The Jewish Star

The JEWISH Shabbos Chanukah / Miketz • Dec. 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 • Torah columns pages 20–21 • Luach page 20 • Vol 17, No 47

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Israel confronts Hezbollah Bibi: Northern tunnels part of terrorist plan to seize the Galilee

A terror tunnel was built from Lebanon into tranquil Metula in northern Israel.

The Jewish Star / Ed Weintrob

Combined Sources Hezbollah is building tunnels “with direct support and funding from Iran” in an effort to capture northern Israel’s Galilee region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

“Capturing parts of the Galilee by Hezbollah is a concrete threat,” Netanyahu said in a televised news conference from the country’s defense headquarters in Tel Aviv after Israel announced an operation to shut down the tunnels. “The operation will continue until the outcome is achieved, however long that may take.”

Netanyahu said the tunnels were being built by Hezbollah “with one purpose in mind — to attack and murder innocent Israeli men, See Tunnels on page 26

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu on Nov. 19.

Flash90

Tourist delight: Tragedies dim Chanukah joy Jews Poland

By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA WARSAW, Poland — Shopping was the last thing on Sarah Hirsch’s mind this summer when she boarded a flight from Tel Aviv to this capital city.

It started out as a Holocaust pilgrimage. Hirsch, 67, flew from Israel to with her husband, Naftali, and a friend to see where her older brother was murdered at the age of 3, along with three of her grandparents and all her uncles and cousins.

“I told myself I would do nothing but study and mourn,” Hirsch, who was born shortly after World War II in what today is Romania, told JTA after touring Auschwitz. “It would be an inand-out,” she said of her and her husband’s first visit to Poland.

Hirsch, a retired lawyer, also was antagonized after Poland passed a law early this year banning rhetoric that blames the See Poland on page 6

In 2016, Rabbi Moshe Gottesman lit a menorah at HANC that was dedicated in 2003 in his honor.

By The Jewish Star Two pillars of the South Shore Jewish community were lost over the weekend.

•Dr. Richie (Nochum Tzvi) Friedman, 56, active in Hatzalah organizations for more than 30 years, was struck by a car in Lawrence while walking home from shul on motzei Shabbos. His levaya took place on Sunday at the Bobover Beis Medrash in Boro Park and at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway.

•The levaya for Rabbi Moshe Gottesman, 86, former dean of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, who was active in numerous See Tragedies on page 26

Richie Friedman, active in Hatzalah, was niftar after being hit by a car walking home from shul on motzei Shabbos.

Bush 41, Jews and Israel: It was complicated

President George H.W. Bush with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1992. Paul Richards/AFP/Getty

By Ron Kampeas, JTA WASHINGTON — George H.W. Bush, the one-term president whose public grappling with Jewish leaders made headlines while his private interventions helped bring tens of thousands of Jews out of danger, died Friday at home in Houston, less than a year after his wife Barbara.

His failed 1992 re-election bid marked a low point in relations between Republicans and the Jewish community. Bush scored 11 percent of the Jewish vote, one-third of his share four years earlier in his victory over Michael Dukakis.

The Bush presidency was marked by tensions both with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and American Jewish leadership.

In 1991, the president lashed out at pro-Israel activists who flooded Congress in response to the

‘When you add up the Jews he saved, he will be a great tzadik’ president’s reluctance to approve loan guarantees for Israel to help absorb hundreds of thousands of Jews from the collapsed Soviet Union.

Bush called himself “one lonely guy” battling “a thousand lobbyists on the Hill.” Jewish leaders resented the insinuation that the pro-Israel community was possessed of a power sinister enough to unsettle the leader of the free world.

The “one lonely guy” comment haunted Bush thereafter, with even Republican Jews apt to use

the first Bush presidency as a signifier of how far they had traveled in attracting Jewish support.

Yet that was hardly the whole story. Less remembered was how, as Reagan’s vice president, Bush quietly engineered pivotal efforts to bring Jews out of the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Syria.

“When you add up the Jews he saved, he will be a great tzadik,” Abraham Foxman, the AntiDefamation League’s former director, said.

Bush was deeply involved in foreign policy as vice president, and Jewish leaders said he helped orchestrate the dramatic Seder hosted

by Secretary of State George Schultz at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1987.

He also ignored advice from his national security team in 1991 and approved American overtures to the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia that See Bush on page 7

The rabbis Israel trusts to perform conversions

By Ben Sales, JTA Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has published a list of 69 rabbinical courts it trusts on Jewish conversions. Advocates for religious reform called it a mixed bag: While happy to see transparency, they said the list raises more questions than it answers.

The Chief Rabbinate governs all Jewish conversions, marriag-

es, divorces and burials in Israel. If it does not recognize a conversion, that person cannot get legally married or divorced in Israel, or buried in a Jewish cemetery. It’s never recognized Reform and Conservative conversions, and in recent years has rejected some American Orthodox rabbis, such as the liberal Rabbi Avi Weiss.

This is the first time the Chief Rabbinate has released a list of

May this Festival of Lights bring blessings upon you and all your loved ones for health & happiness!

Happy Hanukkah LAURA CURRAN

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Diaspora rabbis whose authority it accepts on conversion. They are all Orthodox. The list, published Nov. 21 on the Chief Rabbinate’s website, includes dozens of rabbinical courts throughout the world, half in the United States. The American courts are in major cities like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles.

“We have something to work with now,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, director of Itim, an Israeli organization that advocates for greater transparency in the Chief Rabbinate through freedom-ofinformation requests and legal proceedings.

The Chief Rabbinate also established criteria for which rabbinical courts meet its standards, according a spokesman. The criteria, first published as a draft earlier this year, mandate that the courts operate year-round, demonstrate fealty to Orthodox Jewish law and tradition, and be endorsed by a major Orthodox organization. Non-Orthodox courts will not make the cut, along with some liberal Orthodox courts and those that meet on an ad hoc basis to serve smaller communities.

“It was published now because the criteria were approved now and this was part of that issue,” the spokesman said. “The list includes those that were approved.”

He left room for other bodies to qualify: “Of course, if a rabbinical court does not appear, that does not mean that it’s not accepted. That is why we set criteria.”

Many Israelis have protested the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over Jewish religious life in Israel. Surveys show that large majorities of Jewish Israelis want to institute civil marriage in Israel and liberalize conversion policy, along with other reforms. American Jewish leaders have also called for Israel to recognize Reform and Conservative rabbis and ceremonies, but the issue does not resonate as much among rank-and-file US Jews.

(The new list is unrelated to the so-called “blacklist” of Diaspora rabbis released last year. That list was of rabbis whom the Chief Rabbinate did not trust to confirm that people who were born Jewish. This list concerns rabbis trusted to perform conversions.)

“One step forward and two steps back,” Shmuel Shattach of Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah, a group that supports more freedom of religious choice in Israel, said in a statement.

“The fact that the current list does not include important rabbis and communities abroad is a source of profound concern,” he said.

“We expect and hope to see a completion of the process of recognizing rabbis abroad, which can lead to the mending and healing of the great crisis between Israel and Diaspora Jewry.”

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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11/30/2018 11:42:58 AM

Save a Life!

Joseph Fennessy, chairman of the board of South Nassau Communities Hospital, displays the ceremonial partnership agreement signed on Tuesday. Also pictured, from left: Mount Sinai President Dr. Arthur Klein, Mount Sinai CEO Dr. Kenneth Davis, and South Nassau President and CEO Richard Murphy. Ronny Reyes

South Nassau and Mt. Sinai join forces

By Mike Smollins, Herald Community News Representatives of South Nassau Communities Hospital and the Mount Sinai Health System announced the finalization of their partnership at a news conference at South Nassau on Tuesday. The affiliation will make South Nassau the Long Island flagship hospital in the Mount Sinai network, which is based in Manhattan.

The move was designed to bring advanced health care to the South Shore by making South Nassau a part of one of the largest academic health systems in the nation. The two health care providers have set a five-year timeline, after which Mount Sinai is expected to take over South Nassau fully.

“This is an exciting day for the hospital,” said South Nassau President and CEO Richard Murphy. “We kind of took our vision for the future and we tried to see who might we match that up with, and who might share our vision for the kind of service we want to see delivered to the communities here on Long island, and after a very extensive discussion ... the choice of Mount Sinai Health System was far and away the choice that we all made.”

At the news conference, Murphy sat with South Nassau board of directors Chairman Joe Fennessy, SNCH Vice President and CEO Adhi Sharma, Mount Sinai CEO Dr. Kenneth Davis and Mount Sinai President Dr. Arthur Klein.

With the agreement, South Nassau became the eighth hospital in Mount Sinai’s $8 billion network, which includes seven facilities in the New York metropolitan area, staffed by 6,500 physicians, and the Icahn School of Medicine, a world-renowned center for medical research and development.

The agreement is the culmination of more than a year of research. South Nassau administrators met with a half-dozen hospitals and analyzed data after an extensive request- forproposals process to identify potential medical institutions with which to affiliate. The board of directors unanimously voted to partner with Mount Sinai, and announced its decision in January, after signing a letter of intent in May 2017. Over the past 10 months, the two institutions have worked together on the transition, as the state Department of Health, Education Department and attorney general approved the partnership.

“We need to change in order to meet the times,” Fennessy said. “The day of doing a lot of routine procedures in a community hospital has passed us. If we’re going to serve the community, we really have to be something different, and we had to look toward providing more tertiary services.” Tertiary care is health care in a large hospital after a referral from a primary or secondary physician.

Mount Sinai provides 40 percent of the institutional health care for residents of Manhattan and is the city’s largest private employer, according to Klein. South Nassau serves about 900,000 residents across the South Shore, and

employs roughly 3,500 staff members and 900 physicians. It also offers comprehensive cancer care, interventional cardiology, orthopedics and intensive care, and is the only trauma center in southern Nassau County.

After the merger, South Nassau’s board of directors will direct the day-to-day operations of the Oceanside campus. There will be cross-representation on the South Nassau and Mount Sinai boards, and Fennessy will serve on the Mount Sinai executive committee. The need for South Nassau’s board may be re-evaluated in five years, according to board Vice Chairman Tony Cancellieri. He added that clinical integration has taken place, as doctors from South Nassau have begun working with physicians from Mount Sinai.

“Our whole goal is that residents of the South Shore of Long Island will no longer have to travel into Manhattan for sophisticated clinical procedures that have normally been done at Mount Sinai or other hospitals in the city,” Cancellieri said on Monday, ahead of the news conference, “but they could be done on our campus in Oceanside with doctors coming from Mount Sinai to Oceanside.”

Klein said he did not envision the staff being downsized. He added that a name change was likely for the hospital, which would reflect South Nassau being a part of the Mount Sinai system, while also preserving the legacy that South Nassau has in the community. The name change is still in the planning phase.

According to Klein, many new programs and services will be provided at South Nassau, but they must be approved by the state Department of Health. The long-term plan is to include openheart surgery, pre- and post-liver transplant services, gastroenterology services and an expanded ambulatory network. Among the other advancements patients could see come to the South Shore are new heart valve replacement techniques, the latest in cancer and pediatric treatment, and cutting-edge neurosurgery and robotics technology. Klein said that patients receive exceptional care at Mount Sinai because of its vast research and academic presence, which account for its ranking as one of the best networks in the nation.

As part of the agreement, Mount Sinai will provide $120 million to help expand South Nassau’s campus and services, which includes plans for a new, four-story southwest addition in Oceanside with an expanded Emergency Department, intensive-care beds and surgical suites.

The expansion is part of a $400 million capital program, which is set to add enhancements at South Nassau including a three-story parking structure and a new central utility plant and electrical emergency facility on the hospital’s main campus in Oceanside, and a medical arts pavilion at its Long Beach campus.

“This will be a place where Long Islanders can come for the most complex care,” Davis, Mount Sinai’s CEO, said. “To be able to bring great Mount Sinai care to Long Island is something that is a dream come true for me.”

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3 THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

‫ב׳׳ה‬

In Holland, a rare menorah hides in plain sight

By Cnaan Liphshiz AMSTERDAM — Nothing about object MB02280 suggests it is the city’s priciest menorah, worth more than a duplex home.

Shaped like the body of a violin, it is only 16 inches tall. Its base cradles eight detachable oil cups intended to function as candles on Chanukah. They are set against the menorah’s smooth, reflective surface, whose edges boast elaborate rococo reliefs.

But for all its charms, the Nieuwenhuys menorah — created by non-Jewish silversmith Harmanus Nieuwenhuys — doesn’t stand out. Far from the oldest one there, it certainly doesn’t look like it’s worth its estimated price of $450,000. The menorah hides in plain sight because its worth owes “more to its story than to its physical characteristics,” said Irene Faber, a museum curator.

Made in 1751 for an unidentified Jewish patron, the Nieuwenhuys menorah’s story encapsulates the checkered history of Dutch Jewry. And it is tied to the country’s royal family, as well as a Jewish war hero who gave his life for his country.

The price tag of the Nieuwenhuys menorah is roughly known because a similar menorah made by the same silversmith fetched an unprecedented $441,000 at a 2016 auction. An anonymous collector clinched it at the end of a bidding war that made international news. It was initially expected to fetch no more than $15,000.

That menorah came from the collection of the Maduros, a Jewish family that produced one of Holland’s most celebrated war heroes.

The Nazis murdered George Maduro in Dachau after they caught him smuggling downed British pilots home. In 1952, his parents built in his memory one of Holland’s must-see attractions: the Madurodam, a miniature city.

Besides the menorah on display at the Jewish Historical Museum, the Netherlands has another very expensive one in the Rintel Menorah: A 4-footer that the Jewish Historical Museum bought last year for a whopping $563,000. Far more ostentatious than the modest-looking Nieuwenhuys menorah, the Rintel, from 1753, is made of pure silver and weighs several kilograms. It is currently on loan to the Kroller-Muller Museum 50 miles east of Amsterdam.

The Jewish Historical Museum has no intention of selling the Nieuwenhuys, Faber said, although it could attract even more spectacular bids owing to its provenance: It was bought by the late queen of the Netherlands, Wilhelmina, as a gift for her mother and given to the museum by her grandson, King Willem-Alexander.

“We don’t know who commissioned the work, but from the reputation of the artist and the amount of labor it took, it was

The Rintel Menorah, which was sold for $563,000, is Holland’s priciest object of its kind.

In countless wartime broadcasts, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands mentioned Jews only three times.

probably a wealthy Jewish family, perhaps of Sephardic descent,” Faber told JTA last week at the museum.

At the center of the object is a round network of decorations “that probably contains the owner’s initials,” Faber said, “but we haven’t been able to decipher it. It’s a riddle.” The monogram was one of several techniques that Nieuwenhuys and other Christian silversmiths in the Netherlands developed for rich Jewish clients.

Before the 1800s, no Jews were allowed to smith silver in the Netherlands because they were excluded from silversmith guilds.

“It kept out competition, but it meant that Christian smiths needed to become experts at making Jewish religious artifacts like this menorah,” Faber said.

The menorahs illustrate Jewish customers’ sophisticated tastes.

The Maduro menorah was symmetrical with Baroque highlights, and the Nieuwenhuys is asymmetrical with rococo characteristics that were “pretty avant-garde for its time,” Faber said.

Queen Wilhelmina bought the menorah for an unknown price at a 1907 auction to give it as a gift to her mother, Princess Emma.

The purchase may appear inconsequential, but its significance is evident against the backdrop of anti-Semitism among other European royal houses. German Emperor Wilhelm II, a contemporary of Wilhelmina, famously said in 1925 that “Jews and mosquitoes are a nuisance that humankind must get rid of some way or

another,” adding “I believe the best way is Gas.” Belgium’s King Leopold III stated in 1942 that he had “no personal animosity” toward Jews, but declared them nonetheless “a danger” to his country. He raised no objections when Germans and their collaborators began deporting Belgian Jews to their deaths.

But in the Netherlands, where thousands of Jews settled after fleeing the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century, royals not only refrained from such statements but were genuinely “interested in other faiths,” Faber said. Wilhelmina’s gifting of a menorah to her mother “isn’t strange for her,” Faber said. “I imagine she found it fun, something to talk about with her mother.” After all, “Jews have always been under the protection of the Royal House.”

Except, that is, from 1940 to 45, when Queen Wilhelmina fled to the United Kingdom. She mentioned the suffering of her Jewish subjects three times in her radio speeches to the Dutch people.

Whereas before the war “Jews always sought the Royal House,” during and after “it appeared Wilhelmina didn’t think too much about the Jews,” Faber said. Relations between Dutch Jews and the Royal House underwent a “rupture.”

But this gradually healed. The fact that King Willem-Alexander, Wilhelmina’s great-grandson, in 2012 gave the Nieuwenhuys menorah on an open-ended loan to the Jewish museum on its 90th anniversary “symbolizes the healing of the rupture,” Faber said.

Wishing all a Freilichen Chanukah.

May the light illuminating from the menorah be a light of happiness and may the story of the Chanukah give us all hope and inspiration throughout the year.

