OF BERGEN COUNTY - Amazon S3

OF BERGEN COUNTYNovember 14, 2013 • 11 Kislev 5774 Distributed every other weekVol. 1 No. 18 www.jewishlinkbc.com

Nov. 15 | 12 Kislev - Parshat Vayishlach

Light Candles: 4:20 - Shabbat Ends: 5:26

Nov. 22 | 19 Kislev Parshat Vayeishev

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A Call to Boycott Poland?By Jeanette Friedman

Henderson, NV—Diplomat-ic fi reworks sizzled fi ercely last Sunday at an intergeneration-al gathering of Holocaust survi-vors and their descendants when it sounded as if Mark Weitz-man, director of Government Af-fairs, who is based at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in NYC—told a group of more than 350 survi-vors of the Holocaust and mem-bers of the Second and Third Generations not to visit Poland because of the schechita ban.

In the audience, seated with

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Mark Weitzman – Director of Government Aff airs – Simon Wiesenthal Center

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Sharing Seats, Easing BurdensBy Elizabeth Kratz

Englewood—There are few bet-ter ways to live in the moment

than to watch a sporting event in a large arena, surrounded by others sharing the same experi-ence, breathing in the air of ex-citement and enjoying the dra-ma of the game. For others, a concert or play, or even a day at an amusement park, can create the same level of transportment and distraction. When children are fi ghting an illness or going through a diffi cult time, an excit-ing outing can ease the burden for a few hours, and the resulting joy in reliving the experience can CONTINUED ON P. 53 CONTINUED ON P. 67

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Mike Dube presents tickets for the Jets game to Daniel Morrison.

Teaneck TBO 8U Closes Out Strong Fall RunBy JLBC Sports Staff

Temperatures continue to drop but Teaneck’s TBO 8U team

stayed hot throughout the fall sea-son. An 8U team generally has a lot of Fall baseball “rookies” as it’s the youngest grouping on the league circuit. This team was fortunate to have four players from last year’s fall team as veterans of the travel experience. Michael Green, Jack Ruditzky, Matthew Schwartz and Jordy Sheinfeld were back look-ing to improve on last year’s threewin experience. Additionally, Josh-ua Markovitz and Judah Vogel had experience from working with the summer travel team. Five rec standouts fi lled out the remaining spots including Eliezer Kravetz, Liev Wolin, Jared Kinches, Jacob Mauskopf and Dani Grinfeld.

With a short eight game sea-son, the team started strong right out of the gate. Week 1 vs the Woodcliff Lakers, Teaneck took a commanding lead and won 19-9 with good at bats. Jared Kinch-es had the fi rst extra base hit of the season with a bases clearing double to break the game open in the second. Game 2 of the sea-

Bergen Post-Election AnalysisBy Aliza Chazan

Bergen is considered a bell-wether county; that is, elec-

tion results here are consid-ered to be an indicator of future trends for people and places be-yond Bergen. With more resi-dents than any other county in the state, Bergen County is con-sidered a melting pot: 60.5 per-cent white, 17.3 percent Latino, 14 percent Asian and 5.1 percent black. A win for a politician here is considered to be a sign that he or she is doing enough right to hit all the demographics; a win in a bellwether county is an indi-

cator of future wins in elections geared toward a larger populace.

Since 1996, Bergen has vot-ed Democrat in the presidential race. This fact, combined with the county’s diversity, means that a win here for a Republi-can has real signifi cance. Newly reelected Governor Chris Chris-tie, Republican, had 60.2 per-cent of residents’ votes. Online political oddsmakers place the odds at seven to one for Chris-tie to get the GOP nomination for 2016 and 14 to one for him to win it all.

Nuke Talks Unresolved(combined services)

Geneva—As the P5+1 powers continue in their efforts to get a recalcitrant Iran to halt its pro-duction of nuclear grade materi-als, Israel’s prime minister, Ben-jamin Netanyahu, continues to rail against any agreement that would leave Iran with its nuclear

Bush’s Jews for Jesus Speech Troubles Jewish LeadersBy Abby Ohlheiser (With permission from The Atlantic Wire)

Weeks ago, the Conference of Presidents of Major Ameri-

can Jewish Organizations Fund gave George W. Bush a standing ovation. But since news broke that the former president would address an evangelical group dedicated to converting Jews to Christianity in preparation for the End Times, some Jew-ish leaders and groups have re-

sponded with rather strong crit-icism. That includes one of the umbrella group’s member organ-izations—the Anti-Defamation League— which expressed its “disappointment” with the for-mer president’s decision to ad-dress an evangelical group in a statement early last week.

Bush spoke on Thursday in front of the Messianic Jewish Bi-ble Institute, as Sarah Posner fi rst

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NEWS

How Arafat Died and How the PA Blames Israelby Khaled Abu Toameh The Gatestone Institute, with permission

Ramallah—Palestinians renewed their allegations that Israel was respon-sible for the “assassination” of PLO Chair-man Yasser Arafat. But a thorough reading of the Swiss scientists’ report shows that their fi ndings are inconclusive. Russian scientists who also examined the remains have said there was insuffi cient evidence to support the claim that Arafat may have died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.

Many Palestinians are saying that Is-rael could not have “killed” Arafat with-out help from the people who were very close to him. According to this the-ory, the same Palestinian offi cials who have been pointing a fi nger at Israel may themselves have been involved in the death of Arafat. “I am sure it is someone in his close circle,” Arafat’s widow, Suha Arafat, told Reuters last week. “It must have been someone close to him.”

While U.S. Secretary of State John Ker-ry was busy in the Middle East last week trying to prevent the collapse of the Is-raeli-Palestinian peace talks, Palestinians renewed their allegation that Israel was

responsible for the “assassination” of the Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat.

The nine-year-old Palestinian allega-tion—that Israel had poisoned Arafat—was this time based on the fi ndings of Swiss scientists who conducted tests on his remains and soil taken from his grave.

But a thorough reading of the Swiss scientists’ report shows that their fi nd-ings are inconclusive. Still, the Palestini-an Authority [PA] is not willing to let the facts stand in its way.

The scientists wrote that “taking into account the analytical limitations, most-ly time lapse since the death and the na-ture and quality of the specimens, the re-sults moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-201.”

However, Russian scientists who also examined Arafat’s remains have said that there was insuffi cient evidence to sup-port the the claim that Arafat may have died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.

The Swiss and Russian scientists did not conduct a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Arafat’s death. All that they did last November

was take samples from Arafat’s body in a bid to determine the cause of death.

Since the 108-page Swiss report was published by the Al-Jazeera news channel last week, PA offi cials have been waging a campaign of incitement against Israel.

The PA’s campaign has created the false impression among Palestinians that the Swiss scientists were the ones who pointed a fi nger at Israel. The PA has also created the false impression that the fi ndings of the scientists were conclusive and uncontroversial.

On Friday, shortly after Kerry left the region, Palestinian offi cials took the case a step further at a press conference.

“Israel is the fi rst, only and major ac-cused in the assassination of President Yasser Arafat,” Tawfi k Tirawi, head of a Palestinian committee entrusted with in-vestigating Arafat’s death, announced at the start of the press conference.

The Palestinian charges against Isra-el regarding the death of Arafat are not new. These charges, which have nev-er been verifi ed, surfaced almost on the fi rst day when Arafat fell ill in his presi-dential compound in Ramallah.

In the past few days, a number of Pal-

estinian offi cials said in wake of the fi nd-ings of the Swiss report that it was time to take Israel to the ICC for its ostensible role in the death of Arafat.

So while Abbas was reaffi rming his commitment to peace during the recent meetings with Kerry, PA offi cials and me-dia outlets were telling their people that the Israelis must be punished for “poi-soning” Arafat and perpetrating various “crimes” against Palestinians.

The anti-Israel incitement causes huge damage to Kerry’s continued ef-forts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The incitement radical-izes Palestinians to a point where many are starting to talk about the need for re-venge, and not peace.

But many Palestinians are saying that Israel could not have “killed” Arafat with-out help from the people who were very close to him.

According to this theory, the same Pal-estinian offi cials who have been point-ing a fi nger at Israel may themselves have been involved in the death of Ara-fat. So the charges against Israel are com-ing back to haunt Abbas and several sen-ior Palestinian offi cials.

Lots of Looted Art Recovered and Three Pieces Returned(combined services)

Europe—Looted Holocaust art has landed in the news recently. The Nether-lands will return three paintings by 17th

century Dutch masters to the descend-ants of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goud-stikker. The paintings were by Philips Wouwerman, Dominicus van Tol and Hendrik Gerritsz. In 2006, they returned more than 200 paintings to the fami-ly. Experts believe that dozens of Dutch museums are in possession of at least 139 items with “problematic origins.”

The bigger story was the discovery of a cache of 1400 paintings worth more than a billion dollars in an apartment in Mu-nich—which German police seized two years ago, but never made public. The fi nd includes Chagall, Matisse, Picasso, Tou-louse-Lautrec, Courbet and other knock-

your-eyes-out names. The police found the paintings when they went after tax evader Cornelius Gurlitt, son of German art dealer Hildebrandt Gurlitt, a Nazi col-laborator. The Munich resident has since disappeared and, according to Haaretz, his neighbors presume he is dead.

The German authorities have yet to explain the delay in reporting the fi nd, and informed the Chancellery only a few months ago. The paintings, in generally good condition, were discovered in what the German newspapers called a hovel. The list of paintings or pictures of them will not be posted on line at this time.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that some of the Na-zi-looted art had been confi scated from Hildebrandt Gurlitt by the Allied Forces in 1945 and were returned to him in the 1950s. He left them to his son, who is supposed

to have lived an almost hermit-like exist-ence and who sold them off as needed.

Haaretz reported that Tel Aviv-based attorney Joel Levi, an expert on looted Holocaust art, told them that “the works that were discovered in Munich are only the tip of the iceberg,” and suggested that thousands of additional works may be stored in other places. The German Week-ly Focus also suspects that there are addi-tional stolen works in other places—and the Austrian media reported that Gurlitt owns another house in Salzburg, Austria. But Munich customs director, Siegfried Kloeble, who is working the case, disa-grees and says no one will fi nd more.

The chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, wants a thorough accounting of why the fi nd was not made public when it hap-pened. He says that the story proves that

the Holocaust was not only mass mur-der, but mass robbery as well.

Ruediger Mahlo of The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), has demanded that Germany return looted paintings to their rightful owners. “It cannot be, as in this case, that what amounts morally to the concealment of stolen goods contin-ues,” he said.

The heirs of Jewish businessman Da-vid Friedmann hope for the return of Two Riders on the Beach, a 1901 paint-ing by Max Liebermann that was part of Friedmann’s collection. They saw the painting on TV when the story of the cache discovery was aired and had previ-ously listed the painting, as well as oth-ers, on Germany’s Lost Art Internet Data-base, a registry of art works looted in the Holocaust.

production facilities intact. Denounced by the New York Times as generating “hysterical oppo-sition,” the Times editorial conveniently failed to address Netanyahu’s position that he wants “a diplomatic solution, but one that actually dis-mantles Iran’s nuclear program.”

Concurring with Netanyahu, a senior U.S. offi cial reported, “The United States and Israel have worked very closely and consulted often in the way to proceed forward. Some days we may disagree on tactics,” said the offi cial, “but we absolutely agree on the objective and we ab-solutely agree that we need a comprehensive agreement, and we hope to get one very soon.”

Over the past weekend, it was reported that France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius

seemed the sole holdout to fi nalizing a proposal that would lift some economic sanctions pend-ing Iran’s agreement to temporarily halt its nu-clear production capabilities. This prompted the Times to declare, “If all those inveighing against any deal—namely members of Congress, Israel and Saudi Arabia—see the weekend results as a new opportunity to sabotage it, what is the al-ternative?” Again the Times failed to mention that “it was Iran that was not prepared to sign the agreement on Saturday night in Geneva. They needed to go home and consult.”

In the meantime, Netanyahu continues to press for a “better deal” that would not give Iran everything it wants “without paying for any-thing.” As Netanyahu stated, “We will continue to speak out” against the deal that is being nego-tiated, because “this process has a goal…to pre-vent Iran attaining a nuclear weapons capabil-ity.”

The next round of talks is scheduled for No-vember 20th.

Nuke Talks Unresolved

CONTINUED FROM P. 1

reported in Mother Jones. He’s the featured speaker at a fund-raiser that was headlined last year by Glenn Beck. The organ-ization is probably best known as part of the “Jews for Jesus” movement. While some evan-gelical groups (particularly those with an End Times-focused mis-sion), along with members of the Messianic Jewish move-ment insist that “Jews for Je-sus” is simply a sect of Judaism, most Jewish people and leaders strongly disagree, and consider the group to be Christian. It’s a

very contentious debate. The Messianic Jewish Bible

Institute has since removed all reference to the event from its site, though organizers have confi rmed to Mother Jones that it’s still happening, with tickets ranging from $100 to $100,000. It’s not clear whether Bush is receiving a speaking fee for his time. Notably, news of Bush’s commitment to the Texas-based group was immediately condemned by David Wolpe,

Bush’s Jews for Jesus Speech Troubles Jewish Leaders

CONTINUED FROM P. 1

CONTINUED ON P. 80


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Sodastream ’s $4 Million Super Bowl Ad

(JNS.org)—Sodastream, the popular Is-raeli carbonated drinks company, has an-nounced that it will kick off its 2014 adver-tising campaign with a $4 million Super Bowl ad for the second year in a row. “The Super Bowl is a proven venue for SodaS-tream to deliver our beverage revolution message to over 100 million viewers, em-powering consumers to enjoy a smart-er, ‘better-for-you’ alternative to pack-aged soda,” said SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum. Israeli Sodastream allows con-sumers to use regular tap water to create homemade carbonated beverages. Last year, the company generated more than $436 million in revenue.

Jerusalem Undivided Forever(JNS.org)—Israeli Finance Minister Yair

Lapid said it is a “founding ethos” of Israel that Jerusalem will never again be divided, and that the city is not up for negotiation. Lapid’s remarks came as Jerusalem is dis-cussed in Israeli-Palestinian confl ict nego-tiations. According to Israel Radio, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is Israel’s chief negotiator, and Yitzhak Molcho, who rep-resents Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu in negotiations, have had differenc-es over the possible borders of Jerusalem. Molcho supports maintaining the cur-rent municipal boundaries and including some Jewish communities beyond the se-curity barrier, while Livni supports more fl exible boundaries to accommodate Pal-estinian claims in eastern Jerusalem.

Liberman Cleared(JNS.org) In a unanimous verdict, a

three-judge panel on last week acquitted former Israeli foreign minister and Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman Avigdor Lieber-man of corruption charges, Israel Hayom reported. Liberman was accused of fraud and breach and trust, but now intends to rejoin the foreign ministry.

U.S. Official: Israeli Planes Strike Syrian Military Base

An Obama administration offi cial told CNN Israeli planes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia last week. An explosion at a missile stor-age site was reported in the Middle East-ern press. According to the offi cial, the tar-get was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to Hezbullah. Israel’s military has long said it would target any transfer of weapons to

Hezbullah or any effort to smuggle Syrian weapons into Lebanon that could threat-en Israel. Israel has never offi cially con-fi rmed taking action inside Syria to avoid embarrassing Assad and sparking a poten-tial response.

Amazon Opens Israel According to Al-Monitor, retail giant

Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogels, announced during a visit to Israel last month that: “We are setting up an entity in Israel to support our cloud activity in Israel, which, up until now, has been supported from Europe.” The Amazon service and sales center, to open in early 2014, will also ser-vice the Middle East and Africa.

Heroes to Heroes in Israel Ha’aretz reports that Heroes to Heroes,

an American non-profi t group, brings traumatized U.S. veterans to Israel for spiritual healing. The group has organized and fi nanced three Birthright-type trips designed for non-Jewish American war vets—of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the important elements of the trip is the inclusion of disabled Israeli veter-ans who accompany the Americans dur-ing their 10 days of intensive touring. “I’ve had more people thank me for my service here [in Israel] than I have just about any-where in America,” said Greg Grutter, who did four deployments in Iraq and three in Afghanistan and was medically dis-charged a year ago after 19 years of service.

IDF Blows Hamas Terror Tunnel(JNS.org)—The IDF detonated part of

a Hamas terror tunnel near the Gaza bor-der in the Khan Yunis area recently. Dur-ing the operation, a Hamas explosion in-jured fi ve Israeli soldiers, and one Hamas terrorist was killed in an exchange of fi re. An ensuing Israeli airstrike in response to the Hamas attack killed three Palestinian terrorist commanders, Maan News Agen-cy reported. The incidents marked the worst Israeli-Palestinian clashes since the eight-day Gaza confl ict of November 2012.

Israel and Japan Collaborate(JNS.org) –The Israeli and Japanese gov-

ernments will establish a joint research and development fund. Also discussed was the option of exporting Israeli agri-cultural produce to Japan. A secondary goal of the trip was to promote the Inter-national Dairy Federation conference, to be held next October in Israel with partic-ipants from 54 countries.

Hamas Rockets Can Reach Tel Aviv (JNS.org)—Palestinian terrorist group

Hamas is amassing M-75 rockets with a range of 43 miles and the capability to reach the Tel Aviv metro area. While the number of such rockets currently in the group’s possession is still small, Hamas is rapidly working to grow the arsenal. The group does currently have hundreds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Hamas Textbooks: Torah and Talmud ‘Fabricated’

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Hamas has introduced new textbooks in the Gaza Strip that characterize the To-rah and Talmud as “fabricated,” The New York Times reported. Gaza schools pre-viously used a curriculum approved by the Palestinian Authority. The new Ha-mas textbooks describe Zionism as a rac-ist movement whose goals include driv-ing Arabs out of all of the area between the Nile River in Africa and the Euphra-tes River in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. “The Jews and the Zionist movement are not related to Israel, because the sons of Isra-el are a nation which had been annihilat-ed,” the books say.

Mahmoud Abbas Calls Terrorists ‘Heroes’ at Prisoner Release Celebration

(JNS.org)—Palestinian Authority Pres-ident Mahmoud Abbas held a celebra-tion in Ramallah in honor of the second set of 26 Palestinian terrorists released by Israel as part of Israeli-Palestinian confl ict negotiations, calling the prison-ers “heroes” despite their violent histo-ry. Abbas told the crowd, “We welcome our brothers, the heroes coming from behind the bars to a world of freedom and liberty. No permanent peace agree-ment would be signed as long as there is one single prisoner in Israeli jails,” Ab-bas said.

Syria’s Chemical Weapons Plants Destroyed, But Actual Weapons Remain

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Syria has destroyed its declared chemical weapons production and mix-ing facilities, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons an-nounced. The OPCW now faces the more challenging task of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, thought to include more than 1,000 tons of mustard gas, as well as the nerve agent sarin. The

international community is still strug-gling to come to agreement on where and how the chemical weapons will be destroyed.

The Kurds Get a Second Chance More than 200,000 Syrian Kurdish

refugees have moved into Iraqi Kurdis-tan—in the Kurdish world view, a pas-sage from one part of their homeland to another. The Kurds disregard the fron-tiers imposed almost a century ago by Anglo-French power. Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, is a booming city of shopping malls, high-rises and swank hotels. Oil and natural gas have remade the city, as has its political stability, re-markable when set against the mayhem of the rest of Iraq. The Kurdish regional government and almost fi ve million peo-ple who are offi cially part of Iraq in reali-ty belong to an independent nation. The Kurds inhabit fragments o f Syria by the Turkish and Iraqi borders, in the north-east; their lands contain the bulk of Syr-ia’s oil.

Danish Crown Prince Comemorates Holocaust in Israel

(JNS.org)—Danish Crown Prince Frederik is visiting Israel to commem-orate 70 years since the rescue of Dan-ish Jews during the Holocaust. In Octo-ber 1943, 7,000 Danish Jews were sent to Sweden by the Danish resistance to es-cape the Nazis. The Prince is set to vis-it the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem with Denmark’s education minister and attend a memorial con-cert by the Jerusalem symphony orches-tra. Prince Frederik will also meet Israeli President Shimon Peres to discuss bilat-eral relations between the two nations, Israel National News reported.

God Works in Mysterious WaysWhen Rabbi Noah Muroff of New Ha-

ven, CT, bought a desk on Craigslist, lit-tle did he know that he was also buy-ing 15 minutes of fame. In an attempt to move the desk into his home, he had to take the desk apart. Upon doing so, he discovered a plastic bag containing $100 bills. Counting the money, he dis-covered that it totaled $98,000. What to do? Muroff immediately called the sell-er and returned the woman’s money. As he said, “If Hashem wants us to have this $98,000, He will make sure we have it in a way He sees fi t.” He told Tablet, “That’s what a Jew is supposed to do.”


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Livni Defends KerryBy Times of Israel Staff

Justice Minister and chief Israeli nego-tiator with the Palestinians Tzipi Livni

came to the defense of US Secretary of State John Kerry after he launched a very public attack on Israel’s West Bank poli-cies during an interview with Channel 2 last Thursday.

Kerry is a man who “cares about the State of Israel,” Livni told Israel Radio.

“He believes that a fi nal agreement be-tween Israel and the Palestinians is criti-cal for the security of Israel and in gen-eral. He invests a lot of time, effort and heart in this matter. And he speaks from the heart. He’s not saying these things to attack Israel,” she went on. “He’s say-ing: ‘Friends, when you’ve got an Intifa-da and terror on your hands, there are those who say OK, there’s terror, and we will not talk to terrorists.’ And I think he’s saying that the quiet is temporary and it’s important for Israel, for the State of Isra-el and its citizens, to do it [negotiate a fi -nal agreement],” Livni added.

The justice minister also spoke about Iran and a possible nuclear deal taking shape between the P5+1 world powers and the Islamic Republic—a deal of “lim-ited” sanctions relief in response to an Iranian agreement to start scaling back nuclear activities—saying that an easing of sanctions would lead to an agreement that’s less desirable.

US offi cials said Kerry will fl y to Ge-neva on Friday to participate in the ongo-ing negotiations between the P5+1 world powers and Iran—a last-minute decision that suggests a deal could be imminent.

Netanyahu has described the possible offer to Tehran as a historic mistake and “a deal of the century” for Iran.

In an interview with NBC last week,

US President Barack Obama said that an interim deal with Iran could provide “very modest relief” from internation-al sanctions and that the bulk of them would remain in place.

“There is the possibility of a phased agreement in which the fi rst phase would be us, you know, halting any advances on their nuclear program, rolling some po-tential back, and putting in place… some very modest relief, but keeping the sanc-tions architecture in place,” Obama said.

“We don’t have to trust them. What we have to do is to make sure that there is a good deal in place from the perspec-tive of us verifying what they’re doing,” he added.

According to Britain’s Telegraph, the deal’s four main points were that Iran would stop enriching uranium to 20 percent and convert its existing stock-pile into harmless uranium oxide. Iran would be able to continue enrichment to 3.5% purity necessary for nuclear pow-er plants — but would agree to limit the number of centrifuges running for this purpose. The inactive centrifuges would be able to remain intact. Iran would also agree not to activate its plutonium reac-tor at Arak, which could provide an alter-native route to a nuclear weapon, during the six-month period in which Iran will limit uranium enrichment to 3.5%. Lastly, Iran would agree not to use the advanced IR-2 centrifuges, which enrich uranium three to fi ve times faster than the older model.

In return, the British paper reported, the U.S. “would ease economic sanctions, possibly by releasing some Iranian for-eign exchange reserves currently held in frozen accounts” and ease “some restric-tions on Iran’s petrochemical, motor and precious metals industries.”

Knesset Passes “Tzohar Law”(from combined services)

Jerusalem—Following several years of lobbying and publicity efforts, the

Tzohar Rabbinical Organization cele-brated a historic legislative victory re-cently when the Knesset passed the “Tzohar Law.” In October, the newly elected chief rabbinate had attempted to block the legislation.

Now couples across Israel will be al-lowed to apply for marriage licenses in any local rabbinate in Israel. Previous-ly, the couple could only marry in the rabbinical jurisdiction where either the bride or groom offi cially resided and where the local rabbinate functioned as mini-monopolies, which caused wide-spread resentment among both reli-gious and secular couples. In addition to severe bureaucratic obstacles, many ultra-Orthodox local rabbis prohibit Zionist rabbis from performing wed-dings. This behavior causes thousands of secular couples to prefer civil cere-monies in Cyprus and Prague instead of Jewish marriage in Israel. These couples are usually unaware that their children will fi nd it almost impossible to prove their Jewish roots in the future.

“This breakthrough is a historical victory for the future of the State of Is-rael and the Jewish people,” said Rab-bi David Stav, founder and president of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization.” Many people are unaware that Israel is suffering from a wave of mass assimi-lation and intermarriage. This is most-ly due to bureaucratic factors rather than halachic challenges. Tzohar rab-bis are devoted to removing any and all administrative obstacles, while remain-ing one hundred percent committed to halacha. We have a historic responsi-bility to preserve the future of the Jew-ish people. We cannot afford to sit by and lose a single Jewish family. This law is also a major breakthrough in Tzo-har’s efforts to fi ght for the legitimacy of hundreds of North American com-munity rabbis who are fully committed to halacha and devote their nights and days to preservation of the Jewish peo-ple.”

Since its founding in 1996, Tzohar volunteers have assisted more than 90,000 secular brides and grooms throughout their Jewish marriage pro-cess, as well as numerous other nation-al Jewish identity initiatives.


NEWS

Polish Holocaust survivors who were in Warsaw for a similar gathering in 2011, was the Polish Consul Gen-eral in New York, Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka. She was ap-palled at what she heard, as were her tablemates, she told JLBC, just moments after Weitzman’s speech ended to the applause of some participants.

In a follow-up conversation, the Consul General told JLBC that she found it very disturbing that in today’s times someone would tell future generations to avoid visiting a country that is a “loyal, political friend of Israel and whose political and cultural elites are committed to combating antisemitism, educating young Poles about the common Polish Jewish history and seeking recon-ciliation with Jewish communities around the globe.”

Ziomecka explained that the schechita ban is a legal and political issue which after being passed by the Polish Parliament, has been ap-pealed, and is now waiting for the verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal (a Polish equivalent of the Supreme Court). She emphasized that the ban itself was not the result of antisemitic sen-timents quoting the opinion of the chief rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich: “This has noth-ing to do with antisemitism.” (The Forward, Nov. 15, 2013)

She is also the person who, more than 10 years ago, was one of the creators of the concept of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and had a vision for a museum of Polish Jewish Histo-ry, which would tell the story in the place where contemporary Judaism—in all its forms and de-nominations, from Hasidim and Mitnagdim to Zionists and Yiddishists and more—was born. (Today’s Belarus used to be part of Poland, as was Ukraine.) Four Israeli Prime Ministers were born in interwar Poland, which regained its independ-ence in 1918.

“For almost one thousand years we jointly inhabited the same land. But the war, with its death and destruction, should not be seen as the last chapter. We have to work together to make the world better, not worse. We should be cre-ating new, positive chapters in our history,” said the Consul General.

The museum had a soft opening in Warsaw last Yom Hashoah. Right now it serves as an edu-cational and historical center and sits on top of where Warsaw’s Jewish Quarter and the Ghetto once stood. The area was leveled by the Germans soon after the Ghetto Uprising.

When she spoke of the museum and the his-tory of the Jews of Poland there was naught but passion in her voice. “The legacy of the past is not just one of death and destruction. The lega-cy is also one of accomplishments and co-habita-tion. When we started, no one wanted such a mu-seum. But then, as they realized the importance of preserving this history, many Polish Christians and Jews alike joined in the endeavor. Poland is where almost 80% of American Jews and a large percentage of Israelis come from. It is their lega-cy, it is also their place.

“The museum—more than anything else—is an educational center, a place where people will come to learn about our shared history and our accomplishments, and also how we can work together. Because the museum faces the monu-ment dedicated to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, visitors will also be reminded of the Holocaust.”

She noted that Weitzman did not ask people in the audience to avoid visiting Norway, Swe-den and Switzerland, where schechita is banned. “I found it really heartbreaking that a representa-tive of the Wiesenthal Center, which is supposed to stand for tolerance, singled out the people of Poland and their country, oblivious to the pro-gress that has been made since Poland regained

its independence from the Soviet Union in 1989,” said Ziomecka.

“He is oblivious to the fact that that he is insulting the memory of those Poles who risked their lives to save Jewish people and ignoring the existence and efforts of hundreds of thousands of young and old Polish patriots devoted to making Poland a place hospitable for all—in-cluding the Jews.”

She added, “I was very heartened to see that the Pol-ish Holocaust survivors seated at my table were upset and went to the organizers to voice their dissent.”

Weitzman told JLBC that his statement in Hender-son was conditional, but it seems that that was not what was heard by many people in the audience, in-cluding this writer. At one table, people were distract-ed and listening for keywords, not really paying close attention. He told JLBC, “I said IF Poland cannot guar-antee the right of freedom of Jews to practice their re-ligion freely, and ends up barring shechita, I would rec-

ommend that Jewish organizations think twice before suggesting or holding meetings in Poland.” And then he added the words he used at the conference when he closed his remarks: “I hope Poland chooses wisely and that this does not become an issue. I have been in touch with leaders and Jews in Poland and with the Polish government, and I hope the situation can be resolved as soon as possible.”

Weitzman also told JLBC that last June he met with museum leaders and educators in Warsaw and was very impressed by the warm and inviting structure. “They have some exciting plans and ideas, and we have of-fered to cooperate with them and I hope we will con-tinue to work together. I look forward to seeing the core exhibition when it is installed, because I am glad that there is something that will tell the story of the histo-ry of Polish Jewry in all its complexities—with all its joy

A Call to Boycott Poland? CONTINUED FROM P. 1

CONTINUED ON P. 12


LOCAL NEWS

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Congregation Beth Abraham Teen Zone LaunchesBy Daniel Weiskopf & Matti Fuld

Due to a growing number of teens in the Beth Abraham community, the

shul, under the auspices of Assistant Rav Tanchum Cohen, has organized teen programming to give its kids a fun, relaxing outlet to gather togeth-er in a social setting without the pres-sure of school. This year, in addition to Rav Cohen, Mayer Simcha Stromer has come along to co-pilot the pro-gram dubbed “The Teen Zone” and add vitality to an already exciting pro-gram.

The program has had a booming start to the year, kicking off the New Year with a Simchas Beis HaShoeiva at the Kazlow

house with over 50 teenage boys rep-resenting all the different community high schools. There was cholent, kugel, loads of food, singing and some divrei torah too. Additionally, every week after Mincha on Shabbos at Beth Abraham, the high school boys have a seudat sh-lishis together with Rav Cohen and May-er Simcha. This includes singing, divrei torah and more delicious food, which makes for an overall great time. Addi-tionally, there is a twice weekly learning program in the Beth Abraham Beis Me-drash.

The Teen Zone is always open to suggestions and one can easily suggest ideas to Zahava Finkelstein on the website. Subscribe to the web page to receive all the updates on activities, learning and c hesed opportunities at cbateenzonegirls.weebly.com.

Federation Opens Mailbox for Typhoon Relief In PhilippinesParamus, NJ— In response to the

widespread destruction caused by su-per Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Jewish Federation of Northern New Jer-sey has opened a mailbox to accept do-nations from the community. Federa-tion has reached out to all its partner agencies in an effort to maximize ef-forts.

At one of those agencies, the Jew-ish Home at Rockleigh, there is deep concern as 92 staff members hail from

the Philippines. Some of those staff-ers have, so far, not been able to get in touch with their families.

In the wake of the storm’s devasta-tion, IsrAID, the Israel Forum for Inter-national Humanitarian Aid, has sent an aid team to the Philippines to pro-vide critical health interventions in the hardest-hit areas. The Israeli team will help local NGOs and UN agencies in treating hundreds of thousands of people affected by one of the worst

storms on record. Locally, many Filipi-no-Americans have expressed concern for relatives at home.

To make a donation online, go to www.jfnnnj.org/typhoon or call Dana, 201-820-3937.

Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey adds value by providing the lead-ership necessary to create a strong, col-laborative, caring, and vibrant Jewish community in northern New Jersey, Isra-el, and abroad.

and all its sorrows.”Dr. Michael Berenbaum, the Holo-

caust scholar, arrived at the hall in Hen-derson in time to witness the noisy reac-tion to Weitzman’s speech. He is close to Weitzman and the Polish Consul Gener-al, both long-time friends of his. He told JLBC, “It was remarkable to realize that what people heard was different from what was said, which clearly indicates the high sensitivity of the relationship between Poles and Jews even now. But I do think that the forces in Europe argu-ing against schechita and circumcision—in their quest for human rights and an-imal rights—trespass people’s deep and

historical religious sensitivities. Given the fact the Jews and Muslims both share these concerns, this offers their commu-nities the rare opportunity to join togeth-er to protect their own and each other’s religions.”

Junczyk-Ziomecka told JLBC, “The Jewish Second and Third Generations want to learn about the Holocaust, the tragic chapter of Polish-Jewish history—which is what the Poles are trying to do as well. We did not ask the Germans to build their death machine on Polish soil, and yes, there were many instances of murder and crime infl icted on Jews by their fellow citizens. There was and still is evil and prejudice everywhere, not only in Poland—which is why I believe that people of good will must join forces and devote themselves to education and to leading the struggle against the rebirth of antisemitism and fascism, so that the Holocaust does not happen again.”

A Call to Boycott Poland? CONTINUED FROM P. 11

Typhoon Haiyan has devastated the Phillipines.


LOCAL NEWS

YUConnects Holds Successful Teaneck ShabbatonAmidst the glorious autumn landscape and the unu-

sually warm sunshine of November 1st-2nd, the YU-Connects Shabbaton felt equally exceptional. Not mere-ly because Rav Hershel Schachter of Yeshiva University and other notable speakers joined the participants or even because the Teaneck community was so genuine-ly hospitable to all; what made the Shabbos remarkable was the naturalness of the event itself: a comfortable setting for compatible young men and women to min-gle and socialize.

YUConnects, the premier social and matchmaking arm of Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future, is barely fi ve years young, but has brought tremendous changes to the modern dating scene. By presenting con-temporary educational forums, hosting a state-of-the-art matchmaking website, and by offering a professional staff for mentoring and guidance, YUConnects is able to impact Orthodox men and women preparing for mar-riage in ways few other organizations can. The events that YUConnects initiates are especially popular; singles can establish relationships in warm, friendly atmos-pheres thereby increasing their networking and meet-ing opportunities.

Success is in the numbers. To date, YUConnects has

allowed 272 individuals to fi nd their life partner. “So many of us feel that young people to-

day simply don’t have the options to meet the way we did years ago. YUConnects is unique in our circles, and that is why we felt strongly that the program deserves our support,” commented Lois Blumenfeld, who along with her husband, Dr. Norman Sohn, were the lead sponsors of the Shabbaton, geared for men and women ages 21 to 26. Dozens of other local community mem-bers joined in the sponsorship to demonstrate support for YUConnects and the event.

One of the highlights of the Shabbaton was the compelling Friday night symposium en-titled, “A Jew in the Workplace.” This interac-tive session posed common scenarios, such as meeting colleagues for drinks or at lunch, wear-ing yarmulkes on the job, handshakes or other physical contact with the opposite sex at work, enabling the attendees to have vibrant discus-sions on true-life dilemmas. They then bene-fi ted by hearing the insightful perspectives of Rabbi Schachter, Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt and Mrs. Suzy Schwartz, the distinguished panelists, with lively comments contributed by the moderator, Mr. Allen Pfeiffer. Afterwards, chulent and kugel were part of a beautiful collation which facilitat-ed more mingling.

Dr. David Pelcovitz and Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky also offered words of Torah during the weekend and the special lectures on relationships given by

Dr. Pelcovitz to the community at large were exceptional-ly well-attended.

Rotating tables during the courses allowed all the participants to meet each other during all the delicious meals. “I felt that the varied seating pushed me to chat with some men at Friday dinner, again at Shabbos lunch and then I felt more comfortable during the mingling at Shalosh Seudot,” said one young woman.

Several Yeshiva University alumni or participants traveled from out-of-town graduate schools to take part in this wonderful event recognizing that they can make many new connections in one weekend. Mindy and Henry Orlinsky graciously opened their home for the Shalosh Seudot buffet as the men and women be-came absorbed in conversation. Rabbi Kenneth Brand-er stopped by and shared some fascinating insights into relationships by pointing out that Esav, in the parsha, simply called the lentil soup “adom hadom” and there-by incorrectly focused on “externals” instead of the prop-er—and important—inner ingredients.

The capstone to the weekend was the outstanding Melava Malka at Bnai Yeshurun called, “Are You Game?” In addition to the nearly 70 Shabbaton registrants, ap-proximately 20 more participants joined the interac-

tive game night which was festooned with colorful bal-loons and six gaming stations ranging from foosball and air-hockey to ipad challenges and a full-screen Jeop-ardy tournament on the stage. Matchmakers mingled to facilitate more interaction and to make future sug-gestions for the attendees. One innovative and popular “Make-a-match” suggestion box allowed the men and women to recommend a match idea for their friends from the people they met over the weekend.

Couples are already dating, match suggestions are being followed up and the Teaneck community is ask-ing “When can we do this again?” By fostering the prev-alence of relaxed and comfortable meeting opportu-nities, YUConnects and the Teaneck Shabbaton was special, indeed.

For more information on YUConnects, contact the offi ce at [email protected], go to the website at www.yuconnects.com or call 212-960-5400 X 6163

Lois Blumenfeld and husband Dr. Norman Sohn stopped by the Melava Malka

YUConnects conducts educational forums and develops programs that foster healthy meeting opportunities and relationships toward marriage.

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YUConnects thanks the following families for their support of our recent Teaneck Shabbaton

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We also thank the Adult Education Committ ee & Beis Medresh Program of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun for helping to sponsor this event.


NEWS

Monday, November 18, 2013 Martin M. Shenkman, P.C.BOOMERS – PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT AND LATER LIFE: ESTATE AND FINANCIAL PLANNING

Rabbi Benjamin YudinCHANUKA: RECOGNIZING THE MIRACLES AROUND US

Monday, December 2, 2013Marc Weiner HOW TO STRENGTHEN YOUR EMPATHIC LISTENING & COMMUNICATION SKILLS: AN EMPATHY LABYRINTH WORKSHOP

Reuben Ebrahimoff, “The Haftorah Man”THE BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE JEWISH HOLY DAYS

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Pew Results Seen as a Wake-Up CallBy Philip Berroll

Bergen County—Close to half of all married American Jews have a non-Jewish spouse. Two-thirds do not

belong to a synagogue. And a growing number – espe-cially among those aged 30 or younger – identify cultur-ally as Jewish but describe themselves as having no re-ligion.

These are some of the fi ndings of a new survey, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” conducted by the nonpar-tisan Pew Research Center as part of its Religion & Pub-lic Life Project. Since its release to the public, the survey has reignited the decades-long debate in the American Jewish community over assimilation, intermarriage and the diffi culties of maintaining a Jewish identity in an open, pluralistic society such as the U.S.

The Pew survey, the most comprehensive opinion

poll of American Jews since 2001, was conducted from February through June of this year. In order to obtain a representative sample of poll respondents, the survey covered geographical areas, such as the Northeast, in which 90% of the American Jewish population U.S. re-sides.

The survey paints what many Jewish leaders are call-ing a disturbing picture of a people increasingly cut off from their roots and traditions – and not just because of the fi ndings on intermarriage and synagogue mem-bership. Researchers also reported that one-fourth of re-spondents said they did not believe in God, one-third had a Christmas tree in their home last year… and 34 percent said it was possible to be Jewish while believ-ing that Jesus was the Messiah.

But one fi nding in particular has raised alarms: 22 percent of American Jews self-identifi ed as having no re-

ligion – but among so-called millennials (those born af-ter 1980), the number increased to 32 percent, suggesting a trend that if left unchecked could lead to further attri-tion in the American Jewish population.

For several of Bergen County’s leading rabbis, the survey has confi rmed what they had observed, or suspected, for some time—and should be seen as a wake-up call to the Jewish community.

Rabbi Neil Winkler of Congregation Young Is-rael of Fort Lee said he was not surprised by the growing number of non-religious Jews.

“Since the collapse of the ghetto walls and the increased mingling of Jews with the ‘out-side world,’ the secularization of the Jew has in-creased as well,” he observed. “For the survival of a people numbering less than .02 percent of world population, this is a major challenge.

“With less and less Jews observing, with more and more Jews intermarrying, it is no wonder that 32 percent of the millennials say they have no religion,” he added. “For most of them, there most probably was very little meaningful reli-gious observance, education or conversation in their home.”

Rabbi Lawrence Zierler of the Jewish Center of Teaneck said the survey illustrated how many Jews had become “consumers” of a cultural ex-perience rather than “joiners” of a religious com-munity.

“When you’re a consumer, you don’t easi-ly wear a label – and if you’re not a joiner, you are not a stakeholder,” he said. “And I think that’s how you get this statistic of people who don’t consider themselves to have any religion, or who belong to a synagogue for vestigial reasons or be-cause of a ‘tribal’ connection rather than a reli-gious connection.”

There were some brighter spots in the sur-vey. Most of the respondents expressed pride at being Jewish and said they had a “strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people,” while 69 per-cent said they had an emotional attachment to Israel (though only 17 percent agreed that build-ing settlements in the West Bank was helpful to Israel’s security).

And the fi ndings were relatively positive for Orthodox Jews: The survey found that 98 percent of married Orthodox have a Jewish spouse – the overall number for American Jews is 56 percent – and that far fewer young Orthodox than in the past are either leaving for other branches of Juda-ism or abandoning the faith entirely.

But Rabbi Zierler considers this to be “a semi-consolation” at best, while Rabbi Winkler be-lieves that no one in the Orthodox movement “should smile at any of the [survey] results.

“Losing any Jew is a tragedy, and with num-bers indicating that we are disappearing, there is nothing to celebrate,” he said. “It is only nat-ural that those with less intense emotional, edu-cational and social connection to their heritage and their people would fi nd it easier to leave the fold, so I would expect that fewer Orthodox Jews would be doing so. But they are still leaving. And we, too, must wonder why – and what can we do to stem the tide.”

Rabbi Neil Winkler Rabbi Lawrence Zierler

CONTINUED ON P. 51


LOCAL

Days of Yore: Teaneck, Circa 1976By George Friedman

Someone once said: “If you live long enough, you start to sound just like

your parents.” It may have been my near-ly 90-year-old dad who said that. He often regales me with tales of when hot dogs at the kosher deli cost a nickel back when he was a kid. An article in the last issue of The Voice (“Teaneck: Looking Back, Moving For-ward”) described Teaneck back in 1988, and among other things noted that you could get an apartment in West Gate for $600 a month. That prompted me to think to my-self “Back in ’76, when we were young, our rent was $246 a month – for a two bed-room!” See, Dad? I sound just like you.

Coming to TeaneckWe came to Teaneck after Ellen and

I wed back in 1976 because of parking. Really! My great- uncle Sam owned an apartment building in Kew Gardens, and he offered us a great deal. We arrived one evening to look at the apartment, and it took us over half an hour to fi nd a park-ing spot—metered, of course—caus-ing me to mutter to Ellen, “Can you im-agine going food shopping at night? I’ll have to lie down in the spot to save it.” The apartment was nice enough and the rent cheap. My great-uncle described the shuls, shopping, proximity to transpor-tation, and his belief that this was an up-and-coming Jewish community. To which I replied, “That’s all very nice, but

I can’t live in a place with bad parking.” Ellen’s brother Ed and his wife Barbara

lived in Teaneck, having moved there a few years before. They offered to get us into their apartment complex, the Hen-rich Hudson Apartments on Lozier Place (between Terrace Circle and West Gate). They, too, described the shuls, shopping, proximity to transportation, and their belief that Teaneck was an up-and-com-ing Jewish community. Said I, “That’s all very nice, but how’s the parking?” When they told us parking was plentiful and not metered, I was hooked. So, we settled in Teaneck after our wedding. We were part of Aliyah Bet—the second wave of frum folks who moved to Teaneck. Fun-ny thing, though, Ellen’s brother and his wife moved out about fi ve minutes after we moved in. I often wonder about that.

Coming to Beth AaronThere were just two Orthodox shuls

in Teaneck back in 1976—Beth Aaron and B’nai Yeshurun. So, we checked out both shuls. B’nai Yeshurun was nice enough, but I was kind of leaning toward Beth Aaron, because the “parking” (seating) was tight at B’nai Yeshurun. What really sold me on Beth Aaron was the follow-ing incident: It was a warm early spring day. The AC was not on, but with the win-dows open it was comfortable. An older gent—someone’s guest I imagine—was sitting next to the window. Then this transpires:

• Old gent closes window.• Another congregant walks over and

opens it.• Old gent closes window.• The same congregant walks over and

opens it again. Old gent closes win-dow.

• The same congregant walks over and opens it again.

• As the congregant starts heading back to his seat, the older gent starts reach-ing for the window.

• The same congregant turns and says “You touch that again, I’ll break your hand! Why do we all have to be hot? Sit somewhere else!”That worked for me, since I was think-

ing exactly the same thing. I just had to join that shul! The congregant and I be-came friends and neighbors, and Ellen and I became active members, serving on the board and various committees, and being honored at the shul dinner (me, twice). In reality, it turned out Beth Aaron was then and is still today a great shul that, despite signifi cant growth, is a warm, friendly and welcoming place.

When we joined Beth Aaron it was in a house. I sat in the talking section back near the fi replace because Rabbi Fass couldn’t see you. The shul had mice, who we sometimes tried to count toward a minyan. We held kiddushim in a small upstairs bedroom, often using an iron-ing board as a serving table. We’ve expe-rienced three expansions over the years.

Today, it is housed in a beautiful, mod-ern, much larger building and the mice and ironing board are gone.

AmenitiesHard to believe, but at one point there

were very few amenities for frum Jews back in the day. For example:

Restaurants: There were just two ko-sher restaurants back then, Jerusalem Pizza and King David. Jerusalem, which was located around where the Teaneck General Store is today, was half the size it was in later years. They had a Tuesday night takeout special; you got a plain pie for $2.99! The King David was a fl eishig restaurant located where Pizza Crave is today. It operated according to no dis-cernable schedule. I’m sure today there would be an app for this, but back then there were ad hoc phone trees. Some-one would notice that they were open and call a friend, who would call anoth-er friend, etc. There were no kosher es-tablishments on what today is “Restau-rant Row” up in the Plaza. If you wanted to eat at a fancy restaurant, and didn’t want to go to the city, you went to either Gartner’s Inn (located near the Tappan Zee Bridge), or the Pelham Manor (locat-ed, oddly enough, in Pelham, NY).

Bakeries: There were no kosher bak-eries in Teaneck back then. The fi rst one, called “Phibbleberry’s” was on Queen

CONTINUED ON P. 19


LOCAL NEWS

A Modern-Day Maccabee Comes to TownBy Fran Gozland

Teaneck—It isn’t often that a modern-day Maccabee arrives in Teaneck area

scant days before Chanukah, but that’s just what will happen on Shabbat/No-vember 15-16.

Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich is a genu-ine Jewish hero. A founder of Riga’s Jew-ish underground under oppressive So-viet rule in the mid-20th century, he and a group of daring colleagues planned to steal a Russian civilian airplane and fl y it under the USSR’s radar to freedom. But the KGB secret police found out, and ar-rested the 12 plotters as they were about to board the plane at a Leningrad airport.

