Jewish Standard, May 13, 2016

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TIMES OF ISRAEL FOUNDER TO SPEAK IN PARAMUS page 6

HOW CHRISTIE’S TRAGIC TRAIT TRUMPED HIS TALENT page 10

RAISING THE VOICE OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM ON CAMPUS page 14

RABBI TO PARENTS: ‘NURTURE THE WOW’ page 48

MAY 13, 2016VOL. LXXXV NO. 36 $1.00

THEJEWISHSTANDARD.COM

Lev Golinkin’s journey

from Ukraine to Jersey

Memoirsof a savedSoviet Jew

page 30

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

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JEWISH STANDARD MAY 13, 2

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Candlelighting: Friday, May 13, 7:47 p.m.

Shabbat ends: Saturday, May 14, 8:53 p.m.

●So there’s an old joke about a guy

who’s looking to get his watch fixed.

He passes a little shop with clocks and

watches in the window, and goes inside.

“Can I help you?” asks the man

behind the counter.

“I want this watch repaired,” says

David.

“I’m sorry. I don’t repair watches.”

“Well, how much for a new one

then?” asks David.

“I don’t sell watches.”

“You don’t sell watches?”

“No, I don’t sell watches.”

“Clocks, you sell clocks then? How

much for a clock?”

“I don’t sell clocks.”“You don’t sell watches, you don’t sell

clocks?”

“No, I’m a mohel,” replies the man. “I

perform circumcisions.”

“Then why do you have all those

clocks and watches in the window?”

“If you were a mohel, tell me, what

would you put in your window?”

That joke came to mind when I saw

an illustration for an article in the New

York Times, “Should you circumcise

your child?” The answer, according

to physician and columnist Aaron E.

Carroll, is … it’s up to you: The medical

evidence “fails to make a compelling

case in either direction.”

But that illustration! It features a

pencil and pencil sharpener (so far, so

obvious), but instead of pencil shavings

(which would be gross, right?) what

emerges out of the sharpener are the

petals and florets of a pink flower. I’d

try to interpret the image for you, but

frankly I am stumped. (The illustrator,

Alvaro Dominguez, did not respond

to my request for a comment.) Does it

mean that out of the sterile procedure

of a circumcision there emerges a

beautiful blossom?

Flattering, maybe, but not like any

bris I’ve ever attended.

To be fair to Dominguez, it isn’t

easy to come up with a fresh idea for

illustrating an article about circumcision.

It all seems to have been done before.

There’s the vulnerable baby. Thereare the tools the mohel uses. New

York Magazine went with a partially

peeled banana. And it was only a few

months back that the New York Times

ran an essay, “To Circumcise or Not to

Circumcise: A New Father’s Question,”

featuring an evocative drawing of

a father and a baby approaching a

pincer-like subway turnstile:

A few takeaways based on my

research. News sites love a good

circumcision pun. Opponents of

circumcision (so-called intactivists)

may be small in number but they are

incredibly active on the web.

And do not, under any circumstances,

Google “circumcision” looking for

images unless you have a strong

stomach. ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL/JTA

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

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

COVER STORY ................................................30

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................47

ARTS & CULTURE ..........................................48

CALENDAR ......................................................49

GALLERY ..........................................................52

OBITUARIES ....................................................53

CLASSIFIEDS ..................................................54

REAL ESTATE ..................................................56

OK, wise guy, how would YOU

illustrate a circumcision?

●Starting in 1915,

Zionist leaders Zeev

Jabotinsky and

Joseph Trumpeldor

lobbied for a military

unit of Jews to fight

alongside the British

in the war against

the Ottoman Turks.

By the end of the

war, 5,000 Jews —

from Palestine, the

United States, Eng-

land, and elsewhere

— had enrolled in

dedicated battalions

collectively known in English as theJewish Legion.

The Hebrew title for the units is

Hag’dud Ha’ivri, literally the Hebrew

legion. Which makes it more than

a little ironic that one of the signs

marking the Jerusalem street named

for the legion is, as recently pointed

out by a sharp resident, deficient in

its Hebrew.

Actually, it’s a true multilingual

fail; the English is also flawed and

too — and here we’re trusting mor

expert eyes than ours — is the Ara

Which leaves us with a question fo

those of our readers more familiar

with the life of Jabotinsky, who w

writer and editor in his years befo

and after serving with the Legion.

How did he react when faced with

egregious typos? LARRY YUDE

Wanted: A legion of proofreaders

Jews’ power● “What’s all this fuss about Soviet

juice?” Emily Litella, the character Gil-

da Radner played on Saturday Night

Live in the Brezhnev era, once asked.

We were reminded of this by a

recent Facebook post by Liya Hoshi,

which went viral last week.

She wrote:

“Was totally confused for a second

when I looked over at my travel

charger and thought: ‘Did I really

buy a charger from a company

called +JEWS! And didn’t notice?’;

‘Is that some sort of horrible pun

on “juice”?’... Oh... Wait... I get it. It’s

upside down and the company’s

name is ‘iSmart.’ “

She concluded self-deprecatingly:

“I NOT smart…”

We disagree. We often see Hebrew

that we know isn’t there on upside-down English. But maybe this double

meaning is real. One commenter o

imgur.com, where this upside-dow

logo surfaced a year ago, argued:

“I have a feeling this was not an

accident.”

