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Haazinu • September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779 • Sukkot • Torah columns pages 16–17 • Luach page 16 • Vol 17, No 37

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At Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway, second grade talmidim of Rav Nachum Nachumson prepared for the Sukkot festival as they examined the arba minim that were brought in by their rebbe. The holiday begins Sunday night.

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Analysis by Yoav Limor, JNS The intense focus on the Iranian issue, and in recent months on a possible military escalation in Gaza, has distracted us from a simple fact: The most complicated front Israel must contend with is Judea and Samaria. The constant friction between millions of Palestinians and hundreds of thousands of Israelis, the need to defend hundreds of communities and thousands of kilometers of roads and maintain access to the country’s center — all these factors continuously foster terrorism, whether by organizations using weapons and explosive devices, or lone attackers who need nothing more than a knife. The reason attacks like Sunday’s lethal stabbing outside the Gush Etzion Junction shopping mall (see pages 4, 6 and 21) do not happen every day is because of prevention. Every night, usually based on intelligence from the Shin Bet security agency, IDF forces raid the homes of dozens of young Palestinian men and women suspected of planning attacks. Last year, some 4,000 such Palestinians were arrested; for many others, a warning or reprimand to their parents was able to achieve the same effect. Sunday’s attack is frustrating not only because of its deadly result, but See Terror on page 2

9/5/18 4:25 PM

Seasons bankrupt By Ed Weintrob Seasons, the upscale Long Island-based kosher supermarket chain with national ambitions, filed for bankruptcy protection this week. In its Chapter 11 petition, filed electronically on Sunday night, Seasons reported $42 million in liabilities and $31 million in book-valued assets, with millions owed to vendors, landlords, banks and the fomrer owners of Supersol. Supersol stores formed the core of the original Seasons empire. News of the filing was first reported late Monday by the Commercial Observer. On Tuesday morning, erev Yom Kippur, and on Thursday after yom tov, Seasons stores in Lawrence and Kew Gardens Hills were open, although shelves were not fully stocked. Departments operSee Seasons on page 15

‘Obstacles to peace’ is the original fake news JonaThan S. Tobin

Jewish News Syndicate

ne more Jewish life was just added to the list of those killed in the century-old conflict between Jews and Arabs. Last Sunday, a Palestinian terrorist fatally stabbed to death Ari Fuld, a 45-year-old American immigrant to Israel, married father of four, and articulate advocate for the Jewish state. But for some people, the only relevant fact about him is that he was a resident of Efrat, a Jerusalem suburb that lies over the so-called Green Line in the West Bank. Efrat is part of the Etzion bloc, originally

settled by Jews before 1948. But in the eyes of the world, it is still a settlement, and Fuld a “settler.” Like the hundreds of thousands of other Jews who live in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Fuld was reviled as an obstacle to peace. That’s why the reaction to attacks like this is so often heartless indifference, if not gloating. Not only Palestinians who consider all violence against Jews justified acts of “resistance” hold this attitude. Across the world, even among many Jews, “settler” is an epithet. Since the Oslo Accords were signed 25 years ago, settlements and settlers have become all-purpose scapegoats for the lack of peace, undeserving of sympathy even when slain by terrorists. hile most Israelis have embraced a hardheaded realism, myths about the Israeli right and about settlers killing

prospects for peace continue to be aired in the media. The latest example is the “Oslo Diaries,” a documentary that debuted on HBO last week that explains the antipathy for settlers. Made with genuine sympathy for Israel and a commendable desire to explore both points of view, the film reviews the familiar story of the secret talks that led to the agreement. But it also bolsters false narratives about what happened after the handshake on the White House lawn.

Oslo Diaries puts forward the thesis that there were two peace camps — one in Israel, led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his government, and the other led by Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat. Opposing them were two anti-peace camps — one led by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, and the other composed of Hamas and other Palestinians who opposed peace. See Obstacles on page 2

Terror every day... Continued from page 1 because it was nearly thwarted. Intelligence officials did not have preliminary information on the terrorist. Absent some electronic signature, it is difficult to know what is going through a person’s mind. But just as the teen arrived at Gush Etzion Junction, his distraught mother showed up at an area checkpoint and told security forces of her son’s intention to carry out an attack. The information was relayed to all the forces in the area, but it was too late. The mother’s actions are indicative of an interesting mindset that has taken hold among the Palestinian public. They are worried about the repercussions of the attacks. Beyond a parent’s natural concern for their child, they also know that an attack may lead to the demolition of the family home and the revocation of their permits to work in Israel. It turns out that the terrorist had left his home in Yatta and traveled to the Hebron area. After wandering around for a while and not finding a target, he continued on to Gush Etzion Junction. It may be that because of the increased security presence there — the result of a series of lone-wolf attacks in 2014 and 2015 — the terrorist preferred to carry out the attack at the nearby mall. Ari Fuld, who heroically fought back against his attacker, is the eighth victim to die in the seven terrorist attacks this year. Seven of the victims were attacked in Judea and Samaria, and one in the Old City of Jerusalem. Given the relative ease with which tensions can flare between the Jewish and Arab popu-

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Continued from page 1 According to this account, the agreement was destroyed by Baruch Goldstein, who murdered 29 Arabs in cold blood at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron; Yigal Amir, who assassinated Rabin; and Netanyahu, who encouraged extremism and sabotaged a process that was working. Post-Oslo Palestinian terror is seen as a response to Goldstein’s terrible crime, rather than something that went before and after it. The slander that Netanyahu encouraged murder is backed up by misleading footage of a few protesters chanting for Rabin’s death as he spoke at a rally. Unlike Oslo supporters, Netanyahu was not given a chance by filmmakers to put these events in perspective. Instead, he is portrayed as an irresponsible demagogue, who, as Arafat is quoted as saying, helped “assassinate peace,” as opposed to a democratic leader putting forth a coherent — and sadly accurate — analysis of what was happening. But while Goldstein and Amir’s names will forever live in shame, neither they nor Netanyahu and the settlers killed the peace. That was the work of Arafat and his associates. e now know that Arafat did not share the peacemakers’ vision. To the contrary, he spoke openly in Arabic at the time that he wanted to use Oslo as part of a scheme to continue the war against Israel on more advantageous terms. He never stopped planning, funding and fomenting terror, and used his newfound control of Palestinian schools and media to inculcate new generations — like the 17-year-old that murdered Fuld — with hatred, whether they live in the settlements or inside the 1967 lines. Indeed, as soon as the PLO assumed control over parts of the West Bank and Gaza in 1994, Arafat’s Fatah Party and his Hamas rivals began a bloody campaign of terrorism. At the time of Rabin’s assassination, polls showed a majority of Israelis — not just settlers — agreed with Netanyahu because they understood that allowing the PLO to set up shop had led to more bloodshed with little hope of the peace they had been promised, a point the filmmakers never honestly address. The next few years would explode the

lations in Judea and Samaria, this is both an indication of the security forces’ control of the area and the relative difficulty for terrorists to operate beyond the Green Line. As this type of stabbing has been known to spur copycat attacks, security forces must now ramp up counter-terrorism efforts, given that the Jewish holiday season is upon us and recreational centers are packed with Israelis. As is the case every year, the territories will be sealed off from the night before Yom Kippur until the end of the holiday. Unfortunately, this does nothing to mediate the threat to Jewish residents in the area, in particular given the open call by terrorist organizations, Hamas at the forefront, to increase efforts to carry out terrorist attacks. These calls have so far gone unanswered. The Palestinian public has shown very little interest in the matter of the national struggle. Despite concerns that events in Gaza or the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would lead to widespread protests in the territories, this has not been the case. Even the recent American moves against the Palestinians have not really served to inflame the average Palestinian, who is busy trying to put food on the table. The Israeli interest is to ensure this remains the case in the future. Populist proposals that Israel take punitive steps against the Palestinians in the West Bank, as was suggested on Sunday, are in direct opposition to this interest. Yoav Limor is a veteran Israeli journalist and columnist for Israel Hayom.

Oslo concept. Israeli governments, including Netanyahu’s, continued to negotiate with Palestinians and grant them control over more territory. They did not sanction the building of new settlements, whose numbers have remained more or less frozen since then. But Arafat’s goals never changed. In 2000, at a summit at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat statehood and control over almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share of Jerusalem. The Palestinians said no, and soon launched another terror campaign. That pattern has continued under Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, who also rejected peace offers as the death toll ran into the thousands on both sides. The 2005 withdrawal from Gaza — ironically, one of the first proposals floated by Israelis during the secret talks in Norway — led to the creation of the current Hamas terror state. But none of that is allowed to challenge the illusion that the film tries to keep alive: that the peace plan would have worked, had not the settlers violently opposed it. Neither side has a monopoly on truth or suffering. Palestinians, including children, continue to be incited by Fatah and sacrificed by Hamas. Like Ari Fuld’s murder, those deaths are a tragedy we should all mourn and seek to prevent. But when films like “Oslo Diaries” uphold false narratives rather than truth, they become an obstacle to a necessary, more historically accurate analysis of the culture that produced Arafat,990909 Abbas, Hamas and modern-day teenagers who stab Israelis in cold blood in the street.

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Ari Fuld: ‘I am having a hard time breathing’ This prescient commentary written by Ari Fuld was posted on Jan. 10. Fuld was murdered by a terrorist last week. (See news story on page 6 and commentaries on pages 1 and 21.) am having a hard time breathing. Last night a Jewish father was on his way home when he was brutally murdered by a terrorist. Twenty-two bullets were fired at the car of a Jewish man. Now we have another Jewish widow and six new Jewish orphans who will have their bar and bat mitzvahs, birthday parties and weddings without their Jewish father. I am saddened beyond words, but I am also angry … I have buried friends who were killed by terrorists, as well as others who were killed in battle in the IDF, and most Israelis can say the same. The loss of life is something that is beyond words, but that is not why I can’t breathe. I am having trouble breathing because I am furious at the fact that we continue to make concessions in the hope of some fake peace. have absolutely no expectations of our enemies. I do not ask how they could do such a thing. They have been doing it for 70 years. Anyone who is still in shock by their ability to murder, slaughter or shoot innocent Jews needs to open their eyes. [But] we put ourselves in imminent danger, time and time again, for the hope that those who carry out these attacks will stop. We give in to everything in the ridiculous hope that the world will love us. We have people who are upset that the president called Jerusalem our capital. Why?

Why do we continue to ignore the obvious?

Ari Fuld

Facebook

Because “What will the world say? What will the terrorists do?” I talk about the Mikdash and Har Habayit, and how it is occupied by others, and I am considered an extremist. They say my statements will cause the terrorists to murder. Really? They don’t need excuses. … It has to stop! Not the terror, but our national Stockholm syndrome. … Who can be most compassionate to those who want to destroy us? Who can come up with a peace plan that makes believe that if we just give in a little more, everything will be great? The idea that we should continue giving in to those who want to murder us and destroy our country is both immoral and cruel, and in no way should be considered a act of peace. Why do we continue to ignore the obvious? am saddened beyond words for the terrible loss of life, but the frustration and anger at our own behavior is what is causing me to not to be able to breathe. Does anyone out there think this terrorist

murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach because of Palestine? Because of a fabricated national claim? Because of land? Why do we continue to make excuses for our murderers? Did they not kill us before there were settlements? Did they not slaughter us before we had Israel? Was the 1929 [Hebron] massacre because of a Green Line? Whatever religion you come from, most people cannot even fathom the idea of opening fire on innocent people for political or religious reasons. I hope anyone reading this cannot imagine their child walking out of the house with a butcher knife to slaughter some random person to in the name of some political or religious claim. In Israel, we have had our small share of Jews (you can count them on one hand) who did carry out murders. They were condemned by the entire political spectrum. We did not condemn them in order to look good in the eyes of the world — we condemned them because it goes against everything we stand for. Our enemies murder, slaughter, shoot and fire rockets in the name of a fabricated national claim or in the name of religion, and their leaders applaud and reward the murder of Jews, and we believe they are a partner for peace? They slaughter us, and we make excuses. It’s because our prime minister went up on the Temple Mount. It’s because of the settlements. It’s because of an occupation of Palestine that never happened. It’s because we attacked in Gaza after thousands of rockets were fired at Israel. It’s because we left Gaza without making a deal. Why did Oslo fail? Because we broke the deal with our targeted assassinations of terrorists who blew up buses and murdered Jews. Can we please stop? Maybe it’s because the people we are fantasizing about making peace deals with are not interested in peace. Maybe they are not interested in building a state but are more interested

in destroying one called Israel. e are not in the ghetto anymore. We don’t need to be ashamed of our strength. … The world has gotten used to the weak Jew picking up his hands and walking into the gas chambers; the world expects us to be victims time and time again, but why do we continue to act like victims? Why do we put ourselves in danger to appease those who murder us? There is no heroism or honor in getting slapped in the face by a terrorist whose family supports the murder of Jews. … There is no honor in arresting an IDF soldier who took out an attempted murderer. He wasn’t a threat? Neither were the ones who carried out the Munich massacre on Israeli athletes. Neither were the Nazis that Israel hunted. They seek our destruction! Let’s stop giving them the rights that allow them to reach their goal. What will the world say? Of course the world applauds when we get slapped, and condemns us when we react. The world is used to the Jewish victim. You better believe that we are different than other armies. But for G-d’s sake, there is no honor in turning ourselves into punching bags to prove to the world that yes, we can still be the Jewish victim. hat’s the solution? First, stop the bleeding. Stop making deals with terrorists. Stop pretending that giving guns or a state to those whose See Ari Fuld on page 6

