Jewish Standard, April 22,2016

8/18/2019 Jewish Standard, April 22,2016

1/68

201685NORTH JERSEY

FOR YOM HOSHOAH, JCC HAILS ALBANIA page 6

A REFUGEE RESPONSE IN PASSOVER’S LIGHT page 8

MEET TRUMP’S ISRAEL ADVISER page 14

CLASSIC’S ‘NATHAN THE WISE’ page 55

APRIL 22, 2016VOL. LXXXV NO. 33 $1.00

J e w i s h S t a n d a r d

1 0 8 6 T e a n e c k R o a d

T e a n e c k , N J 0 7 6 6 6

C H A N G E S E R V I C E R E Q U E S T E D

THEJEWISHSTANDARD.COM

Tracing a Passover stapfrom Tennessee througTarrytown and Teanec

Maxwell’s goldenHaggadah

page 28

Our ChildrenAbout

Our ChildrenAbout

Supplement to The Jewish Standard•May2016

PartyTime

Specialty CampsDifferent Strokes

forDifferent Folks

Into the Water LearningHow toSwim

Useful Information forthe NextGeneration ofJewish Families

I N T H I S I S S U

E


2/682 JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 22, 2016

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JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 12, 2

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Candlelighting: Friday, April 22, 7:26 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, April 23, 8:28 p.m.

● As you read this, the Pesach shop-ping season is over. You may alreadyhave held a seder or two.

So we’re sorry if you heart breakswhen you see these pictures ofPassover convenience foods youmight not have had the chance tobuy this year.

Forget the all-in-one-container

seder plate fixings (egg, shank bone,maror, etc. ) which surprised ourcorrespondent so much that she wastoo overcome to snap a clear picture.

What about this single-servingpiece of romaine lettuce for maror?Certified bug-free. And implicitlyguaranteed to be a “kezayis” —literally, the olive size required bythe Talmud, but understood to beseveral square inches of lettuce.(We are, though, a bit concerned

that the mashgiach isn’t said to havemeasured it himself.)

We admire the initiative of sellingpre-prepared salt water. Andcertainly the pre-peeled hardboiledeggs save time.

And the kosher for Passover toiletpaper? All we can say is: It’s abouttime. LARRY YUDELSON

● Somehow, between Passover preption and tax preparations, we never around to writing about an exciting Haggadah series out of Israel.

The Asufa Haggadah was publishefirst in 2013. Each year, its editorcommissions different artists to illusa two-page spread of the traditiona

These pictures are from the 2016edition, illustrating the opening passon the removal of chametz, and are Lilach Ramati. (Not only is this probthe first Haggadah to show computin the illustrations; it is also probablyfirst to include its artists’ websites.)

This year, the publishers put out aversion in English and Hebrew, featu

some of the best pictures from theHebrew-only editions. With next yeaseders barely a year away, you can oit from the creative people at Print-OCraft productions at this charming waddress: https://shabb.es/. LARRY YU

Seder time and the shopping is easy

A Haggadah

to remember

The fine art of chametz-free living ● The Torah commands us that cha-metz — leaven — should not be seenamong us on Passover.

So kudos to the industrious soulswho have labored to remove all tracesof leaven and even wheat from classicworks of art.

They call themselves the “Glutenfree museum” on their Tumblr sitethey have performed a service forof us who want Passover-friendly Their full collection can be found aglutenimage.tumblr.com.

LARRY YU

NOSHES ...............................................................4

ROCKLAND ...................................................... 18

OPINION ...........................................................24

COVER STORY ................................................28

PASSOVER GREETINGS ...............................41

D’VAR TORAH ................................................54

ARTS & CULTURE ..........................................55

CALENDAR ......................................................56

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................58

GALLERY ..........................................................59

OBITUARIES ....................................................60

CLASSIFIEDS ..................................................62

REAL ESTATE ..................................................64


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Noshes

4 JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 22, 2016

Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard

wife, was seated. She

said: “Yes, Bernie and I

both like to ride horses.

We do so on vacation.” I

think Bernie, the Brook-

lyn cowboy, should

show another side of

himself. Just imagine

Sanders entering those

jam packed rallies on

horseback — maybe a

palomino or mustang

for those upcoming

Western state primaries.

AMY SCHUMER,

34, is the produc-

er of a Comedy

Central special, “Amy

Schumer Presents

Rachel Feinstein: Only

Whores Wear Purple.”

(It will air first on

Saturday, April 23, at 11

p.m.) Feinstein, 30ish,

has long been a stand-

up comedian and was a

finalist in the seventh

season of “Last Comic

Standing.” She also

appeared in several skits

on “Inside Amy Schum-

er.” In 2012, she played a

festival of Jewish

culture in Manitoba,

Canada, and was

interviewed by the CBC,

who asked her if there is

a Jewish style of humor.

She replied: “My dad is

Jewish but my mom

converted, and her side

of the family is more

WASPy. I think I get my

sense of humor from my

Dad and his side. They

all have a darker, more

flippant sarcastic way of

talking.”

BARBRA STREI-SAND, 71, appar-ently will fulfill her

longtime desire to play

the meaty role of Mama

Rose in a big-screen

remake of “Gypsy.”

Universal bowed out last

year, but it looks like the

film production is b

on track. BARRY LESON, 74, has beentapped as the direc

and Streisand is a

producer, and she is

helping to develop

script. It will be grea

see Streisand belt o

“Everything’s Comi

Roses.”

You might ha

heard that

STEVEN SPIBERG, 71, will directKidnapping of Edga

Mortara.” The Morta

story is a shocking o

and still reflects ter

on the Catholic chu

Nobody but Spielbe

could make a big b

film about the true

of the kidnapping o

six-year-old Italian

Jewish child by pap

authorities in 1857 o

grounds that a Cath

housemaid had sec

baptized him as an

infant. I do question

Spielberg’s decision

cast Mark Rylance a

Pope who ultimate

responsible for stea

the child. Rylance s

a public statement

calling for a “cultura

boycott” of Israel. T

signers said they “w

accept any professi

invitations from Isra

Well, apparently yo

star in a film about

anti-Semitism and

boycott Israel, too.

on this subject in a

column.

Joey Sagal

WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’:

Nixon and Elviswill meet again

Hanala Sagal Mark Halperin

Amy Schumer Barbra Streisand Barry Levinson

In 1970, Elvis

Presley met with

President Nixon at

the White House. Nixon

consented to the hastily

scheduled meeting in

the hope that Presley’s

celebrity would help him

with young people.

Presley’s motivation

seems mostly to get

Nixon to make him a

Narcotics and Danger-

ous Drugs Bureauhonorary officer so he

could get a bureau

badge and add it to his

big collection of law

enforcement badges.

The meeting of the

uber-stiff Nixon and the

uber-loose Presley long

has been fodder for

comics, and in 1997, a

pretty good indie film

about the meeting was

released (“Elvis Meets

Nixon”). Another

re-telling of the story,

“Elvis & Nixon,” is

opening on Friday, April

22, starring Kevin

Spacey as Nixon and

Michael Shannon as

Elvis. Good film festival

buzz led Amazon to buy

“Elvis & Nixon” and it’ll

stream the film after its

theater run. The screen-

play is by JOEY SAGAL,

59, and HANALA

SAGAL, 55ish, who also

have small parts in the

flick. Joey is the son of

the late director BORIS

SAGAL (“Masada”) and

the brother of actress

KATEY SAGAL, 62.

Hanala, who was briefly

married to Joey, is the

daughter of Holocaust

survivors. She had a

tough childhood, fled to

Los Angeles from

Montreal, and re-invent-

ed herself as popular

fitness expert on Los

Angeles TV. Her recent

autobiography is serious

despite the shocking

title: “My Parents Went

Through the Holocaust

and All I Got Was ThisLousy T-Shirt.”

