Star 08 09 2013

Sbarro bombing: 12 years later Page 3 Dunetz: Management training in Hebrew school Page 4 Pots de Creme and a hippie’s European trip Page 8 Health, Mind & Body: Falling seniors Page 16

THE JEWISH VOL 12, NO 31 Q AUGUST 9, 2013 / 3 ELUL 5773

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Five Towns tackles an outbreak of lice

By Malka Eisenberg There is a “huge outbreak” of lice in the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, a local pediatrician told The Jewish Star this week. “It’s the whole area, it’s the entire neighborhood.”

The outbreak can be traced to the final days of the school year, when lice were detected in an undetermined number of children at one or more local schools — and parents were not notified — said the Lawrence pediatrician, Dr. Deborah Dienstag.

“They were quiet about it,” added, Shulamis Bloom, a skilled lice-checker in Far Rockaway. “I’ve never seen what happened this summer.”

“By the time we got to camp, it was all over the place,” said Dienstag.

Bloom reported ten girls in one bunk with lice, cases of lice in a boys’ camp, “siblings who went to sleep away camp had it,” another day camp sent home six children, and three backyard camps reported lice. One camp with only 20 campers had five cases, she said.

“To me that’s an epidemic,” she stated emphatically.

“Lice is not usually a major health issue but is a big concern,” Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, Chief Administrative Officer at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, told The Star.

“Screening kids and early treatment is important.”

“It crosses all zip codes and socioeconomic borders,” Dienstag said.

“It’s not because you are dirty — you catch it from somebody else,” the lice-checker said.

“You are only doing a favor if you tell them

[friends, neighbors] they were exposed; if someone told we wouldn’t have had this. Tell your carpool, your bunkmates. It is not something that you have to feel dirty about.”

Bloom said her primary concern now is the embarrassment of children being turned away on the first day of school.

“I’ve seen it too many times,” she said. “A girl will go to school on her first day in her uniform and very excited and even though many schools check on the day before school starts, the children are sent home the first Continued on page 16

Vaccinations counter polio threat in Israel TEEN CHESED

American girls in Michlelet, a NCSY summer program in Israel, cheer the kallah (bride) for whom they organized a bridal shower and wedding when the bride’s family was unable to do so. “I’ll never forget the smile on the kallah’s (bride’s) face when we gave her all the presents,” said Aliza Hirsch, a 16-year-old student at Stella K. Abraham High School in Hewlett Bay Park. Hirsch was one of 24 Five Towns girls in Michlelet.

3 schools boost security

By Jeffrey Bessen To improve overall security procedures while making the best use of their financial resources, three of the area’s Jewish day schools — the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway and Yeshiva of South Shore — will partner to hire a director of security.

“We are trying to work together to secure all the schools,” said Reuben Maron, execu-

tive director of HAFTR, which has 1,200 students, from preschool to 12th grade, in two locations in Cedarhurst and Lawrence. “This could be cost-effective and improve our ability to do lockdowns.” During a lockdown, no one is permitted to leave or enter a school building.

HALB Executive Director Richard Hagler said that a director of security would oversee existing security personnel, ensure that policies and procedures are adhered to and look Continued on page 12

Shabbat Candlelighting: 7:42 p.m. Shabbat ends 8:44 p.m. 72 minute zman 9:11 p.m.

Torah Reading Parshat Shoftim

Facing evidence that poliovirus has spread through the sewer system in several communities, Israel has begun an emergency vaccination program to reach 500,000 children.

The Health Ministry will initially inoculate 200,000 children, age four months to nine years, at the country’s Tipat Chalav (“drop of milk”) well-baby clinics.

The push follows the discovery by doctors of hundreds of people carrying the disease, although none, b’ezrat Hashem (with G-d’s help) were suffering with symptoms of polio or paralysis. The poliovirus was found in sewage from the Bedouin city of Rahat in May, and later in sewage in Beer Sheva, Ashdod, Tel Aviv and other nearby towns. The virus reportedly came to Israel from Egypt.

The clinics will be using the attenuated (weakened but live) oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), pioneered by Albert Sabin in the 1950s.

Although Israeli children — along with ninety-eight percent of all people in Israel — have been vaccinated with the IPV killed poliovirus vaccine (inactivated poliovirus vaccine) pioneered by Jonas

Salk, the current vaccinations should prevent transmission of the poliovirus, according to news reports in Israel.

IPV has been used exclusively in the United States since 2000, usually in combination with other vaccines.

It is administered as part of the child vaccine protocol in four doses at age two months, four months, six to 18 months and a booster shot at four to six years of age.

“Different polio vaccines are indicated for different scenarios,” said Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, Chief Administrative Officer at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre and a spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America.

“I am sure they know which one to give and why,” he told The Jewish Star. “In the U.S., all get the same type as routine kids’ vaccina-

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By Malka Eisenberg

tions. No cause for concern if you are vaccinated in the U.S. All the more reason to get vaccinated.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), polio, or poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by a virus and is spread from feces and other body secretions. It was the scourge of the first half of the 20th century when children were most affected by the virus, with less than one-percent of those infected contracting paralytic poliomyelitis that affected their central nervous system and resulting in paralysis and sometimes death.

Thousands became ill from polio every year in the U.S. until the vaccine came into use in 1955. The World Health Organization declared naturally occurring poliovirus eradicated from the Western Hemisphere in Continued on page 16

High season for calendars: Elul, time for a new luach

T

he Jewish calendar, the luach, is among the most popular works of our faith.

Within its covers can be found just about any and all laws that are time bound and time honored thus enabling us to effectively observe ritual and rite in the correct manner.

In a recent Dvar Torah (words of Torah) on Parashat Re’ei, Rabbi Berel Wein noted the KOSHER historic importance of BOOKWORM the luach with the following observations: “The calendar has always been central to Jewish life and survival. Under the dark regime of Stalin, Soviet Jewry was forbidden from owning or possessing a Jewish calendar. …

“The depths of loyalty of Soviet Jewry Alan Jay Gerber to their inner faith, is seen in the fact that somehow millions of Soviet Jews still knew when the Jewish holidays – especially Simchat Torah – would occur … for the calendar is the rhythm of our lives and evokes with it memory, hope and a feeling of the timelessness of Jewish life and its traditions.”

Rabbi Wein states that “the calendar supplies us with a vision of the future and allows us the ability to feel that we are masters of our fate and that we can, by our own efforts, be influential in determining our destiny.”

Now just imagine this august concept applied to that simple humble little luach that

serves to help you, your rabbi, your shamash or gabbai (synagogue attendant), to navigate Jewish custom, law and liturgy as they apply to our daily lives.

The now yearly “changing of the guard” in most observant shuls involving the purchase and installation on a wall of the Ezras Torah Luach has, in recent years, taken on the appearance of an almost sacred ritual in and of itself. This has only served to further endear this little artifact of our faith.

Rabbi Wein concludes his commentary on the luach by noting that, “Though the future is always inscrutable, we can nevertheless be comforted and feel secure by the consistency of our calendar, which has marked the journey of the Jewish people through time and centuries.

“The Jewish calendar reminds us daily of our uniqueness as a people and of the eternity of our Torah and our faith….The passage of time itself is one of life’s gifts bestowed upon us by our Creator.”

Aside from the Hebrew Ezras Torah wall calendar, as noted above, Ezas Torah published, in both Hebrew and English, a pocket size version for daily use.

According to the publishers, these calendars, over the past century, have become an extremely popular and almost indispensable tool for thousands of rabbis and gabbais as well as laypersons throughout the United States and Canada.

The popularity of both this luach, and the increasingly popular Luach Colel Chabad,

can be attributed to many societal factors.

Among these is the increasing demand for a more refined resource for reliable T Torah knowledge in the English llanguage made available to all in a convenient format for daily u use.

Further, the welcome use of E English has greatly improved the rritual observance of many who w would otherwise founder when cconfronted with problems in the o observance of correct ritual law.

Also, it should be noted that tthe Conservative/Masorti movem ment has in the past decade devveloped an attractive luach, Luah H Hashanah, that goes into great d detail in explaining to their folllowers the laws and customs a according to their tradition of observance, for both shul and home. The attractive graphic format and layout merits attention for its effectiveness as a learning tool to be emulated. In addition, their instituting a website and email address for updates and corrections helps to further make current technology all that more relevant to assisting all in the observance of our faith.

Remembering Rav Kook This Friday, August 9, 3 Elul, is the yahrtzeit of Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, zt”l. This prompts me to bring to your attention a portion of the text of a hesped made at that time [1935] by the then president of the Jewish National Fund, Menachem Ussishkin, in tribute to Rav Kook’s legacy.

