The Jewish Star

The JEWISH Vayechi • Dec. 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 • Torah columns pages 18–19 • Luach page 18 • Vol 17, No 49

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Achiezer gala to honor Hatzalah doc The Jewish Star CommUnity The Achiezer Gala will be dedicated to the memory of Dr. Richie Friedman a”h, a leader in the regional Hatzalah system for more than three decades, Achiezer announced this week. Friedman (pictured) was niftar after being hit by an automobile as he walked home from shul

in Lawrence on motzei Shabbat, Dec. 1.

“It is our fervent tefilah and hope that the chesed, achdus and kindness” that emanates from Achiezer’s event — on Sunday evening, Jan. 6, at The Sands Atlantic Beach — “will be a small measure of comfort to the entire Friedman family and the community at large, as well as an aliyah for his

neshama,” Achiezer said.

Friedman, medical officer of Chevra Hatzalah for New York City, was described as a “beloved friend of and senior adviser to Achiezer.”

See centerspread for details about CommUnity The Achiezer Gala, including a list of honorees.

For reservations, visit Achiezer.org/Dinner

Don’t trust the quiet Supporters of Hamas participate in a violent rally marking the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Gaza-ruling terror organization, in the Judea-Samaria city of Nablus, on Dec. 14. Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90

Analysis by Yaakov Lappin, JNS The recent succession of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria is a painful reminder of a bigger truth, and that is that the quiet that prevailed until recently was little more than an illusion.

The motivation of terrorists — whether backed by an organized armed faction or acting on their own — to attack Israelis remains high, and the relative quiet was not for their lack of trying.

The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet intelligence service have thwarted a staggering number of attacks this year alone. A look at official figures confirms the scale of the threat and highlights

just how deceptive the so-called quiet really was.

According to Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman, no fewer than 480 organized terror attempts based in the West Bank have been attempted (and prevented) this year. Those murder plots included 280 planned shootings, 76 attempted bombings, six suicide bombings and seven kidnappings. The intended Israeli targets were on both sides of the Green Line.

The number of unorganized attackers stopped in 2018 is approximately 400, and their arrest was made possible in part by technological breakthroughs in the collection and analysis of big data.

New technology in the service of national security See Terror on page 17

Our schools ace the publics in secular studies

By Jeffrey Bessen, Nassau Herald Under rules set in November by state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, New York’s private schools, including its Jewish day schools, are required to offer 36 hours of instruction in English, math, science and social studies each week. Failure to do so can result in the loss of state funding for textbooks, transportation and other items.

Around 115,000 children attend Jewish schools across the state, officials said. There have been issues with just a few of those institutions providing little or no instruction in secular subjects such. In April, state legislation moved oversight of Jewish day schools to the state Education Department from local education officials.

The Jewish Press obtained Regents test scores through a Freedom of Information Law request, and the numbers show that yeshiva students in New York, including the Five Towns, are outperforming their peers in public schools.

“Our guidance recognizes that parents have a right to choose nonpublic school for their child,” Elia

said. “We want to ensure that all students receive the education they are entitled to under state education law no matter which school they attend.”

If a school is not in compliance, government money can be withheld, and students may have to attend another school or be declared truant.

Initial reviews are expected to be completed by Dec. 15, 2021. School district officials are required to reevaluate the private schools every five years.

Midreshet Shalhevet High School, in North Woodmere, and Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, in Hewlett Bay Park, have average Regents exam scores of 90.2 and 86.9, respectively, while public schools average just 61.8. Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway High School students scored 12 percentage points higher than their public-school counterparts. Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence was in the top 20 of the highest scoring schools.

Rabbi Zev Friedman, dean at Rambam Mesivta and head of school at Midreshet Shalhevet, said he believes private school students are motivated to excel and have parents who pro-

vide strong support systems at home.

“The interesting thing is that the yeshivas are able to excel on the state, Advanced Placement and SAT exams despite the fact that they have Jewish studies classes in the morning and secular classes in the afternoon,” Rabbi Friedman said.

“If you do the math, you’ll see

that yeshivas are able to produce this course on less than 36 hours of college preparatory studies a week.”

Students at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov, in Lawrence, and the Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School, in Woodmere, averaged 83.2 and 82.1 in Regents exams ahead of the Nassau County public school average of 77.5,

Students at HAFTR and other Jewish schools in the Five Towns are doing measurably better than public-school students on state Regents exams.

Christina Daly

and Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island, in Inwood, showed similar results.

Dr. Hillel Broder, general studies principal at Davis Renov Stahler, which, like Stella K. Abraham is part of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach system, said that he had “full confidence in the excellence of achievement in general studies throughout the HALB system, and in the HALB high schools in particular.”

Rabbi Friedman said he hoped the motivation for the new guidelines was to benefit all students, but he thought the 36 hour requirement would limit some of the unique programs private schools offer. If the new rules are meant to ensure educational excellence, he added, then the focus should be on the reason or reasons that public-school students are scoring below their private-school peers.

“If private schools taught more math, science, English and social studies than they already do,” Rabbi Friedman said, “the gap between the scores between public and private schools would further increase, doing nothing to benefit the hundreds of thousands in public schools that should have the opportunity of a better education.”

Why is Jewish media fighting a BDS monitor?

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Edwin black

Jewish Star contributor

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t 8 am on a recent Thursday morning, a paper cup of coffee was nudged near an open laptop, beginning a twelve-hour day of mind-numbing monitoring by a Canary Mission (CM) staffer at one of the organization’s several locations. In endless social media searches, refreshes, clicks, video reviews, forwards and saves, the staffer will capture the worst of white nationalist, anti-Semitic, or anti-Israel agitation erupting across America’s campuses.

BDS advocates often spew venomous hate speech on the Internet, which Canary Mission captures and re-publishes. For example, the tweet by a Chicago activist with Students for Justice in Palestine who tweeted: “Why did Hitler commit suicide? … He saw the gas bill.” Or the UCLA protestor whose Twitter account was captured with this remark: “[Man,] what’s with all this peaceful approaches!?? … I want terrorism and another intifada.” The same student reportedly added a photo close-up of a gun and bullets.

After the massacre at Pittsburgh, calls went out to monitor and report hate speech, since acts of violence are often preceded by hate speech.

Canary Mission tracks social media and videos, capturing anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic expressions, triangulating them into individual profiles that expose and create permanent records of the words and images BDS and SJP leaders use.

The profiles are almost always incontestable — CM links to actual videos, tweets and other open documentation. The intent is to create a negative incentive, or at least a consequence, for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate speech.

anary Mission began in 2015 with just 50 profiles. By December 2018, about 2500 profiles had been listed. CM has received about 80 requests for removal; very few have been made.

“Even small errors are exceptionally rare due to our strict internal protocols,” one staffer said. “On the handful of occasions that we found an error, we made an immediate correction.”

Canary Mission has proven itself an effective effort against BDS and hate speech. A CM program called “Ex-Canary” features remorseful hate speech purveyors. Thirteen individuals formerly featured “have since rejected the latent anti-Semitism prevalent among anti-Israel organizations and activists,” a staffer explained. “These individuals have displayed the intellectual honesty to acknowledge the problem of anti-Semitism within anti-Israel organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. They have shown moral courage to recognize their earlier mistakes.” recent article in the pro-BDS publication The Intercept was headlined: “It’s Killing the Student Movement: Canary Mission’s Blacklist of Pro-Palestine Activists Is Taking a Toll.” The article cited BDS activists who have shut down their social media, fearing a Canary Mission profile.

The Intercept reported, “A survey of over 60 people profiled on Canary Mission, conducted by the group Against Canary Mission, found that 43 percent of respondents said they toned down their activism because of the blacklist, while 42 percent said they suffered acute anxiety from being placed on the website.”

Ironically, at a time when its monitoring is most needed, Canary Mission is fighting a public relations war in the media.

To me, it’s confusing. Canary Mission is doing the very same thing that the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and many other newspapers asked me to do in 2013, when I documented the intersection of NGOs and hate speech at a UN conference in Durban. That international hate fest was replete with Jewish caricatures, Nazi emblems and Hitler adulation, in large part funded by the Ford Foundation. As a consequence, the Ford Foundation revamped its funding.

Early twentieth-century media defenders of Jewish rights, such as Forverts, Der Tog, and the Jewish Daily Bulletin laid the groundwork with their fearless coverage of both Jewhaters and those in the Jewish community who failed to stand up to them.

Despite generations of precedent, a confusing picture of Canary Mission now exists in the Jewish and larger media. The admittedly pressshy organization is often called “shadowy.” But when it first emerged in late 2015, it took only 34 minutes for me to get an interview for a syndicated publication, and eventually a photograph taken in their office. My first request was only three words: “contact me back.”

Since then, I have monitored the group, especially as ominous news stories appeared in the Jewish media. Canary Mission replies at the same speed as most other Jewish organizations, and, like them, Canary Mission is selective in its media contacts. For this article, more than two dozen routine written and verbal exchanges transpired — as would be routine for any Jewish organization.

Canary Mission is engaged in a public relations war.

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Similarly confusing is a common assertion that Canary Mission’s tactics violate core “Jewish values.” One typical article cited a list of student groups complaining the tactics are “antithetical to our democratic and Jewish values” and “morally reprehensible.” o check that, I asked the Coalition of Jewish Values, which represents a significant number of rabbis. CJV President Pesach Lerner responded, “Everything Canary Mission reports is public information, based upon statements at demonstrations and in social media. So on the contrary, it is a mitzvah to protect the reputations, safety and lives of innocent Israeli Jews against those who have, in their public statements and actions, embraced anti-Semitic boycotts and demonization.”

Canary Mission is funded through tax-deductible entities. The media campaign to undermine it also includes seeking out CM’s donors, trying to stigmatize those who financially support the documenting of hate speech.

It reminds me of the acrimonious divisions in the American Jewish community that arose during the Hitler regime. Today, historians recognize that such defense-minded entities as The Jewish War Veterans, the American Jewish Congress, Forverts and the Jewish Daily Bulletin stood up for Jewish rights. The silent leaders of B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish Committee have been skewered in the lens of history for their lack of courage in the face of Nazi oppression, and for attacking or demonizing other leaders who did dare to speak up.

A generation from now, when the chronicle of our era is written, how will historians judge those who acted to defend against anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bigotry — and those who did all they could to frustrate those efforts?

Edwin Black is the author of IBM and the Holocaust, The Transfer Agreement, Financing the Flames, and the Funding Hate series.

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THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

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Reservists redeploy to fight Israel’s campus foes

By Jackson Richman, JNS As American university campuses continue to be an active battlefront in the fight for Israel, well-trained reinforcements can be useful, even necessary. That’s where Reservists on Duty (RoD) comes in.

Established in 2015 by reserve soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces, the group combats anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity on college campuses in the United States by deploying reservists living in the United States to counter the anti-Israel narrative from other groups.

RoD is a nonprofit organization that has no formal or informal connection to the IDF. It is funded by private donors.

“It is a duty for us to fight for Israel — not only at home, but also abroad in the civilian arena — while not being in the army,” said Amit Deri, the group’s CEO. RoD’s members can effectively communicate the experiences of living in Israeli culture and serving in the military.

Simultaneously, RoD also has an initiative called the Minorities Group, comprised of Arabs, Druze, Muslims, Bedouins, Christians and even some Palestinians. Some come in from Israel and some live in America, making it easier for them to visit campuses on a moment’s notice.

Presentations on campus usually consist of four diverse panelists per event. These minority reserve soldiers educate students about how to debunk accusations against the Jewish state.

Deri touted the Minorities Group as “the most effective” component of RoD. “We’ve been flooded [with] requests from all over the country to invite them to speak,” said Deri. “When Israeli Jews speak on campus, it’s one thing, but when an Arab citizen of Israel [comes] to speak positively about the State of Israel, the Jewish state of Israel … it’s another thing.”

Speaking to the success of the initiative, Deri explained that “on college campuses and communities, we cannot meet the demand. We don’t

Reservists on Duty at the University of Minnesota.

have enough resources” to cover all the invitations. “We don’t have enough manpower.”

He noted that an Arab-Israeli invited to speak on campus is “more powerful and more authentic for people to hear what he thinks of Israel.” Sending them gives students and others an alternative perspective on the Jewish state and the Mideast.

“Not only that, it gives a platform for minorities to share and tell about their lives and also gives a different prospective then the usual pro-Israeli prospective,” Jonathan Elkhoury, the coordinator for the Minorities Group, told JNS. “Being on campuses in the States is really important for us because these are the future of the free world, and they have been given a lot of false information about the State of Israel, especially when it comes to minorities.”

Elkhoury said his group has visited almost 70 campuses in the United States over the past year.

He also mentioned that the initiative includes non-Jewish Israelis who contributed national service, instead of serving in the military.

“I did national service for two years in a hospital in Haifa,” Elkhoury said. Of his colleagues, he said, “Nizar Jarayse served in the military, Lorena Khateeb did national service, Raya Othman did national service, Youseph

Haddad did military service.”

“Everyone can find a place at Reservists on Duty because what combines us together is us being Israelis who want to defend their country’s name and protect it, as it does for them,” he said.

‘We have faced interruptions, those who tried to shut us down’ In May 2017, 50 members of the SJP chapter at University of California, Irvine, disrupted an event featuring RoD Jewish, Christian and Muslim panelists (UC Irvine sanctioned SJP later that year).

“UC Irvine was the most powerful hatred that we received from the Students for Justice in Palestine. That is when we made the decision to create this group and give it a unique platform,” said Elkhoury. “For me, as an Israeli Christian, it was really shocking to hear so many lies about our life in Israel from students who have never even visited Israel.”

“Being on campuses in the States is really important for us because they have been given a lot of false information about the State of Israel, especially when it comes to minorities.”

“We had to have police escort to go out of campus, and we faced calls to go back to the

gas chambers and Europe,” he continued. “We have faced interruptions and those who tried to shut us down on many campuses. Yet we had amazing events along our journey. In particular, [University of California in] Santa Monica and [University of California in] Santa Barbara were really powerful.”

He added, “It’s not easy; we face disruptions in panels, we sometimes face hatred and calls to hurt us. In the Arabic community in Israel, we will not be silenced from sharing our truth about the democratic and Jewish state: Israel.”