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Ethel G. Hofman, JNS Forget dieting during Chanukah! I’ll bake, serve and savor every morsel of my mother’s buttery cakes. For her, Chanukah was more than latkes, though she fried up dozens every night.

“Keepin’ cakes,” she called them. She was probably influenced by the extensive make-ahead baking that Scots do in preparation of Hogmanay (the riotous Scottish New Year’s Eve celebration).

Rich, buttery (and a different oil of sorts), and studded with dried fruits and spices, they were baked in advance, and tightly wrapped and stored.

The highlight for the first night of Chanukah was Whisky Fruit Cake. Forget the tasteless, shamefully lacquered fruitcake that appears every winter in stores throughout our nation. My mother’s version was baked six weeks earlier. The whisky-infused cake was crowned with a layer of marzipan, toasted, and again wrapped in whisky-soaked cheesecloth before storing in an airtight container.

Unwrapped, each slice was moist, rich and aromatic with a kick.

What else when it had been doused with Dad’s best single-malt whisky?

These “keepin’ cakes” won my mother the highest compliment: “a superb baker.” Friends and neighbors would drop in unannounced, sure of a welcoming pot of tea and a luscious variety of Jean Greenwald’s “keepin’cakes.”

At these tea times, my mother never failed to tell the story of the biblical Judith, who fed Holofernes, the enemy general, enormous quantities of cheese, then plied him with copious drafts of heavy red wine to quench his resulting thirst. As planned, he fell into a stupor so deep that she quickly beheaded him. Without their leader, the enemy fled, and Judith’s town was saved. Her bravery is said to have inspired Judah Maccabee and his followers to clean and re-dedicate the sacred Temple in the second century BCE. Although my mother’s “keepin’ cake” custom originated many years ago, the bake and store-ahead method fits in admirably well with contemporary frantic schedules. Other than the Whisky Fruit Cake, these desserts — all rich in butter — can be stored three to four days before serving. Wrap and store in a cool, dry place; the day of serving, bring to room temperature. All of these cakes may be frozen, removed from the freezer about four to six hours before serving.

Ingredient lists are simple. You probably have most of them in the house, such as eggs, sugar, butter and flour. A list of ingredients to buy and cook’s tips are included with each recipe.

Glacé Cherry Loaf.

Ethel G. Hofman

Glacé Cherry Loaf (Dairy) 1 cup glacé cherries, halved 2 cups all-purpose flour 1-3/4 sticks (7 ounces) butter, softened 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp. almond extract (use vanilla extract in a pinch) 4 large eggs 1 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. allspice or nutmeg Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Line the bottom of a medium-size loaf pan (8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inch) with wax paper. Spray bottom and sides of pan with nonstick cooking spray with flour. Toss the cherries with 2 teaspoons of the flour. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter, sugar and almond extract until pale, 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, along with about 1/4 cup of the flour. Mix well.

Add the baking powder, allspice or nutmeg, and the remaining flour, gradually mixing to blend. Using a wooden spoon, fold in the cherries. Transfer mixture to prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top with a spoon.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes or until risen, golden

and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. Cool completely before wrapping. Serves 10 to 12.

Coconut Coffee Cake (Dairy) 1-1/2 sticks (6 oz.) unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup, plus 2 Tbsp. sugar 3 large eggs 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/4 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. instant coffee granules 2 Tbsp. honey, warmed (omit if using sweetened coconut) 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut Shredded coconut to sprinkle Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with wax paper to fit. Spray with nonstick cooking spray with flour. Set aside.

Cut the butter into 6 pieces. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (about 1 to 2 minutes).

Add the eggs, one at a time, along with about 1/4 cup flour.

Beat in the remaining flour, baking powder, coffee and honey. Stir in the coconut. Transfer to prepared baking dish.

Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely. Cut into squares to serve. Serves 10 to 12.

Caraway-Seed Cake (Dairy) 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup sugar 3 large eggs 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 Tbsp. frozen orange-juice concentrate, thawed 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder 2 Tbsp. caraway seeds Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line bottom of 1-1/2 quart cake pan, ovenproof soufflé dish or 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with wax paper cut to fit. Spray with nonstick cooking spray with flour.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale (about 1 to 2 minutes). Beat in eggs, one at a time, with about 1/4 cup flour. If curdling occurs, don’t panic! Add 2 to 3 Tbsp. flour and See Chanukah on page 12

THE WORLD NEEDS A LITTLE LIGHT RIGHT NOW. This Hanukkah, give a meaningful gift and brighten someone’s life.

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THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

Keepin’ Chanukah with Scottish ‘keepin’ cakes’

5

Poland...

The HANC Family mourns the loss of its Dean Emeritus

Rabbi Moshe Gottesman Z"L and is forever indebted in its Hakarat Hatov to him for all that he enabled HANC to become.

We wish the entire Gottesman Family continued strength through this challenging and difficult time.

Rabbi Gottesman joined the HANC Family in 1960 and has remained at the center of our Yeshiva. Rabbi Gottesman had a strong vision for a Jewish educational institution to meet the needs of our diverse Jewish community — he gave his time, talent, expertise, funding and unconditional love to build the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. Through his leadership, commitment, warmth, and educational drive, Rabbi Gottesman enabled the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County to grow and thrive on Long Island.

Throughout the years, Rabbi Gottesman has served as inspirational role model, exemplifying the highest ideals, and bearing the torch of Torah on Long Island. Through his vision, relentless passion and endless hard work, the lives of thousands of young Jewish students have been forever enriched.

The Hebrew Academy of Nassau County will honor Rabbi Gottesman's legacy by continuing to educate and inspire Jewish children throughout Long Island.

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Continued from page 1 nation for Nazi atrocities. She fears it will whitewash some Poles’ crimes, as do many other critics of the legislation, which triggered a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Poland.

But like a growing number of Israeli tourists who have discovered Poland’s charms, Hirsch said her experiences softened her attitude.

“It developed into giving myself the opportunity to enjoy also the good things,” including shopping, she said. “I saw a young generation here that had no part in the Holocaust trying to build a normal, democratic country with many, many beautiful things despite its singularly tragic history.”

Despite tensions over how to approach the Holocaust, tourism from Israel to Poland and vice versa is dramatically increasing, official figures show.

Traffic from Israel to Poland last year skyrocketed to a record 250,000 arrivals, a 79 percent increase from the previous year’s 139,000, according to Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Anna Azari. That followed a 40 percent rise in 2016 over 2015, according to the Polish Tourism Ministry.

Israel has also gained popularity among Polish tourists, with almost 100,000 arrivals in 2017 — a 64 percent increase over the previous year.

And in the first 10 months of 2018, that figure jumped to 123,000 tourists from Poland, Israel’s Tourism Ministry told JTA. LOT, Poland’s national airline, added 12 weekly flights last year to the seven it already had from Warsaw to Tel Aviv. The expansion created direct flights from Israel to Gdansk, Poznan, Lublin and Wroclaw, with a Krakow direct flight on track for next year, LOT spokesman Adrian Kubicki told JTA. He said the company registered no change in traffic following the diplomatic crisis over the Holocaust law.

“Israel is perceived as one of the safest and friendliest destinations in the Middle East right now,” Kubicki said. “There’s also centuries of cultural affinity that makes Polish people feel at home there.”

At least 15 percent of the traffic from Israel to Poland in 2017 owed to organized educational trips about the Holocaust. Israel’s Education Ministry arranges such trips for about 25,000 high school students annually, with the numbers rising steadily. The crisis in relations with Israel seems to have had a minimal effect on the traffic.

Shem Olam, a Holocaust museum near Hadera, Israel, said it would no longer include Poland on its small educational trips to Europe.

Instead it sent 20 guides this year to Ukraine — a country where collaboration with the Nazis was far greater than in Poland, and which, along with several other Eastern European countries, has also recently passed laws limiting what can be said about such collaboration.

Israel and Poland, which is one of the Jewish state’s staunchest advocates in the European Union, buried the hatchet earlier this year after Poland amended the legislation, effectively decriminalizing the prohibition on accusing Poland for Nazi crimes.

Naftali Hirsch, Sarah’s husband, says he feels more welcome in Poland than his native Hungary.

“Some Poles betrayed Jews during the Holocaust,” said Naftali Hirsch, 70, who lost two siblings in the Holocaust. “But unlike Hungary, Romania and many other countries, this was not a collaborationist country. This was an occupied country, where the Nazis carried out systemic murder.”

In Poland, the Nazis killed 3 million Polish Jews — half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust — as well as another 3 million non-Jewish Poles.

“I feel a kinship,” said Nafatali Hirsch, a retired aviation professional. “When I say I’m Jewish here, there’s empathy in people’s eyes. When I do it in Hungary, there’s often an icy silence.”

But Sarah Hirsch said it bothered her that their guide at the Auschwitz museum “didn’t say a word about collaboration by some Poles.”

“Not many, perhaps, but we need to have this discussion,” she said. “This country and society is ready for it, despite this law, which many

Poles feel uncomfortable with.”

The engine for growth in Israeli tourism in Poland, however, is not in its Holocaust-related sites. Rather it owes to Israelis who are drawn by the country’s low costs, relative safety and rich Jewish heritage, according to Daniela Singler, an Israeli who has visited Poland 11 times last year.

‘It’s the perfect combination,” she said during an interview on Israel’s Channel 2 last year. “The living’s cheap. You can get a luxury meal for $13. You stay at a top five-star hotel for less than you’d spend on a guesthouse in the Galilee.”

Israel’s El Al airlines, in its in-flight magazine earlier this year, crowned Warsaw as a “shopping paradise.” The article does not mention any of the city’s Jewish attractions, like the awardwinning new Polin Jewish museum that opened in 2013, or what remains of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Some tourists from Israel skip these sites altogether.

“I’m not into the whole Holocaust thing, bro,” one tourist, Adi Cohen from Petach Tikvah, said while browsing with his girlfriend at a mall.

And the Nozyk Synagogue, the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw?

“If I wanted to go to shul, I would’ve stayed in Petach Tikvah,” he said. “I’m here to eat, drink and have fun.”

The increase in tourism from Israel is affecting some Polish Jewish institutions.

Galil, one of Warsaw’s best kosher restaurants, has had to move to a bigger space and triple its manpower over the past eight years, its manager, David Sosnckey, told JTA. It now employs three chefs who struggle to accommodate the ever-growing stream of patrons.

The restaurant, which serves a fusion menu of Middle Eastern and Eastern European foods with kosher certification from Edah HaChareidis, has had to move because “the neighbors at our previous location started complaining about the noise and traffic,” he said.

Several new kosher or Israeli restaurants have opened over the past five years not only in Warsaw, but in cities as far west as Poznan and as far east as Lublin. In Warsaw, that included the Israeli kosher restaurant Bekef and Hummus Bar and the Mezze falafel eatery. In Krakow, in the southern part of the country, there was Hamsa, an Israeli restaurant with Turkish references.

Lublin’s newest Israeli restaurant, Olive, is part of what is perhaps the most remarkable touristic endeavor undertaken in Poland in recent years targeting a Jewish clientele.

Operating since 2013, it opened as part of Hotel Ilan, a four-star establishment with 50 rooms. Its building used to house Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, a Hasidic university that opened in 1930 and cemented the city’s status as a hub of Jewish learning in Eastern Europe.

Featuring dormitories for hundreds of students — a novelty at the time — it was gutted by the Nazis in 1939. They burned the establishment’s books in 1940 in a fire that lasted 20 hours.

After the building was returned to the Jewish community, it was turned into a prestigious hotel. Today it serves clientele ranging from Jewish pilgrims visiting graves of prominent rabbis to conference-goers who book Ilan for its spa and exotic in-house restaurant.

The imposing facade, a typical piece of 20thcentury architecture with Baroque and Art Deco elements, features a fresh coat of light orange paint and a large sign in Hebrew bearing the former yeshiva’s name and a biblical verse. Only inside does the illusion of a Talmudic institution give way to a boutique hotel design, complete with a bar and sauna.

Another part of the building features a museum that is free to tour, even for non-guests.

And there’s a small functioning synagogue.

“This hotel, I couldn’t care less about it,” said one visitor, Yossi Blak, an Orthodox Jewish tourist from Bnei Brak. Bound for the Ukrainian city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah, Blak and his family passed by Lublin because the late Rabbi Shmuel Wosner used to attend Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin.

“I try to block out all this touristic noise, close my eyes and imagine the sound of 5,000 yeshiva students reciting and studying Torah,” Blak said. “When they return to this hotel, I’ll get a room.”

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Continued from page 1 resulted in Operation Solomon, which brought 15,000 Jews to Israel. Bush also helped persuade Syrian dictator Hafez Assad to allow young Jewish women to move to New York so they could marry in the Syrian Jewish community.

While some of these actions were secret, Bush was averse to claiming responsibility even later.

“He was a man who was old school,” said Marshall Breger, liaison to the Jewish community under Reagan and Bush. “You had the sense of him being private about his feelings and sensitive to the notion that he might be seen as vain and saccharine towards other with overstatements.”

Breger recalled traveling in the backseat of a car with Bush to dedicate the new quarters of the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, in 1984. Part of the dedication included the affixing of a mezuzah, and Breger attempted to hand Bush a yarmulke. Bush wouldn’t take it.

Breger pointed out that he had secured a camouflage yarmulke for the occasion, but that seemed to make matters worse.

“I said, ‘You’ll need to wear one of these.’ And he said, ‘They’ll think I’m pandering.’ It was very much against his code to pander,” said Breger, now a law professor at Catholic University here.

“I said, ‘First of all, they’ll think you’re appropriate, and second of all, they’d love you to pander,’” Breger recalled. Bush reluctantly donned the yarmulke, but Breger noticed he had removed it before the ceremony concluded.

Bush’s intense privacy came across as stiffness and allowed his rivals to portray him as distant.

Two moments in the 1992 election helped alienate the public from the president, whose handling of the first Persian Gulf War helped bury post-Vietnam ambivalence about the military.

His apparent surprise at supermarket scanner technology suggested that he was unfamiliar with the mundane chores of average Americans.

Though the story was debunked — Bush was familiar with the device, but was amazed at a new generation scanner on display at a grocery convention in Florida — the image stuck.

At a town hall meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, during the primaries, looking at notes, Bush read aloud, “Message: I care,” not realizing it was advice from an aide. The phrase became an emblem of his awkward inability to connect.

Still, public service was a natural draw for George Herbert Walker Bush, whose father, Prescott, was a U.S. senator from Connecticut. In later years he would recall how natural it seemed to enlist in the Navy after graduating from Andover Academy in 1942. He became a bomber pilot and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross after the Japanese shot down his plane in 1944.

A year later he married Barbara Pierce, and like his forebears, attended Yale. He declined his father’s offer of a job at an investment banking firm and headed to Texas, where he plunged into the oil business. Within years he was an oilman.

But Bush couldn’t resist the call of public service, and by the end of the 1950s he was active in the state Republican Party. In 1966, he was elected to Congress — a signal achievement at that time for a Republican from Texas.

In Washington, he soon forged friendly ties with national Jewish groups. Appointed ambassador to the United Nations by Richard Nixon in 1972, he made headlines when he canceled an appearance on “The Dick Cavett Show” after Jewish leaders asked him not to lend legitimacy to the evening’s other guest, Meir Kahane.

Bush wrote Cavett at the time that he had checked with “certain responsible, highly respected leaders of national Jewish organizations” who convinced him that “any move by me that would have even the slightest appearance of giving recognition or credence to Kahane would damage the serious productive and legal efforts that they and thousands of their fellow Jews have been making to alleviate the suffering of their brothers.”

At the United Nations, Bush made Soviet Jewry one of his signature issues, and the Jewish community organized a tribute dinner for him in 1973 after he left his post.

His concern for Israel was evident again in 1976, when he was director of the CIA. Bush was

7 THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

Bush...

furious when CIA officials estimated semi-publicly that Israel had 10 to 20 nuclear weapons ready for use. Since the 1960s, the U.S.-Israel protocol had been neither to confirm nor deny Israel’s alleged possession of nuclear weapons.

In a statement that year to JTA, Bush did not address the apparent revelation, but added: “To the degree that any classified information might have been mentioned, I accept full responsibility.

I am determined it will not happen again.”

Bush ran a contentious primary against Reagan in 1980, then accepted his offer as running mate. He assumed critical foreign policy roles under Reagan, but the two men never grew close. Reagan barely stumped for Bush in 1988.

Still, the departing president did his successor a favor in early 1989, giving the go-ahead for low-level U.S.-Palestine Liberation Organization relations. Bush would have faced a political firestorm had he initiated such ties, but he needed them to pave the way to one of his grand ambitions: corralling the Middle East cats into a new world order of peace, led by what was fast becoming the world’s only superpower.

Bush’s patrician lèse-majesté irked Israeli officials, especially Prime Minister Shamir, whose rough youth could not have contrasted more with Bush’s upbringing.

