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2
79
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9
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S
uper
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ale!
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lor
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Hass
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Choice!
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Noshes
JS-5
Im not sure Ill ever warm up to the idea
of concentration camp gift shops,
particularly those that sell Woody Allen
biographies.
Bloomberg correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg, reporting from Dachau
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 5
Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard
46, has done a little TV
directing, as well as ap-
pearing in some films. He
has done quite a bit of
stage work, including a
starring role in a London-
based production that
resulted in his meeting
British photographer
ZOE BUCKMAN, 27. The
couple wed in 2010 and
they had their first child,
a girl, in 2011.
Now Schwimmer will
return to TV acting full
time if the sit-com pilot
he is set to film, called
Irreversible, is picked
up for fall broadcast.
(That seems likely.)
The series is based
on Biliti Hafich, a very
popular Israeli series.
It centers on Andy
(Schwimmer) and Sarah.
They are a somewhat
eccentric, self-absorbed
married couple with a
young child. Hes a writer
who had one successful
book; then a book that
flopped; now he teaches
part-time at a univer-
sity. Andy is a flawed,
sarcastic guy who many
sources say is a lot like
the LARRY DAVID char-
acter on Curb Your En-
thusiasm.
N.B.
Evan Rachel Wood
AT THE MOVIES:
Action, comedy
on screen today
David Schwimmer
Zoe Buckman
Larry David
French filmmak-
er Luc Bresson
(Taken) is now
famous for making excit-
ing hit action films that
are fun to watch, even
if the plots are improb-
able. His new flick, 3
Days to Kill, stars Kevin
Costner as a top interna-
tional spy who, like the
hero of Taken, wants
to retire so he can finally
spend some time with
his estranged daughter
(HAILEE STEINFELD), 17.
But while hes looking
after his daughter, while
his wife is out of town, he
is offered a dangerous
assignment he cannot
turn down because the
job fee includes an ex-
perimental treatment for
the disease that is killing
him.
Barefoot is a ro-
mantic comedy based
on a 2005 German film
that was a huge hit in
Deutschland. EVAN RA-
CHEL WOOD, 26, plays
Daisy, who grew up shut
away from the world and
is living in a mental insti-
tution when Jay, a black
sheep gambler (Scott
Speedman), chances to
meet her. Jay has to go
to New Orleans to attend
his brothers wedding
and to beg his rich par-
ents to bail him out. He
persuades Daisy to ac-
company him. Romance
blooms, and Daisy
charms everybody.
Stay on the couch
on Saturday, Feb-
ruary 22, and just
after 10:30 p.m. NBC
will shift from Olympics
to the pilot episodes of
two new comedy series.
The second one, airing
just after 11 p.m., is called
About a Boy. Yes, it has
the same title and plot as
the hit 2001 film, which
was directed by PAUL
and CHRIS WEITZ and
starred Hugh Grant and
RACHEL WEISZ. The
TV version, written by
JASON KATIMS, 53, and
directed by JON FA-
VREAU, 47, stars David
Walton (Bent) in the
Grant role: an amiable
30-ish fellow who has
inherited a lot of money
and basically lays about.
But things change when
an oddly charming
11-year-old boy and his
attractive mother move
in next door (Minnie Driv-
er is in the Weisz mother
role). After the pilot airs,
the series will move to
Tuesday nights at 9 p.m.
Since Friends ended,
DAVID SCHWIMMER,
Olympics update
Verifying Jewish Olympic athletes (other than Israelis)
is always hard. Many athletes make the team just weeks
before the Games begin, and not that much biography is
available. Also, to be frank, some Jewish papers always
make mistakes about who is Jewish just as the Games
begin, and I have to be careful not to echo those errors.
However, I have to give credit to the Forward newspaper
for its detailed reporting on two Jewish athletes on the
American team I couldnt verify myself in the last week
or so.
The two athletes are NOAH HOFFMAN, 24, a
member of the cross-country skiing team, and JARED
GOLDBERG, 22, a member of the alpine skiing team.
Goldberg was born in Boston but grew up in Utah, and
the Forward reports that he had his bar mitzvah in a ski
lodge. As I write this, Goldberg has inished two of the
four events he will compete in. He inished 10th in the
mens super combined downhill and 15th in the mens
super combined slalom. On February 16, he was set to
compete in the mens super G, and in the mens slalom
on the 22nd.
Hoffman, a Colorado native, also had a bar mitzvah
and last December he made Chanukah latkes for his
team while they were on a road trip. Hoffman inished
35th and 31st, respectively, in the two race events he
competed in last week. His last event, a 50K race, will
take place on February 23, the last day of the Games. N.B.
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at
Middleoftheroad1@aol.com
Noah Hoffman Jared Goldberg
Special 1.99%
Financing
Now thru February 28th
Discover.
benzelbusch.com
31706 CPOevent Jewish Standard StripAd_ThruFeb28_Rev5.indd 1 1/16/14 3:10 PM
Local
6 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-6*
to remember the lost communities each
Torah represents.
The Young Israel of Fort Lee acquired
its Memorial Scrolls Trust Torah only last
March, through the efforts of a group of
members. Its Torah is an orphan scroll
whose community of origin could not be
identified.
According to Arthur Schwartz, one of
those members, It required extensive
repair and restoration and now is back in
Fort Lee awaiting completion and a cere-
mony on May 4, Yom HaZikaron Israels
national Memorial Day to complete and
return it to the synagogue. Our members
who are survivors will participate with
the family of Ulo Barad, who repaired and
restored it in his memory.
Mr. Barad survived the Holocaust by hid-
ing in Ukrainian cave, as portrayed in the
2012 documentary No Place on Earth.
We will also dedicate this Torah to
the 80-plus towns destroyed in Bohe-
mia, Moravia and Sudetenland from
which there are no surviving artifacts,
Mr. Schwartz said. Together with his wife,
he already had arranged for Memorial
Scrolls Trust Torahs to be transferred to
the guardianship of Congregation Ahawas
Achim Bnai Jacob & David in West Orange
and the Yiddish Museum in Massachusetts.
Scrolls reunion
Local family reports on commemoration of dispersal of Holocaust scrolls
ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
Look at the procession of 50 Torah scrolls
in these photos by Allyn Michaelson of Fair
Lawn, and youll notice their vastly diverse
covers, or mantles, right away.
Thats because each one is housed at a
different synagogue around the world. But
they all share a common point of origin.
They all are from Czechoslovakia.
As this newspaper previously reported,
1,564 Torah scrolls rescued from Nazi-era
Moravia, Bohemia, and the Sudetenland
began arriving at the Westminster Syna-
gogue in London on February 9, 1964. The
Jewish communities from which they came
did not survive the war, so the Memorial
Scrolls Trust was formed to administer
these holy scrolls and find guardians for
the ones that were in good enough condi-
tion to travel.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the
first Torahs arrival in London, the Trust
invited guardian congregations includ-
ing the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congrega-
tion Bnai Israel, Temple Beth El of North-
ern Valley in Closter, Temple Emanuel of
the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake, and
the Young Israel of Fort Lee to bring
their scrolls to the London synagogue. If it
was not possible for them to make the trip,
they could send a poster showing their sal-
vaged scroll and its assigned number, with
information on where it originated.
Ms. Michaelson was alerted to the invi-
tation by Temple Beth Sholoms Rabbi
Alberto Zeilicovich. Ive been in the shul
since it started in 1957, she explained. I
co-chair our federations Holocaust com-
memoration and volunteer at the Jewish
Family of North Jerseys Caf Europa for
Holocaust survivors, so I guess I was the
logical person to contact.
Because she did not know if her syna-
gogue would be able to send representa-
tives to London, she decided to create
a poster. Her husband, Richard, took a
photo of Morris and Marilyn Starr from
Washington Township, survivors who had
underwritten the cost of acquiring Torah
#715 from the trust in 1980. (The Torah is
honored but it never comes out of its spe-
cial case; the scroll was punctured by a
bayonet and so rendered unusable.)
As it happens, Allyn and Richard
Michaelson and their 27-year-old son,
David, were in London during the anni-
versary commemoration. They took many
photos, which they shared with the Jew-
ish Standard, and provided an eyewitness
account of the standing-room-only pro-
ceedings in the sanctuary of Westminster
Synagogue.
The music of [Czech composer] Vik-
tor Ullmanns Berjoskele played as each
Torah was lovingly carried by a member
of their adopted synagogues, wearing the
mantle and character of that synagogue,
Ms. Michaelson reported. The Torahs
were large and small, just as their handlers
were tall and short, young and old, men
and women.
Each coverlet was different: simple
gray flannel, brilliant coral velvet with
embroidered pomegranates, bejeweled
emerald green velvet, royal blue with
gold and silver stars, brilliantly colored
needlepoints. The rabbi from the U.S.
Marine base at Camp Pendleton, Califor-
nia, proudly carried his Torah scroll
simply tied with a tallis.
The 50 Torahs had been brought from
their new homes in North America from
British Columbia, Texas, North Carolina,
Massachusetts, Ohio, Georgia, Maryland,
New Jersey, New York, and Illinois. There
were others from Ireland, and from shuls
all over England.
There was a richness not only in fabric
but in symbolism, Ms. Michaelson wrote.
In 1964, the damaged scrolls were simi-
lar. But over 50 years, they have taken on
the character of their new communities.
They represented the diversity of Jew-
ish communities coming together as one
Unadopted Torah scrolls are stacked on shelves.
Allyn Michelson stands next to display case that shows a scribe and his tools.
A Torah scroll with the quills used for
the lettering.
Local
JS-7*
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 7
THE ACADEMIES AT GBDS
The Gerrard Berman Day School
Solomon Schechter of North Jersey
45 Spruce Street Oakland, NJ 07436
(201) 337-1111 www.ssnj.org
Were Closer Than you Think
A FREE
PREPURIM PARTY
Sunday, March 2nd
10am-12pm
with Magician
Ricky the Magnifcent
Children ages 3-8 are invited to
To reserve your space
contact gbds@ssnj.org
or (201) 337-1111
Pizza Magic
Mask Making and Fun!
ON VI EW THROUGH MAY 18, 2014
WWW. MJHNYC. ORG | 646. 437. 4202
LOWER MANHATTAN
The exhibit was created by the National Archives and Records
Administration, Washington, DC, with support from the Department of State.
In 2003 a group of allied soldiers discovered thousands of Jewish books,
documents, and artifacts in the ooded basement of Saddam Husseins
intelligence headquarters. See originals from this vast archive and learn how
they were preserved.
to remember the lost communities each
Torah represents.
The Young Israel of Fort Lee acquired
its Memorial Scrolls Trust Torah only last
March, through the efforts of a group of
members. Its Torah is an orphan scroll
whose community of origin could not be
identified.
According to Arthur Schwartz, one of
those members, It required extensive
repair and restoration and now is back in
Fort Lee awaiting completion and a cere-
mony on May 4, Yom HaZikaron Israels
national Memorial Day to complete and
return it to the synagogue. Our members
who are survivors will participate with
the family of Ulo Barad, who repaired and
restored it in his memory.
Mr. Barad survived the Holocaust by hid-
ing in Ukrainian cave, as portrayed in the
2012 documentary No Place on Earth.
We will also dedicate this Torah to
the 80-plus towns destroyed in Bohe-
mia, Moravia and Sudetenland from
which there are no surviving artifacts,
Mr. Schwartz said. Together with his wife,
he already had arranged for Memorial
Scrolls Trust Torahs to be transferred to
the guardianship of Congregation Ahawas
Achim Bnai Jacob & David in West Orange
and the Yiddish Museum in Massachusetts.
Scrolls reunion
Local family reports on commemoration of dispersal of Holocaust scrolls
were others from Ireland, and from shuls
all over England.
There was a richness not only in fabric
but in symbolism, Ms. Michaelson wrote.
In 1964, the damaged scrolls were simi-
lar. But over 50 years, they have taken on
the character of their new communities.
They represented the diversity of Jew-
ish communities coming together as one
Unadopted Torah scrolls are stacked on shelves.
The Torah scrolls were displayed during the commemoration.
Local
8 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-8*
Paying for camp
Foundation for Jewish Camps new program helps first-time campers
JOANNE PALMER
When discussion among Jewish profes-
sionals turns to Jewish continuity, gloom
often sets in. Pew study this, dropping
enrollments that, grim statistics, glum out-
look, gray skies looming.
The one break in those skies, the rare
glint of golden sunlight, is Jewish summer
camping. Sleepaway camp is intensive,
immersive, and experiential; it makes
Jewish living alive and joyful in a way that
school, by definition, cannot.
But just as the dark cloud has a silver lin-
ing, so does this silver lining have its own
dark cloud.
Camp is not cheap, and many parents
fear that they cannot afford it.
Many families pay for synagogue mem-
bership and day school tuitions, often for
two or three or more children. Kosher
food is not cheap either. Although camp
provides something that more formal set-
tings cannot, sometimes parents fear that
the camp tuition would just be too much
for them, so they dont consider it.
Jeremy Fingerman of Englewood is the
CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
His organization is piloting a new program,
BunkConnect, which just came online last
week. It is, he says, a new affordability
initiative.
It reaches out to first-time camper
families who think they cant afford Jew-
ish camp. We hope to drive reconsidera-
tion of that.
You didnt think you could afford sum-
mer camp. You think its out of reach. Now
you can think again.
The initiative not only offers a discount
price to first-time campers who qualify, it
also helps match those campers with the
camps to which they are best suited.
The matchmaking, like many of todays
shiduchim, is done online.
Its a pretty simple process, Mr. Fin-
german said. You in this case, you is
the parent go on BunkConnect.org,
answer six basic questions: where do you
live, how many kids do you have, does
your child consider him or herself Jew-
ish, is the child a first-time camper, what
is your most recently reported adjusted
gross income, and do you have children in
Jewish day school.
BunkConnect defines first-time camp-
ers as children who have spent fewer than
19 days in a sleepaway camp, so kids who
have gone to camp for two-week sessions,
or who have spent many full summers at
day camps, are eligible.
The system takes the information,
and then it calculates whether you are
eligible for the program, Mr. Fingerman
continued.
If you are, it says congratulations and
walks you through the process. If
you are not, it will give you sug-
gestions for other programs, and
it will suggest other ways to search
for camps yourself.
Once families have been cleared
for eligibility, they enter more
information you are looking
for a four-week camp session for
a fourth-grade boy, perhaps, and
you want to confine your search to
New England the program will
sort through options and present
you with its findings.
You might get six choices, six
camps that meet the criteria, Mr.
Fingerman said. They have a bed
for a fourth-grade boy that they
are willing to sell to you at half the
list price, lets say. So that would
put a bed that normally would
cost, say, $4,000 for four weeks, available
to you an income-eligible family for
$2,000.
Because this is a pilot program, so far it
is offered only to families who live in the
northeastern United States, and the dis-
counts are only from camps in the same
region. So far, more than 35 camps from
Maine through Virginia have signed up,
Mr. Fingerman said.
The foundation represents a wide range
of camps; all must be Jewish, non-profit,
celebrate Shabbat in some way or other,
and be Zionist. It includes networks like
the Conservative movements Ramah
camps and the camps run by the Reform
movement and Young Judea, and it also
includes smaller, one-off places. A repre-
sentative subset of those camps is listed in
BunkConnect.
The BunkConnect system has
been developed by a consortium of
philanthropists who like the business
entrepreneurial approach, Mr. Fingerman
said. We are modeling it after hotel.com.
But of course you are not buying a hotel
room, but a whole experience, he said, so
once you have found a list of camps that
might be right for your child, the process
goes off-line.
So when you have been presented
with a list of possibilities, you look at
the camps profile, and you compare and
contrast, and you say that of the six, three
sound good for my kid. You click on those
camps, sending a message to the camps
that you are interested, and then someone
from the camp will call you, the director or
the registrar. The camp will find out more
about your fourth-grade boy, there will
be some conversation, and if the match
seems right, it will offer you a place for the
summer.
Not all camps are right for all kids, Mr.
Fingerman said. The matching program
does not mean that all kids whose profiles
match with camps will be offered admis-
sion. But if the family and the camp agree
that the fit seems good, the bed is put on
hold for you.
And then you have to go through one
final step. Income verification. Until now,
youve put in your information, but it has
not been verified. Once that step, which
costs $30, is complete, the bed is defi-
nitely confirmed, and its for you.
The philanthropists who have funded
the program used their money to estab-
lish the database, the website, the market-
ing and branding, and the evaluation, Mr.
Fingerman said. We hope that by year
2 or 3 it could be a self-sustaining pro-
gram that does not involve philanthropic
dollars.
When there is a successful placement,
the camp pays a small fee to BunkConnect.
Its not borne by the family but by the
camp, which sees it as a small invest-
ment to get a new family into the system.
We think that we can get 3,000
placements across North American by
year 3.
The cost of the discounted bed is
borne by the camp, he added. At times,
it can be done simply by adding another
bed to a bunk that has the space and the
resources for it.
We feel a communal obligation to
make camp accessible and affordable,
Mr. Fingerman said. We hope this will
help someone who wants to send a child
to camp but cant see going through the
scholarship process. We think that this
is an easier way. You still have to submit
the top two pages of your tax return,
but it is not as invasive as the scholar-
ship form.
Because the process begins online and
many of its donors come from the business
world, we are measuring everything we
can about this program, Mr. Fingerman
said. The clicks, the responses, the inter-
actions, the time it takes for placements.
We will be doing interviews with families
who come in through the program, pre-
camp and postcamp, and with families
who chose not to do it.
It is a pilot and we are continuing to
refine it before we expand it. We want to
make sure it works, and to apply what we
learn.
We think it is marrying the best prac-
tices of the business world, and using new
technologies that are out there, Mr. Fin-
german said. We feel it is a fresh approach
to affordability, not just for Jewish camp
but maybe for Jewish life. We hope that
this is a good success for us, and that it
could be a good success for the broader
Jewish community.
Jeremy Fingerman visits his children, Esther
and Zalman, at Camp Yavneh.
Children enjoy the experience at Jewish sleepaway camps.
JS-9
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 9
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Local
10 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-10*
Composer/singer to bring her music, passion to JCC
Teplow says
Jewish music has
enhanced her
observance
LOIS GOLDRICH
Rebecca Teplow of Teaneck didnt start
composing until her son Joe, now 22, was
10 years old.
I felt that having children sparked
within me a new creative energy, said the
musician, who will perform some of her
songs on March 9 at the Kaplen JCC on the
Palisades Eric Brown Theater.
Ms. Teplow has quite a musical history.
After taking up the violin at the High
School of Performing Arts in New York
she already had studied piano as a young
child Ms. Teplow went on to pursue a
degree in music performance, attend-
ing both the Rubin Academy of Music
in Jerusalem and Brooklyn College. The
renowned violinist Yitzhak Perlman and
the composer Robert Starer were among
her teachers.
One of her early piano teachers was a
Holocaust survivor who had played with
underground orchestras and developed a
unique system of teaching music. I would
come every Sunday morning and wouldnt
leave till night.
As she worked on a masters degree in
musicology, Ms. Teplow by then married
and expecting her first child dropped
out of the music world.
I stopped performing, she said. It
wasnt part of my life. It was impossible to
pursue a career in musical performance
and remain observant.
I spent the next 15 years focused on rais-
ing kids. I have no regrets and it was the
best time of my life.
Still, her love for music did not diminish.
When my son, Avery, was 7 and my
youngest child, Tamara, was 4, I started
composing, Ms. Teplow said. Then, in her
mid-30s, she began taking voice lessons,
recording her first CD, Tfilot/Prayers,
in 2004.
The CD was very successful, she said.
It sold out. She credits her husband, Josh,
an art director, with helping her market
her music. Powerful things happened,
she added. I did a second CD, Kaveh/
Hope, four years ago.
Ms. Teplow said she always has been
drawn to Jewish music, particularly to the
composers, such as Mahler and Bernstein,
who intertwined Jewish melo-
dies into their compositions.
Jewish music has enhanced
my observance, she said. As
a child, I had a hard time con-
necting to God in yeshiva,
but singing zemirot in front
of the campfire at sleepaway
camp evoked the core of my
neshama and sparked my
belief.
The importance of music
cannot be overstated, she
said. Her husband echoed that sentiment,
who cited a teaching of Rabbi Schneur Zal-
man of Liadi: If words are the pen of the
heart, then song is the pen of the soul.
Suggesting that spirituality is integrated
with music, Ms. Teplow said that while
Gods words of Torah flow down to our
minds and actions, joyous song carries
our souls upward to connect with the
Almighty.
One of her concerns is that many Jew-
ish women today are not tapping into
the spiritual core of ecstatic singing that
Rabbi Zalman spoke of. She expressed
these concerns in a recent blog post she
wrote for JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Femi-
nist Alliance.
I was looking for an organization to
donate the proceeds of the concert to, Ms.
Teplow said. I went on their website and
saw excellent articles on spirituality and
the issue of women singing publicly that I
would not have had access to.
There really is a spectrum
of thought on this, she said,
addressing the issue of kol
isha, which holds that men
should not listen to wom-
ens voices. She noted the
teachings of several rabbis
who have held that women
may sing publicly.
Rav David Bigman, rosh
yeshiva of Maaleh Gilboa,
for example, writes that
there is no prohibition what-
soever of innocent singing; rather, only
singing intended for sexual stimulation, or
flirtatious singing, is forbidden. Although
this distinction is not explicit in the early
rabbinic sources, it closely fits the charac-
ter of the prohibition as described in dif-
ferent contexts in the Talmud and the Ris-
honim, and it is supported by the language
of the Rambam, the Tur, and the Shulchan
Arukh.
