August 8, 2014

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VOL 13, NO 31 Q AUGUST 8, 2014 / 12 AV 5774

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August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Malka Eisenberg More than 250 women, men and children walked the walk in Atlantic Beach last Thursday to raise $25,000 to send necessities and tokens of appreciation to IDF soldiers at the Gaza front and the northern border in Israel.

This second annual walkathon for A Package From Home drew more than double the participants of last year. Organizer and volunteer Helen Fuchs attributed the large turnout to the “unfortunate help from Israel” because of the war there. She pointed out that they send packages in peace-time as well and requested that participants return when that happens.

The event was held at the Sunny Atlantic Beach Club that donated use of their facility and valet parking.

Walkers signed up, received grey T-shirts and walked in groups, many discussing the current war in Israel, along the weather worn wooden boardwalk behind the beach clubs in Atlantic Beach. The peaceful breezy sun drenched walk along the pristine sand and water was a marked contrast to the 80 plus missiles shot on Israel daily from Gaza and the stress of war gripping Israel. But the unity of Jews there and worldwide spilled over boosting this effort and was on all participants’ minds.

“I’m here to support the IDF,” said Susan Sachs of Lawrence. “They’re putting their lives on the line for our State, doing hard work. We’re taking a stroll.”

“It’s important,” said one of the organizers, Ann Slockowsky of Cedarhurst. “It helps supply some basic needs. It’s usually for lone soldiers, now it’s for all the soldiers in the south and in the north.”

Following the walk, participants Skyped with participants of a similar walk held in Beit Shemesh, Israel, and ate a buffet lunch donated by Newstar Caterers. Politicians briefly addressed the group and two lone soldiers, IDF soldiers from abroad who go to Israel without their families, talked about being lone soldiers and their appreciation for the packages they received while serving in the IDF. Avi Kwestel of Lawrence, one of the lone soldiers, described his tour of duty. He was in the Kfir brigade in Judea and Samaria in armored vans, wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet, and carrying a loaded weapon while patrolling Jenin and Tulkarem. He stressed that lone soldiers are no different from the Israeli soldiers in the service they do, citing

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the deaths of two lone soldiers in Gaza in the current war, Sean Carmeli and Max Steinberg.

Kwestel noted that Israeli soldiers come home to a warm meal, their moms do their laundry and they can relax. A lone soldier gets back to the central bus station, has to run errands, find a place for Shabbat, call his parents back in the U.S. to reassure them and find a place to do laundry. “It’s great when people send fleeces, camelbacks, blankets and pillows, and food,” he said.

The other lone soldier, Tamir Jacobi, is a graduate of Yeshiva of Flatbush and is currently in Hesder and learning in Netiv Aryeh in Jerusalem. He said he came from a very Zionist home and always dreamed of living in Israel and serving in the IDF. He said he has felt his impact as a soldier, when civilians rely on him as a soldier for their safety. Jacobi recalled being in the Golan in the “freezing” winter during Chanukah when the troops were called to a truck by the commander and received Chanukah packages.

“It was amazing,” he said. “I still have five toothpastes.” He said the best experience was

Pillar of Defense, while waiting for their orders on the border of Gaza. “It was amazing seeing the civilians visiting, the morale was so high,” he said, even though there were no sirens and it was not safe there.

“I can’t sleep,” said Sandy Kessler, a retired pre-school teacher from HAFTR. She has grandchildren in Israel and commends the support of the community there, helping the families of soldiers on duty. She said she constantly listens for the phone, that if she doesn’t hear from her granddaughter and children every two hours she worries.

“I can’t stop crying,” said Susan Cohen of Far Rockaway, through drying tears. “My nephew is in the army; he buried five friends.

The apathy of the world is terrible. Why don’t they wake up and see reality. It’s not just Israel, it’s in Israel and it’s here. I bless every boy in the army there. We have to have an intelligent answer-Hamas is winning the PR war.

Talking amongst ourselves doesn’t help.”

“I’m very proud of our community; they came out to support this cause and raise money for the soldiers,” said Annette

Kaufman of Woodmere. “This is as important a war as 1948 because we are fighting a very different battle, not fought in normal terms, with the eradicating of tunnels.”

She said it’s a fight for the world to exist, for the world to understand Israel’s right to exist and for Israel’s independence. She cited the footage of tunnels and weapons in mosques and hospitals, and the Hamas rockets destroying their own hospitals. “Our hearts are broken when we see dead children, they are proud. For them it’s a great honor to die for their cause, for us it’s an honor to live for our G-d.”

The packages for the soldiers are assembled by volunteers in a synagogue in Jerusalem. Items are sent from abroad or purchased from donations sent to the organization. All food in the packages is certified kosher and groups including Birthright, Yeshiva University and Bar and Bat Mitzva children as well as visiting tourists of various religions have come to help out.

For more information visit aPackageFromHome.org.

Five Towners to pack bags for local school kids

By Malka Eisenberg Volunteers from the Five Towns and surrounding communities will come together at 10:30 am this Sunday, Aug. 10, to assemble backpacks for local school children in need.

The project is a joint effort of the communities’ shuls and organizations with the UJA Federation of New York’s Tov B’Yachad (TBY) initiative in the Orthodox communities on Long Island.

“We’re engaging the Orthodox communities because we share the same core values,” said Tov B’Yachad director Irwin Gershon.

The event, at Yeshiva South Shore, 1170 Williams St. in Hewlett, is open to all.

Gershon and UJA-Federation connections director Orna Sheena told The Jewish Star that last year, 150 bags were packed in the Five Towns, but the goal this year is to fill and distribute 500.

Local shuls, HALB, HAFTR and Bristal, an assisted living residence in North Woodmere, each contributed $500, enabling Gershon and TBY to buy “everything we need” at a bulk rate from a supplier.

The local effort began five years ago in Young Israel of North Woodmere as part of the Supplies for Success program of UJAFederation. That program began 13 years ago and continues with this year’s goal of distributing 6,000 backpacks to children in need in schools across Long Island. They provide new filled backpacks to “return to school with the tools they need to succeed.”

Social workers at local schools and agencies channel backpacks to children of families who turn to scholarships and food pantries.

“More people are aware of it and, unfortunately, there is an increased need,” said Gershon. He said that last year 200 were distributed in Bayswater and 60 in Far Rockaway, noting that 20% of the Jewish population on Long Island is at or below the poverty level.

“We do this because there is such a need,” said Judy Wagman, chair of the event along with Batsheva Aron and Chani Goldfeder, all of Hewlett. “A child should not have to go to school feeling that they don’t have what they should. They shouldn’t have low self-esteem.

They should be happy to go to school with

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what they need. A family should not have to not spend on food to get supplies.”

People are urged to volunteer their time and help to come pack the bags on Sunday as well as donate to help provide additional supplies. Additional supplies can be donated as well as money — $18 will fill a backpack for a child, said Gershon. Bags are grouped according to grade level and filled with age appropriate supplies. Donated new backpacks and school supplies may be dropped off at any of the participating synagogues.

“It’s a great chesed project,” stressed Wagman. She has been involved in this project the last few years and pointed out that anyone could be on the receiving end. “It could be anyone of us and we would do anything for a child. Even if you have personal financial issues you can devote time.”

Gershon recommended that volunteers contact their shul to let them know they are coming to join the volunteers packing. “We want to have enough for everybody,” he said.

To register, contact Irwin Gershon at 6771818 or by email at gershoni@ujafedny.org.

THE JEWISH STAR August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774

‘Package from Home’ walkers hit Atlantic Beach

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Environment where Jewish ethics can flourish A

t times like these, my thoughts often go back to Dani Moshitz, one of my closest friends, who was killed in a terrorist ambush in 1984 at the Kasmieh bridge in Lebanon. Thirty years later, his intense love of FROM THE HEART Torah and of the land OF JERUSALEM of Israel remain an inspiration.

