The Jewish Star

The JEWISH Toldos • Nov. 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778 • Torah columns pages 18–19 • Luach page 18 • Vol 17, No 43

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ZOA: ‘Thank G-d for President Trump’

At Sunday’s ZOA gala (from left): ZOA President Morton Klein with pro-Israel activist Dr. Joe Frager of Jamaica Estates; former

By Ed Weintrob Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein brought the ZOA’s annual gala to its feet amid thunderous applause Sunday night when he called President Trump “the greatest friend of Israel the United States has ever had.”

“G-d bless you, President Trump, thank G-d for President Trump,” Klein told around 1,000 attendees at the Marriott New York Marquis off Times Square.

The evening’s guest speaker, National Security Adviser John Bolton, said that under Trump “we are no longer apologizing for defending our national interests and our sovereignty. We are calling out our enemies and standing by our friends.”

“Gone are the days when the United States sold out our allies to appease murderous regimes and tiptoed around obvious facts in the name of political correctness,” Bolton said.

In relocating the US embassy to Jerusa-

presidential spokesman and ZOA hero Sean Spicer; Iris and Shalom Maidenbaum of Lawrence; Yishai Fleisher, spokesperson for

lem, Trump “accomplished what other leaders have repeatedly promised but consistently failed to deliver” and “showed the world that the United States will once again stand for what is right and just,” he continued.

As for Iran, Bolton, who was presented with the ZOA’s Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Award, emphasized that “this brutal dictatorship can never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. Our solemn pledge ‘never again’ will mean nothing if we allow a regime that calls for the total annihilation of Israel to possess the world’s deadliest weapons. Not on our watch.”

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, lavished praise on the ZOA, saying it “is always the first to defend Israel, just like Nahshon in the Bible who was first to jump into the Red Sea.” Klein was introduced by Alan Dershowitz, a liberal Democrat who is a staunch Zionist but disagrees with the ZOA on many issues, including the development of Jewish communities in

the community in Hebron, with Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon; Professor Alan Dershowitz; and MC Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Judea and Samaria, and a two-state solution.

“Despite our fundamental disagreements, Morton and I continue to engage in civil dialogue,” he said.

Klein said that “we must unconditionally love one another and respect one another no matter what our differences are.”

“Anti-Semites don’t care about the level of any Jew’s religious observance … or political views. … The anti-Semites hate every Jewish man, woman and child,” he said. “We Jews have to realize we are all in this together. A Reform Jew, an atheist Jew and an Orthodox Jew are all 100-percent Jewish.”

Despite the work of the ZOA and many others, “the scourge of mindless, hateful antiSemitism continues,” Klein warned.

“These acts may begin with the Jews but they don’t end with the Jews. And thank G-d our President Trump understands this, with a feeling and heartfelt concern.”

He said he was “pained by the incomprehensible allegations by some Jews and others that President Trump is responsible” for attacks on Jews.

“To blame President Trump is nothing less than political blasphemy,” he said.

Klein concluded on an upbeat note: “Those who love the Jewish state must continue to believe in miracles in the past, the present, and in the future.”

Listing one by one many of the things that Israel accomplished against seemingly insurmountable odds, he asked, “Who would have believed that Israel, which began with 600,000 Jews 70 years ago would today have 7 million Jews. It’s a miracle.”

“As Joshua said, ‘Be strong and be not afraid for G-d is with you.’ Because if Israel is moral and just, truth and justice and G-d are on the side of Israel,” Klein said. “And the Jewish people in eretz Yisroel will prevail for eternity.”

Chabad’s classic pose: 4,700 shluchim at home base

Thousands of Chabad-Lubavitch shluchim from around the world posed last week, as they do each year, for a classic photo in front of

the movement’s headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. They are among 4,700 rabbis who were in New York for

an annual gathering aimed at strengthening Jewish awareness and practice around the world. See story on page 4.

Sacred Spaces, in 5 Towns, promotes child safety

By Jeffrey Bessen, Nassau Herald A resident of Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed and six others injured at the Tree of Life Congregation on Oct. 27, came to the Five Towns last week to speak on another painful topic.

Shira Berkovits, founder and chief executive officer of Sacred Spaces, still emotional after seeing her community targeted by an apparent anti-Semite, delved into child abuse in a presentation on Oct. 30, breaking down complex concepts into simple and easy-tounderstand ideas and splicing Hebrew words into her Oct. 30 lecture. Sacred Spaces is a cross-denominational initiative to address institutional abuse in Jewish communities.

The meeting, at the Young Israel of Wood-

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mere, was the Five Towns kickoff of Aleinu: A Safeguarding Children Campaign, which Sacred Spaces is spearheading, along with Congregation Sons of Israel, also in Woodmere, Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre, the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC, the Mid Island Y JCC, Ohel Children’s Home and Family Service, and the UJA-Federation of New York.

Noting recent programs in the Five Towns that have addressed children’s issues not previously discussed by the Orthodox Jewish community, including drug abuse, Rabbi Hershel Billet, of Young Israel, cited “a maturation of the Jewish community” for its efforts to begin discussing difficult topics. “Children should feel safe at home, safe at a synagogue, safe at school, camp and other programs where they need the protection of those who know that ill or evil people could take advantage of our children,” Billet said.

Berkovits acknowledged her uncertainty about leaving Squirrel Hill after the tragedy. She said a rabbi, Steven Exler, told her, “We honor their lives by protecting other lives.”

And many children need protection: Twothirds of the sexual assaults committed nationwide target them, according to national statistics. Berkovits, who is also a lawyer, cited a 1998 Centers for Disease Control study that surveyed 17,000 adults, and found that before they turned 18, 28 percent suffered physical abuse, 25 percent endured neglect and 20 percent had been sexually assaulted. Subsequent studies found similar results, she said. “The impact is lasting — it doesn’t just go away,” Berkovits said. “There are psychological impacts, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, anxiety.”

Spotting a child predator is not easy, because there is no known prototype, Berkovits noted, adding that 93 percent of predators are known or trusted by their victims, 33 percent are other

begin to address that.” Bernstein said that fingerprinting each job applicant costs roughly $99.

An incident of sexual assault allegedly occurred recently at LWA. A former teacher at the school, Daniel McMenamin, of Valley Stream, was arrested on Oct. 18 and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault involving an underage girl who was a student at the school from November 2014, when she was 14, until July 2017, according to police.

Saying he takes the responsibility of keeping 450 boys and girls safe seriously, North Shore Headmaster Dr. Daniel Vitow said that is the reason his school fingerprints all prospective employees, from custodian to administrators, as part of the school’s background check. “I want to make sure that we’re working to maintain the maximum degree of safety and security,” Vitow said, adding that the policy has been in place for five years.

The Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, which includes HALB Elementary and DRS High School for Boys, both in Woodmere, SKA High School for Girls and Lev Chana Early Childhood Center, both in Hewlett Bay Park, and the Avnet summer day camp in Woodmere, does not fingerprint employees. “We do comprehensive background checks,” said Executive Director Richard Hagler.

Berkovits said that organizations and institutions must “decentralize power” and establish committees that will implement best practices to protect the children in their care. “What we are building has the ability to change the world,” she said.

Nearly all who attended the meeting were educators, social workers or youth group leaders.

Michele Vernon, a senior vice president of Camp Sunrise, and Brielle Brook, the camp’s registrar, both said they benefited from Berkovits’s presentation. “It was concise and proactive on how we can take care of the children,” Vernon said.

“I liked that the institutions are working on this together,” Brooke added, “and we don’t have reinvent the wheel.”

young people and, according to the U.S. Department of Education, 10 percent of children in public schools have been solicited or assaulted by school personnel. “Child predators don’t end up in schools by accident,” she said, adding that they are also attracted to youth service organizations and summer camps.

Pointing to the sexual assault scandals involving the Catholic Church and Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, Berkovits noted that incidents of abuse are often reported to different people who do not see a pattern or the entire picture. Her research led her to establish Sacred Spaces.

Elliot Pasik, an attorney from Long Beach and the father of six children, has been pushing for the fingerprinting of nonpublic-school employees for more than decade. Public schools in New York state are required to fingerprint employees as part of their background checks.

“There are persons with serious criminal histories who have tried getting jobs in both the public and nonpublic schools,” Pasik said.

“Checking their criminal records keeps the schoolchildren out of harm’s way. Also, people with serious criminal histories who know they will be fingerprinted are deterred from applying for school employment.”

Of the 390 Jewish schools in the state, only two — North Shore High School in Great Neck and Shema Koleinu in Brooklyn — fingerprint employees. The New York State Association of Independent Schools recently mandated that its members fingerprint prospective employees, beginning this school year. Lawrence Woodmere Academy, in Woodmere, and North Shore are two of the 16 Long Island schools that are association members.

“Lawrence Woodmere Academy has been closely working with NYSIAS on the issue of fingerprinting requirements,” said LWA Headmaster Alan Bernstein. “NYSIAS is still reviewing a policy for existing employees, and has not yet made a decision on how member schools should

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Chabad draws 5,600 to its international gala More than 5,600 rabbis and guests from 100 countries gathered for a gala dinner highlighting the 35th International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries. The celebration was infused with inspiration and joy, tempered by the shadow of the anti-Semitic shooting in Pittsburgh that left 11 dead only eight days earlier, as well as the 10th anniversary of the murder of Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos Linyonei Chinuch, pointed to the work of Chabad emissaries in Pittsburgh and beyond in the aftermath of the attack.

“As we continue to reel from the unspeakable tragedy that has struck our people,” he said, “it is heartening here tonight to gaze around the room and see — and feel — the palpable strength of Jewish unity that permeates this gathering.

“It was you, dear shluchim, who on the Saturday night of the horrific killings, immediately sprung into action, each in your own unique way, and in all corners of the world, turning grief into acts of comfort, support, solace and encouragement.”

Emceeing in his inimitable style, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of the Kinus, spoke of traveling to the Caribbean island of Curaçao in 1984. Not knowing what to do there when he landed, he went straight to a synagogue and met a Jew, who said his son had been expelled from his public school. Kotlarsky invited the boy to attend Camp Gan Israel in New York. The father, Chaim Groisman, later sent a letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe thanking him for showing care to a “small Jew in Curaçao.”

“I must, however, take exception to your referring to yourself as ‘a small Jew from Curaçao,’ ” the Rebbe responded. “ ... there is no such thing as ‘a small Jew.’ ” The attendees also heard from young cousins Hersh Meir Oberlander of Budapest and Mendel Klein of Moscow. Their grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Lazar, was born and raised in Austria before Hitler’s Anschluss. Lazar recalled watching Hitler’s motorcade and, seeing everyone else saluting, following suit.

“My sister slapped my shoulder down,” he remembered. “I still feel that slap until today.”

The Lazar family made it to New York, where he went to the new Lubavitcher yeshiva. As he got older, he began working at the Merkos office, but felt unfulfilled. He went on to start Camp Gan Israel. Not long after his wedding, he and his wife were sent to Milan, Italy to join Rabbi Gershon Mendel and Bassie Garelik in their work there.

That today his children and grandchildren are emissaries in Hungary and Russia, among other places, “is a miracle,” said Lazar.

Russian-Israeli philanthropist and entrepreneur Yitzchak Mirilashvili was the guest keynote speaker. Mirilashvili, through his Keren Meromim Foundation, supports dozens of charitable projects around the world, including the massive Kolel Torah program throughout the former Soviet Union.

The first Kinus took place in 1983 in a conference room at Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, attended by 65 shluchim. Almost 100 times as many were there this year.

The venue — a massive repurposed gym at Rockland Community College in Suffern, N.Y. — saw a staff of 484 spend 10,670 hours setting up the hall and serving its 528 tables.

On the program as well was an emotional three-part story told

by Rabbi Motti Flikshtein of Wilmington, Del.; Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein of Newtown, Pa.; and youth leader Zack Horowitz.

Taking the podium, Flikshtein, program director at Chabad of Wilmington, told the story of a boy named Matt who grew up in a warm but secular Jewish home and started falling in with the wrong crowd. “He ... was gravitating towards crime and drugs,” Flikshtein said. “In desperation, his parents thought

that bringing him to the local Chabad might assist them with their wayward son.”

He walked into synagogue on Shabbat morning dressed to shock the rabbi. Instead the rabbi gave him a hug that changed his life.

“Fellow shluchim, dear guests,” said Flikshtein, “Matt was me.”

Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein, an emissary in Bucks County, Pa., and rabbi of the Shul of Newtown, had given Flikshtein that hug years earlier, although it wasn’t exactly his nature. But “The Rebbe expects us to reach out with chesed — with love ... Matt — Motti — got that hug.”

Zack Horowitz, a 20-year-old from Wilmington, followed, telling of his experience with his local CTeen (Chabad teen network) chapter led by Flikshtein and his wife, Rochel, and his newfound connection to Judaism. Today he is studying full-time in yeshiva.

Finally, guests heard from Akiva Klitsner, a Jerusalem psychotherapist who was troubled as a teenager. Professionals advised his parents to send him to a residential treatment center in Draper, Utah. Alone and far from home, he was surprised to get a visit from Rabbi Benny Zippel, who together with his wife, Sharonne, had established Chabad of Utah in Salt Lake City five months earlier.

“It’s not just the long drives, the Shabbat dinners and that unforgettable chocolate birthday cake that I am grateful for,” said Klitsner, to applause. “The greatest gift the Zippels gave me — and shluchim give so many Jewish children in need — is the uncomplicated, unwavering love and acceptance. As with so many others, this love helped me develop the tools and life skills that I needed to find myself and my G d-given purpose in life.”

As is done every year, Kotlarsky paused to remember those who passed away this year. He noted that this week will mark 10 years since the murders of Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg, co-directors of Chabad of Mumbai. “Gabi and Rivky will never be forgotten,” he said. “May we find true solace ... in the continuity of Chabad of India in the work of Rabbi Yisroel and Chaya Kozlovsky.”

Kotlarsky led the vaunted roll call, announcing the emissaries from more than 100 countries.