Either way, we agree with anot

commenter there, who looked at

the positive side: “well, it’s betterthan -Jews.” LARRY YUDEL

ON THE COVER: These cover photos, from the archives of the Joint Distribu

Committee, all were taken in Vienna in 1989. All show Soviet Jews on their w

to new lives.


4/60

Noshes

4 JEWISH STANDARD MAY 13, 2016

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

ion of Jews. Hamilton

wrote that a Nevis Jewish

woman tutored him as a

child, and he once recited

the Ten Commandments

in Hebrew before her.

As an adult, Hamilton

defended Jews from the

bigoted attitudes of the

day — like ‘all Jews’ were

untruthful.”

One final note — Man-

uel and his wife aren’t

Jewish. But she loves

“Fiddler on the Roof,”

and at their 2010 wed-

ding, Manuel (aided by

many talented friends)

sang “L’Chayim — To

Life.” It is such a well-do-

ne and joyful version that

you really have to see the

YouTube video, called

“Vanessa’s Wedding

Surprise.” Just enter the

title — trust me, you’ll be

amazed and delighted.

ROB REINER’s directorial careerslump may end

this May. There’s prettygood advance buzz for“Being Charlie,” whichopened on May 6, butwon’t be in most the-aters until Friday, May 13.

It was co-written by hisson, NICK REINER, 22,and it is a semi-autobio-graphical account aboutNick’s battle with drugsand the burdens ofhaving a famous lastname. Rob, 69, told ABCNews: “Over the courseof making the film, ourrelationship definitelychanged. It wasn’tterrible or anything, butit got better, because Ithen understood a lotmore of what he hadgone through and heunderstood a bit more

what I had gonethrough.”

Recently, twopeople withJewish back-

grounds have beenthe news — one inIceland and the oththe Congo. Those atwo countries thatcouldn’t be moredifferent or less ass

ated with Jews. Icehas an elected presÓlafur Grímsson, wchief of state and wsome power. But thmain power is held the prime minster. WIceland’s prime minresigned on April 6following the PanamPapers revelation thhad had big oversesecret bank accounGrímsson, now servhis fifth term, plannretire this year. But decided to run for aterm to provide stain the midst of theoverseas bank scanHis wife since 2003DORRIT MOUSSAI

66. She’s an Israeli fa prominent family jewelry business. Ichistorically has beepretty hostile to Jew(including barring ttrying to flee NaziGermany). So the flady of Iceland is reedly guarded abouopen ties to Icelandtiny Jewish commuNext week: the Con

Daveed Diggs

HAMILTON STAR:

Early praisefor Daveed Diggs

Dr. Barbara Needell Ron Chernow

Rob Reiner Nick Reiner Dorrit Moussaieff

Normally I writeabout Tony awardnominations the

week before the ceremo-ny — this year it’s onJune 12 — but this year Ithought I’d highlight onenominee early. He’s anactor I haven’t men-tioned yet in this column.“Hamilton” actor DAV-EED DIGGS, 34, is

nominated for bestfeatured actor in amusical. He plays theMarquis de Lafayetteand Thomas Jefferson.Diggs went to BrownUniversity on a trackscholarship, but turnedhis attention to theaterand earned a degree inthat field. He was invitedto hear an early versionof “Hamilton” by thecomposer/writerLin-Manuel Miranda andwas cast in a major role.

Diggs is the son ofDountes Diggs, an Af-rican American whoworks for the San Fran-cisco city transit sys-tem, and a white Jewishmother, Dr. BARBARANEEDELL, 67. Now aconsultant, Dr. Needellworked for U.C. Berkeleyfrom 1996 to 2015, andfor some years beforeshe retired she was thehead of a university unitthat aided child welfaredepartments statewide.She describes herself onTwitter “as the motherof two fine men” [Dav-eed and his brother,

MALCOLM].Last July, Daveed

Diggs told Broadway.

com: “I went to Hebrew

school, but opted out of

a bar mitzvah. My mom

is a white Jewish lady

and my dad is black. The

cultures never seemed

separate — I had a lot

of mixed friends. When

I was young, I identified

with being Jewish, but Iembraced my dad’s side

too.”

“Hamilton” has earned

a record 16 Tony nomi-

nations. It’s based on

a 2004 biography by

RON CHERNOW, now

67. Back in 2004, I wrote

this about the book:

“Chernow, who describes

himself as ‘Jewish, but

more in the breach than

in the observance,’ cov-

ers Hamilton’s Jewish

connections. Hamil-

ton’s French Protestant

mother was married to

a Dane named Lavien,

which led to speculation

that Lavien was Jew-

ish — but Chernow notes

there is no real proof of

this. Hamilton’s mother

left Lavien and took up

with a non-Jewish Scot

named James Hamilton

— who fathered Alex-

ander. The terms of her

divorce forbade her mar-

rying again, and Alexan-

der was born out of wed-

lock. Chernow writes that

Hamilton (who grew up

on Nevis, a West Indian

island) had a high opin-

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at

[email protected]

“I don’t have a message for myfans. I’d like to see my family treated fairand nicely.”

— Donald J. Trump, reacting to a request from CNN that he comment on the

torrent of anti-Semitic abuse and threats that Jewish reporter Julia Ioffe recei

in response to her GQ story about Melania Trump.

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6JEWISH STANDARD MAY 13, 2016

Living in a tough neighborhood

Times of Israel founder, journalist David Horovitz, to speak in ParamusJOANNE PALMER

David Horovitz, the founder, edi-

tor, and visionary behind the

daily online Times of Israel, will

be speaking at the Jewish Center

of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvah this

Sunday evening at 6:15.