Given the tenor of our times, his words concerning Rav Kook deserve your attention.

“Many of you have heard of Rav Kook’s remarkable reply to a prominent rabbi – a rabbi who criticized him for his cordial relationship with the anti-religious youth. ‘How can you join forces with these people in common causes?’

“And the Rav responded: ‘As you know, the Holy Temple had [separate] courtyards for Kohanin, for Levites, for regular Israelites, and for women. And there was one special place called the Kodesh HaKodashim, which only the High Priest was allowed to enter – and only once a year, on the holiest day of the year.

‘This was true when the Temple was standing. Then there were separate areas for each sector of the nation, and each person knew where he was permitted and where he was forbidden to enter.

‘However, what do you think it was like when they were building the Temple? Then there were certainly no barriers. The workers went to any place that required their skills.

Even into the Holy of Holies.

‘Nowadays,’ the Rav concluded, ‘we are building the Third Temple. We are in the period of building. There are no – and there must not be any – barriers between the young generation and us, between the religious and the secular. We are all busy with one project; we all work toward one goal.

First, let us build the Temple. Afterward we may speak…’

“This was his philosophy, from the first day that he arrived in this country, until his final day.”

My dear readers, leadership requires firmness, and integrity. Rav Kook was that leadership, a leadership that surely merits imitation today in a big way.

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August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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I can still hear the blast ringing in my ears, still hear the screams of the wounded, and still see the horrible images of that terrible afternoon.

I still get a lump in my throat when thinking of Chana Nechenberg, a young wife and mother who has been in a coma these past ten years, or of Malki Roth, a 15 year girl full of so much life who is still, ten years later, a 15 year old girl, because she never reached her 16th birthday.

I can still feel the hug of my eldest daughter, who was 11, when I got home that evening, and I still shudder to think how close I came to missing these last 10 years.

The following is a letter written the next day to my father in an effort to collect my thoughts, and this article is dedicated to the memory of those who were murdered that day, and to those who still suffer from their wounds and losses. â– â– â–

Friday, Erev Shabbat, the day after: Her eyes will stay with me forever. Imploring, beseeching, full of so much sadness.

I can’t begin to describe all that was in those eyes. Yesterday, on my way to work, I found myself walking down Yaffo street. Hungry, I decided to stop and grab a quick bite ‌ at Sbarro’s Pizza.

Walking into Sbarro, there is a larger area for sitting in the front, but the back looked a bit cooler and quieter, so I decided to grab a seat in the back. That decision saved my life.

Waiting on line, when they brought me the baked ziti I asked for, it was cold. So I asked the woman behind the counter if she’d mind warming it up. “Ein Ba’ayah� (“no problem�), she said with a smile. I will always wonder if that was her last smile. A couple of moments later, a fellow from behind the counter came to the back with my baked ziti. Then he started to speak to someone at one of the tables. That baked ziti saved his life.

At about 2 p.m., I felt and heard a tremendous explosion, and day turned into night.

And then the screaming began. An awful, heartrending sound, the sound of people coming to terms with a whole new reality.

Those of us in the back were spared, but I was afraid of panic, so I started yelling at everyone to quiet down, not to panic. The ceiling looked like it might cave in, but there is always the danger of a second explosion, detonated on purpose shortly after the ďŹ rst.

Then I smelled smoke, and was suddenly afraid the restaurant might be on ďŹ re. So we started climbing our way through the wreckage to the front.

There are no words to describe what the front of Sbarro’s Pizza looked like in the immediate aftermath of that explosion. A woman was lying near the steps to the back.

Her eyes were staring straight at me, following me, full of pain and longing, sadness and despair. I dropped down beside her trying to elicit a response to see if she could speak.

And then I watched the life just drain out of her. She died there, on the steps in front of me. She was lying by the table I had decided not to sit at.

There were bodies everywhere, and those images are in my mind; they won’t let go.

A child’s body under the wreckage; a baby

carriage; limbs and a torso; a woman holding a motor-cycle helmet and screaming to a person on the oor who had obviously been someone she was with. A religious Jew missing at least two limbs, in tears and shock; what do you say? “Yehiyeh Be’Sederâ€? (it’ll be all right)? Will it? â– â– â–

I recall once, reading a story of a boy who was saved from a near drowning, by a stranger. As the fellow carried him ashore, the boy looked up and said, “Thanks for saving my life, mister.� To which the man responded: “Just make sure it was worth saving.�

Tonight we celebrate Shabbat. All over Israel, in eight hours, parents will bless their

children at the Shabbat table. We will all hug them a little tighter this week. In a few hours we will light Shabbat candles. This Shabbat, in the wake of all this darkness, the Jewish people will do what we have been doing for 4,000 years, what we have always done. We will pick up the pieces and light our candles, because that is all we have ever wanted, just to bring a little light back into the world.

After 2,000 years of dreaming, we have come home.

So many nations and so many empires tried to stop us from getting here but here we are, nonetheless. Home. That word has such a beautiful sound to it, to a people that has wandered the globe for so long. We are

not leaving. We will be here to celebrate this Shabbat and next Shabbat, and forever, until the end of time, here, in the hills of Judea and Gush Etzion and Jerusalem.

May Hashem, who in His inďŹ nite Wisdom saw ďŹ t to allow me the privilege of celebrating one more Shabbat with my family, see ďŹ t, in the hills of Jerusalem, to put an end to all of this pain and all of this suffering.

Wherever you are, and whomever you are, you should be with us here, in Yerushalayim, and offer up a prayer for all those who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy.

Yehi Ratzon (May it be G-d’s will) that we will soon ďŹ nd the road to the peace we have longed for, for so long.

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One month before the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention was turned to unprecedented terror in New York, a Palestinian homicide bomber blew up the Sbarro pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem, killing 15 and wounding â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including many severely â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 132 others. The Jewish Star columnist Rabbi Binny Freedman was in Sbarro 12 years ago today, Aug. 9, 2001. This is excerpted from his story published in The Star on the 10th anniversary of the Sbarro Bombing.

THE JEWISH STAR August 9, 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ 3 ELUL 5773

Sbarro bombing: Sharp images after 12 years

August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE JEWISH

STAR

Independent and original reporting from the Orthodox communities of Long Island and New York City All opinions expressed are solely those of The Jewish Star’s editorial staff or contributing writers Published weekly by The Jewish Star LLC, 2 Endo Boulevard, Garden City, NY 11530 Phone: 516-622-7461 ■ Fax: 516-569-4942 News releases: Newsroom@TheJewishStar.com ■ Calendar listings: Calendar@TheJewishStar.com Letters for publication: Letters@TheJewishStar.com ■ Ads: Advertising@TheJewishStar.com Publisher Editor Account Executive Editorial Designer Photo Editor

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Abandon the Syrian civil war?

Isolation is never splendid

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mong the handful of world leaders who could always be relied upon to support the United States unstintingly, the name of Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, stands out. Blair energetically advocated for American engagement and warned of the negative global consequences of an America in retreat.

In April 1999, at the height of the NATO operation against the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo by Serbian forces, Blair, in a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, said: “We cannot turn our backs on conflicts and the violations of human rights in other countries if we want to be secure.”

Blair urged his American hosts to “never fall again for the VIEWPOINT doctrine of isolationism.”

I thought of Blair’s words when I came across an editorial in the latest edition of the liberal Jewish newspaper, The Forward.

Entitled “Letting Syria Go,” the editorial was candid in contrasting the “lame” American commitment to the Syrian rebels against Ben Cohen the active backing that JNS.org Bashar al-Assad’s foul regime has received from its allies in Russia and Iran.

America’s inaction over Syria reflects “who we are now,” [a country] “traumatized” by the combined experiences of intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Jane Eisner, The Forward’s editor, told me via email that the editorial “did not state support for isolationism or interventionism.” Eisner added, “If we accept what is our de facto isolationism, let’s at least also understand and face up to the moral implications. And if we intervene, let’s remember what we have already learned, that such a path is rife with unintended consequences and costly in blood and treasure.”

If Eisner is correct, and we really are faced with this profound choice in our foreign pol-

icy, then it’s worth examining the assumptions of those who lean towards isolationism.

After all, this is a loose grouping that spans left-wing Democrats, who falsely suggest that there is an irreconcilable contradiction between educating our children at home and defending human rights abroad, and rightwing Republicans, who are quite content to live, to resurrect a term that was popular in the 19th century, in “splendid isolation.”

