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Disabled advocate cheers growing Jewish inclusion 5 Towner recalls that G-d put Moshe to work despite his speech disability

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By Jeffrey F. Barken, JNS.org What if — because of his speech impediment — Moshe never accepted the task to lead the Jews out of Egypt? Award-winning author Chava Willig Levy of Woodmere, a polio survivor, uses the episode to illustrate what she calls a biblical precedent that people with disabilities have enormous potential to impact society. “When G-d said to Moshe, ‘I’m tapping you to lead my people out of Egypt,’ Moshe [countered], ‘No, you’ve got the wrong guy. I’m disabled myself’,� Levy said. But G-d gets angry at Moshe for doubting himself, and asks, “Whom do you think gave you that mouth?� Levy’s anecdote introduces a con-

cept that frames an ongoing Jewish communal discussion on the inclusion of people with disabilities. “There is Judaism, and then there are Jews,â€? she says, reecting on the dissonance between the religion’s principles of universal inclusion and what Jewish society actually looks like. Levy was among at the attendees of the Ruderman Family Foundation’s ďŹ rst conference for Jews with disabilities who are self-advocates. The event, in Manhattan, brought together distinguished lawyers, rabbis, writers, teachers and community activists whose successful careers, undaunted energy, and full lives counter longContinued on page 3

Will Cuba deal be bad for Israel? lief. But analysts say Gross’s humanitarian release and the subsequent U.S.-Cuba prisoner swap have little to do with the prisoners and everything to do with the Obama administration’s ďŹ nal two years — and the reverberations might be felt

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as far away as the Middle East. U.S.-Cuba relations, which are being thawed by a loosening of travel and trade restrictions, have been a stitch in America’s side ever since the U.S. put its ďŹ rst embargo on the Caribbean nation in 1960. Each year from its 46th to 60th sessions, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn the American commercial, economic, and ďŹ nancial embargo, with only Israel voting against the condemnation. Now, with two years left in ofďŹ ce and a below-average approval rating (according to Gallup polling), President Barack Obama is “looking for a legacy,â€? said Washington-based lawyer Robert Muse, who has decades of experience in U.S. laws relating to Cuba. Muse explained that many presidents choose to seek their legacies in the realm of foreign affairs because such moves are met with signiďŹ cantly fewer challenges and constitutional hurdles than those relating to domestic affairs. In 1972, for example, Richard Nixon was the ďŹ rst president to visit the People’s Republic of China, which at the time the U.S. considered a foe. That visit ended 25 years of estrangement. Muse said that although Nixon was swept from ofďŹ ce shortly thereafter with the Watergate affair, he is always credited with China. Piero Gleijeses, professor at the Nitze Continued on page 4

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By Maayan Jaffe, JNS.org Jewish-American aid worker Alan Gross arrived home to celebrate Chanukah after ďŹ ve years in a Cuban prison, prompting the Jewish world to both celebrate and breathe a collective sigh of re-

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mends “functional labeling,â€? which redirects people’s focus to the ways in which a person adapts and compensates for his or her disability, encouraging positive dialogue and perceptions. Conference attendee Joseph Robbins, celebrated poet and educator, works to improve institutional access to resources for people with disabilities. He has dysgraphia, and without the beneďŹ t of computers and touch screens, he experiences extreme difďŹ culty expressing his thoughts through writing. “Everyone with a disability has his or her horror story,â€? Robbins says, recalling “old schoolâ€? teachers who failed to understand his condition and impossible homework assignments that brought him to tears. None-

theless, his early education was largely a positive experience, he said. Throughout primary and secondary school, he received a warm welcome from teachers and peers, and the prevailing attitude of the school board handling his case was, “We’ll do anything.â€? Yet while Robbins appreciates the caring mindset of his past educators, he notes that open-mindedness alone is insufďŹ cient support for people with disabilities. “You need the goodness of the heart and a plan of action,â€? he says. He references his senior year in college as a turning point, when he felt he had amassed enough tools and strategies to compensate for his disability, if not to draw strength from it. He arrived at this point thanks to a regimented program employing

specialists to work with him directly, twice a week. As a result, he was ultimately able to complete graduate school independently. Robbins’s take-home message is that every educational institution can provide a high level of care through structured programming that maximizes the learning potential of any student with disabilities. But the challenge facing institutions, he says, lies in making advanced resources available. That is why the Ruderman Family Foundation is developing DisabilitiesInclusion.org, an online platform to provide instructional videos on practical skills, disability care and awareness, and educational programming. The primary goal of the program is to make all synagogue communities in North America more inclusive. Another conference attendee, attorney Matan Koch, a member of the National Council on Disability who was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as a child, has led a distinguished career advising companies on how they can realize the full value of employees with disabilities. As a consultant, he prompts his clients to reect on the talents and shortcomings of all of their employees — for business reasons, not just for the purpose of inclusion. “We should be unabashed about business goals,â€? he says. “When you accommodate someone in the workplace, you enable them to do the things they do well and delegate what they can’t manage.â€? Known for his sharp wit and critical thinking, Koch calls self-reection the best mechanism to assess a person’s potential — a ďŹ tting message coming from a self-advocate. “I think a real accounting of who we are is important to our development, and part of knowing oneself is coming to terms with one’s weaknesses,â€? he says.

Happily Ever See what everyone’s talking about!

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Continued from page 1 standing misconceptions about people with disabilities. The convening of disability self-advocates is “an important step for our community in understanding how we can become a more just, inclusive and welcoming society for everyone,â€? says Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. Ruderman, whose foundation is dedicated to increasing such awareness, believes seeking “the advice of those people with disabilities who have been impacted the most by being excluded from our Jewish communityâ€? provides the best way forward for the community. Levy chronicles her journey in her popular memoir, “A Life Not With Standing.â€? Paralyzed at age 3, she recalls a happy childhood despite her frequent visits to the hospital, her inability to attend school until age 9, and the many other limitations on her livelihood. “Having a disability is not tragic,â€? she said. “What is tragic is the stigma.â€? Levy sees language as the primary obstacle to inclusion. As a ďŹ rst step, she describes the need for individuals to feel comfortable asking questions about people with disabilities. In her interactive workshop — called “Mommy, What’s Wrong with that Woman?â€? — Levy confronts the embarrassment parents commonly feel about answering their child’s natural questions whenever they observe people with disabilities. Likewise, she suggests that communities should be wary of imposing “deďŹ nitional labels,â€? terms that clinically diagnose and are dismissive. “Using the verb ‘to be’ is like placing an ‘equal’ sign on a person’s character, superďŹ cially categorizing their appearance or expression, she says. Instead, Levy recom-

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

Jewish disabled ďŹ nd that inclusion is widening‌

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Cuba deal bad for Israel?… Little left of Cuba’s School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said he attributes rapprochement with Cuba to Obama’s “new lease on life” since the Democrats’ defeat in November’s midterm elections gave him the “political courage” to tackle tough challenges that previously seemed “too politically costly. … Now he seems more lively and confident.” Obama’s new attitude, as Gleijeses sees it, segues into possible implications for the U.S. role in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Will [the Cuba move] also reflect in the Middle East?” Gleijeses asked. “Will Obama now have the courage to stand up to Israel? Obama has made clear on several occasions that he is appalled by Israeli policy in the West Bank. But he has not had the guts to impose sanctions on Israel. Of course, his hands will be somewhat tied by Congress and the pro-Israel lobby, but that might be next.” Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs think tank, expressed similar sentiments. He said that when Obama first campaigned for president, he promised the American people that he would take action on the long-standing Cuba issue, but until recently had made weak moves. “[Obama] was becoming increasingly discredited,” Birns said, noting that what comes after this latest maneuver could be “a whole rash of possibilities” — including bold moves in the Middle East. While running for president in February 2008, Obama told an audience in Cleveland, “There is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, that you’re anti-Israel.” When Obama made that assertion, Likud had been out of power for two years and Israel was being led by Kadima (whose leaders included Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, and Shimon Peres), a party that had been pursuing territorial compromise of unprecedented magnitude. Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current

Likud government will be challenged by an alliance between Livni and Labor party leader Isaac Herzog in next March’s Israeli Knesset elections. The LivniHerzog tandem would seemingly fall more in line with Obama’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than Netanyahu currently does. Then there is the Cuba move’s implications for the rest of the Middle East. In a column for his “Pressure Points” blog, Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies for the Council on Foreign Relations and former deputy national security advisor for president George W. Bush, hinted that Obama’s Cuba rapprochement could indicate a willingness to partner with totalitarian Mideast regimes — perhaps at the expense of U.S.-Israel relations — for practical purposes. “From Iran to Egypt to China, the Obama administration has shown itself largely indifferent to human rights in its efforts to ‘reach out’ to and ‘engage’ with regimes — rather than with the peoples they oppress,” Abrams wrote. “This looks like another example. So, joy for Alan Gross and his family — but not for the people on the island from which he has been freed. Gross was arrested for building telecommunications infrastructure — something which is a basic freedom in most countries, but which Cuba considers illegal. There has not been an indication of whether or not that policy would change with the new U.S.Cuba ties. “The U.S. has cordial relations with the scum of the earth,” Gleijeses said, citing American ties with Saudi Arabia, where there are no women’s rights nor freedom of religion. The U.S. also has ties with China, noted Muse, where child labor and other human rights laws are regularly ignored. “Every foreign policy is a separate episode,” Muse said. Whether the Cuba move foreshadows a more aggressive policy on Israel remains to be seen. “Will Obama get the courage to roll the ball with Israel? I don’t know,” Gleijeses said.

