July 26, 2013

BOOKWORK: Time for teshuvah Page 2 PUBLISHER: Weiner and Spitzer. Enough said. Page 4 POLITICS: Taking Helen Thomas down Page 4 KITCHEN: Buying a car, fixing fake sushi Page 7

THE JEWISH VOL 12, NO 29 Q JULY 26, 2013 / 19 AV, 5773

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COMING HOME

Some of the 106 children who made aliyah on this week’s Nefesh Bnefesh flight relax on the runway outside their El Al jet, after landing at Ben Gurion airport.

Nefesh B’Nefesh flight carries 231, including 106 kids JERUSALEM, Israel — They came from across the United States and Canada — 231 of them, aged two months to 78 years and ranging across the Jewish spectrum from secular to charedi —united in one thought: We are going home.

This week’s Nefesh B’Nefesh flight, the group’s 49th such

Photo by Malka Eisenberg/The Jewish Star

Mazal and Ruben Bengiyev of Queens, in flight.

transport, carried NBN’s 35,000th oleh (immigrant) to Israel.

The passengers, who came from throghout the United States and Canada — including West Hempstead, Great Neck, Queens and Brooklyn — personify the ideal of kibbutz galuyot (the ingathering of the exiles), moving to Israel to pursue their dreams of living in the Promised Land.

The Jewish Star joined them for the ride.

At the synagogue in JFK International Airport before Monday morning’s departure, NBN co-founder and executive director Rabbi Yehoshua Fass told the group, “It doesn’t get any less emotional; you’ve been counting down to this day.”

The diverse olim about to board the NBN charter flight are “unified to build Israel,” he said. “It’s a miracle, to fulfill our promise as a people.”

Gilad Schalit, himself finally home after a long captivity, accompanied the olim on the flight that brought them home, posing for photos with the children.

Rabbi Fass blessed the 231 olim as he said he had blessed every NBN group, quoting from Shir Hamaalot (“when G-d returned the returnees of Zion we were as dreamers”), that “your life in reality surpasses all your hopes, dreams and aspirations — mazal tov!”

Gil Lainer, Israel’s consul for public affairs, said the olim were “a vital and welcome addition, a link in a chain.”

Jewish National Fund CEO Russell Robinson said that the

Shabbat Candlelighting: 7:58 p.m. Shabbat ends 9:02 p.m. 72 minute zman 9:27 p.m.

Torah Reading Parshat Eikev • Pirkei Avot Chapter 5

olim are sending a message that “we won.”

He said that 115 years after JNF began repurchasing the land, “No message is stronger.” We are “part of the land of Israel today, tomorrow and forever,” NBN partners with the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency, JNF and private funds to facilitate the aliyah of Jews from North America.

■■■

The atmosphere crackled with emotion. El Al presented a large sheet cake and families and friends were asked to say goodbye before the olim boarded the plane. Fathers and mothers hugged sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, eyes filled with pride, sadness and longing, as another group of Jews sets forth to their homeland.

The mind’s eye turned the scene sepia toned, envisioning Jews over the generations, saying goodbyes to exit one land Continued on page 15

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By Malka Eisenberg

As Rosh Hashana nears, real teshuvah is nearer than you think

W

ith Tisha B’Av now safely behind us, can Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur be not too far ahead?

The High Holiday season will occur on the cusp of Labor Day weekend, one of the earliest such seasonal placements in memory.

Due to this scheduling oddity, I have deemed this a major factor in the early consideration of the literary aspects that play an important part in the observance of these holidays.

The one overriding theme for this season is the concept of teshuvah (repentance), the obligation to self-examination of one’s errant KOSHER behavior with a sincere BOOKWORM commitment to repent.

An excellent evaluation of the concept of teshuvah is found in the introduction to a new English commentary on Devarim (Deuteronomy), the last book of the Torah, recently published by the Kehot Publication Society, based upon the works of the Lubavitcher RebAlan Jay Gerber be, Rav Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory.

“Teshuvah is a three-stage process: first, we need to recognize what we have done wrong [and articulate this recognition]; next, we need to feel remorse for having done what we did; finally, we need to resolve not to repeat our behavior. It is only natural, therefore, that the first parashah (chapter) of the book whose whole subject is teshuvah begin with rebuke designed to make us rec-

ognize the gravity of both our misdeeds and our missed opportunities. Therefore, Moses reviewed with the people the events that were crucial to their process of teshuvah, even those events that occurred relatively recently and were most likely still fresh in their memories.

“Nevertheless, Moses’ rebuke is an object lesson in the proper approach to repentance. Although Moses did not omit any detail that could have driven home the need for teshuvah, he took care to mention each detail firstly as vaguely as possible, in order to preserve the people’s dignity and self-esteem; and secondly, always in the context of their great promise, emphasizing how far they fell short of their potential rather than how terribly they failed.”

This eloquent overview concludes with the following sharp observation: “Candid and brutal honesty couched in terms that nonetheless convey deep and sincere respect is the surest way to encourage both ourselves and others to repent, to experience true teshuvah, and thereby renew ourselves and our relationship with G-d in the deepest way possible.”

Another unique take on the concept of teshuvah is to be found in another recently published anthology of Torah commentary, “Very Near To You” [Gefen Publishing House, 2012] by the ever

controversial former Knesset speaker, Avraham Burg. His closing words of commentary to Parashat Ha’azinu, and teshuvah, are most tellingly eloquent and warrant your full attention: “Jewish culture believes in the never-ending human power of self-renewal and rededication. We wait for a person to find renewal until his last day. Just as every tree, no matter how old, brings forth new greenery with the coming of spring, every person can blossom with new leaves of soul and spirit when the season of repentance arrives. For that reason, the Torah of teshuvah and renewal is based neither on persistent feelings of guilt nor on cheap, easy gestures of absolution, but rather on uncompromising faith in the positive within humanity. There is only one condition: one who seeks to return and be renewed must work hard at it.

“There is no free atonement or easy teshuvah.”

These are very interesting theologically-based words coming from one of the most combative and most prominent Israeli political personalities in recent times. They are wise and sincere words for you to read and consider in the many sacred days ahead.

Last, may I bring to your attention an essay entitled “Reshis HaShana and Rosh Hashana,” a commentary based upon a reading from Parashat Ekev by Rabbi

‘There is no free atonement or easy teshuvah.’

AVRAHAM BURG ‘Very Near to You’ Yoel Bin-Nun and found in “Torah MiEtzion: New Readings in Tanach” [Maggid Books / Yeshivat Har Etzion, 2012].

This learned essay goes deep into an analysis of the textual origins of the whole placement of the Rosh Hashana observance in the fall (or late summer) month of Tishrei. The analytical prowess of the author’s methodology is quite impressive, especially given the comparative brevity of this essay’s size, nine pages.

The origin and placement of Rosh Hashana has always been the subject of inquiry by many scholars down through the ages.

However, Rabbi Bin-Nun has, in this essay demonstrated, with the relevant quotes and scriptural citations, the rationale behind this holiday’s placement and the numerous observances that have come to serve as the signature mitzvot, especially that of shofar.

Nothing comes simple in the historical evaluation of ritual observance in our faith, and given the importance of the many ritual observances during the month of Tishrei, their origin and precise placement should be of keen interest to all our readers. Rabbi Bin-Nun’s scholarship will serve you in good stead in this regard.

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July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Raphi Bloom, Jewish Travel, JNS.org Budapest is the 25th most-visited city in the world, and it’s easy to understand why, with its amazing architecture, its enormous World Heritage Site, and its therapeutic hot springs. But Jewish travelers also have a captivating Jewish story beckoning them.

When I visited with my family, I was determined to get the inside track on that Jewish story. The guidebooks only tell you so much, so I wanted somebody who could help us to really feel the place, as well as see it.

Growing up under Communist rule has made Andrea Medgyesi very proactive in protecting and furthering Jewish life in Budapest and across Hungary. She helps visitors of all Jewish backgrounds, from secular to ultra-Orthodox, to appreciate the city.

Andrea collected us from our hotel, the Palazzo Zichy, and her insights started there.

The hotel, she said, belonged to the same Zichy family that was particularly kind to the Jews in 18th century.

We drove to the Jewish Quarter and walked through some of the old, narrow streets where Andrea pointed out the multitude of Jewish markings on the buildings — Stars of David and menorahs carved into the brickwork. They immediately gave us a sense of the centuries of Jewish life here.

Andrea explained that in Budapest the Jewish people live in the “Jewish Quarter,” as opposed to the “Jewish Ghetto,” and that buildings and not walls marked the area’s perimeter. The Ghetto only came into existence and walls were only built when the Nazi occupation began.

We made our way to one of three main synagogues in Budapest, the Kazinczy, and marveled at its beautiful art nouveau. As we sat on the pews Andrea gave us a fascinating talk on the history of Jews in Hungary and Budapest, covering centuries and complete with maps and pictures. Her enthusiasm is spellbinding, and she answered all our questions with ease and knowledge.

Courtesy Raphi Bloom

Dohany Synagogue in Budapest. The city displays centuries of Jewish history.

From there, we continued walking, making a quick stop at the kosher bakery. Andrea then surprised us with a stop at a rundown courtyard where there was a farmers’ market with traditional Hungarian food, drink, and entertainment. This gave a glimpse of Hungary you do not see from the modern day international shops lining the main streets.

Next was the Dohany Street Synagogue.

Built in mid 19th century in the Moorish style, this cathedral-like synagogue is the most well known Jewish site in Budapest.

Seating 3,000 people, it is the third largest synagogue in the world. The Dohany was built for the Neolog movement — an early non-Orthodox movement. Two of the most obvious deviations from Orthodox synagogues of its time are that the bimah is at the front of the synagogue instead of the center, and there is a huge organ.