Quoting Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, an
Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., Ms.
Teplow said, If we deny the girls of our
community the ability to express them-
selves through song, we run the very real
risk of allowing them to be serenaded by
an alternative influence.
Noting the biblical precedents of Mir-
iam and Devorah performing music, Josh
Teplow said that for him, its not about
the sex of the singer but about context and
what is appropriate.
Women really provide more than the
What: Rebecca Teplow in concert
When: March 9 at 8 p.m.
Where: Eric Brown Theater at the
Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in
Tenafly
For more information:
rebeccateplow.com
Rebecca Teplow
Its valuable to hear both sides
Ridgewood man discusses Israeli, Palestinian narratives
LOIS GOLDRICH
Jonathan Emont a 2008 graduate of
Ridgewood High School who celebrated
his bar mitzvah at the towns Temple
Israel and Jewish Community Center
always has felt a deep attachment to the
state of Israel.
Still, the 23-year-old said, he never
expected that country to be at the center
of his professional life.
Things changed, however, when the
recent Swarthmore College graduate
went to Israel on a tour the America-
Israel Friendship League offered to young
journalists.
I did journalism in college, he said,
explaining that although he majored in
history, he also was the editor of Swarth-
mores Daily Gazette.
Taking advantage of the Leagues offer
of a free trip, Mr. Emont set off for Israel
and got a really good perspective on how
many Israelis see security issues. While
he was there, he also went to the West
Bank to meet some Palestinians who knew
his friend, fellow Swarthmore student
Sam Sussman.
The trip had a profound influence on
the young journalist.
It was really valuable to hear both sides,
he said.
I started thinking about how to make
sure that more American Jews have this
opportunity to meet Palestinians and hear
their perspective.
Together with Mr. Sussman, Mr. Emont
founded Extend in May 2013 to accom-
plish that goal, and this Friday, February
21, he will talk about the groups work dur-
ing Kabbalat Shabbat service at Temple
Israel.
As Extends co-director, Mr. Emont trav-
els to Israel several times a year to bring
groups of young American Jews together
with diverse groups of Israelis and Pales-
tinians for five days.
We ran the first tour last June, the sec-
ond in August, and the third this January,
Mr. Emont said.
While the group began with a website
and initially spread the word through
Israeli and Palestinian NGOs, Hillel leaders,
college JStreet chapters, and some Birth-
right Israel coordinators, its easier [to
attract participants] now because weve
had some press and have an alumni net-
work that recommends the trip to friends,
he said. So far, about 45 students have
traveled with his organization.
While most would-be participants are
young the group targets Jewish students
between the ages of 18 and 26 Mr. Emont
has been surprised to receive email que-
ries from older people as well.
Were getting tons of emails from peo-
ple interested in coming on future tours,
he said. Some are from older American
Jews, who are too old for Birthright but
Jonathan Emont
Who: Jonathan Emont
What: Will give a talk on competing
Israeli and Palestinian narratives
Where: Temple Israel and Jewish
Community Center, 475 Grove St.,
Ridgewood
When: At Kabbalat Shabbat
Services, tonight, beginning at
8:30 p.m.
More information: Call Temple Israel,
(201) 444-9320.
Local
JS-11
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majority of strength and education in a Jewish home,
he said. If they cant help their children connect to
the passion of Judaism through music, for example
then theyre not raising their kids in the best pos-
sible way.
Its a mitzvah, he said, noting the irony of permit-
ting children to listen to performers such as Jay Z but
not to the spiritual music of Jewish women.
Reflecting their devotion to Jewish spirituality,
Rebecca and Josh Teplow parents of Joe, 22, Avery,
20, and Tamara, 17 have hosted a Carlebach minyan
in their home every Friday night for the past seven
years.
Its such a blessing, Mr. Teplow said. I look for-
ward to it. It gives me strength.
The singer/composer who also teaches voice
and piano in Teaneck said that her music has been
described as intense, which stems from the fact that
[when shes singing or composing] Im completely
focused on recognizing Gods presence in my life. The
listeners hear this and reflect it.
One example, she said, can be found in her render-
ing of Ani Maamin, which speaks of belief in the
coming of redemption. After singing the word wait,
she changes the rhythmic structure, adding three
extra beats as a reflection of waiting. Her tendency
to use technical devices to help illustrate the words is
not done consciously, she said.
I notice it after the process of composing. Magical
things happen because of the deep connection.
At her March 9 concert, Ms. Teplow will be accom-
panied by a cello and piano, with a guitar used for
some songs. She also will tell the story behind her
music, explaining, for example, the psalms shes
interpreting.
I want the audience to be uplifted, she said. But
when Im singing sadder music, I want them to feel the
sadness, not to try to escape from that. Theres a joy in
yearning, in feeling lovesick for God.
Its valuable to hear both sides
Ridgewood man discusses Israeli, Palestinian narratives
had some press and have an alumni net-
work that recommends the trip to friends,
he said. So far, about 45 students have
traveled with his organization.
While most would-be participants are
young the group targets Jewish students
between the ages of 18 and 26 Mr. Emont
has been surprised to receive email que-
ries from older people as well.
Were getting tons of emails from peo-
ple interested in coming on future tours,
he said. Some are from older American
Jews, who are too old for Birthright but
want to learn more.
The cost of the trip is $200, which covers transit
fees, room, and board. Since it is assumed that par-
ticipants already will be in Israel for example, they
may choose to travel with Extend after attending a
Birthright program there are no fees for air travel.
About 50 percent of Extend participants come from
Birthright.
Pointing out that Extend has no formal relationship
with Birthright, Mr. Emont said that a lot of students
dont come in that way. Theyre looking for additional
opportunities in the Holy Land. We see ourselves as
a good option for students who want to learn more
about the fundamental issues.
Because Extend does not yet have any backing
from foundations, its funding comes from local
communities.
A lot of students have started fundraising at their
synagogues, Mr. Emont said, noting that he has
received some money from the Ridgewood commu-
nity. So many American Jews understand that there
are two peoples who feel a deep attachment [to the
land of Israel]. They think its important for young
SEE HEAR BOTH SIDES PAGE 61
Local
12 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-12*
Yet more Pew
Local rabbis talk more about
implications of look at American Jews
JOANNE PALMER
T
he Pew Research Centers study
of American Jews, released last
October, really is the gift that
keeps on giving.
As much as the Jewish community
deplores the studys findings, it seems to
exert a magnetic pull over us, as if it were
the moon and we the obedient tides. We
cant seem to stop talking about it. (Of
course, part of that appeal is the license
it gives us to talk, once again, about our-
selves. We fascinate ourselves endlessly.)
That is why we found ourselves at the
Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly
last Wednesday night, with the next in the
seemingly endless series of snow-and-ice
storms just a few hours away, discussing
the Pew study yet again.
In case anyones memory needs
prodding, the study showed that
although most identifying Jews
declare themselves proud of that
identification, that pride seems based not
on religion but on such nebulous things as
a good sense of humor. Intermarriage is
up, connection to Israel is down, and raw
numbers are down. In general, Jewishness
seems to be leaching out of the Jewish peo-
ple like minerals through limestone.
The study is full of bad news.
But there continue to be genuinely inter-
esting things to say about it.
Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer of Temple
Israel Center/Heichal Yisrael in Cliffside
Park moderated the panel. In refreshing
the audiences memory about the study,
he answered a question that had nagged
at many of us, and had gotten in the way
of taking it seriously. The study showed
that a miniscule but still surprisingly large
number of Orthodox Jews 4 percent
admitted to having Christmas trees in
their homes, and that 16 percent of them
say that they go to non-Jewish religious
services occasionally. That, Rabbi Engel-
mayer suggested, is because researchers
accepted respondents self-identifications
unquestioningly. Those Orthodox Jews
probably say that the shul they go to at
most, three times a year, is Orthodox.
That question settled, Rabbi Engel-
mayer turned to the panel made up, like
some all-Jewish version of a classic priest-
minister-rabbi joke of an Orthodox,
a Conservative, and a
Reform rabbi, as well as a
representative of the Jew-
ish camping movement.
Strikingly, throughout the
evening the rabbis agreed
with each other far more
than they disagreed; the
lesson there, it seems,
is that if anything can
overcome the barriers
between us, it is the fear
of complete dissolution.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of Congrega-
tion Ahavath Torah in Englewood, who
is Orthodox, said that the report was not
surprising. The trends it marks have been
clear for some time. Its clear that one
day God is going to turn to the affiliated
Jews and ask them, Why didnt you work
harder to stop this?
He is conflicted, he said. It is of course
necessary to meet people where they are,
but we cant keep watering things down.
I think we have to embrace all Jews, make
sure that nobody disappears but if it is
done by moving away from the way Juda-
ism has been, we all will lose more than
Shmuel Goldin David Widzer Fred Elias
Local
JS-13
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we gain.
Rabbi David Widzer of Temple Beth El of
Northern Valley in Closter, who is Reform,
was up next. The Pew Report highlighted
the changing nature of Jewish identity, he
said. We define it in ways that are more
complex and fluid. He compared it to
something he had heard about training for
the Olympic biathlon, the one where you
ski fast, then stop and shoot, he said. (He
did not answer the obvious question about
that sport why do they do that?)
They used to be trained to lower their
heart rates before they started shooting,
he said. Now they are told to shoot with
an elevated heart rate.
Same goals, different approaches.
One hundred years ago, classic Ameri-
can Reform Judaism was do-it-for-you
Judaism, he said. You sat and listened.
The rabbi spoke. The cantor sang. Now we
are in an era of do-it-for-yourself Judaism.
Anything you can get from a synagogue
you can do online, but you miss the oppor-
tunity for connection.
The synthesis of those two forms of
Judaism are his goal. He calls it do-it-
together Judaism.
Jeremy Fingerman, the CEO of the Foun-
dation for Jewish Camp, is an Orthodox
Jew and a member of Rabbi Goldins shul,
but he was on the panel as a representa-
tive of one of the few Jewish institutions
that is thriving unambiguously. We need
a new denomination, he said. Joyous
Judaism.
How do we bring more joy and passion
into Jewish life?
( Jewish campings success is a result of
its comfort with both joy and passion, and
its ability to integrate them into daily life
every summer. For more on Mr. Finger-
man and camping, see page 8.)
Rabbi Fred Elias, who is Conservative,
is the rabbi at the Solomon Schechter Day
School of Bergen County. Despite the
changes in Jewish identity in America, 94
percent of all Jews say they are proud to
be Jewish, he said. Thats a lot of peo-
ple. But how to engage them? How to turn
that vague, untethered pride into a deeper
connection?
He quoted other statistics showing the
importance of in-marriage for keeping
the next generation Jewish. I belong to
the Conservative movement, and maybe
theyll impeach me for saying this, but the
movement made a big mistake in pulling
its money from Koach, he said. Koach
was the movements program on college
campuses; the United Synagogue of Con-
servative Judaism, its parent, starved the
group for a few years and then defunded
and disbanded it completely. (According
to United Synagogue, Koach is on hiatus,
but it seems to observers to be as dead as
Monty Pythons parrot.)
It was a huge error, Rabbi Elias added.
Take away money from anyplace else, but
figure out how to get to college kids.
On a second round, Rabbi Goldin said,
I started by asking ourselves why were
here. I realize that question is double-
edged. It means why are we in this situa-
tion, but it could also mean why are we
still here?
What is it that has held us together
for thousands of years and allows us to
identify as Jews today? Its a miraculous
phenomenon.
For thousands of years we lived all over
the globe, through tremendous persecu-
tion. And were here, not only surviving
but identifying. To my mind there is only
one answer. Its because we had Judaism.
We cant just talk about being Jewish.
We have to realize that it was Judaism its
belief system, its rituals.
In many ways, Jewishness is an outer-
directed experience. I want to connect to
something larger than myself; to a God, to
a people.
So many times and Orthodoxy is not
immune from this religion is becom-
ing more and more about what it can do
for me. I want to come to the synagogue
and be entertained, as opposed to being
engaged. If it doesnt move me, if it doesnt
change me, then it doesnt have value. Or
maybe, maybe the value will be discov-
ered when I give rather than take.
If we are going to turn the tide, it wont
be just by meeting people where they are,
he concluded.
Rabbi Widzer agreed and continued,
What is our purpose here on earth? What
is Gods intention for us in this world?
We are aiming for lives of meaning and
purpose that are shaped by our relation-
ships with each other, with our history,
with our future, in the context of our
relationship with God. There is a trend
toward seeing Jewish life as a commodity.
The solution to that is moving toward the
notion of Judaism as a community.
Community to me is what Judaism is,
Mr. Fingerman said. Its not do it for your-
self. We do it together. We can pray on our
own, but we are commanded to pray in a
minyan.
Rabbi Elias agreed with Rabbi Goldin
on the importance of refusing to dilute
Judaism. People buy Otterboxes for their
SEE PEW PAGE 60
Local
14 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-14*
Visionary look at the Jewish Home Family
Public television program films exemplary Rockleigh-based institution
JOANNE PALMER
No one wants to live in a nursing home,
the actor Sam Waterston tells us.
And certainly no one wants to have
Alzheimers or any other kind of demen-
tia. Ever.
These obvious truths come at the begin-
ning of an episode of the public TV series
Visionaries devoted to the Jewish Home
Family.
There is no magic bullet for dementia,
Mr. Waterston says. There is no pill to
reverse it. But if someone suffering from
that vicious syndrome were to be helped
to live in the best possible way, what would
that life look like?
Then the documentary goes straight to
the four institutions that make up the Jew-
ish Home Family, which is based in north-
ern Bergen County and has its headquar-
ters in Rockleigh.
Throughout the Jewish Home Family
system, the diseases victims and their
families are surrounded by love, show-
ered with patient and careful attention,
restored to their dignity, and bathed in the
disinfectant sunlight that comes through
the large windows evident throughout all
the facilities. The camera catches all that,
along with the hope and enthusiasm of the
staff and the heart-wrenching testimony of
family members.
The documentary itself is evocative and
sad; maybe some viewers can steel them-
selves and not sniffle, but many will find
their eyes wet. The camera rests on the
faces of people with Alzheimers, who
sometimes look confused or far away, in
some earlier, happier place, and some-
times are absolutely present. It looks at the
caregivers, whose enthusiasm and desire
to help are palpable, and at the families,
whose ambivalence about their situation
makes their gratitude for the Jewish Home
Family even more real.
Visionaries is a 501c3 nonprofit,
Melanie Cohen, the foundations exec-
utive director, said. They produce
documentaries, and their basic principle
is that they showcase other nonprofits
around the world that not only
are making a difference but
are doing it in a fashion that
could be replicated by other
communities.
Lots of times you can have
a very successful organization,
but it could never work some-
place else. What we do is repli-
cable, and thats what Visionaries wants.
The process of getting the Jewish Home
onto television was long and detailed, she
said. After we had spoken with them a
number of times, last January we filled
out an extensive application form. I didnt
think anything would come of it, but they
were very interested in pursuing a track
that focused on how a community deals
with families suffering from Alzheimers,
and we could illustrate for them how we
do it on multiple levels.
We have a continuum of care, from
your own home to our daycare program
to maybe assisted living, and then, in the
end, the nursing home.
And we were accepted.
They came to us in August and filmed
for two days in all of our facilities, Ms.
Denise Rieser, recreation director at the adult day care program, dances with a client.
Melanie Cohen, executive director
of the Jewish Home Foundation.
A participant in the Home at
Home program.
Sam Waterston narrates Visionaries.
More about the Jewish Home Family
It is made up of four organizations
all offer both kosher food and a wel-
come to people of all backgrounds,
regardless of religion:
Jewish Home at Rockleigh Russ
Berrie Home for Jewish Living. A
skilled nursing home facility
Jewish Home Assisted Living
Kaplen Family Senior Residence. In
River Vale, it is a place for people
with varying needs for help and in-
dependence
Jewish Home at Home. Offers day
care at Rockleigh as well as a range
of services and help for both pa-
tients and their families
Jewish Home Foundation of North
Jersey. Supports the Jewish Home
Familys work through fundraising
and development.
For information about anything
throughout the Jewish Home Fam-
ily system, go to the overall website,
www.jewishhomefamily.org, and
explore the links. You also can call
(201)750-4247.
SEE VISIONARY PAGE 61
JS-15
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 15
Hunting Elephants
www. j f nnj . or g/ f i l mf es t i v al
OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY
Jewish Federation
March 22 - Apri l 10, 2014
16th Annual
Israel Film &
Cultural Festival
Opening Night
Saturday, March 22 8:30 PM
THE PRIME MINISTERS
Kapl en JCC on the Pal i sades, Tenafl y
Sunday, March 23 6:00 PM
Art Exhibit
Opening night art exhibit and reception
Kapl en JCC on the Pal i sades, Tenafl y
Partnership2Gether Community Task Force
cordially invites you to a traveling international art exhibit
Water: The Essence of Our Lives
Kosher wine and cheese will be served.
Sunday, March 23 7:15 PM
UNDER THE SAME SUN
Kapl en JCC on the Pal i sades, Tenafl y
Tuesday, March 25 7:30 PM
THE PRIME MINISTERS
Congregati on Ri nat Yi srael , Teaneck
Wednesday, March 26 7:00 PM
HUNTING ELEPHANTS
The Wayne Y
Thursday, March 27 7:30 PM
THE ATTACK
Ramsey Ci nema, Ramsey
Sunday, March 30 6:30 PM
THE ATTACK
Teaneck Ci nemas
SPECIAL - ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Monday, March 31 8:00 PM
THE WONDERS
Kapl en JCC on the Pal i sades, Tenafl y
Discussion with Adir Miller, acclaimed actor and comedian
Tuesday, Apri l 1 7:30 PM
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
Fai rl ei gh Di cki nson Uni versi ty, Hackensack
Wednesday, Apri l 2 7:30 PM
ZAYTOUN
Bergen County Y, a JCC, Twp. of Washi ngton
Wednesday, Apri l 2 8:00 PM
UNDER THE SAME SUN
Uni ted Synagogue of Hoboken
Saturday, Apri l 5 8:15 PM
UNDER THE SAME SUN
Barnert Templ e, Frankl i n Lakes
Sunday, Apri l 6 7:00 PM
HUNTING ELEPHANTS
JCC of Paramus/Cong. Beth Ti kvah, Paramus
Thursday, Apri l 10 6:00 PM
Art Exhibit
Bel ski e Museum of Art & Sci ence, Cl oster
Partnership2Gether Community Task Force
cordially invites you to a traveling international art exhibit
Water: The Essence of Our Lives
Kosher wine and cheese will be served.
Leslie Billet, Chair, Israel Programs Center
Liran Kapoano Director, Center for Israel Engagement | LiranK@jfnnj.org | 201.820.3909
www. j f nnj . or g/f i l mf est i val
Coming Soon to Theaters Near You!
Local
16 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-16*
Charities offer Purim cards
American Friends of Reuth Medical and Life Care Centers
4 West 43rd Street, Suite 402, New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212.751.9255 Fax: 212.751.9259 info@reuthnyc.org
www.americanfriendsofreuth.org
For over 75 years, Reuth, one of Israels oldest and most respected
social welfare andhealthcare non-profit organizations, has provided
rehabilitation and long-term care for children, wounded soldiers,
victims of terror, and the elderly, as well as subsidized housing for
holocaust survivors and older immigrants. At the Reuth Medical
Center, the largest rehabilitation andchronic care hospital in Tel Aviv,
inpatients and outpatients benefit from services that range from
state-of-the-art pain management toquality-of-life therapies, includ-
ing animal, music, and art therapy.
Jewish Family Service of North Jersey is selling Purim cards. (This year, Purim
runs from the evening of Saturday, March 15, through Sunday, March 16.) The
proceeds will support JFSNJs professional services to strengthen family life
and enhance the welfare of the North Jersey community. A packet of 10 cards
costs $18. To order, call JFSNJ at (973) 5950111. Cards also are available at JFS-
NJs Fair Lawn and Wayne ofices and at the Image Gallery in the Berdan Shop-
ping Center in Wayne.
Sharsheret, a national not-for-
proit organization supporting
Jewish women and families facing
breast and ovarian cancer, offers
Purim cards. A package of 12 costs
$36, with an additional $3 per
order charge for shipping and han-
dling. Cards also can be picked up
in Teaneck at Sharsherets ofice,
1086 Teaneck Road, Suite 3A; at
Judaica House, 478 Cedar Lane;
and in Bergenield at the Grand
and Essex Market. Call (201) 833-
2341 or go to www.sharsheret.org.
Celebrate Purim with festive cards to support Reuths Medical
and Life Care facilities in Tel Aviv.
The medical center, the largest rehabilitation and chronic
care facility in Tel Aviv, provides services for children,
wounded soldiers, victims of terror, and the elderly. Cards
cost $18 for 5, $36 for 10, $72 for 25, and $136 for 50. Call (212)
7519255 or go to purimappeal.charityhappenings.org.
Sinai Schools offers Purim cards
for $1 each. Since 1982, Sinai
has provided Jewish education
for children and young adults
with a broad spectrum of learn-
ing and developmental disabili-
ties. You can buy them at Sinai
Schools in Teaneck, River Edge,
or Livingston or at Maadan, 446
Cedar Lane in Teaneck; or you
can order them by phone at (201)
8331134, ext. 106, online at www.
sinaischools.org.