Their trial in 1970 riveted world at-tention on Soviet Jews desperate to im-migrate to Israel. After international pro-tests, the Kremlin backed off from the two death sentences meted out, but still imposed long years of punishment in the notorious Gulag of prisons and labor camps. Mendelevich was sentenced to 13 years.

Mendelevich’s defi ance of his cap-tors in the hell of the Gulag became legendary,as he constantly deepened his love for Israel and his emunah (faith), his insistence on covering his head, keeping Shabbat and observing the command-ments to the extent possible. Finally, after a 56-day hunger strike, and over a

decade of Western protests on his be-half, he was suddenly, miraculously re-leased and fl own to an ecstatic recep-tion in Israel.

In freedom in the Jewish state, Men-delevich fulfi lled his dreams of serving in the IDF, married and became the father of seven, and obtained his smicha (rab-binic degree). Today he happily teaches Torah in Jerusalem, and is the author of his acclaimed autobiography, Unbroken Spirit.

Rabbi Mendelevich, who speaks Eng-lish, has the extraordinary ability to con-nect with audiences young and old as he relates his life story. He will speak on Fri-day night, November 15th, 8 pm, at an

oneg shabbat at Congregation Beth Abra-ham, 396 New Bridge Road, Bergenfi eld. He will speak on Shabbat morning, No-vember 16th, at the 9:10 am early minyanand 10:30 a.m. main minyan at Congrega-tion Rinat Yisrael, 389 West Englewood Avenue, Teaneck. He will also speak at seuda shlisheet after a 4 p.m. mincha at Congregation Keter Torah, 600 Roemer Avenue, Teaneck.

On Saturday evening, Rabbi Men-delevich will sign copies of his autobi-ography from 7:30 - 10 p.m. at the Te-aneck General Store, 502A Cedar Lane, Teaneck.

For more information, contact (917) 405-9211.

VETERAN’S DAY

Ralph Gerber and the Jewish War VeteransBy Lisa Matkowsky

This Veterans Day, Monday, November 11, Bergen County joined the rest of

the country in honoring the service and sacrifi ce of our hometown war veterans. Ralph Gerber, an Army veteran and River Edge resident, is commander of Jewish War Veterans Post 498 in Teaneck and is very cognizant of the fact that, despite na-tional respect, in the Jewish community, Jewish veterans are mostly overlooked.

Since 1896, when the organization

was formed by Jewish Civil War Medal of Honor recipients to counterbalance an-tisemitic canards of non-military service by Jews, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, the fi rst veteran’s organi-zation chartered by Congress, has existed to challenge antisemitism, to uphold the image of the Jewish patriot, and to sup-port all veterans rights.

“There are defi nitely challenges in preserving the mindfulness that Jews also fought,” Gerber said. “The general population needs to know, and local post

works hard to make sure that Jewish par-ticipation is recognized and commemo-rated as well.”

Mr. Gerber was stationed in England from May 1952-October 1954 after he vol-unteered for Army service, and is deeply proud to have served his country during the Korean War. Even though his posting didn’t take advantage of his fl uency in German, Italian and French, Gerber felt it was his civic duty to serve in whatever capacity was needed. “It’s very important to instill love of country and fl ag in our young people,” he added. “I really felt it.”

But despite American participation in many wars since WWII, veterans’ organ-izations are having a rough go maintain-ing their membership. Gerber told JLBC, “Every veterans post has problems ex-cept those in Florida. Most of our mem-bers are vets of World War II and there are diffi culties inherent in sustaining our aging membership. Many face hardship in cold weather or are unable to drive at night. Our oldest veteran is 100 years old. Nevertheless, we go on trips, march in parades and put fl ags on the graves of de-ceased veterans. This is essential both to publicize Jewish participation in war ef-forts as well as to provide needed cama-raderie for our veterans.”

Teaneck’s Post 498 is the joint post for both Teaneck and New Milford, hav-ing through the years already absorbed posts from Englewood and Bergenfi eld. It has about 120 members. Meeting regu-larly on the fi rst Sunday of every month, these Jewish veterans participate in myr-iad activities—from visiting hospitalized veterans, promoting veteran’s issues, par-ticipation in parades and memorial ser-vices, doing chesed, participating in com-munity activities and in activities of the national and state organization.

“It is very diffi cult to raise funds for these crucial activities,” Gerber noted. “There are very few donors and almost

no support from the community, and the National dues are high and constant-ly increasing. Our membership is getting smaller and smaller and younger vets are not joining. They have no interest. We re-cently wrote to every temple in the coun-ty to entreaty their members to join local posts,” he continued. “We did not receive even one response.”

In spite of the diffi culties, Gerber re-mains positive and enthusiastic, work-ing very hard to sustain the get-togethers and activities. Last year, due to the deter-mination of their commander, the post went to The National Museum of Ameri-can Jewish History in Philadelphia. They also marched in the July 4th parade in Te-aneck, participated in memorial services, and plan to take a trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park this com-ing May.

“We are fi nancially restricted but con-tinue with our activities,” said Gerber. “It’s important for our veterans in order to preserve the spirit of comradeship, and for our community to preserve the memories and records of patriotic ser-vice performed by the men and women of our faith; to honor their memory and safeguard from neglect the graves of our heroes.”

That is the that message from those who served; would the community prove it felt the same way.

Located at Netivot Shalom811 Palisade Ave

2’s class is run by Aliza SafranMonday-Friday 9:00am-1:00pm

3 year old nursery class is run by Carmela RosenbaumMonday-Friday 9:00am-2:00pm

Extended hours and early drop off available!

Registration for September 2014 opening October 14thCall about summer camp 2014 for nursery and pre-k

For more information contactAliza Safran 201-724-8886 [email protected]

Carmela Rosenbaum 201-951-7458 [email protected]

P r e s c h o o l

Ganeinu

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Tenafl y Mikvah Celebrates Bat Mitz vah YearBy Aviella Bareket

Tenafl y—Women from all over Ber-gen County joined the Chabad Tenafl y

Mikvah of Lubavitch on the Palisades in celebrating its bat mitzvah year—its 12 year anniversary. The event honored the women who dedicate time to come to the mikvah. An inspirational program by Mrs. Sarah Karmely had the women discussing the mystique of the mikvah. They also donated gifts to beautify the facility. The evening was topped off with

a tour of the facility which has been new-ly renovated. Funds were raised with raf-fl e that offered wonderful prizes. Each woman left with a gift bag and felt a spe-cial connection to the beautiful mitzvah of mikvah.

For more information about the mikvah please contact Mikvah Direc-tor Nechama Shutyak at (201) 816-0440. For more information about the Chabad Women’s Circle events, please contact Naomi Gershovitz at [email protected] or 201-871-1152 x543.

Rinat’s 26th Dinner Set for Dec. 21

Congregation Rinat Yisrael will hold its 26th annual dinner on Decem-

ber 21, 2013. Guests of Honor are Moshe and Ilana Wertenteil. The Sruli Gutt-man Memorial Service Award will be presented to Avi Katz, and the Young Leadership Award will be given to Rena Zelig.

For more information or to make res-ervations please call 201-837-2795.

Darchei Noam Celebrates Its First Dinner

Fair Lawn—Nathan and Rachel Bed-narsch were recently honored at Con-

gregation Darchei Noam of Fair Lawn’s fi rst annual dinner, held at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center. All guests were toasted and roasted as dinner was served. Most impor-tantly, the Congregation and community expressed their appreciation to the Bednar-sches, who were founders of Darchei Noam, and held services in their Kenneth Avenue home. Nathan also served as the congrega-

tion’s president. Rabbi Jeremy and Rebbit-zin Shira Donath inspire and excite both old and new members with their warm and welcoming attitude , which contrib-uted greatly to the shul’s expansion.

Since its inception seven years ago, the congregation has grown signifi cantly and recently celebrated its fourth year in its Al-exander Avenue location. The kehilla is looking to expand and enlarge the facility to include its many new young families.

Anne Road near Ludwig’s Hardware. I didn’t name it. [ed.note: No. You didn’t. But the editor of JLBC did, and she’s still married to the guy who owned it.]

Meat: Nope, no kosher meat either. People got their meat from Elizabeth, the Heights, Brooklyn, or Queens.

Mikveh: There were no mikvehs in Teaneck. One had to s hlepp to the Heights, Great Neck, or this scary place in Union City.

Kosher Markets: Are you kidding?

Nothing existed. No Ma’adan, no Glatt Express, no Best Glatt, no Grand & Es-sex, no Cedar Market, no nothing. A big treat was heading to Main Street in Queens to go food shopping.

TodayTeaneck today has become an amaz-

ing place. A time traveler form 1976 would be astounded to see the growth in terms of Yiddishkeit. The number of orthodox shuls, restaurants, and servic-es is breathtaking. In short, there have been many, many changes. On the oth-er hand, some things haven’t changed; the parking is still good!

Days of Yore CONTINUED FROM P. 15

Medical Supply Gemach Opens in TeaneckBy Estelle Glass

Teaneck—After the death of Renee Chaya Levy of Teaneck seven months

ago, her son Chaim, and her widow-er, Yehiel Levy, came up with the idea of establishing a much-needed medical gemach to honor her memory.

As anyone who has suffered an ill-ness or experienced surgery recogniz-es, it is often expensive and certain-ly time-consuming to obtain all the many devices necessary for the pa-tient to function on a daily basis. With the blessing of Rabbi Larry Rothwachs and the cooperation and participation of the members at Congregation Beth Aaron, the family decided that they would be able to “help people who are down on their luck,” at a particularly trying time in their lives, while paying tribute to their wife and mother.

Thanks to the gemach, anyone who wishes to borrow or to donate medi-

cal equipment, such as walkers, com-modes, shower chairs, even a mo-torized wheelchair along with many other items, will shortly be able to do so by contacting the Levy’s at [email protected] or call Yehiel at 201-357-5495 and he will even arrange for the item to be personally delivered to your home.

At present, all donated medical items are being stored in a spare room at the Levy apartment in Teaneck. However, the family is looking for vol-unteers to help them out with garage or basement space as their limited space is rapidly fi lling up.

The Levy family is operating the gemach solely as a nonprofi t organiza-tion, so no monetary donations are be-ing requested. Please watch for postings on Teaneck Shuls or Beth Aaron news-letter for the exact opening dates and hours of the gemach. May this wonder-ful tzedakah bring comfort to the family.

Avi Katz

Rena ZeligMoshe & Ilana Wertenteil


LOCAL NEWS

Shelley Steiner Employee of the Month at Jewish Home

Rockleigh—Shelley Steiner, L.S.W., so-cial worker at the Gallen Adult Day

Health Care Center which is part of the Jewish Home at Home, has been chosen Employee of the Month for November 2013. Shelley, a graduate of the Columbia School of Social Work, has been at Gal-len since 2002.

Gallen provides supervised day pro-grams to frail seniors, disabled adults and those with cognitive impairment, Stein-er explained. “We can improve their qual-ity of life while monitoring their physical needs. And we give their caregivers respite.”

Asked what she enjoys about her work, she said, “I feel I make a differ-ence with participants and the families I work with, advising them and guiding

them with information they need to care for family members. The Jewish Home is a health care continuum, but it recog-nizes that people want to stay at home. By working with them here, we can of-fer that as an option.” In addition, Stein-er works with the Alzheimer’s Associa-tion and facilitates the support group for caregivers held at Gallen as well as acting as liaison between Congressman Bill Pas-crell and the Alzheimer’s Association to keep him apprised of what’s happening with the disease. “I’m very fortunate to work with an organization that supports these endeavors,” she said.

Her supervisor, Joan DiPaola, R.N., Gallen’s director, said “Shelley is not only a colleague but a great, supportive friend.

She is a social worker with an enormous heart and reaches out to help partici-

pants enrolled in the program as well as their families. She is a team player and pitches in wherever she’s needed. She’s a great asset here in the Adult Day Health Care Program.”

Residents of Englewood, N.J., Shelley and her husband Jeffrey have three chil-dren: Yael, 27, who is an attorney; Ian, 25, who works in real estate equity, and Per-ri, 22, who is in nursing school.

The Jewish Home Family and its mem-ber entities are not-for-profi t organiza-tions, providing long-term care, sub-acute, outreach programs and outpatient servic-es for the elderly and their families in Ber-gen, North Hudson and Rockland coun-ties. For further information or a photo, please call 201-750-1414.

Photo caption: (from left) Joan DiPaola, R.N., Gallen’s director, EOM Shelley Steiner, and Chuck Berkowitz, president and CEO, Jewish Home Family after the presentation of the award.

Al Qaeda’s Most Dangerous Stronghold

The Daily Beast reports that two Al Qaeda franchises are grouping at the Syria/Iraq border and using the region’s chaos to make things much worse. The blog says that “Hundreds of new jihad-ist fi ghters are fl ocking to this battlefi eld in the heartland of the Middle East. And with the civil wars in both countries all but certain to endure for the foreseea-ble future, the danger from this strong-hold is growing. The older and more dangerous calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (ISIS). Al Shams

means ‘Greater Syria’—that is, Syria, Leb-anon, Jordan and Israel-Palestine—and the name refl ects ISIS’s ambitions. It in-tends to erase the borders of the mod-ern Middle East created a century ago by Winston Churchill after the end of World War I, and to create an al Qae-da-run emirate across the region. Every week, ISIS terrorists carry out multiple acts of mass-casualty violence in Syria and Iraq.”

Munkacser Whistle-Blower To be Prosecuted by Hynes

The New York Times reports that

Sam Heller, father of a son groped by a prominent Hasidic cantor, Baruch Lebovitz, will be prosecuted after all, for attempting to bribe a witness. Hynes demoted two seasoned prosecu-tors who assured Kellner the charges would be dropped and also fi red Bar-bara Burke, a prosecutor and former nun who complained that the offi ce had not passed along—as required—records to a lawyer trying a wrongful conviction case against Mr. Hynes and his rackets chief and longtime friend Michael F. Vecchione. Hynes and Vec-chione have vowed to prosecute Kell-

ner again. The case revolves around Lebovitz, who has close ties to the politically powerful Munkacser Reb-be, Moishe Leib Rabinowich, who is against reporting child sexual abuse to the police. Lebovitz was convict-ed in 2012 and sentenced to up to 32 years, and was then released on a tech-nicality, while attempts were made to buy off Kellner, who was cooperat-ing with police detectives. Other Leb-ovitz victims came forward, then they lied about their relationships, blaming Kellner for “paying” them off. Lebovitz is awaiting a new trial.


NEWS: ANALYSIS

stopandshop.com

may your holiday be happy, healthy and bright.

Happy Chanukah

The BelieverBy Ben Birnbaum(With permission from The Washington Post)

PART 1In early 2011, a disgruntled former em-

ployee of the Palestinian negotiating team handed Al Jazeera the biggest leak in the history of the Arab-Israeli peace process. The Palestine Papers—a collection of in-ternal emails, working papers, and meet-ing minutes—contained shocking revela-tions about the compromises Palestinian leaders had made during the last serious negotiations with Israel, which began in late 2007 at Annapolis, Maryland, and con-tinued into 2008.

But the documents also put a spotlight on the surprisingly cordial—even congen-ial—relationship Palestinian negotiators had enjoyed with their Israeli counter-parts. And they left little doubt as to which member of the opposing team had been their favorite: Israel’s foreign minister and chief negotiator, Tzipi Livni.

Abbas supporters in the West Bank. During negotiations, Livni says, Abbas would bring her cigarillos “so I could join the men smoking.”

“I would vote for you,” chief Palestini-an negotiator Ahmed Qurei told Livni, ac-cording to the minutes of one 2008 meet-ing. Saeb Erekat, another top Palestinian, suggested to U.S. offi cials that he could appear alongside Livni “in public events to demonstrate [to the Israeli public] we have something since Annapolis.”

“What we had in Annapolis was trust,” Livni, 55, told Newsweek recently. “Even when we argue, we respect each other. And we respect the demands, even when we say no.” Livni quit smoking in 1998, but she recalled that, during those talks, Pales-tinian President Mahmoud Abbas would bring her cigarillos “so I could join the men smoking.”

It wasn’t just the Palestinians who were fond of Livni back in 2008. As foreign minister, she had become a beloved pres-ence around the world. “She was well re-garded by the Europeans as someone who

wanted to end Israel’s isolation, so she was someone they could work with,” for-mer secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told me. “In Washington, she was seen as someone who was trustworthy, com-mitted, and hardworking. The president personally liked her a lot.” Meanwhile, at home in Israel, where top politicians are generally assumed to be crooked, she had built a reputation for honesty. When Israe-li Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned in September 2008 amid mounting corrup-tion allegations, Livni became head of Is-rael’s ruling Kadima Party and seemed on the verge of becoming Israel’s second fe-male prime minister.

Then, almost overnight, things fell apart—for both Livni and the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Livni proved

unable to form a coalition, forcing her to call early elections. Though Benjamin Ne-tanyahu’s conservative Likud Party won one seat less than Livni’s Kadima in the February 2009 vote, the strength of oth-er right-wing parties left him in a stronger position to form a government. Netanya-hu became prime minister, Livni became opposition leader, and the peace process more or less froze.

In 2012, after three years of failing to bring down Netanyahu’s government, Liv-ni was thrown out of the party leadership by Kadima voters in a landslide. She re-

turned to politics eight months later to contest the January 2013 elections as the head of a new, peace-focused, center-left party. But with Israeli politics prioritizing domestic issues for the fi rst time in dec-ades, she found herself badly out of step with the national zeitgeist—and her party fi nished seventh with just 5 percent of the vote. Livni’s historical moment, it seemed, was over.

Rice and Livni in 2007. Rice recalls Sha-ron telling them, “You two women will do some good things for the world.”

But something strange happened a few weeks after the election: Livni appeared at a joint press conference with Netanya-hu to announce that her party would be the fi rst to join his new government. Ne-tanyahu, seeking to build a centrist coa-

lition that would ease his tensions with the world, had given her the post of jus-tice minister and—at her request—the chance to head any new peace talks with the Palestinians. Livni’s timing couldn’t have worked out better: after months of intense shuttle diplomacy by John Ker-ry, negotiations between Israelis and Pal-estinians have now resumed in earnest for the fi rst time in fi ve years—giving her a chance to complete what she long ago started.

Achieving a two-state solution, Livni said, is “the reason for me to be in poli-tics.” It’s also a task that rests very much on her shoulders. Given her relationships with Palestinian offi cials, her credibility with the international community, and, these days at least, her rapport with Net-anyahu, Livni may be the only person who can drag Israelis and Palestinians together and—after 65 years of confl ict—broker an

CONTINUED ON P. 22

Tzipi Livni still thinks peace is possible between Israel

and Palestine. Now she has a chance to prove it.


NEWS: ANALYSIS

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agreement both sides can live with. From the nadir of her career to the savior of her country in less than a year: it would be, as political redemption narratives go, a pret-ty spectacular story. What no one knows is whether it can actually be done.

ON SALAHEDDIN Street in the Bab al-Zahra neighborhood of East Jerusalem, across from the Rajab Abu Asab and Sons electrical-appliances store, sits a boxy, nondescript building protected by a stone wall and a gate manned by several securi-ty guards. After a future peace accord, in which Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem would likely come under Palestinian sov-ereignty, it could very well house govern-ment offi ces in the new Palestinian cap-ital. But today, it is the home of Israel’s justice ministry and the offi ce to which Livni commutes most mornings from Tel Aviv.

I visited Livni days after she had re-turned from Washington, where, standing at a podium alongside Kerry and Erekat, she had announced the resumption of peace talks. She seemed tired but upbeat. Sitting at her desk wearing a taut black outfi t, her hair in a ponytail, and a small golden Star of David around her neck, Liv-ni spoke at length about Israel’s pursuit of peace. “Something that truly frustrates me is the impression in Israel that when you are talking about security, you are bold, you are tough, this is what we need

against all the enemies that we have,” she said, banging the desk. “And when some-one is talking about peace, you know, it’s the naive left wing, soft.”

Livni’s journey to the role of Israel’s leading peace advocate was an unlikely one, born as she was to one of the most prominent right-wing power couples in the fl edgling Jewish state. Her father Eit-an’s family had fl ed anti-Semitism in Po-land when he was 6, moving to Palestine to pursue the Zionist dream. As a young man, he joined the Irgun, the right-wing guerrilla organization seeking to drive the British out, and rose to become the group’s chief operations offi cer, a role that got him arrested in 1946 (he later escaped in a famed prison break). Earlier that year, dur-ing a raid on a train transporting salaries for British generals, he had met and be-come enamored with fellow Irgun mem-ber Sara Rosenberg. On May 15, 1948, the two became the fi rst couple to marry in the new state of Israel. Tzipi, the youngest of their three children, was born 10 years later.

The young Livni grew up in an Israel dominated by the left-wing Labor Party, which led every government for the state’s fi rst three decades. The Irgun—and its po-litical successor, the Herut Party—had dif-ferentiated itself from the ruling estab-lishment not only by its tactics, which included blowing up British installations, but by its uncompromising support for establishing Jewish sovereignty over all of biblical Israel (which comprised not only modern-day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, but Jordan as well). The move-

ment had ardently opposed the 1947 Unit-ed Nations Partition Plan, which divided Palestine into Jewish and Arab states—and which David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s fi rst prime minister, had accepted.

“I lived between two different worlds since I grew up in Tel Aviv,” Livni said, re-counting her childhood in Israel’s larg-est and most left-wing city. Unlike her friends, who joined the socialist Scouts and marched with red fl ags on May Day, Livni joined the smaller, right-wing Be-itar youth movement, where she was schooled in the ideas of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the ideological father of right-wing Zion-ism. She felt marginalized, believing that the establishment had minimized her par-ents’ contribution to Israel’s founding. “I was furious when I read in school that my parents represented war, that there was a glorifi cation of blood, that they wore fas-cist clothes,” she said. “I was quite a young fi ghter then. I don’t envy my teachers. I used to preach to them.”

To this day, Livni insists that her par-ents “were freedom fi ghters, not terror-ists.” She said that unlike some of Israel’s leading right-wing fi rebrands today, who have thrived electorally on anti-Arab sen-timent, they “respected the Arabs.” Livni recalled urging her reticent father—who served in the Knesset for both Herut and Likud—to campaign for himself during the 1984 Likud primaries, only to watch him pick up the phone and ask party members instead to support a Druze can-didate because he thought it important for Likud to have Arab representation.

In 1967 Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the Six-Day War. Eitan Livni sub-sequently brought his young daughter to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, the Cave of the Patri-archs in Hebron, and other biblical sites that had fallen into Israeli hands. When re-ligious Jews later established a heavily for-tifi ed settlement community in Hebron, her mother sent money to support it.

“I’m not a person of mentors,” Livni

says. “The only mentor I can speak of as such is Jabotinsky, who died in 1940.”

“I was 9 years old, so I was not think-ing about whether we could keep it,” Liv-ni said. “I remember people dancing in the streets of Tel Aviv when we freed Je-rusalem—and I used the word ‘freed’ be-cause it was coming back home. It was the kind of enthusiasm that was not against somebody. It was something that united us back then—left and right.”

That fl eeting unity soon evaporated over disputes about whether to settle the land, as her father and other Likudniks were urging, or to keep it as a bargaining chip for a future peace deal. Initially, La-bor governments consented to a handful of settlements in areas of strategic and biblical signifi cance. But after Likud leader (and former Irgun chief) Menachem Begin won the 1977 election, ending Labor’s 29-year rule, he lifted all restrictions on settle-ments and even established incentives for Israelis to move to them.

The young Livni supported the right-wing line. As a high-school student, she joined her mother at a protest of one of Henry Kissinger’s visits because he was pushing Begin to accept the idea of land for peace. “It was quite a violent demon-stration,” Livni recalled. “They beat us, the policemen.” Still, she had no plans at the time to follow her father into politics. Like most Israeli high-school graduates, she joined the Army; a few years later, she signed on with Israel’s hallowed Mossad intelligence agency. “Had she not left, I’m sure she would have been able to reach very high echelons there,” says child-hood friend Mirla Gal, who served with her in the Mossad. Livni’s time as a spy re-mains shrouded in secrecy, though she is known to have been based in Paris and is believed to have played a role in Opera-tion Wrath of God—the mission to hunt down and kill Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. “Whatever she did,” Gal says, “she did very well.”

(To be continued.)

The Believer CONTINUED FROM P. 21

German TV: How Antisemitic is Germany?

BERLIN – The Jerusalem Post reports that German public television broadcast a documentary last week about modern antisemitism at the heart of German so-ciety. It shows the commonality between anti-Israel legislative initiatives from Green Party and neo-Nazi NPD party. Titled Anti-Semitism Today: How hostile is Germa-ny toward Jews? – it was produced by Ahmad Mansour, an Israeli Arab, and two Germans, Kirsten Esch and Jo Goll. Mansour is a policy advisor to the Brus-sels-based European Foundation for De-mocracy. Dr. Monika Schwarz-Friesel, a linguistics professor at the Technical University in Berlin, investigated a com-bination of 14,000 letters and emails sent to the Israeli embassy and Jewish organizations. The majority came from “so-called mainstream society.” One let-ter from a man with a doctorate states, “Why are always again the Jews perse-cuted? You need to ask yourself that.” He added, “By the next Holocaust the whining begins to start again. I am fed up with it.” Dr. Dieter Graumann, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, slammed the disparate treatment

targeting Israel as “absurd” in the fi lm. With respect to the product labeling, he noted that there are “many different ter-ritorial disputes in the world and no-where else is it [product labeling] done.”

Lithuanian Jews to Get Reparations

JTA reports that the Lithuanian gov-ernment is granting symbolic repara-tions to Lithuanian Holocaust survivors. Each survivor will get $622 to compen-sate for the Holocaust and the Soviet occupation, a parallel which infuriates Jewish groups and survivors, who point to Lithuanian attempts to label Jewish partisans as traitors to Lithuania during the Holocaust. Lithuania is a master of Holocaust obfuscation, “which does not deny a single Jewish death at the hands of the Nazis. Instead, it uses as a start-ing point the idea that the Nazi geno-cide was not a unique event but rather a reaction to Soviet “genocide” (and an-tecedent to further Soviet genocide) in which the same elements of Lithuanian society that often sided with the Nazi invaders were persecuted and impris-oned by the Communist regime, whose offi cials included Jews.”


OP-ED

Gevaltism, Antisemitism and HungaryBy Jerome A. Chanes

“Gevalt! The goy-im are after us! It’s the Second Holocaust! Jews are not safe in Hungary—or any-where in Europe!

My mother’s favorite story: Two Jews in post-Anschluss Vienna are walking through an antisemitic neighborhood. They see that they are being followed by two Nazi thugs. One of the Jews says to his friend, “We’d better make a run for it; there are two of them, and we are all alone.”

Thus goes the purple rhetoric that characterizes much of the discussion of Jewish security in Central and Eastern Europe.

What, in fact, is the reality of Jewish security in Eastern Europe? Is it a cata-strophic near-past of Auschwitz that is fi nding its way into the future, indeed into the present, with danger signals that are blinking red in a way we have not seen in years? Or is the reality rather dif-ferent: troubled, perhaps, indeed prob-lematic, but at bottom relatively secure?

The current situation in Hungary is the source of much of the gevalt. A neo-Nazi, neo-fascist, party, Jobbik, founded in 2002, has become the third-largest in the Hungarian parliament. Jobbik’s lead-ers are frankly antisemitic: “Given our current situation, antisemitism is not just our right, but it is the duty of eve-ry Hungarian homeland lover, and we must prepare for armed battle against the Jews.” Thus Judi Szima, a Jobbik can-didate for the European Parliament and a Jobbik member of the Hungarian Par-liament, Marton Gyongyosi, have de-manded the creation of a list of Jewish politicians to identify potential “nation-al security risks.”

But Hungary’s serious political prob-lems need to be put into context. What is the larger picture? According to Mi-chael Miller, chairman of Jewish Stud-ies at the Open University in Budapest, “Yes, there are political problems—even serious problems. But to say that these problems are leading to rampant anti-semitism in Hungary, where Jews are en-dangered, well, that’s plain crazy.”

So what is going on? Why hysteria on Hungary?

We are a “gevaltist” people. We know that. In the United States, I have for many years reported that even as the levels of behavioral and attitudinal an-tisemitism drop—and drop dramatical-ly—higher percentages of American Jews assert that antisemitism is a “serious” problem. Whatever the explanations for this “perception gap,” the gap between perception and reality is signifi cant, and informs much of the gevaltism of Amer-ican Jews on Europe. (This is not to say that European Jews do not have prob-lems; 2002 and the fi rst half of 2004 were terrible times in France, and elsewhere.)

But the issue goes beyond gevaltism. As is almost always the case, it’s all about the money.

Part of what is going on has less to do with the reality of antisemitism and Jew-ish security in Hungary and elsewhere in Europe, and everything to do with inter-

nal changes in the American Jewish com-munity.

There has been a shift in the Ameri-can Jewish “center-of-gravity,” from na-tional to local, with local federations having increased impact in public-affairs. Federations woke up, and saw that the big ticket in fundraising was no longer the soup-kitchen, or the old lady living alone on the Lower East Side; it was Isra-el. And it was, increasingly, antisemitism. These issues are in public-affairs are-nas that heretofore had been the prov-ince of the national “defense” agencies and the local community-relations coun-cils. The agreement that had been ham-mered out in the 1944 CJF General Assem-bly that assigned a division of labor to the public-affairs agencies and to the fed-erations—community-relations coun-cils and national agencies would address public-affairs, including antisemitism;

federations would take care of the social-service and social-welfare agenda—was increasingly violated as the federations moved aggressively into Israel and anti-semitism—cash-cow issues for fundrais-ing.

It’s all about the money, and Eastern European capitals—regular stops on the trail for federation missions—are natu-rals for sensitizing federation leadership to exaggerated claims of antisemitism in Hungary and elsewhere. My conver-sations with federation and other or-ganizational lay leadership participating in missions to Hungary (most recently in August) reinforce the suggestion that leadership is being sensitized, not to se-rious problems in Hungary—entirely le-gitimate—but to something exaggerated claims of an antisemitism that is perva-sive, a new dispensation in which Jews are not secure in that land.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), however, which plays a leadership role in monitoring antisemitism domestical-ly and around the world, has taken an entirely responsible stance on what is going on in Hungary. While expressing deep concern over the rise of right-wing political rhetoric, including antisemit-ic expression, the ADL’s response has to date been sober and balanced.

Bottom line for Hungary: There are problems in Hungary, no question, seri-ous problems. But in Hungary—as is the case everywhere else—the central crite-rion for Jewish security is the ability of Jews to participate in the society on a day-to-day basis, individually and communal-ly. In Hungary in 2013, there are few Jews who cannot participate in society be-cause of fear of antisemitic animus. Jew-

FRIDAY NIGHT BETWEEN MINCHAH /MAARIVCongregation Bnai Yeshurun

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Divrei Torah throughout the Tish: Insights of the Maharal on Chanukah

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Rabbi Menachem Penner is Acting Dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and the Men’s Undergraduate Torah Studies programs at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Penner also serves as the spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Holliswood in Queens, a position he has proudly held since 1996. Rabbi Penner received his semikha from RIETS in 1994 and his BA from Yeshiva College in 1991.

Rabbi Menachem PennerActing Dean of RIETS

Schedule of EventsSHABBAT MORNING Drasha at 7:15 a.m., 9 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. Minyanim

Congregation Keter Torah

Birchat Modim: Drumsticks or Candlesticks?

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Yosef and His “Dream-Coat”: What Was Yaakov Thinking?

The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Presents: A Shabbat in Teaneck with

CONTINUED ON P. 26


FIRST PERSON: NAMES NOT NUMBERS @ MTA

It’s All About the Stories

By Jeanette Friedman

When Michael Berenbaum came to Moriah a few months ago to

talk to students enrolled in the Names, Not Numbers® program, I thought it was an interesting project, because remembering the past is all about people telling the stories of their lives. The stu-dents involved in the program are divid-ed into groups of 4-6 students, and each group researches a Holocaust survivor and interviews him or her for posteri-ty by producing a digital video they will

present to their schoolmates. It’s an awe-some project and I fi led it in the back of my mind, to call it to the attention of some of my friends and colleagues in the Second Generation and Holocaust educa-tors. And then Tova Rosenberg, the exec-utive director, asked me if I would train students to do the interviews.

I started my professional life as a journalist in 1970, listening to people and telling their stories, and I began to learn about the Holocaust as a child, from what I heard from my parents, their friends and relatives—stories spoken in

words that were out of context, stories with no chronologies, stories I am sorry to say, I was too young to understand.

I got lucky when Dr. Yaffa Eliach of-fered a course on the Holocaust in the brand new Judaic Studies Department at Brooklyn College, and I, as editor of ken, the night school paper and a daughter of survivors, took it so that I could observe a Holocaust education pioneer in action. Af-ter all, how does one teach the Holocaust?

We were given but one assignment—to collect our parents’ stories, if we could get them to talk. In 1972, very few people talked about the Holocaust. It was almost like the blind leading the blind. How do you rip open barely healed wounds by asking stupid questions? Is that going to get them to talk? Case in point: The fi rst question I asked my father was, “Why didn’t you fi ght back?” And he asked me if I’d ever heard of collective responsibil-ity. One man takes out one Nazi, he ex-plained, and it is certain everyone who witnessed that will die. Do nothing and some may have a chance to live. And then he laughed.

I understood. And I knew I needed to learn how to collect the stories, the tes-timonies, of those who promised to tell what happened “Dorten” (there), to keep the promises they made to those who stayed behind and for the sake of future generations. I discovered that the old-er they get, the more eager the survivors are to talk before it is too late. Many of them have realized that the world hasn’t changed much. The genocides continue, and the stories must still be told. So they tell their stories, rip open old wounds, for our sakes, in their own attempts to make the world a slightly better place. Each survivor’s story becomes their eth-ical will, their Tzeva’ah.

I learned how to interview survivors from the best, from Yaffa and Bonnie Gurewitsch when they were at the Cent-er for Holocaust Studies in Brooklyn, a tiny offi ce in Yeshiva Flatbush. It was more complicated, albeit logical, than one might think. But thanks to those two incredibly smart women, I learned how to do it correctly, and found myself doing the oral history training workshop for the Second Generation on the fi rst day of the World Gathering in Jerusalem in 1981.

Fast forward 40 years. As a lay Holo-

caust educator who has has earned her street creds, and as a professional jour-nalist, I have interviewed hundreds of people including a list that would make me sound like a celebrity name drop-per—from Nobel Prize winners to scoun-drels, a Supreme Court justice, geniuses, media moguls, rabbis, movie stars, fash-ion designers and remarkable folks from every walk of life. By now, my husband and I have worked on dozens upon doz-ens of Holocaust survivors’ stories, pub-lished their memoirs, and dealt directly with the survivors and the survivor world since we were kids. When I understood what and how Names, Not Numbers® op-erates, I realized the concept was an an-swer to the question that has plagued Holocaust educators and survivors: How are we going to reach kids once we are gone? Who will go on to tell the tale?

Moshe Kinderlehrer, publisher of JLBC, introduced me to Tova Rosenberg, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of a roomful of 55 kids, 53 of them 3Gs, at Moriah in Englewood. They are going to research, interview, fi lm, and present survivors to their schoolmates in a fi lm they produce themselves. It turned out that Dr. Prager, the Moriah principal, was at the same Zachor conference I at-tended at HUC in November 1979 that led directly to the international movement of Second Generation and the creation of the fi rst Second Generation group in New Jersey. Now his eighth graders were blow-ing me away, and you could see they had picked up some of Dr. Prager’s passion for the “holy work” of collecting testimony.

Just two weeks later, I was at MTA in Washington Heights, standing next to Rab-bi Michael Taubes. We have known each other a very long time. I was bringing my toddlers to Gan Rina, his mother’s nursery school in Teaneck in 1979 when I discov-ered the swastikas and curses scrawled on the walls that turned me into a Holocaust education activist—and sent me to the Za-chor conference that very same weekend. The coincidences were crazy. As I stood in front of 20 very tall young men, I realized I had come full circle.

Only two or three of the MTA stu-dents raised their hands when I asked if there were grandchildren of survivors in the course. When I asked why they vol-unteered, they said they felt a moral ob-ligation to do the work. That is cause for hope. It means the mission of collecting stories has gone beyond people who car-ry the familial obligation of becoming what is known as the “memorial candle,” recorder of the family history. These kids have taken upon themselves, as volun-teers, the painful obligation of receiving the last of the eyewitness testimonies from those who were in those places, where Jews did not perish—where they were repurposed and murdered by de-sign, wherever they were. They survived in the camps, ghettos and forests, in hid-ing, in holes, in caves, in tunnels, by pass-ing on the other side. Wherever they were, they survived because they prom-ised to tell their stories for those they left behind, and these students are commit-ted to hearing their stories and transmit-ting them to future generations.

They give us, the Holocaust educators and activists, hope for the future because they have become the guardians of those painful but vitally important memories.

The MTA class at Museum of Jewish Heritage


ME’ACHOREI HAPARGOD

Dear God: Thanks, But No Thanks By Robert Katz

Eddie Murphy. Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Don Imus. Howard Stern. Soupy Sales. Marv Albert. David Letterman. Chuck

Scarborough. All of us are employees of NBC. These are the people for whom I interned and worked for, the people with whom I rode the elevators and shared the same breathing space. The years were 1982-1986, and they were lofty years that I hoped would fulfi ll boyhood dreams.

But what do you do when God gives you a talent that you can’t use? When the one extra-special gift He has be-stowed upon you—in my case being a sportscaster—is a gift that you can’t em-brace or fully utilize because the gift re-quires you to use your talents on Shab-bos and yom tov?

When I was only 5, I would walk around the house in my best little radio voice saying, “Mom, tell Dad what he’s won right here on The Price is Right.” By age 12 I was sitting by myself in Shea Sta-dium in an empty corner, doing play by play of Mets games into a tape record-er. By age 16, I was an intern at WYNY ra-dio in New York, helping a tiny, fascinat-

ing German Jewish woman named Ruth Westheimer to do her Sunday night broadcasts. At age 18 I was sitting in Howard Stern’s offi ce helping him plan a show. Two years later, after having spent many intoxicating evenings in the pres-ence of the aforementioned stars of ra-dio and TV, I was producing sports talk radio and pro games for 66 WNBC. At the end of Rangers hockey games, the great Marv Albert would thank “our produc-er Robert Katz back at the studio.” Out-side NBC’s home at 30 Rockefeller Pla-za, I came face to face in the fi eld with the likes of Tom Seaver, Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner, to name but a few.

And then came the hammer. In the spring of 1986, two young colleagues and I were sitting around and shooting the breeze. Their names: Mike Breen and Bob Papa. Mike is now the world famous voice of the NBA on ABC and ESPN and does TV games for the Knicks, while Bob Papa is a fi xture as the radio voice of the New York football Giants. This was my “chevra.”

In walks Dale Parsons, the 66 WNBC Radio Program Director, to our lit-tle shared space and announces that a show slot has opened up suddenly and that he needs a fi ll-in talk show host. He was prepared to offer it to one of us. He wanted our demo-tapes on his desk by

the next morning. After lots of hooting and hollering that our big chance had ar-rived, a sudden dreaded thought hit me. “Dale,” I asked, when is the open slot? I knew the answer with every fabric of my body, and I was right. “Saturday midday, 1-5 p.m.” came the answer. I was crushed. This was not the fi rst time, “but it may well be the last time,” I recall saying to myself.

The year was 1986. I was 21. There was no Internet. Cable TV was in its infancy, and nearly all college sports were played exclusively on Shabbat. Stay or go? Fol-low “The Dream” or follow “The Tra-dition?” The answer was clear. Follow The Tradition—the mesorah of your par-ents and grandparents and who knows how many others before you—and walk away, hoping and praying that the Good Lord will help you fi nd your way.

So, what do you do when you have a God given talent that you can’t use? You reach deep inside and try as hard as you can to discover and appreciate whatever else God has given you.

There’s a great Hebrew saying— “Eem Kvar Az Kvar” —if you’ve already been dealt a hand, you may as well play it. If I was leaving behind my career choice be-cause of Shabbos, I might as well put my energies into doing something openly identifi able with who I am and to help

my own people. So I thought I’d be good at marketing, pursued and got my MBA, and decided that rather than become an Executive Vice President for IBM or AT&T or Google, I rather become Chief Development Offi cer for a place like OHEL Children’s Home and Family Ser-vices, and put whatever other (limited) skills I had to use for the betterment of the Jewish Community.

And so dear reader, know you know how I got here. I looked up and said, “Thanks, but no thanks”.

Was it all worth it? Is God happy with me? Or is He mad at me for not taking his offer and running with it and seeing how it would have played out so that maybe I could have been the fi rst Shom-er Shabbat play-by-play man in NBA his-tory? Or I have done enough by working for the Jewish Community over my last 25 years-plus to merit some sort of peace of mind? Feel free to discuss among yourselves. Personally? I’d really like to fi nd out, after 120 years. Maybe there’s even a job waiting for me…it would have to be Angels’ play-by- play.

Robert Katz has been a Bergen County resident for 25 years and has been a Jewish communal profes-sional since graduating Yeshiva Unversity in 1985. He can be reached for comments at: [email protected]

RUTH B. WILDES MEMORIAL LECTURE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD

DOORS OPEN AT 8PM | LECTURE AT 8:30PM

LINCOLN SQUARE SYNAGOGUE 180 AMSTERDAM AVE

TICKETS $20 | RSVP AT WWW.JEWISHEXPERIENCE.ORG

Email [email protected] for Preferred Seating and VIP Reception

SPONSORED BY THE WILDES FAMILY ON THE OCCASION OF THE 18TH YARHTZEIT

OF RUTH B. WILDES Z”L IN WHOSE MEMORY MJE WAS ESTABLISHED.

FORMER ENGLEWOOD MAYOR MICHAEL WILDES

AND HIS FAMILY INVITE YOU TO

Ruth B. Wildes z"l

flanked by her two

sons the former

Mayor of Englewood,

Michael Wildes and his

brother Rabbi Mark

Wildes at his 1993

Smicha Ordination.


OP-ED

Shades of Red Amidst A Sea of BlueBy: N. Aaron Troodler, Esq.

As New Jersey voters went to the polls on

Election Day, there were those who questioned

whether the race at the top of the ticket could even be considered a “race.” The gubernatorial contest, which ordinar-ily would be replete with intrigue and suspense, was totally devoid of any dra-ma. The race for governor was, for all in-tents and purposes, over before it even began.

Riding a wave of popularity that pro-pelled him to rock-star-like status, Gov-ernor Chris Christie garnered 60% of the vote and easily cruised to a 22-point vic-tory over Democratic State Senator Bar-bara Buono. In doing so, Christie became the fi rst Republican in New Jersey in 25years to get over 50% of the vote in a statewide election.

As for Barbara Buono, she found her-self in the unenviable position of being in a political Catch-22. She had virtually no name recognition and therefore had diffi culty raising money, yet without ade-quate funds she was unable to boost her profi le statewide.

What makes Governor Christie’s colos-sal win so remarkable is that he achieved this historic feat in a state where regis-tered Democrats outnumber Republican voters by a whopping 700,000. Despite the enrollment advantage that Demo-crats have in this overwhelmingly “blue state,” Christie scored an easy victory.

In retrospect, it appears that Chris-tie fared extremely well among voting groups that tend to favor Democratic candidates, rather than Republicans.

According to the exit polls, 57% of women voted for Christie, versus just 41% for Buono; 21% of African-Americans, a group that traditionally favors Dem-ocrats, cast their ballots for Christie, a noteworthy number considering that when he ran in 2009, only 9 % of African-American voters supported him, and in an extraordinary show of support from Hispanic voters, who typically vote Dem-ocratic, Christie got an astounding 50% of the vote. Christie also did extremely well among independent and moderate voters, union members, and young vot-ers. Even 33% of Democratic voters cast their ballots for the Republican governor.

How did Governor Christie perform so well among voting groups that cus-tomarily back Democrats? How is it that the Republican candidate turned the gu-bernatorial contest on its head by run-ning so strong across the board?

Chris Christie bucked conventional wisdom by very skillfully and deliberate-ly building a broad bipartisan coalition that swept him to victory. He successful-ly cultivated strong relationships and al-liances with various constituent groups that generally tune out Republicans. Christie masterfully assembled a ground-swell of support that was just too much for Buono to overcome.

It is quite clear that Chris Christie is not your typical politician. The popular

governor is a “tell it like it is,” “say what he thinks” type of person, and it certainly appears that the overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters appreciate his out-spoken and brash personality and actual-ly fi nd it refreshing.

In addition, New Jersey residents can-not forget the fact that Governor Chris-tie was there for them as they struggled to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy. The images of a concerned, caring and courageous Chris Christie consoling storm victims were extremely powerful and they undoubtedly left an indelible mark in the hearts and minds of New Jer-sey voters.

On Election Day, Chris Christie did not just win a second term as governor; he catapulted to the front of the pack of likely 2016 Republican presidential can-didates. Christie’s record-breaking win sent a loud and clear message to the na-tional Republican Party that he just may be their guy in 2016. The crossover ap-peal that he demonstrated in New Jersey may be exactly what the Republicans are looking for as they struggle to overcome a barrage of negative publicity relative to the Tea Party movement’s rise within their ranks.

The recent government shutdown in Washington, D.C., adversely impact-ed the Republican Party’s desperate at-tempts to get back on track. Many peo-ple placed the blame for the shutdown squarely on the GOP and the consensus tends to be that the conservative arm of the Republican Party forced the hand of

their congressional leaders and essential-ly boxed them into a corner.

With his inimitable style, Chris Chris-tie may be the cure for what ails the na-tional Republicans. The question is, how-ever, whether Christie’s unique brand of bipartisanship outreach will resonate with more conservative voters through-out the nation. It also remains to be seen how Christie will fare in the context of a national Republican campaign if and when the ultra-conservatives who may be angling for the GOP presidential nom-ination, such as Senators Rand Paul, Mar-co Rubio and Ted Cruz, try to paint him in a more liberal light.

With his celebrity status and wide-spread appeal, Chris Christie has defi nite-ly claimed his spot on the national stage. The question is how well he will do as the GOP’s guy in the spotlight.

On Election Day, Chris Christie swept into the governor’s offi ce for his second term with a powerful mandate that is vir-tually unprecedented. The meteoric rise of a Republican governor is something that one would expect to see in a “red state,” not in an overwhelmingly Demo-cratic “blue state.” Chris Christie, howev-er, has proven that there can be shades of “red” amidst a sea of “blue.”

N. Aaron Troodler is an attorney and a principal of Paul Revere Public Relations, a public relations and political consulting fi rm. Visit him on the Web at TroodlersTake.blogspot.com, www.PaulReverePR.com, or www.JewishWorldPR.com. You can also fol-low him on Twitter: @troodler

This, in addition to Christie’s win of 51 percent of the Latino vote and 20 per-cent of black voters, has given a lot of hope to Christie supporters. However, an Edison Research exit poll concerning a hypothetical 2016 showdown between Christie and Hillary Clinton, shows the governor garnering much less support. The polls showed Clinton receiving 57 percent of New Jersey Latino vote and 86 percent of the black vote.

Besides for the gubernatorial posi-tion, there were six state senate, 12 gen-eral assembly, one county sheriff, three freeholder, and a myriad of town coun-cil positions open throughout the coun-ty’s six legislative districts. Democrats claimed two-thirds of the open state sen-

ate seats and just under two-thirds of the open seats in the General Assembly. Mi-chael Saudino, Republican, was reelected sheriff and, of the three freeholder seats up, two went to Republicans and one to a Democrat making the full breakdown on the council fi ve to two with a Demo-cratic majority.

