CHILDRENS PRAYERS page 10

GUN CONTROL UNDER FIRE page 12

REPUBLISHING A YIDDISH GIANT page 59

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

VOL. LXXXIIII NO. 1 $1.00

NORTH JERSEY

83

2014

JSTANDARD.COM

Give it a rest
Hazons Nigel Savage
explores the spiritual
meaing of this sabbatical
year and local experts
discuss its halachic aspects

Page 26

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2 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Page 3
Where no Yiddish
word has gone before
l As of Sunday, a maven has been or-

biting Mars.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
Evolution (MAVEN is the official
NASA acronym) space probe aims
to determine what happened to the
Martian atmosphere, which once was

so dense that there was liquid water on

the planets surface.
The probe will study what little
atmosphere remains, and in particular
the rate at which it is escaping into
space.
LARRY YUDELSON

Wanted: Mossad agents

l Does your dream job involve

flying drones? Infiltrating barricaded facilities? Targeting

suspects recognized via security cameras? Telling all your
friends you work in marketing?
Then maybe the Mossad is
for you.
Israels top-secret overseas
intelligence agency just put
out a flashy Hebrew-language
recruitment video that looks
like it was taken from a
Mission: Impossible video
game. The bizarre clip goes
from an image of a satellite
over the earth to a woman helping
her son fly a remote-controlled
airplane and then to a man drinking
coffee.
From there, we see more images
of drones, people checking their
smartphones, breaking into server
rooms and office buildings, walking
across roofs, looking at infrared
images, wearing suits. You get the
idea.
Throughout, a woman and a man
say things like My job isnt exactly
nine-to-five, Life is what you make
of it, and All my friends think Im
in marketing. Sometimes, the two
supposed agents speak in unison and
sound like a robot.
The video leads to a website
launched to recruit Israels best and
brightest to the Mossad. The site
is also available in English, French,
Russian, Arabic and (of course) Farsi.
A form that seems oddly like a
BuzzFeed quiz asks which qualities
best describe you (sociable? highly
self-confident? fond of routine?),

They blew it
l Did you hear it?

Last Sunday, a shofar record was

broken south of the border the
Passaic-Morris border, that is.
The Partnership for Jewish Life
and Learning in Whippany brought
together 1,043 shofar blowers from as
far away as Texas.
In the 5 minutes it took us to blow
shofar together we accomplished
some amazing things. We celebrated

our unity; we created a sound that no

one has ever heard before; we raised
our shofar voices in joy and song and
hope, and we set a new Guinness
World Record, said Robert Lichtman,
executive director of the Partnership,
which is sponsored by the Jewish
Federation of Greater MetroWest.
No formerly horned rams were
immediately available for comment.
LARRY YUDELSON

Picture this
l To national reporters in-

how you prefer to spend leisure

time, and the like. It puts the image
of a fingerprint on the answers you
choose. Answer some questions
about work, education, and travel
records, fill out some security
questionnaires and a medical history,
and Mazel tov! Youve applied to be
a Mossad agent.
The sleek site and special effectsladen video are part of a change
the Mossad has gone through since
its early days, when its director was
identified by only an initial and the
agency clandestinely sought out
specific recruits.
The first open recruiting campaigns
began more than a decade ago, and
now the Mossad is upping its game
perhaps to compete with the start-up
ecosystem thats poaching Israels
prize minds. In that vein, the video
may be aiming to show that a life of
secret missions is more enticing than
days spent in front of a laptop at a
Tel Aviv cafe. Though either way, it
seems, youll get to drink coffee. A lot
BEN SALES / JTA WIRE SERVICE
of coffee.

cluding WNYCs Matt Katz, who

took this picture in South Carolina Governor Chris Christies
cross-country barnstorming tour
speaks to his continued presidential ambitions.
Why else would he plan to
visit half a dozen states this
week alone?
But those of us on his home
turf know better.
Hes clearly just looking
long and hard for the perfect hat when he starts a post-political career as a kollel
LARRY YUDELSON
student in Lakewoods Beth Medresh Govoha yeshiva.

Candlelighting: Friday, September 26, 6:28 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, September 27, 7:25 p.m.
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The appearance of an advertisement in The Jewish Standard does not
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reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. 2014

CONTENTS
NOSHES....................................................4
OPINION................................................ 22
COVER STORY 26
GALLERY 43
HOLIDAY GREETINGS44
TORAH COMMENTARY 57
CROSSWORD PUZZLE 58
ARTS & CULTURE 59
CALENDAR60
OBITUARIES 62
CLASSIFIEDS64
REAL ESTATE66

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 3

Noshes

Keeping any mention of kumquats out of

bounds inhibits full and fruitful discussion about

Israels security.

Paul Pillar, writing in The National Interest. Earlier in the essay, he defined
kumquats to mean Israels widely suspected nuclear weapons.

STEPPING LIVELY:

Fancy footwork
on, off the field
The new season
of ABCs Dancing with the
Stars began on September 15. Two of the celeb
dancers have Jewish ties
actor and fashion model Antonio Sabato, Jr., 44,
and actress Lea Thompson, 53. Sabato, who
wasnt raised Jewish, had
one Jewish grandparent:
a Czech Jewish maternal grandmother who
was the only member of
her immediate family to
survive the Holocaust.
Sabatos maternal grandparents eventually settled
in Italy, and thats where
Sabatos mother met and
married his Italian father.
His maternal grandmother, like many Holocaust
survivors with a nonJewish spouse, chose not
to tell her children that
she was Jewish until they
were adults.
Thompsons roles
include playing Michael
J. Foxs young mother
in Back to the Future,
playing Caroline in the
90s sitcom, Caroline
in the City, and playing Kathryn Kennish in
the ABC Family series
Switched at Birth. Her
husband of 25 years
is film and TV director HOWARD DEUTCH,
64. (They met when
he directed her in the
1987 film, Some Kind of
Wonderful.) Their two
daughters, ZOEY, 19, and
MADELYN, 23, both are
actresses with a number
of quality credits. They

were raised Jewish and

each had a bat mitzvah.
Zoey is the more famous
sadly, two films that
she recently co-starred
in that were supposed
to be hits didnt: 2013s
Beautiful Creatures
and Vampire Academy,
which opened early this
year. Like her mother,
Zoey likes to dance. She
referenced her dancing
while blogging for Teen
Vogue last year right
after attending her first
Video Music Awards. She
wrote: Im pretty sure I
danced harder during the
show than I did at my bat
mitzvah party, which is
saying a lot.
The following
players were
on an NFL
roster as of September
18: GABE CARIMI, 26,
guard/tackle, Atlanta
Falcons. An outstanding college player, Carimi
was severely injured in
2011, his rookie season
with Chicago. He was
traded to Tampa Bay in
2013 and started in only
three games last season.
Released in February, he
was quickly signed by
Atlanta and has played in
the first two 2014 season
games. NATE EBNER, 25,
free safety, New England Patriots. Ebner has
an unusual personal and
football story. His father,
the owner of an auto
yard and the principal of
the Sunday school at the
familys Ohio synagogue,
was murdered during

Gabe Carimi

Erik Lorig

Taylor Mays

Marc Trestman

a robbery at his business. (The killer is now in

prison.) Ebner didnt play
high school football but
was a very good rugby
player. He made the Ohio
State University team as
a walk-on and excelled in
special team play. Barely
drafted, he shocked pundits with outstanding play
on special teams during
his rookie pro season in
2012, and he played in
all but one of the teams
regular and playoff
games. Ebner repeated
these stats last year and,
this season already leads
Patriot special team
players in tackles. ERIK
LORIG, 27, fullback, New
Orleans Saints. After four
years with Tampa Bay
(2010-13), Lorig signed
a four year $4.8M dollar contract with the
Saints. TAYLOR MAYS,
25, strong safety, Cin-

cinnati Bengals. 2014 is

Mays fourth season with
the Bengals. If he stays
healthy, this may be his
first really good season.
GEOFF SCHWARTZ, 28,
offensive guard, NY Giants. Schwartz, a six-year
veteran, signed a $16.8M
four year contract in the
off-season. In 2013, with
Kansas City, he started
seven games. He was injured in early September
and is not expected back
before October. MITCHELL SCHWARTZ, 25,
offensive guard, Cleveland Browns. (Mitchell is
Geoffs brother). In 2012,
his rookie season, Mitchell
started all 16 games and
repeated this stat in 2013.
Other Notes: ADAM
PODLESH, 31, punter, has
been in the NFL since
2007 and didnt struggle
until last season. He was
signed in the off-season

Ben Feldman

New TV season note

A to Z, a comedy that shows us one romance from
start to finish, is starting on Thursday, October 2, 9 p.m.
on NBC, starring Cristin Miloti and BEN FELDMAN, 34
N.B.
(Mad Men).
to a one-year deal with
Pittsburgh, but is now
listed on their reserve/
did not report roster. He
didnt report because his
wife was recovering from
a complicated pregnancy
and delivery. (All are well
now.) Its likely Podlesh
wont play in 2014 and its
possible his career is over.
Also: MARC TRESTMAN,
58, a former University of
Minnesota quarterback,
has begun his second
season as the coach of
the Bears. Hes the only
Jewish head coach in the

NFL.
By the way, he is from
Saint Louis Park, a Twin
Cities suburb that has
long been a very Jewish town. Trestman is a
graduate of Saint Louis
Park high school. Also
graduating from this high
school were filmmakers
JOEL and ETHAN COEN,
N.Y. Times columnist TOM
FRIEDMAN, and U.S.
Senator AL FRANKEN
of Minnesota. (Thanks
to Jewish Sports Review
magazine for its help.)
N.B.

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

[email protected]

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Local
Talking positively about Israel
Middle East expert hopes to motivate young people during Paramus appearance
JOANNE PALMER

t is hard to defend something you dont

quite understand.
That is, its hard to defend it effectively, with ideas rather than raw
emotion. Often young Jews find that their
attempts to explain their support fail in the
face of what seems to be superior knowledge often it is just louder emotion and
so they fall silent. Even those who think they
know a great deal find that they dont know
quite enough to be able to counter assertively
worded disagreements.
Sometimes they just give up.
Dr. Eric Mandel will offer his perspective
on the Middle East at the Jewish Community
Center of Paramus on Sunday. A policy analyst and the founder and director of the Middle East Political and Information Network,
Dr. Mandel is not a lobbyist, he stresses.
Instead, he is passionate and dedicated to
providing a clear-sighted view, as he sees it,
based on a great deal of research, both of the
literature and from first-hand reporting.
Dr. Mandel, who lives in Manhattan, frequently briefs members of Congress and their
foreign policy legislative aides, he said; They
like me because for 15 years I have been providing very good and insightful analyses that
they are not getting elsewhere, and I have
been correct on a number of issues.
He speaks frequently on college campuses,
and I am very troubled, he said. Most people on college campuses, whether they are
Jewish or gentile, just dont care about Israel.
Israel is not on their radar screens. The ones
who do care, who do realize that Israel is
directly part of American national security
interests, feel inadequate in confronting people who have their own set of facts.
What I try to do is give them information,
and put it in context. Its not always pretty,
but it enables them to feel stronger, to know
more about what theyre talking about and
advocating for, not just as a propagandist but

Who: Dr. Eric Mandel

What: Talks and then takes questions about Israels Challenges in
the Aftermath of Operation Protective Edge.
Where: The Jewish Community
Center of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikva, 304 Midland Ave.,
Paramus
When: Sunday, September 28, at
7 p.m.
Why: Sponsored by the JCC and
the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey
How: Free and open to the public

Dr. Eric Mandel, center, talks with IDF soldiers during Operation PIllar of Defense in 2012. Inset: Dr. Eric Mandel.

as someone who can explain why the American relationship with Israel is so important.
Why is it so hard for young Jews to care for
Israel the way their elders do? Our kids
secular young people have been taught universal principles, he said. Particularism and
tribalism are frowned upon. A Jewish state,
seen that way, seems almost racist to them, so
without knowing the full facts, they are able
to put the template of apartheid South Africa
on Israel.
They are clueless about the facts. They
want to know, but mainly its about being
ill-informed.
They have grown up in a place where
whoever is perceived as the weaker party
is always seen as the victim. The victim is
always in the right, and the powerful one
the occupier is always in the wrong.
The anti-Israel movement has many
faces, but a lot of it has morphed into true
anti-Semitism. The best way I know to define
anti-Semitism is to use the European definition of xenophobia and racism. Using that
definition, if you treat Israel different than
any other country in the world, or say that it

6 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

has no reason to exist that, by definition, is

anti-Semitism.
People come out with slogans. Somebody
says, Im pro-peace, Im with a human rights
group, and you assume they mean it, but
how can you explain those people of the far
left who align themselves with people who
dont believe in pluralism at all? Its illogical.
Basically, Israel has become the stand-in
for anti-colonialism, the idea that America is
wrong, in the wrong, has done more harm
than good and Israel is seen as a little
America.
The only way to get out of this situation
the only way to get out of most deeply disturbing situations, in fact is education, he
said. Young people should be idealistic, but
they need to know the facts in context. We
will always have to deal with people who
have their own set of facts, but we always
have to have the truth available.
One of our problems is that too many
of our young people get their news from
Jon Stewart. That shouldnt be our primary
source of news. Many news sources, both in
print and in social and electronic media, are

The anti-Israel
movement has
many faces,
but a lot of it has
morphed into true
anti-Semitism.
echo chambers. To be a good consumer of
news, you have to read multiple sources.
Dr. Mandels own education in Middle Eastern affairs was largely self-taught, at least at
first, he said. He always had been interested
in politics; in 1983, he worked for the presidential campaign of Alan Cranston, the California Democrat who made a brief stab at
the nomination. Thats when his education
began. Politicians had to be able to rely on
sources to fill them in on the many subjects
that demanded their attention but whose
intricacies they did not have the time to

Local
master. Dr. Mandels area became the Middle
East. But his honorific, doctor, does not
come from an advanced degree in political
science. Dr. Mandel is a physician he is a
corneal micro-surgeon who has pioneered
laser vision-correction surgery.
He is also a master multitasker. In his life
outside medicine, he is active in Jewish organizations that work on U.S.-Israel relations;
he chaired an AIPAC committee for eight
years and has just finished creating the Five
Synagogues of White Plains, an Israel advocacy group that brings together Orthodox,
Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist shuls to advocate for Israel.
As his expertise grew, Dr. Mandel branched
out from the secondary sources that gave him
his initial education to meet actors on the
Middle East stage. I have met Israeli leadership, interviewed Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood members, and been at Syrian refugee
camps, he said.
He also has talked to Rachel Fraenkel,
whose 16-year-old son, Naftali, was one of
the three Israeli teenagers whose murders
led to Israels war with Gaza this summer.
At her sons funeral, she said that there are
two Jews, three opinions and one heart,
Dr. Mandel said. There is no such thing as an
unaffiliated Jew at least on that inchoate,

preconscious level.
And there are so many ways to be proIsrael, he continued. We should take
pride in our 3,000-year history. It is one
of the unique civilizations in the world.
People often dont realize the modern
miracle of this country, which after 2,000
years came back into existence. It should
be one of the great success stories of the
20th century. To turn that into something
horrible is obscene.
I could write three long volumes of whats
wrong with Israel. But I could write 10,000
volumes on whats right with it. Its army is
not perfect but it has the most moral army
in the world. I know that from the many interviews I have done. I wish that my own army
was that moral. This is something that people
should be proud of but they have learned to
demonize it, which is mind-boggling.
People say that if there wasnt an Israel,
there would be a better Middle East. But
the Gordian knot is not Israel versus the
Palestinians. It is the Sunni versus the Shia.
If we could untie that one . But America
should embrace Israel, both because of
Americas own needs and because it is the
right thing to do.
So does Dr. Mandel see any hope
anywhere?

Dr. Mandel, right, on the Gaza border in 2012. 

He does.
The miracle of Israel takes my breath
away, he said. It is amazing. We know about
the innovation nation. We know that like your
voicemail, your smartphone, the medical

ERIC MANDEL

cures that are coming down the pipeline

because of Israel. It is in the forefront of the
world in terms of knowledge and innovation.

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Local

Dancing in the street

Chabad celebrates its new synagogue in Hoboken
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

ts not every day that a new synagogue opens in

Hoboken.
In fact, the September 14 dedication of the Weisfeld Family Chabad Jewish Center of Hoboken at 80
Park Avenue marked the first time since 1947 that a new
synagogue building opened in this Hudson County city of
50,000 residents.
That milestone alone was enough to bring out the
press, the mayor and about 300 participants for a policeescorted parade with floats and live music, a ribbon-cutting and mezuzah-affixing ceremony, and a celebratory
outdoor luncheon.
But there was another special element to the days
festivities.
Chabads grand opening was highlighted by the completion of a new Torah scroll and a scroll of the haftarah readings, brought over by scribe Shaul Baruch from Jerusalem.
In the Sephardic tradition, both scrolls are enclosed in
elaborate silver-plated cases. The case surrounding the haftarah scroll is inscribed with the names of the 64 Israeli soldiers recently killed in action in Operation Protective Edge.
A young member of our community, Ori Cohen, commissioned this beautiful Torah to be written and we planned
a couple of months back to dedicate it before Rosh Hashanah, says Rabbi Moshe Z Schapiro. After the 64 soldiers
died, we asked the fellow who built the boxes in Petach Tikvah to engrave all their names on the cover of the haftarah
scroll.
The artisan subsequently received orders from 22 other
synagogues also wanting Torah cases inscribed with the
soldiers names, says Rabbi Schapiro.
And when a young Israeli locksmith came to secure the
invaluable scrolls in the ark, Rabbi Schapiro showed him
the case. He said his roommate died in Gaza last month
and he found his name there. He was very moved. Now
we have a wonderful picture of this young locksmith putting on tefillin.
Mr. Cohen also donated the labor of his carwash construction team to renovate the Jewish centers new home.
He explains: I thought, if Im going to donate a Torah,
lets have a beautiful place to put it.
The Israeli army veteran says he commissioned the
Torah in gratitude for the birth of his daughter nearly two
years ago; now he and his wife also have a month-old son.
The haphtarah scroll was dedicated to the memory of a
cousin who passed away three years ago. Following the
war in Gaza, he felt that adding the fallen soldiers names
was something we had to do.
Rabbi Schapiro relates that the Chabad of Hoboken,
which until now has met in various rented spaces, was

Dancers accompany new, silver-encased, Sephardi-style scrolls to their home.

established just after 9/11. The terror attack on the Twin
Towers claimed more lives from Hoboken than from any
other New Jersey municipality.
The citys proximity to lower Manhattan makes it popular
with young white-collar workers, and many Israeli singles
and families have moved in. There are three buildings they
call the little kibbutz because so many Israelis live in them,
says Rabbi Schapiro.
The Chabad started a Sunday school with two children
three years ago, and now boasts 35 children, all of whom
participated in the dedication festivities.
The true message of completing a Torah is that children
are our future to make sure the words of the Torah will be
kept, says the rabbi, recalling Elie Wiesels memory of a
Jewish child standing in for a Torah scroll on the night of
Simchat Torah in Auschwitz.
The Chabad center also offers a Monday night class on the
weekly Torah portion and a monthly Shabbat dinner that
attracts up to 80 people. Planned next is a monthly social
event for young Jewish professionals, featuring a full meal
and an open bar. Hoboken has the most bars per capita in
America, so well bring the bar to us, says Rabbi Schapiro.

LAUREN CASSELBERRY

The 1,840-square-foot building, whose entrance is on

Newark Street, has two main rooms one for the sanctuary
and one for childrens services and Kiddush in addition to
a kitchen and offices. Rabbi Schapiro says Shabbat services
are attended by between 30 and 50 people, and on the High
Holidays he expects more than 100 worshippers from Hoboken, Jersey City, and surrounding communities.
The grand opening began with the completion of the
Torahs final 25 letters, followed by the parade and dancing
in front of City Hall just across from the famous Carlos Bakery where the cable TV series Cake Boss is filmed.
It was truly something extraordinary, says Rabbi
Schapiro.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer presided over the ribbon-cutting
with Alan Weisfeld and family, who sponsored the renovation of the building. Mr. Cohen put the mezuzah on the
doorpost. A shofar blast capped off the ceremonies followed
by the sit-down lunch under a tent for 200 people.
It was amazing, says Mr. Cohen. I felt like I was at
my wedding. There were so many people, Jewish and not
Jewish, dancing in the streets. All of the effort I put in, I got
everything back that day.

As we reflect on the past during the High Holy Days and welcome the New Year,
emotional challenges can arise.
JFS is here to help you and your family navigate through times of uncertainty.
To consult with one of our licensed mental health professionals please contact us at 201-837-9090.
For more information on our services or how to support JFS please visit our website at www.jfsbergen.org
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Local

Engaging in prayer
Teaneck educator provides commentary to siddur for students
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

he High Holidays motivate many

of us to devote a little more
thought to our daily or weekly
dialogue with our Maker. Sometimes that effort can be helped by a new siddur (prayer book), especially one geared to
greater engagement.
Koren Publishers new Ani Tfilah Weekday Siddur for Reflection, Connection and
Learning features an English translation
and foreword by Rabbi Lord Jonathan
Sacks, and commentary by veteran educator Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz of Teaneck.
Intended for the inquiring high school
student and thoughtful adult, Ani Tfilah
was published in partnership with Yeshiva
University with the goal of effecting a more
meaningful individual connection with the
litury.
Rabbi Goldmintz says his commentary
provides a variety of approaches to each
prayer and to each pray-er. He included
personal anecdotes, textual insights, historical context, quotations, questions for selfreflection, and rules of ritual.
Rabbi Goldmintz, who has lived in
Teaneck for 27 years, was headmaster of
the Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan from
1999 to 2013. He now teaches at Maayanot

Yeshiva High School in Teaneck and in the

doctoral program at YUs graduate school
of education.
In recent years I became more and more
interested in the subject of spirituality and
religious development among children and
adolescents, he said. I was surprised that
it took me so long in my career to actually
study this, and surprised even more to discover that no one in the Orthodox Jewish
world had done much research on it.
His own research convinced him that
many people, especially educators, were
looking for direction and connection in
prayer (tfilah in Hebrew). He went back
to school in 2005 and earned a doctorate
on the influence of family environment on
the religious development of children and
adolescents.
Those interests meshed well with my
long-term interest in tfilah education,
which is one of the biggest challenges that
all day-school educators face, he said. I
had been experimenting for years trying
to find what works and what doesnt, what
expectations should be, what was impactful
for kids and what was not.
As a result of his articles on the topic,
Rabbi Goldmintz became a kind of go-to
person for lots of professionals out there,
and so he was approached by Dr. Scott

Goldberg, who is YUs vice provost for

teaching and learning and chairman of the
Koren Educational Editorial Board for its
new series of prayer books for children and
teenagers.
The truth is that I had already started
writing long before, Rabbi Goldmintz
said. I would write thoughts on slips
of paper and leave them on kids chairs
before prayers got started; I produced a
newsletter for kids in the school so they
could ask questions about prayer; I collected quotes and triggers that could be
used during prayer services and devised
different strategies for making tfilah more
meaningful.
Such strategies are sought eagerly. As
he wrote on Lookjed, a Jewish educational
listserv, At its worst, tfilah has become a
place where incredibly caring professionals find themselves becoming policemen.
At its best, there is rote tfilah service taking place, but there is an overall sense that
some part of the soul or heart is missing.
Jewish schools are not only purchasing
Ani Tfilah, but some even are crafting lesson plans around the 805-page volume.
Rabbi Goldmintz has been gratified
to hear anecdotes about a teacher who
bought a copy for herself, the 40-year-old
yeshivish guy who was spotted using one

Rabbi Jay Goldmintz

claiming that its just what he was looking

for, or the 82-year-old woman who said
that it made a difference in her life just at
a point when she had given up hope on
prayer.
He cant say for sure if todays Jews have
more difficulty engaging with and concentrating on prayer than did past generations. But I do think that any problems
we have with prayer are symptomatic of
a larger problem we have with belief, passion, spirituality, and connectedness. I

Reform movement has new kids siddur

Illustrated prayer book more comprehensive, editor says
LOIS GOLDRICH

t was time for the Reform movement

to develop a new prayer book for
children, said Rabbi Paula Feldstein,
rabbi/educator at Avodat Shalom and
editor of the newly published Mishkan
Tfilah for Youth.
After all, said Rabbi Feldstein, who has
worked at the River Edge congregation
for the last five years, Gates of Prayer for
Young People had come out in 1997, and
the English readings in the movements regular prayer book, Mishkan Tfilah, are on
a level too adult for children.
In addition, there was nothing out there
at this point meeting the need for both religious school services and family services, so
there was a lot of discussion in the movement about developing a new book.
Drafted to edit the new publication,
Rabbi Feldstein working with Hara Person, CCAR Presss publisher and director
pulled together a committee and began
work on Mishkan Tfilah for Youth. The

book, for third to fifthgraders, was fashioned to meet a whole bunch of goals,
she said.
It was time to do some updating based
on how our education techniques have
changed, she said, noting that to create
an easy transition later on, the book was
designed to resemble Mishkan Tfilah. In
addition, its more user-friendly for kids
and has beautiful illustrations, containing
original drawings by artist Mark Podwal,
based on the alef-bet.
Rabbi Feldstein said the new siddur also
has many English teaching notes.
We really wanted that for the kids, and
to educate parents, she said, pointing out
that the siddur includes a combined Shabbat evening and morning service for families. It also contains a weekday evening and
morning service for schools, along with a
Torah service. Rounding it out is a song section as well as readings for special holidays
and community events.
I want kids to be asking questions and
engaging in prayer by thinking a lot about

10 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

God and the possibilities of God and what

prayer can be for them, she said. In the
world we live in, we cant take for granted
that children will learn the words and find
them compelling.
I love the notes at the bottom, she continued. If youre not engaging with the
prayers and your eyes drift down, thats
amazing as well. Or, she said, the children can study the illustrations, thinking
about the lessons they teach. Each child
will connect to the prayers differently.
Because the Reform movement has
become more traditional in recent
years, Rabbi Feldstein said that one thing
that had made her uncomfortable about
previous books was that the editors
took out certain prayers.
Synagogues teach different things
in a different order, she said. Since she
wants to be able to choose what to use in
her classes, we wanted to put in everything possible. Thats a big issue for me.
Leading services every week for three
different grades, she often was reduced to

using cut and paste to give each group

what it needed. Now, with all the material in
one place, she will be able to work with different pieces of the service for each group.

