July 11, 2014

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VOL 13, NO 27 Q JULY 11, 2014 / 13 TAMUZ 5774

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From Israel with love We do not have to apologize for defending ourselves from missile attacks, writes Far Rockaway mother of 4 who now lives in Efrat

Our brothers, our sons FROM THE HEART OF JERUSALEM

Rabbi Binny Freedman

T

he heat was unbearable, but no one was thinking about the heat that day; there were 150,000 people who had gathered to pay their last respects.

Bus after bus unloading thousands of people who came from every part of the country — secular Jews with earrings in jeans shorts and cut-off T shirts, and ultra-Orthodox Jews in long black coats and side curls; Jews with large knitted kippot alongside those with baseball hats and soccer shirts. It was the middle of the Mondea’l,

the world soccer tournament in Brazil, but no one was thinking about soccer that day and the teens who had come by the tens of thousands were not laughing.

Naftali’s mother was speaking and a man started crying.

“Did you know any of them?” asked a teen of someone in front of him.

“No, did you? “ “No. None of us did; but he was my brother; our brother; they were all our brothers.”

These three teenagers had captured our hearts. They were Continued on page 4

This article was sent to friends and family by former Far Rockaway resident Tara Brafman, a mother of four who made aliyah in 2006 and now lives in Efrat, Israel.

Hi friends and family, We’re getting lots of concerned emails, since the missiles started hitting our area.

Thank you for that. I really wanted to just say that, and sign off, Love, Tara, but…

I have to speak out.

I watch Israeli news, but am also watching CNN, Fox, and other American news reports, to see how this situation, this new war, is being covered. It is surreal to watch.

I am floored at how there are videos of Gaza children, standing amidst heaps of rubble in buildings that were hit by Israeli planes; over and over, the news pictures these bombed Gaza buildings, and there are reports of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes. The slant seems to be, “innocent” Gazans attacked by Israel. What the hell?

Excuse my language, but I am angry. Such a slant on reality. Such a distortion of reality.

No one in Israel wanted a war.

Hello, World? Are you listening? We had no choice. We were under constant rocket attack from Hamas terrorists, hundreds of rockets! Who in America would stand for that, who could live a normal life in such a situation?

Tara Brafman As you sit at your computer, I wish you could just once hear an air raid siren suddenly go off at top volume. Or you’re in a supermarket, or walking your dog, or doing any other act of normal life, and you suddenly hear it. You’ve got to get to a bomb shelter FAST. If you are in Jerusalem, you have one minute. If you are in Sderot, you have Continued on page 12

In times of strife, we yearn to come home When there’s a crisis at home, home is where we need to be — home is where we want to be.

Beneath the darkening clouds of war that covered Israel this week, 64 new olim from the United States arrived in Medinat Israel on Tuesday.

Ranging in age from 8 months to 91 years old, they made aliyah with Nefesh B’Nefesh in partnership with the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigration Absorption, the Jewish Agency for Israel, KKL and JNF-USA.

Becky Kupchan, 26, landed from Chicago enroute to her new home in Beer Sheva in the South, where rockets were falling.

“I’m not afraid,” she said. “I’m a Jew and I’ve always dreamed about making aliyah to Israel, my home.”

“The olim who’ve chosen to make aliya during these challenging days are real heroes,” said Nefesh B’Nefesh executive director Rabbi Yehoshua Fass. “Each one of them fills our heart with pride and great inspiration.”

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Shabbat candlelighting 8:08 pm. Shabbat ends 9:20 pm. 72 minute zman 9:40 pm. Parshat Pinchas. Tuesday (July 15) is Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, from 4:26 am to 9:06 pm.

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July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Malka Eisenberg When the American Studies Association voted to boycott Israel, Joshua Nass found that the Jewish community was “shocked, shocked” and seized the moment and stepped into the breach.

Then a student at Brandeis University, a historically Jewish college with a recent reputation for anti-Israel tendencies, kipa-clad Nass called for the firing of professors joining in the anti-Israel campaign.

He has succeeded in bringing attention to and deflating anti-Israel campaigns during his college career; in the current crisis, he is calling for advocating for Israel on a variety of platforms.

Now 22 and living on the Upper East Side, Nass frequently visits his father in Woodmere and davens at Congregation Aish Kodesh. He is a graduate of Westchester Day School and Ramaz High School, studied in Israel for a year at Netiv Aryeh, and graduated Magna cum laude from Brandeis with a BA in political science. He spent a summer in Israel as a volunteer for the Koby Mandell Foundation, providing assistance and support to relatives of victims of terror.

Nass honed his public relations savvy with pro-Israel activism on campus, sending pitches from his dorm, fueling stories that, he said, would last for weeks. He hopes to channel his experience into a career in PR. He decried the “level of passion and enthusiasm of the J Street types” and their anti-Israel sentiments. “If the right side had the same level of passion as invigorated advocates for Israel, we’d be in a far better place.”

“Israel is in desperate need of PR” and the “State of Israel doesn’t invest enough into it,” he said, adding that he was “astounded” by the lack of response to the academic boycott.

“Israel Apartheid Week” prompted another foray into the media for Nass, when an unidentified group hijacked his image and inserted it into a video promoting the week-

long campus-based anti-Israel campaign.

“Alongside the hateful comments, they had me nodding as if approving of their hateful message,” he said.

Through his contacts in the press, he offered the issuers of the video $5,000 if they met four conditions: that they reveal themselves, issue a public letter of apology for using his image, remove him from the video, and debate with him in a public forum of his choosing about the merits of the argument of Israel as an apartheid state.

His counter campaign received media attention, and by motzai Shabbat, he noticed they had taken him out of the video. “They buckled,” he said. “To me this was validation that young pro-Israel activists nationwide

[can] work against the BDS and apartheid [campaigns by] utilizing PR.” He traces his activism and love for Israel to his grandfather, Boris Kidernan, a”h, who was successful in the USSR but came to the U.S. in 1975 to “instill Jewish values in his children and give them a yeshiva education.”

Nass joined Kidernan, who was an active volunteer in UJA and Bnei Zion, on fundraising drives. He took off a semester from school to work for Mitt Romney’s campaign for president and founded Voices of Conservative Youth in August 2013 to “mainstream conservativism” and “change the way the Republican Party is perceived by the youth of this country.”

Last year, he took a stand against the retraction at Brandeis of an honorary degree the school was to award to Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Nass’ commencement. The retraction was the work of the Moslem Students Association of Brandeis in partnership with CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, funded, said Nass, by Hamas and Hizbullah.

“It was not the voice of the student body, it was not grassroots student outrage — it was an expert organization from outside the school that forced the issue,” he said.

Students should “have the courage to stand up for Israel in any venue no matter how hostile to Israel and its interests,” Nass said. “Young people have the capacity to make change and make a difference.”

“It is incredible to see someone like Josh speak so eloquently and confidently about the issues,” said Avi Posnick, formerly of Oceanside, a Rambam Mesivta graduate and now Regional Coordinator, New York Chapter, StandWithUs East Coast. “Our community must do more to empower our youth to stand up for Israel and provide them with the confidence and facts to share Israel’s side of the story.”

“Although it’s become increasingly difficult to find reliable sources of information to gather news on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, there are publications such as Israel Hayom and the Times of Israel that lend readers a fair assessment of news coming out of Israel,” Nass said.

“My advice to those looking to defend Israel: Have the courage of your convictions to stand up in defense of Israel even when the circumstances don’t necessarily make it the popular thing to do,” he said. “The truth is on your side.”

“I urge young people to utilize digital and social media platforms to voice their support for Israel and also combat anti-Israel bias where it is expressed by the press,” he added.

“Israel is not the aggressor in this conflict.

It is acting in self-defense. It is Hamas, a terrorist organization that instigated this conflict with the abduction and murder of three of our brethren. Unfortunately many in the media are framing this conflict as if Israel provoked this conflict. Israel has a right to defend herself and her citizens.”

“Activism comes in all forms,” Nass said.

“We may not have the capacity to serve on the frontlines of this conflict in Gaza, but we do have the ability to advocate for Israel on the frontlines of the PR war.”

Unity and community: 500 at Long Beach concert

By Malka Eisenberg More than 500 people gathered along the new Long Beach boardwalk and the sandy beach below on Sunday for the summer season’s first concert.

The group Simply Tsfat was the first to play in the new bandstand, performing nigunim, Carlebach standards and Breslov tunes, a fusion of folk, pop, Irish-sounding Jewish music, some with words from prayers or Tanach.