Bob Yudin, Republican County Chairman, referred to Bergen County as a swing county. Bergen used to be a very strong Republican county and then, for a number of years it was a very strong Democratic County. Four years ago Gov-ernor Christie lost the vote here, but this year he won by the biggest margin since Thomas Kean in 1985.

“It was a huge municipal win for us in most of Bergen County,” Yudin said. “We won in towns that we haven’t won in for decades.”

The “huge municipal win” wasn’t complete on a state legislature level, something which Yudin put down to re-

districting and gerrymandering. He said that legislative districts 35-37 are impos-sible for Republicans to win and that one district 38 is the only truly compet-itive won in the county. Legislative dis-tricts 39 and 40 have been solidly Re-

publican for many years. The coattails effect, something

which allows members of a party to win on the heels of a popular candidate of that party’s win, was not in effect in New Jersey as a state

Bergen Post-Election Analysis CONTINUED FROM P. 1

ish institutions (including synagogues) are strong, day-schools are thriving. The ability to participate in society is the best measure of security of Jews in any land, and that ability is strong in Hungary.

Unlike the Europe of the 1920s and 1930s, antisemitism in Hungary is not embedded in the institutions of socie-ty, in the institutions of power. Hunga-ry is not Germany. Indeed, the govern-

ment in Hungary did speak out against Jobbik—belatedly, but the government did speak out against antisemitism.

Finally, Jews are not leaving Hun-gary, which is what one would expect were there to be serious threats to Jew-ish security. Hungarians are not run-ning—they are not going to Israel or to the United States or to Canada.

One has only to recall my mother’s second favorite story—“What’s a Jew-ish telegram? ‘Start worrying. Letter fol-lows.’” That’s what’s going on in Hungary.

Jerome Chanes, a regular contributor, is the au-thor or editor of four books on Jewish history and public aff airs. He is a fellow at the Center for Jew-ish Studies, CUNY Graduate Center.

Gevaltism,

Antisemitism

and Hungary CONTINUED FROM P. 1


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EDITORIAL

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Co-Founders/Co-PublishersMoshe Kinderlehrer

Mark (Mendy) Schwartz

EditorJeanette Friedman

Contributing EditorNina Glick

Advertising Director Yaakov Serle

Associate EditorAliza Chasan

Sales Development Ken Goff stein

Sales Representative Maxine BenderSimon Worman

Technical Editor/Database Coordinator

Moishie Rosenberg

Sports EditorSteve Gutlove

Designdesign2pro.com

ContributorsSarah Abenaim • Larry Bernstein

Rabbi Sam Frenkel • Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Glick Temima Zucker • Estelle Glass • Chavie HaglerGail Hochman Robert Katz • Elizabeth Kratz

Banji Latkin • Harold Nussbaum • Sara PragerP’nina Seplowitz • Bracha Schwartz

Rabbi Mark Staum • Tzvi Silver Jordana Schoor • N. Aaron Troodler •

Chemmie Sokolic • Rayzel Yaish • Nancy Zweibach

The Jewish Link of Bergen County PO Box 3131

Teaneck, NJ 07666Phone: 201-371-3212

Email: [email protected]: [email protected]

Subscriptions/Home Delivery: [email protected]

The Jewish Link of Bergen County, an independent publication,promotes honest and rigorous conversations about Judaism,Israel and issues aff ecting our community. The opinions refl ected in articles from our contributors do not necessarily re-fl ect JLBC’s positions, and publishing them does not constitute an endorsement from JLBC. We simply off er food for thought. We reserve the right to accept or refuse submissions and edit for content and length. We also reserve the right to refuse ad-vertising that in our opinion does not refl ect the standards of the newspaper. We are not responsible for the kashrus of any prod-

uct advertised in the Jewish Link of Bergen County.

OF BERGEN COUNTYTHE JEWISH LINK

To the Editor:I recently attended a Chamber of

Commerce awards dinner, at the Glen-pointe Marriot Hotel in Teaneck, New Jersey.

As I walked into the lobby with my associate Bruce Prince, the owner of Teaneck General Store, a friendly man named Edwin Ramos introduced him-self as the owner of Farmer’s Insurance Agency, also in Teaneck.

As we entered the cocktail recep-tion, we lost sight of Mr. Ramos. Lat-er we were called to the ballroom for the awards dinner. We went to a table that had a few seats left, and Edwin Ra-mos was there with several members of the Teaneck Police force and Reverend Clemens Reinke from Grace Lutheran Church, who had just fi nished the con-vocation. We exchanged pleasantries and information about our respective businesses. Edwin asked about my line of work, and I handed him a business card for my company, Pampered Pets of NJ. His face immediately transformed to refl ect great sadness, and he told us that his beloved boxer, Prince, had dis-appeared 18 months earlier. He and his children missed his dog.

Also sitting at the table was Police Captain Kenneth Croonquist, who was listening intently to Edwin’s story. Cap-tain Croonquist began asking questions about the dog...his name, his age, his coloring, and much more. This contin-ued for about 20 minutes, as the captain clearly knew Prince. Edwin sent Cap-tain Croonquist a picture of Prince, and the offi cer went to the lobby to make some phone calls. He seemed very excit-ed at the thought that he might know the whereabouts of the lost dog.

The evening came to a close with no resolution about Prince. I thought that the prospect of fi nding the dog was probably not possible, but I could not stop thinking of Edwin. I contact-ed him and he told me that his belov-ed Prince was back at his house with his family!!!

Three complete strangers sitting at a table, exchanging greetings. One person speaks about her business. These few words begin a series of revelations that point to the discovery of a dog that had been missing for 18 months.

Thanks to a myriad of coincidenc-es (there are many more, too numerous to mention) and the effort of Captain Croonquist, Prince is back with his fam-ily. He was in excellent condition, hav-ing been given good care at the house he was living.

Yvette Oppenheim

To the Editor:How sad that after all these years

Mitzvah Day in Bergen County, spon-sored by the Federation of Northern New Jersey and joined by dozens of syn-agogues and Jewish schools, continues to be a day only of social action. The word mitzvah means any command-ment from God whether ethical or rit-ual. Why defi ne the word as simply good deeds? At a time of massive as-similation and intermarriage, it be-hooves all of our Jewish organizations to have both kinds of mitzvos available to the thousands of Jewish adults, teens and children involved. This means we should be encouraging the purchase of mezuzahs at a discount; the giving of inexpensive Shabbat candelabras with candles, the donning of tefi llin and per-

haps discount coupons to kosher su-permarkets in an attempt to increase kashrus observance, etc. If Judaism con-tinues to be a concentration of only ethical moral values to the majority of Jews, then we will continue to lose to assimilatory forces.

Martin Polack

To the Editor:Thank you for your article of Oct. 31st,

“A Green House Pops Up in Teaneck,” about the Passive House that is under construction at 543 Wyndham Road in Teaneck, NJ. To learn more about this Pas-sive House in particular, you can read an informative article at Greenbuildingad-visor.com, the go-to industry site about building green. See: http://www.green-buildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-news/passivhaus-building-mod-ular-way or search for Teaneck Passive House on their website.

For the record, the fi rst quote at-tributed to me in your article was not something that I said.

Thank you for the changes you made to the online version of this article.

Malka van Bemmelen, AIA, LEED AP, CPHC

Note: The JLBC stands by what was published originally.

To the Editor:Rabbi Jack Riemer’s review of Kaddish,

Women’s Voices seems to be an interesting addition that addresses traditional women’s spiritual needs. However, I can’t help but notice that much Orthodox rhetoric and behavior still refl ects the pa-triarchal condescension that prevents se-rious sensitivity toward a particular seg-ment of Jewish adults.

In the review, the rabbi mentions that several women paid tribute “to the rabbis who welcomed them, who were kind enough to announce pages....and (looked) over to their section once in a while when they spoke” (italics mine). I was not only struck by the fact that readers are expected to appreciate these supposedly “enlightened” acts but we were to view this as some sort of “proof” that certain segments of the Or-thodox Jewish community are indeed broad minded.

He chose to conclude with: “Anyone who reads (this book) will come away...with a new appreciation for the way in which modern Orthodox Jews are striv-ing to balance their commitment to tra-dition with their understanding of the spiritual needs of the women in their midst.” This implies that women are not included under the rubric of “modern Orthodox Jews” but rather are “others” lurking about “in their midst.” I don’t think this was deliberately disrespect-ful but does refl ect the point that many men in the modern Orthodox commu-nity still consider women as religious outsiders.

I agree with his point that both sides have much to learn from each other. Let’s recognize that semantics matters.

Susan Berger

Looted Art: Ah, The Mystery

The German police fi nd 1400 paintings worth a billion or more in a tax evad-

er’s (and hermit’s) apartment, and tell no one until the story is leaked to a German magazine. The fellow has disappeared, and it turns out his dad was essentially the art looter-in-chief for the Nazis. More than that, after the Allies captured the looted paintings in the post-WWII war period—paintings stolen from Jewish collectors and those labeled as degener-ate—they were given back to the scoun-drel in the 1950s. The paintings were left to his now disappeared son—an old re-cluse whose friends think the cops will fi nd his corpse in a house in Austria. There is speculation that there are more paintings to come, but the Germans say not.

In the meantime, no one knows why the Germans didn’t break the news earli-er. And the Claims Conference represent-atives in Germany are already demand-ing the paintings be turned over to them, while individuals whose parents owned extensive art collections are already lay-

ing claim to some of the works that were posted to the web last Monday. These are important paintings that range from the 16th to the early 20th century and include many grandmasters, including Courbet, Chagall, Picasso and Matisse. Toulouse-Lautrec, it boggles the mind.

There are so many questions to ask, so many mysteries to solve, even Nancy Drew would get dizzy.

Why did the Allies return the paint-ings to a known Nazi collaborator? Why did the Germans try to keep this trove a secret and refuse to post to the web until forced to do so?

Why does the Claims Conference think it has the right to the paintings even before their provenance has been proven? Why aren’t the Germans going to handle inquiries from heirs and as-signs? One need only look at the contro-versy surrounding the East German prop-erties to wonder why the CC would want those paintings. No one wants a repeat of the properties fi asco.

You have to wonder. How many peo-

ple are hoarding looted paintings and will never be able to show them or sell them? Art lovers can be so very passion-ate and become prisoners of their pos-sessions. Do they build special rooms like those in the movies—where art col-lectors go to gloat over stolen master-pieces?

This trove is huge. It is fi lled with works by artists who are household names, whose paintings fetch millions of dollars. What is this going to do to the art market? Will it enhance the price of these works for having the cachet of be-ing looted art? Or will it depress prices because of the rules surrounding supply and demand?

The missing elements are a good mur-der or two; a good-looking thief caught red-handed, a sexy female cop, an inter-national chase, and an expose of how the art markets work, including the seamy underside where stolen art exchanges hands.

Anyone care to write the screenplay? To be continued.

CORRECTION/APOLOGIES: Due to an editing mistake and confusion in the Op-Ed article on Page 31 by Meylekh Viswanath entitled “Why (Some) Jews Are Racist - Part II of II,” the word “late” was inadvertently inserted before the name Rabbi Herschel Schachter. We regret the error and any confusion it may have caused.


DIVREI TORAH

THE MAGGID OF BERGENFIELD

Vayishlach: Davening in Dusseldorf (Bereishit: 32:5)By Larry Stiefel

When Avi Mor-genstern got en-

gaged, it was a source of great simcha for the entire Morgenstern family. He was the fi rst

of the generation of cousins to get mar-ried, and everyone wanted to be at the wedding. That posed a serious problem for the New Milford branch of the Mor-genstern clan. Steve and Maggy Morgen-stern had four children. All of them were very close with Avi and all of them want-ed to be there to sing and dance with Avi and his kallah, Abby, down the aisle. The issue was proximity. The wedding was in Yerushalayim, and that meant six air-line tickets from Newark to Tel Aviv. That was a serious piece of pocket change for Maggy, Steve and their brood. Normally, Maggy would have dipped into the fam-ily’s large cache of frequent fl ier miles, but the Morgensterns had used them all up in Puerto Rico for yeshiva break that past winter. Who knew Avi was going to fall in love so quickly and have such a short engagement? Apparently true love worked fast in the Holy Land.

With no other options, Maggy sat down at her desktop and went to work. She perused Priceline. She combed Kay-ak. She explored Expedia. Finally, on an odyssey through Orbitz, she found what she was looking for.

“Steve, I’ve gone through every possi-ble fl ight option for Avi’s wedding,” she

called out from the kitchen. Maggy al-ways planned the family trips, because if Steve were left in charge they would nev-er leave New Jersey.

“O.K., what have you got?” Steve bel-lowed from his perch in front of the Gi-ants game.

“You’re not going to like it.”“Try me.”“I’ve got it narrowed down to three

airlines.”“El Al, United, and British Airways?”“No, Air Berlin, Turkish Air, and Aero-

fl ot.”“What country is Aerofl ot?”“Russia.”Long pause.Steve came out of the den. “How

much are we talking?”Maggy turned the computer so that

Steve could see the screen for the fl ights she had found.

“Well, that’s not too bad. And how much is El Al?”

Maggy typed a few more letters, punched “Enter,” and turned the screen toward Steve again.

“O.K., that’s bad. So then which airline should we fl y?”

“They all have stopovers,” Maggie said. “So it’s a matter of where we want to spend a few hours, Moscow, Ankara, or Dusseldorf.”

Steve smiled. “You know, I’ve always wanted to see Dusseldorf.”

“You and me both, Honey.” Maggy entered all the information

that was necessary, and ten minutes lat-

er the Morgensterns had six coach seats on Air Berlin for June 21st, from New York City to Tel Aviv, with a stopover in Dus-seldorf. It was a done deal.

The day of the big trip arrived, and at 1:30 in the afternoon the Morgensterns set out on their trek. They had four suit-cases, two car seats, six carry-ons, and a cooler stuffed with enough snacks for a small army (peanut butter and jelly sand-wiches, granola bars, chocolate chip cookies, bagels, and of course, no liq-uids). True, they had requested kosher meals on Air Berlin for both legs of the trip, but Maggy wasn’t taking any chanc-es. Besides, there was the stopover in Germany to contend with.

The trip to the airport went smooth-ly. The Morgensterns whisked through security without incident. The T.S.A. se-curity lines were short, and they boarded without forgetting anything at the gate (it sounds easy enough, but boarding a plane with four children in tow is some-thing you have to do at least once to ap-preciate).

Sophie started with the window seat, but agreed to relinquish it to Danielle somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Mi-chael sat in between his parents with Ste-ve’s iPad on his lap, deep into the game “Temple Run,” and Benny never looked up from his iPod.

The fl ight went extremely smooth-ly. Maggy was a little weirded out by the fl ight announcements in German, but she settled down after a while, and even chuckled when the fl ight attendant

asked her if she wanted “shparkling vass-er.”

The in-fl ight entertainment on the airplane was fantastic, with many mov-ies and television shows to choose from. Other than the food and beverage service and a brief nap by each of the Morgen-sterns, they were all glued to their screens for most of the fl ight. Steve caught up on most of the fi fth season of Mad Men, and Maggy developed an addiction to Down-ton Abbey. Before they knew it, they were landing in Dusseldorf.

It was 7:15 a.m. in Germany when they disembarked in the airport. The Morgen-sterns sat on the orange plastic chairs in the arrivals lounge and stared off with the numb feeling of having missed an en-tire night’s sleep. They had an hour and-a-half until they needed to board their con-necting fl ight to Israel. They were tired and washed out. Oddly enough, Michael, the 5-year-old, hadn’t slept a wink on the plane, but seemed the most awake. Even Benny didn’t have the energy to turn on his iPod.

Benny turned to his father. “We need to chill.”

“We need to explore,” Sophie said.Maggy looked at her entire crew. “We

need to daven.”Steve knew his wife was right. Their

fi rst priority was to fi nd a quiet place to daven Shacharit. But he truly was not looking forward to this. He hated putting on his tefi llin in airports. When he was

How to Confront the EnemyBy Rabbi Michael Taubes

The story of the tu-multuous life of

Yaakov Avinu contin-ues in Parashas Vay-ishlach, which begins with a description of

his preparations for his upcoming en-counter with his brother Eisav as he re-turns to Eretz Yisrael after being away for many years. It is clear from the Torah’s presentation that Yaakov is terribly nerv-ous about the prospect of meeting Ei-sav, especially after learning that Eisav is not alone, and is approaching him with a veritable army of some 400 men. Chaz-al’s comment that Yaakov readied him-self in three ways, namely, by putting together a gift for Eisav , by davening to Hashem,, and by preparing for battle, is well known and further indicates how apprehensive he truly was.

It is noteworthy that this was not Yaakov’s fi rst meeting with an adversary who seemed bent on doing him harm. In fact, this story of Yaakov and Eisav occurs immediately on the heels of Yaakov’s ten-sion-fi lled confrontation with Lavan, the details of which are at the very end of the previous parashah. Interestingly, though, we fi nd a striking difference between these two episodes in terms of the pub-lic roles played by Hashem in each case.

In the previous parsha, the Torah re-ports that on the night that Lavan and his associates caught up with Yaakov and his camp—whom they had been pursu-ing for several days—Hashem appeared to Lavan in a dream and sternly warned him not to do anything to Yaakov, some-thing Lavan indeed acknowledged in his subsequent conversation with Yaakov. In this week’s parashah, however, we fi nd no such Divine intervention on Yaakov’s behalf; Hashem does not similarly appear to Eisav to tell him not to harm Yaakov. Evidently, Hashem does not believe that Yaakov needs His help in dealing with Ei-sav, as he apparently did in dealing with Lavan. Why this distinction?

The answer may lie in the very differ-ent natures of the threats posed by Ei-sav and Lavan. Eisav’s intentions were always clear. He deeply despised Yaakov and in fact expressed (at the end of Par-ashas Toldos) his intention to kill him. An enemy like that, an adversary whose destructive designs are easily perceived, Yaakov can deal with on his own. In such a case, one knows exactly what one is up against and can consequently prepare ac-cordingly, as indeed Yaakov does, with-out need for outside help. Lavan, how-ever, is another story entirely. He is a trickster, he deceives, he stabs you in the back while outwardly professing friend-ship. His true intentions are not at all ob-

vious, as he may try to harm his oppo-nent in more subtle ways than through a direct attack. An enemy like that can be far more dangerous because it is often diffi cult to know when and how one is being victimized. At times, one may not even be aware of the dangers posed by this kind of enemy until it is too late; in this case, Hashem thus decides that He must intervene on Yaakov’s behalf to save him from a potentially perilous pre-dicament.

Throughout the years, the Jewish peo-ple have faced both kinds of enemies. We have experienced enemies like Eisav, who openly declare their hatred for us and their desire to physically annihilate us, men women and children – on Purim, for example, we celebrate our victory over such an adversary. And we have ex-perienced enemies like Lavan, who may seem on the surface not to be enemies at all, but who may threaten us more subtly and less intensely, but ultimately just as seriously—on Chanukah we rejoice for conquering such an opponent. Based on the above, it may be suggested that these latter enemies are at least in some ways of greater concern, precisely because their attack is so subtle and at times even imperceptible—and must therefore be dealt with effectively.

In 21st century America, we are not regularly challenged, thank God, by

countrymen who wish to destroy us physically. We are, however, potential-ly endangered by a society whose in-fl uences can, if not carefully monitored and positively harnessed, lead to a weak-ening of religious and spiritual com-mitment. To guard against this kind of threat, in the absence of evident Divine assistance, we must arm ourselves—and most especially our children—with the right “ammunition.” Our children must be given the Torah and general ed-ucation that best suits their individual needs, regardless of external considera-tions. They have to be trained in an ap-propriate environment, where they can benefi t from an array of both peers and mentors who can serve as proper role models. And they have to be shown the warmth, the beauty and the day-to-day relevance of what they learn by caring and nurturing teachers who themselves know what it means to achieve great-ness in Torah while also serving as pro-ductive and contributing members of so-ciety at large. Equipped in this fashion, these youngsters, our successors, will be able to withstand even the less dramat-ic and obvious challenges to our future as a people.

Rabbi Michael Taubes is the Rosh Yeshiva & Head of School for MTA/YUHSB and has been involved in chinuch, both formal and informal, as a Reb-be, teacher and administrator for more than thirty years. A lifelong resident of Teaneck, he is present-ly the Rav of Kehillas Zichron Mordechai in Teaneck.

CONTINUED ON P. 30


OP-ED

When the Shidduch Hits the FanBy Shoshanna Jaskoll, The Times of Israel

This week, along with the rest of

you, I read the words of Gital, a chained woman or Agunah as

she publicly pleaded for a Jewish divorce from her husband. But this isn’t about Get. I’ve written about Get before. This is about what has become of Jewish dating and marriage in certain, mainly ultra-Orthodox, circles.

Reading her words, I was struck by the brokenness of a system and how it can lead directly to tragedies like Gital’s. In these circles, every young man and woman has a resume where all pertinent information is written: family lineage (often including information on siblings and other family members), education, background, character traits, looks, earn-ing potential etc. The unquantifi able is quantifi ed and people are dehumanized, forced onto a scale and what best adjec-tives a well-meaning mother can fi nd in a thesaurus.

Matchmakers match based on crite-ria—mostly yichus (lineage)—parents vet and approve. The young people meet in a public place over a soda or coffee and try and get to know one another beyond the paper. Then they report back to those in charge.

Gital speaks of the pressure she felt to continue dating her husband after the sec-ond date even though she didn’t want to.

“I told the matchmaker I wanted to stop seeing him…My parents asked me to think about it because his parents were so insistent …In Orthodox dating, you rely a lot on what other people tell you—So I gave him another chance.”

So, they dated further. And so they married.

Marriage begins after the last guest has gone home and the door to the hon-

eymoon suite closes. Truly alone for the fi rst time, the couple will completely re-verse the trends they lived for years; of not touching or being intimate with someone of the opposite sex (a topic for another post but one very important to this conversation) and begin their lives as man and wife .

In these circles, birth control is es-chewed. Having a large family is para-mount—it is why you marry. For many, like Gital, pregnancy comes quickly. If the couple is lucky, they have a few months to get to know one another before morn-ing sickness, fatigue and all of the other symptoms and pressures of pregnancy impose themselves.

If the man is a full time learner, of-ten the wife is the breadwinner. In a matter of months, she’s adjusting to be-ing a wife, working full time and being pregnant. She is exhausted and perhaps afraid. He is at best a bit lost but compas-sionate and at worst unable to sympa-thize and resentful.

The way I see it, to strengthen Jewish marriages and families, three things can and should be put into immediate effect.

1- The dating process must change. No longer should women be a series

of numbers and one word answers—modest, quiet, wealthy, thin, employa-ble. No longer should men be son of son of son of, an incredible learner in…

A person’s character, soul, dreams, and smile cannot be put on paper.

Young people need more autonomy. They must not be pressured to contin-ue to date someone they do not want to! Why would parents not listen to their daughter, who after spending hours with a person has decided he is not for her? Why are other people’s opinions more important than their own child’s?

What kind of decision makers and parents are we building if we don’t allow them to learn and make decisions, trust their gut and deduce conclusions from

observed behaviors?There is a middle ground between the

stale shidduch style above and the bar/hookup culture. Social settings where young men and women can meet more naturally can be very good things. Kids should be trusted to function accord-ing to the values with which they were raised.

Matchmakers can still advise and rec-ommend, but this cold system needs to be revised and young people need more control over their lives.

I daresay that had Gital had the abili-ty to meet and judge and reject her hus-band on these terms, had her voice been heard, the marriage and subsequent mis-ery she has endured would not have hap-pened.

2- There should be a suggested 6-12 month period of using birth control from the start of the marriage.

It is wrong not to give a young cou-ple the chance to get to know one anoth-er before becoming jointly responsible for another human being. Judaism plac-es the highest value on children. They are not just a commandment to be fi lled, they are people and should be born to parents who have a gained a bit of per-spective and maturity, who are ready for that step together, and who can properly support those children emotionally and physically. Heterim should be given for the purpose of making stronger marriag-es and better parents.

I once met a woman at the Beit Din. She was young and ultra-Orthodox. As I watched her tiny daughter toddle be-tween her and her husband, I thought perhaps she was in the wrong place. I told her this was the area for divorces. She told me that she and her husband were married a few years but were now divorcing. They agreed that they should never have gotten married.

Many couples stay married and weath-er the tough times together. But wouldn’t

it be great if the couple had time to get to know one another, build bonds and create a partnership before meeting the challenges of starting a family and all that comes with it? Might that not make for easier starts, stronger partnerships, healthier children, and yes, make it clear to some that they just should not be mar-ried BEFORE children are pulled into the mess?

Had Gital been advised to wait six months before starting a family, she would have been able to leave Avraham before becoming pregnant and having a child in the midst of this war.

3. Every Jewish couple getting mar-ried should sign a Halachic prenuptial agreement and every Rav worth his smi-cha should refuse to marry couples with-out one.

A step was lost between Gital’s dat-ing and her marriage. That step would have protected both parties. Had Gital and Avraham signed a Halachic Prenup-tial agreement, which calls for sanctions against a husband for refusal to provide a get and a wife for refusal to accept one, he could not wield it against her and pre-vent her from having a life.

Like me, Gital may have been assured by her Rav that it was unnecessary. Per-haps she was told that it wasn’t “kosher.” Most likely, she was told nothing at all. Jewish marriage is a sacred thing. It is a thing of respect, love, hope and partner-ship. It is dreams born over thousands of years and strength of a people millennia old. It is holy and it is good. And when it is used as a way to gain status or fi nanc-es, as a way to hurt and control and ma-nipulate and punish, it is a stain on us all.

The system is broken and it needs to be fi xed.

Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll is an American Israeli, mom, nonprofi t consultant, lover of chocolate and seeker of truth. She and her family made aliyah from Teaneck in 2007.

younger he had backpacked across Eu-rope with friends, but they had always gotten up at the break of dawn in the youth hostels they slept in so that they could pray in peace. In college he used to daven Mincha in a phone booth if he was on the road (the joke was to dial G-O-D) to have a modicum of privacy. Now here he was in Germany, a country not historically famous for its religious tol-erance, and he had to daven for all to see. But he hadn’t missed putting on tefi llin every day in many years, and he certainly wasn’t going to miss now. And Benny had been putting on his tef-

illin for almost two years without fail. There were many lessons to be taught to his family at this moment.

“Your mom’s right,” he said to his four kids. “Let’s move out.”

The Morgensterns picked up their carry-ons and began to walk. Four gates over they found an empty depar-ture area with no fl ight pending on the electronic departure/arrival board. Ex-cept for the cleaning crew, it was pret-ty much abandoned.

“This will do fi ne.”Steve put on his talit and tefi llin,

Benny put on his tefi llin as well, and Maggy, Sophie, and Danielle pulled out siddurim. Michael said the few prayers he knew by heart that he said in school with his teachers. They stood by the window looking out over the fl ight crew that was working on a recently arrived Lufthansa 737 in the distance. They spent about 20 minutes on their prayers, trying as best they could to ig-nore the stares of the occasional travel-ers as they walked by across the lounge.

As Steve and Benny took off their tef-illin, Steve looked proudly at his family.

“You know, this whole scene makes me think of a Rashi in parshat Vayish-lach.”

Maggy looked over at her husband with a world weary look. She was used to his habit of waxing philosophically at the strangest of moments.

“Really, Steve? Do tell.”“Well, when Yakov is about to meet

Eisav after many years of separation, he sends him a messenger with the mes-sage: Im Lavan garti va-echar ad ata. I have sojourned with Lavan and have lingered until now. Rashi offers this explanation: Im Lavan harasha garti vetaryag mitzvot shamarti. I have lived with the evil Lavan all these years, but I still observed the 613 commandments. It is a play on the word garti that the letters are the same as taryag, or 613.”

“Good one, Dad,” “Gee, thanks, Danielle, but don’t

thank me. Thank Rashi.”“Good one, Rashi,” Danielle opined.

“Uh, sure,” Steve continued. “But I think Yakov’s point to Eisav relates to us here today. We’re far from home, in a foreign place, but despite the hard-ship and inconvenience, we’re going to keep the mitzvot. Like davening in a small German airport, under the scru-tiny of lots of strangers. That’s who we are, and that’s what’s important to us.”

Maggy smiled. “Good one, honey.” “Thanks.”“It was a nice dvar Torah, but now

that we’re done davening, I have just one thing on my mind.”

“And what’s that?”“Coffee.”“Nice thought. I know we’re in Dus-

seldorf, but there must be a Starbucks here somewhere.”

[There wasn’t.]And the Morgensterns continued

their odyssey across the airport.

Larry Stiefel is a pediatrician at Tenafl y Pediatrics. He is author of the parsha story blog Themaggidof-bergenfi eld.com.

Vayishlach: Davening in Dusseldorf (Bereishit: 32:5)

CONTINUED FROM P. 29

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Italian HolidayBy Aliza Chasan

No one will ever ask me for this piece of advice regard-ing a trip to Venice because this is not something

that happens to normal people. Nevertheless, an un-solicited piece of advice: Do not fall into a Venetian Canal. If you swallow any of it you will need shots and if it’s Winter, you will be freezing.

Falling into the canal—in my one set of Shabbatappropriate clothing no less—may have been the most memorable aspect of my trip there, but Venice has so much to offer beyond the occasional, acciden-tal dunk into the water.

I spent three weeks in Italy over January of 2013. Most of my time was spent in Florence, enough so that I can still, almost a year later, give directions to the no-table sites, but I also visited Pisa, Sienna and, as men-tioned, Venice.

Winter is actually one of the best times to visit the country because it isn’t tourist season. A Chabbad reb-betzin there told me that during tourist season, you lit-erally have to wait for breaks in the street traffi c to exit buildings.

In Florence, or Firenze as Italians call it, there are a number of key places to visit, but fi rst the food. There is one kosher restaurant in the city, Ruth’s, and sadly no kosher gelateria. If you’re looking to eat outside a

restaurant, you can purchase Yomo brand yogurt, a large variety of beautiful fresh produce, Mulino Bianco brand cookies, and Toscana bread, that’s any bread with a really hard crust (knock on the bread to test it.)

In Venice you get the chance to do something spe-cial- eat all those Italian baked goods you’ve seen in store windows, but not had the chance to eat. The main restaurant, which hosts Shabbat meals, is called Gam Gam, but just down the road are two kosher gro-cery stores: one which sells pizza and a number of Is-raeli products and the other which sells the aforemen-tioned baked goods in addition to deli sandwiches and groceries.

Italians are a friendly and courteous people. For instance, my friends and I couldn’t fi nd our hotel in Venice. While strategizing in the street, an elderly Venetian lady opened up her window, babbled away at us, said a word that sounded vaguely like accompa-ny and then popped outside in slippers and a robe to escort us. If you’re ever lost, just say the name of the place you’re trying to go and someone will help you readily.

The main sites to fi nd in Florence are: the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Michaelangelo, Pitti Palace, the Uffi zi, the Academia, the shul and a mercato or two. Climbing the Duomo requires going up around 400 steps, but the spectacular paintings and the view from the top are worth it. Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno, the city dividing river, and is home to an array of amazing jewelry stores and nothing else.

Pitti Palace, on the other side of the Arno, is enor-mous; the former home of the Medici family, it now houses multiple separate museums and, through it, you can access Boboli Gardens. There are porcelain, mod-

ern art, silver and costume museums. You can also tour the royal apartments. The two other notable museums, the Uffi zi and Academia, are home to a slew of amazing paintings and statues including the David and quite a number of Botticelli paintings.

The shul in Florence is stunning. The services were Sephardi, which would have thrown off my focus all on its own, but the interior of the shul and its beautiful de-sign didn’t allow my mind much time to process the dif-ferent mode of davening.

Sienna holds a surprising amount of Judaic arti-facts. The civic museum has marble moldings of bibli-cal scenes and there’s a calligraphy and book restoration store which focuses largely on Hebrew material just 15 minutes walk from the city’s black and white Duomo. While there, be sure to see the Piazza del Campo and clock tower. Note: if you take the train into town and ask a resident if it’s possible to walk to the center of town, they will say yes. Know that all they mean is that it’s possible, not that you should do it.

The train in Venice though is located well in the

sense that you’re going to want to see everything in the city, not just the “main” sites. Venice is the city of Vivaldi, masks, canals and more. If you’re interested in visiting Murano, Burano, or Torcello, note that the boat to each island is actually quite time consuming. Boats for ‘long distance’ travel are more of water tax-is or busses; if you want to ride a gondola, but you’re not sure about the outrageous price, fi nd another tour-ist on the street and buddy up, that way you can split the bill.

Finally, a few practical remarks: if you purchase train tickets in the station several days before you plan to travel to a city, you can get sizeable discounts, but this only works in the station- not online. Also, validate your tickets before entering the train; a conductor will check for it and you can be fi ned if you don’t have that stamp. My last practical, but honestly terribly sad bit of advice, only visit Pisa if you have time to spare. The Leaning Tower is obviously very impressive and a good thing to check off a bucket list, but there isn’t much else on of-fer in the city.


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Travel to Cadbury World Is Cocotastic—and Kosher By Nathan Jeffay/JNS.org

It’s easy to imagine that if the ancient Israelites had been fa-

miliar with the cocoa bean, God might have promised them a land fl owing with milk and chocolate. He didn’t, but such a land does exist. In the English city of Birmingham, a 90-min-ute train ride from London, Cad-bury—the company that pop-ularized modern British milk chocolate—welcomes half a mil-lion visitors a year who come to pay homage to Cadbury World. And if you are kosher observant and accustomed to foodie travel attractions where you can look but can’t taste, you should re-joice—the London Beth Din re-gards almost all products made by Cadbury as kosher.

Non-Brits may not grasp just how big Cadbury is—as a cultur-al institution as well as a brand. But you’ll quickly get the hang of it at their huge visitor cent-er. In addition to the main exhi-bition, there’s an outdoor chil-dren’s play area with climbing zones, tube slides and tunnels, a separate area at a lower lev-el for the under-5s, and a multi-media show. The show consists

of two fi ve-minute features dur-ing which you meet the earnest Quakers who set up the compa-ny back in 1824, after which you get to create your own choco-late, with melted Cadbury choc-olate and fi llings.

A visit to Cadbury World can take up to three hours, but it is so well choreographed that time fl ies by. It isn’t an “exhibi-tion” in the conventional sense, but rather a mixture of displays, acted sketches, 3-D multime-

dia presentations, demonstra-tions of the production process, and of course, tastings. Yet you do learn a lot—in fact, Cadbury World was one of the fi rst insti-tutions in the UK to be awarded the Learning Outside the Class-room Quality Badge, recogniz-ing it as a provider of quality, safely managed educational ex-periences for young people.

For those of us used to fam-ily outings where different peo-ple circulate at different speeds

and everyone loses each other, Cadbury World is brilliant. As you go past various junctures, such as the shows, in batches of around 50 people, you are con-stantly synchronized with your party. The various components of the experience have been de-signed to hold the attention of the very young while stimulat-ing the grown-ups. There was a 70-year age span in my family group, and both granddad and toddler daughter loved every minute.

The exhibition begins with a series of 3-D stages where min-iature fi gures give you short snippets of the history of choc-olate. You fi nd out about “choc-olate houses” where grown men (women and children were barred) used to gather to drink hot chocolate and gamble, and you meet an actress who rec-reates the atmosphere of these dens of sugary indulgence. Then an actor introduces the members of the Cadbury family who estab-lished the company and made it great. They tell their story of how their chocolate is made through a series of presentations, one of them featuring seats that move as the cocoa breaks are shaken.

You fi nd out how specifi c Cad-bury lines are made, and you make your way through a pack-aging plant to an area where you can watch the production of one of the company’s premium handmade products.

The place really does fl ow with chocolate—a kilometer of piping on the ceiling takes it around. And even after near-ly three hours, the kids are still on a high—not just because of their pockets full of samples or the cup of liquid chocolate (the day’s second), but because the whole trip ends with an adora-ble ride, Cadabra, which takes you on little carriages through a world in which cute cocoa beans are engaged in all sorts of activities, including skiing.

I always dreamed of visiting Willy Wonka’s chocolate facto-ry. This was defi nitely the next best thing.

W hile most products distrib-uted at Cadbury World are ko-sher, some are not. The London Beth Din’s listing of kosher Cad-bury products can be found at www.kosher.org.uk.

Originally published by www.Jewish.Travel, the new on-line Jewish travel magazine.

The sign outside Cadbury World. Credit: Benkid77 via Wikimedia Commons.


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A Flawless Event in Israel Starts with ProtexsiaBy Bracha Schwartz

Englewood, NJ— The boutique win-ery in Israel, tucked into a protective for-est, was the perfect setting for a visiting celebrity couple from Los Angeles. After viewing the exclusive production process, the couple strolled to a private outdoor ta-ble, where they dined on a gourmet three-course meal accompanied by several exqui-site wines. Does that sound like something you’d like to do? Don’t open your guide-book to look for the number—you need protexsia, Hebrew for connections.

The boutique winery tour was arranged by Shari Alter of Englewood, New Jersey and Harvey Tannenbaum, who made ali-yah from Los Angeles 14 years ago, partners in Protexsia Plus (www.protexsiaplus.com), a company specializing in event planning and VIP travel in Israel. Protexsia Plus or-ganizes visits for two and events for 500. With Alter in the U.S., and Tannenbaum in Israel, they arrange all advance work and on-site coordination. For the boutique win-ery tour, Tannenbaum visited each location before the couple arrived to make sure the trip fl owed as smoothly as wine from a bot-tle.

Alter fi rst met Tannenbaum when she hired him to help her coordinate her oldest son’s bar mitzvah in Israel in 2006. About a year later, he asked her to work with him. Now they are partners.

Alter is the creative force at Protexsia Plus, often the fi rst one to meet with cli-ents and hear about their dreams. With a background in interior design, she takes the lead in planning the itinerary, décor and printed materials. She showed me a pre-departure gift she created for one bar mitzvah party: a coordinated package with luggage tags and passport holder that was sent overnight to the homes of all the guests before they left.

Tannenbaum coordinates the logistics in Israel, using his protexsia to fi nd the ven-dors and venues that will make clients hap-py. Alter said their teamwork speeds up the planning. “Because of the time difference, our clients can ask me questions in the af-ternoon that Harvey can work on it in Isra-el while they are asleep,” Alter said. “They wake up with answers.” The sun doesn’t set for long on Protexsia Plus.

First time visitors to Israel appreciate Al-ter’s guidance. “I worked with a family from New York’s Upper West Side who didn’t think much about religion until their son’s bar mitzvah, and they decided to make it in Israel,” Alter recalled. “They wanted to know where to go and what to do. We sug-gested they visit Hebron, a place they had never heard of. It made a big impression. When they came back, the parents wrote a check for $5,000 to the Hebron Fund.”

Alter and Tannenbaum have turned the most fanciful ideas into spectacular reali-ty. They planned an engagement party on the top of Masada, with the couple fl ying in by helicopter. One family had a simcha in Hertzliya with their own private amuse-ment park. A South American family want-ed a simcha in the desert – they had it on top of a mountain, complete with tents, a dance fl oor, DJ, back-up generators and an after party. Everyone, including the staff, wore white.

Alter and Tannenbaum also use their

protexsia to fulfi ll smaller, meaningful re-quests. “We planned a bar mitzvah for a boy with special needs who loved to drum. We arranged for him to drum with a local Israeli band. It was a really special day for him,” Alter said. “We had another bar mitz-vah boy who loved to cook. We arranged a bake-off contest for all the guests.”

The economic climate has affect-ed some aspects of travel to Israel. Alter said people planning simchas have few-er friends coming now, and some have to scale down the size of their events. Some-times Alter has to gently tell a client that an activity they want, like practice at a shoot-ing range for $120 per person, may be too expensive. But a four-hour party in New York costs as much as a trip to Israel. So by comparison, making a simcha in Israel can be a cost-effective decision.

Politics can create obstacles, but Protex-sia Plus knows how to get around them. When they had an event planned in Jeru-salem’s old city and roads were blocked off due to a sudden security problem, Tan-nenbaum called someone he knew who offered to get the catering truck there through a back route. Alter said she knows of only two events families cancelled due to fears about security—and both regretted cancelling afterwards.

The kind of research Tannenbaum and Alter do would be almost impossible for travelers to conduct themselves. They hire babysitters, mostly girls who have done their Sherut Leumi service, who are trained and competent. They speak to chefs about special diet requirements. And of course they are knowledgeable about kashrut su-pervision and the preferences of their cli-ents. Clients who rent apartments arrive to fi nd their refrigerators stocked and fl ow-ers on the table. Like a personal concierge, they will arrange hard to get concert tickets and advance restaurant reservations.

Tannenbaum began the business short-ly after arriving in Israel, having been a law-yer in LA. “People I knew kept asking me for recommendations and advice. I realized I could make a business doing this,” he said. Over the years, he has developed many re-lationships with caterers, hotel staff and restaurant managers. He evaluates other service providers by trying them out fi rst with family and friends. “Ten years ago, my great aunt came for a visit and wanted to go to Tel Aviv,” Tannenbaum related. “I asked a driver who, unbeknownst to her, I was looking at to work for us. When she re-turned I asked her, ‘Did he drive well? Was the cab clean? Would he understand the American mentality?’ He became one of

the company’s trusted drivers and also rec-ommended others.”

Matching the right resources to the cli-ent is part of Tannenbaum’s expertise. “We try to stay out of politics, but we know which guide is a good fi t,” he said. “Some tour guides specialize in bringing Tanach to life for those with little background and others are scholars. We also have guides who are knowledgeable about Christian sites for the many non-Jews who come to Israel.”

And then there are those sudden glitch-es that are insurmountable if you’re on your own but Tannenbaum and Alter can fi x with a few well-placed phone calls. Their U.S./Israel partnership saved the day for one couple who arrived in Israel at night for a family simcha later in the week.

After a relaxing dinner, they prepared to check into their hotel only to be told at the front desk that they had no reservation and the hotel was full.

The client called Tannenbaum. Tannen-baum called Alter in New Jersey (yes, at 2 a.m.). Alter went through all the records and found the problem; the hotel had transposed the couple’s name. They did in-deed have a reservation.

Protexsia Plus came to the rescue for a college student in London who was sup-posed to meet her family touring in Israel. Tannenbaum got a frantic call from the fa-ther. His daughter went to Heathrow Air-port by mistake when she should have gone to Luton. There was only one El Al fl ight left she could take and arrive before yom tov. Tannenbaum called a travel agent he knew who called El Al. The young wom-an caught a cab to Luton and was met by an El Al representative who whisked her into the airport and onto her plane.

Tannenbaum and Alter have a passion for Israel. Tannenbaum is guided by the memory of his father who grew up with-out a bar mitzvah—they didn’t have any in Auschwitz. But now, a generation later, he’s making it possible for others. Alter, whose mother-in-law also survived the H olocaust, loves making people’s dreams of visiting Israel come true and now has a second home there. “We travel to Israel so much that sometimes we have to remember how special it is,” Alter said. “Travel to Israel is a blessing that we can’t take for granted.”

Shari Alter, Senior V.P and US Representative, Protexsia Plus

Harvey Tannenbaum, President, Protexsia Plus


TRAVEL

Are We There Yet?By Alyssa Colton MA, OTR/LAnd Aviva Lipner MA, OTR/L

Family vaca-tions are a

time for building memories, fi lling albums and creating bonding experiences for the entire fam-ily. It is meant to be a time to get away from it all and have a fun, relaxing occa-sion. Many families, however, fi nd that the vacation is rarely all that they were expecting and more frequently fi lled with unexpected, and unwanted, “sur-prises.” Everything from lost luggage, sibling bickering, carsickness, long lines and unmet expectations, the vacation is the perfect setup for frustration, aggra-vation and stress. Not OUR vacations, of course, those are perfect.

Over the years, we have come up with some suggestions to make va-

cations more fun for the entire fami-ly. First of all, if you are taking a long trip such as a long car ride, road trip or a long airplane ride, fi ll your children’s backpack with some surprises for them for the trip. Do not allow them to see their packs until you are on your way. For a younger child, a couple of new age appropriate toys that pack well and one or two of their favorites will help for the long trip. (Maybe save a toy or two to surprise them with for the way home since most children are more excited for the vacation than they are for the return home.) Don’t forget to pack a few snacks and a drink that your child can control on his or her own.

Activities such as coloring books, re-usable stickers, Magnadoodle or Etch-a-Sketch boards, and other small toys suit-able for traveling are great commodities to add to your packing prep. Cards and games that come in their own contain-ers are also great for travel as they pro-

vide easy clean-up. Parents, spend a little bit of time be-

ing creative and you will not believe how thrilled your children will be with their activities. A little bit of advance preparation can help provide a fun-fi lled vacation for parents and children.

When the family has a member with special needs, however, the entire va-cation experience is different. Wheth-er the family member has physical lim-itations that are obvious and require equipment, or physical challenges that may not be obvious or other diffi cul-ties that are not strictly physical, the vacation now takes on a whole new meaning and the planning needs have changed.

One thing that families of children with special needs should be aware of is that most amusement parks and other vacation spots have accommodations to help make their vacations smoother and more enjoyable. In most amusement parks or other vacation hotspots, with a letter from your doctor or therapist, you can obtain a pass to allow your family

to move to the front of the line in parks or sit in specifi c areas during shows. You will need to do your homework as these regulations are changing all of the time. For example, Disney Parks are notori-ous for their accommodations for indi-viduals with special needs. At this time, however, they are undergoing changes to their policies and are following more of a “fastpass” type of ticket instead of a “no-line” policy. Before you make your reservations, go online and do your re-search so you are well educated in mak-ing appropriate decisions.

Remember, regardless of your fam-ily’s specifi c situation, spending a little extra time before your trip preparing can help you build those magical mem-ories you are looking for. Making sure your luggage makes it to the other side? Sorry, we have no tips for that.

Alyssa Colton MA, OTR and Aviva Lipner MA,

OTR are pediatric occupational therapists and own-ers of Kids’ Therapy Place, LLC. You can fi nd great toys and games at Kids’ Therapy Toy Store [email protected]

How Eddie’s Kosher Travel Became # 1An Interview with David Waller

How did you get into the travel busi-ness?

It’s actually an interesting story. We never intended to get into the travel busi-ness. When we lived in Australia we had

other businesses: I was in the steel securi-ty manufacturing business and Chana was in residential real estate. One year we went on vacation to the Gold Coast in Queens-land, Australia. Chana was pregnant with our third son and we were already think-ing about the stress of Pesach even though

it was still several months away. We made the decision then that we would come back for Pesach with our own food and spend the holiday there, which was possible be-cause the area had the infrastructure of a shul and Jewish community. When we re-turned home and began telling our friends and community about our plans everyone wanted in. At the time, there was no Pesach program in Australia so this was a fi rst. We ended up hosting 200 guests and import-ed a team of eight chefs from Israel. We did this for fi ve years and it grew each year but it always remained a side business-hobby.

How did you go from that to living in Israel?

We always wanted to make Aliya to give our children a fuller Jewish life and bet-ter education than what we had in Aus-tralia and…because we are a little crazy to want to leave Down Under - such a beauti-ful country! After 17 years of marriage and four kids later, we decide it was ‘now or nev-er’ and made a pilot trip to Israel in October 2007. We made Aliyah in March 2008. It was close to Pesach and Platinum Travel, with whom we had connected during our pilot trip, was planning to run a Pesach program at the Dead Sea for over 1,200 guests. They desperately needed help running it and we were happy to step in.

