MEET THE STRAKHMANS OF MAHWAH page 6

WHO ARE THE JEWS ON THE CRUISE? page 10

WORKING WITH YACHAD page 12
REFLECTIONS ON A TRANSPARENTLY JEWISH SHOW page 39
JANUARY 1, 2016
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Jerusalem neighborhood
ostrich-ized

Facebook users solve mystery

of antique artifact

l What walks on two legs like a man, is

and nightmare.
Six months ago, the Israel
Antiquities Authority was presented
with a mysterious gilded object
from an old Jerusalem cemetery.
They had absolutely no idea what
it was.
Archaeologists and historians
looking into this strange golden
scepter couldnt date it. And then
someone at the authority decided
to post a photo of the spiral object
on Facebook and ask for help. It
took a few hours for the riddle to be
solved.
Congratulations to Micah Barak of
Italy and to all those who took part
in helping to solve the mystery of the
object from the Jerusalem cemetery,
the Israel Antiquities Authority
posted on its Facebook page.
Several hours after the storys
publication, Micah Barak identified
the object as a device that is
supposed to provide energetic
protection and is designed for use
by naturopaths and those involved

tall as a man, and didnt bury its head

in the sand as it strolled the streets
of Jerusalems Gilo neighborhood on
Sunday?
Yes, an escaped ostrich.
The ostrich, believed to be one or
two years old, became an instant
Internet sensation, with people
rushing to pet it and take selfies.
A call to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo
quickly revealed that it wasnt one of
theirs.
The feathered bird turned out to have
been owned by a private citizen, who
had bought it as a chick at an unlicensed
animal market in Kfar Qassem. He was
raising it at home, unaware that it was
illegal to own such a bird.
The ostrich now has a new home
the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.
This is the first time in my life that
Ive run into something so bizarre
Ive been in this position for 11 years
and havent run into something like
this, Jerusalem Chief Veterinarian Dr.
Asaf Brill told Ynet.
Gilos ostrich outing was just the
latest peculiar animal sighting the
country has seen in 2015.
The outgoing year actually kicked
off on New Years Day no less with
three rhinoceroses escaping from their
enclosure at the Ramat Gan Safari
when a guard fell asleep on the job.

Then there was the case of an

emu joining the traffic in downtown
Herzliya, after the six-foot-tall
flightless bird managed to escape its
private owner for a spectacular run
alongside speeding cars on a busy
Herzliya road.
In May, the Zichron Yaakov
police were alerted to a crocodile
on the loose in the community of
Beit Hanania. Fortunately, both for
residents and for the creature itself,
that incident ended without incident.
The escaped reptile was returned to a
nearby crocodile farm.
And then there was the affair of the
lovesick porcupines although in that
case, the spiky wild suitor broke into
the enclosure. Thats unlike the others,
who escaped out.
Almost all the escaped
animals of the year were
returned safely to their
homes or to animal facilities
around the country.
One unsettling incident
of an escapee that remains
an unsolved mystery,
however, is the November
disappearance of a sixmeter-long Burmese
python from the 101 Desert
Oasis, a rest stop/zoo on
the road to Eilat. Lets hope
its recaptured soon.
Viva Sarah Press / Israel21c.org

l It was an archaeologists dream

in New Age energy healing. The

object, manufactured by a German
company, is called an Isis Beamer,
named after the Egyptian goddess
Isis, who according to Egyptian
mythology was the goddess of
healing, magic and nature.
The authority said hundreds
of responses poured in. Among
the less helpful were suggestions
that the item could be a cattle
insemination instrument, an
implement for rolling dough, a piece
of industrial machinery, a massager,
or a cultic object used in the Temple.
And while the mysterious object has
been identified, the Israel Antiquities
Authority is still stumped about why it
was buried in the old cemetery. They
posted another Facebook message to
find the answer:
We hope that those responsible
for hiding the object in the cemetery
will contact us, tell us why it was
buried in the ancient structure and
to whom amongst the dead and
buried they wanted to give positive
energy. Viva Sarah Press/Israel21c.org

Candlelighting: Friday, January 1, 4:20 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, January 2, 5:25 p.m.

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dear rabbi zahavy 37
dvar torah 38
arts & culture 39
calendar40
Crossword puzzle41
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Noshes

No longer will you be called J.J. Abrams;

your name will be J.J. Abrahams, for
you are the father of many successful reboots.
Writer Liam Thatcher, in a Twitter post discussing
the director of the new Star Wars and Star Trek movies.

LOTS OF LCHAYIM:

Happy New Year

to these winners
New Years Eve is a
time for music, so
here are some
musical notes spanning
many genres. Lets start
with Tony Bennetts new
album, Silver Lining: The
Songs of Jerome Kern.
KERN (1885-1945), along
with IRVING BERLIN, was
a major contributor to the
Great American Songbook; so many of those
classic tunes are performed on New Years.
While Bennett doesnt
cover Old Man River,
Kerns most famous song,
the CD does include such
Kern classics as The Way
You Look Tonight (with
lyrics by DOROTHY
FIELD, 1905-1974, oft
called the best female
lyricist of all time). By the
way, Bennetts daughter
ANTONIA, 41, also a
singer, and a convert to
Judaism, is expecting her
first child with her Israeli
husband. They belong to
a Los Angeles Orthodox
shul.
A New Years
lchayim to singer
GOGI GRANT,
who recently turned 91.
Shes best known for
The Wayward Wind, a
pop-country monster
crossover hit (written by
two Jewish guys) that
knocked Elvis out of the
top spot in 1956. A hunch
led me to check and I
found out that Grant,
born Myrtle Arinsberg, is
Jewish. Grant was

married for a long time

to ROBERT RIFKIND, 90,
a prominent Beverly Hills
attorney and a big donor
to Jewish and secular
good causes. She retired
in 1967 to raise their two
children. Since the late
80s, Grant has performed in concerts (at
least as recently as 2013)
and on PBS oldies
specials.
GREG KURSTIN,
46, a top producer
and songwriter,
must be smiling at the
enormous success of
Adeles comeback CD,
25. The singer suffered
from severe writers block
from early 2013, when she
began work on her third
studio album, until she
finally sought Kurstins
help early in 2015. Kurstin,
a multi-Grammy nominee,
has produced and
co-written tunes with
many top acts, including
Beck and Kelly Clarkson.
He and Adele clicked, and
together they wrote the
CDs big hit single, Hello.
25 is the biggest selling
CD of 2015, and Adeles
upcoming North American tour already is sold
out.
CHARLIE PUTH,
24, a native of
Rumson, also had
a good year. Heres an
excerpt from a recent
EW profile: A year
ago, Charlie Puth didnt
even have a record deal.
But since then, he signed

Tony Bennett

Greg Kurstin

Charlie Puth

Alan Menken

Glenn Slater

Jerry Seinfeld

the dotted line with

Atlantic in January, has
been nominated for
three Grammys, broke
Billboard Hot 100
records with See You
Again, his Furious 7
collaboration with Wiz
Khalifa, and toured with
Marvin Gaye partner
Meghan Trainor. He can
now add one more
accolade to his name:
Golden Globe nominee.
See You Again was
nominated for Best
Original Song at the
GlobesHe told EW, I

always told myself when

I was younger if I ever
got nominated for a
Grammy, Id call my
mother and tell her first
and I did that. Shes my
Jewish mother, so she
was like, Im not surprised. You worked hard
for this! (Puths father
isnt Jewish).
The ABC musical
comedy series
Galavant returns
for a second 10-episode
season on January 3,
from 8 to 9 p.m. (Two
back-to-back episodes

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run each Sunday for five

weeks.) The songs are by
Oscar-winner ALAN
MENKEN, 66 (Beauty
and the Beast, The
Little Mermaid, Aladdin) and Tony-nominee
GLENN SLATER, 47 (Little Mermaid theater
version).
As you probably
heard, Crackle (on
web, Roku, etc.)
has just (December 30)
released a new season of
JERRY SEINFELDs
series, Comedians in
Cars Getting Coffee, and

his first guest is President Barack Obama. You

might have heard that
Seinfeld, 61, played four
sold-out performances in
Tel Aviv on December
20-21. A detailed account
by an American audience
member included this
gem: He did drop some
Israel-related humor,
saying in one spot-on
joke that Israelis have
two answers to any
question: no problem or
thats impossible.
Seinfeld grew up in the
town next to my Long
Island hometown. While
I rode around in my parents car, Id see these
billboards with a tag at
the bottom: Sign by Kal
Seinfeld and I thought
to myself: Is this a joke?
Yes, KAL was Jerrys
sign-manufacturer
father, and little did I
know, then, that it was a
Seinfeldian moment
you could just imagine
George Constanza, etc.,
blathering on about what
signs by Seinfeld means.
By the way, Jerrys
father was the son of
Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, and his
mother, BETTY HOSNI
SEINFELD, is the daughter of Jewish immigrants
from Aleppo, Syria a
city that now is in ruins
because of the Syrian
civil war. The state of the
ancient Great Synagogue
of Aleppo is unclear.
N.B.

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

Middleoftheroad1@aol.com

Discover.
benzelbusch.com
11/9/15 3:41 PM

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 5

Local
Dennis Gralla
visits with Lena
and Moshe
Strakhman.

photos courtesy Jewish home Family

Nourishment
How kosher meals
on wheels enriches three lives
JoaNNe palmer

he street where Moshe and Lena

Strakhman live is in Mahwah,
but it doesnt look much like the
rest of the town.
It was a dark, wet, nasty day when we
went to visit the Strakhmans, and the pervasive gloom didnt help, but their part of
town didnt look lush and rural and idyllic, as most of it does. The commercial
strip where the couple lives looked like
a small upstate New York town, one of
those towns that prosperity has bypassed
for generations. The low hills of Rockland
County just to the north looked sullen and
leaden and unwelcoming.
When Dennis Gralla walked into the
Strakhmans apartment, though, the atmosphere inside seemed to light up somehow.
6 Jewish standard JanUarY 1, 2016

The couple, in their 80s, glowed when

they saw him; Mr. Strakhman frequently
and energetically shook Mr. Grallas hand,
as if that were the best, clearest way to
express the emotion he felt.
The couple and Mr. Gralla first met four
or five years ago, when Mr. Gralla who
grew up in Teaneck, has spent most of
his life in Bergen County, and now lives
in Mahwah decided to deliver holiday
kosher meals on wheels for the Jewish
Home at Rockleigh.
A word about kosher meals on wheels
the need for such food deliveries to
the elderly and the disabled is great, far
greater than those of us who are comfortable realize, so great, in fact that more
than one agency provides them. The Jewish Family Service of Bergen and North
Hudson and the Jewish Family Service of

Moshe Strakhman has developed a strong bond with Dennis Gralla.

North Jersey both provide kosher meals on

wheels.
The Jewish Home Familys Jewish Home
at Rockleigh prepares kosher meals for
three programs at the Kaplen JCC on
the Palisades in Tenafly, for the stillongoing program through the otherwiseshuttered YJCC in Washington Township,
and at the Jewish Family and Childrens
Services in Fair Lawn. ( Jewish Family Service of Bergen and North Hudson volunteers also deliver kosher meals on wheels
once a week, but that program no longer
is affiliated with the Jewish Homes.) The
Rockleigh kitchens produce about 24,000
meals each year, according to the Jewish

Home Foundations executive director,

Melanie Cohen. And then, three times a
year, just before Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah, and Passover, in a program funded
by the Jewish Federation of Northern New
Jersey and the Jewish Home Foundation,
about 30 volunteers from the Jewish Home
bring hot meals to about 300 clients.
Dennis Gralla is one of those volunteers.
Its one thing to give money, Mr. Gralla
a commercial realtor whose father was
one of the founders of the YJCC in Washington Township, among many other local
Jewish institutions said. Thats easy,
and he does it often and with a strong
sense of obligation and connection to the

photos courtesy Jewish Home Family

community. Its another thing entirely to

do something that gives me an opportunity to really meet people. Thats the real
mitzvah.
Because he is on the board of the Jewish
Home, delivering kosher meals on wheels
for the organization makes sense to him,
he said.
Mr. Gralla has a fairly steady list of clients to whom he delivers kosher meals
on wheels, and he has developed somewhat of a relationship with all of them,
but its nothing like the one he has with
the Strakhmans. In fact, he has become
so close to them that he calls them frequently, sees them often, and pays some
of their bills, out of a sense of obligation
and also of love.
The relationship between Mr. Gralla and
the Strakhmans is so real that it demands
more than three visits a year. Thats why
I found myself on the couples doorstep,
trailing Mr. Gralla as he greeted them
exuberantly.
They remind me so much of my grandparents, who are gone now, he said.
Its easy to see why he would make that
comparison. I made it as well, when I
met them. Lena Strakhman has the rich,
plummy Romanian accent that plunged

Donate
to Jewish
National
Fund and
build a
stronger,
healthier,
more secure
Israel.

From left, Dennis Gralla picks up food at the Jewish Home, working with Esther
Markin and Melanie Cohen, as Martin Basner and Carol Silver Elliott look on.

me back to my early childhood, and Moshe

Strakhman wears the kind of kippah not
exactly square, not really pointed that
is not shaped exactly like the ones we see
here, but looks exactly like the ones in the
few photos our grandparents managed to
bring with them from Eastern Europe.
Their apartment is small, a bare-bones
kind of place, but it features two wedding

pictures hanging on the wall. One is of

Lena and Moshe; shes strong featured,
staring proudly at the camera, and he is
shier, more reserved. Both look happy
and young, and although the photograph
is decades old, both are entirely unmistakable as themselves. The other is of their
son and daughter-in-law; he lives in Philadelphia and she died five years ago. The

pair looks happy in the photo, and it is

given pride of place on the wall.
Mr. Strakhman was born in Ukraine
in 1934 and Mrs. Strakhman was born in
Romania in 1932. Both survived the Holocaust but neither wants to talk about it.
Eventually, after the war, both found themselves in Chernowitz, a city that has been
ruled by Romania, Hungary, the Soviet
Union, and now is in Ukraine. It was a
center of Yiddishist culture, but when the
Strakhmans were there, it was yet another
gray Soviet city, full of Jews but with only
one small synagogue.
Moshe worked in a very big factory
in Chernowitz, he said. We made flashlights. Lena was an engineer of technology. I worked in a lab. I was a food controller I was the head of five factories, and
I did quality control; I worked on salami,
bread, and sodas. While she worked she
also went to university, studying from
1958 to 1962. She and Moshe met, through
friends, in 1962, and got married two years
later.
Not with a rabbi, Ms. Strakhman said.
It wasnt allowed.
Their son was born in Chernowitz;
the mohel was able to sneak into their
See kosher meals page 9

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Jewish Standard JANUARY 1, 2016 7

Local

Teaneck expat to lead NCSY

Rabbi Benovitz named youth groups international managing director
Abigail Klein Leichman
A Teaneck expat who now lives in Israel
has been named managing director of
International NCSY, the Orthodox Unions
youth movement, as the organization
enters its 62nd year.
Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, the longtime
director of the summer program NCSY
Kollel in Israel, will supervise NCSYs
activities throughout the world. He will
work in cooperation with NCSYs Chicagobased international director, Rabbi Micah
Greenland, and its New York-based associate international director, Keevy Fried.
Globally, NCSY has about 150 employees
and 500 volunteer advisers in North America, Israel, Germany, Chile, and Argentina.
Rabbi Moshe Benovitz

NCSY was
created to
inspire more
passionate
Jewish
commitment
and leadership,
and thats still
very much true.
Its ongoing programs reach approximately
16,000 teenagers; and 14 different NCSY
summer programs in the United States,
Europe, and Israel attract a total of about
1,000 participants.
Rabbi Benovitz began his relationship
with NCSY as a high school student in the
1980s. Ive been involved, without any
breaks, as participant, adviser, administrator, director of summer programs, and
in broader national appointments, ever
since, he said.
Soon to turn 43, the Teaneck-raised
rabbi earned his B.A. in psychology and
his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary,

both at Yeshiva University. For the past

12 years, he and his family have lived in
Ramat Bet Shemesh, where he teaches at
Yeshivat Reishit, a post-high-school program for Orthodox boys from abroad.
Doing this job for NCSY from Israel
is exciting for me, Rabbi Benovitz said.
Its about bringing Jewish communities
together and creating an organizational
mentality of cohesion. Israel and Israel
education play a role as well, but its more
about bridging gaps.
From his vantage point of nearly 30
years with the organization, he says
that the goals of NCSY remain mostly
unchanged, although it has broadened
from a synagogue-based movement to a
community-based one. In fact, the original
name, National Conference of Synagogue
Youth, has been changed formally; it is
now simply NCSY.
NCSY was created to inspire more
passionate Jewish commitment and leadership, and thats still very much true,
Rabbi Benovitz said. The methodologies
changed over the years, of course, because
the challenges are somewhat different and
the modes of engagement are different.
In some regions, NCSY focuses more
on public school students; in others, the
focus is on day school students. We have

a strong commitment to providing evernew opportunities for engagement for

both constituencies, he said.
When dealing with youth, if youre not
innovating youre not going to be successful. In the past year we have made a significant investment in pilot projects that
encourage our regions to engage in innovation and provide funding for the most
innovative projects, for example programs
geared to underserved populations or
social-action-oriented missions. And you
cant talk about working with youth and
not speak about social media and digital
platforms, so that is obviously high on the
priority list.
During this years annual NCSY Yarchei Kallah five-day study retreats for
public-school teens across the country
during their winter break NCSYs international director of education, Rabbi
Dovid Bashevkin, who lives in Teaneck,
introduced a partnership with Aleph Beta
Academy, a nonprofit website dedicated to
learning Torah in a fun and relevant way.
For teens without a brick-and-mortar
Jewish education, an online platform like
Aleph Beta becomes even more important, Rabbi Benovitz said.
He sees NCSYs main strengths as giving
young people a chance to lead and giving
them opportunities for expression that not
every formal education environment will
provide for them, he said. That informal
nature has always been the hallmark of
NCSY. Youre dealing with apathy as much
as any other barrier to religious commitment, so that level of leadership training
and expression matter a lot.
He will continue recruiting kids for
all NCSY summer programs and leading
NCSY Kollel, a position he has held since
2000. NCSY Kollel offers half a day of interactive learning and half a day of competitive basketball, hockey, football, softball,
and soccer.
Rabbi Benovitz noted that the summer
camps have experienced extraordinary
growth under the leadership of David
Cutler, and the number of participants is
expected to double to 2,000 in the coming years.

The summer programs are about

taking positive mentoring, role models, leadership training the building
blocks of what has made NCSY successful and applying them in an expanded
way, he said. We get a tremendous
response from three crucial constituencies teens, parents, and partner institutions because they understand the
value of these programs. Our numbers
are steady or up, even with the situation
in Israel, and that happens because weve
earned the trust and confidence of the
community.
Before moving to Israel, Rabbi Benovitz worked on Long Island; he was the
director of student activities at the Davis

Its about
bringing Jewish
communities
together and
creating an
organizational
mentality of
cohesion.
Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for
Boys, part of the Hebrew Academy of
Long Beach (DRS/HALB) in Woodmere.
He also taught at the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA) at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan as
well as the Bruriah High School for Girls
in Elizabeth.
Rabbi Benovitz is an insightful and
experienced Jewish leader and educator,
whom I have long admired for his wisdom
and commitment to the Jewish people,
Rabbi Greenland said. The opportunity to
promote him to a position of greater influence in NCSY is a truly exciting one, and he
is already having a tremendous impact on
the professionals with whom he is working
most closely.

Its a New Year.

Resolve to get the support you need.

Bereavement groups Children of Holocaust Survivors Divorce and Separation

Recovery Group Establishing Financial Freedom Holding Hands Providing Support
After the Death of a Child Israeli Womens Support Group JACS Nechama Comfort
Women Affected by Intimate Partner Violence

For more information contact us at 201-837-9090 - www.jfsbergen.org

1.1.16 new year.indd
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Standard
JANUARY 1, 2016

12/17/2015 12:37:27 PM

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FROM PAGE 7

apartment at night and perform a bris, which was forbidden, the Strakhmans said. Nobody came to see
it, because it wasnt allowed. There was no problem
having a baby circumcised in the hospital, but the
ceremony was illegal, she said.
In 1972, the family, under the auspices of an agency
called the Tolstoy Foundation, was able to leave the
Soviet Union for Germany, and on October 22, 1974,
we came to Brooklyn, Ms. Strakhman said. We lived
there, on Ocean Parkway, for 20 years. Their son was
12 when he arrived in this country he came here on
his birthday, his mother said so he could become
bar mitzvah in Brooklyn. No sneaking necessary.
Their time in this country did not give them the freedom they craved, however; this time it was not the
state but their own bodies that imprisoned them. Ms.
Strakhman had developed gangrene in a leg, which
led to much surgery and the removal of a central vein,
she said. I didnt work one day in America. I couldnt

The relationship
between Mr. Gralla
and the Strakhmans
is so real that it
demands more than
three visits a year.
work. They put me on welfare first, and then, since
1982, on SSI. She applied to Touro College and was
accepted, hoping to be able to train to work in this
country, hoping above all that her health would allow
her to work toward that dream, but she could not
travel even to Touros classrooms in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, Mr. Strakhman worked in the kitchen
at the Yeshiva Chaim Berliner in Brooklyn, but fairly
soon he had to leave work to care for his wife. The
doctor told him that if he couldnt stay home with me,
they would have to cut off my leg, Ms. Strakhman said
matter-of-factly. So he stayed home. Eventually, she
grew strong and self-sufficient enough to allow him to
work as a messenger in a store in Manhattan.
Mr. Strakhman has asthma; in 2000, because he
couldnt breathe in Brooklyn, they told us to move
here, Ms. Strakhman said. About five years ago, Mr.
Strakhman had a stroke, which paralyzed the left side
of his body.
The county provides them with services, including
a home aide who also shops for them. Moshe said
that they told him that he wouldnt survive the stroke,
but he did, Mr. Gralla said. God willed that I am still
here, because after the stroke it showed a flat line, Mr.
Strakhman added.
Despite their hardship, they marvel about life
in the United States. There is so much Jewish life in
Brooklyn, they said. (Because they are Orthodox and
housebound, there is less of it in northwestern Bergen
County, they added.)
Wed never seen anything like a kosher butcher
shop, Ms. Strakhman said. Never in all my life had I
seen anything like it.
My mother would buy a chicken, take it to the
shochet the kosher slaughterer and then wash it
in three waters, and wed see the blood washing away.
Shed make it kosher. Here, you just buy a kosher
chicken, and its all ready to cook. God bless America.

