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The JEWISH STAR Mournful week TheJewishStar.com

Parsha Devarim • July 28, 2017 • 5 Av, 5777 • Five Towns Candlelighting 7:56 pm, Havdalah 9:04 • Torah columns pages 20–21 • Vol 16, No 27

The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities

Death, riots in Israel; worries in D.C.

Hillel campers lined up to get an autograph from Mets player T.J. Rivera. Coby Agamie, 9, was the first on line.

Tyler Marko

Campers batter up!

Hillel meets Mets

By Tyler Marko, Herald Community News Hillel Day Campers were treated to a day of fun with a pair of New York Mets players when infielders Wilmer Flores and T.J. Rivera visited on July 21.

This was the third year that the camp, affiliated with HAFTR, hosted members of the Mets.

The kids split off into two groups and had either Flores or Rivera pitch to them. After taking their swings the kids formed a line for autographs. The camp provided photos of the two players, but many campers brought their own memorabilia — hats, baseballs and shirts — that they asked the players to sign.

Despite an even mix of Yankee and Mets fans among the campers, there were smiles all around. Jacob Grossman, one of the Hillel coaches and a self-described hardcore Mets fan, said the kids have been looking forward to this day. “100 percent, they’ve been very excited about it, meeting the players every year is really great for them,” he said.

Coby Agamie, 9, has met other Mets in previous years but was excited nonetheless.

His favorite part was “ getting the autograph and then getting to hit,” Agamie said.

Cooper Sobel, also 9, was especially excited to meet Rivera and Flores, as he said his father was getting them tickets to a game very soon. His favorite player, Yoenis Cespedes, may not have been there, but Sobel was still beaming after getting an autograph.

Camp Director Ari Solomon believes that everyone gets something out of events like this.

The children have “a great time, they love seeing the stars come out [and] I think the stars like to come out to play with the kids as well.”

It would appear that Solomon is right.

“It’s giving the kids something to smile about,” Rivera said, “it’s really for the kids, just let them enjoy some time with the players.”

Flores agreed. “It’s the smiles on their faces, it’s really cool,” he said. “Whenever I was growing up I never had this in my schools, so I really like doing this for the kids.”

ZAKA volunteers, including its chairman, Yehuda Meshi Zahav (right), clean the scene of Friday night’s deadly Palestinian terror attack at the Salomon family home in Halamish. Yehezkiel Itkin/ZAKA

During the nine troubling days leading up to Tisha B’Av, we mourn our latest victims in the Holy Land as well as our Temple.

Unrest, purportedly related to the installation of metal detectors near the Temple Mount after the assassination of two Israeli officers, continued on Tuesday despite removal of the devices. Mus-

Palestinian rioters in Jerusalem’s Old City protested Israel’s Temple Mount metal detectors, after Friday prayers on July 21. The detectors’ removal on Tuesday failed to satisfy protesters.

Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

lims persisted in refusing to enter the al-Aksa Mosque, instead praying outside.

Palestinian officials said they were not satisfied with Israel’s capitulation.

Meanwhile, concern was expressed even

by Jewish allies of President Trump over his and administration officials’ response to the slayings as well as other troubling actions

— including terms of a Syrian ceasefire negotiated with Russia that Israeli leaders believe may threaten the Jewish state.

Some of these issues are addressed inside, in columns on pages 4, 10 and 18.

Visit TheJewishStar.com on Thursday and Friday for more news reports, opinions and analysis.

Touro opening in 5 Towns Touro College said this week that it would begin to offer mens division classes in the Five Towns on Sept. 11.

Sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings will include psychology, business management and public speaking. Students interested in a fuller course load can take additional classes online or at Touro campuses in Queens or Brooklyn.

“We are thrilled to be launching this new location in one of the major metropolitan Jewish

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communities,” said Dr. Henry Abramson, dean of Touro’s Lander College of Arts & Sciences, who will be overseeing this new Touro location.

Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, rosh yeshiva of Mesivta and Beis Medrash Ateres Yaakov, where the classes will be held, said his school was “pleased to be part of this groundbreaking initiative.”

For more information or to register contact Meir Weiss, director of enrollment management at 718-535-9347.

Dr. Henry Abramson, dean of Touro’s Lander College.

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Legislator Howard Kopel condemns Roger Waters at a press conference outside the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Among those joining him were (at left) Avi Posnick of StandWithUs and Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad Mineola.

The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

you,” Koppel said, “We all have to make our own moral judgments as to whether this is proper or not. I don’t think I need to be guided by somebody else’s determination.”

“We live in harmony with each other,” Kopel said of Nassau County’s residents. “We don’t want hate speech coming here, we don’t want prejudice, we don’t want intolerance.”

A Waters concert tour between 2010 and 2013 reportedly grossed $458.7 million, making it the biggest tour ever by a solo artist. “Money doesn’t count for everything,” Kopel said.

Avi Posnick, northeast managing director of StandWithUs, an Israel advocacy group, called Waters “an anti-Semite and someone who promotes discrimination against Israel and the Jewish people. There is no room for bigotry and all forms of racism on Long Island, and those who promote bigotry should be rejected.”

“While Roger Waters sings about how ‘we

don’t need no education,’ he is the one who needs an education about Israel, he is the one who needs an education about what it means to be tolerant to those who differ from him,” Posnick said. “Roger Waters is the one putting another brick in the wall and dividing society.”

“We all must stand together to oppose hate and bigotry in all forms,” Posnick concluded.

“Music is a powerful medium, a G-d-given talent,” said Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad of Mineola, in prepared remarks. “Why not use it to bring people together in peace and harmony, to encourage acts of goodness and kindness and not anti-Semitism and hatred of any kind.”

“BDS is nothing less than the western front in the war of delegitimization directed against Israel,” Rabbi Perl said.

“We will not tolerate hate, we will not tolerate anti-Semitism,” said Jay Rosenbaum, spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Lawrence.

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By Ed Weintrob Nassau County Legislator Howard Kopel was joined outside the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum last Thursday by several political and Jewish leaders to protest the upcoming appearance there of legendary rock star Roger Waters.

Waters, frontman for Pink Floyd, a popular band in the late 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, is an outspoken critic of Israel and a leader of the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) that seeks to isolate the Jewish state. He has frequently been accused of overt anti-Semitism. A pig balloon at a Waters concert was embossed with a star of David.

Kopel, whose district includes the Five Towns, told Thursday’s press conference that Waters was “the face of BDS and a rabid anti-Semite.”

“BDS is nothing more than a reincarnation of anti-Semitism,” he said.

Kopel called on the Nassau Events Center, which books acts at the Coliseum as well as at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, to cancel the Waters show, scheduled for Sept. 15 and 16, one week before Rosh Hashana. Waters is booked to perform at Barclays on Sept. 11 and 12.

He said the county attorney had sent a letter to the NEC asserting that the concert was in violation of an anti-BDS law that the county passed last year. NEC responded with a “legalese” letter and has not cancelled the concert, he said.

But regardless of the legal issues, Kopel said, “we’re dealing here with moral outrage.”

A reporter pointed out that Bruce Ratner, a principal of NEC, is chairman of the Jewish Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in Manhattan, and that the Ratner family is known for its Jewish philanthropy. Asked, “if this concert is okay with Bruce Ratner, why isn’t it not okay with

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Plea to Pres. Trump: Stop pressuring Israel Stephen M. Flatow

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he pressure has begun. The State Department’s “evenhanded” statement regarding the Temple Mount. The U.S.-backed Middle East Quartet’s call for “restraint.” The announcement that President Donald Trump’s international negotiations representative is going to the region to “mediate” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It all adds up to one thing: American pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.

The July 14 terror attack that killed two Israeli policemen is a clear-cut case of Palestinian aggression if ever there was one, and the Trump administration should have been clearly on Israel’s side from the beginning.

Security cameras videotaped a terrorist bringing a backpack full of guns and knives into the Al-Aqsa mosque. Since there were no metal detectors, he strolled right in without the slightest interference from the Islamic Waqf officials who administer the site. The security camera footage then showed the heavily armed terrorists coming out of the mosque and beginning their murderous rampage. ven before the two slain Israeli policemen were buried, the Palestinians launched a campaign of wild incitement. PA President Mahmoud Abbas, PA-salaried Muslim preachers and other PA officials openly called on Arabs to launch “days of rage.”

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The Arab mobs have been through this drill a thousand times before. They knew what to do.

And they did it. In and around Jerusalem last Friday, they tried to stone and burn Israeli police and soldiers to death.

The Trump administration should have been the first to speak out against the PA’s blatant incitement to violence. After all, if we are to believe the news reports, an angry Trump yelled at Abbas over the issue during their May 23 meeting in Bethlehem, saying the Palestinian leader “tricked” him in an earlier meeting in Washington. “You talked there about your commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me your involvement in incitement,” Trump said, according to Israel’s Channel 2.

Well, the shock must have worn off pretty quickly, because here we are two months later, and Abbas and company are openly inciting the mobs while Trump says nothing.

In fact, his silence is worse than nothing.

Heather Nauert, the spokesperson for Trump’s State Department, declared, “We support the status quo and we welcome all sides continuing their commitment to maintaining the status quo. We are encouraging both sides to not take any actions that would potentially escalate tensions.”

Every part of that statement is wrong. The U.S. should not support the “status quo.” The status quo had no metal detectors. That was the whole problem. The reason the terrorist was able to bring those weapons into the mosque, the reason two Israeli policemen are lying in their graves today, is precisely because the status quo was enabling terrorism.

See Flatow on page 10

Argument’s about Jews, not metal detectors Jonathan S. tobin

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o an objective observer, the crisis that erupted in the aftermath of a bloody terror attack near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount makes no sense.

Three Arab terrorists used guns they had smuggled up to the compound July 14 to kill two Israeli policemen, both of whom happened to be Druze rather than Jewish. In response, Israeli authorities set up metal detectors to prevent a recurrence of the crime. The response to this from Palestinians was general outrage, violence and a promise of mass riots if the offending machines were not immediately removed.

Upon Friday afternoon prayers July 21, with Israel facing the prospect of even more violence that might get out of control, the metal detectors remained in place.

How could putting metal detectors to protect a holy site be considered a casus belli for what might, if the conflict escalated in the way the Muslim rioters promised, lead to a new holy war?

The answer is that this isn’t about metal detectors. It’s about something much bigger: the right of Jews to be in Jerusalem.

This isn’t another variation on the usual theme sounded from Israel’s critics about the infringement of Palestinian rights. To the contrary, Israel didn’t change the status quo at the Temple Mount, which denies Jews the right to pray at the holiest place in Judaism. The Islamic Waqf was left in charge of Jerusalem’s mosques,

including the Temple Mount’s Al-Aqsa, inviolate.

Nor was the new security measure discriminatory. Any Jew or non-Jew who wishes to enter the Western Wall plaza below the Temple Mount compound must also pass through security, including metal detectors. The same is true for Muslims who wish to enter the holy places in Mecca during their annual pilgrimages.

So what exactly is this all about? or a century, Palestinian Arab leaders have been playing the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” card. The cries that Jews were seeking to destroy the mosques or in some way harm Muslim rights led to a series of pogroms against Jews, including the riots of 1929 in which Jews were massacred in Hebron. But the appeal to holy war isn’t only a vestige of the horrors of the distant past and the influence of the Nazi sympathizer Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem who incited those riots.

It was the supposedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), whose inflammatory statements helped incite the so-called “stabbing intifada” in recent years by also claiming Jews were going to harm the mosques. It was Abbas, not just his Hamas rivals or other violent Islamists, who called on Palestinians to resist the Jewish presence in Jerusalem. It was Abbas who said “stinking Jewish feet” should not profane the holy places.

Abbas’s motives were cynical, since he was waving the bloody banner of holy war to compete with his political foes. But the impact of his statements gave the lie to the notion—so prevalent on the Jewish left—that a peace agreement could be easily reached if Israel had the will to try for one. His rhetoric sought to remind PalSee Tobin on page 10

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ORA refutes bid to stamp pre-nups as treif Commentary by Rabbi Jeremy Stern Rabbi Stern is executive director of ORA Organization for the Resolution of Agunot

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ecently, Jewish news sites reported that 44 rabbis in Israel challenged the Beth Din of America’s halakhic prenuptial agreement.

But did they? Really? Despite what we read in the headlines, the answer is no, not really.

First, some background. There are three different prenuptial agreements referred to in various statements in this rabbinic proclamation: Beth Din of America’s (BDA), Tzohar’s and Na’amat’s. The BDA’s prenuptial agreement was authored by Rabbi Mordechai Willig in 1992, and has been endorsed on several occasions by the Rabbinical Council of America in the intervening 25 years. Most notably, last September the RCA required all member-rabbis to utilize a halakhic prenup whenever they officiate at a wedding.