You have a prestigious, successful travel agency. How did that happen?

Eddie’s Travel was founded by Eddie Freudmann in 1976. He was from the UK and made Aliyah with his family to Netan-ya. He opened a travel business booking va-cations and operating kosher cruises and this grew substantially. In 1986 he started a Pesach Hotel for Anglos coming to Israel. A year before we made Aliyah, Eddie sudden-ly passed away. His son-in-law took over the business but since he was a lawyer it was not his natural forte. We had been previous-ly introduced to Eddie’s Travel on our pilot trip so we reconnected and bought the busi-ness in November 2008.

Why Eddie’s Kosher Travel?Eddie’s Travel was already a very recog-

nizable brand name in the industry with a

great reputation and a strong clientele from all over the world. We changed the offi cial name to “Eddie’s Kosher Travel & Tourism” because Eddie’s Travel didn’t have a particu-larly Jewish ring to it. Our market was ko-sher vacations and cruises and it tied in with our domain website www.kosher-travelers.com. We ended up making oth-er changes, too. The beginning of 2009 was when the Madoff scheme emerged and a major worldwide recession set in. Not the best time to get into the luxury trav-el business! The industry was hit hard and by Pesach of that year we were feeling the impact. We had done all our due diligence and research but nothing could have pre-dicted this. We decided to revamp. First we merged our cruise operations with our main competitor, Kosherica Corporation. We were both feeling the crunch so by merging we became the number one player in the kosher cruises market. We also intro-duced a wide range of kosher land tours to exotic destinations. Then we shut the phys-ical offi ce and set up our staff to work from their homes. This made sense because no one walks into a travel agency anymore to make travel plans. We revamped the web-site and built up the Pesach programs, ex-panding it from one hotel to six.

How were you able to turn things around?

It’s been a process but we are seeing re-sults. Our merged kosher cruises operation is the market leader. We run a full kosher program within the regular luxury cruise line’s program and take care of every detail from providing Shabbat elevators to Jew-ish heritage tours at port destinations. If a cruise leaves on a Sunday morning we or-ganize Shabbat at the city of departure. Cruises are popular because you can vis-it multiple destinations and only unpack once. Our Pesach and Sukkot programs in Israel are ever popular with loyal returning clients as well as new clients from the USA, Canada, UK, South Africa and Australia as well as Anglo Israelis who have heard of our reputation and how we stand apart from our competitors. This year for Pesach we are offering a range of hotel options in Ti-

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Discovering KoreaBy Tamar Herman

“What’s a nice Jewish girl from New York doing in a place where she

can’t fi nd a nice Jewish boy?” What was I doing there? I asked myse lf this numer-ous times throughout my six months studying abroad, especially after I real-ized I could no longer just pick up a burg-er from the local Glatt Kosher restau-rants. Now that I’ve returned and can eat all of the food I desire, I want to go back to a world with no kosher food stores, only one (non-army) synagogue, and peo-ple who have never even met a Jew be-fore.

In many ways, Seoul, South Korea is much more advanced than New York City. The subways run on time (with nu-merous phone applications that will help you pick the fastest route); you don’t have to swipe your Metro Card, and there’s always service and data. Every street corner has multiple-story, 24-hour coffee shops, and the residents of Seoul are much more fashionable than New Yorkers.

But, at the same time, Seoul is much more attached to its past than New York is. While there are some skyscrapers, the heart of Seoul is four palaces and various temples. In fact, the only reason I know where the American Embassy in Seoul is located was because it is right next to the magnifi cent palace, Gyeongbok-gung. Most of Seoul’s landmarks were rebuilt after the Korean War, but they aren’t lacking in authenticity; it’s hard to remember that you’re in the middle of a city with over 10 million residents when you’re looking at the throne of Korea’s last kings.

Seoul is home to more than just pal-aces; it’s also home to some of the best shopping, ranging from high end shop-ping districts like Apgujeong and Gang-nam (like the song,) to Dongdaemun market where you can haggle over prices, to the area near Ehwa Woman’s Univer-sity, where up- and-coming fashion stu-dents try to sell their goods to small bou-tiques. Haggling is a must in most Korean stores, but be warned: if you’re light hair and light eyes, they’ll probably hike up the prices thinking that you’re a tourist. Seasoned Seoul-ite that I became in my six months there, I was able to gauge that most T-shirts sold on the street could be bought with 10,000 Won (a little less than $10) if I just handed the shopkeep-er the money.

Seoul’s not all about shopping, but since I wasn’t able to eat, well, anything, most of my experiences didn’t include food memories. However, I did sit with my friends while they grilled pork bel-lies (samgyeopsal) or made hot pot (sha-bu shabu) on the table in front of them, and while they ate pounds upon pounds of kimchi, Korea’s national side-dish. For snacks during the day, while I bought Jel-ly Bellys or Haagen Daaz from the con-venience store, my friends would get kimbap, Korea’s version of sushi, which almost always included picked yellow radish, kimchi and ham.

At night, there were hundreds upon hundreds of things for college students to do. Our neighborhood, Sinchon, was

the host of the prestigious Yonsei Uni-versity, which I attended, and also Ewha Woman’s University, which meant that there were hundreds of bars, themed-cafés and noraebang (literally singing rooms). A few blocks away was Hongdae, which had a lot of clubs and fashionable shops, as well as street performance spac-es. The most talented performers would reserve the right to play on Hongdae not only to make money from passersby, but because they knew if there was a scout from one of Korea’s top entertainment companies, their fortune could be made.

While most people know Psy and Gangnam Style, they don’t know that Korea is the host to one of the largest growing entertainment industries in the world. If you’re so inclined, you can at-tend hundreds of concerts with perfect-ly constructed performances by boy bands and girl groups. Or you can attend Broadyway-style musicals or dance per-formances (Korea is gaining much atten-tion for having amazing b-boying teams.) There’s also the Co-Ex Mall and Aquari-um and the National Museum with gor-geous traditional gold and porcelain ob-jects from ancient kingdoms.

But my personal favorite was some-thing I only discovered at the end of my stay, the jimjilbangs. These 24-hour sau-nas may seem frightening to Americans, but for roughly $12 you can stay 12 hours at a sauna and spa. People spend nights there, sleeping on the hard wood fl oor after they’ve enjoyed the health benefi ts of both hot and ice saunas (my personal favorite was the hot salt room.) You can go straight from a hard day at work to re-lax; every customer is given a change of clothes and an electronic bracelet, which can be used to pay for various things like food, massages or arcade games. After your time is up, there are showers and blow dryers with which to freshen up, and then you can go back to your life as normal. Even though I doubted that it’d be clean or safe, the Dragon Spa jimjil-bang was one of the cleanest places I’ve ever been, and there were parents with their children there overnight, having a fun family outing right in Seoul.

And, of course, if you miss America, you can always head to Itaewon. The area sprung up around the U.S. army base, so there are always a lot of Americans and other foreigners in the area. There’s even a mosque and a Jewish Center run by Chabad. I spent just about every Shabbatthere, or else I would have had to make a special trip in order to buy instant soups and Israeli snacks like Bamba and Bissli.

Just about every week I was asked the question that started this article: What was I doing there? But it didn’t matter. All of us Jews in Korea didn’t really seem to belong, but we made our own communi-ty there. There were Jews who have been there for over 20 years, the Chabad fami-ly who has been there for only a few and the U.S. soldiers and businessmen with their wives and young children (who at-tend a pre-school run by the rabbi’s wife). As for me, I wasn’t alone, there were a few other Jewish college students. There’s also the army chaplain, who had services and meals for people; I had diffi culty ever go-ing because Seoul has no eruv, so I wasn’t

able to carry my passport on Sabbath in order to gain entrance to the base.

As odd as it sounds, I tried to avoid Itaewon; there was so much else in Ko-rea to see, that if not for my Jewish-ness, I may have never gone to the area. Itae-won is like a sudden break in the country, because, unlike most of Korea, there was a lot more crime in the area with a lot of immigrants (Korea primarily has only Koreans living in most neighborhoods.) Drunks may be out at all hours due to lax drinking laws in Korea, but they’re usu-ally harmless. I never once feared walk-ing around with an open purse and even

grew so comfortable that I would take my wallet out on the subway and look at its contents.

Coming back to New York, where I didn’t have to cook practically every meal for myself, was a shock. But, all the same, Seoul had much more of a unique feel-ing than New York does. Since my return, I realize that some things I thought made so much sense in Korea (like sleeping on the fl oor of a sauna) would be extreme-ly odd here. But New York doesn’t have palaces, or national food like kimchi and kimbap; New York’s a melting pot, but Seoul has its own fl avor.


CHESSED

Thankful for Thanksgiving Pies: Sisters Raise $80K for SharsheretBy Elizabeth Kratz

Teaneck—Last Thanksgiving, 400 pies were baked in a private home in Te-

aneck, along with 250 loaves of pumpkin-cranberry bread. That’s a lot of sweets for one house. But don’t worry—it’s not just for one family. It’s a pie bake sale with a rich history and a message.

The goal of the bake sale, according to founders Sharon Wieder, a Teaneck res-ident and her sister, Adeena Sussman of Manhattan, is to raise funds and aware-ness for Sharsheret, the national not-for-profi t organization supporting young Jewish women and their families facing breast or ovarian cancer.

The two sisters lost their mother, Stephanie Sussman, and grandmoth-er, Ann Nadrich, to ovarian cancer, and created the bake sale in memory of the women who empowered them in the

kitchen. Wieder herself is a survivor of breast cancer who got involved with Sharsheret during her own treatment. Their bake sales, which have extended to friends running sales from their own kitchens, have so far netted $80,000 for Sharsheret. Now in its fi fth year, the bake sale extends to 11 cities, including Jerusalem.

“We wanted to do something posi-tive, in memory of our mother, who was a big baker and entertainer who passed away in 2006,” said Wieder. “We’re not just doing it to raise money. We want to raise awareness about Sharsheret and the resources that are available to wom-en fi ghting cancer and their families,” she said.

Four hundred pies may seem like a lot, but Wieder brushes off the work. “It’s very natural for us to do this, and it’s a special time for us to do something to-

gether to remember our mom,” she said. Bake sales in other cities were started by friends of the Wieders and Sussmans who decided to join the cause, but have now reached out to others who want to support Sharsheret in this way.

The sisters provide guidance to the bakers as they organize their own bake sales. “We’ve created a kit where we have all the recipes we make, a timeline, a letter we send to family and friends, a blurb to send to shuls and schools for an-nouncements, and we provide tips and hints for doing this huge baking job. All of the products we buy are kosher, pareve and baked in a kosher kitchen. People call if they have questions about the kashruth, and my sister and I are availa-ble by phone or email as much as possi-ble,” Wieder said.

The bakers essentially donate all the raw materials for the pies (which reaches

into the thousands of dollars), and then 100% of the proceeds from the sales go to Sharsheret. Wieder added that this year the website offers the option of donating specifi cally to support the bakers of the project, to defray their costs of raw ma-terials.

Pies can be ordered through the web-site at http://www.sharsheret.org/pies-for-prevention. Because all the pies are baked fresh, orders need to be in by Sun-day, November 17th. Sharon Wieder is happy to answer any questions at 201-837-7837.

Sderot Hesder Yeshiva Celebrates its 18th Annual DinnerBy Moshe Kinderlehrer

The last time I was in Sderot was in the summer of 2005, only weeks before

the Gaza pullout. What remained in my mind were images of freshly installed and painted missile shelters. This week, in Teaneck, I spent some time at Gotham Burger in Teaneck with Rabbi Dovid Fen-del, the founding Rosh Yeshiva and dean of what is formally known as the Max and Ruth Schwartz Yeshivat Hesder of Sderot.

Rav Fendel gave me the update on how far the yeshiva and the city of Sderot have come since that fateful sum-mer. A West Hempstead native and the son of founding HANC (Hebrew Acad-emy of Nassau County) principal Rab-bi Meyer Fendel, he was in Teaneck as part of a whirlwind trip that culminates with their big gala on Monday night. His American Friends Executive Director, Yossi Baumol, is working on ensuring the dinner’s success, while Rav Fendel speaks to garner support from groups and indi-viduals. This weekend will be very spe-cial because he will be joined by the newly elected mayor of Sderot, Alon Da-

vidi, and by the head of Bayit HaYehudi, Naftali Bennett, who is also Israel’s eco-nomic minister. The three of them will be speaking at shuls and organizations throughout the tri-state area.

Their goal is to raise funds for the ye-shiva and for the city. The yeshiva is now one of Israel’s biggest hesder yeshivot with over 500 students, and the school and the municipality work very closely on many issues, including housing and security. There is a desperate need for scholarship subsidies for the students and for capital projects. A number of buildings have already been built to con-tain the burgeoning student body with help from abroad, the municipality and the Israeli government, but more is need-ed.

Rav Fendel is especially concerned over the latest budget cuts that have im-pacted the yeshiva, and said that 2014 will be a very challenging year, with fur-ther cuts expected. He said although the hesder yeshivot were promised addition-al funds that the haredi yeshivot might not be eligible for, this was not a positive position. “It takes away from our unity,” he said. “Cuts that fall only on the hare-

di yeshivot and not on the hesder/dati le-umi yeshivot drive a wedge in the Torah world’s unity.”

As we ended our schmooze, he not-ed that despite the approximately 10,000 rockets fl ying out of Gaza over the past decade, Sderot has recovered and got-ten stronger than ever. There’s a booming real estate market with strong growth prospects. “The Palestinians have to

know that if you start up with us, we will only grow stronger….that was a mistake they made,” he said.

You can still register for the dinner on Monday night (Nov. 18th) at the Marriott Marquis in New York. To sign up or make a donation, call Yossi Baumol, 718-673-4945, email [email protected] or visit their website, www.sderot.org/english.

Yachad’s Summer Programs Grows for Individuals with DisabilitiesBy Batya Rosner

On a given school day morning, some-times as early as 6:00 a.m., Naphtali

Tzvi Yehuda Soloveichik will be on You-Tube watching camp videos from his past three summers participating in Yachad’s camper program at Camp Morasha. For Naphtali, 17, who attends a private ther-apeutic school in his hometown of Chi-cago for those with autism, the impact of his few weeks integrated within a main-stream Jewish camp and the friendships formed have developed his social skills and strengthened his Jewish identity.

“Naphtali would know he is Jewish without the Yachad Camp Morasha pro-gram because of our lifestyle, but this ex-perience really makes him feel part of the Jewish people,” shared his father, Rabbi Moshe Soleveichik, Rosh Yeshivas Brisk (Chicago) and Rav of Kehilas Beth Sho-lom Ahavas Achim. “That is what inclu-sive means.”

Yachad, the fl agship agency of the Or-thodox Union’s National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD), provides unique social, educational and recreational pro-grams for children and young adults with learning, developmental and physical disabilities with the goal of their inclu-sion in the total life of the Jewish com-munity. With 17 opportunities for sum-mer social development, ranging from

trips to Israel to vocational and camper programs, Yachad/NJCD has become one of the largest providers of summer pro-grams for Jewish individuals with disabil-ities. According to Jdata, an online forum for Jewish organizations to share infor-mation operated by Brandeis University and the Jim Joseph Foundation, Yachad serviced the second-highest number of campers with special needs in summer 2013.

“Since 2008, there has been tremen-dous growth in the number of individu-als with a spectrum of disabilities being serviced in Yachad summer programs, from 190 fi ve years ago, to 443 individuals from across the United States and Cana-da in summer 2013,” said Eli Hagler, Na-

Yad B’Yad participants Ari Zucker of Livingston, NJ; Tzvi Burston of Los Angeles; Mayer Schein of Woodmere, NY; and Elisheva Katz of Baltimore.

CONTINUED ON P. 73


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Race for CourageBy Estelle Glass

Bergenfi eld—A parent of a chronical-ly ill or disabled child or the child

himself might view an all-expense paid, week-long luxury vacation as just an im-possible dream. But Tziporah Wasser-man of Bergenfi eld is working with Kids of Courage to actually make this dream a reality.

Kids of Courage was created to en-able sick children and their families to experience some respite from their dif-fi cult lives by granting the children the opportunity to experience a fl ight to a luxurious vacation spot for a fully paid nine-day vacation. At the same time, the participants are able to bond with oth-ers in similar medical circumstances and to share their experiences while forming new friendships. The counselors, med-ical staff, therapists and administrative help associated with Kids of Courage, are all volunteers, so private funds are needed to raise the money for medical-ly equipped planes that are turned into fl ying hospitals and for lodging at fi ve

star hotels stocked with medical equip-ment as well as for the catered meals and amusement park admission.

The counselor/camper ratio on these dream trips is one or two counselors per child, with each child getting personal at-tention and care by volunteers special-ly trained by co-founder and NYU Medi-cal School professor, Dr. Stuart Ditchek. Over the past several years the group has visited Orlando, Los Angeles and Califor-nia and has taken winter adaptive skiing trips to Vermont.

Campers who enjoy Kids of Courage services range in age from 5 years old to the age of 24. Over 100 campers with life threatening illnesses visit theme parks, participate in outdoor activities, attend concerts, meet celebrities and attempt actions they had hitherto thought impos-sible. Surprisingly, as these children par-ticipate in adventures that other children might take for granted, their health im-proves. Dr. Ditchek maintains that these fun-fi lled weeks have a therapeutic ef-fect, as improved moods naturally lead to improvement in one’s immune system.

Naturally, the cost of arranging all of these trips is staggering. Just this past year’s trip to Orlando cost in the area of $800,000. It is only thanks to the dedica-tion of selfl ess volunteers like Tziporah Wasserman, who are gearing up to par-ticipate in Marathon Bahama on Janu-ary 19 that these vacations will continue. She is the granddaughter of Calvin and Tzippy Soled, pioneer builders of the Te-aneck Jewish community. After a relax-ing weekend in a Bahama resort, over 100 runners—who have raised a minimum of $3,600.00 each—will race together to fund Kids of Courage programs through-out the year. There will also be 10 camp-ers in wheelchairs aided by volunteers, who will run a half- race of 13.1 miles.

Tziporah, a special education teach-er in Dumont, became interested in this wonderful organization after hearing about its work from some friends. She then spent a rewarding week last sum-mer as a counselor on the Orlando trip. Tziporah, like so many of her co-counse-lors, still keeps in touch with her campers and attends Shabbatonim and other func-

tions with them, although camp is long over. Now, Tziporah hopes to realize her goal of raising the $3,600 so that she can participate in the upcoming marathon.

You can help Tziporah and the Kids of Courage by sending checks made out to Kids of Courage to her home at 85 Wilbur Avenue, Bergenfi eld, N.J. 07621, or going online to her profi le at http://race 4 cour-age.org/ race/716-tziporah-wasserman/profi le. Help Tziporah realize her desire to “make dreams come true and. turn into reality,” as Kids of Courage campers experience joy and exhilaration for a spe-cial week of their lives.

Friendship Circle Yedidainu Program Hosted at Moriah & Yavneh

Last Thursday and Friday was the state-wide NJ Educators Convention and

public schools were closed. For families with special needs children in the public schools, the Yedidainu program (started originally with Yeshivat Noam) c o o r d i n a t e d by the Bergen Friendship Circle offers these par-ents a solution by providing a day of activities in partnership with local schools for these chil-dren. Last Thurs-day, Yavneh Academy hosted a full-day program with 8th graders volunteering to work with the children and joining them for davening, activities, and a trip to WeeZee World. Last Friday’s program was hosted by The Moriah School and

consisted of music, art, sports and bak-ing, all run by Moriah staff and student

volunteers. Both days offered a huge ser-vice to parents who had structured activ-ities for their kids with special needs. The Friendship Circle is planning two more such programs at Yeshivat Noam at the end of December.

Cheryl Mandel Inspires At Frisch

A surprising source of inspiration came to the Frisch School on Wednesday

with One Family Fund speaker Cheryl Mandel .

One Family Fund (www.onefamily-fundtogether.org) is Israel’s premier or-ganization that supports and rehabil-itates victims of terror and bereaved families in Israel.

Cheryl’s son Daniel, a 24 year-old Lieutenant in the IDF, was killed by Ha-mas terrorists while leading his troops into Shechem just 36 hours before Pesach. Cheryl has traveled the world speaking publicly about her beloved son and the signifi cance of his life and death, inspiring communities around the globe. According to Rabbi Eli Cin-er, Associate Principal, “Cheryl’s ability to relate to the students and her mes-sage of strength and overcoming adver-sity had a powerful effect on the atten-tive audience.”

Speaking to more than three hun-dred students, Cheryl asked, “Is there an-ything in your life that means enough

to you, that is important enough to you, that you are willing to fi ght for? Be-cause for Daniel, and all the soldiers in the Israel Defense Force, the State of Is-rael means enough for them..... And they are not doing it just for those of us, who either by accident of birth or by choice, are living in Israel today They are do-ing it for Jews all over the world, includ-ing every single one living in America today,” she continued. “They are doing it because they know what happened when there wasn’t a Jewish state.”

Cheryl stressed that Israel’s existence is essential and that strong and fortu-nate communities like the Frisch school have an obligation to support those less fortunate in Israel. According to Elaine Keigher, Associate Principal, “The stu-dents connected to Cheryl on an emo-tional and hashkafi c level.” Cheryl’s pos-itive attitude and statement that “life is good” impressed her young audience. Several students approached her after the speech, and told her of their pas-sion for Israel and their plans to study in

yeshivot next year. The Frisch community appreciated the op-portunity to enable their stu-dents to be educated and in-spired by such an optimistic, dynamic, and idealistic wom-an. Cheryl has been speaking this past week throughout the tri-state area on behalf of One-Family, the organization that currently provides assistance to 17,000 Israeli victims of terror. (L-R) Evan Cohen, Cheryl Mandel, Mendy Friedman

Zev Kinderlehrer (r) at a recent Friendship Circle Yedidainu program at Moriah Academy


FOOD AND HOME

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Butternut Squash PappardelleBy Lisa Reitman-Dobi

Falling leaves and shorter days herald autumn. But to me, the

most eloquent and inarguable proclamation comes from the smell of fresh sage in the kitch-en. Add the richness of butter-nut squash, brown butter, hints of nutmeg, thyme and toasted almonds, and you have the mak-ings of the perfect fall meal. This recipe for butternut squash pap-pardelle is a simple elaboration on basic homemade egg pasta. A standard hand-cranked pas-ta machine makes rolling out sheets of this beautiful dough a breeze. Those who do not own a pasta machine can use a rolling pin. The result will be a thicker but equally delicious result.

For this recipe, I used a veg-etable stock reduction. Osem mushroom soup base with its earthy mushroom fl avor (and lots of salt, so be careful), can make a lovely addition to the sauce. As with any reduction, ad-just seasonings after the reduc-tion has reached the last stage of thickening. Be careful with the salt.

Memorable and mouthwa-tering, this dish only seems com-plex. The dough can be made

a day ahead. And a bit of thera-peutic punching along with the kneading might be just the tick-et as you brace yourself for the holiday double whammy on November 28. If you fall in love with this pasta the way I did, you might want to serve it on Thanksgiving. For a meat main or side dish, omit the Romano, butter and goat cheese and use homemade chicken stock for a rich, delectable sauce.

What You Need:Equipment:

• Large, non-stick skillet• Large pot to cook the pasta• Large bowl• Large colander• Pasta machine to roll out the

pappardelleFor the pasta:

• 1 ½ cups cooked butternut squash, pureed

• Olive oil for the pan• 2 Tbs. fi nely chopped shallots• 1 clove fi nely chopped garlic• 1/2 tsp salt• 2 Tbs. butter• 1 Tbs. fresh thyme leaves• 1/8 tsp nutmeg• ½ cup grated Romano cheese• 2 large eggs, beaten• 3-4 cups all purpose fl our,

more for kneading and roll-

ing• 1 tsp salt

For the Sauce:• 4 cups vegetable stock (no to-

mato; low salt)• 1 Tbs. olive oil for pan• 4 Tbs. butter• 2 Tbs. fi nely chopped shallots• 2-3 Tbs. white wine, optional• 2 cloves fi nely chopped garlic• 2-3 cups loosely packed,

washed baby spinach• 1 Tbs. thyme leaves• 2 Tbs. fi nely chopped sage

leaves• 1 tsp corn starch• Salt to taste• Fresh pepper to taste• Dash of nutmeg

Dash of cayenneFor the garnish:

• ¼ to ½ cup toasted sliced almonds

• 2 ounces goat cheese• 2 Tbs. chopped fresh chives

In a large, non-stick skillet, sauté the shallots until soft. Add the garlic, the butternut squash puree and the butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, allowing the puree to reduce. After fi ve minutes, add the thyme leaves, nutmeg and ½ tsp salt. When

CONTINUED ON P. 41


FOOD AND HOME

Laundry LessonsBy Tova Knecht

What happens when something you’ve counted on for so long is

no longer there to help you? Well, the piles of laundry begin to grow—liter-ally. When our washing machine’s in-terior began smoking during a wash,

I was annoyed. I still had three loads of laundry to do, how dare it break down? Then I was in denial; I’ll just let it rest for a while and maybe it’ll fi x itself on its own. Finally, I came to the realization that I should proba-bly call the manufacturer. The customer service agent scheduled a diagnostic appointment. When we were told the cost to fi x the broken motor and shredded belt

would be $427 dollars, we said no thank you. You see, we had a backup plan. All these years we’ve kept a spare washing machine for this moment. But then, when it was hooked up, it too was not in working order. Oh, the irony.

My kids and I spent an hour in Sears looking at all the different washing machine models. The salesman was eager to make a sale, throwing around all the Yid-dish phrases he knows. The fi rst model he showed me was the “Mercedes of Washing Machines,” his quote, not mine. Well, none of the others seemed to match up to that one. But, I came to terms with the fact that my laundry room isn’t the place for a Mercedes. Oh well.

While my laundry life was in turmoil, so many other wonderful things were going on around me. At this time of year when we are about to celebrate Chanukah and Thanksgiving, I stopped to realize all there is to be grate-ful for. When my kids were kvetching that their drawers

were empty, I turned to family for some help. When you can count on your family for help and they can count on you, it makes a world of difference. I schlepped (may-be the salesman’s Yiddish rubbed off on me) fi ve loads of laundry to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s house. The kids were thrilled to play with their cousins, and dinner out altogether at Shnitzel+ was an added bonus!

That night, our clothes were clean, and I smiled. There was a sense of relief. This was one of those sim-ple things in life that we sometimes take for granted. Our lives depend on the here and now—instant gratifi -cation. We don’t always need patience because so many things in life are immediate. I told my kids about the “olden days,” when people would wash their clothes in the river. I wish I could have bottled the laughter that ensued. We talked about how we are so lucky for all the helpful things around us. But then we talked about how we should handle moments when things don’t go our way. And we discussed how thankful we are for family. I love these teachable moments!

I am happy to say, after doing some research, (my husband’s idea, not mine; I just wanted a machine right away), we chose a new machine from Yudin’s Applianc-es. They removed the old machines and hooked up the new one. The joy of clean clothes! Hopefully, I won’t have to air any more of our dirty laundry in public again.

Tova Knecht is a 2nd grade general studies teacher and Kindergarten computer teacher at The Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey. She spends her summers as Head Counselor for Camp 613 Girls. To arrange for Rain-bow Loom or other craft events, Tova can be reached at [email protected].

Tempest in a Coffee PotBy Viva Sara Press, Israel 21c

Mainstream news will lead you to believe some-thing diplomatic or political is the talk of the

day in Israel. But for most Israelis the big news right now is whether a new cheap coffee chain that recent-ly opened in the heart of Tel Aviv will spark a coffee revolution and bring down the prices at cafés around the country.

Entrepreneur Avi Katz—the guy who brought the “dollar store” concept to Israel—is leading the lat-est coffee revolution. His team opened Cofi x, a take-away only café on one of the busiest thoroughfares in Tel Aviv. Everything on the Hebrew-English menu is fi ve shekels (about $1.40): quality Italian coffee, cap-puccino, sandwiches, bakery goods, fresh juice and desserts. A cup of coffee at a café in Israel usually runs $2.80-$5 while a sandwich costs $7-$11.

Within hours of this audacious venture open-ing, people were queuing out the door and down the block. The long lines continued for the next three days and Aroma, Israel’s biggest café chain, has al-ready announced that it will lower the price of cap-puccino to NIS 8.

“There’s no way I could have known this would happen,” Katz, the founder and president of the crowdsourcing investments Hagshama Fund, told IS-RAEL21c. “Even someone as optimistic as me couldn’t have known this would take place.”

The idea for the new café chain has been brew-ing in Katz’s mind for 12 years. The veteran business-man told ISRAEL21c that he will always remember the day he pulled his “new Mercedes into a gas sta-tion and went to buy coffee and a snack at the service stop. Paying over $14 for two coffees and baked goods hurts, even for someone with a new Mercedes.”

Katz—along with his daughter, Hagit Shinover; his partner in Hagshama, Benny Farkash; and attor-ney Hanan Shemesh—opened the fi rst branch of Cofi x on Ibn Gvirol Street and plan to keep it un-der their ownership for the fi rst few years. Katz says they plan to open more branches in Tel Aviv’s down-

CONTINUED ON P. 41

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FOOD AND HOME

Will ShopRite Listen to Requests for More Kosher?From Kosher Today, with permission

Springfi eld, NJ—The Shop-Rite chain is considered to

be one of the leading supermar-ket chains in the country when it comes to kosher. Its “Kosher Experience” was a trailblaz-er in the supermarket world. A neighboring store in Living-ston includes plenty of kosher products on the shelves and in freezers and refrigerators. Yet ac-cording to the New Jersey Jewish News, observant Jews in Spring-fi eld are engaged in a letter-writ-ing campaign urging ShopRite to expand its kosher offerings at a new store scheduled to open in Union next year.

The petitioners, led by a con-gregant at Springfi eld’s Ortho-dox Congregation Israel, are asking ShopRite to include a Ko-sher Experience, an expanded kosher aisle and butcher shop found at ShopRite stores in Liv-ingston and West Orange. So far, says the NJJN, ShopRite has said that no kosher butcher shop is

planned in the Union store, al-though it will feature “extended kosher offering[s].”

Organizers of the letter-writ-ing drive say they are satisfi ed with the response, although they wouldn’t mind if the com-pany reconsidered. Letter-writ-ing has long been an effective weapon of choice in many com-munities. Supermarket offi cials say that they take such cam-paigns very seriously in every food category, but take particu-lar notice when it is kosher.

T he new ShopRite is sched-uled to open on Route 22 at Springfi eld Road in Union, in a space formerly occupied by

Pathmark, in late March or ear-ly April 2014.

High Quality Glatt Kosher Returns to PM

Mendom, MN—It has been 10 years since the PM Beef

plant here produced glatt ko-sher beef, although it has pro-duced products for Hebrew Na-tional under the certifi cation of Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag of the Tri-angle K. The highly regarded slaughterhouse is known for its high feed standards and hence, quality beef, that some in the in-dustry say is on par or superior to beef produced in Aurora, IL, mostly for Alle Processing. In an agreement reached with AD Rosenblatt of Dallas, the plant will open its special glatt kosher producing rooms to once again resume the production of the coveted beef.

The beef will be marketed under the Yaakov’s brand name. Yaakov is the great grandson of Avrohom Dovid Rosenblatt, a Hasidic Jew who founded the company in 1910 that now bears his name. It will feature the certi-

fi cations of the Orthodox Union, the CRC and a still to be named Hasidic rabbi. AD Rosenblatt is a producer of quality meat prod-ucts with slaughterhouses in Elkhorn Valley, Wichita and beef and veal in Wisconsin.

Mehadrin Enters Greek Yogurt Frey

Brooklyn—For the second year in a row, the Mehadrin

booth at Kosherfest featured a huge banner announcing the company’s introduction of new Cholov Yisroel yogurt, only this time it really did launch the product. Last year, competitor Norman’s (Dairy Delight of Ru-therford, NJ) did launch a line of Greek yogurt and seemed to in-stantly capture the Cholov Yis-roel market for Greek yogurt. Their yogurt won the best new dairy item at Kosherfest 2012.

With the introduction of the Mehadrin Greek Yogurt, sourc-es told Kosher Today that a “new war” has ensued for shelf space. While Norman’s dropped its retail price to $1.49 to cele-brate its anniversary, Mehad-

rin matched the price with its newly launched yogurt. Mehad-rin, the leader in Cholov Yisroel products, is hoping to become dominant in Greek yogurt as well, although Norman’s is said to continue to have strong sales. Norman’s is the only Cholov Yisroel manufacturer that has its own manufacturing plant, which the company says is eas-ier to supervise from a kashrus point of view and that it can “strain the yogurt to its specifi -cations. ” To go one up on Me-hadrin at Kosherfest, Norman’s launched a Greek Yogurt Lite product with only 100 calories.

town area in the coming months. “After we check the market and pay the price of experience, we’ll franchise out,” he told ISRAEL21c. Cofi x’s long-term development plans cite opening 300 branches around the country.

The café market in Israel is brimming. According to a 2009 re-port by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, there were over 1,300 cafés peppered throughout Israel and some 120 in Tel Aviv. Cofi x is meant to sharpen the dis-tinction between the takeaway café scene and the sit-down cof-

fee-shop market, which Katz says has been blurred.

“It’s not about what other café owners are feeling [in response to Cofi x’s opening], but rather what they’ll do,” says Katz. “There’s no reason that kiosks don’t sell cof-fee at our price. This is a realistic price. It still enables us to make a nice profi t. Our motto is to sell more for less, not to sell a little at a high price.”

The same day that Cofi x opened, in fact, two other café chains advertised $1.40 cappucci-nos, albeit for a limited time offer.

Cofi x is not strictly a social venture, Katz is very upfront about wanting to make a prof-it. However, the new kosher café chain does answer to the public’s desire for fair prices.

It makes sense why he would be the one to lead the coffee rev-olution. Eighteen years ago, Katz founded the Bee Retail Group, Israel’s largest group of retail chains for home and leisure mer-chandise. He is the guy who in-troduced the Kfar Hashashuim toy store chain to Israel and of-fered more affordable prices. He also introduced the Doctor Baby chain, a store selling reasonably priced baby paraphernalia. And, of course, the dollar store enter-prise was his, too.

“There’s always a social pur-pose to what I do,” Katz told IS-RAEL21c. “The public’s feeling that the cost of living has risen unjustly is correct. People want to see a change in food pric-es. Prices have fallen in fashion, computers, phones. There is no reason to pay $4 for fresh car-rot juice that is made from bro-ken carrots grocers can’t sell an-yway.”

Katz said that Cofi x is meant to perk up the takeaway sector but that it could—and should—also improve sit-down café op-tions. C offee shops, said Katz, “should return to what they real-ly are. Until fi ve years ago there was a difference between what you could get in a sit-down café and fare served at a takeaway place. The owner of a sit-down café has to charge for what they offer: service, a proper meal and distinctive ambiance. I feel the menu will have to change.”

the mixture has thickened and reduced by about 40%, remove from heat. Allow it to cool, then stir in the Ro-mano cheese.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add 1 tsp salt. Blend in the cooled squash mix-ture. Using a fork, blend in one cup of the fl our. Grad-ually add more fl our, until a tacky dough begins to form. Transfer the mixture to a fl oured surface and knead in more fl our until the dough becomes smooth and elas-tic. Knead for an additional fi ve minutes. Wrap in plas-tic wrap and set aside for at least 40 minutes and up to three hours. If you make the pasta the day before, re-frigerate overnight and al-low the dough to sit at room temperature for an hour and-a-half to two hours be-fore rolling it out.

Wipe out the skillet used for the squash and heat the olive oil. Add the shallots and sauté until soft. Add the wine or some vegeta-ble stock to the pan, and, af-ter the steam lifts, add the garlic. The garlic will sof-ten quickly. Add 2 T butter, sage and thyme. Gradually, add the remaining vegeta-ble stock, allowing it to re-duce as you go. Since vege-table stock has no collagen, adding 1 tsp of corn starch

dissolved in a little water will help thicken the sauce. Reduce the stock, adding the remaining butter, nut-meg and cayenne as you stir. When the reduction begins to coat the back of a spoon, it has reached the right con-sistency. Adjust the season-ings. Set the pan aside.

Divide the dough into two sections. Using the heel of your hand, fl atten each section into a ½ inch oval. Feed the dough through the pasta machine from widest setting of 7 down to level 3. Repeat with the second disk. On a fl oured surface, cut the sheets in half and then into ¾ to 1-inch wide ribbons.

Bring a large pot of salt-ed water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, heat the sauce and stir in the baby spinach. The spinach will cook down very quick-ly. Reduce heat to lowest set-ting.

Gently add the pap-pardelle to the boiling wa-ter. It will cook quickly. Test a piece after 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and im-mediately add to the pan of sauce and spinach. Shut off heat source. Gently stir to coat the pasta. Distribute the goat cheese on top, sprinkle with almonds and then the chives. Serve and enjoy!

Serves six.

Butt ernut Squash Pappardelle


Tempest in a Coff ee Pot CONTINUED FROM P. 40


DIRSHU SHABBOS KINNUS OLAM HATORAH

Coming Together to Honor the TorahBy N. Aaron Troodler

One of the hallmarks of Judaism is the unique attachment that each Jew

shares with one another. We may come from diverse backgrounds, different lo-cations and divergent paths in life, yet there is a common factor that ties us to-gether and connects us in an extraordi-nary and unparalleled fashion. Limud Ha-Torah creates a bond between Jews that is the common denominator, irrespec-tive of all other factors. A love of Torah and a deep understanding and appreci-ation of Torah is the foundation upon which Judaism is built.

That love of Torah was on full display this past weekend as nearly 1,000 men, women and children gathered at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey, for Dirshu’s Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah.

This special sold-out event drew peo-ple from around the world and from across the United States. In addition to the large contingent from the great-er New York and New Jersey area, there were participants from Eretz Yisrael, Eng-land, Canada, Los Angeles, Atlanta, De-troit and Cleveland. People came from far and wide to take part in this momen-tous and magical event.

Dirshu is an organization that has tru-ly revolutionized Limud HaTorah in the 21st century. Dirshu encourages Torah

study in a wide variety of subject mat-ters, with a particular emphasis on re-view and retention of the material that is learned. Through the use of an innova-tive and unique model, Dirshu provides participants with a schedule of learn-ing, which is followed by the adminis-tration of regular exams on the material. Currently, there are tens of thousands of people throughout the world who study Torah as part of the Dirshu program and participate in the tests that are given in conjunction with the program.

The Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah, which was organized under the skilled leadership and guidance of Rabbi Ahron Gobioff, Dirshu’s North American Direc-tor, featured an impressive array of Ged-olei Torah and Lomdei Torah, who thor-oughly enjoyed spending time with one another and basking in the glow of the Limud HaTorah that permeated the ho-tel.

The underlying theme of the week-end was achdus, ruchnius and aliyah la’Torah. Each of the distinguished speak-ers and maggidei shiur that addressed the crowd expounded on those ideas for the benefi t of everyone in attendance and spoke about the critical importance of Kavod HaTorah.

HaGaon HaRav Reuven Feinstein, sh-lita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Staten Is-land, gave a major address on Erev Shab-bos. As the crowd listened intently to this

great Gadol HaDor, Rav Feinstein con-veyed to them a message that was well received and well understood.

Learning is something that you bring home with you, said Rav Feinstein. Limud HaTorah is something that you have to incorporate into your daily lives and make an integral part of your every-day lives.

Because of the large crowd that partic-ipated in Dirshu’s Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah, a massive heated tent was set up outdoors to serve as the shul. The dav-ening there was nothing short of spectac-ular. World renowned singer Reb Isaac Honig and his singers from the Shira Choir greatly enhanced the tefi llos and zemiros throughout Shabbos, beginning with Kabbalos Shabbos on Friday night.

HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin,shlita, Rosh Yeshiva, Telz Cleveland and Mesivta of Lakewood, gave a stirring speech on Friday night that centered on the idea that true avdus— service of Hashem—is achieved when one uses all of his potential. That is what Dirshu is all about, said Rav Sorotzkin. It is a program that encourages and enables people to fully maximize their potential. L’Avdo—to serve Hashem—means to learn To-rah and to daven. Rav Sorotzkin also dis-cussed some of the current events in Israel and stressed the importance of be-ing mispallel for the people in Eretz Yis-rael.

One of the more beautiful features of the Dirshu Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTo-rah was the presence of so many families who came to participate in the event and the special emphasis that was placed on the critical role that the spouses of the Dirshu participants play in the Limud Ha-Torah of their husbands.

The vital role that the women play in the Torah growth of their spouses and families was discussed by a number of the speakers, including HaGaon Har-av Yehoshua Fuhrer, shlita, Mara D’asra of Bobov in Toronto, who discussed the important partnership between the hus-band and wife that exists when one par-ticipates in Dirshu’s learning program.

In addition to the many programs over Shabbos that were offered for wom-en by wonderful female speakers such as Mrs. Chany Feldbrand, Mrs. Chani Ju-ravel and Rebbetzin Dina Fink, there was one address in particular that stood out for many as the most spiritually uplift-ing and emotional aspects of the entire weekend.

On Friday night, Mrs. Weisz addressed the crowd. She gave a heartfelt account about her husband, Reb Avrohom Weisz, who takes part in the Dirshu learning programs. Reb Avrohom suffers from ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig Disease. As a result, the only muscles in his body that he is able to move and con-trol are his eyes. Using a computer and



controlled eye movements, Reb Avro-hom Weisz takes the Dirshu tests, tak-ing well over 14 hours to complete each test because of the painstakingly slow process that he has to undertake in order to complete this task. His wife told the crowd about the time when her husband was nearing the end of the test when the electricity went out and the computer he was using shut down. As a sign of his deep devotion to Dirshu and his determi-nation to take the test, Reb Avrohom pro-ceeded to begin the test again from the beginning when the lights came back on. As the crowd listened to this brave wom-an recount her husband’s story, there was not a dry eye in the room.

Another powerful story was told about Reb Avrohom Weisz and his con-nection to Dirshu. Following a major sur-gical procedure, he fell into a coma. Eve-ryone—the medical professionals and his family—kept talking to him and hop-ing and praying that he would wake up. The passionate pleas of his wife and chil-dren failed to rouse him from the coma. It was only when one of his non-Jewish caregivers yelled “Abraham—Dirshu!” that Reb Avrohom Weisz came out of his coma.

Watching Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shli-ta, the Nasi of Dirshu, grab hold of Reb Avrohom Weisz’s wheelchair during the Melave Malka on Motzai Shabbos and dance with him was a sight that none of us will ever forget.

The focus on Kavod HaTorah was on full display during the entire Shabbos.The Bais Medrash was open 24 hours a

day and it was always being used by peo-ple who were learning.

At 7:10 on Shabbos morning, Rav Dovid Hofstedter gave a shiur in Daf Yomi. Yet even earlier, the hotel lobby was fi lled with people with a sefer in hand. De-spite getting to sleep very late the night before as a result of all the Friday night programming, people did not miss an op-portunity to learn a bit more, and awake early to hear an extra shiur.

The words of Torah and Mussar from the mouths of great Gedolei Torah and Talmidei Chachamim were enjoyed all throughout Shabbos.

HaGaon Harav Chaim Cohen, shli-ta, Rav D’Chasidei Gur D’Flatbush, not-ed that learning in and of itself is a great thing. However, when you begin review-ing the material in a substantive way in order to prepare yourself for a test, as is done in the Dirshu program, that is a tre-mendous thing.

HaGaon Harav Yeruchem Olshin, sh-lita, Rosh HaYeshiva Bais Medrash Govo-ha, spoke at Shalosh Seudos about how Dirshu uplifts people as they strive to achieve great heights and high levels in their learning. There is a constant yearn-ing to go further and further and to keep making progress in one’s learning. Har-av Olshin noted that he sees fi rst-hand the positive impact that Dirshu has by watching the incredible growth of his Talmidim in Lakewood who participate in the Dirshu learning program.

HaGaon Harav Shmuel Yaakov Beren-stein, shlita, who came from Eretz Yisraelto participate in Dirshu’s Shabbos Kinnus

Olam HaTorah, spoke about the positive attributes of Dirshu’s unique program of daily learning in Halacha.

After he was given an enthusiastic in-troduction at Shalosh Seudos by HaGaon HaRav Zev Smith, shlita, Maggid Shiur Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and Irgun Shiurei Torah, who served as the Master of Cere-monies, Rav Dovid Hofstedter picked up on the endorsements of the Gedolei Yisra-el for Dirshu’s daily limud of Halacha and discussed the program in greater detail. Reb Dovid talked about the importance of incorporating practical Halacha into our daily lives and the special feeling of being part of Mishpachas Dirshu.

A number of other prominent Ged-olei Torah participated in Dirshu’s Shab-bos Kinnus Olam HaTorah as well, in-cluding HaGaon HaRav Yechiel Mechel Steinmetz, shlita, Dayan, Khal Toldos Ya-kov Yosef of Skver; HaGaon Harav Moshe Mordechai Lowy, shlita, Mara D’Asra of the Agudas Yisroel of Toronto; Rav Eliez-er Ralbag, shlita, Rav D’Kehilla Lake-wood Courtyard; HaGaon Harav Shlo-mo Zafrani, shlita, Rosh HaKollel Khal Bnei Torah; Harav Avrohom Reit, shli-ta, Maggid Shiur Daf HaYomi B’Halacha; HaGaon Harav Dovid Yitzchok Shapiro, Rosh Yeshiva Be’er Yaakov; Harav Ephray-im Greenbaum, shlita, Rosh HaKollel D’Shikun Skver; Harav Moshe Pruzansky, shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Chemdas HaTorah; Harav Shmuel Shmelka Schwartz, shlita, Rav Dkhal Shefa Chaim D’Klausenberg, Lakewood; and Harav Chaim Krause, sh-lita, Maggid Shiur Daf HaYomi B’Halacha.

The elongated Shalosh Seudos pro-

gram was truly a sight to behold. After the z’man, the entire program, including the speeches and the music, was broad-cast live on the Nachum Segal Network and on Kol Haneshama Radio for the en-tire community to enjoy and take part of.

After hearing words of Torah and Chi-zuk from the impressive collection of Gedolei Torah, Reb Isaac Honig and the Shira Choir treated the crowd to great music and tremendous ruach. The men all got up and danced with great exuber-ance as if they were at the chasunah of their own child. The scene in the ball-room as the men danced and shared in their collective simcha was a microcosm of the entire Shabbos. Everyone joined arms and danced with one another. It did not matter one iota that this person was Chassidish, this man was Litvish, or this guy was Yeshivish. Everyone in attend-ance was part of the Dirshu family and the unity and excitement that they felt as they danced together was evident to all who were present.

It was quite apparent to me that the common denominator for the Dirshu Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah was Ach-dus and Kavod HaTorah. It was incredible to see the tremendous unity that was ap-parent in every aspect of the event. It was an Achdus that is established by people who are all involved in the same thing, namely, Limud HaTorah and Kavod HaTo-rah. It was clear to me that when you are part of Dirshu, you are not only part of a movement or an organization. When you are part of Dirshu, you are part of one big Torah family.



