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Parsha Ki Teitzeh • Sept. 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777 • Five Towns candles 7:09 pm, Havdalah 8:16 • Torah columns pages 20–21 • Vol 16, No 32

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Bibi: Settlements are forever 50th year celebration in Judea, Samaria launching grounds for rockets aimed at Israeli communities. He recalled how the demolition of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in northern Samaria in 2005 led to a major increase of violence against Israel. “It has been proven that it does not help peace,” he said. “We’ve uprooted settlements. What did we get? We received missiles. It will not happen again.” He added: “To those who want to uproot what we’ve planted, [I say] we will deepen our roots.” “Samaria is a strategic asset for the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “It is the cradle of our people and the key to our future. See Bibi on page 4

The Jewish Star photos by Christina Daly

‘We’ve uprooted settlements. What did we get? We received missiles. It will not happen again.’

Combined Sources Settlements in Judea and Samaria “are here to stay, forever,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday. Speaking to thousands at the Barkan Industrial Park in northern Samaria, Netanyahu said that the Jewish state would not evacuate any more settlements. “There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel,” he said at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Israel’s reentry into Judea and Samaria. “This is the inheritance of our ancestors. This is our land.” Netanyahu noted that in the past, when Israel withdrew its citizens and settlements in peace bids, the evacuated areas became

Democratic candidates for county executive at The Jewish Star offices: George Maragos and Laura Curran.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at an event in Barkan, Samaria, marking 50 years of settlements in Judea and Samaria. Kobi Gideon/GPO

Dem county exec rivals agree on anti-BDS act By The Jewish Star The two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for Nassau County executive each said this week that they support the county’s anti-BDS law. George Maragos and Laura Curran

made their comments during separate interviews in the offices of The Jewish Star. The primary election is set for Tuesday, Sept. 12. Jack Martins, the Republican candiSee Dem rivals on page 11

Bannon to headline ZOA Panicked J Street rewriting gala honoring Freedman history to create ‘Palestine’ T By JTA Stephen Bannon will speak at the Zionist Organization of America dinner in November in his first scheduled public appearance since he was fired as chief strategist for President Trump. ZOA President Morton Klein confirmed on Monday that Bannon will speak at the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner on Nov. 12 at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan.

Among those to be honored that night, according to the ZOA website, are the U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, are listed as presenters. Bannon may introduce Adelson, ZOA’s top donor, at the dinner, The Atlantic reported. Bannon was scheduled to attend the ZOA gala last year but was a no-show.

Commentary by Stephen M. Flatow he U.S. government’s reluctance to demand the immediate creation of a Palestinian state has sent J Street into a panic. With its candidates having been defeated in elections on both sides of the ocean, and its proposals crumbling in the face of reality, J Street is trying one last desperate strategy: rewriting history so that it appears Palestinian statehood has been supported by everybody, everywhere,

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for as long as anyone can remember. Asked by reporters on Aug. 24 about the Palestinian state issue, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “We are not going to state what the outcome has to be. It has to be workable to both sides. That’s the best view as to not really bias one side over the other, to make sure that they can work through it.” Nauert’s statement was simple, logical, and See J Street on page 4

Demand strips supply: $500 for an Italian etrog By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA Fifty years ago, leaders of the Chabad movement tasked Rabbi Moshe Lazar of Milan with supervising the local production and export of the Calabria etrog, the citrus fruit used by Jews during the harvest festival of Sukkot. Lazar’s job is to make sure the fruit is kosher for the festival, and that local farmers aren’t cutting corners or using unkosher techniques to boost the yield and their profits for what already is Italy’s most lucrative citrus product. This year Lazar, now 83, has to be particularly vigilant. A winter frost destroyed 90 percent of the crop, creating the worst shortage he has seen in Calabria etrogs, which are named for the southern region where they are grown. Italy is one of only three major exporters of the fruit along with Israel and Morocco. Prices for the kosher fruits, which in normal years can easily fetch $200 ahead of Sukkot, have doubled and tripled, making Chabad communities around the world — which strongly favor the Calabria variety — fear that they will not be able to afford or obtain a specimen to call their own. The shortage could also tempt unscrupulous or careless farmers. “The frost just burned the fruit-producing branches,” Lazar said. Due to the shortage, Lazar this year is picking fruit he would have deemed too homely for export in normal years, just as long as the fruit is technically kosher. To be considered as such, an etrog must at least be egg-sized, yellow, elliptical, intact (including its woody stem, or pitom) and possess a tough peel. But even using the grade B produce, “there are not going to be enough Calabria etrogim to go around this year,” Lazar said. That’s bad news for Chabad communities all over the world ahead of Sukkot, which this year begins on Oct. 4. Etrogs are among four species of plants that Jews purchase for the holiday. In the Ukrainian city of Odessa, Rabbi Avraham Wolff’s congregants are trying to buy a single Calabria etrog for $500 via a Judaica shop in the United States. 6.25x9.875 full page_Layout 1 7/22/14 12:10 PM Page 1 “We’re worried that even at this high price we won’t be able to get one this holiday,” Rabbi Wolff told JTA. “So a few of the patrons of the community got together and decided to open a fund to make sure we have enough money, cost what it may, for at least one Calabria.” In previous years, the community bought five Calabria etrogs for Sukkot to be shared by Chabad institutions in Odessa, where some 50,000 Jews live. (Under Jewish law, Jews must “possess” 6.25x9.875 full page_Layout 1 7/22/14 12:10 PM Page 1

Samuel Ekstein from New York inspects a citron fruit in Santa Maria Del Cedro, southern Italy, in September, 2016. Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

an etrog during the festival, but some use a loophole which allows them to be shared as “gifts” among several people.) Other communities are able to cut out middlemen by buying the fruit directly from the farmers for about $50 apiece in normal years. But this year, farmers hiked their prices, starting at $150 apiece and all the way up to $350, according to Lazar’s son, Berel, who is a chief rabbi of Russia. Berel Lazar travels to Calabria each year to pick etrogs from orchards and bring them back to Russia for distribution to communities across the former Soviet Union. The younger Lazar charges congregants only what he pays the farmers. The day after Sukkot, the price of etrogs drops to $1 a pound, Berel Lazar said. Locals use the fruit to make jam and in the soap industry. The yield on Calabria etrogs, which are also called yanover etrogim because they used to be shipped from the Italian coastal city of Genoa, makes the fruit an irresistible target for manipulation, Berel Lazar said.

Some growers attempt to increase their margins at the expense of the strict kosher standards that Moshe Lazar has enforced for 50 years. One trick is to secretly graft the relativity vulnerable etrog tree onto the trunk of a hardier citrus tree, rendering it more robust but non-kosher. A cruder ruse involves gluing fruits and branches from a non-kosher tree onto a kosher one. And while there is an atmosphere of “friendship and mutual respect” between the local farmers and the small team of supervisors working with Moshe Lazar, “sadly there is not a relationship of trust,” Berel Lazar said. He noted that the lucrative etrog trade has not escaped the attention of the Italian mafia, which he suggested may be pressuring farmers to try to pass off nonkosher etrogs as kosher to increase profits. Although etrogs are grown in Israel, Morocco and even the United States, Berel Lazar says that the Calabria etrog is “clearly and visibly superior” to those strands — including fruits that grow in Israel on trees descended from Calabria groves. But to Chabadniks, the preference for Calabria etrogs is also based in scripture. According to Chabad traditions, the Talmud suggests that G-d bequeathed southern Italy to Esau, Isaac’s firstborn and inheritor of “earth’s richness,” as he is designated in the book of Genesis. “This means Calabria etrogim come from the richest soil, making them the best,” Berel Lazar said. The shortage has Berel Lazar this year sticking to a quota of 300 to 500 fruits for Russian communities — a mere fraction of the yield in normal years, when tens of thousands of etrogs leave the orchards of Calabria’s approximately 100 etrog farmers ahead of the Sukkot holiday. “I can’t pick as many as I want and send them all to Russia when the rest of the world is left without,” he said. Virtually all Chabad communities eagerly await the Calabria etrogs, and demand is especially high where the movement has many followers — primarily in Israel, France, the United States and the former Soviet Union. Moshe Lazar said he predicts the Calabria orchards will recover fully within a year or two, making the shortage a very “temporary difficulty.” But not a new one, his son noted. “Hasidic tradition has many stories of Russian cities where Jews struggled to find an etrog for Sukkot,” Berel Lazar said. “This year we are reliving also this tradition.”

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stephen M. Flatow Continued from page 1 reasonable. But her failure to pledge a fullthroated endorsement of the Palestinian agenda sent J Street into a tizzy. J Street leaders fired off an overheated press release that declared, “For more than two decades, responsible Israeli and Palestinian leaders, U.S. presidents of both parties and virtually the entire international community have understood that a two-state solution is the only viable way to end the conflict.” Literally, everything in J Street’s declaration is erroneous. American presidents have not supported Palestinian statehood “for more than two decades.” George W. Bush was the first president to publicly support a Palestinian state while in office. That was in 2002, i.e. 15 years ago, not “more than two decades.” Can’t anybody at J Street do basic math? Not only that, but Bush’s support was conditional. In his June 25, 2002 speech about a Palestinian state, Bush said that such a state could come about only if the Palestinian people elected “new leaders not compromised by terror.” The Palestinians, of course, did exactly the opposite. The only president who has unconditionally and publicly supported Palestinian statehood while in office was Barack Obama. Suddenly J Street’s tally of “more than two decades” is down to eight years. And anyway, since when is there a rule that every future president is obligated to take the

Palestinian Arabs had given up their goal of destroying Israel and had forsaken terrorism. Presumably if they changed their ways, they could be trusted with their own state in Israel’s backyard. That was the basis for the Oslo Accords in 1993. But that argument fell apart when Arafat tried to smuggle 50 tons of weapons into Gaza on the motor vessel Karine A in 2002. It turned out the old terrorist had never changed his ways, after all. The second argument for a Palestinian state was fear of the “demographic time bomb” — that because of the high Arab birthrate, Israel must agree to a Palestinian state or it will become an apartheid-like ruler over the Palestinians. But then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resolved that problem in 1995, when he withdrew Israel’s forces from the cities where

98 percent of the Palestinians reside. For the past 22 years, they have been residents of the Palestinian Authority, and they vote in Palestinian elections. They will never be Israeli citizens, will never vote in Israeli elections, and will never threaten Israel’s Jewish demographic majority. The old arguments for Palestinian statehood lie in tatters. The U.S. government’s position simply reflects that reality. J Street, unable to face reality, is trying to change history to suit its agenda. Friends of Israel need to act swiftly to counter such dangerous revisionism. Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Prime Minister Netanyahu accompanied U.N. Secretary-General Guterres Participate at the Israel Museum, on the same day the PM gave a GPO rousing pro-settlement speech in Samaria.

gether,” Netanyahu said of the partnership between his office and the residents of Judea and Samaria. “There is no government that has done more for the settlements than this government under my leadership.” Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan lauded Netanyahu for his leadership but said that he’d like more, the Jerusalem Post reported. “The land in Samaria is crying out for new settlements,” he said. In particular, Dagan, as a former resident of Sa-Nur who lost his home in 2005, asked Netanyahu to allow his council to rebuild those four northern Samaria settlements. “We have returned to the land of the Bible, to the land where Joshua built his alter and to where Joseph is buried,” said Dagan. “We have returned and plan to remain here eternally.” Netanyahu’s visit to Barkan is the third at an official event in the West Bank in recent weeks. Earlier in August he spoke at a ceremony establish a new neighborhood in Beitar Illit and in June, he spoke at ceremony inaugurating a new medical school at Ariel University.

