The Jewish Star 08 01 2014

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Vol 13, No 30 n AUGUST 1, 2014 / 5 AV 5774

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COMMUNITY MEETS AT YILC

By Malka Eisenberg People from all streams of Judaism and non-Jews as well stood shoulder to shoulder in Manhattan’s Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on Monday in a display of unity and support for Israel.

The South Shore Jewish communities were well represented; buses brought participants from many shuls and organizations including the Young Israels of Woodmere and West Hempstead and the Five Towns JCC; others traveled by car and train. Three Zionist Orthodox camps — Moshava, Mesora and MoContinued on page 11

By Malka Eisenberg About 500 men and women filled the main sanctuary of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst Tuesday evening for the completion of the entire Mishna for the shloshim (30th day memorial service) after the murder of kidnapped Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach.

Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum of YILC, who led the community-wide gathering, said that the three boys’ souls “should have an aliyah” noting that they served Hakodosh Baruch Hu and that the tragedy of their blood brought Am Yisrael together.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Blachman, associate rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh, said we look to find answers in tragedies but must live without answers. Despair over loss is natural, he said, and should lead to a return to religious awareRabbi Moshe Teitelbaum ness and priorities.

Jewish Star / Donovan Berthoud Responsive readings of Tehillim 20, 120, 121 and 142 were led by Rabbi Hershel Billet of Young Israel of Woodmere, Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky of the Irving Place Minyan, Rabbi Ari Perl of the Atlantic Beach Jewish Center, and Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz of Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere, respectively.

Cantor Joel Kaplan of Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence sang a mishebairach (blessing) for Israeli soldiers.

Leading up to Tuesday’s shloshim, many people across the communities of the Five Towns contributed learning towards completing the Mishna and Hillel Tuchman read and explained the final Mishna in Uktzin. After the kaddish, a kel maleh rachamim (G-d full of mercy) prayer was recited for the three boys and another for the fallen IDF soldiers.

Rabbi Blachman said that every Jew carries an aspect of G-dliness, each has a mission and is a unique Continued on page 11

Clockwise from top left: Evan Shapiro and Yoni Goldstein of Woodmere; Moshava campers with Madricha Devora Eisenberg of Woodmere at left; time for a selfie; Rachel Kastner (l) and Rachel Dublinsky (r); (left to right) from Lawrence — Aliza Rubin, Dina Rubin, Shevi Perlisky, Tess Barbanel; from Brooklyn — Gabi Popovsky, Meora Weingarten; assistant rabbis Josh Goller YIWH (left), Yakov Trump YILC (right).

Center photo: Bittermans of Woodmere —Yitty, Dr. Yisroel, and Dassa.

Jewish Star photos / Malka Eisenberg Right photos submitted

Oren Or Biton / Tazpit News Agency

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Protecting Israel’s children

A mother protects her baby during a rocket attack in Beer Sheva, where residents have 15 seconds to find shelter when a red alert sounds as missiles from Gaza approach. Shelters are not always available.

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August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Malka Eisenberg The email came July 10 to Rabbi Yotav Eliach, principal of Rambam Mesivta, that the imminent onset of war had come and with the massing of troops an urgent need: tzitzit and siddurim.

Lt. Colonel Rabbi Yedidya Atlas sent the request and it rapidly spread as shuls and organizations in the Five Towns passed on the word for this mitzvah to their members.

Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi (KBYT) in Cedarhurst sent out this email to its members: “As we are all davening for our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael, we have a great opportunity to show hakoras hatov (gratitude) to our brave soldiers and do a wonderful mitzvah as well.”

“There has been a tremendous awakening of teshuvah throughout Israel and especially in the army. Even “not-yet religious” soldiers are asking for tzitzis, the four cornered fringed garment worn to remember all the commandments, and other Torah items.

For safety reasons, the army only allows light weight olive green tzitzis which match the uniforms.”

The email continued that these cost $9 and are under the supervision of Rav Simcha HaCohen Kook of Rechovot and the army rabbinate. A pocket size siddur, encased in a transparent thick plastic envelope designed to fit into the soldier’s fatigue shirt pocket, thin enough to be comfortable under his bulletproof vest, can be purchased for $6.

“This project is ideal, a combination of the physical and spiritual,” explained Rabbi Yaakov Feitman of Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi in Cedarhurst.

Rabbi Feitman pointed out that the Jewish uniform is the Talit (prayer shawl), Tefilin and tzizit. When Israeli soldiers combine these with their military uniforms, “it’s beautiful. It’s an amazing phenomenon that not-yet religious soldiers are getting more religious by the minute; some aged 19 to 25 have never worn it and want it. This has a

Two Israeli soldiers proudly display their new olive green dri-fit tzitzit and plastic encased siddurim.

special component with the spiritual nature; it’s very, very important.”

Dr. Yisroel and Susan Samson of Cedarhurst found out about the need via an email from Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz of Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere and notified Rabbi Feitman. “Everyone wants to do something for the chayalim (soldiers),” said Susan Samson. “It’s important for the yeshivot and shuls to support them physically and spiritually; it gives them chizuk, a psychological boost.

Hashem watches over them for the mitzvah and they feel Hashem more. Even the not frum want the tzitzit — it makes them feel protected.”

“There is an overwhelming feeling of concern for our brothers and sisters in Israel and love for the chayalim who are defending our people,” said Beis Haknesses Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz. “Most of us in chutz l’aretz (outside of Israel) feel helpless and are searching for ways to support our chayalim.” Providing them with support for their “spiritual needs is a privilege and an opportunity we don’t want to pass up,” he said.

Rabbi Atlas said that the military’s rabbinate has been raising funds for 15,000 pairs of olive green “dri-fit” tzizit for combat soldiers; the cost for a combat company is $1,800 and for a full battalion $5,000.

Rabbi Atlas said that he is printing 30,000 copies of the Magen Yisrael Tehillim-Siddur for Combat Soldiers at $1.30 each, but will need to at least double that amount.

The Samsons are organizing a women’s “evening of solidarity and sweat” fundraiser this Sunday, Aug. 3, at Club Central in Cedarhurst.

“I’m the collection point for different sources,” said Rabbi Yotav Eliach, principal of Rambam Mesivta in Lawrence. “It should be a bracha on everybody’s head. Mitzvah goreret mitzvah (one mitzvah leads to another).”

For more information go to afidfr.youngisrael.org.

Volunteers bring warm food, cold drinks, phone charge

By Malka Eisenberg It started in 2004 when David Landau sent pizza to soldiers guarding checkpoints.

As Jews around the world are slammed by anti-Semitism and torn by the attacks on Israel, they are searching for ways to help and show gratitude and support for the IDF. Landau’s Standing Together provides food, drinks, clothes, undergarments and toiletries directly to soldiers at staging areas near the front lines.

Volunteers travel late at night with a truck and trailer equipped with a generator, oven, coffee machine, freezer and cell phone charging station and hand out items that are generally not available at the front. They have also recently added computer and mobile Internet service to the truck, facilitating Facebook and Skype conversations between soldiers and their families.

Miriam Gottlieb, a Cedarhurst native who made aliyah with her husband eight years ago, works out of her home in Neve Daniel in Israel and has been making the rounds in the U.S. Last week, she spoke at a parlor meeting in Lawrence to raise awareness of the soldiers’ needs. “Rabbi Billet (of the Young Israel of Woodmere) has been out with us,” she said.

The Army “provides the soldiers’ basic needs, their budget is life and death focused,” she said. “We provide extra underwear, pillows, dry-fit tzitizit-regular tzitzit disintegrate from sweat.”