Sandi M. Malkin, LL C
Interior Designer

(former interior designer of model

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 9

Local
FIRST PERSON

The Jews on the cruise

Wherein your correspondent talks about figuring out whos who on the boat
LOIS GOLDRICH
You cant really spot them they look like
everyone else.
Their demeanor, amiability, and snorkeling skills do not differ markedly from
those of other passengers, and while some
of them speak with a certain recognizable
nasality, others sport exotic accents.
Yet somehow you know. And when a
chance word or fleeting look of recognition gives it away, the floodgates open and
the commonalities come pouring out
some subtle, some more effusive.
So I learned on my recent Caribbean
cruise, where Jews appeared to my right
and to my left, forward and aft. Not on the
islands themselves, of course, but among
fellow passengers. (I, for one, could never
live on an island. Far too quiet for my liking. Just how much idyllic beauty can you
take? )
With the posh British couple sitting at
the next table, the tell was my inadvertent use, and subsequent explanation, of
the word ema for mother, and the immediate (almost whispered) I know from
the BBC-voiced woman sitting across from
me. When I later told that same woman
that I hadnt yet gotten my sea legs and
didnt think I could eat, she said bubbelah, you have to eat, never once losing
her vocal elegance.
Of course, the Bronx-turned-Long-Island
couple well-traveled, athletic, and irrepressibly friendly were a bit easier to
spot, with accents betraying their origin
and the word Israel slipping more than
once into their animated conversation.
The New Jersey contingent as different from one another as the towns they
live in were delightful company, though
our conversations never once touched on
the word Jewish. So how did I know?
Ready warmth, wry sense of humor,
intellectual curiosity. (I recognize that I
sound like a Jewish chauvinist, but there
it is. The only downside I could discern
was, perhaps, a bit too much focus on
name brands.)
As a group, I think, we bore out the
findings of the 2013 Pew Research Centers study on Jewish Americans. I have no
doubt that had I steered the conversation
to being Jewish, these fellow passengers
would have declared their pride in our religion, and in the words of the study, have
a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish
people.
Of course, as the study also suggests,
this may be due to the generally older
nature of our cohort.
In addition, I would suggest (as the
study found) that most of my fellow
10 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

Lois Goldrich goes on cruise control while enjoying the backdrop of a Caribbean harbor.

Jewish passengers would describe

their Judaism as a matter of ancestry and culture, rather than religion.
In some cases, couples were clearly
intermarried, as were their children.
One woman told me that her
daughter blamed her own intermarriage on her mother, saying that had
she been sent to a Jewish school, she
likely would have made a different
choice. Its your fault, the daughter said.
Another traveler told me how
much his son had enjoyed Camp
Ramah, attending the Berkshires
camp from an early age and making his first visit to Israel with them.
(I dont recall whether or not the
father, or son, was intermarried.)
While I traveled as a vegetarian,
it would appear my fellow Israelites did not, although at least one
couple hastened to assure me that
their house was strictly kosher. A
delightful (non-Jewish) Norwegianborn woman who was drawn to
me because she had a friend named

The cruise maven enjoys the sights ashore with a

fellow traveler.

Lois back home was especially

intrigued by my being Jewish. I
dont think she has encountered
many Jews, and she kept wondering at my good nature. If I
were paranoid, I might think she
expected Jews to be somewhat
different.
The chef and wait staff were
extremely solicitous, once I got
them to understand that while
I would eat salmon, I wouldnt
eat soup with a seafood base.
I was directed to the vegetarian offerings every day, and the
special island barbecues always
included plain roasted potatoes
and salads.
The barbecues on a white
beach, fronting turquoi se
waters, enhanced by the tropical
rhythms of a steel drum band
smelled especially delicious.
Arent you tempted? asked
one new friend. Of course, I
mumbled, going off in search of
another potato.

Local

Organization regroups
to fight Alzheimers
New Jersey chapter breaks from national,
Englewood board member reports
JOANNE PALMER

Russell Rothman, left, with NBC sports anchor Harry

Cicma, at last years Alzheimers walk.

kaplen

Not just a gym,

lzheimers disease is a terrible scourge.

There is no more polite way to put it.
There is a great deal of scientific research
on cures, on prophylaxis, and on ways to
help its victims, and there is some hope, we are told,
but there is nothing much to do for it yet. People who
suffer from Alzheimers and the people who love them
need all the help they can get.
In fact, according to Russell Rothman of Englewood, a past president of the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, Alzheimers is the only one of the top
causes of death in America that has no cure.
There is nothing on the market that helps people
already affected by it. Most of the drugs on the market just slowly, or maybe even not-so-slowly, delay the
progression of the disease, but there is nothing that
cures it.
Many local institutions, including the Kaplen JCC
on the Palisades in Tenafly and the Gallen Adult Day

JCC on the Palisades

a Family wellness Center

New Year,
New You!

Care program at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, among

many other local institutions, Jewish and otherwise,
provide advice and programming for patients and
their families. Another source of advice and funding has been the Greater New Jersey chapter of the
national Alzheimers Association. Now the chapter,
newly renamed Alzheimers New Jersey, has joined
other chapters in leaving the umbrella group in favor
of independence.
Mr. Rothman, who has been on the board of the
local affiliate and now is Alzheimers New Jerseys vice
chair, explained the situation.
There had been a plan by the national organization to consolidate the chapters and bring them all
into one 501c3, he said. There used to be about
80 local chapters around the country, and over the
years theyve affiliated more closely. The national has
brought in more efficiencies they had one bookkeeping system, they brought the local 800 hotline to
a national location for after hours.
SEE ALZHEIMERS PAGE 33

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kaplen

JCC on the Palisades taub campus | 411 east clinton avenue, tenafly, nJ 07670 | jccotp.org
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 11

Local

Happy together
Yachad pairs special needs adults with employers
LARRY YUDELSON

t quickly became clear that Annette

knows more about wigs than most of
the rest of us ever will.
Annette has worked for four years
with Lillian Lee, helping the Teaneck salon
owner recondition donated wigs for Do
Wonders, her charity, which gives wigs
to cancer patients. I wash and style and
sort the wigs, Annette said. And, added
Ms. Lee, shes learning to classify wigs by
hair texture.
I spoke with Annette, a Yachad client,
last Wednesday, at a conference organized
by the New Jersey branch of Yachad, the
Orthodox Unions program for people with
developmental disabilities. (To respect
their privacy, we are not using Yachad clients last names.) The program brought
together about 50 clients of Yachads vocational services in New Jersey and New York
for a day of professional development.
The clients heard a panel of three employers, among them Ms. Lee, discuss what
employers look for in an employee. They
took part in small group discussions about
the challenges of holding a job. And they
got to mingle with their peers.
This is one of the few places in the
world where I dont feel inferior, one participant, Andrew, said. No one treats me
like garbage.
The conference was held at the Teaneck
Jewish Center, where Yachad New Jerseys
offices are housed. It highlighted Yachad
New Jerseys recent expansion into vocational training and job coaching for disabled adults. Yachad New Jersey has run
programs for children and their families
for a long time. Now, thanks to Yachad
New Jersey, Annette is one of nearly two
dozen young adults to hold jobs locally.
The move toward vocational services
came as the children in Yachads programs grew up. According to Chani Herrmann, director of Yachad New Jersey,
it was about five years ago that a family
that had used Yachads services turned to
it when they couldnt find an appropriate vocational setting for their child. The
growth has come in part from word of
mouth, and from a core group who have
grown up with Yachad as part of their life,
Ms. Herrmann said. New Jersey Yachad
now has a dozen job coaches on staff to
help the participants develop the skills
they need for a job, to help place them in
a job, and to be a resource when problems
on the job arise.
You have to be very sensitive, Eliran
Katan, one of the coaches, said. You have
to realize what people can cope with and
what they cannot cope with. You have to
learn their limits. But when the proper fit
is found, We know its the best person for
12 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

The Yachad conference featured business owners Marina Blyumin, Lillian Lee,
and Bruce Prince.

Bruce Prince employs a Yachad client, Naftali, in the Teaneck General Store.

Another Yachad client, Annette, works in Lillian Lees hair salon.

the job. Its not chesed, charity, he said.

Its a win-win situation for everybody,
Ms. Lee said.
Bruce Prince, owner of the Teaneck
General Store, also spoke at the conference as another satisfied employer. He
introduced me to Naftali, who spoke with
great enthusiasm about his work at the
store.
I cant wait to go back, Naftali said.
He works there two days a week. Most
of the New Jersey Yachad clients I spoke

with work at two or three different locations, a day or two each. Wednesdays are
kept open for group activities.
Many of our people engage in educational programming related to work life,
Ms. Herrmann said. We do a lot of social
skills training, like reading social cues. We
talk about relationships, how they can
make more friends, where to meet people. We work on their independent living
skills, such as teaching them about cooking safely, with or without an oven. We talk

about how to travel safely. Many but not

all of the adult New Jersey Yachad clients
live at home with their families.
Yachad also helps prepare people for
job interviews and works with them oneon-one to fix up their resumes.
Many Yachad clients work at local Jewish
schools, Ms. Herrmann said, including the
Gan Rina preschool in Teaneck; the Noam,
Ben Porat Yosef, and Frisch schools in
Paramus; the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North
Jersey in River Edge, and the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston.
Neenah works at the art room in the
Kushner school in Livingston, in the
library at Ben Porat Yosef in Paramus,
and in the gift shop at the Jewish Home
in Rockleigh. I do whatever the librarian
needs me to do, she said. I help label
books, do library cards, things like that.
Chani works at Ben Porat Yosef and at the
Jewish Home. She and Neenah work different days. The Wednesday Yachad events
give them a chance to talk to each other.
In discussion groups about strengths
and weaknesses in the workplace, the conversation turned to a question that concerns all workers, whatever their abilities:
How do you stop bringing problems from
home into work? The scene at the table
reflected the range of abilities. One or
two people didnt pay attention. But one
woman offered a wise suggestion: Imagine putting your problems in a box before
leaving home.
The process of preparing a Yachad client for a job begins with an initial assessment: Is he or she ready yet for vocational
training?
For those not as ready, were expanding to do more therapeutic and life skills
program with some opportunities for
vocational training, Ms. Herrmann said.
Once a client is ready for vocational training, Yachad pairs him or her with a job
coach.
Yachad receives some funding from the
New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities, but not all participants are eligible for that funding.
In addition to looking for additional support Ms. Hermann would love to have
a wheelchair accessible van to help transport clients Yachad is always looking for
business owners who might be interested
in employing someone who has special
needs.
Often employers go in thinking that
theyre doing an act of kindness, which
obviously they are by giving someone a
chance, she said. But often the employer
realizes the participant has much to give
and the business has much to gain by having them there. What starts out by their
giving ends up gaining them much more
in return.

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 13

Local
Yavneh Academy will hold its 73rd
annual dinner on Saturday, January 16, at 7:45 p.m., at the Teaneck
Marriott at Glenpointe. Paramus
Mayor Richard LaBarbiera will
receive the Community Service
award and Dr. Sarah Feit, the Faculty Service award. Yavneh parents Moshe Weinberger, Michael
Wimpfheimer, and Keith Zakheim
Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera and
are co-chairing the dinner.
Dr. Sarah Feit
PHOTOS COURTESY YAVNEH
Mayor LaBarbiera has been a
loyal advocate for Yavneh Academy during his more than 10 years as
programs have enabled Yavneh to meet
both a Paramus councilman and mayor.
the specific learning needs of each of its
Yavnehs new state-of-the-art gym was
students.
built under his guidance and leadership.
For information about the Yavneh
Dr. Sarah Feit is a Yavneh alumna and
Academy or the dinner, email Michelle
its director of special services. As the
Weinraub at Michelle.Weinraub@yavnehacademy.org or go to yavnehdinner.
head of the learning center and inclusion program, she is an innovator in
com.
educational special services, and her

Arzei Darom will honor

Rachel and Rabbi Aharon Ciment
Congregation Arzei Darom of Teaneck will
hold its 14th annual journal dinner on Sunday, January 3, at 6 p.m., at Congregation
Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck. Rabbi Aharon
and Rachel Ciment are the guests of honor.
The rabbi and his wife have led Congregation Arzei Darom for the past 11 years.
They have inspired those in the congregation and many in the Teaneck community
and beyond.
Rabbi Ciment also serves as mashgiach
ruchani (spiritual adviser) at Yeshiva Universitys Stone Beit Midrash program and
Rachel Ciment is director of Spiritual Guidance at Stern College for Women.
For dinner journal and reservation
information, visit Arzeidarom.org or email
dinner@arzeidarom.org.

Cafe Europa enjoys Chanukah party

Zalman Mlotek, artistic director of the
National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene,
entertained more than 120 people at the
Jewish Family Service of North Jerseys
Cafe Europa Chanukah party, which
included lunch and dancing. Abe Citrin,
pictured here with his son, Barry Citrin,

and his daughters, Rita Citrin, Laura and

Sim Ashkenazi, and Gladys and Marcel
Kozuch were among the party guests.
Cafe Europa is a monthly social group for
Holocaust survivors held in Fair Lawn. For
information call JFSNJ community coordinator Melanie Lester at (973) 595-0111.

C
S
w

Rachel and Rabbi Aharon Ciment

COURTESY ARZEI DAROM

Woodcliff Lake cantor to be installed

Temple Emanuel of the
worked in Albany and
Pascack Valley will install
Mamaroneck, N. Y., and
its new cantor, Alan SokolDes Moines, Iowa. He has
off, on Friday, January 8.
prepared more than 1,800
The evening will begin at
bnai mitzvah students during his career.
6:30 p.m., with a community dinner. Guests and
Cantor Sokoloff also is a
congregants not at the dinfounding member of Kol
ner are invited to kabbalat
Hazzanim, the Westchester Board of Cantors. He
Shabbat services, which
Cantor Alan Sokoloff
and his wife, Erica, and
will include the installation
their children, Arielle and
at 8 p.m. A festive Oneg
Ranan, recently moved to Woodcliff
Shabbat will follow.
Lake.
Cantor Sokoloff was a protg of Cantor Howard Lew. He became a member
Reservations are required for the dinner. For information, call (201) 391-0801.
of the Cantors Assembly in 1990 and
14 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

COURTESY JFSNJ

Yavneh Academy 73rd annual dinner

Sgt. Benjamin Anthony of Our Soldiers Speak, left, with Israeli Police Superintendent Mickey Rosenfeld, the Orthodox Unions associate director of
synagogue services, Yehuda Friedman, and Michael Wildes, a former mayor
of Englewood.
PHOTO PROVIDED

OU hosts Our Soldiers Speak presentation

Our Soldiers Speak, founded by Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, is an organization dedicated
to educating people around the world
about the Israeli-Arab conflict and possibilities for its peaceful resolution. Sgt. Anthony
served in the Israeli military and on the
Israeli Police Forces counterterror unit and
is the police forces official spokesperson.
Our Soldiers Speak brought Sgt. Anthony

to the United States to address many organizations, including the Orthodox Union.
Mr. Wildes introduced the speaker, whose
talk offered an analysis of Israels unique
domestic, security, and terror threats and
discussed the methods through which the
IPF counters these threats and preserves
the civilian populations security.

D
z
S
t
a
G
s

w
Y
i
s
D
R
n
o

v
i
d
i
l

upcoming at

Kaplen

JCC on the Palisades

everyone

Specialty Camps

something for

for ages 8-18

The JCC has upped its game! Our new and improved
specialty camps are offered in a greater variety of
disciplines including basketball, multi-sport, tennis,
drama, dance, music, high-tech, fine arts, and teen
travel/volunteer and now include lunch, snacks,
daily swim, towel services and run 9 am-4 pm. All
JCC camps also offer transportation and extended
day options for an additional fee.
Visit jccotp.org/specialty-camps

jcc
Summer
camps!

Maccabi Games/ArtsFest
for teens ages 13-16

Spend a week with Jewish teens from around the world

competing in Olympic-style sports tournaments or
participating in art workshops. Sports include: baseball,
basketball, & tennis. Art disciplines include: acting, culinary,
dance, musical theater, visual arts, vocal music and more.
For more info and to register email maccabi@jccotp.org.
Stamford Connecticut, August 7-12, 2016
Tryouts at the JCC: Sun, Jan 10, 4-7 pm or
Wed, Jan 13, 5-9 pm

Teen Mission to Philadelphia

for teens grades 9-12

Teens are invited to spend this years Martin

Luther King holiday exploring and volunteering
in Philadelphia. Make meaningful friendships and
experience the personal reward that comes from
working together to support communities in need.
Trip includes a tour of the Jewish Heritage
Museum, a visit to the Liberty Bell, scavenger
hunt, and volunteering. For more info,
call Cara Bruen at 201.408.1470.
January 17-18, $220/$265,
Advanced Registration required by Jan 7

AdULTs

kids

JCC University Winter Term

Kids Club

experts present on a variety of topics

after school picK-up service and

Winter sessions include: Dr. Richard Betts with

an overview of whats behind the increase in
ISIS activity around the world; Looking at Art:
A Full Day Event with Tobi Kahn, well-known
painter, sculptor, international lecturer and art
tour leader; and Katharine Hepburn On Film
with film historian Philip Harwood. For more
info, call Kathy at 201.408.1454.

childcare programs

4 Thursdays, Jan 28, Feb 11, 25 & Mar 10,

Let us handle the end of the day craziness for

you! We provide doorto-door transportation,
snack, and homework help. If your child is
enrolled in an after school class, well escort
them to that too. Kids Club is a terrific place to
unwind with lots of games, books, and open
playtime. For more info, call Alexa Lofaro at
201.408.1467.

10:30 am-2 pm, $110/$140, 1 Thursday $32/$40

Grades K-5, after school-6 pm (Fridays vary)

Kaplen

MUsiC

Thurnauer School of Music

private music lessons & group classes!

Join us for Jazz, Orchestra & Chorus.

We offer a wide selection, flexible scheduling,
a nurturing & distinguished faculty, and frequent
performance opportunities.
Visit jccotp.org/Thurnauer for more info and
to register. (JCC membership is not required)

to register or for more info, visit

jccotp.org or call 201.569.7900.

JCC on the Palisades taub campus | 411 e clinton ave, tenafly, nJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 15

.
e
e
d
e
s

Local

COURTESY JFSNJ

Assistant Professor Ruth Hershberg,

from the Technions Ruth and Bruce
Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, left,
with Professor Roy Kishony, the Marilyn
and Henry Taub Professor of Life Sciences; Norman Seiden, deputy chairman
of the Technion Board of Governors and
leader of the New York metropolitan
region of the American Technion Society; Stephen Seiden, a member of the
schools board of governors; Roee Amit,
assistant professor on the faculty of biotechnology and food engineering; Diane
and Mark Seiden, and Sharon Seiden.

COURTESY TECHNION

Seidens honored at Technion

Last month, Norman Seiden, along with
his son and daughter-in-law, Mark and
Diane, all of Tenafly, were honored at
the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for the familys three generations

of support to the university. Joined by

Norman Seidens son, Stephen, and his
wife, Sharon, of Livingston, they participated in festivities that included the
dedications of the Mark and Diane Seiden

International Workshop in Nanosciences

and the Pearl Seiden International Meeting in Life Sciences, and award ceremonies for the Norman and Barbara Seiden
prizes and the Norman Seiden prize for
Academic Excellence.
Technion professor Roy Kishony, a

co-organizer of the Seiden Workshop,

thanked the family for its foresight
in helping to proactively bring top
researchers to the Technion, which, he
said, strengthens relationships between
the global academic community and
Israel.

Teachers from Israel

visit local schools
During a recent visit, teachers from Nahariya, northern New
Jerseys sister city in Israel, spent time at a number of day and
congregational schools, including Yeshiva HeAtid. This year, the
Nahariya teachers have been twinning with HeAtid.
The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jerseys Partnership2Gether professionals set up the multiyear program. Over its
course, the American and Israeli teachers have exchanged best
practices and maintained close working relationships with each
other, which benefits the children they teach.

Yeshiva HeAtid students, including Ilana Weisel and Ayala Balsam,

and their classmates listen to Yael
Markovich, a teacher at the Golda
Meir School in Nahariya, Israel.

COURTESY FEDERATION

Citizen-astronaut shares
Space Station experiences
with Gerrard Berman students
Dr. Gregory Olsen, the third private citizen to orbit the earth on the International
Space Station, recently talked to fourththrough eighth-graders at the Academies
at Gerrard Berman Day School in Oakland.
GBDS parent Jackie Rigante connected the
school to Dr. Olsen.
Dr. Olsen described his experiences
when he trained for his mission at the
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
in Moscow, and he discussed his 10-day
stay on the ISS. During his time in space,
Dr. Olsen, along with his fellow travelers,
Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts, went nearly four million miles and
orbited the earth 150 times.
The presentation included photos and
videos documenting the mission, including the blastoff, as well as the realities of
drinking, eating, sleeping, and performing other daily tasks in space. Students
learned about the mechanics of space
16 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

flight, including the speed a shuttle must

maintain to achieve and to remain in orbit,
and about the intricacies of bringing a
spacecraft back to earth.
Dr. Olsen fielded questions about using
a bathroom in outer space, training for
space travel, and keeping busy on the ISS.
When he was asked what inspired him
to travel in space, Dr. Olsen said that he
was in middle school when Sputnik was
launched, and that event provided the
spark for him.
Dr. Olsen, who said that his motto is
never give up, holds degrees in physics
and has a Ph.D. in materials science and
holds 12 patents for fiber optics and infrared cameras. After a career as a research
scientist and entrepreneur, he became the
president of GHO Ventures in Princeton
Dr. Olsen is active in a range of charities and affinity groups, and he works
to encourage children, particularly girls

Dr. Gregory Olsen stands with Jackie, Daniel, and Samantha Rigante at the
GBDS presentation. COURTESY GBDS

and members of minority groups, to

consider careers is science or engineering. His message reinforced Academies

focus on leadership and on science,

technology, engineering, the arts, and
mathematics.

everyone

something for

jcc
Summer

camps!
ages 8 years+

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New and improvedeverything you

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Camp options include All Sports, Tennis, Basketball,
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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 17

Editorial
Join us, Hudson County!
We are thrilled at the possibility, as op ed writer Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein details on page 19,
that the southern Hudson County
cities Hoboken, Jersey City, and
Bayonne might join the Jewish Federation of Northern New
Jersey.
Part of our pleasure comes
from the knowledge that the area
has a huge amount to offer. We
have written stories in the past
few years about the Jewish renaissance in Hoboken and Jersey City.
For years, we know, people have
predicted such a renaissance, but
it never panned out. Once their
children hit school age, the young
families that provided those cities
with a nearly endless supply of
commuters outbound across the
Hudson eventually would leave,
their protestations that theyd
never make such a move trailing
limply behind them.
Thats not true any more.
Young families are staying, single people and empty nesters
and childless couples are joining

them, and the Jewish communities in southern Hudson County

are flourishing. Tiny, densely
packed Hoboken is doing so well
that its hardest-to-find amenity,
the one thing whose lack is keeping people from its restaurants
and galleries, is parking. It is possible to drive into Hoboken as a
blas Manhattanite, certain that if
you can park a car there, in Manhattan, you can park it anywhere,
only to leave with your steering
wheel more or less between your
legs. And Jersey City, the county
seat, is a marvel of multicultural
amity; its easy to forget that it is
the states second largest city.
The mayors of both Jersey City
and Hoboken Steven Fulop
and Dawn Zimmer are Jewish;
although this is nothing but a
point of pride, we take pride in it.
But there is something else that
feels particularly right about this
move to us.
The Jewish Standard was created in Jersey City in 1931; in the
early 1970s we opened an office

in Bergen County, and by the

early 1980s the move to Teaneck
was complete. Our oldest papers,
bound in what looks like real
leather, yellowed and crumbling
now, still explode with the energy
of Jewish life in Hudson County;
our publisher, Jamie Janoff, and
his sister, Beth Chananie, remember their lives there, their faces
going soft as they think of their
parents in Jersey City, not only
alive but still young. (Morris and
Ruth Janoff met in the Manischewitz factory in Jersey City, the
one that just closed this year; she
was a secretary and he, already
the Jewish Standard publisher,
was making a business call.)
So for us, this possible change,
which represents both past and
future, will be a wonderful move.
We look forward to being able to
add more stories of city life to our
mainly suburban pages, and we
welcome the idea of the Jewish
communities of southern Hudson
County merging their energy and
JP
ideas with ours.

