband, Rabbi Nahum Shulman, a”h. For 20 years Rabbi Shulman was the Rabbi of Congregation Bais Tefila, the shul that served the JASA residents.

In addition to serving as spiritual leader of the congregation, Rabbi Shulman was the Rav Hamachshir for the kosher kitchen, JASA’s large food program.

Rabbi Shulman’s appointment of Rabbi Schwartzblatt as mashgiach was an inspired decision. Rabbi Schwartzblatt has brought a unique personal history and Torah learning to his position.

My family and I wish him continued good health and fulfillment in all that he does.

— Mrs. Anita Shulman

No thanks, Jets!

To the Editor: The following are excepts from a letter sent to the New York Jets concerning one of their offensive tackles, Oday Aboushi.

It has come to my attention that your 2013 fifth-round draft pick, Oday Aboushi, has recently expressed both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments on Twitter and in public settings. It is extremely disconcerting that the New York Jets, a team with a massive Jewish fan-base, continues to retain a player like this. NO team, for that matter, should have a person like this on their roster, regardless of their athletic ability.

Examples of Aboushi’s actions are the following: In January, Aboushi tweeted a photo meant to smear both Israel and Jews in general. In the photo, an old woman looks down while three clearly Orthodox Jews converse in the background. Aboushi’s caption of the photo reads: “88 year-old Palestinian evicted from home in Jerusalem by Israel authorities to make room 4 Orthodox Jews.” Of course, nothing can be farther from the truth.

On April 19, Aboushi praised a conference

LETTERS sponsored by Islamic Relief, a charity that the Israeli government has labeled as a front for Hamas and other terrorist groups.

On Israel’s Independence Day, Aboushi tweeted “65th anniversary of the Nakba and Palestinians all across the world are still thriving.” The term “Nakba” is a derogatory term leveled at the State of Israel, as it refers to the establishment of Israel as a catastrophe and a day that should be mourned.

Most recently, Aboushi spoke at an antiIsrael conference hosted by the “El-Bireh Palestine Society.”

The logo of this society contains a graphic of the entire nation of Israel covered in a Palestinian flag, clearly indicating the organization’s belief that the State of Israel in its entirety should actually belong to the Palestinians.

I sincerely hope that the Jets make the right decision and release Aboushi, thus affirming that racism and hatred cannot be tolerated.

— Elan Kirshenbaum

The Dunetz ‘flip’ To the Editor: Perhaps Jeff Dunetz is confused.

In 2007 (and not in 1978, as he claims [“Unchanged Dunetz fights back,” July 12]), Dunetz strongly supported the legislation that created the PRISM program, and said nasty things about Congressional Democrats who opposed the legislation as an overreach.

Dunetz not only supported extensive surveillance of all phone calls coming into and out of the US, but actually called for ending judicial oversight over the surveillance. So the notion that Dunetz never thought FISA would lead to something like PRISM is simply untrue and frankly, disingenuous.

He strongly supported the legislation that created PRISM precisely because of the extensive surveillance powers it granted, and pilloried those who cautioned against it.

— Michael Brenner

W

ith the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, one is almost forced to question whether the global Islamist movement has been dealt a mortal blow.

The notion that the era of Islamism has come to an end is not as outlandish as it seems. While the faith of Islam crystallized in Arabia 15 centuries ago, the ideology of Islamism—which aims to place the imperatives of sharia law at the heart of a coercive and all-powerful state—is a product of the last century.

Like its totalitarian cousins—fascism, communism and national socialism—Islamism’s point of departure is a visceral loathing of the political liberties that are integral to liberal democracies. All these VIEWPOINT monstrous political systems were convinced that, once empowered, they would stay empowered.

Hitler, for example, spoke of a “thousand-year Reich.”

At the height of the purges in the Soviet Union, Stalin told the writer H. G. Wells that, “socialist society alone can firmly safeBen Cohen guard the interests of JNS.org the individual.” But the Nazi Reich perished in the ashes of Berlin in 1945, while the communist paradise of the Soviet Union went out of business in 1991.

Will 2013 go down as an equivalent year of defeat for Islamism? In answering that question, it’s hard to overstate the importance of the current turmoil in Egypt. After all, Egypt was where the Muslim Brotherhood was formed in 1928. It is the cradle of Islamism, and it is the country that gave the Islamist movement a pronounced taste of bitter struggle as far back as the 1950s, when the Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser crushed the Brotherhood.

Yet Egypt is not the only Middle Eastern country where the Brotherhood’s insistence that “Islam is the solution” is being sorely tested. In Gaza, where Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been in power since 2006, the Egyptian crisis has exacerbated an already febrile situation. Infighting among its leadership, as well as worsening relations with its one-time allies, Syria, Hezbollah and Iran, is leading many ordinary Palestinians to question the competence of Hamas. In turn, Hamas is discovering that thundering slogans and terrorist assaults on Israel cannot feed, clothe, educate and employ a population in Gaza, or anywhere else for that matter.

Q Q Q

In Turkey, a country that is light years away from Gaza in terms of its economic development, the Islamist government of Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan has faced angry demonstrations at home and severe censure abroad. Here, too, the citizenry is beginning to realize that the Islamists cannot deliver when in government—corruption, nepotism and contempt for free speech are all hallmarks of Erdogan’s regime, and its talk of Islamic values seems increasingly hollow against that context.

It’s a similar story for Islamist parties and governments elsewhere in the region. In Tunisia, the secular political parties in coalition with the Islamist Ennahda party have

been alienated by Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi’s support for Morsi in Egypt.

In Sudan, the Islamist government of Omar al-Bashir, an indicted war criminal, remains embroiled in conflict with South Sudan, a largely Christian and African state that declared independence exactly two years ago.

Meanwhile, Qatar, the oil-drenched monarchy deemed by Forbes magazine to be the richest country in the world, is rethinking its disastrous policy of supporting and financing Muslim Brotherhood affiliates around the Middle East.

Ironically, among some western policy analysts, there’s a widely held view that the current tribulations of the Muslim Brotherhood amount to bad news for democracy in the region. The military’s removal of the Brotherhood in Egypt, they say, will turn Islamists against the democratic process, just as it did when a similar scenario arose in Algeria in 1991.

But the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood was committed to democracy in the first place is arrant nonsense. In certain countries, the Brotherhood has made a tactical compromise by participating in elections; in those cases, like Egypt, where the movement has won, autocratic and unconstitutional measures have quickly followed.

Moreover, what this debate ignores is the critical point that democracy is about much more than voting. Elections in countries where the press is muzzled, where opposition parties are intimidated, and where the military plays an explicitly political role, are a farce. Platitudes about respecting the cultural differences of the Muslim world only cement the absence of those liberties that are integral to a healthy democracy.

Q Q Q

A related argument asserts that electionfriendly Islamists will, as a result of the Egyptian experience, now be pushed into the arms of violent jihadi groups. There’s a certain degree of truth to that claim; western dithering in Syria has strengthened the Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front, and boosted the likelihood of a new war between secular nationalists and Islamists in the event that Bashar al-Assad’s bloody regime is removed.

But that line gives the Muslim Brotherhood far more credit than it deserves. Under Morsi’s rule, Egypt was as ugly and intolerant as it has ever been; any member of the Coptic Christian minority, which makes up 10 percent of the population, will confirm that. Having endured discrimination and pogrom-style violence during Morsi’s tenure, the Copts know only too well that the Brotherhood’s message to non-Muslims is simply this: convert or die.

Hence, there are many reasons to be both relieved and pleased that Islamism is now in marked retreat.

Even so, we shouldn’t conclude that the triumph of liberal democracy will inevitably follow. In my estimation, it’s more probable that the Middle East will reflect the experience of Russia after 1991 — anti-western, anti-democratic, and dominated by the military and the intelligence services—than of Germany after 1945, where a constitutional, stable democracy took root as a direct result of the Allied occupation. That is why, while the Islamists may be down at the moment, they are certainly not out.

Ben Cohen is the Shillman Analyst for JNS.org. His writings on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Ha’aretz, Jewish Ideas Daily and other publications.

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Continued from page 1 and tension was finally behind me. It was a mistake I would never make again.

As soon as the news on such a night begins, you realize right away something is wrong. The newscasters take on a more serious tone, and the music seems somehow more dramatic.