Rabbi Chaim Wakslak, rav of the Young Israel of Long Beach, dedicated the concert in memory of the three boys found murdered in Israel a few days before, Gilad Shaar, z”l, Naftali Fraenkel, z”l, and Eyal Yifrach, z”l.

“We came together achieving a rare Jewish unity; we choose life as our enemies choose death,” he said, and quoting Rachelli Fraenkel, Naftali’s mother, that we will have to learn to sing without them though we will always hear their voice inside.

The band stopped the music to call out, “Shalom Aleichem Long Beach! Congratulations on recovering from Sandy!” noting that last year they performed without a bandstand and without a boardwalk.

Rabbi Wakslak noted the “standard practice” of shifting from mourning to joy. “You can push us down but we get up,” he said.

“The Jewish people are likened to the moon, that waxes and wanes. We spring back and show resolve with simcha.”

Before the concert, Young Israel of Long Beach held their 4th annual barbecue dinner for Chai Lifeline children and their families.

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About one hundred attended from all over.

Rabbi Wakslak said “the community is working diligently to put Long Beach on the map. It’s unfortunate that Long Beach is not identified as a destination to live” for frum families. He pointed out that the community has an eruv, a mikveh, and a kosher butcher, bagel store and Dunkin Donuts franchise.

He said the community is offering a $30,000 grant for people to buy a house, a stipend for those who rent an apartment, and they are working on a tuition credit with the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach. He noted that about 300 families reside in the area with an additional summer influx of 100 more.

Shoshana Wagman, a Stern College sophomore from Hewlett, sat on a blanket on the sand with her family. She came to enjoy Jew-

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ish music. “I love the beach,” she said. “It’s a perfect place.”

Sally Wiener of Long Beach sang quietly along with the music, clapping and bouncing in her seat on the boardwalk. “I loved the music. It’s incredible. I know every song.” Eli Dworetsky of North Woodmere heralded the concert as an achdus (unity) event.

Violinist Yonason Lifshutz warned listeners not to be “spiritually asleep” and played a lullaby with the two guitarists, Eliyahu Reiter and Yonatan Zarum, as the sun set. They launched into a foot stamping, hand clapping rendition of Yachad followed by “Next Year in Jerusalem.”

THE JEWISH STAR July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774

Kipa-clad Brandeis grad makes case for Israel

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Our brothers, our sons, yehi zichram baruch…

T

This week’s column is dedicated in the memory of Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach, and Gilad Sha’ar who will remain teenagers forever.

Yehi zichram baruch, veheyu lanu melitzei yosher (May their memory be for a blessing and may they be spokesmen for all of us on high). father and desire to uphold his name, along with a deep love of the land of Israel, merits that a mitzvah in the Torah be in their honor.

So who was Tzlafchad from whence came all this burning idealism and love? Incredibly, the daughters themselves (27:3) expressed that while he was not killed in the insurrection of Korach, he did die of sin — “Ki becheto’ met” (“For he died in his sin [mistake].”) (ibid.)

Rashi points out that he differed from Korach in that (as implied by the words of the verse) he may have made a mistake and sinned, but he did not cause others to sin; he was alone in his mistake.

What in fact was his mistake? Rashi cites two opinions from the Talmud: Rabbi Akiva suggests he was the gatherer of sticks (the mekoshesh eitzim in Numbers 15:32-36 who was put to death for gathering wood on Shabbat in the desert) and Rabbi Shimon suggests he was from the group of ma’apilim that stubbornly arose following the sin of the spies and, against Moshe’s command, were determined to fight their way to the land of Israel (Numbers 14: 40-45). They arose on the morning after the sin of the spies and went forward alone (while Moshe and the

Ark stayed in the camp with the Jewish people) and were all massacred by the Amalekites and Canaanites in the desert.

All of which leaves us with questions: What is the nature of this debate as to who Tzlafchad was and what his sin was? And what is the connection between his mistake and his daughters’ great merit?

Interestingly, both of these stories (the ma’apilim and the mekoshesh eitzim) occur in the portion of Shlach, and follow immediately after the sin of the spies. And both of these tragic mistakes involve an individual or a group separating themselves from the people for their own purpose, beliefs or desires.

The ma’apilim, despite the heavenly decree that this generation (which had sinned with the spies in not being ready to enter the land) could not enter the land, removed themselves from the entire congregation in attempting to fight their way into the land of Israel.

Their mistake was that the land of Israel is only meaningful as a home for the entire Jewish people; it is the place where we can show the world what it means to be a light unto the nations. And it is only because we believe that G-d has promised us this land

and that this is where G-d wants us to be that it makes any sense to be here at all. Being in Israel as an act of separation from the Jewish people and from G-d makes no sense.

Indeed, if it was not for a belief dating back thousands of years to the Bible itself, it really would make no sense at all for us to be here. Uganda would probably have been a much better move. Surrounded by Arab enemies on every side, in a tiny piece of land most people cannot even find on a map, Miami makes a lot more sense doesn’t it? Unless we are here for something greater than our selves; unless being here is about everything but ourselves; in fact it’s even bigger than being a part of the Jewish people; it’s about being a light for the whole world. So Rabbi Shimon says he who died alone in his sin is by definition one of the ma’apilim.

(Interestingly, the Baal HaTurim points out that the gematria or numerical equivalent of va’ya’apilu in this story [Numbers 14:44] is Tzlafchad!)

And what of Rabbi Akiva, who believed Tzlafchad was the mekoshesh eitzim who gathered sticks on Shabbat?

Why would a person gather sticks on Shabbat? Either for firewood, or to build shade (a sukkah) in the desert, both things one does for oneself. There are actually differing opinions as to which category of labor was violated by gathering sticks on Shabbat. One opinion in the Talmud is simply that he was carrying the sticks. When I carry something I essentially make a statement that it is mine; but one day a week, on Shabbat, we remember that nothing is really ours; all the things we have in our lives are simply on loan to us in this world; Hashem gives them to us and Continued on page 14

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Continued from page 1 our sons and our brothers, and their families recaptured something many had thought was being lost: a love of the land, and of life, and of all the principles we hold dear.

They embodied the right of every Jew anywhere to live and breathe this land we love, the land of Israel. And yet, they embodied as well the terrible price we have sometimes had to pay for that love.

This week’s portion of Pinchas contains a fascinating story of a few young women whose love for the land of Israel seemed to know no bounds, despite never having been there. And there is a fascinating detail to this story that is most often missed, and yet holds a powerful message worth noting. he five daughters of Tzlafchad (Machla, Noah, Chaglah, Milkah and Tirtzah) come forward before the entire leadership of the Jewish people: Moshe, Elazar the high priest (Aaron had passed away already), the princes and the entire congregation (Numbers 27:2), and explain that their father has died with no sons. Given that his inheritors are all daughters, they want to be given a portion of the land, that their father’s name not be lost in the land of Israel.

It is a bold request, for up until that time it seems the men would inherit the land of their fathers and share that land and live on it with their wives. And yet, in the merit of these five women and their bold request, Hashem himself proclaims that these women will inherit the land and carry on their father’s names as will any women who have no brothers to inherit. Interestingly, it is very clear this story is not about people who want land, it is about women whose love of their

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P

arshat Pinchas contains the maftir readings for all of the Biblical holidays.

Every holiday had a specific set of korbanot (offerings) that were brought in its honor. A similarity runPARSHA OF ning across all of the THE WEEK holidays is a single goat which was brought as a chatat (sin offering) to atone for the sins of the people.

However, when it comes to the holiday of Shavuot, the Torah does not label the goat as a chatat. That word is missing from the description, when it says, Rabbi Avi Billet “A single goat, to atone for you.” (28:30) The Minchat Shai notes that the way the goat is presented here is as a s’ir izim and not with a vov to say u’s’ir izim. As only Yom Kippur has a similar formulation (every other holiday says “u’s’ir” AND a goat), he suggests that Yom Kippur and Shavuot have in common that they are days when the Torah was given. The Tablets were finally presented to the people on Yom Kippur, and the contents of the Tablets were declared to the people on Shavuot.

In order to contradict the Sadducees who suggested the Torah was not given on Shavuot, the Torah made the S’ir to S’ir comparison to make it clear that Shavuot is a day when the Torah was given.

A number of commentaries point to the Yerushalmi in Rosh Hashana 4:8 which explains the phenomenon as follows: Rabbi Mesharshia explained that the chatat not

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being mentioned in the context of Atzeret (Shavuot) was G-d’s way of saying to Israel, “Since you accepted the yoke of My Torah, I am considering you as if you never sinned [and therefore don’t need a “sin offering.”]”