Happy
New Year
As this miserable 2015 drags its
sad self to a close, as the days
grow longer again, at first imperceptibly but then more and more
insistently, as the calendar resets
itself and the world rebalances,
and as spring, with its colors,
draws nearer, we wish all of our
readers a good year.
A year of good news; a year of
peace in Israel, at home, and in
the world; a year of understanding, love, and light.
JP

Jewish
Standard
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8818
Fax 201-833-4959
Publisher
James L. Janoff
Associate Publisher Emerita
Marcia Garfinkle

Editor
Joanne Palmer
Associate Editor
Larry Yudelson
Guide/Gallery Editor
Beth Janoff Chananie
About Our Children Editor
Heidi Mae Bratt

jstandard.com
18 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

KEEPING THE FAITH

Torah and
a ticking
time bomb
ITEM: A lawsuit filed by more than 50 former charedim alleges
that the State of Israel denied them a basic education, making it
nearly impossible for them to find jobs and live normal lives.
This lawsuit may well be the most important story coming out
of Israel in 2015existentially far more important than any other.
Absent a dramatic shift in demographics, Israels charedi sector will become the dominant Jewish one in the states economy
in about 25 years or so. According to Israels Economics Ministry,
slightly more than half of the nations charedi men now are unemployed, mainly because they lack the basic skills they would need
in order to get a job.
This is a ticking time bomb. According to a 2010 report by
the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies (named after the late
local New Jersey philanthropist Henry
Taub), in just about a quarter-century
from now, Israel will have trouble hiring qualified street sweepers, much
less finding the engineers, physicists,
researchers, technicians, and doctors
it will need. Its military ranks also will
be severely depleted.
When the charedim become dominant, where will all these come from?
Rabbi
Tel Aviv University economist Dan BenShammai
David asked after the report was issued.
Engelmayer
Ben-David was the centers executive
director until last February. A country with security troubles such as ours
does not have the luxury of going bankrupt, he told the daily
newspaper Yediot Achronot. We will not be able to maintain an
army to defend us, or fund the equipment we need. If the charedim continue to receive the same education [as they are getting now], I have no doubt Israel will not be able to exist in two
decades.
On paper, the state is not denying charedi children and teenagers a basic secular education. In fact, it pays charedi schools to
teach their students English, basic science, simple math, geography, and history. The schools take the money, but most do not
teach the subjects. The state turns a blind eye to it, because Israeli
governments need charedi support to stay in office.
The state, by the way, also pays the salaries of the charedi teachers who are supposed to teach these subjects. You cannot teach,
however, what you do not know. In 2010, Yediot Achronot distributed 10 questions to 25 charedi teachers to test their qualifications.
Shammai Engelmayer is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of
the Palisades in Cliffside Park and Temple Beth El of North Bergen.

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Founder
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Rebecca Kaplan Boroson

Opinion
The questions, taken from government lesson plans
for grades one through three, were absurdly simple.
Among them: What is the fourth word of the Hatikvah? On which continent is Israel found? What does
the word Saturday mean? What is the square root of
81? Who was Napoleon Bonaparte?
The average test score among the 25 teachers was
59. Ten of them missed at least half of the questions
(including the one about the Hatikvah, to which one
charedi teacher on the government payroll reportedly
responded, I dont know and I dont want to know).
Seventeen of the 25 did not know what Saturday
meant.
The textbooks used in these schools only exacerbate the problem. English textbooks, Yediot Achronot
reported, are virtually nonexistent. The basic science
text is The Nature of Creation. An alleged biology
text about the human body, it contains such tidbits as
when you smell something bad, you mustnt recite a
prayer or quotes from the Torah, and, When God
saves a mans body from something bad, the bones on
which the body stands must thank Him.
Whatever the fate of the lawsuit, the real issue is
the charedi aversion to secular education of any kind
(a problem that exists in charedi communities in the
United States, as well, which accounts for the extreme
poverty rates in those communities). They will fight
tooth and nail against any attempt to enforce the education laws.
Since charedim are supposed to be the most careful
when it comes to observing Jewish law, it is fair to ask
whether this aversion is rooted in Jewish law.
Charedim will tell you that it is. Secular education is
forbidden by the Torah, in this case broadly defined
to include the Oral Law, not just the written one.
Thus, for example, at the very end of the Babylonian Talmud tractate Kiddushin (82a), It was taught:
Rabbi Nehorai said: I abandon all trades in the world
and teach my son only Torah. His reason is this: A
trade will serve a person only until he is no longer able
to earn a living, at which point he will sink into poverty and starve. But the Torah is not like that, Rabbi
Nehorai explained. Someone who studies Torah all
day will be sustained even in old age.
Never mind that earlier in the same tractate (29a),
it states as a rule that a person must teach a child a
trade. Never mind that a similar view, expounded
by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in BT Berachot 35b, is
rejected outright by the Babylonian sage Abaye, who
noted that those people who followed Rabbi Shimon
bar Yochai were unsuccessful. Never mind that objective evidence supports Abaye, or that Bar Yochai himself was well versed in the knowledge of farming. (See
Mishnah Sheviit 2.)
What the charedi should be mindful of, however, is
the overwhelming majority of talmudic opinion and
rulings requiring a basic secular education. Great is
the study of the Torah together with a worldly occupation, said Rabban Gamaliel III in Pirkei Avot 2.2, for
the effort a person expends in pursuit of both banishes
sin from the mind, whereas [the study of ] Torah without a secular occupation leads to nothing in the end
but sin.
So important is this, the Talmud says, that even on
Shabbat a parent may arrange for a child to learn a
trade, or to read books, for these, in fact, are the business of heaven. (See BT Shabbat 150a.)
If we American Jews truly care about the future of
Israel, we must take every opportunity to lobby the
Israeli government to set aside the business of coalition politics and start paying serious attention to the
business of heaven.

Thanks, JFNNJ!
Hoboken man looks forward to relationship
with Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey

am honored to have been

appointed to the board of the
Jewish Federation of Northern
New Jersey along with Rabbi
Robert Scheinberg of the United Synagogue of Hoboken.
The federation should be commended for its inclusive outreach
effort in southern Hudson County.
From its inclusion of area residents
in the Berrie Fellowship program
and its Birthright trips, to its support
of the Moishe House, to its annual
amazing Israel Independence Day
celebration and its partnership with
local Jewish institutions, the federation has shown it has a vision that
includes southern Hudson County.
The historic interior of the United Synagogue of Hoboken
Southern Hudson
County is comprised of
pursue working with us to grow and
o f Te m p l e E m a nu the Jewish communities
enrich Jewish life in the area. ConEl of Bayonne, who
in Bayonne, Jersey City,
sidering that JFNNJ already includes
have gone above and
and Hoboken, which
the northern half of Hudson County,
beyond their role as
are the only three
this makes sense. The JFNNJs board
clergy to help grow the
municipalities now
and officers, including its presicommunity.
outside the Jewish federation system in New
dent, Jayne Petak, and its CEO, Jason
Recently, two community leaders, Adam
Jersey. While the JewShames, understand the benefit of
ish experience in HudJoshua
Weiss and Joyce Boll,
having all of Hudson County within
Sotomayorson County (north and
organized community
the federation.
Einstein
south) was ephemeral
meetings to explore
The JFNNJ and southern Hudson
in the past, todays Jewwhat the future of JewCounty leaders are working to create
ish population in Hoboish life in southern Huda mechanism to incorporate southken and Jersey City has put down
son County should be. At the meetern Hudson County in the federation.
ings we discussed: Are we satisfied
strong roots, and the community in
Guiding the transition from independent communities to the partnership
with the current system, which some
Bayonne is likely to grow as well if the
that is a Jewish federation is the first
call piecemeal? Do we want to form
rumored 2017 ferry comes to fruition.
goal for the southern Hudson comour own federation? Should we join a
From empty-nesters to young
munity leadership, but leaders across
nearby federation?
adults, from young families to Israeli
all of Hudson, both north and south,
While I can speak only for myself,
immigrants, hipsters, and chassids,
both during and after the process,
the zeitgeist of the meetings was
the the Jewish community in southern Hudson County has grown at an
must remain active and empowered.
clear. We want to be part of a larger
incredible rate in the last decade.
They must continue to act as the
federated Jewish community.
From the United Synagogue of
stakeholders the community needs
Both the Jewish Federation of
Hoboken (led by the intellectually
them to be.
Northern New Jersey and the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWstimulating Rabbi Scheinberg) to the
This is a truly rare win-win sceest expressed interest in being partnario. The JFNNJ is stepping up to the
growing Chabad of Hoboken and
ners with us in the development of
plate by building upon, working with,
Jersey City, from independent Rosh
the southern Hudson Jewish comand empowering those who invested
Chodesh groups to Mesorah NJ, from
munity. The national federation
countless hours and effort into buildMoishe House to the Jewish Young
ing the community. At the same
umbrella, the Jewish Federations of
Adults of Jersey City, from the Bayonne JCC to the PJ Library, Hebrew
time, Hudson County will gain from
North America, sent a professional
schools, and more, Jewish life is
the professionalism, experience, and
consultant, Debra Stein, to facilitate
booming here.
resources of a well-led federation.
the discussions, help communicate
None of this would have happened
our ideas, and further the dialogue
Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein is
without the dedicated efforts of volbetween the two federations and
unteer leaders who worked long and
originally from Teaneck and has
the community in southern Hudson
hard for no compensation. Those
lived in Hoboken for nine years. He
County. Recently, MetroWests board
leaders include Marni and Russel
founded Moishe House Hoboken in
decided to cease pursuing our area.
Kreigel of the UJA campaign of HoboJanuary 2007, is the chairman of
In the last few years it has merged
ken and also such dedicated clerical
both the Hudson County Republican
with two other federations. While it is
leadership as Rabbi Debra Hachen
Club and the Hudson County Young
a missed opportunity for it, the decision is understandable.
of Congregation Beth-El of Jersey
Republicans, and enjoys reading and
Fortunately, JFNNJ has decided to
City and Rabbi Jacob Benzaquen
science fiction.
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 19

Opinion

Conservative movement models success

secular and Jewish educations in order

he innovations that the Conservative movement has made
to be best prepared to contribute to the
in American Jewworld and be anchored to
ish life are now so
Jewish custom, history, and
familiar to all of us that its
ritual. The Solomon Schechter Day School system was
easy to forget where they
born to meet this need early
came from.
in 1951. Like-minded schools
We all could stand to be
started to sprout up in all
reminded, though, that it was
cities with a sizeable Jewish
the Conservative movement
population soon after. The
that gave birth to countless
modern-Orthodox and nonprograms, ideas, and thought
Rabbi Davidaffiliated Jewish day schools
processes that are more than
Seth Kirshner
are the offspring of the Solothe jewels in the movements
mon Schechter Day School
crown.
success.
In fact, we would contend
In 1947, JTS sponsored the
that those achievements are
first Ramah summer camps
the spinal column of the Jewish world today.
as a tool to further enhance
When the Conservative
Jewish identity and education. It worked fabulously.
movement hit its stride,
Today, Ramah camps shine
shortly before its renowned
across the nation and in
academic headquarters, the
Israel and are synonymous
Jewish Theological Seminary,
with success. Attendees
opened its doors on upper
Rabbi Alex
are offered a rich campBroadway in 1930, the words
Freedman
ing opportunity infused
Tradition and Change
with Jewish experiential
became the watchwords of
education.
this growing religious group.
Since Ramahs inception, countless
It became its principle in action as well.
camps, some Orthodox, others Reform,
Yeshiva-style education did not cut it for
and others nominally Jewish have followed
students in the new world of America. Parents wanted their children to get top-notch
suit. All of these camps are based on the

Ramah model that the Conservative movement gave birth to as well.

We find another example within synagogue ritual practice and theology. You
could not go far in the Orthodox world
today without engaging in a conversation
about womens roles in various outlets of
Judaism: the ritual service, serving as clergy,
and even finding a place to pray aloud at the
Kotel, the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
While the conversation about women
is interesting to watch from afar, its very
texts and context give us a serious case of
dj vu. During the late 1970s and early
80s, this was the topic reverberating in
the halls of most Conservative institutions.
In 1985, JTS decided to ordain women and
make their role equal to mens in ritual
and leadership. This watershed moment
served as another example of our leaders
getting it right, and setting the pace for
others to follow. Few things have helped
shape our religious world for the better
than this decision has. While other movements had ordained women sooner, the
Conservative movement was the first to
do so by blending a social imperative with
a halachic process.

We also contend that Conservative

Judaism is the most historically authentic
movement, the most faithful heir to Rabbinic Judaism.
For the last millennium and a half,
nearly every single Jew whether Reform,
Conservative, Orthodox, non-affiliated,
or secular is a rabbinic Jew. We dont
live exclusively according to the Torahs
instructions. Instead we follow the Talmuds interpretation of the Torah, along
with the codifiers from later periods. For
instance, nobody sacrifices animals as a
worship service, which the Torah instructs
us to do. Instead, we have liturgical services with blessings and prayer books
that highlight worship of the heart, as the
Talmud prescribes. On Passover, nobody
slaughters a Paschal lamb and roasts it over
the fire, as the Torah commands. Instead,
we celebrate the holiday at a Seder, the
festive experience first outlined in the Talmud. The Torah remains the first word, but
it is not the last official word. The Torah is
Judaism 1.0. But weve had several system
updates since then, which are required for
our operating system to be effective.
The rabbis of the Talmud were fiercely

David-Seth Kirshner is senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El of Closter, president of the

New York Board of Rabbis, and vice president of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis. Alex
Freedman, who was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2013, is Temple
Emanu-Els assistant rabbi.

Equity, project-based learning, and change

hy should I care about

equity?
In project-based learning, or PBL the pedagogy I now practice and help other educators implement this kind of question is
called a driving question or challenge, and
it may drive a curricular unit,
asking students to study, for
example, topics such as inequity in history, in their own
lives, or in the lives of the
Jewish people, and to come
up with ways to make the
world more just and fair.
This school year, as part of
my ongoing training in PBL,
Tikvah
Im enrolled in an educaWiener
tional leadership program at
the High Tech public charter
schools in San Diego, Calif.,
a mecca for PBL. While the High Tech
schools use PBL to focus intensely on deep
learning and beautiful work, their foundation, as it turns out, is equity.
The schools have algorithms to make

sure that an equal number of students

from all surrounding zip codes win the
lotteries to enter the schools; educators
there think constantly about how to craft
assignments with equity in mind, and protocols abound that ensure all stakeholders
principals, educators, students, and parents have a voice in whats
happening in the learning
and in the culture the schools
create.
I n f a c t , t h ro u g h t h e
I.D.E.A. Schools Network,
which helps educators implement project-based learning, I recently facilitated a
Q and A session with a High
Tech High ninth-grade STEM
teacher, Scott Swaaley. Scott
told educators that hes seen
other PBL schools, but that
the High Tech ones are different because
theyve intertwined the pedagogy seamlessly with a focus on social and emotional growth and equity. The results are
impressive.

Tikvah Wiener of Teaneck is co-founder and director of the I.D.E.A. Schools Network and
chief academic officer at Magen David Yeshivah High School in Brooklyn.
20 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

My cohort group, three administrators

from the school where I work, Magen
David Yeshivah High School, and I toured
the High Tech High Schools with a student
who has an I.E.P. (individualized learning
plan). Waving a dismissive hand when we
asked her tentatively if she would speak
about her I.E.P. we thought she might
feel uncomfortable doing so the student
said it would be perfectly fine. She told us
all about her educational testing history
as well as about the honors work she had
chosen to do in her classes, one of which
was biology she was attending college
lectures in biology in order to complete
her high school work.
When people arent made to feel embarrassed about their differences but are free
to embrace who they are and find ways to
work in the world with all their challenges
and abilities, amazing things happen.
Larry Rosenstock, founder and CEO of the
High Tech Schools, has been an important
mentor. When we were at the schools in
October, one of the many things he said
that left a deep impression was: We dont
want to be making mis-predictions about
what children can or cannot do. That was
clear when we spoke to our student guide.

If she had been placed in a non-honors

course, she may not have discovered the
knowledge in herself that she could do
honors work.
So on the one hand, Larry is careful to
create fully inclusive classrooms, where
students all do the same activities and all
have the option of doing honors work. In
fact, Larry told us that 70 percent of his
students opt to do honors work, since they
experience a positive kind of peer pressure, looking at their friends more difficult work and saying, Hey, I can do that.
On the other hand, not everyone is
the same. And Larry acknowledges that:
Sometimes you need to treat people differently in order to treat them equally.
Hence the schools ascertaining that their
underserved students have the support
they need to succeed.
The High Tech approach speaks to me
profoundly as a Jewish educator for many
reasons. One is that as Jewish educators,
by definition were focused on wholechild learning and development, so that
in math, English, social studies, and science, were just as concerned with a students spiritual, emotional, and psychological well being as we would be in a Judaic

Opinion

committed to preserving the Torahs laws and spirit.

Jewish law was fully binding, and so it must remain.
But it necessarily evolved in response to the changing world, as Deuteronomy 17 anticipates. Conservative Judaism continues the animated, wide-ranging,
and difficult-to-anticipate conversations that cover
the pages of the Talmud, with a similar commitment
to the Torah and its traditions as well as to the world
around us. The rabbis of the Talmud would be comfortable and at home at JTS, and in the approach and
ideology of the Conservative movement.
Some have said that Conservative Jews are less
than the Orthodox. We recognize that in practice
some congregants observe differently than the vast
majority of Orthodox Jews. But in ideology, and in
practice for many, the Conservative movement is
not less than the Orthodox in any manner. Its an
approach that continues to see the Law as evolving,
and not just binding. Holiness is a mountain, and we
all strive to reach the apex. We think the Conservative
movement gets it right in its understanding that the
way to the top is not a straight line but necessitates
adjustments along the way.
Indeed, Jewish law has always followed that path.
We should remind ourselves that the central and
defining strand of DNA of the Conservative movement is that it leads, making a path for the entire Jewish world to follow.
In fact, look at the greatest Jewish institutions and
programs happening in the world today. From Ikar
to Hadar, and Truah to Avodah, the leaders of these
places were trained by the faculty and experiences

at the Jewish Theological Seminary and were shaped by

Conservative synagogues, Ramah camps, Schechter day
schools, and the Conservative movements values, teachings, and leaders.
The best days of the Conservative movement are ahead
of us. There are many opportunities for us to realize how

Heritage

we will address todays issues by merging a Jewish lens with

a modern spirit. As simple as it might sound, a few more
people dreaming big and beating the drum of optimism can
make our next dream a reality.
Lets march together with our heads held high!

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studies class.
Another reason the schools focus on equity speaks
to me is because it seems like a naturally Jewish one. In
fact, the founders of the school are the Jacobs family,
the owners of Qualcomm, which is based in San Diego,
and the familys insistence on equity comes from their
experiencing discrimination when they first tried to
buy a house in La Jolla, Calif. Jews werent wanted in
the neighborhood, and so the realtors crafted discriminatory policies against selling to Jews. This injustice
left a deep mark on the Jacobs family, giving them the
impetus they needed to fight it.
Fighting injustice is something thats embedded in
the Jewish religion, and unfortunately there are so
many injustices to fight, so when I was asked at the
High Tech Schools to think of an inequity that touched
home, to really consider why I should care about inequity, it took me awhile to come up with an answer.
When I returned home and started listening to the
debate about women Orthodox clergy with a new ear,
I started to feel like this really was my inequity.
Ive attended or worked in Jewish schools my entire
life. In high school, a rabbi, explaining why young
women didnt learn Talmud, told my all-girls class that
womens brains are different from mens, so we cant
handle the text. Crippling statements such as these,
and ones more implicit but no less damaging, have
been a part of my work life as well, and have affected

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 21

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Iran may finally feel heat

of its Argentine atrocity

ext month marks the first

de Kirchners bets about the future of
anniversary of the death of
the AMIA investigation have been made
Alberto Nisman, the Argenmoot.
tine federal prosecutor who
There is a lesson here for politicians
spent a decade investigating the 1994
that goes far beyond Argentinas borIranian-backed bombing of the AMIA
ders. Very basically, the lesson shows
Jewish center in Buenos
that while colluding with
Aires. Eighty-five people
Iranian terrorism may
were murdered and hundeliver short-term gains,
dreds more injured in that
in the long term there are
massacre.
no benefits gained and
Nismans lifeless body,
quite a few costs incurred
readers will remember, was
to boot.
discovered in the bathroom
In the case of Fernnof his Buenos Aires apartdez de Kirchner and her
ment on January 18, 2015.
principal cohorts, among
Ben Cohen
That was the night before
them her foreign minister
he was due to elaborate
Hector Timerman, those
on his formal complaint
costs conceivably could
against the government of President
include a jail sentence. Securing the
Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner in front
memorandum of understanding with
of the Argentine Congress. Nisman had
Iran required that Argentinas leaders
concluded, based on the mountain of
lie about the circumstances of the AMIA
evidence that was available to him,
bombing. At the time, anyone with even
that the main purpose of Fernndez
superficial knowledge of the atrocity and
de Kirchners 2013 Memorandum of
its tortured aftermath knew that they
Understanding with the Iranian regime
were lying. Now it can be proven.
was to abandon the demand for six IraLast week, previously unknown
nian suspects in the AMIA bombing to
recordings of Timermans telephone
be extradited, thereby paving the way to
conversations with local Jewish leaders
restored relations between Buenos Aires
were released into the public domain.
and Tehran.
No one quite knows how the recordings
The Argentine president made one
surfaced, but its reasonable to believe
spectacular miscalculation in all of this.
that with Fernndez de Kirchner out of
At no point did it occur to her that Danthe presidential palace, and with Presiiel Scioli, the candidate she chose to
dent Macris new government declaring
succeed her in the presidential election
that it regards the memorandum with
this year, would end up losing the presiIran as null and void, whoever unveiled
dency. But thats exactly what happened.
them has figured that doing so will not
With the November victory of the pragresult in a knock on the door in the midmatic Mauricio Macri, all of Fernndez
dle of the night or a bullet in the back
Ben Cohen, senior editor of TheTower.org and the Tower magazine, writes a weekly
column on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics for JNS.org. His work has been
published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, the Wall Street Journal, and
many other publications.