Bibi...

Continued from page 1 Because from these high hills, the heights of Mount Hatzor, we can see the entire country, from one side to the other.” The hilltops of Samaria overlook Route 6, one of Israel’s major highways, and Ben-Gurion Airport, Netanyahu said. When world leaders question his resolve, the prime minister said he would respond, “Imagine that on these hills were the forces of radical Islam. It would endanger us, it would endanger you, and it would endanger the entire Middle East.” “So we will not fold,” he said. “We are guarding Samaria against those who want to uproot us. We will deepen our roots, build, strengthen and settle.” Netanyahu said, “This is the land we inherited from our forefathers. This is our land. We have returned here to remain for eternity.” “We are leading this great endeavor to-

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same position as President Obama? J Street is equally mistaken in its absurd claim that “virtually the entire international community” supports creating a Palestinian state. How could J Street possibly know what “virtually the entire international community” thinks? There are 7.44 billion people in the world. Did J Street ask them all? How many farmers in Thailand or truck drivers in Nebraska care whether the Palestinian Arabs have a state or not? Or does J Street really believe that the whole world consists of pro-Palestinian elitists in Potomac and Scarsdale? There have been two major arguments in favor of Palestinian statehood. Neither of those arguments have stood the test of time. The first was that Yasser Arafat and the

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Bibi’s Latin America visit is part of global pivot By Adam Abrams, JNS.org Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s historic visit to Mexico and Argentina in midSeptember is expected to improve trade ties for Israel and open a dialogue with Latin America’s Jewish community. It will be the first time a sitting Israeli head of state will visit the region. “Netanyahu’s visit is an important instance in the strengthening of bilateral relations between Israel and Latin American countries,” Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, told JNS.org. It’s also significant for the region’s Jewish communities. “In Latin America there are many Jewish communities, all very different from each other, big and small, but they all share a great affection for the state of Israel,” Epelman said. Argentina, home to some 230,000 Jews, has the largest Jewish community in Latin America. There are around 50,000 Jews in Mexico, which has Latin America’s third-largest Jewish community after Brazil. Netanyahu’s visit is part of a broader effort to improve ties with non-traditional allies such as African and Asian countries, as well as Muslim-majority nations. In February, Netanyahu declared that Israel is “pivoting toward Asia” before visiting Singapore and signing a bilateral treaty with Japan that same month. In March, he visited China with a large Israeli business delegation to mark 25 years of Israeli-Chinese diplomatic relations, and in July, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in the first-ever visit to the Jewish state by a sitting Indian head of state. The objectives of Israel’s pivot towards Africa and Asia are the same as those in Latin America: improving the outcomes for the Jewish state on U.N. votes, expanding economic cooperation, curbing Iranian influence on those

While meeting with Guatamalan President Jimmy Morales on Nov. 29, 2016, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to visit Latin America, which happens next month. Haim Zach/GPO

continents and bolstering diplomatic relations. Netanyahu’s plan to visit Latin America first emerged late last year while hosting Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales in Jerusalem. Latin American countries are mutually interested in collaborating with Israel, particularly in the fields of technology, agriculture, security and medicine, and Israel already enjoys strong relations with several Latin American countries such as Mexico and Colombia. Israel is Mexico’s largest trade partner in the Middle East, with bilateral trade between the two nations amounting to $700 million in 2016. Although Israel enjoys warm relations in Latin America, the region is also fraught with challenges for the Jewish state. In recent years, several South American nations formally recognized Palestinian state-

hood, starting with Brazil’s 2010 recognition of a Palestinian state based on Israel’s pre-1967 lines. In the summer of 2014, five countries—Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Peru—recalled their ambassadors to Israel in protest of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza against the Palestinian terror group Hamas. In February 2016, the Palestinian Authority opened its first-ever embassy and diplomatic mission in the Western Hemisphere—in Brazil. At the same time, Brazil refused to accept Israel’s nominee as its ambassador to the South American nation, former Israeli settlement movement leader Dani Dayan. Israel has also faced diplomatic challenges in Venezuela, where its former ambassador, Shlomo Cohen, was expelled in 2009, amid

warming relations between that country with Iran and Hamas. At the same time, Israel also faced a diplomatic spat with Mexico earlier this year when Netanyahu commented on the successful fence along its border with Egypt, which the Trump administration has pointed to as a model for its potential border wall with Mexico. Prior to the Israeli government’s recent initiative to expand relations in Latin America, activists and lawmakers in the region began promoting a positive image of Israel to combat the growing influence of the BDS movement, the Palestinians, and Iran in their countries. During the Israel Allies Foundation’s Latin America Summit in March 2016, parliamentarians from 13 Latin American and Caribbean nations signed a resolution in support of Israel and against BDS. Echoing these sentiments, Mexican politician Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes — an evangelical Christian — asserted there should be no boycotts of products made in the disputed territories during a visit to Samaria this summer. And he urged Mexico to deepen trade with Judea and Samaria. Israel also enjoys the support of millions more Evangelical Christians in Latin America. Dr. Luis Fernandez Solares, the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem’s (ICEJ) Guatemala national director, said at the recent 2017 Herzliya Conference, that Latin American evangelical institutions should increase their cooperation with Israel and local Jewish communities to combat “leftist” leaders in the region with close ties to Arab nations as well as Iran and the Palestinians. Following his South American visit, Netanyahu will address the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 19 in New York. His appearance will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, in which 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries voted for the creation of a Jewish state in the former British Mandate of Palestine.

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By Devin E. Naar, JTA A century ago, on Aug. 18, 1917, a massive fire roared through the Mediterranean port city of Salonica, Greece, then home to the largest and most dynamic Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jewish community in the world. According to local legend, the fire erupted on a Sabbath afternoon during World War I when the coals of a war refugee roasting eggplants overturned. A fierce wind catapulted the flames into a major conflagration that left two-thirds of the city in ashes and 70,000 residents homeless, 52,000 of whom were Jews. Thirty-two synagogues, 10 rabbinical libraries, eight Jewish schools, the communal archives, and numerous Jewish philanthropies, businesses and clubs were destroyed. Such devastation paled in comparison to what would befall Salonica’s Jews 26 years later. In the spring and summer of 1943, the Nazi occupying forces deported nearly 50,000 Jews from Salonica to Auschwitz; 96 percent perished. The last of the 18 deportation transports arrived at Auschwitz precisely on Aug. 18, 1943. Salonica had suffered from a series of fires in its history, but during the four centuries under the benign rule of the Ottoman Empire, the city’s residents were permitted to rebuild without much state interference. Not so after the Great Fire of 1917. The Greek government, which had only recently annexed Salonica during the Balkan Wars (1912–13), saw in the fire an opportunity to transform once and for all Jewish and Ottoman Salonica into Greek Thessaloniki. With this nationalist goal in mind, the government expropriated the burnt terrain and prevented residents from rebuilding on their land. Instead, under the guise of promoting state interests and a modern, European urban plan that would transform the downtown into a middle- and upper-class Greek space, the government auctioned off the razed property: Those who could pay, rather than those who had lived in the area, became the new occupants of the city center. The National Bank of Greece outbid the Jewish community for the plot on which the Talmud Torah, the main Jewish communal school, stood before the fire. Today, the upscale Electra Palace hotel sits in the heart of the city where another Jewish school, the Alliance Israélite Universelle, once stood. The prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, encouraged British and French urban planners to view the city as a “blank slate” and ignore the centuries-long imprint left by Jews and Muslims. One of the urban planners described Venizelos as “particularly enthusiastic about the new Salonica, almost to the point of regarding the fire as providential” and conceded that the “fundamental purpose

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of the plan was to deprive the Jews of complete control of the city.” But the planner also noted, as if to offer consolation, “There was no desire to oust the Jews completely.” Largely prevented from rebuilding in the city center, the Jewish community began to rebuild on the city outskirts, including new neighborhoods established in allied military barracks to house the mostly poor Jewish fire victims. Others opted to emigrate. A Jewish leader in Salonica explained that it was not so much the fire itself, as devastating as it was, but rather the “profoundly demoralizing” impact of the plan for the “new” and “modern” city that propelled many Jews to flee. One Ladino satirist quipped: “Doesn’t ‘modernism’ mean … ‘anti-Semitism’?” Remarkably, the period after the 1917 fire witnessed the most vibrant Jewish cultural productivity in the city’s history, with more Jewish newspapers, magazines and books published in Ladino (and French, Greek and Hebrew) than ever before. Since so much literature had been destroyed — both religious and secular — there was a desperate need for new publications. The resulting Ladino-Hebrew edition of psalms even wound up in Sephardi libraries as far afield as Seattle, Washington. Despite growing tensions between Salonican Jews and the

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“Study for 1917 Fire — Salonika,” by Harry I. Naar

Greek state and increased demands that Jews — like the cityscape itself — become more “Greek,” the Jewish community succeeded in building several dozen new synagogues and a new school system. It restarted the Jewish hospital and medical dispensary and established new institutions, including a tuberculosis clinic, girls’ orphanage and maternity ward. By 1938, there was talk of the Jewish communal offices being transferred back to the city center — but the outbreak of the war prevented the move. As much as Salonica’s Jewish community rebounded from the fire of 1917, the destruction wrought by the German occupation was insurmountable. Beyond the dispossession, deportation and murder of almost all of Salonica’s Jews by the Nazis, the entire character of the city was irrevocably transformed. Several dozen synagogues were destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators; visual traces of the Jewish presence in the built environment were gone. Salonica’s vast Jewish cemetery — the largest in Europe, dating to 1492, with more than 300,000 graves over a terrain the size of 80 football fields — also became prey to the ostensible demands of modern urban planning. Due to the 1917 fire and the subsequent expansion of the city (compounded by the arrival of 100,000 Orthodox Christian refugees from Turkey following a forced population exchange), the Jewish cemetery became the new geographic center of what was supposed to be Greek Thessaloniki. For 20 years, the Jewish community succeeded in deflecting efforts made in the name of urban “progress” to expropriate the burial ground. But the defense failed once the city came under Nazi occupation. The Greek authorities used the occupation as a pretext to demolish the Jewish cemetery. They utilized marble tombstones to erect much of the rebuilt, modern city — to refurbish churches damaged in the 1917 fire, to construct “modern” walkways and “modern” town squares, and to fashion the campus of the largest university in the Balkans, which now stands atop the former Jewish burial ground. Pillaged relics of the Jewish dead became the literal building blocks of urban renewal — a systematic and violent process begun a century ago, in the wake of the fire of 1917, intensified during the German occupation and continued in its wake. The result can be seen today. A stroll through Salonica reveals many modern buildings and a vast university campus in a city still suffering from a financial crisis. But few will notice that many of those modern buildings were built on land expropriated from Jews in 1917 — or again in 1943. Devin E. Naar is chair of Sephardic studies and an associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington.