This, concludes the Torah Temimah, is the proof that the Torah was actually given on the same date as Shavuot.

Of course, in Mishpatim (chapter 24, note 36), the Torah Temimah explains that Shavuot is on the 50th day of the Omer – which can either fall on the 5th, 6th, or 7th of Sivan (Rosh Hashana 6b). This is why when we describe the holiday, we call it zman matan torateinu (the time period of the giving of the Torah) and not yom matan torateinu (the actual day of the giving of the Torah).

Rashi notes in Shmot 19:1 and Devarim 26:16 that we must view the Torah as if it was given every day.

It is fascinating that the Torah Temimah would suggest that the missing word chatat in the description of the goat offering proves that Shavuot and the giving of the Torah coincided – even as he points to his own commentary in Shmot which suggests that it’s not an exact science. In truth, the matter could be one of simple semantics. The Torah may have been given on Shavuot, but since the date of Shavuot (Biblically speaking) is not always the same date, if we celebrate Shavuot as the day rather than a specific date as the day of the giving of the Torah, then everyone is right. Because the truth is that whether a missing vov proves the point (Min-

chat Shai) or the missing word chatat proves the point doesn’t matter.

When news came that arrests were made over the murder of an Arab teen after the deaths of Gilad, Eyal and Naftali became known, and that the initial suspects are Jews, my sister told me she was going to attend a Lo Tirzach (Thou Shalt not Murder) Rally in Israel.

A life governed by the Torah’s teachings is one in which the deliberate sin has no place. We are all human, and we make mistakes. But there is a major difference between human failure and human error and descending to depths that are completely antithetical to the Torah’s teachings.

I personally have no sympathy for terrorists and murderers, and I have a very different mindset than the State of Israel has about how to deal with those who have Jewish blood on their hands.

But if it turns out that those who murdered an Arab teenager were Jews, and that they did it because Arabs murdered Jewish teens, they were operating under a Hammurabi Code, and not under a Torah code.

We rally for our People when our People are in need. And we must also rally for our true beliefs, distancing ourselves from those who conduct themselves in a manner that is antithetical to the Torah’s teachings.

If Shavuot’s goat offering was not called a chatat because the giving of the Torah made the people sinless, then it is the Torah’s teachings which should always guide us in being sinless.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

A life governed by the Torah’s teachings is one in which the deliberate sin has no place.

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Pinchas / Torah teaches not to sin

THE JEWISH STAR July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774

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July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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How the media reacts when Israeli Jews kill O

n June 12 three Jewish Israeli boys were kidnapped — Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel. Naftali had dual U.S.Israeli citizenship. Their terrorist kidnappers killed them almost immediately.

Sometime during the early mornPOLITICS TO GO ing hours of July 2, Mohammed Abu Khdeir a Palestinian Muslim boy was kidnapped and burned alive by terrorists. All four of these murdered children were perpetrated by less than human creatures who should spend the rest of their lives in horrible prisons.

Immediately after the three Jewish boys Jeff Dunetz were reported missing, Hamas and Fatah websites urged shopkeepers in the area not to cooperate with the authorities by turning over surveillance tapes. The day the Arab boy was kidnapped Israeli authorities were looking at the surveillance tapes from local shopkeepers to help find the murderers.

On June 15, three days after the Jewish

boys were kidnapped, the U.S. State Department finally issued a statement: “The United States strongly condemns the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers and calls for their immediate release. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. We hope for their quick and safe return home. We continue to offer our full support for Israel in its search for the missing teens, and we have encouraged full cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian security services. We understand that cooperation is ongoing.”

On July 2, the day the kidnapping and murder of the Palestinian boy was discovered, the State Department condemned the killing in words much stronger than it used for the three Jews, asserting that the United States “condemns in the strongest possible terms the despicable and senseless abduction and murder. … It is sickening. … There are no words to convey adequately our condolences to the Palestinian people.”

That same day, Secretary of State Kerry rushed to conclusions in a statement suggesting that the murder was motivated by revenge for the three killed Israeli boys. “Those who undertake acts of vengeance only destabilize an already explosive and emotional situation,” Kerry said. He called Prime Minister Netanyahu to make sure Israel intended to track down the

murderer of the Arab boy, despite the fact that Netanyahu had already condemned the murder, calling it reprehensible and ordered the police to work as quickly as possible to find the perpetrators and motives.

A 15-year-old American cousin of the murdered Mohammed Abu Khdeir has said that he was brutally beaten by Israeli police on Friday.

That case is being investigated. Twice during the weekend the U.S. State Department called for a thorough inquiry into his treatment. The same State Department did not make similar statements for American citizen Naftali Frenkel.

The EU condemned the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir the day his kidnapping and murder was discovered. The EU waited five days to condemn the kidnapping of the three Jewish boys.

The mainstream media largely ignored the kidnapping of the three Israeli children. When they did report it, they weren’t children, or boys, or even teens—they were teenaged settlers, suggesting that because they may have lived on the “wrong” side of the green line they were less than human. The kidnapping of the Muslim boy was reported by the media immediately.

Palestinian websites and blogs celebrated the kidnapping of the three boys; they united

on a slogan calling the kidnapped boys the Three Shalits (referencing Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped and held by terrorists). Pictures of Palestinian children holding up three fingers in celebration of the three kidnapped Israelis were posted on the official Hamas and Fatah websites.

Israeli authorities did not celebrate the kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. No celebrations were posted on official Israeli websites, and government officials spoke only words of horror at the act.

Four horrible murders of children, but judging by the reaction of much of the world, including President Obama’s State Department, the Jewish children’s deaths were less worthy of horror than the Muslim death. But not to Israel; in the Jewish State the deaths of all four children were treated with horror.

The media reported the killings as if they were the same. The death of Mohammed Abu Khdeir was just a heinous as the deaths of Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frenkel, but it was not the same.

Allow me to explain how the Jewish and Arab deaths are different: Israel will never demand that the killers of the Muslim boy be traded for or released as part of a deal to restart negotiaContinued on page 14

Beware the bearers of friendship with Iran I

f you want the measure of how American policy has clumsily tailed the shifting system of alliances in the Middle East, look no further than the op-ed titled “Iraq Must Not Come Apart,” published in the New York Times by Leslie Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Once an advocate of a federal Iraq, Gelb has now changed his mind.

Nothing wrong with Ben Cohen, JNS that, except that in doing so, Gelb, one of the most influential foreign policy thinkers in America today, has arrived at a most troubling position.

America’s priority, Gelb says, is to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), the barbaric jihadi organization that now controls a vast swathe of Syrian and Iraqi territory, where it has declared a caliphate ruled by its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

No serious person would dispute that ISIS, with its practice of beheading its opponents, constitutes a serious threat. In his Ramadan message to the “Umma”—the global community of Muslims—al Baghdadi called on the “soldiers of the

VIEWPOINT

Islamic state” to “fight, fight” against “the treacherous rulers” in the region who faithfully serve foreign “crusaders,” “atheists,” and, of course, the ultimate controlling power, “the jews” (sic).

The problem is Gelb’s prescription for countering ISIS. America, he argues, should ally itself with Iran’s ruling mullahs and the brutal Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad to achieve this goal. The imperative of defeating the Sunni jihadis overrides any other considerations.

In one way, this is an extraordinary conclusion to reach. It rests on the assumption that Iran can be trusted and that the sanctions currently imposed upon Tehran will rein in the mullahs should they become, in Gelb’s phrase, “too grabby.” There is no acknowledgement that such a strategy requires ignoring Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its long history of supporting terrorism. And it demands that the same Obama administration that last year fiercely denounced Syria’s use of chemical weapons, before backing down from the threat of military action, now throw its lot in with Assad, the chief executioner!

But in another way, Gelb is merely describing a policy that is already in place—even if he himself is reluctant to admit that. As Michael Doran of the Brookings Institution has pointed out, in both an interview with me as well as in an essay for Mosaic magazine, the Obama administration has effectively sided with Iran in terms of the future directions of Syria and Iraq.

What this overlooks, Doran says, is the fact that

Syria will remain a magnet for Sunni jihadis as long as Iranian-based Assad remains in power.

An alliance with Shi’a Islamists and their regional partners would take the United States to a place far worse—if you can imagine that— than where we are now.