Pro-Israel activists have been impressed with the delegations of soldiers, whose personal experiences often resonate more soundly than the advocacy work of other pro-Israel campus organizations.

Last year, the local chapter of the campus organization Students Supporting Israel hosted Reservists on Duty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has a sizable enrollment of Jewish students.

“The event was the first Israel event I went to on campus and what really got me involved in Israel advocacy on campus,” Melech Lapson, a junior and president of the SSI chapter at Illinois, told JNS. “There were two speakers, a man and woman who were reservists. They spoke of their experiences as soldiers and the difficult decisions they had to make and live with.”

Although there were no interruptions, SJP members asked questions at the end.

“The soldiers were very sharp and respectful, but also firmly answered all their questions,” Lapson said. “They clarified when they were unaware of a certain event and were intellectually honest. There were several memorable moments where there would be a tirade of questions/accusations thrown at the soldiers, and they would snap back with a quick response based on their personal experiences, leaving the questioners stunned.”

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80 — and each had their own story to tell.”

Prior to a meeting with one veteran, Zion called his home to arrange the event and began explaining to the man’s wife that the military would be visiting.

“He grabbed the phone and said, ‘Listen, I lost my war citations, and I very much wanted to pass them down to my grandchildren.’ Now, he could have something to give them,” said Zion.

“He remembers his personal military number. It all came back to him.”

The man, who suffered shellshock from his experiences in the War of Independence, had not shared any of his stories with his grandchildren until then. His grandchildren were with him during Zion’s visit and for the first time heard about his participation in the war.

“It was the first time he talked about it with them,” said Zion.

That veteran still calls Zion once a week since their encounter to hear what soldiers say about the mutual experience and his memories specifically.

Zion’s unit, the Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Battalion, doubles up as both a combat force that conducts security missions in the West Bank and on borders, and as a firstresponder unit at wreckage zones, where they are trained to deal with missile strikes or natural disasters.

Hearing such stories from her own grandparents was one of the reasons she was motivated to become a combat soldier in the first place, related Zion. “It’s something that is, in my opinion, very important.”

In Beersheva, a decade makes a difference

By Megan E. Turner Ten years ago, the idea that leading corporations and tech companies would actively grow business opportunities in the Negev Desert would have sounded like a fantasy. No longer.

In November, for the second year in a row, more than 40 employment organizations and 180 human resources teams came together for the Negev Human Resources Conference in Beersheva, Israel. The conference was a medium to facilitate and strengthen connections between organizations that promote employment in the Negev and human-resource managers, business organizations, industries and leading employers.

Organized and sponsored by the Lauder Employment Center, Jewish National Fund-USA (JNF-USA), Eretz-Ir, the Manufacturers Association of Israel and Menora Insurance Group, the YES Planet Be’er Sheva Cineplex buzzed with people networking to make solid, quality job placements happen in Israel’s southern region.

“Deep, unique connections like these happen only here in the Negev,” Pnina Abutbul, director of Employer Relations at Eretz-Ir, told the crowd.

The conference focused on employment management in a multigenerational era, and encouraged discussion of cross-cultural and cross-sector employment opportunities and challenges.

Russell Robinson, CEO of JNF-USA, addressed participants, joined by Bruce K. Gould of Orlando, FL, its president-elect. For Robinson, “It’s unbelievable … that the discussion today is about how to employ different generations into the employment sector [in the Negev]. We started working in Beersheva 20 years ago, and this conference could never have happened then.”

He pointed to the growth and development

University: Making an Impact

in the region, which is encouraging younger generations to stay, giving stability to the older generations and increasing quality of life.

One employment organization present was Beersheva’s Olim Department, which focuses on new immigrants to Israel. Elena Linkovsky, employment director, explained, “We provide support in all areas of life for new immigrants choosing to settle in Beersheva. They are a part of the rich human capital which contributes to the growth of the region, and we want them to stay and develop roots here.”

One challenge for immigrants is finding work that allows them to acclimate and use their international perspective and skills set.

“Events of this kind create an encounter between the two sides of the employment equation — the job-seekers and the employers,” said Linkovsky. “The discourse created here … makes it possible to bring about change and to affect the entire employment world of the Negev. It is helping us greatly improve the quality of life for those we serve,” she said.

Ibrahim Krinawi, director of professional internships at Ri’an Employment Centers, noted, “It’s so important for me to be here and look for new partners ... I have a lot of work waiting for me as soon as we are done.”

That’s because the real work begins after the conference ends, with employment organizations and potential employers following up.

With the help of organizations like Jewish National Fund-USA and Eretz-Ir, the explosion of Israel’s newest and most innovative tech sectors in the Negev are giving the next generation the chance to be a part of a social revolution that will shape Israel’s economy for years to come.

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By Yaakov Lappin, JNS Israel’s first soldiers from the 1948 War of Independence are passing on their memories to a new generation of combat officers.

During a meeting with Leah Feldman, a signals operator in 1948, Capt. Ayelet Zion, a 25-year-old Israel Defense Force Company Commander in the Home Front Command Search and Rescue Battalion, heard about the bloody battle to clear the road from the coastal plain to Jerusalem.

“She recalled a battle that left many casualties and many in the field who could not be evacuated,” said Zion. After the battle, members of the battalion gathered together, and Leah described “a silence.”

“No one talked about who made it and who did not,” she said. “They did not even have time to go to the funerals. Instead, they headed out to their next missions. They did not have the time to deal with the pain.”

Feldman did say, however, that the soldiers who survived those difficult hours were “thinking about Jerusalem.”

“That isn’t something that necessarily burns in the minds of modern soldiers. Hearing that helps us understand the wider picture,” she explained. Remembering the historical importance of Jerusalem “is something we want to continue in our generation.”

During the meetings, the officers presented the veterans with a certificate and a pin to appreciate their service 70 years ago.

“Every story is moving,” Zion continued. “I met two other veterans — one 95, and a second,

THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

Veterans of Israel’s first war share stories of victory and pain

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Rav Chanina Herzberg zt”l: An Icon of Chinuch

By Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky Yeshiva of South Shore, together with the Five Towns and Far Rockaway community and the Torah World, suffered a tremendous loss with the petirah of Rav Chanina Herzberg, the yeshiva menahel for nearly forty years, Rabbi Herzberg was a master mechanech and leader. He guided the yeshiva through generations of talmidim, working hand-inhand with the rosh yeshiva, Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky zt”l. He kept the talmidim foremost on his mind, and he would often tell rebbeim, “Remember, you work for the talmid! Not for the board of directors, and not for the parents!”

Keeping to a cherished mesorah, he focused on the “core curriculum,” ensuring that rebbeim spent time on the basics of reading, Chumash, Mishnayos, and Gemara. Although always ready to innovate, he would not lose focus. His goal was to incorporate everything

A young Chanina Herzberg with Rav Shlomo Freifeld looking on.

from hilchos lashon hara to yedios klalios within the context of the main limudim in yeshiva.

His embrace and acceptance of every child came from an encounter with one of the gedolei Yisrael as a young boy. Young Rabbi Herzberg, then known as Charlie, grew up in East New York and attended Yeshiva Toras Chaim there. When he was ready for high school, his menahel, Rav Yitzchok Schmidman, took him to Rav Hutner zt”l in the hope that he would be accepted to Chaim Berlin. Rav Hutner farhered him, but as Reb Chanina would later admit, he did not do well.

Then Rav Hutner asked a final question, “Do you want to learn?” “Yes!” young Chanina replied. “Well then, you’re in!” Rav Hutner replied.

Rabbi Herzberg often repeated that question to boys old enough to understand that will to learn is the key.

When speaking to talmidim about the importance of choosing the right mesivta, he would often say that in eighth grade, he wanted to go to the yeshiva with the best basketball team. But when he met Rav Hutner, that all changed!

He enrolled in Chaim Berlin, where he spent a lot of time in the office of the menahel, Rav Shlomo Freifeld. When Rabbi Freifeld opened Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, Rav Chanina was one of the first talmidim to join him. From that moment on, he never left his rebbi.

It was a message he imparted to all the boys at YOSS. A few years ago, with two weeks left to the school year, a boy was acting out. When his rebbi reprimanded him, the boy shot back, “You’re not my rebbi anymore anyway!” The rebbi brought the boy to Rabbi Herzberg, who asked, “For how much longer will your rebbi be your rebbi?” “Only two more weeks,” the talmid replied. Rabbi Herzberg banged on his desk and looked into the talmid’s eyes. “Your rebbi is your rebbi for the rest of your life!”

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Rabbi Chanina Herzberg is pictured with, from left, Rabbis Mordechei and Shmuel Kamenetzky.

When he interviewed potential rebbeim, he asked two important questions. What are you learning? And who is your rebbi? If the candidate did not have an adequate answer, the interview was over.

Rav Chanina was a master mechanech. He did not look at external factors and pass judgment. He looked at talmidim and saw Yiddishe neshamos. He made it his mission to reach every boy in his yeshiva. Alumni would joke that the more trouble you made, the more you would love Rabbi Herzberg.

At the levaya, his son Yudi told of how he had once received a 55 on a math test. Rabbi Herzberg, noticing his son’s disappointment, said, “That means you’re batting 550!” He looked at every talmid and saw potential.

As a menahel, there were times he had to discipline a child. But he did it lovingly. He was tough, and did not back down on what he believed was true. But he would look at a talmid with penetrating sincerity. There was so much love in that look. His talmidim understood everything from it, even before he gave his rebuke, and sometimes consequences. They knew that it came along with a genuine love.

Once, a rebbi caught a talmid playing Hangman in class and sent him to the menahel’s office. Rabbi Herzberg, knowing the boy could use some chizzuk, looked at the paper, grinned, and with a twinkle in his eye, told the boy, “Ah! You’re playing hangman? Give me a ‘K’!”

He stood behind his rebbeim and backed them under all circumstances. A young, fresh rebbi once had to discipline a talmid whose father was an active board member and a big supporter of the yeshiva. He received a phone call that night from the boy’s father threatening his job. The next day, the rebbi repeated the conversation to Rabbi Herzberg, very nervous about his future. Rabbi Herzberg told him bluntly. “There is one person here who makes the decision to hire or to fire a rebbi. That person is me! Don’t worry. Your job is secure!”

Rabbi Herzberg was a true hatzneia leches.

He was not a public person, nor did he want any kavod. Although he had much chinuch wisdom to share and was often asked to enhance simchos with his wonderful divrei Torah, he shied away from public speaking. One of his sons asked why he never lectures in public chinuch forums. “I have one mission,” he answered, “To be the menahel of Yeshiva of South Shore. If I start speaking here and there, I will not be able to use my full energy for the boys in yeshiva. It will distract me from my purpose!”

Once, one of his children noticed that he was not himself — he was not eating, and was pacing a lot. When asked what the matter was, he responded, “There is a boy in yeshiva, who, for various circumstances, had to be asked to leave. It pains me greatly, and it’s not a simple matter. But I had to do it. This week I received a phone call from a local rav berating me for

my decision! Does he know that I spent three days agonizing over it? Does he know that I secured a place in another yeshiva for this boy?

Does he know that I fasted on the day I asked the boy to leave?”

Rabbi Herzberg began his career teaching seventh grade at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe in Queens. His first year was not easy; the yeshiva had split the class and assigned him a group of boisterous weak students. Yet despite the challenges, he persevered. In fact, a talmid of Rabbi Herzberg from Tiferes Moshe some forty years ago, requested, on the spot, to say divrei hesped at the levaya. He got up and spoke about how close he still feels to his rebbi, and how he still feels hakaras hatov to him.

He was then promoted to assistant menahel in Tiferes Moshe. Only a few years later, Rabbi Binyamin Kamenetzky zt”l asked him to join Yeshiva Toras Chaim of South Shore. He was excited at the thought of rejoining his alma mater but was apprehensive. Younger than most of the rebbeim in YOSS, he was nervous about accepting a position of leadership. He asked his rebbi who assured him that he would earn their respect. The many older rebbeim, some who are still in the yeshiva and others who came back to the levaya, attest to that.

At home, he was an amazing father — he never preached, but led by example. His son Reb Eli, a beloved Pre 1A rebbi at South Shore, said that on Purim his father handed him $500 and told him, a teenager, to give it to poor people in Far Rockaway. In addition to the erev Yom Tov tzedaka that the Yeshiva gave to needy families, Rabbi Herzberg would purchase hundreds of dollars of gift cards with his own money and give them to almanos before Chanukah, allowing them to give gifts to their children.

Though he thought about the yeshiva 24 hours a day, he generally did not bring his work home. He did not diminish the focus and attention he wanted to give his children. He focused tremendous energy on raising them and giving them the attention they deserved.

He was always focused on personal growth.

One Yom Kippur, in his shul, Ohr Shlomo, he got up in front of the crowd, and in midst of a speech on hakaras hatov and self-improvement, said, “Many people have criticized me for not thanking my rebbeim in yeshiva enough, and not recognizing their devotion to chinuch. I am publicly saying that I realize, and I am going to change that!”

He had tremendous respect for talmidei chachamim. Besides his own rebbeim, he would honor any talmid chacham and rav. He internalized many stories of gedolim that he heard.

He had heard the story of the rebbitzen of Rav Yonasan Steif, who approached the mechitza to get a glimpse of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l at a wedding, saying, “I want to see the tzaddik for whom my husband puts on his hat and See Herzberg on page 17

By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA LONDON — Two and half years ago, Murray Lee voted in favor of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

A Jewish real estate agent from northern London, Murray shared the concerns of many in the “Leave” camp over the United Kingdom’s perceived vulnerability to Europe’s immigration problems. If England remained shackled to Brussels’ policies, he and other Leavers argued, they’d pay the price in an exodus of work and a growing influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East and beyond.

Murray is still worried by those issues. But now, he is also concerned about the damage that the turmoil around the Brexit vote — in which the Leavers won a narrow majority of 52 percent — may be wreaking on the British economy and Murray’s industry.

“I don’t think we knew then what we know now,” Murray said of his vote, about which he now has some regrets. “We were badly advised.”

Referencing predictions of an economic downturn over the next 15 years, he added: “Unfortunately, I never thought of it.”

Murray, a real estate agent with 45 years of experience who founded the Dreamview Estates agency on Golders Green Road, has seen housing prices drop by around 10 percent from their peak levels in 2016, with some assets attracting little to no bids, he said.

