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Shabbos Nachamu, Vaeschanan • Aug. 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777 • Five Towns candles 7:49 pm, Havdalah 8:56 • Torah columns pages 20–21 • Vol 16, No 28

The Newspaper of our Orthodox communities

Judaica folds on the UWS

5T preps to pack for backs

By Ben Sales, JTA Yaakov Seltzer remembers a different world, when he would sell his customers prayer books, then hand them an invitation to his daughter’s wedding. When they would come in to Seltzer’s store to order a kippah for their new grandson, then ask him to attend the bris. Or they would stop in on a Friday afternoon with nothing to buy, just to wish him a good Shabbat. But though the Upper West Side of Manhattan is still heavily Jewish, the world Seltzer longs for has disappeared. And soon, so will his store, West Side Judaica, which Seltzer plans to close sometime next year. When it shutters, after 83 years in operation, the neighborhood will be bereft of a Jewish bookstore. Only one Jewish bookstore, J. Levine Books and Judaica, will remain in all of Manhattan. “I miss the people I used to have come into the store every week,” Seltzer said. “The new generation doesn’t support us. They See Judaica on page 6

By Daniel Maron Back to school season can be an exciting time for young students. For some, however, financial constraints and expenses can put a damper on the experience. To lessen the burden on struggling families, UJA-Federation of New York has once again undertaken its annual Tov B’Yachad Supplies for Success initiative, with the effort coming to the Five Towns on Sunday, Aug. 13. Tov B’Yachad is the Orthodox outreach division of UJA on Long Island. “People don’t realize how many families in the Five Towns struggle to make ends meet and have to choose between putting food on the table or buying their kids clothes,” said Joshua Wanderer, Tov B’Yachad Supplies for Success chair. “[We’re] happy to provide new, filled backpacks to children in our local yeshivas so they can start the school year off right” he said. “Every child deserves a shot at success.” Tov B’Yachad’s eight-year-old school supply drive is part of a larger collection campaign by UJA which has been taking place across the See backpacks on page 6

A view of the Psagot Winery.

Israelis toast wineries in Judea and Samaria By Andrew Tobin, JTA SAGOT — Psagot Winery calls its Sinai wine an “unassuming but distinctive blend” of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Like all its wines, the bottle is stamped with the image of a coin dating to the first century C.E. found in a chalky cave near its namesake settlement in Judea and Samaria and inscribed in Hebrew with the words, “For the freedom of Zion.” The coin, its catalog explains, “symbolizes the preservation of winemaking tradition — offering you a taste of our history.”

For Yaakov Berg, Psagot Winery’s CEO, and his competitors in Judea and Samaria, winemaking in the West Bank is a blend of commerce and ideology. They have successfully marketed both their award-winning wine and the settlements to the Israeli public. Settlement wineries have boomed in the past decade or so. According to a 2011 report, settlements in the territory are home to 29 of the more than 150 wineries in Israel and its territories, compared to 14 in the famed Golan Heights wine country. Several settlement winery owners reportSee Great wines on page 10

Dog’s Nazi salute: ‘No hate’ YouTube in September, has been viewed more than 2.8 million times. Meechan said on the video that he trained the dog to annoy his girlfriend. Meechan later posted a video in which he apologized for the original dog clips, saying it was a joke and that he has no such political leanings. —JTA

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A shopper browses in book-lined Westside Judaica, which is set to close. Ben Sales, JTA

A Scottish man arrested for teaching his girlfriend’s dog to do the Nazi salute denied in court that he committed a hate crime. Mark Meechan, 29, taught the pug, named Buddha (pictured), to respond with the Nazi salute when prompted by statements such as “Heil Hitler” and “gas the Jews.” The original video, posted to

Michael Fuld, one of the volunteers who helped pack backpacks last year. The Jewish Star / Tim Baker

AMIT’s Day of Learning connects Jewish women

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Mimi Mehlman welcomes attendees to AMIT’s Yom Iyun in Cedarhurst. Jeffrey Bessen

how the country has grown,” Wagner said. Regarding recent troubles surrounding the Temple Mount, Mehlman said, “We are afraid, yet we stand together. AMIT let’s us be together in a sisterhood. We learn to live in the Torah.” Keynote speaker Dr. Shoshana Poupko provided a lesson on how an individual’s actions impact the community as a whole. Also a rabbi’s wife, and dean of students at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck, she spoke about each person’s “communal responsibility.” “The well-being of the community is at stake,” said the Los Angeles native, who is a neighbor of current AMIT President Debbie Moed. “What if everybody did that, interrupt a conversation or have their cell phone on. Society comes together to achieve what we cannot do alone.” Sondra Sokal, a past AMIT president, paid tribute to Mehlman and her creation. “I remember some of us at the very first Yom Iyun in Lido Beach,” Sokal said. “What a wonderful, enduring event that you have put together.”

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By Jeffrey Bessen, Herald Community News Numbers play a significant role in Judaism, and for the 110 women who attended the AMIT’s annual Yom Iyun (Day of Learning) at the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst on July 26, specific figures were prominent. For Mimi Mehlman, wife of retired Lido Beach Synagogue Rabbi Daniel Mehlman, the number 18 stood out — both because it signifies chai (life) but for how many years ago she established the event. “I used to go to AMIT learning sessions 20 years ago and thought it would be a very nice idea to put together a place for women to sit and learn from AMIT women,” said Mehlman said, who now lives in Woodmere. AMIT (in Hebrew, the acronym for Organization of Volunteers for Israel and Her Torah) is a New York-based nonprofit helps Israeli youth realize their potential. It strengthens Israeli society by educating and nurturing children from diverse backgrounds in an environment of academic excellence, religious values and Zionist ideals. The group serves 34,000 students in 110 schools in 29 cities in Israel. More than 95 percent of AMIT graduates enter the Israel Defense Forces or perform national service, and 85 percent of AMIT students graduate high school with a Bagrut diploma — a prerequisite for higher education in Israel — compared to 70 percent of all Jewish high school students in Israel, AMIT reports. “I feel that this organization is so important for the children of Israel,” said Audrey Wagner, Woodmere resident who pointed out that she has been a part of the 92-year-old organization for 70 years since her mother brought her into the group. The Day of Learning took place within the Nine Days. “We are very mindful of the tragedies through the nine days, and very much concerned how believe Israel is treated and

Hadassah Hospital doctors have saved the life of 22-year-old Kimberly Winkler, an industrial engineering student from Minnesota who suffered a massive brain aneurysm. Winkler, a native of the Dominican Republic who was in Jerusalem with Birthright for the 50th anniversary of the city’s reunification, was staying at a Jerusalem hotel when she began feeling unwell and was taken by ambulance to Hadassah Ein Kerem. Following several brain operations, she has been discharged and will return home to Santo Domingo. “Kimberly suffered from an intractable, massive hemorrhage that definitely endangered her life. An exploding aneurysm is very rare at such a young age, but it is a life-threatening stroke,” said Dr. Kim Rosenthal, director of the neurosurgery department’s intensive care unit and a senior neurosurgeon. “The treatment focuses on stopping the bleeding by cuffing, stent or bypass.” Prof. Jose Cohen, a senior surgeon in the neurosurgery department, inserted steel stents into her brain in order to stop the bleeding. This is a sensitive task, as damage to the brain tissue must be avoided. “Her CT scans were so bad that everyone was surprised that she was still alive,” said Cohen. Ellen Hershkin, national president, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, said that “every day, Hadassah’s brilliant team of doctors and nurses save lives around the world and around the corner. Hadassah Medical Center’s $30M state-of-the-art

Kimberly Winkler and Dr. Kim Rosenthal at Hadassah Medical Center

operating theatres offer world-class medical facilities for all Israelis and for visitors from around the world.” Winkler underwent three operations in which blood was drained from her brain and coils inserted to close the aneurysm. Her condition gradually improved and she returned. “I was shocked when I saw Kimberly — I was not sure she was the same girl who played volleyball and danced jazz,” said Kimberly’s mother, Miriam Winkler, who had flown in from Santa Domingo with Kimberly’s two sisters, states. “We can never thank Hadassah enough for giving us back our daughter. Faith and medicine are factors that work here in a perfect combination.”

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Recycled reports whitewash P’stinian incitement By Rafael Medoff, JNS.org WASHINGTON — Two prominent former Israeli diplomats are charging that the State Department is recycling parts of its old reports in order to whitewash the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) incitement to violence. The State Department last week released its annual assessment of global terrorism for the year 2016. For the 10th consecutive year, the report used nearly identical language in its defense of the PA. “The PA has taken significant steps during President [Mahmoud] Abbas’s tenure (2005 to date) to ensure that official institutions in the West Bank under its control do not create or disseminate content that incites violence,” according to the 2016 report. The exact same sentence also appeared in the department’s reports for 2015, 2014 and 2013. Similar repetition can be found in the section of the reports pertaining to incitement in PA mosques. The 2014 report stated, “The PA maintains control over the content of Friday sermons delivered in over 1800 West Bank mosques to ensure that they do not endorse incitement to violence.” The identical sentence regarding the mosque sermons also was used in the reports for 2013, 2012 and 2011, and almost identical language was included in the 2010 and 2009 reports. As a result, two former Israeli diplomats say they suspect U.S. officials are simply copying previous years’ texts rather than providing careful assessments of the PA’s most recent behavior. Alan Baker, who has served on Israel’s delegation in negotiations with the PA and was deputy director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told JNS.org that State Department officials seem to be “taking previous reports and copying them, making slight changes where they consider it relevant,” instead of objectively assessing the PA’s most recent behavior. Baker said not only has the PA failed to take “significant steps” against incitement, but “the opposite is the case — their own actions, statements and publications, naming streets and squares after terrorists, formally paying fees to terrorist families, all point to a distinctive step backwards in violation of Palestinian commitments pursuant to the Oslo Accords.” The result, Baker said, is that “the Palestinians see it as a license to continue and as support for their struggle. If the State Department closes a blind eye, this is tantamount to giving a green light.” Another former Israeli diplomat, Lenny Ben-David, agreed

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington on May. State Department

that the State Department “does copy from year to year,” and gets away with it because, “Who pays attention?” Ben-David, who held the second-ranking position in the Embassy of Israel in Washington, from 1997 to 2000, told JNS. org he “never put much faith in the State Department’s reports, ever since I found in one of its first human rights reports this sentence: ‘While tribal in nature, Saudi Arabia is basically a democracy.’” According to Ben-David, the State Department slants its reports about the PA because the department “fears that its own words will be used to buttress congressional efforts to cut aid to the PA; imagine what a truthful report on incitement would do to assist passage of the Taylor Force legislation.” Ben-David was referring to a pending bill, opposed by the State Department, that would reduce U.S. aid to the PA if it continues paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of dead terrorists. The legislation is named for a former U.S. Army officer who was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in Jaffa last year.

Both Baker and Ben-David said the Trump State Department’s assessment of Palestinian actions, including incitement, hardly differs from that of the Obama administration’s State Department. “This in itself gives a negative message and is seen as supportive of the Palestinian case,” Baker said. “I don’t see much difference between the two administrations on the issue of incitement,” echoed Ben-David, who suggested the new report may have been authored in part by Obama administration officials who have not been replaced by the new president. A review by JNS.org of earlier editions of the State Department’s terrorism reports found additional instances of the same terminology being used year after year. The 2007 and 2008 reports, for example, claimed then-PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad “has condemned every attack against Israelis” since he took office. Very similar language appeared in 2009 and 2010. Previously, the reports typically sidestepped the issues of PA incitement and terror condemnations, and instead claimed the PA was cracking down on terrorism. The reports for from 1996 to 1999 all used this sentence: “The PA, which is responsible for security in Gaza and most major West Bank cities, continued to act against Palestinian perpetrators of violence against Israel.” A State Department spokesperson told JNS.org, “We stand behind the content of this report. In developing the report, on an annual basis we ask our embassies around the world for reports on the terrorist threat and incidents in their jurisdictions, along with their assessment of the performance of their host government. These submissions are then compiled and reviewed in Washington by the State Department, as well as other U.S. government agencies.” According to Ben-David, the role of embassies abroad in providing content for the reports is often part of the problem. Many U.S. diplomats in other countries suffer from “chronic clientitis,” meaning they “want to make their ‘client’ look good” and “fear losing access if they make their client look bad,” he said. One of the most “notorious cases” of this scenario, Ben-David said, was that of Edward Abington, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem from 1993 to 1997, who went almost directly “from his diplomatic posting to working as the PA’s foreign agent in Washington.” In 1999, Abington signed a three-year, $2.25 million contract to serve as the PA’s representative.