“It’s an amazing experience for the volunteers,” Gottlieb continued. “(The soldiers)

IDF soldiers gather by the Standing Together trailer, flanked by two Iron Dome installations. Founder David Landau is second from right.

believe the world doesn’t care about them.

They are very grateful.”

She said she planned this trip to the U.S. after they found the bodies of the boys, hoping to “turn the intense emotion and energy into a positive.”

“The message on this trip is that the only thing protecting us from that hatred and evil

is the soldiers and they need to know we’re with them and that they’re not alone,” Gottlieb said. The cost for sending the truck and trailer fully equipped with supplies is $10,000 a day she said.

Recently a woman wanted to celebrate her husband’s 50th birthday so she sponsored a BBQ for the soldiers instead, she said.

Another effort raised money to provide soldiers with memory foam mini pillows that attach to their backpacks. She pointed out that “the army feels very strongly about not singling anyone out for economic reasons and donations have to be brought for an entire unit or base, so as not to single anyone out.”

For more information go to stogether.org.

THE JEWISH STAR August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774

Shuls in 5 Towns rush tzitzit to front line troops

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Words are so innocent … and so powerful W

ars begin with words, with rantings by madmen and absolute declarations of intolerance. But so many other experiences also begin with words; love is watered with words; forgiveness, hope, prayers From The hearT and peace, all are oF jerusalem grown with words.

This week, one woman’s words touched my heart as she has touched the hearts of an entire nation here in Israel.

Miriam Peretz was a woman you might have passed in the street without a second glance; married with six children, she does rabbi Binny not seem like a source Freedman of towering strength and faith. But Hashem chose her for as great a test as any of us can imagine. She joined the family of bereaved parents when her son Uriel, 22, an officer in the elite Golani recon unit, fell in battle in Lebanon. She experienced the unimaginable when the IDF knocked on her door again in 2010, after operation Cast Lead; to tell her she had lost a second son. Eliraz was 32, an officer in the same elite Golani recon unit and married with four children, when he fell in combat in Aza on the 12th of Nisan, March 27.

How does one even find the words to express the bottomless pit of despair a person must fall into in such a moment? And how does such a person continue to live when,

five years later, her husband Eliezer dies of a broken heart?

Miriam Peretz lives with her words and her incredible faith. And she gives those words, as a gift, to anyone willing to listen.

These last weeks, as once again photos of the fallen fill the news, and Israelis by the tens of thousands flock to military cemeteries to bid farewell to fathers and sons, brothers and friends, Miriam has been traversing the country to visit with the newly bereaved families, hoping to share with them words of comfort and of faith; to share her journey, and the message that we can, we must, go on.

She visited last week with the parents of Max Steinberg, a lone Golani soldier from Los Angeles whose funeral was attended by 30,000 people, almost all of whom had never met Max. They came because he was not just someone else’s brother, son and friend; he became their brother, son and friend.

Peretz told Max’s mother that she has a second home where two of her six children live: Mount Herzl military cemetery.

Every time she visits her second home, she is torn by the question of whose grave she should visit first, which son should she put first? An impossible question. The Steinbergs are headed back to Los Angeles where they live and they need to be there for their re-

maining two children, so Miriam told Mrs. Steinberg that from now on, every time she visits Har Herzl cemetery, she will go to Max’s grave to hug him, and let him and his family know that in this country, a Jew is never alone.

When she visits newly bereaved families whose sons and daughters have fallen, Peretz tells them not to struggle with the question, “Why me?” — because there is no answer in this world to that question. And if they stay in that struggle, with that question, they will slowly die. Instead, she tells them, you must answer the question of why they fell, what were they fighting for? This question, she says, must be answered. And the answer cannot be stam (for nothing), because then, too, you die. his week we begin the fifth and last book of the five books of Moses: Sefer Devarim; literally, the book of words. A strange name for this book of the Torah, seemingly chosen because it is the verse with which the book begins: “Eileh ha’devarim asher diber Moshe el kol Yisrael, be’ever haYarden.“ (“These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel, on the other side of the Jordan.”) (1:1) But the entire Torah is all about words; why was this book the “Book of Words”?

Devarim is presented as the words of

Everything we do, every struggle and every triumph, is our way of becoming a vehicle for good in the world.

T

Moshe, as opposed to the normal verse one finds in the Torah when Moshe speaks the words of G-d to the Jewish people. Yet, we do believe that this book, too, is the word of G-d, as is the rest of the Torah. So which is it — are these G-d‘s words, or Moshe’s?

Many commentaries note that this same word devarim (words) was a central part of Moshe’s beginning, back when Moshe spoke with G-d at the burning bush. Resisting Hashem’s command to redeem the Jewish people, Moshe contends that “Lo Ish devarim anochi” (“I am not a man of words”) (Exodus 4:10).

Yet somehow, he will become the greatest man of words in human history; the five Gd-given books he shared with the world and the words he left us gave birth to three of the world’s greatest religions, and millions of people still read those words daily, three thousand years later.

Perhaps the key to understanding this phenomenon is to note the single most critical part of Moshe’s character, which the Torah tells us not only defined who he was, but how he got there as well. “Ve’haIsh Moshe anav me’od” (“And Moshe, the man was exceedingly humble”) (Numbers 12:3).

Of all the character traits that Moshe possessed, the Torah tells us that his greatest was humility, which is nothing short of incredible. After all, this was a man who allowed himself to argue with G-d! He was clearly the holiest man alive and must have known it. And he single-handedly led an entire nation of slaves out of servitude, defying the mightiest nation on earth. So how does such a man become “exceedingly humble”?

Continued on page 14

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By Deborah Fineblum, JNS.org Of the 228 souls who emerged from El Al Flight LY 3004 on July 22 at Ben Gurion Airport, nearly half were children. By now, those children have already started taking Hebrew classes and experienced the smells and sights of their new homeland, including way too many falafel balls to count.

It might seem that these families could not have chosen a more inauspicious time to become Israeli. The Jewish state’s newest citizens arrived as an Israel Defense Forces ground invasion of Gaza revealed unprecedented numbers of Hamas terror tunnels, and funerals for IDF soldiers — including two American citizens, Max Steinberg of Los Angeles and Nissim Sean Carmeli of South Padre Island, Texas — continued daily.

Yet the arrival of the new olim (immigrants) was remarkably routine. They came on a chartered flight thanks to a collaboration between Nefesh B’Nefesh — which promotes and facilitates aliyah from North America and the U.K. — and the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, and Jewish National Fund-USA. But in other ways, their journey was anything but ordinary. The week during which they arrived saw U.S. carriers canceling their flights due to a Federal Aviation Administration order, while El Al, Israel’s flagship carrier, scrambled to make extra room for the thousands of passengers who had been bumped.

The 29 families and 54 singles onboard flight LY 3004 included new olim planning to live in Israel’s south, a region hit hard by Palestinian rockets for years, and particularly hard in the current conflict.

The entire group of olim was greeted with more fanfare than usual. Among the dignitar-

A happy couple makes aliyah on El Al on July 22.

ies who greeted them at Ben Gurion Airport were Minister of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver, Member of Knesset Rabbi Dov Lipman, Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv Yisrael Meir Lau, and Tony Gelbart and Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, founders of Nefesh B’Nefesh.

“In [the city of] Modi’in, people were opening their homes, shops, movie theaters, and country clubs to the residents of the north,” Debby recalled. “There were handwritten signs up in grocery stores for discounts for people from the north.”