In 2015, Tzohar, the most prominent association of Religious Zionist rabbis in Israel, introduced its own halakhic prenup, based upon the Agreement for Mutual Respect that had been introduced around the year 2001 by Rabbi Dr. David Ben-Zazon, Rabbi Elyashiv Knohl, and Rabbinical Court Advocate Dr. Rachel Levmore. Na’amat, a women’s advocacy organization in Israel, proposed a prenup which was authored in the mid-1980s by the late Professor Ariel Rosen-Tzvi. At the time, the Israeli Rabbinate rejected the Na’amat proposal outright. here are significant distinctions in the language and legal mechanisms that are utilized by these prenuptial agreements. The Na’amat prenup is fundamentally different than the BDA or Tzohar versions. The Na’amat prenup contains a clause which legally prevents a spouse from granting jurisdiction to the rabbinical courts over the matters ancillary to the get process, namely, finances and custody. It is no wonder why the Israeli Rabbinate thoroughly rejected a prenuptial agreement which eliminated their ability to fully adjudicate the divorce process.

The BDA prenup and the Tzohar prenup share much in common and — unlike the Na’amat version — do not curtail the authority of the rabbinate. Both agreements create a financial support obligation on the part of the husband (and, in certain versions, on the part of the wife as well), which an aggrieved party can collect upon in the event of the other party’s recalcitrance. In other words, if a husband refuses to issue his wife a get, the wife can collect substantial financial support from him until he decides to free her from the chains of a dead marriage. This support obligation creates a serious financial disincentive for the husband to persist in his recalcitrance. It is critical to note that this mechanism is based upon a halakhic obligation of spousal support that exists throughout a halakhic marriage and is not a penalty.

While the difference between “support” and

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proclamation utterly falls apart.

The bottom row of eight signatories is a mixed bag. Half of them refer to the Na’amat proposal and fail to make any distinction between the halakhic mechanics of that agreement versus the BDA or Tzohar versions. Another signatory, Rabbi Dov Lior, has endorsed a ruling that seemingly approves of the mechanism of the BDA prenup, so his signature on this proclamation would challenge only the Tzohar prenup and not the BDA prenup. he title at the top of the proclamation, “A Cry from Gedolei Yisrael Against the Beth Din of America’s Prenuptial Agreement” is terribly misleading, since it implies that all 44 signatories object to the BDA’s halakhic prenup.

That is demonstrably false.

The final signatory, Rabbi Baruch Efrati, cites the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik in the full text of his contribution to this proclamation, arguing that the Rav would have rejected the Tzohar and BDA halakhic prenups on the grounds that the Rav railed against the application of annulments to resolve agunah cases. Rabbi Efrati provides no explanation for why the Rav’s objection to one halakhic tool would imply his rejection of another. (It is worth noting that Rabbi Hershel Schachter, arguably the Rav’s most prominent student alive today, strongly endorses the BDA prenup.)

Interestingly, the 25 rabbis in the second section of the proclamation state that any rabbi who endorses “these” halakhic prenups is not an Orthodox rabbi. In their eyes, therefore, the following rabbis are not or were not Orthodox: Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, Rabbi Asher Weiss, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Chaim Zimbalist, and the thousands of whom-we-thought-wereOrthodox rabbis who have utilized rabbinically-sanctioned halakhic prenuptial agreements over the past two decades.

One might also include all 1,000 memberrabbis of the Rabbinical Council of America, since they are members of a rabbinic body that has not just endorsed but required the use of halakhic prenuptial agreements. Furthermore, since Rabbi Schachter is not acceptable to these 25 rabbis yet he remains the halakhic authority for the Orthodox Union’s kosher certification, presumably these rabbis do not eat any OUcertified products.

I wonder whether the architect of this proclamation intended for the specifics to be read.

A clear, legible version is not publicly available.

The goal, it seems to me, was to create a glaring headline, and, in the process, pull the wool over the eyes of the public.

We must not be discouraged by proclamations of this kind. We want our rabbis to have the courage to stand up for what we believe in.

We need to have the courage to do the same.

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Stephanie and Tamir Sugarman, from Stamford and Chicago, display their kosher prenup.

“penalty” may seem like semantics, from a halakhic perspective the two mechanisms could not be more dissimilar. An agreement that creates a financial penalty against a recalcitrant husband is fraught with halakhic concerns and pitfalls which may invalidate a get when induced through such pressure. In contrast, an agreement based upon spousal support is rooted in a husband’s fundamental legal obligations towards his wife, which are even stated explicitly in the ketubah. Such a prenup creates an enforcement mechanism for those obligations, which is very useful in inducing the issuance of a get in the event that the husband becomes recalcitrant. he primary question at hand is whether the mechanism of the Tzohar and BDA prenups — enforcement of spousal support — induces a halakhically valid get. Is that the question that these 44 rabbis addressed?

Not even close.

Over the past two years, there has been an effort by Rabbi Pinchas Shapira of Beitar Illit in Israel, to gather letters of opposition to halakhic prenups from various rabbis in Israel and to publicize such opposition. The first salvo came in August 2015, with a letter authored by Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch that opposed the BDA’s halakhic prenup. Rabbi Sternbuch’s letter can be distilled into three primary arguments: First, a get may likely be invalid if it is issued due to a penalty stipulated in a halakhic prenup. Second, the amount of spousal support that the BDA stipulates in its halakhic prenup, $150/ day (roughly $55,000/year), is well above costof-living and must therefore be construed as a penalty and not spousal support. And third, halakhic prenups increase the incidence of divorce.

Rabbinic advocates of the BDA prenup might readily agree with Rabbi Sternbuch’s first con-

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ORA

tention: that a halakhic prenup that is based upon a penalty is halakhically problematic.

However, the BDA’s prenup is based upon spousal support and not a penalty. Therefore, his first argument does not apply to the BDA prenup.

Rabbi Sternbuch’s second argument seems to be based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of cost-of-living for Orthodox Jews in the United States. While $55,000 per annum may likely be above the standard of living for ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Jerusalem suburb of Har Nof, where Rabbi Sternbuch lives, that sum does not come close to the cost-of-living for Jews in New York City, Teaneck, Los Angeles, etc.

Rabbi Sternbuch’s argument—that the amount of $150 per day is punitive because it is well above standards of support—is simply not grounded in the economic realities of American Jewish life. In terms of his third concern, that halakhic prenups will increase the divorce rate, a recent study demonstrates that there is no increased consideration of divorce for couples who signed a halakhic prenup. hile the recent proclamation has been released to the public as one unified document, it is in fact an extensive cutand-paste job, drawing upon several different letters and proclamations. The final product is neither cogent nor coherent.

The proclamation divides into three parts.

The first signatory in the top third is a quote from Rabbi Sternbuch’s 2015 letter and 11 signatories who endorse Rabbi Sternbuch and/or his arguments.

The middle section is comprised of a list of 25 rabbis who endorse the rabbis listed in the top section. Since the vast majority of signatories rely on Rabbi Sternbuch’s arguments, if Rabbi Sternbuch’s letter fails to pose an effective challenge to the BDA prenup then this

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B’Scout dreidels Israel fires back, tells Erdogan:

By JTA A Guinness World Record for the most dreidels spinning at one time was set at the Boy Scouts of America’s 2017 National Jamboree.

Some 820 dreidels spun simultaneously for 10 seconds Sunday at the Summit Bechtel Family Scout Reserve in Glen Jean, West Virginia, breaking the mark of 754 set in Tel Aviv in 2014.

The event was sponsored by the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, which provided the dreidels and cardboard spinning boards to participating scouts.

“Congratulations to all the Scouts who came together to break the world dreidel spinning record,” National Jewish Committee on Scouting Chairman Bruce Chudacoff said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to challenge our brothers and sisters in Israel to more and more competitions like this, which will bring us closer together.”

Ottoman Empire is so yesterday

By JNS.org In a speech to the Turkish parliament Tuesday, Erdogan accused Israel of “using the fight against terrorism as a pretext to take Al-Aqsa mosque from the hands of Muslims.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry called Erdogan’s remarks “absurd, unfounded and distorted.”

“The days of the Ottoman Empire have passed,” the ministry said. “Jerusalem was, is and will always be the capital of the Jewish people. In stark

contrast to the past, the government in Jerusalem is committed to security, liberty, freedom of worship and respect for the rights of all minorities.

Those who live in glass palaces should be wary of casting stones.”

Erdogan had said, “Everyone who knows Israel is aware that restrictions on Al-Aqsa mosque are not due to safety concerns,” referring to the metal detectors Israel installed, but has since removed, in the wake of the recent Arab

terror attack that killed two Israeli Druze policemen near the Temple Mount.

Like the Foreign Ministry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called Erdogan’s civil and human rights record into question, wondering what Erdogan “would say to the residents of northern Cyprus or to the Kurds.”

The Turkish leader “is the last one who can preach to Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said.

Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv Holocaust roundup in Paris on July 16. Kamil ZihnIoglu/AFP/Getty Images

They oohed and applauded as Netanyahu delivered the first part of his speech in French, which he speaks with a thick accent and some errors, but understands without requiring translation. And they nodded as he urged Macron to stand with Israel and fight “the cancerous spread of militant Islam” and “hate that starts with the Jews but never ends there,” as Netanyahu defined it.

But their enthusiasm for Netanyahu was dwarfed by the deafening applause they gave Macron when he responded to Netanyahu.

Anti-Zionism and the reinvention of anti-Semitism Addressing Netanyahu, Macron assured the Israeli leader and listeners that “we will continue our fight against terrorism and the worst

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Gaulle “remained silent on the historical truth” about collaboration “in favor of appeasement and reconciliation.”

Macron said he “does not judge” his predecessors who remained silent on the issue.

During his speech, Macron said “It is very convenient to view Vichy as a monstrosity, born of nothing and returned to nothing.” But it is “false.

We cannot base any pride on a lie.” Rather than weaken the French nation, as argued by National Front politicians, admitting its guilt “opened the path to correcting” its faults, Macron said.

Refuting revisionists Speaking about the Vichy puppet government, Macron deconstructed the main revisionist talking points put forward by the French far right led by the National Front party under Marine Le Pen. In April, Le Pen argued that the government’s actions in World War II do not represent France as a nation.

“I reject the attempts to absolve one’s conscious by those who claim Vichy wasn’t France,” Macron said. No other French president had said this in these terms.

L’affaire Halimi Responding to repeated pleas by French Jews – including at the Vel d’Hiv event during a speech by CRIF President Francis Kalifat – Macron for the first time commented on the death of Sarah Halimi, Halimi, a 66-year-old physician, was killed by a Muslim neighbor, Kobili Traore, who shouted about Allah before he killed her. Halimi’s daughter said that Traore had called her a “dirty Jew.” Yet in what CRIF considers a “cover-up,” the indictment filed against Traore last week does categorize the killing as a hate crime.

In his address, Netanyahu counted Halimi among other French Jews murdered in recent years by Islamists.

Macron replied: “Despite the denials of the murderer, the judiciary must as soon as possible provide maximum clarity on the death of Sarah Halimi.” Klarsfeld said it was a strong message that will “probably induce change” in how Traore is tried.

Emotion A rational and analytical thinker with a background in banking and economics, Macron surprised many of his listeners with the apparent intensity of his intonation and body language during the speech.

“Above all, the speech was special for his palpable emotion,” Horvilleur said.

Vision Like many others Horvilleur, the Liberal rabbi, was “deeply moved” by Macron’s remarks at the end of his speech about how the children deported from Vel d’Hiv informs how he views his role as president.

Children “who wanted to go to school, graduate, find work, start a family, read, watch a show, learn and travel,” he said. “I want to tell those children that France has not forgotten them. That she loves them. That their tragic fate demands of us never to give up to hate, rancor or despair.”

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Join with women worldwide in giving tzedaka at the auspicious moment of lighting Shabbos and Yom Tov candles the rebbetzin’s legacy

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“Never before in the history of the Jewish people have thousands of women joined together week after week to light Shabbos candles, pray for each other, and give charity as a distinct group.

—Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky

kinds of fanaticism,” adding: “So yes, we will never surrender to the expressions of hatred; we will not surrender to anti-Zionism because it is a reinvention of anti-Semitism.”

Articulated in recent years by Emmanuel Valls, a former prime minister of France, Macron’s statement was the first time an incumbent president in France equated anti-Zionism – a fairly popular sentiment in France – with anti-Semitism. It triggered several emotional yelps from the audience and applause so vigorous, it caused the tarp strung up over the monument plaza for security reasons to vibrate.

There was another wave of applause when, unusually, Macron and Netanyahu hugged publicly after Netanyahu’s speech.

Deeper, farther Much of Macron’s speech was devoted to establishing France’s complicity in the murder of 25 percent of its Jewish population during the Holocaust and deconstructing apologist views on the subject.

Speaking plainly and avoiding metaphors, Macron sounded less like a politician than a historian or a prosecutor who is committed to factual accuracy.

In the first admission of Holocaust culpability by a French president, Jacques Chirac in 1995 said that “Frenchmen, the French state assisted the criminal folly of the occupier,” resulting in a failure to uphold the nation’s values and an “irreparable crime.”

And Francois Hollande in 2012 said the roundups were a “crime committed in France,

by France.”

