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Lech-Lecha • Oct. 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 • Luach page 21 • Torah columns pages 20–21 • Vol 16, No 40 • TheJewishStar.com

P’stinian terror on docket of US Supreme Court

Noach’s delights: The colors of fall

First graders at Shulamith School for Girls got close to some of the animals Noach brought into his tayva, at Green Meadows Farm in Queens. They enjoyed hay rides, pony rides, milking the cows and feeding the goats. Each girl also picked a pumpkin to take home. See Noach’s kid-rainbows on p. 10.

the other Israeli litigants who have joined the suit say the 1789 Alien Tort Statute allows them to sue the bank for facilitating terrorist attacks between 1995 and 2005. That argument, rejected by lower courts, reached the Supreme Court in part because it addresses a divide between the court’s conservative and liberal justices over the modern application of a law initiated by events of 1784. That’s when the top French diplomat in the country at the time, a nobleman named François BarbéMarbois, allegedly was assaulted by an adventurer named Charles Julian de Longchamps. A disagreement arose as to whether Longchamps was to be tried in Pennsylvania or France. The French government was not happy that Barbé-Marbois lacked the means of civil redress. A Pennsylvania court sentenced Longchamps to two years in prison, and the controversy is believed to have led to the passage of the Alien Tort Statute, allowing a U.S. court to consider lawsuits between non-U.S. parties if the issues “touch and concern” the United States. Congress appeared eager to show that the baby nation was ready, as the statute put it, to consider tort, or civil wrongs, “committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The statute lay dormant for nearly two centuries, but was revived in the 1980s when human rights advocates used it to sue Latin American torturers on behalf of their victims, also Latin Americans. On Oct. 11, the high court’s liberal justices seemed sensitive to arguments advanced by the human rights community, as well as an array of former counterterrorism officials, that the United States should continue to play a robust role in policing human rights abuses wherever they occur. The conservative justices worried about judicial overreach, in this case into matters best left to the foreign policies of the administration of the day. In oral arguments, both concerns kept circling back to the 1784 encounter in Philadelphia. Conservatives wondered whether the writers of the 1789 law would have considered corporations like the Arab Bank as individuals. “I mean, we passed this statute to avoid foreign entanglements because we wanted to provide a forum for someone like the French ambassador in the Longchamps affair,” Chief Justice John Roberts said to Jeffrey Fisher, the attorney appearing on behalf of the plaintiffs, “but I’m wondering if extending it to corporate liability is, in fact, going to have the same problematic result of increasing our entanglements, See Terror on docket on page 5

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By Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — The case of Joseph Jesner v. Arab Bank is a bid by about 6,000 Israelis who were harmed by Palestinian terrorism to get redress from Jordan’s Arab Bank, which delivered money to the groups that carried out the acts. Yet when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Oct. 11, the event most often cited was a fistfight between a French official and a French adventurer in Philadelphia in 1784. The Jesner case is an important test of corporate liability abroad for acts of terror. Lawyers for Jesner, the father of a 19-year-old man murdered in a Tel Aviv bus bombing in 2002, and

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States tackle unintended impact of anti-BDS laws By Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — On May 2, Israel’s Independence Day, Texas state Rep. Phil King stood smiling as Gov. Greg Abbott signed King’s bill banning the state from doing business with boycotters of Israel. “Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally,” Abbott said of the bill that overwhelmingly passed the Legislature. Less than six months later, King had to explain why his signature pro-Israel policy was not an anti-Texas policy. City officials in Dickinson, a suburb of Houston hard hit by Hurricane Harvey, required any applicant for relief grants to verify that he or she “(1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this Agreement.” The American Civil Liberties Union took notice and loudly objected. Observers noted the queasy-making optics of a pro-Israel policy standing in the way of hurricane relief. King, a Republican whose district includes Fort Worth, immediately started making calls to track down the Dickinson officials who drafted the contract. “It’s a complete misunderstanding of the statute,” he said in an interview after what had been for him a surprisingly busy Friday, after the ACLU’s objections made news. The office of Larry Taylor, a Republican who sponsored the law in the state Senate and whose district includes Dickinson, also was fielding questions about the law on Friday. If Dickinson is indeed misunderstanding the law, the case nevertheless brought to the fore misgivings about the measures passed in more than 20 states targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at Israel. Critics say they may impinge on free speech

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, signing his state’s anti-BDS bill at a Jewish community center in Office of the Texas Governor Austin on May 2.

rights and create a backlash by making it seem the government is using the law to suppress one side in a political debate. A federal law prohibiting compliance with or support of a boycott of Israel is facing stumbling blocks. Opponents of the laws say the Dickinson case, and one in Kansas, where a teacher trainer who supports a boycott of Israel is refusing to sign a state contract that includes an antiboycott clause, prove their point. “In addition to being mystifying — what do home repairs in Texas have to do with a country more than 7,000 miles away? — this requirement is clearly unconstitutional,” Brian Hauss, an ACLU staff attorney wrote in a blog post. The ACLU, which says it takes no position on boycotts per se, is leading a campaign to

stem the tide of anti-BDS laws. “The First Amendment protects the right of Americans to participate in political boycotts, a right explicitly recognized by the Supreme Court in a case that concerned an NAACP-organized boycott to protest white supremacy in Port Gibson, Mississippi,” Hauss wrote. Defenders and sponsors of the law say that like many laws, the anti-BDS statutes are undergoing birth pains. “These are new laws, they’ve been passed in the last couple of years and not everyone is going to immediately understand what they’re supposed to do,” Eugene Kontorovich, a legal scholar who helped draft many of the laws, said in an interview. The Israel Project, among an array of national groups that advocated for the laws, said

it was reaching out to officials on a case-by-case basis to make sure the laws are understood. “We’ve been in touch with legislators when issues have come up, we’ve spoken with attorneys and legislators in various states,” said Jacob Millner, the Midwest director for The Israel Project. The controversies over Dickinson and the Kansas case come at a critical time for a congressional bill that would extend 1970s laws targeting the Arab League boycott to those who comply with boycotts initiated by international organizations like the European Union or United Nations. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which has support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also would expand the prohibited boycotts to those that target only settlement goods. Violators who do participate in boycotts face fines and, in some cases, imprisonment. AIPAC wants broad bipartisan backing for the bill, but only 14 of the Democratic caucus’s 48 members are co-sponsoring the legislation. Notably, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — who in the past has assiduously courted the pro-Israel community — dropped her co-sponsorship after representations from the ACLU and pro-Palestinian activists. Sen. Ben. Cardin, D-Md., the lead Democratic sponsor of the bill, said the law is sound, but he is open to some revisions to make it clearer that it does not undercut free speech. Dickinson City Management assistant Bryan Milward told JTA on Friday that the city was applying the law correctly. “Because our application also functions as a contract, it was included in there,” he said. King said that was simply not the case. “My understanding of what Dickinson is doSee BDS laws raise issues on page 7

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Film shows Hungary’s grim welcome to survivors By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA The time is just after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Two Orthodox Jews disembark from a train at a rural station in Soviet-occupied Hungary and, after offloading a heavy bag, they begin a silent, hourlong walk to a nearby village. The purpose of their journey is not known. But their arrival in the village sets in motion a series of tragic and violent events, as some residents worry the visitors will expose crimes they committed during the Nazi occupation, with potentially deadly consequences for the perpetrators. Such is the premise of the award-winning Hungarian movie “1945.” The black-andwhite feature, filmed last year, is one of just a handful of movies produced in Hungary about the theft of Jewish property during the Holocaust. In the U.S., the film will premiere Nov. 1 in New York, with a national rollout to follow. Despite being a low-cost production lacking marquee names, “1945” has found major success at international film festivals. It won awards at the San Francisco Film Critics Circle as well as at the Berlin Film Festival and the Jerusalem Film Festival. One critic called it a “subtly crafted masterpiece.” And while the film is fictional, it has struck a nerve among Hungarian Jews whose families lived through period it depicts. “It is an important production which, despite being fictional, nonetheless describes for the first time in film the reality of what actually happened to us,” Peter Feldmajer, a former leader of Hungary’s Jewish federation, told JTA. In the film, the two silent Jews — Sámuel Hermann and his son — arrive on a fateful

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summer day: the wedding day of a son of the village’s de facto mayor. Fearful that the Jewish arrivals are an expeditionary force for Jews who used to own property there, the town’s leader frantically mounts cover-ups of his own crimes. A group of villagers armed with pitchforks menacingly gather around the newcomers as they pray for their dead in the village’s disused Jewish cemetery. The scene is an obvious reference to the 1946 anti-Semitic pogrom in the city of Miskolc, during which two Jews, including one police officer, were lynched. “This scene accurately and bravely represents why it was impossible for Jews to seek justice in the postwar period,” said Feldmajer, whose father was a Holocaust survivor

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from a Hungarian village where locals stole his family’s property. “The pogroms happened here and there,” said Robert Frolich, the rabbi of Budapest’s main synagogue. “But the fear of having to give back the property, the shame of what was done to Jews — even if only by not defending them — that was common, that was the rule, and this is the first film that I’m aware of capturing this.” “This element of the Holocaust — the neighbors, the shop owners who took everything the Jews had and didn’t want to give it back — that has remained a taboo, which this film helps break,” he added. More than half of Hungary’s prewar Jewish population of 825,000 was murdered in the Shoah.

Over the past 15 years, Hungary’s political scene took a rightward shift. Prominent politicians from Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party have in recent years been promoting or tolerating the glorification by others of the legacy of Nazi collaborators and ardent anti-Semites, triggering an open row with the Jewish community and liberals. Among those honored with statues in Budapest alone since 2013 are Miklos Horthy, the country’s pro-Nazi wartime leader, and Gyorgy Donath and Balint Homan, two Holocaust-era politicians who prompted antiSemitic laws. In this political climate, productions about the Holocaust that tackle complicity — including the Hungarian film “Son of Saul,” which won the 2016 Oscar for best foreign language film — have been denounced by nationalists from the anti-Semitic Jobbik party, who urged Hungary’s national film fund to withhold funding for “Holocaust productions,” as one party leader called them. Amid the hasty cover-up efforts depicted in the film — including the silencing of remorseful accomplices — “1945” also tackles how neighbors who used to be friendly turned on their Jewish compatriots while under the rule of Nazis and their allies. In many instances, this was done not out of ideological hatred, but in order to survive their new circumstances or make the most out of them. At the same time, the film also acknowledges those who kept valuables for Jewish neighbors and who despised the looting by other non-Jews. “Mostly it gives us an idea for the first time of how they felt, the Jews and the nonJews, in those chaotic days after World War II,” Rabbi Frolich said.

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Terror on the docket…

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

Continued from page 1 as it obviously has here with respect to the government of Jordan.” Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the liberal flank’s three Jewish justices, said that according to current international norms — the “law of nations” to which the 1789 statute refers — a corporation could be considered liable under the statute. He alluded to the fact that the Arab Bank has offices based in New York, making it subject to redress under an anti-terrorism treaty. “Now when you look at this case, what [the plaintiffs] have cited is, for example, the international convention for the suppression of the financing of terrorism, which we’ve ratified, which says that states must take necessary measures to enable a legal entity located in its territory or organized under its laws to be held liable,” he said, addressing the Arab Bank’s lawyer, Paul Clement. “That sounds like a corporation. And it sounds like the relation is the same as the international norm to the individual who struck the French ambassador in the street.” Fisher pushed back against Roberts’ theory that allowing the case to proceed could complicate U.S. foreign policy, arguing that should the courts quash the plaintiffs’ bid to seek redress,

Israel — like France in the 1780s — would have cause for alarm at how the United States conducts its foreign policy. “Imagine Israel’s view if … our entire finance system — could be used and accessed ... to commit terrorist attacks, make them easier, make them more deadly, make the funding more effective,” the attorney said. “If suits like this were taken away, Israel and countries like it might well have a complaint to the United States.” The Trump administration, not weighing in on either side, nonetheless filed a brief. A Justice Department lawyer, Brian Fletcher, said the government would prefer that the court preserve the 1789 statute for use against corporations, but also argued that Jesner did not meet the standard of U.S. involvement to merit consideration in U.S. courts. The case will decided before next July. The courts are separately considering a lawsuit against the Arab Bank brought by U.S. litigants who were victims of terrorist attacks in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Barbé-Marbois, for what it’s worth, survived whatever wounds were inflicted by Longchamps and went on to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase. He died in 1837 at the ripe old age of 92.