Again, the Jewish people’s love for this land we call home has been put to the test; thousands mourn and our friends, sons, fathers and lovers are laid to rest, killed in defense of the Jewish people and the land of Israel. How many Rabbi Binny people can say they Freedman are willing to die for a land?

This week’s portion, Vaetchanan, always read on the Shabbat after Tisha B’av, contains an allusion to this deep relationship we have with the land of Israel. “Az yavdil Moshe shalosh arim be’ever ha’Yarden mizracha shamesh.” (“Then did Moshe set aside three cities east of the Jordan [river].”) (Devarim 4:41) With no obvious connection to the events being discussed, Moshe sets aside three cities on the Eastern side of the river, in the lands of the tribes of Reuven and Gad (and eventually half of the tribe of Menashe).

These cities, known as Arei Miklat (or cities of refuge), were in fact parallel to three additional cities of refuge that would eventually be set on the Western side of the river (in Israel proper) after the conquest of the

land in the time of Joshua.

The purpose of these cities as delineated by the subsequent verses was to afford a place of shelter to men guilty of manslaughter (accidental murder) fleeing from their victims’ blood relatives.

What purpose does the fulfillment of this mitzvah, commanded by G-d as part of the settling of the land and the creation of a just society, have here in the midst of Moshe’s narrative to the Jewish people on the banks of the Jordan as they are about to enter the land of Israel? erhaps Moshe’s dialogue with the tribes of Reuven and Gad hold the key to understanding these events. In the middle of his long speech, Moshe mentions the agreement he came to with the tribes of Reuven and Gad, whose desire to make their homes on the Eastern side of the Jordan River presented somewhat of a quandary for Moshe.

These tribes, recognizing the value of the lush, grazing lands on the eastern slopes of the Jordan River, were quite content to remain there in lieu of entering (and conquering) the rest of the land of Israel.

Just 39 years after the sin of the spies, yet another generation of Jews was apparently willing to forego entry into the Promised Land for (literally) greener pastures.

Moshe eventually agrees to their request on the condition that they first leave their families and herds as the spearhead (“chalutzim” literally ‘the pioneers’) of the army

P

that would ultimately conquer the land. (See Bamidbar (Numbers) Chapter 32).

And now Moshe, according to Rashi, interrupts a speech to the entire Jewish people to speak exclusively to the tribes of Reuven and Gad. Perhaps, suggests Rav Avigdor Nevensahl, to dissuade the tribes of Reuven and Gad from what Moshe still believes is essentially a bad idea.

These tribes, after all, will remain more distant from the Temple and the centers of Torah learning in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem, as well as allowing the river to divide the Jewish people, something that does not seem to have been the original intent of the Jews’ journey from Egypt to the land of Israel.

Reuven and Gad are willing to settle for a lower spiritual environment (amongst the idolatrous nations of the East) on the Eastern banks of the Jordan, simply because the grazing land is better and the conquest is already complete.

Perhaps this is why the sin of the spies which was all about the desire to remain comfortable (albeit spiritually) in the desert, is included in this speech, whereas the sin of the Golden Calf and receiving the Torah at Sinai are omitted at this point, because they represent a completely different issue.

Hence Moshe spends so much time exhorting them as to the evils and pitfalls of idolatry, precisely because this is the main reason he feels they should relent and cross

Our home as a people is not in Teaneck, Miami, Woodmere or Los Angeles. It is here in Israel.

over the Jordan with everyone else.

And perhaps this explains our portion beginning with Moshe’s burning desire to enter the land of Israel: because that is the entire point! “Look,” says Moshe, ‘how much I longed to enter the land of Israel, and here you are able to go and yet choose to stay in the East!!”

Most of all, perhaps Moshe is challenged by the fact that these two tribes would separate themselves from the rest of the tribes of Israel; after all, it is when we are united as one Jewish people that we reach our greatest potential.

So Moshe makes a deal with these tribes that at the very least they should spearhead the army’s conquest of the land.

This cannot be because the army “needs” these tribes; after all, if it is Hashem’s will that the Jewish people conquer the land of Israel, then the land will be conquered with or without the tribes of Reuven and Gad. Clearly, Moshe tells them they must agree to be a part of conquering the land because they need this for themselves.\Perhaps by giving that much to something, these tribes may yet fall in love with the land and choose to remain. (After all, the more you give to something, the more you fall in love with it, and the tribes of Reuven and Gad end up fighting alongside their Jewish brethren for fourteen years before they are able to cross back over to the eastern part of the Jordan valley.)

However, as much as Moshe tries, the tribes of Reuven and Gad do not respond as Moshe had hoped: there is no massive decision to leave the eastern lands they lust for and settle in Israel along with the rest of the Jewish people. And it is at this point, when Continued on page 14

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August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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not be evident… is that while the non-profit [organizations] got decimated because donors weren’t giving as much due to recession issues, new candidates [came] into the nonprofits who in the past would have gone to accounting, finance, [or] Wall Street,” he says.

“Let’s say that [before the recession] there were 20 applicants for a certain job, now there can be 35, because there are transitional candidates added to the pool,” Hochman adds. And non-Jewish candidates are also applying for, and getting, jobs at Jewish non-profits.

The Joel Paul Group has helped its Jewish organizational clients hire non-Jewish candidates. “If the organization is monikered as Jewish,” says Hochman, people such as

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the CEO or the fundraiser will most likely be Jewish. But if someone is performing strictly internal job functions such as the head of accounting, the CFO, or the head of IT, their religion is not relevant, Hochman explains.

“You want diversity,” he says. “You’re hiring people for their skill sets, except in the cases [like the CEO or fundraiser] I described.”

According to Meryl Kanner, the supervisor of career counseling and placement services at JVS in New Jersey, another affiliate of IAJVS, at “Jewish [non-profit] organizations, as at non-Jewish organizations, the most popular job that gets posted is ‘development/fundraising.’”

Candidates for fundraising jobs at federations “are the ones in greatest demand,” says

Rea Kurzweil, the managing director of talent acquisition services at JFNA’s Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence.

“It’s all about bringing in dollars and helping non-profits survive, and the Jewish federations are no different than any other non-profit,” she says. “What we’ve learned at JVS is that a lot of senior and mid-level people that come from the corporate world really want to give back at a certain point in their lives.”

Many employers, however, fear hiring candidates who are often considered “overqualified.” JVS Chicago’s Wolfe believes that if a candidate “comes from the corporate world and is willing and able and has the skills to take a job in a smaller non-profit,” then it is “foolish for an employer to pass that person up.”

At the same time, she says, job-seekers are realizing “that you can’t always assume that you’re going to get the exact position that you came from, so there’s a scaling down of expectations.”

“There’s a tremendous move in the federations towards bringing in people who are risk-takers, who are innovators,” she says.

Wolfe says candidates need to take initiative to show potential employers that they understand the organization, and to explain how they intend to solve the organization’s problems. But along with that, she says they need to be prepared for a reality in which 50-year-old candidates are often being interviewed—and subsequently managed—by much younger supervisors.

“Jewish communal service is obviously a little different, there’s more of a heart involved in it, but it’s still a business,” says Wolfe.

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By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org It has been six years since the economy crashed in 2008, and while finding employment has been a challenge, the tide may be taking a turn for the better — particularly in the non-profit sector. But where do Jewish non-profits fall within the current landscape, from the perspective of both job-seekers and employers?

Broadly speaking, employment continues to be “a buyer’s market,” says Linda Wolfe, director of career development and placement at JVS Chicago, an affiliate agency of the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services (IAJVS). “Employers are like kids in a candy store,” she tells JNS.org.

“They have their choice [among] hundreds and hundreds of candidates.”

Yet when it comes to non-profits, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows a clear upward trend in “industries in the Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations subsector group establishments” since about 2011.

The economy has an effect on decisions to transition to a career in the Jewish non-profit sector, but many job-seekers also simply decide to do something they are more passionate about.

“From 2008 to now, there has been an increase in the number of jobs available to jobseekers. But the numbers of candidates are increasing as well,” said William Hochman, CEO and owner of the Joel Paul Group.