A busy artery running through the pricey neighborhood that gave it its name, Golders Green Road features multiple Israeli and kosher eateries and shops such as Florentin, Hummus Bar and Yarok, that reflect the heavily Jewish makeup of the area.

A bit further up the road, Richard Dangoor, managing director at his Jewish family’s real estate agency, Hausman & Holmes, has seen a drop of about 20 percent in the number of sales since the Brexit vote.

The U.K. housing market’s growth of 1.5 percent in October dropped sharply to a near-stagnant 0.3 percent in November, The Guardian reported earlier this month. And London, which in 2015 saw a whopping 9.2-percent rise in housing prices, has become a “weak spot” in the U.K. property market, The Guardian reported.

The London bubble may have burst not only because of Brexit uncertainty, but also because “prices had become unaffordable,” Murray said. He and Dangoor both said they don’t at this point fear for the viability of their business.

More broadly, though, shares in British firms have taken considerable hits following the Brexit vote. The pound had lost nearly

Murray Lee outside his London real estate agency.

15 percent of its value against the dollar since January 2016.

Complicating matters is the uncertainty and anger around the terms of Britain’s withdrawal as stipulated in a draft agreement that Prime Minister Theresa May made public last month, after lengthy negotiations. The document says that the United Kingdom will have to adhere to E.U. laws — including on unencumbered immigration within the bloc — for the duration of a two-year transition period, but lose its representation in its government bodies.

The document’s shortcomings triggered a no-confidence vote inside May’s Conservative party, where it angered moderates and hardliners alike. She survived last week’s vote, but it also revealed that she had lost the support of more than a third of her party’s own lawmakers in the House of Commons, British parliament’s lower house.

With less than four months to go before the proposed deal expires, the shaky support for it is raising the specter of the United Kingdom crashing out of the European Union with no deal. Economists warn that such a spectacle would be disastrous for a country that depends on the E.U. for 53 percent of its imported goods and services and for 44 percent of its exports.

In central London, this uncertainty is hitting the housing mar-

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ket particularly hard, said Dangoor, a father of three.

Central London’s real estate market depends on investment from overseas, including the Middle East, South Africa and China.

“When there was fear, when there was concern,” he said.

“You’re seeing a big drop in values there.”

The drop is less noticeable in suburbs, though, due to low interest rates that mean “owners aren’t forced to sell,” Dangoor said.

Suburban assets that “tick all the requisite boxes” still fetch premium prices as “these areas are insulated by a micro-bubble of their own and buyers looking for a family home a have longer term-view point,” Dangoor added. But the number of transactions is down there, too, “because people are concerned,” he added.

Murray puts it another way.

“Would you buy a house for a million pounds if you weren’t sure that it’d be worth that tomorrow?” he said.

May’s tenuous position over Brexit increases the likelihood of an election and her government’s replacement with a cabinet headed by the leader of the Labour opposition, the far-left Jeremy Corbyn.

For Murray and Dangoor, a Corbyn-led government is menacing because of his support for rent control and a mansion tax.

Some economists have warned that Corbyn’s election could cause the property market and the pound to crash.

Mark Ruben, a 57-year-old hotelier who recently bought a $7 million home in London, wasn’t waiting. Earlier this year, he sold the property, which he called his “dream home,” partly out of concern over Corbyn winning an election and imposing a mansion tax, he told JTA. And then there are the Jewish concerns about a Labour government.

Corbyn, who has called Hamas and Hezbollah his friends and said that British “Zionists” don’t understand British irony, has been battling allegations of anti-Semitism, including from the former chief rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks. Earlier this year, all of Britain’s leading Jewish newspapers in a joint editorial warned that Corbyn could pose an “existential threat” to British Jewry.

Murray, who specializes in the heavily Jewish northern London market, is already seeing what he called “the Corbyn effect” on some of his clients, he said.

“It shocked me the third time,” he said of owners seeking to sell property out of fear of Corbyn’s election. One buyer, Murray said, told him: “I’m selling because I’m going to Israel if Corbyn gets elected.”

THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

In London’s Jewish hub, a Brexit housing slump

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December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

3 quick-cooking winter meals for busy families Kosher Kitchen

JOni SChOCKett

Jewish Star columnist

S

ometimes there’s just not enough time to do all the things we want to do, and that includes cooking. Things like InstaPots and slow cookers help — if we remember to do all the prep beforehand. However little time we have, we still want to make delicious nutritious weekday meals that don’t include pizza delivery!

People have asked if I always cook multi-step and complicated recipes. The answer is decidedly and absolutely not! I cook tons of simple, quick, and easy recipes — especially back when my kids were in three schools in three different towns! Those days often meant super-fast, super-simple meals. I had one kid in high school, one in junior high, and one in elementary school. Meals were very stressful. One was on a diet, one was always hungry and my youngest ate nothing but pasta. At the same time, I was completing another degree and was constantly working on papers. My poor husband, who shouldered so much of the load, was an absolute self-identified disaster in the kitchen. I had no time to make complicated dinners.

I developed a strategy that was about common sense and getting food on the table. I often gave them their veggies raw with hummus or a yogurt dip when they came home, so the

meal was reduced by one item. I also made tons of veggie-based soups that we ate all fall and winter, still more vegetables without cooking another side dish for the meal. By the time the meal was ready, we could have things like chicken fingers with dipping sauces, and sometimes rice or couscous. Later in the evening, the older two could take fruit or a bowl of berries to munch on while they did their homework. I learned that a full meal did not have to arrive on a single plate all at once.

Quick and easy cooking is the survival tactic we all must have when we are hurried and harried and too stressed to read a recipe and follow all the steps. We need an arsenal of quick-tomake dishes and meals to get us through those busy days. I hope these help!

Quick Chicken Fingers (meat) 10 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking. While

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the chicken is cooking, make some rice or boxed pilaf, the apricot sauce below and other dips.

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into finger-sized nuggets 1/2 cup canola oil 1/2 tsp. garlic powder 1/2 tsp. onion powder 1/2 tsp. black pepper 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tsp. paprika, divided 1 cup breadcrumbs or Panko breadcrumbs Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil, then spray with non-stick spray. Place a sheet of parchment over the foil. Set aside.

Place the oil in a medium deep bowl and set aside. Place the crumbs in another bowl and set aside. Mix the spices in a small cup using half the paprika. Add half the mixture to the oil and mix very well. Place the chicken piece in the oil and use a slotted spoon to mix.

Take a spoon of chicken pieces, let the oil drip back into the bowl, and toss into the crumbs.

Mix gently with another spoon and place on the prepared pan. Continue until all chicken pieces have been used. Add more crumbs if needed.

Sprinkle the remaining spice mixture over the chicken and place in the oven for about 20 minutes, until cooked through. Serves 3 to 4.

Orange Apricot Sauce for Chicken Fingers (Pareve) 1 can mandarin oranges 1 clove garlic 2 tsp. canola oil 1/2 cup apricot preserves Bottled teriyaki sauce (thick, not liquid) 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/2 cup orange juice Drain the oranges and set aside. Reserve the liquid.

Mince the garlic. Place the oil in a small saucepan and heat. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the apricot preserves and mix well until softened and thinned. Add orange juice and ginger and mix well. Add teriyaki sauce to taste, about 1/2 cup or more. Mix well and bring to a strong simmer. Cook, until slightly reduced and thickened. Taste and add garlic, teriyaki sauce, or even some red pepper flakes, if your family likes heat. Add the oranges and heat through. Use as dipping sauce or pour over the cooked chicken, or pour over rice with the chicken. Makes about 1 cup.

Filet of Sole Parmesan (Dairy) 1 lb. filet of sole, flounder or other mild, thin fish filet 2 eggs 2/3 cup flour 1 tsp. onion powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/3 cup canola oil 1 jar prepared marinara sauce

Shredded mozzarella cheese Grated parmesan cheese Lightly grease a 3-quart Pyrex dish. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350. Break the eggs into a shallow bowl or pie plate and mix well. Place the flour in another flat bowl or pie plate and add the spices. Mix well.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add half the oil.

Dredge the fish in the flour and then dip into egg. Let excess drip off. Place in hot oil and repeat with more pieces so you have 2 to 4 filets in the pan. Do not move the fish for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden. Carefully flip the fish and cook until golden, another 1 to 2 minutes.

Place the fish in the prepared Pyrex baking dish and finish cooking, adding more oil to the pan if needed.

When the fish is cooked, pour the sauce down the middle of the filets, then sprinkle mozzarella over the sauce. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes, until bubbly and the cheese is melted.

Sprinkle with Parmesan before serving. Serves 3 to 4.

NOTE: You can make this with any thicker fish, such as cod or halibut. Bake as you like.

For the last 10 minutes, add sauce; then cheese for the last 5 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Quick and Simple Salmon Croquettes (Pareve) My kids still love these! They are simple, not spicy and delicious cold for a lunchbox. The mild flavor appeals to children.

2 onions 2 to 3 scallions, white and green parts 1 extra-large egg Salt and pepper, to taste 1 can salmon, liquid and bones 2/3 to 1 cup breadcrumbs Canola oil OPTIONAL: Panko breadcrumbs Coarsely chop the onions and scallions and place in a food processor. Pulse until finely minced. Add egg, salt, and pepper, and pulse to mix.

Pour in the liquid from the can of salmon.

Place the salmon in a bowl and remove the bones to the food processor. Pulse to blend. Add the salmon in pieces and pulse once or twice to barely blend. Add the breadcrumbs and pulse once or twice to blend. Let sit for 5 minutes to thicken. If too thin, add more breadcrumbs and pulse to blend.

Form into patties and dredge in Panko crumbs, if desired. Place on a plate.

Heat a large skillet and add canola oil, about 1/4 of an inch deep. When shimmery, add patties into the pan, leaving a bit of space between them. Let cook until deep golden brown. Flip and cook until the second side is golden brown.

Makes 7 to 9 patties.

THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

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December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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The JEWISH STAR

Wine & Dine

Wowing your dinner guests right from the start Who’s in the Kitchen

JuDY JOSzef

Jewish Star columnist

A

s a personal chef, I am sometimes asked by clients to recommend a signature mouthwatering dish that is sure to impress their guests. Without hesitation, I always offer my favorite appetizer: baby lamb chops in pastry dough smothered in mushroom sauce.

This recipe has quite a few steps, but the finished product is well worth the effort. Just ask my good friends, Ira Grosser, Joe Grob and Jack Shafran. When they are invited to my home for dinner, it’s a given that I’m going to make baby lamb chops wrapped in pastry dough and smothered in onion and mushroom sauce ... or else.

In my opinion, no single gesture by a host or hostess shows culinary sophistication quite like serving an impressive appetizer. While this recipe may initially sound a bit intimidating, to quote Chef James Beard, “The only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you are afraid of it.” Keep that in mind as you follow these directions.

Baby Lamb Chops in Pastry Dough, Served With Mushroom and Onion Sauce 10 baby lamb chops, uniform in size 4 round bone shoulder lamb chops 10 pieces of puff pastry frozen dough dough (3 x 3 inch) 10 paper caps to encircle the bone end of the chops, optional 2 lbs. fresh mushrooms 5 large onions, peeled and diced 1/8 cup of Mikee garlic stir-fry and rib sauce 10 sprigs of fresh rosemary

garlic powder salt pepper 8 Tbsp. Osem mushroom soup mix 2 cups cold water 1/4 tsp. Kitchen Bouquet browning and seasoning sauce 1 cup canola oil Slice and sauté mushrooms in a small amount of canola oil. When they are just about done, raise the heat and pour in a tablespoon of garlic sauce. Mix thoroughly for a minute. Peel, dice and sauté onions in canola oil until they are soft and caramelized, about 40 minutes.

Rinse, and pat dry 10 baby lamb chops.

Place them on a lightly greased half sheet pan and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Broil on high for two and a half minutes on each side. Remove from oven and set aside.

Rinse and pat dry 4 shoulder lamb chops, place in lightly greased 8 by 11 pan, and brush with Mikee Garlic Stir Fry and Rib sauce. Pour 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for one hour at 350 degrees. After removing from the oven, keep covered while letting cool. Once cooled, cut the shoulder lamb chops into small pieces and discard the bones. Set aside.

Take the 10 baby lamb chops and “french” the bones. To do this, scrape the meat on the long part of the bone, but leave the main part of the lamb chop meat intact. You can put the pieces of meat from the bones along with the cut pieces of shoulder lamb chops.

Keep the puff pastry frozen until you are ready to assemble the lamb chops. They only take about two minutes to defrost. Stretch the dough gently by the sides so that it enlarges the area of the square a bit. Lay the dough on a lightly floured surface.

Place 1 tsp. of caramelized onions, 1 Tbsp. of mushrooms and 1 Tbsp. of shoulder lamb chop

chunks in the center of the dough square. Gently place the baby lamb chop “eye” on top. Fold the pastry dough around the lamb chop, until all the ingredients are covered, but leaving the entire long bone bare.

Place chop, seam side down, on a lightly greased half sheet pan. Repeat with the remaining 9 baby lamb chops.

Place in oven for about 10 minutes at 425 degrees, until till the pastry dough turns a golden brown.

Place 8 Tbsp. of Osem mushroom soup and seasoning mix in a pan. Slowly add 2 cups of cold water, while stirring, making sure to smooth out any lumps.

Place on a low flame and stir constantly until mixture starts to thicken, about 5 minutes.

Then add the remaining mushrooms and onions and 1/8 tsp. of Kitchen Bouquet. Let simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you are serving this dish on Friday night, place lamb chops and mushroom sauce in the warming drawer or on the blech, but not on the hottest part.

When ready to serve, place the lamb chop in the center of the plate and spoon the sauce on half the pastry portion, letting it drip down the sides onto the plate.

Place a sprig of rosemary in the center of the dough.

This dish is sure to appeal to advanced epicures and novices. Enjoy!

Judy’s on vacation. A version of this column appeared in 2011.

Za’atar and Olive Focaccia

By Sonya Sanford, The Nosher Focaccia is made with a very soft dough, slightly rich from generous amounts of added oil that helps it become crisp-edged as it bakes.

As I was working on this recipe, Netflix’s “Salt Fat Acid Heat” premiered, and suddenly making focaccia felt particularly timely.