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s a child, I spent my summers at Camp Solomon Schechter, a Conservative Jewish camp in Tumwater, Wash., set on the shores of Lake Joshua Stampfer. My experiences at Camp Schechter were central to the development of my Jewish identity and eventual decision to immigrate to Israel. Each day began at “the flagpole.” Kicking off every morning, hundreds of sleepy-eyed campers and counselors from all around the Pacific Northwest strolled to the flagpoles, where we would circle up around the American, Canadian and Israeli flags. Just as everyone circled up, the Israeli “scouts” (young Israeli counselors) would lead us in a morning song. “Bo-bo-bo-boker tov!” they sang, meaning “Good morning!” in Hebrew. Additional Hebrew songs, the American and Canadian national anthems, and of course, the Israeli national anthem “Hatikvah” would follow. Camp Schechter was founded on Zionist principles and served as a safe haven to build Jewish community for many campers who might be the only Jews in their schools and hometowns. But to my dismay, this safe haven was shaken last week when the Palestinian flag was raised over the campgrounds. I can only imagine the outrage among my thousands of fellow Camp Schechter alumni. First reported by The Mike Report, a blog that focuses on Jewish news in the Pa-

tionally charged act, especially for visiting Israeli counselors who have vivid memories of war and Palestinian terrorism. In the latest major attack, a Palestinian terrorist broke into a home in Halamish and killed three members of a Jewish family that was celebrating Shabbat. For Israelis, the Palestinian flag evokes a denial of the call in “Hatikvah” for the Jewish people to be a free in the land of Israel, as the Palestinian Authority government that represents the flag incites and pays terrorists who take that denial into their own hands. The camp’s move must also be viewed within the broader context of the way in which American Jewry is headed— namely, indifference and even a growing hostility toward Israel. Many Jews, especially in younger generations, distance themselves from Israel because they fear being associated with negative narratives about Israel, Zionism and too often, the Jewish people. By rejecting Israel or Judaism, they conform to gain acceptance in liberal circles—this phenomenon is especially prevalent in liberal communities in the Pacific Northwest. Therefore, we have an even greater responsibility to strengthen Jewish identity and unapologetic pride in our own backyard. As an alumna, I pray that Camp Solomon Schechter remains the same camp that shaped my Jewish identity and made me the unabashed Jew that I am today, living in the state of Israel. Eliana Rudee is a fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center.

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cific Northwest, Camp Schechter welcomed a group of Palestinian Muslims and Christians from a group called Kids4Peace to join the Jewish campers for the beginning of a new session. Like the overwhelming majority of Schechter alumni, I welcome the idea of dialogue and friendship, especially with Palestinian children and young adults. But for Israelis, this flag embodies hatred and violence toward Israelis and Jews, and without warning or authorization from campers, staffers and parents, raising it was beyond insensitive. After an avalanche of complaints, the Schechter administration sent out an email explaining that the flag was raised in a “teachable moment” as a sign of friendship, empathy and acceptance toward the Kids4Peace delegation. The camp administration admitted that the flag “was met with uncertainty by some campers and staff, especially the Israelis,” and said the flag was taken down for Shabbat “since there is no peace and also to relieve the sadness and anger that some feel by the site of the flag.” “We have not altered any part of camp; we remain unabashedly pro-Israel, and we are celebrating Israel alongside our new friends,” maintained the administration, which later sent out an apology for its “lapse in judgment.” From my vantage point as a Schechter alumna-turned-Israeli, I can tell you that raising a Palestinian flag is a politically and emo-

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THE JEWISH STAR August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777

Palestinian flag in Zionist safe space

Judaica...

“Yanky.” “It’s a little scary to be the only Judaica store left in Manhattan,” Levine said, adding that if Amazon takes more of a toll from the Judaica business, people “won’t be able to physically see these things and touch them.” Seltzer also shifted his business in an effort to stay afloat. He once sold 80 percent books and 20 percent Judaica. Now it’s 5050. The right side of the store looks largely like a standard-issue Jewish book shop: volumes from the Orthodox publisher ArtScroll sitting regally on the shelves next to specialty volumes on medical ethics, biblical geography and how to comfort mourners; a rack of prayer shawls in the back; a stack of framed Jewish wedding contracts up front. But the left side is an emporium of novelties made for an Orthodox Jewish clientele with money to spend. There are greeting cards embossed with menorahs, birthday wishes in Hebrew or “Welcome to your new yeshiva.” There’s a line of games from “Magical Mitzvah Park” to “Cholent, The Game!” (described as ‘the slow-cooking, fast-moving strategy card game”). At the front, a mesh sports shirt with rit-

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When he took over the store in 1980, 46 years after its founding, it was in a nearby location with 40 percent less space. Back then the rent was $1,100 a month — about $3,250 in 2017 dollars, still 86 percent lower than the current rent. Over the years he has hired family, employing his wife, mother, brother and brother-in-law. On Wednesday afternoon, three relatives talked in Yiddish as one wrapped a gift and another rang up one of the few customers in the store. Seltzer has considered moving about half a mile up Broadway, where he could pay $15,000 a month. But at 60, he doesn’t have the energy for another move and the costs it involves. He will begin a going out of business sale soon, and will close sometime after Hanukkah, near the end of the calendar year. And after that? Seltzer isn’t sure. If he gets an influx of revenue, he may change his mind, though Seltzer said he does not want to be “the boy who cried wolf.” More likely, he anticipates doing what most in his situation have done: Take his decades of experience and connections with publishers, and sell books and Judaica online. With the efficiency of shipping nowadays, Seltzer doesn’t even think he’ll need to keep an inventory. “You can have a big website, and you think they have everything,” he said. “They have nothing.”

Backpacks... Continued from page 1 region for more than 15 years, with around 11,000 backpacks assembled just last year. Organizers for this year’s drive anticipate that more than 900 backpacks will be assembled and distributed to local yeshivas on the South Shore, with more than 12,000 bags being given out across the greater metropolitan area. To meet the high demand for supplies, UJA has employed the help of local shuls and yeshivas in collecting items for the project. Donation boxes can be found at several participating shuls in and around the Five Towns. Supplies being requested include backpacks, new materials such as notebooks, paper and folders as well pencils, crayons and glue sticks. Donors are encouraged to contact their local shuls to learn more about what supplies are still needed. The summer-long drive will culminate with a community-wide project on Sunday, Aug. 13 at the HAFTR Middle School Gym, 33 Washington Ave. in Lawrence. The event, from 11 am to 12:30 pm, will involve the sorting of donations and the assembly of the backpacks. Adult and teenager volunteers are needed to help set up starting at 9:30 am. Children are welcome to take part in the sorting and compilation activities beginning at 11 am. For more information about the project

Rebbitzen Shani and Rivky Lefkowitz pack a bag at the 2014 drive. Janette Pellegrini

and how to volunteer, contact Irwin Gershon, Long Island UJA Tov B’Yachad director, at 516762-5818 or by email at supplies@ujafedny. org. The overall Supplies for Success drive is chaired by Mindy Richenstein. Tov B’Yachad supports UJA partner agencies including the Rina Shkolnik Kosher Food Pantry and spearheads mitzvah projects and other programs throughout the year.

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the rebbetzin’s legacy “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

ual fringes hangs in the window. Nearby is a lectern used by religious Jews for prayer or study. Long, twisting shofars dangle from the ceiling. But in many cases, Seltzer said, the variety doesn’t help. Customers will photograph items with their phones and then buy online. “I personally don’t think it’s ethical to take pictures, but my employees don’t want to be police,” he said. Local Jewish schools and synagogues still buy from West Side Judaica, though that business has also declined. Lisa Exler, director of Jewish studies for the nondenominational Beit Rabban Day School a couple blocks away, still buys some books from Seltzer. The school orders its prayer books and Pentateuchs directly from Koren Publishers Jerusalem, an Israeli company. But Exler turns to West Side Judaica for niche items, like collections of Bible commentaries or the small, blue, right-to-left workbooks traditionally used in Jewish schools. “They were super friendly, always happy to show me different books,” Exler said. When she was choosing among Bible commentaries, an employee “showed me there’s this version and that version, this has a better binding and lasts longer. He knows his merchandise, and took the time to make sure I was getting what the students needed.” Seltzer moved into the current location in the 1990s, when the internet wasn’t a threat.

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Continued from page 1 don’t know us personally because they use online [stores]. They don’t feel obligated.” Seltzer made the decision to close after an automatic rent increase in his lease kicked in three months ago. He said the rent, combined with declining sales due to competition from online retailers, made the business unprofitable. In the past decade, the store’s sales have been cut by more than half. For the first time in memory, Seltzer said, last week the store had a day with less than $1,000 in revenue — barely enough to make the new rent of $24,000 a month. He said he hasn’t taken home a salary in three months. “It’s an online world,” Seltzer said. “There’s no way I can pay $24,000 a month in rent and compete with someone online who’s selling without any of my expenses.” Daniel Levine, the fourth-generation owner of J. Levine’s, said he is not worried about meeting the same fate as West Side Judaica. Levine’s Midtown store has invested heavily in an online presence, including selling goods as a third party on Amazon. Between 2007 and 2012, Levine saw his revenue rise 20 percent. Since then, he said, it’s grown even more. Plus, Levine’s relatives own his shop’s building — so he said he pays half as much as Seltzer in rent. But Levine isn’t celebrating his newfound monopoly over Manhattan. He and Seltzer, separated by 50 city blocks, worked more as partners than competitors. They stayed in close touch and would send each other items when a customer asked for something that was out of stock. After speaking to me, Levine’s first call was to check in on Seltzer, whom he calls

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August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

By Ben Sales, JTA Six years ago, the Israeli government released a series of controversial ads to warn its expatriates that they would never feel at home in the United States. But last year, Israeli Cabinet members lined up to address a Washington conference celebrating Israeli-American identity. The ad campaign, which was pulled following a backlash from Israelis and Jews abroad, represented Israel’s traditional attitude toward citizens who left its borders. Emphasizing its image as the Jewish national homeland — and ever concerned about its Jewish-Arab demographic balance — Israel’s government has long encouraged Jews not only to move to Israel but to stay there. In 2014, then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid called Israelis who moved to Berlin “anti-Zionists.” But the parade of Israeli ministers who spoke at the 2016 conference of the IsraeliAmerican Council attested to a shifting reality: Whether the Israeli government likes it or not, the Israeli-American diaspora is real, growing and leaving its mark on the United States. Here are four things to know about the Israelis who live in the United States. No one knows how many Israelis live in the United States — but it could be a million. There’s no real way to know how many Israelis are living in the United States. Any first-generation child of Israelis is considered an Israeli citizen, and Israel can’t force its expatriates to register with their local consulate. Estimates of Israelis in America vary widely — from about 200,000 to as many as a million. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, some 250,000 Israelis acquired permanent residence in the United States between 1949 (when 98 Israelis left the infant state) to 2015 (which saw about 4,000 Israelis move stateside). But that number does not chart deaths or Israelis who moved back. The 2013 Pew Research Forum study on American Jews found a similar number: About 300,000 Jews in America were either

Celebrating Israel on Fifth Avenue in May.

born in Israel or born to an Israeli parent. In total, Pew found that first- or second-generation Israelis account for about 5 percent of American Jews. Even the Israeli government produces two different numbers. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reports that a little more than 500,000 Israelis in total moved abroad from 1990 to 2014 — and nearly 230,000 came back. But Israel’s U.S. Embassy told JTA that between 750,000 and 1 million Israelis live in the country. Adam Milstein, chairman of the Israeli-American Council, an umbrella group for Israelis here, told JTA that includes 400,000 children born to an Israeli parent. In recent years, Israel has lost more people to the United States than it has gained. From 2012 to 2015, according to Homeland Security, 17,770 Israelis took up residence in the United States. During that span, fewer than 13,000 people made the move from the United States to Israel. They are centered in New York and Los Angeles. Israelis tend to go where the Jews are. Milstein estimates that about 250,000 Israelis each live in the Los Angeles and New York

City metro areas, which also boast the two largest Jewish communities in the United States. Smaller concentrations of Israelis (and Jews) live in South Florida, Chicago and San Francisco. Those cities, in turn, have developed a range of services for their Israeli diasporas. Israel’s Immigrant Absorption Ministry maintains Israeli Houses in nine American cities that host cultural events and political activism. The Israeli-American Council has chapters in 15 cities. And communities boast active Facebook groups: “Israelis in New York” includes 18,000 members. The cities also provide ample opportunities for Israeli culture. Israeli cuisine is a staple of New York’s restaurant scene, from chef Einat Admony’s mini empire of eateries, to Dizengoff, an Israeli restaurant with branches in Philadelphia and New York. Aroma, the iconic Israeli coffee chain, has branches in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Miami. And Israeli musicians — from Idan Raichel to Shlomo Artzi to Sarit Hadad — are never hard to find on New York’s concert scene. An adaptation of Israeli novelist David Grossman’s book “To the End of the Land” opened recently at the the annual Lincoln Center Festival. They come for education and work. Neither the Israeli Embassy nor the Israeli-American Council tracks why Israelis move to the U.S., but Milstein suspects it’s for professional and academic reasons. Israel’s small size means Israelis with college or advanced degrees often seek to advance their careers in places with more opportunities abroad. Israelis “don’t have the roots [of] someone whose family lived in Italy for 20 generations, or who lived in America for the last 150 years,” Milstein said. “The Jewish people, the most valuable asset they have is their brain. They can take their brain[s] anywhere.” Israel, conversely, has begun to worry about its “brain drain” recently. A 2013 study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that for every 100 Israeli scholars who stayed in Israel, 29 left for positions abroad in 2008.