■■■

To begin with, not everyone agrees that Iraq and Afghanistan were traumatic experiences. As Commentary magazine’s Abe Greenwald has pointed out, in both theaters, America “gained the essential skills for counterinsurgency and nation-building.” In Afghanistan, our military prowess resulted in the killing of Osama Bin Laden, as well as the chance for thousands of girls to attend school, in open defiance of the misogynistic Taliban. In Iraq, we got rid of one of the ugliest regimes on the face of the earth, paving the way for peaceful and genuinely free elections in 2009.

Additionally, not every military engagement involves putting thousands of our own troops on the ground. In Syria, we’ve had the option of arming and training the Free Syrian Army, as well as imposing a No Fly Zone, a measure supported by U.S. Sen. John McCain among others.

Yes, the isolationists will say, but beware the unintended consequences of such actions: we will get sucked into a quagmire from which we cannot escape. Well, if avoiding unintended consequences is the primary goal of our foreign policy, then perhaps we should dispense with having a foreign policy in the first place.

■■■

Whether we like it or not, regional conflicts are a reflection of the global power balance.

In Syria, our fear of unintended consequences has caused us to shrink in the face of Moscow’s aggressive backing of Assad.

No wonder that Russian President Vladimir Putin granted asylum to the fugitive traitor Edward Snowden; Putin did so because he thinks we’re weak. He will continue to test Continued on page 17

All I needed to know about being a manager I learned in Hebrew School

O

n the last night of the cruise to Alaska ses was a great leader and a very humble my wife and I enjoyed last week, we man. stayed in and watched the movie Spi■ Delegate, delegate, delegate. The secderman that was playing on my cabin TV. tion of the Torah with the Ten CommandWatching the movie, it occurred ments is not named after the to me that Spiderman’s boss, great revelation at Sinai, where Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah G-d spoke to the entire Jewish POLITICS TO GO Jameson, is a perfect example of people; it’s named after Moses’ what I always imagined a manfather-in-law, Yitro. Why? Yitro ager to be when I was growing taught his son-in-law that if he up: a gruff, cigar chomping, doesn’t delegate and spend more get the job done without caring time with his family, he would whose feelings were hurt, type burn out. of guy.

■ It’s ok for a boss not to All of the TV shows I watched know the right answer. When growing up featured bosses just the daughters of Zelophchad like Jameson. had asked Moses a real stumper You remember the type, charabout real estate and inheritance acters such as Alan Brady of the law, he didn’t try to fake his way Dick Van Dyke Show or Larry through it, he just said I don’t Jeff Dunetz Tate on Bewitched. Watching the know let me check with top manmovie and thinking about bosses agement. (while fighting a growing stiff■ Stand up for what is right ness in my neck from tilting my head to see even if it is not popular. After the Golden the tiny TV set), it was nice to realize that Calf, Moses said whoever is with G-d come the prototypical boss, imagined as a child with me, those Levites answered the call, (and displayed in Spiderman), is not the and they got a big promotion out of it. style I had adopted once I had the opportu■ Protect your people at all costs. We nity to become a manager. remember Abraham for trying to protect SoThankfully, I did not develop into one dom and Gomorrah, “even if there are only of those grumpy stereotypes, although this 10 good people.” He gave birth to nations. was not because of any formal training as The only humans Noah tried to save were a manager — my bosses always threw me his own family and quite possibly, because into the fire and the only advice given was of that, all nations were destroyed during to do my best. his watch.

Perhaps it was the management-training ■ Protect yourself also. Jacob thought program my parents schlepped me to it each he had an ironclad contract with Laban — Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday. he ended up with the wrong wife. David’s In fact, all I really needed to know about success made his boss Saul feel threatened. being a manager (and an employee), I He ended up out of work (and almost learned in Hebrew School. Management dead). Most bosses are not like that, but you wisdom was not found in never know which ones some human resources manuare. Make sure to protect al or executive self-help book yourself and speak up, re— it was all right there in spectfully, when you feel Mr. Gefter’s Torah class. And that a boss is being hurtit’s still there for all to see. ful.

These are the things I learned Probably the most from my teachers in Hebrew powerful management school: lessons I learned in He■ Who you work with is brew School were about more important than what decisiveness and teamyou are making. Lot traded work. Three thousand being close to his uncle Abrayears ago, Moses and ham for the fame and fortune twelve tribes of freed of a judgeship in Sodom … slaves stood on the shore eventually that turned out to of the Red Sea bracing for be a dead end job. an attack by the army of their former masters.

■ Do not tolerate office gossip. Despite all of her As they began to pray, good deeds in Egypt and during the exodus, G-d said to Moses— Miriam got in trouble for criticizing her boss Enough praying — do something! (brother Moses) behind his back.

Moses took action, leading the twelve ■ Balance makes for better worktribes across the sea as one nation, proving ers. The Torah tells us that employers and that a decisive leader and a unified team employees alike should take off one day a can work miracles. week, Shabbat. The purpose of this day is to It has been more than 40 years since I lose touch with the pressures and worries of went to Hebrew school, and a lot longer the work world, to find balance in your life since the time of Abraham and Moses, but it by getting in touch with your kids, family, still stands that G-d is one great manager of friends and, of course, your maker. people and that the Torah still makes a heck ■ Don’t take credit for everything. Moof an HR manual.

‘The most powerful management lessons from Hebrew School were about decisiveness and teamwork.’

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for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” (Deuteronomy 16:18) What, really, is a judge, and how are we to relate to the concept of being judged?

The Sefer Ha’minhagim (book of customs) suggests that the idea of hearing the shofar blown every day during Elul is “to instill yirah (fear) and re’adah (trembling) in us, at the approaching of the Yamim Nora’im (days of awe).

The Talmud tells us that the origins of the Jewish people’s relationship with the shofar, is the story of the binding of Isaac.

The conclusion of this story is one of the most dramatic moments in Jewish history, and could not have been scripted better in Hollywood: at the last possible moment, with his knife raised high over his beloved son Yitzchak’s head, Abraham hears the voice of an angel telling him, “Do not send forth your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him…” (22:12) And at this point the text tells us that “Avraham lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, there was a ram caught in the underbrush by its antlers…” (22:13) Avraham takes this as a sign, and offers up the ram in place of his son. Four thousand years later, we blow the ram’s horn on Rosh Hashanah to remind G-d of the merit of our forefather Abraham.

Rashi points out that Hashem does not actually tell Avraham to slaughter Yitzchak, but rather to offer him up; an ambiguous term, and the Ishbitzer suggests that G-d gives Avraham three days because Hashem wants him to struggle with this question. Once Hashem communicated to Avraham the initial command, there is no further communi-

NO NEED TO GO ANYWHERE ELSE!

cation from G-d to further clarify what Avraham is meant to do! Perhaps this is because life is not about G-d telling us what to do; it is more about us struggling with what G-d wants us to do, and who He wants us to be.

The Meshech Chochmah (see again our Tastings of Torah Vayera 02), suggests that Avraham failed the test, and passed it at the same time, because Hashem really wanted to teach him (and through him the world) that the true goal in this world is not to die for G-d, but to live for G-d.

Which may be why G-d does not put the ram in Abraham’s hands or command him to sacrifice it in place of Yitzchak. If G-d had deposited the ram directly onto the altar, then it wouldn’t have been Avraham making this critical decision — it would have been G-d.

This is the essence of the shofar; it represents our willingness to be partners with G-d in making the often-difficult decisions in making a better world.

get judged, because often the message they take away is that no-one really cares.

And a critical part of this process is not just how we are judged, or even how we judge others, but how we judge ourselves.

Taking stock of where I am, and judging myself in terms of how I can improve, means that I matter to myself (and have self-worth), such that I not only want to be better, but I am actually worth the effort and investment in becoming better.

And that is the essence of this week’s portion, we need to “appoint” judges at all our “gates,” and take a good hard look at where we are at, and how much we are worth improving.

May we all find the strength, as the sounds of the shofar echo daily from synagogue windows, to dream of all the ways we can become better, and to recognize that we are worth that effort.

And when we begin to see the value and the worth not only in improving ourselves, but in how much everything and everyone around us is and are equally worthy of investment, then we will have come a long way towards bringing about the blowing of that ultimate shofar, heralding a new era of peace and brotherhood, love and harmony.

Who knows? Maybe this year will finally be that year?

Best wishes for a sweet, happy and healthy new year, Ketivah Ve’Chatimah Tovah, and Shabbat Shalom from Efrat and Yerushalayim, Binny Freedman Rav Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City is a Company Commander in the IDF reserves, and lives in Efrat with his wife Doreet and their four children.

■■■

As my colleague Rabbi David Aaron points out, Judaism suggests that when we are judged, it means that what we do matters, and that we are accountable. But, even more, it means that what we do actually makes a difference.