Local
think people crave the latter in their religious lives in
general, and so need a portal to finding those within
the siddur as well.
Rabbi Goldmintz said he tried to make the commentaries and appendices both educational (Where are
these prayers from, how do they fit together, what do
they mean?) and meaningful (What does it mean to me
in my life today, this morning or afternoon? How do I
incorporate this into my being and my day?).
The first part was an enormous amount of work and
research, but the latter part was the most challenging,
he said, adding that the former chief rabbi of Britains
translation makes the English rendering very smooth
and elegant and accessible, though he was mindful
in his commentary to provide alternative meanings
because translation is always an interpretation.
Did the project enhance his personal tfilah
experience?
I run workshops for teachers now, and I tell them
that you cannot teach tfilah unless you are striving to
be a better pray-er yourself, he replied.
The same is true for parents. Our kids generally follow our lead and our passion, or lack thereof. I may
know a lot more about the words and the structure of
the siddur than I did before I got started, and probably
know more than the average person, but in the end, as
Rabbeinu Bachye said, the words are but the shell or
peel; it is the fruit that one brings to prayer with ones
heart.
In that sense, my struggle is no different than that of
the average high school student or senior citizen.
The Koren Ani Tfilah Siddur is part of the Koren Magerman Educational Siddur Series launched in February
2014. The series will consist of four developmentally
appropriate prayer books. Ani Tfilah and the illustrated Koren Childrens Siddur, geared to kindergartners through second-graders, are available now.

Rabbi Feldstein said the committee also included

transliteration in the services designed for families.
Some parents cant read Hebrew, she said. In the
services designed for the school day, however, there
is no transliteration.
We dont want the kids using transliteration, she
said. We want them to learn Hebrew.
Rabbi Feldstein said that most of the 10 people serving on her committee were rabbi/educators, though
some were congregational rabbis. Committee members wrote educational notes for the bottom of the
pages and did translations.
We wanted the language to be accurate to the
prayer but user-friendly for kids, she said, adding
that the committee included any prayers we thought
a movement congregation would want to do.
As the editor, Rabbi Feldstein pulled everything
together, including readings, translations, and English
interpretations. She also did some writing and figuring out what went where.
While the siddur is being marketed primarily within
the Reform movement, the editor hopes it also will
appeal to the Conservative movement, as well as to
Jewish summer camps.
Rabbi Feldstein noted that there are plans to create visual tfilah to go with the siddur, so that the
prayers can be projected on a screen. You wont need
to have a book in your hands at all, she said. A lot of
shuls are moving toward visual tfilah. It provides an
interesting prayer experience.

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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 11

Local

Self-defense or unnecessary danger?

Local Jewish gun club enters the contentious weapons-control debate
JOSH LIPOWSKY

rmed self-defense is a value

strongly supported in Jewish
law, according to a statement
issued last week by a local
Jewish gun club, which is urging two of
the largest Orthodox organizations in the
country to reconsider their positions on
gun control.
On July 16, the Rabbinical Council of
America, an organization representing
Orthodox rabbis in the United States,
issued a statement recognizing the rights
of private citizens to own weapons and
engage in violence for self-defense, but
also calling for the restriction of easy
and unregulated access to weapons and
ammunition, and denounced recreational activities that desensitize participants or glorify war, killing, physical
violence, and weapons.
The RCA resolution came just over a
year after the Orthodox Union issued a
similar resolution citing its longtime commitment to common sense gun safety
legislation and calling on U.S. senators
to pass legislation to ensure a safer and
more secure American society.
These statements ignore basic facts and
fail to recognize Judaisms strong support
for the value and practice of armed selfdefense, said a statement issued last week
by the Golani Rifle & Pistol Club, a Jewish
gun club with members throughout New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, but mostly in
northern New Jersey.
The Golani Club wants to encourage all
Jews to think about the best ways to protect their families and communities in
accordance with Jewish law and with the
awareness that Jews have suffered greatly
throughout history because their enemies
were better armed, said Joshua Levy of
Teaneck, a Golani member who signed
the statement. The club isnt pushing for
the RCA and OU to side with any particular
pro-gun politicians, but it does hope that
the organizations will reconsider their
positions to do whats best to ensure the
survival of Jewry and to follow the Torah,
he said.
Discouraging gun ownership seems
dangerous for Jews, who perhaps more
than any other people have faced constant
threats, large and small, through the ages,
Mr. Levy said. The RCAs discouragement
of gun ownership and preparation for
armed self-defense invites greater danger.
According to Mr. Levy, Jewish gun-owners, like other Jews, are dedicated to their
families and communities, cautious, and
lovers of life, taking reasonable precautions to preserve their own lives and the
lives of those in their communities. At a
time when Jews face increasing danger

Joshua Levy of Teaneck is a member of the Golani Rifle & Pistol Club.

around the world, the RCA and OU are

sending the wrong message, he said
Every Jew is capable of training themselves to protect their families and their
community, he said. And in fact its
very Jewish according to the Torah to protect your family and community. Were
required to preserve Jewish life and the
lives of those around us.
The Golani statement, which is posted
as a PDF at golanirpc.com, was signed by
12 rabbis from across the country, including Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Teanecks
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, Rabbi
Ephraim Simon of Friends of Lubavitch of
Bergen County, and Rabbi Ephraim Slepoy
of Passaic, who teaches in a yeshiva that he
declines to identify. Rabbi Simon told the
Jewish Standard that he signed the letter
because of his individual beliefs, and that
it does not represent the views of Chabad
locally or nationally. He declined further
comment.
Rabbi Pruzansky pointed to the Jewish
teaching of Haba lehorgecha, hashkem
lhorgo Someone who comes to kill
you, rise up and kill him first. The rabbis certainly do not support the unlimited
distribution of firearms, Rabbi Pruzansky
said, agreeing with the ban on criminals

12 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

and the mentally ill owning guns. But,

he said, the directive to kill your enemy
before he kills you can only be done by
someone who is armed and can defend
himself.
Jews have the right and halachic obligation to exercise the right of self-defense,
Rabbi Pruzansky said. The only way to
stop a bad guy with a gun is by a good guy
with a gun. That should be obvious.
Rabbi Pruzansky, a member of the RCAs
executive committee, said only about 7 percent of the RCAs 1,000-plus members voted
in favor of the gun-control resolution. More
than 800 abstained, he said. The RCA is a
big tent that welcomes differing views,
but the gun control resolution was drafted
by a small committee with a heavy and disproportionate liberal tilt. It is therefore necessary to set the record straight.
Many people felt that the RCA statement was unnecessary, misplaced, and did
not fully represent the Torah viewpoint on
self-defense, nor even the majority opinion
in America, he said. It is important to set
the record straight and underscore how the
Torah and the realities of Jewish history
demand that the Jewish people exercise
our right of self-defense vigorously, and certainly in accordance with the law.

The Golani Club would like the RCA and

OU to encourage sensible gun ownership
and training, Mr. Levy said. Guns are tools,
he added, and are used every day to preserve the peace. More often than not, they
dont even have to be fired to stop an attack.
As a practical matter, theres no better
defense against an attacker than a gun, he
said.
That doesnt mean that Mr. Levy advocates vigilantism, though. He expressed a
deep appreciation and respect for police
officers who risk their lives every day to protect people. But the police cant be everywhere, he said, and people have an obligation to take all reasonable precautions to
protect themselves and their families.
Preparing ourselves for self-defense is
the opposite of vigilantism, he said. Disarming ourselves puts us at the mercy of
bad men who seek our harm. The Torah
requires us to defend ourselves and we
cant defend ourselves unless we have
adequate means of defending ourselves.
OU policy positions are developed at
the organizations biennial conventions,
where delegates from across the country propose and vote on resolutions. One
such proposal more than a decade ago
suggested the OU look at common sense

Local
gun regulation, said Nathan Diament,
executive director for Public Policy for
the OU.
On a topic like this, theres a diversity
of opinion among rabbis, Mr. Diament
said, but he noted that there hasnt been
any other response to the resolution.
The next OU convention will take place
this December in Westchester, he said,
and the process for submitting resolutions is open.
The RCAs halachic rulings, such as
declaring the ordination of women a violation of Jewish law and tradition, carry
much greater weight than the organizations political statements, Rabbi Pruzansky said. Still, he would rather the
RCA support the liberalization of firearm carry laws for self-defense and as
a crime deterrent than issue a blanket
condemnation.
Given the realities of Jewish life even
today, that would have added the weight
of the RCAs opinion in the debate in a

One of the
wonderful things
about our
organization is
we have
members from
a wide area of
the Orthodox
movement with
various opinions.
Members
disagree.
RABBI LEONARD MATANSKY

more productive manner, he said.

The RCA respects the opinions of all
of its members, said the organizations
president, Rabbi Leonard Matanky of Chicago, but despite objections from one of
its senior members, the RCA now has no
intention of reconsidering its statement.
One of the wonderful things about
our organization is we have members
from a wide area of the Orthodox movement with various opinions. Members disagree, he said.
Rabbi Matanky recognized that there
are circumstances in which Jews are obligated to defend themselves, but, he said,
there is no specific Jewish law that says a
Jew must own a gun.
Nor is there a law that says he cannot
own a gun, he said. This is why there is
room for debate and why it is appropriate
under the circumstances.
The Golani statement is a direct
response to the RCAs statement earlier
this summer, but the Jewish community

has been wrestling with the issue of gun

control for years, and the question leads
to very different answers outside the
Orthodox world.
A week after the 2012 Newton, Conn.,
school shooting, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform leaders issued a joint
statement calling for greater gun control. Our worship of guns is a form of
idolatry, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Reform movements Religious
Action Center, said then at a joint press
conference with Rabbi Julie Schonfeld,
the executive vice president of the Conservative movements Rabbinical Assembly, and the OUs Mr. Diament.
The Religious Action Center has
issued several resolutions calling for
sensible gun control policies, including a 2012 statement in the wake of the
Newton shooting calling for the renewal
of the ban on assault rifles. The United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism also
passed a resolution in 2012 calling on
Congress and the president to support
restrictions on assault rifles and high
capacity magazines.
In the RACs 2012 statement, deputy
director Rachel Laser cited the Talmudic
teaching of He who takes one life it is as
though he has destroyed the universe.
The loss of so many lives, including
children, is not just devastating it is
unacceptable, she said. We call on
members of Congress, the president and
people committed to the well-being of all
Americans to find shared values on gun
control measures that will help ensure
the safety of us all.
The RAC website hosts a Gun Violence
Prevention Resource Guide, which cites
Rabbi Joel Mosbacher of Beth Haverim
Shir Shalom in Mahwah. Rabbi Mosbachers father was shot to death in a bungled
robbery. A world ended that day, Rabbi
Mosbacher said in the Resource Guide.
And yet, the murder of my father, Lester Mosbacher, didnt make it onto CNN.
Neither Fox nor MSNBC broke into their
regularly scheduled programming to
cover the end of a world. In fact, most
of the names of the tens of thousands
of people whose lives are ended with a
gun in this country each year are anonymous to us, unless we are the husband,
the wife, the child, the grandchild, or the
friend.
Last year, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella group of national
Jewish communal organizations, issued
a contentious resolution at its annual
plenum in support of legislation to
control the sale of certain firearms and
boost background checks. The JCPA
met with resistance from some of its
member groups that wanted softer language than other member organizations
demanded. In the end, the resolution
also reaffirmed the right to bear arms
and gun-owner rights, which several
members wanted to remove in favor of
harsher anti-gun language.

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Local

How Israel spent its summer vacation

College students explain Operation Protective Edge to Ben Porat Yosef middle schoolers
LARRY YUDELSON

hats a Jewish day school

to do when important
events in Israel happen
during the long summer

vacation?
Last week Yeshiva Ben Porat Yosef in
Paramus brought in a group of Israeli college students to discuss this summers war
with Gaza to its junior high school students.
The Israelis are participants in Generations of Israel, a program that trains Israeli
students to serve as ambassadors abroad.
They are really the elite of the elite,
said the schools principal, Rabbi Tomer
Ronen, who noted that there were 1,300
applicants for the 120 slots in Generations
of Israel.
The trip abroad follows a year of weekly
seminars on Zionism and Judaism.
The group visiting America prepared
nine presentations. Rabbi Ronen selected
two of them for his students: Jewish unity
for the fifth-graders, and Operation Preventive Edge for the older middle-school
students.

The Israelis told the Americans what it

was like to live in Israel during the war.
They taught us about how in different places they had different amounts of
time to get to a shelter once they heard
a siren warning of incoming rocket fire,
said Idan Glickman, a seventh-grader.
They showed us some of the bomb
shelters in schools, said Maayan Wertentheil, also in seventh grade. How they
tried to not scare the kids, how they tried
to explain that the booms and crashes of
Iron Dome were protecting them.
The New Jersey students also learned
about the effort to locate and shut down
the tunnels that Hamas built into Israel.
One of the Israelis had served in Gaza
during the war, in an elite commando
corps.
He described how, on finding a tunnel
from Gaza in Israeli territory, the army
would pump it full of smoke, so they
could find the entrance by smoke coming out in Gaza.
They showed us how they tried to do
everything in a humane way, Idan said.
This was a very different perspective

Middle schoolers at Yehivat Ben Porat Yosef in Paramus are briefed by Israeli
college students participating in the Generation of Israel program.
than what was on the news.
Rabbi Ronen said he has one more presentation planned on the war for his students. This will concern his own summer

vacation how he and his wife flew to

Israel when their son, a soldier in the paratroopers, entered Gaza. Ill share with
them the story and the pictures, he said.

JCC invites new members

he Kaplen JCC on the Palisades

in Tenafly signed up dozens of
new members at its annual open
house on September 14. Hundreds of people where there, and everyone was a JCC guest for the day. New and
prospective members toured the facility,
swam in the pools, worked out in the adult

and youth fitness centers, tried out sample classes, and met with JCC staff to learn
about the programs the JCC offers.
Adding to the fun were Music School and
School of Performing Arts showcases, entertainment for children, including a moon
bounce, face painting, balloonologists, and
health- and fitness-related activities.

The JCC maintains state-of-the-art facilities and offers a wide range of programs
and services, including an outdoor water
park and pools, year-round indoor pools,
CPR-trained swim instructors and lessons for all ages, state-of-the-art adult fitness center, a luxurious spa, more than
70 free group-exercise classes, fitness

assessments, basketball, racketball and

tennis courts, day care, infant and toddler
programs, nursery school, the Neil Klatskin
Day Camp, a teen youth fitness center, and
exercise classes.
For information on JCC programs and
services, call the membership office at (201)
408-1448 or email [email protected].

Whether strumming a guitar, enjoying a face painting, learning to play the violin, or wielding a balloon sword, kids had fun at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades.

14 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Make it a Happier New Year

For Your Aging Parentsand You

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but is mom or dad still doing well enough to live alone?
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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 15

Celebrate the New Year

with these new Judaica e-books/Kindle editions

Celebrate the New Year with these New Judaica E-Books
by Rabbi Dr. Tzvee Zahavy

Local

Celebrate the New Year with these New Judaica E-Books

Please Consider these Kindle Editions at Amazon by Rabbi Dr. Tzvee Zahavy
Please Consider these Kindle Editions at Amazon by Rabbi Dr. Tzvee Zahavy

Available at

Rabbi Yizchok and Bina Lerman stand with their two older children.

New rabbi for Rutherford

Religious leader to combine
tradition and technology

Wishing you a happy, healthy

and joyous New Year!

Our commitment to the communities we serve in New York and New Jersey means offering
financial services to enrich the lives of all our neighbors businesses and individual needs.

You bank with us. We invest in you.

almabank.com
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20 West Railroad Ave.
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Like us on Facebook.

facebook.com/jewishstandard
16 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

LOIS GOLDRICH

abbi Yizchok Lerman has done

a good deal of traveling and
filled an impressive number of
roles. Now, the new religious
leader of Temple Beth-El in Rutherford will
marshal his many skills to help grow the
60-year-old Bergen County congregation.
Rabbi Lerman, who will lead High Holy
Day services in Rutherford together with
his brother-in-law, Rabbi Eliezer Perlstein
Weve done some singing together, he
said. He has a nice voice. studied in
Morristown, Canada, and London, receiving smicha from Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau,
former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel.
I was studying at the Rabbinical College
of America in Morristown, he said. Rabbi
Lau came from Israel to test us.
Having led classes and outreach programs in the United States, Australia, England, and Israel, Rabbi Lerman who will
move here from Brooklyn with his wife,
Bina, and their three young children also
has created many videos on Jewish topics
for the online academy Torahcafe.com and
was the founder of the Chitrik Academy,
which offers interactive video classes on
the Talmud.
In his message on Beth Els website, he
wrote out that although I strongly hold
onto our rich Jewish heritage, [I also]
embrace the technology and advances of
our times. I teach Torah using PowerPoint,
Prezi [a cloud-based presentation software], and video presentations.
Rabbi Lerner chose the Rutherford congregation because my wife and I wanted
to join a warm community. We feel we
can help it expand, he said, noting that
we have a lot of experience in outreach.
Among other things, he said, he will try to
attract younger families to the synagogue
and expand classes and programs.
Ive done all types of outreach, said

the rabbi, who is affiliated with Chabad.

I was brought down by different shuls to
help expand their programs. For example,
he said, he went to Denver to help develop
classes and build membership.
He has been doing this kind of work
since he was a teen, he said. Id meet unaffiliated Jews and encourage them to take little steps. People can feel threatened they
dont want too much all at once. You help
them take small steps.
I enjoy interacting with people from all
backgrounds, regardless of their religious
affiliation, he added. I feel this could benefit [the Rutherford] community in a permanent way.
Now teaching 10th grade students at a
yeshiva in Forest Hills, Queens, Rabbi Lerman also is trained as a Red Cross lifeguard
and volunteer prison chaplain.
His decision to train as a lifeguard was
also a kind of outreach effort. As a teenager I always wanted to help people, so I
learned CPR and first aid, he said. While
he never worked full time in that capacity, he has had the opportunity to help
people in distress. Similarly, while he has
not worked as a prison chaplain, he took
advantage of the opportunity to receive
state training in that field.
I learned a lot about the prison system,
he said.
Rabbi Lerman said he spent a year in
London helping out with different youth
groups and creating programs. I did public
speaking on different Jewish topics, taught
at a seminary, and [addressed] womens
groups.
I hope we can establish a strong community in south Bergen County, he said.
Well see what the needs of the community are and go from there. Our goal is to
make a place where everyone can feel welcome, regardless of their past affiliation.
For more information, go to www.rutherfordjewish.org.

Not just a gym,

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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 17

Local

Remembering Max Prager of Englewood

DR. KENNETH PRAGER

y father, Max Prager, who died at the age

of 96 on August 16, was fond of describing all of his grandchildren and great
grandchildren as unusual. Unusually
bright, unusually good looking, unusually good natured.
Whether these descriptions were always appropriate is
perhaps questionable. But one thing is certain to all who
knew Max: he was unusual.
To begin with, my father might return as the Messiah.
He jokingly said so himself, many times, to anyone who
would listen. That, he said, was because he was born
in Brooklyn on Tishah BAv, which, according to Jewish
tradition, is the birthday of the Messiah. But aside from
his claim to possibly being the Messiah, my father was a
unique man in many other ways.
Max led a charmed life. For a starter, he was tall and
blessed with extraordinary good looks. He was smart
and possessed the most incredible memory of anyone
I have ever known. At the age of 85 he decided, at the
urging of my brother Dennis, to write his autobiography.
This project took him a year. The only written data he
had for his book were his wartime diary and the awards,
financial records, and memoranda that he collected over
his lifetime. The rest was taken from memory. (His book,
Attitude and Gratitude is available free online at maxprager.com.)
My father was blessed with extraordinary good health.
Not until he turned 93 did he experience any significant medical problems. Photos of him when he was 90
showed a man who looked 20 years younger. He was
fortunate to be the youngest of four children of a very
poor family whose parents immigrated to the United
States from Poland at the turn of the 20th century. His
three older siblings worked to support the family, and
that freed him alone to pursue a college education. He
graduated from City College of New York and passed the

Max Prager served in the Navy in the South Pacific

during World War II.
18 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Max and Hilda Prager went on to celebrate 69 years of marriage. He was 17 and she was a year younger
when they met.

notoriously difficult CPA exam on his first try. He swore

that he never studied for the test. Having a profession
gave him job satisfaction and enabled him to have the
means to travel and live a comfortable middle class life.
And he was fortunate in having two sons from whom he
shepped, as he said, much nachas.
Perhaps my fathers greatest stroke of luck was meeting my mother, Hilda, when he was 17 and she was 16.
They met, appropriately enough, on the joyous holiday
of Simchat Torah, when Jews rejoice after completing
the annual cycle of Torah reading. The gathering was
sponsored by the Zionist youth organization Hapoel
Hamizrachi. Although she was on a date another young
man, my mother told me many times that she returned
home that night and told her mother that she met the
man she would marry.
Four years later they wed
when they could support
themselves and they went on to celebrate 69 years of
marital bliss. My mother died five years ago, at 89. My
father never recovered from that blow. I had seen him cry
briefly only twice until he was 91 years old. After my mothers death, he cried virtually every time we were together,
as he regaled me with stories of my mothers virtues.
But my father was not only lucky. He was a man of
principle: a proud and observant Jew, honest and charitable, and he took upon himself the often thankless burdens
of community leadership. He was chairman of the board
of Yeshiva Rambam, the elementary school my brother
and I attended, and he did their books for years. He was
president of Kingsway Jewish Center, a large and prestigious synagogue in Flatbush. He was generous and charitable, having learned from his mother the importance of
tzedakah. He repeated stories of how she collected money
for destitute Jews in her community and never turned
down a needy hand despite her own poverty.

But my father was not

only lucky. He was a
man of principle: a
proud and observant
Jew, honest and
charitable, and he took
upon himself the often
thankless burdens of
community leadership.
DR. KENNETH PRAGER

Max was a proud member of Tom Brokaws Greatest

Generation, growing up in the Depression and fighting
in World War II. My father told me of feeling guilty riding the subway in 1942 and seeing uniformed Gentile
soldiers off fighting Hitler while he was hiding behind
Kennys diapers. He enlisted in the Navy in the spring
of 1943 and saw combat in the Pacific as a supply officer
aboard the USS Bollinger, a troop transport that brought
Marines to many island battlegrounds.
While aboard the Bollinger, my father prayed every day
and held Friday evening services for the Jewish marines
aboard his ship. For this unsolicited activity he received
a plaque from the Jewish Welfare Board after the war
acknowledging this service to his fellow Jews. He was a voice
for justice aboard his ship, and he earned the eternal respect
and gratitude of the black stewards on board by threatening

to court martial an officer who made racial slurs directed

at them. (African-Americans were only allowed to serve as
stewards and cooks aboard ships in World War II.)
Before the war, my father reluctantly worked on Shabbat after searching exhaustively but fruitlessly for a job
that did not require Saturday work. He told me how he
cried the first Shabbat he went to work on the subway.
During the war he vowed that if he survived, he would
never work on Shabbat again. He kept his vow, and was a
strict Sabbath observer the rest of his life.
My father was scrupulously honest in his work as
an accountant. During the nursing home scandals of
the 1960s, when a number of Orthodox Jewish nursing home owners were jailed for cheating the government, my fathers nursing home clients were spared this
humiliation. My brother and I were deeply influenced
by my fathers sense of justice and honesty. My brother
Dennis is well-known for his writings and speeches on
many subjects that touch on ethics and morality, and I
am director of medical ethics at my hospital.
At the age of 80, when many people his age head south

to retire, my father sold his winter apartment in Miami

Beach and his home in Brooklyn and bought a home in
Englewood, just a short walk from me. The wisdom of
this move became apparent when my mother became
ill 10 years later, and I made the brief trip to my parents
home repeatedly both to visit and supervise her medical
care. Three years later the story repeated itself when my
father suffered a devastating complication after a medical procedure.
My father retained his sharp wit and sense of humor
even as he lay dying. His caregiver, to test his mental status after noticing him lying for long periods with his eyes
closed, once asked him: Max, do you know who I am?
Opening his eyes my father whispered: the president
of the United States. A few days before he died, my son
Benjy visited my father, who was smiling. His eyes were
closed. Papa, why are you smiling? he asked. Im thinking of my eulogies, Max replied, and his grin broadened.
My father and mother were admired and looked up to
by their friends and many members of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood. At the shiva, people told how

THE GROSS CENTER FOR

HOLOCAUST & GENOCIDE STUDIES

FALL PROGRAM 2014

they admired their warmth and love of life. They were

indeed a stunningly handsome couple well into their
eighties and their personalities matched their looks.
My father asked that his tombstone bear the inscription from Psalms 145:20, the Lord watches over all who
love Him. My father had a close relationship with God;
he spoke to God every night before closing his eyes.
He felt that God was responsible for his charmed life,
which he did not attribute to his own merits. He actually
was puzzled by his good fortune (why me?) and concluded, after much rumination, that his blessings were
due to zechut avot, the merits of his fathers.
My fathers stock answer to anyone who asked him
questions about his fabled life was: its in my book. He
was right. Attitude and Gratitude is quite a read.
Dr. Kenneth Prager of Englewood is a professor medicine,
director of clinical ethics, and chair of the medical ethics
committee at Columbia University Medical Center, New
York Presbyterian Hospital. His brother is the radio host
and writer Dennis Prager.