But the Macron address delivered Sunday “was a precedent-setting speech that went deeper, on a pedagogic level, than addresses that preceded it by French presidents,” said Serge Klarsfeld, a historian and one of France’s leading researchers on the Holocaust.

Macron’s speech was the first presidential address that named individual collaborators who helped the Nazis kill Jews, including René Bousquet, a police chief who was indicted for planning the Vel d’Hiv roundups, but died in 1993 before his trial.

“France organized the roundups,” Macron said. “Not a single German participated.” And so France “in almost every aspect organized the death” of the victims.

More jarringly to many French ears, he said the collaborationist Vichy government “was not replaced overnight” by the free French government that succeeded it after the country’s liberation in World War II. “Ministers, civil servants, police officers, economy officials, unions, teachers” from the Vichy government were all incorporated into the Third Republic that replaced it, Macron said.

By touching on France’s perceived failure to purge itself of collaborators and their legacy, Macron differentiated himself from all of France’s presidents after Francois Mitterrand.

Klarsfeld praised Macron for pointing out how Mitterrand and postwar leader Charles de

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By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA PARIS — It wasn’t the first time that a French president acknowledged his nation’s Holocaust-era guilt, but Emmanuel Macron’s speech on July 16 was nonetheless groundbreaking in format, content and style.

Delivered during a ceremony at the Vel d’Hiv Holocaust memorial 75 years after French police officers rounded up 13,152 Jews there for deportation to Nazi death camps, the 35-minute address was the centrist Macron’s first about the Shoah since he won the presidency in May. Here are six significant ways that the address differed from those of previous French presidents, including in scope; the unusual role played at the event by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; its references to present realities, and Macron’s emotional delivery.

Monsieur le Premier Ministre It was the first time that an Israeli head of state attended the annual commemoration for the Vel d’Hiv deportations of July 16-17, 1942, named after the Velodrome d’Hiver stadium that used to stand near the monument.

Netanyahu was invited despite objections on Muslim websites, by the Communist Party and the party of the far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon — although the invitation came from the CRIF federation of French Jewish communities and not by the Elysee Presidential Palace, as reported by some French media. The Elysee, which organized the event, did not object publicly to Netanyahu’s attendance and facilitated it.

The arrival of Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in a motorcade whose limousines sported gold-fringed Israeli flags electrified the predominantly Jewish audience of 1,200 people.

Holocaust survivors in their 80s and 90s approached the monument railing to catch a glimpse of the Israelis as others reacted with thunderous applause.

THE JEWISH STAR July 28, 2017 • 5 Av, 5777

Why Macron Shoah speech was groundbreaking

7

Menashe: Rare on-screen view of Hasidic Judaism Raview by Jane Hanser, JNS.org In “Menashe,” which debuts nationally July 28, director Joshua Weinstein has delicately crafted a work that emanates a rarely seen authenticity, tenderness and depth sadly lacking in other mainstream films about Hasidic Jews and their communities.

A Hasidic father named Menashe, who works long hours in a small grocery store in Brooklyn, struggling to make ends meet, has lost his young wife Lea to illness. Their sole child Rieven, an adolescent, has also become suddenly bereft of his beloved mother. Anchored against the resulting father-and-son relationship is Aizek, Menashe’s former brother-in-law and Rieven’s uncle, a successful but arrogant property owner who seeks custody of the boy to raise him in his own family.

This heart-wrenching triangulated scenario could play out anywhere. But this is Borough Park, home to numerous Hasidic groups, a world unknown—and also misunderstood and misjudged—by many. Filmed on location, this engrossing exploration of love, grief and devotion pulses to the heartbeat of the Hasidic community and its many nuances.

In Menashe’s particular community, children must be brought up in a home with a mother, meaning that following his wife’s death, Menashe faces a choice between finding a wife or giving up his son, or violating the community’s tradition.

In the film, spoken almost entirely in Yiddish (with English subtitles), Weinstein sheds layer after layer, and reveals a profound humanity.

The real-life story of the unpretentious Menashe Lustig, who loosely portrays himself in the film, inspired this main character.

Hasidic father Menashe and his son Rieven in the film “Menashe.”

Lustig is a grocer from New Square. Except for Menashe’s Hispanic co-workers, all of the actors are Hasidim, most of whom have chosen to remain unnamed in the credits. Rieven is portrayed by a boy from London who was learning in an American yeshiva. The casting choices are instrumental to the film’s authenticity.

As Lea’s first yahrzeit approaches, the conflict over custody heats up, framed by the swirling, towering flames of the night’s Lag B’Omer street bonfires, around which the Hasidim have gathered to celebrate, dance and sing.

Menashe is defiant that he can be responsible for his son, but the harder he tries to prove his worthiness, the more goes wrong, and the more rebuke and humiliation the

Federica Valabrega

principled Menashe is subjected to. We empathize.

Simple affection from Menashe’s adoring son provides him respite from all these pressures, while Rieven’s candor and innocence may be all the struggling Menashe needs to be able to reflect, and to become the father his son longs for.

Menashe’s humble walk-up apartment where Rieven, the Rav, Aizek and several other men have come to share in the yahrzeit meal, complete with “bachelor-proof kugel,” provides the setting for the dramatic climactic scene. Up close and personal, crisp editing masterfully evokes the tension—and high stakes—of this meal. With humor and drama, the community has its proudest moment.

From the brilliant opening scene of a dis-

pute over the sale of a head of lettuce in the grocery store where Menashe is employed, to the faint sun’s rays illuminating the early morning netilas yadayim or a wordless sunset shared by father and son in the park, the camera’s deft touch pulls us into story after story.

Weinstein calls these “micromoments.”

“I think the whole film is like that…. How does a small moment tell a big story?” the director tells JNS.org in a joint interview with the soft-spoken Lustig.

The many local characters emanate genuineness and a strong on-screen presence.

Aware of the challenges Hasidim face today, Weinstein says he understands that when problems happen, “it’s so easy to leave. … I wanted to make a character that by definition never even thought about leaving.”

Weinstein explains that the goal of Ruben Niborski, who plays Rieven, “wasn’t to be an actor. … He was just a regular boy who was humble, polite and nice, and had no pretenses.”

Lustig and Niborski didn’t know each other when the filming began, so bridging that emotional distance within the film’s storyline comes across as real. Lustig exclaims, “I told [Weinstein] that if you put the clothes of my son on [Niborski], he looks like my son!…The child feels to me very close.”

Soulful music by Zusha, a New Yorkbased Hasidic folk and jazz band, vitalizes “Menashe” with modern wordless niggunim.

The searing melody of a solo violin, scored

by Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist, adds color and commentary throughout the film and heightens the mesmerizing closing scene.

When I ask how Weinstein chose the ending, Lustig doesn’t hesitate to chime in. “My answer is simple—that that’s a real story,” he says, “and the story will continue.”

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amid the expected six-week-long Amtrak repair project at Pennsylvania Station that Gov. Andrew Cuomo dubbed the “summer of hell.”

“We believe this is not only a viable option but a very welcomed option,” Miller said. “The ferry would alleviate the frustration of a longer commute for a lot of people.”

In their letter, Kaminsky and Miller noted the possibility that the repair project could extend into 2018, and that the East Side tunnel project could be just as disruptive as the current work, if not more so. They said they would like to see ferry service established for the long term, and that they had reviewed several potential locations. “While many Long Island commuters have expressed to us an interest in a ferry, real plans for one on the South Shore have yet to be proposed,” they wrote. “It is time this changes.”

The MTA responded that it does not operate any permanent ferries to Manhattan. The Rockaway ferry is run by the public NYC Ferry system, and the National Ferry Company operates the Glen Cove ferry.

Officials said that there was a lack of usable dock space on the South Shore.

Kaminsky said he understood that creating a ferry service before the summer repair project began was difficult. “I’m asking them to revisit the issue as an alternative mode of transport,” he said, adding that compared with the amount of money being spent to upgrade several LIRR stations — between $5 million and $6 million each — the dredging and construction of the infrastructure needed for ferry service would not be cost-prohibitive.

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By Jeffrey Bessen, Herald Community News Underscoring the need for “dependable and dignified” commuter transportation, state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, Democrat of Long Beach, and Assemblywoman Melissa Miller, Republican of Atlantic Beach, sent a letter to MTA Chairman Joe Lhota last week, urging him to explore locations near Inwood for long-term ferry service to Manhattan for residents of the Five Towns, Long Beach, Valley Stream and other South Shore communities.

“We are asking the MTA to tour prospective docks in Inwood and other areas on the South Shore,” Kaminsky said as he and Miller stood with two commuters near a tributary of Jamaica Bay in Inwood Park on July 23, near where a ferry operated in the 1990s.

Kaminsky noted the early success of the ferry service out of Rockaway, which delivers commuters to Wall Street in 59 minutes, and ferries from Glen Cove that began operating

WE PAY

ShOmeR ShAbbOS

UJA-Federation of New York

Tov B’Yachad – Long Island

supplies for success Too many children start yeshiva without the tools they need to succeed. Tov B’Yachad’s Supplies for Success program is working to change that. Last year, more than 850 backpacks were given to disadvantaged children in our local yeshivas.

Donate, volunteer, anD join us to sort anD assemble backpacks.

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Contact your shul to find out what specific supplies they are collecting. Drop-off bins will be located at the shuls and yeshivas for these items.

Sponsorships: Individual is $180, which will provide 10 filled backpacks to children in need. Your gift represents a charitable contribution. overall Chair: mindy Richenstein • tov b’yachad Chair: Joshua wanderer For more information about getting involved in this community-wide project, contact Irwin Gershon at 516.762.5818 or supplies@ujafedny.org.

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THE JEWISH STAR July 28, 2017 • 5 Av, 5777

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be reading Abbas the riot act. The U.S. should be making it clear that it supports metal detectors on the Temple Mount just as it supports the metal detectors that are in place at the Western Wall, at the Vatican, at leading mosques around the world and in every American airport.

The Obama administration was notorious for its “evenhanded” calls for “restraint” on “both sides,” which was always a code word for pressure on Israel to make concessions that will appease the Palestinians. But appeasement only encouraged and emboldened Palestinian terrorism. The new administration should not repeat this mistake.

Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Continued from page 1 Upholding the “status quo” at this point is the same as saying Israel should remove the detectors and permit terrorists to bring in weapons.

The second part of Nauert’s statement is just as bad. Calling on “both sides to not take any actions that would potentially escalate tensions” is to treat the aggressors and the victims as equivalent. The PA is the side guilty of escalating tensions; it is the PA that Trump should be condemning and pressuring.

Then it got worse. The Middle East Quartet, which had faded into obscurity, suddenly reared its ugly head. The Quartet consists of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the U.S. It cannot issue a statement without the cooperation and approval of the Trump administration. The Quartet’s statement regarding the Temple Mount was to say it was “very concerned about tensions,” and call for a “solution that assures public safety and the security of the site and maintains the status quo.”

No acknowledgement of Palestinian aggression. No condemnation of PA incitement. And, once again, a call for the status quo. This is even worse than the State Department’s comments, because the U.S. is in effect collaborating with the U.N., EU and Russia in pressuring Israel. ow comes the announcement that Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s international negotiations representative, is rushing to the Middle East to seek “a mutually acceptable solution” to the Temple Mount controversy. You don’t seek a “mutually acceptable solution” between a cop and a robber. You don’t seek a “mutually acceptable solution” between a terrorist and his victims.

The solution should not need to be “acceptable” to the PA, because the PA is the guilty party. Instead of remaining silent about the Palestinian riots, the Trump administration should

Tobin Continued from page 1 estinians that the conflict wasn’t over borders or settlements, but something far more basic: a religious war that mandates Arab opposition to the Jewish presence.

This is why the PA goes to such trouble to foment fights at United Nations agencies like UNESCO intended to deny Jewish ties or rights to holy places, even those that are self-evidently proof of Jewish history like the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

This is also why the new security measures are merely the latest pretext for Arab violence intended to make the point that Jews should not merely have no say over the Temple Mount, but have no right to be there at all.

The demonstrations and threats of more violence are just one more power play intended to remind the world that the only solution Palestinians will ultimately accept is one in which the Jews are excluded. So long as this is their goal, it isn’t Al-Aqsa that is in danger, but any hope for peace.

N

Detectors win support

By Rafael Medoff The here is a broad consensus among American Jewish leaders in support of Israel’s use of metal detectors to intercept terrorists on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations “supports taking the necessary and appropriate steps to assure security for all and to protect the sanctity of these holy sites,” the umbrella group’s executive vice chairman and CEO, Malcolm Hoenlein, told JNS.org.

Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement, said, “If the authorities responsible for security feel certain measures are necessary to meet their responsibility to protect those who visit for prayer or as respectful visitors, it is no different than security considerations at the Vatican, at the [U.S.] Capitol or any other significant location where public access is permitted under applicable law.”

“In a world where security measures are being enhanced in major gathering places, it’s only surprising that the Temple Mount didn’t have such measures until now,” American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris told JNS.org.

