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Woodmere salutes fallen firefighter 13 • Bookworm on Bible commentary 7 • Bess Myerson remembered 3

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By Christopher Weber, AP Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America and a New York political force until a series of scandals dubbed the “Bess Mess” forced her into obscurity, has died. She was 90. Myerson died Dec. 14 at her home in Santa Monica, California, according to the Los Angeles coroner’s office and Department of Public Health Vital Records Office. Her death was first reported by The New York Times. The Bronx-born Myerson was hailed as a Jewish, feminist Jackie Robinson — a groundbreaker for her religion and sex — after parlaying her stunning 1945 Miss America victory into national celebrity. The 5-foot-10 dark-haired beauty, unlike her predecessors, accentuated her intelligence. Myerson landed a series of television jobs, from game show hostess to on-air reporter, before her appointment as New York City’s chief consumer watchdog in 1969. The popular Myerson helped Ed Koch win the 1977 mayoral race, deflecting rumors of the bachelor candidate’s homosexuality — which he neither confirmed nor denied — with her constant presence at his side. “The immaculate deception,” cynics called it after the couple shared an election night victory kiss. She made her own bid for office in 1980: an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for U.S. Senate. Three years later, Koch appointed her Cultural Affairs commissioner — an $83,000-a-year post as the city’s liaison to the arts. “People like to read about me,” she said in a 1987 interview. “They like to imagine themselves in my life.” But Myerson’s carefully cultivated image crumbled in the mid-1980s under a barrage of political and personal embarrassments that became known as the Bess Mess. A city background check exposed Myerson as an insanely jealous woman who harassed an ex-boyfriend and his new lover. She repeatedly invoked her right against selfincrimination in a 1986 corruption probe of a subsequent boyfriend, Carl “Andy” Capasso, who was born the year Myerson was crowned. Capasso, a contractor with purported mob ties, pleaded guilty to nine counts of tax evasion. Myerson, Capasso and Judge Hortense Gabel were indicted in October 1987 on a charge of conspiring to fix Capasso’s divorce case. Prosecutors said Gabel’s daughter, Sukhreet, received a city job in return for the judge’s lowering of Capasso’s alimony and child support payments.

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Before that trial began the next year, Myerson was convicted of shoplifting nail polish and earrings from a Pennsylvania store. A 1970 shoplifting conviction was also made public. Although Myerson and her co-defendants were acquitted in the divorce-fixing case, the damage was done. She had already resigned her Koch administration post, and her public career was virtually over. The Miss America Organization said in a statement Monday that Myerson would be remembered for her unwavering commitment to equality. “Bess used her Miss America title to fight-

anti-Semitism and racial bigotry as she traveled around the country,” the organization said. Bess Myerson was born July 16, 1924, the second daughter of Russian immigrants. Raised in a one-bedroom Bronx apartment, she was beloved by her housepainter father, Louis, and beleaguered by her strict mother, Bella. By age 12, Myerson was taller and thinner than her classmates — she once played Olive Oyl in a school production. Her natural beauty soon emerged, and older sister Sylvia shepherded Myerson into the Miss New York City pageant in 1945.

Myerson won, advancing to Atlantic City for the Miss America pageant. Organizers urged her to change her name — they suggested “Betty Merrick” — but Myerson refused. Her title, captured as the horrors of the Holocaust were coming to light, made Myerson a hero to her peers. Walking down the stage to cries of “Mazel tov!” from Jews in the audience, Myerson later recalled thinking, “This victory is theirs.” Not content with the stereotypical role of Miss America, Myerson left an exploitive vaudeville revue and mounted a speaking tour for the Anti-Defamation League. “Miss America’s brainy, too!” announced a Daily News headline about the Hunter College graduate-turned-pageant winner. Myerson remained socially aware through the years. She received the ADL woman of the year award in 1965, the same year she began a seven-year stint as chairwoman of the Bonds for Israel fund. After surviving ovarian cancer in the early 1970s, she took the lead in battling that disease. She was appointed to committees by Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Her first break came on TV game shows. Myerson appeared as the “Lady in Mink” on “The Big Payoff” from 1951 to 1959 and as a panelist on “I’ve Got A Secret” from 1957 to 1968. She served as commentator for the Miss America Pageant from 1964 to 1968. She changed careers in 1969, when Mayor John V. Lindsay named her the city’s consumer affairs commissioner. She stayed until 1973. She backed Koch in the hotly contested 1977 mayoral race, holding hands with him as they marched in the Columbus Day parade. Koch media adviser David Garth said it was Myerson who put his candidate over the top. Her loyalty was repaid Feb. 23, 1983, when Koch appointed her cultural affairs commissioner. It was a decision that did neither much good, however. Myerson’s problems were exposed amid several other scandals that kept Koch from winning a fourth term as mayor. But while Koch never left the public eye, Myerson’s drop was precipitous — occasional appearances at cancer fundraisers or visits to friends’ birthday parties. Myerson, who was twice divorced, is survived by a daughter, Barra Grant, from her first marriage. Former Associated Press writer Larry McShane contributed to this report.

Arab woman who backs Israel runs for parliament By Alon Bernstein and Isaac Scharf, AP KIBBUTZ YEHIAM, Israel — An ArabIsraeli Muslim woman is running for a parliament seat as a member of a hard-line religious Jewish party aligned with the West Bank settler movement and that opposes Palestinian independence. The bid by iconoclast Anett Haskia, a 45-year-old hairdresser and mother of three, comes after she gave a series of bombastic television interviews in support of Israel’s military this summer during its war against Hamas in Gaza. Now she is the lone Arab vying for a spot on the Jewish Home party’s list ahead of its January primary. Arab citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the country’s population, strongly identify with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They generally oppose Israeli military actions, do not serve in the Israeli army

and complain of deep-seated discrimination. Haskia’s children, however, voluntarily enlisted in the Israeli army — including one son who served in an elite unit in Gaza during the summer war. “Just because I was born in the Jewish state doesn’t mean a Jew is better than me,” Haskia recently told The Associated Press in Hebrew. “I sent the children to war, and nobody can tell me that I, Anett, the Arab, am second class.” A self-described nonconformist, Haskia opposed her family’s wishes and broke cultural taboos by divorcing her husband and getting a collection of body piercings and tattoos. Born in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Akko in northern Israel, she lives with her children on an Israeli kibbutz, a rare Arab in one of Israel’s cooperative living commu-

nities. Her organization called Real Voice represents Arab high school graduates who want to serve in the Israeli army or in national service, like volunteering in hospitals. Such activities are required of Israel’s Jewish youth. The Israeli military puts the total of Israeli Arabs serving in its ranks at “several hundred. “On one hand they want to be soldiers or to do national service, and on the other hand they are scared of hostile attacks, not only from their families but from society,” Haskia said. She opposes the Palestinian goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel won in the 1967 war from Jordan, saying it would only prolong the conflict with Israel. She encourages investment in Israel’s Arab community instead.

“Today, I can’t say that the settlements are a blow to Israel, no. The settlements are a blessing for Israel,” she said. It remains unclear whether Haskia will win a seat in parliament. Opinion polls forecast the Jewish Home winning some 16 seats, which would make it one of the largest factions in the 120-member Knesset. But party officials say competition in the upcoming primary will be fierce, making it difficult for her to secure a place high enough on the party’s list to guarantee a seat. Haskia says her unorthodox views have cost her some clients, while gaining her some unlikely supporters. “Those who embrace me, the extremists who used to write me, ‘We hate Arabs’ or ‘We don’t want Arabs,’ today call me their sister,” she said.

THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

Bess Myerson, Jewish Miss America, dies at 90

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January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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[EDITOR’S NOTE: In a commentary published on page one of last week’s Jewish Star, author Abraham H. Miller stated that Lawrence “has conspicuously retreated into silence.” While Lawrence’s public reaction may not have been immediate and Miller’s column was prepared before Lawrence’s statement was made available, the statement was in fact distributed prior to the column’s publication. The Jewish Star apologizes for this oversight.]

of one student do not represent the views of this University. I have consulted with the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and they are strongly supportive of my position and of this statement. I write just after Hanukkah and Christmas, a time of year in which many faiths celebrate the search for light at a time of darkness. That is what we are committed to. I wish our entire Brandeis family and our country a healing and a fulfilling 2015 ahead. With warm regards, Fred

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In the wake of press coverage surrounding a free-speech controversy at Brandeis University, Brandeis President Frederick M. Lawrence, sent the following message to members of the Brandeis community.

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s many in our community are aware, subsequent to the murder of two NYPD officers a Brandeis student posted comments to Twitter that expressed a lack of sympathy with the slain officers. Those comments were then re-posted by another Brandeis student on a third party blog. I write to address the nature of the discourse of the past days. Then I want to share my own response to the murders, explaining why I condemn any lack of sympathy with the murdered officers. Let me begin with one key matter – safety of our students. We have no greater concern than the safety of our students at Brandeis. We have taken and will continue to take all efforts to safeguard our students. The discussion of the past week continues a national conversation on race and law enforcement that is bound to be heated and controversial. We will defend the free expression rights of all students in this debate. Arguments, even heated arguments, are one thing; threats are another. Within our community, we must address each other in ways that do not threaten each other. Any student who feels unsafe should notify public safety immediately. It is critically important that we be able to have discussions about complex and charged issues in a climate of mutual respect and civility. This is an ambition for the full society – it is a mission for our University. I am proud that most of the discussion on our campus over the past days has been characterized by the kind of respectful and reasoned discourse that is the essence of an institution of higher learning. A group of Brandeis students has been urging that this discussion transition away from social media, where the lack of faceto-face interaction, the instant ability to post and the brevity of posts can enable destructive language, and transition instead into settings based on direct human connection and into more rational forms of expression. I support these students’ efforts to make this discourse shed less heat and more light. In the new year we plan a forum for respectful dialogue on these issues. Let me now share my own views of the killings in New York a week ago last Saturday. I have deep sympathy and respect for the slain officers and for their families, colleagues and friends. Those who were present on our campus the day of the “lock down” following the Boston Marathon bombing in April, 2013 will remember the sense of security that our own campus public safety and city police officers provided. These are brave, dedicated public servants who, when necessary, willingly go into harm’s way to protect us. What New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton properly described as the assassination of the two officers was a horrific crime. I thus join those who have condemned any lack of sympathy with these officers and with those who mourn their murder. It should go without saying that the views

THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

Brandeis prez responds to free-speech uproar

January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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The dangers of Obama’s Islamic Republic doctrine BEN COHEN VIEWPOINT

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hen Barack Obama began his ďŹ rst term as president six years ago, foreign policy chatter was prone to including terms like “regime changeâ€? and “axis of evilâ€? in discussions about Iran. But as Obama sought to break decisively with the legacy of his predecessor, George W. Bush, he moved rapidly in the opposite direction, offering an olive branch to the Iranian regime within a few weeks of assuming ofďŹ ce. In March 2009, Obama delivered a mes-

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sage to mark the Persian New Year in which he said, “The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right, but it comes with real responsibilities. And that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization.� As a declaration of policy intent, those remarks were refreshingly free of ambiguity. The reference to Iran as an “Islamic Republic� indicated that Washington’s goal from that point forward would not be getting rid of the regime that seized power during the 1979 revolution, but rather stabilizing it and encouraging it to behave more responsibly. By the close of 2014, though, it was abundantly clear that America’s Iran policy—based on Obama’s “Islamic Republic� doctrine of trust in the regime—was in a dangerous mess. The nuclear negotiations between Iran and Western powers have yielded not a single gain, allowing the Iranians to continue with their uranium enrichment program while the International Atomic Energy Agency frets about the likely prospect that Tehran is continuing to operate clandestine nuclear facilities. At the same time, the brutal civil war in Syria, which has claimed 200,000 lives and turned more than half the country into refu-

gees, has massively boosted Iran’s regional standing. The Iranian mullahs now stand at the head of a coalition that includes the dictator of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, and various Shi’a terror groups from Yemen to Iraq. Yet Western public opinion is continually fed a stream of stories about how “moderateâ€? Iran is under President Hasan Rouhani, and how we have an opportunity here that we cannot afford to lose. When you look at how Iran’s military interventions are destabilizing the region, and when you realize that its human rights record is as lousy as it was last year (and the year before that), one can only conclude that Obama will stick to the policy of turning enemies into friends even when those enemies don’t want to become friends. Against that backdrop, we come to the president’s recent interview with National Public Radio, in which he restated, when talking about Iran, his conviction that engaging with “rogue regimesâ€? is the right thing to do if it advances American interests. The question is this: Does Obama still regard Iran as a rogue regime? It would be more accurate to say that he regards it as a regime with rogue elements, but you can only accept that analysis if you share the president’s view that there are moderate parties in Iran whom we can trust. “They have a path to break through that isolation and they should seize it,â€? Obama declared. “Because if they do, there’s incredible talent and resources and sophistication inside of Iran, and it would be a very successful regional power that was also abiding by international norms and international rules, and that would be good for everybody.â€? Everybody? That’s not how the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, to name just two Gulf states, see it; to the contrary, preventing Iran from becoming a “very successful regional powerâ€? is their top priority. Ditto for Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and a host of other Arab and Muslim states. As for Israel, it is impossible—literally impossible—to imagine how the Jewish state enjoying cordial relations with Iran while the Islamist regime remains in power. Because even if Israel was willing to entertain such an outcome, none of the mullahs—whether we’re talking about Supreme Leader Khamenei or President Rouhani—would do the same. As for the Iranians “abiding by international norms,â€? their slippery and dishonest approach to their nuclear negotiations acutely demonstrates what they think of that idea. It’s therefore tempting to believe that his personal legacy, and not any dispassionate assessment of geopolitics, is what lies at the heart of Obama’s calculations. As Associated Press reporter Matt Lee observed at a White House press brieďŹ ng, “Since 1979, American foreign policy, with respect to Iran, has been designed to keep it from becoming a successful regional power.â€? So what has changed? Certainly not the behavior or the stance of the Iranians. As a senior Iranian military commander said only last week, “There are only two things that would end enmity between us and the United States. Either the U.S. president and EU leaders should convert to Islam and imitate the Supreme Leader, or Iran should abandon Islam and the Islamic revolution.â€? Yet Obama wants to be remembered as the

THIS WEEK PAST: STAR FLASHBACK — Touting SKA’s Westinghouse and Siemens scholars, The Jewish Star trumpets, “SKA’s chemistry is a recipe for scientiďŹ c success.â€? — South Shore communities respond to the disaster in Thailand with money and prayers. Also: Chabad opens a new center in Long Beach. — Two-thirds of PA Arabs support violence, The Jewish Star reports.

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— In Katrina’s wake, Five Towners journey to New Orleans to repair that city’s only kosher grocery. — David Seidemann discusses “the right kind of parent.â€? — A soldier wounded in Operation Cast Lead visits the Five Towns, speaking at Congregation Shaaray TeďŹ la. Rabbi Ze’ev Karov, head of the Karnei Shomron yeshiva high school and father of the soldier, said, “This is a true story of a miracle. This is a night of appreciation, a true hakarat harov (gratefulness) to Hakadosh BNaruch Hu.â€? — Orthodox students who “brought home the goldâ€? are featured in a page one photo spread. They took the top prize at the Maccabi Australia games. — A Woodmere resident is pushing Rep. Carolyn McCarthy to to take a stand on withholding United States support of anti-Israel activity at the United Nations. — Efforts are underway to establish a gemach in Bayswater to provide continuing support in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. — A singles event at the Young Israel of Woodmere targeted people between 45 and 55 years old. Also: The Star features a full page of photos from CTeens Night at Barclays.

president who made peace with states that were previously regarded as this country’s implacable enemies. If we can make peace with Cuba, the logic goes, and end a trade embargo that has prevailed for more than 50 years, why can’t we do the same with Iran? One president’s legacy of peace, however, can quite easily be another president’s inheritance of war and conict. The present time would have been an ideal opportunity for Obama to get tough with the Iranians, given that oil prices have collapsed and that the Saudis are content for the price to remain at rock bottom if that makes life harder for the Tehran regime. Instead, America is leading the world—from the front, this time—into another series of open-ended negotiations with the mullahs that could well result in the weaponization of Iran’s nuclear program by the time Obama leaves ofďŹ ce. Never did the bitter words of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah ring truer: “Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace.â€? Ben Cohen is Shillman Analyst for JNS.org.

ALAN JAY GERBER KOSHER BOOKWORM

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he Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst last Shabbat hosted one of America’s leading interpreters of the Bible text and commentaries, Rabbi Hayyim Angel, who presented to over 700 attendees. As reflected in his literary output over the past decade, Rabbi Angel parses the inner workings of the text of the holy writ, to define to amcha, the methodology of peshat and derash, to enable the layperson to better understand the divine text’s basic content as well as its hidden theological message. This review brings to your attention a sample of Rabbi Angel’s literary works; it is not an analytical study, just a taste of the wisdom and gifted thought of Rabbi Angel. Recently, Kodesh Press published Rabbi Angel’s “Peshat Isn’t So Simple — Essays on Developing a Religious Methodology to Bible Study,” a collection of 21 essays spanning the entire Bible dealing with some of the most interesting chapters of Bible narrative. Within these pages are reflected Rabbi Angel’s method of analysis wherein we get a firsthand up ront view of what constitutes real Bible commentary. Among the commentators given the “Angel treatment” are Rambam, Abarbanel, Sforno, Moshe Shamah, and Leon Kass. Rabbi Angel’s method in defining parshanut envelops much of this work making for some interesting and truly informative teachings. From the very outset, Rabbi Angel defines for us his method for us to understand and to hopefully ultimately apply in our future study of the Bible. Consider the following:

“Developing a religious methodology for learning Tanach requires many ingredients. Foremost, the belief in Revelation, that the sacred words of the Bible reflect G-d’s word speaking directly to us, lies at the very heart of learning. “Tanach shapes our religious worldview, our religious and moral behavior, and our core values and ideals.” This is as plain and as straight as one can write on a subject that has been the source of questionable theological takes among our people for over two centuries. The blunt honesty of the writer is a refreshing change of pace from those of his more liberal contemporaries who use the Bible as a whipping post for their questionable beliefs. Further on in his introduction Rabbi Angel notes the following: “Although peshat often is translated as the plain or simple sense of the text, there is nothing plain or simple about it when we take it seriously. “Sifting through many centuries of scholarship and methodology coupled with pursuing contemporary approaches and research is a life-long endeavor, as we continue our attempts to refine truth and approach G-d’s word through our eternal sacred texts.” Among the more interesting chapters in this work that relate to the current Torah readings, you will surely find the following to be of great interest: “Joseph’s Bones: Peshat, Derash, and in Between,” and “Learning From and living our History: Lessons from the Exodus in Tanach.” Both of these essays will broaden your understanding and appreciation of the inner meanings and messages of Torah text, as well as the various nuances of Torah commentaries. Related to these essays, in a previous work by Rabbi Angel entitled, “Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings” (Ktav 2009), we

find a short yet fascinating essay, “The Genesis-Exodus Continuum: What Happens When They Are Viewed As A Larger Unit,” that details the thematic links between the first two books of the Bible that further enhance their theological as well as literary messages. This chapter alone would make for some interesting conversation as the Seder table, indeed a warm thought for this time of year.

)25 )857+(5 678'< Another new work was recently published entitled, “Tanach: An Owner’s Manual,” subtitled, “Authorship, Canonization, Masoretic Text, Exegesis, Modern Scholarship, and Pedagogy” (Ktav-Urim) all a mouthful for a book title by one of our era’s outstanding veteran educators on Bible study, Dr. Moshe Sokolow of Yeshiva University. While cognate to Rabbi Angel’s work, who also wrote the afterword to this work, Dr. Sokolow goes a step or two further in

teaching us the depth of historical detail and analysis that Bible study has to offer to the serious student and by offering an Orthodox approach to the literary background from within which Tanach should be studied and understood. This work is a true history lesson of what constitutes the essence of Bible study, taught by a master teacher in that field.