Political reporter

MARK HALPERIN,

51, is all over the

place this election year.

The son of well known

foreign policy expert

MORTON HALPERIN,

77, he is a frequent

analyst on NBC news; a

regular contributor to

“Morning Joe” on

MSNBC; a contributor to

“Time” magazine; one of

the three principals of

the Showtime series

about this election

cycle, called “Circus”;

and the co-host of “With

All Due Respect,” a

Bloomberg network

weekday series with

John Heilemann. I was

amused by a recent

segment on “Due

Respect,” which prom-

ised to tell us something

about a presidential

candidate we did not

know. Halperin said that

he heard that Sanders

liked horseback riding.

The camera then cut to

a hotel lobby where

Jane Sanders, Bernie’s

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

[email protected]

“One of the Yiddish cookbooks I came acroactually stated that human beings were nomeant to eat raw vegetables.”

— Michael Wex talking to Tablet writer Leah Koenig about his new book, “Rhapso

in Schmaltz: Yiddish Food and Why We Can’t Stop Eating It.”

ComingSoon

benzelbusch.com

TheAll-New2017

C-ClassCoupe

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5/68JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 22, 2

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6JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 22, 2016

The light of AlbaniaHow thousands of Jews found refuge in Europe’s only Muslim country

LARRY YUDELSON

When it comes to Euro-

pean countries where

Jews endured World War

II, Albania is irst in the

alphabet — but seldom irst to mind.

Yet the story of how Europe’s only Mus-

lim country held the Holocaust at bay even

while being occupied by Nazis is one that

Johanna Gerechter Neumann wants you to

remember.

“I often say that little Albania saved the

morality of the world,” she says.

Ms. Neumann was born in Hamburg in1931. Now she lives in Silver Spring, Mary-

land. But from 1939 through 1945, she

lived in Albania.

The story of how Ms. Neumann, her par-

ents, and all the other more than 2,000

Jews who made their way to Albania lived

out the war unmolested stands in sharp

contrast to how Jews fared elsewhere in

German-controlled territory.

On Wednesday night the Kaplen JCC on

the Palisades in Tenafly will show a ilm

about Albanians who rescued Jews. “Besa:

The Promise” follows photographer Nor-

man H. Gershman as he travels to Albania

to photograph rescuers, and it includes

Ms. Neumann’s story. The screening will be part o f the JCC’s Yom Hashoah com-

memoration. An exhibit of Mr. Gershman’s

photographs will be on display at the JCC

through May.

Before the Nazis rose to power in Ger-

many, only a few hundred Jews lived in

Albania. The country’s one synagogue had

been destroyed in the First World War and

not rebuilt. Nestled between Greece and

Yugoslavia, Albania was one of the more

backward countries in Europe.

Johanna Neumann wishes she could ask

her parents, Siegbert and Alise Gerechter,

how they discovered that Albania could

be a path for their escape from Germany.

Not that they were quick to seek escape.

At irst, Hitler seemed like an aberration tothem. Her father, she says, was a German

patriot. He had fought on the front lines

in the Great War, in which his younger

brothe r had been kille d. He was even

awarded a special medal by Hitler, along

with all the veterans of the front lines, in

1935. Her mother was from a proud Ham-

burg Jewish family that traced its arrival in

that city to 1763.

Even as two aunts and an uncle emi-

grated to New York, Johanna’s parents

stayed put. But then there was Kristall-

nacht pogrom, and “even my father had

to admit there was no place for Jews in

Germany,” she said.

The family — Ms. Neumann was an only

child — applied to emigrate to America —

but her father was from a part of Prussia

that had became part of Poland, and the

Polish immigration quota was full.

So her parents opened an atlas and set

their sights on Albania.Albania was ruled by King Zog — origi-

nally Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli, who had been

selected as prime minister in 1925 and then

assumed the monarchy in 1928. King Zog

was Muslim, as was four-ifths of the coun-

try’s population of a million or so. In the

early 1930s, the king had tried to encour-

age Jews to immigrate en masse to his

country, which he wanted to modernize.

That didn’t work out, but he instructed his

embassies in Germany and Austria to issue

visas to any Jews who asked for them, no

questions asked.

“My mother went to Berlin and got the

visas and off we went, at the very end of

February 1939,” she said. “Not knowing

where we were going, not knowing what

to expect, not knowing anything about the

country or anybody.”On March 1, they arrived in the Albanian

port of Durrës.

“Much to our delight and surprise there

were German-speaking people at the pier,”

she said, Jews who had preceded them.

They planned to stay a few months, until

they could secure visas to America. In fact,

they did not leave Albania until after the

war, when they irst went to a displaced

persons camp across the Adriatic in Italy

before inally making it to America in 1946.

“For a young girl it is an adventure,” Ms.

Neumann said of her time in Albania. She

played hopscotch with Albanian girls. She

made friends. She learned the language. “I

often think now, how did my parents feel?

It must have been very dificult for them toleave everything and go to a place with no

knowledge of what to anticipate. Not the

language, not the country, not anything.”

Five weeks after the Neumanns arrived

in Albania, the Italians invaded and King

Zog fled. Yet though Mussolini was allied

with Hitler, “The Italian occupation did

not bother us one little bit,” she said.

“The Italians were very gracious. They

knew we were Jews. We had friends

among the soldiers.”

The refugees were supported by the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Com-

mittee until the war stopped the flow of

Young Johanna washing dishes

outdoors in Shkoset, Albania.

Johanna Neumann

money. “My parents opened up a

laundry, washing clothes for Italian

drivers. It was very dificult, very d

ing. In Hamburg, my father was a m

facturer of leather gloves. Here hscrubbing dirty underwear.”

In the years that followed, the

lived in 17 different places. They h

leave Durrës in 1940, when Italy lau

an invasion of Greece from Albania;

eigners had to leave the militarily s

cant port city.

In April 1941, Germany invaded

slavia and about 2,000 Jews — by f

largest influx — fled Yugoslavia for Al

“The Albanian government op

their borders and allowed as many J

could to escape over the border,” M

mann said. “The German general

grade knew who escaped. He dem

the Albanian government return

people within 48 hours.”The Albanian interior minister to

two days to distribute the Jewish re

among Albanian families. “He wen

and said to the Germans, we look

Jews but we didn’t ind any.”

Those Jews the Albanians cou

immediately place in homes in the

tryside were put into a hospita

labeled as quarantined with typhoid

“Not one was deported,” she said.

In 1943, Germany invaded Alban

asked for a list of Jews.

They were told: “We don’t know

Jews. We just know Albanians.

“Just the fact they had the courage

that is incomprehensible. Everyone we were Jews. Not one single one of

ever denounced or deported.

“It would have been simple to say

Germans, ‘see that woman, she’s Jew

Instead, “they had the courage, the

the guts, to deny the Germans. They

have been shot on spot.”

But that’s where the Albanian

encapsulated in the word “besa” ca

The word means “promise,” and

Albanian, Ms. Neumann said, “a pr

is a promise, no matter what.” Fu

and related, there is an implied pr

of hospitality. “A stranger in my

has to be guarded, protected, at all c

she said. “It goes so far as to say

something happens to a stranger, way to my house or away from my h

I am responsible and it’s a shame o

whole village.”

Once the Germans came, Ms

mann’s father hid with farmers

countryside. Johanna and her m

lived with an Albanian family in the c

What: Holocaust commemoration

screening of “Besa: The Promise”

When: Wednesday, May 4, 7-9 p.m

Where: Kaplen JCC on the Palisad

Tenafly


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Loc

JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 22, 2

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city, Tirana. The father, Njazi Pilku, was an

Albanian Muslim who had studied engi-

neering in Germany; the mother, Liza, was

the German woman he married.