“Ki Heim Chayeinu – Torah is Our Life! Torah Keeps Us Alive!”By Esther Rubin

The invitation was appealing, it beck-oned us to attend the Dirshu Shabbos

Kinnus Olam HaTorah—a Shabbos that promised to rejuvenate both my hus-band and I physically and spiritually. Yet, I was hesitant. Being somewhat more of a shy personality, I could not imagine fi nding common ground with any of the other women who would be in attend-ance. It did not even occur to me that I would fi nd myself among sisters in arms, among women who were living similar lives to mine, busy lives with nary a mo-ment to spare, but lives that were ful-fi lled by one unifying factor: that all of our husbands were lomdei Dirshu!

Now, I am sitting here reliving the Shabbos, wanting to grasp onto the in-spiration and hold onto it forever!“Ki heim chayeinu – Torah is our life! Torah keeps us alive!” This was the heartfelt message that resonated from the heart and soul of a woman who lives daily with the physical manifestation of a hus-band whose every second of life is an-other second of Torah; whose husband is imprisoned by a body that no longer

functions other than the muscles of his eyes through which he learns and con-veys his love of learning; whose husband can derive no possible pleasure from this world, his physical body being kept alive with life support, feeding tubes and con-stant medical care, and yet whose life still had meaning and who still had rea-son to want to live!

Nine years ago, Rav Avrohom Dovid Weisz was diagnosed with the dreaded illness known as ALS [Lou Gehrig’s Dis-ease], a disease that slowly robs a per-son of all bodily functions, imprison-ing the brain in a body that won’t obey it. The heart continues to beat, the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the brain to com-prehend, but the rest of the body slow-ly shuts down. The stricken person is left with only his eyes to communicate. When the Weiszes heard the diagnosis, they were devastated, but they were de-termined.

“We chose life – ‘Ki heim chayeinu’.” Mrs. Weisz exclaimed, “Can this be more crystal clear than in our situation? ‘U’vahem nehgeh yomam va’laylah and in them [Torah] we toil day and night’,we were in the dark, the darkness of ill-

ness, yet we still had the Torah, the main-stay of our existence—reason enough to want to live!”

Indeed, over the course of these nine years, Rav Weisz and his wife have fought for his right to live, fought like li-ons for his right to do the one thing that he holds most dear —to learn Torah! De-spite everything, despite all of the medi-cal doomsayers, his life has been revived, time after time after time and each time, they joyously praise Hashem for grant-ing him additional time on this world to learn.

Mrs. Rachel Weisz’s uplifting words to the women after the Friday night seu-dah at the Dirshu Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah electrifi ed the entire audience, leaving not a dry eye among the crowd. Even more than the emotions that were running high was the feeling that indeed Torah is life, Torah is our life. The feeling came across loud and clear: The Torah of our husbands who are maximizing their time by learning, whose Torah learning we are supporting, their Torah is our To-rah; it is our crowning glory.

“Sheli V’Shelachem Shelah!”“At one point,” Mrs. Elbaz, a work-

ing wife and mother whose husband de-votes every spare moment of his time to his learning with Dirshu explained, “I just felt that I couldn’t continue. It had been a very diffi cult day. I came home from work exhausted, my colicky baby had not let me put her down… I sat down and said, ‘I just can’t’. My husband promptly closed his Gemara and with a deep sad-ness in his eyes, but a surety in his move-ments, he replied, ‘O.K. I will stop.’ As I watched, he then began turning pages in his Gemara, one page, another page, an-other… He then grasped the entire pile of pages (which has grown exponentially by now) and paraphrased the words of Rabi Akiva, “Sheli v’shelachem shelah —These pages of Gemara that I have learned until now are yours!”

“That was a turning point. I insisted that he continue learning with Dirshu and yes, although life has gotten increas-ingly busy, I have never turned back. The greatest reward that I feel is when he comes home in a celebratory mood, ex-claiming, ‘Mazal Tov! I fi nished anoth-er perek!’ When I congratulate him, he looks me in the eye and congratulates me—on having fi nished another perek!”



Chizuk for the Neshama; Relaxation for the Guf

The Dirshu Shabbos Kinnus Olam HaTorah offered a rare opportunity for the wives of Dirshu members, many of whom are busy wives and mothers with very limited time for either physical or spiritual rejuvenation, the opportunity to enjoy a Shabbos with all the physical amenities for a peaceful, relaxing Shab-bos combined with a potpourri of speak-ers who offered chizuk for the neshamah.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Tests!In addition to the speech of Mrs.

Weisz on Friday night, Rebbetzin Dina Fink, captivated the women with her message of how pivotal a woman’s role is in preserving the treasure of Yiddishkeit for her family. Her personal examples and divrei Torah to elucidate her point brought home the fact that although cer-tainly it is much easier to feel spiritual-ly connected to Torah and Yiddishkeit by engaging in spiritual pursuits, dealing with the mundane activities of caring for a house and children and encourag-ing husbands and sons to learn Torah is no less of a spiritual pursuit. She quoted Rav Dessler’s explanation of the words in Eishes Chayil, ‘Vatischak l’yom acha-ron—and she will laugh at the last day.’ Rav Dessler explains that laughter gener-ally comes after a surprise. What surprise is this referring to? When the end of days comes and the wife will see the reward

she earned for every peanut butter sand-wich, she will burst into laughter!”

Throughout the Dirshu Shabbos Kin-nus Olam HaTorah there were countless opportunities for the wives of all the lom-dei Dirshu to share with each other the many stories of how they partner with their husbands to enable them to learn; of the joys and the diffi culties of trying to raise their ‘peanut butter sandwiches’ from the mundane realm to the spiritu-al realm. The knowledge that there are so many other women out there who share their goals, diffi culties and aspirations, was enough of a spiritual booster shot to help them forge ahead.

Accepting Our Nisyonos and Elevating Ourselves to a Spiritual Plateau

Mrs. Chani Feldbrand explored the topic of how nisyonos are a springboard for growth and how each and every per-son’s nisayon is tailor made for that per-son. “Isn’t it beautiful to think that Haka-dosh Boruch Hu looks at each person as an individual and creates the specifi c package that she needs to grow?!”

She continued by explaining that what exactly the ten nisyonos of Avrohom Avinu were a subject of debate. The Ram-bam does not count Uhr Kasdim and rec-ognizing Hashem among the nisyonos. Rav Yitzchok Kirzhner, zt”l, clarifi es that if the person being tested understands what is being demanded from him, it is not considered a nisayon! Avrohom Avinu

recognized that everything else was hevel havalim. Therefore recognizing Hashem could not constitute a nisayon!”

We all have nisyonos, but if we re-member that they are a matana from Hashem and if we try to understand the message Hashem is sending us, it will ele-vate us and our families to a higher, spir-itual plateau.

A Foolproof Method: Bring Hashem With You Wherever You Go

In addition to the many inspiring speeches by Mrs. Chani Juravel, Rebbet-zin Dina Fink and Mrs. Chani Feldbrand throughout the Shabbos, there was a wonderful Chinuch panel on motzoei Shabbos chaired by these star mechan-chos. The questions, pulled from the au-dience, covered such topics as sibling rivalry, controlling one’s anger, relation-ships and the like, to questions of help-ing our children maintain tzniyus stand-ards.

Mrs. Chani Juravel told a story of a friend of hers whom she always admired as being both tzniyusdig and appropri-ately dressed. “When I asked her how she managed to successfully fi nd the per-fect clothing for herself and her daugh-ters, she laughed and divulged her secret. ‘When we enter the car on our way to the store, we each take out our Sifrei Tehillim and daven—‘Hashem, we want to dress in a way pleasing to You, please help us fi nd the right clothes at the right prices!’

This method has never failed us!” Mrs. Ju-ravel concluded, “Bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu with you wherever you are, whatever you are doing!” she urged, “That method can never fail!”

It was very late on motzoei Shabbos. The son of Rav Avrohom Dovid Weiss came to Rav Dovid Hofstedter and gave him the letter contained below saying, ‘My father was very tired after the whole Shabbos, but he wouldn’t go to sleep un-til he sat down and wrote this letter, a let-ter that took him two hours to write!”

To Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita,Ah gutteh, freilichen voch.It is impossible to describe the pleas-

ure that I, my wife and children had on Shabbos Parshas Ki Seitzei, 5754. It was a pleasure of both ruchniyus and gashmi-yus. Yasher koach for the Shabbos and for the tests that were the catalyst for me to spend so many hours learning and [giv-ing me the ability] to clarify many areas [of Torah]. May Hashem bentsch you and your rebbetzin to see much nachas from your children and from lomdei Dirshu. In truth, it would be appropriate for me to detail at length my tremendous pleasure and the great chizuk that I received from the Shabbos, but it is diffi cult for me to write… but my heart says a tremendous amount.

With love and hakoras hatov,Avrohom Dovid ben Sara Bluma

Weisz and family.


FOOD AND HOME

Calorie-Free Pasta and Much, Much More At Kosherfest 2013By Banji Latkin Ganchrow

Secaucus—There are not that many plac-

es where you can see the world’s largest chicken

nugget, sample kosher “ham,” and bite into a halachically permissible cheese-burger while drinking kosher spirits from various regions of the world. Wel-come to Kosherfest. Celebrating its 25th

anniversary, Kosherfest brings together tried and true kosher products and new exciting innovations in kosher cuisine. Members of the food industry, including restaurant owners, nursing home chefs and other assorted individuals fl ock to this event to sample the latest wares.

Many of the companies at Kosher-fest have taken on a “healthy” mentali-ty. Lucky Union Foods are now making a line of deli meats made entirely out of fi sh. I also discovered “Miracle Noodle,” the zero calorie noodle and rice. Made from 97% water and 3% glucomannan, the consistency was quite different, yet

not totally offensive. Jill Goldstein, one of the members of the Miracle Noodle fam-ily, even shared with me that her prod-uct has been on Dr. Oz. Calorie-free pasta is quite the invention. Though, the “best new pasta, rice, beans or soup” award, given from the event, went to Mikee Mac Non-Dairy Macaroni & Cheese dinner.

GIT USA, Inc. are the makers of a se-ries of gluten and allergen free cereals and snacks. The taste was reminiscent of Passover fruity o’s, but, as Sally Manga-no, the company’s rep shared with me “if you have a child or adult with allergies, we tried to make the tastiest product we could.” Mauzone Mania was another company excited to display its healthier line of products including “Matt’s Mun-chies,” a kosher pareve fruit snack for kids (and I am assuming adults), which contain an entire serving of fruit at only 35 calories a package.

They also displayed a line of vege-tarian gyro and sausages and vegan pea-nut butter. Taste of Crete, whose motto is “Simple. Healthy, Greek,” had a delight-

ful display of cholesterol free, egg and dairy free, vegan Greek cookies. If pop-corn is your thing, Ben Berlin of Hadar Kosher Foods was displaying American Farmer Kettle Korn, a delicious, pareve snack that comes in regular and skinny-lite. A distributor of the product, Berlin said that owner of American Farmer is a nice Jewish guy who wanted to make his product available to the kosher market and it’s nut free.

Healthy shmealthy, Fallsburg Bagels, owned by Yochonon Klitnick, sells fro-zen, plain donuts with toppings that you can put on yourself. Delicious. Da-vid’s Cookies, known for their dairy cook-ies, now makes a line of pareve cookies that taste just as good, as well as heavenly muffi ns. Sterns Bakery sells “pastry-to-go,” delicious goodies in individual wrappers. Beigel’s Bakery, a “tried and true” product, according to owner Joseph Folger, had an assortment of giant black and white cookies and other homemade-like baked goods. The possibilities were endless.

And then there was the meat. Turkey

bacon, sausages, deli, hot dogs, pareve cheese to go on hamburgers. The compa-nies know there is a market for kosher “non-kosher like” products and they are jumping all over it. According to consum-er Avery Hoffman, who was attending Kosherfest with some friends, “I was pret-ty excited to try foods I never thought I would be able to eat.” That seemed to be the consensus amongst attendees. I, per-sonally, am a bigger fan of dairy products, and fell in love with the Pizza Cone. The cone is made out of a crust-like cracker, fi lled with vegetables, sauce and cheese, served piping hot. Perfection.

Passover was not overlooked, espe-cially by company Heaven and Health, which makes a whole line of kosher for Passover pasta products.

Banji Latkin Ganchrow is a Teaneck resident and writer who enjoys traveling across the country by car with her husband and three sons. She is also the au-thor of the blog holycrapimgonnabe40 and hopes to, one day, write a best-selling novel and appear on the Ellen Show.

Finding Fort LeeBy Karen Seliger

Leaving the city is not easy, especial-

ly just as everything else in your life is changing… but with our fi rst baby on the

way our “future” demanded a responsi-ble plan and all young Manhattanites know that responsible planning at the home-buying stage usually means say-ing goodbye to the Upper West Side. Like many city-lovers, if we could have afforded it, we would have stayed. But the high prices and small spaces in Manhattan leave few, if any, options for those looking to buy their fi rst home.

But where to go to fi nd space, Jew-ish life and proximity to the city? Well, we fi rst looked in Brooklyn. But let’s face it, Brooklyn is no longer the city’s affordable, quirky sibling. All the good neighborhoods are as expensive or more than those in the city.

So we next turned our gaze north-ward, a few miles up the Hudson. We spent a few joyful fall Sundays roaming around Dobbs Ferry, which is a charm-ing little town with an equally charm-ing Orthodox shul. However, as pret-ty as it is, the housing choices within our budget were not as robust. So, in the end, we decided to pursue a mid-dle ground with more housing inven-tory and a shorter distance to the city. Hello, Bergen County.

We had plans to see other neigh-borhoods due west of the GWB, but the fi rst place we stopped—the place closest to the city—was Fort Lee. We had heard that there were a couple of Orthodox shuls in Fort Lee and that it was a viable option for those looking to downsize from Teaneck and move closer to the city. But we were on the opposite end of the curve. We need-

ed space; a place to feather and grow the nest, not empty it. We nonetheless decided to explore the Young Israel and Chabad Shul communities in Fort Lee and we were pleasantly surprised by the warmth and vibrancy that we found there.

In the end, we chose to buy a con-do at the south end of the Eruv, with a view of the Hudson, our precious NYC and the GW Bridge. On the investment side, our building is extremely well managed. The fi nancials are impecca-ble; the capital improvements are in-telligently planned and executed. And in the last year, the value of property has increased tremendously. We knew when buying our two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo that, should we want to leave at any point, we could rent out our condo and not only cover all our costs but put an extra few dollars in our pocket as well.

Our building, which sits on the Cliffside Park side of the border line between the two towns, is in close proximity to the Chabad Shul (just a few blocks walk). The Jewish commu-nity on this south-end of Fort Lee is a diverse one. Young and old, fami-lies just starting out and “downsizers” alike, the community is consistently growing. The shul hosts a seated lunch every Shabbos and a Mommy and Me playgroup every Wednesday morn-ing (part of the thriving PreSchool which will be a boon once our son is old enough). The express bus out-side our front door on Palisades Ave gets my husband to work quickly and with minimal outdoor waiting time, while in the summer he can hop the ferry and is in midtown in minutes. With the easy access to all of the Ber-gen County Jewish amenities and ser-vices, we have found this jump across the water to be much more than we could have ever hoped for.

We still miss NYC, but not in the way we expected. Maybe that’s be-cause we discovered so much in Fort Lee, including the city views through our windows.

Karen Seliger is currently a Sales Associate at V and N Group LLC. She holds a Masters degree in business (MBA) with a concentration in marketing. [email protected]


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Monday Night at the MoviesBy Estelle Glass

Garden State Plaza Mall on lockdown af-ter random shots are fi red

Ironically, we didn’t even want to go

that night. Our fl ight back from Chicago had been delayed and we had just spent a lively but tiring weekend with our chil-dren and grandchildren. On the other hand, the tickets to the movie screen-ing at the Garden State Mall in Paramus were prepaid and the fi lm’s acclaimed di-rector, the most famous guest speaker of the season, was scheduled to discuss his work after the showing. So off we went. We could catch up with our sleep later on.

Keeping my eyes open during the movie was a formidable task but an icy drink and a sugar candy rush helped. Mr. Acclaimed Director was just getting into his spiel about how diffi cult it was to make his fi lm with a low budget, when we fi rst heard it; faintly, very faintly at fi rst; just a low beeping of an alarm ac-companied by some fl ickering of lights on the wall. Disregarding the interrup-tion, the speaker just forged ahead with his anecdotes, speaking more loudly now over a robotic announcement.

“Fire emergency. Everyone exit the theater now. Do not use the elevators. This is a fi re emergency. Everyone exit

the theater now.”The man at the podium looked an-

noyed that his attentive audience was now somewhat distracted. He soldiered on bravely as the moderator kept snap-ping his photo from every angle. Mean-while, the alarm never stopped.

My husband and I turned to each oth-er and then looked around. Was this a real alarm?

A malfunction? Will we look stupid if we make a dash to the door? No one else was standing up to leave. Not one per-son in charge told us what to do. Then slowly, too slowly, some people in the crowd began to gather up their belong-ings and head to the aisles where they congregated in confusion. My husband snapped out of his languor and shout-ed to the group blocking our row, “Get a move on everyone... We have to leave. Now! Let’s go people.” And we pushed our way to the side exit and through to the street.

We were all lucky that night, thank G-d. No one in the mall was hurt. We were able to leave the building before it was locked down. It was only when we rushed out into the night that we saw the unfolding chaos outside, as scores of police cars and ambulances swirled screeching around us.

As I think back about that night I am left with so many unanswerable ques-tions.

Why would a young man want to kill

himself in this way? Why did he have easy access to a weapon? As for the rest of us seated passively in that movie theater, why was it that we were so in-different to the ringing alarm, that we al-most failed to react? It’s true that had we heard shots, we would have all respond-ed immediately. Nevertheless, hundreds of people ignored a very clear warning. Are we so accustomed to fl ashing screens

and ringing phones that we assume the bell is merely tolling for someone else? Or, is it merely human nature to want to believe that bad things happen to otherpeople, or perhaps only in the action up on the silver screen, at a Monday night at the movies?

Estelle Glass a Teaneck resident is a retired educa-tor who is happily writing her own essays

Richard Shoop, Teaneck resident, entered Garden State Plaza with an Ak-47 and, after panicking shoppers and store workers, committed suicide.


AN APPRECIATION

Chana Mlotek, z”l, (1922-2013)From The National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene

Chana Mlotek was an extraordinary woman and Yiddish folklorist who

worked long and hard to bring a vibrant, exciting, Yiddish culture to Jewish life in America. This included keeping The Na-tional Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene in the spotlight as the showcase of that culture in the 21st century.

Née Eleanor Gordon, Chana got her love of Yiddish culture from her father, who sang Yiddish songs from memory, but never wrote them down. She and her husband, Yosl, z”l, a Holocaust survi-

vor and son of a teacher from Poland, im-bued their two sons, Zalmen and Mark, and their children, with a legacy that is fi lled with zest and passion for the multi-layered, international culture of Yiddish and Yiddish theater. They learned early on that Yiddish theater was an integral part of Jewish immigrant life in America before and after the Holocaust, and that it is a wonderful medium that continues to artistically convey messages about Ju-daism and life to modern audiences. As a result, they, too, have devoted them-selves to the cause.

Chana earned her BA at Hunter Col-

lege of the City University of New York. In 1978, on a grant from the National En-dowment for the Humanities, Chana re-turned to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where she had started her ca-reer in 1944 as a secretary and later, assis-tant to its founder, Dr. Max Weinreich. Forty years later, she became YIVO’s mu-sical archivist.

She was the recipient of life achieve-ment awards from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music and the Jewish Theologi-cal Seminary, the Hunter College Hall of Fame, the Workmen’s Circle and the In-ternational Association of Yiddish Clubs.

It all came to pass because of a schol-arship she was awarded in 1948 to attend UCLA. It was there, in a class on Yiddish folklore, that she found an acquaintance she’d met in New York—Yosl Mlotek. Al-ready in love with Yiddish, they fell in love with one other. Yosl was appointed Director of Education at The Workmen’s Circle in New York, where Chana was liv-ing, and in 1949, they married and dedi-cated their lives to bringing Yiddish back to life. Yosl passed in July, 2000.

The Yiddish folklore class that brought them together was the fi rst and only such course at an American univer-sity at the time. Today, more than 20 uni-versities offer Yiddish courses, and many of them expose their students to mu-sic and drama, as well as the basic lan-guage. That did not surprise Chana, who saw Klezmer music as honey that attracts American Jewish youth to music and Ju-daism.

Chana’s legacy of making Yiddish cul-ture part of American Jewish life con-tinues to be realized in the 21st century as more performers, Jewish and not, be-come involved in productions that show-case Yiddish cultural history and con-temporary innovations on themes often taken straight from the material that Chana and her husband collected from every corner of the world.

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HEALTH AND FITNESS

“No More Excuses – Part II: Surrounded By Nosh”By Chemmie Sokolic

Prior to the previous is-sue of JLBC and my

humble rant regarding the lack of communal fo-cus on health and exer-cise, we started to con-

sider the excuses we tell ourselves that prevent us from becoming the people we can indeed become. We discussed hav-ing a lack of time and a lack of support as two reasons why it’s sometimes diffi -cult to reach our health and fi tness goals. This week, I’d like to examine another common excuse, and see if we can’t, in-stead, use it as a tool to help us achieve our objectives.

Pizza day at work? Your co-worker decides to treat the whole offi ce to the leftovers from their weekend birthday party? Your spouse believes that always keeping packets of cookies on hand in the house is vital, just in case there’s

a blackout? Here in the affl uent west, we’re all surrounded by a continual bar-rage of alluring unhealthy indulgences. It’s so easy to make unwise choices, espe-cially when everyone around us makes those same poor choices. So how can we fi ght the tide? How can we muster the self-control and discipline to “choose life”?

First of all, once you’ve made the healthy decision to make healthier deci-sions, and have stocked up on more nu-tritious alternatives, make a clean sweep of your kitchen and pantry (and any-where else you may have a “stash”). All you need to do after that is stop walk-ing down the cookie aisle in the super-market. Does that mean you’ll never eat another cookie or piece of cake again? No, of course not, nor should it be, and we’ll discuss more about that in a sub-sequent issue. For now, however, sim-ply know that it’s far more challenging to make better food choices when famil-

iar temptations continue to be so readi-ly available.

One of the biggest excuses I hear re-garding people’s “questionable” food choices is “there was nothing else to eat,” especially if you’re in unfamiliar sur-roundings. Well, that’s easy enough to change: Think ahead. Always think ahead, always have healthful foods with you, or, at the very least, healthier alternatives to the more deleterious enticements we’re all inevitably faced with from time to time. Don’t wait until you’re hungry be-fore wondering what there is to eat; in-evitably, the only foods that are easily ob-tainable in those pivotal instances are not ideal, to say the least. Instead, plan ahead and prevent the “surprise” of “hav-ing” to have an unhealthy snack. I suggest preparing your meals in advance, several at a time in separate containers that you can grab from the fridge whenever you need them. Before you go out, even if you’re not hungry at that moment, grab

an apple or a handful of nuts for later, just in case there aren’t any healthy alter-natives at your destination.

Finally, learn to say “no”; don’t give in to social or familial pressure. Admit-tedly, we’re all affected by foods differ-ently, so ultimately, you must make the right choices for your own body. For some people, though, sugar and fat can feel just as addictive as drugs, a fact that is sometimes diffi cult to comprehend by those people who don’t share those same intense cravings.

At the end of the day, then, only you can control what goes into your mouth; it is only your own refl ection with which you must contend. Remember, you are stronger than that piece of cake.

Chemmie Sokolic is an ACSM-certifi ed Personal Trainer, and owner of Frum & Fit LLC. Chemmie can be reached at chemmie.sokolic@frumandfi t.com. Visit www.FrumandFit.com or www.Facebook.com/FrumandFit for more information.

SELF-HELP

It’s All About Your POVBy Avi Shteingart

Your perspective on a given situation can

determine if you will be happy or bitter.

Imagine the scenar-io: it’s a warm evening with a light breeze. You’re standing on the beach, watching waves crash on the shore, listening to the roar of the ocean with the stars over-head. I assume you’re feeling relaxed and calm, transported away from the worries of the world.

A client recently described fi nding himself in the following situation, one all of us can relate to. He was driving along the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn at 10 p.m., when traffi c suddenly came to a standstill. He manages to pull over by the shoulder alongside Plum Beach, a beau-

tiful expanse of sand where the Atlan-tic Ocean meets Jamaica Bay. He is run-ning on empty; his cell phone has fi ve percent battery power. As he describes his evening, I’m thinking about all those evenings I drove past that exact spot and how I never stopped to take in the view. We pay hundreds of dollars to fl y to far off places to sit on beautiful beaches and take in such sights, and yet I speed by nightly at 10 mph over the speed limit.

I’m about the suggest how lucky he is, when he says that as he stood on the beach, with hundreds of idling cars be-hind him, his anxiety turns to anger. He questions why he took this route in the fi rst place; he projects how his wife is probably reminding herself how irrespon-sible he is, and he envisions the fi ght they will have when he gets home 4-5 hours late. Ten minutes later, traffi c is moving at

a rapid clip. After processing his feelings with him, I refl ect the initial thoughts that had fl ashed in my head. I explain that he and I took the same situation, and al-lowed it to affect us in radically different ways. In fact, his thoughts increased the tension and anxiety he was already expe-riencing, leading to a progressive cycle of negative thoughts, ending hours later.

Inevitably, we encounter moments daily that are beyond our control. We will get stuck in traffi c at the worst moments; planes will be delayed when we desper-ately need to make that layover; we’ll even fi nd that the milk is sour right after pouring it into our cereal. The question is how we react and respond to these uncer-tain certainties in life. In Alcoholics Anon-ymous there’s a common belief that for true recovery, we need to learn to “live life on life’s terms.” This means accepting our limits in this uncertain world. However, I think that this only allows us to survive life. For those interested in thriving in

life, we need to take it a step further.Watching the different recovering ad-

dicts pass through my offi ce, I have found that those who live on life’s terms and also embrace them can bask in true serenity. They actually relish those moments when we feel blindsided. How do they do that, you may ask? They do so by truly under-standing their limitations. In those mo-ments we most dread, when circumstanc-es are beyond our control, they appreciate what cannot be changed. Our greatest strength is when we can truly recognize this fundamental fact. It can change our lives and deeply alter our relationships.

Avi Shteingart, LMSW CASAC, is a licensed ther-apist and maintains offi ces in Queens and Bergen County. He specializes in substance abuse, gam-bling, and other process and behavior addictions, as well as work with adolescents, young adults and adults struggling with anxiety, depression, social struggles, and transitions. Contact info: [email protected] or 201-410-5883.

PARENTING

The Dilemma: How to Help a BedwetterBy Rivki Chudnoff

Waking up in the middle of the night to the dreaded words, “My bed is wet,”

or fi nding a pile of wet pajamas tucked in a corner on the bathroom fl oor are chal-lenges many families face daily. While bedwetting can be frustrating for the par-ents and the child, understanding this condition can help with its management.

Bedwetting is common and consid-ered normal in children 2-4 years of age. Staying dry consistently every night may not occur until a child is 4-5 years old. En-uresis is the condition when bedwetting continues in children over 5. Most chil-dren will outgrow enuresis with maturi-ty. While 20% of 5 year olds wet their bed, by age 10 it drops to about 5%, with about 1% of children still struggling with enure-

sis at puberty.Why does my child wet their bed?

There are many reasons why bedwetting occurs in older children. It is important to note that is it is not your child’s fault that they wet their bed. One common cause is genetics. Studies indicate that children whose parents or grandparents suffered from enuresis are more likely to wet their beds. Other medical reasons include urinary tract infections, under-developed bladder, overactive bladder, diabetes, and hormone imbalance. It is not uncommon for diabetes to fi rst pre-sent as enuresis. A frequently overlooked cause of enuresis is sleep apnea. In sleep apnea, the child’s sleep is disrupted, and may be the result of enlarged adenoids and tonsils.

While medical causes need to be in-

vestigated, a child’s eating, drinking, and voiding routines during the day may con-tribute to bedwetting at night. Though it may seem counterintuitive, not drink-ing enough during the day can lead to ex-cessive fl uid intake in the evening. This can result in an overly full bladder dur-ing sleep. “Holding it” too long during the day, may also result in bladder leakage at night. Stressful events or changes in the household (like the birth of new sibling or changing schools) may be a trigger for some children.

What can I do about it? Carefully choosing the language and tone used to speak to your child can preserve their self esteem and improve treatment outcomes while working on staying dry. Substi-tute the word “Accident” for a more neu-tral phrase like, “ladder leaking.” Create

a zero tolerance policy for siblings mak-ing fun in the home. Lifestyle modifi ca-tions such as ensuring your child drinks enough during the day and decrease fl uid intake before bed may be helpful. Avoid caffeinated beverages such as soda and teas, as they can cause an increase in urine production. Lastly, make sure your child uses the bathroom immediately prior to bedtime.

When should I seek professional help? If the above strategies don’t result in improvement, or if any of the follow-ing exist, it is time to seek out profession-al help: • Child is older than 5 years • Child experiences leakage during the

day time• Bedwetting is keeping your child from

participating in social opportunities, like sleepovers or trips

CONTINUED ON P. 54


HEALTH AND FITNESS

Avoiding Weight Gain This WinterBy Tanya Rosen

Winter seems to be a time when

many people put on some extra weight. Have you ever consid-ered why that is? Here

are some of the top reasons and what to do about them.

More layers, more room to hide. The bulky sweaters and loose coats give us that fake comfort and temporary ability to feel denial. I always tell my clients to have one summer outfi t easily accessible and to try it on on a regular basis. Aside from serving as a reminder that summer is just a few short months away, it will be an accurate measurement of how your more fi tted (and less layered) wardrobe feels.

Hot comfort drinks. Don’t we all as-

sociate those hot chocolates and creamy lattes with cold winter days? Did you know that these drinks can contain up to 700 calories? Many people falsely as-sume that “liquid calories” don’t count. This is obviously false. Try herbal teas in-stead, or lower calorie versions of your favorite drink. Substitute whole milk for skim, skip the whipped cream, and use cinnamon powder for fl avor, instead of fl avored syrup.

Feeling too lazy to exercise. Many people feel a lot less energetic in the winter months and that is understand-able. The days are shorter, it gets dark sooner, and getting out of the house re-quires bundling up, and even warming up the car. Outdoor exercisers fi nd it more challenging to stick to their rou-tine with the unpredictable weather, and it getting dark so early in the day, giving them less hours of “ideal work-

out conditions.” My suggestion? Ad-just your schedule or routine according-ly. See what works for you. Changing weather and conditions should not de-ter you from your fi tness goals or rou-tine. If you’ve been exercising outdoors, consider joining a gym. If you are more tired at night because it gets dark so ear-ly, consider getting in your workout in the morning instead.

Chanukah parties, offi ce holiday par-ties, Chinese auctions, dinners, and fun-draisers... need I say more? As always, plan ahead. Do not ever starve yourself the day of a function, planning to make up for it later on. Eat regular balanced meals throughout the day, and try drink-ing 2 glasses of water before the event. When you get there, plan what you will have before you fi ll up. Treat a buf-fet style table as a visual menu. It is just there for visual display, and it is up to you

to make choices from it. As always, having professional guid-

ance is one of the best tools you can invest in. Whether it’s a nutritionist helping you plan your menus, or a per-sonal trainer working out with you and measuring your results, having that professional guidance is extremely val-uable.

Remember that summer is right around the corner. With just some plan-ning and willpower, you can avoid weight gain traps this winter.

Tanya Rosen, M.S. CAI CPT is a nutritionist, person-al trainer, aerobics instructor and owner of Shape Fitness, an all women’s fi tness studio in Brooklyn. Tanya is also the creator of the fi rst and only ko-sher workout DVD available for women and for girls through www.shapefi tnessgym.com. For questions or column topic ideas, feel free to email Tanya at [email protected]

What Every Woman Should Know: Folic Acid and Methyl FolateBy Eliezer Gruber

In the last several months, I’ve devot-ed considerable column space and

radio air time to publicizing the need for expectant mothers—indeed, for all married women of child-bearing age as well as soon-to-be married women—to adopt lifestyle behaviors that increase their chances of having a healthy baby. Eating a balanced diet rich in nutri-ents that have been clinically proven to promote optimal fetal development is at the top of that list. Because most women don’t get enough of these vita-mins, minerals and essential fatty acids through the foods they consume, sup-plementation is generally appropriate and necessary.

Folic acid and B12 in particular have received a lot of attention from the sci-entifi c community in recent years.

Folic Acid: What, Why, and WhenFolic acid is the synthetic form of

the B-group vitamin folate, which is vital for a wide range of enzymatic reactions that promote normal fetal growth and development. Important studies have shown that folic acid sig-nifi cantly reduces the risk of a baby be-ing born with neural tube (brain and spinal cord) defects (NTDs), such as spi-na bifi da and anencephaly. Preliminary studies also suggest that folic acid may decrease the risk of other birth defects, including congenital heart defects and cleft lip/ cleft palate, and lower the risk of pre-term delivery.

Since NTDs and certain other de-fects usually occur during the fi rst month of gestation, experts believe it is crucial for women to begin a folic acid regimen even before they are ex-pecting. Along these lines, the Mayo Clinic and others recommend that women start taking folic acid at least one month before pregnancy, while the Hospital for Sick Children recom-mends three months. To decrease the risk of pre-term delivery, some experts recommend starting a year before.

In my own practice, I recommend

that young women begin taking 800 mcg of folic acid in an iron-free mul-tivitamin when they start seminary and continue the regimen through-out their childbearing years. (Since most multi-vitamins contain iron –which should be avoided, except in cases of anemia—Nutri-Supreme has formulated a special iron-free multi-vi-tamin with 800 mcg of folic acid and 200 mcg of B12. According to a Nation-al Institute of Health-sponsored study, children born to women with low B12 have a two to three times greater risk of NTDs.)

Women who have already had a baby with an NTD, are usually advised to take more than the generally recom-mended 600 to 800 mcg of folic acid. But since not all women metabolize fo-lic acid in the same way, it is important to be aware of other exceptions to the general dosage recommendations.

A GPS for the Road to Fetal HealthScientifi c research is now begin-

ning to reveal that gene mutations in the folate metabolism pathway (a se-ries of genes that regulates folic acid metabolism) can affect how well the body processes folic acid. If that bio-logic process is not coordinated prop-erly in the early weeks of gestation, a possible neural tube defect may result in the embryo.

I like to use the example of a GPS to explain this breakdown in the me-tabolism process: If there is a blockage along the road to a destination, even the best GPS instructions won’t help us get there. Similarly, if the folate path-way is compromised, the folic acid can’t get to where it needs to be in or-der to do its job properly.

A common genetic variation that’s been shown to interfere with folic acid metabolism is known as MTHFR C677T. (The C677T designation means that the MTHFR gene mutation was passed down by both parents.). This mutation, which researchers estimate affects ap-proximately 25 to 50 percent of the population, is also associated with in-

creased miscarriage risk.People with MTH FR gene muta-

tions are more likely to have high-ho-mocysteine levels—though not every-one with high homocysteine levels has the MTHFR gene variant. High homo-cysteine, which can result from a fol-ic acid or B12 defi ciency, has itself been correlated with an increased risk of birth defects and miscarriage.

For women who fall into the high homocysteine and/or MTHFR catego-ries, simply upping the folic acid dos-age is generally not the answer. (In-deed many doctors feel that taking more than 1000 mcg of folic acid is an inadvisable and even potentially risky practice.) Rather, they should take a different form of folic acid known as L-methyl folate. (Nutri-Supreme’s Me-thyl Folate and Methyl Folate with B12 and B6 are the only standalone Methyl Folate supplements on the heimishekosher market.)

Taking Action Every day, science reveals new ways

to help ensure healthy pregnancies and lower the risk of birth defects. But giv-en all the studies already linking folic

acid and B12 defi ciencies with NTDs and other birth defects, is there anything we can do right now to further that goal?

In my view, there is a lot to gain—and much potential heartbreak to avoid—by making simple blood screenings for homocysteine, folic acid, B12 and glu-tathione “standard procedure” for any young woman beginning the pre-preg-nancy vitamin regimen, especially those with a family history of birth defects. (Note: Low glutathione levels can be a marker for oxidative stress, which can play a role in increasing the risk of mis-carriage and birth defects.)

I am hardly alone in this opinion: In a conversation I had with Dr. Jill James, a well-known researcher for the Arkan-sas Center for Birth Defects and Pre-vention, she commented that with ho-mocysteine testing so readily available, there’s no reason women should not be making it part of their pre-natal regi-mens today.

Eliezer Gruber, Certifi ed Nutritionist, is the founder of Nutri-Supreme Research. His radio show Healthy Living can be heard live on 97.5 FM JRoute Radio or by calling 712.432.4217 each Thursday at 12:00 p.m. He can be reached at 888.68-Nutri.


SELF-HELP

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The Eyes Have It: Tips on Connecting to OthersBy Elly D. Lasson, Ph.D.

Most people agree that making eye

contact with other people is important in our lives, especial-ly if we are trying to

convince them to see things our way. Eye contact positively affects interpersonal relationships as well as workplace inter-actions. There are fi ve important times to make sure you are making eye con-tact. The context could be while you are making a presentation, during a job inter-view, or any conversation for that matter.

(1) Match with the verbal: In your in-itial approach to a new party or even someone with whom you already have established a relationship, eye contact should support what you are saying.

When you introduce yourself to some-one, make eye contact with them when stating your name. You should also be looking at the person when he/she states his/her name. Often, the close of a given interactive episode will conclude with a “thank you.” That is an opportunity to take leave of the person with a sincere expression of gratitude. Looking the oth-er person in the eye when you say “thank you” is a great way to reinforce that. When you make a presentation, don’t read everything from your papers or the charts on the wall. Take the time to look out at your audience and make some eye contact.

(2) Match with the nonverbal: Anoth-er key in developing a solid interperson-al relationship is non-verbal communi-cation. The two most common gestures are the handshake and the smile. Shak-

ing someone’s hand while looking over his shoulder will not engage the person you are greeting, and it may be off put-ting. On the other hand, a smile com-bined with eye contact expresses that you want to be there. It also shows inter-est and enthusiasm in what is being dis-cussed. While this sounds basic, many job interviews fail as a result of not at-tending to this. Consequently, the desire to work or be there is not conveyed.

(3) Don’t wander off: While making a positive fi rst impression is part of the game, eye contact should not end with the handshake or initial introduction. While at times challenging, make a con-certed effort to maintain eye contact throughout the conversation. Wander-ing eyes give the impression that you are distracted, either from the discussion at hand, or more generally.

(4) Don’t stare: Too much of a good thing is often counterproductive. Main-taining eye contact throughout an in-teraction is a reasonable goal. But, if you don’t use selective diversion, you will come across as creepy and that will be a turnoff.

(5) Don’t leave anyone out: In many of our interactions, were are not communi-cating one-on-one, but one-to-many. Fo-cusing one’s eye contact and attention on a single person to the exclusion of the others will indicate that you are ignoring them and give off the impression that you are not validating their presence.

One scenario that has become more commonplace is when interviewing for a job with a panel. Another is when you are making a formal presentation to a group. Make an effort to scan the room. We naturally tend to focus on those who are either familiar to us or on whom we believe to be the most infl uential per-son in attendance. Sometimes your the-ory of who that is will be correct; some-times, you guessed wrong. But even if you are correct, it is possible that the oth-ers there will play some role in the hiring process. Or, in the case of a presentation, they are the recipients of any messages you are trying to communicate. Some of these same individuals might end up be-ing your co-workers and, as such, are for-mulating their fi rst impressions of you. So, engaging them with eye contact will always play well.

It goes without saying that eye con-tact which is devoid of substance will not be totally effective. This could be ver-bal content (e.g., quality responses to in-terview questions) or a sincere emotional investment in what is going on. As most things go, it is a package deal.

Elly D. Lasson, Ph.D. comments and consults on ca-reers, employment and job searches. He leads a non-profi t organization called Joblink of Maryland. He studied at Ner Yisrael (B.T.L.); earned his B.A. in Psy-chology from UMBC; M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Or-ganizational Psychology from Wayne State Universi-ty.] [email protected], 410.602.8700

One way to do this, according to Rabbi Zierler, is for Jewish educators to place more emphasis on giving students “an affective experience” that can help them to forge a strong Jewish identity.

“What came out in the [Pew survey] is that there is a lot of teaching to the head, but not to the heart,” he said. “As a result, too many students can’t interpret or refl ect upon what they’ve learned. And that doesn’t serve them well when they’re put into a new environment, such as college, where they are really tested and they have no fallback.

“We can’t talk enough to young peo-ple, or allow them to ask enough ques-tions,” he added. “Too many teachers

edit questions or say, ‘we’ll entertain that, but not now.’ Kids can smell a lie, they can see a fake—and they’ll carry that with them.”

Above all, Rabbi Zierler said, com-munity leaders and educators need to reach out to young people, grooming them for potential leadership roles, at a much earlier age.

“The big mistake of the Jewish com-munity is that we wait until they are set-tled down to try to turn them into lead-ers, through young leadership groups or whatever it might be,” he asserted. “We should start, in the upper classes of high school, to have them mentored by peo-ple who are good exemplars of commu-nity connectedness, before they leave the comfort of the community for the atomized experience of the college cam-pus.

“Right now, no such serious mentor-ing takes place—and that has created a big disconnect between the generations of the Jewish community.”

Pew Results Seen as a Wake-Up Call


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Class SpaceBy Mordechai Schmutter

If you’re looking for a career that in-volves a lot of travel, a decent amount

of job security, and you don’t want to have to wear a tie, I would defi nitely sug-gest getting a job as an astronaut. And there’s no better time. NASA has just an-nounced that it would start accepting ap-plications for its next class of astronauts sometime in November.

The class is going to graduate in 2015, so that’s just two years of school for a job that the entire world looks up to. Okay, so the whole world won’t neces-sarily look up to you. The world in gen-eral can only name about one-and-a-half astronauts. There was Neil Armstrong, Buzz Something, and that third guy who waited in the car. But there have been a whole lot of astronauts since then that people can’t name, and there’s no reason you can’t be one of them. My point is that for those of you who say that there’s no job market out there anymore, you’re obviously wrong.

So you should defi nitely apply. Okay, so I don’t know the actual halachos of being an astronaut, like what kinds of toothpaste foods are kosher, besides for the applesauce, and what time you’d have to daven, but I do know that you’d have to buy a yarmulke that ties under your chin. I also know that there are some parts of frum life that would defi nitely be more diffi cult in zero gravity, such as

shechting animals, putting schach on a sukkah, and davening Shemoneh Esrei. But most astronauts are only up there for six months, after which they come back down and get consulting jobs.

But the benefi ts are great. It’s a gov-ernment job, so you have great health insurance, although they do give you a physical before they even accept you to make sure you’re not the kind of person who ever needs health insurance. You also get a nice amount of vacation days, although where are you going to go? A lot of good those do when you’re trapped on a space station. You also get to take off on random government holidays, such as Flag Day, and Groundhog Day and George Washington’s yahrtzeit. And that Thursday in November that com-memorates the one weekend that the colonists of Boston didn’t starve to death.

Pretty much anyone can apply, al-though the last class, which graduated in 2009, had nine students. So we know the classes are nice and small. In other words, if you have a learning disability, this is a great school for you.

Okay, so there’s not a very good chance that you’ll get in. The average job opening receives dozens of resumes, most of which they don’t even look at. NASA gets THOUSANDS of resumes, in-cluding a resume from every 6-year-old boy in the WORLD. You also need a de-gree in some kind of relevant scientif-ic fi eld, plus time spent working in the

real world, or at least in a lab. They want you to have a reasonable knowledge of science, because there are only a certain amount of times you can go, “What on earth is that?” “What on earth is that?” before the other astronauts lock you out-side in your space suit. And there’s no GPS in space.

They also accept pilots, and I’m sure that many people become pilots in the hopes that someday they’ll get accepted to astronaut school. In fact, if you ever go into the cockpit of a plane, you will see the pilot and the copilot pretending to be astronauts, saying things like, “Rog-er” and throwing clipboards back and forth like there’s no gravity and hanging from the ceilings. That’s why they never let passengers into the cockpits.

You also need to be reasonably healthy. They don’t want to cut a mis-sion short because Murray had a cardiac event.

MURRAY: “I’m having a cardiac event! Everyone’s invited!”

You also need 20/20 vision, because everything in space is pretty far away, and if you think it’s hard to fi nd a con-tact lens on the fl oor, try doing it in zero gravity.

You can also apply if your eyesight is such that it is correctible to 20/20 via la-ser surgery. And if you’re afraid of lasers and don’t understand how something that can pulverize a tank can also fi x your eye, and you’re afraid that the technician

will forget to turn the knob from “TANK” to “EYEBALL,” then maybe space travel in general is not for you anyway.

Applicants also have to be between 5’2” and 6’3” to apply. I’m not sure why. It’s not like people aren’t bumping their heads on the ceilings anyway. I think it’s because they want to make sure you can fi t into the last guy’s spacesuit.

As far as the rest of your physical shape, NASA spokespeople say that they run a physical, but you don’t have to be in amazing shape. “We don’t make peo-ple run ten miles just to apply,” they said. “Once they get there, we’ll torture them and make them fi t.”

Too fat for the space suit? We’ll MAKE you fi t. For one thing, the interview is on the 36th fl oor, and there are no elevators.

Also, all students are required to pass a swimming test during the fi rst month of training. They have to swim three lengths of the pool wearing a fl ight suit and tennis shoes, and then tread water for ten minutes. It turns out the best way to simulate the gravity of space is to do it underwater. So if you’re looking to gear up for your entrance exam, you might want to try—I don’t know—re-pairing your car at the bottom of a swim-ming pool.

Their goal is for everyone that they accept to eventually pass, but once in a while, someone does not. “Mr.

CONTINUED ON P. 54


CHESED

last days, weeks or even months. When his tickets to sports games or

concerts were going unused on Shab-bos, Yoni Greenstein of Monsey used his social and workplace networks to give them away, and soon began to donate other tickets that came to him to Jewish organizations where he volunteered, like Chai Lifeline, OHEL, Kids of Courage and I-Shine. “I found that whether a kid is de-pressed, has lost a parent, or is sick or un-happy, going to a game for a few hours can distract them from life’s diffi culties,” said Greenstein.

Over time, people began to go to him for tickets for family members or friends going through a rough time. Over the last

several years, Greenstein and several part-ners, including Mike Dube of the edu-cational sports company Dube Zone, of Englewood, developed a nonprofi t organ-ization to give away tickets to kids who can enjoy them, called Sharing Seats.

Today, Sharing Seats is a volunteer-run, non-denominational 501(c)3 organi-zation that seeks to give children a day or evening out to sporting events, concerts, Broadway shows, museums or amuse-ment parks. “Sadly, children with serious illnesses spend a lot of time in treatment or in the hospital, but to give them a rea-son to say, ‘Today was a great day,’ is very special,” said Greenstein.

Today, many of the tickets that come to Sharing Seats are extended to the Jew-ish community in the tri-state area be-cause of the personal networks of the people involved as volunteers, but the tickets are also available to the larger community and inner cities. “Disease aren’t biased, and neither are we,” he said.

Another special thing Sharing Seats does is help people to give event tickets anonymously, Greenstein said. “Let’s say

an individual wants to cheer someone up, perhaps a child in their community. For instance, maybe they know someone who experienced a loss in their family or maybe someone whose parents are di-vorcing, and the child seems down and could use a lift. We can be a conduit for people to use in providing uplifting expe-riences anonymously,” he said.