Her husband, Joel, saw the oddly timed arrival in the context of a wedding.

“Making aliyah, you’ve made the decision that you need to be together with Is-

Sasson Tiram

rael and Israelis, so coming here during that war, it was like we’d made our commitment to someone and that person happened to be hurting at the time of the wedding,” said Joel Wine, who arrived eight years ago this month — also a time of war —with his wife and three children, the youngest one 4 months old. “You don’t love them any less; in fact, it just strengthens the bond between you, adding another dimension to the relationship you are growing together.”

For new olim Kalman and Barbara Feinberg, their homecoming was years in the making. When two of their children made aliyah, the signs pointed to their eventual immigration. “But when our third child joined them here that clinched it,” said Kalman. “After a

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while, Skype doesn’t do the trick.”

As for the timing of the Feinbergs’ arrival, he said it is explained best by the recently read Torah portion, Masei.

“When two of the tribes asked Moses if they could settle on the other side of the Jordan, Moses told them, ‘Are you going to sit over here when your brothers fight for the land?’ That’s how we feel,” Kalman said. “I’m also glad we’re here with all our kids and grandchildren, rather than back in the States where we didn’t feel we really knew what was going on.”

While Wine made a wedding analogy, 23-year-old Ilana Barta, from Teaneck, will literally celebrate a wedding to start her new life in Israel. In August, she will marry her Israeli paratrooper commander fiancé, before she starts medical school in the fall.

“I’ve been brought up at home, in school, [and] in camp to believe that this is where we belong. And when you love something, you love it in good times or bad,” she said.

Ido Balely, 18, is proving that love now.

The Rockville, Md., native is going directly into the IDF as a lone soldier this fall. “It’s scary, but at the same time I made a good decision coming here to show that Israel isn’t here for nothing,” he said. “So many people join the army because it’s something worth the sacrifice. When people ask me why, I just explain to them that if I don’t do it, who will?”

Balely’s comments likely ring true for all of the passengers of LY 3004.

“Today’s aliyah flight demonstrates the great resilience of the Jewish people and its determination to build the state of Israel,” Nefesh B’Nefesh’s Fass said July 22. “These olim, who are choosing to move to Israel in these difficult times, are instilling hope, optimism, and strength throughout Israel and the Jewish nation.”

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The extra challenge of making aliyah in wartime

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August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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THIS WEEK’S LUACH

Friday Aug 1 • 5 Av Shabbat Parshat Devarim

Candlelighting 7:53 pm Shabbat ends 8:57 pm 72 minute zman 9:23 pm Shabbat Chazon Tisha B’Av fast begins Mon. 8:08 pm Fast Ends Tuesday 8:53 pm

Getting worse for Jews and Israel?

“That February, in Sarcelles, flaming objects were thrown into the Tiferet Israel School, destroying the building.

In April, at Garges-lesGonesse, firebombs were hurled at the synagogue.

From Nice to Marseille, anti-Semitic mail was delivered. In the offices of CRIF, located in the Fifth Arrondissement several blocks from the popular food market on Ben Cohen, JnS the Rue Mouffetard, an envelope arrived filled with white powder and a message: ‘The biological war against the Jewish lobby has begun’.” hose words could have been written this week. In fact, they come from an excellent piece by Marie Brenner on the subject of anti-Semitism in France, published by Vanity Fair in 2003.

I revisited Brenner’s article after several readers asked me whether, a fortnight into the latest Israeli defensive operation in Gaza, “we” — as in diaspora Jews and the state of Israel — are now in a new, and much deadlier, situation. Part of the trigger for this question is the realization that within the confines of liberal and left-wing opinion, historically a political home for Jews, contempt for Jewish fears of anti-Semitism and detestation of Israel as a state is becoming the norm.

It’s true that with each war, our predicament appears to get worse. If you go all the way back to 1956, when Israel joined an Anglo-French military attack on Nasser’s Egypt, the outpouring of anti-war sentiment in western circles did not lead to the demonization of Zionism. In both 1967 and 1973, Israel’s wars for survival generated a great deal of support among progressive Europeans and Americans.

But by 1982, when Israel was at war with the PLO in Lebanon, that had changed. The image of Israel as a brutal aggressor, and as the inheritor of Hitler’s legacy, a favorite theme of Soviet propaganda, started to win traction. Then as now, the extremes of left and right came together to confront “the Zionist State.” Going through my archive of literature on anti-Semitism, I came across the headline “anti-Zionists of the world unite and fight!” That could easily have appeared in a left-wing newspaper, but the source, in fact, was Nationalism Today, a neo-Nazi rag published by Britain’s National Front, in a vIewPOInT

T

comment on the Lebanon war.

Moreover, in the years preceding the war in Lebanon, we witnessed the enthusiasm with which young leftists outside the Middle East embraced Palestinian terrorism— spurred by such abominations as the claim that “Zionism is racism,” enshrined in a laterrescinded U.N. resolution of 1975.

There was the Japanese Red Army attack on Ben Gurion (then Lod) Airport in 1972, in which 26 civilians were murdered. There was the hijacking, in 1976, of an Air France jet carried out by young Germans from the Red Army Faction terrorist group—once they landed in Uganda, then under the heel of the dictator Idi Amin, these same young Germans turned into Nazis, separating the Jewish from the non-Jewish passengers. There was the abominable 1982 bombing of Jo Goldenberg’s, a kosher restaurant in Paris, as “retaliation” for Israel’s operation in Lebanon. Six people were killed in that attack, which one magazine noted was “the heaviest toll suffered by Jews in France since World War II.” So, as the French might say, is this a case of “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?” (“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”) Are we seeing another spike of anti-Semitism and Israel-hatred that will die down once a cease-fire deal is reached in Gaza?

To begin with, those hatreds don’t just simply disappear in times of quiet. They percolate below the surface, occasionally arising in the

form of an atrocity like the murders of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012. And when Palestinians intensify rocket attacks on Israel, so does the opprobrium against Jews and Israel intensify and multiply, as we’ve seen these past few weeks.

But there are two aspects of the current situation which suggest that circumstances are changing—and not for the better. First, a stalemate in Gaza—which I define as Hamas remaining in power, because Israel, despite all the accusations of war crimes, is reluctant to deploy overwhelming military force to defeat the terror group—will keep alive the notion that Jews and Israel are at the center of the world’s ills. Secondly, mob violence against Jews in Europe is now a real threat.

From Berlin to The Hague to Paris, many of those attacking communal institutions and chanting “Death to the Jews!” are likely to continue these attacks after a cease-fire.

Many might even head to the Middle East, to join the jihadi organizations that were behind the Toulouse attack and the recent gun assault on the Jewish museum in Brussels.

All that said, I don’t foresee an apocalypse anytime soon. But if we want to emerge from this current round of conflict with confidence, we as a community will need to conduct a thorough audit of the impact of Operation Protective Edge inside and outside the Middle East. And that means not shying away from the necessary conclusions—most obviously, the importance of communal self-defense.

Glossary for Operation Protective Edge I

srael’s Operation Protective Edge began on July 8 and, thanks to the misrepresenting of facts and the twisting of the meaning of certain words by the mainstream media and some in the Obama administration, it’s hard to follow the story. So to help you understand what is being presented by our leaders and reported in our mainstream meJeff Dunetz dia, here is a glossary for the Operation Protective Edge newspeak. Below are terms you may think you know, but their meanings have changed because of the conflict in the Middle East.

Bomb Shelters: The media is always quick to mention that Israelis have bomb shelters but POLITICS TO GO

people in Gaza don’t. That is 100% true. But they don’t mention that instead of using their cement for shelters, Hamas used their cement to make tunnels.

