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Five Towns Jewish Home - 9-18-15
Transcript of Five Towns Jewish Home - 9-18-15
137 SPRUCE STREET 516-569-2662Pages 9, 10, 11, 13 & 111
THEJEWISHHOMEA PUBLICATION OF THE FIVE TOWNS & QUEENS COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 18-SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 | DISTRIBUTED WEEKLY IN THE FIVE TOWNS, QUEENS & BROOKLYN
– See page 28
See back inside cover
44
Councilmember Richards Funds JCCRP and Helps Serve Seniors on Rosh Hashana
Around the COMMUNITY
34MAY Freshmen Overcome Challenges Together
330 Central Avenue, Lawrence, NY 11559
SEASONS LAWRENCE– See pages 3 & 35
Bais Yaakov of Queens is Shaping up for a Fun Year
41
Divrei Torah, Halacha, Thoughts
on Yom Kippur, Recipes, To Your
Health, & More…
Special Yom Kippur Section
dnrj,hnVYucv
See page 105
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2
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Be included in theteffilos of the
Gedolei Hador Shlit”aon Erev Yom Kippur
before Kol Nidrei
Be included in theMi Shebeirach
of theGedolei Hador Shlit”a
on Yom Kippur day
קופת
עירה
Donations can be sent to: American Friends of Kupat Hair 4415 14th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11219
1-888-KUPATHAIR5 8 7 2 8 4 2
Donate Online at: www.kupat.org
Don't miss this oppurtunity!
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Your
Kapparos
to Vaad Harabanim
for a good year
זה חליפתי.רתי. פ מורתי. זה כ זה תל גדולי סף ילך עבור הצדקה ש זה הכנים לעניני הדור שליט"א - ועד הרב
נס ואלך ארץ הקודש, ואני אכ צדקה בלום: ים טובים ארוכים ולש לחי
Zeh chalifasi, zeh temurasi, zeh kaparasi.
This money will go for the tzedakah of the Gedolei Hador shlita – Vaad Harabanim l’Inyanei Tzedaka b’Eretz Hakodesh, and I will go into a good long life and peace.
Every Day Of Aseres
Yemei Teshuvah After Reciting All The Tehillim
And Also At Ne'ilah
Moreinu Harav Hagaon Hagadol
Chaim Kanievsky Shlita
Will pray fervently every day of Aseres Yemei Teshuvah after reciting all the Tehillim and also on Yom Kippur at
Ne'ilah For all the donors of Vaad Harabanim
That they should be sealed for chaim tovim, for gezeiros tovos, yeshu’os v’nechamos, for health, for nachas from all their offspring,
for abundant and easy parnassah, and for growth in Torah and yiras Shamayim
All donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to Vaad Harabbanim
1888-36-36-248 international toll-free number
Fax: 1877-KVITTEL(1877-584-8835)
221 Regent Drive Lakewood, NJ 08701Tax ID# 37-1456890
In Canada:5831 Esplanade Montreal Quebec Canada h2t3a2
1877-722-2646In accordance with U.S. tax law requirements regarding deductibility of contributions, VAAD HARABBANIM L'INYANEI TZEDUKA INC. shall have full dominion, control and discretion over this gift. All contributions subject to final board approval.
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From the EditorContents
The Jewish Home is an independent weekly magazine. Opinions expressed by writers are not neces sarily the opinions of the publisher or editor. The Jewish Home is not responsible for typographical errors, or for the kashrus of any product or business advertised within. The Jewish Home contains words of Torah. Please treat accordingly.
P.O. BOX 266 LAWRENCE, NY 11559PHONE | 516-734-0858FAX | 516-734-0857
[email protected] 443-929-4003
Yitzy HalpernPUBLISHER
Yosef FeinermanMANAGING EDITOR
Shoshana SorokaEDITOR
Nate DavisEditorial AssistantNechama Wein Copy Editor
Rachel Bergida Berish EdelmanMati JacobovitsDesign & Production
THE JEWISH HOME
eretzhachaim.org
Weekly Weather
83º 66º 80º 67º 80º 60º 75º 60º 77º 61º 76º 62º 78º 60º
Dear Readers,Yesterday, as I was driving
carpool, the three-year-old boys regaled me with the story of Yona that they learned about in school that day. The version that they told started out so simply: “There was once a boy and he wanted to run away from Hash-em.” At the end of the tale, they added that the people of Ninveh eventually did teshuva and Yona learned that you can never run away from Hashem.
It sounds so simplistic (aside from the fact that it was said by preschoolers). A man wanted to run to away from Hashem, so he went on a boat and tried to ignore G-d’s command. Ob-viously there is so much more to what happened to Yona and his intentions. But I know that when I first heard the story of Yona, I felt a drop confused or
maybe even smug. How can a person run away from Hashem? Shouldn’t Yona know that Hash-em is everywhere, All-Powerful and All-Knowing?
As I get older, I see the nar-rative in a different light. Yes, we all know intellectually that a person cannot hide from the One Above. But throughout the year, it’s possible that we may have ignored His commands or maybe have felt hidden from Him. Come the yimei ratzon, though, and His presence is pal-pable. There’s no hiding from Him and there’s no denying that Hashem is our Creator, our King who only wishes for us to come back to Him and recognize His greatness.
Yom Kippur is the time when we feel the closest to Hashem. We are like angels, dressed in white, eschewing the physical
needs that can drag us down. We spend our day in shul, davening, connecting, and strengthening our relationship with Him. Nei-lah, the pinnacle of our prayer, brings us even closer. The ke-hilla joins together and recites Avinu Malkeinu with such in-tensity, with such devotion. And then, we join together and soar together as we reach the apex of the holiest day of the year. “Hashem Hu Ha’Elokim,” we thunder. The connection we have with our Creator—our Fa-ther, our King—is profound.
No one can run away from Hashem. He is always there for us and will always be there for us. Let us take this essential les-son of Yom Kippur and keep it with us throughout the year. Wishing you and your families a gmar chasima tova,Shoshana
Gabe Solomon Distribution & Logistics
MOSTLY SUNNY
Shabbos Zemanim
Sponsored by
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 Parshas Vayeilech
Candle Lighting: 6:41Shabbos Ends: 7:39Rabbeinu Tam: 8:10
YOM KIPPUR: TUESDAY, SEPT . 22Candle Lighting: 6:34
Yom Kippur Ends: 7:32Rabbeinu Tam: 8:04
SHABBOSSeptember 19
FRIDAYSeptember 18
SUNDAYSeptember 20
MONDAYSeptember 21
TUESDAYSeptember 22
WEDNESDAYSeptember 23
THURSDAYSeptember 24
SUNNY PARTLY CLOUDYSUNNY MOSTLY SUNNY
Cover painting, Power of Praying, by Alex Levin, www.artlevin.com.
Community
Community Happenings 32
An Open Letter to my Beautiful Daughter by Lisa Rosenblatt 56
OpEd: Will it Matter? by Rabbi Sol Appleman 57
News
Global 8
National 20
Odd-but-True Stories 30
Europe’s Migrant Crisis by Nachum Soroka 82
Israel
Israel News 19
History and Luxury Meet at the Waldorf by Malky Lowinger 94
People
The Story behind the HMS Seraph by Avi Heiligman 101
Parsha
Rabbi Wein 64
The Shmuz 65
Jewish Thought
Show Some Muscle by Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz 68
A Coach Approach to Teshuva by Rabbi Naphtali Hoff 69
Yom Kippur
“Hashem Loves You Most”: TJH Speaks with Rabbi Gavriel Sassoon 62
Joe Bobker on Rambam, Yom Kippur & the Time Machine 72
The Baal Neilah by Larry Domnitch 77
Charity Redeems from Death 78
Halacha
Kneeling on a Stone Floor by Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits 76
Health & Fitness
I Can’t Change by Deb Hirschhorn, PhD 80
How to Have an Easy Fast by Cindy Weinberger, MS, RD, CDN 81
Food & Leisure
The Aussie Gourmet: Red Lentil Vegetable Soup 96
Kasha Bourbon and Peace Vodka: TJH Speaks with Monte Sachs, owner of one of the few kosher NY distilleries 98
Lifestyles
Be a Troublemaker by Rabbi Mordechai Kruger 92
Creating a More Upscale Kitchen by Naftali Landau 106
Your Money 115
The Antidote by Rivki Rosenwald, Esq., CLC 116
Humor
Centerfold 66
Rocky’s Rant: iDon’t Pad 103
Uncle Moishy Fun Page 108
Political Crossfire
Notable Quotes 86
The Iran Charade on Capitol Hill by Charles Krauthammer 90
Iran Thumbs its Nose at the U.S. by Michael Gerson 91
Classifieds 112
PARTLY CLOUDY PARTLY CLOUDY
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GlobalQueen’s Big Milestone
You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but on September 9, at about 5:30 p.m., Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning monarch in Britain’s history. Serving as sovereign for 23,226 days (about 63 years and 7 months), accord-ing to Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty surpassed Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother, a woman so pow-erful that she stamped an era with her name.
Queen Elizabeth has served longer than Henry VIII (37 years), longer than any of the King Richards, and far lon-
ger than her own father, King George VI (15 years). She certainly reigned longer than King Edward VIII, her uncle, who abdicated after less than a year so he could marry Wallis Simpson, a divorced American.
Now a great-grandmother, Elizabeth has overseen a blossoming of the British monarchy, symbolized by her grandson, Prince William, whose royal wedding in 2011 was watched around the world and who since then has produced two popu-lar children, including a future king.
The 89-year-old queen marked the occasion as she has done so many times before: quietly going about her busi-ness, opening a railway line, unveiling a plaque, and meeting her subjects. She did acknowledge the event, however, telling a crowd at a Scottish railway sta-tion that it was not a milestone she had sought out. “I thank you all, and all of the many others at home and overseas, for your touching messages of great kindness,” she said, wearing a two-tone blue coat and matching hat. “[It was] not one to which I have ever aspired.”
Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952 at age 25 upon the death of her father, King George VI. Her official cor-onation the following year marked one
of the first major public events that was televised. “Hers has been a long, rich life of service to her country, to the Com-monwealth,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told his fellow lawmakers. “We wish her and her loving, remark-able husband health and happiness in the years ahead.”
Russia Expands Military Involvement in Middle East
Russia has been busy for the past two weeks, significantly expanding its military footprint in Syria, attempting
to establish a major new air base on the Mediterranean. Fifteen or more Russian planes filled with military equipment and personnel traveled to Syria last week. That equipment includes hous-ing units, armored vehicles and material needed to operate aircraft, like mobile air traffic control towers and ground supplies. It builds on the Russian pres-ence that has already been in Syria for years, which includes military advis-ers and a naval base.
Moscow has always been a key ally for Syrian president Bashar Assad. But its latest actions have earned it rebuke from the Obama administration, who has asked allies in Europe to deny air-space to the Russian supply planes headed to Syria.
Russia’s moves “could further esca-late the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-[Islamic State] coalition operating in Syria,” Sec-retary of State John Kerry told Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in a September 5 phone call.
Moscow, though, is insisting that it needs these supplies to fight terrorism, although it is not a member of the U.S.-
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Weekly
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Givat Cream Cheese8 oz Cups2/$5
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Breakstone SourCream16 oz 2/$3.......................................Flaum’s PicklesWhole or Half Sour28 oz2/$5
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Specials
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[email protected] We reserve the right to limit quantities. No rain
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led alliance against the Islamic State. Terrorists, then, may just be rebels who are fighting Assad and have been sup-ported by the U.S., Turkey and the Gulf Arab states. Russia providing aid to Assad to fight these rebels would be a setback for the U.S. and for Syrian ci-vilians.
Asked on Monday about whether the U.S. has learned more about Russia’s plans for Syria, White House spokes-man Josh Earnest responded, “To be blunt, not really.”
“We continue to believe that ad-ditional Russian support for the As-sad regime would be destabilizing and counterproductive,” Earnest continued, adding that an increased Russian com-mitment to Assad would be a poor choice strategically – a nod to the American po-sition that the dictator, who is partially responsible for both the rise of the Is-lamic State group and the flood of refu-gees out of Syria, must step down.
Once again Putin is flexing his mus-cles. Moscow wants to signal to the West that while it may be open to taking advantage of the current focus on Syria to try to end the civil war, it will only do so on its own terms. And of course, Russia sees itself as a superpower and will remain assertive in the Middle East, despite sanctions the West imposed last year over its aggression in Ukraine.
The Russian developments are “to send a very clear message on the inter-national stage that what is happening is what Russia wants,” a source in Con-gress revealed. “Whatever direction this goes, it’s going in Russia’s favor, and they’re going to be the people dictating it.”
Four More Charged in “El Chapo” Escape
El Chapo’s story of his prison break in Mexico is not over yet. A Mexican judge has formally charged four crimi-nal justice workers for their alleged role in the July prison escape of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The court said that four security workers failed to
follow “protocols and norms” and did not notify higher-ups about the jailbreak in a timely way.
Two of the men charged were pris-on employees tasked with video moni-toring of El Chapo’s cell. The other two worked for the Mexican intelligence ser-vice. Three other workers were charged several weeks ago with aiding Guzman, 58, in his daring prison escape.
Guzman managed to flee the Alti-plano maximum-security prison out-side Mexico City, just 17 months fol-lowing his capture after years on the run. He slipped out of his cell through a one mile tunnel dug under his private shower in the prison some 90 kilome-ters west of Mexico City and has van-ished without a trace.
The drug lord’s escape has dealt a heavy blow to the government of Pres-ident Enrique Pena Nieto, which had pointed to Guzman’s arrest last year as its biggest victory yet in its war on drugs. The government has offered a $3.8 million reward for information leading to his capture.
This is the second time that El Cha-po has succeeded in escaping prison. He fled from another maximum securi-ty penitentiary in 2001.
Castro to Visit the U.S.
September 28 will mark the first time a president of Cuba will publicly set foot on American soil since 1960. According to reports, Cuban Presi-dent Raúl Castro will speak before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City later this month. 55 years ago, his brother, Fidel Castro, spoke before the United Nations.
The announcement comes as ten-sions between the United States and Cuba continue to wane. The process be-gan publicly last December when Pres-ident Barack Obama announced his administration planned to set a “new course” on U.S.-Cuba relations. Soon after, the U.S. traded three Cubans convicted of spying in Miami for Alan Gross, an American aid worker con-
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The Week In Newsvicted of espionage by a Cuban court in 2011. Since then, U.S. and Cuban del-egations have met several times to dis-cuss issues ranging from human rights, treatment of prisoners, trade, extradition and, most significantly, the U.S. embar-go on Cuba, which the Cubans calls “the blockade.”
Obama is also expected to speak be-fore the General Assembly on that day.
Despite the upcoming visit, U.S. law prohibits members of Cuba’s Communist party, of which Raúl Castro is the leader, from visiting the United States.
Mecca Crane Collapse Kills 107
A vow has been made by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to find out what caused a crane collapse that killed 107 people at Mecca’s Grand Mosque ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage. The hajj, a pillar of the Muslim religion which last year drew about two million faith-ful, will take place despite the tragedy, Saudi authorities said as crowds re-turned to pray a day after the incident.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had already arrived in Mecca when the massive red and white crane top-pled over during a thunderstorm. “We will investigate all the reasons and af-terwards declare the results to the cit-izens,” Salman declared after visiting the site, one of Islam’s holiest. Parts of the Grand Mosque remained sealed off around the wreckage of the crane, which also injured around 200 people when it crashed into a courtyard.
There was little mourning among pilgrims, who snapped pictures of the collapsed metal and continued with their prayers and rituals. “I wish I had died in the accident, as it happened at a holy hour and in a holy place,” an Egyptian pilgrim told a reporter. Indo-
nesians and Indians were among those killed when the crane collapsed, while the injured included Malaysians, Egyp-tians, Iranians, Turks, Afghans and Pa-kistanis.
For years, work has been under way on a 400,000-square-meter (4.3-mil-lion-square-feet) enlargement of the Grand Mosque to allow it to accommo-date up to 2.2 million people at once.
This was not the first tragedy to strike Mecca pilgrims. In 2006, sever-al hundred people died in a stampede during a religious ritual in nearby Mina, following a similar incident two years earlier.
Tensions Heightened between the DEA and the Bolivian President
Last week, it was revealed that the United States secretly indicted top of-ficials connected to the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales for their alleged involvement in a cocaine trafficking scheme. The indictments,
secured in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting called “Operation Naked King,” were not revealed until now.
Morales, a former leader of Boliv-ia’s coca growers union, has long been at loggerheads with the DEA. In fact, in 2008, he expelled the agency from the country and embarked on his own strategy of combatting drug trafficking. According to the United Nations, Mo-rales’ plan has been effective at reduc-ing cultivation.
But the DEA did not take its evic-tion sitting down. The agency went after members of Morales’ administra-tion in an apparent effort to undermine his leadership.
The sealed indictments, revealed last week in a lawsuit filed by long-time DEA informant Carlos Toro, target Walter Álvarez, a top Bolivian air force official; the late Raul García, father of Vice President Álvaro García Linera; Faustino Giménez, an Argentine citi-zen and Bolivian resident who is said to be close to the vice president; and Katy Alcoreza, described as an intelligence agent for Morales. Toro said in the court document that he played an inte-gral role in securing the indictments as
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The Week In Newspart of the DEA’s undercover investiga-tion into the alleged Bolivian cocaine trafficking ring, which the agency ran out of its office in Asuncion, Paraguay.
This week, the Obama adminis-tration announced that it’s planning to officially “decertify” Bolivia – a bureaucratic move which amounts to an accusation by U.S. officials that Bo-livia is not sufficiently cooperative in combating drug trafficking.
On Tuesday, Morales addressed the decision to withhold U.S. funds for drug control purposes, calling it a polit-ical maneuver by a nation committed to ineffective anti-drug tactics.
“I think it is a political action exert-ed by the State Department of the Unit-ed States,” he said during a press con-ference at the government palace. “But if we are honest, U.S. policy is a failure in the fight against drug trafficking in the world.” He pointed to Colombia, which is a recipient of U.S. support and has seen an increase in coca cultivation over the past year.
“I could mention many countries in the world where there is this problem and how it has grown with U.S. pres-ence,” the president said. “They’re us-ing the fight against drug trafficking for clear political purposes.”
Morales and the DEA have a long history of animosity. The president, a member of the Aymara indigenous group and a one-time coca grower, first rose to power in Bolivia as the head of a federation of coca growers unions. The union gained much of its strength by organizing in response to human rights abuses carried out by the DEA-backed anti-drug group known as UMOPAR, starting in the 1980s. In 2005, Morales led nationwide protests that toppled the government of former Bolivian Presi-dent Carlos Mesa. He became presi-dent in 2006.
Many indigenous Bolivians, includ-ing Morales, defend coca production as a traditional right. After all, Bolivians have used coca leaves in a variety of ways for thousands of years. But coca is also the essential ingredient in co-caine, and the nation’s close relation-ship with the plant has made it the world’s third-largest producer of the drug, behind Peru and Colombia.
The U.S. government and the DEA made no secret of their displeasure when their longtime nemesis, Morales, was elected. “If radicals continue to hijack the indigenous movement, we could find ourselves faced with a nar-costate that supports the uncontrolled cultivation of coca,” General James T. Hill, a U.S. army commander with the Southern Command, warned the House Armed Services Committee in March 2004, referring to Morales’ movement.
The fact that the U.S. is not on his side was seen as a benefit to Morales’ campaign while he was running for president.
“They accuse me of everything,” he said at a campaign rally. “They say Evo is a drug trafficker, that Evo is a narco-terrorist. They don’t know how to de-fend their position, so they attack us.”
After he was elected, in September 2008, Morales kicked U.S. Ambassa-dor Philip Goldberg out of the country. In November he expelled the DEA, arguing that the agency had commit-ted human rights violations, covered up murders and was routinely using its investigative powers to target politi-cians and movement leaders who were challenging Washington’s neoliberal agenda. Morales had made a campaign promise to nationalize the country’s natural gas resources and use the pro-ceeds to develop the economy from the bottom up.
Bolivia has managed to grow its economy since Morales’ victory – in-creasing by at least 6.5 percent last year. The budget is balanced. Extreme poverty seems to have been put under control. And the country has managed to reduce coca leaf cultivation, espe-cially over the past five years.
“[Drug trafficking] must be fought – we are convinced of that – and we are doing so more effectively and more wisely,” Morales told Al Jazeera in a 2014 interview. “When the United States was in control of counternarcot-ics, the U.S. governments used drug trafficking for purely geopolitical pur-poses .... The U.S. uses drug trafficking and terrorism for political control ... We have nationalized the fight against drug trafficking.”
The revelation of Operation Naked King goes to show that perhaps Bo-livian leaders’ paranoia against U.S. intervention was well-justified, said Kathryn Ledebur, who runs the Andean Information Network based in Bolivia. “U.S. authorities frequently dismiss Bolivian government denunciations about the DEA and U.S. intervention as absurd speculation.”
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After a downward spiral in the Chi-nese stock market, a ripple effect has caused several countries to experience “significant currency depreciations,” said Douglas Quinby, vice president at Phocuswright, a hospitality research firm. “These currency rates have a big impact on travel.” In short, when the exchange rate begins to favor the American dollar, travelers looking to explore the world should start packing
their bags.Here are a few examples. Due in part
to the falling yen, Japan’s tourism rates are climbing a lot. A night at the new Andaz Tokyo Toranomon, which offers spectacular views of the city, can be had for around $483 in early October. That’s still a pretty penny, but it’s down about $200 from last summer’s rate. Nonstop flights from and to Japan have also come down in price lately.
Like other countries with an oil-based economy, Russia’s currency fluc-tuates with global oil prices. The ruble has been falling steadily for about a year, and China’s recent woes haven’t helped. A cursory look at the cost of flights to St. Petersburg from New York found ticket prices in the low $500s in early October, which is comparable to some flights to the western U.S. A night at the opulent Ritz-Carlton Moscow was just $300 on Booking.com for a stay in early October. Sounds like a beautiful vacation—if you don’t mind Putin look-ing over your shoulder.
Despite hosting the recent FIFA World Cup and the upcoming Sum-mer Olympics, Brazil’s economy has remained in a recession. The Brazilian real, the local currency, is the weak-
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The Week In Newsest it’s been in 13 years, and President Dilma Rousseff is fighting to save the country’s investment-grade credit rat-ing. Perhaps that’s why Azul Brazilian Airlines recently announced their Azul Brazil Air Pass, which gives fliers 10 days of unlimited flights throughout Brazil for $299, or 21 days of flights for $399. Spending Sukkos in Brazil seems like a nice idea.
Our neighbors to the north are also in a recession, with the Canadian dollar (or loonie) currently sitting at about 75¢ U.S. In major cities, debt-to-income ra-tio is near a record high, and the central bank is debating whether or not to lower interest rates again. With that said, cities like Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal are hotspots for traveling.
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Nazis’ Most Wanted Jews in Britain
The Nazis wanted to kill Jews—both as a nation and as individuals. A 144-page list of high priority targets recently was released. Included in the
2,820 person list is future Israeli presi-dent Chaim Weizmann, leading British Jew Selig Brodetsky, and an English spy who helped thousands of Jews es-cape the Nazis. They all appeared on a list of British “enemies of the state, traitors and undesirables” compiled by the Nazis in World War II. Those on the list were earmarked for punishment if Germany would have won the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Among the non-Jews on the list, along with then-British prime minister Winston Churchill and his deputy Clem-ent Atlee, was Major Francis Foley, a
spy known as the “British Schindler” for helping 10,000 Jews flee Nazi Germany. Foley was a passport control officer in Berlin — a cover for his work for the MI6 intelligence agency — who iden-tified the threat to Germany’s Jews and issued visas and stamped passports for them, helping them reach Britain.
The Nazis also targeted other Brit-ish-based Jews, including art historian Frederick Antal, Professor Hugo Braun (who was actually in Turkey at the time) and academic Elisabeth Blochmann. The list also includes notable anti-fas-cists and writers Virginia Woolf (whose husband was Jewish), Noel Coward, Al-dous Huxley and HG Wells.
The 144-page list was compiled by the office of SS General Walter Schel-lenberg. The Nazi officer had been tapped as the official responsible for Britain should Germany have complet-ed an invasion.
Fighting between ISIS and Al Qaeda
Hold on to your turban—ISIS and al Qaeda are going at it. Ayman al-Zawa-hiri, the Egyptian doctor who replaced Osama bin Laden as the head of al Qae-da four years ago, has accused ISIS top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of “sedi-tion.” He is insisting the Iraqi terrorist recluse is not the leader of all Muslims and militant jihadists as “caliph” of the Islamic State, as al-Baghdadi had claimed 14 months ago.
“It’s pretty interesting,” said former National Counterterrorism Center Di-rector Matthew Olsen. “Zawahiri until now has not been willing to openly con-demn Baghdadi and ISIS. It highlights how deep the division is between al Qaeda leadership and ISIS. It suggests that the differences are irreconcilable.” Had ISIS and al Qaeda realigned by joining forces, it “would be terrible,” said Olsen.
That division, now formally de-clared by the highest ranking official of the group that slaughtered almost
3,000 Americans 14 years ago in multi-pronged aviation attacks, could provide an opening that American counter-ter-rorism operatives could find a way to exploit. Olsen said the U.S. could use misinformation to further pit the two jihadi menaces against each other and encourage the series of gunfights and assassinations each has waged against the other.
ISIS, formerly the al Qaeda branch in Iraq, split from the larger group two years ago. Though it didn’t foresee the rise of ISIS, former CIA Director Michael Hayden said the intelligence community had predicted a rift in al Qaeda emerging after bin Laden’s death – something like what’s happening now between ISIS and al Qaeda, which the U.S. could use to its advantage.
Cuba to Release 3,522 Prisoners
Cuba has announced that it will be releasing 3,522 prisoners ahead of next week’s visit by Pope Francis. This marks the third time Cuba has granted inmates freedom before a papal trip. The Council of State announced that the prisoners to be freed include a mix of women, people younger than 20, inmates suffering from illnesses, and people whose terms were coming to an end next year. The government, though, won’t be releasing people convicted of serious crimes like murder, child abuse or violations of state security. The final category is often applied to people con-sidered political prisoners by Cuban and international human rights groups. Also excluded from pardon were those con-victed of illegally killing government cattle, a crime that often bears heavy punishment in Cuba, which suffers from widespread shortages of milk and meat, particularly beef.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the arch-bishop of Havana, said in an interview that he had given the government a list of prisoners for possible pardon ahead
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The Week In Newsof the pope’s September visit. He said many were being held for economic crimes such as corruption or stealing re-sources from the state, both widespread problems in a country where most work-ers hold state jobs bringing in between $20 and $30 a month.
The names of the prisoners were published in an order signed by Presi-dent Raul Castro in the country’s gov-ernment gazette. The order described the pardons as a “humane and sovereign act.” Former President Fidel Castro released more than 3,000 prisoners de-scribed as “counterrevolutionaries” in 1978 and 1979. His brother and succes-sor released 53 this year as part of the declaration of detente with the United States. Rights groups say about 70 polit-ical prisoners remain in the country.
Other papal visits to Cuba have spurred prisoners’ releases as well. Raul Castro released more than 2,900 pris-oners in March 2012 before the visit of Pope Benedict. Fidel Castro released about 300 when Pope John Paul II vis-ited in 1998.
IsraelIsraeli Embassy Returns to Cairo
Four years ago, Israel’s embassy in Cairo was overrun by Egyptian pro-testors and shut down. This week, the ministry’s director-general, Dore Gold, was in the Egyptian capital to reopen the embassy, marking what the minis-try called a “festive occasion.” Also on hand were Israel’s ambassador to Egypt Haim Koren and other Israeli diplomats, Egyptian officials, and the American ambassador. Koren has been stationed in Egypt since May 2014, working at an unofficial location.
Speaking at the event, Gold said that under Prime Minister Benjamin Net-anyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi the two countries had succeeded in fending off threats and are
now working toward “prosperity” and “stability” in the Middle East.
During the ceremony, Gold affixed a mezuzah on the embassy doorpost. The event concluded with a rendition of Ha-tikvah and Egypt’s national anthem.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Ho-tovely welcomed the embassy’s reded-ication. “We share common interests with Egypt, and in particular, regional changes create opportunities to improve ties with countries in the region, starting with Egypt,” Hotovely said in a state-ment.
Israel closed its Cairo embassy in September 2011, after it was overrun by thousands of protesters.
In June, Gold traveled to Cairo for the first high-level talks between offi-cials in four years. He and Egyptian dip-lomats discussed topics such as Iran’s nuclear program, growing Islamic fun-damentalism in the Middle East, Cairo’s foreign policy toward Hamas and a pos-sible re-launch of peace talks with the Palestinians. Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Osama al-Majdoub at the time made it abundantly clear to Gold that Cairo views the Palestinian deadlock as “the heart of the conflict in the region,” and stressed the importance of restarting high-level negotiations between Jerusa-lem and Ramallah.
Official relations between Jerusalem and Cairo have been relatively warm since Sissi rose to power. In June, Ne-tanyahu “deeply welcomed” Egypt’s appointment of its new ambassador to Israel, Hazem Khairat.
Man Killed after Assailants Hurl Stones at his Car
Alexander Levlovitz was killed while driving back from Rosh Hashana festivities late Sunday night. As assail-ants hurled stones at his car, Levlovitz, 64, lost control. His car smashed into a pole and he died. His two passen-gers were injured in the attack that took place in the East Talpiot neighborhood
of southeast Jerusalem. “I am in shock as I write this, but
my dad was murdered yesterday, the eve of the holiday, when he was on his way home,” his son, Nir, who was on the way from New York to attend his father’s funeral, said. “He was killed by rock throwers. One stone changed the course of my entire life. Dad, I love you.”
Unknown assailants believed to be Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem reportedly attacked the car with stones. The terrorists, allegedly from the nearby Palestinian village of Sur Bacher, also attacked other cars on East Talpiot’s Asher Winer street.
“The driver who was involved in an accident, apparently as a result of stone-throwing… died at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
Also Monday, a young Israeli man was lightly wounded by rock-throwers in Jerusalem. He was treated by medics at the scene. Security forces were look-ing for the perpetrators.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ne-tanyahu declared “war” on stone throw-ers, calling for harsher punishments against them.
Israelis Don’t Heart Obama
For weeks, President Obama has at-tempted to assure the Israeli and Jewish public that he had their best interests in mind when brokering the nuclear deal with Iran. But it seems that the Israe-li public has not been moved. Large groups of Israelis, particularly those who side with Prime Minister Netanya-hu, have little trust in the American president, considering him naive and even hostile. One recent poll showed less than a tenth considered him “pro-Is-rael.”
Such misgivings bode poorly for Obama as he tries to repair ties with Israel in the final year of his presidency, and they would certainly complicate any renewed effort at brokering peace
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The Week In Newsbetween Israel and its neighbors – once a major Obama ambition. Certainly, the tense personal relationship between the American and Israeli leaders is certainly a factor in the stressful relationship be-tween the two countries.
“The average Israeli probably thinks that he is a nice guy, but he is naive,” said Alexander Yakobson, a historian at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In Israeli eyes, “he doesn’t get the Middle East, doesn’t understand how the Mid-east functions, and he doesn’t therefore understand what dangers Israel has to face,” he added.
Yakobson said the president’s mis-steps went back to his earliest days in office, when he chose to deliver a land-mark speech in Cairo seeking to repair American relations with the Arab world. “That was never going to make him popular in Israel,” he said.
Despite the past few years’ ups and downs, the biggest issue has been the U.S.-led nuclear agreement with Iran. Politicians across the spectrum have come out against deal, agreeing with Netanyahu’s assessment that it does not have sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from gaining the ability to make a bomb and that it will boost Iran’s in-fluence across the region. Iran is a key backer of Israel’s toughest enemies, and Netanyahu has warned that the ending of sanctions against Iran will result in more money and arms flowing to groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Recent opinion polls reflect these sentiments. In one survey published last week in the Maariv daily, 77 percent of respondents said the deal endangers Is-rael, compared to 15 percent who said it didn’t.
An April survey of Jewish Israelis, carried out just after a preliminary nu-clear deal with Iran was reached, had
an equally harsh view of Obama. Just 9 percent of respondents described the White House as “pro-Israeli,” while 60 percent called it “pro-Palestinian.” More than 60 percent described Obama as the worst president for Israel in the past 30 years, far outdistancing runner-up Jim-my Carter at 16 percent.
In a survey of 40 countries, the Pew Research Center found the sharpest de-cline in Obama’s image over the past year occurred in Israel, where confi-dence slipped from 71 percent to 49 percent.
At times, the anger toward Obama in Israel is palpable. On the streets and in online news forums, Israelis often refer to Obama by his middle name “Hus-sein,” a reference to his Muslim heritage on his father’s side.
Obama has made sure to consistent-ly say that he is pro-Israel. “I would suggest that, in terms of the tone of this debate, everybody keep in mind that we’re all pro-Israel,” he said. “And we have to make sure that we don’t impugn people’s motives.”
Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli consul-general in Houston, said the is-sues here have little to do with personal-ities or alleged hostilities on the part of Obama. “It’s an issue of a gap between two very different world views,” he pointed out.
In Israeli eyes, he said, Obama is un-realistic, sending a message of weakness through his handling of the so-called Arab Spring over the past five years and by trusting an Iranian government with such a long record of defying the international community and supporting violent groups across the region.
“Are you rooted in reality or are you rooted in wishful thinking?” he asked.
The White House has said they are trying to set up a meeting between Obama and Netanyahu this November.
PM Declares “War” on Stone Throwers
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu renewed his commit-ment to fighting terrorism, declaring “war” on those across the country who throw stones and Molotov cocktails amid rising tensions in Jerusalem.
The declaration was said as police were deployed to Temple Mount to calm rising tensions in the city after an Israeli was killed over the Jewish New Year in a stone-throwing attack in the capital.
The Temple Mount complex has been the site of riots in the last several days, although the area was reported to be relatively calm Wednesday morning with the deployment of police forces. Jordan’s King Abdullah threatened dip-lomatic sanctions over what he termed “Israeli violations” at the sensitive holy site.
“We’re changing the policy. The current situation is unacceptable to us,” Netanyahu said during a tour of Route 443, which connects Tel Aviv and Je-rusalem via the West Bank and has in recent months been the scene of several attacks against Israelis. “We will give instruments to policemen and soldiers, so that they can take very firm action against those who throw stones and Mo-lotov cocktails.”