THE JEWISH STAR September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777

A century ago, Greece’s Jewish Salonica burned

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Cars are trapped near the I-10 freeway leading Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty into Houston on Sunday.

area. The 2016 Tax Day flood brought similar devastation, but the community was better prepared for the event. Despite all the preparations for Hurricane Harvey, damage has far exceeded previous disasters—the statistics aren’t immediately available, but that is immaterial. The point is that Houston’s Jews, many of whom live in areas prone to flooding, have suffered their third catastrophic weather event in as many years. Unlike previous years, when flood waters receded on the same day as the storms, Hurricane Harvey’s waters stayed put for days as the rain persisted. The road to recovery cannot immediately begin and is too daunting to even think about. As has been the case for other floods in re-

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cent years, my synagogue community at UOS immediately sprang into action for Harvey, conducting boat rescues for threatened individuals and families. Local volunteer leaders—whose depth of dedication is difficult to describe—have begun intense coordination for food, laundry and housing needs, in a process that has become all too familiar for them. The Jewish community’s relief effort was inspiring in 2015 and 2016, and it’s heartwarming again. But as I asked after the 2016 flood, and need to ask again with even greater intensity: What now? What will homeowners do after suffering three major floods? How many Jews who have laid down roots here find themselves with no suitable options remaining? I wrote last year, “The Jewish future in a major city is at stake.” Since then, Houston’s Jews have battled to bring things back to where they were before the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey brings far more questions than answers. We typically—and justifiably—think of Jews in far-flung, crisis-prone places like the former Soviet Union as endangered. Jewish organizations, in turn, devote significant manpower and funds to addressing overseas crises. You wouldn’t typically think of Houston as a similar disaster zone. But I would ask anyone to assess the facts of the flooding from 2015 to 2017 in America’s fourth-largest city, and at the very least, ask the same questions that local Jews are asking about their future. Jacob Kamaras, a journalist and marketing professional living in Houston, was formerly editor of JNS.org.

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By Jacob Kamaras, JNS.org As a member of Houston’s Jewish community writing about a devastating flood for the third time since May 2015, I’m at a loss for words. Sitting in the comforts of my thirdfloor apartment, where I’m fortunate enough to view the unprecedented waters of Hurricane Harvey as a spectator, it feels trite to be putting on my “journalist’s hat” while countless others are either suffering or contributing to relief efforts. Yet as I’ve concluded in these situations before, the written word is a crucial part of the healing process when a natural disaster strikes. If they didn’t get the message before, the national and international Jewish communities should understand the crisis for Jews in Houston due to Hurricane Harvey, but also within the context of other major floods in recent years. Just a 10-minute walk from where I live, dozens of families in my synagogue’s community live in flood-damaged homes. This is at least the third time that many of these residences have taken in water since the Memorial Day flood of 2015. For homeowners in the flood-stricken, Jewish-heavy neighborhoods of Meyerland and Willow Meadows, Hurricane Harvey’s wrath has undone all the hard work of two previous rebuilding processes. The congregation itself, United Orthodox Synagogues (UOS), which suffered more than $1 million in damage in the 2015 deluge and was flooded again the following year, has been dealt its most crushing blow yet. The 2015 flood damaged about 500 Jewish homes (among more than 2,500 homes overall) and three synagogues in the Houston

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Harvey caps 3 years of devastating flooding for Houston’s Jews

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efforts to target international businesses that were involved in apartheid-era South Africa as well as Arab-led boycotts of Israel as a means to pressure the Jewish state to change its policies regarding the Palestinians and the disputed territories. But Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky, a research fellow for Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the list will likely do the opposite and undermine any chances for a two-state solution. “This paradigm strengthens the hardliners and works against the moderate camp,” she said. Since taking over as U.N. secretary-general in January, Portugal’s António Guterres has attempted to take a more evenhanded approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after years of disproportionate criticism of Israel by the world body. “As secretary-general of the United Nations, I consider that the state of Israel needs to be treated as any other state,” Guterres said in an address to the World Jewish Congress in April. Herzberg said that while it does not appear Guterres is in favor of the of the blacklist, it might be impossible for him to stop its release. “Due to the U.N. bureaucracy and the dominance of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, it would be difficult if not impossible for the secretary-general to halt the process,” she said. The Trump administration recently urged the human rights commissioner, Hussein, not to publish the blacklist. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley called the list “shameful” and “counterproductive” to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “It is an attempt to provide an international stamp of approval to the anti-Semitic BDS movement. It must be rejected,” Haley said.

By Sean Savage, JNS.org An upcoming “blacklist” of major international companies with business ties to Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem represents yet another attempt by anti-Israel actors in the United Nations to single out and demonize the world’s only Jewish state, experts say. The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had voted to approve the database of businesses last year, defying objections from the U.S. and Israel. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein submitted a draft of the blacklist to the countries where the businesses are based. He is expected to receive a response from those nations by Sept. 1, and the UNHRC will publish the database by the end of this year. American firms on the list include Caterpillar, TripAdvisor, Priceline and Airbnb, the Washington Post reported. “[The blacklist] is the latest incarnation of the decades-long Arab boycott and yet another singling out of Israel by the U.N. Because Israel, the Jewish state, alone is singled out, the intent and impact is anti-Semitic,” Anne Herzberg, a U.N. expert and the legal advisor for the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor watchdog group, told JNS.org. Similarly, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon described the list as “an expression of modern anti-Semitism reminiscent of dark periods in history.” While the list will have no legal consequences for Israel or the companies involved, its opponents say it could put pressure on the U.N. Security Council to take action. Supporters of the list draw inspiration from

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Chabad rabbi’s book targets today’s women Timeless Travels:

wrote this book with his daughter, wife, mother, grandmother and all of his female relatives in mind, points out many ways that Orthodox Judaism protects, cares for and reveres women and their rights, such as the biblical story of the daughters of Zelofchad, who argued that they should inherit the portion of the promised land that their father would have received had he not died. Moses discusses the case with G-d, who praises the daughters and says they should inherit the land. The book also points to female leaders in the Bible, such as the judge Devorah. The blessing men say each morning, “Thank you G-d who has not made me a woman,” cannot be offensive, Rabbi Raskin explains, because the Torah views men and women as equally valued, and since the Torah commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves while also forbidding us to embarrass a neighbor, our interpretation of this as insulting is simply a misunderstanding on our part. As for men and women separating during prayer services, this is merely a reflection of how services were conducted in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during ancient times, he said. Ultimately, Raskin argues there is tremendous beauty, good and logic in the practice of Orthodox Judaism, which many women with one foot firmly in the modern world and the other in traditional Jewish observance understand and appreciate.

Dem rivals against BDS… Continued from page 1 date seeking to replace incumbent Ed Mangano, a Republican, has no primary contest. Mangano is not seeking reelection. The general election, pitting the winner of the Sept. 12 Democratic primary against Martins, will be on Nov. 7. In response to a question about U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the most prominant endorsements she’s corralled, Curran said, “I have a lot of respect for the senator. The one thing that I disagree with her about is BDS.” Gillibrand raised hackles in the pro-Israel community a few weeks ago when she flipflopped on her traditional support for Israel and opposition to BDS by withdrawing her previously pledged support for federal anti-BDS legislation. Curren said she “was very proud” to join the unanimous vote in the county legislature last year that enacted a law barring the county from doing business with entities that support BDS. Maragos said he was not familiar with Nassau County’s anti-BDS law but would support it. The candidates addressed a range of issues affecting Nassau residents. Maragos pledged to take a bite out of corruption, which he said resulted in “waste and mismanagement that caters to the special interests” and kept Nassau’s taxes high. Curran said that as a county legislator she’s had a “front row seat to a lot of dysfunction and corruption, and I want to fix it.” She pledged not to put her name on road signs. “It’s a small thing but a symbol of a bigger problem,” Curran said. “Your tax money is not meant to fund my public relations.” The two disagreed over the importance of building “downtown” hubs near some of Nassau’s LIRR stations.

Maragos called it “a failed concept.” “If you don’t have the underpinning of a vibrant economy, people are not staying here,” he said. To encourage career-minded young people to stay on Long Island, Nassau’s health-care industry should be made “world-class,” he said, and a long-term master plan should be drafted. Curran, on the other had, said that the creation of new downtowns “is something I’m very passionate about.” “If we want to hold onto our young people and their tax dollars and their energy, and hold onto people who are downsizing — older people, perhaps empty-nesters — we have to have a wide range of housing options. Not everybody wants a single family house.” Maragos is completing his second term as county comptroller, both as a Republican. Why is he running for county executive as a Democrat? Since the 2012 election, “my values have evolved,” Maragos said. “After a lot of searching and a lot of disucssions with my nieces and nephews on the issues of abortion and gay rights, etcetera, I’ve evolved on those issues. Secondly, as an immigrant, I didn’t feel that I belonged in the Republic Party.” Curran said Nassau was “growing in our diverity but we are definitely a community of communities and every community has its own very particular personality.” Overall, corruption was issue nubmer one, she said. Maragos said he’s concerned with water quality. “We’re not even talking about it as an issue but it should be a big issue,” he said. “I think it’s at risk and we’re not doing enough as a government. We’re not testing for it enough and we’re not doing enough to protect it.”

Tales of Mystery, Intrigue, Humor and Enchantment

A joint publication of Gefen Publishing House of Jerusalem and New York and Redmont Tales LLC DON'T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT THAT IT WILL BE YOUR FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR. WE HAVE IT ON HIGHER AUTHORITY:

Here’s What’s Being Said about Timeless Travels: “An eclectic assortment of essays and stories – both fiction and nonfiction delivers a kaleidoscopic exploration of the Jewish experience… Rotenberg is a gifted storyteller who shifts, seamlessly from fiction to nonfiction, and drama to comedy. In addition, given the unspeakable hardships endured by Jews in the 20th century, his relentless optimism is astonishingly refreshing… His announced focus is the American-Jewish experience in particular and he captures this with all the rigor of an anthropologist and the vivacity of a poet. A remarkably varied assemblage of tales that deftly portrays Jewish life.” -- Kirkus Reviews “Timeless Travels is an enjoyable and evocative read.” -- Jeffrey S. Gurock, Yeshiva University Professor of Jewish History “Rotenberg’s broad range of interests – all infused with a uniquely contemporary and modern American Jewish sensibility and lens - shine through in stories ranging from the comedic, historical, and often partly autobiographical.” -- Publisher Moshe Kinderlehrer, The Jewish Link Media Group (NJ, Bronx, Westchester, (T) “Timeless Travels is a fascinating collection of interrelated tales that will appeal to readers of all ages. The subtitle of the book is very apt, as the tales contained in Timeless Travels, by Joseph Rotenberg, are full of mystery, intrigue, humor and enchantment. I highly recommend this page-turning collection of short stories – check it out, today!” -- Douglas R. Cobb, noted author at bestsellersworld.com