Then they danced. Thousands of rabbis and their supporters, weaving among the tables in a mess of concentric circles spreading as far as the eye can see, jumping with arms over arms, boom cameras and lights overhead.

“I can’t tell you how much this means to me,” shouted Kozlovsky over the music. —Chabad.org

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The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

Dr. Nathan Rothman, flanked by Rabbi Boruch Ber Bender of Achiezer, hung the mezuzah.

By Ed Weintrob St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway celebrated the opening of its new kosher respite room on Sunday, Oct. 28. The first floor space, run by the Lawrence-based Achiezer Community Resource Center, offers the familes of patients a quiet retreat where a selection of kosher foods is available 24/7.

The food is stocked by Gourmet Glatt, which also supplies a respite room at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre.

“When people end up in the hospital, whether on Shabbos or a regular day, no matter what, it’s never fun,” said Rabbi Boruch Ber Bender, president of Achiezer. “But having this room available to the families is a beacon of hope, an oasis that people can escape into.”

“It is our honor to partner with St. John’s Hospital … a vibrant, strong and amazing hospital right here in the heart of the town,” he said.

“As the closest hospital that many families in the Rockaways and Five Towns have access to, it is extremely important that we are able to serve the unique needs of all our patients, including

the Jewish community,” said Gerard Walsh, St. John’s chief executive officer. “We are committed to continuing to serve these needs as we make further positive changes throughout the hospital.”

In honor of the victims of the recent Pittsburgh massacre, Rabbi Bender opened the

event by reciting tehilim, Psalm 23, in English.

The respite room was dedicated by Mark and Barbara Silber in memory of their parents, Abraham and Sara Silber and Solomon and Rachela Scheiner. Dr. Nathan Rothman, chief of ICU at St. John’s, hung the mezuzah.

AMIT honorees, from left: Anne and Sheldon Golombeck, and Laura and Amanda Kornblum.

LI candidates trade charges Honors at 2 AMIT events sent to him, including one that spoke about his wife and children being taken to the gas chamber, according to reports.

“Whether it’s someone attacking me or attacking my opponent, I will condemn it,” Zeldin said. “Meanwhile, when I get called a Nazi a few thousand times by his supporters, and that’s documented, and he has nothing to say? ” Gershon said of the accusation, “I think he’s trying to incite … and it’s disgusting for a fellow Jew to do that.” ­­—JTA

At last month’s Greater Long Island Gala, AMIT honored women who work tirelessly to provide Jewish values-based education to tens of thousands of children in Israel.

“AMIT is an organization that is very dear to my heart,” said honoree Zelda Berger. “I’m proud to be part of an institution that supports so many of Israel’s children and enables them to achieve their potential.”

Amanda Kornblum, another honoree,

who attended Midreshet AMIT during her gap year in Israel, said its combination of Torah study and chesed “truly planted the seeds of inner growth into the young woman I am today.”

On Nov. 18, AMIT’s annual dinner at Pier Sixty in Manhattan will recognize outstanding leaders from across the country, including Lawrence residents Anne and Sheldon Golombeck.

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Two Jewish candidates who ran for Congress in eastern Long Island say they were targeted with anti-Semitic rhetoric.

On Sunday, the campaigns of Rep. Lee Zeldin and his Democratic challenger, Perry Gershon, traded condemnations over the incidents.

A swastika was found painted on a Gershon campaign sign that day. Also, Gershon campaign signs were vandalized with other phrases, including “baby killer” and “gay lover.”

Zeldin said anti-Semitic messages have been

THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

Far Rock hospital opens a kosher respite room

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An ALEH volunteer spends time with a child with disabilities.

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disabilities. It is paralleled by time volunteering within ALEH’s facilities.

Head of the Merhavim Regional Council Shay Hajaje views Daniel as a great Zionist endeavor.

“Building this town is just amazing. This is a core principle in Zionism,” he tells JNS, adding that “this new unique town has the potential of assisting so many people.”

He adds that naming the town “Daniel” after his spokesperson’s son gives the project meaning: “This is a big privilege to be a part of.”

Wortzman, who lives in the city of Beersheva, known as “the capital of the Negev,” says he turned down a second term in the Knesset in order to remain at the helm of ALEH’s southern branch. “Being an MK is important, but going to work every day and knowing I can enhance people’s lives, this is very fulfilling. Now with the construction of the hospital and the new construction of ‘Daniel,’ it’s [even more of] an honor to be a part of the future of building the Negev.”

According to the Ministry of Construction and Housing, there is already a high demand to live in Daniel. It will draw a wide variety of people, including ALEH-affiliated families and health providers, as well as young couples from the region looking for a new community and career IDF soldiers who serve in the area.

“The establishment of new towns in the south will bring more people from Israel’s center, strengthening its economy and increasing the safety of the overall area,” said Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Gallant in a statement.

“By partnering with ALEH, we will not only be creating jobs and impacting the bottom line,” he said, “but emphasizing social aspects like caring for those with disabilities and special needs.”

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THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

By Josh Hasten The Israeli government has approved an inclusive new town within the Merhavim Regional Council in Israel’s Western Negev Desert.

The new community, named “Daniel,” is being built in collaboration with Merhavim, the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing, and ALEH, Israel’s network of care for children with severe complex disabilities. The targeted completion date is within the next two years.

ALEH currently runs four residential facilities providing over 750 children with high-level medical and rehabilitative care.

The name “Daniel” is in memory of 4-year-old Daniel Tragerman, who was killed in a mortar attack in 2014. Daniel’s mother, Gila, is the spokesperson for the Merhavim Regional Council.

Set for construction just west of Ofakim and adjacent to ALEH Negev-Nahalat Eran — the network’s southern-based rehabilitative village — Daniel will integrate residents with severe complex disabilities as part of the communal fabric and provide housing for medical professionals employed at the new Neuro-Orthopedic Rehabilitation Hospital slated to open on the ALEH Negev-Nahalat Eran campus in early 2019.

Former Knesset member Avi Wortzman, who serves as director general of ALEH Negev, explained the concept to JNS. “The idea was to build a new community near ALEH Negev so that families who have kids with special needs will be able to get treatment close by. At the same time, this will be an ideal housing option for the medical personnel and therapists who work at ALEH,” he says.

Wortzman believes that 1,000 employees will find work at Aleh Negev within five years, including at the rehabilitation village and hospital.

He envisions another 1,000 volunteers serving within the organization and its various projects.

Israel has a severe housing crisis, and ALEH sees this community, which will include 500 units, as a solution. Most importantly, Wortzman says, the town will offer “a high standard of living and feature facilities that can accommodate and will be accessible for people with disabilities.”

The community will be a model of integration to which the rest of the country can turn to as an example. “I see this as a utopia where children with disabilities and others will be able to live together and interact with each other,” he says.

According to Wortzman, “over the past few years, Israelis have gotten much better when it comes to the inclusion of people with disabilities — whether accepting them into their communities or making facilities wheelchair-accessible — but we still have a long way to go.”

He is proud of a project ALEH is running for 13,000 ninth-grade students in Israel in collaboration with the Ministry of Education called “Repairing the World, Together,” a curriculum that teaches children how to accept others with

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Yair Shahak learns Tanach while holding newborn.

Alexander Heppenheimer studies Tanach with four of his children.

By Elizabeth Kratz, JNS In 1958, a one-time event was scheduled in Israel with the support of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion — a heavily text-based, extraordinarily difficult “Chidon HaTanach,” or Bible Quiz, created as a radio celebration marking the 10th anniversary of the reestablished Jewish state. But Ben-Gurion couldn’t have predicted the entire country catching “chidon fever.”

One contest was clearly not enough.

Sixty years later, chidon lives on. On Dec. 6, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lights the candle for the fifth night of Chanukah, a televised “Champion’s Champion” program will be held at Binyanei Ha’uma, Israel’s International Convention Center in Jerusalem, and streamed on YouTube. This chidon will cover almost all of Tanach (842 of 929 chapters), and includes the entirety of Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu, most of Yechezkel, Tehillim, Mishlei and Iyov.

The history of Chidon To Israel’s pioneers, the chidon created a cultural zeitgeist, said Chananel Malka, the 2014 world contest champion and the anniversary event’s organizer. To Israel’s first citizens, Tanach

was a great equalizer, a symbol of the historic return to the land of our ancestors.

“The Bible meant we are the descendants of David Hamelech,” said Malka. “The Talmud came later because it was part of the galut. We were the third kingdom of Israel. All the 2,000 years since the Bible was written, it was like they erased from history, from the first Zionism. The Bible meant everything then.”

Sponsored by tsrael’s Ministry of Education, chidon competitors have become veritable rock stars. “The government attaches great importance to the Bible Quiz project because the Bible is the book that connects all Jews and unites them around a single book, thus creating unity among the people and strengthening the bonds of the land and the Diaspora,” explained Malka.

In 1963, a youth event was created, and students from sixth to 11th grade compete annually for a four-year scholarship to Bar-Ilan University.

Each year the final competition, often with representatives from 60 countries, is held live and televised on Yom Ha’atzmaut. For years, the youth event eclipsed the adult event, although the adult event returned at full strength in 2010.

Rabbi Ezra Frazer with his wife and daughters.

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America represents Three American competitors cleared the qualifying round to return to Israel for the champions event, where 16 former competitors will assemble: Yair Shahak, a teacher at the Frisch School in Paramus, who competed in 2014 and won in 2016; Rabbi Ezra Frazer, a teacher at the Ramaz School in Manhattan, who was second in 2012 and was a youth competitor; and Alexander Heppenheimer, a proofreader for Chabad.org and IT tech support specialist from Crown Heights, who came in second in 2014, beaten only by Malka.

“There will be 11 total competitors from Israel, the three Americans, and there is one competitor each from France and Canada. The youngest is 22, and the oldest is 63,” said Malka. The written exam will be first. Netanyahu will ask the oral questions.

“But it won’t just be exams and questioning the whole time,” said Malka. “The participants will spend two or three days together. There will be a reunion of all the winners of the Bible Quiz with the former chief rabbi. They will also see the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

“This type of ‘Champion of Champions’ chidon has never been done before, so it is both humbling and exciting to participate,” said Shahak, who competed in 2014, and in 2016 with his wife, Yaelle Frohlich, who represented Canada.

“This particular event is a bit different for me because I know there is probably less than a 1 percent chance of me actually winning,” he acknowledged. “I’m a pretty competitive person, but the circumstances surrounding this event make it impossible to do as well as I would like. All within the past several months, I started a new full-time job, moved to Teaneck and had my first child, a son.

Time, therefore, has been quite elusive. Unless you have a photographic memory — and I don’t believe I do — doing well at this type of competition requires a huge amount of time and effort.”

“The main reasons why I chose to take the preliminary exam — and then found out I qualified and decided to go ahead and participate — are, first, this is an historic event, and even if I place last, I will still have been a part of it. And second, I think it’s an important lesson for my students; they get to see that studying Torah is a never-ending journey,” said Shahak.

“Making time for studying Torah is difficult with all the responsibilities one has, but there is always some time to be found, even a single minute, in which you can review a verse,” he added.

‘Deeper analysis as an adult’ Rabbi Ezra Frazer, who also lives in Teaneck and has three daughters, has spent more than half his life involved in the chidon. He competed in the chidon for youth (1994 as U.S. champion and went to Israel for the competition in 1995) and adults (second place in 2012). He also ran the U.S. chidon competition program for the Jewish Agency for Israel for seven years.

“The youth experience helped give me an early appreciation of Tanach, and the experience of running the chidon forced me to constantly be reviewing material as I wrote new tests,” said Frazer. “I am grateful that this experience enabled me to engage in deeper analysis as an adult, in contexts like yeshivah and graduate school. I found it was easier for me to work through difficult commentaries and to anchor my own ideas in textual evidence because I was so familiar with the primary text from my chidon work.”

“I have met about half of the contestants

through earlier chidonim, so I know that some of them have a level of mastery of these lesserknown books that make me very unlikely to win,” said Frazer. Instead, he said, he would focus his prep time on learning several books that “always interested me, but I have never had the opportunity to teach: Divrei Hayamim, Mishlei and Iyov.”

Frazer added that he was looking forward to spending Hanukkah with fellow Tanach-lovers and soaking up the atmosphere. “I have joked to friends that I feel like the Jamaican bobsled team or the Angolan basketball team that played the U.S. ‘dream team’ in the 1992 Olympics. They were thrilled to be at the Olympics, playing the game they loved on the same basketball court as all-time greats, even though they didn’t expect to defeat Magic Johnson or Larry Bird.

“Participating in this event is also important to me as a limudei kodesh teacher. I want my students at Ramaz to know that learning Torah is something that I and their other teachers do, not only because we have to prepare lessons as part of our job, but also because we genuinely enjoy it.”

‘How to live on a day-to-day basis’ Tanach is it is a great equalizer between Jews from all walks of life. A married father of six, Heppenheimer, of the Chabad Chassidic community in Crown Heights, entered the contest in 2014 as “a bit of a lark,” he said. His sister had heard it advertised on the radio, on the Nachum Segal Network, and suggested he take the exam.

“I grew up in the Chabad school system, for cheder and yeshivah,” he said, noting that the Pentateuch, Tanya, Chassidic discourses and Talmud tend to be the more primary texts in those schools. “They don’t have a lot of space in the day; Tanach is more like a flavoring, as they are the historical books.

“Different students find interests in particular areas, and that is encouraged,” he said. “Ever since then I have made a daily practice of studying portions of Tanach, and I promote that among my community in Crown Heights and in my family.”

What does he appreciate most about Tanach?

“Within Tanach itself, you have Torah, which is the most central, and it’s how to live on a dayto-day basis. The rest of Tanach is about the ethos of how to feel and how to relate to Hashem as a Jew, aside from the day-to-day performance of mitzvahs — how to feel like a Jew. So there’s acting like a Jew, which is Torah, and then feeling like a Jew, which is the rest of Tanach,” he said.