The prime minister said he would change open-fire orders, increase the minimum sentence for those who throw stones and Molotov cocktails, and start imposing fines on minors and their par-ents who commit such attacks.
Before making his statement from an army base along Route 443, Net-anyahu visited the Jerusalem site of Sunday’s deadly stone throwing attack in East Talpiot.
On Sunday evening, 64-year Jerusa-lemite Alexander Levlovitz was killed when his vehicle was struck by rocks as he made his way home from a Rosh Ha-shana dinner.
“In the State of Israel these things are unacceptable and I don’t only mean on
the routes surrounding Jerusalem or Je-rusalem itself,” the prime minister said. “I am also talking about the Galilee and the Negev. We’re changing the policy to [declare] war on stone throwers and those who throw Molotov cocktails.”
Public Security Minister Gilad Er-dan said this week that stone throwing was akin to “attempted murder.”
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said that stone throwers need to pay a “heavy price” for their actions. If current mea-sures are not enough, Barkat added, he would fight until the phenomenon was eliminated. Police need additional tools to fight them and more officers are need-ed as well to combat the problem.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked add-ed that new policies which were to be implemented would treat people who throw stones or Molotov cocktails like those with “murder weapons.”
NationalFlooding in Utah Claims 16 Lives
On Monday evening, flashfloods claimed the lives of at least 12 people in a small town on the Utah-Arizona border, when two vehicles were swept away in the floodwaters. At least four others lost their lives in nearby Zion Na-tional Park. Three children in the SUVs survived the ordeal.
“The little boy was standing there,” witness Yvonne Holm recalled. “He said, ‘Are you guys going to help me?’” Residents called it the worst flood in memory for the sister towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, locat-ed about 315 miles south of Salt Lake City at the foot of picturesque red rock cliffs. It was in this area at Maxwell Canyon where heavy rains sent water down Short Creek and barreling through
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the towns.The torrent was so fast, “it was tak-
ing concrete pillars and just throwing them down, just moving them like plas-tic,” said Lorin Holm, who called the storm the heaviest in the 58 years he’s lived in the community.
“We’re greatly humbled by this, but we realize that this is an act of G-d, and this is something we can’t control,” a resident said. “We have to take what we receive and do the best we can.”
Although the area is prone to flood-ing, this week’s floods were of a mon-umental proportion. The height of the storm lasted about 30 minutes, pouring 1 ½ inches of rain into a desert-like landscape with little vegetation and many steep slopes.
Could the CIA Have Saved Warren Weinstein?
Warren Weinstein of Rockville, Maryland, probably never imagined he’d be killed by his own team. But the American aid worker was mistakenly and some say carelessly killed by a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan. Supposedly the CIA detected that there was a Western hostage being held by al-Qaeda in the region but failed to monitor the captive under drone surveillance.
The surveillance lapse is being scru-tinized as part of an internal CIA inves-tigation into the death of Warren Wein-stein, U.S. officials said.
Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker, was killed alongside Weinstein in the CIA strike on an al-Qaeda com-pound in January. The agency is claim-ing that they were completely unaware that Weinstein, 73, and Lo Porto, 39, were at the compound until their bod-ies were removed from the rubble in the aftermath. They emphasized that drone footage showing a possible hostage was so inconclusive that even after a long and detailed examination it remains un-clear whether the heavily guarded figure was Weinstein.
Still, officials said that senior law-
makers have voiced concern in classi-fied hearings that the CIA abandoned a potential lead on an al-Qaeda captive to focus instead on hunting terrorists — despite President Obama’s promise that the government was doing everything it could to find Weinstein.
“The agency’s main purpose is to go kill terrorists,” said a U.S. official famil-iar with the inquiry. “They will tell you it is not to rescue hostages.”
In April, Obama delivered a public apology to the victims’ families and demanded an immediate investigation into the strike to determine whether any changes to U.S. targeting processes could have prevented the deaths. That inquiry is still ongoing.
“We believed the president when he told us that rescuing American hostages was his highest priority,” Elaine Wein-stein, Warren Weinstein’s wife, said in a statement. “They told us for three years ‘everything possible’ was being done to find and rescue Warren. We now feel deceived. . . . How do I explain to my grandkids that the government could have saved their grandpa, but decided not to?”
America’s Coolest Towns
Cool is subjective, and yet recently Yahoo! Travel put together their version of our country’s Coolest Small Towns. Many of the towns boast a vibrant night life or are home to contemporary art-houses; others host live music events nightly or have a growing local econo-my.
The folks of Grand Marais, Minne-sota, can do a little victory dance—or react however cool people do—because they locked down the top spot and were named the “coolest” small town in the nation. The town’s perfect combination of being edgy, sweet, beautiful, and trav-el-worthy earned them the title for this year’s 10th annual contest.
Grand Marais is nestled between Lake Superior and the Sawtooth Moun-
The Week In News
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tains and hosts many one-of-a-kind events. Musicians, artists, photogra-phers and artisans add an artistic flair to the area’s unique eateries and shops. Enjoy gazing at the otters playing at the docks or delight in fresh fish eaten al fresco at an outdoor café. Sail along Lake Superior and sip cappuccino as you watch painters at Artists’ Point de-pict the sailboats and lighthouse on their brilliant canvases.
So where are all the cool people hanging out in small towns across America? Consider these ten towns:
1. Grand Marais, Minnesota (pop.:1,351)2. Chincoteague, Virginia (pop.: 2,941)3. Hillsborough, N.C. (pop.: 6,087)4. Allegan, Michigan (pop.: 4,998)5. Washington, N.C. (pop.: 9,744)6. Delhi, New York (pop.: 3,087)7. Fort Myers Beach, Florida (pop.: 6,277)8. Huron, Ohio (pop.: 7,149)9. Snohomish, Washington (pop.: 9,098)10. Old Orchard Beach, Maine
(pop.: 8,624)
Death Penalty for Anti-Semitic Serial Murderer
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 74, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, is facing the death penalty for fatally shooting three people at Jewish sites in Kansas. The jury suggested capital punishment after the ruthless murderer callously proclaimed to jurors that he was indifferent to what sentence was passed down to him.
Miller was convicted of capital murder by the same jury last week for
the April 2014 shootings in suburban Kansas City. The judge overseeing the trial will now decide whether to follow the jury’s sentencing recommendation.
“I believe the criminal justice sys-tem worked effectively, that the people from the state of Kansas have spoken loud and clear,” William LaManno — whose wife, Terri, was among those killed — said after the verdict was read. Tony Corporon, who lost his father and nephew in the shootings, said he’d just “witnessed justice in action.”
Johnson County District Attor-ney Steve Howe had urged the jury to recommend the death sentence during closing arguments in the trial’s pen-alty phase. He displayed one of the shotguns used in the shootings, saying Miller — who had repeatedly admit-ted to the killings — pointed the gun at 53-year-old Terri LaManno, but the weapon didn’t fire.
Howe then grabbed another of Miller’s guns to show the jury, saying LaManno “begged for her life” before Miller shot her.
“There’s no doubt she was terrified. She froze. ... And his response was to brutally kill her,” Howe said. “The de-fendant’s actions are clearly the type of
case the death penalty was made for.”Miller shot LaManno at the Village
Shalom retirement center in Overland Park shortly after killing 69-year-old William Corporon and Corporon’s 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Un-derwood, at the nearby Jewish Com-munity Center.
Miller, who oddly represented him-self at the trial, gave a long-winded, hour-long closing argument that refer-enced the media, white supremacism and his health. A doctor testified during the trial that Miller was not well and likely had only about five to six years left to live.
Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., is a Vietnam War veteran who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party. He also ran for the U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010 in Missou-ri, each time espousing a white-power platform.
Miller concluded his arguments by telling jurors he didn’t care what sen-tence they handed down and ended with raising his right arm in the Nazi salute. He repeated the hateful gesture
The Week In News
Continued on page 29
O R I G I N A L PA I N T I N G S A N D P R I N T S F O R S A L E
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The Week In Newsafter jurors convicted him.
On November 10, it will be revealed whether or not the judge will heed the jury’s recommendation. The state of Kansas hasn’t executed a death row in-mate in decades.
“Hopefully this verdict and com-pletion of the trial will allow those im-pacted to begin healing,” Howe said in a statement after the hearing.
Strangely enough, although Miller wanted to kill Jews, none of the victims in the slaughter were actually Jewish.
How Well do You Know Your Science Facts?
Americans aren’t doing too well in science. In fact, Americans got a “D” in the subject, according to the Pew Re-search Center.
The public opinion and research organization surveyed a representative sample of U.S. adults last year on sci-ence topics like geology, physics and astronomy. Test-takers were only able to answer 7.9 questions correctly on av-
erage out of 12—that’s equivalent to a score of 66%.
Only 6% of the 3,278 test-takers an-swered all 12 questions correctly. While 26% got only one or two questions wrong, an additional 27% missed three or four. Thankfully, only 1% missed 11 of the questions, 2% missed 10, and 3% missed nine.
Predictably, the more school test-takers completed, the higher they scored on the test. For instance, the par-ticipants who had earned some type of graduate degree scored an average of 9.5, while those who didn’t make it past high school averaged only 6.8 correct answers.
Perhaps more surprisingly, the re-search showed a significant gender gap. Men outscored women, 8.6 to 7.3, on average. Researchers also discovered that whites scored higher on the test than Latinos or African-Americans. Their average scores were 8.4, 7.1 and 5.9, respectively.
The easiest question on the test was: “Which of the Earth’s three layers — the crust, the mantle or the core — is hottest.” 86 percent of respondents gave the correct answer (the core!). Another question that most people answered cor-
rectly was: “Which of these elements is needed to make nuclear energy and nuclear weapons?” Eighty-two percent correctly chose uranium, the other op-tions were sodium chloride, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
The most challenging question for test-takers was how altitude affects the temperature at which water boils. Only 34 percent knew that the temperature is lower in Denver than in Los Ange-les, compared with 26% who guessed the opposite and 39% who thought the boiling temperature would be the same in both cities.
Another factor that showed varianc-es was age. Some questions proved to be easier for younger test-takers. For instance, 80% of those ages 18 to 29 knew that radio waves make cellphone conversations possible, while only 57% percent of senior citizens were similarly informed.
The 65-plus age group, however, had an easier time identifying Jonas Salk as the developer of the polio vac-cine — 86% of them knew the right answer, compared with 68% of adults under the age of 30.
More than 22% said astronomy was “the study of how the positions of stars
and planets can influence human behav-ior.” Wrong! The answer they should have selected was astrology.
Time to start reading Popular Sci-ence magazine and spending less time with your friends on Facebook.
Tailor to the Presidents Dies
It was a rags to riches story with a stop along the way at the White House dressing room.
Georges de Paris, a French tailor who came to America and ended up broke and homeless before resurrecting his career, died last week at the age of 81. De Paris was famous for making suits for the most powerful man in the United States—from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama.
In his heyday, de Paris worked for Ronald Reagan, among others, who shared with de Paris some of his trade-mark jelly beans, and with Johnson, who introduced the suit maker to his wife and daughters.
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The Week In NewsDe Paris, a native of Marseille in
southern France, was a diminutive man with a striking, unruly mane of thick, white hair. He had a tailor shop just a few blocks from the White House and always dressed impeccably. He came to the United States in the 1950s at the age of 27 with just $4,000. But he lost his money when a relationship went sour and he spent six months on the streets,
panhandling and sleeping in a parking lot near the White House.
But then his luck started to turn. He was hired as a fabric cutter for a tailor, working for $70 a week. He scrimped and saved until he could buy a sewing machine and start his own business.
Eventually, he met a congressman who started to buy suits from de Paris. He was then introduced to Lyndon B.
Johnson, who was vice president at the time, and continued to make his suits once he became president.
He recalled that he loved working with Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush best of all. They were the “friendliest and also the most ele-gant,” de Paris said.
“Reagan spoke a lot. He, like George W., knew how to appreciate the quality
of fabrics,” the tailor recalled. “He gave me jellybeans and was always afraid that I would prick him with my needles during the fitting.”
Richard Nixon “was cordial. He al-ways asked for news of my family and whether I liked the United States.” De Paris became a U.S. citizen in 1969.
“As for [Jimmy] Carter, he nev-er said anything,” while Gerald Ford “teased me about my small size by ask-ing me whether I played on an American football team.”
On the other hand, George Bush Sr. “was not the most agreeable. But the least pleasant of all was Bill Clinton,” de Paris recalled. “Clinton was very de-manding, cold and always occupied. ... He was unaware of me completely.”
That’s OddOnly the Nose Knows
This guy really nose how to type. No, that’s not a typo. New Del-
hi’s Vinod Kumar Chaudhary has smashed the Guinness World Record for “fastest time to type a prescribed 103 character text on a keyboard using the nose” by pecking out “Guinness World Records have challenged me to type this sentence using my nose in the fast-est time” in 46.3 seconds. You try that twenty times fast.
Chaudhary beat the previous record of 47.44 seconds (which was set by Mohammed Khursheed Hussain, who typed the same sentence with his nose) on December 22, 2014. The feat was only recently recognized by Guinness.
“Typing is my profession as well as passion, which inspired me to try something different and outstanding,” said Chaudhary, who practices his craft for at least four hours each day. “I have always wanted to do something innova-
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The Week In Newstive and do my best in all competitions; this gave me the strength to break the record of fastest typing with nose.”
It seems like the nose is getting a lot of attention. The Guinness team re-leased details of Chaudhary’s success in their weekly Spotlight video, which features a cornucopia of snout-based records. The olfactory virtuoso faced some serious competition amongst other master-beaks, whose accomplishments ranged from “largest bubble gum bub-ble blown with the nose” to “tallest ob-ject balanced on the nose.”
Sounds like there’s no(se) stopping them.
A Gem of a Find
Some people have kidney stones. Other people have different types of stones in their bodies—and these stones can provide rock-hard evidence against them.
Take, for instance, a Chinese visi-tor to Bangkok. Thankfully, physicians there were able to successfully remove a foreign object from her large intestine that could have caused her severe dam-age.
More good news? The object was a 10 million baht (around $278,000) dia-mond.
The bad news? This gem is the one the woman was accused of stealing from a jewelry fair in the country. Sounds like some pretty hard evidence against her.
Police were able to nab the woman and her male accomplice when a deal-er at the booth at the fair identified the two. The duo switched a fake stone for the real one after they asked to inspect it. They were arrested at the airport and denied their crime, although X-rays re-vealed a suspicious object in the wom-
an’s intestines. Doctors were forced to operate and then retrieved the gem.
This is not the first time someone swallowed a gem in an effort to steal it. In 2012, police in South Africa ar-rested a 25-year-old man who they said swallowed 220 polished diamonds in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country. The diamonds were estimated to be worth about $2.3 million, and were discovered via a body scan as the man was waiting to go through security at the international airport near Johannesburg prior to taking a flight to Dubai.
Talk about some hidden gems.
Double Lives
These twins lead double lives.Kerri Bunker and Kelli Wall are
identical twins who have been sharing a lot of things. In fact, both women each have one set of twins. But that’s about to change. Each of them are now expecting some new additions next spring—another set of twins.
“To have twins twice is incredible,” Wall enthused.
They are due two weeks apart. “It was like just one shock after an-
other all summer long,” said Bunker.Both Wall and Bunker don’t just
share a love of twin children. They both teach at the same school and are married to best friends. In fact, because they’re identical, the principal at the school where they teach sometimes has trouble telling them apart.
But that doesn’t bother the two. “Truthfully there’s nothing better than having a best friend with you all the time,” Wall said.
Double the fun.
A Rockin’ Roller Coaster
This roller coaster is not for the faint of heart—or for anyone wearing
a toupee.Next summer, Ohio’s Cedar Point
amusement park will unveil its newest roller coaster, the Valravn Birdseye, which will break 10 roller coaster re-cords. For those of you who love speed and have no fear, you will be able to en-joy the ride of lifetime. The coaster will be the tallest diver coaster (223 feet), fastest dive coaster (75 mph), longest dive coaster (3,415 feet), have three in-versions, have the longest drop on a dive coaster (214 feet), and have the highest inversion on a dive coaster (165 feet).
The park itself will have the most roller coasters taller than 200 feet, the most rides at one amusement park and the most roller coaster track at one amusement park (60,110 feet/11.4 miles).
Hold onto your hats—and your hair!
Animal Art
Modern art is sometimes hard to understand. But even if the layman has trouble deciphering all the dots, squig-gles and dissecting lines, we know there has to be some thought behind it all. Right? Maybe not…
Now, lucky buyers will be able to purchase pieces of art with absolutely no thought behind the canvases—except maybe by a real birdbrain.
Elephants, giraffes, lemurs, and even a cockroach at the Oakland Zoo have been exploring their creative sides to produce colorful paintings that will be auctioned for charity. Zookeepers used plenty of treats to coax animals into producing masterpieces.
Elephants were helped to hold paint-brushes in their trunks and giraffes held paintbrushes in their mouths and pro-
duced their artwork one stroke at a time. Goats, lemurs, and meerkats had their hooves, paws or claws dabbed with non-toxic, water-based paint and ran over a blank sheet of poster board while chas-ing a treat.
Thirty-two artworks will be auc-tioned off.
Perhaps you’d be interested in an intriguing piece by Andy, a Madagascar hissing cockroach, who scurried around a canvas painted in purple, green and yellow tones.
Or maybe a blue, green and yellow piece by Maggie, a Nigerian dwarf goat, would be more your style.
“It was fun for them because they got treats for participating,” zoo spokes-man Nicky Mora said.
Last year, Oakland Zoo auctioned off twelve paintings and raised nearly $10,000.
Can’t wait to have the Andy the Cockroach’s work of art hanging in my living room. I’m sure it will make my guests really bug out.
The Supreme SelfieSelfies are a serious business.In fact, Bhanu Prakash has quit his
job in search of setting a selfie world record.
The 24-year-old from Hyderabad, India, has set out to break the world record for the most selfies taken in an hour. He is so dedicated that in August he quit his job as a research assistant at a hospital to train after he was inspired by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s re-cord-breaking 105 selfies in three min-utes.
Don’t think this is an easy feat. Ar-izona Cardinals star Patrick Peterson is the current world-record holder, with a staggering 1,449 selfies taken in an hour. Prakash, though, is unfazed. So far, his personal best is already 1,700 selfies an hour and his goal is to get to 1,800.
He spends his time performing hand and wrist exercises to prepare for his big day—September 18.
Can’t think of a more self-absorbed goal to meet.
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Around The Community
Preparations are in full swing for the 2015-16 school year. At DRS Ye-shiva High School, there are a number of new milestones and exciting new initiatives being instituted:
• With 338 students, DRS has hit a record high in enrollment in its 19-year history!
• To accommodate the increased
enrollment, renovations are being done to add two more classrooms to the building.
• DRS will undergo a recertifica-tion process for its accreditation by The Middlestates Association of Col-leges and Schools Commission on Secondary Education.
• The DRS library is undergoing a
complete transformation. Construction is now being done to create a brand new virtual library and study lounge, and will serve as a quiet workspace conducive to studying. The library will house iMacs, laptops, and a 3D print-ing station for students to take advan-tage of. The computers will provide students with powerful online learn-ing tools, and students will be able to check out laptops to use for work, uti-lizing extensive research databases for both Judaic and Secular subject.
• An early morning optional bekiut class is being offered before daven-ing to allow students to complete the 82 daf of Masechet Kiddushin over the year. This complements the other bekiut options throughout the day for students.
• A section of the new library center will become a “drop-in center,” a pri-vate room that will allow students to schedule meeting times with teachers for some extra help and tutoring.
• The curriculum will include a new three-year sequence in Spanish, Hebrew, and Mandarin.
• A newly designed freshmen com-puter curriculum, taught as a blended learning course, will focus on coding, scripting, and other 21st century skills.
• A new program is being instituted in the sophomore year for those stu-dents who need strengthening of liter-acy skills.
• Remedial smaller sections in En-glish, science, and math were added to all grades to strengthen students’ skills in these areas.
• A new slate of young, eager, and dynamic rabbinic interns, including two DRS alumni, have been hired to
assist our Judaic studies faculty inside the classroom. Aside from spending time with those students in need for enrichments, the interns will be tasked with creating screencast recording of the Gemara reading in order to enable individualized learning at each stu-dent’s own pace.
• In an effort to create a safe on-line environment for our students, the school will be installing a program called “NetRef” onto its Wi-Fi system. Net-Ref manages Internet distractions for students. By installing the NetRef app on student devices, teachers can monitor students’ use of the internet in class and keep them focused on learn-ing throughout the lesson.
• Our Senior Year “Project SYO”, Senior Year Odyssey, is being ex-panded to include internships in en-gineering, medicine, healthcare, and many other related fields. Seniors are matched with internships of their choosing, and they make a multimedia presentation of their findings to a fac-ulty review committee.
What’s New at DRS
The 89 members of the incoming DRS Class of 2019
On September 9, officials repre-senting the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists (out of 1.5 million juniors entered) in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program. HANC High School is proud that their very own Matthew Rosenberg
is one of these select few. Matthew will go on to compete with the other semifi-nalists for one of 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 mil-lion. HANC is extremely proud of Mat-thew and wish him much hatzlacha in the ongoing competition.
R-L: Rabbi Shlomo Adelman, Menahel; Matthew Rosenberg, HANC Senior; Mrs. Carole Tabin, Associate Principal; and Ms. Tziporah Zucker, Assistant Principal
HANC High School Senior Named Semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program
Rocky’s Rant: iDon’t Pad
Page 103
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The new English Sefer, KITZUR HALACHOS: YOM TOV & CHOL HAMOED delves into the complex halachos of Yom Tov and Chol Hamoed – based on the MISHNAH BERURAH. Rav Zev Hofstedter, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshivas Acheinu L’Tzeirim, clarifies hundreds of practical halachos in a clear and concise format for today’s day and age.
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Around The Community
Confidence, trusting in one’s self, trusting in others and striving for excel-lence were just some of the many of the intended and achieved goals which were facilitated at Mesivta Ateres Yaakov’s ninth grade orientation outing to Project C.A.R.E. in Amityville last week. The freshman class had a memorable retreat through a challenging course of activi-ties that included a tandem zip-line, cat-walk, high wire walk and more.
The outing was a success in helping the new arrivals bond with their peers and their rabbeim in a setting that pro-moted confidence, team-building, cohe-siveness and cooperation. Many talmi-dim faced their fears and rose above them. It was an inspiring experience for talmidim and rabbeim alike. This event, besides being an opportunity to rejuve-nate, was a great opportunity for these young men to solidify their self-esteem and confidence. “Doing these activities at Project C.A.R.E. was really chal-lenging and scary,” said one freshman student, “but I pushed myself and feel stronger because of it.”
Rabbi Tsvi Greenfield, the Mesiv-
ta’s Student Activities Coordinator, ex-plained that “the goal of our freshman orientation trip is to promote individual and team growth, and this kind of outing accomplishes that. Our hope is that the students will recognize their true poten-tial and use the tools they acquired on this trip to propel them to succeed on the highest levels.”
MAY Freshmen Overcome Challenges Together
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Around The Community
During the year Hashem only accepts repentance of the klal, when the whole congregation comes together in repen-tance. Specifically, during these days of Aseres Yemai Teshuvah, Hashem also
accepts the repentance of the individual. This, though, is still contingent on the congregation to some extent, because in order for a person to do a complete re-pentance he must appease his friend and
make up with him if he did any wrong-doing towards him. We are told, “Take words with you and return to Hashem.” The words that we take refer to the words of vidui which we say numerous times
throughout the course of Yom Kippur, but these words are written in the verse in plural. The second set of words that are being referred to are the words used to appease one’s fellow man, hence the double language.
The first person we should turn to and be sure we appease must be our spouse. Before having a conversation, we need to take some time to think in the same way we should when repenting before Hash-em. Think about the interactions we’ve had with our spouse over the course of the past year. We need to try to recall if we said things that were hurtful or maybe if we spoke about our spouse to others in a manner that was forbidden.
We need to think if we gave our spouse the respect coming to them, and if we treated them in a kind way. Maybe because we are so close we allowed our-selves to become too comfortable, taking what they do for us for granted, not mak-ing time to focus on our marriage proper-ly, and allowing ourselves to vent all our frustration in our home where we feel we don’t need to wear a mask like we must for the world at large. This is not to say that we then must go and repeat every horrible thing we did during the past year to our spouse. If it’s the kind of thing that will cause more pain than benefit we are better off speaking generally, saying we want to ask forgiveness in case we spoke negatively about them and then to be sure that our spouse actually forgives us.
What then is the purpose of all the thinking if we might not actually enu-merate every awful thing we did in the past year? The only way to make things better is if we first figure out where we are going wrong. We might not realisti-cally be able to tackle every area at once, but at least amongst our resolutions for the coming year, at least one should be marriage-related, taking upon ourselves something we can improve on in our marriage. May we merit to be sealed in the Book of Life for a happy year and a happy marriage!
Five Towns Marriage Initiative pro-vides educational programs, workshops and referrals to top marriage therapists. FTMI will help offset counseling costs when necessary and also runs an anon-ymous shalom bayis hotline for the entire community Sunday, Tuesday and Thurs-day evenings, 9:30-11p.m. For the ho-tline or more information, call 516-430-5280 or email [email protected].
Five Towns Marriage Initiative A Happy Year, a Happy Marriage
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Around The Community
By Moshe Carroll, DRSThe excitement was palpable as fresh-
men at DRS Yeshiva High School eager-ly boarded the buses last Thursday, ready to head to the annual Freshman Shabba-ton held at Camp Kaylie in Wurtsboro, N.Y. on September 10-12. “The goal of the Shabbaton is for everyone meet each other and create a sense of achdut (unity) within the grade in an enjoyable and fun way,” said DRS Menahel Rabbi Yisroel Kaminetsky to the freshman class.
Upon arrival, students unpacked, davened Maariv, and headed to the gym for “Wacky Olympics.” Students faced off in shiur-vs.-shiur competitions in a variety of events, in which every student had a unique role. “My favorite part was when everyone came together to do cra-zy and funny contests,” said freshman Avi Samter. The night was far from over, as students enjoyed a late night barbecue and basketball in the gym with their new friends.
Students woke up Friday morn-ing, eager for the events to come. After Shacharis, breakfast and shiur with the freshmen rebbeim, students took to the
gridiron for a competitive flag football tournament, while bonding with new friends. “My favorite part was the flag football tournament because I enjoyed meeting new classmates,” said Shlo-mo Schwartz. After the tournament, the class enjoyed the camp’s spacious fa-cilities and went go-carting, swimming and played sports before preparing for an amazing Shabbos to come.
The Class of 2019 headed into Shab-bos unified as one with tremendous ener-gy and unity. After davening and a festive
seuda with zemirot and divrei Torah, the freshmen enjoyed a DRS-style tisch with Rabbi Kaminetsky and their rebbeim, as they sung, enjoyed cholent, kugel and candy and experienced the joy and ruach of Shabbos together as one class.
The spirit continued the next morn-ing, as a lively Shacharis, kiddush and intriguing shiurim highlighted the day. After a scrumptious Shabbos lunch with zemirot and singing, students continued forming unbreakable friendships with one another and learned together in the
Beis Medrash. Following Mincha and Shalosh Seudos, students gathered for an inspirational and memorable kumzitz, joining together to usher the Shabbos out with song, achdut and ruach.
Following a beautiful Maariv and ha-vdalah, students boarded the busses and left the Shabbaton with a dose of ruach and achdut for the year to come. “The Shabbaton was a really incredible expe-rience, with so much achdut in the class,” said Shmuli Klahr.
DRS Freshmen Shabbaton
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Around The Community
In honor of Nation-al Senior Citizen Day, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, The Samuel Field Senior Day Center, Engage Jewish Service Corps and 50 local seniors participated in Senior Impact Day: Engage in Combating Hunger. Senior Impact Day was a dual-impact event; it provided seniors in the Queens community with important information and assistance on ben-efits and services while also engaging senior volunteers in peer out-reach. Senior volunteers learned how to pre-screen seniors in need for SNAP and Met Council’s Metropair, a free handy-man services.
Nationally, three out of five seniors are eligible for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formally Food Stamps), but do not participate. In New York City alone, 700,000 peo-ple are eligible for SNAP, but do not participate in the program. Met Coun-cil’s goal, through education and assis-tance, is to provide client friendly and dignified support to help gain access to public benefits. Last year, Met Council enrolled 11,195 families into SNAP, le-veraging more than $3 million in gov-ernment benefits.
“Since Met Council’s inception, caring for seniors has been core to our mission,” said Alan Schoor, Met Coun-cil CEO and Executive Director. “Many of our clients work their entire lives, but when they become too frail to work, their lack of a deep and wide enough safety net makes it difficult for them to
afford a nutritional diet or hire handy-men. Our SNAP outreach work helps clients gain access to public benefits and our Metropair program helps frail se-niors age in place and live safely in the homes they love.”
“The Samuel Field Y is excited to partner with Met Council to provide in-formation to the public about available benefits that will greatly increase their ability to maintain safety and indepen-dence within the community,” said Jor-dana Davidson, social worker at The Samuel Field Y. “We recognize that food insecurity and home maintenance for low-income seniors are major issues in Queens that often go unaddressed. Because of this, we are proud to host this event which will increase public awareness about available resources. Additionally, we are excited that through Met Council and Engage Long Island/Queens we are able to provide a hands-on volunteer opportunity and training to volunteers interested in addressing the issue of hunger. We hope that through education, we can destigmatize and de-mystify myths about those dealing with food insecurity and help individuals in need to be connected to these life sus-taining services.”
“Engage Jewish Service Corps Long Island Queens region is commit-ted to working with Met Council on Jewish poverty. Engage volunteers will be mobilized to extend outreach to the Queens community, educating residents in need about SNAP benefits,” said, Su-san Berman, Community Organizer at UJA-Federation of New York’s Engage Jewish Service Corps Long Island and Queens.
Senior Impact Day: Engaged in Combating Hunger
A Distillery for the Chosen Nation
TJH Speaks with Monte Sachs of Catskills Distilling Company
Page 98
As it enters its fourth year, the Gesh-er Early Childhood Center continues to reach new milestones. From its humble beginnings in 2012 Gesher now boasts an expansive program in its sprawling new facility.
The new location is the former home of the Shulamith Middle School, on Broadway between Locust Avenue and Grove Avenue. Many passersby have noticed the new playground that was recently installed.
Much work was done to prepare the facility for the needs of the incoming early childhood students. The large sunlit classrooms, roomy indoor gym, and well pointed OT/PT and related services areas contribute to the ideal setting that Gesher looks to create.
Anyone who has visited a Gesh-er classroom in the last several years knows that even the furniture is top of the line. It is the perfect complement to
the quality programming and curricu-lum that has driven Gesher’s success.
“We want to create the ideal class-room environment,” says Mrs. Cha-va Bodner, Director of Gesher. “Our multi-sensory and multi-disciplinary approach gives us the ability to really individualize and meet the needs of ev-ery single student.”
That approach, implemented by the hardworking and specially trained staff, has clearly made its mark. Since last year Gesher has added the following:
A new first gradeA parallel Pre-1AEnrollment increase of close to 50%An enhanced transition programThe Gesher team has incorporated
the changes seamlessly. The beaming children and the ecstatic parents are clear indicators that Gesher has secured a very important place in the chinuch of our community.
Great Start for Gesher in New Cedarhurst Location
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Around The Community
On the first Friday of school, BYQ’s Junior High was wowed with a high-school style orientation. The girls heard words of chizuk from BYQ’s dean, Rabbi Mordechai Gewirtz. Rab-bi Gewirtz focused on the posuk, “V’samachta b’chol hatov,” and Mrs. Jurkow-itz, the Kodesh principal, followed with the approach in seeing the good and ap-preciating all that we have. The G.O. theme, “Shaping up a Great Year,” was introduced by their G.O. presidents, Breindy Dick and Pen-ina Rockove. Morah Chaviva Pfeiffer, the G.O. coordinator, showed the girls a video on previous G.O. activities. The
girls were so excited as they observed all the fun to come! As they exited, the girls received their Hebrew schedules, a ruler, to draw any SHAPE, and Super-Snacks in a variety of shapes!
Bais Yaakov of Queens’ G.O. Shapes the Year
Sixth graders at HANC’s Samuel & Elizabeth Bass Gold-ing Elementary School in West Hempstead prepared for Rosh Ha-shana by making their very own shofrot.
The students real-ly enjoyed the Tzivos Hashem Shofar Fac-tory program, during which the students learned the halachot of what makes a ko-sher shofar and all the steps involved in mak-ing a shofar. Each stu-dent was then able to saw, sand and blow their very own shofar. The HANC minyan room was filled with the smells and sounds of the shofar as the students
brought their shofrot to life.Thank you to the PTA for sponsor-
ing this wonderful program. Shana tova u’metukah from all of HANC!
HANC Shofar Factory
Pre-1A Rebbe Rav Henoch Potash blowing shofar in his classroom at Yeshiva Darchei Torah
“This day is the most deeply felt and solemnly observed day of remembrance in our lifetime. It is the Pearl Harbor of our generation,” said Mayor Benjamin Weinstock in his opening speech.
9/11 is a day of remembrance for our fallen heroes and loved ones. Fourteen years after the tragic events that unfold-ed on September 11, 2001, the Village of Cedarhurst held its annual memorial ceremony at 4:00 p.m. at the memorial plaza in Andrew J. Parise Park in honor of those lost from our area: Thomas Jur-gens, Neil D. Levin, Kevin O’Rourke, Joseph Rivelli Jr., Bettina Browne Rad-burn, Ira Zaslow, and Howard Selwyn.
The chaplains of the Lawrence-Ce-darhurst Fire Department, Rev. Msgr. Paul F. Rahilly Pastor of St Joachim’s RC Church, Rabbi Kenneth Hain of Beth Sholom, Hon. Anthony Santino TOH Senior Councilman, and Hon. Bruce Blakeman TOH Councilman offered words of wisdom, healing and
prayers to our great community and to those fallen heroes and loved ones.
Participation from LHS Public Schools Pam Gallopini School Music Director, Superintendent Gary Schall, LHS Vocal Ensemble and Taps Player, Lawrence-Cedarhurst and other Fire Departments, and Veterans of Law-rence-Cedarhurst American Legion brought dignity, grace and honor to a day that will be etched in our hearts for-ever.