Hochman also points to a fallout that resulted from the recession, which forced forprofit workers like lawyers or accountants whose jobs got downsized to rebrand their skills for jobs at non-profit organizations.

“One thing the recession did that might

THE JEWISH STAR August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774

Hiring and getting hired at Jewish non-profits

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August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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The two-state solution vanishes U

K Prime Minister David Cameron this week lamented that â&#x20AC;&#x153;facts on the groundâ&#x20AC;? were on the verge of wrecking the prospects for a two-state solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conďŹ&#x201A;ict.

Cameron, has consistently supported Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right to defend itself from the rocket attacks launched from Hamas-ruled Gaza. At Ben Cohen, JNS the same time, he believes there is no substitute for a robust, lasting political solution.

That is why his anxiety about the two-state solution is likely shared by other world leaders.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so frustrating, the international community reasons, is that everyone knows what a ďŹ nal settlement will look like, yet no one is willing to take the steps necessary to get us there.

Insofar as a negotiated two-state solution is essentially a pipe dream at present, I think Cameron is correct to be worried. One of the reasons itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a pipe dream is because, especially on the Palestinian side, the consensus behind it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t nearly as strong as Cameron and others would like us to think. Hamas rejects it outright, of course, because its goal â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as CBSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Charlie Rose conďŹ rmed when he recently interviewed Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is the elimination of the Jewish state.

The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is formally committed to a two-state solution, but its continued backing of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;right of returnâ&#x20AC;? for the descendants of Palestinian refugees, as well as its pursuit of unilateral recognition in international bodies, has left Israelis skeptical.

As for the Israeli government, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no secret that any willingness there may have been to make territorial concessions to the PA has been badly eroded by both the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank and the renewed missile attacks from Gaza â&#x20AC;&#x201D; after, remember, Fatah and Hamas formed a unity government of sorts.

In this grim context, appeals for an immediate, unconditional cease-ďŹ re in Gaza â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a stance shared by the Obama administration, the U.N., and the Europeans â&#x20AC;&#x201D; seem rather fanciful. Examined from the Israeli perspective, this demand is actually counter-productive. For if world leaders seriously think that the Israelis will return, when it comes to Gaza, to the status quo ante, then they either donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand or donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care about Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic calculus.

VIEWPOINT

There are two big decisions facing Israel now. The ďŹ rst concerns the end goals of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The second concerns its future relations with the U.S. Both are closely related, but all indications suggest that Jerusalem regards the ďŹ rst as more pressing than the second.

A growing chorus of inďŹ&#x201A;uential voices in Israel, from right-wing Jewish Home party leader Minister Naftali Bennett to the respected historian Benny Morris, is arguing that Israel needs to ďŹ nish the job in Gaza. What that means, ultimately, is the defeat of Hamas militarily and politically. The Israel Defense Forces is reported to have made good progress in destroying the network of attack tunnels constructed by Hamas beneath the ground in Gaza (at the same time, as much of the Hebrew press has recently noted, that the general realization dawned that successive Israeli governments had misread the strategic threat posed by these below-the-surface corridors).

Egypt, too, has joined the Israeli efforts to choke Hamas, destroying tunnels connecting Sinai and Gaza. In these circumstances, it is hardly sensible to allow Hamas the breathing space that a cease-ďŹ re would afford. Instead of permitting Hamas to regroup and rebuild, the logic goes, strike the killer blow in the coming days.

This is not a conclusion that the Obama administration wants Israel to reach â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that, ironically, provides another reason for the Israelis to bring Hamas rule in Gaza to an end. Given that this administration has over two years left in ofďŹ ce, Israel wants to avoid

another Gazan ďŹ restorm, say six months from now, that would lead to yet more demands from Washington for an immediate cease-ďŹ re and more opprobrium against the IDFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ eld operations.

With Hamas out of the picture, Israel is in a much better position to talk about peace and Palestinian statehood. Moreover, there will be an understandable desire among the battered Gazan population for a new authority to ďŹ ll the vacuum left by Hamas, and that outcome canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be secured without Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consent.

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe that much diplomatic progress will be made while President Barack Obama remains in the White House. Trust between the Israeli and American governments has declined sharply, to the point where questions are being raised about Secretary of State John Kerryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal commitment to the alliance with Israel. All Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll say for now is that there is reason to doubt Kerryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment â&#x20AC;&#x201D; he hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t taken Israeli concerns over Iran sanctions at all seriously, he has warned apocalyptically that Israel faces boycotts and isolation, and he was amiably cooking up a cease-ďŹ re proposal with the Turkish foreign minister just days after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that Israel was worse than Hitler.

Three to ďŹ ve years from now, the twin absences of the Hamas military threat and Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bungling diplomacy may propel genuinely meaningful negotiations. In large part that will depend on who is in the White House.

For now, though, Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ rst priority is its national security. That is how it should be.

Casualties focus and human shields T

he hyper-focus on Palestinian casualties displayed by the U.S. administration and the mainstream media is absurd, appeases the Hamas use of civilians as human shields, and is anti-Semitic.

Generally, before showing the pictures of dead Palestinians or criticizing Israel for the civilian deaths, a media commentator or adminJeff Dunetz istration ofďŹ cial will admit that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israel has the right to defend themselves,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hamas started the conďŹ&#x201A;ict by sending rockets and building tunnels into Israel,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hamas uses its citizens POLITICS TO GO

as human shields,â&#x20AC;? and Israel â&#x20AC;&#x153;Goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties.â&#x20AC;? Usually those words are followed with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;butâ&#x20AC;? statement such as, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s response is disproportionate,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slaughterâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as Juan Williams called it on The Fiveâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; or appears â&#x20AC;&#x153;to be indiscriminate, is asinine,â&#x20AC;? which were Joe Scarboroughâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s words on Thursdayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Morning Joe. Yet if Israel has the right to defend itself, Hamas is using Gaza civilians as human shields and Israel goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties and they still occur, the logical conclusion is that Israel shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be bashed for the civilian deaths â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Hamas should.

If your neighbor across the street sits on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap, and starts shooting machine-gun ďŹ re into your nursery, whose fault is it when you shoot into the balcony to protect your children?

The disproportionate argument is just as

asinine; it says that self-defense is only allowed if the defender and aggressor are equal in strength. It suggests that if the defender is stronger than the aggressor, they are to stop using their weapons and allow the aggressor to kill more citizens.

Those who say that Israel should concentrate on negotiations fail to explain how Israel can negotiate with an entity that believes it and all its Jewish citizens should be destroyed.

What would a compromise look like? Kill every other Jew? Finally, inadvertent or not, the hyper-focus on civilian casualties is an indication of antiSemitism.

Two weeks ago Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said to UN critics of Israel: â&#x20AC;&#x153;If in the past year you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cry out when thousands of protesters were killed and inContinued on page 14

THE JEWISH STAR August 8, 2014 â&#x20AC;¢ 12 AV 5774

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Gratitude, thank-yous, fasting, thinking shakshuka I

realize that for the first time in a long time, I don’t know what I’m going to write about. Nothing funny happened this week; my husband Jerry didn’t do anything out of the ordinary (rare), he didn’t have WHO’S IN THE any funny fasting stoKITCHEN ries, I wasn’t annoyed at anything, and I had an uneventful, relaxing weekend.

So let me take this time to thank all of those who follow my column for making the effort to email, text, call or, better yet, stop me in person to let me know that you enjoy reading it. I really get a Judy Joszef kick out of people stopping me in stores, the LIRR, shul, and just about anywhere. I tease everyone and tell them that they never know when they will end up in the article.

So thank you Dasi W, who stopped me on the stairs of the LIRR, the Soddens, who talked about my recent article while buying Empire chicken in Costco, Mrs. Gomberg who, I had never met, but while I was standing in back of her in line in Costco, asked if I was related to the woman who wrote the funny column in The Jewish Star. I felt like a celebrity, if only for a moment. I’m appreciative to Alan Kreisler, his mom and sis who are “lansman” from Boro Park and appreciate stories from the old hood. Larry Saks, Barry Weiss, Arthur Karp thank you!