In A World Transformed, the recounting of his presidency that Bush wrote with his national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, Bush commended Shamir for making the unpopular decision not to strike Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War despite the raining of missiles on Israeli cities.

Just pages later, Bush wondered why Shamir was unenthusiastic about joining the Madrid peace conference that the United States had convened after the war. Bush wrote that he expected a degree of gratitude from Israel for protecting it during the Gulf War — apparently not realizing that it was precisely this unwanted protection that stirred resentment among Israelis fiercely committed to protecting themselves.

The diplomatic clashes did not abate. In June 1990, Bush’s most trusted adviser, James Baker, appearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, asked for a little “good faith” from Shamir.

“When you’re serious about peace, call us,” Baker said, addressing Shamir, and gave the number for the White House switchboard.

In March 1992, former New York City mayor Ed Koch wrote that Baker had dismissed concern about Jewish anger, saying “F--- the Jews, they don’t vote for us.” Baker denied it.

Fred Zeidman, a Houston-area businessman and Republican fundraiser who is friendly with the Bush family and with Baker, said the remark has long been misunderstood. Baker was aiming his ire at another Cabinet member, Zeidman said, and intended it as a joke.

By mid-1992, with his presidential campaign underway, Bush seemed irreparably wounded ito the Jewish community. A strong primary performance by Pat Buchanan, a culture warrior known for occasional Jew-baiting, didn’t help.

Nor did Buchanan’s apocalyptic keynote speech at the convention that summer.

Jewish leaders have said since his presidency, they endeavored to make clear to Bush how dear to the community he is. Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, recalled meeting with Bush not long after his “one lonely guy” remark.

Bush had tears in his eyes, Hoenlein said, and insisted he never intended offense. “I led my whole life differently,” Bush told the delegation.

Bush rarely interacted with Jewish leaders after his presidency, and he never knew the adulation his son would earn in some Jewish quarters for his devotion to Israel.

The younger Bush seemed in some ways to directly contradict his father’s policies. One of the elder Bush’s first acts was to set in motion the process that would eventually welcome PLO leader Yasser Arafat into the American sphere.

The younger Bush decided from the outset of his presidency to isolate Arafat, whom he reviled as an unrepentant terrorist.

Foxman said history will judge Bush kindly.

“I believe he will go down in Jewish history as the president who was engaged in more initiatives to save more Jews in countries where they were being persecuted,” he said.

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A Spanish flag near Estremera, in Madrid province.

Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

no more than 6,500 in Spain and about 2,000 in Portugal — suggests that the law is being interpreted strictly.

Spain and Portugal, European Union countries with high unemployment and national debts burdened by their relatively generous welfare policies, are broadly speaking not interested in encouraging immigration from their impoverished former colonies.

But would an applicant who feels discriminated against in the United States feel more comfortable in Spain?

The prevalence of anti-Semitic sentiment in the kingdom provides little assurances, despite pro-Sephardic legislation and growing awareness to the touristic and educational potential of sites connected to Jewish heritage.

Spain, along with Italy, topped the Anti-Defamation League’s 2015 anti-Semitism index in Western Europe with 29 percent of the people holding anti-Semitic views. Jews are often conflated in Spain with Israel — a Catalan lawmaker demanded that the leader of Barcelona’s Jewish community be removed from the local government’s parliament for being “a foreign agent.”

Until 2015, Spain had a town called “Castrillo Kill Jews” (the name has been changed). Still, across northern Spain, people toast one another with the phrase “kill a Jew.” In a 2018 Pew survey of European countries, respondents in Spain and Portugal were the likeliest to agree with the statement that “Jews always pursue their own interests and not the interest of the country they live in.”

Boycotts of Israel are particularly popular in Spain, which had about 50 municipalities join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement — more than anywhere else in Europe. In 2015, organizers of a music festival near Barcelona demanded that the American-Jewish singer Matisyahu sign a statement condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Matisyahu, who was the only artist asked to sign the document, declined and was disinvited.

Israel-related anti-Semitism is rife throughout Western Europe, but Spain still shows signs of classic Jew-hatred of the religious variety.

This sentiment made an appearance in 2015, when the RTVE state network aired a radio program titled “From the Inferno — The Jewish People: Propagator of the Satan Cult.”

The fact that a “vehemently anti-Semitic work filled with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and slander made it to the Spanish airwaves is seriously troubling and warrants immediate condemnation from the Spanish government,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s national director, said after JTA reported about the show.

Yigal Palmor, a senior spokesman for the Jewish Agency and former spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, had some questions of his own following the show.

“How can a public entity give a podium to this sort of crude, lowly and disgusting racism?” he asked on Twitter, adding, “A return of the Inquisition.”

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By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA Blaming Donald Trump for a resurgence of racism in America, some Hispanics are seeking Spanish citizenship based on their Jewish roots, according to the New York Times.

An article identifying several such individuals, including one Albuquerque, New Mexico, woman who was raised Catholic, appeared Tuesday. The Times reported an increase in interest by non-Jews from the United States and Latin America who, for various reasons, have applied for a Spanish passport based on a 2015 law that Spain passed to atone for the expulsion of Jews during the Inquisition. Portugal passed similar legislation a year earlier.

The article raises several interesting questions, including whether those seeking to flee racism in the United States would do well to immigrate under a law with strong Jewish connotations to Spain — a country with a strong tradition of anti-Semitism that surveys suggest isn’t going away anytime soon.

But a more practical question concerns the very feasibility of what the Times article describes as an “exit strategy” for American Hispanics who are not Jewish.

On paper, there is no reason that a Catholic applicant shouldn’t be naturalized. “Descendants of Sephardim,” after all, could include millions of South and Central Americans with Jewish ancestry, and hundreds of thousands more in Africa.

The laws in Spain and Portugal, whose constitutions forbid discrimination on the basis of religion or ethnicity, do not require applicants be Jewish. They stipulate only that they prove Sephardic lineage.

But in practice, the laws in Spain and Portugal may be applied too selectively to serve large numbers of non-Jews. This is partly because the laws in those countries make local Jewish communities responsible for vetting applications.

Some communities, including in Porto, Portugal, only approve applicants considered Jewish according to halachah. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, or FCJE, says on its website that non-Jews may apply. But even the website of the Spanish Ministry of Labour, Migrations and Social Security encourages applicants to obtain rabbinical certification to support their application.

It may appear discriminatory, but the de facto preference in some communities for applications

by Jews is arguably in keeping with the spirit of the law, which Spanish and Portuguese officials have said many times is to atone for religious persecution of Jews. Muslims, atheists and others also were persecuted during the Inquisition.

On the ground, non-Jewish applicants can be naturalized if they have a Jewish grandparent, “or even, in some cases, a paternal great-grandfather,” according to Jacob Bendahan, an Israeli lawyer handling applications. In any case, “even if the applicant is not Jewish, they must present documents proving they are descended from Sephardim who were expelled. A ketubah, something.”

“It’s impossible for a Catholic applicant with Catholic lineage to get naturalized [just] because he has a Sephardic last name, like Perez or Cardozo,” Bendahan said.

The number of applicants approved so far —

THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

Jews returning home to Spain? Not so fast

9

Politics, partying, pride when US-Israelis meet

By Ron Kampeas, JTA HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate, his Israeli-born wife, Miriam, and Haim Saban, the Israeli-American entertainment mogul, entered the deck of the pool complex at the Diplomat Hotel here on Saturday night and chose a table to sit around and schmooze.

The frantic security detail scrambled to find ropes and stanchions to create a cordon and signal to other pool-goers that this bit of territory was occupied. Saban and Miriam Adelson took up a chaise lounge and leaned into one another, speaking in low tones.

Adelson scrolled through his smartphone, occasionally brushing away the cigar smoke emanating from Shawn Evenhaim, one of the businessmen who with the Adelsons and Saban founded the Israeli American Council 11 years ago.

From relatively modest beginnings, the Israeli American Council has become a powerhouse. At its annual conference, which this year was held at the Diplomat in Hollywood, its director was unabashed in explaining the preeminent factor: money.

I asked Shoham Nicolet, another founder of the IAC and its current CEO, why an organization that three years ago was barely able to get congressional backbenchers to show this year managed to score Vice President Mike Pence; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “I think that it’s a fact that you have two major donors for two parties,” Nicolet said, referring to Adelson, a Republican kingmaker who is close to Pence, and Saban, a major fundraiser for Democrats. And then he added: “It’s also ten percent of Jewish Americans.”

IAC estimates that Israeli Americans, including Israeli emigrants and their children, and Americans who have made aliyah and re-

Vice President Mike Pence addresses the conference of the Israeli-American Council.

turned, comprise some 600,000 people.

The IAC is, on paper, a bizarre hybrid: lobbying group, extended argument, angsty counseling session, excuse to party.

In practice it works, kind of.

At a session on Israel’s nation-state law, which defines the state as Jewish, Yifat Bitton, an anti-discrimination lawyer, and Dror Eydar, a right-wing columnist, wouldn’t let the other finish a sentence, veering all over a highway of issues, including who is a Jew and paying non-Jewish Israeli soldiers the honor they are due.

As the volume increased, moderator David Suissa, the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles

Perry Bindelglass

Jewish Journal, struggled to regain control.

Someone in the audience started singing “Hineh Ma Tov Umah Naim,” “How good and pleasant it is when brothers come together.”

Friday night, voices again rose in song, welcoming Shabbat. Families crowded around tables until teenagers went to their rooms, switched into swimsuits and headed for the pool.

Saturday night, the security detail could have relaxed. Israelis packed the poolside in the late night breeze, but hardly anyone paid attention to the Adelsons or Saban. An older couple picked at a chicken dinner a table or two away. A group of young men headed

down toward the water. Boaz Bismuth, who runs Adelson’s daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, slipped past the cordon and accepted a cigar from Evenhaim.

Partying seemed to be the point.

“Did you stay at the party?” a middle-aged woman asked another in the elevator on Sunday morning.

“Until 2 am.”

“I told you.”

Doors open. Corridor, different directions.

Fingers touch in farewell.

“I’m so glad you did.”

Something magical appears to have happened at that hour — Nicolet mentioned 2 am in an impromptu news conference at the end of the gathering. One conference highlight, Nicolet said, was the Adelsons pledging to add $13 million to the $63 million they have already steered to the IAC. But the best part?

“The honest truth, it was yesterday at 2 am, to see business leaders, students, everyone dancing,” he said.

For all the good times, angst continues to haunt the conference in its fifth year: The perennial question is how do Israeli Americans fit into the American Jewish firmament.

Breakout sessions on Saturday morning included, in English, “The interdependence of Diaspora and Israeli Jewry,” and simultaneously and more bluntly, in Hebrew, “IsraeliAmerican: Contradiction or harmony? Coping with a split personality.”

Dilemmas persisting from past years include how Israelis, generally a synagogue-averse constituency, cope with an American Jewish social universe centered around the synagogue; how one counters the clichés about Israelis that persist among American Jews (“Tell them what your parents said about me!” an Israeli man See IAC on page 11

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Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi are interviewed by Israeli-American entertainment mogul Haim Saban at the IAC conference on Dec. 2.

IAC

990909

Continued from page 10 shouts at his American wife, who is on a panel — she demurs); how one copes with American Jewish criticism of Israel.

The relationship between Israelis and American Jews seems simultaneously inevitable and fragile.

At the session on interdependence, Dani Dayan, the consul general in New York, said life and death decisions are not the place for American pressure.

“We Israelis will make the decisions and will not put up with being punished,” Dayan said, and then hesitated; “punished” seems misplaced. “Or to find a better word than ‘punished’ — met with indifference.”

But “indifference” seems awful as well. Dayan searches again for the right metaphor.

“We may be Jewish, but our marriage is Catholic,” he said of Israelis and the Jewish Diaspora.

“There is no divorce.”

This year, the most striking Israeli-American dilemma is how to deal with anti-Semitism. For much Miriam Adelson speaks at the Israeli-American Council conof its existence, the IAC has taken ference on Nov. 30.

Perry Bindelglass up the gauntlet against hostility to Israel. The massacre at a Pittsburgh syna- about Trump, barely mentioned the president gogue in October is something different, a in this venue, perhaps wary of attacking him primordial violence divorced from national on his turf, and instead made the case that struggle, from a prestate past that Israelis be- Democratic support for Israel has not at all lieved the existence of the state they love had diminished.

Interviewed by Saban, each leader talked obviated.

“I never thought that in my lifetime I of his and her personal ties to Israel.

“If this capital crumbled to the ground, would worry again about being a Jew,” Tzippy Holand, a Holocaust survivor, said Thurs- the one thing that would remain is our comday in presenting an award to two Pittsburgh mitment to our aid. And I don’t even call it police officers, Michael Smidga and Daniel aid, our cooperation with the State of Israel,” Mead, who helped end the killing at the Tree Pelosi said.

Saban pressed them on anti-Semitism and of Life synagogue, when an anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 worshippers. “If we don’t do the Pittsburgh massacre, an opening to take everything we can to support Israel, we are Trump to task: More than 70 percent of Jewnot going to have a home we are not going to ish Americans said in a recent poll that his bias-tinged rhetoric helped fuel the anti-imhave where to escape to.”

Israel is one of the handful of nations on migrant rage that drove the gunman.

Schumer and Pelosi edged a little closer to the planet where President Donald Trump is popular, and while the IAC abjures partisan- speaking of Trump’s seeming indifference to ship, there were speakers who unhesitatingly the consequences of bigotry, particularly af990909 ter the deadly August 2017 neo-Nazi march in sang his praise, chief among them Pence.

Charlottesville, Virginia, when he said there were “fine people” among the marchers and the counterprotesters. But they did not name him.

“When anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, it must be rebutted strongly and immediately,” Schumer said. “We need the Jewish community to do that, but we also need the nonCommercial & Residential Jewish community to do it.”

“There are some people who are kind of Licensed & Insured looking the other way at some of the antiSemitism that is very visible,” Pelosi said.

Saban was not having it. www.iknowaguyinc.com “There are no ‘nice people’ on both sides,” 11 461 Central Ave Cedarhurst NY 11516 he said. “The bad people are anti-Semites, peLic #H04398900 • NYC Track #GC611686 riod, there are no ‘nice people’ over there.”

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“It’s a great pleasure to serve with a man who has made the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever before,” Pence said Friday, citing Trump’s move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and his withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

On Sunday, Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, was even more effusive.

“There’s never been an administration — not just a president — who’s been more supportive of Israel than the Trump administration,” he said.

Schumer and Pelosi, usually bruising

December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

12

The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Gifts from the kitchen for Chanukah

and increase seeds for a nut-free treat.

Directions: Line three large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Place all the wet ingredients in another bowl and whisk until blended. Pour the wet over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Pour 1/3 of the mixture onto each pan and smooth into an even layer with your hands.

Place in the oven for 35-45 minutes until golden.

Remove from the oven and let cool for about an hour to set. Break into pieces and store in a closed container in a cool place. Use with yogurt for breakfast or dessert, or as a school snack. If it gets soggy, bake at 325 for about 10 minutes. Let cool again and break up the clumps.

Place in a plastic bag and tie tightly, removing as much air as possible. Makes about 8 to 10 cups.

Chocolate Kiss Peanut Butter Cookies (Dairy) 45 chocolate kiss candies, unwrapped 2-2/3 cups sifted unbleached flour 2 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 2 sticks butter, softened 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter (not all natural or the cookies will be too dry or oily) 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup dark brown sugar 2 extra-large eggs 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 cup, more as needed, Granulated sugar for rolling cookies dough Directions: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Unwrap 45 kiss candies. Set aside.

Sift the flour and, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Place the softened butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix until creamy and well blended. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and

beat well after each addition. Beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture, beating on low.

Pour one cup of sugar into a shallow bowl.

Remove the bowl from the stand, and using a scant 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie, roll the dough into balls. Roll each ball in the sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using a glass, gently press each cookie to make it about 2 inches in diameter. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and place a kiss candy in the center of each cookie, pressing each candy gently into the center of the cookie. Return to the oven for 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

For easy transport, place on trays, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours to solidify the chocolate. They will warm by the time you deliver them. Makes 45 cookies.

The Best Chewy Chocolate Brownies (Dairy) 4 squares bitter chocolate, melted 1 cup butter, softened 1-1/3 cups sugar 2/3 cup gently packed, dark brown sugar 4 extra-large eggs 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 cup unbleached flour 12 oz. chocolate chunks or chips OPTIONAL: 1/2 to 1 cup walnuts, chopped 1/2 to 1 cup white chocolate chips Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the bitter chocolate in a small pan over very low heat. Watch carefully to prevent burning. Alternately, melt in the microwave in 5 to 10 second bursts, stirring after each 10 seconds.

Cream the butter and sugars in an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla, melted chocolate, and the flour and mix by hand. Add the chocolate chips and nuts or white chips and mix by hand. Pour into a well-greased 9 x 13-inch pan.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting. Makes at least 24 bars.

Nut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Dairy, GF) 1 cup nut butter, I like almond or cashew, unsweetened 1 large egg 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/4 tsp. pure almond extract 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking soda 2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup, dark amber 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, cashews, or slivered or sliced almonds Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Set aside.