“The terror attack last week, in which two Israelis were killed, is a tragic reminder of why metal detectors are needed for the safety of all visitors and personnel.”

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) and B’nai B’rith International are taking similar positions.

“It is not the presence of metal detectors that leads to violence, rather the unrelenting incitement to violence on the part of the Palestinian Authority that does not cease,” said Betty Ehrenberg, the WJC’s executive director for North America. “In the interest of protecting the safety and security of all visitors to the Temple Mount and in keeping the peace at the holy site, the metal detectors need to remain in place, as they are at the Western Wall and in many sensitive

and holy places around the world, including Mecca and the Vatican.”

B’nai B’rith International said in a statement provided to JNS.org that the Israeli government “cannot look the other way in the face of acts of violence, especially in light of the killings of its police officers. Metal detectors are one way, used globally, to keep the public safe. There may be other methods, as well, but doing nothing is not an option.”

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has not taken a position on the issue, but several prominent Conservative spiritual leaders are speaking out in favor of the metal detectors.

Writing from Israel, Neil Cooper of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, near Philadelphia, pointed out that not only do many Israeli malls and restaurants have metal detectors, but in addition, “When one enters the Western Wall Plaza, one is required to pass through metal detectors. It is expected, anticipated and reasonable.” Cooper said he was surprised to learn that metal detectors have not been used on the Temple Mount until now.

“It should be welcomed by everyone who abhors violence and will impede those desiring to harm others,” he said.

Even among dovish groups there was support.

Dr. Michael Koplow, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), told JNS.org, “IPF’s position is that metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount are a commonsense and relatively unobtrusive way to protect the safety of both Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount and its environs, and that erecting them does not alter the site’s status quo.”

Americans for Peace Now agreed that “security measures are obviously necessary at this spot,” although the organization added that it “reserves judgment on the specifics of the security tools utilized in Jerusalem’s Holy Basin.”

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By Gabe Friedman, JTA Renting a house in the Italian countryside and eating loads of pasta is about as blissful a vacation as they come. For the three Anati brothers — who did just that in 2013 — such a trip is a reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust.

The aim of the brothers — Bubi, 77; Andrea, 85; and Emmanuel, 88 — was to reconnect with their past.

The Anatis were raised in an upper-class family in Florence. In 1942, just before the deportations of Florentine Jews to Auschwitz began, the family escaped the city. They fled from village to village and eventually settled in a forest near Villa a Sesta, a town some 50 miles from Florence. With the help of locals, their father dug a cave — and the family lived underground, literally, for several months during the winter of 1944 until the end of the war.

The family then moved to Israel, where the brothers have lived ever since.

“Shalom Italia,” an hourlong documentary directed by Tamar Tal Anati (Bubi’s daughterin-law) that aired this week on the PBS series “Point of View,” follows the brothers’ return to Italy in an attempt to find the cave and seek some closure about those dark years. The affable trio treks through the forest, meets with members of a family that helped them survive and, since this is Italy, eats plenty of pasta along the way.

The true joy of this sweet film, however, is the authentic camaraderie of the brothers and their cultivated passion for Italian culture.

Bubi, who worked for years at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, is the youngest and most earnest. He’s the guiding force behind the trip because locating the cave was something he had wanted to do for years.

The Anati brothers, from left, Emmanuel, Andrea and Bubi.

Andrea, an oceanic physics researcher, is a whimsical goof — he frequently whistles, hums and introduces himself to strangers — in great physical shape for an octogenarian.

Emmanuel — his brothers affectionately call him “Meme” (pronounced “may-may”), and sometimes “Meme mio,” or “my Meme” — is an internationally renowned archaeologist.

He is the most serious of the three and has no desire to relive his Holocaust memories, having long pushed them out of his mind. But Meme agrees to the trip to satisfy Bubi.

On screen, the brothers’ personalities don’t exactly clash — they do, however, lightly bump up against one another. They bicker over which room to eat dinner in, when to leave the rented house in the morning and which path to take to find the cave in the forest. But the banter

during the Holocaust.”

Meme ruffles at the remark, saying that while Andrea enjoyed his youth, he was forced to grow up quickly.

At another point, Bubi says he cannot eat or even get close to sardines. He realizes that he feels this way because the family ate sardines during the war.

Ultimately the film is a testament to how memories are filtered through our attitudes and experiences, even the desires of those around us.

“It was very interesting to see that when you confront someone else, your memory starts to change,” Tamar Tal Anati told JTA from her home in Tel Aviv. “[And] to see how memory reconstructs itself.”

Tal Anati had been married to Bubi’s son for years, but was not aware that her father-inlaw and his brothers were Holocaust survivors.

When Bubi told her about the planned trip to the Italian countryside — and she learned of the cave and the reason for the journey — she felt compelled to film it.

“I was fascinated by the fact that each one of them has a completely different memory of the same event,” she said. “And I was curious to see how they would deal with the physical and mental challenge of this journey.”

Tal Anati noted that for decades, the brothers did not even think of themselves as true Shoah survivors. But since the filming of “Shalom Italia,” which helped them reckon with the memories of that long-ago winter, they do now.

“Our character and the way we see life is the result of the memories we hold,” she said. “And once these memories change, we change.”

“Shalom Italia,” which aired on July 24 on PBS can be streamed online at pov.org, through Aug. 26.

Tamar Tal Anati

is more endearing than whiny. One particularly humorous debate occurs over whether the brothers brought toy bows and arrows with them when they fled Florence — Andrea insists they did, Meme calls him ridiculous.

In spite of its charm, “Shalom Italia” does not glaze over the serious history underpinning the story. The film’s lighthearted tone goes hand in hand with the brothers’ ghosts from the war. They have interesting conversations about the nature of memory over mouthwatering meals.

In one memorable scene, Andrea says he remembers their years on the run fondly — for him it was an adventurous time that brought together the entire family.

“We lived in the woods, played Robin Hood and collected mushrooms,” he says. “I had fun

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Perfect newborn pic hid something terribly wrong

By Daniella Levy, Kveller via JTA The composition is exquisite: my firstborn, Hallel, maybe a week old, is lying on his back on a striped felt blanket next to his grandpa.

They are gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. Such a tender moment.

Only, we later learned, Hallel wasn’t actually gazing at anything.

He was completely blind.

We had no idea.

Hallel was born at a birth center in central Israel — a threeweek-early, quick and easy birth. I felt like I won the lottery. He Daniella Levy was tiny at 5 pounds, 8 ounces, but he seemed completely healthy. The pediatrician who checked him shortly after the birth was impressed by his muscle tone (I could have told her that months before!) and pronounced him healthy. We took him to my parent’s house just in time for Shavuot.

In the two months that followed, Hallel seemed to be developing normally. At six weeks, the well-baby care nurses waved a pen in front of his face and said they thought he was tracking. The pediatrician checked him that same day and said there were just two things that concerned him.

There was a “click” in his hip joint, so we

he can see well enough to function normally in school (with some assistance with reading and extra support from a team of visual, speech, occupational and other therapists).

For months after his initial surgeries, maybe years, I found it too painful to look through the photos I took of him in those first three months. The dramatic irony was too overwhelming. I felt a crushing sense of guilt for not knowing. As if I could have known — a brand-new, wide-eyed 22-year-old mother — and as if knowing could have made any real difference to Hallel’s vision.

Over time, I learned to forgive myself, and even to see those first three months as a blessing. I had three months to get to know Hallel without the shadow of visual impairment and medical issues looming over us, without needing to figure out how to relate to him as a baby with special needs, or a baby who wore glasses (!). For those three months he was just a baby. Just my Hallel. In retrospect, I am grateful for that brief oasis of ignorance.

Daniella Levy is an Orthodox Jewish mother of three, rabbi’s wife, writer, translator, selfdefense instructor, bridal counselor, black belt in karate and certified medical clown. Her debut novel, “By Light of Hidden Candles,” is now available for pre-order in advance of its October release by Kasva Press. She is also the author of “Letters to Josep: An Introduction to Judaism,” and she blogs about Judaism and life in Israel at LetterstoJosep.com.

after our return.

We joked with him about him being hysterical and a hypochondriac by proxy, but underneath it all, the moment he said something, I knew he was right. There was something wrong. I had never seen what the wellbaby nurses had claimed to see. Hallel did not seem to track objects with his eyes, nor did he focus on them. His eyes sort of wandered around, and most important, I never felt like he was actually looking at me. He never looked into my eyes. My relatives tried to reassure me and I tried to take comfort in their reassurances, since I knew there was nothing to be done about it at that point anyway.

When we did finally get back home and take him for the appointment at Hadassah, my dad’s intuition was confirmed. Hallel had bilateral congenital cataracts. He hadn’t been able to see a thing since before he was born.

Now that he was almost 3 months old, he was just on the edge of the window after which his optical nerve might start to atrophy from the lack of stimulation. He needed emergency surgery to remove the cloudy lenses from his eyes.

And so, one week later, at 3 months of age, we brought him to the operating room for the first time.

The rest is a long history of medical procedures, issues and therapies. Long story short, Hallel is now 8 years old and is doing fine. He had artificial lenses implanted last year, and

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should get an ultrasound to rule out hip dysplasia. And for some reason, the doctor was unable to attain a positive result on the “red reflex” test in the baby’s eyes — something he said he had never come across. The doctor said it could simply be that Hallel’s pupils constricted very quickly. Either way, he recommended coming back another day to try again or taking him to an ophthalmologist.

We took care of the hip thing; the eyes thing got lost in the shuffle. After all, the nurses said he was tracking, right? And we were dealing with so much anyway: Over the course of the next two weeks we contended with my husband coming down with swine flu and developing pneumonia, then Tisha B’Av, then preparing for a trip to America to show off our precious new addition to the family. The red reflex thing didn’t seem all that urgent.

We first noticed something might be wrong when my dad was standing with us in line at the airport. My dad is a physiatrist who specializes in neurological rehab; there was something about the movement of Hallel’s eyes that raised a red flag for him.

He thought long and hard about whether to say anything — he didn’t want to ruin our trip, and we would be gone for about a month — but he finally wrote to us a week or so later to express his concern. He offered to schedule an appointment at the pediatric ophthalmology clinic at Hadassah Ein Kerem for shortly

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16

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Find more recipes at TheJewishStar.com/category/food/browse.html • Send your tasty comments to Food@TheJewishStar.com

Finding bacon flavors at fine kosher restaurants sic non-kosher flavor profile — and yes, the ‘bacon’

By Rachel Tepper Paley, JTA with the OU we use is crispy and beautiful, but in the end, it’s Tuna poke nachos marinated Hawaiian style. really just about appreciating the wonderfully perLightly smoked duck breasts with quinoa and turfectly ripe tomato,” he said. “I feel very blessed to be nips. Hormone- and antibiotic-free USDA prime andoing what I’m doing.” gus steaks.

Naysayers should order the porchetta sandwich, The kosher restaurant scene today has come a he suggested. Traditionally made with roast pork, long way from the pastrami sandwiches and matMike’s Bistro treats veal like porchetta and serves zah ball soups of old (though you can still get those, it in a sandwich with sticky peach puree, another too). Now more than ever, kosher fine-dining opclassic flavor pairing for pork. It more than stacks tions abound for observant Jewish consumers lookup against its non-kosher namesake. ing for a great restaurant experience.

Envying those kosher airline meals: In New York, the cutting edge of the kosher Isaac Sabag of Borenstein Caterers world, a few innovative chefs are pioneering the When Issac Sabag first began hearing the stories way. Here are four star chefs whose creations are from friends about airline travelers jealously eyeing definitely worth a night out, a stop on your next visit their fellow travelers’ kosher meals, his ears perked to New York or a bite on your next flight. up. As the CEO of the New York-based Borenstein Bringing non-kosher flavor Caterers, Sabag oversees production of kosher meals profiles to kosher cuisine: for almost every major airline in the United States.

Michael Gershkovich of Mike’s Bistro Something curious, he sensed, was afoot.

Michael Gershkovich’s chef-driven eatery in Mid“Let’s say you don’t eat kosher. You get your town Manhattan is ruled by seasonal produce and high-quality ingredients. Packed most days with Cuisine at top-flight kosher restaurants has come a long way from the pastrami sand- meal, and the religious Jewish people get the koBen A. Pruchnie/Getty Images for Sainsbury’s sher meal,” he said, retelling a story he has heard Jewish and non-Jewish diners, Mike’s Bistro is a wiches and matzah ball soups of old. time and again. “The kosher meal looks better than great restaurant that just happens to be kosher. foie gras, scallops. He traveled, working through kitchens in the regular meal the airline serves because it comes “I am so humbled when I look around,” GershCalifornia’s Napa Valley and Hawaii, tasting everything along shrink-wrapped. It looks special, with a special label. Nobody kovich said with a grin amid a bustling dining room.