There had been a terrible ambush in the Jordan valley, and two soldiers had been killed. I could feel my gut contract as soon as the map came on the screen — this was the area of operations my FROM THE HEART battalion had just taken over a couple OF JERUSALEM of days earlier. But as my tour of duty was ending, there had been no point to my learning the area and sitting in on the briefings, so I had gotten out a few days earlier than scheduled.

A Jordanian soldier had snuck over the border and ambushed a jeep patrol, cutting down two of our boys, and the second patrol that arrived on the scene was pinned down as well, until the deputy company commander finally arrived on the scene and took out the enemy soldier.

So the next day, instead of a picnic, Rabbi Binny we drove to the cemetery for Ronen Freedman Reichel’s funeral. He had been a sergeant in our unit, and I said goodbye to him along with everyone else just two days earlier, never imagining I would be standing over his grave only 48 hours later.

As long as I live, I will never forget the image of his mother, screaming, throwing herself on his coffin begging him not to go.

Are there any words to say to a person under such circumstances? I remember her dulled, lifeless stare, full of pain and misery, passing over me after the burial, as if expecting me or anyone else around us to say something; and I remember averting my eyes, not knowing what to say. Even now,

nearly 20 later, if I ran into Ronen’s mother on the street, I still wouldn’t know what to say.

Are there any words with which one can comfort someone after such a loss?

Most often, when we mourn the losses in our lives, the pain of mourning is the recognition of lost opportunities. We understand only too well what we have lost, and we wonder whether we really appreciated what we had.

Did we tell them we loved them enough? Did we take the time to appreciate their smiles, and the particular things we loved about them? Did we learn from them, and did we spend the time with them? If these lost opportunities are what we mourn, can there ever be a comforting response to such loss?

Q Q Q

This Shabbat, the Shabbat after Tisha B’av (the ninth of Av), the day we lost both of our Temples, is traditionally called Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of consolation, when we are comforted after our terrible loss. Indeed, this week’s Hatforah — the prophetic portion we will read from Isaiah — begins with the phrase, “Nachamu, Nachamu, Ami” (“Be comforted, be comforted, my people”), hence the name Shabbat Nachamu.

But how can one be comforted after such a terrible loss?

Two thousand years ago, in the year 70, we watched our cities burned to the ground, hundreds of thousands of our people butchered, and many hundreds of thousands more sold as slaves, mercilessly torn from the arms of their beloved families. All of which was merely the prelude to 2,000 years of suffering — all the crusades and inquisitions, pogroms and blood libels, and that final unspeakable horror, the Holocaust. All this we mourn as well on Tisha B’Av. So how can a people such as ours, which has known such suffering, ever be comforted? What is the meaning of this nechama, this consolation?

It is no coincidence that the portion we always read Shabbat Nachamu, is Vaetchanan, which literally means “And I beseeched,” referring to Moshe’s heart-rending prayer beseeching G-d to allow him, mistakes notwithstanding, to enter the land of Israel with the children of Israel.

It is hard to decide which is more painful: Moshe’s plead-

As long as I live, I will never forget the image of his mother, screaming, throwing herself on his coffin begging him not to go. Are there any words with which one can comfort someone after such a loss? ing to be let into the land of his dreams, or G-d’s refusal to acquiesce. But most interesting is Moshe’s response to this refusal: the Torah seems to just change the topic!

After describing how he had pleaded before G-d to enter the land, and how G-d finally admonished him to cease speaking of this request, and instead to install Yehoshua (Joshua) to take his place, Moshe immediately begins to exhort the Jewish people not to forget the Torah they have been given, and then launches into a repetition of the ten commandments, preceded by one of the most important sections of the Torah: the first chapter of the Shema.

But if this week’s portion is all about consolation, why is there no consolation mentioned for Moshe, immediately after he is denied his life’s wish of joining the Jewish people as they enter the land?

Perhaps in order to understand this, we need to take a closer look at the concept of nechama (consolation), as it appears in the Torah.

The first instance seems to be the birth of Noach, at the end of the first portion of the Torah, Bereishit. His father, Lemech, names him Noach because: “Zeh Ye’nachameinu Mi’ma’aseinu.”

“This one will comfort us from the actions of our hands.”

In other words, in the period preceding the flood, human behavior had reached an all-time low and violence filled the world. Lemech’s hope was that Noach would somehow turn Continued on page 14

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THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

After Tisha B’Av, we pray that true nechama awaits us

July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

6

Vayinachem / A great, wise and understanding people. Oh, really?!

W

e are now past Tisha B’Av, and our first Shabbos foray into the synagogue puts us in a position to hear this message from Moshe: “Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the L-rd, my G-d, commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land to which you are coming to possess. And you shall keep [them] and do [them], for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes PARSHA OF of the nations, who THE WEEK will hear all these statutes and will say, ‘This great nation is only a wise and understanding people’.” (Devarim 4:5-6) I try not to live with blinders on. Which is why reading this triggers an exasperating throw of my hands skyward, along with a look heavenward, and a cry Rabbi Avi Billet (sometimes aloud, but more often silent because no one is listening) of “Us? When will this happen?”

Did this happen during the time of David or Solomon? Did this happen during the time of the first or second Temples? Did this happen during the Talmudic Period? Does it refer to the historical anomaly of the kingdom of the Khazars?

It’s great that the Kuzari was written by Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi. Would it ever have been written by someone from the “nations” described in the Torah?

The only “wisdom of this nation” I hear bandied around is the accusation of the Jews being the Illuminati, or that the Protocols are true. Of course both of these are nonsense.

But when the headlines “amongst the nations,” when true, are about Jews who commit abominable deeds — especially Jews who are supposed to know better on account of their Jewish education and upbringing — the Torah (and I shudder to say this) seems to be out to lunch on reality.

Of course, the Torah is right. If the Jewish people would only “keep them and do them” — the commandments, that is — we would indeed be a wise and understanding people; a model to all. After all, thievery, physical abuse, cover-ups, dishonesty, slander, etc., are all intolerable offenses that have no place in a world governed by Torah ideals.

But even so, our public relations would still need a lot of work. There are many cynical and skeptical people, Jewish and not Jewish, who believe the Torah mandates the stoning of adulterers (Vayikra 20) and the killing of minors (Devarim 21:20-21, 22:2124), and the most heinous of punishments not for the perpetrators, but for the victims of sexual abuse (Devarim 22:29).

Anyone who makes these claims does not understand the magnitude of Torah knowledge as they look at the verse in its most simplistic translation, and have no concept of the Oral Torah, and thousands of years of rabbinic discussions addressing what these cases mean.

The Talmud (Makkot 7) claims that courts did not exercise capital punishment.

At worst, it was a very rare occurrence. And the conditions leading to such were almost impossible to attain: valid witnesses, proper warning, zero contradictions in testimony.

We live in a time when Sharia law, which takes some of the Biblical laws literally (or at least as prescribed in the Quran), and practices the worst kinds of corporal punishment, is on the rise in in practice and acceptance around the world, even in some Western countries.

Halacha, on the other hand, which has so many varying opinions and is a system which can help people live meaningful and fulfilling lives following various schools of interpretation, isn’t growing beyond very small circles of Jews.

And it has become a major turnoff to many Jews who do not observe. This is wisdom? This is understanding? What are we doing wrong?

We are not as Jewishly educated as we ought to be. Even our rabbis and educators, and certainly a large majority of our flock, do not have a mastery of Tanach, Talmud and Halachic literature.

We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the education of every child in his/her lifetime, yet we (and our children) can’t read Hebrew, can’t translate Hebrew, and have no patience to tackle a new text. We review the same laws every year, and we still don’t know basic synagogue practice and basic holiday practice.

Or what it means to live a life of hatznea leches — living a modest existence in which we do not call unnecessary attention to ourselves.

We preach about lashon hara, but we don’t know the difference between a to’eles (discussion with a purpose) and what is pure besmirching and slander.

Even as we wring our hands with dismay at the chillul Hashem, we enjoy reading all the dirt in the press about Jewish people who “look frum” who conduct themselves in ways that are anything but…

We talk about people doing teshuvah, but we are unaccepting of people we believe can’t do teshuvah.

