July 25, 2014

THE JEWISH

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Vol 13, No 29 n JUlY 25, 2014 / 27 TAMUZ 5774

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Again, the world has gone mad I

n a world filled with remarkable bloodshed, the only blood that appears to matter is that taken in self-defense by Jews.

Israeli-Palestinian clashes pale beside ongoing Arab-on-Arab and Muslim-onMuslim violence in Israel’s rough neighborhood. Elsewhere, 298 passengers on a civilian airliner are extinguished in a heartbeat, “insurgents” slay hundreds at a clip in Nigeria, and so many have died in conflicts in Southeast Asia, Latin America and elsewhere in Africa that accurate casualty estimates are impossible. Countries at war and at peace cruelly suppress human rights — ranging from religious and political expression up to the right to life itself — which are freely accorded in the democratic, pluralistic Jewish state of Israel. With all that, it is only plucky Israel’s determination to fight to survive that is under sustained attack.

Israel has been a home to Jews for more than 3,000 years, never abandoned by a people who lamented during exile by the rivers of Babylon, “im eshkachech Yirushalayim, tishkach yemini” (“If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill”).

Since sovereignty was restored in 1948, Israel’s Sabras have been joined in reclaiming their arid land by Jews forced from their homes by Arab and Muslim rulers (with no compensation and no right of return), by Jews fleeing oppression from behind the Iron Curtain and wherever being a

EDITORIAL Jew meant being a target, and by Jews who happily surrendered lives of prosperity in America to return home.

Israel, pained both by the deaths of its children and those of the children of Gaza, has gone to exceptional and perhaps unprecedented lengths to minimize collateral damage, while the enemy uses its people as shields, storing their vehicles of death and hiding their commanders in schools, hospitals and mosques. s the carnage continues, we know — and we must tell the world, starting with our colleagues and acquaintances who may not understand — that the fault lies not with Israel but with Gaza’s rulers. When Israel pulled out of the strip in 2005, it left behind valuable infrastructure of housing and commerce and the promise of a good neighbor and international support, building blocks of peaceful prosperity. But the Gazan gangsters demolished what the Jews had created and replaced it with military encampments, rocket-launch sites, terror tunnels and poverty.

Israel, as “the neighborhood bully” of Bob Dylan’s lyrics, is “outnumbered about a million to one … criticized and condemned for being alive … he’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.”

Well, no more.

A

PARIS: Anti-Israel rioters rampaged in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles on Sunday. Protesters in European cities attacked synagogues, Jewish-affiliated businesses and individual Jews.

AP / Thibault Camus

Dylan continued, “the chances are against it and the odds are slim; That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him; ’Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back; And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.”

Only when missiles are no longer launched from Gaza, when tunnels providing passage to assassins are eliminated, and when the powers in Gaza acknowledge Israel’s right to exist — only then will there be lasting peace and, likely, prosperity, too.

The world did not bow its collective head after the Crusades and the Inquisition and the pogroms and the myriad exiles forced upon Jews through the ages, but it appeared to finally acknowledge its shame after the Holocaust. Now the war against

the Jews has been renewed, not just on Israel’s borders but in Paris and London and, again, even in Berlin.

In this era of 140-character instant analysis, when memory is fleeting, when the concept of “15 minutes of fame” is a quaint relic of a much slower century, the crime against humanity perpetrated on Jews by an enlightened Europe is revisited even as an earlier chapter is forgotten and denied. s a people of the book, connected irrevocably to history, we dare not fall victim to the world’s collective amnesia. We must assert without apology our G-d-given right to live as free men and free women under G-d, in the land that G-d has given us, the land of Israel, our home.

Ed Weintrob, Publisher

A

Shabbat candles 7:58 pm. Shabbat ends 9:10 pm. 72 min. zman 9:30 pm. Parshat Masei. Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av Monday.

Rambam in the fight, Israel-bound: P3

“Israel would prefer to live in peace with its Gaza neighbors (who have every opportunity, with proper anti-fighting leadership, to create a Singapore or Miami Beach!)”

Rambam Mesivta in Lawrence sends students as volunteers and alumni as soldiers. Now it’s raising money and leading Five Towners on a working mission to the Holy Land.

prst std Us postage paid garden City, ny 11530 permit no 301

How to win a war / Rabbi Avi Billet: P13

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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Rabbi Eliach will lead 5 Towners to Israel on July 27

By Malka Eisenberg “This is a war, not an operation,” Rambam Mesivta’s principal, Rabbi Yatav Eliach, told The Jewish Star.

The Lawrence school has long had boots on the ground in Israel and it is embedded in the current conflict.

Rabbi Eliach, who said that the school’s connections to Tzahal (IDF) are long-term and constant, will lead a tour of the Holy Land starting on Sunday. (For information email ravyotav@rambam.org.)

Recent Rambam graduates are serving in the Israeli army, one on the northern front near Lebanon, and two — Yonaton Wadler from Lawrence and Yedidya Levy from West Hempstead — in the Golani Brigade in Gaza.

Another alumnus, Rabbi Yehoshua Koenig, married and a father, who previously served in the IDF, is back in Israel serving in the reserves in anti-terror operations in Judea.

Rambam has raised $3,000 from staff, family and friends to pay for shlookers, camelback backpack-type water canteens to be donated to Golani. Now, they are raising about $1,000 for boots for another squad.

Rabbi Eliach is currently organizing a two-pronged tour to Israel, between July 27 and Aug. 1, to showcase to Israelis “a cross section of American Jewry coming to Israel to show solidarity — kulanu am echad, we are all one nation.”

Rabbi Eliach will lead a group of “not so

Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald (left), rosh yeshivat Hesder Modiin and Ofakim, and a colonel in the IDF reserves, with Rabbi Yotav Eliach, principal, Rambam Mesivta, by the Hesder Yeshiva in Modiin.

frum” Zionist Five Towners to “visit communities under rocket fire, visit soldiers in hospitals and bereaved families,” while two other rabbis accompany frum religious leaders.

The other rabbis on this mission are Eliezer Shenvald and Yedidya Atlas. Rabbi Shenvald is Rosh Yeshivat Hesder in Modiinand Ofakim; Rabbi Atlas is a Lt. Colonel in the IDF reserves,

IDF Central Command reserves, and head of special projects for the IDF Chief Rabbinate.

For 12 years, student volunteers spent winter vacations working on Sarel bases, and over the last decade, about 30 Rambam graduates have served in the IDF, he said, pointing out that with only about 40 students in each grade, “proportionally with a school of our size, that’s pretty remarkable.”

Rambam is involved in these projects, “because we are a religious Zionist institution and they are fighting for us, for our land,” explained Eliach. “It’s the first time in 2,000 years that we have the ability to respond to anti-Semitism, not just be the brunt of it.”

He quoted Rabbi Yehuda Halevi in Hebrew, “I am in the West but my heart is in the East.”

“It’s what we believe,” he said. “Kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh (all of Israel is responsible one for the other) — it’s not just a bumper sticker, it’s true. Achaynu kol bait Yisrael (all Israel are brothers, the prayer found after the Torah reading on Mondays and Thursdays), is not just a slogan, it’s true.”

Rabbi Eliach pointed out that those serving in the army have had to be in the service for at least 18 months to go into combat. He said that Hamas is a “formidable terrorist army who can probably defeat many European armies” and that the tunnels they’ve dug throughout Gaza crossing Israel’s border and Egypt’s border, run two to three miles long, six feet high and four feet wide.

He said they put “hundreds of millions of dollars into this and not into schools, homes, hospitals and roads. … The leaders are hiding, the people are on the roofs. Had they spent this money on infrastructure, Gaza could be Singapore, Gaza would be a pleasant place to live.”

Spiritual dome: Shmira matches prayers, soldiers

By Malka Eisenberg The Shmira project, billed as “guard duty for the rest of us,” is being relaunched and adding volunteers.

A rabbinically originated and endorsed program matching Israeli soldiers by name with Jews anywhere in the world to pray, learn Torah and do acts of kindness on their behalf, is meant to create a “spiritual dome” to enhance the soldier’s spiritual merit and protection through a backer’s focusing on specific spiritual actions on their behalf.

Batsheva Goldman, a coordinator of the program in Israel, told The Jewish Star that the effort started during the 2009 Gaza war with a collaboration between Rav Simcha Hacohen Kook and the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Naftali Horowitz, zt”l (great uncle of Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz of the Bostoner Bais Medrash of Lawrence). A group of people in Baltimore brought out the program again in 2012 with the endorsement of Rav Aharon Feldman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael, and it is again being emphasized for the current Protective Edge.