Gershkovich could not have imagined such a scene de- the way. But home beckoned, and he knew that to truly rep- touches it, so it seems more hygienic. Those people say, ‘How cades ago, when he was a bright-eyed yeshiva kid in Brook- resent his culinary ethos, any restaurant he ran would have come we paid for the same ticket, but he got that and I got lyn. Born in Rome and raised in Flatbush in a religious house- to be kosher. Mike’s Bistro is certified by the Orthodox Union. this’?’”

“My world is kosher,” he said. “My friends are kosher. My Sabag sensed a business opportunity. hold, Gershkovich’s first language was Yiddish, and he grew father is kosher. I’m still a Yiddish-speaking Jew. I have HaSabag sees a future marketing kosher meals to non-kosher up expecting a life of study. consumers, particularly in institutional settings where the But the seeds of an alternative life path were planted in sidism in my bones.”

Using the skills and knowledge of flavors gleaned from regular meals don’t have the best reputation, such as schools, his mother’s kitchen.

“My mother made me hot meals every day,” Gershkovich years of study in the non-kosher world, Gershkovich resolved hospital cafeterias or prisons.

“I believe in kosher food,” Sabag said. “I see opportunity said. “Other kids were eating peanut butter-and-jelly sand- to translate them to a kosher audience.

Consider one of his newest menu items, a salad based on to grow in this area.” wiches; I was eating savory French toasts. Cereal with milk wasn’t exactly how I started my day— I ate a warm bowl of a classic BLT sandwich. Instead of bacon, Gershkovich crisps Meat on his mind: up veal or lamb charcuterie, giving it pancetta-like flavor and Joey Allaham of The Prime Grill polenta.”

Joey Allaham knows meat. Born to family of kosher Those early flavors instilled in him a deep, abiding love consistency. But the tomatoes are the star: perfectly sweet of food, and Gershkovich’s tastes and willingness to experi- and flavorful, and bolstered with shaved Vidalia onions and butchers in Damascus, Syria, Allaham came to New York with dreams of getting away from the family business. But ment grew. At the Culinary Institute of America, he fell in a spicy garlic aioli.

See Bacon flavors on page 17 “The attraction might be the fact that it’s a BLT — a claslove with all manner of non-kosher foods — suckling pig,

Some of America’s top cheeses are going kosher

By Ben Hartman, JTA with the OU It’s early morning in the Sardinian countryside and a farmer is milking his sheep while a mashgiach, the kosher supervisor, looks on. The mashgiach is sleeping in the farmer’s barn, and he’ll be there all week.

Welcome to the world of kosher cheesemaking.

The weeklong kosher cheese run in Sardinia is just one of a number of methods that artisanal kosher cheesemaker Brent Delman, owner and founder of The Cheese Guy, uses to manufacture products for kosher consumers who have developed a taste for fine Italian cheeses.

“I like to partner up with the most authentic suppliers of non-kosher cheese and see if we can replicate it. This requires flying in Jews from mainland Italy and bringing them to Sardinia to watch the milking of the sheep,” said Delman, an Ohio native, explaining that many of the farmers he works

Judy Joszef who’s in the kitchen

Judy’s off this week

with have never met Jews before the mashgiach shows up to inspect their operation.

The incongruous sourcing partnerships are a sign not only of the complexity of kosher cheese production, but also of the growing taste among kosher consumers for artisanal cheeses and greater cheese variety.

A number of mainstream cheese produc-

ers have begun large-scale kosher cheese production in recent years. In 2015, the Kraft subsidiary Polly-O generated excitement among consumers when it began producing Orthodox Union-certified kosher string cheese, undercutting the existing kosher competition significantly on price. Wisconsin’s Lake Country Dairy, a subsidiary of

Schuman Cheese, has been making millions of pounds of kosher Italian-style Parmesan, Asiago, Romano and mascarpone for about a decade. Smaller artisanal cheesemakers, like the Seattle-based Beecher’s, are also making kosher versions of their flagship cheeses.

Many hard cheeses use rennet, an animal byproduct, in production and therefore are not kosher. To be certified as kosher, hard cheeses not only must use synthetic rennet, but all the equipment and ingredients must be kosher and a mashgiach has to supervise the production.

Until recently, kosher Danish blue cheese and fine parmigiana were almost impossible to find; likewise for Brie and other fine soft cheeses. But with the market for kosher products growing — studies show that in addition to the burgeoning Jewish kosher market, many non-Jews prefer kosher because they associate it with increased cleanliness and healthfulness — increasing numbers of cheesemakers are getting into the kosher market. ypically, rather than convert entire facilities to kosher production or keep kosher supervisors on site year-round, large companies will do a special kosher run — perhaps once a month, or in some cases for a few hours each day. During the kosher campaign, non-kosher production is shut See Top cheeses on page 17

T

Bacon flavors...

José Meirelles never dreamed of opening up a kosher restaurant. Meirelles doesn’t keep kosher. He isn’t even Jewish.

A Portuguese Catholic immigrant to New York trained at the former French Culinary Institute, Meirelles first made a name for himself as one of the forces behind Brasserie Les Halles, the long-running French restaurant once home to Anthony Bourdain. Seeing the restaurant’s runaway success, Meirelles’s lawyers — who were Jewish — approached

Top cheeses...

Continued from page 16 down, all relevant equipment is cleaned, and rabbinical supervisors oversee production.

“Take a cheddar cheese company in Vermont, where the good cheddar comes from,” said Rabbi Abraham Juravel, the supervisor of technical services for OU’s kosher division.

“They’re not going to pay a rabbi to stay there whenever they make cheddar cheese — it’s too expensive. They’ll make a run once or twice a year with a rabbi present, and then they can market the cheese from those days as kosher.”

While the availability of less expensive cheese has been a boon to observant families, greater culinary sophistication in the Orthodox community is also having an effect on the dairy market, according to Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, a dairy expert in the OU’s kosher division.

“People want more variety. Their tastes have become more sophisticated,” he said.

This trend is of a piece with American consumers generally, where in recent years consumers have developed a taste for artisanal foods, locally sourced products, craft beers and other high-quality offerings. U.S. retail sales of natural and specialty cheeses reached $17.4 billion in 2015, an increase of 4.1 percent since 2011, according to a report

by Packaged Facts.

Cheese consumption is rising, too: In 2016, Americans consumed 5.35 million metric tons of cheese, a 7.6 increase from 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For the major cheese producers like Kraft, economies of scale means that prices for kosher-certified products can be similar to nonkosher cheese. Not so for smaller companies, which typically charge a premium for kosher cheese to cover the costs of kosher production and certification. Products made with

cholov yisroel, reflective of a more stringent level of kosher preferred by some strictly Orthodox consumers, can be two or three times as pricey as non-kosher cheese.

Until about a decade ago, the kosher cheese world was like the kosher wine market 30 years ago: There were the basics, but little for the discerning connoisseur, according to Delman, The Cheese Guy. Just as fine kosher wines from Israel replaced the ubiquitous Manischewitz at kosher dinner tables, fine kosher cheeses are also now commonplace, he said.

Delman’s production shows the challenges of small-scale, fine-cheese production.

For example, to manufacture a beer cheddar he is producing in cooperation with a dairy farm in Vermont, Delman first must arrange for kosher supervisors to accompany him to the facility. They clean the lines and check that all the ingredients are kosher; only then does production start.

Cheeses like Swiss and feta are made in brine, which must be kept separate from non-kosher cheeses. Because most facilities don’t have extra brine tanks, Delman has to bring his own brine and cheese molds, further driving up costs.

“All of my products are small-batch artisanal productions, so the challenge of the kosher fees automatically makes the product more expensive,” he said.

Rabbi Juravel says mass production is particularly difficult when it comes to cheese, so kosher cheese will always be something of a challenge. But it’s worth it.

“Cheesemaking is an art,” Rabbi Juravel said. “There’s science behind it, but it’s an art.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Orthodox Union.

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José Meirelles of Le Marais

him with an idea: Why not create a kosher version of Les Halles?

“I was skeptical from the beginning,” Meirelles recalled. “I could not use butter for the meat! We had to close Friday and Saturday!

All the good stuff. But ultimately we decided it would be a good idea.”

Fine-dining options for kosher patrons, his lawyers told him, were few and far between.

Le Marais opened in 1995 as a near copy of Les Halles, right down to the font on its menu. But translating classic French fare to a kosher audience required some creative thinking.

“In the beginning it was very challenging because we had a way of doing things,” Meirelles said. “In my mind, you finish the sauces with butter, or use some pork fat or smoked pork. I really had to work to come up with solutions for things.”

Outside the kitchen, working with suppliers also presented significant challenges. In 1995, the kosher ingredients available to Le Marais “were not good,” he said. Even finding something as simple as French mustard was a headache.

But he was able to work out the kinks, and diners noticed. Today, Le Marais is one of the most popular kosher restaurants in New York. Last year, the restaurant sold about 400 steaks a day, which translates to 800 pounds of beef. But competition is much steeper than it used to be.

“It’s not like 10 years ago — there are a lot of good kosher restaurants opening up,” Meirelles said. Not that he minds.

“I think it’s good,” he said. “It forces us to be better.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Orthodox Union.

THE JEWISH STAR July 28, 2017 • 5 Av, 5777

Continued from page 16 it wasn’t long before he realized meat was his destiny.

“I always liked raw beef,” he said, describing a predilection stretching back to early childhood. “Everyone else ate it well done, but the second you’d throw it in the fire, I’d want to eat it. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.”

He started a wholesale business for caterers in Brooklyn, all the while plotting to open his first restaurant. In 2000, he opened The Prime Grill, a high-end steakhouse on Madison Avenue catering to the expense-account set.

A devoted clientele followed. In the ensuing years, Allaham would open several more eateries, including a chic, glass-enclosed rooftop restaurant in a hotel, Prime at the Bentley, a kosher gourmet butchery and bakery called Prime Butcher Baker, and the pizza-and-panini joint Pizza Da Solo. Highprofile guests have included such celebrities as Madonna, Bono, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crystal, Amar’e Stoudemire and Evander Holyfield. After a 2012 meal at Prime at the Bentley, singer Ricky Martin told Tablet, “I couldn’t believe the food was kosher. It was all so good.”

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Modern day foxes roaming the Temple Mount tehilla r. goldBerg View from central park

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n these days leading up to Tisha b’Av, the Temple Mount issue is coming to a head. Under the cover of “holiness” and of “worship” at a place so sacred, murder was committed.

Two Israeli policemen were fatally shot by Muslim terrorists feigning worship at what to Muslims is a holy site and to Jews is the holiest site, Har Habayit or the Temple Mount.

The two Israelis were Druze Arabs, our brothers and sisters in destiny. In a sense, I consider them a part of Am Yisrael. Anyone who throws their hat in with the Jewish people, who serves Israel so loyally, and who tragically has to pay the highest price to be in Israel — we are one with them.

In one of the sad dirges, the kinot, we murmur on Tisha b’Av, recalling the destruction of the ancient Holy Temple, there is a phrase,

Ben Cohen Viewpoint

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eorge Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire, has all the makings of a character in a Hasidic fable.

Here is a man distrusted by many of his fellow Jews, and despised by quite a few of them.

A man who sees no moral contradiction in funding the forces for an “open society” in Eastern Europe, while giving at the same time to leftwing lobby groups advocating for a diminished relationship between the U.S. and Israel, the single sovereign open society in the Middle East.

A man who values only the “universal” in Judaism and cares little for the “particular.” Soros himself said in a gushing 2003 profile in The Forward that universalism is “the major reason why Jews have made such great contributions. I consider that to be the Jewish genius.”

Yet here is a man who has been, and remains, the target of a vicious strain of anti-Semitism in his native Hungary.

The dilemma this presents goes something like this. One the one hand, there shouldn’t even

“If a priest or a prophet shall be murdered on the Mountain of G-d (Har Habayit)…” When I heard the terrible news, this was the verse that entered my mind. Although not literally true, two protectors of Israel were murdered on the Mountain of G-d; so in a sense they are the modern prophet and priest in the tragic story echoing a precedent from thousands of years ago.

I mull over verses from the book of Isaiah, and I wonder, which verses would be the ones Isaiah would utter today? n Jewish tradition, the Temple, or the altar, is a place reserved for holy worship and service. Even to use it as a place of refuge from death is frowned upon. A temple is not an asylum city, an ir miklat, not a space that can be used to protect an unintentional killer from revenge. In the book of Kings, when Yoav was running away from those in hot pursuit he finds his way to the altar. He grabs onto its horns as a way of protecting himself. No, tradition teaches. A holy place is not used in conjunction with loss of life. The altar is the inner circle in concentric circles of holiness; there are spatial limits on such places.

Not that murder is ever OK, but paying at-

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tention to the irony of adding salt to the wound by committing the worst act in the holiest place is part of the Jewish message and teaching.

Last week, Arab terrorists used a holy site cynically. A place of prayer became a place to store lethal weapons — all under the watch of The Waqf, the Muslim authority responsible for the Al Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount in accord with the compromise Israel negotiated with Jordan after Israel won back East Jerusalem in the Six Day War (a “compromise” that in fact ceded Jewish rights of prayer at this holy site). he Talmud paints a picture of the utter desolation and destruction of the Temple (“foxes roam there”), utterly lacking its former glory. Now, modern day foxes certainly were roaming there, before our very eyes.