Leket Israel, Israels national
food bank and largest food res-
cue network, is selling printed
Purim cards with envelopes.
Every $1 donated provides 10
pounds of fresh fruits and vege-
tables for one needy person for
a week. Cards cost $36 for 18,
$70 for 36, $90 for 54, and $170
for 108. Unlimited Purim ecards
and video cards are available
for $18. To order, call Elena at
(201) 3310070, ext. 2, or go to
purim.leket.org.
JS-17
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 17
Local
18 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-18*
Sharsheret Pink Day, February 12, was
marked by events on 100 campuses
worldwide at colleges and universi-
ties, high school/day schools, and
schools in Israel. The days goal was
to raise awareness about breast can-
cer and Sharsherets vital programs
and services. Sharsheret, based in
Teaneck, is a national not-for-profit
organization supporting Jewish
women and families facing breast
and ovarian cancer. Go to www.
sharsheret.org for more information.
Local part i ci pat i ng school s
included the Moriah School in Engle-
wood, Yeshiva University and Stern
College in Manhattan, Rutgers Uni-
versity in New Brunswick, Bruriah
High School for Girls in Elizabeth, the
Frisch School in Paramus, Maayanot
Yeshiva High School for Girls and
Torah Academy of Bergen County,
both in Teaneck, the Solomon Schech-
ter Day School of Bergen County in
New Milford, Fairleigh Dickinson
University in Teaneck, and Princeton
University.
Participants at Torah Academy of Bergen County raised more than $4,000 for Sharsheret during Pink Day. This is double the amount raised last year.
COURTESY GLENN LESNICK, LEADER OF TABCS PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB
Moriah Middle School students also participated. Students at the Maayanot High School for Girls took part.
Frisch students supported Pink Day.
More than 40 cakes of different
shapes, sizes, and colors filled Room
501 in Yeshiva Universitys Furst Hall
at the end of its third annual Cake
Wars, sponsored by Fairway Market.
The cake-decorating competition
was for National Sharsheret Pink
Day Around the World. Teams of
students wearing everything pink,
including bandanas, face paint, and
clothes, decorated cakes.
Mauro Castano from the popular
TLC show Cake Boss and Fairway
supermarket catering representa-
tives were among the judges. Cas-
tano offered the winning team a trip
to his Hoboken bakery for a profes-
sional cake decorating lesson.
Sharsheret Pink Day
JS-19
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 19
OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY
Jewish Federation
You may qualify for up to
$
1,000 o
*
your childs rst summer at
Jewish overnight camp
* restrictons apply
Contact Nancy Perlman at NancyP@jfnnj.org | 201-820-3904
For details, visit
www.jfnnj.org/OneHappyCamper
L
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O
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Local
20 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-20*
Government Affairs Advocacy unites community leaders/professionals
The Jewish Federations of North America,
in collaboration with the Association of
Jewish Family and Childrens Agencies,
convened its annual Government Affairs
Institute in Washington from February 4
to 5. Government affairs professionals and
lay leaders were briefed on federal legisla-
tive and policy issues that are important to
local Jewish federations.
Joy Kurland, director of the Jewish
Community Relations Council, and Jacob
Toporek, executive director of the New Jer-
sey State Association of Jewish Federations,
were among the representatives of the Jew-
ish Federation of Northern New Jersey. Dur-
ing the GAI, Mr. Toporek received the Len
Lieberman Professional of the Year award
from the Association of Jewish Community
State Government Affairs Directors.
Speakers included former congress-
men Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Jim Kolbe
(R-AZ), who talked about how to make
progress on community priorities in a bit-
terly partisan environment. Alice Rivlin,
director of the Engelberg Center for Health
Care Reform, and a member of several fed-
eral budget study commissions, discussed
expectations of major policy and spending
changes coming from the budget President
Obama will submit to Congress.
The meeting focused on several pieces
of legislation, including reauthorization of
the Older Americans Act with inclusion of
the RUSH Act giving Holocaust survivors a
priority status in the OAA. Another mea-
sure would support mental health provid-
ers, including JFS agencies, by further-
ing the electronic transfer of vital patient
information.
A White House meeting included brief-
ings from Jason Furman, chair of the
Council of Economic Advisors; Jonathan
Greenblatt, director of the Office of Social
Innovation and Civic Participation, and
Matt Nosanchuck, associate director,
White House Office of Public Engagement
and Intergovernmental Affairs, and White
House liaison to the Jewish community.
The White House added Aviva Sufian, the
newly appointed Special Envoy for Holo-
caust Survivor Services in the Department
of Health and Human Services.
The New Jersey delegation to the GAI
also met with Michael Barnard and Matt
Klapper, policy staffers for Democratic Sen-
ators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker.
We gratefully acknowledged the senators
leadership on Iran sanctions, reauthoriza-
tion of the Lautenberg Amendment in
support of religiously discriminated against
citizens in nations like Iran and the security
of the State of Israel, Ms. Kurland said.
Part of the New Jersey delegation at the Eisenhower Executive Office Build-
ing, which houses White House staff, are from left, Steven Schimmel, executive
director of the Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester, and Vineland; Joy
Kurland, director of the JCRC at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jer-
sey; Melanie Roth Gorelick, director of the CRC for Greater MetroWest; Jacob
Toporek, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Fed-
erations, and Eric Lavitsky, a lay leader at the Jewish Federation of Somerset,
Hunterdon, and Warren counties. COURTESY JFNNJ
Ben Porat Yosef dinner set for March 11
Ben Porat Yosef in Paramus will honor sev-
eral of its parents and one grandparent
at its 12th annual dinner, set for Tuesday,
March 11, at 7 p.m., at Congregation Keter
Torah in Teaneck. The dinner, which also
will celebrate the members of BPYs first
graduating class, will honor Gail and Ken
Fried of Teaneck; Jodi and Shaul Cohen
of Englewood; Dina, David, and Beryl
Niewood of Englewood, and Judy Heick-
len of Teaneck.
Gail and Ken Frieds daughter, Odelia,
an eighth-grader, was one of the schools
earliest students, enrolling in its toddler
class when she was 2 1/2. A certified public
accountant, Gail Braverman-Fried volun-
teers with synagogues and organizations
and is an active participant with the BPY
contingent at the Celebrate Israel Parade.
Ken Fried has been an avid supporter of
BPY since its inception. He has purchased
many books for the school library through
its annual Reading Rocks! fund-raiser
at Barnes & Noble. The Frieds are mem-
bers of Congregation Netivot Shalom in
Teaneck.
Dina and David Niewood have three
daughters in the school fourth-graders
Ava and Michaela, and second-grader
Rebecca. Dina Niewood volunteers at
school events, and David Niewood is a
former Israel Defense Forces soldier. The
Niewoods are members of Kesher Syna-
gogue in Englewood, where Dina co-
chaired the chesed committee and David
is a member of its community security ser-
vice detail.
David Niewoods mother, Beryl, who
retired in 2010, is the grandmother of nine.
She is involved in BPYs Grandparents
Association, which holds intergenerational
social events and fund-raisers.
Judy Heicklen of Teaneck is the mother
of Ricki and DD, both students at SAR High
School, and Shiri, a first-grader at BPY.
She has been involved with BPY since its
beginning, serving on the BPY Shorashim
Capital Campaign Steering committee
and dedicating the schools indoor gym
equipment and Hebrew book lending
library. She is the president of the Jewish
Orthodox Feminist Alliance and a board
member of the Drisha Institute for Jewish
Education and the Halachic Organ Donor
Society. She is a member of both Netivot
Shalom and Congregation Rinat Yisrael in
Teaneck.
Jodi and Shaul Cohen are the parents
of Maya, a first-grader, and Lihi, in pre-K.
Their son Lior will enroll in BPYs toddler
program next fall. Shaul Cohen serves on
BPYs Shorashim Capital Campaign steer-
ing committee. Jodi Cohen volunteers for
BPYs Parent Teacher Organization, has
been a class ambassador for the schools
annual scholarship walk-athon, and vol-
unteers at school events. She was on last
years dinner committee and co-chaired
this years Barnes and Noble Reading
Rocks! fund-raiser. The Cohens are mem-
bers of the Sephardic Minyan at Congrega-
tion Ahavath Torah in Englewood.
Elianna Benhamu, Ezra Brauner, Odelia
Fried, Sandra Kaplan, Julia Kohen, Zach-
ary Kohn, Ben Lasher, Shlomo Meisels,
and Joseph Yudelson are members of
BPYs first eighth-grade graduating class.
For information, call at (201) 845-5007,
ext. 35, or go to www.benporatyosef.org/
dinner.
Shaul and Jodi Cohen
P
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Beryl Niewood David and Dina Niewood Judi Heicklen Gail and Ken Fried
JS-21
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 21
TO REGISTER OR FOR MORE INFO, VISIT
jccotp.org OR CALL 201. 569.7900.
UPCOMING AT
JUDAICS
KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades
FILM
NEW! Monday Night Poker at the J
WITH PAUL SPITZBERG, MASTER PLAYER
AND GRAND TOURNAMENT WINNER
Learn from a pro in these interactive classes.
March 10: POKER 101
An explanation of the basics of Texas HoldEm & Omaha
March 17: POKER 102
Poker tournaments & poker money games
March 31: POKER 103
A Focus on Omaha: PLO & 8 or better
To register or for more info, contact Judy Lattif at
201.408.1457 or jlattif@jccotp.org.
3 Mondays, Mar 10-31 (except Mar 24), 7:30-9:30 pm
Free/$7 per session
Exploring Brahms
Through Four Symphonies
WITH MICHAEL REINGOLD, ASSOCIATE
DIRECTOR OF JCC THURNAUER SCHOOL
OF MUSIC
Listen, learn and appreciate the enormous talent
of Johannes Brahms as you explore the music
and life of this extraordinary composer.
4 Mondays, Mar 10-31, 1:30-2:45 pm, $40/$50
THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF NNJ
Israeli Film Festival at the JCC
Enjoy new and prominent lms from Israel.
Purchase tickets online or call Aya at 201.408.1427.
THE PRIME MINISTERS
Written, produced and directed by Academy Award
winner Richard Trank and co-written and produced by
two-time Academy Award winner Rabbi Marvin Hier.
Sat, Mar 22, 8:30 pm, $10/$12
UNDER THE SAME SUN
Directed by Sameh Zoabi. Hebrew with English subtitles.
Sun, March 23, 7:15 pm, $10/$12
THE WONDERS
Directed by Avi Nesher.
With special guest appearance by actor Adir Miller.
Hebrew with English subtitles.
Mon, Mar 31, 8 pm, $15/$18
ADULTS
A DAY OF CULINARY ADVENTURE
Come meet Eleni Gianopulos of Elenis Cookies, and hear her
discuss her culinary adventures while enjoying a light breakfast
at the home of Michele & Steven Sweetwood. Morning followed
by your choice of hostess-planned themed luncheon venues.
Proceeds support Senior Adult Services at the JCC. Sponsored
by our hostesses and Artistic Tile, Dr. Praegers Sensible Foods,
Tapestrie and Esthetica MD.
Register online at www.jccotp.org.
For more info, contact Sharon Potolsky at 201.408.1405.
Wed, Mar 5, starting at $180 per person
BRCA Seminar:
HEREDITARY BREAST AND OVARIAN CANCER
A genetic counselor from Englewood Hospital will
explain the heightened risk of this gene mutation for
Ashkenazi Jewsboth men and womenand how you
can get tested for it.
Wed, Mar 5, 5-6 pm, Free
The Harmonists
A FILM/DISCUSSION SERIES WITH
HAROLD CHAPLER
An acclaimed German-Austrian lm about
the most popular singing group in Europe
before WWII, an extraordinarily talented
ensemble composed of three German
Jews and three Aryans and their struggle
for survival when the Nazis took over.
Mon, Feb 24, 7:30 pm, $3/$5
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KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades TAUB CAMPUS | 411 E CLINTON AVE, TENAFLY, NJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
Editorial
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
(201) 837-8818
Fax 201-833-4959
Publisher
James L. Janoff
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Marcia Garfinkle
Editor
Joanne Palmer
Associate Editor
Larry Yudelson
Guide/Gallery Editor
Beth Janoff Chananie
Contributing Editor
Phil Jacobs
About Our Children Editor
Heidi Mae Bratt
Correspondents
Warren Boroson
Lois Goldrich
Abigail K. Leichman
Miriam Rinn
Dr. Miryam Z. Wahrman
Advertising Director
Natalie D. Jay
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Jewish
Standard
jstandard.com
Founder
Morris J. Janoff (19111987)
Editor Emeritus
Meyer Pesin (19011989)
City Editor
Mort Cornin (19151984)
Editorial Consultant
Max Milians (1908-2005)
Secretary
Ceil Wolf (1914-2008)
Editor Emerita
Rebecca Kaplan Boroson
No human rights
on Olympic podium
R
ussian President Vladi-
mir Putin is outfitting his
Olympic athletes with
whatever equipment they
need to win medals in Sochi.
At the same time, he is propping
up Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad with
weapons that have killed more than
130,000 people, a third of those civil-
ians, including thousands of children.
Millions of Syrian civilians have been
forced to leave their bombed-out cit-
ies, hope that flimsy tents will pro-
tect them against the biting Middle
Eastern winter wind, and live on very
little food.
As so-called negotiations between
rebel groups and the Syrian govern-
ment failed in Geneva, Assads air
forces were dropping barrel bombs
literally barrels filled with gasoline,
explosive charges, and shrapnel on
the city of Aleppo. The Syrians attack
Homs as the U.N. tries to evacuate
anyone who has the misfortune still
to be there.
Putin is hoping that reports of his
glistening Olympic City will keep the
Syrian story and the human rights
debacle off the front pages of Western
newspapers and so out of our minds.
It sometimes seems as if he is suc-
ceeding. Many people worry more
about our snowboarding team and ice
hockey prospects than they do about
little children whose parents have died
before their eyes, or the babies who
arent going to leave Syria alive.
It wasnt enough that Putins anti-
gay measures, laws that could take
a child away from his same-gender
parents, fly directly in the face of the
Olympic Charter, which bans any
sort of discrimination. Yet we get
caught up in the return of the Jamai-
can bobsled team, and feel a surge of
nationalism when an American wins
a medal in luge.
What has happened is we have for-
gotten ourselves. This is exactly what
Putin wanted. He knew it would hap-
pen. We tear up over a good com-
mercial showing an American childs
dream of being an Olympian one day,
and we forget that Syrian children
have had all hope stolen from them.
While biathletes ski and shoot at tar-
gets from standing and prone posi-
tions, Russian-backed Syrian snipers
fire on families running for their lives.
Soon these Olympics will be over.
The attention will be off of Sochi.
LGBT families will continue to strug-
gle within Russia. Well learn more
about the horrific human conditions
in Syria.
On Sunday, Secretary of State John
Kerry pointed his finger at Russia
when the most recent round of nego-
tiations on Syria failed in Geneva.
But wait, the networks tell us about
where we stand in the medals rank-
ings as opposed to Russia.
Tennis great Billie Jean King, an
out lesbian, will join the U.S. team for
closing ceremonies as a message for
Putin. He doesnt care. He knows the
public is in its Olympic trance.
Like Hitlers 1936 Olympics, which
camouflaged Germanys bigoted,
anti-Semitic policies, the artificial ice
of Putins 2014 Olympics mostly cov-
ers up the deadly numbers coming
out of Syria and human rights viola-
tions within Russia.
One thing is certain. Human
rights and the al-Assad atrocities
arent going to make it to the medals
podium.
-PJ
TRUTH REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCES
Islamic Iran
is 35. Hurray!
W
hat amazed me at my visit to the World
Economic Forum in Davos last month
was how a man in a black turban and
long flowing robe stole the show and
became the rock star of the conference.
I sat about 30 feet from President Hassan Rouhani
of Iran as he lied through his teeth about being a mod-
erate, even as his government, according to the UN,
hanged 40 people from cranes in public spaces in Iran
in the month of January alone. And that is to say noth-
ing of his spinning centrifuges, designed to bring about
wholesale destruction of the Jewish state.
Last week Iran celebrated the 35th anniversary of its
barbarous revolution, amid renewed calls of death to
America. What is astonishing about Iran is how it is
repeatedly described as a religious republic. As if you
can be religious and still hang homosexuals in pub-
lic, stone women to death,
funds terror groups that
dismember children, and
shoot political opponents
in the streets.
Are you really religious
when you f und col d-
blooded killers like Hez-
bollah, and pay for Israelis
who planned to sit inno-
cently on a beach in Bul-
garia returned home in a
box?
No, this is not religion but
a farce of faith. A travesty
of tradition. A ridiculing of ritual. The worlds biggest
atheist is more devout than the charlatan Ayatollah
Ali Khameini, whose spirituality is expressed through
repeated calls for Israels extermination and by calling
Jews dogs. As least the atheist doesnt compromise his
conviction or disgrace his dogma with the most insidi-
ous hypocrisy. If Khameini is a religious leader than
I am the king of France. Irans supreme leader is a
spiritual snake oil salesman. A devout phony. A pious
impostor. A holy hoaxer. A sacred scam artist.
Weve got his number.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Americas Rabbi, shortly
will publish Kosher Lust. Follow him on Twitter @
RabbiShmuley.
Rabbi
Shmuley
Boteach
22 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-22*
Value not validate
If you look at the local stories in this
weeks issue of the Jewish Standard,
you could do a classic glass-half-full-
glass-half-empty test.
We are such a divided community!
Look at the question of women wear-
ing tefillin. (See page 26.) Although
the lines do not always break exactly
where you might expect them to,
the divide between the extremes on
either side looms like the Grand Can-
yon, full of leather straps and jagged
shards. Because it is a subject that is
both public and intimate, passions
run high.
You might think that there is
no bridge that can span these two
palisades.
But then look at some of the other
stories. The Foundation for Jewish
Camp, which is piloting a program
to help first-time campers have a
life-changing summer experience,
works with camps across the wide
spectrum of Jewish life. (See page 8.)
All you have to do is put your own
details into the database. There is no
attempt there to judge level of com-
mitment or depth of conviction;
the program, BunkConnect, simply
offers a way to match your own level
of observance with the camps.
Similarly, a report on a discussion
of the Pew survey shows that danger
seems to unite us. (See page 12.) Rab-
bis across the streams agreed more
than they disagreed about how to
confront the forces that seem to be
leaching the Jewishness from us.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin often talks,
as he did that evening, about how he
has come to value, although not to
validate, Jewish ideas and practices
that differ from his own. That is not
an easy balance to achieve, much less
to maintain, but working toward it
always is a worthwhile exercise.
-JP
Op-Ed
Of all the nauseating spectacles in the world, few are
as stomach-turning as extremist, intolerant religion, of
which Iran is the worlds supreme paragon. The reli-
gious fanatic is defined primarily by his self-appointed
mandate to judge nonbelievers, as if a call to condem-
nation over compassion is Gods primary demand of
the faithful.
But the purpose of religion is not to focus on the
world as it is but on how it ought to be. The truly spiri-
tual person finds it difficult to be dismissive of anyone
because he sees God wherever he looks. The principal
purpose of faith is for humans to achieve a proximity
with God. The closer you draw to God, the more hum-
ble you become. When we peer at Gods perfection,
we become more conscious of our own imperfection.
The larger God grows in our sight the more we shrink
in our own estimation. We become less, rather than
more, judgmental.
When I was a rabbinical student, the head of my
seminary told me that the essence of religion is to
take God very seriously and never to take yourself too
seriously. But the fanatic places himself, rather than
God, at the epicenter of faith, and takes himself very
seriously. Everything offends him, as if Gods moral
code was his own and the transgression of another is
a personal affront.
I once debated a self-righteous Christian theolo-
gian about homosexuality on CNN. He asked me how
I could defend gays when the Bible called them an
abomination. I responded by asking him if he was
aware that the Bible also referred to the arrogant as an
abomination: Every one who is arrogant is an abomi-
nation to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpun-
ished (Proverbs 16:5).
Maimonides believed that goodness involves main-
taining a healthy equilibrium between two extremes.
For someone to lead a healthy and balanced life he
must travel the golden middle path. The same is true
of faith. Judaism has a built-in mechanism to assist
people in achieving this pivotal balance. Studying the
Torah is an act of self-affirmation, requiring the art of
human comprehension. But observance of the mitzvot
is precisely the opposite, demanding blind obedience,
a negation of the ego.
The dynamic tension between these two contradic-
tory postures affirmation of self balanced by denial
of the ego is described in Jewish mysticism as the
two wings of a bird, without which it cannot fly. The
laws of propulsion dictate that there must be antithet-
ical forces pushing from opposite sides to facilitate
lift. The same is true for the elevation of the religious
believer. There must be an uncompromising submis-
sion to the will of God on the one hand and a simul-
taneous trust in human intelligence and emotion on
the other.
A country like Iran suppresses both ideas. It rejects
Gods will and his commandment not to murder by
arrogating to itself the divine license to take and
destroy life. But likewise, it rejects its own humanity,
never allowing faith to incorporate the simple traits of
love and empathy, dismissing the heart as an obsta-
cle to spiritual growth. Its faith is governed not by the
heavenly trait of love but by a demonic obsession with
hate.