This time will be different for Heppenheimer in that he is planning to travel with his family, unlike the last time, when he headed to Israel in whirlwind fashion just a few weeks after the U.S. competition. “We are making a mini family vacation of it. There will be a lot of chidon stuff, of course, but my youngest three kids have never been to Israel, so we want to take them to the sights. I also have three siblings who live there,” he said.

Last time, he said he enjoyed getting to know the competitors and even became friendly with one of the other Americans: Shahak, the teacher from New Jersey.

“Yair came in first in my American contest, but then when it came to the international rounds, I beat him,” said Heppenheimer, quickly adding that Shahak wasn’t feeling well that day.

The sense of friendly competition abounds between the participants, and all look forward to an incredible experience.

And who knows? One of them might just take home the prize.

By Jackson Richman, JNS In the aftermath of the deadliest attack in American Jewish history, a measure calling on New York University to separate its interests from firms that do business with Israel was introduced in the school’s student government.

“Again a few radical students can set the agenda and because of the widespread indifference to, or dismissal of such initiatives, can appear to represent the majority,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JNS. Only students with NYU IDs will be allowed to attend the meeting. To protect student privacy, the anonymous final vote will be held on Dec. 6.

“The secret ballot is not just proof of the student government’s lack of transparency and accountability. It shows its members aren’t genuine human-rights activists,” Hali Haber, CAMERA’s Director of Campus Programming, told JNS. “Do you think Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. fought in secret? When you have morality on your side, you fight for it openly.”

“Until members of the assembly are willing to attach their own names to the resolution, nobody else should take their vote seriously either,” said Haber.

“The threat of violence implicit in BDS campaigns such as the one at NYU is the very reason why student senators do not feel safe in openly expressing themselves about this issue, and why the NYU vote must be conducted by secret ballot,” Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, director of the AMCHA Initiative, told JNS. “That fact alone speaks volumes about the hostility and violence that many Jewish and Zionist students face when trying to express their identity or support for Israel at NYU or on many other college campuses.”

Titled the “Resolution on the Human Rights of Palestinians,” the BDS resolution has the backing of 54 student groups and was introduced by Rose Asaf, Bayan Abubakr and Leen Dweik. The measure also has the backing of 34 faculty members. It claims that BDS is an “an inclusive, anti-racist, and non-violent set of tools to pursue the Palestinian human-rights movement” that opposes all discrimination, “including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”

“As a Palestinian, this resolution is deeply personal to me,” Dweik told NYU Local. “As an NYU student, it hurts and shocks me that the university would continue to invest in companies that directly contribute to the human-rights violations of my family and my people.”

“As an American-Israeli Jew, I reject the categorization of BDS

A site on NYU’s campus in Greenwich Village.

Jonathan71/WikiCommons

as anti-Semitic,” Asaf told JNS in October. “BDS is a set of nonviolent tactics aimed to put pressure on Israel to comply with international law and respect the dignity of the Palestinian people.

“Criticizing a nation-state and promoting human rights is not in any way anti-Semitic,” she continued. “As someone who lives with the trauma of generational anti-Semitism, I know this well. I am in solidarity with Palestinians not in spite of my Judaism, but because of it.”

Singling out on country only: Israel Jewish and pro-Israel groups, such as the Zionist Organization of America and the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), denounced the resolution and its timing.

“This divestment resolution claims to be inclusive, anti-racist, and non-discriminatory, when on its face, it’s the exact opposite,” Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, told JNS. “The resolution singles out companies simply because they do business with one country only: the Jewish State of Israel.”

“The fact that the resolution will be voted on by secret ballot is outrageous. Those voting are in the student government,” continued Tuchman. “They’re accountable to the students they represent and their actions should be completely transparent.”

Jennifer Dekel, EMET’s director of research and communications, told JNS: “NYU’s divestment resolution is the latest example of efforts by radical anti-Israel groups to alienate and silence Jewish students, and other students supporting Israel, on campus.”

“Groups leading the effort, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, have a track record of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and should be put on notice by the university that their actions may be in violation of Title VI of The Civil Rights Act,” added Dekel.

Jewish Voice for Peace has been accused of using anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery in its “Deadly Exchange” activities that seek to “end police exchange programs between the U.S. and Israel.”

Andrea Levin, president and executive director of CAMERA, said her organization is “disheartened” by the BDS resolution from Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, both groups that have a history of anti-Semitism.

“There can be no doubt that [the resolution] aims to intimidate the vibrant community of Jewish students at NYU. CAMERA on Campus maintains the unshakable belief that the BDS movement, with its single-minded focus on the Jewish state, works exclusively to worsen conditions needed for dialogue, coexistence, and peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” she told JNS. “We’ve heard from many NYU students about how the student government lacks transparency and doesn’t fairly represent their constituents,” Rena Nasar, StandWithUs tri-state campus director, told JNS. “It seems the problem is only getting worse as a result of this campaign of hate that has been launched by JVP and SJP on campus.”

Although NYU president Andrew Hamilton denounced BDS in April, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, StandWithUs and Alums for Campus Fairness wrote a letter four months later to Hamilton, asking his administration to address a discriminatory joint statement issued in April by 53 NYU student groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace, which declared that the student organizations would boycott two pro-Israel student groups on campus: Realize Israel and TorchPAC. While the August letter acknowledges that although NYU has condemned the BDS movement, the university has yet to adequately denounce the discriminatory statement and address how the vitriol has affected the overall student-faculty community, according to a joint statement by the three organizations.

Out of 51,123 undergraduate and graduate students, there are 6,000 undergraduate and graduate Jewish students at NYU, or 11.7 percent of the student population, according to Hillel International.

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Wine & Dine

Buckwheat or kasha? Either way, it’s delicious Kosher Kitchen

Joni SCHoCKeTT

Jewish Star columnist

B

uckwheat groats, or kasha, is a dish that I did not like until I was well into adulthood. My grandmother made it all the time. She ate it almost every day, and it might have been healthy had she not loaded it with gribenes and chicken fat! She often tried to entice me to taste it — after all, I lived with her until I was two, and in the same building until I was four, so she was always feeding me. Mostly I ate what she made, but when she tried to feed me this grainy, funny-smelling dish, I ran in the opposite direction.

Kasha is an ancient grain believed to have originated in the Far East. It migrated to Russia, which became its main producer; it was believed that 6 to 7 million acres of land were once covered with this delicious grain. Given my grandmother’s roots in Belarus, her love for buckwheat makes sense.

Buckwheat is not technically a grain. It is the three-sided seed of a 2 to 4-foot plant that boasts beautiful fragrant flowers that attract bees like crazy. Buckwheat honey used to be popular throughout the U.S, until the 20th century, when buckwheat fell out of favor and almost disappeared from the landscape.

It seems that the development of fertilizers, which helped other plants grow, almost killed off buckwheat, which likes a dry, minimally fertilized, acidic soil.

Interest in ancient grains and natural foods helped catapult this seed back into popularity over the past 20 to 30 years. The flowers still attract bees, but not in the numbers they did centuries ago, so dark, rich buckwheat honey is often pricey.

Buckwheat is a versatile food. You can cook and mix it with yogurt, fruit or honey for breakfast, add it to a salad for lunch, and prepare it many different ways for dinner.

Many people believe that the best buckwheat comes from Russia. You can get Russian buckwheat in large supermarkets, on Amazon, and more. Avoid hulled buckwheat, as it tends to be too mushy. It’s better for baking or for pancakes.

Enjoy this ancient grain that, though unfamiliar to many of us, was probably a staple in your Ashkenazi ancestors’ diets.

Somewhat Traditional Kasha, with or without Pasta (Pareve) 1 cup buckwheat groats, large or coarse grain 2 cups rich vegetable stock or chicken stock (purchased or homemade) 1 to 2 large onions, diced 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 to 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil Salt and pepper to taste OPTIONAL: Diced carrots and celery Diced green or red bell peppers Sliced mushrooms Cooked bow-tie pasta Dried cranberries, raisins or snipped apricots Heat a large frying pan. Add the groats and stir constantly until they begin to toast and turn golden, about 2 to 5 minutes. Do not burn. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat a large saucepan. Add the oil and, when shimmery, add the onion and sauté until the onion begins to turn golden brown. Add the garlic and any other vegetables you will be using and cook them until they are softened.

Slowly add the vegetable stock and bring to a low boil. Add salt and pepper.

Add the toasted buckwheat and stir, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.

Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed and the groats are chewy. Turn off the heat, keep the pot covered and let the buckwheat steam for about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, taste, adjust seasonings, and serve. Serves at least 6.

Kasha Roll-Ups (meat or Pareve) A friend gave me this recipe right after I got married. It was my first Shabbat appetizer. Since then, I have tweaked it many times and now substitute puff pastry for the original homemade dough — now it’s a much easier recipe.

Dough: 1 package puff pastry Canola oil Sesame seeds or Everything seasoning Filling: 2 cups cooked buckwheat groats 2 to 3 Tbsp. canola oil 2 to 3 large onions, chopped 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 1 lb. hamburger 2 eggs 2 Tbsp. each, minced parsley and chives Salt and pepper, to taste OPTIONAL: a pinch of red pepper flakes Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and then a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Thaw the puff pastry and set aside.

Cook kasha according to directions and set aside to cool.

Heat a large skillet and add the canola oil.

Add the chopped onions and cook until lightly golden. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

Remove from heat to cool.

In a large bowl, add the burger and the eggs and mix to blend well. Add the cooked kasha and mix well. Add the parsley and chives and mix well. Season with salt and pepper and, if you like, crushed red pepper flakes.

Roll out the thawed pastry into a rectangle, 14 by 8 inches.

Place the filling along one long side of the dough, leaving two inches at the edge and an inch at the top and bottom clear for sealing.

Roll the two inches of dough over the filling and then roll the log completely enclosing the filling. Pinch the top and bottom closed.

Place the roll, seam side down on the parchment. Brush lightly with oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds or Everything seasoning. Score the dough very lightly, diagonally across every 1-1/2 inches.

Bake until golden for 50 to 60 minutes.

Cool until warm, but not burning hot. Slice along score lines. Serves 8 to 12 as an appetizer.

Cherry Almond Buckwheat Pancakes (Dairy) 2 cups fresh or frozen cherries, cut in half 1 Tbsp. butter, melted 1-1/2 cups unbleached flour 1/2 cup buckwheat flour 2 tsp. baking powder 2 cups buttermilk 2 extra-large eggs 3 Tbsp. butter, melted (separate from the previous 1 Tbsp.)

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. pure almond extract Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and then a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.

Cut the cherries and toss with the melted 1 Tbsp. of butter. Spread on the parchment and place in the oven. Roast until caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Place the flour, buckwheat flour and baking powder in a bowl and mix well with a fork.

Mix the buttermilk and eggs in another bowl and mix until fully blended.

Add the extracts and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until almost blended. Add the butter and mix until still lumpy. Add the cherries and the juice from the pan and mix gently until there are still a few lumps. Do not overmix, or the pancakes will be tough.

Heat a large skillet or griddle and add a thin coating of butter. When the butter bubbles, add spoonfuls of batter. Cook until the top has bubbles around the edge and looks dry.

Flip gently and cook until completely cooked through and golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat until all are cooked. Serve with hot Almond Vanilla syrup. Makes at least 12 pancakes.

Hot Buttered Vanilla Almond Syrup (Parve) Hot Buttered Vanilla Almond Syrup (Pareve) This syrup is so delicious, it’s addictive.

This is also fabulous on Thanksgiving yams. You can use pareve margarine instead of butter. f you like, add a bit of amaretto liqueur or bourbon.

1 cup pure maple syrup, grade A Dark Amber 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. pure almond extract 3 Tbsp. butter, melted OPTIONAL: 2/3 cup thawed or fresh cherries, cut in half Place all ingredients in a small saucepan.

Bring to a boil, lower heat and mix until the butter is completely incorporated. Let cool a bit before serving. Makes about 1 cup, more if you add cherries.

THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

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November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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Wine & Dine

Poppy seed roll is old-fashioned Jewish perfection

By Sonya Sanford, The Nosher via JTA When I go to a kosher bakery anywhere in the world, I look for poppy seed rolls. I love them for their delicate and shiny pastry and for their sweet, inky, fruity and slightly bitter poppy seed filling. I especially love poppy seed rolls in the morning with a strong cup of coffee or black tea.

It’s a decadent deviation from a sensible breakfast, and it’s especially good on a Shabbat morning.

The sweet poppy seed roll is common in Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Central and Eastern European countries from Hungary, to Poland, to Ukraine, to Romania, and more. It is particularly popular during the winter holidays.

In my family, my father and I have always been big fans of this pastry, and we will search high and low for a bakery that offers the best version. We will try different rolls and debate the finer points of each pastry: Was it too sweet? Was the ratio of poppy seed to pastry good? Was the pastry soft enough?

There’s a reason that poppy seed rolls don’t seem to be a wildly popular baked good — they are a bit fussy to make. The pastry is made of an enriched dough; it takes time for the dough to be kneaded into a silky smooth mass; it takes time for the dough to rise; and it takes a little focus and care to shape and form the rolls.

The poppy seed filling also takes a little work, although you can buy pre-made poppy seed filling in a can if you want to make your life easier.

One must grind the poppy seeds in batches, heat up several ingredients and be patient with chilling time. Patience is part of the poppy seed roll process.

Yet this is the kind of pastry that offers both nostalgic satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment when baked at home. The dough is so smooth and inviting to work with, and the poppy seed filling is glossy and pleasingly deep in color.

While making this, you might feel like you’re a contestant on the “Great British Baking Show” in an episode where they’ve asked you to make an “Old World Classic” for the technical challenge. You might nervously hope that the filling doesn’t leak, that the dough has neither over- nor under-proofed, and that there is a perfect swirl of poppy seeds inside when it is finally cooled and

you make your first slice.