Mayor Weinstock added, “The men and women that we memorialize on our monument, together with all the members of the Lawrence-Cedar-hurst, Inwood, and Meadowmere Park Fire Departments, the 4th Precinct of the Nassau County Police Department, our Auxiliary Police and all emergen-cy responders, you will always be our heroes,” as Commander Mandelbaum from Lawrence-Cedarhurst American Legion posted the Colors.
Cedarhurst Remembers Ceremony for the Anniversary of 9/11
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Around The Community
By Faygie HoltNavigating life as a divorced, single
parent is never easy, but the challenges are compounded when one is part of the Orthodox Jewish community in part be-cause of the community’s strong family focus and many traditions.
While friends and family will likely rally around the divorced parent by help-ing with carpools or inviting them for a Shabbat meal, the parent and children are likely to still experience loneliness, sadness and frustration. Often families receive support when they are going through the initial stages of separation and divorce, but many find that people pull away over time.
To provide newly divorced indi-viduals with the tools they need to help themselves and their children, Clinical Psychologist Dr. Barbara Lauer-Listhaus and Mrs. Rena Kutner, who herself was a young divorced mother (she has since re-married), teamed up to create a workshop titled, “Accepting Your New Normal: Re-building a Better You and Helping Your Children in the Process.”
More than 30 women from across New Jersey attended the first workshop, which was held at Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck. A second session was held at the JCC in Long Island and was equally well attended.
“We want to empower parents and their children to face their peers, their extended family and the community with strength and determination to improve their life,” says Lauer-Listhaus, who has spent 20 years helping people renegotiate their roles as parents while dealing with their own emotional adjustment to the changes in lifestyle that occur following divorce.
Orthodox families dealing with a di-vorce have unique concerns that aren’t necessarily faced by others, says Lau-er-Listhaus. “These young parents have to handle the expenses of yeshiva educa-tion often on a single salary. They have to help their children transition between two homes, which may have different levels of religious observance. Many single par-ents spend the yamim tovim alone with-out their children.”
As for the children, Lauer-Listhaus says they often feel isolated from their classmates because their parents are ab-sent from the Shabbat table or do not attend events at their school. “Some are fortunate to have a supportive extended family, but others feel ashamed and on their own dealing with a stigma that still exists within our community,” says Lau-er- Listhaus.
According to the organizers, the work-shop provides practical suggestions for
different scenarios, as well as guidelines for knowing when to seek professional help. Parents are encouraged to model positive behavior and avoid overwhelm-ing their children, teaching them how to deal with their experiences in a productive manner, rather than from a position of an-ger or frustration.
The organizers also encourage di-vorced parents to take the initiative.
“Don’t just wait for an invitation, in-vite friends over for meals on Shabbat,” advises Rena Kutner, adding that parents should “speak openly about their situation to friends and family rather than be secre-tive. Be direct and let friends and family
know how they can help.”The advice, and the way it was pre-
sented, was much appreciated by the at-tendees at both workshops.
“As a divorced mother there was a lot of helpful and practical information,” said one parent. “There were many tips I can use in my everyday life as a single mom.”
Another newly divorced parent praised Kutner and Lauer-Listhaus for having a “warm and empathic approach that enabled the members to feel validated and understood.”
For more information about this workshop, please contact [email protected].
Workshop Aims at Empowering Newly Divorced Parents
Rena Kutner and Dr. Barbara Lauer-Listhaus at their recent divorce support workshop
East Stroudsburg, PA… It was quite an unusual sight on the last day of this year’s camp season. Campers at Camp Dora Golding were straining their necks to look back and catch one more glimpse as they boarded the buses home, marking the end of the camp season. Many deep breaths were also taken after such an ac-tion-packed summer season. There was literally no time to breathe the entire summer, with a jam-packed camp sched-ule overflowing with trips, activities, and fun-filled craziness from the get-go to the last farewell. Campers truly had the most amazing summer of their lives.
Hershey Park, Dorney Park, and Camel Beach Water Park were all on the camp menu, not to mention Aquatopia, Camelback Resorts’
brand-spanking-new indoor water park. In addition, CDG hosted dozens of visi-tors from John Cassidy of “Balloon Freak Show” fame to the Master Simon Sez, from the Djphantom Jump to the one and only, world-famous, illusionist to the stars, Elliot Zimet. “It was the most amazing summer of my life. All the trips
were a ton of fun especially paintballing, the new go-cart track was also super cool. CDG really thought of everything this
year—there was even a mist ma-chine to cool us all off after playing sports,” says one CDG camper.
Campers have barely unpacked and already the camp office phones are ringing with enrollments for the summer of 2016. “It’s unbelievable. Our campers get home and immedi-
ately go online and sign up for next year,” says CDG Director, Alex Gold. “Truthfully we are already scheming and dreaming about next year. We’ve got some really out-of-this-world ideas and can’t wait to get cracking. We’ll be building new state-of-the-art basketball courts and new volleyball courts, in addition to renovating bunkhouses and upgrading the pool area. Plus, we have a few fantastic ideas up our sleeves. We definitely
don’t take a break for a minute. We live and breathe camp all year round and we love it!” With no time for lying down,
Camp Dora Golding seriously ups their game year in, year out.
Enrollments are already open, and applications are pouring in. Don’t miss 2016’s action-packed, magic-filled, life-changing Camp Dora Golding expe-rience. It will definitely be the place to be.
To view photos and videos from this past summer and to enroll for 2016, please go to www.campdoragolding.com.
Campers at Camp Dora Golding Look Back and Look Ahead
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Around The Community
By Daniela Berkowitz“Ten measures of beauty descended
on the world – nine were taken by Jeru-salem, one to the rest of the world,” de-clares the Gemara in Maseches Kiddu-shin. With thousands of years of history, it is no doubt that Jerusalem has a charm and beauty unlike any other city in the world. Packed with spirituality, culture and memories, the city has been ex-ploring a new side in recent decades as modern investors capitalize on the city’s unique qualities. The Jerusalem skyline is now dotted with towering luxurious buildings.
One of the neighborhood’s rapid and stark changes is in Romema, locat-ed at the western entrance to the city. It was formerly a neighborhood housing wealthy Jews, though in recent decades, deteriorated into an industrial zone. Now it has been reborn as one of the most upscale residential neighborhoods.
At one of the highest points of the Jerusalem, Romema gleams from stun-ning overlooks and priceless views. The changing skyline reflects the beauty and
glory of this neighborhood, which has much untapped potential for develop-ment and style. Another unique factor is that this neighborhood is attracting Haredi families seeking an alternative to the already crowded Geula neighbor-hood. Romema is a perfect choice, with easy access to many Torah institutions yet just a leap away from the urban hus-tle-and-bustle of Bar Ilan and Geula.
Just one decade ago, no one could imagine that the decrepit Yirmeyahu Street district would be lined with doz-ens of modern apartment towers. Not only are these buildings maximizing the views, but also are pushing the current trends forward when it comes to archi-tectural design and standards in Israel.
At the center of this neighborhood restoration lies the nine-building com-plex “Jerusalem Heights,” appropriately named both for its views and design.
A partnership initiative by three companies, the project drives on luxury and is built to the highest specifications – many of which are nearly unheard of in Jerusalem prior. Under-floor heating,
spacious living rooms, and stunning bal-conies are just a few of the features of the 276 units. The buildings will include luxurious lobbies, high speed elevators and other top amenities.
Anchoring the complex is a large commercial space, giving residents of the neighborhood premier access to all amenities that they might need. There a synagogue in the complex, in addition to all the yeshivas and community cen-ters already in existence in the neighbor-hood.
Lead Architect Boaz Bitman has been lauded for his tremendous stylis-tic feat, giving each unit its own kosher sukkah balcony. The challenge was necessary, he says. Each apartment also will have regal windows, emphasizing the stunning views available from each unit. The panoramic city scopes capture all that Jerusalem has to offer: the trea-sured history, the gallant modernity and the natural splendor.
From a pinnacle point, Jerusalem Heights residents will have breathtaking views, but also will be encircled by gar-
den space. The surrounding vistas of the nearby Jerusalem mountains are a shiny, magnificent lush green—a scenery opti-mized by sunset and sunrise, seen clear-ly in full range.
No surprise that this project has been so successful – with nearly 60% of the apartments purchased in the first year. Jerusalem Heights was called a “best seller” by the Israeli Tax Author-ity for its rapid sales. Moreover, the units are considerably affordable for a new sumptuous apartment. Each meter is priced at around $6,800, whereby old apartments in the neighborhood, which likely need remodeling and refitting, can cost upwards of $6,100 per meter. In Je-rusalem Heights, buyers get more when purchasing, including covering lawyer fees, a quality central air conditioning, a storage unit and other benefits.
Gaining acclaim for its rich stan-dards and affordable high-class living, Jerusalem Heights surely exemplifies what it means to live and grow in Jeru-salem.
Unleashing Beauty and Potential into a Modern Jerusalem
Rav Cohen with Rav Yaakov Bender, Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Darchei Torah; Rav Zevi Trenk, menahel of Mesivta Chaim Shlomo; Rav Dovid Bender, Rosh Kollel of Kollel Tirtza Devorah; and Rav Avrohom Nusbaum, menahel of Mesivta Chaim Shlomo
One week before Rosh Hashana, Rav Simcha
Bunim Cohen, rav of Khal Ateres Yeshaya
in Lakewood and mechaber sefarim,
offered divrei hisorirus to the talmidim of
Mesivta Chaim Shlomo. He subsequently spoke
to the Yeshiva’s Kollel Tirtza Devorah.
Rav Cohen speaking to Kollel Tirtza Devorah
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Around The Community
Last Thursday, Councilmember Donovan Richards (D-Far Rockaway) joined the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula to help give out food to Jewish seniors for Rosh Ha-shanah. Councilmember Richards also announced that he provided the JCCRP with $75,000 in the 2015-16 fiscal bud-get. Out of that funding, $15,000 will go directly to the JCCRP’s food pantry, which provides food packages to about 1,800 residents a month and serves any and every one, as well as access to SNAP enrollment and emergency food vouchers to supermarkets. The remain-ing $60,000 will go to senior and youth programs.
The JCCRP Kosher Client Choice Pantry has gone through extensive ren-ovations and upgrades to help meet the increase in clients coming to the pantry to receive assistance.
“The Far Rockaway JCC has been helping the community for years and the increase in residents they serve through the food pantry shows just how large of a
need there is in our district,” said Coun-cilmember Donovan Richards. “It’s a pleasure to provide them with the neces-sary funding to ensure that they are able to meet that need while they continue to
open their doors to anyone who comes knocking with an empty stomach. It was great to spend time with our seniors who helped build this community, wish them a happy Rosh Hashana, and see them leave with a smile on their face.”
“Councilman Richards has been a major supporter of the JCCRP since he has taken office,” said Nathan Kras-novsky, executive director of JCCRP. “With his continued support and increase in funding for our community, he has truly helped make this upcoming New Year a sweet, healthy and happy one.”
Since 1972, the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula has been providing services on a non-sectar-ian basis to those in need and advocating issues of concern in the community. The
JCCRP combines and coordinates the efforts of all parts of the Jewish Com-munity, including all the religious, edu-cational, social welfare institutions and Jewish communal organizations within the Rockaway Peninsula; to improve the cultural, educational, social, communal and religious welfare within this com-munity. The JCCRP aids in meeting the needs of the impoverished members of the Rockaway Community by determin-ing the nature and extent of their basic needs and methods of meeting those needs; improves the housing and living conditions in the area and prevents the deterioration of existing housing and community facilities and serves as ad-vocates for the communal needs of the Jewish community.
L-R: Shalom Becker, JCCRP treasurer; Richard Altabe, JCCRP chairman; Councilman Donovan Richards; Nathan Krasnovsky, Executive Director JCCRP; Jeff Leb, UJA-Federation Of NY-Director For Gov’t & External Relations.
Councilmember Richards Funds Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula and Helps Serve Seniors on Rosh Hashana
L-R: JCCRP client; Rachel Stahler, JCCRP Pantry Director; Richard Altabe, JCCRP chairman; Councilman Donovan Richards; Frank Joseph, Councilman Richards Chief of Staff; Sandy Myers, Associate Director of Government Relations UJA- Federation of NY; Jeff Leb, UJA-Federation Of NY-Director For Gov’t & External Relations; Nathan
Krasnovsky, Executive Director JCCRP; Shalom Becker, JCCRP treasurer; and Rena Resnick, Public Affairs Manager Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
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Around The Community
Long before Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,” or “Evita,” he and Tim Rice had writ-ten a cantata for an all-boys preparato-ry school in London to be sung at their graduation. This cantata was eventually expanded upon and it became the high-ly popular “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” In Decem-ber, the Five Towns community will have a chance to experience “Joseph” as it was originally conceived, but as it has never been produced on a Broad-way stage: as an all-male production. Ironically, because this is being pro-duced so all members of a frum family can come to see this together, “Joseph” has come full-circle.
“I find it surprising that it took so long for an Orthodox institution to re-alize that this show is the perfect vehi-cle for the frum community,” says Dr. Stuart Rappaport, a local optometrist, who is also an accomplished singer and actor in local community theater productions. “But everything has its right time,” he continued. Three years ago, Dr. Rappaport was approached by Joey Schiff, a member of the board of the Young Israel of Woodmere, to help get this project off the ground. As with many shul projects, this one was put on the back burner for a while. “I’m so glad that this project has finally be-come a reality,” said Mr. Schiff. “I re-ally believe it will be an important and exciting event for the community.”
In order to successfully mount a production of this kind, they needed to find a director who was experienced in theater, but was also sensitive to the nuances of an Orthodox production. Zvika Bornstein was the man. A mem-ber of the White Shul, Mr. Bornstein is an accomplished director, producer and choreographer. His credits include na-tional Broadway tours as well as many off-Broadway productions. He has pro-duced and choreographed shows and music videos with stars such as Gad Elbaz, Alex Claire, Lipa Schmeltzer, and Edon. For the last four years he
has produced and directed the Israeli Day Concert in Central Park. This past year he directed “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Bayswater Jewish Center and the show was the biggest success the shul had ever had. “I had the good fortune to have played Tevye and to have worked with Zvika on this amazing produc-tion,” said Stuart Rappaport. “Zvika had a vision of how ‘Fiddler’ should be directed and he infused the production with a ‘neshama,’” continued Dr. Rap-paport. “So many people came over to me after the show and said that even though they had seen ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ many times, they never felt the ‘Yiddishe neshama’ that our production had. I knew that he was the man to di-rect ‘Joseph.’”
“I am so excited to be working on this production of ‘Joseph,’” said Mr. Bornstein. “This will be an unprece-dented event for the Five Towns com-munity. There has never been a Broad-way musical that was produced by an Orthodox institution and can appeal to all elements within this very diverse community. Women have ‘Harmony,’ which allows them to express their tal-ents, but it is only for women. Here is a chance for men and boys to be involved in a chesed project that also taps into their G-d-given talents. This will be a production for all members of a family. I truly see this as a project of unity.”
When Mark Honigsfeld, chairman of the board of Kulanu, heard about the project, he became very excited. “’Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ is one of my family’s fa-vorite musicals,” said Mr. Honigsfeld. “We had to be a part of this,” he con-tinued. Mr. Honigsfeld took the project to a new level. “Opportunities for in-clusion are always paramount. Kulanu participants will be involved in what-ever capacity they can, whether on the stage or off,” he continued. “And we are so happy to be working together with the Young Israel of Woodmere on this show.”
“This is such an amazing project,”
said Dr. Beth Raskin, Executive Di-rector of Kulanu. “’Joseph’ provides former as well as current Kulanu Acad-emy and Torah L’Kulanu students and faculty the chance to share their talents and skills with our community,” she continued. Then Mr. Honigsfeld had the idea of making opening night a din-ner/theater event, instead of the usual Kulanu dinner. “This will be a ‘red-car-pet’ night,” said Mr. Honigsfeld. “This will be ‘The Event’ of the Five Towns.”
“We are so happy to be partnering with such a worthy institution as Ku-lanu on this project,” said Yehudah Poupko, president of the Young Israel of Woodmere. Mr. Poupko and Rabbi Shalom Axelrod, assistant Rabbi of the Young Israel of Woodmere, have been pushing for this project to succeed ever since they were introduced to the idea many months ago. “This is exactly the kind of event in which I want our shul to be involved. The Young Israel of Woodmere has become a center of learning, and that is very important. But I also want our shul involved in ‘family’ activities. It is so important that we can help produce a show that
will feature our very own local talent and that can be attended by the entire family. I am very happy to see this come to fruition,” said Rabbi Axelrod.
Auditions are scheduled for Sunday September 20 from 3:00- 60:00 P.M. and Thursday, October 1 from 7:30 till 9:30 PM. The auditions will take place at the Kulanu Center for Special Services, 620 Central Ave. All men and boys who have musical talent are urged to audition. All schoolchildren will re-ceive chesed hours for their time spent on the production.
Iy”H the red carpet premier will occur Saturday night, December 19 with a pre-show dinner buffet, creative cocktails and meeting the cast for an after-show dessert celebration! There will be a total of six performances: Sat. nights, December 19 and 26, and 2 per-formances (3:00PM and 7:00PM) on Sundays December 20 and 27. Tickets will be going on sale shortly.
For further information, please email Dr. Stuart Rappaport at [email protected].
L-R: Stuart Rappaport, Joey Schiff, Zvika Bornstein, Mark Honigsfeld, Beth Raskin
Kulanu and Young Israel of Woodmere to Produce “Joseph” the Musical
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Around The Community
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Assemblyman Brian Curran (Lyn-brook – 21st A.D.) and Town of Hemp-stead Senior Councilman Anthony J. Santino recently secured a 30 day exten-sion of the September 15, 2015 federal review deadline for homeowners whose properties were damaged by Super-storm Sandy.
“This is great news for homeowners whose lives were devastated by Super-storm Sandy,” said Curran, who has been a vocal advocate and supporter for Superstorm Sandy victims. “Working closely with Councilman Santino, and joining the call of U.S. Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand, we were able to secure
an extension from the Federal Emer-gency Management Agency (FEMA). At this point, we are urging everyone to submit any final paperwork to FEMA via fax or email so that they do not miss this very important opportunity to re-ceive the help they need.”
Curran said that he and Senior Councilman Santino had made a formal request to William Craig Fugate, Ad-ministrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) request-ing an extension in a September 4 letter, particularly for those who were cele-brating the Rosh Hashana holiday.
Town of Hempstead Senior Council-man Anthony J. Santino said, “Assem-blyman Brian Curran and I have worked very closely together in seeking an ex-tension from FEMA on behalf of the 142,000 eligible homeowners who filed claims but did not receive the federal aid that they either expected or deserved. I am glad our advocacy has achieved these results.”
According to recent reporting, FEMA agreed to a 30-day extension for policyholders who filed a flood insur-
ance claim after Superstorm Sandy but did not get the payout they were expect-ing. The article suggested homeowners sign up for the Hurricane Sandy Claims Review Center by calling 866-337-4262 or visiting www.fema.gov/hurri-cane-sandy-nfip-claims.
Assemblyman Curran & Senior Councilman Santino Secure FEMA Extension
Assemblyman Brian Curran (left) and Senior Councilman Anthony J. Santino (right)
Around The Community
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Around The Community
Hundreds of rabbis, synagogue and community leaders from across the country gathered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday—in the midst of Con-gress’ debate over the Iran nuclear deal—to call on Congress to reject the bad deal that paves a pathway to a nuclear-armed Iran. The rally was organized by the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA).
The rabbis at the rally—represent-ing tens of thousands of members of the American Jewish community—came from more than 20 states and every region of the country.
Held just days before Rosh Hasha-na and opening with a shofar blast, the rally was reminiscent of the historic Rabbis’ March in 1943—just days before Yom Kippur—in support of American and allied action to stop the destruction of European Jewry.
Speakers at the rally included Mar-tin Nachimson, president of the Or-
thodox Union, Rabbi Shalom Baum, president of the RCA, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York City, Rabbi Marc Penner, Dean of Yeshiva Uni-versity Seminary, Rabbi Efrem Gold-berg of Boca Raton Synagogue, Rabbi
Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Congre-gation in Beverly Hills, Rabbi Lenny Matanky of Congregation K.I.N.S. in Chicago and Honorary President of the RCA, and Allen Fagin, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union.
Martin Nachimson stated: “The reason we are gathered here—in the shadow of the Capitol—is to make a clear statement that this deal is mor-ally repugnant. Under this deal, the Iranian regime will be given greater legitimacy, power and money, despite its being deeply anti-American, an-ti-Semitic, and the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
Rabbi Baum commented on why hundreds of rabbis would come to Washington in the face of a vote that appears to be set. He noted that the Talmud teaches that “when you have an opportunity to scream in dissent and you are silent, you have done wrong. It isn’t only about the result – it’s that silence in the face of terror is
not an option. Silence in the face of terror is unacceptable.”
Rabbi Lookstein also noted that the deal will give legitimacy and fi-nancial power to Iran’s leaders—lead-ers who support terror worldwide and openly threaten the State of Israel as
well as the United States. “This is why, days before the Day of Judg-ment, I am here with my fellow rabbis
to raise our moral objection to the nu-clear deal with Iran,” he said.
Rabbi Penner remarked that, as Jews, we recognize that evil exists in the world. “Iran is evil—and they will do evil—if good men do nothing,” he said. With Rosh Hashana beginning
on Sunday night, “we ask to be giv-en clarity and strength. Clarity to see evil for what it is and strength to fight those who would do us harm,” he add-ed.
Closing the rally by comparing the upcoming vote and the Iran deal to an “Alice in Wonderland” moment, Allen Fagin called on the entire Jewish com-munity to stand together in support of ongoing support for Israel’s security and defense as well as the enforce-ment and expansion of non-nuclear related sanctions against Iran. “And we need to be vigilant and vocal to make certain that the tens of billions of dollars to which Iran will gain un-fettered access through sanction relief is not used to arm her terrorist prox-ies,” he said.
After the rally, the hundreds of rabbis participated in lobbying meet-ings with U.S. Senators and Repre-sentatives.
Rabbi Marc Penner, Dean of Yeshiva University Seminary, addresses hundreds of rabbis who rallied on Capitol Hill against the Iran nuclear deal
Hundreds of Rabbis and Synagogue Leaders in Washington, DC, Urge Congress to Reject Iran Nuclear Deal
Cindy’s Tips for How to Have an Easier Fast
Page 81
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Around The Community
By Dave MatkowskyMany people assume that Shmittah,
the Torah-mandated sabbatical year during which planting, harvesting and other agricultural activities are prohib-ited in the Land of Israel, is a 12 month endeavor, beginning with Rosh Hasha-na of the 7th year and concluding with Rosh Hashana of the 8th year. The Torah seems to indicate as much, stating that fields and vineyards may be cultivated for six years, and must be allowed to rest during the seventh year of the cy-cle; in the 8th year, planting may begin anew. But the Torah recognizes that crops planted in the 8th year will not yield a harvest for some months hence, and sustenance will need to come from another source prior to the 8th year’s harvest. The Talmud explains that planting itself is often not possible until well into the 8th year, depending on the agricultural cycles of different crops. This calculus is complicated by modern agricultural technology, and the shift from broad-based subsistence farming to a small agricultural sector (2% of Is-rael’s contemporary workforce) within a larger, post-industrial economy. To-day’s Shmittah-observant farmers will not begin to earn post-Shmittah income until anywhere from March 2016 to January 2017! All of which means that Israel’s farmers need our help to com-plete the cycle during this upcoming “8th Year of Shmittah.”
Currently, 3,453 Israeli farmers are fulfilling the mitzvah of Shmittah on behalf of the entire Jewish people. Shmittah is a communal mitzvah, yet in today’s economy, the financial burden
is not automatically or equitably spread across the Jewish polity. For the most part, it is the farmers who cultivate the land in fulfillment of 2,000 years of our collective hopes and prayers, who feed the nation, preserve its pi-oneering spirit and fulfill the mitzvot hat’luyot ba’aretz, who are left to bear the economic hardship of Shmittah on their own. To observe this foundational mitzvah on our collective behalf, they forgo 18 months or more of income; they struggle to meet their ongoing lease payments for farmland and equip-ment, and even, ironically, to feed their own families. They make this sacrifice in order to fulfill a mitzvah our people waited 2,000 years to have the privilege of fulfilling. They sacrifice as a declara-tion of emunah that the land belongs to G-d, and all productivity and livelihood are determined by G-d. They struggle in the hope that the merit of their actions will bring prosperity and security to Is-rael and the Jewish people as a whole.
Who are these farmers, these fam-ilies, who sacrifice so much to fulfill the mitzvah of Shmittah on behalf of all Jews? The vast majority are from the Religious Zionist and Mesorati (tradi-tional) communities; they are veterans of the religious kibbutz and moshav movements and IDF service, and they farm the Land of Israel as a fulfillment of the reestablishment of Jewish reli-gious national life. In observing Shmit-tah as intended, they draw inspiration from the words of Rav Kook, Rav Lichtenstein and other leading rabbinic luminaries who wrote about Shmittah as a foundational Torah value, and het-
er mechira (the legal “workaround” to avoid Shmitath-observance with hala-chic sanction) as a tragic – though hala-chically valid and often unavoidable – concession to expediency. For 3,453 farmers and their families, their person-al sacrifice in keeping Shmityah is what allows the Jewish people to avoid the unacceptable sacrifice of letting Shmit-tah fall into obsolescence and fade to the margins of Jewish consciousness. These farmers are heroes of Torah and heroes of Israel, representing the no-blest values and loftiest aspirations of the religious Zionist enterprise.
And yet, the cause of Shmittah and the heroic farmers in the frontlines of its observance has remained off the radar screen of the broader Religious Zionist, Modern Orthodox and tradi-tional Jewish communities. For the past 10 Shmittah cycles, support for sho-mer-Shmittah farmers has come almost exclusively from the Charedi commu-nity, in support of Keren Hashviis, the organization working “on the ground,” with the sanction of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture, to provide financial and moral support to the farmers. The rest of us have been missing out on the op-portunity to take part in this important religious, Zionist, agricultural and soci-etal mitzvah which speaks to our deeply held values of faith, return to the land, social and environmental responsibility and Jewish unity. The Shmittah Fund was created to share this opportunity, this sacred obligation, with the Modern Orthodox, Religious Zionist and broad-er Jewish community, to do our part in supporting the farmers keeping Shmit-
tah on behalf of Am Yisrael. The budget for helping support the
farmers this Shmittah cycle is $22.5 million – which averages under $7,000 per farmer. It’s not nearly enough to support the farmers at a level they would earn in a regular year, but rather to help them cover certain basic expenses such as land lease and equipment payments so they don’t literally lose their farms as a cost of keeping Shmittah. They still bear the lion’s share of the burden. Thanks to the efforts of Keren Hashviis, all but $6 million of the target budget has been raised. The Charedi commu-nity has done its part and more – it’s time for the rest of us to do ours. We have 6-8 months to raise the remaining $6 million. The farmers will not make it without our help, and they should not have to. It is our mitzvah no less than theirs.
In our tefillot on Rosh Hashanah we acknowledge and proclaim Hash-em as King over all Creation, and that the world and everything in it belong to Him. For 3,453 Israeli farmers, this is not merely a 2-day declaration of faith, but a 2-year sacrifice. We owe it to them – and to our own core values and beliefs –to learn from their example, and play our part in making their valiant sacrifice possible.
Learn more about Israel’s Shmit-tah-observant farmers at www.shmit-tahfund.org.
Dave Matkowsky is the founding di-rector of The Shmittah Fund.
Israel’s Farmers Need Help to Complete “8th Year” of Shmittah Cycle
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Wine holds a special place in Jewish tradition. Whether to greet the Sabbath, to welcome a new baby into the fold, to bless the holy union of husband and wife; wine is a potent force in our com-munal life. The wine we use to mark our magic moments speaks volumes about our values.
For many people, Israeli wines are the only choice.
But as we drink wines from Israel, how much do we understand the process that brings the fruit of our homeland to our table as the finest vintage wine?
The wine making process is a union of technology and art; one that combines the logistical act of harvesting and fermenting with the creative genius of seasoned winemakers. The process is a carefully orchestrated ballet between function and creativity in any country. In Israel, there is an added dimension from the inherent holiness of the land.
Wine has been produced in Israel since time immemorial. This ancient profession continues today. Pioneering wineries have brought the Israeli wine industry from a cottage industry to a force to be reckoned with on the interna-tional market. The Yarden Golan Heights Winery is the premier Israeli winery. Perched on the lush green mountain sides in the Golan Heights region in northern Israel, the winery is producing the very best in Israeli wines. With cool winters, bringing snow in the high lands and rains throughout, the Golan region is a perfect grape-growing country. Numerous in-ternational awards are testament to the Golan Heights Winery’s ability to har-ness natural forces to create outstanding wines.
Speaking with the renowned team at the winery opens a window into the process that brings the best of Israe-li wines to a store near you. Visiting the winery during harvest season showed just how far winemaking has come since grapes were pressed under foot. In see-ing the automated harvesters roll down the grapevines, it was clear that times have changed. The Golan’s climate al-lows for 14 to 16 weeks of harvesting. While the period for potential harvesting is long, each grape has a specific window of opportunity when that specific grape in that particular vineyard is ready to be harvested. As a result the winery uses cutting-edge monitoring technology to pinpoint the exact optimum time for har-vesting.
Victor Schoenfeld, chief winemaker at the winery, outlined how. “We con-
duct daily checks and measurements to find the optimum moment for harvest,” Schoenfeld explains. “We make sure that the grapes demonstrate the perfect bal-ance of sugar, [which turns into alcohol,] and acidity which will give the wine its freshness and vibrancy. We wait with trepidation, watching the lab results and hoping that we won’t miss the crucial harvesting point.”
Once Schoenfeld has deter-mined the prime time for harvest, a whole army of workers move into ac-tion. Some grapes are harvested using mechanical harvesting machines. Others, like for sparkling wines, require greater precision and are picked by hand. “Har-vest time is exhilarating but also exhaust-ing. At some times we are all through the night,” says Schoenfeld.
Following the harvest, grapes are shipped from the vineyards to the win-ery. Here they are put on a conveyer belt to be sorted by an optical sorting machine, which separates perfectly ripe grapes from unwanted materials. Optical grape sorting is the latest in viticulture technology. The machine enables grapes to be sorted four times faster than it takes human sorters, producing a better quality wine in less time.
Grapes are then crushed to release
the juice. Once the grapes have been crushed, the next stage in the process differs for white and red wine. Juices intended for white wine are separated immediately from grape skins and stalks. While, the juices for red wine are fer-mented initially together with their skins to give a rich color to the wine.
When the juice begins its journey through fermentation to become wine, the magic of wine making begins. Wheth-er wine is fermented entirely in steel vats or transferred to handmade oak barrels for aging, the eventual wine is created by individual winemakers tasting samples of the wine. It is their creative vision that mixes grapes from different vineyards to
craft a mouthwatering blend. The wine production
process in Israel has another level of complication: careful adherence to the laws of ko-sher wine production, and the specific commandments that only apply within the land of Israel. All of the wines pro-duced at the Yarden Golan Heights Winery feature a ko-sher stamp of approval from both Rabbi Auerbach and the internationally respected OK (Organized Kashrus-New York) symbol, and are not mevushal (cooked or diluted in any way). Rabbi Shalom Aronzon, the longtime kosher supervisor (mashgiach) at the winery, working under the auspices of Rabbi Auerbach, monitors the vines as closely as Schoenfeld.
Rabbi Aronzon’s task is to oversee the entire production process to ensure careful adherence to Jewish law. He says, “Kosher winemaking in Israeli is more complex today [than in ancient times.] There are both physical and spiritual is-sues that need to be dealt with through-out the year.” Rabbi Aronzon monitors each individual plant to ensure no grapes
are removed before the three-year orlah period is completed after initial planting. He also removed the mandated tithes (trumah and ma’aser) from the crop to be used later for a special ceremony
This year there are additional require-ments for the production of kosher certi-fied wines, due to the current shmittah year. On the seventh year in the shmittah cycle, Jewish law dictates that the land of Israel should lay fallow for 12 months. All around Israel this year, observant farmers have either stopped entirely or reduced their usual agricultural routine. The winery is meticulous in its obser-vance of the laws of shmittah. During this year’s harvest, Rabbi Aronzon in-
structs workers on the changes that need to be made to the harvesting process; during the section of the harvest done by hand, care is taken to make only a rough cut and not to prune meticulously. He also reminds workers to treat the grapes with extra care as any product harvested this year has added “holiness” (kedusha.)
Rabbi Aronzon is involved at ev-ery stage of the wine production. For a wine to be certified kosher, it must only be touched by Shabbat observant work-ers. A member of Rabbi Aronzon’s team brings samples to the winemakers for them to create their blends. During regu-lar years it is the norm for winemakers to pour away excess. This year, to treat the special shmittah wine with respect, Rab-bi Aronzon provides designated buckets to catch the unused wine.
Rabbi Aronzon feels the weight of his responsibility, not just to provide the finest quality kosher wines to consumers worldwide. “I feel it’s my responsibility to transmit the unique of Jewish wine-making. We are the latest stage in the an-cient tradition of winemaking in Israel,” he says.
This year as your special moments arise, you can yet again mark the occa-sion with a bottle of delectable Israeli wine, with an added appreciation for the marriage of all things Israeli contained within the bottle—fearless development of cutting edge modern technology, a love of our homeland, and a respect for the ancient traditions of our heritage.
Yarden Golan Heights wines are sold under the Yarden, Gilgal, Hermon and Golan labels internationally. They are available at all good wine shops bringing quality Israeli wines around the world to Jewish and non-Jewish consumers.
Around The Community
From Israel to Your Table: Harvesting the Holiness
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Around The Community
By Chaim GoldIt felt like Neilah on Yom Kippur. Tens
of Gedolei Yisrael pouring their hearts out in tefillah. Venerated rabbanim reciting the 13 middos of rachamim, the words, “Hashem, Hashem Kel rachum v’cha-nun” thundering against the silent back-drop of trees and weather-beaten matzei-vos. Most of all it was the tears. The sight of the venerated gedolim not just weeping but shedding hot tears, begging Hashem for rachamei shamayim in the zechus of the Chofetz Chaim while standing at his kever was something impossible to for-get. To see the gedolim begging Hashem to protect Am Yisrael and begging Him to especially protect the Lomdei Daf HaY-omi B’Halacha, who learn the Chofetz Chaim’s Torah on a daily basis, sent chills up the spine. As the rain beat down it seemed as if the very heavens were cry-ing in unity with the gedolim during the tefillos.