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Ari Fuld... Thousands mourn a ‘Lion of Israel’ Continued from page 4 entire ideology was created with the goal of destroying Israel is a good idea. Stop accepting the fabricated claims of those who seek our destruction. Giving in … will not bring peace. It will only bring more death. The only thing it will accomplish is to strengthen the world’s expectations that we continue being victims. Stop making believe we owe Arabs anything. They started wars to destroy us. We won. Their failure doesn’t turn them into victims or us into occupiers. It turns them into losers, and us into what we have always been: a nation that survives. There was no Palestine that we occupied. The situation of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria is a result of their own belligerence towards Israel. We did not build refugee camps. Jordan, Egypt and Syria did. Why would they put their own brothers and sisters in camps? Because they know that we, the Jewish nation, are compassionate. They cause their own to suffer because they know that we have not internalized what our sages said long ago: “He who is compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.” It’s time to send a clear message: We do not want peace with murderers. We do not want peace with terrorists. We do not want peace with leaders who encourage the murder of Jews. We do not want peace based on a fabricated national claim that was created to justify attacking Israel and murdering Jews. When we decide to fight for our national, historic and religious rights, peace will come. When we stop begging for the world’s love and start demanding their respect, peace will come.

JERUSALEM (Combined Sources) — For more than four hours, thousands mourned at the cemetery in Kfar Etzion for Ari Fuld, a prolific pro-Israel activist who is being called a hero and “a lion of Israel,” a play on his name, which means lion. The levaya began close to midnight on Sunday, less than a day after Fuld, a 45-yearold father of four, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian teenager outside a shopping mall near Efrat, the Judean town in the Etzion bloc where he lived. Fuld was standing outside the Rami Levy supermarket, which is frequented by both Arabs and Jews, when he was approached by 17-year-old Khalil Yousef Ali Jabarin. The two appeared to converse briefly, after which Fuld turned around and was stabbed violently by Jabarin. Though Fuld was felled by the blows, he engaged his training as an IDF paratrooper and as a member of his hometown security team and jumped up, ran after the fleeing terrorist, leapt over a low cement wall and fired his personal firearm. A security guard and an armed Israeli shopper also fired at the killer. Fuld collapsed and was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, where he passed away soon afterwards. “With a stab wound in the back, he ran, drew his gun and fired before collapsing, just to make sure the terrorist would not continue to hurt others,” Education Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on his Twitter account. The killer was taken to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in moderate condition with multiple gunshot wounds. “I don’t know how I will go on without you,” said Fuld’s widow, Miriam, in one of many eulogies delivered by family members at the levaya. “I promise to take care of the children. Your job is to look after us from above.

“You were always running towards danger instead of away from it and you never backed down from a fight because you knew you were in the right,” she continued. “You’ve left behind a legacy for the entire world to savor, videos and stories that we will be telling for many years to come.” Rabbi Yonah Fuld, Ari Fuld’s father, called his son a “true hero.” “Zion cries and the land of Israel cries. Ari influenced thousands of people all over the world,” his father said. “He was so strong, he was so full of life. He celebrated every moment, every breath. … He gave his life to sanctify G-d, to sanctify the land.” Fuld worked with Standing Together, a nongovernmental organization that provides support for Israeli soldiers. He was well known for his social media posts defending Israel and its military. He was scheduled to leave in the coming weeks on a speaking tour in the United States. Several lawmakers and government ministers attended the levayah, many of whom had visited the family earlier in the day. He was a member of the National Union party, which is part of the Jewish Home Knesset faction. He also was eulogized on social media and in newspapers in Israel. “Israel lost a great hero today but not really. We didn’t lose him. He’s just been moved to a new position. Maybe you could say he’s been promoted. He’s now a Guardian. He was always one who guarded Israel, now he watches over us from above,” blogger Paula R. Stern wrote on Facebook. “I’d rather live in a country that will lose an Ari Fuld — which means we were blessed to have had him — than live in a country where their best hero of the day is a sniveling, worthless coward who can only manage to attack someone by stabbing them in the back.”

“Ari and I had our disagreements, and he would argue his points with firmness, clarity and strength,” former Knesset member Dov Lipman wrote in the Jerusalem Post. “He believed that he had to convince me to change my mind, and did not want to finish the debate with a ‘let’s agree to disagree.’ In certain cases, he believed that my stance was dangerous for the state and people of Israel, and he would continue pressing to win me over — Ari would not let me get away without answering his pointed and poignant questions.” “I met with the wonderful parents and brothers of the great Israeli hero Ari Fuld z”l,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted on Sunday before the levaya. “I hugged them in the name of the entire nation in this time of terrible grief. We are alive thanks to heroes like Ari. We will remember him forever,” Israeli soldiers on Monday raided the home of Fuld’s killer, in the village of Yatta near Hebron. They measured the home in preparation for demolishing it, standard practice for the homes of terrorists who murder Israelis. It is reportedly slated for demolition despite the fact that the teen’s parents told Palestinian and Israeli security forces about their son’s plans to commit a terror attack. Haaretz cited a source close to the Jabarin family as saying that the teen informed his parents that he planned to carry out an attack at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. He was not found near the tomb, and then carried out the attack near Efrat. A Hamas spokesperson called the killing of Fuld was a “legitimate form of resistance” against “the Israeli occupation.” Fuld’s last post to Twitter was a picture of tens of thousands of Jews praying the traditional selichot prayers for repentance at the Kotel just before Yom Kippur.

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September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

By Marcus M. Gilban, JTA RIO DE JANEIRO — Three neo-Nazis who attacked a group of Jews on a Brazilian street in 2005 were sentenced to prison on Wednesday. They were charged with attempted aggravated murder with one of the motivations being religious. Nazi flags with swastikas and other Nazi material were displayed at the trial. “On the day the Jewish community celebrates Yom Kippur, also known as Day of Judgment, three skinheads were convicted of the 2005 aggression. It brings the feeling that justice was done,” said Zalmir Chwartzmann, president of the Rio Grande do Sul state Jewish federation. The Jewish men wearing kippahs were attacked when walking on a street in Porto Alegre. During the assault, three skinheads prevented other people from intervening to help the victims. Each attacker was given a slightly different sentence due to the kind of participation in the attack. Nine have been formally charged; after Wednesday six more will still face a judge. “My mother has received calls in which nobody said anything, only played a German march,” declared one of the victims in court. Prosecutors said the defendants are part of a criminal organization of skinheads that preaches prejudice against certain racial and social groups, including Jews, blacks, homosexuals and punks. “Today’s trial enters into the history of Brazilian justice, not only for the Jewish community, but for every society that needs to fight the hatred and hate speech of radicals,” Chwartzmann added.

Justice Elana Kagen discusses her ‘very strange Jewish upbringing’ By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, at a liberal Jewish day school in Brownstone Brooklyn, spoke about her Jewish background and how her family jumped from synagogue to synagogue. “I had a very strange Jewish upbringing,” Kagan, 58, told journalist Dahlia Lithwick, who moderated the Wednesday evening conversation. “You would think, ‘Lincoln Square Synagogue — she comes from a Modern Orthodox family.’ Actually, my family didn’t really know what it was.” Though Kagan had her bat mitzvah at the Modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, she did not grow up in a strictly observant household, the associate justice told an audience of about 280 at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School. Kagan said her mother grew up in “an extremely, extremely religious family,” but had abandoned many aspects of Jewish observance by the time she had children. “[We] kept a kosher home so that my grandparents would eat there, but otherwise we were the kind of Jews who kept a kosher home and then went out and ordered shrimp at the Chinese restaurant,” the jurist recalled. Before Lincoln Square, the family were members of B’nai Jeshurun, which belonged to the Conservative movement (today it is unaffiliated) and Congregation Rodeph Sholom, a Reform synagogue. “My mother’s view was that everything depended on how good the rabbi was, and she would go from synagogue to synagogue to synagogue to find a rabbi she liked,” Kagan said.

Justice Elena Kagan (left) speaks with journalist Dahlia Lithwick at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School on Sept. 12. Matthew Sussman

Kagan said she “loved” attending Hebrew school at Lincoln Square, but hit a snag when she realized the synagogue, then led by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, had not allowed a girl to have a bat mitzvah ceremony. “It was 1973 and they’d never done such things, and it was this kind of process of negotiation to try to get them to even get it into their heads that this was a possibility, and it was sort of a disappointment because I didn’t get to do all the stuff my brother had done,” she said. In the end, Kagan had a bat mitzvah ceremony on Friday evening rather than the typical Saturday morning, and chanted from the Book of Ruth instead of the haftarah and Torah portions. “It was a little bit not exactly what I wanted,” she said. “But I have to say that they came a super long way even to do that in those days at that sort of synagogue, so I give them a lot of kudos for that.” At the day school event, Kagan noted that she is one of three Jewish justices now sitting on the

Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are the others). Some thought that President Barack Obama would not nominate Kagan in 2010 because she would be the third Jewish justice on a nine-member court, she said. “As far as I know it never came up in the decision-making process that he used, and it really never came up as I went through the process that leads to confirmation, so I think it’s something that’s kind of a great thing,” Kagan said. The jurist mostly skirted political topics at Wednesday’s discussion, but she did address what she described as a “danger” for the Supreme Court today. In the recent past, Kagan said, the court has been seen as split between the left and right, with one jurist in the middle. “It prevents anybody from thinking that the court is on some team because the court just wasn’t acting as if it was on any team,” she said of the previous configuration. “Sometimes some people got what they wanted and sometimes other people got what they wanted.” The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the seat recently vacated by the swing voting Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh would be President Donald Trump’s second appointment to the court and represent an expected 5-4 conservative majority. Kagan, who is part of the court’s liberal wing, worried about a court being seen as merely political, especially in the big cases that “people care about.” “I do think it’s a dangerous thing,” she said, if “it really does seem like the divisions follow ineluctably from political divisions and one side is winning.”

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THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

After 15 years, neo-Nazis get Yom K justice

September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Honey and sweetness to enjoy in our sukkah Kosher Kitchen

JOni SChOCkett

Jewish Star columnist

ukkot is a beautiful holiday, a great time to get together with friends and eat under the stars in the beauty of nature — provided the skies don’t open, sending us running for umbrellas and galoshes! Let’s hope the weather cooperates and provides us beautiful, star-filled skies to twinkle above us as we eat delicious foods together. My father, remembering getting stung by bees in the sukkah his grandfather built, was always afraid that we kids would also get stung. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our meals there. We also never got bee stings, though we did come close several times. I guess the best thing to do is to remember that these almost-endangered little insects are responsible for the sweet honey that is so much a part of these celebrations. As we indulge in honey-sweetened dishes this holiday season, it is important to think about the ancient sweetener that is so much a part of our heritage. The truth is that honey is decreasing in availability. As early as last year, much of the honey coming from China was actually diluted with beet sugar syrup, cane syrup, corn syrup and more. According to a book entitled Real Food, Fake Food, by Larry Olmstead, honey is among the most highly “faked” foods in the industry because there is no regulation and because of the drastic decrease in bee colonies throughout the world. If you want to be sure that those pesky bees that chase you out of the sukkah are actually making honey that is not being processed with loads of other sweeteners, look for locally produced honey as a good source of the real thing. You can also look for labels that say “raw honey,” or “True Source.” Beware of organic honey. Honeybees fly about 5 miles and do not have GPS trackers. Who knows what flowers they may dip into? “Real honey” is also a bit ambiguous, as the honey used may be real, but it may also be mixed with unnamed added sweeteners. While we eat honey in our sukkot this holiday, think about the fact that honeybees are disappearing. The consequences are far-reaching and important. Bees pollinate most of the fruits and vegetables that we eat. For now, buy your honey carefully, and rest assured that it won’t be disappearing right away. For now, there is a lot of honey for us to enjoy and make our holidays sweet. One-Pot Chicken and More (Meat) Sukkot is a great time to make a casserole or one-pot meal. They keep warm with little insulation and can be easily transported outside or to your friends’ sukkot. 2 chickens (3 to 4 lbs. each) cut into 8 pieces. Reserve wings for another use. 10 shallots, cut into quarters 10 to 20 cloves garlic, peeled 1/3 cup canola oil 2 lbs. small rainbow potatoes (red white, yellow and purple), cut in half 2 lbs. carrots, peeled and cut into inch-long pieces 1 lb. dried apricots, prunes, plums or figs 1 quart chicken stock 1/2 cup pomegranate concentrate 1/3 to 1/2 cup Tamari sauce or low sodium soy sauce 3 to 5 Tbsp. honey 1/2 tsp. ginger, more to taste Salt, pepper to taste Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large skillet and add the canola oil.