Yeshiva High School for Girls

Invites you to join us for our annual

Community Yom Iyun

Sunday, September 28, 2014 4 Tishrei, 5775
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM

TUESDAY, SEPT. 30, 2 P.M.

SATURDAY, NOV. 8, 7 P.M.

Rob Cohen, Director and Steven Moskovic,

Executive Producer Big Foot Productions, Inc.
Ramapo College, Trustees Pavilion (PAV 1, 2 & 3)

Featuring a talk by Dr. Peter Appelbaum on

Loyal Sons: German Jews in the First World
War with the participation of Rabbi Joel
Mosbacher, Cantor David Perper and the Adult
Choir of Temple Beth Haverim Shir Shalom
Temple Beth Haverim Shir Shalom
280 Ramapo Valley Road (Route 202), Mahwah, NJ

Film Screening: Kinderblock 66

Co-sponsored with Communication Arts Cinematheque Series

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 8, 7 P.M.

Panel Discussion

Islamacized Armenian Women and

Orphans and the [Re]emergence
of Armenian Identities in Turkey a
Century after the Armenian Genocide
Ramapo College, Trustees Pavilion (PAV1&2)

Kristallnacht Commemoration

SUNDAY, NOV. 16, 10:30 A.M.

A Stranger in My Own Country:

Growing Up Jewish in Germany

THURSDAY, OCT. 23, 9:45 A.M.

Film Screening:
The Search for the White Rose

Yascha Mounk Author of Stranger in

My Own Country: A Jewish Family in
Modern Germany (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2014)
Temple Israel
475 Grove Street, Ridgewood, NJ

Peter Logue, Filmmaker

Ramapo College, H-wingAuditorium (H129)

TUESDAY, NOV. 11, 1-2 P.M.

Co-sponsored with Communication Arts Cinematheque Series

For Information and to
request disability-related
accommodations please contact:
[email protected]
or 201.684.7409

The World War One

Jewish Refugee Crisis
in Austria-Hungary

Dr. Rebekah Klein-Pejov Assistant

Professor of History Purdue University,
West Lafayette, Indiana
Ramapo College, Trustees Pavilion (PAV 1)

All Programs Free and Open to the Public

SALAMENO SCHOOL
OF HUMANITIES
AND GLOBAL STUDIES
505 Ramapo Valley Rd Mahwah, NJ

Men and Women Welcome

Keynote Speaker:

Mrs. Leah Herzog,

Tanakh Teacher and Director of Israel Guidance

Why Remember? The Role of Memory in Jewish Life

With additional shiurim by members of our distinguished faculty, including:
Mrs. Rivka Kahan, Principal
Going His Way? An Analysis of Vhalachta Bederakhav
Ms. Elana Flaumenhaft, Assistant Principal
Will Hashem Accept Teshuva From Anybody?
Rabbi Donny Besser
Two Voices: Trei Kali in Jewish Law and Thought
Mrs. Dena Block
Kol Nidrei: The Communal Experience of Yom Kippur
Mrs. Suzanne Cohen
Intuition vs. Objectivity: King Tzidkiyahu and Gedaliah ben Ahikam
Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz
Teaching our Children Gratitude: Yonah and Connecting
Mrs. Melissa Kapustin
From Medieval Blood Libels to Modern-Day Pogroms: Keeping the Faith Despite Continued Persecution

Ms. Ora Laufer

Ideal Idealism: Distinguishing Between Dissent and Defiance in Sefer Yonah
Mrs. Shifra Schapiro
Gedaliah ben Ahikam: Finding Hope in a Lost Generation
Mrs. Yael Weil

shanatova

t
a
a
t
d
k
n
f
.

Local

Pinocchio, Finding Nemo, and the Book of Yonah - Life Lessons From the Belly of the Fish to God

This event is generously sponsored by the Staiman family in commemoration of

the yahrtzeit of Mr. Kalman Staimans father, Shalom Tzvi ben Aharon,
Sholom Staiman, zl.
Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
1650 Palisade Avenue Teaneck, New Jersey 07666 www.maayanot.org
JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 19

Local
Jewish Home Family appoints
Carol Elliott as president/CEO
Carol Silver Elliott will
intention to retire, we
become the president and
formed a search committee, chaired by our
CEO of the Jewish Home
former board chair,
Family effective November 3. Eli Ungar, who is
Ary Freilich, to identify a visionary leader
chairman of JHFs board,
capable of leading our
announced her appointment. Ms. Elliott comes
organization forward
to the JHF after serving
with the same commitment to innovation
seven years as president
and excellence that
and CEO of Cedar Village
Carol Silver Elliott
has marked the past
Retirement Community in
44 years. I can think of no
Mason, Ohio.
greater tribute to Chucks legacy and
Ms. Elliott holds a masters degree
no greater evidence of our longstanding
in health care administration and is a
commitment to the seniors of our comlicensed nursing home administrator
munity than the hiring of Carol Silver
and a certified aging service professional. She is the national chair of the
Elliott as our CEO. As CEO of Cedar Village in Mason, Ohio, and as national
Association of Jewish Aging Services,
board chair of the AJAS, Carol brings
the association of nonprofit communitya wealth of experience, energy and
based senior living homes and organizations throughout the United States and
accomplishment to our community.
Canada, and she sits on the board of
The Jewish Home Family and its member entities, the Jewish Home at RockLeading Age, a national elder care organization comprised of over 6,000 nonleigh, Jewish Home Assisted Living, Jewprofit eldercare groups. Ms. Elliott has
ish Home at Home, and the Jewish Home
spent 35 years in the health care field,
Foundation, are not-for-profit organizations, providing long-term and subacute
largely focused on elder care.
care, outreach programs, and outpatient
In making the announcement, Mr.
services for the elderly and their families
Ungar said, For the past 44 years
in Bergen, North Hudson, and Rockland
the Jewish Home has benefited from
counties. For more information, go to
the exemplary leadership of Chuck
www.jewishhomefamily.org.
Berkowitz. When Chuck announced his

JWV post invites new membership

Veterans are welcome to join the James I.
Platt Jewish War Veterans Post 651 in Fair
Lawn. The group meets monthly, contributes to many charitable causes, and works
to help veterans in the community, in veterans hospitals, and in retirement homes.
Family members can become associate

Project Sarah targets domestic violence

Football star Ray Rices well-publicized physical abuse of his wife has focused national
attention on the problem of domestic violence. With that in mind, Project Sarah, the
New Jersey-based organization dedicated to
helping victims and survivors of domestic
violence and sexual abuse, will run its annual
Many Voices, One Message campaign in
conjunction with National Domestic Violence
Awareness Month in October.
The organizations hotlines get calls
from victims every day. Elke Stein, the
groups director, encourages families to
use the Ray Rice incident as a springboard
to discuss the usually taboo topic around
their Shabbat and kitchen tables. Football
fans of all ages and the average housewife,
who sees her sons and husband idolizing
football players like Ray Rice, need to realize that domestic violence doesnt just
happen in an elevator.
For the Many Voices, One Message
campaign, outreach coordinator Rabbi

OHEL meeting diverse needs in northern New Jersey

Ohels New Jersey SchoolBased Services program is
providing a number of workshops, seminars, and training
programs this school year for
teachers, students, and parents in various schools, including Frisch, YBH of Passaic-Hillel, Clifton Cheder, Ben Porat
Yosef, and Joseph Kushner
Hebrew Academy.
Rabbi Jeremy Donath
Ohel also has provided recreational and respite services
to students with developmental disabilities. It has partnered with schools in Passaic to present free educational
workshops for parents on building stronger and happier
families.
New staff was brought on board to supervise the
increasing services. Among them is Rabbi Jeremy Donath,
Ohels community outreach and programming coordinator. Rabbi Donath is also the leader of Congregation Darchei Noam in Fair Lawn and a rebbe at Torah Academy of
Bergen County.
Ziporah Torbiner, Psy.D., the coordinator of Ohels
Mobile Crisis Team and the clinical coordinator of Ohels
Project Hope in Brooklyn, will add her expertise in mental
health services and programs to Ohels New Jersey office.
Tzivy Reiter of Passaic is the new coordinator of services
for individuals with developmental disabilities. Ms. Reiter,
a licensed clinical social worker, is a director at Ohel Bais
Ezra.
Ohel also will provide school based services, geriatric
20 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Tzivy Reiter

members and join the monthly breakfast

meetings. The group also holds lunches,
arranges trips to a dinner theater, and
offers weekly bingo games with residents
of the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home
in Paramus. For information call post commander Mel Kaplan at (201) 796-3795.

Ziporah Torbiner

care management, community resources, and respite and

other care services to people with developmental disabilities, in addition to providing behavioral health services by
their therapists.
Jessica Kornwasser of Teaneck, a co-chair of Ohels
northern New Jersey leadership advisory group, said:
The expansion of OHELs northern New Jersey services
holds tremendous promise for our community. We will
benefit from a seasoned staff of clinicians with diverse
expertise, dedicated to meet the increasing needs of our
community on the individual, family, school, and communal levels.
The Ohel northern New Jersey regional family center is also place for families to learn about Camp Kaylie,
Ohels integrated summer camp for kids of all abilities.
Robert Katz, Ohels chief development officer, will oversee the new office. For information, call Wendy Levites at
(201) 692-3972, email [email protected], or go to www.
ohelfamily.org.

Michael Bleicher solicits the support of

rabbis throughout New Jersey to unite in
their support of Project Sarahs commitment to prevent domestic violence and
sexual abuse and treat victims with dignity
and care and to serve as a resource to their
congregants. In 2011, 180 rabbis signed on;
last year there were 225, and even more
are expected this year.
Through its Aleinu Safety Kid Program,
Project Sarah reaches thousands of New Jersey children, their caretakers, and educators by providing a comprehensive personal
safety awareness program. Esther East,
executive director of the Jewish Family Service of Clifton-Passaic, which houses Project
Sarah, added, The award-winning domestic
violence treatment teams are on the front
lines, providing essential services to the Jewish community statewide that are not always
either known about or publicized. For information, call Ms. Stein at (973) 777-7638 or
email [email protected].

Rachel Coalition lunch

scheduled October 20
The Rachel Coalition
will host its annual
Women to Women luncheon on October 20
at 11:30 a.m. at Crestmont Country Club in
West Orange. Joshua
Safran, an author,
attorney, and advocate for domestic violence awareness, is
Joshua Safran
the speaker. His 7-year
legal battle to free
a battered woman from prison was featured in an
award-winning documentary, Crime After Crime. He
also wrote a memoir, last years Free Spirit: Growing
Up On The Road and Off The Grid.
Proceeds from the luncheon support the Rachel
Coalition, the Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New
Jerseys domestic violence prevention division. The
coalitions mission is to improve the lives of victims of
domestic violence by providing a comprehensive and
coordinated local response to it.
The Rachel Coalition is a partnership of nine northern New Jersey organizations including Hadassahs
northern New Jersey region and Jewish Women Internationals North Atlantic region.
A kosher buffet lunch will be served. For information call (973) 765-9050, ext. 1708, by October 15 or go
to www.jfsmetrowest.org.

upcoming aT

Kaplen

JCC on the Palisades

Happy New Year

Wishing you a year blessed with good health, prosperity
& happiness. May this New Year bring peace in Israel and
throughout the world.
Tina guberman , President
avi a. lewinson , CEO
and the entire Board of Directors, Trustees and Staff

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7 Mondays, Oct 27Dec 8, 6:15-7:45 pm, $115/$140
Registration required. Call Esther at 201.408.1456.

JCC University

Meet new people and stay involved

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are: The Seven Sins of Wall Street:
Big Banks, Their Washington Lackeys,
and the Next Financial Crisis with
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For more info, call Kathy at
201.408.1454 or [email protected].
4 Thursdays, Oct 2, 23 & 30, Nov 6,
10:30 am-2:15 pm, $110/$140;
$32/$40 per day

adults

drama

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17-34 Division: 8 Thursdays
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JCC on the Palisades Taub campus | 411 e clinTon ave, Tenafly, nJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 21

Editorial
This time, there is only one side

o say that you have a wheelchair-bound 69-year-old New

York Jew, a retired appliance
manufacturer, on what probably would have been the last vacation he
could take with his cancer-riddled, soonto-die wife.
It would be logical for a Palestinian terrorist (oh sorry, do I mean militant? Or
do I mean freedom fighter?) to shoot that
man and then throw him and his wheelchair overboard, right? Nothing could be
more likely to catch the worlds sympathy, could it?
So we already are in topsy-turvy land,
where good is bad, evil is glorified, and
the romance of underdog piracy on the
high seas trumps decency. Hands down.
So what do we do with this ugly story?
I know, guys! Lets write an opera!
Somehow, astonishingly, the next
steps in upside-down world were to take
that jaw-droppingly outr murder and
glamorize it, write an opera about it, and
declare to the world that it is through this
work that the nuances of the situation
best can be explained.
Et voila! The Death of Klinghoffer,
soon to grace the Metropolitan Opera in
Lincoln Center.
There are many heated voices raised
to defend this production. According to
the New York Times, in its September 19
editorial, Music critics and opera lovers
have found the opera, by John Adams,
moving and nuanced in imagining a tragedy that gives voice to all sides, from the
ruthless and aggrieved terrorists to Mr.
Klinghoffer, an innocent Jewish-American who makes some of the operas most
powerful points in denouncing violence
as a political tool.
There is no doubt, the Times editorial
board no doubt would say, that it takes
an unsophisticated mind to believe that if
there are nuances to a dead body bound
to a wheelchair bobbing and sinking in
the sea, they are so subtle as to be meaningless. They most likely would go on to
say that of course all voices in this tragedy should be heard; that murderers
and victims have equal rights to our ears
and our brains.
Others have pointed out that very few

Jewish
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people actually have heard the opera,

so how can any but the most Philistine
among us possibly judge it? Nothing, my
deah, possibly can be more important
than art!
Although most of us have not heard
The Death of Klinghoffer, and many
if not most of us believe that there are
some values even more important than
every operas right to a full production
on one of the worlds most pre-eminent
opera stages, as it turns out our reviewer
has.
Warren Boroson, a lifelong operagoer
and longtime reviewer, wrote about
a video of The Death of Klinghoffer,
filmed in 2003, in our June 27 issue.
I found the music to be unmelodious
and unmemorable, Mr. Boroson wrote.
Yes, Death of Klinghoffer is obviously
biased. The composer and librettist say
that they had agreed to try to be neutral
pro and con Israelis, pro and con the Palestinians. Hence the title: not murder,
just death. The late Samuel Lipman, a
renowned music critic, wrote in Commentary: [T]he pretense of not taking
sides, of even-handedness, is just that
a pretense. For in treating the murder
of Klinghoffer as a death, and in viewing the incident through the lens of moral
equivalence, the opera for all practical
purposes endorses the claims of the Palestinian assassins.
Mr. Boroson also quotes another music
critic, Newsdays Pulitzer Prize-winning
Tim Page, as calling the opera pompous, turgid, derivative, and hopelessly
confused.
So we have an opera that is judged
to be a failure musically and hopelessly
biased historically set to open now, at a
time when anti-Jewish sentiments, sometimes masked as anti-Zionism, sometimes unmasked, are running high and
threatening to go higher still.
And we must not forget that although
the opera causes abstract pain to many
Jews and other decent people, it causes
very real and personal pain to two
real people. Those are Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffers daughters, Lisa and
Ilsa, who have to add the indignity of
this nuanced look at both sides of

Editor
Joanne Palmer
Associate Editor
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Guide/Gallery Editor
Beth Janoff Chananie
Contributing Editor
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jstandard.com
22 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

this conflict to the heartbreak of their

fathers murder and their mothers
death, which followed closely after the
murder and no doubt was hastened by it.
There also have been many voices
raised against the opera. There were
protestors picketing at Lincoln Center
as the Mets season opened on Monday,
and there will be another demonstration
when the opera opens on October 20.
One of the most powerful words
against the opera came from Judea Pearl,
whose son, the journalist Daniel Pearl,
was slaughtered in 2002. He died for the
same sin as Leon Klinghoffer because
he was a Jew.
In joining you today to protest the
New York Metropolitan Opera production
of this opera, I echo the silenced voice of
my son, Daniel Pearl, and the silenced
voices of other victims of terror, including James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and
including thousands of men, women and
children who were murdered, maimed
or left heartbroken by the new menace
of our generation, a menace of savagery
that the Met has decided to elevate to a
normative, two-sided status, worthy of
artistic expression, Dr. Pearl wrote.
I submit to you that choreographing an operatic drama around criminal
pathology is not an artistic prerogative,
but a blatant betrayal of public trust, he
continued. We do not stage operas for
rapists and child molesters, and we do
not compose symphonies for penetrating the minds of ISIS executioners.
No! Composer John Adams, some
sides do not have two sides, and what
was done to Leon Klinghoffer has one
side only. What we are seeing here in
New York today is not an artistic expression that challenges the limits of morality,
but a moral deformity that challenges the
limits of the art.
We agree. We hope without hope that
Lincoln Center officials will be brave and
honest enough to admit that they made
a mistake, and withdraw the production. Barring that, we hope that there
are no murderous, hate-filled ideologues
enabled by it, and that no deaths result
from it. There have been enough deaths.
JP


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Israeli Representative

What a
difference a
day makes

ere we go again.
Three weeks out of the next four,
including this week, a two-day
observance is actually three days,
for all practical purposes. That is because Rosh
Hashanah, the first two days of Sukkot, and
the two days of Shmini Atzeret (erroneously
referred to as the last two days of Sukkot) all fall
out on Thursday and Friday, with Shabbat following immediately after.
This places an excessive burden on the halachically observant Orthodox or Conservative Jews.
It also leads the non-observant to mock Jewish law
as silly and irrelevant.
Take cooking, for example. While it is biblically
permitted to cook foods on the first two days of
Sukkot to be eaten on
those two days, it is not
biblically permitted to
cook on those days for
the day after the festival, unless the next day
is Shabbat.
The sages of blessed
m e m o r y, h o w e v e r,
feared that people
Shammai
would get the wrong
Engelmayer
idea. If the second day
of Sukkot was a Friday
and they were allowed
to cook on that day for Shabbat, then next year
they might cook on the second day of Sukkot, a
Tuesday, for Wednesday. So they banned cooking
on the second (or last) day of a festival even if the
next day is a Shabbat.
Having forbidden the practice, they had to come
up with a way to allow it nonetheless, because
Shabbat has three required festive meals. So
the sages conjured up a bit of legal legerdemain
known as an eruv tavshilin. This is done by individuals and, often, by rabbis for their communities. I make one to cover the members of my community, for example.
To the non-observant, this is one huge reason
why they are non-observant. Not only are some
Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Temple Israel
Community Center | Congregation Heichal Yisrael
in Cliffside Park and Temple Beth El of North
Bergen.

Production Manager
Jerry Szubin
Graphic Artists
Deborah Herman
Bob O'Brien
Bookkeeper
Alice Trost
Credit Manager
Marion Raindorf
Receptionist
Ruth Hirsch

Founder
Morris J. Janoff (19111987)
Editor Emeritus
Meyer Pesin (19011989)
City Editor
Mort Cornin (19151984)
Editorial Consultant
Max Milians (1908-2005)
Secretary
Ceil Wolf (1914-2008)
Editor Emerita
Rebecca Kaplan Boroson

,
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Editorial
of the rules burdensome (What do you mean I cannot carry a handkerchief in my pocket on Shabbat?),
but the ways to get around these rules seem way too
silly to them (You mean I can carry a handkerchief
if someone ties a string to all the telephone poles in
town?).
Cooking, of course, is the least of the problems created by three-day festivals. So many observant Jews
(again, both Orthodox and Conservative) are involved
in businesses and professions where the extra day
imposes serious hardships. It is not uncommon to hear
someone say, after havdalah on the Saturday night following the two days of Shmini Atzeret, Thank God
thats over with. That is the wrong attitude, but an
understandable one.
The three-day conundrum, when it occurs at this
time of year, also has a corollary on Pesach, because
it means the first day of that festival will be a Shabbat.
Because the second seder should not begin before the
end of Shabbat, that means that in our area, people
will have to wait until sometime around 8:10 p.m. to
sit down to the seder table.
What makes this even more confusing to many, and
off-putting, is that there does not have to be a second
seder, and there does not have to be a three-day marathon observance because there is no second day,
either at the start or the end of a festival. That second
day is rabbinically ordained, not Torah-mandated. It
was created in the days before there was a fixed calendar. Since we could not be certain exactly when a
month began, the extra day was added to assure that
festivals were observed at their proper time.
Our calendar is fixed today. We know to the millisecond when a new month begins. In many synagogues,
the time is publicly proclaimed on the previous Shabbat. (The new month will be born at 7:27 p.m. on
Tuesday.) Rather than invent loopholes that both the
observant and non-observant mock, why not get rid of
the extra day entirely?
Even if there was a more valid reason for it than we
have been doing it this way for 2,000 years, halachah
allows dropping the day if it brings people closer to the
Torah and to God.
Maimonides states this concept clearly. In Mishneh
Torah Mamrim (2:4), he says of the rabbis: If they
should conclude that it is necessary to suspend a positive commandment or nullify a negative one in order
to restore the people to the faith, or to save many Jews
from otherwise becoming lax in matters [of observance], they may act as the needs of the time require.
Elsewhere (MT Sanhedrin 24:4), he pointedly adds
this note of caution: In all matters, he writes, the
rabbis acting as decisors shall act for the sake of
Heaven and not take lightly [the effect an action
or ruling may have on] human dignity, for consideration of human dignity may require setting aside
rabbinic injunctions.
There even is a principle in halachah that gives the
public the ability to annul burdensome laws. It is stated
in various ways in various talmudic tractates (see, for
example, the Babylonian Talmud tractate Bava Batra
60b, BT Avodah Zara 36a, and the Jerusalem Talmud
tractate Avodah Zara 2:8). Maimonides brings it all
together in his Mishneh Torah (MT Mamrim 2:5-7):
[If ] the people resist it and a majority in fact refuses
to adhere to it, [a positive or negative decree] is invalid
and it is not permitted to force the people to follow it.
A qualification: Rosh Hashanah should remain a
two-day observance. The why of that will await a
future column.
May we all be inscribed in the book of life, health,
and happiness for 5775.

Offer associate status to non-Jews

emilitarized Zone, South Korea Standing on a hilltop and peering into the most
repressive regime on earth, the Stalinist
prison camp that is North Korea, got me
thinking about Israel.
How is that the Middle Easts only democracy comes
out only a hair better in world opinion polls? How could
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels freely elected leader, be
as disliked as the young monster dictator Kim Jong-Un
of Pyongyang?
Might the small number of Jews in the world be a
consideration?
In Israel recently I was amazed to see how many pregnant women there were. Everywhere. On planes, at the
beach, and at the parks, there were children galore.
Israel loves kids, and the Jewish state has one of the
highest rates of births per family in the Western industrialized world, averaging close to 3 per family.
Not so in the U.S. Jewish community. On the Upper
West Side of Manhattan, youll see some pregnant
moms. But youll see 10 Jewish singles for each of them.
The American Jewish singles scene is a crisis that well
leave for another time. For now well focus on how few
Jews it produces.
The world Jewish community has been shaken to its
core by the tsunami of antiSemitism that has broken out
in the wake of Israels third
Gaza war. World media has
condemned the Middle Easts
only democracy for the simple
act of defending itself against
terror rockets and tunnels.
Rabbi
In London and Berlin theyre
Shmuley
Boteach
chanting, Hitler should have
finished off the Jews and
Ham-As rhymes with poison
gas. Weve seen pogroms in synagogues in Paris. Most
of all, we have wondered how a civilized world with liberal values could choose the women-honor-killing, gaymurdering, free-speech-suppressing Hamas terrorist
death cult over democratic Israel.
Heres one of the reasons its happening. Theres a
heck of a lot more of them than us.
The greatest challenge facing the world Jewish community is its puny size. The number of Jews in the world
has fallen below a critical mass, and our paucity suggests
unpleasant consequences. Foremost among them is our
inability to fully defend the State of Israel. Will governments choose to side with 14 million Jews over half a
billion Arabs?
In America, where there are nearly 6 million Jews, our
large and well-organized communities are able to create an effective political lobby that has yielded positive
results in American support for Israel. Compare that to
the 230,000 Jews of Britain, who live in a population
of 64 million. Such a paltry number has virtually condemned the supporters of Israel to being completely
overwhelmed by Britains growing Muslim community.
We Jews, whose biblical mandate is to be a light unto
the nations, are meant to leave a mark on the world.
Real influence, to be sure, comes from quality and not
quantity.
Yet numbers still matter greatly.
Kicking up Jewish numbers isnt going to be easy, and
vastly increasing the Jewish birthrate, as well as reversing assimilation, is key. But it is high time we addressed
the issue that Jews have traditionally shied away from:

The greatest challenge

facing the world
Jewish community is
its puny size. The
number of Jews in the
world has fallen below
a critical mass.
actively attracting non-Jews to Judaism.
The Mormons have grown in just 150 years to roughly
14 million, the same as the number of the worlds Jews,
even though we have been around about 3,000 years
longer. The reason: They field a global missionary force
of some 60,000.
There are other considerations as well. What of the
millions of offspring in the world who have a Jewish
father and a non-Jewish mother and thus are not considered halachically Jewish? But with a Jewish parent,
the connection is strong. Should we not be connecting
them with their Jewish roots?
The same applies to millions of Europeans who stem
from Jewish ancestry, like the Marranos. These people
feel themselves to be partially Jewish, but we allow
them to founder and never connect them with the Jewish people.
It is those people, and the countless without any religion at all, to whom we should be offering Judaism as
a monotheistic alternative and actively promoting the
Torah as wisdom by which to master life. Should they
not wish to become fully Jewish, we should be creating
a Jewish confederation of Noachides who identify with
Jewish spirituality but do not embrace all the mitzvot.
We should be funding billboards with Jewish teachings
for non-Jews, offering classes in synagogues where Gentiles can discover Jewish spiritual essentials, and engaging in social media outreach to those unaffiliated with
a faith.
The Oxford University LChaim Society, which I
founded in 1988, had thousands of non-Jewish members.
Many of its officers like Senator Cory Booker of New
Jersey and President Mike Benson of Eastern Kentucky
University, the grandson of the Mormon Churchs President Ezra Taft Benson were not Jewish. Their intention
was not to convert to Judaism but to lead lives based on
universal Jewish values including the oneness of God,
the emphasis on deed over creed, and the belief in the
creation of all mankind in Gods image.
Saul of Tarsus saw that the ideas and values behind
Judaism were so revolutionary that they could change
the world, if only they could be stripped of their ritual.
Thus, from the foundations of Jewish spirituality, Christianity and later Islam were born. Its time to offer the
world the original source by reviving an ancient associate status that allows non-Jews to live lives deeply influenced by Jewish spiritually and values while retaining a
distinct identity.
In ancient Rome, as Rodney Stark writes, Jews constituted ten percent of the Roman world, and attracted
many pagan God-fearers to their synagogues. Jews
in general and the synagogue in particular were
attractive even to non-Jews. The simplicity of Jewish
SEE SHMULEY PAGE 24

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 23

Editorial

Opinion

A view from the pew

Debbie and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach stand at a wall overlooking North Korea.