Consequently, metal detectors were put in place for anyone entering the site. Which begs the question as to why this obvious security measure was not in place up until now — as it is for all Jews entering the plaza of the Western Wall, not to mention many other public places in Israel.

The only people inconvenienced by this increased security measure are Muslims, who,

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Fable of George Soros be a dilemma in the first place — as a matter of principle, Soros should be defended from antiSemitism, particularly when for many Hungarians the name “Soros” has become a synonym for “global Jewish financier.” Hungary’s Jewish community, among others, is firmly in this camp.

On the other hand, there are those who do not believe Soros is worth more than a perfunctory protest, that Israel’s bilateral relationship with Hungary is what matters and that much of what is being presented as “anti-Semitism” doesn’t really fit the description. Prime Minister Netanyahu, who just visited his counterpart Viktor Orban in Budapest, falls into this camp as do, I suspect, many American Jews on the political right who regard violent Islamism as a far more consuming threat than the backward-looking, identitarian nationalism that has spread through much of Europe.

To my mind, this doesn’t have to be a zero sum game. To begin with, there is no reason to be soft on Orban. While careful not to sound anti-Semitic himself, he keeps around him many influencers who are, like the journalist Zsolt Bayer, and he positively revels in the nationalist

militarism of Hungary’s recent past. For Orban, the wartime dictator Miklos Horthy was a figure of noble tragedy, upon whom anti-Semitic policies were imposed from the outside.

Such rewriting of history is unremarkable in the nationalist environs of Eastern Europe — the Poles, the Lithuanians and the Serbs, among others, all do the same. It is why we should be suspicious of what Orban says. But it also explains why—despite Hungary’s emergence as an independent state free of Soviet domination—Orban feels a greater sense of fraternity with brutish dictators like Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Vladimir Putin in Russia, than he does with Germany’s Angela Merkel or France’s unfashionably cosmopolitan Emmanuel Macron. evertheless, a realist might say that while the rewriting of history spits upon the dead, it doesn’t kill the living. Netanyahu clearly calculated that a billboard showing the grinning visage of Soros, alongside the exhortation not to “let him have the last laugh,” wasn’t enough of an offense to prevent cooperation with Hungary on those matters upon which he and Orban are

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unlike the rest of us, were allowed unfettered access to the Temple Mount.

Yet, while I strain to hear the calls of condemnation for the horror perpetrated at the Muslim Al-Aksa mosque, instead the anger has been over the newly implemented security measure, an anger carried to the extreme of Muslims making a show of refusing to enter Al Aksa through the newly secure entrance, instead prostrating themselves in prayer just outside of it. That’s in addition to their “Day of Rage,” an attempt to fan the flames for a third intifada.

In sum: Two Israelis are murdered in what is considered a Muslim holy site, and the anger is not about the murder, not about responsibility, not about rectification, but about weighing the merits of a (belated) security measure.

How outrageous and infuriating! Yet, sadly, not surprising.

These are among the core issues that must be addressed in light of this terrible tragedy.

Related to this is the Temple Mount conversation that Jews must engage in, to which I turn next week.

Copyright Intermountain Jewish News in agreement — like closing Europe to further streams of mainly Muslim refugees from the blooddrenched conflicts in the nearby Middle East.

I do not believe the Soros issue was worth the price of a major disagreement between Israel and Hungary. But I’m also aware that there is a tendency in pro-Israel circles to sometimes think in binary opposites: If Orban isn’t among the European enemies of Israel, then he can only be a friend of the Jews.

The reality is that Orban isn’t much of a friend. When the U.S. launched airstrikes against Assad regime targets in Syria, the pro-Orban (and therefore pro-Russian) press in Hungary moaned about its disappointment with President Donald Trump. One pro-Orban commentator opined that Assad’s use of chemical weapons was a fiction like Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, which was hardly the Israeli conclusion. As Israel faces up to the growing threat posed by Iran on its own borders, who would put Orban in the frontline of Israel’s European defenders?

As for Soros, the next time something like this happens, I would ask his detractors — among whom I count myself — if Soros is being targeted as a man or as a symbol. Even if there is a trace of the former, it’s the overwhelming presence of the latter that should keep us healthily skeptical.

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19

July 28, 2017 • 5 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

20

SHAbbAT STAR

‫כוכב של שבת‬

Parsha Devarim

Candles 7:56, Havdalah 9:04

Read The Jewish Star’s archive of Torah columns at TheJewishStar.com/category/torahcolumns/browse.html

Connecting with G-d, neighbors, families, ourselves Rabbi binny FReedman The hearT of jerusalem

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isit Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust museum, and wander off to the paths behind the plaza dedicated to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and you will come across an actual cattle car, one of the many used by the Nazis to transport hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in the infamous concentration and death camps across Poland.

Engraved on the bannister opposite the box car is a powerful poem (by Dan Pagis) that was found written in pencil in a railway car: Here in this carload I am Eve With Abel my son If you see my other son Cain son of man Tell him I… Whenever I see this poem, in that place, I am always moved by its abrupt ending. What would Eve (mother of humanity she say if she were able to finish her sentence? What goes through the mind of Eve along with that of her son Abel (as in Cain and Abel) enroute to their slaughter? And where was Cain, representing the rest of humanity? his week we begin the fifth and final book of the Torah with the reading of the parsha of Devarim, literally the words of Moshe.

This book is also called Mishneh Torah, which means a repetition of the Torah. Moshe

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The cattle car monument at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Designed by Moshe Safdie it is also known as the Memorial to the Deportees.

Andrew Shiva via Wikimedia Commons

shares his farewell soliloquy with the Jewish people — specifically the second generation of Jews, mostly born in freedom in the desert and about to enter, at long last, the land of Israel.

This parsha is always read on the Shabbat before the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av, when we commemorate the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem (by Babylonians in 586 BCE and by Romans in 70 CE). Many suggest a connection between the parsha and the ninth of Av is a verse which bears a striking resemblance to the first verse of the book of Lamentations (Eicha) which we read on Tisha B’Av: “Eicha esah levadi’; tarchachem u’masa’achem, ve’rivchem?” (“How can I bear on my own your trouble, burdens and quarrels?”) (Deut. 1:12) This verse, describing Moshe’s apparent frus-

tration with the Jews’ constant complaints, begins with the same word that both begins and ultimately names the book of lamentations: Eicha — a word that cries of how and why, and expresses an inability to come to terms with a painful reality beyond comprehension. This word Eicha has come to personify the pain of Tisha B’Av. Jewish tradition notes that this is not the first place we find this word, or at least these letters. When G-d responds to Adam’s eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he begins by calling out, “Ayekah?” (“Where are you?”) (Bereishit 3:9) Made up of the same letters as the word eicha, it is essentially the same word. So what is the connection between “where are you?” and “how does the city (Jerusalem) sit all alone?”

(Lamentations 1:1). Perhaps the root of destruction and being so alone begins with the question of where we are.

From the 17th of Tammuz until the ninth of Av, we mourn the destruction of the Beit ha’Mikdash on Tisha B’Av. But why is our focus on mourning and not teshuva (repentance)?

Indeed, Maimonides (Hilchot Teshuva 6:1) makes it clear that we are meant to view all such calamities as a response to the iniquities and transgressions of our generation; additionally, the Talmud describes the transgressions of the generation that led to the destruction.

Indeed this process of teshuva begins soon after Tisha B’Av when we enter the month of Elul and approach Rosh Hashanah and then the ten days of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur. But why do we mourn first.

Consider especially that Maimonides implies that one must immediately repent to avert such calamity. And Maimonides points out that although a consequence may be well deserved, teshuva can avert disaster. hen we were in Poland I heard a story of five postcards and one little boy named Chenyo.

When the Nazis invaded Poland on Sept 1, 1939, little Chenyo was starting his first day of first grade. His uncle and aunt had made Aliyah before the war and soon received a lovely postcard from little Chenyo describing his first day of school and how exciting it all was.

Not long afterwards they received a second postcard from the family describing their efforts to leave Poland and immigrate to Palestine. At the end of the letter the father adds that they are all together and are all Ok. But no one is excited any more.

See Connecting on page 21

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Finding the context before rushing to a judgment Rabbi avi billet Parsha of The week

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s the history of the Israelites in the wilderness is reviewed in Devarim, an interesting trend is presented. The nations of Eisav, Moav and Ammon are treated as closer than brothers with Israel.

In each original story of Eisav and Lot (father of Moav and Ammon) there is a word with dots over it, with the common theme perhaps being that while the real story is not very nice, the Torah is trying to be polite about it.

In Lot’s case, as the child Moav was conceived, we have the word u’vkumah — expressing Lot’s lack of awareness of his daughter’s incestuous choice with him, due to his being drunk. Some suggest he was actually quite aware, as hinted by the wink the dots send our way.

Eisav’s threat to kill Yaakov is thrown to the wind when he greets his brother with a kiss after over 30 years apart. The Midrash comments on the dotted word vayishakayhu (and he kissed him), indicating the kiss was far less innocent than it seemed, that he meant Yaakov harm.

In sum, each word is harmless, but the dots indicate that something sinister lies beneath the surface. nd yet Moshe tells the people in our parsha, Devarim, that these people were to be treated very nicely by the conquering army of Israel. Why? We can argue that the children of Lot were

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harmless — what their father did bears no reflection on them. But there’s an insincerity in all three nations that strikes G-d the wrong way. “I hate Eisav” says G-d in Malachi 1:3. Moav is in disfavor in Midrash Aggadah Bamidbar 24, where it is noted that in the end of days, G-d will judge Moav for their role in the plague that killed 24,000 Israelites, as Balak took Bilaam’s advice to set up brothels, instructing the Midianite women not to service the men they entice unless the men agree to worship idols.

The respect we are to give to them teaches that the Jewish people have the responsibility, as well as the innate ability, to forgive.

Even those we hate. Because Eisav has a backstory of how he was hurt, and Moav has a backstory of how they became adversaries of Israel But it’s very hard.

Each time there is a terrorist attack in Israel, especially in a home, on Shabbat, my own feelings of rage lead me to think and express ideas which are not pretty.

It usually takes someone living in Israel — who cites the context, the facts on the ground, the reality — to remind me that the situation is not black and white, and that jumping to whatever conclusions my emotions lead me to has no practical side to it.

I don’t forgive individual terrorists or terrorist funders and supporters. But to suggest that any narrative has a simple solution is naïve.

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n many ways the Jewish people have moved past hatred. After 2,000 years of murderous hatred by Christians, many Christians are the biggest supporters of Israel and of the Jewish people. Israel has diplomatic relations with Germany, and grandchildren of Nazis are even proud Jews, some of whom serve in the IDF. Last year Prime Minister Netanyahu released a video claiming he cares more about Palestinians than their leaders care about them, as Israel regularly sends food, medicine, supplies, aid, etc., while Palestinian leaders abscond funds and use supplies to fill terrorist coffers.

I don’t understand the concept of sinat chinam (baseless hatred), which is ascribed as the reason for the destruction of the Temple. Hatred is based on a lie, a false pretense, or a misunderstanding.

On the Talmudic text (Yoma 9) that discusses baseless hatred, Netziv explains (Meromei Sadeh) says it is the kind of hatred that leads to murder.

If murder often has a motive, it isn’t baseless, even if unjustified. So perhaps the “baseless” could be reinterpreted to the modern term “random” — just because. In other words, it is a kind of shigaon, a mental illness.

Those who randomly kill others — in a movie theater, in a shopping mall, at a Friday night dinner — are motivated by some craziness that justifies their action in their own minds.

in witnessing horrible behavior, our distaste may be unjustified, because we don’t know the whole story.

Murder is certainly an extreme. But the Netziv explains, “When the person sees his friend committing a sin, he doesn’t judge it saying the person is motivated by lust or desire, but because he is anti-G-d and deserves to die.” Largely, the Jewish people are not vigilantes, killing sinners. And I have no sympathy for murderers or terrorists, all of whom, in my view, deserve to die the minute they take an innocent person’s life.

But beyond that, when we see another’s behavior that we find distasteful or even wrong, how do we react? While distaste isn’t baseless, it is unjustified, because we don’t know the whole story. There is much more to the totality of an individual than the snapshot in time that gives us our first impression. re-Tisha B’Av we often hear that the antidote to baseless hatred is ahavat chinam, baseless love. But it’s never baseless because it follows the examples of the great Ohavei Yisrael, the models of loving Jewish people.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe saw Jews at different levels of observance and not in terms of labels and camps. Shlomo Carlebach saw every Jew after Hitler and Communism as a miracle.

How many of us can say we just love all our fellow Jews, period? And why should we? Because he and she is our fellow Jew. Sometimes it’s extremely hard.

