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Vol 13, No 34 n AUGUST 29, 2014 / 3 elUl 5774

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HALB’s a comin!

Long Beach school files plans for new campus at Woodmere’s No. 6

Jewish Star by Susan Griec

Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew J. Parise high fives Akiva Shemesh (held by mom Dena) at Jewish night in the summer series of concerts under the Gazebo at Andrew J. Parise Park. More photos on page 14.

Non-kosher Anatomy of ‘mom’ quits a ceasefire

By Dmitriy Shapiro, JNS.org Washington Jewish Week After at least 11 failed attempts at achieving a lasting ceasefire between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel, negotiators in Cairo on Tuesday announced that they reached an indefinite ceasefire deal. But will the agreement, whose parameters are not yet fully apparent, hold up this time around? Some experts are skeptical because the talks leading up to the deal lacked the three major elements they believe are required for a successful ceasefire: negative leverage, positive leverage, and a credible third-party broker.

Before Tuesday, a delegation of Israeli officials had shuttled between Israel and Egypt for weeks to participate in indirect talks with Palestinian Authority officials representing Fatah, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, with Continued on page 3

Analysis

Having the initial plan rejected is part of the process, he said. The zoning board reviews proposed changes, and then either denies them or grants approval.

Previously HALB said that renovations to the building are needed to make better use of classroom space and public areas, install a new roof and windows to improve energy efficiency, put in a state-of-the-art heating and air conditioning system, along with new electrical and plumbing systems that comply with current building codes.

Lawrence board president Murray Forman did not return calls for comment.

A version of this report by Jeffrey Bessen first appeared in this week’s Nassau Herald.

Judy’s rules of engagement

L

ast week, my son Jeremy got engaged. To say I was thrilled is an understatement. I could not have picked a more perfect girl for him. Darya is charming, delightful, intelligent, fun loving, beautiful, caring and sweet.

As soon as I got the call that they were engaged, memories started dancing in my mind: Judy Joszef when he was born, his first birthday, his first day of school, first day of camp and his first tooth.

I attended every one of his basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer games. I sat in the stands cheering as if he were starring on the Rangers playing at The Garden.

Continued on page 17

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Mother Kelly’s, one of the last remaining treif restaurants in Cedarhurst, is closing following the sale of its building, the Nassau Herald reported this week.

Mother Kelly’s will end 45 years of service at its prominent location opposite the Cedarhurst train station on Sunday, Aug. 31, said Glenn Gobetz, who runs the establishment with his brother Mark and sister Lisa.

“Over the years the local community has become an Orthodox town,” Glenn said. “Our father was Jewish, but our mother isn’t. We would have to keep kosher to run this restaurant.”

In 1969, Marvin Gobetz and his wife, Dorothy, took over the restaurant, originally located on Columbia Avenue. Its previous owners named it Mother Kelly’s, and Dorothy decided to retain the name. Marvin died in 1984.

Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department Commissioner Joe Fitzgerald praised Mother Kelly’s philanthropic efforts. “I have never known them to turn down anyone’s requests to donate to charities,” he said.

Future campus of the HALB elementary school.

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C’hurst hi-5’s at summer’s end

The Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) has filed a tentative plan with the Town of Hempstead’s Zoning Board of Appeals for its use of the Number Six School in Woodmere.

HALB is purchasing the 6.67-acre site, which includes a 80,170-square-foot school building, for $8.5 million plus $2.7 million that will be held as a guarantee that Lawrence Board of Education realizes at least $565,000 in annual savings on what the district now spends on transportation and special education for HALB students.

“I actually believe that the annual savings will far exceed that estimate — if [HALB’s] student enrollment stays close to what it is today, the numbers will be higher,” said HALB President Lance Hirt.

In two years, HALB is expected to move its Long Beach-based elementary school — which houses kindergarten through eighth grade, currently 800 students — from a beachfront building on West Broadway to the Church Avenue site, officials previously said.

HALB expects to sell its Long Beach building.

“We know that our initial plan will be rejected given the fact that we are making some minor changes to the current layout and use of the site,” Hirt said.

Darya and Jeremy, the happy couple.

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August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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Multiple stakes: Anatomy of a ceasefire…

“The time has come for us to say that the true war is not aimed at opening border crossings,” added Abu Zuhri. “Our true war is aimed at the liberation of Jerusalem, Allah willing.”

Israel has previously accepted quiet-forquiet cease-fires, in which both sides agreed to end hostilities and default to the status quo without resolving any of the larger, underlying causes of the conflict. It is a strategy Israelis have favored, even if it leaves open the possibility of future hostilities.

In exchange for an end to hostilities, Hamas has continually put forward the same list of demands—an end to the naval blockade of Gaza, a reopening of the Rafah border crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the opening of a Gaza seaport and airport, freedom of movement between Gaza and the West Bank, and an end

Israeli goal: Disarm Hamas

Nevertheless, Ben-Ami believes that the current situation provides Israel with an opportunity to push for its primary goal—the demilitarization of Hamas.

“I think that Israel is right not to give in outside of the broader context, which is demilitarization,” he told JNS.org. “I think this

HISTORY IN THE MAKING AT THE SEPHARDIC TEMPLE OF CEDARHUST

Egypt takes sides

“In a sense, Egypt is not really just a broker here, it’s almost a side in the conflict,” said Sachs. “The Egyptians are trying to do several different things: they’re trying to be brokers, but they’re also trying to get their way.”

Yet even if Egypt is against Hamas, it also does not lean pro-Israel in the negotiations.

Sachs described the actions between the two sides as playing “hot potato” with Gaza.

Egypt would prefer to allow free movement between the West Bank and Gaza instead of opening the Rafah crossing, as it believes doing so would move Gaza closer to the West Bank and Israel. Otherwise, if the only path into Gaza were through Rafah, Gaza would be pushed in Egypt’s direction.

Without America to broker a cease-fire, Ben-Ami believes that the only chance for an honest broker lies in the form of a broad international coalition.

“If Hamas is demilitarized, then the international arrangements will work regardless of whether Hamas is interested in a war,” he said. “That’s the point on which Israel should insist.”

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of the Israel Institute in Washington, DC, and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. “Egypt is in no hurry because … Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a big enemy of Egypt, and they don’t mind seeing them hurting.”

Rabinovich told JNS.org that, in previous skirmishes, America’s role as peace broker was critical. This time, despite Secretary of State John Kerry’s well-publicized attempts to intercede, the parties have pushed the U.S. to the sidelines.

EMUNAH OF AMERICA

is an opportunity for Israel also to get what it wants, not just Hamas. I think that it is in Israel’s interest that Gaza be opened to the world, that there is prosperity, wellbeing, stability. But they have to pay and paying means demilitarization.”

If Gaza were prosperous, its citizens would feel they had something to lose if they continued fighting Israel. For example, if an open seaport could lead to a less desperate existence for civilians, the fear that Israel could close it again might make Hamas less likely to instigate a war.

Most of Hamas’s demands remain controversial among Israelis, who have seen historically even the slight loosening of import and export restrictions in Gaza exploited to rearm Hamas for its next fight against the Jewish state.

According to both Sachs and Ben-Ami, a loosening of trade restrictions would need to be accompanied by thorough oversight by either an international force similar to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which Israel is unlikely to concede to, or the Fatah-aligned Palestinian Security Forces, who are unlikely to be welcomed by Hamas.

The third element lacking in recent ceasefire efforts is a credible third party. So far, nearly every major effort to end the conflict has been spearheaded by Egypt. Since the July 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party, relations between Egyptian and Hamas leaders have been tense, leading to questions of whether or not Egypt is in a position to play peace broker.

“There is an important role played by Egypt” because of its control of the Rafah crossing, said Itamar Rabinovich, president

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Hamas target: Jerusalem

to the targeting of Hamas officials.

Israel is unlikely to move on these demands without the assurance of both negative and positive leverage—military or economic pressure combined with “carrot and stick” diplomacy, said Natan Sachs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy.

“The cost of continuing [to fight] for both sides,” or at least one side, should be “too high,” Sachs told JNS.org.

The lack of negative leverage is the biggest obstacle to sealing a long term ceasefire with Hamas, according to Sachs.

“Hamas has its back to the wall right now, severely,” he said, “not just because of Israel, but also because of intra-Arab politics.

The opposition of Egypt and Saudi Arabia to Qatar’s support for Hamas results in Hamas having little to lose and therefore being more prone to fighting.”

Despite Israel dealing massive damage to Gaza’s infrastructure and the deaths of some 2,000 Gazans, as reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli bombardment may not be enough of a negative incentive to end Hamas’s rocket barrage.

“Hamas doesn’t have enough of a negative incentive partly because it doesn’t care enough about what happens to the people of Gaza,” said Sachs.

THE JEWISH STAR August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774

Continued from page 1 minimal success. Israel believed Hamas’s demands were unrealistic. But according to observers, both sides will need to go through a process that will necessitate gains and losses.