The drain is happening in the tech industry, too: According to the Israeli Executives and Founders Forum, an Israeli tech association, there are nearly 150 Israeli startups in Silicon Valley. Israel still wants them back. Israel’s government may have recognized that it can’t bring back all the Israelis from the United States, but it’s still trying. The appeal is both emotional and economic. The 2011 ad campaign, for example, featured a series of shorts highlighting the Israeli-American cultural divide. In one, a child of Israelis in America, video chatting with Israeli grandparents, talks about the upcoming winter holiday of Christmas, not Hanukkah. In another, an Israeli woman comes home to commemorate Memorial Day in Israel with a candle — her American boyfriend mistakes it for romantic lighting. More recently, Israel has also laid out financial incentives to draw expatriates back, including a program set to launch later this year called “Returning at 70,” a reference to Israel’s 70th Independence Day in 2018. The Immigrant Absorption Ministry will provide returning Israelis with financial assistance for six months, and will even cover a portion of their salaries in order to ensure they can find work in their old-new home. The government is also offering free professional development courses and consulting. Israelis who have opened businesses stateside, meanwhile, will receive about $14,000 for the costs of relocating the business. And Israelis who move to the country’s underdeveloped northern and southern regions are eligible for grants as well as loans with low interest rates. But Milstein says that even with these programs, Israeli officials still understand that it’s better to embrace expatriates than shame them into coming home. “By trying to raise our guilt feeling, it backfired,” he said. “The State of Israel is getting to the realization that [our] being here, they can’t do too much about it. We can help the State of Israel a lot. They understand we can be their strategic asset.”

‘Becoming Israeli’ eyes challenges of coming home By Eliana Rudee, JNS.org “Becoming Israeli,” an anthology edited by Akiva Gersh, narrates the hysterical, inspiring and challenging sides of immigrating to Israel. The book unites the writing of 40 bloggers “whose words take readers on an adventure that evokes a wide range of emotions, from frustration to inspiration, from confusion to deep pride,” Gersh said. At the book’s official launch event July 23, Gersh sat on a panel with contributing authors who shared their unique reasons for making aliyah, the challenges they face while acclimating to a new language and culture, and why they would never want to live anywhere else. The common threads running through their stories were the many paradoxes of life in Israel, becoming a change agent rather than a bystander in the history of the Jewish people, and great optimism in the communal vision of bringing Jews back to their ancestral homeland. Benji Lovitt, a comedian, spoke of the paradox of finding his “creative high” during wartime, when he made light of the news headlines during the summer 2014 IsraelHamas conflict in Gaza. Although “it is perverse to have pleasure with war,” he said the 50-day war marked the height of his career because his work helped many people unite in humor and overcome trauma.

While Hilary Faverman recalled coming to Israel “kicking, screaming and sobbing on the plane,” Gersh said he needed to come back to Israel, a place filled with spirituality and meanAkiva Gersh ing, or else he would die. Chaya Lester detailed the mundane challenges she faces with her Hebrew, embarrassed by the fact that her 10-year-old child needs to read her bills for her, in contrast with the feeling that she is a vessel for the divine on a 2,000-year-old mission to give voice to the “prophetic return of the Jewish people to the land.” Gersh shared one reason for not moving back to America and simplifying his life is his children. “The knowledge that they are growing up in the world’s one Jewish state is reason enough to stay. … I have come to understand that my struggles and sacrifices are but the

birth pangs of a process much larger than myself,” he writes in the book. Yossi Klein Halevi, a prominent Americanborn Israeli journalist and author of the foreword to Gersh’s anthology, said the weight of being Israeli only hit home when his son entered the IDF. Describing one of the paradoxes of aliyah and life in Israel, he noted the high number of immigrants who arrived during the second Palestinian intifada— “the low of Israel, the moment where we were tearing ourselves apart into a dysfunctional society.” He identified his “happy place” in the Jewish state as the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, which is simultaneously “one of the most broken places in Israel,”

but where he feels “whole, rightness and a collection of souls of the Jewish people.” Gersh made aliyah in 2004, six years after his first visit to Israel at age 22. He is a blogger and a musician, and lives in the town of Pardes Hanna with his wife and four children. For the last 10 years, he has been teaching Jewish history and modern Israel at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, where he guides visiting high school students through the story of the Jewish people, mainly through excursions to historical, religious, cultural and ecological sites. The author recalled finding out about the Hamas terror group’s kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the summer of 2014, and the next day, bringing his students to the Masada landmark and telling them what happened. He said it was an intense moment when “everyone cried as if it were Tisha B’Av.” In that moment, Gersh found beauty through connecting the present to the Jewish people’s past, and leaving with a greater sense of unity and purpose. Indeed, Gersh said one of his broader goals in Israel, and a concept driven home by his aliyah-focused anthology, is to give voice to the “beauty in the brokenness.” Eliana Rudee is a fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Rudee is among the contributing authors in the book that is the subject of this article.

THE JEWISH STAR August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777

Why many more Israelis are moving to the USA

For oleh from Oregon, tunnel tours and Facebook By Renee Ghert-Zand, JTA Sponsored by Nefesh B’Nefesh

TEL AVIV — Capt. Libby Weiss spent most of the summer of 2014 in a Hamas tunnel. Israel’s military captured the tunnel, which extended from Gaza into Israel near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, during Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza. As a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, Weiss was tasked with showing the tunnel to journalists, and she was the first to bring foreign reporters into the claustrophobic space. Her inaugural tour went to Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. “It was really chilling to be inside there,” Weiss said. “There were empty potato chip bags and water bottles strewn about on the ground. It made you realize just how close the enemy was.” For the past six years, Weiss has been on call 24/7 for journalists from all over the world. Reporters turn to her when they want to film Israeli soldiers in action or need a quick comment from the IDF on breaking news. On Aug. 17, Weiss finally will be turning off her armyissued phone. At 29, she is stepping down from her post and retiring from the military. Born in the United States and raised in Portland, Oregon, she moved to Israel in her early 20s and enlisted in the army soon afterward. She didn’t have to join up — at age 23, she could have skipped military service — but the thought of foregoing army service didn’t even occur to her. “There was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to serve,” Weiss said. “I saw it as the basic responsibility of anyone who is a citizen, and it was also a way from me to adopt my Israeli identity.”

During Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, army Capt. Libby Weiss was the first to bring foreign reporters into the Hamas tunnels discovered linking Gaza to Israel.

She has worked in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit for practically her whole military career. Since March, Weiss has headed the international social media department, overseeing a team of 14 enlisted soldiers and one junior officer who produce viral content in English, Spanish and French. Their mission: tell the story of Israel’s army, and promote a positive image of an army that is often condemned by critics overseas. Working in a nondescript building in central Tel Aviv, the soldiers sit hunched over a bank of computers editing video footage shot in the field and uploading posts to the IDF blog and the army’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

and Snapchat accounts. Most of the soldiers in the division are immigrants — from North America, South America and France. “I was fascinated by the work and understood its importance from Day 1,” she said. Soon she was named head of the North American media department, where she spent four years. She quickly worked her way up to the rank of captain. Sometimes her work took her overseas. After the 2013 Philippines typhoon and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Weiss deployed with the IDF disaster relief delegations to those countries. On assignment abroad, Weiss witnessed some horrific sights — and some miracles. In Nepal, she saw a teenage boy trapped for many days under rubble pulled out alive and brought for treatment at the IDF field hospital. “He survived on a bottle of ghee, or clarified butter, that happened to be in an air pocket with him,” Weiss recalled. In the Philippines, Weiss was present for the birth of the first baby born in the IDF field hospital there. His parents named him Israel. “I became quite friendly with the family, and we are still in touch,” she said. Of all her army experiences, Israel’s war with Hamas in 2014 was the most challenging and demanding. Suddenly, Weiss found herself dealing with hundreds of journalists a day rather than with dozens. She did on-camera interviews 10, 20, sometimes 30 times a day. Often they were interrupted by air-raid sirens that sent Weiss and the reporters jumping into ditches to take cover from incoming rockets. Weiss said the war tested her ability to separate the personal from the professional. “When you are an Israeli citizen and there is a war, you feel involved. It’s here in your

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backyard. Then add to that being in a military uniform,” she said. Growing up as the youngest daughter of Israeli-born parents in Oregon, Weiss said she did not “know if I ever saw myself, at least back as a teenager, immigrating to Israel. But we definitely felt connected to Israel. It was part of our identity. I attended a Jewish day school and my parents spoke to us in Hebrew at home. We saw ourselves as Israeli Americans, and we were certainly Zionists.” After graduating from Northwestern University in 2010 with a degree in political science, Weiss spent a year participating in the Israel Government Fellows, a selective MASA Israel program run by the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. Midway through the year, she decided to make Israel her permanent home, and officially made aliyah once the program ended. Because she was an Israeli citizen from birth due to her parents, all she needed to do to immigrate was go to the Interior Ministry, show her Israeli passport and receive an Israeli identity card. “Here I was making the biggest decision I had made thus far, and maybe the biggest I will ever make, and it took me 15 minutes and was the least painful bureaucratic process I had experienced in Israel,” Weiss recalled. Nevertheless, she feels she missed out on the powerful emotional experience that North American immigrants get by taking an aliyah flight organized by Nefesh B’Nefesh alongside dozens of other new immigrants with a oneway ticket to the Jewish state. “I think I would have enjoyed the significance of deplaning and having the community that welcomes you the minute you touch Israeli soil,” she said. “That underscores and See Tunnel tours on page 9

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By Adam Abrams, JNS.org The Trump administration has reportedly reached a new contract with the Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems to implement advanced security systems on the U.S. border with Mexico, similar to the security technology utilized along Israel’s borders. According to reports that emerged last weekend in Israeli media, an American delegation recently visited Israel to tour the country’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Delegation members were pitched on a “smart border” security concept to be implemented along the U.S.-Mexico border. A border fence between Israel and Egypt. The plan reportedly involves the Tiia Monto via Wikimedia Commons construction of observation towers and many Palestinian terror attacks inside Israel, the implementation of cutting-edge technology—including highly advanced sen- while a fence constructed along the Israelisors as well as monitoring and communica- Egyptian border in the Sinai desert has helped tions systems—to combat illegal border infil- reduce the number of African migrants illegally entering the Jewish state. Israel has tration from above and below ground. During his 2016 election campaign, Presi- also started the construction of a $77 million dent Donald Trump lauded Israel’s border fence along its border with Jordan. “President Trump is right, I built a wall security expertise when commenting on his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. along Israel’s southern border. It stopped “You could ask Israel about walls that work. all illegal immigration. Great success. Great Believe me, walls work,” Trump told a rally in idea,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in January 2016, drawing ire Atlanta in February 2016. “Elbit Systems of America was awarded from Mexico’s foreign ministry. Under the purported new contract, Elbit’s [contracts for] two parts of the [U.S.-Mexico] border and what happened last week was U.S. branch would implement its Integrated that one of the parts was accepted by the Fixed Tower (IFT) border security system customer,” an Israel-based representative of along several-hundred miles of Arizona’s borElbit Systems, who asked not to be named, der with Mexico, and the system would gradually expand to other areas of the U.S.-Mexico told JNS.org. The 3,360-mile-long border between border. Elbit would also provide U.S. authorithe U.S. and Mexico crosses varying types ties with sophisticated surveillance equipof terrain—including, deserts, mountains ment, including advanced radars and cameras and plains—and sees some 200,000 people fitted to sensor towers situated along the borcross illegally into America each year. Fur- der. The systems would provide border patrol ther, Mexican drug cartels net an estimated agents with 24/7 surveillance capabilities and $19–$29 billion a year on narcotics smuggled a cohesive view of the security scenario. According to a July 24 statement released into the U.S., often through dozens of underby Elbit Systems of America, the first stages ground tunnels beneath the border. The cartel tunnels running beneath the of the IFT system have already been conU.S.-Mexico border are similar to tunnels structed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The system was reportedly approved by dug by the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas under the border with Israel. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Hamas’s tunnels are used to smuggle weap- in July and implemented in Douglas, Ariz., ons into Gaza and to launch attacks inside marking Elbit’s “second successful deployment of the system, with the first occurring the Jewish state. The Israeli security fence along the border in the Nogales, Arizona,” according to the Iswith the disputed territories has prevented raeli company.

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Tunnel tours... Continued from page 8 reinforces what a big decision it is, that you are now joining — or rejoining — the Israeli people.” Nefesh B’Nefesh honored Weiss last month with its 2017 Bonei Zion Young Leadership Award. She also received numerous other awards during her military career, including the prestigious Presidential Award of Excellence in 2014. Weiss’ parents and older siblings all still live in the United States. They say they are proud of Weiss. “Once Libby moved to Israel, it didn’t really surprise us that much that she joined the military,” said her brother, Gil, a Chicago physician. “She had a strong sense of wanting to

do what was required of her peers and to carry out that responsibility.” As she begins this next life chapter, Weiss says she has no regrets — either about her time in the army or her decision to move to Israel. “I see myself as both American and Israeli, and I am appreciative of both countries,” she said. This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Nefesh B’Nefesh, which in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah, the Jewish Agency, KKL and JNFUSA is minimizing the professional, logistical and social obstacles of aliyah, and has brought over 50,000 olim from North America and the United Kingdom over the last 15 years.