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, a Far Rockaway resident and executive vice president emeritus of National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), recounted to The Jewish Star his introduction to the program during the 2009 war and the push to reinforce the program now.

“I got a call from Rav Simcha Kook, the Rav of Rechovot. He tells me the army is going in [to Gaza] and because he has a relationship with army bases around Rechovot, got [soldiers’] names for tefilot (prayers) and asked ‘can you get the message out’?” Rabbi Lerner said that he had to get the information out that night since the next day, Friday,

he wouldn’t be able to reach most rabbis to promote it in their shuls. He left the office at 3 am and by the time he returned on Friday, “the phone was ringing off the hook, everything went haywire.” Responses were coming in thick and fast from around the world, from yeshivot haredi and not haredi, all kinds of Jews, and even non-Jews.

The basis of this effort is last week’s parsha Matot, 31:4 where Moshe directs the people to designate 1,000 soldiers from each tribe to fight in the war against Midian. The phrase 1,000 per tribe (elef l’mateh) is repeated, indicating, according to Yalkut Shimoni, that 2,000 were designated — 1,000 for battle and another 1,000 to pray, learn Torah and do acts of kindness (chesed) for the soldiers at the front. King David replicated this action in battles in his time. With that in mind, the concept was heartily endorsed

by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky of Bnei Brak as well. More than 100,000 signed up during the 2009 Gaza war.

Goldman said that there are more than 50,000 participants now but they need more.

“It’s an incredibly significant process,” said Goldman. “It enables people to be pro-active and contribute directly to Israel. It’s a way of telling a soldier, ‘I’ve got your back,’ and that’s what we really want to tell them right now. People who are doing mitzvot, tefilla and learning describe how they are charged up with the responsibility of davening for someone whose life is in danger. Their prayers take on an extra meaning and dimension.

“My husband has gone down to the Gaza border three times last week to collect names with clipboards, sheets of paper and pens. The soldiers want to sign up. And

Israeli soldiers on Gaza border signing up with the Shmira Project to be paired with Jews who do acts of kindness, prayer or Torah learning to increase the soldier’s spiritual merit and protection.

they’re amazed that people from all over the world care.”

She said that when she participated in the program in 2009 she considered it a “taste of geula (redemption)” with Jews from across the religious spectrum “joining forces to help IDF soldiers. … Let’s hope we never need it again.”

When Rabbi Lerner was informed that the IDF was to enter Gaza in a few hours and

was asked to “move it along,” he sent alerts to “give everyone the opportunity to participate and hopefully make a difference.”

“Now is the most important time, but we don’t want to slow down,” he continued. The ability to be mispallel (pray) and connect gives the person a responsibility as well. It’s not a safe world; we have to add our tefilos (prayers) to these soldiers.”

To sign up, go to ShmiraProject.com

THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

With 30 in IDF, Rambam sounds Zionist message

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Believing that Hashem will give us what we need I

their base camp, a near impossible task. By the time I saw the email he was out of contact, and so I did not have the chance to tell him any mistakes he may have made were not an unintentional transgression of Shabbat, they were its fulfillment on the deepest level possible.

This week’s portion, Massei, begins with and is named for the journeys of the Jewish people in the desert. Describing each stop along the way, the Torah delineates the 42 places the Jewish people passed through on their way to entering the land of Israel — from Ramses, the Egyptian suburb built by Jewish slaves, all the way to the plains of Moab on the banks of the Jordan River.

In a brief description of one of these stops, the Torah tells us (Numbers 33:14) that “they encamped at Refidim, and there was no water there to drink.”

The Torah then reports that they traveled from there into the Sinai desert.

Strangely, the Torah does not mention in this accounting of the Jewish journey that the Torah was received at Sinai, but it does tell us there was no water at Refidim. Some suggest that the Torah is telling us that receiving the Torah was a one-time event; it is something we do each and every moment, of each and every day.

But what happened at Refidim was more than just the lack of water for the people to drink. The people complained, Moshe hit the rock, they were miraculously given water

from the rock but then were immediately attacked by the nation of Amalek and fought their first war — according to Jewish tradition as a direct result of their lack of faith at Refidim. Yet the Torah does not mention this. av Moshe Feinstein, z”l, in his Darash Moshe makes a fascinating point: The real issue at Refidim was not that there was no water but that they felt they were missing water; they were thirsty.

This is a level of faith we cannot even comprehend, but the Jewish people in the desert, only a few days from receiving the Torah at Sinai, were ready to achieve that level. If they had truly believed that whatever they needed they would receive, then they would not have needed water. Indeed, according to Jewish tradition, Moshe was up on Mount Sinai for 40 days without bread or water. And he merited this miracle, suggests Rav Moshe, because he fully believed that Hashem would give him what he needed, and if he did not have water then obviously he did not need it, and so he was not thirsty!

The Torah describes (Exodus 17: 1-3) how the people were thirsty for water, which was why Hashem gave it to them. And in the previous story in Exodus (16:2-3) the people were hungry and complained they needed food and were given manna from heaven.

But the people, despite being in the desert for 40 years, never complained they had no clothes; they never complained that their

R

In war, you learn nothing is really yours, not even your life. It’s all a gift of Hashem.

clothing was worn out, and so the Torah tells us (Deuteronomy 8:4): “Simlatcha lo valta me’alecha” (“Your garments did not wear out from upon you”).

Their clothing never wore out. In this instance, we do not find that they were cold with threadbare clothing, subsequently complaining to G-d and Moshe and then receiving a miracle. Their clothing just never wore out. This, suggests Rav Moshe, was because they knew Hashem would provide; they put themselves in G-d’s hands, and they were fine. If they had not been hungry and complained, they would not have needed the manna at all!

Hidden in the listing of the different stops on the journey of the Jewish people then, is the idea that Hashem will give us what we need when we need it, if we will only know that, with all our hearts and all our souls.

As an example, one of the great challenges of combat is fear — fear of making a mistake, costing someone their life, fear of charging up a hill or leaping into a building knowing the enemy is waiting and not knowing, when you start out on any given patrol, whether you will make it back to base in one piece that day. And sometimes, you fear even the fear itself; one of my greatest fears was whether I would one day freeze under fire or under pressure and let my men down.

I tried a lot of different things to overcome that fear. At first, anger seemed an appropriate solution. A commander I greatly respected told me the way he got up the hill or through the door was just to get really angry — angry at the terrorists who were trying to murder his family, angry at the enemy on top of the hill Continued on page 14

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“Am hanetzach lo’ mefached mi’derech arukah.” (“The eternal people are not afraid of a long journey”(Rav Kook Sefer Orot ) t’s been a long and painful journey these past 2,000 years. Some of us thought we were there, that the journey was about to end, but like the intense pains of labor just before birth, it gets FRom the heaRt toughest when you are oF jeRusalem close to the finish line.

I received an incredible email from a student serving on or near the front lines, whose unit was taken to the Gaza border on Shabbat. A deeply religious young man who has probably never been in a car on Shabbat found himself in an army bus Rabbi Binny headed for the border Freedman along with his entire unit (including many other religious boys) on Friday evening. As the sun set in the distance over the Mediterranean Sea, he realized he was the only one on the bus with a siddur, so by default he led the Kabbalat Shabbat service. Dozens of soldiers sang the Lecha Dodi prayer, with its magnificent welcoming of the bride (an allegory for Shabbat and the Jewish people), longing for peace and joy on their way to war.He wrote me of his attempts to avoid unnecessary desecration of the Shabbat, particularly the prohibition of carrying on Shabbat, while fulfilling all of the orders he was receiving to help set up

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Binyamin Kagedan, JNS.org The wider world of traditional Judaism is moving in fits and starts toward a renegotiation of the terms of halakhic observance. At question is the importance of social change in the understanding and application of the legal logic of the sages of old. In the last several years, voices from within the Orthodox fold have raised a formidable challenge to certain established norms of Jewish life and law, especially regarding the possibilities of female religious leadership.

Though not as emotionally charged, there are many other points of striking dissonance between codified law and modern reality that dot the landscape of Jewish observance.