Add the shallots and cook until softened. Add the garlic and cook until shallots and garlic are softened and golden. Set aside. Place the carrots and potatoes evenly in one or two large roasting pans. Distribute the fruit evenly among the veggies. Add the shallots and garlic with the oil. Cut the chicken breasts in half and nestle the chicken pieces in and over the veggies. Place the chicken broth in a large saucepan and add the pomegranate concentrate, tamari sauce, honey and ginger and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer until reduced a bit. Taste, add salt and pepper, and adjust seasonings. Pour evenly over the chicken and place in the preheated oven. Roast for 45 to 70 minutes, until a thermometer register 165 degrees. (I take it out at 160 and then test again in 5 minutes to make sure it reaches 165.) Serves 5 to 8. Zucchini Potato kugel with Carrots or Mushrooms (Pareve or Dairy) 2 sticks pareve salted margarine or butter, divided 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 4 large onions, finely diced 2 cloves garlic 2 bunches scallions, thinly sliced 4 large white potatoes, about 2 pounds 2 large zucchini 4 large eggs 1/2 cup flour 1 tsp. baking soda Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste Optional: 3 to 4 carrots, peeled 10 ounces mushrooms, chopped

Heat a large skillet. Add 1/2 stick margarine and the olive oil and heat until bubbly. Add the onions and sauté until deep golden. Add the garlic and scallions and mix, cook another 2 minutes, and remove from the heat. If you are using mushrooms, pour the onion mixture into a large bowl and add the mushrooms to the pan with the remaining half stick of margarine. Cook until the mushrooms exude liquid, reabsorb it, and turn golden. Scrape into the onion mixture and mix well. Peel the potatoes and process in a food processor using the medium shredding disc. Process the zucchini in the same way. Pour into a large bowl and mix, using your hands. If you are using carrots, process the carrots the same way and add to the bowl. Add the onion mixture and mix with the potatoes and zucchini. In a small bowl, mix the flour and the baking soda. Sprinkle over the veggie mixture and then mix well. Break the eggs into a small bowl and mix. Add to the veggies and mix. Season generously with salt and pepper. Melt the remaining stick of margarine and

pour into a large (4-quart) Pyrex or ceramic baking dish. Scrape the zucchini mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Place in the oven and bake until deep, golden brown, 50 to 75 minutes. Remove from the oven and let set for 10 minutes before cutting. Serves 10 to 12. Colorful Roasted Vegetables with Rosemary and honey (Pareve) This dish can be made with any vegetables you have from your garden or vegetable stand or grocery store. The key is to use lots of color and a generous amount of good-quality olive oil. 1 lb. turnips or parsnips 1 bag (10 to 12 ounces) baby carrots 1 lb. Red Bliss potatoes, cut in half 1 lb. baby yams or sweet potatoes, cut into pieces the size of the other potatoes 1 lb. butternut squash, cut into small cubes 1/2 lb. red beets, cut into pieces 1/2 lb. golden beets, cut into pieces 10 to 12 large shallots, cut into long quarters 2 long sprigs of fresh rosemary salt and pepper to taste extra-virgin olive oil 2 to 3 Tbsp. honey

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and crease the foil. Set aside. Boil a large pot of water. Blanch the turnips and carrots for two minutes. Drain and allow to cool. Cut the potatoes in half. Cut the other veggies into pieces the same size as the potatoes. Place in a very large bowl. Peel the shallots and break them into their natural pieces. Cut the pieces in half or quarters the long way. Add the shallots and the rest of the vegetables and toss to mix. Add about 1/3 cup of olive oil and toss to coat the veggies evenly. Pour the veggies onto the prepared baking sheet. Cut the rosemary sprigs into pieces about two or three inches long. Nestle the pieces between the vegetables evenly around the pan. Drizzle the honey over the vegetables. Bake at 375 degrees, turning frequently, until all the vegetables are tender. Increase the heat to 400 degrees and roast until there are a few darkened spots and the vegetables are all softened. If the veggies start to burn, cover loosely with foil. Serves 8 to 12.

THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 â&#x20AC;¢ 12 Tishrei 5779

September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Sukkot is here, ready or not Who’s in the Kitchen

JudY JoSzef

Jewish Star columnist

s I sit here writing this article for Sukkot, I find it hard to believe that Sukkot is already here. It seems like it’s been just a few months since the sukkah was stored away. Oh, wait, it has been just a few months. October 2017: “Jerry, let’s take down the sukkah and store it away soon.” On the Sunday after Sukkot he took down the s’chach, took off the canvas and disassembled the sukkah, but left all the poles on the ground in the backyard. I believe the New York Giants were about to play and he didn’t want to miss the game, so he said he would do it later. Later usually means later in the day, but in his case I hoped it would at least be the following Sunday. Unfortunately, one Sunday followed the next; the leaves began to fall and it starting to get colder. Then the seasons changed. The wind was harsh and the snow began to fall, and there were all those poles — and there were many, because our sukkah measures 12 by 20. The poles remained outside, slightly visible poking out of the snow. By January, it was “Jerry! Seriously, get those poles into the garage!” February sounded like, “This is ridiculous, what is your issue?!” He always responded very apologetically and said he keeps forgetting but he will definitely do it the following Sunday. March sounded like — well, I can’t print that in a family paper. The weather warmed up and the trees began to bloom, and there were those poles, right where he’d left them. One might say that he forgot they were there but you could not miss them. April showers and warmer weather were upon

us, and I gave up. Early one Sunday morning, when Jerry was sleeping, I dragged all the poles (with bulging discs in my neck, a pinched nerve, and a herniated disc in my lower back) 160 feet to the garage, dropping them as hard as I could onto the driveway in front of it. After the first few loud heavy metal sounds, I figured he would jump out of bed and run down to do the rest. But no such luck. He came down about two hours later. I asked him if he noticed something outside that was different. He didn’t. I then asked if he’d heard noise in the morning; he said he thought it sounded like construction. I filled him in. He got very upset. I should have let him do it; it’s really too heavy for me. I shouldn’t have been impatient and done things that would hurt my neck and back. “Impatient?” I shouted. “Really?? I waited six months and kept reminding you, to no avail. And why? Because you couldn’t miss the start of your Giants playing? The way your Giants played last year, it would’ve been a lot more fun to take down and put away those poles.” Don’t get me wrong, Jerry is a wonderful husband. He’s caring and considerate and kind. But as most of you know already, he is disorganized and never on time. Although he really believes he will do something at a certain date or time, that is never the case. So if you could all do me a favor, my Five Towns friends, at the end of Sukkot, and remind him that the sukkah should be put away in its entire day on the Sunday following Sukkot, I would really appreciate it. And for all the Jerry fans out there, especially those who want to know if Jerry gets upset when I write about him, he takes it all in jest, and actually reminds me of stories I can write about. (Yes, the stories are all true — not one bit is exaggerated.) On a positive note, this past Sunday morning Jerry had all the poles outside to put up the sukkah early when our close friend Harry Fink and

his son Elliot came by to help. Maybe he’s turning over a new leaf, maybe this will be the year that he becomes organized and on time, and maybe this will be the year that the Giants succeed. But as much as I love Jerry, I’m secretly glad that the Giants lost last night, because I picked the Cowboys in my NFL pool and I’m in first place! Here are two creative and delicious side dishes that you can serve this Sukkot. Stuffed Mini Pumpkins Preheat oven to 350F. Ingredients: 12 mini pumpkins (Trader Joe’s in Hewlett) 1 lb cooked carrots 3 eggs 1/3 cup white sugar 1 Tbsp. flour 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. cinnamon Topping: 1/2 cup chopped pecans 6 Tbsp. dark brown sugar 1/2 cup corned flake crumbs 4 Tbsp. melted unsalted margarine Slice a thin layer off each pumpkin and save the “hats.” Scoop out all the seeds and place pumpkins on a tray sprayed with Pam. Bake approximately 40 minutes or until soft but still firm so they hold their shape. Let cool. Place the cooked carrots and eggs in the blender or food processor and blend. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend till smooth. Pour into an 8x8 pan. Mix all ingredients for the topping. It will be moist, but will crisp up during baking. Crumble the mixture over the entire top of carrot mixture. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until center is set. Let cool. This can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Cut circles out of the carrot soufflé and stuff into the center of each pumpkin. If that’s too time-consuming, you can cut squares or just

spoon the soufflé into the pumpkins. Top with hat you sliced off earlier. This can be made up to 2 days ahead. Warm before serving, or serve at room temperature if you prefer. Stuffed roasted peppers with red quinoa Preheat oven to 350F Ingredients: 6 large peppers of your choice (I use 2 each red, orange and yellow) 2 cups Trader Joe’s organic red quinoa 1/4 cup craisins 1/2 tsp. salt 2 Tbsp. sugar 4 Tbsp. thinly sliced honey roasted, sugared or plain almonds Wash peppers and carefully slice in half so that that each half has half the stem. Remove the seeds and rinse. Place on sheet pan that has been sprayed with Pam. Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly soft, but shape is maintained. Prepare 2 cups red quinoa (Trader Joe’s) according to directions. Add the craisins, salt and 2 Tbsp. sugar. Once cool, add thinly sliced almonds — I use the honey roasted, but you can use plain as well. Spoon the quinoa into the cooled pepper halves. Can be made up to 2 days ahead.

Sweet honey cake alternative: Sunken plum cake By Sonya Sanford, The Nosher via JTA For as long as I’ve been cooking, I’ve made honey cake for the High Holidays, just as my mother did, and as my grandmother did, and likely my great-grandmother before her. I love my family’s recipe, and I have even made tweaks to it over the years. But the truth is, I like honey cake more for tradition’s sake than for its flavor. What did I actually want to eat and serve on the holidays? I love sunken apple cake, but there are so many apples eaten over the High Holidays that I wanted to make something featuring another fruit. I had just picked up a beautiful bag of plums from the market, and they called out to me. Why not make a sunken plum cake? The flavor of plum goes so well with honey. Like an apple, the plum’s tartness cuts through and complements honey’s sweetness. Their bold colors always add beauty to any baked good, and I love that plums are highly seasonal. They’re only at their best for a short window of time each year, which typically coincides with the Jewish New Year. For me, using plums at their peak is always celebratory. This is a simple cake to make with lots of flavor. I add ginger to the batter for its warmth and zing, and cardamom for its subtle and welcome citrusy spiciness. The ginger and cardamom’s perfume and oh-so-subtle heat also serve to accentuate the fruitiness in the plums. You can use any plum or pluot for this cake, but I like ones that are slightly firm and ripe, and not too small. This recipe can be made pareve by using

vegan butter, and the flour can be swapped for a gluten-free all purpose mix. Like any good holiday recipe, sunken plum cake tastes even better made a day in advance. At dinner, I love to serve the cake topped with whipped cream or ice cream, but this also makes a delicious indulgent breakfast treat on the holiday. Ingredients: 1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter or unsalted butter, at room temperature 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey 2 large eggs, at room temperature 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. freshly grated ginger 1-1/4 cup all purpose flour or gluten free all purpose flour 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom 1/4 tsp. salt if using unsalted butter, pinch of salt if using vegan butter 4 to 5 plums, halved, pitted and sliced 1/4inch thick

Turbinado/raw sugar, for sprinkling on top 1/4 cup honey for the glaze (optional) Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 2. Grease and line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. You can also make this in a 9-by-9-inch baking dish. 3. Cream together vegan butter/butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes, using either a handheld mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment. 4. Add the honey to the sugar mixture and mix until well incorporated. 5. Add the eggs, vanilla and freshly grated ginger, and mix until they are also well incorporated. 6. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until just incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix. 7. Pour the batter into the lined and greased cake pan. Add the sliced plums on top of the cake; they will sink as they bake. Top the cake with a generous sprinkling of Turbinado/raw sugar, or regular sugar if you don’t have raw sugar. 8. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean when tested in the center of the cake. 9. If desired, you can brush honey on top of the cake once it has cooled: Heat 1/4 cup honey until just warm, and then brush it over the cake. 10. Serve topped with whipped cream or ice cream. Can be made a day in advance. Serves 8 to 10.

THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 â&#x20AC;¢ 12 Tishrei 5779

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As in past years, Agudath Israel of America’s Washington Office has worked closely with agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help avoid potential problems for travelers carrying arba minim. Both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have notified field personnel about the upcoming holiday and the increased level of travel by Jewish people, many of whom will be carrying arba minim. The notifications, which have been sent out to federal officials at airports and border crossings, emphasize the religious significance of these items and outline the rules and procedures that would allay possible security and health issues of concern to the government. Prior to these steps, lack of familiarity regarding Sukkos and the arba minim led to numerous incidents each year of inadvertent mishandling and mistreatment — including denial of entry — of these ritual objects. The TSA notice makes clear that arba minim carried in airports, through security checkpoints or on aircraft are not on the “prohibited items list,” and provides instructions for travelers needing “special accommodations” in regard to checkpoint screening. The CBP Guidance sets forth detailed in-

formation regarding the inspection process for arba minim entering the United States from foreign countries through designated American ports and points out that the agency is “committed to treating all travelers, including travelers who may be observing Sukkot, with respect

and dignity at all U.S. ports of entry.” “We are gratified by the ongoing sensitivity of these agencies to the religious concerns of our community,” said Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s vice president for federal affairs and Washington director. He also praised Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israel’s national director of state relations, for once again producing a one-page handout that travelers can print out or save to phones to familiarize themselves with the rules before traveling.

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September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

By Jeffrey Bessen, Nassau Herald Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, dean of the Rambam Mesivta High School, said that Harry Laufer, in whose memory the Lawrence education campus on which Rambam sits was dedicated last Sunday, “was a doer, who never stopped doing and giving.” Rabbi Friedman said Laufer helped him to establish Rambam 27 yeas ago. Family, friends, schoolchildren and parents gathered on the front lawn of the site on Frost Lane that the Brandeis elementary school shares with Rambam to honor Laufer and name the property the Harry Laufer Jewish Educational Campus. “I met Harry some 30 years ago and he urged me to get involved and I did,” said Stu Kotler, whose three children graduated from Brandeis School and who is a co-chairman of its board. “He was a humble and simple man who never forgot where he came from.” Laufer’s mother and father — Mela and Yaakov — and brother Jack, came to the U.S. in 1950, after leaving their native Poland, being sent to Siberia, living in Uzbekistan, returning to Poland, and then going to Germany. Harry worked in a Brooklyn hat factory, saved money and started a wholesale food business with Jack. After the brothers went their separate ways, Laufer, with a partner, took over the Associated Foods brand, which grew to 250 stores and roughly $500 million in annual revenue. He retired as copresident in 2014. The Hewlett Bay

Joan Laufer cuts the ribbon on a sign designating the campus that is home to Brandeis School and Rambam Mesivta as the Harry Laufer Jewish Educational Campus. Jeffrey Bessen

Memorial at Touro Law

Touro Law Center held a pre-Yom Kippur service in memory of the souls interred in the cemetery of the shuttered Central Islip State Hospital, adjacent to the Touro campus. In partnership with the state Office of Mental Health, Touro Law has made substantial renovations to the cemetery and has ambitious plans for the future. The service was conducted by Touro Law Center’s campus rabbi, Baruch Fogel.

Park resident died two years later. “Harry came to my office to make sure that everything was OK. I referred to him as our ‘grandpa’,” said Brandeis Head of School Raz Levin. Directing his remarks to Joan Laufer, Harry’s widow, he said: “We are all your family.” “It was so important to my dad that [Brandeis] would provide a Jewish education to any Jewish child,” said daughter Pamela Laufer, a past president of the school’s Parents Association, who also graduated from Brandeis. “He instilled in us the love of Jewish education. We hope Jewish education has an everlasting life on this campus.” Andrew Warmflash, spiritual leader of Hewlett East Rockaway

Jewish Centre, said Laufer’s morning routine would bring him first to synagogue, then to the Brandeis School. “Jewish community and Jewish education came first, then he would go to work to earn the money to support them,” said Warmflash. Jewish education and Brandeis were so important to Laufer that when the school was short on money, he made sure the teachers were paid, and he was not above some good-natured subterfuge for his cause. Warmflash said that when Laufer told business connections that Brandeis was honoring him, he didn’t mention that it was the school in Lawrence and not the university, resulting in larger donations.

Women’s network meets

The Five Town-Far Rockaway chapter of the Jewish Woman Entrepreneur group hosted a business brainstormer event at The Premier in Woodmere on Sept. 13. Standing from left: Henya Storch, Ellen Blonder, Lisa Hawk, Chaya Markovich, Rachel Segal, Nachamah Jacobovits, Tova Richler, Rivka Lock. Seated from left: Rachel Garbarsky, Riki Gewirtz, Judy Naaman, Lenore Davis. For info on future events, email ftfr@thejwe.com

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THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

Brandeis School dedicates Harry Laufer campus

These 2 billionaires love Israel and hate Trump By Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — Buried deep in the latest Jewish Public Policy Institute report on the Israel-Diaspora relationship: President Donald Trump wants more credit for his proIsrael policies. “Israel and U.S. Jewish organizations should sharpen their awareness of a trend of growing frustration within the Trump administration that the president’s pro-Israel moves (especially the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem) are not sufficiently appreciated by large segments of the American Jewish community,” said the report, drafted by a group known for its ties to elites in Israel and the United States. It’s the Trump anomaly: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the U.S.-Israel relationship has never been so close. Trump has moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, maintained defense assistance to Israel while cutting spending elsewhere, pulled out of the Iran deal and thoroughly defunded the Palestinians. The Jewish divide on these moves is not surprising: The majority of American Jews vote Democratic and poll well to the left of Netanyahu. But the trend was thrown into sharp relief this week when two Jewish billionaires said they would back Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. Even a hawkish pro-Israel agenda, they seemed to signal, doesn’t justify the damage they feel Trump is doing to America’s institutions. The announcements by Seth Klarman and Les Wexner are a big deal: Nov. 6 may change the course of a presidency. If the House of Representatives goes Democratic, Trump may face impeachment. If the House and Senate go, his agenda is dead. How significant are the switches? Klarman, 61, is a hedge fund manager in Boston whose net worth has been put at $1.5 billion. His investment advice is considered so sound that Margin of Safety, an out-of-print book

Seth Klarman (left) and Les Wexner.

he wrote in 1991, goes for $950 on Amazon. Klarman’s interest in Israel appears to be recent, but strong. Sparked by concerns about terrorism following 9/11, he visited the country and became convinced Israel was getting short shrift in the press. That led him to donate money to pro-Israel media monitoring groups like CAMERA and MEMRI, and in 2012 he found The Times of Israel online daily with former Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz. “As a longtime student of the history of antiSemitism, I know that this blind hatred is never the fault of Jews,” he said at the time. “Moreover, it is clear to me that anti-Zionism is simply the newest form of anti-Semitism. When the Jewish state is singled out above all others for criticism, such as it is at the United Nations, this is anti-Semitism.” The Times of Israel represented a slight shift left — Horovitz, like Klarman, is critical of Israel’s settlement movement — but Klarman remains firmly pro-Israel. Klarman never liked Trump. A longtime Republican donor, he backed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 while funding GOP congressional campaigns. “His words and actions over the last several days are so shockingly unacceptable in our diverse and democratic society that it is simply unthinkable that Donald Trump could

become our president,” he said, after Trump claimed that the election would be “rigged” in Clinton’s favor. Klarman was never a registered Republican, but he backed an array of other candidates for the GOP nomination and has backed GOP lawmakers. No longer: The main item on the agenda must be to thwart Trump, he said in a rare interview with Bari Weiss of The New York Times. He faulted Republican lawmakers for not standing up to the president. “People should be asking themselves: Why are we writing checks to these … cowards?” he said. Klarman even had kind words for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York nominee for Congress who has had sharp words for Israel. “In a lot of ways I’m actually excited about somebody like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez coming along because it’s a way of younger people and people of color and people who are different finding their voice and being part of the process,” he said. Leslie Wexner, 81, is a fashion mogul based in Columbus, Ohio. Until he quit the party, he was considered the richest Republican in his state with a fortune worth $4.7 billion. Wexner has long supported programs meant to develop pro-Israel leadership among teens, adults and Jewish communal professionals. He is a founding funder of Birthright and a major giver to Ohio’s Jewish federations. Like Klarman, Wexner was never enamored of Trump. He backed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2016. His wife, Abigail, backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Last year, after Trump equivocated about condemning a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, Wexner told staffers that he felt “dirty” and “ashamed” when thinking about the president.

WE PAY

But unlike Klarman, Wexner was always unmistakably Republican: He joined President George W. Bush on his 2008 visit to Israel marking the country’s 60th anniversary. And he was harsh in explaining why he was becoming an independent, speaking at an event on political civility sponsored by the Columbus Partnership, a business and civics group he chairs. Like Klarman, he was fed up with Republicans for not standing up to Trump. “I won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party,” Wexner said. “I’ve been a Republican since college, joined the Young Republican Club at Ohio State.” And like Klarman with Ocasio-Cortez, Wexner ventured into once unthinkable territory, lavishing praise on former President Barack Obama. “I was struck by the genuineness of the man; his candor, humility and empathy for others,” Wexner said of Obama, who had just met privately with the Columbus Partnership. Much of the coverage of Klarman and Wexner’s defection has focused on their disaffection with Trump, but a few observers have said that both may be well aware of the way Trump’s Israel policies are dividing Jews. “The subtext here is that both Wexner and Klarman have stellar records of support for transformative Israeli and Jewish communal initiatives,” tweeted Shalom Lipner, a former adviser to Netanyahu. “That they would break with the GOP over Trump speaks volumes about how they perceive his impact on both Israel and the Jewish community.” By contrast, Matt Brooks of the Republican Jewish Coalition said that loyal Republicans ultimately will reward the administration for its support of Netanyahu. “Very few are neutral on the Trump Administration,” Brooks told Haaretz. “As such, it’s not surprising that some GOP donors have decided not to give.”

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Seasons manager Mayer Gold at opening of the Lawrence store in January 2014. The Jewish Star

as reporting that “the deli and meat sections are cleaned out, with just some hot dogs and sausages remaining.” The Cleveland Jewish News wondered on Aug. 30 when — if — Seasons would open in a store it built at Oakwood Commons in South Euclid. “If the company isn’t planning to come, it

The Seasons kosher market on Central Avenue in Lawrence in mid-August. Jeff Bessen

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Continued from page 1 ated by vendors — including Mechy’s Gourmet prepared foods, Raskin Fish and others — appeared to be fully stocked. Sunday’s bankruptcy reflected a rush to obtain Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) financing “to use the proceeds thereof to restock the stores in time for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Sukkos.” “Without the DIP Loan, the Debtors would have not have sufficient funding to continue operations, and would lose its employees and its leases, thereby destroying the value of their businesses,” the filing stated. The Seasons chain, established in 2010, operates supermarkets in Lawrence and Kew Gardens Hills; on Manhattan’s Upper West Side; in Scarsdale; in Lakewood and Clifton, New Jersey; and in Baltimore, Maryland. The opening of a store it built in Cleveland, Ohio, and a move into a larger space — a former Gristedes — in Scarsdale had been delayed prior to the bankruptcy filing. Seasons also operates a 24/6 mini-mart branded as Seasons Express on Doughty Boulevard in Lawrence, across the street from the Inwood LIRR station. A second Seasons Express was being developed on Peninsula Boulevard in Cedarhurst. The bankruptcy petition, filed on behalf of Seasons Corporate LLC and its various subsidaries, was signed by Joel Getzler, identified as consultant and proposed co-chief restructuring officer. A list of Seasons’ 30 largest creditors included such in-store vendors as Shlomy’s Heimeshe Bakery (over $395,000), Mechy’s (over $205,000) and Raskin Fish Market (nearly $150,000). Creditors with claims over $1 million are Bank United of Melville ($8,800,000), L&N Consulting ($8,000,000), Bank Capital Services ($1,500,000) and Quality Glatt NJ Corp. ($1,355,473.87). The bankruptcy filing related that Seasons had been “profitable on an operational basis,” with excess cash flow “used to develop and open new stores and make payments” to the former Supersol owners, Laurence Garber and Norman Lampert. “Over time, however, complications and delays relating to the opening of new stores and the large payments” to the Supersol owners “began to drain cash flow.” After Seasons failed to make timely payments to Garber and Lampert, those creditors won an award through a Beth Din of $8.3 million. “As a result of the actions by the [Garber and Lampert] and Bank United, [Seasons’] cash was dramatically reduced. rendering it unable to keep the stores stocked,” the filing stated. In mid-August, the Nassau Herald, the secular newspaper in the Five Towns, reported on Seasons’ difficulties. It quoted this statement by CEO Mayer Gold: “Seasons Kosher, and its predecessor Supersol, is proud to be a mainstay of the Far Rockaway/Five Towns community for almost four decades. Seasons has revolutionized the kosher shopping experience, and we look forward to serving the neighborhood and the kosher consumer for many years to come.” Last Friday, the Scarsdale Inquirer reported that the Seasons store in that Westchester community had run out of key food items before Rosh Hashanah — “no gefilte fish, no chopped liver and the meat case was empty.” Gold told the Inquirer that “we have temporarily closed the store till after the holidays as we gear up for the grand opening of our new 10,000-square-foot store” in space formerly occuped by a Gristedes market in the same strip mall. Asked by the Inquirer about customer concerns, Gold said, “As this is an extremely fluid situation, I can only comment on what our plans are.” An Aug. 30 headline in Kol HaBirah, a Baltimore-Washington Jewish newspaper, reported that “shortages raise concerns about the future of Seasons.” It quoted a shopper at the Baltimore store