It’s a big mistake to think that because Iran is aligned with Nouri al Maliki, the sectarian Shi’a prime minister of Iraq, it has closed the doors to ISIS. A recent report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an Israeli think tank, noted that Iran has had close links with the Sunni Islamists of Al Qaeda, which suggests it is not as implacably opposed to ISIS as western analysts believe. Moreover, Assad actually released key ISIS operatives from his prisons, another indication that Iran’s alliance system does not preclude cooperation with Sunni Islamists.

While some in Washington may dream of an outcome in which ISIS takes a battering as bilateral relations with the Iranians improve, it’s far more likely that Islamists of both the Shi’a and Sunni variants will come out much stronger, to the detriment of America’s traditional allies like Jordan and Israel.

Which brings me to the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas. The abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers was an appalling reminder of just how vicious Hamas is. What that gory episode doesn’t tell us, however, is where Hamas sits in the emerging Middle Eastern order.

As the Syrian civil war intensified, Hamas

shifted away from Iran, its traditional sponsor.

Now, however, the wind is blowing the Hamas leadership back in the direction of Tehran.

In March, as the Palestinian journalist Adnan Abu Mer reported, Iran resumed financial aid to Hamas suspended in 2012. Ali Larijani, a hardliner who heads up Iran’s Shura Council, subsequently declared that “our relationship with Hamas is good and has returned to what it was.” Recently, when Israeli jets bombed a range of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas representative in Tehran, Khalid alQaddoumi, appealed for further Iranian assistance on the grounds that “the situation of Palestine is not under the focus of political circles and is no longer a priority for the region and the world’s media.” (I’m not sure either which “media” Qaddoumi is referring to.) And when Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal met with senior Iranian officials in Qatar, he praised Tehran for supporting the “axis of resistance”—this on the eve of the announcement of a Palestinian unity government involving Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.

The notion, then, that Iran can be a friend to western interests in the Middle East is catastrophically misguided. It is far better to acknowledge the sad reality that we are running out of regional allies, and are therefore better off sticking with the partners we have, rather than finding new ones who will delight in betraying us the first chance they get.

7 THE JEWISH STAR July 11, 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ 13 TAMUZ 5774

HEALTH, MIND & BODY â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Karate Rabbiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; kicks stress and battles cancer at YI Woodmere

By Malka Eisenberg Hundreds came to the Young Israel of Woodmere on Shabbat Parshat Chukat, drawn by a dynamic speakerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promise of controlling stress in their lives.

Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, founder of Kids Kicking Cancer, spoke during Shabbat and then presented his â&#x20AC;&#x153;Breath Brakeâ&#x20AC;? seminar â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;how to live longer and defeat stress in 60 minutesâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to more than 300 people on motzei Shabbat.

Kids Kicking Cancer empowers children undergoing cancer care â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and â&#x20AC;&#x153;any issue of childhood painâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by using martial arts techniques, and is making great strides in alleviating and controlling the pain of thousands, he said.

It uses Tai Chi breathing techniques â&#x20AC;&#x153;to stop stress and take control of your life,â&#x20AC;? he said. He instructed those who ďŹ lled the Leon Meyer Bais Midrash to overďŹ&#x201A;owing to inhale add an extra quick inhale and hold it to the count of three and slowly release the breath and forcing it out with a quick exhale at the end while relaxing the body.

A student of Rav Joseph B. Soleveichik and longtime member of the YU kollel â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as well as a black belt in Karate â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Rabbi Goldbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s epiphany came while he was director of Chai Lifelineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Camp Simcha.

When an â&#x20AC;&#x153;adult screams [in pain] the doctor ďŹ nds another

way to do things, with a kid they hold the kid tighter,â&#x20AC;? he said. When a child was screaming when the nurse was accessing his mediport for treatment at Camp Simcha, Rabbi Goldberg yelled, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wait!â&#x20AC;? Everything stopped, he said, and he asked the nurse to â&#x20AC;&#x153;give me a second.â&#x20AC;?

He told the child that he was a black belt and asked if he wanted â&#x20AC;?me to teach you karate. He almost jumped off the table.â&#x20AC;? Rabbi Goldberg taught him breathing techniques. When the nurse removed the needle after treatment, the child was unaware and felt no pain.

He began a pilot program at the Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hospital of Michigan in 1990, but Rabbi Goldbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knowledge of cancer and children began earlier and was personal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My wife and I lost our ďŹ rst child to leukemia 33 years ago,â&#x20AC;? he said. He was a Rebbe at Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles at the time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kids didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t heal well then.â&#x20AC;? Sarah Basya passed away at the age of two, in 1981.

The breathing technique works because â&#x20AC;&#x153;children believe in the power of martial arts,â&#x20AC;? he said, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;88.1 percent of our interventions signiďŹ cantly lowered the pain level of children who were experiencing pain of disease or therapy. This is a very signiďŹ cant number without drugs.â&#x20AC;?

Adult martial artists are taught the techniques for sev-

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eral months to teach the children. The children, ages 3 to 20, learn the techniques and they in turn teach adults. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The power of the program is that when children become teachers, it changes their perception,â&#x20AC;? giving them â&#x20AC;&#x153;more empowerment and decreases their pain.â&#x20AC;?

There is also an end of life care/black belt program for â&#x20AC;&#x153;when the medical world has run out of solutions,â&#x20AC;? according to the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s literature. They present a black belt with â&#x20AC;&#x153;Master Teacherâ&#x20AC;? and the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name embroidered on it to the child in a ceremony with family and friends, not as an end but as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;testimony to the incredible degree of power Continued on page 10

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Alzheimer center at Winthrop Hospital wins research grant

In recognition of her dedication and Efferen is a member of a number of professervice to improving the health of the com- sional organizations, including the New York munities, the UJA-Federation of New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Academy of Science, American College of division of South Shore Healthcare Profes- Chest Physicians, American College of Critical Care Physicians, American sionals honored Linda Efferen, College of Medical Quality, MD, chief medical ofďŹ cer at South American Academy of Hospice Nassau Communities Hospital, at and Palliative Medicine and its annual dinner reception held at the American Association for Temple Beth El of Cedarhurst. the Advancement of Science.

As chief medical ofďŹ cer, Dr. South Nassau CommuniEfferen, a resident of South Hunties Hospital is one of the retington, is responsible for faciligionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest, with 435 beds, tating medical staff interactions more than 900 physicians and with hospital administration and 3,000 employees. Located in the governing board and for asOceanside, it is an acute-care, suring the effective and efďŹ cient not-for-proďŹ t teaching hospidelivery of quality medical care 'U /LQGD (IIHUHQ 0' tal that provides state-of-theconsistent with the hospitalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission. She also assists with strategic planning art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, and execution, as well as the implementa- bariatric, pain management, mental health tion of disease management programs, and and emergency services.

South Nassau provides emergency and monitors the effectiveness of management elective angioplasty, and is the only hospractices and productivity indicators.

Named to Beckerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lists of â&#x20AC;&#x153;130 Women pital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx Hospital and Healthcare Leaders to Knowâ&#x20AC;? and Gamma Knife radiosurgery technoloand â&#x20AC;&#x153;100 Chief Medical OfďŹ cers to Know,â&#x20AC;? gies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Dr. Efferen is board-certiďŹ ed in hospice and Center by the state Department of Health palliative medicine, critical care medicine, and Comprehensive Community Cancer pulmonary medicine and internal medicine. Center by American College of Surgeons. It Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been listed in the Guide to Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Top Physicians, Castle Connollyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Top Doc- Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality tors: New York Metro Area Guide (for seven Improvement Program. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been awarded years), and Best Doctorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Best Doctors in the Joint Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gold seal of approvAmerica. She has received a host of awards, al as a Top Performer on Key Quality Meaincluding a spot in the 2010 class of LI Busi- sures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and diseaseness Newsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Top 50 LI Business Women.

Clinical professor of medicine at Hofs- speciďŹ c care for hip and joint replacement, tra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, Dr. wound care and end-stage renal disease.

Representatives from the Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Disease Resource Center visited Winthrop University Hospital on June 26 to present a $3,000 check to Irving H. Gomolin, chief, Division of Geriatric Medicine at Winthrop. The grant will assist Dr. Gomolinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research on how the removal of Namenda from the marketplace and substitution with an extended release formulation will impact the blood levels of patients with Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Disease or dementia.

Namenda (also known as memantine) is an oral medication used to treat moderate to severe dementia related to Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Disease. While it does not cure the disease, it may improve memory, awareness and the ability to perform daily functions. Namenda works by blocking the action of glutamate, a natural substance in the brain that is believed to be linked to symptoms of Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Disease. The standard tablet formulation of the drug is being removed from the marketplace in August 2014 without any available generic versions in the U.S. because patent rights to the drug do not expire until 2015. Instead, Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patients can be switched to an extended release formulation of memantine.