I must also mention the Young Israel of Woodmere “talking sector mates” that Jerry sits with on Shabbos mornings. Many thanks

to Sharon and Gideon Bari, and to Mrs. Feit, I want you to know that every time I think I have no more ideas for my weekly column, and I think it might be time to retire, I see your kind faces and hear your words of praise (not sure it’s deserved, but definitely appreciated), and keep on writing.

And, to all my dear friends who end up in the article whether they like it or not, thank you for putting up with me. It’s because of all the wonderful memories I have of all of you that leads me to write about our escapades.

Lastly, to my husband Jerry, whom, without, this column would not be as colorful and funny, and, yes, all his adventures are true and, yes, he’s a great sport (and wonderful person inside and out).

So, as usual, I ran my idea by Jerry and he said, “Wait, I have a great story for you, and being it’s Tisha B’Av, it’s perfect.” He was so excited, I couldn’t wait to hear it. After he finished, I told him I wasn’t excited with it.

It wasn’t his usual “Jerry” caliber story. He insisted everyone would love it. I wasn’t convinced.

It was Tisha B’Av 1967 in Camp Raleigh.

Jerry was 12 and didn’t have to fast, but he and the other boys in his bunk decided to.

The incentive was the extra special meal waiting for them after the fast. It was much better than the meal for those who didn’t fast.

It started off without a hitch. After eating, the entire camp went down to the lake and heard Eicha amidst huge fires that were set and contained. Jerry thought it was the most exciting night of his life; he loved fires. This was no regular campfire. The next day was a whole other story. He got into trouble first thing in the morning, for daring to lie down on the ground, during the never ending Kinot that went on for hours on the boiling hot

who had fasted. He figured he would never lie again — starting the next day. And as far as I know, I believe that was the last time he lied.

For those of you who didn’t think the story was that funny, don’t blame me. Jerry can be reached via my email, attention to Jerry.

The recipe this week is for Shakshuka, because all our minds are on Israel and that’s what I’m dreaming about eating as soon as I break my fast AFTER T’isha B’Av ends tonight. Thank you Smadar for this yummy recipe.

Shakshuka tennis court. As the day went on, Jerry was starving. It was hot, and he was bored. By the time 3 pm rolled around, he was dreaming of the wonderful assortment of bear claws as well as other danish delicacies to break a fast for, that his counselor brought from Katz’s bakery the day before on his off day.

Try as he might, those sugary confections and sweet juicy Hawaiian punch drinks, hidden in his cubby, kept dancing in front of him every time he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Glancing around the room he saw that everyone was asleep.

Slowly he walked to his cubby, and snuck out the box with the “Katz’s” logo on it and the punch. Quickly he ran into the corner of the room hidden by a different cubby from the rest of the bunk, and within minutes devoured every last morsel and drank every drop of his drink. He hid the evidence, got back into bed and felt very ambivalent, as this was the best Tisha B’Av of his life (counting this year).

When it came time to have dinner that night he was right in line with all the others

Ingredients: 3 teaspoons canola oil 3 cups onions, chopped 3 cups red peppers, diced 1 chopped chili optional 2 cloves garlic minced 2 large tomatoes chopped 1 teaspoon ground cumin salt and pepper, to taste 1 large can (30oz) tomato puree 8 large eggs Directions: SAUCE — Heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Add onions and peppers and sauté 8 minutes. Add jalapeno and garlic, and sauté 1 minute more. Add tomatoes, puree and cumin, and season with salt and pepper.

Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Uncover and cook until mixture thickens.

ADDING THE EGGS — Reduce the heat and add one egg at a time gingerly as to not break the yolk. Leave equal space between all the eggs. Cover and cook until egg whites are set, or if you like the eggs (like I do) a little runny you can cook it a little less. judy.soiree@gmail.com

STAYING STRONG A month into the crisis in Israel, the situation has taken a heavy toll on Israelis, both psychologically and physically.

And the long-term needs continue to escalate.

That’s why, with federations across North America, we have stepped up our efforts and have committed to send $30 million in emergency funding.

And now we’re asking you to do the same — to step up and give to our Israel Emergency Fund. With your support, we can continue to provide counseling for Israelis traumatized by life under siege. Move children out of harm’s way. Provide food, medicine, and care to the elderly and infirm.

Help Israel stay strong and resilient.

To make your donation, visit www.ujafedny.org/israelemergency-fund. One hundred percent of your gift will be used to bring relief to Israelis in crisis.

facebook.com/ujafedny twitter.com/ujafedny

August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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9 THE JEWISH STAR August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774

By Malka Eisenberg Organizers of a challah-baking fundraiser were so successful in the Five Towns that they shut down their local ovens, even as the campaign spread throughout North America and Israel.

The local bakers started with 67 challot, making 90 the following week, and 350 in their final week.

ChallahForOurSoldiers.org bakers work together in their homes, donate the ingredients, labor and time, then “sell” the challot for donations that are then forwarded to one of several charities to aid IDF soldiers.

“I have cousins in the (Israeli) army,” said Elianna Kaufman of Woodsburgh, one of the organizers. “I wanted to do something here to show our support. [With] challah, it’s not just the donation but tefillot — we connected with the Shmira project (matching soldiers with Jews who pray for them); we take names of soldiers and make the bracha (blessing) on the challah (preparation) with them in mind.” She joined with a fellow HAFTR graduate from Atlantic Beach to implement the project.

A third friend, Daniel Riedler, a Ramaz graduate who made aliyah to Jerusalem, matched their effort in Israel, and made 80 challot the first week with assistance from Core 18, a multi denominational Jewish leadership program.

Riedler set up a webpage and the project took off, with groups now baking on the Upper East and West sides of Manhattan, Deal, Teaneck, East Orange, Forest Hills, Long Beach, Great Neck, Chicago, Monsey, Los Angeles, Toronto, Givat Shmuel and Raanana.

“Challah and Shabbat are connected with time to be home with family and as Am Yisrael, we want to show we’re family and Israel

is home,” explained Kaufman. They initially thought to do it one week only but “we saw the war continued. People from other communities heard about it and it spread from the website.”

Since the start of the campaign, they have raised enough money to supply bulletproof vests for an IDF pluga (company), she said.

They have received requests from other plugot for similar supplies and have raised more than $25,000 over the course of the project and “have been allocating those funds accordingly,” she said.

The Five Towns bakers — ten young women, graduates of TAG and HAFTR who currently attend NYU, Queens, Baruch, Columbia, Stern or Barnard — gathered in one of the volunteer’s kitchens, “It’s fun,” said Kaufman.

When The Jewish Star noted that the challah was exceptionally fluffy and tasty, Kaufman laughed and said baking with so many different bakers and recipes and techniques was interesting.

Bakers work all day Thursday and are usually done by 1 am Friday although, she said, one of her Manhattan friends “did an all nighter.”

“It’s exciting to see how many want to do good and use their talents to help Am Yisrael, instead of just reading Facebook news. Am Echad B’lev Echad (one nation one heart). It ties together tefillot and donations. Making challah is raising the everyday to sanctity. It’s an amazing idea, we want to make it global.”

Funds from the challah sales go to charities that include Yad Ezra, One Family Together, Standing Together, A Package from Home, and Lone Soldier Center.

For more information go to challahforoursoldiers.org.

Demand overwhelms Challah for IDF bakers in 5 Towns kitchens

IDF rabbi in Wâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;mere

By Rachelli Tuchman IDF motivational lecturer Rabbi Shalom Hammer explained on Sunday that there is a huge difference between the lifestyles in the United States and in Israel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While kids in the U.S. are going onto buses to summer camp, our kids go on buses to the cemetery,â&#x20AC;? he told his audience at Congregation Bais TeďŹ llah in Woodmere, referring to the funeral of the three kidnapped and murdered boys, Gilad, Eyal and Naftali.