Shmuley
FROM PAGE 23

theology (belief in the one God),

the ethical standards (the Ten Commandments), and the many festivals exercised a certain fascination
among many in the Greco-Roman
world. Some even made a full conversion to Judaism. Others remained
in a kind of associate status what
Luke in Acts refers to as God-fearers perhaps unwilling to take
upon themselves the peculiarities of
Judaism. It is very likely that many of

Becoming a
Judaizer would
entail a sevenstep program
of living.
the non-Jews who embraced Christianity were first exposed to the Jewish scriptures and Judaism through
their association with the urban
diaspora synagogues in the Roman
Empire.
Could this be revived?
Becoming a Judaizer would entail a
seven-step program of living:
1. Observe Friday night as family night by tuning out all electronic
interference and focusing on children, friends, and community.
2. Eat kosher food (20 percent of
Americans already look for kosher
symbols as a symbol of cleanliness
and purity) and separate milk from
meat as a symbol of the affirmation
of life and its negation from all forms
of corrosion and death.

3. Celebrate the themes of the Jewish festivals. Passover seders, emphasizing the human capacity to rise
above material enslavement (President Obama already hosts his own
annual seder at the White House),
dismissing material comforts by
returning to the essentials of nature
on Sukkot, lighting lamps on Chanukah as a symbol of the human capacity to illuminate a dark earth and heal
a painful life, and so on.
4. Studying Judaisms great texts,
from the Torah portion of the week
to selections of the Talmud to the
epistles of Maimonides to mystical
and kabbalistic works.
5. Observing the marriage laws,
including the monthly erotic barrier
of sexual separation, thereby enhancing desire and lust.
6. Appreciation of, and respect for,
the feminine, including codes of alluring modesty for women and domesticity of marital commitment for men
7. A commitment to acts of communal kindness, like regular visits to hospitals and homes for the elderly and
giving 10 percent of your income to
charity.
Then there is the need to offer Judaism as a religion to those who wish to
become full-fledged Jews. If we could
agree on moderate yet essential halachic norms of conversion that focus
on observance of the Sabbath and festivals, a kosher home, and the laws of
niddah (mikveh and sexual purity),
we could add millions to the Jewish
people and strongly redress depleted
Jewish numbers.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood
is founder of This World: The Values
Network and has just published
Kosher Lust: Love is Not the
Answer. Follow him on Twitter @
RabbiShmuley

24 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

recently had lunch with

our resources and work
a local Christian minster,
together to plan for the
who reminded me of the
future of Jewish life in our
first time he and I met,
community?
some 16 years ago. He and a CathI admit that the question
olic colleague came by to pick me
of whether suburban synagogues, JCCs, and the fedup at my temple and heard me
eration and its agencies can
talking to someone about High
respond to the needs of the
Holy Day tickets. At that 1998
Rabbi Neal
next generation of diverse
lunch, my new friend asked if it
Borovitz
and diffuse American Jews is
werent awkward to require tickets to enter a synagogue on the
not merely a local question. It
holiest days in the Jewish year.
is a national issue. However, I
At our 2014 lunch, my friend reminded me
believe that with resources such as the Taub
that my instant retort was: If you were forand Berrie foundations and the Jewish Fedbidden by your tradition to pass a collection
eration of Northern New Jerseys Synagogue
plate on Christmas and Easter, what would
Leadership Initiative, whose commitments
you do? The minister had answered: I
to Jewish continuity are exemplary, and with
guess I would sell tickets too
the crises that many of our institutions are
This month, our conversation centered
facing in financing the repairs of our communal structures and funding the salaries of
on the need for churches and synagogues
Jewish communal workers, including rabbis
to rethink how we raise funds, and how we
and teachers, makes our community a great
provide for the spiritual, social welfare, and
candidate to model what I would call a year
educational needs of both the people within
of communal heshbon hanefesh, an introour congregations and the ever-growing
spective critical self- evaluation.
number of people who choose to not affiliate but still turn to us in times of need.
Northern New Jersey is a diverse Jewish
For a rabbi, the Days of Awe are truly
community, with strong congregations in
awesome in multiple ways. The task I am
all streams as well as a large contingent of
most grateful to have had lifted from me
Jews born in both Israel and the FSU, who
is dealing with the issue of membership
have added themselves to the mosaic first
and finances. Yet in the spirit of teshuvah,
formed by the American-born Jews whose
which calls upon us to take responsibilroots go back to the 19th and early 20th cenity for both our actions and our inactions,
turies. Moreover, there is a disproportionate
perhaps, now that I am retired, it is my
number of Jewish academics and professionals who live in our community. We can and
task this year to raise questions about how
should call upon their expertise to guide us
our synagogues can be houses of prayer,
in this adventure.
study, and social service for all who enter,
My intent in writing this column is to open
and even for those of our community who
up a discussion. I hope that many of you will
choose to stand on the outside until events
use both the online and the print resources
in their lives, or the lives of loved ones,
of our Jewish Standard to respond to this
cause them to seek communal support.
challenge, and that we will inscribe ourReturning to my lunch conversation
selves in the Book of Life for a year of comwith my Christian colleague, we agree that
munal reflection and introspection that will
since so many of our houses of worship are
lead us to innovative ways to perpetuate our
aging, the cost of maintaining and updating them for the 21st century is taking away
eternal heritage.
from funding our members programmatic
The Torah portion this week is called Hademands. Our institutions and those of
azinu. The Sabbath is called Shabbat Shuvah, which can translate as the Sabbath of
our sister faith communities are, like public schools and other town-based services,
Return, the Sabbath of Repentance, or the
very much tied to our counties political
Sabbath of Turning. Pete Seeger, who died
and geographic boundary lines. Those
this year, brought the words of Kohelet into
lines were designed by new immigrants to
the popular culture of the mid 20th century
suburban Bergen and Passaic counties at
when he wrote To everything/Turn turn
the end of WWII, and I question whether
turn/There is a season/Turn turn turn. May
they speak to the demographic and socio5775 be a time when we turn our attention
logical realities of the 21st century.
to how we must turn our community into a
Unlike the Catholic church, whose local
more effective vehicle for helping each of us
institutions are governed by the diocese, in
find a personal path to teshuvah.
the Jewish community, every synagogue,
community center, school, and social serRabbi Neal Borovitz is rabbi emeritus of
vice agency is governed independently
Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge,
and the buildings are owned individually.
past chair of the Jewish Community
Therefore, during these days of reflecRelations Council of the Jewish Federation
tion and introspection I wish to raise the
of Northern New Jersey, and a member
question: Can we in northern New Jerof the board of Jewish Council for Public
sey commit ourselves this year to begin
Affairs and the Rabbinic Cabinet of Jewish
a real conversation on how we can share
Federations of North America.

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Opinion

Letter from Sderot

Praying for a year
of peace and security

arlier this month, I had the honor to usher

in the start of the new school year for the
students of Sderot in the presence of our
nations prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. In that moment, as I looked at the innocence of
school children amidst the entourage of our countrys
most protected leader, I breathed the deepest sigh of
relief that I had allowed myself in nearly two months.
For in that scene I saw the very epitome of Israels
existence a bright and committed future combined
with the strength and resilience that brought us to that
place and time.
Let there be no doubt that the last several months
of the lives of the residents of Sderot and the surrounding regions have been wholly defined by tension and uncertainty. I fully admit there were times
when I feared I would never have the chance to
breathe normally while watching schoolchildren
head off to their classes.
The situation was so dire that even when we had
the rare privilege of making it through the night without the interruption of sirens, we would always awake
without knowing what the day would bring. The
sounds of warfare were almost constant, and deprived
us of all the normal joys that we so long for during the
lazy months of summer.
Indeed, for the residents of southern Israel there
was no summer of 2014.
Instead, this was the summer where the word tunnel became associated with intense fear.

Sadly, we will never

get this summer
back. The pain and
loss of July and
August 2014 is likely
to remain with us for
the rest of our lives.
This was the summer where we became experts in
differentiating the sound of a rocket impact from one
deflected by the Iron Dome.
This was the summer when we looked on from our
homes and were able to see our soldiers advancing
towards Gaza to protect our lives.
This was the summer of Tzuk Eitan, Protective Edge.
Sadly, we will never get this summer back. The pain
and loss of July and August 2014 is likely to remain
with us for the rest of our lives.
Yet now I feel that the State of Israel can and should
take pride in its accomplishments. Indeed, my military
and my government have taken the prudent steps to
defend its citizens and for that they deserve our unmitigated gratitude.
Certainly there will remain debates over whether
we won this war in the classic sense, and I know that
the future is far from certain.
I also am fully aware of the fact that we cannot let

down our guard. We in Sderot live under

a constant threat that requires special
defenses to remain prepared for any possibility. This will require the continued support of our government and our friends
around the world.
The traumas of the last two months, and
indeed the past 14 years, caused by the often
incessant rocket attacks, cannot be healed
Alon
with even the best intentioned agreement
Davidi
or policy paper. There is work to be done,
businesses, homes, and lives to be rebuilt.
We are committed to doing all that is possible to ensure our citizens safety and well-being.
And while I am forced to acknowledge that the future is
uncertain, I also firmly believe that we deserve to hope.
Even with the challenges and doubts that surround our
current existence, we must recognize that our nation has

given us the ability to believe that a safer

tomorrow is possible.
So as I watched these children and looked
upon my prime minister, I welcomed those
dual emotions of optimism and strength
represented in both. Because as intent as
our enemies might be on our destruction, I
am more convinced than ever that these are
ideals of the modern State of Israel that will
never be taken from us.
And with that conviction in mind and as
we look ahead to the New Year, I know we
can all be united in the prayer that it will
be one of peace and security, not simply for the people
of Sderot and Israel but indeed for all the Jewish people
around the world.
Alon Davidi is the mayor of Sderot, Israel.

LShana Tova!
ZOA-NJ wishes a year of strength and blessings to the

Mort Klein!
National President, ZOA

entire Jewish community. Many thanks to the hundreds of

participants and volunteers who made this year such a
success! Israel needs our support now more than ever.
Please join and donate today to help us
continue to grow in the year to come.

Make this YOUR year to make a difference!

Join - Donate - Volunteer - Belong!

Laura Fein!
Executive Director, ZOA-NJ

Since 1897, the Zionist Organization of America has been the nations strongest advocate
for a safe, secure Israel. Principled and unapologetic in our support for all Israel, including
residents of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, ZOA condemns moral equivalency between
Israel and her enemies and insists Arabs cease violence and accept Israel as a Jewish
state. In Congress and in the courts, on campus and in communities around the US and
Israel, the ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations and educate elected officials, the
media, students and the public about the truth of the ongoing Arab war against Israel.

When I think of ZOA, I think of an organization that refuses to

compromise on the truth regardless of prevailing fashionI
urge you to support the ZOA and its efforts on behalf of Israel.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu!

For more information or

to donate contact:
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201-424-1825 [email protected]
www.zoa.org FaceBook: ZOA-NJ

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 25

Cover Story

Shmitta
time
is here
again
When you come into the land which I give you, then shall
the land keep a sabbath unto God. Six years you shall sow
your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard,
and gather in its produce. But in the seventh year shall be a
sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto God;
Top and throughout, the harvest at Adamah Farms. Above, Nigel Savage holds a
basket of newly picked onions.
26 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
Leviticus 25:2-4

a
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n

all

ow

d,

ea

od;

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:2-4

Cover Story

For thousands of years, Jews have observed every seventh year as a

sabbatical, or shmitta. Here, we give you an in-depth look at shmitta,
its observance, and its meaning for us, far from the Holy Land.

Jewish time
A new vision of shmitta
JOANNE PALMER

he shmitta year gives us an

unusual chance to think about
Jewish time, Nigel Savage said.
The nattily dressed, Manchester-accented Mr. Savage is the founder and
president of Hazon, whose name means
vision. Hazon, which is headquartered
in Manhattan and based more pastorally
and picturesquely in Camp Isabella Friedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village,
Conn., is an organization whose mission,
according to its website, is to work to
create a healthier and more sustainable
Jewish community, and a healthier and

more sustainable world for all. It sponsors retreats and bike rides in the United
States and Israel and works with Adamah,
a working Jewish farm, among many other
programs.
Before he got to the content of shmitta,
Mr. Savage talked about its form about
how it fits into Jewish time. Jewish life
runs on Jewish time, he said. Each holiday, major and minor, has its own themes,
feelings, melodies, and season Rosh
Hashanah cannot be mistaken for Pesach
or Shavuot, or, for that matter, for Chanukah or Purim. And every shul across
the spectrum, from ultra-liberal to ultraOrthodox, will recognize Rosh Hashanah,

he said. The only piece of the Jewish calendar we dont recognize is shmitta.
Of course, he acknowledged, part of that
lack of recognition is that the observance
of shmitta is limited to produce coming
from the land of Israel, so if we were to
look at it only literally, most of us here
would be entirely unaffected by it most of
the time.
But we are Jews. We do not limit ourselves to the literal. We find meaning, metaphor, wisdom, and depth in unexpected
places.
So, Mr. Savage said, let us look at the
shmitta year and see what there is in it for
us. If we do, we will see great opportunity.

To begin with, the seven-year cycle

that will start a year from now, once the
shmitta year is over, and will end in the
next shmitta year, will form a discreet
cycle in Jewish life. It is an open question for any Jewish institution shul, day
school, JCC, private business, federation
how this year is going to be different from
the other six years of the cycle, and how
you will think of the cycle.
Where were you in 2008, and where
will you be in 2022?
Where was the Jewish Standard in
2008? Where will you be in 2022? What
about changes in technoloy? In your subscriber base?

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 27

Cover Story

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The first thing to do is to start to think about Jewish

life in terms of Jewish time. A shul might say, OK, we will
use the shmitta year to reflect on where we have come
in the last six years, what we have learned, and how
we have changed. Are our members older or younger?
More or less observant? And it might start to vision the
next seven-year period, on what should be its focus
on learning, on families, on the relationship with Israel,
whatever but the notion of reconnecting to Jewish
time is an incredible gift of shmitta.
Its really interesting, thinking in terms of a sevenyear cycle, he said. The electoral cycle is four years.
The stock market really runs on a one- or two-year cycle.

Seven years is
interesting. Its not pie
in the sky its not 50
years from now, or even
20 but it is a slightly
longer time frame than
were used to.
Undergraduate school and high school are four years.
Seven years is interesting. Its not pie in the sky its not
50 years from now, or even 20 but it is a slightly longer
time frame than were used to.
The thing for organizations to do might be to take
staff, some board members, and other key people to a
retreat where you think about those questions. That is a
gift of the shmitta year.
Then Mr. Savage began to talk about the content
what the shmitta year actually demands, and what that
might mean.
The primary texts about shmittah in the Torah are
slightly contradictory, he said. Some of them are about
letting the land lie fallow. Its not totally clear why, but
in at least one of the texts, the larger reason seems to be
not for sake of the land, but for people who are poor.
It really seems to be about reducing the difference

between people who have more and people who have

less. (Thats from Exodus 23:11, where we are told that
For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in
its produce, but in the seventh, you are to let it go and
to let it be, so that the needy of your people may eat.)
So what does it mean for Jews in the 21st century?
Could it be about Israel? Could people say Davka, this is
the year that I will go visit there, learn more about food
systems there? Is it about learning more about how to
help people in need in Israel? About maybe giving a little
money to an Israeli nonprofit like Leket, which essentially redistributes leftover food from those who have it
to those who need it and which, coincidentally, was
started by Joe Gitler, who made aliyah from Teaneck?
Shmitta rules apply to annual crops corn and wheat
and soy, among others but they do not apply to perennial crops, including fruits and nuts. So someone might
say, OK, the way Ill observe shmitta in New Jersey this
year is to become more aware of the difference between
annual and perennial crops, and make sure that there
are perennials at every one of my Shabbat meals, and to
point them out to my guests.
Mr. Savage said that Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of Baltimore points out that although the most vibrant aspects
of Jewish life tend to have a lot of ritual associated with
them, there is no ritual for shmitta. She suggests creating such a ritual, Mr. Savage said. What if we created
a shmitta seder plate to have on Rosh Hashanah? A
seder plate has seven things we already have apple
and honey and challah and wine, so what should the
other three things be? Maybe one is a pomegranate. And
then what about the other two? It leaves us a space both
to be creative and to think about tradition.
He has some suggestions for a shmitta observance
outside Israel. Shmitta means letting go. We all have to
figure out what to let go, he said. It is that act of letting
go, of making do, of creatively repurposing, of working
with whats there, that is the essence of the concept.
In my household, that might be buying books, he
said. That is a habit to which he is addicted. Several
months ago, I started taking books I havent read off my
shelves and wrapping them in newspaper. We now have
a stack of newspaper-wrapped books, at least 60 or 70
of them. They are not labeled.
SEE JEWISH TIME PAGE 30

Cover Story

Pruning Jewish law

RVL 4.025x5.375 Mag v2:Layout 1

6/17/10

2:40 PM

Page 1

Teaneck woman dives deeply into shmitta

LARRY YUDELSON

eninah Feldman of Teaneck spent the summer toiling in the scholarship of vineyards.
The budding agronomist has graduated
from Cornells College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences and is applying for graduate school to study
pest control. She recently spent a month studying at the
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale.
This year, the Orthodox rabbinical seminary focused
its summer program of intense study on the upcoming
shmitta year, and opened it to non-rabbinical students.
It was a really wonderful experience, Ms. Feldman
said. Im really glad I was able to take a month off from
my life and just do it.
Ms. Feldman graduated from the Maayanot Yeshiva
High School for Girls, and studied in yeshiva in Israel for
a year before Cornell. She said that it was wonderful
to be part of the Chovevei community and the teamwork
of the summer program.
The program began with
the group studying the
Mishnaic tractate of Sheviit,
which deals with the sabbatical year. After that, the
students mostly studied on
their own, delving into the
thickets of topics that interested them particularly.
For Ms. Feldman, that
topic was the question of
pruning vineyards during
the shmitta year. Pruning
is one of the agricultural
activities that halacha bars
during the sabbatical year.
In the modern era, this has
become a much bigger issue
than it was, because the grape vines we have now are
so vigorous that they have to pruned every year, she
explained.
Grapes grow only on newly sprouted tendrils. The
next year, the tendrils turn to wood, which sends out
new tendrils that will yield new grapes. If they are not
pruned, the vines will produce too many shoots. That
means too many grapes, which turn out small and
mushy and mealy and dont get any of the flavors that
would make good wine, Ms. Feldman said.
That wouldnt affect only the sabbatical years harvest, but the following years as well.
Pruning the vines before the sabbatical year begins on
Rosh Hashanah only would make the problem worse.
You get an explosive rate of growth from the vine, she
said. It wants to grow more. Thats why pruning takes
place, at least in Israel, in February, when the vines are
dormant.
In her study of Jewish law about pruning during
shmitta, Ms. Feldman discovered that the topic was
long dormant. The Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud
discussed the topic in the first few hundred years of the
common era, while Jews still lived in the Land of Israel.
After that, commentators on the Talmud discussed that
discussion, but with virtually no Jewish agricultural
presence in the Land of Israel for 14 centuries, the questions were abstract. That changed with the return to the
land in the 19th century.

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Peninah Feldman on a tractor

at Cornell and holding a giant
etrog in Israel.

In the 1880s, after Edmond

James de Rothschild helped the
Jews of the First Aliya plant their
first vineyards near Rishon Letziyon, the topic was no longer
moot and halachic discourse blossomed.
I was surprised by how the Torah says you cant
prune your vines, and every modern posek halachic
arbiter says, heres how you prune your vines. I was
surprised by the resourcefulness of the poskim, Ms.
Feldman said.
Different authorities dealt with the problem of permitting pruning in different ways.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who would later become
the first chief rabbi of Palestine under British rule, is
famous for solving the problem of shmitta through heter
mechira permitting the land to be temporarily sold to
non-Jews.
But in addition to the broad, general, and controversial solution, he also addressed the specifics of agriculture in the shmitta year.
In terms of pruning, Ms. Feldman said, Rav Kook
imagines that the Torah is only talking about pruning
the very tips of branches, but the modern way, when
we prune down to the bottom of the branches, is sort of
a lower level of transgression and youre able to do it to
preserve the tree.
The Chazon Ish Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz,
who led Israeli charedi Judaism until his death in 1953,
and rejected Rabbi Kooks approach has his own picture. He has a very complicated ruling, where he says
only a professional can do a good job, and only that is

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A mOmeNT Of refLecTiON,
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SEE PRUNING PAGE 30

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 29

N4080482A.indd 1

9/3/14 2:17 PM

Cover Story
Jewish Time
FROM PAGE 28

One of my ideas is to disable the one-click on Amazon

to take my credit card off. That will make it a lot harder
for me to buy books. So every time I have the craving for a
new book I will go into my study and pick one of the books
and unwrap it. And then I will say, Oh my God, I always
wanted to read this.
Similarly, he said, an artist friend has decided not to buy
new art materials, but instead to use what he has and to

30 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

try to work with found objects for the year.

Shlomo Carlebach said that the Torah is a commentary on the world, and the world is a commentary on the
Torah. True to his idea of recycling, Hazon has taken that
saying and applied it to shmitta. It means that the conversation goes both ways, Mr. Savage said. Shmitta is a
great time to go between tradition on the one hand and
new ideas on the other.
Hazon has created a sourcebook for shmitta. Its online;
you can find it by googling Shmitta Hazon sourcebook.

Pruning
FROM PAGE 29

prohibited by the Torah. As a result, pruning could

be done by amateurs, if they were careful to be indiscriminate about it.
It was a very cool journey, she said of her research,
which she collated in a paper for the yeshivas forthcoming journal on shmitta.
Ms. Feldman came to her study with hands-on experience in shmitta research. She worked as an intern
two summers working on projects for the Israel Ministry of Agricultures Unit for Agriculture According to
the Torah.
One of the projects was a spray that you spray on
flowers of grape vines which stops them from turning into fruit, she said. Because the flowers are so
sensitive, they can be disrupted by the chemical
that doesnt harm the vines leaves. As an intern, she
helped harvesting and weighing the grapes from the
sprayed vines.
The immediate purpose of the spray was for orlah
the produce of a tree or vines first three years, which
the Torah says cannot be eaten. Instead of having to
produce all this non-usable fruit and send in laborers
to remove it, it would be much cheaper to just spray
this spray and take down the yield.
And it would have applications for shmitta:
Destroying the flowers helps the vine produce a
moderate number of fruits, even if there are a lot of
branches. But the best way to use it would be in conjunction with another form of pruning.
She compared her interest to the halachic issues of
pruning to her professional interest in pesticides.
Im interested in giving both growers and poskim
as many tools as possible to solve problems, she said.
Theres a lot to be said about shmitta on a conceptual level, but on a practical level, just dropping everything and walking away doesnt work. In the Torah,
God says, Im going make you miracles and youll be
able to eat all your stored food from before shmitta.
I dont think we live in a world where God is going to
give us miracles for our economy to function.

RCBC

Cover Story

What is shmitta?
Local Conservative rabbi explains
JOANNE PALMER

abbi Dr. Mayer Rabinowitz of

Teaneck, a halachist at the
Jewish Theological Seminary,
is used to taking the long view

on issues.
That is particularly useful for a discussion of shmitta, a biblically mandated
but not detailed agricultural practice
that affects produce grown in the land
of Israel.
There is much that is not clear about
the original mandate, found in Leviticus
25, verses 1 though 7, but what is clear
is that it applies only to the land of Israel,
so that once the Temple is destroyed and
most of the Jews no longer live there, it
wasnt being observed, Rabbi Rabinowitz said. And it became onerous for the
few Jews still farming to take the year
off and actually it was more like two
years, because there would have been
neither reaping nor sowing during the
shmitta year.
So Judah HaNasi, who died at the
beginning of the third century, started
limiting the laws of shmitta for those Jews
who still lived there, because if they didnt
have the money to pay their taxes to the
Romans, theyd be putting themselves
in trouble. So already, at the end of the
second century, there was a tendency to
limit shmitta. The borders around the
area affected by shmitta were tightened,
people who were suspected of nonobservance were forgiven, and there was some

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talk of annulling it altogether, he said.