Italians will read ‘Diary’ A passage from “The Diary of Anne Frank” will be read before the start of all soccer matches in Italy after fans of one Rome team plastered a stadium with stickers showing the teenage Holocaust diarist wearing the uniform of a rival city club. The decision to hold a moment of silence and read from the diary at professional, ama-

teur and youth matches was announced Tuesday by Italy’s sports minister. On Sunday, fans of the Lazio club posted the stickers around Rome’s Olympic Stadium showing Anne Frank wearing the shirt of the Roma team. The teams share the stadium. Roma is often associated with being left wing and Jewish. —JTA

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Christian media event a summit of Israel allies By Alex Traiman, JNS Recognizing it is easier to influence those who are prone to be natural supporters of the Jewish state than it is to sway journalists who cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a perceived anti-Israel bias, the Israeli government last week offered Christian media professionals a crash course in Israel advocacy and diplomacy. More than 130 journalists from 30 countries converged in Jerusalem for Israel’s inaugural Christian Media Summit, sponsored by the Government Press Office and spearheaded by Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ze’ev Elkin. Key focuses of the conference included promoting Israel and Jerusalem as a model of religious tolerance and coexistence, as well as countering the inherent biases the Jewish state often faces in international legal forums such as the United Nations and in mainstream media. Israel “is doing something very, very smart,” said Brian Schrauger, a veteran Christian journalist reporting from Israel for the USA Radio Network and JerusalemJournal. net. These journalists have a “base of readers and viewers that [is] larger than ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN combined in the U.S.” Christian media “has a vast constituency, not just in the U.S. but around the world,” added David Parsons, vice president and senior international spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. He said that of Israel’s decision to engaging with Christian media: “It’s very effective, and very important—and making sure the battle of truth is being won.” Israel a religious tolerance beacon The conference was well-attended by Israeli politicians and thought-leaders, with addresses by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

David Parsons, vice president and senior international spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, speaks on a panel at Israel’s Christian Media Summit. Lihi Shapire/GPO

Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin. “Israel is the one country in a vast region where Christians not only survive, they thrive,” Netanyahu said, noting Israel has “no better friends” around the world than Christian communities. Elkin said Jerusalem “is the ideal place to host this summit, as a model for tolerance and dialogue.” “The importance of hosting the most influential members of the international Christian media in Jerusalem is paramount,” he said. “As Christianity has its roots in Judaism, these journalists have the unique opportunity to understand that the spurious charges claiming that Jerusalem has no contextual historical attachment to Israel are utterly absurd.” Parsons said the age of objective and un-

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biased media coverage is a thing of the past, with most journalists choosing sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict before they file their content. “I think there is just dishonesty at a very human level, where you have reporters trying to assert that they are objective, and impartial, when in fact, they are not,” he said. “We are talking about people who are taking a position of ‘advocacy journalism for social justice issues.’ That is the way many journalists approach this conflict: that you should always root for the oppressed, and you always view the Palestinians as oppressed,” added Parsons, who noted this approach leads many journalists to “even justify Palestinians use of violence against Israel, who they believe is the oppressor.”

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Palestinian incitement A major component of the conference was geared towards explaining how mainstream media have been impacted by “Palestinian propaganda” that includes decades of incitement against Israel by the Palestinian Authority. Itamar Marcus, founder of Palestinian Media Watch, a group that monitors Arabiclanguage messaging within Palestinian television, print media and school textbooks, gave a lengthy presentation detailing antiSemitic broadcasts by PA-run networks during the last six months. “Palestinian media and schoolbooks are broadcasting messages of hatred,” Marcus told JNS. Veteran Palestinian affairs journalist and field producer Khaled Abu Toameh seconded Marcus’s message, asserting that “there hasn’t been any attempt by the Palestinian Authority to prepare the Palestinian people for peace with Israel—to the contrary, Palestinian incitement intensified after the signing of the Oslo Accords.” “There is no peace process,” Abu Toameh said. Abu Toameh advised the Christian journalists to be careful about who they select to help them produce their news content. “If the person you hire is an activist for the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),” that will severely affect the report, he said, adding there is “more than one way of telling the story.” Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett expressed his appreciation that so many Christian journalists accepted the Israeli government’s invitation to participate in the first-of-its-kind summit. “I want to thank you for being our friends,” he said, “because sometimes we feel alone out there.”

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laws. The session, featuring three lawmakers who put forward such bills, is still very much on, said Ethan Felson, the director of the JFNAaffiliated Israel Action Network. “These laws are necessary, they’re effective and they need to be enforced appropriately,” he said in an interview. “These are laws that take a stand against discrimination, as drafted they do not infringe on individuals’ liberties.” (Also still on at the G.A.: a session on how best to assist Houston, post-Harvey.) The case in Kansas may be stickier to defend: The state’s law does include “individuals” who boycott Israel as targets. “The state shall not enter into a contract with an individual or company to acquire or dispose of services, supplies, information technology or construction unless such individual or company submits a written certification that such individual or company is not currently engaged in a boycott of Israel,” the measure says. The law led the state Department of Education to send to Esther Koontz, who had completed a course on training math teachers, a form titled “Certification Individual or Company Not Currently Engaged in a Boycott of Israel.” Koontz, inspired by her Mennonite church, was boycotting Israel and would not sign the document. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on her behalf in a federal court. Kontorovich said that in the Kansas case, it was Koontz and the ACLU who were misconstruing the statute: Koontz would still have the right to boycott Israel as an individual as long as she did not boycott it as a contractor — an unlikely scenario, he said, for someone who trains Kansas math teachers in how to improve their teaching skills. “She’s a consumer boycotter, she’s trying to bootstrap that onto the commercial boycott” banned by the law in order to make a federal case, he said. “Her personal and her business relationship cannot be conflated.” Hauss of the ACLU, who is representing Koontz, said the Kansas Education Department was enforcing exactly what the Kansas law, enacted this summer, prescribes. “It seems to me that they’re enforcing the statute as written,” he said. “These laws are meant to do precisely the thing the Supreme Court has said is prohibited, which is to suppress the right to boycott.” Also seizing on the Kansas and Texas cases to illustrate the pitfalls of the laws is Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that supports BDS. Its government affairs liaison, Joseph Berman, calls the federal bill and the Kansas law “an anti-democratic attempt to silence a nonviolent movement for equality for Palestinians and a just peace for everyone in the region.” Peggy Shapiro, the Midwest director of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel group that has advocated for the laws, said that opponents were cherrypicking cases in order to make the laws look bad. “The fact that people want to generalize one or two outliers, their intention is not to expose the errors but to undermine the ability to prevent discrimination against Israel,” she said. It has yet to be seen whether Dickinson and Kansas are anomalies, or whether there are other controversies in the offing. In its survey of Texas towns, Electronic Intifada found that Galveston, Austin and San Antonio extend the ban to include companies bidding to make uniforms and organize programming for 4-yearolds. Jill Jacobs, the director of T’ruah, a rabbinical human rights advocacy group, said the laws were likely to continue to backfire. She said the focus of pro-Israel advocacy should be on Israel’s government and its practices. “The way to increase support for Israel is not to shut down dissent but make Israel a place we can be more proud of, and central to that is ending the occupation and making Israel a more democratic state,” she said.

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

Continued from page 2 ing is they have private funds being distributed for a grant program for individuals,” he said in the interview. “The law has nothing to do with private funds, it has nothing to do with individuals.” A reading of the law bears out King’s bafflement: It refers only to for-profit “companies” as the targeted boycotters, and goes to lengths to define “company” as not applying to an individual. It also lists six specific government “entities” that are required not to do business with the targeted companies: five retirement systems and the school fund. Dickinson’s grant program, with funds raised from private individuals, would not qualify. A survey of other hurricane-afflicted local authorities in Texas by Electonic Intifada, a pro-Palestinian news site, found no other such requirement. Laws have unintended consequences and even when misapplied can backfire on their drafters’ intent, said Rachel Lerner, the senior vice president for community relations at J Street. The liberal Jewish Mideast lobby opposes BDS, but sees the anti-BDS laws as infringing on free speech. Pro-Israel groups should stick to advocacy to counter BDS and avoid legislative bids to stop the boycotts, says J Street. “You’re pursuing a strategy that’s out of your control how it’s implemented,” Lerner said. “It’s like using a cudgel for an issue; it’s the wrong tool. It’s not good for the Jews or Israel that people think that they can’t have a roof over their head if they boycott Israel.” The New Israel Fund, another liberal group, said in a release that the Texas case proved the anti-BDS laws were “just plain wrong.” The Jewish Federations of North America will feature a session at its General Assembly in Los Angeles next month on how to pass such

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Balfour centennial tour opens at Rambam HS After meeting with students By Jeffrey Bessen from the school’s book club, Herald Community News where he told them that “writing Students at Rambam Mesivta is rewriting,” Black launched into High School were prepared for New his presentation. York Times best-selling author Edwin His talk took his audience on a Black. When Black asked questions historical journey from ancient during his hour-and-a-half presentatimes to the contemporary era. tion on the Balfour Declaration, the He pointed to 1964 as a turning students had the answers. point for Israel after the state had Black kicked off a three-week, been inexistence for barely 16 12-city cross-country trek commemoyears. Arabs, who had been rating the 100th anniversary of the nomads, became recognized as declaration, a 67-word letter written Palestinians, usurping the origiby British Foreign Minister James nal Palestinians — the Jews. Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild, a Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, leader of the British Jewish commuRambam’s dean, called having nity, and sent to the Zionist FederaBlack speak at the Lawrence tion of Great Britain and Ireland on school an “amazing opportunity.” Nov. 2, 1917. “The better information you The correspondence included get the more informed you are,” these powerful words: “His Majesty’s Rabbi Friedman told his students. Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national At Rambam, from left (standing) Dean Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, Principal Rabbi Yotav Eliach, Eli Orenbuch, Doniel Fodiman, “You need to be armed with the home for the Jewish people, and will Edwin Black, Mordechai, Schmerler, Yehuda Sprei, Nathaniel Zarny, Moshe Chernigoff, Avi Koenig and Assistant Principal Hil- facts to what the Balfour Declarause their best endeavors to facilitate lel Goldman, and (seated) Tzion Masri, Jake Fuchs, Jacob Weinstein, Shlomo Braverman and Joseph Waide. Jeffrey Bessen tion is and the ongoing effects.” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive the achievement of this object.” “Jews were the indigenous people of Israel,” Black said. vice chairman of the Conference These words were echoed in the San Remo Agreement, a post-World War I pact among international “There is only one way to usurp the future of the Jewish peo- of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, sent a leaders, in the League of Nation’s Mandate for Palestine, and in ple. That is to abduct their history and refract it into some- message about Black’s appearance, not his first at Rambam, thing it is not.” which was read by Assistant Principal Hillel Goldman. the United Nations’ charter. Black said that he uncovers facts in context. “How the UnitBlack’s tour took him to the House of Representatives on Yet, Black pointed out that the Balfour Declaration “has been mis-portrayed, maligned and misquoted so massively that ed States teaches history is deliberate sabotage,” said Eve Oct. 23 and goes to Florida, California before concluding at Jones, Black’s chief researcher. the in Potomac, Maryland, on Nov. 9. it calls out for an honest, independent look.”

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October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Eighth grade girls from the Manhattan Day School gotet passionate about “Free Lunch for All,” outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan. Lia Jay Photography

Two students at the North Shore Hebrew Academy High School were named as semifinalists in the prestigious Siemens Competition. They are among 491 semifinalists in the math, science and technology contest, the nation’s premier science research competition for high school students. It recognizes achievements in math, science and technology among the country’s brightest students. North Shore Hebrew Academy High School students Jason Kurlander and Dylan Makani are the only two students from a Long Island yeshiva to become semifinalists. Asked how it feels to be a semifinalist, senior Jason Kurlander said, “Having spent numerous hours on this impor-

tant research, I am excited to be a semi-finalist but am even more excited about the possibility that my research will help people in the future.” Sophomore Dylan Makani shared a similar sentiment, reporting, “It was exciting to perform novel research on such an interesting topic, and it means a lot to be contributing to science in such a meaningful way.” According to its website, the Siemans competition “seeks to promote excellence by encouraging students to undertake individual or team research projects. It fosters intensive research that improves students’ understanding of the value of scientific study and informs their consideration of future careers in these disciplines.”