An Unforgettable Spiritual OdysseyThe special tefillah journey of a dele-
gation of senior Gedolei Yisrael and rab-banim to the kever of the Chofetz Chaim and the Radin Yeshiva established by the Chofetz Chaim and to the kever of the Avi Hayeshivos, Rav Chaim of Volozhin, in Volozhin, was a spiritual odyssey that will not be forgotten.
One could not help but be indelibly impacted when hearing the venerated Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Zichron Mel-ech, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Yaakov Borenstein,shlita, leading the selichos in the Yeshiva of Radin beis medrash, his voice reverberating, punctuated with tears, “Ulai yachos al am oni v’evyon, ulai yerachem—Perhaps He will pity his poor and destitute people, perhaps He will have mercy!”
Precarious Times Spurred the Yom Tefillah
In truth, the tefillos at Radin were the climax of the unique worldwide yom te-fillah and day of unity that was marked 24 Elul/September 8, the yahrtzeit of the Chofetz Chaim.
The precarious times in which we live and the proximity of the Chofetz Chaim’s yahrtzeit to the Yom Hadin of Rosh Ha-shanah spurred the hanhalah of Dirshu with the urging and encouragement of leading Gedolei Yisrael to declare the Chofetz Chaim’s yahrtzeit a special day of Torah and tefillah for all of Klal Yisra-el. In keeping with the words of the Ge-mara that “he who learns the Torah of a tzaddik has the ability to invoke Heavenly
mercy in the tzaddik’s zechus,” hundreds of thousands of Jews the world over en-gaged in learning the daily limud of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha and the daily limud in the Sefer Chofetz Chaim. Others engaged in heartfelt recitation of Tehillim. In fact, over 200,000 copies of the daily learning was distributed to yeshivos and shuls, over 120,000 to chadorim, with over 80,000 to girls schools and seminaries. In the United States and other diaspora locations tefillos and learning the Chofetz Chaim’s sefarim took place on an unprecedented scope. In Brooklyn, large schools such as the Bel-zer Cheder and Yeshiva Tiferes Elimelech learned and davened for Klal Yisrael. In schools, yeshivos and chadorim through-out Lakewood, Monsey, Toronto, Los Angeles, and even Houston, Texas, Sefer Chofetz Chaim and Tehillim were learned and recited on behalf of Klal Yisrael. Even numerous businesses stopped in the mid-dle of the work day and switched over to the real business of davening for Klal Yis-rael. Notable among them were Riverside Abstract, Madison Title and BP Graphics.
Moreover, over 50,000 people con-tacted Dirshu and accepted upon them-selves to learn Mishnah Berurah as a re-sult.
In addition, a targeted campaign of “Jewish Unity” to unaffiliated Jews through various mediums reached more than 500,000 people urging them at this precarious time to take a few minutes to daven for the Jewish People.
Senior Gedolim Representing the Entire Cross-Section of Torah Jewry
Participate The trip featured the presence of
numerous Gedolei Yisrael including, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Yaakov Boren-stein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Kiryas Melech in Bnei Brak; HaGaon HaRav Shimon Baadani, shlita, Rosh Kollel Torat Chaim and a member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah; HaGaon HaRav Yechiel Mechel Steinmetz, shli-ta, Skverer Dayan of Boro Park; HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Eliezer Stern, shlita, Rav of Western Bnei Brak and talmid muvhak of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Wosner, zt”l; HaGaon HaRav Simcha Hakohen Kook, shlita, Chief Rabbi of Rechovot; HaGaon HaRav Dovid Alter, shlita, son of the Ger-er Rebbe, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Kanievsky, shlita, son of HaGaon HaR-av Chaim, Kanievsky, shlita, and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Tiferes Tzion and Kiryas Melech; HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Bransdorfer, shlita, Dayan of the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Community of Beit
Shemesh and a son of the senior posek HaGaon HaRav Meir Bransdorder, zt”l; HaGaon HaRav Menachem Ernster, shl-ita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Vizhnitzer Ye-shiva and brother-in-law to the Admorim of Vizhnitz; HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Shmuel Shechter, shlita, Sanz-Klausen-berger Dayan of Netanya; HaGaon HaR-av Rapahel Alkarif, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Derech Chaim; HaGaon HaR-av Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky, shlita, Mash-giach of Yeshiva Orchos Torah and talmid muvhak of Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, shlita; HaGaon HaRav Chaim Pesach Horowitz, shlita, Belzer Dayan of Ash-dod and a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha Mag-gid Shiur; HaGaon HaRav Sariel Rosen-berg, shlita, Av Beis Din at the Beis Din Tzedek of Bnei Brak and a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha Maggid Shiur; HaGaon HaR-av Dovid Shlomo Zoldan, shlita, Dayan and Rosh Hakollelim of Seret-Vizhnitz, Haifa; HaGaon HaRav Shimon Galaei, shlita, Rav of Osem and Dayan in Bnei Brak; HaGaon HaRav Aryeh Dinkel, shlita, Rav of the Bayit U’Menucha neighborhood of Beit Shemesh; HaGaon HaRav Zishe Horowitz, shlita, Rav of Kehillas Hachassidm of Elad; HaGaon HaRav Boruch Yehuda Heimlech, shl-ita, Dayan in the Eidah Hachareidis and Toldos Aharon community; and HaGaon HaRav Binyomin Eckstein, shlita, Belzer Dayan in London.
The Plea!The group of gedolim left Eretz Yisrael
on a chartered plane late Monday night, 23 Elul/September 7. After landing in Minsk they journeyed to Radin. Throughout the airplane ride and bus trips, numerous gedolim gave powerful addresses about the nature and importance of this mission and the imperative to learn the Chofetz Chaim’s sefarim. After arriving in Radin, Selichos, Shacharis and a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha shuir – the daily Mishnah Ber-urah and Mussar program – was held in
the beis medrash of the Radin Yeshiva. In that holy place where the Chofetz Chaim left his indelible impact, where the walls were saturated with words of Torah and tefillah from the pre-Holocaust kedoshim, tefillos of gedolei Torah once more rose to the heavens. The Nasi of Dirshu, Rav Dovid Hofstedter remarked, “I don’t know if there was ever a time since the churban of Europe where the beis me-drash of the Radin Yeshiva was so packed with great talmidei chachamim engaged in Torah and tefillah!”
This was followed by tefillos at the kever of the great Kohein Gadol, the Chofetz Chaim. In the very same place where Rav Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky, zt”l, Rav of Krinik, delivered a hesped on the Chofetz Chaim at his levaya, 82 years later, his grandson, Rav Chizkiyahu Mis-hkovsky, shlita, delivered moving words of chizuk, calling on Jews the world over to connect with the Chofetz Chaim by un-dertaking to learn his Mishnah Berurah daily. “How can a person live as a Jew if he doesn’t know the halachos of daily living?”
From Radin, the group went on to the town of Volozhin where they davened at the kever of Rav Chaim of Volozhin. In Radin, HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Kanievsky, shlita, son of HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita, and Rosh Ye-shiva of Kiryas Melech and Tiferes Tzion, said, “Rav Chaim of Volozhin gave us the mesorah on how to learn Torah and the Chofetz Chaim gave us the gift of how to keep the Torah, halacha l’maaseh. We are learning your Torah, we are learning the Chofetz Chaim’s halachos, please, in that zechus may all of Klal Yisrael and espe-cially the yeshivos hakedoshos and lomdei halacha be preserved and granted heaven-ly assistance and mercy.”
Expanded coverage of this historic trip, the messages of the Gedolei Yisrael and other highlights will appear in the Sukkos edition of this paper.
Gedolei Yisrael Daven at Kever and Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim on his Yahrtzeit Over 500,000 Jews Worldwide Join in Special Day of Tefillah and Unity
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To my beautiful daughter Raizy, As you lay there on life support struggling to remain with us one
more day, I can’t help but reflect on your short but fulfilling life. Your smile is contagious, your enthusiasm inspiring. You have been blessed from day one with a spirit that has been both troublesome and en-thralling. Your spirituality has carried you, however spirituality is not enough for us mere mortals. As human beings, we must connect our body, mind, and soul.
Raizy, I hope you don’t mind if I take your current circumstanc-es as a means to educate and inspire others towards the lessons you’ve taught me.
As we approach the High Holy Day of Rosh Hashana, I implore each and every one of us to take a lesson from the life of my beautiful daughter. Please be mindful to nurture yourself physically, spiritually, and emotionally. My beautiful daughter gave to others to a fault. Her ruach hachaim was filled with so much love and kindness for others, but she neglected to refill herself, which ultimately led to the position we currently find ourselves in.
How can we take the lesson of Raizy’s challenge to make effective changes in our life? First and foremost I believe without the grace, lov-ing kindness and guidance of a Higher Power we cannot succeed. What has been carrying my family through this most challenging time has been our deep faith in Hashem. With Rosh Hashana quickly approach-ing, we prepare of lists of requests to beseech Hashem. We daven for good health, parnassah, nachas and many other various blessings...
I suggest we place on the top of our list the following request: “Hashem, help me to feel your presence with me at all times.” This has been my tefillah for many years and b’chasdei Hashem I can see the fruits of my labor. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I can assure you with Hashem’s help we can get through anything.
Next, remember the importance of self-care. Life is about finding balance, which may be difficult for many of us. Giving until we drop is not beneficial. This was where my beautiful and gentle daughter went wrong. She had so much love to give, but forgot about the importance of giving to herself. She helps anyone in need but tends to neglects herself. Being selfless does not mean we don’t think about our needs; it means we think about our self—less.
Raizy’s good and loving nature caused her to overexert herself in the hot sun. She failed to nurture herself which led to severe dehydra-tion. Don’t think for a second she didn’t care for food, she loved to
eat, but it was not a priority. Consequently, she became severely dehy-drated, went into cardiac arrest, and had a brain aneurism.
As humans, we must remember to...Nurture our body, by providing it with nutritious food, exercise and
air. Nurture our soul, through prayer and meditation Nurture our mind, by filling it with positive, inspiring and uplifting
thoughts. Raizy called me last week and said, this is the last festival of the
summer. Yom Tov is coming and I’m looking forward to spending more time with you. Sadly, that time may never come. My daughter’s spirit is bigger than life. Anyone who has ever spoken to her can attest to the purity of her soul.
We never stop praying for a miracle and with the help of all of our tefillos and learning may we be zoche to the miracle of a yeshua. However, on a practical level, as you enter the yomim noraim, please utilize this time to reflect on your life.... Your relationship with Hashem... Your relationship with yourself.... And your relation-ship with others. Then ask yourself, what are you going to do different this year?
May we all be zoche to a year filled with bracha, good health and nachas from our children. And may we be zoche to the coming of Moshiach b’mheira v’yamainu.
-Lisa Rosenblatt
May Raizy be a meilitz yosher for all of Klal Yisroel and may Hashem bring true comfort to her family, friends and our community.
An Open Letter to My Beautiful DaughterBy Lisa RosenBLatt
On Rosh Hashana, Raizy (Rosenblatt) Felsman’s neshama entered the World to Come. Her mother, Lisa, penned these thoughts just days before her petira.
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Tuesday, September 8, 2015.As I sit on the Amtrak train num-
ber 129 bound for Washington, D.C., I wonder if this trip will make any differ-ence. The purpose of the trip is to gather as many rabbis and laymen as possible from all around the United States to try one last time to convince one or more of the 34 Democratic senators who have indicated that they will agree with the administration that the “deal” with Iran is a good thing for the United States, Israel and the world in general, to vote against it. Of course, anyone with a working grey cell in their brain knows it’s not a good deal for anyone except for Iran. One proof of that is that Con-gresswoman Debra Wasserman-Schultz has signed on in agreement with the deal. Another example is that Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are all against the deal.
One does not need those indicators to understand how terrible this agree-ment is. Forget the issue of allowing Iran to legally enrich uranium and plu-tonium and heavy water, among other components needed to create a nuclear weapon, Iran stands to get its hands on over $150 billion in unfrozen assets. You can bet that Iran will not use that money to build schools and hospitals. As the current major sponsor of ter-rorism worldwide, that money will be used to buy conventional weapons to be used against anyone Iran hates—which means primarily against Israel and the United States.
So I’m on a train to join many oth-ers in our nation’s capital with real con-cerns about this “deal.” You see, if just 34 senators vote for the deal, President Obama will be able to veto the majority vote and the deal will go through. AI-PAC and the OU have joined forces to bring all of us to Washington just days before Rosh HaShana in an effort to convince at least one senator to change his or her mind. I hope we will be suc-cessful.
However, even if we don’t convince at least one senator to change, I believe the trip will be worthwhile. I think about what happened during World War II and wonder why so few people pro-tested here to save European Jewry. If I had been alive then, would I have done anything? I believe ultimately what will
happen in this world will be whatever Hashem decides. However, I also be-lieve that it is our duty to make a sincere effort to let our voices be heard. We can at least do that. When Hitler, yimach sh’mo, set out to destroy our people, he acted largely in secret and tried to the best of his ability to keep his actions secret from the world, even as he was in the process of his systematic murder of our people. I can understand how people living at that time could listen to accounts of expulsion and gas chambers and shootings and not believe it. Today, however, when the leaders of Iran pub-licly stand in front of the world, with TV, Internet, Twitter, Facebook, texts, etc. and proudly proclaim that they plan to wipe Israel off the map (which they have already done in their textbooks), I think it’s imperative that the world lis-tens. And if the world isn’t listening, I believe it’s our obligation to make them listen and act.
Now, while it is true that most of the world is not interested in the welfare of Israel, the United States, ostensibly, claims to be pro-Israel. So perhaps we will accomplish our mission.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015.After an inspiring tefilah with over
100 rabbis, we proceeded to join over 1,200 concerned Americans for break-fast and our first meeting of the day. This included listening to Senator Bob Corker of Tennesee (R) and Staff Ser-geant Robert Bartlett, (Ret.). Sergeant Bartlett was especially moving as he explained that every generation of his family has served this country in the military since the War of Independence. He was injured so severely in Iraq that when he was on the operating table he had technically died three times. He thanked us for coming from all over the United States and implored us to make Congress listen to what we had to say.
We went to our first session to meet with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York). I would say over 100 people went to the meeting to express our disbelief that she is going to vote to approve the deal. However, when the meeting started, we were collective-ly shocked and dismayed that instead of Senator Gillibrand, we had to listen to one of her lackeys—a young man
who will one day be a great politician in his own right. That’s not a compliment. He proceeded to fend off questions from the crowd without actu-ally saying anything for over a half hour. Some of the people raised some inter-esting points. For example, someone pointed out that to vote for the deal just in order to be politically safe with the members of her own party could end up being lethal in the end for her political career when she will have to justify her vote after Iran uses the billions they will receive to fund terror throughout the world. Someone else pointed out the folly of enabling Iran to fund ter-ror through the lifting of the sanctions only having to send more aid to Israel and other countries in order to counter-act the money going to Iran. Also, if the Iran deal is so good, why would it be necessary to help Israel defend itself?
In any event, I, personally, felt cheated by Senator Gillibrand. By not showing up, she showed herself to be a coward. By voting to go along with her party leader she proved she’s a cow-ard. Very disappointing. I also found it to be disrespectful to the more than one hundred of her constituents who took off many hours of their lives and went to great expense to meet with her, who traveled collectively thousands of miles to meet with her, and she didn’t have the decency to walk a few hundred feet to meet with us. I thought democra-cy meant to at least listen to ideas you might disagree with. Disgusting. And disappointing.
At the other end of the spectrum is Representative Kathleen Rice (D-New York-4). Although Rep. Rice also did not attend her meeting with the dozen constituents who showed up to meet with her, we expressed our hakarat ha-tov to her Legislative Assistant, Eliza-beth Amster. Here was a junior repre-sentative who had traveled to Israel three times just in this last year alone to find out firsthand what was going on there. Rabbi Billet explained to us how concerned and sincere she is and how
committed she is to getting her facts straight and to therefore be able to vote with intelligence. She intends to vote against the deal. She is someone we can admire and from whom we can draw in-spiration.
On the way out from that meeting we heard the end of Donald Trump’s speech at an anti-deal rally on the front lawn of the Capitol. Although I’m not a fan of his style, I must say it was refreshing to hear his way of putting things. “The people running this coun-try now are losers. When I am president you will win so much you’ll be tired of winning.” I might not vote for him, but if he is up against Hillary, G-d forbid, I might not have a choice.
I finished my day by walking into offices of random representatives, all of whom were too “busy” to see me and left messages to vote against the deal. Speaking of a bracha l’vatalah, I even left a note for Debbie Wasserman Shul-tz. I tried. The rest is up to Hashem. We all have to make an extra effort to daven with extra kavana to beseech Hashem to help us at this dire moment in world history. My wish to all of us is that our prayers will be heard and accepted.
As far as Hillary is concerned, that’s a subject for a totally different article.
Rabbi Appleman is an alumnus of HANC and Yeshiva University, from which he also received semicha. He is the author of The Jewish Woman in Judaism, Is There Life after the Bar/Bas Mitzva and A Guide to the Study of the Talmud. He has also published numerous articles in The Jewish Press, The Jewish Week, and The Jewish World. He is currently a rebbe at the Rambam Mesivta and lives in Woodmere.
Rabbi Sol Appleman
OpEd
Will it Matter?
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daeh dnizg xnbSpecial Yom Kippur Section
Divrei Torah & Jewish Thought 64 Yom Kippur
by Rabbi Berel Wein
65 The Shmuz by Rabbi Ben Zion Shafier
68 Show Some Muscle by Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz
69 A Coach Approach to Teshuva by Rabbi Naphtali Hoff
Halacha76 Kneeling on a Stone Floor
by Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits
The Power of Yom Kippur62 “Hashem Loves You Most”:
TJH Speaks with Rabbi Gavriel Sassoon
72 On Rambam, Yom Kippur & the Time Machine by Mr. Joe Bobker
78 Charity Redeems from Death
116 The Antidote by Rivki Rosenwald, Esq., CLC
History77 The Baal Neilah
by Larry Domnitch
To Your Health80 I Can’t Change
by Deb Hirschhorn, PhD
81 How to Have an Easy Fast by Cindy Weinberger, MS, RD, CDN
In the Kitchen96 Red Lentil Vegetable Soup
and Whole Wheat Rolls by Naomi Nachman
98 Kasha Bourbon and Peace Vodka: TJH Speaks with Monte Sachs, owner of one of the few kosher NY distilleries
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CLASSIC SUCCOS MACHZOR
with full English transla-tion facing the Hebrew
page and an anthologized commentary
Available in Full-size or Pocket-size
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75My Israel Home
Less than a year ago, seven of Rabbi Gavriel Sas-soon’s children died in a fire; his wife and one remain-ing child were badly burned. Rabbi Sassoon, seemingly alone, buried his children in Eretz Yisroel. Through it all, though, he has maintained his emotional and spiri-tual strength; he has become an inspiration for thou-sands struggling with pain and loss.
We spoke with Rabbi Sassoon the week before Rosh Hashana for words of chizuk for our readership. Rabbi Sassoon is thoughtful and articulate. His message was in some ways reminiscent of that of Viktor Frankl, the famous Holocaust survivor, who noted, in understand-ing how people survived the concentration camps, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’” and that “The last of human freedoms [is] the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of cir-cumstances.”
Rabbi Sassoon, thank you for speaking with us. What should we consider as we prepare for Yom HaD-in?
On Rosh Hashana we stand before the King of Kings for a new din. Rosh Hashana is not about judge-ment, about payment for actions of year. It’s about the anniversary, rebirth, and creation of a new world. In or-der to create a new world, Hashem needs to find our place in it. In order to give us life, He needs to find a place for all of us. That’s why we have judgement. So He can know where to place us and what circumstances and challenges we need in this new world.
He wants to do good. He wants to give us life. He’s Avinu.
In order to merit this, we need to know what true life is. We can’t be distracted by the physical world. We have to think: what is my life about? Once we know, we must be prepared to live that life.
Unfortunately, daily living sidetracks us, so we for-get what life is all about. We go after the physical world. But we have to grow as people. Hashem challenges us to grow. We do this by choosing life at each moment.
On Rosh Hashana, in order to make Hashem King, we must surrender ourselves to Him. We must sur-render ourselves to life. Nothing but Hashem is in the world. If we live with that consciousness, we live with Hashem. We can handle more. Because we are greater, greater than ourselves.
People tell me that I’m strong. That’s not true. What I desire most are my children. But I gave up all for Hashem. If you give everything up, He holds your hand.
With the new year, it’s everyone’s turn to think. To improve relationships. Can I love my spouse more? My kids more? Can I do more mitzvos?
Everyone has a purpose. When we get depressed or bogged down, we need to recognize that our thinking process is off. Don’t feel bad about ourselves. There’s no reason for blame. Hashem is there to help us.
This is where teshuva comes in. Teshuva is about let-ting go. It’s about changing our thinking process.
We have to want Hashem. We have to realize that negative thinking is an illusion. Don’t take ourselves and our thoughts so seriously. Go behind those thoughts. Surrender our ego, our thoughts, and our limited beliefs to Hashem. But Hashem can’t do this for us. We need to take the first step so we have a relationship with Him. He begs us to choose life.
If we take life seriously, we can choose a beautiful, love-filled life.
How do we keep our emunah through tough times?Realize that people don’t have emunah naturally. In
our times, people believe that what you see is what you get. They believe only in the physical. But all physi-cal things can crumble. The only things that are real are spiritual: love, Hashem, mitzvos.
In order to have emunah, we have to build a relation-ship with Hashem. We do this by starting with grati-tude. Thank Him. Share our lives with Him. Learn. The more we learn, the more we love Hashem, because we’re learning Hashem’s work. We see how great Hashem is.
Look at the Creation. When we look at the Creation,
and we learn the Torah, we love Hashem. Once we have gratitude to Hashem, thank Him. Hashem is always there for us.
Know that Hashem loves us. Hashem loves us. He wants to give. But we have to initiate the relationship. We have to express that gratitude for the beauty of the world and the beauty of the Torah.
That turns into emunah. And when we have that relationship, we find a dif-
ferent way to look at life. If you have a negative out-look, change that. Look for the good. Then you can have emunah.
If someone is going through a tza’ar, what role can the community play?
The community helps by giving support. The com-munity makes people feel loved and cared for. The community in this way reflects Hashem.
People are social beings. It helps to know we’re not alone.
Suffering comes because we’re resisting Hashem’s plan. No one knows our pain more than Hashem.
We have to surrender to Hashem’s will. I want to hug and kiss my kids more. When I think this, I suffer. If I surrender to Hashem, I think they’re being mashpia on the world.
There is no solution to dealing with pain if you want your way. You have to face the pain and then let go. Surrender yourself to what Hashem wants. Once you do that, the world expands. This is siyata dishmaya. It helps take you out of the problem and out of the tza’ar. You come out on top and face the challenge.
Any final message to our readers?Hashem wants to give us life. He’s just waiting for
us to turn to Him. He needs us to come to Him.I raised my kids that Hashem loves them most. I
would ask them, who loves you most? And the answer was first Hashem. Then, their parents.
If you teach your children that—that Hashem loves them and He will help them—then they will grow up and have emunah. They will grow up and become great.
Thank you so much for your inspiring words. May we all be inscribed for a shana tova, filled with all that we can see is good.
"Hashem challenges us to
grow. We do this by choosing
life at each moment."
“Hashem Loves You Most” TJH Speaks with Rabbi Gavriel SassoonBy Brendy J. Siev
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The holiest day of the year is upon us. The time of atonement and forgiveness, of introspec-
tion and self-analysis has again arrived. The unique quality of the day of Yom Kippur is that it is a day of cleansing. Just as our refraining from food and drink on that day helps cleanse us phys-ically, so too does our participation in prayer, serious thought, recognition of personal faults and a new commitment to do better in the future cleanse our souls.
We are all well aware that the build-up of plaque in one’s arteries is danger-ous to our health, and that surgical and medicinal intervention is often neces-sary. Unfortunately, during the year a great deal of plaque has built up in the mental, emotional and spiritual arteries of our being. Yom Kippur is an oppor-tunity to remove or reduce that plaque buildup and to focus our attention on
staying healthy both physically and spiritually.
There is no easy way or shortcut to accomplish this goal. The Talmud re-cords for us an opinion, in the name of the great Rabi Meir, that merely passing through the day of Yom Kippur itself
can accomplish this end without our active participation. However, Jewish law and tradition does not accept Rabi Meir’s opinion as binding. Instead, hu-
man repentance is required in order for the cleansing process of Yom Kippur to be effective.
Yom Kippur is not to be viewed as a passive day of restraint and refrain-ing but rather as a day of active par-ticipation in the process of cleansing
our souls and purifying our emotions. Because of this required conscious and active effort of repentance, Yom Kippur is transferred from being purely a day of rest into a day of wrenching emotional and spiritual activity. It is possible to sleep away the entire day and techni-cally not violate any of the prohibitions. But it is unimaginable that if one does so that one has really experienced Yom Kippur.
The most difficult part of the day is not, in my opinion, hun-ger, thirst or physi-cal fatigue – it is the necessity to honestly confront ourselves and face up to our weaknesses. We are required to focus on those areas in our life and in our relations to others that need at-tention and improve-ment.
We are all born with the gift of denial. Original man in the Garden of Eden, when confronted by G-d with the enormity of his sin, does not readily admit fault at all. He casts about to put the blame on others, and the others in turn lay their guilt upon still others. The ability to admit error is one of the most difficult psychological and emotional traits encountered in life.
Yet, without that ability and by re-maining in constant denial of one’s shortcomings, there is little hope for improvement and for achieving a more
balanced and productive life. Yom Kip-pur can cleanse us and create us anew. But it cannot do so unless we are will-ing to face our own failings.
When the Temple stood in Jerusa-lem and the High Priest of Israel per-formed the public rituals of Yom Kip-pur, forgiveness, cleansing and personal improvement were somehow meant to be easier to obtain. However, even then under such optimal circumstances, the Jewish people did not truly exploit the opportunity of repentance. The result was that both Temples were destroyed.
In a strange way, Yom Kippur, over the almost two millennia since the de-struction of the Second Temple, has be-come even more of a spiritual and emo-tional day. Since we can no longer rely on the Temple services or on the inter-cession of the High Priest on our behalf, we have become well aware that much depends upon us – and only upon us.
The removal of denial is the first step towards becoming a better person, building a stronger family, creating a more just and righteous community and strengthening our nascent state here in the Land of Israel. We should make a
great effort not to allow Yom Kippur to slip away from us merely as a day of rest and restraint.
The gift of Yom Kippur is that for at least one day in the year we can be hon-est with ourselves and truly unite with our inner self and soul. Whether we do so or not is completely dependent upon each and every one of us – solely upon our attitude, thoughts, behavior and commitment on this holiest day of the year.
Shabbat shalom and gmar chatima tova.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Yom Kippur
Torah Thought
Yom Kippur can cleanse us and create us anew. But it cannot do so unless we are willing to face our own failings.
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“And Aharon and all of Bnei Yis-rael saw Moshe, his face illuminated, and they feared approaching him.” — Shemos 34:30
The Sin of the Golden CalfWith the entire nation gathered at
the foot of Har Sinai, Moshe Rabbeinu went up to receive the Torah. When he came down forty days later, the Jewish People were in a very different state than when he had left them. Through the influence of the mixed multitude, they were engaged in a form of idol worship. While it’s true that the vast majority of the people didn’t actively engage in the act, for such a people so soon after hearing, “I am Hashem Your G-d,” directly from our Creator, this was so egregious that it was con-sidered as if they had each participat-ed. The only hope was for Moshe to beseech Hashem for mercy.
After destroying the Golden Calf, Moshe went back up Har Sinai, spent another forty days with Hashem, and then He forgave the Jewish People. Then Hashem told Moshe to go back up a third time, now to reaccept the Torah and bring down a second set of luchos.
This time, when Moshe came down his face was illuminated — lit-erally shining from holiness. When the people saw him, they were awed and didn’t dare to look directly at him. From that point on, whenever Moshe went out in public, he wore a veil to hide his face.
Rashi comments that earlier, when Hashem Himself appeared to the en-tire nation, everyone — man, woman and child — was able to look at Hash-em. Now even just the reflection of the Hashem’s glory on the countenance of a man was more than they could han-dle. From here we see the damage of sin.
This Rashi is difficult to under-stand. Moshe came down the final time on Yom Kippur. For generations, that day has been set aside as a day of forgiveness because Hashem forgave the sin of the Golden Calf. And even more, Moshe immediately command-
ed the Jewish People in the mitzvah of building the Mishkan (tabernacle). This was to be a permanent sign that Hashem forgave the Jewish nation. Clearly, the sin was forgiven, so why
couldn’t the Jews look at Moshe’s face?
The answer to this can best be un-derstood with a mashal.
The Judge Can Forgive HimImagine a man who, after having a
few too many drinks, gets into his car and begins driving. It takes a while be-fore he is pulled over, but finally, the police arrest him, and he stands trial for driving while intoxicated. Under-standing the gravity of the charges, he makes a heartfelt appeal to the judge. “Your honor, what I have done is wrong, and there is no excuse. I en-dangered the lives of others as well as myself, and there is no defending my conduct. I cannot express my shame and regret for my actions. However, it is a first offense, and I am a family man, and community-minded. I beg the court to have mercy.”
If the man is convincing, and the circumstances support him, the judge may forgive him and waive the charges, in which case the offense is stricken from the record, and he is the same as he was before the fateful event happened.
But what if when he got behind the wheel of his car instead of being pulled over by the police, he plowed into a telephone pole? By the time the paramedics get to the scene, it looks bleak. As a last measure, a helicopter flies him to the nearest hospital, but there is nothing that could be done. His spinal cord is severed, and he is
paralyzed from the waist down. In this case, if he were to stand
trial for drunk driving, the judge may forgive him, and his record may be clean, but the damage is still there.
This seems to be the answer to Rashi. The Jewish Nation did teshuva and were forgiven. But the world was still changed. At that pivotal moment in time, for the Exalted Nation to en-gage in something akin to idol worship changed the very spiritual dimensions of the world. Yes, they were forgiven for what they did, but they weren’t the same as they were before, and neither was the rest of Creation.
Teshuva Isn’t EnoughThis concept is very applicable to
us. On Yom Kippur, we are charged with the mitzvah of teshuva. Teshuva involves four parts: separating from the sin, regret, confession, and a plan not to repeat the offense. But there is
still more work to be done. I have to repair the damage done.
If over the past year, I haven’t learned properly, I can ask Hashem to forgive me for my lack of diligence, but I still remain lacking. It’s up to me to now fill in what I have lost. If I have had words with relatives of friends, it’s not enough to ask forgive-ness. That takes care of the actual sin. But the repair of the relationship still has to be done. And certainly in terms of the way that we treat our spouses, while we will ask forgiveness and can expect it to be granted, the real work is looking forward and asking ourselves, “What can I do to make my marriage better?”
Teshuva can eliminate the sin and make it as if it never happened, but it can’t make up for the lost opportunity. That can only happen with progres-sive corrections, accomplished with careful analysis of how we spend our time and asking ourselves the critical question: am I happy with the direc-tion of my life?
Rabbi Shafier is the founder of the Shmuz.com. The Shmuz is an engaging, motivat-ing shiur that deals with real life issues. All of the Shmuzin are available free of charge at the www.theShmuz.com or on the Shmuz App for iPhone or Android.
Yom KippurTeshuva is Easy; Change is Difficult
R’ Ben Tzion Shafier
The Shmuz
Yes, they were forgiven for what they did, but they weren’t the same as they were before, and neither was the rest of Creation.
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78 T J H C E N T E R F O L D • T J H C E N T E R F O L D • T J H C E N T E R F O L D
Your sukkah has a big round table which seats 10 people with chairs placed evenly around. It is your job to tell everyone where to sit. Like in all families, everyone has their preferences. You, of course, are the only ma-ture one and couldn’t care less where you sit. Figure out how to seat everyone while accommodating each and every one of the requests listed below.
-Adam and Ben want to sit across from each other.- Chaya wanted to sit opposite Dave, who insisted on sit-
ting closer to Ben than to Adam.- Ella, Fay and Chaya always sit together, in that order,
counterclockwise.- Dave only wants to sit between Gabby and Jay, who al-
ways sits with Rita.
See answer on next page
Jimbo was sick and tired of his reputation as being not so bright. So he came up with a brilliant idea. He de-cided that he would memorize the capital of every state, and the next time someone would accuse him of being “thin be-tween the ears,” he’d prove to his accuser that he is actu-ally so bright that he even knows the capital of every state.
Sure enough, the next day Jimbo was talking to Bob-by who says, “You know Jimbo, they say you ain’t too bright.” To which Jimbo replied, “Really? I know the capi-tal of every state in the United States. Try me.”
Bobby says, “Okay, what is the capital of Nevada?”Without hesitating, Jimbo proudly says, “N.”
Riddle! You Gotta be Kidding!
Law of Lines: If you change lines, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now.
Law of the Telephone: When you dial a wrong number, someone always picks up right away.
Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.
Law of the Workshop: Any screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
Law of the Results: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.
Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down for a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you
to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Facts of Life Laws
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AnsWER To RiddLE: Starting with you and going clockwise, there was Chaya on your left, Fay, Ella, Ben, Gabby, Dave, Jay, Rita, and then Adam on your right.How to do it:
Number all the seats clockwise starting with Chaya = 1, then Fay = 2 and Ella = 3, etc.
Dave is at 6 (because he is across from Chaya)That leaves only 4 and 9 or 5 and 10 for Ben and Adam (because
those are the only seats remaining which are directly across from one another). Since Dave wants to sit between Gabby and Jay, we know that the only combination for Ben and Adam could be 4 and 9. Since Dave wants to sit closer to Ben than Adam, put Ben at spot #4 and put Adam at spot #9. That leaves you no choice but to put Gabby in spot #5 because you need to put Jay and Rita together, with Jay sitting near David in spot #7 and Rita in spot #8. The only remaining spot is # 10, where you sit.