In his study, Dr. Gomolin will measure whether the switch from the standard tablets to the extended release formulation will result in important changes in blood concentrations of this medication among patients with Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dementia.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The research funds offer support to show how the pharmacologic change will affect patients following the drug manufacturerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision to limit the various memantine formulations currently available,â&#x20AC;? said Dr. Gomolin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It also helps provide the opportunity to partner with local nursing homes who care for patients with Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Disease.â&#x20AC;?

The grant came from part of an anonymous donation that ADRC recently received.

Protecting skin from sun

710318

July 11, 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ 13 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

8

early and tools available to do so. MelaFind,

By Vanessa Parker, Nassau Herald According to the American Cancer Society one technology Rozenberg uses, examines skin (ACS), skin cancer is the most common of all just below its surface. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for questionable cancer types. More than 76,000 cases of mela- moles,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For an out-and-out lesion, it canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be used. For a poorlynoma, which the ACS says is healing area, I use the mathe most serious form of skin chine for further, in depth cancer, are expected to be dilook. It measures the range, agnosed this year. The Skin and whatever the mole regCancer Society says one in isters, the MelaFind aids in ďŹ ve people will develop some diagnosing its danger to the form of skin cancer in his or patient.â&#x20AC;? her lifetime.

In addition to RozenThose statistics, has Dr. bergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts, the Town of Suzanne Sirota Rozenberg, Hempstead began a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a Woodmere dermatologist, Get â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Burned,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? campaign reminding people to take the this summer, encouraging steps for skin protection. residents to participate in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Seek shade whenever its skin cancer prevention possible,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rememprogram. ber, the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rays are the The program is a partstrongest between 10 a.m. nership between the town and 2 p.m., wear protective clothing like long sleeves, :RRGPHUH GHUPDWRORJLVW 'U 6X and St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s University College of Pharmacy and pants, a wide-brimmed hat ]DQQH 6LURWD 5R]HQEHUJ Health Sciences and local and sunglasses. Make sure to apply enough sunscreen to withstand water pharmacists. A pamphlet, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Guide to Sun Safety,â&#x20AC;? and sunscreen are being distributed exposure, and reapply it when needed.â&#x20AC;?

Rozenberg, who began her medical career at all Town of Hempstead beaches and pools as a family practice physician in 2002, re- this summer.

Supervisor Kate Murray reafďŹ rmed the trained two years ago to become a dermatologist. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I chose to practice dermatology because need for the program. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Many of us wait all I love the ability to help people feel better year to enjoy the soothing sun,â&#x20AC;? she said at about their appearance,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whether a press conference at Lido Beach on July 1. itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medically or cosmetically, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m helping peo- â&#x20AC;&#x153;Beaches, pools, ball ďŹ elds and parks are popular settings when the sky is blue and ple to show their best selves to the world.â&#x20AC;?

One challenge Rozenberg faces in her the sun is shining, but fun in the sun must work is the patientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lack of awareness to the always be accompanied by protection from dangers of skin cancer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chronic skin condi- potentially deadly ultraviolet rays.â&#x20AC;?

Gary Corn, pharmacy manager for King tions can affect a patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life inward and outwardly,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;More teens and young Kullen supermarkets, provided some tips that adults especially, they need to understand for protection against the sun. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everyone is at the dangers of overexposure to the sun. They risk for melanoma and other skin cancers,â&#x20AC;? he donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize the urgency in needing to wear said at the press conference. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wearing hats, sunscreen or in avoiding using tanning beds shirts, eyeglasses and the proper choice and at their young ages.â&#x20AC;? use of sunscreens and sunblocks are essential There is help for diagnosing skin cancer for avoiding the hazards of sun exposure.â&#x20AC;?

9 THE JEWISH STAR July 11, 2014 â&#x20AC;¢ 13 TAMUZ 5774

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July 11, 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ 13 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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Rambamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;practical legacyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to modern medicine

By Jeffrey F. Barken, JNS.org Doctors worldwide hold in high regard the writings and manner of care of medieval philosopher-physician Moses Maimonides (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rambamâ&#x20AC;?), whose teachings have left a signiďŹ cant mark on modern medical practice.

Dubbed the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prince of Physicians,â&#x20AC;? Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 10 inďŹ&#x201A;uential medical texts ďŹ nd their basis in Jewish law and advance a philosophy with signiďŹ cant implications for modern doctors, nurses, and hospitals.

The story of Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; life is one of endless intrigue. Born in Cordova, Spain in 1135, he ultimately served as personal physician to the Sultan in Cairo. Renowned for his skill, Maimonides even was possibly offered a similar position serving King Richard the Lion Heart of England, whose army was in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Historians can argue about dates and facts, but what is really important is the practical legacy of Rambamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideas,â&#x20AC;? Dr. Beni Gesundheit, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and stem cell researcher in Israel, tells JNS. org. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maimonides said a physician should treat his patients with optimism, joy and utmost kindness. This is an extraordinarily strong message at the time that he was writing.â&#x20AC;?

Indeed, Maimonides lived in a stiďŹ&#x201A;ing era of constant war and oppressive church edicts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What people knew in the 12th century was all derived from classical sources,â&#x20AC;? Gesundheit, a PhD in Bioethics who runs a website â&#x20AC;&#x201D; JewishMedicalEthics.org â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on that topic, explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At this time new insights and new research were not encouraged by the church. People didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask questions.â&#x20AC;?

Despite medieval restrictions on free thought, Maimonides invoked the scientiďŹ c method in his medical practice, insisting on personally observing his patients, providing bedside care, and relentlessly pursuing knowledge that improved treatments.

Rambamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s extraordinary commitment to his profession is well documented in a famous letter to his friend and colleague, Rabbi Samuel Ibn Tibbon, written in 1199: â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Śevery day, early in the morning I go to Cairo and, even if nothing happens there, I do not return to Fostat (his home, approximately 1.5 miles distant) until the afternoon.

Then I am famished but I ďŹ nd the antechambers ďŹ lled with people, Jews and gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and policemen, friends and enemies â&#x20AC;&#x201C;a mixed multitude who await the time of my return.â&#x20AC;?

Confronted with these crowds, the exhausted physician would dismount, invite his patients to join him for a brief refreshment, and then set to work â&#x20AC;&#x153;writing prescriptions and directions for their ailments,â&#x20AC;? the text continues.

Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sensitivity and devotion to the sick, providing treatment fairly and equally, regardless of their background, politics, religion or social station, exempliďŹ es the essence of the Hippocratic oath that new doctors today still take upon graduation from medical school. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have a standard of care and the Rambam text helps establish guidelines to strive toward,â&#x20AC;? Deborah Hemstreet, international relations writer at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, explains regarding her institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship to Maimonides.

Hemstreet assists in the publication of the Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal, an open access, peer-reviewed online source that regularly publishes scientiďŹ c articles by doctors, rabbis, and other professionals whose work relates to Rambamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideas and legacy.

Beyond providing an example for how doctors should attend their patients in the exam room, much of the actual medicine that Maimonides practiced is still relevant. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maimonides makes very wise assess-

A bronze statue of Maimonides in Cordoba, Spain.

David Baron via Wikimedia Commons

ments about what foods were unhealthy, and what people should eat in different seasons.

He understood that eating too much and too fast was problematic,â&#x20AC;? Dr. Fred Rosner, teaching attending physician at Mount Sinai Services at Elmhurst Medical Center in New York, tells JNS.org.

Rosner then quotes the fourth chapter of Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mishneh Torah: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In order to be healthy and serve the L-rd, one must do everything one can to stay healthy.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Preparedness is essential, and Maimonides had many insights into preventative medicine,â&#x20AC;? Gesundheit says.

Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; comments on the medical issues of his time foreshadowed the modern era of public health measures. Gesundheit notes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rambam makes several interesting statements about snake bites, a common afďŹ&#x201A;iction in Egypt. He suggests that there

should be a bank with stocks of the antibodies for all the known types of venomous snakes. He also argues for better neighborhoods, away from bad smells.â&#x20AC;?

Likewise, Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Glossary of Drug Names presages the complex and meticulous prescribing practices of the modern physician. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s put everything on the table, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s have a list, and letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s make sure we understand the preparation and uses of these medicines,â&#x20AC;? Gesundheit says, explaining Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rationale for compiling his pharmacopeia. The project required the use of seven languages, and Maimonides painstakingly sought out experts from all over the known world to accurately record their well-honed methods and novel remedies.