With photos worth 1,000 words, how about maps? STEPHEN M. FLATOW

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major American book publisher, deluged with criticism for leaving Israel off a map in its Middle East Atlas, has apologized and withdrawn the book from circulation. You don’t have to know the name of the publisher to know one thing for certain: it’s not the Palestinian Authority’s publishing division. Because if it were, there would be no outcry, no apology, no withdrawal. After word of its outrageous omission of Israel leaked to the news media, a HarperCollins spokesman admitted that dropping Israel was a cynical marketing decision — Israel had been dumped in response to “local preferences” in the Gulf States. While Gulf States governments pretend that Israel does not exist, as a way of saying that it should not exist, the staff at HarperCollins knows the difference between fantasy and reality, so they are withdrawing the book from circulation until it can be corrected. Something similar, involving another major publisher, occurred about a year ago. The Times of Israel reported that Scholastic, the publisher of children’s educational materials, left Israel off a map in one of the books in its popular “Geronimo Stilton” adventure series. This particular installment of the series involved the protagonist traveling to the Middle East, where the map showed the Kingdom of Jordan reaching all the way to the Mediterranean. Israel was nowhere to be seen. When the matter was called to the attention of Scholastic, it announced that the omission was “inadvertent” and it was “immediately stopping shipment on this title and revising the map.” A map that was not in the news this week, but should be,

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has just been posted on the official Facebook page of Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This map, too, has no Israel. Note that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is chairman of both Fatah and the PLO. There’s no way to claim this is the work of some rogue group. Jan. 1 marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of Fatah. In fact, it was at a 50th anniversary celebration that Abbas made his controversial announcement that the PA is joining the International Criminal Court. That part of the

story received plenty of attention. But not much else about the Fatah anniversary made it into the American news media. Thanks to Palestinian Media Watch, however, we know exactly what kind of imagery Abbas’s Fatah is using to celebrate its 50th: maps that omit Israel. They have several colorful varieties. One shows all of Israel, labeled “Palestine,” with Yasser Arafat’s face superimposed on part of it. Another has “Palestine”—again, all of Israel—covered by a PLO flag, a kaffiyeh, and a large “50” that morphs into a hand flashing a V-for-Victory sign. Victory over Israel, that is. A third image shows a large hand grenade inside the “50.” Not too subtle. These Palestine-instead-of-Israel maps are de rigueur in the territories occupied by the PA. They appear in the textbooks used in PA schools. They appear on the walls of the offices of PA officials. They appear throughout the official PAcontrolled news media. They all bear the same message: the goal of a world without Israel. I wish those who were angry at Scholastic and HarperCollins would show the same level of interest in what the PA is doing. Because while Scholastic and HarperCollins have admitted their error and withdrawn the books, the PA continues to proudly raise an entire generation of young Palestinians on the dream of eliminating Israel. Some years ago, Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, a former presidential speechwriter, coined the phrase “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” I wonder if that’s what we are seeing here. There seems to be an attitude—in much of the news media, in much of official Washington, and elsewhere— that Palestinian extremism and hatred are “to be expected.” I beg to differ. We have the right to expect the PA to be as reasonable and rational as an American book publisher or anybody else. And if the PA refuses to live up to that standard, then that speaks volumes about its real attitude toward Israel. Stephen M. Flatow, a New Jersey attorney, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1995. He is a candidate on the Religious Zionist slate in the World Zionist Congress elections.

THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

The fascinating study of Bible commentary

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January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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We’d all like to teach the world to see RABBI BINNY FREEDMAN THE HEART OF JERUSALEM This Shomot-week column by Rabbi Freedman was previously published. His fresh columns will resume next week. here is a puzzling story in this week’s portion, Shemot, which occurs just as Moshe is ready to return to Egypt to set his people free. When Moshe stops at a small inn before the last leg of the journey home, G-d actually attempts to put him to death! After 39 verses (Exodus 3; 1-4: 19) where G-d convinces Moshe to leave Midyan and accept the mission of bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt, Moshe accepts and, taking his wife and children with him, sets forth on the journey south, back to Egypt. Suddenly, just as he has nearly arrived at his destination: “And it was, on the way, in the inn, and G-d encountered him (Moshe) and desired to kill him. And Tsiporah took a rock and cut the foreskin of her son … And he [it?] abated [let go] from him [Moshe].” (4:24-26) What of Moshe’s mission? And what has Moshe done wrong to warrant this wrathful decree from G-d? The Talmud (Nedarim 31a) suggests that Moshe had not yet circumcised his newborn son (Eliezer) and was being held accountable now, because previously they had been journeying and one does not perform a circumcision if one will be forced to travel for fear of endangering the health of the baby. However, now that they had finally stopped at an inn, there was no reason to delay the circumcision, and the decision not to do this immediately was what nearly got Moshe killed. Rebbe Yossi in the Talmud suggests that once Moshe and his family arrived at the inn, he could have performed the circumcision,

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but instead busied himself with the details of their stay (“Nita’sek Ba’Malon”), hence G-d’s severe reaction. But again, the consequence hardly seems warranted by the infraction. The Maharal of Prague suggests that this inn was the first stop on the journey. Moshe now had the time to stop and fulfill his obligation to circumcise his son, because the mitzvah he had been given by G-d was not to actually arrive in Egypt; the mitzvah was to leave Midyan. Indeed, after G-d finishes telling Moshe to go to Egypt, Moshe goes back to his father-in-law in Midyan. “And G-d said to Moshe, in Midyan: ‘Go, return to Egypt’.” (4:19) Despite the clear mission from G-d, Moshe was still in Midyan! The point, therefore, was for Moshe to get out of Midyan. Thus, the first safe place to stop, activated the obligation for Moshe to circumcise his son. Which leaves us with this question: Why, according to the Maharal, is the mission focused on departure (from Midyan) rather than on arrival (in Egypt)? It is interesting that society always focuses on results, but Judaism concerns itself much more with the process. The arrival is thus not as important as the journey. In the first conversation G-d ever has with a Jew, He tells Abraham: “Lech Lecha” (Genesis 12:1) “Go” towards the land I will show you, and this is a theme that permeates Judaism. Judaism suggests that we are all on a journey, and if you think you have arrived, you will never get there. It is interesting that even today, three thousand years later, we celebrate the Exodus from

Egypt, and not the entrance into the land of Israel, because it was the decision to leave, and more importantly, to let go of, Egypt, that was ultimately the point at which the family of Yaakov became the nation of Israel. Indeed, the Tzidkat HaTzaddik (Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin) points out that despite verses to the contrary, we don’t really eat Matzah on Passover to commemorate the fact that we didn’t have enough time to bake bread before we left Egypt. After all, G-d planned the Exodus since the dawn of creation; He could certainly have allowed some time to bake Challah! In fact, the Jews were given the command to celebrate a festival for seven days, and eat matzah, a week before they actually left Egypt (see Exodus chapter 12, and specifically verse 15, where G-d commands the Jews to eat Matzah a week before the Exodus.) Rather, suggests the Tzidkat HaTzaddik, the message of the Matzah is that every once in a while a window of opportunity presents itself, and you realize you have the chance to ‘get out of Egypt.’ We all, in the end, have our own personal Egypt we are trying to leave behind. When you have such a window, you have to grab it, because it doesn’t last forever. And this was why G-d arranged for the Exodus to be in such a hurry (“Be’Chipazon”: “in a hurry” see 12:11), because you have to grab the chance to leave Egypt behind; the door doesn’t stay open forever. Sometimes, we are blessed to realize we are in our own Egypt, and maybe we are even lucky enough to get that urge, that desire to change, to move on and get out. But do we grab the opportunity?

Growing up a prince in ancient Egypt might be akin to growing up in the home of Adolph Eichmann.

Even Moshe, in Midyan, was getting perhaps, a little too ‘Midyanized.’ Hence, he was still in Midyan with his father-in-law, despite having been commanded by G-d to go to Egypt. It was hard to leave Midyan, and that was the first thing Moshe had to accomplish. To be Moshe, and accomplish all that he was meant to accomplish in this world, perhaps Moshe had to get out of Midyan. Rabbi Yossi suggests that Moshe was not held accountable for delaying circumcision, but rather that he was “Nita’sek Ba’Malon”: that he was occupying himself with the details of the hotel. If Moshe has time to make sure there are towels in the room, while Jewish babies are being used to build pyramids, something is wrong. Something has happened to the Moshe who left Egypt forty years earlier. At the beginning of Moshe’s life he has clearly learned how to see. “And in those days Moshe grew, and went out to his brethren, and saw their suffering. And he saw an Egyptian man beating a Jewish man, of his brethren. And he turned this way and that and saw there was no (other) man, and he hit (slew) the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.” (2:11-12) Growing up a prince in ancient Egypt might have been akin to growing up in the home of Adolph Eichmann in Berlin in the 1930s. It is therefore incredible that Moshe would go out and actually see the suffering of his fellow Jews, much less that he would do something about it. Moshe is ready to become a leader of the Jewish people because he has learned to see, which means to really empathize with and feel the pain of the Jewish slaves around him, even while he himself is still ensconced in the palace. But, having gained the ability to see or feel others’ pain, Moshe must leave Egypt and the palaces wherein he resides, and experience his own pain; his own exile. And this, too, is Continued on page 18

Moshe in ‘Exodus’: Considering the full story RABBI AVI BILLET PARSHA OF THE WEEK

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ith the new movie “Exodus: Gods and Kings” in theaters, the story of Moshe is being revisited by Hollywood once again, creating what could most positively be described as a modern midrash. On the negative side, this new interpretation makes nary an effort at presenting this tale from any perspective based in Jewish sources. While the depiction of the plagues in Egypt is always fascinating on film, the motivation behind the punishment aimed at both Everyman Egyptian and the House of Pharaoh leaves something unsaid. And while the human element of it all — did the Egyptians deserve what came upon them? — is touching, it is very hard to tap into the true feelings of the Israelites for the Egyptian citizenry and vice versa when considering that we simply don’t know, beyond that their cries reached heaven (2:23-25), how the Israelites felt in all their slavery and suffering. We do see that Moshe’s missive was originally embraced (4:31), but when the labor almost immediately became more intense with the cessation of the provision of straw for the bricks, Moshe quickly fell into disfavor (5:21). Unlike in this latest film installment, there is very little indication in the text that Moshe was planning an armed revolt against Egypt