"We can't remember when we last had such a good time reading a new book by a debut author - this boy is a master storyteller!" Ebook edition now available or pre-order hardcover version at Amazon.com. Check it out at www.timelesstravels.com. www.timelesstravelsbook.com Soon to be available at select local bookstores! Timeless Travels is a joint publication of Gefen Publishing House of Jerusalem and New York and Redmont Tales LLC

929733

Review by Celia Weintrob Among American Jews in the wide swath extending to the left of Orthodoxy, women have voiced a compendium of grievances about traditional Judaism for generations, and Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin tackles them in his newest book, “Thank You G-d for Making Me a Woman: Empowering Women for the 21st Century.” It’s intended to soothe those smarting at rabbinic rulings they consider harsh and outdated. Rabbi Raskin, for 30 years a Chabad emissary in Brooklyn Heights, opens with the story of a female congregant in his synagogue, Congregation B’nai Avraham. “I really enjoy the services here,” she tells him. “I enjoy the sermons, the spirit and the people. But … I am an intelligent, well-educated, professional woman and I want to know why I can’t participate in the service. Why can’t I be called to the Torah, or be counted in the minyan, or lead the service? I have a nice voice, too. And this mechitza that separates men and women, what’s that all about? “And the biggest problem I have is the blessing men say [each morning]: ‘Thank you G-d for not making me a woman.’ How do you explain that one?” Rabbi Raskin goes on to describe additional rules that some women take issue with: According to halacha, women generally may not serve as witnesses, may not wear tefillin and are dependent on their husbands to provide a bill of divorce. Rabbi Raskin, who tells the reader that he

THE JEWISH STAR September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777

ANNOUNCING THE UPCOMING ARRIVAL OF THE LONG-AWAITED DEBUT COLLECTION OF STORIES BY NEW AUTHOR JOSEPH ROTENBERG

September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE JEWISH STAR September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777

Sale Dates: September 3rd - 8th 2017

September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Find more recipes at TheJewishStar.com/category/food/browse.html • Food@TheJewishStar.com

As summer ends, we honor those who labor Joni Schockett kosher kitchen

s I write this, I sense that sad and wistful feeling that sneaks in every year when summer’s end is just around the corner. I got it as an 8 year old, when Labor Day meant leaving the beach house and the ocean I loved so much. I felt it as a teacher when the end of summer meant going back to 6 am alarms. I felt it as a mom when my kids started school and I knew that those early morning cuddles and stories in bed would be replaced by hurrying and scurrying to get to school on time. And I feel it now as I get my syllabus ready for another year. Labor Day is that dividing line when we celebrate the workers of America. The Torah says, “You shall not oppress a hired servant that is poor. … In the same day, you shall give him his hire.” (Deuteronomy 24, 14-15). We are further instructed to allow our workers to glean the fields. We remember our time as slaves in Egypt, so we treat those who work for us in a fair and just manner. Perhaps it is this passage, and the story of our own enslavement, that led so many young Jewish workers to lead the cries for fair labor practices in America. Samuel Gompers was a young Jewish immigrant from England who helped in his father’s cigar rolling business. In 1864, when Gompers was 14, he joined the Cigar Makers Union and was eventually elected president. Through his union work, he saw a need for the protection of other workers in other industries. Gompers founded the American Federation of Workers and developed a labor philosophy of decent wages, shorter working hours and safe working conditions. He wanted all American workers to be able to spend time with their families and have enough money to educate their children. While he also held some views that may be at odds with current thought, his contribution to the betterment of the life of the American worker cannot be denied. Another young Jewish worker who helped shape labor practices in America was Clara Lemlich. She was a garment worker who, like many other young Jewish women, toiled in a sweatshop in New York. In 1909, at a rally of garment workers, she demanded to speak and then, in Yiddish, called on the thousands there to join her in a strike for better wages and safer working conditions. She pledged, drawing on her strong Jewish background: “If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may this hand wither from the arm I now raise.” The strike, supported by 20,000 workers, lasted for several months and by its end, nearly all factories had signed on to the demands. One of the exceptions was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where her cousin worked and died. Lemlich’s activities resulted in her being blacklisted from the garment industry, so she turned her efforts towards women’s suffrage, working with other Jewish activists. Even in her final years, she helped the workers in her Jewish nursing home organize for better wages and working conditions. She died at 96, in 1982. These Jewish activists, and many more, led the fight for better working conditions for all workers in America. While we likely would not agree with all of their political views, we owe them a huge debt.

Fresh-From-the-Vine Tomato Soup (Dairy or Pareve)

This is made with the ripest, freshest tomatoes. Even those that are a bit overripe work well in this fresh, piquant soup. It is great hot, warm or icy cold. 3 to 4 cups, peeled, seeded and chopped fresh from the vine tomatoes 2 cups water 1 tsp. pareve chicken broth mix or vegetarian broth mix 1/2 to 3/4 cup minced onion 1 clove garlic, or more to taste 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt, to taste freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced 1/8 to 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped 1 tbsp. fresh thyme, minced 1 cup whole milk or soy milk 1 tbsp. olive oil OPTIONAL: Fresh dill and fresh oregano can be used in place of the basil and thyme. Garnish with thin lemon slices or chopped green onions. Heat a small skillet and add the olive oil. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Add the minced garlic and sauté for another minute. Place the sauté in a medium sauce pot and add the tomatoes and water. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes, covered. Add the tomato paste and salt and pepper. Heat through. Pour into a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the sauce pan and add the fresh herbs, milk and pepper, to taste. Adjust seasonings as desired. Garnish with fresh herbs, chopped green onions, or croutons and serve hot or cold. Serves 4-6.

Peach and Raspberry Galette (Dairy or Pareve) A galette is a rustic, free-form fruit tart and the last peaches and berries of summer are perfect for a quick dessert for family or company. Crust: 3 cups unbleached white flour 1 cup solid vegetable shortening, butter or pareve margarine 1/2 half cup ice- cold orange juice 2 tsp. salt 4 tsp. sugar Filling: 3/4 cup (heaping) almonds finely ground 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 tsp. finely grated lemon zest 1 extra large egg yolk 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 4 to 6 large peaches or nectarines 2/3 cup raspberries 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar 2 tbsp. cornstarch or tapioca starch 2 tbsp. unsalted margarine or butter 3 tbsp. large crystal sugar Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with foil and then parchment paper. Set aside. Crust: In a food processor, blend the shortening with the flour, sugar and salt until the consistency of cornmeal. Pour the orange juice over ice cubes and discard the cubes. Drip the juice through the feed tube of the pro-

cessor, processing just until the dough holds together. Remove, pat into a disc shape and refrigerate for an hour. Place a piece of foil on your work surface. Flour generously. Roll the dough into a 12inch circle. Roll over the rolling pin and place the dough on the parchment lined baking sheet. Set aside In a small bowl, mix the ground almonds, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, and egg yolk. Spread the almond paste on a circle about 8 inches across in the center of the dough. Cut each peach or nectarine in half. Remove the pit and slice each half in thin slices. Place in a bowl and add the raspberries. Add the sugar and lemon juice and the corn or tapioca starch. Toss to coat evenly. Mound in the center of the galette crust. Fold the dough up over the edges of the fruit and pinch the dough at intervals to hold it together. You should have a hole in the center, about 3 to 4 inches wide. Sprinkle the galette with the 3 tablespoons of sugar, dot the exposed fruit with the butter or margarine and bake for 45-55 minutes, until deep golden and the peaches are tender. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream. Serves 6 to 8.

Group preserves grandma’s recipes By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Ayala Hodak usually cooks the way her mother taught her: adding a pinch of spice here or relying on her eyes — never a measuring cup! — to judge how much liquid to add. But on a recent Tuesday, she was being much more precise. At her spacious home in Tenafly, New Jersey, Hodak, 52, who grew up in an Iranian family in Israel, measured the amount of salt and pepper she added to a stew. She also paused to demonstrate how thickly to cut a piece of beef. Her reason for the accuracy: Hodak’s recipe was being recorded

by a new nonprofit, the Jewish Food Society, which aims to be an archive of Jewish recipes from around the world. Its kibbutz-born founder, who once promoted Israeli culture as an employee of the Israeli Consulate in New York, was inspired by the diversity of food traditions in Israel and her desire to preserve them in the diaspora. “I realized there is an urgency in capturing these stories because the older generation is about to leave the world, and many of these recipes are labor- and time-consuming in a way that we should reSee Grandma’s recipes on page 17

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again,” which ended up as “just go to sleep. I’ll finish it for you.” To this day, I think if I were able to see her face as she bounded up the steps, I would see a smile of victory on her face. Not the case when she forgot a book three days in a row that she needed to study for a midterm. On the day before the test, I called the secretary and asked if she could call Jordana to the office and remind her to bring the book home. Upon returning home she said, “I can’t believe you called the school and had me paged to the office to remind me to bring the book home.” I said “At least you brought the book home, that’s what matters. You have a test tomorrow.” After a few moments of silence, I said “You did bring the book home, right?” So there we were, trying to find a way into the locked school that night to retrieve the book. Years later, all those first days, first tests, and first projects are way behind them. One is a lawyer, one is starting his second year of law school and Jordana is still up to her tricks every now and then. Although she manages to maintain a high index in college, she still gets lazy every now and then. Take last week, when she texted me the following: “Jerry is going to love my philosophy class and he’s going to have a blast writing my paper on Aristotle and Plato.” Good thing she was kidding, as Jerry is not as much a pushover as am I. You were kidding, weren’t you, Jord? Whether you have kids starting pre K, elementary school, high school, college or grad school, here’s an easy, filling recipe that is sure to put a smile on their faces — until, of course, they have to start their homework.