The Jewish criminals don’t represent us.

But we are not doing a good enough job of representing ourselves through living and modeling a Torah life that will cause others to say, “This is a great nation, wise and understanding.”

Let the recent mourning period of Av serve as a reminder that we have a long way to go. May we find the strength to live up to our mandate from the Torah, to truly be a model nation.

We are not as Jewishly educated as we ought to be. Even our rabbis and educators do not have a mastery of Tanach, Talmud and Halachic literature.

VOICE YOUR OPINION! E-mail letters to letters@TheJewishStar.com

Wanted: Some shalom bayit in the Nine Days, please HEBREW ONLY PLEASE

Rabbi Noam Himelstein

A Holocaust survivor once described that the worst day of his experiences was, in fact, the day that he was freed by American forces. His reason: He had nowhere to go, nowhere to return to.

That feeling of loss was harder than anything that he had experienced .

It is easy to complain about a state that you were born into. But do we realize that compared to our situation 70 years ago, we are living in the Garden of Eden?

Apparently some of us don’t.

Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of the IDF. He has taught in yeshiva high schools, post-high school women’s seminaries, and headed the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.

7 THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

Fighting missionaries over Judaism’s truth

By Malka Eisenberg The threat of missionaries to the Jewish community hits home next on Tuesday, when a worldwide consciousness-raising campaign begins in Woodmere.

Tuesday’s event will raise interest and funds for a film showcasing the work of Rabbi Daniel Asor, a baal teshuva (returnee to Judaic observance) and well-known affiliate of Yad Lachim, an organization that undermine the efforts of missionaries to convert Jews to Christianity.

In addition to a discussion of Rabbi Asor’s new anti-missionary campaign, the evening will feature a showing of Yuval Ovadia’s endof-days film, “Hamesima X” and a conversation with Ovadia. The public is invited. Admission to the event, in the home of Ronen Cohen, is free.

Dr. Daniel Korman, a Five Towns internist, urges the use of Rabbi Asor’s book, “At the Gate of Rome,” in a course in yeshiva high schools. Korman said the book proves that quotations from the Tanach used by missionaries are fabrications, phrases taken out of context, and distortions. He said that missionaries “prey on Jews who are weak and unknowledgeable and spend $250 million per year in Israel alone.”

Asor was born in Israel. His father died when he was nine, and his mother remarried a more secular man. Asor grew up religious, attending various yeshivot including some time at Mercaz Harav and Hakotel.

He entered as a Hesder student but went on to a combat unit that at that time did not accommodate the religious soldiers. He ex-

Rabbi Daniel Asor celled in the army as a highly respected and admired member of unit 51, an elite Golani unit.

After the IDF moved him to a different unit, he turned away from Judaism, finishing his service in 1989, moving to New York and then to Florida to learn to fly. He sought out and studied many religions except for Judaism. Missionaries confronted him there and convinced him to become a Christian.

He himself was baptized and became a missionary, convincing fellow Israelis at his flight school to also abandon their Judaism.

Asor’s brother-in-law is Yehuda Peretz, a Jew living in Israel, born a Mexican Catholic whose entire family (except for his father) converted to Judaism as a result of his searching for answers. In Peretz’s story, it was noted that natives of his area had Marano customs, growing long earlocks, hiding a Tanach under the father’s chair, and more.

Peretz got wind of the changes and actions of Asor and convinced him to come to Monsey to meet with a group of rabbis for a

A scene from the end-of-days film, “Hamesima X” by Yuval Ovadia, which will be screened next Tuesday evening in Woodmere. debate on Judaism versus Christianity.

The debate ran long into the night. Asor returned to his Christian handlers but there was already a reversal in his thinking. The rabbis ultimately convinced him to return to Judaism.

Asor now gives talks about his search for truth and finding it ultimately in a return to Judaism. He has also written in Hebrew books on the mistaken ideology and war with Islam and another book on cults and atheism.

Rabbi Emanuel Terenyo, a rabbi battling the ravages of Jews for Jesus in Texas (he said its congregations have “millions of Israeli” members), chanced upon Rabbi Asor’s book, in Hebrew, saw its merits and had it

translated into English.

“The book will help many and strengthen them. It is very important. The books will sanctify the name of Heaven.”

Ovadia has produced a number of films, including “Hamesima X,” which is about a being sent to Earth to deliver mystical and Kabalistic secrets to a Mossad agent. It was selected for 12 international film festivals and won several awards. He told The Jewish Star that he expects his “film against missionaries will make an earthquake in the world.

Rabbi Asor has a nice story — the film is based on his story.”

The screening will take place at 612 Derby Ave., Woodmere, on Tuesday July 23 at 8 p.m..

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July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

8

JCC appoints Joel Block as exec director From JCC of Greater Five Towns The JCC of the Greater Five Towns has announced the appointment of Joel Block as executive director. Block will provide strategic direction for the JCC and rely on his expertise in program development and community relations to expand JCC’s curriculum, strengthen its community ties and encourage overall growth.

Block served for the past 18 years as executive director and CEO of the Suffolk Y JCC in Commack, a state-of-the art center that serves individuals and families from all walks of life throughout Suffolk County.

Block helped to establish that center as one of the largest JCCs in the country.

“The JCC of the Greater Five Towns is extremely pleased to welcome Joel to both our center and community,” says JCC President Arnold Waldman. “Joel has long been recognized as a visionary and leader who has built respect among his peers and within the community he serves. He has outstanding skills in uniting people of various backgrounds and motivating those around him to work together as a team. We look forward to him bringing his strengths and experience to the Five Towns and helping us continue our mission and expand our reach.”

A HAFTR and HALB alumni, Block is a graduate of Yeshiva University. He began his career at the Hartman Y in Far Rockaway but it was his role as Executive Director with the Suffolk Y JCC that allowed him to provide inspirational leadership to his staff, the Board of Directors and the community.

“Rina Shkolnik and the dedicated board of directors and compassionate staff of the JCC of the Greater Five Towns have built a remarkable organization,” Block said. “As we look to the future, we will work together with our community partners to strengthen our role as a resource, common meeting place and Jewish communal center. Our focus will be to expand our programming for people of every age and continue to meet the ever evolving social service needs of our community.”

Newsbriefs from the 5 Towns Send news and photos to: PressReleases@TheJewishStar.com

Hewlett Chabad offers course in Tikkun Hamidos Alumnus visits HANC enroute to Afghanistan Before Specialist Jason Turk, a HANC alumnus, deployed to Afghanistan, he visited Morah Allison Fixler’s Nursery Aleph Class. He read a book about soldiers, taught Army exercises, and gave each child a toy soldier to play with.

Chesed on a hot Sunday afternoon Submitted on behalf of Rachel Dublinsky Three 16 year old yeshiva high school students raised funds last week for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, an organization fighting childhood cancer, during the Sunday that fell within the Nine Days.

Standing for over five hours in the scorching sun on busy Park Lane in North Woodmere, these close friends began what they promise will be a summerlong campaign to raise funds for a worthy cause.

The girls plan to continue serving lemonade from their stand every Sunday for the next few weeks.

Pictured left to right: Rachel Dublinsky, Racheli Tuchman and Morgan Roslyn.

For more information, contact Rachel at 516-603-8221.

From Chabad of Hewlett What a meaningful summer!

That’s how some of the 30 or so participants chose to describe the unique “Tikkun Hamidos According to Kabbalah and Chassidus” course, given at Chabad of Hewlett Jewish Center this summer.

“I was really amazed to see the diverse and big crowd attending class about this deep and fascinating topic,” said Rabbi Tenenboim, director of Chabad of Hewlett who gives the lectures. “It’s not surprising to me that we are all looking for more meaning in our lives. But it’s really different when you actually see us all learning together.”

The course, given at the Chabad center at the Hewlett train station, is a part of Chabad’s effort to bring more awareness and participation in Judaism — to all Jews regardless of backgrounds, affiliation, or previous knowledge.

“The ideas are so deep, but the Rabbi derived from it such practical and useful tools to use in my everyday experiences,” said Sarah, who participated in the class after she heard about it from a friend.

The classes always conclude with a practical lesson so people can try to apply the concepts learned.