(though one interpretation of 13:18 is that they left Egypt armed for battle). The Torah’s view is very clear that G-d intends to fight this battle, and that the end result for the Nation of Israel is to understand Who their G-d is as He demonstrates His wonders against the Egyptian oppressors, who took their role as slavemasters far beyond anything ever intended by the Covenant Between the Pieces (Bereshit 15:13-14). The biggest challenge film adaptations face is in filling the gap of Moshe’s formative years. With rare exception, none do it justice. And while this film has Moshe spending several years in Midian tending Yitro’s flock, marrying Zipporah, and raising Gershom, the numbers still don’t add up when we see the Torah clearly telling us Moshe was 80 when he approached Pharaoh (7:7). Everyone agrees he was a young man when he left Egypt as a fugitive for having killed an Egyptian. His age range at that time, as referenced in conflicting midrashim, is upper teenager to 40 years old, leaving any retelling to fill in a 40 to over 60 year gap in his development. How does he change from being a Prince of Egypt, perhaps even a great warrior, to becoming a shepherd in Midian, and a worthy soul of experiencing a vision of the Divine, hearing a prophetic calling, and becoming G-d’s shepherd, to tend the flock that we call the Nation of Israel?

There is a book entitled “Divrei Hayamim Shel Moshe” (Chronicles of Moshe), which is cited by a number of great commentators. Ibn Ezra claims the book is bunk. With that air of cynicism hanging above us, Rashbam, Targum Yonatan, Daat Zekenim, Abravanel, Rabbi Chaim Paltiel and others quote it, and many of us are familiar with some of the tales that appear in it referencing Moshe’s early life in Egypt. One of its tales describes how Moshe lived, and actually ruled, in the Land of Cush for 40 years, symbolically marrying the Queen, former wife of King Nikanos, though he lived separately from her throughout his reign. (They claim that Miriam was referring to this incident in Bamidbar 12:1, while many commentaries say there that the “Cushite woman” refers to Zipporah, while still others — most notably Yosef Ibn Caspi — suggest Moshe had taken a second wife at that time – either in addition to Zipporah, or after his first marriage ended, either through divorce (their children are referred to as “her sons” in Shmot 18:3) or through her death.) Abravanel paints Moshe as fathering Gershom at the age of 70, while the account of Moshe’s earlier years in Otzar HaMidrashim claims Yitro, who noted Moshe was a fugitive from Egypt, actually imprisoned Moshe for 7 years — during which time Zipporah fed

The story is incomplete without the lessons that our heritage has passed along to us.

him daily and he developed his relationship with G-d. After he was released he earned the right to marry Zipporah, and Gershom was born when Moshe was 77. Giving Moshe so much more history may even help us understand better why his first son is named Gershom. The Torah’s explanation is that he said, “I was/have been a ‘ger’ (stranger) in a strange land (the Hebrew ‘sham’ means ‘there’).” The question is: in which strange land was Moshe a stranger? Egypt? Cush? Somewhere else in Moshe’s travels? Midian? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Torah’s depiction of Moshe’s introduction to Yitro’s daughters comes after shepherds have “VayGarshum” (2:17) (chased them away) from the well. Perhaps Moshe’s luck in connecting with Yitro’s daughters at that time remained in his head, and inspired his naming his son. “I was a stranger. I had been a stranger. But since then I have been accepted. And I am no longer a stranger.” This realization on his part adds another dimension to our understanding of his background and development. While filmmakers (and even some Midrashim) try to create a human story to fit the narrative, the story remains incomplete without the traditional interpretations and lessons that our heritage has passed along to us. With more complete study and deeper delving into all our questions, may we only merit to achieve qualitative understanding of the development of our People, our faith, and the Nation of Israel.

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ist attacks in Israel. Not many Americans have heard of Aubervilliers, but those who are familiar with the history of World War II may know the name of the city’s most famous and longest-serving mayor: Pierre Laval. His 19 years as the leader of Aubervilliers was interrupted when he was called to national service—as the head of Vichy France and chief collaborator with Adolf Hitler. It was under Laval that more than 77,000 Jews were deported from France to Auschwitz and other death camps. But why dredge up old history, when there are fresh victims to memorialize? One of the attacks that Barghouti masterminded consisted of gunning down a Greek Orthodox monk. Another was a shooting and stabbing attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, in which three Israelis were murdered and 31 wounded. France’s national government was not responsible for the decision of Aubervilliers to honor a mass murderer. But when combined with the French parliament’s vote on Palestinian statehood, and the French government’s vote at the U.N., one would think that this French bear hug of the Palestinians would impress the Islamists. The massacre of journalists in Paris by killers shouting the jihadist call of “Allahu Akhbarâ€? indicates that perhaps the linkage that Kerry imagines is nothing more than that—imaginary. Appeasement of terrorists never works. Endorsing terrorists’ political demands — such as Palestinian statehood — never satisďŹ es them. And blaming Israel for the rise of terrorist groups is an outrageous theory that has been repeatedly discredited by real-world events. Attorney Stephen M. Flatow is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

This series will examine Israel’s foreign policy on core issues as a main element in Israel’s national defense strategy, starting with modern Israel reborn out of conflict, and dealing with military, economic, psychological, political and legal warfare. Each session will analyze a different significant area of the foreign policy, often using case studies for concrete insight. Topics include: Israel and the Palestinians, Israel among the nations, Israel’s Hasbara, Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, Israel and the US, Israel and the Arab Spring, and the Iran nuclear threat.

What do biblical and midrashic stories teach us about morality? How does Jewish law relate to secular ethics? How much of your own interests must you sacrifice for the sake of others? What explains the actions of Holocaust rescuers? Can people grow ethically through suffering? Is praying for needs egocentric? Why is there sometimes a disconnect between ritual observance and ethical conduct? What does Halakhah teach about key issues in medical ethics and the ethics of war? This series will address such diversified questions using both classical and contemporary sources.

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Commentary by Stephen M. Flatow Less than three months ago, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that there was a link between Islamist terrorism and frustration over the Palestinian issue. Yet despite vigorous recent attempts by the French to champion the Palestinian cause, Islamist terrorists have just struck in Paris, killing 12 people at the ofďŹ ces of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Where did Kerry’s theory go wrong? At an Oct. 18, 2014 State Department event celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Kerry presented his linkage theory. Discussing the phenomenon of young Muslims ocking to the ranks of Islamist terror groups such as the Islamic State, Kerry said that the issue of “Israel and the Palestiniansâ€? is “a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitationâ€? among Muslims worldwide. If Kerry were correct, then one would expect the Islamist extremist groups to refrain from harming those who embrace the Palestinian cause. And France certainly has been at the forefront of proPalestinian activism, especially in recent weeks. On Dec. 2, the French parliament voted overwhelmingly to demand that the French government immediately recognize the “State of Palestine.â€? Not after negotiations. Not with Israel’s agreement. Just do it right away, whether Israel likes it or not. And the vote wasn’t even close — 339 in favor, 151 against. Four weeks later, the Palestinian Authority presented a resolution to the U.N. Security Council, setting a timetable for Israel to unilaterally withdraw from all of Judea, Samaria, and most of Jerusalem. That is, back to the pre-1967 armistice lines that Abba Eban said would make Israel so vulnerable that it would set the stage for another Holocaust. That position is so extreme that even the Obama administration, which has not exactly been Israel’s warmest friend, opposed the resolution. Yet France joined with those stalwarts of reason and democracy, China and Russia, to support the resolution. France’s ambassador to the United Nations, explaining his country’s vote in favor of the resolution, said there was “an urgent need to act.â€? One would think — if one subscribed to the Kerry Linkage Theory — that Islamist extremists would have appreciated France’s sense of “urgencyâ€? regarding the Palestinian issue. Evidently not. In the meantime, there was more proPalestinian news from France. The city council of Aubervilliers, which is a suburb of Paris, voted to grant honorary citizenship to Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian terrorist leader who is currently service ďŹ ve consecutive sentences of life imprisonment for carrying out a series of terror-

THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

Paris attack shows France’s appeasement of Palestinians and Islamists has failed

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Double Chocolate Mousse beats a double date JUDY JOSZEF WHO’S IN THE KITCHEN

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ouble dating. Most of us have been there, done that, but I bet none of your stories are as humorous as that of my husband Jerry. Let’s go back to the mid 1970s. Jerry and his friends, along with a distant cousin (who I will call Jay in this article), drove to Miami Beach for winter vacation. They checked into their motel and headed to the Caribbean hotel’s upper deck to reserve chaise lounges from “Stan the Man.” If you spent intersessions in Miami Beach you knew Stan the Man. He was the go-to man for the lounges and if you were in Miami Beach, you just had to have a lounge at the Caribbean. It was the place to be, and be seen. Now, Jay wore suits and white shirts and this was a whole different world from the one he knew, but he liked it. There on the upper deck were dozens of college-aged kids socializing, and most girls were wearing bikinis. Jack grabbed a lounge, loosened his tie, and was ready for vacation — on a lounge in his black pants, white shirt and tie, black socks and “Shabbos shoes.” A few days into the vacation Jay could be seen wearing Jerry’s clothes. Before the trip was over Jay had a girl’s number (I’ll call her Alexandra). The following Shabbat, Jack stayed at Jerry’s house (his parents lived out of state). Right before Shabbat he told Jerry that he had a date with Alexandra and was taking her to dinner and a show, but the catch was,

she would only go if he could bring along a date for her friend and they would double. Jay purchased the tickets hoping his cousin Jerry would agree. “Absolutely not, there is no way. We’re from two different worlds Jay. This wouldn’t work out,” said Jerry. During dinner that night, lunch the next day, and then shaloshudus, Jay worked on Jerry. And of course Jerry being the good soul that he is, finally relented. Then the fun began. Jay: “Great! Now all you have to do is wear a suit and a tie.” Jerry: “I’m not wearing a suit and a tie.” Jay: “You have to, otherwise this won’t work. Oh, and you also have to borrow a black hat.” Jerry: “NO WAY!” Jay: “Pleeeeeease, I love this girl.” Jerry: “You’re killing me!” Jay: “One more thing. Tell her you went to yeshiva with me in Cleveland.” Jerry: “This has gone on too far I am not wearing a suit and a hat and lying where I went to school. That’s final.” So there they were, all four of them crammed into Jay’s small car. Guys in suits and hats and girls in wedding wear and corsages that Jay insisted they give the girls (and to think I can’t even get Jerry to wear a suit jacket and tie to shul!). After the Broadway show they went to La’Diferrance for dinner. The night cost a fortune, Jerry’s date was twice his weight, and Jay’s date didn’t like Jay. Fast forward a few weeks and Alexandra came around and was dating Jay. She called Jerry one night, and said she wanted to know if it was true that Jay’s family owned a fleet