“I’ll be talking about the only things I know

about — current affairs in Israel,” Mr. Horovitz

said modestly, if inaccurately.

Mr. Horovitz, 53, was born in London, and

his affect — his ginger hair, his accent, his

very dry wit, his politely veiled but nonethe-

less evident impatience with incompetence

and cant — is deeply British. But although his body and his manner were in the west, his

heart, as he tells his story, always was in the

east. In Israel.

He made aliyah in 1983, when he was 21,

married a woman whose path began in Texas

but intersected his in Jerusalem, and they

made their life in Israel. Mr. Horovitz, a gifted

writer and clear thinker who began his career

with a journalism degree from a college in

Wales, worked for the Jerusalem Post and the

Jerusalem Report; he was the Jerusalem Post’s

editor from 2004 to 2011. Both those publica-

tions, like the Times of Israel, are written in

English, and have readers around the world.

The Times of Israel is nonpartisan,

although it is strongly Zionist. (It is also ourpartner; our website, jewishstandard.time-

soisrael.com, shares the Times of Israel’s

back-end technoloy, including its blogging

platform.) In a country where politics are

bare-knuckled and journalists, like politi -

cians, often are unrestrained in their loathing

of their opponents, this middle ground often

is untrodden.

That of course does not mean that the

Times of Israel’s bloggers — one of the web-

site’s strongest features is its range of bloggers

— do not have strong political opinions, which

they share almost entirely unrestrainedly

with their readers. They do, and they do.

That also does not mean that Mr. Horovitz

does not have opinions. He has them, and

expresses them frequently, irmly but mildly,entirely without flying spittle but with elo-

quent emphasis, in his editorials.

One of the issues that the Times of Israel

has been examining recently isn’t even

strictly speaking about Israel, although it is

about the relationship between anti-Zionism

and anti-Semitism. It’s the ongoing revela-

tions about the depths of Jew-loathing in the

British Labour party.

“Those of us who grew up in the decades

after World War II wanted to believe that anti-

Semitism had been shamed into the margins,

if not obliterated altogether,” Mr. Horovitz

said. “I think that in the last few years, we’ve

learned that it is not the case. And it’s worse

in France than in Britain.

“French Jews are now looking at Israel as

a necessary refuge. I don’t think that anyone

ever anticipated that in our lifetime, western

European Jews might regard Israel as a refuge

for themselves.

“In England, the Labour Party has a very

ine tradition, and has had leadership that

should be appreciated from a Jewish perspec-

tive,” Mr. Horovitz continued diplomatically.

“But in the last election, it was taken over by

a man of the radical left” — Jeremy Corbyn

— “who has spoken about Hamas and Hez- bollah as his friends. He is now the head of

Britain’s largest opposition party.

“You have an alliance between the far left

and the far right. Very strange bedfellows —

and very unpleasant people. Members of the

Labour Party now ind themselves with lead-

ership that is unceasingly hostile to Israel,

obsessively hostile to the planet’s only Jewish

state.

“When I left England to move to Israel,

there was an undercurrent of anti-Semitism,

but it’s become more prominent since, but

it’s not at the level of France,” Mr. Horovitz

continued. “I think that British Jews feel

pretty comfortable in Britain. Jews in central

London feel that they can wear a kippah or a

magen david, the way Jews cannot in Paris.But there long has been an undercurrent

of anti-Semitism, and it’s absolutely gotten

worse in recent decades.”

What about the United States? “I don’t

feel qualiied to make parallels,” Mr. Horo-

vitz said. “I think that on college campuses

in America, there is an obsessive hostility to

Israel that lapses into anti-Semitism.” It’s a

worrying trend, he added. “In Britain there

are a lot of campuses that had proud sup-

porters of Israel a few years ago.” Now they’re

afraid to be so public. “Increasingly it’s like

that in America, and I fear it will get worse.

“I fear that the people who are being

misled about Israel on campus today are

tomorrow’s journalists and politicians.”

Still, he said. “America is one of the few

places on earth where Jews can lead a com-

fortable, proud Jewish life. On the one hand,

that’s fantastic. On the other hand, that’s not

the norm.”

What about Jewish life in Israel, compared

to the United States? One clear difference

between here and there is that in Israel, most

Jews are either Orthodox or secular; as the

ancient, more-true-than-funny line has it,

the shul they don’t go to is Orthodox. That’s

not true here; even though the numbers ofOrthodox Jews are rising and the numbers of

liberal Jews are falling, according to the Pew

survey, still most Jews here are not Orthodox.

“Non-Orthodox Judaism does not have

much of a foothold in Israel,” Mr. Horovitz

conirmed. “That’s because, relatively speak-

ing, there aren’t many non-Orthodox Jews in

Israel, and ultimately Israel is a democracy. If

20 to 30 percent of Israelis were formal mem-

bers of non-Orthodox streams, and chose to

use their electoral weight, they would be able

to.

“You have Orthodox Jews, secular Jews,

and lapsed Jews here in Israel, but not non-

Orthodox Jews who are passionate about

it. There just isn’t that tradition or footprint

here.“It is a function of demographics. If there

were more people with that ideoloy in

Israel, then things would change.”

Still, he said, “American Jews do hav

influence. Israeli leaders do not want to

ate American Jews. Some things were

by accident, 20 or 30 years ago, with

intent, that would not be done now.

in Israel now are better informed abou

pora Jewry.