That lasted for a very long time, and
then Jews started coming back.
Once Jews started to return to the land
in significant numbers, and to cultivate it,
they had to start dealing with the laws of

Once Jews
started to return
to the land
in signicant
numbers, and to
cultivate it, they
had to start
dealing with the
laws of shmitta.
shmitta, Rabbi Rabinowitz said. It was a
major issue the first pioneers came to
found kibbutzim, which were agricultural in nature.
But the economy had changed since
pre-exilic times. It would have threatened
the economy. And what was true a century or so ago is even more true today.
Even though many of the kibbutzim and
moshavim have diversified, or given up
agriculture entirely, still you have all
sorts of agricultural companies producing

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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 31

Cover Story
What is shmitta?
FROM PAGE 31

all sorts of exports and serving the people of Israel. If the laws
of shmitta were followed strictly, the entire economy would
be in trouble.
There have been a number of ingenious solutions to the
problem. The Chazon Ish, a charedi scholar who died in
1953, and whose opinions are highly influential in that world,
said to sow winter crops early, so they are done before
the shmitta year begins. Other solutions include growing

crops hydroponically, so they do not touch the land. People

appointed as agents of a rabbinic court could harvest crops,
and then sell them to court-held warehouses. These legal
fictions worked because the law was said to apply to individuals, and they werent working as individuals, Rabbi
Rabinowitz said.
Some charedi kibbutzim were supported by a shmitta foundation; money raised abroad helped its residents weather the
two lean years in the cycle.
The first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, Abraham Isaac
Kook, came up with the idea of a heter mechira, Rabbi

Rabinowitz said. Just as a heter mechira allows Jews to

sell their chametz to non-Jews before Pesach, and then
reclaim it for the same nominal sum after the holiday,
the legal fiction allows Jews to sell land to non-Jews for
a two-year period. There would be five actions sowing, pruning, reaping, harvesting grapes, and plowing
that would have to be done by non-Jews. Jews could
do the rest.
There were ideological problems with these solutions, however. Being supported from outside Israel
contradicted the vision of Zionism, and Kooks idea
means selling the land of Israel to non-Jews, he said.
Stores that sell produce in Israel during the shmitta
year now inform their customers about the methods
used. One will say we have only Arab produce, and
another will say heter mechira, and another that its
been grown hydroponically, or it is from places where
the laws do not apply.
Rabbi Rabinowitz is Conservative; the movements
counterpart in Israel is called Masorti, and its prime hal-

The idea of using

the shmitta year to
provide for the poor,
as the Torah verse
suggests we do,
resurfaces often.
achist is Rabbi David Golinkin. Rabbi Golinkin said that
farmers who cant observe shmitta for either personal
or financial reasons may do all the acts necessary to
their business during the shmitta year, but they should
do it in a different manner than usual.
For example, They might say, I wont turn the light
on with my hand, but I will with my elbow. (No, it is
not forbidden to turn lights on during the shmitta year;
it is just hard to come up with an example about farming
that speaks to non-farmers.)
Rabbi Golinkin also said that you should avoid planting and tending to ornamental gardens, although if such
gardens are necessary to prevent erosion, or for reasons
of that nature, you could do it.
And he also suggests that all Jewish farmers donate a
portion of their shmitta year profits to the poor.
The idea of using the shmitta year to provide for the
poor, as the Torah verse suggests we do, resurfaces
often.
Ruth Calderon, a secular Israeli talmudist and a member of the Knesset, recently came up with a great idea,
Rabbi Rabinowitz said. Since shmitta is about the forgiving of debt, she is trying to get the banks to lower the
interest rate, or to forgive some debt. The forgiving of
debt doesnt apply only to the land of Israel, he said.
And environmental values also are bound up in the
concept of shmitta, he said. How should we treat
the land? We should consider the values that underlie
shmitta, even if they are not mentioned specifically.
There are now a lot of Jews in North America setting
up organizations for sustainable agriculture, sustainable
meat production, and tying agriculture back into their
Jewish culture and identity. They are taking metaphoric
ideas that are not part of the legal system as it is written, and using that to expand the idea of shmitta into
the modern period, to give it meaning and value today.
After all, Rabbi Rabinowitz said, We dont live in
the same society that people in the biblical period lived
in. We mostly dont grow our own food.
32 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

g
o
,
e
,
.

Cover Story

Dont fear the shmitta

LARRY YUDELSON

abbi Chaim Jachter doesnt

want the shmitta year to turn
into a boycott of Israeli fruit
and produce.
Rabbi Jachter leads Congregation Shaarei Orah, the Sephardic Congregation of
Teaneck. He also heads the bible department at the Torah Academy of Bergen
County. And as the author of three volumes tracing the halachic discussions of
various issues, he may be the areas most
published writer on Jewish law.
My opinion is to rely on the heter
mechira the process by which the
Israeli rabbinate permits agriculture during the shmitta year by selling the land of
Israel to a Gentile, much as chametz is sold
before Passover.
He has advice for consumers in New
Jersey who want to observe the laws of
shmitta when they shop. When they buy
packaged goods made in Israel, he said,
there is no need to worry about eating
produce from the shmitta year that might
have been grown improperly. Kashrut

agencies such as the Orthodox Union take

care of that for you, he said.
The Orthodox Union, for its part, does
not rely on the heter.
All OU-certified products use either
pre-shmitta produce, produce grown outside the halachic boundaries of Israel, or
produce grown by non-Jews, according
to an article in the organizations Jewish
Action magazine.
Rabbi Jachter said that the OU is following the lead of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
and the charedi world in rejecting the
heter.
But though Rabbi Jachter was ordained
at Yeshiva University, where Rabbi
Soloveitchik taught, he said he preferred
the view of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who
ruled that one who wants to can rely on
the heter, he said. I would think you
should follow Ovadia Yosef s opinion at
a time when you should be supporting
Israel.
I know its very controversial, but Jews
should always be supporting the Israeli
economy.
Those who dont rely on the heter

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mechira will not be able to eat produce

exported from Israel that was grown during the shmitta year.
If religious Jews are going to boycott
Israeli produce, people in Costco are going
to see that Israeli produce is not selling,
Rabbi Jachter said. Thats terrible. We
should go out of our way to buy Israeli produce. If our great-grandparents had had
the opportunity to buy Israeli produce in
their markets, they would have gone crazy.
For the mitzvah of supporting the Israeli
economy and our brothers and sisters who
are in Israel, and especially after this past

summer, you can rely on the heter.

However, he said, Israeli produce from
the shmitta year which would could
include fruit that was harvested after next
year, but blossomed this year has a special sanctity that requires special care.
It must be eaten, not discarded. Which
means to eat it all something our greatgrandparents would have understood.
If there are any leftovers of Israeli
produce, put them in a plastic bag and
let them rot, he said. Once it spoiled,
shmitta produce loses its sanctity and can
be thrown away.

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TEL AVIV During the past 18 months,

the governing coalition in Israel has
passed legislation to extend the nations
mandatory conscription to the charedi
Orthodox a group now exempted from
military service and Knesset leaders
have advanced bills that would allow for
civil unions and ease restrictions on Jewish conversions.
But a new study shows that the majority of Israeli electorate remains unhappy
with the amount of religious influence
on Israeli life and law.
The annual report, which was released
Monday by Hiddush a 5-year-old organization that lobbies the Knesset to promote religious freedom revealed that
61 percent of Israelis support increased
religion-state separation and 78 percent
are dissatisfied with the governments
actions on religion-and-state issues.
Specifically, two-thirds of Israelis back
legalizing civil marriage, up from 61 percent in 2010. And 64 percent of Israelis
support recognizing Conservative and
Reform conversions, a slight rise from
the 60 percent in 2010.
On both issues, no less than 100 percent of charedim polled supported Israels longstanding policies, which have
the Orthodox chief rabbinate maintaining control over Jewish marriages and
recognizing only Orthodox conversions.
Still, one-third of charedi respondents
joined the 71 percent of Israelis who disapproved of the chief rabbinate.
For charedim who think Israel should

be a theocracy, its described as a government of destruction, said Rabbi Uri

Regev, the CEO of Hiddush.
On the other side, [those favoring
religion-state separation feel] the government has never really been attentive, said Regev, noting that successive
governments have prioritized defense
policy over religious liberalization.
The Knessets largest party, the centrist Yesh Atid, pushed through a law
this year to include charedim in Israels
mandatory draft. The mandate doesnt
go into effect for another three years,
and 61 percent of Israelis including 98
percent of charedim themselves dont
believe charedi Jews ultimately will be
drafted.
The passage of the draft law this year
came amid rising charedi-secular tensions, which culminated with at least
300,000 charedim taking to the streets
of Jerusalem in protest in March. According to the Hiddush poll, 68 percent of
Israelis viewed charedi-secular tensions
as one of the worst internal conflicts in
Israel.
Last year was characterized by a lack
of communication between the sectors,
Aharon Kravitz, a charedi journalist and
activist, said. People talked about the
charedim. Nobody talked with the charedim. Theres a lack of understanding,
and that influences public opinion.
There was agreement with the charedim on at least one point: A majority of
Israelis, including four-fifths of charedim, backed affirmative action to place
charedim in government jobs.

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As in previous years, the poll also found that Israelis have bridged a once-stark religious-secular divide.
Among the 800 total respondents, 49 percent identified as secular, 17 percent as traditional-not-so-religious, 13 percent as traditional-religious, 12 percent
as religious, and 9 percent as charedi.
According to the survey, 42 percent of Israelis
observe the Sabbath in some way, whether according to traditional Jewish law or through such customs
as lighting candles and blessing wine.
Simplistic divisions are really missing the point,
Regev said. Respect for Shabbat is not only the
domain of those who define themselves as religious.
There are varying degrees of personal respect and
observance that Israelis follow.

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The Israeli government approved a multiyear strategic recovery plan devised for southern Israel in
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This is the biggest investment Israel has ever
made in the south, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said. The funds, he said, will be appropriated on top of the $114 million we allocated to
the south during Operation Protective Edge.
We will create new infrastructure for the factories in southern Israel, we will support medium and
small businesses in the area, and we will develop the
souths tourism industry, as well as all other aspects
of life, which would benefit all Negev residents,
including the Bedouin community, he added.

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Netanyahu warns against

working with Iran to
combat Islamic State
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in
response to a Reuters report that Iran is willing to
work with the United States and its allies to combat
the Islamic State terror group in exchange for more
flexibility on uranium enrichment, warned against
any collaboration with Iran.
They are saying that the major powers need
to go easy on Irans nuclear program so that Iran
will fight ISIS, Netanyahu said in a speech at the
Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem
on Sunday. Iran is fighting ISIS for its own interests. They are fighting over who will be the ruler
of the Islamist world that they want to set over the
entire world. It is as if [Bashar] Assad would say,
Go easy on my chemical weapons. Give me back
my chemical weapons so that I can fight ISIS. Both
are absurd.
Menachem Begin would reject this outright
and so do I, Netanyahu added. Iran must not be
allowed to become a nuclear threshold state.
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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 35

Jewish World

What killed the peace talks?

Indyk describes Americas no-win dilemma
RON KAMPEAS
WASHINGTON What was supposed to
have revived the Israeli-Palestinian peace
talks allowing negotiations to develop
organically instead helped kill them, Martin Indyk, until recently the top U.S. peace
broker, said in a candid and wide-ranging
interview.
Speaking by phone on September 19 while
in transit to his native Australia for the High
Holidays, Indyk described the collapse of the
talks in April and the opportunities that have
emerged from the war that ensued. He also
opened up about his own return to the think
tank world, where he faces accusations that
foreign donors particularly Qatar, which
funds Hamas and other extremist groups
exert undue pressure on domestic policy
discussions.
The process that ultimately hurt the peace
talks entailed teasing out advances from
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

adding some flesh to them, and then bringing

them to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, for
consideration. But the United States refraining from imposing ideas inhibited the sides
particularly the Palestinians from embracing them, Indyk said, describing what he
said was a damned if we did, damned if we
didnt dilemma for the Americans.
Indyk, who Secretary of State John Kerry
tasked with restarting peace talks from July
2013 until June of this year, recalled an optimistic phone call he made to Jewish community leaders in January.
We had the sense then that Netanyahu
had moved, and that had given us some optimism that we would be able to move forward, he said.
Among the ideas that Indyk hoped to
advance was the introduction of complex
security arrangements for the Jordan Valley
that would mitigate against Israels perceived
need to maintain a military presence there.

Other ideas put forth: language that would

address Netanyahus demand to have the
Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state
and land swaps allowing up to 80 percent of
West Bank Jewish settlers to stay in place.
But things went south, Indyk said, after
the U.S. side met with Abbas in February.
Abu Mazen, at the critical moment when
we needed to respond after we had spent a
lot of time negotiating with Prime Minister
Netanyahu and moved him into the zone of a
possible agreement, didnt respond, he said.
We were sensitive to the charge that the
Palestinians used to make in earlier efforts
that the United States is Israels lawyer, it
just cooks everything with Israel and seeks
to impose it on the Palestinians, Indyk said.
Ironically, we purposely avoided precooking our ideas with Netanyahu, and the
response from the Palestinians was how
can you expect us to accept them if you
havent got Bibi Netanyahu to accept them
first? In a way we were damned if we did

Martin Indyk said that the United

States restraint in imposing ideas on
the Israelis and Palestinians inhibited
both sides from embracing them.

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES

and we were damned if we didnt.

Indyk said that in a May speech to the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
He did not blame Netanyahu personally for
the settlement expansion. He has said the

Jury makes landmark decision

Arab Bank held liable for supporting Hamas
BATYA UNGAR-SARGON
NEW YORK Following a five-week landmark civil trial and two days of deliberation, a Brooklyn jury found Arab Bank liable of knowingly supporting terrorism in
Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
According to the U.S. District Court ruling on Monday, the Jordan-based bank
provided material support to Hamas.
That backing helped facilitate 24 terror
attacks between 2001 and 2004.
The case was brought by nearly 300
U.S. citizens who had been injured or

lost family members in the attacks, which

took place during the second intifada.
It was the first civil case against a bank
to be tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act
of 1991, which allows victims of foreign
terror attacks to sue for damages in the
United States. The case had been tied up
in litigation for a decade before finally
going to trial in August.
The plaintiffs team of lawyers, led by
Gary Osen, who practices in Hackensack
and Manhattan, argued that Arab Bank
knowingly processed large payments to
Hamas leaders from a Saudi charity, as well

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36 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

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as martyr payments payouts of $5,300

to the families of suicide bombers.
Shand Stephens, a lawyer for the defense,
contended that the bank had followed
all the guidelines set forth by the United
States and other governments in determining which payments to allow and which to
block. Stephens said that Arab Bank used
software designed to flag the names of terrorists designated by the U.S. government.
The defense insisted that the financial
institution should not be held liable for
transactions that passed muster with the
U.S. government.

Among the plaintiffs in the case was Sarri

Singer, who was injured in a 2003 suicide
bombing.
I started crying when the email came
in, Singer, the daughter of New Jersey state
Senator Robert Singer, said shortly after the
verdict was announced.
Singer was on the No. 14 bus in Jerusalem
on June 11, 2003, when the suicide bomber,
who was standing a few feet from her, blew
himself up. Sixteen people on the bus were
killed and 100 others were injured. Singers
clavicle was broken, and she still has shrapnel lodged in her mouth.

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Jewish World
settlements helped scuttle the talks.
It was a kind of a situation in which the
prime minister was very determined to try
and reach a deal and he had ministers in his
Cabinet who didnt believe in it, Indyk said.
Theres something structural about Israeli
politics because of the nature of having to
build coalitions its very difficult for a prime
minister to move forward.
Another non-starter, Indyk said, was Israels insistence that it maintain a permanent
military presence in the West Bank.
I do not underestimate the Israeli security
climate in the wake of this summers Gaza
war and the Islamist insurgency in Iraq and
Syria, but Israeli troops staying in place is a
perpetuation of the occupation. Its not possible to work that out in the area thats supposed to be the Palestinian state.
Indyk praised the pro-Israel community,
and he singled out the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee. His team maintained outreach through a full-time State Department
staffer, Laura Blumenfeld, and through Robert Wexler, the former Democratic congressman who now helms the Center for Middle
East Peace.
We put a lot of effort in trying to get them
to understand what we were trying to do,

he said, referring to the Jewish and pro-Israel

leadership. In general, they want peace,
they want a two-state solution if it means a
secure Israel. It was gratifying.
Cooperation from AIPAC and other groups
also helped reduce congressional resistance
to Kerrys efforts to nil, Indyk said.
I dont think that during those nine
months we faced any backlash on the Hill,
he said, acknowledging his surprise at that.
I spent a lot of time on the Hill and got very
strong support from the appropriators,
Republicans and Democrats.
After Abbas refused to commit, Kerry and
Indyk failed to get the sides to extend the
talks beyond the April deadline. Abbas Fatah
party later joined Hamas in backing a government of technocrats, leading Netanyahu to
threaten to isolate the Palestinian Authority.
Then in June, there was the kidnapping
and murder of three Israeli teenagers. The
next month brought the revenge murder of a
Palestinian teenager and the launch of Israels
military operation against Hamas in the Gaza
Strip, which lasted into late August.
Indyk left his State Department post in late
June and returned to the Brookings Institution as its vice president and director for foreign policy.

Theres something
structural about
Israeli politics
because of
the nature of
having to build
coalitions its
very difficult for a
prime minister to
move forward.
He said the war may have presented opportunities to boost Abbas and contain Hamas
influence. As Abu Mazen said, hes not going
to be a fez on the scarecrow, hes not going to
be a beard for Hamas, Indyk said. Supporting him with funding is essential.
Before he launched his career as a diplomat during the Clinton administration,
Indyk worked for AIPAC and founded the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy,

bank wrote in its statement.

This precedent, the bank wrote, would
create vast uncertainty and risk in the
international finance system, thus limiting access to financial services in parts of
the world. Other terror-financing trials are
pending.

a think tank with strong ties to the Israeli

and U.S. governments.
Given that background, he sounded more
nonplussed than infuriated although he
was infuriated by the argument, published
recently in Tablet, that Qatars funding of
Brookings may have influenced his outlook
during his most recent stint at the State
Department.
The conspiracies of me serving as the
agent of Qatar are as credible as those having me acting as an agent for Israel when that
was put forward by Walt and Mearsheimer,
Indyk said, referring to the 2007 book The
Israel Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, which posited undue Israeli influence in Washington.
Indyk noted that until this year, Brookings Middle East branch was named for the
Israeli-American entertainment mogul Haim
Saban, who has close ties with Israeli government officials.
Haim has been a bigger donor to Brookings than Qatar has, he said, comparing
the more than $20 million Saban has given
Brookings to the $14.8 million from Qatar
most of it for a Brookings campus in
Doha. In both cases, they respected our
JTA WIRE SERVICE
independence.

The case is significant in that financial institutions can be held responsible for the actions
of their clients. A similar case was thrown out
over this issue by a U.S. District Court in 2012.
Hamas is not the defendant, the judge, Jack
Weinstein, wrote in explanation at the time.
JTA WIRE SERVICE


Jewish Community Center of Paramus/

Congregation Beth Tikvah
2014

A New York jury found Arab Bank liable for this Hamas suicide bombing
in Jerusalem on June 11, 2003, which killed 16 people, because the bank
knowingly processed martyr payments to the families of suicide bombers.

QUIQUE KIERSZENBAUM/GETTY IMAGES

I feel very validated and acknowledged as a victim of terror, Singer

said. The jury has given us a sense that
there is someone responsible for what
happened to us.
A separate phase of the trial will
determine how much the bank must
pay the 297 terror victims and their
families.
In a statement following the verdict,
Arab Bank vowed to appeal and said
the court proceedings amounted to
a show trial. Specifically, the bank
said that due to foreign privacy laws,
it could not turn over the documents

requested by the plaintiffs lawyers

in the lawsuits pretrial phase. As a
result, sanctions were imposed and the
bank was not allowed to refer to those
documents, precluding much of their
defense, according to the statement.
Todays decision, if it stands,
exposes the banking industry to enormous liability for nothing other than
the processing of routine transactions
and the provision of conventional
account services even if all governmental requirements are followed and the
parties receiving services were in good
standing with these governments, the

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Life is Sweet

Jewish World

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National Front leader Marine Le Pen speaking after the presidential election
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38 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

rom the window of his Paris

home, Michel Ciardi can see
into the waiting room of a
government welfare agency,
where a predominantly Arab and African crowd awaits government checks.
A former communist, Ciardi once
believed the scene at the agency was
a necessary element of French efforts
to help integrate new immigrants. But
that changed in 2000, after the second
Palestinian intifada triggered a massive
increase in anti-Semitic violence, much
of it committed by Arab and African
immigrants.
The violence was enough to shift his
political allegiance to the National Front,
a far-right party long demonized by
French Jews as anti-Semitic and a threat
to republican values.
I never considered voting National
Front, Ciardi said. But I realized you
need to defend yourself, your community, society, and country against those
seeking to subdue us.
For a long time, French Jews have
seen the National Front as an enemy, an
abominable vestige of the pro-Nazi Vichy
state. But under the leadership of Marine
Le Pen, the photogenic daughter of party
founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, a political
provocateur convicted many times for
hate speech and Holocaust denial, the
party has tried to shed its image as decidedly outside the mainstream.
The younger Le Pen has courted Jewish voters aggressively by emphasizing
the partys opposition to the Islamization of France, and asserting that
Jews have far more to fear from Arab

anti-Semitism than from the racist rhetoric of some far-right activists.

Her strategy appears to be working.
A recently published survey of 1,095
self-identified Jews showed that the
National Front had more than doubled
its share of the Jewish vote in the 2012
presidential elections, earning 13.5 percent of Jewish support. That finding
has set off alarm bells among leaders of
Frances major Jewish groups.
Rich community bosses and welleducated students dont understand
whats happening because they dont
live with the Muslims in the workers
neighborhoods, Ciardi said. There
Jews are realizing that the immigration
policies and political correctness of past
governments created a reality where
they cannot wear their kippah outside.
Marine Le Pen assumed the leadership of the National Front in 2011. She
replaced her father, who had run the
party with his deputy, Bruno Gollnisch.
Both men were convicted of denying
the Holocaust, though the ruling was
overturned by a higher court. Together
they seemed happy to make the National
Front the bete noire of the political
establishment.
Since taking the helm, Le Pen has
worked to elevate the party to a level
of respectability it could never achieve
under her father, whose often blunt racism cost National Front many votes and
left the movement isolated.
After assuming the party leadership,
Le Pen stripped Gollnisch of his duties at
the European Parliament, leading him to
observe last year that she seeks to keep
me and her father in a certain state of
virginity a phrase pundits took to be

Jewish World
a euphemism for impotence. She repeatedly
has condemned anti-Semitism and punished
a party official who made anti-Semitic statements. In 2011, Le Pen dispatched her life partner, National Front Vice President Louis Alliot,
on a bridge-building mission to Israel.
The fact that Marine Le Pen took the party
in a more moderate direction is a major factor
for many Jews, said Gilles Goldnadel, a prominent attorney and a former member of the
executive board of CRIF, the umbrella group of
French Jewish communities. Today in France,
there is a greater danger from Islamo-leftism
than the danger posed by the far right. Its not
surprising some Jews, like non-Jews, vote for
the far right as a reaction to this threat.
Under Marine Le Pen, for the first time
party officials began courting Jewish votes by
addressing letters to their communities. One
such letter was sent this month by Julien Leonardelli, a party regional secretary from the
Toulouse area, to a local Jewish community
center that assailants attacked with firebombs
earlier this year.
Leonardelli wrote of his grave concern at
the increase of anti-Semitic attacks in France,
which he said were the result of irresponsible
immigration policies by the Socialist Party
and the UMP party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
As a National Front representative and

spokesperson for Marine Le Pen, I express

deep indignation over these acts and assure
all our Jewish compatriots of our full support
in the fight against all forms of anti-Semitism,
Leonardelli wrote.
Within the party, such efforts have
prompted a backlash from the old guard.
That includes Le Pens father and Gollnisch,
who wrote a 1,700-word blog post earlier this
month in response to the IFOP survey. In his
post, he bemoaned the partys failure to follow
the ideological course set by its founders.
After Le Pen briefly removed her fathers
blog from the party website after he said that
a Jewish singer should be put in the oven,
he accused his daughter of cowering before
the blood hounds that constantly search for
anti-Semitism.
She is being criticized internally within
National Front for her choices because there
is still an anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying element within the party, Ciardi said.
With Jews representing less than 1 percent
of the French population, the bump in support is negligible in electoral terms. But the
survey by the IFOP polling company grabbed
headlines in major publications because it was
seen as a worrisome indicator that a party
once shunned by the mainstream is gaining
traction.
The glass ceiling that prevented National

Its New Ears Time

The fact that

Marine Le Pen
took the party in
a more moderate
direction is a
major factor for
many Jews.

Like us
on
Facebook.