Iran is a danger to the world not because it will mis-
use the explosive power of nuclear energy, although
there is that too. Rather, its real danger lies in its abuse
of something much more powerful faith. And there
is nothing as dangerous as a nation nurtured on the
idea that love is an impediment to its beliefs.
JS-23*
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 23
TRUTH REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCES
Islamic Iran
is 35. Hurray!
W
hat amazed me at my visit to the World
Economic Forum in Davos last month
was how a man in a black turban and
long flowing robe stole the show and
became the rock star of the conference.
I sat about 30 feet from President Hassan Rouhani
of Iran as he lied through his teeth about being a mod-
erate, even as his government, according to the UN,
hanged 40 people from cranes in public spaces in Iran
in the month of January alone. And that is to say noth-
ing of his spinning centrifuges, designed to bring about
wholesale destruction of the Jewish state.
Last week Iran celebrated the 35th anniversary of its
barbarous revolution, amid renewed calls of death to
America. What is astonishing about Iran is how it is
repeatedly described as a religious republic. As if you
can be religious and still hang homosexuals in pub-
lic, stone women to death,
funds terror groups that
dismember children, and
shoot political opponents
in the streets.
Are you really religious
when you f und col d-
blooded killers like Hez-
bollah, and pay for Israelis
who planned to sit inno-
cently on a beach in Bul-
garia returned home in a
box?
No, this is not religion but
a farce of faith. A travesty
of tradition. A ridiculing of ritual. The worlds biggest
atheist is more devout than the charlatan Ayatollah
Ali Khameini, whose spirituality is expressed through
repeated calls for Israels extermination and by calling
Jews dogs. As least the atheist doesnt compromise his
conviction or disgrace his dogma with the most insidi-
ous hypocrisy. If Khameini is a religious leader than
I am the king of France. Irans supreme leader is a
spiritual snake oil salesman. A devout phony. A pious
impostor. A holy hoaxer. A sacred scam artist.
Weve got his number.
PART II OF A TWO-PART SERIES
How to rebuild the American diaspora:
Some suggestions to turn the tide
Synagogues find a path to renewal
I
n my last op-ed (Are the Holo-
caust and Israel enough? January
31) I gave my opinion that I do not
believe we can succeed in building
a Jewish future in America based on the
Holocaust and Israel.
For better or worse, these once central
foci of American Jewish life are no lon-
ger significant enough in the lives of the
average American Jew to connect them to
Jewish community and to convince them
to live a life of Jewish practice and values.
While I accept that there are serious warn-
ing signs of the breakdown of the Ameri-
can diaspora, there also are important things being done
in the Jewish community that are succeeding in reclaim-
ing Jews for the American Jewish future.
Here are some of them:
Synagogue renewal
Successful synagogues have found that their key to
renewal is articulating a high-minded set of missions,
called congregational covenants, that members can help
realize. These synagogues ask members for service and
community participation and de-emphasize dues, which
usually are scheduled automatically according to marital
status, family size, age, and profession.
These new synagogues emphasize tefillot (prayer ser-
vices) that are based on active membership participation.
They use a liturgy that emphasizes communal singing
that expresses yearning and joy, lifts the spirit, and allows
worshippers to feel their own souls and the souls of fel-
low congregants. Children are not annoyances, and the
service is neither a show nor overly decorous. But it is
moving.
The best known synagogues providing this kind of
prayer setting are Congregation Bnai Jeshurun (unaffili-
ated Conservative) and Central Synagogue (Reform) in
Manhattan, but closer to home there is Minyan Kolenu at
Congregation Beth Sholom (Conservative), which meets
on Shabbat morning, and Congregation Rinat Yisrael
(Orthodox) on Friday night. Both are in Teaneck. I would
be happy to hear about tefillah settings of this sort in other
local communities, and to let Jewish spiritual seekers in
our communities know about them.
These synagogues bring their communities together
often over Friday night meals or Shabbat lunches. They
accept as members those who are ready to sign on to the
congregational covenants requirements involvement in
worship, Jewish study, and social justice projects that take
the effort of the whole congregation. Further, these vision-
ary synagogues do not limit their mission to their build-
ings. If the Jewish singles and couples are not in shul, they
reach out to them by establishing satellites in
their neighborhoods, and even a Friday night
happy hour rabbinate that encounters singles
in clubs and bars. More often than you would
think, the bar is traded for a Shabbat Across
America program sponsored by the National
Jewish Outreach Program.
Many Hillel houses have undergone major
paradigm changes. Often their work is influ-
enced and augmented by Chabad houses on
campus. Among the most successful of these
are the Harvard and Columbia Hillels, which
have fostered respectful klal Yisrael attitudes
among students and meaningful Jewish educa-
tional and religious experiences for their college popula-
tions. Locally, New Jersey Rutgers Center for Jewish Life
and Chabad offer incredibly varied menus of activities
google these organizations to see what they offer. You
will find out that Rutgers has Friday night dinners for 500
students and communal activities that can keep them Jew-
ishly involved in a multitude of ways, 24/7.
Education by all means
The most success in reconstructing a strong diaspora
comes through the delivery of Jewish learning to our
young and old. In this endeavor, packaging, professional-
ism, and publicity is everything.
So here is a word in praise of chulent and chat and
tot Shabbat programs. The Teaneck Jewish Center ran
a regular chulent and chat program. The draw initially
may have been the chulent, but the chat became a vehicle
for Jewish learning, understanding, and transformation.
Chabad of the Palisades in Tenafly follows a similar format
after davening, and attendance is large.
Synagogue- and JCC-based tot Shabbat programs pro-
vide Shabbat experiences for very young Jewish children,
usually from about 2 1/2 to 5 years old. As with the chu-
lent, the draw is parents desire to give their children
joyous and fun experiences without necessarily seeing
themselves as a target group as well. But the programs
are educational forums for parents as much as they are
fun and good Jewish experiences for their children. Syna-
gogues should run such programs, and widely publicize
invitations to all young builders of Jewish homes and their
children, whether or not they are synagogue members.
A caring community that helps them try to fulfill their
spiritual aspirations is what brings people into synagogue
membership today. That is what synagogues have done
traditionally, and that tradition must be reclaimed for a
synagogue to survive.
Thoughtful and well-planned adult educational endeav-
ors have successfully found the most committed, articu-
late, and thoughtful teachers to share their experience of
a value-oriented, spiritually deep, and meaningful Jewish
way of life. These teachers work in Melton and Context
adult education courses throughout the country. Though
Rabbi Dr.
Michael
Chernick
SEE REBUILD PAGE 24
Professor Michael Chernick holds the Deutsch Family
Chair in Jewish Jurisprudence and Social Justice at the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in
New York; his area of expertise is the Talmud. Professor
Chernick received his doctorate from the Bernard Revel
Graduate School and rabbinic ordination from R. Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary, both affiliates of Yeshiva
University. He has written extensively about Jewish law
and lore and has lectured on these topics in the United
States, Europe, and Israel.
Rabbi Chernick encourages debate about his ideas,
and welcomes other suggestions about how to
strengthen the American Jewish diaspora. We en-
courage our readers to email ideas to us at jstan-
dardletters@gmail.com. We will print as many of
them as we can.
Op-Ed
24 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-24*
the students in these programs tend to be
middle age or older, the impact on the Jew-
ish future that Jewishly committed, edu-
cated, and transformed people can have
on their children and grandchildren can-
not be dismissed. People who have stud-
ied in these programs, who never have
found meaning in typical Jewish institu-
tions, have sought out the new synagogues
I have mentioned about and have become
dedicated and active members. More
importantly, they have brought family
members and friends along with them on
their Jewish journeys.
Let us not discount Jews who are non-
believers. Many have serious secular com-
mitments to the hot button issues of our day
but are not attracted to religion. Judaism,
which is not strictly speaking a religion,
has something for them. They can allevi-
ate human suffering actively, both here
and abroad, through programs sponsored
by such organizations as American Jewish
World Service. They can lobby politically for
the poor and disenfranchised through such
social action groups as Reform Judaisms
Religious Action Center and Orthodoxys
Uri Lzedek. They can put ecological ethics
into practice by joining forces with Hazon,
the Coalition on the Environment and Jew-
ish Life, or Kanfei Nesharim.
These organizations and others like
them seek volunteers for foreign and local
literacy and anti-poverty programs, for
political lobbying for just legislation, and
for eco-camping experiences whose pur-
pose is to improve our fragile environ-
ment. These institutionalized tikkun olam
programs usually link sacred acts of aid
and justice to the Jewish texts and tradi-
tions that inform them, and participants
will tell you how these programs changed
their perception of Judaism.
Technology and social media
It is amazing how much Jewish informa-
tion there is online today. Such websites
as My Jewish Learning and The Vir-
tual Jewish Library, information about
holy day and other Jewish observances
(for example, google Purim), Jewish news,
Jewish music, and every classical Jewish
text with English commentaries all are
online. There is an immense amount of
Jewish content on Facebook and Twit-
ter. It is time to create a cadre of Jewish
techies who can help us think of ways that
we can use these new technologies more
effectively to rebuild and strengthen our
American Jewish community.
To give just one example: If you google
Bible you will not find Jewish perspec-
tives on the Bible immediately. If you try
Bible commentaries you get Protestant,
Catholic, and evangelical information.
With some search engine optimization
thats the technology that puts subjects
higher on the list of googles offerings
Bible or Bible commentaries might
result in Jewish Bible TaNaKh or Bible
with Jewish Commentary popping up
early on.
Technology is the avant-garde of imagi-
nation. We can use that imagination to cre-
ate an American diaspora of significance.
Now, we need some committed Jewish stu-
dents and adults with technological skills
to help us think of the ways we can use
Rebuild
FROM PAGE 23
We need to ask new questions
I
have survey fatigue.
It seems that every
other year a new survey
about the Jewish popu-
lation is published. When it is,
we have the inevitable hand-
wringing from many corners
of the Jewish world about the
statistics and trends present
in the survey. Indeed, the last
Pew Study on the American
Jewish Population, which was
released last fall, has caused
the usual spike in anxiety.
What is interesting about this particu-
lar Pew survey, though, is that is can be
read in two completely different ways,
one positive and one negative. More ink
has been spilled on the seemingly nega-
tive statistics that came out of the survey.
Twenty-two percent of Jews identify as
cultural Jews, or as the survey calls them,
Jews of no religion. These Jews are more
likely to intermarry and move away from
the Jewish community entirely. Two thirds
of the Jews of no religion are not raising
their children as Jews. Intermarriage rates
also are rising; the study says that six in 10
Jews who have gotten married since 2000
have married a non-Jew. Observance levels
across the board are also declining; when
compared to the 2000 National Jewish
Population Study, slightly fewer Jews are
attending Passover seders and observing
Yom Kippur. And when people change
denominations there is a trend toward
becoming less observant or more liberal.
Reform Judaism is now being the largest
Jewish denomination, and people leave
Reform to become Jews of no religion.
When read this way, the Pew study
would cause anyone concerned about the
future of the Jewish community to shake
in their boots. This narrative of erosion,
the idea that the Jews are the ever-dying
people, is a very popular
trope in the organized Jew-
ish world. Indeed, these
numbers are concerning.
But they are not the only
thing we learn from the
study.
Read a different way,
there are many positive sta-
tistics that come out of the
study. Ninety-four percent
of Jews say that they are
proud to be Jews, including
83 percent of Jews of no
religion, and three quarters say that they
have a strong sense of belonging to the
Jewish people. Large majorities of Jews
say that other minority groups face more
discrimination than they do; 72 percent
say gays and lesbians face a lot of discrimi-
nation in American society, and an equal
number say there is lot of discrimination
against Muslims. More than six in 10 64
percent say blacks face a lot of discrimi-
nation. These statistics show that Jews in
America feel confident, safe, and proud of
their identities. Though observance levels
seem to be down, an astonishing 72 per-
cent profess a belief in God, including 45
percent of Jews of no religion.
If you are like me, your eyes now begin
to cross a bit looking at all of these statis-
tics. They seem to be saying contradic-
tory things: Jewish religious observance is
down, yet Jews feel proud to be Jews and
feel a strong attachment to the Jewish peo-
ple and to God.
These questions do not actually give
us the answer to the main questions at
hand: What does the future of the Jewish
people look like? Will Judaism continue to
flourish in twenty-first-century America?
These quantitative statistical analyses give
us only a snapshot of what Jews in Amer-
ica in the year 2013 are doing. We cannot
extrapolate on the Jewish future based on
the findings in the Pew study, as much as
demographers and Jewish communal pro-
fessionals would like to.
To get at the question of what really is
going on in the Jewish community, and
what the future may look like, we need
to start asking different questions, more
qualitative in nature. I want to know why
Jews do the things they do. What makes
them be proud to be Jewish?
People who observe Jewishly, in what-
ever way they observe, do so because it
adds meaning to their lives. The social
connections they form through synagogue
attendance make them feel better. Saying
prayers to God reminds them to be grate-
ful for what they have in their lives. Some
people may strengthen their resilience by
believing in a powerful deity who loves
them and is there to back them up in hard
times. These are just guesses on my part
about what aspects of Judaism help peo-
ple live more fulfilled lives. I would love
to know for sure what aspects of Judaism
make people flourish.
There actually is scientific research that
can help us identify these things. The field
of positive psychology, founded by Martin
Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, has
developed scientific processes to ask these
questions. Positive psychology is the study
of how to make normal life more fulfill-
ing; that is not the same as the goal of tra-
ditional psychology, which is how to treat
mental illnesses. Researchers have devel-
oped a variety of tests to discover whether
a person has some traits positive outlook,
hope, gratitude, resilience, to name a few
and then have identified certain behaviors
that can strengthen those traits. When the
traits are strengthened, then a person is far
more likely to experience happiness, or if
you dont like that word, meaning, fulfill-
ment, and enrichment.
Judaism as a religious practice can make
us more fulfilled. Think of all of the grati-
tude practices we have built in to the sys-
tem already. Observant Jews wake up and
say Modeh Ani Thank you God for
bringing me back to the world this morn-
ing. Saying brachot blessings over food
reminds us to be grateful for what we eat.
Psychological studies show that when we
feel grateful, we are happier.
Some may laugh, and say that being Jew-
ish is not about being happy. It may even
be anathema to it. We are good at beat-
ing our breasts and crying oy vey. Yet I
strongly believe that for Judaism to have a
future in an increasingly secular and indi-
vidualist twenty-first-century America, we
must understand how Judaism can add
meaning to peoples lives. Then we must
teach Judaism to the next generation in
a way people find accessible, a way that
shows the beauty and joy in our tradition,
using new vocabulary we all can relate to.
People will not remain Jewish just
because their parents were Jewish. We
have to understand how Judaism works in
peoples lives, and then articulate clearly,
proudly, how it can work in everyones life.
The time has come to ask different ques-
tions in these surveys. The language and
research methods used in positive psy-
chology are a good starting point for devel-
oping new questionnaires. I will look for-
ward to reading a survey that uses these
new methodologies, and would love to be
a part of developing one.
There is a lot to be learned about
how and why Jews are Jewish. Lets stop
counting Jews, and start asking the right
questions.
Rabbi Rebecca W. Sirbu of Teaneck is the
director of Rabbis Without Borders at Clal
The National Jewish Center for Learning
and Leadership.
Rabbi
Rebecca W.
Sirbu
Op-Ed
JS-25*
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 25
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the social media more effectively to get the
Jewish message out. They dont even have
to meet in the same locale that is what
Skype and Facetime are for.
If Facebook can support revolutions and
strengthen Arab springs, then it can trans-
figure the American Jewish experience as
well.
Jewish Unity
If there is to be a diaspora renaissance,
only the concerted effort of committed
Jews will make it happen.
One institution that has been the major
unifier in the Jewish community is the
federation system. Whatever its faults are,
trying to unify Jews for useful purposes is
not one of them. In Bergen County, the
Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey
developed a program called Synagogue
Leadership Initiative, which brings lay
leaders, rabbis, educators, and synagogue
professionals from every denomination
together to re-envision the synagogue.
This is a work in progress, but a good first
step. We should, however, challenge our
federation to take this initiative further by
forming an interdenominational and post-
denominational volunteer committee that
has as its mission creating concrete pro-
gramming dedicated to preserving our
local diaspora.
The federation is uniquely positioned to
bring together such a practically oriented
think tank and to help it realize its goals. It
therefore should feel a sense of mitzvah
to do so.
Israel
Israel, at least for now, is not American
Jewrys poor, powerless sibling. It has a
robust economy and a strong army. Those
of us committed to Israels welfare and
security should certainly take its cause to
those centers of power that can secure its
future. Israeli educators and cultural and
governmental representatives, however,
have openly said that Israel can take care
of itself, and that we should be looking to
the health of our own Jewish households.
Let us take these thinkers, educators, and
politicians seriously, and reconsider how
we disburse our resources between here
and there.
My plea for a strong American diaspora
is not an American Jewry vs. Israel polemic.
Rather, I see a reconstruction of an Ameri-
can Babylonia as the key to a renewed rec-
ognition of the significant place Israel plays
in Jewish identity and the enrichment of our
diaspora Jewish culture. But Israel alone
can no longer sustain American Jewish
identity, and American Jewry must define
who it is for it to flourish.
LETTERS
Learning about the arts
I was thrilled to see the article about the
Sinai Schools (Seeing Sinai, January 31)
and that it discussed how the arts can
make a significant impact with the stu-
dents. I am the artistic director/founder of
Envision Theater, an educational theater
company. We bring theater programming
to Jewish day schools in New Jersey and
New York and have had the opportunity
to run the theater program at the Joseph
Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston
since September.
My team and I are thrilled with the tre-
mendous success of the theater program
at Kushner. A theater program is a ter-
rific equalizer for students of all abilities
to work both on stage and behind the
scenes. A theater program also allows
students to work collaboratively to cre-
ate a work of art while showcasing a
myriad of skills. This creates a commu-
nity unlike any other team or after school
activity. Students are given the opportu-
nity to grow skills as 21st-century learn-
ers, which will help them in all aspects of
their lives. Students will gain self-esteem,
confidence, team work experience, criti-
cal thinking skills, and communication
skills and express their creativity all
while having fun with their peers. I look
forward to seeing continued growth with
all of my theater students
Rebecca Lopkin
Artistic Director, Envision Theater
www.envisiontheater.
No help for mentally ill
Why is there no help for the mentally
impaired in the Jewish organizations deal-
ing with millions of dollars?
Apparently I am the only one with non-
perfect children. Apparently I am the
only one who has nowhere to turn to get
help for a youngish adult man who is men-
tally ill and cannot fend for himself. Appar-
ently the rest of you, dear readers, are only
ones concerned about life in the bubble
of the Jewish community and its idyllic
and safe lives for your children, and con-
currently have enough money required
for mental health treatment, rehab, and
maintenance.
I see you all as blissfully ignorant, or
maybe at a loss for writing skills.
It isnt much really. Just give me some
ideas, support my statements in the Jew-
ish Standard and other media, or maybe,
volunteer your advocacy for my son, who
lives on the street in Phoenix, Arizona. The
Jewish federation has never volunteered
to help my son, nor have they a program
for the mentally ill. Yes, for developmen-
tally disabled there are many. Is that safer?
Less diverse? More acceptable? Step into
my shoes as a single mother, who has been
through hell and back raising four adopted
children who have not turned out the way
your impeccable children have.
Where are the Chabad and their out-
reach in Arizona??
I had a conversation with my daughter
in Israel yesterday. Her twin, speaking
over the computer in some library, was
SEE LETTERS PAGE 65
Cover Story
26 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-26
LARRY YUDELSON
A
Teaneck rabbi should have
died rather than permitting
two female students to wear
tefillin at the Orthodox yeshiva
high school he heads, according to a new
responsum issued this month by Yeshiva
Women
and tefillin
May women wear tefillin?
In Orthodox world, questions of authority and community
Universitys leading authority of Jewish
law and posted on the Rabbinical Council
of Americas website. At issue was a deci-
sion by Rabbi Naftali Harcsztark, principal
of the SAR High School in Riverdale, N.Y.
The students, one of whom is from Bergen
County, come from Conservative families.
In his Hebrew-language letter oppos-
ing Rabbi Harcsztarks decision, Rabbi
Herschel Schachter, who serves as one
of two halachic advisors for
the Orthodox Unions kashrut
division, said that because
of Orthodoxys conflict with
the heretical Conserva-
tive and Reform movements,
such changes to traditional
Orthodox practice must be
resisted as strongly as were
the anti-Jewish decrees of King
Antiochus.
Feminism is a particularly
problematic motive for chang-
ing traditional Jewish practice,
Rabbi Schachter wrote in a second letter
he posted this month. That is because
feminism was a principal
of ancient Saducee her-
etics and early Chris-
tians, who advocated
that daughters should
inherit equally with
sons contrary to the
plain meaning of the
Torah and the halacha as
understood by the Talmud.
In general, innovations
not approved by great rab-
bis lead to destruction
and Reform, God help
us, Rabbi Schachter
wrote, lamenting that
unlike in 16th century
Poland, people now
can publish their opin-
ions on matters of Jewish law
without seeking prior approval
from rabbinic sages.
Rabbi Schachters letters are the latest
salvos in a war raging within Orthodox
Judaism.
Rabbi Harcsztarks decision to permit
the two students to wear tefillin was first
reported by the Boiling Point, a student
newspaper from Shalhevet High School in
Los Angeles.
Rabbi Harcsztark defended
his decision in an email.