MDS eighth grader Tyler Fischman is interviewed by foreign language TV station, NTDTV, about the “Free Lunch for All” program. Lia Jay Photography

Students from the Manhattan Day School advocated for “Free Lunch for All” on the steps of New York City Hall last week, calling on Mayor deBlasio to expand the city’s free lunch program to include more than 30,000 students who abide by kosher and halal dietary restrictions. “I think this is a tangible way to show some of the students the value of their voices and participation in policy discussions,” said Annie Watman, director of grassroots engagement for Teach NYS – Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, the organization that invited the students to the press conference. “The MDS students who attended had so much energy that contributed to the buzz of the event,” Watman said. “Numerous politicians and community leaders commented on how impressed they were by the students and how grateful they were for their support.” “In the state of New York, about 15 percent of students do not attend public school,” explained Allen Fagin, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union. “They receive about 1 percent of state education dollars. No one can believe that that is a fair system.” NYC Public Advocate Letitia James told the crowd that “every child deserves the best chance to succeed in school, and that includes a healthy, nutritious lunch. I fought for years to establish a universal lunch program for New York’s schoolchildren, but it’s not truly universal if tens of thousands of children have no lunch.” The students stood on the City Hall steps holding signs and making their voices heard. They were featured on NY1 and a foreign language news station, NTDTV. “The protest was inspiring because diverse groups came together to protest against something that was unfair and unjust to all students with religious dietary needs,” said Ava Eden, an eighth grader at the Upper West Side pre-K through Grade 8 school. “We’re proud to educate our students to become advocates for issues of importance to our community,” said Head of School Raizi Chechik.

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MDSers join OU at City Hall in ‘Free Lunch for All’ rally

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

2 Siemens semifinalists at NSHA

with the children’s feet and using balloons to see visualize a height of 30 amos, the boys explored water outside the Hewlett school (which was floods of fun!) and took a schoolwide photo as they were dressed in rainbow colors.

Students in the Early Childhood Center of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway learned about Parshat Noach and G-d’s promise to the Jewish people, creating a beautiful early childhood rainbow.

Kids at YOSS and HAFTR replicate Noah’s rainbow

Yeshiva of South Shore’s Hollander Early Childhood Center engaged their youngest talmidim in exciting activities to celebrate Parshas Noach. After Rabbi Eli Herzberg demonstrated the size of the Teva by measuring the backyard

October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 â&#x20AC;¢ 7 Cheshvan 5778

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October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Rivky Morel enlightened HANC Middle Schoolers on her battle with cystic fibrosis which robbed her of a normal childhood. A successful lung transplant allowed her to live She made a pamphlet about tefillot hashachar, writing, ‘’You never know what a big deal it is to be dressed until your clothing is taken away from you and you are given a hospital gown. a piece of material with a string in the back. … We all have intrinsic dignity and the need to feel precious and pure. Our clothing reflects and protects that godly aspect within each of us.’’

Rivky at HANC

Skate!

Girls at the Schulamith School in Cedarhurst laced up for a day of achdut on wheels.

DRS tzedakah On DRS’ Tzedakah Day, students from all grades collected funds for charities. Every boy was able to either assist in gathering tzedakah or donating to the cause, raising $2,500 dollars to help families who were affected in Hurricane Harvey.

YCQ spirit At the end of last school year, the YCQ Parent Teacher Organization handed out beach balls with the YCQ logo as part of a spirit campaign. Parents and students took pictures over the summer in various locations (including Mount Rushmore, at right) all featuring the beach ball or other YCQ “swag.”

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13 THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 â&#x20AC;¢ 7 Cheshvan 5778

Motzei Shabbos November 11, 2017 23 Cheshvan 5778 8:00pm

Mini Open House Monday November 13, 2017 25 Cheshvan 5778 8:00pm

Pre-Register at www.Rambam.org

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Open House

October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Sale Dates: October 29th - November 3rd 2017

Weekly Post 11 oz Cocoa or Fruity Pebbles; 12 oz Alpha Bits; 12.5 oz Honey Comb; 14.75 oz Golden Crisp

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THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

Sale Dates: October 29th - November 3rd 2017

October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Jerry’s childhood tales: ‘Wook out fo de rebbi’ Judy Joszef who’s in the kitchen

few years a ago, when Jerry became reconnected with his childhood friend Leslie Kellner a’h, he couldn’t believe the depth and breadth of Leslie’s power of recall. Leslie seemed to remember the details of his childhood, as well as a myriad of stories from his yeshiva Rambam/BTA days. Like a comic archeologist, he was able to unearth layers of their past experiences that were long buried and forgotten. Of course for Jerry, Leslie was the most accurate and credible witness of growing up with Jerry in Yeshiva Rambam and at Turkin’s bungalow colony. As I wrote in an earlier article, I actually got angry with Jerry when I learned of his younger-day shenanigans. Jerry felt terrible as he realized that Leslie spoke the truth and called Leslie to apologize but Leslie replied, “You were just a little kid back then, you must let this go.” Leslie was a great guy and Jerry was forgiven. However, Leslie also related, in full color and clarity, a dimension from Jerry’s past which I didn’t fully appreciate or understand. Leslie told me that Jerry called Leslie “Wesswey.” Jerry couldn’t pronounce L’s. Jerry also experienced technical difficulties in pronouncing “Th.” Thus, for example, “the girl” in Jerryeese sounded like “de guyl.” So, “look at the girl” sounded like “wook at de guyl” in Jerryeese.” “Weswee wook at de guyl” “Wook out fo de Webbi, weswee” (look out for the rabbi, Leslie) could be heard in the halls and classrooms of Yeshiva Wambam. You get the picture. During a parentteacher meeting, one of Jewwy’s teachers asked his mother, when did Jerry came to America. His mom proudly asserted that “Jewwy was born in Amewica.” The teacher replied that it’s impossible that Jewwy was born in Amewica. And so it went.

Turns out his brother Seme also spoke Jewwyeese or perhaps Joszefeese at Wambam. The school effectuated an “intervention” to rehabilitate Jewwy and Seme as they were each failing all subjects. The school determined that a speech pathologist be introduced into their home environment to perhaps uncover the root of Jerry and Seme’s linguistic anomalies. An expert speech pathologist who was a decorated professor at Brooklyn College was hired and met the family in their one-bedroom apartment on Elm Avenue. After listening to the family merrily and naturally converse with one another, the problem became evident as they spoke Yiddish at home speckled with an amalgamation of Hungarian Czechoslovakian Russian and some pseudo English. erry couldn’t pronounce L’s and had great difficulty with R’s with the combination of RL fully defeating him and whoever was trying to understand what he was trying to say. It was as if Jerry was on a game show with contestants trying to formulate in English the arcane sounds he was making. The speech pathologist determined that the family must speak English at home. Of course this was easier said than done and the family commenced a lengthy rehabilitation process which began to bear fruit after Jerry and Seme continued failing all courses at Wambam. Seme began to master English and American culture in high school at the Yeshivah of Flatbush and became a more than capable high school student while Jerry continued the family legacy of failing substantially all courses at BTA. He did make up for it in college, law school and grad school, thankfully! As Jerry began to reminisce about his acculturation process to English and to America he remembered an episode from kindergarten when he attended public school which was on Elm Avenue between Coney Island Avenue and East 12th Street, basically across the street from Jerry’s apartment on Elm Avenue. He was five years old and had no friends in his class as neither the teachers nor the other kids in his class could under-

stand what Jerry was babbling about. He felt lonely and miserable every day as he was left out of basically everything. Eventually one good-hearted boy in the class, Robert, befriended Jerry and this changed everything for him. He had an American friend who, he felt, welcomed him to America. One day Jerry asked Robert if they could change names for the day, as Robert was popular and had many friends. Robert generously agreed and Jerry loved being called Robert by his friend. Jerry felt as if this new identity might attract other kids to befriend him. On that day the parents of all the kids were invited to the classroom to witness their children enjoying themselves in class. The children were doing their thing in front of the parents and Robert called Jerry Robert in front of the other kids. At which point one girl who incessantly made fun of Jerry sternly retorted, “He’s not Robert he’s just Jerry.” Jerry stammered close to tears, “I’m not Jewwy, I’m Wobet.” She corrected him angrily, “You’re not Robert, you’re Jerry.” Jewwy angrily insisted that he was Wobbit. Things heated up and Jewwy eventually punched the girl in the nose in front of the parents

who all gasped in horror. Jerry had forgotten that the parents and teachers were watching the idyllic scene that Jewwy destroyed. Jewwy saw his mom looking embarrassed and angry. He was forced to decide whether he would freeze or take flight. Jerry implemented a Forest Gump “Run Forest” maneuver, which to Jewwy sounded like “Won Fowest,” and he raced out of the classroom down the school steps and out the door to Elm Avenue. He then began to race full throttle, like Fowest Gump, as his mom was pursuing him and closing in fast as he approached Elm and East 12th. Jewwy’s kindergarten experience was a precursor to many colorful experiences in and out of school during Jewwy’s childhood as he discovered Amewica from his starting gate at 1213-1223 Elm Avenue. Talking about words that are mispronounced, I came across many names of foods that people have problems pronouncing — quinoa, acai, nicoise, edamame, and tzatziki, to name a few. Here’s a often mispronounced recipe that is quick to make and delicious with anything you want to pair it with.

Tzatziki dressing or dip

2 8 ounce containers plain yogurt 2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 lemon, juiced salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill 3 frozen Dorit garlic cubes In a food processor or blender, combine yogurt, cucumber, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dill and garlic. Process until wellcombined. Transfer to a container, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour for best flavor.

10 pantry staples for easy dinners anytime By Shannon Sarna, Nosher via JTA Keeping a stocked pantry is a deep love of mine; it must run in my blood. My mother also was obsessed with having backups of her favorite products in the basement — boxes of pasta, cans of beans, soup and tons of stuff in our second freezer. Until recently we lived in an apartment, and my desire to keep a stocked pantry was limited by space. But now with more space in a house, along with a second fridge and freezer downstairs, I like to be ready for anything: impromptu guests, at-the-ready weeknight dinner or just extra reserves in case of zombie apocalypse. But you don’t need a second freezer or walkin pantry to keep dinner-perfect staples in your house. Just a few key products will help ensure there is always something to make for dinner. Here are some of my favorite pantry staples, and dishes you can make with them. 1. Canned tomatoes and tomato sauce Having canned tomatoes (included diced ones) and tomato sauce on hand is essential, at least in my Italian-Jewish-American house. In fact, I cannot keep enough cans of tomato in my house.

2. Chickpeas Chickpeas are easy, cheap, high in fiber and a good source of vegetarian protein. My kids love to eat them plain, I love to roast them as snacks, and I also like to add them to pasta, stews and other dishes. Did I mention they are super cheap? I literally buy them by the caseload from Costco. 3. Matzah ball soup mix Matzah ball soup, all day every day. I like pairing mine with some frozen kreplach, egg noodles and veggies for the ultimate comforting dinner. 4. Broths Whether you are making soup, rice, pasta, stew or curry, having broths in your pantry is an absolute must. I tend to keep homemade chicken stock in the freezer and store-bought vegetable broth in my cabinet. You can also make a simple vegetable broth using leftover vegetable peelings — waste not, want not. 5. Israeli couscous It’s not quite pasta (OK, technically it’s pasta), but it’s super fun to make as a side dish, main dish or even added to a can of store-bought tomato soup. 6. Pizza dough Pizza dough is incredibly versatile, comes

Chickpeas are easy, cheap and high in fiber.

in many varieties (whole grain, plain, whole wheat, herb) and can be frozen to use at a later date. I love buying a few bags of the whole grain pizza dough from Whole Foods and pulling it out when I am in a pinch for dinner. 7. Puff pastry Puff pastry can be used for sweet and savory dishes. You can store it in your freezer for flaky

dinner deliciousness when you need it. 8. Coconut milk Coconut milk will turn humdrum pureed soup into something creamy and luxurious, and it is a quintessential ingredient in many Indian- and Asian-inspired dishes. 9. Lentils Lentils, like chickpeas, are cheap, satisfying and delicious sources of protein you can keep on hand for easy cooking. I like to keep French lentils and red lentils around for soups, curry and mujaderra. 10. Eggs WikiCommons You may not think of eggs as a pantry staple, but if you have eggs in your refrigerator and a loaf of bread in your freezer, then you’ve got dinner. We loved having breakfast for dinner growing up — pancakes, scrambled eggs and some fruit is satisfying, easy comfort food at its best. But of course, you can make lots of other things with eggs, too. Shannon Sarna is editor of The Nosher.