One that has caused something of a stir lately is the ban on legumes and rice for Ashkenazi Jews on Passover, a rule that everyone seems to know and bemoan as an artifact of earlymodern grain storage techniques. Another, which appears to have escaped popular scrutiny so far, is the injunction against wearing leather shoes on the fast days of Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur—though the reason for the disparity in critical interest should not be hard to comprehend.

Rabbinic law from the Talmud delineates five prohibitions that apply equally on Tisha B’Av, the day of greatest tragedy, and Yom Kippur, the day of gravest repentance. These are: eating/drinking, marital relations, applying cosmetics, bathing, and wearing leather shoes. The intention is to create an experience of uncomfortable abstinence, in one case as a sign of mourning, and in the other as a method of self-purification. And yet for the observant Jew living in the age of Nike, the prohibition against leather shoes has only meant that twice a year, every year,

on the two most solemn days of the year, we were allowed to wear our most comfortable shoes to synagogue. True, not everyone came in gel-soled basketball shoes. Many opted for funky rubber flip-flops with socks, or the ubiquitous white Keds.

It isn’t as though the irony of the situation is totally lost on modern Jews. I recall my elementary school teachers taking the time to explain the reasoning behind the prohibition as that leather shoes were once the most comfortable kind of footwear, back when these rules were first being written. Implicit in the inclusion of this clarifying detail was an acknowledgment that we are now living in the absolute reverse situation: that at this point in history, the leather shoe epitomizes podiatric discomfort. Traditional halakha, as it often does, stands firmly planted in an older order of things, in this case collapsing upon itself in a way that precludes any of its original meaningfulness.

That the prohibition against leather shoes is really a prohibition against comfort—rather than stemming from some ritual problem with leather itself—is demonstrated meticulously by Dr. Ari Zivotofsky of BarIlan University in an article featured in Jewish Action magazine in 2011 (http://www. ou.org/jewish_action/09/2013/whats_the_ truth_about-fasting_and_wearing_leather_ on_yom_kippur/). Zivotofsky cites a wealth of legal writings beginning with the Talmud that address the problem of what type of shoe ought to be worn on Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur. The masters of the Talmud variously sported shoes of bamboo, reeds or palm branches, or wrapped simple pieces of cloth around their feet. Maimonides advised that whatever shoes are chosen should be flimsy

enough so that the wearer feels virtually barefooted as they walk. In a similar vein, the Ba’al HaMaor, a contemporary of Maimonides, includes within the category of prohibition any shoe that is especially protective of the feet.

Although many Jewish communities continue to “sidestep” the sneaker contradiction, some contemporary authorities have issued rulings intended to rescue the spirit of the law. Zivotofsky notes the opinion Adidas sneakers on display.

Courtesy Ken Banks via Wikimedia Commons of Rabbi Yaakov istinis, roughly meaning “persnickety.” In Ariel of Ramat Gan, Israel, who adds to the prohibited list any Rabbi Auerbach’s view, given our very low non-leather shoe that one would commonly tolerance for physical discomfort, banning choose to wear day in and day out for their comfortable non-leather shoes on Tisha B’Av comfort, i.e. sneakers and other leisure foot- and Yom Kippur would be tantamount to unwear. Other legalists such as Rabbi Chaim necessary cruelty.

Wishing all a mindful and meaningful fast Kanievsky and Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch uphold the “protectiveness” approach, expand- this Tisha B’Av, and remember: don’t judge ing the prohibition to any material construc- another man’s shoes until you’ve walked a mile in them. tion that functions as well as leather.

Binyamin Kagedan has an MA in Jewish On the other side, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach manages to resolve the problem Thought from the Jewish Theological Semimore leniently, asserting that all modern nary of America. He can be reached at bkagepeople fall under the Talmudic category of dan@gmail.com.

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THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

Sneakers on Tisha B’Av: Spirit and letter collide

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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THIS WEEK’S LUACH Shabbat Parshat Masei

Candlelighting Fri July 25, 7:58 pm Shabbat ends 9:10 pm 72 minute zman 9:30 pm Mevorchim Chodesh Menachem Av

For Jews, self-defense is no offense T

he debate about whether Jews have a future in Europe has once again surfaced, as Israel’s Operation Protective Edge gained momentum in response to Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza.

The two issues are connected for a simple reason: on July 13, a large number of proPalestinian demonstrators in Paris decided to attack a synagogue in the French capital, Ben Cohen, JnS thereby demonstrating that these days, aspiring pogromists are more likely to wear a Palestinian keffiyeh than a swastika armband.

I had originally intended to write about whether Europe’s Jews should stay where they are, or make aliyah to Israel. But while I was sifting through the various news articles concerning the attack in Paris, I came across an alternative version of that episode that changed my focus.

In this tendentious narrative — embraced by both the left-wing anti-Semitic website Mondoweiss and the right-wing British Daily Mail tabloid — the violence was in fact provoked by Jewish extremists on the scene. According to Mondoweiss, the French branch of the Jewish Defense League and its allies initiated the clashes “in support of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign that has thus far claimed the lives of almost 200 Palestinians.” The Daily Mail, meanwhile, harrumphed at the spectacle of “a group of 150 Jewish men … brandishing iron bars and cans of pepper spray as they clashed with pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Paris.”

What isn’t in doubt is that a mob of violent anti-Semites tried to storm the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue in central Paris. Equally, there is no doubt that a group of brave young Jews associated with Betar, the Jewish Defense League, and the SPCJ, the official defense arm of the French Jewish community, repelled the attempted pogrom through a show of physical force. Writing in Commentary magazine, my friend Michel Gurfinkiel noted that “older Jewish men and women, some in their late 40s or early 50s, fought back as well.”

Hence, there is a question that is more pressing than whether Jews should leave Europe, and it’s this one: Should we take more responsibility for the physical defense of our community and its property, even if that means we land on the wrong side of the law?

There are many reasons why we should

vIewPOInT

avoid such an outcome, some of them credible, others less so. Groups like the SPCJ in France and the Community Security Trust in Britain have done a tremendous job of enhancing security at Jewish institutions, working closely with local authorities in the process. Why, then, take actions that risk those relationships? Surely, in democratic societies, we resolve our differences through politics, and we let the police take care of law and order?

Then there’s the fact that Jewish communities, and particularly their leaders, tend to take a conservative approach. Especially in America, Jewish advocacy revolves around gala fundraising dinners, conferences, and photo opportunities with foreign leaders. Throwing tables, chairs, kicks, and punches at anti-Semitic thugs isn’t quite our style.

Now, all those considerations are sound ones. But what happens when you have demonstrators chanting in Arabic, as they did in Paris, “Itbah al Yahud!” (“Death to the Jews!”)? How do we respond when some politicians, as was the case in France, claim that we should expect such attacks if we turn our synagogues into adjuncts of the state of Israel?

In those circumstances, I think, we have to fight back. We shouldn’t provoke violence, but we should be ready to defend ourselves against attacks, particularly when the police fail to do their job.

It’s important to remember that this isn’t the first time Jews have faced this sort of dilemma.

In the late 1940s, in London’s East End, the

British Union of Fascists returned to the streets, harassing Jewish businesses and beating up Jews, frequently citing the conflict between the authorities in the British Mandate of Palestine and the Zionist Yishuv as justification.

At a meeting of 43 Jews in the area, who later became known as the “43 Group,” it was decided that enough was enough. The result wasn’t pretty. “In October 1947, the 43 Group was attacking an average of 15 outdoor fascist meetings a week, and by whatever means, causing more than half to close down prematurely,” wrote Morris Beckman in his memoir of the 43 Group’s exploits. Those “means” included knives, knuckledusters and bricks. And it worked. By the end of 1949, the fascists had been driven out of east London.

In these dark days, the experience of the 43 Group reminds us that in the not-so-distant past, Jews have refused to accept their lot as passive victims. The challenge now is balancing our respect for the law of the land with our resolve not to allow our synagogues to be burned or ransacked, as they were less than a century ago in Europe.

Used sparingly and when necessary, self-defense is no offense. And if it contributes to the authorities’ taking pre-emptive action against anti-Semitic demonstrations — as has occurred in France, where the police have banned another anti-Semitic rally scheduled for this past weekend in Paris — then so much the better.

Ben Cohen is the Shillman Analyst for JNS. org.

Hillary has always been anti-Israel

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group of pro-Israel Jews have formed a 2016 campaign group called, “Jewish Americans Ready For Hillary!” On their website, “Jewish Americans Ready For Hillary!” claim, “Throughout her POLITICS TO GO career, Hillary Clinton has fought for the issues that matter most to Jewish Americans.”