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Great wines have Israelis toasting settlements Continued from page 1 ed exponential increases in production since the early 2000s, with most of their wines being sold in Israel. Berg said his Psagot Winery produced about 300,000 bottles of wine last year and sold about 65 percent of them locally — a hundredfold increase since it opened in 2003. Berg described the flourishing of Jewish life, and viticulture, in the Judea and Samaria as an affirmation of the righteousness of the Zionist project to return Jews to their biblical homeland after two millennia in the Diaspora. That message, he said, has borne fruit. “The land wouldn’t accept someone else. She waited for her sons to come back,” he said in an interview at his winery. “Wine is the best thing to happen to Judea and Samaria. It’s a very good tool. When people come here to drink, they get to know us and they see how we live. It makes a huge difference. Huge.” uring the reign of the ancient Jewish kingdoms, wine was a major agricultural product of the Levant. When the Ottomans captured Palestine in the 16th century, centuries after the Jews lost sovereignty, wine production stopped almost entirely and was only renewed by Jewish immigrants starting in the second half of the 19th century. Berg works closely with pro-settlement leaders and other winemakers in Judea and Samaria. The Psagot Winery shares a modern limestone and glass building with the local Binyamin Regional Council’s visitor center, where tourists enjoy wine and cheese with a sweeping view of the Jordan Mountains. Tura Winery, near the Israeli university town of Ariel, hosts hundreds of tour groups every year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a guest. A busload of activists from Israel’s ruling Likud party was among more than a dozen Israeli groups that arrived on a single day recently. At the end of a visit, they raised glasses of Tura’s Mountain Vista rose and toasted, “To good wine, to the Likud, to Judea and Samaria!” According to Ariel Handel, a political geographer at Tel Aviv University who has studied Israel’s rule of the territories for 15 years, wine is part of a relatively new strategy to “normalize” the settlements. In recent years, inspired by Israel’s wine-soaked assimilation of the Golan Heights, the settlement movement has shifted away from its decades-long campaign to win over Israelis to its worldview. Instead, it has touted Judea and Samaria as just another region of Israel — one full of development, leisure activities and, of course, wineries. “A huge change came after the disengagement from Gaza in 2005,” Handle said, referring to Israel’s evacuation of the Jewish settlements there. “Settlers understood they need to find ways into Israeli public opinion other than talking about security and the Bible. They started to focus on tourism and selling the West Bank as a place of quality of life, as a kind of Tuscany or Burgundy.” This approach has played into long-term political, economic and social trends that have blurred the line between Israel proper and the settlements in Judea and Samaria. Israel has not claimed sovereignty over Judea and Samaria since capturing it from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. But during a half-century of military rule over the territory, successive governments have encouraged the growth of settlements, which much of the world considers illegal and an impediment to the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel disputes this and has its own complex and evolving laws regarding what makes a settlement legal. early 400,000 Jews live in Judea and Samaria , not including eastern Jerusalem. Most of the settlers are concentrated in large urban centers, some with colleges, shopping malls and high-tech centers. Settlers, many of whom chose to live in the West Bank for nonideological reasons, benefit from Israeli rule of

Vered Ben-Sa’adon at the Tura Estates Winery.

law and infrastructure. They easily commute to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem via Israeli highways. While many Israelis are sympathetic toward the settlers, large numbers are simply unclear about the status of the West Bank. A recent study showed that about half of Israeli Jews think the territory is formally part of Israel or are not sure. When asked about eight particular Judea and Samaria communities, a majority of respondents could not correctly identify them as settlements. Palestinian Canaan Khoury, whose family owns the Taybeh Winery located between Psagot and Rahelim, said he relies on “the mercy” of settlers for access to water for his vineyards, for which he pays a higher rate than the Jewish residents, he says. Khoury said Israel also imposes high electricity costs, delays importing needed equipment and confiscates land. Khoury rejected the idea that only Jews are able to produce wine in the region, calling it “another justification for the occupation.” He said the Palestinian Christians in the village of Taybeh have been making wine for personal consumption for generations. His winery opened in 2013 as an offshoot of the famous Taybeh Brewery founded by his family in 1994. Despite the challenges, he said it produces about 30,000 bottles a year, up to 80 percent of which is sold in Israel and the West Bank. “It’s not like making wine in California. It’s a very difficult experience. The challenges we face are challenges you don’t even think about when making wine anywhere else in the world,” said Khoury, who studied brewing at the University of California, Davis. “But it is rewarding. When you wake up, you get to enjoy a glass of wine. People appreciate and say good things about the work you do. It’s definitely worth it.” ust as the vast majority of Jewish wineries in Judea and Samaria do not employ Palestinians — because of kashrut rules, Zionist ideology and mistrust — all of Taybeh Winery’s employees are Palestinians. Meanwhile, owners of settlement wineries said they have seen new acceptance in Israel in just the past few years. International boycotts of the country have had little effect on business, and seem to have only helped rally Israelis to their defense, they said. When Vered Vered Ben-Sa’adon, a member of the local Samaria Regional Council, opened the Tura Winery with her husband in 2003, she said they struggled to find willing distributors and sellers for her wine. These days, she said, she cannot keep up with local demand. Vered Ben-Sa’adon said she has increased production from about 26,000 bottles to about 80,000 in the past three years, selling 60 percent in Israel. It helped that in 2013, the Israeli government retroactively recognized Rahelim, the formerly illegal outpost that hosts her winery.

“Ten years ago they ignored me. Now they can’t,” Vered Ben-Sa’adon said in an interview at her winery. “I’m a big part of business in Israel. I know all the journalists and politicians. We’re having too much success and making too much noise.” In addition to selling wine to restaurants, stores and distributors, Vered Ben-Sa’adon said Tura supplies grapes to some 30 Israeli wineries. Even wine sellers in Tel Aviv, the center of Israel’s culinary scene and a bastion of the political left, have come around. Itzik Carmel, the owner of some of the city’s highest-end restaurants, including Messa, recently started buying wines from Tura and other wineries in Judea and Samaria. As long as the settlements are recognized by Israel, Carmel said, he opposes boycotting them. He said most of his colleagues feel the same way. Anyway, Carmel said the primary concern for him and most restaurateurs is quality, and West Bank wines are excellent.

“The climate and terroir [natural environment] of some of the places there are incredibly good, and the wines are very nice — very, very nice. For me as a wine lover and wine seller, this is the only thing that matters,” Carmel said. “When I learned that some of Tel Aviv restaurateurs were not buying from Judea and Samaria for political reasons, I was shocked, and I decided to do something about it.” Yair Gath, a wine critic for the Israel Hayom, agreed that Judea and Samaria is “one of the best, maybe the best” regions where Israelis are growing wine. Many have won accolades at international wine tasting competitions, he said, singling out the Psagot and Tura wineries for praise. But while Gath writes about settlement wines in his newspaper column, he refuses to include them in “The New Israeli Wine Guide,” which he has published with wine consultant Gal Zohar since 2014. Like many of his friends in the Tel Aviv wine world, he said, Gath is morally and politically opposed to the settlement movement. “In my private project, if I disagree with someone, I can choose if I want to taste his wine or not. It’s freedom of speech,” he said. “I think it’s wrong that they’re sitting over there, and I don’t feel comfortable to bring them into my home, into my bedroom for intimate tastings.” In 2015, Vered Ben-Sa’adon sparked a media firestorm against Gath’s wine guide, with prosettlement politicians inveighing against him and Zohar. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told Israel’s Channel 2 that amid international efforts to delegitimize Israel, “Those who take such actions act as agents of the Palestinian propaganda against Israel, and we must condemn and remove these elements from our midst.” Saadon and Gath agreed that they have since achieved a kind of détente. “We talk about our views on the settlements a lot. We have really good talks,” Gath said. “She’s doing wrong in my eyes. I’m doing wrong in her eyes. Let’s live together. There’s no other option in this country.”

Fleishik festival in Phili By Daniel Maron Famous for its namesake cheesesteaks, Philadelphia might be one of the last places you’d expect to find a Kosher barbecue smackdown. That, however, is what patrons can expect on Sunday, Aug. 27, at the first Ha NaGrillah Smoke BBQ Festival in the city of brotherly love. The Philadelphia event is the first of its kind in the mid-Atlantic region, joining kosher BBQ competitions in Dallas, Kansas City and Memphis. As at the other festivals, Ha NaGrillah’s offerings will extend far beyond food to include a range of family-friendly activities including a children’s science fair, mechanical bull, arts and crafts stations, live music, bourbon and scotch tastings, and a pickle-eating contest. The BBQ competition will include over 20 teams from across the country with participants hailing from places ranging from Long Island to Florida and Crown Heights to St. Louis. Each team will be tasked with grilling up such delicious dishes as brisket, short ribs, turkey and chicken thighs. Entries will be evaluated by four celebrity judges. Other flavorful foods will be available from

local vendors as well as Ari White of “Wandering Q” fame who will be grilling his award-winning famous fleishik dishes. Keystone-K will provide kosher certification for the event. “The mission of the event is to bring the Jewish members of all sects within our community together with beer, barbecue and music” organizer Stuart Gordon told The Jewish Star. “We want to strengthen the heart our community.” Proceeds from the event will benefit the Mitzvah Food Project of the Jewish Federation of Philadelphia. Kosher canned food donations to the food bank will be accepted at the event. With organizers anticipating over 3,000 attendees, visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance and arrive early for a good parking spot. The festival, a project of the Men’s Club of Temple Beth Hillel Beth El in Wynedwood, is certified by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. Overnight accommodations at local hotels for out of town guests are available at group rates. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit phillykosherbbq.com.

For Jerry on Tisha B’Av, a personal note A

s I sit down to write this week’s column, I’m thinking about what I will eat before and after the fast (I’d rather not think about the fasting part). Jerry, on the other hand, experiences complex paradoxical feelings when reflecting on Tisha B’Av and Shabbat Nachamu. In Jerry’s family the Pesach Sedar and Tisha B’Av recall the profound anguish and incalculable loss his parents and their families suffered in the fires of Auschwitz, which inexorably continue to burn in their most intimate memories. When Jerry was very young, and his family was in Turkin’s Bungalow Colony, his Uncle Bernie would shepherd Jerry and all the children in his extended family to a Chassidish colony to listen to Eicha. Of course Jerry couldn’t manage to sit quietly inside, and was ushered outside almost immediately — where he was accosted by a group of Chassidish boys his age who called him a goy. Jerry was beside himself. A fight ensued and Jerry was able to convince them of the error of their ways. He got the biggest one in a headlock and he confessed that Jerry was in fact Jewish. In Camp Raleigh, as in most camps, Tisha B’Av is commemorated by a fascinating display of burning fires on the lake and during torchlit processions while sad songs are sung. On his first Tisha B’Av in camp he began to cry inconsolably. After Eicha and when his counselors and camp staff attempted to console him, he told them that he was crying because he had no grandparents as they were burned in the crematorium in Auschwitz. Jerry’s mom, from the time he was very young, shared with him much of what she had gone through in Auschwitz and inculcated him with the indelible horror she had witnessed. erry went to Israel for the first time in the summer of 1973 on a tour. He remembers going to the Kotel on Tisha B’Av and looked at the myriad of notes placed between the stones written to reach out to Hashem and express deeply felt feelings or requests for help. As he was told that this was the best place to reach out to Hashem, Jerry pondered what to do. His parents’ were from deeply pious Chassidic families in Europe. He remembers his mom telling him that on what they thought was Kol Nidrei night the members in his mother’s barracks wanted to daven to Hashem to save them. They believed that by reciting Kol Nidrei with great kavanah their voices would be heard by Hashem and perhaps he might save them. One of the girls from the barracks next door was a chazzan’s daughter. She had a beautiful voice and knew the words and timeless melody of Kol Nidrei, and she agreed to lead them. Once she began to sing, the girls in Jerry’s mother’s barracks attempted to join her. However instead of singing they began to wail inconsolably what they felt couldn’t be properly expressed in words. Perhaps Jerry thought they wailed in the

haunting tune of Eicha, rather than the riveting and incomparably beautiful Kol Nidrei nigun; perhaps this reflected the dichotomy of attempting to emotionally reconcile the tragedy reflected in Eicha and the joy of Shabbat Nachamu commemorated just a few days later. Jerry’s parents and many other family members were not fully observant after the war; still other family members lost their faith entirely as they could not comprehend Hashem’s silence during the Holocaust as they and their families were fully observant before the war and nevertheless were not protected. His parents and uncles and aunts, after years of cathartic healing, slowly began

to resuscitate and then finally fully revitalize their spirituality, and the piety and spirituality which they felt in their parent’s homes and Shabbat tables. Their nechama proved to encompass a lengthy, complex, multi-layered process. erry decided not insert a note of bakasha (a request) between the Kotel stones. He realized that he loved being Jewish, loved Israel and loved Hashem and didn’t want to potentially tarnish how he felt that day by asking for things or outcomes. He determined to keep his love and faith in Hashem simple as he believes his parents had which perhaps proved to be the impetus for the rebirth of their faith. Since by the time you are reading this, Tisha B’Av is over and we can now resume eating meat, I’d like to share this simple and delicious recipe for grilled lamb chops that are made indoors, with an outdoor grill flavor. Recipe and photo courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis. Ingredients: 2 large garlic cloves, crushed 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves Pinch cayenne pepper Coarse sea salt 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 6 lamb chops, about 3/4-inch thick Directions: In a food processor fitted with a metal blade add the garlic, rosemary, thyme, cayenne, and salt. Pulse until combined. Pour in olive oil and pulse into a paste. Rub the paste on both sides of the lamb chops and let them marinate for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator and allow the chops to come to room temperature; it will take about 20 minutes. Heat a grill pan over high heat until almost smoking, add the chops and sear for about 2 minutes. Flip the chops over and cook for another 3 minutes for medium-rare and 3-1/2 minutes for medium.