Women wearing tefillin is
not the common practice in
our community, he wrote.
However, since there is basis
in halacha and these students
have been committed to daily
prayer with tefillin since their
bat mitzvah, I felt it appropri-
ate to create a space at SAR
for tefilah [prayer] that is
meaningful for them.
In a longer letter sent
to the SAR community, he wrote: My
responsibility was to consider the person
before me and the halacha, before consid-
ering the political fallout of the decision.
While the decision was groundbreaking
for the SAR High School, administrators at
the SAR Academy middle school and the
Ramaz School in Manhattan already had
made similar decisions.
The Talmud is clear that men are
required to wear tefillin and women are
not. The Talmud also records that excep-
tional women specifically, Michal, the
daughter of King Saul did wear them.
Given the support of such authorities as
Maimonides and the Shulchan Aruch for
women to choose to wear tefillin despite
not being required to do so, Rabbi Harcsz-
tark wrote, I felt it appropriate to see it as
a legitimate practice.
I know that not everyone agrees with
my decision. I expect that and I respect
that, he wrote.
Rabbi Schachter, however, did more
than simply dismiss Rabbi Harcsztarks
halachic ruling; the Yeshiva University Tal-
mudist maintained that the school princi-
pal had no right to decide the question on
his own.
At its core, the debate is not only about
the question of feminism but about bound-
aries and authority.
Rabbi Naftali
Harcztark
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 27
JS-27
It is a continuation of the debate that
in recent years has raged in the mod-
ern Orthodoxy rooted in Yeshiva Univer-
sity where both Rabbis Harcsztark and
Schachter were trained, and where Rabbi
Schachter heads an institute for advanced
Talmud study and the Rabbinical Coun-
cil of America. If modern Orthodoxy once
constituted the liberal wing of Orthodox
Judaism, today it can be said to have grown
to encompass its own divisions: a left wing
represented by Rabbi Avi Weiss, who broke
from Y.U. to found a competing rabbini-
cal school, Yeshivat Chovevi Torah; a right
wing personified by Rabbi Schachter, which
has failed in its efforts to expel the left wing
from the RCA but succeeded in blocking the
RCA from accepting YCT graduates as mem-
bers; and a center that does not agree with
the left wings innovations (most notably,
Rabbi Weiss decision to ordain women)
but does not want to see modern Ortho-
doxy fall victim to internecine fighting.
This fight took an international turn
last year, when the Israeli chief rabbinate
stopped accepting Rabbi Weisss testimony
about the Jewishness of his congregants.
Proof of Jewishness is required for Jews to
marry in the state of Israel, but the rabbin-
ate had been advised by right-wing mem-
bers of the RCA that Rabbi Weiss was not
trustworthy.
We are very proud that Rav Schechter is
a member of the RCA, said Rabbi Shmuel
Goldin, leader of Congregation Ahavath
Torah in Englewood and the RCAs imme-
diate past president. He is a posek hal-
achic decisor of great prominence, and
he is one of the poskim that the RCA will
turn to for guidance.
That does not mean we are bound by
one particular posek, but he is certainly
an individual to whom we will turn for
guidance.
For Rabbi Schachter, at issue is not only
the specific liberal rulings in this case,
on women wearing tefillin but a broader
question of who can decide questions of
Jewish law.
He expresses surprise that those women
seeking to wear tallit or tefillin did not
bring their questions before the great
decisors of our time, apparently thinking
that the entire people is holy, as Korach
and his followers claimed, though perhaps
their thought was that all the people were
at Sinai.
And he dismisses anyone, even ordained
rabbis, who think they have the authority
to decide halacha on their own.
In fact, he says, every halachic author-
ity from those of the Mishna until today
would agree that this behavior is
totally forbidden ... so as not to copy the
heretics.
Rabbi Schachter wrote that it is only
recognized Torah giants who can deter-
mine what behavior makes God happy and
what doesnt. Although he does not say so
A young Jacob Schacter and his
father, Rabbi Herschel Schacter, with
Rabbi Joseph P. Soloveitchik, left.
Bound and enveloped
Local Conservative clergy consider women and tefillin
JOANNE PALMER
R
abbi Dr. Joel Roth of Englewood,
the Louis Finkelstein Professor
of Talmud and Jewish Law at
the Jewish Theological Semi-
nary, is one of the Conservative move-
ments premier halachists.
It is Rabbi Roth who wrote the closely
argued decision that allowed women into
the seminarys rabbinical school; his argu-
ment was that in order to be able to lead
davening and earn ordination, a woman
must agree to perform all the time-bound
mitzvot, although otherwise she would
not be obligated to do so.
Laying tefillin is among those mitzvot,
he wrote in On the Ordination of Women
in 1984.
But, he said in a phone call from Jeru-
salem this week, that does not mean that
women who are not planning to be reli-
gious leaders should not lay tefillin unless
they are willing to undertake the serious
commitment to put them on every morn-
ing. In fact, he said, there is no reason for
women not to wear them.
He is not the only Conservative move-
ment scholar to believe that; he is not
even alone in that belief in his position on
the far right side of the movements self-
proclaimed big tent. To make that point,
Rabbi Roth tells a story:
In the mid 1970s, there was only one
place to daven at JTS. The modern Ortho-
dox and Conservative worlds still were far
closer then than they are today, so that
minyan not only was not egalitarian, it
featured separate seating, with the part
of the mehitzah being played by a small
bookcase.
In order for the men to reach their seats,
they had to walk through the womens
section.
One of those men was Rabbi Saul
Lieberman, the renowned Talmudist.
A woman who worked at JTS had asked
Rabbi Roth whether he thought it was
acceptable for a woman to wear tefillin.
Yes, it was, he told her. She wore them.
Professor Lieberman asked me to tell
her not to wear them, Rabbi Roth said.
I said to him, If you are telling me
that in your name that it is forbid-
den for a women to wear tefillin, I
will do it.
Lieberman was silent. So I asked
him again. There was another pause.
Then Lieberman said No, tell her
that it is not aesthetic. And I said
to him, Professor, I will always be
your agent in a matter of law, but I
will not be your agent in a matter of
aesthetics.
Rabbi Roth did not tell the
woman not to put on tefillin, one
or two people changed their seats,
and to the best of my knowledge
nobody stopped coming because
she was there. Including Professor
Lieberman.
Women may wear tefillin, Rabbi
Roth said, because although it is
true that they are exempt from the
need to do so, it is clear in rabbinic lit-
erature that the most prevalent Ashkenazi
view is that women may observe the mitz-
vot from which they are exempt, and may
recite the attendant brachot that those
mitzvot generally entail.
Rabbi Shelley Kniaz
Cantor Estelle
Epstein
Rabbi Debra
Orenstein
SEE WOMEN AND TEFILLIN PAGE 28
SEE BOUND PAGE 28
What are tefillin?
Impress these My words upon your
very heart: bind them as a sign on your
hand and let them serve as a symbol on
your forehead.
Those are Gods words, as Moses told
them to the Israelites and as found in
Deuteronomy 11:18; those words are the
basis for the mitzvah of laying tefillin.
Tefillin are small boxes made of black
leather; inside the boxes are parch-
ment scrolls that carry Torah verses.
They are strapped onto the head and
the arm with long black leather strips;
the strap of the one trails down the
users back and the other encircles the
arm seven times.
According to Jewish law, men are
obligated to wear tefillin as they pray
Shacharit every weekday morning;
the controversy playing out now in
the Orthodox world is about whether
women are allowed to wear them as
well. In the Conservative world, the
question is whether women must con-
sider themselves, like men, to be obli-
gated to wear them.
Tefillin are defined in English as phy-
lacteries perhaps there is someone,
somewhere in the world, who finds that
to be a useful explanation, but there
are not two such people. (According
to Wikipedia, though, the word means
amulet or charms. Hmm.) -JP
Cover Story
28 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-28
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One of the arguments against womens wearing them
is the biblical prohibition against women wearing mens
clothing; there is a biblical passage that calls tefillin mens
clothing. That is not a commonly held belief, however.
The more general argument against tefillin being
considered mens clothing is that women didnt wear
them. Its circular if women started doing it, then it
no longer would be considered mens garb.
The problem there is that womens tefillin have to be
exactly the same as mens, he continued. There is not
a legal option to make womens tefillin round. Or pink.
Moses Isserles, a great 16th century Polish commenta-
tor, said that it would be arrogant for a woman to wear
tefillin; that would have been true at a time when few
women did so, but it is no longer true now, Rabbi Roth
said. It seems to me that there is almost no earthly rea-
son to prohibit women from wearing tefillin, any more
than we should prohibit them from any other mitzvot
from which they are exempt.
Although he believes that it is acceptable for women
to wear tefillin, Rabbi Roth said, I make no claim that
women ought to or must wear tefillin. I am only saying
that if women want to, I see no halachic objection.
In my paper on ordination of women, I required them
to accept as obligatory upon themselves all of the mitz-
vot from which they are exempt because I thought and
continue to think that it is not a good idea to have as
role models rabbis who do not observe certain mitzvot.
It would convey the wrong message to the community.
Conservative women have strong feelings about the
mitzvah of laying tefillin.
Rabbi Shelley Kniaz of Teaneck is the director of con-
gregational education at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack
Valley in Woodcliff Lake.
She began working toward a masters degree at the
Jewish Theological Seminary in 1982, and entered rab-
binical school two years later. She began to lay tefillin at
the beginning of her time in the seminary, and has done
so ever since.
I had a classmate who really felt that from a feminist
point of view we should have our own form of rabbin-
ate, Rabbi Kniaz said. It was parallel to some of the
theories of womens style of management and business.
It was a position that I respected and still respect but
I felt connected to Joel Roths point of view, with the gen-
eral principle that with privilege comes responsibility.
Her desire to wear tefillin was not only theoretical,
though. It was also both personal and communal.
Its a great metaphor, she said. When you are
wrapped in a tallit you feel enveloped, and when you
wrap tefillin you feel bound to the tradition.
And its also the community. You become part of a
prayer community when you put on the uniform.
And then of course there is the actuality that tefillin
are prayers. They are tefillah. Each one is a tefillah, it
has the tefillot in them. Its really making concrete the
pasuk the biblical verse that says you shall bind
them upon your arm and that [they?] shall be a frontlet
between your eyes. It means that you are supposed to
keep them the tefillot, the prayers close.
Its like the mezuzah on the doorpost of your house,
she concluded. You should be feeling them both when
you are home and when you are out. It is a reminder; it
keeps them close.
Cantor Estelle Epstein of Teaneck, who is 55, toyed
with the idea of wearing tefillin when she was growing
up on Long Island, but she did not take it seriously until
she went to a USY international convention, and then, a
few years later, on a USY Pilgrimage trip to Israel.
Like many Conservative shuls at the time, hers was
not egalitarian; her desire to learn trope and read haf-
tarah was rebuffed. On Simchat Torah of her senior year
in high school, though, she went to a friends synagogue
in Philadelphia. There, women were counted in the min-
yan, and I was a guest, and I am a bat kohen, so I was
called up for the kohen aliyah.
They asked me to wear a kippah, and when I got up to
the bimah I was given a tallit. They thought I would use
it just to touch the Torah, but instead I put it on, and it
felt so right. So I decided on the way home that I would
lay tefillin every morning.
My mother gave me my grandfathers tallit, and I
went to the Lower East Side and bought tefillin. I told
them I wanted it for a bat mitzvah boy.
It was a perfect fit.
Cantor Epstein who also is Dr. Epstein as a result of
the doctorate in physics she earned at MIT still lays
Bound
FROM PAGE 27
explicitly, because he decides halacha in this document
even as he defines that activity as restricted to Torah
giants, he implies that he counts himself among those
giants.
Taken together, the two responsa reflect two aspects
of his religious approach, which have made him a con-
troversial claimant to the position of the YUs preemi-
nent rabbinic figure. That was the role held by Rabbi
Joseph B. Soloveitchik until he retired in 1985.
On the one hand, Rabbi Schachter highlights his role
as a student of Rabbi Soloveitchik.
The two responsa repeatedly quote Rabbi Soloveit-
chik. (Rabbi Soloveitchik published little during his
lifetime, and those publications included no works of
halachic responsa, so the bulk of the citations are from
Nefesh Harav, a collection of Soloveitchiks teachings
and rulings compiled by Rabbi Schachter.)
On the other hand, in these two responsa Rabbi
Schachter often cites various 19th and 20th century
Orthodox rabbis who today would be classified as cha-
redi and would have had no truck with Rabbi Soloveit-
chik. (For his part, Rabbi Soloveitchik never resorted
to the opinions of those halachic authorities, known as
achronim, in deciding halacha, nor did he advise his stu-
dents to do so. Instead, he generally would turn to the
Talmud, Maimonides, and other medieval authorities;
when he did turn to later authorities, it was only those
from his Lithuanian tradition.)
At times in his writing, Rabbi Schachters use of Ortho-
dox authorities without acknowledging their disparate
ideological commitments can seem jarring.
Bringing together different streams of Orthodoxy is
perhaps the flip side to what is the crux of his argument
Women and tefillin
FROM PAGE 27
It seems to me that
there is almost no
earthly reason to
prohibit women from
wearing tefillin.
RABBI JOEL ROTH
29 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-29
Cover Story
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 29
JS-29
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 29
JS-29
29 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-29
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 29
JS-29
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tefillin every day. When I started, it was because wom-
ens rights were so important to me that I really felt it
was my obligation, she said.
I want to be able to be called up to the Torah. Its very
important for me to be able to do this. And thats still
how I feel.
If we are going to be an egalitarian Jewish society,
women have to take on the same obligations as men.
Rabbi Debra Orenstein of Congregation Bnai Israel in
Emerson began wearing tefillin when she was 14, in 1976.
Joel Roth was the scholar in residence at Camp Ramah
in the Berkshires, she said. I read his teshuva, and I
approached him asking him what I had to do to formally
take on all the obligations.
In 1983, she began a PhD program at the Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary; when she went to the seminarys syna-
gogue, in my naivet I showed up in my tallit and tefil-
lin and I was asked to leave, she said.
About nine months later, the vote to admit women as
candidates for ordination took place. At which time, one
of the rules was that women would have to take a vow
that they would wear tallit and tefillin consistently, to be
accepted to the program.
In my youth, naivet, and chutzpah, I said no.
Why?
Actually, what I said was Are you also asking the men
to take a vow that they will do that? And they said no,
they were not.
This was based on Joel Roths teshuva. But I thought it
was theologically ridiculous that nine months ago I was
thrown out for wearing tefillin, and now I would effec-
tively be barred for not wearing them.
Despite her refusal to promise that she would wear
tefillin, and somewhat to her surprise, she was accepted
into rabbinical school.
Halacha is not separate from sociology and moral-
ity, Rabbi Orenstein said. Both morally and sociologi-
cally, I did not like the process by which or at least it
seemed to me a group of men got together and said
what women should do.
I felt that it was creating two classes of women. One
of them came up to the level of men, and one of them
did not.
So although I had been wearing tefillin, I deliberately
stopped. I felt it was the best way that I could make the
statement that we need to have this practice develop a
little bit more organically.
There might be a way that women could show totafot
bein ainaichem the symbol above your eyes that
wouldnt look exactly the way men are showing it.
This is a question on which reasonable minds can
differ, she continued. I think there is an argument
for saying that as long as men are the only ones who
wear kippot and tefillin, of course those things will seem
male. But if our daughters and sons grow up and see
both women and men wearing those garments, then the
symbols become simply Jewish for the next generation.
The gift that feminism and egalitarianism give to Juda-
ism is that they return us to core questions of meaning,
she said. We cant lose the question of how we do it,
but the deepest question is what it means for any and
every Jew to have tefillin.
Her decision not to wear tefillin was a result of the
unique moment in history and the unique experiences
I had at that time, she said. I thought at the time that
the best way I could serve the development of Jewish
practice for myself and for my community was to be an
outlier in this regard, and to protest the process of the
decision-making.
But times have a way of changing.
Now I have another consideration, Rabbi Orenstein
said. When I am at morning minyan at my shul, when
the cantor and the male leaders are wearing tefillin and
Im not, I feel more and more uncomfortable about the
model I am giving to our kids.
I would guess that I would have to give the famous
Rosensweig answer about it. I am not yet wearing them.
I cant imagine that if we talk in about 10 years, or
maybe another five, and you ask me about it, that I
would give the same answer.
I am about ready to make a change.
Rabbi Orenstein ends with a story. It might be apoc-
ryphal, she said; she was not there, but she has heard
it from a number of people if it isnt true it should be.
The story involves Rabbi Dr. Judith Hauptman, JTSs E.
Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture; she
is a highly knowledgeable and well-respected scholar.
There was a Chabadmobile that would camp out near
Columbia, which is just down Broadway from JTS,
Rabbi Orenstein said. They invited men to lay tefillin,
and women to light Shabbat candles.
Dr. Hauptman was invited in they can be very per-
sistent and she said I would like to light Shabbat can-
dles, but these boxes the tefillin look very interest-
ing. Can I try them?
When she was told that she could not, she said, I
understand that Rashis daughters wore them. Isnt it
true that they were very pious women? And its it true
that although women are not required by law to wear
them, they are allowed to?
The Chabadnik looked at her and said, very seriously,
Lady, times have changed.
against Rabbi Harcsztark: What he describes as a civil
war within Judaism against Conservative Judaism,
which he likens to the battle waged against the Saducees
by the Pharisees two thousand years ago.
For Rabbi Harcsztark, however, Jewish unity, rather
than just Orthodox unity, seems to be an important
value. The SAR principal wrote while he does not believe
his schools girls should put on tefillin, I am commit-
ted to having our boys and girls be able to daven in the
same shul where a woman might be doing so. That when
they see something different, even controversial, before
deciding in which denomination it belongs, they must
first take a serious look at the halacha and ask their rabbi
whether there is basis for such practice.
His decision, he wrote, was applauded by Rabbi Yosef
Adler of Teanecks Congregation Rinat Yisrael. Rabbi
Adler also was a student of Soloveitchik, and refers to
him frequently in sermons and classes he gives at the
boys-only Torah Academy of Bergen County, which he
heads.
Meanwhile, one woman raised in Teaneck has argued
that the question of women wearing tefillin may be one
of life and death for the future of Orthodoxy.
As an observant Jewish woman who does not want to
wrap tefillin or wear a tallit, I believe unequivocally that
women should be able to, Miriam Krule wrote in Slate;
she edits that online magazines religion column. And
there are many other women like me. Which is why Jew-
ish law, while of prime importance to those wishing to
take this step forward and those hoping to prevent it, is
not the most interesting part of this debate. Its second-
ary to the question of whether Modern Orthodoxy has a
future if it continues to alienate so many women.
How long will educated, committed women want to
be a part of the community that doesnt want them?
she asked.
It seems to me that
there is almost no
earthly reason to
prohibit women from
wearing tefillin.
RABBI JOEL ROTH
Cover Story
30 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-30
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POINT
Chasing shadows
Why wearing tefillin is bad for feminism
ELIANA AARON
Many of us have seen the recent press and
politicking of Jewish feminists to encour-
age girls and women to wear tefillin when
they pray, following the SAR and Ramaz
announcement that they would allow girls
to do so in their Orthodox schools.
Traditionally a religious commandment
required daily for men, tefillin is a biblical
commandment recited in the Shema prayer
twice daily. My approach to this matter is
quite different than most: I believe that
encouraging women and girls to wear tefil-
lin during prayers is against modern feminist
ideals.
Many of the arguments about tefillin are
based on continuity of tradition, which is
a formidable and esteemed ideal in all reli-
gions. Not being a subject expert matter in
Jewish law, I shall not discuss the religious,
but rather an alternative Orthodox Jewish
feminist point of view.
Judaism has a concept of religion that
actually takes the traditional roles of women
into consideration. Women are not obligated
to perform most time-dependent command-
ments. They can, but they do not have to.
Our ancient religion accommodates women
with children. Twenty-first century Western
society doesnt even do that adequately.
Women are considered to be more spiri-
tual than men, hence we do not need to
wear kippot, tzitzit, and other religious garb.
Being biologically in tune with time, we do
not need external reminders of time-depen-
dent things; it is inherent in our beings.
As Barnard College President Dr. Debra
Spar said in an October 2013 interview, a pri-
mary unintended consequence of the femi-
nist movement of the 1960s and 70s was to
make women feel inadequate. Women were
left with many choices their forebears could
not image, yet many in my generation were
given a clear message: You must/should
choose everything.
There is tremendous societal pressure, well
documented in scholarly literature, for us to
become superwomen and learn how to
manage all of the choices we now have
to make. With only 24 hours in a day, for
God did not allot extra daily hours for
superwomen, something had to give.
Women in the 1970s and 80s suppressed
their femininity by wearing mens suits
and ties. (Think Annie Hall.) Studies
about leadership in that era reflect that
women felt they had to suppress their
feminine attributes and become more
masculine to succeed as leaders.
These messages, sent to us through
models of so-called successful women
and media, made many women feel
inadequate and guilty. Guilty that we
neglected our children, could not devote
more overtime at work, neglecting our
spouses, or did not climb the corporate
ladder fast enough. And we went home
and tried to scratch together dinner for
the family, missed PTA meetings, allowed
others to raise our children because we
simply could not do everything.
Our collective self-esteem as women
was harmed as we chose how to spend
our 24 hours each day, knowing that
something had to give. Our choices have
price tags attached to them.