“You’ve seen the effort to resolve the

around the Wall,” he continued. (The

tion at the Western Wall is fraught wi

sion, which often rises to overtly exp

rage. The Kotel now functions as an

dox synagogue, with a large men’s s

and a smaller women’s one, and with a

rate section, not connected to the mainand not part of what is generally thou

as the Western Wall, set aside for mixe

der prayer. Women’s efforts to pray pu

led by the controversial Women of th

often meet with violence; the Israeli Su

Court’s efforts to calm the situation

meet with disregard. The Wall, like th

ple Mount above it, is both a sacred spa

a tinderbox.)

What about diaspora Jews who hav

up on Israel, or who have never felt its p

their hearts? Despite any tensions be

various diaspora communities and the

government, “if you think that Judais

ters, if you think that it is a way to live

worth preserving, and if your history to you, then it is sad if you don’t thin

the well-being of the Jewish people is in

cally connected with the well-being of

Mr. Horovitz said. “There are very few

on earth where Jews can be comforta

think that at least in the medium term,

ica is one of the them — but the imm

with which a Jewish state can look a

residents is critical.

“We know that Israel was revived t

to provide a refuge for Jews from the

caust, but it was able to do so for Jews

Middle East and northern Africa, an

we’re seeing that it’s becoming imp

for some European Jews as well. It is

tant that Israel remain robust. If Am

Jews don’t see that, I think they areshort-sighted.

“On the other hand, America i

David Horovitz to speak in ParamusWho: David Horovitz, a British-Israeli journalist and the former editor of the Jerusalem P

What: Will give the first Harold Lerman Fund for Israel talk, called “Living in a Rough Neborhood: Israel’s Challenges and Opportunities in the Middle East.”

Where: At the Jewish Community Center of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvah, E. 30Midland Avenue

When: Sunday, May 15, at 6:15 p.m.

Who is invited: Everyone. It’s open to the entire community, and it is free

For information: jccparamus.org or (201) 262-7691


7/60

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welcoming. It is wonderful to be a Jew here.

It is so comfortable to be an American that

the perceived imperative to champion and

develop your Jewish identity seems less

urgent.”

The best way for diaspora Jews to under-

stand the emotional, historic, political, and

moral importance of Israel is to go there, hesaid.

For himself, the descendant of a family

of Holocaust refugees, and his wife, whose

father was the sole survivor of his family, “we

wanted to be part of this history, to build a

sovereign Jewish nation.”

Next, Mr. Horovitz turned his attention to

the American presidential election, as seen

by Israelis. “The biggest, most read news-

paper in Israel is Israel HaYom, and that’s

been quite supportive and complimentary

to Trump,” he said. That’s hardly surprising;

the paper, which is free, is owned by Jew-

ish casino owner and philanthropist Shel-

don Adelson, the Republican who recently

announced his support for the Republican

presumptive presidential candidate. “The biggest selling tabloid, Yediot Achronot, for

whom Netanyahu can do no right, has been

more openly critical of him.

“I think that now we are down to the two

of them, Trump and Clinton, that if Israelis

could vote, probably they would be voting

in higher numbers for Clinton over Trump. I

can only speculate as to why. She is a known

quantity, and there is a lot of good feeling

about her husband.

“Also, Israelis may be wary about Trump’s

feeling about minorities,” he added.

Turning to the Times of Israel, now four

years old, “people appreciate that it tries to

be fair-minded,” Mr. Horovitz said. “I thinkthat the combination of traditional news

reporting with the vibrant blog community

has been effective, and our effort to report

not only about Israel but also about the Jew-

ish world, and having both original writing

and breaking news, is important.”

It’s hard being online. “The almost impos-

sible challenge of speed and accuracy just

gets harder and harder,” he said. “You try to

work out what’s going on. If you don’t report

something fairly rapidly, people will stop

coming to your website. I think that people’s

expectations of the media, of photos and

videos and so on, have grown. The internet

allows you to do that.

“The challenge is the 24 by 7 aspect of

it. And we are an English-language website based in Jerusalem, and about sixty percent

of our readers are in North America. When it

is midnight in Israel, it is only 5 o’clock in New

York and New Jersey.”

The Times of Israel has staff reporters in

Israel and regular correspondents in other

countries, and it uses freelancers and news

agencies, including JTA, the New York-based

organization once known as the Jewish Tele-

graphic Agency. (The Jewish Standard, like

many other Jewish weeklies, gets much of its

back-of-the-book world coverage from JTA.)

“There are thousands of people who have

opened blogs with us, and we get about 40

posts per day — or something like that — fromaround the world,” Mr. Horovitz said.

Moreover, “we also publish in four lan-

guages,” he added. “We have a very serious

French-language website, and we also have

websites in Arabic and Persian and Chinese.”

The Chinese website is almost entirely about

business, particularly Israeli innovation, he

added; it touches on politics only when poli-

tics affect innovation. “We set it up because of

Chinese interest in Israeli high tech,” he said.

The Arabic and Farsi websites, on the other

hand, “are mission-oriented. I wanted them

to get a sense of how Israel is fair-minded.”

Bloggers write in Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, and

French, and often their readers stumble over

the larger website while following a link to the

blogs.The New York Jewish Week soon will join

the Jewish Standard in partnership with the

Times of Israel, Mr. Horovitz reported, and

another two or three local Jewish newspapers

are at various stages of discussion with the

Israeli site. “I think it’s fantastic,” Mr. Horo-

vitz said. “It’s mutually beneicial. It has to be.