“If you reach an agreement based on quiet-for-quiet, it is bound to be short-lived, because what concerns the people of the Strip and Hamas is that there is a blockade,” said Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel’s former minister of internal security, minister of foreign affairs, and ambassador to Spain.

But according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said this week that “it is not only the blockade which is rejected by our people.

Our people refuses to accept the defiling of the land by the occupier (Israel).”

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August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Chelsea Polaniecki, JNS.org “You know what’s worse than being stabbed 13 times? Being stabbed 14 times. It can always be worse.”

In 2010, Kay Wilson, a Jerusalem tour guide who had emigrated from London, was brutally attacked by a terrorist in the Jerusalem Forest. After being stabbed 13 times, she fooled her attacker into thinking that she had passed on, and he left her for dead. In the moments that followed, Kay watched in horror as he murdered her best friend, Kristine Luken, right before her eyes.

Four years later, Kay has a new lease on life and an impossibly positive attitude. She truly feels that “it could have been worse,” and she motivates others with those words.

This summer, I interned at OneFamily, Israel’s leading national organization solely dedicated to the rehabilitation of victims of terror attacks and their families. In a few short weeks on the job, I met hundreds of victims of terror, most of whom appeared courageous and strong. Slowly, I learned that they—like Kay— underwent a slow and painful process that brought them peace, clarity, and ultimately, strength.

The road from trauma to resilience is a long and arduous journey that requires extensive therapy and the constant support of a family, whether biological or one born out of tragedy.

My experiences at OneFamily this summer taught me that caring goes a long way. In fact, becoming the “family” that a victim of terror needs to heal can make all the difference— without a strong support system, the victim may never find strength.

Over the course of the summer, I did everything I could to empower these brave but broken individuals.

Woodmere resident Chelsea Polaniecki worked with terror victims in Israel this summer.

A crowd gathers around the Mt. Herzl grave of Max Steinberg, an Israel Defense Forces lone soldier who was killed in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.

Sean Savage

I held a mother’s hand as she called home to check that her husband and children were alright after several sirens had sounded in their hometown.

I played with children who had not been out of their local bomb shelter for days.

I sang and danced with bereaved mothers as they taught me how to prepare the recipes that their children—fallen soldiers and victims of terror—had enjoyed the most.

I listened to story after story, provided unlimited hugs, and gave away as much of my own strength as I could muster so that those affected by terror could find their own.

As the war in Gaza reaches its conclusion and the plight of the victims of terror and their

families once again fades into the background, it is our responsibility to stand with these individuals so that they can begin to heal. We must help them develop the positive outlook required for true recovery, and enable them to realize that “it could have been worse.”

Due to the extreme devastation brought about by war, thousands of injured and traumatized Israelis require our support. We must help them come to terms with what they have lost, and prepare them for what still lies ahead.

We must share their trauma and help shoulder their burdens in order to keep them moving forward.

This summer, I learned that one should never underestimate the power of love and

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When someone’s life is changed forever by a violent act, there is no telling how long it will take for that person to find peace and regain strength. But one thing is clear: the involvement of a loving family is a crucial element of the healing process.

As I return home, I will continue to do everything I can to empower these traumatized individuals, and I encourage you to do the same. We cannot allow them to get lost in the shuffle simply because the news cycle has moved on to other things. We must always be there for them because they are our family.

Chelsea Polaniecki is a resident of Woodmere and a junior at Brandeis University. She spent the summer interning at OneFamily, an organization solely dedicated to the rehabilitation of victims of terror attacks and their families in Israel.

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THE JEWISH STAR August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774

Woodmere student helps traumatized Israelis heal

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August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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The Jewish sTar TheJewishStar.com 516-622-7461 The Independent newspaper of Long Island’s Orthodox communities Published by The Jewish Star LLC 2 Endo Boulevard, Garden City, NY 11530

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In ‘PR’ war, we need professional aid A discerning view of Gaza war coverage makes it evident that a cabal of Zionistloving Jews do not control the media, even though members of our tribe are renowned contributors on various media platforms and are also big machers on the American public relations scene.

An over-the-top anti-Israel emphasis in recent news reporting is, of course, troublesome. But the disinclination of Israel’s supporters to mount a powerful public relations offensive is also a serious problem.

Where are the Jewish PR experts who might help the cause by inserting themselves into the news stream, both as fly-by “spin doctors” and as consultants to those leading our charge?

During the height of the fighting in Gaza, the Associated Press’ main photo stream offered editors around the world the opportunity to choose from several hundred images of devastation in Gaza and of angry

EDITORIALS protests against Israel and Jews around the word; the wire service offered barely any photos depicting life on the Israeli side of the border or of people supporting Israel and Jews. (Yes, people do support Israel.)

As journalists, we understand that all things being equal, photos of devastation at a site were children died will win the fight for front page real-estate over a scene of lesser trauma. But the almost complete lack of photos showing any discomfort (let alone suffering) in Israel removed both editorial discretion and necessary nuance.

During a recent visit to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, our editor encountered soldiers in various stages of recovery, many seriously wounded in brutal Gaza fighting. Does the world understand that the conflict was not without cost to Israel,

Send general press releases to Newsroom@TheJewishStar.com Send Calendar of Events items to Calendar@TheJewishStar.com For advertising opportunities, JewishStarNY@gmail.com Contributing writers: Rabbi Avi Billet, Jeff Dunetz, Rabbi Binny Freedman, Alan Jay Gerber, Judy Joszef Editorial Designers: Stacey Simmons, Matthew Stammel Photo Editor: Christina Daly Kashrut: The Jewish Star is not responsible for the kashrut of any product or establishment featured in the Jewish Star.

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THIS WEEK’S LUACH Friday Aug 29 • 3 Elul Parshat Shoftim Haftarah Isaiah 51:12-52:12

Candlelighting 7:13 pm Shabbat ends 8:20 pm 72 minute zman 8:44 pm

Mangano wins kudos for ‘oops’ If only every problem was so easy to fix.

Nassau County Executive Mangano last week conceded a significant goof by his transportation officials in their implementation of new speed cams near schools.

When motorists began piling up tickets for breaking school speed limits even though the schools were — or might have been expected to be — closed for the summer, Mangano did something unexpected: He voided all the tickets.

Plenty of unnecessary heartache is caused by bureaucrats who stubbornly refuse to admit a mistake, no matter how obvious the original sin, or how hurtful the consequences of the mistake’s being compounded by their intransigence. Mangano’s approach is refreshing, removing from thousands of ticketed motorists the need to either prove their innocence or pay unjust fines.

An added bonus of the speed cam error and Mangano’s fix is that with all the attention, no one will have an excuse if they’re caught speeding when the schools are actually in session.

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even beyond the Israeli lives that were lost?

Actually no, and Israel’s press handlers appear determined to keep it that way, requesting that no photos be taken of injured soldiers, even if the soldiers wouldn’t mind.

In a universe of Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, this is off-the-field military malfeasance and those Jewish PR gurus we referenced earlier might teach a PR101 course to Israeli bureaucrats.

The world needs to see Israelis — Jews — as human beings shedding blood and tears in a necessary and just fight to live peacefully and securely in the land that G-d has given us.

There’s no grand strategy for Mid East Strolling through Jerusalem’s historic Yemin Moshe quarter on a pleasant August morning, my ears caught a ringing, melodic sound emanating from within the walls of the Old City, perhaps half a mile from where I stood. This being a Sunday, the sound I heard was the chiming of church bells, welcoming Christian worshippers to morning services.

Normally, there is something joyous about the sound of those bells, particularly in a city that contains the key holy sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But on this day, I felt a profound sadness upon hearing them. For Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is one of the few places in the Middle East where—despite what malicious anti-Zionist propagandists will tell you—Christians can practice their faith freely.

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, about one day’s drive from here, only a minuscule handful of terrified Christians remain, the vast majority having been driven out by the savage terrorists of the Islamic State jihadist group. The ethnic cleansing of Mosul’s Christians was accompanied by the destruction of numerous holy sites, includ-

ing an 1,800-year-old church and the tomb of the prophet Jonah.

As Mosul’s Patriarch Louis Sako mournfully observed at the end of July, “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.” On any Sunday morning in that beleaguered city, you will no longer hear the Ben Cohen, JnS sound of church bells.

The Islamic State’s onslaught has raged for several months now. Having spread from Syria into Iraq, the terrorist organization’s aim is to set up an Islamic caliphate in all the territories it conquers. It’s a mistake to believe that the national borders that we in the west recognize as sacrosanct are in any way respected by these modern day barbarians. As far as the Islamic State is concerned, there is certainly no place called Israel, and no place called Kurdistan, but there is also no Syria, vIEwpOInT

no Iraq, no Lebanon, no Jordan. All these states are regarded as a contiguous territory where Islamic sharia law—as interpreted by a group of criminals, rapists, and torturers—will remain eternally supreme.

Unless, of course, we in the West wake up to the threat and understand that the only way to roll back the Islamic State is to pulverize it without mercy, killing as many of its fighters as we can, and seizing back some of the critical locations now under their control, such as the Mosul dam, which supplies water and electricity to northern Iraq.