Dube said he relishes the opportuni-ty to help someone enjoy a day out. “We get Yankees tickets for someone who is wheelchair bound, and do the research to determine accessibility for their front row seats. This kind of day can have such a profound effect on people’s lives; it’s not monetary, it’s a whole package ex-perience that we have been able to give them. They still talk about it,” he said.

One child who benefi ted from Shar-ing Seats and the Dube Zone is Dan-iel Morrison, a 10-year-old who attends Yeshivat Noam in Paramus. An athletical-ly inclined child, Daniel was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma last sum-mer. In school last year he participated in Dube Zone sports programming, and Dube reached out to his family recently as part of Sharing Seats.

“Daniel had never attended a profession-al football game, and it has been a dream of his for the past two years to attend one,” said Mitch Morrison, Daniel’s father. “He has a strict protocol, but now since can do a few things in public, Mike got us tickets to attend a Jets game, and the experience was like the Make-a-Wish Foundation, fulfi lling Daniel’s wish,” said Morrison.

Daniel is now hard at work fi ghting his illness, which is a serious but treat-able form of cancer. “In some ways, a child’s illness can be harder emotionally than physically, because they know that they are missing out on so much,” said Morrison, who said his son missed being able to attend camp this year and is not currently able to go to school. “The Jets game was a way to escape some of the limitations he has right now.”

Dube said Sharing Seats gets many kinds of requests and often within hours, the seats are found and the event sched-uled for the child. “We’ve never gotten a request we weren’t able to fi ll,” said Dube.

“People who want to give event tick-ets or money to be used for creating a memorable experience can do so, as a tax-deductible donation, through Shar-ing Seats,” said Greenstein. Anyone who is interested knowing more is encour-aged to contact Sharing Seats at [email protected].

Ort (z”L) received tickets to the Stanley Cup fi nals through Sharing Seats. Here, she is showing off the team jersey that Mike Dube delivered.

Sharing Seats, Easing Burdens CONTINUED FROM P. 1

Daniel Morrison, right, received NFL game tickets from Sharing Seats, and met retired Jets running back Freeman McNeil.


FROM THE DESK OF RABBI DR MORDECHAI GLICK

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Johnson, your son is failing astronaut school. He keeps screaming “We’re all going to die!” in middle of the simula-tions.”

“What are you simulating?”“Swimming.” But if you fail, you get to be one of

those guys who sits in front of that whole bank of computer screens and plays sol-itaire.

If you do get through, though, there are a lot of cool classes you can take. There’s:

Not Throwing Up 101Dealing with Ears Popping for Six

Months StraightHow to Sneeze in Zero Gravity with

Other People in the Room

How to not Keep Bumping Your Head on the Ceiling of the Spaceship

How to Zip up a SpacesuitWhat All Those Buttons Are ForWhat to do if Someone is Standing on

your Oxygen TubeHow to keep Your Food Down in Zero

GravityPassing Clipboards Back and Forth so

They Don’t Go Sailing Through the Win-dow

Locking the New Guy Outside in his Spacesuit

How to Strap Yourself into a Sleeping Bag so Your Arms Don’t Keep Floating Up Like You’re Having a Dream that You’re Being Mugged

Hosing Down the New Guy’s Space-suit

You only have until January to apply, so apply now! Space is limited.

Um…You know what I mean.

Class Space CONTINUED FROM P. 52

The Dilemma CONTINUED FROM P. 49

• Child is suffering embarrassment and decreased self esteem

• Bedwetting has started abruptly after months of being dry at night

• Child experiences pain or burning with urination

• Sudden change in appetite or thirst• Urgency during the day, with sudden

unexpected needs to void immediate-ly

• Frequent constipation or straining when moving bowelsDiscuss your concerns with your

pediatrician. There are many treatment options available to help families over-come this challenge. Studies have found that successful treatment for bedwetting results in improvements in self-esteem, self-image, and socialization. Bedwetting may be effectively treated by a physical therapist experienced and trained in this area. Pharmaceuticals may be prescribed by a physician when necessary. With ap-propriate intervention, you and your children will sleep better.

Rivki Chudnoff MS,PT is a NY/ NJ licensed physi-cal therapist with more than14 years of experience working in both pediatrics and women’s health. She can be reached at rivkichudnoff @gmail.com

Stress – A Source Of Klollah Or Bracha – Take Your Pick

This past Thursday my wife and I re-

turned from more than three weeks in Montreal, though we had planned to spend a week. Shortly after we got there, the sky

fell in and we were faced with a medical emergency. Our handicapped daughter, Naama, was admitted to the hospital and the situation was touch and go for almost three weeks. We were with her, joined for part of the time with our other chil-dren, from early in the morning to late at night. Boruch Hashem, things turned around after two and a half weeks and she was released. But the horrendous stress that we experienced, brought to the fore, a very important truth – stress activates the emergency arousal system. We were caught in its grip for much of the three weeks. And any time we are overly aroused, our reaction to events and everyday occurrences can become extreme.

How do you react to a less serious

ongoing emergency – perhaps, the loss of a job, or a terribly embarrassing po-sition that you took in front of your friends/community, or being public-ly accused by a coworker or a previ-ously trusted friend with a very seri-ous crime? Probably you become very defensive, reacting with rage or terror, and your dealings with even your loved ones become fraught with danger. You become diffi cult or impossible to deal with, and you react very strongly to in-nocuous things or even attempts by your spouse to be supportive. Is it any surprise, then, that often when a new couple becomes aware of a serious per-manent defect in their child, things become very troubled and an infl ated number of such marriages eventually end in a bitter divorce, often precipi-tated by the husband. What happened to the bayis neemon? What happened to the beautiful couple that everyone was kvelling over for months after the wedding? More importantly, what hap-pened to two people who were trying to connect and care about each oth-

er? What happened is what happens to many people faced with a crisis, they are desperately looking for someone to blame. And unfortunately, the eas-iest ones to blame are the people close by. From there it slowly turns from dif-fi culty to disaster. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It could be that people turn more for support to those that are nearest. It could be that in the midst of the suffering, the couple grows even closer than they would otherwise be.

That’s the way it was for my wife and I. We were children (20 and 21) when we married. We thought we knew everything about life, as do most children. When our third daughter (Naama) was born, we were hit with terrible news. When she was 7 or 8 months old the doctor suggested that maybe we should bring her to a neu-rologist. He told us she was spastic and retarded, and that we should place her in an institution. We refused to hear him and went from doctor to doctor always hearing pretty much the same thing. (Things have changed, and par-

ents today are generally told that rais-ing a handicapped child can be very challenging, but very rewarding.) And against all odds, (and almost all doc-tors) we raised her and loved her and saw her grow into the beautiful per-son she is today. And along the way our marriage grew into something more beautiful (though challenging) than it might have otherwise been.

When you are faced with terrible stress, which path do you choose? May G-d bless you and help you through the trauma, and hopefully grant you the most important thing in life - a love that, in spite of its diffi culties, is pure and endless.

Please feel free to contact me re-garding this (or any) topic. You can do so anonymously by writing to [email protected] .

Dr. Glick was a clinical psychologist in private prac-tice for 35 years as well as a rabbi of Congregation Ahavast Yisroel. If you would like to submit a ques-tion, or contact him for an appointment, he can be reached at [email protected]

Send us your news, events, and photos!

Send to [email protected]


SCHOOLS

RYNJ Preschool PreviewBy Nomi Rotblat

Sensory sand search, kids in the kitch-en, and picking patterns are some of

the fun and educational activities your child will experience at the Preschool Preview hosted by the early childhood program of Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, on Sunday, November 17th at 9:30 am. “The Preschool Preview is an oppor-tunity for preschool aged children who are interested in exploring RYNJ to come and participate in activities they will ex-perience once they attend preschool,” ex-

plains Morah Fran Mermelstein, RYNJ’s Preschool Director. “Although each ac-tivity is enjoyable for the child, there are also important educational and develop-mental skills to be learned from each,” adds Morah Aviva Vogel, Assistant Direc-tor of the Preschool.

The Chanukah themed Sunday morning includes a Hebrew language component for the children with the preschool’s beloved Ganenet L’ivrit, Mo-rah Mali, and it culminates in a Chanu-kah Sing- A- Long with Morah Hadassah.

“The morning refl ects the warm and nurturing environ-ment of our Preschool. The morot who or-chestrate the morning are the same morot who teach and wel-come our youngest students each morning with love, excitement and creativity,” states Rabbi Daniel Price, RYNJ Head of School.

For more informa-tion or to register, vis-it RYNJ.org or contact Tamar Kahn, Direc-tor of Admissions at [email protected]. Pre-registration is request-ed, but walk-ins are welcome.

Yavneh 5K Benjy Schwartz Walk A SuccessJLBC Sports staff

On Sunday November 10th, The Benja-min Schwartz Memorial 5K Run and

1 Mile Fun Run/Walk brought over 1,000 people to the Westfi eld Garden State Plaza. The event helped to raise over $50,000 for Yavneh Academy Scholar-ship needs.

Participants of the run/walk were treated to a pre-race workout with

Donna Riker of HNH Fitness in Oradell, NJ, t-shirts, and a buffet breakfast. At the culmination of the race, event or-ganizer Amy Buchsbayew of Teaneck pre-sented medals to the top runners in the various age categories. Congratulations to the overall winner Michael Fonder,age 27, from Tenafl y, NJ, who came in at 15 minutes and 34 seconds.

Event organizer Amy Buchsbayew with race Winner Michael Fonder

Yavneh Academy Executive Director Joel Kirschner, Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera, and Mendy Schwartz at the start of the race.


SCHOOLS

Leadership Day at Ma’ayanotBy Pam Ennis

Thursday, November 7th, was no ordi-nary day at Ma’ayanot. Peek in the

gym and you would fi nd students play-ing with feathers, string, tarps and balls, and even building structures out of plumbing pipes. It was Leadership Day at Ma’ayanot, and while there was lots of fun, and even some games, participants were engaged in serious activities meant to foster group cohesion, build person-al confi dence and instill the feeling that every person in a group can make a dif-ference.

For the second year in a row, Ma’ayanot contracted with Dr. Jim Cain, noted author and principal consultant of

Teamwork and Teamplay, to run a full day of programming for various groups with-in the school, including the entire senior grade, the faculty and student leaders.

The main portion of the day’s pro-gramming was dedicated to the senior grade. Elana Flaumenhaft, Assistant Prin-cipal for Student Life, explained that she likes to run leadership training for the senior grade to make sure that all stu-dents, those who strive to be leaders and those who shy away from the spotlight, understand that “you don’t have to be the loudest or the most outspoken person in the room to be a leader. You need confi -dence, you need to be comfortable with yourself, and you need to believe that you can make a difference. This program

will help all students get to the point where they re-alize they can make a differ-ence in what-ever they set out to do.”

D u r i n g lunch Dr. Cain gave a seminar for teachers on the theme of building re-lat ionships within the classroom. He

acknowledged that much of what goes on in the classroom is task oriented, but he also explored how and why students respond better to assigned tasks with-in an environment that fosters positive and safe relationships, both between stu-dents, and between students and teach-ers.

Later in the day Dr. Cain ran one last training session for Ma’ayanot’s student leaders, including G.O. (student govern-ment) representatives and committee chairs. Before introducing Dr. Cain, Ms. Flaumenhaft explained why training of the sort they were about to receive is crucial for student leaders. “You have all chosen to assume leadership roles with-

in the school,” she explained, “but we want to make sure that you succeed well in those roles, and to do that we need to help learn how to work together, how to manage a project, how to delegate re-sponsibility, and how to get the rest of the student body interested in what you are doing. We want to make sure you succeed as leaders here at Ma’ayanot, and also for the future.”

The day was clearly enjoyable and, ac-cording to senior Hannah Ash, meaning-ful as well. “I learned valuable skills for the workforce, like how to lead a team, how to work collaboratively, and how to value the opinions of others.”

Spoken like a future leader.

PreviewSunday, November 17, 2013

pre-register at rynj.org

9:30 am - 11:00 am

COME and PLAY with the MOROT of RYNJ

For Prospective Preschool Children and Their Parents

Preschool


SCHOOLS

Yeshivat He’atid Pre- K Mock Wedding for Parshat Vayetz e

The Pre-K students were very excited to plan their very own wedding! The morot taught the classes all about Parshat Vayetze, and then had a wedding celebration

(just like Yaakov, Leah and Rachel). The children learned the steps to a Jewish wedding and, of course, how to dance with tremendous simcha.

Before SunriseBy Etzion Neuer

On a recent crisp October Sunday morning before the break of dawn,

parents and students of Yeshivat Noam’s fourth grade gathered along the banks of the Palisade Cliffs for a remarkable minyan. Nature provided the walls of our beit knesset: the brilliant orange and yellow foliage of the cliffs on one side, while on the other side, gulls and geese wheeled and soared above the surface of the deep blue Hudson River.

The idea behind the ‘Sunrise Minyan‘ belonged to Rabbi Yaakov Nadler, Yeshi-vat Noam’s fourth grade rebbe, who, while teaching the Mishna of Brachot, found a creative way to make the daven-ing times relevant to my nine year-old’s grade.

Introducing Mishna to children can present its challenges, and when the subject drifts into differentiating be-tween terms like netz hachama (sun-rise), alot hashachar (dawn), and how much light is necessary to recognize

one’s friend within four cu-bits...well, it’s not hard for me to imagine how a child’s attention might occasionally wander.

For a nine year-old boy, there’s no better way to chal-lenge boredom than by in-troducing a fl ashlight. In the countdown leading up to the big day, my son made sure to check in with me sev-eral times to ensure that our fl ashlight had working bat-teries, that we had the prop-er directions to the cliffs and that he would indeed be having doughnuts.

We began davening at 7:00 am, a group of bleary-eyed parents, together with our excited kids, huddled to-gether on a dock by the wa-ter in the early morning dark-ness. I noticed that I was not the only father wrapping my

talit around myself as a blanket to keep warm.

As davening progressed and the sun rapidly began to break over the hori-zon and rise above the Hudson River and warm us all, Rabbi Nadler repeated-ly called attention to its changing posi-tion and applied the appropriate terms for the zmanim. And just like that, 2000 year-old terms suddenly sprang to life and became exciting and relevant.

When this beautiful minyan conclud-ed, the students immediately scrambled for the hot chocolate and doughnuts that had been laid out for them while most of us parents fueled ourselves with coffee and marveled at the experience. The pro-gram continued as Rabbi Nadler led all of us on a short hike through the Palisades.

As a parent, I was moved by several aspects of this experience: how a teach-er creatively devised a way to transform the mundane into meaningful; how this same teacher selfl essly shared his pre-cious personal time with his students and their parents; and how Yeshivat Noam has fostered a climate that wel-comes this kind of creative approach to experiential learning.

Too rare are the moments in which parents and children can enjoy a shared moment of joy in a Jewish educational set-ting. Rabbi Yaakov Nadler’s Sunrise Min-yan provided us with just such an experi-ence that is also an unforgettable memory.

Etzion Neuer is a proud parent of four Yeshivat Noam students.


SCHOOLS

New York Colleges Score Big Judaic HireBy Aliza Chasan

The former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks,

will be teaching at both Yeshiva and New York University starting in January. Sacks, 65, will serve as the Kressel and Efrat Uni-versity Professor of Jewish Thought at YU and as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at NYU.

NYU student and Teaneck native Avital Kaplan has been checking the online course registry waiting for Rabbi Sacks’ class to pop up so that she can enroll. She

described NYU as a school standing for universalism and globalism, two ideals most students at the school are interest-ed in, and the need to balance those ide-als with personal and communal identity.

“Rabbi Sacks is a really great fi t for the NYU community; he has a lot to contrib-ute to the confl ict between personal or communal identity and universalism,” Kaplan said.

Sacks, the author of 25 books and a world-renowned religious leader, served as chief rabbi from September of 1991 un-til September of 2013.

The idea of the Jewish world and out-

side world came up again with Scott Kal-mikoff, a senior at YU majoring in Jewish Studies with a concentration in Jewish History. He’s also very excited to have the opportunity to learn from R’ Sacks.

“After reading a number of Rabbi Sacks’ books, I became a huge fan of his. I think he is a perfect example of some-one who is able to thrive while balanc-ing both Judaism and secularism, which is the ideal of Yeshiva University,” Kal-mikoff said. “Rabbi Sacks is extremely wise and talented, and I am very excit-ed to have the opportunity to learn from him at YU.”

Touro College of Pharmacy Appoints Interim Dean From Fair LawnNew York—Dr. Alan Kadish, President and

CEO of the Touro College and University System, announced that Dr. Zvi Loewy, profes-sor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceu-tical and Biomedical Sciences at Touro College of Pharmacy, will serve as the school’s interim dean. Dr. Loewy succeeds Dr. Stuart Feldman, who stepped down last week.

“I am pleased that Dr. Loewy has agreed to undertake this signifi cant assignment at this time,” said Dr. Kadish. “With his experience in the biological sciences and pharmacy ed-ucation, research, private industry as well as his proven commitment to the school and its mission, the College is well-served to have Dr. Loewy take the lead at this time. I wish him every success as he collaborates with the Cam-pus Provost and CEO, Dr. Jay Sexter, in carrying out this new assignment.”

Said Dr. Loewy, “I am grateful for this oppor-tunity being afforded to me to provide strong management to the College of Pharmacy, to foster a culture of rigor and excellence in phar-macy education, to ensure superb training for our diverse student body and to lead and devel-op the faculty of the our school.”

Dr. Loewy has a diversifi ed professional background that includes more than 30 years

CONTINUED ON P. 60

Dr. Zvi Loewy


SCHOOLS

A Culinary Evening at Ma’ayanot

The Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School parent council is pleased to invite

the community to a Culinary Evening at Ma’ayanot on Sunday, November 24th at 7:00 p.m. The evening will feature cook-ing demonstrations by two of the most talented chefs of the kosher world, Leah Shapira and Merav Dahan. Leah Shapira is co-founder of cookkosher.com, a pop-ular online kosher recipe exchange, au-

thor of the best-selling Fresh and Easy Kosher Cooking, and co-author of nu-merous cookbooks including Passover Made Easy, Starters and Sides Made Easy and Kids Cooking Made Easy. Merav Da-han, a proud Ma’ayanot parent, is found-er of Merav’s Cuisine cooking blog and has been teaching the art of preparing healthful and quick kosher recipes for over a decade.

In addition to cooking demonstrations, the evening will include smoothie making by Ma’ayanot parent Ofra Wind, and a bou-tique featuring Pampered Chef, Cutco Cut-lery, Chanukah essentials and much more.

For more information or to register for the event visit www.maayanot.org and click on the events link, or contact Carrie Polonetsky at [email protected].

PARENTING

Parent-Teacher Conference Tips for Parents By Rabbi Maccabee Avishur

How can you get the most out of Parent-

Teacher conferences? First of all, go. The com-

petition for your time is fi erce, but in-vesting time in meeting with your child’s teachers pays great dividends down the road.

Second, prepare some questions and talking points. Teachers will surely have some data to talk about, work to show and anecdotes to share, but teachers can’t possibly guess what information is most important to each parent. Your questions as a parent can help guide the teacher and help them learn about what is most important to you. Here are some suggested questions.

In what ways is my child acting with Kavod to you and other adults? How about other students?

The teacher’s description of how your child seeks assistance or what she does when she’s feeling a certain way will give you some awareness of the way she in-teracts with others and what her rela-

tionship is like with others in the school.How does discipline work in your class?Understanding how the teacher moti-

vates your son to behave and how she re-acts when he doesn’t follow instructions can help you learn about the teacher’s approach to discipline. In addition, you might learn useful tricks that you can im-plement at home, and you may be able to share useful insights with the teacher about what you have found works best. Consistency of approach in discipline helps your son learn consequences of pro- and anti-social behavior and helps prevent your son from developing the belief that he can act differently with dif-ferent adults.

When does my child excel and what seems to be the biggest struggle for her?

This isn’t the same as fi shing for com-pliments or being hard on your daughter. Rather, it’s an opportunity to learn what your daughter’s strengths and weakness-es are so you can harness her potential and address her challenges.

How does my child behave during dav-ening?

At home, your son may be a commit-

ted davener or a resistant one. Learn-ing about his disposition towards dav-ening in school can help you support the school’s work at home. In addition, learning the school’s prayer selection and tunes can help you reinforce at home the positive habits he is learning at school.

What can we do at home to support the work you’re doing at school?

As long as this question isn’t an emp-ty platitude, it can be a powerful way of strengthening the school-home relation-ship. Every time a parent asked me this question, I didn’t have to think hard to come up with something meaningful that I thought would be useful in advanc-ing the growth of the child. Plus, I real-ly appreciated the suggestion of partner-ship implicit in this question.

The most important lesson here is that it pays to prepare for the conference. Be prepared to listen as well as talk. Spend a few minutes before your conferences jot-ting down questions you have and top-ics you’d like to learn more about. It’s a good idea to take notes during a confer-ence and to ask for an explanation if you don’t understand something. Remember,

your time slot in the conference is like-ly very short (5-10 minutes), so you might not have time to speak about everything you had hoped to. Be respectful of the teacher and of the next parent waiting outside the class. If you want to contin-ue the conversation, set up a time to do so in the coming weeks, and make sure to fi nd out the teacher’s preferred meth-od of communication. If the teacher has mentioned any areas that she’ll be work-ing on with your child, it’s a great idea to check back with the teacher a few weeks down the road to learn how your child is doing.

Parent-teacher conferences are an im-portant element along the continua of fostering a healthy school-home relation-ship and developing the academic, emo-tional and spiritual development of your child. Making the make the most of this opportunity maximizes return on your in-vestment in your child’s Jewish education.

Rabbi Maccabee Avishur is the Associate Director for Teaching and Learning at Yeshiva University’s In-stitute for University-School Partnership. He can be reached at [email protected].

The Time I Had a (Winter) BreakBy Sarah Abenaim

I lucked out for win-ter break last year.

In my last trimester of pregnancy, it was too risky for me trav-el anywhere, and so I

was advised to stay put. We had stayed home for most winter vacations in the previous years, as my husband is a self-employed dentist and therefore “paid va-cation” does not really exist. And I had managed to come up with a few entic-ing day-trips to create a break in the con-stant bickering among my kids; Chuck E. Cheese! Frozen Yogurt! Build-a-Bear! Get-ting our teeth cleaned (I know, I’m thatcreative)! But as my midsection grew to enormous proportions, I found myself lying on the couch and only participat-ing in activities that boasted a chair, pref-erably one that reclined (another hidden perk at the dentist).

“Why don’t I take the kids to Puerto

Rico this year?” my husband offered one night in December, while I stared at the dishes, hoping they’d wash themselves. “I’ll take off from work…”

My eyes lit up. It would be the ultimate winter break for me: one giant, week-long nap. I shivered with excitement.

We talked through the details. It would be from Sunday through Thurs-day. I’d make a menu, prepare and pack food, and write up a manual to caring for our kids, which would include important tips, such as brush their hair, feed them real meals (not just ice cream) and put them to bed before eight. I would also pack their suitcases and organize their carry-on bags, and would probably be so tired, I wouldn’t move again until they’d come home.

I was smart about the organization. With a few weeks left until the trip, I split up the work over time and did a lit-tle each day, all the while scouting out the perfect pillow for my own restful va-cation. But I guess we missed some very

important details, because it all changed when my husband handed me the fl ight itineraries one evening in early January.

“Here’s the plan,” he said, and I fl ipped through the pages showing departures and arrivals, and that luckily, it was a non-smoking fl ight.

“You only reserved three seats?” I asked, noticing his name, along with our two older children on the ticket heading. We had a third child, a daughter, who was 3, too old to be a lap-baby. “Will you wear her in a Baby-Bjorn or something? Hide her in your coat?” I asked, desper-ately, trying to come up with a logical reason for why there was no ticket in her name. I looked at the fl oor, hoping that maybe I had just dropped the paper.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I nev-er planned on taking her. I can’t bring allof them alone…” He looked at me help-lessly, and I understood. I also wouldn’t want to venture on a vacation with all three kids. I could barely handle Votee Park.

It was just like that that my dream winter vacation melted away. The vision, so pristinely created, would never actu-alize. Although this meant that I would have to get dressed every day, I at least wouldn’t have to play referee to any sib-ling fi ghts on a minute-to-minute ba-sis. And I would have one daughter who could keep her long hair, because it was likely that the other would need a buzz cut when she returned with un-brushed dreadlocks or a tangled beehive housing a few crabs, sand and seashells.

Winter vacation ended up being re-laxing. We did low-key activities, like cut up many papers into tiny squares, braid and put beads in her hair so it lookedlike she went somewhere tropical, and, the dreaded Chuck E. Cheese. My daugh-ter was thrilled to have time alone with me, a fi nal hurrah as the glorifi ed baby of the family. And I was lucky to get a break, even just a partial one.

Sarah Abenaim is a freelance writer living with her husband and four children in Teaneck. She is working on her fi rst book. More of her essays can be found at www.writersblackout.wordpress.com.

List your events in our Community Calendar. Advertise your services in our growing Classifi eds section! Call (201) 371-3212 or [email protected]


PARENTING

Helping Children Deal with Setbacks, Part 2By Mark Staum, LCSW

In my last article, I listed three situations where

parents could consider how to help their chil-

dren deal with setbacks. The adage “live and learn” is a popular saying, but it is im-portant to address how parents can com-municate this message to their children. Teaching children to deal with setbacks by increasing positive thinking, reduc-ing negative thinking and managing their emotions can help children deal with dis-appointment.

As children become more aware of their emotions, they become more capa-ble of emotional regulation. The ability for children to manage their emotions will go a long away in helping them deal with dis-appointing events. Alternatively, the in-ability of children to manage their emo-tions may lead to diffi culties with anger, impulse control and peer related confl icts.

How do parents use modeling to assist their children develop emotional control? Consider the example of Mrs. Rudant, who received a phone call from school that her 10-year-old son, John, has refused to partic-ipate in gym for the past two weeks:

Mrs. Rudant: Hi, John! Today I received

a call from school that you have not par-ticipated in gym for the past two weeks. The school sounded very concerned that something is bothering you because you always love going to gym and being with the other kids. Is there something happen-ing that we can talk about?

John: I am a little embarrassed by the fact that I was sitting on the side over the past week during the games. The oth-er boys did not pick me in the game so I didn’t play at all for three straight games. The teacher didn’t notice, so I just got up and left.

Mrs. Rudant: That must have been so frustrating and disappointing for you!

In the above example, Mrs. Rudant re-mained calm. She didn’t “sound the panic button,” nor did she demand to know ex-actly why John could possibly have not at-tended gym for the past two weeks. By re-maining calm, she allowed John the time and space to express his concerns. By pro-viding feeling words, Mrs. Rudant also teaches John that it is okay to feel disap-pointed. John will then feel increasingly confi dent that there is potential to resolv-ing this issue.

When it is diffi cult for children to re-main calm, parents need to provide them with the tools to manage their emotions.

A parent can help a child do all of the fol-lowing:

Remain calm by taking deep breaths.Develop some coping thoughts to re-

duce any negative feelings.Help the child develop solutions to the

problem. Parents can also prepare their children

for how to deal with disappointment or potential disappointment. Returning to our original example of sports competi-tion, a parent can remind a child (prior to the sporting season or during the initial weeks) that,

He may not be on a team with many of his friends since the teams are divided in different ways.

Unlike last year, this year he may not be the best athlete on the team and may need to work really hard to “prove him-self.”

Although he may have a goal to win every game, that goal may be diffi cult to reach.

For the student who can’t seem to ever do well on a Mrs. Smith Math test, a parent can remind a child that,

Teachers are different and Mrs. Smith may have different expectations on ex-aminations.

Last year, he got off to a “rocky start”

with Mrs. Greenwald and performed great after two months.

You are happy to work with him on strategies to help him feel more relaxed while taking these tests.

For the camper who wants to go home because he has no friends in his bunk, the child can be reminded that,

Adjustments to a new environment and schedule can be diffi cult.

Meeting new kids can be challenging, but it was always one of his strengths in school.

He did great last summer when he went away to the three-day overnight program.

In all of the above examples, parents are helping their children deal with set-backs (or potential setbacks) through the internal framework that has been culti-vated through parent/child communica-tion and dialogue.

Mark Staum, LCSW is the school therapist for the PTACH program @ MTA. He maintains a local pri-vate practice in Teaneck, NJ, where he sees children, adolescents, young adults and families. For ques-tions or comments about this article, please con-tact [email protected] . To learn more about Mark, please look at his web site, www.markstaum.com.

berias, Galil, Jerusalem, Netanya, the Dead Sea and Tel Aviv, each with added value, re-nowned scholars in residence, kids & teen programs, day tours and more, at unprece-dented lower prices than ever before.

What are some of your crazy stories working with clients? How do you han-dle it?

When we see families getting togeth-er and enjoying each other’s company it makes the job worthwhile. We consider it a real privilege to be able to bring Jews to-gether, to celebrate a special occasion or unite as one large extended family. That’s not to say there aren’t stressful moments. In this service-oriented business you have to have a thick skin while you treat eve-ry request with grace and patience. Once we got a call Erev Pesach from a client who wanted to make sure that the fl ow-ers we provided would match the color of the Haggadot. We don’t just sell rooms,

we provide a unique and memorable ex-perience. We work hard all year around to exceed our client’s expectations. In ad-dition, we are able to do a lot of commu-nal good through our business. By nomi-nating a cause at each hotel, we sell Aliyot, distribute pledge forms and have managed to raise tzedaka funds for various organi-zations and projects. We have raised funds for a shul building fund, Yeshivat Hesder Modiin, Leket Food Bank, IYIM Singles program and Mishne Lechem. Our proud-est moment was Pesach 2012 when we do-nated a Sefer Torah to Israel’s Iron Dome IDF base in the presence of top army brass, in honor of the company’s 25th year at the same Tiberias Hotel. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to give back to the community as it is not only about the business…

What is unique about Eddies Kosher Travel?

Hands down it is the personal connec-tion we have with the clients – especial-ly those who come on our chagim trips. We go above and beyond to make sure we get to know our guests on a personal lev-el and make sure that all their needs are

How Eddie’s Kosher Travel Became # 1


CONTINUED ON P. 77

in academia, executive leadership with major global pharmaceutical companies

and creation and management of bio-tech start-up companies.

Dr. Loewy is a graduate of Yeshiva Uni-versity (B.A.), Rensselaer Polytechnic In-stitute (M.S.) and the Albert Einstein Col-lege of Medicine (Ph.D.). In addition to his position at Touro College of Pharma-cy, he is on the faculty of New York Med-ical College, and serves on the boards of the Jerusalem College of Technology and the New Jersey Technology Incubator. Dr. Loewy is a member of the scientifi c ad-visory board of C3 Jian, a private compa-ny focused on providing improved oral

healthcare; is a member of the steering committee of the Pennsylvania Transla-tional Research Partnership Institute and the Coulter advisory council, and is an editor of the Journal of Prosthodontics. Dr. Loewy has published broadly and holds over 25 patents.

Touro is a system of non-profi t insti-tutions of higher and professional educa-tion. Touro College was chartered in 1970 primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American and glob-al community. Approximately 19,000 stu-dents are currently enrolled in its various

schools and divisions. Touro College has branch campuses, locations and instruc-tional sites in the New York area, as well as branch campuses and programs in Ber-lin, Jerusalem, Moscow, Paris and Florida. New York Medical College, Touro Universi-ty California and its Nevada branch cam-pus, as well as Touro University World-wide and its Touro College Los Angeles division are separately accredited institu-tions within the Touro College and Uni-versity System. For further information on Touro College, please go to: http://www.touro.edu/#/news/

Touro College of Pharmacy Appoints Interim Dean From Fair Lawn


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of an event coming up

in your community?

Tweet it to: @jlinkbc


SCHOOLS

Moriah students participate in a fl ag folding ceremony with veterans from Englewood

Frisch Juniors Pack for the Food Bank of NY

Approximately 30 Frisch juniors traveled to NYC on October 31st to repackage food for the Food Bank of NYC. They repacked over 4,000 pounds of cabbag-

es and apples. Students had to put the boxes together, check the produce to see if it was edible, weigh the boxes, and then stack them on pallets for redistribu-tion. (All photos taken by Lisa Appelbaum)

Big Apple Crunch At MTA With a Berachah!

On Thursday, October 24th, MTA Students and faculty joined roughly 1,000,000 New Yorkers in

an attempt to set a new world record for “most peo-ple at an apple crunching event”. In MTA, this meant that every student and faculty member were given a fresh apple, hand-picked by the members of our Stu-dent Council the day before; at noon on Thursday, everyone made a beautiful berachah and crunched into the incredibly delicious apples.

That Thursday was National Food Day, and the Big Apple Crunch was one of thousands of events happening around the country promoting healthy

eating. The school’s goal in participating was to promote that idea with-in the MTA community as well as to re-ignite the passion for making be-rachos. Both goals were certainly accomplished; students made prop-er berachos with wide smiles, and the buzz in the hallways was about how delicious those ap-ples tasted.

In honor of the month of Kislev, Moriah students made gifts for American and Israeli soldiers. This month’s theme at the school is - an attitude of gratitude.

Morah Deena’s third grade girls at RYNJ reached a huge milestone last week receiving their Naviim.

Yasher Koach of the Week--- Michael Feuerstein Rudin & the TABC Midnight run

Michael Feuerstein Rudin has been the starting goalie at the Torah Academy

of Bergen County for the past four year. Al-though Michael has many on the fi eld ac-complishments, we are proud to present him with this week’s award because of his work as the chair of the TABC Chessed Committee, and point man for the Mid-night Run.

The Midnight run, is an organization that provides meals and supplies to the homeless in New York. Until Novem-ber of 1989, Midnight Run used the fa-cilities of South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry as a base of operations, in-cluding the storing of food, clothing and supplies. Later that year, Midnight Run was incorporated as a not-for-profi t or-ganization, and a generous contribution by a Westchester corporation enabled

them to rent their fi rst headquarters at 97 Main Street in Dobbs Ferry. There, they were able to collect, sort and store clothes; prepare food; and coordinate the donations and the thousands of vol-unteers it takes to make Midnight Run a reality.

Midnight Run has been contagious and, without a grand master plan, the program has grown from the original tiny group to a collaboration of more than 150 community organizations. Most of the runs are done by local colleg-es, yeshiva participants include: Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy (SAR) and TABC (for the third year in a row). Michael told the JLBC that “participating in midnight run gives us a better appreciation for all what we have and makes us more sensi-tive to others misfortune”.

The run collects basic necessities for the homeless: Clothing and toilet-ry items like: socks, hats, gloves, jackets, pants, shirts/sweaters, underwear (new or used) as well as unopened toothpaste, toothbrushes, lotion, deodorant, and soap. Food items that can be used are hot chocolate packets, coffee packets, granola/breakfast bars, canned fruit (pull tab tops), instant oatmeal packets. They will be feeding the homeless and mon-etary donations to help defray the cost of food are welcome. Supplies can be dropped off at TABC (1600 Queen Anne Rd in Teaneck) or at the home of Michael Feuerstein - Rudin (370 Rutland Ave in Teaneck). The boys of TABC will be mak-ing their distribution run to the homeless of NYC on December 5th and need all do-nations by November 27, 2013

(L to R) Tyler Hod, Max Gruber, Michael Rubin, Rafi Jacobovitz, Odi Haramati, Robby Bernstein, Sammy Katz, and Tal Singer


HISTORY

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Jews in SpaceBy Phil Siers and combined services

Boris Valentinovich Volynov was the fi rst Jew in space. He was born in Irkutsk in Siberia to a Jewish mother, but then his family relocated, and he fi nished sec-ondary school in Prokopyevsk, Kemero-vo Oblast, in 1952. The next year he com-pleted basic pilot training in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, and in 1955 graduated from an aviation school in Novosibirsk. From September 1961 to January 1968 he stud-ied at the faculty of engineering of the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Acade-my and graduated with a diploma of a pi-lot-engineer-cosmonaut.

Because of his mother’s Jewish back-ground, his selection for space missions was hindered. Scheduled to fl y in 1964, Soviet command pulled him off the mis-sion when they found that that Volynov was Jewish. But in 1969 he was fi nally se-lected as commander of the Soyuz 5.

In 1980 he received his Ph.D. from the Zhukovsky Academy. After resigning from the space program in 1982, he spent eight years as a senior administrator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. After 30 years of service in Star City, in 1990, he retired as a colonel.

Judith Arlene Resnik was born in 1949 to Sara and Marvin, an optometrist, in Akron, Ohio. Both her parents were Jew-ish immigrants from Ukraine. Judith’s brother Charles was born four years later. She attended Hebrew school. A graduate of Firestone High School in 1966, she ex-celled in mathematics and played classi-cal piano. While at Firestone she achieved a perfect SAT score, the sole female to do so that year. She received a B.S. in elec-trical engineering from Pittsburgh’s Car-negie Mellon University in 1970, the year she married fellow student Michael Old-ak. They divorced in 1974. In 1977 Resnik earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland. Upon gradu-ation from Carnegie Mellon, she was em-ployed at RCA as a design engineer, and later worked with various NASA projects contracted to the company. While work-ing toward her doctorate, Resnik was af-fi liated with the National Institutes of Health as a biomedical engineer. Later, she was a systems engineer with Xerox Corporation.

Resnik was recruited into the astro-naut program January 1978 by Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols, who was working as a recruiter for NASA. Resnik’s fi rst space fl ight was as a mission specialist on the maiden voyage of Discovery, from Au-gust to September 1984. She was likewise a mission specialist aboard Challengerfor STS-51-L and died when it exploded on January 28, 1986. Resnik was the fi rst American Jewish astronaut to go into space.

Jeffrey Alan Hoffman is an American former NASA astronaut and currently a professor of aeronautics and astronau-tics at MIT. Hoffman made fi ve fl ights as a space shuttle astronaut, including the fi rst mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, when the orbiting tel-escope’s fl awed optical system was cor-rected. Trained as an astrophysicist, he also fl ew on 1990 Spacelab shuttle mis-sion that featured the ASTRO-1 ultraviolet

astronomical observatory in the shuttle’s payload bay. Over the course of his fi ve

missions he logged more than 1,211 hours and 21.5 million miles in space. CONTINUED ON P. 64

Jeff rey Alan Hoff man Judith Arlene Resnik Boris Valentinovich Volynov


HISTORY

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Hoffman was born November 2, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, but consid-ers Scarsdale, New York, to be his home-town. He graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1962, then received a Bachelor of Arts degree in astronomy (graduated summa cum laude) from Amherst Col-lege in 1966, a Master’s Degree in materi-als science from Rice University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard University in 1971. Hoffman is an Eagle Scout.

As of 2005 he is currently co-director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Con-sortium and a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Aeronautics and As-tronautics at MIT.

Hoffman made his fourth fl ight as an EVA crewmember on STS-61, December 2–13, 1993, on the Space Shuttle Endeav-our. During this fl ight, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was captured, serviced, and restored to full capacity through a re-cord fi ve space walks by four astronauts, including Hoffman. While in space, dur-ing the holiday of Chanukah, he spun a dreidel to a live audience via satellite watching what’s known as Chanukah Live.

David Alexander Wolf is an American astronaut, medical doctor, and electrical engineer. Wolf has been to space four times. Three of his spaceflights were short-duration Space Shuttle missions, the first of which was STS-58 in 1993, and his most recent spaceflight was STS-127 in 2009. Wolf also took part in a long-

duration mission aboard the Russian space station Mir which lasted 128 days. He was brought to Mir aboard STS-86 in September 1997, and landed aboard STS-89 in January 1998. In total Wolf has logged more than 4,040 hours in space. He is also a veteran of seven spacewalks totaling 41hrs. 17 min. in both Russian and American spacesuits.

David A. Wolf was born August 23, 1956 and graduated from North Central High School. Wolf then went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University. In 1982, he earned a medical degree from Indiana Universi-ty School of Medicine. He subsequently trained as a fl ight surgeon with the Unit-ed States Air Force. Wolf joined the staff of Johnson Space Center in 1983 and in-vestigated the physiological effects of mi-crogravity.

With a number of shuttle fl ights and a four-month layover at the Russian space station Mir under his belt, Jewish astronaut David Wolf says that his fi rst spacewalk was a religious experience. Other religious experiences he’s had in space? Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Chanuka, for which he brought a meno-rah that he couldn’t light due to fi re haz-ards, and a dreidel. “I probably have the record dreidel spin,” he later said, “it went for about an hour and a half until I lost it. It showed up a few weeks later in an air fi lter. I fi gure it went about 25,000 miles.”

Gregory Errol Chamitoff was born August 6, 1962 in Montreal, Quebec, Can-ada to a Jewish family of Russian origin. Selected by NASA for the Astronaut Class of 1998, Chamitoff qualifi ed for fl ight as-signment as a Mission Specialist in 2000.

Since then, Chamitoff has worked in the Space Station Robotics branch, been the lead CAPCOM for ISS Expedition 9, act-ed as Crew Support Astronaut for ISS Ex-pedition 6, and helped develop onboard procedures and displays for Space Sta-tion system operations. Chamitoff served on a long duration mission to the Inter-national Space Station. He launched as a Mission Specialist on board Space Shut-tle mission STS-124. He was Flight Engi-neer 2 and Science Offi cer on Expedition 17. He returned home as a Mission Spe-cialist on STS-126, completing a tour that lasted six months. He was assigned to Ex-pedition 17 and fl ew to the International Space Station on STS-124 on May 31, 2008. He was in space 198 days, joining Expe-dition 18 after Expedition 17 left the sta-tion, and returned to Earth in November of 2008 on STS-126. Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on the STS-134 mis-sion, which was the last fl ight of Endeav-our.

Dr Chamitoff is currently the Law-rence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia. He is also Professor of Engi-neering Practice in Aerospace Engineer-ing at Texas A&M University.

As a sign of his faith, he took mezu-zot shaped like rockets on to the Interna-tional Space Station and placed them on the door post near his bunk bed.

Ilan Ramon (June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003) was an Israeli fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, and later the first Israe-li astronaut. Ramon was the space shut-tle payload specialist of STS-107, the fatal mission of Columbia, in which he and six other crew members were killed in a re-

entry accident. At 48, he was the oldest member of the crew. Ramon is the only foreign recipient of the United States Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Ramon was born in Ramat Gan, Isra-el, to Tonya (1929-2003) and Eliezer Wol-ferman (1923-2006). He grew up in Beer-sheba. His father was from Germany and fl ed Nazi persecution in 1935. His mother and grandmother were from Poland and were Holocaust survivors, having been in Auschwitz. They immigrated to Israel in 1949. His fi rst name, Ilan, means “tree” in Hebrew. Ilan changed his last name from Wolferman when he joined the IAF just as many other Israeli aviators did.

Ramon graduated from high school in 1972. In 1987, he graduated with a B.Sc. degree in electronics and computer engi-neering from Tel Aviv University. In 1974, he graduated as a fi ghter pilot from the Israel Air Force (IAF) Flight School. In 1981 he was the youngest pilot taking part in Operation Opera, Israel’s strike against Iraq’s unfi nished Osiraq nuclear reactor.

After attending the Tel Aviv Universi-ty, he served as a deputy squadron com-mander. In 1994, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and assigned as Head of the Department of Operational Require-ment for Weapon Development and Acquisition. He stayed at this post un-til 1998. Ramon accumulated over 3,000 fl ight hours on the A-4, Mirage III-C, and F-4, and over 1,000 fl ight hours on the F-16.

In 1997, Ramon was selected as a Pay-load Specialist. He was designated to train as prime for a space shuttle mission

Jews in Space CONTINUED FROM P. 63

David Alexander Wolf Ilan Ramon Gregory Errol Chamitoff Gary Reisman

CONTINUED ON P. 70


BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

Mayor Welcomes First Meridian to Teaneck

Teaneck—Mayor Mohammed Ha-meeduddin welcomed First Meridian

Mortgage to town by participating in a rib-bon cutting ceremony with Vice President Jason Berg at First Meridian’s grand opening celebration. An industry leader with over 20 years of experience, First Meridian celebrat-ed the opening of its latest location with an open house event at the branch, located at 568 Cedar Lane. Local business people and members of the Teaneck community en-joyed refreshments and good company as they learned more about the new mortgage related resources available to them.

“It was great to have the opportunity to introduce members of the Teaneck commu-nity to the local First Meridian team. We’re excited to be able to service the communi-ty in which we work, live and play,” Berg stated. As a community lender with over

a dozen locations, First Meridian prides it-self on its operational strength and bou-tique level customer service. The fi rm also brings a wide and ever expanding range of mortgage products to the area. “I was excit-ed to be at the grand opening to be able to welcome First Meridian Mortgage and its Vice President Jason Berg to Teaneck. Jason is obviously someone who cares tremen-dously about taking care of his customers and doing the right thing by our commu-nity. They will be a great addition to Cedar Lane businesses,” commented Hameedud-din.

In addition to his work with home buy-ers, Berg also delivers closing cost conces-sion strategies and new negotiating tech-niques for buyers and realtors, as well as effective merchandising strategies for sell-ers.

With over twenty years of experience, First Meridian Mortgage has consistent-ly balanced exceptional customer service along with quick and effective results. They attribute these results to the convenience of in house underwriting services and strong lending platforms. As a relationship orient-ed mortgage bank, FMM strives to keep their clients educated throughout the loan appli-cation process by encouraging interaction between loan offi cers and clients. First Me-ridian Mortgage loan offi cers answer ques-tions, set a budget, educate their clients, and help in constructing better and smarter de-cisions.

FMM Specializes in:New Home Loans • FHA Loans • 203K

Loans • Renovation Loans • Cash Out Refi -nance • Jumbo Mortgages • Fixed Rate Mort-gages • Adjustable Rate Mortgages • Invest-

ment Property Loans • Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit

For more information about Jason Berg and his work with First Meridian Mort-gage, please contact him at 201-343-6100 or [email protected]. To learn more about First Meridian Mortgage, please visit www.fmm.com.

LIVING IN ISRAEL

Living in the Rova: Pros and ConsBy Gedaliah Borvick

Many, many people have fallen in love

with the Old City’s Jew-ish Quarter, the “Rova.”

Is it any wonder? Spirituality emanates from Har Habayit (the Temple Mount), the surrounding Judean hills and the remnants of thousands of years of Jew-ish history uncovered in practically eve-ry nook and cranny of the neighborhood. The Rova is a short walk to the Kotel for prayer services and moments of person-al introspection and meditation, and one can fi nd Torah classes conducted in many languages and on practically every level from beginner to highly advanced. The excitement of living literally in the center of the world, just steps away from where the third Temple will hopefully be rebuilt speedily, in our days, cannot be surpassed.

Having spent two years back in the early 1980s learning at Yeshivat Hakotel, I can attest to the very rich and colorful times I experienced living in the Rova. I have heard similar stories from clients

whose holiday vacations spent in the Rova were unforgettable and spiritual-ly uplifting. The thrilling sights and ac-tivities combined with the eclectic and colorful personalities of the permanent residents create an atmosphere that tru-ly captures the imagination of Jews from around the world. And so it comes as no surprise when clients mention to me their interest in purchasing an apart-ment in the Jewish Quarter.

In fact, Jews have yearned to live in this area since time immemorial. The land on which the Jewish Quarter is lo-cated has been inhabited by Jews ever since King David established Jerusalem as his capital almost 3,000 years ago. Af-ter Israel’s 1948 War of Liberation, the Jewish residents were forced to evacuate their homes, and all of their synagogues and schools were destroyed by the Arab Legion. It took 19 years before the Rova was liberated in the miraculous Six-Day War, and our generation has been wit-ness to its resettlement.