Wine & Dine

Nothing beats a cup of hot tea on an autumn day the pan. Sprinkle with remaining apples and half the remaining streusel. Top with the remaining batter and the rest of the streusel. Place in the oven and bake 60-90 minutes until a tester comes out with just a coating of cinnamon specks. Let cool. Remove carefully from the pan. Serves 8-10.

Joni Schockett kosher kitchen

had my first cold-weather cup of hot tea the other day. I stood in the kitchen and tried to will summer to stay for just a while longer. The sun blazed in my kitchen, the sky was that robin’s egg blue that indicates a warm day, but the thermometer said 54 degrees and I could not argue with that. So I gave in and brewed some delicious white peach tea and poured it into my favorite winter mug — all the while trying to talk myself into appreciating the cold that will eventually settle in. It’s true. Winter is coming and I have to adjust. Tea helps. Whenever I have a cup of tea in the afternoon, usually while grading papers or doing some other paper work, I always think of the tea my grandmother drank. She made it in a glass with a long spoon. She took a cube of sugar into her mouth and sipped the tea, making it sweet in her mouth. I tried to do the same thing, but always ended up crunching the sugar cube before I ever got to the cooled and diluted tea she let me drink. I also remember the teacakes my grandmother used to make to have with her glass of tea. They were always made in a loaf pan or her old, beat up, aluminum tube pan. No matter the flavor, every cake would be drizzled with a honey and sugar-infused glaze that I loved. The cakes were often not very sweet. I guess the sweetened tea was sweet enough. And they often were a bit dry, which made them perfect for dipping. She would cut finger-sized pieces and dip them quickly so as not to absorb too much liquid. Sometimes her cakes contained bits of ginger or apricots or dates. Sometimes, chocolate or bananas. loved her teacakes and the times I sat with her at the kitchen table and talked. I have no idea what we talked about, but I can still see her sitting there with a long spoon in the glass that she held to the side while she sipped her tea through her sugar cube. And then, decades later, I discovered that I had been the victim of a cake delusion. The cakes my grandmother and then my aunts and mother made, were not tea” cakes at all. Authentic “tea” cakes are actually sugar cookies! It seems my ancestral family bakers made coffeecakes which they served with tea. My aunt made delicate, light cakes with snipped apricots and prunes or apples, pears or cranberries and walnuts. She made them in fall and winter and called them tea cakes.. My dad made amazing blueberry cakes as soon as the blueberry bush in our yard was ready for harvesting and called them coffee cakes. In my family, the name of the cake was season dependent. This is the beginning of the season that calls out for a late afternoon cup of tea and a bite of a delicious cake, no matter the name. Have it in your livingroom while reading a good book or in your busy office while you juggle, well, everything! Have coffee or tea, it really doesn’t matter. There is just something so relaxing about this ritual, and I think we very much need a bit of relaxation these days.

Sour Cream Butter Berry Tea Cake (Sairy)

Brown Sugar Tea Cake (Pareve or Dairy)

This is delicious with or without the toasted pecans. 3 cups unbleached flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1-1/2 sticks trans-fat free pareve margarine or unsalted butter, softened 2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed 3 extra-large eggs 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk or buttermilk OPTIONAL: Brown sugar glaze 1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans for garnish Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan and set aside. Place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and whisk to blend. Set aside. Place the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and beat well. Turn the mixer to low and add the flour and almond milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and tap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles. Place in the oven and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around the edge to loosen the cake. Let cool another 10 minutes and turn the cake onto a wire rack or a serving platter. Glaze with Brown Sugar Glaze and sprinkle with chopped pecans or dust with powdered sugar to serve Serves 10. Brown Sugar Glaze (Pareve) 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 2 tbsp. almond milk 1-2 cups confectioners’ sugar Place the sugar, extract and milk in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar melts and the mixture is liquid. Let cool. Whisk in enough confectioner’s sugar to create a glaze consistency. Drizzle over the cooled cake and sprinkle with toasted, chopped pecans.

Cinnamon Apple Tea Cake (Dairy)

STREUSAL TOPPING: 1 cup unbleached flour 1/2 firmly packed light brown sugar 3 tbsp. dark brown sugar 1/2 cup melted butter 2 tsp. cinnamon OPTIONAL: 1/2 to 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans CAKE: 2 cups unbleached flour 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 2 tsp, baking powder Pinch salt 2 large eggs 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup whole or 2% milk, or almond milk 2 or 3 large apples, Granny Smith, Cortland or Northern Spry, peeled, cored and thinly sliced. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray. Set aside. Mix the ingredients for the streusel in a medium bowl. Set aside. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk until blended. Break the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer and mix well. Add the melted butter, vanilla and milk and mix. Add to the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula just until combined. Peel, core and slice the apples. Cut the slices into half-inch pieces. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar. Set aside. Spoon one-third of the batter into prepared pan. Spread with half the apples and one-third of the streusel. Spoon another third of the batter over the apples and spread to make sure the batter reaches the sides of

6 tbsp. melted butter 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 2/3 cup sour cream 1 cup unbleached flour 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 4 oz. softened brick-style cream cheese 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 cup blackberries 1/2 cup blueberries Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan and set aside. Place the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add one egg and the teaspoon of vanilla and beat until thickened, 2-3 minutes. Add the sour cream and beat until blended. Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and beat until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed. Scrape into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is lightly golden and springs back when lightly touched, about 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, Wash the electric mixer bowl and dry thoroughly. Add the cream cheese, powdered sugar, teaspoon of vanilla extract, and the remaining egg. Beat until smooth and creamy, scraping the bowl as needed. Spread the topping over the cake and arrange blackberries and blueberries on top, pressing in gently. Bake until the topping is set and lightly brown but still jiggles a bit when the pan is gently shaken (20 to 30 minutes). Cool on a rack. Loosen the edges with a knife and remove the rim. Slide the cake off the bottom and onto a serving plate by sliding a thin knife under the bottom. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and more berries. Serves 8-12.

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

The JEWISH STAR

OU: Women need not be rabbis to be leaders By Ben Sales, JTA The Orthodox Union is founding its own division to advance women as congregational leaders, as well as to promote Jewish study and communal participation for women in Modern Orthodoxy. The announcement comes nearly nine months after the group, an umbrella association of centrist Orthodox synagogues, issued a ruling banning those synagogues from hiring women for clergy roles. The Department of Women’s Initiatives, which will launch Nov. 1, aims to increase women’s participation in synagogues in a way the O.U. feels is consonant with Orthodox tradition. “I think it’s important for women to hear what they can do,” said Adina Shmidman, the department’s incoming director. “This department is really focused on the positive, and the will to continue and find opportunities for women. I think positivity and enthusiasm and uniting women through Torah study is primary, whether it be personal leadership opportunities or communal leadership roles.” The department will have a budget in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and provide guidance, networking and funding for women who want to be professional leaders in Orthodox synagogues. It will also promote women as congregational scholars-in-residence and encourage women to take on lay leadership roles at synagogue. In addition, it will encourage the physical expansion of women’s spaces in synagogues. Also, the department will offer high-level women’s classes in Torah study, as well as programs for youth. And it will form a think tank to analyze programs and resources for Orthodox women. Conceived three years ago, the department is in part a response to the ascendance of wom-

Adina Shmidman, a doctor of educational psychology and the founder of a mentoring program for rabbis’ wives, will be the first director of the OU’s new Department of Women’s Initiatives.

en to public leadership roles during the past few decades, O.U. leaders said. They also noted that there is a much wider range of educational opportunities available to Orthodox women than in the past. A synagogue with an entirely male senior staff, said O.U. President Moishe Bane, risks unintentionally sidelining half its membership. “It’s difficult to expect that when men are the primary communal leadership that they’ll understand and appreciate the roles women play and should be playing, and the needs they have,” Bane said. “I think there’s a recognition in the Orthodox Union that the world is changing rapidly, and people’s expectations are changing rapidly.” In February, the group issued a ruling bar-

ring women from holding a title such as “rabbi,” or even from serving without title in a role in which she would be performing “common” clergy functions such as ruling on legal matters, officiating at life-cycle events, delivering sermons from the pulpit during services, leading services and serving as a synagogue’s primary authority. The same ruling urged an expanded role for women as teachers and pastoral counselors, and as lay leaders and professionals. The Rabbinical Council of America, another Orthodox umbrella group, has also issued a ruling against women clergy. Four Orthodox synagogues that are O.U. members currently employ women in such positions — all of them graduates of Yeshivat Maharat, a liberal Orthodox women’s seminary in Riverdale. Women who graduate from the seminary receive the title “maharat,” a Hebrew acronym for “Jewish legal, spiritual and Torah leader” that avoids conferring the title “rabbi.” But earlier this year, the O.U. sent representatives to these synagogues asking the female clergy to change their titles. According to a recent survey, a majority of U.S. Modern Orthodox Jews either fully or somewhat agree that women should have “expanded roles in the clergy.” More than onethird either fully or somewhat support a woman holding a position with “rabbinic authority.” A solid majority says a woman can serve as president of a synagogue — a lay position. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance website currently lists over 80 women who have served as presidents of Orthodox congregations. Bane and Allen Fagin, the O.U.’s executive vice president, said the department’s establishment is not a reaction to fallout from the ban. Rather, Bane said the ban itself was a result of the department’s planning process, which included an examination of Jewish legal limits on

women’s leadership. The department will advance women as teachers, professional staff and pastoral counselors. But Bane said a woman should not be “the face of the synagogue.” “One of the most important conversations we believe needs to take place in our community is to define appropriate job descriptions and titles for women who will serve as synagogue professionals, in roles that are consistent with Jewish law, consistent with tradition, but are extremely important within the shul,” he said. Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, said she hoped the O.U. would make good on its promises to advance women and invest more in women’s programs. Along with positive actions, she recommended that the O.U. stop actively opposing Orthodox women clergy and the congregations that employ them. WeissGreenberg spoke to JTA without knowledge of the department’s establishment, which is being first reported here. “They list all these things that women can and should be doing,” she said, referring to the O.U.’s Jewish legal ruling. “Actions speak louder than words. Let’s hear from women — women who are not token women, who are highly educated, passionate and invested.” Shmidman is the kind of synagogue leader the O.U. hopes to develop more of. She has a doctorate in educational psychology and serves her community as the rebbetzin, or rabbi’s wife, of her synagogue in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. In 2015, she founded the Rebbetzin to Rebbetzin Mentoring Program under the auspices of Yeshiva University, which pairs younger rabbis’ wives with more experienced rebbetzins who guide them on how to serve and navigate their communities. While Shmidman hopes to continue trainSee Women leaders on page 26