There are, thankfully, signs that this process is now underway. After months of ignoring a worsening situation, despite the persistent pleas of our Kurdish allies— along with Israel, the best, most loyal, and most reliable friends the United States has in the Middle East—the Obama administration is now gingerly offering sorely needed military and logistical support. Important European allies, like France and Britain, are following suit, sending weapons and advisors to assist the Kurdish soldiers, the peshContinued on page 14

7 THE JEWISH STAR August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774

If you have been looking for answers to the barrage of rockets from Gaza and the increase in worldwide anti-Semitism, join us for an

Orthodox Response to Israel’s Summer of Uncertainty Friday and Shabbat, Sept. 5–6 Congregation Beth Sholom • 390 Broadway, Lawrence Rabbi Kenneth Hain Religious Zionists of America 4th Annual Leadership Shabbaton and Convention FEATURING Jonathan Tobin, Senior Online Editor, Commentary Magazine “Did Israel Have A Better Option In Gaza?”

Michael Singh, Managing Director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy Mohsen Sazagara, Iranian Ambassador, Institute on Contemporary Iran “Iran’s Use of Hamas and Hezbollah in Their Quest To Be A Nuclear Power” MK Yoni Chetboun, Bayit Yehudi “The One State Solution – Is That Reality?”

Rabbi Solly Sacks, Director General World Mizrachi Organization Divrei Torah, “Our Religious Zionist Soldiers” Pre-Registration Required for Dinner www.Mizrachi.org Friday Night Family Meal $25 Per Person ••• Join us for Q&A and Panel Discussions Shabbat Kiddush For more information and a full schedule of the lectures, call 212-465-9234 or mail msokol@rza.org

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Lectures and discussions open to the public free of charge

Judges and courts bring law, order, moral clarity as he was feared, and his men would have followed him anywhere. n the Lebanon war, when the 195th got stuck trying to cross the Awali River, he jumped out of his tank, under fire, and waded into the river yelling to his tank driver to follow, leading the tanks to the right crossing, while seemingly oblivious to the heavy fire he was under. This, along with various other stories, earned him the reputation of being fearless.

He had a colorful reputation, to say the least, and his court-martials were no exception. Every Thursday night, the soldiers who had committed some offense, whether real or imagined, waited outside his office through the night as he “held court” to determine guilt or innocence and hand out sentences.

This experience, known as lailah lavan (or “white night,” because you stayed up all night), was unique to the 195th.

More than often than not, the offenders were cooks or mechanics who had snuck home or gone AWOL for a few days hoping to get away with it.

Shabam usually had no patience for the normal system of confinement to base, days in the brig, or hard labor around the base, and often he conducted what we liked to call a “mishpat mahir” or “quick sentencing.”

He would excuse everyone else from the office save the offender, an you could hear his screams and shouts out in the courtyard which more often than not ended with a loud bang or thump, after which the offenders would exit the office limping, or nursing a

I

black eye. (He knew an official verdict would go on the soldier’s record, and even delay their release from the army, so he would close the issue with a more direct system.)

He was personally offended when anyone of his soldiers displayed disloyalty by taking matters into their own hands rather than coming to him to beg for a pass, and rare was the man who repeated the offense and risked ending up back in his office a second time.

This “system” probably wouldn’t fly in today’s army, but the men actually admired it in a perverse sort of way, and were proud to boast of it when meeting men from other battalions. I still remember the raw fear you would see on a soldier’s face when he was out there waiting for his trial, listening to the shouting and banging coming from inside the office while those before him were “tried.”

To this day, I am convinced that Shabam left his window open on purpose, and had a clever system to make sure the more serious offenders waited outside for longer, to heighten the fearful experience. I can still recall the one time I was forced, while still a private, to experience a “Mishpat Shabam,” for the heinous crime of leaving my post on guard duty for a moment, in order to relieve myself.

The screams and the yelling, and his face up close, next to mine (fortunately he gauged that to be enough for me), demanding an explanation as to why I felt my own needs to be greater than the entire base, the brigade, the

We need to spend more time considering what we need to judge in ourselves.

Israeli army, and the entire Jewish people, is something I still recall with total clarity. And I wonder sometimes, how different society and life would be if everyone had the same fear of “the judge” that the men of the 195th carried for the “Mishpat Shabam.”

This week, the portion of Shoftim speaks of the importance of appointing judges and a system of courts designed to ensure a society of law and order as well as moral clarity.

“Shoftim ve’shotrim ti’ten lecha’ be’chol she’arecha’, asher Hashem Elokechah’ noten lecha’ lish’vatechah’, ve’shaftu’ et ha’am mishpat tzedek.” (“Place for yourselves judges and officers in all your gates that Hashem gives you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.”) (Devarim 16:18) It is interesting, as we celebrate the new month of Elul and the coming of the Days of Awe, (also known as the Days of Judgment) that this issue has become even more relevant than usual, given the challenges we are experiencing in our current war with Hamas and Hezbollah.

The nature of judgment would seem to require three things: •An acceptance of the right of the judge to render judgment •A certain fear or awe of the judge and the court he or she represents •A system that ensures that the judgment will indeed be carried out, which means a system that is consistent.

And it would seem these are precisely the issues that are at the core of our current conflict: We are faced with an enemy that does not recognize our right to exist let alone hold itself accountable to any Israeli, or Continued on page 14

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Court: A place and a system any healthy society needs, but no one really wants to visit.

Just like a judge: Someone you want as a friend, but not someone you want to meet at work all too often.

A date in court is not From the heart something most people oF jerusalem look forward to, and the feelings such a visit generates range from frustration and trepidation, all the way to outright fear and terror.

The army has its own system of courts and judges, and military court, like any other court in the world, is not somewhere you really want to be. In the rabbi Binny field, though, court is Freedman not someplace separate that you visit, it is most often the office of the commander, and, depending on the issue involved, it is usually the battalion commander who deals with the more serious issues.

When I was in the regular army, I was in the 195th battalion of the 500th armored division, and our battalion commander, a legend in his own right, gave new meaning to the fear of ”going to court.” His name was Shimon Ben Maimon, though he was known by his nickname (the acronym of his name) “Shabam,” and a court martial with him, was known as a “Mishpat Shabam” (a Shabam trial or sentence).

His reputation stemmed first and foremost from the fact that all of us thought he was a little bit mad, though he was as loved

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Celebrating 10 found years through Gift of Life

By Malka Eisenberg Ten years ago on erev Pesach, Brian (Yaakov) Hagler of Woodmere was playing basketball with friends, dribbling down the court, when his legs gave out; he felt that he had no strength.

After sitting on the side, he went home.

His wife, Ruchy, noticed an unexplained bruise under his eye. He went to the doctor.

“I never go to the doctor,” he said, maybe once a year for a check up, but he never recalled being ill. After blood and urine tests, the doctor called him down to the office and told him that he had acute leukemia.

He contacted a husband-wife pair of oncologists from his shul, Anshe Chesed in Hewlett, Drs. Peter and Laurel Steinherz of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Camp Simcha, “Malachim (angels),” said Hagler, “great people.”

Events snowballed. He and his wife spent Pesach in Sloan, making a seder there. He told the 12 boys he was teaching to read their bar mitzvah parshiot that lessons were suspended; he notified his shul where he was president, and his children spent Pesach in the hotel where they had planned to go with his in-laws. “It was overwhelming,” he said.

“You hope you are going to wake up, this is crazy.” And then, “I was in and out of the hospital for three to four months and Gift of Life found a perfect match.”

On Sept. 14, Hagler will be the MC at the Second Annual Gift of Life’s 5K Walk for Life at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. Registration will be at 10 am, with a welcome ceremony and Hagler speaking at 10:30, introducing a bone marrow donor and recipient for the first time. The walk begins at 11 and concludes by 1 pm, with kosher food, music,

raffles and a kids’ area with balloons and face painting.

Gift of life was founded in 1991 after Jay Feinberg, then 23, was diagnosed with leukemia and could not find a transplant match to save his life since the donor registries available at that time did not have many of his Jewish ethnicity.

His mother, Arlene Feinberg, along with friends and family, organized bone marrow drives, enrolling thousands of donors worldwide and, after four years of searching, finally located a donor match for Feinberg.

Mother and son founded the organization to help save other people.

Gift of Life currently has 235,270 registered donors and facilitated 2,701 transplants; it serves 43 countries.

“We are hoping to raise at least $50,000,” said Gregg Francis, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer of Gift of Life, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. He said that last year 200 attended and this year they are expecting 350. He said that all the funds raised will be used to process testing kits that were used to find potential matches to save the lives of those suffering from blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.

HAFTR has held community drives to recruit donors over the years, finding more than 30 matches.

Dr. Adam Lish, HAFTR’s vice president of education and a volunteer on the planning committee for this year’s Walk for Life, was “swabbed” in one of the drives 12 years

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Brian (Yaakov) Hagler and wife Ruchy are celebrating the tenth anniversary of his second birthday, when he received a bone marrow donation from Michal Levine through the Gift of Life.

ago. He was called upon to be a bone marrow donor two years later and noted that the recipient is now a healthy young man in college. Team HAFTR will be represented in the walk, with Lish’s son Justin, a HAFTR junior, team captain. Daughter Samantha, who was graduated from HAFTR this year, ran a bone marrow drive with her brother at her senior dinner.