15 THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

Seasons...

hasn’t informed South Euclid officials or First Interstate Properties, which is developing Oakwood Commons,” the News reported. The bankruptcy filing noted that “necessary interior improvements have not yet been made at the Cleveland store and the opening is substantially delayed.” Beneath the headline “Seasons Come and Go,” Kosher Guru reported on Aug. 19 that “for weeks meats were not filling the refrigerated section and deliveries were slowing down.” Commercial Observer reported late Monday that “Seasons CEO Mayer Gold could not be reached for comment. Co-owner Zvi Bloom directed calls to business management consultant Joel Getzler, who did not respond to a request for comment.” “It’s unclear if Seasons will close any stores or is looking for a buyer, but there have been reports of empty shelves at its outposts,” the Observer reported.

SHAbbAT STAR ‫כוכב של שבת‬ Building a sukkah means never giving up

September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FReeDMaN

Jewish Star columnist

n 2005, Steve Jobs delivered the commencement address at Stanford University. In it, he described how he had started Apple in a garage at age 20, and after ten years of hard work, built it into a $2-billion company with 4,000 employees. And then he got fired and lost it all. He had hired a guy the second year whom he thought would help him build the company, but after a year they started to see things differently and eventually had a falling out. The board sided with the new guy and fired Jobs. At the time he was devastated, but he still loved what he did, so he decided to start over again. The heaviness of success was replaced by the lightness of starting over, and thus began the most creative period in his life. He started two companies, NeXT and Pixar, and fell in love with the woman who would become his wife. Pixar created the first animated feature film, Toy Story, and became the most successful animation studio in the world. Jobs was pretty sure none of this would have happened if he had not been fired from Apple. Sometimes life hits you in the head. Don’t lose faith. You will find what you love.

ith Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur behind us, we enter the festival of Sukkot, symbolized by the sukkot, or booths, we sit in for seven days. Unlike Pesach and Shavuot, which have clear historical origins, the events Sukkot is meant to commemorate are not at all clear. Two of the most famous rabbis in Jewish history debate the nature of these booths. According to the Talmud, Rabbi Eliezer says they represent the Clouds of Glory that miraculously protected the Jews in the desert. Rabbi Akiva, however, believes we commemorate the actual booths that the Jews dwelled in for 40 years in the desert, which protected them from the elements until they entered the land of Israel. What was so special about that? If nomadic people wander the desert for 40 years, they build huts, like Bedouins do today. Is this what we celebrate? Also, given the fact that Rabbi Akiva was a student of Rabbi Eliezer, why does he differ from his teacher on this? My friend and neighbor, Dr. Meier Becker, once suggested that if the Jews had not sinned at the Golden Calf, they would have received the Torah and been on their way to Israel, protected by Clouds of Glory, without needing to build suk-

kot in the first place. The sin of the Golden Calf occurred on the 17th of Tammuz, and the Jewish people would have been in Israel by Av. They would never have experienced winter in the desert, so they would not have needed the booths. But in the aftermath of the Golden Calf and then the sin of the spies, which occurred on the 9th of Av, the Jews were doomed to wander the desert for 40 years, necessitating the sukkot. The Clouds of Glory represented the world as it was meant to be, the ideal. The sukkot represented the world as it was. Rabbi Akiva understood the reality of his day. He was a principal proponent of the Bar Kochba rebellion, and was captured and tortured to death by the Romans for his role in supporting it. Perhaps he was saying that we cannot wait for Clouds of Glory if we wish to bring redemption. We need to be willing to build the booths ourselves. One day the Jewish people were riding high, freed from 200 years of Egyptian servitude, having experienced the splitting of the sea and basking in G-d’s presence at Sinai. And the next day they were destined to wander in the desert until their deaths; their generation would never see the Promised Land. It would have been easy to just lay down and die, but they did not give up. They followed

They symbolize the willingness to start over again.

G-d and Moses in the desert for 40 years, and they built their sukkot. Even though they knew they would never see their promised land, their children would. It was for this dream, the belief that one day their children would come home, that they never gave up. We celebrate the booths because they symbolize the willingness of a people, with nothing but faith, to start over again. Rabbi Akiva must have known how impossible the revolt against the Roman empire was, but he believed the battle to be worthwhile because it meant the Jews had not given up. Two thousand years later, the long-lost children of those rebels emerged from the temporary booths of their exile and came home at last. Sukkot is the festival of faith and joy, and the belief that the long difficult journey will one day prove worthwhile. This is true both on a national level and for us as individuals. As Steve Jobs suggested: The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you have not found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it. For thousands of years, we refused to settle, and now we are home. And despite what some may say, we will still be here in 25 years, and, with Hashem’s help, in 2,500. Wishing you all a sweet happy and healthy year, a shanah tovah and a chag sameach. A version of this column appeared in 2015.

The Four Species and Jewish unity luach Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi billet Jewish Star columnist

here is an interesting discussion in halacha about whether or not it is appropriate to smell one’s hadassim and esrog. The Shulchan Aruch says you may not smell the hadassim attached to the lulav, while one may smell the esrog, although it is not recommended because it is unclear what blessing needs to be made on smelling it. Usually, when someone smells a sweetsmelling fruit, they are supposed to say the blessing “Blessed are You, God, etc. … who gives pleasant aromas to fruits.” The argument against this blessing in most cases is that people use the fruit for food, and “Borei Pri Ha’etz” exempts them from the bracha on its smell. But the Mishnah Berurah distinguishes between times you use the esrog and times you don’t, saying that you can certainly smell it when you’re not in the act of shaking the Four Species. The question is, what’s the difference? And where do the hadassim come in? wo thoughts contribute to this conversation. The first is often taught in schools: each of the arba minim has qualities that distinguish them. The esrog has a pleasant smell and taste, the hadassim have a nice smell but no taste, the lulav has a nice taste but no smell to speak of, and the aravos have no taste and no smell. The second point is that there is a difference between how these items are perceived when engaged in the mitzvah versus how they are perceived otherwise. The point made by the Shulchan Aruch is that the hadassim’s good quality, its smell, is what designates it for the mitzvah. As such, its

smell is designated for the mitzvah and may not be used for other purpose. The main quality and feature of the esrog, however, is its taste. As a result, since the taste is elevated for a mitzvah, the smell is available to enjoy, were it not for the debate mentioned earlier. This is how the Aruch Hashulchan frames the conversation. On the surface the question seems silly. It’s obvious that if something has been designated for a mitzvah, it cannot have another use. But is it really so obvious? Is it even true? Some might make the argument that marriage is fulfills the mitzvah of procreation. Would anyone argue that a husband and wife may not enjoy each other’s company in other ways? Some might argue that a synagogue is a place for davening. But in Hebrew, it’s called a beit haknesset, a place of gathering, not a beit tefillah, a house of prayer. Can we really argue that the only use for a beit haknesset is tefillah? I would like to suggest that there is a distinction between mitzvah and not-mitzvah because there is a profound lesson to be learned from a metaphor. The qualities of the esrog, lulav, hadassim and aravos remind us that there are different kinds of Jews. Some with entirely good qualities, some with a mix of good and bad, and some who are all bad. The gathering of these items display a unity that we ought to have, particularly after Yom Kippur, when we vowed to be better to one another. ut it goes deeper. The esrog proves that a fruit can have more than one of good quality, and that if one good quality is unavailable, that doesn’t take away from our ability to find others.

And I would argue that the same is true of the hadassim, lulav and aravos. If they are meant to be metaphors for people, we need to see them as possessing more qualities. We can limit the appeal of a myrtle branch to one or two things, but that’s a branch. People are much more complicated. This is one reason why the deterioration of dialogue between opposing views is so devastating to a culture. Instead of hearing another person and properly weighing pros and cons, considering the other side and refining one’s own viewpoint, we tend to put people who think differently into boxes, dismissing their thought process and their feelings without getting to know them. How many intelligent people have been unfairly painted as fools, as uncaring, as childish, for simply having a different viewpoint? People are more complex than that. I promise you that if the hadas had another quality other than its smell, we would be allowed to benefit from it — certainly when not engaged in the mitzvah. This holiday of simcha gives us an opportunity to walk around, knock on busy sukkahs, and try to get to know one another, even just a little. And who knows? While we can easily find points to disagree, with the right attitude and direction of conversation, maybe we can find so many more to agree. We can find perspectives we never considered before. We can take the lesson of the arba minim, the different kinds of Jews, and create a tapestry of unity that weaves different groups together, differences and all, into a cohesive embodiment of mitzvah-fulfilling kiddush Hashem makers. If we can do that, we will have earned the right to gladden others and celebrate the holidays with joy.

If one of good quality is unavailable, we can find others.

Fri Sept 21 • 12 Tishrei Haazinu Candlelighting: 6:36 pm Havdalah: 7:43 pm

Sun Sept 23 • 14 Tishrei First night of Sukkot Candlelighting: 6:32 pm

Mon Sept 24 • 15 Tishrei Sukkot Candlelighting: 7:31 pm

Tues Sept 25 • 16 Tishrei Sukkot Havdalah: 7:38 pm

Fri Sept 28 • 19 Tishrei Shabbos Chol Hamoed Candlelighting: 6:24 pm Havdalah: 7:31 pm

Sun Sept 30 • 21 Tishrei Erev Shemini Atzeret Candlelighting: 6:21 pm

Mon October 1 / 22 Tishrei Shemini Atzeret Candlelighting: 7:20 pm

Tues October 2 / 23 Tishrei Simchat Torah Havdalah: 7:26 pm

Fri October 5 / 26 Tishrei Bereishis Candlelighting: 6:12 pm Havdalah: 7:20 pm

Five Towns times from White Shul

Reading and owning Jewish books AlAn JAy Gerber

Jewish Star columnist

abbi Alex Israel, the author of this week’s essay, teaches Bible at Pardes in Jerusalem and is the director of its Community Education Programs. Born and raised in London, he holds degrees from the London School of Economics, the Institute of Education, and Bar Ilan University. In addition, he studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion under Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rav Yehudah Amital, zt”l. He earned his rabbinical ordination from the Israeli rabbinate. For over 20 years, he has taught in many Jerusalem yeshivot and midrashot. He is also a volunteer for Tzohar, a group that seeks to bridge the gaps between religious and secular communities in Israel. He lives with his wife and four children in Gush Etzion. This essay excerpt by Rabbi Israel is an excellent presentation of one scholar’s love for the Jewish book, a sentiment shared by all readers of the Kosher Bookworm. hat books are on your bookshelf? Is it worthwhile owning books in a digital age? … Should we own books? Maybe it is just a waste of space! What does Judaism have to say?