rich Jewish past By Rafael Medoff, JNS.org The new U.S. policy of rapprochement with Cuba will give American Jews greater access to a Jewish community with which few are familiar. But visitors will find the years have not been kind to once-thriving Cuban Jewry. During the centuries of Spanish rule in Cuba, no more than a scattered handful of Jews lived there. Catholicism was the only religion the Spanish colonial authorities permitted. The modern Jewish connection to Cuba began in the 1890s, when a number of American Jews lent their support to the Cuban liberation movement, headed by Jose Marti. After the Spanish-American war of 1898 resulted in Cuban independence, American Jewish businessmen began settling on the island. By 1904, the Cuban Jewish community, numbering more than 300 families, established its first synagogue, the United Hebrew Congregation, which was part of the Reform movement. During the years leading up to World War One, more than 5,000 Sephardic Jews from Turkey and North Africa settled in Cuba. Thanks to their fluency in Ladino, they were able to adjust quickly to life in a Spanish-speaking country. The island’s first Orthodox synagogue was founded in 1914. As the U.S. tightened its immigration restrictions in the 1920s, more European Jews went instead to Cuba, although in many cases they saw it merely as a way station until they could enter America. The Cuban Jewish population grew to more than 20,000, and Havana, although still the center of the community, was supplemented by clusters of Jews in smaller cities. Cuban Jews first began to experience serious anti-Semitism in the 1930s, as the impact of the worldwide depression stimulated extreme nationalism and ethnic scapegoating. Nazi agents seeking to spread Hitler’s influence in Latin America helped stir up anti-Jewish resentment in Cuba, and the country’s oldest newspaper, Didrio de la Marina, began reprinting articles from Julius Streicher’s Nazi publication Der Sturmer. Rumors on Yom Kippur eve in 1933 that Jews planned to aid anti-government strikers resulted in the police forcing dozens of Jewish businessmen to open their stores on the holy day. Military strongman Fulgenico Batista, who took power in 1933, for the first time allowed Jews to apply for full citizenship. But he also pushed through a law requiring that at least 50 percent of all employees of businesses be Cuban-born. Continued on page 17

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The Jewish Star, the preeminent newspaper of Torah Jewry on Long Island, is reviewing candidates for staff and freelance positions in the newspaper’s expanding editorial department. Jewish Star staff and freelance correspondents cover local news that’s important to Long Island’s Jewish communities; additionally, “op-ed” contributors prepare thoughtful opinion pieces on issues of concern to both local, regional, national and international Jewish communities.

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“Since the renewal of hostilities in the Middle East last summer, we have seen a rise of hate crimes against Jews sweep across Europe, South America, Australia and elsewhere,” said Steven Markowitz, chairman of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County in Glen Cove. Based on figures provided by the Anti-Defamation League there were 26 anti-Semitic incidents in Nassau last year and 10 in Suffolk. New York Regional Director Evan Bernstein said that the organization’s preliminary numbers for 2014, which will not be finalized and released until early next year, show an uptick in these incidents. He highlighted five incidents that occurred this year. A letter containing anti-Se-

mitic remarks and white powder was mailed to an office building in East Garden City on June 13. Fourteen days later a swastika was found etched into a brick at the Jewish Community Center in Plainview. On Aug. 16, two swastikas were drawn on a street in Great Neck and on Aug. 24 a swastika was painted on the post office in Roosevelt. Anti-Semitic graffiti was spray painted on the back wall of a business in Oceanside on Sept. 6. In the Five Towns, there were several incidents of bias graffiti at the train stations, mostly in Cedarhurst between December 2012 and 2013. A Far Rockaway teenager, Jonathan Shuster, a student at Priority-1: Torah Academy of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, an alternative yeshiva in Cedarhurst, was

charged in that case. Also in Cedarhurst, police reported the spray painting of a swastika on the fence of a home at the intersection of Centre Street and Oak Avenue on April 15. “Every organization brings a unique skill set,” Bernstein said. “The ALD has an educational program that is used to train law enforcement. The other organizations have their primary function. We will look to cover every based on every level to serve the community.” “What we can do is get our voice out there and be organized as educational, religious and community leaders show strength and unity,” said a representative of the Deer Parkbased Long Island Board of Rabbis. Jeffrey Bessen is editor of the Nassau Herald, where a version of the story first appeared.

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By Jeffrey Bessen Based on what they say is a rise of hate crimes against Jews, a half dozen organizations have joined together to form the Long Island Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism. The founding members of this new coalition are: the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Long Island Board of Rabbis and the Suffolk Center on the Holocaust, Diversity and Human Understanding. They plan to stage events to inform the public about the history, causes and currentday realities of anti-Semitism, along with proactive strategies to counter it.

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

New coalition seeks to tackle LI anti-Semitism

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December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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O’s Jerusalem omission a Chanukah distortion JEFF DUNETZ POLITICS TO GO

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n the ďŹ rst day of Chanukah, for the sixth time since taking ofďŹ ce, President Obama released a Chanukah message that distorted the story of the holiday and served his anti-Israel policy. In his message, the president left out the most essential part of the Maccabees victory: the recapture of Jerusalem and the rededication of the Holy Temple atop what is now known as the Temple Mount. This is a fact he’s omitted every year of his presidency, and

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something his predecessor George Bush mentioned in each of his Chanukah messages. The liberation of Jerusalem and the cleansing of the Temple from the Hellenistic idols and rituals is an important part of the Chanukah story. In fact, the meaning of the name of the holiday in Hebrew translates to the word “dedication� in English. This was President Obama’s message: “Over the eight nights of Chanukah, Jews across America, Israel, and the world will remember an ancient triumph of freedom over oppression, and renew their faith in the possibility of miracles large and small. “Even in the darkest, shortest days of winter, the Festival of Lights brims with possibility and hope. The courage of the Maccabees reminds us that we too can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. The candles of the Menorah remind us that even the smallest light has the power to shine through the darkness. And the miracle at the heart of Chanukah — the oil that lasted for eight nights instead of only one — reminds us that even when the future is uncertain, our best days are yet to come. “May this Chanukah embolden us to do what is right, shine a light on the miracles we enjoy, and kindle in all of us the desire to share those miracles with others. From my family to yours, Chag Sameach.� Now compare that to President George W.

Bush’s Chanukah message in 2007: “Chanukah commemorates a victory for freedom and the courage and faith that made it possible. More than 2,000 years ago, the land of ancient Israel was conquered, its sacred Temple was desecrated, and the Jewish people were forbidden to practice their faith. A patriot named Judah Maccabee and his followers rose up against their oppressors to take back Jerusalem. When the Maccabees returned to reclaim and purify their Holy Temple, the oil used for dedication should have lasted only one day but burned for eight. Every year since then, Jews have celebrated this victory of light over darkness and given thanks for the presence of a just and loving G-d. “As Jewish Americans prepare to light the Chanukah candles, we are reminded of the many blessings in our lives. The candles’ glow has the power to lift our souls, put hope in our hearts, and make our Nation a more compassionate and peaceful place. We pray that those who still live in the darkness of tyranny will someday see the light of freedom, and we ask for G-d’s continued guidance and boundless love and His protection of all those in need during this holiday season. “Laura and I wish all people of the Jewish faith a Happy Chanukah.â€? During a press brieďŹ ng at the end of July 2012 in the middle of the presidential campaign, then Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to outline the President’s position on Jerusalem. A few days later the administration released a statement that Obama’s position remains unchanged and was the same as his predecessor, Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel because its ďŹ nal status has not yet been negotiated. This is not necessarily true. In 1995 Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act endorsing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and requiring the U.S. Embassy to move to Jerusalem. But Congress gave the executive branch an out, every six months the State Department/President can request and receive an automatic waiver. A waiver that President Bill Clinton sent to Congress every six months as required. President Bush continued the policy every six months, but in Bush’s case he inserted into the legal jargon a sentence stating, “My Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem.â€? The phrase appeared in all 16 Bush waiver notiďŹ cations, a recognition that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, but international politics was preventing him from making the move at that time. The Obama administration removed that phrase from their waiver requests, a denial that Israel had a stake in Jerusalem. Under the direction of the president’s political staff, a statement that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel was removed from the Democratic Party platform for the 2012 campaign. It was only after this reporter found and published the omission was the language added back (three other pro-Israel planks in the platform were never added back). This Obama omission is important beyond the Chanukah story. Jerusalem, wrote historian Martin Gilbert, “is not a ‘mere’ city. It holds the central spiritual and physical place in the history of the Jews as a people.â€? That’s an understatement. As it says in Tehillim Chapter 137: “If I forget you, O Je-

THIS WEEK PAST: STAR FLASHBACK — The Jewish Star’s Kosher Kibitzer presents “a risotto that raises questionsâ€? and asks, in relation to Sen. Joe Lieberman, “Can a Jew be the next President of the United States?â€? — Area residents show support for Yad Sarah and meet with Jerusalem’s mayor. — The Young Israel of West Hempstead turns 50. — “Spending Shabbat in Kiryat Sefer ‌ is a real experience for a Woodmere girl,â€? writes Tamar Hanau. “Shabbat really feels like Shabbat there. No one works on Friday and you can feel the anticipation.â€? — Eighth graders of Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island visited the school’s future home, which is nearly half done. — At JFK’s International Synagogue, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, lights the menorah on the ďŹ rst night of Chanukah. Also on page 1: “Mumbai victim’s father at West Hempstead memorialâ€? and “Eliezer Project makes project; Organization expands to meet community needs.â€? — It’s almost like winning the lottery: a tuition-free four years at Yeshiva University. 19 students from Five Towns area high schools have won that privilege, YU reports. — “Snow problem? No problem.â€? The Jewish Star reports: “With their ight delayed, 500 stranded El Al passengers in JFK airport are eating well thanks to the generosity of community members in Far Rockaway and the Five Towns.â€?