Undoubtedly, modern sanitation standards, hospital resource distribution and planning, and todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s medical research methodology all stem, at least in part, to this forward-thinking, 12th-century physician.

Most inďŹ&#x201A;uential of all, however, were Maimonidesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; teachings on the special nature of the patient-physician relationship, according to Gesundheit.

Maimonides preferred to treat patients in their homes. That way he could note all factors affecting their condition and make a complete assessment of their health. As the current demand for health care increases, a doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal and intimate home visit, let alone an adequate-length ofďŹ ce visit, becomes ever more scarce.

While the comforting and relational qualities of medical care may be vanishing, Gesundheit is optimistic that doctors can reclaim their signiďŹ cance in the lives of their patients. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even though we have the Internet and progress in our communications,â&#x20AC;? he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t invest more human energy in our patientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; care.â&#x20AC;?

Maimonides would concur.

A helpful health event at St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in Far Rock More than 700 people attended a community health fair held recently at St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway.

The event offered screenings for high blood pressure, eyes, feet, body mass index, nutrition, medication interactions and more.

There were healthy food demonstrations,

information on access to health insurance, home care, healthy lifestyles, and health resources.

Caribbean Heritage Month was also celebrated with live bands and a radiocast.

St. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s will hold its next community health fair on Sunday, Sept. 14.

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Fighting stress at YIWâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 7 that increases in the face of adversity.â&#x20AC;?

YIW members Dan and Roberta Gettinger sponsored the program in memory of Danâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parents. Roberta worked as a nurse with Rabbi Goldberg and his wife Ruthie at Camp Simcha 25 years ago when Goldberg was Camp Director there.

Roberta Gettinger pointed out Rabbi Goldbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abilities as a speaker that combine rabbinic insight, humor and inspirational stories from his experiences with children ďŹ ghting pain. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So many participants shared with us that the lessons they learned over Shabbat

changed their lives,â&#x20AC;? she said.

In spite of his heroic stories of children battling cancer and at times succumbing to the disease, Rabbi Goldberg emphasized that this is â&#x20AC;&#x153;not about dying. The real challenge is about living with a purpose. When we allow stresses to respond to life it diminishes lives.â&#x20AC;?

We have to â&#x20AC;&#x153;bring in light, relax our bodies, live longer with purpose. Every single day can be ďŹ lled with light,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Children are taught to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pull in the light, push out the dark.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Our vision is to reach every child in the world in pain and teach others, spread light to the world.â&#x20AC;?

For more information: gettingers@aol.com.

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July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

12

Cemeteries reveal complex Jewish-Jamaican past

By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Marina Delfos is on a mission. Working with a group of people who come to Jamaica each year through Caribbean Volunteer Expeditions and a handful of local volunteers, she is helping to take inventory of the area’s Jewish gravestones, trying to make sense of the 360-year-old and oft-forgotten Jamaican Jewish past.

This past March, Delfos struck stone while she was on the Way Back When (Black River Heritage Tour) trip with Allison Morris.

“I knew there had to be a cemetery in [the town of] Black River,” said Delfos, who with Morris, a seventh-generation resident of Black River, began inquiring about where the historic Jewish community would have resided there. She asked one elderly man on a bicycle, and he took the group into the backyard of a neighboring home a few feet away, where there were three Jewish tombstones.

Delfos pulled back brush and leaves to read the tombs’ inscriptions. But before leaving the yard, she had photographs of what she assumes is likely just a corner of a oncelarger plot. It’s common in Jamaica to find buildings built on Jewish cemeteries—marking island development, as well as Jewish assimilation, intermarriage, and migration.

While in the 1800s there were as many as 3,000 Jews living in Jamaica, today there are under 400 at the highest count.

Among the Black River graves is a marker belonging to Hyman Cohen. His tomb has an intricate drawing of the hands of a kohen (high priest). The others belong to two young Friedeberg women, presumably a mother and daughter.

“It seems [the Friedebergs] died shortly after arriving on the island, as fever was rampant in Black River in those days, being that the town is located on the edge of mangroves and swamps,” explained Delfos.

In January 2015, a new team of volunteers led by New York architect Rachel Frankel will further excavate the Black River cemetery, so it can be measured and inventoried.

The Jamaican Jewish cemetery project started in 2007, a few years after Jamaican Jewish genealogist Ainsley Henriques approached Frankel, who had been documenting Jewish cemeteries in Suriname, about coming to Jamaica for a similar project. Little had been done to protect Jamaica’s Jewish history. A series of natural disasters, coupled with rampant crime and political turmoil, left its Jewish cemeteries in ill-repair.

The project has become a combination of

From Israel with love…

Continued from page 1 15 seconds. You wait until you hear it — BOOM. You think, where did it hit? A minute passes. The siren is still wailing. BOOM, again. The ground shakes from the force of the impact. BOOM. Another one.

Now do that every day, for a month. In southern Israel, do it every hour, every day.

Wake up at 2 am, and run down the steps of your apartment building to the basement with everyone else (most Israelis live in apartments). If you live in southern Israeli border towns you live under missile attack every single day. No one from CNN or the New York Times was here to report THAT. No one in the media covered THAT story.

Now the game changes. Now missiles are reaching Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the two largest cities in the country. Imagine if Mexican missiles bombarded a few towns in Southern Arizona and Texas for the last year. Annoying, but hey, we don’t want to start a CONFLICT, we’ll just DEAL with it.

But now, suddenly, think of those Mexican missiles reaching Chicago, Washington, and New York City. Now you’ve got more than half of the country in the range of fire.

That is Israel today. Millions of people are in rocket range.

Summer camps are cancelled. University final exams, cancelled. Large gatherings, 200 or more people, are not allowed.

(What if someone has a summer wedding?

Sorry, there’s a chance of missile attack during your wedding, so you’ll have to make it smaller, or postpone your big day).

There WAS a wedding in Ashdod the other night, where during the ceremony, the air raid siren begin wailing. All of the guests ran shrieking for safety. Pandemonium. A bride, in her wedding gown and veil, had to run to a bomb shelter in the middle of her own wedding, because Hamas hates the Jewish people so much they want us destroyed. If you go to the Arutz Sheva website — bit.ly/1mJCUep — you can see the video, taken the other night.

There’s another video of the air raid siren and subsequent reaction, on YouTube at bit.ly/1oHnBBv. The term “tzeva adom” means “color red,” but less literally, “code red,” warning that a rocket is coming.

When the world starts to complain about what Israel is doing to the poor people of Gaza, tell them how Israel has suffered — in a way no other country would tolerate. And don’t show us videos of destroyed buildings in Gaza with kids standing around, helpless in the rubble.

Calls for “restraint” are already coming from the U.S., the U.N. The world is real quick to condemn Israel for defending herself. I, for one, no longer care.

We do not have to show restraint to terrorists who seek our complete destruction. We do not have to apologize for defending ourselves against missile attacks.

I am sorry they use their kids as human shields, so that when our jets target their missile storage rooms, their children die.

I am sorry they celebrated and handed out sweets when our three kidnapped teenagers were found murdered two weeks ago.

I am sorry they name their parks and schools after terrorists, who blew up Israeli buses and pizza shops, and who are viewed as “heroes” in Palestinian culture.

I am sorry their version of “Sesame Street” encourages young children with happy songs and puppets to become suicide bombers and liberate Jerusalem with their blood.

I am sorry that the Palestinian authority pays large salaries to jailed terrorists and their families, as a reward and compensation for their “sacrifice.”

I, an English teacher, make a lot less money each month than a Palestinian Arab terrorist who is sitting in jail for trying to murder Jews. I am really sorry for their entire culture of anti-Semitism and death, because I am a moral, compassionate person who values life.

The world, led by chief PA terrorist himself, Mahmoud Abbas, will chastise Israel and call for “restraint.”

Folks, we showed restraint. We bent over backwards with restraint.

Now, though it was not our wish to be this way, it is time for action, time to clean out the hornets’ nest of terror that is Gaza, and stop the rocket attacks on Israel ONCE AND FOR ALL. No sane country in the world would do any less.

Tara Brafman, Efrat, Israel

work, said Elizabeth Lorris Ritter of Washington Heights, who has taken part in the Jamaican expeditions for the last three years.