Mix together first four ingredients until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Make balls using about 1-1/2 Tbsp. of dough.

Place evenly spaced on the sheets. Flatten very slightly.

Place in the oven and bake for 11 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Makes about 24 cookies.

cheese like Muenster or white cheddar) 1/2 cup mixed dried fruits 1/4 cup chocolate chips or grated chocolate 1 tsp. cinnamon sugar Directions: Preheat oven to 410 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Spray with nonstick baking spray with flour.

Unroll the pastry sheet and lay on a flat surface. Spread with preserves to within 1/2 inch of edges. Repeat with ricotta cheese. Sprinkle dried fruits and chocolate over top.

Brush the top edge with a little water. Roll up loosely, and press ends and top edge to seal.

Place sealed-side down on a prepared baking sheet. Prick all over surface, about 10 times, with a fork.

Bake in a preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes, until risen and nicely browned. It should be firm to the touch. Cool slightly on a wire tray. Slice 1-inch thick. Serve warm or at room tempera-

ture. Serves 8 to 10.

Whisky Fruit Cake (Dairy) 1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup light-brown sugar 4 large eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder 3 Tbsp. finely ground almonds 1 tsp. nutmeg 2 tsp. fresh ground pepper 1 cup currants 1 cup raisins 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 cup glacé cherries 1/2 cup diced candied orange peel 3 to 4 Tbsp. whisky, plus whisky for infusing weekly (may substitute brandy) Optional topping: 2 Tbsp. apricot jam, melted; 10 oz. prepared marzipan, softened Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of

a 9-inch springform pan with wax paper to fit.

Spray bottom and sides with nonstick cooking spray with flour. Set aside.

Cream softened butter and sugar in a large bowl (about 1 to 2 minutes). Add eggs, one at time, with 1/4 cup of the flour. Add the baking powder and remaining flour gradually, about 1/4 cup at a time, mixing well. Stir in all the remaining ingredients. Mixture will be stiff and sticky.

Transfer mixture to prepared baking pan, smoothing top with a spoon. Bake in preheated oven for 1 to 1-1/4 hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. If cake seems to brown too quickly, cover loosely with foil. Cool slightly before removing from pan.

While still warm, prick the cake all over the top with a metal skewer. Use a teaspoon to pour in the whisky. Allow to soak in thoroughly. Cool and wrap in cheesecloth, then in foil. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place, though not in the refrigerator. Serves 15 to 20.

Kosher Kitchen

JoNi SChoCKeTT

Jewish Star columnist

C

hanukah is a wonderful time of year to have company and trade recipes for latkes and more. I am looking forward to our family Chanukah party this year.

I used to make sufganiyot every year. Now, I prefer experimenting with latkes and veggies.

Cheese also plays a big part in this holiday, so I always try to incorporate it into some recipe.

We have also developed a tradition of having homemade spanakopita on Chanukah, to acknowledge the cheese Judith used in her ploy.

The beautiful Festival of Lights is also a great time to make some gifts from your kitchen and decorate them for friends. A package of homemade cookies or brownies is often so appreciated by the recipient. As a gift, it has several advantages: One size fits all. You never have to worry about finding the right color or model. It will never be returned.

Yes, gifts from the home do take a bit of time, but you can streamline and create up to 12 gifts with maybe three or four recipes. If you engage your kids to help you, it can be a fun family project — from baking, to decorating the gift packages, and delivering them.

Chanukah is a wonderful, happy time for children and families, a special time to gather together, light the candles, sing songs and enjoy company and fun. Simple gifts from the kitchen can help the budget and teach kids that it is often more fun to make and give gifts than it is to receive them.

Crunchy Granola (Pareve) This recipe is adapted from the Singer Island Hilton Hotel in Florida, where the chef graciously gave me the recipe.

14.5 oz. rolled oats (not quick or instant) 4 oz. cashew or walnut pieces (about 1 generous cup) 2 oz. sliced almonds 2 oz. sunflower seeds 7 oz. pumpkin seeds 1 oz. flax seeds 1 tsp. salt, scant 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 5.5 oz. honey 3.5 oz. high oleic safflower oil 3 oz. dark brown sugar 1 to 1-1/2 oz. pure maple syrup grade B preferable Optional: Any dried fruits you like; I love very small snips of dried apricots. Omit nuts

Chanukah...

Continued from page 5 and whisk on. Cake will not be compromised.

Add the orange-juice concentrate. Mix well.

Add in remaining flour and baking powder, about 1/4 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the caraway seeds. Turn into prepared pan, smoothing top with a spoon.

Bake in preheated oven 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly. Loosen edges with a round bladed knife before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serves 10 to 12.

Roly-Poly (Dairy) 1 sheet (about 8 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 to 2 Tbsp. preserves 3 Tbsp. ricotta cheese (or a mild grated

THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Gefilte fish: Better in a sandwich

By Kat Romanow, The Nosher When I was creating the menu for Fletchers, the Jewish cafe I manage in Montreal, I knew that I needed to include gefilte fish, but there couldn’t be any limp romaine or parsley in sight.

I took the elements of a traditional plate of gefilte fish and made it into a sandwich because everything is just better between slices of bread.

Whether you’re already a gefilte fish fan or still need convincing, we promise that this will make you love it.

Fletcher’s Homemade Gefilte Fish 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 340 grams boneless, skinless halibut fillets or similar white fish, cut into chunks 340 grams boneless, skinless tilapia, cut into chunks 2 large eggs 3/4 cup cold water or veggie stock, plus boiling water for pan 3 Tbsp. matzah meal 1 Tbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice and zest of 1/2 lemon 1-1/2 tsp. Diamond kosher salt Freshly ground pepper 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Coat a 5x9-inch loaf pan with olive oil. Heat remaining olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion, stir-

ring, until soft, 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside.

2. Pulse the turbot and tilapia in a food processor until finely chopped, not smooth.

3. Beat eggs with a whisk for about 1 minute.

Mix in the onion, fish mixture, cold water or stock, matzah meal, sugar, lemon juice and zest, salt, and some pepper until well combined. Mix in dill.

4. Transfer mixture to pan. Smooth top using a spatula. Cover with parchment-lined foil, and transfer to a large roasting pan. Pour enough boiling water into a glass casserole to come halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. Bake until terrine is firm in the center, about 45 minutes. Remove pan from water. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Wipe the fish fat off the top of the gefilte fish and drain the fish juice out of the pan.

5. Let cool completely and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze. Yields 1 loaf.

Gefilte Fish Club Sandwich 2-inch-thick slices of your favorite gefilte fish; this recipe works best with a square loaf 3 slices of challah sliced tomato romaine lettuce, or mixed greens pickles 1 to 2 Tbsp. prepared horseradish mayo (recipe below) 1 Tbsp. prepared pickled red onion (recipe below) Pickled red onions: 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water 1 Tbsp. sugar 1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt (Diamond brand) 1 red onion, thinly sliced Whisk first 3 ingredients and water in a small bowl until sugar and salt dissolve. Place onion in a jar; pour vinegar mixture over. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.

Horseradish mayo: 2 cups mayonnaise 1 Tbsp. white horseradish Zest of half a lemon Combine mayo, horseradish and lemon zest.

Set aside. Can be prepared several days ahead.

Directions: 1. Set broiler to high and place the gefilte fish slices on a sheet pan. Heat the gefilte fish slices until they are golden brown and warmed through, about 2 minutes.

2. Toast slices of challah while the fish is in the oven. Spread the bottom piece of challah with horseradish mayo, place one piece of gefilte fish on it (smash the fish a little so it spreads across the bread) and place tomatoes on top. Top with next piece of challah, spread that piece of toast with a little mayo, place the rest of the gefilte fish on it, top with pickled onions and lettuce. Place last piece of challah on top of the sandwich.

3. Cut the sandwich diagonally, place a pickle slice on each half of the sandwich, and put toothpicks into the center of the pickle slices.

Gefilte Fish Club Sandwich.

Dominique LaFond

Old-world wines, new-world grapes: Flam at 20 Review by Elizabeth Kratz, JNS At Noi Due Carne, a kosher Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side, a 20th-anniversary dinner showcased the work and style of Flam Winery — a high-end, family-owned boutique winery in the Judean Hills just outside Jerusalem.

While 20 years is a milestone, the winery considers itself young. Israel is considered new in terms of wine. “When we are talking about the terroir, the climate, altitude and soil, we are looking at the relationship between the winemaker and the land. We have to watch, learn and study; it takes a lot of years,” said Gilad Flam.

Flam’s reputation for elegance and quality preceded the dinner. Since attaining kosher certification in 2010, Flam’s wines have been on every kosher wine list of note annually, though they are generally not served in restaurants as Flam is not mevushal. I’ve especially found their stunning, refreshing rosé — blended from cabernet franc and Syrah — and Classico, Flam’s entry-level Bordeaux blend, to be heights above other wines in their class (particularly the Classico, which retails for around $30).

Flam’s wines, while at the higher end in terms of price, are consistently impressive from year to year. Gilad’s brother, Golan, who trained as a winemaker in Italy, and their father, wine legend Israel Flam of Carmel — have said that their wines are meant to be served with food.

The fall flavors that Noi Due’s Chef Beau Houck utilized in his Mediterranean seasonal dinner were right on point.

From the rosé we tasted as an apéritif all the way to the reserve Merlot, and especially in their blends, the wines’ overall style of balanced acidity, with a restrained, more European sensibility showed through. These are old-world wines made with new-world grapes.

Flam spoke of the winery’s location and the benefit the grapes gain from cooler Mediterranean climates, as well as the higher elevations of the Judean Hills relative to the rest of Israel, especially in years like 2016, where a rainy winter was followed by a mild summer. “The higher altitude leads to more elegant wines with less sugar, which gives them better acidity. We are looking for less ‘fruit bombs,’ ” he said.

The main course of lamb chop on a bed of parsnip purée and pomegranate reduction; Pictured right: A short-rib raviolo with a red-wine reduction and root vegetables.

Photos by Yossie Horwitz

He explained that there are hectares of the vineyards literally “boxed in” by the hills, leading to mistier mornings that retain their cool temperatures for longer into the day.

Some stellar pairings For the first course, Houck served a salad of tuna crudo with orange sections and sea salt, topped with scallions, serrano peppers, julienned radishes and halved olives, with a touch of herb and lightly roasted whole pistachios on top. The raw tuna was so fresh the imaginative combination of fruit, vegetables and nuts elevated it to a triumph. This is a dish I could eat every day. Flam Blanc 2017, an unoaked blend of Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay, was the perfect accompaniment. The wine has subtle notes of citrus, so it was snappy but didn’t overpower the delicate tuna. This wine is a smart pairing for salads.

Next, Houck presented a house-made merguez sausage, with incredible natural lamb casings, with cannellini beans, Calabrian hot chilis and Italian oregano. Classico 2016 and the Merlot Reserve 2016 were served alongside.

While the Classico is one of my all-time favorite Bordeaux blends, the Merlot stood up better to the hot sausage and was a much better fit.

The Classico is a beautifully spiced, warm wine with strong notes of vanilla, while the Merlot’s more bracing acidity with slightly less intense spice cut through the heat of the sausage.

The third course offered a single (and enormous) homemade raviolo, stuffed with melty shredded beef short ribs and an egg yolk that broke as one sliced into it. It was served in a red wine reduction with diced root vegetables. It was also served with two Syrah Reserves: the 2010 and 2016. Both were wonderful balances with the red meat and pasta. The Syrah itself, which Flam describes as “a little more funky,” was floral and a bit more fruit-forward, with some background of oak, giving it a lighter viscosity.

The main course, a za’atar-rubbed lamb chop on a base of parsnip purée and a pomegranate reduction, was served alongside a trio of great wines: the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2016, the Merlot Reserve 2012 and the Noble 2014, a higher-end Bordeaux blend. All of the wines were beautiful accompaniments, and every taste was a near-perfect bite followed by a nearperfect sip. The Noble contained that old-world scent of “barnyard,” which I spoke with Royal Wine’s Gabriel Geller about at some length. I have tasted this note in the background of older

wines from France and Italy. He explained this is a desirable quality in a wine that newer tasters like me sometimes aren’t as quick to appreciate. In younger, California and other new-world wines, these flavors — the product of the wine’s aging — come through as leather or tobacco.

All in the family With the group having enjoyed truly impeccable wines with a meal as well planned as it was presented, Flam noted that the “family aspect” of his winery was one of the most important factors in its quality. With his brother as lead winemaker, his father as a senior-level consultant and visionary, his sister Gefen as art and graphic designer, and his mother as CFO, the family members take pride in their roles — all of which contribute to the winery’s success.

“When it’s your name on the bottle, it makes all the difference,” he said.

We could tell that Chef Houck made the most of fall flavors. The meal ended with a bruléed meringue-covered miniature pumpkin, filled with a cold-pudding-flavored pumpkin and vanilla creme.

Definitely unique and a fun way to end the dinner, and a wonderful toast to Flam’s next 20 years.

15

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It’s Chanukah, SKA style

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Even before the eight days of Chanukah began, SKA students gained chizuk from a shiur by Mrs. Michal Horowitz on the miracle of Chanukah. Sponsored by SPARKS, SKA’s Torah lishma student initiative, Mrs. Horowitz’s words of achdut and appreciation were expressed in honor of Chanukah and a siyum on Trei Asar for learning done in memory of the kedoshim of Pittsburgh. Later that evening, freshmen lit up the night in a pre-Chanukah party for the grade at the home of ninthgrader Abby Katz.

The true launch of Chanukah festivities began early Monday morning. After davening and saying Hallel, the student body boarded buses. In the relaxed atmosphere of their teachers’ homes, they had the opportunity to bond with teachers and classmates, enjoying the hachnasat orchim of SKA staff.

Chanukah activities continued with a Glow in the Dark Chanukah Chagiga. Wednesday was devoted to sharing the light, with chesed oppor-

See why 38 new families chose Brandeis this year.

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tunities for each grade. While seniors went to entertain students at the Queens Gymnasia, ninth and tenth-graders engaged IVDU and Otzar participants in Yom Tov projects. Eleventh-graders spent the day preparing clothing drive contributions for shipment to Israel.

Six13 performs at HANC You may have heard them get a shout out on Z100 this week for their hit single “Bohemian Chanukah,” but HANC Plainview Elementary School heard Jewish a capella group Six613 live in concert on Sunday.

“We wanted to kick off the holiday with a bang, and nothing gets people excited and in the holiday spirit more than music,” said Francie Goldberg, Director of Admissions and organizer of the concert.

HANC booked Six13 in July. The group, whose music videos have become YouTube sensations, were equally incredible onstage.

Elementary school students clapped and sang

along, even dancing with them during the finale.

Pictured: Francie Goldberg, director of admissions family with Six13 and Chanukah props at HANC.

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The Jewish Star School News section is one of the most popular features in Long Island’s #1 Jewish newspaper.

We’re delighted to have the opportunity to publicize the range of activities and the positive achievements of students and faculty that help make our community’s Jewish schools so special.

To facilitate publication of your school’s news, please send it in a timely manner (our

deadline is noon every Monday) and include such relevant information as the full names (first and last names, and honorifics where appropriate) of key participants and, when photos are sent, be sure they are hi-res. If fewer than five people are pictured, identify their full names (listed from left to right).

If you have questions about how to best submit your school news, call Editor Ed Weintrob at 718-908-5555.

17 THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

AT HOME WITH HAFTR Rep. Chris Smith holds an award he received at the 36th annual Bet El gala on Sunday. Joining Smith, from left: Dr. Joseph Frager, Duvi Honig and Pete Hegseth, co-host of Fox and Friends.

At Bet El gala, there’s lots of love for Trump

By Josefin Dolsten, JTA Praise for President Donald Trump and boos for Rep. Nancy Pelosi marked a fundraiser for Bet El, a religious Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Along with plenty of kudos for the president, the gala featured an extravagant kosher buffet, a seven-person live orchestra and a plethora of Chanukah decorations.

Speakers included Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth, and Long Island Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin and Chris Smith (R-NJ), who were honored with the American Friends of the Bet El Yeshiva Center’s Congressional Friends of Israel Award. Some 500 people turned out for the event at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square.

Honorary dinner chairman Eugen Gluck, president of the dinner’s organizer, American Friends of the Bet El Yeshiva Center, also spoke.

“We must always show gratification to those who help fight on behalf of the Jewish people,” senior co-chairman Duvi Honig, who is also the founder of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, wrote in an email to JTA. “It was an honor to acknowledge Congressman Chris Smith in the presence of the Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, who was released from the Soviet Union as part of the Congressman’s lobbying in the 80s on behalf of freeing Russian Jews.”

The profile of Bet El rose early in the Trump administration when the past president of its American Friends group, David Friedman, was named U.S. ambassador to Israel. While most American Jews vote Democratic and a majority are at least ambivalent about the settlements, American supporters of the settlements represent an influential minority that welcomes the president’s hawkish Israel policies.