But if we can treat Eisav, Moav, and Ammon nicely, and if the realists in Israel today can continue to say “we want to get along with our Arab neighbors,” and in many cases they do, then certainly we can find a way to try to see the context of others’ existence before rushing to judge.

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Jerusalem tales: Seven gates to the city Kosher BooKworm Originally published July 16, 2010 very week now for the past half year there seems to be no letup in the growing quarrels between the diverse groups within the Orthodox Jewish spectrum and non-Orthodox Jews.

These seemingly petty disputes, over time, have evolved from rhetorical battles to physical ones, and have served to sully our image and create a public desecration of our faith.

In the books I was reading prior to my trip to Jerusalem this month I came across a volume by one of our faith’s leading interpreters, Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Feldman. Titled “Tales Out Of Jerusalem” (Feldheim, 2010), this book contains a series of short essays, organized into seven sections, dealing with the gamut of issues facing us today. Rabbi Feldman seeks to give the reader a rational and responsible opinion on issues others fear to

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learning involves: many luxuries and comforts are happily surrendered in order to maintain such dedication. But within their world, is there also room for genuinely pious and learning people who also work, earn livelihoods, and have university degrees?”

However, Rabbi Feldman also gives the following as a retort to those who seek to bash the kollel mindset: “They [the chareidim] have a charismatic leadership, a consistent ideology, they are intensely Jewish, they sacrifice,” Rabbi Feldman writes. “There is a purpose in their lives, spiritual strength, sanctity, self-assurance — and these have attracted many Jews under their umbrella.”

These observations, while not the final answer to the communal disputes that have bedeviled us of late, help frame a dispassionate discourse for the establishment of peace and tranquility as well as mutual respect among the diverse groups within our faith.

Absent from Rabbi Feldman’s observations and words of advice are personal attacks, demeaning characterizations and di-

Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Feldman

visive images that further help to inflame an already incendiary situation.

It behooves us at this time of year to take Rabbi Feldman’s wise words to heart and to learn from them that there is balance to communal diversity, that disagreement in terms of theology and intensity of practice should not invite heresy hunting.

Sinat Yisrael should have no place in public parlance and that the Ahavat Yisrael learned from the pages of Rabbi Emanuel Feldman should be reflected wherever Jews live.

Justice for the orphan, plead the widow’s case rAbbi dAvid etenGoff

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his week’s haftarah for parashat Devarim is taken from the first chapter of Sefer Yeshayahu. As befitting the Shabbat immediately before Tisha b’Av, much of its message is very dark and filled with powerful rebuke: “You [the Jewish people] shall no longer bring vain meal-offerings, it is smoke of abomination to Me; New Moons and Sabbaths, calling convocations, I cannot [bear] iniquity with assembly. Your New Moons and your appointed seasons My soul hates, they are a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing [them]. And when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you, even when you pray at length, I do not hear; your hands are full of blood.”

The phrase, “I will hide My eyes from you, even when you pray at length,” is particularly frightening, since it represents a period of hester panim, i.e. of Hashem hiding Himself from His people. Sadly, the Torah warned us long before Isaiah’s prophecy that this would be the case if we would serve other gods and forsake Hashem: “And the L-rd said to Moses: Behold, you are [about to] lie with your forefathers, and this nation will rise up and stray after the deities of the nations of the land, into which they are coming.

And they will forsake Me and violate My cove-

Connecting...

Continued from page 20 Three months later they get another postcard from their brother, Chenyo’s father, explaining that they have been moved to the ghetto and that they are all ok. But no one is talking about getting to Palestine any more.

A few months after that they receive another postcard and Chenyo’s father explains they have just arrived in Maidjanek, but he and Chenyo are together and Ok. There is no mention of the rest of the family any more.

A short while later they receive one more postcard in which the father describes that he is in the post office at Maidjanek and he is ok. But there is no more mention of Chenyo.

And after that there are no more postcards.

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nant which I made with them. And My fury will rage against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them. … And I will hide My face on that day (v’anochi hastir astir panai ba’yom hahu), because of all the evil they have committed, when they turned to other deities. (Devarim 31:16-18) Clearly, the remedy against the hester panim depicted in this passage is to reject every form of avodah zarah (idol worship) and live lives based upon heartfelt loyalty to Hashem and His Torah. Isaiah, however, focuses upon a different approach to ending hester panim that is infused with the recognition of the existential plight of the disenfranchised among our nation, and the fundamental elements of social justice: “Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, and plead the case of the widow.” (1:17) saiah was acutely aware of the manifest vulnerability of orphans and widows, and the continuous psychological dangers they encounter. As such, he focused upon their marked need for justice and protection in, far too often, harsh and uncaring environments. In so doing, Isaiah echoed powerful pasukim in Sefer Shemot that demand equitable treatment for society’s most endangered members: “You shall not oppress any widow or orphan. If you oppress him, [beware,] for if he cries out to Me, I will surely hear his cry.” (22:21-22) Job, as well, emphasized the singular import of protecting the Jewish community’s downtrodden, and therefore, proclaims his upright behavior: “For I would deliver the poor who

cried out, and the orphan, and one who had no one to help him. The blessing of the lost one would come upon me, and I would make the widow’s heart sing for joy. I put on righteousness and it clothed me; like a coat and a turban was my judgment. (Iyov 29:12-14) Given the above-cited sources, it is little wonder that the Rambam (Maimonides) codified our obligations to orphans and widows in his magnum opus of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah: “A person is obligated to show great care for orphans and widows because their spirits are very low and their feelings are depressed.

This applies even if they are wealthy. We are commanded to [show this attention] even to a king’s widow and his orphans as is [implied by the text] “You shall not oppress any widow or orphan.” (Shemot 22:21, Hilchot De’ot 6:10) At this juncture, Maimonides addresses how we should act toward orphans and widows in order to demonstrate the requisite degree of sensitivity: “How should one deal with them? One should only speak to them gently and treat them only with honor. One should not cause pain to their persons with [overbearing] work or aggravate their feelings with harsh words and [one should] show more consideration for their financial interests than for one’s own.…

“There is a covenant between them and He who spoke and created the world that whenever they cry out because they have been wronged, they will be answered as [the text] states: “for if he cries out to Me, I will surely hear his cry.”

(Shemot 22:22)

s noted by Rashi in his gloss on Shemot 22:21, the obligation to speak to people in a sensitive manner and treat them with honor and dignity applies to everyone — not just the orphan and widow. If so, he asks, why are these individuals so prominently singled out for exceptionally solicitous treatment? The Mechilta, the halachic Midrash to Shemot, informs his answer: “Since they [widows and orphans] are weak and [they] are frequently oppressed.” In sum, the Torah urges us to be sympathetic to the psychological needs of all people, and, all the more so, those within society who are most likely to suffer at the hands of others.

We are now in a much better position to understand Isaiah’s exhortation to “Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, and plead the case of the widow,” and why it is such an apropos verse immediately before Tisha b’Av. Isaiah knew that in order for our people to authentically reconcile with the Almighty and create a spiritually infused relationship with Him, we must change our behavior toward the most defenseless members of our nation. No one, proclaimed Isaiah, regardless of their personal status (i.e. orphans and widows), should ever be marginalized or treated as second-class members of the Jewish people, for, in truth, we are all holy before the Master of the Universe.

With Hashem’s help and blessing, may we live lives in accordance with Isaiah’s crucial message, and may this be our final Tisha b’Av before the imminent arrival of Mashiach and the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash. V’chane yihi ratzon.

What struck me about this story was how all alone this father must have been at the end of his life, and how painful it must have been to contemplate all he had lost. erhaps we err in assuming that mourning is separate from teshuva, while maybe it is the essence of what the beginning of teshuva is all about. Maimonides says quite clearly (ibid. 1:1) that the first stage of teshuva is to recognize our mistake (hakarat hachet) which is followed by regret (charatah).

Ultimately the terrible consequence of our chet (transgressions) is that we become distant.

Whether a person’s transgression was stealing from or embarrassing his fellow human being, idolatry or adultery, the greatest pain of such transgressions is that we become distant, disconnected. When Adam and Eve ate from

the tree, they were banished from Eden and become distant from G-d. And when we transgress, we become distant from our loved ones and the people we have harmed.

This is precisely what happened when the Jewish people sank to such a morass of unethical behavior in the period of the Second Temple; the consequence ultimately was the destruction of the place that was the ultimate symbol of our connection with Hashem; we became disconnected. In mourning, we are yearning for a time when we were so much more connected, and we are recognizing the pain of how disconnected we still are.

If human beings can be put in cattle cars while the world carries on, then we are completely disconnected as a people from the world around us whom we are meant to influence.

And this pain, this mourning, this realization of what we have lost is critical to recognizing how far we have to go and how much we yearn to get there which is the resulting next step in teshuva: the long journey home.

We live in a disconnected world — from nations that wish to see us isolated, to the disconnection we experience among ourselves as a Jewish people and often even the disconnections and strife we experience in our communities and families.

Perhaps this Shabbat with all of the pain this past week has brought, we can all make an effort to become a little more connected: with our loved ones, with our communities and the Jewish people, with G-d, and maybe even with ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

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tackle, and he does so with both charm, wit, and firmness in tone.

While tied to Jerusalem, the book deals with issues that transcend both the geographic and as spiritual confines of the holy city.

One example is an essay originally composed in 2005 and deemed contemporary enough for the good rabbi to include in this volume.

It is to this essay that I wish to center my review for its content both speaks to the issues of today and represents all the eloquence to be found in this brilliant anthology.

“Ready to be Orthodox but no place to go” reads like a heartfelt plea for sanity in the ongoing disputes between the Modern Orthodox community and the Charedi community.

Rabbi Feldman gives candid observations of both the faults and strength’s that are to be found within these diverse groups. Each group is given their due as to the sincerity of their motive and purpose. The group’s devotion to faith is not questioned, rather he questions their actions and the sincerity of those actions.

Rabbi Feldman’s frankness is refreshing.

Consider the following observation: “I fully appreciate the sacrifice that full-time kollel

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The JEWISH STAR

CAlendar of Events

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Zachary Schechter Wednesday July 26

Achiezer Financial Seminar: Achiezer will be presenting a financial seminar at the Machon Basya Rochel Seminary in Lawrence. The program is open to both men and women and admission is free. Speakers will cover topics on investing, credit cards and more by speakers who are all experienced in the field of finance. 7 to9 pm.

137 Lawrence Ave, Lawrence. RSVP at mkeilson@ achiezer.org or 516-791-4444 ext.113.

Rib-Stickin Siyum: Colel Chabad hosts a siyum and BBQ at the home of Shanie and Shaye Hirsch. 7:30 pm. 523 Albemarle Rd, Cedarhust.

RSVP 718-774-5446.

Thursday July 27

Iyun Tefilah: [Weekly] Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhust. 9:45 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhust.

Esther Wein: [Weekly] Join Esther Wein, renowned lecturer and speaker, at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst as she offers words of Torah and spiritual insight. 10 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhust.

Women’s Halacha Shiur [Weekly] with Mrs. Michal Horowitz for a parsha class at the Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:30-10:30 am. 516295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Halachos of Coffee: [Weekly] Join Jonah Steinmetz for at the Young Israel of Woodmere for a shiur for men and women on the topic: All You Need to Know About Your Cup of Joe. 8 pm.

516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Sfas Emes on the Parsha: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst for a shiur on the parsha with thoughts and insights from the great rebbe and thinker, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leb of Gur. Following Mincha-Ma’ariv. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhust.

After 9 days, Fleishfest is Priority-1

By Zachary Schechter On August 2, Priority-1 supporters and meat lovers in the Five Towns will celebrate the end of the nine days at the fifth annual Fleishfest.

The Cedarhurst gathering serves to raise funds and awareness for Priority-1, an organization founded in 1987 that works to assist with educational challenges facing the Jewish community. It hosts seminars and training programs for both teachers and parents in an effort to identify problems in the educational system and address them to avoid disenfranchising children.

Fleishfest V will once again feature authentic, Texas-stlye grilling by the Wandering Que, which is providing an 18-foot grill with a continuous supply of premium meats. Additional attractions include a

Gemarah Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff for a gemarah shiur at the Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:15 am. 516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Life and Times of Great Torah Personalities: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Shay Schachter for a men and women shiur. 9:30 to10 am. 516295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

wine tasting, whiskey infused cigar rolling, a sushi bar, and carving stations.

This year will also mark the first Fleishfest King of the Grill BBQ Competition, presented by Elan Kornblum of Great Kosher Restaurants. Teams will compete to cook the best steak, burger and a surprise dish and the winners in each category will receive gift cards to local restaurants.

Sponsors for Fleishfest include Gour met Glatt, Northway Equities and DJ Associated Architect, Pc. Fleishfest V is organized by Ami Melogn, Shimshi Rosenberg and Ephraim Tennenbaum and Asher Schepansky, who created the BBQ Guys’ Night Out in 2013. It will be hosted at the home of Penina and David Klein, 255 Oakwood Ave, Cedarhurst, starting at 8 pm, rain or shine. Tickets begin at $180. For more information, call 516-295-5700 x104.