In Samin Nostrat’s excellent, highly acclaimed series about the fundamental elements of making good food, she invites the viewer to learn how to make Ligurian focaccia. In Liguria, Italy, they add the unique step of topping the focaccia with a salt brine before baking the dough. I was captivated by the simplicity and beauty of the focaccia-making process, and have rewatched that part of the “FAT” episode countless times.

While the focaccia recipe here differs from its Ligurian counterpart, the essential components are the same and the lessons learned from Nostrat are helpfully applicable. Primarily, one is reminded that when a recipe has so few ingredients, each ingredient should be of good quality. Focaccia requires extra virgin olive oil, and that olive oil should be good, fresh and have a robust flavor.

Choosing the olive oil can be a matter of preference. I’m partial to California olive oils with their smooth butteriness; high quality affordable varieties can be found in most grocery stores. You could also splurge on an Italian olive oil from a specialty market. The olive oil will help your focaccia get a crisp crust, and will perfume the dough with its flavor.

I like using kalamata olives in this recipe for

their fruity wine-like flavor, but you could certainly use your favorite olive variety. The olives serve to accentuate the flavors in the oil, and the dough also gets topped with za’atar to bring a welcome herby earthiness to this rich bread.

Just before putting it in the oven, I top the focaccia with flake salt for crunch and savoriness. After oil, salt is focaccia’s best friend.

I love to serve this olive and za’atar bread with an Israeli-style spread: fresh salads, good feta, hummus and baba ganoush. Leftover focaccia is always a gift, and it can be turned into delicious croutons, stored in the freezer for future snacking or even become the base of an unexpected Middle Eastern-inspired stuffing.

Even after Chanukah, there will be plenty of opportunities for this oil-centric recipe.

Ingredients: 2-1/4 tsp. (1 packet) active dry yeast 1 tsp. sugar 1-3/4 cups warm water (105-110 F) 5 cups bread flour, plus more as needed 2 tsp. kosher salt, Diamond brand (use less if using table salt or Morton brand) 5 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more as needed 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives 1 Tbsp. za’atar, or to taste Flake salt, to taste Directions: 1. Dissolve the yeast with sugar in the warm water, and allow it to sit for 10 minutes, or until the mixture looks foamy and bubbly.

2. If using a measuring cup instead of a scale, spoon flour into the measuring cup and

then level it off with the back of a knife.

Add the flour and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

Alternatively, you can make this dough by hand, but note that the dough is on the sticky side.

3. Add the water and yeast mixture and 2 Tbsp. of the olive oil to the flour mixture. Turn the mixer to stir, and allow it to mix until a shaggy dough is just formed. Turn up the stand mixer to medium for 5 to 6 minutes, or until a smooth, soft and elastic dough forms. It’s OK if it is a little sticky; if it’s not forming a cohesive dough at all, you can add a little more flour a spoonful at a time. Remove the dough from the mixer, gently form into a ball and transfer to a well-oiled bowl. Turn the dough in the bowl so that all sides have touched the oil. Cover the dough with a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap, and then cover everything with a kitchen towel. Place the covered dough in a warm part of the kitchen and allow it to rise until doubled in size, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Add 3 Tbsp. of olive oil to a rimmed baking sheet. Punch down the dough that has risen in the bowl, then transfer it to the baking sheet.

Gently press the dough into the edges of the baking sheet to form a rectangular shape, and flip it over so that both sides of the dough are equally covered in the oil. Press your fingertips deeply into each part of the dough, making dimples and helping the dough hold its shape.

Cover the dough loosely with a well-oiled piece of plastic wrap. Let the dough rise again for 45 minutes to an hour. While the dough is rising again, preheat the oven to 425 F. 5. Before baking, top the dough with the olives, za’atar and a generous sprinkle of flake salt. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown with a crisp crust.

6. Once out of the oven, drizzle with more olive oil and allow to cool slightly before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

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December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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THE ACHIE

DEDICATION OF THE EDITH LOWINGER A”H ACHIEZER VOLUNTEER NETWORK

To be installed by

THIS YEAR’S ACHIEZER GALA IS DEDICATED IN LOVING MEMORY OF

DR. RICHIE FRIEDMAN A”H

The Lowinger, Keilson, Rosenman & Zafir Families

PILLARS OF CHESED AWARD

Yossy & Miriam Lea Ungar

As we prepare for our upcoming Gala, we would be remiss if we did not recognize the untold loss that we all feel with the recent passing of Dr. Richie Friedman A”H; a beloved friend of and senior advisor to Achiezer.

Richie was synonymous with Community – he gave of himself to the community, selflessly at any time of day or night.

It is for this reason that, together with his wife Cheryl, their children and grandchildren, we will be dedicating this year’s Gala in Richie’s memory.

We hope and pray that the outpouring of chesed, achdus and Community that result from this year’s Gala will serve as a measure of comfort to the entire Friedman family, the community at large, as well as an aliyah for his neshama.

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YOUNG LEADERSHIP AWARD

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DINNER CHAIRMEN

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mUnity

13 THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

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The JEWISH STAR

Health MInd & Body

From injured soldier to best-selling author, doctor

By Larry Luxner for Israel Cancer Research Fund When Asael Lubotzky led his soldiers into battle against Hezbollah, he knew he might be wounded or killed.

What the infantry platoon commander never could have imagined was that a crippling injury would catapult him into becoming a best-selling author — and, eventually, a physician.

Despite wounds in Lebanon that nearly cost him his life, Lubotzky is now one of Israel’s most promising cancer researchers.

He focuses on early diagnosis and treatment based on blood tests.

Lubotzky says the 2006 battle at Bint Jbeil — just two miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border — changed his destiny.

“It was Aug. 9, 2006 — the 15th of Av,” recalled Lubotzky, 35, who still needs crutches to walk. “I was talking on the radio, trying to help my guys navigate. I opened the hatch and lifted my upper body out in order to see better. Just then, an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah hit my vehicle. If I had been sitting at that moment, I wouldn’t be here today.”

That miracle, which Lubotzky attributes to his deep faith in G-d (he had lain tefillin that morning, as he does every day), was the first of many that enabled him not only to avoid the amputation of his severed right leg, but later to marry, have four children and realize his post-traumatic dream of becoming a doctor.

Today Lubotzky is an M.D. completing his doctorate at Hebrew University, where he shares a lab with 10 other researchers.

After his injury, the Jerusalem-born Lubotzky, who grew up in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, decided to tell the dramatic story of his recovery. What became his 190-page autobiography began as a story of the battle that nearly killed him.

“I started writing because of all those long days laying in the hospital trying to remember the events,” Lubotzky said. “Many of my fellow comrades came to visit me, and we spoke about combat. I began writing a technical diary, with dates and what we did. As time went on, I elaborated and wrote more about what I felt. Later on, I decided to write about the rehabilitation process.”

In the 10 years since its publication, Lubotzky’s book, From the Wilderness to Lebanon, has sold nearly 20,000 copies in Hebrew and has been translated into English. His second book, Not My

rs 35 Yeagrity e Of Int

Asael Lubotzky is one of Israel’s most promising young cancer researchers.

Larry Luxner

Last Journey, came out last year and documents the life of his grandfather, partisan and Irgun officer Iser Lubotzky.

In another twist, the mother of the doctor whom Lubotzky credits with saving his leg had been a nurse with a group of partisans in Europe fighting Nazis when she treated a man with a terrible leg wound — who turned out to be Lubotzky’s grandfather.

Inspired by doctors who treated him during recovery, Lubotzky soon turned his sights to medicine. He eventually decided to focus on research, and joined the lab of Yuval Dor at Hebrew University’s Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research. He plans to finish his residency next year at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, specializing in neurology and genetics.

In early July, the Israel Cancer Research Fund, which distributes $4 million per year in grants for cancer research projects in Israel, awarded Lubotzky a two-year research grant worth $50,000.

Lubotzky’s research is focused on the links between DNA and cancer. When a cell dies, it often releases short DNA fragments into the blood known as circulating cell-free DNA, or cfDNA. Doctors have begun using liquid biopsies to sequence cfDNA and use the results to detect fetal chromosomal aberrations, hidden tumors and graft rejection in solid organ transplants.

By looking for specific epigenetic marks carried by circulating cfDNA, scientists can make early diagnoses of various forms of cancer. For example, if a man has cancer, examining the circulating cell-free DNA along with the epigenetic marks in his blood may reveal and locate the primary tumor or metastatic tissue of origin.

“By sequencing those DNA fragments and epigenetic marks, we can infer the rate of cell death from various tissues,” Lubotzky said. “You can also perhaps track response to treatments from circulating cfDNA from tumors.”

“Here I have the combination of a very advanced molecular biology lab with clinical skills,” he said. “Though we work on very unique issues, we speak about the diseases of patients. We work on humans, not mice.”

Mark Israel, executive director of the Israel Cancer Research Fund, said his organization finds Lubotzky’s work promising.

“ICRF Postdoctoral Fellowships empower young investigators who have a serious commitment to academic medicine to obtain research training in leading laboratories,” Israel said. “This coveted grant from ICRF recognizes Dr. Lubotzky’s demonstrated abilities to overcome great challenges and his potential to use those same skills to heal the world.”

Lubotzky still contends with great physical pain stemming from his war injury. He underwent intense physical therapy in the early years after his injury, and today he’s careful to swim almost every morning — before heading off to morning prayer services.

“My body has to overcome lots of pressures that healthy people don’t have to overcome,” he said. “When I’m more active and do more sports and hold my kids in my arms, I think less about the pain. Yes, it’s something that’s going to be with me my entire life. But I’ve found ways to overcome it.”

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14

Sixteen years later, after two-and-a-half years at Brandeis University, Alisa set out for Jerusalem to study at Nishmat, a women’s learning center.

She was traveling on a bus with friends through Gaza when a terrorist detonated a bomb. Exploding shrapnel hit her in the head.

During their last phone conversation with Alisa, Flatow and his wife asked where she’d be traveling and with whom, the usual parental interrogation of a long-distance child. “Roz turned to me and she said, ‘You didn’t get the name of the hotel where she’ll be staying. What if something happens?’ For some reason I said, ‘Don’t worry. If something happens, we’ll know about it.’ Well, I was not wrong about that.”

Although Alisa wasn’t conscious when her father arrived at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, he was in time to hold her hand, speak to her and kiss her. Hours after her death, in his hotel room, the phone rang, and Flatow heard the voice of President Bill Clinton. “‘You are a brave man,’” he told me. I said, ‘Mr. President, you would do anything for your daughter, wouldn’t you?’ ‘Absolutely,’ he answered. I said, ‘Just because Alisa is no longer with me, I’m not going to stop being her father.’ ” Before signing off, Clinton said, “God bless you.”

Soon afterwards, Flatow began traveling the country speaking not only about his daughter’s murder, but about the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian peace process. How, he writes, “could there be a process without a dedication on both sides to peace? And where was that dedication when the Palestinian leaders could not, or would not, keep their people from taking the lives of innocent Jews?”

But, he continues, he was driven by the need for his government “to track down and punish the people responsible for Alisa’s murder. The process was deeply frustrating … The two groups that vied with each other for bragging rights about killing Jews were Islamic Jihad and Hamas; almost immediately after the attack that killed Alisa, Islamic Jihad sent

By Deborah Fineblum, JNS We begin with a scene from 60 Minutes: footage of a young woman lying on the ground beside a scorched Israeli bus. This haunting scene is followed by Leslie Stahl interviewing “a big guy with a full head of hair that’s starting to turn gray.”

“The man is me, Stephen Flatow,” he writes more than 20 years later. “The young woman lying prone on the ground, being treated by medics, is my daughter Alisa.”

This October may have been the publication date for A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror (Devon Square Press), but the book has been in the works for 23 years, since that day in April 1995 when a 22-year-old Palestinian killed eight people and injured another 40.

Among the dead was an American college student whose father was destined to change the law of her native country, impacting all other American victims of foreign terror forever. But on that warm April day, in the shock and grief of a parent who’s lost a beloved child, nothing in this father’s past could have prepared him for what lay ahead.

In these pages, he takes us along on his harrowing battle to achieve some degree of justice for his daughter.

Not content with his tale of telling truth to power, Flatow also introduces us to Alisa, who, from childhood, knew her own mind. At 4, she asked her father which school she was going to attend for kindergarten. The local public school, he said.

“She looked at me and she looked at her mother. She told us — not angrily but calmly, as if simply stating a fact — ‘No, I’m not. I’m going to a Jewish school with my friend Becky, and Mommy has to call Becky’s mommy tonight to find out about it because I’m not going to the Pleasantdale School.’ And with that she walked out of the room.”

Two days later, her parents were touring the Jewish school. Not just Alisa, but all four of her siblings would go on to attend Jewish day schools.

The last photo taken of Stephen M. Flatow with his daughter, Alisa, who was killed along with seven others in a terror attack in Israel in April of 1995.

out a fax taking credit for it. Taking credit for killing my daughter. You can imagine how I felt.”

Meeting with the president, Flatow said he urged him to “pressure Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down on Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Clinton nodded, agreeing that Arafat would have to play a crucial part in stopping acts of terrorism. But … I was left with a hollow feeling. What would really be done?”

Clinton, it would turn out, was working behind the scenes to ensure the success of his Oslo Peace Accords.

Flatow refused to accept that any would-be martyr could take his child’s life and get away with it. He teamed up with attorney Steven Perles, an expert in international law, who would be his partner for the 10 years it would take to reach the end of a harrowing and all-consuming legal battle.

“It amazes me how much of what we could call Torah law has carried over into civil law,” writes

Flatow. But the provision of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was meant to insist on “compensation — not vengeance, but justice.”

And it was justice that Flatow was focused on.

“That was what I wanted for my daughter. And the law was the way.”

In the end of the day, it is what he got. But it wouldn’t be easy. For starters, Flatow writes, the law Clinton had signed covering compensation for families of terror victims, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), to squeeze through administrative hoops, had been rendered toothless.

“The AEDPA needed to be strengthened, sure, but only Congress could do that — and only if we lobbied these powerful guys, hard. That realization was my welcome to Washington.”