Having the team, said Lish, is “one of the methods to generate capital and interest; the teams run and raises money as a group.” He stressed the importance of this chesed and the importance of raising awareness in teens, noting that they are also using social media in the campaign.

Lish pointed out that when students in high school are aware of these drives, they can get swabbed at the earliest age, “the earlier you get swabbed the longer you are in the database.” He said that the children who witnessed their parents being swabbed at HAFTR drives over the years are now stepping forward and running drives and getting swabbed themselves. He cited the “adults modeling behavior” as an “important chinuch (educational) opportunity” and that now the “kids are running it.”

“The Orthodox community is heavily represented among the donors. When called upon they donate. It’s not pleasant, it’s uncomfortable, but they donate regardless of the recipient.”

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Hagler’s match was Michal Levine, a young woman from North Miami Beach who was a student at Barnard College and living in Washington Heights. They met a year after he received her bone marrow.

“What do you say,” asked Hagler rhetorically. “You can’t say thank you-that’s for someone who gives you a parking space. I was living on borrowed time. There are no words.” Levine became part of Hagler’s family, coming for Shabbat. When she was planning her wedding six years ago, she asked him to sing at her chuppa. He did and his family came to the wedding in Lakewood.

She now has one child with another on the way and a PhD from Johns Hopkins in lymphocytes. “I had ALL-acute lymphocytic leukemia,” said Hagler. “She went into that field of research.”

He said that the “patient gets help from different people, the spouse doesn’t” and praised his wife noting that she “says I have a responsibility to help the organization.” Together, they visit others who are sick to give chizuk, strength, support and reassurance.

So now, on the tenth anniversary of his rebirth, Hagler says Boruch Hashem (thank G-d), and he’s talking about his experience “to raise awareness, raise funds. Saving a life is saving a life. It’s not controversial.”

“Nothing ever happens till it happens,” said Hagler. “Once it’s in your family it changes everybody; it has to change.”

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Jewish students prepare for hostility on campus

By Sean Savage, JNS.org While Israel has been engaged in a seemingly endless summer war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, pro-Israel students are about to re-enter an increasingly hostile environment for Jews on their college campuses.

Fifty-three students prepared for that challenge at the annual Student Leadership and Advocacy Training Conference of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). The three-day event in Boston included lectures such as “Less Hamas, more Hummus,” training on how to craft a personal narrative, mastering debate tactics, and gaining knowledge on some of the antiIsrael campus groups students may need to confront.

Allison Moldoff—a rising junior at Simmons College who led a battle on her campus to allow study abroad to Israel—described learning about how the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) “are not only anti-Israel, but that there’s a lot of anti-Semitism hidden there as well.”

“We also learned how to react to these groups on campus,” she told JNS.org. “Whether it be body language or what words you choose or the tone of your voice, there’s really a science to answering these groups, so your point can be made and you are accurately defending Israel.”

Elliott Hamilton, a rising senior at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., who was at-

tending CAMERA’s summer conference for a second time, said the gathering helped “reinvigorate his love for Zionism and defending Israel.”

Hamilton, who has attended other proIsrael conferences, praised CAMERA’s unique approach to teaching students how to confront anti-Israel programming on campus.

The students “were given the tools and the information to combat the various anti-Israel programming and how to address the bias in a powerful way,” he said.

“Everyone at the conference got handson experience that will be necessary to fight the information battles we face in the coming year,” said Hamilton.

An increasing number of schools have faced anti-Israel divestment votes by student governments. During the 2013-2014 school year, such votes took place on 15 campuses, a nearly 100-percent increase from the previous academic year.

At the same time, only one-third of the divestment proposals passed. CAMERA made it clear that it hopes to continue that trend.

On the last day of the conference, a two-hour mock divestment vote gave students an opportunity to act out both sides of the debate in front of a mock student government panel consisting of CAMERA staffers.

Despite the mock vote’s student-unfriendly 8:30 a.m. start time, the undergrads appeared energetic and eager to apply the knowledge they had accumulated over the previous two days of the conference. The students were di-

Sunday, November 16 10:00 AM

Participants at CAMERA’s summer leadership training conference in Boston.

vided into two sides—one pro-Israel and the other pro-Palestinian—and volunteered to present their case to the student government.

Students were judged not only on their ability to draw on facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also on their presentation style.

Echoing the real-life debates that have taken place on dozens of campuses, the students engaged in a discussion of frequently made accusations against Israel, such as the apartheid analogy.

The mock divestment debate was new to this year’s conference. CAMERA also invited students other than the conference attendees to share their experiences on campus and “to provide [the attendees] with a variety of tools ranging from social media training to combating BDS resolutions,” said Aviva Slomich, director of CAMERA’s campus department.

Hali Haber, a student at the University of Central Florida and president of her school’s

Sean Savage

pro-Israel club Knights for Israel, felt that the mock BDS debate was the best part of the conference. “I think practicing how to talk to the other side is extremely important,” Haber said. “I hoped that I would take away the confidence it takes to advocate on campus, and I did.”

Haber, like fellow attendee Elliott Hamilton, had attended a number of other seminars run by pro-Israel organizations.

“I think CAMERA’s conference is really unique,” she said. “They explain their goal up front and they also take everything that other conferences specialize in and put it all into one amazing conference.”

“What [CAMERA] stands for is not antiPalestinian or anti-Arab, it is pro-peace and pro-facts,” said Allison Moldoff. “I can say very confidently that I am happily a CAMERA fellow because I know what I am doing is factual and true.”

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Students are evacuated from a school in the southern Israeli city of Sderot in 2009 after a Qassam rocket hit the building.

Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90

By Israel Hayom, Exclusive to JNS.org Leading up to the start of a new academic year in Israel, parents in the rocket-battered south are saying they do not feel safe sending their children back to school.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting that the current operation in Gaza would not end before the beginning of the school year on Sept. 1. Gaza terrorists have fired thousands of rockets and mortars into the communities in the south in recent weeks.

Israeli officials—including Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, and Education Minister Shay Piron—agree that the safety of students and their parents is the top consideration guiding the decision on whether or not to begin the school year.

On Sunday, Piron said that the Education Ministry “is prepared to provide the residents of the south with a wide array of educational solutions, at any time or place.”

“The solutions will be provided in accordance with the [IDF] Homefront Command instructions and tailored to the needs of the families living in the south,” said Piron. “The best interest of the students and the parents is the education system’s top priority.”

Education Ministry Director-General Michal Cohen met with representatives of the Homefront Command and the National Emergency Authority on Sunday to examine possible alternatives for the coming school year. Some of the options raised were to absorb the children of the south in schools situated in northern and central Israel, to hold small classes in shifts at schools built to withstand rocket fire, to hold synchronized lessons remotely while students remain at home, and to launch activities in bomb shelters.

“Every student that comes to school, even if the school is not in the student’s home district, will be welcome,” Cohen said.

But parents in southern communities are in no rush to send their children to school as long as there is no guarantee of safety.

“This insane situation has raised the biggest dilemma of my life,” Marina Levy said.

“My children and I can’t wait for school to

begin because there is a limit to how long you can keep the kids inside protected rooms. Also, not sending the children to school would be a wonderful reward to give to Hamas for the terror they’re imposing on us. What am I supposed to do? Maybe the leaders of the country have the answers.”

Ashkelon resident Maj. (res.) Ran Levy, the chairman of the Dromim (“Southerners”) movement, started a petition calling on the authorities not to begin the school year.

“I’m not just thinking about myself, I’m thinking about the general population in the south,” said Ran, whose son is set to begin the second grade. He said his petition has received more than 700 signatures.

Some community heads are opposed to beginning the school year because many of the schools within rocket range are not protected against projectiles. Kiryat Malachi Mayor Eliyahu Zohar said that “we will seriously consider whether [or not] to begin the school year.”

“The guiding principle will be that if there is even a remote chance that a single hair from a child’s head will be harmed, school will not open,” he said.

Sdot Negev Regional Council head Tamir Idan was equally decisive. “The Sept. 1 date is not set in stone,” he said. “We won’t begin the school year as planned if the massive fire continues in the coming days. We have witnessed more casualties in the last few days.”

Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni similarly said, “Under no circumstances will we return to our normal routine under fire.”

“Only when it is certain that the threat of rockets has been eliminated will the students return to the kindergartens and schools,” he said.

With reporting by Yael Branovsky, Gadi Golan, Nitsi Yakov and Shlomo Cesana

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Jewish nite C’hurst park Jewish night in the concert series at Andrew J. Parise Park in Cedarhurst drew quite a crowd. Above, concert emcee Jared Rydelek of Acrobats Cirque-tacular engages a young audience. At left, Jeremy Hellman dances with dad Moshe. At right, Ben Weinstock introduces Mayor Parise. Below, Juggler Sean Blue of Acrobats Cirque-tacular delights.