The synagogue was actually built before such other impressive Budapest landmarks as the Opera House, which underscores the

fact that Jewish influence and life in Budapest burgeoned even before the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

In the grounds of the Dohany Synagogue is a mass grave of some 2,000 Jewish souls from the time of the Second World War. There is also a silver weeping willow tree commissioned by Tony Curtis, the Jewish Hollywood actor, in memory of his parents.

By the tree people can make a donation and inscribe the names of family members lost in the Holocaust.

The Hungarian Jewish Museum is located in the synagogue complex. It has a sad and fascinating exhibition on Hungary during the World War Two, and features on some of the famous gentiles such as Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Jews.

Andrea told us a very moving story of children who were saved or hidden by the church during the war so that they could convert them later on. After the war, rabbis asked for permission to visit orphanages at

bedtime, and went into the dormitories and starting saying the Shema prayer. Immediately many children, whose memories were triggered by this universal Jewish bedtime prayer, started crying. The rabbis then knew which children were Jewish and removed them to Jewish homes.

From the Dohany we walked to the city’s historic modern-Orthodox synagogue, the Rumbach, which though sadly derelict conveys a sense of the grandeur of Budapest Jewry from a past age.

I found the next site particularly moving. Located in a quiet back street, you could walk by the Glass House and never have the slightest idea what went on there. Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat, protected and issued Swiss papers to tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from there, saving their lives. Working from a non-descript glass factory owned by a Jewish family, Lutz became of one the true righteous among the nations — non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. We all know about Wallenberg, but here was a true un-sung hero who saved thousands of our brothers and sisters.

After mid-October 1944, when the Hungarian Arrow Smith Party came into power, the Glass House was the only fragile island of some relative safety during the raging terror for the persecuted in Budapest. The exhibition tells its story.

Our final stop was the Danube River, where we saw the Shoes on the Danube Promenade, a memorial to Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away.

Shoes on the Danube represents their shoes left behind on the bank.

The tour left us with a huge amount of knowledge about the history of our Hungarian Jewish brothers and sisters, and a feeling of pride at what they had accomplished for themselves over centuries of life there.

‘Homeland’ creator’s work shaped by heritage, IDF

By Robert Gluck, JNS.org Israeli-born writer and director Gideon Raff knows the cost of war. That knowledge, as well as his Jewish background, helped him create two of television’s most compelling dramas.

Raff’s “Prisoners of War” series on Israel’s Channel 2 won the Israeli equivalent of an Academy Award for best drama in 2010 and was sold to 20th Century Fox. Originally titled Hatufim in Hebrew, the show was adapted into the acclaimed Showtime series “Homeland” in the United States.

“Judaism affected the way I write, the way I see the world,” Raff told JNS.org. “It’s in my education, it’s in my history and in the way I was raised. First and foremost Jews are storytellers. I can’t think of a time my mother wouldn’t shove a book in my hand demanding that I read.”

Starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, “Homeland” broke viewership marks for Showtime and won multiple Golden Globes and Emmy awards. Danes stars as Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer with bipolar disorder who comes to believe Nicholas Brody (Lewis), a U.S. marine held captive by Al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was turned into a traitor by the enemy and now threatens America.

Set in 2008, “Prisoners of War” depicts three Israeli soldiers captured 17 years earli-

er while on a secret mission with their unit in Lebanon. The story begins with their return home after years of negotiations for their freedom. Nimrod Klein and Uri Zach return alive, while the remains of Amiel Ben-Horin come back in a coffin. The series explores the reintegration of Nimrod and Uri into a society that has made them national icons, and into an interrupted family life, while working through the trauma of being held captive and tortured.

Born and raised in Jerusalem, Raff served in the Israel Defense Forces, moved to Tel Aviv, and then completed a degree in directing at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. His Jewish heritage, especially his military service, influenced his writings and is evident in the themes of “Prisoners of War” and “Homeland.” One major difference in the two shows involves their depictions of society’s feelings about war.

“The main reason for this difference is because military service is not mandatory in the U.S. but is in Israel,” Raff told JNS.org.

“Because service in the army is mandatory in Israel, and because it’s such a small country and such a tight community, whenever something happens to a soldier in Israel it hits close to home in every household.”

When he wrote “Prisoners of War,” Raff was living in Los Angeles and was influenced by how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars played

Courtesy Keshet International

“Homeland” writer Gideon Raff out for American soldiers who served.

“You heard that soldiers were hurt and dying but you never saw the funerals, never saw the coffins coming back home, and this was intentional,” Raff said. “In Israel it is exactly the opposite. We are very well aware of the price that the boys, sons and daughters, pay for our freedom. We are asked to pay that price. So whenever something happens to a POW, Israel campaigns for his return because next time it could be me, it could be my brother or sister.”

Raff’s writing addresses a topic he said isn’t usually covered on screen—how prisoners deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Most people don’t deal with it,” Raff said.

“When we try to deal with it, there is no one cure, there is no one way to get better. Captivity especially has a very unique PTSD. We do not deal with it because the people themselves, coming back from war, don’t understand that it takes time to realize they have a problem. They want to forget about it and move on with their lives. It is an illness that is very hard to diagnose and see how to help.

There are different ways of dealing with it but there is not one cure, no secret or magic pill for this.”

Ran Tellem, vice president of programming for Keshet International, which produced “Prisoners of War,” enjoyed working with Raff because he is “not only a great guy, but an extremely talented writer, producer and director.”

After graduating from the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2003, Raff worked as director Doug Liman’s assistant on the blockbuster “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” which starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Raff’s feature directorial debut, “The Killing Floor,” was distributed in more than 40 countries and was acquired by ThinkFilm for domestic distribution.

“AFI was a great part of why I am where I am right now,” Raff said. “You study in an environment where later you grow and work with the same people in the real industry. It was a good program and it helped me a lot.

I’m still in touch with AFI.”

THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

A visit to Jewish Budapest: Day trip to a golden age

July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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Weiner and Spitzer. Enough said.

W

ill New Yorkers elect “Carlos Danger” as Mayor?

Considering how quickly the scandal-tarred Anthony Weiner rose in the polls, before this week’s revelations, we shouldn’t discount it. And Eliot Spitzer as Comptroller?

Also possible. There’s a thought afloat that “character” doesn’t count, that instead, we should weight a candidate’s “competence” when voting. Yet both character and competence count.

While our leaders may be imperfect, we expect them to strive to improve, to sincerely repent their sins and accept the necessity of FROM THE paying a price for goPUBLISHER ing off the derech and leading others astray.

Moshe served G-d and his people with every fiber of his being, yet for a seemingly inconsequential misstep (when measured against all his sacrifices and successes) he was denied his life’s dream of entering the land.

We need not comEd Weintrob pare Weiner or Spitzer – or any contemporary politician — to Moshe, to realize that people like Weiner and Spitzer are unfit for a leadership role and are, to the extent that they are members of our tribe, a special embarrassment to us.

The failings of Weiner and Spitzer go beyond sexual indiscretions, sins which are almost universally discounted by secular society today. Their mean-spiritedness and lack of moral compass have been demonstrated throughout their political lives — in Weiner’s case going back to his first race, for City Council, in Flatbush in 1991. He was a bad character then, he’s a worse actor now.

As we enter Elul and focus on personal teshuvah, we are attuned to our own shortcomings. Just as we strive to be temperate in dealing with the shortcomings of others, so may Hashem be compassionate in dealing with our own.

Voters are nevertheless charged with using their best judgment to elect leaders who can be expected to serve the interests of their communities; we pray each week that Hash-

em offers our leaders guidance and protection in reaching that goal.

New York Democrats have a tough call this September, compelled to choose among a less than stellar field of mayoral candidates; in the comptroller’s race, without Spitzer, there is no choice at all (before Spitzer’s entry, there was only one candidate).

We’ve been adequately warned that Weiner and Spitzer have only their own desires at heart, and their election would presage more misery. They have repeatedly betrayed our trust and do not deserve our personal or communal endorsement.

Helen Thomas

O

ur columnist Jeff Dunetz recounts this week the anti-Semitic slurs uttered

by Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent who died on Saturday.

Thomas’ declaration that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine,” and “go home to Poland, Germany and America, and everywhere else,” was brought to light by Rabbi David Nesenoff, who subsequently served as publisher of The Jewish Star.

Dunetz discusses how the general media, in reporting Thomas’ passing, focused on her role as a pioneering woman journalist in Washington and as dean of the White House press corps; the media gave short shrift to her later-day anti-Semitism which, when referenced at all, was placed in the presumably more palatable context of criticism of Israeli policies.

Make no mistake: Thomas’ utterances, which continued beyond her famous careerending “get the hell out of Palestine” quote to include a range of vile anti-Semitic slurs with no connection to the Israeli state, marks her as no friend of Jews or of truth.

Yet a complete accounting of her life would describe both her rise in Washington — beginning when John Kennedy was president — and her inglorious and ultimately unrepentant fall. Thomas’ story is a lesson in how the scourge of anti-Semitism continues to root in seemingly intelligent people, some of whom, because of their leadership roles, have special influence in spreading this malignancy.

Helen Thomas, hater, 1920-2013: Why I’m proud I ‘took her down’

M

y “association” with Helen Thomas ference where Thomas was asked about her began on a Friday, just over three statements on that first video. years ago when my friend Rabbi “I paid the price for that,” said Thomas, a David Nesenoff (who would subsequently longtime White House correspondent. “But it become publisher of The Jewish Star) sent was worth it, to speak the truth. The Zionists me a video, which contained a short explo- have to understand that’s their country, too. sive interview he had conducted with the Palestinians were there long before any Euroveteran White House correspondent. In it, pean Zionists.”

Thomas gave a statement that many people Alluding to the anti-Semitic canard that saw as telling the Jews to go face another Jews control the media, Thomas said: Holocaust.