We only partner with publications tha

good original content. Otherwise it w

work.”

When he speaks to U.S. audiences, h

“I try to give people a credible and n

tisan sense of what we are dealing w

Israel. It is fascinating and challenging

also has real implications for the free w“We are living in a region where th

plenty of people who don’t want to li

let live, but to kill and be killed. Regim

Iran, which are obsessively critical of

are similarly obsessive about the U

States. It is critical, I would think, to

stand them.”

Mr. Horovitz’s talk is the irst projec

Harold Lerman Fund for Israel Edu

and Engagement at the JCC of Paramu

Lerman, who died last year, was a pa

ate supporter of his shul, of Jewish lif

of Israel, so Mr. Horovitz seemed a l

choice.

Rabbi Arthur Weiner of the JCC of Pa

is enthusiastic about Mr. Horovitz’s upc

talk. “The shul chose him because of hstanding reputation,” Rabbi Weiner sa

is acknowledged to be clear, level-h

and perceptive.

“He has become a very important vo

Israel — the lay community, policy-m

diplomats all read him and think abou

he has to say.”


8/60

Local


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JCC/IAC collaboration will increaseengagement with Israeli Americans

Leaders call it a ‘win-win’ arrangement

LOIS GOLDRICH

When things work, you try to ensure (l) that

they’ll keep on working, and (2) that you’re

taking advantage of every opportunity to

make them work even better.

With this in mind, the Kaplen JCC on the

Palisades has joined with the Israeli-Ameri-

can Council, headquartered in Los Angeles,

to form one unit that will provide services

and resources to American Israelis in New

Jersey. The agreement — which calls for uni-

ied programming and a joint inancial model

— is a irst: In no other community does the

IAC work in such close partnership with a

JCC. Indeed, the joint venture will be housed

at the JCC in Tenafly.Aya Shechter, director of the Israel Center

at the JCC, will become the IAC’s New Jersey

regional director, according to the JCC’s CEO,

Jordan Shenker. Ms. Shechter also will con-

tinue to support ongoing JCC efforts, such as

its summer camp and afterschool programs.

Shai Nemesh, the IAC’s New Jersey program

director, will join her in her work for the IAC.

“Like many things, [merging the two pro-

grams] is not a simple process,” Mr. Shenker

said. “Ultimately, it emanated from several

years of collaboration between these two

organizations. From the moment [the IAC]

arrived, we began playing in the same sand-

box,” he added, comparing the relationship

to “dating.” After “six to ten months of dis-cussions with different people, lay leaders

and professionals, we said, ‘What if we really

thought differently? What would it look

like? Let’s see if we can’t igure out a much

more formal relationship to meet both of our

needs.’” While each organization, accept-

ing the need to make joint decisions, clearly

would be giving up some control, the ques-

tion, Mr. Shenker said, was, “What is for the

greater good that may not have been the best

option for us individually? What is the long

game?”

The IAC, which now has some 10 chapters

throughout the country and access to signii-

cant resources, already has launched pro-

grams in towns including Hoboken and New

Brunswick, and in the Metrowest area. “They

want to set up shop here because of the long-

time success of the JCC in Tenafly in serving

the community, and the growing Israeli com-munity in the area,” Mr. Shenker said.

About 15,000 Israelis live in and around

Tenafly, Mr. Shenker said. “Israelis living here

have a passionate interest in maintaining

their language and Israeli culture,” he added.

“Many believe they’re going back some day.

They want to feel as Israeli as they can while

living here. They gravitate to experiences in

Hebrew to feel connected to Israeli culture.

Also, coming here without language skills

and social contacts, they gravitate to what is

familiar.”

The JCC Israel Center was established 10

years ago. Starting with scarcely 100 par-

ticipants during its early years, “today we’re

serving between 3,000 and 4,000 Israelisin active, ongoing programs at the JCC,” Mr.

Shenker said. The fact that there is no model

for the new venture with the IAC anywhere

else “was part of the motivation for us both,”

he continued. “They were looking to identify

a model they can replicate with other afili-

ates. We have 150 sister JCCs. If it works, we’ll

share.”

Mr. Shenker said that the merger will

“increase and leverage the number of peo-

ple we can serve, resources we can offer this

population, and increase the impact we have

in the community to create a stronger oppor-

tunity for engagement between Israelis and

the general Jewish community.” For her part,

Ms. Shechter called the joint venture “a posi-

tive move, because both organizations have

similar values and aspirations to serve and

engage the Israeli American community. We

have demonstrated in a year and a half of working together that when we collaborate

and join forces, we can do things more effec-

tively and can do more for the community.”

The idea, she said, “is to do things together

at the JCC, and things done elsewhere in New

Jersey wil l be done by the IAC.” Still, she

noted, “We will deinitely try to expose the

entire community here to the various oppor-

tunities available in different locations.” In

addition, “We will ensure that the program-

ming that currently exists at the JCC for the

Israeli community will continue to operate at

the highest level.”

“It was clear to all that working within the

JCC would create a win-win situation,” said

Shoham Nicolet, the IAC’s chief executiveoficer. While the two organizations have

worked together in the past , “we hope to

see more collaboration.” Nicolet said that

the American Jewish community has much

to learn from its Israeli members, “and we

have a responsibility to bring our hybrid

identity and other advantages to support

the community.”