When I’ve made this, sometimes my pastry did leak, and sometimes the swirl was not as perfect as I’d hoped for, and yet the flavor never suffered for it. Tasting the still warm roll in any of its forms always seems to erase the memory of the labor and any perceived imperfections.

Fresh out of the oven and (patiently) waiting for the rolls to cool a bit, the kitchen gets filled with buttery, nutty, vanilla smells, and nothing feels homier than that.

Ingredients: For the poppy seed filling: 8 ounces poppy seeds (1 1/2 cups), very fresh 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter 1/2 cup milk 2/3 cup sugar 2 Tbsp. honey 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract Big pinch of salt For the dough: 4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting 2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast 1-1/3 cups milk, heated to 105-110 F. 2 large eggs, beaten 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar 1 tsp. kosher salt 1 egg yolk plus a splash of water, beaten for

the egg wash Directions: 1. To make the poppy seed filling: Start by grinding poppy seeds in batches in a spice grinder or coffee grinder, or by hand with a mortar and pestle.

Make sure the poppy seeds are very fresh. Give them a good sniff — they should not smell musty.

Poppy seeds have a lot of oil and can quickly turn bad on the shelf.

A food processor can also work for grinding the poppy seeds, but it won’t be as finely ground as it is in a spice/coffee grinder. By grinding the poppy seeds you will not only end up with a smoother filling, but you will help your filling mixture thicken when you add the liquid ingredients.

2. In a small pot on medium heat, melt the butter, then add the milk, sugar and honey. Stir until the sugar is just dissolved and the mixture is very hot but not boiling.

3. Pour the milk mixture over the poppy seeds and stir. Add the vanilla; salt and stir until everything is well incorporated. Your mixture might seem a little soupy at this stage, but place it in the refrigerator to cool as you make the dough and let it rise. You can also make the filling 1 or 2 days in advance and store it in the fridge.

4. To make the pastry: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the yeast and a teaspoon of sugar. Heat the milk until warm, and add the milk to the bowl. If making by hand, add the milk, yeast and sugar to a small bowl. Allow the yeast to become foamy and bubbly, about 5 to 8 minutes.

5. Add the beaten eggs, melted and cooled butter, sugar and salt to the milk and yeast. Turn mixer to stir and slowly add the flour to the liquid until all of it is incorporated. If making by hand, add the flour to a large bowl, make a well, then add the milk mixture and the remaining

ingredients and combine until everything is incorporated.

6. Once the flour is incorporated, turn the mixer to medium and allow the dough to form into a silky smooth and soft ball, about 8 to 10 minutes. The dough will be sticky, but the longer it is worked the smoother it will get, and it will stop sticking to the sides of the bowl or to your hands when you touch it. By hand, knead the dough until very smooth, soft and no longer sticking to your hands.

7. Gently transfer the dough into a large lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

8. To assemble the poppy seed rolls: Once the dough has risen, divide it in two. Lightly dust your surface. I like to roll the dough directly onto a piece of parchment paper — this will help you shape the dough and transfer it onto baking sheet more easily. Roll out each half of dough to about a 12 by 16-inch rectangle, or the size of a baking sheet. Add half of the poppy seed filling to each half of the dough. Spread it in an even layer, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges of the dough.

9. Carefully begin to roll up the dough. Once you’ve reached the edge, brush it with a little of the egg wash to help seal it shut. Pinch the edge of the roll together to ensure that the filling doesn’t leak; also pinch closed each end of the roll so they do not leak either. Carefully transfer the roll seam side down onto the baking sheet.

Make slits in the top of the dough; this will help keep the poppy seed roll from bursting. Repeat the process with the second half of the dough.

10. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cover the rolls with a clean kitchen towel or a loose piece of plastic wrap and allow to rise again for 30 minutes. Before going in the oven, generously brush the pastry with the egg wash. Make sure the oven racks are on the top and lower thirds of the oven, and place each baking sheet on one of the racks.

11. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, rotating the rolls once after 15 minutes. Bake until deep golden brown. Allow to cool, then slice and serve.

Poppy seed rolls can keep up to 5 days in an airtight container. Serves 10 to 12.

Bukharian meaty rice dish is a crockpot delight

By Leanne Shor, The Nosher via JTA I’m Yemenite, and my husband and his family are Bukharian Jews who hail from Uzbekistan. After we married, my mother-inlaw gave me full tutorials on several traditional Bukharian dishes that are special to her and the family, including this osavo, a slowcooked brisket and rice dish that reminds me of a rich tomatobased risotto studded with meat.

As I learned the dishes, I would always ask for measurements.

My mother-in-law would say, “Oh, it’s all by eye.” So I would pull out my kitchen scale to portion the ingredients as best I could in order to re-create the dishes in my own home.

I love making so many of her recipes, but the dish I come back to over and over for cooler weather is this osavo. Like an Eastern European cholent, the dish cooks all night in a crockpot, so you wake up in the morning to a house filled with a delectable savory aroma.

One element of this recipe that might surprise is the addition of grated Granny Smith apple and fresh lemon juice. These flavors are so crucial to the complexity of this dish, and they add sweetness and acidity that balance out the richness of the brisket.

The original recipe from my mother-in-law calls for bone marrow bones and flanken, but I prefer brisket so that there is more meat and no bones to remove. I’ve made it dozens of times both ways, and there’s no major difference in flavor.

Note: I prefer to use a crockpot liner for easy cleanup with this dish. It is plastic and disposable, and a huge time saver.

Ingredients: 2 lbs. brisket, excess fat trimmed 1 can (24 oz.) diced tomatoes

2 medium yellow onions, chopped 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated juice of 1 lemon 1 or 2 russet potatoes, whole plus skin on, rinsed and scrubbed 2 cups round, short grain rice (often sold in the Asian aisles) 2 tsp. kosher salt 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 2 tsp. sweet paprika 3-1/2 to 4 cups water 4 eggs, rinsed Directions: 1. Fill a medium-size pot halfway full with water. Bring to a boil.

2. Cut the brisket in 1-inch pieces and place in the boiling water. Cook for 2 minutes.

3. Line the slow cooker with a plastic, disposable liner.

4. Add the partially cooked meat, along with the chopped onion, canned tomatoes, grated Granny Smith apple, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and paprika to the slow cooker.

5. Rinse the rice well, until the water runs clear, then add it to the pot.

6. Cover the ingredients with the water, then nestle in the whole potatoes. Place the eggs in a slow cooker bag and add them to the pot.

7. Cook on low for 10 to 12 hours.

8. Check in the morning and add more water if it seems dry.

9. Add another large squeeze of lemon juice before serving.

Serve with prepared tahini, Israeli chopped salad and challah.

Serves 6.

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Ads depict Jewish candidates clutching money

By By Ron Kampeas and Ben Sales, JTA WASHINGTON — Republicans in Alaska, Washington state, Connecticut, North Carolina and California have run ads showing Jewish Democrats handling cash. In Pennsylvania, a candidate married to a Jewish man is depicted similarly.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Washington state Republican Party sent voters fliers depicting congressional candidate Kim Schrier with a wad of cash in her hand.

In Alaska, Republican Women of Juneau ran an ad targeting state Sen. Jesse Kiehl showing a man sticking a wad of cash into his inner jacket pocket.

In North Carolina, the state Republican Party ran an online ad denouncing what it called the radical agenda of Democrats. It featured Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, clutching a wad of cash. Neither Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, nor Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are shown with cash.

The Juneau Republican group did not return calls from the Post seeking comment. The Washington and North Carolina state parties denied anti-Semitic intent.

In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Todd Stephens ran a TV ad featuring challenger Sara Johnson Rothman clutching a wad of cash. Rothman’s husband is Jewish. The illustration dropped her maiden name, Johnson, although she routinely uses it. Additionally, a Stephens mailer depicts a woman receiving a wad of cash from a donor.

Johnson Rothman serves on the Upper Dublin school board in suburban Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Stephens as denying anti-Semitic intent. The newspaper quoted a spokeswoman for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia saying that she did not perceive anti-Semitism, but also quoted the president of the city’s Board of Rabbis as saying the ad was “disturbing” and, inadvertently or not, used anti-Semitic tropes.

Ads targeting Jewish candidates for state office in California and Connecticut depicting the candidates clutching wads of cash were previ-

rs 35 Yeagrity e Of Int

ously reported.

Ed Charamut, a Republican running for Connecticut State Senate, sent out a mailer showing his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Matt Lesser, grinning while clutching a handful of $100 bills.

The mailer went out on Oct. 30, three days after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left 11 worshippers dead.

Lesser told the Hartford Courant that people called him about receiving “an anti-Semitic flier.”

“I thought there was a mistake,” he told the Courant. “Someone showed it to me and I think it would be a gross understatement to say I was surprised.”

Charamut at first denied that the flier was anti-Semitic, but three days later his campaign posted an apology on Facebook.

“The entire campaign committee, which includes members of the Jewish community, never discussed or considered Mr. Lesser’s ethnicity, race, religion or any other personal characteristic of Mr. Lesser and it was never our intention for the mailer to be anything more than a reflection of Mr. Lesser’s policy record,” the post read.

“However, it is clear now that the imagery could be interpreted as anti-Semitic, and for that we deeply apologize as hate speech of any kind does

not belong in our society and especially not in our politics.”

In California, Tyler Diep, a Republican running for State Assembly, sent out a mailer showing his Jewish challenger, Josh Lowenthal, grinning while clutching a handful of $100 bills. The flier went out on Sunday. Nine Jewish Democrats in the Assembly sent a letter in protest, saying the image reflected “anti-Semitic tropes.”

“At best, this attack ad reflects an extreme lack of sensitivity,” the letter said. “At worst, it’s bigoted and anti-Semitic. Either way, the mailer is offensive and raises serious questions about Tyler Diep’s fitness to serve in the Legislature.”

Diep’s campaign denied the image was antiSemitic, invoking Diep’s own ethnic heritage.

“Tyler is Vietnamese and fled Communist persecution — he is highly sensitive to attempts at exploiting stereotypes to score political points,” the campaign’s statement said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The 2018 campaign ended with a flurry of other ads and messages that drew criticism for playing on implicit or explicit anti-Semitism. Some of them were issued after the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, which led to a national outpouring of support for Jewish people.

A Green Party congressional candidate in the Cincinnati area launched a radio ad blaming “anti-American Communist Jews like George Soros” for fixing elections. The candidate, Jim Condit Jr., is facing a Republican incumbent and is not being supported by his own party.

“These massive Trump crowds are the real polls,” the ad says. “Not the fake lying polls put out by the big TV networks all controlled by billionaire Communist Jews. These same anti-American Communist Jews like George Soros also direct the three computer election vendors, which have connived their way into counting 95 percent plus of our votes on their secret computer programs, with no effective checks and balances. ... They fix close elections if they think they can get away with it.”

The manager for the two radio stations running the ad told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he is legally obligated to run campaign ads, even if they have racist or anti-Semitic content.

Condit has railed previously against Zionist control of world politics and claimed that Jews had a role in the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The Republican Party has also put out a number of ads singling out Soros, a leading liberal donor, that do not mention his religion. In one, he is shown alongside a pile of money. Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, denies that the ads are anti-Semitic.

A robocall sent to Georgia voters on Friday impersonating Oprah Winfrey featured what the Washington Post called “60 seconds of racism” and anti-Semitism. The call was an attack on Democrat Stacey Abrams, a black woman, who is vying with Republican Brian Kemp, who supports President Donald Trump, for governor there.

“This is the magical negro, Oprah Winfrey, asking you to make my fellow negress, Stacey Abrams, the governor of Georgia,” the robocall said. “Years ago, the Jews who own the American media saw something in me: the ability to trick dumb, white women into thinking I was like them and to do, read and think what I told them to.”

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prison in Israel. The family was prepared for his execution. They all knew it would happen.

Grandpa Eichmann had once told them that he was tired of being a fugitive. He knew what was coming and the older children knew it, too. They expected it, but it didn’t make it easier. When he was executed, Klaus and Horst became very angry and started attacking Jews. That made things even worse for them,” said Lindemann.

“Horst was a very strong Nazi and believed that his father had done nothing wrong,” continued Lindemann. “Apart from Ricardo, all the brothers agreed that Grandpa Eichmann was innocent. He told his sons that Hitler went after the Jews because they planned to sterilize Germans by putting a chemical in the water. That is why they were killed, he told them. Horst strongly believed that his father had done the right thing. If Horst thought his Grandpa Eichman was guilty, his whole world would have fallen apart.”

After Eichmann’s execution, the MailOnline reported, Horst and Klaus formed a Nazi terror cell that carried out attacks on Jewish businesses and synagogues.

In 1962, following a shoot-out with the cell, police raided their headquarters and unearthed Nazi propaganda, guns and Molotov cocktails intended for an attack on a Jewish school bus.

Horst was jailed two years later for possessing firearms and Nazi propaganda material.

According to Lindemann, Eichmann persuaded his sons that he had only wanted to expel the Jews, but was forced to kill them after no other country would accept them.

Eichmann initially told his sons that he was their uncle in order to avoid detection, Lindemann told MailOnline, and that during an argument with Horst he admitted to being their father.

Will Brazil’s new prez deliver on Israel?

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By Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff For the first time, British website MailOnline shed light on Friday on the fates of the four sons of Nazi archcriminal Adolf Eichmann — one of the principal organizers of the Holocaust.

Eichmann, the mastermind of the so-called “Final Solution” to rid Europe of its Jews, sent 6 million to their deaths during World War II. The incredible story of how Eichmann was snatched off the street in Buenos Aires by Israeli Mossad agents before being executed in Israel has been turned into a Netflix film, “Operation Finale.”

Eichmann had four sons; the three eldest, Klaus, Horst and Dieter, remained loyal to him even after his death. The youngest, Ricardo, rejected him and said his execution was justified.

According to MailOnline, Klaus and Horst are dead, while Ricardo, who was 5 when his father was taken, is living in Germany.

Eichmann’s third son Dieter, now 76, lives in an apartment in Buenos Aries just a few miles from the spot where his father was taken by Mossad agents, but he declined to comment.