3 cups heavy cream DIRECTIONS

Chocolate Mouse: Melt butter in medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk yolks, 1/4 cup cream and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Gradually whisk yolk mixture into bowl with melted butter. Whisk constantly over simmering water, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl holding the mixture and add chocolate and stir to melt. Set aside. Beat egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl to medium-stiff peaks. Whisk 1/4 of beaten egg white mixture into warm chocolate mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining egg white mixture. Pour mousse into large trifle bowl or individual glass serving dishes. Chill in refrigerator White Chocolate Mousse: Microwave white chocolate and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool until at room temperature, stirring occasionally. Beat the remaining heavy cream in in mixer until soft peaks form. Add half the whipped cream to the white chocolate mixture; stir with whisk until well blended. Stir in remaining whipped cream. Spoon on top of dark chocolate layer in trifle bowl or on top of chocolate layer in individual glass serving dishes. Place back into fridge and chill at least 6 hours or overnight. Garnish with chocolate curl or anything else you might like.

of planes and yachts. Jerry responded, “I just remembered I have to make an emergency call to make. I’ll call you back.” Sound of Jerry dialing, then “JAY, are you crazy?!” The rest is history. Double dating, of course, leads to…

'RXEOH &KRFRODWH 0RXVVH INGREDIENTS

Chocolate Mousse: 3/4 cup butter, cut into pieces 6 large eggs, separated at room temp. 1/3 cup heavy cream 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract 12 ounces bittersweet semisweet chocolate, chopped finely(it is important the chocolate for this mousse layer is chopped finely or it won’t melt completely when added to the warm egg yolks) 3/4 cup sugar White Chocolate Mousse: 12 ounces white chocolate ( do not use pareve)

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ing that the Jewish state was born in sin. By Eric Rozenman, JNS.org Before the campaign to portray Ari Roth By Israeli playwright Motti Lerner, stuck as a martyr to freedom of artistic expression on the same one note sounded by Gaon, “The Admissionâ€? pivots on an allegation of gains traction, let’s review: Roth was recently ďŹ red as artistic direc- a massacre by Israeli forces of Arab civilians tor of the District of Columbia Jewish Com- in 1948 at the village of “Tantur.â€? Roth claimed, as the Committee for Acmunity Center’s Theater J. His dismissal came not, as playwright Tony Kushner curacy in Middle East Reporting in America would have it, “because he refused to sur- (CAMERA) noted at the time in a letter pubrender to censorship.â€? It did not happen be- lished by The Washington Post, that he had cause Roth believes, in Kushner’s telling, in to stage “The Admissionâ€? because “there is freedom of speech and freedom of expres- a debate that needs to be convened and not stied.â€? sion. But that debate took place in Israeli Ari Roth had to go because anti-Israel exhibitions had become his theatrical por- courts. On multiple occasions, they found the allegation of a massacre (at the real nography. In 2009, Roth’s Theatre J gave a series of Tantura) libelous, the second time in an apstaged readings to British anti-Zionist Caryl peal before Israel’s Supreme Court. Churchill’s “Seven Jewish Children.â€? James Kirchick, then at The New Republic, said the 10-minute rant “draws a straight line from Nazi Germany’s mass murder of European Jewry to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, an old trope in the quiver of rabid Israel haters.â€? Roth tried to camouage “Seven Jewish Children’sâ€? anti-Semitism in deconstructionist jargon. Calling Churchill a great writer to whom Jews should not turn a deaf ear, he termed “Childrenâ€? 0LNH 1XVVEDXP LQ 7KHDWHU -ÂśV Âł,PDJLQLQJ 0DGRII ´ 7KHDWHU -ÂśV DUWLVWLF C. Stanley Photography an “elusive, evocative, GLUHFWRU $UL 5RWK ZDV UHFHQWO\ ÂżUHG wispy play that has It’s appropriate that Kushner promotes mysteries in, and we are trying to decode an effort to beatify Roth. The former’s own them in a public discussion.â€? The late Herman Taube, Holocaust sur- attitude toward Judaism and Israel is hopevivor, poet and novelist responded, “We lessly conicted. He’s said, among other have some Jews who, you spit in their face, similar comments, “I want the state of Israel to exist (since it does anyway) and I want and they say it’s raining.â€? In 2011, Roth’s compulsion to “decode the cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in public discussionâ€? — translation: provide honored and I want to shokl with Jews at a Jewish-funded forum for pro-Palestinian the Wailing Wall and at the same time‌ I propaganda — led him to stage “Return think the founding of the State of Israel was to Haifa,â€? based on a novella by Ghassan for the Jewish people a historical, moral, Kanafani. Kanafani was a senior aide to political calamity.â€? As the door slams on Roth’s 18 years George Habash, head of the Popular Front at Theater J and superďŹ cial lamentations for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP pioneered anti-Israel terrorism arise over “censorship by the Jewish esincluding airliner hijackings. It’s still a U.S.- tablishment,â€? it will be worth recalling a designated terrorist organization, more re- letter by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt of Congregation B’nai Tzedek, in Potomac, Md., to cently involved in suicide bombings. Kanafani died in a car bombing not long the Washington Jewish Week about one of after he was photographed working with Roth’s anti-Israel productions. “I ďŹ nd it most disturbing that our local members of the Japanese Red Army, whose 1972 attack on Ben Gurion International JCC would want to put on a play with such negative portrayals of Israelis and Jews and Airport murdered 26 and wounded 80. “Return to Haifaâ€? was Israeli playwright such harsh judgment,â€? Weinblatt wrote. (and Roth favorite) Boaz Gaon’s predict- “Why not just put on a dramatization of ably sympathetic setup about a Palestinian Protocols of the Elders of Zion?â€? Theater directors across the country couple returning years later to their former residence, home after Israel’s War of Inde- reportedly condemned Roth’s ouster as a blow against freedom of expression. pendence to Holocaust survivors. In fact, his chronic productions of antiYou remember the 1948 war, when Israel, defying the 1947 U.N. Palestine parti- Israel boilerplate amounted to personal lition plan, invaded ďŹ ve Arab countries and cense. Theater J is now free to be broadly attempted to drive the Palestinian Arabs creative — and representative — in Jewishthemed programs. into the sea? And self-respecting Jews, their organizaOops, other way around — though theater-goers would be hard-pressed to re- tions, and their philanthropy no doubt will member if relying on any of Roth’s “elusive, be on board. Eric Rozenman is Washington director of evocativeâ€? manipulations of Israel’s past CAMERA, the 65,000-member Boston-based and present. Early this year, Theater J featured “The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East ReAdmission,â€? another Roth selection intimat- porting in America.

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By Howard B. Cinamon The Young Israel of Woodmere, with Rabbi Hershel Billet and many of its members, along with other rabbis from the community and several members of the Woodmere Fire Department, stood on Peninsula Boulevard on a symbolically bitter cold day to pay a last tribute to a fallen hero on Dec. 31. Asst. Chief Joseph Sanford, Jr., 43, a 17 year volunteer veteran of the Inwood Fire Department, tragically lost his life after ďŹ ghting a ďŹ re in a Woodmere home on Dec 19. He was the son of Joe Sanford, Sr., a well liked and respected member of the YIW maintenance staff for over 15 years. YIW members and ďŹ reďŹ ghters assembled outside the shul, some saluting as funeral procession moved along Penninsula Blvd. and a limousine carrying the Sanford family passed by. FireďŹ ghters and police from across the country honored Sanford at his funeral in Inwood.

THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

Woodmere YI salutes fallen Inwood ďŹ reďŹ ghter

13

Local bid to honor Sanford Woodmere political activist Avi Fertig has created an online petition asking the Lawrence School District to rename Lawrence Middle School in memory of volunteer ďŹ reďŹ ghter Joseph Sanford Jr. Aware that the Lawrence district was considering renaming the middle school as part of a restructuring plan it will implement in September, Fertig said he emailed Superintendent Gary Schall about his idea. “Joseph Sanford was truly a hero,â€? Schall said. “He represents the heroism of all ďŹ rst responders. Naming the school after a ďŹ reman is a way to honor all of our ďŹ rst responders.â€? A fuller version of this story appears in this week’s Nassau Herald.

