The Jewish Star

Page 1

The JEWISH

STAR

TheJewishStar.com

Eikev • August 3, 2018 • 23 Av, 5778 • Torah columns pages 18 –19 • Luach page 18 • Vol 17, No 30

The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities

Trump pivots on Iran Will meet with ‘no preconditions’ By Ron Kampeas, JTA President Donald Trump says he is ready to meet with Iran’s leaders anytime with no preconditions, a pivot from his administration’s policy of encouraging “soft” regime change in Tehran by isolating Iran’s ruling elites. “No preconditions, no, they want

to meet I’ll meet, anytime they want,” Trump said Monday at a press availability with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy. Responding to a reporter who asked if he would meet with Iran’s leaders, Trump said, “It’s good for the country, See Trump on page 2

This Torah, inscribed with the phrase “Property of Cong. B’nai Jacob, Ottumwa, Iowa,” has found a new home in Paraguay. Courtesy Sue Weinberg

Iowa Torah goes south By Victor Wishna, JTA One family after another hurried through Erin Jones-Avni’s door, anxious for a glimpse of the new arrival. “People just kept coming, and they’d make a beeline for the Torah,” she told JTA from her home in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital and largest city. “They were overcome with emotion.” “To have the Torah here, it is amazing,” Gabriela Alonso said. “It is a new beginning.” It is a new chapter in a story that started a century ago, a continent away. The inscription on the scroll is faded but legible: “Property of Cong. B’nai Jacob, Ottumwa, Iowa.” How this Torah found its way from the plains of Iowa to the hills of Paraguay is a See Iowa Torah on page 16

Friedman visits home of victim David Friedman made a rare visit by a U.S. ambassador to Israel to the family of a terror victim in Judea and Samaria. Friedman made the condolence call Monday during the weeklong shiva period to Yotam Ovadia’s widow and two children, ages 2 years and 7 months, in the Adam community north of Jerusalem. Ovadia was stabbed to death Thursday night outSee Friedman on page 2

Ambassador David Friedman.

Pence ‘sickened’ by Nazi vandals Happy campers on Central HALB’s Avnet Country Day School kicked up the summer experiences of its sixth through eighth grade girls, delivering them to Escape the Room, Hershey Park, lunch at Coffee Bar on Central Avenue (pictured), an oh-so-sweet visit to Rita’s, Aladdin on Broadway, and Club Getaway.

Vice President Mike Pence said he was “sickened and appalled” by anti-Semitic graffiti spraypainted on the wall of a synagogue in his home state of Indiana. “Sickened and appalled by the cowardly act of vandalism at Congregation Shaarey Tefilla; a beautiful synagogue in Carmel, Indiana where I have many good friends. See Pence on page 2

Vice President Mike Pence.

LIers use tech in bid to muffle JFK’s airplanes By Nakeem Grant, W. Hempstead Herald The frequency of jet noise from Kennedy and LaGuardia airports has increased in recent years, according to the advocacy group Plane Sense 4 Long Island. “We’ve always had planes. Nobody’s disputing that, but not to this extent,” said Jana Goldenberg, co-chairwoman of the organization. “And that is why we need to get the word out about Airnoise.” Airnoise, founded by software engineer and former U.S. Air Force test pilot Chris McCann, is a handheld device activated by pressing what looks like a clicker. The button automatically locates the nearest aircraft and registers a complaint with the appropriate airport. “It’s a godsend,” said Goldenberg, who moved from Roslyn to Jericho due to jet noise.

Goldenberg said that she and Plane Sense co-chairwoman Elaine Miller of Malverne have tried to find easier ways to file noise complaints than the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s website, where residents have to fill out a form or call the jet noise hotline. With Airnoise, residents can file complaints with the push of a button. “Nobody wants to fill out forms and file complaints all day long,” Goldenberg said. “We have a life, too.” In addition, Airnoise tallies complaints from each individual, whereas the Port Authority gathers complaints per household. Since McCann’s first customer in March 2017, Airnoise has logged over 339,000 complaints. McCann, who lives in San Diego, said that

he started to notice jet noise problems in 2016. “I started looking into the situation and realized what was happening in terms of the FAA and NextGen, and I realized that people were unhappy with the additional noise that they were getting,” he said. He was inspired to create the Airnoise button after he heard about software designer Nathan Pryor’s Amazon’s Dash button hack, which enabled him to make a $5 donation to the American Civil Liberties every time President Trump angered him. “I thought that was pure genius, so I used that as the nucleus of my idea,” McCann said, about the concept of having a button. “As a former Air Force pilot and a software engiSee Noise on page 17


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.