If someone can judge me, it means that they care, because if they didn’t care, why would they bother passing judgment? Indeed, the people we judge the most, are the people we love the most. And this is the essence of Rosh Hashanah: on this day Hashem tells us, each of us, that we really matter, and that He really cares.

This is why discipline and judgment, in the proper proportions, are so critical in relationships; it is sad to see children who never

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his week we celebrate Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of Elul, the month that leads up to Rosh Hashanah. In four weeks we will stand before G-d in judgment, and we will ask for a good year.

One of the central prayers of the day makes abundantly clear the fact that on this day, at the beginning of the New Year, our fate is determined: “Who will live and who will die? Who in their time, and who in an untimely (young?)

FROM THE HEART manner? Who (will die OF JERUSALEM this year) by fire and who by water? … Like the shepherd whose flock pass beneath His staff, (G-d) passes His sheep (us) beneath his rod (club?)…”

Is this really the relationship we are meant to have with Hashem (G-d)? Who wants a relationship with a G-d that inRabbi Binny sists on “bringing us Freedman to court” and standing over us in judgment?

Does G-d want us to fear Him? In Shoftim (literally, “judges”), as Moshe continues his farewell soliloquy to the Jewish people prior to their entering the land of Israel, the Torah tells us that one of the principle responsibilities of the Jewish people in creating a just society, is to appoint judges in all the cities and communities that they build in the land of Israel.

“Place for yourselves judges and officers in all your gates that Hashem (G-d) gives you,

THE JEWISH STAR August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773

Shoftim: Judging ourselves and our self-worth in the New Year

Swede city Mid-Easterners in anti-Jewish surge Jews in Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, are concerned over an increasing number of anti-Semitic incidents, many perpetuated by “young men with roots in the Middle East,” said Jehoshua Kaufman, a member of the city’s Jewish congregation.

About one-third of Malmo’s 310,000 residents were born abroad, including many in the Middle East. There are about 2,000 Jews in the city. Sixty-six anti-Semitic incidents were reported in Malmo in 2012, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention. About halfway through 2013, there have been 35 reports of anti-Semitic incidents. In all of 2010 and 2011 combined, there were 44 such incidents reported. Malmo police said the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo is twice that of the number in Stockholm, whose population is three times as large.

Although there are other types of rightwing extremism in Sweden besides radical Islam, in Malmo it is “the young Muslim guys that are the problem,” said Barbro Posner, a member of the city’s Jewish community, according to Israel National News. “[Muslims behind anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo] come from countries where there are racist, anti-Semitic TV programs,” Posner said.

Judea, Samaria populations rise The first half of 2013 was characterized by a 2.12 percent population increase in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, according to population registry data obtained by Israel Hayom. The information suggests that the growth rate is highest in the Har Hebron Regional Council, at 4.8 percent.

Israel Newsbriefs from JNS.org “The Har Hebron communities have become a magnet for couples and families who seek value-based education, quality of life and to make a national contribution,” said Har Hebron Regional Council head Tzviki Bar-Hai. On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet expanded its list of cities and communities eligible for government subsidies, which included a record number of Judea and Samaria communities. The decision came just days after the resumption of long-frozen Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations and drew quick Palestinian condemnation.

2 clash over Judea, Samaria Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s negotiator in renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks, abstained from a cabinet vote approving national benefits including housing subsidies and loans for more than 600 Israeli communities on the grounds that a record number of Judea and Samaria communities were included on the list.

Livni acknowledged that there is “no doubt we need to provide the citizens living in [the Judea and Samaria communities] with security — that is our responsibility,” but said she believes it is “wrong and contrary to national interests to take funds that should be going toward diminishing social gaps and using them to encourage settlement in these secluded and dangerous settlements.”

Most Israelis oppose withdrawal Sixty-three percent of Israeli Jews oppose a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, with land swaps, as part of a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians, the latest monthly Peace Index poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University shows.

The poll found that 79 percent of Israeli Jews think the renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations with the Palestinians have a low chance of success of yielding a peace agreement, while 18 percent believe they have a high chance. Among Israeli Arabs, 41 percent think the talks have a low chance of success, while 47 percent believe there is a high chance.

Australian pol: ‘Jewish lobby’ mangles image of Nazi-era Pope Jewish groups and Israeli leaders have criticized former Australian deputy prime minister Tim Fischer for saying that the “Jewish lobby” has unfairly treated the legacy of Pope Pius XII. Jewish groups are known to be critical of Pope Pius XII, who was pope during the Nazi era, for not publicly condemning the atrocities that were being perpetrated by the Germans against the Jewish people.

But in his new book, “Holy See, Unholy Me: 1,000 Days in Rome,” Fischer claims that Pius “instructed Catholics to help Jews, hiding

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hundreds in convents, monasteries and the Vatican,” and says the tactics of the “Jewish lobby” are “about representing a cause and maintaining influence and power.”

“This is very standard anti-Semitic fare … the notion of Jews controlling the world, either through financial markets or the media, or both,” said Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, on Fischer’s book.

Latest discovery: Ancient Jewish pottery village in Galilee A religion professor from Alabama-based Samford University has discovered an ancient Galilean Jewish village five miles near Nazareth in a recent archeological dig.

“The site of the discovery has been abandoned, except for agriculture, ever since the mid-fourth century CE. “The buildings came down and people used its stones in other nearby buildings, then those buildings were destroyed and the stones were re-used again,” said Professor James Riley Strange, according to Science World Report.

Archeologists discovered remnants of Jewish housing and synagogues at the site, as well as pottery and moulds that were used to make oil lamps. One piece, an oil lamp, has an engraving of a menorah and a lulav.

From the discovery, experts suspect the village was a potters’ village.

One of the earliest Jewish villages in the region during the Hasmonaean dynasty (14063 BCE) was “Shikhin,” a potters’ village described by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and by the Talmud.

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August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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TV in PA prizes Israeli territory as part of ‘Palestine’ Coinciding with the restarting of IsraeliPalestinian conflict negotiations in Washington, D.C., Palestinian Authority TV (PA TV) offered $100 prizes in man-on-the-street interviews with Palestinians who identified Israeli territory as part of “Palestine,” Palestinian Media Watch reported.

On the July 25 program, the PA TV reporter asked a Palestinian man, “On the beach of which Palestinian village did the whale spew out the prophet Jonah? Naturally, it’s a coastal city.” The man won a $100 prize for answering “Ashdod.”

The “correct” answer on the TV program

Israel Newsbriefs from JNS.org to “What is the highest mountain in Palestine?” was Mount Meron, which is located in northern Israel.

Asked by the PA TV reporter to identify which city the Palestinian writer Mustafa Dabbagh called “the city that fell from Heaven,” a Palestinian man followed up by asking the reporter whether the city was inside or outside of Palestine, and when told the city was inside Palestine, the man earned the cash prize by answering “Jaffa.”

Palestinian negotiator timetable Although U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams would keep the details of their renewed talks confidential, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Saturday said Israel would release 26 Palestinian prisoners on August 13.

This will be the first phase of the four-stage prisoner release, entailing the freeing of 104 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo Accords, that Israel agreed to in order to restart negotiations.

Syria strike link tied to Obama President Obama, due to his “dismay” over Israeli operations, allowed the U.S. intelligence community to leak classified information about the recent Israeli airstrike on Syria, World Tribune reported.

Last month, the Israel Air Force bombed

Yakhont anti-ship missiles stored in a Hezbollah-controlled warehouse near Latakia, Syria, according to the New York Times. Some of the missiles were reportedly spared because they were moved before the Israeli airstrike.

A U.S. diplomat who declined to be identified told World Tribune that the decision to leak information about the Israeli airstrike on Syria “could come only from Obama.”

Rouhani: Israel ‘wound for years on the body of the Muslim world’ Just days before being sworn in as Iran’s next president, Hassan Rouhani reportedly called Israel an “old wound” that must be removed at a pro-Palestinian rally.

“The Zionist regime has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world for years and the wound should be removed,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency during a speech at an Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally, an annual Iranian celebration of support for the Palestinians.

Iranian Press TV later aired what it called a corrected version of Rouhani’s statement. “After all, in our region there has been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved al-Quds,” Press TV quoted Rouhani as saying.

Rouhani’s remark echoed similar threats made by previous Iranian leaders. Israeli PM

Netanyahu said the remark, in its initially reported form, should serve as a “wake up” to the world about any illusions they hold on Rouhani, whom some have called a “moderate.”

“The real face of Rouhani has been exposed earlier than expected,” Netanyahu said.

“This is what the man thinks and this is the Iranian regime’s operational plan.”