GILLES GOLDNADEL

Front from becoming a majority party is

beginning to seriously crack, Valerie Igounet,
a historian who specializes in the French far
right, told Le Figaro.
Among Jewish leaders, the party remains
well beyond the pale. CRIF President Roger
Cukierman recently told the RCJ Jewish radio
station that Le Pens disavowals of anti-Semitism are mere lip service from a party that
still harbors Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites in it ranks.
But even he credited Le Pen with taking
care not to offend our community and making
a step in the right direction.

facebook.com/
jewishstandard

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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 39

Jewish World

Countering violent Islamists

Backers of anti-Iran group create new organization
URIEL HEILMAN

magine taking the 6-year-old nongovernmental organization United Against Nuclear Iran and swapping out
the word Iran with violent extremists.
That pretty much sums up the Counter Extremism
Project, an NGO launched Monday that aims to expose the
financial, ideological, and recruitment architecture that
supports violent Islamic extremists.
The new project will be led by many of the same people
behind the anti-Iran organization, one of several pressure

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40 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

groups on Iran with influence

in Washington.
Mark Wallace, who served
as U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations under President
George W. Bush, is the CEO of
both groups, and former U.S.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman is one
of several Washington heavy
hitters serving on both boards.
While the Counter Extremism Projects published materials do not specifically identify
Islamic extremists as the target,
organizers made clear at the
launch event which extremists
they have in mind.
I think the real hope here
is to empower the majority within the Muslim world,
Mark Wallace, CEO of the new Counter Extremism Project, is flanked by
board members Fran Townsend and Joseph Lieberman as he announces
who are as horrified as we
the groups creation in New York on September 22.
are outside the Muslim world

COURTESY OF COUNTER EXTREMISM PROJECT
by violent Islamic extremism,
to stand up and fight back,
But Lieberman said its not clear the Treasury
Lieberman said at a news conference Monday in New
Department has the statutory authority to do the same
York unveiling the organization.
against ISIS at least, not yet.
Governments and armies may do the lions share of
Thats where I think this Counter Extremism Projthe work, but there is a distinct role for private citizens, organizers said.
ect and the resources were going to build will supplement what the Treasury Department is doing, he said.
As United Against Nuclear Iran does with Iran, the
Fran Townsend, a former Homeland Security
Counter Extremism Project plans to help identify the
adviser to President George W. Bush who is on the
sources of funding and support for violent extremists
board of the new organization (and that of United
and share the information with lawmakers in a bid to
Against Nuclear Iran), said the idea is to create an
propel government action. The project also plans to
effective public-private partnership.
shame publicly those who do business with extremists, such as the buyers of oil from the fields in Iraq
We all have the experience in government. This is a
seized by ISIS, the extremist Sunni group in Iraq and
problem that cant be attacked by government alone,
Syria also known as the Islamic State.
Townsend said. This is a problem that cant be solved
We will hopefully be fearless in calling out, Walby military power by itself.
lace said. We want to affect what we think is a very
Were working together with a broad-based coalition. Its a bipartisan effort.
grave foreign policy challenge.
The project has opened offices in New York and
Wallace said he wants to work with governments
Brussels, where the European Union is headquaracross the world, not just the usual suspects. Though
tered, and plans more. Wallace declined to identify
the Counter Extremism Project is backed by a host of
the projects sources of funding except for Thomas
pro-Israel stalwarts, Wallace sought to put distance
Kaplan, a billionaire commodities investor who also
between his group and Israel when asked if any partnership was planned perhaps in an effort to leave
backs United Against Nuclear Iran and, along with Wallace, runs the Tigris Financial Group.
the door open for partners who wouldnt want to be
Kaplan, who comes from New York and was eduseen as working with Israel.
cated at Oxford, is married to Dafna Recanati, a scion
Id like to say that Im collaborating with all friends
of one of Israels wealthiest families, and has focused
and allies, and maybe even others in the region at
his philanthropy on Jewish causes, medical institusome point, Wallace said. This is an all-hands-ontions, and animal conservation.
deck time.
Among the board members of both the Counter
Some of the projects work overlaps with that of
Extremism Project and United Against Nuclear Iran
existing organizations. For example, the project plans
are Gary Samore, who formerly served under Presito compile daily translations of Arabic media related to
dent Obama as White House coordinator for arms conextremism; the Middle East Media Research Institute
trol and weapons of mass destruction and is now at
already does selective translation of Arabic, Persian,
Harvards Kennedy School; August Hanning, a former
Urdu-Pashtu, and Dari media.
director of Germanys secret service, the BND; ambasAnd notably, some of the Counter Extremism Projects work might seem to fall under the purview of the
sador Dennis Ross, an adviser on Middle East affairs to
U.S. Treasury Department, which enforces U.S. laws
Presidents Clinton and Obama and now a fellow at the
barring financial dealings with terrorist organizations
Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Irwin
and implements U.S. sanctions legislation against Iran
Cotler, a Liberal parliamentarian and former justice
JTA WIRE SERVICE
and other countries.
minister in Canada.

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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 41

Gallery
1

n 1 Rabbi Danny Senter, a bee keeper, visited the

Preschool at Chabad of Fort Lee last week. He
talked about bees, and described the way that
they collect pollen and nectar to make honey.
n 2 Students from the Northern New Jersey Jewish Academy in Ridgewood sort
donated stuffed toys for Bears from Bergenfield. The toys will be shipped to Israel.
To date, more than 154,000 have been collected. Contact bearsfrombergenfield.com.
n 3 Robert Rabkin, left, with Rob Rosner, Sigi
Laster, Isaac Student, Yossi Rosner, and Dr. Steven Myers were among a group of Jewish Center
of Teaneck members who changed the Torah
mantles in the shuls Pressburger Sanctuary.
n 4 Rabbi Moshe Grossbaum, director of
Friends of Lubavitch of Bergen Countys
Living Legacy program, brought a shofar factory to students at Lubavitch on the
Palisades. Preschoolers felt a rough shofar and then sanded and shellacked one.
n 5 Early childhood students from Yeshivat Noam
prepared for Rosh Hashanah with an applepicking trip to Demarest Farms in Hillsdale.

42 JEWISH STANDARD DATE, 2014

n 6 Fran Aronesty and her grandchildren, Hailey and Matthew, are pictured
at a recent multigenerational Sunday

Special at the JCC of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvah. Children, parents, and grandparents made honey

trays. The next program, for 4- to

7-year-olds, will be on Sunday, October 12. Contact JCCParamus.org.

It was a very good year.

The 2014 NJ Society of Professional Journalists
Excellence in Journalism Awards
JS-6*
LOCALS PAINT FOR ISRAEL page 8
TENAFLY TEENS RECORD SURVIVORS page 10
JEWISH HERITAGE IN A MINOR LEAGUE page 12
CHIEF RABBI BUSTED; ISRAEL SHRUGS page 27

82

Local
2013

JSTANDARD.COM

Outcry over hosting a sex offender

Health, Science, Technology, and

Environmental Reporting
FIRST PLACE
Genes, judges, and Jews: Supreme
Court DNA decision analyzed
Miryam Z. Wahrman

JUNE 28, 2013

VOL. LXXXII NO. 41 $1.00

Genes, judges,
and Jews
Supreme Court
DNA decision
analyzed page 20

Baruch Lanner appearance seen as emblematic of communal failings on abuse

or at Zichron Mordechai.
Two of those witnesses, who prefer not
to be identified, are Orthodox rabbis who
work at YUs Washington Heights campus.
The third, Jordan Hirsch, is a member of a
nearby Orthodox congregation that met in
Zichron Mordechai while its own building
was under renovation.
Cheifetz said that after he posted a copy
of his RCA talk on Facebook, and then later
on a blog, the Jewish Community Watch,
Taubes called him. Although Taubes
downplayed the significance of Lanners
visits, Cheifetz said, He did not deny that
Baruch Lanner was at his shul.

Larry yudeLson

he head of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys

is under fire for hosting a convicted child molester at his
Teaneck synagogue and home as recently
as February, even as the high school and
the parent university was sued this week
for $380 million for damages growing out
of alleged sexual abuse at the high school
three decades ago.
Rabbi Baruch Lanner is the former New
Jersey director of the Orthodox NCSY
youth group. In 2000, a Jewish Week
report documenting his long history of
emotional and sexual abuse finally ended
his career at the Orthodox Union; in 2002
he was convicted of molesting two girls
at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal.
On Purim this year, Lanner was a guest at
the home of Rabbi Michael Taubes, who
is both the rosh yeshiva of the YU high
school (or MTA, as it generally is called)
and the spiritual leader of Congregation
Zichron Mordechai in Teaneck.
Lanner was paroled in 2008 and has
been seen at Zichron Mordechai since
then.
David Cheifetz of Teaneck raised the
issue publicly on June 30 in an address to
the annual conference of the Rabbinical

David Cheifetz: It is
easier to punish the
victim than it is to punish
the perpetrator.

Rabbi Michael Taubes

is head of the Yeshiva
University High School
for Boys and leader of
Teanecks Congregation
Zichron Morechai.

Council of America.
How is it possible? he asked the 50
rabbis who attended the session, the first
of the convention.
It staggers the mind, really, that the
principal of MTA would be hosting the
most notorious pedophile in the history
of modern Orthodoxy, Cheifetz told the
Jewish Standard. This was even more true,
he said, in wake of the revelations, first
published in the Forward last December,

Rabbi Norman Lamm:

I acted in a way that
I thought was correct,
but which now seems ill
conceived.

Couldnt send him away

He said it was only two times in three
years, Cheiftz said. He mentioned that
those Shabbosim when Lanner was there,
he was a guest at Rabbi Taubes home. He
did not deny that Baruch Lanner was in his
house on Purim. He said that Baruch Lanner, he claimed, came to deliver shaloch
manos and he couldnt ask him to leave so
he stayed for a little bit.
Cheifetz said he told Taubes, You as
the head of a synagogue and as a principal
of MTA are not just yourself. You are a
symbol. You are a role model. What about
all the victims of Baruch Lanner? What do
you think this is doing for them?

of alleged abuse by the schools former

principal, Rabbi George Finkelstein.
Reached at his MTA office, Taubes said,
Im not going to comment at this time.
The public affairs office of Yeshiva
University declined to comment on the
propriety of Taubes hosting Lanner.
The Standard has spoken to three
Teaneck residents who saw Lanner at
Taubes Purim meal, which was open to
the public, seated in a position of respect,

Giving voice to victims

Teanecks David Cheifetz works to establish new watchdog organization

child, after years of denial, because of
activists behind the scene, whose names
are not known, working very hard to
identify other victims who were willing
to step forward.
The next stage, he said is to step
forward and create an organization of
scale, with employees. We need to move

and OU in the days of Lanner, whether

its Yeshiva University, whether its
Lakewood, whether its particular
chasidic sects we need to assemble an
operation that is of scale to help victims
and their families.
Cheifetz, who is a member of
Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck,
envisions a two-prong mission for the
organization.
The primary objective would be
to serve as an ombudsman, to help
victims and families go through
the entire process, both in terms
of managing the legal and social
welfare systems and getting pro bono
support.
The other prong will deal in more
DavID CHeIfeTZ
general advocacy. We need to
fundamentally change the thinking of
from what has been to a great degree
the community, including the modern
a guerrilla battle against overarching,
Orthodox community, in terms of how
large-scale, institutionally powerful
we relate to victims and accusations, he
organizations whether Agudah, NCSY
said. We need to give the benefit of the

Larry yudeLson
David Cheifetz is not the first victim of
childhood sexual abuse in the Orthodox
community to come forward.
But he may be the first who also is
an executive at McKinsey & Company,
the New York-based high-profile
management consulting company.
He sees the problem of sexual abuse
as reflecting the failure of the institutions
that allowed it to happen.
And he is working to build his own
institution, with the tentative name of
Mi Li Who Is For Me?
This is not intended as a one-man
shop, he said. There are many activists
who have done fantastic work on a
limited budget. This is meant to address
it on some degree of scale.
Activists have had a profound
impact on helping victims, he said. In
Lakewood, he said, Rabbi Yosef Kolko
eventually pleaded guilty of abusing a

doubt to victims.
So far, Cheifetz has begun recruiting
members for two boards: a governing
board that would handle the financial
side, and an advisory board. He has
incorporated the organization and has
begun the paperwork of setting it up.
And he is holding lots of meetings.
Im currently focused on growing a
network of rabbis who are committed
to the core principles, engaging with
psychologists, psychiatrists, and social
workers, and others with relevant
insights and experience, he said. Im
also engaging with members of other
faith groups. In general, the proposal has
been greeted with enthusiasm.
Major efforts are underway to build
funding and other support, and I am
delighted to speak to people who want
to help create an institutional solution
to this terrible problem, which has been
largely ignored and hushed up by our
community for far too long, he said.

Major efforts
are underway to
build funding and
other support

Best Local News

SECOND PLACE
Outcry over hosting
a sex offender
Larry Yudelson

6 Jewish standard JULY 12, 2013

JS-14*
THE ROLE MODEL LAUTENBERG NEVER KNEW page 6
ETHICS AFTER AUSCHWITZ page 10
HERES TO YOU, MRS. ROOSEVELT page 44

Local

JSTANDARD.COM

Praying
in color

JULY 26, 2013

VOL. LXXXII NO. 45
$1.00

82

Review Writing
FIRST PLACE
Praying in color: Michael Haruni
illuminates the liturgy with new siddur
Joanne Palmer

2013

Michael Haruni
illuminates the liturgy
with new siddur
page 20

Tracee Chimo, Philip Ettinger, Molly Ranson, and Michael Zegen carry the tensions of Bad Jews.

JOaN maRcuS

REPORTERS NOTEBOOK

Playing to the Pew

In Broadways Bad Jews, two actors, local boys, find parallels to their Jewish lives
JOaNNE PalmER

t must be the zeitgeist.

Just as the Pew Research Centers survey of American Jews was
released, to a flurry of responses
and defenses and soul-searching posts
and stories and interviews for an example, take a look at the front pages of this
newspaper Bad Jews, a play looking
at the same set of phenomena, opened
at the Roundabout Theater Companys
Laura Pels Theater on West 46th Street.
(The play hit the road for a year after
playing to capacity crowds in its earlier
run. The original cast has returned for
this production, which ends on December 15.)

IN THIS
ISSUE

About Our
Children
Readers
Choice

The Pew survey showed that many

younger Jews are loath to affiliate with a
denomination, join a synagogue, refrain
from intermarriage, or call themselves
religious, although they are proud to be
Jews.
Bad Jews, written by Joshua Harmon,
shows how some of that plays out in family life; its more witty, more specific,
often more profane, and therefore more
probing than the anodyne prose of the
Pew survey, and it is very effective.
Its also (whew!) good theater.
Bad Jews is set in a studio apartment
in a prewar building on Manhattans
Upper West Side, where two brothers,
their first cousin, and a girlfriend have
gathered to spend a claustrophobic and

loud night. Their grandfather was buried that day, and shivah will begin in the
morning, in an apartment down the hall.
One of the brothers Liam, a smart,
articulate, often unpleasant graduate
student has moved far beyond what
he sees as the irrational, outmoded
demands of old-fashioned Jewish life. The
Birthright-intoxicated cousin a funny,
frequently savage, larger-than-life Vassar senior with huge frizzy hair that she
tosses and wraps and that seems almost
to have its own life wants to make aliyah and join the IDF as soon as she graduates. Her Jewishness defines her; she
prefers being called Daphna, her Hebrew
name, rather than her birth name, Diana.
The younger, Jonah, brother just wants

Review Writing
SECOND PLACE
Playing to the Pew
Joanne Palmer

to be left alone, and the perky blonde

girlfriend, when asked about her familys background, says that they are from
Delaware.
Its the Pew study, come to life.
It is also a family drama, entirely accessible to non-Jewish audiences, but the
specifics make it resonate with Jews in a
way that, say, a play like Doubt, with
a compelling plot and vivid characters,
appeals to everyone but has a special
meaning to the Catholic audiences who
went to parochial schools.
Both the actors who play Bad Jews
brothers are Jewish, and both come from
Bergen County. Both grew up in kosher
homes and their families belong to Conservative shuls. Both retain strong ties to

14 Jewish standard OCtOBer 11, 2013

The Simon Rockower Awards for

Excellence in Jewish Journalism
JS-6*

MEETING THE POPE page 6

HONORING A GOOD DOCTOR page 7
PARSING A SUPREME COURT RULING page 8
PREVIEWING ISRAEL: A HOME MOVIE page 29

82

Local

2013

JSTANDARD.COM

The David Frank

Award for Excellence in
Personality Profiles
FIRST PLACE
The Goldin way
Joanne Palmer

JULY 5, 2013
VOL. LXXXII NO. 42 $1.00

The Goldin way

Englewood rabbis path
to national leadership

Outcry over hosting a sex offender

Baruch Lanner appearance seen as emblematic of communal failings on abuse
Larry yudeLson

he head of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys

is under fire for hosting a convicted child molester at his
Teaneck synagogue and home as recently
as February, even as the high school and
the parent university was sued this week
for $380 million for damages growing out
of alleged sexual abuse at the high school
three decades ago.
Rabbi Baruch Lanner is the former New
Jersey director of the Orthodox NCSY
youth group. In 2000, a Jewish Week
report documenting his long history of
emotional and sexual abuse finally ended
his career at the Orthodox Union; in 2002
he was convicted of molesting two girls
at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal.
On Purim this year, Lanner was a guest at
the home of Rabbi Michael Taubes, who
is both the rosh yeshiva of the YU high
school (or MTA, as it generally is called)
and the spiritual leader of Congregation
Zichron Mordechai in Teaneck.
Lanner was paroled in 2008 and has
been seen at Zichron Mordechai since
then.
David Cheifetz of Teaneck raised the
issue publicly on June 30 in an address to
the annual conference of the Rabbinical

David Cheifetz: It is
easier to punish the
victim than it is to punish
the perpetrator.

Rabbi Michael Taubes

is head of the Yeshiva
University High School
for Boys and leader of
Teanecks Congregation
Zichron Morechai.

Council of America.
How is it possible? he asked the 50
rabbis who attended the session, the first
of the convention.
It staggers the mind, really, that the
principal of MTA would be hosting the
most notorious pedophile in the history
of modern Orthodoxy, Cheifetz told the
Jewish Standard. This was even more true,
he said, in wake of the revelations, first
published in the Forward last December,

Rabbi Norman Lamm:

I acted in a way that
I thought was correct,
but which now seems ill
conceived.

of alleged abuse by the schools former

principal, Rabbi George Finkelstein.
Reached at his MTA office, Taubes said,
Im not going to comment at this time.
The public affairs office of Yeshiva
University declined to comment on the
propriety of Taubes hosting Lanner.
The Standard has spoken to three
Teaneck residents who saw Lanner at
Taubes Purim meal, which was open to
the public, seated in a position of respect,

or at Zichron Mordechai.
Two of those witnesses, who prefer not
to be identified, are Orthodox rabbis who
work at YUs Washington Heights campus.
The third, Jordan Hirsch, is a member of a
nearby Orthodox congregation that met in
Zichron Mordechai while its own building
was under renovation.
Cheifetz said that after he posted a copy
of his RCA talk on Facebook, and then later
on a blog, the Jewish Community Watch,
Taubes called him. Although Taubes
downplayed the significance of Lanners
visits, Cheifetz said, He did not deny that
Baruch Lanner was at his shul.

Couldnt send him away

He said it was only two times in three
years, Cheiftz said. He mentioned that
those Shabbosim when Lanner was there,
he was a guest at Rabbi Taubes home. He
did not deny that Baruch Lanner was in his
house on Purim. He said that Baruch Lanner, he claimed, came to deliver shaloch
manos and he couldnt ask him to leave so
he stayed for a little bit.
Cheifetz said he told Taubes, You as
the head of a synagogue and as a principal
of MTA are not just yourself. You are a
symbol. You are a role model. What about
all the victims of Baruch Lanner? What do
you think this is doing for them?

Giving voice to victims

Teanecks David Cheifetz works to establish new watchdog organization

Larry yudeLson
David Cheifetz is not the first victim of
childhood sexual abuse in the Orthodox
community to come forward.
But he may be the first who also is
an executive at McKinsey & Company,
the New York-based high-profile
management consulting company.
He sees the problem of sexual abuse
as reflecting the failure of the institutions
that allowed it to happen.
And he is working to build his own
institution, with the tentative name of
Mi Li Who Is For Me?
This is not intended as a one-man
shop, he said. There are many activists
who have done fantastic work on a
limited budget. This is meant to address
it on some degree of scale.
Activists have had a profound
impact on helping victims, he said. In
Lakewood, he said, Rabbi Yosef Kolko
eventually pleaded guilty of abusing a

page 16

child, after years of denial, because of

activists behind the scene, whose names
are not known, working very hard to
identify other victims who were willing
to step forward.
The next stage, he said is to step
forward and create an organization of
scale, with employees. We need to move

and OU in the days of Lanner, whether

its Yeshiva University, whether its
Lakewood, whether its particular
chasidic sects we need to assemble an
operation that is of scale to help victims
and their families.
Cheifetz, who is a member of
Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck,
envisions a two-prong mission for the
organization.
The primary objective would be
to serve as an ombudsman, to help
victims and families go through
the entire process, both in terms
of managing the legal and social
welfare systems and getting pro bono
support.
The other prong will deal in more
DavID CHeIfeTZ
general advocacy. We need to
fundamentally change the thinking of
from what has been to a great degree
the community, including the modern
a guerrilla battle against overarching,
Orthodox community, in terms of how
large-scale, institutionally powerful
we relate to victims and accusations, he
organizations whether Agudah, NCSY
said. We need to give the benefit of the

Major efforts
are underway to
build funding and
other support

doubt to victims.
So far, Cheifetz has begun recruiting
members for two boards: a governing
board that would handle the financial
side, and an advisory board. He has
incorporated the organization and has
begun the paperwork of setting it up.
And he is holding lots of meetings.
Im currently focused on growing a
network of rabbis who are committed
to the core principles, engaging with
psychologists, psychiatrists, and social
workers, and others with relevant
insights and experience, he said. Im
also engaging with members of other
faith groups. In general, the proposal has
been greeted with enthusiasm.
Major efforts are underway to build
funding and other support, and I am
delighted to speak to people who want
to help create an institutional solution
to this terrible problem, which has been
largely ignored and hushed up by our
community for far too long, he said.

Award for Excellence

in News Reporting
FIRST PLACE
Outcry over hosting
a sex offender
Larry Yudelson

6 Jewish standard JULY 12, 2013

83

2013

JSTANDARD.COM

Screening
Israel

Film & Cultural

Festival starts locally
Saturday night

82

2013

JSTANDARD.COM

MARCH 1, 2013 VOL. LXXXII NO. 24 $1.00

E
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TE CH
VORS GE 34
E
D E PA
A SE
RE

82

LESSONS OF A BROKEN NECK page 6

CHANT ENCOUNTERS page 12
65 YEARS OF INNOVATION page 30

LOCAL RABBI IS FRIEND OF BILL page 8

WHATS UP, DOCTOR BARKAMA? page 10
VETERANS VISIT ENGLEWOOD SCHOOL page 14
ISRAELIS MODERNIZE DYLAN pages 3, 48

FREEDOM SONG
MUSICAL ABOUT RECOVERY STAGED IN TEANECK page 10
FEDS CRACK DOWN ON ISRAELI KIOSK WORKERS page 27
SPORTS: IN THE BIG INNING page 31

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

VOL. LXXXIII NO. 11 $1.00

2013

JSTANDARD.COM

Reflections
on the Rav

APRIL 12, 2013

VOL. LXXXII NO. 30 $1.00

Thanksgivukkah!
Our
OurChildren
About

Holiday mashup wont

happen again until 79043 c.e.
(We should live so long!)

Useful Information for the Next

Generation of Jewish Families

IN THIS ISSUE:
ABOUT OUR
CHILDREN
Winter Fun
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Vitamins for Kids
Supplement to The Jewish Standard and Rockland Jewish

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Local rabbis
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Dvar Torah
Haazinu: Heaven, earth, and hope

live our lives on the earth

and beneath the heavens.
At the same time, as we
begin the shmitta year,
the Sabbath of the land,
portion.
we are reminded that the
But for a change, hes not
land and the heavens have
addressing us the Israelites about to enter the Land
an existence independent
of Israel. He is addressing
of us.
Larry
heaven and earth he is sumIn that context, it makes
Yudelson
moning them as witnesses to
sense to consider how our
his parting poem.
lives are affecting the earth
Why them?
and the heavens.
Because, Rashi explains, the heaven
As world leaders gathered this week
and earth are witnesses that endure forat the U.N. world climate summit, the
ever. Rashi adds a second reason: Heaven
news wasnt very good. Carbon dioxide
and earth will be the instruments of Gods
levels in the atmosphere are higher now
punishment to Israel if we violate the covethan in more than 5775 years in fact,
nant. Heaven will dry up, the earth will fail
than any time in human history. Worryingly, there are many signs that feedback
to yield produce, and Israel will be dealt
loops are beginning to melt arctic glaciers
famine as a warning and prelude to the
and bring frozen methane into the atmoultimate exile from the land. Heaven and
sphere faster than the worst-case predicearth may endure forever, but as Moses
tions made only a few years ago.
warns, our continued presence between
Thats why more than 100 Jewish
them is conditional.
organizations joined last weeks climate
We have just finished celebrating Rosh
march in Manhattan, to raise awareness
Hashanah, the birthday of the world the
and call for action
heaven and the earth. Now, on Shabbat
Shmitta teaches us that we dont own
Shuva, we are engaged in the pre-Yom Kippur introspection, contemplating how we
the earth a message brought home
ive me your ears,
Mose s says at
the beginning of
the weeks Torah

further by the Torahs teaching of the

jubilee, which mandates that after a cycle
of seven shmitta years, ownership of land
is redistributed, returned to the original
families.
Known reserves of fossil fuels, if burnt,
are so large that they would put enough
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to
guarantee a greenhouse catastrophe.
Stopping that will require the worlds
largest companies to write assets now
valued at trillions down to zero, as the oil
remains untapped. (This is why divesting from fossil fuel companies makes not
only moral but also financial sense.)
Shmitta reminds us that really, the land
and the untapped oil and unmined
coal belongs not to the companies that
bought mining rights, but to God.
Putting the needs of the planet ahead
of those of investors requires a reorientation. But that rethinking of our human
desires is in fact an ancient Jewish teaching, argues Rabbi David Seidenberg.
In his book, Kabbalah and Ecology:
Gods Image in the More-Than-Human
World, he writes: Humanity as a social
order, as a species, and all the more so as
a collection of individuals, has no moral
standing when its interests conflict with

the intrinsic interests attributed to the

land, who will enjoy her Sabbaths
even if that means seeing the humans
who dwell on her exiled or wiped out.
Given the stark nature of Mosess warning in this weeks parsha, we shouldnt be
surprised. But the magic of the pairing of
Haazinu with Shabbat Shuva is that we
believe we always have a choice. Our
resolve, and our actions, make a difference. This new year, we are told, can be
different. We begin every year with ten
days of repentance granting hope its
annual triumph over experience.
That spirit of hope has enabled us to
end its year by chanting Haazinu, with
its horrible warnings that more than once
have come true.
And as we watch world leaders again
pledge to make a difference in the health
of this earth beneath its increasingly
carbonated heaven, let that spirit help
us approach this challenge with action
rather than cynicism.
Larry Yudelson is associate editor of this
paper, and responsible for editing the Dvar
Torah column. Local rabbis who wish to
contribute to this column should write to
him at [email protected].