“At our recent class, we discussed the importance of setting goals in our life, but at the same time we learned that goals can be achieved by starting with even a very small action,” said Chabad of Hewlett’s Rabbi Nochem Tenenboim.

“The Chassidus teaches us that even if your goal is to change the world“you can still start by just smiling or saying hello to people you meet in the street. In a way, that may be the message of our Chabad.”

Chabad of Hewlett operates together with Chabad of the Five Towns in Caderarhurst.

For information, call Rabbi Tenenboim at 516-537-8770, Rabbi@JewishHewlett.com.

9

By Malka Eisenberg A video on terrorist attacks by the OneFamily fund and a Powerpoint presentation bookended a Tisha B’Av lecture by Naftali Moses, memorializing his son, one of eight young people murdered in a 2008 pre-Purim terrorist attack at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

More than 150 men and women filled the seats of the cool, dimly lit ballroom at the White Shul in Far Rockaway. The presentation was entitled “The Strength to Speak in the Face of Pain: A Father Remembers his Murdered Son.” Moses, author of “Mourning Under Glass: Reflection on a Son’s Murder,” spoke for OneFamily, a volunteer-based organization that strives to rehabilitate and aid victims of terror, helping them emotionally and financially to reintegrate into society.

The film showed footage of terror attacks in Israel, focusing on individual accounts of victims and survivors and the help they received from OneFamily. It noted that one out of every 250 families in Israel has been affected by terrorism.

Moses methodically recounted the murder of his son: Three young students — 18-yearold Yonadav Hirshfeld and two 16 year olds — were talking in the courtyard of Mercaz HaRav, waiting for the rosh chodesh Adar party when they noticed an Arab carrying a large box. He put down the box and pulled out a Kalachnikov assault rifle, a combat vest, two pistols and 200 rounds of ammunition.

The Arab shot Yonadav who ran into the dorm, ; he was later found dead on the steps.

The Arab shot the other two at point-

blank range. The terrorist entered the library and shot a 26 year old Ethiopian student who had been determined to learn Torah, and was preparing for his smicha exam. The terrorist then hunted down four other students, among them Avrohom David Moses, who hid in the stacks in the library. They were studying masechet megilah to make a siyum at the Purim meal. Moses said that he has “difficulty attempting to keep my son’s memory alive” that “memory has some kedusha (holiness)’ and thus can also be “defiled” but “despite the distortion of time, memory persists.”

The massacre was on Thursday evening; Friday morning there were two funerals, one at the yeshiva and then one at each family’s burial site. The yeshiva set out eight pairs of benches from the yeshiva “like beds,” Moses said. The benches that held the youth studying Torah, so alive, now held the bodies on stretchers, wrapped in Talitot, the outline of the bodies visible through the wool. As each name was called a cry from each family rent the air. More than a hundred yeshiva students stood as tears ran down their cheeks and they howled for each victim. Moses cried for them and for his oldest son, he said.

When the Mercaz HaRav families gathered, they discussed how they each heard of the attack. Between 8 pm and midnight they had the same experience, hearing the report on the radio, searching the Internet, vainly trying to place phone calls. “Each option closed off, leading to the inescapable conclusion that their son was among those killed.”

He said that it shouldn’t have happened and shouldn’t happen but “without going through the experience, it is almost impossible to think of it—the loss of a child.”

Malka Eisenberg / The Jewish Star

Naftali Moses He wrote the story “compelled to open the window of bereavement that we had gone through.”

He pointed out that his son and his son’s chevruta were killed together and had been learning together since fifth grade. They died in tenth grade. They were said to have given their teachers “trouble,” knowing much more than their teacher. A spoof film of the boys showed them reading from comic books— but inside the books were hidden gemaras.

“The memory is all I have left of my first born boy,” he said. He was “thrust into a macabre celebrity, losing who he was as an individual.” A Powerpoint presentation of photos of Avraham David z”l as an infant and as he grew up, like a bar mitzvah video, ended with the grim photos of the aftermath of the

massacre, the weapons used, the blood. Moses said that he was a beautiful boy, blond hair. blue eyes. He had committed much to memory and knew three sedarim of mishna by heart. Avraham David was dedicated to learning Torah and was learning gemarah bechevruta 16 hours a day. “Another victim of Arab terror,” the father said, mourning “his lost chance of what he might become.”

OneFamily was founded by the Belzberg family. Michal Belzberg was getting ready for her bat mitzvah in Jerusalem when a suicide bomber blew up the Sbarro restaurant in 2001 killing 15 and wounding 130 men, women and children. Michal canceled her party and donated the funds for the celebration to the victims of the attack and encouraged family and friends to also donate what they would have given her. Michal and her family raised more than $100,000, but feeling that this was not enough founded OneFamily. Since then, the organization has assisted thousands of terror victims in Israel.

“It’s a club that no one wants to belong to,” stressed Moses. “Members wish to turn back the clock.” He noted the OneFamily Fund helps them “find comfort in that, no matter what, they are not alone.”

Moses told the Jewish Star that he spoke on Tisha B’av since it is “ a day of remembering different things and trying to do something with the memories and take them forward, not to forget.” He referenced the psalm “al naharot bavel” how people respond to a tragedy, how the leviim hung up their instruments and the Babylonians forced them to play music, but that the captive Jews stated that “we want to remember how we want to remember not how you want us to remember.”

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THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

Remembering Mercaz Harav Massacre on Tisha B’Av

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11

Despite great religious and historic import, mystery shrouds the day for the non-observant

By Binyamin Kagedan, JNS.org It is a testament to the variability of Jewish life in America that the summertime fast of Tisha B’Av is for observant Jews a time of momentous communal mourning, and for many others a normal and unremarkable day.

In contrast to Yom Kippur, which sees widespread observance in one fashion or another across the denominational spectrum, Tisha B’Av and its ritual restrictions (which are nearly identical to those of Yom Kippur) are unfamiliar to a sizable contingent of American Jews.

A bit of anecdotal evidence: This author recently worked as the Judaics director for a summer camp affiliated with the JCC movement and was asked to put together a brief Tisha B’Av ceremony, something this particular camp had never before included in its Jewish programming. The campers were so incredulous about the existence of this holy day that many were whispering to each other that it had been invented by the camp staff as a color war breakout prank.

How could Tisha B’Av, one of the most intense and salient religious experiences of the year, be wholly foreign to a large portion of American Jewry? Surely it cannot simply come down to the fact that most people are averse to fasting — if that were the case, how could we explain the respect that continues to be accorded to Yom Kippur?

Unlike Yom Kippur, whose themes of repentance and forgiveness are timelessly compelling, the narrative of Tisha B’Av centers on national calamities that marked the end of Jewish sovereignty in ancient Israel and the official onset of the long Jewish diaspora.

The day’s liturgy mourns the disappearance of the holy Temple, high priests and animal sacrifices, and woven into its eulogizing is the wish for a return to these original forms of worship — something observant Jews pray for every day.

Tisha B’Av as traditionally observed openly longs for a way of religious life that even the most fervently Orthodox today would find alien. Understandably, those movements and individuals in recent history that have championed Judaism’s ability to evolve and adapt would not be interested in the message of Tisha B’v — that what is old is best.

A depiction of the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., with the altar in the foreground.

Early leaders of the Reform movement in the 18th century, pushing to minimize ritual law, dropped the observance of Tisha B’Av; they considered the transition from sacrificial worship to verbal prayer brought on by the destruction of the Temple as a positive step in the evolution of their faith. The fact that most American Jews are not familiar with Tisha B’Av can likely be traced back to that early decision.

In recent decades, however, more and more Reform rabbis and communities have begun reintroducing some kind of Tisha B’Av observance into their annual schedule.

In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle

in 2011, Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, the Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship and Ritual at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, attributed the shift to two causes — first, to the Holocaust and the subsequent founding of the state of Israel, events that brought the experience of national tragedy and a strong sense of unified peoplehood into the modern Jewish experience.

The second development Hoffman identified was the growth of Jewish camps. As the anecdote above illustrates, Tisha B’Av’s placement during the summer months made it a natural choice for inclusion within the Jewish

educational programming at Reform Jewish camps. Rather than focus on the destruction of the Temple, Hoffman explains, educators taught their campers about the Holocaust and other tragic events from throughout Jewish history. Moved by the experience, young people brought the observance of Tisha B’Av back to their home communities.