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ack to school: three dreaded words. To kids, that is! (most parents can be seen dancing in the streets come the first day of school). Of course we, as parents, deal with all the issues leading up to that first day. Will our kids be with their friends? Will they have the best teacher? Will the kid that tormented them last year, hopefully, be put in another class? When my eldest started school, I never thought I had to be on top of what class, which friends and which teacher he would have. Don’t you worry, by the time my second son started two-year nursery two years later, I was a pro. I learned the ins and outs of what I had to do, and when. My kid was going to have the best teacher — after all, there were scissor skills, finger painting techniques and playground monkey bars to master. Everyone has first day school stories, some more eventful than others. Take my husband, Jerry. After eight years at Yeshiva Rambam, his mom decided it was time for a fresh start. At Rambam, he was sent home so many times, his mom decided to help serve lunch, since she was there to pick him up anyway. When he entered BTA (Brooklyn Torah Academy, Yeshiva University High School for Boys), as a freshman, she wanted him to start out on the right foot. So there he was staring at the outfit she wanted him to wear the first day at high school: dress slacks, white button down shirt and tie (everyone wore clip on ties in Rambam, so why not here). Those of you familiar with BTA know that slacks and ties were not the norm. Jerry found that out the first day when he entered the school and was roughed up by a bunch of seniors, who said, “Hey look at that one.” The next day, and all those that followed, Jerry would change into jeans, and work shoes (borrowed from Joe Sprung), which he kept in his locker. Of course, on occasion, when he would bump into his mom, while out on Avenue M, he had some “splainin” to do. When my eldest, Daniel, was in third grade and my second, Jeremy, was entering first, the night before the first day was right out of a Larry David episode. Daniel threw all of his supplies in his knapsack and was done in less than five minutes. Jeremy, on the other hand was still working on his pencils 20 minutes later. Daniel walked over and after watching him for a minute asked what exactly he was doing. Jeremy explained that he was standing the pencils on their erasers and then sharpening each pencil so that all the pencils were the same height. Daniel, in a move ala Ralph Kramden to Jeremy’s Art Carney, said, “Give me those pencils”— and proceeded to shove them in a pencil box, saying, “No one is going to care if your pencils are the same height.” ordana, my youngest, was a bit nervous for her first day of school, but in no time learned to charm the teachers and learned the ropes. She was the only student I know who could read the inside flap of a book and receive an A on her book report. She also worked her magic on me. What started out as “Jordana, you can do it, you’re smart, just reread the question,” turned into, “you have to read the information first before you can try to answer the question, try

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THE JEWISH STAR September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777

Judy Joszef

The JEWISH STAR

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The non-addict’s role in recovery By Rabbi Dr. David Nesenoff, Founder Center for Jewish Addiction Rehabilitation

The mantra echoes from AA rooms and is chanted by halfway house residents: “If you’re not an addict, you can’t understand and you can’t help.” With an astonishing addiction escalation and a boom of record-breaking overdosing, it’s time to think beyond the same old same old. Much of the drug rehabilitation industry is reli-

ant on addicts helping addicts. And although we can all certainly offer up merits as to why it can be useful to have walked in another’s shoes in order to sympathize and help the other — it is simply not working very well. The argument is that the addict has been there so he understands; he’s the expert. But in reality, the addict seeking recovery does not need a connoisseur on where he’s been — least of all a sober newbie at that — he needs skilled

Gurwin residents protest cuts Residents and staff at Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Commack have protested the drastic cuts to the Medicaid program initially outlined in the Senate’s proposed American Health Care Act. The Gurwin affiliates penned more than 800 letters alerting Reps. Peter King and Lee Zeldin of the devastating consequences the health care bill’s cuts to those living in skilled nursing facilities. Gurwin residents participated in a #NoCutsNoCaps social media campaign; they held signs and were interviewed by local TV news.

experienced tour guides on where he should be going. Again, it’s nice to commiserate with some fellow prostate sufferers, but surely get a competent experienced urologist for the help you need, even if the doctor himself has a healthy PSA level. The sobriety makeover that is needed is monumental. It encompasses not just the abstaining of a particular addictive vice, but demands a transformation of values. So kicking one’s habit is not the negation of the usage; it is the changing of the tracks to an entirely different devotion. True conclusion can only take place when a new dedication begins. And just as the addict’s allegiance was a full throttle commitment, so too must the new loyalty be devout. The apprenticeship of such a loyal vocation must be at the feet of one with a seasoned, steady, secure hand at the helm. A recovering addict needs a captain and sailors who have figured out how to float and sail without sinking and drowning. The commonplace ex-addict mentor may have the insight and war story with regard to using and stopping; but there are also those who have value, with their values, in assisting the addict to actually quit and begin a new life. They are non-addicts. And they have their story to share. It is a tale to be replicated and emulated. Their choices, lifestyle, principles, moral

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code and behavior are the secrets that must be fleshed out by the addict. Nine out of ten times the call to a rehab or detox center comes from the addict’s non-addict loved one. It is the non-addict’s actions, determination and environment that will ultimately be the gateway to Rabbi Dr. David an addict’s recovery. Nesenoff The more time a recovering addict can spend in the presence of nonaddicts during recovery and while in rehab, the better chances of success for the transfer of values to be made and the sobriety transformation to stick. Addicts need to abandon their orthodoxy to their addict union of comradery and exclusivity. Perhaps step 13, or a preamble to 1, should be: “Non-addicts have value because of their values, let me learn from them and their choices.” Non-addicts are not only helpful, they are an important key to a lasting recovery. Facilities that employ an environment of individuals who have never been addicted (or have been clean for 10 to 20 years) should be explored. Such institutions are an oasis in a desert of that same old same old and offer the fruits of systemic values that can turn a life around — for life. Rabbi Dr. David Nesenoff has lectured in over 600 cities throughout the world to communities, campuses and corporations. He is director of the Florida licensed, kosher, Tikvah Lake Recovery & Spa. Phone 954-644-5040. TikvahLake.com.

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Grandma’s recipes...

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“I feel that recipes really carry our cultural DNA because they tell stories not just about a particular time in history, but also about how people used to live, how people used to celebrate, how people used to mourn, how people used to get together,” Shefi said. “It’s not just about the flavor and the food, it’s really about the experience.” For her part, Hodak is excited to have her mother’s dishes — including Ghormeh Sabzi, a herb beef stew that her family would eat for Shabbat dinner, and a yogurt soup with cucumber and mint eaten on Shavuot — recorded for future generations. “I thought it’s a great opportunity to spread my tradition,” she said, “to talk about my mother’s food and to keep it alive.”

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Continued from page 14 ally protect them,” the society’s founder, Naama Shefi, told JTA. “These are skills that would just disappear if no one could capture them in a methodic way.” The project, which launched officially in March and receives financial support from several Jewish foundations, has added over a dozen recipes to its online archive, and more are on the way. Along with the recipes are photographs and stories of the cook’s family history, as well as how he or she learned to make the dish. Each week, Shefi, 36, who lives on New York’s Lower East Side, interviews a chef and takes down his or her story. If distance permits, Shefi or an Israel-based employee will meet with the cook in person; if not, they communicate long distance. All ingredients are measured, and dishes are then recreated in a test kitchen and adjusted accordingly. Though some participants work in the food industry, others are home cooks. Shefi came up with the idea after a Shabbat meal in 2005 at the home of her now-husband’s grandmother, who was born in Turkey but also lived in Greece and South Africa prior to immigrating to Israel with her family. “The flavors really represented all of their previous immigration stories and journeys, and some worlds that do not even exist anymore,” she said. “It was such a vivid expression of disappearing worlds, and of bitter and sweet memories. It was just moving, so I told him, let’s just spend a day with her try to capture a few recipes. It was just really inspiring.” Shefi has always had an interest in food, though she did not get it at home. “Good food wasn’t part of my childhood,” said Shefi, who grew up on Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha in central Israel. “Between the [kibbutz’s] communal dining room and the fact that my mom is not the best cook in the world, good food was out of reach.” But “it became my life’s passion,” she said. “At the beginning just because it tasted really good, but later because I realized it tells a fantastic story about families and people and cultures.” Now the Jewish Food Society, for which Shefi works full time, provides a way to combine her two passions: food and storytelling. “For a while I was really interested in storytelling through filmmaking,” she said. “Still my main interest is storytelling, but the medium changed to food.” In addition to the weekly cooking session, the nonprofit puts on larger-scale events, such as a Passover seder that showcased three Mexico-born Jewish chefs, and Schmaltzy, a yearly storytelling event where people share the stories behind family recipes. A Moroccan-style Mimouna, a bread-filled celebration held the day after Passover, is in the works, Shefi said. Her family are Polish Jews, not Sephardi, but she said such distinctions blur in Israeli kitchens. “Israel is a not just a melting pot, it’s a pressure cooker, so a Polish girl like me considered kubbeh as my own,” she told the New York Times. Shefi’s long-term goal for the Jewish Food Society extends beyond the archive of recipes. She wants to establish a center for Jewish food in New York, where visitors would be able to take cooking classes and learn about their family’s culinary histories. Shefi describes her vision as “the James Beard Foundation for Jewish food.” For now, the Jewish Food Society provides a way for Jews to engage with their culture, Shefi said. “These [recipes and stories] are just huge parts of our lives, of our history as a people, and I feel that for many people that are less connected to Jewish culture and Jewish life, it’s a very inviting window to engage and to explore their identity,” she said. Food also provides a lens through which to understand Jewish history, she added.

18 September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

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Let’s not cheer for Billy Joel’s yellow star Ben Cohen Viewpoint

illy Joel’s decision to sport a yellow star on the front and back of his jacket during a concert last week was a nod to history that the singer may not have been aware of. The venue for the concert, New York City’s Madison Square Garden, was the site of proand anti-Nazi rallies during the World War II. In February 1939, as Europe teetered on the edge of war, 22,000 Nazi sympathizers gathered at the Garden for a rally organized by the German American Bund, during which swastika flags flew alongside a portrait of George Washington. “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans!” was typical of the signs at the rally. In July 1942, American Jews and their friends packed the Garden for an angry, emotional protest against the ravages of the Nazis. “In addition to the rallying cries of leaders and attendees, there was a solemn commemoration and chant for the thousands of Jewish men,

women, and children who have already been to believe that will change. And that gets to the slaughtered since the Third Reich took power heart of why I find Joel’s gesture—for that is how it should be seen—so objectionable. in Germany,” read one report of the event. Nazism was about a hell of a But in other, more important lot more than rallies. Nazi Gerways, there is a vast gulf between many was not Charlottesville; what those two rallies representand by the violent standards of ed, and what Billy Joel’s wardGerman Nazi rallies, Charlottesrobe adjustment signified. ville was pretty tame. That is not The German rally was a demto denigrate the ghastly experionstration that the menace of ence of Charlottesville—simply Nazism had penetrated the U.S., to say that it is not necessary and particularly its universities, to invoke the historic symbols more deeply than many Ameriof state and church-sponsored cans still realize. The Jewish rally anti-Semitic persecution in orwas one more piece of evidence der to condemn the spectacle of that the world could not say, “We swastikas in an American city, didn’t know.” But both rallies along with an American presihighlighted the same real, grave, dent who refuses to call the Natangible problem: that a major zis out for the violence. world power was now in the grip It is not necessary because of a totalitarian party and leader, whose laws assigned subhuman Billy Joel sports a yellow star here in America, there are no status to the Jews, and whose at Madison Square Garden. Nuremberg Race Laws to disblood-soaked military aggressions brought down criminate between Jews and “Aryans.” It is not necessary because in America, Billy genocidal slaughter upon 6 million Jews as well Joel is celebrated for standing up to the far as other beleaguered minorities. In other words, it was a pretty distinct situ- right surge by voluntarily and ostentatiously ation. Jews have never been in a comparable wearing the yellow star; that symbol of infesituation since, and we have no serious reason riority was not forced upon him, as it was on

Jews in Christian and Muslim countries for a thousand years. It is not necessary because in America, Joel faces no sanction for being a Jewish performer; in Nazi Germany, Jewish musicians and artists were systematically purged in the early days of Hitler’s rule, and all Jewish art was deemed “degenerate.” ome people might object, “well, these are just details — his intentions were good.” If in-tentions are all that count, then granted, there is probably no argument. But if basic stan-dards of truth — dare I add decency, too — are brought into consideration, then I can only look with alarm at the way that historic symbols which should be treated with respect are raided, like so many items on pizza menu, just to score points with the progressive con-sensus that President Donald Trump is a proto-Nazi. A cynic might take that point further, and accuse Joel of engaging in just the kind of free media marketing that Trump employed during his election campaign. After all, it landed the singer plenty of headlines, at a time when celebrities are jostling for the attention of the 41 percent of Americans who believe the president should be impeached. But I don’t think a conclusion like that would See Billy Joel’s star on page 19