BRIEFS

Cantor to be deposed
in Bank of China case
WASHINGTON The plaintiffs in a terrorism money-laundering case against the Bank of China can subpoena former
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a federal court ruled.
Cantor, who resigned from Congress in August shortly after
his defeat in a Republican primary election in Virginia, will
be deposed Sept. 30, as ordered by the U.S. District Court in
the Southern District of New York, the New York Observer
reported Monday.
Nitsana Darshan Leitner, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs,
told the Observer that she wanted Cantors testimony because
Cantor had discussed Israels refusal to allow a former Israeli
intelligence official to testify in the case with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013.
According to reports, in 2005, the former intelligence official, Uzi Shaya, alerted Chinese security officials to suspicious
transactions, including transfers of money to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel says if Shaya is
forced to testify, he could reveal state secrets.
Daniel Wultz, an American teenager killed in a 2006

suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, was Cantors cousin. The Wultzes are one of 23 families filing lawsuits accusing the Bank
of China of funding terrorist organizations through U.S.
accounts. Darshan Leitner is representing the family of
JTA WIRE SERVICE
another victim, Emil Almaliakh.

Obama, Netanyahu
to meet Oct. 1 in D.C.
WASHINGTON President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu will meet next week at the White House.
The Oct. 1 meeting, which was announced Monday, will
follow a series of meetings that Obama is having with world
leaders in New York at the United Nations General Assembly.
There, he is focusing on the U.S.-led effort to crush the Islamic
State, or ISIS, a jihadist group grabbing swaths of land in Syria
and Iraq.
Netanyahu is focused, however, on nuclear talks between
the major powers and Iran. He and other top Israeli officials
have said repeatedly that a nuclear Iran poses a greater threat
to the Middle East than ISIS.


JTA WIRE SERVICE

British candidate suspended

for trashing Israel on Twitter
A British candidate for Parliament was suspended by the
Labor Party following a series of anti-Israel tweets, including
asking why ISIS has not yet attacked it.
Vicki Kirby cannot run in the general election in May, the
Sunday Times reported. She was a candidate for a seat in Woking, a town west of Surrey.
In one of her Twitter posts, Kirby called Hitler the Zionist
God, the newspaper reported. Also, according to the Labor
Party, she wrote: We invented Israel when saving them from
Hitler, who now seems to be their teacher and I will never
forget and I will make sure my kids teach their children how
evil Israel is!
Another tweet said, Apparently you can ask IS/ISIS/ISIL
questions on ask.fm. Anyone thought of asking them why
theyre not attacking the real oppressors #Israel?
Jennifer Gerber, director of Labour Friends of Israel, said
she welcomed Kirbys suspension. Her tweets were utterly
vile and have no place in British politics, Gerber told the British website Jewish News.
JTA WIRE SERVICE

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JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 57

Jewish World

Crossword BY DAVID BENKOF

BRIEFS

Israeli cabinet
approves Gateway
to Jerusalem
mega-project
Israeli cabinet has approved the Gateway to Jerusalem project, which seeks to
transform the western part of the city into
a world-class business, cultural, and residential destination.
The approximately $410 million project
includes the construction of 12 high-rise
buildings on more than 200 acres of land
that will be used as offices, hotels, residential areas, and cultural and tourism centers. It will also upgrade the nearby International Convention Center.
This is an exciting and important decision that will make the old entrance to the
capital of Israel modern, accessible and
convenient creating the perfect connection between the present and past that
represents the Eternal City, Israeli Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel
said, the Jerusalem Post reported


JNS.ORG

Israel approves
Intel plan to invest
in Jewish state
The Israeli finance and economy ministries on Monday approved a plan by Intel
to invest $6 billion in upgrading its chipmanufacturing plant in Israel, marking
the largest-ever single international investment in the Jewish state.
Intels investment is a strategic asset
for Israels industry, Finance Minister Yair
Lapid said, Reuters reported. This is the
biggest investment by a foreign company
ever in Israel and is further proof that
Israel is at the forefront of technology.
According to the investment plan, the
U.S.-based chip maker plans to hire nearly
1,000 more workers at its plant in Kiryat
Gat. Intel will also receive a $300 million
grant from the Israeli government and a
corporate tax rate of 5 percent.
While Intel has not yet made an
announcement on the plan, the Israeli
finance ministry believes the investment
by Intel will be used to manufacture its
new advanced 10-nanometer chips.
Intel has been operating in Israel for
nearly four decades, investing more than
$10.8 billion there and employing 10,000
JNS.ORG
people. 

Across

1. Segev and Lehrer

5. VIP whose first name sounds like the
Hebrew word for lightning
10. Prop in Citizen Kane, a movie with
a character Bernstein
14. Bear false witness (tell ___)
15. Word in the Arabic name for the
Temple Mount
16. Grunge band that sang Love songs
17. Heil Hitler, for example
18. El ___ Museum, located in the Jewish
quarter of Toledo, Spain
19. Ish Kabibbles Pennsylvania hometown
20. Bar Mitzvah boy, usually
23. One of a hamantashs three
24. Where Yehuda HaLevis heart was
25. Two short of a minyan
28. Facebooks home
30. Prefix with Semitism
34. See 51-Across
36. Nazi newspaper ___ Sturmer
38. Homer Simpsons Oy!
39. It helps Jews start businesses interestfree
43. Last three letters of an important
Jewish age
44. Clergy org. with more than 1,000 members
45. Support the synagogue
46. Acting surname of Winona Horowitz
49. It shall be burnt in the ___ depository
(Lev. 4:12)
51. With 34-Across, acclaimed film director
(Amadeus, Ragtime)
52. Lies the ___ that with the suns love...
(The Rose lyric)
54. Synagogues do it to many piyyutim on
Rosh Hashanah
56. It often includes matzah meal and a
ton of eggs
62. Frank-ly speaking, she gave a damn?
Open Every Thursday
63. Richard Simmonss Deal-___
June 12th to October 30th
64. ___ Sprach Zarathustra (theme from
From Noon 6:00 PM
a 1968 Kubrick film)
Weather Permitting
66. Steinsaltz of the Koren English Talmud
67. Kind of music at Steve Rubells Studio
Located in the Cedar Lane Municipal Parking lot at Garrison Avenue/Beverly Road.
54
Plenty of free parking.
68. Suffix for up and down used by Brin
Tune in and listen
Follow us on Facebook and
and Page all the time
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69. Like good Jaffa oranges
announcements
about our market!
70. What food cant be at a seder past
midnight
Sponsored by The Cedar Lane Management Group
71. Earring for a hip rabbi
For more information: 201.907.0493 or visit: www.cedarlane.net

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Down
1. With Sachs, a Jewish disease
2. Sharansky became one in 1986
3. Actress Kunis, whose significant other
is Ashton Kutcher
4. Kind of day mentioned 11 times in the
Torah
5. George Burns and John Denver film
of 1977
6. Inconceivable?
7. The Warsaw Ghettos was a very
cramped 1.3 square miles
8. More than one of the weapon used in
2012 to rob Justice Breyer
9. Ravina or Rav Ashi
10. David removed Goliaths own sword
from it before beheading him
11. The holy One, blessed be He
12. Wiesel who told a U.S. President that
Bitburg is not your place
13. Third word in Do-Re-Mi
21. Wave in Spielbergs Deep Impact
22. Uri Gellers <cough> ability
25. Make a sacrifice at the Temple
26. Haim of Hollywood
27. Halachic prenups are a growing one
29. Harvey Fierstein and John Travolta
were prominent ones in Hairspray
31. Kind of Conservative Jew who is willing,
learning, and striving
32. Payis program for Israeli gamblers
33. Beshtimmt!
35. Loc. of one of the northermost synagogues in the world
37. Mosess turned into a snake
40. Allan Blooms milieu
41. The late great Joan Rivers, e.g.
42. Y, H, W, and H are Gods
47. Pharisee rival
48. ___ Speedwagon (rock band co-founded by Alan Gratzer)
50. Kallen of cultural pluralism
53. Way to win a game of British
Haganah
55. Fruit with seeds Israelis enjoy
56. Jack of all trades: author, radio star, TV
comedian, and talk show host
57. First Jewish Bachelorette Dorfman
58. Sound at a brit milah
59. The movie star, and the ___ (early
version of a Sherwood Schwartz TV
theme song)
60. The Elders of Zion supposedly had one
61. Mean Biblical character who made a
mean lentil stew
65. Like Neil Simons couple

Arts & Culture

Rediscovering
a lost giant
Jacob Dinezons
short stories,
in translation,
are offered
to a new audience

CURT LEVIANT
acob Dinezon (1856-1919), was a Yiddish novelist and short story writer,
as famous during his lifetime as were
his contemporaries, the three pillars
of late 19th and early 20th century Yiddish
literature, Mendele Mocher Sforim, Y.L.
Peretz, and Sholom Aleichem. All of these
masters knew and were impressed with
Dinezons work.
During his period of literary activity in
the latter half of the 19th century, Dinezon at times even outshadowed the three
founding fathers, because his books, which
touched thousands of readers, were more
widely sold. In fact, one of his novels sold
more than 200,000 copies, an unheardof success in Yiddish literature. Dinezon
achieved fame at 20 with the publication of
his first novel, and remained famous until
the day he died. He was so well known and
beloved that every major figure of Yiddish
literature came to his funeral in 1919.
Even encylopedias in English recognized
him. The early 20th century Jewish Encyclopedia lists Dinezon as an important
Yiddish writer (like other classical Yiddish
writers, he also established a reputation as
a Hebrew author), praise that is echoed in
the contemporary Encylopedia Judaica.
Sometimes mazel plays a role in literary
fame. But in Dinezons case it seemed to
express itself in income and not in posthumous regard. And now that the worldwide
Yiddish-reading community is vanishing, a
writers lot can be determined by translation, which can bring fame, and to discovery, which in turn can prompt translation.
If a writer doesnt find his translator/editor
in another language, he suffers the misfortune of neglect, which is what happened
with Dinezon. If you ask any knowledgeable reader familiar with Sholom Aleichem
and other famous Yiddish writers if he has
ever heard of Jacob Dinezon the answer
probably would be no.
Memories and Scenes: Shtetl, Childhood, Writers by Jacob Dinezon,
translated from the Yiddish by Tina
Lunson, edited and with an Introduction by Scott H. Davis.

Until now we have not had any work by

Dinezon in English. But this lacuna has
been successfully filled with the wonderful book of 11 Dinezon stories, beautifully
translated by Tina Lunson and edited by
Scott Davis, who has also provided an illuminating introduction.
Dinezon was a social realist, accurately
depicting small town (shtetl) Jewish life.
With a cinematic eye he zeroes in on his
characters, deftly telling fascinating stories
while at the same time giving an accurate
portrait of the mores, attitudes, speech,
and foibles of the men, women, and children whom he depicts.
Like Dickens, Jacob Denizon wrote
about the downtrodden and about poorly
treated students in Hebrew schools with
such realism that he actually brought
about reforms. A cross-section of Jewish
society in Poland lives in his pages: the
young and old, chasidim and enlightened
Jews, simple workingmen and rich householders. Every single one of his stories
breathes with life and verisimilitude.
In this book of stories, a collection published after Dinezons death in 1919, we
have finely crafted tales so in keeping
with Jewish short-story writing at the turn
of the 20th century that recall vividly
portrayed shtetl characters from Dinezons
childhood years and memories of such literary figures as Mendele Mocher Sforim
(Sholem Abramovitsh), I.L. Peretz, and the
playwright Avrom Goldfaden.
Jacob Dinezon also played an important historical role in the development of
Yiddish as a literary language. In fact, he
mentored, advised, and befriended almost
every major Jewish writer of his day. The
list reads like a whos who of late 19th and
early 20th century modern Yiddish literature: Mendele Mocher Sforim, Sholem
Aleichem, I.L. Peretz (whose first book
of stories Dinezon published), Abraham
Goldfaden, Sh. Ans-ki, David Frishman,
Shimon Frug, Sholem Asch, David Pinski,
and Avraham Reisen.
In one of the superb stories, Mayer
Yeke, we see how a boys great fear of
the shtetls most righteous Jew, Mayer
Yeke, turns to love and respect after he
witnesses Mayers mitzvah in assisting the
town drunk. Sholem Yoyne Flask shows
a mild-mannered tailor transformed by the
liquor in his flask into a fiery defender of
the towns poor folk. Then something happens when a surprising discovery is made
about his flask.
With Motl Farber, Purimshpieler, we
are introduced to a housepainter who

languishes during the winter when he cannot work, but who at Purim time becomes
the leader of a band of Purim players.
When the troupe is arrested by the new
Russian police chief, an unlikely Esther
comes to their rescue.
Another story, Yosl Algebrenik and
His Student, achieves the psychological
depth of a Dostoevsky tale. It tells the story
of Yosl, an outstanding Talmud scholar, a
genius some said, destined to become a
great rabbi, who has a singular passion
for mathematics. But at 30, for reasons no
one remembers, he tosses away the Talmud and its commentaries for the study
of algebra and algebraic logic. From then
on he spends all his time studying algebra,
except for the few hours a week he devotes
to tutoring children to eke out a living.
Another moving and profound story
is called Borekh, after the name of the
hero, a poor orphan living in the yeshiva.
He doesnt do too well in talmudic studies but he has a talent for wood carving,
making dreidls, Purim groggers, and toy
animals for the children of the town. One
day he decides to leave the yeshiva and
start a new life, with the hope of making
a great Holy Ark, one that people have

never seen before. And when he does

that he will send the ark to his friend in
the yeshiva whom he knows will become a
great scholar. And then Borekh leaves the
yeshiva without saying goodbye.
Some of Dinezons autobiographical
sketches are as engaging as his fiction. In
My First Work, Dinezon relates the childhood experience of reading his first Yiddish
novel, a Jewish version of Robinson Crusoe.
He is so taken by the book, he writes his
own adventure story. In Sholem Yankev
Abramovitsh, Dinezon tells how his debut
novel, The Dark Young Man, was published, and how he acquired his first copy
in Moscow. At the same time he learns that
the Yiddish writer Mendele Mocher Sforim
and the Hebrew author Sholem Abramovitsh actually are the same person.
It is not often that we are privileged
to make a literary discovery of our own.
With this book by Jacob Dinezon, the first
in English, we happily encounter a master
writer who deserves to be ranked with the
great Yiddish writers whom he befriended
and who admired him.
Curt Leviants most recent book is the short
story collection, Zix Zexy Ztories.

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 59

Calendar
Monday
SEPTEMBER 29
Hadassah meets:
Licensed New York City
tour guide Marty Schneit
presents an illustrated
talk, The History of
NYCs Lower East Side,
for Fair Lawn Hadassah
at the Fair Lawn Jewish
Center/Congregation
Bnai Israel, 7:45 p.m.
10-10 Norma Ave. (201)
791-0327.

Tuesday
SEPTEMBER 30
Music and poetry in
Teaneck: The Teaneck

COURTESY OF MELANIE EINZIG

Babies and toddlers and their parents are

welcome to a program at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial
to the Holocaust on Sunday, October
5, at 10:30 a.m. The musical group Yellow Sneaker
(Brooklyn-based performers/teaching artists Ora and
Yoshie Fruchter)and their puppet pals will entertain as
they connect to Jewish life and traditions. Programs
continue November 16, December 14, January 25,
February 22, March 22, and April 26. Light snacks. 36
Battery Place. For information, (646) 437-4202 or
www.mjhnyc.org.

OCT.

Friday
SEPTEMBER 26
Rosh Hashanah in
Emerson: Congregation
Bnai Israel holds a
community service, 9
a.m.; junior congregation
services for 6- to 11-yearolds are at 10. Guest
tickets available. 53
Palisade Ave. (201) 2652272.

no ticket needed. 10:30

a.m. Shabbat Shuvah
service at 6:30 p.m. 221
Schraalenburgh Road.
(201) 768-5112.

offers community Rosh

Hashanah services, 10
a.m. 1666 Windsor Road.
Lee Stein, (201) 833-1322.

Rosh Hashanah in
Teaneck: The Jewish
Learning Experience
offers free services at
Maayanot Yeshiva High
School for Girls, 10 a.m.,
followed by a kiddush.
Services also for Yom
Kippur. 1650 Palisade
Ave. (201) 966-4498 or
www.jle.org.

Rosh Hashanah in
Closter: Temple
Beth El in Closter has
community services;

SEPTEMBER 28

Eric Mandel
Discussing Israels
challenges in Paramus:

MICHAEL LAVES

Shabbat in Teaneck:
Rabbi Lawrence Zierler
offers a Shabbat Shuvah
talk on The Bold,
Brave and Courageous,
Chiddush and
Hitchaddshut: Mastering
Change and Novelty, a
Manual from Tradition,
following services
that begin at 9 a.m. at
the Jewish Center of
Teaneck. Kiddush served.
70 Sterling Place. (201)
833-0515.

60 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

OCTOBER 1

Dr. Eric Mandel discusses

Israel and the challenges
it faces at the JCC of
Paramus/Congregation
Beth Tikvah, 7 p.m.
Dr. Mandel is founder
of the Middle Eastern
Political Information
Network and a co-chair
of StandWithUs, an
international organization
dedicated to combating
extremism and antiSemitism. 304 East
Midland Ave. (201) 2627691 or www.jccparamus.
org.

Saturday
OCTOBER 4
Yom Kippur in Teaneck:
The Jewish Learning
Experience offers free
services at Maayanot
Yeshiva High School
for Girls, 10 a.m. 1650
Palisade Ave. (201) 9664498 or www.jle.org.

Yom Kippur in
Montebello:
Congregation Shaarey
Israel offers a community
Yizkor, 11:45 a.m. 18
Montebello Road,
Montebello, N.Y. (845)
369-0300.

Yom Kippur in Emerson:

Congregation Bnai Israel
holds Yizkor, 12:30 p.m.,
a healing service at 4:15,
and Mincha and Neilah
at 5:20. Guest tickets
available. 53 Palisade
Ave. (201) 265-2272.

Yom Kippur in Glen

Rock: The Glen Rock
Jewish Center offers a
community Yizkor, 12:45
p.m., and Neilah at 6. 682
Harrison Road. (201) 6526624.

8 Independence Ave.,
Orangeburg, N.Y. (845)
359-5920 or office@
theojc.org.

Yom Kippur in
Paramus: The Jewish
Community Center of
Paramus/Congregation
Beth Tikvah offers a
community Yizkor
service, 4 p.m. East 304
Midland Ave. (201) 2627691 or www.jccparamus.
org.

Yom Kippur in
Mahwah: Beth Haverim
Shir Shalom offers a
community Yizkor, 5:30
p.m. 280 Ramapo Valley
Road. (201) 512-1983.

Sunday
OCTOBER 5
Games in New City:
The West Clarkstown
Jewish Center hosts
Military Mah Jongg,
where players move from
table to table, at noon.
Event includes lunch,
refreshments, and prizes.
195 West Clarkstown
Road. (845) 352-0017.

In New York
Sunday
SEPTEMBER 28

Yom Kippur in Leonia:

Congregation Adas
Emuno has family/
childrens services, 2 p.m.
Tickets are not required.
254 Broad Ave. (201)
592-1712.

Rabbi Steven Weil

Teshuva lecture in
Paramus: Rabbi Steven

SEPTEMBER 27

Rabbi Lawrence Zierler

Wednesday

Sunday

Saturday

Rosh Hashanah in
Teaneck: Temple Emeth

General Store Caf

presents Berkowitz,
Coultas, and November:
Soulful Images and
Spiritual Words, an
evening of literary magic,
7:30-9 p.m. Presenters
include poet/author/
freelance writer/editor
Aaron Berkowitz, author
Brenda Coultas, and
poet Baruch November.
Refreshments. 502a
Cedar Lane. (201)
530-5046 or www.
teaneckgeneralstore.com.

community erev Yom

Kippur tot service for
children up to 5 with
their families, 6:45 p.m.
1666 Windsor Road. Lee
Stein, (201) 833-1322.

Weil, senior managing

director at the Orthodox
Union, discusses The
Fascinating World of the
Yom Kippur Machzor to
mark the Aseret Yemei
Teshuva the 10 days
between Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur at
Yeshivat Noam Middle
School, 8:30 p.m. 70
West Century Road.
(201) 261-1919.

Friday
OCTOBER 3
Yom Kippur in Teaneck:
The Jewish Learning
Experience offers free
services at Maayanot
Yeshiva High School for
Girls, 6 p.m. Also October
4 at 10 a.m. 1650 Palisade
Ave. (201) 966-4498 or
www.jle.org.

Yom Kippur in Teaneck:

Temple Emeth offers a

Yom Kippur in Closter:

Temple Beth El has
services for families with
young children, 2:30
p.m.; Yizkor/Neilah are at
3:30. 221 Schraalenburgh
Road. (201) 768-5112.

Yom Kippur in Teaneck:

Temple Emeth offers
a Yom Kippur family
service, 2:30 p.m.;
afternoon and Yizkor
services at 3:45, and
Neilah and concluding
services at 5:45. 1666
Windsor Road. Lee Stein,
(201) 833-1322.

Yom Kippur in Tenafly:

Temple Sinai of Bergen
County offers a young
family service, 2:45
p.m. Children, 2- to
6-years-old, must be
accompanied by a
parent. 1 Engle St.
(201) 568-3035.

Yom Kippur in
Orangeburg: The
Orangetown Jewish
Center has family
services, 3 p.m., and
Yizkor at the same time.

Mama Doni
ROBERTA GINSBURG

New Year concert:

Acclaimed kids band
Mama Doni, led by
Doni Zasloff Thomas,
celebrates the Jewish
new year with Apples
and Honey in the Big
Apple, at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage A
Living Memorial to the
Holocaust, 2 p.m. 36
Battery Place. (646) 4374202 or www.mjhnyc.org.

Wednesday
OCTOBER 1
Film screening: The
Museum of Jewish
Heritage A Living
Memorial to the
Holocaust screens the
restored print of the 1939
Yiddish film, Kol Nidre
in Yiddish with English
subtitles 7 p.m. 36
Battery Place. (646) 4374202 or www.mjhnyc.org.

Calendar
Friday
OCTOBER 3
Yom Kippur: The East
Side Synagogue offers
free community Kol
Nidre services at All
Souls Sanctuary in
Manhattan, 8:55 p.m., and
on Yom Kippur, 10 a.m.,
with afternoon services
at 2:45 p.m., Yizkor at
4:45, and ending with
Havdalah, singing, and
dancing. 1157 Lexington
Ave., between 79th and
80th streets. Participants
must call the information
line, (212) 560-2222.

Singles
Sunday
OCTOBER 12
Senior singles meet in
West Nyack: Singles
65+ meets for brunch
bagels and lox at the
JCC Rockland, 11 a.m.
450 West Nyack Road.
$8. Gene Arkin, (845)
356-5525.

Sunday
OCTOBER 19
Singles meet in
Caldwell: New Jersey
Jewish Singles 45+ meets
for lunch, Pictionary,
prizes, and mingling at
Congregation Agudath
Israel, 12:45 p.m. $10. 20
Academy Road. (973)
226-3600, ext. 145,
[email protected], or
[email protected].

Park Ridge shul sisterhood

plans benefit Dalias Walk
The sisterhood of Temple Beth Sholom
is sponsoring the first annual Dalias
Walk. It is in memory of Dalia Leibowitz, the wife of shul Cantor Joel Leibowitz, who died of cancer last year at 53.
Proceeds will be used to improve the
daily life of women fighting cancer.
The sisterhood plans to assist with
transportation, meals, shopping, pet
care, and the other everyday needs
that often become difficult for a family

to manage when a mother becomes ill.

The 5K walk will begin and end at
Temple Beth Sholom, 32 Park Ave., at
9:30 a.m. Check-in will begin at 8:30.
To register to walk or sponsor a walker
or a mile marker, call Lisa at (201) 4461436 or Lori at (201) 314-9204. More
information is available at Beth Sholoms website, www.temple-beth-sholom.org.

Sharsheret sending a team

to Central Park fund-raiser
Team Sharsheret, a national not-forprofit organization supporting women
and families of all Jewish backgrounds
who face breast or ovarian cancer,
joins the American Cancer Society
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
walk on Sunday, October 19, at 8 a.m.
Women, men, and children can participate in the family-friendly walk in
Central Park; the group will meet at
the park entrance at 69th Street and
Fifth Avenue.
This years sponsors include team
sponsor Campmor Inc.; team supporter Yeshiva Universitys Stern College for Women, and team patrons
Alvins Pharmacy, Inc., Best Glatt,

Chopstix, Dougies BBQ Teaneck, EJs

Place, Gotham Burger, Judaica House,
Maayanot Yeshiva High School for
Girls, Teaneck Dentist, the Moriah
School, and Torah Academy of Bergen
County. The list is still in formation.
Participants will have the opportunity to document the day and follow
the fun on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. To register and order a team
dri-fit shirt, go to www.sharsheret.
org/walkNYC. For information, email
team captain Ellen Kleinhaus at [email protected].