“From the beginning we were accepted

as friends,” Ms. Neumann said. “She was

very pro-Hitler, no question about it. She

had a big portrait of him in the living room.We were protected by her. German soldiers

came to visit her, and she would introduce

us as family visiting from Germany.

“Her courage should not be underesti-

mated. If anybody had told a soldier that’s

not true, that we were Jews, she would

have been shot on the spot and her chil-

dren would be shot on the spot.”

In all the 17 locations, the Neumann

always stayed with Muslims. They were

invited to join their hosts at the mosque

for Ramadan. “We were wined and dined

during the holiday of Ramadan,” Ms. Neu-

mann remembers.

In 1941, they were living in a policeman’s

home, and their host asked Ms. Neumann’s

father if he could join them for their Pass-over seders. He said yes. “To this day I

can’t say how my father could explain to

him what was going on,” she said.

Three and a half years later, the parti-

sans came down from the mountains and

won half of Tirana back from the Germans.

The Neumanns were headed out into the

countryside, away from the ighting, when

shooting started.

“My father said to my mother, in Ger-

man, we should quickly lie down. A par-

tisan girl heard the German and arrested

them on the spot as spies. She took us to

the nearest ield oficer — who w

Albanian policeman who had joine

seder,” she said.

After the war, in September 1945

were taken to a D.P. camp in Italy.

they discovered the horror of the

caust as they lived with survivors o

chwitz and Bergen-Belsen. “As puzzit may sound, we did not know what

on” elsewhere during the war,” she

Ms. Neumann has worked wit

Vashem to honor the Albanians wh

tected her family.

And she believes the story of how

lims protected Jews has a contemp

relevance.

“We’re making a terrible mistake

day and age when we say that becau

Muslim is a terrorist, all Muslims a

rorists,” she said. “The way preju

here in America now, that’s fright

I try desperately to point out that p

should not be prejudiced.

“Human beings are human being

were created by one God. Among body there are good and bad elem

People need to be made aware of th

that there were good and courageou

lim people, even at the risk of not onl

own lives, but of their whole families

Edip Pilku with a picture of his father, Njazi, who protected the Neumanns during

the war. NORMAN H. GERSHMAN


8/68

Local


A Chag Kasher V’Sameach Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Holiday.

May this Passover deliver freedom from want, from hunger,

from illness and from loneliness to our entire community

201-837-9090 - www.jfsbergen.org

‘We were strangers once’Teaneck rabbi considers plight of Syrian refugees in a Jewish context

LOIS GOLDRICH

As we sit around the Passover table, enjoying

the blessings of freedom and prosperity, we

read the story of our people’s redemption

from slavery. Year after year, we teach our

children about the hardships our people endured, hop-

ing this will stimulate their gratitude and appreciation for

the good fortune we enjoy today.

But if Passover provides the perfect teaching moment

for these lessons, it also offers fertile ground for sen-

sitizing all seder participants to the plight of others —

especially those still suffering persecution, hunger, and

homelessness.

Calls to action on behalf of others are not new to our

community. Those of us who remember the atrocities

in Cambodia in 1980 also will remember Elie Wiesel’s

words. Asked why he had visited that nation — where Pol

Pot’s Khmer Rouge was killing millions of innocent c ivil-ians — Wiesel replied, “While I am not a representative

of any group, [I felt that] as a Jew, I had to be there and

see irsthand what is happening, and whether I could

be of any help.”

Indeed, said Rabbi Joel Pitkowsky, religious leader of the

Conservative Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, the

issue of outreach raises a very important question: “What

does ‘never again’ mean when it’s not us being attacked?”

Each year, such worthy organizations as MAZON and

the American Jewish World Service take

that sentiment to heart, sending out read-

ings and other resources that suggest ways

that Jews can help people in need, whether

through advocacy or by direct action.

Last Shabbat, a working committee at

Beth Sholom met to discuss the plight ofSyrian refugees, a group whose wander-

ings, statelessness, and physical suffer-

ing resonate all too well with the Jewish

people.

“A group in the synagogue approached

me a few months ago wanting to have

some sort of synagogue response to the

Syrian refugee crisis,” Rabbi Pitkowsky said. “We’ve been

meeting on a regular basis, formulating ideas and thinking

of adult education possibilities.

“Early on, we recognized that connecting the crisis to

Passover was a natural it and a wonderful vehicle for edu-

cating the synagogue and community about these ideas,”

he said. “The seder asks us to use our imagination in a

powerful way. We’re commanded to understand ourselves

and to see ourselves as if we personally went out of Eypt.

It’s a central piece of the Magid section.

“It’s a beautiful idea, like on Friday night,

when we stand up and turn around at

the end of ‘L’cha Dodi’ to see the Sabbath

queen. We take ourselves out of our own

bodies. What we are pushing for is the idea

that the central themes of the haggadahshould not remain only in our imagination.

“If we are thinking about what it is to be

free, understanding ourselves in this story

and not just retelling it, then how do we per-

sonalize these themes today? How do we

make them powerful enough to understand?

We’re as free as we can be here in Bergen

County, and powerful enough to bring social justice into a

seder to cry out for a world that is not what it should be.

“The Passover story is such a powerful story for the

western world because it’s the irst story where the weak

overwhelm the mighty. Before Passover, we didn’t know

that was possible.”

Rabbi Pitkowsky said that four issues in particular

have animated his thinking this year. First, he will use

the opportunity of Passover to reflect on the situation

of Syrian refugees.

Second, as a national board member of MAZO

will pay particular attent ion to the words of “h

ma’anya,” which invite all who are hungry to com

eat. “Have we done everything we can as a comm

to help those who are hungry?” he mused. “I woul

to be able to say yes.”Third, making note of the work of Rabbi Debra

stein, religious leader of Congregation B’nai Isr

Emerson, and the organization Free the Slaves, h

think about the issue of human slavery.

And fourth, referencing the reading “Vehi She’a

declaring that in every generation enemies rise

destroy us, he will pray especially for the safety and

rity of the state of Israel.

Rabbi Pitkowsky acknowledged that the issue of

refugees is complex, but suggested that “Jews have

ticular sensitivity to what it means to run away from

who threaten our families and homes. American Je

privileged to live in the most Jewishly friendly en

ment the Jews have ever lived in.

“We know what it is to be turned away at the b

and we know what it is to be welcomed.”

Rabbi Joel Pitkowsky

A Syrian refugee is treated at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, in northern Israel. ZIV MEDICAL

SEE REFUGEES PA


9/68

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Wishing you and your family

a joyful holiday filled with health,

peace and reflection.

A celebration of freedom.

Happy Passover

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Why they marchEnglewood man,March of the Livingco-founder, talks

about the program

ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

Next month, David Machlis

of Englewood once again

will join March of the

Living.

The march is an annual educational

program that brings people — most

of them teenagers — from all over the

world to Poland and Israel. There,

they study the history of the Holocaust

and examine the roots of prejudice,

intolerance, and hate.

Dr. Machlis, who has been a profes-

sor of economics at Adelphi Universityin Garden City, N.Y., for 49 years, has

been the vice chairman of the Interna-

tional March of the Living since before

the irst march in 1988. (He describes

that march as having been “rather

small — only about 1,500 people.”)

Since then, some 220,000 partici-

pants from 52 countries have marched

along the three-kilometer path that

connects the notorious Nazi death

camps Auschwitz and Birkenau on

Holocaust Remembrance Day — Yom

Hashoah, in Hebrew — in silent tribute

to the victims.

The next week in Israel is high-

lighted by a march in Jerusalem onIsrael’s Memorial Day and a huge gath-

ering on Israeli Independence Day the

following day.

“The founders designed the pro-

gram with the goal of honoring the

memory of those who perished in the

Shoah, expanding Holocaust educa-

tion, and developing a cadre of alumni

all over the world who would serve as

agents against Holocaust denial on col-

lege campuses,” Dr. Machlis said.