T J H C E N T E R F O L D • T J H C E N T E R F O L D • T J H C E N T E R F O L D
1. How many states are there in the U.s.A.?a. 48 + two sovereign territoriesb. 50c. 52d. 57
2. How many U.s. states border the Pacific ocean?a. 1b. 3c. 5d. 7
3. Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi all border which of these states?
a. South Carolinab. Alabamac. Arkansas d. Missouri
4. Which U.s. state is the smallest?a. Wyomingb. Hawaiic. Rhode Islandd. Delaware
5. Which state is the most densely populated?a. New Jerseyb. New Yorkc. Californiad. Alaska
6. if you drive from Jacksonville, FL, to Houston, TX, staying as close to the Gulf of Mexico as you can, how many states will you drive through?
a. 2b. 3c. 4d. 5
Answers:1. B- We like to start off with the simple questions. Plus, in a recent
presidential election, one of the candidates actually stated, “I’ve been to all 57 states.” So we just want to make sure we are all on board for the 50 state thing.
2. C- California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska. 3. B4. C5. A6. D-Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas
Wisdom Key:5-6 Correct: How do you Harley drivers always all look the same
(mustache, balding, white ponytail)?3-4 Correct: No reason to feel bad—whether or not you know this
information will never have any relevance to your life (unless, of course, you are driv-ing from Florida to Texas and don’t realize you are lost when you see a sign welcoming you to Maine).
1-2 Correct: At least you know that the U.S. doesn’t have 57 states. (Or, did you get that one wrong also?)
State Trivia
Got funny? Let the Commissioner decide send your stuff to [email protected]
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If you ever see two boys, perhaps twelve or thirteen years of age, and they’re playfully fighting, you might
notice something. With smiles on their faces, they’re punching each other in the arm or leg, trying to make it hurt. Why, then, are they smiling?
You see, at that early stage in their social and human development, they believe that by hurting the other per-son, they’ve shown superiority. Might makes right, and if they can make the other person flinch, he’s less of a man than they are. It’s not about hurting the other person at all; it’s just self-centered activity which uses the show of force to “uplift” the hitter.
So, one day I noticed just such an interaction. One boy, who I’m assum-ing was thirteen, was standing in shul next to another boy who I assume was eleven or twelve. There I was, standing at Shacharis, and I noticed the older boy striking the younger one on the arm with the straps of his tefillin!
The kid wasn’t bawling in pain so I guess it didn’t really hurt but it was astounding to me that someone would do something so sacrilegious and be smiling about it. Now, yes, he was like-ly only recently a bar mitzvah, or per-
haps not even yet, so I don’t fault him for not having the proper respect for the tefillin. However, the look on his face spoke volumes.
It said, at least to me, “Ha! I’m bet-ter than you because I have tefillin so I have another way of attacking you and you can’t retaliate. You see? I’m stron-ger than you because I can do some-
thing to you that you can’t do to me.” Dear readers, I’m sure this sounds
most childish and preposterous to you. I’m sure you’re shaking your heads and clucking your tongues at this boy who thought it made him a bigshot to whip someone smaller than he with his leath-er straps. How awful! Didn’t his parents teach him better than that?
The sad part, though, is that often we’re no better than the big bully. How often do we take the opportunity to put people down and feel higher in com-
parison? Let’s take the most analogous case to whipping someone with our te-fillin – putting people down because of religious beliefs.
Whether you’re more observant, strict, and rigid than others, or you think that they are fanatical and too obsessive about how they practice, religion is not a spade to be used to beat someone
with. You can’t go around thinking less of people because their clothing doesn’t match what you believe to be proper, because they eat things you would nev-er dream of touching, or because they don’t have as much Torah knowledge as you. If you do, you’re no better than the kid in shul, making a mockery of the mitzvah.
By the same token, if someone doesn’t want to look at certain maga-zines, enjoys a more Torah-based con-versation than you, or wears clothes
you think look too dowdy, you need to respect that they have their own way of approaching life too.
We should have learned it as chil-dren but in case we didn’t, here’s a re-fresher: We are all judged on our own merit, and not in relation to anyone else. We don’t show we’re better by putting people down; quite the contrary, in fact.
Think about it. Would you like someone to point out every failing you had? Every mistake, accident, and em-barrassing moment? Of course not. So why would you do it to someone else?
When we argue with our spouses, are we careful to respect them, or do we look for their weak spots to needle them with? When an employee or child makes a mistake, are we understanding and reassuring or do we make sure we “put him in his place”?
It wasn’t pretty when the boys in shul did it, it isn’t pretty when we do it, and it certainly wouldn’t be pretty if Hashem, Who knows and sees all, were to harp on our every failing. But thankfully He doesn’t, and He gives us chances to fix our mistakes.
The story isn’t over just yet. The younger boy didn’t retaliate. He ignored the offense and focused on his daven-ing. That’s when the name on his Yar-mulka jumped out at me. GAVRIEL. The might of Hashem.
What is Hashem’s strength? That He lets us go on and on without having to retaliate against us. Hashem gets bad-mouthed often, and certainly doesn’t get the respect He deserves.
When others lash out at us and we’re silent, or when they attack us and we don’t seek revenge, we’re showing who the strong one really is. So the next time you have reason to attack someone, or you’re being attacked and want to fight back, show some muscle and hold your-self back.
That’s a mighty fine way to behave.
Jonathan Gewirtz is an inspirational writer and speaker whose work has appeared in publications around the world. You can find him at www.facebook.com/RabbiGewirtz and follow him on Twitter @RabbiJGewirtz. He also operates JewishSpeechWriter.com, where you can order a custom-made speech for your next special occasion. Sign up for the Migdal Ohr, his weekly PDF Dvar Torah in English. E-mail [email protected] and put Subscribe in the subject.
Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz
The Observant Jew
Would you like someone to point out every failing you had? Every mistake, accident, and embarrassing moment?
Show Some Muscle
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Teshuva is on the forefront of our collective minds as we near Yom Kippur, the holiest day of
the Jewish year. Our sages tell us that those who seek to engage in teshuva are actively assisted from above. (Shabbos 104a; Yoma 38b) Nothing can stand in the way of the remorseful soul that seeks to return, particularly on Yom Kippur, which offers a unique opportu-nity to break through our spiritual barri-ers and come clean.
For many of us, the weeks spent reciting Selichos and engaged in intro-spection helped us approach this sacred Day of Atonement with a renewed sense of purpose and appetite for change. Such individuals are ready to seize the moment and use the incredible gift of Yom Kippur to the fullest degree pos-sible. But many others do not feel quite ready and struggle with the fact that they have lost many “battles” along the way. What can we do to ensure that this year’s teshuva process will help us win the war by inspiring change that doesn’t fall flat and instead impacts our behav-ior for the long haul?
As an executive coach, I would like to respond to this question by using what is often referred to as a “coach approach.” Coaches promote change by helping clients expand their aware-ness and develop their own approach to solving a problem. They believe that the answers to the most difficult questions lie within us and that we can identify solutions with proper guidance and sup-port. In the paragraphs that follow I will share some coaching techniques that may help all of us make the most out of Yom Kippur.
There are five basic elements of te-shuva: hakaras hachet (recognition of one’s sins as sins), charata (remorse), azivas hachet (“abandoning” or de-sisting from sin), pei’raon (restitution, where possible), and vidui (confession). One final step to ensuring a positive, sustained outcome is to make a kabbal-ah al he’asid (commitment to not repeat sinful conduct).
Let’s begin with the first element: hakaras hachet. In order to engage in repentance we have to acknowledge the folly of our ways. This is not as sim-ple as it may seem. First of all, we do
not always recognize the sinful nature of our actions, such as when we speak lashon hara thinking that our words are permitted or hurt someone’s feelings unwittingly. In addition, our sages tell us, “Ovar v’shana naaseh lo k’heter” (if
we sin repeatedly the actions become viewed in our minds as permitted). We often find ourselves slipping into a rou-tine that we eventually come to justify. In such situations it can be easy for our yetzer hara to get ahold of us and say that we have no hope. We are too far along, he’ll argue, on our deviant path-way to ever turn things around.
In order to overcome such thinking we need to realize that error and sin are as central to the human condition as any other quality. We all make mistakes and will do so every day of our lives. We must be willing to accept them and have the self-confidence and integrity to admit it when we do. Our ability and willingness to do this, perhaps more than anything else, will allow us to take control of our teshuva process and our lives in general.
Once we have come to terms with our sinful conduct, we typically begin to feel charata (regret). Whether the victim of our deeds is another person or Hashem (or both), we need to be able to
express our regret clearly and without condition. To do that, consider follow-ing these steps:
• Apologize sincerely – Saying “I am sorry” must communicate genuine regret for your behavior and a wish
that you had acted differently. • Take complete ownership – Avoid
shifting the blame (“I apologize that you misunderstood me,” “I am sorry that you felt that way,” etc.). Doing so greatly diminishes the apologizer’s effectiveness. Stating that the other person was partly responsible for what occurred or for
his hurt feelings places the listener on the defensive and causes them to consider you to be disingenuous and perhaps even accusatory. And that is no way to apologize.
• Avoid excuses – State your error directly, without justification. To the listener’s ear, excuses not only feel like an attempt to validate the wrongdoing, they may even sound like an attack, as if the plaintiff was inconsiderate to hold him accountable in the first place.
• State how you intend to fix things – Articulating your intent to correct matters, including restitution (pei’raon) where needed, will do
wonders to convince the listener of your sincerity. It should be simple, realistic and detailed.
• Follow through – Few things damage a relationship more than when a person sets expectations for change and then does not follow through. In many ways, it is worse than not having apologized in the first place. When we do not act as promised, others question our will and our trustworthiness.
The final component is kabbalah al he’asid (commitment to not repeat sin-ful conduct). Our “New Year’s Resolu-tions” need to be a serious undertaking, with a real commitment for change. One strategy that I use often with cli-ents who seek to make change in their lives is to have them set S.M.A.R.T. goals. “S.M.A.R.T.” stands for specif-ic, measurable, attainable/realistic and time-related.
• Specific – well defined, you know exactly what you seek to achieve;
• Measureable – quantifiable in a way that helps determine whether the goal has been achieved;
• Attainable / Realistic – a goal that is within reach, largely because of your deep desire to attain it;
• Time-related – set to a timeframe to ensure continued, focused efforts towards attainment.
A person, for example, who seeks to daven with greater concentration, fervor and awareness, would be wise to apply this formula. Set specific goals of what you would like to work on that allow you to focus your energies. Determine how you will measure success, in terms of ability to translate more words, sus-tain concentration for extended periods, etc. Make sure that the goals that you set are attainable and not beyond the pale of what is presently realistic (this, of course, can and should change as you grow in this area). Then set a timeframe for your goal to keep you on task and moving in the right direction.
Rabbi Naphtali Hoff is an executive coach and president of Impactful Coaching and Consulting (ImpactfulCoaching.com). He can be reached at 212.470.6139 or at [email protected].
Rabbi Naphtali Hoff
A Fulfilled Life
A Coach Approach to Teshuva
We often find ourselves slipping into a routine that we eventually come to justify.
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What would the supra-rationalist Rambam say to the lyrics of Aquarius (“When the moon is in the Sev-enth House and Jupiter aligns with Mars then peace will guide the planets...”), or to the sight of a cack-ling witch
flying on a broomstick in the Wizard of Oz or to the curri-cula of the Hogwart School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Actually, we don’t have to guess.
In 1194, as the chief rabbi of Egypt and the leading Sep-hard Torah authority in the world, he sent a letter to the Tosefos rabbis in Marseilles, southern France, wherein, with uncharacteristic harsh-ness, he dismisses astrology as an absurdity with zero validity, “a dis-ease for charlatans and fools,” and recommends “flagellation” for those who believe that “certain times” are better than others. Sending the Rambam a crystal ball as a gift for yom tov would not have been a good idea.
Jewish doctors in Babylon wouldn’t perform surgery on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursdays, nor during the even-numbered hours of the day because that was when the demons were on the prowl. The Rambam was outraged at these practices and reminded Jews that “there are fixed laws of nature” and that they must rely on “their own reasoning and
senses” as to how the world operates. The Rambam’s concern centered on the Torah’s concept of free-will, in that if subordinated to the per-ceived influence of stars and planets, witchcraft and voodoo, it would destroy G-d’s role as Controller of fate (hashgachah pratis; in Yiddish,
bashert). Knowing tomor-row’s headlines or the fu-ture of elections or the stock market limits a Jews’ ability to choose freely, a character trait that is considered the en-tire basis for spiritual growth.
Fast forward some 800 years. I can imagine the Ram-bam’s reaction to a recent full-page ad in the orthodox Jewish papers (this is true!) offering a pre-Elul segula. “Open the Gates of Heaven
to get a year of good fortune, income, abundance and livelihood, by buying the magic kabbalistic knife shlissel [key]”.
My chassidishe friend ran out and bought one. He needed par-nassa. But after several weeks of cutting his Shabbas challah, nothing happened. He was now out of pocket. So he went to a pawn shop in Far Rockaway to see if he could recover some of his money and cut his losses. When he entered and pulled the knife out of his bekeshe pocket, the girl behind the counter thought she was being robbed and quickly handed him all the cash in the till. As he stood outside the store and counted $1,000 of sudden income he yelled, “It works! It works!” and
Joe BoBker on
rambam, Yom kippur & The Time Machine
When the rambam was asked if teshuva was a form of time travel back to the past he scoffed at the idea. And yet, in his later
years, he changed his mind despite its supernatural component.
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113made his way to the next pawn shop to try again.
When the Rambam was asked if teshuva was a form of time travel back to the past he scoffed at the idea. And yet, in his later years, he changed his mind de-spite its supernatural component. It wasn’t the idea of time travel that captured his attention. It was the
idea that one could go “back to the future” this time of the year. In other words, teshuva allows a Jew to go backwards, identify a wrong, then return and do something about it armed with the three T’s (tefilla, teshuva, tzedaka) to mitigate its harm.
The Midrash was no stranger to time machines. In a fascinating mystic travelogue titled, “When Moses met Akiva,” Moses is catapult-ed to the back of a classroom a few generations in the future to listen to Rabbi Akiva teaching the Laws of Moses. In 1895, H. G. Wells created a career out of Time fantasy by creating Theofiction, a new genre of literature which married SciFi to scriptural dogma, with his novel, The Time Machine. A person goes forward 30,000,000 years to stand on a beach only to discover that the sun had grown cold, the sea had frozen, and the highest form of life was a football-sized “thing” that hopped around the sand.
A passenger in a mini-Time capsule was Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik of YU fame who would tell his students that when he sat down to learn a blatt, his chavrusas, who he literally felt by his side, came from the second century (R’ Hillel), the 11th century (Rashi), the 12th century (Rambam), and so on. When absorbed in learning, the past, present and future became inconse-quential.
“I was with my people when they were part of the exodus from Egypt,” writes Bernard S. Raskas. “I stood with them at Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. The pronouncements of Isaiah pound in my blood. The say-ings of Akiva are sealed in the cells of my brain. The message of Maimonides is part of my mind. I experienced the Holocaust and shared in the agony of my people. I participated in the birth of modern Israel and the ecstasy of my people. As a member of the Jewish peo-ple, I am immortal.”
Consider: R’ Elazar ben Asher Ha-levi, the 14th century author of Sefer Hazikhronos, traces his footsteps back to the beginning of Jewish time. Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, known as Yismach Moshe, could tell us exactly where he stood when the Torah was given at Sinai. His contemporary, Reb Levi Yitzhack of Berdichev, recalls walking in Rabbi Akiva’s shoes in Palestine sometime around 50 AD.
This time of the year reminds us that the past is not yet past. We cannot separate from it. “Here and gone” is not a Jewish thing. Improv-ing one’s middos is not a long-ago-and-far-away exercise but a present challenge; not just to recall but to experience and feel the harm our act may have caused another. These mistakes are still out there, floating in a metaphysical time capsule, waiting for us to find, remember, and identify them as spiritual failings. And there’s no statute of limitations!
It’s a myth that we are restricted to only the past year. We are not. If we remember a misdeed from twenty years ago the door is still open for teshuva. A case in point: A few years ago I received a phone call from a rabbi in Monsey two hours before Rosh Hashana. He had been asked to call me on behalf of someone who wished to remain anony-mous. Apparently this person used to come over to our house in LA and play with my sons some thirty years ago when he was around ten, elev-en. On a few occasions he stole some baseball cards. He has regretted it ever since. The unidentified was now asking for forgiveness through
a messenger, a dan le-kaf zechus, acting as a pre-yom tov defense at-torney (sanegoria) on behalf of another Jew who had act improperly.
Nevertheless I demanded my pound of flesh! I wanted full reim-bursement in today’s dollars for the value of our Roy Weatherly Cleve-land Indians 1941 card (if we ever had one)! I wanted him burned in effigy! Hung from the Eiffel Tower! Actually I was quite serene, ac-cepted his apology, then spent all Succos thinking of who it could be. It made his yom tov but ruined mine!
I’m not sure if one can do teshuva anonymously or whether I was the right address for it (should have been directed to my sons) but it was sure impressive. To take responsibility for the past and do something about it is courageous. So, to pat myself on the undeserved back, is the ability to forgive. So I beg mechila but only anonymously for anybody or anything I upset in the past. Giving another Jew “the benefit of the doubt” eliminates enmity and grudge-bearing (Er hot a faribel of mir!), or if you prefer it in Torah terms: “B’tzedek tishpot amitecha,” “Judge your fellow righteously.”
Even though the Rambam, unlike the Kabbalists, believed Time was linear and sequential, a single one-way street from the first Shab-bos of Creation to the end goal of Redemption with no inherent spiritu-al powers, he recognized that the concept of Cyclical Time is inherent
in the process of teshuva. That the fu-ture is anchored in the past is reflected by Hebrew: kever means both “womb” and “grave.”
Meanwhile in his deep understand of human nature, King David teach-es that there is a time for everything (“There is a season...”). Recognizing this is the time of the year for improve-ment, little Shimmy davens, “Hashem, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time just like I am.” Next to him is little Yanki who used to pray to G-d for a bi-cycle, gave up, stole one, and is now praying for forgiveness.
Elul is the season of teshuva. Jewish mystics believe that it acts like Jacob’s ladder, bridging earthly Time to a higher Time where the
past, present and future all co-exist, an-other unique Jewish form of time travel on Ezekiel-type chariots crisscrossing the seven spheres of Heaven. The Zo-har takes all this in its stride. The en-tire Torah is one long scroll of Time. Even its physical “turning” on Simchas
Torah is seen in metaphysical terms. As it is opened on its spindles counterclockwise, the left side, symbolic of tomorrow, gets smaller, while the right side, the history of yesterday, becomes larger. And the exposed open parchment? That is the link between past and future and represents the present.
Remember: Chag (yom tov) has the same root as chug (“a circle”), a reminder that no matter how the Wheel of Life turns, from joy to sorry, from tragedy to triumph, from the peaks and the troughs, it was business as usual for the circle-and-cycle of the Jewish calendar in which Yom Kippur is the summit, the annual apex of spiritual con-sciousness. The aseret yemai teshuva are ten “in-between” days of go-ing backwards (in penitence) to improve our grades on Yom Kippur, and be rewarded with a reprieve that we pray will last until the same time next year.
I wonder if the supra-rationalist Rambam did kappora shlogging? This is the symbolic act of sin-cleansing that Babylonian Jews intro-duced to “wipe out” the past via a transfer of sins to another living creature.
The men use a white rooster, the women a hen; swinging it over one’s head while saying a little prayer that asks (naturally) that the
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114 fowl be killed instead of the Jew. Many great rabbis abhorred this cus-tom, concerned that it would undermine the seriousness of the whole idea of vows. The 13th century Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet, the wealthy banker and chief rabbi of Barceleno, Spain, prohibited it. The Ram-ban, who merged kabbalah with Torah, called its practitioners “idol-worshippers.” Rabbi Yoseph Karo of Shulchan Aruch fame thought it was “a stupid custom.” But all to no avail. It was wildly popular, especially among Eastern Euro-pean Polish Jews.
In my home, at dawn on the day before Yom Kippur, my par-ents would each shlug kapporas by swinging a chicken three times over their heads, each time saying zeh chalifasi, zeh temu-rosi, zeh kaporosi, “This is my substitute, this is my exchange, this is my atonement.” I was young. I had a propensity for klotz kashers. Why a chicken? Why not a fish? Why can’t I swing my pet tortoise? The chicken comes from an old Polish superstition that when roosters crow in the early morning to announce the first lights of day, they scare away the evil spirits who shun daylight. Why “three” times? Why not a million, I wanted to know.
This number is representative of something permanent, as the Yid-dishists would say: a triple braid is not easily undone! The Teshuva Time machine recognizes that it is unfair to judge a Jew on one bad act here, one mistake there. It is the entire gestalt of a person that counts; the whole shebang and not just the parts. This does not mean that “ev-erything is good” but that we must see “good in everything.” This is why the Torah does not “count” the first two sins but requires a pattern of past behavior (a chazaka) which comes into play if any “bad act” is
repeated three or more times, an indication of the person as a whole. And this is why the obligation to ask another for forgiveness must be done three times after which one has fulfilled the requirement (even if there is no response).
I was too chicken to swing a live chicken around the kitchen. So my father would let my older sister and I “swing” money tied in a white
cloth handkerchief instead while saying the same invocation. How much money? Any amount as long as it was in multiples of chai, “18,” for Life. We then donated the money (but not the handkerchief) to tzedaka, one of the three mitzvos that help lessen G-d’s decree.
Sadie Cohen once went into a store erev yom tov and bought a parrot for a pet. But the parrot misbehaved constantly. It swore at her and insulted guests at the meal. Finally Sadie Cohen had
enough. She threw the parrot into the freezer. After a few seconds of silence she had rachmonus on the bird and opened the door. “I’m so sorry,” the parrot said. “Please forgive me. I’ll do teshuva and never be bad again. Please, pretty please.” Sadie Cohen, in the spirit of the High Holidays, says, “I forgive you.” “Thank you,” replies the relieved parrot as she takes him out of the freezer. “Oh, by the way, what did the chicken do?”
The Rambam’s eventual embrace of teshuva as a non-rational spir-itual force was quite a concession. On the surface of reason and logic its act of going back through time to generate mercy and forgiveness today defies natural law. In summary: How man acts, G-d reacts! But it’s also helpful to spread lots of honey over your apples and challahs as you cut them with your new kabbalistic knife.
recognizing this is the time for improvement, little Shimmy davens,
“Hashem, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m
having a real good time just like I am!”
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On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we kneel on the floor during davening at Aleinu and
while saying v’kohanim. In addition, many times we wish to kneel on the ground to give a child a bath, exercise, or to put something away. Are the above permitted and if they are not what is the correct way to kneel?
Halachic BackgroundIn the time of the Bais Hamikdosh
one would fall to the floor with his hands and feet spread out and daven to Hash-em. This is not done today since we do not have a bais hamikdosh. The Torah tells us that one is not allowed to spread out his hands and feet on a stone floor.
“And a stone covering you should not place on your land to prostrate your-self upon it.” (Vayikrah, 26: 1)
Other Halachic Factors The Rabbonim enacted that one is not
allowed to bow on one’s hands and feet (even without spreading) if one’s face is towards the floor. This issur is known as e’ven maskis. In order for there to be an issur d’oraisa it has to be both of the fol-lowing: 1. Kneeling while spreading the hands and feet, 2. Stone floor. However, bowing on the floor without spreading of one’s hands and feet or spreading the hands and feet but not on a stone floor is forbidden d’rabannan. Kneeling with-out spreading one’s hands and feet on a non-stone floor is permitted.
WomenThis issur applies to men and wom-
en alike. The custom of many is that women do not kneel to the ground at all on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Reasons Some say that the reason for the is-
sur is because this is the way non-Jews bow to their gods. The Chinuch says the reason is that one who sees someone kneeling to the stone would think he is bowing to avodah zarah. Some say the reason is that the kneeling should not be like the bowing in the times of the Bais Hamikdosh.
DaveningBased on the above, one should
spread something out between his face
and a stone floor when kneeling on the ground during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. If this is not possible then one should bow on his side so that his face does not touch the ground if it is not a stone floor. One is allowed to kneel to-wards a stone floor if his face is not near the stone floor.
Type of StoneSome poskim say that marble has the
same din as stone in this regard. Kneel-ing on bricks is not a concern. One should treat stone tiles which are placed on one’s floor as stone in regard to this halacha. Furthermore, even a floor
which is not made of stone should still have the same halacha as stone since there may be stone underneath the floor before the floor was put on. In addition, cement is viewed as stone in regard to this halacha. Some say that even if the stone is not attached to the ground it is ossur to bow on. Steps made from stone have the same status as regular stone in this regard. Asphalt has the same din as stone in regard to this halacha. To-day the custom is that on all floors one should not kneel without a separation. Therefore, even if there is permanent carpet on the floor then one should still have a separation.
Types of SeparationAs mentioned before, when kneel-
ing with one’s hands and feet spread out one must place a separation between his face and the ground. This separation can be made with placing grass, a tallis or any other material between one’s face and the floor. However, one’s clothing that he is wearing is not a hefsek. Some
say that placing one hand under his head is not a good hefsek. A see-through ma-terial suffices for a separation between one’s hands and feet and the floor. A separation with holes in it is still con-sidered a separation. An area rug which is removed to be cleaned from time to time is a good separation and no other separation is required.
Aleinu – Rosh HashanahThe custom is to prostrate oneself on
the floor by Aleinu on Rosh Hashanah. Some say that since by Aleinu on Rosh Hashanah we do not bow on the floor, no separation is needed; however, we
do have a separation since the custom is that the kneeling on Rosh Hashanah by Aleinu is the same as on Yom Kippur where we kneel on the ground.
Kneeling on Yom KippurKneeling is done on Yom Kippur
when saying “v’kohanim,” and Aleinu.
Giving out Paper Towels on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
When looking around before the tzibbur prepares to kneel at Aleinu on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, paper towels are handed out and the tzibbur places it on their knees during the bow-ing process. This is not done because of any halachic reason; it is done in order to ensure that one does not dirty his pants. All sources say a separation is required between one’s face and the ground not a separation between the knees and the ground.
Some say falling on one’s knees alone is going in the ways of the non-Jews and one should avoid this.
Placing Tallis on FloorWhen kneeling during davening on
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur one usually uses his tallis as a separation be-tween his face and the floor. Some say that doing so is a disgrace to the tallis. However, the custom is that doing so is permitted since one is not dragging it on the floor. In addition it is being done for a mitzvah in order to kneel down to Hashem.
Giving a Bath etc.The above mentioned issur is only if
one has intent to do so. Therefore, one is allowed to bend down on his knees in order to give his child a bath, or take something out from the refrigerator drawer.
ExerciseWhen doing push ups, etc. one plac-
es his entire body toward the floor. Do-ing so is not an issue since one does not have intent to kneel to the ground.
Davening at GravesOne is permitted to daven at a ceme-
tery while looking at the gravestone and there is no concern that someone will see him davening to the stone itself. The reason is because it is well known that one is doing so for the honor of the deceased.
Sitting on the FloorSome are of the opinion that based
on kabbalah one should not sit direct-ly on the ground without a separation between you and the ground. Some say this is only if one sits directly on the ground. Therefore, there are those of the opinion who say since our homes, etc. are covered with stone, wood, etc. there is no concern. However, others do not make this distinction. There are those who al pi kabbalah in a bungalow col-ony or camp, etc. would not sit directly on the dirt without a separation.
Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits is a for-mer chaver kollel of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and a musmach of Harav Yisroel Belsky shlita. Rabbi Lebovits currently works as the Rabbinical Administrator for the KOF-K Kosher Supervision.
Kneeling on a Stone Floor
Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits
Halachically Speaking
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The Baal Neilahby Larry Domnitch
During the First World War, fierce fighting took place between Russian forces and those of the Central Powers in the land of Galitzia.
It was a scene of mass carnage. Hundreds of thousands of Jews fought for both
sides. One Russian Jewish soldier related the follow-ing event.
Yom Kippur was approaching and Jewish soldiers in a battalion asked their commander for permission to gather and pray. Their request was granted, and they gathered in an empty storehouse for prayers.
They prayed with heightened emotion and shed bitter tears over their difficult plight as soldiers on the front. Also prominent on their minds was the welfare of their families in Poland and Russia facing untold dangers due to the war.
When the time for the concluding prayer, Neilah, arrived, a young soldier named Arontzik was asked to serve as chazzan.
It was a very special Neilah service. Aronchik’s prayers were powerful; his voice was melodic and piercing. The emotions emitted by his prayers were
indescribable—everyone present shed a river of tears as they pleaded for their lives in the face of the horrors of combat. Soon the fast was over, but no one rushed to eat. They sat contemplating the intensity of their prayers. Black bread and tea were finally brought in, and the soldiers broke their fast, yet the chaz-zan who had aroused them to repentance did not partake.
With the fast and the day over, the sol-diers lay down on the ground, exhausted, but they could not sleep as they were anxious about the battles that lay ahead.
The following day a new battle erupted. The fighting was furious. The cannons began pound-ing and the bullets flew like hail. Men were falling all around; one never knew which moment might be his last.
Eventually, the fighting stopped and the enemy re-treated. The soldiers began to regroup and were horri-fied to see that Aronchik, the baal Neilah, had fallen.
A grave was dug for him by his Jewish comrades,
giving him his final honor. On his gravestone they wrote, “Here lies Aronchik, the ‘Baal Neilah’; may his righteous soul rest in peace.”
May his heartfelt prayers inspire us to pray with greater fervor. And in Aronchik’s merit and in the merit of the multitudes of Jewish soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice on the battlefields of the First World War, may all our prayers be answered.
KEW GARDENS
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There are specialists even in the realm of the sacred. To be sure, the saintly Chassidic rebbes were scrupulous about fulfilling all
the mitzvot with fervor, yet some were known for the distinctive attention they paid to particular religious deeds. One was renowned for raising funds for the poor, another for redeeming captive Jews, still others for their devotion to song, or prayer, or storytelling.
At one time, the town of Ostrov had the honor of being home to two of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s most illustrious students, Rabbi Yaakov Yo-sef of Polnoia and Reb Pinchas of Koretz. And each had his specialty. Rabbi Yaakov Yo-sef of Polnoia was famous across the Jewish world for his prodigious scholarship. After he joined the nascent Chassidic movement, he added a mastery of Kabbalah and the mysti-cal tradition to his vast command of Talmud and Jewish law. Among the many virtues for which Reb Pinchas of Koretz was celebrated, particularly noteworthy was his devotion to halvoes ha’mes, the imperative to honor the dead by escorting them to their interment. The Koretzer Rebbe made sure to participate in the burial rites of all his townspeople, irrespective of whether the departed was pious or a sinner.
It was the custom in Ostrov, as elsewhere through-out Eastern Europe, that when a member of the com-munity passed away, the synagogue assistant, the beadle, would make his way across town carrying a charity box as he called out, “Charity redeems us from death, charity redeems us from death.” In this way, the townspeople were alerted a funeral would soon be tak-ing place.
One late afternoon, Mordecai the tailor died. Not that any of the Jews of Ostrov cared. Mordecai had no relatives in the vicinity, nor any Jewish friends. His clientele were local gentiles and his social circle consisted entirely of non-Jewish acquaintances with whom he’d share inebriated evenings, replete with ham sandwiches and vodka. Not that Mordecai the tai-lor cared a fig that the Jews considered him an outcast. And why should he? As far as he was concerned, he wasn’t one of them, anyway.
But Jewish law mandates all Jews receive prop-er burial rites, regardless of the deceased’s personal habits. So when the Angel of Death came to retrieve the sinful soul of Mordecai the tailor, a Jewish funeral was dutifully prepared, and the beadle began his trek through the streets proclaiming in his practiced drone, “Charity redeems us from death, charity redeems us from death.”
Who would bother to attend this funeral? Why
make time for a reprobate who wanted nothing to do with his own people? At best, they’d manage to gather the bare minimum for a minyan, the quorum of ten men who’d recite the Kaddish prayer, hurry through the rites and be on their way.
Surely, the Rebbe of Koretz need not be among them. True, the rebbe regularly attended the funerals of simple Jews, but Mordecai the tailor was no sim-ple Jew. He was a contemptible boor who disdained his own heritage and was surely undeserving of the rebbe’s time. When the beadle arrived at the rebbe’s street, he hastened his pace and lowered his voice; bet-ter the rebbe should remain unaware of this particular funeral.
The Rebbe of Koretz, however, happened to stand-ing at his window precisely at the moment the beadle passed his home. Seeing the charity box in the man’s hand, the rebbe inquired who had died.
“Trust me,” the beadle answered. “This is one fu-neral the rebbe can skip.”
“Who passed away?” the rebbe persisted. “As I say, a coarse blasphemer.” The beadle struck
his lips with his hand – one should not speak ill of the
dead.“But who?” “Mordecai the tailor.” “Mordecai the tailor,” the rebbe repeated, his voice
heavy. “Well, well.” The beadle turned to continue his rounds when the
rebbe called to him. “Please be certain to inform me when the funeral
will take place. It’s imperative I be there.” Soon, the stunned beadle was reporting to
anyone who crossed his path how the Rebbe of Koretz was insisting on attending the funeral of Mordecai the tailor. But why? That was the question everyone asked and the beadle could not answer.
That, too, was the question Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoia asked himself when he was told of his illustrious colleague’s interest in the deceased. Surely, something unusual was afoot. The Rebbe of Koretz must know more about this Mordecai the tailor than he was let-
ting on. “Well, then,” Reb Yaakov Yosef decided, “if Reb
Pinchas is so adamant about attending the funeral, so will I.”
Curiosity spread across Ostrov like an untamed blaze. “Did you hear?” one townsperson asked breath-lessly of the other. “Both our Chassidic giants plan to attend the funeral of that good-for-nothing. Perhaps we should attend as well.”
Not since Ostrov had become a predominantly Jewish city many years earlier had the funeral hall been as packed as it was that morning. The elderly came. The women came. Even the children came, all with the same perplexed look on their faces.
At the conclusion of the funeral, the Koretzer Rebbe led the procession to the nearby cemetery. The rebbe stood next to the gravesite as the burial was per-formed, in perfect accordance with Jewish law and custom.
“All right, my friend, I give up,” said Reb Yaakov Yosef, placing his hand on the Koretzer’s shoulder. “I’ve been alongside you throughout the funeral and here during the burial, and I still have no clue. So tell
Charity Redeems from Death
All I saw was Mordecai’s uncovered head and the bottle of non-kosher wine on his table.
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By then, a crowd had gathered around the two Chassidic masters, eager to learn the explanation for the rebbe’s baffling attention to the deceased.