Expert to explore
Dead Sea Scrolls
Dr. Adolfo Roitman, curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls
at the Israel Museum in
Jerusalem, will discuss
The Meaning of the Dead
Sea Scrolls for Judaism:
Myth and Reality, on Sunday, October 12, at 11 a.m.
at the Glen Rock Jewish
Center. Temple Beth Sholom of Fair Lawn is cosponsoring the talk.
The Shrine of the Book
Dr. Adolfo Roitman
houses the Dead Sea Scroll
collection at the Israel
Museum, which is one of the worlds leading archaeological museums. Dr. Roitman is curator of Envisioning the
Temple Scrolls, Stones and Symbols, on display there.
The GRJC is at 682 Harristown Road. Registration is
requested by October 8. Call (201) 797-9321, ext. 415.

yyss
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aam
S
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m
S

We welcome announcements of upcoming

events. Announcements
are free. Accompanying
photos must be high
resolution, jpg les. Send
announcements 2 to 3
weeks in advance. Not
every release will be
published. Include a daytime telephone number
and send to:
NJ Jewish Media
Group
pr@jewishmediagroup.
com 201-837-8818

Fall term for Kaplen JCC classes

Registration is open for the fall term of
the JCC University at the Kaplen JCC on
the Palisades in Tenafly, which begins
on Thursday, October 2.
Top professors and experts will present on music, literature, film, economics, psychology, architecture, and politics in the program, which is in it its
third year. Classes will meet from 10:30
a.m. to 2:15 p.m. on four Thursdays:
October 2, 23, and 30, and November 6. Sessions begin with coffee and

conversation at 10:30, followed by a

presentation; lunch with classmates
(bring or buy), and another presentation. People can sign up for the whole
term or individual sessions. Some of
the programs are co-sponsored with
the James H. Grossmann Memorial
Jewish Book Month. There will be a
book sale and signing after the classes.
For information, call Kathy at (201)
408-1454 or email her at kgraff@jccotp.
org.

www.jstandard.com

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Jewish World

Obituaries

Scotlands Jewish golf club

Lillian Davis

Menu just one sign of changing character

BEN SALES
EAGLESHAM, SCOTLAND As teenagers in the 1960s, Lewis Geneen and
Colin Black liked to spend their summer
Sundays playing rounds at the Bonnyton
Golf Club course, breaking only for a
lunch of fish and borscht.
Sitting atop a hill on the outskirts of
Glasgow, Bonnyton was then a social
hub of the local Jewish community.
Teenage boys would hang out on the
links while older men rested from the
course by playing cards in an upstairs
room, sometimes gathering for a Mourners Kaddish to save a member a trip to
the synagogue.
On Saturday nights, families who had
congregated earlier in the day in synagogue would come to Bonnyton for what
Geneen calls a proper meal, an upmarket meal.
Now in their 60s, Geneen and Black
still are members of Bonnyton. But
50 years later the membership has
changed, and with it the clubs character. Once almost exclusively Jewish,
today only about 30 percent of the clubs
approximately 700 members are Jewish.
The change is felt even on the clubhouse menu.
Its more pies and mince and, you
know, goyish food, Geneen said. You
wouldnt be able to have borscht and
chopped fish. Theres no point in having
it on the menu.
It was in 1951 that a group of Jews
began raising money for a private golf
course; six years later they bought
Bonnyton. At the time, Scottish clubs
accepted members based on religion;
even Catholics and Protestants mostly
played on different courses.
Excluded from both, Glasgows Jewish golfers were left to play their countrys national pastime at public courses,
where they would hold an annual tournament to benefit the local Hebrew
school.
Harvey Livingston, one of the clubs
first teenage junior members, said Jewish golfers wanted the club as much for
its course as for the high-class social life
it offered.
A private club is a better type of club,
and you can socialize a lot more because
there were so many people, Livingston
said. Everybody knew that the other
local clubs wouldnt accept Jewish
members.
Bonnyton lies just beyond a sprawling
suburb of Glasgow, at the end of a narrow, mile-long road flanked by grazing
sheep and cows. A blue and white sign
nothing to do with Israel, the clubs
chairman says welcomes members
to a clubhouse that was all but empty
on a warm Tuesday morning. One club

member, dressed in a blazer and slacks,

sat in an armchair by a window looking
out on a rolling course lined with evergreens. At the members-only restaurant,
a lone server waited for golfers soon to
return from a morning round.
The names on the trophies and
plaques Goldberg, Shenkin, and
Caplan mixed with Haggerty, McFarlane,
and Gilchrist are the only clear hints of
the clubs Jewish roots. Howard Beach,
Bonnytons chairman, says the clubs
location is what attracts members.
It always was a local club, Beach
s a i d . T h e re s a ve r y h a r m o n i ous arrangement between Jews and
non-Jews.
In recent years, the club has had
trouble attracting members of any kind.
After the United Kingdom prohibited
discrimination in club membership in
the 1960s and 70s, options widened
for Jewish golfers, many of whom opted
to play in clubs on the coast, where the
weather is better. Meanwhile, the wider
Jewish population has been shrinking
by nearly 10 percent between 2001 and
2011, according to official government
figures. This contraction also is felt in
Scotlands synagogues and other community organizations.
But Bonnyton has been hit as well by a
wider decline in golf club membership in
Scotland. Since 2004, total membership
at Scotlands nearly 600 golf clubs has
dropped by 17.5 percent, according to the
Scottish Golf Union. The union blames
the predicament on a bad economy and
recent inclement summer weather.
In an interview with The Scotsman last
year, the unions chief executive, Hamish
Grey, acknowledged that consumer
behavior is changing. Golfers today are
more likely to bounce among courses
than become members of any one club.
Beach has tried to bring golfers
into Bonnyton by offering discounted
memberships and promotions. He has
extended the junior membership up to
30 and recently tried to attract members
with an online coupon. But theres only
so much he can do.
You have to be careful not to cheapen
the offering, Beach said. If you dont
want to play on a good golf course, there
are plenty of mediocre courses available
to you.
Confident of the courses quality,
Beach expects the club to weather its
membership challenges, even as other
Scottish clubs may shutter. But even if
it does persevere, what made Bonnyton
a fixture of local Jewish life is unlikely
to remain.
You had to wander about playing golf
in other peoples golf courses, member
Max Gold, 83, recalled. This became
JTA WIRE SERVICE
our own golf club.

62 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Lillian Betty Davis, ne Henry, 88, of

Wayne, formerly of London, Paterson,
Boston, and Pembroke Pines, Fla., died
on September 17.
Predeceased by her husband, Harry,
she is survived by sons, Robert (Karen)
of Niantic, Conn., and Allan (Donna) of
Pompton Plains; sisters, Ginger Crees
(Len) and Susan Menham ( John), both
of England; two grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren.
Donations can be sent Compassionate
Care Hospice, Fair Lawn. Arrangements
were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.

Stanley Domb

Stanley Domb, 85, of Fort Lee, died on

September 18.
Born in the Bronx, he owned
Phelps Time Recording Lock Corp. in
Manhattan. He was a member of Young
Israel of Fort Lee.

He is survived by his wife, Doris,

ne Sakofs, daughters, Susan Fuld
of Brookline, Mass., and Mindy of
Amherst, Mass.; a brother, Edward of
Englewood Cliffs, and six grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Eden Memorial
Chapels in Fort Lee.

Bruce Erlebacher

Bruce H. Erlebacher, 56, of Glen Rock,

formerly of Passaic, died on September 18.
Predeceased by his father, Henry,
and mother-in-law, Mary Bendit, he is
survived by his wife, Tina, ne Bendit,
his mother, Florence, children, Jeremy
and Jenna, sisters, Jacki of Wallington
and Roz Weiss Rosenthal ( Jeffrey) of
Wayne, and father-in-law, Benjamin
Bendit.
Donations can be sent to the Jeremy
Weissman and Jenna Weissman College
Scholarship Fund. Arrangements
were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.

Chevra Kadisha Taharath Jacob Isaac

Serving the needs of the Jewish community for 35 years
with respect, dignity and strict adherence to halacha
through many funeral homes in the tri-state area.

Family operated for three generations.

Miriam Brieger- Founder

917-324-2193

Eli Davidovics- Director

A happy and healthy new year to you and your family

from the members of the Jewish Memorial Chapel
Adas Israel Passaic
Agudath Israel Caldwell
Ahavas Achim Bloomfield
Ahavas Israel Passaic
Amelia Lodge Clion
Beth Ahm Verona
Beth El Rutherford
Beth Israel Fair Lawn
Beth Shalom Pompton Lakes

Bnai Shalom West Orange

Jewish War Veterans Post 47 Clion
Chevra Thilim Passaic
Knights of Pythias Memorial
Associaon Clion
Clion Jewish Center Clion
Passaic Hebrew Verein Passaic
Daughters of Miriam Clion
Pine Brook Jewish Center Montville
Farband Passaic
Shomrei Emunah Montclair
Hungarian Hebrew Men Pinebrook
Temple Emanuel Clion
Jewish Federaon Clion
Temple Ner Tamid Bloomfield
Tifereth Israel Passaic
Young Israel Passaic

841 Allwood Road Clifton, NJ 07012

973-779-3048 Fax 973-779-3191
www.JewishMemorialChapel.org
Vincent Marazo, Manager
NJ License No. 3424
COMMUNITY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1921 NONPROFIT

Obituaries
Yaghob Khalosaghian

Yaghob Khalosaghian of Oradell died on September

18 in Westwood.
Before retiring, he was a merchant and a member of
the Jewish Community Center of Paramus/Congregation
Beth Tikvah.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Baher,
his children, Mahnaz Kashani (Yahya) of Paramus
and Ebrahim Saghian (Ilana) of Closter, and four
grandchildren.
Arrangements were by Gutterman and Musicant
Jewish Funeral Directors, Hackensack.

Hilda Rubinson

Hilda C. Rubinson of Fort Lee died on September 16.

Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.

Obituaries are prepared with information

provided by funeral homes. Correcting errors is
the responsibility of the funeral home.

Robert Schoems Menorah Chapel, Inc

Jewish Funeral Directors

Family Owned & managed

Generations of Lasting Service to the Jewish Community
Serving NJ, NY, FL &
Throughout USA
Prepaid & Preneed Planning
Graveside Services

Our Facilities Will Accommodate

Your Familys Needs
Handicap Accessibility From Large
Parking Area

Established 1902
Headstones, Duplicate Markers and Cemetery Lettering
With Personalized and Top Quality Service
Please call 1-800-675-5624

Gary Schoem Manager - NJ Lic. 3811

www.kochmonument.com

Conveniently Located
W-150 Route 4 East Paramus, NJ 07652

201.843.9090

76 Johnson Ave., Hackensack, NJ 07601

1.800.426.5869

Wishing Everyone
A Happy, Healthy
New Year
LShana Tova
The Board of Directors

Mount Moriah Cemetery

685 Fairview Avenue, Fairview, NJ 07022
24 Hour phone 201-943-6163

www.mountmoriahcemeteryofnewjersey.org

201-791-0015

800-525-3834

LOUIS SUBURBAN CHAPEL, INC.

Exclusive Jewish Funeral Chapel

For generations,
our families have made
family, community and tradition
our promise to you.

Sensitive to Needs of the Jewish Community for Over 50 Years

A Very Healthy & Sweet

Shana Tova
to Everyone

13-01 Broadway (Route 4 West) Fair Lawn, NJ

Richard Louis - Manager
George Louis - Founder
NJ Lic. No. 3088
1924-1996

Best Wishes for a

Happy & Healthy
New Year

MARTIN D. KASDAN

ALAN L. MUSICANT

Since Biblical times the value of kavod hameit, respect for the dead has been part of Jewish tradition.

GUTTERMAN AND MUSICANT

JEWISH FUNERAL DIRECTORS
800-522-0588

WIEN & WIEN, INC.

MEMORIAL CHAPELS
800-322-0533

402 PARK STREET, HACKENSACK, NJ 07601

ALAN L. MUSICANT, Mgr., N.J. Lic. No. 2890
MARTIN D. KASDAN, N.J. Lic. No. 4482
Advance Planning Conferences
conveniently arranged at our location or in your own home.

RIVERSIDE MEMORIALTHAPEL
OF NEW JERSEY

MARTIN D. KASDAN, Mgr., N.J. Lic. No. 4482

GuttermanMusicantWien.com

327 Main St, Fort Lee, NJ 07024

201-947-3336

Frank Patti, Senior Director - NJ Lic. No. 2693

www.jstandard.com
JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 63

Real Estate & Business

HACKENSACK OPEN HOUSES 9/28 1-5

242 Summit Ave

Beautiful 1908 Arts & Crafts, 6 BRcol w/ original butler's pantry,
front porch,carriage house converted & zoned for professional
space. Large 1/2 acre property. Bus nearby.$650K
266 Summit Ave
Grand Col over 4700SF,gracious LR & DR, fam rm leads to
lovely, large grounds & pool, stylish MBR suite, 6 room attached
office suite, zoned for professional use. Courts, hospital, train and
bus nearby.Reduced to $599K

BY APPOINTMENT

Mediterranean South Fort Lee

3 BR, 2.5 BTH corner unit, full service bldg, GWB view, in process
of condo conversion. Pool, tennis, valet pkg. Amazing value! $349K
Teaneck Tudor Colonial
Curb Appeal! Spacious rms, finished 3rd flr & bsmt, 2 car gar. Prime
Queen Anne Rdarea nr NYC bus & Houses of Worship. $419K
Teaneck Glenpointe Complex
New Listing. 2 BR, 2.5 BTH Townhouse.

A Happy & Sweet New Year!

WENDY WINEBURGH DESSANTI
Broker/Sales Associate

Weichert
Circle of Excellence 2003-2013
201 310-2255/201 541-1449 x192
[email protected]

Englewood Hospital offers

free vein screening

Cresskill Performing Arts

adds youth circus classes

Advanced Medical Imaging (AMI) of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center will offer free vein screenings on October 1, 3, and 7 to
men and women with visible, abnormal leg veins such as bulging
varicose veins or spider veins. Those who experience leg pain or
have a history of blood clots are encouraged to attend.
Patients should know the early warning signs for vein disease
to help prevent potential complications. Symptoms include aching, throbbing or swelling in the legs, ankles or feet.
The screening will be held at AMI of Englewood Hospital and
Medical Center, 452 Old Hook Road, Suite 301, Emerson, and
includes a physical examination and a thorough review of medical history. If further evaluation is needed, a follow-up appointment for noninvasive testing can be scheduled.
Board-certified vein specialists and physicians from the Center for Vein Disease at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
will provide free screenings to men and women of all ages.
The screenings will be held Wednesday, October 1, from 2 to
5 p.m.; Friday, October 3, from 9 a.m. to noon, and Tuesday,
October 7, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Pre-registration is required. Call (866) 980-3462 or visit www.
englewoodhospital.com and click the Classes and Support
Groups tab.

Classes begin Wednesday, September 24, for ages 7

to 11 into the world of circus. In this class, children get
to experience circus arts including hula-hooping, juggling, balance (partner and solo), and basic tumbling.
The class will help your child with coordination and
strength.
Cresskill Performing Arts features small classes,
teachers from Broadway, in Cirque shows, MTV
and more. Classes feature ballet/pointe, jazz (lyrical,
contemporary, theater, funk, street), tap, hip-hop,
acting, improv, voice triple threat, choreography, arts
and crafts, fencing lessons, creative Legos, and more.
Cresskill Performing Arts companies include Dance
Ensemble, Junior Company, and CPA Kids. Performance opportunities include a work-in-progress
show in December, Spring Recital in June and charity
shows.
Cresskill Performing Arts is located at 300
Knickerbocker Road, Suite 1100, Creskill. Call
(201) 390-7513 or (201)266-8830, or contact www.
cresskillperformingarts.com, or studio-info@
cresskillperformingarts.com

119 Elm Street, Tenafly

Fern Malka

LD
SO

LD

LD

70 Regency Circle, Englewood

SO

LD
41 Markham Circle, Englewood

170 N. Woodland Street, Englewood

S AF O R
LE

AS
LE

AS
LE

348 Jones Road, Englewood

240 Jones Road, Englewood

ED

372 Thornton Road, Englewood

ED

78 Franklin Street, Englewood

340 Lewelen Circle, Englewood

SO

LD

41 Cheshire Lane, Ringwood

SO

LD
SO

SO
LE

AS

ED

290 Anderson Street, Hackensack

22 Fox Run Drive, Englewood

SO

LD

84 Lydecker Street, Englewood

84 E. Linden Avenue, Englewood

LD

SO

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101 N. Woodland Street, Englewood

SO

SO

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191 Glenwood Road, Englewood

F
SA OR
LE

F
SA OR
LE

F
SA OR
LE

From our Team at Royal Realty Services to Yours,

Wishing You a Happy and Healthy New Year.

717 Ocean Avenue, Longbranch

Real Estate Broker

Royal Realty Services LLC

10 N. Wood Avenue, Suite B1 Linden, New Jersey 07036 c: 201-281-6369 o: 908-862-8100 [email protected]
66 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

RealEstate&Business
Happy
New Year

Best Wishes for a New Year

filled with Good Health, Happiness
and A World at Peace.

from all of us at

Volpe
Real Estate

BARBARA OSTROTH
Coldwell Banker Residential RE
201-965-3105 Cell
www.BarbaraOstroth.com

640 Palisade Avenue Englewood Cliffs, NJ

201-567-8700 Fax 201-567-6828
CUSTOM BROKER RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL
SALES RENTAL LEASING

BANK-OWNED PROPERTIES
High-Return
Investment Opportunities
GARDEN STATE HOMES
25 Broadway, Elmwood Park, NJ

Martin H. Basner, Realtor Associate

(Office) 201-794-7050 (Cell) 201-819-2623

ANNIE GETS IT SOLD

Happy New Year
Elite Associates

A DIVISION OF V AND N GROUP LLC

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 28TH OPEN HOUSES

703 Northumberland Rd, Tnk $659,000 1-3pm
4 bedroom, 3 full bath updated Colonial
22 Dohrman Ave, Tnk
$465,000 12-2pm
Singular 4 bedroom home on 100 ft frontage
43 Rector Ct, Bgfld
$985,000
2-4pm
Luxury New Construction 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath
51 Wilbur Rd, Bgfld
$449,000
1-3pm
3 bedroom Colonial, updated windows,
hardwood floors

JUST SOLD
1409 Milford Terrace, Teaneck
23 Hampton Court, Bergenfield

Ann Murad, ABR, GRI, SRES

Sales Associate
NJAR Circle of Excellence Gold Level, 2001, 2003-2006
Silver Level, 1997-2000, 2002, 2009, 2011, 2012
Direct: (201) 664-6181, Cell: (201) 981-7994
E-mail:

VERA AND NECHAMA REALT Y

www.vera-nechama.com

201-692-3700

[email protected]

313 Broadway, Westwood, NJ

Each Office Independenty Owned and Operated

EQUAL
HOUSING
EQUAL HOUSING
OPPORTUNITY
OPPORTUNITY

TEANECK OPEN HOUSES 3-5PM

Elliot W. Steinberg (201) 446-0839
Emily R. Steinberg (201) 446-1034

Shanah Tovah!

Wishing You a Happy New Year

May your New Year

be sweetened
with health
and
happiness

Serving Bergen County Tenafly/Teaneck Office

LShanah Tovah
to all our Friends
and Clients

5775
780 Salem St.

ALPINE/CLOSTER RIVERVALE ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS TENAFLY

768-6868

666-0777

568-1818

CRESSKILL

$279,900

Charming Center Entry Colonial on Tree-lined Street.

Fireplaced Liv Rm, Den, Din Rm, .5 Bath. 2nd Flr: 2 BRs, Full
Bath. Fin Playrm Bsmt, Gar.

894-1234 871-0800

With great pleasure

Anhalt Realty LLC
announces that
Larry DeNike
President

DaNieL M. ShLufMaN
Managing directOr

[email protected]

[email protected]

MLO #58058

MLO #6706

Classic Mortgage, LLC

201-368-3140
Proudly serving the Jewish Community.
Mortgage BankersNJ/NY/CT

Like us on Facebook.
facebook.com/jewishstandard

Linda P. Hoffman
has joined our firm
as Salesperson.
201-394-7844 direct

Specializing in all of your

Real Estate needs
240 Grand Avenue
Englewood, NJ 07631

201-568-3300

www.anhaltrealty.com

111 Merrison St.

$419,900

Picture Perfect English Tudor. Nat Woodwork. Tiled Entry

Reading Rm, LR/Fplc, Din Rm, Lov Kit/Bkfst Rm, 3 BRs,
Updated Baths. Fin Bsmt/Wood Flr. C/A/C. Beaut Flowering
Gardens. 2 Car Gar.

ALL CLOSE TO NY BUS / HOUSES OF WORSHIP /

HIGHWAYS / SHOPPING / SCHOOLS & NY BUS
For Our Full Inventory & Directions 2013
Visit our Website
READERS
CHOICE
www.RussoRealEstate.com

FIRST PLACE
REAL ESTATE AGENCY

(201) 837-8800

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 67

68 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 69

RealEstate&Business
Nina Eizikovitz joins Links Residential Real Estate
Nina Eizikovitz recently joined Links Residential Real Estate of Teaneck. Originally from
Fair Lawn, she has lived in Bergen County
her entire life and currently resides in Bergenfield with her husband and four children.
Ms. Eizikovitz has spent more than a
decade working with nonprofit organizations
in both professional and volunteer capacities.
With a background in marketing, she prides
herself on her patience and listening skills, as
well as being the person friends, colleagues,
and clients turn to for advice. Her attention
to detail and creativity brings a commitment

to go above and beyond for her clients in the

real estate industry.
We are honored to have Nina join our
Links team, said Marc Stein, broker/owner
of Links Residential Real Estate. She is an
excellent addition to our hard-working team.
Links Residential is a premier Bergen
County real estate company, with a focus on
harnessing technoloy to make real estate
transactions as seamless as possible.
For information on buying, selling, or
exploring the market with Ms. Eizikovitz, call
(201) 992-3600 or visit LinksNJ.com.

Wishing you
a Happy
New Year
from all
of us at
Anhalt Realty

A grand day with Bob McGrath

at the Teaneck Farmers Market
Sesame Street icon Bob McGrath and
kindergarten students from the Bryant
School drew a sing-along crowd with
The Hokey Pokey, If Youre Happy
and You Know It, When The Saints Go
Marching In, and other favorites at the
Teaneck Farmers Market.
It also brought out Teaneck Community Charter School kindergarteners on
their first field trip.
Helping with the audio portions was
musician and educator Loren Daniels.
Mr. McGrath and Bryant School music
teacher Alan Greene had only a few
rehearsals with the students, but they
performed with great charm and excitement during each number.

59 Friend Terr.
Harrington Park
$799,000
Open House
1-4 p.m.

240 Grand Avenue

Englewood, NJ 07631

201-568-3300

[email protected]
www.anhaltrealty.com

Both groups of schools made it a

memorable day with photos and videos being taken. The Teaneck Traffic
Department pitched in by placing the
electronic sign to help promote the
event.
The market is open every week
from now until the end of October,
weather permitting. Vendors can take
pre-orders through their on-line shopping service. Nonperishable foods are
still being accepted by Helping Hands
and the Center for Food Action during
Thursday markets. Drop-off times are
9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the Center for
Food Action and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. for
Helping Hands.

Happy New Year

Resort Style Living

for this fabulous
newly constructed
home on enclosed
property with
in-ground heated swimming pool, huge garden and patio.
MSTR suite is king sized. Second Mstr suite and 2 more
bedrooms and bath with laundry on the second floor. Granite
chefs kitchen, family room, finished basement, powder room
and much more. Two-zone C/AC and heat, hardwood floors,
2-car attached garage with double newly paved driveway.

Call Nicole Idler for any

information at 201-906-9338 and
to list or buy in Bergen County.

Like us
on
Facebook.

facebook.com/
jewishstandard

201-894-1234

SELLING YOUR HOME?

Cumberland Street, Englewood

Newly listed!Enjoy contemporary elegance in this
beautiful four or five bedroom split level home nestled on the East Hill of Englewood offering privacy
with magnificent plantings and multiple decks.

Walnut Street, Englewood

Enjoy unparalleled style and luxury in this 8000
square foot custom modern residence completed
in 2002,designed by Larry Stern and built with the
finest materials.

Wishing the Community

a Sweet New Year

Call Susan Laskin Today

To Make Your Next Move A Successful One!
BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com

Cell: 201-615-5353

2014 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.
An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.

70 JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Do you want to know the value of your home?

Thinking of selling?
For the best move of your life, call me today to schedule
a complimentary marketing analysis with no hassles and
no obligation. See for yourself how our marketing is
second to none.

Renee Bouaziz Coldwell Banker 130 Dean Drive Tenafly, NJ

Cell 201-233-1852 Office 201-567-7788 Fax 862 345-2468 www.reneebouaziz.net

Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp. an equal opportunity company, equal housing opportunity, owned and operated by NRT Inc.

Our warmest wishes to you and all your loved ones for
A Very Happy, Healthy, Sweet and Peaceful New Year!
NJ:
NY:

Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY

201.266.8555
T: 212.888.6250
T:

201.906.6024
M: 917.576.0776
M:

ENGLEWOOD SHOWCASE

Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

566 RIDGELAND TER $698,000

522 CAPE MAY ST $898,000

94 GLENWOOD RD $995,000

200 S. DWIGHT PL $2,400,000

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

CO LOV
LO EL
NI Y
AL
!

J
SO UST
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!

133-A E. PALISADE AVE

ENGLEWOOD

SP
A
HO CIO
M US
E!

J
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400 LANTANA AVENUE

ENGLEWOOD

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P
AR RIM
EA E
!

57 FRANKLIN STREET

ENGLEWOOD

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280-290 EAST LINDEN AVENUE

98 HILLSIDE AVENUE

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

LD

ENGLEWOOD

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10 LEXINGTON COURT

SO

ENGLEWOOD

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185 E. PALISADE AVE, #D5B

400 JONES ROAD

ENGLEWOOD

SO

ENGLEWOOD

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285 MORROW ROAD

ENGLEWOOD

SO

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215 E. LINDEN AVENUE

ENGLEWOOD

SO

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184 SHERWOOD PLACE

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401 DOUGLAS STREET

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35 KING STREET

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154 MEADOWBROOK ROAD

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OF ST
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HE E-A
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!

350 ELKWOOD TERRACE

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248 CHESTNUT STREET

Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!

[email protected] www.MironProperties.com
[email protected] www.MironProperties.com/NJ
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.

JEWISH STANDARD SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 71