Objections to BDS law: Overwrought, hypocritical Commentary by Anne Herzberg n July, five leaders of the virulent BDS groups Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine were barred at Dulles International Airport from boarding a flight to Israel. The move reportedly was the result of an amendment to Israel’s Law of Entry denying admission to the country of senior activists of leading BDS organizations. Predictably, the incident raised the usual hysterical chorus that Israel was attacking free speech, banning dissent and no longer a democracy. Despite these exaggerated charges, the decision to deny these BDS militants entry and the amendments to the law must be seen in context. From its very inception, Israel has been faced with conventional and asymmetrical military and political threats from its neighbors, coupled with organized economic and diplomatic boycotts spearheaded by the Arab League and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. The Arab-Israeli conflict is unique, however, in that in conjunction with this state action targeting the country, an army of political activ-

ists is deplying tens of millions of euros, dollars and francs provided by the European Union, European governments, the United Nations, churches and private foundations to produce rank propaganda, harass and seek arrest warrants of traveling Israeli officials, and advance economic warfare against the state of Israel. These campaigns go far beyond a critique of specific Israeli policies but are aimed at the country’s very existence. In several cases, the organizations involved in these campaigns advise their members to game Israel’s border controls and lie about their purpose for coming to the country. Many of these political warriors also come to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to riot, destroy property and engage the police and military in violent confrontations and directly participate in hostilities. Networking with NGOs and other organizations affiliated with terrorist groups like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a regular staple of these visits. The International Solidarity Movement is perhaps the best known of the groups engaged in this activity.

or years, the Israeli government expressed extreme frustration in response to these campaigns, registering countless complaints with their European counterparts and other funders. Unfortunately, Israel’s objections went largely ignored and the funding and political support continued. The Israeli public was angered by the invasion of these political combatants, the false and disproportionate attacks on their country under the guise of human rights, and the double standards applied to the Jewish state. This outrage was not confined to the right but was felt by the majority of the Israeli public. Centrist politicians like Yair Lapid and journalists such as Ben Dror Yemini began to highlight the impact of these damaging campaigns and funding. Resentment and exasperation further increased in the wake of intensive Palestinian terrorism and wars emanating from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip after Israeli withdrawals and peace offers. Rather than acknowledge Israel’s efforts to resolve the conflict, actions to demonize and isolate the Jewish state only in-

tensified — including NGO attacks; such U.N. initiatives as the Goldstone report; lobbying of the International Criminal Court to accuse Israel of war crimes; and BDS. Thus, the amendments to the Entry Law, as well as other legislation addressing these campaigns, were the foreseeable end result. On the one hand, NGO Monitor generally opposes such legislative measures. The revised law has given BDS activists unwarranted publicity, allowing them to position themselves as martyrs and deflect the conversation from their destructive goals. Moreover, we believe a systematic and intensive diplomatic process with government officials and international organizations, along with naming and shaming of funders, is a more constructive way to impact change. e also think it is more effective in fighting BDS for Israeli politicians to educate and, where necessary, confront European counterparts about absurd NGO funding policies. Education has proven highly successful in exposing BDS and has led to positive See BDS Law objections on page 19

Jonathan S. tobin

STAR

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A firefighter views Friday. A report a wildfire that broke out near Jerusalem from Israel: Page on 2. Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

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We thank of democracy, American ideals religion or national origin. and fostered the very dangerous regardless of race, equality for all, We know that we are living in from without, are threatened from within, Almighty G-d: of these blessings and times, when all and unimaginable brutality, and violence, putby forces of terror the seeds of bigotry, hatred by those who sow our way of life at risk. a government ting our lives and Dear G-d: Help us to form strength; And so we pray, with sound strategy and steadyof compasus acts which will protectus with words of wisdom and safety peace and harmony, which will unite will thereby bring all of humankind. which and sion; America and to to our beloved and well-being Amen. Lookstein, spiritual And let us all say, that Rabbi Haskel shul on the Upper This is the benediction a Modern Orthodox Trump, Jeshurun, leader of Kehilath to Ivanka, daughter of President-Elect Convention. East Side and rabbi Republican National wrote for last summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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voices TheJewishSta r.com strong and articulate have be we need potentially will her Clinton should the Right who elements in â&#x20AC;&#x153;A vote for Hillary who are conserva- from of our Orthodox people her ear and counteract for policies that Star communities considered by Rabbi Billet said. circle which might push By The Jewish Modern Orthodox tive on Israel policy,â&#x20AC;? perhaps go unopposed. Billet Two of the leading vote and wins, might otherwise all else: The Talmud Five Towns, Hershelarticles â&#x20AC;&#x153;If she gets our opportunity to hold her â&#x20AC;&#x153;And this above rabbis in the an But there is reHain, published in we will have to our concerns.â&#x20AC;? full of disagreements. and Kenneth Intelligent up to the election who are is adversaries. accountable Rabbi Hain the days leading support for Hillon spect between about an election. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People like y in Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cornerwho people may disagree we must which they expressed Trump and disagree. But and over Donald angry uncompromisingl ary Clinton the Green Line are do- We may strongly to get angry and become in the level of both sides of urged a moderation and secure Israel Clin- not allow ourselvesSee 2 rabbis on page 30 Mrs. want a strong advocating for discourse. Hain, of Congregation ing a service in said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If she is elected, After Rabbi wrote in the Rabbi Billet in Lawrence, and our ton,â&#x20AC;? Beth Shalom that â&#x20AC;&#x153;our country, Jerusalem Post be fortunate to would Jewish community,as our next president,â&#x20AC;? have Clinton serve often in intemperate he was criticized, media channels. terms, in social of the Young Israel of defense Rabbi Billet, to Rabbi Hainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Woodmere, rose post in which he disin a long Facebook of an election wake of cussed the complexity fought in the Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not going campaign being of President Obama.â&#x20AC;? to suggest that vote for â&#x20AC;&#x201D; of itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unimportant urging their congrecourse, â&#x20AC;&#x153;eight dark years who you Hershel Billet, YouTube video in our community that does matter very much. Hain (left) and in 2014. Kenneth But opinions prefer to facilitate are mostly set, and Rabbis AIPAC conference at Theto Jewish attend the discussions rather gants Star we What we will say than without equivocation, thumb the scale. paramount to however, is this: our communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s It is interests that we Whoever wins tance, whoever the White House â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and alsovote on Tuesday. wins the many of judicial races on state and local great importhe we in the Orthodox Election Day card â&#x20AC;&#x201D; must legislative and be reminded that communities on responsibilities Long Island take seriously, that our civic we the actions of our elected officials,follow the races and monitor the issues we and that we will hold dear are respond if ignored Whether the issue is continuingor mishandled. (sometimes threatened) Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long tradition of support for ish state of Israel, the security of the Jewlocation of state or insuring a fair shake for yeshivas in the aid, or facilitating alers who face discrimination hearings for in employment, Shabbos observconcerns, voting or a myriad other might be the easiest way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; surest way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to let itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ultimately, Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sthe pols know weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re watching certainly the them. safety, along with shivas and the the solvency of success of our our yeparnasa, rests we each have a job to do. On with Hashem. But Tuesday, that job is .com Ed Weintrob, Editorto vote. hStar and Publisher ewis TheJ unities ox comm Orthod of our aper Newsp The 6:35 â&#x20AC;˘ Luach,

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ists from the organization Stop Islamization of America on the basis that it was a hate group and their presence would â&#x20AC;&#x153;not be conducive to the public good.â&#x20AC;? The group cannot appeal. Similarly, thousands of soccer hooligans are barred from traveling to prevent trouble at international matches. Just as these countries have acted to maintain order, so, too, has Israel. The law and its implementation will continue to evolve, and its policy clarified, including through input from Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independent judiciary. What type and level of activity is sufficient to block entry? How and when will such determinations be made? Who will make such determinations? What avenues are available to challenge a denial? At the very least, the amended law has forced a necessary and long-overdue debate on foreign interference and funding in the Arab-Israeli conflict. If it took a controversial action to spark this conversation, it may have been worth it. Anne Herzberg is the legal adviser to NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute.

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Continued from page 18 legislation and court rulings in Switzerland, Spain, Germany and France. In the U.S., a majority of states have passed laws countering BDS, with many more bills pending at both the state and federal level. On the other hand, the breast-beating and condemnations regarding the legislation, particularly from Europe, are overwrought and hypocritical. It is hard to think of any other country, including every democracy, that would countenance such active campaigning to deliberately harm the state. Nor would any country â&#x20AC;&#x201D; again every democracy included â&#x20AC;&#x201D; tolerate a mass influx of foreign protesters to engage its military and police forces in an active conflict zone. In addition, under international law, all countries have the express right to control their borders and bar entry to anyone, at any time, for any reason. European countries do this routinely for ideological and public safety reasons. For instance, the United Kingdom barred for three to five years two U.S. activ-

â&#x2C6;&#x161; Reporters, Editors and Photographers

Zahava Vay, Shira Keilson and Mimi night Madness Muchnik check specials at Jildor out MidCedarhurst last Saturday night. Shoes on Central Avenue in More photos pages 24â&#x20AC;&#x201C;25.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Midniteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; shopp ers crowd Cedarhurst

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Frie Woodmereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sadvisers to among top t-Elect the presiden

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An estimated 4,000 cial streets of Cedarhurstshoppers poured onto the commeron motzei Shabbos, tive atmosphere creating a fesas of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Black Fridayâ&#x20AC;? they celebrated the American â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on a Saturday tradition night. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The event was a great success,â&#x20AC;? proclaimed Teri Schure, See Cedarhurst on page 24

24 Thousands of â&#x20AC;˘ Luach, page rabbis pose for Lubavitch world a group photo pm, Havdalah 5:23 headquarters in at 770 g 4:16 front of Chabad5777 â&#x20AC;˘ CandlelightinEastern Parking in Brook- lynâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Crown Heights neighborhood 4,550 Chabad 17 Cheshvan on Sunday. shluchim from around the world They are among who were in New

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The Jewish Star With fire trucks bers seeing action donated by the Young Israel of Woodmere and in The shul raised Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arson war, the YIW plans its mem$125,000 between to donate two more. enough, with a Friday JNF passing the envelopeUSA matching grant, to buy afternoon and Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a $250,000 truck. to fund a second The Jewish Star Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truck, and Rabbi late Hershel Billet told The YIW has beenTuesday that he expected that and when the rockets helping in the fire-fighting would happen. arena â&#x20AC;&#x153;since the started falling,â&#x20AC;? ed by the shul and Carmel fire, he said, with ment as they can two by individual members. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Israelone truck previously donatget. JNF developmentMissles can create more fire thanneeds as much fire equpia pyromaniac.â&#x20AC;? officer Ariel Kotler, AM on Monday, reporting from said Israel on JM in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not lookingthat he saw a YIW firetruck deployed the for kavod,â&#x20AC;? Rabbi el.â&#x20AC;? He said that Billet said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The last week. efforts would be goal is to help fires, who are numerous undertaken soon Israto assist and located in In an email to many communities. victims of the number of people YIW members of Monday, Rabbi injured and homes Billet pointed to â&#x20AC;&#x153;From time to the destroyed. large time we have â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now is one of those times. We been called to stand with Israel,â&#x20AC;? have always stood â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a tremendous he said. need for firefighting tall as a community.â&#x20AC;? have enough trucks ing that the trucks and many that they have equipment. Israel does not are antiquated,â&#x20AC;? being acquired he said, addare state-of-the-art. To contribue, visit support.jnf.org/g oto/yiwemergenc y

/ Eric Dunetz

2016 â&#x20AC;˘ 2 Kislev

The Jewish Star

â&#x20AC;˘ December 2,

a Fourth Reich is around the corner. Many liberal Jews acknowledge they are â&#x20AC;&#x153;privilegedâ&#x20AC;? compared to other minorities in America. They should also acknowledge they are much more privileged than their forebears were. Say, then, what you wish, but leave the yellow star alone.