While there were lots of plaudits for both the Jewish state and the U.S. president during the evening, Hegseth began his speech by dissing Pelosi, the Democratic lawmaker from California who will retake the job as speaker of the House of Representatives she held from 2007 to 2011 — the only woman to do so.

“We have a new Speaker of the House coming up in January here in the States. Her name is Nancy Pelosi,” Hegseth said, yielding boos from the room. “Yuli, any chance we can recruit you to be our Speaker of the House? I got a thumbs-up. We have a chance — it would be an upgrade.”

A self-described “Baptist Christian boy from Minnesota,” Hegseth also spoke about his connection to Bet El and “the faith of the Judeo-

Christian values that we all believe in and we all invest in.”

“That’s why I am so committed to this cause, to the cause of the Jewish people, to the cause of the land of Israel,” he said. “So honored to be here tonight, so thank you very much. It will never change, and thank God we have a president of the United States who feels the same way.”

Zeldin, too, lauded Trump.

“Now we are able to celebrate that our embassy has moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I was honored to be there. It wouldn’t have happened without President Donald Trump,” he said to applause.

Edelstein spent less time on U.S. politics, instead heaping praise on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and speaking about his support of Israeli settlement building.

“Independence, sovereignty, will eventually come to Judea and Samaria and many more houses with be built in order to reach the number we all dream about — a million Jews in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical names for the West Bank.

Smith called on the audience to help him in his work to combat anti-Semitism, which includes co-chairing a bipartisan task force on the issue.

Last year, the congressman introduced the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat AntiSemitism Act to upgrade the role of the State Department’s global anti-Semitism envoy. The House passed the bill in September, but it has not come up for a vote in the Senate.

“With your help, HR 1911 could easily pass this week,” Smith said of the legislation.” We’ve got to get the leadership in the U.S. Senate to just bring it up.”

Jewish organizations have called on the Trump administration to fill the envoy role, which is mandated by law, but it remains vacant.

As the event drew to a close, Zeldin noted the political divide among American Jews. He lamented the fact that out of 32 Jews currently serving in Congress, as well as the 37 in the incoming class, only two — he and Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee — are Republicans.

“When Pete mentioned that I was one of two Jewish Republicans, you were not sure whether or not to clap to that because what I was hoping [since last year’s gala] is that I would be able to talk about how our numbers have grown,” he said. “There are still just two Jewish Republican members of Congress, so we have to work on that maybe for a couple years down the road.”

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Cancer can most often be successfully treated when confined to one organ. But a greater challenge lies in treating cancer that has metastasized, or spread, from the primary tumor throughout the patient’s body.

Although immunotherapy can be effective in treating the metastatic phase of the disease, it is still applicable to a limited number of patients.

Professor Uri Nir of Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv and his team have identified an enzyme that supports the survival and dissemination of metastatic cells, and developed a synthetic compound that targets it and kills the cells in mice with cancer. Their research has been recognized by Israel21C as the number 1 Scientific Breakthrough in Israel.

Cancer cells that leave the primary tumor appear to possess greater tools to survive in harsh conditions. Nir and his team identified an enzyme called FerT in the energy-generating mitochondria of metastatic cancer cells.

When they targeted FerT in lab mice, the malignant cells were sapped of energy and soon died. The team then began searching for the enzyme elsewhere in the body. They detected it in only one specific cell — none other than sperm cells.

This was in important finding for Nir. “Sperm cells are the only cells in our body which exert their functions outside our body,” he says. “Like metastatic cells, sperm cells are unique in that they can also generate energy under very harsh conditions. Once they have entered the female birth canal, where there is no blood supply for them, they produce and

expend enormous amounts of energy under very extreme or abnormal conditions.

“We found that very aggressive metastatic cancer cells looked for and identified this sperm-specific protein, learned how to produce it and harnessed it in order to potentiate their mitochondria and produce energy under very harsh conditions.”

Using advanced chemical and robotic approaches, the team developed a synthetic compound called E260, which can be administered orally or by injection to animals or patients. When applied to metastatic cells, the compoundenters the metastatic cells and then into the mitochondria (“power station”).

It then binds the enzyme FerT, distorts its activity and, notably, not only inhibits its activity but causes a complete collapse of the entire mitochondria power station.

“Metastatic cells are very capable,” says Nir. “When they identify the damage to the mitochondria power station, they start to activate a recycling process aimed at decomposing and rebuilding mitochondria. But this recycling process requires a lot of energy and this ongoing energy consumption leads to a severe energy depletion, metabolic crisis and death of the metastatic.

“We have treated mice with metastatic cancer and this compound completely cured them with no adverse or toxic affect. We have also checked several normal cells and they are not affected.”

Nir and his team plan to pursue Phase 1 clinical trials in the next 18 months. If successful, this discovery may result in new and innovative treatments for cancer patients worldwide.

Source: Bar-Ilan University

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Chabad of Towson tripled in size in 2016, leading to a lawsuit by its neighbors over zoning regulations.

feet extension to the original building, which would put the complex at over 8,000 square feet.

However, Chabad told JTA that 6,614 square feet represents the total for the entire complex, not just the addition.

Hartman added that Chabad hosts large gatherings that are disruptive to neighbors and create parking issues because there is no on-site parking.

“Before this all started, the rabbi was having smaller events at home, and I don’t think anybody really complained,” Hartman said. “It was when he started wanting to expand and be a huge thing, that’s when the concern started in the community that this is going to just get out of hand.”

Lewin disputes claims that the Chabad House is a community center rather than a residential building.

“Around the country, Chabad Houses that are attached to campuses are frequently [classified as] residences,” he said. “They are where the Chabad rabbi and his wife live and invite students to come in and have meals there, and sing and participate in observances on holidays and on the Sabbath.”

A fundraiser set up to cover Chabad’s legal costs had raised over $140,000 as of Thursday afternoon. The page, organized by Friends of Towson Chabad, links to a letter that draws comparisons between the demolition order and the Nazi Kristallnacht pogroms.

“Eighty years after Kristallnacht, a Rabbi’s home and a home for thousands of Jewish students is slated for destruction. For a clearly discriminatory ruling like this to be administered in the 21st century is chilling,” the letter reads.

Lewin took a different tone in his conversation with JTA. He believes that the demolition was ordered “not because of any ill will or anti-Semitism or anything like that, but simply because of insensitivity and a failure to understand what a Chabad House on campus does and is.”

Robin Zoll has denounced suggestions that anti-Semitism is behind her opposition to Chabad’s expansion.

“I’ve lived in this community for more than 50 years, and I have a very good reputation, and I am not an anti-Semite or an anti-anything,” she told the Capital Gazette. “It’s an absolute besmirchment of everything that I am.”

Meanwhile, Lewin said that demolishing the Chabad House would hurt not only the Rivkin family.

“Obviously it is a case of substantial concern and interest to not only Rabbi and Mrs. Rivkin, who see it as their religious calling to be doing this work in a Chabad House,” he said, “but also the religious observance of the hundreds of students and others who are using that.”

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By Josefin Dolsten, JTA For years, a Chabad House near Towson University in Maryland has fought with neighbors who say it expanded its building illegally. Now the battle is heating up after a Baltimore County judge this month affirmed an order to demolish the addition.

Last week, the Chabad brought on Washington-based attorney Nathan Lewin, who has argued numerous religious liberty cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Lewin said the Chabad is exploring its next steps in fighting the demolition.

“From my personal experience in federal land use cases, this is a classic situation in which federal law has been violated,” Lewin told JTA on Wednesday.

Lewin says the demolition order violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which was enacted to prevent zoning laws from being used to discriminate against religious institutions.

Meanwhile, neighbors say Chabad Rabbi Mendy Rivkin and his wife, Sheiny, are the ones who are violating the law by operating a community center in a residential building.

Chabad of Towson opened in 2008 when the Rivkins bought the property in the Aigburth Manor neighborhood. Members of the Orthodox outreach movement operate Chabad Houses in cities around the world, offering Jewish programming and hosting people for Shabbat meals and religious services.

In 2014, the couple, who serve nearby residents and students at Towson University and Goucher College, decided to expand. In 2016, the $800,000 addition was built, tripling the building’s size from 2,200 to 6,614 square feet, according to Chabad.

Their neighbors weren’t happy. In a lawsuit against the Chabad House, Robin and David Zoll, who live next door, and others cited two separate issues with the Chabad House: They said the building was set too close to the curb and it breached residential zoning laws for a residence.

In 2017, a judge ordered Chabad to tear down the addition. Chabad appealed, but the latest ruling reaffirmed that order.

Zoll could not be reached for comment, but JTA spoke to Paul Hartman, vice president of the Aigburth Manor Association of Towson, which is a co-plaintiff on the case. The group, like Zoll, believes that the Chabad House should not be classified as a residential building.

“The whole complex is something like 8,000 square feet, where the largest home on that street is just a bit over 3,000, and most homes are less than that, so it is totally out of scale with the community,” Hartman said Thursday.

Reports, including in The Baltimore Sun, said that Chabad had applied to build a 6,614 square

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THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

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Hints of the future in story of Yosef Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi biLLEt Jewish Star columnist

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eading through Chapter 42 from a panoramic perspective of history, one sees a premonition of many things in store for the descendants of Yaakov. The best way to read it is in the original Hebrew, but what follows is Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s translation, from the Living Torah, along with my comments.

“When Yosef’s brothers arrived, they prostrated themselves to him, with their faces to the ground” in fulfillment of his first dream. “Yosef recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.”

This is sometimes the largest failing of the Jewish people. We are united when the world is united against us. Otherwise, our disagreements, and our definition of what makes someone Jewish, make us not even recognize who is our brother.

“You are spies!’ [Yosef] said to them. ‘You have come to see where the land is exposed to attack.” ure enough, some time in the future there will be ten spies who will have this intent.

In that case, the ten spies will die, and those who listen to their report will be unable to enter the land.

“We are twelve brothers,’ they pleaded. ‘We are the sons of one man who is in Canaan. Right now the youngest brother is with our father, and one brother is gone.”

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Their inability to explain Yosef’s whereabouts showed they were still in denial of their role in his disappearance. Though they had no reason to suspect he was dead, they weren’t up front about what happened to him. “‘There is only one way that you can convince me,’” Yosef said. “‘By Pharaoh’s life, [all of] you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.” hat a strange idea, for Yosef to link their stay to a mention of Pharaoh! One could argue whether the Jewish slaves were really bound, or whether they could have left at any time but wanted permission.

There is a known Midrash that a group tried to leave Egypt early, a group from the tribe of … Ephraim, Yosef’s son. Moshe’s successor, Yehoshua, was from Ephraim too.

Yosef was showing that someone from his tribe would not be included in the ten spies, and that Ephraim might try to leave without Pharaoh’s say-so. “Let one of you go back and bring your brother.” This is an indicator that Yosef knew that all it would have taken was one person to protect him. But while Reuven did suggest they not kill him, Yosef was unaware of anyone defending him in any capacity.

“Yosef had them placed under arrest for three days.” The last time we saw a reference to a period of three days was when Yosef interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s officers at the end of last week’s parsha. They, too, were in prison, and received clarity after three days. Yosef was giving his brothers three days to cool off, after which he would give them clarity.

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fter Yosef let them go, keeping Shimon under arrest, “they said to one another, ‘We deserve to be punished because of what we did to our brother. We saw him suffering when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen.

That’s why this great misfortune has come upon us now.’

“Reuven interrupted them: ‘Didn’t I tell you not to commit a crime against the boy? You wouldn’t listen. Now a [divine] accounting is being demanded for his blood’!”

This is the first Yosef heard of anyone standing up for him.

This is why he changed his plan and decided to put their money back in the bags.

In giving them money, with a promise not to see them unless they bring Binyamin, he recreated the scene. The brothers were being paid to bring the son of Rachel down to Egypt.

This was the ultimate test. Would they protect him, or let him be sold into slavery? hen they returned to their father and told him the whole story, he said, “‘You are making me lose my children! Yosef is gone! Shimon is gone! And now you want to take Binyamin! Everything is happening to me!’”

It’s fascinating to consider why Yosef kept Shimon behind. After all, Reuven was the oldest.

Perhaps Yosef, having heard Reuven rebuke the brothers, viewed him as more innocent than the others, and so he took the next oldest as prisoner.

Reuven tried to take responsibility for Binyamin, in a way he did not with Yosef 22 years earlier. “Reuven tried to reason with his father. ‘If I do not bring [Benjamin] back to you,’ he said,

This was the ultimate test.

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The meaning of Yosef’s dream From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FREEDMaN

Jewish Star columnist

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or the better part of the 40 years we have been trying to come to terms with Palestinians, but somehow our dream seems no closer to reality than it did when Begin agreed to an autonomous Palestinian entity, or when Rabin signed the Oslo accords. What are we missing?

This week’s portion, Miketz, begins with a fascinating story that gives us a glimpse into what that might be. Yosef, an imprisoned slave in Egypt, is called to the palace to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.

Pharaoh is deeply troubled. In one dream, seven fat, robust cows are devoured by seven sickly dying ones. In a second, seven seemingly healthy wheat-stalks are devoured by seven dying ones.

Yosef’s interpretation: Egypt will experience seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine that will overshadow the previous years of plenty. haraoh needs a plan, and Yosef offers a solution: Stockpile during the seven years of plenty, and distribute food in exchange for land during the years of famine. This will not only allow Egypt to survive, but will also consolidate her status as the economic power in the region. Ultimately, Yosef is appointed viceroy, and as the second highest official in Egypt becomes the instrument for affecting this policy.

Yosef’s solution was no stroke of genius; why were all the ministers of Egypt, the greatest country on earth at the time, incapable of

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arriving at this same conclusion? Additionally, the idea that the ruler of the empire is soliciting the interpretation of an imprisoned slave, resulting in his appointment to one of the highest posts in the world, is absurd. What is really going on here?

This portion, Miketz, is always read on Chanukah. Is there a relationship between the story holiday, and the rise of Yosef to power in Egypt?

Our dreams are an opportunity for us to discover who we are and what is on our hearts and minds. Their impact on our lives depends on our ability to interpret them. So everything depends on our perspective. osef in ancient Egypt represented an entirely different way of seeing things.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped nature as the source of life. They idolized all aspects of the natural order. Thus, they deified the Nile, which they felt was the source of all sustenance in this world. Central to their ideology and beliefs was the concept that the strong survive, as nature dictates.

The idea that pale, dying, sickly animals could devour fat healthy ones was contrary to everything they believed. After all, the lesson of nature is that the weak perish. Survival of the fittest was an ideal to live by.

The idea of stockpiling food to save the population, not to mention parceling it out to others in the region, may well have been counter to everything ancient Egypt stood for.

Yosef offered Egypt a different way to see things. Life doesn’t have to be that way; the

strong and the weak can live side by side and help each other. Ultimately, in becoming viceroy, Yosef had the chance to practice what he preached. thousand years later, the Greeks, too, worshipped nature; they deified beauty and gave license to all man’s most basic urges.

To be sure, there is beauty in nature. But it is precisely that beauty that can lead man to find G-d in the world, not to ignore Him. And this is the central message of Chanukah: that the victory was meaningless if it was only in the service of man. What made it significant for Jews everywhere, forever, was the rededication of the Temple, and the reestablishment of man as serving G-d.

In fact, the name Chanukah may be related to the word chen, inner beauty. And one of the issues, central to all that Chanukah represents, is the real meaning of beauty.

If Chanukah was about military victory, there wouldn’t be that much to celebrate. The Hasmonean dynasty lasted a scant quartercentury before surrendering to the Romans.

In its heyday, it comprised barely 35 square miles around Jerusalem and a strip of land in what is today Gaza. No, the celebration is of something far deeper than the defeat of a few Greek soldiers. hy is lighting the menorah so critical?

One of the prayers traditionally recited when kindling the Chanukah lights, is Nerot Halalu.

“Ve’ein lanu reshut lehishtamesh bahem” —

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Yosef’s solution was no stroke of genius.

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‘you can put my two sons to death. Let him be my responsibility, and I will bring him back to you.’”

Reuven’s comment here requires explanation, because most will assume, as Rashi does, that he is a fool to offer the deaths of his sons in exchange for Yosef and whatever might happen to Binyamin. As if Yaakov would be happy to lose two grandsons as a punishment for Binyamin’s disappearance! he Taz explains that what Reuven was offering was his equivalence to two sons — in other words, his firstborn birthright — if he did not bring Binyamin back. And so it was.

(Wise people should be careful with the things they say.) The person who ends up becoming equivalent to two tribes is Yosef!

The Taz writes that Yaakov’s response, recorded by Rashi as, “My son is a fool; does he not think his children are my children as well?” means that Reuven would need to contend in the future with the fact that his children are not split into two separate tribes. This becomes a moot point, because in the next chapter, Yehuda’s offer to take responsibility for Binyamin is accepted.