Letters
Calling all Fair Lawn brunchies

At one time, the brunchies were active, and we met

at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center. At the request of some
former members who are seeking more enjoyment
and the chance to meet, I am trying to revitalize the
group.
So for those members or wannabees of the famous
fun-loving brunchies interested in a reunion, contact me, your fearless leader, Fred Levine. Email or
call me at (201) 797-3014. If you leave your name, email
address, and phone number, I will reply promptly.
Fred Levine
Fair Lawn

Israels gun laws

The Second Amendment insures the right of American

citizens to possess and carry firearms. However, the
founders did not envision the inclusion of heavy weapons of war within this right. They spoke of the necessity
of well regulated militias being armed so as to protect
states from (potentially) oppressive central government.
They also recognized the right of home owners to protect
their property and families.
To my understanding the Constitution does not promote easy and unlimited access to heavy military type
weapons of great destructive power. I believe that the USA
should study the system used by Israel.

Many Israeli citizens legally own and carry firearms.

They are limited to one handgun per person. They are
required to undergo extensive physical and mental
(psychometric) testing. They must pass rigorous training, repeated at intervals, in order to demonstrate necessary skill. Of course, they must demonstrate legitimate need.
It occurs to me that Americans have continued to retain
the mindset of pioneers as if we were still living in the
Old West and possessing firearms was a indication of manhood as well as safety.
Jerrold Terdiman M.D.
Woodcliff Lake

Thank you, Englewood Hospital

What a wonderful cover story about Englewood Hospital and Medical Center (Treating the whole patient,
December 25).
Given the longevity of life today, how lucky we are
to have a hospital in our own backyard that concerns
itself with providing a healthier and better life. To
combine Eastern and Western medicine that covers
integrated medicine and learning about the Graf Center, we owe a big thanks to the work of Jennifer and
David Graf for their humanism.
A big thank you to Dr. Steven Brower for not only
his studies and research, but more importantly for
his compassion and caring for the patients in the Cancer Center. Also a big thank you to President Warren
Geller for the beautiful new departments and current
technology, and to the hospitals outstanding physicians and nurses.
I am fortunate to have my doctors affiliated with
Englewood Hospital and they are all outstanding in
their specialized fields. A big cheer to the caring physicians and nurses.
Grace Jacobs
Cliffside Park

of the head.
One of the ugliest aspects of the agreement with
Iran was that it left open the issue of the mullahs guilt
for the AMIA bombing. That was a complete reversal
of the stance adopted by Fernndez de Kirchners late
husband, Nestor, during his time as Argentine president, in explicitly identifying the Iranians as the culpable party. Unlike her husband, Fernndez de Kirchner
was under the sway of the Venezuelan tyrant, Hugo
Chavez, as well as a coterie of pro-Iranian radicals
gathered around her. This was the political context in
which the myth of Iranian innocence in regard to the
AMIA bombing was cooked up.
Thats why, on the recordings, Timerman even as
he berates his Jewish interlocutors for not appreciating
that it was in Argentinas interest to surrender to Iran
on AMIA matter-of-factly says that it was indeed the
Iranians who planted the bomb. Despite that, Timerman, acting on Fernndez de Kirchners instructions,
was willing to make a pact with the devil by abandoning the struggle for justice of the families of the 85
Argentine citizens (not all of them Jews, incidentally)
who lost their lives in Irans murderous attack.
Were it not so tragic, it would be almost comic.
When one of the Jewish leaders attempted to sympathize with Timermans predicament by saying that he
wished there were someone other than the Iranians
to negotiate with, Timerman snapped back, If there

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 23

Cover Story

Take JTAs
2015 news quiz

The ultimate test of Jewish and Israeli knowledge

Uriel Heilman
Bernie sanders, Jenna Jameson, criminal rabbis: how much do you know about these
Jews and their goings-on in 2015?
take this quiz, try to answer these 20 questions taken from our coverage of the
Jewish and israeli news of the year, and youll find out.

2. Which celebrity-inIsrael news did NOT

happen this year?
a. reality tV star
Kim Kardashian and
husband rapper Kanye
west baptized their
daughter in Jerusalems
Old City.

From left to right: Rabbis Doris Dyen, Anne Feibelman, Chana Leslie Glazer, Saul Oresky, Kelilah
Miller, Alanna Sklover, Lori Feldstein-Gardner and
Shulamit Izen on stage at the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical Colleges 2013 graduation ceremony.
cOUrTeSY OF rrc/JeWiSH recOnSTrUcTiOniST cOmmUniTieS

b. while atop a camel

during his israel visit,
Patriots wide receiver
Julian edelman said,
riding these horses
here in israel is a little
different.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

GeTTY imaGeS

c. On a visit to tel aviv, Pink Floyds roger waters said, You know, this
place isnt actually that bad.
d. singer Mariah Carey visited her boyfriends israeli spiritual adviser to get
his blessing to marry.

1. Which U.S. Jewish religious denomination made

which landmark decision this year?
a. the reconstructionist movement allowed
intermarried Jews to be ordained as rabbis.
b. the renewal movement said it would rename
itself in the wake of rabbi Zalman schachtershalomis death in 2014.

3. Which statement did

Senator Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) make during the
presidential campaign?

c. the Conservative movement allowed so-called

patrilineal Jews to read from the torah.

a. Last week i bought my

second pair of underwear.

d. the satmar rebbe in williamsburg, Brooklyn, said

followers should not sport hipster-style beards.

b. its true, hillary probably

uses more conditioner than
i do.
c. i spent a year on an israeli
kibbutz in the Galilee, but
im not sure that particular
community still exists.
d. what do i think of donald
trump? do i have to talk
about his hair?

24 Jewish standard JanUarY 1, 2016

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks

at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding in
Clear Lake on August 14.
Win mcnamee/GeTTY imaGeS

Cover Story

Menachem Zivotofsky, left, and his father, Ari

Zivotofsky, stand in front of the Supreme Court
with their attorney, Alyza Lewin, and Lewins
father, Nathan, on November 3, 2014.

Pelle Poultrys Eliezer Franklin holds

squab aka pigeon at KosherFest
in Secaucus in November.

riKKi GOrdOn LeWin

5. This summer, an iconic kosher brand ran

a provocative ad campaign that was later
pulled. Was it ... ?

4. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided

the case of Zivotofsky v. Kerry. What was
at issue?
a. whether Orthodox Jews in the U.s. navy had
the right to keep their beards.
b. whether U.s. citizens injured in terrorist attacks
in the west Bank could sue the Palestinian
authority
c. whether U.s. citizens born in Jerusalem could
list israel as their country of birth
d. whether Jews in solitary confinement in federal
prisons are entitled to glatt kosher food

a. a Manischewitz campaign featuring

scantily clad women pouring the sweet
libation over their glistening bodies that ran
with the tagline: Yes, its sweet.
b. an Osem campaign showing terrorists
making the companys famed soup nuts by
assembling a huge yellow nut and then
blowing it up
c. a hebrew national campaign suggesting
consumers grill their hot dogs alongside
bacon and clams

Matisyahu performs at the opening ceremony of the European Maccabi Games in Berlin
on July 28.
Sean GaLLUP/GeTTY imaGeS
6. Why was American Jewish reggae star
Matisyahu disinvited from a Spanish music
festival?
a. For rebuffing a request that he not wear a
yarmulke while onstage
b. For rebuffing a demand that he endorse
Palestinian statehood
c. Because organizers learned he had
performed in the west Bank
d. Because Chabad in spain declared him
persona non grata for quitting the movement

d. a Bens deli billboard campaign

suggesting the companys signature
pastrami sandwich was certified gluten-free

8. Which of the following

statements was NOT made by
a presidential candidate at the
Republican Jewish Coalitions
forum in December?
a. the definition [of kishka] is: a
beef or fowl intestine stuffed into
a mixture as of flour, fat, onions
and seasonings and roasted ... and
i thought, thats the re publican
campaign for the nomination!

The percentage of Jews who said

religion is important to them has risen
from 31 percent to 35 percent since
2007, the Pew Research Center found.
LiOr miZraHi/GeTTY imaGeS

7. Which of the following was NOT

among the findings about Jews in the
Pew Research Centers November
survey on American religion?

Donald Trump addresses

the Republican Jewish
Coalition Presidential
Candidates Forum in
Washington, D.C., on
December 3, 2015.
aLeX WOnG/GeTTY imaGeS

b. Last night i was watching

schindlers List. everybody here has
seen schindlers List.

Mendel Epstein, one of the rabbis

sentenced to prison this year after a
2013 FBI sting.
ScreenSHOT FrOm YOUTUbe
9. Two Orthodox rabbis and eight others
were convicted in federal court in Trenton
this year of kidnapping and torturing men
in an effort to coerce them to do what?
a. donate money to a Brooklyn yeshiva

c. You want to control your own

politician.

b. drop a lawsuit against a prominent

Orthodox rabbi accused of sexual abuse

d. and the rabbi said: who said

big noses are a bad thing? a keen
sense of smell is something to be
celebrated. [laughter]

c. Grant their estranged wives a get, or

religious divorce
d. Use their cash-only kosher restaurant as
a front to launder money

a. eighteen percent of Jews dont

drive on shabbat.
b. eleven percent of Jews believe the
torah is the literal word of God.
c. Fifty-seven percent of Jews eat
pork.
d. thirty-nine percent of Jews
experience deep feelings of spiritual
peace and well-being at least once a
week.

10. This year, a Spanish town was

renamed from the offensivesounding former name:
a. elders of Zion
b. Kill Jews town
c. hitlers retreat
d. Jew Lake

A view
of the
municipality
in April
2010.
WiKimedia
cOmmOnS

Jewish standard JanUarY 1, 2016 25

Cover Story

The entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

WiKimedia cOmmOnS

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors

celebrates during Game 2 of the 2015 NBA
Finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland on June 7.
eZra SHaW/GeTTY imaGeS

11. What Jewish paraphernalia did Golden

State Warriors guard and NBA champion
Stephen Curry reveal this year that he has?
a. a menorah
b. a mezuzah
c. a hebrew tattoo

12. How did the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum

offend some Jews this summer?
a. with an art installation featuring a video of
naked men and women playing tag in a gas
chamber
b. By being closed on israeli independence day
c. By using cooling misting showers during a
summertime heat wave that some visitors said
reminded them of the death camps poison gas
showers
d. By featuring photos so graphic that some
said they actually dehumanized nazi victims

d. an israeli-made Uzi

Former adult actress Jenna Jameson promotes her erotic novel, Sugar, at a Barnes
and Noble in Los Angeles on October 25, 2013.
vaLerie macOn/GeTTY imaGeS

14. How did porn star Jenna Jameson NOT

make Jewish news this year?
a. she converted to Judaism.
b. she got into a kosher food fight on a reality
tV show.
c. she announced shell be a doing a reality tV
show in israel.
d. she was detained while trying to bring a
torah into the womens section at the western
wall.

King Felipe VI of Spain speaks during a

ceremony on granting Spanish citizenship to
Sephardic Jews at the Royal Palace in Madrid
on November 30.
JUan naHarrO GimeneZ/GeTTY imaGeS

13. Which of the following did Israeli charedi

politicians say about Reform Jews this year?
a. they portray israel as iran.
b. they stab torah in the back.
c. theyre tearing apart the Jewish people
d. all of the above

A still from the winning movie.

ScreenSHOT FrOm YOUTUbe

16. Which Jewish-themed film with a short title

won an Oscar this year?
a. ida
b. aya

15. Under a Law of Return-style bill passed in

June by the Spanish legislature, what must
Jews of Sephardic descent do to get Spanish
citizenship?
a. sign a notarized document forgiving King
Ferdinand and Queen isabella for expelling the
Jews in 1492
b. Pass tests on the spanish language and
history
c. travel to spain and apply in person with pre1492 residency documents
d. take an oath of allegiance to the spanish king

26 Jewish standard JanUarY 1, 2016

Charedi Orthodox lawmaker Yisrael Eichler,

right, at a finance committee meeting at the
Knesset on December 25, 2013.
FLaSH90

c. ima
d. Zuz!

ANSWER KEY:
1. a; 2. c; 3. a; 4. d; 5. c; 6. b; 7. a; 8. d; 9. c;
10. c; 11. c; 12. c; 13. d; 14. d; 15. b; 16. a;
17. c; 18. a; 19. c; 20. c
JTa Wire Service

Cover Story

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

celebrates his Election Day victory at his Tel
Aviv headquarters on March 18, 2015.
miriam aLSTer/FLaSH90

17. Which remark did Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu NOT make in March,
around the time of Israeli elections?
a. arab voters are coming out in droves to
the polls.
b. i think anyone who is going to establish a
Palestinian state and to evacuate territory is
giving radical islam a staging ground against
the state of israel.
c. isaac herzog is as suited to be prime
minister of israel as tzipi Livni is to be queen
of england.
d. i dont want a one-state solution. i want a
sustainable, peaceful two-state solution, but
for that circumstances have to change.

Donald Trump with his daughter Ivanka

Trump in Ayr, Scotland, on July 30.
JeFF J. miTcHeLL/GeTTY imaGeS

19. Which of the following things did Donald

Trump NOT cite in praise of his daughter,
Ivanka?
a. shes Jewish.

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18. What did J Street do this year?

c. she makes the best matzah balls.

d. shes so good looking, he can imagine
dating her.

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a. elected a Muslim as president of its college

arm
b. said israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
netanyahu should use his speech to Congress
in March to announce his resignation

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c. reserved the washington Convention

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d. welcomed israeli arab Knesset member

ayman Odeh to its national conference by
seating him alongside a Palestinian flag

President Barack Obama fields questions

during a joint White House news conference
with French President Francois Hollande on
November 24.
cHiP SOmOdeviLLa/GeTTY imaGeS
20. Which of the following is NOT a
real explanation a Jewish member of
Congress gave for supporting the Obama
administrations Iran nuclear deal?
a. representative debbie wasserman schultz
of Florida cited her status as a Jewish mother.

b. shes a great businesswoman.

Call Now!

b. representative alan Grayson of Florida

cited a Yiddish proverb, in Yiddish.
c. representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky
cited a midrash about a chicken.
d. representative sander Levin of Michigan
cited memories of President trumans
recognition of israel.

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Cover Story

Star Wars Yoda or Jewish sage: Who these quotes said?

Gabe Friedman

he character of Yoda is not to be

featured in the new Star Wars
film, because he died peacefully
at age 900 in the 1983 film The
Return of the Jedi.
But the small green Jedi master has
lived on in pop culture and beyond for his
eternal wisdom which, in some ways,
resembles that of past Jewish sages, like
Maimonides and Hillel the Elder.
In honor of the release of Star Wars:
The Force Awakens, the seventh film in
the franchise, try deciphering which of the
following quotes were uttered by Yoda in a
Star Wars films and which were said by
Jewish sages of centuries past.
Fool you not, we aim: In order to make
the quiz appropriately difficult, the quotes
from the ancient rabbis have been modified to conform to Yodas syntactical tendencies, which usually include reversing
the order of subjects and verbs or adjectives. Think of it as Yodish (as opposed
to Yiddish).
May the force be with you because
Yoda sounds more like a rabbi than you
thought.
1. In a dark place we find ourselves, and
a little more knowledge lights our way.
2. Accept the truth, you must, from
whatever source it comes.
3. On three things, the world stands:
On judgment, on truth and on peace.
4. Do, or do not. There is no try.
5. Truly wonderful, the mind of a child
is.
6. For myself, if I am not, for me, who
28 Jewish Standard JANUARY 1, 2016

will be?
7. Size matters not.
8. Preferable, the risk of a wrong decision is, to the terror of indecision.
9. Wicked, do not be, in ones own
eyes.
10. At the flask, look not, but at what is
therein.
11. Once you start down the dark path,
forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.
12. Wars not make one great.
13. A master, assume for yourself, a

friend, acquire for yourself, and every

man, judge to the side of merit.
14. Luminous beings are we, not this
crude matter.
15. A man, you must strive to be, in a
place where there are no men.
16. Always two there are, no more no
less. A master and an apprentice.
17. Fear is the path to the dark side
fear leads to angeranger leads to hate
hate leads to suffering.
18. That which to you is hateful, to your
JTA Wire Service
neighbor do not.

Answers: 1) Yoda 2) Jewish sage

Maimonides 3) Jewish sage
Hillel 4) Yoda 5) Yoda 6) Jewish
sage Hillel 7) Yoda 8) Jewish
sage Maimonides 9) Jewish sage
Rabbi Shimon 10) Jewish sage
Rabbi Meir 11) Yoda 12) Yoda 13)
Jewish sage Rabbi Yehoshua
ben Perachia 14) Yoda 15) Jewish
sage Hillel 16) Yoda 17) Yoda 18)
Jewish sage Hillel

Jewish World

Arson suspects father

says son was tortured

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TZUFIM, WEST BANK The father of
Elisha Odess, the American-Israeli Jewish teen held by Israels internal security
service, says that his son is innocent, and
any confession that he might have made
in connection with a July arson attack
that killed three Palestinians was elicited
through torture.
We are sure he didnt commit this
crime, Rabbi Moshe Odess said in a
telephone interview. When they put
him through the most aggressive interrogation of Jews in the history of Israel,
when we heard that they were blaming
him for Duma, we were in shock.
Elisha Odess, 17, is one of the three
Jewish teenagers held in administrative detention, or imprisonment without charge, by the Shin Bet intelligence
agency in connection with the firebomb
attack on a Palestinian home in the West
Bank town of Duma in July. The attack
killed three members of the Dawabshe
family, including an 18-month-old baby,
and severely injured a fourth. Odess
name was reported by the Forward on
Wednesday.
The youths were detained in late
November, and their lawyers claim the
Shin Bet tortured them during interrogation, depriving them of sleep for days,
slapping and kicking them, blindfolding
them, and hitting their sensitive organs.
We learned that he went through a set
of torture to admit to all kinds of crimes,
Moshe Odess said. The boy cried in front
of the judge, begging him not to return
him to torture, that he would rather die
than go back to torture.
Elisha Odess was put under house
arrest beginning in August. His father
said that was a surprise but not a shock,
given his sons involvement in the Hilltop Youth, a loose network of right-wing,
largely extremist young people who set
up outposts on hilltops across the West
Bank in contravention of Israeli policy.
He was placed in administrative detention on November 25.
Odess parents have seen their
son twice since then, on Sunday and
Wednesday, both times during court
hearings. On neither occasion were they
able to speak with him because he was
held behind a glass divider at the hearings. All three young men were denied
access to lawyers until last week.
How can you feel when you hear your
son is going through torture? Moshe
Odess asked. Its a terrible thing. The
feeling here is that all the systems were
cooperating, and because of that no one
was ready to go out and defend my son,
to keep him from torture.
Odess called his sons treatment a

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violation of human rights. He said

the state has no evidence against him,
which is why investigators used torture
to extract a confession.
Its totally clear from the information
given in court that all of his confessions
were given only after they put tough pressure on him, Odess said. There are no
actual proofs that connect him to any act.
Odess and the parents of the two other
young men, whose identities still are
not known publicly, plan to call for an
independent committee to investigate
the conduct of the Shin Bet in this case.
Since the torture allegations emerged
last week, right-wing Israelis have taken
to the streets in protest. The Shin Bet
has denied any wrongdoing, and leading
government officials including Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin have defended the
Shin Bets conduct.
Elisha Odess was born in Israel and
holds dual Israeli and American citizenship. His family lives in the northern West Bank settlement of Tzufim, a
shared religious-secular bedroom community of some 1,500 residents. Moshe
Odess is the communitys rabbi.
Tzufim residents who know Elisha
Odess said that they doubt he committed
the Duma attack. They described him as
a friendly, helpful boy who likes working
with animals.
Hes a kid who helps out, who cares,
asks how people are doing, said Dvir
Reani, 18. Hes an amazing kid, a good
soul. He definitely didnt do it. Theyre
putting it on him.
Residents also lavished praise on the
Odess family and said Tzufims character isnt conducive to extremism. Its
religious and secular residents get along
well, and relative to the settler community at large, hold moderate political
views. Signs posted on the streets read:
One town, one community.
Religious and secular live in amazing harmony, said Sara Tzchori, who
moved to Tzufim with her husband in
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Jewish World

How a one-armed American soldier

fought his way back into the Israeli army
Ben Sales
JERUSALEM The hardest part
was loading the assault rifle.
Thats not because he was a
newbie, unaccustomed to the
workings of a Tavor rifle. Rather,
1st Sgt. Izzy Ezagui had lost an
arm in combat.
Hed overcome seemingly
insurmountable bureaucratic
hurdles and got a posting on
a base in the Negev. And so his
next challenge began: He had to
prove he could still fight.
Ezagui is the only combat soldier with an amputation to serve
in the Israel Defense Forces
reserves. For him, returning to
the army meant proving to himself
that his life could still be the same
even with a single arm.
Its a weird thing to send a
guy with one arm into combat,
he said. I was so excited to go
back and erase the damage that
was done.
Today, seven years after his
injury, Ezagui travels around
the United States, advocating for
Israels moral standing and giving motivational speeches about
overcoming injury.
But the most challenging element of his recovery wasnt
physical. It was convincing the
army to let a one-armed soldier
go back to war.
When I woke up, everything was difficult, Ezagui said.
Whether by force or innovation,
there was always a solution waiting for me. I imagined that would
translate to combat as well.
Ezagui, now 27, grew up in a
Chabad community in central
Florida. He moved to Israel with
his family in 2007 and enlisted
in the IDF in 2008. He was stationed on the southern border
that December, about to take
part in Israels invasion of the
Gaza Strip, when a mortar shell
hit him, knocking him out and
ripping off his dominant left arm.
Not long after he came to at the
Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, Ezagui said he resolved to
fight again in the army. Ezagui is
a Zionist and feels an obligation
to serve. But he said his main
motivation for returning to the
IDF was a desire to restore his old
life as much as possible.
I feel whole when Im back,
he said. I dont feel held back
because of what happened, but

Izzy Ezagui, center, and fellow reserve soldiers in 2014. 

Courtesy of Izzy Ezagui

When I woke up, everything was difficult.