New format: 1st grade and 2nd-5th grade boys divisions will play a parent coached game each Sunday with optional trainer led sessions during the week. Pre-school through Kindergarten will have trainer led skills sessions and an informal scrimmage.

1st-5th grade girls will be a mix of trainer led sessions and games depending on enrollment numbers.

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By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org “He was part hippie, part yippie, part beatnik, and part New Age,” wrote Elli Wohlgelernter in a Jerusalem Post eulogy, following Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s passing on Oct. 20, 1994.

Earlier this year, Natan Ophir published the book, “Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission & Legacy.” This past summer, Rabbi Shlomo Katz’s “The Soul of Jerusalem” hit the shelves.

“Shlomo did not seem to fit any restrictive, defining label,” Ophir said. “Reb Shlomo was … a charismatic teacher who combined storytelling, sermonic exegesis, and inspirational insights into creating a new form of heartfelt, soulful Judaism filled with a love for all human beings.”

Carlebach immigrated to New York from Lithuania in 1939, six months before the Nazis invaded. In 1945, the family moved to Manhattan so his father, Rabbi Naphtali Carlebach, could take over Congregation Kehilath Jacob on West 79th Street. After his father’s passing, Carlebach assumed leadership of the synagogue, today known as “The Carlebach Shul.”

Shlomo Carlebach set up the first known Hassidic outreach program, Taste and See G-d is Good (T.S.G.G.) from there. According to Ophir, the organization was based on the idea that, as Carlebach said, “You cannot begin to talk to people about G-d unless you have first given them a taste of G-d is good.”

In 1968, Carlebach established the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco, the first Jewish commune. “His empathetic approach toward the spiritual imports from the Far East was radical for an Orthodox rabbi,” said Ophir.

He traveled to Germany in the 1960s to teach people whose parents had murdered scores of Jewish people that the time for peace and forgiveness had come, recalled Ben-Zion Solomon, who lives next to Shlomo’s home in the central Israeli community of Moshav Mevo Modi’in, known as the “Carlebach moshav.”

Carlebach was a scholar in his own right, studying at some of the most renowned Ameri-

can yeshivot. He later connected with the Lubavitch movement, whose then leader, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, encouraged him to go into outreach. This mandate began his calling as the rabbi of the hippie movement.

He had followers around the globe. Many young Jews returned to a Torah lifestyle as a result of their relationship with Carlebach.

In 1963, philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, founder of Birthright Israel, set up a company called The Shabbos Express to help Shlomo channel his talents in a businesslike manner.

Daughter Dari Carlebach said in a previous interview that her father was caught between two worlds— the religious/yeshiva world and the hippie world. She said her father had a huge desire “to love and heal the world,” and he did it with “such In 1984, Nechama Silver plays her autoharp with Rabbi Shheart and grace and empathy.” lomo Carlebach at a concert near Tel Aviv.

Solomon and wife Dina met Carlebach in California. Carlebach a theme of resilience and perseverance. Other encouraged Solomon to learn in Israel and eventually to make aliyah, and then Carlebach compositions include “David Melech handpicked his family to live on the Carlebach Yisrael,” “Od Yeshoma,” and “Esa Einai.”

Recent books shed light on Carlebach’s Tomoshav.

Carlebach is best known for his Jewish mu- rah teachings, that followers say were the basis sic. “He’s universally accepted as the father of for his tunes. “It wasn’t music for music’s sake.

Jewish music,” said Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trug- It was a part of a bigger Torah vision he wanted to share with the world,” said Trugman. man of Mevo Modi’in.

Author Shlomo Katz said he first connected Leslie Pomerantz and Michael Hoffman are Jewish song leaders. Pomerantz said Carlebach with Carlebach’s teachings at age 14 when a made Jewish music “accessible” and taught the classmate shared his headphones at recess. “I put on the earphones and I was transported invalue of using music for engagement.

Hoffman said Carlebach’s music is “time- stantly,” Katz recalled. “I knew my whole world less” and noted how people have forgotten that was about to change because my neshama many popular niggunim were composed by Car- (soul) was more alive than ever at that molebach. In 1965 Carlebach invented “Am Yisrael ment—and it never stopped.”

Katz has devoted his professional life to colChai” for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry movement, later adopted for Jewish causes as lecting, transcribing, and teaching Carlebach’s

Torah teachings, which can be found on tens of thousands of tapes and in hundreds of journals across the world.

Solomon said he used to learn Talmud with Carlebach every morning at 5 a.m. “He said things a gaon (genius) would say,” said Solomon. “Those special mornings taught me a whole other aspect of learning Torah.”

Carlebach faced allegations that became public in a 1998 Lilith magazine article, claiming he routinely made sexually suggestive latenight phone calls to female acquaintances and that he physically molested numerous women over the course of decades. Such accusations provoked fierce controversy about how to remember a man many considered a saint.

“Can you imagine, in a period of a month, after one of his yahrzeits (anniversary of death), getting 50 phone calls about the same person from all over the world? He has victims in Israel, the U.S., Australia, South Africa—any place he went, he had victims,” said Vicki Polin of the Awareness Center, a non-profit with the mission of ending sexual violence in the Jewish community. “He did a lot of kiruv (outreach), but what about those who converted to other faiths—walked away completely—because of this assault?”

Carlebach’s followers have rejected those allegations. And this generation, said Katz, is hungrier than ever for his message.

“Today’s youth won’t compromise for anything less than something that touches the depths of their own souls, which is really what [Carlebach] does through his teachings—so mind-blowing and deep, but in the same instance… he puts the sweet inside, so it goes down in a way that resonates,” Katz said.

Nechama Silver recalled meeting Carlebach in the 1970s at a coffee shop concert in Pennsylvania. She said he “turned me on to yiddishkeit (Jewishness).”

“I remember saying, ‘Is this guy for real?’” she said. “He is the realest thing you will ever meet.”

Judy’s rules of engagement, chicken to match...

Continued from page 1 Jeremy was an even-tempered child who rarely complained. He demanded very little.

As he got older, the only thing he asked of me was not to ask too many questions when he was dating someone. I usually adhered to the rule, but every now and then I crossed the line. So, it Who’s in the came to be that, unless it kitchen was serious, he wouldn’t mention anything to me.

And if he did, it was never too much info. From Jeremy’s perspective, less was more.

When he began dating Darya, he said he was dating a nice girl from Albany, who went to NYU undergrad and now was in Cardozo Law School along with him, where he met her Judy Joszef on moot court. I told him I was happy for him and then said, “I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me her name.” “Of course not,” he replied, “you’ll look her up.”

“I would not,” I said, knowing full well I would. But hey, how many things don’t the kids tell us?

Luckily for me, Jeremy’s dad was in Cardozo a few weeks later to act as a judge for their moot court team. He texted later that night and said as luck would have it, Jeremy’s girlfriend walked by with her friend and he got to meet her. He said she was adorable and charming.

“So nice,” I said nonchalantly, while holding my breath, “did you happen to catch her

name?” “Yes, her name is Darya,” he replied.

As soon as I hung up I rushed to Jeremy’s Facebook page, and although I was not friends with him, I thought maybe I could see his friends. Bingo, I was able to see it. And there was her name, but her page was totally private, no info, no picture, nothing, nada. Sigh. So close, yet so far. Then on a whim, I Googled her name. Up it popped along with info about her being a two time gold medal champion figure skater for Israel, who was also the first skater to represent Israel in the ladies event at the ISU (International Skating Union). She also skated with the U.S. Olympic team. That obviously wasn’t her, I thought, Jeremy would have mentioned that tidbit. But as I was about to delete it, I noticed the skater was born in Albany the same year as Jeremy’s girlfriend. Nah, can’t be, or could it? How many Darya’s were born that year in Albany?

So, after a sleepless night of trying to figure out how to tell Jeremy what I had done, I just came right out with it. Not in person, of course, I wasn’t that brave. I called him up and in my speed talking voice, while literally covering my head as if he were going to throw something at me, I said, “I know you’re going to kill me but by any chance, is your girlfriend a professional figure skater?”

He chuckled and said sheepishly, “Oh yea, I forgot to mention that.” He actually laughed when he realized the hoops I had jumped through to find out about her. I apologized, and he said, “It’s ok, Mom, but that’s why I don’t tell you anything.” To which I replied, “If you told me I wouldn’t have to do a Google search — it’s your fault!”

So here they are today, both lawyers, both wonderful kids about to embark on a new life

— and I’m about to embark on planning an engagement party.

Things are much different today than they were when I got engaged in 1983. There were no such things as registries in the religious circles. You received whatever your friends or family wanted to get you, or more commonly, items that they had received and immediately rejected.

My year was the year of the bowl. I received 12, some crystal, some ceramic and some silver, along with seven silver challah knives. So return some, you say? No such luck. In those days you got gifts in a plain white box having no idea where it came from. Today, brides register and get exactly what they want, instead of a gift that would best be ensconced in an unfinished basement closet.