That claim is not true. Except for the time from her first campaign for New York’s Senate seat in 2000 to her resignation from the Senate to become Secretary of State in January 2009, Hillary Clinton has never been pro-Israel.

Even before her marJeff Dunetz riage to Bill, Hillary Clinton was opposing Israel and promoting the forces of terrorism. On page 49 of his book “American Evita,” Christopher Anderson writes: “At a time when elements of the American Left embraced the Palestinian cause and

condemned Israel, Hillary was telling friends that she was “sympathetic” to the terrorist organization and admired its flamboyant leader, Yasser Arafat. When Arafat made his famous appearance before the UN General Assembly in November 1974 wearing his revolutionary uniform and his holster on his hip, Bill “was outraged like everybody else,” said a Yale Law School classmate. But not Hillary, who tried to convince Bill that Arafat was a “freedom fighter” trying to free his people from their Israeli “oppressors.”

On page 50, the author relates an experience that Hillary and her future husband had during a trip to Arkansas in 1973.

“It was during this trip to his home state that Bill took Hillary to meet a politically wellconnected friend. When they drove up to the house, Bill and Hillary noticed that a menorah (not to be confused with the more common and subtler mezuzah) had been affixed to the front door.

“To his astonishment, as soon as Hillary saw the menorah, she refused to get out of the car. … According to [a] friend and … eyewitness, Bill said, ‘I’m sorry, but Hillary’s really tight with the people in the PLO in New York.

They’re friends of hers, and she just doesn’t feel

right about the menorah.’”

When she was first lady in May 1998, Mrs. Clinton became the first member of any presidential administration ever to call for a Palestinian state (telling a youth conference on Middle East peace in Switzerland that she supported the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state).

Then there was the famous episode in November 1999, while on a State visit to the Middle East, when she publicly appeared with Yasser Arafat’s wife Suha, and listened to Mrs. Arafat make false charges against Israel (IDF using poison t0 contaminate the water). Mrs. Clinton sat by silently listening to a real-time translation, and gave the terrorist’s wife a hug and a kiss when she finished speaking.

Many hours after the event, and only after a media furor put her on the spot, Mrs. Clinton called on all sides to refrain from “inflammatory rhetoric and baseless accusations,” including Israel, whose leaders made no such accusations (but through today, Clinton never disputed Suha Arafat’s slander). Years later, Hillary made a feeble attempt at an excuse: the translator screwed up.

Before her tenure in the State Department, Continued on page 14

Anti-Israel accusations disservice to ‘genocide’

THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

By Rafael Medoff, JNS.org Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims Israel is carrying out “systematic genocide” in Gaza. South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), asserts that Israel’s actions in Gaza “remind [us] of the atrocities of Nazi Germany.” Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is accusing Israel of “genocide,” and the PA’s newspaper is calling the current war “Israel’s Holocaust.”

It seems as if every time Israel defends itself, somebody yells “Genocide!” Raphael Lemkin, who coined that term 70 years ago this autumn, would have been appalled by such abuse of his life’s work.

During the 1930s, Lemkin, a Polish Jewish attorney and expert on the development of languages, trudged from law conference to law conference across Europe, making the case for legal mechanisms to define and combat mass murder.

Lemkin was galvanized by the failure of the international community to prosecute Turkish officials involved in the genocide of approximately one million Armenians between 1914 and 1918.

No doubt Lemkin would have been disappointed by President Barack Obama’s decision to refrain from recognizing the Armenian genocide. The Obama administration has even refused to permit the public display of an elaborate rug sent by Armenian orphans to the White House in 1925 as a gesture of appreciation for U.S. relief assistance. Apparently, the administration fears Turkey would be offended if the rug is exhibited.

Lemkin coined the term “genocide” even as a new mass murder, the Holocaust, was unfolding before his eyes. Lemkin used the word “genocide” for the first time, in his book “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.” The 700-page tome chronicled all the laws and regulations imposed by the Nazis and their collaborators to facilitate the annihilation of the Jews.

In December 1948, Lemkin’s campaign was crowned with success when the United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention. It defined genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical [sic], racial or religious group, as such.”

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A plaque on Kredytowa Street in Warsaw commemorating Raphael Lemkin, who coined the Wuj Mat via Wikimedia Commons term “genocide.”

Obviously, no reasonable person can believe Israel’s actions in Gaza fit that definition. Then again, the world is filled with unreasonable people. But the likes of Erdogan, Abbas, and the ANC are not the only ones who have done Lemkin’s legacy a disservice.

Some government officials refused to apply the label for political reasons. Susan Rice, the president’s national security adviser, was director of African Affairs for the National Security Council in 1994, when the genocide in Rwanda began. She argued against calling it “genocide,” because, she said, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] elections?”

Others apply the label where it doesn’t belong. Prof. Richard Breitman recently claimed that “American presidents” have “abetted genocidal violence by the government of Sri Lanka.” Genocide Watch, however, reports that while both sides in the Sri Lankan civil war “have committed atrocities,” they fell short of genocide.

For the term “genocide” to have any meaning, it must be used strictly in situations that indisputably warrant such a determination, according to the legal definition. Applying it or withholding it based on political considerations will render the term useless.

Anti-Israel protests have continued the nastiest and most primitive kind can be throughout Europe this week, with several of chanted on German streets,” Graumann said.

In France, which saw its third anti-Israel them turning violent, drawing condemnation protest in a week turn violent, pro-Palestinian and shock from European Jewish leaders. protesters attacked Jewish shops In Germany, several antiand other businesses in the JewSemitic and anti-Israel inciish Parisian suburb of Sarcelles dents have been escalating, on Monday, AFP reported. with protests occurring daily “It is unacceptable to target throughout the country. At synagogues or shops simply some protests, anti-Semitic because they are managed by slogans such as “gas the Jews” Jews,” French Interior Minister have been reported.

Bernard Cazeneuve said.

According to reports, the Thousands of others also protesters are largely comdemonstrated against Israel in posed of Muslim immigrants Vienna, Amsterdam, and sevto Germany and neo-Nazi eral other European cities. Adgroups. ditionally, Gerry Adams, the In response to the violence leader of Ireland’s nationalist and protests in Germany, the president of the Central Coun- Gerry Adams called on Irish Sinn Fein party called on Irish legislators to “stand in solilegislators to “stand in solidarcil of Jews in Germany, Dieter darity” with Palestinians. ity” with the Palestinians durGraumann, cited the “exploCourtesy Wikimedia Commons ing a session of parliament, the sion of evil and violent hatred of Jews, which shocks and dismays all of us.” Irish Times reported. Adams also called on “We would never in our lives have thought the Irish government to expel the Israeli am—JNS.org it possible anymore that anti-Semitic views of bassador to the country.

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Euro protests spread

Syrian restaurateur continues his family legacy Jewish students at Maimonides school in Damascus in 1991.

Courtesy Diaspora Museum Visual Documentation Archive, Tel Aviv

world of fine kosher dining at Reserve Cut, the elegant restaurant he opened in lower Manhattan in the fall of 2013.

Customers arrive by elevator at the second-floor establishment. Gracious host Ghandi tries to accommodate everyone, including walk-ins.

Wall Street dealmakers, national and international visitors, and anyone seeking a fine steak that happens to be kosher are among the clientele. The amiable wait staff greets all diners with smiles, never leaves a glass empty, and brings each table baskets of warm bread.

“The Reserve Cut,” says Albert, “features only quality products, exceptional preparation, and elegant presentation.”

During a typical lunch, a prix fixe menu is offered at $40.

The restaurant’s Asian-French fusion menu features 10 varieties of well-marbled steaks. Chops are thick and sumptuous.

The venue at 40 Broad St. seats 300 in a contemporary setting that was formerly home to the award-winning Sho Shaun Hergatt restaurant. Six unique dining rooms can be accessed through a hallway lined with back-lit bottles of fine wine. The open kitchen in the central dining area invites diners to watch the preparation of creative cuisine in Executive Chef Hok Chin’s domain.

Appetizers include crispy rice, wagyu beef carpaccio, sliders, beef tacos, a sashimi spe-

A steak at Reserve Cut.