Hammer served as a rabbi for the soldiers and their motivator. On a Friday night, when he was the only person at prayer, he asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hashem, what am I doing here?â&#x20AC;? As if on cue, G-d was about to give him the answer.

After he ďŹ nished his prayers, he went into the dining hall where he saw 75 soldiers eating and socializing. Rabbi Hammer realized that he needed to join in, but ďŹ rst he had to recite the blessing of Kiddush on his wine. As Rabbi Hammer, their commanding ofďŹ ce, stood to make his blessing, all 75 soldiers, most of whom knew little about Judaism, stood in silence and then responded â&#x20AC;&#x153;Amen.â&#x20AC;? At that moment, Rabbi Hammer realized why he was sent to this place.

Rabbi Hammer related Prime Minister Netanyahuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s message to terrorists who attempt to destroy Israel and its people â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;You destroy? Okay, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll build another settlement.â&#x20AC;? Rabbi Hammer added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jews build and construct. If we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be gone.â&#x20AC;?

Discussing the tragedy of the fallen soldiers, he explained itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;not just the physical person who died. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s their potential.â&#x20AC;? These soldiers are civilians. They have families, wives, children. They have potential as a human being in addition to risking their lives to protect the land they call their home.

Rabbi Hammer said that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the essence of purity reveals itself in war.â&#x20AC;? People realize the love they need to give to their loved ones, and understand how valuable a single life is.

With that he concluded with a sentence that left chills up listenersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; spines: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have to learn how to unite without war.â&#x20AC;?

LI women carry loads to Israel

By Rebecca Melnitsky Rockville Centre Herald When Long Island women arrived they carried something extra â&#x20AC;&#x201D; several heavy dufďŹ&#x201A;e bags of supplies for Israeli soldiers.

The women were part of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;birthright for momsâ&#x20AC;? trip to Israel organized by the Jewish Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Renaissance Project (JWRP).

Esti Stahler, president of the Long Island mission for JInspire (which works in conjunction with JWRP) explained that women on these trips are usually asked to bring some supplies for soldiers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but this year the haul was enormous. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There were six dufďŹ&#x201A;e bags and each weighed 70 pounds, so you can do the math,â&#x20AC;? Stahler said.

For the record, the math comes to 420 pounds.

Donations even came from women who had signed up for the trip but decided not to go. Alyce Goodstein of Rockville Centre was one of those women.

Goodstein sent an email to members of her congregation asking them to contribute supplies. The email asked for such items as sunscreen, Chapstick, socks, T-shirts, energy bars and insect repellent went out on July 16 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ďŹ ve days before the women left for Israel. Goodstein said that congregants gave so much that it took two trips to bring everything to Stahlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[I am] really, really touched that people helped so quickly,â&#x20AC;? said Goodstein.

While in Israel, the women packed the supplies they brought into bags for soldiers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We made a mass production line,â&#x20AC;? said Amy Strauss of Oceanside. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There were clothes, food and assorted items from many Long Island temples â&#x20AC;&#x201D; reform to conservative to Orthodox,â&#x20AC;? Stahler said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It did not matter. Our women united together to provide encouragement comfort and supplies to the young soldiers in Israel who are bravely defending Israel. There was more â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;mother[ly] loveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; than calories packed into each snack bar. Costco must be wondering why we were buying 300 pairs of socks!â&#x20AC;?

Despite the current danger in Israel, the women on

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August 8, 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ 12 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

10

(VWL 6WDKOHU LQ ,VUDHO ZLWK VRPH RI WKH LWHPV FROOHFWHG IURP /RQJ ,VODQGHUV &RXUWHV\ (VWL 6WDKOHU the trip said they never felt they were in harmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a wonderful time, I felt very safe. I did not feel I was at all in any kind of danger,â&#x20AC;? said Strauss.

Jackie Beck of Rockville Centre said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were very well protected.â&#x20AC;?

O

ver the past few years, rabbi and singer, Shlomo Katz has become one of the most prominent interpreters of the musical legacy of Reb Shlomo Carlebach. This legacy has recently been reflected in a new book published in Israel by Mosaica Press, KOSHER entitled “The Soul of BOOKWORM Jerusalem: Teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach,” consisting of the texts of stories of Rabbi Carlebach as compiled

by Rabbi Katz.

As we look back to this year’s observance of the Three Weeks and take to heart the events still swirling about us, please read further several extracts from this Alan Jay Gerber work that give greater relevance to Carlebach’s and Katz’s unique Kabbalistic oriented takes on the relevant themes that apply to the upcoming High Holiday season.

“Tisha B’Av is really the preparation for Yom Kippur; because Tisha B’Av is when you take the broken vessels and these broken vessels now become vessels themselves, this is the whole thing of Yom Kippur.

“It’s paving the way for Yom Kippur … say I did this wrong, I did this wrong; on Tisha B’Av I just know that whatever was until now, so far was not right. It means in my own private life also on a general level.

ted to learn because we are in mourning. On Simchas Torah we don’t learn because we are dancing all the time. On these two days G-d is teaching us the deepest depths of Torah which is beyond my knowledge, beyond my mind, beyond everything.

“On Tisha B’ Av I receive this deepest Torah from G-d while I’m sitting on the floor.

On Simchas Torah I receive it while I’m dancing, when I get up from the floor. Both are th g the highest teachings.”

If I go on a private individual level then my Brokenness doesn’t become a vessel. But if I look at my vessels and see they are destroyed and I say ‘I can’t go on like this,’ then the destruction itself is the greatest vessel in the world. You see what it is, this whole thing made me change because of it.”

Another holiday connect as cited by Katz is the following teaching by Carlebach: “On Tisha B’Av we are not permit-

Rabbi Katz has been active in recent years in the creation of the Shlomo Carlebach Foundation, which aims to preserve, publish, and distribute the works of Reb Shlomo’s musical and theological legacy as a national religious treasure, world wide. He lives in the Gush, in Efrat together with his wife, Bina, and daughters Tiferet and Ora Menucha.

Another book that was published before the Three Weeks but that hardly made it to these shores before Tisha B’Av, yet whose relevance to the contemporary scene, especially before the observance of the Yom Kippur Avodah liturgy is, “A Temple in Flames” by Ahron Horovitz of Ir Yerushalayim fame, and military historian, Dr. Gershon Bar-Cochva.

What makes this work unique is that it presents the events of the Churban (destruction of the Temple) era, both pre and post, with a new and detailed reconstruction of pre-churban Jerusalem in its full graphic and textual glory. This reconstruction was further assisted by historian Dr. Eyal Meiron who updates the model built by the late Prof.

Michael Avi-Yonah.

This work, with its detailed artistry, will surely help assist you in your better understanding of the whole Temple period and its destruction. It will also assist your understanding of the follow up history of the era of the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud era, and of the development of Jewish law and religious practice that was promulgated by the sages of that time.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Finding comfort: We are all alive today I

n times like these, one feels a sense of helplessness, of unworthinesss. How many of us, were we fit and trained properly, would be willing to go to the front lines, or send our sons to the front lines, knowing we or they might not return?

We are here, at Shabbos Nachamu, looking for comfort, and yet the words of Eichah 1, “There is no comfort” (repeated four times in the chapter), are what PARSHA OF resonate. How can we THE WEEK be comforted when so many young men, true giborim (heroes) fell at the hands of the enemy?

And so there is no comfort.

We have read of a Hamas plot for this coming High Holiday season that may have been averted on account of Operation Rabbi Avi Billet Protective Shield.

If true, it might be a slight comfort. But who knows? I, for one, would rather have every one of these soldiers and teenagers back now, and deal with the next challenge when it comes.

Alas, this is the price of war. Fallen soldiers, lost sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, fiancés, and families bereft.

And yet, the nation is united. From the left to the right, Israelis support this war and understand its validity and necessity.

When a bereaved mother can say “Am Yisrael Chai” (the nation of Israel lives!) and that “ahavah t’natzeach” (love will win the day), a world of sensible people looks on with admiration and in awe.