Parashat Vayalekh contains the final mitzvah in the Torah, which is the instruction to write a book … every Jewish man should write a Sefer Torah: “We have been commanded that each male must write a Sefer Torah for himself … and if he cannot write it himself, he should commission a person to write it for him” (Maimonides, Sefer Hamitzvot, positive command 18). The Sefer Hachinuch disagrees and thinks that it is about having a scroll at hand to study with … For the Sefer HaChinuch, essentially the emphasis is that owning this text affords each person a constant opportunity to study Torah (hence the male is obligated — because halakha mandates men to learn Torah and not women)… Can you imagine the emotional contrast of a person who wrote the Torah scroll — every letter by hand — and a person who simply owns it? Try to articulate why that would be so different… When my eldest son was approaching his bar mitzvah, I took him to the Jewish bookshop … to make a bar mitzvah list — a wish list of books guests could buy for him. … I asked him what he wanted. He didn’t really know, so I suggested that we buy the basic books that a person who wants to learn Torah should have. We chose a Mikraot Gedolot, several legal texts on Shabbat and Jewish life, a set of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, Rabbi Hirsch and Nechama Leibowitz on Chumash, a set of Mishnah, Sefer Hachinuch, and much more. His grandfather was buying

The sukkah of peace Torah

rAbbi dAvid eTenGoff

Jewish Star columnist

he mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah initially appears to be quite straightforward. By way of illustration, the Rambam formulates the obligation in this manner: “What is the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah? One should eat and drink and dwell in the sukkah … in exactly the same manner that he dwells in his house during the other days of the year. Throughout the entire sevenday period, a person should treat his house as a temporary dwelling and his sukkah as his permanent dwelling. As it says in the verse: You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days (Vayikra 23:42)” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Sukkah 6:5). The Rambam’s emphasis is clearly upon

the maaseh hamitzvah, the actual manner in which the commandment is to be performed. In contrast, the Tur spends a good deal of time in his introduction to Hilchot Sukkah presenting and analyzing the rationale behind it: “‘You shall dwell in sukkot for seven days…in order that you should know throughout the generations that I caused the Jewish people to dwell in sukkot when I led them out … [from Egypt]’ (Vayikra 23:42). The Torah makes the mitzvah of sukkah dependent upon the Exodus from Egypt. So, too, in the case of many other mitzvot. This is so, since this is a matter that we saw with our eyes and heard with our ears and no one is able to deny it. It teaches us about the truth of the existence of the Creator, may He be exalted, and that He created everything according to His will. It also teaches us

him a full set of Talmud. My son asked me why I was selecting these specific books, and I answered that these are fundamental … As the list grew in length, my son was appearing nervous, and he challenged me: “Are you saying that all these, I have to know?” … It was a formidable legacy for a thirteen year-old to absorb. But what is the basic Jewish bookshelf? and what is basic Jewish literacy? and why is it important? n every culture there is a corpus of knowledge. There are the Great Books, the intellectual and cultural works that form the bedrock of each and every civilisation, and that in order to function successfully, to become productive, or to play a central role - to lead, one must have absorbed something of that bookshelf… And now to Judaism. What is literacy for us? … A person who lives with consciousness of religious sensitivities and priorities, a person who doesn’t merely follow a robotic or inherited set of ordinances and prescriptions, but has agency in understanding and shaping our Jewish experiences … It is from within the traditional bookshelf that we obtain that literacy. … And it might be precisely this principle that underpins the mitzvah of Talmud Torah — daily Torah study. We need to refresh our knowledge base, to encounter new ideas with regularity. We need to be conversant with our Torah texts and concepts in the same manner that we

check our emails ... These are the experiences that give substance and perspective to our fleeting experiential reality … When my father ensured that I would have a Torah library for my bar mitzvah, and when I did the same for my son, we were putting the books on the bookshelf as an aspiration, as a goal and hope for the type of adult Jew that this boy should become. My son has [since] graduated school and progressed to several years of study at a yeshiva; he loves Torah study and is himself a committed, ideological, thoughtful Jew. One day he looked at his bookshelf and said to me: “Wow! Thank you for making sure I had all these!”

that He has the power to do as He so desires…” The Tur uses this introduction as a podium for presenting the significance of the oft-quoted “zecher l’yetziat Mitzrayim” (“a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt”) that is found in every single Kiddush we recite, and alongside many of the mitzvot in the Torah. In addition, he takes this opportunity to stress the conceptual connection between the mitzvah of sukkah and essential theological principles such as the existence of the Creator and His omnipotence. he Bach builds upon the Tur’s analysis to reveal the hidden levels of meaning that constitute the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah. He notes that the Tur’s vital point is to be found in his emphasis upon the indispensable role that proper intention (kavanah) plays in the mitzvah — namely, viewing the sukkah as the symbol of yetziat Mitzrayim. The Bach echoes this fundamental notion: “The purpose of the mitzvah of sukkah is to remember the departure from Egypt. This is

accomplished through one’s dwelling in a sukkah wherein the shade is greater than the sun. This, in turn, is a reminder of the Clouds of Glory that protected them [the Jewish people] … through their wanderings in the desert.” Additionally, he teaches us that the highest form of fulfilling this obligation necessitates careful focus upon the Torah’s phrase, “… in order that you should know throughout the generations that I caused the Jewish people to dwell in sukkot.” The Bach maintains that this “will enable one to fulfill the mitzvah in its most proper fashion.” Thus, for the Bach, if one desires to fulfill the mitzvah of dwelling in the sukkah in its ultimate sense, one must have kavanah regarding two aspects of the mitzvah, namely, its inextricable link to the Exodus, and the great kindness of Hashem that enabled us to dwell in sukkot after He took us out of Egypt. As we dwell in our sukkot this chag, may Hashem fulfill the beautiful words found in our Friday night tefilot: “Spread over us the sukkah of Your peace. Blessed are You Hashem, Who spreads the sukkah of peace upon us and upon all His people Israel and upon Jerusalem.” Shabbat Shalom and chag sameach!

Its purpose is to remember the departure from Egypt.

A parable for Parashat Haazinu Angel for Shabbat

rAbbi mArc d. AnGel

here was once a king who had two advisers. The advisers had a luxurious life as long as they bowed to the whims of the king, which were many. He made unreasonable demands. He was harsh in his criticisms. He expected the advisers to be at his service constantly. He humiliated them by always reminding them that he was their superior, that he could order them around at will. As long as they complied, he rewarded them generously. One day, one of the advisers resigned. He left the palace and soon drifted into poverty. The other adviser continued to serve the king, working twice as hard since the other adviser had left. But he lived in wealth and honor.

People bowed to him. He was the envy of many who wished they, too, could have such access to the king. Years passed. The king’s adviser decided to visit his former colleague. He found his colleague living in a simple hut, eating thin soup. He sneered: “Look how you’ve sunk into poverty. If you had remained an adviser to the king, you would have been rich and honored. You wouldn’t have to live in a hut and eat thin soup.” The former adviser replied: “If you had left the service of the king, you, too, could have lived in freedom and self-respect. You, too, could have been free of tyranny. You could have broken the yoke of this earthly king in order to serve the King of kings.” To the public, the king’s adviser seemed to be the epitome of success. He lived in the pal-

ace. He basked in luxury. He had power over others. The poor former adviser, though, knew better. He knew that in spite of the outer trappings of success, the king’s adviser was nothing but a glorified slave. He attained “success” at the cost of his soul. The poor former adviser did not have the trappings of success; he had something far more valuable: self-respect and inner freedom. He was not answerable to the earthly king: he was answerable only to the King of kings. In our busy and competitive world, we sometimes find ourselves in the position of the king’s advisers. Some choose to be slaves to the blandishments of “success,” willing to forego personal freedom and self-respect to attain luxuries, or fame, or influence. They run in the rat race, not realizing that the cost of “winning” is

The cost of ‘winning’ is their own dignity.

Rabbi Alex Israel

their own dignity. The more the world thinks they are “winning,” the more they are actually losing. Others choose to remain free and above the fray. This sometimes entails losses of money, prestige, and influence. But they have won something far more important. They have been able to stay focused on the important values of life, and have realized that worldly “success” does not necessarily ensure genuine happiness, feelings of self-worth or ultimate meaning in life. “Teshuvah” means repentance. In this season of teshuvah, it is appropriate to review our philosophy of life and our deeds — and repair what needs to be repaired. Teshuvah also means “answer.” We are obliged to recognize that an answer is expected from us! When we understand that we are answerable to the King of kings — not to the whims of worldly kings — we have taken a giant step forward in self-realization. “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is prudent, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just walk in them; but transgressors stumble” (Hosea 14:10).

THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

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uring interviews to promote his new book, former Secretary of State John Kerry told an interviewer that he has met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif three or four times since leaving office, and that their talks touched on the international nuclear agreement which Kerry negotiated and from which President Trump withdrew. This was the first time Kerry admitted it, but in May the Boston Globe reported that he had been secretly meeting with the Iranian foreign minister and European leaders, advising them on how to save the JCPOA. Some are saying that Kerry’s meetings were a violation of the Logan Act, a federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. But violating it is a tradition for both Kerry and the Democratic Party. In 1985, then-Senator John Kerry traveled to Nicaragua to meet the Sandinista president, Daniel Ortega. President Reagan supported the opposition Contras, but Kerry wasn’t much interested in the administration’s position.

Upon his return to the United States, Kerry met with Reagan to convey a message from Ortega. Reagan “wasn’t thrilled,” Kerry later told the New York Times. In January 2018, Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv reported that John Kerry had a message to Palestinian Authority President Abbas to “stay strong in his spirit and play for time, that he should not break and will not yield to President Trump’s demands,” because Trump would be out of office within a year. ohn Kerry wasn’t the only Democrat to go rogue. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, former president Jimmy Carter wrote to members of the United Nations Security Council and asked them not to support the use of force against him. Commentary reported, “The U.S. government under President George H.W. Bush learned of Carter’s missive only from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada.” Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2008, Carter met with Hamas against the wishes of President Bush. After days of negotiation, he announced that Hamas was a peaceloving group and ready to recognize Israel. In a few hours, Hamas responded: they would

never recognize Israel. Even Barack Obama, five months before the 2008 election, secretly told Iraq to stall in negotiations with Bush. NBC reported that, “Obama also told [Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar] Zebari, he said, that Congress should be involved in any negotiations regarding a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq. He suggested it may be better to wait until the next administration to negotiate such an agreement.” But perhaps the most egregious example? When Ted Kennedy told the USSR he would help them negotiate with Reagan if they helped him become president in 1988. In the early 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan had isolated the Soviet Union, while rearming the US at a pace that the USSR could not match. His strategy eventually resulted in the end of the Cold War and the fall of dictatorships across Eastern Europe. Forbes Magazine wrote in August 2009, “Picking his way through the Soviet archives … a reporter for the London Times came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed

Violating it is a tradition for the Democratic Party.

Kurds remain in Iran’s firing line Viewpoint

Ben COHen

Jewish News Service

ran’s regime is defying the U.S.’s newfound resolve to counter its influence, with whatever means it has at its disposal. On Sept. 8, seven missiles were launched at an Iranian Kurdish rebel headquarters in Koy Sanjaq, close to the Iraq border, claiming the lives of at least 15 people — a death toll the mullahs in Tehran found most satisfying. The attack on the Kurds was carefully designed to send the region a message. “With a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), our missiles endow the Iranian nation with a unique ability to fight against arrogant foreign powers,” Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told the semi-official ISNA news agency. “All those that have forces, bases and equipment within a 2,000-kilometer radius of

Iran’s sacred borders should know that (our) missiles are highly accurate,” Jafari continued pointedly. (Tel Aviv, of course, is 1,900 kilometers west of Tehran.) “Our recent vengeance upon terrorists,” he went on, using the official regime term for Iranian Kurds seeking autonomy, “had a very clear message for enemies, especially superpowers who think they can bully us.” The message is that Iran is not afraid to resort to military force, either through its ongoing ballistic-missile program or through interventions on the ground carried out by Iran’s own forces or local proxies. As the missile attack demonstrated, that is not idle talk. t is the Kurds whose experiences over the last year are the best — and therefore grimmest — evidence of what happens when Iran occupies your territory. The ordeal facing these 25 million people — by far the largest stateless nation in the Middle East, but receiving only a fraction of the media coverage enjoyed by the 5 million Palestinians — was conceived in Tehran after the independence referendum of September 2017 in the Kurdish region of Iraq. That vote

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John Kerry and the Logan Act Politics to go

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resulted in a 93 percent majority favoring independence, but what should have been a cause for celebration for Kurds and their allies ended up a disaster. Many countries, especially those with Kurdish populations, issued barely veiled threats of invasion before the vote even took place. Turkey, Iran and the Iranian-backed Iraqi government denounced the vote as an attempt to create a “second Israel,” with the term “fifth column” frequently deployed in the media to describe the alleged status of the Kurds within Israel’s strategic calculations. An Iranian-backed military offensive, involving Iraqi government forces and the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary organization — the Iraqi equivalent of Hezbollah — smashed through Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq throughout October and November. The operation was directed by Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of the IRGC’s “Quds

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to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy. “On 9-10 May of this year, the May 14 memorandum explained, Sen. Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov. Here in the U.S., Sebastian’s story received no attention.” Chebrikov wrote in his report that Tunney indicated Kennedy was “directing his efforts at becoming president of the U.S. in 1988.” Andropov was not impressed, and suggested it would be better to meet with a more viable Democratic presidential candidate. n his 2006 book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, historian Paul Kengor described the incident this way: “The thrust of the letter was that Reagan had to be stopped, meaning his alleged aggressive defense policies, which then ranged from the Pershing IIs to the MX to SDI, and even his reelection bid, needed to be stopped. It was Ronald Reagan who was the hindrance to peace. That view of Reagan is consistent with things that Kennedy said and wrote at the time, including articles in sources like Rolling Stone and in speeches like his March 24, 1983 remarks on the Senate floor the day after Reagan’s SDI speech, which he lambasted as ‘misleading Red-Scare tactics and reckless Star Wars schemes.’ See Logan Act on page 19

Force,” the notorious military agency that coordinates Iran’s regional interventions in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. hen the offensive ended, more than 50 percent of the territory liberated from ISIS by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters was in the hands of the Iraqi government and Hashd al-Shaabi. “This attack, waged by the Iraqi government, Hashd al-Shaabi and forces associated with the Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force, is in retaliation against the people of Kurdistan who have asked for freedom,” a Peshmerga statement declared at the height of the fighting. Yet the outside world remained shamefully disinterested. That is why Iran now believes it can make an example of its 7 million Kurds. “We have always considered Iran a danger to us,” Mustafa Muludi, the General Secretary of the Kurdistan Independence Party of Iran (KDPI) told the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw after the Sept. 8 missile attacks. “This bombardment has made our fear stronger.” See Kurds on page 19

Only Israel came out of last year’s disgrace with honor.