IDF patrol under Syrian fire An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) patrol vehicle came under fire from across the Syrian border Thursday night, in the latest Syrian civil war spillover into Israel. No soldiers were wounded and no damage was done to the vehicle in the attack.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported that according to the IDF, the shooting was apparently not premeditated and was a result of a firefight between Syrian rebels and regime forces that spilled over into Israeli territory.

IDF Christian enlistment triples Christian enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has nearly tripled in the past year, going from 35 to 100, with another 500 Christians doing national service, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth and spiritual leader of a forum for the enlistment of Christian youth in the IDF, Naji Abid, leader of the Orthodox council in Yafia and Lt. (ret.) Shadi Khaloul, head of the forum.

At the meeting, Netanyahu announced the creation of a joint government-community forum to encourage Christian enlistment.

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Hundreds of supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the ousted Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, gathered in front of St. George Church in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag last weekend and raised the black flag of AlQaeda over the church.

According to Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.based Coptic human rights organization that cited a local Egyptian report in Shorouk News, the Islamists chanted that Egypt should be an “Islamic [state] despite [the wishes of] secularists.” The church immediately closed its doors after the demonstration and prevented the entry or exit of its members.

The head of Al-Qaeda, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a recent recorded message, said that “Crusaders and secularists and the Americanized army have converged … with Gulf money and American plotting to topple Mohamed Morsi’s government,” according to a translation by Sky News.

THE JEWISH STAR August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773

Al-Qaeda flag raised atop Egypian Coptic church

European delicacies encountered during 3-ring European vacation to the house, right before Shabbat. He was exhausted, dressed in faded jeans, his hair a bit longer than it should have been and he hadn’t shaven in a while. He rang the bell and stood there with all his belongings on his back.

The door opened and he immediately saw the look of terror on the elderly couple’s face, as they stared at the specimen standing before them. Since Jerry did not speak Swiss and they didn’t speak English, he tried to explain who he was in broken Yiddish.

He thought for sure once he mentioned his mom’s name, they would realize who he was especially since his mom had called them — or had she? The man ran to the hall closet and shouted something to his wife that Jerry didn’t understand.

He then dragged some suitcases from the closet and said “Holiday, we are going on holiday.” His wife ran upstairs and started throwing clothes downstairs to put into the suitcases.

At that point it was obvious that they had no clue who this hippie-looking kid was who landed on their doorstep with all his belongings. Again Jerry tried to explain he was the little boy who’s parent’s house they stayed at years ago. Finally they understood and put their suitcases away. They were thrilled to have Matel and Miklosh Joszef’s son for Shabbat.

When the first course arrived Friday night it was now Jerry’s turn to have that look of terror on his face. He was served a huge fish head for the appetizer. Jerry looked down at the plate and at the hosts. They were beaming and saying something in Yiddish about the dish being a delicacy.

Jerry was wondering at that moment if he could grab those suitcases out of the closet and say “Holiday, going on holiday.”

There was no way out, there was no dog or pet to slip the fish head to. He looked down … and the fish looked up, right at him. The huge eyes staring into his, the mouth complete with a set of teeth seemed to be smirking at him. He slowly tried to find a spot that he could get his knife and fork into. “How in the world would one eat something like this, or better yet why in the world would they want to?” he thought.

Thankfully the rest of the food during Shabbat was more to Jerry’s liking and he got to rest up for his train ride to Germany.

The ride was uneventful and when he arrived in Munich in the evening he needed a place to stay overnight. Having been to Orlando with friends the year before he thought there would be no problem finding a cheap motel. But alas, there was no HoJo’s (cool lingo for Howard Johnson’s). He wasn’t in Kansas anymore, he was tired and nervous about where he would stay.

Just then he spotted a bunch of hippies with all their belongings on their backs and he asked where he could find a motel. They said they didn’t really have any in that part of town, but that he could tag along with them and stay at a place for a dollar a night.

Sounded good to Jerry, until he got there.

The hippies led him to a huge three-ring circus tent, which at night was rented out to people to sleep. Jerry, having no other plans, paid his dollar and followed the others into the tent. He wondered where the beds were and then realized that everyone just slept on the floor, within the three rings, where the animals had performed earlier in the day.

So there he was, in a circus tent, wearing his kippah, sleeping near his new group of hippie friends, who hadn’t showered for days, although he didn’t realize how badly they smelled because the stench from the circus animals overpowered everything else.

He crouched in a corner and dared not close his eyes. All that was missing was a huge fish head. He counted the minutes till the crack of dawn and immediately got out of Dodge.

When he got back to Switzerland and met his friend in Zermatt they skied on a glacier on top of the Alps, which was a wonderful ending to a very adventurous vacation.

To this day whenever my husband thinks of Switzerland he can still see that fish head staring right up at him. When I think of Switzerland I think of pots de creme which the Swiss are famous for.

Below find the recipe that I happened upon years ago. It’s decadent and worth every last calorie!!

Chocolate Pots de Creme: Ingredients: ■12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped ■14 large egg yolks ■2/3 cup sugar ■1/6 teaspoon salt ■3 cups heavy cream ■1 cup whole milk ■2 teaspoons vanilla extract Directions: Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Bring the cream and milk to a simmer in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly whisk about 2 cups of the cream mixture into the yolks. Slowly whisk the yolks back into the cream mixture.

Return the pan to low heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly, just enough to coat the back of a spoon with a thin film. It should take about 7-10 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into the bowl with the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk the mixture until thoroughly combined.

Stir in the vanilla and then divide evenly among twelve 6-ounce ramekins or demitasse cups. Refrigerate and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Judy Joszef is a pastry and personal chef as well as a party planner. She spent 18 years as a pastry chef at Abigael’s, The Cedar Club, Centro and T42 in the Five Towns, before launching her current business, Soiree. She can be reached at judy.soiree@gmail.com

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t must be August, because everyone is off on their last hurrah vacation trips before the kids come home from camp and the Yomim Tovim start. This past Shabbat, my husband Jerry regaled us with his travel plans that took place in 1975 during the summer after his sophomore year at YU. He was set to spend the summer working at a turkey kibbutz in Israel. As the season was ending, he decided to travel to Dachau to visit the concentration camp where his uncle died the day he was liberated. A friend who was with Jerry asked if he wanted to WHO’S IN THE travel to Zermatt, SwitKITCHEN zerland, to ski. Jerry told him he would fly to Switzerland, spend Shabbat with a relative of a relative, then take a train to Germany and then meet him in Zermatt, and fly home with him afterwards.

Keep in mind that, in 1975, there were no cell phones and phone calls were prohibitively Judy Joszef expensive. Calls had to be kept to a minimum and short in length.

He told his mom to call the in-laws of his cousin, who live in Switzerland and who had stayed at his house when he was a little boy.

He said he would like to stay by them for Shabbat then travel to Germany. She thought it was a great idea and said she would call, or so that’s what it sounded like. Jerry landed in Switzerland and somehow found his way

August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE JEWISH STAR August 9, 2013 â&#x20AC;¢ 3 ELUL 5773

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â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Princess Long Islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is familiar Bravo shtick

By Brian Racow Somewhere between the ďŹ&#x201A;ashes of wealth, prideful professions of parental dependency, Jewish cultural caricatures and frequent debauchery, acrimony and hysteria, a picture of young Jewish women on Long Island emerges on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Princesses Long Island,â&#x20AC;? the Bravo TV show that debuted on June 2, and it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ďŹ&#x201A;attering.

In their late 20s and early 30s, the stars are immature and spoiled, Long Island told the Herald newspapers this week, and that is not how they see the overwhelming majority of Jewish women.

The show debuted to 1.24 million viewers, and now reaches 730,000 to 920,000.

Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat from Huntington, wrote that the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characters â&#x20AC;&#x153;fuel anti-Semitic stereotypes.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I will not silently tolerate a show that paints Jewish women on Long Island with all-too-familiar and painful stereotypes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; money-hungry, superďŹ cial, Jewish-American princesses,â&#x20AC;? Israel wrote. â&#x20AC;&#x153;While these shows are infantile and prurient and probably not helpful to society, we do not believe they are particularly destructive,â&#x20AC;? the ADL wrote in a statement to the Herald. â&#x20AC;&#x153;However, the use of the term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;princessesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has a history of being used pejoratively toward Jewish women, and it is unfortunate Bravo chose this title for a show about Long Island women who identify themselves Jewishly.â&#x20AC;?

Dr. Paula Uruburu, vice dean of the School for University Studies at Hofstra University, said â&#x20AC;&#x153;Princessesâ&#x20AC;? prizes superďŹ ciality over intelligence and hard work. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about looking good and being seductive,â&#x20AC;? Uruburu said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What are your goals in life? Is it breast implants and Botox, or do you want to be a CEO or university professor? Where are girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; role models today?â&#x20AC;?