He hopes that a leadership training pro-

gram for 15 Israeli American high school

students will bear fruit, “and they will be

leaders in the Israeli American community,”

Mr. Nicolet said. “We’re focusing on build-

ing leadership and programs based on what

the community wants. It’s becoming more of

a movement, not like in the past, when we

were just running programs.”

According to Mr. Nicolet, the IAC

tions differently in each area it serve

run by experts, but by the time it co

a city and state, it caters to the exact lo

and needs of the community, which

it to speak the language of that comm

Even eight years ago, he said, many I

faced complete isolation. “We see ashift, a revolution,” he said, calling

fastest growing Jewish revolution in th

today.” He pointed out that in the pa

American Jewish community’s polic

based in large part on Israeli policy,

stressed that Israel was the place for al

lis. Today, however, things have change

“top ministers in Israel are coming to sp

our community.” In the past, “there w

recognition of an Israeli diaspora.”

The IAC is working to develop w

which Israelis and the wider Jewish co

nity can work together. “It’s a very imp

message,” Mr. Nicolet said. “We’re

Americans. We have a hybrid identity

still an immigrant community but par

larger American Jewish community acontribute to it.” Realizing that many I

are here to stay, he said that the choi

“either lose this community or conver

an opportunity and turn it into an asse

example, with a strong connection to

and a knowledge of Hebrew, “we cou

it in the American Jewish community

port Israel and ight initiatives such as

As for the new arrangement wi

Kaplen JCC, “The IAC is thrilled to be w

within, and in full collaboration with,

the nation’s largest and most highly reg

JCCs,” Mr. Nicolet said. “We believe th

new partnership provides an exciting

for IACJCC collaboration that can be

cated all across the country.”“This merger will enable two org

tions already doing fantastic work en

New Jersey’s Israeli-American comm

to become even more effective,” Mr.

ker said. “With our combined resourc

expertise, the IAC and the JCC are go

nourish a vibrant center for Israeli life

community like never before.”

“One of the major efforts we are go

invest in during the upcoming year

connection between the Israeli and

can Jewish community,” Ms. Shechte

“We’re working on initiatives to co

teens and adults. If there are peopl

think this is a worthy cause and want

unteer and create new programs, they

contact me at [email protected]

Aya Shechter Shoham Nicolet Jordan Shenker



Barbara Smolin

Sylvia Shirvan

Sylvia Safer

Jayne Petak

Jo-Ann HassanPerlman

Linda Mirelson

Jeanne LissEpstein

Joyce Joseph

Arline Herman

StephanieGoldman-Pittel

Rella Feldman

Eleanor Epstein

Nancy I. Brown

Vivian Bregman

Elaine Adler

Dana Post Adler

OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

Jewish FederationFor more information, please contact

Robin Rochlin at 201-820-3970 | [email protected]

Len Fisher at 201-820-3971 | [email protected]

Zvi S. Marans, MD Joan Krieger Endowment Foundation, Chair LOJE, Chair

Endowment Foundation

LOJE is a wonderful thing.

Leadership Israel

Volunteering

Responsibility

Legacy

Tradition

Community

Generations

Jewish values

Giving Back

Join us in building a vibrant Jewish future.

Star of David Society

Legacy

This month Jewish Federation celebrates the women’s

international

Lion Of Judah Endowment

program. Lion of Judah donors exemplify the values of tzedakah,

responsibility, and concern for fellow Jews. By endowing their

gifts, these women will leave lasting Jewish legacies and help

strengthen Jewish life for future generations. Look for more of

these special women in the coming weeks.

Ruth Cole


10/60

Local


Katz on Christie

Reporter Matt Katz talks about New Jersey’s Chris Christie at the Tenafly JCC

JOANNE PALMER

Matt Katz, a reporter for WNYC, the New

York City public radio station, sees Gov-

ernor Chris Christie as a tragic igure,

Falstafian in his appetites, Nixonian in

his overreach, almost Icarus-like in his

downfall.

Mr. Katz has covered Mr. Christie

since 2011, when the newly inaugurated

Republican governor’s raw political tal-

ent made him a rising star so brilliant

as to be practically blinding. Mr. Katz

has seen Mr. Christie’s rise, his mortify-

ingly embarrassing fall, and now his new

zombie-like revival, in thrall to Donald

Trump.

On May 19, Mr. Katz will talk about Mr.

Christie at the JCCU at the Kaplen JCC onthe Palisades in Tenafly. (See the box for

more information.)

Mr. Katz, who lives in Philadelphia,

began following Mr. Christie for the Phil-

adelphia Inquirer because the newly

elected governor was seen as a likely

presidential candidate, therefore in

need of a reporter devoted to him.

In 2013, Mr. Katz moved to WNYC. “I

started the week after he won re-elec-

tion,” Mr. Katz said. “He was beating

everyone in the polls,” the years-in-

advance ones that heralded the still-far-

away presidential caucuses, primaries,

and general election campaign. “I got a

book deal in 2013, when he was beatingeveryone else in the Republican ield.

He won by 21 points in New Jersey, got

51 percent of the Hispanic vote, 60 per-

cent of the women’s vote. It looked like

a lock.

“I sold the book to the publishers.

Everyone wanted it.”

Three weeks after the contract was

signed, when the email that signaled the

beginning of Bridge gate was released,

the world learned that it had been time

for some trafic problems in Fort Lee.