“You cannot say anything [critical] about David asked me if there was anything I Israel in this country.” That was the nicest could do with the video. He had already of- thing Thomas said all night. fered it to the mainstream media and even In a speech at the anti-bias conference The Jewish Week. Taking up David’s chal- about discrimination against Arabs, she lenge, I guaranteed the video would have a blamed it on the Jews, launching into an half a million hits before he turned on the anti-Semitic tirade on how rich Jews concomputer again after the Sabbath (I was trol America wrong — it was over 750,000).

In a speech that drew a standing ovation, I quickly posted it on my site The Lid, Thomas claimed: wrote it up for Big Journalism, gave it to “We are owned by propagandists against Scott Baker (who at the time was running the Arabs. There’s no question about that.

Breitbart TV), and sent out tweets and “Congress, the White House, and Hollyemails to most of the large sites. Before I wood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. left on a five-hour car ride to my brother’s No question in my opinion. They put their house for Shabbos, the story was already a money where there mouth is. … We’re being banner Drudge headline. pushed into a wrong direction in By the time I arrived in Maryevery way. land the same video they had In March 2011, Playboy interPOLITICS TO GO rejected a few days earlier was viewed her. dominating the headlines of the Thomas said that Jews had mainstream media. no historical connection to the In the three years since, Jewish State, and made renewed Thomas, unencumbered by a claims about the worldwide “front line” media job, made new ”Jewish” conspiracy a little later anti-Semitic comments, Her colin the interview. leagues in the media protected PLAYBOY: That stereotype of her by claiming her slanders Jewish control has been around were political, not hateful. Their for more than a century. Do you claim is that she wasn’t anti-Seactually think there’s a secret mitic, but simply anti-Israel — a Jewish conspiracy at work in this dangerous affront to the truth. country?

Jeff Dunetz Last year Michael Calderon THOMAS: Not a secret. It’s wrote at Huffington Post that very open. What do you mean seThomas retired “over controvercret? … Everybody is in the pocket sial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by conflict…” wealthy supporters, including those from HolCharles Lewis, former investigative pro- lywood. Same thing with the financial marducer for ABC News and CBS’s 60 Minutes, kets. There’s total control.” recently created a new website to honor That’s what the media doesn’t under“independent” journalists. One of the site’s stand — there is a difference between being initial honorees was Ms. Thomas who it said anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, and Thomas retired “after making controversial com- happened to have been both. It is entirely ments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” reasonable to disagree with Israel’s polices, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael but once you complain of an Israeli lobby Sneed once wrote an item about Ms. Thom- that runs the world, belittle the Holocaust as’ receipt of an award from the PLO: and the suggest that the Jews are not re“The turn of the screw: Veteran White ally the Jews — things that Helen Thomas House reporter Helen Thomas, 91, who was believed — that person is a hater. forced into retirement after making incendiThe media’s continued protection of ary remarks about Israel…”

Helen Thomas comes from the media deThe day after her passing, the main- sire to protect fellow progressives (the same stream media continued to whitewash Ms. way they continue to protect Al Sharpton).

Thomas’ statement as about the “Israel-Pal- Backing Ms. Thomas’ claim she wasn’t beestinian conflict.” ing anti-Semitic, but simply anti Israel alIf making false and slanderous state- lows progressives to continue their hateful ments regarding Israel was a crime that meme that Jews believe any attack on Israel lead to termination, the New York Times is Anti-Semitism. newsroom would be empty, Peter Jennings When Helen Thomas said the Palestinwould have been sent to live with his for- ians were there long before any European mer live-in girlfriend /Palestinian Authority Zionists, Thomas was simply being historiOfficial Hanan Ashrawi, and Mike Wallace cally inaccurate and biased against Israel. would have been ousted from 60 Minutes But when she said the media, Congress, decades before his death. Even in Israel, you the White House, Hollywood and Wall don’t get fired for being anti-Israel (have Street are owned by Zionists, Thomas was you ever read the Israeli paper Ha’aretz?). using traditional anti-Semitic libels straight If you want more proof of Helen Thomas’ out of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” hatred, then examine what she said since Helen Thomas died this past Saturday. her resignation.

She will be celebrated by the mainstream Just six months after her “retirement” media as a trailblazer. I will always rememThomas was at it again (again it was cap- ber for the hater she was and am honored tured on video and again the story was bro- that my friend Rabbi Nesenoff asked me to ken on The Lid and Big Journalism). help expose her for what she really was — a Ironically it was at an Arab anti-bias con- vicious anti-Semite.

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THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

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After 40 years in the dessert, we’re finally coming home!

T

he Jewish people are finally, after 40 long years, making ready to enter the land of Israel.

Most of the generation that left Egypt is gone, buried in unmarked graves in the desert, and their children, the second generation, born free in the desert, are preparing at last to cross the Jordan and enter the land.

There will be no more manna from heaven, and no heavenly clouds or pillars of fire FROM THE HEART to guard them on their OF JERUSALEM journey; they will have to fight, and even die, for the right to call this small piece of land their home.

They will encounter seven pagan nations who are no strangers to pain and cruelty, and whose history and culture are full of wars and violence and even child-sacrifice as a part of their society.

Rabbi Binny So one would exFreedman pect that Moshe, their leader, who will not accompany them, would take this opportunity to share words of power and inspiration, designed to motivate this younger generation meet the tests that lie ahead.

But that isn’t quite what Moshe has planned….

The ninth chapter of Devarim (Deuteronomy) starts out well enough: “Hear O’ Israel: you are crossing over the Jordan on this day to come and dispossess nations that are greater and mightier than you…

know therefore on this day, that hashem (G-d) your G-d, He will go before you with a consuming fire, and He will destroy them, and you shall inherit (this land)….” (Devarim 9:1-3) Inspirational words, for an inspirational moment; but then, somehow Moshe seems to get all bent out of shape, as his speech takes an entirely different direction: “Do not say in your heart, when Hashem your G-d thrusts them (the Canaanites) out from before you, saying: ‘in my righteousness G-d has brought me forth to9i inherit this land’… not in your righteousness nor for the straightness of your heart do you come toi inherit their land, but (rather) for the wickedness of these nations does hashem your G-d thrust them out from before you, in order to fulfill the word which He swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov.”

(Devarim 9:4-5) In other words, don’t think you earned the right to enter the land, pay no attention to the fact that you faithfully followed your parents in the desert for forty years; you don’t really deserve to enter the land of Israel at all! I am merely bringing you into the land, says G-d, to fulfill a promise I made to your forefathers! And, as if that isn’t enough: “And you shall know that not in your righteousness does Hashem your G-d give you this good land to inherit, for you are a stiff necked people.” (Devarim 9:6) Not only don’t you deserve this gift (of entering the land of Israel), continues Moshe, but you are a stubborn [stiff-necked] people!

And this phrase, obviously a direct reference to the debacle of the golden calf at Sinai, where G-d describes the Jewish people in the same manner, (Shemot 32:9) leads Moshe to admonish the people even more strongly:

“Remember, do not forget, that (when) you angered Hashem your G-d in the desert; from the very day you left Egypt until your coming until this place, you have been rebellious against G-d. And (even) at Sinai (Chorev) you angered G-d and G-d was wroth to destroy you.” (9:7-8) ■■■

Apparently, on the eve of their triumphant return to the land of Israel after two hundred years of slavery, Moshe has no intention of allowing the Jewish people to enjoy the ‘party’, reminding them of just what a nasty bunch they have really been all along!

What is going on? If anything, one would have thought Moshe would seize the opportunity to excite the people about their imminent entry into the land of their dreams, as well as inspire them to take courage in what would surely prove to be the difficult days that lay ahead?

Especially considering the fact that these transgressions were not even committed by this generation now preparing to enter the land, why does Moshe feel such a need to recall these terrible events? Why ruin the party?

Interestingly, this week, along with everything else in the portion, we read one of the most well-known and oft-repeated chapters in the entire Torah: the second paragraph of the Shema, known as the chapter of “Ve’haya’ im shamoah”. (Devarim 11: 13-21). This is especially significant, given the fact that just last week, we read the first chapter of the Shema, the chapter of “Ve’ahavtah.’

Obviously, if Jewish tradition chose to place these two chapters in two separate portions, read on two consecutive Shabbatot, there must be a connection between them.

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The first chapter of Shema, which always falls on the Shabbat immediately after the fast of Tisha’ B’Av, commemorating the destruction of both temples, speaks of how we are meant to develop our relationship with G-d, and achieve our purpose in this world.

It is all about what we have to give, and how we have to give it; to love G-d with all our hearts and souls, and to keep this recipe for an ethical world we call the Torah close to our hearts, and in the hearts of our children, as well as written on our doorposts, and even bound on our arms.

The second chapter adds the critical dimension of what has come to be known as “sechar va’onesh” (reward and consequence).

The Torah this week tells us what the result of following the Torah and keeping G-d and our purpose in this world close to our hearts will be, as well as the implications of what will transpire when we forget who we really are. And the Torah makes it clear that if and when we forget why we were given this land, we will lose it, clear and simple.

It is interesting to note that in both chapters we find the same two mitzvoth placed side by side: the mitzvah of teaching our children, and the mitzvah of tefillin, with one notable difference: the order is reversed.

In the first chapter of the Shema, we find teaching our children precedes the mitzvah of Tefillin (6:7-8), and in the second chapter tefillin comes first (11:18-19).

Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in his Likkutei Sichot, points out that the first chapter of the Shema, and indeed the entire portion of Va’Etchanan, in which it appears, represents revelation from above; it is all about what Hashem gives us. The second Continued on page 8

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July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

6

7

L

ast month, my daughter’s car lease was up. So we began researching cars that were safe, reasonably priced and of course “cool.”

In my days, we drove whatever car was available. In 1980, I was thrilled to get the 1970 Bonneville that belong to my uncle Morris, a”h. That car was the size of a small yacht. I think it had more room inside than some Manhattan apartments. It got me to WHO’S IN THE where I had to go and I KITCHEN was thankful for it.