But: A favorite of President Obama’s as in, “I support Israel’s right to defend itself, but…”

Sometimes the “but” is silent, either way this administration does not like to defend Israel without trashing it in the next sentence. Most recently the “but” has been used to slam Israel for civilian casualties.

Civilian Casualties: Whenever one speaks about the tragic deaths of Palestinian civilians, most mainstream news organizations (and the White House) do not allow discussion of Hamas use of human shields causing many of the civilian casualties.

As Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer said on CNN last week, when their reporter didn’t mention Hamas rockets found in UN schools during a report about the UNRWA school that was bombed: “That’s correct. That’s publicly available

information. It’s kind of an important fact for your reporter to mention. And in addition to that, he may have wanted to mention a statement made not by the Israeli ambassador, not by a spokesman of the IDF, but by the UN Secretary General yesterday. And I want to read you what he said yesterday, not last year, yesterday. He said this, “The Secretary-General is alarmed to hear that rockets were placed in an UNRWA school in Gaza and that subsequently these have gone missing. He expresses his outrage, and regret, at the placing of weapons in a UN-administered school. By doing so---” now listen Erin to exactly what he says, “By doing so, those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children, UN employees working in such facilities, and anyone using the UN schools as shelter.”

Perhaps Dermer didn’t know talking about possible human shields is against the rules.

Cycle Of Violence, Tit For Tat: AnContinued on page 14

7 THE JEWISH STAR August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774

LOUD AND CLEAR. This week, we mobilized 15,000 New Yorkers, including hundreds of Five Towns residents, to say with one voice: We stand with Israel.

But words are not enough. We back our words with action.

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Two days after they returned to America, the Skiddells —Julie, Elliot and Sarit — attended Monday’s rally in support of Israel. Elliot Skiddell is spiritual leader of Rockville Centre’s Beth Emeth Synagogue.

Family visit in Tel Aviv waylaid by Gazan war

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August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Rebecca Melnitsky Rockville Centre Herald Elliot and Julie Skiddell were eating dinner with their daughter in a Tel Aviv restaurant when an air raid siren went off.

“It’s not an unfamiliar sound to us because we lived in Israel for quite a while,” said Skiddell, spiritual leader of Rockville Centre’s Beth Emeth Synagogue. “We lived up north in the Galilee area, and … the north was subject to regular bombings and rocket attacks.”

The Skiddells go to Israel almost every July to visit two of their children and reconnect with family and friends. This year’s trip, which included a mission with the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, which Skiddell heads, turned out to be four days longer than planned, thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration’s temporary ban on U.S. flights to and from Israel after a rocket landed a mile away from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on July 22.

The family abandoned their table — although Skiddell grabbed his sandwich — and headed to a stairwell inside the building, which served as a bomb shelter. “Since it’s inside the building and there’s no windows, and the rest of the building is around the stairway, that’s the safest place to be when there’s a rocket attack,” Skiddell said.

He added that in these makeshift shelters, you get to know people you otherwise wouldn’t have met.

“So everyone from the restaurant and the kitchen staff all piled into this stairwell area,” he recounted, “talking with each other, reassuring each other, comforting each other, saying to each other, ‘It’ll be OK, not to worry, another minute or two and we’ll be able to go back outside.’”

They waited in the stairwell to hear the “boom” — the sound of Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, launching a missile and destroying the incoming rocket. “But then you have to wait for the shrapnel to fall,” Skiddell explained. “So you have to stay in the shelter for about 10 minutes, approximately, so you know all of the shrapnel has fallen and you know it’s generally safe

to go back out.”

When it was safe, he and his family went back out and continued their meal. “Because that’s what you have to do,” he said.

“We had a number of incidents like that. We had an incident when we were riding bikes along the Tel Aviv seafront. We heard a very loud boom. I think, that time, there wasn’t even a siren.”

That, in fact, was the rocket that landed near Ben Gurion, and brought about the FAA’s ban on flights by American carriers.

“I think it was a ridiculous decision that caused problems for thousands of travelers,” Skiddell said. “There was no danger to the airport, because the airport has an Iron Dome system.”

The Skiddells hoped to have dinner with both of their children who live in Israel — a daughter who is a student at Tel Aviv University and a son who is on active duty in the IDF — but their son could not come because he was deployed.

“Just as we were getting ready to go out and have dinner, we were all packed and ready, and the phone rang,” Skiddell said.

It was Delta Airlines, informing them that their flight had been canceled, and they had been rebooked on a KLM flight going to Amsterdam.

“Fifteen minutes later we got a message from Delta and KLM that the European airlines were following the lead of the American airlines and also canceling flights,” he said. “So that meant we couldn’t get out on KLM. We tried to get a flight on El Al, because Israeli airlines kept flying, but we weren’t the only ones with that bright idea.”

The flight ban was lifted on July 24, but there was a backlog of people trying to get to the U.S. The Skiddells were unable to return until two days later.

On Monday, two days after they returned, Skiddell attended the pro-Israel rally in Manhattan (story, page 1). “It showed how, in times of stress and in times of trouble, the community stands together and is very supportive of Israel,” he said.

A version of this story first appeared in this week’s Rockville Centre Herald.

9 THE JEWISH STAR August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774

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Truth and consequences: white lies, white sauce

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he little white lie, definition: A minor, polite or harmless lie, fib. How many of us have told a little lie? White lies are usually excused because it doesn’t do any great harm, and most are used to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. We’ve all lied, and if you say you never have, you’re probably lying.

We start early on: “Mommy I didn’t do it,” Who’s in The then when we’re older, kiTchen “The check is in the mail,” “I just turned 35 (again),” “Honey, you look great in that outfit,” “No, really, I love the chicken dried out.”

While I would never promote lying, I do strongly believe in the little white lie to stop someone from being hurt or insulted and especially in the case of a child, to keep him from Judy Joszef having to deal with adult issues prematurely, or in the case of safety.

Unfortunately, my husband Jerry doesn’t agree with me. He is one of the most honest people I know. I tried in the past to explain that it’s meant to be beneficial to the recipient, but he has a hard time with it, though lately he has learned that he needn’t confess to everything he does. As in when he’s an hour late, he leaves out the part that he was in the gym, or that he has ordered another dozen two foot water guns for the grandchildren and nieces and nephews, although we have at least three dozen already.

He would never lie if I asked him, but he doesn’t always let me know if I don’t, though, in the end I always find out, right Jerry?

Talking about white lies, when I was sitting shiva for my mom, a”h, my adorable step

grandchildren called me. Ben, the oldest, age 8, said he was so sorry that my mom had died and he was sure that I would miss her. Then he handed the phone to his cousin Nadav, almost 5. Now, it was pretty crowded in the room and it was hard to really hear him on my cell phone because in the best of situations I have awful service in my house (hear that, Sprint?), but it sounded like he said “I’m sorry your mom died, I saw her in the box dead, I’m so sorry. I was sure I just misunderstood him, thanked him for calling and told him I loved him.

The next morning I was telling my son it was so noisy at shiva last night it sounded as if Nadav said he saw my mother dead in the box. My son said, “Nope, you heard right, I was standing right next to Jerry and Nadav when Nadav asked, ‘Is Judy’s mom in the box?’ Jerry responded ‘Yes.’ Nadav asked ‘Did she die in the box?’ ‘No, you have to go into the box to get to Hashem. The only way to get to Hashem is through the box. Judy’s mom was a very special person and she will be with Hashem and he will take care of her’.”