For six months, Flatow logged thousands of miles on train, plane and automobile as he and Perles crisscrossed Capitol Hill. Their goal was the passage of the Flatow Amendment, designed to empower terrorism victims and their families to hold responsible parties responsible.

“I was the leverage. Who wants to turn away a grieving father?”

Eventually, they pulled together a bipartisan coalition, including Sens. Frank Lautenberg (DNJ) and Connie Mack (R-Fla.), and Reps. Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Henry Hyde (R-Ala.) and Ben Gilman (R-NY), whose support made the amendment’s passage a reality.

“Perles was delighted and said to me, ‘I don’t know how that happened. ‘Alisa, Steve, it was Alisa,’ I replied.”

As he tells it, Flatow “encountered roadblock See Flatow on page 23

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THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

Book eyes Flatow’s long battle against terrorism

15

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Continued from page 6 jacket when he talks to him on the phone.”

The story made an impact on him. His son Rav Yitzchok, menahel of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, said he once noticed his father put on his jacket, walk into his study and make a phone call, then come and take the jacket off. He asked him to explain. “I had to call Rav Hillel David about a shaila,” Rabbi Herzberg said.

“When I speak to Rav Hillel, I put on a jacket!”

On the rare occasions when he had to ask a rebbi to leave, it was with serious consideration and thought. He would make sure to arrange another source of parnassa for the rebbi.

He had the ultimate chashivus for tefillah, and he taught by example. He made sure that Shacharis and Mincha in yeshiva began on time, and he was at the helm, standing by the amud, ensuring proper kavod hatefillah. Every.

Single. Day. Once on vacation, it was close to sunset and there was a group forming a minyan. They pushed him to join, and did not want to wait for him to go back to the car parked some distance away. He reluctantly agreed, telling his children his hat was in the car but he was afraid the minyan would break up if he went to get it. It was the only time in memory he remembered davening without a hat.

Talmidim remember him wearing Rabbeinu Tam tefillin, and lovingly choosing a different boy every day to wrap his Rashi tefillin during chazaras hashatz. The class that sat in front of his seat relished the opportunity.

His devotion to talmidim was amazing.

When he was able, he went to every bar mitzvah, even if it meant walking miles to Woodmere or Hewlett from his Far Rockaway home.

He left his own son’s vort to speak at the weeknight bar mitzvah of a talmid in Brooklyn.

A number of years ago, he suffered a heart attack. As he was about to undergo a serious procedure, he told his son “The biggest zechus I have is that I always try to make people feel good when they see me!”

Only a few weeks ago, he remarked, “I am not afraid of dying! I have a rebbi who taught me how to live, and who taught me how to die!

I am only bothered that I can’t perform mitzvos properly.”

During the last two years, despite his progressing illness, he would come to yeshiva as often as he could. For him, there was no such thing as relaxation. In his weakened state, his wife and children would try to dissuade him from going, telling him he had to relax.

“The yeshiva is my life,” he would say.

“They need me there. The talmidim are waiting for me.”

Indeed, Yeshiva of South Shore needed him. We await his return at techiyas hameisim.

Rabbi Herzberg is survived by his dedicated wife, Mrs. Naomi Herberg, daughter of Rav Moshe Spiegel zt”l and granddaughter of Rav Elchonon Yochonon Spiegel zt”l, the Ostrove-Kalushiner Rebbe; and their children, Reb Moshe Herzberg, Reb Mendy Herzberg, Rabbi Eli Herzberg, Rabbi Yitzchok Herzberg, Reb Yudy Herzberg, Mrs. Brocha Kaplan, and Mrs. Rivky Nachman.

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky is director of development at Yeshiva of South Shore.

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Continued from page 1 has helped drastically reduce such attacks, which were frequent just a few years ago.

Hamas has been instrumental in attempting to destabilize Judea and Samaria, which serves its jihadist siren call of violence against Israel as well as its goal of weakening its domestic foe, the Palestinian Authority. Hamas believes that it is entitled to incite violence in the West Bank, even as it keeps Gaza in a state of ceasefire most of the time.

The threat Hamas poses to both Israel and the PA has been the glue that has held together security coordination on the ground between Israeli and Palestinian forces. This glue has so far stuck, despite severe diplomatic clashes between the PA and Israel. The PA subtly recognizes that Israel’s anti-Hamas operations benefit it as much as Israelis.

Israel broke up more than 220 West Bank Hamas terrorist cells this year, including one that was ordered by Hamas’s military wing in Gaza to bomb crowded targets in the heart of Israeli cities in October. That cell was preparing bombs that were unprecedented in their quality of explosive materials, the Shin Bet investigation found.

In recent months, Israel quietly arrested hundreds of West Bank terror suspects, including students, and young men and women who were recruited into Hamas’s secret networks.

That has not stopped Hamas from trying, again and again, to turn Judea and Samaria into a hotbed of terrorism. Israel’s preemptive capabilities have served as a silent, life-saving safety net around the clock.

Harrowingly, however, no safety net is foolproof. It’s too soon to say whether Thursday’s deadly shooting attack on a bus stop near Ramallah was the result of organized terrorism or a local “initiative.”

Either way, the most immediate risk is that this shooting, as well as the attack that preceded it, will fuel a chain reaction of copycat attacks.

The first signs of this risk came in a car-ramming attack that injured a soldier just a few hours after Thursday’s incident.

The Israel Defense Forces mobilized a number of back-up infantry battalions to the area, who will be tasked with defending Israeli communities, assisting offensive raids, and searching for the perpetrators.

In the past 24 hours, Israel’s Counter-Terrorist Unit conducted successful operations that resulted in the killing of the gunman behind the Barkan shooting attack and a gunman linked to the Ofra Junction shooting.

Israel’s ability to catch up with terrorists — no matter how they embed themselves in challenging urban settings — reflects a world-leading counterterrorism level that is unmatched.

It also reflects the fact that Israel can send forces to operate anywhere in the West Bank, at any time — a reality that did not exist during the Second Intifada some 15 years ago.

The commemoration of Hamas’s founding, which will be marked on Dec. 14, the risk of another Gaza escalation and the unending “bubbling up”’ of terror plots under the surface can all act as catalysts, accelerating a deterioration in the security situation in the coming days and weeks.

The IDF’s challenge in Judea and Samaria is in some ways more complex than its border protection duties on the fronts with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. In the West Bank, the IDF protects some 400,000 Israeli civilians who live in the midst of 2 million Palestinians, with no obvious border separating them.

To pursue this complex mission effectively, the military offers both carrots and sticks, both aimed at preventing the situation from worsening. The sticks come in the form of nightly security raids targeting terrorists, while carrots are offered to noncombatants in the form of freedom of movement and increased economic opportunities.

The IDF’s analysis of past trends tell it that driving a wedge between Palestinian civilians and terrorists — and seeking to maintain normal life for ordinary Palestinians who are not involved in terrorism — drives down attacks and saves lives.

Yet this balancing act changed dramatically on Thursday, when the IDF encircled Ramallah and placed it under lockdown. Placing the de

THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

Terror...

17

facto capital of the Palestinian Authority under such restrictions reflects the severity of the latest attack and the Israeli military’s urgency in locating the perpetrators.

Such a development could also act as a reminder to the wider Palestinian public that Israel can employ more disruptive sticks. A return to the days of mass violence, as many realize, will likely result in significant harm to Palestinian freedom of movement and economic stability.

Ultimately, the terrorism that has reared its head threatens both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. The coming weeks will see whether Israel and the PA will be able to contain the situation, or whether the region will slide into a new and dangerous phase, a development that Hamas will be sure to celebrate and exploit.

SHAbbAT STAR ‫כוכב של שבת‬ For Yaakov’s blessing, going beyond nature

December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

18

From Heart of Jerusalem

Rabbi biNNY FREEDMaN

Jewish Star columnist

I

t was finally the day. After over a year of training, I was finally about to get my bars and join the family of IDF officers. My parents had flown in from the US for the occasion, along with my younger brother, and were on their way down for the ceremony in the desert on the Shizafon Armored Corps base.

We were being inspected by the base sergeant-major an hour before the ceremony. The Army Chief of Staff, Moshe Levy, would be attending, so everything had to be perfect.

The sergeant-major stopped in front of me and, looking down, saw my tzitzit. He snapped an order: “Tuck those in immediately! I had better not see those hanging out during the ceremony!”

I don’t normally wear my tzitzit out. But in the army, the challenging environment had made me realize I needed to take an extreme position. So I started wearing my tzitzit out as a reminder to be careful not to cross any red lines. It was also an easy way to send the mes-

sage to those around me that I was religious.

His harsh command took me by surprise. I could easily have been detained and prevented from standing on the parade ground if the sergeant-major so decided. It would have been a simple thing to just tuck the tzitzit in for a few hours. But there was a principle at stake here much larger than my tzitzit: Was I an Israeli Jew, or a Jewish Israeli? t the beginning of this week’s portion, Vayechi, Yaakov takes ill and realizes his death is near. Hearing that his father’s life nears its end, Yosef brings his sons for a blessing. It is one of the strangest interactions in the entire Torah: “And Yaakov said to Yosef: ‘G-d appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. And He said to me: I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make you a congregation of nations, and I will give this land to your offspring after you as an eternal possession.

And now, your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Menashe shall be mine like Reuven and Shimon’” (48:5).

This is the introduction to the famous blessing of Menashe and Ephraim. But it is strange that Yaakov at first seems to ignore them. And

A

What do we think of while we bless our children?

one wonders about the significance of Yaakov reminding Yosef of the blessings he received from G-d long ago as he fled Esav. Why is this important right now, as he is about to bless these grandsons?

And then comes the strangest part of the entire story: after telling Yosef that both “Ephraim and Menashe shall be mine like Reuven and Shimon,” Yaakov suddenly sees the two boys: “Who are these?” he asks.

“They are my sons whom G-d has given me here,” Yosef answers.

“Take them to me, and I will bless them” (48:8-10).

What is going on here? How could Yaakov not recognize his grandsons — especially since he had just told Yosef that they were like sons to him!

And what is the meaning of Yosef’s response? What is he trying to communicate by saying that “They are my sons whom G-d has given me here”? Does he have other sons? Why the need to remind Yaakov that the boys are Egyptian-born? Why not just say: ‘This is Menashe, and this is Ephraim’?

What is hidden here beneath the surface? ashi, who normally helps us make sense of these questions, offers a rather puzzling comment quoting the Midrash Tanchuma, which suggests that Yaakov temporarily lost his prophetic vision “because in the future Yeravam and Achav would descend from the tribe of

R

Ephraim, and Yehu and his sons from Menashe.”

These three individuals (Yeravam, Achav, and Yehu) were all kings of Israel who led the Jewish people astray by spreading idol worship throughout the kingdom. Which, of course, leaves us wondering what these sorry periods in Jewish history have to do with Yaakov’s blessing some five hundred years earlier.

The story of Yeravam is particularly fascinating, and may help to shed some light on this puzzling Midrash.

When Shlomo, the heir of King David, died, his son Rechavam inherited the throne. Unfortunately, Rechavam seems not to have been a chip off the old block. Choosing not to listen to his father’s older advisors, he heeded the advice of a younger group of confidants, committing a classic error in raising taxes. Coming so soon after the completion of the Temple, which saw heavy taxes levied on the Jewish people, his actions ultimately allowed Yeravam to mount a rebellion, resulting in the secession of ten tribes to a northern Kingdom of Israel.

Yeravam crowned himself king of the new kingdom, opposite the southern tribes of Yehudah, Binyamin, and Levites who remained loyal to the rightful king from the House of David. Jerusalem and the Temple remained under the control of the southern kingdom.

In the first year of his reign, Yeravam was faced with a dilemma: at Pesach, Shavuot, and See Yaakov’s blessing on page 22

Dying — and living — with dignity Luach Parsha of the Week

Rabbi avi biLLEt Jewish Star columnist

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y the time Yaakov dies at age 147, in parashat Vayechi, his sons range in age from 62 (Reuven) to 56 (Yosef, Zevulun, and possibly Asher), to around 48 (Binyamin).

As we know how old Yosef is at his death — 110 — and since Yosef is credited as being the first of the brothers to die, this means that the brothers lived together in Egypt without their father for another 54 years.

While we can argue whether Yaakov ever knew about the sale of Yosef and whether the brothers told the truth to Yosef in 50:16, we can also say with near certainty that from the day they were reunited, Yosef was only gracious, showed only love, expressed only the desire that his brothers not feel guilt for having him sold, and continued to provide for them for the rest of his days, if not the rest of their days as well.

And then over the next 54 years of his life, beyond personal achievements of which we know very little, Yosef clearly puts his house in order.

1. He makes a clear and final peace with his brothers (50:21) 2. They live together and made a life in Egypt (50:22) 3. Yosef is blessed to truly “live” (like his father, he too is described as vayechi, living a meaningful life, in Egypt) (50:22) 4. He lives to be a great grandfather — this too is acknowledged as an accomplishment. And not only that, but he is close to his descendants (50:23) 5. When he is about to die, he leaves a last will and testament that becomes Bnei Yisrael’s living legacy and a reminder that they will leave Egypt one day (50:25)

6. He makes a dying wish that he be reinterred in the Promised Land, that when they leave Egypt they are to take his bones with them for reburial in Eretz Canaan (50:24) 7. And finally, after dying and being embalmed, his body is placed in a box in Egypt. f that box, Seforno says: “They put him in the same box where the embalming took place — that’s where his bones were. They did not bury him in the ground.

This way his coffin[’s whereabouts] was known for generations, as it says, ‘And Moshe took Yosef’s bones…’”

In other words, the box served as a reminder for the next 139 years, until the moment of the Exodus, that a promise had been made that one day they would be leaving. And the promise was made by that man, in that box, the box we will take with us when we leave.

What an incredible gift of hope and optimism Yosef gave them in preparing for his death!

When people sense that their life is nearing an end, there is a natural concern about dying with dignity. I’m not going to go into the secular definition — of people who choose to end their lives to end the pain and the suffering, for people to only know them as they know themselves, before illness takes its toll. It’s not the halachic way.

In Judaism, one can argue that achieving Death with Dignity comes from living Life with Dignity. It means setting goals. It means having no regrets when life is over. The Yosef way.

It means I live a life in which I make peace with family members. Sometimes it’s a strain.