“We never anticipated the tremen-

dous impact it would have on Jewish

identity, bonding with Israel, and com-

mitment to Jewish heritage.”

That impact has been studied

through personal interviews with par-ticipants that City University of New

York sociologist William Helmreich

conducted in 2010 and 2015. In the

second study, 66 percent of those who

did March of the Living in 2005 said

the experience made them more toler-

ant, 94 percent said they have visited

Israel again, and 15 percent said the

march even had an impact on their

career choice.

Overall, half of the respondents

said they would consider moving to

Israel. About 90 percent said March

of the Living strengthened their

Jewish identity and made them more

likely to marry a Jewish spouse, givetheir children a Jewish education,

bec ome invo lved in con fronti ng

anti-Semitism, and support Jewish

organizations.

“What’s most remarkable about

the march is how deeply it impacts

participants over a period of many

years,” Dr. Helmreich commented

when he released the survey results.

“It greatly impacts not only on Jew-

ish identity but also on compassion

toward other people.”

Considering that the 2013 ADL

Global 100 study revealed that 35

percent of people across the world

never heard of the Holocaust and 32

percent believe it is a myth or highlyexaggerated, March of the Living

seems to show a dramatic effect.

“I believe we’re successful for a

few reasons,” Dr. Machlis said.

“First of all, psychologists say 16-

to 18-year-olds are very impression-

able and more prone to modifying

their attitudes and behavior. Another

unique feature is bringing together

Jewish populations from very diverse

backgrounds, from Orthodox to unaf-

iliated. This creates an appreciation of

the other and a bond for the common

goal of Jewish and Israeli survival.”

He said that combining Auschwitz

and Jerusalem, Holocaust Remem-

brance Day and Israeli Independence

Day in one trip also helps to “producethose magical results.”

And then there’s the sheer power

of numbers. “Anyone can visit the

camps, but with a group of thousands

of people it’s a game-changer,” Dr.

Machlis said.

Local Jewish federations and Zionist

organizations across the world take on

the responsibility of recruiting, inter-

viewing, and educating March of the

Living participants prior to the trip.

“We start recruiting in the summer, so

the fall and winter is the study period,”

Dr. Machlis said.

Although he is not a Holocaust

educator, he has created some ofthe most successful components

of March of the Living. Dr. Shm-

uel Rosenman, March of the Living

world chai rman, appro ache d Dr.

Machlis after hearing about his pro-

gramming achievements at Adelphi,

where he was associate dean of aca-

demic affairs from 1978 to 1982.

In 2012, for example, Dr. Machlis

was allowed to start bringing World

War II concentration camp liberators

on the march. “The liberators provide

incontrovertible, everlasting testi-

mony to the truth,” he said. “When an

army veteran says, ‘I opened the gate

of Buchenwald,’ it has a huge impact.”

Survivors always have participatedas well, but every year there are fewer

survivors and liberators alive to share

their testimony.

“Our students pledge to be the

voice of the past in the present to

preserve the future, for the Jewish

people and nation and for the better-

ment of all humankind,” Dr. Machlis

said. “We must learn from the past so

there will be a more tolerant and just

society in the future.”

About 10 years ago, he opened

March of the Living to non-Jewish high

David Machlis of Englewood has

been on almost every March of

the Living. DAVID AZRAN

Teenagers walk on the tracks between Auschwitz and Birkenau.

YOSSI ZELIGER

SEE MARCH PAGE 21


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‘We will go up’Na’ale program brings local high school students to Israel for free education

ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

“Freedom” carries a host of meanings,

especially for Jews at a time of year

that celebrates the festival of freedom,

Passover.

For parents, a free high school educa-

tion for their children in Israel means

the freedom from burdensome tuition

or the freedom to choose a Jewish educa-

tion that otherwise would not be within

reach.

For teenagers on their way to becom-

ing independent adults, freedom is about

learning to handle everyday life without

direct parental supervision.

Na’ale El i te Academy in Israel

addresses all these deinitions.

Funded by the state of Israel and the Jewish Agenc y, Na’ale — which means

“we will go up” — offers a free three-year

high school experience to diaspora Jew-

ish teens. On-campus room and board,

health insurance, extracurricular activi-

ties, ield trips, pocket money, and even

the initial flight to Israel all are covered.

Na’ale was started in 1992 for kids from

Europe, South America, and South

Africa; the program began accepting

North American applicants in 2003.

This year, more than 1,600 Elite Acad-

emy participants from across the world

are studying in 25 different Israeli high

schools. Among them are two Bergen

County girls, Shawn Kissil of Fair Lawnand Danielle Haziza of Upper Saddle

River. Both chose to attend Mosenson

Youth Village, a coed multicultural day

and boarding school in Hod Hasharon.

Shawn said she picked Mosenson for

several reasons, among them its proxim-

ity to Tel Aviv and its large group of about

200 English-speaking boarders. “There

are lots of interesting electives at Mosen-

son, and it’s a cool environment,” Shawn

said. “This year we’re focused on learn-

ing the language and the culture.”

In the combined ninth and 10th grade,

the foreigners attend ulpan (Hebrew lan-

guage) sessions for 18 to 20 hours per

week in addi tion to their regular high

school classes, and by 11th grade they aremore or less fully integrated with their

Israeli peers. They meet other Elite Acad-

emy participants during events and trips

around the country.

“I like the feeling of independence,

learning the responsibility of living on

my own, and being able to be with my

Israeli relatives more often,” said Shawn,

15, whose roommates come from Florida

and Arkansas.

However, she added, “Living alone is

hard to get used to. When I go to visit

family in Tel Aviv and Haifa, sometimes

it’s dificult to travel alone. You have to

be conident and aware. What you need

most is optimism. The beginning is hard,

and you have to be able to see throughthe dificult parts.”

Chosen through an application and

selection process, the students are sup-

ported by a network of professionals

including dorm counselors, social work-

ers, language specialists, psychologists,

and teachers at each Elite Academy

location.

The program is offered at high schools

that run the gamut from secular to reli-

gious, some with intensive tracks in areas

such as science and art, and some cater-

ing speciically to students who speak a

particular language.

Though most Elite Academy students

arrive in their second year of high school,

Shawn opted to enter directly after grad-uating from Thomas Jefferson Middle

School.

“I always felt connected to Israel,” she

said. “I was born here and lived here

until I was 4, and we speak Hebrew at

home. I visited my relatives here a lot. So

I decided I wanted to try a new experi-

ence. My parents realized it was some-

thing for my happiness, and they’re okay

with it.” She went home for Sukkot vaca-

tion, and her parents and three siblings

came to visit her recently.

Elite Academy students take the inter-

nationally recognized Israeli high school

matriculation exam, the Bagrut. They

receive assistance if they wish to join the

army or make aliyah after high school,though neither is required. In fact, in

another twist on the freedom theme, stu-

dents do not even have to commit to stay

the entire three years.

“For now I want to stay, but I don’t

know about the future,” Shawn said.

Danielle Haziza, 16, is wavering

between going into the Israeli military

or going back home for college after she

graduates from Mosenson in a couple

of years. Like Shawn, her parents are

Israeli, and she came to visit Israel every

summer since she was a little girl.

“I saw my cousins and friends living

the Israeli lifestyle and they told me how

great it was,” Danielle said. “It was fun to

be with all Jewish people and I thought it would be really cool to live here. My par-

ents want to c ome back eventually, but

I didn’t want to wait any longer. At the

beginning they were against my going,

because they would miss me. I told them

that since my dad’s parents live here

everything would be okay.”

Danielle started Mosenson in August

2015. “Some people come with zero

Hebrew. I speak it well, but the classes

helped me write and read it at a higher

level,” she said. “This year, I take one

class with the Israeli students and during

recess and lunch and other breaks we

are always with them. Next year,

grade, we’re going to be in most o

classes, and I’m excited to be a p

that community.”