Whether by force or innovation, there was
always a solution waiting for me. I imagined
that would translate to combat as well.
I thought for sure I would never
see combat again.
IDF officials were also sure Ezagui could never re-enlist. After
his injury, a string of officers visited him in the hospital. He asked
every one of them to help him get
back in uniform, but they all said
it would be impossible.
Then he met Maj. Gen. (res.)
Yoav Galant, then-head of the
IDF Southern Command. Galant
took Ezaguis aspirations seriously, and pushed his request
through IDF bureaucracy. He
also took Ezagui into his home,
hosting him for a Passover seder
the spring after he was injured.
Not just getting back into the
army, but getting into the army as

30 Jewish Standard JANUARY 1, 2016

a combat soldier would be something illogical, said Galant, who

is now Israels housing minister.
But he was determined, with a
lot of willpower.
About a year after his injury, in
December 2009, the IDF agreed
to reinstate Ezagui on one condition: That he pass all the tests
combat soldiers take during their
training. Ordinary privates get
eight months to pass the tests;
Ezagui got just one.
I made sure to come off very
secure in the fact that it would
work, and Im pretty sure I fooled
everyone, he said. I probably
fooled myself too.
Ezagui had to complete tasks
ranging from climbing a rope to

throwing a grenade. He lived on

an army base while he trained,
and climbed a rope outside a
cafeteria before every meal.
To unpin his grenade with one
hand, Ezagui wrapped scotch
tape around the pin and pulled it
out with his teeth.
Then there was loading that
rifle. Its a task soldiers learn in
basic training and with two
hands, its not that hard. Hold the
rifle, put the magazine in, snap it
into place.
But without an extra hand to
stabilize the rifle, the magazine
would pop back out as soon as
he loaded it. Over and over, he
tried to load the Tavor singlehandedly; he attempted the drill

so many times at one point that

he had to rest his remaining arm
in a sling.
After a week of failure, Ezagui realized there was only one
way to complete the task: Prop
the rifle up on the ground, brace
himself and press the stump of
his amputated left arm into the
gun, holding it in place.
It hurt; phantom pain shot
through him as the rifles jagged edge cut into the stump. He
fought to stave off a blackout.
But after a few seconds, a shot of
adrenaline coursed through his
body. With the extra energy, Ezagui loaded the gun, rested it on
his shoulder and hit his targets.
If I kept pressing, that darkness would dissipate, and I was
boosted with adrenaline, Ezagui said. I was shooting better because of the injury. I was
seeing the target clearer. Time
was slowing down. What started
out as a flaw became a potent
weapon for me.
Ezagui passed all the tests
without a hitch. He served until
December 2011, spending much
of that time in Hebron.
When he was called back on
reserve duty in 2012 for the next
round of fighting in Gaza, he
found himself once again stationed on the border. The troops
ended up not invading, but the
setting brought Ezagui back to
his 2008 injury.
We were lying on the concrete
in sleeping bags, ready to go in
whenever they tell us, he said. I
heard the snores of all the reservists, and I was just thinking, holy
crap, there are so many things I
havent done in life, and I may
not be able to do them.
Following his service, Ezagui traveled to Thailand, where
he worked as a bartender. He
began giving speeches in the U.S.
in 2012. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is writing a
memoir.
Ezagui still comes back to
Israel for reserve duty every year
something most male Israeli
veterans do until age 40 or 45
completing exercises and trudging through the mud with the rest
of his unit.
Its a part of who I am today,
he said. Ive done so much, it
was such a struggle to make it
back. It would feel like a waste to
not continue.  JTA Wire Service

Jewish World

6 statistics highlight Israels fragile economy

BEN SALES
TEL AVIV It has the highest poverty rate among
affluent democracies, the fourth-worst income
inequality, and the seventh-lowest government spending on social services.
Those are among the dismal conclusions of the
State of the Nation report, an annual set of papers on
Israels economy and society released last week by the
Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, a socioeconomic
think tank. There is some good news sprinkled in, but
the prognosis is mostly grim.
Here are six figures that portray the (largely) sad
state of the Israeli economy.
More than one in five Israelis lives below the poverty line.
In 2015, 22 percent of Israelis lived below the poverty line, including one in three Israeli children. In
2011, the figure was slightly better, at 21 percent, but
it was still the highest rate in in the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, a
group of the worlds richest countries that is the comparison standard used by the Taub center.
More than three-quarters of charedi Orthodox Jewish men and Arab-Israeli women dont work.
As of 2011, only 20.9 percent of charedi Orthodox
men and 22.6 percent of Arab women work. That,
along with high birthrates, is why Arabs and charedim
are the two poorest communities in Israel.
Arab women often dont work because of cultural
pressures to stay at home and lack of access to jobs,
according to Taubs research. Many charedi men
choose to study Torah and live off government subsidies rather than work.
The charedi parties want a lot of transfers for their
parties, a lot of money for their people, Avi Weiss,
Taubs executive director, said. When you give them
that money, they sit at home.
Only three countries in the OECD are more
unequal on income than Israel.
Israel fared better than only Turkey, Chile, and
the United States in after-tax income inequality in
2011, the latest year for which much of Taubs data is
drawn. Israel ranks somewhat better in comparisons

of gross income.
Taub attributes this to a steep income tax cut in 2007 that
was meant to incentivize employment. Instead it lowered
tax revenue, and with Israel spending so much on defense,
left scant resources for social services.
Israel is not closing the gap as much as other countries

are, Weiss said. We are paying a relatively low rate of taxes

compared to European countries. If what is important to
the politicians is decreasing inequality, one way to go about
doing that is to get more from taxes.
Israel has had an above-average cost of living for 24 of
SEE ECONOMY PAGE 32

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An Israeli man scavenges for food in June.

Israel food prices rank among the highest for
advanced democracies, a recent study found.
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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 31

Jewish World

Influential academics organize

Work to counter anti-Israel movement on college campuses
MELISSA APTER
WASHINGTON Alarmed by what they called
Orwellian efforts to link Israel with a multitude of freespeech issues now roiling American college campuses, a
group of influential academics has launched an initiative
to combat anti-Semitism and facilitate constructive dialogue about Israel.
Led by Mark Yudof, the president emeritus of the University of California system, and Kenneth Waltzer, a former director of Jewish studies at Michigan State University, the Academic Engagement Network has taken it upon
itself to combat Orwellian efforts to link Israel with a multitude of issues, from the shootings in Ferguson to high
levels of student tuition.
In the face of activities aimed at vilifying Israel, AEN
members will facilitate robust and civilized discussions
relating to Israel on campuses, promote academic freedom and freedom of expression, stand for human rights
for Arabs and Jews, and engage colleagues and students to
better understand these complex issues, Yudof, the networks chair, said in a statement this month.
Network members will act as resources on their campuses and provide advice to academic colleagues on how
to address anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities without
trampling on free speech.
A manual titled Academic Freedom and BDS: A Guide
for University Presidents and Administrators is in the
editing stages, with an intended release date of early January, in time for the spring semester.
Stephen Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George
Washington University in Washington, D.C., described
the network as a group of concerned academics who
have devoted themselves to making it possible for
people from all points of view to speak candidly and

Mark Yudof

Kenneth Waltzer

without disruption.
In recent years, student protesters have taken to shouting down invited Israeli guest lecturers. In early November, Assi Azar, an Israeli television personality and LGBT
rights advocate, was interrupted during a discussion of his
film Mom, Dad, I have Something to Tell You at Goucher
College in Baltimore. Last winter, masked protesters
wielding electronic noisemakers and carrying signs reading Ferguson, Pittsburgh, Gaza, Fight Back, disrupted a
talk by a former Israeli army medic on gender roles during wartime.
Preventing invited guests from speaking and spreading
misinformation are among the methods Trachtenberg and
his fellow AEN board members describe as anti-intellectual and harmful for peace and for academic freedom.
On some campuses, certainly, issues that are either
popular or unpopular off campus in the larger community
sometimes find a way to the campus and it causes no small
degree of indigestion, if you will, said H. Patrick Swygert,
the president emeritus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. But Ive never been one to be persuaded that

silence or simply just going along [is the right response].

Swygert, who has been an academic for nearly four
decades and has taught at Israeli universities, said he has
heard obvious untruths about the State of Israel with no
rebuttal.
It is a university presidents duty, he said, to be clear in
the sense that the university has values and one of them is
free speech in contrasting and opposing ideas.
There is a space for serious debate on Israel if the president is able to articulate what the reality is of Israel as an
open democratic society in a volatile part of the world,
Swygert said.
Trachtenberg agreed, saying he would like to see robust
debate on campuses, perhaps in the same vein as the 2015
Oxford University debate on the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement, or BDS, that pitted American lawyer
Alan Dershowitz against British human rights activist Peter
Tatchell. Dershowitz was declared the winner.
We ourselves are critical of Israel, Trachtenberg said.
We dont claim perfection for Israel and no one expects
us to do that. Were not afraid of fair criticism of Israel.
We simply think that the kind of behavior that BDS advocates is bad for universities, bad for scholarship, [and a]
bad way for advocating their position.
For Trachtenberg, his affiliation with AEN transcends
the issue of Israel.
It has to do with what Im focusing on, which is the
American university, he said. [We need] to enable deliberations which are based on facts rather than opinion.
AENs national advisory board members include psychologist Steven Pinker of Harvard, Holocaust historian
Deborah Lipstadt of Emory, and Lawrence Summers, a
past president of Harvard and former secretary of the
Treasury.
JTA WIRE SERVICE/WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK

BRIEF

Economy
FROM PAGE 31

the past 25 years.

When Israelis took to the streets to
protest the cost of living in 2011, the data
backed them up.
Israelis spend more on consumer
goods in comparison to the residents
of other OECD countries. Food prices
are particularly inflated, Taub found,
because theres too little competition
between food producers and a low
import rate. In industries where there
are a lot of imports and healthy competition, such as furniture, prices have
remained relatively low.
Israels high-tech sector has become
66 percent more productive since 1975.
Weiss calls Israel a tale of two
economies.
While its service and low-skill workers have below-average productivity,
Israels flagship sectors, like its high-tech
ecosystem, are punching above their
weight. Productivity in the service sector has barely increased since 1975, while

32 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

productivity in the high-tech industry

has shot up 66 percent. But high-tech
and other productive sectors only make
up one-third of Israels economy.
Nearly 60 percent of Israeli jobs
could be lost to computerization.
Like inequality and poverty, computerization is a challenge not unique
to Israel. Like the United States, Israel
could see most of its jobs become automated in the next 20 years. Workers
from cashiers to telemarketers face a
high risk of computerization, while bus
drivers could also lose their jobs if selfdriving cars hit the road. Doctors, social
workers and creative professionals, however, would probably be safe.
Israel should rise to the challenge,
Weiss says, by training charedim and
others entering the labor market to work
in high-skilled jobs that are likely to drive
Israels economy for decades.
You cant train them in something
where, 10 years down the line, theyre
not going to have a job anymore, Weiss
said. Thats not going to last.
JTA WIRE SERVICE

Rivlin hosts New Years reception

for Israels Christian community
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin hosted representatives of many Christian denominations at a traditional New Years reception.
Rivlin expressed gratitude for the Catholic Churchs Nostra Aetate declaration
against anti-Semitism by mirroring Pope
Franciss words A true Christian cannot
be an anti-Semite. A faithful Jew cannot
be anti-Christian or anti-Muslim, he said,
adding Israel protects freedom of religion
for all faiths.
Jerusalem is the center of the world.
Billions of people look to this city in hope
and prayer. We all have a duty at the
beginning of the New Year and every day
to stand together and show the world
that the conflict in this region is not a war

about religion, it is a war against hate.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Theophilos III,
responded to Rivlins greeting at the
reception.
We wish to express our appreciation
for the strong stand you have continued to
take in demonstrating respect for all religions, and your condemnation of violence
from whatever side it comes, he said. We
join you in these affirmations and condemnations. Allow us to reiterate our commitment to education based on the principles
of moral values that derive from our common heritage. This is paramount to the
JNS.ORG
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Opinion/Local/Jewish World
Equity
FROM PAGE 21

me on a personal level, negatively

impacting how I view myself and my
capabilities. While we have made much
progress in the Jewish community, we
have a long way to go.
As the debate over female Orthodox
clergy continues, Im reminded that its
easy to get caught up in the sides: who
thinks there should be women rabbis or
women with clergy-like titles and who
thinks there shouldnt be. But if we create a binary system, with one group on
one side, and another on the other, we
fail to find ways in which we might fight
gender inequity together. Each school,
synagogue, or other institution must
decide, in its own thoughtful manner,
how it wants to proceed with regard to
gender and halachah ( Jewish law), but
there still are many ways we can make
progress in fixing gender inequality in
the Jewish community.
To that end, Ive thought of some questions and asked friends and colleagues
to weigh in on what we might ask of our
schools, synagogues, and community as
a whole:
How do your hiring and career
advancement policies reflect a concern
for gender equality?
Do you have equal pay scales for
men and women?
What is your selection process when
hiring new administration and selecting
and voting on new board members, and
how are all stakeholders included in that

Iran
FROM PAGE 23

was someone else, they wouldnt have

planted the bomb. So we are back to the
beginning. Do you have someone else for
me to negotiate with? Knowing the Iranians were guilty, Timerman still pushed
the memorandum of understanding as a
breakthrough, bitterly condemning anyone who questioned his or Fernndez de
Kirchners judgment.
Now that they are out of power, the
Kirchneristas look distinctly vulnerable.
Macri has made it clear that the investigation into the AMIA bombing has to be
revived. So too with the circumstances
of Nismans death. If, as the forensic evidence suggests, Nisman was murdered,
all eyes will be on Argentinas former
leaders and on their friends in Tehran.
As more evidence about this shameful agreement emerges, the underlying
theme that the Iranian regime cannot
be trusted will be resonate even more

process? How does your selection process reflect equity?

How do you encourage women to
become leaders in the Jewish and larger
community? How do you help women
develop leadership skills?
What programs and/or discussions
do you organize to address womens
issues in the Jewish community and in
society at large? Do outside facilitators
come to address tolerance, diversity, and
equality?
Do you mark Jewish and other rites
of passage, such as bar and bat mitzvah
celebrations, in equal ways?
I know this list isnt complete, but the
process of asking ourselves what we can
do to alter inequity, instead of what we
cant do, is, I think, crucial in moving
forward in healthy ways.
Were not all going to agree on what
gender equality looks like in our different Jewish settings, but we can unite
around the question of how we might
make our spaces more equitable for
all of the people in them. If we address
each other with the respect that question deserves and think of possibilities for chiddush, innovation, in areas
where we need it, I think our community will be the stronger and healthier
for it.
Why should I care about inequity?
Why should we all? Like any good driving question in PBL, that question has
lots of answers, and we have to listen to
each other to find them.
Let us go and learn.

strongly. More immediately, the AMIA

scandal gives us an important glimpse
into how the Iranians negotiate. What
they dont do is compromise. Instead,
they present a mixture of threats, ideological venom, and faith in the reluctance of Western leaders to take military
action as a negotiating strategy. Thats
why any country that declares a conflict
with the Iranians satisfactorily resolved
whether its the AMIA issue or Tehrans nuclear ambitions has reached
that conclusion in spite of the facts, not
because of them.
So watch what happens in 2016. Iran
is going to start feeling some pressure.
Ironically, the source of that pressure lies
in Buenos Aires, not in Washington, D.C.
How the Obama administration assists
or hinders the new push in Argentina to
secure justice for the AMIA victims will
be one of the more colorful foreign policy stories of the coming year.

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Alzheimers
FROM PAGE 11

But the implications of some of those

moves, with the loss of local autonomy
that accompany it, worry him.
Take the idea of having after-hour hotline calls go to a national office, he said.
Were concerned about that because of
people who are like I was 20 years ago.
I called the hotline for help about my
mother. I got someone in New Jersey, who
stayed on the phone with me for over two
hours, answering every question I had, giving me information about books to read,
articles to read, doctors to talk to, what
type of doctors to talk to, that I should talk
to an attorney to get everything in order.
The hotline is for acute emergencies say my mother just tried to burn
the house down, Mr. Rothman said; in
that case they are trained to assist, and
if it requires calling the police or the fire
department then they hand it off after
that and for ongoing, slow-burning
emergencies as well.
Local knowledge matters, Mr. Rothman said. The hotline was an invaluable
resource that I was able to get to immediately. If I had called after 5 oclock today
and people call whenever the need for
help becomes overwhelming, and that
does not happen only during working
hours I would have gotten a person
who didnt know the first thing about New
Jersey, or about the agencies available
here, because New Jersey has a lot of different places and resources to go to.
I have been on the board for over a
decade, and I have very strong feelings
about how well the local chapter serves
the community, Mr. Rothman continued.
Having everything under one umbrella
the national organization would
mean that the local board would have no
fiduciary or decision-making responsibilities. We would just be in an advisory

capacity. We truly felt a fiduciary responsibility to the community, to the people of

New Jersey. Otherwise, they would donate
but have no local voice.
We felt that it was critical that we
decide what programs work in New Jersey.
We feel we are a better judge of that than
someone in Chicago.
Now, 40 cents of every dollar goes to
national. We feel that if we have 100 percent of the money donated, well be able
to reinvest it in more programs, more education, more everything here in the state,
which is where the people who donate the
money would like it spent, he said.
New Jerseys chapter is not the only one
to make such a move, Mr. Rothman said;
the chapter in New York City and two in
California already have done so.
The board did not come to the decision
easily, he said. We argued, discussed,
locked ourselves behind closed doors and
hashed out every pro and con, and last
month we came to the decision to disaffiliate and go it on our own.
That doesnt mean that national
doesnt do any good. They do. They
increase awareness of Alzheimers. They
do wonderful lobbying in Washington
that resulted in increased spending on
Alzheimers that was just announced this
week.
There is a lot of wonderful research
being done all over the country, all over
the world, and particularly in Israel, he
said. They are thinking out of the box,
trying different approaches. About a year
ago, I heard a scientist telling us that we
will not see a cure for Alzheimers in our
lifetime. He already has backed down from
that, and its been less than a year. Hes
saying that he is more encouraged now by
the fast pace of thinking, and of the way
the science is moving.
To learn more about Alzheimers New
Jersey, go to alznj.org.

BRIEF

IDF forms new commando brigade

to counter threats from Islamic State
The Israel Defense Forces officially
inducted its new Commando Brigade,
which brings together four elite military units: Maglan, Duvdevan, Egoz, and
Rimon. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi
Eizenkot said the move was necessary to
properly counter the threat to Israel by the
Islamic State group.
All four are uniquely trained special forces units: Maglan operates deep
behind enemy lines, Duvdevans forte is
undercover urban warfare, Egoz focuses
on reconnaissance and counter-guerrilla
warfare, and Rimons specialty is desert
warfare.
Speaking at the brigades inauguration ceremony, Eizenkot said, Looking

to the north and seeing the brazen statements made [by Hezbollah] and the overall atmosphere from Lebanon, the threats
made by Islamic State commanders in Iraq
and Syria, the security escalation we have
been dealing with in Judea and Samaria,
and the threats on the southern front, we
must make the most of our abilities.
He said the Commando Brigade will
serve as the front guard and represent the
ability and spirit of the IDF in the future. I
have every confidence that you will be vigilant and ready should we be ordered to
fulfill our purpose to protect and defend
the State of Israel, ensure its existence,
and, if we are put to the test, defeat any
JNS.ORG
enemy.

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 33

Keeping Kosher
Gluten-free challah mixes make for interesting twists
Blends by Orly capture the flavor and taste
BETH JANOFF CHANANIE
Orly Gottesman, aka Orly the Baker, a young
French pastry chef who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Australia, recognized the lack of
flour mixtures in the gluten-free market. In
response, she created Blends by Orly.
Ms. Gottesman grew up in Englewood
and went to the Moriah and Frisch schools
before going off to NYU.
She spent years developing blends of gluten-free flours, each formulated for a particular baking purpose. Today, Blends by Orly
has a line of five unique gluten-free flour
blends that act as a replacement for regular flour in any recipe. Baking challah with
Blends by Orly became so popular that she
decided to create gluten-free challah mixes.
It is an easy way to make your own delicious
gluten-free challah at home. The mixes are
also certified HaMotzi because of the oat

content.
Blends by Orly won the new product competition in the new mixes category for last
years Kosherfest. Blends by Orly is sold all
over the New York metropolitan area.
Blends by Orly gluten-free flour uses allnatural ingredients. When used for baking, the flour mimics the taste and texture
of baked goods made with wheat flour. It is
used as a one-to-one substitute for wheat
flour in recipes. Five different flour blends
are used to optimize flavor. For example, a
baker will use London Blend for cookies and
biscuits and Manhattan Blend for challah.
After receiving samples of the gluten-free
Blends by Orly Challah mixes at the office,
I sent them to two friends with glutenfree homes. According to my friend Eileen
Schneider of Hillsdale, the plain challah
was delicious, the texture and flavor were
great. Also, the ingredients are natural and

it just seemed healthy. My friend Shira

Weiner of Paramus made the Chocolate
Chip Gluten Free challah. She said, It
was great. Very sticky dough, so I just
made it in a loaf pan, without shaping it.
I also made glazed cinnamon buns for
everyone else. So, when the bread was
done, and while it was hot, I made a few

slits (like halfway slices) and drizzled a

vanilla glaze over it. Even the non-GF
eaters enjoyed. I will definitely buy the
mix again. Great texture, and the ultimate compliment, did not taste GF.
Assuming the winter weather is finally
upon us, here are a two recipes using
Blends by Orly Gluten Free Flour.

Nanas Gluten Free

Italian Spinach &
Ricotta Ravioli

Mix all together

on high speed
for 3-4 minutes. Flour your
work surface
with Tuscany
Blend. Remove
the dough from
your bowl and
shape it into a
ball. Use your
hands to flatten the ball into a disk. If the dough is
too warm to roll out, wrap it in cling
wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 20
minutes.
Shape: Split the dough in half, and
roll out one half at a time. Place the
dough on your floured surface and
sprinkle the surface and the top of the
dough generously with flour. Using
a rolling pin, roll out until the dough
is 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Alternatively, roll
dough gradually through a pasta machine. Using a round cookie cutter, cut
circles out of the dough. Place them
on a tray, and continue to roll and cut
circles until all dough is used. Gather
and re-roll the scraps, continuing to
cut out circles. Brush the surface of
the round cut-out with egg wash or
water to stick. Spoon 1 teaspoon of
filling onto the center of each piece of
dough and place another pasta circle
on top of it. Press around the edges
to seal. Use the tines of a fork to make
indents around the edges.
Boil fresh, salted water for the
pasta. Boil the pasta for 5 minutes, or
until the raviolis float to the top. Then
flip them around and boil for another
minute. Use a slotted spoon to remove the ravioli from the pot. Serve
with your favorite tomato, vodka, or
pesto sauce and parmesan cheese.

Since Italian food was my husbands

favorite cuisine pre-celiac diagnosis, I
am constantly trying to perfect gluten
free versions of his favorite Italian dishes
with Blends by Orly Tuscany Blend. Ive
recently discovered that Tuscany Blend
makes a magnificent pasta dough. Even
without a pasta roller/machine, it is so
quick and easy to make gluten free ravioli dough with Blends by Orly Tuscany
Blend. Buon Appetito!
-OG
Yields about 20 pieces
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups Blends by Orly Tuscany Blend
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup warm water
egg wash (1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon
water)
RAVIOLI FILLING:
10 ounces fresh ricotta cheese, drained
2 cups freshly steamed spinach (16 cups
washed leaves), drained and squeezed
dry
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 1/4 cup freshly grated ParmigianoReggiano, plus more for serving
1 large egg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
MAKE THE FILLING
Finely chop the spinach and place
in a bowl. Add ricotta and parmesan
cheeses, egg, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix
well and set aside.
MAKE THE RAVIOLI

Mix: Put Tuscany Blend, salt, eggs,

and oil in the bowl of your stand
mixer and mix together on low speed.
When the ingredients come together,
increase to medium speed. Gradually
pour water into the mix in a constant
thin stream, until the dough begins
to resemble a thick and sticky paste.
34 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 34

Keeping Kosher
Kosher Market

Grandma Ossies
Gluten Free
Yemenite
Kubaneh Bread
Kubaneh is a Yemenite bread
cooked traditionally with hard
boiled eggs and is served with
a spicy tomato salsa. My husbands grandma used to make
her own kubaneh for breakfast
every Saturday morning. The
secret ingredient? Black cumin
seeds! You can find them at a
specialty Indian or Middle East-OG
ern store.