The JEWISH

Parsha Toldot

Woodmere fire join Israelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ars trucks on war

Continued from page 18 be entirely fair. Maybe Joel thought he was honoring the victims of the Holocaust. Maybe it was his way of saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never Again.â&#x20AC;? Maybe it was his way of asking, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Can you imagine an America like this?â&#x20AC;? Even if we can all imagine that, there is nothing happening to suggest that

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president is an anti-Semite, his refusal to speak with moral clarity on this issue did encourage the neo-Nazis, KKK members and alt-right groups that were there. But the boycott wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help him see the light or, as the rabbinic associations condescendingly preached, point him toward repentance for his misdeeds that Jews believe is our obligation during the approaching High Holidays. What, then, was their purpose? Politics. The boycott reassures their overwhelmingly liberal congregations that they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be contaminated by contact with Trump. But

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thing and, well, being Donald Trump. Wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that have been worth it? You might think so, but the rabbis disagreed. And the reason for their decision says more about contemporary American Jewry than it does about Trump. happen to agree with the statement issued by the groups with respect to the presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s failure on Charlottesville. His decision to speak of those who came to Charlottesville to vent anti-Semitism and racism, and ultimately for one of them to commit murder, as being on the same moral plane as those who protested their presence was deplorable. There were no â&#x20AC;&#x153;very fine peopleâ&#x20AC;? among those taking part in a torchlight parade while shouting anti-Semitic slogans. While there is no reason to believe that the

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here probably has never been an easier path to consensus for the three major non-Orthodox rabbinic associations. The decision of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform), the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly to boycott the annual High Holiday conference call with the president of the United States probably was completely unsurprising. Joined by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the political arm of the Reform movement, the groups said they could not continue with the tradition because of what they termed President Donald Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;lack of moral leadership.â&#x20AC;? The rabbis had good reasons to criticize the president for what he said about the outrage in Charlottesville, Virginia. But the curious thing about their boycott is that they gave up the chance to directly question Trump on the subject and to give him a piece of their minds in the form of a Torah lesson. Though we know Trump cannot tolerate criticism and might have stormed off the call, the rabbis would have been given license to explain to the president why his words were so wrong and hurtful. The call would have given the rabbis a rare chance to do exactly what so many religious figures like to talk about, but rarely actually do: speak truth to power. If they are half the teachers that most of them like to think they are, perhaps one of their questions might have gotten through and planted a seed that might have eventually borne fruit in some future crisis, when their wisdom might have made the difference between doing the right

19 THE JEWISH STAR September 1, 2017 â&#x20AC;˘ 10 Elul 5777

Trump and rabbinic â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;virtue signalingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

the symbolism of the boycott is primarily one that alerts the world to something painfully obvious: that much of the organized non-Orthodox Jewish community has enlisted in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;resistanceâ&#x20AC;? to Trump and wants everyone to know it. Even if you agree that Trump is a terrible and even unfit president, for rabbinic groups to place him in what amounts to the Orthodox custom of cherem (shunning) is to assert that their synagogues are part of a political movement. It is nothing less than a declaration of war on a sitting president who, for all of his faults, is also a strong friend of Israel and still has the chance to play an important role in defending the security of the Jewish people. Perhaps what Trump said is worse than the sins of all previous presidents, including Franklin Delano Rooseveltâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s indifference to the fate of the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust or Barack Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appeasement of Iran. While some defend both FDR and Obama on the merits, the truth is most Jews did not openly oppose them because partisan political allegiances took precedence over principle. Liberal Jews will forgive a liberal Democrat just about anything, though to be fair, it appears many Trump supporters feel the same way about their man. While I believe Trump deserves the most severe criticism for Charlottesville and much else, boycotting him in this manner is primarily a political statement, not a moral or religious one. The rabbis had a chance to teach us all a lesson by engaging with Trump in a civil manner and teaching, rather than engaging in virtue signaling. Instead, all they have done is remind us that too many of them conceive of Judaism as a partisan faith. Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS. org and a contributing writer for National Review. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_ tobin.

September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777 THE JEWISH STAR

SHAbbAT STAR

‫כוכב של שבת‬

Parsha Ki Teitzeh

Candles 7:09, Havdalah 8:16

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

Taking out a ‘ticking bomb’ before it blows even if it’s written that evil lurks in one’s future, tefila can bring change Rabbi binny FReedman the heart of jerusalem

recently read a vignette which touched me: A fellow, on his way home, saw a Little League baseball game being played in a park. Sitting down on the sidelines to watch, he asked one of the boys playing what the score was: “We’re behind 14 to nothing” the boy replied with a grin. “Really?” said the fellow watching, “you don’t seem at all discouraged?” “Discouraged?” asked the boy with a puzzled look on his face. “Why would I be discouraged? We haven’t been up to bat yet!” Sometimes, we get too focused on where we are headed, and lose sight of where we really are. This week’s parsha of Ki Teitzeh contains one of the most difficult set of laws in the entire Torah: the statues of the Ben Sorer U’moreh, the wayward son. This refers to a child who has adopted a pattern of negative behavior that we presume will eventually lead him to a horrible life of bloodshed and violence. The Talmud (Mishna Sanhedrin 8:5) declares: “Ben Sorer U’Moreh nidon al shem sofo” — the wayward son is judged based on what his end would be, even though he has not yet committed the crime. Jewish tradition thus declares: Let him die now while he is still innocent, before he is executed for a

capital offense that will othSo which is it? Do we erwise certainly follow. punish a person based on This is reminiscent of where we think they are our modern day dilemma headed (as suggested in the of the “ticking time bomb,” case of the wayward son), referring to the question of or do we heed the message whether we should take out emanating from G-d’s sava terrorist before he actually ing of Yishmael, paying no commits the crime, thereby mind to the evil that may judging him for what we belie down the road? How can lieve he intends to do. This we reconcile these two perapproach, however, appears spectives? to conflict with another prinThere are other cases ciple which we allude to in where we seem to punish our Torah reading on Rosh an individual for evil that Hashanah. we presume will follow, though the evil deed is not n the first day of Rosh yet done. For example, the Hashanah we read of case of a rodef (pursuer), Yishmael, banished who is allowed to pursue along with his mother (Avrathe individual who accidenham’s handmaiden) from his home due to his wicked be- Edouard Moyse’s “The Presen- tally killed his blood relative. We are allowed to stop havior (see Rashi Bereishit tation of the Torah” (1860). the rodef even if the only 21: 11). Lost in the desert with no food or water and seemingly dying way to accomplish this is by killing him, a of thirst, G-d hears Yishmael crying of thirst surprising law given that the rodef has not yet actually done anything, thus essentially and, being merciful, saves them both. The Talmud, (Rosh Hashanah 16b) notes allowing us to punish an individual for an act that the verse (Bereishit 21:17) has G-d hear- he has not yet committed! Some posit (see the Birkas Avraham) that ing the voice of the lad “ba’asher hu sham” (where he is). And Rashi (ibid., quoting the we are not actually punishing the rodef or midrash) explains that the angels cry out to the wayward son; rather, we are saving them G-d asking why He is sparing the lad whose from the terrible consequence that would descendants will cause so much pain and result of their inevitable wicked acts. Better suffering to the Jewish people. To which G-d they should die free of sin… responds: right now he is repenting and is us there’s a problem with that aprighteous, and we judge a person by virtue of proach: Why does G-d saves Yishmael, where he is and not where he will be. who is destined to live a violent wicked

life? Imagine if Yishmael had died and the Arab nations descended of him had not been born — think of all the pain and suffering we would have been spared! But even Yishmael’s wickedness was not inevitable. After all, he did cry out to G-d! In that moment, perhaps he regretted who he had become and genuinely desired to change. And this was what G-d heard in deciding to spare Yishmael. The essence of tefilah, loosely translated as prayer, is struggling with what we really want, and what G-d really wants of us. And changing what we want, and who we want to be, can in fact change everything. Real change begins with wanting to change, and if we can decide to want something different, we can eventually succeed in actually becoming something different. The wayward son does not want to change and does not seem to want anything different —which is why, technically at least, the Torah suggests we would be better off without him. The Torah may well be suggesting that there can come a point where a person not only leads a wicked life but wants a wicked life, in which case (a decision only G-d can make) perhaps the world would be better off without him. (Think how different the world would be if a young Adolph Hitler had never grown up.) But no matter how far down an unhealthy path we may sometimes feel we have tread, if we can change what we want we can change everything. Wishing all a Shabbat shalom, and a good, sweet, happy and healthy New Year!