But Reuven’s comment, in light of Taz’s explanation, may explain why when Yaakov eventually blesses Ephraim and Menashe, he notes that they “will be like Reuven and Shimon to me.” Yaakov’s claim regarding Yosef’s children removes all rights of firstborn from the hands of Reuven and from his descendants. uch of the Torah contains premonitions and prophetic statements that need to be examined carefully. Miketz is always read on Shabbat Chanukah. Where do we find references to the Chanukah story in the parsha? The experience of Yosef as ruler versus his brothers as subservient members of the Bnei Yisrael is a start. Read through the text, see what you find!

And be inspired by the reunion of this family afterwards, the ultimate model of Jewish unity.

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we have no permission to use them. We are not meant to benefit physically from these candles, not to read by their light, nor to use the heat of their fire.

“Ela lirotam bilvad” — We are only to see them. Sometimes we need to take a step back and just appreciate the light. We need to see all the light in the world around us, and in our lives, and recall that we are here, in the end, only to bring light.

Today, alone amongst the community of nations, Israel has a message the world needs to hear. It is time to kindle the flame that will bring light back into the world. It is time for an awakening.

Best wishes to all for a sweet and wonderful Chanukah full of only light.

A version of this column appeared in 2011.

Luach Thurs Dec 6 / 28 Kislev Fifth candle

Fri Dec 7 / 29 Kislev Sixth candle Shabbos Chanukah / Miketz Candlelighting: 4:09 pm Havdalah: 5:18 pm

Sat Dec 8 / 30 Kislev Seventh candlee

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Kosher bookworm

AlAn JAy geRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

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he Birnbaum Siddur — who among us has never heard of that iconic prayer book? Yes, iconic, inasmuch as it was among the most popular siddurim of the mid20th century. But who was Birnbaum?

A good question, ad one that was recently answered in a beautiful biographical essay in the latest issue of Jewish Action, entitled “The Most Obscure Best-Selling Author: Dr. Philip Birnbaum,” by David Olivestone.

In this informative essay, we learn of the quiet and modest life led by Birnbaum, an anav in every sense of the honorable title. And yes, he made history — in the very style and composition of both a siddur for year-round

worship, and a companion machzor for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, both published by the Hebrew Publishing Company on New York’s Lower East Side, the leading liturgical publisher of its time.

The essay details his personal background, the religious and cultural background of the community that gave the siddur its popularity, and its eventual demise with the rise of the ArtScroll revolution in the late 1970’s. ast forward to today and the recent publication of a new siddur, Siddur Avodat Halev, [RCA, 2018] that was reviewed, twice, in this column this past month.

Many inquiries were generated by those two columns — especially inquiries as to the editor of the new siddur, Rabbi Dr. Basil Herring, a

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former classmate of mine at Yeshiva University in the 1960’s. I spoke to Rabbi Herring about his worthy and holy efforts.

“Working on this siddur as its editor has actually transformed my own prayer experience,” he said. “Even though I had been a communal rabbi, author, and university lecturer for many years, I was not prepared for the richness, range, and inspirational quality of the literature surrounding the traditional siddur.

“These include halachic authorities, as well as yeshiva leaders, Kabbalist masters and Chassidic leaders, mussar scholars, poets and … even communal rabbis. They all each played important roles in the development of our prayer traditions and experiences.

‘Working on this siddur transformed my prayer experience.’

Miketz: G-d will give the answer Torah

RAbbi dAvid eTengoff

Jewish Star columnist

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ast week’s parasha concludes with Yosef’s undeserved imprisonment in an Egyptian jail at the false accusation of Potiphar’s wife. While incarcerated, he rose to the top of dungeon hierarchy and analyzed the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners — Pharaoh’s chief baker and chief cupbearer.

Through prophetic insight, Yosef realized that the cupbearer would be returned to his former position of honor, and most likely would be able to influence Pharaoh on his behalf. He therefore requested, “Remember me (zichartani) when things go well with you, and please do me a favor and mention me (v’hizkartani) to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house” (Bereishit 40:14). hile Yosef’s strategy seemed to guarantee success, this is not how matters initially played out. “[Pharaoh] restored the

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chief cupbearer to his [position as] cupbearer, and he placed the cup on Pharaoh’s palm …

But the chief cupbearer did not remember Yosef, and he forgot him.”

Fast-forward to our parasha, where none of Pharaoh’s wise men were able to effectively interpret his disturbing dreams.

This became the impetus for the chief cupbearer to finally remember Yosef, the dream analyst, and bring him to the regent’s attention. Unsurprisingly, the perplexed king quickly took advantage of this newfound opportunity. Yosef was brought before Pharaoh.

“I have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter for it,” the king said, “but I have heard it said of you [that] you understand a dream, to interpret it.”

Yosef answered, “Not I; G-d will give an answer [that will bring] peace to Pharaoh.” osef had been summoned from his dungeon of despair and brought before Pharaoh, the most powerful man on the

planet. Almost immediately, the monarch told him that he had heard Yosef was capable of accurately interpreting dreams.

How would we have responded to such a seemingly omnipotent ruler? Assuming that we had Yosef’s talent, most of us probably would have said, “Yes, I can interpret dreams very well. In fact, your majesty, I haven’t been wrong yet! I do have an amazing gift that is now at your service. What did Pharaoh dream? Allow me to interpret the dream’s meaning.”

Yosef, however, chose a different approach. In so doing, he took the final step toward becoming Yosef Hatzaddik, Yosef the Righteous. He said, “Biladai — Elokim ya’aneh et shalom Pharaoh.”

“It is not through my wisdom [Onkelos] that I shall interpret your dreams, G-d will provide an answer that will bring peace to Pharaoh.”

The import of these six Hebrew words cannot be overestimated. They created a chain of events that established Yosef as the key figure

How would we have responded to a ruler?

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“As a result, I have come to see that what may appear as dry words on a printed page, actually contain a vitality and an inspirational wisdom just waiting to be rediscovered by each and every one of us today.”

Rabbi Herring concluded his heartfelt sentiments by stating, “It is our hope that some of this is reflected in the pages of the new RCA Siddur, Avodat Halev. That instead of recital by rote and habit, and rather than merely discharging one’s technical prayer obligations, with the help of this siddur, more of our fellow Jews — no matter their educational level — will find it easier to daven with deeper feeling, greater kavanah, and a more informed understanding of the intricacies, structures, history, and laws of tefillah, prayer.”

Most of these sentiments can be found, in spirit in the introduction by Dr. Birnbaum to his works of close to 75 years ago. A tradition birthed by his scholarship has found itself revived in the new RCA Siddur.

who enabled the Jewish people to thrive in Egypt, and subsequently survive the Egyptian exile. hy does the phrase, “Biladai, Elokim ya’aneh et shalom Pharaoh,” have such power? We are fortunate that the Malbim, in his commentary on the Torah, provides us with an answer: “[When Yosef declared this phrase, he was actually telling the king that] the dream was a communication of Divine Providence from Hashem. Moreover, just as Hashem sent you [Pharaoh] this communication to make known to you your future … so, too, will He make known its interpretation to the dream analyst no matter who he may be. In addition, even if the [interpretation] of this [Heavenly] message will not come from me, nonetheless, others will be able to interpret it, for even without me, certainly Hashem Himself will provide an answer to Pharaoh that will bring you peace…”

A careful reading of the Malbim’s words leads to a counterintuitive conclusion: Yosef achieved his ultimate greatness precisely because he took himself, and any agenda, completely out of the picture.

Instead, he declared that everything that takes place is completely dependent upon the Almighty, never upon an individual — no matter who he or she may be.

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Two Pharaohs, two modes of leadership Angel for Shabbat

RAbbi mARc d. Angel

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haraoh was a powerful ruler, assumed by his people to have divine qualities.

He was surrounded by a group of wise advisers, the greatest sages of Egypt.

But an amazing thing happened. Pharaoh had dreams that neither he nor his wise advisers could decipher. The butler, who once had a dream correctly interpreted by Yosef, informed Pharaoh that there was a Hebrew slave in prison who might be helpful. Pharaoh summoned Yosef, related his dreams, and listened to Yosef’s interpretation. Yosef not only deciphered the dreams, but gave advice on how to deal with the forthcoming years of surplus followed by famine.

Pharaoh responded in a profoundly wise, unexpected manner: “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the spirit of G-d is?”

He immediately elevated a Hebrew slave to high office, second only to Pharaoh himself. his response by Pharaoh is worthy of attention. Many leaders go to great lengths to demonstrate their infallibility. They

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don’t like to appear incompetent. They surround themselves with the best available talent so that they can be sure to come up with the right decisions.

Their egos prevent them from admitting weakness, ignorance, or incompetence Yet the powerful Pharaoh listened to the advice of a Hebrew slave, and delegated tremendous powers to an unlikely person who wasn’t even Egyptian.

He was wise enough to realize that Yosef had not only interpreted the dreams but had offered a practical plan of action.

Pharaoh did not stand on ceremony. He could have had Yosef cast back into prison, but he did not do that. He was not embarrassed to let the public know that he had needed — and accepted — the advice of a lowly slave.

Because Pharaoh did not allow his ego to get in the way, he was able to make an intelligent decision that ultimately proved successful for Egypt.

Not only was long-term famine averted, but the power of Pharaoh’s own government was strengthened.

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ut the Torah later informs us of another Pharaoh “who knew not Yosef.” This new Pharaoh, wishing to expand his power, enslaved the Israelites. When Moshe confronted him with the demand from G-d that the Israelites should be freed, this Pharaoh arrogantly responded: “Who is this G-d that I should listen to Him?” This Pharaoh was drunk with his own power. He could not admit personal mistakes.

Even confronted with one plague after another, he maintained a hard heart. He would not give in to Moshe … or to G-d. Pharaoh’s own advisers realized that the situation was out of control and that it would be best to liberate the slaves. But Pharaoh was adamant. He allowed his egotism to cloud his ability to think clearly.

As a result of this Pharaoh’s unwillingness to admit error, his people suffered ten horrible plagues causing massive damage to crops, animals, and the people themselves. Ultimately, the slaves went free in spite of him. But Pharaoh’s ego still pressed him to have his troops pursue the Israelites. The result: the Egyptian chariots and horsemen were drowned in the sea.

He elevated a Hebrew slave to high office.

THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

From Birnbaum to Herring, the legacy continues

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here is much to be learned from the approaches of the two Pharaohs.

The first Pharaoh exemplified intelligent leadership and responsible behavior.

His goal was not to protect his delicate ego, and not to prove how wise he and his advisers were.

His goal was to address a problem in the way that would yield best results for his people. Because of his clear-headedness, Egypt prospered as never before.

The second Pharaoh exemplified leadership tainted by egotism, allowing emotion to prevail over reason.

His goal was to demonstrate his power, to lash out at those who questioned his judgment, to push aside advice of his own advisers. He was not thinking of the long-term welfare of his people; he was concerned more with showing how strong he was. Because of his egotism, Egypt suffered terrible catastrophes.

When leaders of societies and communities follow the wisdom of the first Pharaoh, the people are well served.

When leaders of societies and communities succumb to the egotism of the second Pharaoh, disaster is sure to follow … not only for the people, but for the leaders themselves.

December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Should CNN have fired Marc Lamont Hill?

Politics to Go

JEff DuNEtz

Jewish Star columnist

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NN commentator Marc Lamont Hill lost his job last week when he used a Palestinian phrase calling for the destruction of Israel.

While there is no argument here about whether or not his statement was anti-Semitic, I disagree with CNN’s decision to cancel his contract.

Hill spoke Wednesday at the United Nations, at a meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is what the UN calls the anniversary of the 1947 partition plan’s approval.

His speech called for the international community to boycott Israel and allow Palestinians more space to engage in violence against the Jewish state. He claimed that violence was also employed in the struggles of African Americans.

Which is true, although in the end it was the nonviolent movement of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that won the day.

Hill ended his speech with, “Give us a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a stock slogan of the Fatah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State. It’s a call for the takeover of the entire Land of Israel, which, to this day, the “moderate” PA government refers to as Palestine.

It was that last line that got him into trouble.

According to the US State Department, one example of antiSemitism is “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” — in other words, any statement that there should not be a Jewish State of Israel.

By calling for a Palestinian state from “river to the sea” and allowing Palestinian violence, Hill called for the violent antiSemitic goal of the Palestinian terrorists, the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. It’s a call for a one-state solution, and that state is not the Jewish homeland.

Hill received thunderous applause at the UN, but was chastised for his anti-Semitic remarks, which were declared anti-Semitic by the politically non-partisan National Council of Young Israel.

Even the ADL, which usually avoids criticizing liberals, said Hill’s words were anti-Semitic. t wasn’t the first time Hill disputed Israel’s right to exist. In May 2018 he wrote in the Huffington Post, “By naturalizing the idea that nation-states have a ‘right to exist,’ we undermine our ability to offer a moral critique of Israel’s (or any settler-colony’s) origin story.”

The morning after his UN speech, Hill scrambled to fight the charges of anti-Semitism. He tweeted his defense: “I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination. I am deeply critical of Israeli policy and practice.

“I do not support anti-Semitism, killing Jewish people, or any of the other things attributed to my speech.

I have spent my life fighting these things.

“My reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone. It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/ Gaza. The speech very clearly and specifically said those things. No amount of debate will change what I actually said or what I meant.”

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Turning him into a martyr for the Palestinian cause.

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t was too little, too late. By 4 pm that day CNN announced that “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” turning him into a martyr for the Palestinian cause.

“I think it’s a disgrace,” James Zogby, pollster, and president of the Arab American Institute told the Daily Beast. “It’s just evidence of what we have known for decades — the lack of tolerance for any deviations from what is accepted as the position on Israel and Palestine.”

Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz said: “In the heavyhanded reality that has seized control over dialogue in the United States, there’s no room for expressions that may offend the Israeli occupation.”

Democratic Congresswoman-elect Rashida Tlaib tweeted, “Calling out the oppressive policies in Israel, advocating for Palestinians to be respected, and for Israelis and Palestinians alike to have peace and freedom is not antisemitic. @CNN, we all have a right to speak up about injustice any and everywhere.”

A correspondent for National Geographic, Francesca Fiorentina, tweeted, “CNN firing Marc Lamont Hill is a disgrace. Criticizing Israeli occupation is not antisemitic. Rather, it’s the result of understanding & bearing witness to decades of brutality, subjugation and apartheid that has no See CNN on page 26

Boost silent majority in war on anti-Semitism Viewpoint

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or anyone unaware of Europe’s antiSemitism problem, CNN’s “Anti-Semitism in Europe Poll 2018,” released last week, would have made for grim reading.

Polling 7,000 respondents in seven European countries, the survey revealed that one in 10 Europeans has an “unfavorable” attitude towards Jews, while nearly 30 percent believe that “Jewish people have too much influence in finance and business across the world, compared with other people.” When it comes to Jewish interests supposedly driving wars and conflict in the world, one in four Europeans believes that is indeed a decisive factor.

In parallel, awareness of the Holocaust appears to be collapsing, with one in five French respondents aged 18-34 saying they’d never even heard of it. In Austria, the land of Hitler’s birth, 12 percent of young respondents said they had never heard of the Holocaust, while 40 percent of Austrian respondents overall said they knew “just a little” about the Nazi

extermination of six million Jews. hat are we to make of all this? Three conclusions strike me.

First, anti-Semitism is rising, in parallel with growing ignorance of history and growing intolerance towards other minorities in Europe. In the same poll, 16 percent of respondents reported “unfavorable” views of the LGBT+ community, 36 percent “unfavorable” views of Muslims and 39 percent “unfavorable” views of the Roma people, themselves the victims of a Nazi genocide.

Second, a greater number of respondents see anti-Semitism as an offensive social problem.

Forty-four percent of respondents agreed that “anti-Semitism is a growing problem in their country today,” while 40 percent believe that Jews face the risk of racist violence. When it comes to the intersection between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism — most often encountered by Europeans in the form of calls for the elimination of the State of Israel — 54 percent of respondents concurred that Israel has the “right to exist as a Jewish state.”

Of course, one can read these numbers in

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reverse. A small majority of people don’t think anti-Semitism is a problem, and nearly half of Europeans are somewhere between indifferent and completely hostile when it comes to Jewish national self-determination. ut that brings me to my third point. However you read these numbers, the data gathered in 2018 isn’t really new.

For example, take the approximately 30 percent of Europeans who think that Jews have too much influence over business and finance. Much the same number believed that in 2007.

An Anti-Defamation League poll of that year found that 21 percent of German, 28 percent of French and a whopping 53 percent of Spanish respondents said that Jews “exercise too much power in the business world.” When the ADL conducted a similar poll in 2009, the figure had remained consistent in Germany, rising a few points in both France and Spain. More recent ADL polls in 2014 and 2015 — in the wake of Islamist terrorism against Jewish targets in France and Belgium — showed that a little less than 25 percent of Europeans still harbored anti-Semitic attitudes and beliefs.

However you read the numbers, the data isn’t new.