Carmen Bretín Lindemann, the mistress of Dieter’s older brother Horst, however, was prepared to reveal what became of the family — and the truth behind the story turned into the Netflix blockbuster starring Ben Kingsley.

Speaking at her home in Garupá, northern Argentina, Lindemann, 61, said Horst was closest to his father and not his eldest son Klaus, as portrayed in the film.

Describing Horst as a “strong Nazi,” she said he flew a swastika above the family home when their father was snatched and often wore a Nazi armband around the house.

“It was a very difficult time when he was in

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By Israel Kasnett, JNS Dubbed the “tropical Trump,” Jair Bolsonaro’s victory appears to have imbued much of Brazil’s population with hope. The win by the right-wing anti-establishment figure may also upend the country’s foreign policy.

During his campaign, Bolsonaro said he would make Israel the first country he visits as president and would move Brazil’s embassy to Jerusalem.

He also promised to close the Palestinian embassy in Brazil because “Palestine is not a country.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Bolsonaro in a phone call, saying, “I am certain that your election will lead to a great friendship between our nations and to a strengthening of Israel-Brazil ties. I’m looking forward to your visit to Israel.”

An Israeli official said it was “highly probable” that Netanyahu will attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration on Jan. 1, in what would be the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister would visit Brazil.

Netanyahu also tweeted his congratulations.

“I spoke this evening with the president-elect of Brazil, @jairbolsonaro. I congratulated him on his victory. I told him I’m certain his election will lead to a great friendship between our peoples and a strengthening of Brazil-Israel ties. We are waiting for his visit to Israel!”

Speaking with JNS before the elections, Dina Siegel Vann, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA) in Washington, D.C., said, “We can only base ourselves on his public statements, his campaign promises. He’s been very clear. He wants to take the relationship with Israel to new levels. He is saying he wants to move the embassy to Jerusa-

lem, and he said his first trip abroad would be to Israel. Given his background, chances are that he will fulfill these promises.”

Bolsonaro’s strong affiliation with evangelical Christianity means that there is also a religious motivation. “Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world, and evangelism there is growing,” Siegel Vann said.

Although there have been a few hiccups, such as Brazil recalling its ambassador during the 2014 war in Gaza, the two nations have excellent bilateral ties. Brazil’s domestic needs have forced it to look beyond Middle East politics.

“Israel has a lot to offer many large countries,” said Siegel Vann. “And many other larger countries that have made offers to Latin American countries never came through.”

Arie Kacowicz, from the department of international relations at Hebrew University, told JNS “in terms of the tone of relations, it is clear that we will probably see a significant improvement.

In terms of substance, we will see.”

“If you look at the larger context, Brazil is a country that has very strong diplomatic relations with Iran,” he said. “Its foreign-policy approach has always been multilateral. Brazil has to keep good relations with the other side.”

He is skeptical that Bolsonaro will fulfill all his campaign promises. “I don’t see Bolsonaro moving the embassy immediately,” he said. “It might be easier to close the Palestinian embassy.”

What might change is the tone, Kacowicz said. “Bolsonaro will align himself very closely with Trump. And this means he will improve relations with Israel.”

“From an Israeli standpoint,” he concluded, “we are going to see an improvement.”

School News

Send news and hi-res photos to Schools@TheJewishStar.com • Deadline Monday Noon • Questions? Call Editor Ed at 718-908-5555

HALB preps HAFTR Krinsky tournament for the vote

From left: Councilman Anthony D’Esposito, Mr. Richard Altabe, Councilwoman Chumi Diamond, and Mrs. Gail Rusgo.

In preparation for Election Day, fifthgraders at HALB heard from Long Beach City Councilwoman Chumi Diamond and Town of Hempstead Councilman Anthony D’Esposito.

Prior to the visit, students learned about the importance of voting and how politicians from different backgrounds work together to accomplish the goals of the people. It was fitting to see the cordial relationship between Councilwoman Diamond and Councilman D’Esposito, although they come from different parties.

Both Diamond and Esposito spoke about what their jobs entail and how they directly affect the lives of students. Diamond talked about overseeing the Long Beach Boardwalk, the beach, and the ice skating rink, and D’Esposito spoke about Town of Hempstead parks, pools, and beaches, specifically Atlantic Beach.

Students prepared questions ahead of time and were able to ask the councilmembers for answers. City Councilwoman Diamond spoke about the challenges of being an Orthodox Jew in politics, but how those challenges are respected by her constituents.

She emphasized that “throughout life, in any job, we will all be faced with challenges and decisions. If we are dedicated to our religion, then people will be respectful and understanding.”

A highlight of the program was receiving this year’s sample ballots. Students learned how to read a ballot and why names can appear multiple times.

HALB thanks both City Councilwoman Chumi Diamond and Town Councilman Anthony D’Esposito for meeting with us, and Mrs. Shani Hollander, Social Studies teacher, for arranging the event.

On Saturday night, Oct. 26, HAFTR High School hosted a memorial basketball tournament in memory of Dr. Hindi Krinsky a”h in the Hawks’ Nest, spearheaded by HAFTR students Haley Wiener, Josh Wiener, Benjamin Kornblum (pictured above left) and Emily Siri.

Each team raised $180 for the Kanarfogel fund, which will support Dr. Krinsky’s children.

Above right: HAFTR JV and varsity players Ruthee Rosner, Penelope Silber, Megan Spivak, Haley Wiener, Jessica Kornblum, and Emily Siri.

At left, a group of competitors from various schools. The tournament enabled students and faculty to come together, play ball, and remember a great role model.

—Benjamin Kornblum, HAFTR senior and co-chair of the Dr. Hindi Krinsky Memorial Tournament.

HANC High stands with P’burgh HANC High School gathered together to mourn and reflect as a community upon the horrific and senseless antiSemitic attack that occurred in Pittsburgh over the Shabbat Parshat Vayera.

The assembly included powerful remarks from Rabbi Tsvi Selengut on the Torah perspective on tragedy.

Rabbi Selengut emphasized the importance of being proud to be a Jew, and how by doing mitzvot, we give back to our community.

In the upcoming weeks, students will be participating in school activities to memorialize the victims.

Faculty and students then recitated Tehillim together before eleven lit memorial candles.

Afterward, the school sang Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael in unison, praying to Hashem to show mercy to His people during times of distress. Students came away with a sense of unity and responsibility to each other.

May we be blessed with peace for our people and our community and may the families of all those who perished be comforted among the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim.

For DRS, an annual West Hempstead tisch DRS held its annual West Hempstead Tisch, with 130 boys spending Shabbos with friends to join in this great tradition.

Many rebbeim joined students as well for a rocking tisch at the home of sophomore Mordechai Strauss. The boys enjoyed incredible singing, great Divrei Torah, and of course, chulent and kugel.

The tisch also included local eighthgraders. who were introduced to the spirit and ruach that DRS is famous for.

Shalosh seudos took place at the home of sophomore Yoni Schneider.

DRS extends its hakaras hatov to the Strauss and Schneider families for their incredible hospitality. We look forward to many more exciting tisches in the future.

SKA at AIPAC teen summit Advocating for the State of Israel is a high priority at SKA. Throughout the school year, SKA’s Israel Action Committee raises funds for organizations that assist Israeli soldiers, as well as other charities.

The committee also invites exceptional speakers, including IDF veterans, and runs student leadership training sessions so that SKA students can become effective advocates for Israel.

Accompanied by faculty member Mrs. Tamar Bindiger, SKA students (from left) Batya Altmark, Rivka Bennun, Eleora Fine and Celia Shaoul attended AIPAC’s Schusterman Advocacy Institute High School Summit in Washington.

Together with four hundred high schoolers from around the country, the SKA participants attended training sessions on lobbying, Israel and the media and other important topics relevant to U.S.-Israel relations.

SKA ‘Together with Pittsburgh’ SKA’s principals spoke at davening and added an extra perek of Tehillim at Shacharit in memory of those who died and as a prayer for the injured to heal.

English teachers had students write condolences and letters of support to the emergency personnel who worked to control the situation, while the Social Studies teachers led discussion in their classes about the rise of anti-Semitism. SKA’s chesed committees have reached out to the Pittsburgh community asking how they can help.

SKA’s new student initiated campaign “Together with Pittsburgh, Together in Shul,” was launched on Thursday, encouraging girls to attend shul the past Shabbat and in the coming weeks and months. Since the tragedy occurred in shul on Shabbat and the victims were in shul on time, SKA students honor their memory than by coming to shul and davening.

A campaign poster was designed by senior Tammy Aryeh (shown here being held by Adina Roth and Ariella Wang). Wrist and hairbands with the slogan were sold, with funds going to the families in Pittsburgh.

THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

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‫כוכב של שבת‬

SHAbbAT STAR

November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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How anti-Semitism will end Parsha of the week

Rabbi avi biLLet Jewish Star columnist

I

n the last two weeks, I’ve been seeing a mix of reactions to the tragic massacre at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. I don’t know how many people are living on the edge, worried about where or when the next attack will be, but it is both sad and refreshing to witness the security measures many communities are taking.

Finger pointing at left or right is silly. This is deeper than political ideology — these are individuals who think that the existence of Jews is a problem.

There’s no rhyme or reason to Jew-hatred.

There are anti-Semites who have never met a Jew. It’s an old story — a very old story. fter the Har Nof massacre four years ago, I addressed the question of Yitzchak’s reaction to the peace offer of Avimelech and Phichol (Bereishit 26:26). He says, “Why have you come to me? You hate me! You sent me away from your land!”

Yitzchak had been sent away on account of a dispute over wells, economics, and control.

While he had originally been embraced in Gerar, it soon became clear that his success was extremely troubling to Avimelech and company.

A

Instead of asking him to teach them his secrets, instead of honoring his success, they vandalized his property: “And all of the wells that Avraham’s servants had dug in Avraham’s days were stuffed up with dirt and closed by the Philistines” (26:15).

How immature! You are in a land where fresh water seems hard to come by. Wells are good! Yet because you don’t own them yourselves, you stuff them?

And this behavior — of the Philistines! — is what leads Avimelech to expel Yitzchak.

“Go away from us. You have become much more powerful than we are” (26:16). s that, in fact, the problem?

That when Jews are successful, when Jews are influential, when Jews play a significant role in a society, they hate us?

And those who hate us are not just people who lack intelligence. In America, there are elitists who forget how the country was founded — “that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” also means that all citizens who share the same pursuits of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are not to be discriminated against for different beliefs.

The Jews who are admired are most often not outwardly religious. The religious — those who go to synagogue in whatever format — are the

I

‘Some of my best friends are Jews.’

Ask a busy person Orthodox Union

Rabbi DR. tzvi heRsh weinReb

I

’m certain that you have heard this saying before: “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” It is attributed to all sorts of wise people from Benjamin Franklin to Lucille Ball. Whatever its original source, I’m convinced that there is a great measure of truth to it.

Busy people are generally responsible and reliable people. It makes good sense to entrust tasks to such individuals.

But I think it goes deeper than that. I think that busy people are always looking for new challenges, interesting options, and opportunities to use their intelligence and creativity, and that is what makes them so valuable.

There are all sorts of reasons why some individuals are not busy. Some simply lack opportunity. Others have been found to be incompetent and, therefore, are not busy.

But such individuals are not “opposites” of the busy person. The busy person’s “opposite” is the individual who shirks new tasks, who actively avoids new assignments, who is reluctant to risk novelty and uncertainty. here in the Torah can we find mention of archetypes, or models, of the busy person and of the one who is determined not to be busy? I like to suggest that we find such archetypes in the persons of this week’s Torah portion, Toldot.

“Jacob was cooking a lentil stew when Esau came in from the field, exhausted. Esau said to Jacob, “Pour some of this red stuff down my throat because I’m exhausted!” … Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright.’ Esau replied, “I am going to die, so why do I need this birthright?” …

He sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau, who ate and drank, and got up and left. Esau despised the birthright” (Genesis 25:29-34).

At this point, you might find yourself asking about the connection between Jacob and Esau in this narrative and the dichotomy I’ve drawn between the busy man and the man who shirks busyness. o address your very legitimate question, allow me to introduce you to a very interesting Torah scholar and his unique take on the personalities of Jacob and Esau.

I refer to a man whom I had heard about many years ago from my childhood tutor, Rabbi Jacob Abramczyk. In his youth, Rabbi Abramczyk was a student at the Yeshiva of Novardok in pre-Holocaust Lithuania. He survived the Holocaust, but most of his fellow students did not. He often spoke to me of one of those fellow students, a man named Rabbi Yitzchak Valdshain.

I recently came across a book entitled Torat Yitzchak, which contains a biography of Rabbi Valdshain, along with a few of the Torah essays which he had published in his lifetime. One of those essays is devoted to this week’s parsha. It is entitled, “The Devout Person Seeks Obligations.”

That title intrigued me, and his opening paragraphs intrigued me all the more. e distinguishes between two types of religious personalities. One he calls the “Eagle.”

Just as the Eagle flies ever upward toward the sun, so does the Eagle-personality seek every opportunity to get closer to the Almighty’s service.

He seeks to learn about religious obligations of which he was previously ignorant, and he seeks to become involved in new religious roles.

The other religious personality type he terms the “Bat,” the person who not only does not fly toward the sun but flies in the opposite direction, away from the sun’s rays, toward the darkness in

T

The devout person seeks obligations.

W

H

ones undeserving of basic American rights. Right?

So why was Yitzchak so upset? Didn’t he know this was his lot in life?

Actually, their treatment of him came as a total shock. Because while his father Avraham had some run-ins with Gerar in the past, when he explained to them that he had called Sarah his sister because they had not demonstrated “fear of G-d,” the message seemed to strike home. They seemed to understand and appreciate that fear of G-d was an essential quality for living in peace with persons who are different. ne must see that the other person is created in the Image of G-d. One must recognize that the other person deserves basic human dignity, and should be treated with decency.