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup sugar
4 cups Blends by Orly Manhattan
Blend
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1/2 tablespoon fine salt
2 cups lukewarm water
7 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons black cumin seeds
(optional)
6-8 eggs

Mix: In the bowl of a stand mixer

with the paddle attachment,
cover the yeast with 3 1/2 cups
lukewarm water and let sit for 5
minutes. Add the sugar, Manhattan Blend and salt to the bowl.
Mix on low speed for 2 minutes and then add the remaining 1/2 cup water and increase
to medium-high speed. Mix
until the dough is smooth and
without lumps. Finally, add the
black cumin seeds and mix for
another few seconds, until seeds
are dispersed throughout the
dough. The dough should be
soft and a little sticky.
Proof: Cover the bowl with a

towel and let rest in a warm area

for 30 minutes. Repeat this step
2 more times.
Bake: Coat the bottom of a
tall ovenproof aluminum pot
with oil. The pot should be 2.5
quart, 7.5 wide. Turn the oven
to 200 degrees. Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter or margarine in a bowl. Divide the dough
into 6 balls and roll each one
in the melted butter or margarine. The butter coating on
your hands and on the dough
will make it easier to shape
the dough into a ball. Arrange
them in a circle inside the pot.
Cover the pot tightly with foil
and transfer to the oven. In a
separate ovenproof pot cover
the eggs with water. Transfer
to the oven for the night or add
washed eggs to kubaneh dish
and bake together Bake the
kubaneh in the oven all night.
Remove from the oven early
morning. Enjoy your breakfast
with the eggs and tomato salsa.

Milk chocolate surprise candies

Shtix, a milk chocolate candy with a surprise in every bite,
is new from Elite, Israels top-selling candy brand. Imported
by Kedem/Kayco of Bayonne, Shtix offers three types of milk
chocolate finger-shaped bars, each with a surprise filling to
delight kids and chocolate lovers everywhere. Shtix are certified kosher dairy (Cholov Yisroel) by the Orthodox Union and
Badatz Eida of Jerusalem.
The 3.39 oz. package is available in three flavors and filled
with eight individually wrapped fingers. Shtix Popping Candy
is filled with milk flavored popping bits; Shtix Milky Cream Filling is filled with milk-flavored cream; and Shtix with Chocolate
Lentils has chocolate flavored cream and chocolate lentils.

Meats Chicken Deli Appetizing

Prepared Foods Groceries Frozen Foods Catering
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Teanecks Cedar Market expands

its delicious deli department
Cedar Market, home of the now-viral Spontaneous
Dancing in a Supermarket video, is launching 2016
with excitement at its new deli.
The store, located at 646 Cedar Lane in Teaneck,
now has a full line of freshly sliced deli, homemade
kugels and wraps, sandwiches, side dishes, and more.
The feedback from customers has been terrific so
far, said Yehuda Leibowitz, a floor manager at Cedar
Market. Having a delicious deli and grab n go sections has been super convenient for our customers
and were excited to add to our growing menu in the

coming days, weeks, and months.

Cedar Market even provided a tip on how customers can save time at the deli. When entering Cedar
Market to shop, head over to the deli and place your
order, the crew at Cedar Market suggested. Then,
walk the aisles, do your shopping, and return to the
deli before you check-out to pick up your completed
deli order.
Saving time and money? Thats a beat anyone can
dance to. For information, email info@TheCedarMarket.com or call (201) 855-8500.

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JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 35

Gallery
1

n 1 Members of the Bergen County section of the National Council of Jewish

Women volunteered at the Jewish Home
at Rockleighs annual Chanukah party. A
lunch with latkes and apple fritters was
served and NCJW members Susan Laskin,
left, and Carol Silverman Kurtz, along with
Carols daughter Samantha, entertained.
Ken Sarfin of Books & Greetings in Northvale donated 2016 calendars for the residents. www.ncjwbcs.org. COURTESY NCJW

36 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

n 2 Camryn Bolkin, left, and her mother,

Eve, attended a Paint with Me event at
the Bergen County High School of Jewish
Studies. In addition, BCHSJS held its annual Israel Summer Program and Gap Year
Fair at the Moriah School in Englewood. It
also held a Chanukah celebration, which
included painting dreidels and menorahs
for Jewish Association for Developmental
Disabilities residents. COURTESY BCHSJS

n 3 Participants at Chabad of Tenaflys

latest JLI course, Journey of the
Soul, celebrated at a graduation. The
course had more than 50 participants
and 35 graduates. COURTESY CHABAD
n 4 Author Joseph Berger discussed
his recent book, The Pious Ones The
World of Chasidism and Their Battles
with America, at Temple Emeths
BYachad breakfast. BARBARA BALKIN

n 5 The Kids in Action group of Chabad

of Passaic County went ice skating at
the Ice Vault; later, they wrote letters
to Israeli soldiers. COURTESY CHABAD

Dear Rabbi Zahavy

Your Talmudic Advice Column
This is a qualitative advance
And we have in Israel a
over the previous forms of jusdemocratic political estabtice via the literal direct retalilishment whose members and
ation of an eye for an eye, I
spokesmen aggressively value
explained. Any questions, I
our peoples safety, and also
asked.
resolutely seek to protect us
A student raised his hand.
from excessive, impassioned
How can you say the biblical
over-reactions.
idea was justice? It is barbaric
My advice to you is that you
Rabbi Tzvee
to take out an eye. What kind
insist to yourself and to othZahavy
ers that moral outrage and
of biblical morality was that?
emotion should not govern
I was caught off guard for a
Dear Shocked,
our responses to evil. We all
moment, but then I replied.
I assure you that your moral outrage in this
should have confidence in the intelligent
By the standards of our developed sense
case is proper. We pride ourselves as Jews
infrastructures that we have fostered in the
of civilization you are right, I said tentatively. But imagine, if you will, what came
and as members of the civilized world on
United States and in Israel, and allow them
before the biblical reforms. I put out your
disdaining the barbarism of primitive societto respond in earnest and with forceful proies and on aspiring always, even in times of
fessionalism to the evil that continues to
eye, then you took vengeance on my entire
war, to a high ethical standard.
rear its ugly head in our world today. And
family, and I in turn came to wipe out your
True, many will argue that when our
we all do need to pray for greater stability
whole tribe. In comparison, the biblical
enemies engage in a wave of terror attacks
and eventual peace.
scales of justice were a great leap forward
on us, this creates a state of combat, and
in civilization. And the talmudic interpreters carried justice further forward. They say
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
thereby it sanctions us to use concomitant
that money compensates for damages, not
Ive been taught since childhood that our Jewfierceness in response.
ish prayer services are beautiful, even perdirect physical retaliation.
You want to be clear, to know how ferocious we should to be in our responses,
fect ways to serve and praise God on a daily
Alas, since the time of that classroom
where to draw the line, and where to rise to
basis, and to seek his blessings for our lives.
discussion years ago, the world has experienced a dramatic era of regression in the
a higher ethical ground.
But frankly, with each passing year I am more
practice of justice, often not even keeping
Certainly, even when we face barbaric
frustrated, to the point that I sometimes feel
to the rule of lex talionis, the law of even
terrorism, wanton emotional reactions
like I ought to quit davening. I especially find
retaliation.
never will serve us well. Sober and sane
the morning services complex and confusing,
Terrorism worldwide in particular is not
leaders will insist that we need to know and
with many different kinds of prayers combined together and all of them recited at a
meant to be a balanced enterprise. Muslims
apply the principles of just vengeance that
hurried pace.
who felt resentful about occupation took up
we find in our traditions.
What do you suggest that I do?
wanton suicide bombing, killing hundreds
In the biblical stage of our history, for
Daunted by Davening in Demarest
of civilians in Israel. Militants in Oklahoma,
example, we advanced from the ancient
who had a perceived grievance, blew up
and wanton destructive responses to violence to the weighted rejoinder of the rule
Dear Daunted,
a government building, killing young children. Al-Qaeda declared itself our enemy
of lex talionis, an eye for an eye.
The good news is first, that from your question I can see that you take the prayer pracand then flew planes into our buildings,
In the rabbinic stage of our traditions, we
tices of our religion seriously, and that you
killing thousands of more innocents. And
moved from the rule of an eye for an eye to
want to find more fulfillment in them.
our government, under attack by that small
a more just system of compensation for violent damages based on monetary reparation
Second, that you ask for advice from a
group, went to war, killing tens of thousands
and the principles of justice.
columnist makes sense. You are having
in multiple foreign countries.
Lets consider for a moment the import
trouble with your most difficult association,
Nothing in all of this seems balanced in
of these early phases of revenge and justice.
your relationship with God.
the biblical sense of a tooth for a tooth. To
The Latin phrase lex talionis means the law
The bad news is that you have not had
me this means we have allowed our civilization to regress far-far back, to some 3,000
of retaliation. Some think this law is a core
sufficient guidance and opportunity to
year old pre-biblical concepts of justice.
element of early biblical justice, familiarly
understand how the complexity of our liturgy operates to foster your connection
And yet I do not think we should abandon
expressed as an eye for an eye, a tooth for
with God.
all hope in the viability of our civilization.
a tooth, an arm for an arm, a life for a life.
The daily morning prayers in many synaIn the case of terrorism in Israel today, we
I was teaching a Jewish studies class some
gogues often last no more than 30 minutes.
are fortunate to have the vast effective and
years ago about how talmudic law interprets
And you are completely right. During these
controlled IDF and Israeli police infrastrucvirtually all retaliation in terms of monetary
tures that know how well-calculated strateshort prayer services, Jews cycle through a
compensation. The Talmud provides methods to determine what is the value of the
gies and tactics work to combat the terror of
series of quite diverse prayer types. In my
damages to an eye, the cost of pain, mediour enemies. They understand that random
books and articles on prayer I often refer to
cal expenses, loss of income, suffering, and
and emotional actions serve only to weaken
these as prayers as visualization exercises.
humiliation.
our positions.
They are the varied expressions of how we
imagine our relationship with God.
Perhaps this will help you. I have comThe Dear Rabbi Zahavy column offers timely advice based on timeless
pared our busy composite spiritual sertalmudic wisdom. It aspires to be equally respectful and meaningful to all
vices, with their rapid movements from one
varieties and denominations of Judaism. You can find it here on the first
prayer visualization to another, to someFriday of the month. Please email your questions to zahavy@gmail.com.
thing like a physical and secular session of
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
I was horrified by the actions of some of my
fellow Jews in Israel, who recently appeared
on a video of a wedding celebration brandishing knives and celebrating the violent
death of an Arab infant.
I see this as an example of primitive barbarism, which I find repugnant. Am I wrong to
object to this behavior? Please help me know
how to understand and to deal with this.
Shocked in Secaucus

circuit training exercises.

As I have discussed in some of my books
and articles, Jews who follow the recommended interior visualization regimens
of Jewish prayer may find themselves to
be engaged at a high level in prayer that
is, as former chief rabbi of Great Britain
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggests in his work
on prayer, The most intimate gesture of
the religious life, and the most transformative. I have proposed in my books that in
the details of our prayers the visualizations,
images, and gestures of the liturgy are complex, diverse, and deep in specific ways that
define many important aspects of what it is
to be a believing and practicing Jew.
I am certain that you are correct in your
perception of the dazzling complexity in
our liturgy. Each of our prayers requires
from you another kind of visualization of
your relationship with God, ranging from
the metaphors of scribes (in the Shema) to
those of the priests (in the Amidah) to those
of the mystics (in the Kaddish) to those of
the meditators (in many blessings) to those
of the triumphal combatant (in the Alenu).
You express in distinct ways, respectively, how you intend to be diligent in your
responsibilities toward your bond with your
significant Other (God), how you will serve
him with respect and honor, how you will
be a hero on his behalf, how you will allow
your emotional links with him to grow and
develop, and how that Other will be a constant presence in the mindful activities of
your day.
Like some conditioning that you get
through physical exercises, our expressive
prayer gestures require you to extend yourself beyond your personal comfort zones.
You may not be a pensive scholar or scribe,
but some prayers require you to engage in
that kind of imagining. You may not aspire
to combative engagement with other faiths,
but our core liturgies ask you to imagine
that you do.
My suggestion to you is this: Its worth the
effort to keep at it, so that you can get into
robust spiritual shape. Invest your time and
energy in this relationship that you express
in your davening. Get to know better the
intent of each of your prayers, and you will
make yourself a more spiritually robust and
well-rounded Jew, with a more lucid connection to your God.
Tzvee Zahavy earned his Ph.D. from Brown
University and rabbinic ordination from
Yeshiva University. He is the author many
books, including these ebooks available at
Amazon.com: The Book of Jewish Prayers
in English, Rashi: The Greatest Exegete,
Gods Favorite Prayers, and Dear Rabbi
Zahavy. The last book includes his columns
from the Jewish Standard and other essays.
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 37

Dvar Torah
Shmot: What is your Jewish name?

heres something about a name.

We love when people call us by
our names, especially if the person calling us is someone we
love or someone we consider important.
It reminds us that we matter.
But are names that important?
I once heard someone compare a name
to a door handle. A door only has a handle
so that people can open it. If it didnt need
to be opened, it wouldnt have a handle.
Like a door handle, a name only exists so
others could reach us.
But the Torah teaches us that there is
more to a name.
Regardless whether its for an aliya at
the Torah or in a casual encounter at the
local supermarket, theres always a sparkle
in their eyes whenever people tell me their
Jewish names.
One time when I was conducting a
holiday program at a local senior home
I asked the Jewish residents to tell me
their Hebrew names. One woman sat quietly and slightly aloof. She didnt seem
to remember her Hebrew name. Then,
about ten minutes later, her face lit up with
incredible excitement and she shouted out
Chaya Baila. For several years after, each
time I saw her and said hello Chaya Baila
her face would light up with tremendous
joy and vigor.

this world and enters the

The Hebrew name for this
body, it takes on an idenweeks Torah portion and
tity, and this identity is capthe entire second book of the
tured and described by the
Torah is Shmot. In English
Hebrew name.
the book it is called Exodus
So while a name may not
which means departure,
tell us much about the spebut the word Shmot actually means names. The Torah
cific person were calling,
Rabbi Mendy
portion of Shmot tells how,
especially when so many
Lewis
after years of living under
people share the same
Chabad of
noble conditions, the children
name, since our identity,
Old Tappan,
of Israel are transformed into
the external dimension of
Westwood,
the slaves of Pharaoh, leading
our soul, is linked to our
Orthodox
to years of immense suffering
essence, it touches us on
and oppression.
the deepest level when our
Naming our portion and the entire secname is called.
ond book of the Torah Shmot has deep
In narrating our descent into Egypt, the
significance and is relevant to the entire
Torah highlights the Jewish names of the
narrative of the Egyptian exile.
original descendants, emphasizing the fact
The Talmud teaches that names describe
that they didnt change their names while
the nature of a person. The Mystics explain
in Egypt. As the Midrash teaches us, the
that names are not only descriptive of perJewish people were redeemed from exile
sonality, but of the soul. In fact, the Talbecause they did not change their names.
mud often looks to a name to seek insight
They came as Reuven and Shimon and
to character and the Talmud cautions parthey departed as Reuven and Shimon.
ents to avoid naming their children after
Although during the Egyptian exile
the wicked.
most of the Jewish people followed Egyptian paganism and were not faithful to
Our souls in heaven are nameless spiritual creatures, submerged entirely in
Jewish practice, they retained their Jewish names. In doing so, they reminded
the God they serve. They have no separate identity that can be named or that
themselves of their true essence. They
requires one. Yet, as the soul descends to
reminded themselves that exile is only

a state of concealment and that the

true identity and destiny of ones soul is
always intact. This not only gave them
the strength to deal with the exile, but it
actually allowed them to reach a state of
redemption.
At a Passover Seder, led by the sixth
Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Joseph Isaac
Schneerson, the rebbe was asked, If we
are still in exile, what is the point of discussing the liberation from Egypt? To
which the rebbe responded, It reminds
us that we have the ability to leave.
This Shabbat, as we begin reading the
book of Shmot, let us remind ourselves of
the importance of using our Jewish names
in the context of exile and especially today,
as Israel and the civilized world face some
serious challenges.
Let us be encouraged to use our Jewish names more often. Like the children
of Israel during the Egyptian slavery, we
too can find strength and inspiration
from the awareness of our true identity
found in our names, as individuals and
collectively as the people of Israel. It will
remind us that we have an inner strength
and ability to overcome our challenges
and I believe it will ultimately lead us and
the entire world to a true and complete
redemption.
Shabbat Shalom

BRIEFS

Journalist says Islamic State

respects only Israel army

Turkey sets 3 conditions

as normalization talks stall

Israel is the only country that the Islamic State fears,

according to a Western journalist who recently spent time
with the jihadist group.
They think they can defeat U.S. and U.K. ground
troops, who they say they have no experience in city
guerrilla or terrorist strategies. But they know the Israelis
are very tough as far as fighting against guerrillas and terrorists, Jrgen Todenhfer, author of My 10 Days in the
Islamic State, told the U.K.s Jewish News.
Last weekend, the Islamic State released a taped message from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in which he
threatened to turn Israel into a graveyard.
We are getting closer to you day by day, Baghdadi
said in the message. Do not think that we have forgotten
about you. God caused the Jews of the world to gather in
Israel, and the war against them has become easy. It is the
obligation of every Muslim to carry out jihad.
Todenhfer added that they are not scared of the British and the Americans, they are scared of the Israelis, and
told me the Israeli army is the real danger. We [Islamic
State] cant defeat them with our current strategy. These
people [the IDF] can fight a guerrilla war.

Turkey has no plans to normalize its ties with Israel

unless specific conditions are met, a spokesman for
Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Turkey-Israel relations will not normalize until
Israel realizes the three conditions. We have not given
up on these, Ibrahim Kalin said, Reuters reported.
Turkey demands that Israel issue an apology and
compensate the families of those who were killed in
clashes in the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident. The
third demand is that Israel lift the blockade on Gaza,
which is intended to restrict the movement of weapons to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Turkey will continue to play its role until a twostate solution is reached, and the Palestinian people
have their own state. There cannot be permanent
peace in the region until the Palestinian problem is
solved, Kalin said.
In recent weeks, Turkey was reportedly moving
closer to normalizing relations with Israel following
a meeting in Switzerland this month with the head
of Israels Mossad intelligence agency, Yossi Cohen,
Israeli envoy Joseph Ciechanover, and Turkish Foreign
Ministry under-secretary Feridun Sinirlioglu.

JNS.ORG

JNS.ORG

Israeli defense firm awarded

$70 million contract to
upgrade fighter jets
Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems announced on Monday it was awarded a $70 million contract to supply
advanced electronic warfare systems that will be
installed on various Israeli Air Force fighter jets over
the next five years.
The Directorate of Production and Procurement of
the Israeli Ministry of Defense awarded the contract to
Elbit, who developed and manufactured the EW and
SIGINT Elisra Ltd. systems.
We are proud to provide the Israeli Air Force,
recognized as one of the worlds most advanced air
forces, advanced EW systems, covering the full range
of fighter jets, and we trust that this win will further
enhance our position as one of the worlds leading EW
manufacturers, said Bezhalel Machlis, president and
CEO of Elbit.
The modern global air combat arena is extremely
challenging, and pilots are facing many new threats.
Our systems provide a solution to a wide variety of
current and future threats, and we hope that other
customers will follow the IMOD and the Israeli Air
Force and select our EW systems, Machlis said.


38 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

JNS.ORG

Arts & Culture

Judith Light as Shelly Pfefferman
embraces Jeffrey Tambor as
Maura (formerly Mort) Pfefferman
in a scene from Transparent.

Are the Pfeffermans Americas Jews?

MIRIAM RINN

s Transparent the most Jewish

show on television?
It sure seems so to me.
The second season of the multiple-Emmy-winning dramedy is now
streaming on Amazon, and the Pfefferman clan is even more Jewy than it was
in the first season and that is really saying something. In that launch, 70-year-old
Mort Pfefferman came out to his family as
a transgender woman. His divorced wife
and three adult children struggled hilariously to come to terms with this news, and
with their new Moppa, as well as with
their own complicated sexual lives. Sex is
a big deal in Transparent; it reveals character to the viewer as well as to the characters themselves.
In the first season, the Pfeffermans middle daughter, Sarah (Amy Landecker), left
her husband to begin a passionate affair
with a woman she had known in college.
Music producer Josh ( Jay Duplass) broke
up with the middle-aged teacher who
had seduced him in high school to pursue a shy young rabbi (Kathryn Hahn).
The youngest child, Ali (Gaby Hoffman),
began the series by inviting two young
black men into a threesome while ignoring her old college roommates obvious

crush. Everyone not just Mort is on a

journey to discover who she or he is, and
sex is the preferred Pfefferman vehicle for
that exploration.
The Pfeffermans are contemporary
American Jews, not particularly observant
(though they do kiss mezuzot and go to

Everyone not
just Mort is on
a journey to
discover who she
or he is, and sex
is the preferred
Pfefferman
vehicle for that
exploration.
shul on Yom Kippur) but infused with Jewishness. Unlike the Jews in Woody Allens
films, they are not uncomfortable or conflicted about their identities. They are way
past that. Actually, the parents carry traces
of that discomfort, but their children
dont. When Ali accuses Maura and Shelly

( Judith Light) of not caring enough to

make her celebrate her bat mitzvah, they
are mystified about why she would complain. Of course, her feelings of neglect go
further than their not forcing her to learn
her parshah, but her sense of loss is real.
The second season of Transparent
begins with a Jewish wedding that goes
disastrously wrong. Sarah is about to marry
her girlfriend, Tammy, but a change of
heart at the last minute leaves everything
in turmoil. Joshs sweetie, Raquel, provides
an out that enables the bride to leave her
bathroom stall. Then she has to face the
guests, who are holding the chair to hoist
her up. A marvelous Hava Nagila where
everyone dances caps the celebration.
The rest of the season isnt nearly as
funny as that first episode, but it is profound
in surprising ways. Moving away from the
nuclear family to introduce us to a larger,
extended mishpachah allows the series
creator, Jill Soloway, to present these characters in even more nuanced ways. Maura,
formerly known as Mort and brilliantly
played by Jeffrey Tambor, has to recognize
that being a woman is not just experimenting with makeup and wearing a flowy dress.
Its much harder to lose the sense of
always being right and in charge that was
part of his male identity for most of his
life. When a plain-speaking lesbian poet

(a fantastic Cherry Jones) reminds Maura

that he blocked her academic career, she
is caught off guard before acknowledging
the truth. Mauras contemptuous disapproval of another transgender womans
boyfriend earns her a stern talking to. Who
does Maura think she is? Who, indeed.
Soloway takes a risk in introducing flashback scenes that move us to 1930s Berlin,
but it works. Ali is able to deepen her sense
of her Jewish heritage without expository
speeches, and the uncovered links to the
current Pfeffermans lives are quite thrilling. It leaves you wanting to know so much
more about them, the best evidence of an
exceptional artistic imagination. Soloway
has said that she based the series on her
own fathers coming out as transgender,
but in this season Mauras story is not central. Instead, we have a complex portrait
of many different people, each existing
in a web of relationships, unlike so much
of our popular culture, where characters
exist in isolation, except for a few friends
or romantic partners. The Pfeffermans are
connected to each other as well as to professional colleagues, friends, sexual partners, in-laws, estranged siblings, distant
relatives, and on and on to a larger historical community.
It doesnt get much more Jewish than
that.
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 39

Calendar
Friday

Sunday

JANUARY 8

JANUARY 10

Shabbat in Teaneck:

Book discussion/
lecture in Washington
Township: As part

Temple Emeth offers

family services, 7:30 p.m.
1666 Windsor Road.
(201) 833-1322 or www.
emeth.org.