With such an extraordinary past, ex-citing present and promising future, what are the issues that a potential apart-

ment buyer should consider before buy-ing in the Rova? Although pricing for most apartments (with the exception of the units blessed with picturesque views overlooking the Kotel Plaza) are in the same price range as units in communi-ties such as Rechavia, one must consid-er that access on multiple fronts can be challenging. Shopping within the Rova is limited, and if you choose to shop outside of the Rova, you will have to haul your purchases to your apartment, which can be up to a 15-minute walk from the parking lots. In addition, dur-ing the height of the vacation seasons, such as Sukkos and Pesach, the streets of the Rova can be very congested, making it diffi cult to get around. Other points to consider: The apartments tend to have narrow footprints, so the larger units are often on multiple levels, requiring resi-dents to be comfortable trekking up and down the stairs many times a day. And the fl ip side of having a diverse popula-tion is that the Rova lacks homogeneity, which some people desire in a communi-ty they call home.

I have friends who live in the Rova

and wouldn’t trade their home for any-thing in the world, but most of my cli-ents, upon further deliberation, end up buying outside the Rova— but spending many hours visiting and enjoying this ex-traordinary neighborhood.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency fo-cused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. You may contact him at [email protected].

Time To Get “Totally Organized!”By JLBC S taff

Bergen County—The idea hit two local women, June Aranoff and Rita Cutler,

like a bolt of lightning as they talked one afternoon.

June and Rita are Machetunim (Yid-dish word for in-laws), and while discuss-ing myriad subjects, including the harried and often overloaded schedules our chil-dren currently keep, the inability of young families to keep the home organized came under discussion. Both agreed that with today’s extremely busy schedules, families have very little time to get their homes/of-fi ces organized and under control.

Since both women are extremely or-ganized and can appreciate a clutter free environment, they decided to incorporate

their skills and open a business: Totally Or-ganized. Their goal is to get you up and running.

According to research studies in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, clutter can up your anxiety levels and raise levels of the stress hormone cortisol—which can result in decreased productivity. When clutter takes over the home, stress levels climb.

June and Rita’s approach is to treat each client as an individual and offer free con-sultation. They talk with their clients to determine the most comfortable route to achieve a clutter-free space. Usually, they focus on one area of the home/offi ce where the client would like to start. They offer specifi c organizing suggestions and share a portfolio with a variety of organi-

zational tools and the many available op-tions. Once a plan is established, June and Rita come to their clients home prepared to spend as much time as necessary to get the job done. They physically sort and or-ganize their client’s papers, knick knacks, clothing and toys. A label maker enables June and Rita to identify and color-code the various bins, containers, drawers, etc. , that they bring in to organize a particu-lar client.

It is very important to emphasize to all clients that all work done in their house is kept confi dential. No one need ever know that Totally Organized was ever there, un-less the client decides to share that infor-mation with others.

You might never fi nd the perfect time to call for your free consultation. You just

have to decide that now is the right time to get this done. Call Totally Organized at 201-264-3514 or 845-304-8976 and let them take the stress out of your life. You may also email gabi1jba@gmail. com or [email protected] . You’ll be glad you did!

Jason Berg (l) with Marc Stein of Links Realty at opening

Rita Cutler (l) and June Aranoff of Totally Organized


BOOK REVIEW

A Candle in the Heart: How Yiddishkeit’s Flame Kept a Child AliveBy Bracha Schwartz

From the vantage point of her life as the matriarch of a large and loving fam-

ily, Judith Kallman returns to her war-torn childhood in the Holocaust, shar-ing her memories, and fi lling them in with her adult knowledge. She was only four years old when she saw her parents for the last time. By then, her privileged, comfortable life had already started its rapid descent, and the few memories she has of those early years have had to last

a lifetime. “My children claim that the survivor in me has always been trying to reach the child I once was,” Kallman says in her acknowledgment.

What makes A Candle in the Heart more than a memoir to be appreciated only by Kallman’s family is the vivid de-scription of the people, places and times that shaped her life. She paints a beau-tiful portrait of her birthplace, Piestany in Slovakia (borders changed back and forth for a while), with its town square

and the spa, famous for its rejuvenat-ing mineral baths. Born into a well-to-do family, the youngest of six chil-dren, she was too young to understand the events she writes about but fi lls in with research to keep the narrative ac-curate. She recalls with total clarity the time her family was being hidden in a barn as their protectors had to enter-tain soldiers so they wouldn’t be sus-pected of hiding Jews. Desperate to re-lieve herself, Kallman goes out at night to the dark outhouse – where she falls

into the latrine. Her will to live gives her the strength to somehow climb out. And when she fi nally senses that the soldiers have gone, she runs back to the barn where her mother embraces her, fi lth and all, and gives her the strength to go on.

Kallman, two brothers and a sister were at school when soldiers stormed into her home and took her parents and two other siblings away. The surviving siblings became fugitives, moved from

place to place by the “underground Working Group,” a collaboration of sec-ular and religious Jews working togeth-er to save lives. Eventually winding up in a sanitarium, she recovers and is placed on a kindertransport to England where a foster family gives her stability and a somewhat normal life.

Some Holocaust memoirs lose their interest after the protagonist is rescued. We are happy for the survivor’s escape, but the rest of the story doesn’t always make for good reading. Kallman’s life, and thus her narrative, continues to sur-prise and engage us. She leaves England for Israel, living fi rst in a Mizrachi chil-dren’s village (now AMIT) and then in Tel Aviv. There she meets the man who will become her husband and moves to New York. Again, her life takes an unexpect-ed turn when she is left a young widow with small children. Kallman describes a life focused on family until she realiz-es her children are growing up and she misses companionship. A friend intro-

duces her to Irwin Kallman and she be-gins yet another new chapter.

In a disturbing scene at the conclu-sion of the book, Kallman tells us about being in a Swiss hotel with her husband and meeting a woman who sought her out because she looked American. The woman implies that she knows of omi-nous tidings for America but no one will listen; she says she has had relationships with powerful men in the Middle East and will trade information for safe pas-sage to America. Kallman takes the wom-an’s card and leaves to catch a plane to New York. The date is September 11, 2001. Kallman’s plane is forced to return to re-turn to Switzerland. Back in New York, she tries to bring the woman’s plea to contacts who might help. Although the FBI meets with her, and she gives them the woman’s papers, she never learns an-ything more about the woman or her sto-ry. The episode, however, is a stark re-minder that peace is never permanent and in every generation, someone is try-ing to kill us.

Every Holocaust survivor has a mirac-ulous story. Kallman tells hers with sad-ness, faith and a tranquility that comes from giving her children and grandchil-dren the love that was so brutally stolen from her childhood. The candle in her heart now burns in theirs.

We lived like moles, burrowing deeper and deeper

underground. Our ritual was conducted in whispers –

without candles, without challah, without wine. Mama

taught us to light the candles in our hearts. We might

disguise who we were, but we never denied our faith.

Shabbat, November 23rd

Elijah’s Journey Comes to Teaneck!

On Shabbat, November 23rd

, Parshat Vayeshev will fall on Internat ional

Survivors of Suicide Day. Congregations Netivot Shalom and Shaare

Tefillah will welcome Elijah's Journey, an organization focused on

suicide awareness and prevention initiatives in the Jewish community.

Efrem Epstein, founder of Elijah's Journey, will speak/teach after

Shacharit at Netivot Shalom (~11:30am) and at Seudah Shlishit at Shaare

Tefillah (~4:20pm).

The near-identical presentations will focus on emotional struggles

detailed in the Tanach and what they can teach us in responding to the

estimated 13,000,000 Americans who contemplate suicide every year.

The ent ire Teaneck community is invi ted to at tend the shiur im a t both shuls .

More information about Elijah’s Journey is available at: www.elijahsjourney.net

Yavneh Academy Commemorates Kristallnacht

On November 11, in commemoration of Kristallnacht, the Yavneh Acad-

emy Middle School hosted Mr. Julius Behrend. Mr. Behrend, who currently resides in Spring Valley, NY spoke about his childhood memories of growing up during the Nazi era in Germany.

Born and raised in the famous port city of Hamburg, Germany, Mr. Behrend grew up comfortable, his parents hav-

ing owned a business, and he enjoyed some luxuries that were unavailable to most people at that time.

His paternal grandfather was the president of one of Europe’s most mag-nifi cent synagogues, the orthodox syn-agogue of Hamburg. The synagogue sat amidst a park in the residential sec-

Author Judith Alter Kallman

CONTINUED ON P. 80


SPORTS

Bruriah Lightning Off to a Bright Start

By Sara Weissman

Bruriah’s basketball A Team kicked off its season with a win against

Maayanot at home! The game was ac-tion packed from the second the play-ers stepped onto the court. The team was energized, excited, and united as they passed, dribbled, and ran the fl oor. After Nikki Bick (jr.) scored a lay-up off the opening tip, it was clear that the team was prepared for a successful evening. Among the highlights, Michal Hyman (jr.) sprinted the length of the court for an open layup; Ally Orgel, Dani Berlin, and Julia Landau (sophs.) all scored; and Tovah Weiskopf made

her freshman debut. Penina Abram-ov (sr.) let nothing getting in her way as she led the team on defense. Bruri-ah received solid defense from Jennif-er Gardner (sr.) and Tali Becker (fr.), as well.

Led by Susan Rifkin, an enthusiastic, devoted, and optimistic coach, Bruriah’s basketball A Team is happy to have won its season opener. Comments from the spectators include “They play well to-gether and are in sync.” The team’s hard work and positive spirit are palpable on and off the court! Join the fun and watch Bruriah in action on November 21 at Ramaz and November 24 v. Central at home. Go Lighting!

TABC JV HockeyBy Jonah Ganchrow

The JV hockey TABC Storm traveled to the Lion’s Den in Washington Heights

to play the MTA Lions. The Storm started off strong with early and effi cient goals in the fi rst period. By the time the period was over it was 7-0 in favor of the Storm with Daniel Levy (2, 3), Yair Knoller (5, 6), Zach Rothenberg (2), Jonah Ganchrow (2) and Leo Dresdner (1) scored his fi rst. With this huge early lead, Coach Norm

Blumenthal gave his starters a rest. But Leo Dresdner (2) scored another beauty short-handed and Daniel Levy (4) netted his third of the game, to make it 9-0. With such a comfortable lead, Coach Norm did not place another starter on the court for the whole third period. The game ended with a fi nal score of 9-0.

The goal-tending was outstanding thanks to Shua Beilin, Donny Rozenberg and Solly Weiser who all contributed for a combined shutout.

son was also the most exciting. After a high scoring game 1 this was a true pitch-ers duel. Ruditzky, Kravetz and Markovitz combined on pitching a one hitter with Schwartz calling a great game at catch-er. Sheinfeld’s single drove in the fi rst run of the game after singles by Ruditz-ky and Green. With the score tied at one going into the bottom of the sixth Mark-ovitz led off with a walk. Ruditzky dou-ble ended the game with a 2-1 walk-off in dramatic fashion to bring the teams re-cord to 2-0.

Game 3 quickly brought the team back to earth as Teaneck played a club team, the NJ Stampede. Teaneck jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with Sheinfeld hitting a bas-es loaded single in the fi rst. Jared Kinch-es made a nice outfi eld catch to hold the

stampede scoreless after one. The stam-pede then put on a hitting display with multiple long shots to the fence for a 15-4 pounding. Although the team lost they took the game as a great learning experi-ence of how solid top to bottom aggres-sive hitting as a key to growing as players and winning games. The team hit the cag-es. Game 4 Teaneck put runs on the board in every inning highlighted with a triple by Green and singles by Wolin, Vogel, Grinfeld and Markovitz. Jacob Mauskopf made a great play in center throwing out a runner at fi rst base on a grounder up the middle. With the game tied at 7 after six the Clarkstown Stars called the game as a tie to bring the record to 2-1-1.

Game 5 against upper saddle river was a rout. Ruditzky pitched a perfect game with 6 strikeouts to the fi rst 6 bat-ters and hit a double and a home-run. Sheinfeld had 3 hits, Green and Ruditzky 2 hits, and Mauskopf, Schwartz, Kravetz, Markovitz and Wolin each had base hits. Next up were the NJ Red Sox. After a pep talk by the coach about not losing to a team called the Red Sox, 3 Teaneck pitchers Ruditzky, Wolin and Marko-

vitz threw a shutout. Teaneck took the lead for good in the fi fth off of hits by Kravetz, Vogel, Mauskopf and Kinches leading to a 6-0 Teaneck win and a 4-1-1 record. Game 7 was against a yet to win Paramus team who is always the tough-est nemesis of Teaneck travel. This year proved no different as Paramus pitchers were pumped up and held Teaneck to 2 runs through 4 innings. Teaneck pitchers were never comfortable on the mound and gave up a number of runs in the late innings. After 2 hits by Kravetz and a home-run by Markovitz Teaneck took a 10-9 lead to the bottom of the sixth. Te-aneck couldn’t get the fi nal out and Par-amus scored the winning run on an in-fi eld hit.

The fi nal game of the regular season was a rematch vs. the Woodcliff Lake Lakers and once again Teaneck put runs on the board winning 15-4 after 4 in-nings. Sheinfeld and Kravetz had multi hit games and Wolin had another good game on the mound. Teaneck ended the regular season at 5-2-1 and were in second place heading into the playoffs. After an odd ruling by the league that provided

the Red Sox with a forfeit win on a game not played. Teaneck was dropped to 3rd place and had to travel for their playoff game and shot at the championship. In a high scoring game Teaneck took an 8-6 lead behind multi hit games by Ruditz-ky, Green and Kravetz. One tough inning saw Teaneck give up the lead for good. Fi-nal score was 18-13. Players fought hard until the fi nal out just as they had all sea-son.

Special thanks to head coach David Ruditzky who gave lots of his time in coaching and mentoring the kids, run-ning practices and scheduling games. Additional thanks to the asst coaches and parents including Norm Blumen-thal, Yudy Sheinfeld, Phil Green, Allan Schwartz, Eric Mauskopf and Avi Vogel.

The players, parents and coaches were thrilled with the progress the team made throughout the season. Players had a great time at practices and games and are thankful to the fans that showed up to the games throughout the season to sup-port the team. After the fi nal out the play-ers were most excited to get a cup of hot chocolate as it was freezing out there!

Varsity Basketball Suff ers Overtime Defeat

by Ezra Teichman (‘14)

On Tuesday night, the Lions faced the Magen David Warriors. The Lions

played an excellent fi rst half, especially on the defensive end, and went into the half up by one. The Lions could not buy a bucket in the third quarter and quickly fell behind. By the time the fourth quar-ter came around the Lions found them-selves down by ten points. But thanks to

some big shot making by Willy Kluger (10 points) and Akiva (10 ponts) Gottlieb the Lions were able to cut the lead to three. With forty seconds left, Eli Lipner (17 points) was fouled on a three pointer and hit all three free throws to tie the game. After a defensive stop the game went into overtime. In overtime, the Lions did not execute from the line and could not stop Magen David on the other end. The fi nal score was 58-53 in favor of MDY.

MTA JV Basketball Hot Start Continues

With Win Over WestchesterBy Coach Yosef Weinberger

The JV Lions continued their hot start with another victory over Westches-

ter. MTA was in control throughout the game and won by a fi nal score of 50-33. They were propelled once again by stel-

lar team defense and unselfi sh play on offense. Adam Motovich led the way in scoring with 10 points and Ben Miller provided a spark with his outside shoot-ing. The Lions look to continue their success in their next game against Hes-chel.

Ma’ayanot Varsity Volleyball Off to a Strong Start

By Pammy Brenner

Tuesday, October 29th - Ma’ayanot’s varsi-ty volleyball team kicked off the sea-

son with a win against Ramaz. Although Ramaz won the fi rst set, Ma’ayanot came back and secured the victory by winning the next three sets. The Rapids were off to a great season!

Sunday, November 3rd - The team played their second game against Kush-ner. The Rapids won the fi rst set 25-6, and the next two sets were quickly won as well. A highlight of the game includ-ed junior Alex Fuch’s 15 consecutive serves.

Tuesday, November 5th - Ma’ayanot’s volleyball team was put to the test in

their third game against Frisch. The fi rst set was close, but the Rapids lost 21-25. The second set was even closer, but the Rapids lost again by a score of 25-23. Frisch only needed to win one more set to take the game.

The excitement grew as the Rapids rallied from behind to win both the third and fourth sets, 25-20 and 25-17 re-spectively, which set up the need for a tense tie-breaker set. Coming off of two straight set wins, the Rapid’s mo-rale was high and they rode that mo-mentum to a decisive 21-9 win in the fi nal set. After a slow start, Ma’ayanot rallied to win the game against Frisch! The Rapids’ ga ming record is now 3-0. Go Rapids!

Teaneck TBO 8U Closes Out Strong Fall Run CONTINUED FROM P. 1

Send us your sports news, events, and photos! Send to [email protected]


SPORTS

Frisch Basketball ReportBy JLBC Sports Staff

On November 6th, the Kushner JV Co-bras came to Frisch ready to take

on the JV Cougars after the Cobras’ im-pressive performance in a tough loss to TABC.

The Cougars jumped out to a 13-2 lead on the back of So. F. Andrew Langer’s driving and dishing and fi ve points from So. G Mayer Scharlat and four more from So. PG Noah Schech-ter. So. F Isaac Weinstock held down the boards along with So. C Zach Co-hen, who had four blocks in the quarter to go with his two points. The Cobras cut the lead to 13-8 at one point, while Frisch subbed frequently. Ultimately, although the tough Cobras would not quit in the face of waves of pressure, the Cougars overpowered the squad from Livingston. The half ended with Frisch enjoying a 35-12 lead.

The second half saw more of the same, as Frisch used the whole roster to fi nally vanquish Kushner 67-27. Scharlat lead the Cougars with 12 points, Fr. G Yis-roel Solomon added nine, and Schech-ter and So. F. Scott Levine (the “Monsey Microwave”) both tallied six. Cohen fi n-ished with fi ve blocks and Weinstock added three points to go with his fi ve boards. Sophomores F/C Gideon Bench-abbat and Captain G Jon Siedel chipped in with tough defense and strong re-bounding to round out the win.

The Frisch JV (2-0) takes on Ramaz in

the Basement on November 20, 2013 at 7 p.m., part of a JV/ Varsity doublehead-er.

November 9, 2013, Motzei Shabbat—The Frisch Cougar Varsity rolled into Manhattan to take on the MTA Lions in a battle between league rivals. Frisch jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but the Lions scratched back with the help of Jr. G Willie Kluger’s three-ball to lead 9-7 at the end of the fi rst quarter. Sr. G Jacob Furer’s four points kept the Cougars close. The second quarter brought more scoring as the teams loosened up. Jr. F Benni Tuchman (four points), Sr. G/F Justin Hod (four points) and Sr. G Eli Scharlat (one three-ball) held sway for Frisch, but MTA, led by 10 points from Sr. C Eli Lipner, lead 30-21 at the half.

Frisch came out to start the second half with a full court press that rat-tled the Lions, and the Cougars began to crawl back into the game. At the end of three quarters, Frisch had made pro-gress and cut the lead to 38-32. With their star Lipner injured after land-ing hard on his arm in the third quar-ter, MTA could not hold off the Frisch waves of pressure in the last stanza. Frisch closed out the game on a 10-0 run, lead in the quarter by Hod’s sev-en points and another four from Tuch-man, for a fi nal score of 47-40. Hod lead all scorers with 14, followed by Tuch-man with 12, Furer with eight, big men Sr. C Jake Reichel and Sr. C Evan Cohen with fi ve each, and Scharlat’s three.

Frisch Flag Football LeagueBy Daniel Raykher

With 175 boys participating, IFL is the biggest club in Frisch. IFL is the rec-

reational fl ag football league in Frisch. The commissioner is Rabbi Schachter and the co-commissioner is Rabbi Sher. There are 21 teams made up of students with a senior captain, and a 22nd team,

the “Running Rebs”, the rabbi team. IFL is played on Fridays and Sundays, all year round. IFL is a great way to make friends, bond with students in other grades, get some exercise and most importantly have fun!

Daniel Raykher, is a senior at Frisch and Four year veteran of Frisch IFL and captain of this year’s West All Stars.

Frisch Hockey Hits the Ground Running By Jacob Bach

The Frisch Cougars had just come off a big 2-1 win vs. MTA when they had to

bring their talents to the Five Towns to take on Rambam. The small gym played to their disadvantage, but the Cougars still managed to squeak out a 5-4 win.

Odi Haramati led the team with a hat

trick, while clutch goals came from Jason Levine and Jono Wietschner. The penalty kill has remained perfect this year as well as a strong power play which has helped the team tremendously. Again Frisch waited until the third period to turn on the jets and take over the game.

Frisch will next take on Kushner and look to extend its perfect record to 4-0.

Frisch Varsity Girls VolleyballBy Sydney Silverstein

The Frisch Varsity volleyball team is a family. Every Tuesday and Wednes-

day night it meets in the gym for week-ly practices. While its members take prac-tices very seriously, they do manage to have loads of fun. For every birthday the coach, Adina, bakes delicious brownies or cookies to celebrate.

It is never annoying or frustrating to

attend practice; even when the players have a lot of work due or tests the next day. Volleyball is always one of the play-ers’ priorities.

This season, so far, the team has had two victories over Kushner and one vic-tory over Bruriah. It has one loss against Maayonot,.

This is just the beginning of an amaz-ing season and the team’s future is look-ing bright.

The Basketball Season at Ma’ayanot has Offi cially BegunBy Shana Adler

After a disappointing end to the season last year, when the JV basketball team

lost in the fi rst round of the playoffs, the girls were excited to return to the court united and stronger than ever. Under the amazing guidance of coaches Keni Ash-by and Atara Polinsky, the team practiced about four hours a week, beginning two months prior to their fi rst game. Their coaches provided this team of freshmen and sophomores with the skills and in-spiration to allow them to prosper in the season to come. All the hard work and ef-fort led to the team’s victory against the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn on Sun-day 11/10/13.

The game opened with amazing shots from Racheli Zirman, Alissa Felder

and Gabi Lerner. Blocks, steals and great plays allowed for an outstanding game. At half time, the Ma’ayanot Rapids had an eight point lead over Flatbush. After the half, both teams were able to score many points, but the Rapids played tough defense and amazing offense to ultimately take the game. Ma’ayanot fi nished on top with a fi nal score of 34-26.

This basketball team has the poten-tial to win many more games this sea-son, and will continue to work hard in order to do so. The Ma’ayanot Rapids have yet to win a basketball champion-ship, and this team of g reat players, led by their amazing coaches, are hoping to make Ma’ayanot history and be the fi rst team to bring that championship bas-ketball banner home to Ma’ayanot.

TABC JV Storm beats the Thunder

The JV Storm Basketball team took on the strong JEC Thunder in front of a

rocking house in Elizabeth on Wednes-day night. The Thunder came out swing-ing with a 6-0 lead on two three-point-ers before the fans were in their seats. The Storm players kept their cool and climbed out to 13-10 lead after the fi rst quarter led by Shlomo Kroopnick’s (’16) inspired effort in his fi rst career start and superb all-around play from Tai Ger-szberg (’16).

After some even play in the second, the Storm carried a slim three point lead at the half. TABC stretched the lead in the

third to seven resulting from solid team defense. The lead was stretched to 10 ear-ly in the fourth and was held steady de-spite a late push from the home Thunder to a fi nal score of 43-33. Noah Greenblatt (’17) showed tremendous poise on de-fense late in the game, Gavi Smith (’16) ran the show smoothly, Aaron Heide-man (’16) chipped in with 10 points and solid defense, Yehoshua Naor (’16) played hard-nosed two way basketball laying in 12 points, grabbing 16 boards (nine offen-sive) and Tai Gerszberg fi lled in the stat sheet with eight points, seven assists, fi ve steals and fi ve rebounds.

TABC Varsity Storm By Tzvi Rotblat

On Wednesday night, No-vember 6, the TABC

Storm took on the RTMA Thunder. After a close start the TABC Storm pulled away and led by 17 at halftime. That lead was extended to 35 by the game’s end with the fi nal score of 66-35.

TABC was led by Solomon Shulman with 17 points, Alex

Hirt with 15 points, and Yeho-shua Zirmman with eight points, 12 rebounds, and fi ve blocked shots. Moshe Brum, Dan Poleyeff also played a key role, as well as Noah Hill-er, Joey Spierer and Tzvi Rot-blat.


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with a payload that included a multispec-tral camera for recording desertaerosol (dust). In July 1998, he reported for train-ing at the Johnson Space Center, Hou-ston, Texas, where he trained until 2003.

He fl ew aboard STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes in space.

Although considered a secular Jew, Ramon reportedly sought to follow Jew-ish observances while in orbit. In an in-terview he said, “I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis.” He was the fi rst spacefl ight participant to request kosher food. He reportedly sought advice from a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi, Zvi Konikov,

about how to observe the Jewish Sab-bath in space, as the period between sun-rises in orbit is approximately 90 min-utes. This was referenced by the words “Jerusalem we have a problem” in Rabbi Konikov’s speech at the Kennedy Space Center Memorial for Columbia on Febru-ary 7, 2003.

The STS-107 mission ended abrupt-ly when Space Shuttle Columbia was

destroyed and its crew perished during re-entry.

Aboard STS-107, Ramon carried a pen-cil sketch, “Moon Landscape”, drawn by 16-year-old Petr Ginz, who died in Aus-chwitz. Ramon also took with him a microfi che copy of the Torah given to him by Israeli president Moshe Katsav and a miniature Torah scroll (from the Holocaust) that was given him by Prof. Yehoyachin Yosef, a Bergen-Belsen sur-vivor. Ramon asked the 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivor organization in Los Angeles, for a symbol of the Holocaust to take into outer space with him. A barbed wire mezuzah by the San Francisco artist Aimee Golant was selected. Ramon also took with him a dollar of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

Gary Reisman was born October 2, 1968, in Parsippany, N.J. He earned a B.Sc. in economics at Wharton and in mechan-ical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991; a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Cal Tech, in 1992 and 1997, respec-tively. After that he worked at TRW as a guidance, navigation and control engi-neer, where he helped design unmanned spacecraft for NASA.

He was the fi rst Jewish astronauat to man the International Space Station, where he spend many months doing ex-periments, spacewalks to install robot-ic equipment and training new replace-ments. On board was a memento he had brought with him from Ilan Ramon’s widow.

Jews in Space CONTINUED FROM P. 64

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An Evening of “Defi ance” and Celebration: Bielski Partisans HonoredBy Steve Fox

New York—The Jewish Partisan Educa-tion Foundation (JPEF) held their annu-

al dinner at New York’s Gotham Hall and honored the Bielski family and all of the surviving Bielski Partisans, who famously formed the largest Jewish Resistance army in Russia during the Holocaust. It was an evening that celebrated the triumph of Jewish determination and the heroic ac-complishments of the Bielski Partisans, led by brothers Tuvia, Asael and Zus who formed an underground army and built an encampment in the forest, in the pro-cess saving over 1100 Jews. Younger broth-er Aron, who was only 10 at the time and is the lone surviving brother, as well as a large number of Bielski children and grandchil-dren were in attendance at the dinner.

Many cousins came to honor their grandfather Aaron Bell (nee Bielski). Aron’s daughter, Susan Abrams lives in Teaneck. Former Teaneck residents Aliza Abrams and her brother David, were there, too. “We didn’t always know about our grand-father and what he went through because when we were younger it was very hard for him to speak about his experiences. As we got older, he began to share his story, com-mented Aliza. “It wasn’t until the books and the movie Defi ance (which portrayed the Bielski Brigade) came out, when we real-ized how many people were saved by our

grandfather’s family.” Aliza brought Aron to Yeshiva University to speak to the students of YU and Stern last year to share his expe-riences. “My grandfather taught me the im-portance of identifying as a Jew and so I al-ways wear a yarmulke at work, since they didn’t survive for us not to be proud of our Judaism,” added David.

JPEF premiered The Legacy of the Biels-ki Brigade at the dinner. The fi lm is narrat-ed by actor Liev Schrieber, who portrayed Zus Bielski in the feature fi lm Defi ance and is an active supporter of JPEF. After the fi lm, each of the 17 Bielski Partisans in attendance was presented with a special commemorative medal designed especial-ly for the occasion by the JPEF—they were placed around the recipients’ necks by one of their children or grandchildren. It was an emotional and joyous way to recognize the heroism of these brave fi ghters and to convey the lesson to all about Jewish deter-mination and Jewish survival.

Helen and Sheldon Zelig of Englewood and their sons Aaron and Joshua also at-tended to honor Helen’s mother, Lisa Kush-ner Reibel, who could not attend. Lisa and her sister Rae, brother Chanon and father Nachum, were part of a group of 230 Jews who escaped the notorious Novogrudek Ghetto by digging a long tunnel over a pe-riod of months and fl eeing into the forest. Chanon was killed soon afterward. The Bielskis heard about this group and res-

cued them by inviting them to join their encampment, which resembled a small vil-lage.

In reality, the majority of the people in the Bielski camp were not the fi ghters but received refuge and protection from the Bielskis. A few years ago, JPEF produced a fi lm called A Partisan Returns, showing the Kushners, their children and grandchildren returning to Novogrudek and to the site of the Bielski encampment. “I was overcome with tremendous emotion when I looked around the room and realized that most of the 400 people at the dinner would not be sitting here without the heroism of the Beil-ski brothers,” observed Helen Zelig. Helen’s cousin ____ who is Rae Kushner’s daughter, and her daughter Pamela Hirt and her hus-band Ari, of Bergenfi eld also attended the dinner.

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershow-itz saluted the courage of the Partisans and stressed the importance of standing up for your people and showing support for Israel, especially on college campus-es. “The Bielskis had courage thrust upon them unwillingly. They had no choice and they knew it,” he exclaimed. Quoting Elie Weisel, Dershowitz proclaimed, “Always believe the threats of your enemies more than the promises of your friends.” He add-ed, “The Bielskis built a city—Jerusalem—in the forest because they had to depend only on themselves or die. Every young

person who understands the story of the Partisans would be proud—but they have to know about it.”

That is the mission of the Jewish Par-tisans Educational Foundation which pro-vides more than 7200 educators world-wide with JPEF’s innovative curriculum and fi lms and sponsors special events in-spiring young people to stand up against discrimination and antisemitism by retell-ing the story of the Jewish Partisans. It is estimated that from the 1,100 Jews rescued by the Bielski’s there are now over 10,000 Jewish children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren leading one to wonder how many more Jews would have come from the 6 million who were murdered. They are the real legacy of the Bielski brothers.

“I think it is the responsibility of eve-ry young person to speak to a survivor be-cause you are the last generation to know survivors. It will change your life,” added David Abrams. Like the multitude of Biel-ski Partisan children and grandchildren in attendance, he speaks from fi rst- hand ex-perience.

For more information about the JPEF go to www.Jewishpartisans.org.

Steve Fox is president of Fox Marketing & Video Productions in Teaneck and co-chair of the Teaneck Holocaust Commemoration Committee as well as the Bergen County Holocaust Memorial Committee. He can be reached at [email protected].


KRISTALLNACHT

Berenbaum On Kristallancht: Speech to Survivors Offers New PersepctivesBy Jeanette Friedman

Henderson, NV—More than 500 child survivors of the Holocaust, survivor

descendants and guests gathered in a ball-room in the Nevada desert to commemo-rate the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. They listened raptly as Holocaust schol-ar and JLBC contributor, Dr. Michael Be-renbaum addressed a joint convention of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors, Second Generation and their Descendants and the group, Generations of the Shoah International.

In offering perspectives on Kristallnacht that are often overlooked, Berenbaum chose a style he usually re-serves for the classroom, engaging his audience by making them think. At one point, he told them, “To understand the Holocaust, you need to understand three words: defi nition, expropriation and concentration.” Defi nitions were used to separate the Jews from the main-stream, expropriation was a form of dis-emancipation, and concentration— it was pretty clear what he meant by that. He addressed many issues and of-fered many historical facts, but the ma-jor theme was that the night of Novem-ber 9-10, 1938 was about much more than broken glass and history. It was really about the synagogues, their role in the Jewish community, and the purpose be-hind their destruction.

Berenbaum began by examining the word Kristall—nacht. “You know that language is deceptive and many of you were deceived by the language of the Shoah. You know what resettlement to the East meant. It did not mean resettle-ment to the East. You also understood the various ways in which people spoke when they said one thing and meant an-other.

“In Germany, over the last 30 years, the label of that night is more common-ly referred to as the Reichspogrom of No-vember 1938. Crystal is beautiful, Crystal is lovely, Crystal has a certain sound to it and a certain delicacy to it and Reichspo-grom tells a much deeper truth.”

When most American Jews think about Kristallnacht, they think about the broken storefronts, 7,000 of them, that were shattered that night—and the One billion Reichsmarks they had to pay, and the insurance they were forbid-den to collect. We think about the burn-ing of the synagogues almost as an after-thought. Berenbaum’s talk showed how the burning of the synagogues of Ger-many was really what the destruction of that night was about.

He began by describing a nine-hour conversation with a man in Milwaukee, as they looked at a collection of pictures of synagogues in Germany before the war. This man convinced Berenbaum that to understand the real meaning of Kristallnacht you had to understand the role of the synagogue in German nation-al life. “Then you can begin to under-stand the elements refl ected in the burn-ing of the synagogues. For a community of 525,000 Jews, there were 2,200 syna-gogues. Think about that. I come from

Los Angeles which has 600,000 Jews, and may not have 200 synagogues. So the 525,000 Jews in Germany had two thousand two hundred synagogues and those synagogues became part of the public expression of the role of Jews in German society.

“They were often built in triangula-tion with the cathedral and the Catho-lic church, to indicate that Germany was a pluralistic, multi-religious community. The synagogues that were built were an expression of the great progress that the Jews had made within Germany—they had built buildings of signifi cance.”

In order to contrast that with Amer-ica, Berenbaum drew distinctions of what happened when the Jews arrived in New Amsterdam in the 15th century, and Peter Stuyvesant forbade the build-ing of synagogues. “It took a very long time before Jews were able to have an expression of Jewish presence in the community by building houses of wor-ship, to become part of the fabric of the community.” He followed by describing how one of the synagogues in Cincin-nati was designed to integrate into the community and refl ect the Jewish pres-ence there.

“What Germany was doing by de-stroying the synagogues showed, in the most essential, physical way imaginable,

how much they were willing to do—what price they were willing to pay—to tear the Jewish community out of the fabric of life in Germany. Think of that as you begin to think about what hap-pened on Kristallnacht, on the night of the Reichspogrom of 1938.”

Berenbaum then established a prin-ciple: Just because Jews were powerless, that did not mean they were passive. He repeated it twice and said. “Look around here at all the child survivors of the Hol-ocaust, and you will see that the rea-son that almost all of them survived is because despite the limited power they had or their parents had, their parents were absolutely anything but passive. They tried any way, manner or form to save their children, in order to give them the possibility of life. That is a form of activism that you have to understand.” He then applied that principle to the role of synagogues in the German-Jew-ish community.

“What is a synagogue? A synagogue on Friday night, on Shabbat, became a place in which you had services. On Monday it became a theatre, on Tues-day it became a symphony hall and on Wednesday it became an opera house. On Monday morning it became the place for the distribution of welfare. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, they were teaching Jews mobile professions

because the best way to survive, the best way to leave, was if you had a mobile profession.

“What is a mobile profession? Plumb-ers, electricians, and agriculture are mo-bile professions. Even nursing is a mo-bile profession. Doctors and lawyers are not. Doctors are not because the li-censing requirements are enormously severe…. In the synagogues, they were training a generation to live life else-where, while they were trying to fi nd ways to get out of Germany. One of the deepest problems is not that the Jews didn’t want to leave. There was nowhere for Jews to go that was suffi cient to ac-cept the numbers that had to leave.”

Berenbaum continued, “The syna-gogue was also a place to teach the tra-dition to people who didn’t know what it really was to be Jewish. Martin Buber stayed until 1938, until almost the very end, because he had founded an insti-tute for adult Jewish studies to try to give people inner resources with which to face extreme degradation and humil-iation. He tried to give them an attitude to wear the Jewish star with pride in-stead of the disdain with which the Na-zis were forcing them to wear it. Now think of our children, and the women and people of beauty and affl uence who walk around with a little Jewish star

around their necks, and what they feel in America and in the world today when they wear it with pride.”

Berenbaum then offered two pro-found examples of how prayer was used to teach the Jews of Germany how to re-spond to the lives they were then living. “Rabbi Leo Baeck composed a prayer for Yom Kippur 1935, which he read in German, but only someone who knew the original text would understand the changes. It was Aleynu, and to the phrase, ‘We bow our heads and bend our knees before the King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed be He,’ he added the words, ‘But we stand erect before man.’ It was his way of telling the community on this most scared night that part of being a Jew is to stand against the idolatry they were experiencing all around them.”

Another example came from Rab-bi Joachim Prince, who was one of the last rabbis in Berlin. (Prince, who sur-vived, was a Bergen county resident, and was the speaker who preceded the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the podium on The Mall in DC, when King made his “I Have A Dream” speech.) In 1937, Prince was prohibited from preaching, and the Gestapo monitored the synagogue. He asked the Gestapo agent if he could lead his congregation in prayer, and since that was not yet prohibited, he was giv-en permission to proceed.

“He read a line in the Amida, in Sh-moneh Esrei, one that traditional Jews read at least three times a day—and there are people here who have prayed it thousands of times but never paid real attention to it. He had his congregation read it again and again in Hebrew, not a language the Gestapo understood: ‘Ve chol ha choshvim olay roah, meheyra ofer atzosam ve kalkel maschshevotam—and all who plan evil against me, quickly an-nul their counsel and frustrate their in-tention.’ In other words, let God confuse our oppressors.

“The congregation read it, and they read it again, and they read it again and again because it was sinking into them as they understood what it translated into in Germany, what it really meant. The synagogue was trying to be respon-sible.”

More than 1,000 German synagogues were burned that night, as bystanders brought children to watch the fl ames and fi re departments were prohibited from extinguishing the fl ames unless they were spreading to nearby proper-ties.

“By attacking the synagogue,” said Berenbaum, “they were attacking the heart and soul of the Jewish communi-ty and the only institution that respond-ed to the catastrophe. The synagogues responded to the catastrophe by trans-formation. When the Germans attacked the synagogue, they were depriving Jews of anything roughly resembling a public life or a communal life. They were being ripped out of the presence of German society.”

He then directed his remarks to kindertransportees in the audience and noted that after Kristallnacht, their par-ents took an enormous risk by placing them—and he used the title of a mov-ie about them to describe it—into the arms of strangers. “They did it because they loved you so much they wanted you to survive. No parent under normal circumstances would give their child to an unknown person to raise him unless they understood desperation.”

His conclusion was to the point: “To-night we remember with pride the role of the synagogue and its prominence in German society. We remember the cruelty that was infl icted on this night 75 years ago, and we remember the by-standers who watched the synagogues burn and who brought their kids to watch the synagogues burn. We remem-ber that there were rooms where even the most scared could not be left alone and had to be desecrated and destroyed. We remember the outrage of the world that did not translate into doing some-thing serious about the situation. We re-member the courage of the Jews who understood they had to get out and those who got out—and the despair of the Jews who knew they had to get out and had nowhere to go.

“And we remember that the trag-ic Reichspogrom of November 1938, Kristallnacht, was the tragic end of the beginning and the beginning of the end.”

When the Germans attacked the synagogue, they were

depriving Jews of anything roughly resembling a public

life or a communal life. They were being Ripped

out of the presence of German society.


Kristallnacht Commemoration at Teaneck High School

Teaneck—Teaneck High School’s Hol-ocaust and Genocide Studies Cent-

er will host a Kristallnacht Commemo-ration to mark the 75th Anniversary of the “Night of Broken Glass” which took place on November 9 & 10 in 1938. The pogrom took place throughout Germa-ny and within the occupied areas of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Instigated by Nazi offi cials but publicized as “out-raged public reaction” to the murder

of Ernst Vom Rath, a German Embas-sy offi cial stationed in Paris, by a Jew-ish teenager, Herschel Grynszpan, the night resulted in the shattering of tens of thousands of Jewish homes, busi-nesses and tombstones. It heralded the beginning of the end for European Jew-ry.

The program at Teaneck High School will feature Miriam Hilsenrath of Highland Park, great-grandmother

and survivor of the horrifi c Auschwitz death camp. Accompanying her will be her daughter, Rochelle Goldschmiedt of Bergenfi eld, herself a grandmoth-er, who described her recent tribute to her mother’s courage and fortitude by participating in the NYC Marathon and Triathalon. She will explain how her mother’s strength served as her inspi-ration and how her own children were inspired as well.

Goldie Minkowitz, Math instructor at THS, has arranged for selected Social Studies classes and the Israel Club to participate in the program. Interested community members should contact Goldie Minkowitz at [email protected] or Pearl Markovitz at [email protected].

Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 9:45 a.m. at the Teaneck High School Stu-dent Center 3rd Floor.

Boy AvengerBy Michael Berenbaum

I began reading Jonathan Kirsch’s The Short Strange Life of Herschel Gryn-

szpan: A Boy Avenger, A Nazi Diplomat and a Murder in Paris (Liveright Publish-ing Co., 2013,) with considerable skep-ticism. As Kirsch notes, Grynszpan, the 17-year-old assassin of Ernst vom Rath—the Third Secretary in the German Em-bassy in Paris, whose death was used by the Nazi as an excuse to launch the November 1938 pogrom euphemistical-ly known as Kristallnacht—might seem merely a footnote to history. How inter-esting could the life of a 17-year-old high school dropout be? What story could Kirsch tell?

But it took only a few pages for my skepticism to turn to admiration, as Kirsch tells a powerful story with the skill of a novelist and the precision of a historian. His discoveries are many; here and there I might disagree with his inter-pretation of some events or his conden-sation of evolving German policies, but these are scholarly quibbles and do not affect the integrity of the work.

Grynszpan was the son of Zindel and Rivka, Polish Jews living in Germany who were expelled in October 1938 and forced to survive in no man’s land. Unable to re-main in Germany, their home for years, they were not readmitted to their native Poland and lived in Zbanzyn, betwixt and between. Herschel’s sister wrote a postcard to her brother briefl y describing their condition and the circumstances af-fl icting some 12,000 Jews who had been expelled, and that propelled Herschel to

act. He bought a gun, entered the Paris embassy and shot a Third Secretary.

I knew Herschel’s father had survived the Shoah and that he took the stand at the Eichmann trial in 1961, one of the few survivors whose testimony Hannah Arendt treated with a measure of sym-pathy. I also remembered that Herschel Grynszpan was not the fi rst Jew to take a German’s life. Two years earlier, in 1936, David Frankfurter, a Jewish medical-school student in Switzerland, assassi-nated Wilhelm Gustloff, a Nazi function-ary, but that took place while Germany was hosting the winter Olympics and in-structions had gone out to put the best face forward: antisemitism was toned down; graffi ti was covered over; racial posters were removed and instructions had been given to be kind to tourists and give them the impression that the reports overseas about Nazi Germany were exag-gerated, mere anti-German propaganda. As a result, no collective retaliation was meted out to the Jewish community.

Grynszpan attacked vom Rath on Nov. 7, and the timing was unfortunate. Nov. 9 was a sacred date on the Nazi calendar, the anniversary of the failed putsch at-tempt in 1923 that landed Hitler in jail but was regarded by the “old fi ghters,” the early Nazis supporters, as the launch-ing pad for a movement. Hitler and his most ardent supporters had gathered in Munich for the celebration, and they ex-ploited the opportunity for widespread violence against the Jews—more than a thousand synagogues were burned, 7,000 businesses were looted and ran-sacked, and 30,000 men aged 16-60 were arrested and sent to the newly enlarged concentration camps of Dachau, Buchen-wald and Sachsenhausen, which for the

fi rst time had a majority Jewish popula-tion. The events of November 9th-11th in Germany, which by then also included Austria, were as historians are apt to char-acterize it, “the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end.”

Like an artist painting a canvas, Kirsch is a master of context. He captures the tensions within the Grynszpan house-hold in Germany, where they had lived since 1911, their efforts to eke out a mea-ger living, their disappointment at Her-schel’s lack of direction and their brave but also necessary decision to send their youngest child away from Nazi Germany. Kirsch also portrays the extended Gryn-szpan family, Herschel’s grandmother, who feels abandoned by her sons who had left her behind in Poland, and each of Herschel’s uncles and aunts, who fi g-ure prominently in his escape fi rst into Belgium and then to France, and his new life in Paris. Kirsch understands the fam-ily dynamics, the rivalry among broth-ers, the tensions among the sisters-in-law and the burdens placed on these relation-ships by the arrival of their troublesome nephew. He is able to trace Herschel’s so-journ in Belgium, his illegal crossing into France and his arrival in Paris, where he lived in constant danger of being dis-covered by the police. He depicts Gryn-szpan’s life on the streets of the City of Lights, the cafés he visited and the com-pany that he kept.

Kirsch’s description of the assassina-tion itself is masterful, and he follows Grynszpan through from arrest to interro-gation and then his strategy for defense.

Remarkably, Grynszpan was immedi-ately turned over by the Germans to the French police, and he remained in their custody even after Germany conquered

France; Grynszpan, a high-profi le polit-ical prisoner, was spirited out to Vichy France, eluding German capture for a time. So too, were the documents of his case, making it ever more diffi cult for the conquering Germans to get their hands on this prized possession.

Kirsch explores and debunks the ru-mors that vom Rath and Grynszpan were lovers, but not before skillfully explor-ing the rumor and how it might have been possible, and also not before de-picting the Nazi German policy toward homosexual men and the macho bonds among the Nazi chieftains. Grynszpan masterfully used these rumors to prevent a show trial in Berlin, as German propa-gandists, headed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, feared that instead of having a trial fo-cused on the international Jewish con-spiracy it might show widespread ho-mosexuality within the ranks of the Nazi elite, thus embarrassing the Germans. Kirsch even follows Grynszpan through to the gates of the concentration camps and onto his death.

Signifi cantly, Kirsch asks the largest of all questions: Why is Grynszpan not re-garded as one of the giants of the Jewish resistance movements? Why is his name not mentioned alongside Mordecai An-ielewicz, Abba Kovner and Tuvia Bielsky? Perhaps it was because he acted too ear-ly, only on his own, or for reasons that seemed personal more than ideological and political. Or perhaps it was because in retaliation for the assassination, the Nazis exacted such massive punishment.

Yet Kirsch has brought Grynszpan to life again, and in the process rescued his char-acter from being merely a footnote to his-tory—and for that no one would have been more grateful than Grynszpan himself.

KRISTALLNACHT

tional Yachad associate director. “This is something beyond incredible.” He also noted, “Yachad will continue adding new programs and services that additionally educate the community at large, champi-oning the inclusion of those with special needs within the broad Jewish communi-ty.”

Yachad offers two opportunities for in-dividuals with special needs to experience the Jewish homeland. Yachad Birthright—in conjunction with Israel Free Spirit, the OU’s Taglit-Birthright Israel program—is a free 10-day Israel experience tailored for in-dividuals with special needs to accommo-

date physical handicaps, medical needs, etc. Yad B’Yad (YBY) (Hebrew for “hand in hand”) brings typical high school students together with Yachad members for a fi ve-week Israel

“I went on YBY as a mainstream high-schooler, and that’s why I’m here now,” noted Rebecca Schrag, MSW, referring to her current position as director of Yad B’Yad, in addition to her work as Yachad director of Community and School Pro-graming. “Last year registration for Yad B’Yad was fi lled for the summer by early winter. The long waiting list showed us that there is a need to provide a second YBY session for summer 2014, which is cur-rently in the works.”