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SHAbbAT STAR

‫כוכב של שבת‬

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

Where you are also reveals who you are RAbbi binny FReedmAn The hearT of jerusalem

is name was Shachar, which means the dawn, and the joke was with him around it was always dawn, because he blotted out the sun. He was a massive fellow, and watching him squeeze into the gunner’s seat, the smallest, most confined place in the tank, deep in the belly of the turret, was a sight to behold. One would think with such a fellow sharing your tank, there would be a lot less room to breathe, but in fact the opposite was true. Somehow, his sharp sense of humor, and the smile always twinkling at the corners of his mouth, made it seem like there was lots of room, and late at night when the maneuvers were done for the night, guys would end up hanging out in our tank to shoot the breeze with Shachar. Sometimes nine or ten guys would be crowded on and in the tank, sharing a good laugh, and the smallest bag of pistachio nuts he always carried seemed to go on forever. It always fascinated me that at the end of the week, back on base, the room I shared with a different group of guys seemed a lot smaller than the tiny tank turret we all had to maneuver around in. It was only later, in Officer’s course, that the mysterious truth of this hit home. In the winter, out in the field, it is incredibly depressing to have to sleep in the tanks. The desert nights in which we were training are bitter cold, and finding a spot in and around the tank to stretch out was always challenging. The best place to sleep, strange as it may sound, was usually (barring rain) out on the “sipun.” or flat rear of the tank, on top of the engine. Long after the tank went quiet, the heat of the engine kept the exterior of the tank warm, which made for a cozy night’s sleep. Usually, there was a scramble to get your sleeping bag laid out there at the end of the night inspection, so you could get the best spot. Somehow, Shachar figured out a way for all four of us to sleep out on the sipun. I thought this was a great trick, and watched how we slept as I thought it would be a great trick to share with my crew one day as an officer. But as hard as I tried, I have never been able to replicate

Shachar’s feat, which is especially strange when considering how much space Shachar himself must have taken up. In fact, one night, in trying to arrange my crew in just such a manner, I nearly rolled off the tank, sleeping bag and all! I guess space isn’t about where we are; it is somehow connected to who we are. erhaps this is at the root of a challenging story in this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha: “And Avram was very rich, (“heavy”) with livestock, silver and gold. … And Lot, who accompanied Avram, also had cattle and tents. And the land could not support them living together; their wealth was so great they could not dwell together. “And there was an argument (riv) between the shepherds of Avram, and the shepherds of Lot, and the Canaanites and the Perizites then dwelled in the land. And Avram said to Lot, let there not be a quarrel (merivah) between you and me, and between my shepherds and your shepherds. After all, we are brothers. Behold, all the land is before you, why not separate from me? If you will go left (north), then I will go right (south), and if you go to the right then I will go left. (Bereishis 13:2–9) What is going on here? Four thousand years ago, there wasn’t enough room for Avram to live with his own nephew? Stranger still, is that Avram appears to make no attempt at rapprochement, but immediately suggests a parting of the ways. This path of separation in the face of conflict is a pattern found elsewhere in the bible, notably in the case of Yishmael. There too, when there is conflict between Yishmael, son of Hagar and Abraham, and Yitzchak, son of Abraham and Sarah, the response, on two occasions, is banishment. If our children fight with each other, should we simply get rid of one of them? Perhaps most telling is Lot’s reaction to Avram’s suggestion: “And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the entire Jordan valley (plain), which was very fertile (irrigated), before Hashem destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like G-d’s own garden, like

the land of Egypt, up until Tzoar. And Lot chose for himself the entire Jordan valley, and headed eastward, and they separated one from his brother. And Avram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, casting his tent as far as Sedom. And the people of Sedom were very wicked and sinful to G-d.” (Bereishis 13:10-13) How does someone go straight from the kindness and goodness of the tents of Abraham, to the cruelty and wickedness of Sedom? How could the nephew of Abraham even want to live in Sedom (especially when the beginning of this week’s parsha paints Lot as a partner in the journey of Abraham to an unknown land, at the behest of G-d)? ll alone in a world of pagan idolatry, Abraham leaves behind everything he knows: his home and family, the land of his birth, choosing to follow a dream to an unknown land, in pursuit of a better world. Indeed, Jewish tradition teaches that Abraham is called an “Ivri,” the source of why we are called Hebrews to this day, based on the root ever, or “the side” — because, suggests tradition, all the world was on one side, and Abraham on the other. Wouldn’t you go anywhere if you were convinced G-d was telling you to go? But Lot didn’t have the privilege of that direct communication from G-d. He had to take Uncle Abe’s word for it. So what happened? What went wrong? Clearly, Sedom was not a sudden flash of inspiration. If you are standing in the tents of Abraham and seeing Sedom, then you are already there. When and how did Lot go wrong? And why could Abraham not find a way to bring him back in to the fold? It is worth noting that in between Abraham’s arrival in the land of Israel with Lot, and their separation over this mysterious friction, there is another significant event. Almost immediately upon his arrival in the land of Israel, there is a famine in the land, and Abraham is forced to travel to Egypt in search of sustenance. (12:10-20) Indeed, the rabbis perceive this to be one of the ten great tests Abra-

How does someone go straight from the goodness of the tents of Abraham, to the wickedness of Sedom?

ham faces in his life. It must have been an inordinate challenge to have to leave almost as soon as he arrived. What does it do to your faith, when an act which seems to be an act of G-d forces you to abandon not just your dream, but what you are convinced is the call of G-d. It is interesting that unlike the journey he embarks upon initially to the land of Israel, here there is no communication from G-d. G-d doesn’t tell Abraham what to do; he has to figure out on his own. Something happened to Lot down in Egypt, which had a profound influence on his worldview. Before Egypt, he is part of the family, but by the time they get back; he is walking a different path. Lot may have physically come back from Egypt, but a part of him never leaves. Hence, “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the entire Jordan valley (plain), which was very fertile … like the land of Egypt.” Egypt is a society steeped in pagan idolatry, which was all about the worship of nature, epitomized by the land. Lot is so busy seeing the flocks and the land, he loses sight of what is real in this world. In fact, if what is important is the land, then obviously, it makes a lot more sense to live in the valley, where the land is so much more fertile. So Lot, standing up in the mountains with Abraham, is really already in the valley; he is just looking for the excuse to get there. And Avram’s approach to it all is a lesson we so need to internalize, especially today. What do you do when you have more than enough room on the mountain, but someone else is already in the valley? You have to let him go. You can’t tell, convince, or otherwise move someone to be in the mountain if they are really in the valley. To live together on the mountain, you have to be speaking with someone who is with you on the same mountain. You can discuss how you live together on the, mountain, but that can only happen if you are speaking with someone who is already a mountain person. But if you are on the mountain and they are in the valley, you have to accept you just aren’t ready to live together on the mountain; they just aren’t there. number of years ago I received a challenging e-mail from a student that so disturbed me, I had to take the time to pen at least a brief response. This student, studying in the M.A. International Affairs program at George See Shachar on page 23

Year after year, the Torah reads you anew teHillA R. goldbeRg view from cenTral Park

fter the jokes of Bereshit sermons fade away — “And G-d uttered, zul zayn azoy, and it was so,” or “And G-d created the heavens and the earth and all the rest was made in China” — once the Torah is unfurled for yet another weekly reading cycle, I find the ritual comforting. Granted, after Shabbat Bereshit we quickly faced up to the deluge of Noah, but even though, week in-week out, year in-year out, the stories repeat themselves, new understandings unfold each year. I’m not talking of the new insights from the classical commentaries. There was a time in my life when each

year I would undertake a new classic commentary of Torah to be studied — Rashi, Ramban, Sforno, Malbim, Torah Temima, Radak, Abarbanel, Haamek Davar, etc. Some years I was more disciplined and consistent than others in maintaining this rigorous study schedule. It’s been a long time since I studied the weekly Torah portion so methodically. I now find that the more you read the Torah, the more the Torah reads you. ou start noticing little details, nuances or phrases that speak to you in a new way. You may have seen and read or heard these words tens or hundreds of times before, but suddenly, a sparkle, an insight, a new appeal, emanates from them. As you change and develop, the layers of the Torah’s narratives develop with you. In some ways, each of us sees the weekly Torah portion through the prism of our experience. Previously a character or a story or a

commandment was understood one way; as we age, new light is shed, new understandings revealed. Time is the greatest teacher of all. On some level this is the case with any literature that we read in our formative years, and then re-read as adults. How much more intense is this experience with stories and characters from the Tanach, which we internalize on such a deep level, even if by sheer intimacy of the exposure year in and year out. Also, the weekly parsha becomes an anchor of sorts, not just the stories or the laws. It becomes a language, a discourse, that we deepen as time goes by. The words and phrases deepen into concepts and become the arc of our lives. There is real joy in the completion of the Torah on Simchat Torah, and at the same a real joy in the opportunity of a new beginning. The possibilities become infinite. Despite reading and studying something again and again, despite the obvious expecta-

tion of boredom, somehow there is still room for more; for something not yet known, something new and refined, to take root and grow. No matter how worn or how torn, no matter how dry or stagnant it might seem to be, no matter how illogical it may seem to find new interest in something so familiar, it is precisely this intimacy with the text that unexpectedly each year generates and yields a new fresh perspective. We integrate it into the new, unknown experiences of our lives. Bet is for Bereshit. And for Beginnings, too.

RAbbi Avi billet Parsha of The week Rabbi Billet returns next week

alan Jay geRbeR Kosher BooKworm

esorah Publications recently published a unique compilation of essays that originally appeared as overviews to an Artscroll English commentary to the Book of Bereishis, all authored by one of the greatest commentators on our holy teachings in our times, Rabbi Nosson Scherman. This volume, titled “The Majesty of Bereishis: A deeper understanding from Creation to Mitzrayim,” provides meaningful interpretations to the opening chapters to the Chumash and the history of the Jewish people. This week’s essay is my personal take on the legacy of Rabbi Scherman, a Torah giant, eloquent writer and interpreter of our faith and, most important of all, a decent man. Rabbi Scherman is a native of Newark who at age ten became a dormitory student at Brooklyn’s famed yeshiva Torah Vodaath, an institution from which he was to be ordained a rabbi. He also continued his studies for 11 years at Beth Medrosh Elyon, the post-graduate division of Torah Vodaath, a period in which he established a close relationship with

the yeshiva’s roshei hayeshivah, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, and Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr, both of sacred and blessed memory. He was destined to continue these relationships to the end of their lives and it was these two relationships that would define his career in Torah to this very day. In 1971 Rabbi Scherman became the menahel of Yeshiva and of Mesivta Karlin Stolin where he was to serve for the next six years. That’s when I met him, while I was a member of Brooklyn’s Community School Board 20. We were able to assist students in his yeshiva who lived in my district to obtain various services they were entitled to by law. Rabbi Scherman’s manner of administration wasas a model of honest administration that was deeply appreciated by those who worked for and with him. He was to serve as a role model for many others who followed in his path for years to come. In late 1975, Rabbi Scherman began a new chapter in his life, one that changed Jewish learning and the Jewish world. Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, zt’’l, invited him to

write an introduction on Megillas

Rabbi Nosson Scherman

Esther. Originally, it was intended to be only a singular volume tribute to Rabbi Mair Fogel, z’’l, a dear friend of ours and a devoted teacher in my school district whose sudden passing in the prime of his life shook us all to the core. The response to the book and its ‘’overview’’ essay by Rabbi Scherman was stunning. It went through several printings and sold over 20,000 copies, an unprecedented achievement for an Orthodox publication at that time.

For Rabbi Scherman, this act of chesed for his dearly departed friend was to redefine his life’s work and professional career forever. Under his supervision, just about all the Bible, the entire Talmud and related works were to be translated into fluent English with commentary designed for both rabbis and laypersons from all walks of life. This holy task remains the great legacy of Rabbi Scherman’s holy work. To this day, Rabbi Scherman serves as the general editor of Mesorah Publications. In its early years he was best known as the author of scores of “ Overviews” which provided eloquent wide-ranging perspectives on the deep and underlying messages contained in the Torah and prayer texts. His translations and commentaries on the Chumash witnessed a press run to date exceeding one million copies “The Majesty of Bereishis,” whose text is taken from the overviews of that initial commentary, will, in my opinion, serve as a constant companion to any edition of Sefer Bereishis for the many years to come. In closing, let me make personal reference to Rabbi Scherman’s continued sacred work, his personal project, a complete translation and commentary on the Prophets and Writings, a work that will serve to promote these works for regular study in our homes, our schools and our shuls.