Just then Jerry walked into the kitchen and I said, “You told Nadav my mom was in the box and she was going to Hashem in the box????

Why??? Even for you Jerry, that was really not the right thing to tell him.” “Well,” said Jerry, “I wasn’t going to lie to him, he asked me.”

“Really,” I responded. “He’s going to think my mom and everyone else that dies gets sent parcel post or via Fed Ex to G-d.” I immediately called my step-daughter-in-law Esther and warned her if she saw Nadav putting his little sister or any friends in a box, he might be planning to send them to Hashem.

This past Shabbat, Nadav, his younger sister Lia Rose and his parents, Yoni (Jerry’s son) and his mom Esther spent their last Shabbat in America with us, before making Aliyah. Jerry is a very hands on grandfather. He can and does spend hours at a time playing with them and

engaging them in all sorts of adventures. I love to see the delight in their eyes and squeals of laughter when he walks into a room.

But, a few months ago, when he brought home what looked like real guns with ammunition to go along with it, I put my foot down.

“You cannot give those to the kids to play with,” I said, “their moms won’t be happy.”

Then I spotted three rifles or as he called them Tommy guns. He said those were for him. He tried to appease me with the three authentic magnum looking pistols, which Jerry thought would be perfectly suitable for the under five crowd.

The weekend started with the conventional stuff, non-stop playing, swimming, giggling, story telling and bonding. Then the guns came out. I watched my daughter-in-law’s face and, although I knew she wasn’t happy with them, she said nothing and went along, trying to make this weekend a fun one for all. Jerry explained there were soft rubber bullets, but they couldn’t open the package on Shabbat.

Hoping Nadav would forget the bullets by the time Shabbat was over, I hid them. Of course bright and early Shabbat morning Nadav was already counting down till Shabbat was over.

Forget about my daughter-in-law, I didn’t think it was safe. The bullets, although soft rubber, could still be dangerous if hit at close range and in the face. I had a brainstorm.

“Jerry,” I said, “look, they sent you the wrong bullets.”

“No, I’m sure they’re the correct ones,” he said. I then said with great exaggeration, “No, Jerry, come look the numbers don’t match, these are for a different gun.” I know what he was thinking, “How can I lie to a child?” Again he said “I’m sure they are the…”

He stopped short when he saw the look on my face was the same one when he bought his car without asking what year it was or the price.

Trust me folks, it’s not a good face. Sheepishly, he agreed and Nadav was just happy to have the chance to play with them, bullets, or not.

Not sure how happy Esther was when we (yes, even me) snuck the big gun sans bullet into the car when they left for the last time. You should have seen his face.

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11

Cedarhurst; Cantor Joel Kaplan, Beth Sholom; Yakov Trump, assistant rabbi YILC; Cantor Robert Weg. Bottom, from left — Hillel Tuchman, Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz, Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere;

Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky, Irving Place Minyan; Rabbi Hershel Billet, YI Woodmere; and a participant in the reading of tehillim. Below — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Blachman. The Jewish Star / Donovan Berthoud

Community gathers for tefilah and shloshim… will make sense. We have today and yesterday but only G-d knows about tomorrow, he said.

Rabbi Blachman said that every minute counts, that life is not forever and we should tell those we love that we love them.

Rabbi Teitlebaum concluded with the hope that next year, these days leading up to Tisha B’Av should be days of joy, implying that the Mashiach should come. The gathering, which had begun with Tefilat Mincha, concluded with Arvit.

The three boys were kidnapped on their way home from school on June 12 and after 18 days of prayer and anguish that fused and united Jews worldwide, their bodies were found near Hevron.

Continued from page 1 note in a symphony; when one is gone, that note is missing. When a person dies, we pray that G-d be revealed, he said.

He recalled that when his two daughters were born he said the blessing hatov vehamaytiv (G-d who does good), but there are times when baruch dayan emet (blessed is the True Judge) must be said, noting that he recites kaddish on Yom Kippur for his twoyear-old brother who was murdered in Auschwitz. We have to acknowledge and accept G-d even when things are rough, he said.

Why did the three boys and so many others die, he asked, why must Jews be the scapegoat of history; no one knows but in the future it

5 Towners join 15,000 at NYC rally for Israel…

Continued from page 1 rasha — sent busloads of their older campers and staff, riding more than four hours to get to the rally.

In a display of unity, representatives of Yeshiva University shared the stage with those of the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary and the Reform Hebrew Union College. All together, an estimated 15,000 people participated.

“We’re here to show the American people that Israel has a right to defend itself and shouldn’t be treated different from any other nation,” said Rabbi Josh Goller, assistant rabbi of Young Israel of West Hempstead.

The event’s overriding message was the need to support Israel, that Hamas is a terrorist organization bent on destroying Israel, and that there will not be peace until Hamas and Gaza are demilitarized and the terror tunnels running through Gaza and crossing the border of Israel are destroyed.

Sen. Charles Schumer said the rally sent “a message to that building over there [the United Nations] and around the world” that there will be “no peace as long as Hamas has power.”

Citing bipartisan support for Israel, Bronx

Rep. Eliot Engel noted that Israel shares values with the U.S. and “you don’t have to be Jewish to love Israel.” He condemned the media’s “biased coverage” of the war. “Everyday in the civil war in Syria there are more killed, [but for them] Syria is yesterday’s news.”

Alisa Doctoroff of the UJA-Federation heralded the “wide support for Israel.”

Calling the rally “the world’s largest display of support for Israel,” Consul General of Israel in New York Ambassador Ido Aharoni, expressed the “gratitude of Israel” having spent, to date, “21 days in bomb shelters … facing an enemy that seeks our destruction.”

The crowd listened raptly, applauded and cheered each of more than 20 speakers and chanted “Am Yisrael Chai! (the nation of Israel lives),” “Israel wants peace” and “We stand with Israel.” The Yeshiva Universityoriginated acapella singing group The Maccabeats performed three songs.

Older participants recalled the many rallies held at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, on Manhattan’s East Side, for Soviet Jewry and in support of Israel, the recurring theme being threats to Jews and the need to stand

together. It was almost as if the decades telescoped, the older rally veterans hearing the walls silently echoing the “Never again!” chants of rallies past, and the singing of Shlomo Carlebach’s Soviet Jewry anthem of Am Yisrael Chai, sung here by the Maccabeats.

West Hempsteadite Stanley Weichholz, a veteran of past rallies, said he hopes “we don’t have to be here anymore.”

“Only for good things,” said Shelly Rybak, also of West Hempstead. “Israel has the right to defend itself,” he said, adding that tunnels are “for subways and cars.”

“We love Israel,” said Aliza Rubin of Lawrence. “It’s important to stand with Israel.”

“Any other country would be recognized to defend their rights.,” said Dr. Yisroel Bitterman of Woodmere. “The world is habituated that Jews can’t defend themselves and that we’re always wrong. It wasn’t that way in ’67; we don’t have to apologize for the right to live.”

“There is so much hatred,” said Meora Weingarten of Brooklyn. “We have to be a positive voice.”

Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the

U.N., called the assembly of sign- and flagwaving participants an “amazing sight” whose “sane voice should echo in the halls of the U.N.” When “it is quiet in Israel it will be quiet in Gaza,” he said. “Only a strong Israel will be able to achieve peace in the region.”

“Enough is enough!” exhorted New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. “At stake is the survival of Israel. We have a case to make. Fight back. Be angry!”