“Was he one of the lamed vovniks?” one of the assembled asked, referring to the thirty-six Jews of every generation who, according to tradition, live un-noticed lives of righteousness and whose secret merit upholds the world.
“Hardly,” said the Koretzer Rebbe. “No, as far as I know, Mordecai the tailor was as much the sinner in private as he was in public.”
“So why do you show him such respect?” asked Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, quieting the crowd.
The Rabbi of Koretz offered a half smile to accom-pany a long tug at his beard. “Well, you see, I promised him a place in heaven and I wanted to be at his burial to make sure my promise was fulfilled.”
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef leaned in toward the Koretzer, not needing to state the obvious question: Why promise a place in heaven to an unrepentant sinner?
The Koretzer settled back on his heels, looked around at the crowd circled around him and then at Reb Yaakov Yosef. “Let me explain,” he said.
A few months ago, on a cold, wintry eve-ning, Beril Shuster, Beril the shoemaker, as he’s known to some of you, knocked
on my door. Beril apologized for his unscheduled visit, but said he had an important request. Would I officiate at his daughter’s wedding? His daughter Khaya, ad-mittedly advanced in years, had finally been presented with a decent match. More gratifying, still, was the at-titude of the groom, who didn’t demand a dowry. This was no small matter to Beril, a man of limited means, who could hardly afford to sustain the young couple for the first years of marriage, as many grooms expect of their fathers-in-law.
When Beril informed me of the date of the wed-ding, I had to inform him that, alas, I’d already com-mitted to meetings that day involving important com-munal affairs. Seeing the disappointment on his face, I suggested that if he wanted me to perform the cer-emony, the wedding could be held in my house late in the evening after my work was completed. And so it was arranged.
The Koretzer paused, tugged again on his beard and continued.
On the night of the wedding, everything was in place. The families of the bride and groom had all ar-
rived in their festive best. But then, right before the groom was to walk to the wedding canopy, a disturbance was heard in the back of the room. It
seemed Beril had promised his future son-in-law a Turkish wool prayer shawl and had failed to deliver. The son-in-law insisted Beril procure the talis then and there. Beril pleaded with the young man, explain-ing that he hadn’t had the money before the wedding to make this significant purchase, but would get it for him the following day.
But the groom was obstinate. He would not stand under the canopy and allow the wedding to proceed unless he was presented with a Turkish talis as prom-ised.
“Please,” begged Beril. “Please don’t shame your bride. Tomorrow, I’ll have the talis for you. My word.”
“Your word?” said the groom. “You’ve deceived me several times since I’ve been engaged to your daughter, promising gifts that never materialized. And
once I’m married, you’re even more likely to renege on your pledges. Enough is enough. No talis, no wed-ding.”
The guests stood waiting with increasing frustra-tion. I among them. Finally, I had to speak. “Please,” I beseeched the groom, “Let’s continue with the cer-emony.” This young man, however, was exceedingly clever, and proceeded to produce a proof-text from the Torah to justify his behavior.
“The verses in Deuteronomy 22 that speak of a man taking a wife, immediately follow the passage enjoining a man to wear a talis. Thus, it is only right I receive a talis before I marry.”
The groom, clearly, would not budge. In the mean-time, at stake was the mitzvah of hachnosas kallah, fa-cilitating a marriage and ensuring a bride’s joy. It was imperative the wedding take place. So I suggested to the groom that we hold off for an hour. I myself would go into town and try to raise the money for the talis.
The groom agreed, but it was already late. When I stepped out into the street, I was greeted by a dark, moonless night. The lights were already extinguished in all the houses. Nevertheless, I kept walking, hop-ing to find a home whose inhabitants were still awake. And finally I did.
It was the home of Mordecai the tailor. Finding the door open, I walked in to find the tailor hunched over a cloth, needle in hand. When Mordecai finally looked up, he was, naturally, startled to see me standing in his doorway.
What would bring the rebbe, alone and so late in the evening, to his home, of all places?
I explained the situation and asked Mordecai for his help. He listened to the request with disdain, but finally withdrew a few kopecks from his pocket.
“As you are well aware,” the Koretzer noted to the
assembled at the gravesite, “a genuine Turkish talis costs more than a few kopeks. So I turned to leave and continue on my mission, one that increasingly seemed hopeless. But as I reached the door, I heard footsteps behind me.”
“Rebbe, please wait a moment. Suppose I gave you the money? The entire sum, all you need to purchase the very finest talis.”
“That would be wonderful,” I began to answer. “The mitzvah of helping—”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Mordecai interrupted. “But I want something in exchange. I want you to give me a guarantee.”
“Guarantee? For what?”“That I will be admitted to heaven.”The Chassidim listening to the rebbe’s story
clucked their tongues when they heard what Mordecai the tailor had asked for.
“How could I secure heaven for this sin-ner?” the rebbe asked his audience. “How could I pledge eternal reward for a man who transgresses all the commandments? How could I do such a thing?
“Then I recalled the Talmudic discussion that lists the few good deeds that yield rewards
in both this world and the next. And even for these few mitzvot, the principal reward is reserved for the World to Come.
“Among this select group,” Rabbi Yaakov Yosef suddenly interjected, “is the mitzvah of hachnosas kal-lah, assisting in the wedding of a bride.”
“Precisely,” said the Koretzer. “And that’s what I thought about standing in the foyer considering Mor-decai the tailor’s request. I looked around and didn’t see a single Hebrew book or even a mezuzah on the doorpost. Instead, all I saw was Mordecai’s uncovered head and the bottle of non-kosher wine on his table. Then I thought of the distressed bride waiting under the wedding canopy in her gown. So I agreed to the proposal. Mordecai the tailor excused himself and a minute later returned with enough money to purchase a fine Turkish talis.
“When I heard Mordecai the tailor had died, I real-ized I’d have to attend his burial to remind the angels who’d come for his soul about his charity that saved a marriage. And a good thing too. Because those an-gels arrived expecting to bring Mordecai to the lower rungs, but now found it impossible to grab hold of his soul. You see, Mordecai the tailor’s soul was wrapped in a protective talis, the spiritual talis created for him the moment he performed the mitzvah of hachnosas kallah.”
“I don’t understand,” came a voice from the crowd. “A life of constant, blatant sinning, and one good deed gets him into heaven?”
“Indeed,” replied the Rebbe of Koretz. “This is the lesson we learn from the life of Mordecai the tailor. No one should assume he or she is precluded from the rewards of the afterlife. For with a single worthwhile deed, one can purchase eternity. But this too: we can never be sure who has made such a purchase.”
“Enough is enough. No talis, no wedding.”
This story was excerpted from The Blind Angel: New Old Chassidic Tales, by Rabbi Tovia Halberstam, translated and retold by Joshua Halbers-tam. Reprinted with permission from The Toby Press.
For twenty-five years, Rabbi Tovia Halberstam, a scion of leading Chassidic dynasties, told riveting Chassidic tales to an audience of thou-sands on the Yiddish radio in New York. These legends, as precious and rich as family heirlooms, were known to millions of Jews before the Holocaust. Today, Rabbi Halberstam’s son, award-winning scholar Joshua Halberstam, has beautifully translated these tales into English in The Blind Angel: New Old Chassidic Tales (The Toby Press), maintaining the full charm, rhythm, and authenticity of the original Yiddish stories.
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If I hear another person sitting in my office saying, “I can’t change!” or “He (or she) will never change!” I
am going to scream.No, I won’t scream. Don’t worry.
But I do not get how people can make statements that are directly against To-rah. This Holy Day is all about change. If you don’t plan to work on yourself, why are you fasting? Why are you sit-ting in shul all day? What for?
What you really mean when you say that you can’t change is that you don’t want to.
Fair enough. That is at least an hon-est statement. But then what are you do-ing in my office?!
Oh, oh, I get it. You can’t (don’t want to) change, but you want to change HER! Ha. I see.
No, I don’t see. People “can’t” change, so how can she?
You are sighing. “You’re right, Dr. Deb. She can’t change either. I don’t know why I’m here. I guess I’m de-pressed about the whole thing.”
Uh-uh. You’re not allowed to be depressed either; that’s a lack of bita-chon. You know that Hashem runs the world and He gave you this partner for a reason. What is it you will learn from this mate of yours? What will you learn about yourself, your choices, your style, your attitude, the things you have taken for granted as true that may not be true?
Is there something you’ve learned that may help you face tomorrow? Can you make a plan for doing things dif-ferently?
You can?
Well, guess what? If you can do things differently or at least see them differently, that’s change. That is the very change you said you can’t do.
“But it is so hard, Dr. Deb.”Yes, it is. I will be the first one to
agree with that. It is extremely hard.
Hashem was not pulling any punch-es when He created the rules of how this difficult world works. But now we have gotten from you saying you can’t change to making a plan to do one small thing differently. That is super progress.
Maybe it is saying “Good morn-ing” to someone you are mad at so as to break the awful spell. Maybe it is focus-ing on the blessings in your life instead of the pain. Maybe it is spending a few minutes listening sympathetically to the
stuff your child is trying to tell you even though you would have thought of it as nonsense.
Maybe the little change is not need-ing to “win” any more. Maybe it is being dan l’chaf zchus to your spouse. Maybe it is giving of yourself a little
more than you used to without thinking you want something back. Maybe it is just holding your tongue before saying something hurtful.
I’ve seen amazing changes in peo-ple and those changes are small – yet their significance is huge. There’s the person who was miffed because she was left out of something who a year later was more generous in her thinking. There’s the person who used to explode over mistreatment and now recognizes that the world is full of “characters” so he doesn’t have to let them bother him.
There’s the couple that made a de-cision to just breathe when things got a bit too heated and learned to laugh in-stead of taking trivial things seriously. There’s the teen that went from feeling insecure to quite the opposite.
So, yes, change can and does occur. We’re required to do it. In fact, there re-ally would be no point in living if we were not so required. Think about it this way. We were purposely created im-perfect. That means that at least a part of our job here is to correct ourselves. We were not meant to be satisfied with our imperfection. That would make no sense at all. Tikkun olam starts with us. Actually it starts within us.
That requires moving out of our comfort zone. And don’t make the mis-take of thinking that your comfort zone is not comfortable so therefore you real-ly would love to be out of it. Sure, you’d love to be out of it, but not if it takes a whole bunch of work. That is asking too much.
Let’s take a typical example: De-pression. No one could call it “comfort-able.” Yet, it is, indeed, a familiar place. And that is what is meant by comfort zone: the place you know from dark corner to dark corner. A depressed per-son would not feel like himself if he were happy. So being happy is actually scary. Getting out of the familiarity of depression to focus on – and force one’s thoughts never to stray off of – the good in one’s life is difficult, strange, scary, and frustrating.
But it is doable just the same. Hard, yes. But doable.
This is what I think the Torah and the Yomim Noraim are teaching us about teshuvah. We are called upon to make changes. Usually small changes that mean a lot. I told a couple recent-ly, “You are two very nice people who do a lot for one another, only neither of you realizes it. Work on your dan l’chaf zchus this yom tov.” Small changes.
Think of how many nice things your partner did for you. Or make the as-sumption that they did not mean to hurt you. Or if they actually did mean to hurt you, it must mean that they were hurt very badly themselves (although this is a terrible way to deal with pain, but that’s for a different article).
I do not want to hear you telling me you can’t change. You can. And you are supposed to. Be proud of your baby steps in the right direction. Have a meaningful fast.
Dr. Deb Hirschhorn, is a Marriage & Fam-ily Therapist and best-selling author of The Healing Is Mutual: Marriage Empowerment Tools to Rebuild Trust and Respect—To-gether. Attend the Food For Thought lec-tures at Traditions Restaurant in Lawrence on Tuesdays at 12:30 PM. (There is a love-ly optional lunch menu for $12 cash.) Any questions, call 646-54-DRDEB or check out her website at http://drdeb.com. All stories in Dr. Deb’s articles are fabricated. See Dr. Deb on TorahAnytime.com.
Deb Hirschhorn, Ph.D.
Dr. Deb
I Can’t Change
I’ve seen amazing changes in people and those changes are small – yet their significance is huge.
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How to Have an Easy Fast
Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN
Health & Fitness
Here it is. The day we’ve all been dreading; a day of fear, judgment, and fasting: Yom
Kippur. Everyone’s number one con-cern is what to eat before the fast that will magically fill them up for the next 24 hours. The answer is—nothing will! The body is not meant to be starved and automatically adapts itself to sur-vive during starvation mode. When the body feels hungry, a hormone called leptin is released to trigger an increase in one’s appetite. In addition, the body’s metabolism will hold onto calories by utilizing fewer.
Despite the dreaded uncomfortable fast, here are a few tips to help your body fast as well as possi-ble.
• Hydrate yourself. To your surprise, your body is able to last for weeks or even months without any food. However, what causes the most discomfort during a fast is the lack of fluid. Our body is
made up of 60% fluid and every cell in our body needs proper hydration in order to function properly. Therefore, before a fast it’s very important to super-hydrate yourself.
• Pack in the water a few days before the fast. Don’t leave all the water for the last minute or you’ll be so full from water you won’t have any room for food. In addition, avoid dehydrating foods such as salty foods and fast food.
• Limit caffeine intake. Caffeine causes mood changes and is considered an outright addiction.
Stopping caffeine cold turkey can cause withdrawal symptoms and these symptoms are worsened when fasting. Therefore, try to cut out the caffeine a few days before a fast since the symptoms are not as noticeable while eating a normal diet.
• Don’t overeat; eat normal-sized meals. Overeating and stuffing your face before a fast will not
cause you t o
b e less hungry
the next day. Additionally, large meals require more fluids to digest, so this won’t help the dehydration factor.
• Eat carbohydrate-rich foods before a fast. The word
carbohydrate literally means hydrated carbons which
hold onto water and helps your body stay hydrated for a longer amount of time. Complex carbohydrates like those
found in breads, pastas, fruits, and vegetables are the
best for maintaining energy levels during a fast. Even more so, whole grain carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables which are rich in fiber help keep the body satiated for longer by slowing the progression of digestion. Therefore, the best foods to eat before a fast are wholegrain breads, pastas, cereals; starchy vegetables such as potatoes and sweet potatoes; vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots; fruits such as grapes, watermelon, bananas, apples, strawberries, and oranges.
• After a fast, it is best to eat easily digestible foods that do not
cost the body too much energy. Raw fruits and vegetables are the number one choice after a fast due to their high water content to rehydrate the body and its easy digestion course.
Hopefully with these helpful tips, you’ll have a smooth and easy fast!
A guht g’bentsched yuhr and a gmar chasima tova to all.
Cindy Weinberger MS, RD, CDN, is a Master’s level Registered Dietitian and Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist. She grad-
uated CUNY Brooklyn College in 2013 receiving a Bachelor’s in Science and Master’s degree in Nutrition and Food
Sciences. Her Dietetic Internship was com-pleted under Brooklyn College primari-ly in Ditmas Park Care Center and Boro Park Center where she developed clinical and education skills to treat patients with comprehensive nutrition care. She is cur-rently a dietitian at Boro Park Center and a private nutrition consultant. Please email questions or comments to [email protected]
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While American presidential hopefuls trade barbs over hypothetical
border fences and the idea that Mexico may not be sending its best and brightest to sneak into the U.S., Europe has taken over the global center stage with its own migrant crisis. Whether Europe’s illegal immi-grant issue is larger than that of America is debatable; whether it is more blatant is most definitely not. The refugees that seek to take advantage of the European Union’s liberal borders have succeeded in capturing the world’s attention and some of the world’s sympa-thy with images of drowned infants and video clips of crowded trains literally stuck in the middle of politi-cal standstill.
Is the current migrant crisis any different than its predecessors? Just ten years ago the Sudanese region of Darfur was the latest area of Muslim-led ethnic cleansing and thousands of asylum seekers were turned away from Western countries. We are all un-fortunately familiar with the story of the SS St. Louis and its ill-fated voyage to the U.S. in 1939, as well as many other tragic accounts that contributed to 6 mil-lion Jews’ deaths. Is the reluctance of many EU states to allow refugees safe harbor just another example of xenophobia or are their concerns valid and their detractors leaving out large parts of the story in their criticism of them?
The current crisis may have begun only re-cently, but the reason why Western Eu-
rope is the coveted destination for many asylum seek-ers goes back thirty years. In 1985, five European states, including West Germany and the Netherlands, signed the Schengen Agreement to abolish internal borders within their regions, thereby allowing free movement among the states. Ultimately, the agree-ment received the signatures of 22 member states of the European Union and four other non-EU states.
Migrants fleeing war-torn areas who sought asylum in historically refugee-friendly countries such as Germany or Scandinavia needed just to enter into the Schengen region even through countries which are more hostile to their plights, such as Italy or Greece, and then move freely onto the welcoming arms of more caring nations.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the conflagrations brought about by the Arab Spring in Libya and Syria, have recently created an influx of Arab asylum seekers in the European area. Ac-cording to UN estimates, by the end of 2014, over 60 million refugees had fled those areas; the last time there was that many was World War II. Arab refugees seek entry to the open EU area through the unfriendly Mediterranean border states of Greece and Italy and Eastern European countries of Hungary and Croatia. From there, they can then move onto generous ben-efit packages awaiting them in Germany or Sweden. The surge into Europe, however, is only recent: Until this past spring, Syrian refugees chose the neighbor-ing countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as their flight destination; 500,000 have attempted to enter Europe this year alone.
As expected, most of the receiving European countries have met the asylum seekers with hostility. Overloaded fishing boats filled with refugees capsiz-ing off of the coasts of Italy and Greece and sinking have become commonplace in the Mediterranean re-gion. In June, Hungary began the construction of a 13-foot-high razor wire fence along its border with Serbia and has recently ramped up its deportation ef-forts for those who entered the country illegally. In August, after 71 migrants were found dead in a sup-posed food truck near Vienna, the Austrian govern-ment instituted vehicle inspections at its border with Hungary. In June, France began dismantling refugee encampments in Calais, an area which serves as an entryway of sorts for illegals attempting access to
Britain.One notable exception has been Germany. The
country enjoys being the wealthiest and most stable of its European counterparts, and as such has been the ideal destination for migrants seeking asylum. That, along with its generous stance on accepting refu-gees—the country hands out cash stipends and free housing to qualified refugees—has been the reason why over 800,000 of them have settled in Germany.
But Germany’s generosity has been the source of much angst in the rest of Europe, particularly in less wealthy EU member states. Germany may have one of the world’s strongest economies, but in Spain, for example, one in four adults is unemployed. Ger-many’s welcoming stance to refugees has only en-couraged more to flood the continent, its EU sister states argue. Recent events in Hungary which have captured worldwide interest have caused Germany to escalate its threats to other EU states to welcome asylum seekers. Just as it was by the Greek debt crisis that captured the world’s attention at the beginning of the summer, Germany has found itself being the reluctant leader of a European Union comprised of states looking to extricate themselves from a very in-convenient alliance.
There is no question that much of Eu-rope’s reluctance to accept immi-
grants is for economic reasons. The estimated cost of taking care of Arab refugees this year for European governments is over 10 billion euros, an amount that even wealthy states like Germany will have trouble footing. Aside from the neediness that is inherent in anyone who seeks asylum, many of the refugees are unskilled workers and will contribute little to the economy of whatever country they end up settling in. This is especially true with migrants who come seek-ing economic safety, as opposed to physical safety.
EuropE’s Migrant CrisisBy Nachum Soroka
{ }
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While American presidential hopefuls trade barbs over hypothetical
border fences and the idea that Mexico may not be sending its best and brightest to sneak into the U.S., Europe has taken over the global center stage with its own migrant crisis. Whether Europe’s illegal immi-grant issue is larger than that of America is debatable; whether it is more blatant is most definitely not. The refugees that seek to take advantage of the European Union’s liberal borders have succeeded in capturing the world’s attention and some of the world’s sympa-thy with images of drowned infants and video clips of crowded trains literally stuck in the middle of politi-cal standstill.
Is the current migrant crisis any different than its predecessors? Just ten years ago the Sudanese region of Darfur was the latest area of Muslim-led ethnic cleansing and thousands of asylum seekers were turned away from Western countries. We are all un-fortunately familiar with the story of the SS St. Louis and its ill-fated voyage to the U.S. in 1939, as well as many other tragic accounts that contributed to 6 mil-lion Jews’ deaths. Is the reluctance of many EU states to allow refugees safe harbor just another example of xenophobia or are their concerns valid and their detractors leaving out large parts of the story in their criticism of them?
The current crisis may have begun only re-cently, but the reason why Western Eu-
rope is the coveted destination for many asylum seek-ers goes back thirty years. In 1985, five European states, including West Germany and the Netherlands, signed the Schengen Agreement to abolish internal borders within their regions, thereby allowing free movement among the states. Ultimately, the agree-ment received the signatures of 22 member states of the European Union and four other non-EU states.
Migrants fleeing war-torn areas who sought asylum in historically refugee-friendly countries such as Germany or Scandinavia needed just to enter into the Schengen region even through countries which are more hostile to their plights, such as Italy or Greece, and then move freely onto the welcoming arms of more caring nations.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the conflagrations brought about by the Arab Spring in Libya and Syria, have recently created an influx of Arab asylum seekers in the European area. Ac-cording to UN estimates, by the end of 2014, over 60 million refugees had fled those areas; the last time there was that many was World War II. Arab refugees seek entry to the open EU area through the unfriendly Mediterranean border states of Greece and Italy and Eastern European countries of Hungary and Croatia. From there, they can then move onto generous ben-efit packages awaiting them in Germany or Sweden. The surge into Europe, however, is only recent: Until this past spring, Syrian refugees chose the neighbor-ing countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan as their flight destination; 500,000 have attempted to enter Europe this year alone.
As expected, most of the receiving European countries have met the asylum seekers with hostility. Overloaded fishing boats filled with refugees capsiz-ing off of the coasts of Italy and Greece and sinking have become commonplace in the Mediterranean re-gion. In June, Hungary began the construction of a 13-foot-high razor wire fence along its border with Serbia and has recently ramped up its deportation ef-forts for those who entered the country illegally. In August, after 71 migrants were found dead in a sup-posed food truck near Vienna, the Austrian govern-ment instituted vehicle inspections at its border with Hungary. In June, France began dismantling refugee encampments in Calais, an area which serves as an entryway of sorts for illegals attempting access to
Britain.One notable exception has been Germany. The
country enjoys being the wealthiest and most stable of its European counterparts, and as such has been the ideal destination for migrants seeking asylum. That, along with its generous stance on accepting refu-gees—the country hands out cash stipends and free housing to qualified refugees—has been the reason why over 800,000 of them have settled in Germany.
But Germany’s generosity has been the source of much angst in the rest of Europe, particularly in less wealthy EU member states. Germany may have one of the world’s strongest economies, but in Spain, for example, one in four adults is unemployed. Ger-many’s welcoming stance to refugees has only en-couraged more to flood the continent, its EU sister states argue. Recent events in Hungary which have captured worldwide interest have caused Germany to escalate its threats to other EU states to welcome asylum seekers. Just as it was by the Greek debt crisis that captured the world’s attention at the beginning of the summer, Germany has found itself being the reluctant leader of a European Union comprised of states looking to extricate themselves from a very in-convenient alliance.
There is no question that much of Eu-rope’s reluctance to accept immi-
grants is for economic reasons. The estimated cost of taking care of Arab refugees this year for European governments is over 10 billion euros, an amount that even wealthy states like Germany will have trouble footing. Aside from the neediness that is inherent in anyone who seeks asylum, many of the refugees are unskilled workers and will contribute little to the economy of whatever country they end up settling in. This is especially true with migrants who come seek-ing economic safety, as opposed to physical safety.
EuropE’s Migrant CrisisBy Nachum Soroka
{ }117Already, Germany has made the distinction between
genuine asylum seekers, whom it will attempt to as-sist, and those who come looking for handouts, whom it will turn away. A recent statement released by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party announced, “Eco-nomic distress is no grounds for asylum. We don’t want migration into the social-welfare system.”
There are also legitimate safety concerns for states to allow in an influx of Arab refugees. For now, many of the migrants seeking asylum seek just that: asylum; but there is no telling that a few years down the line the very people who were graciously wel-comed into a country will establish or join already established radical groups there. The Tsarnaev broth-ers, masterminds of the Boston Marathon bombing, were themselves allowed into the United States on grounds of asylum.
Further, many countries are concerned that by al-lowing large unbridled clusters of immigrants into Europe, actual terrorists will be able to infiltrate with-in the mix as well. ISIS has already learned to profit from the current crisis by con-trolling a large portion of the human trafficking operations through its strong foothold in Libya. And now, some right-wing European politicians are warning that ISIS will use the swaths of valid refugees as cover for operatives to enter into Europe. A recent report on channel M1 in Hungary, the country’s most watched TV channel, claimed, “Is-lamist terrorists, disguised as refugees, have showed up in Europe. Pictures were up-loaded on various social net-works to show that terrorists are now present in most Eu-ropean cities. Many, who are now illegal immigrants, fought alongside Islamic State before.”
The migrant crisis is just the latest controversy among EU member states, but it would not be of such a scale if not for the overwhelming coverage it has
received from the media—from video clips of Syrian refugees charging across open fields with Austrian police in hot pursuit to physical altercations between migrants and authorities at overflowing train stations. A recent photograph of a drowned Syrian toddler while on their way to Europe from Turkey sparked a
global outcry and has been called a catalyst for discussions among the EU states.
To be fair, though, moving imagery and anecdotes may elicit sympathy worldwide, but they do not necessarily tell their own sto-ry. Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syri-an toddler, for example, was being smuggled into Europe not for any actual asylum purposes; his father was merely seeking free dental care. The boy’s family had been living in relative safety in Turkey for the past three years.
The response of EU lead-ers towards the crisis has been divided,
but much of their positions are rooted in the public sentiments in their respective countries. Recently,
UK Prime Minister pledged to accept 20,000 Syr-ian refugees into his country by 2020. But that was only after protests in support of the migrants were staged throughout the UK following the released photographs of the drowned Syrian three-year-old.
430,000 people also signed a peti-tion in England which calls for the allowance of asylum seekers there. But it was only two months earlier, in the summer, that many British government officials were claim-ing that most people seeking entry there were just “marauders” who seek economic assistance.
In France, as well, growing pub-lic support for the migrants has led President Francois Hollande to join forces with the UK and offer asy-lum for 24,000 refugees, for a total of 44,000 between France and Brit-ain. The French government has also grown insistent, though, that the answer to the crisis is not just to allow haven to all those knocking
at its borders; Prime Minister Christiane Amanpour told CNN, “These are very difficult subjects. And, of course, in Syria, so long as we haven’t found a politi-cal solution; so long as we haven’t destroyed this ter-rorist group, Islamic State; so long as we haven’t got rid of Bashar Assad; we will not find a solution.” The
migrant crisis, he said, “cannot be solved just by re-ceiving them.” In keeping with that theme, Hollande has promised that airstrikes in Syria will be short in
coming.In the more openly hostile
countries like Hungary, Den-mark and the Czech Republic, attacks on refugees are com-monplace. A recent poll in the Czech Republic found that 94 percent of citizens there support the deportation of all immigrants from the EU, and the Danish government has placed ads in Arab newspa-pers which notify readers of the restrictions it has placed on immigration in the coun-try.
The EU, under pressure from Germany and the United States, has recently pledged to
take in more refugees, in spite of many of its member states’ reluctance. Last week, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker pledged to allow 160,000 migrants permanent residence in the region. The plan must still be approved by EU member states, and the exact allocation of refugees for each country will most probably be reassigned. Juncker is very much aware that his plan will require a lot of negotiating and arm twisting. “It is 160,000 that Europe has to take into their arms; this has to be done in a compul-sory way,” said Juncker.
As Winston Churchill, and later Rahm Emanuel, so famously quipped, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” In keeping with its former Chief of Staff, the White House, too, has pledged to do its part to help ease the refugee burden from Europe. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the United States would allow in another 5,000 Syrian refugees next year. The gov-ernment is also looking into ways it can financially support the European countries which are housing refugees.
There is no question that history is be-ing written with the current mi-
gration of refugees into Europe. How the world in the future will judge its response today is something all can speculate. But an influx of thousands of migrants into the EU, the UK, and the United States will cer-tainly change the world’s dynamic.
a recent report on channel m1 in
hungary, the country’s most watched
TV channel, claimed, “Islamist
terrorists, disguised as refugees, have
showed up in Europe…”
Train stations were evacuated as migrants attempted to board trains in Hungary in their journey to other EU states
Migrants arriving in Munich, Germany, on September 12. Germany has been welcoming them with open arms
{ }
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!ohtcv ohfurc
OPE
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What if You Loved Your School?
Join UsAt Our
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What If...
...Your Classes Challenged You To Think?
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“Say What?”Compiled by Nate Davis
Notable Quotes
Just 100 days into his candidacy, Rick Perry has become the first Republican candidate to drop out of the race. Even more disappointing, it was just 10 days after the LensCrafters free return deadline.- Seth Myers
I apologize for being dead. – Monty Python director Terry Gilliam after a newspaper accidentally published an obituary about him
Donald Trump said he would replace Obamacare with something called Donaldcare. He claims it would save billions by denying coverage to preexisting Hispanics.- Conan O’Brien
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More quotes
Mark Zuckerberg announced that a dislike button is finally coming to Facebook. Finally a way to tell your friends how you really feel about their baby. - Conan O’Brien
Masses of young men in their 20s with beards singing “Allahu akbar” across Europe. It’s an invasion that threatens our prosperity, our security, our culture and identity.- Right-wing Dutch political leader Geert Wilders on waves of refugees entering Europe from Africa and the Middle East
Ikea can’t keep up with the demand. - Christoph Hillenbrand, senior official of Germany’s Upper Bavaria district, on the difficulty of supplying bunk beds for all the refugees
I hope so. That would be great. There’d be a putting green on the White House lawn, I’m sure of that.- Tom Brady discussing the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency
Let’s say you are a human rights activist, and you want to express your positions but you don’t want to die for them. In this case, you’ll come to Israel, shout a little, they’ll interview you, you’ll give academic lectures, and you are successful, you will become a human rights celebrity in certain circles. If you try to do the same thing in Rabat, Morocco, that will be your last lecture. Israel is too soft on protesters and that makes them come here.- Professor Eugene Kontorovich, expert in constitutional and international law, who heads the department for international law at a Jerusalem-based non-profit
In a recent interview, Sarah Palin supported Donald Trump’s immigration policies and said that when immigrants are in the U.S., they should “speak American.” Then immigrants were like, “You first.” – Jimmy Fallon
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Congress was back in session after a five-week summer break. They have until September 30 to pass a budget to ensure that the government stays up and running, or else they will be forced to, well, I guess, go back on vacation.- Jimmy Kimmel
Toyota filed a patent this weekend for a wing system that could be an attempt to make a flying Prius. As opposed to what usually creates a flying Prius: a strong gust of wind. – Jimmy Fallon
A new report found that the U.S. economy created 173,000 jobs last month. The most common job created this summer was a teacher. The second most common? Republican presidential candidate. – Jimmy Fallon
The U.S. Surgeon General released a statement this week that said more Americans should start going on walks. You know we’re setting the bar a little low when the Surgeon General goes from saying, “We should exercise more” to “Just stand up for once.”- Jimmy Fallon
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is struggling in the polls. According to political analysts, Hillary Clinton is now trying to make herself seem more relatable to the average person. Today, she spent the day criticizing Hillary Clinton.- Conan O’Brien
There has been a mix-up. – The spokesperson for Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe after Mugabe gave the same exact speech that he had given several weeks earlier
Political insiders are saying that Donald Trump’s continued popularity is causing Mitt Romney to consider entering the GOP primary race. Wow, Mitt Romney. Just when you thought the GOP field couldn’t get any more interesting, you were right. – Seth Myers
You have heard about the guys who stopped the attack in Paris. The young man who led the counterattack tackled a terrorist. He got slashed with a box cutter in his neck and hand, he saved another passenger’s life. Spencer Stone is with us tonight. He’s mainly here to make all of our summer vacation stories sound very lame by comparison. – Jimmy Kimmel
A skydiver uploaded a video of himself yesterday jumping out of a plane and solving a Rubik’s cube during free fall. And to prove that he actually solved it, the funeral was open casket. – Seth Myers
Today Trump is getting criticized. He made comments about one of his rivals in the race for the Republican nomination, Carly Fiorina. At this point Donald Trump has publicly attacked more women than he’s married. Which is a lot.- Jimmy Kimmel
When your own face looks like an orange ate a lemon, maybe you shouldn’t criticize other faces.- Ibid.
I’ve accomplished everything in this sport; there’s nothing else to accomplish. – Floyd Mayweather Jr. “being modest” after winning his 49th straight boxing match
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said over the weekend that he’s not sure who he’ll vote for, but he loves Donald Trump. I guess Brady just loves anything that releases air. – Seth Myers
Top “Trumpisms” from the second GOP debate
Introducing himself: I’m Donald Trump. I wrote the art of the deal. I say this not in a braggadocios way. I’ve made billions and billions of dollars.
On himself: Believe me. My temperament is very good, very calm.
On Ron Paul: I never attacked him on his looks, and believe me there’s plenty of subject matter right there.
On George Pataki: He wouldn’t be elected dog-catcher right now.
On his multiple bankruptcies: People are very, very, impressed with what I’ve done. The business people.
On what his Secret Service code name should be if elected: Humble
A left-handed compliment to Jeb Bush: More energy tonight. I like that.
Let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a lot of young Muslim men in European cities who even though they are newcomers to the land, really are not humble about adopting to the ways of the Western world… Free speech we see is not something they always agree with. And often their attitude is, “We’re biding our time until you will do things our way.” Can anyone really deny that element is there? I would be more sympathetic if there was a better track record in the Muslim world of moderates standing up to extremists. – Bill Maher
I’ve mentioned on this show before – ISIS is about 30,000 guys. The countries surrounding ISIS who say they hate them have an army, if they put it together, of about 5 million. If 5 million can’t stand up to 30,000, I’m a little wary about this.- Ibid.
Jews- The automatic Google response to the question of “Who runs Hollywood?” until it was changed last week
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Congress is finally having its say on the Iran deal. It will be an elaborate charade, however,
because, having first gone to the U.N., President Obama has largely drained congressional action of relevance. At the Security Council, he pushed through a resolution ratifying the deal, thus offi-cially committing the United States as a nation to its implementation – in advance of any congressional action.