One must realize that sharing in the human condition means that while we have differences of opinion, those differences are not meant to be settled through the lifting of a weapon. (While war between nations is tragic, sadly it is sometimes necessary. But it is extremely rare — if not unheard of — for democracies to war against each other.)

And so Yitzchak was in shock over their hate toward him. Because while he had been financially successful, he hadn’t done anything to them to warrant their hatred. Which simply meant their hatred came from a jealousy, tempered only after Avimelech and Phichol came to the conclusion

O

which he is most comfortable. This person is satisfied with the religious obligations that are familiar to him and wants to remain oblivious to the other duties that might be out there. He is comfortable in his current role and does not wish to even hear of new possibilities, of new religious roles.

Rabbi Valdshain reminds us of a passage in the Talmud that illustrates these two opposite tendencies. “The later generations are different from the earlier ones. The earlier ones would bring their newly harvested crops through the wide front doors of their homes and courtyards, so that they could proudly perform the obligation to tithe their crops. Later generations brought their crops through rooftops, alleyways, and side entrances in order to exempt those crops from tithes” (Berachot 35b). he earlier generations were “Eagles,” flying upward toward the sun and performing the good deeds far beyond the minimal standards. Later generations deteriorated to the level of “Bats,” doing what they could to evade, albeit within the letter of the law, unwanted obligations.

Taking the metaphor a bit further, one can say that the Eagle, because he is open to the sun’s radiance, is open to personal growth. The Bat, however, hides from the sun and so denies himself personal growth opportunities.

For Rabbi Valdshain, this is the key difference between Jacob and Esau. Jacob actively seeks to “purchase” the role of the firstborn. He greatly desires the role of sacrificial service, the challenges of leadership, the expansion of his spirituality, and the opportunities for reaching out to others.

Esau, on the other hand, eschews new responsibilities and new obligations. He is satisfied with lentil stew, with the “red stuff,” with his basic physical needs. Sacrificial service, the pressures of leadership, challenging spiritual opportunities—these are all mere burdens to him.

They are to be “despised.”

And so, “he ate and drank, and got up and left.”

These two personality types, the “Eagle” and the “Bat,” reside side by side within each of us.

Rabbi Valdshain, may his memory be blessed, urges us to be aware of these tendencies within us all. He implores us to suppress our inner “Bat” and permit our inner “Eagle” to soar.

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that making peace with Yitzchak was necessary. “‘We have indeed seen that G-d is with you,’ they said. ‘We propose that there now be an oath between you and us. Let us make a treaty with you, that just as we did not touch you, you will do no harm to us. We did only good to you and let you leave in peace. Now you are the one who is blessed by G-d’ ” (26:28-29).

Hmmm. That’s not exactly how things went down.

But what does it mean? It means that the descendants of Yitzchak still encounter Avimelechs: people who are all smiles, who will deny that they ever hated Jews, and who will say, “Some of my best friends are Jews.” They’ll shift all blame off themselves, especially when being friendly is to their benefit. ut in Avimelech’s case, there was one more reason. Targum Yonatan explains that in Yitzchak’s merit, G-d had been good to the land. When he left, the wells dried up and trees stopped producing fruit. They needed him to come back. It was an investment in the future.

I do not believe that Jews are the key to all success in the world. But I do believe that Jews contribute in a significant way wherever they find themselves.

It took the cessation of that blessing around the time Yitzchak left for Avimelech to wonder, “What happened to my land?”

And this reminded him of what drew his nation to appreciate Avraham in the first place: they had agreed to be G-d-fearing.

When that happens today, we will all enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And Jews will not live in any kind of fear of where or when the next attack will strike.

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Luach

Thurs Nov 8 / 30 Cheshvan Rosh Chodesh Fri Nov 9 / 1 Kislev Rosh Chodesh Toldos Candlelighting: 4:24 pm Havdalah: 5:32 pm

Fri Nov 16 / 8 Kislev Vayeitzei Candlelighting: 4:18 pm Havdalah: 5:26 pm

Fri Nov 23 / 15 Kislev Vayishlach Candlelighting: 4:13 pm Havdalah: 5:22 pm

Fri Nov 30 / 22 Kislev Vayeishev Candlelighting: 4:10 pm Havdalah: 5:19 pm

Sun Dec 2 / 24 Kislev Chanukah begins tonight First candle

Five Towns times from White Shul From heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi binnY FReeDMan

Jewish Star columnist

Rabbi Freedman is off this week

Kosher bookworm

AlAn JAy Men and women geRbeR are welcome.

Separate seating in the Main Shul

Jewish Star columnist

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his year, the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht atrocities, coincided by a week with the Pittsburgh massacre.

Each event in its time served to shake our people to the core.

This week, an essay and a book demonstrate to us the wisdom of the old truism: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

One of our community’s leading educators is Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, the rosh yeshiva of Toras Chaim at South Shore in the Five Towns. In a recent essay in Ami Magazine, he shared the following haunting thoughts: “Kristallnacht taught us the shocking lesson of what happens when suddenly many ‘lone fanatics’ begin acting in unison. Though it was inevitable and a vicious excuse for a night of murder waiting to happen, people forget what the original Nazi excuse and sanctioned catalyst of the terrible Kristallnacht pogrom was.

“The overt entrée into the finality of the Holocaust was set off on November 7, 1938, by lone gunman Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year old Polish Jew, who walked up to German diplomat Ernst Von Rath in the German Embassy in Paris and fired at him five times at close range.

“Although Grynzpan claimed that the shooting was not religiously or politically motivated but based on a personal feud, it was too late.”

The Nazis used this incident to ignite the events of KristallHaRav Feitmanitself. nacht and as the prelude to Yaakov the Holocaust Morah D’Asra Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi

matic rifles and hand grenades killed 22 mispallelim at Shabbos morning services.

“One of the members of our kollel was married to a Turkish girl whose parents were there that Shabbos.

“The horror of the attack struck us all, even in what we thought then was an extremely safe and quiet community. But even in that seemingly safe environment of Squirrel Hill … the whispers had begun. Everyone who sees tragedy relates it to his own life and circumstance.”

Rabbi Kamenetzky concludes with the following thoughts: “I know that there is a Ribbono Shel Olam who watches over His people, and works only with Divine calculations. We do our hishtadlus.

“Now is the time to daven for the dead, the injured, the traumatized … And I think of the words of my friend on that morning of September 7th, after the attack on the shul in Turkey: “‘It is not a question of if it can happen here. It is a question of when.’ ” ake note of the following excerpt from the conclusion of the book 48 Hours of Kristallnacht, by Mitchell Bard: “Many Germans on Kristallnacht foresaw the consequences of their countrymen’s actions. ‘We Germans will pay dearly for what was done to the Jews last night,’ a German soldier’s aunt told him. ‘Our churches, our houses, and our stores will be destroyed. You can be sure of that.’ She was prescient.

The flames of the synagogues reached up to the heavens that later brought retribution in the form of the Allied bombs that crushed the Reich.”

I conclude this week’s essay with the following prayer by Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah in Efrat: “May G-d open the wellsprings of strength and resilience to our brothers and sisters during this time of enormous sorrow and pain, and may we merit in this generation to bring an end to baseless hatred and racism. Am Yisrael Chai, Amen.”

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ast forward to 1986. Rabbi Kamenetzky’s narrative continues. “During the early and mid-1980’s, I lived not far from the Tree of Life [synagogue], and I learned in the Pittsburgh kollel, whose support came from a wide array of community members, some of whom I believe were members of Tree of Life. neverCforget 8 0“I can T H O aMSunday M Ein September M O R ofA1986.

T ItI was V my E last month living in Pittsburgh and we had just heard the terrible news of the barbaric attack on the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul. A suicide attack by two terrorists armed with autoWednesday, November 7, 2018 | 8:00pm

Kristallnacht Kehillas Bais Yehudah Tzvi 391 Oakland Avenue (Corner, West Broadway), Cedarhurst

In search of Hashem’s friendship Alan Jay Gerber Judith Greenberger

A TORAH PERSPECTIVE ON KRISTALLNACHT

Event Co-Chairs

Torah

Finally, the word torotai is there to include Harav Yaakov Feitman, Morah the Oral Law,D’Asra given to Moses at Sinai.

father. And I will multiply your children like

In tribute and memory of: the stars of the heavens, and I will give your Rabbi Binyomin Kamenetzkychildren all these lands” (26:3-4).

GUEST SPEAKER Andrew Parise The Torah often refrains from providing a Joseph Ash rationale for future events. In our case, howJewish Star columnist Cecilie Klein ever, Hashem explicitly tells Yitzchak why he

RAbbi dAvid eTengoff

Rashi’s analysis is based on a variety of rabbinic sources that maintain that Avraham kept the entire Torah, including rabbinic decrees and Theodore Roosevelt IV enactments, generations before it was given at Mount Sinai. will receive these blessings: “Because Who will discuss theAvraham role of his grandfather ur parasha contains a crucial narrative in hearkened to My voice, and kept My charge e may well ask, “Why did Roosevelt Jr’s struggle with the the lives of the Avot — a famine in the (mishmarti), MyTheodore Avraham fulfill the Torah commandments (mitzvotai), America First Committee and its leaderif Charles Lindbergh Land of Israel, and Yitzchak’s initial desire My statutes (chukotai), he was not commanded and My instructions to follow in his father’s footsteps and travel to (torotai)” (26:5). to do so?”

Egypt to avoid starvation.

Program followed

by MaarivMy rebbi and mentor, Rabashi explains eachwillofbethese terms: In this instance, however, Hashem reveals Mishmarti refers to decrees that help bi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l, himself to Yitzchak and commands him to redistance us from transgression, such as guides us toward an answer, Bais Tzvi main in Eretz Yisrael: “And the L-rdKehillas appeared to Yehudah secondary prohibitions to prevent incest, and stating that “in many respects, G-d was closer Oakland Cedarhurst 11516 him, and said, ‘Do not go down to391 Egypt; dwellAvenue, rabbinic decreesNY to safeguard Sabbath. to Abraham than He was to Moses.” The Rav in the land that I will tell you’ ” (Bereishit 26:2).

Mitzvotai refers to prohibitions that would notes that Avraham acquired the moral law, and In addition to the command to “dwell in have been fit to command even if they had they by extension halacha, through “the machazeh, the land,” Hashem proclaims that Yitzchak will not been written in the Torah, such as robbery the prophetic vision, not the royal decree [as in have numerous offspring, and that the cov- and bloodshed. the case of Moses].” He continues this theme by enant with Avraham will be fulfilled through Chukotai refers to things that the yetzer suggesting, “There is no imposition of divine auhim: “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with hara and the nations of the world argue, such thority… Only a bilateral covenant, which binds you, and I will bless you, for to you and to your as eating pork and wearing garments of wool both man and G-d, was concluded.” children will I give all these lands, and I will es- and linen, for which no reason is given but the According to the Rav, Avraham was Hashem’s tablish the oath that I swore to Avraham, your decree of G-d. friend. Once Avraham received his prophetic vi-

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sion, he did everything in his power to comply with G-d’s every request.

“G-d addresses Himself to Abraham not in the commanding, authoritative tone of the L-rd but in the comradely, friendly manner of a fellow wanderer. He [G-d] wants a covenant with him. G-d, as it were, is lonesome and He is anxious to find a companion.”

The statement that “G-d, as it were, is lonesome and He is anxious to find a companion” is a theological tour de force, teaching us that as much as we wish to draw close to Hashem, He, too, longs for the Jewish people’s embrace.

In many ways, this concept is reminiscent of the first stanza of the stirring poem “Yedid Nefesh,” or “Beloved of the Soul,” that is often sung in Ashkenazi synagogues during Kabbalat Shabbat, and at shalosh seudot: “Beloved of the soul, Compassionate Father, draw Your servant to Your Will, then Your servant will hurry like a hart to bow before Your majesty; to him Your friendship will be sweeter than the dripping of honeycomb and any taste.”

May we strive to emulate Avraham Avinu as we reach out to Hashem, our Yedid Nefesh, with heartfelt prayer and dedication to His holy Torah.

‘G-d, as it were, is lonesome.’

Hope and despair: Thoughts on Parashat Toldot Angel for Shabbat

RAbbi mARc d. Angel

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f it be so, wherefore do I live?” (Bereishit 25:22) Rebecca was suffering with a very difficult pregnancy. She was so distraught that she questioned the value of her life. After reaching this point of deep despair, “she went to inquire of the Lord” i.e. she sought an explanation from God as to why she was enduring so much hardship. Once she was told that she was carrying twins who would be lifelong rivals, she ceased to complain.

Even though the explanation of her suffer-

ing was not exactly wonderful, she seems to have been able to deal with it — as long as she felt she now had some control and understanding of the situation.

Researchers have found that when people feel helpless and hopeless, they are more prone to depression and physical illness. When they reach the point of questioning the very value of their lives, they not only suffer psychological stress but also a breakdown in their immune systems.

Stress and frustration are problematic features of life; but many people cope well and even thrive on stress. What separates those who are crushed by despair from those who overcome feelings of despair? n his book Who Gets Sick, Blair Justice discusses “transformational coping.” This involves thinking about things optimistically,

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acting decisively, changing the situation into a less stressful one. It means taking control — to the extent possible — and not falling prey to feelings of helplessness and despair. Whatever the problem or challenge, one needs to foster a mindset that gives one hope and offers some positive resolution.

Blair Justice quotes the results of a survey of 52,000 readers of Psychology Today, indicating that happiness “turns out to be more a matter of how you regard your circumstances than of what the circumstances are.”

It isn’t the difficulties in themselves that can debilitate us, but our interpretation of the difficulties. If we feel overwhelmed and powerless, we are likely to surrender to depression and illness. If we feel that we can draw on our inner strengths to face our problems as optimistically and decisively as possible, then we

can cope with the stresses and struggles that we face.

Researchers have found that people cope better when they have a network of loved ones who care for them, and who provide them with psychological support and encouragement.