Along comes tefillin.
Religious commandments are not
vehicles for feminist statements. They
are commitments for life, not to be cho-
sen when the cameras are around and
discarded when alone at home.
Women wearing tefillin in the presence
of men may be deemed inappropriate
and belligerent, as it is not considered tra-
ditional Orthodox practice and may dis-
tract their prayers. If a woman wants to
take on an extra commandment intended
for men, then let it be (like for men) a life-
long daily commitment and done without
offending other co-religionists. After all,
why is our culture and religion less wor-
thy than others of some basic sensitivity?
The tefillin movement is adding to the
already tapped out burden that modern
Orthodox women have in their day-to-
day lives. Besides juggling work and
children, husbands and communities,
we have Shabbat to organize, kosher
homes, holidays to prepare for and
manage, many of us pray daily, and
we have other religious duties.
Instead of focusing on improving
womens self-esteem and alleviating
the guilt of necessary decisions and
sacrifices, the tefillin movement seeks
to add to the pressures on women to
prove their equality to men.
Why does women wearing tefillin
not advance the cause of feminism?
First of all, it isnt in style. We know
that we dont have to dress or act like
men to be considered powerful or
equal. Why would we want to revert to
the old-fashioned thinking that we need
to wear tefillin in order to be considered
spiritual equals to men?
Secondly, the task of educating the new
generations of women is to teach them
to advance womens equality in pay, pro-
mote leadership skills in school, build
self-esteem and pride, and role model
such behaviors. Feminism shouldnt
lead us towards unrealistic goals that
burden women to take on more respon-
sibilities, instead of embracing Judaisms
traditional yet modern approach with
an equal-but-different status of women.
Because until men deliver babies, they
will always be different than us.
Tefillin does not help women feel
good about being women. It encourages
women to chase shadows and feel inad-
equate in their non-maleness.
As an Orthodox feminist Jewish
woman, I believe that I am whole and
complete without adding another com-
mandment to my repertoire.
I dont want to be a man. I am equal
and different and very proud of it.
Eliana Aaron, originally from Teaneck,
now lives in Israel, where she is a nurse
practitioner. She is working toward a
doctorate at Yale Universitys school of
nursing.
See Counterpoint page 32
Eliana Aaron
I believe that
I am whole and
complete without
adding another
commandment
to my repertoire.
JS-31
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Orthodox women have in their day-to-
day lives. Besides juggling work and
children, husbands and communities,
we have Shabbat to organize, kosher
homes, holidays to prepare for and
manage, many of us pray daily, and
we have other religious duties.
Instead of focusing on improving
womens self-esteem and alleviating
the guilt of necessary decisions and
sacrifices, the tefillin movement seeks
to add to the pressures on women to
prove their equality to men.
Why does women wearing tefillin
not advance the cause of feminism?
First of all, it isnt in style. We know
that we dont have to dress or act like
men to be considered powerful or
equal. Why would we want to revert to
the old-fashioned thinking that we need
to wear tefillin in order to be considered
spiritual equals to men?
Secondly, the task of educating the new
generations of women is to teach them
to advance womens equality in pay, pro-
mote leadership skills in school, build
self-esteem and pride, and role model
such behaviors. Feminism shouldnt
lead us towards unrealistic goals that
burden women to take on more respon-
sibilities, instead of embracing Judaisms
traditional yet modern approach with
an equal-but-different status of women.
Because until men deliver babies, they
will always be different than us.
Tefillin does not help women feel
good about being women. It encourages
women to chase shadows and feel inad-
equate in their non-maleness.
As an Orthodox feminist Jewish
woman, I believe that I am whole and
complete without adding another com-
mandment to my repertoire.
I dont want to be a man. I am equal
and different and very proud of it.
Eliana Aaron, originally from Teaneck,
now lives in Israel, where she is a nurse
practitioner. She is working toward a
doctorate at Yale Universitys school of
nursing.
See Counterpoint page 32
I believe that
I am whole and
complete without
adding another
commandment
to my repertoire.
Cover Story
32 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-32
COUNTERPOINT
Tefillin a binding obligation
DR. ANNE LAPIDUS LERNER
The recent discussion of women and tefillin
has convinced me that the time has come for
me publicly to confess that my first set of tefil-
lin was stolen.
It happened on a beautiful July day in
Jerusalem, just over a month before my son
David was to reach his real Jewish majority on
Rosh Hodesh Elul. Like many of his peers he
wanted to be comfortable davening daily in
tefillin by the time he became bar mitzvah, so
he was to start a month before. My husband,
Rabbi Stephen C. Lerner, and I set out with
him and his younger sister, Rahel, for a foray to B. Cohens
store on Meah Shearim Street. My daughter and I felt that
the amount of clothing we had to wear was incompatible
with the heat, but the trade-off was that we were able to
make the trip without being cursed.
On the way I was internally struggling with my own posi-
tion vis--vis tefillin. A tallit had been part of my liturgical
experience for about a decade, but both logic and halakhah
really indicate that tefillin are more important
than a tallit. Emotionally, it was so hard for me
to take that step. Still, my son had been a Jew for
just shy of 13 years; I, for decades longer. How
could I avoid this responsibility? Further, as a
member of the Jewish Theological Seminary fac-
ulty, I had played a significant role in orchestrat-
ing our decision to admit women to rabbinical
school the previous fall. Tallit and tefillin would
be required of them the decision of a commit-
tee of which I was a member. What about me?
Before we reached the store I told my husband
that I also wanted to buy a set for myself. Uncon-
vinced that we could pull this off, he said, Well
see. Just lets get Davids first. When that purchase had been
concluded, I reminded my husband that he had promised
to buy tefillin for George, a nonexistent congregant who
once had found them meaningful and now, after a long
lapse, wanted to use them again. The men negotiated but
when Mr. Cohen asked how big to make the head opening
for George, I said that he had a small head, about the size of
mine. Both sets of tefillin, correctly adjusted, were delivered
Dr. Anne Lapidus
Lerner
to our hotel the next day.
Why was it so hard for me to take that step? Tefillin
always have been part of my life, although for most
of it, as a spectator ritual. Every weekday morning
without fail my father, Joseph Lapidus, would wake
up early enough to daven in the living room in tallit
and tefillin before setting out for work as a guidance
counselor at Boston English High School. There was
the vacation when, after suggesting that my mother
was overpacking, he packed for himself for an August
week in New Hampshire: tallit, tefillin, siddur, paja-
mas, toothbrush, underwear, sweater. His davening
seemed as dependable as sunrise.
When my younger brother, Robert, joined him
upon becoming a bar mitzvah, it seemed quite natu-
ral. Growing up, I never considered my own absence
from this ritual as anything other than equally natural.
After all, much of life in the 1950s and 1960s was gen-
der-divided. Of course, there was that fleeting mention
in the Talmud of Sauls daughter, Michal, in tefillin, but
that clearly was the stuff of legend.
Fast forward to the early 1970s. In some ways, noth-
ing had changed; in others, everything was changing.
Ezrat Nashim, founded in September 1971, challenged
the traditional gender role division within Judaism,
bringing to the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assem-
bly Conference in March 1972 a Call for Change
including, as its last point and without any examples:
women be considered as bound to fulfill all mitzvot
equally with men. As a rabbinic spouse, I was pres-
ent at the meeting where Ezrat Nashim discussed its
demands with the wives of the rabbis. Tefillin may
have been part of what they intended, but they were
not mentioned. In the early 1970s there was a meeting
of a part of the JTS faculty, which I had joined in 1969,
to discuss the problem created at some Camps Ramah
by young women who wanted to pray in tefillin. Prof.
Moshe Zucker, a senior and respected member of the
faculty, suggested that we should require tefillin for
girls and not for boys. The result, he predicted, would
be that boys would fight to have the mitzvah of tefillin
restored to them and girls would balk at the require-
ment, returning the situation to what it should be. The
summer 1973 issue of Response: A Contemporary Jew-
ish Review: The Jewish Woman: An Anthology, edited
by Liz Koltun and Martha Ackelsberg, included a pic-
ture of a woman in tefillin. It was nothing with which
I could identify.
But as things began to change, I had to think about
a range of challenges I had not really considered care-
fully. My husband, then the rabbi at Town and Village
Synagogue in Manhattan, addressed the issue of equal-
izing womens participation in the synagogue service
aliyot for women and counting them in the minyan
SEE OBLIGATION PAGE 34
For me this is
no longer an
obligation that
I have assumed, but
a sacred obligation.
This is the
receipt for
Dr. Lerners
first tefillin.
Cover Story
JS-33
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 33
Tefillin Barbie
Tefillin Barbie was created by Jen Tay-
lor Friedman when
Ms. Friedman saw
the l ong deni m
skirt on Halloween
Hip Barbie 2006.
With the frum
skirt, Ms. Fried-
man wrote on her
website, hasoferet.
com, she looked
like most of my
friends. (A soferet
is a female scribe;
the male form is
sofer.)
Accordingly, I figured she ought
to be wearing tefillin, just like my
friends, Ms. Friedman continued.
In the years since, Ms. Friedman
has sold more than 100 tefillin Bar-
bies, most through her Etsy store.
When not making balsa-wood mock
tefillin for dolls, Ms. Friedman is a
scribe who hand writes Torah scrolls
(four to date), mezuzot, and tefillin, as
well as ketubot.
On her website, she warns that
tefillin, like other sacred scrolls, are
traditionally held to be invalid if writ-
ten by women. If you are
non-egalitarian, even if
you are a woman, tefillin
written by a woman can-
not be kosher for you,
no matter the circum-
stances. Therefore, even
if you are the most femi-
nist of feminist Orthodox
women, you should not
acquire tefillin written by
a soferet. Sorry; thems
the breaks.
If you are very sure
that you reside in the
segment of the Jewish world which in
principle extends eligibility to write
tefillin to women, then you can con-
sider getting tefillin from a soferet.
If you do that, please remember not
to lend your tefillin to non-egal Jews
(men or women), because to them
the tefillin will be pasul [invalid] and
it will be like feeding them non-kosher
food not a nice thing to do at all.
-LARRY YUDELSON
A Reform rabbi on tefillin
And what about the Reform
movement?
In general, as Rabbi David
Vaisberg of Temple Eman-
uel in Edison points out,
The first thing you have
to do to wear tefillin is pray
in the morning during the
week.
In other words, because
tefillin are worn only dur-
ing weekday Shacharit ser-
vices, they are rarely seen
in Reform synagogues,
which as a rule do not offer
such services.
Rabbi Vai sberg, who
positions himself on the right wing of the
mainly left-wing movement, centered his
senior sermon, delivered two years ago, on
the issue of wearing tefillin. As he stood on
the bimah in the synagogue at HUC-Hebrew
Union College in Manhattan, he was one
of three people at the service who had
wrapped them.
Because t he Ref orm movement
approaches the concept of religious obli-
gation in a way that sets it apart from the
movements to its right, I dont think that
Im obliged to wear tefil-
lin, Rabbi Vaisberg said.
But I see it as something
the tradition knows to be
a valid technique to go
with prayer.
It is valuable. It builds
up your sense of prayer.
I feel it worthwhile to
experiment with facets of
tradition, and this is one
that very much resonates
with me.
And there is the fact
that its what the Jewish
people do, and so I do it.
It takes something that
could be very esoteric and head-focused
and turns it into a very physical experience.
Prayer is in your head your singing,
your talking. It is not physical. Yes, you
wrap a tallit around yourself, but its light.
It floats on your shoulders. Its comfortable.
The tefillin is very intense. You are sup-
pose to wrap it tightly, to the point where it
leaves marks on your skin all morning. I am
very tactile, and it makes prayer a very tac-
tile and therefore more meaningful experi-
ence for me. -JOANNE PALMER
Rabbi David Vaisberg and
his baby daughter
For me this is
no longer an
obligation that
I have assumed, but
a sacred obligation.
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Cover Story
34 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-34
in 1973, in the wake of the Rabbinical Assemblys decision
to allow counting women in the minyan. Responsibilities,
including tefillin, were mentioned along with privileges, but
not stressed. His claim that I was the person hardest to con-
vince is, I must confess, true. Following close to two years
of study and discussion, change was instituted.
At the same time, my friend and JTS colleague Rabbi Joel
Roth was researching and writing his teshuvah (rabbinic
responsum) on the question of the ordination of women
as rabbis at JTS. At one point after he had concluded that
women could take on the hiyyuv (obligation) of tefillin, I
asked him what the status of a woman who undertook the
obligation and did not fulfill it would be. His response, that
it would be the same as that of a man whose obligation
traditionally was considered divinely ordained who did
not fulfill his obligation. I pondered that for a while and real-
ized that as an egalitarian feminist, I had to see myself as
obligated and I just would have to bear the onus of not
fulfilling this obligation. For me, tefillin were too male, too
much the responsibility of my father, brother, and hus-
band, to be mine.
So that 1984 July day made me the possessor of
Georges tefillin, but truth be told, not their regular
user. It was hard. Hard to get up early to daven, hard to
use these objects that still seemed so male to me, hard
to fulfill that obligation that I believed that I had. Over
the next few years, I would daven in the morning only
occasionally, trying to make them mine, trying to see
them as connected to all Jews, not only to men.
But then, just after Purim 1988, my father died. My
brother, sister, and I, having been equally blessed
with our fathers love, caring, and intelligence, did
not hesitate for a moment. Each of us would say kad-
dish three times a day. And so I stopped over-thinking
and started davening in a minyan every morning in
tallit and tefillin. By the time the mandatory kaddish
recitation was over, I had had many experiences, over-
whelmingly but not exclusively positive, joining, along
with my sister, also in tefillin, the minyan on an El Al
flight to Israel, davening in the Brookline Young Israel,
in an Orthodox shul in Teaneck, at the then nonegali-
tarian Conservative shul in Fort Lee.
There was no way in which I would relinquish what
had become an absolute requirement for starting
my day. Tefillin no longer were gendered. When my
daughter became bat mitzvah she did not have to go
through the process I had undergone; she never hes-
itated to take on this responsibility as her mandate.
For her, tefillin never were gendered. And my grand-
daughter, who became bat mitzvah a few months ago,
also started davening daily in tefillin. The first time we
were at a weekday minyan together, grandmother and
granddaughter in tefillin, was an amazing experience.
Over time, my understanding of the texts changed.
For me this is no longer an obligation that I have
assumed, but a sacred obligation, clearly written in the
Torah. The mitzvah of tefillin is found in the verses
from Deuteronomy 6, which we read as the first sec-
tion of the Shma. The Shma addresses the Israelites
as a nation, in the masculine singular. Thus, the com-
mandment to love God is veahavta, and you (mas-
culine singular) shall love the Lord your God (Deut
6:5). But it is understood that men and women both
are obligated to love God. Similarly, when the injunc-
tion is to bind them these instructions or words
as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a sym-
bol on your forehead, the you is in the masculine
singular, but this commandment, like the one to love
God, clearly is meant for both men and women.
As my daughter said years ago, it makes no sense to
separate these commandments. In the past, when life
was more gender-segregated, people could not under-
stand the text this way. In our time we are, for the first
time, empowered to see this text clearly.
Every morning I feel the power of this incredible
symbolic act, binding these texts to my head and
arm, carefully placing one on my arm and wrapping
the straps down to and around my hand, placing the
other just so on my forehead, feeling the tie to God in a
way that I never did before. Sure, not every day brings
a transcendent religious experience, not every word
of the liturgy speaks to me every day, but tefillin are
there to keep me anchored.
I feel so blessed to be alive at a time when I can
experience this.
Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner, the Jewish Theological
Seminarys first woman vice chancellor, is an emerita
member of the JTS faculty and a research associate at
the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University.
See Point page 30
Obligation
FROM PAGE 32
JS-35
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George Soros and Genevieve Lynch, a board
member of the pro-Iranian regime National
Iranian-American Council, have donated
significant sums to the organization. And
although it says it is opposed to the anti-
Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
campaign against Israel, J Street maintains
close ties with those who advocate collabo-
ration with the BDS movement in targeting
West Bank settlements, like the writer Peter
Beinart and the corporate lawyer Kathleen
Peratis. This is hardly conducive to J Streets
pro-Israel self-image.
Then there are J Streets statements. As
Dershowitz points out, you rarely hear
J Street praising Israel. A far more famil-
iar refrain consists of slamming Benjamin
Netanyahus government as an obstacle
to peace, or opposing tougher sanctions
on the Iranian regime. These
are positions that cause any
eyebrows to raise when artic-
ulated by anti-Israel groups,
but that sound rather discor-
dant coming from a group that
claims to support Israel.
In that regard, much of the
J Street documentary stud-
ies why the organizations
analysis of Israels situation is
wrong. Its emphasis on Isra-
els land policies in the West
Bank, its tin ear when it comes
to Palestinian and Arab incite-
ment, its embrace of a strategy
that would result in the United
States pushing Israel to make
decisions contrary to its basic
security interests these moral and stra-
tegic errors all are familiar to anyone who
has followed the debate about J Streets
contribution.
More enlightening is the films exami-
nation of why J Street exercises such an
attraction to a particular kind of Ameri-
can Jew. Many of the interviewees argue
persuasively that affiliation with J Street is
more of a lifestyle choice than a political
statement, in that it allows liberal Jews to
equate their identity with their fealty to
the progressive values they see Israel as
betraying.
But is that how the J Streeters them-
selves view it? Since no J Street represen-
tative appears in the film, its hard to say
for sure. According to the end credits, Jer-
emy Ben-Ami, J Streets executive director,
declined to be interviewed, which left the
producers with no option but to use exist-
ing footage of Ben-Ami speaking to other
audiences. J Street told me that Ben-Ami
was not interviewed because he was not
available at the time the producers sug-
gested. Either way, the absence of a direct
interview with Ben-Ami, in which he
answers the points raised by J Streets crit-
ics, slightly blunts the films impact.
The most heartening aspect of the film
consists of young pro-Israel activists elo-
quently expressing why they distrust J
Street. Through their words, the viewer
gets an insight into the courage and intelli-
gence required to defend Israel on campus
these days. Indeed, one of them, Saman-
tha Mandeles, who currently works as
campus coordinator for media watchdog
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East
Reporting in America, is so impressive
that I found myself wondering whether
shell apply for the post-Abe Foxman
national directors job at the Anti-Defama-
tion League. She certainly deserves seri-
ous consideration. In any case, seeing and
hearing the next generation of genuinely
pro-Israel Jewish leaders is reason enough
to give The J Street Challenge an hour of
your time.
JNS.ORG
Ben Cohen, JNS.orgs Shillman analyst,
writes about Jewish affairs and Middle
Eastern politics. His work has been
published in Commentary, the New York
Post, Haaretz, Jewish Ideas Daily, and
many other publications.
Opinion
36 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-36*
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E
ver since its founding in
2008, J Street, the liberal
Jewish advocacy group, has
expended a great deal of
time and energy trying to convince
American Jews that it is a credible and
more ethical alternative to traditional
pro-Israel organizations like the Ameri-
can Israel Public Affairs Committee.
J Street believes, not unreasonably,
that there is a constituency for its work
among those American Jews who gen-
erally support Israel but are queasy
over certain of its policies, most obvi-
ously creating and sustaining Jewish
communities in the West Bank. Nor is
this an unprecedented insight: from
the 1970s onwards, there were organiza-
tions like Breira (Alternative) and New
Jewish Agenda that aimed to give voice to
the same disquiet.
J Street, however, is much savvier than
either of those earlier groups. Unlike its
ideological predecessors, there are no
rumors of its imminent demise circulating.
For the foreseeable future, then, J Street will
remain a part of American Jewrys political
landscape.
This reality is implicitly acknowledged
in The J Street Challenge, a critical docu-
mentary film about the organization that
has just been released by Americans for
Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based group
run by the well-known anti-slavery activist
Charles Jacobs. And it is a reality, as Jacobs
and his colleagues (including executive pro-
ducer and director Avi Goldwasser) insist,
that must be grappled with through honest
debate and discussion.
The key question raised by the film is
what it means to be pro-Israel not on a
personal level, but within the context of the
political lobbying and advocacy that swirls
around American policy towards the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict (or, as Harvard Profes-
sor Ruth Wisse more accurately terms it in
her interview in the film, the Arab con-
flict with Israel). And when you examine J
Streets record, it becomes very hard to dis-
pute Professor Alan Dershowitzs assertion
that the organization despite its much-
vaunted tagline is neither pro-Israel nor
pro-peace.
To begin with, there are J Streets funders.
As the film documents, ferocious critics
of Israel, like the hedge-fund billionaire
Participants at the 2013 J Street national conference
in Washington, DC. J STREET FACEBOOK PAGE
Responding to the J Street challenge
BRIEFS
Four killed in bombing
of tourist bus at Israel-Egypt
border crossing
At least four people were killed and 14 were injured in an
explosion on a tour bus at the Taba border crossing between
Israel and Egypt on Sunday.
Four Korean tourists and their Egyptian driver were killed
on a bus that arrived in Taba after touring the St. Catherines
Greek Orthodox monastery in the central Sinai Peninsula, the
Egyptian Interior Ministry said. According to Arabic-language
media reports, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdisan al-Qaeda-affiliated
terrorist group that recently fired rockets at Eilatclaimed
responsibility for the bus attack. JNS.ORG
Israeli start-up Viber
purchased for $900 million
by electronics giant Rakuten
The Israeli-founded voice and video communications app
Viber has been purchased for $900 million by the Japanese
electronics giant Rakuten, Bloomberg News reported.