Uruburu said that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Princessesâ&#x20AC;? reďŹ&#x201A;ects a cultural shift away from the gains that the womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement made in the 1960s and â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70s. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement was about empowering women, jobs, education and so on.

Somewhere along the line something went wrong. If you look at traditional fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty just lies around waiting for Prince Charming to come and save her.â&#x20AC;?

Rose Veitsman, a Bellmore parent who identiďŹ es herself as Jewish, agreed that the show â&#x20AC;&#x153;portrays women in a horrible way.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I thought it was beyond ridiculous. I thought it was too stupid to air,â&#x20AC;? Veitsman said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe any of these women are as stupid as they acted on the show.â&#x20AC;?

Erica Krassner, a Bellmore resident who attends the University at Buffalo and identiďŹ es herself as Jewish, said she disliked the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stereotype of young Jewish women from Long Island. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Usually by your 30s youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d move out and not be relying on your parents and their money anymore,â&#x20AC;? Krassner said.

An expanded version of this story appears in this weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Merrick Herald, and online at http://bit.ly/14yW3YM

KULANUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CAMP DISCOVERY SWINGS

Camp Discovery campers danced freely during a one-hour concert by the 12-piece middle-school-aged band ensemble, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beyond Control,â&#x20AC;? led by their music teacher and mentor Al Pennachio. Camp Discovery is an inclusion camp in Cedarhurst. Pennachio said his band plays not just for the music, but to â&#x20AC;&#x153;give back to the community.â&#x20AC;? For more information, contact Camp Director Jonathan Cooper, jonathanc@kulanukids.org

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3 schools work together to boost security...

Continued from page 1 for ways to upgrade school safety.

“Our goal is to keep the students, faculty and staff safe and maintain control over situations as they arise,” said Hagler, who oversees nearly 1,700 students and approximately 300 employees at four different schools and one day camp under the HALB umbrella: the Lev Chana Early Childhood Center and the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, which share a building in Hewlett; the Davis Renov Stahler High School for Boys in Woodmere, the HALB Elementary School in Long Beach, and the Avnet Country Day School camp.

“We are pooling our resources to get more bang for our buck,” said Rabbi Dovid Kramer, executive director of Yeshiva of South Shore.

Kramer’s school has 560 students in kindergarten through 8th grade, and a staff of 62.

Hagler and Kramer agreed that the hiring of a security director was not prompted by the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, last December or the bomb threat called in by a student at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov High School in Lawrence on April 16.

The administrators said that many schools are reviewing, and trying to improve, their security.

“We are just trying to upgrade our security the best way we know how,” Hagler said.

“The safety of our children is first and foremost.” The budget for the position has yet to be set, he added.

Paul Goldenberg, national director of the Secure Community Network, said that there have been “several dozen” incidents at yeshivas in the metropolitan area in the last five

Photo by Jeffrey Bessen

The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway is one of three local yeshivas collaborating to hire a director of security. years, including bomb threats and acts of vandalism. “We see the numbers rise when violence increases in the Mideast and it targets Israel,” Goldenberg said.

The SCN is the national non-profit homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

When necessary, the schools are in close communication with Nassau County police

stationed at the 4th Precinct in Hewlett and Auxiliary Police Unit 109, which comprises about 30 trained volunteers that patrol the Five Towns. Capt. Danny Gluck, the commander of Unit 109, said he thinks that hiring a director of security is a positive step.

In addition to conducting day and night patrols of Five Towns communities, he explained, the auxiliary unit has assisted at Lawrence school events such as the Homecoming parade. “If there’s something re-

quested by the schools, which they do from time to time, we’re always there, whatever it might be,” Gluck said. “We’re there for them, as we are for everybody.”

Maron said that the overall goal is simply to keep everyone safe. “We want to have the proper number of security people,” he said, “and make sure that the schools are properly secure.”

This article first appeared in the Nassau Herald on Wednesday.

The Young Israel of Lawrence - Cedarhurst is proud to welcome their new Assistant Rabbi Rabbi Ya’akov Trump.

Rabbi Trump grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. After graduating high school, he spent several years in Yeshivat Kerem BeYavneh in Israel followed by Ner Yisroel, Baltimore. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Yeshiva University and has taken multiple Actuary exams. While completing Semicha at RIETS, Rabbi Trump served as Rabbinic Intern in Kesher Israel DC, Young Israel of Jamaica Estates and the Beth Din of America. He spent two years as Rabbinic fellow of the YU Torah Mitzion Kollel of Chicago creating new programs and shiurim. Rabbi Trump promises to add vibrancy and inspiration to the community, and to ably support our mora d’asra, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum.

Rabbi Trump and his wife, Malka, and children will be spending their first Shabbat in the community on the 16th-17th of August, Ki Teitzei. Please join with us to welcome them.

Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum President, Kalman Isaacs Executive Director, Marvin Schenker 8 Spruce Street Cedarhurst, New York 11516 Phone: (516) 569-3324 www.yilc.org

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Shoftim / Intermarriage: What’s legal halachically, what’s desirable

F

or as far back as I can remember, I have heard rabbis and community leaders utilize such catch phrases in public lectures as “We must stem the tide of assimilation!” and “Intermarriage rates are skyrocketing!”

Most Jews I have met who grew up in the 1920s and ’30s married Jewish and tried to raise Jewish children. Marrying a non-Jew was out of the question — and perhaps in a slightly more bigoted and less-tolerant society the feeling was mutual. Many Jews who grew up in the ’40s and ’50s were fed similar instructions. But perhaps the emergence of Israel as a state created a human, and even admirable face, to the enigma of the Jew, and marrying whomever for love began to become an option.

PARSHA OF Nowadays, with THE WEEK intermarriage in the United States being over 50 percent, many Jewish children grow up hearing, “As long as you love your spouse, as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter to us.” More than likely, a number of parents who don’t inculcate the need for their children Rabbi Avi Billet to marry Jewish don’t themselves understand why it should be important.

This is not to say any Jewish parents whose child married out did not try very hard to teach their children, nor is it to suggest they are failures. In our society, people choose spouses, often enough without, despite, or deliberately against their parents’ input. More couples than I can count have said to me, “I am not happy about my kid’s choices. But what can I do? I still love him/ her.”

■■■

Is intermarriage bad?

Not wishing to be judgmental, or to point fingers, let us just say that it is particularly frowned upon in the Talmud (Yevamot 76a, Kiddushin 68b, Avodah Zara 36b) and its commentaries, and most clearly in the words of Maimonides (Laws of Forbidden Relations chapter 12). The Torah itself says (Devarim 7:3), “Do not marry them, don’t give your daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for your son.”

In fairness, one of the Talmudic debates directly addresses the question of whether this verse applies only to the Seven Nations of Canaan, even if they convert, or to all non-Jewish nations who do not convert.

Other than people from a few nations that no longer exist, those who convert are no longer subject to the prohibition of this kind of intermarriage. After all, one who converts is a Jew. The main reason given for the prohibition, as described by Targum Yonatan, is that a nuptial of this sort paints one as having married (embraced) the other person’s gods.

While the Talmud in Kiddushin goes back and

forth postulating whether a man follows his wife’s religion, or whether a woman follows her husband’s, all of which has repercussions in defining whether the children of such a union are Jewish (the Talmud’s conclusion is that only a Jewish mother bears Jewish children), the verse in 7:3 suggests that either union does not promote the kind of Jewish continuity that our People need. Rabbi S.R. Hirsch has a powerful essay on this point in his Torah commentary on this verse.

The Torah’s solid prohibition of intermarriage often comes into question in the context of next week’s parsha, in the opening section about the yefat to’ar (the beautiful, sometimes married, woman that an Israelite soldier brings home from the battlefield) (21:11-13). Rashi there says the Torah responds to one’s evil inclination.

The problem is exacerbated, however, because the permissive mode comes up elsewhere: in the war with Midyan (Bamidbar 31:9,18) and in our parsha (Devarim 20:1314). In these cases, the Torah does not seem to be responding to a particular lust — it is saying that the female prisoners of war are now available to you.

The Alshich (Moshe Alshich, 1508–1593) in our parsha couches it all nicely, saying the intent is to reflect and change one’s ways through utilizing these people in helping one perform commandments. In an article discussing yefat to’ar, Rabbi Michael Rosensweig addressed the question of the Torah’s allowing these kinds of unions. His message is quite relevant here.