Like those skeptical campers, many American Jews are still just finding out about Tisha B’Av for the first time.

Binyamin Kagedan has an MA in Jewish Thought from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

At long last, when will Moshiach come?

By Rabbi Eugene Labovitz, z”l, and Dr. Annette Labovitz Tired of battling for the legitimacy of the chassidic movement against the mitnagdim, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Vitebsk decided to make aliya in mid-life, to live his remaining years in Eretz Yisrael.

Three hundred chassidim and their families accompanied him. They settled in the towns of Tiberias and Tzefat (Safed) in the Gallil, (the Gallilee) the northern part of the country, and were followed by many others, setting the foundation for chassidic life there.

Rebbe Menachem Mendel concluded his daily morning prayers with Anee Maamin, (I believe) and waited patiently for the arrival of the Moshiach.

One day, rumor spread through the Gallilee that a man had ascended the Mount of Olives in Yerushalayim and had blown the shofar, to announce the arrival of the

Reproduced with permission of the authors from “A Sacred Trust: Stories of Our Heritage and History.

Three days before the arrival of Moshiach, Eliyahu the prophet of peace and redemption will appear and proclaim: “Mountains of Israel! How long will you remain desolate and waste. Peace has come to the world. This is the coming of the age of redemption. This is the beginning of the great day!” (Pesikta Rabati 36:4) We do not know when the Moshiach will arrive. But until the arrival of that great day, we must work together in a process of tikun olam, to fix the world and prepare it for redemption.

Chassidim believed that the unlearned could approach the Heavenly Throne through prayer and good deeds. Serving G-d with joy, song, and dance in addition to the study of Torah created an emotional environment of love and caring. The mitnagdim insisted on intensive Torah study and the strict interpretation of halacha, believing that the performance of the commandments was the ladder to reach the Heavenly Throne. Although their styles were different, oftentimes creating animosity between the leaders of the two movements, both chassidim and mitnagdim ultimately had the same goal: To elevate the Jewish people to the highest possible level of holiness.

Moshiach. The followers of Rebbe Menachem Mendel were in a frenzy; for if in reality

the Moshiach had arrived, they considered themselves totally unprepared. Confused,

they rushed into his study to consult him.

“Wait, one minute,” he told them calmly.

“I will go out into the street and try to find out if the rumor is true.”

It did not take him long to return.

“I want you to know,” he sighed, “that the Moshiach has still not come!”

How do you know?” asked one student.

“Why did you have to go outside? Further, if you had to go outside, how could you find out any information in the few minutes you were there?”

“I’ll tell you,” whispered Rebbe Menachem Mendel, sadly, “I had to go outside because inside, in this study hall there is always so much love, so much caring, it feels like the Moshiach is among us always.

“On the other hand, when I walked around outside, I had no such feelings. I saw that the majority of the people still haven’t changed, so I assume that the Moshiach still hasn’t come.”

THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

For most American Jews, Tisha B’Av is unknown

July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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History repeats in exploitation of Zimmerman case Continued from page 1 During the 1970s and 1980s, AfricanAmericans stopped looking at Jews as their allies but rather as their oppressors. Jews were seen as having the political power that African-Americans desired; such black leaders as Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson went public with anti-Semitic comments.

Adding to the hatred were leaders of the South African anti-Apartheid movement who toured the United States as conquering heroes, spreading Jew-hatred. In 1984, Desmond Tutu publicly complained about American Jews having “an arrogance — the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support.

Understandably, Jewish-Black relations were already rocky as New York entered the summer of 1991.

On July 20, 1991, Leonard Jeffries of City College, who had a history of anti-Semitic slurs, presented a two-hour long speech claiming “rich Jews” financed the slave trade, and that Jews control the film industry (together with Italian mafia) and use that control to paint a brutal stereotype of blacks. Jeffries also attacked Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Education, calling her a “sophisticated Texas Jew,” “a debonair racist” and “Miss Daisy.”

Jeffries’ speech received enormous negative press during the first weeks of August, especially from the leaders of the Jewish community who wanted Jeffries fired for the bigotry.

With each new criticism of the professor, leaders in the African-American community rushed to Jeffries’ defense. The city’s two black newspapers as well as black radio station WLIB; joined activists such Al Sharpton, Colin Moore, C. Vernon Mason, Sonny Carson, and Lenora Fulani to showcase their approval of Jeffries’s “scholarship” and to denounce the people who criticized Jeffries anti-Semitism as race baiters.

Serial race-baiter Al Sharpton is credited with saying, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house,” as a response the Crown Heights riot. That is a fallacy; he made that threatening comment to the Jewish community about the growing Jeffries controversy on Aug. 18, the day before the riots began.

Clearly something bad was coming.

Jeffries was fired because of his bigoted speech and pressure from the Jewish community (he was later reinstated and won a court case surrounding his firing) leading to further resentment of the Jews from a black community already being barraged with anti-Jewish incitement from the African-American media.

Crown Heights ignites On Monday Aug. 19, a station wagon driven by Yosef Lifsh, hit another car and bounced onto the sidewalk at 8:21 p.m.

The station wagon was part of a three-car motorcade carrying the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. The Rebbe was in a different car.

The station wagon struck two black children, 7-year-old cousins Gavin and Angela Cato who were on the sidewalk. Lifsh immediately got out of his car and tried to help the children gathering crowd started to attack him.

Within minutes, an ambulance from the Hasidic-run ambulance service, and two from the city’s Emergency Medical Service arrived.

Meanwhile, the gathering crowd became unruly. The police who showed up radioed for backup, reporting the station wagon’s driver and passengers were being assaulted. Police officer Nona Capace ordered the Hasidic am-

bulance to remove the battered Yosef Lifsh and his passenger from the scene.

The injured children went by separate city ambulances to Kings County Hospital. Gavin Cato was pronounced dead; his cousin survived.

A rumor began to spread that the Hasidic ambulance crew had ignored the dying black child in favor of treating the Jewish men.

This falsehood was later used by Al Sharpton to incite the crowd. Other rumors sprang up — Lifsh was intoxicated (breath alcohol test administered by the police proved his sobriety). More falsehoods circulated — Lifsh did not have a valid driver’s license; he went through a red light; the police prevented people, including Gavin Cato’s father, from assisting in the rescue.

Charles Price, an area resident who had come to the scene of the accident, incited the masses with claims that, “The Jews get everything they want. They’re killing our children.” Price later pled guilty for inciting the crowd to murder Yankel Rosenbaum.

Ignited by the falsehoods, resentment exploded into violence. Groups of young black men threw rocks, bottles and debris at police, residents and homes.

According to the New York Times, more than 250 neighborhood residents went on a rampage that first night, mostly black teenagers, many of whom were shouting “Jews!

Jews! Jews!”

Three hours after the tragic crash, 29-yearold Australian Jewish scholar Yankel Rosenbaum was attacked by a gang of black teens.

He was stabbed four times. Cops quickly arrested Lemrick Nelson, who was identified

by Rosenbaum as his attacker. Rosenbaum’s wounds were not fatal he was expected to recover; Mayor Dinkins visited Rosenbaum at the hospital. Yankel died at 2:30am Tuesday because the hospital staff missed one of his knife wounds.

The next evening, according to the sworn testimony of Efraim Lipkind, a former Ha-

sidic resident of Crown Heights, Sharpton started agitating the crowd.

“Then we had a famous man, Al Sharpton, who came down, and he said Tuesday night, kill the Jews, two times. I heard him, and he started to lead a charge across the street to Utica.”

With each passing hour the violence worsened, Jewish leaders began to desperately complain about the lack of protection to the authorities. The rioters were being allowed to rampage unchecked, too little force was being brought to bear, and too few arrests were being made, they said. Area Jews felt the police were under orders by the city’s first black mayor to hold back, that the police were not allowed to fight against the black rioters, who continued to grow bolder in their anti-Semitic attack as they sensed the appeasement.

The fact is Mayor David Dinkins responded to the riot immediately by deploying 2,000 police officers and making a personal visit to the troubled neighborhood under a hail of rocks and epithets hurled at him by fellow blacks.