Parties today are nothing like they were in my day. Back then, friends made me a surprise engagement party, consisting of about 50 people. Today, there is a small party the night of the engagement with a mere 70 to 100 people and then, a few weeks later, the “real” party with up to 400 or so of your closest friends and family. There are photographers, musicians and bartenders. (I shouldn’t complain, as that’s my business.)

Let’s not forget the lengths we all go through to surprise the bride, the day of the proposal, although the wedding date has been chosen, the hall has been booked and the girl picked out her diamond ring. Lastly, you have to love the elaborate schemes that men are pressured to conjure up to accomplish a worthy proposal.

Merely asking, “Will you marry me”? in a sincerely hopeful manner, would qualify as an uninspiring second rate effort. That’s no way to embark on a marriage. So guys, heads up!

Talking of engagements, here’s a recipe for “engagement chicken,” which, believe it or not, is reputed to inspire men to propose within a few days of eating it.

Engagement Chicken Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 3 whole lemons (including 1 sliced for garnish), 1 tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt. 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, fresh herbs of your choice for garnish Directions: 1. Heat oven to 400°F. Wash and pat chicken dry.

2. Place chicken breast side down in a pan fitted with a rack. Pour the lemon juice all over the chicken, both inside and out. Season chicken all over with salt and pepper inside and out.

3. Prick 2 whole lemons three times each in three different places with a fork and place them deep inside the cavity.

4. Put the chicken in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350°F, and roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

5. Remove the roasting pan from the oven.

Using tongs or two wooden spoons, turn the chicken breast- side up. Insert a meat thermometer in the thigh, and return the chicken to the oven and roast for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 180°F and the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked with a fork. Continue roasting if necessary. Keep in mind that cooking times in different ovens vary; roasting a chicken at 350°F takes approximately 18-20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15 minutes.

To comment on this feature, or to contact Judy Joszef, write Judy.soiree@gmail.com

THE JEWISH STAR August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774

The real and radical legacy of Rabbi Carlebach

17

merga, who are the first line of defense against the Islamic State. Backed by U.S. air strikes, the peshmerga now appear poised to take back the Mosul dam.

There was a horrendous irony in the fact that while much bien-pensant opinion in the West was bemoaning a fake “genocide” in Gaza, a real one was taking place with ferocious rapidity in Iraq, beginning with the Christians and then extending to the Yazidis, an ancient faith of 500,000 people who are ethnically Kurdish. And had it not been for the astonishing courage of a female Iraqi parliamentarian, Vian Dakhil of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the world may well have remained stuck in its myopia.

Earlier this month, Dakhil took to the floor of the Iraqi parliament, delivering an impassioned speech on behalf of her people that ended with her breaking down and sobbing. Many of those who watched the speech were also in tears as she choked out those desperate, final words; as I listened to Dakhil, my first thoughts were of the Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski and the Jewish Bund international representative Szmuel Zygielbojm, both of whom attempted to alert the Allied powers to the Holocaust befalling Jews under Nazi occupation.

Then, a few days later, when I learned that Dakhil had been injured in a helicopter crash while delivering aid to Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, my heart sank even more. Thankfully, however, Dakhil is alive, and continuing to raise her voice against this grotesque genocide.

The horrors of northern Iraq have compelled the Obama administration to both quell its isolationist instincts and to delay the much-vaunted policy “pivot” from the Middle East to East Asia. However much we try, the Middle East will not let us go.

And yet we still have no grand strategy for the region, no sense of how we want it to

evolve, no doctrine to bring stability to its suffering peoples.

Do we want to preserve Iraq’s integrity as a state? We don’t know. Do we want to encourage Kurdish independence? We don’t know. How far are we prepared to go to prevent the crucifixions, beheadings, and enslavement of women that have become the hallmarks of the Islamic State?

We don’t know. If we are bombing the Islamic State in Iraq, albeit cautiously, then why are we allowing the atrocities in Syria, carried out by both the Islamic State and by the Iranian-backed Assad regime, to continue? No one, apparently, has an answer.

I’ve heard it said many times that one of the reasons President Barack Obama doesn’t like foreign intervention is that he believes political change can only come from the people whom intervention is intended to benefit. Obama is not alone; the great British political philosopher, John Stuart Mill, argued much the same against the background of the Crimean War of the late 1850s.

Very well, then—let us reframe the concept of intervention in defense of human rights so that the liberators themselves are those who would otherwise be liberated by outsiders.

Within these parameters, we would not send in troops. But we can provide air support, military training, and weapons, and the expertise to create and sustain post-war democratic institutions by working with politicians like Vian Dakhil.

Such a strategy will mean staying in the Middle East a while longer. It will also mean, when we are finally able take a back seat, that we will have left this region a much healthier and happier place than when we found it.

Ben Cohen is Shillman Analyst for JNS. org. He recently published, “Some Of My Best Friends: A Journey Through TwentyFirst Century Antisemitism.”

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Mathnasium conquers end-of-summer math woes The new school year will bring many challenges for children as they get used to more difficult work in all their classes, and few subjects build on the prior year’s work as much as math.

Many children simply aren’t ready to pick up where they left off.

“Taking the summer off is good for children in some ways; they come back to school relaxed and refreshed. But they also come back rusty in their academic subjects – none more so than math,” said Daniel Karp, owner of Mathnasium of the Five Towns, www.mathnasium.com/fivetowns.

“Kids who have spent the summer without solving problems, calculating answers and checking their work not only need to refresh their memories on key concepts but need time to build their math muscles back up,” he said. “For many children, this can result in poor performance in the early part of the academic year,” One solution is some additional math work prior to the start of the school year and into the early fall months. This helps children warm up their math muscles and recall those important concepts from the prior year they may no longer remember.

Mathnasium, for example, provides students with customized programs that, with two or three hours a week of study, can shake off the fog of summer and prepare them for the rigors of their math curriculum.

Mathnasium students have shown significant increases in performance on standards-based tests in 20 sessions or fewer, the equivalent of a few months’ work.

“Some students have the ability to start the new academic year and keep up with their math classes by reviewing older material on their own and doing enough problems to bring their math muscles back into shape,” added Karp. “But in our experience, many kids struggle.

“A program of structured study at Mathnasium or elsewhere can make all the difference between starting off well and having a difficult year,” Karp emphasized. “Over the summer, our students’ get so excited when they are introduced to and understand new topics that they know they’ll be required to work on throughout the coming year.”

Check out Mathnasium of the Five Towns, 414 Central Ave., Cedarhurst, (516) 5691500, mathnasium.com/fivetowns

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T

he pundits are confused about President Obama’s strategy for fighting terrorism. He seems to say one thing and then a few days later something quite different.

As a service to readers of The Jewish Star and the political punditry of America, I will explain the President’s terrorism-fighting strategy, which in his administration seems to be “except when the terrorists are targeting Jews.”

POLITICS TO GO This is how it works.

While talking about ISIS and the murder of Jim Foley on Wednesday, President Obama said: “They have rampaged across cities and villages — killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and chilJeff Dunetz dren, and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Muslims — both Sunni and Shia — by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can for no other reason than they practice a different religion. They declared their ambition to commit genocide against an ancient people.”

A few hours after the President’s speech, Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu gave one of his own, accurately explaining that Hamas is guilty of the same horrific acts as ISIS. “Hamas is ISIS. ISIS is Hamas. They’re

the enemies of peace, they’re the enemies of Israel, they’re the enemies of all civilized countries, and I believe they’re the enemies of the Palestinians themselves.”

Netanyahu explained that the Foley beheading “shows you the barbarism, the savagery of these people.” He added: “We face the same savagery. People who wantonly rocket our cities and conduct mass killings, and when they can, they murder children, teenagers, shoot them in the head, throw people from the sixth floor, their own people, and use their people as human shields.”

During the daily State Department briefing that same day, Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf was asked about Netanyahu’s comparison. Harf refused to concede that the two terrorist groups were similar.

“By definition, they are two different groups. They have different leadership, and I’m not going to compare them in that way.

I’ll let him [Netanyahu] speak for himself, but I’m not going to use that comparison.”

Why would the Obama administration refuse to accept the Netanyahu comparison?

There is one major difference between ISIS and Hamas. As the President said above, ISIS attacks people of all religions including their own. On the other hand, Hamas’ primary target is the Jewish people. Their stated objective is killing all of the Jews in Israel — and once that is done, killing all of the Jews in the rest of the world.

Civilian casualties are another example of the “Except when the terrorists are targeting Jews” strategy. Since the start of the Gaza war, President Obama has constantly attacked Israel for the tragedy of civilian casualties despite the fact that Israel goes even further than the U.S. to avoid civilian casualties and that Hamas uses its population as human shields.

During an interview with the New Yorker this past January, Obama told David Remnick that he “wrestle[s]” with civilian casualties.

But he also said he has, “a solemn duty and responsibility to keep the American people safe.

That’s my most important obligation as President and Commanderin-Chief. And there are individuals and groups out there that are intent on killing Americans — killing American civilians, killing American children, blowing up Americans, blowing up American planes.