Richard Stone of the Conference of Presidents, noting that there were simultaneous rallies in other cities, said that anyone who “invokes moral equivalency” between Israel and Hamas is either a “liar or a moron.”

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said that Gazans who allow missiles in their living rooms, wear civilian clothes but carry an AK47, vote for a terrorist government and ignore calls to evacuate are “complicit, enemy combatants.”

He said there are countless rallies against Israel around the world although there are no rallies for the victims in Syria, of Boko Haran and others. “Israel is the most moral army in civilization,” he said.

THE JEWISH STAR August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774

At Monday’s gathering at Young Israel Lawrence Cedarhurst: Top, from left — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Blachman, Yeshivat Kerem BeYavneh; Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, Young Israel Lawrence

Amid Tel Aviv’s sirens, mission accomplished, return detailed

August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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Mark Greenspan has been spiritual leader of the Oceanside Jewish Center for over 15 years, and is considered “unofficial rabbi” of the Friedberg Jewish Center. Last week, while vacationing in New England with his wife Marilyn, he heard about a solidarity mission to Israel by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly in the wake of the renewed hostilities. He immediately decided to join the mission, and shared his story with the Oceanside Herald.

This is his first report, written upon arrival in Israel on July 20.

We are flying at 33,000 feet, about the same altitude as the Malaysian plane that was shot down. I am among a group of Conservative rabbis flying to Israel to visit border communities upon which missiles are falling daily. Crazy —absolutely. I am certain that our planners will do everything to keep us out of harm’s way but how much can they do to cheat fate or warfare?

The decision to visit Israel came about in the last five or six days. Marilyn and I were in the White Mountains of New Hampshire on a brief vacation. With every stop we were checking the news on our iPhones to learn what was happening in Israel, and around the world for that matter. Things have gone from bad to worse with the downing of a jetliner and the escalating hostilities in Israel.

We felt helpless. And then a notification came from the Rabbinical Assembly of an “emergency mission” to Israel. I knew immediately that I had to go; I was already feeling bad about not being able to visit Israel this summer. Now there was a need to stand with the Israelis.

Am I selfish to go at a time like this?

What difference will my presence make?

We want to believe that the people of Israel need our solidarity in times of crisis but, honestly, do they really need our presence?

I am feeling a bit like a distant relative who rushes to the bedside of his aunt or uncle when they are critically ill. I would rather see them when they are healthy,

A sign directs citizens to a bomb shelter.

Courtesy Mark Greenspan

and they would rather see me when all is well.

But here I am, not quite sure why but feeling deep in my kishkes that this is where I need to be. I need to be in Sderot and Ashkelon. I need to stand at the graves the three boys who were abducted and killed by Hamas. I need to see the people I care about in Israel right now and say to them, “I am standing with you.”

I remember visiting Israel on a similar mission just before the Gulf War and literally days before the missiles fell on Tel Aviv. So many Americans showed up on solidarity missions that Israelis started saying “Tov she-batem; matai atem borchim?” Or, “It is good that you came – when are you rushing off?” There is something disingenuous about showing up and standing on the sides lines at a time like this.

But I want to hear the sirens as I did so many years ago on the eve of the Yom Kippur War. And I want to sit in the shelters with those who do so every day, even if it is only for a few days. And I want to understand what this land means to me

or what it should mean to me.

I feel deeper and deeper with each passing day that my life has passed by and with it the opportunity to be part of this grand experiment. So complex, so painful, so tragic, but it is the piece of history that could have been mine and I chose not to embrace. With all that I know, how complicated its history is, I wish I could figure how to make that happen.

But there was always a reason why not: our parents, our family, my work, and now our children. They are all good reasons, but I wonder how history will judge us for not being part of the Zionist experiment.

Two former Oceanside Jewish Center kids stopped by our home to talk with me on Shabbat afternoon. One has become dati (religiously observant) and is serving in the army, the other just returned from Birthright and is bubbling with excitement about going back to Israel so she can spend some significant time there. I look at my own regrets and wonder what I should say to them.

So maybe, coming in the hardest of times will answer some of these questions. Maybe our presence will make some kind of a difference for Israel in some small way.

I am going to Israel with dread — not knowing what to expect, what to anticipate. And maybe the worse dread is that nothing will happen, that this will just be another trip.

A colleague told me he has been to Israel 69 times. I remember what former president Yitzhak Navon said in response to an American Jew who bragged about coming to Israel many times: “Why don’t you come just once?” We American Zionists hop back and forth, never quite sure where we belong. I want to find answers, this time.

Walking off the plane into the airport, one of the first things I notice is a sign signifying a shelter. It is not an auspicious beginning to our visit.

Hollywood liberals stand down for Israel O

nce again Israel is being forced to defend itself from the terrorists who run Gaza.

Once again Israel has had to drop bombs and send tanks and ground troops into Gaza to blow up tunnels and destroy the missile sites Hamas has been using to rain michael Reagan hundreds of rockets down on Israel’s farms and cities.

And once again the Jews of Hollywood are silent. Where are Spielberg, Streisand and David Geffen? Why haven’t these famous liberal consciences of Hollywood stood up to show their support for Israel against the terroristic attacks of Hamas?

The producers, directors, actors and making sense

studio moguls of Tinseltown are always quick to voice their political support for their candidates and pet causes.

Stop the pipeline! Outlaw fracking!

Save the whales, the polar bears and the three-toed beach mouse! G-d forbid anyone in Hollywood utter the words “Save Israel!”

Hollywood holds a fund-raiser every night for some needy group or moral crusade, but they are conspicuously silent when it comes to supporting Israel. By being so silent, Hollywood’s power people end up looking like they’re pro-Hamas.

Could they really believe the death and destruction going on in Gaza right now is Israel’s fault? Even the dumbest actor in this town knows that the bad guy in that bloody reality show is Hamas.

And there’s not an honest politician, actor or liberal in the world who doesn’t know that Hamas uses innocent Palestinian women and children as shields — and then exploits their deaths in the media for

political advantage.

The saddest part is that the media and the rest of the world believe Hamas’ BS. Hamas is a terrorist organization and it behaves that way. The president knows it.

Everyone knows it. It’s the Israeli’s who are trying to save lives; that’s why they warn innocent Palestinians to get out of the way of their bombs.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has called on the international community to take a “clear stand” and hold Hamas accountable for “starting and prolonging this conflict.”

I’m asking the Hollywood community to do the same, but I’m not holding my breath. The conservatives in La-La Land are afraid to speak out for Israel because their careers could be hurt and the liberals won’t say anything because, well, because they are liberals.

The only Jewish person standing up for Israel in this part of California was Max Steinberg, the 24-year-old American citi-

zen from L.A. who went to Israel, fell in love with the country, joined the Israeli Defense Forces and became a sharpshooter.

Steinberg was only 5-foot-3, but when he was serving in the army in Israel he earned nicknames such as “Mighty Max” and “Little Dynamo.” On Sunday in Gaza he was one of the 13 Israeli soldiers killed in a firefight with Hamas.

Steinberg was a hero, the stuff of movies, who volunteered for a combat unit. He died standing up for Israel. You won’t find Spielberg, Streisand and Geffen doing that — and no one is shooting bullets at them.

After 9/11 President Bush said if you’re not with us in our fight against the terrorists, you’re against us.

As far as I can tell, Hollywood and its most prominent Jews — by their silence — are against Israel.

Copyright ©2014 Michael Reagan. Michael, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is a political consultant and author of “The New Reagan Revolution.”