The Torah tells us, “You, who cling to Hashem your G-d, you are all living today” (4:4). The translation doesn’t do justice to the Hebrew “chayim kulkhem hayom.” You are all chayim.

The specific context of that statement was Moshe speaking to the generation about to enter the Land of Israel. Their parents had lost a connection with G-d on account of the Golden Calf and the sin of the spies, but the present generation Moshe was addressing had never sinned in such a manner.

Why does Moshe tell them they are living?

Obviously, if he’s talking to them, they are alive!

Because the concept of living has different meanings. The first definition of “living” is obvious to us all — blood flowing, brain functioning, a person who contains the breath of life. Living also refers to what we are doing with our lives.

We may be alive, but is the life in which we exist one in which we live it to the max, with meaning and of purpose and goals?

And there is also the living that comes after death. Every Shabbos, we say the prayer of “Av Harachamim,” which invokes some of the language King David used to

eulogize King Shaul and Prince Yonatan who fell in battle. “They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they have not departed” (Samuel II 1:23).

They have not departed because they still live in us. If Rashi “says” (present tense) and Rambam “says,” they are still living.

If David’s friendship with Yonatan never ended, Yonatan was always alive to him. If we can welcome Eliyahu at every bris, it is because Eliyahu is still “living.”

The Or HaChaim takes this several steps further when he offers a number of interpretations on our verse. He notes that the tetragrammaton can have a prefix added to it, but the prefix does not attain the holiness of G-d’s name.

In Ba’Hashem or La’Hashem the bet or lamed can be erased.

However, when a suffix is added to the name “Elokim,” the suffix attains a level of holiness akin to G-d’s name, and cannot be erased.

The Or HaChaim says “You who cling to Hashem your G-d” is a message to those who cling to Hashem in the manner of “Your G-d” — who attach themselves to G-d in such a way that we achieve holiness and can’t be erased as being not really part of G-d’s name — “you are living today.”

When the nation of Israel, in Israel and abroad, can unite under the banner

When one of us falls, a piece of G-d’s holiness is lost in this world.

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of a united People under G-d, when Jews the world-over can say the Shema, recite Tehillim, gather to pray, the nation and its people live. When we count every soldier who falls as a lost son, and pay no attention to whether he was from a left-wing kibbutz, a secular family, a Hesder yeshiva, or a Nahal Haredi, we are living. And the memory of the soldier, who gave his life for the highest purpose, lives on.

If on Tisha B’Av we still remember those martyred during the time of the Second Temple, the ten rabbis who were murdered in the 100 years following, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Chmielnicki massacres, the Holocaust, and all those who have fallen since the establishment of the State of Israel, then those who “were pleasant and beloved in their lives, and in their deaths have not departed” becomes true for us and future generations. They live on in all of us.

We mourn because we are broken and sad by the loss of these beloved soldiers.

And we shout Am Yisrael Chai because we cling to G-d in a manner that makes us all holy as well. When one of us falls, a piece of G-d’s holiness is lost in this world. This is why we all feel it, and why it is so hard to find comfort.

May we find comfort soon, when the IDF completes its mission, and the entity of Hamas is destroyed forever. When the Land of Israel is free of attacks our people will merit to fulfill all meanings of “chayim kulkhem hayom” — that those who cling to G-d find the fullest meaning in life itself.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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THE JEWISH STAR August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774

A retrospective after Tisha B’Av

11

August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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How humanitarian aid built terror tunnels

By Josh Hasten, JNS.org With the withdrawal of ground troops from Gaza on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it completed its mission of dismantling a network of terrorist tunnels.

But how did Hamas get its hands on materials to build the tunnels in the first place?

Lt. Col (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, an expert on the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), explained that some of the materials, including cement and iron, were smuggled into Gaza

by Hamas through other tunnels from Egypt.

Yet due to pressure from international human rights organizations, until recently Israel itself was also providing Gaza with those materials.

While the materials were earmarked for civilian construction projects, Halevi said that in reality, they were diverted by Hamas to create the network of attack tunnels.

“The pressure [on Israel to transfer building materials] was enormous and [was put on] by several [local] human rights organizations and international [ones], and was very effective in reaching out to the world’s public opinion, including the EU (European Union) and the U.S. administration,” Halevi told JNS.org. “And that, in a way, helped Hamas’s efforts in building these tunnels.”

Numerous times during the ground operation—which destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels, according to the IDF—terrorists succeeded in using the tunnels to sneak under the border, popping up on the Israeli side with the goal of carrying out mega-attacks against civilians who live in kibbutzim and other communities. A significant number of IDF troops were killed in the process of thwarting these attacks.

A recent report by The Jerusalem Post indicated that Israel’s political and security echelon has come under criticism over the fact that little action was taken to address the tunnel threat following a 2007 state comp-

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Courtesy IDF/Flash90

troller’s report that revealed their potential danger. According to the comptroller’s report, one such tunnel was used in the kidnapping of former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was eventually freed by Hamas in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

JCPA’s Halevi said Hamas has been digging hundreds of tunnels for operational purposes since 2000. He said that human rights organizations who pressured Israel “overlooked or ignored Israeli warnings about the use of these materials to build Hamas’s military infrastructure.”

“So, in the name of humanitarian support for Gaza, Hamas misused the trust of the international community to build the infrastructure to attack Israel, with the help of human rights organizations,” said Halevi.

Guy Inbar—a spokesman for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territo-

ries (COGAT), a branch of the Israeli Defense Ministry that facilitates humanitarian issues and infrastructure projects in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip—told JNS.org that his unit had been charged with transferring building materials to the private sector in Gaza, but that those transfers were halted in October 2013 “after Israel discovered a terror tunnel from Gaza to Israel that was to be used to kidnap Israeli soldiers or civilians.”

As a result, “a new mechanism was put in place with U.N. agencies to monitor the materials that go into Gaza, since we understood that some of the building material went to Hamas, and Hamas used it for building tunnels and even their [underground] headquarters,” said Inbar.

While declining to divulge exactly what percentage of Israeli construction materials in fact ended up in the hands of Hamas,

Inbar said, “I would like to emphasize that after examining the amount of cement used for those tunnels, we know that each tunnel could have been used to produce at least a three-story hospital.”

Even as they come under fire, he said, civilian workers from COGAT remain at the IsraelGaza border crossings to transfer aid to the people of Gaza.

“I hope people will understand the problem we have with this terror organization, Hamas, which damages the quality of life of the population in Gaza,” Inbar said.

One of the organizations pressuring Israel to ease restrictions on supplying building materials to Gaza—even during the latest conflict—is Gisha, an Israeli non-profit whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement for Palestinians, particularly the residents of Gaza.

Sari Bashi, Gisha’s founder, said that the Israeli restrictions have done significant damage to the economy in Gaza. Furthermore, she said her organization believes the restrictions have been ineffective in stopping the Hamas tunnels, claiming that the materials used in their construction were brought into Gaza from Egypt via the smuggling tunnels when prices were low—before the current regime in Cairo cracked down on such smuggling. When asked how she can know with certainty whether the cement used by Hamas to build tunnels originated in Egypt or Israel, Bashi replied, “That is the wrong question.”

Halevi said that while Israel might have stopped allowing cement into Gaza for the time being, America has still promised $47 million in aid to Gaza as a result of Operation Protective Edge.

“After each round of violence it’s the EU, the Americans, Qatar, and other countries who rush to give support [to Gaza],” he said.

“And this support, without any effective control of the funds, enables Hamas to rebuild its military capabilities.”

What we know about Qatar, Hamas-funding US ally

By Sean Savage, JNS.org The oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar’s influence has been widely felt during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. While traditionally closely aligned with Iran, Hamas has pivoted to Sunni powers like Qatar and Turkey in recent years for economic and political support. Keen to expand its regional and international influence, Qatar’s ties to the Palestinian terrorist group have drawn increasing criticism from Israel, the United States, and even fellow Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who accuse Qatar of undermining regional stability by supporting Hamas.