View from Central Park

tehilla r. goldberg

Intermountain Jewish News

s we approached Shabbat Shuva, teshuva, loosely translated as repentance but literally meaning return, was on my mind. I have long been intrigued by teshuva personalities. In Tanach, even before the famous instance of King David’s sin and repentance, there were the People of Israel after the debacle of the Golden Calf. Moses believed that change was possible, so instead of dooming the nation, he fought for it to have a second chance. The personal stories of Judah and King David are part and parcel of complex, flawed people of greatness. These personae of teshuva speak to the possibility of transformation, to the hard emotional work of change.

Many years ago, I met one of my younger sisters in the Boston airport as she was about to begin university. A dear family friend, Joel Orent, was kind enough to drive us to her campus. Throughout the drive, his brilliance flooded the car like a never-ending river with astonishing breadth and depth. I wish I remembered all his pearls of wisdom, but one thing from that car ride has stayed with me: Hillel Zeitlin and his son Aharon. Born in 1871 into a Lubavitch family, steeped in tradition, Hillel Zeitlin was influenced by the Enlightenment as a teen and left traditional Judaism. He became a student of philosophy, a renowned writer, journalist and editor. After much intellectual wrestling, he later in life found his way back to observant Judaism. But more than that, he died as a symbol of Eastern European Judaism: in a drama of Biblical pro-

portions, Hillel Zeitlin the defector was murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto wrapped in tallit and tefilin, clutching the Zohar in his hands. nd then I learned of another, similar personality: the Yabloner Rebbe. To summarize, Rabbi Yechezkel Taub, a chasidic rebbe from Poland, was influenced by Rabbi Yeshaya Shapira, a pioneer chasidic rebbe who encouraged chasidim from Poland to move their communities to then-Palestine. Rabbi Taub, the Yabloner Rebbe, responded to this call and encouraged his chasidim to join him in the land of Israel. In 1925, they founded Kfar Chasidim. Among the many who lauded the Yabloner Rebbe’s efforts and came to be photographed with him were Lord Balfour, Lord Rothschild and Chaim Bialik. But due to poverty and hardship, the proj-

These personae speak to the possibility of transformation.

‘Fear’ a kangaroo court more than Trump Jonathan S. tobin

Jewish News Syndicate

f you believe Bob Woodward’s latest book, Fear: Trump in the White House, or the anonymous op-ed published recently by The New York Times, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the country is on the verge of collapse. Both accounts bolster a narrative in which U.S. President Donald Trump’s impulsiveness and lack of interest in policy heighten the risk of the breakdown of American democracy and world peace. That’s the context for the storm of criticism that followed National Security Advisor John Bolton latest major policy speech. Bolton told the Federalist Society on Sept. 10 that the United States would close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Mission in Washington, and attacked the International Criminal Court. The foreign policy establishment and mainstream media treated Bolton’s statements as proof that the inmates are running the White House asylum. According to the foreign policy “experts” who largely ran U.S. Middle East policy for most of the last 25 years since the Oslo Accords were signed, booting the PLO from its D.C. digs — like the administration’s decision to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority — will

alienate Palestinians and make them less likely to make peace with Israel. As for Bolton’s attack on the ICC, the outrage could barely be contained. According to a New York Times feature, his stance places the United States in the same category as authoritarian tyrannies and may cause the complete breakdown of international order. et rather than buttress the “fear” of the educated classes about the Trump presidency, Bolton’s speech should cause critics to rethink their assumptions. Trump may be every bit as erratic and unpresidential as he has been portrayed. But a sober look at the policy changes Bolton announced shows that however hectic decisionmaking has become in this White House, some of those decisions are quite rational. In fact, they are part of a long-overdue rethinking of outdated conventional wisdom that has done damage to the interests of the United States and key allies, including Israel. The ousting of the PLO is necessary to hold the Palestinians accountable, not only for their past rejections of peace, but for ongoing policies of subsidizing and fomenting terror, as well as their refusal to even consider the administration’s plan. Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner was mocked for his assurance that the attempt to

pressure the Palestinians wouldn’t hurt chances for peace. But a quarter-century of aid and an unwillingness to hold leaders accountable has had the opposite effect the experts anticipated. Granting the Palestinian Authority impunity for stonewalling peace and inculcating hate has ensured that peace won’t happen any time soon. While Kushner’s confidence is unjustified, these measures must be regarded as the first step towards making peace possible in the future. s for the ICC, the argument that America is siding with authoritarianism by opposing the court is utterly specious. The ICC, which was founded in 2002, was intended to be a symbol of international justice and a court of last resort for crimes against humanity. Instead, it is another example of how such institutions are easily corrupted — displaying blatant bias against Israel and the West, and consistently falling short of its goals. In its 16 years of existence, the ICC has convicted only eight people, and many of its cases have collapsed. More to the point, it is part of a power grab by the same crowd that has made the United Nations a cesspool of incompetence and anti-Semitism. Although cloaked in the best possible motives, the ICC is an unaccountable structure with no checks and balances. And like the

Who would trust them to dispense justice?

Logan Act...

Kurds...

Continued from page 18 “Even more interesting than Kennedy’s diagnosis was the prescription: According to Chebrikov, Kennedy suggested a number of PR moves to help the Soviets in terms of their public image with the American public. He reportedly believed that the Soviet problem was a communication problem, resulting from an inability to counter Reagan’s (not the USSR’s) ‘propaganda.’ If only Americans could get through Reagan’s smokescreen and hear the Soviets’ peaceful intentions.” In perspective, Kennedy’s interference was much worse than Kerry’s, Obama’s, or Carter’s. But instead of being seen as a traitor who tried to interfere with a successful strategy, he has been hailed as a great senator. Only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating the Logan Act — in 1802 and 1852. Neither was convicted. It is doubtful that John Kerry, or anyone else, will be deterred from creating their own foreign policy.

Continued from page 18 Their fear should be our alarm bell. The sorry record of international betrayal of Kurdish aspirations dates back to the end of World War I, and betrayal remains at the heart of our policy. The Iranian assault last year used artillery and armored vehicles supplied by the U.S. government to the Iraqi government. Our response, as Iranians openly mocked us by using American weapons to attack one of our closest regional allies, was to have the State Department confirm its “One Iraq” policy, effectively closing the door on the Kurdish bid for sovereignty. nly Israel came out of last year’s disgrace with any honor, as the one country to warmly welcome

United Nations, it has proffered despots like the dictator of Venezuela or the kleptocrats of the Palestinian Authority the same influence as democracies. As Bolton pointed out, who in their right mind would trust such a body to dispense justice? The United States wisely refused to join the ICC when it was founded. And, as Bolton warned, it’s even more important now not tolerate its goings-on. The ICC recently made clear its plans to investigate U.S. forces fighting Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan. Just as bad, it has also begun preparing for an assault on Israel’s efforts to defend itself against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. It has been soliciting testimony from Palestinians to build a case against the Jewish nation. In both instances, it is acting as a kangaroo court in which democracies would be put in the dock by tyrannies and terrorists. The “America First” slogan the administration has embraced has unfortunate historical associations. But far from U.S. foreign policy demonstrating a drift towards authoritarianism, it is actually a defense of American values, as well as of the sovereignty of both the United States and Israel. Whatever concerns we might have about what is going on behind closed doors in the West Wing, in these cases the decisions have been necessary and correct. Think what you like about Trump, but he deserves credit for turning out the PLO, and for warning the ICC to keep its hands off America and Israel.

the referendum result and to express the hope that the Kurds would join the Jews as a free nation in the Middle East. Yet as much as Israel has covertly aided the Kurdish national movement, it is not in a position to fight on their behalf. As Kurdish leaders repeatedly state, the task of allies is to ensure that their own warriors can do that themselves. Last year, sadly, the Trump administration helped tie the Kurds’ hands by equivocating over the referendum and the onslaught that followed. Iran now seeks to test our resolve by continuing its campaign against a Kurdish state that would be far more open, far more democratic and far more pacific than any of its neighbors. As yet, there is no sign that our shameful policy is changing.

Find more columns online Hundreds of opinion and Torah columns that have appeared in the print edition of The Jewish Star over the last several years can be easily found online. Visit TheJewishStar.com and click the COLUMNS tab near top left of the homepage. Then browse all columns, or select your favorite writer. Nearly all column by Jewish Star contributors can be found there, along with many columns by our syndicated writers.

19 THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

Astonishing stories of return

ect soured. Devastated, rejected by his chasidim, the Yabloner Rebbe left for America. He took the name George Nagel, shaved his beard and peyot, and stopped observing Shabbat. After decades in the U.S. and success in the real estate business, now an older man, George Nagel decided to pursue a university education. He earned a BA and an MA in psychology and was recognized as one of the oldest people ever to do so. Finally, the Yabloner Rebbe found his way back to Kfar Chasidim. He reconciled with his followers. Although they had been angry with him for impoverishing them in Palestine, they now thanked him for saving their lives. Had it not been for the rebbe’s harebrained scheme to leave Poland and build a chasidic community in Palestine, they would have all been murdered in the Holocaust, which, in fact, had been the fate of their families left behind. The Yabloner Rebbe returned to a life of Judaism. He returned to his birth identity and name and lived out his years in Kfar Chasidim, where he is buried today. The inscription on his headstone refers to him as the Yabloner Rebbe. Teshuva.

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It’s platinum milestone for a Lawrence couple By Fern Wunsch, Lawrence Few people reach the milestone of 70th years of marriage, and the anniversary kiddush of Frances and Izzie Mehl was an occasion that stirred many people’s hearts. I called up the lovebirds to ask if they would share their wisdom, and I was embraced with open arms. Having lived in Woodmere for 20 years, the Mehls could be honorary governors, a true neighborhood family that was a quiet driving force behind many local shuls and schools. For 28 years, the Mehls were the catering engine behind Terrace on the Park. Izzi and his brother Irwin a”h were the team that made dreams come true for many New York couples and charity organizations. Their long hours and hard work made Terrace on the Park a sought-after venue, and holiday catering in hotels around the metropolitan area kept them busy. Behind the scenes, Frances was a grande dame who welcomed every guest with her warm smile and gracious manner. She created a loving home for their four children—Susan a”h, and ybl”c Stuart, David and Steven. When it came to career paths, each of the Mehl children took their own route. Frances felt the catering business was too demanding for a family. The Mehls make marriage look easy. Each partner has their own unique place, and each is revered by the other. Maybe that is the clue to their longevity — no bossing around, each appreciated in their own domain. In more recent years, the Mehls moved from their Woodmere house to a quieter life at Regency Apartments, in the company of good