M

oshe said, “G-d was also angry at me … [as He] said, ‘You too shall not go there. Yehoshua bin-Nun … is the one who will apportion it to Israel. As for your children of whom you said ‘They’ll be taken Parsha of captive,’ and your the Week children who did not know good from evil this day – they will come there. To them shall I give it and they shall possess it.” (Devarim 1:37-39) Without going into too much of the background, in this passage Moshe outlines who will be inheriting the land — as the rabbi avi Billet apportioner and the apportionees — and who will not be involved in the process (Moshe himself).

His focus on the children being the ones to inherit, along with the emphasis on good and evil, prompted the Midrash Tanaim to explain that this is a reference to war.

“They have to know that it is G-d who wages war for you, and that you do not have to fight when you are doing G-d’s will.” The Baal Haturim goes along similar lines when he says exile would have never happened had the people not turned to sin.

Rabbi Yehuda Amital, the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion (“the Gush”), was appropriately critical of people (i.e. certain contemporary rabbis) who would look at any event and ascribe causality to it.

“This tragedy happened because…” is an ineffable statement to make. We don’t explain rockets, destruction, wars, and a Holocaust.

We are not prophets. We do not know why

these things happen.

G-d-fearing people say “This is G-d’s will.

It is part of His Master Plan,” and continue to live their lives in the service of G-d, trying to get closer to Him despite the sadness that may pervade at any particular point in time.

Rav Amital, whose fifth yarzeit was this past week, was in several labor camps during the Holocaust and lost his entire family.

In response to the question of how he could have faith in G-d after the Holocaust, he explained that if he had lost his faith that wouldn’t bring his family back. It wouldn’t answer any of his questions about G-d’s hiding His face during that era of darkness.

But the message of the Midrash Tanaim is still worthy of consideration.

We do not understand how the “doing of G-d’s will” plays a role in the upper spheres. But every one of us can probably pinpoint a time in our lives when we knew we were doing things right, and other things in our lives fell into place. Whether it was a job, a promotion, a family member getting better from illness, or life just being good. It happens all the time – we just don’t always notice.

And so it is up to us, particularly at this time of year with Tisha B’Av approaching, to ask ourselves if we are properly doing Gd’s will.

The great prophets and Sages were granted the insight to say the first Temple was destroyed because of murder, idolatry, immorality, and the Second Temple was destroyed on account of baseless hatred. And while we

don’t dare make similar pronouncements in our times (and shame on those who do!), we can certainly improve in those areas!

Idolatry and murder are, thank G-d, not big challenges for our people. But immorality is.

And baseless hatred certainly is.

There’s a reason many of the “al chet”s we include in our Viduy confession are sins of the eyes and the mouth, because it is through these channels that most of our sins are committed – whether we ourselves look at things we should not be looking at and say things we should not, or whether we cause others to look at things they should not see or have them hear things they should not be hearing.

The good and evil that the Midrash Tanaim says refers to war could have two meanings. The esoteric meaning is for the internal battle that a person fights between the yetzer hara (the evil inclination) and the yetzer hatov (the good inclination).

But in a practical sense, it refers to the battles that were to soon be waged by the Israelite armies entering the land. And Moshe is recalling how 39 years earlier he told the generation that was not going to be entering the land that it would be up to their innocent children, who had not yet tasted good and evil, to lead the charge in inheriting the land.

The verses which follow show the response of the people when they heard this pronouncement: “We have sinned to G-d!

We will go up and do battle according to

Every generation has borne the responsibility of fighting the battle that the previous generation did not finish

everything that our G-d has commanded us!” (1:41).

And the Exodus generation was told not to, because G-d was no longer with them and would not fight their battles any more.

Are we reliving this history? Every generation in Israel has borne the responsibility of fighting the battle that the previous generation did not finish. It is the “children” (18-22 year olds are young men, but they are all sons of the nation of Israel) who are fighting, the children who learn quickly about the difference between good and evil. Many of these “children” are older reservists, and they too are battling in the trenches.

Our job is to love them, to care for them, and to do our part through doing G-d’s will.

Unlike the generation who left Egypt, who were told (when they messed up with the spies) that G-d is no longer with them, we must assure, for the safety of our soldiers and our People in Israel and around the world, that we are doing G-d’s will.

When the enemy is so evil and only cares to rack up deaths on both sides, we must know where we stand. War is sadly a necessary evil. And it brings great sacrifice in pursuit of a hopefully attainable and sustainable peace.

May our efforts, not just during the Nine Days, but throughout the year as well, sway G-d to continue to guide the soldiers of Israel in their important work. And may all of Israel merit to live peacefully under the banner of the promise that “your children who did not know good from evil this day — they will come there. To them shall I give it and they shall possess it.”

In safety, in peace, and — much like has been demonstrated in Israel in support of the soldiers — with a complete sense of Ahavat Chinam, loving our fellow Jew. Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

MKs to Europe: ‘Islamic terror will reach your homes’ tolerance for displays of anti-Semitism, adding that

By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency “every attack on France`s Jews is an attack on all of The Danish, Swedish and Dutch ambassadors to France.”

Israel, and officials from the embassies of Britain, BelFrance, he said, has beefed up security around the gium, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Germany took part Jewish communities even before the recent anti-Israel on Monday in an urgent meeting of the Knesset Immidemonstrations. “France is not denying that there is gration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee a problem. The French government`s efforts against on the situation of Jewish communities in Europe. acts of racism will gradually increase,” said the offiMK Yisrael Hasson (Kadima), a former deputy dicial. rector of the Shin Bet internal security service, told Dutch Ambassador to Israel Caspar Veldkamp the ambassadors: “NATO bombed 5,000 civilians in noted that his country`s attorney general has opened Kosovo just because it was insulted; 27,000 Iraqi cicases against 40-50 people who participated in a radivilians were bombed during the American invasion cal demonstration and chanted anti-Semitic slogans. because they posed a danger to the U.S.; there is not “The acts of anti-Semitism call for strong measures; a country in the world that can talk to us about mootherwise we will all slide down the slope. Europe rality.” should have exported a position of mutual respect MK Hasson told the foreign envoys that “if the Eurather than import the hate and the Israeli-Palestinian ropean countries fail to protect the Jews within their conflict,” he told the meeting. territory, the State of Israel will. Jewish blood is not “As an ally and as a country we will not tolerate ancheap blood.” He further warned that “if you do not ti-Semitism, but Denmark, as a country that respects stand by our side, the day when Islamic terror will freedom of speech, allows people to express their obreach your homes, your beds and your kindergartens European officials meet with Knesset members on threats to European Jewry. jection to actions taking place on the ground,” said will come soon.” gress, spoke about their sense of insecurity. “Calls of `death Danish Ambassador Jesper Vahr. “My government`s MK Shimon Ohayon (Yisrael Beitenu) addressed the pro-Palestinian protests across Europe and said Israel is to Jews` and `burn the Jews in gas chambers` are heard position is that Israel has a right to defend itself.”

Absorption Committee Chairman MK Yoel Razvozov (Yesh fighting “the war of the free and enlightened world against regularly on the streets,” one representative said.

Nathan Gelbert, a Jewish resident of Berlin, said the city Atid) said a distinction must be made between freedom of the darkness of Islam.” According to him, had the world truly been concerned about the violence, “we would have seen has seen “severe pro-Palestinian demonstrations” since the expression and incitement. “The European countries must protect the Jews within their territory,” he said. “Otherwise, protests all over Europe against the terrible acts being com- IDF launched Operation ‘Protective Edge’ in Gaza.