As we all know, times have changed.

My daughter, Jordana, did her due diligence and found that the 2-door model of the car of her dreams, which I said was too expensive, was now less money than the car I suggested for her. Of course before any lease was Judy Joszef signed I spoke to the dealer and made sure there were no hidden fees, no money down and tax included. I called him the next day to confirm and then had the confirmation in writing as well.

My husband Jerry, on the other hand was not as careful when he bought his last car.

When he researches an item online he checks out the reviews and makes sure it’s a quality item. Then he bottom fishes. For those of you not familiar with bottom fishing, let me explain. You check out the price and then you wait a while. Eventually the price will drop.

Of course if you need the item right away (or need a color other than hot fuchsia, tangerine or screaming pink, which unfortunately Jerry doesn’t take into account) this won’t work, but Jerry doesn’t need most items right away, actually he doesn’t need most of them at all. Too bad.

In December, 2010, when purchasing a new car, Jerry didn’t heed his usual bottom fishing method. He had leased a Subaru Legacy and decided he would buy one when his lease was up. Most men his age want those 2-door, supped up engine, macho convertibles ala midlife crisis. My husband wanted a suburban housewife car pool car model.

Guess I don’t have to worry about him.

He excitedly told me he found the model he liked and it was a great deal. The car was rated very highly, did well on all safety tests and was all-wheel drive, which to him was just as important as Jordana have SiriusXM

radio in her car … yes, it was THAT important.

He said it was hard to beat the $25,000 price tag for the 2011 model. The car was ordered and delivered the following week.

Knowing that he had done all the research, I just signed the papers and was handed the keys. Not sure why I started reading the paper work after the car was delivered, but I noticed it was a 2010 model not the 2011 Jerry indicated that he purchased. As I read on the sale price was $34,000 and not he $25,000 he signed on for.

I called him at work and said, “You ordered a 2011 and they delivered a 2010.” He responded, “Well, actually I never specified 2011, I figured it was two weeks from 2011, that I would get a 2011. I know this dealer for many years; he always takes care of me.”

I then added, “He also charged you $34,000 and not the $25,000 he quoted you.” Silence. I responded, “He did quote you $25,000, right?” “RIGHT, JERRY???”

“Well, truth is, I did a lot of research and all the sites listed that model at $25,000. I didn’t think I would be charged more than the going rate” Jerry responded.

Now I can’t really print what I said to Jerry at that point, as this is a family newspaper, but is was something along these lines: “You what????? You ordered a huge ticket item without asking the year or the price?????

You bottom fish for slippers, jackets, sneakers, kids toys, etc. You wait a year until the price is way below original amount, and then you buy a car without asking??????”

Turns out the dealer said the $34,000 was a mistake; it should have been $30,000. He did get a refund two months later. The dealer, knowing how upset I was over basically every single aspect of this fiasco, asked Jerry if he could contact me to try to explain the situation. Jerry, cleverly said “some things are best left unsaid. Take it from me, I’m living in a metaphorical bomb shelter at this point till Judy calls an armistice.”

So when buying anything, whether it be a car, or a toy or even a food item, make sure you’re getting exactly what you have in mind, because some things are not what you think they might be.

With that … I bring you a sushi, which in actuality is dessert.

THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

Buying a car was simple, until it wasn’t. And then … imitation sushi!

Need a desert innovation? Try sushi imitation! ened (the only kosher brand I could find in that shape). Order it online at Nuts.com or call 800-558-6887. You can purchase a pound bag or 5lb bag. Price is very reasonable and it lasts a few months.

■ Red and yellow food coloring drops ■ Sunkist fruit shape wedges (for “salmon and tuna”) ■ Green fruit roll ups ■ Red fruit roll ups* (for the “tuna”) ■ Orange fruit roll ups* (for the “salmon”) ■ 2 Tbs Chopped pistachios ■ ¼ cup pareve cream cheese ■ 2Tbs. confectioner’s sugar ■ Green sour candy belts, for the garnish ■ Green fruit leather (comes rolled up and wrapped in cellophane) *If you prefer, you can use taffy rolled out to look like apiece of salmon or tuna and place that on the “rice”

Directions

■ Pickled ginger; Soak 2 tablespoons coconut chips in 1/2 cup water with 1 drop each of

yellow and red food coloring. Drain and place on a piece of paper towel to dry a bit.

■ Soy sauce: Chocolate Syrup (pareve if serving after a meat meal) Wasabi; Pulse 2 Tbs chopped pistachios, 1/4 cup pareve cream cheese and 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar in a food processor ■ Grass garnish; cut v’s into a sour belt so it resembles the grass garnish.

■ Use the photo to see how the finished product should look. It’s easier to prepare that way.

While still warm, shape treats into small oval mounds. Add a bit of pistachio paste, then cover with a Sunkist Fruit slice and tie with a strip of green fruit roll up.

To make the sushi roll, flatten the Kripies mixture into a thin rectangle on place it on a green piece of “fruit leather” and arrange fuit roll ups down the center in your choice of flavor.. Roll up and when cool, slice.

Serve the “sushi” with wasabi, ginger, and chocolate syrup as soy sauce. Cut a sour-candy belt to look like a grass garnish.

Dessert Sushi Ingredients:

■ 1 Batch of Rice Krispie Treats prepared as directed on the Fluff or the cereal box.

■ 2 Tbs Organic Coconut chips unsweet-

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July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

8

THE ROYAL BABY Let’s hear it for the boy!

M Berthold Werner.

U.S. appeals court denies Jerusalem birth passport

By JNS.org A law enabling Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birthplace on U.S. passports is unconstitutional because it infringes on the president’s executive power, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Tuesday.

In 2003, Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, the parents of Jerusalem-born Menachem Zivotofsky, filed a lawsuit demanding that the U.S. State Department enforce the law passed by Congress in 2002 so that Menachem could list “Jerusalem, Israel” as the birthplace on his passport. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the appeals court needed to rule on the enforcement issue.

But Judge Karen Henderson of the appeals court’s three-judge panel wrote on Tuesday that the president—not the legislative branch—“exclusively holds the power to determine whether to recognize a foreign sovereign.” This U.S. has not officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem since the Jewish state gained independence in 1948.

Jewish groups criticized the court’s decision. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations expressed

hope that the Supreme Court “will reverse this policy that discriminates singularly against Israel, and will afford those born in Jerusalem the same right accorded to those born elsewhere” if it hears the Zivotofsky case again.

“Current practice in regard to the passport issue is inconsistent with legislation passed by the Congress of the United States, recognizing united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” the Conference of Presidents said.

Marc Stern, the American Jewish Committee’s general counsel, said the ruling “undermines the existing balance of power between the Congress and Executive branch in foreign policy.”

The appeals court “has effectively given a stamp of approval to the offensive State Department policy that singles out Israel for ‘special’ treatment,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

“All other American citizens born abroad may choose to list a city or area of birth instead of a country,” Foxman said. “Even Taiwan-born U.S. citizens are permitted to identify Taiwan as their birthplace, despite protests by China, the recognized sovereign over that territory.”

After 40 years in the dessert…

Continued from page 1 chapter of the Shema is more about what we do with what Hashem has given us in this world; it is all about man’s situation in this world, and the harsh realities of how difficult it can often be to live up to that mission and that gift, and indeed, this is the theme of the entire portion of Ekev.

And this is why the order of these two ideas is reversed in these two chapters of the Shema: the mitzvah of keeping the Torah in our hearts and in the hearts of our children wherever we are, is all about recognizing that everything, and everywhere we are, all stems from G-d. That even when ‘we lie down’, no matter how difficult life can be, it all comes from G-d, and this mitzvah refers to the opportunity, even the decision to keep G-d in our lives and make Him a part of everywhere we are, and all that we do. The focus is clearly on Hashem.

The mitzvah of tefillin, however, of actually taking a physical object from something so base as the hide of an animal, and tying it to our bodies, refers to the actual mitzvoth, and our ability to transform this world into something holy. The focus is clearly on us, and a close look at the portion of Ekev clearly resonates with this theme. Hence the reference to our greatest transgressions as a people: G-d gave us the Torah, but, in the harsh light of

reality, we were not yet up to the task.

And maybe, hidden in this idea is a critical concept that can make all the difference in our lives. It is very easy, both when confronted with life’s difficulties, and especially when achieving our greatest successes, to become so immersed in our own accomplishments that we forget what a gift it all really is. And when we start to think, even to a small degree, that our successes are our own, then the road to forgetting what it is really all about and where it really comes from, becomes all too easy.

■■■

Three thousand years ago, a people, which had only just witnessed some of the greatest miracles in history, took pride in their own accomplishments, and reveled in their success of leaving Egypt. And so, precisely now, as the Jews are about to leave the spiritual greenhouse of the desert where manna falls from heaven and clouds of glory abound, and enter the land where they will have to fight and work to build this world, Moshe reminds them not to repeat their mistakes, and to remember who is really leading the way.

Perhaps, given the incredible success we have experienced in our incredible little “Start Up Nation” here in Israel, it behooves us to remember this message well.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

azel Tov! After much anticipation, at 4:24pm in London on July 22, the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth.

The Royal bundle is an 8lbs. 6oz. son, future HIPPEST RABBI King — and perhaps a real Jewish Prince.

For those of you who haven’t heard, according to lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Kate’s mother, Carol, is the daughter of Ronald and Dorothy Goldsmith (whose parents, he claims, were also Jews). The Jewish line may thicken with hubby Wills. It’s been specRabbi Simcha ulated the late Princess Weinstein Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, was born a Rothschild. If that weren’t enough, the London Daily Mail reported that Diana is actually the biological daughter of Sir James Goldschmidt, also a Jew. Royal ancestry-mavens consider all this hearsay, but between the two of them, chances are some Jewish runs through the bluish.