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August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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Stage considers Tchaikovsky’s Jewish problem By Tom Tugend, JTA LOS ANGELES — While researching his latest one-man show, “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” Hershey Felder — a playwright, actor and composer who has brought the loves, torments and soaring music of some of the world’s greatest composers to the stage — faced a moral question. Does towering talent exculpate a composer, or any artist, for a racist or anti-Semitic remark, even at a time and place where such comments were commonplace? The answer isn’t simple. “This is a very complicated matter,” Felder, 49, who was raised in a Yiddish-speaking home in Canada, told JTA in a phone interview. In a letter written in 1878, Pyotr (Peter) Ilyish Tchaikovsky wrote that when his train stopped at a Russian railroad station, he noticed “a mass of dirty Yids, with that poisoning of the atmosphere which accompanies them everywhere.” “Tchaikovsky was a man of the 19th century, when the intelligentsia in Russia and other European countries was antiSemitic almost by reflex,” said Felder, whose father survived Auschwitz. By way of analogy, Felder noted that George Gershwin, living in New York and Los Angeles, commonly referred to his 1925 one-act jazz opera “Blue Moon,” the predecessor to “Porgy and Bess,” as his “nigger opera.” Although considered extremely offensive now, in the 1920s and ‘30s — when Al Jolson regularly performed in blackface — such an appellation, while certainly derogatory, hadn’t become what journalist Farai Chideya has called “the nuclear bomb of racial epithets,” at least among most white Americans. “Porgy and Bess” premiered in New York in 1935 with an all-black cast, and is still embraced by many African-American performers. Did Gershwin’s use of the epithet mean that he was racist? Felder asked. Answering his own question, he said, “We can’t correct or apologize for history, and I don’t feel that I have to go into that aspect [of Tchaikovsky’s life] in my stage presentation.” Also, Felder added, Tchaikovsky’s putdown of “Yids” was countered by his actions. He provided a scholarship from his own pocket for the young Jewish violinist Samuli Litvinov; he

mance in St. Petersburg in 1893, and he died suddenly nine days later at 53. Initially, his death was attributed to cholera, but a widespread belief persists that Tchaikovsky committed suicide. As for Felder, he has steadily added to his repertoire of one-man musical bio-dramas over the past 22 years. His productions have celebrated the lives and works of classical giants Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt, as well as more contemporary (and Jewish) composers Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein. In “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” audiences get a generous sampling Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s works include six symphonies and three piano concertos, only two of which are finished, a violin concerto and 11 operas. At right: Hershey Felder as Pyotr Tchaikovsky in his of the Russian master’s work, from such favorites as the “1812 Overlatest show, “Our Great Tchaikovsky.” Hulton Archive/Getty Images and Hershey Felder Presents ture,” selections from “The Nutmaintained a deep friendship with composer-conductors Anton cracker” and “Swan Lake,” to the and Nikolai Rubenstein; and he defended Felix Mendelssohn little-known “Jurisprudence March.” against Richard Wagner’s anti-Semitic slurs. Not all reviews of Felder’s presentations have been ecstatic, What Tchaikovsky feared most was that he would be outed but most have been highly laudatory — especially compared to as a homosexual, Felder said, which would have ruined him the sharp criticism that many of Tchaikovsky’s works received and led to likely exile in Siberia. To scotch rumors, Tchaikovsky in his lifetime. married — an idea that would prove disastrous. The union The current run of “Tchaikovsky” was extended for a third lasted less than three months and the ex-spouse would extort week, to Aug. 13, even before the July 19 opening at the Wallis blackmail payments for a lifetime. Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. The The composer’s struggle with his homosexuality — com- show will move to the Hartford Stage in Connecticut, Aug. 19-27. pounded by his fear of exposure — is a central motif through In late September and early October, Felder will return to Felder’s performance. While Felder uses a Russian-inflected ac- London for overlapping runs as Berlin and Bernstein at the cent while speaking as Tchaikovsky, he reverts to his own voice Other Palace, a theater in the West End. After that, Felder said and accent when denouncing the discrimination and persecu- he will select one final composer, not yet chosen, as the final tion suffered by gay men in Russia, then as now. entry in his lineup of one-man concert plays. The same struggle also is reflected in Tchaikovsky’s music, He then expects to concentrate on creating his own composiFelder said, nowhere more clearly than in his Sixth Symphony, tions, which currently include the “Aliyah” concerto, the opera the “Pathetique.” The composer conducted its premier perfor- “Noah’s Ark” and a recording of love songs from the Yiddish theater.

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Middle East Media Research Institute translated it and published a transcript. In MEMRI’s translation, Shahin calls to “liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews. Oh Allah, destroy those who closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque. … Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one.” Both MEMRI translators and those who took issue with MEMRI’s translation found that Shahin’s direct reference to “Jews” was disturbing. They particularly took issue with Shahin for peddling an interpretation of the hadith — the saying of Muhammad — that casts Jews as villains in envisioning the end days. Seth Brysk, director of ADL’s San Francisco Office, said in a statement, “We welcome Imam Shahin’s apology and his clear recognition that hateful words have consequences. This is an important first step, but it is only the beginning of a journey that he needs to make in restoring confidence in his religious leadership and his understanding of the roots of anti-Semitism.” —JTA

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A California imam who accused Jews of “desecrating” the mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and seemingly called for their annihilation has apologized. “I said things that were hurtful to Jews. This was unacceptable,” Ammar Shahin of Davis said at a news conference on Friday. “I am deeply sorry for the pain I have caused. The last thing that I would do is intentionally hurt anyone, Muslim, Jewish or otherwise. It is not in my heart.” A national Muslim umbrella group, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, had earlier denounced the sermon. “We are disturbed deeply by the remarks of an imam from the Islamic Center of Davis during a sermon (khutba), which is meant to be a spiritual and uplifting speech before the congregational prayer every Friday,” said the statement posted by the Muslim council. “Instead, the sermon turned into a tirade against Jews by misquoting a saying (hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad.” The sermon drew controversy after the

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August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Ben Sales, JTA If Jared Kushner is the only person who can deliver Middle East peace — as his father-in-law Donald Trump said — he comes off as a reluctant savior. In a speech delivered Monday to a group of congressional interns and leaked to the media, Kushner expounded on the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace. What emerged was an outlook that at once was resolutely pro-Israel and skeptical of the chances of success. “So what do we offer that’s unique? I don’t know,” Kushner said in his seven-minute answer to an intern’s question in a recording obtained by Wired magazine. “And we’re trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there’s a solution. And there may be no solution, but it’s one of the problem

sets that the president asked us to focus on.” In the speech, Kushner sounds unenthused to be handling the peace process. He opens his answer by saying “this is one of the ones I was asked to take on,” and becomes more pessimistic from there, criticizing Israeli and Palestinian leaders for being mired in history and unable to let go of minor provocations. “You know everyone finds an issue, that ‘you have to understand what they did then,’ and ‘you have to understand that they did this,’” Kushner said. “But how does that help us get peace? Let’s not focus on that. We don’t want a history lesson. We’ve read enough books.” He also made some questionable claims. Kushner said that “not a whole lot has been accomplished over the last 40 or 50 years we’ve been do-

ing this,” apparently dismissing Israeli peace pacts with Egypt and Jordan, the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Then he said “the variables haven’t been changed much” — something that both Israeli and Palestinian officials would fiercely dispute. Israelis charge that their withdrawals from territory have been met only with terror and incitement, while the Palestinians claim growing Israeli settlements are making a Palestinian state near impossible. Aaron David Miller, who worked on the peace process in Republican and Democratic administrations, said he appreciated Kushner’s skepticism while adding that his dismissal of history is misguided. In describing recent events, Kushner displayed a pro-Israel stance — unsurprising given that he was

raised in pro-Israel Jewish day schools and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once slept in his childhood bed. Kushner did not speak of the two-state solution in his answer. He defended Israel’s decision to erect metal detectors as “not an irrational thing to do,” although Palestinians decried the move and said the security measures made them feel like suspects at their own holy site. He criticized a Palestinian imam for forbidding worshippers from passing through the metal detectors. And in recounting fatalities during the weekend of violence that followed the detectors’ placement, Kushner listed only the Israelis — including three members of an Israeli family stabbed to death in their home by a Palestinian terrorist — and did not mention the Palestinians.

Trump is thinking of breaking the Iran deal How he could do it By Ron Kampeas, JTA ampaigning last year for the presidency, Donald Trump said the Iran nuclear agreement was the “worst deal” he had ever seen. It was never exactly clear, however, what he intended to do about it. Appearing at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference in March 2016, Trump said in the same speech that he planned to “dismantle” and “enforce” it. As president, Trump appears to be edging toward dismantling. His administration recertified Iran’s adherence to the deal in mid-July, but it reportedly took the better part of a day for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to convince Trump to go along. Trump said afterward that he likely would not recertify by the next deadline, in mid-October. And within days of recertification, Foreign Policy reported that Trump had set up a special White House team to provide him with a path out of the deal, seemingly sidelining Tillerson, a champion of recertification. Among those on the team: Trump’s top strategic adviser, Steve Bannon, and one of his deputies, Sebastian Gorka, both known for seeking to diminish America’s commitments to international alliances. Every path out has its perils. The signatories to the 2015 deal, which trades sanctions relief for Iran’s rollback of its nuclear program, are Iran on one side and the United States, France, Britain, German, China and Russia on the other. Key to the success of any American pullout is to what degree its four partners —and other major trading partners with Iran, like South Korea and India — join in. Should the United States walk away from the deal, the dilemma for those countries is what costs more: alienating the United States by keeping up trade with Iran, or angering domestic economic interests by going along with tough U.S. sanctions on the oil-rich country. The less persuasive the Trump administration case is for pulling out, the likelier it is that other nations would not cooperate and would continue to do business with Iran — setting the stage for increased U.S. isolation on the world stage. “Europeans may look to contingency and fallback options if the United States unreasonably undermines the deal,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow for the Middle East and North Africa Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. n a conference call organized by J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group that backed the deal, Geranmayeh said European officials were planning to stage an all-out effort to keep the Trump administration from bolting. “The challenge in the next three months is keeping the United States and the Trump character personally with keeping the deal,” she said. “In the next 90 days you’ll see a lot of activity on the Hill, in the State Department” by European diplomats. Mark Dubowitz, who directs the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a group that opposed the deal, said the Europeans would likely stick with the alliance, especially if the Trump administration’s aim was not to quit the deal but to reconfigure it. “I don’t think Europeans are going to risk a transatlantic war with the administration, particularly if the administration is not looking to abrogate the deal but to improve it by addressing some of the flaws of the existing JCPOA,” he said, referring to the formal name of the pact, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. ere is a look at the possible paths out of the Iran deal for the U.S. and what the likely consequences would be. Just walk away U.S. assessments of Iranian adherence to the deal are governed by a law passed in 2015 with bipartisan backing, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. Under the act’s broad language, there may be room for the president to stop waiving sanctions on Iran simply because he sees the deal as inadequate. Parts of the law require Iran’s adherence with the JCPOA, but others are more fungible and depend on what

Candidate Donald Trump speaking with journalists at a rally against the Iran nuclear deal at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 9, 2015 Getty

the president determines are U.S. national security interests. Under those circumstances, Trump has three options: •Go to the joint commission governing the JCPOA and seek to have Iran declared not in compliance. The committee has eight members — the United States, Iran, Russia, Britain, France, China, Germany and the European Union, and decisions need a 5-3 vote. Obama pitched this arrangement as a guaranteed escape hatch because five partners at the time agreed on red lines: the United States, the three European countries and the EU. Trump’s policy of distancing the United States from some aspects of the European alliance — the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, for instance — means that comity is no longer guaranteed. He would need a substantive argument that Iran is not complying — not just that he thinks the deal is bad one. •Exercise the U.S. option to trigger the “snapback” of international sanctions. Under this complex mechanism, the U.S. veto on the United Nations Security Council would prevent other parties from reversing the snapback and the whole deal would effectively be dead. Busting the deal just on Trump’s say-so could exacerbate tensions with U.S. allies, experts said, and drive the other partners to establish a separate arrangement with Iran. “It will be difficult for the Europeans to defy Trump because of the close security and economic relations the Europeans have with the United States,” Geranmayeh said. “At the same time, I don’t think we should underestimate the European capacity to do so.” •Stop waiving sanctions, but don’t blow up the deal. This would have the advantage of satisfying Trump’s call to exit the deal while avoiding, for now, a direct confrontation with U.S. allies, who would continue to do business with Iran under the terms of the deal. What’s uncertain is whether the United States would enforce secondary sanctions — that is, punishing companies and individuals in allied countries that do business with sanctioned Iranian entities. Walk away, but explain why There are signs that Trump is ready to make the case to the international community that Iran is not in compliance as a predicate to pulling out. Here are some strategies: •Iran is not complying with the deal’s “spirit.” A day after Tillerson recertified the deal in April, Trump said at a news conference, “They are not living up to the spirit of the agreement, I can tell you that.”