Dinkins has spoken of his own mishandling of the riots. Admitting he “screwed up Crown Heights.”

“I regret not saying to the police brass sooner ‘whatever you guys are doing is not working’ — it was then they altered their behavior and they were able to containe the ravaging young blacks who were attacking Jews. … I will forever be accused of holding back the police and permitted blacks to attack Jews, however that did not happen, it is just inaccurate.”

In all, the street violence against the Crown Heights Jews lasted three days / four nights starting with the evening of the accident. On Thursday evening, cops finally restored order, although sporadic violence against Jews continued for weeks after the riot was contained.

Yankel Rosenbaum wasn’t the only person

murdered by the rioters. On Sept. 5, Anthony Graziosi, an Italian-American was dragged out of his car, brutally beaten and stabbed to death because his full beard and dark clothing caused him to be mistaken for a Hasidic Jew. During the funeral of Gavin Cato on Aug. 26, Al Sharpton gave an anti-Semitic eulogy, which fueled the fires of hatred.

“The world will tell us he was killed by accident. Yes, it was a social accident. ... It’s an accident to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights. ...

Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights. The issue is not anti-Semitism; the issue is apartheid. ...

“All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise, no meetings, no kaffe klatsch, no skinnin’ and grinnin’. Pay for your deeds.”

Regarding the Mayor’s call for peace Sharpton pontificated: “They don’t want peace, they want quiet.”

Sharpton and the lawyer representing the Cato family counseled them not to cooperate with authorities in the investigation and demanded a special prosecutor be named.

When Sharpton was asked about the violence, he justified it: “We must not reprimand our children for outrage, when it is the outrage that was put in them by an oppressive system.”

The first Sabbath after the funeral, Sharpton tried unsuccessfully to kick up tensions again by marching 400 protesters in front of the Lubavitch of Crown Heights shouting “No Justice, No Peace.”

Sharpton called for the arrest of Lifsh, the driver of the station wagon. Even though more than 20 similarly accidental vehicular deaths had occurred in Brooklyn since 1989 without a single arrest — several involving local Hasidim run down by blacks. The agitator’s pressure led Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes into convening a grand jury.

When the investigation of the accident did not produce a criminal indictment against Yosef Lifsh, Sharpton encouraged the Cato family to seek big-bucks damages in a civil suit against Lifsh (who had since fled to Israel for his own safety). Sharpton announced that he would personally serve papers on Yosef Lifsh in Israel. He bought tickets and hopped an El-Al flight on the weekend of Yom Kippur.

At Ben Gurion Airport, a woman spotted Sharpton hailing a cab and yelled to him, “Go to hell! “I am in hell already,” shot back. “I am in Israel.”

The aftermath Sharpton abandoned the Caribbean people of Crown Heights as soon as the anti-Semitic violence died down. His entire participation in the violence may have been a calculated effort to usurp Jesse Jackson as the leading spokesman for African-Americans. Jackson may have had his “Hymie-town” but Sharpton’s incitement against those Jews who he perceived as having the political power that African Americans deserved, went much further than simply words like those uttered

by Jackson.

Sadly, had Sharpton not exploited the death of Gavin Cato for his own “resume,” what was, by all accounts, a disorganized group of ruffians on the first night of the riot, might well have dissipated the morning after the accident.

The media portrayed the Crown Heights riot as two-sided, promoting the myth that both blacks and Jews were equal in their violence. The violence was a one-sided rampage Continued on page 14

13

The European Union on Friday will issue a directive to all of its member nations that bans cooperation with Israel in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, all territories acquired by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. Israeli projects seeking EU funding will be required to sign a clause in their cooperation agreement stating that areas beyond Israel’s pre-1967 lines are not part of the agreement, effective in 2014. According to the EU directive, which was first reported by Haaretz, forbidden activities for EU members will also include the awarding of scholarships and research stipends to Israelis living beyond the pre-1967 lines.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the EU directive, saying that his government “will not accept any external edicts about our borders” and will attempt to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians only through direct negotiations. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Zeev Elkin, said the directive “fuels the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiation table,” the Associated Press reported.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi called the EU’s decision the “beginning of a new era.”

London airport authority dumps Israel for United Arab Emirates Greater London’s major governmentowned transportation body has agreed to refuse business ties with Israel or any Israeli companies in exchange for a 10-year, £36 million sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline for a railway car running over the Thames river.

On Monday, Transport for London posted the contract with Emirates Airline online.

The contract states that the company will default on the agreement if it engages with “(i) any Competitor; or (ii) any person who is a national of, or who is registered, incorporated, established or whose principal place of business is in a country with which the United Arab Emirates does not at the date of this Contract or at any relevant point during the Term maintain diplomatic relations.”

“This sets a dangerous precedent effectively allowing UAE money to dictate government policy through commercial contracts,” said Paul Charney, chairman of the Zionist Federation.

Saudi airline ripped for refusing to fly Israelis in the USA A New York mayoral candidate said on Monday that Saudi Arabian Airlines should be excluded from U.S. airports if it doesn’t stop discriminating against Israeli passengers.

“Saudi Arabian Airlines uses U.S. airports and yet bans Israeli citizens from being able to fly on their airline,” Bill de Blasio, currently the city’s Public Advocate, said.

A member of de Blasio’s staff called Saudi Arabian Airlines pretending to be an Israeli citizen trying to book a ticket to fly from JFK to Mumbai, India via Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian Airlines booking agent told him that he wouldn’t be allowed to travel on the airline due to his nationality.

“It’s not only illegal; it’s an affront to who we are,” he said. — Israel Hayom

Remembering 850,000 Jews exiled by Arab states in 1947 More than 850,000 Jews fled or were evicted from their homes in Arab countries after Israel’s establishment. Now, a Knesset committee has chosen Nov. 30 as a national day to commemorate that event.

On Nov. 30, 1947, one day after the Unit-

Israel Newsbriefs from JNS.org ed Nations Partition Plan established a Jewish state, Arab nations carried out attacks on their Jewish communities.

The bill’s author sent a letter to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby calling on the organization to “accept historic accountability for the humiliation, the suffering, and the losses incurred by innocent Jewish victims of the Arab world’s declared war against the State of Israel.”

Media silence follows 5,635 attacks on Jews in Israel There were 5,635 attacks in the first half of 2013 against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem, and the greater Jerusalem region, according to figures released

by Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron, a volunteer emergency medical response organization in Israel.

Among these attacks, 611 involved Molotov cocktails and 5,144 were rock attacks.

Eight attacks involved guns and knives. One death and 171 injuries resulted from the attacks.

Hatzalah spokeswoman Yehudit Tayar said, “If there is spray painting on the side of a mosque or an Arab’s tires are slashed it is on the news, but violence against us is ignored.”

Hamas making rockets designed to strike Tel Aviv: Report

Coptic Christian man found decapitated in the Sinai In the latest round of violence directed against Christians in Egypt, a Coptic Christian man was found decapitated in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

The Christian man was found with his hands and feet bound and his head severed, according to AFP. A security official said that “extremist groups,” likely referring to Islamic extremists, had captured the man on Saturday, the same day another Coptic priest was killed.

That Coptic priest, Mina Aboud Sharween, was shot while walking in the early afternoon in the Sinai coastal city of El Arish. The Egypt Independent reported that the gunman was believed to belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Since the ouster of Islamist Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi last week, Coptic Christians have grown more fearful of reprisal attacks from Islamic extremists. Lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula has also been a major concern for Egyptian security forces and Israel. Several Islamic terrorist groups roam freely in the region, which has been neglected for several years.

Arab farmers ignore BDS, train in Israel to fix Gaza agriculture

More than seven months after Operation Pillar of Defense ended, Army Radio reported on Monday that Hamas’s weapons capabilities are returning to levels they were at before the conflict last November. The report specifically mentioned Hamas’s production of M75 eight-inch rockets, which can reach Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel’s heavily populated central region.

Two groups of Arab farmers left Gaza this week to attend an agricultural seminar in northern Israel with the goal of improving Gaza’s agricultural industry. According to the office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), 60 Gazans participated in the conference despite calls from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement calling to boycott Israeli products and industries.