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— The Groggers bring a punk beat to the Orthodox music scene. — Neil Cohen suggests the Sandy Hook shootings’ lessons for yeshivas, and The Jewish Star reports that local schools had been beeďŹ ng up their security even before the tragedy in Connecticut. — The Nassau Herald newspaper selects the founders of i-Shine as its “people of the year.â€?

rusalem, may my right hand forget its skill; May my tongue cling to my palate, if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy. Remember, O L-rd, for the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, those who say, raze it, raze it, down to its foundation!� This President’s policy is to ignore any ties between Jerusalem and the Jewish people, and his politically driven distortion of the holiday is just one of the ways he displays his policy.

RABBI BINNY FREEDMAN THE HEART OF JERUSALEM

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here is an oft repeated quote, attributed to Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is to perform the same experiment over and over again, expecting different results” In order to achieve different results, one has to at least change a significant component in the experiment. And if we have not yet achieved the results we seek, it means there is still work to be done. David Allen in his book Getting Things Done defines work as “anything that you want or need to be different than it currently is.” To change our current reality then, we need a different system; we need to change the experiment or the process. It is interesting to note therefore, that Maimonides, in his Hilchot Teshuva (Laws of Repentance 2:1) suggests that the accomplishment of real change can only be assured when the circumstances are exactly the same! The Rambam (Maimonides) suggests that one can only be certain he or she has succeeded in letting go of past mistakes and negative behavior patterns, when a person is in the exact same situation (read experiment ) but sees different results. Only if a person is in the exact same situation, with the same desires and yet this time succeeds in resisting those desires, can we be sure real change has occurred. So which is it? Do we change the experiment or repeat it. his week’s portion, Vayigash, presents us with Judaism’s take on how we change who we are, and become who we always wanted to be. Following the story of Joseph and his brothers as they are reunited after many years, one wonders what is really going on. Joseph, now the Viceroy of Egypt, and one

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of the most powerful men on his earth, recognizes his brothers who have journeyed to Egypt in search of food during a regionally devastating famine. But 22 years after they threw him in a pit and allowed him to be sold as a slave, they do not recognize him as an adult in a completely different role. So Joseph begins a series of calculated manipulations designed to … what? They are accused as spies, forced to depart Egypt without one of their lot (Shimon) who is kept behind in prison as a hostage, and subsequently forced to return with their youngest brother Binyamin who is then “played” and accused of theft. Why is Joseph doing all this? What is the outcome he desires? Some have suggested he is in it for revenge. But given the emotions this process invokes in Joseph, causing him to weep again and again (Genesis 42:24;43:30), this explanation hardly seems plausible; a vengeful person would not weep, he would exult. Perhaps Joseph recognizes he has an opportunity to help create a different future, where the brothers learn to live together in peace and harmony, where Yaakov will be blessed to once again be surrounded by all of his sons living and working together towards a better future. But in order for this to occur, two things have to happen: Joseph has to forgive the brothers and the brothers have to repent. In short, everyone has to let go. It is clear that Joseph views all that has transpired as Divine providence and he is ready to let go. But are the brothers equally ready to let go of their adolescent hatred for the favorite son of Yaakov? What is repentance? Judaism calls this process teshuva, from the root shuv (to re-

turn). Teshuva is about wanting to go back, to become the person who could never have made all those mistakes in the first place. If a thief wishes to “do teshuva,” he must become the person who could never have stolen in the first place and will never steal again. How does one accomplish this? The Rambam suggests three stages: 1. Hakarat haChet: recognizing one’s mistake. We cannot change unless we know what we are doing is wrong and realize it is a mistake which prevents us from accomplishing our goals. 2. Charata (regret): Sometimes we know something is a mistake but we don’t regret it enough to change our behavior, like a smoker who knows it’s a mistake but does not really regret it enough to let go. 3. Kabbalah le’Atid: A conscious decision to change the future coupled with the sure knowledge that, given the same situation, this time one’s behavior will be different. And here the Rambam suggests the only way one can be sure he or she has really accomplished this, is to be in the same situation and see a different outcome. And why can we expect a different outcome this time around? Because although the story or experiment remains the same, the person (or subject of the experiment) has changed! We are no longer the same person; we are better; so we can expect a better outcome. The brothers clearly know they made a terrible mistake when they threw Joseph into a pit, and they experience intense remorse for their past mistake (42:21: “but we are guilty for our brother when we saw his pain and distress and did not hear his cries”). But have they really changed, will the future be different? So Joseph orchestrates a scenario that

Teshuva is about wanting to go back, to become the person who could never have made all those mistakes in the first place.

the brothers cannot help but recognize from the past. Binyamin, beloved (favorite?) son of Yaakov is about to be thrown into slavery. The brothers are told by Joseph (whom they still do not recognize) that they can all go home scot-free (44:17), all charges dropped, leaving Binyamin behind. Once again, they can rid themselves of the “favorite” son and move on. Twenty-two years later, history has come full circle, but this time it will different. No less than Yehuda (Judah) — the same Yehuda who proposed selling Joseph as a slave — steps forward as if to say “enough”! He offers himself as a slave instead of Binyamin, and changes the course of Jewish history. This time he puts his brother first the family of Yaakov will become the Nation of Israel and a light unto the nations of how brothers can learn to live together in harmony. Four thousand years later, we ask: are we ready not just to learn, but to live this lesson? On an individual level, are we ready to assess the mistakes we’ve made mke in our lives — do we regret them; are we ready to change ourselves and thus change the future; will we revel in the opportunity, given the same situation,n to dare to choose a different, better path? On a national level, are we ready to make this effort as a people? Can we recognize, and are our leaders and teachers ready to recognize, our mistakes, and find a way to change things and allow for a better future? And one more point: It is not enough simply for Joseph to forgive the brothers, the brothers must also be ready to change. Real change often demands partnership. Hence the challenge in today’s Middle East: We yearn for peace with our Arab cousins, but do they recognize their mistakes as we do ours; do they regret them; are they willing and ready to change? Without that critical part of the process, it would seem there is nothing to talk about. May Hashem bless us all with the wisdom to build a better future beginning with the journey towards becoming our better selves.

B’Terem: The urgency of living with chiyus RABBI AVI BILLET PARSHA OF THE WEEK

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he word terem or b’terem (just before) appears in the Torah close to 20 times, sometimes serving as a dramatic preposition enhancing a narrative tale, setting the stage for the unfolding drama that is most riveting. Terem Lot’s guests were to retire for the night, the people of Sedom gathered at Lot’s house (19:4). Terem Avraham’s servant finished speaking his condition/prayer, Rivkah emerged (24:15,45). Yitzchak instructed Eisav to prepare food for him, so the son could earn a blessing b’terem his father dies (27:4). Yitzchak finished eating Yaakov’s food and completed his encounter with Yaakov b’terem Eisav returned with his prepared meal (27:33). The brothers saw Yosef from a distance, and b’terem his arrival, they plotted to murder him (37:18). Yosef’s two sons were born b’terem the famine years arrived (41:50). Perhaps the drama here comes in the added drive given to Yosef to succeed in his food storage endeavors — the survival of his children. Finally, in our parsha, when Yaakov learns that Yosef is alive, he declares, “I will go and

see him b’terem I die” (48:28). Judging from Yitzchak’s estimation of his own death, we can see that while the premonition of death runs in the family, the estimation of time until departure is typically way off. Yitzchak lived another 57 years, and it will turn out that Yaakov will live another 17 years. So why did these men think they were going to die? Rashi says (27:2) that when one gets to within 5 years of the age of death of a parent, one needs to begin setting one’s house in order. It is a good litmus test for one’s survival. Since Sarah lived to 127, Yitzchak’s mortality radar started blinking at 123. The Midrash also tells us in a number of places (see Tosafot Yevamot 61b) that Rivkah lived as long as Kehat. Since he lived to 133 (Shmot 6:18), clearly Yaakov’s mortality radar screen was similarly blinking when he was 130. But is that really what’s on his mind? He seems a lot more pessimistic than merely thinking about his mother’s age of demise when confronted with his age-question by the curious Pharaoh (47:8). Considering that Yaakov has thought Yosef to be dead for 22 years, it was never his intention to hold out on giving up on life until he saw Yosef again. So what is a proper explanation for his stating “I will see Yosef b’terem I die.” Clearly he thinks he is about to die for other reasons, and seeing Yosef is now going to be a bonus in what has otherwise been, in his own words to Pharaoh, “‘The days of my

life have been few and hard” (47:9). Some of the commentaries say Yaakov meant, “Though my years have not even come close to those of my father and grandfather, it’s been a rough life.” Radak takes this to mean that Yaakov was worn out. He felt weak and had a premonition that his days were numbered. Yaakov was a man of truth. And the truth is he suffered from the debilitating mind game that overtakes people who have given up. I had a conversation this week with someone whose father recently passed away, and he told me that his father was an avid traveler who never thought about how old he was until he had a mindshift and he told himself, “I’m old.” This man felt that when his father focused on his turning 90, that was the beginning of the end. He told me of a woman he knows who is 107, but lives every day to the max. Her age is not a focus of her existence, because her focus is on her life and not on how much closer she is to the grave. This was certainly true of Alice Herz-Sommer, the pianist Holocaust survivor (subject of the documentary “The Lady in Number 6”), who passed away last February at age 110. What an amazing attitude she

had; her age was irrelevant to her. The drama unfolded by the word b’terem shows us that Yaakov was at death’s door — he had sold himself down the river, he was done with life. But the news of Yosef’s success gave him a new sense of purpose, so much so that he didn’t even realize that he had given himself a new lease on life; in 45:27 we see that Yaakov’s spirit was revived, yet in 45:28 he still thinks he’s about to die. But the shift has reversed itself. Yaakov is looking forward to seeing Yosef, to hearing whatever story he’ll hear. Looking forward to meeting any grandchildren he may have. But as he’s making the shift, he has the sense of urgency, the sense that death will come very soon on account of every other factor of life that brought him to this point. The hope is that all people in that later stage of life can tap into an urgency of finding amazing things to live for. The mind game that says that at 75, 80, 90 or 100 “I’m just getting started!” can hopefully provide a very necessary ingredient and attitude — and chiyus! — that will lead to good health and mindset as seniors embrace the different stages of the second half of life.