In fact, the new heir was born in a “Jewish” wing of St. Mary’s hospital. Sephardic Jew, Frank Charles Lindo, paid for the wing in 1937! He must be shepping some nakhes!

From the day it was announced that the royal couple was expecting, reporters, photographers, and people on the street went wild! How ironic that in an atmosphere of zero or low population growth, where having more than 1.5 (I’m not a statistician) children is often met with frowns from those who count carbon footprints, this arrival should be met with a fervor rivaling the coming of the Messiah.

True, this babe will insure the family business continues for at least the next few gen-

erations, and according to Jewish Law this is critical. In Jewish tradition we have tremendous respect for government and authority.

In the Talmud, Rabbi Chanina teaches: ”Pray for the security of the government, for were it not for the fear of its authority, a man would swallow his neighbor alive.” As a child growing up in England, I still recall special blessings for the royal family, for to have the utmost respect for royalty allows one to recognize the ultimate kingship in this world.

And the people are feeling it. One man who waited outside St. Mary’s hospital for 12 days, said: “We’ve got a lovely married couple and baby will make three — and they will be a family.”

King Solomon, who was called “the wisest of all men” for a reason, used the analogy of a threefold cord: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

He reminds us that a one-strand cord is weak by itself, a two-strand cord is stronger, and a three-strand rope is stronger than either.

Children, create a threefold cord.

Ever since Kate, who stems from the tiny village of Bucklebury, became the new fairy tale Duchess, she’s been the “IT” girl of the century, and she’s a “hit.” Modern, educated, and hands-on, everything about her becomes “trendy.”

So, let’s watch the birth rate!

The national and international mood is soaring at this mind-blowing and mindchanging event and I hope that it will make having children a “hit” once again.

Each and every child born has the power to replenish spirit, soul, and humanity.

Each and every child is a King.

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is a best-selling author who recently was voted “New York’s Hippest Rabbi” by Channel 13. He chairs the religious affairs committee at Pratt Institute, and recently published the book, “The Case for Children: Why Parenthood Makes Your World Better.”

‘Each and

every child born has the power to replenish spirit, soul, and humanity. Each and every child is a King.’

After Tisha B’Av, sale time in Cedarhurst A good business transaction benefits all parties involved and that was an apparent in Cedarhurst for merchants and shoppers alike during the village’s Business Improvement District’s 25th annual summer sidewalk sale last week.

More than 80 shops and restaurants brought their marked down merchandise to the streets and opened their doors to customers along Central and Cedarhurst avenues, on July 17, 18, 19 and for the first time on Sunday, July 21.

“We need the people and the people need us,” said Jerry Cohen, resident of Woodmere and owner of Trees, one of the stores participating in the sale. “People come from all over for three of the busiest days Cedarhurst sees all year.”

Cohen, along with six other merchants, began a sidewalk sale in Cedarhurst 30 years

ago. An idea he borrowed from a small town sale in upstate New York.

Sox World Plus, has taken part in the sale for half of its 40-year existence. Owner Alicea Cascio acquired the business from her parents. “The sale allows people to get good bargains and we are able to sell out about 75 percent of our merchandise,” she said.

Hewlett resident Nikki Obshatcko is a lifelong patron of the sidewalk sale who said she enjoys purchasing fashionable merchandise.

“I’ve been coming to the sidewalk sale almost my whole life and it is great finding stylish goods that new stores like Jeweler’s Wife have to offer,” she said.

The sale not only looks to bring back long time shoppers from the area, but attract new ones from other communities.

A version of this report, by Jason Brendler and Dana Pearl, appeared in Nassau Herald.

9

By Jeffrey Bessen Most people don’t remember much from when they were 5 years old, but Joel Block has an indelible memory of the day in 1965 when his father and grandfather were killed in a plane crash.

“I was at a Coney Island JCC day care,” said Block, who grew up in the Sea Gate section of Brooklyn, “and a woman named Lottie took special care of me. She drove me home on a school bus. I didn’t appreciate that until later [in life].

I realized the power we have to be helpful in people’s lives when they need it.”

Lottie’s compassion made a lasting impact on Block, 53, who, after working at the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack for 30 years — including 18 as executive director — is the new executive director of the JCC of the Greater Five Towns in Cedarhurst. He replaced Rina Shkolnik, who retired on June 30.

Block officially came aboard on July 1. He lives in Merrick with his wife, Tina, and sons Michael and Adam. Shkolnik, who led the organization for 11 years, is working two days a week to help Block make the transition.

A product of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach and the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Block worked as a youth counselor and then an assistant camp director at the now closed Hartman Y in Far Rockaway, beginning in 1978.

Thinking of becoming a history teacher after graduating from Yeshiva University in 1982, Block was moved to go in a different direction when Al Kanefsky, the Hartman Y’s associate executive director, suggested that he go back to school and study social work. “I didn’t know what that was,” Block said.

But his career path soon changed. In addition to his classes, he worked with adults with cerebral palsy and helped Cambodian refugees resettle in the Bronx.

Then, after moving over to the Suffolk Y and working as a camp unit head, supervising counselors, once again an executive director singled Block out, and gave him the newly

created job of Jewish educator. “He was so personable, had a wonderful personality and presented himself well,” said Helaine Strauss, executive director emeritus of the Suffolk Y, who promoted Block to assistant director. “He had the potential to grow fast in a leadership position, worked with people well and had the caring, concern and commitment — all the qualities I liked in a staff member.”

Those qualities were what moved the Five Towns JCC’s board to coax Block out of a short-lived retirement to succeed Shkolnik. “He has outstanding skills in uniting various backgrounds and motivating those around him to work together as a team,” said Arnold Waldman, president of the JCC. “We look forward to him bringing his strengths and experience to the Five Towns and helping us continue our mission and expand our reach.”

For Block — who was recognized by the World Confederation of Jewish Community Centers in 2000 for his creation of programs for JCCs around the world — continuing the Five Towns JCC’s mission and extending its reach includes understanding what the community needs.

He is expected “to expand the JCC’s curriculum, strengthen its community ties and encourage overall growth,” according to a JCC press release announcing his appointment. To Block that translates simply into playing a meaningful role in people’s lives.

One of the first programs he wants to establish is tutoring for children whose lives were disrupted by Hurricane Sandy and need assistance to catch up on schoolwork they missed or just weren’t concentrating on.

“Watching the hurricane through their eyes, communities are starting to look like themselves, but we’re really not back to normal,” Block said.

Serving 16,000 people annually at 18 different sites, the Cedarhurst-based Five Towns JCC made a bid for the vacant Number Six School property last year. It was rejected by the Lawrence Board of Education, but Block believes that it sparked a conversation in the community about the need for an all-encompassing site. “It all comes together slowly from ‘There should be a building’ to ‘We need a building’ to ‘We

Photo by Jeffrey Nessen

Joel Block, new executive director of the JCC of the Greater Five Towns. have to have a building,’ and that will be what drives it,” he said.

Last year, Block told the Suffolk Y board that he was going to step down in January. But then he was approached by the Five Towns board and Shkolnik. “Things fall into place for a reason, and usually because the right things have come along,” he said.

Block said he believes that people are the most important part of life, and they can create almost familial bonds through their deeds. Like the woman named Lottie who helped him through a tragedy when he was 5, Block seeks to help others.

“During 9-11, I had a person come in and say ‘My sonin-law is missing.’ They could have walked into anywhere.

I asked, ‘Why here?’ ‘You are family.’ A JCC done right — it becomes family.”

This story first appeared in the Nassau Herald.

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THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

Joel Block, 5 Towns son, is back to lead JCC

Israel sees ‘revolution of bureaucrats’ in EU order

By Israel Hayom, Exclusive to JNS.org After the Official Journal of the European Union (EU) on Friday published its guidelines stating that all future agreements with Israel will apply only to the pre-1967 lines, Israel expressed concern that unelected European bureaucrats are seizing control of major policy decisions from the continent’s governments.

“Israel must be concerned about the EU’s decision because it proves that the revolution of bureaucrats and diplomats in Europe has begun,” a source close to the EU in Brussels told Israel Hayom. “In effect, instead of governments dictating policy, the bureaucrats are the ones who dictate facts on the ground.”

The EU announcement came despite heavy pressure from the U.S. and Israel to freeze implementation of the guidelines, which govern EU policy toward Israeli entities or their activities beyond the pre-1967 lines and go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. On Thursday, a day before the guidelines were published, the EU’s office in Israel said that Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had all telephoned European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to discuss the guidelines.

Israeli embassy officials in Brussels who are charged with maintaining contact with the EU tried to fish out certain details of the document weeks before it was published, but to no avail. Sources in Brussels said a small coterie of diplomats in the European Commission’s Middle East Department had denied anyone access to the document.

“They worked in great secrecy,” a source told Israel Hayom.

On July 17, Netanyahu held talks with a long list of European leaders to protest the development, stressing that it could interfere with the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — a renewal that was ultimately announced by Kerry on Friday, though a date for the first meeting between the parties has not yet been confirmed. The Israeli government did not issue any official statement on the EU directive, but various government spokespeople have begun questioning Europe’s utility as a player in the peace process, given its latest “one-sidedness and clear bias,” as Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin put it Friday in an interview on Israel Radio.

Going even further, some officials in Jerusalem, such as Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, are sounding warnings about “Europe’s unexplained obsession.”

“Someone needs to explain to them that there are other, more pressing matters that they should busy themselves with,” Lieberman said. The former foreign minister has suggested taking drastic action, such as excluding the EU from anything having to do the peace process and discontinuing all contact with it on the Palestinian issue.

Elkin is now echoing these sentiments, saying that Israel must not succumb to Europe’s pressure.

“The not-too-distant past has proved that when you capitulate, you end up paying a

much heavier price, such as when Hamas participated in the Palestinian elections for example. If we don’t put a stop to this, we have to consider whether we are interested in Europe’s involvement,” Elkin said.