A careful study of the yefat to’ar process affirms the need to “refashion one’s emotional response to avoid even sanctioned halachic compromise.” Quoting the Kli Yakar, Rabbi Rosensweig noted that “in order to succeed against the concrete enemy on the battlefield, one must first struggle internally to refine one’s halachic values and vanquish the yetzer ha-ra (evil inclination) that is accentuated by the passions of battle.” The Rabbis spoke of the negative consequences of marrying the yefat to’ar, even if it is a legal union, consequences Rabbi Rosensweig described as coming from “diluted and compromised standards of discipline, restraint, and mutual respect, [which are otherwise] cornerstones of the halachic vision of sanctity in family life.”

That the Torah allows these unions specifically as a result of war stands to indicate that even these unions, valid in a specific context, are far from ideal. Suggesting that “the Torah allows it and it is therefore OK all the time” is an invalid argument.

There are many people who intermarry who nonetheless agree to raise their children Jewish. I would invite the non-Jewish spouse who is raising Jewish children to consider converting — why not be completely on the same page as your children?

For the sake of the future of our People, while I hope we all bear only friendly will towards our non-Jewish neighbors, coworkers and friends, it behooves us to remind ourselves and our children (and extended family!) that we marry Jews to maintain our heritage and to preserve the best way to serve G-d according to the dictates of the Torah.

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK The Jewish Star newspaper (Long Island, NY)

HEBREW ONLY PLEASE

Rabbi Noam Himelstein

The assimilated Jew and the month of Elul It was the month of Elul, and the Ba`al Shem Tov hesitated before the evening prayers.

He had a serious look on his face.

His Chasidim patiently waited for him to begin.

When he finally smiled, and the prayers were recited, he turned to his congregation and explained the reason for the delay.

Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of the IDF. He has taught in yeshiva high schools, post-high school women’s seminaries, and headed the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.

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Health, Mind, Body In Israel, ADHD drug helps prevent falls in the elderly

Lice…

Continued from page 1 day of school or cannot be in school the first day. My recommendation is, when they come home from camp, check through your kids’ hair to make sure they are clean, before the official checking. You have got to get rid of the lice.”

“We don’t know what’s coming home from overnight camp,” she said. “They should be checked before the first day of school.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pediculus humanus capitis (head lice) is found worldwide; in the United States, infestation is most often found in pre-school and elementary school children and their families. It is not a reportable disease, but there are estimates of 6 to 12 million cases yearly in that age group.

Head lice are very small wingless insects that inhabit the head and sometimes the eyebrows and eyelashes, feeding on human blood a few times a day. They need the blood and the warmth of the scalp to survive. They crawl and can’t hop or fly and are usually spread by head contact with an infected person and rarely from contact with hats and hair care items of an infected person.

While parents may want to try an overthe-counter method, they should “make sure to pick [the lice] out — do whatever it takes to pick them out,” Dienstag said.

She said that Israeli lice are resistant to all chemicals — “they are unkillable” — and it is “inadequate to try to use chemicals — you need to use mechanical methods, you need to remove the nits.”

“My take-home message — as soon as any camp is infested they should call all the camps and before school starts every school should be checking the kids,” Dienstag said.

“Finger-pointing is irrelevant, [but] unless all the camps and schools coordinate we can’t win.”

“It should be a coordinated community effort to clean it up,” she said. “We have to face it and deal with it. It is beatable.”

To find someone to help check for lice, Dienstag suggested calling a local day camp or school for a recommendation. Both Dienstag and the lice-checker said to wash and dry the linens and towels, throw out brushes, clips,

By Malka Eisenberg

Image of adult louse and its nits (eggs). and ponytail holders. Dienstag said that preemptively, “every kid needs their own brush, comb, hair things in a separate place to keep them, in a closed plastic shoe box and labeled” — a brush shouldn’t be left on the counter for everyone to use in the morning.

Some lice-killing home remedies include soaking the hair with rosemary oil, or keeping the hair in mayonnaise or margarine overnight — it suffocates the lice, explained Dienstag. “Unless the child is very badly infested you are unlikely to see bugs.”

“If your child is scratching her head, don’t ignore it, take a look,” she stressed.

“If you see it and you are not sure, get the child checked by someone who knows what it looks like,” said Dienstag. “The worst thing is to close your eyes and hope it will go away.

It won’t.

“A lot of women in the community are lice checkers — call your school; they have a relationship with women who are good at it and know what they are doing. You can do it yourself once you know what you are looking for or if there is no time you can get someone to do it.”

Bloom said that schools typically check for lice at the beginning of the year, after Succos, after the mid-winter break and after Pesach, noting that many travel to or from Israel at these junctures.

About lice: The child’s head should be examined, concentrating on the areas behind the ears and at the back of the neck. For more information go to: cdc.gov/parasites/lice

Polio vaccinations…

Continued from page 1 1994 as a result of mass immunization efforts.

After receiving three doses of IPV or OPV or four doses of a combination of the two, a person is considered fully immunized, states the CDC. The benefits of OPV use were until recently considered to outweigh the risk: generally the OPV, according to the World Health Organization, is a mixture of the three strains of live but weakened poliovirus. After three or more spaced doses of the oral vaccine the person has antibodies to the virus in the blood protecting against polio paralysis by preventing the spread of the virus to the nervous system. It also triggers an immune response in the lining or mucous membrane

of the intestines a main place where the poliovirus grows, inhibiting growth of other naturally occurring poliovirus. This immunity is thought to prevent the transfer of polio to other people. The risk associated with OPV is that of vaccine associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP), noted the CDC site, or paralysis resulting from the vaccine, that was found in one child out of every 2.4 million doses given. That’s why OPV was not used in the U.S. after 2000. But OPV is still used where polio is endemic or likely to spread.

It is used to eradicate polio globally, rather than IPV, because of OPV’s triggering immunity in the gut and its ability to spread the vaccine to others who are unvaccinated and come into physical contact with those who have been immunized with OPV.

A single dose of a popular ADHD drug commonly used in children was found to increase balance while walking in a study of 30 healthy elderly, reducing their risk of falling.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that balance and concentration were improved after administering 10 mg of methylphenidate (MPH), the generic name of Ritalin, in a study of 30 elderly adults.

BGU’s Itshak Melzer told The Jewish Star that MPH could be used for treatment “in a few years after completing our studies to see if there are any adverse events.”

In the study, 15 subjects were administered MPH and 15 were given a placebo.

Their balance, walking ability and then walking ability combined with a verbal task were tested. Analysis of the data, in one part of the study, indicated “a 57% reduction in the number of step errors in the experimental group with no equivalent improvement in placebo controls.”

The decline in walking ability and balance with age significantly affects the increase in falls in the elderly. Another aspect that may precipitate falls may involve the need to accomplish two actions at the same time such as walking and observing traffic while crossing a street or being distracted while walking.

The subjects in the study were all aged 70 or older, had no sight complications, were able to walk without assistance and were sound physically and mentally, with no neurological disease, psychiatric problems, dementia or cardiac disease.

The amount of the dose of MPH was chosen since it’s been shown to aid walking in Parkinson’s patients and helped mental processing in brain tumor patients and is the beginning dosage in adults with attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder.

Melzer noted that “our findings that MPH improves gait can be explained not just by its effect of attention improvements but also by indications that it has a direct influence on areas of the brain that deal with motor and balance control.”

“Our results add to a growing body of evidence showing that MPH may have a role as a therapeutic option for improving gait and reducing fall risk in older adults, especially in ‘real-life’ situations, where the requirement to walk commonly occurs under more complicated circumstances with cognitive attention focused elsewhere (e.g. watching traffic, talking) and not on performing a specific motor task.”

He noted that the use of more than four medications is a risk factor for falling in the elderly and precautions to prevent falls include “less medication, a home safety check and specific exercises to improve balance.”

Dr. Paula Lester, a gerontologist affiliated with Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, said that she has “concerns about stimulants in the elderly, especially those with cognitive dysfunction or cardiac disease as their use is not well studied in those populations.”

Itshak Melzer is one of the Ben-Gurion University researchers who are studying the use of Ritalin in the elderly to prevent falls.

MPH stimulates the central nervous system and is used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy (a sudden attack of deep sleep). It increases attention and decreases restlessness in children and adults and can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription.

In the United States, one third of adults 65 and older fall each year, and falls are the leading cause of death related to injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cuts, hip fractures and head traumas result in almost 30 percent of falls by the elderly. Even if they are not injured after they fall, they fear falling again, causing them to limit their activities, leading to loss of physical fitness, restricting their mobility and in turn increasing their risk of falling. In 2009, about 20,400 older adults died from injuries from a fall.