First, the group picks a landmark or a cemetery corner and then records the location of each tomb in relation to that point. Next, they draw an image of each stone, marking any standout features and recording its epitaph. Then, they photograph each one and number them. Finally, they generate a map.

With each new cemetery discovery, many questions are answered. Yet almost as 6NXOO DQG FURVVERQHV HWFKHG LQWR D WRPEVWRQH DW -DPDLFD¶V ROGHVW many new questions arise.

-HZLVK FHPHWHU\ 6RPH VFKRODUV VD\ LPDJHU\ UHODWHV WR -HZLVK SL For example, researchers UDWHV ZKR SURWHFWHG 3RUW 5R\DO IRU WKH %ULWLVK Courtesy of Maayan Jaffe know that when slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838, intermarriage bedata mining for human stories and literal mining for lost stones. The team has un- tween Jews and emancipated slaves occurred earthed more than 1,000 gravestones and at a rapid rate. Yet there is little record of markers, an outdoor archive of the different these non-Jewish wives or offspring in the cultures that tumble together to make up Ja- Jewish cemeteries.

Rachel Frankel said during the volunteers’ maican Jewry.

In Jamaica’s oldest Jewish cemetery—lo- excavation at Black Rose Corner, a young cated in Hunt’s Bay, across the harbor from man descending from the prominent JewPort Royal—tombs dating back to the mid- ish De Costa family accompanied them. But 1600s have been discovered. The inscriptions when they discovered his great-great-greatthere often have a combination of Hebrew, Spanish and/or Portuguese, and English writings. Markers that date later are in English.

At Hunt’s Bay, Henriques points out several tombstones with carvings of skulls and crossbones, explaining these likely belonged to “licensed maritime terrorists,” or the first Jewish pirates. The Jews came to Port Royal in the 1700s because they saw economic opportunity in working for and protecting Port Royal, then the seventh largest port in the world. The British made it a maritime base and had “pirates” capturing and attacking boats of gold and silver coming from Central America.

Grave maker belonging to Hyman Cohen has a pair of After Port Royal collapsed into hands making the symbol of the kohen. Courtesy of Nicole Ryan the sea with the 1692 earthquake, Jews moved farther onto the island into Spanish Town and Kingston, where cem- grandfather’s tombstone, his great-greatgreat-grandmother was not buried alongside eteries can also be found.

In Falmouth, about two hours from Hunt’s him. His great-great-great-grandmother was Bay, Delfos helps preserve the Jewish ceme- a concubine of African heritage.

“The children that were buried there with tery, which contains 113 gravesides and about 80 readable tombstones. The oldest belongs to the grandfather, did they consider themselves Jewish when they died?” asked FranIsaac Simon, who died in 1815 at age 60.

There are 21 readable tombstones dated kel. “There is this whole population of mixed between 1854 and 1859, and the average age people. Who were they? Where were they of death is a low 19.8 years. Delfos believes buried and how do their lives and their burithis relates to the Asiatic cholera epidemic als compare to the Jewish ones?”

While the history is chronicled and the that spread through Falmouth at that time.

On average, however, Jewish tombstones cemeteries cleaned, will they be maintained?

Delfos said it costs around $60 per month reveal that Jews lived longer than many other Jamaicans. Henriques said this was likely to maintain the Falmouth cemetery, and she because Jews did not imbibe as much as their raises the money, but she struggles to meet British counterparts and that they had many the budget month to month. With high levels of unemployment and a high cost of living, children.

Also interesting is that most of the plots the Jamaican government hasn’t made the in the Falmouth cemetery, and those in the preservation of Jewish cemeteries—or any cemetery at Montego Bay, face east. This, cemeteries—a national priority.

But Heidi Kaufman, an assistant professor explained Henriques, follows the Sephardic custom of facing toward Jerusalem so that at University of Oregon who twice participatwhen the Messiah comes, the dead will be ed in the Jamaican Jewish cemetery restoraable to rise from their plots and head to the tion project, is not willing to accept that.

“Cemeteries are not places of death. …

Holy Land without having to turn around.

Yet by 1890, the graves in Falmouth lacked [They] are places where writing, history, art, architecture, and landscape work together any Hebrew writing.

In Hunt’s Bay, the tombstones face where to narrate stories about the past,” Kaufman the cemetery gate was likely located, which said. “If we wait to record them, they’ll be lost forever.” traditionally served a similar purpose.

Maayan Jaffe is a Kansas-based freelancer.

Chronicling cemeteries is “repetitive”

13

It might be anyone (young or old) whose acts of chesed are several steps beyond exceptional … a neighbor who is the soul of your block … your rabbi or rebbetzin … a business person whose tzedakah goes unnoticed … an organization or civic leader whose contribution to our community is priceless.

Every week starting later this summer, The Jewish Star newspaper will highlight one of our community’s real stars.

Each star featured in the newspaper and online will be entered as a nominee for a Jewish Star Award that will be presented at a celebratory event later this year.

THE JEWISH STAR July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774

w i e s J h s a t k a c r! i P Jewish Star Awards

Nominate your favorite Jewish star — or stars — today!

NOMINATE YOUR JEWISH STAR

WHO’S A STAR

Nominee’s name Nominee’s job, school, etc.

Nominee’s contact info

WHERE’S THE STAR?

In what town does nominee live or work?

What has nominee done to merit this honor?

WHY THIS STAR? Optionally, you may attach additional information

Your name and town Your email (not for publication) Your phone (not for publication)

Mail your entry to: Jewish Star Awards, 2 Endo Blvd, Garden City NY 11530

WHO ARE YOU?

Continued from page 6 tions. Nor will Israeli soldiers kidnap a Palestinian so they can hold him hostage until the murderers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir are released. Whoever they are, be they Jew or Arab, the killers of the 16-yearold Arab boy will serve their sentences in prison. History tells us that the Palestinian Authority will most certainly demand the release of, or attempt to kidnap other Israelis as hostages to trade for whoever killed the three Jewish boys.

Whoever killed the three Israeli boys will get a pension from the Palestinian Authority. If they are in jail or killed, their families will get the money.

The PA leadership has conďŹ rmed that they sent Western donor nationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; money to pay terrorists and their families. PA government spokesman Ehab Bessaiso explained three weeks ago that instead of funding the salaries via â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Ministry of Prisonersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Affairsâ&#x20AC;? under the PA they will fund them through â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Authority of Prisonersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Affairsâ&#x20AC;? under the PLO to â&#x20AC;&#x153;provide political and legal coverâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;eliminate arguments ... that [foreign] aid money [to the PA] is going to the prisoners.â&#x20AC;?

Once captured, the terrorists who abducted and murdered the three Israeli boys will start receiving a salary. Israel will never pay pensions to the killers of the Arab boy; they will be treated like the child murderers they are.

Prime Minister Netanyahu sent his condolences to the Abu Khudair family saying: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I pledge that the perpetrators of this horriďŹ c crime, which must be resolutely condemned in the most forceful language, will face the full weight of the law. I know that in our society, the society of Israel, there is no place for such murderers. And thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the difference between us and our neighbors.

They consider murderers to be heroes. They name public squares after them. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

We condemn them and we put them on trial and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll put them in prison.â&#x20AC;?

One person involved in the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli boys has

been captured. The remaining murderers have hid out in the Palestinian territories for three weeks because they have a base of support, an organization and people to keep their secret, feed them, etc., and the Palestinian Authority have done little to try and ďŹ nd them. Four days after the murder of the Arab boy, six people were arrested because they had nowhere to hide. The Jewish community does not accept child murderers.

You see there is no moral equivalence between the two sets of murder. The murderers of the Jewish boys will be celebrated as heroes, will receive a salary using Western aid to the PA, will have public squares named after them, and as long as they are hiding they will be protected by the Palestinian community. The murderers of the Arab boy will be treated like the child killers they are, but no one outside of the Jewish community recognizes the difference.

And that is just the start. This kidnapping highlights the subtle anti-Semitism that permeates throughout the State Department and the rest of the Western world. Jewish deaths are ignored, hundreds of rockets sent into civilian neighborhoods are treated the same as Israeli attacks on the rocket bases to stem their tide, children are described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;settlersâ&#x20AC;? not murdered kids.

When Palestinians justify murder of Jews in the name of their grievances, it is acceptable to western nations including our own, receiving little if any condemnation.

Israel never justiďŹ es the death of children, theirs or anyone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time for Jews across the world to stand up and scream that theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re fed up with a world that has indulged anti-Semitism for thousands of years. This scapegoating of Israel and Israel alone is nothing more than a continuation of this anti-Semitism, be it a BDS movement that targets Israel, or an Obama administration reluctant to criticize Palestinians for kidnapping three Jews, and a world that ďŹ nds moral equivalencies that do not exist.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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sends our enemies to remind us. It is why they have never broken us; they only make our resolve stronger.