The notion that Iran must abide by the deal’s “spirit” has been perpetuated for the most part by those who opposed the deal in the first place. The Obama administration, which brokered the deal, and its European partners do not see it this way: The deal, they say, was designed to remove the threat of a nuclear Iran as a means of more effectively confronting Iran in other arenas. “Show me in black and white where there’s a definition of the ‘spirit of the deal,’” Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, a group that promoted the deal, said in an interview. “The Obama administration was crystal clear that this is a nuclear deal, this is not a deal that affects Iranian behavior in other areas.” Another tack is to insist on more intrusive inspections of some Iranian military sites, which require Iranian consent under the deal. Getting backing among U.S. allies for this gambit would require persuasive evidence that Iran is violating the deal at these sites; that’s not necessarily a given. •Iran is not in compliance with the letter of the deal. This strategy was behind a letter last month by four Republican senators — Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and David Perdue of Georgia — urging Tillerson to declare Iran not in compliance with provisions of the deal. The letter noted reports that Iran had exceeded the limits of heavy water — needed to enrich uranium — allowed under the deal, and was operating more enrichment centrifuges than permitted. he excesses have been noted by the U.N. inspection agency charged with overseeing the deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, but have also been deemed not significant enough to declare Iran in violation — a posture the Obama administration embraced. Conservatives say this is typical of Iranian regime behavior, pushing the envelope as far as it can, and is dangerous. “What would be highly imprudent is to continue the Obama-era practice of offering sheepish and fainthearted certifications as a matter of course, hoping no one takes notice,” the senators’ letter said. One possible danger in pressing forward with such an approach: The international community, which places greater stock than the Trump administration does in international organizations, would see it as nitpicking and would side with the IAEA. •Provoke Iran into leaving the deal. Experts touted this strategy following Trump’s election but before he assumed office. It would involve abiding by the agreement, but increasing pressure through non-deal related sanctions, targeting Iran’s government for its missile testing and adventurism, and possibly increasing U.S. military presence in the region. According to this theory, the resulting pressure by Iranian hardliners on the government of President Hassan Rouhani, which favors the deal, would lead Iran to pull out. he problem with this idea, said Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and an Obama administration Middle East policy veteran, is that Trump has made it so clear he wants out of the deal that it would seem by now to be disingenuous — American allies would smell a set-up. “Nobody believes he’s acting in good faith,” Goldenberg said. Don’t quit deal — make case it must be reconfigured The Trump administration and Congress appear to be embracing this path for now, if only by default. Congress passed new sanctions last week targeting Iran’s non-nuclear activities, and Trump keeps tacking on sanctions by executive order. The strategy, as described by Dubowitz of the anti-deal Foundation for Defense of Democracies, would be to make the case that Iran is effectively violating the agreement. “You make it clear that they’ve been violating incrementally, but not egregiously — but you also make it clear the sum total ends up being egregious,” he said. “Then you waive the existing statutory sanctions but you impose very tough, economically painful non-nuclear sanctions that target Iran’s malign behavior.” That gives the United States and partners leverage to bring Iran back to the table and address the deal’s flaws, including sunset provisions that end some of the international oversight in 15 years.

THE JEWISH STAR August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777

Jared Kushner: ‘There may be no solution’

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Frum communities not immune from drug epidemic By Rabbi Dr. David Nesenoff, Founder Center for Jewish Addiction Rehabilitation The catastrophic numbers of drug users, deaths and overdoses only pale to the nightmare of a 90 percent relapse rate. This plague has not passed over the Jewish people. Does Judaism have anything to offer in the recovery of those battling addictions? Can poring over the weekly parsha, mumbling through Mincha prayers, tying tefillin, kindling candles and sitting in a Sukkah really be the magic pills to eradicating the epidemic of alcohol, drug, sex, food and gambling addictions? That may sound foolish, but don’t be so foolish to not understand that Yiddishkeit is indeed the exact shining key to unlocking the elusive chamber that contains the treasure to finally healing the addict forever. In reality, Judaism is the gateway solution — it helps to transform one’s life by discovering the actual purpose of why we are here. The addict is all about selfishness. It is a nasty, dangerous business of self-indulgent, hoggish, egocentric narcissism. The user is devout and devoted; it is his religion. And it’s not a two-day-a-year religion for him — he is orthodox about it. Every minute of the day he is either using or praying to be using. And he will sacrifice his own family, even his only son Isaac. He wants to be high and then get even higher; he wants to be the highest. Which essentially means no one and no thing can be

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mantra of some in the recovery world. But we are reminded recently of the commemoration of the prison release of the blessed soul of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Chabad Lubavitch Rebbe, also known as the the Friediker Rebbe, the Previous Rebbe. After being rescued from Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1940, the Friediker Rebbe arrived on the shores of New York. Upon reaching dry ground, he was told that the western world has dissimilar and divergent goals and purposes than his sacred old world books. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak firmly straightened up from his wheelchair and said, “America is nisht anderisht!” American is not different. From a righteous man, who understood what it took to be freed from a Soviet prison cell — who went on to lay the foundation for a global renaissance of Torah — we can learn that recovery “is nisht anderisht!” Recovery is also not different. We need Judaism. As Jews, we indeed do have tools that assist us from escaping from our imprisonment. We can rebuild our personal growth, the kind of unselfish growth that leads to discovering our very purpose in this world. Stopping addictive behavior is not about the end of a specific action; it is the complete love, loyalty and purposeful enthusiasm for a new all-consuming positive stimulant. Rabbi Dr. David Nesenoff has lectured in over

ZAKA adds kohanim unit for Temple Mt. attacks The ZAKA search and rescue organization has established a kohanim unit to respond to future attacks on the Temple Mount. Kohanim do not usually volunteer for ZAKA, since they are prohibited from coming into contact with dead bodies. Immediately after the July 14 attack, the ZAKA Rabbinical Council, headed by Avigdor Nebenzahl, rabbi of the Old City of Jerusalem, determined that a single volunteer should immerse in a mikvah and go to the Temple Mount to remove the dead bodies of the police and terrorists after instruction on areas of the site where Jews are forbidden to step. The rabbis also determined that in an emergency, sending a kohen was preferable to sending another Jewish volunteer, and if time permits sending a non-kohen who has immersed in a mikvah is the most preferable. So ZAKA established the volunteer team despite the kohanim’s prohibitions. —JTA

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higher. That is the goal and purpose of his life. Enter Judaism. The practices, Torah, texts, stories, deeds, and mystical teachings are all about negating one’s self-centered, ungenerous, greedy plots and plans. The negation occurs by serving others; and by serving the highest entity Who is higher than the mortal seeking to get high. A complete transformative focus must be the new goal. How can I connect with the Creator who awoke me from my slumber this morn- Rabbi Dr. David Nesenoff ing? And how can I selflessly connect to His creations living in my community and world? The spark of connection is initiated via the mitzvah and the ongoing contact is protracted and propagated through continued acts and teachings that define one’s very purpose in life. Was the whole world created, and survived over the centuries, for me to be born and wake up this morning in order to get wasted? Or is there a deeper meaning as to the very purpose of my life; if so, I shouldn’t waste it. “Judaism may work or help in other aspects of life, but addiction is different!” So goes the

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A place of great holiness, a tolerance of bloodshed tehilla r. golDberg view from central park

o goes the legend in Jewish tradition: There were two brothers who together worked the earth on a piece of land they had inherited from their father. The brothers loved one another dearly. When harvesting season arrived, they divided equally the sheaves they had cultivated. The younger of the two brothers was blessed with a wife and a large family, while the elder sibling remained single. After the harvest had been divided, the younger brother couldn’t sleep. He kept thinking to himself: I have been blessed with children, they will take care of me in old age. But what about my older brother? He is all alone, who will care for him? I will bring him more of the wheat harvest. He will need it. On the spot, in the middle of the night, he arose to execute his idea as quietly as possible. He’ll add from his portion of the harvest to his brother’s. That same night, lying in bed in his home,

the elder brother also couldn’t sleep. He thought to himself: I’m single. My needs are limited. My younger brother is blessed with a large family and consequently much added responsibility. He can use a larger portion of the harvest. Then he rose in the dark of night and took from his bundle of sheaves and placed them on his younger brother’s harvest. The next morning, to the surprise and confusion of the brothers, despite each acting to increase the harvest of the other, the original amount they had divided equally remained intact. Night after night, the brothers continued to get up to try to help the other. And morning after morning, they were surprised anew. Then, one night, as each brother was on his way to discreetly give of his harvest to the other, the brothers encountered one another. They immediately understood what had

transpired. In that moment they fell upon each other’s necks in embrace and tears. In that moment and on that sacred space, symbolic of brotherhood, tradition has it that the ancient Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash, would be built. hat has always been a symbol of holiness in recent weeks turned into a space of bloodshed and a trigger for even more bloodshed: the cold-blooded, brutal, primitive butchery of a Jewish family. To justify butchering a family sitting around their Shabbos table is heinous, subhuman, depraved; but to do so in the name of a holy place is anathema, absolutely antithetical to the foundational teaching of the essence of our holiest place, the Temple Mount. The love of brothers. Our Temple Mount is the Muslims’ al-Aqsa. Last Shabbat, a Jewish family was bru-

har habayit is our har (mountain) and bayit (home), where what kept two brothers awake was trying to sacrifice to help each other.

tally butchered at home in Neve Tzuf “for the sake of al-Aqsa.” I remember my first visit to Neve Tzuf. Friends of our family were one of the founding families of the settlement. We spent a Shabbat there when it was just an outpost. On Saturday night, on the dark road back to Jerusalem, as my father was driving, up ahead there was a ring of Arabs preventing us from continuing. Sitting in the back seat of our small car, squished among my siblings, I saw and heard my parents quickly exchange some intense and quiet words. My mother instructed us to be quiet. lthough I didn’t quite understand what was happening, the tension was palpable. It was clear there was fear for our lives. All I remember was my father casually and calmly getting out of the car with the words: “Salam aleikum.” They talked for a few minutes and then my father was back in the car, the Arabs dispersed, and we drove off. This time, we had, literally, dodged the bullet. Just as the tension was so palpable, the relief was equally so. That was also the last time I was in Neve Tzuf. I had forgotten about the incident, but it See Place on page 19

Our U.S. tax dollars at work, rewarding terrorists Jeff Dunetz politics to go

ne of President Trump’s objectives during his May trip to the Middle East was to convince Palestinian Authority President Abbas to stop paying “blood money” to terrorists. Sadly, the PA continues to deliver funds to people who have committed terrorist acts, or to their families, and the money is coming from U.S. aid — our tax dollars. When they met privately, Trump lost his patience with Abbas. “You tricked me in D.C.,” the president was reported to have hollered at the stunned Abbas. “You talked there about your commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me your involvement in

incitement.” First reported by an anonymous source, these comments were subsequently confirmed by the PA. The Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs (JCPA) reports: “According to the PA budget, salaries to incarcerated and released terrorists will amount in 2017 to 552 million shekels ($153.4 million), a rise of 13 percent over the original budget of 2016 and 11 percent more than the actual expenditure in 2016 (revised budget). The money will be transferred to the Palestinian National Fund, the financial arm of the PLO, which was designated by Israel as a terror organization due to its involvement in paying terrorist salaries. … Altogether, the expenditures for supporting terror in the 2017 Palestinian Authority budget is 1.240 billion shekels ($344 million). This sum constitutes 7 percent of the total budget, similar to the last several years, but amounts to 49.6 percent of foreign aid re-

ceived by the PA due to diminishing amount of external aid expected in 2017.” The United States is the country that gives the Palestinian Authority most of its foreign aid — about $400 million a year, according to the Congressional Research Service, which means that our tax dollars represent about 58 percent of all the aid given to the PA and reflect more than all the money going to terrorists. srael National News reports that terrorists can now receive over $3,000 a month from the PA after they commit terror attacks. The 19-year old Palestinian who murdered three Israelis in cold blood as they sat for Shabbos dinner two weeks ago was promised a lifetime salary of $3,120 a month — more than 10 times the average income in the PA and an excellent salary which works to incite more people to kill innocent Jews. While this stands in sharp contrast to PA

commitments made as part of the Oslo Accords, it does mesh with the Palestinian tradition of saying one thing about terrorism in English and the opposite in Arabic to its own people. There is hope coming out of Congress, where the Taylor Force Act would sever U.S. economic aid to the PA if it continues payments to families of terrorists. The bill is named after Taylor Force, an American Army veteran who served tours of duty in both Afghanistan and Iraq. While visiting Israel as part of his Vanderbilt University MBA program, he was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist who also stabbed ten other people who survived. Police had to kill the terrorist to stop his rampage, and his relatives now receive monthly payments equal to several times the average Palestinian wage. The bill has not yet received support from See Dollars on page 19