That’s not speculation. It’s their explicit agenda.”

Why would Obama go out of his way to criticize this country’s number one ally in the Middle East about civilian casualties when he knows that Hamas puts non-combatants in the line of fire and the lengths Israel goes to avoid killing civilians?

That’s because the President believes Netanyahu’s “solemn duty and responsibility” to keep his citizens safe is different than Obama’s. What makes them different? Each

Hamas’ stated objective is killing all of the Jews in Israel — once that is done, killing all of the Jews in the rest of the world.

of the countries has pluralistic societies recognizing the freedom of its people, but only one of them is comprised mostly of Jews.

Obama believes the civilized world should weed out and fight terrorism wherever they may find it, except, of course, if the terrorists are targeting Jews.

During that same speech last Wednesday the President said: “From governments and peoples across the Middle East there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer, so that it does not spread. There has to be a clear rejection of these kind of nihilistic ideologies. One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL has no place in the 21st century.”

Since the start of the Gaza operation, Obama has allowed Israel to go only so far in trying to destroy Hamas before demanding a cease-fire. Contrary to America’s ally Israel, Obama’s strategy is to bring Hamas to the negotiating table as opposed to extracting “this cancer, so that it does not spread.”

Why is Obama’s goal to eradicate ISIS but only to bring Hamas to the bargaining table? There can be only one answer, as there is only one difference between the two terrorist groups: unlike ISIS, which targets everyone, Hamas’ primary target is the Jews, not only in Israel, but in America, and indeed across the world.

Talking heads on both sides of the aisle have declared their consternation about President Obama’s strategy for fighting terrorism. It’s quite easy to understand when one realizes there is one rule for the terrorists who want to kill the Jews and a different rule for the terrorists who target a broader range of people.

To comment on this feature, or to contact Jeff Dunetz: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

THE JEWISH STAR August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774

Targeting terrorists except when they target Jews

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August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774 THE JEWISH STAR

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W

Am Hanivchar: A source of anti-Semitism?

ith the increasing concern over worldwide violence against Jews, and of the political defense of such behavior, much debate has focused upon the origins of such conduct as well as to numerous strategies aimed at quelling it. This week’s column will survey the historical and theologicallykOsher based origins that are BOOkWOrm behind these actions.

First, we begin with a Divar Torah.

Rabbi Hershel Schachter of Yeshiva U, in a recent essay entitled, “The Meaning of Am Hanivchar, the Source of Anti-Semitism,” makes a series of interesting observations based upon the premise that Jews are a alan Jay Gerber divinely chosen people, thus possibly generating hostility among the unchosen: “G-d selected one nation to serve as a role model for all the others regarding how to go in His ways. The prophet Isaiah says, ‘am zu yotzarti’, i.e., that the am ha’nivchar was a distinct creation of G-d. According to nature, Klal Yisrael really should not exist, since the Bible tells us that the imahot (foremothers) were akarot [unable to bear children], and the Talmud tells us that Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov were akorim as well. As such, the whole existence of Klal Yisrael is l’maaleh min hatevah.

“This probably explains the mysterious phenomenon of anti-Semitism which persists throughout all generations. A body naturally rejects foreign objects … and Klal Yisrael does not fit in to the natural system which makes up the rest of the world; Klal Yisrael was cre-

ated as a separate yitzira which is l’maaleh min ha’teva. Thus we can understand why all of the nations of the world, which are all part of teva, would naturally reject the ‘foreign body’ of Klal Yisrael which does not fit in with the natural scheme of things!”

After reading this teaching please consider the following article recently written

by Rabbi Benjamin Blech, entitled, “ISIS, Jim Foley & Confronting Evil: A Biblical Paradigm” wherein he states the following: “Civilization and the values of civilized society survived to this day, at least to the extent that they did, for one reason only. The United States and its allies thankfully realized that being appalled isn’t sufficient response to the kind of evil which threatens the very justification for the continued existence of humankind.”

This observation relates to the actions we took in response to Nazi terror, a response that Rabbi Blech would consider most appropriate to what is facing us all today.

He further cited the battle that we as a people faced with Amalek at the very beginning of our national history as proof to the need of our people to fight back with full vigor and to thus defeat our adversaries wherever they might be.

In a recent essay entitled, “A Stiff-Necked People,” Rabbi Berel Wein, makes the following observation: “In the long view of Jewish history … it is clear that it is this very nature of Jewish stubbornness that has preserved us until this day. Only a stiff-necked people could have survived and retained its identity, its faith,

its culture and its vision of eventual destiny over so many years and obstacles.

“The Jewish people, especially here in Israel, have exhibited tremendous fortitude, determination and resolute stubbornness over the past few weeks of our struggle with Hamas. Innumerable rockets have fallen on the Jewish population in the Land of Israel without breaking our spirit or crippling our justified response. It is not only the Iron Dome antimissile system that has protected us, though one should be awestruck at its efficiency and abilities, but it is the iron will and stubbornness of the Jewish people that has also protected us in this hour of need.

“The world looks at us as being too stubborn and unreasonable. In a culture where moral equivalency prevails and there is no right or wrong, the world is disturbed by our stubbornness and by our refusing to somehow just let things be, even when our very existence is challenged by the actions of a murderous enemy.”

Recently, one of America’s leading advocates on behalf of our people, Scott M. Feltman, the executive vice president of the One Israel Fund, brought to my attention a new book entitled, “The Israel Solution” [Crown Forum, 2014] by the distinguished essayist Caroline Glick. This work is based upon her premise that the only solution to the current crisis with the Palestinians is the need for one unitary state. Through the use of facts, myth demolition and pure logic, she makes her case in a most persuasive manner. Her argumentation flies in the face of opinions held by many, who, while well meaning, sim-

Throughout the Western world, anti-Semitism is becoming a powerful force.

ply ignore the on the ground reality. The very existence of a Palestinian entity in Gaza today based upon a disengagement agreement, points to the basic pie in the sky reality to the establishment of such a political entity on other areas claimed by certain elements.

In the recent essay entitled “Anti-Semitism and Its Limitations,” Glick extends her basic policy premises in the following statement: “Outside the U.S., throughout the Western world, anti-Semitism is becoming a powerful social and political force. And its power is beginning to have a significant impact on Israel’s relations with other democracies.”

Glick goes on to detail, with facts and anecdotes, her premise with telling effect. Further, she gives her readers her take on the role that the current U.S. President has upon the true regard he has for the very existence of Israel. Consider this: “Due to the fact that his position is out of step with the U.S. public, Barack Obama has not been able to break openly with Israel. But behind the scenes, since the outset of Operation Protective Edge, he has used his administrative powers to help Hamas and its Islamist sponsors in Turkey, Qatar, and Iran to the detriment of Israel and the Sunni Arab regimes.”

This is a very disturbing development, and further, please note that there is not a single Democratic Congress member or candidate in our area who will openly challenge Obama on this issue, not one. And that is why Glick’s opinions and advocacy are so important now.

She treads a path that very few others take, with a refreshing boldness that gives us all hope in the days to come. Only an informed public will reverse the evil that awaits us, and Glick’s writings will surely help us along to a path of salvation, and peace.

To comment on this feature, or to contact Alan Gerber: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

Judging on merits, not pre-conceived notions

O

n July 25, Brett Stevens (not to be confused with Bret Stephens) wrote on amerika.org that the Israel-Hamas conflict shows the true nature of liberalism.

Some of his points suggested that liberalism focuses on appearance and nothing more, arguing for the moral high ground.

Parsha Of However, he conthe Week tends, that supporting the weaker party in a struggle does not automatically translate to being in that moral high ground.

Supporting a militarily weaker group whose ideology is irrational, destructive, and murder-focused does not bode well for those who claim that morals rabbi avi Billet drive them.

In Stevens’ view, “Conservatism thinks about results, so it picks the action which will bring best results. Liberals think about appearances, and so choose whatever option makes them look good, and then ignore the consequences [until after] disaster unfolds.”

His conclusion: We “have people out of their heads on the drug of artificially boosted self-esteem that liberalism provides, cheering for the genocide of the group that the last world war was fought in part to protect.”

Political ideologies aside, in light of the

opening of our parsha, Mr. Stevens couldn’t be more correct. The Torah tells us, “Do not bend justice and do not give special consideration [to anyone]. Do not take bribes, since bribery makes the wise blind and perverts the words of the righteous.” (16:19) With reference to inter-human dealings, the Torah, from which only truth emerges, couldn’t come up with a truer insight into human nature.

It’s not that the liberal media (i.e. The New York Times) takes bribes. Nor is it the case that all of the protestors in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and all over Europe are taking bribes.

But they have been made blind because, as Dennis Prager has put it, were the two sides of the conflict described as neutral parties – group A and group B – every sensible person in the world would side with the group that describes Israel’s perspective. However, since one of these groups is called “Israel,” a word that triggers the most irrational form of judgment, it is automatically painted as the guilty party by bigots and anti-Semites who refuse to acknowledge their bigotry and anti-Semitic natures. We have all seen videos of protests, with horrific small-scale or larger-scale violence, profanity, despicable name-calling (“Nazis,” “baby killers”) aimed at those who present Israel’s rights to

live peacefully, and to defend itself when attacked by rockets and terrorists (excuse me, “freedom fighters.”)