The resolution abolishes the entire legal framework, built over a decade, underlying the international sanctions against Iran. A few months from now, they will be gone.
The script is already written: The International Atomic Energy Agency, relying on Iran’s self-inspection (!) of its most sensitive nuclear facility, will de-clare Iran in compliance. The agreement then goes into effect and Iran’s nuclear program is officially deemed peaceful.
Sanctions are lifted. The mullahs re-ceive $100 billion of frozen assets as a signing bonus. Iran begins reaping the economic bonanza, tripling its oil ex-ports and welcoming a stampede of for-eign companies back into the country.
It is all precooked. Last month, Brit-ain’s foreign secretary traveled to Teh-
ran with an impressive delegation of British companies ready to deal. He was late, however. The Italian and French foreign ministers had already been there, accompanied by their own hungry businessmen and oil companies. Iran is
back in business.As a matter of constitutional decen-
cy, the president should have submitted the deal to Congress first. And submitted it as a treaty. Which it obviously is. No international agreement in a generation matches this one in strategic significance and geopolitical gravity.
Obama did not submit it as a treaty because he knew he could never get the constitutionally required votes for rat-ification. He’s not close to getting two-thirds of the Senate. He’s not close to getting a simple majority. No wonder: in the latest Pew Research Center poll, the American people oppose the deal by a staggering 28-point margin.
To get around the Constitution, Obama negotiated a swindle that re-quires him to garner a mere one-third of one house of Congress. Indeed, on Thurs-day, with just 42 Senate sup-porters – remember, a treaty requires 67 – the Democrats filibustered and prevented, at least for now, the Senate from voting on the deal at all.
But Obama two months ago enshrined the deal as in-ternational law at the U.N. Why should we care about the congressional vote? In order to high-light the illegitimacy of Obama’s con-stitutional runaround and thus make it easier for a future president to overturn the deal, especially if Iran is found to be cheating.
As of now, however, it is done. Iran will be both unleashed – sanctions lifted, economy booming, with no treaty provi-sions regarding its growing regional ag-gression and support for terrorists – and welcomed as a good international citizen possessing a peaceful nuclear program. An astonishing trick.
Iran’s legitimation will not have to wait a decade, after which, as the Irani-an foreign minister boasts, the U.N. file on the Iranian nuclear program will be
closed, all restrictions will be dropped and, as Obama himself has admitted, the breakout time to an Iranian bomb will become essentially zero. On the contrary. The legitimation happens now. Early next year, Iran will be officially recog-nized as a peaceful nuclear nation.
This is a revolution in Iran’s inter-national standing, yet its consequences have been largely overlooked. The deal goes beyond merely leaving Iran’s nu-clear infrastructure intact. Because the deal legitimizes that nuclear program as peaceful (unless proven otherwise – don’t hold your breath), it is entitled to international assistance. Hence the as-tonishing provision buried in Annex III, Section 10 committing Western experts to offering the Iranian program our nu-clear expertise.
Specifically “training courses and workshops.” On what? Among other things, on how to protect against “sabo-tage.”
Imagine: We are now to protect Iran against, say, the very Stuxnet virus, de-veloped by the NSA and Israel’s Unit 8200, that for years disrupted and de-
layed an Iranian bomb.Secretary of State John Kerry has
darkly warned Israel to not even think about a military strike on the nuclear fa-cilities of a regime whose leader said just Wednesday that Israel will be wiped out within 25 years. The Israelis are now be-ing told additionally – Annex III, Section 10 – that if they attempt just a defensive, nonmilitary cyberattack (a Stuxnet II), the West will help Iran foil it.
Ask those 42 senators if they even know about this provision. And how they can sign on to such a deal without shame and revulsion.
(c) 2015, The Washington Post Writ-ers Group
Charles Krauthammer
Political Crossfire
To get around the Constitution, Obama negotiated a swindle that requires him to garner a mere one-third of one house of Congress.
The Iran Charade on Capitol Hill
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Since the Iran nuclear deal was announced in mid-July, the world has been treated to an
unusual historical spectacle. As Pres-ident Obama was busy twisting con-gressional arms to prevent repudiation of the agreement, the Iranian regime has been systematically humiliating him.
Almost immediately, bulldozers began sanitizing the Parchin nuclear complex, where Iran is suspected to have researched the weaponization of nuclear technology – a final taunt to mark the erasure of America’s “red line” demand that Iran account for the “possible military dimensions” of its nuclear program. Iran’s military and Revolutionary Guard leaders still pub-licly dispute there will be any inspec-tions of military facilities.
Ten days after the deal was an-nounced, Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani flew to Moscow (in defiance of a U.N. travel ban) to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin. In short order, Iranian and Russian military forces began arriving in Syria, apparently to prop up the faltering re-gime of President Bashar al-Assad. In addition to tanks and drones, the Rus-sians have sent prefabricated housing and mobile air traffic control systems, all the signs of an extended stay.
Several weeks after the deal’s an-nouncement, Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, revealed that Iran had found unexpectedly generous domes-tic reserves of uranium, which may come in handy someday. The Iranian military unveiled a new generation of
surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. And Iranian leaders continue to deny the legitimacy of all United Nations Security Council restrictions on the importation of weapons. “We will sell
and buy weapons whenever and wher-ever we deem it necessary,” President Hassan Rouhani has said. “We will not wait for permission from anyone or any resolution.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Twitter feed is a stream of provocative trolling, promising the end of Israel, posting an im-age that appears to be the silhouette of Obama with a gun to his head and threatening that in any military confronta-tion “the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal
U.S.” The Iranian supreme leader and Donald Trump have this much in com-mon: They find their opponents to be losers.
This is bound to be one of the rea-sons that a clear majority of Americans and a majority of the House and Senate oppose the Iranian nuclear deal –- be-cause Iran has done everything possi-ble to rub America’s face in Obama’s concessions. Obama was left to save the deal through a crude and partisan appeal.
The Iranian regime’s motives in all this are evident. The demonstration of American impotence has been a long-
term goal of Iranian public diplomacy. Their message to people across the Middle East: America won’t be here forever to protect you, so it is a mistake to side with them against us.
Iran is effectively announcing that it will be more aggressive in the region after the deal, not less. And it has an increased capacity to do so – flush with cash, released from constraints and basking in new legitimacy. “The dic-tator has been careful, all along,” says Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute, “to make sure that the deal appeared, at home and abroad, as the U.S. capitu-lating to Iran. We made it very easy for him to do that, because we conceded all our red lines and he conceded on none of his. He could depict it as a ca-pitulation, because it was.”
Russia’s motives are also transpar-
ent. Putin enjoys his role as a power broker in the Middle East – the most expansive Russian role in the region since Anwar Sadat threw the Soviets out of Egypt. Putin wants to defend his interests in the region (including a na-val base) while strengthening his own proxy (Assad) before any possible Syr-ian settlement.
But what is Obama’s motive in of-fering mild protests as a new Middle Eastern order, more favorable to Iran and Russia, emerges? The preserva-tion of the nuclear deal is apparently so important that no Iranian provoca-tions should be allowed to upset it. The Obama administration, according to deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, believes that implementing the deal is essential “precisely because we have such differences with this gov-ernment that they cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
In practice, this means that Iran can do whatever it [...] well pleases be-cause it knows the Americans are too invested in the deal to blow it up. This may fit Obama’s conception of Ameri-ca as a tired nation, overcommitted in the Middle East. But in the process, he is making strategic concessions to Iran and Russia that future presidents may find impossible to accept and difficult to retract.
(c) 2015, Washington Post Writers Group
Michael Gerson
Political Crossfire
Iran Thumbs its Nose at the U.S.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Twitter feed is a stream of provocative trolling, promising the end of Israel, posting an image that appears to be the silhouette of Obama with a gun to his head and threatening that in any military confrontation “the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal U.S.”
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Be a Troublemaker
Rabbi Mordechai Kruger
Hire Education
Being “stuck” is almost always something bad. The only story I’ve ever heard where being
stuck was good was told by the re-nowned Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz. He told that once, years ago, he had been asked to accompany his Rebbe, the great Rosh Yeshiva Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zt”l, as he attended an import-ant meeting. When it was time to return to Yerushalayim, several self-appointed “escorts” piled into the car, leaving the elderly Rosh Yeshiva uncomfortably squeezed in the back seat. Embarrassed, a decision was quickly made to drive by the local bus station, where the un-invited “guests” would get out. When they pulled up at the station, the doors opened, yet no one got out of the car. The seemingly frail Rosh Yeshiva had figured out the plan, and as they neared the station, placed his arms around the shoulders of the extra passengers. With iron resolve, and despite his own dis-comfort, he wouldn’t let anyone get out of the car. He told the driver, “The boy can’t get out. He’s stuck.”
Being stuck in the embrace of a great and caring Rebbe can be a won-derful memory to treasure. But I meet with too many people who are stuck in the clammy paws of a job where they dread going to work each day, they can’t move up, and they can’t move out. They are really stuck. And it’s re-ally a bad situation. These are people who have done everything right. They have taken on responsible jobs, worked hard with loyalty and perseverance, and through no fault of their own, reached a dead end. Actually, to be more met-aphorically correct, they’ve reached a cul-de-sac. That is, as long as they don’t want to go anywhere else, the job they’re in is just fine. But if they want to go somewhere else, or do something else, then things go from difficult to dis-couraging to depression pretty quickly.
This problem is particularly acute among middle level managers. Most often, these fellows joined the company with little relevant experience, working in some aspect of operations. Wheth-er it was fulfillment and shipping, the production line, troubleshooting for customers, or anything similar, the years have gone by. Now senior man-agers themselves, they have become
the backbone of the company. Day by day, everything works smoothly be-cause of them. They see every problem when it is still way out on the horizon, and because of them, by the end of the day, everything gets done. They are the human equivalent of WD-40 and duct tape; everyone loves them and every-
one is happy to have them around. But then they get stuck.
There was a guy who joined the company around the same time, all those years ago. But he went into sales. Year by year his commissions grew, and when he asked for a larger office, more time off, more money, he got it because his growing sales success meant growing revenues for the com-pany. And when some fool in the front
office (probably the owner’s son) put his foot down and said, “No,” that guy picked up and moved on. Because sales grows revenue. The guy who reliably brings in dollars reliably has a job.
But our fellow doesn’t get those perks. When it comes to operations, the goal is to lower costs and raise what gets called “productivity,” which means do-ing a job which is second rate or worse, just not so bad that the wrong person notices. The smooth way he handles the
blue-collar workers, keeps the old truck running, anticipates the inventory need-ed to cover an unanticipated order that will come in next week, who notices? How much attention do you give the radiator in your car? True, it would be pretty hot without it, but it never gives any trouble, because that’s the way it’s
supposed to be. So when our manag-er asks for a raise, he gets told, “Hey, times are tough, we’ve gotta keep costs down. Maybe next year.”
After a while, our manager gets fed up, realizes that he will never get the re-spect he deserves, and wants to look for another job. And finds that he’s stuck. When an experienced worker looks for a new job, the key to his success lies in telling the story of how he created val-
ue in his previous jobs. How he made things grow, made things change. Our manager doesn’t have that kind of sto-ry. How exciting is it to tell about all the things that didn’t go wrong? Who is really interested in hearing about the radiator?
I often tell job hunters like this that they have to carry out some guerilla warfare—become real troublemakers. Their problem stems from the fact that they are not expected to grow sales or
bring down costs in an entirely unantic-ipated way. Well, who said they can’t? And since getting forgiveness is easier than getting permission, why not start right away?
The first step to constructive trou-blemaking is to find the members of your troublemaking tribe. In every business environment, there are work-ers, vendors, and customers who are more or less happily flowing along, who won’t have the energy or nerve to try something different. But often, there are a few subversives who want to see things change. Maybe it’s because they know that evolving workplaces are a lot more fun, or because they know that a stronger bottom line will help grow their paycheck, or because they know that a company that doesn’t innovate will wither and die—for whatever rea-son, they are willing to think about do-ing things differently. Often using their own time and resources, they make a change in marketing, or workflow, or something—and then there’s a change. An uptick in sales, a demonstrable re-duction in costs, something measurable and real. Something that happened be-cause of them. And by the time the boss finds out, he can’t or doesn’t get in the way. Our staid manager needs to join these troublemakers, maybe even lead them. It’s the only way to build a road to his next job, and it may even make his current job worth keeping.
The manager types that come to me with this problem are not the trouble-making type. The kind of subversion I’m suggesting doesn’t come easily to them. But faced with stagnating wages in a dreary job, sometimes they surprise me—and themselves.
So now I’ve got an even better idea. Don’t wait for the crisis to come. Stop keeping your head down. Take some risks and make some trouble. When you get yourself unstuck, your next op-portunity will be waiting for you.
Rabbi Mordechai Kruger is the Director of Pathways to Parnassa, an organization dedicated to educating our community in all aspects of career choice and job search. Individual coaching is available. He can be reached at [email protected].
They are the human equivalent of WD-40 and duct tape; everyone loves them and everyone is happy to have them around. But then they get stuck.
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Week 37 (9-9) - Jewish Home:Layout 1 9/8/15 1:07 PM Page 1
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hen you walk into Jerusalem’s Waldorf As-toria hotel at the Heritage Area entrance,
there’s a short video playing on the left side of the stairs. Most guests will barely notice
it, as there’s plenty of opulence and splendor on which to gaze once you’ve ventured through
those hotel doors. Which is a shame, really. Because that little un-
assuming presentation adds a whole new dimension to this iconic landmark. It offers an overview of the
structure’s history as well as of its contemporary re-design. There are many layers to the story of the Waldorf, and lots more to this super-luxury hotel than meets the eye.
The hotel is located on the corner of Rechov Agron and King David Boulevard, directly across the Mamilla Mall. It sits at a point where the old and new sections of the city meet. The Waldorf, which opened its doors in April of 2014, boasts 226 guest rooms and suites, two world class restaurants, luxurious service, outstanding architecture and design, and much more. It’s become something of a status symbol to say, “I stayed at the Waldorf.”
But it’s much more than just the newest trendy hotel in Jerusalem.
The PalaceBack in 1929, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
Hajj Amin-El Husseini, decided to build a luxury hotel on this exact spot. A notorious anti-Semite, he hoped it would advance the Muslim presence in the city. He called this project “The Palace.” It was intended to become the most luxurious hotel in the Middle East at the time, built in Ottoman style, and boasting private bathrooms adjacent to some of its guest rooms, a very rare commodity at the time.
Five hundred workers were employed in the construction of the hotel, including both Arab and Jews. For the most part they worked in harmony, but when the Arab riots of 1929 erupted, chaos
dominated the streets of Jerusalem and construction had to be suspended for a short time. Once the Palace finally did open its doors to the public, international tycoons and noblemen were counted among its guests. But its success was short-lived, mostly because the celebrated King David Hotel soon opened for business nearby.
In the mid-1930’s, Palestine was under the control of the British. Due to the Arab Uprising, the Mufti was eventually fired from his position and fled the area, settling in Lebanon and then Europe. While he met with the likes of Eichmann and Hitler, the British took over the hotel and used it as a headquarters. It was a difficult time for the Jewish residents of the area, but a heroic engineer working at the hotel was instrumental in assisting their cause.
an Unlikely heroThe Peel Commission was appointed in 1936 by British authorities to inves-
tigate the roots of the political unrest in Palestine and to offer possible solutions. Their sessions were crucially important to the leaders of the Jewish community, but they were held behind closed doors at The Palace hotel. No press or onlookers were permitted to attend.
Yeshaya Feinsog was an electrical engineer who worked at the hotel. He was approached secretly by the Haganah. Was there some way he could plant hidden microphones in the conference rooms of the Commission? That way their meetings could be heard and appropri-ate measures could be taken.
Feinsog readily agreed, even offering his ser-vices free of charge for the sake of the Jewish cause. His clandestine efforts were risky, but ultimately successful. The Jewish Agency and Haganah were indeed privy to the intelligence they desperately needed, all due to the work of one heroic engineer. The British were suspicious, but they never discovered how the Haganah ob-tained their vital information.
Interestingly, even though the Mufti visited the site almost daily and most of the laborers were Arabs, within the Palace walls were two sliks, or hiding places for Jewish-held weapons. Because the Jews were forbidden by the British The Palace built by the Mufti of Jerusalem
history and luxury Meet at the WaldorfBy Malky loWinger
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hen you walk into Jerusalem’s Waldorf As-toria hotel at the Heritage Area entrance,
there’s a short video playing on the left side of the stairs. Most guests will barely notice
it, as there’s plenty of opulence and splendor on which to gaze once you’ve ventured through
those hotel doors. Which is a shame, really. Because that little un-
assuming presentation adds a whole new dimension to this iconic landmark. It offers an overview of the
structure’s history as well as of its contemporary re-design. There are many layers to the story of the Waldorf, and lots more to this super-luxury hotel than meets the eye.
The hotel is located on the corner of Rechov Agron and King David Boulevard, directly across the Mamilla Mall. It sits at a point where the old and new sections of the city meet. The Waldorf, which opened its doors in April of 2014, boasts 226 guest rooms and suites, two world class restaurants, luxurious service, outstanding architecture and design, and much more. It’s become something of a status symbol to say, “I stayed at the Waldorf.”
But it’s much more than just the newest trendy hotel in Jerusalem.
The PalaceBack in 1929, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
Hajj Amin-El Husseini, decided to build a luxury hotel on this exact spot. A notorious anti-Semite, he hoped it would advance the Muslim presence in the city. He called this project “The Palace.” It was intended to become the most luxurious hotel in the Middle East at the time, built in Ottoman style, and boasting private bathrooms adjacent to some of its guest rooms, a very rare commodity at the time.
Five hundred workers were employed in the construction of the hotel, including both Arab and Jews. For the most part they worked in harmony, but when the Arab riots of 1929 erupted, chaos
dominated the streets of Jerusalem and construction had to be suspended for a short time. Once the Palace finally did open its doors to the public, international tycoons and noblemen were counted among its guests. But its success was short-lived, mostly because the celebrated King David Hotel soon opened for business nearby.
In the mid-1930’s, Palestine was under the control of the British. Due to the Arab Uprising, the Mufti was eventually fired from his position and fled the area, settling in Lebanon and then Europe. While he met with the likes of Eichmann and Hitler, the British took over the hotel and used it as a headquarters. It was a difficult time for the Jewish residents of the area, but a heroic engineer working at the hotel was instrumental in assisting their cause.
an Unlikely heroThe Peel Commission was appointed in 1936 by British authorities to inves-
tigate the roots of the political unrest in Palestine and to offer possible solutions. Their sessions were crucially important to the leaders of the Jewish community, but they were held behind closed doors at The Palace hotel. No press or onlookers were permitted to attend.
Yeshaya Feinsog was an electrical engineer who worked at the hotel. He was approached secretly by the Haganah. Was there some way he could plant hidden microphones in the conference rooms of the Commission? That way their meetings could be heard and appropri-ate measures could be taken.
Feinsog readily agreed, even offering his ser-vices free of charge for the sake of the Jewish cause. His clandestine efforts were risky, but ultimately successful. The Jewish Agency and Haganah were indeed privy to the intelligence they desperately needed, all due to the work of one heroic engineer. The British were suspicious, but they never discovered how the Haganah ob-tained their vital information.
Interestingly, even though the Mufti visited the site almost daily and most of the laborers were Arabs, within the Palace walls were two sliks, or hiding places for Jewish-held weapons. Because the Jews were forbidden by the British The Palace built by the Mufti of Jerusalem
history and luxury Meet at the WaldorfBy Malky loWinger
67
to bear arms, they were forced to prepare secret caches of weapons. Many of these hideaways were hidden around the country; the Palace had two and were designed by Haganah member Baruch Katinka.
Fast forward a few decades, and the hotel, due to its central location, was trans-formed into a center of Israeli government ministries. Over time, it housed the of-fices of Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak, Nathan Sharansky, Ehud Olmert, and many other prominent Israelis.
The building was useful, but it was in disarray. Chances are that those who worked there were unfamiliar with its infamous past. But in 2005, the Reichman family of Toronto took notice. They envisioned the construction of a new, modern yet historic, luxury hotel on this very same property. The city municipality was eager to join them in this endeavor, so long as they agreed to conserve the historic elements of the building.
longesT resToraTion ProjecTThus began a project that lasted many years, meticulous in its detail and grand in
its vision at the very same time. How does one construct a building that is at once upscale and modern, elegant and luxurious, while still incorporating key elements of its past? Not an easy feat to be sure. According to the hotel’s General Manager Guy Klaiman, “This was probably the longest restoration project in Israel’s history.”
Preservation Architect Amir Shoham was called in. The decision was made to preserve the public areas – the extraordinary façade of the building, with its majestic pillars, arched windows, and intricate stonework, as well as the opulent grand stair-case and railings. Shoham worked alongside Turkish Designer Sinana Kafadar and Israeli architect Yehuda Feigin.
It was a massive project with tremendous attention to detail. The staircase railings were painstakingly taken apart , cleaned and preserved, and then rebuilt. Mas-ter ironwork experts Yossi and Avi Le-rer reconstructed the steel work for the staircase banisters. Skilled artisans did most of the work by hand. The result is breathtaking, a pre-served “Heritage”
section of the hotel, three stories high, blends almost seamlessly with the majestic newer structure which is nine stories high.
sha’alU shaloM yerUshalayiMIf there’s a theme to this hotel, it would be peace and unity. So much of the
design focuses on creating harmony and goodwill between nations. Every Waldorf Astoria hotel features a distinctive clock in its lobby, reflecting the culture of its host city. The Jerusalem hotel’s towering clock was designed by Avrohom Aborgil. It has four separate faces, each presenting the numbers in a different format – Hebrew, Arabic, Roman numerals and numbers. The clock is built of Jerusalem stone, glass, and bronze.
Designers spared no effort in decorat-ing. One could go on and on about the Czech chandeliers, the Turkish carpets, the paintings by celebrated Israeli art-ists. One could describe the TV screens embedded in bathroom mirrors, the per-sonal concierge service for each guest, the soaring atrium with panels that open to become a huge sukkah. All that is cer-tainly luxurious, a feast for the eyes and the senses.
But let’s instead focus on the three-story glass sculpture located on the left side of the main entrance and cascad-ing downwards to the lower level. One hundred and fifty hand-blown glass doves seem to soar in mid-air, their wings spread wide. Inscriptions along the sides are written in five languages: Russian French, Arabic, English and Hebrew. Their message? “Sha’alu sha-lom Yerushalayim.” A gurgling fountain at the lower level houses a steel globe which represents the world. Created by sculptor Jeremy Langford, it’s a work of art with a distinct message, a prayer for peace emanating from Jerusalem to the world – awesome and inspiring at the very same time.
It took seven years to build the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria, a project that had to wait until the Arab Intifada quieted down. But it was certainly worth the wait and is currently enjoying tremendous success. Three hundred people are employed at
the hotel, carefully selected for their friendly disposition. With all its soaring pillars, dazzling chandeliers, and opulent furnishings, the hotel has a heart and a soul that reflects the heart and soul of the holy city in which it stands – modern, ancient, a cultural center of so many nationalities, and ultimately yearning for peace.
We are told that a stone located above the entranceway of the building’s Heritage Area bears an old Arabic inscription. Apparently commissioned by the Mufti, it reads, “With G-d’s help we will rebuild Jerusalem.” The Mufti’s message reverber-ates clearly in this wondrous city almost a century later. He may not have intended it as we understand it today. But it is prophetic nevertheless.
The Palestine Royal (Peel) Commission set up offices at the Palace Hotel
to consider partition of Palestine (1936)
From the facade of the former Palace
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Whole Wheat Crescent RollsIngredients2 cups warm water4 tablespoons honey2 pkg active dry yeast (about 5 teaspoons instant dried yeast)3 cups all-purpose flour2 cups whole wheat flour1 tablespoon salt
PreparationIn a bowl, add 2 cups of water, sprinkle in the yeast, then add the honey. Let
stand until foamy.After it has foamed, add in the flours and salt, then mix by hand until a dough
ball forms.Turn onto a slightly floured surface and knead until smooth.Let stand and rise for 45 minutes.Cut ball of dough into half. Roll one half into a large pizza-like circle and cut
up into “pizza” slices. Roll each “slice” up like rugalech. Bake for 25 minutes at 350° until slightly brown.
Naomi Nachman, the owner of The Aussie Gourmet, caters weekly and Shabbat/Yom Tov meals for families and individuals within The Five Towns and neighboring communities, with a specialty in Pesach catering. Naomi is a contributing editor to this paper and also pro-duces and hosts her own weekly radio show on the Nachum Segal Network stream called “A Table for Two with Naomi Nachman.” Naomi gives cooking presentations for organizations and private groups throughout the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area. In addition, Naomi has been a guest host on the QVC TV network and has been featured in cookbooks, magazines as well as other media covering topics related to cuisine preparation and per-sonal chefs. To obtain additional recipes, join The Aussie Gourmet on Facebook or visit Naomi’s blog. Naomi can be reached through her website, www.theaussiegourmet.com, or at (516) 295-9669.
Naomi Nachman
In the Kitchen
It’s so hard trying to come up with
just the right meal before the fast.
I always start off with soup and bread rolls.
I make this delicious, hearty soup that is full
of flavor and loaded with vegetables. As we
head into fall, we have all these wonderful
root vegetables in season. If you don’t like to
eat spices before a fast, you can leave them out
and the soup will still pack a flavorful punch.
Red Lentil Vegetable SoupIngredients1 cup red lentils, sorted and rinsed4 cups waterBay leafSalt2 tablespoons olive oil2 onions, diced4 cloves minced garlic2-inch piece ginger, minced2 teaspoons cumin1 teaspoon curry2 teaspoons ground coriander2 cups butternut squash, cut into ½ inch dice1 cup zucchini, peeled and cut into ½ inch dice1 medium parsnip, peeled and cut into ½ inch dice2 carrots, peeled and cut into ½ inch dice1 tablespoon lemon juice1 bunch spinachPinch cayenne pepper (optional)
PreparationAdd lentils, water and bay leaf to a medium saucepan. Cover and boil on
a simmer for 20 minutes until lentils are tender. Add 1 tablespoon salt and remove bay leaf. Puree lentils in a blender.
Add onions to a skillet and sauté until onions are soft. Add garlic, ginger, cumin, and coriander and sauté for a few more minutes. Add butternut squash, parsnip, carrots, salt, and 1 ½ cups water. Simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
Stir lemon juice and spinach into pureed lentils, then add the vegetables. Stir to combine. The heat will wilt the spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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456 Central Ave., Cedarhurst, NY 11516 | (516) 791-1925Sun: 11-6 | Mon-Thurs: 11-7 | Fri: 10:30-2:30
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Long before the likes of Google and Apple overtook the Bay Area and Burning Man was the festival to celebrate, there was the Haight-Ashbury intersec-
tion and the Summer of Love. Well before the occupa-tions of financial districts, there were mass burnings of draft cards. And decades before anyone ever dreamed that Brooklyn, New York, would be the home to almost as many whiskey distilleries as Kentucky, Monte Sachs was brewing his own grappa in the mountains of Italy.
Sachs is still making grappa, but this time around, his product is more drinkable—the Bosco Monte Vec-chio Grappa was rated 91 at a recent spirits competi-tion—and is made closer to home. After a 30 year hiatus during which Sachs—or more accurately, Dr. Sachs—tended to horses and other veterinary callings in upstate New York, he decided to re-explore his fermented pas-sion and open the Catskill Distilling Company in Bethel, New York, which has been, until recently, more closely associated with cannabis and LSD than sour mash and pot stills. And in the spirit (no pun intended) of sticking to his roots, both groovy and Jewish, Sachs has entered into an agreement with OK-kosher to certify all the dis-tillery’s products.
The idea of being certified kosher had always been percolating in Sachs’s mind from the time the distillery opened four years ago. Until recently, onerous licens-ing fees held back micro-distillers from opening shop in New York. Until 2006, the most recent distillery indig-enous to the state closed during Prohibition some eighty odd years ago. Finally, in 2007, the state signed into law the Farm Distillery Act, which allowed smaller distill-eries to operate out of farms, thereby utilizing New York
State’s agricultural products while exempting these small distilleries from the licensing fees associated with full-on distilling.
Since the passage of the act, more than seventy mi-cro-distilleries have opened in New York State. One can now sample potato vodka from Long Island, Brooklyn-made gin, and Catskills Distilling’s very own and very Jewish Kasha Bourbon, called The One and Only Buck-wheat and rated four stars in the Spirit Journal.
From the start, all of Catskill Distilling’s product has been kosher. Already in the second year of the dis-tillery’s operations, Sachs began selling his chometz through the son of his childhood rabbi from his home-town in rural Connecticut, but the rigors of day-to-day distilling did not allow him the time to actually become kosher-certified. Only recently was he able to sit down with Rabbi Chanowitz of the OK in the Catskills region to discuss the certification process.
In truth, transitioning the distillery to certified ko-sher is not a herculean feat; all of Sachs’s offerings are already inherently kosher, from the Peace Vodka to the Curious Gin. The only product that presents a kashrus issue is the grappa, which is made from pomace, or the grape skins that are the byproduct of the winemaking process. Sachs gets his pomace from major wineries, who are more than happy to unload their leftovers for free to any willing recipient. (Apparently, grappa is not a very popular product in this part of the world, otherwise one can be sure pomace would not be that easy to come by.) It is the pomace which needs to be under rabbinical supervision for an extended period that poses the larg-est kashrus concern. In fact, there appears to be only
Kasha BourBon and Peace VodKa
TJH Speaks with Monte Sachs, owner of one of the few kosher NY distilleries By Nachum Soroka
Monte in the distillery
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one other kosher grappa available worldwide; that became certified kosher only under one year ago and was made expressly with the kosher market in mind.
There is no doubt that we are experiencing the peak of the artisan, small batch craftsman revolution. In Brooklyn alone, home to the hipster enclaves
of Williamsburg and Green Point, one can find over ten micro-distilleries; Kings County Distillery in the Brooklyn Navy Yard brews up its version of moon-shine and the Cacao Prieto Distillery on Conover Street in Red Hook produces the widely distributed Widow Jane bourbon. But few of these distilleries’ master distillers can claim to have the whiskey-mak-ing education Monte Sachs has. Before embarking on Monte Sachs, Master Distiller 2.0, he enlisted the tutelage of the recently retired Lincoln Henderson, former master distiller of Brown and Forman, the company where Henderson helped create Woodford Reserve, Gentleman Jack and most recently, the high-ly acclaimed and sought Angel’s Envy. Henderson’s success in creating many of the popular American whiskeys was due in large part to his background as a chemist, and Sachs’s medical background allowed him to become an excellent pupil. Henderson died shortly after his consultancy at the Catskill Distilling Company, and Sachs believes he may have been the only person to have been taught by Henderson after his retirement.
With Henderson, Sachs determined that many whiskies do not require many years of maturation. Mass-produced bourbons such as Jack Daniels are
aged for four years; other higher-end bourbons may be aged for longer periods in large part as marketing ploys. But in a smaller distillery, with a master dis-tiller who is constantly checking on his product, the barrels can be rotated to adjust for the optimal tem-perature of the whiskey and a superior bourbon can be made in only two years.
Sachs believes without a doubt that small batch whiskey is a by far better creation than its mass-pro-duced counterparts. However, small batch whiskey that is made by inexperienced or uninterested distill-ers will be undrinkable swill. Then there are the so-called New York distilleries (who shall go nameless) which are involved in lawsuits because their products are merely relabeled goods from out of state distill-eries.
As any whiskey enthusiast will tell you, water plays a very important role in the flavor profile of the drink—a Highland Scotch will in no way taste similar to a Speyside—and the Catskill Distilling Company takes great pride in using Catskills region water as an ingredient just as much as the New York red win-ter wheat in its vodka. But water’s pedigree is only a factor when it comes to the water used in the grain mash of a whiskey at the front end of the distilling process. Some so-called small batch distillers buy mass produced product and then, in the “proofing” process, when all the whiskey is finished and needs to be diluted from the cask strength of 118 proof to a more drinkable level, use local water to dilute the whiskey. These distillers disingenuously refer to their whiskies as “local” and, according to Sachs, are also
involved in lawsuits.
even without the koshering of the distillery loom-ing large on Sachs’s mind, running the Catskill Distillery alone is proving not to be as easy a re-
tirement lifestyle as golf in the South. Days at the dis-tillery begin at 4:30 AM and last two full shifts. Sachs is currently working on Fearless Wheat Whiskey, what he refers to as “the really good stuff,” and has an amaro, or bitter herbal liqueur (think Jägermeister), in the works using local herbs.
Then there is the distillery’s planned expansion. As an attestation to the superiority of Sachs’s products, the company recently entered into a deal with South-ern Wine and Spirits, one of the country’s largest na-tional distributors. Under the Southern deal, Sachs’s whiskies will be available across the Northeast and eventually nationwide. As part of the expansion, the distillery will add five new 15,000 gallon tanks and will have production of nearly 45,000 bottles.
With all the anticipated changes and the success the distillery has had so far, there is one person who is more surprised than anyone else that this small retire-ment project has grown into something much larger than ever envisioned: Monte Sachs himself. And sure, Sachs can’t wait for the day when he can sit back and allow himself the time to enjoy what he has accom-plished—perhaps with a snifter in hand—but for now he is forced to admit that becoming kosher certified is of utmost importance. The distillery and kosher are a natural match and, in the words of Sachs, “Rabbis love to drink!”
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Granting Wishes by Removing Itches
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Forgotten HeroesAvi Heiligman
The Story of the HMS Seraph
Submarines have a fascinating history that really go back to the first prototype during the
American Revolutionary War in the late 18th century. The Confederate
Navy during the Civil War gets the credit for sinking the first ship with a torpedo from a submarine. The CSS Hundley sank a frigate before sinking to the bottom herself. During WWI, the role of the submarine was ex-panded greatly and the German Navy used submarines—called U-boats—to a devastating effect. This continued during WWII before countermeasures
were put in place to stop the U-boats. Allied submarine commands also used them to sink enemy shipping, espe-cially the Americans against Japanese merchants in the Pacific. The British
found them-selves in pre-d i c a m e n t s that were only solved by sub-marines on special mis-sions. The HMS Seraph was a subma-rine that was sent on sever-al of these top
secret assignments and came back to tell her story.