Yaakov was at death’s door, but the news of Yosef’s success gave him a new sense of purpose.

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

Repenting, to become who we were meant to be

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Time to rethink Holocaust Remembrance Day? BEN COHEN VIEWPOINT

7KH +DOO RI 1DPHV LQ <DG 9DVKHP David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons

“is no ban on mentioning Israel at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Ireland. Israel will be referred to and the Israeli ambassador has attended and participated in the ceremony since its inception in 2003 and will do so again in January 2015.” But there was no apology for the initial decision, and more importantly, no explanation as to how it was reached. When I recently spoke to Yanky Fachler, he told me that while it was unlikely that HETI would reinstate him as the commemoration day’s MC, he wouldn’t want the role anyway, given the lack of answers from the organization over why it deemed the mentioning of Israel to be, as the Germans might say, verboten. I don’t know whether HETI will ever provide us with an unvarnished account as to how it arrived at, and then apparently revised, its ban on the mentioning of Israel. I’ve tried to get answers from Peter Cassells, but his office has remained silent. What I do know is that the controversy in Ireland neatly captures the tension between those who want to emphasize the universal lessons of the Holocaust and those who place the accent on what the extermination of 6 million of our people means for future generations of Jews. That tension shouldn’t really be there. There is no reason why we cannot first mourn those Jews who died solely be-

cause they were Jews and salute those who resisted the Nazi menace even as they suffered from hunger and cold, while at the same time pointing to the Jewish experience during World War Two as a moral lesson against both future genocides and those that have occurred since the Nazi defeat in 1945 (in Rwanda, Bosnia, the Kurdish region of Iraq, and too many other locations). It seems that HETI, as Fachler pointed out to me, cares more about dead Jews than living ones. That’s certainly one potential explanation as to why HETI believes it’s manifestly alright to grieve for those who died, but deny the right of their descendants to express pride in the central achievement of post-Holocaust Jewry: the creation of the state of Israel. Look at where this leads us. Increasingly, Holocaust education is becoming general tolerance education. From warning against the evils of genocide in general — a legitimate and important thing to do — we now wield the Holocaust as a tool to combat ills from the bullying of overweight kids to antiimmigrant rhetoric. And that means we lose our perspective. You don’t need to invoke the Holocaust to explain why harassing someone over their appearance or their origins is wrong. Equally, this same emphasis on one human family is diluting the particular lessons of the Holocaust for Jews, as well as providing an opportunity for anti-Zionists — of whom there are many in Ireland, as is the case elsewhere in Europe — to scorn and demean the idea that Jewish sovereignty is the best answer to the persecution of our people. So if commemorating the Holocaust in the public sphere requires Jews to play down their affiliation with Israel, and to elide the intimate connection between what the Holocaust represents and the significance of a Jewish state in our own time, then I’d say we are better off without Holocaust Remembrance Day. That doesn’t mean Jews should forget about the Nazi extermination — nor will they, as the enduring power of Yom HaShoah in Israel attests. But surely it’s better to just commemorate it amongst ourselves, and stress to the outside world that self-determination is our antidote to centuries of anti-Semitism, than to be forced into ugly compromises about when we can or can’t mention Israel. Ben Cohen is the Shillman Analyst for JNS.org.

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Do we need Holocaust Remembrance Day? Since some of you may be incredulous that I even asked that question, let me first explain why I am doing so. Over the last week, a scandal erupted in Ireland regarding whether or not Israel can be mentioned at the forthcoming official Holocaust commemoration on Sunday, Jan. 25. (The official international remembrance day follows two days later.) It was Yanky Fachler, the avuncular Irish-Jewish broadcaster who has been master of ceremonies of the event for several years now, who alerted the outside world to this development when he released a letter from Peter Cassells, chair of Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland (HETI), informing him that he could not say the words “Israel” or “Jewish state” in any of his remarks. After a subsequent tussle with HETI, Fachler was informed that his services as MC would no longer be needed. At the same time, Jewish leaders around the world, along with such leading Irish personalities as Alan Shatter, a Jew who until recently served as Minister of Justice, condemned the decision on uttering the word “Israel” in no uncertain terms. Ironically, at this year’s ceremony in Dublin, Shatter underlined the centrality of Israel to our understanding of the legacy of the Holocaust when he said, “Holocaust denial is the favorite sport of some, in particular in Europe and in the Middle East. It is the first cousin of those who still see Jews, for no reason other than they are Jewish, as legitimate targets for hate speech and random violence and of extremists who would, if they could, bring about a second Holocaust by the extermination of the 6 million Jews who today are citizens of the state of Israel.” In other words, to prevent another Holocaust, Jews need to be able to defend themselves from outside persecutors — and to do that properly, they need a state. For what it’s worth, HETI has since clarified that there

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December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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For nine decades, Moses was a movie standout By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer, JNS.org Hollywood has had its share of big-budget biblical ops, but until now, the Exodus narrative has not been among them. Studios have brought Moses to the big screen sparingly, but in ways that deďŹ ned the image and character of Moses for each generation of audiences. 7KH Ă€UVW ELEOLFDO HSLF In 1923, director Cecil B. DeMille left it to the American public to decide the subject of his next movie for Paramount. DeMille received a letter from a mechanic who suggested he take on “The Ten Commandments.â€? Despite opposition from studio executives who didn’t think audiences would connect with a Bible story, DeMille got the green light. For the role of Moses, he cast 61-year-old Theodore Roberts, a popular character actor present in most of DeMille’s previous ďŹ lms. Roberts played the role with a down-toearth charm, portraying an 80-year-old Moses on an important mission, but who is approachable at the same time. On the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt, a child approaches him for a hug. When Moses sees the Israelites cavorting at the Golden Calf, his heartbreak is palpable. Although the biblical story of Moses and the Israelites comprises only the 40-minute prologue to this feature ďŹ lm — set in thenmodern 1923 — the sequence resonated with silent ďŹ lm audiences of the day, and broke box ofďŹ ce records. Theatergoers ocked to it across America for more than a year. It didn’t hurt that in 1922, news of Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its cache of treasures created a frenzy in the American public for all things Egyptian. But DeMille himself put forth another explanation for the subject’s signiďŹ cance. Title cards at the opening of the ďŹ lm tell the audience: “Our modern world deďŹ ned G-d as a ‘religious complex’ and laughed at the ‘Ten Commandments’ as old fashioned. Then, through the laughter, came the shattering thunder of the World War. And now a blood-drenched, bitter world — no longer laughing — cries for a way out.â€? &ROG :DU 0RVHV After years of receiving letters urging him to remake “The Ten Commandmentsâ€? for the sound era, DeMille approached Paramount’s board in 1953 with the concept; they balked.

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Audiences, one board member said, wanted “modern, happy pictures.â€? As Katherine Orrison relates in “Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille’s Epic The Ten Commandments,â€? Paramount founder Adolph Zukor chastised them. *HQWLOH DGYRFDWHV IRU 0RVHV¡ VWRU\ The 80-year-old Hungarian Jew raised his hand for silence and stood up. “Well, I ďŹ nd it embarrassing and deplorable that it takes Cecil here — a gentile, no less — to remind us Jews of our heritage! What was World War II fought for anyway? We should get down on our knees and say ‘thank you’ that he wants to make a picture on the life of Moses.â€? Charlton Heston was not DeMille’s ďŹ rst choice for the part. With the biblical image of an elderly Moses to lead the Exodus in mind, DeMille wanted 58-year-old William Boyd, who had worked with DeMille on earlier ďŹ lms. In the 1950s, Boyd had achieved success as Hopalong Cassidy on television. He turned down DeMille’s offer, thinking it would interfere with his Hopalong image. DeMille’s associates urged him to consider the 31-year-old Heston, showing DeMille Heston’s headshot next to images of Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses. It wasn’t lost on those who worked on the movie — particularly the young, Jewish composer of the ďŹ lm’s score, Elmer Bernstein — that DeMille was ďŹ lming in a country that

sought to destroy the new state of Israel. Far from slow of speech and of slow tongue, Heston’s Moses is the great communicator of the story, almost not in need of Aaron (John Carradine) as his spokesman. When Heston tells Yul Brynner, “Let my people go,â€? you can almost hear Ronald Reagan 30-some years later exhorting Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.â€? It’s no accident. DeMille threw down the anti-Communist gauntlet in his “Ten Commandmentsâ€? curtain speech, shown in theaters at the opening of the 1956 movie. “The theme of this picture,â€? DeMille intones, “is whether men are to be ruled by Gd’s law or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Ramses. Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under G-d? This same battle continues throughout the world today.â€? In the script, Heston is given more than a few lofty monologues. Though this Moses is pained to know Egyptians will suffer in the plagues, he’s still more of a monument then a fully-eshed person. This does help Yvonne DeCarlo’s interpretation of Zipporah, Moses’s wife, when she utters, “I lost him when he found his G-d.â€? Adjusted for ination, DeMille’s 1956 “The Ten Commandmentsâ€? remains one of the highest-grossing box ofďŹ ce ďŹ lms of all time. When Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen

formed their own studio, DreamWorks SKG, in 1994, they decided in short order to present their version of the Exodus narrative. With Katzenberg’s expertise from The Walt Disney Company and songs written and composed by Stephen Schwartz, DreamWorks SKG released its animated feature musical “The Prince of Egyptâ€? in 1998. “The Prince of Egyptâ€? is one of only two animated features not released by Disney to gross more than $100 million in the United States. It continues on as a staple, shown to children at home and in religious school settings as an introduction to the Exodus. The main characters — Moses, Ramses, Aaron, and Miriam — are depicted as decidedly young adults throughout, perhaps to resonate with a new generation and its children. One appeal of the gorgeously animated ďŹ lm is the sense of wonder we often catch in the face of Moses, as voiced by Val Kilmer. As with Heston’s Moses, Kilmer’s has a mind-altering revelation at the Burning Bush and from that moment, he’s all in. Heston and Kilmer, each in his own time, provided the voice for G-d in their respective movies, following a Midrash (rabbinic commentary) that G-d spoke to Moses in a voice that would be familiar and comfortable to him. )RU DQ DJH RI DQ[LHW\ Considering what little direction Ridley Scott’s Moses receives from G-d or G-d’s messenger boy, Malak (Isaac Andrews), Christian Bale presents a character who is rightly anxious and anguished in the newly released “Exodus: Gods and Kings.â€? In this script, the Israelite G-d pretty much keeps Moses in the dark on how all will move forward, except to ask Moses to be G-d’s general. A former military leader in Egypt’s army, this Moses relies on his wartime skills to rally the Israelites into the beginnings of revolt, a small-scale war of attrition. When that doesn’t work, G-d tells the now Robin Hood-like Moses, “for now, you can watch.â€? G-d then takes charge. Scott brings a knack for conveying the ancient world as a pretty rough neighborhood. But this Moses doesn’t get a sense of where it’s all heading; that doesn’t leave much room for the audience to follow. Will theatergoers anoint Bale as this generation’s Moses? The answer is as hard to decipher as a message in “Exodus: Gods and Kings.â€?

Review: Exodus reinvention empty like parted sea By Jason Stack, JNS.org The story of the Exodus from Egypt is a tale as old as time itself, to borrow a turn of phrase. It’s retold every Passover, both at the seder table and whenever “The Ten Commandmentsâ€? is aired on television. But the latest adaptation — Ridley Scott’s epic ďŹ lm, “Exodus: Gods and Kingsâ€? — fails to meet expectations. Scott’s “Exodusâ€? alters the source material to service the story and ground the tale, but the attempt to reinvent the biblical narrative becomes laughable. Moses (Christian Bale) saves the life of his adoptive brother Ramses (Joel Edgerton) during a battle with a Hittite army, recalling an earlier prophecy that the skeptic Moses laughed off. He learns of his lineage from Nun (Sir Ben Kingsley), which leads to his exile by the now-Pharaoh Ramses II. During this nine-year exile, Moses has a child with Zipporah (Maria Valverde) and climbs a forbidden mountain — only to hit his head, see a burning bush, and get a request from a child messenger of G-d. Moses’s return to Memphis (Lower Egypt’s capital,

not the hometown of Elvis) and demand for Ramses to pay the slaves or let them go leads to guerrilla warfare, hangings and arson by Ramses, and the Ten (Attempted To Be Rationally Explained) Plagues from G-d. Ramses relents and Moses gets the freed slaves to safety across the gradually receding Red Sea before a tsunami of epic proportions ďŹ lls the sea — rather than the sea being parted. There’s nothing to spoil about a ďŹ lm like “Exodus.â€? It’s in the same camp as Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah.â€? The plots of both ďŹ lms have been in the public consciousness for centuries, so there’s little that reinvention or “freshâ€? adaptations can accomplish. Instead, “Exodusâ€? yields an awkward experiment with trying to rationalize supernatural biblical events like the burning bush, the messenger, the plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea. The bush and the messenger are treated throughout the ďŹ lm as psychosis from Moses’s head injury, an adviser to Pharaoh works to connect six of the 10 plagues, and the sea-level changes are attributed to an underwater earthquake (inspired by a simi-

lar real-life incident, according to Scott). The ďŹ lm itself is full of holes and missed opportunities in its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. Characters go unnamed, Moses’s speech impediment from the Midrash is left out, and the talents of big-name actors Sir Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, and Aaron Paul are wasted. And that doesn’t even touch upon Scott’s controversial

decision to cast white actors to play Middle Eastern and North African biblical ďŹ gures, which garnered talk of boycotting the ďŹ lm late last summer, or the inconsistent accents. “Exodusâ€? is a competent ďŹ lm with epic intentions and scale, but doesn’t live up to its potential. The practical side of depicting the biblical story shows in the costumes and sets, but that gets overshadowed by the CGI (computer-generated imagery) armies, animals, and tsunami. The at times bombastic choral ďŹ lm score of composer Alberto Iglesias is ďŹ tting, but doesn’t do anything to stand out from similar scores. As for the acting, there are unfortunately no standouts — even from the Welsh and Australian leading men (Bale and Edgerton). Like others before it in recent years, Scott’s attempt to bring the biblical epic back to the big screen falls at. If Passover comes and you’re looking for a ďŹ lmic version of the story of Exodus to watch, I’d go as far as recommending the animated “The Prince of Egyptâ€? and leaving “Exodus: Gods and Kingsâ€? to ounder in the Red Sea.

11 THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

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December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

12

JUDY JOSZEF WHO’S IN THE KITCHEN

H

ave you ever misplaced your car keys? I do it on a daily basis. I like to think I have a good plan. I usually just throw them back in my pocketbook after I lock the car door and open the house door, as both keys are on the same chain. However practical that sounds, there is always a reason why they don’t end up in my pocketbook. Either I’m balancing six bags of groceries or ten items unbagged from Costco (even though it would be quicker and easier to make two trips from car to house, I insist on trying to take everything at once and pray that the one items that always hits the brick walkway not be the eggs), and I barely make it into the house. So I leave the keys somewhere in the hall, or I shove them into the pocket of my jacket (which works out well unless I decide to wear another jacket the next day and forget which jacket I wore the day before). My husband Jerry always tells me to put it in the same spot in the cabinet above the desk in he kitchen. I answer “it’s no problem if I leave it in my pocketbook” — but I’m beginning to think it is. As often as I lose them I retrace my steps and find them. Take three weeks ago. Jerry asked where his key was; I told him I had no idea. Then I searched the entire house and remembered. I had put on the coat from Costco to test if indeed it was warm enough to wear in cold weather. While I had it on I grabbed Jerry’s car key and went out to retrieve something I left in his trunk — and tested the warmth of the jacket at the same time. Nah, I was not warm and it was only 48 degrees. I

took the coat off and decided to return it the next day. As I retraced my steps I remembered that as I entered the house, I put the keys in the pocket out of habit. His keys were in a jacket in Costco, or at least I hope they were still there. I raced to Costco as soon as it opened and went through every size small jacket and checked the pockets. No luck. I went to the lost and found and checked the huge box that held hundreds of keys thinking someone bought the jacket and returned the keys. While I felt better knowing hundreds of people were as bad as me, I still came home empty handed. When I went back the following week, low and behold there was the key among the hundreds of keys. What were the chances of that? If you bought the Calvin Klein black packable down coat and returned the car key — I owe you! That key story had a good ending, unlike the one in September. On the morning of my son’s engagement party I realized I couldn’t find my key, for a change. I looked all over no luck. After the party, searched again, no luck. As with Jerry’s car I had already lost the spare key so I was determined to find it. I used the car on Friday and locked it so it was in the house. Or did it get thrown out with all the garbage bags from the party? After a week I gave up I had my car towed to the Infinity dealership and had to make a new key. $385 yikes. The second key would have been a bargain $290 but I decided to make only one — hey, sometimes I live dangerously. The next day I found my original key on the counter, left there by my daughter who found it in the mailbox when she brought in the mail. Then I remembered. I had left it in the mailbox for her the Saturday night before the party because she thought she left the house without her key. But she ended up having her key and never took my car/

house keys from the mailbox. And to add salt to the wound, the key is worthless because the dealership had to construct a whole new “brain” for my car key. Sigh This article is for all those who think I make fun of my husband in my articles all the time (Ira Stavish). Truth is he’s a great sport and actually likes to share his stories. Which leads us, naturally, to… .(< /LPH &KHHVH &DNH Ingredients: For crust 1-1/4 cups fine graham cracker crumbs (5 oz) 3 tablespoons sugar 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted For filling 2 (8-oz) packages cream cheese at room temperature 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar 3/4 cup fresh Key lime juice (strained from about 1 1/2 lb Key limes) or bottled 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 large eggs For topping 1 tablespoon fresh Key lime juice (strained) or bottled (can be found in Wall art in Valley Stream) 1/2 cup chilled heavy cream 1 tablespoon sugar Make crust: Preheat oven to 350°F and butter bottom and side of springform pan. Stir together crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl with a fork until combined well, then press evenly onto bottom and one-third up side of pan. Bake crust in middle of oven 8 minutes and cool in pan on a rack. Make filling: Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy, then beat in sugar. Add lime juice, sour cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Mix in flour and salt at low speed, scraping down side as needed, until just incorporated, then add eggs all at once and mix just until incorporated. Pour filling into crust and set springform pan in a shallow baking pan. Bake cake in middle of oven until set in center, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool completely in springform pan on rack. (Cake will continue to set as it cools.) refrigerate. Run a thin knife around edge of cake and remove side of pan The topping should be made and applied after cake is totally chilled Beat cream with sugar in a bowl with electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks, then spread over top of cheesecake. Decorate any way you like or serve as is. Enjoy!