Hiroshi Mikitani, the Japanese billionaire who controls
Rakuten, said Viber will help provide a distribution channel
for his companys digital products. Viber has more than 300
million users of its instant messaging and free Internet phone
services.
Viber understands how people actually want to engage and
have built the only service that truly delivers on all fronts,
Mikitani said. This makes Viber the ideal total consumer
engagement platform for Rakuten. JNS.ORG
JS-37
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 37
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38 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-38*
Yeshiva U.s Rebecca Yoshor
excelling on and off court
HILLEL KUTTLER
NEW YORK Watching Rebecca Yoshor
in action for the Yeshiva University wom-
ens basketball team, the skills are evi-
dent: the shotmaking, quickness, leader-
ship, and court smarts.
They are skills honed in what her
father describes as fierce games with
her brothers and the neighborhood kids
in the driveway of her Houston home,
and by playing for the citys Beren Acad-
emy, where Ms. Yoshor joined the mod-
ern Orthodox schools varsity as an
eighth-grader among high schoolers.
At Y.U., the senior forward is leading
not just the team but the nation all divi-
sions, men and women in rebounding,
with 16.0 per game, one more than any-
one else in Division III.
The lean 6-footer also has more
blocked shots, 34, than her Maccabees
teammates combined, and is second on
the squad in scoring with an average of
15.7 points, despite occasional foul prob-
lems that send her to the bench.
Ms. Yoshors rebounding prowess, her
coach and teammates say, comes from
superb positioning and strength. Her
dad, Daniel, says its her hunger for the
ball, but adds that she could be even
more dominant if she would get nastier
and tougher on the court.
While I do have to work hard for every
rebound I get, rebounding is absolutely
a team thing, she said, explaining that
teammates boxing out help pave the way
to the boards.
Led by Ms. Yoshor, Y.U. has improved
markedly from a season ago, coach Nesta
Felix said. While the schools record
stands at 5-11 overall and 1-4 in the Hud-
son Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Confer-
ence heading into this weeks final two
games, the second-year coach says the
Maccabees are far more competitive than
they were last season.
That, she says, indicates improvement
and offers hope.
Ms. Yoshor says its all about the team.
Its really cool, she said of the
rebounding lead, and now that its been
called to my attention, its something Ill
be proud of the rest of my life. But I do
everything I can to help the team and if
good stats come my way, thats fine.
Ms. Yoshor isnt succeeding just on the
court.
She was named recently to the Aca-
demic All-America team for New York-
area Division III schools by the College
Sports Information Directors of America.
That means that Ms. Yoshor, who main-
tains nearly a 4.0 grade point average as
an English major and psychology minor,
could be selected to one of the national
Academic All-America squads to be
announced this week; she was a second-
team selection in 2012-13.
Her studies arent just in the classroom.
As she grew taller and better at basket-
ball, Ms. Yoshor says, she began paying
close attention to other players, absorb-
ing details on how they excelled on both
ends of the court. Its a habit that contin-
ues today.
Someone playing her tough when she
posts up? She will draw the opponent out-
side and drive past her.
They might be showing you something
you havent seen before, she said. Its the
player you play against who forces you to
evolve. As long as you play, theres devel-
opment. You have to be open to changing
in everything, but its definitely true in
basketball.
Her coach at Beren, Chad Cole, said
she held her own on the varsity as an
eighth-grader.
Daniel Yoshor said she did more than
hold her own in the driveway, when her
two brothers and the neighborhood kids
played ball for hours, and shed always
beat them, until they outgrew her.
Ms. Yoshor says she took to basketball in
sixth grade.
I was definitely one of the taller people,
in the back of the class picture, she said.
For the players at Yeshiva University, the
schedule is rigorous. Like all the students
attending its Stern College for Women, they
take a dual curriculum of Jewish and secu-
lar courses. Practices are squeezed in late
at night, and theyre generally shoehorned
into an 11th-floor gymnasium nearby with a
half court and low ceiling. Home games
this season have been played at three other
colleges.
(Gender restrictions at the Orthodox
school prevent practices being held at
Y.U.s uptown campus, according to the
universitys sports information director,
Michael Damon.)
Several of the players said they play for
the love of the game and because it offers
an outlet for academics-related stress.
Ms. Yoshor adds an internship at a Man-
hattan literary agency shed like to work
in publishing when she graduates this
spring.
I just budget my time as best as I can,
she said of her busy schedule. Its hard.
Ms. Felix says replacing the play and
leadership of co-captains Ms. Yoshor and
Naomi Gofine, who already has gradu-
ated, will be a substantial challenge next
year. Junior guard Stephanie Greenberg
and sophomore forward Julia Owen are
expected to help fill the void.
But as Ms. Yoshor exits college ball, the
family has some subs in the wings who
learned the game on the driveway asphalt.
Her brother Zach, at 6-6, was heavily
recruited and will play for Harvard follow-
ing his current year of study in Israel. And
6-4 Ben is a Beren sophomore.
Little sister Jordana stands just 4-1, so her
hoops future remains unclear. She is, how-
ever, only 7.
In this Nov. 24, 2013 loss to the College of Saint Elizabeth, Yeshiva University Maccabees forward Rebecca Yoshor, No. 34,
grabbed 22 rebounds, a category in which she leads the nation. COURTESY OF YESHIVA UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE
But I do
everything
I can to help
the team and
if good stats
come my way,
thats ne.
REBECCA YOSHOR
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BRIEFS
JNF to invest $285 million
in Negev and Galilee
Speaking on a media tour of the Negev and the Arava,
Jewish National Fund Chairman Efi Stenzler said Sunday
that the organization plans to invest more than NIS 1 bil-
lion ($285 million) in the development of the Negev and
the Galilee regions in the coming years, with the aim of
creating a higher quality of life in both regions.
The JNF has made a strategic decision to reduce
the gaps between the periphery and central Israel, the
Negev and the Galilee, Stenzler said, according to Israel
Hayom.
Were tenaciously pursuing the new Zionism, mean-
ing settling the Negev, through vast and unprecedented
investments in the area. The JNF, as a green Zionist orga-
nization, has chosen the geographic and social periph-
ery as Israels future growth district, he added. JNS.ORG
Google buys SlickLogin
Google has bought its fifth Israeli company, the Tel Aviv-
based start-up SlickLogin, whose technology verifies
and authenticates user identity (when logging onto a
website) by using an audio signal sent through a smart-
phone app.
SlickLogin founders Or Zelig, Eran Galili, and Ori
Kabeli began developing their program in August 2013.
In September, they presented it at San Franciscos tech-
nology start-up conference TechCrunch Disrupt, and in
December registered as an official company.
The three-man company which has not yet regis-
tered a patent or recruited investors, and has no cus-
tomers joined Googles global team, operating out of
Tel Aviv.
SlickLogin said Google shares our core beliefs that
logging in should be easy instead of frustrating, and
authentication should be effective without getting in
the way. ISRAEL HAYOM/EXCLUSIVE TO JNS.ORG
Hamas: UN agencys proposed
textbooks for Gaza too peaceful
Hamas has blocked the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
from introducing new textbooks for 7th-9th grade stu-
dents in Gaza because they do not match the Palestin-
ian terrorist groups violence-driven ideology.
There is a tremendous focus [in the textbooks] on
the peaceful resistance as the only tool to achieve free-
dom and independence, said Motesem al-Minawi, a
spokesman for the education ministry in Hamas-gov-
erned Gaza, the Associated Press reported. Hamas
says it prefers armed resistance against Israel.
JNS.ORG
Conference of Presidents
receives key to the city of
Toledo, Spain
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jew-
ish Organizations received the key to the city of Toledo,
Spain, from its mayor, Emiliano Garca-Page last Friday.
No people deserves this key more than the Jewish
people, Garca-Page said.
A day earlier, the 60 American Jewish leaders travel-
ing to Spain met with Spanish King Juan Carlos I at Zar-
zuela Palace in Madrid. JNS.ORG
Jewish World
JS-41
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 41
BRIEFS
JNF to invest $285 million
in Negev and Galilee
Speaking on a media tour of the Negev and the Arava,
Jewish National Fund Chairman Efi Stenzler said Sunday
that the organization plans to invest more than NIS 1 bil-
lion ($285 million) in the development of the Negev and
the Galilee regions in the coming years, with the aim of
creating a higher quality of life in both regions.
The JNF has made a strategic decision to reduce
the gaps between the periphery and central Israel, the
Negev and the Galilee, Stenzler said, according to Israel
Hayom.
Were tenaciously pursuing the new Zionism, mean-
ing settling the Negev, through vast and unprecedented
investments in the area. The JNF, as a green Zionist orga-
nization, has chosen the geographic and social periph-
ery as Israels future growth district, he added. JNS.ORG
Google buys SlickLogin
Google has bought its fifth Israeli company, the Tel Aviv-
based start-up SlickLogin, whose technology verifies
and authenticates user identity (when logging onto a
website) by using an audio signal sent through a smart-
phone app.
SlickLogin founders Or Zelig, Eran Galili, and Ori
Kabeli began developing their program in August 2013.
In September, they presented it at San Franciscos tech-
nology start-up conference TechCrunch Disrupt, and in
December registered as an official company.
The three-man company which has not yet regis-
tered a patent or recruited investors, and has no cus-
tomers joined Googles global team, operating out of
Tel Aviv.
SlickLogin said Google shares our core beliefs that
logging in should be easy instead of frustrating, and
authentication should be effective without getting in
the way. ISRAEL HAYOM/EXCLUSIVE TO JNS.ORG
Hamas: UN agencys proposed
textbooks for Gaza too peaceful
Hamas has blocked the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
from introducing new textbooks for 7th-9th grade stu-
dents in Gaza because they do not match the Palestin-
ian terrorist groups violence-driven ideology.
There is a tremendous focus [in the textbooks] on
the peaceful resistance as the only tool to achieve free-
dom and independence, said Motesem al-Minawi, a
spokesman for the education ministry in Hamas-gov-
erned Gaza, the Associated Press reported. Hamas
says it prefers armed resistance against Israel.
JNS.ORG
Conference of Presidents
receives key to the city of
Toledo, Spain
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jew-
ish Organizations received the key to the city of Toledo,
Spain, from its mayor, Emiliano Garca-Page last Friday.
No people deserves this key more than the Jewish
people, Garca-Page said.
A day earlier, the 60 American Jewish leaders travel-
ing to Spain met with Spanish King Juan Carlos I at Zar-
zuela Palace in Madrid. JNS.ORG
Boycotters of Israel are
classical anti-Semites in
modern garb, Netanyahu says
Boycotters of Israel are classical anti-Semites in
modern garb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu told a delegation of leaders visiting Jeru-
salem with the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations on Monday.
I think the most eerie thing, the most disgraceful
thing, is to have people on the soil of Europe talk-
ing about the boycott of Jews, Netanyahu said. I
think that is an outrage. That is something we are
re-encountering. In the past, anti-Semites boycotted
Jewish businesses and today, they call for the boycott
of the Jewish state.
Israels prowess in the high-tech sector can help
the Jewish state overcome the economic boycott
threat, Netanyahu said, saying that the heads of
international high-tech companies he has met with
all want the same three things: Israeli technology,
Israeli technology, and Israeli technology.
JNS.ORG
Israel summons Hungarian
ambassador over growing
anti-Semitism
The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned Hungarys
newly appointed ambassador to the Jewish state,
Andor Nagy, to express deep concern over rising
anti-Semitism in his country.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Rafi Schutz,
the Israeli Foreign Ministrys director-general for
Europe, expressed concern to Nagy about recent
anti-Semitic statements by government officials
and a growing trend to rewrite history concerning
Hungarys role in the Holocaust and its anti-Semitic
WWII leader Miklos Horthy.
Last November, despite protests from Jewish lead-
ers, a statue of Horthy was erected by members of
the far-right Jobbik party in Budapest. Horthy, a
close ally of Hitler, played a direct role in the depor-
tation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews
during the Holocaust.
JNS.ORG
Five killed as explosion topples building
in northern Israeli city of Acre
Five people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and
12 others were wounded early Monday morning when an
explosion caused a three-story residential building in the
northern Israeli city of Acre to collapse, Israel Hayom
reported.
While it was initially believed that a gas explosion had
toppled the building, the police are currently exploring the
possibility that the blast was triggered by a small explosive
device, planted on the buildings roof as part of an ongoing
dispute between neighbors.
Once first responders including police, Magen David
Adom paramedics, and Fire and Rescue Services teams
arrived at the scene and discovered the building had col-
lapsed, MDA declared the incident a mass casualty event.
The victims were identified as Mohammed Badr, 43; his wife
Hanan, 38; Rayeq Sarhan, 55; his wife, Najah, 51, and their
son, Nasreddin, 8.
JNS.ORG
Netanyahu and Obama
expected to extend Israeli-
Palestinian negotiations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to agree
on a one-year extension of the current American-
brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations at
their White House meeting in early March, Deputy
Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) said at a cultural event
in Ramat Gan on Saturday.
There is no confrontation with the U.S., but
there are certainly some fundamental differences of
opinion relating to the negotiations, Akunis said,
according to Israel Hayom.
An Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967, bor-
ders (rumored to be the basis of Secretary of State
John Kerrys forthcoming framework agreement
proposal) would be like a suicidal person jumping
off the roof of the Azrieli Towers (a trio of Tel Aviv
skyscrapers), Akunis said.
JNS.ORG
Healthy Living & Adult Lifestyles
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ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
V
irtually every household in Israel has a few Keter
brand plastic chairs, so why not use a similar seat
as a base for lightweight, inexpensive-but-sturdy,
kid-friendly wheelchairs?
After 30 years as a Keter executive, Pablo Kaplan decided
to do just that. With his life partner and former coworker
Chava Rotshtein, Kaplan founded the nonprofit Wheel-
chairs of Hope in 2009.
The couple aims to provide colorful, maintenance-free
wheelchairs to the estimated five million children in the
world who cannot attend school because of mobility handi-
caps. Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and other
Middle East countries are target markets.
Our wheelchair is specifically designed for children, as we
Wheelchairs of Hope, from Israel with love
wish to empower edu-
cation through mobil-
ity, Mr. Kaplan and Ms.
Rotshtein said. Mobil-
ity from early child-
hood is a gate to educa-
tion. By giving access
to education we create
a new generation with
better skills, confidence,
and hope.
Last September, the
Wheelchairs of Hope
founders presented
their idea at the opening day of the United Nations
General Assembly and were selected to serve on UNI-
CEFs task force for assistive technologies.
The task forces goal is to identify novel technolo-
gies to recommend to all member countries, Mr.
Kaplan says. Our product was chosen as one of those
innovations.
A chair, not a medical device
The wheelchair, to be available in bright primary col-
ors, weighs 22 pounds and is expected to cost about
$50. By contrast, the basic metal wheelchairs now
Pablo Kaplan hopes to
make millions of the
chairs.
Disrupted sleep boosts
cancer growth
HAIFA In a study published in the Journal of Cancer
Research, Dr. Fahed Hakim of Rambam Health Care
Campus concluded that poor-quality sleep marked
by frequent awakenings can speed cancer growth
and increase tumor aggressiveness, malignancy, and
invasiveness.
This is the first time a connection has been made
between poor sleep and cancer.
For the project, Dr Hakim, a pediatric pulmonary
and sleep expert at Rambam, spent two years at the
University of Chicago, and led a joint team, composed
of researchers from that institution and the University
of Louisville.
While studies long have connected fragmented
sleep with fatigue and irritability, this research proj-
ect also showed far more dramatic effects. According
to Dr. Hakim, disrupted sleep dampens the immune
systems ability to eradicate tumor cells and contrib-
utes to the spread of the disease over the long term.
Dr. Hakim and his fellow researchers observed two
sets of mice. One group was allowed to sleep nor-
mally, while the other had its sleep interrupted. The
mice were injected with two different types of can-
cer cells, and all the mice began to develop malignant
tumors. After a month, the researchers found that
tumors of mice with fragmented sleep were twice as
large as those from mice that had slept normally.
In a subsequent experiment, researchers found
that the cancerous tumors in sleep-disrupted mice
were not only larger, but more malignant and aggres-
sive, than those in mice that slept normally. The
tumors of the sleep-disrupted group were not static,
but invaded surrounding muscle and bone tissues.
Healthy Living & Adult Lifestyles
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JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 43
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donated to developing nations by various humanitar-
ian organizations cost at least $150 apiece and weigh 35
pounds.
The child sitting in it will weigh a maximum of 55
pounds, so the light weight will make a big difference,
Mr. Kaplan said.
The first prototype, made in June 2013 on a 3D printer,
followed more than a year of fine-tuning in consultation
with Naomi Geffen, deputy director general of clinical ser-
vices at ALYN rehabilitation hospital for children in Jeru-
salem, and the hospitals biomedical lab director, Ohad
Gaal-Dor.
We went over every single part of the wheelchair, Ms.
Geffen said. We were very happy with the results. It looks
like something fun, and not like a medical device you
wouldnt want to use.
The Ziv-Av Engineering Group, Nekuda Design Manage-
ment and patent law firm Reinhold Cohn all donated their
time and expertise to make the final product a reality.
Ziv-Av CEO Itzik Taff said that the engineering challenge
was to design a cool-looking, low-cost product robust
enough for harsh conditions such as bumpy dirt roads,
yet lightweight enough for a 5- to 8-year-old to maneuver
easily.
We also wanted the ability to add on devices for kids
with special needs, like to stabilize the neck, Mr. Taff said.
So we had to try to get the maximum out of what plas-
tic can do. We used the minimum amount of material to
achieve maximum strength.
Beit Issie Shapiro, a service and advocacy organization
for Israelis with disabilities, also endorsed the project.
We are very impressed with the Wheelchair of Hope, its
simplicity, durability and low cost, and we are proud to
be a beta site for a project which will give children new
opportunities to be independent in their communities,
Executive Director Jean Judes said.
For the sake of doing good
Meanwhile, in the field of adult wheelchairs, Israeli entre-
preneur Nimrod Elmish and automation expert Izhar
Gafni of I.G. Cardboard Technologies are working toward
commercializing a lightweight, maintenance-free prod-
uct made of less than $10 worth of durable recycled card-
board, plastic bottles, and recycled tires.
Encouraged by the positive feedback, Mr. Kaplan and
Ms. Rotshtein are seeking seed money to build manufac-
turing molds and basic infrastructure. Wheelchairs of
Hope has the active support of the World Health Organi-
zation, and aid agencies including the International Red
Cross are interested in helping to get the chairs where they
are needed.
We do a lot of work with children from Israel and
abroad, and this definitely will be a low-cost solution for
some of the populations we see, ALYNs Ms. Geffen said.
This chair is accessible to everyone and is made of dura-
ble plastic, which is important in third-world countries.
Mr. Kaplan says he got very emotional watching the
enthusiasm of a young ALYN patient who tried out the
prototype bright green model and didnt want to get out
of it. He and Ms. Rotshtein hope to repeat this moving
scenario many times over.
Based on our ability to reach the minimum level of
investment, we plan to start a pilot phase involving 2,500
children in four to five different countries by the end of
2014, Ms. Rotshtein said.
The Kfar Saba residents are often asked if they came to
this project out of personal experience.
Chava and I have no relatives with disabilities, Kaplan
said. Wheelchairs of Hope is just for the sake of doing
something good using our knowledge of the plastics
industry.
For more information, go to www.wheelchairsofhope.
org.
ISRAEL21C.ORG
This wheelchair is meant to look like a cool toy.
Disrupted sleep boosts
cancer growth
HAIFA In a study published in the Journal of Cancer
Research, Dr. Fahed Hakim of Rambam Health Care
Campus concluded that poor-quality sleep marked
by frequent awakenings can speed cancer growth
and increase tumor aggressiveness, malignancy, and
invasiveness.
This is the first time a connection has been made
between poor sleep and cancer.
For the project, Dr Hakim, a pediatric pulmonary
and sleep expert at Rambam, spent two years at the
University of Chicago, and led a joint team, composed
of researchers from that institution and the University
of Louisville.
While studies long have connected fragmented
sleep with fatigue and irritability, this research proj-
ect also showed far more dramatic effects. According
to Dr. Hakim, disrupted sleep dampens the immune
systems ability to eradicate tumor cells and contrib-
utes to the spread of the disease over the long term.
Dr. Hakim and his fellow researchers observed two
sets of mice. One group was allowed to sleep nor-
mally, while the other had its sleep interrupted. The
mice were injected with two different types of can-
cer cells, and all the mice began to develop malignant
tumors. After a month, the researchers found that
tumors of mice with fragmented sleep were twice as
large as those from mice that had slept normally.
In a subsequent experiment, researchers found
that the cancerous tumors in sleep-disrupted mice
were not only larger, but more malignant and aggres-
sive, than those in mice that slept normally. The
tumors of the sleep-disrupted group were not static,
but invaded surrounding muscle and bone tissues.
Healthy heart
diet tips
RACHEL MILLER
Lets get down to the heart of the matter. Cardiovascu-
lar disease is the number one killer in the U.S. and as
daunting as that sounds, take heart there are many
simple things we can do nutritionally to take charge
of our health.
While genetics play a role in our predisposition to
disease, what we put on our plates has a huge impact
on heart health, cholesterol (HDL, LDL, triglycerides),
and blood pressure. By thinking and eating outside the
box (processed, packaged foods) you can prevent and
repair damage to your heart and keep your ticker tock-
ing to a happy beat.