But imagine the regret of an estranged relationship, when children don’t care about their parents who have died, when siblings — either those sitting shiva together, or those who should

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be sitting in mourning for one another — don’t see the point of feeling loss, because they didn’t care about the deceased at all? ere are a few lessons from Yosef.

1. He makes peace with his brothers.

They are all at his deathbed. And they all make the promise that his bones will be taken out of Egypt. For us, this means that even if we don’t live nearby, we can still be in touch, not lose that connection. Even if it takes a lot of work and effort.

2. A dignified life is one defined by meaningful choices.

Whether it’s an elevated life of Torah and mitzvos, a thoughtful life of constantly growing, having and sharing new experiences, a life of learning, or a life of a consistent schedule that gives a person a sense of purpose — this is what it means to live a life of dignity.

3. Yosef lived to see generations. Not everyone does. Some die young, some don’t have children. These are realities. But those realities don’t mean people can’t have good relationships in the time they are allotted.

4. Yosef leaves a will and testament to his family, in which he talks about G-d, what he believes G-d has in store for his family in the future, and that they should never forget that G-d is there.

5. And finally, Yosef knows he is in exile, but in the end he wants to be buried in the Holy Land. He taught his children to be mindful of a future redemption.

Many who lived with dignity died with the ultimate dignity, having made all the necessary plans and arrangements for their families, so they too left no regrets, except the only we always feel: “I wish we had more time to spend together.”

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A dignified life is one defined by meaningful choices.

Fri Dec 21 / 13 Tevet Vayechi Candlelighting: 4:13 pm Havdalah: 5:22 pm

Fri Dec 28 / 20 Tevet Shemot Candlelighting: 4:17 pm Havdalah: 5:26 pm

Fri Jan 4 / 27 Tevet Vaera Candlelighting: 4:23 pm Havdalah: 5:33 pm

Mon Jan 7 / 1 Shevat Rosh Chodesh Shevat

Fri Jan 11 / 5 Shevat Bo Candlelighting: 4:30 pm Havdalah: 5:40 pm

Fri Jan 18 / 12 Shevat Beshalach Candlelighting: 4:37 pm Havdalah: 5:48 pm

Fri Jan 25 / 19 Shevat Yitro Candlelighting: 4:46 pm Havdalah: 5:56 pm

Five Towns times from White Shul

Kosher bookworm

AlAn JAy geRbeR

Jewish Star columnist

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question — Do You Know Hilchos Shabbos? — is the subject of this week’s essay. Specifically, a new book with that question as its title. Published by Menucha Publishers, this halachic work of over three hundred pages is patterned along the lines of the questions dealing with the most practical acts that are the source of much of the debate as to proper religious practice on the Shabbos.

The author of this work is Rabbi Michoel Fletcher whose biography includes educational background in halachic studies with such legendary rabbis as Rav Leib Lapian zt”l and Rav Moshe Schwab zt”l.

In his time at Gateshead, Rabbi Fletcher had the privilege of being a ben bayis of Rav Mattisyahu Salamon shlit”a, now the esteemed mashgiach ruchani at Lakewood Yeshiva. According to the author, he was the “most influential guide and support when I decided to forgo other options and continue learning and teaching Torah for over [the next] four decades.”

Over a decade ago, the author moved to Is-

rael and settled in Ramat Bet Shemesh, where Rav Shlomo Zalman Perlstein is his mara d’asra. In the author’s words, Rav Perlstein is a scholar of rare stature who welcomes Rabbi Fletcher and came to serve the author in practical guidance in all his work of Jewish law.

Among those who reviewed the text of this book were Harav Tuvya Weiss, av beis din of the Eidah Hachareidis of Jerusalem; Harav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, the rav and av beis din of Gateshead, UK; and HaRav Moshe Heinemann of the United States.

To give you a taste of the flavor of his style below please find for your edification the text of the introduction to this sacred work. Read and learn from the hand and mind of a master. ho has time to spare? We are so busy.

Hopefully men have fixed times for learning, but how much can one learn in an hour or two, relative to what we need to know? Women have many responsibilities too and spare time is at a premium.

“Baruch Hashem for Shabbos, our weekly escape from the pressures of the outside world.

“Baruch Hashem for Shabbos, our weekly

opportunity to interact with our families.

“Baruch Hashem for Shabbos, our weekly pit stop to recharge our spiritual batteries.

“It is the halachos of Shabbos that create the framework for our Shabbos activities.

Clearly we need to know the halachos to observe Shabbos properly and in order to gain the most from it. There are excellent sefarim already available for those who have the time for serious study of the halachos of Shabbos from beginning to end. But how many of us haave that time? If we have such sefarim they are almost invariably put away on our bookshelves only to be brought out when we want to look something up.

“This sefer is designed for people with more limited time who want to learn or review the halachos of Shabbos in a stimulating way. It can be learned in a formal context or in an informal way, for instance at the Shabbos table or at Shabbos groups. A question-and-answer format is popular with all age groups. Even those who are experts in hilchos Shabbos will find the sefer a good way of discussing the halachos with their families.

“There are nearly five hundred questions,

We can relate to them as people.

They are not perfect, just like us.

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Yosef’s reward, befitting his actions Torah

RAbbi dAvid eTengoff

Jewish Star columnist

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he concluding verses of parashat Vayechi present Yosef’s final words to his brothers.

They contain both a reminder of Hashem’s promise to ultimately redeem the Jewish people from Egypt, and Yosef’s poignant personal request: “G-d will surely remember you and take you up out of this land to the land that He swore to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov … G-d will surely remember you, and you shall take up my bones out of here.”

Here, Yosef reveals the depth of his faith in Hashem, twice declaring, “G-d will surely remember you.” In this context, he imposes an oath upon his brothers and their descendants to transport his bones with them in the course of the promised Redemption and bury him in Israel. In so doing, he emulated his father, Yaakov, who had insisted Yosef take an oath not to bury him in Egypt, but with his forebears in Israel

(Bereishit 47: 29-31).

A straightforward reading of our passage indicates that the obligation to transport Yosef’s bones from Egypt and bury him in Israel was delegated to the entire Jewish people.

When the Exodus takes place, Sefer Shemot 13:19 tells us that Moshe, as the representative of the entire Jewish people, gathered Yosef’s remains and began the long process of reinterring him in Israel: “Moshe took Yosef’s bones with him, for he [Yosef] had adjured the sons of Yisrael, saying, ‘G-d will surely remember you, and you shall bring up my bones from here with you.’” he first chapter of Mishnah Sotah (7 and 9) utilizes this to teach us a crucial lesson about how our present behaviors determine the way we will be treated by Hashem and our fellow man in the future.

“According to the manner in which a person acts, others [G-d and man] will act toward him … This [general rule] is in effect when it comes to matters of a positive nature as well … Yosef

RAbbi mARc d. Angel

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his week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, includes Yaakov’s last words to his sons.

He described his fourth son, Yehuda, as a lion, and stated that the scepter of kingship would never depart from Yehuda and his descendants. All the brothers and their tribes would turn to Yehuda foa leadership. What did Yehuda do to deserve this singular role?

The answer may be suggested in the story of Yosef’s threat to keep Binyamin in Egypt as his servant. The brothers, believing that Yosef was a ruler of Egypt, were in a terrible quandary.

They knew that their father Yaakov would be devastated by the loss of Binyamin. They knew that they had to find a way to confront Yosef

as Hashem clothed the naked [Adam and Chava] … so, too, should you clothe the naked. Just as Hashem visited the sick [Avraham after his brit milah] …so, too, should you visit the sick. Just as Hashem comforted the mourners [Yitzhak after Avraham’s passing] …so, too, should you comfort the mourners. Just as Hashem buried the dead [Moshe] …so, too, should you bury the dead.”

Quite simply, our goal is to emulate the Almighty’s actions in all of our deeds. s my rebbi and mentor Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik noted on many occasions, v’halachta b’drachav emerges as the fundamental underpinning of Judaism’s ethical structure. By emulating the actions of the Holy One blessed be He, we create substantive changes in ourselves, and positively impact those with whom we interact. In this sense, we become partners with Hashem in creating the world — shutfim im Hashem b’maaseh Bereishit.

With Hashem’s help, may we merit to fulfill the mitzvah of halachta b’drachov in its most profound sense. Then may we may become shutfim im Hashem b’maaseh Bereishit, to make the world a better and nobler place, and, may the middah k’neged middah we receive be replete with merit.

was an expert businessman. With all his financial acumen, why didn’t he try to make a deal of some sort with Yosef? Apparently, his business skills failed him at this desperate moment.

Indeed, all of the brothers failed to muster the courage and quick-wittedness to stand up to Yosef and fight for their brother Binyamin, for their father Yaakov, and for the honor of their family. All but Yehuda. ehuda’s life before this crisis had not been one of uniform courage or brilliance. The Torah makes careful note of his various failings. Yet Yehuda’s personality undergoes a gradual development. He is able to admit error. He is able to stand up against his brothers in their plan to murder Yosef.

And at the critical moment, when Binyamin’s life is at stake, only Yehuda comes forward to challenge Yosef and to risk his own life in the process.

Yehuda argues with eloquence. He is poised and articulate. He tells Yosef that he will stay

in Egypt as a servant instead of Binyamin, but that Binyamin must be returned to his father.

Yehuda is so persuasive and so sensitive to the feelings of his father, that Yosef can no longer hold back tears. Yosef cries. He tells his brothers who he really is. The brothers reconcile. All because of Yehuda’s courage.

Yehuda is a lion. He has the presence of mind and the strength of character that all the other brothers lacked. In that one moment, Yehuda proved himself worthy of kingship.

All of us face crises in life. All of us confront problems. Many, like Yehuda’s brothers, find themselves unable to take responsibility, to make necessary sacrifices, to act with courage. Many, like Yehuda’s brothers, have various talents--and yet they allow themselves to be silenced in the face of challenge.

We need to learn from Yehuda’s example.

We need to understand that leadership requires clarity of thought, unshakeable commitment to what’s right, and a lion’s courage to take action. If kingship was assigned to Yehuda, the Torah calls on all of us to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” We must be lions, not laggards.

Our goal is to emulate the Almighty.

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Of lions and laggards Angel for Shabbat

merited the right to bury his father [Yaakov], and there was no one among his brothers who was greater than he. As the Torah states: ‘So Yosef went up to bury his father … And chariots and horsemen also went up with him, and the camp was very numerous’ (Bereishit 50:7, 9).”

The Mishnah goes on to inform us that Yosef was worthy of the greatest possible respect and, therefore, it was only fitting that the most prestigious person alive at the time should be involved in his burial in the Land of Israel. The operating principle here is the well-known concept of middah k’neged middah — according to the manner in which a person acts, G-d and man will act toward him.

What is the standard of behavior that should guide us? We are fortunate that the Torah provides us with a clear and direct answer to this question: “V’halachta b’drachav” (“And you shall walk in His path,” Devarim 28:9).

This commandment is explicated in a celebrated passage in Talmud Bavli, Sotah 14a: “Just

and make him change his mind.

Reuven was firstborn. He had a strong, impetuous personality. Why didn’t he come forward? Apparently his bravura abandoned him at this moment of crisis.

Shimon and Levi were prone to violent action. They wiped out the men of Shechem. Why didn’t they challenge Yosef? Apparently their courage melted when facing a regal opponent.

Yissachar, according to rabbinic tradition, was the family’s great Torah scholar. He devoted his days to study and spiritual contemplation. Why didn’t this man of G-d stand up to Yosef? Apparently, his holiness and scholarship did not lead to making him fit for courageous action.

Zevulun, according to rabbinic tradition,

In one moment, he proved himself worthy of kingship.

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19 THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

Shabbos in law and tradition

many of which are asked frequently within families all over the Jewish world. The answers are not short text-book answers but are personalized, advising the questioner what to do in that particular situation. The characters are named so that we an relate to them as ordinary people. They are not perfect, just like us. The sefer does not claim to be exhaustive but hopefully it will encourage people to study the halachos in more detail if they have the opportunity.

“What is perhaps unique about this work is that while it is a serious sefer with many piskei halachos, it’s written in an informal, reader-friendly style. The answers sometimes suggest how we can encourage our children and how to interact with family members.

There is even a touch of humor; after all, one of the key ways of trying to ensure that our children will want to build their own Jewish homes is by infusing our homes with simchah, particularly on Shabbos and at the Shabbos table. The first chapters concentrate on honoring Shabbos and other positive mitzvos of Shabbos, before going on to activities that we do not do on Shabbos. This order gives people a more positive feeling about the day.

“In difficult situations, I try to find halachic solutions. Needless to say the answers are carefully researched and have been approved by gedolei harabbanim and talmidei chachamim in Eretz Yisrael and in chutz laAretz. All the sources are noted and the notes themselves sometimes contain important information.”

December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

20

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In Congress: Border barriers, budgets and Israel Politics to Go

JEff DuNEtz

Jewish Star columnist

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n Friday Dec. 21, parts of the United States government may run out of money and parts of the federal government will shut down, all because Senator Chuck Schumer and his followers object to something he used to support.

On the bright side, over seventy-five percent of the federal budget has already been passed, and anything labeled vital will get funded no matter what, which includes interest on the federal debt, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, food stamps and other safety net services.

The reason for the possible shutdown is $5 billion dollars, about one-tenth of one percent of the White House’s total ask of $4.094 trillion for this year’s federal budget. The money would be spent by Homeland Security to build another section of the promised southern border wall system (some areas will have a wall, others a fence or perhaps only electronic monitoring).

But as he has done with practically every-

thing since Donald Trump was inaugurated, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is making his decisions based on politics. In recent weeks, he has insisted that he will not allow more than $1.3 billion for border protection, none of it for a barrier.

He told the press two weeks ago the money was “for border security, not a concrete wall or increases in detention beds or [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents.” He added that his party “would not agree to more border security funding.” t’s strange that Schumer objects to the wall, yet in 2006 — before he was the Senate Majority Leader, before Donald Trump was president — Chuck Schumer voted in favor of the Secure Fence Act, a bill that originated with Long Island’s own Peter King (RNY).

The primary goal of the Secure Fence Act was the same as the wall today: to help secure America’s borders to decrease illegal entry, drug trafficking, and security threats by building 700 miles of physical barrier along the Mexico-Unit-

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ed States border. Rep. King’s bill required the building of a double-layered fence with barbed wire on top and room for a security vehicle to patrol between the layers.