Our Lives Through Positive Lenses. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere Contemporary Issues in Kashrus: [Weekly] Shiur with Rabbi Ephraim Polakoff at the Beis Tefillah of Woodmere. 9 pm. 516-3745523. 409 Edward Ave, Woodmere.

Tuesday August 1

Project Witness Movie Screening: Project Witness will be hosting a special screening of their documentary Hidden which details the emotional journeys and harrowing experiences of children who were hidden during the Holocaust. $25 admission fee. YI of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, 8 Spruce Street, Lawrence. 718-305-5244.

Tisha B’Av Community Shiur: Join Rabbin Shalom Yona Weis at Madraigos for a special Tisha B’Av shiur titled “Find the Blessings Among the Ruins.” For both men and women.

5:15 pm. 936 Broadway, Woodmere.

Erev Shabbos Kollel: [Weekly] Join the congregation of Aish Kodesh for an Eruv Shabbos Kollel starting with 6 am Chassidus Shiur with Rav Moshe Weinberger and concluding with 9 am Chevrusah Learning session with Rabbi Yoni Levin. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Guest Lecturer Professor Smadar Rosensweig of Stern College for Women, at the Young Israel of Woodmere. 8 pm. 516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Women’s Halacha Shiur [Weekly] with Gitta Neufeld on Exploring and Appreciating Megillas Eicha. YIW. 9:30 to 10:30 am. 516-2950950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Sunday July 30

Women’s Halacha Shiur [Weekly] with Rabbi Ephraim Polakoff on The Laws of Cooking and Reheating on Shabbos. Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:30 to 10:30 am. 516-295-0950.

859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Yoni Levin at Aish Kodesh for a halacha shiur. 9:30 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Friday July 28

Timely Torah: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov, assistant rabbi of the Young Israel of LawrenceCedarhust, for a shiur on relevant Halachic and philosophical topics related to Parsha Moadim and contemporary issues. Coffee and pastries. 8 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhust.

Learning Program: [weekly] At Aish Kodesh led by Rav Moshe Weinberger following 8:15 Shacharis including 9 am breakfast and shiruim on subjects including halacha, gemara and divrei chizzuk. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Monday July 31

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Dr. Anette Labovitz’s women shiur will continue at Aish Kodesh.

10 am. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Study Maseches Brachos: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf at the Young Israel of Woodmere. 3 to 4 pm. 516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Practical Kashrus Seminar: Join Rabbi Dov Schreier of the RCA for a talk on the ABC’s of Eating Out. 10:15 to 11:15 am. 516-295-0950.

859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Seeing Things Clearly: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Shalom Yona Weis at Aish Kodesh for a shiur for women and high school girls titled “Seeing Things Clearly- Learning to View Our World and

Growing, dynamic Five Towns High School is seeking PT teachers who can both challenge and develop strong relationships with students, in English and AP Biology.

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Wednesday Aug 2

Study Maseches Brachos: [Weekly] Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf at the Young Israel of Woodmere.

3 to 4 pm. 516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Queens Hatzolah: Men’s event in the New York Hall of Science includes a BBQ, a Mordechai Ben David concert, a wine tasting, a raffle, and more. 6:30 pm. 47-01 111 St., Corona.

Queenshatzolah.org/BBQ. Fulton Street Western Rodeo: Join the community for an event in support of Bonei Olam. The rodeo will include a western bbq and music by the Pumpidisa Band. 7:30 pm. 732942-7773 ext 229.

Fleishfest: An all-out barbecue including an 18-foot smoker/grill with a continuous supply of premium meats, a wine tasting, a sushi bar, carving stations, hand rolled cigars and more. Proceeds support Priority-1. Admission from $180. 8 pm.

Hosted at the home of Penina and David Klein, 255 Oakwood Ave., Cedarhurst. 516-295-5700x 104.

Friday Aug 4

Singles Shabbat Nachamu: Join shomer Shabbat singles at the Cong. Bais Tefilah. The Shabbat will include shadchanim, 3 Shabbat meals, group discussions, a motzei Shabbat party and more. $159. 646-529-8748.

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Practical Kashrus Seminar: Join Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz of the OU for a talk on Jaffa Oranges and Other Israeli Products. 10:15 to 11:15 am. 516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Movie Night: Hampton’s Synagogue, in partnership with the Hamptons International Film Festival, presents the films Seltzer Works, Stranger No More, and Starring David, as part of the Westhampton Jewish Film Festival. Free. 2 Brook Road, Westhampton Beach. RSVP 631-288-0534 ext. 10.

Concert by the sea: Young Israel of Long Beach hosts the band Shlock Rock. 8 pm. 120 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach.

Monday Aug 7

BBQ Cook Off: Join the Chabad of the Five Towns for a bbq cook off with master chef Shifra Klein. Chabad members: $25, non-members: $36. 530 Arlington Rd. RSVP 516-295-2478.

Essence of the Soul: Join Rabbi Ari Bergman for a four-part discussion titled The Essence of the Soul & the Five Parts of the Neshama.

Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:15 pm. 516-2950950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Tuesday Aug 8

Women’s Halacha Shiur with Rabbi Shay Schachter on Laws of Muktza on Shabbos.

Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:30 to 10:30 am.

516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Rebbetzin Weinberger of Aish Kodesh will give a shiur on the “Midah of Seder in our Avodas Hashem.” 11 am.

894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Café Europa: Join Congregation of Beth Shalom in partnership with the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC for exercise a light lunch and a lecture. This week: Musical entertainment by Mary Sillito. 12:30 to 2:30 pm. 516-569-6733. 390 Broadway, Lawrence.

Fleetwood Synagogue at Citi Field: Come watch the Mets battle the Texas Rangers and support the Fleetwood Synagogue at the same time.

Tickets will available for a contribution to the Shul of $18 per ticket, and if you buy three tickets, the fourth one is free. To order, please contact rabbirosenfelt@fleetwoodsynagogue.org.

Men’s Halacha Shiur [Weekly] with Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff. 8:10 pm. 516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

World of Reb Tazadok Hakohen: [Weekly] Shiur by Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky at Aish Kodesh. 8:30 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Gemarah Shiur: [Weekly] Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt. Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:15 pm. 516295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Thursday, Aug 10

UJA Summerfest: Gavin DeGraw headlines annual concert, at NYCB Theater, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury. Event begins with cocktails, and features an elaborate buffet, raffles and a silent auction, and concludes with an after party. 6 pm. Tickets from $250. 516-762-5852.

Sunday Aug 13

Practical Kashrus: Join Rabbi Issar Mordechai Fuchs of the OU for a talk on “Proper Checking For Insects in Vegetables.” 10:15-11:15 am.

516-295-0950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Supplies for Success: The UJA will be running a donation drive for school supplies for children who cannot afford them. Collection and packing of supplies will occur in the HAFTR Gym. 33 Washington Ave S, Lawrence.

Movie Night: Hampton’s Synagogue, in partnership with the Hamptons International Film Festival, presents the film “Lea & Darija” as part of the Westhampton Jewish Film Festival. Free admission. 2 Brook Rd., Westhampton Beach.

RSVP 631-288-0534 ext. 10.

Tuesday Aug 15

Café Europa: Join the Congregation of Beth Shalom in partnership with the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC for some exercise a light lunch and a lecture. This week’s topic: “Music: Those Were the Days,” with Janice Buckner. 12:30 to 2:30 pm. 516-569-6733. 390 Broadway, Lawrence.

Muslims and earn more.

The graduation rates and household incomes of American Muslims track with the rest of the country. Like Americans in general, 31 percent of Muslim Americans have graduated college. And a quarter of Muslim Americans earn more than $100,000, similar to the national average. But 40 percent of Muslim households earn less than $30,000 — eight points higher than Americans in general.

Nearly six in 10 American Jews, meanwhile, have graduated college. And 42 percent have household incomes higher than $100,000, while only 20 percent earn less than $30,000.

Muslims are far more religious than Jews, but both say social justice is central.

American Jews and Muslims are particularly different when it comes to religion. While nearly two-thirds of American Muslims say religion is very important to them, only a quarter of Jews

do. A third of Jews believe in God, compared to 85 percent of Muslims who said belief in God is essential to being a Muslim. Nearly six in 10 American Muslims say following the Quran is essential to being a Muslim, compared to less than a quarter of American Jews who say the same about Jewish law.

Four in 10 American Muslims attend mosque at least once a week and eight in 10 observe the monthlong fast of Ramadan. By contrast, two-thirds of American Jews attend synagogue less than once a month and only about half fasted on Yom Kippur.

But there are some commonalities, too. Nearly all American Jews and Muslims say they are proud to be Jewish and Muslim, respectively. And both groups prioritize social justice. Solid majorities of Jews (60 percent) and Muslims (69 percent) see “working for justice and equality” as an essential part of their religious identity.

Jews are more liberal than Muslims, but a higher percentage voted for Trump.

American Muslims responded to Trump’s antiMuslim rhetoric on the campaign trail by voting for Clinton. Nearly 80 percent of American Muslims voted for the Democrat, while only 8 percent backed Trump. By contrast, Clinton earned 70 percent of the Jewish vote, with Trump garnering 25 percent.

But proportionally more American Jews identify as liberal than do American Muslims. While nearly half of American Jews call themselves liberal, only 30 percent of American Muslims do — close to the national average.

But Muslims are trending liberal on at least one issue: A majority believe homosexuality should be accepted in society, compared to just 27 percent who felt that way a decade ago. Fourfifths of American Jews agree.

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By Ben Sales, JTA Since it came out in 2013, the “Pew study” — a landmark survey of American Jewish demographics, beliefs and practices — has been at the center of American Jewish scrutiny and handwringing.

Now it’s American Muslims’ turn.

On Wednesday, the Pew Research Center released a survey of American Muslims focusing not only on numbers and their way of life, but also on how the community has responded to the election of President Donald Trump.

Comparing the two studies shows a Muslim sector in America that is more religious, growing faster and feels more embattled than American Jews. But both groups voted for Hillary Clinton.

Here’s how the Jews and Muslims of the United States stack up.

There are more Jews than Muslims in America, but the Muslim population is growing faster.

Pew found that there are about 3.3 million Muslims in the United States, a little more than 1 percent of the population. U.S. Jews, by contrast, stand at 5.3 million — around 2 percent.

But Muslims, Pew found, skew younger and have higher birth rates. More than a third of U.S. Muslims are under 30, only 14 percent are over 55 and their birth rate is 2.4, slightly higher than the national average. Most American Jews are over 50 and their birth rate is 1.9. While the median age of U.S. Muslims is 35, the median age of U.S. Jews is 50. Americans in general have a median age of 47.

These numbers explain why a 2015 Pew study found that by 2050, American Muslims will outnumber American Jews. While the Jewish population is expected to stagnate at about 5.4 million, Pew predicts that in a little more than three decades, there will be 8 million Muslims in America.

The respective studies also included some data unique to each religion. While there are sharp internal divides between Shia and Sunni Muslims, Pew did not address the question of “who is a Muslim” as it did with Jewish Americans.

The study reported demographic data that may contradict popular American stereotypes of Muslims. Only 14 percent of Muslim immigrants are from the Middle East, while one-fifth are from South Asia. And the plurality of American Muslims — four in 10 — are white.

Only 13 percent of American Muslims are intermarried.

When Pew released its study of the Jews in 2013, American Jewish leaders began fretting about an intermarriage rate of 58 percent since 2000 — and they haven’t stopped. By that measure, American Muslim leaders can rest easy.

Unlike the majority of American Jews, only 13 percent of American Muslims are intermarried.

And the number has declined in recent years: In 2011, the number was 16 percent. The numbers are so low that the word “intermarriage” doesn’t even appear in the survey.

But another statistic shows that American Muslims may be following their Jewish neighbors. Among Muslims born in the U.S., the intermarriage rate is nearly 20 percent.

Most Jews say they don’t face discrimination. Most Muslims say they do.

Another reason for the difference in intermarriage rates could be the discrimination that Jews and Muslims each face in America. Jews, who are more likely to marry outside their group, are also more accepted in America than Muslims.

In an age when Trump the candidate called for a ban on Muslim immigration, the Muslim study focused heavily on Muslim feelings of discrimination and belonging in America. Questions were asked about Islamophobia, anti-Muslim violence, the president, terrorism, extremism and how Muslims feel about being Muslim and American.

The study found nearly half of Muslims have faced discrimination in the past year, and 75 percent feel Muslims face a great deal discrimination in America. But nine in 10 feel proud to be American. Three-quarters of American Muslims say violence against civilians can never be justified, as opposed to 59 percent of Americans in general.

In 2013, most Jews said that Jews do not face a lot of discrimination in America, and only 15 percent personally faced discrimination in the year before the survey.

But Pew’s Jewish study was published three years before the spike in anti-Semitism that accompanied the 2016 election.

Jews graduate college at higher rates than

THE JEWISH STAR July 28, 2017 • 5 Av, 5777

After studying Jews, Pew eyes Muslims in U.S.

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