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t’s often claimed by Western enemies of Israel that the military actions of the Israel Defense Forces against Hamas in Gaza are disproportionate because such actions kill Arabs while Hamas attacks don’t kill Israelis. Thus Western media ignore the thousands of rockets and aerial firebombs launched from Gaza to kill residents of southern Israel, reporting instead IDF military action to stop such attacks as the wanton killing of civilians. When an Israeli actually is murdered by an Arab in cold blood, however, this isn’t reported as wanton killing of the innocent, if he happens to be the wrong sort of Israeli. Then it’s suggested his murder is his own fault. The killing of American-born Israeli Ari Fuld on Sept. 16 has caused an outpouring of grief in Israel. The impassioned eulogies to him poured out not just because his wife, four children, parents and the rest of his family have been so cruelly bereaved. It’s because he was a brave and outstanding fighter for Israel and the Jewish people, and admired even by his political opponents on account of his warm nature. He devoted his existence to fighting a great evil to which he has now lost his own life. The Western media, however, don’t count Ari Fuld as a victim at all because, as a resident of the Judean town of Efrat, he was a “settler.” The murder of other Israeli residents of the disputed territories is similarly shrugged off or unreported by the Western media. For them, “settlers” are dehumanized and their lives reckoned as of no account. Thus their murder is, in effect, justified and condoned. This revolting attitude is all of a piece with the moral depravity of much of the West over the Arab war against Israel in which they deny the truths of history and law and ignore the real Arab agenda of colonial conquest and the extermination of Jewish nationhood. The “settlers” are not in these lands illegally. They are entitled to be there. In the British Mandate for Palestine in 1922, the international community gave the Jews alone the right to settle what is now Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza in recognition of the unique right of the Jews to recreate their ancient national homeland. he real occupiers are the Arabs. Over centuries, they were among the waves of conquerors of the land of Israel, including Romans, Greeks, Selucids, Fatimids, Crusaders, Mongol tribes, Tartars, Mamelukes and Ottoman Turks. Those who today have invented for themselves a fictional “Palestinian” identity may not even have descended from the original Arab imperialists. Some may be the heirs of those who flooded into Palestine, many illegally, from neighboring Arab states on the back of the returning Jews in the early years of the last century. Historian William Ziff noted that the serial occupiers of Israel themselves brought in many other cultures. Ziff described the people of the land as a “human patch-work of Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Kalmucks, Persians, Crusaders, Tartars, Indians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Sudanese, Turks, Mongols, Romans, Kharmazians, Greeks, pilgrims, wanderers, ne’er-do-wells

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and adventurers, invaders, slaves.” Those shrugging aside the murder of Israeli “settlers” also turn a blind eye to the complicity in these crimes by the people they champion: the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Through its educational materials and other media, the P.A. routinely incites hatred of Jews and the murder of Israelis, teaching its children that “all Israelis deserve to be killed and that dying while committing a terror attack is ‘the path to excellence and greatness … the great victory’.” The Arab writer Bassam Tawil has specifically blamed the murder of Ari Fuld by 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin on incitement by Abbas. According to Palestinian terrorist groups, Jabarin decided to murder a Jew in response to Israeli “crimes” against the Al-Aqsa mosque and other Islamic holy sites. wo days earlier, in a speech to the PLO Executive Committee in Ramallah widely reported in Arab media, Abbas had repeated the lie that Israel was planning to establish special Jewish prayer zones inside the Al-Aqsa mosque. No mention of any of this in Western media. Nor the fact that the P.A. immediately said it would pay the Jabarin family 1,400 shekels per month (nearly $400) for the next three years as a reward for Ari Fuld’s murder. According to the P.A.’s finance ministry, its total “payfor-slay” budget amounts to 1.2 billion shekels ($335 million) this year and last. Until now, the West as a bloc has been complicit in Arab violence against Israelis. Over the years, it has thrown money at the “Palestinians” in the hope that it would help build their society and thus promote peace. In fact, it has been used to help promulgate hatred and incite mass murder. Now, President Donald Trump has called time on this appalling charade. The United States has cut its funding to the “West Bank” and Gaza, closed the PLO office in Washington, and set in train moves to abolish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s definition of Palestinian refugees. By defining that status as uniquely inheritable, UNRWA has ludicrously multiplied the number of “Palestinian refugees” down through the decades, turning these “refugees” into a weapon of war deployed against Israel. Britain and Europe, however, remain complicit in the murderous attacks on Israelis because they continue to fund UNRWA and the P.A. rather than holding them to account for their behavior. Now Abbas is to visit Ireland, which is virulently hostile to Israel. The Irish leader, Leon Varadkar, has promised to raise with Abbas the violation of human rights by the P.A. and Hamas. His priority is “the fact that homosexuality has yet to be decriminalized in Gaza.” Yet Abbas has nothing to do with Gaza, which is ruled instead by Hamas. And while gays are certainly persecuted throughout “Palestinian” society, Varadkar seems not to grasp there are no human rights there for anyone, and the Palestine he is so keen to establish would be a police state. uch Israel-bashers don’t care about the welfare of the “Palestinians.” They don’t care about truth. They most certainly don’t care about the Jewish people. They are driven by, at best, indifference to the Jews and, at worst, something much darker. Ari Fuld and the thousands of other Israeli victims of Arab attacks (including those who weren’t even Jewish) were murdered out of a fathomless hatred of Jews and Jewish nationhood, aided and abetted in the West by the ignorant, the ideological and the bigoted. Abbas has Israeli blood on his hands—but Britain, Ireland and Europe are continuing to help plunge them in it. Melanie Phillips is a British journalist, broadcaster and author.

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THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

Blood of slain Israelis stains many hands

Eruv stays: NJ settles Mahwah suit Upstate town By Elizabeth Kratz, JNS New Jersey’s Jewish residents, along with others who favor the reasonable free practice of religion, breathed a sigh of relief when a three-pronged federal lawsuit involving the Township of Mahwah’s fight against the Bergen Rockland Eruv Association was settled this week out of court. An eruv — a complete, circuitous series of unobtrusive wire and markers affixed to trees or utility poles that establish a religious border around a community — allows observant Jews to move, carry items and push strollers or wheelchairs on Shabbat. Eleven months ago, in a decisive show of support for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals established precedent of eruv legality, New Jersey’s Attorney General, along with the directors of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Civil Rights, brought suit to the city of Mahwah, a 25,000-resident town in northwest Bergen County. The Bergen Rockland Association was represented pro bono by the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, which successfully argued the precedent-granting Supreme Court case involving another New Jersey town (The Tenafly Eruv Association vs. The Borough of Tenafly was decided in 2002 and upheld several times since). Last October, then-Attorney General Chris Porrino said he considered what he witnessed in Mahwah as a civil-rights violation — the attempt to ban Orthodox Jews from the township’s public parks. This, combined with a resident outcry against the recent, legally erected eruv on utility company-owned poles and coupled with subsequent anti-Orthodox Jewish public statements by town council members and residents, was seen as anti-Semitic — and illegal. The Department of Environmental Protection was included in the three-pronged

suit, as Mahwah’s parks are beneficiaries of state-sponsored Green Acres funds, and the town would have to forfeit those funds if they were to ban certain groups or out-of-state residents from using its parks. One of two state-alleged unlawful ordinances involved Mahwah’s parks ban. The second banned the eruv. The summer of 2017 was characterized by residents, advocates and elected officials from nearby Bergen County towns attending and speaking out at Mahwah (and two other towns who opposed the eruv: Montvale and Upper Saddle River) council meetings, with many making heartfelt pleas against bigotry, xenophobia and the eruv ban. Holocaust survivors and representatives of the NAACP spoke out, in addition to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and other Jewish and anti-hate advocacy groups, who decried the inflammatory language of the meetings and pleaded for civility. The settlement, reached with now-Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, who was Bergen County’s prosecutor during the summer of 2017 and was part of the original complaint’s drafting, made the following points: Mahwah agreed to: 1) Not violate New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination in any future decisions; 2) Notify the AG before introducing new laws affecting access to township parks; 3) Notify the AG before introducing new laws affecting posting on utility poles; 4) Modify township code to make it clear that devices on utility poles other than signs are unregulated; 5) Make a public statement against discrimination and harassment of others in township parks; 6) Keep records of complaints related to existing ordinances governing township park use and present a quarterly report on their enforcement to the AG; 7) Allow lechis to be installed on utility poles in the township and investigate damage to them as a criminal of-

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The train station in Mahwah, New Jersey.

fense; and 8) Make a suspended payment of $350,000 to the AG for legal fees and penalties. The payment will be canceled after four years if no evidence of further discrimination is found, at which point notifications and quarterly reports will no longer be required. “The results of the settlement were a major rebuke to the Mahwah council with potential financial penalties, the need for major recordkeeping and limitations on future actions,” said Dr. Lisa Wisotsky, an Englewood community leader who was active in eruv advocacy efforts. “Mahwah Council President Robert Hermansen and the rest of the council have been put on a very short leash. Those of us who opposed the actions of the Mahwah council will continue to remain vigilant, as will the Attorney General.” Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Eastern Director Michael Cohen attended every Mahwah council meeting and was a visible presence in the city in the attempt to keep civility. “This unambiguous and comprehensive settlement is a clear victory for all of those who remained steadfast in opposition to discrimination, bias and anti-Semitism,” he told JNS.

The town supervisor of Chester in upstate Orange County said the town is buying up available property to prevent development by the Hasidic community. Alex Jamieson told the Times Herald-Record that residents fear the Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel will expand into the town. His comments came a day after the Town Board approved the purchase of the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center, an 8.8-acre property, for $1 million. He told the newspaper that the purchase was one of several to be finalized in the coming weeks to slow Hasidic expansion. “People realize what the possibilities are. The fear of KJ expanding into Chester is scaring people half to death,” Jamieson told the Herald-Record. The town also is finalizing a contract to buy two parcels of land outside Sugar Loaf totaling 160 acres, according to the report. Earlier this year Jamieson said the town would look into switching to a ward system for electing Town Board members in an effort to lessen the impact of a Hasidic influx. The idea will be on the town’s November ballot. “The idea is to keep the Hasidic out so that they can’t control the Town Board,” Jamieson said, according to the newspaper. News 12 Westchester cited Jamieson as saying he told the Herald-Record reporter that the purchase was to preserve Chester’s rural character. The reporter asked if it was to keep the Hasidics out, to which he said, “Well, if we purchase the property, that’s going to keep them out.” “I didn’t say we were buying it to keep them out,” Jamieson said. “We have visions for what we want to do with these properties.” —JTA

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Jewish community in Stockholm is active and growing. “One can still live a good Jewish life here,” he said. According to Kesselman, “What is amazing about the community in Malmo is that while many have already left — not necessarily because of anti-Semitism, but due to the general secular atmosphere — we are seeing a record number of people take part in Rosh Hashanah activities and activities ahead of Yom Kippur. There is a certain awakening of people going back to their roots and identity, maybe precisely because of this period of uncertainty.”

THE JEWISH STAR September 21, 2018 • 12 Tishrei 5779

By Dan Lavie, Israel Hayom The president of Sweden’s Jewish Central Council said he is concerned by the gains of a nationalist party with neo-Nazi roots in the country’s recent elections. Aron Verstandig told Israel Hayom that while he believes the Sweden Democrats will not be part of the new government, “one can never know.” He said the Jewish community’s main concern is the strengthening of radical movements in Europe and North America, and the consequences for Jewish communities. Verstandig called the nationalist right in Sweden an indirect but palpable threat. “The strength of the neo-Nazis is felt more forcefully in the last two to three years,” he said, “with them holding marches and event pretty frequently.” The Jewish community in Stockholm held an emergency rally last week that included a briefing on the threats facing Swedish Jews. Among the attendees were representatives from the anti-racist Expo Research organization, Sweden’s Military Academy Karlberg, and police and security forces. “Because our community is comprised of many Holocaust survivors and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we are naturally shocked at the rise of the underground Nazi movement,” he said, calling for local politicians to rein in neo-Nazi activity. The Salafi Sunni Islamist movement is also growing in Sweden. A recent report by the Swedish Defense Ministry described the city of Gothenburg as a Salafist stronghold, and in December, three Syrian and Palestinian assailants were arrested for firebombing a synagogue there. Sweden recently announced plans to build a Holocaust museum in Malmö, where dozens of anti-Semitic incidents are reported each year. Verstandig said, “I know that Prime Minister Stefan Löfven attributes much importance to the matter on a personal level. Last year, he visited Auschwitz, and in my opinion, it moved him.” Still, Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, director of Chabad Malmö, was skeptical, citing concerns those behind the museum were more interested in calming tensions than actually improving the situation for Jews. Sweden’s third-largest city, Malmö has taken in thousands of Muslim asylum-seekers. The Sweden Democrats received more than 30 percent of the city’s vote. The city’s 450 Jewish residents, along with another 1,500 residing in its environs, will pay the price, in addition to anti-Semitic incidents that have become commonplace. “The strengthening of the movement with a neo-Nazi background adds to everyone’s sense of threat, although one must not compare our concerns in the Jewish community, which are greater than those of the ‘locals,’ who are seen as ‘authentic,’” said Kesselman. “My greatest concern is that the radical right will continue to grow and its power will grow, and my hope is of course that the opposite will happen.” Verstandig said it was important that people know that despite these challenges, the

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September 21, 2018 â&#x20AC;¢ 12 Tishrei 5779 THE JEWISH STAR