Her best friends are from Colo

and Italy, but everyone in the Mos

Elite Academy program speaks Eng

Danielle noted that Israelis are

independent at a young age than ar

American children, and she feels sh

matured this year by being around “Before I came here I never took

transportation,” she said. “And sh

a bathroom at the beginning was

weird for me, but you learn to co

mise and have your own time and r

others’ time.”

Danielle attended the Reuben

man Hebrew Day School in Roc

County through sixth grade. Alth

Mosenson is not a religious high s

the curriculum includes Bible

Hebrew, two subjects she obvi

wasn’t learn ing at Northern High

Regional High School. Israeli high s

students choose a major, and Da

opted for psycholoy.

“The most dificult thing is beingfrom my parents and family, not

able to come home every day,” sh

“But your friends and counselo

you through it, and give you a se

family.”

As for her friends from Northern

lands, “they were surprised that

going to Israel, but now they see m

tures online and say they wish they

do this too. A lot of people are obl

to what Israel really is — they thi

ride to school on camels — and I

I’ve made them a little more aware

reality here.”

Danielle Haziza, 16, of Upper Saddle River takes a break with classmates from

Mosenson Youth Village.

Shawn Kissil, 15, of Fair Lawn enjo

visiting her Israeli relatives while

attending Mosenson.


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French oak barrels for 18 months

and have great aging potential to

improve for many years to come.

5TH GENERATION OF WINE MAKERS

CABERNET SAUVIGNON


12/68

Local


Teaneck rabbi’s blog posts provoke controversySteven Pruzansky’s comments on ‘rape culture,’ college life, marital abuse evoke response

JOANNE PALMER

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of

Congregation Bnai Yeshurun

in Teaneck is no stranger to

controversy.

A lawyer and the rabbi of the biggest,

oldest, and arguably the most prominent

Orthodox synagogue in town, Rabbi Pru-

zansky has strong views, which he often

lays out strongly and at some length in his

blog, rabbipruzansky.com.

Over the years, Rabbi Pruzansky has

angered many people — and made many

friends — with harshly worded attacks on

Yitzhak Rabin, soon before he was mur-

dered; on President Obama’s re-election,

which he blamed on stupid greedy people

wanting “free stuff”; on the Jewish Week, which he compared to the Nazi propa-

ganda rag Der Sturmer (although later he

said the comparison of course was pur-

posely ludicrous), and on Israeli Arabs, for

whom he advocated severe mass punish-

ment, possibly including deportation. Ear-

lier this year, dismissing Hillary Clinton as

a “liar, a crook, an active participant in the

largest pay-for-play scheme in the history

of mankind…,” he also called her “an awful

speaker, shrill when she tries to be passion-

ate…” Instead, he endorsed Donald Trump.

In that endorsement, on March 17, he

touched on a theme that has resurfaced

in the last few weeks — the theme of vic-

timhood, which he sees as an occasionallyimproperly assumed mantle. “People have

had enough of the moral posturing of the

faux victim, which has resulted in nothing

less than in the increase of the numbers of

faux victims and even the possible causes

of victimhood,” he wrote in that March

post. “People are tired of having to whis-

per the truth because murderers, evildo-

ers, or sinners will have their feelings hurt

by it, even unintentionally.”

As a result of the uproar in 2014, cen-

tered on the Der Sturmer and Arab con-

troversies, which resulted in a short-term

need for police protection, Rabbi Pruzan-

sky agreed to have an editor look at his

posts before he put them up.

According to Steven Margulies ofTeaneck, who is the president of Bnai

Yeshurun, “independent editors have

been reviewing the posts before release.”

All this sets the stage for two recent

posts.

On March 31, in a very long post called

“A Novel Idea,” Rabbi Pruzansky wrote

about what he sees as the debased climate

on intellectually barren, sexually danger-

ous college campuses.

“Relations between the sexes has, alleg-

edly, become so strained that the liberal

media speaks incessantly about a ‘rape

culture’ on campuses, wherein brutish

men have their way with women in num-

bers approaching an epidemic,” he wrote.

“Or so it is claimed.”

Next, he wrote that because women and

men see sex and need love differently, they

disagree on basic deinitions. They often

see the same thing through entirely differ-

ent lenses, and report and understand it

differently. “That is to say,” he wrote, “the

couple was dating, grew close (sometimes

after a two-hour date, I suppose; people

bond much more quick ly these days),

retired to someone’s quarters and quickly

consummated their…friendship. Soonafter the ‘friendship’ ended, the woman,

feeling used, as she was by the lecherous

man, iles a complaint for sexual assault.”

The best argument against the fallacy

that a rape culture exists, he wrote, is

self-evident. “If indeed there was a ‘rape

culture’ on American campuses, no intel-

ligent woman would want to attend col-

lege,” he wrote. “The fact that more

women attend college today than men

itself belies the accusation.”

His solution is straightforward and

based in Jewish law.

“Here’s a novel idea, one that has been

tried before with great success but has

fallen into desuetude, apparently, on col-lege campuses,” he wrote. “It will solve

all these problems, the ‘rape culture,’ the

‘he said/she said,’ the feelings of rejec-

tion by the party who had an emotional

connection with another person who just

sought a physical connection. It’s called…

abstinence, self-discipline, or chastity. It

involves waiting until marriage to engage

in intimate acts, and then in a relationship

in which the couple genuinely loves each

other. It is preceded by a joyous ceremony

known as a wedding, which too involves

contractual obligations that are grounded

in mutual respect. Problem solved…”

That post lay fallow for about two weeks,

and then people started noticing it. A del-

uge of angry responses followed. RabbiPruzansky was accused of victim-blaming,

of not taking rape seriously, and of not

understanding that marital rape exists.

He responded to his critics with another

post, on April 13, called “Culture Wars —

Update.” There, he repeated his argu-

ments, perhaps in even more strongly

worded language, accusing his opponents

of seeing the world in black and white —

black, men, bad; white, women, good.

“No one ever ‘deserves’ to be raped, as

some hideously perverted my words,” he

wrote. “But do not walk into a ield clearly

labeled ‘Danger: Mines!’”

His conclusion was clear. “Heeding our

moral laws can only beneit men, women,

marriages, families and society itself. That was and is my point. The fruitless debate

over statistics aside, I would hope that

even the professional feminists can sub-

scribe to that.”

The reaction to these blog posts was

loud, although, strikingly, much of it was

only semi-public; posted to social media,

on Facebook, in widely circulated emails.

Stories about the posts have made it into

the local press, and into British papers too;

the Independent and the Daily Mail both

reported on it online.

One organization responded; Jofa,

the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance,

demanded that Rabbi Pruzansky wit

as a speaker from a June 26 “yom a day of learning, devoted in this c

teaching and inspiring children. Mor

30 local Orthodox institutions al

have signed on, and Bnai Yeshuru

host it. Rabbi Pruzansky in fact w

speak; now the battle is over whe

conference is to be housed.

The pressure to respond to the

ing situation, particularly given th

iyun, and the fact that it’s a huge

locus for emotion, has posed a pr

for many area Orthodox institution

their rabbis, who are reluctant to cr

a colleague.

The Rabbinical Council of Am

which represents a large number o

trist and modern Orthodox rabbiof which Rabbi Pruzansky has b

vice president, has been pressed to

position.

It did; irst in a Friday, April 15, JTA

Service story, in which it said, “

Rabbi Pruzansky raises some imp

points regarding sexual behavior o

lege campuses, the RCA rejects th

and much of the substance of his r

comments regarding rape.”

In a longer statement, posted o

group’s Facebook page, Rabbinical

cil of America — RCA, on Saturday

the organization elaborated, car

distancing itself from the way in

Rabbi Pruzansky voiced his opinionexpressing its dismay over what it ca

“overkill that has become the respo

his blog entry.”