A real, whole food, anti-inflammatory diet of col-
orful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and
legumes, nuts and seeds, fatty cold water fish, and
green tea is the way to go. Antioxidants, phytonutri-
ents, fiber, calcium, vitamins Bs, C, D, E, niacin, mag-
nesium, and omega 3s are essential in nourishing the
heart. As Hippocrates said, Let food be thy medi-
cine. Make sure youre eating your daily dosage.
A day of heart healthy
anti-inflammatory meals:
Breakfast: Steel cut oats, cinnamon, walnuts, ground
flax seed, banana = fiber, omega 3s, magnesium,
potassium.
Snack: Green tea, apple, almond butter =
antioxidants, fiber, magnesium.
Lunch: Brown rice, kidney beans, fresh salsa, cayenne,
avocado, spinach salad = fiber, omega 3s, B,C,E vitamins,
calcium, magnesium, potassium, folates.
Dinner: Wild caught salmon, broccoli with garlic and
cold pressed olive oil = omega 3s, phytonutrients, calcium,
magnesium.
Treat: 1 ounce 70 percent organic dark chocolate with
blueberries and raspberries = antioxidants, flavonoids,
resveratrol, magnesium.
Rachel Miller is lead nutrition coach and a personal
trainer at the Gym of Englewood. (201) 567-9399.
Healthy Living & Adult Lifestyles
44 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-44
Convenient Morning, Evening & Sunday Hours
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Michelle Bloch, DDS
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201.837.3000
www.teaneckdentist.com
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Free lecture on helping gifted kids
deal with their intensity
The non-profit Gifted Child Society will present a free
lecture, titled Cant You Just Chill Out? at Bergen
Community Colleges Moses Family Meeting and Train-
ing Center (within the Technology Education Center)
on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. The presentation
is the fourth biennial Ruth Feldman Memorial Lecture
and admission is free, but a $10 donation would be
appreciated.
Dr. James Delisle will present the lecture. Dr. Delisle,
a well-known expert in the field of gifted education,
recently retired from Kent State University, where he
directed undergraduate and graduate programs in gifted
education for 25 years. He is the author of more than 250
articles and 19 books including Parenting Gifted Kids:
Tips for Raising Happy and Successful Gifted Children.
The lecture will cover intensity, an attribute that all
gifted children, teens, and adults share. These intensities
may relate to academics, where nothing below straight
As is acceptable; emotions, where extreme highs and
lows leave no room for moderation; and everyday life,
where relationships are deeper, disappointment is stron-
ger, and even simple questions have complex answers.
In this session, these and other intensities will be
addressed, as will ways that educators and parents can
learn to appreciate them for the assets they are instead of
the deficiencies that many make them out to be.
The lecture is intended for parents, educators, psy-
chologists, pediatricians, and others interested in the
needs of gifted children. Educators in attendance will
receive a certificate for 1.5 hours of Professional Devel-
opment Credits.
The Gifted Child Society was founded in 1957. Its goals
are: (1) educational enrichment and support services
specifically designed for gifted children; (2) assistance to
parents in raising gifted children; (3) professional train-
ing for educators of gifted children; and (4) a greater
effort to win public recognition and acceptance of the
special needs of gifted children.
For information on this Ruth Feldman Memorial Lec-
ture, call (201) 444-6530 or email admin@gifted.org.
Healthy Living & Adult Lifestyles
JS-45*
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 45
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1440 QUEEN ANNE ROAD TEANECK NJ 201.862.1055
Fitness Senior Style offers yoga
Join Fitness Senior Style for senior yoga. It will be offered
every Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. at Marianns School of
Dance, 599 Valley Health Plaza in Paramus.
Yoga is a physical and spiritual discipline that origi-
nated in ancient India. Join our instructor, Sevika, and
gain strength, coordination and a state of mental clarity
and peace.
Sevika has created a class for seniors only, incorporating
Hatha, Kundalini, Vinyasa and chair yoga for therapeutic
and meditative results. Release pain, anger, and depres-
sion and reach a higher transformative state. Acquire or
improve balance, contemplation, and pranayama (breath-
ing) techniques.
Suitable for both beginner and intermediate level prac-
titioners, the class is designed to meet the individual
abilities and needs of each participant and requires no
previous experience. For more information, go to www.
FitnessSeniorStyle.com.
Valentines Ball raises
$1.1 million for sick
children
CareOne LLC Chief Executive Officer Daniel E. Straus
has announced that CareOnes gala Valentines Ball
exceeded its $1 million goal, raising $1.1 million in sup-
port of the Valerie Fund and the thousands of New
Jersey children with cancer and blood disorders for
whom it provides care.
More than 900 people, including many celebrities,
attended the event, held in the Maritime Parc in Jersey
City. Celebrities attending included Victor Cruz of the
New York Giants, Antonio Cromartie of the New York
Jets, former New York Ranger Sean Avery, actor and
Broadway star singer Rob Evan, Melissa Gorga of The
Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Brian Leonard of
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mr. Evan entertained with
a medley of Broadway musicals.
Addressing the crowd, Straus said, The results
of tonights fundraiser are a testament to the caring
spirit of the CareOne team. I am proud of the time
and energy our team has put into this noble cause as
well as my daughter Elizabeth for her terrific leader-
ship in rallying everyone behind the Valerie Fund and
tonights event.
He added, The CareOne community is rooted in
serving the communities that we operate in and we
can think of no better organization to put our name
and resources behind. My hat is off to Ed and Sue
Goldstein for the vitally important organization that
they have built.
In their remarks, Valerie Fund co-founders Ed and
Sue Goldstein recounted how the Valerie Fund was
founded, in memory of their daughter, Valerie, who
lost her battle with cancer in 1976. They could only
obtain advanced treatment for Valerie outside New
Jersey, with long drives and complicated logistics. The
experience caused them to found the fund, which now
supports seven Valerie Fund Centers six in New Jer-
sey and one in New York City. Now, said Ed Goldstein,
A child suffering from this terrible disease no long has
to be a stepchild to New York and Philadelphia. He
and she now have their own home, the Valerie Fund
Centers.
In addition to supporting treatment at the Valerie
Fund Centers, some of the funds raised will go to pro-
viding scholarships, transportation to treatments for
patients who otherwise would have to depend on
public transportation, and Camp Happy Times an
annual free one-week overnight camp experience for
200 children who have or have had cancer.
Donations to The Valerie Fund are still being
accepted at www.thevaleriefund.org/valentineBall/
Healthy Living & Adult Lifestyles
46 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-46
Want to know about
Heritage Pointe of Teaneck?
Who better to hear it from than
the people who live here.
Listen to what our residents have to say at
www.heritagepointeofteaneck.com
(Heritage Pointe resident testimonials).
For a tour call Joel Goldin at
201-836-9260
www.heritagepointeofteaneck.com
600 Frank W. Burr Boulevard, Teaneck, New Jersey
When I Leave My
Sons House,
I Tell Him Im Going
Back to Utopia
Heritage Pointe
of Teaneck
When did I become sir?
RICHARD PORTUGAL
When I was a growing up, every man
was addressed as sir. It was not a term
of respect, but rather of differentiation.
Whether that adult was in his forties or
eighties did not matter. It was equally
applied to those who were noticeably
older, occupied a different social stra-
tum, and usually were strangers. It was
a moniker quite simply for age. Women
who were in this social position were
referred to as maam.
Our interactions usually went some-
thing like these: Sorry for stepping on
your toe, sir! Just turn right at the next
corner, maam, and the building is on
your left. Oh sir, you just sat on your
eyeglasses. Jeez, watch it, sir, that car
almost hit you! Will that be all today,
maam? No, sir, we werent near your
car; been playing stickball here all day.
Yes, maam, the fruit is in the next
aisle.
The term was universal and ubiqui-
tous. It was the perfect appellation for
those who were on in years. It was meant
as nothing more than a polite term for an
entire swath of adults who we intuitively
recognized as on the opposite end of the
age spectrum from us. We were young,
with our entire lives spread out before
us. We were active, played sports, lis-
tened to rock-n-roll, went to high school,
worked part-time jobs, dated casually,
and ate plenty of junk food. The sirs
drove sedans, sported gray hair, walked
rather than ran, and spoke with a soft,
measured cadence. Life to us was still an
adventure; life to them, according to us,
was a time to tidy up details and tie up
loose ends.
I still remember quite clearly playing
football and running deep to catch a long
pass. It seemed as if I could run forever,
that my youth would last forever, that I
would always remain a kid.
So when did I become a sir?
Im exercising at my gym the other
day. Ive always worked out, and pride
myself on my muscularity and physique.
A glance in the mirror confirmed a man
with defined biceps and ripped abdomi-
nals. And then it happened. A teenager
approached me and asked, Excuse me
sir, are you finished with these weights?
I was now a sir in his eyes. No mir-
ror could mask the stark reality. I had
reached another social stratum and age
demarcation one demonstrated by
that dreaded moniker sir!
When did I become a sir? Simply
while I was looking in the mirror!
Richard Portugal is the founder and
owner of Fitness Senior Style, which helps
seniors exercise for balance, strength,
and cognitive fitness in their own
homes. He has been certified as a senior
trainer by the American Senior Fitness
Association. For more information, call
(201) 937-4722.
Israel allows Gazans to come for treatment
JERUSALEM Israel allowed 35 Palestin-
ians from Gaza to enter for medical treat-
ment a day after denying them permission
because their application letterhead read
State of Palestine.
Reuters reported that the Palestinians
seeking medical treatment at Israeli hos-
pitals were allowed to cross into Israel on
February 13. Ten urgent cases had been
allowed to cross the previous day, despite
the paperwork snafu.
The entry applications were resubmit-
ted on Palestinian Authority letterhead,
said Maj. Guy Inbar, a spokesman for
COGAT, the coordinator of government
activities in the territories. Some 200 Pal-
estinian patients and their escorts would
cross into Israel on Thursday. JTA
Dr. Lital Keinan-Boker
Valley Medical Group offering free
colorectal cancer screening in March
Among cancers that affect both men and
women, colorectal cancer (cancer of the
colon or rectum) is the second leading
cause of cancer deaths in the United
States, according to the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention. Every year,
about 140,000 Americans are diagnosed
with colorectal cancer, and more than
50,000 people die from the disease.
During the month of March Colorec-
tal Cancer Awareness Month Val-
ley Medical Group will be offering free
colorectal cancer screening kits at its 18
primary care practice locations.
One hundred colorectal cancer
screening kits will be provided on a
first-come, first-served basis at each of
the participating 18 practices, which are
located in Bergen, Passaic, and Morris
counties.
The kits will be available at partici-
pating Valley Medical Group practices
starting March 1 and throughout the
month of March as long as supplies last.
Call (800) 637-1136 to find a participat-
ing Valley Medical Group practice near
you. While appointments are not neces-
sary, calling the practice of your choice
to ensure screening kits are still available
is encouraged.
JS-47
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 47
I was
walking my dog,
when I got
the scare of
my life.
Joan Goldman
Both of Joan Goldmans parents had heart disease. So when Joan was
walking her Yorkie up the hill near her home and suddenly felt short
of breath, she wondered if she would be next. There was no question
about who she would turn to for answers. Her mom and dad had trusted
Holy Name cardiologist Stephen Angeli, MD, to help them ght their
battles with heart disease. Tests showed that Joan had a blockage in her
heart. She had a through-the-wrist cardiac catheterization, followed by
medication and cardiac rehab. Joan lives closer to other hospitals. But
there is no other place she trusts more.
Call 1-877-HOLY-NAME (465-9626) for a referral to a Holy Name
Medical Center cardiologist, or visit holyname.org/heart for
more information.
Healing begins here.
718 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
2012
1
-
4
P
M
Ruth Weitzman, SRES
Broker Associate
Properties
82 E Allendale Rd. Suite 4B
Fair Lawn/ Saddle River, NJ 07458
201 825-6600 ext 314 Ofce
201 314-7042 Cell
201 445-2483 Home
www.ruthweitzman.com
EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES
TURNS TO SOLD!
www.vera-nechama.com
201-692-3700
SUNDAY FEB 23RD
OPEN HOUSES
622 Winthrop Rd, Tnk $1,200,000 1:00-4:00pm
196 Van Buren Ave, Tnk $519,000 1:00-3:00pm
641 Odgen Ave, Tnk $599,000 2:00-4:00pm
23 Hampton Ct, Bgfld $859,000 1:00-3:00pm
414 Wildrose Ave, Bgfld $499,000 1:00-3:00pm
INVESTMENT PROPERTY
TEANECK
$1,300,000 765 Queen Anne Rd/211 Chadwick Rd
5 Yr Dental Lease in place + large residential rental
with 6 brs & 3.5 bths. Call for appointment.
Ruby Kaplan
rubykaplan@aol.com
ofce: 201-692-3700
cell: 917-576-4177
Call Ruby
and get
the job done
SERVING ALL OF
BERGEN COUNTY
www.vera-nechama.com
Feature
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Just listed: stately home/
property, .4 Acre, 128x135,
cul-de-sac, all modern
amenities, master bdrm
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potential. $950,000
Thank you to all my
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another banner year!
SOLD:
Dickerson, Golf, Jones,
Myrtle, Cross Creek,
Maitland & More!
BUYING OR SELLING?
Call Someone Who Gets
the Deal Done!
April 1 - Tax Appeal
Deadline. Need Sold
Comps? Ill be happy to
help my buyers/sellers.
Im a phone call away
Jeff@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com
Ruth@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com/NJ
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.
Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!
TENAFLY
Sprawling Ranch on .97 acre. Cul-de-sac.
TENAFLY
Old world charm. Timeless elegance.
TENAFLY
Stately Old Smith Village Manor.
TENAFLY
Exquisite, one-of-a-kind estate. $3,748,000
S
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ENGLEWOOD
Mint 3 BR/2 BTH townhome. $438,000
ENGLEWOOD
Beautiful 8 BR Colonial. .53 acre.
ENGLEWOOD
Custom designed post and beam construction.
ENGLEWOOD
5 BR/4.5 BTH. + acre. $1,345,000
J
U
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!
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4
BERGENFIELD
Wonderful 5 year old side hall Colonial.
NEW MILFORD
Updated 4 BR Colonial. Prime area.
FORT LEE
Great 2 BR/2.5 BTH corner unit. $538,000
FORT LEE
Incredible 2 BR/2.5 BTH. City views.
S
O
L
D
!
S
O
L
D
!
B
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C
K
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T
O
W
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R
O
F
F
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R
A
C
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P
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LONG ISLAND CITY
Spectacular 22nd oor 1 BR unit. $419,500
GREENWICH VILLAGE
Gorgeous alcove studio. $499,000
GREENPOINT
3,200 sq. ft. Huge backyard. $1,995,000
CHELSEA
Grand 3 BR/2.5 BTH. $3,750,000
J
U
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T
L
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UPPER EAST SIDE
Continental Towers. 2 BR/2 BTH. City views.
UNION SQUARE
1 BR/1.5 BTH duplex w/loft. High ceilings.
SUNNYSUDE
Large L-shaped studio. Great location.
WILLIAMSBURG
Stylish building. Heart of Brooklyn.
U
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Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ
NJ: T: 201.266.8555 M: 201.906.6024
NY: T: 212.888.6250 M: 917.576.0776
Remarkable Service. Exceptional Results.
Real Estate & Business
66 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
JS-66*
NORWOOD
Picturesque ranch nestled in a park-like setting. Stunning great
room with a 2-story wall of glass, freplace, and attached loft over-
looks slate patio, garden, and wooded area. Four bedrooms, three
full bathrooms, extra large kitchen with dining nook, separate
laundry room, two living rooms and two-car garage complete this
special home in a BLUE RIBBON school district.
For Rent $3750 per month For Sale $699,999
PRINCIPALS ONLY
201-925-0897
FOR SALE/RENT BY OWNER
SELLING YOUR HOME?
Call Susan Laskin Today
To Make Your Next Move A Successful One!
2014 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.
An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.
Cell: 201-615-5353 BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com
JOIN US AT OUR
OPEN HOUSE 2/23 1-4PM
TEANECK 722 Washburn St.
Priced to Sell $715,000
Platinum Level
Highest Award in Sales
123 Tice Boulevard, Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677
Scan this barcode to
read reviews about us
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Each ofce is independently owned and operated EQUAL HOUSING OPPORT UNI T Y
ZamirRealtor
@ZamirRealtor
201-780-7884
COMING
SOON
Zohar@ZamirRealtor.com
www.ZamirRealtor.com
Zohar Zack Zamir
The Zamir Group
Making it happen!
REALTOR
, Broker Associate
Valley Realty
Gorgeous six bedroom Split Level home
in the heart of the West Englewood
section. This park-like property resides
on a cul-de-sac street in a prime
location. Close to parks, schools,
and Houses of Worship.
Move-in condition.
3 Bedroom, 2.5 Bathroom
Townhouse in the Desirable
Glenpointe in Teaneck, $439,000
Less than a decade old 4 Bedroom,
3 Bathroom bi-level home in
Little Ferry, $539,000
3 Bedroom, 1.5 Bathroom Ranch
Home with an open oor plan in
Fair Lawn, $389,000
Considering Selling or Buying?
Call Us Now!
Luckily, furniture manufacturers have
developed models that are more appeal-
ing for residential use. There is one that is
brilliant in that it offers book storage, dis-
play space, or potential storage space for
folded clothes. The cubbies are flexible and
functional. These days all that a desk must
do is accommodate a lap top computer and
a good reading light. A ten by ten bedroom
can become super-efficient with the proper
furniture.
Part of a modern collection that appeals to
parents and kids alike, bunk beds are the ulti-
mate space-saving solution. Kids tend to think
of bunks as the most fun ever! When I was
a girl we had a set of bunks and a single
bed in a room shared by three girls. We
used to trade off who got the top bunk.
These days, there are bunks with double
beds on the bottom that are more suitable
for a growing teenage boy, for example.
In a slight variation, consider the notion
of a trundle bed. Sometimes you can find
a bunk with a lower trundle which gives
you sleeping for three.
This is great for overnights with friends
or for sleeping arrangements in a vacation
home.
It is the style these days to give each
child his or her own bedroom, yet there
are some things siblings share by sleep-
ing in the same bedroom. I recall giggling
long into the night. Stories told. Gossip
shared. It was wonderful. If you treat each
bed wall in a special way, such as paint-
ing it with a chalkboard finish or attach-
ing a soft tack surface, each bedside can
become personalized.
CREATORS.COM
Bunk beds
FROM PAGE 65
JS-67
JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014 67
Jeff@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com
Ruth@MironProperties.com www.MironProperties.com/NJ
Each Miron Properties office is independently owned and operated.
Contact us today for your complimentary consultation!
TENAFLY
Sprawling Ranch on .97 acre. Cul-de-sac.
TENAFLY
Old world charm. Timeless elegance.
TENAFLY
Stately Old Smith Village Manor.
TENAFLY
Exquisite, one-of-a-kind estate. $3,748,000
S
O
L
D
!
S
O
L
D
!
S
O
L
D
!
E
V
E
R
Y
L
U
X
U
R
Y
!
ENGLEWOOD
Mint 3 BR/2 BTH townhome. $438,000
ENGLEWOOD
Beautiful 8 BR Colonial. .53 acre.
ENGLEWOOD
Custom designed post and beam construction.
ENGLEWOOD
5 BR/4.5 BTH. + acre. $1,345,000
J
U
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L
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S
T
E
D
!
S
O
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A
Y
2
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4
BERGENFIELD
Wonderful 5 year old side hall Colonial.
NEW MILFORD
Updated 4 BR Colonial. Prime area.
FORT LEE
Great 2 BR/2.5 BTH corner unit. $538,000
FORT LEE
Incredible 2 BR/2.5 BTH. City views.
S
O
L
D
!
S
O
L
D
!
B
U
C
K
I
N
G
H
A
M
T
O
W
E
R
O
F
F
E
R
A
C
C
E
P
T
E
D
!
LONG ISLAND CITY
Spectacular 22nd oor 1 BR unit. $419,500
GREENWICH VILLAGE
Gorgeous alcove studio. $499,000
GREENPOINT
3,200 sq. ft. Huge backyard. $1,995,000
CHELSEA
Grand 3 BR/2.5 BTH. $3,750,000
J
U
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L
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T
E
D
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T
H
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A
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UPPER EAST SIDE
Continental Towers. 2 BR/2 BTH. City views.
UNION SQUARE
1 BR/1.5 BTH duplex w/loft. High ceilings.
SUNNYSUDE
Large L-shaped studio. Great location.
WILLIAMSBURG
Stylish building. Heart of Brooklyn.
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Jeffrey Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NY
Ruth Miron-Schleider
Broker/Owner
Miron Properties NJ
NJ: T: 201.266.8555 M: 201.906.6024
NY: T: 212.888.6250 M: 917.576.0776
Remarkable Service. Exceptional Results.
home.
It is the style these days to give each
child his or her own bedroom, yet there
are some things siblings share by sleep-
ing in the same bedroom. I recall giggling
long into the night. Stories told. Gossip
shared. It was wonderful. If you treat each
bed wall in a special way, such as paint-
ing it with a chalkboard finish or attach-
ing a soft tack surface, each bedside can
become personalized.
CREATORS.COM
68 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 21, 2014
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