Meanwhile, 31 Knesset members from Israel’s governing coalition and opposition last Thursday signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which they asked him to respond to the EU’s guidelines by starting new construction in Judea and Samaria.

Courtesy Amio Cajander via Wikipedia Commons

EU flags in front of the European Commission Building in Brussels.

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July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Alex Traiman, JNS.org U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement to resume peace negotiations, a process that has stood idle since negotiations last broke down in 2010, raises renewed questions as to whether it is possible for a peace agreement to be reached, particularly as sharp cultural differences between Israelis and Palestinians continue to play a significant role in defining the parameters of peace.

“Culture plays a role both in conflict resolution and conflict maintenance. Culture plays a role when questions of acceptance are raised as basis for peace,” Dr. Mordechai Kedar, director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam at Israel’s Bar Ilan University, which is under formation, told JNS.org.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘What does peace mean in each culture?’ before you can hope to reach it,” Kedar said.

“While in Western terms ‘peace’ means open borders and multi-level cooperation, in the Middle East ‘peace’ does not mean much more than temporary non-belligerence. Westerners [do not] understand the situation in which Israel has to survive in this region.”

“It won’t be easy, but we’re going into the negotiations with integrity and honesty,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, multiple Palestinian representatives have been denying that the framework for final-status negotiations had been agreed upon. Palestinian Authority officials have repeatedly accentuated since Kerry’s announcement that they are maintaining their demands in order for talks to resume — including a return to the pre-1967 lines (which were marked as armistice lines between Israel and Jordan after Jordan occupied the West Bank in 1948) as the basis of negotiations, and a complete freeze of construction beyond those lines — and that those demands had not been accepted.

Fatah Central Command member Abbas Zaki stated in Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood newspaper As-Sabeel, “The visit [by Kerry to Jordan] is nothing more than consultations; it has nothing to do with launching negotiations.”

According to Kedar, Palestinian demands may have less to do with specific outcomes of negotiations, and more to do with stalling them altogether.

Courtesy Flash90

Israeli President Shimon Peres, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shake hands last May at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa, in Amman, Jordan.

“They don’t accept us, and they don’t want us living in the Middle East altogether. Every Jew who comes here is a colonialist who doesn’t belong here. It’s a matter of existence and not a matter of settlements,” Kedar said. “In the Arabic culture, it is bad that Jews returned to Israel. It is worse that Jews established sovereignty.”

Kedar highlights Islamic theology and local tribal codes in his assessments of culture, noting that many Arabs presently deny the existence of a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, even though Muslim documents from as late as 1925 assert that the Dome of the Rock was indeed the site of Solomon’s Temple.

Peace negotiations famously broke down at the Camp David Summit in 2000, when then Palestinian Chairman Yas-

ser Arafat denied that the Temple existed, an affront both to Judaism and Christianity. Arafat later rejected a peace deal in which 95 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza would have been handed over to the Palestinian Authority, raising serious doubts as to whether the leader ever intended to make peace to begin with.

“In 1967, Jews liberated Jerusalem from the Jordanian illegal and illegitimate occupation, and this is bringing Judaism back to life, which brings into question the role of Islam which was ultimately meant to replace Judaism and Christianity, according to the Islamic approach,” Kedar said. “It is a challenge on the existence of Islam.”

In Kedar’s estimation, understanding and adapting to the local culture is critical to survival in the region. Those who do not adapt to the cultures of the Middle East do not survive in the region. Yet, understanding the Arabic culture, and how it plays a role in peacemaking, has been difficult for Jews who have taken little efforts to learn it, Kedar said.

“We don’t speak Arabic, we don’t teach it enough in schools,” he said. “Our direction is the West. We feel that we are part of the West. We don’t want to feel like part of the Middle East, particularly when we witness the many atrocities that are taking place daily across the region.”

“When you see the poverty, neglect, dictatorships, the worthlessness of human life, who wants to be part of it?” he added.

To a large degree historically, Israel’s negotiating efforts have been with America.

“We have a cultural toolbox we use to arrange the relationships between people in the West, and acceptance is one of the basic tools, to accept the other, whether you are African American, Chinese, handicapped, women, etc. Acceptance is one of the most important tools in our cultural toolbox, growing up as Westerners,” Kedar said.

“This is a very weak tool in the Arabic cultural toolbox.

They don’t accept gays. They don’t accept that women have the same worth as men. And they don’t accept Jews,” he said.

The proper course of action for Israel, according to Kedar, is to “start to deal with [the Palestinian side] by changing our mindset.”

“They will get the message very quickly if we — Israelis — are consolidated and resolute. The Middle East is no place for weak people,” Kedar said.

Kerry must end the ‘Israel-is-to-blame’ game W

hich aspect of Secretary of State John Kerry’s repetition of the Arab position last week, that the IsraeliPalestinian conflict lies at the root of Middle Eastern instability, is more remarkable? The fact that Kerry could actually say such a thing, or the fact that such an extraordinary claim could pass almost unnoticed in the media landscape.

After talks in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and his colleagues, Kerry waxed lyrically as VIEWPOINT follows: “Peace is in the common interest of everybody in this region. And as many ministers said to me today in the meeting that we had — many of them — they said that the core issue of instability in this region and in many other parts of the world is the PalestinianIsraeli conflict.”

During a week in which the total number of deaths accumulated during the civil war in Syria approached 93,000, there is something almost obscene about depicting the Israeli-PalesBen Cohen tinian conflict as the source of regional JNS.org instability.

More breathtaking is the follow on about other regions around the globe. I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impacts the terrorist militias on the Colombian-Venezuelan border who are making millions of dollars out of cocaine trafficking, or how it influences Chinese repression in Tibet, or whether three instead of four million people would have perished in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s myriad wars had, you know, those pesky Israelis stopped building settlements in the West Bank.

I do, however, understand why Kerry made this statement.

The State Department needs to place the best possible spin

on the announcement that direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are to resume after more than two years of gloomy silence. Never mind that Hamas has already said the PA has no right to conduct negotiations. Never mind that, almost as soon as Kerry made his announcement, rumors began circulating that the PA is renewing its insistence on placing preconditions on Israel before entering talks. Never mind that other countries in the region are too preoccupied with Egypt to get too excited about another photo opportunity involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Israeli-Palestinian arena is actually the one aspect of the Middle East today that looks manageable, and can thus distract attention from the west’s shameful do-nothing record in the face of the massacres in Syria.

Here’s another irony: the primary reason it looks that way is because Israel, a stable democracy and reliable western ally, is the one party to the conflict that can be relied upon to be cooperative.

If the world wants evidence of Israel’s decent intentions, look no further than the announcement from Yuval Steinitz, the minister in charge of the country’s intelligence and strategic affairs portfolio, that the government is willing to release a significant number of Palestinian prisoners, some of them convicted for monstrous terrorist crimes, in order to smooth the way for negotiations.

Which brings me to the last irony: Kerry was said to be furious that a potential monkey wrench in the works emerged from an unexpected source, in the form of the European

Union (EU). The EU believes that Israel must be pressed into concessions, which is why, a few days before Kerry announced what he hopes will be a breakthrough, it issued new guidelines stating that any Israeli “entity” that wishes to be considered for funding or other opportunities must have no direct or indirect links with those Jewish communities established in the territories that came under Israeli control after the 1967 war.

That doesn’t just refer to the West Bank. It refers to the eastern half of the city of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. And it refers as well to the Golan Heights, which the EU apparently wants to return to its rightful owner, the bloodstained dictatorship of Bashar al Assad in Damascus.

With this measure, as well as its earlier decision to separately label produce from settlements in Judea and Samaria, the EU is demanding that Israel return to its 1949 armistice lines before negotiations even begin. Any flexibility that Kerry and his team might desire on the Palestinian side will, as a consequence, be that much more limited.

Herein lies the risk of renewed peace talks: The Palestinians derail them, much as they did with previous attempts launched by the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations, and the Israelis get the blame.

That’s why Kerry should be making it clear to the Europeans that the U.S. will not tolerate any EU punitive measures against Israel, should talks collapse. And he should also make clear that final borders would be addressed at negotiations, not in advance of them. Frankly, given the warm welcome Israel has given his peace initiative, it’s the least he can do.

‘Intervention in the

Israeli-Palestinian arena is attractive because it looks manageable, and can distract attention from the west’s shameful do-nothing record in the face of the massacres in Syria..’

THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

Israeli-Palestinian faceoff: The cultural dimension

July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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Eikev / It starts with love “If you listen to God, He will keep his covenant with you. He will love you, He will bless you…” (7:13) And what does He want of you? “To walk in His ways, to love Him, and to serve” Him. (10:12) After all, “God dePARSHA OF sired to love your foreTHE WEEK fathers, and He chose their children” (10:15) to be His nation, to whom He gave His Torah and has asked of them filial devotion.

He models this kind of love through “loving the stranger” (10:18), an expectation He commands and demands of you as well (10:19).

In the Shma we are Rabbi Avi Billet famously instructed to love God (6:5), and that exhortation is repeated in 11:1, as a condition to receiving rain and good tidings in the land (11:13, in “V’haya Im Shamoa”), and as a condition to inheriting the land from those who no longer deserve to be its inhabitants (11:22).

One can argue that a theme of the parsha is all about love. Sometimes love is natural, as in God’s love for our forefathers and for the stranger; sometimes it is commanded, as in our love for God and our love for strangers.

Coinciding with the command to love God is a command to revere God. The Shma is preceded by “Fulfill the commandments so you may revere your God…” (6:2), and is followed by “Revere and serve your God” (6:13); and in our parsha, the instruction quoted above in 10:12 of what God wants of you actually begins with “to revere Hashem your God”.

In Vayikra 19:14,32 and Vaikra 25:17,36,43, we see a number of “You must revere your God” instructions as well.