Rabbi Shalom Baum, who head

gregation Keter Torah in Teaneck,

president of the RCA. He declined an

view, ceding to Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

of Congregation Ahavath Torah in

wood, who is a past RCA president.

“I think people need to realize th

the RCA to have taken a public po

concerning a member rabbi’s pe

blog means that there is a great di

fort with, as the RCA said, both th

and some of the substance of wh

says, and that taking a public post

such a circumstance comes only the RCA has reached a certain p

Rabbi Goldin said, choosing his w

with great deliberation.

“What people need to realize,

needs to be recognized, is that the

a member organization of over 1,00

bis, and it cannot and should not m

the individual communications o

of its members,” he continued. “It

when a situation rises to this level

public eye that the RCA will be mo

comment. Of major concern here we

sensitivities involved, and the pain o

who have been hurt by others.”

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

Heeding our moral laws can onlybenefit men, women, marriages,

families and society itself. That wasand is my point. The fruitless

debate over statistics aside, I would hope that even the professionalfeminists can subscribe to that.

RABBI STEVEN PRUZANSKY

Y O U T U

B E S C R E E N

C A P T U R E


13/68


14/68

Local


Meet Trump’s Israel adviserLawyer Jason Dov Greenblatt of Teaneck tells his unexpected story

JOANNE PALMER

It’s not often that a career as a real-estate lawyer

leads to a role as an Israel adviser to a front-running

candidate for president.

In fact, it’s quite possible that it never happened

to anyone until it happened to Jason Dov Greenblatt of

Teaneck. But on April 14, Donald Trump told reporters

that Mr. Greenblatt, who is 49, would be his lead adviser

on Israel.

Mr. Greenblatt’s day job is to be the Trump Organiza-

tion’s chief legal oficer, in charge of his legal staff — six

on the transactional side and three in litigation — and per-

sonally involved in all his legal matters that do not involve

litigation.

And now, he is joining another lawyer, David M. Fried-

man of the New York law irm Kasowitz Benson Torres, as

Mr. Trump’s sources of context and wisdom about Israel

and the Middle East.“Donald and I have spent time talking about Israel over

the years,” Mr. Greenblatt said. “He takes input from me,

and from others as well, including his son-in-law, Jared

Kushner,” who is Jewish. “He wants to be able to rely on

people, to hear their views, and he thought that I would be

a good person to listen to and get ideas from.

“But at the end of the day, he makes his own decisions.

We try to give him ideas, and things to think about, and

then he puts it all in his own head and makes his own

decisions.”

According to the JTA Wire Service’s Uriel Heilman, who

was at the meeting with Mr. Trump, “when Trump identi-

ied Greenblatt last week as his top presidential adviser on

Israel, it appeared to me a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

“‘I knew that he was relying on me for certain aspects of

Israel, but I didn’t know I was his top adviser,” Mr. Green- blatt said. “I felt fortunate he said it.”

Mr. Greenblatt’s main sources of information are daily

email alerts, AIPAC materials, and a weekly Jewish radio

program featuring Malcolm Hoenlein, the CEO of the

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Orga-

nizations, Mr. Heilman reported.

No, this is not the conventional background for a presi-

dential adviser, Mr. Greenblatt told the Jewish Standard,

but “I’m not sure that there really is any prototype for this

role any more. Who has had an experience in this role in

the recent past who has managed to successfully achievesomething?

“I’m not sure there has been. The world has changed.

Look at the Arab Spring. Everything has changed since

then.

“There are people who know more than I do, for sure,

but does that mean they will be successful at changing

anything?”

Mr. Trump will be successful, he said. “Donald is

ter negotiator, and people will want to sit at a tabl

him and make transactions. That’s what he brings

table. We would be there for support and ideas, b

Donald who has the knowledge, the experience, the

bilities to sit across the table from the Palestinians.“The goal would be to get the Palestinians and the

lis to the table — of course the Israelis have tried

times. But someone like Donald could get the Palest

back to the table.

“And yes, I hope that I would be at the table too

we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves,” Mr. Gree

said.

Mr. Greenblatt’s positions on Israel are similar to

of his boss. Like Mr. Trump, Greenblatt supports

state solution, as long as it is reached by the parties

selves and not imposed by an outside body like the U

Nations. He does not believe Jewish settlements

West Bank are a core part of the problem.

To get the Palestinians to the negotiating tabl

Greenblatt suggests threatening to withhold som

funding from the Palestinian Authority.

U.S. negotiators “need to lay down the law and ethat the [Palestinians are] not going to get the benei

get from the United States unless they come to the

he said. “I think they need to say: ‘Over the course

next period of time, we will continue to provide fu

but in order to do that you need to do X, Y, and Z, s

crete goals, and if you don’t we need to start taper

the funding,’ and see what happens.”

Mr. Greenblatt, like Mr. Trump, believes Israeli-

tinian negotiations can be handled, like Mr. Trump

estate negotiations, by making money a main incen

“If you take out the emotional part of it and the h

cal part of it, it is a business transaction,” he said. “L

going to be negotiated, water rights are going to be

ated, security issues are going to be negotiated. So yo

Jason Greenblatt of Teaneck, newly named as Donald Trump’s Israel adviser, is also his top lawyer.URIEL H

All the Greenblatts — from left, Jason, Noah, Julia, Avery, Naomi, Sophia, Vera, and Anna — on a beach in

Israel last summer. URIEL HEILMAN

JTA Wire Service’s Uriel Heilman contributed to this report.


15/68

Local


to say to them, ‘Listen, we want to discuss these two

issues in this quarter, and then you’ll get your check,

and these two issues in this quarter, and then you’ll get

your check. At the end of the day you want to resolve

all the issues. I think it isn’t a good idea to do partial

negotiations and then hope for the best.”

Turning to Syria, Mr. Greenblatt said that the United

States should create safe havens for civilians fleeingthe war, possibly by “borrowing land” from nearby

Turkey and Jordan. He also thinks that the United

States should marshal a worldwide coalition to deal

with ISIS.

Asked how the Iran nuclear deal should be handled,

Mr. Greenblatt said that it’s too late simply to tear it up

— but he’s not sure how to proceed. “I’m not an expert

on it to answer that question adequately,” he said.

Jason Greenblatt’s own story began in Queens ,

where he went to an Orthodox elementary day school

and then to MTA, Yeshiva University’s high school

for boys. He spent his year in Israel after high school,

studying at Yeshivat Har Etztion. Back home, he went

to Yeshiva University for his undergraduate degree,

and then to law school at NYU.

A real estate lawyer from the start of his career, Mr.

Greenblatt spent a few years as an associate at Fried,Frank, a well-known New York law irm. Then, in the

mid 1990s, “I started a cappuccino company, which

was great for a while, until Starbucks made its inroads

in a huge way,” he said. “An Italian company devel-

oped the precursor to the pod machines that are all

over ofices now, and I put machines all over Penn Sta-

tion and the New York City airports.” Then Starbucks

happens, and “I sold the machines and went back to

practicing law.” Actually, he said, he never stopped

practicing law completely — “Fried Frank was very

good to me, and they let me work there full time to

inance the cappuccino company.”

But he wanted to get married, so he moved to

another law irm, where he could work full time,

and then his phone rang. It was a headhunter for the

Trump Organization. “I went for an interview, and it was great. I hit it off with the general counsel, and then

I had an interview with Mr. Trump.

“I thought it was a fantastic interview. I went back to

the general counsel’s ofice, and it was great, and then

he realized that I was shomer Shabbes, and something

changed. He said that he had to check something, and

wasn’t able to extend an offer to me. I can’t say that

he deinitely would have done it then, but the writing

was on the wall.

“It was a Friday afternoon, and I went home and

said ‘I can’t believe that this is 1996, and I won’t get a

job because I’m shomer Shabbes, but it is what it is.