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Even so, something has changed in the latter part of this decade, but what? I found something of a clue in a report on anti-Semitism commissioned by an E.U. agency way back in 2003 that contained this observation: “Opinion polls prove that in some European countries a large percentage of the population harbors anti-Semitic attitudes and views, but that these usually remain latent” (my emphasis). asked Abraham Foxman — the former national director of the ADL, who for more than two decades presided over that organization’s polling in Europe — whether one could still make that observation now.

“Overt anti-Semitism has been more or less contained in the last 30-plus years,” he told me in an email exchange. “We knew it was there, latent, but through many means, we created a firewall around it.”

That firewall, Foxman explained, was composed of the following elements. “First, the memory of Shoah,” he said. But also, “a civil contract of respect” in American public discourse; compelling anti-Semites in American public life, like the actor Mel Gibson, to pay the reputational price for their bigotry; educational initiatives explaining why anti-Semitism is, as Foxman puts it, “immoral, un-Christian and un-American”; See Silent on page 26

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View from Central Park

tehilla r. goldberg

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hen I think of Chanukah in Jerusalem, I think of the fiery winter sunsets. Like a signal that it’s time to kindle the Chanukah lamps, the sun seems to illuminate the entire city, a message of fire and light. The synchronicity of nature and the mitzvah is striking.

There is something breathtaking about Jerusalem Chanukah twilights. The vivid colors of gold, fiery orange and red glow with incredible brilliance. The bumpy gray clouds fill out the colors with incredible texture and a bursting sense of motion. It’s like The City of Gold is bathed in Chanukah’s essence.

When we think of light, we think of our charge: to be a light unto the nations. It’s a tall order, to model light, to shine with values and morals that can illuminate the world. I am proud that Israel usually rises to the challenge and responsibility.

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here was much light emanating from Jerusalem this week: Israel’s famous national Biblical Contest has reached Africa! Under the leadership of the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria and Angola, and namely at the initiative of Ambassador Nadav Goren, an African Biblical Contest was launched. Thousands of enthusiastic competitors signed up.

Hananel Malka, chair of the national Israeli contest, chaired the African event as well. In his words, “In Africa, I witnessed and internalized how much the Tanach unlocks doors and hearts.”

It’s gratifying to see Israel export its most defining asset, which makes us who we are. It’s inspiring that Israel is seeking common ground by utilizing the source that has made the nation who it is since its inception.

Hebrew songs were sung, psalms were recited in Hebrew, shofars were blown, and Israeli flags flown. And the competition was fierce. In Nigeria, 1,000 youngsters signed up. In Angola, more than 1,600. The competitors hailed from

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The battle for the Oral Law was won.

The truth about US-Israel alliance Jonathan S. tobin

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t got lost in the middle of a wide-ranging interview in The Washington Post that made headlines for other reasons. But when President Donald Trump said that the United States might be staying involved in the Middle East because of Israel, he said something that frightened many supporters of the Jewish state.

The context was the US’s relationship with Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the kingdom, believed to have been acting on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump is reluctant to punish the Saudis and seems to view the issue in purely transactional terms. he president defended his stance by pointing out the Saudis’ crucial role as a counterbalance to the malevolent influence of Iran.

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He’s right about that, even if the administration’s messaging has been off-key because of the president’s lack of interest in human-rights issues.

But his comments went deeper than that: “It’s very important to have Saudi Arabia as an ally if we’re going to stay in that part of the world. Now, are we going to stay in that part of the world?

One reason is Israel. Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because we’re producing more oil now than we’ve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you don’t have to stay there.”

That raised alarms for two reasons.

One was that Trump was contemplating a scenario in which the United States would withdraw from the Middle East.

The other is that he said if defending the world’s oil reserves was no longer necessary, the United States might stay in the region because of its alliance with Israel.

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he first reason is worrisome because it is in keeping with the president’s neo-isolationist instincts. While Trump has been inconsistent, he speaks for many Americans who are tired of foreign entanglements and wars. But for all his dislike of such demands on American attention, Trump seems to understand the lethal nature of the Iranian threat — both in terms of its nuclear ambitions and its quest for regional hegemony — and knows an alliance involving the Saudis and Israel is essential for maintaining the balance of power, as well as protecting US interests.

Trump is also right when he acknowledges that oil should no longer be the sole factor determining US strategy. The glut in the oil market and America’s ability to be more or less energyindependent has changed the way we think about the region. The decline of Arab leverage over the West has more to do with fracking in the States and the discovery of vast natural gas

Israel has never had any need for Americans to defend it.

Torah study accessible to the masses of Jews across the world.

The battle for the Oral Law was won. It is in fact one with our Written Law. While the Bible is something we contributed to the world and has become universal, the Oral Law is a more intimate language, one we share with one another within our tribe. o although the irony of the timing of Israel in bringing the Bible context to Africa is not lost on me, neither is its beauty. The Israel Bible Contest is one of our educational crown jewels. After all, we are the People of the Book! It is gratifying to see Israel pass on the love of this book to others.

Watching a video of the African Bible Contest winner from Angola was so emotional.

When his name, Lionel Baya, was announced in first place, he couldn’t hold back his tears.

And neither could we. Baya is an electrical engineering student who took on this Bible study in addition to his many other responsibilities.

You could sense the labor of love.

His prize? A trip to Israel for Chanukah.

The light is shining. He’ll get to see those magical Jerusalem Chanukah sunsets, and all the kindled menorahs that dot the landscape of the Biblical Land of Israel, as far as the eye can see.

Copyright Intermountain Jewish News

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reserves elsewhere, including in Israel, than the price of oil set by OPEC. The free flow of oil from the Persian Gulf is still important, but it’s not as important as it used to be.

That leaves the question of America staying in the Middle East because of Israel. peaking such sentiments aloud spooks friends of Israel because it raises the specter of US troops defending Israel and, heaven forbid, fighting and dying to protect the Jewish state. But Israel has never had any need or desire for Americans to defend its borders.

The Israel Defense Forces is quite capable, and Israelis have never wanted anyone else, even its superpower ally, to take up that duty.

Anti-Semites have often claimed that Israel is the tail wagging the American dog, manipulating US foreign policy in ways that are against Washington’s interests. That is untrue. Israel — a regional military superpower and the sole democracy in the region — is a US asset, not a liability.

America gives Israel vast amounts in military aid (spent almost completely in the United States on weapons and other services). But the Jewish state has given as good as it has gotten in terms of intelligence sharing, technological advancements and serving as a bulwark against radical regimes like Iran, which are bent on deSee US-Israel on page 25

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Ethnic cleansing victims: Arab countries’ Jews aShley Perry-Perez

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o you know what was commemorated on Nov. 30?

While for most Jews around the world it was just another day, according to a law passed in 2014 by Knesset member Dr. Shimon Ohayon, it is Israel’s official day of commemoration for Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

It should be an important day on the global Jewish calendar. The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa are an essential part of Jewish history, even for those whose ancestors did not come from there.

During my time in government, one of the issues I was proud to raise was that of the ethnic cleansing of almost a million Jews from the Middle East and North Africa — communities predating Islam and the Arab conquest of the region in the seventh century, and the appropriation of their assets estimated to be worth billions of dollars today.

Unfortunately, this history — the forced exodus of Jews who, along with their descendants, constitute the majority of Jews in Israel — is barely studied, mostly ignored and seemingly of little interest to the general population and even to Diaspora Jewry.

Apart from the great work of organizations like Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries and Harif, I was amazed that the issue had only seldom been raised in any meaningful way around the world.

Having grown up in a thriving Jewish community, attending a Jewish school, and being involved in the Jewish community and Zionist organizations, I am astounded at how little was taught about the long and illustrious history of the Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa, and their subsequent expulsion.

How many are taught about the Jewish communities of Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Yemen — to name but a few of many nations now completely without a Jewish presence? hile in government, Dr. Ohayon and I often raised this issue on the international stage and at the foreign ministry, under the leadership of then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and even initiated a now-

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abroad are not even aware of it.

Dr. Ohayon created the first Knesset caucus for Jewish refugees from Arab countries, and although the meetings were well-attended and frequent, the attendees were mostly survivors of pogroms in the Arab world and the expellees themselves, and few from the following generations. o spread greater understanding of the issue abroad, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bureau for World Jewish Affairs and World Religions, headed by Akiva Tor, we created a traveling exhibition that would be sent to embassies, consulates, Jewish communities and organizations around the world to print out locally and display at relevant events surrounding the date. (The exhibition is still available for anyone who wants to receive the PDF slides.)

Every year, more events are held around the world, with the assistance of Israel’s embassies and consulates and local Jewish communities.

But it is still not enough. The history of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa is not even close to the global Jewish agenda.

It is rarely part of any high-level Jewish or pro-Israel conference, barely touched in any See Jews on page 25

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Jewish refugees at Ma’abarot transit camp in 1950 .

Wikimedia Commons

annual event at the United Nations solely devoted to the issue of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, with our partners in the World Jewish Congress and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

However, the more we pressed the issue, which by international, U.S. and Israeli law must be part of any resolution to our conflict, the more I understood that Jews in Israel and

23 THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

As far as eye can see

across the country’s many provinces and municipalities. Clearly, the African nations carried an affection for studying the Bible and responded in kind.

Distinguished leaders from the local communities participated as well. All in all, it was an event imbued with strong pro-Israel sentiment that made history in Africa. t brings to mind the phrase: “Ki mi-Tzion teitzei Torah, from Zion shall Torah go forth.”

I realize the irony of the Bible being studied in Africa on Chanukah. After all, the first translation of the Torah to a foreign language was into Greek, and it was not viewed positively by the sages. A literal translation did not retain the full meaning of the Torah text. One of the crucial battles in the Chanukah story was an ideological one, the battle between the Sadducees who only adhered to the literal text, and those who fought to retain the traditional oral interpretation.

But that was another generation’s battle. It’s been millennia since the Torah was translated to Greek, and today it has been translated into the lingua franca of English and so many other languages. Most segments of the community view this as a positive, realistic way to make

Times reflects US Jewry’s Chanukah hypocrisy actually mentioned Chanukah or latkes) was proof of anti-Semitism or just an unfortunate coincidence, the discussion was indicative of the suspicions that many Jews hold about the Times.

But there was little doubt that a Times oped published in its Sunday edition — the day the holiday began — would set alight the debate about its attitude to Jewish sensitivities. In the piece, novelist Michael David Lucas made a couple of observations while attempting to pour cold water on Chanukah celebrations, while also promoting a misunderstanding of Jewish history and the struggle to preserve Jewish identity.

Lucas, who identifies as a “assimilated Jew,” was absolutely right about two things.

One is that for many Jews, Chanukah’s sole significance is as a counterweight to the dominance of Christmas in American popular culture.

ple and Policy Institute last week claimed that as many as 60 percent of American Jews light candles on Chanukah, which is more than the 53 percent who fast on Yom Kippur or the 23 percent who light Shabbat he New York Times’s coverage of Jewcandles, according to the ish topics has long been fodder for those 2013 Pew Survey on Jewish who study both media bias and the comAmericans. It’s also greater plicated relationship between the newspaper than the 32 percent of those and the members of the tribe that are among identifying as Jews who its most loyal readers. have a Christmas tree.

An article published the week before ChanuHe is also correct to point kah about the health risks associated with fried out that the main signifipotatoes set off a debate as to whether the feacance of Chanukah to many Jews is as a Jewish ture was a not-so-subtle dig at a holiday tradianswer to Santa Claus. That doesn’t just mean tion. Whether you think the piece (which never providing Jews with an excuse to take part in the national obsession with December spending. It also gives them a holiday for which they can demand equal time at public school assemblies and municipal ceremonies. For others, it is, merely as Lucas says of himself, an answer to the pleas of their children for Christmas.

This is a rare opportunity to lead a growing team of Torah Judaism and issues of interest to local Orthodox communities. staff reporters, correspondents and photographers as The problem is that the two holidays just Long Island’s newspaper of Orthodox Judaism expands There is also an opening for a P/T Associate Editor to don’t compare. Chanukah is fun, but it can’t its coverage in print and on multiple online platforms. edit copy and perform a variety of office functions. compete. Even more to the point, as Lucas obQualified candidates will have demonstrated Send a descriptive cover letter, resume, clips (or links). serves, Chanukah is not a blue-tinseled version In subject line, put EDITOR or ASSOCIATE EDITOR. journalistic proficiency and have an understanding of of the “good will to all men” of Christmas.

Chanukah is, instead, the story of a conflict in which religious Jews waged war against Seleucid Greeks and their Jewish collaborators.

Lucas’s understanding of the history is limited (in the original published version of his piece, News reporters will cover community events, civic Photographers will cover events in the Five Towns and he claimed the Maccabees were fighting the elsewhere on Long Island or on the Upper West Side and meetings, school news, local personalities and a range Riverdale on a freelance basis.

Romans), but he’s right that the war waged of Jewish issues. Reporting and writing experience (preferably news coverage) is required. An understanding

by Judah Maccabee was as much a civil war Our newsroom alumni have become news media of Jewish issues is a plus. superstars in New York and throughout America. against those who had embraced Hellenism as You will not find a better, more professional growth This position is full-time (although a flexible schedule may a struggle for national independence. opportunity in Jewish media on Long Island. be arranged), with salary, paid holidays, time off, Lucas concludes that if he were around in medical and 401(k). Candidates will also be Send resume, cover letter and clips (or links). In subject 165 BCE, he would have identified more with line, put REPORTER, EDITOR or FREELANCE. considered for freelance work. the city-dwellers embracing Hellenistic practices, like eating pork, than the efforts of “rural religious zealots.” He sees the Maccabee victory as one of “fundamentalism over cosmopolitanism.” communities. P/T and freelance (set your own Write about what you know and care about the most ucas seems to see the victorious Jews as the schedule!) with the prospect of fame (a Jewish Star — your community, your shul, your schools, your moral equivalent of red state evangelical byline!) and if not quite a fortune, a modest stipend. organizations.

Trump supporters, and their opponents as Sounds intereting? E-mail an inquiry to the editor for The Jewish Star is recruiting neighborhood people people like him, who have mixed feelings about a prompt callback. Please put NEIGHBORHOOD with a nose for news, people who like to write and circumcision, don’t keep kosher and support BerCORRESPONDENT in the subject line. enjoy sharing what’s happening in their local Jewish nie Sanders.

But the point of the festival isn’t one of warfare against theTHE lessPARENT observant.

Maccabees RE YOU A COLLEGE STUDENT RE YOU OF AThe STUDENT weren’t so much religious fundamentalists as O YOU KNOW A COLLEGE STUDENT WHOwho WANTS TOopposed EARN to having THIS SUMMER people were their faith much more), so your earning potential is outstanding.

The Jewish Star's advertising sales and marketing eradicated. In that sense, Lucas’s mischaracterrepresentatives help businesses and organizations These positions (both full- and part-time, with the ization of their struggle in terms of contemporeach Jewish communities on Long Island. posisbility of a flex schedule) offer competitive comrary American politics is ironic, since what the The Jewish Star offers its clients an exceptionally broad pensation including base salary, commission and bonus Jews fighting the Greeks wanted was to be left opportunities, paid holidays, time off, medical and 401(k). range of useful products (including both religious and alone to worship in freedom. secular publications, digital and email marketing, direct Send resume and cover letter. Put AD SALES in the mail, commercial printing, advertising novelties and Chanukah is an apt holiday for assimilated subject line.

The New York Press Association Foundation is sponsoring a paid Jews (those Pew labeled “Jews of no religion”) summer internship at this newspaper for a qualified journalism liberal student. because it remembers a profoundly struggle for the right to preserve their culture against Send all job inquiries to: JewishStarJobs@gmail.com the majoritarian impulse.

Any student currently enrolled in a recognized journalism program Lucasformay think that is eligible to compete an internship withthe a Hellenizers were defending diversity, but they too narrownet $2,500 stipend provided

by NYPA. Applicants mustwere attend to tolerate thoseyear. who think or worship college duringminded the 2018-2019 academic differently. hanukah is about the struggle of Jews, both Hurry! Application deadline is March 1, 2018. then and now, to refuse to bow down to the College students: Apply for $2,600 stipend idols of popular culture. The miracle is not The New York Press Association Foundation is academic year. To apply for merely the one about the oil lasting eight days, sponsoring a number of paid summer internships this paid internship, complete New York Press Association available online at:tribe but Application the ability offorms a small ethno-religious at New York newspapers for qualified journalism the application that can be to preserve the flame of Jewish civilization and students. Any student currently enrolled in a recognized found at bit.ly/2Rx3U2X .com them. resist the www. forcesnynewspapers that sought to eradicate journalism program is eligible to compete for an internship with a net $2,600 stipend provided by NYPA. Deadline: Hellenism threatened to wipe out a moral vision Applicants must attend college during the 2018–19 March 1, 2019 F O U N DAT I O N of the world rooted in the Torah, as well as the click on Member Services autonomy of a small people. click on Internships Had the Hellenizers, for whom Lucas says he will say a prayer, prevailed, it would not have been a triumph for individual freedom, but one in which the right to faith or of a small group to defend their own culture and identify would have been extinguished.