Polish parliament continues ban on religious slaughter

Pro-Palestinians press Ohio to pull Israel Bonds investment

Jewish groups have condemned a July 12 vote in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, rejecting a bill that would have reinstated the Polish government’s recognition of religious slaughter, including kosher and halal practices.

Poland instituted a ban on ritual slaughter in January, deeming a 2004 exemption that legalized kosher slaughter, or shechita, unconstitutional. On July 12, the Sejm voted 222-178 against a proposal that would have reinstated the exemption.

Report Saudi missiles are trained on Iran and Israel Based on new satellite images, Saudi Arabia has apparently deployed ballistic missile batteries that have both Israel and Iran in their crosshairs, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported.

The images, analyzed by military experts at IHS Jane’s, a business intelligence company specializing in military and national security, “show a previously undetected surfaceto-surface missile base in the Saudi desert, 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of the capital, Riyadh.”

HIS Jane’s report could escalate concerns about a growing arms race.

According to The Telegraph, Saudi Arabia currently has one launch pad pointing northwest, toward Tel Aviv, and another pointing northeast, toward Tehran. —Israel Hayom

Seventeen pro-Palestinian organizations in Ohio signed an open letter demanding that the state pull its $80 million investment in Israel bonds.

Palestine solidarity organizations, the International Socialist Organization chapters in Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo and proPalestinian groups at Kent State University, Ohio State University, University of Toledo and Oberlin College endorsed the letter.

The letter stated that the investment “shames the state of Ohio and poorly reflects upon the character” of the state’s citizens.

But state treasurer Josh Mandel said Israel Bonds generate three to four more times the yield of U.S. Bonds and are a “safe, secure and responsible” investment for Ohio tax dollars. —Cleveland Jewish News

Twitter releases user data over anti-Semitic French tweets Twitter has released data identifying users to French authorities in response to a January ruling by a French court regarding anti-Semitic tweets posted in October 2012 under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew).

The hashtag was trending as the third-most tweeted subject in France, with tweets such as “a good Jew is a dead Jew.” When a French court decided last January that Twitter must reveal the identities of users who sent out those anti-Semitic tweets, Twitter, which is bound by U.S. free speech

laws, initially refused to release the data.

France’s Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) then sued Twitter for 38.5 million euros.

After agreeing to release the data, Twitter said in a statement that the social network will work with UEJF “to fight racism and anti-Semitism,” and “to improve the accessibility of the procedure for notifications of illicit tweets,” Israel National News reported.

TripAdvisor calls Yad Vashem one of world’s top museums The Yad Vashem Holocaust museum has been ranked fourth among the 25 best museums in the world by TripAdvisor, a leading travel website that crowdsources criticism and reactions of tourists from around the world, Israel Hayom reported.

“Very moving and inspirational, should be a lesson to us all, may it never happen again,” one visitor to TripAdvisor wrote. “We should never forget what this nation went through.”

“The displays are moving and informative, they will stay with you long after you leave this place,” another visitor wrote. “You may find yourself emotionally spent after you finish, but that is to be expected. But, you will take away a resolve that this cannot be permitted to happen to any race, anywhere, ever again.”

Yad Vashem was also a Traveler’s Choice 2013 winner on TripAdvisor. The award is only granted to institutions that consistently receive outstanding reviews and have an average rating of more than four out of five stars.

Ramadan mini-series employs anti-Semitic stereotypes The Anti-Defamation League has condemned a mini-series being broadcast around the Middle East during Ramadan that depicts Jews as the enemies of Islam and employs anti-Semitic stereotypes such as Jewish greediness and large-scale conspiracies.

The series — titled “Khaiber” and airing on the satellite network Dubai TV, the Algerian 3 station, and Dream TV — focuses on a conflict between Muslims and Jews in the city of Khaiber.

“With Syria, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East going through historical upheavals, it is absurd and outrageous that the entertainment of the Ramadan season promotes the Muslim subjugation of caricatured Jews,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman.

Push to pull funds from Jewish groups offering forum to BDS JCC Watch, a pro-Israel advocacy group, is holding protests on the second Thursday of each month until it sees new guidelines that prevent the UJA-Federation of New York’s funding of activities that give a platform to activists of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

“They’re not telling their donors that they’re using their money to undermine the state of Israel,” Allen said of the charities.

Allen said he does not believe the 92Y itself condones or supports BDS. Rather, he believes the 92Y’s recent hosting of pro-BDS speakers has been “going on under the radar,” and he said JCC Watch is calling for the Jewish leadership of the 92Y to “regain control and establish guidelines.”

The rally was organized by JCC Watch outside the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on July 11, in response to the Y’s invitation of pro-BDS speakers including Alice Walker and Roger Waters (who ultimately did not appear). UJAFederation and 92Y officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

EU bans trade with ‘parts’ of Israel

July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

14

Hatzalah’s the hero at Williamsburg political rally…

Continued from page 1 looking out for us around the clock.”

Quinn had been holding a press conference in the near triple digit temperatures in front of P.S. 132 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in support of a trash dumping site on the Upper East Side — the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station.

Since the intern was conscious and breathing and being tended to by an EMT, the city did not consider it a priority call, FDNY said.

“Every call for medical assistance is important and ambulance dispatching is prioritized so life-threatening calls — for a choking child, cardiac arrest or chest pains — take precedence over non-life-threatening injuries—when the patient is breathing, alert or

communicating,” FDNY said in a statement seeking to quell public concern heightened by significant media attention to the incident.

“That was the case here. In addition, the patient was being treated by a police officer, who is an EMT so care was being administered from the moment the incident occurred.”

Rabbi Elozer Kanner, one of the coordinators of the local Chevra Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County, said that the ambulance that answered the call was “not my branch,” but all branches of “Hatzalah are always happy to help anyone in need. The fact that resources sometimes are stretched thin and there is not a quick response can happen to any ambulance core.

“There was an EMT treating her and I’m

sure he did whatever was appropriate.”

Kanner added that it sometimes happens that all ambulances are on calls. “It can happen to anybody; I would not criticize anybody. It is hot weather, they are stretched to capacity on other calls. It was fortunate that Hatzalah could come. Having been in those shoes, I can understand being stretched to the limit and it can happen to any agency.”

News sources indicated that there were 15 concurrent calls in that area and that 911 received about 4,000 calls due to the heat, more than the usual 3,200.

Meanwhile, following the state’s recent closing of the emergency room at Long Island College Hospital in Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn ERs were overwhelmed, and ambulances were diverted from Brooklyn

Hospital Center, creating backups at most Brooklyn facilities.

“It’s a mess,” a paramedic bringing a patient to New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Ambulances linked up along Seventh Avenue outside Methodist “since the ambulance deck cannot always accommodate all of them,” Methodist spokesperson Lyn Hill told the Eagle.

“Of course, it’s dangerous,” EMT Herby Dossous said. “As it is, we’re overworked. You close two ERs and it’s dangerous.”

Regarding the problem at her rally in Williamsburg, Quinn asked: “[How long would it take] an ambulance to get anywhere else where there aren’t television [cameras] and there aren’t two elected officials?”

The true peace that awaits us…

Continued from page 5 things around, leading the world and humanity back onto the path of ethics and righteousness.

Now, if this was indeed Lemech’s hope, what then is the nature of this comfort?

Q Q Q

Rashi there suggests that the way Noach will be a “comfort” to his generation, is not by leading them down the path of ethical excellence, but rather by inventing the plow! Why is plowing the field the source of comfort? Why not Noach’s ability to be a role model of righteousness, as suggested by the verse at the beginning of the portion of Noach?

Even more confusing is the fact that “nechama” does not always mean comfort; sometimes, it seems to have a completely different connotation, as, for example, when G-d, in response to Moshe’s entreaties, decides not to destroy the Jewish people after the sin of the golden calf: “Vayinachem Hashem al ha’ra’ah asher diber la’asot le’amo.”

“And Hashem (G-d) relented, concerning the evil He had said He would visit upon His people.” (Exodus 32) In this instance, G-d is not comforting the Jewish people (although it must certainly have been a comfort to them to know they would not be destroyed!) but rather changing His course of action. And this meaning of the word “nechama” can be found in various places, including G-d’s relenting of having created man, thus hastening the coming of the flood in order to destroy the world and build it all over again through the vestiges of Noach. (See Genesis 6:6) Q Q Q

What is the relationship between G-d changing His mind, and our being comforted? Perhaps the message of Shabbat Nachamu is that there really is no difference; our ability to be comforted depends on our decision, as it were, to change our minds or, more accurately, to change our perspective.