“And then he sent me a fax and extended the offer,

and it’s all been great.” He began to work for the

Trump Organization in January 1997.

Mr. Greenblatt is intensely loyal to Mr. Trump. When

he was asked how Mr. Trump’s style, which can seem both rude and crude to onlookers, would work at the

negotiating table when the subject is peace between

Israelis and Palestinians rather than a real estate deal,

he protested. “He is not rude and he is not crude,”

Mr. Greenblatt said. “He is not the things he has been

accused of by the media. The media will take a sound

bite, and the sound bite itself becomes a story. It is a

snowball effect.

“Of course you don’t get to be as successful as Don-

ald without being tough, but he is a uniier.”

But wait. The debates were not sound bites, and Mr.

Trump’s comments were not distorted by the media;

instead they were reported by cameras. “But those

SEE GREENBLATT PAGE 23

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Local


Temple Sinai names honoreesTemple Sinai of Bergen County will hold

its annual gala on Saturday, May 7, at 7

p.m., at Montammy Country Club in

Alpine.

This year’s honorees are the Marks/

Weiss, Friedberg/Goldstein, and Simonfamilies.

Kenneth and Christel Marks have been

members of Temple Sinai since the mid

1970s. They celebrated the bat mitzvah

of their daughter, Louise, and the bar

and bat mitzvah ceremonies of three

of their four grandchildren there. Ken

and Christel’s daughter, Arlene, lives in

Manhattan. Louise Marks married Peter

Weiss at Temple Sinai and they have four

children. Ms. Weiss was on the sister-

hood board for many years and now is

on the religious school committee. Peter

Weiss is on the Temple Sinai’s board.

The couple is involved in Jewish philan-

thropic causes including UJA Federation,

the Weizmann Institute, and B’nai B’rith.Eugene and Marlyn Friedberg of

Alpine joined Temple Sinai in the mid

1960s. Their children, Ahron, Jared,

and Alanna, all celebrated becoming

bar or bat mitzvah and were conirmed

at Temple Sinai. Marlyn, who launched

Friedberg Properties in 1994, is involved

in many Jewish organizations, includ-

ing ORT, the National Council of Jewish

Women, and the Technion. She received

a Lion of Judah award from the Jew-

ish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Alanna Friedberg married Rob Gold-

stein and also lives in Alpine. The couple

and their three children have been Sinai

members for 15 years. Rob Goldsteinparticipated in Temple Sinai’s Hineini

program and is on the temple board.

Dr. Cliff and the late Leslie Simon

joined Temple Sinai in the mid 1970s.

Their son Scott became a bar mitzvah

at Temple Sinai, while their son Rob

became a bar mitzvah in Israel. The

Temple Sinai community was a source

of great support for the Simon family,

especially during Leslie’s illness. Cliff

Simon established the Leslie Simon Sim-

cha Fund in her memory to support the

Temple’s Chanukah Day party. Drs. Rob

and Liz Simon and their three children

live in Tenafly and have been members

of Sinai since 2005. Liz Simon, a Sinai

board member, was co-president of theEarly Childhood Center Parent Associa-

tion and was on the sisterhood board as

vice president. Rob Simon participated

in the Hineini program. They are look-

ing forward to their daughter’s upcom-

ing bat mitzvah at Temple Sinai in a few

months.

For information on the dinner or plac-

ing an ad in the journals, go to www.tem-

plesinaibc.org or call (201) 5683035.

Frisch students donate hair to Israeli charit

Six Frisch students and two daughters

of Frisch faculty members donated their

hair to Hair4Wigs — Zichron Menachem on

Sunday, April 10. Zichron Menachem is an

Israeli organization that collects hair that

it uses to make custom wigs for children

suffering from cancer.

The girls got their hair cut toget

Lillian Lee Salon in Teaneck. Ms. Le

tured, center front, donated the s

services for the cause. She also ru

Wonders, a charitable organizatio

cuts and styles wigs for women an

with cancer.

NCJW honoredat Project Sarah breakfast eventThe Bergen County section of the

National Council of Jewish Women was

among the honorees at Project Sarah’s

10th annual breakfast earlier this month.

Project Sarah (Stop Abusive Relation-

ships at Home) is a program that works

to overcome cultural, legal, and religious

barriers confronting victims of domestic

violence and sexual abuse.

Marcia Levy, NCJWBCS presidium

member, accepted the volunteer recog-nition award on behalf of the group.

Jay Leno helps raise fundsfor Israeli EMS organizationLast week, Jay Leno performed at a spe-

cial concert fundraiser at Lincoln Cen-ter for United Hatzalah, Israel’s larg-

est volunteer EMS service. Mr. Leno

also offered to donate a fully equipped

ambucycle that the EMS organization

can use to save lives in Israel.

The former Tonight Show host called

Eli Beer, United Hatzalah’s founder and

president, to the stage for the announce-

ment. Once the ambucycle, which costs

$36,000, is outitted and adorned with

Jay Leno’s name, it will join the fleet of

more than 400 ambucylces used by the

volunteer EMS service.

Mr. Leno also challenged the audience

to join him in supporting lifesaving in

Israel by donating to the organizationthen and there. He offered anyone who

donated $1,000 a free tour of his garage,

which houses his large c ar and motor-

cycle collection. An additional $50,000

was raised on the spot.

The concert at the Jazz at Lincoln Cen-

ter venue featured performances by

musical entertainer Lipa Schmeltzer and

the rock band 8th Day. It also featured

the Neshama Orchestra and was hosted

by Jewish Radio personality Nachum

Segal. Concert sponsors included Jay

and Jeanie Schottenstein, Bob and Amy

Book, and Mendy and Barbara Silber.

Marcia Levy

Temple Emeth celebratingrabbi’s bar mitzvah yearRabbi Steven Sirbu will be

honored at Temple Emeth’s

spring gala on Saturday, May

7. The evening, marking Rabbi

Sirbu’s 13 years as the spiritualleader of Bergen County’s

oldest Reform synagogue,

includes dinner, dancing, and

tributes. A journal will be pub-

lished to mark his bar mitzvah

year.

A native of California, Rabbi

Sirbu was ordained in 1998,

after studying at HUDJIR’s Jerusalem, Los

Angeles, and New York campuses. He was

assistant rabbi and then associate rabbi at

North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, N.Y. He

and his wife, Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu, live in

Teaneck with their daughter, Talia.

When he arrived at Temple Emeth

in 2003, Rabbi Sirbu

implementing his visi

social action and comm

outreach. He establis

Muslim-Jewish educaprogram, participate

mission of Jewish and A

American leaders to Bir

ham, Alabama, and ma

in America’s Journey fo

tice, which was organiz

the NAACP and co-spon

by the Central Confere

American Rabbis. He has been pre

of the Teaneck Clery Council, the N

Hudson Valley Association of Reform

bis, and the North Jersey Board of R

Paula Dillon and Lisa Eig are the

co-chairs. For information, call (20

1322 or go to www.emeth.org.

Rabbi

Steven Sirbu


17/68

Bergen County Chabad joins other centersin visit to IsraelThirty people from Chabad of NW Bergen

County in Franklin Lakes and Chabad of

Old Tappan joined more than 500 others

from other New Jersey and U.S. Chabad

centers to create the largest delegation totour Israel in 2016.

Thousands of people and groups, ranging

from the British rock group Manfred Mann to

former presidential hopeful Ben Carson, had

canceled their trips to Israel in recent months

citing security concerns. But “For us, there

was never a doubt that the trip would go

on” said Rabbi Chanoch Kaplan, direChabad of NW Bergen County.

The eight-day trip began on March

included visits to more than 40 his

and modern sites, ranging from the W

Wall and Hebron to the Begin Museu

Yad Vashem.

A return trip is planned for 2018.