As cassoulet, cholent moves beyond Shabbos By Victor Schoenfeld, Head Winemaker Yarden Golan Heights Winery According to the great Claudia Rodin (author of “The Book of Jewish Food,” “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food,” and others) the origins of the classic French cassoulet and the traditional Jewish cholent are intermingled and my version is a combination of the two. I have yet to meet someone who did not like this, even those who “don’t like cholent.” [Because of the suggested preparation method, this dish is not suitable for cooking just before Shabbos.] I make this in a huge (and very heavy) cast iron Dutch oven (8 quart), which fits nicely into our 36 inch oven, but the recipe can easily be split into two smaller more manageable casseroles, as long as you can fit them into your oven, or halved. The marrow bones of the osso buco add richness, as does the fat from the goose breast, which is a nod to my father’s Hungarian origins. I don’t like the “gooey” effect of too much pearl barley, but a little adds nice texture. The beef stock adds to the overall very rich umami experience. I like large white beans, reminiscent of cassoulet, as they hold their shape and become luscious with long cooking. Another nod to cassoulet is the addition of sausage. Wine Recommendation: the bright Yarden Sauvignon Blanc or rich Yarden Chardonnay could offer a nice contrast, but I generally go for a lighter red such as Yarden Pinot Noir. Yarden Syrah also makes a good pair as the natural smoky element of the wine connects to the subtle smokiness of the cholent that comes from the goose breast and paprika.

We like to have a mixed green salad along with the cholent. Serves 8+ What: 4.4 lbs osso buco cut into 0.7 inches thick slices (by the butcher) 2 smoked one half goose breasts/duck (about 600 g), cut crosswise into 0.4 inches slices 2.2 lbs sausage (I use beef/lamb/pistachio sausage, locally produced), cut into 4 inches lengths 1.1 lbs large dry white beans, soaked for about 12 hours in water 1 whole head of garlic, separated into whole peeled cloves 3.3 lbs new red potatoes, washed Eggs (as many as you can fit in, try one per person) 4 onions, chopped

2 shallots, thinly sliced 1 cup pickled pearl onions, whole, drained 3.5 ounces pearl barley ¼ cup decent red wine for deglazing Beef stock Salt to taste Pepper to taste Smoked Paprika to taste Method: 1. Brown the slices of goose in a large, heavy bottomed skillet (you can do this directly in the Dutch oven, but I find it easier this way). You need no oil, as the goose fat quickly renders itself. Set aside. 2. Brown the osso buco in the goose fat. Set aside. 3. Brown the sausage in the same pan, set aside. 4. Add the onions and shallots and sauté in the remaining fat, until lightly browned. Add a bit of olive oil if necessary. Set aside. 5. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, then transfer liquid to Dutch oven. 6. Make a thin layer at the bottom of the Dutch oven with a third of the beans and onion and barley, with a sprinkling of the spices.

7. Add a layer of half of the osso buco, sausage, eggs and potatoes. 8. Add another layer of the beans, etc. 9. Add another layer of the meat, etc. 10. Finish with the remaining beans, etc. Depending on the size of the osso buco slices, eggs and potatoes, it could be a challenge to fit everything in. Have an additional casserole on hand for the overflow, if any. 11. Fill with liquid until there’s about 1 inch of liquid covering the ingredients. If you have enough beef stock, use that. If the beef stock is concentrated, use to taste and then use water to come to desired level. If you do not have stock, use water. 12. Bring to a boil and remove scum. 13. Cover with lid. If the lid does not fit tightly, there is a danger of the cholent drying out and burning overnight. You can add a doubled strip of aluminum foil between the dutch oven and lid to help seal. 14. Put overnight in a 230 degree oven. 15. In the morning, I check on the cholent to see everything is okay. If it is missing liquid, I will add some water. If it is too fatty, I will skim some of the fat off the top. If it is too liquidy, I will take some of the liquid out and reduce in another pan and return. 16. Shoot for a consistency of a stew; not soup on the one hand nor a pile of mush on the other. 17. After reaching desired consistency, turn off heat. 18. Reheat prior to serving. 19. Open at table and hear “oohs” and “ahhs”. 20. Enjoy. 21. Take a nap.

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

The key, simply, is not to misplace your key

13

Improbable romance between Israel and Azerbaijan By Alina Dain Sharon, JNS.org Since its founding in 1948, Muslim-majority allies have been hard to come by for the Jewish state. Yet an improbable romance continues to develop between Israel and Azerbaijan. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon took a surprise trip to Azerbaijan in September, marking the ďŹ rst-ever visit by the holder of his position to a Muslim-majority nation in the Southern Caucasus region. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and former president Shimon Peres have also visited Azerbaijan, and Azeri dignitaries have made the trip to Israel. Though it is most often attributed to a shared interest in combating the threat posed by Iran, experts say the blooming Israeli-Azeri friendship goes much deeper. “Having a close link with a Shiite-majority nation helps shatter the notion of an Islamic rejectionist front against Israel,â€? said American Jewish Committee (AJC) Executive Director David Harris, who in 2012 received the “Dostlugâ€? Order of Friendship, Azerbaijan’s highest honor for a foreign citizen, from Azeri President Ilham Aliyev. “For Azerbaijan, located in a tough neighborhood, Israel is a very valued source of economic and strategic assistance.â€? While warm Israeli-Azeri ties have received increased media attention of late, the phenomenon is not a new one. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, recalled a sympathetic environment for Jews and Israel when the 52-member umbrella visited Azerbaijan in 2006. “We were taken aback by the welcome we received, by the freedom enjoyed by the Jewish community, the fact that Israeli ags y in the synagogues, that when we met with Jewish students on campus and asked them about anti-Semitism, they said they never experienced it, nor anti-Israel expressions, except from very limited groups,â€? Hoenlein said. Dr. Avinoam Idan, senior fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore as well as a University of Haifa professor, said that Azerbaijan often comes under attack from violent Islamist groups, including some sponsored by Iran, which borders Azerbaijan in the south. The chief foreign policy concern of Israel in recent years, meanwhile, has been the advancement of the Iranian nuclear program. “Azerbaijan also views strong ties with Israel and the Jewish world as an important part of achieving strong ties with the United States, which have waned in recent years,â€? said Idan, who served for seven years in the Israeli embassy in Moscow during the fall of the Soviet Union, when he was intimately involved in establishing diplomacy between Israel and the Caucasus nations. “Azerbaijan is geopolitically a very strategic country,â€? said Hoenlein. “There are tens of millions of Azeris living in Iran. The [Jewish community and Israeli] relationship with central Asian countries, generally, I think is very important. They are under pressure from Russia,

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from Islamic fundamentalists, from Iran, from Wahhabism, and we have to do a [good] job to help bolster them.â€? Yet Azeri ofďŹ cials prefer to downplay the role of the Iranian threat in their nation’s relationship with Israel. Mammad Talibov, counselor of political and legal affairs at the embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington, said that “we always point out that our bilateral relations are neither linked with, nor aimed against, any third parties.â€? “Simply put, our relationship with Israel is not about Iran,â€? he said. “It is about Azerbaijan and Israel. We have robust economic relations, especially in the area of technology, [and] defense ties, and [we] work together to promote peace and tolerance. We are also proud that the Azeri Jewish community serves as a bridge between the two nations.â€? Asim Mollazade, a member of the Azeri parliament and chairman of the country’s Democratic Reforms political party, expressed the same sentiment. He said that Iran “is not so important [of a] factor in making Azerbaijan and Israel friends and partners,â€? and that the “basis of our relations is [the] historic links between Jews and [the] Azeri people.â€? Mollazade, however, did acknowledge that both Azerbaijan and Israel face threats in their respective turbulent regions, chief among them “international terror,â€? which means “cooperation on security issues is important for our partnership.â€? Rafael Harpaz, Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, said that there are currently about 30,000 Jews in Azerbaijan, though the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee estimate is about half that number. The Azeri Jewish community includes the “Mountain Jewsâ€? (who have lived there since the 5th century AD), Ashkenazi Jews, and a small number of Georgian Jews. “I have never been in a place like this in my life. You see what happens in Western Europe, but here you can [openly] waive an Israeli ag

outside,â€? Harpaz said in an interview translated from Hebrew. Last year, when a new Torah scroll was dedicated at a synagogue in the Azeri capital of Baku, the ceremony was attended by Muslim, Russian Orthodox Christian, Albanian-Udi Christian, and Catholic leaders. “Where else in the world can you see such a thing?â€? Harpaz asked rhetorically. Idan said that while anti-Semitism was prevalent in the more Slavic parts of the Soviet Union, Jewish life in the southern Caucasus countries — mainly Azerbaijan and Georgia, where there were large Jewish communities — “was even during Soviet times a completely different reality.â€? People like Aliyev, the current president, grew up having very positive relations with Jews. “Aliyev often cites his Jewish teachers as having a very formative inuence on him,â€? Idan said. “We are proud of [our] centuries-old traditions on inclusiveness,â€? said Talibov. “Azerbaijan and Israel are friendly countries, and Jewish citizens of Azerbaijan are proud citizens of our nation. We see this as very normal.â€? In Israel, meanwhile, there is a large community of Jewish immigrants from Azerbaijan, who made aliyah from the 1970s through the early 1990s, at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Idan noted that at the government level, Azerbaijan was one of the only Muslim-majority nations that did not publicly criticize Israel during the recent Gaza war, despite pressure to do so from other Muslim countries and from some Azeris who called for an embargo on oil sales to the Jewish state. Azerbaijan supplies 40 percent of Israel’s oil through the BakuTbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline. “Israel doesn’t have experience in the ďŹ eld of energy [in areas like drilling, exporting, and ďŹ nancing]. We just recently discovered natural gas, [and] we don’t have many energy engineers,â€? said Harpaz, meaning Israel learns about