“Qatar is a very strange place. They rely on the U.S. for protection and invest heavily in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noting that the U.S. has its largest Mideast airbase—Al-Udeid Air Base—in Qatar. “[But] at the same time, just miles away from [the airbase], you can find the head of Hamas (Khaled Mashal), and there was even a Taliban embassy there for a while too. All of these things make for a foreign-policy anomaly,” Schanzer told JNS.org.

With the war raging in Gaza, Israeli leaders have begun to single out Qatar for its support of Hamas. During a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on July 23, nowformer Israeli President Shimon Peres slammed Qatar for becoming “the world’s largest funder of terror.”

“Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians. Their funding of terror must stop. If they want to build then they should, but they must not be allowed to destroy,” Peres said.

Qatar reportedly pledged more than $400 million to Hamas in October 2012 during a visit to Gaza by Qatar’s ruling emir at the time, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Qatar gave refuge to Hamas’ Mashaal, who fled to Qatar’s capital of Doha when Hamas’s offices in Damascus were shut down in 2012 after the terror group’s criticism of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s conduct in the Syrian civil war.

More recently, the U.S. blocked the transfer of Qatari

funds that were slated to pay the salaries of civil servants hired by Hamas in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.

According to a diplomatic source in Qatar, the Gulf state in June attempted to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to an Arab bank for the salaries of 44,000 Hamas civil servants who were rendered jobless due to the recent Palestinian unity deal between Hamas and Fatah.

The attempted transfer of funds by Qatar highlighted the dire economic situation Hamas has found itself in over the last year due to Egypt destroying Hamas’s smuggling tunnels, which the terror group relied on for tax revenue.

Egypt’s crackdown on Hamas has been part of a larger effort by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to target the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s parent organization.

El-Sisi is not alone in his contempt for the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in March. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain all recalled their ambassadors to Qatar over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood at that time.

Egypt also recently sentenced three journalists from the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network to seven to 10 years in prison for “spreading false news and conspiring” with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Qatar’s vocal foreign policy developed with Al Jazeera.

Qatar had a point of view and, after 1995 and the launch of Al Jazeera, began increasingly and gradually to express it,” Joseph LeBaron, the U.S. Ambassador to Qatar from 20082011, told JNS.org.

LeBaron explained that Qatar, like most Arab countries, does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist group.

“In terms of Hamas, Qatar’s policy of dialogue can lead to direct support, whether political and diplomatic, economic, or humanitarian,” he said. “But Qatar’s policy also is not to support terror groups. Qatar would not support Hamas if it believed Hamas was a terror group.” Nevertheless, Qatar’s unyielding support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas has created a deep rift in the Arab world.

Egypt, which has traditionally played a role as a mediator for the Israelis and Palestinians, accused Qatar and Turkey of undermining its efforts to broker a cease-fire to the current conflict in Gaza.

In a statement on July 17, shortly after Egypt’s initial ceasefire proposal was rejected by Hamas, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said that Palestinian blood was on Hamas’s hands.

“Had Hamas accepted the Egyptian initiative, at least 40 Palestinian souls would have been saved,” said Shukri, the Egyptian state-run news outlet MENA reported.

The Arab power struggle has continued, with Qatar reportedly offering its own cease-fire plan that excluded Egypt from the negotiating process, before the Israeli ground operation began on July 17.

Yet regional divisions appeared to thaw a bit on July 22, when Qatari Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to discuss cease-fire efforts.

“There are strained relations, obviously, but so far that tension has been restricted largely to the diplomatic sphere.

Because it has, I am optimistic that the Arab states will graduContinued on page 14

Mark Greenspan has been spiritual leader of the Oceanside Jewish Center for over 15 years. Last week, he wrote about his arrival in Israel on July 20. This week, he continues the story of his visit, in an article that appeared first in the Oceanside Herald. am not a stranger to sorrow. I have officiated at hundreds of funerals and visited thousands of Shiva houses. But yesterday as I left the home of Effi and Naama Rahav, parents of slain soldier Bar Rahav, I cried.

I cried for Bar who had his whole life before him. I cried for his parents whose lives will never be the same. I cried for his two younger brothers and sister who will follow in their brother’s footsteps, willingly serving the land and the people of Israel. And I cried for all of us because we have been denied such a simple and elusive thing — peace.

Bar Rahav grew up in Ramat Yishai, a small community in the northern part of Israel. Were it not for Bar’s death while serving in Gaza last Sunday, I would not have had any reason to visit this lovely little community. Bar’s family belongs to a Masorti synagogue, Congregation Sukkat Shalom.

He was an accomplished athlete and a good student. He has two younger brothers and a younger sister. Ha’aretz devoted two paragraphs to Bar the day after his death: Second Lieutenant Bar Rahav, 21, of Ramat Yishai, was killed on Saturday afternoon when he was struck by an anti-tank rocket fired at a Puma APC near the refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Mortally wounded, he Second Lieutenant Bar Rahav, 21, of Ramat Yishai, was killed in battle. was evacuated from the battlefield, but died of his wounds. Rahav is survived by his parents, people who have made such Shiva calls far too many times.

Effi and Na’ama, and three siblings: his brothers Nir, 18, and There were piles of cake and cookies and other food on the Rotem, 11, and his sister Ron, 14. table – more than the family will ever be able to eat. Outside A recent graduate of the officers’ course, Rahav was to have on the patio sat a group of young people – no doubt Bar’s begun supplementary army studies. His uncle, Moran Bin- friends – quietly talking. In their eyes I could see that they yamin, said that Rahav played water polo for Hapoel Kiryat have experienced far too much in their brief lifetimes. There Tivon. “Although he could have been an outstanding athlete, was a look of knowing that made me shiver. he chose combat service in the army,” he said. “We spoke on As I sat on the bus waiting to leave Ramat Yeshai, I jotted Thursday, and he said he was in good spirits. I was worried down this poem: about him and asked whether he was protected, and he said he A Parent’s Lament was all right. Then I realized that he had gone in. I was afraid In memory of Bar Rahav who fell in Protective Edge for him because he always did whatever was required. I prayed Parents live with the illusion that loss would not come to us. He was an amazing brother — Of immortality, believing a wonderful example for his siblings.

Their children will carry on hat else is there to say? Bar was a soldier and soldiers Saying Kaddish for them. risk their lives. As Effie stood talking to us with his Here, in the land of our ancestors 11 year old son, I was overwhelmed. Like his brothParents know better er, Rotem will eventually go off to serve his country. Nir, 18 Raising their child, knowing years old, will soon be serving the State of Israel as will Ron. They can’t protect them At that moment my own life seemed small and inconsequenFrom the heat of battle tial. I don’t want to glorify war or romanticize what these Or the roar of the sirens. boys (and girls) are doing. Every father and mother in the But that is not the end of the story. From Ramat Yishai land of Israel is an Abraham or a Sarah, leading their off- we traveled to Park HaYarden where we visited Mahaneh spring up the mountain where they might become an olah, Ramah-Noam, a special two week camp program offered for an offering. members of an Israel youth program. In addition to campNear the entrance to the house stood a small table con- ing and outdoor skills the children learn about Judaism. taining a Shiva candle, a birthday card, candles that were The children were in the midst of what we might call shaped as 21 (his next birthday) and a notebook so that “Color War,” and the camp was filled with exuberance. But friends and family could write letters to Bar. There was a we knew the real war was not far from these children. Origipicture of Bar in military uniform and beret with a boyish nally, the camp was supposed to be in the South near Ben grin on his face. I couldn’t help but think of Natan Alter- Shemen, but was moved to the north to get out of rockman’s powerful poem, The Silver Platter. I often read this et range. And virtually every child and staff member had poem to my congregation on Yom Ha Zikaron, Israel’s Me- someone in Gaza. They worried but they carried on. morial Day. Memorial Day in Israel is not about barbecues And so the war continues. and parades but true mourning because there is virtually no There is talk about a cease fire, but no one knows what one who hasn’t lost someone to terror or war. tomorrow may hold for Israel or for the Gazans. And if there Alterman’s poem concludes: is a cease fire, what will it mean for Israel? I am not sure Then a nation in tears and amazement will ask, “Who are Israel can afford a cease fire but I am not sure that Israel can you?” afford to keep fighting either. Jerusalem is filled with life And they will answer quietly, today: there is an arts fair going on downtown, the stores “We are the silver platter on which the Jewish state was are filled with natives and tourists and there is the usual given.” craziness that comes with Erev Shabbat in Israel. But there Thus they will say and fall back in shadows is a war going on that won’t end even if there is a cease fire.