Courtesy Doug Schneider Photography/Reserve Cut

cial, a volcano roll (sushi), and salad. Meat, all USDA Prime, comes from the Allaham family’s Prime Cut butcher shop. Among the entrees are the wagyu beef rib steak, 12-ounce angus filet au champignon, wasabiencrusted rack of lamb, short ribs, veal chops, prime-aged cote de boeuf, and a kosher version of filet mignon cut from prime-rib center cuts. Ten varieties of steak are available, all of which are dry-aged on site.

“Aging,” Albert says, “results in a much more tender piece of meat… The kosher customer will finally get a really good steak.”

Choosing a dessert may prove happily challenging: will it be flourless chocolate

Reserve Cut owner Albert Allaham.

Courtesy Doug Schneider Photography/Reserve Cut

cake, peanut butter mousse, or a different sweet surprise?

Albert has become somewhat of a linguist.

In addition to his native Arabic, he is fluent in English and is quite comfortable with Yiddish.

“We Jews are all one people—Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Hassidim, secular, or religious,” says the young restauranteur.

“Every customer at the Reserve Cut is unique and special.”

That being said, Albert is targeting at least one particular customer.

“We want the Reserve Cut to be the place the president goes when he wants a great steak,” he says.

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By Maxine Dovere, JNS.org At the turn of the century, a young Jewish immigrant arrived in New York. So begins the history of many American Jewish families. It is 27-year-old Albert Allaham’s story, too, with a few unusual twists.

Albert’s “century” is the 21st — he arrived almost 100 years after the massive waves of European Jewish immigration. Rather than coming from a small town along the Danube river, his shtetl was Damascus. His first American business was not a pushcart on the Lower East Side, but rather a family-run butcher shop in Brooklyn.

Members of the Allaham family were among the last 600 Jews to live in Syria.

Until 1998, good relations with influential citizens and officials provided an umbrella of protection for those Jews, but when former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad opened the door for them to emigrate, the Allahams realized it was time to leave.

During a visit to Brooklyn in 1998, Albert decided not to return to Damascus and remained with his older brother in the New York City borough’s close-knit Syrian Jewish community.

“Allaham” means “butcher” in Arabic, making it an appropriate name for a family with more than 200 years of experience in the meat business. Indeed, the Allahams brought generations of industry secrets to America, but the “most precious thing we were able to take out of Syria was the family,” Albert says.

“I wanted to leave [Syria] earlier,” he says. “Even as a teenager, I knew it was time to leave when I looked around and saw so few Jews left.”

Now, Albert is making his mark in the

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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would take my lounge chairs and head up with my friends, a radio, cold drinks and, of course, my reflector. It was our oasis, complete with 77 WABC music in the background. Slathered in oil, baking in the sun and groovin’ to Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and the rest of the disco era faves.

My brother’s voice suddenly brought me back to the present and it was time to continue dealing with the rest of the items in the apartment. I still marvelled at the amount of stuff my mom, a”h, saved. Did she throw anything out? Wait, yes she did. My 8th grade Shulamith year book. My vintage Barbie black vinyl case complete with outfits, tiny shoes, hair rollers and hangers; that would have been worth a fortune today, sigh. But I found my mood ring, my “kugalach,” those five small dice like metal objects with sharp corners that could be considered a deadly weapon, but for some reason was sold as a game resembling jacks. Also found was my princess phone, sad that our kids will never know the fun we had twirling the cord (that connected the phone to the base) around our fingers, while we spoke.

As we bagged the items designated either for donation or trash, we each took a few last minute items that brought back memories that we could hold onto. hen my maternal grandmother died at 96, I remember so clearly my mom, a”h, saying “96 years, and one day, just like that, she’s gone.” I remember telling her that she had a wonderful life and left children and grandchildren and great grandchildren to carry on her legacy and her acts of chesed. So now as I clear the last of what remained of my mom’s belonging as well as our grandparents’, I find myself telling myself the same thing. My mom, a”h, may not be here physically anymore, but we have her wonderful memories and may I, along with my siblings, all my mom’s grandchildren and great grandchildren, continue to live our lives in the manner in which she lived and would make her proud of us.

Talking about sun reflectors, have some fun with your kids or grandkids and make these “sunshine beach” cupcakes.

• Pour batter into the cupcake liners and bake about 17-20 minutes. A toothpick inserted should come out clean.

Cupcakes can be made up to three days in advance or they can be frozen.

Decorating the cupcakes? * Rich’s non-dairy whipped topping, 16 oz * Blue food coloring • 1 cup light brown sugar • 12 small jaw breakers or gum balls (be careful if you’re serving these to children under 4) • 12 jelly circle candies, to be used as life preservers • 12 pieces Paskez Sour Mini Belts (any flavor, any brand) • Edible marker pen • Plastic baby cake ornament (Michael’s, Valley Stream) or jelly bear or cookie • Cocktail drink umbrella Assembly Whip the topping and color half blue, leaving the remainder white. Spread white topping on half of each cup cake, and the blue topping on the other half of each. Carefully sprinkle the light brown sugar on top of the white cream, leaving the blue cream as is.

Place baby into jelly “life preserver” and place on the blue icing “ocean.” Draw stripes onto the gum or candy ball to resemble a beach ball and place on brown sugar “sand.”

Bend a sour mini belt in half and put a dot of cream on the bottom half and stick onto the “sand” leaving the top part as the back of the “beach lounge.”

Lastly, place the cocktail beach umbrella in back of the “lounge chair.” judy.soiree@gmail.com

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Lemon cupcakes

Ingredients: *1/2 cup softened margarine *1 cup granulated sugar *2 large eggs *1 1/2 cups all purpose flour mixed together with 2 tsp baking powder *1/2 cup non dairy creamer *Zest of 3 lemons *Juice of two medium lemons Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees *Line a “12” cupcake tin with paper liners and spray with Pam. • Beat sugar and margarine, until creamy. * Scrape down sides and add eggs and vanilla, beating till smooth.

• Slowly add the flour and baking powder mixture, to incorporate all.

• Add the rest of ingredients and mix well.

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esterday, for the third time since my mom, a”h, passed away, I was at her apartment with my siblings to continue the clean up and furniture removal. I was overwhelmed at the amount that was left.

Let’s just say, my mom didn’t throw much out.

Who’s in the I found my Grosskitchen inger’s towel that I snuck out of the hotel as a souvenir. I found my trusty white figure ice-skates complete with purple pom poms in my plaid ice skate bag. And then, at the bottom of the closet in my room, there it was, my sun reflector. Just as I remembered it, red on the outside and Judy Joszef that silver foil finish on the inside.

The memories started to flood my mind. I forgot that I was sitting on the floor in front of the closet of my old bedroom. Instead I was back in the late ’70s. I was ice skating at Sky Rink and up at Grossinger’s, lounging pool side at the big “G,” tanning in my backyard in Boro Park, and then on “tar beach” on the roof of my parent’s apartment building.

There I was circa ’78 with my friends, at Sky Rink in the city. Every few weeks, friends of Shaare Tzedek hospital would host a fundraiser at the rink. We all had a great time and we were supporting a wonderful organization. I can still remember the feel of those white skates, never fitting perfectly, never able to get them tight enough, but I thought I looked really cool in them, even just slinging them over my shoulder to and from the rink.

After skating, we would head over to David’s Harp — bet that brings back some memories for you over 40, ok, maybe over 50, crowd. For those of you in the under 30 crowd, it was what you would call a “club,” but this had an Israeli popular (or so we thought) singer, kosher food, and yes, of course, drinks. It was the in place back then.

Stop rolling your eyes, kids; as hard as it is to imagine, we were actually cool back then.

Just Google “The Hustle”; read ‘em and weep.

So sitting on the floor, I put the white scuffed up skates back in the plaid ice skating bag and picked up my trusty old sun reflector. To the younger folks, let me explain what a reflector is. It was made of cardboard and, although was one piece it folded so you could hold it under your chin and the sun would reflect onto your face and the sides were folded a bit toward the center so that the side reflected the sun onto the side of your face as well. It doubled the rays hitting your face. And, as if that wasn’t enough, one (I) would slather on baby oil with iodine or cocoa butter. For those who wanted some protection you could purchase sun tan lotion with an SPF of 2, wow!

If there was (G-d forbid) a week without sun, there was a product called QT, the first sunless tanning lotion that we could buy.

QT stood for quick tanning. It was quick all right, 3-5 hours, though a golden tan is not what we achieved, it was more of a deep orange hue. And to make matters worse if you weren’t careful and missed some spots you resembled a Creamsicle, orange and white, though you smelled like a rotten egg.