The Seraph was part of the S-class of submarines. A total of 62 S-class British subs were built and after the war several were sold to other coun-tries. Israel managed to obtain two of these subs and one, the HMS Springer (renamed the INS Tanin), was used in commando raids during the Six Day
War in 1967. There were three groups of
S-boats starting with the first four being built in the early 1930s. By 1939, the third group of boats was being built and was more heavily armed and had greater range than the first two classes. 50 group three boats were built with the ninth being the Seraph in 1940. All of them had names starting with “S” ex-cept one that was sunk before a name was given.
The Seraph took a year to build and another year of trials before she was finally com-missioned into the Royal Navy 1942. Her captain was Lieu-tenant Norman “Billy” Jewell who had a lot of experience in submarines since the beginning of the war. The 44 man crew began their first patrol on the submarine that would become one of the most famous of the war. Their first patrol was noth-ing to report home about except
for thinking they had spotted ene-
my ships. These turned out to be whales. She was then called to Gibraltar to take on special cargo.
Allied war planners had been planning an invasion of Ax-is-controlled North Africa. They really needed a commander on-shore to meet with resistance leaders and French commanders who were of dubious loyalty. Lieutenant General Mark Clark, who was Jewish, needed a ride to Algeria, and the Seraph was cho-sen to provide transportation. Called Operation Flagpole, the Seraph landed Clark, two other generals, American Captain Jerauld Wright, more officers and some British commandos on the coast of Algiers the night of October 20, 1942. Five nights later, the Seraph
picked them up and took them back to Gibraltar. The meetings were a vital to the landings in North Africa that made Operation Torch a success and forced the Germans out of North Africa.
Seraph monument. This is the only place where the Royal Navy ensign is allowed to fly in the United States
The HMS Seraph
The identity card on the body that was used to fool the Germans
Continued on page 102
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Two days after arriving in Gibral-tar, Jewell received a strange order. He was to take the Seraph off the coast of France and pick up a party of high-ranking Free French officers. General Henri Giraud and his staff were to meet General Eisenhower to plan the upcoming Operation Torch. However, Giraud refused to board a British boat so a ruse was concocted. The HMS Seraph became the USS Seraph flying an American flag. Cap-tain Jerauld Wright, who had sailed on Operation Flagpole, would be the nominal commander and the crew would use their best American ac-cents. Jewell took operational control of the submarine. The mission, called codenamed Kingpin, went accord-ing to plan except that Giraud wasn’t fooled. He and his party were taken to the Mediterranean where they were picked up by an American flying boat and flown to Gibraltar.
After a couple of more war patrols in which she damaged an Italian mer-chant ship, the Seraph returned to En-gland for repairs and an overhaul. She sustained damage to herself when she rammed a German U-boat submarine off the coast of Algeria.
In April 1943, she took on another important mission, however, this time it was a dead body. The Seraph was to
take part in one of the most deceptive missions of the war.
Operation Mincemeat, the brain-child of Jewish officer Ewen Montagu,
was designed to fool the Germans as to where the next Allied landings were to take place. The real landings were to be in Sicily but the Germans were con-vinced that they were going to be in Greece. A British corpse that appeared to have died in an airplane crash was found off the coast of Spain where a Nazi sympathizer handed it over to the German authorities.
The background of the corpse was not what the Germans believed. The Seraph had a metal canister that Jewell told his men contained metrological
material. Nearing the coast of Spain, Jewell with a few other officers took the body that was packed with dry ice and said a prayer (from Psalms) be-fore launching it off into the sea. The body of Major Martin, who really died of pneumonia, had secret documents from high ranking Allied commanders to fool the Germans. The ruse worked beyond all expectations. The Germans
moved man and material away from the coast of Sicily, a guarantee that the landings were to be a huge success.
During the Sicilian landings, the Seraph was a guide ship for the land-ing forces. In the remaining months of 1943 she sank several small ships but always seemed to miss the larger tar-gets. Finally, in December 1943, she returned for a major overhaul and then patrolled in the Atlantic. She served as a guide ship for the landings at Nor-mandy on June 6, 1944.
In addition to her special missions, the Seraph was attacked by depth charges but always escaped. She re-mained in service long after the war ended and was retired in 1962. Be-fore she was sold for scrap, several key parts were removed and sent to a memorial in Charleston, South Caro-lina. The Seraph will be remembered for the “silent service,” as submarine missions and patrols were called, that saved countless lives at key points during World War II.
Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at [email protected].
The officers of HMS Seraph on her return to Portsmouth after operations in the Mediterranean, December 1943. Lt. Jewell is in the center
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Some time ago I was babysit-ting for my daughter when my grandson Moshe wandered by.
Obviously I love all my grandkids, but I have a special soft spot in my heart for Moshe because he’s named after my fa-ther, z”l. I also have a soft spot in my head, but that’s not dedicated to any of my aineklach; that’s reserved for my writing. So anyway, Moshe walks by in his PJs, all really for bed, and I notice he’s humming a cute little melody that I don’t recognize. That, of course, is not unusual, since it’s been a really long time since I’ve bought any music geared to-ward young’uns. At this point, my vastly encyclopedic knowledge of music for Jewish kids goes about as far as Uncle Moishy’s “Hey Dum, Diddle Dee Dum,” and “Hashem is here, Hashem is there,” and that’s about it. Oh, and then there’s Country Yossi’s “Seven Little Kids” song, but I always forget if it’s Ash-er Zelig who lost his kippa and Moshe Chaim who spilled his drink, or the oth-er way around. I also never understood why the one referred to as “my biggest kid” (the one who reports all the chaos going on in the back seat) doesn’t get to have a name.
But I digress. Moshe is humming this sweet little ditty, and I figure it’s something he learned in playgroup. So I ask him if he can sing me the words. He shakes his head. I cajole him a little bit more.
“Come on, Mo. Don’t I always buy you cars and stuff?”
He nods.“So? Can you just sing me a little
of the song? Did you learn it from your morah?”
Uh uh.“Come on, sing me just a few words.
Then maybe we can sing it together. Okay?”
Another nod. Hooray!I sit. I wait. Moshe takes a deep
breath and this is what I hear issuing forth from his four-year-old mouth:
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die,
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die.
Giggle, giggle.I think my mouth must have fallen
open, because Moshe suddenly got his second wind. He started laughing and
jumping on me and accompanying his fun with what had apparently become his new favorite song.
Dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die…
“Mo, that’s a terrible song. That’s not a song that good yeshiva boys should
sing. Where did you learn that?”“I’ll show you, Zeidy!”With that, he ran into the kitchen and
came back carrying a 7½ x 9½ yeitzer harah…an iPad! He punched an icon, scrolled through a few screens, worked the cursed thing like he was a Chinese hacker reading emails from the Penta-gon, and soon I was watching adorable little mentchalach who had been hurt, cut in half, or bitten by a rattlesnake, all dancing and singing, dumb ways to die…
A few months later, Feige and the family went to a hotel in Jersey for Pe-sach, and I visited them one day during Chol Hamoed. Around 4:00 I decided to leave and went to kiss and say goodbye to all the kids. Moshe was on the floor with the iPad.
“Moshe, I’m leaving, come give Zeidy a hug and a kiss.”
Didn’t even look up.I gave up on the hug-and-a-kiss stuff.“Moshe, say good-bye.”Nothing.“Moshe,” Feige said, “say good-bye
to Zeidy right now!”This elicited a low grunt and a shoul-
der shrug.There was a day camp, a pool, an
arcade, a room with candy and ice cream, and Mo was absolutely glued to that monstrosity. I should point out that Moshe is not a spoiled, obnoxious little brat. He’s a good kid. But that’s exact-ly the point. This thing has become a scourge.
Over the past few months, virtually every time I’ve come to their house, ei-
ther Moshe or his big sister Ester (she’s 10) are on that miserable device, or fighting over it. They have a TV that’s even connected to a Wii (don’t let it get around — they might get tarred and feathered and run out of Flatbush on a rail), but they find that soooo boring.
Of course it’s boring! You can’t hold it in your hand and play zillions of games with it. You can’t take pictures with it. You can’t record your voice on it. It just sits there and tries to entertain you. How utterly Twentieth Century!
Kol Hakavod to Feige and Yehuda; they have cut back on iPad time in the house significantly, and I ac-tually see Moshe play-ing with his cars and trucks now once and a while. When I decided to write about this, I sat down to interview the little ones (Feige also has two older boys, b’li ayin harah).
So tell me, kids, why do you like the iPad so much?
Ester: ‘cause it’s so cool!
Moshe: Yeah, it’s cool!Since when are four-year-olds con-
cerned with what is and isn’t cool? Yeah, I know, he was just parroting his older sister, but still. Shouldn’t that malleable little brain be thinking about the alef bais, and not some angry birds some-where, flinging each other at a bunch of pigs?
The two of them then gave me a laundry list of stuff they like on the iPad:
Subway Surfers, Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja, Dubsmash (Dubsmash?), farshideneh different pirates, and Stick Hero; I actually have that last one on my
phone — I felt so young and hip and rel-evant for about eight seconds!
Then Ester points the thing at me and tells me to smile. It takes pictures, too? Duh, Zeidy. Does it shoot videos? Check. Go online? Check. Watch TV? Watch videos? Listen to music? Check, check, and check. Cure cancer? Surprisingly, not yet. I’m convinced that if Apple had spent as much brain power working on cures for Ebola, Legionnaire’s disease or Dengue Fever, they would have been wiped off the face of the earth years ago.
So Ester takes a picture of me, puts it in the “aging booth” and suddenly this sixty-four face looks like a red-headed, bleached prune. I guess making yourself look old is fun when you’re ten, but it ain’t a bundle of laughs when you’re at a point in your life where the only time you look in the mirror on purpose is when you’re shaving.
And it’s not just the kids, either. We’re all addicted to the insip-id devices. My other daughter
has a five-year-old named Meira. I went to her Chanukah play. There were par-ents and grandparents who never got to see their actual kid in the flesh, not even once. Everything they saw was through the screen of their phone or their tablet. Come on, people! Your five-year-old is performing her little heart out as a jug of shemen or ner sh’lishi. They’re right there in front of you in HD! Parents were standing with those stupid iPads in
Rocky Zweig
The Rocky Rant
I guess making yourself look old is fun when you’re ten, but it ain’t a bundle of laughs when you’re at a point in your life where the only time you look in the mirror on purpose is when you’re shaving.
iDon’t Pad
Continued on page 104
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front of their faces like they were in the Witness Protection Program. Why are you shooting a video in the first place? You’re never going to watch it! When was the last time you actually sat down and enjoyed any of these little slices of life that you gave up actually experienc-ing so you could archive them for per-petuity? All you’re going to do with the dumb thing is post it on Facebook where
all your friends who you don’t really know and have never met will watch maybe thirty seconds of it, comment “adorable,” and then go back to watch-ing the video about the turtle whose best friend is a chicken.
Folks tend to mention Steve Jobs in the same sentence as Albert Einstein. They say they were both geniuses, in-novators, and visionaries. And yet their
brilliance also produced a dark side: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was a magnificent achievement, as long as you didn’t live in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Jobs’* Mac OS and assorted and sundry iThings have without question made the world a much more efficient place and helped millions of people in millions of ways. But they have also robbed us of some really important stuff: some inge-
nuity, some priorities, and sadly, some humanity too.
* GRAMMAR POLICE: I dou-ble-checked online if the possessive form of Steve Jobs should be Jobs’ or Jobs’s. Apparently there’s a machlokas haposkim. I couldn’t find a consensus, except that both are acceptable.
PLEASE NOTE: My cousin has worked for the OU for many years in a supervisory capacity. He is a mumcha in the field of kashrus. I happened to run into him last Shabbos. He had read my last article, “It’s not easy eating green,” and asked me the name of the veg-an restaurant I had gone to in the city. When I told him, he informed me in no uncertain terms that the kashrus is total-ly unreliable, even though they have a hechsher. He told me he was unaware of any vegan establishment where kashrus is not an issue.
He also told me that the retreat I had attended in the Connecticut Berkshires is okay. I felt I had an achraiyus to share information this with you.
Wishing you all a k’siva v’chasima tova,
Rocky
Rocky Zweig has been writing since he was sixteen and was the Editor-in-Chief of the late and decidedly unlamented Modieinu, the mimeographed (remember mimeographs?) newspaper of the Tenth Av-enue Pirchei of Boro Park, where he wrote everything from stories to news articles to hashkafa articles to...yes (now it can be told!)...letters to the editor. Rocky was six-teen a very long time ago. He is the proud father of three marginally neurotic children. He has been married three — count ‘em — three times and has finally determined that he’s probably not very good at matrimonial bliss. He lives in his Fortress of Solitude in Flatbush with a small menagerie: Clarice, a European Starling; Rabbi Horatio LeZard, a Bearded Dragon; an aquarium filled with Lake Malawi African Cichlids; and a ten gallon tank that functions as a Home for Un-wanted Goldfish, or H.U.G., collected over the years by his grandkids and great nieces and nephews at myriad street fairs and carni-vals (rather than face the unpleasant task of flushing these unfortunate piscine creatures when they are eventually, inevitably ignored by their own obnoxious progeny, the parents simply call Uncle Rocky who then feeds them and cares for them until their ultimate nat-ural demise three or four or even ten years down the pike). So apparently Rocky seems to get along better with animals than with his fellow homo sapiens. Or sapienses. Or whatever.
Rocky’s column will be appearing every other week in The Jewish Home. Rocky can be reached at [email protected].
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Wishing You Good Health, Happiness,
Peace and Prosperity
Today and all through the year!
L’shanah Tovah!
For More Information and to register, Call Angela at
718 851 3300 ext [email protected]
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Attention Social WorkersThis course provides 6.0 hours of Continuing Education for licensed social workers
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What items do you recommend to incorporate into my kitchen in order to give it more of a custom design and give it a designer feel?
When it comes to kitchen cabinets, most of us crave custom design and custom
design is all about the details. Adding a personal touch to your kitchen cabinets can dramatically affect the way your kitchen looks and feels. With these few ideas you can really bring that designer style to the heart of your home.
• Decorative elements are the first place to start when trying to add a custom feel to your kitchen cabinets. Few things leave designer fingerprints like crown molding does. It can bridge the gap between your wall cabinets and the ceiling, allowing for a seamless transition. In tradit ional kitchens, it can cap off the design with one final touch of detail. Another great element is table legs which always catches the eye. Place them at the ends of your island or work them into your cabinet layout for a true furniture feel. In general, legs with detailing are better suited for traditional, designs and simple, straightforward legs work best with contemporary and modern designs. Additionally, you can incorporate ornate, oversized and even plain corbels which add traditional elegance to an island and kitchen cabinets.
• Using a custom design on the cabinets as well can greatly impact the look of your kitchen. Instead of a flush skin, go with matching panels for your cabinet ends. Like decorative legs, they have a furniture-style look. Not to be confused with matching ends, wainscoat panels adorn the backs
of cabinets. They can dress up the back side of your island and make it look like an authentic furniture piece with the help of decorative legs and matching ends. Also, beadboard is perfect for rustic, farmhouse or beach-style kitchen designs. It also adds a smidgen of detail without compromising the simplicity of your design. Use it as the finishing touch for your cabinet ends or find a door style that has it built in.
• Custom design elements are very important in your doors as well. Whether transparent, frosted or seeded, a glass door front sets the stage for a glimpse of fine dishware and dazzling decor, especially when there are lights installed inside to shine through. This type of display can make
your kitchen design open and inviting. Using different door styles can lend a custom feel as well as using different colors in your kitchen design. Having a series of cabinets or focal points in a different color
and door style creates a bright and bold effect that can add a serious custom feel to your overall look of the kitchen. Additionally using an antique finish can add charm, and a custom glaze brings unparalleled character to kitchen cabinets.
There are many design elements that can be incorporated in your kitch-en that can definitely give you that custom feel. Each one of the above ex-amples are great ways to add to your cabinets that not only enhance the beauty of your kitchen but give it that extra effect that makes a huge differ-ence.
Naftali Landau is owner and chief design-er of Exclusive Cabinetry and Design and has been designing kitchens for the past 13 years. He can be reached at 917-468-7693 or at [email protected] and you can follow him on twitter @ExclusiveCAD.
Naftali Landau
Room for Design
Creating a More Upscale Kitchen
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Room for Design
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9.375 x 5.875
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SERVICESAlternative Solutions Geriatric Care
Management staff will assist you with:* Obtaining Medicaid and Pooled Income Trust
* In-home Assessments, Individual and Family Counseling
* Securing reliable home care assistance* Case and Care Management services
Dr. S. Sasson, DSW, LCSW (718) 544- 0870 or (646) 284-6242
Buying or Refinancing a Home?Pre-Approval letters that brokers trust!
Put as little as 3% down.Borrow up to 90% with no MI!We can beat any written offer!
Specializing in very difficult scenariosCall Daniel at Landmark Funding Group.
NMLS#367291 at 718-663-7202All loans arranged through
3rd party lenders.
MEHUDAR ESROGIM AND LULOVIM AVAILABLE
Beis Horah in Flatbush 1236 Ave. MReasonable prices with a Rov
available on premisesCall 917-526-7291
for information and hours
Experienced Bar Mitzvah teacher available Very patient and encouraging
Can teach all levelsExtremely reasonable rates. References available
Email [email protected]
Leah’s Beauty Concepts Experienced Makeup Artist and Skin Care Specialist
Makeup for all occasions Conventional and airbrush
Wake up looking beautiful with permanent makeup
Relaxing deep cleansing European facialsLaser hair removal-electrolysis
Leah Sperber 917-771-7329
PIANO/GUITAR LESSONSBY YISROEL AMENT
(FIRST LESSON BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!!!)347-357-7797
Photos 4 your SimchaProfessional Photography and Video
We love what we do and it shows in our work! Competitively priced!
Check out our website & specials.www.photos4yoursimcha.com
or call Yaakov 718-868-1800
Hair CourseLearn how to wash and style hair and wigs
Hair and wig cutting, wedding stylingPrivate lessons or in a group
Call Chaya 718-715-9009
SHEITELSWash and Set
$20 for short sheitels • $25 for long sheitels Located in 5towns/ far-rockaway area
Call: Shlomit H. (516)-233-0633
The Children’s Clothing Gemach in Cedarhurst
Is fully stocked for boys/girls in sizes newborn-teen
To make an appointment please call/text 516-712-7735
KEYBOARD LESSONS by Meshulam Ross
Free Trial SessionOnly $30 per Session
Learn by Ear/Note Reading“Loads of Fun!”
Learn a new Jewish song each week!Over 100 students taught
Call or Text Meshulam: 917-280-4545
Frum Babysitter Available with Long HoursNewborns and up
Excellent referencesFar Rockaway, TLC
Also available on weekends718-327-1932
“Kosher” Yoga & Licensed Massage Therapy
Peaceful Presence Studio436 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst
Separate men/womenGroup/private sessions, Martial Arts...
Gift Cards Availablewww.peacefulpresence.com 516-371-3715
Struggling with Shalom Bayis?The Shalom Bayis Hotline 732-523-1112
Caring rabbanim answering your questions for free.
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DO YOU NEED CLEANING, BABYSITTING OR CARE GIVERS?
Cheap ratesCall 718-304-4348
REAL ESTATE FOR SALE
HEWLETT: Great 2BR Apt In The Grey Bldg, Eik, High Ceil-ings, Large Rooms, Close to all, CAC…$225K
Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com
LAWRENCE: Best Buy - Charming Cape, 3BR, LR, Formal DR, Kitchen, Close To All Transportation, SD#15…
$249K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com
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Acres, Surrounded by the Lawrence Golf Course, 14 Room Contemporary, Breathtaking Panoram-
ic Views…$1.599M Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000
www.pugatch.com
SERVICES SERVICES SERVICES
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TJH Classifieds
NORTH WOODMERE: Mint totally redone Hi-Ranch W/City views &
sunsets, 4BR, 3 Full Baths, Open Flr Plan W/Chef’s Kitchen, Formal DR, Den, IG-Pool & Dock for
Jet Ski & Boat…$765K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000
www.pugatch.com
WOODMERE: Lovely 5BR Exp-Ranch On Oversized Lush
Property, Eik, LR, FDR, Den, Attic, Many Upgrades, SD#14…$499K
Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com
WOODMERE: PRICE REDUCED!!! Very Spacious Well Maintained 5BR, 3.5 Bath Split, Lg Eik, Formal DR, 2 Dens, CAC, SD#15,
Quiet Prime Location...$749K Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000
www.pugatch.com
989 EAST BROADWAY - BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED, ONE OF A KIND HOME IN OLD WOODMERE
4 B/R, 2.5BA Cape. Approx. 2420 sqft of living space nestled on 9167 sqft of beautifully
landscaped property. Located in Old Woodmere, HewlettWoodmere school district. Attached 1
car garage, enclosed front porch, deck, 3 work-ing fireplaces, custom cabinetry and built-ins
throughout. Partial basement and attic, CAC, IG sprinklers, lovely yard. Low taxes.
Walk to Worship. Walk to transportation. Asking price $699K
Contact Mike 516-509-7489
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE CEDARHURST:
500-3000 +/- SF Professional Office Space Available in the Heart of Cedarhurst,
For Lease...Call for More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com
FAR ROCKAWAY: Development Property in the Heart of Bayswater, Investment Opportunity, 1 Acre Land For Sale…
Call Lenny for More Details (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com
HEWLETT: 1800 +/- SF Retail Space, Can Be Used For Office. 2 Bathrooms, 2 Offices, 8 Car Parking, 8’ Ceilings,
Great Location, Near LIRR Station, For Lease…Call Lenny For More Details (516) 295-3000
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REAL ESTATE FOR SALEHEWLETT HARBOR:
Waterfront Property, Great Location, Best Waterfront Lot, Deep Waters, Macy’s Channel, For Sale…Call For More Details (516) 295-3000
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OCEANSIDE: 1,500 +/- SF Store Front Office Space in Great Location With Parking on Long Beach Rd, For
Lease, Only $2500/Month…Call Randy For More Details (516) 295-3000
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WOODMERE: Follow the Leader to Woodmere, Now is the Time to Act!!! No Metered Parking, Various
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INVESTMENT PROPERTY FOR SALEINWOOD Commercial mixed use building + Lot. Private parking, corner property, high traffic area 1st floor offices, 2nd floor: 2 Apts. Asking 849k.
Call 212-470-3856 Yochi @ WinZone Re
REAL ESTATE FOR RENT
CEDARHURST500-3,500 +/- SF Beautiful, newly renovated space for rent. Ideal for Retail or Executive
offices. Prime location. Convenient Parking. Call Sam @ 516-612-2433 or 718-747-8080
4 BEDROOM, 3 BATHROOM SINGLE FAMILY CONDO $2,400 / MONTH
Newly renovated, newly refinished hardwood floors throughout entire house, living room, din-ing room, large eat in kitchen with pantry, lots of windows, new porcelain flooring, laundry room with washer / dryer, garage, backyard with space for sukkah, access to communal pool, Central Air/heat, parking space, Near Darchei and beach.
Call / txt 323-314-8773 or email [email protected]
WOODMERE: HOUSE RENTAL Lovely 5BR Exp-Ranch, Lr, Formal DR, Eik,
Den, Lovely Property In “Academy Area”, SD #14...$3,200/mo
Call Carol Braunstein (516) 295-3000 www.pugatch.com
FAR ROCKAWAY Upgraded (remodeled kitchen and bedroom)2 bedroom apartment for rent on 3rd floor in a 3 floor house. Ideal for a new couple or 2-3
Shomer Shabbos girlsPlease call : 516-322-6515
Don’t Get Stuck With a Two Story HouseYa Know, It’s One Story Before You Buy It
But a Second Story After You Own It !
Call Dov Herman For An Accurate Unbiased Home Inspection
Infrared -Termite Inspection- Full Report All Included
NYC 718-INSPECTLong Island 516-INSPECT
www.nyinspect.com
REAL ESTATE FOR SALE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE REAL ESTATE FOR RENT
Property For Sale Best Waterfront Lot Deep Waters Great Area, Won’t Last!!!
Macy’s Channel Fantastic Location I nc red ib le V iews Call For More Details!!!
Lovely Ranch In SD#14, 3BR, 2 Bath, Den W/Fplc, Eik, Full Finished Bsmt...$479K
Elegant 4BR, 3BA Colonial, Eik, Formal DR, Den, Great Loct, SD#14…$825K
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Carol Braunstein Call or Text (516) 592-2206 [email protected]
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(516) 2 9 5 - 3 0 0 0
950 Broadway
Woodmere, NY 11598
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If You Are Interested In Buying, Selling Or Leasing Call The Local Commercial EXPERTS 516-295-3000
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Spacious 4BR, 3BA Brookfield Split, Eik, FDR, Den, CAC, Patio, SD#15…$639K
Just Listed!!! Gracious 5BR, 3.5BA CH Colonial, Eik, FDR, Bsmt, Deck…$715K
Wishing You A Very Happy, Healthy & Sweet
New Year!!!
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LONG BEACH 5BR, 2 bth, large LR/DR, newly renovated huge
granite kitchen all new appliances, incl. W/D1 blk to beach. Close to Shuls
Owner No Fee $3,250 516-297-4976
2 & 3 bedroom. Newly renovated,Washer and dryer hook up. Granite countertops.
On Seagirt Avenue More info call or text 917-602-2914
HELP WANTEDACCOUNTS PAYABLE, F/T
Needed at Nursing Home in Queens withMust have prior A/P exper.
NH exper a strong plus. Please fax resume to 718-868-1291.orEmail [email protected]
Physical Therapist Assistants (PTA’s) & Occupational Therapists Assistants (COTA’s)
For 200+ bed Nursing Home in QueensMust have Hospital or Nursing Home experience
Please email resume to [email protected]
Part Time Male Aid SALES POSITION $1000/week (based on exp)
Unlimited commission potential3 positions available
Call: Fidelity Payment 516-262-3134Or apply online:
www.fidelitypayment.com/salescareer
LOOKING FOR A REGISTERED NURSE to work part time (3 hrs/wk) with adults who
have developmental disabilities. Strong health assessment skills needed. Current NYS RN license
and a minimum of 2 years of post graduate hospital experience required
Contact OHEL Bais Ezra 718-686-3102 or email resume to [email protected] to apply.
CATAPULT LEARNINGTeachers for Title I in Boro Park and
Williamsburg Chassidic boys schools*College/Yeshiva Degree Required
*Strong desire to help children learn*Excellent organizational skills
*Small group instruction*Competitive salaryEmail resume: [email protected]
Fax# (718) 381-3493
Local 5towns school seeking asst teachers for the pm. Please send an email
ASSISTANT TEACHERS FOR ELEMENTARY AND PRESCHOOL NEEDED FOR A BAIS YAAKOV IN FAR ROCKAWAY
Email [email protected]
Seeking a warm, capable Preschool Teacher for Preschool in
Port Washington (near Great Neck) Good pay, beautiful facility and atmosphere. Please email
your resume [email protected]
High School Brooklyn Boys Earth Science and Chemistry teacher
Email resume [email protected]
MISC.
For Sale: Toyota Avalon XLS 2007only 58k miles!! Runs beautifully. Upgraded
premium JBL audio, heated leather, 12 speakers. Premium wheels. PRICE REDUCED: $9,500 ---
$3,000 below KBB value! FCFS.
Video of car and contact info at www.BuyMyAvalon.com
Looking for donation of
car or minivan in good running condition. Tax exempt receipt available for
full market value. Please call 347-342-8196
Discounted tickets to Six Flags Great Adventure Theme Park
And Safari Valid for any operating day for only $40
Contact Yehoshua @ 917- 923-0011
Script for RentSerious Inquiries only
Please call C.D. Urbach 718-755-7224
REAL ESTATE FOR RENT
TJH ClassifiedsHELP WANTED HELP WANTED MISC.
355 Central Avenue, Lawrence NY 11559(Across the street from Seasons)
P: 516.791.6100 | F: 516.374.7059www.WeissmanRealty.com
Why Pay Rent WhenYou Can Own!
Luxury Condo in Far Rockaway156 Beach 9th St. Steps from the beach and boardwalk.
Gorgeous 2 bedroom, 2 bath with modern kosher kitchen, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, washer/dryer hook up and terrace. Generous closets and living space.
Elevator building with onsite maintenance staff.
Call Sherri Slochowsky 516-297-7995Call Sherri Slochowsky 516-297-7995to set up a showing.
YNM/5towns Sheital Gemach is in desperate need of wig donations.
Anyone who has wigs/falls they no longer need- There are many women who you can
make very happy. Tizku l’mitzvos! Please contact 347-408-8354 for details.
Senior Jewish looking to rent a garage for storage in or near Far Rockaway
ASAP646-657-3131
DONATE YOUR CAR, TRUCK OR VANGet a tax deduction and $1200 in gift cards
We pay cash for old cars too718-974-9428
Free lots to giveaway in Honeapath SCBuildable or storage
Only pay transfer fees. $750Lots valued at $10,000
718-974-9428
YEHALOMIM SHELANU SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
PresentsAn after school program for the
special children of our neighborhood!Every Monday afternoon from 4:45- 6:15
Fun and educational run by talented and experienced staff
Call 516-732-2949 for more information or to register
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Allan J. Rolnick, CPA
Your Money
Vive le Tax!
This year, as usual, millions of American tourists took ad-vantage of summer vacation
to travel abroad. Favorable exchange rates made European destinations es-pecially attractive. Seeing Old World cultures gives us perspective that we just can’t get when we load up the family truckster and head for Disney World. The sights, the sounds, and the great big smells we encounter abroad shed new light on our ordinary lives. New languages, new governments, and even new taxes can prompt us to reconsider our place in the world.
Take Paris, for example. France is the most popular tourist destination in the world, and the City of Light sees almost 2 million American visitors per year. So what sort of tax system do visitors to Paris encounter?
Income taxes are the first place to start. We don’t see them, of course, but our French hosts certainly do! Impôts sur le revenu start at 14% on taxable incomes over €9,691 (about $10,800) and rise to 45% on amounts over €151,956 ($169,400). There are also surcharges on incomes above €250,000, and again at €500,000.
Income taxes are just the start. French taxpayers also shell out 7.5% for their version of Social Security, a 0.5% “social debt” tax, plus 3.4% in “additional sampling social contribu-tion” and 1.1% in “solidarity labor” tax on investment income. And that’s all before they pay their local professional taxes, residence taxes, and land taxes!
That may sound like a lot. But French employers have even more to grumble about. Employers pay 13.1% of their employees’ wages for medical and disability programs, 5.4% for par-enting benefits, 4% for unemployment programs, and at least 18.2% for retire-ment benefits. Granted, that first 13.1% replaces much of what American em-ployers pay for health and disability in-surance. But you can certainly see why the Parisians think twice before decid-ing to hire someone new. Oh, and don’t forget the 33.1% corporate income tax!
No visit to Paris would be complete without a pain au chocolat at a side-
walk cafe or a late-night degustation of foie gras, escargot, and cheese. The good news is, the price you see on the menu is the price you actually pay. Val-ue-added taxes (which take the place of our sales taxes) and even service charges are included in the marked price. It’s customary to leave a small amount of cash (5% or so) as a tip. But it’s reassuring to know that when the snooty waiter brings you l’addition and sneers at your American Express card, you won’t have to calculate the usual 15-20% that we tack on here.
(Go ahead, have an extra macaron, they’re delicious!)
We’re not done yet. France levies an impôt de solidarité sur la fortune (wealth tax), starting at 0.55% on net worth over €790,000 and rising to 1.80% on fortunes over €16,540,000. The wealth tax only raises about two percent of the country’s revenue, but it’s quite controversial — some con-sider it a symbol of worker solidarity, while others object that it encourages the wealthy to leave the country. Last but not least, droits de succession et de donation (gift and estate taxes) climb as high as 60%, with no unlimited mar-ital exclusion like we enjoy here in the U.S.
Here in the States, we complain that our taxes are too high. But a quick look at the French tax system reveals that liberté, égalité and fraternité don’t come cheap, either! Fortunately, our tax code is stuffed like a crepe with all sorts of deductions, credits, loopholes, and strategies to cut your bill. Have a plan so you’re ready to pay less and see how much more you can put towards your dream vacation!
Allan J Rolnick is a CPA who has been in practice for over 30 yea rs in Queens, NY. He welcomes your comments and can be reached at 718-896-8715 or at [email protected].
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Rivki D. Rosenwald Esq., CLC, SDS
Life Coach
The AntidoteRemember to tell people how good they are.
Their flaws are something we exaggerate by far.You’ve got to let their strengths float before your eyes.
Or it recedes so far back, in shadows it lies.
Then you and they live in pain of what’s missing, what’s not.A mirage of sadness is whatYou’ve got.How can they build from strengths if none can be tapped?Thus the flawed them grows larger and the good is sapped.
Each day find positives and point them out.Let their virtues shine through, let these start to shout.It’s a great way to foster love, not have it sit on a shelf.It’s even quite important, to do this for yourself.
Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or [email protected]
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117TH
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YOUR GIFT TOTHE FUTURE.
EMake your mark on Five Towns history
LIMITED DEDICATION OPPORTUNITIES STILL AVAILABLE AT GROVESTREETMIKVAH.ORG
בס״ד
RECOGNIZE NEED > PURCHASE PROPERTY > DRAW PLANS > POUR FOUNDATION > DRILL WATER WELLS > BOR FOUNDATIONS > STEEL STRUCTURE > POUR BORO
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A magnificent Mikvah to fit the Five Towns community’s needs
Construction underway at 134 Grove Avenue
Contact: [email protected] | PO Box 485, Cedarhurst NY 11516
Grove Street Mikvah is a non for profit 501c3 organization
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aRba minimaRba minim
IncludIng a large selectIon
of derI lulavIm
muvcharIm
large selectIon from chutz la’aretz
Esrogim
lulavim
hadasim & aravos
call for hours
707 Bolton road (garage - in back of house)
BeautIful, top QualIty . large selectIon
many years of experIence
Kitov esrogimcenter
rabbi yecheskel Kaminsky
718.471.4209
rabbi shayeh Kohn
917.597.5717
as per the advice of rabbonim , due to the many kulos involved with otzar Beis din and in the spirit of Kedushas peiros shmita, we will be selling only esrogim from chutz la’aretz with reliable hechsheirim
119TH
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J.SYNERGY
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AN OLD IDEA, REINVENTED.THIS ROSH HASHANA, WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED RENEWING YOUR SOUL,
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JSYNERGYGREEN.COM | 516 331 2020
FROM