Abraham avinu and the covenantal community Rabbi david etengoff

ur parasha, LechLecha, contains the sole instances of the specific phrase, “lebrit olam,” (“as an everlasting covenant,”) that appear in Chamisha Chumshei Torah (the Five Books of the Torah): And I will establish My covenant between Me and between you and between your seed after you throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant, to be to you for a G-d and to your seed after you. (17:7) Those born in the house and those purchased for money shall be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. (17:13) And G-d said, “Indeed, your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.” (17:19, this and all Bible translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach) A straightforward reading of these pasukim (verses) reveals three separate, yet inextricably interwoven covenants: The unalterable agreement between Hashem, Abraham and all Jews forevermore affirming that the Master of the Universe will always be our G-d, the physical covenant of brit milah (circumcision), and the statement that the covenant of Abraham will continue through his yet-to-be born son, Isaac, and his future offspring. My rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal — “the Rav” — depicted the relationship between these pasukim in the following manner: “With circumcision, another mission was assigned to Abraham: the formation and education of a covenantal community that would be close to G-d and would follow a new way of life, an enigmatic modus existentiae [existential mode of life], a special relationship to G-d.” (Abraham’s Journey: Reflections on the Life of the Founding Patriarch)

What are the constitutive elements of this “covenantal community that would be close to G-d and would follow a new way of life” that Abraham was charged with creating? According to the Rav in his deeply philosophical 1944 work, “U’vikashtem Misham” (“And From There You Shall Seek”), it is comprised of two complementary aspects, Knesset Yisrael and Adat Yisrael: “Knesset Yisrael (the community of Israel) — its definition: the inextricable connection between the first and last generations of prophet and listener, of Torah scholar and student, of the Revelation of G-d’s Divine Presence in the earliest lights of dawn, and the eschatological vision on that day to come. The Community of Israel is also Adat Yisrael (the congregation of Israel). It incorporates in its innermost being the ancient and true testimony of the myriad visions that have never been obliterated in the depths of the past, the continuity of history, and the unceasing transmission of the Revelation from generation to generation.” n sum, according to the Rav, the covenantal community that Abraham founded is transhistorical in nature, and definitionally links all Jews to one another for all time. As such, the prophets and their adherents (the entire Jewish nation), as well as Torah scholars and their students, are eternally bound together by both “the unceasing transmission of the Revelation” that took place on that lonely mountain in the midst of the wasteland of the Sinai Desert, and Judaism’s Messianic vision of enduring peace for all mankind. The Rav has given us a far-reaching theological understanding of the fundamental nature of the covenantal community. We may now well ask: “How did Abraham establish it and ensure its continuation for all time?” I be-

lieve the Torah explicitly attests to the secret of his success: “For I [G-d] have known him because he commands his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the L-rd to perform righteousness and justice (la’asot tzedakah u’mishpat), in order that the L-rd bring upon Abraham that which He spoke concerning him.” (Bereishit 18:19) The extent to which tzedakah u’mishpat have shaped the collective persona of our people is underscored in Talmud Bavli, Yevamot 79a: “This nation [Israel] is distinguished by three characteristics: They are merciful (harachmanim), meek (habaishanim) and practitioners of loving-kindness (gomlai chasadim). ‘Merciful,’ as it is written, ‘and grant you compassion, and be compassionate with you, and multiply you’ (Devarim 13:18). ‘Meek,’ for it is written, ‘and in order that His awe shall be upon your faces’ (Shemot 18:17). ‘Practitioners of Loving-Kindness,’ as it is written, ‘because he [Abraham] commands his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the L-rd to perform righteousness and justice’ (Bereishit 18:19).” While we might have thought this passage was merely extra-legal in nature, the Rambam (Maimonides) teaches us otherwise by codifying it as a normative halacha: “The distinguishing signs of the holy nation of Israel is that they are meek, merciful, and kind.” (Mishneh Torah, Sefer Kedushah, Hilchot Issurei Biah 19:17, translation, Rabbi Eliyahu Touger) As such, Abraham’s legacy of gemilut chasadim emerges as one of the most prominent characteristics of our nation, and the foundation upon which the covenantal community is based. As the prophet Michah declared: “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the

as Michah declared: ‘He has told you … do justice, love lovingkindness, and walk humbly with your g-d.’

L-rd demands of you; but to do justice, to love loving-kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d.” (6:8) With Hashem’s help, may we, as a nation and as individuals, fulfill these stirring words and thereby become links in the great chain of being that began with Abraham and continues for evermore. V’chane yihi ratzon.

Luach

Fri Oct 27 • 7 Cheshvan Parsha Lech Lecha Candlelighting: 5:40 pm

Havdalah: 6:47 pm

Fri Nov 3 • 14 Cheshvan Parsha Vayera Candlelighting: 5:31 pm

Havdalah: 6:39 pm

Fri Nov 10 • 21 Cheshvan Parsha Chayei Sara Candlelighting: 4:23 pm

Havdalah: 5:31 pm

Fri Nov 17 • 28 Cheshvan

Shabbos Mevarcdhim • Parsha Toldos Candlelighting: 4:17 pm

Havdalah: 5:26 pm

Fri Nov 24 • 6 Kislev Parsha Vayetzei Candlelighting: 4:13 pm

Havdalah: 5:21 pm

Fri Dec 1 • 13 Kislev Parsha Vayishlach Candlelighting: 4:10 pm

Havdalah: 5:19 pm

Fri Dec 8 • 20 Kislev Parsha Vayeshev Candlelighting: 4:09 pm

Havdalah: 5:18 pm

Five Towns times from the White Shul

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

The Torah legacy of Rabbi Nosson Scherman

22 October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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Iranian nuclear revelations from Argentina Ben Cohen Viewpoint

sraeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon made a good point at a Security Council meeting on the Middle East last week when he stated that the Iranian regime “has tried to obtain nuclear capabilities for years.” “Today, the regime’s intentions are no different than before,” Danon said. Iran wants nuclear weapons for pretty much the same reasons that North Korea pursued and obtained them: to ascend to the commanding heights of global politics as a genuine adversary of the U.S.; to cow and confound its regional adversaries; and to engineer a situation in which the West, having failed to prevent an Iranian bomb just as it did the North Korean one, frets on a daily basis over whether an Islamist regime with a nuclear weapon will be more or less as amenable to national security interest-based negotiations than the Soviet communist one was. Danon’s observation should kept uppermost in

mind in the ongoing debate about American policy towards Iran, and in particular the future of the nuclear deal with Tehran. Even if the deal survives until its “sunset” in 2030, when all restrictions on Iranian nuclear development will be lifted, a future U.S. president may well express fury that his predecessors didn’t deal with the problem when they had the chance. And that president may also find herself in a situation where STARTstyle talks with a nuclear-armed Iran is simply one of a limited number of bad options. So, while some hope remains for preventing Iran’s nuclear weaponization, the case that Iran’s nuclear ambitions have essentially remained unaltered needs to be stated with absolute clarity. In that sense, a timely example arrived this week, in the form of the testimony by a former Argentine intelligence operative, Ramon Bogado, to a court in Buenos Aires. Bogado testified before a judicial inquiry into allegations made by the murdered Argentine federal prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, that the former Argentine government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner negotiated a secret pact with the Iranians in 2011 to exonerate Tehran of responsibility for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. According to Bogado, a part of

the deal involved the transfer of nuclear expertise, technology and equipment to Iran from Argentina, which has operated a domestic nuclear program since the early 1960s that many observers regard as the gold standard in that industry. Any nuclear transactions, Bogado said, would be moved through shell companies in Uruguay and Argentina, under the watchful eye of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez—whom Bogado confirmed was the key influence on Kirchner in her decision to embrace Tehran as strategic partner, leaving the unresolved AMIA case, and Nisman personally, as dangerous obstacles in the way of that goal. t’s important to remember that by the time the secret pact was signed by former Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, in January 2011, the revelation of Iran’s surreptitious nuclear activities was almost a decade old. A series of U.N. Security Council resolutions had been passed calling on Iran to cease its enrichment activities and open its nuclear facilities to international inspection, and international sanctions against Tehran were locked in place. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it was far better than the one we have now. For that reason, Bogado’s statements in Argentina are a re-

minder that the Iranian regime’s goal is to obtain complete, unsupervised authority over its nuclear program. To that end, it will do its level best to circumvent any restrictions laid down by the international community—just as North Korea did. Iran may have lost its friends in Latin America like Kirchner and the unlamented Chavez—the man who fathered the current destruction of Venezuela—but its influence in its own region is as never before. President Donald Trump makes many of the right noises in response, but the kind of structural ambiguity plaguing his policy towards Iran ultimately serves the Iranian regime more than anyone else. Trump understands that the Iranians want nuclear weapons, but he clearly doesn’t judge everything the Iranians do through that filter. Otherwise, he would not have adopted a Switzerlandesque “neutral” position when Iranian-backed Iraqi forces unilaterally attacked Kurdish areas of northern Iraq this week. Instead, he is pretending the Iraqi government in Baghdad is sovereign and independent in the same way that the Danish one in Copenhagen is. To the Iranians, this is a sign of weakness, and as Bogado’s account of their negotiations with the pliant Argentines appears to confirm, weakness is their best advantage.

Liberal Jews and inconvenient Israeli consensus Jonathan S. toBin

ewish institutions are under siege these days, and their principal critics aren’t neoNazis. Despite the clear leftward tilt of most organized Jewish life, liberal critics are constantly telling us that mainstream groups like AIPAC and federations are toadies of an Israeli government that is pursuing policies that American Jews abhor. The ferment on the left runs from such tame—and largely irrelevant—liberal Zionist groups like J Street to more extreme opponents like IfNotNow and the virulently anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, which dabbles in anti-Semitic libels as well as support for boycotts of Israel. The critics and the naysayers have the ear of many Jews. The reason for this has more to do with the demographic collapse and decline of a sense of Jewish peoplehood among the non-Orthodox denominations that make up about 90 percent of American Jews, than it does with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s shortcomings. But it’s also true that the majority of the non-Orthodox Jewish community has little sympathy with the Is-

raeli government’s positions on the peace process. The notion promoted by President Obama that Israel needs to be saved from itself still resonates among the majority of Jews who voted for him. This view holds that Israel’s continued presence in the West Bank is the prime obstacle to both peace and the future of the Jewish state. But while this liberal consensus deems Netanyahu a problem, its proponents rarely stop to ask why he was elected prime minister four times, including winning the last three elections in a row. The answer is simple. There exists a broad consensus within Israeli society that contradicts the assumptions held by most American Jews. The majority of Netanyahu’s compatriots see his policies as the only possible response to a Palestinian political culture that still refuses to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders might be drawn. Moreover, that Israeli consensus isn’t merely upheld by Netanyahu and his allies; his rivals on the center and the left also embrace it. he latest example of this fact came last week from new Zionist Union party leader Avi Gabbay. The Zionist Union is a coalition of

parties that includes Labor, which was once the dominant faction in Israeli politics and the embodiment of the center-left ethos American Jews tend to identify as representative of the Israel they’d like to support. The Zionist Union is the largest opposition party in the Knesset, and its poll numbers have been on the rise since Gabbay beat former leader Isaac Herzog in a primary earlier this year. Along with the centrist Yesh Atid party’s Yair Lapid, he’s the man who would most likely replace Netanyahu in the next election—assuming Netanyahu survives corruption probes and is able to run again. But on the issue that (other than religious pluralism) most discredits Netanyahu in American Jewish eyes, Gabbay offers nothing very different from the prime minister’s stands. This week, Gabbay said he wouldn’t uproot any settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians. If peace does become possible, he thinks the settlements should remain in place. That’s exactly what Netanyahu—who likens the desire of the Palestinians and their foreign supporters to destroy Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria to ethnic

a consensus contradicts assumptions held by most american Jews.

cleansing—also believes. Earlier in the year, both Lapid and Herzog, Gabby’s predecessor, also made it clear that neither of them saw real peace as a possibility for the foreseeable future. Herzog thought it would take 10 years for the Palestinians to demonstrate they had sufficiently altered their political culture to make peace with a Jewish state possible. Lapid said it would take 20 years. That’s in line with Netanyahu’s belief that while peace and even withdrawal from some territory might someday be necessary, any such move must await a sea change in Palestinian society that would reject violence and the delegitimization of Zionism. There are some voices on the left saying Lapid and Gabbay are just posturing to gain support from centrist voters and would, in fact, pursue very different policies involving withdrawal from the territories if they were elected. They may be right about that. But if so, that merely shows both men understand how most Israelis still see more withdrawals unaccompanied by genuine change among Palestinians as not so much misguided as insane. But Gabbay’s posturing also poses a more important question for liberal Americans. What do you think you know about the conflict that Israelis don’t know? It’s time for American Jews to show some humility and acknowledge that the answer is, not much. Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.