Sean Penn aids frum man’s recovery after unjust imprisonment in Bolivia By Frank Bajak, AP LIMA, Peru — It began with an attempt to salvage an ill-fated investment in Bolivian rice farms, devolved into a Third World prison nightmare and climaxed with an escape engineered with the help of actor Sean Penn. But, so far, there has been no Hollywood ending for Jacob Ostreicher, an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn. In the year since he was spirited out of Bolivia, the 55-year-old has struggled to rebuild a life upended by corrupt ofďŹ cials who tried to extortion and had him imprisoned without charge while bleeding the rice venture dry. The ordeal shredded his marriage, drained his bank account and nearly stole his sanity. “Certain days I don’t function,â€? Ostreicher told the Associated Press in a series of phone conversations, his ďŹ rst media interview since his rescue. “It’s hard to start a new life.â€? The former ooring business owner lives alone in Los Angeles and says he’s still trying to ďŹ nd a new line of work. He says he is not living off charity, never has, but has gotten huge emotional support from family, the Jewish community and a few of Hollywood’s biggest stars. None have done more than Penn. In late 2012, the Oscar-winning actor ew to Bolivia to investigate Ostreicher’s case at the urging of actor Mark Wahlberg. Ostreicher had the attention of the Aleph Institute, a foundation that helps incarcerated Jews. The Florida-based group asked Wahlberg to reach out to Penn, who is widely known for his Haiti relief efforts and closeness to leftist Latin American leaders. Penn became convinced Ostreicher had been unjustly imprisoned since mid-2011 so corrupt authorities could drain the assets of the

$25 million rice-farming operation in which he was a minor investor. Though he was accused of money-laundering, no evidence was ever presented. Penn was self-effacing when asked about his odd-couple friendship with Ostreicher and why he decided to help. “What can I say? He was likable,â€? Penn said. When Penn asked Bolivian President Evo Morales to intercede, Penn got a tepid response. So he exposed the extortion ring, sparking a scandal that eventually would see 14 Bolivian ofďŹ cials jailed — the ring’s No. 2 ďŹ gure entered a guilty plea last week — while others ed the country. Penn then got Ostreicher moved to a medical clinic. The Brooklynite had withered to 107 pounds from a liquids-only hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. Penn leveraged his Venezuelan connections — he was close to the late President Hugo Chavez — to get armed Venezuelan security guards assigned to protect him, fearing he’d be targeted for exposing the extortion ring. Even though he had endured more than 30 court hearings, Ostreicher continued to insist he wanted to clear his name in Bolivia. Penn told him to let it go. “He held me down with both hands and looked at me and said, ‘I am going to get you home’,â€? Ostreicher recalled. But all Penn could accomplish was to get Ostreicher’s conďŹ nement in the maximum-security prison exchanged for house arrest. Then, in late 2013, Ostreicher arrived from South America on a commercial ight from Peru to Los Angeles, where Penn was waiting in the jetway to receive him. “He is fully responsible, Sean, for saving my

life,â€? Ostreicher said. “He is much more than a friend.â€? Neither Penn nor Ostreicher would discuss the secretive escape in any detail, although Ostreicher said his older brother, Aron, paid for it and that he endured a nerve-wracking ight to La Paz from the eastern city of Santa Cruz sitting near Bolivia’s chief of police praying he wouldn’t be recognized. He said he wore a disguise. Bolivia claimed the escape was orchestrated by the CIA, which Ostreicher denies. He would say only that it involved “professionals.â€? During his years in Bolivia, Ostreicher’s marriage fell apart, with his wife, Miriam, staying in New York. She repeatedly argued his case in the American media and elsewhere. Penn took him in and, for a few weeks, Ostreicher said, he did little more than stay rolled up in a fetal position on the couch. “I literally was crying to Sean that I want to go back to Bolivia,â€? he told the AP. “Sean sat with me for hours, sometimes sitting with me all night, rubbing my back,â€? he would later recount at a dinner honoring Penn. The actor enlisted his own family and friends in the healing. “I told Sean I’d like to ďŹ nd a person who had it all and lost it all to give me a reason that I should wake up every morning,â€? he said. Penn introduced him to Robert Downey Jr. Downey, who hit bottom in the 1990s when drug addiction troubles landed him in jail for a year, counseled Ostreicher, then sent him clothing “literally in the tens of thousands of dollarsâ€? — Gucci suits, sweaters, sneakers, underwear, a Harry Winston watch. Penn, meanwhile, was at Ostreicher’s side for some of his most trying moments.

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When his daughter, Gitty, ew with her husband and their ďŹ ve children from New Jersey for a February reunion, Ostreicher was terriďŹ ed, he said. He tried to ďŹ nd excuses to avoid the meeting, telling Penn he didn’t have the proper clothing. “I need a white shirt. I need a black suit. I need a certain hat. And Sean jumped into his car and brought me back six hats.â€? “He said, ‘One of them has got to be the right one’.â€? When they arrived for the reunion, the kids didn’t want to come to him. “They didn’t recognize me, the old, sick man I became,â€? he said. He began telling the kids about the “very strong manâ€? who sneaked him out of Bolivia. “You want to meet this man?â€? Ostreicher asked. Then, he pointed to Penn. “I told Sean, ‘Show the kids your biceps’.â€? “Sean literally went down on his knees, unbuttoned his shirt and exed his muscles for my grandchildren so they should come closer to me. And this is how they started coming to me.â€? Asked about the incident, Penn paused briey. “Jacob has a way,â€? he said, “of putting someone on the spot.â€?

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Eisenberg People from all streams of JuBy Malka Eisenberg daism and non-Jews as well stood About 500 men and women ďŹ lled shoulder to shoulder in Manhatthe main mai By Malka Eisenberg tuary this Israel’s colors of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Ced sanctan’s Dag Hammarskjol Hammarskjold d Plaza on A Long Island ight club will y a arhurst Tuesday evening for the completion Monday in a display of unity and Sunday. of the entire New the Israeli Mishna for the shloshim (30th day memorial support for Israel. At 10 am, 13 planes associated with se service) Airport from Republic after plan to take offhStar.com the516-622-7461 Call The South Shore Jewish commuYork Flight Club, www.TheJewis Frankel, Gilad Shore,murder of kidnapped Naftali Frankel South Island’s Long Twitter.com/JewishStarNY ShaerSide, and Eyal Yifrach. nities were well represented; buses Facebook.com/TheJewishStar in Farmingdale and y along 5774 SIVAN beaches, along Manhattan’s West 22 / 2014 Brooklyn 20, over Rabbi JUNE brought Q Moshe 24 NO participants from many TeitelVOL 13, and on to New Jersey. YILC, who led the shuls and organizations including will beofafag baum A laminated American and Israeli community-w the Young Israels of Woodmere ide gatherwith blue r four-seaters ďŹ xed to each of the single engine ing, wings, said that the three and West Hempstead and the Five of both and white ags taped to the underside the “should have ags assouls Towns JCC; others traveled by car see the boys’ enabling people on the ground to page 5 noting that and train. Three Zionist Orthodox Continuedanon aliyahâ€? they served camps — Moshava, Mesora and MoHakodosh Ba 2UHQ 2U %LWRQ 7D]SLW 1HZV $JHQ F\ $ PRWKHU SURWHFWV KHU EDE\ GXULQJ D URFNHW DW ruch Hu and that the tragWDFN LQ %HHU 6K WDFN LQ %HHU Continued on page 11 U 6KHYD ZKHUH U HYD ZKHUH UHV ÂżQG VKHOWHU ZKHQ D UHG DOHUW VRXQGV DV PLVVLOHV HVLGHQWV KDYH LGHQWV KDYH VHFRQGV WR VHFRQGV WR edy of their blood brought IURP *D]D DSSURDFK 6KHOWHUV DUH QRW DOZD\V DYDLODEOH Am Yisrael together. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Blachman, associate Zar, 10, was the ďŹ rst child a range of tied for third. Daniel, rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Forces, an organization that offers his time was 4:10. Kim Keller, GrossKerem B’Yavneh, said we the educational, social, to ďŹ nish; sau Herald ďŹ nish to Nassau address that women ďŹ rst programs the was Academy of the spiritual, and cultural man’s girlfriend, eginning from the Hebrew Academ Beginning look to ďŹ nd answers in opportunity ďŹ eld on economic, recreational, well as the families of with a time of 4:30. “It was a great HAFTR) (HAFTR) (H Rockaway and as Towns said. Five soldiers tragedies but must live participants needs of the to support a fantastic cause,â€? Grossman ral Avenue in Lawrence, 55 pa said she Central in defense of Israel. FIDF was eswithout answers. Despair Event coordinator Temmi Kramer Broadway up soldiers fallen ed to Washington Avenue to Broa by Holocaust survivors and is headed participants, over loss is natural, he Avenue in tablished in 1981 appreciated the efforts of all the Central A ost Lane and back down Central to Frost in New York. who provided security and said, and should lead to a mon for the headquartered se money raise ďŹ nish line the auxiliary police a 1K race on August 14 to rais and Warren Zachary Grossman crossed the return to religious awaresponsors: HAFTR, Gourmet Glatt Forcess. nds of Israel Defense Forces. Friends a time of 2:26. Michael Polishuk placed Levi Martial Arts & Fitness. pledged to sup- ďŹ rst with ness and priorities. 5DEEL 0RVKH 7HLWHOEDXP HLWHOE pproximately $1,650 was pledge Approximately Shmuel and Kevin Kehni were Josh and second Isra Defense he Israel th Responsive readings -HZLVK 6WDU 'RQRYDQ %HUWKRXG YDQ %H port the FIDF the Friends of the of Tehillim 20, 120, 121 and 142 were led by Rabbi Hershel By Malka Eisenberg Billet of Yo wife, Young Israel of Woodmere, Rabbi Ariel He had a secure life — a wonderful Rackovsky of the nice Irving Place Minyan, Rabbi Ari Perl two beautiful daughters, a great career, of the Atla Atlantic hit: a canBeach Jewish Center, and Rabbi house — until the great disrupter Aryeh Lebowitz of Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere, Lebowit cer diagnosis. respectiv respectively. Cantor Joel Kaplan of Congregation West Hempstead lawyer and now survivor Beth HowLawrence sang a mishebairach (blessing) Sholom in of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) for Israeli his experiIsr soldiers. ard Bressler is determined to use 1DIWDOL )UHQNHO Leading up to Tuesday’s shloshim, ences ďŹ ghting cancer to help others. <LIUDFK (\DO EHQ ,ULV 7HVKXUD he many peo people DOLP 2XU PLVVLQJ ER\V IURP OHIW (\DO Since the beginning of his treatment, across the communities of the Five G 6KDDU *LODG 0LFKDHO EHQ %DW * Towns contribnow he cont <DDNRY 1DIWDOL EHQ 5DFKHO 'HYRUDK DQG *LOD uted learning towards completing has counseled other cancer patients; the Mishna and inuence. of a ďŹ eld his increase to Hillel Tuchman read and explained is seeking the ďŹ nal Mishna his expeMish in Uktzin. After the kaddish, a kel He has written a book, intertwining maleh rachamim &ORFNZLVH IURP WRS OHIW (YDQ the path racham (G-d full of mercy) prayer was recited riences with advice and guidance on 6KDSLUR DQG <RQL *ROGVWHLQ As much for the three th boys and another for the fallen IDF from diagnosis to cure and life after. 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The Young Israel ďŹ le for his position. But when he Rivlin, on the other hand, is an opponent Shavei Hevron at a recognized hitchWoodmere held a communal prayer ideology and low-key 74-year-old what he calls of nationalistic strong promoter a Rivlin’s and July, solution inhiking spot on the road by Elon Shvut that an immediate con- of a two-state 10 rally Monday night at 10 pm Sea and international presence will provide in Judea Thursday night at about Israelâ€? between the Mediterranean shuls and greater “a neighborhood many Peres. cluded the in which Palestinians would be trast to outgoing President Shimon pm. Bus rides are infrequent in stature of Shi- the Jordan River, schools. “He won’t have the international equal rights. Rivlin opposed Israel’s area and residents and students often At Kneseth Israel — the White minister, defense granted full and by from Gaza in 2005. mon Peres, who was a former prime get rides from passing cars driven withdrawal Eytan Rabbi unilateral — Rockaway Mitchell Far in pollster Shul weight in minister, and foreign minister,â€? said Jewish residents of the many towns The post of president carries signiďŹ cant and a former Feiner held a kenes tehilim at mincha Research functions Keevoon of beyond. president’s and the of director area most Barak, Gush in the the Israel, even though of the President. on Monday, and then spoke to Continued on page 14 spokesperson for Peres in the OfďŹ ce On Long Island and in New York, He “stark contrastâ€? men and women gathered there. Barak told JNS.org that there is a inboxes were ooded with desperate Continued on page 11 emails calling on recipients to say cer-