Before he was President, John Adams defended the British soldiers who had fired on civilians at the so-called “Boston Massacre.”

Adams won the case. Did it matter that the soldiers were trained fighters, better armed, and in a place where some (ignorants) might have called them “occupiers?” No! Because justice is supposed to be blind.

Even President Obama, whose support for Israel is suspect, declared years ago that “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” I think he has less of a problem with Israelis shooting down missiles (which is why he supports Iron Dome), and more of a problem with Israel actually attacking the source of the missiles. Stop the rockets once they’re in mid-air, yes. But don’t allow them to be shot from the ground, because if you attack the rocket-launcher, people will die. Sigh.

Targum Yonatan explains what bribes do to judges: “It causes utter stupidity to happen upon them.” It doesn’t matter if the person is judging correctly in the case, or judging incorrectly. The judge who takes a bribe becomes blind to realities and justifies

When it comes to defense and preservation of self, John Adams got it right.

things that are unjustifiable.

And so it is with those who judge with pre-conceived notions. Those who believe that Jews whose “genocide the last world war was fought to prevent” (as Stevens put it) are the bad guys are buying into the oldest bribe in the world, the worst stereotype to plague the history of humanity, that the evils of the world are the fault of the Jews.

The Ro”sh on this verse puts it rather succinctly: “Bribery (however defined) causes the judge to become evil,” for not seeing the case for the sides it truly presents.

When it comes to defense and preservation of self, John Adams got it right. If the soldiers who were threatened and who caused the deaths of “civilians” in selfdefense could be acquitted, a Jewish State which defends itself (while suffering deaths of civilians, including children) and causes the unfortunate death of civilians in the process, is completely in the right.

Those who see it otherwise don’t understand what Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, had to say on his recent visit to Israel. “Had a good time visiting Jerusalem and Gaza Strip today. If Israel did not react, the rockets would continue anyway. If Hamas halted rockets, Israel would not attack them. Peace.”

When the world ceases to be morally blind (instead of taking the liberal “moral high ground), and will judge a case based on merits without pre-conceived notions, maybe there will be Peace indeed.

To comment on this feature, or to contact Rabbi Billet: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

THE JEWISH STAR August 29, 2014 • 3 ELUL 5774

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Exodus to Egypt: Turkish expulsion plus 100

By Rafael Medoff, JNS.org This year marks the 100th anniversary of the expulsion of thousands of Jews from Turkish-ruled Palestine to Egypt, in a dramatic reversal of the historic exodus from the Land of the Pharaohs to the Land of Israel. But from that tragic episode in 1914 would emerge a Jewish fighting force that would help liberate the Holy Land from the Turks.

Turkey entered World War I in October 1914, joining Germany in its fight against Russia, England, and France. In Turkey’s eyes, all Russian citizens, including the many Russianborn Jews living in Palestine, were enemy nationals. Fueled by wartime hysteria and Muslim religious sentiment, the Turkish authorities in the Holy Land turned against the country’s foreign-born Jews. On Dec. 17, the Turkish gov-

ernor of Jaffa, Beha A-Din, ordered the mass expulsion of the 6,000 Russian-born Jewish residents of that city.

Over the next three months, thousands more Russian-born Jews were expelled from Palestine or fled ahead of deportations. By the spring of 1915, more than 11,000 Russian Jewish exiles were living in British-occupied Egypt.

Yaakov and Frieda Brodetzky were among the deportees. “My parents were newlyweds when the expulsion was ordered,” Moshe Brodetzky, 88, of Los Angeles, told JNS.org. “They spent their ‘honeymoon’—and the next three years—in exile in Egypt.”

With generous support from the Egyptian Jewish community, the exiled family built a new life for itself in the Mafruza and Gabbari refugee camps near Alexandria. “My father

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earned a living by becoming a teacher in a Talmud Torah that the refugees established for their children,” Brodetzky noted.

Meanwhile, back in Turkish Palestine, the rest of the local Jewish community struggled to survive. Some, including two of Frieda’s brothers, went into hiding to avoid being inducted into the Turkish army, where anti-Jewish discrimination was rife. Others, such as future Israel prime minister Moshe Shertok (Sharett), sought to ingratiate themselves with the authorities by volunteering to serve in the armed forces.

A number of Palestine’s Jews were forced into Turkish labor brigades, where they paved roads and worked in stone quarries without pay, barely subsisting on meager food rations.

Zionist political parties were outlawed and newspapers were shut down. With thousands of Palestine’s Jewish farmers trapped in Egypt, their crops back home withered on the vine. To make matters worse, wartime naval blockades prevented the importation of many foods. As a result, from 1915-1916, thousands of Jews in Palestine died of starvation or diseases aggravated by the lack of food.

Henry Morgenthau, Sr., America’s ambassador to Turkey, played a critical role in rescuing Palestine Jewry from utter devastation. He persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to let U.S. ships bring food and medicine to the Palestine Jewish community, even though that technically meant providing supplies to a country with which the U.S. was at war.

In a remarkable historical twist, the Jewish refugee camps in Egypt became the birthplace of a Jewish armed force that would help take back the Land of Israel from the Turks. Advocates of the creation of a modern-day Jewish army found large numbers of eager volunteers among those exiled.

These recruiting efforts were spearheaded

by Russian Zionist leader Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky, war hero and Zionist pioneer Yosef Trumpeldor, and a fervent Christian Zionist, the famous British lion-hunter Col. John Henry Patterson. The latter personally signed up the first 500 volunteers in the Gabbari camp. “Even many years later, my father still vividly recalled, and told me about, the stirring speeches that Jabotinsky gave to inspire the refugees to sign up,” Brodetzky recalled.

The British agreed to create a relatively small unit known as the Zion Mule Corps, then expanded it into the Jewish Legion, consisting of five full battalions. It was the first Jewish army in nearly 2,000 years. The legion played

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau, Sr. in Turkish-ruled Palestine. From 1915-1916, thousands of Jews in Palestine died of starvation or disease.

World’s Work via WikiCommons

an important role in battles that brought about Palestine’s liberation of from the Turks in 1918.

Jabotinsky served as a lieutenant in the Jewish Legion. Other legionnaires included David Ben-Gurion; future prime minister Levi Eshkol; Zionist leader Berl Katznelson; and future Jerusalem mayor Gershon Agron.

Jewish Legion members took part in the defense of Jerusalem against Arab rioters in 1920.

After the British disbanded the legion, some of its veterans joined up with the Jewish underground militias that ultimately fought for the creation of Israel.

The Brodetzky family, for its part, in the 1920s lived in Michigan City (Indiana), Chicago, and Brooklyn, where young Moshe became active in Hashomer Hadati, the youth wing of the Mizrachi movement (today the Religious Zionists of America). The family returned to British Palestine in 1934, and Moshe later served with the Irgun Zvai Leumi, headed by Menachem Begin, in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.

It was historical irony, twice over: the first generation of Jews exiled to Egypt had helped bring about the liberation of Palestine from the Turks, and the second generation played its own part in freeing the Land of Israel from the British three decades later.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Judges and courts…

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Western system of judgment. Furthermore, we seem to have lost the requisite deterrent factor; Hamas terrorist leaders hiding in tunnels underneath hospitals and children’s daycare centers know we will not target them at the expense of such significant potential collateral damage and civilian deaths. And with over 1,000 terrorists freed in the Gilad Shalit exchange alone, we have demonstrated that we are not consistent; enemies do not necessarily pay as severe a price as we declare they will.

It is easy, however, to play armchair strategist, and much more difficult to actually devise and execute the appropriate strategy with all of the inherent long term implications.

We can, however, consider the appropriate lesson in our own lives.

The Baal Shem Tov suggests that whatever we see and experience in life is really a message for us. If we see, as an example, someone desecrating Shabbat, rather than assuming that we should be judging that person’s relationship with Shabbat, we need to be struggling with whether our own Shabbat needs a little work.

We are very quick to judge others and very good at offering and rendering our own quick

verdict (or judgment calls) as to what everyone else needs to fix; perhaps we all need to spend a little more time considering what we need to judge in ourselves. What are our mistakes?

Where has our moral compass gone astray? Do we really know that this world is bigger than ourselves? Have we worked this year on our relationship with our Creator who must love us to have troubled to create us in the first place?

Do we have a certain awe of and love for Hashem? Are we willing to see every day as an opportunity to place ourselves in Hashem’s hands, to be part of something bigger than ourselves?

And are we ready to work hard to make the system, which has been around for the Jewish people for a few thousand years, work as it should?

Perhaps while we remain so focused on the challenging events unfolding day by day in Israel, it would be valuable with the new Jewish year around the corner, to focus as well on judging ourselves, with love and an honest look at who we are and who we could be.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

To comment,, or to contact Rabbi Freedman, write Columnist@TheJewishStar.com

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