False accusations merit strongest punishments Rabbi avi billet Parsha of the week

n Devarim 22:13-21, we find two related circumstances that are both very disturbing from a contemporary vantage point. The first concerns a man who marries a woman and then claims she was not a virgin — spreading slander about her and the lifestyle she lived until her marriage. When his claims are disproven, he is fined and required to maintain her as his wife for the rest of his life. Leaving aside whether his claim, in and of itself, is disturbing — meaning, is she only good for him as a wife if she was virgin? — the idea that if he’s proven to be wrong he gets only a seeming slap on the wrist (a fine!). Even if he must care for her for the rest of his life, she almost has no choice but to stay (even though she may decide to leave), because he destroyed her reputation through his slander. The second element which is disturbing is that if his claim is proven to be true, she is taken out to the doorway of her father’s house to be stoned to death. We can argue all we want as to whether this passage is meant

to be understood literally, whether it actually ever happened, etc. But the passage is there, and its language speaks for itself. It should go without saying that nowadays we don’t do this, and I’d argue we have no interest in doing this. In fact, when certain cultures in other parts of the world uphold this kind of practice, we find it abhorrent, backwards, and not the kind of thing we ever want to see in our community. No matter how disapproving we are of pre-marital relations. The midrash claims the guilty young woman is charged and punished this way because she destroys the reputation of all young women. Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura argued that she is killed at her parents’ doorstep because she destroyed her father’s reputation. To my understanding, this perspective contradicts a different Torah rule, also in our parsha, Ki Teitzeh (24:16), that children are not punished for the sin of the parents, and that parents are not punished for the sins of the children. Does killing the daughter restore any reputation? Or does it punish the parents again?

s disturbing as the thought of putting the young maiden to death is, I haven’t seen any commentators who argue, as they do for the wayward son (21:18-21), that this never happened and we are meant to learn a lesson. It could, of course, be true that it never happened and that no young woman was every put to death for this violation of Torah rules. If that is true, how come no commentary raises it as a possibility (if you know of one, please contact me!)? I hope it never happened. Or that even if the girl was not a virgin at the time of marriage — for whatever reason — it was discussed beforehand so there would be no misunderstanding or opening to make any claim of impropriety. And even if the girl was wrong, the idea that someone would come to the court with this kind of claim — which could lead to her execution — rather than going the more civilized route of divorcing her, is something I find hard to stomach. But one thing is clear to me. The idea that a false accusation can be made, either without evidence or when the actual evidence stands to the contrary of what is being

False accusations are made all the time: in politics, in relationships, in schools.

claimed, is so disturbing that a more serious punishment would seem to be in order. False accusations are made all the time. In politics, things are taken out of context to paint a politician as an evil or stupid person. In relationships, innocent people are sometimes accused of rape. In schools, students have been found to make accusations of impropriety against teachers in order to get them fired. Of course I am not talking about cases where the accused is guilty of a crime — in those cases, the guilty should be prosecuted and punished. But it’s the FALSE accusation that should have no place in society, where the accused, who is innocent of wrongdoing, suffers financially and through destroyed reputation, simply because a finger was pointed. The Torah places a life-long fiduciary responsibility on the accuser. Perhaps such a hefty fine should stand as a deterrent against false claims. But even more so, society and communities must make clear that false accusations aimed at destroyed a good name are in some cases more heinous than what is being accused, and that when the victim of slander is exonerated, he or she is accepted in society with open arms, with reputation restored. We would only want that for ourselves if we are falsely accused. Doesn’t anyone falsely accused deserve the clean slate that is their true life lived? Of course they do.

AlAn JAy Gerber Kosher BooKworm

his week marks the sheloshim anniversary of the untimely passing last month, right after Tisha B’ Av, of the world famous Holocaust historian and theologian, Rabbi Dr. Pesach Schindler, zt”l, of blessed memory. Among the many essays and books that he authored was a work of translation and commentary entitled, “Restoration of Zion as a Response During the Holocaust: Em Habanim Semeicha” (Ktav, 1999) by Rabbi Yissakhar Shlomo Teichthal, hy”d, who himself was to be martyred during the Shoah. This classic volume was given a major place in Holocaust literature due to the sacredness of the author, and the scholarship of its translator and commentator, Rabbi Schindler, who brought this holy work to America in English translation. In honor of Rabbi Schindler’s life’s devotion to Jewish history, I will devote the remainder of this tribute to one of the Five

Towns’ towering scholars and theologians, Rabbi Dr. Walter Wurzburger, zt”l, who graced the Shaaray Tefilla synagogue of Lawrence, where Rabbi Schindler was a congregant and close friend of the rabbi. What follows is the introduction to that historic volume by Rabbi Wurzburger, written in 1999: “Pesach Schindler, the author of a pioneering study of ‘Hasidic Responses to the Holocaust,’ has made another significant contribution to the understanding of this tragic era with his most readable translation of Rabbi Teichthal’s classic, ‘Happy Mother of Children.’ “Especially valuable is the Editor’s Introduction to the work; it enables even readers unfamiliar with the historic background to appreciate the momentous nature of Rabbi Teichthal’s ‘conversion’ from radical antiZionism to passionate advocacy of Religious Zionism. Dr. Schindler succeeds in pointing out how, in the wake of the new realities created by the Holocaust, Rabbi Teichthal felt constrained to recant his previous position, which had reflected the prevailing ethos of Hungarian Orthodoxy. At the risk of Jeopardizing his reputation among his co-religionists, he pleaded with them to abandon their

he is able to illumine what would otherwise have remained obscure to those who cannot match his extensive knowledge of Talmudic and Hasidic literature. “By making Rabbi Teichthal’s fascinating tract accessible to a larger circle, Dr. Schindler will also help lay to rest the canard that tradition-oriented Jews are so overwhelmed by the past that they cannot respond to newly emergent situations. Rabbi Teichthal provided convincing evidence that truly great minds and spirits are capable of transcending deeply ingrained ways of thinking and, while employing traditional categories of thought, can successfully respond to the challenge of momentous upheavals.” My throughts on Rav Pesach take me back to the many times over the past 30 years, during my visits to Israel, when I would get together with him to talk, learn, and laugh together. This set up a bond between two generations, two world experiences and world views that made for some of the finest quality times that two teachers could ever experience. No future trips to Israel will ever be the same. I miss him already, dearly. May his memory be a blessing to all Klal Yisrael.

rejectionist ideology and join even non-Orthodox Jews in the sacred task of settling Eretz Yisrael and return to Mother Zion. “Rabbi Teichthal’s tract suffers from having been hastily composed under most trying conditions during his brief stay in Budapest as a refugee from Slovakia. That is why even individuals who can read the Hebrew original will derive much benefit from Dr. Schindler’s excellent notes and commentary. With the tools of scholarship at his disposal,

The month of Elul, the shofar, and yetzer hara O

ne of the major shul-based practices of the month of Elul is listening to the clarion call of the shofar following the morning recitation of Psalm 27, “L’David Hashem ori v’yeshi” (“A psalm of David: the L-rd is my light and my salvation”). The Rambam (Maimonides) notes a number of actions that the sounding of the shofar should ideally engender: “Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator. Those who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year, and devote their energies to vanity and emptiness which will not benefit or save: Look to your souls. Improve your ways and your deeds, and let every one of you abandon his evil path and thoughts.” (Mishneh Torah, Sefer Maada, Hilchot Teshuvah III:4) For the Rambam, the shofar’s blast is multidimensional in nature. Moreover, it existentially challenges us to remember the eternal truths of the Torah, in order that we may devote our energies to meaningful behaviors and eschew “vanity and emptiness which will neither benefit nor save.” The Rambam, writing in the 12th century, decried those “who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year.” If this was a common problem during his period, it is exponentially the case in our pleasure-seeking, digitally-focused culture that caters to a public with an unquenchable thirst for that which is scandalous and demeaning. What accounts for this endless attraction to the forbidden? Torah provides a foundation for answering this question.

stated: “One who is slow to anger is better than a mighty man, and one who rules over his spirit [is better] than one who conquers a city.” (Sefer Mishle 16:32) With the Almighty’s help, and our most fer-

We must wage an unceasing war against the yetzer hara, for we have ‘no greater enemy.’

vent desires, may we hearken to the shofar’s call and soundly reject the negative influences of our time. In this way, may we harness “even the powers of the evil inclination … in the service of Hashem.” V’chane yihi ratzon.

in the Jerusalem hills near Beit Shemesh

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he first phrase in this week’s parsha, “Ki tetze l’milchamah al oivecha” (“When you go to war against your enemy”), precedes the concluding words: “the L-rd, your G-d, will deliver him [your enemy] into your hands, and you [will] take his captives.” (21:10) The Chasidic masters universally understand the expression, “your enemy,” as referring to the yetzer hara (the evil inclination). Not too surprisingly, the first rebbe to suggest this interpretation was none other than the founder of Chassidism, the holy Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer (1698-1760), known to the world as the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov notes that even though the verse is speaking about going to war, which definitionally necessitates a massive public undertaking, it is nonetheless written in the singular construct (lashon yachid). He suggests that this is the case, since “every member of the Jewish people has no greater enemy than the evil inclination.” (This, and the following quotations, are found in Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Greenberg’s Itturei Torah, volume VI, page 129; translations my own). The Baal Shem Tov continues his analysis and states, “If you go to war against him (i.e. the yetzer hara),” then the Torah promises, and well nigh guarantees, that “the L-rd, your G-d, will deliver him into your hands.” Perhaps most powerfully, he interprets the expression, “and you take his captives,” as a further assurance that “even the powers of the evil inclination will be able to be harnessed in the service of Hashem.” Without a doubt, the yetzer hara is the most cunning and corrupting influence in our lives. It intuitively knows “what buttons to push” to lead us away from the Torah and Hashem, and coerce us into doing its bidding. Clearly, we must wage an unceasing war against it, for as the Baal Shem Tov said, we have “no greater enemy.” The mishnaic sage Ben Zoma taught us that it is possible to be a spiritual hero and overcome even our strongest yetzer hara-infused desires, as is cited in Pirkei Avot IV:1: “Who is strong? One who overpowers his [evil] inclination. As is it is

THE JEWISH STAR September 1, 2017 • 10 Elul 5777

In tribute to Rabbi Dr. Pesach Schindler, zt”l

The JEWISH STAR CAlendar of Events Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Zachary Schechter

5K Run/Family Walk

Book Club: Beth Shalom Sisterhood discusses Camron Wright’s “The Rent Collector.” 8 pm. 516-569-6733. 390 Broadway, Lawrence. Timely Tanach: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump of the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst for a shiur on Sefer Shoftim. 8 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhust.

Sunday, Sept. 3rd, 2017

Monday Sept 4

Makor 5k: Join Makor Disability Services for a 5k run/walk to benefit children and adults with developmental disabilities. Corporate sponsorships starting at $1,000. 8:30 am. 405 Main St, Roosevelt Island. To register or sponsor a runner contact www.makords.org/run.

Sunny Atlantic Beach Club Atlantic Beach, NY

Registration begins at 7:45 am Race begins at 8:30 am SHARP! Register at communitychestss.org Includes: • a top-quality tech shirt • awards • post-race refreshments • free finish line photos For more information call:

Farewell To Summer BBQ: Join Chabad of the Five Towns for a community bbq with food, inflatables and arts and crafts. Non-members: $10 per person. 74 Maple Ave, Cedarhurst. RSVP at 516-295-2478. Labor Day BBQ: Avigdor’s Helping Hand will hold its twelfth annual Labor Day Barbecue at the Moradi Residence. 7 pm, 72 Muriel Ave, Lawrence. 718-568-9720.

Tues–Thurs Sept 5–7

Rock the Block: Basketball tournament returns to North Woodmere Park. End of summer fun for the whole family while raising tzedakah for local causes. 8-10 pm. 750 Hungry Harbor Rd, Valley Stream. For more information or to make or join a team email Jtrickone@gmail.com.

Thursday Sept 7

Save a Life! Narcan Training: Chabad of Mineola sponsors a free Narcan training session, with training provided by Chas Thompson, fire commissioner of Lido Point Lookout and an EMT for 37 years. Nassau County and the surrounding communities continue to battle a heroin and opiate epidemic from which the frum community is not exempt. Narcan has already saved hundreds of lives. All are welcome. Free kits are available to those who pre-register. 7 to 8:30 pm, Chabad Mineola, 261 Willias Ave., Mineola. For more information, call Rabbi Perl at 516-739-3636 or email to rabbiperl@chabadmineola.com. To register online, visit chabadmineola.com/narcan

516.374.5800