Bridgegate, of course, is the scandal

that derailed Mr. Christie, tarnished his

image, and made it impossible for him to

win the Republican nomination for presi-

dent, at least during this cycle.Mr. Katz said that fewer people might

have read his book, “American Gover-

nor: Chris Christie’s Bridge to Redemp-

tion,” than might have had Mr. Chris-

tie not fallen, but “it is a better book

because it is about the rise and fall, not

just the rise.”

Before Bridgegate, Mr. Christie had

real magic, Mr. Katz said. In 2011 and

2012, “When I saw him at town hall

meetings, people of all stripes were

totally charmed and enchanted by him.

In the irst days after Sandy, when he

went out there, met people , talked to

people, hugged people, it made a big dif-

ference to people on the ground.

“I think that his best moments as a

politician, and something that made himremarkable for this day and age, was

when Sandy hit, right before the elec-

tion. Christie had been campaigning for

Mitt Romney nonstop. He welcomed

Obama, and, when on Fox and Friends,

talked about what an excellent job

Obama was doing for New Jersey.

“They” — the talk show hosts — “said

‘You invited Obama?’ and he stopped

cold, and looked at them, and he looked

harried, and he had that fleece on, and

he said, ‘If you think I give a damn about

politics at a time like this, you don’t know

me at all.’

“It was amazing. People loved him.

They thought he was a good guy, even

when they disagreed with him. Much of

New Jersey disagreed with him on justabout everything, but still they liked him.

“Except, of course, for more ideological

people, and union members, and Dem-

ocrats, and teachers, and other public

employees. People who were paying more

close attention to policy didn’t like him. But

it’s almost hard to remember how vastly

popular he was throughout the state, and

across ideological and ethnic lines.”

Was that all an act? Mr. Katz doesn’t

think so. “Part of it was, but not all of

it,” he said. “Although my view of him

has changed a bit since he endorsed

Trump. That had a more dramatic effect

on my thinking than anything els

done has had.”Until then, he said, “Yes, there a

wer e pol it ic al operati ons tha t

unethical, and that he should be

accountable for. There was questio

deal-making and retaliatory acts a

people who didn’t go his way long b

Bridgegate. There was questionab

of taxpayer funds for helicopter tr

baseball games and political activit

“I always knew that he was an a

sive, hard-nosed politician, and th

would operate in shades of gray

always felt that even if he did op

with a cutthroat mentality politica

did believe things. That he had har

beliefs that he wouldn’t waver from

everything wasn’t just a means to a“But the Trump endorsement is

to tie with that, because it seems t

tradict everything that he says and

for. It’s confounding.”

Before Bridgegate, Mr. Katz adde

Christie was able to take advanta

New Jersey’s lack of its own large

outlets to keep messy local issues

the news but to take advantage

national markets on either side

state. “His popularity nationally, in

made New Jerseyans like him. He w

Saturday Night Live and Letterma

all the late night shows. That all

Chris Christie looks back over his

shoulder at Matt Katz; from left, t

other reporters are Christine Sloa

Channel 2, Josh Dawsey of the W

Street Journal, Matt Arco of the S

Ledger, AP’s Jill Colvin, and Melis

Hayes of the Bergen Record.


11/60

Local


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Dean Steven Huberman, Ph.D.

@wearetour

him appear likable.”

The parallels between Nixon and

Christie, between Watergate and

Bridgegate, are unmistakable, although

perhaps it is fair to say that if the irst

time around, with Nixon, it was trag-

edy, this second time, with Christie, it’sfarce. (Remember the governor’s quip

about how he was responsible for the

trafic iasco because he was out there,

“wearing overalls and a hat, moving

cones.” Once imagined, that mental

image cannot be erased.)

Just as we don’t know whether Rich-

ard Nixon ordered the raid on the ofices

in Watergate, we don’t know if Chris

Christie ordered the lane closures. We

do know that neither Nixon nor Chris-

tie needed them; both were likely to

win their races, and in fact did. We

also know that both Nixon and Chris-

tie were deeply involved in covering up

the initial crimes. There is even miss-

ing information in both cases — by farmost of Christie’s texts and emails have

vanished, and of course Nixon had the

famous 18-minute gap in the tapes. Both

men ruined their careers because of the

internal flaws that did not let either of

them be satisied with what they had,

even though what they had was winning

careers.

“After Bridgegate” — which of course

is still an ongoing investigation, so this

story’s not nearly over yet — “he was a

lot less combative with constituents in

public. He never used to get protestors,

and all of a sudden there were more con-

frontations. He stopped holding press

conferences to a large degree for a longtime. He’d always had a combative rela-

tionship with us, the press, but he also

seemed to enjoy the jousting that came

with it, the back and forth. He didn’t

seem to enjoy himself grappling with us

any more. He thought we were all out to

get him.”

Still, Mr. Katz said, “talk to any

national political reporter, who will tell

you that Christie had the most raw polit-

ical talent of any of the 17 Republican

contenders. He clearly is one of the — if

not the — most, talented political com-

municators in the country.

“In New Hampshire, hours before he

lost there, he was still wowing people

in town hall meetings. He was bringingthem to tears, talking about his mother

on her deathbed.

“A last flash of what he could do”

surfaced when Mr. Christie went after

Marco Rubio in a debate, in a sort of

murder-suicide. That was Mr. Christie’s

last debate before he dropped out of

the race. “It was a high risk/high reward

move,” Mr. Katz said. “He was the only

one who could have gone after Trump

like that, but he decided not to. I think

he wanted to demonstrate what he could

do in a national election against Hillary,

but the voters didn’t buy it.”