If you can’t sympathize with that cause, then don’t blame Judaism, Chanukah or a foolish desire, as Lucas puts it, to “beat Santa.”

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

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The other is that many of the otherwise non-observant Jews who embrace it — either on its own or as part of a “Chrismukkah” conflation of the winter season holidays — know little or nothing about the history of the festival.

But he’s wrong to assert, even obliquely, that it is hypocritical for non-Orthodox or predominantly secular Jews to join in the Chanukah fun. ucas is right that Chanukah is more important to American Jews than other, more important religious observances. A survey published by the Jewish Peo-

A Times column misunderstands the nature of the conflict the holiday commemorates.

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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HANUKKAH CONGRESSMAN CONGRESSMAN

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Continued from page 23 pedagogic or educational syllabi, or addressed by any mainstream Jewish or pro-Israel organizations.

Before we ask the world to recognize and address their moral, legal and historic rights, we should inform ourselves about the history of the communities, as well as their cleansing and extinction during the 20th century. or many around the world, Jewish history and culture is largely defined by the Jews of Eastern and Central Europe.

Still, the Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa bestowed great scholarship, cultural and economic successes on many occasions without parallel anywhere in the world.

It is an uphill battle, and one our opponents do not want to become widely known.

It flips on its head all standard notions about the conflict, including conquest, oppression and indigeneity. I know of an academic who tried to hold a purely historical conference on the history of the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, and was turned away by dozens of American universities, even Jewish-studies departments, because the subject matter was considered “too controversial.”

Digest that for a moment: the 2,000- to 3,000-year history of Jewish communities — their achievements, their successes, their suffering.

We should not allow the suffocation and extinction of these historic communities to be erased from the pages of history. We should share their stories and keep their memories alive, especially their destruction, which was ignored around the world.

Ashley Perry-Perez is Director General of the Knesset Caucus for the Reconnection with the Descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Communities.

THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

Continued from page 23 moderate Arabs allied with the United States.

America has always been in the Middle East for its own reasons, not merely those of Israel.

Unfortunately, President Barack Obama began a process of US withdrawal from the Middle East with his bugout from Iraq, plans to abandon Afghanistan and punting of responsibility for containing the human-rights catastrophe in Syria to Russia. Trump doesn’t have much appetite for completely reversing that policy, but he is sanguine enough about the Iranian threat to check his instincts, in addition to those of his supporters who tell him to follow Obama’s lead and get out. topping Iran is vital, but as much as the pro-Israel community is wary about an American president saying the United States must stay in the Middle East, we shouldn’t be shocked by or opposed to Trump’s pledge not to abandon Israel.

Critics of both Obama and Trump have rightly worried that their desire to withdraw from the Middle East will leave Israel on its own in a region where Russia is now the most powerful actor.

But if Trump knows that the United States must stay there not only for oil, but to keep faith with its ally, that warrants celebration rather than fear of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Saying so tells us that for all of his cynicism and ignorance, Trump may realize that this alliance is based on common values that supersede transactional politics.

Jew-haters will always blame Israel for whatever the United States does in the Middle East. But if Trump considers Israel to be at least, if not more, important than Saudi oil, he may have a better appreciation of the principles that are the heart of the US-Israel alliance than even his supporters may have guessed.

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

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Tunnels…

Continued from page 1 women and children.” He added that “Lebanon bears a heavy responsibility for allowing such acts terror on its territory.”

“The aim of Hezbollah has been to dig tunnels into our territory,” the prime miniser said.

“It is part of an effort with a breadth and depth that we have not seen before.”

Residents of the pastoral Israeli border town of Metula told Israeli media that they had been hearing digging noises for years and had reported their suspiciouns to the military. Wire services reported on Tuesday that Israeli bulldozers and military vehicles were seen operating in the Metula area.

Netanyahu showed reporters a video of the first tunnel that was destroyed on Tuesday, which originated in a private home in Lebanon and stretched 40 yards into Israel. The video shows Hezbollah operatives in the tunnel, walking underground across the border, known as the Blue Line, to inspect a small camera snaked into the tunnel from the Israeli side. The men run back through the tunnel as explosives in the camera go off.

The 6-by-6-foot 650-foot long tunnel included a ventilation system, electrical wiring and communication lines. It was dug from under a house in the village of Kafr Kila and crossed into Metulla.

“This is just one more example of how Hezbollah is committing a double war crime,” Netanyahu said. “They target civilians while hiding behind civilians.”

He said that “this must be condemned loudly and clearly by all nations that care about peace, freedom and human dignity.”

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said at the news conference that the operation, dubbed Northern Shield, will last several weeks. He said that Israeli civilians should go about their daily

routines and even visit the north, signalling that the Jewish state was not expecting an immediate response from Hezbollah.

Eisenkot said the operation was approved early last month and launched Monday night before the tunnels were operational and “became an immediate and direct threat to northern communities and army bases.”

“I have a message for the people of Lebanon: Hezbollah is putting your lives in danger.

They are sacrificing your well-being to serve the aggressive purposes of Iran,” Netanyahu said. “Israel holds the Lebanese government accountable for all terror activity emanating from Lebanon against Israel.”

An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, called Hezbollah’s activities “a flagrant and blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty” and of United National resolutions.

Hezbollah has been developing an offensive plan against Israel that would “shift the battleground into Israel,” Conricus said, adding that Israel has been evaluating the prospect of underground Hezbollah tunnels since 2013 and searching for them for more than two years. He did not explain why the operation was launched this week.

“Capturing parts of the Galilee by Hezbollah is a concrete threat,” Netanyahu said. “It is also part of a regional and global terror effort led by Iran.”

“It is an unacceptable act of wanton aggression,” he said.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton in a statement released late Monday night said that the United States “strongly supports Israel’s efforts to defend its sovereignty, and we call on Hezbollah to stop its tunneling into Israel and to refrain from escalation and violence.”

“More broadly,” he said, “we call on Iran and all of its agents to stop their regional aggression and provocation, which pose an unacceptable threat to Israeli and regional security.”

Netanyahu said that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agreed during their meeting in Brussels on Monday to levy sanctions against Hezbollah.

Continued from page 1 chessed organizations, took place on Tuesday at the Young Israel of Oceanside.

Dr. Richie (Tzvfi Nochum) Friedman Before moving to the Five Towns from Manhattan, Friedman had been medical director of Chevra Hatzalah for New York City, Monsey and the Catskills, was a founding member more than three decades ago of Hatzolah of the West Side, and was later a member of the East Side Hatzolah.

He was struck by a 2016 BMW at 5:39 pm on Saturday as he was walking north in the roadway on Washington Avenue between Donmoor Road and Broadway in Lawrence, Nassau County police said.

He suffered a traumatic head injury and was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. They added that the driver, a 44-year-old man, had remained at the scene and was not injured, and that an investigation was ongoing.

“A void has been left in the Five Towns and us first responders have lost a valued, loving member of our family,” Town of Hempstead Councilman Anthony D’Esposito said on Twitter. “He will remain in my prayers.”

Friedman is survived by his wife Cheryl Friedman, his eight children — Shoshana, Elana, Adina, Tzippora, Shmuel Aryeh, Mikey, Devorah and Yosef Shlomo — and his father Ira Friedman.

During his tenure with Chevra Hatzalah, Friedman “served as mentor and guide to thousands of EMTs and paramedics,” the organization said in a statement. “He worked tirelessly to ensure that our responders were always at the forefront of emergency medicine best practices. … [He] was pivotal in crafting politics and procedures followed by Hatzalah, as well as several other emergency medical agencies, related to equipment, med-

Continued from page 22 regard for international law. What happened to #FactsFirst?”

The left-wing political website Slate wrote, “Hill’s firing is rash at best and a cowardly, dangerous precedent at worst. It’s disturbing not just as a capitulation to disingenuous critics but also because it’s another step toward recasting all speech about Israel’s brutality as anti-Semitism — or, in this case, a call for ‘Jewish genocide.’”

The Washington Post headline read, “Marc Lamont Hill fired after comments criticizing Israel.”

I expected these reactions. In 2010, I took the video of Helen Thomas that David Nessenoff, later editor of The Jewish Star, couldn’t get the media to cover, and made it go viral by publishing it on my Big Journalism website, from which it was picked up by the Drudge Report.

Media coverage claimed Thomas was pushed out of her job because she criticized Israel, which is a lie. The career-ending comment was telling

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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Continued from page 22 and challenging lies and distortions about Jews (or code words for Jews, like “Zionists”) in social and mainstream media, often in coalition with other minority community partners.

“Most of these containment elements are dissipating,” Foxman told me. “Trump broke taboos, coalitions are less effective — it’s more ‘me first’ these days — and media and journalism have been undermined.”

Because of that process, what was “latent” when the E.U. published its 2003 report has, in 2018, attained “greater license,” said Foxman.

If that remains the case over the next few

ications, and protocols used by our responders.”

Chevra Hatzalah concluded that “as it says in the Talmud, ‘Anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.’ Through his tireless dedication and devotion to saving lives, Dr. Friedman has truly saved an entire world, and his impact will be felt for many years to come.”

Rabbi Moshe Gottesman The longtime dean of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, Rabbi Gottesman remained active with the school in the years since his retirement. He was also the director of tours for Camp Sdei Chemed International for 35 years, was head of Bikur Cholim in South Nassau, active in early Achiezer initiatives, fought to establish the Oceanside mikvah, and helped run the Pearl Greene Sunday Morning Smile Program for special needs children in the West Hempstead area.

“Throughout the years, Rabbi Gottesman has served as inspirational role model, exemplifying the highest ideals, and bearing the torch of Torah on Long Island,” HANC said in a statement.

“Through his vision, relentless passion and endless hard work, the lives of thouands of young Jewish students have been forever enriched.”

He is survived by his wife Sondra Gottesman; his children Malka Gottesman Weldler, Shulamit Gottesman Rubin, Shlomo Gottesman, Yussie Gottesman, and Ariella Gottesman Kelman; and grandchildren Shayna Gottesman Ungar, Aliza Gottesman Fuld, Talia Gottesman Stone, and Marnie Gottesman.

His kevurah was to take place in the Eretz Hachaim Cemetery in Har Tuv near Beit Shemesh, on Wednesday. Shiva began on Tuesday at the Regency, 260 Central Ave., Apt 105, Lawrence, with aveilim returning from Israel sitting in Lawrence starting on Thursday morning. Shivah ends after Shacharit on Monday, Dec. 10.

Baruch dayan ha emes.

the Jews to “Get the hell out of Palestine” and to “Go back home to Germany and Poland,” an apparent reference to the Holocaust.

Thomas’ statement is still being described as criticizing Israel. Last year Charles Lewis former investigative producer for ABC News and the CBS’s 60 Minutes created a website to honor “independent” journalists. One of its initial honorees was Ms. Thomas. In their printed chronology of her career, the site wrote, “After making controversial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Thomas retires from Hearst Newspapers.”

Sadly, history will report that CNN fired Hill for making controversial comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of stating the real reason: anti-Semitism.

Instead of firing Hill, CNN may have done better by exposing him. They should have let Jake Tapper, a proud Jew and vocal critic of antiSemitism, interview him about his statement. A “take no prisoners” interviewer who doesn’t let his guests get away with lies could have exposed Hill’s history of anti-Semitism and make him answer questions that would show Hill’s UN remark for what it was: anti-Semitic hate speech.

years — and there is little sign of a reversal coming — then the percentage of people who perceive anti-Semitism to be a social ill will diminish as the percentage of those who are “neutral” towards it, or even embracing of aspects of it, goes up.

Seven decades after the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel, the anti-Semitism that has been shaped since the turn of this century — nearly all of it recycled from previous manifestations of Jew-hatred — is at a new height of confidence, established on both left and right, and encountered less and less on the margins of both.

Yet a slim majority of Europeans (and a great majority of Americans) still take a dim view of antiSemitism and understand where it can lead. If this silent majority is encouraged to speak out boldly and loudly, then this latest battle can be won.

S Bu ave y Ti O m nl e in , e

Come Play with Us!

THE JEWISH STAR December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779

The JEWISH STAR CAlendar of Events

27

Send your events to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com Deadline noon Friday • Compiled by Rachel Langer

Thursday December 6

JEP Magic: Community event for families and neighborhood friends of JEP/Nageela. Extreme magic by Eric Wilzig; music by Azamra Entertainment. JEP/Nageela alumni, campers, staff and volunteers attend free. 7 pm. 305 Cedarhurst Ave, Cedarhurst. 516-374-1528 ext. 240.

Light Up the Night: Young Friends of the Museum of Jewish Heritage host their annual Chanukah celebration for ages 21 to 39. Dancing, open bar, food, and silent auction. Proceeds benefit New York’s Holocaust Curriculum. 8 pm to 12 am. 36 Battery Place, Manhattan. $100 per person, $180 per couple. MJHNYC.org/gala2018.

Friday December 7

Chanukah Fun Day: Chabad of Hewlett with a full-day Chanukah party. Build a dreidel robot, make your own candles, and more. 8:30 am-2:30 pm. 44 Everit Ave, Hewlett. $30 per child; space is limited. RSVP at JewishHewlett.com/chanukahfun.

Saturday December 8

Kosher Komedy: A fun-filled evening, from glatt-kosher gourmet dinner to hilarious standup show. 8 pm. 2359 Flatbush Ave. 718-338-1110.

South Shore Learning: A Motzei Shabbos learning program featuring Rabbi Maimon Elbaz Torah Show, cash prizes and a grand raffle. 6:30 to 7:45 pm. 1170 William St, Hewlett.

Sunday December 9

Chanukah Telethon: Emceed by Rabbi Anchelle Perl. Starring 8th Day, cantor Avi Albrecht, and the Dancing Rabbis. Co-hosted by Mickey B, Ken Grimball, Jill Nicolini, Jay Oliver, Kive Strickoff. Broadcast live on ChanukahTelethon.com.

Book Mini Tour: The All-of-a-Kind Family returns with a special new Chanukah book. Join the author and illustrator for a mini tour of the Bialystoker Synagogue, readings, Q & A, and book signing. 2 pm. 7-11 Willett Street/ Bialystoker Place, Manhattan. $25 (includes hardcover book and sufganiyot). RSVP at NYCjewishtours.org by Nov 28 Chanukah Concerts: Performances by Nissim Black, Six13, comedian Mendy Pellin, Shea Rubenstein and more, to benefit adults with cancer through Aid L’Shalom. 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm.

1029 Brighton Beach Ave, Brooklyn. 718-2084599.

Monday December 10

Mindset of a Maccabee: Ohel Sara Amen Group in memory of Sarit Marton a”h presents a Zos Chanukah morning program. Birchos Hashachar 8:15, Hallel 9:00, address by Mrs. Chani

Juravel 9:15. 2 Forest Lane, Lawrence. 718-3277040.

Chanukah Circus: Join Chazaq for a last day of Chanukah celebration, featuring Big Apple Circus, Uncle Moishy, Simcha Leiner and more! Emceed by Nachum Segal. Shows at 12 pm and at 3 pm. JewishTickets.com. $25 and up.

Tuesday December 11

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.

Wednesday December 12

Women’s Shiur: Chazaq & Shaare Emunah proudly present international Speaker and Author Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller “On Being A Parent.”

Women only; refreshments will be served. 8 pm.

539 Oakland Ave, Cedarhurst. Free admission.

Thursday December 13

Family Fun Every Day

Social Thinking Workshop: Parents, teachers and therapists are invited to learn social skills strategies for concrete thinkers, presented

by Hands On Approach. 8:15 am to 3:45 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. 212-664-9101. $250 per person.

Kulanu Chai Dinner: Celebrating 18 years of Kulanu, honoring volunteers Michelle Sulzberger and Eta Bienenstock, and Amudei Chesed Barbara & David Goldenberg. Comedic entertainment

by Steven Scott. 7:30 pm. 775 Branch Blvd, Cedarhurst.

Tuesday December 18 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.

Friday December 21

Friday Night Oneg: All men are invited to a Friday night oneg at the home of Rabbi Shay Schachter. 7:30 pm. 430 Forest Avenue, Woodmere. 516-295-0950.

Sunday January 6, 2019 HASC Concert: A Time for Music 32 at Lincoln Center. HASCconcert.com.

#CommUnity: Achiezer holds its annual gala dinner at the Sands Atlantic Beach, honoring Yossy & Miriam Lea Ungar, Dr. Martin Kessler, Dr. Ari Hoschander, Michael H. Goldberg, and Shalom & Leah Jaroslawicz. 1395 Beech St, Atlantic Beach. Dinner@Achiezer.org.

Yeshiva Winter Break 2019 “DREAMS DOMINICUS LA ROMANA”

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Highlighted Workshop Free with museum admission

Messy Afternoons Saturdays and Sundays from 3:30–5 p.m.

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LICM programs are made possible with funding from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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December 7, 2018 • 29 Kislev, 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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