Essentially, these two themes, loving and fearing God, are counted as two separate commandments. The Sefer HaChinukh lists them as commandments 418 and 432 respectively, while Maimonides has them as positive commandments numbers 3 and 4.

Now that we are a little over a week away from the month of Elul, it is an appropriate time to revisit these commandments to understand how we can best go about fulfilling them.

Sefer HaChinukh suggests a person can’t fulfill commandments properly without loving God. If our attitude is such that every deed we undertake as part of our religious experience is fulfilled under the premise that we are doing this for love of God, the act is elevated and becomes more real. This is why

the Shma reminds us that these words must be on our hearts all day and every day, and we must review them in our heart and soul.

Revering God, on the other hand, manifests itself in a person who guards oneself from sin on account of fear of punishment and retribution.

Maimonides goes about explaining the two commandments slightly differently. He compares loving God to how a person relates to a person one admires greatly. “When you love someone, you pay attention to the person, you praise the person, and you want others to love your friend as well.” You introduce your friend to everyone. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we were able to communicate this about God? The greatest example of this was our forefather Avraham, whose existence dripped with his love of God. He is credited with bringing people close to monotheism through simply being an exemplary character, with a stellar reputation, who just modeled his love for his God on a very consistent basis.

Fearing God is not just about being scared, or fearful of punishment. It is about a higher level of respect, including not taking or using God’s name in vain.

These commandments are hard to take on in practical terms. How does one apply love or reverence to a being we cannot see, to which we cannot relate in our o-so-humanly needy way? Through example. We know how to love our parents. We know how to love our children. We must view our love of God in such a way.

God’s modeling of love of the stranger is helpful as well. Whether the “stranger” is a convert or someone who has chosen to live amongst the Jewish people, the life choice that causes one to give up everything to cling to the Jewish people is so beloved to God, that His love effuses to that person in a way that is humbling to the rest of us.

How could we ever mistreat or stigmatize someone who has, by choice, joined our people, who God Himself loves unconditionally?

And finally, as Rabbi Chanina suggests in the Gemara (BRachot 33b), even reverence of God is something which is not as challenging as we thought. When Moshe introduces it in our parsha, Moshe says, “What does God ‘ask’ of you?” Not what does God demand or command, but what does God ask.

One can suggest that the reverence of God begins as a choice we make – because the command is more frightening and stifling.

But if we build up our love of God, through the model of our relatives and the model of the stranger, hopefully we will come to revere God in the way the Torah otherwise instructs.

It starts with love. The rest will naturally flow from that source.

‘Fearing God is

not just about being fearful of punishment. It is about a higher level of respect, including not taking or using God’s name in vain.’

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HEBREW ONLY PLEASE

Rabbi Noam Himelstein

Raid on Green Island July, 1969. The War of Attrition had begun several months earlier.

After repeated Egyptian artillery attacks and raids, the Israeli military command decided that it was time to take the initiative from the Egyptians, and ordered special commando units to destroy the Egyptian radar and anti-aircraft positions on Green Island.

A young Israeli officer, heavily wounded in the fighting, later rose to command the Navy. His

name: Ami Ayalon…

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.

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Families of terror victims are harshly criticizing the Israeli government’s plan to release 85 Palestinians imprisoned prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords as a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian Authority ahead of renewed peace talks.

Arnold Roth — whose 15-year-old daughter, Malki, was murdered along with 14 others when a suicide bomber struck the Sbarro pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001 — told JNS.org that Israel “conceded to the U.S. administration,” which “had to deliver this,” by agreeing to the prisoner release.

Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian woman who transported both the bomb and the bomber to the Sbarro restaurant, was freed from prison in October 2011 as part of the deal in which 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who spent more than five years in Hamas captivity.

Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Avraham Bromberg died at 20 four days after being attacked on is way home from a Golan Heights base by Karim Younis and his cousin Maher Younis in November 1980, but Israeli President Shimon Peres commuted their sentence in August 2012, making them eligible for parole in 2023. The Palestinians now the demand that the Younis cousins be included in the upcoming prisoner release by Israel.

“It is inconceivable that the state can ignore the bereaved families like this,” said Bromberg’s son, Avi, according to Israel Hayom. “The government’s conduct is a disgrace.”

Peace with PA compared to Mecca truce broken by Muhammad Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, in a sermon attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas on the day that renewed peace negotiations with Israel were announced, described PA peace agreements to a 10-year truce that was broken by the Prophet Muhammad after two years.

The PA minister, according to a July 19 Palestinian Authority TV broadcast cited by Palestinian Media Watch, compared the Palestinian leadership’s approach to the “Treaty of Hudaybiyyah” between Muhammad and the Quraish Tribe of Mecca.

Muhammad was initially met with “anger and fury” from his followers for the treaty, Al-Habbash said. Questioned at the time why he didn’t decide to conquer Mecca, Muhammad assured his followers the 10-year truce would turn out to be a “victory.”

“In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca,” Al-Habbash said. “This is the example, this is the model [for contemporary agreements with Israel].”

Amnesty Int’l says Egyptian forces ignored slaying of Coptic Christians A report by the human rights group Amnesty International blames Egyptian security forces for standing by idly and failing to intervene during an 18-hour-long attack on Coptic Christians on July 5 that left four dead and one man hospitalized.

“It is outrageous that this attack was left to escalate unhindered in this way. Amnesty International has documented a series of cases in the past where Egypt’s security forces used unnecessary force or live fire during demonstrations, yet in this case they held back even though people’s lives were threatened,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

According to the Amnesty International report, the attack began around 3 a.m. on

Israel Newsbriefs from JNS.org July 5 after a body of a Muslim man was found near Christian homes. The family of the dead Muslim man blamed local Christians for his death, and by mid-day more than 100 Christian homes had been attacked by an angry mob armed with metal bars, knives, tree branches and hammers in a small town 18 kilometers west of Luxor.

“The attack went on for 18 hours, and there was not a door on which I did not knock: police, army, local leaders, the Central Security Forces, the Governorate. Nothing was done,” said Father Barsilious, a local Egyptian priest, according to Amnesty International.

Polish Jews continue ritual slaughter despite ban The Polish-Jewish community is still practicing shechita (kosher slaughter), despite a law banning ritual slaughter passed in January by the country’s parliament, the Sejm.

Last week, a bill that would have created an exception to the ban, re-legalizing both kosher and halal slaughter, was voted down in the Sejm, 222-178.

American-born Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich told the Jerusalem Post, “I have no hesitation to do shechita. When it becomes necessary we certainly will do shechita [again] because I believe it’s legal.”

Polish Minister of Administration and Digitization Michael Bon, who deals with religious issues, has recommended the reexamining of the ritual slaughter ban to see whether it violates the Polish constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religious worship.

El Al cancels package for BDS activist Roger Waters El Al Israel Airlines said it promptly canceled a promotional package that appeared on its website for an August concert in Budapest by Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters — a vocal activist in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel — when it learned of the “sensitive issue” on Wednesday.

“This matter was brought to my attention yesterday afternoon,” Sheryl Stein, an advertising/public relations/social media manager for El Al, wrote in an email to JNS.org on Thursday. “As soon as this sensitive issue was brought to our attention, the package was canceled.”

Waters accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid” and “international crimes” in a November 2012 address at the United Nations, and last fall he was also at the forefront of efforts to boycott an Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Group rips talks with Iran over 1994 Argentina bombing On the 19th anniversary of the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in downtown Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, the group has criticized the Argentine government for engaging with Iran despite evidence that the Islamic Republic, along with the terrorist organization Hezbollah, was behind the attack.

Iran has denied any involvement, though a joint Argentine-Iranian “truth commission” has promised to allow Argentine prosecutors to visit Teheran and question Iranian officials. But Iran is not expected to be willing to extradite anyone accused of the crime, and

AMIA has filed a lawsuit in an effort to block the truth commission because they believe the suspects must be tried in Argentina.

“What confidence can we have in Iran when the same government has denied the genocide of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust?” said AMIA President Leonardo Jmelnitsky, the Associated Press reported.

‘Clear signs’ Hezbollah was behind Burgas bombing There are “clear signs that say Hezbollah is behind the Burgas bombing” that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver on July 18, 2012, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said Thursday on the one-year anniversary of the attack.

Yovchev told reporters at a ceremony for the opening of a monument for the victims of the attack that Bulgaria’s new Socialist government, since taking office in late May, has received more information implicating Hezbollah in the bus bombing.

Remnants of King David’s palace unearthed near Jerusalem Two large structures believed to have been a part of King David’s palace have been unearthed in a joint seven-year excavation led by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Antiquities Authority, the two announced last week.

The discovery was made in the site of the ancient city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, located southwest of Jerusalem and bordering Beit Shemesh and the Elah Valley, Israel Hayom reported. The city dates back to the early 10th century B.C.E., and archeologists believe it met a sudden end around 980 B.C.E. Antiquities Authority researchers Professor Yossi Garfinkel and Saar Ganor identified one of the structures as King David’s palace and the other as a large storehouse structure on the royal compound, which, according to archaeologists, stretched some 1,000 square meters (about 11,000 square feet).

“The ruins are the best example to date of the uncovered fortress city of King David. …

This is indisputable evidence of the existence of a central administration in Judea during the time of King David,” the Antiquities Authority said.

Popular TV doctor to visit Israel Television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz will come with his family to Israel on July 28, his first visit to the country. Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, is likely to garner considerable fanfare because his television show, “The Dr. Oz Show,” is broadcast in 118 languages, including in Israel on the Health Channel.

“My being of Turkish descent, I have always appreciated the ties and deep friendship shared between the Turkish people and the Israeli people, and me being an American I have always appreciated the deep friendship between Israel and the American people,” he said.

U.S. fixes ‘East Jerusalem, Palestinian Territories’ error The U.S. State Department corrected an errant reference to “East Jerusalem” as part of the Palestinian territories following outreach from the Zionist Organization of America.