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Prisoners of memory: WWII aid from pre-state Israel By Zvi Harel, Israel Hayom, JNS.org Ben-Zion Solomin, age 101, wears the cap of a British soldier and is assisted by his son and caregiver as he slowly approaches the front of the stage to light a Chanukah candle and welcome the crowd at the Armored Corps Memorial at Latrun, near Jerusalem. The ceremony was held to honor the families of the prisoners of war from the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps (AMPC), who were captured by the Nazis during World War II and later freed by the Allied forces. In a cracked voice, with his son helping him, Solomin read his prepared remarks. “In honor of the endurance, the survival, the Zionist flame, and the devotion to the security services,” he said of the candle he would light. The marks Solomin proudly bears on his chest tell an impressive story of combat and survival, one almost erased from collective memory: the story of the 3,200 volunteers from pre-state Israel who joined the pioneer corps in mid-1940, leaving their families behind to serve in His Majesty’s Armed Forces. Close to 400 of them were Arabs, and together they made up one-tenth of all the men and women from pre-state Israel who volunteered with the British army during the war. Most AMPC members saw their first action in the western desert on the Egyptian-Libyan border. Their objective was to fend off the Italian army. The British then redeployed them to meet the German threat, which was how some of them reached the Balkans and Greece. The seminal event that changed the lives of many of these volunteers took place on April 29, 1941. On the beach at Kalamata in the south of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece, more than 1,500 AMPC members and 12,000 British soldiers were captured by the Germans. The British gave the order to surrender only after it became clear that there would be no possibility of a rescue. The POWs were held in German captivity for four years. Many were transferred to work camps, 200 were killed during the war, some suffered from various forms of torture, and those who survived were left emotionally scarred. Seventy years after their release from captivity, their families set up a forum to tell the story that had been silenced for decades. Heading the efforts is Talia Klayner-Dayagi, the granddaughter of a former AMPC soldier, who says that she has so far located 250 families with stories similar to her own. There are currently only eight families of rescued AMPC servicemen living in Israel, she said.

5HFUXLWPHQW SRVWHU IRU $X[LOLDU\ 0LOLWDU\ 3LRQHHU &RUSV Frederick George Alfred Scott via Wikimedia Commons

The most important research on the captives’ story was completed by Professor Yoav Gelber, a historian at the University of Haifa. Gelber based his study on numerous documents collected in Israel and abroad, and on interviews with former members of the British army. In 1982, he wrote an article about the subject for the Yad Vashem Holocaust research center titled “Palestinian POWs in German captivity.” According to Gelber’s research, at least 150 POWs are believed to have escaped from captivity. One man who evaded capture several hours before the British surrender was 90-year-old David Yechiel. Athletic and broad-shouldered, he was quick to say of himself that he had excelled from childhood in swimming and boxing, which helped him during his time as a volunteer. Recalling the circumstances the led him to volunteer to the AMPC in 1940, he said, “I was 16 years old, and tables were set up in the streets of Tel Aviv, and they urged us to volunteer for the British army. I had to lie about my age, and so I did. I went to the British base in Sarafand (today Tzrifin) and said that I was 17 and a half. They believed me. All my friends volunteered, and so

did I. My parents supported me, but they did not know that I was going to war. The Jewish community leaders wanted us to volunteer so that we would get a military education.” Yechiel recalled that while in the desert, AMPC members were soldiers in every sense, so they were trained as infantry troops. “I was lucky,” he said. “During the entire war, in the desert and later in Greece, I came face to face with death more than 10 times. My friend, who stuck close to me, was killed on the spot by a German aerial strike. When I got to the Kalamata port, there was concern I might be taken prisoner by the Germans. I told myself that I would never let that happen. I figured that the Germans killed Jews, and certainly Jewish soldiers. I told myself that I had nothing to lose, either I would die trying to escape or the Germans would kill me once I was taken prisoner. “The only option was to swim at night toward two Australian ships. I was determined … and was saved.” Among the captives was legendary workers’ leader Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, who later served as the secretary-general of the Histadrut labor federation, an member of Knesset, and Israel’s transportation minister. Ben-Aharon was 35 when he was taken as a prisoner, and the trauma cut short his career as a workers’ leader. Another captured commander was Yosef Almogi, who was mayor of Haifa and held several ministerial posts. Almogi was 31 at the time and a sergeant in the British army. He wrote about his captivity in his book, “With Head Held High.” The former prisoners and their families spoke at length about Almogi’s efforts to unite the prisoners, when he called on officers of all ranks to stay with their men and not abandon them. In his book, Almogi wrote that his request stemmed from a double fear—“that the conditions at the work camp would be worse than in a stalag [a German term for a POW camp], and that there they would try to deprive our men of their rights and even kill them.” Gelber’s research found the Germans had decided they would not set up special camps for the Jewish POWs as early as 1940, when they waged war on France. They preferred that the French, like the British, separate themselves from the Jews and demand to be taken to work outside the camp. But they were quickly proven wrong. Representatives of the British prisoners in the Lamsdorf POW camp in Silesia—where 1,160 POWs from pre-state Israel arrived about six months later, joining 19,000 British POWs—made it clear that they would not do such a thing, “and

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through the diplomatic pipelines it was hinted to them that the British government would also insist that the Jewish prisoners be afforded equal treatment,” according to Gelber. Gelber said that after the Germans announced that Red Cross relief packages would not be distributed to the POWs from Mandatory Palestine, the representative of the British POWs said that the British would not accept the packages either. According to Gelber, after several months the Germans accepted the principle of equal treatment for the British POWs. Yet “outbursts against Jews, while not uncommon in German POW camps, were usually the result of personal or camp initiative and not of orders from above.” Starvation, humiliation, abuse, and forced labor at gunpoint were routine for the POWs. Several POWs were even shot to death by the Germans. Early in their captivity, several hungry prisoners who fell upon foodstuffs were shot dead. POWs who worked in coal mines were murdered later on. The Germans treated the POWs with cruelty even in early 1945, when Germany’s surrender was only a matter of time. “Most of them were held by the Germans until the surrender,” Gelber wrote. “Some could not endure the final days of captivity and fell on the brink of liberation.” Binyamin Beit-Halachmi, who was severely traumatized by his long stint in German captivity, died at age 80. He volunteered for the AMPC at 18 and married his wife, Rivka, in 1947. “We didn’t know what post-traumatic stress disorder was then,” Rivka recalled. “I knew a pleasant, generous, and tranquil man who, after age 30, became irritable and impatient.” Brothers Shmuel and Shlomo Laufer of Tel Aviv went to war together with the AMPC and were liberated in May 1945. Shmuel’s daughter Sara Kochavi, a member of Kibbutz Yagur and a journalist, recently wrote about the survival of her father and her uncle in the kibbutz’s weekly journal. “[My father and his brother] had to leave a wife and small child behind,” she wrote. “What contributed particularly to the brothers’ survival was that each one encouraged the other. Even in captivity, my father never lost his sense of humor. Like many of the POWs, he leaned English in captivity, and before he returned to Palestine he was sent to England to recover, as all the captives were. When they returned to Palestine, the Jewish community ignored them because in the eyes of its leaders, being a POW was no great honor.” Many of the POWs were saved in 1941 on a Nazi-planned death march from Silesia to Germany. “There were terrible conditions of snow and freezing cold,” said Yossi Solomin, POW BenZion Solomin’s son. “Because of the Germans’ fear, they ordered the captives to march at night as well. Not everyone had food to eat—not even the German soldiers did. Everyone ate frozen beet sugar. They marched for several months, almost to Munich, an unimaginable distance of 900 kilometers. There was a snowstorm and they thought that they were going to die, and they shouted ‘Shema Yisrael’ (Hear, O Israel). And suddenly, a miracle occurred and trucks from the Swiss Red Cross saved them.”