There is also much evidence that religious faith provides people with courage and optimism. When we pray, we come to a deeper spiritual inner peace that allows us to cope more effectively with the problems we face. By sharing our feelings with the Almighty, we link ourselves to the Eternal Source of all being.

We live in a stress-filled world, and face a constant stream of challenges. Optimism, decisive action, and spiritual calmness can help us with our “transformational coping” — our ability to respond well and effectively to the crises and problems that confront us.

THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

Legacy of Kristallnacht is a message for all time

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November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778 THE JEWISH STAR

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American Anti-Semitism is different Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

Jewish News Service

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n a sunny afternoon last Tuesday in Pittsburgh, about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the JCC in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a short distance from the Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh where, on the previous Shabbat, the neo-Nazi assailant Robert Bowers gunned down 11 Jews who had gone there to pray.

The rally was one of several responses from the city’s left-wing and progressive groups to the visit that same Tuesday of President Donald Trump, whom the protestors blamed for encouraging a political climate in which a fanatic felt emboldened enough to murder Jews for the sole reason that they were Jews.

Centrist, mainstream Jews would have strongly disagreed with a good deal of the rhetoric at the rally and would doubtless have winced at the obligatory condemnation of the Israeli “occupation.” At the same time, this was

a gathering that eagerly — one might even say lovingly — embraced its Jewish nature; Kaddish was recited for the victims, and Hebrew songs were sung with gusto and fluency. bove all, there was the sense that everyone here understood that anti-Semitism is a threat that needs to be taken seriously and confronted.

That is a far cry from Europe, where far-left and ultranationalist politicians alike accuse Jews of fabricating anti-Semitism for political gain, even as Jews of all ages are murdered

by Islamist terrorists at a Jewish school, a Jewish museum and a Jewish supermarket, and elderly Jews living alone are assaulted by street thugs spitting anti-Semitic invective.

What, though, did those attending the rally understand by the word “anti-Semitism”? As I strolled among the crowd, I came across a large banner that read, “AntiSemitism Upholds White Supremacy.” I asked the gentleman holding it if he minded my taking a photo, and he agreed. But when I tried to

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engage him in conversation about the banner, he demurred, and I didn’t push it.

I mention that because what follows is my interpretation of that slogan. As I see it, the operative phrase here is “white supremacy” — and this reveals another key distinction between America and Europe.

In Europe, there is no question that anti-Semitism has been the deadliest and most enduring form of prejudice known on that continent — one that continues to plague its Jewish communities more than 70 years after the Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews.

But in America, anti-Semitism has been merely one element of the Jewish experience, and not the most significant; by contrast, the legacy of slavery and segregation means that it is racism targeting African-Americans that has dominated the American public’s imagination. till, as the banner in Squirrel Hill suggested, that doesn’t exclude anti-Semitism from the equation entirely. By “upholding”

AntiSemitism needs to be taken seriously and confronted.

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This newspaper contains words of Torah; please dispose of properly.

white supremacy, anti-Semitism takes its place among the roster of prejudices — racism, homophobia, transphobia and so forth — which determine, insist progressives, that the quest for social justice is necessarily “intersectional.”

For the historical reasons I outlined above, this strategy makes a good deal more sense in America than it does in Europe. Yet there’s a danger of becoming too parochial, unable to recognize the prevailing forms of anti-Semitism — leftist, Islamist, the phenomenon of “antiSemitism without Jews” in countries like Malaysia — outside of our country.

The first consideration is that anti-Semitism is a global phenomenon that manifests in different countries and different cultures at the same time. It unites its various followers in the core belief that the Jews are a “global” people, eternally suspect because they pursue their narrow, selfish interests across national borders.

At that point, the hatred of Jews develops national or religious characteristics that conform to the local environment. This is something we need to bear in mind when we stand up and challenge anti-Semitism in America: there are important differences in its manifestation in this country as compared with other countries.

Most important of all is that, historically, anti-Semitism has never been an organizing principle of American politics, in marked contrast See Hatred on page 22

Bend the Arc does not speak in our name Politics to go

JEff DuNEtz

Jewish Star columnist

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t made headlines across the country: local Jews tell Trump not to visit Pittsburgh to mourn the dead and visit the wounded.

A letter sent to the President by a group called “Bend the Arc,” described by the media as “leaders of the Pittsburgh Jewish community,” told the president that he wasn’t welcome unless he took action on anti-Semitism and white nationalism. Specifically, the letter calls out the president for “targeting and endangering all minorities” and putting forth an “assault on immigrants and refugees.”

The media reports were wrong. Bend the Arc has nothing to with the leadership of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, it is a political organization based in New York. And it is only nominally Jewish.

The organization was established in 2015 by Alex Soros, son of progressive donor George Soros. Politico described it as new political action committee focused on representing the views of Jewish Americans beyond foreign policy. In fact,

it represents only the views of progressive Jewish Americans, at least on domestic politics. fter the 2016 election, Bend the Arc became a self-described anti-Trump resistance group. This fact was omitted by mainstream media that tries to paint the president as a bigot, but the group’s website make its opposition to anything Republican very obvious.

The header of the Bend the Arc homepage identifies it as part of the “resistance.” Below that is a statement of its mission (bolded emphases mine): “Bend the Arc is a movement of tens of thousands of progressive Jews all across the country.

For years, we’ve worked to build a more just society. Now we’re rising up in solidarity with everyone threatened by the Trump agenda to fight for the soul of our nation. Together we: “Hold elected officials accountable: If politicians are going to enable the immoral agenda of the Trump administration and the Republican Party, we’re going to hold them accountable. And we won’t hesitate to organize and fundraise to replace them with progressive champions.”

“Interrupt Trump 2018: How do we stop

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Trump’s attacks on women, immigrants and their families, people of color, students, and Muslims? We replace his enablers in Congress.

Meet our campaign to interrupt Trump by talking to 100,000 voters in key districts where we can flip the House.”

With these statements on its homepage, would anyone really expect Bend The Arc to roll out the red carpet for the president, Mrs. Trump, and administration figures when they came to pay their respects to the Tree of Life Synagogue victims in Pittsburgh?

An unbiased Jewish observer might call the Bend the Arc letter “a shanda fur di goyim.”

Jeffrey Myers, who was leading the Tree of Life congregation during the attack, was criticized by some for meeting with Trump during his visit. He said he received death threats for saying Trump was welcome. Following the get-together, he said he was “pleasantly surprised” to discover a “warm and personal side” to Trump. ccording to CNN, in his sermon on Saturday, Myers said he’d drawn on “lessons from Jewish tradition in welcoming the

It is a sacred obligation to comfort mourners.

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president.”

Ironically, the parsha read on Shabbos was Chayei Sarah, where we learn the importance of comforting mourners. “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that G-d blessed Isaac, his son” (Genesis 25:11). The sages infer from this verse that G-d himself was there, comforting the bereaved Isaac. Thus we learn that it is a sacred obligation to comfort mourners, whether related to them or not, whether the dead was a close friend or a passing acquaintance.

Bend the Arc’s letter attempted to prevent President Trump from doing that.

While the media was quick to blame the president, the truth is that the only person responsible for shooting up a synagogue was the anti-Semitic madman who did it.

Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect the media to explore the religious aspects of Bend the Arc’s letter, or to have a guest (like me) explain it to their audiences. It is not unreasonable for them to ignore the actual political leanings of the group, or the fact that it is not a local organization.

From their own words, it is clear that Bend the Arc is a national anti-Trump group. Did any reporter make an effort to visit their homepage? Based on their reporting, I highly doubt it.

View from Central Park

tehilla r. goldberg

Intermountain Jewish News

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loodshed at Tree of Life. The painful irony.

This coming Shabbat, just before the Torah is returned to the ark, almost every Jewish congregation will sing the melodious “Eitz Chaim,” “Tree of Life.” It is the faces of the 11 congregants we shall think of, as the Torah is nestled in the Ark, who until last Shabbat were private individuals known only to family and friends. Gunned down in the midst of their Shabbat prayers — gunned down for being Jewish — it is they whom we shall think of.

These 11 souls have joined a long line of those who in our tradition are known as kedoshim, holy ones, people who are killed for no other reason other than being Jewish.

We’ve always told stories of these holy people, even entire communities of these holy people, in Mainz, Germany, in York, England, and, tragically, so many other places, even our one Jewish country, Israel.

But not in America. Somehow America was never part of that equation. Being killed for being Jewish? In America? Can’t be.

That time of innocence ended forever last Shabbat. e are still within living memory of the Holocaust, yet a white supremacist killer shouts: “All Jews must die.” A bloodsoaked siddur is not something we associate with American shuls.

Even so, part of me has always worried about such a scenario in my own shul.

We’ve all had the conversation around our Shabbat tables: concern for our safety, if and when to hire security guards, anxiety as talk of shul emergency drills became the norm. Especially in recent years, as there was a rise in anti-Semitism.

Just three or four years ago, right here in Denver, an entire city block was defaced by swastikas and hateful rhetoric.

Anti-Semitism is as old as Judaism. It is, as Professor Deborah Lipstadt said, “the oldest hate in the world.”

One of the worshippers at Tree of Life, who survived the harrowing massacre, said: “I don’t know why he thinks the Jews are responsible for all the ills in the world, but he’s not the first and he won’t be the last. Unfortunately, that’s our burden to bear … It breaks my heart.”

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Killed for being Jewish? In America?

ants, who lived as brothers and then died as brothers — the vulnerability screamed off the page. erily, or presciently, Tree of Life’s leader Jeffrey Myers posted this dvar Torah on the shul’s website the week prior to the deadly Shabbat: “Many of us manage to find the time to attend a funeral, but do not possess the same fervor when it comes to a joyous event … we have a finite, limited amount of s’machot (the plural of simcha, a joyous milestone/occasion) in our lives … by not participating as fully as possible in s’machot we deprive ourselves of joy and the opportunity to celebrate with others … comforting a mourner is a mitzvah, and so is bringing joy to a newly married couple at their wedding.

“There is a story told in the Talmud of a wedding procession and a funeral procession heading along parallel roads, with the roads intersecting. The question asked is: when they meet at the fork, which procession goes first, funeral or wedding? The answer is wedding, as the joy of the couple takes precedence. In fact, the funeral procession is to move out of sight so that their joy is not lessened…”

May we sow the seeds of love and respect, of human dignity and compassion for the stranger in our midst; may we escort the Torah to its ark while singing “Eitz Chaim,” Tree of Life, without pain; may we plant and water seeds and trees that bring the joy of life’s milestones.

Yehi zichram baruch. May the memories of those who died be for a blessing.

Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

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Did Israelis err in backing Trump after Pittsburgh?

Jonathan S. tobin

Jewish News Syndicate

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or those who have spent recent years lamenting the growing disconnect between Israel and the Diaspora, the days after the Pittsburgh shooting provided more proof of their claims. Some Americans believe that Israelis and their leaders — particularly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — don’t understand the feelings, concerns or fears of American Jews.

Until now, that dispute has for the most part rested on disagreements about the peace process and religious pluralism in Israel. But in the wake of the horrific 11 deaths of Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh, a separate argument may have become the biggest bone of contention between the two communities: President Donald Trump.

The vast majority of American Jews are loyal Democrats and political liberals, and would oppose any Republican. But Trump’s populism and incendiary rhetoric, which flouts both the normal conventions of leadership, put him beyond the pale for liberals.

Most importantly, they think his focus on illegal immigration fans the flames of hatred. They believe that his inconsistent stands about the far-right — principally, his equivocal reaction to last year’s neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Va. — has emboldened extremists, and directly or indirectly led to the slaughter at a Pittsburgh synagogue. s former Anti-Defamation League executive director Abe Foxman said last week, Trump is “not an antiSemite,” but he is “a part of the problem.” That led Bret Stephens, the conservative New York Times columnist, to conclude that the throngs of GOP voters who cheer for the president at his rallies may be different from the alt-right extremists who plot and carry out violence, but “not altogether different.”

Stephens sees the relationship between the Trump-led Republican Party and murderers like Robert Bowers as analogous to the one between political activists of the Muslim Brotherhood and the terrorists of Al Qaeda. In his words, “the former generally committed to working within the political system, the latter to destroying it, yet

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both profoundly hostile to the values animating open societies.”

If that’s how you see Trump and his supporters, then it’s no wonder that Stephens concluded by writing, “The blood that flowed in Pittsburgh is on his [Trump’s] hands also.”

Trump may be guilty of coarsening the tone of American discourse, and extremists may applaud his open hostility to illegal immigration and foreign threats. But the willingness of a usually sober writer like Stephens to characterize so many law-abiding Americans who — whatever your political or social differences — don’t deserve to be peremptorily dismissed, as racists and foes of American liberty, says a lot about polarization in our society.

Yet outrageous as those assertions might be, a significant number of American Jews probably agree. hen Israel’s government indicated that their attitude towards Trump had not changed, the reaction was predictable. The sight of Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer at Trump’s side when he made a condolence call at the site of the

Distance gives them the luxury of perspective.

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massacre outraged many of the president’s detractors. Dermer’s presence led Haaretz correspondent Alison Kaplan Sommer to claim it was something “American Jews may never forgive.”

Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett, who went to Pittsburgh to attend some of the victims’ funerals, later told the Council on Foreign Relations that he did not think there was a link between the president’s rhetoric and Pittsburgh. He also dismissed analogies between Trump’s America and Weimar Republic Germany.

Sommer quoted with approval the response from Edward Bleier, an 86-year-old American Jewish philanthropist who claimed Trump’s behavior and his use of the “America First” slogan to describe his foreign policy did remind him of Nazis. Henry Siegman, a bitter critic of Israel, told Bennett to his face that he had no right to tell American Jews what to think about Trump.

The gap between Israeli opinion and that of American Jews on Trump was highlighted by an American Jewish Committee survey published in June. Israelis view the president solely through the prism of his support for them. American Jews who are not single-issue voters on Israel regard other issues as more important.