rafael Medoff

he upcoming 75th anniversary of Operation Torch, the Allies’ liberation of North Africa, has triggered discussions about the restrictions that the Roosevelt administration imposed on Jews living in that region, with one prominent scholar surprisingly coming to the defense of FDR’s harsh action. Who would have thought that in this day and age, equal rights for Jews would still be considered debatable? Canadian historian Michael Marrus, writing in the online journal Mosaic on Oct. 23, suggested that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was justified in temporarily denying equal rights to Jews in newly-liberated Algeria, Morocco, and elsewhere, because if the U.S. granted the Jews equality, it might cause “an Arab uprising” against the Allies. According to Marrus, the argument that such a danger was exaggerated might be plausible, but only “in hindsight.” He’s mistaken. It wasn’t just in hindsight; American Jewish leaders confronted that “Arab uprising” warning at the time. Consider, for example, the plea sent to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt by the era’s foremost Jewish leader, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, just a few months before the liberation of North Africa. Concerning Allied fears that sympathy for

the Jews would cause “repercussions among the Arabs,” Wise wrote: “Is it too much to say that the sacrifice of friends in the interests of appeasing the unfriendly has repeatedly proven to be vain? The [pro-Nazi] rebellion in Iraq, the presence of the [Palestinian Arab] Mufti in Berlin and Rome, the failure of Egypt to live up to her treaty of alliance (thousands of Palestine Jews, but no Arab-Egyptian soldiers, have been defending Egyptian soil against invasion) indicate that this policy has failed in the Near East as it has failed everywhere else.” As a result, U.S. Jewish organizations did something in early 1943 that they had almost never done before: they publicly criticized the Roosevelt administration. Wise’s American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress issued a joint statement charging that “the anti-Jewish legacy of the Nazis remains intact in North Africa.” A delegation of Jewish leaders then went to the State Department to personally make the case for equal rights in North Africa before Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles. Jewish organizations also organized a group of prominent French exiles in the United States to present the State Department with a petition on the subject. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and French

Jewish leader Baron Edouard de Rothschild also spoke out. t first, the Roosevelt administration dug in its heels, trotting out the old bogeyman about a potential Arab uprising. But in response to public protests, the administration eventually instructed the local authorities in North Africa to restore equal rights for Jews and shut down the slave labor camps where thousands of Jews had been incarcerated under the old pro-Nazi Vichy regime. And lo and behold—the granting of equality to the Jews did not result in any “Arab uprising” at all. Unfortunately, Michael Marrus’s rationalization of FDR’s North Africa policy is just the latest in a series of instances in which authors have taken extreme positions in defense of Roosevelt’s record on Jewish matters. Military archivist James Kitchens has defended the U.S. refusal to bomb Auschwitz, on the grounds that such an air strike “might have been illegal under international law” because prisoners could have been harmed. Pro-FDR author Robert Rosen contends that Roosevelt was right to say almost nothing in public about the persecution of European Jewry, because “speaking out … may have increased Hitler’s determination to kill more Jews.”

only after protests were slave labor camps where Jews had been incarcerated closed.

Historians Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman have written that FDR’s anti-Jewish quotas in North Africa were an effort “to provide opportunities for Jews, without unduly antagonizing Moslems.” Breitman and Lichtman have characterized Roosevelt’s support for quotas on Jews entering Harvard as an attempt to ensure that “each group should have its share of places and no group should gain undue representation.” They even have claimed that FDR’s antisemitic remarks to Josef Stalin and other Soviet officials in private (in 1942 and 1945) were helpful as “ice-breakers.” The fears that have been cited to justify FDR’s policies on these issues are not just misplaced in retrospect. Those policies actually were tried at the time, and the fears proved groundless. Equal rights for Jews were restored in North Africa—and no Arab uprising resulted. The U.S. did bomb German oil factories adjacent to Auschwitz, inadvertently harming some slave laborers, but nobody prosecuted the pilots as war criminals. President Roosevelt’s anti-Jewish “ice-breakers” to Soviet officials did not result in any Soviet concessions. Nor did FDR’s reluctance to speak out about European Jewry calm Hitler down. The historical record speaks for itself. And it’s much more revealing than the speculation in which some extreme defenders of President Roosevelt prefer to indulge. Dr. Medoff is founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and author or editor of 17 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust.

Jewish center speaker rips Israel Shachar... stephen M. flatow

ust when you thought things couldn’t get any messier over at the Center for Jewish History (see stories on page 24), a New York Times columnist who was invited to speak at an event there has unleashed a barrage of verbal attacks on Israel. The columnist, Roger Cohen, was invited to deliver this year’s Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture. The Leo Baeck Institute is one of six Jewish organizations that operate from the center’s building. In a prelecture interview with the Baeck Institute’s newsletter, LBI News, Cohen lashed out at Israel. “Somehow,” he declared, “the Jews, who were for millennia humiliated and excluded in the diaspora, now find themselves in a semicolonial situation in which they subject the Palestinian people to much of what we once suffered.” “Much of what we suffered?” Gas chambers? Pogroms? Ghettoes? Inquisitions? Which of these, exactly, does Cohen think Israel has used against the Palestinians? He didn’t stop there. Cohen proceeded to declare, “Lawlessness prevails in the settlements.” Another blatant lie. Anybody who is familiar with the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria knows “lawlessness” is an absurd and outrageously false description. Those communities are legal, and the overwhelming majority of their residents are peaceful, lawabiding citizens. Cohen continued, “The settlers vote as citizens of Israel while the millions around them cannot vote.” Utterly false. Of course the Palestinian Arabs can vote, and they do vote—when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lets them. Just five months ago, on May 13, hundreds of thousands of supposedly “disenfranchised” Palestinians went to 461 polling stations, and chose the members of the 391

municipal and village councils in the PA-controlled portions of Judea and Samaria. A total of 3,489 council members were elected. But I guess Roger Cohen wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy accusing Israel of denying Palestinians the right to vote. t’s not as if the Leo Baeck Institute didn’t know what it was getting into when it chose Cohen as its speaker. He has been an outspoken critic of Israel for a long time. In his column from Feb. 10, 2014, he accused the Israelis of “keep[ing] their boots on the heads of the Palestinians.” In his column from Jan. 28, 2016, he urged businesses around the world to take action to force Israel to “cease settlementrelated activities”—in other words, to boycott Israel. And who can forget his series of articles in 2009 whitewashing anti-Semitism in Iran? I find it hard to believe that the leaders of the Leo Baeck Institute were not aware of Cohen’s record before they selected him as their speaker. But whether or not they knew of his attacks on Israel in the past, why did they consider it necessary to circulate his latest attacks on Israel, in their newsletter? Why publicize and legitimize his anti-Israel tirades? A similar question was raised recently when it was revealed that another institution at the Center for Jewish History, the American Jewish Historical Society, was planning a Balfour Declaration event featuring speakers from the anti-Zionist “Jewish Voice for Peace” group. I am not assuming that the controversial new president of the Center for Jewish History, David N. Myers, is to blame for the activities of either the American Jewish Historical Society or the Leo Baeck Institute. They are autonomous organizations that make their own programming and publishing decisions. Nor am I suggesting that people who attack Israel should be deprived of their right to free speech. There are, of course, plenty of platforms for people who want to denounce Israel. The question I am raising is whether mainstream Jewish community institutions should provide platforms for such attacks on the Jewish state. The leaders of the American Jewish His-

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen. Joe Mabel via WikiCommons

torical Society decided, to their credit, that the anti-Zionist Balfour program should be cancelled, since it was not consistent with their society’s mission. Perhaps the folks at the Leo Baeck Institute can learn from that. The Baeck Institute’s mission is to “promote the study and understanding of German-Jewish history.” Roger Cohen’s comparison of Israel’s behavior to that of past persecutors of the Jews—including German Jews, obviously—was a gross distortion of German-Jewish history. The publication of Cohen’s anti-Israel vitriol in the Baeck Institute newsletter was clearly inconsistent with the institute’s mission. The institute should acknowledge its grievous error in judgment. Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Continued from page 20 Washington University, had a disturbing session with one of her professors, who happens to be Syrian. His lecture was on the 1967 war, and he basically said, to quote this student’s letter, that “Israel invaded the Golan to get control over the water so it could channel it down to the Negev — the National Water Carrier. The occupation of Sinai and the West Bank were all just extensions of this water grabbing agenda.” My response to her was largely on the issues themselves: How does this professor explain the nearly 1,000 shells a day that fell from the Syrian controlled Golan Heights on the kibbutzim and settlements of the north between prior to 1967? And what of Syria’s attempts to divert the waters of the Yarmuk River in 1964, in an attempt to dry up the Kinneret Lake, Israel’s only natural, freshwater lake? And what of Syria’s refusal to accept Clinton’s proposal, in exchange for a peace agreement with Israel, to upgrade Syria’s irrigation and water supply system whose faulty pipes cost Syria 47% of her natural water? Perhaps the point of this story in the Torah is that sometimes we need to recognize when a person, or even a people, is just not ready to live up on the mountain. And when you have done what you can do, if a person is in a different place, maybe this just isn’t the time. We may sometimes have no choice to avoid an argument. However, just because I may be in an argument, does not mean I have to let the argument be in me. Abraham, in this moment, teaches the world that where you are is not just about where you are, it really is about who you are as well. Ultimately we can always decide that we refuse to go somewhere, inside our hearts and minds. Avraham understood that the only solution, however painful, was to allow Lot to go to where he really already was. Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem.

THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

False defense of FDR discounts his Shoah record

October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Historical society spikes events linked to BDSers By Ben Sales, JTA The American Jewish Historical Society has canceled two events associated with a Jewish group that supports the BDS movement. The decision to cancel the events came from a small portion of the board, according to Lila Corwin Berman, chair of the society’s academic council. It followed complaints by right-wing activists who have separately sought to remove David Myers, the newly appointed executive of the Center for Jewish History, AJHS’s partner institution, because of his support for left-wing groups like the New Israel Fund and J Street. The society announced last week that it was canceling an October panel on the Balfour Declaration and a December reading of a play. The panel, on the United Kingdom’s 1917 declaration of support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, featured two pro-Palestinian activists and was co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The society also canceled the dramatic reading of “Rubble Rubble,” whose author, Dan Fishback, is a member of JVP. The play, according to the event description, is partially about “an American Israeli settler [who] welcomes her anti-Zionist nephew for a visit.” “After further consideration, the American Jewish Historical Society is cancelling” the two events, the society’s statement read. “While the programs themselves may have merit, they do not align with the mission of the AJHS.” In the days since his play’s cancellation, Fishback has raised more than $10,000 to put on an independent performance of “Rubble Rubble.” Another artist, Ofri Cnaani, announced last week that she would remove her art installation about early 20th century Jewish anarchist Emma Goldman from the Center for Jewish History to protest the cancellation of Fishback’s play. “But now we are committed to making this

The American Jewish Historical Society is housed in this Manhattan building that includes several other Jewish organizations. WikiCommons

performance bigger and better than it would have been otherwise, and without a big institution’s farkakte $18 ticket fees,” Fishback wrote on his fundraising page. “Please join us in supporting free speech and creating space in the cultural landscape for Jews who oppose the occupation.” Berman, who is also director of Temple University’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, said the decision to cancel was made by “a small group of the board.” “They made the decision they thought made the most sense in terms of the mission of AJHS,” she said. “We are in an awfully troubling political climate right now when it comes to the politics around Israel and American Jews.” AJHS, a vast archive that documents American Jewry from 1654 to the present, says its public programs are designed to promote “cross-cultural exchanges and multi-disciplin-

ary research interests while expanding the conversations on American Jewish history, cultures, identities, and the arts.” AJHS’s director of programming, Shirly Bahar — who supports a boycott of Israel — has written on her personal Facebook page that her goal is to foster “critical, edgy, and politically challenging cultural and academic programs where difficult conversations about Mizrahim, Jews of Color, Palestine, cross-cultural solidarity, and anti-racism are highlighted rather than censored.” Last December, she wrote a “Statement in Support of a Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions” for members of the Modern Language Association. “I support BDS as an Israeli whose JewishIsraeli citizenship marked on her ID card exempts her from the harsh oppression that Palestinians experience on a daily basis,” Bahar wrote. “I am not interested in the special privi-

leges and safety that my Jewish identity mark grants me on the expense of Palestinian lives and basic human rights.” Fishback said he supports boycotting cultural works funded by Israel’s government in order to influence its policies, but not boycotting artists due to disagreement with their views. “This regularly happens at Jewish institutions,” Fishback, a self-described “anti-Zionist Jew,” wrote in an email to JTA. “The people doing the actual work are very open minded. The funders and people who are detached from the real work — they’re the ones who make wrongheaded decisions like this.” Support for the BDS movement is considered a red line by the largest pro-Israel and Jewish defense organizations, including those who either share views with or tolerate left-wing groups like the New Israel Fund and J Street. The Anti-Defamation League condemned Jewish Voice for Peace in a 2014 report, saying its “positions on BDS, its willingness to partner with anti-Israel organizations that deny Israel’s right to exist, and its refusal to support a twostate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict demonstrate its hardline stance.” The decision to cancel the events at AJHS followed an op-ed written by Ronn Torossian, a public relations professional, that documented connections between JVP and the events. Torossian has been spearheading the campaign to dismiss Myers, a former professor of Jewish history at UCLA. The five institutions housed under the CJH umbrella — including AJHS, American Sephardi Federation and the Yeshiva University Museum — operate independently of their host. Last month, the CJH board said in a statement that Myers “enjoys the full and unwavering support of the board and staff.” See also “Jewish center speaker rips Israel,” column by Stephen M. Flatow, on page 23.