And the rest will be told in the chronicles of Israel.

Tonight and tomorrow in synagogues, I have no doubt The house was filled with people coming and going, there will be silent and public prayers for peace.

I

W

THE JEWISH STAR August 8, 2014 • 12 AV 5774

Trip to Israel brings tears and strengthens resolve

13

to Hamas civilians are a tool of war.

More than anything, our enemies desire to cause us to be afraid, to lose faith and to become fragmented; as such, the greatest response to this war, and the sacriďŹ ces of all these incredible young Israeli soldiers, is Jewish unity. They long to drive us from this land, and so our response must be to be here, and if you live across the ocean, then there is no more important time to come and be here, with the Jews of Israel.

Creating a spiritual and ethical environment that allows for Jewish ethics and spirituality to ďŹ&#x201A;ourish is a lot of work. And the ultimate goal of the Jewish journey remains here, in the alleyways of Jerusalem and the mountains and streams of Israel.

There is something here, in the air, that a Jew cannot ďŹ nd anywhere else.

Perhaps this is why this portion is always read on the Shabbat after Tisha Bâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Av. After three weeks of mourning over what we lost two thousand years ago, maybe it is time, at last, as a people, to start thinking about how we rebuild it together, visitor by visitor, immigrant by immigrant, and maybe one day soon even community by community, here, at home, in the land of Israel.

Best wishes from Jerusalem for a Shabbat Shalom, beâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ezrat Hashem.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Casualties focusâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 6 jured by Turkey, Egypt and Libya, when more victims than ever were hanged by Iran, women and children in Afghanistan were bombed, whole communities were massacred in South Sudan, 1,800 Palestinians were starved and murdered by Assad in Syria, hundreds in Pakistan were killed by jihadist terror attacks, 10,000 Iraqis were killed by terrorists, villagers were slaughtered in Nigeria, but you only cry out for Gaza, then you are not pro-human rights, you are only anti-Israel.â&#x20AC;?

As part of my regular reporting, from 5 am to 8 pm six days a week, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m watching cable news and statements from the administration. One thing I have observed since this war started on July 8 is that in one hour, more attention is given to the Gaza civilian casualties by Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s critics in the

administration and the mainstream media than those same critics give in an entire year to the civilian casualties in the battle zones mentioned by Hillel Neuer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and those casualty numbers are much larger than the Palestinian casualties in Operation Protective Edge.

So why do they select Israel for censure?

Well, Israel is different from the nations mentioned above in two distinct ways. First, it is the only true democracy in the area and second, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the homeland for the Jewish people.

So I ask again, why do they select Israel for its censure?

I doubt that Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s critics in the mainstream media and the Obama administration hate democracy, thus there is only one other option.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Hamasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Qatarâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 12 ally ďŹ nd a way to accommodate one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s differing foreign policy approaches toward regional issues,â&#x20AC;? said LeBaron.

FDDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Schanzer blamed the growing Arab rift, which is largely between U.S. allies in the Middle East, on the lack of strong U.S. leadership in the region. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The White House right now is doing its best to extricate itself from the Middle East,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are setting a low bar for our allies; we are not demanding a certain level of responsibility [such as demanding that countries not support terrorist groups like Hamas]. The fact that we allow this is troubling,â&#x20AC;? added Schanzer.

Some U.S. legislators, however, have sought to pressure Qatar over its Hamas ties.

Last year, two-dozen members of the House spearheaded by Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and John Barrow (D-GA), sent a letter to Qatari Ambassador to the U.S. Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al-Rumaihi, urging the country to end its support of Hamas.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;As Israel works to achieve a cease-ďŹ re and sustainable quiet, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help that others in the region, such as Qatar and Iran, are undermining the peace process by helping Hamas ďŹ re thousands of rockets at innocent civilians,â&#x20AC;? Barrow said.

LeBaron said he believes the U.S. will continue to engage with Qatar.â&#x20AC;&#x153;The United States and Qatar have long recognized that they will not always agree, far from it, but since 2010 this realization has not led either side to isolate the other.â&#x20AC;?

As Qatar seeks to expand its role as a major regional and international player, the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fundamental values will continue to be scrutinized. In particular, Qatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designation as the host of the 2022 World Cup has drawn signiďŹ cant backlash. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[The Qataris] are supporting a very violent non-state actor (Hamas),â&#x20AC;? Schanzer said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People ignore Qatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideological leanings. But at the end of the day, even though they are nominally allied with the U.S., they are Islamist at their core.â&#x20AC;?

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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Continued from page 4 Moshe realizes they will indeed settle these eastern lands, that Moshe realizes there will need to be cities of refuge on the Eastern banks of the Jordan as well.

Perhaps these cities of refuge themselves are an allusion to the great dangers of idolatry, whose ultimate consequence is indeed exile, and that these cities were cities of Kohanim (priests) guaranteeing centers of Torah even on the eastern banks of the Jordan.

Ultimately, the land of Israel, and the Torahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire for us to be here, is all about creating the right environment.

And if our mission to be a light unto the nations necessitates the creation of an ethical and holy society, then creating the right environment for that is essential to its ultimate success.

We are a blessed generation and we live in incredible times. But make no mistake about it: our home as a people is not in Teaneck or Miami or Woodmere or Los Angeles, it is here in Israel. And we are engaged in a war against a violent enemy that represents the antithesis of all Judaism stands for.

We value life, whilst Hamas and all its partners worship death. For us, every human being, soldier or civilian is precious;

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Israel, es owledge Is- an enlightened Euro etrated on Jew e t to exist (with no com by Arab and Mus ed from Bob Dyla as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the neighborhoo s by â&#x20AC;&#x201D; be lasting pe is revisited an earlier lim nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s d pensation peace and only then will ther chapter even turn), by and no righ rulers million to lyrics, is â&#x20AC;&#x153;outnumbere bullyâ&#x20AC;? of e , likely, pros The Jew s a people is forgotten and den as perity, too. hind the Iron s ďŹ&#x201A;eeing oppression t of re- for bein one â&#x20AC;Ś criticized and d about a head world did not bow ied. of the boo after the g alive condemned from bek, connecte its collective revocably Curtain and to d and die whe â&#x20AC;Ś heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supposed wherever and the pog Crusades and the to lay victim to the history, we dare not irbeing a Inquisition n his fall worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colle Well, no mor door is kicked in.â&#x20AC;? down forced upo roms and the myr Shabbat cand n Jews thro iad exiles sia. We must asse ctive amn e. rt appeared eugh les 7:58 pm. with G-d-given out to ďŹ nally ackn the ages, but Shabbat ends it women right to live as free apology our after the owledge its 9:10 pm. 72 Holocaust. men and free under G-d shame min. zman 9:30 , Now the war against given us, the land in the land that G-d pm. Parshat has of Israel, our Masei. Rosh Chodesh Men Ed Weintro home. achem Av Mon b, Publish day. Âł,VUDHO ZRX er OG SUHIHU WR OLYH LQ QHLJKERUV SHDFH ZKR KDYH HY DQWL ÂżJKWLQ HU\ RSSRUWX ZLWK LWV *D]D J 5DPEDP 0LDPL %HDF OHDGHUVKLS WR FUHD QLW\ ZLWK SURSHU 0HVLYWD LQ K ´ WH D 6LQ YROXQWHH JDSRUH RU UV DQG DOXP /DZUHQFH VHQGV VWXGHQWV QL DV VROG PRQH\ DQG DV LHUV 1RZ

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