CROSSWORD ANSWERS This week’s puzzle

748894

January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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Jerusalem Post Puzzle by Kelly Clark • MODERATE • Edited by David Benkof

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THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

ClassiďŹ eds

Noshing Ventured

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January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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Jewish Star Schools HANC’s CAHAL kindergarten adds SMARTBoard Naomi Nadata, Program Director How do you improve upon the CAHAL kindergarten program which has been successful beyond expectations and has been taught by a highly experienced, outstanding, dedicated, NYS certified special education teacher for over 15 years? Add a new, stateof-the-art Epson/SMART Interactive Board. Last week, I had the privilege of observing a science lesson in Morah Melody Harris’ CAHAL special education classroom at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. The children were totally engrossed as they were taught about the properties of liquids and solids in a hands-on, interactive lesson. They observed that water was clear, but in order to learn more about liquids, Mrs. Harris colored the water blue. They watched as Mrs. Harris asked individual students to pour the blue water into various containers and molds. The students were able to explain why the liquid took on the shape of its containers while the solid objects could not. The class discussed the difference between ice and snow and how they are formed. They learned that while they could freeze water to make ice, only Hashem could make snow. Star-shaped molds filled with water were placed on the window ledge outside of the classroom to experiment if the water would turn to ice by the next morning. Just when I thought the lesson was over, the students were invited to view their new Epson/SMART Interactive Board, and they watched in amazement as the entire lesson came to life in a video. Incredibly, the children were able to answer all of Mrs. Harris’ questions about their lesson. I wondered which came first, the lesson plan or the video. I later asked Mrs. Harris, and she explained that she spends endless

hours researching available material for the SMARTBoard in order to create the most effective learning experiences. She has created many interactive games and other activities to enhance the children’s learning, and this is just the beginning.

We’d like to teach the world… Continued from page 8 part of the development of the leader who will ultimately lead the Jewish people. And forty years later, the stage is set, and the redemption is at hand, when Moshe arrives with his family at a motel just outside of Egypt. And something is wrong, because while Jewish blood is being spilled in the streets of Cairo, the leader of the Jewish people is worrying about sheets and towels. And if Moshe cannot be the leader who will take the Jewish people out of Egypt, then there is no purpose to his being in this world, and he must move over for the real Moshe to come. Maybe this is why Moshe has to get out of Midyan: life has become too comfortable. What, after all is Moshe’s life? He is out in the wilderness with his sheep, and not a care in the world. But perhaps life is a little too grand, and maybe it is time to go back, and feel the pain of his people. In fact, one wonders whether this is part of the message hidden in G-d’s first words to Moshe: “Take the sandals off of your feet..” (3:5) A strange opening line when considering that this is the moment G-d introduces Himself to the man who will redeem the Jewish People and bring the Torah into the world. Perhaps G-d was telling Moshe: “don’t be so comfortable.” The essence of Jewish eth-

ics is the development of sensitivity for one’s fellow human beings, and the ability to see every person as a vehicle for the image of G-d in which he or she was created. In fact, this is the “reason” the Jewish people ended up in Egypt in the first place. Because if ten brothers could sit down and have lunch while their brother languished in a pit, then something was dreadfully wrong. Perhaps we are all a little too comfortable these days, sighing as we view the line at the bank, or the impending transit strike, while people in Africa are starving to death. Egypt represented a place where people don’t see; it was a land of darkness, where people did not see their fellow human beings. The Jewish people came into the world with a mission: to teach the world to see. Sensitivity is all about recognizing that we are all one, and learning to feel someone else’s pain as our own. Indeed, only when Moshe is saved from near death, does he understand what it means to be saved. May G-d grant that we all merit the extraordinary privilege of learning to be there; really be there, for one another wherever we are, so that one day soon we can all leave our Egypt behind and be together; really together, in the land we call home. Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

She told me that her daughter recently asked her why she had gotten a SMARTBoard in her classroom. After all, her daughter thought that it was meant to make teaching easier for her, but instead, her mother was busy spending unlimited time creating new and exciting lessons. As CAHAL students are almost an ‘invisible’ population, with the goal of blending into each yeshiva’s mainstream whenever possible, many community members are unaware of the mission and effectiveness of the program. CAHAL represents the epitome of Achdut. CAHAL is sponsored and coordinated by all the yeshivas in the surrounding communities including Bais Yaakov Ateres Miriam, Bnos Bais Yaakov, Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, Mesivta Ateres Yaakov, Shulamith, Torah Academy for Girls, Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island, and Yeshiva of South Shore. Twenty three years ago, the local yeshivas collaborated together to create and sustain CAHAL. They include CAHAL children in all their non-academic activities, and the CAHAL students are not highlighted as different or having special learning needs. When individual CAHAL children are ready, they attend mainstream classes, with support, in one or more subjects. For many, the program serves as an effective bridge into the yeshiva mainstream; for others, the small CAHAL classes (maximum 12 students per class, 4:1 student to teacher ratio) for children with learning differences and challenges provide the ideal environment where they receive individualized attention and specialized teaching strategies as they master the skills needed to transition to the next stage of their lives. At HANC, the CAHAL children are taught

a full yeshiva curriculum including Kriah, Chagim and Tefilah, while fostering kavod habriyot, middot tovot, and an understanding and love of mitzvot. The General Studies curriculum provides academic readiness skills and cognitive development in an integrated curriculum that includes math, reading, writing, science and social studies. A sensory integration program is incorporated on a daily basis into the class schedule, individualized to address issues in both gross and fine motor strength and coordination, body awareness and general organization. A multisensory approach incorporating visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities enables different styles of learners to reach their potential in both Hebrew and English curriculum areas. The CAHAL program has a major focus on developing receptive and expressive language skills through daily lessons and activities. Ongoing coordination and collaboration with the related service providers ensure a wrap-around focus on common goals. Aside from the new Epson/SMART Interactive Board, CAHAL also uses the Gruss Waterford Computer program in their classroom to support individualized reading, math and science learning all on a daily basis. CAHAL is an academically based program for children with learning and/or languagebased disabilities, and for those children who have learning challenges that require the smaller classroom setting providing structure, individualized attention and specialized teaching strategies. The curriculum is individualized to each child’s level of skill development as they progress throughout the year. For more information and to discuss placement of a child, contact CAHAL at 516-2953666 or visit www.cahal.org.

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Arielle Lipsky Literacy Week in the Middle Division of Shulamith School for Girls was packed with events celebrating reading and writing. Under the guidance of Director of Student Activities Rachel Steiner, Alexandra Anthony headed a group of eighth graders who masterminded many of the fun-ďŹ lled activities. We kicked off our week on Monday, Dec. 29, with a character dress-up day. Students and teachers dressed as their favorite literary characters and the halls came alive! The characters who wandered the school included Thing One and Thing Two, Peter Pan, Harry Potter, Tom Sawyer, and many others. The event was a smashing success. On Monday, we also had a spelling bee. In the weeks before the schoolwide bee, class bees were held and two winners from each class went on to represent their peers in Monday’s competition. Fifth grade winners were Miriam Abittan, Aviv Amar, Sabrina Graff, Ariella Katz, Shira Mintz, and Haley Rosenberg. Representing the sixth grade were Shaked Harari, Rose Hecht, Jenny Lifshitz, Bailey Shapiro, Esther Rella Robinson, and Bryna Stern. Rivka Bennun, Eliana Eichler, Miri Granik, and Noa Harari won the seventh grade class bees, while Miri Biderman, Channa Gelbtuch, Eliana Hirsch, Sari Lifshitz, Rena Seidemann, and Kayla Wienerkur were the eighth grade winners. The competition was ďŹ erce, the spellers impressive, but after multiple rounds, Haley Rosenberg emerged victorious in the ďŹ fth and sixth grade, and Rivka Bennun won on the seventh and eighth grade level. On Tuesday, Shulamith held its ďŹ rst ever

Poetry Slam. All students had a chance to enter a poem, and many girls did. After much contemplation, a group of girls were chosen to compete. The custom for ofďŹ cial Poetry Slams is that audience members snap their ďŹ ngers in lieu of applauding poems, but in Shulamith, the students got toy hand clappers to applaud the poems they enjoyed. The poems were wide-ranging in style, and the poets each did a masterful job of reading their work. With so many wonderful entries, the Slam ended in a three-way tie for ďŹ rst place. Fifth grader Tehilla Ostroff, seventh grader Marsha Joseph, and eighth grader Sari Mos-

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kowitz shared top honors. The second place winner was sixth grader Sara Stein, and third place was awarded to seventh grader Rachel Sandler. Tuesday afternoon also brought with it the opportunity for our students to visit the Book Fair. Our thanks to our dedicated parent volunteers, Lisa Abittan and Rachel Laufer, for once again planning, ordering, organizing, and selling a wide-ranging assortment of quality literature. Wednesday brought with it the chance for our students to enjoy Literacy workshops. The ďŹ fth graders heard from Mr. Chaim Sch-

neider, parent of Shulamith fourth grader Ilana. As an employee of Judaica Press, Mr. Schneider is well acquainted with the book publishing process and explained to the students every step a book takes from the time an author conceives of an idea until it is in the hands of the consumer. The sixth and seventh graders were treated to a creative and thought-provoking workshop by Mrs. Chaya Sara Stark, a published writer, speaker, and dance instructor. She engaged the students in a variety of activities that had them wondering what a “World Without Wordsâ€? might be like. Finally, Mr. David Seidemann, a lawyer, columnist, and parent of eighth grader Rena Seidemann, spoke to the eighth graders about different tools and tricks he uses in his writing. Among other things, Mr. Seidemann explained how he uses humor and showed how he connects real-life situations to the parsha or chag to create his columns. Literacy Week concluded on Thursday with a visit by Rabbi David Fohrman from Alpha-beta. His presentation was most ďŹ tting for Asara B’Tevet, as he showed the students a beautiful video about how we can speak to Hashem in our lives without prophecy. He explained Yosef’s story and how he was able to understand Pharoah’s dream. Rabbi Fohrman inspired us with his message of how easy it is to see and hear Hashem in our lives. Literacy Week was a time to bring reading to life. Some children all over the world say how boring it is to read, but it is reading that makes us smarter and is the key to a successful future.

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THE JEWISH STAR January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775

At Shulamith Middle Division, it’s Literacy Week

January 9, 2015 • 18 Tevet 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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