There is an argument to be made for Israelis, See Israelis on page 22

The Jewish blindness to anti-Semitism on the left abraham h. miller

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Trump-hating neo-Nazi slaughters worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue — and Jewish communal groups see the tragedy as confirmation of two fallacious ideas. The greatest threat to American Judaism comes from the right, they declare, and U.S. President Donald Trump has provided the climate responsible for the massacre.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs has used the tragedy to educate the community about anti-Semitism on the right. The virulent, more widespread anti-Semitism of the left is ignored.

The anti-Semitism of the right is indeed a threat, and a lone gunman possessed by a

warped ideology is dangerous. But the Jewish left’s immersion in its dogma of the threat of right-wing anti-Semitism, Trump as the icon of evil, and gun control as the solution to mass murder is unhelpful.

Neo-Nazis and white nationalists hold no meaningful political power. They have limited entrée to the corridors of decision-making in America.

The Jewish liberal obsession with the right ignores that the real anti-Semitic threat comes from the left, and certainly not from President Trump, but from within the Democrat Party and across the left sector of the ideological spectrum.

Karl Marx’s treatise showcasing Jews as the possessors of capitalist traits was one of the foundation blocks for the ideological switch from anti-Jewish hatred to anti-Semitism in 19th-century Germany.

Hatred towards Jews as a theological issue could be cured by religious conversion, but antiSemitism transformed Jews from apostates to

carriers of bad traits, the cure for which was not conversion but death. his transformation of anti-Jewishness into anti-Semitism has persisted into the modern age as the ideology of left-wing and Muslim anti-Semitism on the American campus — the ideology infused into the mind of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who sees Israel as murdering hapless Palestinians demonstrating at the Gaza fence.

Jews are blind to the anti-Semitism of the left embodied by the likes of Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Ilhan Omar, Leslie Cockburn, Louis Farrakhan, Black Lives Matter and Students for Justice in Palestine, among others.

Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran was the single greatest threat to the survival of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Iran makes no secret of its intention to destroy the Jewish state. Its development of nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them were directed at one target:

T

Israel. Trump’s abrogation of the treaty should have been praised by the Jewish community. Of course, it wasn’t.

The confluence of interest between leftists and anti-Semitic Muslims repeatedly rears its head, but is ignored by Jews and Jewish communal organizations. The British Labour Party is engaged in a purge of Jews who support Israel.

Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, lionizes and memorializes terrorists. On campuses throughout North America, anti-Semitic hate fests are celebrated as Israel Apartheid Week under the watchful eye of doctrinaire leftists who would not permit similar events if they targeted Muslims.

It is that part of anti-Semitism that the Jewish communal organizations refuse to acknowledge as they indulge their obsession and their inability to acknowledge Trump’s unflinching support for Israel and the Jewish people.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati.

21 THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

Looking for the helpers N

ot only was this violent act of hate committed on the shores of America, but of all places, literally in Mr. Fred Rogers’s neighborhood. Not on his famous TV show, but in his real-life neighborhood of Squirrel Hill. Mr. Rogers, who used to say, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

And so it was this past week. In Mr Rogers’s neighborhood, all those “helpers” emerged, Jews and non-Jews alike. The Muslim student who lived nearby, walking among the wounded and shocked, offering home-cooked meals that he had been careful to keep kosher; his community, which within hours raised funds to help the congregation and offered to protect the synagogue with their own bodies this Shabbat; the outpouring of Christians and atheists. Neighbors who turned out in droves for a Havdalah service in the rain, thousands leaving a shattering Shabbos for the mundane week, together with their Jewish neighbors.

When I saw the ages of those murdered listed — the elderly of the synagogue — my mind went to my shul. I felt like I knew them: the ones who are always first to arrive, who you count on for a minyan, who are there to help everyone, who put community above all else.

The picture painted of David and Cecil Rosenthal, these two sweet souls known as gentle gi-

Conservative ideals ‘better for US’ Hatred… movement ostracizes Jews, especially on college campuses.

Glick said that BDS targets not Israel, but American Jews. Her message to the bigots: “You are the haters of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Other speakers included Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, great-nephew of 20th-century leader of American Jewry Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and Israeli Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked.

Washington Free Beacon co-founder and editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti, Weekly Standard founding editor Bill Kristol and National Review editor Rich Lowry participated in a discussion about the legacy of the late Charles Krauthammer. The Tikvah Fund, a major participant in the conference, announced a

Continued from page 20 to a list that includes France, Germany, Russia, Poland and most of the Middle East. ertainly, anti-Semitism has had its American proponents over the years, from the German-American Bund to Father Coughlin to the Nation of Islam. They have had their moments in the sun, but none of them have changed how the vast majority of non-Jews in America think about their Jewish neighbors.

Because of that, American Jews have never had to consider whether they would be better off elsewhere. In France, that has been a topic of conversation among Jews for nearly two decades — and thousands have acted on it — while in the United Kingdom, the state of the Labour Party under its far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn is provoking similarly angst-filled discussions.

American anti-Semitism, even through an assault rifle, has not had the same effect. None of the Jews I met in Pittsburgh this week were thinking remotely of leaving the country they love. As far as they are concerned, it is the antiSemites and bigots who should get out of here — not the Jews and other minorities. In this moment of extraordinary pain, that is a heartening response, and one that reflects America’s proud history as a haven for the Jewish people.

Would that were the case in every other nation as well.

scholarship in Krauthammer’s memory and an initiative to translate Krauthammer’s writings into Hebrew.

Former Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky — former longtime refusenik and leader of the fight to release Soviet Jewry, who spent eight years in gulag — was awarded the inaugural Tikvah Prize for his heroism as a Jewish statesman and more.

Among breakout sessions at the conference were those featuring Elliott Abrams, who served as a foreign-policy adviser under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; Harvard University professor Ruth Wisse; New York University professor and free-speech advocate Jonathan Haidt; Israeli philosopher and author Yoram Hazony; and Middle East scholar Martin Kramer. — JNS

C

THANKS

Israelis...

Continued from page 21 who resent Diaspora Jews telling them what to do, to be as reticent about giving advice to Americans.

Yet those who criticized Netanyahu for his willingness to quarrel with President Barack Obama are in no position to declare his support for a friendlier president to be foolish. For Israel to dump Trump as he tried to stand with an afflicted American Jewish community and with the Jewish state makes no sense. sraeli attitudes towards American Jews on issues like pluralism are often tone-deaf and self-defeating. But in this case, distance gives them the luxury of perspective that those immersed in hyper-partisan battles have lost.

Any act of anti-Semitic violence, especially one as horrific as Pittsburgh, is one too many.

But claims of a Trump-fueled surge in anti-Semitism are simply false. Whatever you may think of Trump, he is not a harbinger of a new Third Reich, and America remains a place where Jews are accepted as they have never been anywhere else in the history of the Diaspora.

Anyone who witnessed, as I did, so many nonJewish Americans showing up in synagogues this past Shabbat to show their solidarity can’t really believe that Jews are isolated, or that the overwhelming majority of their fellow citizens aren’t as appalled by Pittsburgh as they were.

Israelis may not know much about American Jews, but they aren’t wrong to regard Trump hysteria, as opposed to reasoned opposition, with dismay. It may take an outsider to understand that analogies to Nazis or the Muslim Brotherhood — let alone talk about him having blood on his hands — shouldn’t be allowed to intrude into the discussion about anti-Semitism.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. 990909

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To promote Judaism and conservatism in American life and Zionism, the Jewish Leadership Conference (JLC) held its second annual conference in New York on Oct. 28.

“We believe conservative ideas because they make America better,” said JLC Executive Director Jonathan Silver.

Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick talked about the rise in anti-Semitism in the United States and worldwide, citing variations like Nazi anti-Semitism and white supremacy; jihadism, and anti-Zionism, which Glick said is not widely understood as anti-Semitism.

Glick focused mostly on the last category, saying that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic because it targets Israel, the largest Jewish community in the world.

She also noted that the anti-Zionist BDS

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23 THE JEWISH STAR November 9, 2018 • 1 Kislev, 5778

The JEWISH STAR CAlendar of Events Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com Deadline noon Monday • Compiled by Rachel Langer Thursday November 8

Say it with Music: Theatre historian John Kenrick will discuss hits and misses from the Irving Berlin songbook at the Peninsula Public Library. 1 pm. 280 Central Ave, Lawrence. 516239-3262 x 216.

Saturday November 10

Chamber Music: A Motzei Shabbos piano trio by rosh kollel Rabbi Dovid Lipson, violinist Eric Grossman, and cellist Lanny Paykin, to benefit Kollel Aliyos Shlomo Yerushalayim. 8:30 pm. 45 Washington Ave South, Lawrence. 917586-4421.

Kollel Kumzitz: Inwood Community Kollel’s Melave Malka, with live performance by Yehuda Green. 8:30 pm. 44 Bayswater Blvd, Inwood.

Sunday November 11

Our Israel Story: Emunah of America invites you to its 70-year anniversary dinner, honoring Myrna Zisman, Rubin Margules, Lisa & Jonathan Schechter, and Samantha Bryk. 5 pm. 1515 Broadway, Manhattan. 917-287-5846.

Opening Minds: Ohel honors the Kaylies at its 49th annual gala. 5 pm. 811 Seventh Ave, Manhattan. ohelgala.org.

Kristallnacht Observation: Manny Bekier will address the Nazi killing squads and the recent work of the Yahad-in-Unam project led by Father Dubois in documenting these murders. 4 PM. 711 Dogwood Ave, West Hempstead. 516481-7448.

Tuesday November 13

Kosher Taste: Come sample Long Island’s best glatt kosher food, wine and beer at an auction to benefit the Jewish Community Relations Council of Long Island. 7 pm to 9 pm. 401 Roslyn Rd, Roslyn Heights. $50. 516-433-0433.

Narcan Training: Learn to recognize signs of overdose and reverse it at the Friedberg JCC. Free Naloxone kit for participants. 7 pm. 15 Neil Court, Oceanside. Free. 516-634-4010.

Tefillah BeShanah [weekly]: Rabbi Arye Ben David of Ayeka explores Jewish prayer, at YI North Woodmere. 8 pm. 634 Hungry Hollow Rd, North Woodmere. YINW.org/event/tb.

Wednesday November 14

YU Community Beit Midrash [weekly]: For men and women. Dr. Rona Novick, “Social Responsibility in Today’s World,” 10:30 to 11:30 am. Mrs. Shoshana Schachter, “Avraham: First Lonely Man of Faith,” 11:45 am to 12:45 pm.

215 Lexington Ave, Manhattan. $25. YU.edu/ sternlearn.

Commemorative Program: Touro Law Center remembers Kristallnacht with special guest speaker Ira Fuchs, author of the OffBroadway play Vilna. 12:30 pm. 225 Eastview Dr, Central Islip. 631-761-7062.

Light Up the Night: Sharsheret light dinner featuring guest speaker Tali Lando and music by

Bar / Bat Mitzvah Favors

the Weeklings. 6 pm. 155 Varick St, Manhattan.

RSVP sharsheret.org/nycevent.

Thursday November 15

Delacroix Revealed: Art historian Vivian Gordon will discuss the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s landmark exhibit of one of the greatest French artists of the 19th century at the Peninsula Public Library. 1 pm. 280 Central Ave, Lawrence. 516-239-3262 x 216.

Explore Aliyah: Nefesh B’Nefesh Open House covering the aliyah process, including job market, community search, education, healthcare and financial planning. 7 pm. 859 Peninsula Blvd, Woodmere. NBN.org.il/explore.

Saturday November 17

Motzei Shabbos: Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe invites the community to an evening with Charlie Harary. 8:30 pm. 2 Dogwood Rd, Great Neck.

Sunday November 18

Chanukah Expo: Five Towns Chanukah shopping at Ateres Nechama Liba including giftware, jewelry, toys, wigs, accessories, clothing and more. Live food demos by Sarah Lasry. 11 am. 613 Beach 9th St, Far Rockaway. $10 per family. 732-598-6081.

Chofetz Chaim dinner: Rabbinical Seminary of America hosts its 85th annual dinner and chag hasemicha at Terrace on the Park. 5 pm. 52 11 111th St, Flushing. $350. 718-2684684.

Monday November 19

Paint Night: Get creative at Fall Paint Night with Joan Lazarus at the Peninsula Public Library. Ages 18 & up. 1 pm. 280 Central Ave, Lawrence. $10; registration required. 516-2393262 x 216.

Tuesday November 20

Jewish Migration: Michael Chaplan presents the story of 1.5 million East European Jews who were processed at Ellis Island. 2 pm. 159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck. Free admission.

JCC Lecture: A thought-provoking discussion of post-war theological responses to the Shoah with Rabbi Moshe Cohn of Yad Vashem.

7 pm. 207 Grove Ave, Cedarhurst. 516-5696733.

Tuesday November 27

Tefillah BeShanah [weekly]: Rabbi Evan Hoffman of Cong. Anshe Sholom will speak at Young Israel of North Woodmere in a series exploring Jewish prayer. 8 pm. 634 Hungry Hollow Rd, North Woodmere. YINW.org/event/tb.

Wednesday November 28

County Clerk: The Nassau County Clerk’s Mobile Office will offer County Clerk services to Nassau County residents, including land records (deeds, mortgages, and mortgage satisfactions) and notary services, at the Peninsula Public Library. 11 am. 280 Central Ave, Lawrence. 516239-3262 x 216.

Tuesday December 11

Call: 516-676-0900 9am-5Pm text: 516-669-1400 9am-8Pm

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Tefillah BeShanah [weekly]: Rabbi Moshe Taragin of Yeshivat Har Etzion will speak at Young Israel of North Woodmere in a series exploring Jewish prayer. 8 pm. 634 Hungry Hollow Rd, North Woodmere. YINW.org/event/tb.

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Tefillah BeShanah [weekly]: Dr. Jay Goldmintz of Koren Publishers will speak at Young Israel of North Woodmere in a series exploring Jewish prayer. 8 pm. 634 Hungry Hollow Rd, North Woodmere. YINW.org/event/tb.

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