“These protesters don`t know how to say `hello` in Ger- terror will eventually reach you.” mitted in Syria, where some 200,000 people have been raped man, but they know very well how to shout that Israel is fasMK Razvozov concluded the meeting by saying that the and butchered.”

State of Israel is committed to protecting every Jew in the MK Avraham Michaeli (Shas) noted that a quarter of the cist and cruel,” he said.

The European envoys condemned the anti-Semitic attacks Diaspora. Turning to the foreign officials, he said: “Take into patients who are being treated at the hospital in Safed were in their countries and described the tools their governments account that if the terror groups lay down their arms, there injured in the civil war in Syria.

Representatives of the Jewish communities in Europe, use to combat the phenomenon. A representative of the will be peace; but if Israel lays down its arms, Israel will cease who arrived in Israel with the help of the Israeli Jewish Con- French embassy in Tel Aviv said his country pledges ”zero to exist. This is the sad truth.”

THE JEWISH STAR August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774

The victory that comes from doing G-d’s will

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Words are innocent… vehicle for good in the world.

These past few weeks we have learned volumes about who these boys and young men really are and from what cloth they are cut, through the mothers of the three boys (Eyal, Gilad and Naftali who were kidnapped and killed just one month ago) and women like Miriam Peretz whose indomitable strength revives our broken spirits. The faith and resolve of these salt of the earth, loving, gentle mothers is what nurtures a generation of leaders who live a meaningful life and in their death, unite and elevate an entire people.

Here in Israel these past weeks, we cannot struggle with why these boys fell, and why G-d chose them; there is no answer to that question in this world and to remain in that struggle is to slowly die. But we can be determined to know what they were fighting for, and why they were willing to give up life itself in the pursuit of something greater. And we can decide that we will become as Moshe: determined to live up to those lofty ideals, each of us according to the gifts we have been given, becoming vehicles for a far better world where one day peace will reign and good, truth and beauty will triumph.

May Hashem bless the memory of all those who have fallen, and may we soon see peace in this special place, this country we call home.

Shabbat Shalom from Efrat and Jerusalem.

Glossary for Operation…

Continued from page 6 other favorite of the media and the administration implies that Israeli attempts to eradicate Gaza of the missiles targeting civilians are morally equivalent to the Hamas rockets targeting Israeli civilians. The former is selfdefense — the latter is terrorism.

Disengagement: Something else the mainstream media and Western governments are not allowed to mention. In a test of land for peace, Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but Gaza is still called occupied territory. Even though the test failed and Hamas turned the area into a terrorist hotbed, Israel has not reoccupied Gaza.

Egyptian Cease-Fire Proposal: Arranged

by Egypt, agreed to by Israel, the PA, the U.S and the Arab league. Last Friday, Kerry presented to Israel a deal that had nothing to do with the Egyptian Cease-Fire Proposal. Instead, as members of the Israeli cabinet told Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Kerry “dug a tunnel under the Egyptian ceasefire proposal.”

Embargo: Hamas claims they want the ending of the Israeli embargo that prevents military and construction-type goods to enter Gaza. The media forgets to mention the embargo was enacted to prevent even more rockets being sent to Hamas. Also forgotten is, under UN pressure, Israel allowed shipments of cement into Gaza. That cement was for new houses for Gaza citizens, but instead they were used for tunnels.

Fairness: It’s what the mainstream media tries to do when it spends the vast majority of their report showing collapsed Gaza buildings while ignoring that those buildings may have housed Hamas missiles or other terrorist operations. The IDF usually explains why something is attacked but in fairness doesn’t like to talk about it.

Going On For A Thousand Years: Talking heads love saying the Israeli battle against Hamas terrorists has been going on for over a thousand years. Not true. Jews have been living peacefully in the holy land continuously since Joshua won the battle of Jericho

approximately 3,300 years ago. The Arabs have been attacking Jews living on the land for only about a century.

Human Shield: What President Obama and the mainstream media ignore when they talk about the Hamas casualties.

Israel Lobby: Those damned Jews control the government is a charge that falls apart easily. Yes, many Americans including Jews support Israel, but they don’t control the U.S. government (if they did Al Sharpton would be banned from the U.S.). Next time someone complains to you about a “Jewish Lobby,” ask, “Does the Israel lobby have more power than the Cuban lobby, which has convinced our government to boycott Cuba for the past 50+ years?”

Militant: A politically correct way of saying terrorist. We wouldn’t want to insult people who target civilians. Originally, militants were only used for those terrorists who attacked Jews. But the PC police expanded its use to all terrorists.

Pro-Palestinian Rallies: Media Newspeak for Pro-Hamas rallies. A series of rallies in support of Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel. During the past four weeks, most of these rallies, especially the ones in Europe, have turned both violent and anti-Semitic.

Retaliation: A subset of Cycle Of Violence and Tit For Tat, it implies that Israel’s actions in Gaza are revenge attacks for Hamas terror — not true. Israel attacks have nothing to do with revenge; they are meant to destroy the Hamas ability to attack Israeli civilians.

Three Dead Jews/Dead Arab: The media likes to say that the present hostilities were a result of the kidnapping/murder of three Jewish boys and one Arab boy. This forgets the fact that Hamas sent nearly 500 rockets into Israeli communities before the kidnappings happened.

By understanding these terms you will better understand the statements coming from the Administration and the coverage of the conflict by the mainstream media.

Columnist@TheJewishStar

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Continued from page 4 Most people think that humility is all about self-effacement; about assuming we are unworthy, and inconsequential. Judaism suggests nothing could be further from the truth. Moshe knew how great he was and knew that the entire Jewish people was dependent on him, but he understood he was just a vehicle; his greatness was a gift from G-d and his was just to figure out what to do with that greatness.

Like a Beethoven who was a child prodigy, and whose greatness was a gift; his was not to become arrogant but to struggle with what best to do with that G-d given talent.

An arrogant person thinks it’s all about him; a humble person knows it’s not about him at all, he has just been given certain gifts for which he can take no credit; he is a conduit for bringing something beautiful into the world. How can we, each and every one of us, be the vehicles we were meant to be, to make the world a better place?

Moshe understood he was Hashem’s vehicle and his greatest attribute was the ability to know how great he was on the one hand, but how much it was not about him at all, on the other.

That is why Moshe could become that ultimate man of words, why the Torah can be his words and G-d’s words all at the same time. Because his words are G-d’s words. Everything we do, every struggle and every triumph, every achievement and accomplishment, is our way of becoming a

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It might be anyone (young or old) whose acts of chesed are several steps beyond exceptional … a neighbor who is the soul of your block … your rabbi or rebbetzin … a business person whose tzedakah goes unnoticed … an organization or civic leader whose contribution to our community is priceless.

Every week starting later this summer, The Jewish Star newspaper will highlight one of our community’s real stars.

Each star featured in the newspaper and online will be entered as a nominee for a Jewish Star Award that will be presented at a celebratory event later this year.

THE JEWISH STAR August 1, 2014 • 5 AV 5774

w i e s J h s a t k a c r! i P Jewish Star Awards

Nominate your favorite Jewish star — or stars — today!

NomiNate your Jewish star

WHO’S A STAR

Nominee’s name Nominee’s job, school, etc.

Nominee’s contact info

WHERE’S THE STAR?

In what town does nominee live or work?

What has nominee done to merit this honor?

WHY THIS STAR? Your name and town Your email (required, but not published on request) Your phone (not for publication)

Mail your entry to: The Jewish Star, 2 Endo Blvd, Garden City NY 11530

713236

WHO ARE YOU?

Optionally, you may attach additional information

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