Falls can be prevented with regular exercise focusing on improving balance and leg strength, notes the CDC. Medicines should be reviewed and assessed by a doctor or pharmacist to determine if they or their combinations cause negative effects including dizziness or sleepiness. Vision should be checked, possibly switching to distance only glasses for use when walking. The patient’s home should be evaluated to eliminate tripping hazards, to improve lighting, provide railings on both sides of a staircase and grab bars in the bathroom. To lower the risk of broken bones, patients should have a bone density scan, insure adequate calcium and vitamin D intake and do weight bearing exercises.

Continued from page 4 that weakness again and again, especially over Iran.

As things currently stand, our failure in Syria has cost more than 100,000 lives in a conflict which, says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is the worst since the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. In turning our backs on the Syrians, we have also effectively ditched our commitment to the “responsibility to protect,” a concept that emerged from the pained international debate about defending human rights that followed both the Rwandan genocide and the war in Bosnia. And in taking such a stance, we are denying the linkage made by Tony Blair between our own security at home and the development of prosperous, stable democracies abroad.

The question of whether or not to intervene in such brutal conflicts should concern us as Jews, as well as Americans. We remember only too well how outside indifference to the Holocaust aided the Nazis in their pro-

gram to eliminate the Jews. And we are well aware that Israel’s security can only be enhanced by promoting, in Tony Blair’s words, “human rights and an open society” in the countries neighboring it.

Finally, let’s be honest and admit that isolationism is selective. As practiced by the Obama Administration, it involves shying away from the tough conflicts in favor of focusing on the easier ones, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Because Israel is our closest ally, it is therefore amenable to our suggestions, worries and even pressure.

We don’t have anywhere near that level of clout with the Assads of this world. Yet it is these nasty regimes colluding with our great adversaries, Russia and China, who pose the greatest threat to our security and our values.

If we are worrying about unintended consequences, how about this one? A chastened, humbled America universally regarded as having betrayed its founding principles.

Because that’s where isolationism will take us.

THE JEWISH STAR August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773

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August 9, 2013 • 3 ELUL 5773 THE JEWISH STAR

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19 THE JEWISH STAR August 9, 2013 â&#x20AC;˘ 3 ELUL 5773

The independent voice of Orthodox Jewry in the Five Towns Also serving the Orthodox communities of Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn BOOKWORM: Repentance an d penitence Pa Arendtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Ban ge 2 KITCHEN ality of Evilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; : Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not your on screen Pa motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coff ge 15 Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got Chief Ra ee Page 10 bbis! 2 picked in Israel Page 17

THE JEWIS

VOL 12, NO 30

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re adding more news coverage, new features, and more columnists...

Q AUGUST

2, 2013 / 26

H

AV 5773

LI prenups, po s tackle agunah tnups crisis

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Twitter.com/J

ewishStarNY

www.TheJewish

Star.com

By Malka Eis enberg

such a great In a mo progra (â&#x20AC;&#x153;chained wove to confront the Ebbin explain m.â&#x20AC;? agu ed that that also rea manâ&#x20AC;?) crisis in a creativ nah event origin ated with Ra the idea for the fďŹ rms the ma e way of the of Jewish cou bbi Chaim rita He l com bre w mit Marder in Merrick ples, an Orthodox congre ment had a similar Institute of White Pla ins hel document sig d a post-nuptial/pre gation signing at his pre/post nuptial agr who eement -nuptial synagogue. day on the ning celebration on Tu â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I ann Jewish calend Bâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;A oun v, ced a it fro era niďŹ cance for ar marriage and with special sig- andl weeks ago, I mentione m the pulpit sevJewish unity.

The July 22 d Rabbi Ma said I hop event at follow suit.â&#x20AC;? ed other communities rder Sholom wa s initiated by Congregation Ohav would who told Th its His rab two goals bi, Ira e in running ples came to Jewish Star that almost Ebbin were for his the progra con 50 cou- pas m children to sign, with some bringi sionate and gregants to become the party. ng their â&#x20AC;&#x153;m inv ore olv ed in the agu and to stre â&#x20AC;&#x153;All in all nah issueâ&#x20AC;? ss the halachic the importance of est in attendanc there were around 120 abl pre e, which for ishing peo a really nic a Monday Nig ple dard for all cou -nuptial agreement as e turnout,â&#x20AC;? a stanples contem ht is An he not ranged from being marrie ed. The couples comagunah is a married wo plating marriage. years. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The program cro d one month to 60 not e separated from her man who has begraphics, wh sse husband but ich is one of d all age demo- del remarr y because the husband ref can- Matthew an the reasons iver to her uses to a religious d Jessica Le it was divorce or rner pre it is not while notaries wit ness the sig pare to notarize the Pho tary service Continued on ir post-nupti tos by Susan Grieco natures. An s are attorn page 16 a swering al agree ey Hu

Five Towns ed ucator slams f reeing

Debo man Resourc qu me es specialist ra Grossman, Dr. Elliot estions and providing nt . no t Grossman , and Ira Ko lko,

By Malka Eis enberg

Shabbat Can

of 104 killers

The decisio â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israel mu release of 104 n by Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cabinet on Sunday to app agreement st be removed from the Palestinian committing that weake rove the map in sta terrorist act prisoners who were convicted of cording to the PA, Eli ns Israel is one worth ges, and any was strongl s prior to the y criticized ach pur Oslo Accord in creating this week by cator. a peaceful Pal said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hence the PA has suing,â&#x20AC;? acs in 1993 a noted Fiv ish State of estinian Sta no e Towns edu Isra â&#x20AC;&#x153;On the sur te next door to interest el.â&#x20AC;?

While Eliach the Jewterrorists wit face, the idea of releas insisted tha ing yet more h blood on rel eas t there is no e of the ter error,â&#x20AC;? Rabbi the Palestinian ror jus tiďŹ ists Yotav Eliach ir hands appears to cat , PA per ion terrorists and haps â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israe for the School in Law be a foolish , principal of lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s res agr um eei e peace talk ng to releas Shalhevet in rence and teacher at Rambam Mesivta High price Israel is being forced to pay s with the PA may be e Ramb Valley Stream will not allo the to guarantee â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israel has told The Jew am and Midreshet w that the U.S the U.S. is pre Iran to acquire nucle ish Star. that it ends been down this road . ar we par before, and badly.â&#x20AC;?

Eliach contin ed to use force if need apons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and that we all know Eliach has be.â&#x20AC;? ued: bee n â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bi lecturing and bi, who kno rael and the ws writing abo the Israeli Arab abl PA e, wh and ut Zionism, conďŹ&#x201A;ict for The terror Is- no dif en all is said and don its leaders quite well, wil 30 years. ferent than e, to expose months. Isra ists are to be released Arafat was Abu Mazen l be in el is not exp at Ca to be for this exc ected to rec four stages over nine of 2000: A dishonest ept , double talk mp David in the sum eive anythi mer ng in return ferring to the Mufti tors to discus an agreement to sit ing, Mufti-like with Palest of s Jer Na the leader [reusa zis pos lem ] who when inian negoti sibility of talk vote was 13 who collab push comes a- nizing ora to 7. ing peace. ted with the to shove is Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right The cabine Among tho inc to apa t exi se ble to live in sec st slated to be murderers ure borders. as a sovereign state, and of recogreleased of In essence he her right women and teenagers, teachers and are kidnappers and bluff and show that will call Ab Israel rea children. off-duty sol u Ma â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israel may diers, men From mo bring up at lly has no one to talk to.â&#x20AC;? zenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s these negoti clear that thenitoring Palestinian Au ations that tho PAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rity s the me sta re are ssage to its belongs to the people is tha tements, it is Continued on t â&#x20AC;&#x153;al page 16 mere, and tha Palestinians,â&#x20AC;? said Eli ach, a reside l of Israel t â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israel is an nt of WoodThe PA vie illegal and bid to destro ws the use of terror as immoral entity.â&#x20AC;? a legitimate y Israel. device in its

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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID GARDEN CITY, NY 11530 PERMIT NO 301

Standing op po Photo by Elira Avenue in Ma site the Israeli cons n Aharon lease of Pa nhattan, New Yorkers ulate on Second lestinian kil lers by Israe protested the reFreedman, ex l.

Israel; Rabb ecutive director Am From left: Helen eri i est Hills; pro David Algaze of Havu cans For a Safe rat Yisrael of ForPaul Brody test organizer Tamar Ad of â&#x20AC;&#x153;blood on the Great Neck. All 104 elstein, and Dr. ir hands,â&#x20AC;? sa prisoners ha id Brody. ve

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DR. SCOTT FLASHNER & DR. LARRY KESSLER