Stateside, Yachad offers a number of camp experiences within inclusive en-vironments at camps on the east coast: Camps Morasha, Nesher, Shoshanim and

Moshava in the Poconos of Pennsylvania; and Camp Mesorah in the Catskills of New York. Last summer, Yachad expanded to oversee existing camp programs for youth with special needs, Chaverim (for boys) at Camp Magen Avraham and Kesher (for girls) at Camp Sternberg, brother and sis-ter camps located in the Catskills.

Many of these camps also provide op-portunities for adult Yachad members to have summer jobs, working either four or the full eight weeks of the camp sea-son, at sleep-away camps Lavi, Mesorah, Morasha, Moshava; or day camps such as Moshava Ba’ir in Paramus, NJ, or Moshava Ba’ir Toronto. With the guidance of a job coach, vocational workers are given as-signments based upon interest and skill level. Yachad also provides social program-ming for all vocational staff.

“The hard work and dedication of

Yachad camp program directors, who in-clude speech therapists, social workers and special educators, has signifi cantly contributed to the growth of the size and quality our programs,” stated Joe Gold-farb P.h.D., Yachad director of summer pro-grams. “We’re very proud of all of our staff who make our programs work so well.”

“Wherever the placement within a Yachad Summer Program, everyone feels like that is their home,” refl ected Necha-ma Braun, administrator of Yachad Sum-mer Programs. “Whether a Yachad mem-ber or mainstream student, participants learn a tremendous amount about sensi-tivity; about friendships; about being part of a community; about reaching out to others; about giving to others; and at the end of the day everyone takes away a lot.”

Registration for Yachad Summer Pro-grams 2014 is now open at www.yachad.org.

Yachad’s Summer Programs



TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

A New Hope for Alzheimer’sBy Viva Sara Press, Israel 21c

A team of Tel Aviv University research-ers have identifi ed a specifi c set of

molecules called microRNAs that detri-mentally regulate protein levels in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease and benefi cially regulate protein levels in the brains of other mice living in a stimu-lating environment.

“We were able to create two lists of mi-croRNAs—those that contribute to brain performance and those that detract—de-pending on their levels in the brain,” said Dr. Boaz Barak, one of the authors of the study. “By targeting these molecules, we hope to move closer toward earlier detec-tion and better treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.”

The researchers ran a series of tests on a part of the mice’s brains called the hippocampus, which plays a major role in memory and spatial navigation and is one of the earliest targets of Alzheimer’s disease in humans. They found that, com-pared to mice in normal cages, the mice living in an “enriched environment”—an enlarged cage with running wheels, bed-ding and nesting material, a house, and frequently changing toys—developed higher levels of good proteins and lower levels of bad proteins.

For the fi rst time, Barak and a team of researchers in the lab of Prof. Uri Ashery of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Neurobiology at the George S. Wise Fac-ulty of Life Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience identifi ed the microR-

NAs responsible for regulating the ex-pression of both good and bad proteins. Prof. Daniel Michaelson of TAU’s Depart-ment of Neurobiology in the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, Dr. Noam Shomron of TAU’s Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Dr. Eitan Okun of Bar-Ilan University, and Dr. Mark Matt-son of the National Institute on Aging collaborated on the study, published in Translational Psychiatry.

Two fi ndings appear to have particu-lar potential for treating people with Alzheimer’s disease. In the brains of old mice with the disease, microRNA-325 was diminished, leading to higher levels of to-mosyn, a protein that is well known to

inhibit cellular communication in the brain. The researchers hope that eventu-ally microRNA-325 can be used to create a drug to help Alzheimer’s patients main-tain low levels of tomosyn and preserve brain function. The researchers also found several important microRNAs at low levels starting in the brains of young mice. If the same can be found in hu-mans, these microRNAs could be used as biomarker to detect Alzheimer’s disease at a much earlier age than is now possi-ble— at 30 years of age, for example, in-stead of 60.

“Our biggest hope is to be able to one day use microRNAs to detect Alzheimer’s disease in people at a young age and be-gin a tailor-made treatment based on our fi ndings, right away,” says Dr. Barak.

Master Your Browser’s Tabs with These Tricks and ExtensionsBy Harold Nussbaum

There’s a strange joy in keeping 20 tabs

open and pretending you have the ability to multitask and actual-ly manage all of them.

But in reality, most browsers buckle un-der the pressure of too many tabs and you start to lose track of what you have open. Here’s a look at some tab manage-ment tools for Chrome and Firefox.

Use the Built-In Tab Management Tools in Shortcuts for Chrome and Fire-fox

Over the years, Chrome and Firefox have worked in a few clever solutions to tab management.

C hrome• Sync Open Tabs: One of the handy

features in Chrome is the fact it’s tied into your Google account. Subsequent-ly, it stores all kinds of data, including your tabs. After you enable the sync tab feature by typing in chrome://fl ags/ into Chrome and click “Enable syncing open tabs” it syncs every tab you have open and allows you to swap all your current pages over to a new computer. Even bet-ter is the brand new ability to do the ex-act same thing on Android devices.

• Pin Tabs: One of the problems of opening a lot of tabs is that you may acci-dentally close an important tab. To keep this from happening, right-click the tab you want to keep open and select “Pin Tab.” This shrinks the tab down to just the favicon. Pinning it saves screen real estate and ensures you won’t accidental-ly close it.

• Use Your Shortcuts: You have several important shortcuts for navigating tabs. First, Control+Tab moves to the tab on the right, Control+Shift+Tab moves to the left (on Macs it’s Command+Option+Right Arrow and Command+Option+Left Ar-row). The other helpful shortcut is re-opening a closed tab, Control+Shift+T. This saves you the pain of having to dig through your history to fi nd an acciden-tally closed tab.

• Bookmark All Tabs: If you need to just walk away for the day but don’t want to lose all your open tabs, you can select

Bookmarks > Bookmark All Tabs to cre-ate a custom folder for all your open bookmarks. It’s a great way to remember and store information.

Firefox• Separate Tabs into Groups: The

handiest feature in Firefox is its built-in tab management tool. When your tabs get out of hand, right click the + (new tab) and select customize. Select “Tab Groups.” Or, enter the Tab Groups view by using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + Shift + E. You can organize and group them into smaller sections so you can easily pull them all up later.

• Pin Tabs: Like Chrome, Firefox also has a Pin Tab feature. Right-click any open tab and select “Pin Tab.” This shrinks down the tab to prevent you from closing it.

• Control How Firefox Uses Tabs: Firefox allows you to control how it han-dles tabs when you open and close the browser in the settings menu. Click Tools > Options (or Firefox > Preferences on a Mac) and click the “Tabs” button. You can change some of the default behavior for how Firefox handles tabs and restores tabs.

• Bookmark All Tabs: Firefox comes with the same quick and easy ways to bookmark all your tabs as Chrome. Right click on an open tab and choose Book-mark All Tabs. You can store your open tabs in any bookmarks folder you like.

Organize Tabs in a Visual WayThe biggest problem with managing a

ton of open tabs is the fact that you need all that data, but it’s diffi cult to quickly fi nd exactly what you’re looking for. To solve this problem, extensions strive to make the idea of fl ipping through tabs a more visual experience.

ChromeIf you’re a more visual person and

want to see all your tabs at once with a preview, TooManyTabs for Chrome is an extension that sits in your toolbar and shows you a pop-out preview of every open tab you have.

FirefoxTooManyTabs is available for Fire-

fox as well, however, Firefox already has a good visual tab manager. For some-thing completely different, Vertical Tabs

throws all your tabs into a sidebar in-stead of on the top of the browser. It changes how you handle tabs, but it’s useful for getting a quick look when you have 20-30 open tabs at a time.

Free Up Memory with Automatic Tab Closing

If tabbed browsing is something you do, but don’t really utilize for any par-ticular reason, you might want a way to shut down unused tabs to free up memo-ry. This is great for people who open new tabs they don’t really need, or just forget about them.

ChromeTab Wrangler is an extension that au-

tomatically closes down unused tabs after a set number of minutes and al-lows you to reopen them at any point. If you’re looking for an automatic solution to your tab problem, this is a handy tool. TabWrangler also locks certain web pag-es so they never close.

FirefoxAutoClose Tabs offers the same fea-

tures as Tab Wrangler with a few vis-ual cues so you can save a tab before it closes. It also protects unread tabs from closing automatically, so if you’re taking a while to get through a list of links, it doesn’t shut them down until you view them.

Archive and Save Every Tab Current-ly Opened

If you’re operating with a lot of tabs, you might want a simple way to restore exactly what you have open so you can reopen all your tabs later.

ChromeTab.bz is built to share your open tabs

with other people, but it’s more useful to use it for yourself. One click on the exten-sion and your entire session is archived in a single URL that you can open later. If you prefer to archive what you have for offl ine viewing, ZipTabs compresses eve-ry open tab into a zip fi le so you can take it where you want to go.

FirefoxI had trouble fi nding a good way to

download all your open tabs for offl ine viewing for Firefox, but if you want to save your session in the cloud, Tab-Cloud does just that (it’s also available for Chrome). The benefi t of the cloud is that

you can easily open your session on an-other computer if you like.

Send Tabs to Mobile DevicesSometimes you might want to contin-

ue reading on your tablet. It’s pretty easy to send your tabs to your phone.

ChromeIn order to send your open tabs to an

Android or iPhone, you need one of two extensions: Chrome to Phone or Site to Phone. Chrome to Phone will send you open tabs to an Android device, where-as Site to Phone handles third party de-vices like iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7 and webOS. If you want anoth-er option to send tabs directly to an iP-hone, SendTab works great, but costs 99¢ in the App Store. The Tab Sync feature in Chrome should also solve the problem if you’re using the Chrome browser on an Android device.

FirefoxLike Chrome, you have the same two

options to send links to your phone: Fox to Phone and Site to Phone (not available yet for Firefox ver. 25) If you’re looking to sync across devices, the built-in Firefox Sync (Tools > Options > Sync or Firefox > Preferences > Sync on a Mac) allows you to sync open tabs across multiple com-puters or to Firefox mobile.

Quickly Hide All Your Open TabsThere’s always the chance you have

too many tabs open. If you need to quick-ly hide your tabs when your boss walks in, it’s easy to do.

ChromePanicButton for Chrome gives you

one-click access to hide all your open tabs and save them as bookmarks in a folder. So if your boss is creeping up be-hind you, you can quickly hide every-thing you’re doing and save the session for when the boss walks out the door.

FirefoxFirefox has its own, slightly different

version of Panic Button that works well to quickly hide all your open tabs when someone sneaks up behind you. A click of the button or hotkey and your tabs disappear without losing you session.

Upgrade Your Settings and Get More Control Over Tab Behavior

CONTINUED ON P. 77


SHOP W. ENGLEWOOD

201-833-0200The Rabbinical Council Of Bergen County RCBC

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Brooklyn’sTeens and Ladies Apparel

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Chickie`s French Fry & Chicken Bar

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Eli Auto Service - Texaco

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Chopstix Kosher ChineseTel. 201-833-0200

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Dougie`s BBQ Bar & Grill

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Royal

Persian GrillTel. 201-833-1555

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Clothing BoutiqueTel. 201-357-8363

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Poppy`s Bagels/TCBYTel. 201-862-0800

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www.metsuyan.com Ricciardi Paint BrothersTel. 201-837-3468

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Mirage Optica

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Chubby`s

Barber For MenTel. 201-837-6515

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Chopstix Cholunt RecipeBy Elie Y. Katz

• 1 Order of Scallion Pancakes from Chopstix

• 3 Onions peeled and sliced• 2 Flanken Bones (add as much MEAT

as you love!!)• 1/2 Cup of Barley• 5 large potatoes, peeled and cut in to

thirds• 2 tablespoons of hoisen sauce (from

scallion pancake order)• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder• 1 tablespoon of Honey• 1 tablespoon of paprika

• 2 eggs in shell (optional for a great shabbos day egg salad)

• salt and pepper to taste In a crock pot, layer the bottom

with the onions, then barley, then meat, potatoes,eggs, onions again, and honey & hoisen sauce (may substitute with ketchup).

In a separate bowl, mix the seasoning together with cold water and pour over cholunt ingredient just an inch past the potatoes (you should see them begin to fl oat).

Add the scallion pancake. Cover and set for shabbos.

Serves the most delicious cholunt!!!


All of the tricks for solving single problems are great, but if you’re looking to take control over your tabs you may need to dig into their default behaviors. Firefox has one of the best extensions for this, but you can still get some basic cus-tomization in Chrome.

ChromeUnfortunately, there’s no one sin-

gle way to upgrade your tab options in Chrome, but if you combine Bookmarks Menu and Chrome Toolbox it will make it so you can change the default behav-iors for how tabs are opened, add confi r-mations, and change shortcuts. It isn’t as

robust as Firefox’s option below, but it will at least give you quick access to alter default tab behavior.

FirefoxTab Mix Plus is the closest thing to

an all-in-one tab manager for Firefox. It handles nearly every aspect listed above and helps keep your tabbed browsing or-ganized and under control. You can du-plicate tabs, control focus, reopen closed tabs, manage sessions, and handle when pages load. If you’re looking for a single extension that does almost everything you want, Tab Mix Plus is where you want to start.

Master Your Browser’s Tabs with These Tricks and Extensions CONTINUED FROM P. 74

TABC Shows Off New Building at Open House

TABC showed their newly expanded and refurbished school to a record 196 pro-spective students and their families at the open house on Sunday, October 3. (photo by Bracha Schwartz)

catered for. On our world tours and cruises, we cannot always personally be there, but the attention to detail remains the same. We make sure everything is taken care of on every level.

Are Pesach hotel programs as expensive as they appear?

Yes and no. We have packages availa-ble for all budgets, big and small. We have a signature kids-free promotion at our

fl agship hotel in Tiberias which takes a huge chunk off the budget. The thing you must remember is that whatever pack-age you choose, when you go with Ed-dies Travel you get the added value that comes with being a guest of ours. A great tip to know is that the earlier you book the more you get because there is more availability and you can play around with more options.

Take a look at our website www.kosher-travelers.com or give us a call and we’ll help you plan the perfect Pesach experience – or any vacation, for that matter – to suit your individual needs. Israel +972 2 9929801 | USA +1 646 240 4118 | Australia +612 801 44676 | Europe +44 208 819 2620

Make sure you don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

How Eddie’s Kosher Travel Became # 1 CONTINUED FROM P. 60

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getting to know and educating her clients to ensure that they will secure the property that will be a perfect fit. Prior to becoming a real estate professional, Rena was an actuarial consultant in a managerial role at Ernst & Young LLP, in New York. Rena’s consulting, analytical and management experiences coupled with her keen attention to detail, have positioned her for success in the real estate industry. When Rena is not working with buyers and sellers to find them their next dream home you can find her with her husband and three children enjoying various activities.

You can contact her at 201.214.1131 or at [email protected]


SUPER SHABBOS SHEET CANDLELIGHTING IN JERUSALEM: 4:00 P.M.

M E M B E R H T R I B F R E N O T H E R S L A A E M A N C I M M D L K M A C B T M S O N L U I I D P A R E N T S E M V L Y W E R E W H S A I A Y R O T A T I M E H N E L R T U P C D A I L A B E E E I R D E U R R T E G W V A L U E I S D E T N O Q L R A C H E L F H A P G 6 1 3 G N I T E E M

WORD FIND! Can you find all the bold and underlined

words on this sheet?

יום קדוש הוא מּבואו ועד צאתו

גמטריא

ת ש ר ק צ פ ע ס נ מ ל כ י ט ח ז ו ה ד ג ב א

READY, SET, TRANSLATE Connect the Hebrew to its English translation.

ישמך אלוקים כשרה רבקה רחל ולאה

May HaShem illuminate His countenance for you and be gracious to you

יאר ה' פּניו אליך ויחנך

May G-d make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah

ישא ה' פּניו אליך וישם לך שלום

May HaShem turn His countenance to you and establish peace for you

תשע״ד ּכסלו י״ג ויׁשלח ּפרׁשת

WORD CMRLESAB (scramble) ּLGEBA, OSATT, ACALHHL, ZHAMAT, CHNWISAD, AITP Hint: המוציא לחם מן הארץ

THE FAMOUS ABBA [email protected]

PARSHA LESSONS Value relationships with your family members (33:1).

PARSHA SKITS

•  A family member always seems to arrive late.

•  Your watch wasn’t where you left it.

דן את כל האדם לכף זכותCan you judge these situations favorably? MIDDAH OF THE WEEK

Try to make peace with others.

CROSSWORD Complete the crossword by translating each

Hebrew word into English. Need help? Use the verse reference to find the word

in this week’s parsha. Across (33:1) ארבע .1 (33:4) בכי .3 (32:27) שחר .5 (32:7) מלאך .7Down (32:16) ארבעים .1 (33:4) רץ .2 (32:28) שם .4 (32:8) מחנה .6

1

3 2

4

5

6

7

HASHEM’S WONDERS •  The Grand Canyon, the Alps, and

Niagra Falls. •  The power of speech, to speak to Him

and others.

כונהLet’s learn the siddur, one word at a time.

T מודה = Thanks Discuss things that you are thankful for that HaShem and your parents have done for you.

לפניך אני מודה

Answer the questions below to spell a word in this week’s Parsha.

ז פ קנ ו ס+ א נ ב + ד י

ו

עשו preparing to meet his brother יעקב •after 34 years (32:8).

meeting for the first time עשו and יעקב •in 34 years (33:1).

for the עשו did 3 things before seeing יעקבfirst time in 34 years: he sent him angels with gifts, got ready to fight, and davened. wrestled an angel who said his name יעקבwould now be ישראל and who hit him in the sciatic nerve. When they met, ועש hugged and kissed his brother and asked him to join him in Seir. יעקב told him to go ahead of him. s daughter, was taken captive by’יעקב ,דינה to marry שכם s father arranged for’שכם .שׁכם tricked them and killed לוי and שמעון but ,דינהall of שכם’s people. יעקב didn’t agree with what had happened. HaShem told יעקב to go to Beth El so he went with his family. רבקה died and was buried. HaShem confirmed that יעקב’s new name was ישראל and that He will give him the land He had promised to dies as she gives birth רחל .יצחק and אברהםto בּנימין. She was buried on the road to Efrat. יצחק died at 180 and was buried by his sons. עשו’s descendants and the Edomite kings are listed.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

Congregation Bnai Yeshurun is seeking volunteers that have time available to work on the shul’s technology committee. Among potential projects are improving the shul’s website, evaluation and coordination of various offi ce software programs, and coming up with effi cient solutions for technology issues that arise (e.g., synching multiple email distribution lists, interfacing with the shul’s soon to be available app, fi nding effi cient ways to conduct surveys or elections, etc.). Anyone interested, please contact Debby Graneviz ([email protected]).

Recruiting new committee members for the Parks, Playgrounds and Recreation Advisory Board of Teaneck. Current projects include planning for the all-inclusive splash pad (water) park in one of the play areas. Meetings are once a month. Great opportunity to get involved in the community. For more information or to volunteer contact [email protected].

The Guttenberg Center for Special Services at Kaplen JCC on the Palisades will be hosting Special Talents Art Show during the month of December.

Artwork will be featured created by school aged children and teens who arew diff erently-abled. The deadline to submit art is November 18th. Opening reception will take place on Sunday, December 8th from 1:00 – 3:00PM in the Waltuch Gallery, located on the 2nd fl oor of the JCC. Anyone interested in submitting art should contact Mindy Liebowitz at [email protected] or call 201 408 1490.

Walk Around Teaneck and

Write on Windows!

Teaneck’s Gratitude Graffi ti Project continues until Thanksgiving. Go into the stores listed below, ask for window markers, and express your gratitude on the storefront window. A fun activity for the family.A&S Comics, Aikido North Jersey, Aquarius Health Foods, Artwal Novus Auto Glass, The Berkshire Bank, Best Glatt, Bischoff ’s, Brier Rose Books, Budget Print, Carly’z Craze, Chop Shop Barber Shop, Chubby’s, Classic Quiche Café, Club Fit, Coff ee Col, Cohen Paperie and Gifts, Comfort Shoes, Cortley Cleaners, EJ’s Place, Eli Katz Teaneck Museum, Flowers by Lynn, G and G Liquors, Gerdes Again Deli Liquor Store, Get Twisted, the Golden Grill, Homewatch Care Givers of

Bergen, J and Z Auto Repair, Lee Caribbean, Liza’s Nails, Maggies Southern Kitchen, Mom Meditation, Marlin by Mishoe, Mercury Wellness Solutions, Milez Salon, the Natural Spot, Noah’s Ark, Queen Anne Wine and Spirits, Rainbow Laundromat, the Right Pizza, Shelley’s, Smokey Joe’s, State Farm Insurance, Teaneck Cinemas, Teaneck Flower Shop, Teaneck General Store, Teaneck Library, the Trophy King, Tuesday’s Child, the Grassynoel Gallery and Studio, Victor’s Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant, World of Wings, Yo Delight, Zoe’s Cupcake Café.

The Friendship Circle is

pleased to introduce 7 – 11!

The Friendship group is for

children 7 – 11 who have

diffi culties reading social cues

or navigating social situations

such as those with ADHD or

Asperger’s.

The group will meet one Sunday a month and participants will enjoy group activities such as karate and drumming. Dr Avigael Wodinsky will lead activites geared toward developing strategies for emotion regulation, friendship skills, skills for understanding thoughts and feelings, conversation skills, as well as social problem solving skills. Activities will take place at

Rinat Yisrael, 389 W Englewood Ave, Teaneck from 10:00AM – 11:30AMRSVP and for further information please [email protected] or call 201 262 7172. The program will take place on November 17, December 8th, February 2, March 2, March 30, June 8th.

New Jersey Yachad Announces

Inclusive Art Program for

Middle and High School

Students

Open to local Junior High and High School Students and Individuals with Special Needs ages 12 and up.10 Tuesday Sessions-October 15-December 17, 7;00-8;00PMThe Art Place 490 Curry Ave. Englewood Nj$75 -Please make checks payable to NJ YachadSpace is limited. To register ,please contact Reva Judas at 201 -833 1349 or email [email protected]

Join Areyvut’s Mitzvah Clown

Program

Anyone between the ages of 6th grade through 120 years old (!) is welcome to participate.Learn to make balloon animals, bring joy and smiles to senior citizens and children with special needs.

Partner with other special need organizations.Program runs from October through June.Cost for participation is $250 and includes all materials including a clown kit, clown costume, gifts for the monthly site visits and a program coordinator. For further information contact Danny at 201-244-6702 or info @areyvut.org.

HEICHAL HATORAH WELCOMES

NEW STUDENTS

Rabbi Aryeh Stechler welcomes prospective talmidim and their parents to fi nd out more about this new traditional Yeshiva which prides itself on an exceptional high school general studies program.Please contact Rabbi Stechler to arrange meeting to learn more about the school. He can be reached at [email protected] or 201-335-0633.

TORAH IN THE AM Cong Keter

Torah 600 Roemer Avenue,

Teaneck

Rabbi Menachem Meier is in his 7th year of providing a rigorous study of Torah learning.The program meets on Tuesdays and Thurs 9:00 – 9:45AM studying the text of a book of Tanakh –

currently the group is studying Yonah.9:45 – 10:45AM – An in depth study of Kesuvos, Chapter 7 relating to obligations within a marriage. People with both extensive and limited backgrounds will follow the shiur and benefi t. On Thursdays only from 10:45AM – 11:40AM A careful study of the prophet Isaiah is discussed. Participants are welcomed for any of the classes and are requested to bring a text.

Congregation Bnai

Yeshurun Beis Medrash

Program Presents Kollel

Boker Featuring Rabbi Zvi

Sobolofsky.

The group will be learning Gemara Shabbos. Each Shiur will have Maar Mekomos. The shiur will take place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday Mornings at 6:20AM in the classrooms. Learning is dedicated for a Refuah Shelama for Yitzchak Yaakov ben Batia Sarah.Hava Finkel, a social worker and early childhood educator. In addition, babysitting will be provided during the High Holiday services. Services will be provided from 9:00AM - 1:00PM. For further information call 201 567 9420.


CHESED OPPORTUNITIES

Sharona Nagler Care One

visitation program is a

Bnai Yeshurun program reaching out to volunteers to commit at least once a month (or more if preferred) to visit people staying in Care One. Contact Arianne Weinberger at [email protected], Ari Wartelsky at [email protected] or Alana Green at [email protected] for further information.

Tomchei Shabbos of Bergen

County

In need of volunteers to pack and deliver. Please contact the following:For packing Paula Cohen –

[email protected] delivering Steve Gutlove – [email protected]

Tomchei Shabbos of Bergen

County

Announces a program for Bar and Bat Mitzvah girls. For information on how to commemorate your Simcha with a chesed project thru partnering with Tomchei Shabbos, contact Andrea Fields at 973-371 1771 ext 411 or [email protected]

Jewish Family Service of North Jersey, located in Fair Lawn, is in need of volunteers who can deliver kosher meals to homebound and disabled people

living in Fair Lawn. Meal deliveries are made Mondays thru Fridays, between 11:30 am and 12:00 noon. Substitute drivers for any weekday are needed, as well as volunteers who can commit to driving once a week on a regular basis.Please call Francine Cuff @201-796-5151 if you are interested in volunteering.

Care One – desperately needs

help in forming a minyan.

A kosher rehabilitation and nursing center located at 544 Teaneck Road, 4 blocks south of Holy Name Hospital, is in need of volunteers to maintain

continuity of its Shabbos and weekday minyanim, which its residents look forward to each week. This is a wonderful chesed opportunity that can be combined with the mitzva of Bikur Cholim. Questions, or to volunteer to daven, lain, give a d’var Torah, etc., call Rabbi Siev at (201) 287-8519 or email to [email protected]

Bikkur Cholim of Passaic-

Clifton helps provide rides for Cholim and frail residents to medical appointments. Rides are available to local Passaic and Clifton destinations as well as to Hackensack, Englewood, Manhattan and other medical

canters as necessary. For more information or to volunteer contact the Bikkur Cholim at 973-249-8811.

Bikur Cholim of Teaneck is looking for volunteers to visit the Jewish patients at Holy Name Hospital on a daily basis and Shabbosim. Volunteers must be 16 years or older to visit the hospital on their own. For more information or to volunteer please call the Bikur Cholim at 201-836-4950.

Shearit HaPlate of Bergen

County, Inc. is our area’s only kosher food rescue organization

that collects prepared food leftover from local caterers and restaurants, and then repackages and distributes it to those that can benefi t in a respectful way that helps ensure the recipient’s privacy and self-esteem. To Become a Recipient: If you or someone you know would like to be notifi ed when food is available, please respond to this email. The information will be kept confi dential within the organization, and no qualifying questions are asked. PLEASE LET US HELP-EMAIL US [email protected]@aol.com

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER

15TH

9:45AM – 10:45AM Bnai Yeshurun 641 W Englewood, Teaneck Zumba with Sorrolle – each Fri morning $10.00 per person in the Social Hall

Erev Shabbat Nov 15th 8:00PM Cong Beth Abraham, 396 New Bridge Road, Bergenfi eld Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich Former Soviet Prisoner of Zion will be guest of honor at an oneg. As well Rav Mendelevich will be speaking over Shabbat at several locations.

Shabbat, November 16th

Parshat Vayishlach, Rinat Yisrael, 389 West Englewood, TeaneckRabbi Yosef Mendelevich will speak at 9:40 at the teen minyan and 10:30 at the main minyan.Following 4:00PM Mincha at Seudah Shlishit at Cong Keter Torah, 600 Roemer Avenue, Teaneck

Cong Netivot Shalom, 811 Palisade Ave, TeaneckAbraham and Sheila Shlussel Educational ProgramShabbaton: Meaning, Music and Poetry: A Closer Look at Tefi llah Scholars in Residence Rabbi Elie Kaunfer and Joey Weisenberg will lead a special davening and learning experience.For further information contact [email protected]

Rav Yosef Mendelevich 7:30PM – 10:00PM Teaneck General Store, 502 Cedar Lane, TeaneckBook Signing for his autobiography “Unbroken Spirit”

Ice Skating for Boys 8:30PM – 10:30PM Frietz Dietl Ice Rink 639 Broadway, Westwood sponsored by youth departments of Beth Abraham, BMOB and Ohr Hatorah. All boys 5th – 8th

grades invited. $10 per person.

SUNDAY,

NOVEMBER 17TH

Shiur on Chanukah: Following 8:00AM Minyan Cong Beth Aaron 950 Queen Anne Road, TeaneckRabbi Daniel Feldman speaks on “What Happens When the Lights Go Out?”

Preschool Preview 9:30AM

-11:00AM Rosenbaum

Yeshiva of North Jersey 666

Kinderkamack Road, River

Edge

All prospective preschool students and their parents are invited to play with Morot and learn more about the program. RSVP requested at www.RYNJ.org

7:00PM Night of Wonders

Teaneck Jewish Center 70

Sterling Place, Teaneck

Benefi tting Do Wonders by Lillian Lee. Musical Presentation entitled “Songs of Hope”, a tricky tray silent auction, delicious food, cocktails and inspiration. $75 per person. RSVP to [email protected] . For further information call Aliza or Rubina at 201 837 6770.

Huge Chanukah Boutique

5:00PM – 9:00PM Rinat

Yisrael 389 West Englewood

Ave, Teaneck Kids craft room from 5 – 7 with pizza $5 per child for you to drop them while shopping.

Rabbi Menachem Genack

7:45PM Cong Shaare Tefi llah,

510 Clalremont Ave, Teaneck

Rabbi Genack will speak about his book “Letters to Clinton”

MONDAY,

NOVEMBER 18TH

Jewish Renaissance Center

9:45AM – 11:00AM 1510

Jeff erson St, Teaneck

Understanding our National Attraction to Loshon Horah – Rabbi Teichman

NEVE – PTI 7:30 – 9:30PM

A special learning experience for women that did not benefi t from a Yeshiva Education in their youth. 6 part Monday evening series - $130 for the session. First class free for new students. For further information contact [email protected] or [email protected].

TUESDAY,

NOVEMBER 19TH

FREE WEBINAR presented by

Ohel 7:30PM – 9:30PM

“Challenges and Solutions to Caring for Aging Parents” Registration necessary at www.ohelfamily.org/webinar

Shiur Rabbi Beni Krohn

8:30PM – 9:15PM Cong Rinat Yisrael, 389 West Englewood Ave, Teaneck “Can I light my menorah on the airplane? Chanukah and Thanksgiving Travel.

WEDNESDAY,

NOVEMBER 20TH

Project Ezrah 11:30AM –

12:30PM Cong Keter Torah,

600 Roemer Avenue, Teaneck

“Embracing Change and Helping Our Careers Evolve” Continuing series in helping the mature worker. Anne Wallman, successful business owner speaks. RSVP to [email protected].

SHABBAT, NOVEMBER

23RD PARSHAT

VAYESHEV

Melave Malke 8:00PM Chabad

of Teaneck 513 Kenwood

Place, Teaneck

Rabbi Dov Ber Pinson will speak on “Journey of the Soul: Reincarnation and the Kaballah.In honor of the 19th day of Kislev the Rosh Hashannah of Chassidus. Dairy Meal

Free of Charge. Please RSVP [email protected]

SUNDAY,

NOVEMBER 24TH

9:15AM – 11:30AM Yeshiva

University Center for the

Jewish Future

Abraham Arbesfeld Kollel Yom Rishon and Millie Arbesfeld Midreshet Yom Rishon present “The Legacy of Hakham Ovadia In Tribute to Gadol Hador Maran HaRav Ovadia Yosef zt”lPresenters: Rav Herschel Schachter, Rabbi Meir Goldwicht, and remarks by Rabbanit Adina Bar Shalom, Founder, CEO and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Haredi College of Jerusalem, Daughter of Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l. Open to men and women – free parking. Reservations made by contacting [email protected]..

B’Not Mother Daughter

Event 9:30 – 11:00AM Cong

Bnai Jeshurun 641 West

Englewood, Teaneck

Thanksgivakkuh Cupcake Decorating - $36 Michelle Frohlich from Cake-a-Bite will teach how to creat 6 stunning Chanukah and Thanksgiving themed cupcakes. RSVP and info contact Barbara Smilow at 718 974 4550. Checks to be made out to CBY BNOT. Spaces are limited.

UNCLE MOISHY 2:00PM The

Learning Center 199 Scoles

Avenue, Clifton

Jewish Family Service of Clifton/Passaic presents concert. Tickets can be purchased online at jfsclifton.org Tickets in advance $18 and at the door $20.

Mother Daughter Culinary

Event 7:00PM Ma’ayanot High

School, 1650 Palisades Ave,

Teaneck

The evening will include culinary demonstrations by noted chefs

Leah Shapira, author of the award winning cookbook Fresh and Easy Kosher Cooking, and Merav Dahan, creator of Merav’s Cuisine, as well as a pre-Chanukah boutique featuring Pampered Chef, Cutco Cutlery, and much more. For more information or to register for the event, please visit Ma’ayanot’s website (www.maayanot.org) or contact Pam Ennis at 201-833-4307, ext. 265.

Women’s Mikvah Association

4th Annual Event 7:30PM

Cong Keter Torah, 600

Roemer Avenue, Teaneck

Honoring Miriam Feman,

Reception and Raffl e Package followed by Dairy Dinner and Program (8:15)Register at TeaneckMikvah.com/event - $54.00

MONDAY,

NOVEMBER 25TH

9:45AM – 11:00AM Jewish

Renaissance Center 1510


The Defi nition of True Torah Heroes – Rebbetzin Leah Kohn

NOVEMBER 27 -

05 DECEMBER

CHANUKAH

Sunday, December 8th

9:30AM YOGA Cong Bnai

Yeshurun, 641 West

Englewood, Teaneck

Led by Monica Gordon, $10 per class. Contact [email protected] if interested.

MONDAY,

DECEMBER 9TH

7:00PM JNF Teaneck

Reception Cong Beth Shalom,

354 Maitland Ave, Teaneck

Honoring Marlene and Philip Rhodes, Teaneck Councilman Yitz Stern – Presenter Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, Cong Beth Aaron, Special Recognition Ben Guttman, Featured Speakers Davidi Perl,

Mayor of Gush Etzion and Shani Abrams Simkowitz, Director of the Gush Etzion Foundation. Glatt Kosher Buff et and Dessert Reception catered by Ma’adan of Teaneck – minimum contribution $180 per person. (cost of dinner included) RSVP by Dec 3rd. Call 888.JNF 0099.

DECEMBER 11TH

6:30PM – 8:30PM Moriah

School, 53 South Woodland

Street, Englewood

Modern Orthodox Jewish Camping Fair. Meet directors, counselors and current parents. With questions contact [email protected]

DECEMBER 12TH

7:00PM Hadassah Shelley’s

Vegetarian Café, 482 Cedar

Lane

New group being formed for ladies in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s. For further info and to RSVP Contact Gail Black at [email protected]

Monday, December 16th

9:45AM – 11:00AM Jewish

Renaissance Center 1510


Lashon HoRah: The Devaluation of our Humanity – Rabbi Teichman

JANUARY 15 –

25TH WINTER

SCHOOL BREAK

Yeshivat Noam Family Israel

Adventure led by Rabbi Chaim

Hagler

Open to the entire community and appropriate for families with children in a wide age range and ideal if the oldest child is in 2 – 5th grade. Packages available with the option of staying with the group in hotels or only joining for the touring experience. For itinerary, registration form and pricing information go to www.yeshivatnoam.org or call Rabbi Hagler at 201 261 1919 ext 115.

List your events in our Community Calendar. Advertise your services in our growing Classifi eds section! Call (201) 371-3212 or [email protected]


GEMACHS AND CHESED OPPORTUNITIES

BABIES AND

CHILDREN:

Teaneck Bris Gemach

Bris outfi ts, pillows, pillow cases, tefi los for mothers to say. Open to the Jewish community. There is no solicitation of funds. For information or to reserve Email either [email protected] or [email protected] or call Zissi at 718 704 6225.

Teaneck Baby Gemach

Collects baby equipment, clothing to size 5T, toys, diapers, formula, and baby food for Jewish families in Bergen County. For more information contact Avi and Ginnine Fried at 718-753-6275, or by email at [email protected]. Tax donation letters are available for any fi nancial and/or item donations.

Bicycle Gemach

Rivky Klar at [email protected]

PREEMIE CLOTHING

Yad Yocheved – 201 836 2071

Passaic Baby G’mach

Collects baby clothing in excellent condition up to size 2T as well as other baby gear including high chairs, cribs, strollers, carriages, changing tables, diapers and formula. They pick up in NJ/NY area. For more information contact Siggy Berger at 201-486-1492 or via email [email protected].

SIMCHAS

Centerpiece Gemach – Cong

Beth Aaron

Contact Ellen Chazin at [email protected] or 201 357 8426 or Michele Cooper at [email protected]

Chatan and Kallah Gemach

Donate new, unopened gifts to needy couples. Accepted in original boxes household, Judaica, engagement or wedding gifts that are not your taste or cannot be used. Drop off at Carrie Cooper, 1060 Windsor Road or email Carrie at [email protected].

Tablecloth Gemach

Recently established in memory of Chaim Yissachar ben Yechiel Zeidel Dov Z’l.Specialty cloths in all colors and sizes for every type of simcha. Donations will go to Project Yi’che and are tax deductible. Please contact [email protected] for an appointment

GOWNS

Fairlawn Gown Gemach

Gowns (wedding gowns, mother of the bride, bridesmaids and fl ower girls) are loaned free of charge. Please call for appointments. The number is 201 797-1770. The gemach has relocated and new address will be given at time of confi rmation of appointment. For donations or any other inquiries please contact [email protected]. Appts

are not made by email. The Fair Lawn Gemach is under the auspices of Anshei Lubavitch of Fair Lawn.

ADULT CLOTHING

Chabad of Maplewood NJ. Contact: Lenny Levy, 201-836-7376 or email [email protected]

FURNITURE

DONATIONS

Email [email protected] of a picture of what you›d like to donate and a recipient can be matched. Email [email protected] for information

RINAT CHAIM

GEMACH

NEWLY FORMED IN MEMORY OF

RENEE CHAYA LEVY.

Donations of medical supplies are welcomed (wheel chairs, portable commodes, walkers, canes, crutches, etc.) Please only equipment in good condition will be accepted. For more information or to donate to equipment to the gemach call Yehiel Levy at 201 357 5495.

The Bikkur Cholim of Passaic-

Clifton’s Medical Equipment

Gemach

Wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes, scooters and other medical equipment to lend them out at no charge. For more information or to schedule a pick up contact Yael

Gotteib at 973-778-9320.

Housewares G’mach in Teaneck collects brand new, still in their boxes, serving china platters, mixing bowls and many other house ware items for new Kallahs in need. For more information or to donate contact Sara Beth Fein at [email protected].

The Jewish Book Gemach collects Jewish books for 4th- 8th graders. If you have books for donate or would like to receive books please contact Moshe and Shifra Schapiro at [email protected].

Congregation Ahavath Torah 240 Broad Avenue, Englewood) collects fl ower centerpieces than can be brought to the homebound or those in the hospital. For more information call the Shul at 201-568-1315.

Yad Leah collects modest and contemporary clothing, infant through adult, to be sent to Israel. Donated clothes must be in either excellent or like- new condition. For more information regarding drop off locations contact Jessica Katz at 973-594-9118 or via email [email protected]

The Kallah Gemach collects donations for Kallahs in need. They collect any unopened new items in their original boxes from

people who have received gifts that they do not want and off er them to those less fortunate. All the items go to Passaic where the girls can come and see what they may be able to use. We collect things like Judaica, household items, small appliances, giftware, etc. For more information contact Carrie Cooper at 201-801-9028 or via email at [email protected].

Bikur Cholim Wheelchair Gemach - 201 836 2907.

CHILDREN WITH

SPECIAL NEEDS

The Friendship Circle is a social organization for children with special needs that involves them in a full range of recreational activities. Teenage volunteers are the key to keeping our programs running! Volunteers can visit a child at home weekly for a play date, join a monthly program on Sundays with sports, music, art, and baking, join us for holiday programs, camps or cooking programs. Volunteers must be in 7th grade or older. For more information or to volunteer please call Zeesy Grossbaum, Director of Bergen County Friendship Circle [email protected] or via phone at 201-262-7172. Feel free to check out their website: www.BCFriendship.com.

SINAI SCHOOLS

Sinai Schools services children

and adults with learning and developmental disabilities. There are various volunteer opportunities available, such as driving young adults to their job sites and shadowing some of the students at various community activities. For more information or to volunteer contact Aggie Siletski at 201-833-1134 x105 or via email at [email protected] or visit their website at www.sinaischools.org.

Yachad- National Jewish

Council for Disabilities

YACHAD, The National Jewish Council for Disabilities, is dedicated to enhancing the life opportunities of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their participation in the full spectrum of Jewish life. New Jersey Yachad touches our community on a daily basis, providing inclusive programs for individuals with special needs and emotional support for all members of the family. Services include parent support groups, sibling support, information and referral, socialization programs, weekend respite through monthly shabbatonim, over a dozen summer camp programs, vocational training, sensitivity training workshops, advocacy, family retreats and so much more. For more information please contact Chani Herrmann at [email protected] or call 201-833-1349.

tion of the city, accommo-dated 1,200 people, and was adorned with an Aron that was fashioned with Italian marble paid for by the well-known Warburg family.

Mr. Behrend spoke mov-ingly to the students about his father returning from the synagogue on November 10, 1938, weeping like a baby over the synagogue’s destruc-tion, only to be arrested and sent to Sachsenhausen con-centration camp hours later.

Mr. Behrend made a point of emphasizing that his fam-ily benefi ted from the loving kindness of his grandfather. Over twenty years earlier, in 1910, his grandfather had ar-ranged an honorable send-off for a community offi cial who had left under a cloud of suspicion. He personal-ly provided the funds for the offi cial to begin his new life in America. The elder Mr. Behrend, who was not con-vinced the man had done wrong, arranged a fi ne fare-well party so his fellow Jew

would not leave in disgrace and shame.

Mr. Behrend spoke to the Middle School students about his experience of hid-ing each night in order to avoid the British bombing. He explained that the situ-ation was made even more diffi cult because Jews were forbidden to hide in the same air raid shelters as Ger-mans. As the war progressed emigration became progres-sively more diffi cult as coun-tries closed their doors to the Jews. By this time, the man who had been assist-ed by Mr. Behrend’s grandfa-ther had established himself in the United States. He re-membered the chesed done for him by the Behrend fam-ily and was determined to save the rest of the family. He personally arranged for Mr. Behrend and his parents to leave Germany. They ar-rived in America in May of 1941 just fi ve months before the Germans closed all doors of emigration to Jews.

Yavneh Academy Commemorates Kristallnacht


an extremely infl uential con-servative (the branch of Judaism, not the political category) Rab-bi. In an op-ed published at the Forward on Monday, Wolpe elab-orated on the reason why Bush’s association with so-called “Messi-anic Jewish” groups will trouble many American Jews:

“What is so bothersome about the group that President Bush has chosen to address is that to speak of ‘Jews for Jesus’makes as much sense as saying ‘Christians for Mu-hammad.’ A Jew who accepts Je-sus has cut himself off from the faith community of Jews, and that has been so for 2,000 years. When the fi rst Christians left the Jewish community, and all the bil-lions of Christians who followed recognized that their belief in Je-sus made them a distinct religion, were they all deluded? Only today people have realized that division was a mistake after all? The sud-den rise of ‘Messianic Jews’ owes more to a clever way of misleading untutored Jews than to making theological sense. It should not re-ceive the imprimatur of a former President of the United States.”

Criticism of Bush’s speaking gig includes groups and individu-als who would see Bush as a polit-ical and ideological ally, too. Take the short, contextual criticism of Bush’s decision in Commentary, a conservative magazine found-ed by the American Jewish Com-mittee. Jonathan Tobin noted that Rick Santorum faced similar criti-cism for his 2010 speech at a con-ference hosted by the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America. Speak-ing on the conservative, particu-larly Jewish, reaction to news of Santorum’s decision, Tobin wrote, “the lesson was lost on a far more important member of the GOP who also has a sterling record of friendship for the Jews: former President George W. Bush.”

The ADL, in their statement, called Messianic Jewish Bible In-stitute’s assertion that Jewish indi-viduals who accept Jesus as their messiah are still Jewish “false and offensive.” Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, added:

“We were disappoint-ed to learn that former Presi-dent George W. Bush has decid-ed to move ahead with his plan

to speak at a fundraising event for an evangelical proselytizing group whose stated goal is to con-vert Jews to Christianity.

“President Bush is a friend who has an abiding love and respect for Israel and the Jewish people. I know that he does not represent or embrace the purpose or the mis-sion of this group, and therefore I wish he would not speak there.”

In October, Bush expressed skepticism in Iran’s recent will-ingness to negotiate with the international community over its nuclear program. “The Unit-ed States’ foreign policy must be clear eyed; and understand that until the form of government changes in Iran, it is unlikely that their intentions toward Israel will change,” he told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Fund. That more or less matches with Israel’s reaction to the new rounds of negotiations, along with American legislative hawks .

As Tablet pointed out, Bush will have a hard time pleading ig-norance here if the criticism be-comes too much. Bush’s chief of staff Josh Bolten previously told the magazine that the Bush family is ”very open to and respectful of faiths of all kind, but particularly Judaism.” This decision, to say the least, complicates that reputation.

Bush’s Jews for Jesus Gig Troubles Jewish Leaders

CONTINUED FROM P. 8


SPORTS SCENES FROM AROUND BERGEN COUNTY

Children from the surrounding Yeshivas enjoyed a special All-Sports and Basketball minicamp on Election Day at Ben Porat Yosef. The day included a myriad of sports games and activities and was intended by both boys and girls. Pictured are students from BPY on their recently renovated home court. CMEK will be hosting a School Break Winter Camp in January. For more information, contact Chad Mekles at www.CMEK.com*Mention the Jewish Link and receive a 10% discount. Off er expires December 1st.

Joey Slomnicki, Azi Knecht, Dov Zomberg @ Bergenfi eld PAL Soccer, Nothing beats having friends on your team

Chaim Cohen leading the pack at Flag Football

Ayal Pessar leaning to get Michael Reinhart in Frisch Flag Football League - Credit Lisa Appelbaum

Teaneck Junior Soccer League Team Netherlands posing after 3-2 playoff win L-R - Yona Mandel, Eyal Kinderlehrer, Yonathan Brothman, Kenny Blanco , Tzvi Mandelbaum

Elza Koslowe. Kayla Lowy., and Dalia Hoff er all smiles before MGBL Girls game for their team FZ Collection

Arianna Chesner blows by her defender for team Ice Cream on Grand in MGBL Girls

Eliana Menasha, Emmi Lefkowitz, and Ella Ashendorf from Team Dash Printing, having a post-game drink and smile.

Sariel Rotblat, Binyamin Alter and Asher Jacobson after a long day of Teaneck Junior Soccer League

Aidan Schwartz with a power kick for TJSL Team Ireland


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Grand Hyatt


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Monday, November 18th

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