those disciplines from Azerbaijan. Israel, in turn, has greater experience than Azerbaijan in ďŹ elds such as trade, telecommunications, cyber-technology, agriculture, medicine, and tourism. “We are willing to share [expertise] with our friends the Azeris,â€? Harpaz said. “There is a lot of activity by Israeli companies [in Azerbaijan].â€? Aliyev’s positive attitude about Israel was also evident back in 2009, when then Turkish Prime Minister (and now president) Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly chastised Israel’s president, Peres, during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. “When it comes to killing, you (Israel) know well how to kill people,â€? Erdogan said at the time. What was not publicized, according to Idan, is the fact that immediately after the encounter between Peres and Erdogan, there was a private meeting scheduled between Peres and Aliyev. But after Erdogan’s comments, Aliyev “decided to open his meeting [with Peres] to the media and he made an effort to clearly show his support for Peres and Israel,â€? said Idan. Yet Aliyev is not a controversy-free ďŹ gure. Allegations of ďŹ nancial and electoral corruption have long been associated with his government. Most recently, the Azeri government ordered the arrest of journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who is known for reporting on corruption in Azerbaijan. Many viewed her arrest as politically motivated. “Broadly speaking, we are deeply troubled by restrictions on civil society activities, including on journalists in Azerbaijan, and are increasingly concerned that the government there is not living up to its international commitments and obligations,â€? said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. “Countries that have demonstrated friendship to their Jewish communities — even though their records on human rights issues and other things are not perfect, and we know that — we have to try to encourage them to change, but at the same time to recognize the progress that has been made and the importance of the relationship with them,â€? Hoenlein said. “Full democracy and transparency can take decades to develop,â€? said Harris. “And if these were the sole litmus tests for foreign relations, then both the U.S. and Israel would have far fewer partners.â€? Despite its warm relationship with Israel, Azerbaijan does not yet have an embassy in the Jewish state. Talibov called this a “technical issue,â€? saying his country is “working with the Israeli side on the matter.â€? Idan said the lack of an embassy may stem from Azerbaijan’s fear of backlash from Iran and other Muslim-majority nations. “Having an embassy is not a condition for the advancement of relations between nations,â€? he said. “[Azerbaijan] is a fairly rare example of a Muslim country on the one hand, and on the other hand a country that has such a close relationship with a country like Israel,â€? said Idan.

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Avi Dubin Five Towns Miller Realty, Inc. 27 Frost Lane, Lawrence, NY 11559 C (516) 343-6891 O (516) 374-4100 adubin413@gmail.com

741715

December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

14

Dec. 26 Puzzle

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

15

Jerusalem Post Puzzle By David Benkof

ClassiďŹ eds To Advertise in this Section, Call 516-622-7461

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December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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By Richard Lardner, David Rising, Randy Herschaft, Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday capped a swift and forceful response to an Associated Press investigation by signing into law a measure that bars suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving U.S. Social Security benefits. The AP’s investigation, published in The Jewish Star in October and the impetus for the No Social Security for Nazis Act, found that dozens of former Nazis collected millions of dollars in retirement benefits after being forced to leave the United States. Recipients ranged from the SS guards who patrolled the Third Reich’s network of camps where millions of Jews died to a rocket scientist who helped develop the V-2 rocket that Nazi Germany used to attack London. The speed with which the legislation moved underscored the outrage the AP’s findings triggered among lawmakers on Capitol Hill — and American taxpayers. The House unanimously approved the bill Dec. 2 and the Senate passed it by voice vote just two days later.

The bill signed into law by Obama terminates Social Security payments for individuals stripped of their American citizenships due to their participation in Nazi persecutions during World War II. U.S. law previously mandated a higher threshold — a final order of deportation — before a person’s Social Security benefits could be terminated. By lowering the threshold to loss of citizenship, a step known as denaturalization, the bill effectively shuts a loophole that for years had allowed suspected Nazis to continue receiving benefits even after being expelled from the U.S. for their roles in Third Reich’s atrocities. The AP found that since 1979 at least 38 of 66 suspects removed from the United States kept their Social Security benefits. Many of these former Nazis got in to the U.S. after the war by lying about their pasts and eventually became U.S. citizens. Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and an outspoken advocate for closing the loophole, said he felt vindicated.”I’m delighted and I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Among those whose benefits will be cut off because of the new law are Jakob Denzinger, a former Auschwitz guard, and Martin Hartmann, a former guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. Their cases were described in the AP’s investigation. Denzinger, who owned a successful plastics business in Akron, Ohio, fled the U.S. in 1989 as the Justice Department prepared to denaturalize him. The AP located him in Croatia, where he was living comfortably and receiving a Social Security payment of about $1,500 each month. Hartmann, who was living in Berlin and also collecting Social Security, left the U.S. in 2007, just before a federal court issued an order to revoke his citizenship. The Justice Department wanted the loophole retained because it gave the department leverage to convince Nazi suspects to leave the country, according to the AP’s investigation. If they signed a settlement agreement with the department, or simply fled the United States before being deported, their Social Security payments would keep coming. They’d lose their citizenships, but keep

their benefits. That meant the Justice Department could expel Nazis relatively quickly to countries where they would be prosecuted. Many of the suspects were aging and the department didn’t want them to die in the United States before they stood trial. But only 10 suspects were ever prosecuted after being expelled from the U.S., according to the Justice department’s figures. The Justice Department denied using Social Security payments as a tool for expelling former Nazis. Nathan Moskowitz, the author of “Kuzmino Chronicles,” the story of his parents’ deportation to the Auschwitz death camp as teenagers, said cutting off the benefits “is a nice start,” but more needs to be done. Former Nazis should be forced to return benefits they received, he said, and the Social Security Administration and Justice Department should declassify all documents describing any deals that were made with Nazi suspects. “It would be nice if the Justice Department would issue an apology. It would be the morally correct thing to do,” he said.

Carson, GOP hopeful, pledges support for Israel By Josef Federman, AP JERUSALEM — In his first visit to Israel, prospective Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said he is in awe of the Jewish state, inspired by its ancient holy sites, impressed by the resilience of people living in a perpetual conflict zone — and deeply disappointed in President Barack Obama. “I do not believe that Obama has been one to cultivate the relationship,” said Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who has emerged as a favorite of some conservatives in the early field of possible GOP candidates. “I would make it very clear that Israel and the United States have a long, cordial relationship, and I don’t think we should ever leave the Israelis in a position of wondering whether we support them,” Carson told the Associated Press. “And that certainly is a question now.” Carson, 63, who performed groundbreaking work in separating conjoined twins, is largely unknown to most Americans. But he’s earned hero status among conservative activists thanks to his outspoken criticism of Obama’s health care law. His rags-to-riches story — he had a hardscrabble childhood in inner-city Detroit — and his deep Christian

faith also appeal to potential voters. Carson has said he is “strongly considering” a bid, and supporters have opened offices in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He is one of more than a dozen Republicans eyeing the presidency, and those with little international experience, such as Carson, are working to strengthen their resumes before formally announcing their 2016 plans. Carson expressed views common on Israel’s right. He voiced sympathy for Israel’s settlements and questioned the desire among Palestinians for peace. Instead of Israel relinquishing captured land to make way for a Palestinian state, neighboring countries such as Egypt should provide the space for a future Palestine, he suggested as “one possibility.” Carson is visiting Israel as a guest of “The Face of Israel,” a private group that sponsors trips for “influential decision makers” to promote a positive image of the country and counter “threats to Israel’s international legitimacy.” The trip included visits to Israel’s northern front with Syria and the southern border with Gaza, and meetings with military officials and everyday people.

Carson said criticism of the settlements is misplaced, and said that Palestinian hostility toward Israel is what is preventing peace in the region. Of Netanyahu, Carson said, “I think he’s a great leader in a difficult time.” While he expressed sympathy for the plight of Palestinians, Carson said Israeli security concerns were more important in the short term, noting that after Israel’s withdrawal of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the territory was overrun by Hamas militants. An Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, he said, would be even riskier, given its proximity to major Israeli cities. “Until such time as their neighbors are no longer desirous of their elimination,” he said, Israel’s continued control of the West Bank “makes perfectly good sense.” There is little disagreement among the GOP’s top prospects on American policy toward Israel, given religious conservatives’ overwhelming support for the Jewish state and the influence of conservative donors like billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, an outspoken Israel supporter who donated more to Republicans in the last presidential contest than anyone else.

There’s little left of Cuba’s rich Jewish heritage… Continued from page 4 Although not aimed at Jews, it had the effect of ousting many Jews from their jobs. Nevertheless, the Cuban Jewish community felt reasonably secure and continued to gradually expand, reaching a peak of more than 20,000 in the 1930s. American Jewish vacationers were regular patrons of the fabled Havana nightlife. In his autobiography, Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht described how he and a colleague would sometimes, on a whim, bring dozens of friends to Havana for a week of drunken revelry. “Cafes were raided and native female entertainers were carried off,” he recalled cheerfully. “Americans were still loved and grinned at by foreign eyes, [so] there was a minimum of broken heads.” In the wake of the German annexation of Austria and the growing number of German and Austrian Jews seeking havens, about 3,000 Jewish refugees were permitted to enter Cuba in 1938-1939. One U.S. newspaper

columnist speculated that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had secretly agreed to lower tariffs on Cuban sugar imports in return for Cuba opening its doors to refugees. That theory was soon discredited, however, when the Cuban authorities refused to permit the landing of the 930 passengers on the St. Louis refugee ship in May 1939. In 1942, Cuba imposed a ban on all immigrants from Axis countries. Many Cuban leaders sympathized with the Zionist cause, and the Cuban Senate in 1947 unanimously reaffirmed its previous endorsement of the Balfour Declaration (in which a British dignitary recognized the need for a Jewish homeland in Israel). The Cuban ambassador’s vote against the United Nations plan to partition the Palestine mandate thus surprised many. The reasons for that aboutface remain a source of controversy among historians. In any event, the installation of a new Cuban government in 1949 resulted in Cuban recognition of the state of Israel. The 1950s were a time of relative prosper-