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New fiscal consultant for EmunahMel Zachter of Staten Island is Emunah of America’s new

consultant for iscal operations. Before going to Emanuah,

he had been an executive partner at Loeb & Troper CPA’s

LLP. Mr. Zachter is a board member in many not-for-proit

organizations; he is also co-president of Ohel Children’s

Home and Family Services.Emunah of America’s president, Karen Spitalnick,

announced Mr. Zachter’s appointment, effective immediately.

He joins Emunah at a critical time in its continued growth, and

he will be a member of the senior cabinet of the organization,

assisting in its efforts to enable Emunah Israel to provide

essential care and services for thousands of challenged and

needy children, adolescents, and adults in Israel.

Mel Zachter

JHAL residentthe subject ofHolocaust bookHolocaust survivor Abe Peck, a resi-

dent of the Jewish Home AssistedLiving in River Vale, is the subject

of a just-published book, “Abe vs.

Adolf,” that recounts his survival

story. Here, he displays his tattoo as

a prisoner and holds the book. It is

available on Amazon.com.

Sinai high schoolersperform a special‘Wizard of Oz’The students of Sinai’s Rabbi Mark & Linda

Karasick Shalem High School at the Torah

Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck per-

formed an original production of “The Wiz-ard of Oz” to a standing-room-only audience.

The teen production, featuring many stu-

dents who have profound dificulties with

basic communication, came into being

through the dedication and support of the

teachers at Sinai Shalem. Work on the show

began in September, and used curri

components designed to focus on

skills as reading, presentation, organi

and teamwork. The staff wrote the sc

ensure that every student had a role.


18/68

Rockland


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To be a good ambassador, you have

to be able to stand in, or at least

understand, two places at once.

There is the country you rep-

resent. And there is the country where you

are stationed, where you present your cre-

dentials. One leg in each of two worlds, as

it were.

Liraz Levi is the de facto ambassador of

Israel at the Jewish Federation of Rockland

County. His title is shaliach, representative;

he is, strictly speaking, not working for the

diplomatic corps of the State of Israel, or

even the Jewish Agency for Israel, the orga-nization that he oficially represents. Strictly

speaking, he is working for the federation.

His job, though, is to represent Israel and to

promote an understanding and appreciation

of Israel in the Rockland community.

Mr. Levi grew up knowing there was more

than one world. His two

sets of grandparents

were neighbors who lived

across the street from

each other in Herziliya,

near Tel Aviv. His moth-

er’s family was observant

and Yemenite; his father’s

was secular and Turkish.

He grew in nearby Kfar

Saba, a town whose sub-

urban greenery is remi-

niscent of Rockland’s. He

was enrolled in the public

Orthodox school system,

attending a boys-onlyhigh school.

During his service in

the Israel Defense Forces,

he worked as an analyst with an intelli-

gence unit in Tel Aviv, and headed a human

resource department there. After the army,

Liraz Levi at largeAn interview with the Rockland Jewish Federation’s shaliach

“Like almost every

Israeli, I looked for

new adventures,” Mr.

Levi said.

First he moved to

Toronto and worked

selling Israeli prod-

ucts in mall kiosks. He

returned to Israel and

worked for Groupon

Israel for a year. Then

he took his real post-

army trip, to Thailand.

During this time,

he learned that the

Jewish Agen cy sen temissaries to Jewish

summer camps. He

had always been fas-

cinated by the idea of diaspora Jews.

“When I was a young boy, I felt really

attracted, really curious about Ameri-

can Jewry,” he said. A stint as a soldier

accompanying a Birthright group didn’t

slake his interest. The prospect of actu-

ally spending a summer with American

Jews, making a mark, fascinated him.

“They sent me to Camp Ramah in Wis-

consin, which was amazing. I discovered

the Conservative movement. I didn’t

know what it meant. I just fell in love

with all the ideals of equality and beinga community together,” he said.

At Ramah, he spent two summers as

a counselor for special needs kids. Back

in Israel, he worked for the Conservative

movement’s high school program, Tichon

Ramah Yerushalayim. There he was one

of four counselors “spending ive m

being moms and dads for a group

schoolers, getting to know them,

them know what it is to live in Jeru

spending time traveling the countr

“It was one of the best experi

I’ve ever had in my life,” he said.

As shaliach, Mr. Levi still is h

people get to know Israel — onl

time he’s the one doing all the tra

“I’m trying to bring as much Isra

can, all over the county,” he said.

cially the modern Israeli culture.”

He hopes to dispel ignorance

Israel. He’s sympathetic about tha

rance and the funny questions it eAfter all, “I don’t know lots of pa

America.”

Still, he can’t helped be amused

person asked me about the city i

ert, Beersheva. He asked if came

the way to transport there,” he sai

There is no question in his

though, that he will return to Israe

“It’s a great experience being he

ing the American dream, being i

York,” he said. There are so many o

tunities. But it’s a once-a-lifetime t

need to come home. Israel is my

and my home and that’s where I’m

ing from and something I miss.”

But when he returns home, heto stay in touch.

“I want to study internationa

ness and the relationship betwee

ish American people and Israeli

said. “I want to keep working wit

ish Americans.”

Five songsOne of the tools Liraz Levi likes touse to introduce Israel and its diver-sity to Americans is its culture, andspecifically its music. Here’s his listof five favorites he would recom-mend as an entry to contemporaryIsraeli music.

1) Hatikva Shesh. “They’re doingreggae music, the first Israelis to doit. They started in 2007. They gotreally successful this past year. Themost famous song from this era is‘The Most Israeli,’ which talks aboutall the small Israeli things that makeyou the most Israeli,” Mr. Levi said.

2) Cafe Shachor Hazak. Theband’s name means “strong darkcoffee” and it consists of two Ethio-pian cousins.

“They started working two yearsago. Last year there were protestsby Ethiopians about human rights, afew months after what happened in

Ferguson, Missouri. Their music released during those protests,”said.

3) Amir Benayoun. “When itcomes to Mizrachi music, he is really classic, really authentic. He ha great voice. In the last year hestarted expressing his political vwhich I think makes music less g

Most of his songs from the last 1years are really good.”

4) Shlomit Jersey. “She got famous a few months ago on X Fator Israel. She’s part of the Chabmovement. She was secular andtoday’s she’s charedi. She sings in English.”

5) Dudu Tassa. “He’s a well-knsinger, musician, and composer. started working in the early 200doing rock music. For the past feyears he’s combining his familybackground from Iraq, where hisgrandfather was a really famoussinger, with his rock music.”

Liraz Levi


19/68

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NCJW offers lectureon women pioneers

Julianna Margulies narrates a screen-

ing of “Makers: Women Who Make

America,” a glimpse of trailblazing

women who are pioneers in theirield, for the Rockland section of the

National Council of Jewish Women on

Wednesday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. The

meeting will be at Reform Temple

of Rockland (formerly Temple Beth

El), 415 Viola Road, in Spring Val -

ley. Refreshments will be served. For

information, go to ncjwrockland.org.

RJS annual galaRockland Jewish Family Service will

hold its annual gala; this year it will

honor Lyn and Hank Meyers, Dr.

Joan Black, and Lauren Lipof f. The gala will be at Congregation Shaarey

Israel in Montebello, on Sunday, June

5, at 6 p.m.

For more information, call (845) 354-

2121, ext. 177, or email [email protected].

New City shul releases CDTemple Beth Sholom of New City has

released a new CD, “Ruach of Temple

Beth Sholom,” in time for Passover. It can

be downloaded; to ind it, google “Ruach

of Temple Beth Sholom.”

Using the latest in digital technoloy,including multitrack recording, Temple

Beth Sholom produced the entire CD in

house. TBS members, a mix of amateur

and professional musicians and singers,

recorded

Jewish Standard, April 22,2016

Documents

Transcript of Jewish Standard, April 22,2016