In a world gone mad, where violence was the rule, and wanton destruction of life and property the norm, Noach bursts onto the scene with the message that life is not about destruction, but about planting and building. Ultimately, if we are created then we must have a purpose, and every time we tap into that meaning and that purpose, we give meaning to creation all over again.

So Noach invents the plow, which is a vehicle for planting and growth, and belief in a future down the road. And this stands in direct contradiction to the wanton destruction all around him.

Noach had the potential to be a comfort to the world, because he offered the world, even such a world gone mad, a new perspective.

And this, as well, is what the Torah means when it suggests (Bereishit 24:67) that only after marrying Rivkah was Yitzchak comforted from the loss of his mother. It cannot mean that the loss loses any sense of pain, but rather that Yitzchak’s life takes on a whole new direction, as well as a renewed sense of purpose.

This might also explain G-d’s apparent change of heart after the sin of the golden calf. It goes without saying that G-d does not change. (If G-d is unlimited, there cannot be something G-d isn’t today that He will be tomorrow, nor

something He is today that He wasn’t yesterday.) So the Torah cannot mean that G-d changes His mind! Rather, we change, and with that change in us, the entire world changes along with us.

It was not G-d that changed; rather, Moshe, in refusing to accept the view of a Jewish people’s imminent destruction, instead sees the world through completely different lenses. And, by changing the way he viewed the world, Moshe changed the way we looked at the world as well, thus changing our destiny as a people forever.

Q Q Q

All of which leads us back to our portion this week.

Moshe begs G-d to enter the land, because that is the way he has looked at the world till now. But when G-d refuses to allow Moshe to enter the land, Moshe’s response is to see the world in a completely different way. And that is actually Moshe’s nechama, or comfort. If G-d tells Moshe he is no longer meant to enter the land, then there must be a purpose to that decision. Somehow, there is meaning to the fact that Moshe will be the role model whose students must learn to apply his lessons even when he is no longer present; indeed, long after he is gone.

And so, Moshe’s immediate response to this decision is to understand that he must pass on the essence of Judaism and Torah to the next generation of Jews whose job it will be to build a homeland where that message can flourish, without its being dependant on any one leader. Hence, Moshe immediately begins preparing the Jewish people to see Yehoshua (Joshua) as their new leader.

I do not know how a mother who has lost her beloved son, can somehow look at a different world, seemingly empty without the sights and sounds of the son she loved so much, and still see a world filled with purpose and meaning. I know only it is not our place on this earth to attempt to find answers to these painful questions, any more than we can attempt to offer the words that will comfort a person in such pain.

And it remains a mystery to me, how a people, having lost so much, and after spending two thousand years seeing death and cruelty all around them, could still find the strength to see a world full of goodness and purpose, choosing to build a state of Israel out of the ashes of destruction that was the Holocaust.

But it is certainly our nechama, this little country that we love so much.

Q Q Q

Perhaps this is the nechama (the comfort) that awaits us after Tisha’ B’Av. We need to learn to change the way we look at each other, and at the world, and after commemorating a destruction that seemed to happen because Jews could not learn to see what was beautiful in each other, maybe at long last it is time for us to see each other for the beautiful souls we are, and not get stuck on the different opinions that divide us.

Shabbat Shalom, Binny Freedman Rav Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City is a Company Commander in the IDF reserves, and lives in Efrat with his wife Doreet and their four children.

Photo by David Shankbone / Wikipedia Commons

Al Sharpton poses for a photographer in 2007.

Crown Heights…

Continued from page 12 waged by some of the neighborhood’s 180,000 strong black majority against a Jewish minority of 20,000.

The Crown Heights riot occurred just five months after the infamous Rodney King beating, a disgusting act of police brutality against the African American King which was videotaped and repeated on TV ad nauseum.

After the King case, who could believe that blacks in America could ever take over the role of racists? But that is what happened in Crown Heights. Even today the deaths of Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum are viewed as some sort of a “tit for tat.” This is a misrepresentation of the facts. Cato’s death was the result of a horrible accident; on the other hand, Rosenbaum was deliberately stabbed four times by an angry mob.

Anthony Graziosi’s death has been forgotten perhaps because his death would break some cynical equality of fatality.

Many in the Jewish community felt Mayor Dinkins was complacent in the violence, holding back the police from protecting the Jewish community, but there has never been evidence offered proving that charge.

A more likely explanation for the lack of protection offered to the Hasidic community is a perfect storm of incompetence. An incompetent Police Commissioner Lee Brown was being managed by an incompetent mayor.

Nevertheless the pogrom dealt a death blow to Dinkins’ mayoral career. Ironically, it was the fact that Jews had voted for him in overwhelming numbers that him a narrow victory over Rudy Giuliani in 1989. Those same Jews switched sides, giving Giuliani the win against Dinkins in 1993.

As for Al Sharpton, he went on to lead a second pogrom, in 1995, against Freddy’s Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned business in Harlem where seven people were slain.

Now, as an adviser to the Trayvon Martin family, Sharpton is again exploiting the death of a child to incite violence and build his reputation as a “civil rights leader.”

A version of this report appeared in The Jewish Star in 2011, on the 20th anniversary of the riots in Crown Heights.

15 THE JEWISH STAR July 19, 2013 • 12 AV 5773

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Stunning 2 BR, 2 New Bths, 2nd Fl. Fully Furn'd, New A/C, New Kit, Granite Countertop, Stainless Steel Appliances, New Tile Flr, Crown Molding Throughout, New Carpet, Flat Screen TV's, Terrace Overlooking Golf Course. Golf & Tennis Club Membership Avail. Close to All! Rent 3 month minimum. Walk to Clubhouse. Call Today! 516-457-6046

DIRECTV - OVER 140 channels only $29.99 a month. Call Now! Triple savings! $636.00 in Savings, Free upgrade to Genie & 2013 NFL Sunday ticket free!! Start saving today! 1-800-279-3018

ATTENTION SLEEP APNEA SUFFERERS with Medicare. Get CPAP Replacement Supplies at little or NO COST, plus FREE home delivery! Best of all, prevent red skin sores and bacterial infection! Call 1-866-993-5043

CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE THEATRE, 50th St. west of Broadway TELECHARGE.COM OR 212-239-6200 • SOULDOCTORBROADWAY.COM

Roofing & Siding Roofing & Siding

ANNOUNCEMENTS

PLACE YOUR AD 634014

Just Call Our Classified Department at 516-632-5205

Adoption ADOPTION: AFFECTIONATE, EDUCATED, ďŹ nancially secure, married couple want to adopt baby into nuturing, warm, and loving environment. Expenses paid.

Cindy & Adam. 800.860.7074 or cindyadamadopt@aol.com

EMPLOYMENT

Help Wanted

Health Care/Opportunities

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HOME HEALTH AIDES: Immediate Work!

Free Training-Nassau/Suffolk Only.

Sign-on Bonus, Paid Vacation, Paid In-Service, Direct Deposit, FAMILY AIDES, INC. Nassau 516-681-2300 Suffolk 631-654-0789 Bronx 718-741-9535 Queens 718-429-6565

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AIRLINE CAREERS begin hereâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Get FAA approved Aviation Maintenance Technician training. Financial aid for qualiďŹ ed studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Housing available.Job placement assistance.

Call AIM 866-296-7093

640112

SERVICES

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Extra Wide

Zero Gravity

Recliner

Our anti-gravity lounger features a stretch cord suspension system that conforms to each individual body for personalized comfort and ergonomic support. Multi-position adjustable recline, an adjustable pillow and weather-resistant fabric ensure that everyone can call this their personal favorite.

Great for a nap on the patio or a relaxing day at the lake or by the pool.

BORO PARK 4518 13th Ave. 718.854.2595

CEDARHURST 134 Washington Ave. 516.218.2211

LAKEWOOD 1091 River Ave (Route 9) 732.364.8822

COURT STREET 50 Court Street 718.625. 6677

Upscale. On Sale.

July 19, 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ 12 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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