Continued from page 18 AIPAC which worries that it only has one Democratic Party sponsor (Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia). Just as they did with the 2012 and 2016 RNC platforms, AIPAC objects to any bill that makes one party seem more pro-Israel than the other (despite the fact that the GOP is much more pro-Israel than the Democrats).The Trump administration has not yet committed to the act as of yet. Speaking to the recent Christians United for Israel annual summit, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer highlighted his government’s support for the bill. “I can assure you that Israel is not the slightest bit concerned that the Taylor Force Act will pass,” he said. “Israel would be concerned if the Taylor Force Act didn’t pass.” Meanwhile, Israel has taken its own action, since July 2016 deducting the sum the PA pays to terrorists and their families from its monthly transfer of tax fees to the PA government In Congress, the bill will probably come up sometime before the High Holidays, so if you believe your tax dollars shouldn’t be used to pay blood money to terrorists, I urge you to contact your representatives and senators and urge them to support the Taylor Force Act.

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anywhere in Israel, not just in West Bank settlements. Why was this latest bloodshed committed? Over the placement of metal detectors at al-Aqsa? Really? When Jews want to enter the Temple Mount, the location of al-Aqsa, whose jurisdiction is under that of The Wakf of Jordan, no Jewish prayer books are allowed because Jewish prayer is denied there — and Jews must pass through metal detectors! The double standard is galling and outright discrimination. As a Facebook friend wryly noted: “The definition of irony: Refusing to go through metal detectors when you are the primary cause of eight million airline passengers per day waiting in line to go through metal detectors.”

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Continued from page 18 came back rushing back to me after the horrific Shabbat news. When I was little, the word for a terrorist attack was petsatsa, bomb. In my 20s, I was on a visit to Israel, when a friend of mine had informed me of a terrible pigua that had taken place. What’s a pigua? I thought to myself. It was clear from the context as well as the etymology that it was something bad. But exactly what? A pigua, I learned, is a terrorist attack, but not necessarily by means of a bomb. When I was living in Israel during the second intifada, there was the term pigua yeri, a terrorist attack by gunfire. As part of the Oslo peace accords (early 1990s), the Palestinians were to be supplied with guns. The result? Terrorist attacks changed from primitive but lethal Molotov cocktails (rimonim, pomegranates) to shootings. A few years ago, a new term entered modern Hebrew: pigua drisa, a car ramming terrorist attack. And now, pigua sakeen, a knife stabbing terrorist attack. What ought this Friday night’s attack be called? A slaughter attack? Pigua zevicha? Because that is what took place. A Jewish family was slaughtered like animals, in their own home (with apologies to animals because they shouldn’t be treated this way). I’m not interested in hearing that Neve Tzuf is a settlement. Human beings are human beings. Not to mention, the same type of gory slaughter of human beings took place in 2014 in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, in a house of worship, a synagogue; and also in a yeshiva in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe in West Jerusalem, inside the pre-June 5, 1967 border. Let’s call the bluff for what it is. For these radical murderers, the issue is Jews living

he truth is, the Muslims are right. How we approach this holy place should matter. But not the mechanics of it; rather, the substance of it. How are we prepared to enter this holy of places? In Jewish tradition the steps to the temple are called ma’alot. In a famous play on words, our rabbis read the word as me’ilot, desecrations. The message is: When you ascend to the temple, be sure not to enter it in desecration. The message is: Be careful, be cautious in a holy place. To enter a temple or a mosque such as al-Aqsa ought to require spiritual preparation, not calculations about machines, whose purpose is ironically only to ensure the safety of all worshippers in a holy place that, after a 50-year status quo,

was tragically altered by last week’s murder on the Temple Mount of two Israeli Druze security officers by Muslim terrorists. That is how the status quo was altered. The metal detectors were just a response. Remember: The Temple Mount, Har Habayit is our har, our mountain, and our bayit, our home. Once upon a time, there were two brothers so full of love for one another that what kept them up at night was how they could sacrifice to help each other. That is the kind of action our Har Habayit ought to inspire, not the hate-filled murder that transpired at al-Aqsa, and in the name of al-Aqsa at Neve Tzuf. And that’s a message for us Jews, too. Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

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Place of great holiness, tolerance of bloodshed…

August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

SHAbbAT STAR

‫כוכב של שבת‬

Parsha Vaeschanan

Candles 7:49, Havdalah 8:56

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

Repetition breeds ownership, and that’s our path Rabbi binny FReedman the heart of jerusalem

close my eyes and I’m there: a moment full of sound and fury and signifying … everything. Bullets flying everywhere, smoke grenades making it difficult to see, M-203 grenade launcher and Mag heavy machine gun doing their merciless work tearing up the top of the hill we were running towards. And then, in the middle of it all, my gun stopped firing. I’m fast walking to stay in line, up the hill not knowing what is waiting at the top but knowing the men are depending on me to lead the way. There’s no time to think about the order of what to do, how to fix the gun or go down on one knee to better avoid incoming fire. So I act without thinking, and hours later when I go over it all in my head I grasp the enormity of that moment when, without even thinking, I instinctively slammed the cartridge, realized that wouldn’t fix the problem, switched cartridges, hit the slide release and started firing again, all in just a few seconds. Back in basic training, how many times did Samal (Sergeant) Micha scream, yell and terrorize us until we got it right? How many times had I been forced to get up, run around the hill and do it all over again until I got it perfect? How many times on guard duty, when no one was looking, had I practiced with an empty cartridge until I got it down pat, terrified I would lose my weekend pass if I did not have it perfect by the end of the week? am sure that sergeant has no idea that his efforts saved my life, but I have little doubt they did; a second on a run up a hill with an empty cartridge can be an awfully

The Rambam (Maimonides), in his Hilchot Deot (1:7) discusses how to make the character traits he espouses a part of life. Once a person understands the principle of finding the middle ground and achieving a healthy balance in his or her character, he or she must then act in this manner “again and again … until there is no longer any burden to the activity.” In other words, the Rambam is defining a habit. Something becomes a habit when you have repeated it enough times so that it is no longer a burden; at that point, suggests the Rambam, you no longer have to work to do it, and you don’t even have to think about it — you own it. hether it is the daily page of Talmud we study, or the decision to stand up for an elderly person on a bus, there is actually a metric, an exact point or number of times something is repeated at which point it becomes a habit which is easily done without thinking. During a stopover in the airport in Amsterdam, I was sitting in the huge departures hall waiting for my connection home to Israel. I had a few hours till my flight and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is a magnificent facility. But I was tired and had some work to do so I found a seat and opened up my laptop, when I noticed a fellow who had been on my flight from the States sitting near me and we exchanged a smile. A moment later I noticed he was doing a rather odd thing: he was peeling off his trousers and shirt right there in the public hall! It transpired he was stripping down into his running clothes and he asked me if I would mind watching his bags, after which he took off across the hall and began his exercise run. I watched with admiration as he came back into view some ten minutes later and repeated the process a number of times until he had done his hour run. When he See Repetition on page 21

Father and son Torah reading, Sephardic-style.

long time and in thinking about it later the fact that I could deal with it without even thinking about it may well have saved my life or the lives of those next to me. He succeeded in teaching us to reduce a series of decisions and actions to pure instinct, and force of habit. And a habit can be an extremely powerful force. This week’s parsha of Vaeschanan is a Jewish powerhouse containing as it does both the repetition of the Ten Commandments (repeated by Moshe to the second generation about to enter the land of Israel) as well as the first paragraph of the Shema. And hidden in that first paragraph of the Shema is a powerful verse: “And you shall repeat them (these words of

Sagie Maoz from Ashdod via WikiCommons

Torah) to your children, and speak to them, when you sit in your home and when you walk on the road and when you lie down, and when you arise.” (Devarim 6:7) The Hebrew word for repeating used here, ve’shinantem, which seems to come from the word shnei (or twice), implies that we are meant to repeatedly share these words with our children whenever and wherever we are. We enjoy reading new books and discovering new ideas, but the Torah here is reminding us that there is a value to making sure that we constantly review that which we already know. What is the value of this repetition and review, and why does this seem to be the methodology of choice for teaching our children?

Return to G-d must precede return to our land Rabbi avi billet Parsha of the week

n the middle of Devarim Chapter 4, in this week’s parsha Vaeschanan, Moshe describes a future when the people abandon G-d in pursuit of idols: “G-d will spread you among the nations, and you’ll remain small in numbers among the peoples where you will have been directed. Then you will serve gods, things which are man-made, wood and stones which do not see, do not hear, do not eat, and cannot smell. And from there you will seek out G-d, and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and soul.” (4:27-29) The next verse says that when the time comes, “you will return to Hashem your God and you will listen to His voice.” (4:30) Moshe does not say “you will return to the land,” he says “you will return to G-d.” The prediction that “you will remain small in numbers among the peoples where you will have been directed” is a curse, but the assurance of your long-term survival is a blessing.

A literal reading of this might take a dark leap off the page and suggest that the persecution Jews have experienced over the millennia is a fulfillment of this process. An opposing view would shout down such a horrible sentiment. How dare we suggest rationale for our persecution? Perhaps we should blame evil people for the evil they commit. ven if their ancient form of proselytizing is not as common today, the two major religions credited with spreading themselves by the sword owe their “success” worldwide to the original efforts of globalization through violence, and those efforts continue today through missionary work in different forms. The Jewish people never really engaged in this practice. So our growth has been by and large more organic— constrained in many generations by oppression and genocide — and reduced in recent times on account of assimilation and the ignorance-of-Judaism by many Jews who identify as Jews culturally,

but certainly not religiously or nationally. The appeal of being part of the Jewish people, sharing in our triumphs and also in our miseries, is something only a select few would join in, were they not born into our people. So, again, is the idea of being spread among the nations, only to return to G-d (and not the land) a blessing or a curse? Alshikh actually says, “In that you will not be completely destroyed, the exile is good for you.” Why? R Yosef B’chor Shor suggests that if Jews are going to worship idols, they are better off doing it outside of the land of Israel. (Not that it’s a good practice!) In his Panim Yafot, Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz gives us a different perspective on how we are to view the exile of the Jewish people, and why the first step is to return to G-d, rather than to the land. Based on a passage in Yoma 22b, he says that the Jewish people are a countable number when they do not fulfill the will of G-d, but when they fulfill G-d’s will they are not

We dare not be complacent in thinking we have arrived.

countable, because each individual’s value and worth becomes multiplied in a manner that is priceless. In answer to the question of the blessing versus the curse, however, Malbim explains that the Jewish people being spread across the globe is a blessing of not having the destiny of our people’s eggs all in one basket, such that even if there are decrees, and exile, and destruction heaved upon us in one land, there is salvation and a place of refuge someplace else. While we are certainly blessed to live in a time when the State of Israel can be that refuge for Jews around the world, we dare not be complacent in thinking we have arrived.As we observed Tisha B’Av once again this year, we know very well that while we may be significant in the world, we will remain few in number. And even though we will remain, as promised by G-d, it is only the complete return to G-d — which must happen outside of the Land of Israel (and is a tremendous challenge as evidenced by the facts on the ground) — that will help us merit the complete return to the land from which we were exiled so long ago. We have a lot of work to do.