Saturday
JANUARY 9

Shabbat in Teaneck:

Award-winning members of Ridgewood Irish Dance will be

among the performers at Cabaret Night at Temple Israel
in Ridgewood, Saturday, January 9, from 8 to 11 p.m. Other
performers include jazz/pop pianist Sarah Diamonds; comedian
Dan Abraham; singer/songwriter Ariana Gates; Taiko drummers Manhattan
Taiko; pop singer Caitlin Bromberg (Temple Israels cantor); Macaroon 5 (the
house band of the Glen Rock Jewish Center), playing hits from the 50s to
the 80s; storyteller Pam Grant, and 60s-90s folk/rock band Two and A Half
Mensch. Admission includes entertainment, hors doeuvres, wine, beer, and
dessert. 475 Grove St. (201) 444-9320 or email cabaret@synagogue.org.

JAN.

Sunday

Tuesday

JANUARY 3

JANUARY 5

a Giant Shadow,
starring Kirk Douglas
as Mickey Marcus, will
be shown. Also January
12. 411 East Clinton Ave.
(201) 569-7900, ext. 235
or www.jccotp.org.

As part of Jewish
Federation of Northern
New Jerseys One
Book, One Community
programming, Temple
Emeth offers a
Shabbaton on this years
selection, A Backpack,
A Bear, and Eight
Crates of Vodka, by
Lev Golinkin. At 9 a.m.,
Rabbi Steven Sirbu
leads Torah study using
ancient and modern
sources on Bullying
and the Treatment of
the Stranger. During
services at 10:30, he will
incorporate key themes
from the book as part of
the liturgy. Kiddush lunch
at noon will be followed
by a talk, A Jewish
Response to Todays
Refugees, by Mark
Hetfield, president/CEO
of HIAS. Samuel Golinkin,
father of author Lev
Golinkin, will talk about
What I think about when
I see pictures of todays
refugees. 1666 Windsor
Road. (201) 833-1322 or
www.jfnnj.org/calendar/
temple-emeth.

of Jewish Federation
of Northern New
Jerseys One Book,
One Community
programming, Temple
Beth Or offers a
discussion with Marty
Schneit, a licensed New
York City tour guide, on
Jewish Emigration from
Russia to the Lower East
Side, in conjunction
with this years book
selection, A Backpack, A
Bear, and Eight Crates of
Vodka by Lev Golinkin,
1 p.m. 56 Ridgewood
Road. (201) 664-7422 or
www.jfnnj.org/calendar/
temple-Beth Or.

Singles
Sunday
JANUARY 10

Nate Tiffe
Dinner and
entertainment in
Clifton: North Jersey
Jewish Singles 45-60s, a
group sponsored by the
Clifton Jewish Center,
hosts a Jewish singles
New Year celebration
dance and dinner
with entertainment
by Nate Tiffe,
4:30 p.m. 18 Delaware St.
(973) 772-3131 or www.
meetup.com.

Wednesday
JANUARY 6
Womens book club in
Wayne: The Chabad

Book club in Paramus:

The JCC of Paramus/
Congregation Beth
Tikvah offers a discussion
of The Chosen by
Chaim Potok, 10:30 a.m.
Coffee and danish.
East 304 Midland Ave.
(201) 262-7691.

Center of Passaic County

offers a discussion on
Elena Gorokhovas
memoir, Russian Tattoo,
7:30 p.m. Dessert. 194
Ratzer Road. Chani,
(973) 694-6274 or
chanig@jewishwayne.
com.

40 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

Caregiver support in
Rockleigh: A support
Israels War of
Independence: Dumont
historian Dick Burnon
gives a two-part video/
lecture, Mickey Marcus:
American Hero During
the 1948 Israeli War
for Independence, at
a meeting of Retired
Executives and Active
Professionals at the
Kaplen JCC on the
Palisades, 10:30 a.m.
The 1966 film Cast

group for those caring

for the physically frail or
people with Alzheimers
disease meets at the
Gallen Adult Day
Health Care Center at
the Jewish Home at
Rockleigh, 10-11:30 a.m.
Topics include long-term
care options, financial
planning, legal concerns,
and the personal toll
of caregiving. 10 Link
Drive. Shelley Steiner,
(201) 784-1414, ext. 5340.

Announce your events

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

Calendar
JFSNJ Cafe Europa program
focuses on Ziegfeld Follies era
Cafe Europa, a social program
the Jewish Family Service of
North Jersey sponsors for Holocaust survivors, funded in part
by the Conference on Material
Claims Against Germany, the
Jewish Federation of Northern
New Jersey, and private donations, meets on Tuesday, January 12, at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation Bnai
Israel, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
New York City lecturer/tour
guide Marty Schneit will discuss
the Ziegfeld Girls in pictures
and song. Lunch will be served.
The synagogue is at 10-10
Norma Ave. Transportation is
available. For information, call
Melanie Lester at (973) 595-0111
or go to www.jfsnorthjersey.org.

Crossword
BY DESIGN BY YONI GLATT

KOSHERCROSSWORDS@GMAIL.COM
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY

Muriel Finlay was a Ziegfeld girl.


ALFRED CHENEY JOHNSTON

FDU-Yeshiva program features

courses in sports administration
The Fairleigh Dickinson UniversityYeshiva Program offers a wide range of
classes for the spring semester. The programs director, Ira Jaskoll, will teach a
course on sports administration. FDU
offers a minor in sports administration
and a masters in sports administration,
and Mr. Jaskoll hopes to create a specialization in sports administration in the
FDU-Yeshiva Program.
The program meets at the Jewish Center of Teaneck and runs from Sunday, January 10, to Thursday, March 31. Classes are
offered one day a week, Sunday through
Thursday, in the afternoon, evening,
and online. Yeshiva students who want
to complete an FDU bachelors degree
in one year can transfer their yeshiva
credits, take CLEP and other exams, and

complete 30 credits at FDU.

The scheduling also includes the
popular bein hazmanin 11-day classes
during Sukkot, Pesach, and Chodesh Av
breaks.
Mr. Jaskoll has consulted with the New
York Yankees and established and marketed the first Kosher Baseball Fantasy
Camp. He also consulted with the Newark
Bears, the Rockland Boulders, the Brooklyn Cyclones, and the Long Island Ducks
on how to enhance their Jewish Heritage
Days. He also recently helped the Maccabi
Tel Aviv basketball team promote their
game at Madison Square Garden.
For information, call (201) 692-2746,
email fparra@fdu.edu, or go to www.
fdu.yeshiva.

Motown tribute at bergenPAC

The Bergen Performing Arts Center in
Englewood presents So Good for the
Soul on Saturday, January 16, at 8 p.m.
The concert will be performed by a cast
of eight entertainers and their band,
including former members of the Jones,
Main Ingredient, and the Marvelettes,

along with Broadway performers who

had leading roles in Dream Girls, Your
Arms Too Short to Box With God, Porgy
and Bess, and Showboat. For information, call (201) 227-1030 or go to www.bergenpac.org.

Across
1. Gather, like what Joseph did with
Egypts grain
6. Short works on Bellow and Uris?
11. Written ___ (Torah)
14. Brit follower
15. Angels have them
16. Ben Gurion abbr.
17. You might wear his scent
19. Jenna ___ O (Mayim Bialiks
Blossom co-star)
20. Josh Gads Olaf meets them in
Frozen
21. The NFLs Erik Lorig of New Orleans,
e.g.
23. Former All-Star Jose who pitched
with John Grabow on the 2005
Pirates
26. Lo-___, unlike HD Yes channels
27. Animal a Jewish king should not
have too many of
28. Fig. on a YU tuition bill
29. Not ordained
30. Ancient Jerusalem House
31. Rachel and Leah, to Isaac
33. Shlomo Sixt item
34. ....___ I like to call it...
37. King buried in Memphis
38. Container for olive oil, once
39. ___ kosher
40. One making tzitzit blue
41. Have some kugel, e.g.
42. Make like the Jewish people
43. Historic traveler in a Spielbergproduced classic
45. Tref Aussie bird
46. Former title for Rabbi Lord
Jonathan Sacks
47. How much of the Torah was once
transmitted
49. Palindromic King of Judah
50. Chris Bermans network
51. Sport with clowns very few Jews are
involved in
52. Window or aisle choice on El Al, e.g.
54. See 39-Down
55. You might wear his shirts
60. Methusalehs final one was 969
61. Like Aly Raisman
62. Treasure stash, like in King Davids
tomb according to Maccabees I
63. Title for Bernie Sanders: Abbr.
64. Elijah, before taking on Elisha
65. Rabbinic OK

Down
1. Channel that aired Weiners Mad
Men
2. She played Hannah for Woody
3. Apiece (e.g. 18-18)
4. Zeidy
5. Song
6. Sharpshooting Annie once played by
Jamie Lee Curtis
7. Animals mentioned several times in
the Torah
8. Angers, like Matityahu at the start of
the Maccabean revolt
9. ___ chi, lighter version of krav maga
10. Security device at the Israel Museum
11. You might wear his pants
12. What to do on Yom Kippur
13. Needs tzedakah
18. Ephron and Dunn
22. Ivan (Reitmans) big Twins star
23. Like Judahs animal
24. Rosss second wife on Friends
25. You might wear his shoes
27. He holds up Moses arms with Aaron
29. ___ Miserables, 2012 Sacha Baron
Cohen film
30. Storage item for tefillin or a tallit
32. Like the O in the OU symbol
33. Slice (a challah)
35. What many take to get to Israel
36. Daniel of Home Alone
38. Former quarterback Fiedler
39. African antelope that chews its
54-Across
41. Tarzan portrayer Ron
42. Where one might read about the
parsha, nowadays
44. Bat mitzvah arrangement?
45. Megillah of note
47. Tzaar baalei chayim victims in
2013s Blackfish
48. Estee Lauder makes it
49. Rosh Hashanah staple
50. Toughen, like a Golani soldier: Var.
52. Lena on Abrams Alias
53. Kol Nidre target
56. A Night in Summer Long ___ Mark
Knopfler
57. Honey wont do this
58. First lady
59. ___ Tamid

The solution to last weeks puzzle

is on page 45.
JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 41

Jewish World

Barry Freundels former D.C. synagogue

trying to move past mikvah trauma
URIEL HEILMAN
WASHINGTON Though its been more
than a year since Rabbi Barry Freundel
was hauled away in handcuffs for installing secret cameras at his synagogues
mikvah, his crime still casts a shadow
over his longtime congregation, Kesher
Israel.
Three civil lawsuits are pending against
Kesher, filed by women who presumably
used the ritual bath adjacent to his Orthodox synagogue and were filmed by the
rabbi while undressing. (The women are
identified as Jane Does in the lawsuits.)
The congregation, which is struggling
financially, has not yet begun a search for
Freundels permanent replacement. And
many congregants still are grappling with
a range of complicated feelings about
their rabbis betrayal.
Its like the person you put on a pedestal urinated on you, said one longtime

Its not one

event or sermon
or email. Its a
long, long
process. Thats
how trauma
works.
congregant, who asked not to be named.
I dont think the effects are done. These
effects go through the generations.
Despite Keshers challenges, many
community members and leaders say
the congregation turned a corner with
Freundels sentencing in May. He was
sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison. Thats
45 days for each of the 52 counts of
voyeurism.
There was a tremendous sense of
dread before the sentencing What if
he only gets a year? What if he doesnt
get anything? recalled Elanit Jakabovics,
Keshers president.
It seemed like a fair sentencing, she
said. People were ready to move on, and
that helped.
A few weeks later, the synagogue hired
Avidan Milevsky, a clinical psychologist
from Baltimore who also is an ordained
rabbi, to be its interim part-time clergyman. Milevsky still lives in Baltimore, but
he spends every other Shabbat in Washington and goes there twice during the
week.
I was warned by so many people,
even on my [trial] weekend there: Dont
do this. Its so complicated. In so many
42 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

Rabbi Avidan Milevsky leads a Sunday morning Talmud class after services at
Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C. 
URIEL HEILMAN

different areas there were difficulties and

pain, Milevsky said. But I realized they
needed someone really unique, who can
infuse both the background in rabbinics
and in mental health.
Sometimes God sends us messages.
In some ways it was a bit of a calling. My
experiences really coalesced to be able to
assist the community.
Milevsky, who started at Kesher in late
July, would not offer any details about
what kinds of conversations he has had
with congregants who still are struggling
with Freundels betrayal. But he said his
main strategy has been to listen, give
them what they need, and try to disentangle Orthodox Judaism from the troubled character of Freundel.
Highlighting and conveying the
beauty of Torah Judaism and completely
detaching that from the image of what
this former leader engaged in thats
really a big part of the work, Milevsky
said. Its not a specific moment thats
going to create that. Its not one event or
sermon or email. Its a long, long process.
Thats how trauma works.
Congregant David Barak said people
have warmed to Milevsky, who is very
different in tone and substance from
Freundel.
Even before the voyeurism was discovered, Freundel had been a divisive figure.
He could be gruff, feuded with other rabbis, and was more focused on national
issues than on his own congregation, critics in the congregation have said.
People were not happy with him,
Jakabovics said bluntly, noting his vocal
opposition to a nearby partnership minyan, Rosh Pina, in which women lead
some prayers and which drew some Kesher congregants. That partnership minyan was a splinter from Kesher. He took a
very hard line against it, and that caused
issues. It pitted friends against friends.

After Freundels arrest, there were

women who stopped going to the mikvah, Jakabovics said, and the congregation lost a few members.
But because the neighborhood has a
high proportion of transient students and
young professionals, and because its an
expensive place to live, Kesher regularly
experiences extremely high turnover.
Therefore, Jakabovics said, its not clear
how many members, if any, quit out of
principle. (There is no other Orthodox
synagogue within walking distance.)
People experienced a whole host of
emotions and went through different
crises, but I think it was more a crisis
between them and the office of the rabbi,
not necessarily about shul, she said. A
lot of people come to shul for the socialcommunal aspect of it. That was a very
big thing that helped us through the last
year.
Alyza Lewin, a Kesher congregant and
mikvah trustee, said that mikvah attendance has held steady at 30 to 40 women
per month.
Lisette Garcia, a Washington attorney who has been a regular at Kesher
since late 2013, said that the greatest
sign of recovery was a congregational
baby boom. Five were born in about
two weeks, nine months after Freundels
guilty plea in February.
I look at it as a reward for people
who even in the face of this kept taharat hamishpacha, Garcia said, referring
to mikvah observance. Under the Jewish
laws of taharat hamishpacha (Hebrew for
family purity), married couples abstain
from sex during the wifes menstrual
period, resuming only after her immersion in the mikvah.
Overall, congregational membership
is up slightly from last year, to 250 from
225, and about 25 percent of current
regular synagogue-goers are fresh faces

who came after Freundel left, according to Jakabovics. Over the last year, the
congregation has mended fences with
other Washington institutions with which
Freundel feuded, several congregants
noted, including the Rosh Pina partnership minyan, the local Chabad, the egalitarian D.C. Minyan, and the Open Orthodox Ohev Sholom-National Synagogue
seven miles away.
The sanctuary pews were filled with
young people on a Shabbat in late December, and there were two services each
on Saturday morning and Friday night.
The only hints of the scandal were the
absence of Freundels photograph from
the congregations wall of rabbis and an
empty chair on the pulpit. With Milevsky
off that Shabbat, a congregant delivered
the sermon. Kesher calls it the Peoples
Pulpit.
Kesher isnt quite ready to hire a new
permanent rabbi. Over the next six
months, the congregation first must figure out what were looking for, who we
are, and what we stand for, Jakabovics
said. The plan is to launch a search in the
summer and find someone to start by
the summer of 2017. (One condition of
Milevskys contract is that he is ineligible
for the permanent position.)
Aside from the emotional baggage,
Kesher has a few other challenges. The
congregation doesnt have much cash or
moneyed donors, and it needs hundreds
of thousands of dollars to renovate the
rabbinic residence, where Freundel and
his family lived for 25 years and left in
disarray. After Freundel finally vacated
the house, it took five or six truckloads to
cart out all the junk.
And with the three lawsuits still hovering over the congregation, Kesher cant
rule out the possibility of having to pay a
big legal settlement.
The National Capital Mikvah, which
also is named in the lawsuits, is a separate legal entity, controlled by its own
board of directors.
A few weeks ago, the mikvah held a celebration to mark its 10-year anniversary.
Lewin, the mikvah trustee, spoke there
but didnt mention the elephant in the
room. She talked instead about how the
mitzvah of mikvah is an opportunity to
put your busy life on hold and remember
the blessing of family.
The way the Kesher community has
come together as a family in the wake of
the Freundel event has been a blessing
too, Lewin said.
The community shared a difficult
experience and then emotionally bonded
over it, she said. Our mikvah, in ways
we never could have anticipated, has
brought our community much closer
JTA WIRE SERVICE
together as a family. 

Obituaries
Rosa Cameron

Rosa Cameron, 91, of Napa, Calif., formerly of the Bronx,

Edgewater, Hillside, and Boynton Beach, Fla., died on
December 4.
A 1946 Mount Sinai School of Nursing graduate, she
was head obstetrics nurse at Doctors Hospital in New
York City, then at Hackensack Hospitals cardiac ICU.
She was president of local, state, and national Bnai
Brith Women. After retiring, she was a counselor for
women in crisis in Florida and through an international relief organization, with her husband, reorganized the Childrens Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan.
She is survived by her husband, Robert, children,
Richard, Steven, and Susan; six grandchildren, and
one great-granddaughter.

Donations can be sent to Alzheimers research or

any organization that promotes pluralism and womens rights in Israel. Arrangements were by Gutterman
and Musicant Jewish Funeral Directors, Hackensack.

Beatrice Kurtz

Beatrice Kurtz, 74, of Sun City West, Ariz., formerly of

Livingston and Teaneck, died on December 19.
She was a legal administrator.
Predeceased by a son, Jonathan, she is survived by
her husband, Norman, daughter, Janet Jaffe (Peter),
and a son, Howard.
Arrangements were by Gutterman and Musicant Jewish Funeral Directors, Hackensack.

The Moriah School

mourns the loss of

The Moriah School

mourns the untimely loss of

former Early Childhood Director and

dear friend and colleague to many.

beloved son of Margaret & Andrew Levy

and brother of Max & Zoey

May Dr. Philip Meyer and Tovas extended

family be comforted among the mourners of
Tzion and Jerusalem.

May Margaret & Andrew Levy and

Evans extended family be comforted among
the mourners of Tzion and Jerusalem.

Rabbi Daniel Alter, Head of School

Seth Gribetz, President
Evan Borenstein, Chairman

Rabbi Daniel Alter, Head of School

Seth Gribetz, President
Evan Borenstein, Chairman

With profound grief, we announce the

passing - after a long illness - on Monday
December 21st at home, surrounded
by family, of our beloved mother and
grandmother

Marilyn Ruth Brummel

Artist
Syracuse, NY
1926
We miss her so.
Antwerp, Belgium

Steven & Marion

Brummel
Salomon
Eliot-Jan

Ho Ho Kus, NJ

Lisa & Joel Frank

Noah
Adam

Evan LEvy, zl,

Tova Resnick-Meyer zl,

Fort Lee, NJ
December 21, 2015

Evanston, Illinois

Jennifer & Jeff Schweizer

Jordan
Jeremy

Gifts in Marilyns memory may be made

to the National Museum of Women in the
Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. at
www.nmwa.org at the Make a donation
page, clicking the box Yes, this is an honor
or memorial gift.

Robert Schoems Menorah Chapel, Inc

Jewish Funeral Directors

Family Owned & managed

Generations of Lasting Service to the Jewish Community

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

Serving NJ, NY, FL &

Throughout USA
Prepaid & Preneed Planning
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Our Facilities Will Accommodate

Your Familys Needs
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Parking Area

Gary Schoem Manager - NJ Lic. 3811

www.kochmonument.com
76 Johnson Ave., Hackensack, NJ 07601

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

201.843.9090

1.800.426.5869

The Board of Trustees and Professional Staff of

Jewish Family Service of Bergen and North Hudson
Offers our deepest sympathy to
Nina Kampler and Zvi Marans
On the loss of their son
Judah.
Our thoughts and prayers are
with the family at this difficult time.

Planning in advance is a part of our lives.

We spend a lifetime planning for milestones such as
weddings, homeownership, our childrens education,
retirement, vacations, and insurance to protect our
loved ones.
End-of-Life issues are another milestone. You
make arrangements at your convenience, without
obligation and all funds are secured in a separate
account in your name only.
Call our Advance Planning Director for an appointment
to see for yourself what peace of mind you will receive
in return.

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
IRVING KLEINBERG, N.J. Lic. No. 2517
Advance Planning Conferences Conveniently Arranged
at Our Funeral Home or in Your Own Home
GuttermanMusicantWien.com

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 43

Classified
Cemetery Plots For Sale
cedar PARK, Paramus, N.J., 8
plots, block #1, Lot S/4, 22-23.
Sold in entirety. Bargain priced at
$10,000 total. Call 561-292-3738;
email: jhochbaum@yahoo.com
Four Cemetery Plots. They are
all together. Cedar Park, Paramus,
NJ. Reasonably priced! 770-8273318 or irisjmorrison@gmail.com
Mt MORIAH, Fairview, N. J., Temple Beth Abraham section, 1 plot,
#1, row 19. Call 201-868-4552

Help Wanted
Looking for young person to
care for me and my apartment
Part-time, flexible hrs. 3 or 4 days
a week. Speaks English well.
Drives. Call 201-886-1266

Help Wanted

(201) 837-8818

Help Wanted

teachers WANTED PASSAIC

Boys School seeking
4th & 5th Grade Teacher
1:30 -4:45,
no Fridays
At least 1 year teaching

Email: bhykop@gmail.com
or Fax: 973-778-5697
veteran/college graduate
seeks employment in telephone
sales. 25 years experience in purchasing and marketing of diverse
products. Proven success in generating new business through
building strong relationships, senior
buyer of toys, hobbies, hard goods
and bulk toys. Honest, hard worker. email:yendisid@optImum.net

YBH OF PASSAIC
seeks General Studies
Assistants for the afternoon
in our elementary division.
Bachelors degree preferred.
If interested email cover
letter and resume to:
ppersin@ybh passaic.org

Tutoring
WANT TO LEARN SPANISH?