Not quite sure why that product survived as long as it did. I can’t imagine anyone using it more than once.

Once my parents moved to an apartment, I panicked, where would I sit in the sun???

No worries, I discovered there was a huge rooftop that no one used; it was perfect. I

THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

Reminiscing about sunning and summers past

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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Submitted by a participant ext Wednesday and Thursday, 334 riders from around the country and Canada — including several from the Five Towns — will participate in the fifth annual Bike4Chai, a two day, 180 mile bike ride that raises money for the children of Chai Lifeline.

The ride goes through three states — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York — and culminates at Camp Simcha, a remarkable location that Bike4Chai calls the “World’s Greatest Finish Line.” Camp Simcha and its sister camp, Camp Simcha Special, are Chai Lifeline’s flagship programs. Every year these two camps offer more than 400 children a chance to forget about illness and just be kids again.

Bike4Chai, and participation by riders in our community, have grown by leaps and bounds. In 2011, Bike4Chai had 150 riders, with seven from the Five Towns, and raised $550,000. This year, one week before the ride, Bike4Chai has over 20 Five Towners committed to ride and has raised over $3 million, surpassing last year’s fundraising of $2.8 million.

The Five Towners have raised approximately $300,000, or ten percent of the total.

Training for an extreme ride like this one is no easy feat. The riders from the Five Towns, self-dubbed the 5T Riderz, keep in touch via instant messaging and constant emailing, about training rides, road conditions, weather, and more, exhorting each other to make the most of every ride. In the weeks leading up to Bike4Chai, the training regimen set by Bike4Chai’s Coach Avery Washington, calls for approximately 200 miles of riding per week, and a total of 10,000 feet of elevation. This

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Some of the Five Towners on the road for Bike4Chai in 2013. From left: Ari Ginsberg, Allan Lieberman, Avi Eisenberg and Jonathan Weinstein.

is designed not only to acclimate the riders to the sheer distance of Bike4Chai, but some of the more punishing hills that the riders will face on this two-day test of endurance.

The Five Towns riders mix it up; riding on more leisurely 30 mile rides out to Point Lookout and back and more challenging terrain, such as taking Route 9W all the way up to Bear Mountain and back, a 100 mile ride (or “century” in cycling parlance).

Scott Farrell of North Woodmere is riding in Bike4Chai for the second time, in memory

Sen. Lieberman at launch for cancer book A book launch party for West Hempstead author Howard Bressler’s “The Layman’s Guide to Surviving Cancer” was attended by former Sen. Joseph Lieberman and wife Hadassah, at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, Bressler’s Manhattan law Celia Weintrob firm, last week.

of a close family friend, Sari Ort, who battled cancer and succumbed to her illness at age 12 in late 2012. Sari was a Simcha camper and avid Chai Lifeline supporter.

“The courage and strength in the face of adversity of kids like Sari pale in comparison to anything that the Bike4Chai riders are doing,” said Farrell. “It is a truly a humbling experience to ride in her memory, and to pull into the camp that she attended and loved.” Farrell said he was inspired to do the ride by other Five Towns riders, including Avi Eisenberg and Allan Lieberman, who are riding in Bike4Chai for the 4th year in a row, and are a big part of bringing Bike4Chai to the Five Towns.

Earlier this summer, Eisenberg hosted a BBQ for over 50 cycling enthusiasts, including Bike4Chai riders, alumni, and people wanted to learn more about Chai Lifeline and its important mission. The BBQ was catered

by Woodmere-based The Hickory. The crowd (many in Bike4Chai cycling gear, having just ridden into the Five Towns from Brooklyn) listened to Yoel Margolese, Project Coordinator of Chai Lifeline talk about the ride and Chai Lifeline’s mission, and Allan Lieberman recounted the Five Town’s continued and increased dedication to this important cause.

Commitment to Bike4Chai was so great this year, that, by the date of the BBQ, Bike4Chai was closed to new participants.

While training requires many hours away from home, Farrell says his kids (and incredibly encouraging wife!) are supportive and understand what he is trying to accomplish.

Farrell knew that his message about the importance of community service and tzedakah resonated with his children, when his eight year old daughter Chavi recently approached him with her wallet to donate herself.

Trying to juggle a work/life balance, which for Bike4Chai riders become a tri-part work/life/ride! balance, Tuli Weiss, another Five Towns rider, tries his best to get in rides before his children wake up, or after they have gone to sleep, pouring on the speed in a morning ride to try and beat the school/camp bus to his door. Weiss had been involved in Chai Lifeline for years as a contributor — both financial and blood platelets, and was inspired to do Bike4Chai after seeing a video about Camp Simcha. Weiss was motivated not only by the dedication and effort that the Camp Simcha staff exert on behalf of their wards, but by the disparate groups comprising Camp Simcha coming together in unity.

“I noticed in the videos, and then I personally saw at the camp, the heterogeneous makeup of campers from a wide range of backgrounds: Modern Orthodox, Chasidish, Yeshivish, Sephardi, etc., which motivated me to do more, and inspired me to sign up for Bike 4 Chai,” Weiss explained.

Finding it hard to verbally to describe the experience, Weiss said that one of the highlights of the ride was arriving in camp as a group of 300+ riders, to an enormous welcome and celebration, and to see, firsthand, the sincere appreciation of both campers and family members.

Avi Eisenberg initially got into cycling for exercise reasons approximately four years ago, but his involvement in Bike4Chai, and raising awareness in the Five Towns and beyond about Chai Lifeline and its mission turned bike riding into so much more. Describing it as “part of my life” Eisenberg explained that Bike4Chai “melds family, friends and business together.”

Echoing Weiss’ sentiments, Eisenberg said that ”the most remarkable point of riding into camp is to see the campers’ faces when they see and hear 300+ riders roll into camp. I thought we were giving to these kids, but they are really giving us more!”

For more information and donations to participants go to: chailifeline.org/events/ Bike4Chai/index.php

Judaic studies program opens for special needs

By Malka Eisenberg Coming this September, Kulanu’s limudai kodesh (Jewish Studies) program will be available to special needs students beyond those currently attending a Kulanu program.

Torah L’Kulanu, a unique hands-on interactive program will fill a community need, said its director, Rabbi David Zeidel.

Kulanu was founded in 2000 by parents to facilitate the inclusion of children with disabilities into yeshivot, shuls and Jewish life in general.

Torah L’Kulanu’s goal is to convey pride in being Jewish while exploring the Torah, Jewish history, traditions, values and ethics. Students will be taught about the holidays, learn basic tefillot (prayers) to be able to, as best as possible, participate in shul, and learn laws of Shabbat and Jewish culture.

Students who are able to, will be taught Chumash, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Navi and Gemara. A separate bar mitzvah class offering multi-year support will also be available. Classes will be held from 3 to 5 pm, Monday through Thursday, with other program options available. Rebbeim and morot are certified in special education and related fields of study.

Rabbi Zeidel said Kulanu is “taking our well respected

and comprehensive program and branching out to the community.” He said outreach efforts will focus on the public school based middle school and high school population and others in the community, with students from sixth grade up to age 21. The program will be open to students with various developmental or physical disabilities, and the small class size can accommodate a range of students, from those with no previous knowledge to those who have competency but wish to have a more intensive program of learning.

“It’s consistent, comprehensive and extremely functional,” said Rabbi Zeidel. “The challenge is to take abstract concepts and make them real. We teach to the student.

Each has their own way of understanding and learning — not all can learn the same. We provide the accommodations necessary to make the learning environment fun.”

Rabbi Zeidel lives in Far Rockaway, studied at Shor Yoshuv and Touro, and received semicha (rabbinic ordination) through Pirchei Shoshanim.

The new Torah L’Kulanu program will operate through June. For more information, contact Rabbi Zeidel atdzeidel@torahlkulanu.org or call 516 569-3083 x327.

Kulanu students visit Young Israel Lawrence-Cedarhurst.

THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

Hundreds set to bike in support of ChaiLifeline

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

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.

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? WHO ARE YOU?

Optionally, you may attach additional information

Your name and town Your email (required, but not published on request) Your phone (not for publication)

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

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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hen the war with Midian did not originally go as planned, the Torah told us (31:14) that Moshe — normally a humble person with a checked demeanor — was powerful, resolute and strong, declaring that is war there no place for rabbi avi Billet softness and for giving in and forgiving.