AlAn JAy Gerber Kosher BooKworm

ur Torah learning tradition is based upon the teaching of the Torah text with commentary. Without the commentary of our sages, the Torah text, standing alone, would not be understood. This week’s literary work, “Gedolei Yisroel on the Parashah” (Adir Press, 2016) by Rabbi Moshe Krieger, brings together the weekly Torah portions, with commentary from some of the most famous rabbinical commentators of all time. In a fluent and effective English, Rabbi Krieger gives his readers a comprehensive presentment of the classical religious commentary on the holy text of every chapter. In his introduction, the publisher of Adir Press, Rabbi Moshe Kormonick, informs us of the following methodology and rationale behind publication of this unique work: “In addition to the vast amount of Divrei Torah in this sefer, the author includes many stories from the Gedolei Yisroel. As such, the title we chose for this sefer couldn’t be a clearer description of its intent. ‘Gedolei Yisroel on the Parashah’ is a sefer of insights, stories, anecdotes, and lessons from the sages of previous, as well as of today’s generations, based on the weekly Torah portion. “When the Rambam discusses the various different forms of speech, he praises those

whose words extol the virtues of the righteous, and details their behavior and acts of righteousness. In what he refers to as ‘derech eretz,’ learning about such behavior encourages us to improve our actions, and can thus provide an incredible benefit to our lives.” Rabbi Kormonick points out that Rabbi Krieger is a “talmid chochum of note, and someone who constantly strives to live up to the ideals outlined in this sefer.” “My prayer is that we have succeeded,” Rabbi Kormonick concludes, “and that all who read it will be inspired by the divrei Torah and stories of the Gedolei Yisroel, thus coming to a greater understanding of the Torah itself through their words and actions.” In his own introduction, Rabbi Krieger tells us the following: “Every week, I approach the parashah with a new outlook. What can I say? What haven’t I said yet? I pray to G-d that He grant me an idea, and each time He directs my attention to concepts or sources that I would never have thought of otherwise. … G-d helps me to bring out the relevance of these ideas to our generation, which is then illustrated by at least one story about one of our gedolim. Sometimes locating the appropriate story to bolster the chapter’s message requires extra siyatta d’ Shamaya.” The author’s goals and aims are truly fulfilled. Rabbi Krieger was born and raised in Brooklyn. He was to become a talmid of Rabbi Reuven Gershonovitz. He attended the Brisker Yeshiva, Yeshiva Gedola and the Telzstone

Rabbi Krieger

Kollel for eight years. The rabbi had the merit to receive semicha from the Telz rabbanim and completed the Miphal Ha’Shas program where he was fully tested in all of Shas — Gemara and Mishnayos. Over the past 20 years he has taught at Ohr Yerushalayim, Mevaseret Zion, and Keser David. At Jerusalem’s distinguished Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah on Rechov Ohr Hahayim, Rabbi Krieger serves as the sho’el u’meishiv, that is, he is the one to whom all the students go to when they have a question on Torah. Watching him interact with each student is an awesome sight. I conclude this week’s essay with the following observation of Rabbi Krieger by his colleague and my dear and honored friend, Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit: “Everyone can grow when they have the proper role model. As we know, Gedolei Yisroel are the ultimate role models. Thanks to

Rabbi Krieger’s research, we can learn the lessons of the parashah from these great men of wisdom. However he was not satisfied with just providing us with their holy and profound insights alone; he shares true stories of how they themselves lived these lessons. He has heard all of our questions, from the simple to the very complicated; his responses always reflect a respect and appreciation for the student’s thinking. “It is my hope that once you have read this work you will venture to the Old City of Jerusalem and ask this great rabbi your Torah questions.” To while I’ll add: You will not be disappointed.

FOR FURTHER STUDY

Please contact Rabbi Daniel Irom of Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah and request to be placed on their mailing list to receive Rabbi Krieger’s weekly Torah teachings. His address is: rabbiirom@bircas.org Recently Rabbi Aharon Marcus, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Reishis Yerushalayim, authored his latest work entitled, “An Indispensable Collection of Halacha For Life: Halacha 24/7/12,” a 400 page compendium of practical halachic issues for you everyday use, in English, together with extensive footnotes for future reference. Just in time for the annual weekly readings from Sefer Devarim we have “Redeeming Relevance: In the Book of Deuteronomy” (Urim Publications, 2016) by one of Israel’s more distinguished scholars, Rabbi Francis Nataf. You will find both this work and his weekly online divre Torah to be an enriching spiritual experience.

Loving Hashem with all our heart, soul and means rAbbi dAvid etenGoff

he phrase, “And you shall love the L-rd, your G-d,” appears twice in the Torah — the first instance is in our parsha, Vaetchanan (6:5), and the second is found in Eikev (11:1). This week’s parsha’s verse famously states: “And you shall love the L-rd, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means.” Acknowledging Hashem’s existence and immanence in the world forms the foundation for being able to love Him. The Rambam (Maimonides), suggests the following approach to recognizing His presence: “When a person contemplates His wondrous and great deeds and creations and appreciates His infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison, he will immediately love, praise, and glorify [Him], yearning with tremendous desire to know [G-d’s] great name, as David stated: ‘My soul thirsts for the L-rd, for the living G-d’.” (Tehillim 42:3) In the Rambam’s view, awareness of Hashem stems from a thoroughgoing appreciation of the beauty of the natural world and its infinite complexity. This, in turn, leads to

Repetition... Continued from page 20 was finished cooling off and stretching we struck up a conversation and I told him how impressed I was that he had planned to exercise even in transit, to which he responded: “I run every day; can’t live without it!” He had made his running a habit!

a burning desire to “immediately love, praise, and glorify Him,” and to “know His great name.” Thus far, the Rambam is emphasizing man’s intellectual relationship with the Almighty. As such, he employs the terms “contemplates” (“she’yitbonane”) and “to know” (“lei’da”). Yet, how does one transition from a purely cerebral gesture of love for the Almighty to its practical application? We are fortunate that the Rambam addresses precisely this question in his Hilchot Teshuvah: “One who serves [G-d] out of love occupies himself in the Torah and the mitzvot and walks in the paths of wisdom for no ulterior motive: not because of fear that evil will occur, nor in order to acquire benefit. Rather, he does what is true because it is true, and ultimately, good will come because of it. … G-d commanded us [to seek] this rung [of service] as conveyed by Moses: ‘And you shall love the L-rd your G-d.’ When a man will love G-d in the proper manner, he will immediately perform all of the mitzvot motivated by love.” (X:2) or the Rambam, love of G-d is expressed in a two-fold fashion: the assiduous study of Torah coupled with the fulfillment of the mitzvot — in a manner wherein “he does what is true because it is true.” The Rambam expands upon this idea by asking, “What is the nature of the proper love [of G-d]?” His answer informs Jewish thought

until the present moment: “That a person should love G-d with a very great and exceeding love until his soul is bound up in the love of G-d. Thus, he will always be obsessed with this love as if he is lovesick. [A lovesick person’s] thoughts are never diverted from the love of that woman. He is always obsessed with her; when he sits down, when he gets up, when he eats and drinks. With an even greater [love], the love for G-d should be [implanted] in the hearts of those who love Him and are obsessed with Him at all times as we are commanded ‘And you shall love the L-rd, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means’.” (Hilchot Teshuvah X:3) In the Maimonidean world view, therefore, the love of Hashem is one of powerful passion and obsessive desire, as is metaphorically reflected in King Solomon’s Shir HaShirim in which he states, “Sustain me with flasks of wine, and spread my bed with apples, for I am lovesick.” (2:5) How does one develop such a holistic and deep love for the Creator? Fortunately, we have the Rambam’s analytic response: “It is a well-known and clear matter that the love of G-d will not become attached within a person’s heart until he becomes obsessed with it at all times as is fitting.” (Hilchot Teshuvah 10:6) Obsession (shugah bah) with the Almighty, therefore, is the key element that

enables a person to pursue his love of Him. Little wonder, then, that Maimonides likens the feeling of overwhelming love for one’s beloved to the total love one has for the Master of the Universe. t this juncture, the Rambam returns to the connection between man’s knowledge and love of the Almighty: “One can only love G-d [as an outgrowth] of the knowledge with which he knows Him. The nature of one’s love depends on the nature of one’s knowledge. A small [amount of knowledge arouses] a lesser love. A greater amount of knowledge arouses a greater love.” (Hilchot Teshuvah X:6) On measure, the Rambam is teaching us a crucial lesson regarding the relationship that obtains between man and G-d, namely, that this bond, as in human relationships, takes ongoing work and effort, and must not be taken for granted. Knowledge of Hashem arouses our love for Him; our engagement in serious Torah study, prayer, and mitzvot observance will enable us to know His ways. As King Solomon insightfully taught us: “Know Him in all your ways, and He will direct your paths.” (Sefer Mishle III:6) With Hashem’s help, may this be so, and may our knowledge of Him enable us to fulfill our verse, “And you shall love the L-rd, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means.” V’chane yihi ratzon

The experts say, on average, it takes 30 repetitions to make something a habit, and while the exact numeric can depend both on the particular person and the activity one is trying to acquire, imagine the things that would be valuable to transform into a habit. They say it is healthy to drink five glasses of water a day. Imagine if for 30 days we had six small instead of three large meals a day and drank a full glass of water before each meal and this became a habit — how much

healthier would we be? And imagine if for the same 30 days we practiced a moment of pure gratitude (saying the Modeh Ani prayer?) right after the first glass of water each day: how much healthier would we be psychologically after 30 days? Now imagine if for the same 30 days we studied one teaching (mishna) from Pirkei Avot or one tidbit in Maimonides’ Hilchot Deot, a magnificent system of character development, for three minutes right after that glass of water

and moment of gratitude, how much spiritually healthier would we be each day. The most powerful messages we share with ourselves and with those we love are the ones we review until we own them. So ask yourself a simple question: Thirty days from now as we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, what do we want to really own? And practice that diligently each day until then and see what happens! Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem.

THE JEWISH STAR August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777

The essentials of our Torah: Gedolei Yisrael

The JEWISH STAR

CAlendar of Events

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Zachary Schechter Wednesday Aug 2

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. 732-9427773 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. 516-2955700x 104.

Thursday Aug 3

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. 516-2950950. 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.

Shacharis including 9 am breakfast and shiruim on subjects including halacha, gemara and divrei chizzuk. 894 Woodmere Pl, 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.

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.

Friday Aug 4

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.

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.

Singles Shabbat Nachamu: The Shabbat will include shadchanim, 3 Shabbat meals, group discussions, a motzei Shabbat party and more. $159. 646-529-8748. Cong. Bais Tefilah,409 Edward Ave, Woodmere.

Summer Learning Lecture: Rabbi Dovid Hirsch, Rosh Yeshiva of the Stone Beit Midrash Program at Yu, will be giving a special guest lecture at the Great Neck Synagogue on the topic of “It’s Gotta be the Shoe: Today’s Performance of Chalitzah.” 9:15 am. 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck. 516-487-6100.

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@fleetwoodsyngogue.org.

Life and Times of Great Torah Personalities: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Shay Schachter for a men and women shiur. 9:30 to10 am. 516-2950950. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere.

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Rabbi Etengroff’s Tuesday evening shiur for women continues. Women of all ages are cordially invited to attend. 8:10 pm.

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.

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

Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Rabbi Yoni Levin at Aish Kodesh. 9:30 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl.

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.

Sunday Aug 6

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. Breakfast Halacha Shiur: [weekly] There will be a Halacha shiur given at the Congregation Bais Tefilah of Woodmere in conjunction with the Yeshiva Gedolah after the 8:30 Shacharis minyan. 409 Edward Ave, Woodmere. Learning Program: [weekly] At Aish Kodesh led by Rav Moshe Weinberger following 8:15

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: The city of Long Beach, in conjunction with the YI of Long Beach once again presents its annual free Concert by the Sea with musical guest Lenny Solomon of Shlock Rock fame. 8 pm. Boardwalk, Long Beach Blvd. Summer BBQ: Join the YI of Long Beach and Chai Lifeline for a special barbecue for families associated with Chai Lifeline. 6 pm. 120 Long Beach Blvd, Long Beach. Singles Tu B’av BBQ: Singles ages 30-45 are invited to a special Tu B’av barbecue catered by JBAR. $32. 15 West Beech Street, Long Beach. jbardrinks@gmail.com.

Monday Aug 7

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

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August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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

Tuesday Aug 8

Women’s Halacha Shiur [Weekly] with Rabbi Shay Schachter on Laws of Muktza on Shabbos. Young Israel of Woodmere. 9:30 to 10:30 am.

The 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. OPWDD Information Session: Kulanu is hosting a general information session for the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities’ Front Door program. Speakers include Robert Johnsen, the Local Schools Transition Coordinator for OPWDD and Amy Eisenberg of Kulanu. 6:30-8:30 pm. 620 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst. Registration is required no later than August 7, 516-569-3083 x138 or amy@kulanukids.org.

Sunday Aug 13

Practical Kashrus Seminar: 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: See story on page 1. 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. Concert on the Lawn: Mordechai Shapiro will perform at this year’s Tom and Judy Raskin Annual Concert on the Lawn, at the home of Avi and Ruthy Jungreis. Lavish BBQ by Oasis Catering. 7 pm. $250 per couple. 515 Ocean Ave., Lawrence. 516-374-7363. Summer Learning Program: Join guest speaker Dr. Edward Reichman, a recipient of a Kornfeld Foundation Fellowship and the Rubinstein Prize in Medical Ethics, for a medical halachah talk titled “From Artificial Wombs to Self-Driving Cars.” 8 pm. 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck. 516487-6100.

23 THE JEWISH STAR August 4, 2017 • 12 Av, 5777

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August 4, 2017 â&#x20AC;¢ 12 Av, 5777 THE JEWISH STAR