Retired NewJersey Teacher

organizing small classes
of conversational Spanish.
All age levels.

Private tutoring available also

Call 201-965-1185

Situations Wanted
CERTIFIED, caring, reliable lady
looking for employment to care for
elderly through night. $10.00
hr/nightly. I drive. Have 20 years
experience. 201-741-3042

Help Wanted
office COORDINATOR

Position avaliable for a responsible, energetic, team

player for clerical duties: answering phone, entering
subscriptions, mailing invoices, etc. Computer literate.
Full-time/Part-time.
Please send resume to:
publisher@jewishmediagroup.com

Congregation Bnai Jacob of Jersey City is seeking a

full-time/part-time Rabbi to serve as the religious, spiritual and
educational leader to our congregation. This person will partner closely with a dedicated Board of Directors to reinvent and
modernize the Synagogue. The person should be innovative,
inspiring and energetic. Primary responsibiliy is Religious
Services, Synagogue Development and Community Building.
Years of experience are flexible. Recent graduates of Rabbinical
School are welcomed to apply as well as seasoned Rabbis.
email: Dean.brody@am.jll.com

chha available Monday thru Sunday, 4 to 5 hrs. to care for elderly.

Will clean house/cook. Own transportation. References upon request. 18 years experience. Call
973-517-4719

Situations Wanted

Situations Wanted

CHHA Certified Nurses Aide/Long

time care - 15 years experience
caring for the elderly with Alzheimers/dementia. Knowledge of
kosher food preparation, will shop,
clean, administer medication and
drive client to MD appointments.
References upon request. 201310-3149

DAUGHTER
FOR A DAY, LLC

chha with many years experience

will care for elderly. Live-in 5 days/
live-out 7 days. Reliable, speaks
English, drives/own car. 314-4847344
COMPANION: Experienced, kind,
trustworthy person seeking part
time work. Weekends OK. Meal
preparation, laundry, housekeeping. Will drive for doctors appointments; occasional sleepovers. 973519-4911

experienced
BABYSITTER
for Teaneck area.
Please call Jenna
201-660-2085

Cleaning Service

LICENSED & INSURED

FOR YOUR
PROTECTION

Handpicked
Certified Home
Health Aides
Hourly - Daily - Live In
NURSE SUPERVISED
Creative
companionship
interactive,
intelligent
conversation &
social outings
Downsize
Coordinator
Assist w/shopping,
errands, Drs, etc.
Organize/process
paperwork,
bal. checkbook,
bookkeeping
Resolve medical
insurance claims
Free Consultation

RITA FINE

201-214-1777

Help Wanted

www.daughterforaday.com

HEBREW EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER

The Moriah School, a coed Jewish Day School in Englewood,

New Jersey seeks a ull-time Hebrew teacher for the Early
Childhood grades. Candidates must have prior experience
teaching Early Childhood and a fluency speaking Hebrew.
Candidates should submit cover letter and resume to:
Divsha Tollinsky at: Dtollinsky@moiahschool.org

Established 2001

A Team of
Polish Women
Clean

Apartments
Homes Offices

Experienced References

201-679-5081

Cleaning & Hauling

Jimmy
the Junk Man

RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL

WE CLEAN OUT:
Basements Attics
Garages Fire Damage
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WE REMOVE ANYTHING!

Call today for a FREE estimate

201-661-4940

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We clean up:
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Garages Apartments
Construction Debris
Residential Dumpster Specials
10 yds 15 yds 20 yds

201-342-9333

www.rickscleanout.com

SENIOR CITIZENS 10% OFF

Antiques

We pay cash for

Antique Furniture
Used Furniture
Oil Paintings
Bronzes Silver
Porcelain China
Modern Art

Top Dollar For Any Kind of Jewelry &

Chinese Porcelain & Ivory

ANS A

Over 25 years courteous service to tri-state area

We come to you Free Appraisals

Call Us!

Shommer
Shabbas

201-861-7770 201-951-6224
www.ansantiques.com
44 Jewish Standard JANUARY 1, 2016

Antiques Wanted
WE BUY
Oil Paintings

Silver

Bronzes

Porcelain

Oriental Rugs

Furniture

Marble Sculpture

Jewelry

Tiffany Items

Chandeliers

Chinese Art

Bric-A-Brac

Tyler Antiques

NICHOL AS
ANTIQUES
ESTATES
BOUGHT & SOLD

Fine Furniture Antiques Accessories

Cash Paid

201-920-8875

Sterling Associates Auctions

SEEKING CONSIGNMENT AND OUT RIGHT PURCHASES
Sculpture Paintings Porcelain Silver
Jewelry Furniture Etc.

Established by Bubbe in 1940!

TOP CASH PRICES PAID

tylerantiquesny@aol.com

201-768-1140 www.antiquenj.com
sterlingauction@optonline.net
70 Herbert Avenue, Closter, N.J. 07642

201-894-4770
Shomer Shabbos

FREE APPRAISALS TUESDAYS FROM 12-2

IN OUR GALLERY. CALL FOR APPOINTMENT.

Classified
HAndymAn

Home improvements

BESTof the BEST

BH

Your Neighbor with Tools

Home Improvements & Handyman

Home Repair Service

Shomer Shabbat Free Estimates

Over 15 Years Experience

Painting
Carpentry
Kitchens
Decks
Electrical
Locks/Doors
Paving/Masonry
Basements
Drains/Pumps
Bathrooms
Plumbing
Maintenence
Tiles/Grout
Hardwood Floors
General Repairs

Adam 201-675-0816
Lic. & Ins. NJ Lic. #13VH05023300
www.yourneighborwithtoolshandyman.com

plumBing
APL Plumbing & Heating LLC

Solution to last weeks puzzle. This weeks puzzle is

on page 41.

PARTY
PLANNER

NO JOB IS TOO SMALL

Complete Kitchen &

Bath Remodeling

24 Hour x 5 1/2 Emergency Services

Shomer Shabbat
Free Estimates

1-201-530-1873

Boilers Hot Water Heaters Leaks

EMERGENCY SERVICE

Fully Licensed, Bonded and Insured

NO JOB IS TOO SMALL!

201-358-1700 Lic. #12285

Jewish Music with an Edge

Ari Greene 201-837-6158
AGreene@BaRockorchestra.com
www.BaRockOrchestra.com

rooFing
ROOFING SIDING

Free
Estimates

HACKENSACK
ROO
FING
OOFING
CO.

201-487-5050

INC.

GUTTERS LEADERS

Roof
Repairs

83 FIRST STREET
HACKENSACK, NJ 07601

CAr serviCe

A PLUS

Limo & Car Service

The most reliable and efficient service

at all times for your transporation needs.
Our professional and courteous team works together for you.

Serving the Tri-State Area, New York and Bergen County

EWR $39 LGA $42 JFK $59

Tolls, parking, wlt, stops & tps are not included Extra $7 Airport Pickup
Prices subject to change without prior notice. Price varies by locations.

Fuel surcharge may add up to 10% Additional charge may be applied to credit card payment

201-641-5500 888-990-TAXI (8294)

Visit us online at: www.apluslimo1.com E-mail: apluslimo@earthlink.net

MAZON IS ending hunger making a difference tikkun olam

keeping kids healthy nutrition for seniors sustenance
tzedakah fostering responsibility raising awareness soup
kitchens food banks food pantries social justice selfempowerment partnering for change advocating for people in
need building a robust emergency food network encouraging
public policy reform a legacy of giving promoting health and
well-being tribute cards fulfilling a jewish tradition making
an impact optimism nourishment pursuing justice working
to end food insecurity meeting basic human needs nutrition
and health education initiatives a strong safety net providing
assistance and support concern for others a voice for people
who are hungry enhancing quality of life jewish values in action
THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY
WORKING TOGETHER TO END HUNGER

Call us.
We are waiting for
your classified ad!
201-837-8818

Tel 310.442.0020 | 800.813.0557 | mazon.org

10495 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90025

Jewish standard JanUarY 1, 2016 45

BANK-OWNED PROPERTY
PRICES NEGOTIABLE

Happy New Year!

COME TO FLORIDA
IN THE NEW YEAR

Thank You for a Great Year!

Martin H. Basner, Realtor Associate
(Office) 201-794-7050 (Cell) 201-819-2623

GARDEN STATE HOMES

25 Broadway, Elmwood Park, NJ

Advantage Plus
FORMER NJ
RESIDENTS
SERVING BOCA RATON,
DELRAY AND BOYNTON BEACH
AND SURROUNDING AREAS

601 S. Federal Hwy

Boca Raton, FL 33432

Elly & Ed Lepselter

(561) 302-9374

NOW SELLING
VALENCIA BAY

NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY!

BRIDGE PLAZA - FORT LEE
2 Br 2 Baths. Fully Renovated. Great closet space.
Formal dining room. $138,888

Sign up for the

Jewish Standard
daily newsletter!

THE COLONY - FORT LEE

1 Br 1.5 Baths. High floor. Renovated. $125,000

1 Br 1.5 Baths. High floor. Full river view. Renovated and
freshly painted. Move in. $195,000
2 Br 2 Baths. Total renovation and redesign. Laundry, new
windows and more. Full river. A must see. $395,000
3 Br 3.5 Baths. Extended kitchen, laundry and more.
Fabulous SE view. $679,000

Visit
www.thejewishstandard.com
and click on

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY

Happy, Healthy New Year

Allan Dorfman

Broker/Associate

201-461-6764 Eve
201-970-4118 Cell
201-585-8080 x144 Office
Realtorallan@yahoo.com

JewishStandard
N E W

J E R S E Y

R O C K L A N D

Like us on
Facebook.

Real Estate/Business
bergenPAC announces
Garden State Plaza store
Through a strategic partnership with the Westfield
Garden State Plaza, bergenPAC now has a store space
near the Macys wing across from Shake Shack. This
store enables shoppers to buy tickets for bergenPAC
shows, register children in classes, and to become
members. The store features activities including live
music, karaoke, and a photo booth at various intervals
throughout the day.
The store is open Monday through Saturday from 11
a.m. to 9 p.m.
This is a great example of a successful corporation
giving back to the community in which they serve,
said Dominic Roncace, president of bergenPAC. By
Westfield Garden State Plaza donating a retail space to
bergenPAC, it allows us to extend our reach and ability
to fulfill our nonprofit mission to a broader number
of people.
As part of its mission as a nonprofit 501c(3) organization, bergenPAC programs include cultural outreach,
programming for individuals with special needs, and
free tickets to organizations that serve individuals who
would not otherwise have access to the arts for financial reasons. The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC
offers classes in dance, theater, music, and more.
Scholarships are available no-one is turned away for
inability to pay.
Westfield Garden State Plaza is thrilled to have
bergenPAC in the center this holiday season, said
Bryan Gaus, senior general manager at Westfield Garden State Plaza. Providing access to music and the
arts enhances the customer experience and bergenPAC is the perfect partner to showcase at Westfield.
For more information visit www.bergenpac.org.

2015
READERS
CHOICE

We wish our families, friends, staff a healthy & prosperous New Year!

We thank you for your patronage & look forward to serving you in 2016!

facebook.com/
jewishstandard

SELLING YOUR HOME?

Keep our troops in your prayers

during this holiday season & throughout the year.

Lydia Russo
Broker-Owner

Robert Russo
Broker-Owner

Annekee Brahver-Keely, Broker-Sales Associate

Eric Wein, Broker-Sales Associate
Shirley Sosland, Broker-Sales Associate
Myrna Gillespie, Broker-Sales Associate
Carroll Anne Grece, Sales Associate
Gary Goldman, Sales Associate
Jeandell Faulk, Sales Associate
Jeremy Neimand, Sales Associate
Johnnie Moore-Pierson, Sales Associate
Benjamin Cripps, Sales Associate
Kathleen Wicklund, Sales Associate
Lenora McNamee, Sales Associate
Matthew Goldman, Sales Associate

Rhoda Russo
Sales Associate
Naama Manahan, Sales Associate
Willet Persaud, Sales Associate
Philip Hipshman, Sales Associate
Mildred Rosner, Sales Associate
Terry Silverman, Sales Associate
Theresa Calderon, Sales Associate
Edyie Rosenfeld, Sales Associate
Cecilia Echeverri-Velasco, Sales Associate
Christopher Vitiello, Sales Associate
Jessica Ortiz, Sales Associate
Naamah Bateman, Sales Associate
Yolanda Butler, Sales Associate

For our full inventory including details & pictures,

visit our website www.RussoRealEstate.com
873 Teaneck Road Teaneck
(201) 837-8800 (800) 447-8776
46 JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016

Call Susan Laskin Today

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

Cell: 201-615-5353

2015 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.

The Art of Real Estate

NJ:
NY:

Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
TENAFLY

201.266.8555
T: 212.888.6250
T:

TENAFLY

SO

TEANECK

SO

LD

201.906.6024
M: 917.576.0776

TEANECK

J
SO UST
LD
!

LD

Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ

M:

S
CO PAC
LO IO
NI US
AL
!

Old Smith Village Center Hall Colonial.

One-of-a-kind updated split-level.

4 BR/2 BTH Tudor Colonial with curb appeal.

6 BR/3 BTH Center Hall. 110x110 lot. $799,000

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

ENGLEWOOD

CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!

CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!

EX
T
TO RAO
W R
NH DI
OU NA
SE RY
!

OF ST
-T AT
HE E-A
RT

Open floor plan. Sutton Place Townhouse.

6 BR/5.5 BTH Colonial. Every amenity.

Spectacular Beacon Hill home. $1,695,000

Exquisite 8 BR/7 BTH Colonial. $2,200,000

FORT LEE

FORT LEE

FORT LEE

FORT LEE

LIS JUS
TE T
D!

SO

LD

CO TH
LO E
NY
!

CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!

1 BR/1.5 BTH w/office & terrace. $205,000

Beautiful 2 BR/2.5 BTH with skyline views.

Oversized & renovated 1 BR/1.5 BTH. $138,000

Magnificent 2 BR/2.5 BTH corner unit.

LOWER EAST SIDE

WILLIAMSBURG

MIDTOWN EAST

UPPER WEST SIDE

N
FE O
E!

SO

AV PAR
PL EN K
AC UE
E!

LD

LIS JUS
TE T
D!

Boutique rental. 3 BR. $3,995/month.

Stylish luxury bldg. Heart of Brooklyn.

Sleek 3 BR/3.5 BTH penthouse. $8,290,000

Magnificent 4 BR/3.5 BTH corner unit. $6,995,000

CROWN HEIGHTS

BEDFORD STUYVESANT

LOWER EAST SIDE

GREENPOINT

J
SO UST
LD
!

CO UN
NT DE
RA R
CT
!

N
FE O
E!

2 BR/1 BTH w/3rd BR/loft. Approx. 1,384 sq. ft. Modern 1,200 sq. ft. loft w/city views & balcony. 2 BR/2 BTH, convertible to 3 BR. $4,995 gross.

J
SO UST
LD
!

Brick building. 3 extra large apartments.

Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!

Jeff@MironProperties.com Ruth@MironProperties.com
www.MironProperties.com
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.

JEWISH STANDARD JANUARY 1, 2016 47

STORE HOURS

646 Cedar Lane Teaneck, NJ 07666

SUN.-TUES. 7AM-9PM
WED. 7AM-10PM
THURS. 7AM-11PM
FRI. 7AM-1 HOURS
BEFORE SUNDOWN
SAT. CLOSED

Tel: 201-855-8500 Fax: 201-801-0225

Sign Up For Your
Loyalty
Card
In Store

Sale Effective

Fine Foods
Great Savings

1/3/16-1/8/16
Sunday Super Savers!

Idaho
Potatoes
FOR

Green Citrus Time

Zucchini California Navel Oranges,
Squash Florida Juice Oranges, or

Golden
Pineapple

69

2 3
FOR

MEAT DEPARTMENT

Lb

American Black Angus Beef

Top of the
Rib

$ 99
Lb

LB.

Motts
Apple Juice

64 OZ.

Family Pack

American Black Angus Beef

Whole
Brisket

CUT TO ORDER

$ 99
Lb

Original

Pam
Cooking
Spray

$ 99

Frescorti
Marinara

Golds
Sweet Duck
Sauce

Original Only

26 OZ.

2 $4
FOR

Save On!

Domino
Sugar
4 LB BAG

2 $5
FOR

DAIRY

Assorted

Amish Organic
Milk

64 OZ.

$ 99
Save On!

Dannon
Yogurt

2 1
6 OZ.

FOR

Assorted

Les Petites
Slices

2 $5
6 OZ.

FOR

Russet
Potatoes
5 lb Bag

MARKET

2 6
$

FOR

USDA Organic

Peeled Baby

Carrots

2 $3
FOR

DELI SAVINGS

FISH
`

Grilled Teriyaki
Salmon Roll

Aarons
Smoked Turkey

$ 95

999

ea.

Tropical
Roll

Macaroni
Salad

449

Teaneck
Roll

11

6 OZ.

Save On!

40 OZ.

2 $5
FOR

Huy Fung
Sriracha Chili
Sauce

17 OZ.

$ 99
Assorted

Polly-O
String Cheese

9-12 OZ.

$ 79
Assorted

Breakstones
Sour Cream
16 OZ.

$ 99
Save On!

$ 99

95
ea.

Lb

American Black Angus Beef American Black Angus Beef

1st Cut
Brisket

$ 99
Lb

Filippo Berio

Extra Virgin
Olive Oil

Save On!

Glicks
High Gluten
Flour
5 LB

$ 79

Save On!

Green Giant
Super Sweet
White Corn

4 $5
11 OZ.

FOR

Assorted

Polly-O
Ricotta Cheese

2 7
32 OZ.

FOR

Assorted

Breakstones
Cottage Cheese

2 5
4 PACK

FOR

Save On!

Tnuva
Naama

$ 79

$ 99

25.3 OZ.

$ 99

Achla
Hummus

8.46 OZ.

Lb

500 GR.

10

Family Pack

Lb

Ready To Cook

99

$ 99

Save On!

Haddar
Honey Wheat
Pretzels

Lb

Galil
Hearts of
Palm

2 $4
14 OZ.

FOR

Save On!

Hersheys
Baking
Cocoa

2 $7
8 OZ.

FOR

499

Save On!

Keebler
Ready
Crust

9 Inch, 6 OZ.

Whip Topping

89
8 OZ.

Spring Valley

Cheese or
Potato Blintzes

2 5
13 OZ.

FOR

Original

Papa Sal
Pizza Dough

99
16 OZ.

$ 99

1099
$ 99
9
$ 99
8

Puff Pastry
Sheets

17.3 OZ.

$ 99
MorningStar
Mushroom
Lovers

9 OZ.

$ 99

Check Out Our New Line

of Cooked Fish
HOMEMADE DAIRY

Assorted

2 $5

2 $6

4.5 OZ.

FOR

FOR

Elbows Only

Blooms Real
Mini Chocolate
Chips

Tullino
Macaroni &
Cheese

2 $5

69

9 OZ.

7.25 OZ.

FOR

Save On!

Save On!

Mikee
Columbia
Fine Egg Garlic Stir Fry
Rib Sauce
Noodles

4 $5

12 OZ.

Frozen Parve

A& B
Kishka
16 OZ.

$ 99
Of Tov

Chicken Stix,
Chick Licious, Nuggets
& Teddy Bites

2 LB.

$ 99

BAKERY

Cinnamon
Mandelbread

$ 99

13 OZ.

4
PROVISIONS

15 OZ.

Solomons

Corned Beef

$ 99

Square
Marble
Cheese Cake

$ 99

$ 99

16 OZ

20 OZ.

$ 99

FOR

Macabee
Pizza Bagel
18 PACK

7 OZ.

Mauzone
Mania
Biscotti

Kosher R Us & Pastrami

Chicken or
Beef Palmeni

Family Pack

$ 49

Whitefish
Salad

10 OZ.

Pepperidge Farm

LB.

Ossies

Lb

LB.

LB.

Assorted

$ 79

ea.

Jolly Rancher
Bites

5.8 OZ.

FOR

449

Tilapia
w/Seafood

Lb

Beef
Sliders

12 Pack

2 $5

Deli Cubes

Mahi
Mahi

Homemade

Ortega
Taco
Shells

5 OZ.

Richs

99

$ 79

Shelia Gs

Non Dairy

11

24 OZ. JUG

Chocolate
Chip Brownie
Brittle

FROZEN

Lb

Save On!

Cedar Assorted

FISH

Bone-In
Rib Steaks

Boneless
Breaded
Flanken Chicken Cutlets

Great for Salad

Lb.

American Black Angus Beef Scottish

Salmon

$ 99

Lb.

Cedar Market

$ 95ea.

Turkey
Thighs

Chicken
Stir Fry

$ 99

2 $5
FOR

USDA Organic

646 Cedar Lane Teaneck, NJ 07666

201-855-8500 Fax: 201-801-0225
www.thecedarmarket.com
info@thecedarmarket.com

SUSHI

Boneless

Fresh

Chicken
Cutlets

GROCERY
Original

FOR

Butterfly

Fresh

10 2
$

Loyalty
Program

Cedar Markets Meat Dept. Prides Itself On Quality, Freshness And Affordability. We Carry The Finest Cuts Of Meat And
The Freshest Poultry... Our Dedicated Butchers Will Custom Cut Anything For You... Just Ask!

Whole
Chicken

$ 89

LB.

Pink Meat Grapefruits

FOR

HEADS

Sunday Super Savers!

Two in A Pack

4 3

4 3

2 3

$ 49

Sweet
Nectarines

Sweet
Mangoes

Romaine
Lettuce

CEDAR MARKET

ORGANIC ORGANIC ORGANIC

Farm Fresh

Loyalty
Program

ORGANIC ORGANIC ORGANIC

Squash PRODUCE

Text CEDAR to 42828 to receive our secret deals e-mails

You can view our weekly circular at TheCedarMarket.com
Follow @TheCedarMarket on your favorite social network

646 Cedar Lane Teaneck, NJ 07666

201-855-8500 Fax: 201-801-0225
www.thecedarmarket.com
info@thecedarmarket.com

MARKET

TERMS & CONDITIONS: This card is the property of Cedar Market, Inc. and is intended for exclusive
use of the recipient and their household members. Card is not transferable. We reserve the right to
change or rescind the terms and conditions of the Cedar Market loyalty program at any time, and
without notice. By using this card, the cardholder signifies his/her agreement to the terms &
conditions for use. Not to be combined with any other Discount/Store Coupon/Offer. *Loyalty Card
must be presented at time of purchase along
with ID for verification. Purchase cannot be
reversed once sale is completed.

CEDAR MARKET

Empire
Chicken
Franks

5
2 $4

$ 99
6 OZ.

16 OZ.

We reserve the right to limit sales to 1 per family. Prices effective this store only. Not responsible for typographical errors. Some pictures are for design purposes only and do not necessarily represent items on sale. While Supply Lasts. No rain checks.