Only about 36.3 miles of the fence was built, most of it during the administration of Bush #43. President Obama’s first DHS secretary, Janet Napolitano, “used her discretion” to downgrade what was outlined in the bill.

According to DHS, along with the 36.3 miles barrier fencing required by the Secure Fence Act, they’ve built 300 miles of a vehicle fence and 353 miles of pedestrian fence along the Southwest border. The vehicle fence is capable of blocking cars, but any able-bodied human child, or even an overweight bald political columnist, can walk right through them. The 18-foot pedestrian fence is easily scaled with a ladder. The Trump Administration’s wall system upgrades the requirement from a double fence to a 30-foot wall.

But Chuck Schumer says the wall is unnecessary and a waste of money because it won’t

Schumer is making his decisions based on politics.

To Eno: Make music, not boycotts Viewpoint

BEN COHEN

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he battle over a cultural boycott of Israel involving two of the most seminal rock musicians of the last half-century continued in earnest last week. In one corner was Nick Cave — former vocalist of the Birthday Party and presently the frontman of the Bad Seeds. In the other, Brian Eno — a founding member of Roxy Music, whose extraordinary talents as a producer can be heard on records by David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads and Coldplay, among others.

Cave played two concerts in Tel Aviv in 2017, much to the chagrin of Eno and the handful of other artists who believe that quarantining Israeli audiences and shunning Israeli musicians will help bring about the liberation of Palestine. Cave made a resounding case about why the boycott of Israeli was morally wrong, probably anti-Semitic and of no tangible benefit to the Palestinians themselves, for whom he has raised money in the past.

And like the myriad other rock and pop musicians who have defied the boycott and played in Israel — like John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon, Mor-

rissey, Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga — Cave has never expressed regret at having performed there.

Eno, by contrast, was one of the first serious musical artists to endorse BDS, a position he has since maintained with a dogmatism utterly at odds with his approach to music. This observation was noted by Cave, who reopened the boycott debate by making public — in response to a fan’s request for clarification — a private email that he sent to Eno about Israel.

“Brian Eno, beyond any other musician, taught my friends and me how to make music,” Cave wrote in a footnote to that email.

“The records he made remain some of the most important and essential recordings I have ever heard. So, if there seems to be a thread of anguish that runs through this letter, this is indeed the case. I am writing to my hero.” am not a musician, of course, but I think I know how Cave feels. I am a music lover, and during those years when I was devouring as much contemporary music as I could find — blues from the Mississippi Delta, roots and reggae from Jamaica, space-age electronic music from Germany, punk and new wave from England and the United States — Brian Eno occupied a very special place

in my vinyl collection. What I loved about Eno’s music (and still do) was his ability to overlay otherworldly sonic dimensions onto music that otherwise would have sounded rather ordinary.

Eno also wrote some great rock ’n’ roll songs — “Third Uncle,” “Kings Lead Hat” — in the years after his departure from Roxy Music. He produced two of David Bowie’s greatest albums — “Low” and “Heroes” — as well as U2’s classic, “The Joshua Tree.” But he was equally confident and creative when turning his hand to classical music, as evidenced by his ethereal rendition of Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major.

And then there was Eno’s own, singular creation, known as “ambient music” — compositions with little discernible melody that blended prerecorded natural sounds with electronic drones, encouraging the listener to hear music as part of their overall sensory experience of the world, rather than as a song with a beginning, a middle and an end. he BDS movement bullies musicians and artists into treating Israelis as the only human beings in the world who should be denied the opportunity to hear a piece of music, read a particular book or view a specific painting.

Brian Eno, cultural policeman.

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work. That is a bogus claim, especially if you look at Israel. The wall/fence system built along the eastern side of Judea and Samaria has almost eliminated suicide bombing attacks from the West Bank.

There’s also a wall along the border with Egypt. That barrier’s purpose is similar to Trump’s. Israel’s southern border barrier was erected to prevent illegal immigrants from Africa crossing into Israel.

Yehuda Ben Meir, head of the National Security and Public Opinion Project at the Tel Avivbased Institute for National Security Studies, told the Jerusalem Post, “It was constructed in cooperation with Cairo and includes some military crossing points so that the Israeli and Egyptian armies can collaborate when needed.”

The Jerusalem Post also detailed the effectiveness of the southern barrier system: “Today, there are approximately 40,000 African migrants and asylum seekers in Israel, according to the Interior Ministry. About 70 percent are Eritrean and 20% are Sudanese and almost all of them arrived between 2006 and 2012. In 2010, the height of the wave, about 1,500 illegally crossed from Sinai into Israel each month.

“After breaking ground in 2010, Israel comSee Congress on page 23

Perhaps the most insidious example of this behavior came in September 2016, when Eno refused permission to Israel’s Batsheva dance company to use his piece “Neroli” for one of its performances, writing to the troupe’s artistic director, “though in one way I’m flattered that you chose my music for your work, I’m afraid it creates a serious conflict for me.”

That “conflict” was, in fact, a petty objection to the Israeli embassy’s partial sponsorship of Batsheva’s performance. “Your dance company might not be able to formally distance itself from the Israeli government but I can and will,” continued Eno. “I don’t want my music to be licensed for any event sponsored by the Israeli embassy.”

In other words, Eno was saying “not in my name” — a slogan that makes its adoptees feel noble and courageous, but looks to most other people like gratuitous narcissism. till, the question remains: Why? In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Eno drew an analogy between how a society develops and how music is made. “If you think of the classical picture of how things were organized in an orchestra — where you have the composer, conductor, leader of the orchestra, section principals, section sub principals, rank and file — the flow of information is always downwards, ” said Eno. “The guy at the bottom doesn’t get to talk to that guy at the top. Almost none of us now would think that hierarchic model of social organisation, the pyramid, is a good way to arrange things.”

See Eno on page 21

S

Jonathan S. tobin

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odern Zionism began in the courtyard of the École Militaire in Paris in 1895, where Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl witnessed the appalling spectacle of the degradation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

A loyal and assimilated Jewish officer, Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted of treason as part of a scheme to cover up the guilt of a non-Jew. His insignia were ripped from his uniform and his sword was broken as he proclaimed, “I am innocent. Long live France.”

But what was most chilling to Herzl was not so much the cruelty of the ceremony as the reaction of the Paris mob that had gathered to watch.

Baying for the blood of the innocent man, cries of “Death to the Jews!” rang out in the historic site.

At that moment, he later said, he realized that if Jews were treated thusly in what was widely considered at the time to the be the most enlightened city on earth, then they had no future anywhere in Europe.

He soon set to work on writing The Jewish State, the book that would give birth to a movement and eventually the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel. his story is brought to mind by an equally astonishing spectacle that has been taking place in the City of Light today. In the last month, demonstrators have jammed the streets of Paris protesting the imposition of a fuel tax by the

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government of French President Emmanuel Macron. With gas already costing a staggering $5.54 a gallon, Macron decided to raise taxes another 25 cents as part of an effort to combat global warming. But he didn’t count on hundreds of thousands of French citizens rising up and demanding that the tax be rescinded.

Those who took to the streets wore the gilets jaunes, or yellow high-visibility vests that French citizens are required to keep in their cars in case of emergencies. They were angry at Macron, who only a year after being elected president in a landslide victory for his technocratic centrist movement is already in big trouble. He’s been denounced as the “president of the rich” for his high-handed green policies that hit the middle class hard, and was forced to rescind the tax.

But Macron’s political woes are only part of this story. While initial coverage of the protests emphasized the normative populist slogans against Macron, we’re now learning that one of the themes sounded by the protesters is one that should be familiar to students of French and European history: blaming it all on the Jews.

Many of the protesters have been carrying signs and chanting slogans calling Macron the “whore of the Jews” and “the Jews’ puppet.”

What, you may ask, do the Jews have to do with French economic policy? The correct answer is nothing. But to those wearing the yellow vests, Jews are apparently synonymous with the “establishment” — the unseen and anonymous powerbrokers who are manipulat-

ing their lives and destroying their country.

Many of the demonstrators are clearly in sympathy with the Front National, the rightwing party founded by notorious anti-Semite Jean-Marie Le Pen and now led by his slightly more respectable daughter, Marine.

But also joining them in the streets are Muslim immigrants from North Africa, whose presence in France the Front National was created to oppose.

Among their ranks is French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, another notorious Jewhater who created the quenelle gesture that is synonymous with French anti-Semitism.

Just as left-wing intellectual elites have joined Muslim immigrants in many European countries to form a bizarre coalition united only by hatred for Jews and Israel, so, too, the French populists have brought together disparate strains of anti-Semitism. either entirely of the left nor the right, the gilets jaunes have every right to be upset by Macron’s contempt for French workers and farmers. But following tradition, they have adapted myths about powerful Jews controlling the world to explain their troubles.

Ruth Wisse famously taught that anti-Semitism was the most successful ideology of the 20th century because it adapted to a variety of disparate movements: fascism, Nazism and communism. In the 21st century, that process continues. Islamism, right-wing populism and left-wing intersectionalism have embraced Jew-hatred.

In the last week, we have learned that the

AntiSemitism isn’t the preserve of left or right.

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leaders of the Women’s March — the leading group organizing protests against President Trump — were spreading conspiracy theories about Jews even in their initial meetings. As Tablet magazine reported, Tamika Mallory, the group’s president, spent part of their first planning gathering talking about Jews controlling the slave trade — a pernicious myth that has been a key talking point for the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan, whom Mallory admires.

Just as right-wing populists were prepared to praise the yellow vests movement as a laudable example of pushback against globalist elites like Macron, the fashionable left has spent much of the last two years applauding Mallory and other Women’s March leaders, such as vicious antiZionist Linda Sarsour. But both have been fatally compromised by Jew-hatred. nti-Semitism isn’t the preserve of the left or the right, of the elites or the populists.

It’s something that all those seeking to manipulate or control people inevitably employ.

And contrary to what critics of Israel tell us, their complaints about Jews have nothing to do with what actual Jews are or have done. Anti-Semitism is always about the anti-Semites.

While we can hold onto the messianic hope that someday such sentiments will be eradicated, the persistence of anti-Semitism reminds us of the prescience of Herzl’s insight into the importance of a Jewish state, which gave the Jews the ability to defend themselves — something denied them for 20 centuries.

So long as every scoundrel with a cause is willing to use the Jews as a scapegoat, there is no substitute for Israel — or for Zionism itself.

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

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Anti-Israel faculty at BDS forefront F alex Joffe and aSaf RomiRowSky BESA Center

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he campus BDS movement has benefited greatly from the normalization of antiSemitism in the United States and around the world. Many American universities are toxic for students and faculty who have an open mind about Israel. Those faculty who risk their jobs, tenure and funding to speak openly on Israel’s behalf need support now more than ever.

With the normalizing of anti-Semitism comes the normalizing of BDS. Professors and academics who support BDS feel empowered by the belief that their actions respond to White House policies. Moreover, Israel is seen as a right-wing issue, especially on campuses dominated by the political and cultural left. This allows anti-Israel voices to be treated as normal and moral.

Faculty opposed to Israel are at the forefront of BDS, hiding behind the increasingly thin facade of academic freedom to launch systemic attacks on Israel, its supporters and on the structure of the university itself.

Examples abound, from Rutgers women’s studies professor Jasbir Puar, who published an anti-Semitic blood libel and received an award for it, to University of Michigan American studies professor John Cheney-Lippold, who refused

Eno...

Continued from page 20 Eno, then, prefers the horizontal to the vertical — the act of debating and collaborating, rather than simply receiving instructions from a man wielding a baton. Elsewhere in the same interview, he described his own role as helping “people communicate with each other in one way or another.” All well and good, but utterly incompatible with support for the BDS movement!

to write a letter of recommendation for a student who wanted to study in Israel.

Facts and scholarship have no room in the world of BDS or identity politics. Feelings and politics shape everything related to Israel, and, increasingly, to the university as a whole. More and more, only one set of ideas is presented, in which Israel is the greatest evil not only in the Middle East but in the world, and in which it must be treated uniquely.

Turkey’s jailing of tens of thousands of academics does not register, much less China’s imprisonment of a million Muslims in reeducation camps. Such comparative analysis, the basis for all social science, is dismissed as “what-about-ism.” cademics opposed to Israel demand not only a monopoly on the university but impunity from criticism. After the CheneyLippold affair, academic BDS supporters came out in his defense, decrying the University of Michigan’s tepid response. So did several academic organizations, including the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, along with BDS groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and local ArabAmerican representatives. Michigan’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies even held a BDS event, including a “teach-in,” with

support from other departments.

Dozens of Michigan faculty members also signed an angry letter demanding the university not punish Cheney-Lippold, claiming that the right to deny students letters of recommendation for study in a single place — Israel — is a function of academic freedom and free speech. Professional responsibilities to students do not enter the discussion.

BDS cuts to the heart of what a university is supposed to be — an impartial platform to receive an education and career support, or a political platform shaped by the views of an angry minority of Israel-hating faculty.

Academics who support BDS demand that their politics shape the lives of their students, while eschewing all responsibility and even criticism. John K. Wilson, the co-editor of the AAUP’s blog Academe, told Insider Higher Ed that “it is morally wrong for professors to impose their political views on student letters of recommendation,” but still argues that the professor should not be punished.

There are almost no consequences, except writ large, when institutions like Evergreen State or the University of Missouri, which experienced anger from faculty and students over racial issues, found enrollments plummeting and state legislators questioning the wisdom of supporting their bitter politics.

BDS, after all, is a pyramid, with its anti-Zionist program set by a handful of ideologues who transmit talking points to the activist base. And of all people, Brian Eno — an artist who has delighted in smashing conventions — has turned into a cultural policeman, ready to fire off an insulting missive to any fellow musician who dares to contemplate contact with Israelis.

Eno is not the only great artist to have crossed swords with the Jews. That list includes Chopin, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and other poets, painters and musicians whose output leaves you contemplating how such profound beauty can coexist with

the crude, paranoid fantasies of the anti-Semite.

Eno, doubtless, would angrily deny that antiSemitism has anything to do with his loathing of Israel, which is the standard response of the boycott movement. Yet from someone with his intellect, we are entitled to expect much more.

So, Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, if you happen to read this, please know that any explanation you provide on this point will be read, considered and argued over avidly, especially by those of us who love your music. We may decry your views, but we’re not going to boycott you.

Facts have no room in the world of identity politics.

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ew professors are willing to stand up to a nearly monolithic campus culture of reviling Israel. Those who are willing to speak out need our support, if simply to re-establish a balance that says Israel is not an evil entity, but a state like any other. Most faculty members who choose to speak out are Jews and Israelis, and many are not specialists in Middle East studies. They do so out of a sense of support not only for Israel, but for academic ideals of fairness and balance.

But they have not been able to change the environment, and many more faculty members are cowed into submission by BDS activists among their colleagues. It is not known how many are denied promotions, tenure, grants or fellowships on the basis of their support for Israel.

Since 9/11, we have seen significant growth in pro-Israel student empowerment, but not enough to create long-term change. In fact, it appears that student BDS activists are increasingly successful at creating an environment in which Israelis, supporters of Israel and even Jews at large can be ostracized, and even directly threatened or harassed.

University administrations — anxious to keep enrollments high — have swept incidents under the rug. The pyrotechnics of demonstrations and “apartheid walls” speak to the intolerance that reigns on campuses in the name of “social justice.” The letter of recommendation incident demonstrates that some faculty members are ready to punish students who step out of line.

Does the same spirit of hatred prevail inside classrooms?

Faculty members are not required to support or even like Israel, but fulminating against it and punishing those who take interest should be beyond the pale. Academics who want to reestablish balance about Israel, as well as those who have intellectual or emotional interests there, need help. One network — Scholars for Peace in the Middle East — that provides such help through shared best practices, mentoring and guidance to students and junior faculty.

Israel’s treatment is a measure of the health of a university. Faculty who want to see Israel addressed fairly need support. Students, parents and alumni should watch carefully as they make decisions about which schools to attend, what courses to take and where to give their money.

Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky are co-authors of Religion, Politics and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief (2013).

THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

128 years after Dreyfus, ‘yellow vests’ v. Jews

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Yaakov’s blessing...

On his way down to Lavan, Yaakov swore, “If G-d will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and He will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I will return in peace Continued from page 18 to the house of my father, then Hashem will ndeed, this is the essence of the idolatry of be for me a G-d” (28:22-21). Essentially, as he ancient Egypt.

Sukkot, the Jewish people would come up to left the tents of study, Yaakov recognized that Paganism is the worship of nature in all Jerusalem to fulfill the Biblical command to vishis challenge was to remember, even when it the Temple three times a year on the festivals. its power and beauty. The pagan, more than herding the flocks of Lavan, that bread comes No one save a rightful king from the House of anything else, immerses himself in the physifrom G-d, and that everything in the physical David was allowed sit in the courtyard of the cal world of nature. In the end, in the world of world is a means to achieve a higher purpose.

Temple. This would mean that while Recha- nature, might makes right, everything inevitaAnd perhaps this was Yaakov’s question revam, the grandson of King David, would sit, bly dies, and there is no purpose beyond the garding Menashe and Ephraim: who are these Yeravam, who was from the tribe of Ephraim, here and now. two young men? Are they Jews growing up in Judaism, however, suggests that there is would stand like everyone else. a palace, ever aware of their roles as vehicles Realizing that this would be a reminder that a world of difference between one who eats for some great and wonderful destiny, or are he was not the rightful king, he had golden to live and one who lives to eat. Ultimately, they princes of Egypt, focused only on the calves placed at central locations in the king- nature is not the goal; it is a vehicle to a highhere and now? dom and discouraged the people from going up er purpose. Ancient Egypt, however, was all Indeed, this was the great tragedy of Yerato Jerusalem, causing the people to fall back to about the worship of nature, which is why its vam, as well as Achav and Yehu. They were their idolatrous ways. In Jewish history, Yera- gods were symbols of nature. It was this that kings of Israel, with the potential to change vam has come to represent the epitome of a prompted Yaakov’s question to Yosef. the course of history, yet became so immersed After twenty-two years in Egypt, Yaakov’s good idea gone bad. in the trappings of kingship that they lost sight of the purpose behind it all.

Yaakov wanted to build a family into a nation that would change the course of human history and fulfill the mission of the Jewish people: to bring G-d into the world, to make This is a rare opportunity to lead a growing team of Torah Judaism and issues of interest to local Orthodox the world a place full of all that G-d reprecommunities. staff reporters, correspondents and photographers as sents.

Long Island’s newspaper of Orthodox Judaism expands There is also an opening for a P/T Associate Editor to his is what we are doing when we bless its coverage in print and on multiple online platforms. edit copy and perform a variety of office functions. our children on Friday night, invoking Qualified candidates will have demonstrated Send a descriptive cover letter, resume, clips (or links). the names of Menashe and Ephraim. We In subject line, put EDITOR or ASSOCIATE EDITOR. journalistic proficiency and have an understanding of run through the week, so immersed in the world of nature that we forget what it is really all about. On Shabbat, we get back in touch with our purpose.

What do we think of while we bless our children? Perhaps the greatest challenge in News reporters will cover community events, civic Photographers will cover events in the Five Towns and raising children is teaching them to become elsewhere on Long Island or on the Upper West Side and meetings, school news, local personalities and a range Riverdale on a freelance basis. of Jewish issues. Reporting and writing experience vehicles for increasing G-d’s presence in the (preferably news coverage) is required. An understanding Our newsroom alumni have become news media world. We cannot expect them to get the mesof Jewish issues is a plus. superstars in New York and throughout America. sage if we do not live it.

You will not find a better, more professional growth This position is full-time (although a flexible schedule may Which may well have been Yaakov’s chalopportunity in Jewish media on Long Island. be arranged), with salary, paid holidays, time off, lenge to Yosef: Living in the palace as ruler medical and 401(k). Candidates will also be Send resume, cover letter and clips (or links). In subject of Egypt, have you succeeded in teaching your line, put REPORTER, EDITOR or PHOTOGRAPHER. considered for freelance work. children who really rules the world? Who are these? Are they princes of Egypt, or sons of Yaakov?

And this, indeed, is Yosef’s response: “They are my sons whom G-d has given me here.” communities. P/T and freelance (set your own Write about what you know and care about the most Even here in Egypt, in the palace, they are still schedule!) with the prospect of fame (a Jewish Star — your community, your shul, your schools, your my sons, and they, like me, are still aware that byline!) and if not quite a fortune, a modest stipend. organizations. all of this comes from Hashem as a gift with Sounds intereting? E-mail an inquiry to the editor for The Jewish Star is recruiting neighborhood people a higher purpose than filling the storehouses a prompt callback. Please put NEIGHBORHOOD with a nose for news, people who like to write and of Egypt.

CORRESPONDENT in the subject line. enjoy sharing what’s happening in their local Jewish Perhaps this Shabbat, as we bless our children, we can use the moment to think about where RE we YOU are THE headed and OF whether our chilRE YOU A COLLEGE STUDENT PARENT A STUDENT dren, our ideas and our accomplishments are O YOU KNOW A COLLEGE STUDENT WHO WANTS TO EARN THIS SUMMER really contributing to a better world. much more), so your earning potential is outstanding.

The Jewish Star’s advertising sales and marketing Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem. representatives help businesses and organizations

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real question was who Yosef had become. Was he still the dreamer of dreams? Could he still see the creator of the sun, moon, and stars, even from the darkness of the pit, or was he now the ruler of Egypt immersed in the here and now?

Before blessing the next generation, he wanted to know where this generation stood.

Was Yosef a Jewish Egyptian, or an Egyptian Jew? Had he become so immersed in the land of the Nile that he had forgotten that it was simply a vehicle to something greater?

The more powerful one becomes, the more challenging it is to recall that power is simply a tool of the source of all power: Hashem. his is why Yaakov recalls the original blessing he received when running from Esav all those years ago. For the first time, he had confronted the world of the field and the hunt, of cruelty and nature. He had of necessity taken on the hands of Esav, and he struggled with who he himself had become.

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December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779 THE JEWISH STAR

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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.

Saturday December 22

Tanach Shiur: Community-wide Motzei Shabbos Tanach shiur, now in its 21st season. Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, Parshas Vayechi, perek 50. 7 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. 516-295-5700.

Melava Malka Kumzitz: Benefitting Yeshiva Nefesh Dovid, the only yeshiva in North America for boys with hearing loss. Featuring great food, words of inspiration, and music by Yosef Newcomb. 8:30 pm. 102 Central Ave, Lawrence.

Sunday December 23

Inspiration for Teachers: Torah Umesorah presents a conversation with Rabbi Berel Wein: “Reaching the Hearts & Minds of our Students: The Battle Against Today’s Culture & Values,” for principals, rebbeim, and morot in day schools.

11:30 am. 147-37 70th Rd, Kew Gardens Hills.

RSVP Rabbi Mordechai Besser 212-227-1000.

Net Working: Join Project Extreme for a basketball and real estate networking event. Very limited seating. 5:30 pm. Barclays Center, VIP Suite. ProjectExtreme.org/REevent2018.

Monday December 24

Kosher Komedy: Two hilarious shows at the Broadway Comedy Club, presented by Kenny Gluck. All-star lineup featuring comedians seen on the Tonight Show, Letterman, HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central. First show at 7:15 with optional Chinese buffet at 6; second show singles’ night with Baila Sebrow at 10:00. 318

West 53rd St, Manhattan. $35 at the door; detailed pricing available. 516-983-7654 or email KosherKomedy@yahoo.com.

Tuesday December 25

Community Inspiration: Rav Daniel Stein speaks on “When do Different Times Demand a Different Response?” followed by Rav Mayer Twersky on “Striving and Stretching in Avodas Hashem.” 9:30 am; 10:15 am. 859 Peninsula Blvd. 516-295-0950.

Rabbi Fischel Schacter: World-renowned speaker and author Rabbi Schacter will speak at Bais Torah U’Tefillah. Sushi and Chinese food will be served. 8 pm. 416 Hempstead Ave, West Hempstead. 718-285-9132. Free admission.

Saturday December 29

Tanach Shiur: Community-wide Motzei Shabbos Tanach shiur, now in its 21st season. Rabbi Zvi Ralbag, Parshas Shemos, perek 51. 7 pm. 8 Spruce St, Cedarhurst. 516-295-5700.

Monday December 31, 2018

New Year’s Laughs: Laugh in the New Year with Kosher Komedy. Enjoy gourmet dinner and dessert buffet, open bar, hilarious entertainment, and midnight champagne toast. Proceeds benefit the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh’s fund for terror victims. Dinner 8:30 pm; show at 10:30.

775 Branch Blvd, Cedarhurst. $145 in advance includes dinner; $90 show-only at the door.

Saturday January 5, 2019

Ateres Miriam: Seventh annual dinner, honoring Mr. & Mrs. Dovy Schwadel, Rabbi & Mrs. Yehoshua Rubenstein, and Rabbi & Mrs. Moshe Neuman. 8:30 pm. 390 Broadway, Lawrence.

718-868-3232.

Flatow...

Continued from page 15 after frustration after setback.” At a hearing on the new bill, he told the committee: “Am I frustrated and discouraged? Absolutely. Am I going to quit?

No, Mr. Chairman, I am not. A father’s responsibility to his child does not end with her murder.”

Support came from an unexpected source.

Hillary Clinton announced her bid for a New York Senate seat and needed the Jewish vote, at risk after she had kissed Suha Arafat on the cheek.

At a meetup with the Orthodox community, Flatow asked her: “Do you support the administration’s efforts that are blocking victims of terror from obtaining Iranian assets in this country?”

“She was very direct … She looked at me when she gave her answer … ‘No, I do not.”

Contradicting her husband’s policies? It was an encouraging moment for Flatow.

And, despite repeated setbacks, there was fresh hope in Congress. Rather than reintroducing the weakened bill as a standalone the president could easily veto, supporters attached it to a protection against human trafficking bill that passed the Senate 95-0; the House vote was nearly unanimous.

When they finally got their day in court, the

Congress...

Continued from page 20 pleted the 242-km. (150-mile) fence in December 2013 at a cost of around $450 million. Whereas about 9,500 Africans crossed into Israel illegally in the first six months of 2012, less than three dozen did so in the first six months of 2013, at which time the major components of the barrier had been completed. Illegal immigration from Sinai dropped to 11 cases in 2016 and 0 in 2017.”

Any claim that a border barrier will not work belies the truth. U.S. border agents agree. In a

survey conducted by the National Border Patrol Council, the agents’ union, they overwhelmingly supported adding a “wall system” in strategic locations, embracing Trump’s argument that it will boost their ability to nab or deter would-be illegal immigrants.

When one realizes that border barriers work in Israel, that the U.S. border patrol believes in their efficacy, and that Chuck Schumer supported the secure fence act when George W. Bush was president, it suggests that Schumer’s rationale for blocking the wall is more about partisan politics than anything else.

One of the reasons Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 is that the American people want a wall. It’s time to end the obstruction.

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23 THE JEWISH STAR December 21, 2018 • 13 Tevet 5779

The JEWISH STAR CAlendar of Events

Flatow family was awarded $26 million.

After legal costs, Flatow’s share went to support causes that Alisa would have applauded. One investment: The Alisa Flatow Scholarship Fund, enabling young adults to study in Israel.

“I wonder, in telling this story, if I sometimes sound simply like a man who suffered a terrible misfortune and just won’t stop talking about it,” writes Flatow. “But what I hope I’ve made clear is that all of this is bigger than me — and as much as it hurts a father to say so, it’s bigger than Alisa, too.”

Twenty-three years later, the Flatows’ four surviving children in the United States and Israel are thriving and there are grandchildren galore — four named after the aunt they never met.

Steve has come through it all with a strengthened belief: “Jews, whether in Israel or America, we have the right — not only the right, but the duty — to stand up for ourselves, because if we do not, then who will?”

“As for me, I tried to hit one out of the ballpark using the bat and ball provided by Congress.

I never expected that the Clinton administration would put its full weight against me and other terror victims. When it did happen, I didn’t scream or shout in rage. Instead, I let my lawyers speak for me in court, and I took my case to the public.

“In the end, it may not have been a grand slam, but I believe I did a decent job for a father from New Jersey standing up for his daughter.”

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