War is meant to destroy enemy infrastructure (31:10), so they give up any desire to fight and kill and focus only on rebuilding and bettering their lives.

As General Patton said in his famous speech to the Third Army during World War II, prior to the Normandy invasion, “I don’t want [to hear] any messages saying ‘I’m holding my position.’ … We’re advancing constantly and we’re not interested in Parsha of the Week

holding anything. … Our plan of operation is to advance and keep on advancing. We’re going to go through the enemy … to absolute victory.”

The beginning of Masei reminds us of another epic battle against an Israelite enemy when the Torah says, “And Egypt was burying those who had died when G-d struck the firstborns and destroyed their gods” (33:4). The only “proportional response” to Egyptian treachery was to hit them where they’d lose the will to keep their slaves any longer.

When Egypt chased the Children of Israel, her aim was to attack civilians whose backs were to the sea? Thank G-d, He carried the day and wiped out the Egyptian army so they would have no desire to fight the Israelites anymore — we don’t hear from them for over 500 years! There is even an alliance between Egypt and Israel during the time of King Solomon.

In an article in March 2012, during a different Gaza operation, Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz (Agudas Achim in Chicago) quoted a WWII veteran who explained how wars are won. Using Dresden, Hiroshima and Naga-

saki as examples, the veteran said wars are won when the leadership no longer has the support of its devastated population.

Or, as we saw in ancient Egypt, when the enemy army is annihilated.

One wonders how things would go were there to be another election in Gaza. Silly me, thinking Hamas would ever allow an election.

There was an article in the Blaze about how among Hamas leaders there are over 1,000 millionaires. You know, the same leaders who send others out as suicide bombers but personally and cowardly hide in bunkers. azans don’t have their backs to the sea. Israel has no interest in pushing them there; it just wants a peaceful, demilitarized neighbor.

Israel does its best to avoid civilian casualties — no army in the world does it better. Since Israel would prefer to live in peace with its Gaza neighbors (who have every opportunity, with proper anti-fighting leadership, to create a Singapore or Miami Beach!), it is not interested in pulling a Dresden, Hiroshima, or Warsaw to force

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the enemy to capitulate — even though militarily it seems like the most definite way to end Gazan fighting and infiltration once and for all. Israel will continue its pinpoint strikes and put its own soldiers in harm’s way to protect the civilian population of Gaza.

Civilians in Gaza want to live productive lives in peace, with leaders who accepts Israel’s presence as a reality and acknowledges Israel’s right to exist, leaders more concerned for their own civilians’ wellbeing than in military actions against peace-wanting and peace-loving Israel. Absent such an approach, there will never be peace in Gaza.

Of course, we pray for Israel’s safety, for the safety of Israel’s precious soldiers who are sons, brothers, fathers — too many of whom have been lost this week — and for peace to reign in the region. May the IDF and the Israeli government be granted insight from Heaven, and may they be guided through the darkness of war to achieve their goals and more, to bring about a resolution that can last at least 500 years.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

OU crisis mission leaves for Israel The Orthodox Union filled its solidarity mission to Israel within hours of announcing it on Tuesday.

The mission, led by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive vice president, emeritus, and Rabbi Steven Weil, senior managing director, was scheduled to depart via ElAl on Thursday and return on Tuesday. It will be coordinated by Rabbi Avi Berman, executive director of OU Israel, who is based at the Seymour J. Abrams OU Israel Center in Jerusalem.

The OU Department of Community Engagement, which includes Synagogue Services, notified OU members and member synagogues via email and social media, explained Rabbi Judah Isaacs, department director.

In a joint statement, Rabbis Weinreb and Weil declared: “We are working with our staff on the ground who are support-

ing the victims who have been wounded, traumatized and impacted by Hamas. We will be visiting wounded soldiers, making shiva visits and letting the people of Israel know that the OU is there for them. We will let them know that they are first and foremost in our prayers, thoughts and actions. Above all, we will express the OU’s support for our soldiers who are risking their lives for Klal Yisroel.”

Arriving Friday, the group will spend what the rabbis anticipate will be “a powerful Shabbos” in Sderot, for years a prime target of Hamas rocket attacks. The day will feature guest speakers, including the political, military and religious leadership of Sderot and the southern communities. Starting Motzai Shabbat through Monday night, Rabbis Weinreb and Weil said, “We will feel, experience and participate with our brothers and sisters in various locations who have been living a tenuous existence over the last two weeks.”

Dwight Gooden visits Camp Hillel

By Jeffrey Bessen, Nassau Herald Known as a fire balling, curve ball strikeout artist when he was a major league pitcher, Dwight Gooden, known as “Dr. K” during his heyday, struck a chord with the youngsters during a visit to Camp Hillel in Lawrence. K is the scorecard symbol for a strikeout.

Gooden played a decade for the Mets. He was part of the 1986 Word Series winning team, and threw a no-hitter for the Yankees in 1996. At the top of his career he was nearly unhittable, but problems with drugs then injuries derailed a once certain Hall of Fame career. His career ended in 2000.

But the Camp Hillel kids ranging from 7 to 13 were thrilled to see a real former professional baseball player. “It was exciting that he threw the ball to us and we could bat,” said Eliyahu Cohen, 7.

Gooden addressed the kids throughout a two-hour visit about making good choices in life. “Don’t cheat your coaches, don’t cheat your teachers with you effort,” the 1984 National League Rookie of the Year said.

A pitcher, who won the NL Cy Young Award and the hurler’s version of the Triple Crown: leading the major leagues in wins, ERA and strikeouts, also provided the kids with hitting tips as they batted against him.

“It was great because I love the Yankees,”

Former Mets and Yankees pitcher Dwight Gooden knows enough about hitting to give the kids at Camp Hillel in Lawrence some hitting pointers.

Jeffrey Bessen / Nassau Herald

said Jacob Adler, 8. Adler had a White Sox hat on his head but that’s because it’s the team he played on this past season in the Hewlett-Woodmere Little League.

Daniel Green, a Camp Hillel counselor, was born on the day – May 14, 1996 – that Gooden tossed his no-hitter. “I learned about that a couple years ago and I checked to reassure myself it was true,” said Green, who wore a No. 7 Jose Reyes Mets shirt. Green, a Mets, Jets, Rangers and Knicks fan said

meeting Gooden is like connecting with the 1986 Mets World Series team. Camp associate Jacob Grossman called it “incredible, like a dream.”

Ari Solomon says “it gets campers excited about learning more about sports from a professional and it is a great experience.”

Last year, Camp Hillel received a visit former Knicks guard John Starks. On Aug. 8, formers Jets wide receiver Wesley Walker is expected to make an appearance.

One Israel Fund recognized Merissa Goldstein and Craig Shapiro, right. At left were Shapiro’s father and step-mother, David and Shari Shapiro.

Courtesy Jerry Meyer Studio

One Israel Fund honors former 5Ters Woodmere natives Merissa Goldstein and Craig Shapiro were presented with the Manhigut Tze’erim Award, a Young Leadership Award, at the One Israel Fund’s 20th gala anniversary dinner at the Tribeca Rooftop in Manhattan.

Shapiro’s father and step-mother, David and Shari Shapiro, who live in Lawrence, received the group’s Shomrei Yisrael Award in 2011.

Hewlett-based One Israel Fund is dedicated to providing essential medical, social, recreational and preventive security services in Judea and Samaria.

The organization holds ongoing fundraising campaigns to ensure physical, emotional and moral well-being of the families living in the communities of these areas.

To donate or learn more about One Israel Fund, visit OneIsraelFund.org.

THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

How to win a war

Continued from page 4 who wanted to kill his men. The problem was, when the day was done and the dust had settled, you were left with all that anger.

I finally found the solution in, of all places, Maimonides’ code of Jewish law.

Writing in the 11th century, the Rambam rules that a Jewish soldier fulfilling the mitzvah of fighting in a war to protect the Jewish people must not be afraid. And he suggests what a soldier who is nonetheless afraid should do: “Yishan al mikveh Yisrael ve’moshio” (“He should lean on the wellspring of Israel and its savior”) (Hilchot Melachim 7:15).

Putting aside for the moment how incredible it is that the Rambam, writing during one of the darkest periods of Jewish history, knows that there will come a time when a Jewish army is once again fighting in the land of Israel to protect the Jewish people, for me, this was the solution.