AFSI: Hey hey, ho ho, David Myers has got to go

From left: JCC Watch.org President Richard Allen, AFSI co-exec director Judy Freedman Kadish, ZOA attorney Liz Berney, AFSI co-executive director Helen Freedman,and Israel advocate Stewart Kahn.

An estimated 200 protesters assembled last Wednesday outside the Center for Jewish History to protest the appointment of David Myers as its new president. The rally was organized by Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI) and JCC Watch.org at 15 West 16 St. in Manhattan. AFSI provided the following explanation: “We, the people, the grassroots, are here to speak up for TRUTH. Enough of the lies and falsehoods. Enough of the revisionist history. The time is NOW, as we stand before the Center of Jewish History — the home of five esteemed institutions — that has allowed itself to be trapped in a quagmire. With David Myers as CEO and president of the center, it becomes the Center of Revised Jewish History, with the Jewish story, the Jewish entitlement — biblical, historic, and legal lost in the fictions and distortions that he brings with him. “Myers has preached the ‘inevitable demise of Israel.’ How dare he deny our 4,000-year-old history, and Hashem’s promise to us that we are his chosen people, to whom he gave the Torah and the Land of Israel? How dare Myers speak about removing Israel as central to Jewish identity?

“There is no other people that has always made Jerusalem its central core. In the midst of the joy of the Jewish wedding, the glass is shattered, reminding us of our connection to Yerushalayim. “Has David Myers been to the ‘settlements’ in Judea and Samaria? Has he ever been on a trip such as an AFSI Chizuk mission, where we climb the hills of Itamar, Yitzhar, Kedumim, Elon Moreh, Shilo, Eli, and on and on? Has he met the people and seen their homes, schools, work places? “If he has, then he knows there is no ‘occupation’ and these are the biblical holy places, and NOT the West Bank. If not, then he must visit them before he condemns them. “How dare Myers excuse the evil terrorism of the Arabs which has been going on since the early 1900s and continues on a daily basis today. He says that it is ‘frustration’ driven. What drivel is that? What humanity is that? Do we excuse mass murderers because they are ‘frustrated’? “How dare Myers rewrite Jewish history so that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 is questioned, the Israel victories of 1948

Pamela Hall

and 1967 are declared disasters and a case of Israel ‘conquering’ its own land, rather than re-claiming it? “The time is NOW! We have to change the trajectory — antiIsrael propaganda against Israel cannot be tolerated, especially in an institution named THE CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY. “What history will David Meyers be teaching those who walk through those doors? What lies and defamations will he be promoting, disguised as historical facts? “Will it be the propaganda of J Street, the New Israel Fund, BDS, IfNotNow, Open Hillel, and the Academic Advisory Council of Scholars for Israel and Palestine? This is intolerable. “We denounce the evil of such teachings and plead with the Center of Jewish History to purge itself of this infection in its mids. FIRE MYERS. FIRE MYERS. FIRE MYERS.” The rally heard speeches by AFSI’s co-executive directors, Helen Freedman and Judy Freedman Kadish; JCCWatch.org President Richard Allen; ZOA’s Liz Berney; AFSI’s Charlie Bernhaut; Israel activist Stewart Cahn; and Yom HaShoah Committee Chair Lynn Bursky-Tammam. Pey Dalid, a music trio of brothers, performed.

25 THE JEWISH STAR October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778

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CAlendar of Events

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Zachary Schechter Thursday October 26

Parsha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Michal Horowitz at the YI of Woodmere for a special shiur on the parsha. 9:30 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Iyun Tefilah: [Weekly] Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhust. 9:45 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. Learn Maseches Brachos: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf at the YI of Woodmere for a shiur on Maseches Brachos. 5:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Yoni Levin at Aish Kodesh for a halacha shiur. 9:30 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Friday October 27

Erev Shabbos Kollel: [Weekly] Eruv Shabbos Kollel starting with 6 am Chassidus shiur with Rav Moshe Weinberger and concluding with 9 am Chevrusah Learning session with Rabbi Yoni Levin. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Sunday October 29

Timely Torah: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, assistant rabbi of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, for a shiur on relevant Halachic and philosophical topics related to Parsha Moadim and contemporary issues. Coffee and pastries. 8 am. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst.

Learning Program: [Weekly] At Aish Kodesh led by Rav Moshe Weinberger following 8:15 Shacharis including 9 am breakfast and shiurim on subjects such as halacha, gemara and divrei chizuk. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Gemara Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff at the YI of Woodmere for a gemara shiu.r 9:15 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Puah Symposium on Genetics: YI of Lawrence Cedarhurst hosts the Puah Symposium on Genetics. 9:30 am-2 pm. 8 Spruce Street. Registration required: 718-336-0603. Central Open House: Central invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 9:30 am. 86-86 Palo Alto St, Hollis. 718479-8550. Shevach Open House: Shevach invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 10 am. 75-09 Main DRS Open House: DRS invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 1 pm. 700 Ibsen St, Woodmere. 516-295-7700. From Beethoven to Broadway: Congregation Shaaray Shalom will be hosting a gala concert consisting of works by Grieg, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven and more by Audrey Schneider and Arbie Orenstein. 2 pm. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. 711 Doogwood Ave, West Hempstead. To purchase tickets, call 516-4817448 or email shaarayfin@gmail.org. Sharsheret Speaker: The YI of West Hemp-

stead Sisterhood invites women of all ages to an informative event with guest speaker Melissa Rosen from the Sharsheret organization who will be speaking on “What’s Jewish about Breast and Ovarian Cancer?” 7:15 pm. Event is free for everyone. 516-996-6309.

Monday October 30

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Dr. Anette Labovitz’s women shiur will continue at Aish Kodesh. 10 am. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. AMIT’s Greater Long Island Gala: AMIT will be honoring several Long Island residents for their longtime service to AMIT at this year’s Greater Long Island Gala. 6:30 pm. $100. 817 Broadway, Manhattan. 516-551-1058. Hamercaz QC Launch Event: The Center for Orthodox Jewish Life and Learning at Queens College invites you to the launch event of their new Hamercaz QC learning program, featuring keynote address by Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld of the YI of Kew Gardens Hills. Student Union Room 206. RSVP by calling 718-997-3980. Madraigos Parenting Event: Madraigos and Beth Shalom invite all to a conference on parenting with guess speakers Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein and Dr. Brad Reedy. 8 pm. Free admission. 309 Broadway, Lawrence. 516-371-3250 ext. 111.

Tuesday October 31

Seeing Things Clearly: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Shalom Yona Weis at Aish Kodesh for a shiur for women and high school girls titled “Seeing Things Clearly- Learning to View Our World and Our Lives Through Positive Lenses. 8:45 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere.

Tuesday October 31

Women’s Shiur: [Weekly] Rebbetzin Weinberger of Aish Kodesh will give a shiur on the “Midah of Seder in our Avodas Hashem.” 11 am. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Jewish History: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Evan Hoffman at the YI of Woodmere for a talk on Jewish History. 8:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. World of Reb Tazadok Hakohen: [Weekly] Shiur by Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky at Aish Kodesh. 8:30 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Moshe Sokoloff at the YI of Woodmere for a halacha shiur. 8:40 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516-295-0950. Gemara Shiur: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt at the YI of Woodmere for a gemara shiu.

9:15 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. 516295-0950.

Wednesday November 1

Long Island Challah Bake: Join the women of Long Beach a night of music, dancing and challah baking. 6:45 pm. $36. 1395 Beech Street. Purchase tickets at challahbakeli.com. See ad on page 27. Timely Tanach: [Weekly] Join Rabbi Ya’akov Trump of the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst for a shiur on Sefer Shoftim. 8 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhust. Chumash and Halacha Shiur: [Weekly] Shiur with Rabbi Yosef Richtman at Aish Kodesh. 8 pm. 894 Woodmere Pl, Woodmere. Shiur and Tehillim Group: [Weekly] Join the women of YI of Woodmere at the home of Devorah Schochet. 9:15 pm. 559 Saddle Ridge Rd.

Sunday Nov 5

HANC Open House: HANC invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 9 am. 215 Oak Street, Uniondale. msteiner@ hanc.org. Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe Open House: Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 10 am. 8306 Abingdon Rd, Queens. 718-846-7300 x119. Shalhevet Open House: Midreshet Shalhevet High School invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 12 pm. Register at midreshetshalhevet.org. Shulamith Open House: Shulamith High School for Girls invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 1 pm. 305 Cedarhurst Ave, Cedarhurst. Register at shulamithhighschool.org. MAY Open House: Mesivta Ateres Yaakov invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 1:30 pm. 131 Washington Ave, Lawrence. 516-374-6465.

Wednesday Nov 8 6th Annual FIDF Event: Join the community of the Five Towns and Greater South Shore at the Sephardic Temple for the 6th annual Friends of the IDF event to benefit the soldiers of the IDF. 775 Branch Blvd, Cedarhurst. 646-274-9661.

Saturday November 11

Rambam Open House: Rambam Mesivta invites prospective students and their parents to its open house. 8pm. 15 Frost Ln, Lawrence. PreRegister at www.rambam.org.

Women leaders…

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October 27, 2017 • 7 Cheshvan 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

Continued from page 18 ing rebbetzins, she wants to expand leadership and learning opportunities for other women as well. The department will push synagogues to offer classes for women on par with what men receive — such as a “daf yomi,” which that covers a page of Talmud daily — as well as weekly or monthly women’s learning groups and mother-daughter study programs. But Shmidman said she also wants to move beyond formal “frontal learning.” She suggested, as an example, a model where participants each study texts and teach them to each other. “Text study is extremely important, but classes on mind, body, soul, there’s so many avenues where Torah can come through beyond text study,” she said, adding that a goal will be “helping people find God and Torah in all areas of their lives.” One of the department’s goals is to make the synagogue a friendlier space for women, who sit separated from men during prayer and, often, Torah study. Fagin said that at some syn-

agogues, the women’s section of the sanctuary feels isolated from the men’s section and that it’s not always accessible. “There’s no question that shuls are organized in many ways around specific activity that is typically engaged in by men, often not by women,” Fagin said. “There were physical things that could be done to be more conducive to the physical participation of women in prayer.” Bane acknowledged that among Jews to the right of the O.U., some of the department’s activities may be controversial. But he said the group hopes to show that just because Jewish law is primary doesn’t mean Jewish women need to be secondary. “We’re not suggesting that these parameters are appropriate for every community, [but] they’re appropriate for the Orthodox Union community,” he said. “Although our Jewish law is eternal and our value system is eternal, we have to be attuned to how we have to adjust our focus for the values of the time.”

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