In a press released titled “U.S. Department of State Announces Museums Connect Cultural Exchange 2013 Awardees,” the de-

partment had said the Palestinian Heritage Museum is located in “East Jerusalem, Palestinian Territories.”

PA official says EU Judea, Samaria boycott harms Palestinians A senior Palestinian Authority official told Israel Hayom that many in Ramallah were dissatisfied with the European Union’s decision to withhold economic grants and incentives to Israeli companies situated in Judea and Samaria.

“For our part, we approached a number of [European] Union officials, in the [Palestinian] Authority and also in Israel, to try and prevent the decision or at least to keep it unofficial,” said the official, who declined to give his name. “It’s not just Israeli companies that are going to be hit economically, it’s also going to be disastrous economically and socially for the Palestinian community.”

The Palestinian official said the European move will freeze joint projects, force employers to stop hiring Palestinians to work on joint projects with Israelis and lead to widespread layoffs of Palestinians laborers working in Judea and Samaria industrial zones.

Sammer Darawsha, who works in a hothouse that is a part of a joint Israeli-Palestinian agricultural project funded by members of the EU and situated near the Halamish community, said the decision will “affect everyone, whether Jew or Palestinian.”

“If they take away our livelihoods and food, exactly what kind of peace will be here?” Darawsha said.

Facebook cuts page of Hungarian anti-Semitic website Facebook has removed the page of a major Hungarian racist website, in a decision that was welcomed by The Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The Action and Protection Foundation, an organization monitoring and combatting anti-Semitism in Hungary, complained to Facebook regarding Kuruc.info with the help of ADL. “Through its Facebook page, Kuruc.info was conveying threats against Jews and Roma, inciting to violence, spreading vile anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, all of which are crimes in Hungary,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director.

“Facebook deserves credit for taking the time and effort to evaluate Kuruc.info’s activity on their platform and for making the right decision which, is consistent with their policies,” Foxman added.

BDS activist made California regent Sadia Saifuddin, an activist in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, last week was voted in as a 2014-15 student regent on the University of California (UC) Board of Regents, the governing board of the 10-school UC system.

Saifuddin, a Pakistani American, co-sponsored and vocally promoted a student government resolution this spring calling for UC Berkeley, where she is a student, to divest from Israel. She has been involved with antiIsrael groups including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Representatives from the pro-Israel education group StandWithUs and the Simon Wiesenthal Center attended last week’s Board of Regents vote in San Francisco to speak out against Saifuddin’s candidacy. Roberta Seid, research-education director of StandWithUs, said she told the regents they “should be trying to find a bridge builder, not a bridge burner” like Saifuddin to be their student board member.

The 26-member UC board appoints one student regent for a one-year term.

THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

Plan to free Palestinian killers angers bereaved

Twitter releases French data: Policing online anti-Semitism

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When Europeans flooded Twitter with such posts as “a good Jew is a dead Jew,” attached to the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew), the French Jewish students’ union sued Twitter. In compliance with a January court order, Twitter agreed last week to release data identifying the anti-Semitic users to French authorities.

Twitter’s decision — after it initially refused to release the data — complies with European semsibilities but runs counter to U.S. free speech laws.

The French incident, which led to a crosscontinental debate on the difficulty of defining and policing anti-Semitism online, is hardly the first case of hate in social media and on the Web. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2013 Digital Terrorism and Hate Report found more than 20,000 hate and terror-related websites, social networks, forums and more, a 30-percent increase from 15,000 in 2012.

A February report by the Community Security Trust showed that the number of anti-Semitic incidents via social media in the United Kingdom grew nearly 700 percent in the 12 months before it was released.

“Social media is becoming more and more of a problem for us if you look at antiSemitism,” Ronald Eissens, co-founder of the Dutch anti-racism group Magenta and the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), which works to counter cyber-hate

and has 21 members in 20 countries, told JNS.org. “There’s a lot of it around. Prosecution is a lot harder because most social media are based firmly in the U.S.” In France, the Gayssot law of 1990 was passed to repress racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic acts and criminalizes Holocaust denial. French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson later claimed the law violated his right to freedom of expression and academic freedom, but the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled against him. France punishes the dissemination of racist content online with fines and terms of imprisonment.

These penalties increase if the dissemination was public—for example, on a website rather than in a private email—according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

France has faced off against an American online giant before. In 2000, France prosecuted Yahoo! for selling Nazi memorabilia online. In France, it is illegal to display such items unless they are in a theatrical or museum setting. A French court ruled at the time that Yahoo! had to make the auction site inaccessible to French users or pay a fine.

Although it never legally accepted the French ruling, Yahoo! eventually chose to remove the auction.

Then, in 2012, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube complied with German law by either taking down material posted by a neo-Nazi group or by blocking users in Germany from access to the content.

More online at TheJewishStar.com

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By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org

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July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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15 THE JEWISH STAR July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773

49th Nefesh B’Nefesh flight brings 231 home to Eretz Israel…

Continued from page 1 for another, by foot, by horse and wagon, by boat and now by plane. But this was different. These Jews were going kommimiyut — upright with joy and promise, positively, not in flight from an enemy. They are going home to Eretz Yisrael.

■■■

People came from West Hempstead, Queens, Brooklyn, Great Neck, Seattle, Denver, Oak Park, Chicago, Miami Beach, Cleveland, Houston and New Jersey to settle all over Israel; they’ll put down roots in Nahariya, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, Efrat, Chashmonaim, Afula, Be’er Sheva, Sderot, Akko, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and on kibbutzim and moshavim. They are doctors, lawyers, bookkeepers, architects, cosmeticians, massage therapists, rabbis, teachers, social workers, nurses and more.

Yael Bindiger, a graduate of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls and a resident of West Hempstead, just graduated with an MSW from Fordham University and is going to an absorption center and an ulpan in Jerusalem. She said that she is “nervous and excited” and will “miss family and friends.”

Rami Tuchinsky of Great Neck is a graduate of Central Yeshiva High School for Girls, Stern College, and the University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic.

“It’s a great time to go to start my career in Israel,” she said. “I’m more excited than nervous. It’s been a dream. I’m very excited, extremely happy.” She is also going to Ulpan Etzion in East Talpiot in Jerusalem.

Mazal and Ruben Bangiyev and their two young children are leaving Queens for Jerusalem. Saying that she was excited and nervous, Mazal recounted that they married in Israel, came to America for vacation and ended up staying. In celebration of Ruben’s birthday, the day of the flight, she wanted to make her husband’s “wish come true” by making aliyah.

Hannah and Uri Silverman and their three children are moving to Be’er Sheva from Midwood.

“We are going to live in the land of our forefathers to be connected to our people, to contribute to the building of Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael, Medinat Yisrael,” explained Uri. “I am very excited and a little nervous,” said Hannah. “There’s a lot of opportunity in Be’er Sheva. We like the dry weather and the affordability.”

Older couples were going, drawn by grandchildren and spurred by retirement and long delayed idealism. Younger couples were going before children entered school or because they simply decided it was time to go.

■■■

After an almost ten hour flight, the plane landed with great applause and some singing on the tarmac at Ben Gu-

Photo by Malka Eisenberg/The Jewish Star

Rami Tuchinsky of Great Neck wearing her “New Oleh” sticker, on board the plane.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky poses with The Jewish Star Editor Malka Eisenberg after the olim disembarked. rion airport near the old Terminal 1.

Passengers with “new oleh” stickers pasted on their shirts and tan Nefesh B’Nefesh caps on their heads, joyously walked down steps wheeled to the doors of the plane as had been done in years before the airport’s new modern terminal was built.

A few younger people dropped to the pavement to kiss it as many olim have done in the past. Photographers besieged the passengers.

As the buses pulled in to the old terminal, the disembarking passengers were absorbed into a huge crowd of wellwishers, waving flags, jumping, singing, dancing yelling mazal tov and welcome, a large band playing joyful Israeli and Jewish music.

In greeting the new olim at Ben Gurion Airport, Rabbi Fass said that “we just spent 10 hours on a plane with 106 children — you know how you feel after two hours in a car ride with kids! — let’s move it along.” He cited the current lack of unity Israel, referenced losing the “magic” of the modern miracle and added: “And then you show up!”

“Thank G-d you came … to show us that Zionism is still alive, that achdut (unity) is possible for shared dreams.” He said that they are the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. “I don’t know what we would do without you.”

Natan Sharansky, symbol and hero of the Soviet Jewry movement, and Jewish Agency chairman, told the crowd gathered after the riotous welcome in the old terminal building, “This is the last stop in a long, long journey and coming home.”

“We are here from the Soviet Union because your parents fought for us,” Sharansky said. “We are one small family with a great history. … It is your country. … Have a great life in Israel, your home — bruchim habaim (welcome).”

Photo by Malka Eisenberg/The Jewish Star

Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, NBN co-founder and executive director, on bus enroute to the welcoming ceremony.

MK Rabbi Dov Lipman recalled how, as a child protesting outside the Soviet embassy in Washington, he held a poster that said, “Free Yuli Edelstein.” Lipman came on aliyah in 2004 with NBN and is now sitting in the Knesset — and sitting in the front is Yuli Edelstein.

“I ask all of you to believe in yourselves and your children,” he said. “Dream big.”

Cover photo by Shahar Azran, courtesy NBN.

Photo by Malka Eisenberg/The Jewish Star

Woodmere native Malki [Bernstein] Stern made aliyah with NBN eight years ago and started workin for the agency one year later. She lives in Beit Shemesh.

Photo by Malka Eisenberg/The Jewish Star

A crowd, with MK Rabbi Dov Lipman at its center, greets the new olim at Ben Gurion airport this week.

July 26, 2013 • 19 AV 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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GRAND OPENING IN AUGUST

DR. SCOTT FLASHNER & DR. LARRY KESSLER