At the bottom of a hill, or about to enter a building, just as you are about to give a command to your men that will put all of you deep in harm’s way, you just put yourself into bigger hands. And once you know you have done all you can do, you trust that Hashem runs the show and know that it would be OK, that somehow everyone would get home.

And that student of mine, so concerned about not carrying on Shabbat, was living

that exact idea. One way of understanding the prohibition against carrying in a public domain on Shabbat is that carrying represents the idea of ownership. When I carry something, I am making a statement that it is mine. One day a week, on Shabbat, we remember that nothing is really mine; it’s all on loan, for a higher purpose.

Nowhere does a person come face to face with this idea more than in combat. In war, you learn nothing is really yours, not even your life; it’s all a gift Hashem gives us, ours only to decide what to do with it.

Thousands of our best and brightest in the Israeli army are putting themselves in harm’s way as these words are written, with no complaints, and no hesitations, confident in the fact that we are not fighting this war for any other reason than that ours is a message the world needs to learn, and here in our beautiful land of Israel, we are finally creating a homeland that is slowly teaching the world just how a people is meant to behave. And somehow, Hashem will give us what we need, to get through this war and soon, ever so soon, to experience peace as it is truly meant to be.

May Hashem bless us soon to know real peace, and to see no more bloodshed and no more war, soon.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom from Israel.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Hillary’s anti-Israel…

Continued from page 6 Bill and Hillary Clinton made mega dollars from their extensive involvement with Dubai.

Besides being a leader in the movement to boycott Israel, Dubai is the “Hong Kong” of the Arab world, and a major commerce and shipping point for the “business-side” of terrorism. Bill and Hillary are major friends of Dubai, to the point where the Clinton Foundation has established Dubai study departments in universities in the U.S. and London.

They worked hard at granting legitimacy to this Jew-hating, terrorist-supporting nation.

While Hillary was running for President in 2007, San Francisco Examiner columnist P.J. Corkery wrote that Clinton made $10 million a year from Yucaipa, a Dubai firm. Ron Berkle, the owner of Yucaipa companies, was a major fund-raiser for Bill and Hillary. ne of her first actions after leaving the Senate to become Secretary of State was to ignore a previous deal with Israel that said Israel could add housing units to existing houses and new “settlements” in Jerusalem.

Instead, she called for a total “settlement” freeze in 2009 and was quickly backed up by Barack Obama. What she perceived as a minor concession (no new housing units in existing communities) was for Israel a grave sacrifice.

For all intents and purposes, Clinton was telling Israeli parents their married children could no longer live in their neighborhoods.

Mrs. Clinton said there was never an agreement between Israel and the U.S. about natural expansion of existing settlements; but Elliot Abrams, who negotiated the agreement for the United States, said Clinton’s contention is simply not true. The Palestinians quickly seized upon the Hillary-created settlement issue and used the administration’s demand for a “settlement” freeze a precondition to further talks.

In August 2009, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a ten-month “settlement” freeze. It was approved by the cabinet and implemented on Nov. 25 and was to run till Sept. 25, 2010. Despite pressure from the United States, the Palestinians refused to join any talks the first nine plus months of the freeze; they did not come to the negotiation table until three weeks before the freeze was

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scheduled to end.

As the end of the construction halt approached, the U.S. began to negotiate with Israel to extend the freeze. Based on its experience with Clinton denying the deal negotiated by Elliot Abrams during the Bush Administration, Israel demanded that any proposal be presented in writing.

The written offer never came; the Secretary of State wasn’t negotiating in good faith.

Instead, Hillary played “Bait and Switch.”

As Israel waited for a letter clarifying America’s guarantees in exchange for a proposed building ban for Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, a diplomatic source finally came forward saying that no such letter was on its way.

Mrs. Clinton misled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a source, a senior diplomat with inside knowledge of Netanyahu meetings in Washington, Clinton made commitments when talking to Netanyahu, but later slipped out of them by claiming that she had not been speaking on behalf of President Obama who, she said in the end, did not give his approval.

In 2011, speaking at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the liberal Brookings Institute, Clinton expressed concern for Israel’s social climate in the wake of limitations regarding female singing in the IDF and gender segregation on public transportation. Both were accommodations made to the Orthodox communities in Israel.

She referred to the decision of some IDF soldiers to leave an event where female soldiers were singing; she demonized Israel by saying it reminded her of the situation in Iran.

Now it seems Hillary Clinton is running for President. She will campaign on the basis that she is a friend of Israel, just as Barack Obama did in 2008.

The truth is, as Secretary of State, she was the architect of the policy of the most antiIsrael president since the rebirth of Israel in 1948. It was a policy that reflected the views she has held her entire life, with the exception of the nine-year period where she ran for and held the office of U.S. Senator from New York State.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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15 THE JEWISH STAR July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774

Jewish Star presents a triple dose of ‘Dry Bones’

Thousands back Israel at quick Times Square rally

By Malka Eisenberg Several thousand people filled the sidewalks along Seventh Avenue from 40th to 42nd Street in Times Square on Sunday in support of Israel.

One of the organizers, Avi Posnick, regional coordinator NY Chapter of Stand With Us East Coast, said the rally demonstrates the power of social media. He pointed out that the annual outreach figures of Stand With Us on Facebook is usually 10 million, but that in the last three weeks their site has been accessed, “liked, or retweeted,” by nine million people.

The two-hour rally featured several speakers, including Rep. Eliot Engle (D-NY).

Posnick said the overall message was that “we are here to stand in solidarity with Israel and Israel has the right to defend itself, as it defends its citizens against terrorism.”

Posnick distributed copies of StandWithUs’ Hamas Charter booklet (http://bit. ly/1nP64U7). “I told people to make sure they are educators for Israel,” he said.

“Make sure you can educate people about what Hamas really believes; everyone needs to know what Hamas says and believes.”

Student Tomer Kornfeld, spoke about the need to support the IDF here as they protect us over there, said Posnick.

Posnick noted that a Jew from France spoke about “how bad it is in France for the Jewish Zionist community.” Mobs of Arabs burnt two Jewish-owned stores and firebombed a synagogue in France on Sunday, in a second day of violence against the Jewish community there.

The wife of Silvan Shalom, a member of Knesset and Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee and Minister of Energy and Water also spoke. She thanked everyone for being there and said that it was great to see such an outpouring of support for Israel. Israeli musician Gadi Elbaz sang at the rally.

The location, Times Square, is not a familiar site for Israel-oriented rallies.

“It was easy to get to,” noted Posnick.

“People walking by could see the message, too, and see the support base for Israel. People came from throughout the tri-State area,” and that it was a remarkable turnout on such short notice.

Aliyot move amid war A bride with her wedding dress, 100 children, 29 families and 54 singles celebrated their aliyah from North America this week amid the rumblings and stress of the current security situation in Israel.

The 228 new olim were greeted as they deplaned from their Nefesh B’Nefesh flight (pictured), by Jewish Agency chair and former refusenik Natan Sharansky and others.

The bride, Ilana Barta from Teaneck, is scheduled to marry her fiance, a paratrooper on active duty in Gaza, on Aug. 17.

The group received a special booklet at

JFK airport on security measures in Israel.

“Today’s aliyah flight demonstrates the great resilience of the Jewish people and its determination to build the State of Israel,” said Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-Founder and Executive Director Rabbi Yehoshua Fass. “These olim, who are choosing to move to Israel in these difficult times, are instilling hope, optimism and strength throughout Israel and the Jewish nation.

“The outpouring number of requests we received to join the flight out of solidarity for the citizens of Israel is inspiring.”

20k at Texan Israeli’s lavaya In response to a widespread social media campaign to honor a fallen soldier, some 20,000 people crowded the military cemetery in Haifa on Monday evening for the funeral of Staff Sgt. Nissim Sean Carmeli, one of two U.S. citizens killed in fighting in Gaza on Sunday morning.

Since Carmeli lived in Texas for most of his life, and his parents split their time between Israel and the U.S., his friends were concerned his funeral would be sparsely at-

tended and decided to reach out to Israelis around the country. The 21-year-old Golani Brigade soldier rooted for the Maccabi Haifa soccer team, whose fans shared the details of his funeral online, encouraging people to attend.

“The thousands who came to pay their respects show the rare unity of the nation of Israel,” said Meir Azoulay, a Haifa-area resident who attended the funeral, Israel Hayom reported.

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July 25, 2014 • 27 TAMUZ 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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