It is nothing short of incredible, that while we are burying our teenage sons we are still longing for and calling for peace with our Arab cousins. This, too, is one of our greatest strengths. Sadly, we will only ďŹ nd that peace when our Arab cousins want it as much as we do, and it does not appear we are there yet.

Lastly, we do not know yet the details of exactly how an Arab teenager was murdered this week. But it should sadden us and cause us pain because whenever a human soul, created with all the potential a life has to offer, is extinguished, it should cause us pain. And if G-d forbid it transpires as it seems to be, that it was Jews who were the perpetrators, then they are like that same wood gatherer; they have separated themselves from what the Jewish community is all about and have misunderstood who we really are. And that should deeply challenge us and cause us pain as well.

Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do as Jews in this world.

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom, from the root shalem or whole. True peace is when we all feel, know and behave in a fashion, that as long as any of us is broken, all of us are broken, no matter their ideals and beliefs or the color of their skin.

These are, yet again, trying times for the Jewish people.

May Hashem bless us with peace soon, and the wisdom to ďŹ nd the best path to get there.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem, and the hills of Gush Etzion.

Jewish Star columnist Rabbi Binny Freedman is Rosh Yeshivat Oryata in Jerusalem.

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Our brothers, sonsâ&#x20AC;Ś Continued from page 4 the question is whether we know what to do with them. (Interestingly, in Hebrew there is no word for â&#x20AC;&#x153;havingâ&#x20AC;?; we say â&#x20AC;&#x153;yesh liâ&#x20AC;? which really means â&#x20AC;&#x153;it is to memâ&#x20AC;? describing my relationship with an object.)

Indeed Shabbat is a day which is all about seeing the larger picture, learning to be in the moment, taking the time to think about why we do all that we do and what all the work of our week is really about. Shabbat is a day when we think about our role in the context of the larger community and even the world.

So Rabbi Akiva says he who sinned alone must have been the one who gathered sticks on Shabbat.

And the daughters of Tzlafchad, determined to undo or â&#x20AC;&#x153;ďŹ xâ&#x20AC;? this great mistake, come before the entire Jewish leadership and the entire congregation ( 27:2 ) in their desire to be a part of the Jewish people and include their fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name amongst the inheritors. The response to the mistake of separating oneself, is inclusion; community, togetherness.

If there was ever a wave of one-ness, of togetherness that has swept the Jewish people , the tragic story of these three boys, our three sons and brothers and fellow Jews Naftali, Eyal and Gilad is it.

For the past three weeks our enemies have done everything they can to bring us down, to isolate and separate us. They want us to be afraid to travel and to come together, so they murder our children, shoot missiles at our homes and throw rocks at our cars.

They do not understand that being together, doing together, learning and singing, praying and dancing together, and yes, even crying together is who we are. It is our greatest strength and when we forget that, Hashem

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A

lthough I have so much to be grateful for, I feel a familiar itch coming on. With apologies to my readers, this week I’m going to vent. I’ve earned it.

Let’s start with the garbage collection services. I’m not in any way trying to belittle our sanitation men, but really, why is it that half the time they leave a pail totally full? Or, why are my WHO’S IN THE empty trash cans left in KITCHEN the middle of the street, the lids “Blowin’ in the Wind” as if they belonged in a Bob Dylan song. Just last week on July 3, garbage pickup day, I realized, after 5 pm that my cans were totally full.

Knowing that next pick up would be four days later and knowing full well there would be no one to answer my call or even listen to my message (verbal violence levJudy Joszef el; just ask my husband Jerry how that sounds) till the following Monday, I called and left a diatribe. It went something like this: “Hi, this is Judy Joszef at [phone number]. I just noticed that you took everyone’s garbage on my block except mine.

All my cans are full and the next collection is four days from now. I don’t really care that tomorrow is July 4. You can call your employees, and give them a message from me. I expect them at my home tomorrow morning, vacation day or not, to pick up the garbage that they left in my cans, and replace the cans exactly where they were found, and with lids on top (or they will hear my rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air) I have just about had it with your employees!! I know the supervisors that answer these calls are always understanding and polite, but I can’t deal with these issues any longer!”

Well, let’s just say those sanitation men didn’t pick up my garbage on July 4, but I was ready to attack on Monday, if there were any problems. I dropped off my husband at the station and on the way back noticed a special sanitation truck, the small kind that the supervisors ride in. I stopped my car smack in the middle of the street (just like they do when there is plenty of room to move to the side). I said, “Are you a supervisor?” He replied “Yes.” I then went on, “My garbage was not collected the day before July 4 and I’m…” At that point he cut me off and said, “You live at … correct?” Shocked that he knew my address I nodded. He went to say, “We got your message loud and clear, and I believe your cans should be empty now and back exactly where they belong.” OK, one down.

Now humor me while I vent about the propane tank issue I had. Each year, for the last 15 years or so I would have both barbecue propane tanks filled at the beginning of the season at the same store. Last year when friends were over there was a loud hissing noise when we attached it. The next day my husband brought it back to the store and explained the situation. The owner said there was nothing wrong with the tank, it was the way we connected it. So Jerry brought it home, I screamed at him, and the following Sunday when friends were over for a barbecue, Joe Grob, Bob Gittleman, Harry Fink and Jerry Richter (all masters at the BBQ) confirmed to Jerry that it was the tank that was the defective.

Fast forward to this year when I told Jerry to go back and exchange the defective tank. Again he comes home with the tank still full, still defective. “You brought it home?? Even the sanitation department listened to me; why didn’t you insist they give you a new tank??” Jerry explained that the owner said there was nothing wrong.

Soooooo, next time I passed by, I didn’t have the tank but decided to touch base with the owner.

“Hi,” I said. “We have been purchasing our tanks here for over 15 years. Last year you sold us a defective tank and insisted it was fine. We

cutter, press halfway down into the pastry circle, careful not to cut through the bottom.

Brush beaten egg over the top of the cases only. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. When ready, remove the cases from the oven and allow them to cool. Using a knife, dig out any raw pastry from the centre of the case and discard. Return the vol au vents to the oven for 3-6 minutes to make sure they are golden and done inside and out.

Pastry cream

tried it again and it wasn’t. This year the same thing happened. The gas shoots out when it’s turned on.” “You must be connecting it improperly,” he said. “Nope,” I replied. “Well, is your barbecue old?” he asked. “Nope, it’s actually brand new, so I am going to bring that tank back and you’re going to give me a new one, because I’m not as nice as my husband.” He sheepishly agreed. OK, two down.

AHHH I feel better after venting. This week’s recipe is Vol Au Vents. Pretty clever of me if I may say so myself. Enjoy!

Vol Au Vents with Pastry Cream and Fruits You can choose to use ready made frozen vol au vents or you can make your own.

If you chose to make your own, purchase puff pastry frozen dough. I like to use the Pepperidge Farm brand. Depending on how many you want to make, choose one or two sheets.

(Each box contains two). Preheat oven to 400F. With a round or scalloped pastry cutter, cut out the vol-au-vents to the size you want. Remove the excess pastry and roll it into a ball, this can be rolled out and used again, do not refreeze, though. With a slightly smaller pastry

Ingredients 6 egg yolks, 6 cups milk, 1 cup sugar, 2/3 cup cornstarch, ¼ tsp. Salt, 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla Directions •Beat egg yolks well in medium bowl, then gradually stir in milk until blended. •Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in large, heavy saucepan.

Slowly, stir in a small amount of milk into the mixture, making a smooth paste. Gradually stir in remaining milk mixture until blended. •Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil, 20 to 25 minutes.

Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat immediately. •Cool quickly: Set pan in larger pan of ice water. Stir gently for a few minutes to quicken the cooling. •Stir in vanilla, and press a piece of plastic wrap onto surface of pastry cream to prevent “skin” from forming. •Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.

Assembly Fill the vol au vents with pastry cream 3/4 full, and top with your favorite seasonal fruit Correction from my July 4 column, Ruth Feig’s favorite chocolate dessert recipe: I omitted the following two ingredients: 2-1/4 tsp. baking powder and 2-1/4 tsp baking soda.

Both should be incorporated into the flour.

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THE JEWISH STAR July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774

Mundane venting leads to exceptional pastry

July 11, 2014 • 13 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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