ity for Cuban Jewry, crowned by the construction of an expensive and elaborate cultural center in the Havana suburb of Vedado. Cuban Jews also established their own social clubs, medical clinics, and a monthly magazine, Israelia. The Communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 changed everything for Cuba’s Jews. Although some individual Jews were part of Castro’s government, his policy of nationalizing private businesses decimated the Jewish community. Within the first two years of the Castro regime, nearly 7,000 Cuban Jews, including most Jewish leaders, fled the country. Altogether, about 90 percent of Cuba’s Jews left. Most went to America, and a small number immigrated to Israel or South America. Castro adopted a harsh anti-Israel line, and hosted Third World conferences where extreme denunciations of Israel were the norm. Castro also established close relations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, which

reportedly helped Cuba supply weapons to Communist revolutionary groups in Latin America. A Cuban diplomat who defected to the West reported that throughout the 1970s, Cuba’s embassy in Damascus in turn shipped arms to Palestinian terrorist groups in Lebanon. Whether the new U.S.-Cuba rapprochement will result in friendlier Cuban relations with Israel remains to be seen. Visitors to Cuba today will find only about 1,500 Jews, a handful of functioning synagogues and a single kosher butcher. The community’s last rabbi passed away in 1975. A New York Times correspondent who visited Cuba in 2007 reported that it was so difficult to find the required quorum of 10 adult males for morning prayers that the Jewish community initiated a custom of counting its Torah scrolls as members of the minyan. Forthcoming visitors are not likely to find that the situation has changed very much since then. Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

Obama signs ‘No Social Security for Nazis’ law

17

Diverse ‘Jewish Food Movement’ comes of age

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recalls that his immediate family members made life-changing decisions after visiting the 2007 Hazon Food Conference. His sister left her job in music administration at the Chicago Symphony to join Adamah, a three-month farming fellowship and leadership program, and his parents decided to pursue a more sustainable path for the acreage of farmland next to their family business that had been rented to a corn farmer. “They wanted to do something gentler on the earth than corn farming,” says Margulies. Margulies’ parents created garden plots for people in the family business and other community members, and developed a Jewish education project in Chicago as part of their farm. They brought chickens into synagogues, and at the farm had people milk goats, go on walks to gather wild edibles, make cheese and ginger beer, and “do Jewish crafts as a way of allowing Jews to develop a connection with the earth,” Margulies says. Leah Koenig, author of “The Hadassah Everyday Cookbook: Daily Meals for the Contemporary Jewish Kitchen,” de-

fines the Jewish Food Movement as “the place where Jewish values and contemporary food ethics merge.” “In recent years food has been a rallying focal point where the environmental and justice movements intersect,” she says, adding that because Judaism has a rich agricultural history, “the connections feel exciting to make because they come from a place of authenticity.” Anna Hanau cofounded with her husband — who she met at Adamah and who is trained in shechita — an ethicsfocused glatt kosher meat business called Grow and Behold — claims to be the only person who has attended every Haz. “We got married in 2009. That winter we realized there are a lot of organic vegetable farms, but what there is a lack of is sustainable kosher meat, raised outdoors with room to move around,” Anna Hanau says. In 2010, the couple started Grow and Behold, which originally only provided kosher chicken but later added beef, lamb, turkey, and duck. The business works with farmers to give chickens access to the outdoors, so that their manure fertilizes the ground rather than polluting streams. The Hanaus are also committed to raising meat near slaughterhouses, limiting gas usage and reducing stress hormones in the animals during shipping. Grow and Behold tries to help its customers understand that while its meat is more labor-intensive and therefore pricier, it is also “better for you, for the earth, and for farmers,” says Hanau. Becca Weaver, the farm and sustainability director at the Boulder JCC in Colorado, is behind the ongoing project to build a community farm next to the JCC’s new facility. The site is a former agricultural property that includes goat and chicken coops in outbuildings. Though the farm is still in the idea stage, it has set at least one concrete goal. “We will grow enough food to be able to donate and make an impact on food insecurity in Boulder,” Weaver says. The JCC’s resident goats, meanwhile, have already been a hit with the synagogue across the street. “Last Purim, one of the goats was giving birth during the party. Almost every single kid got to leave the synagogue and watch the goat being born,” says Weaver. Fittingly, the newborn goat was named Vashti, after the first wife of the Purim story’s King Ahasuerus.

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By Michele Alperin, JNS.org In December 2007, leaders of the Hazon nonprofit drafted seven-year goals for what they coined as the “Jewish Food Movement,” which has since been characterized by the increased prioritization of healthy eating, sustainable agriculture, and food-related activism in the Jewish community. What do the next seven years hold in store? “One thing I would like to see happen in the next seven years is [regarding] the issue of sugar, soda and obesity, [seeing] what would it be like to rally the Jewish community to take on this issue and do something about it,” says Nigel Savage, Hazon’s founder and president. Additionally, Savage predicts that Jewish food festivals “will grow the way Jewish film festivals grew” and a generation from now “will be some of the biggest events in American Jewish life.” Hazon hosts its eighth annual Food Conference from Dec. 29 to Jan. 1 at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Conn., bringing together the leaders and followers of the movement it started. This year’s conference focuses on the theme of “Poultry, Pollinators and Policy,” exploring the topics of ethical eating, the sources of food and ecosystems, and food activism and policy. Savage notes that so far, the Jewish Food Movement has bolstered initiatives and trends including Jewish community supported agriculture (CSA), Jewish educational farms, Jewish food education as a discrete discipline, a Jewish working group on the U.S. Farm Bill, new ethical practices in the kosher meat business, and serious consideration of what observance of the sabbatical (Shmita) year might mean. The annual Hazon Food Conference, Savage says, “is a celebration of everything to do with Jews, food, and contemporary life, to bring people together across difference.” “Look at the people [attending the conference]: they are literally kids to 80-somethings, Orthodox rabbis, hippies, and people not involved in Jewish life,” he says. “Food is capa-ble of separating people and also capable of bringing us together.” The food conferences have proven to significantly influence the career paths of many participants. Elan Margulies — director of Teva, whose programs use experiential education to help participants develop a meaningful relationship with the natural world and deepen their connections to Jewish tradition —

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December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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HANC sings and plays for Chanukah HANC The HANC 609 choir at the HANC Samuel & Elizabeth Bass Golding Elementary School, in West Hempstead, did a fantastic job in their inaugural debut, a Chanukah concert for the 609 students and teachers, under the direction of Rabbi Mordechai Shapiro. Meanwhile, the sixth grade boys played their hearts out against Rabbi Sadigh, HANC 609 Principal, and the other HANC staff members in the annual Chanukah basketball game which featured a lot of nuach, cheer-

At Rambam, perspectives on Har Nof Rambam When Rabbi Friedman returned to Rambam after his visit to Har Nof, students heard an update on their fundraising efforts which collected $30,000 for the victims of the massacre. Ira Zlotowitz, who provided matching funds, congratulated the boys and to spurred them on to the next project, raising money for the Seyf family, relatives of the the Druze policeman who sacrificed his life to save others who were still in shul during the attack Rabbi Dovid Kupinsky, a brother of Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, who was murdered by the Arab terrorists, spoke to the talmidim at an assembly about the tremendous chesed his murdered brother was known for. Rabbi Kupinsky mentioned that he had spoken across the country in many various schools and shuls and his goal was to inspire them to do something to undertake a project to memorialize the Kedoshim. Afterwards, Rabbi Friedman described meeting the families of the victims:

“…Leaving the shul we proceeded to visit the Goldstein family, whose father was brutally attacked with an axe and was home recovering from surgery, with his head still bandaged up. His attitude, courage and emunah was something that is hard to describe. He said that he felt that he was not on a high enough level to have been taken as a korban. “Rav Kaplan then took us to the Levine home, whose widow, Chaya [thanked] the Jewish community around the world for the outpouring of support she received and specifically asked me to thank the talmidim of Rambam for the fundraising efforts they undertook to express support for the victims in Har Nof. “Mrs. Rothman, whose husband lays in a coma had just returned home from a full day in the hospital when we arrived. We purposefully kept the visit short but stayed long enough to convey the sentiment that Jews from all over the world were being mispallel for her husband’s refuah shelayma. “Upon arriving to the home of Rebitzen

Goldberg, we found sefarim on the table awaiting the return of her husband HYD. Their presence was testimony to the lifestyle that he lived, one immersed in Torah and mitzvos.… “Mrs Kupinsky who clearly was suffering due to the murder of her husband, offered us food and drink in the spirit of Hachnosas Orchim. Her commitment to Torah and halacha during the most trying of times was something hard to fathom. “The funds the boys raised and later matched by the generosity of Mr. Ira Zlotowitz, were never intended to be distributed as ‘monetary’ disbursements. One can never make up for the loss of a son, who husband, father, brother or friend. The purpose of the funding was to provide a small amount of chizuk to the families of the kedoshim and the victims of the terror attack that impacted on all of Klal Yisroel. After visiting the families and witnessing first hand their commitment to a life of Torah … the chizuk we received far outweighed whatever we attempted to impart.”

ing and encouragement from the third through sixth grade boys watched. The staff won the game but a good time was had by all. Girls in the third through sixth grades had a fantastic time dancing and singing with “Parties with Devorah”! The joy and happiness of Chanukah could be felt throughout the school as classes had Chanukah parties, dreidel contests and a lot of yummy holiday treats.

THE JEWISH STAR December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775

Jewish Star Schools

December 26, 2014 • 4 TEVET 5775 THE JEWISH STAR

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