What will Mr. Christie do now? “If

Trump is president, I think he’ll be attor-

ney general or chief of staff,” Mr. Katz

said. “If Trump is not president, I think

potentially he could run again, in 2020.

America has a short memory. But who

knows? Another obvious thing for him todo would be to go into consulting, have

some sort of political lobbying and con-

sulting operation, and appear on cable

news all the time.

For the rest of this political cycle,

Mr. Katz will move from covering Mr.

Christie to covering Donald Trump,

although, as he points out, right now

those two beats overlap. After his talk

at the JCC, he will go to a Trump rally

in Lawrenceville. “Trump will be charg -

ing $200 a ticket, and using the money

to settle Christie’s campaign debt from

his presidential campaign,” Mr. Trump

said. “Then he’s having a $25,000 per

person meeting later. That’ll be fund-

raising for the New Jersey RepublicanCommittee, to pay the Bridgegate law-

yers who were retained by the commit-

tee.” (This is just a small part of the fees

Bridgegate lawyers have run up; tax-

payers pay most of the bill.)

“It is fascinating to see the mutually

beneicial arrangement between Chris-

tie and Trump,” Mr. Katz said. “Christie

needed a favor, Trump has to do a rally

in New Jersey, even though he has the

nomination already, it’s just a helicop-

ter ride away from home for him, and

Christie will be working for him at least

through November.”

Who: Peabody-award-winningreporter Matt Katz

What: Will talk about Governor ChrisChristie, whom he has been coveringsince 2011

Where: At the Kaplen JCC on thePalisades, 411 East Clinton Avenue,Tenafly

When: Thursday, May 19, at 10:30

Why: As part of the JCC U

How much: $32 for JCC members;$40 for nonmembers

For more information: www.jccotp.org/adult-JCC-universityor (201) 408-1454.

He clearly isone of the — if

not the — most,talented political

communicatorsin the country.


12/60

Local


Women, the Talmud, and TiferetTalmudist Dr. Jeffrey Rubenstein looks at the stories ofthree women at a meeting of the partnership minyan

JOANNE PALMER

It’s not news to say that nothing

human is perfect, and also that there

is something unstoppably human

about yearning toward perfection

anyway.

There are a lot of shuls in Englewood

and Tenafly, and a lot of Jews to give them

life. (Not as many of either as in Teaneck,

true, but that is an extraordinarily high

bar.)

There’s one Reform shul and one Con-

servative one, and quite a few Orthodox

ones. All seem to be thriving. There seems

to be no pressing need for one more. But

in 2009, a group of Orthodox Jews — all of whom belonged to shuls, most of whom

were satisied with those shuls — realized

that there were two things that they could

not get from their shuls.

They wanted women to have the chance

to lead parts of the service, within the

bounds of halacha — Jewish law — as under-

stood and deined by the Orthodox world,

and they also wanted more intimacy than

their large shuls could give them.

That led to the creation of Minyan Tife-

ret of Englewood and Tenafly.

Tiferet is a partnership minyan, based

on the model of Shira Chadashah in Jerusa-

lem and Darchei Noam in Manhattan, one

of its co-chairs, Mark Schwartz of Engle- wood, said.

Just about everyone who goes there reg-

ularly belongs to Congregation Ahavath

Torah, the East Hill Synagogue, or Kehillat

Kesher. All are in Englewood (although

Kesher is on the border with Tenafly).

It is not a formal synagogue. There is

no membership, Mr. Schwartz said; there

is no rabbi, and no services beyond reli-

gious ones — no counseling, no program-

ming, most of the time no classes. It offers

religious services about ten times a year,

mostly on Shabbat mornings but occasion-

ally on Friday nights. This year, for the irst

time, the minyan met on Purim evening

to read Megillat Esther, and will meet on

Tisha B’Av to read Eicha (the book of Lam-

entations). Women, like men, have the

opportunity to read from both of those

scrolls at Tiferet.

There are no fees and no profession-

als. Everything is lay-led, and participants

are invited to learn to lead, if they do not

already know how to do it.

In partnership minyanim, a mechitzah

divides the men and women’s sections,as it does in all Orthodox synagogues.

The bimah, though, is neutral territory.

Women are allowed to read Torah and haf-

tarah, and to lead the parts of the service

that do not require a minyan. They are not

counted in the minyan, which still requires

10 men.

“We ill a real need for people,” Mr.

Schwartz said. “The main issue is the par-

ticipation of women.

“I am married to a feminist, and I am the

father of a daughter. Those things changed

me.

“I grew up in a mainstream Conserva-

tive synagogue,” he continued. That syn-

agogue was the Fort Lee Jewish Center,

which, when he was there, had mixedseating but did not allow women to lead

any part of the service. (In a way, its model

was the opposite of Tiferet’s.) “And then I

went to Yeshiva University, and I met my

wife, who grew up Orthodox.” The fam-

ily joined Congregation Ahavath Torah in

Englewood. They are happy and comfort-

able there. But the idea of having a place

where women would have more of a voice

appealed to them.

The other component of Tiferet’s appeal

is its size. Participants come from across

Englewood and Tenafly’s East Hill, from

Leonia in the south to Cresskill in the

north. The neighborhoods from which

it draws are full of big, beautiful houses,

with huge rooms that can be conigured to

hold 50 or so adults, and also have enough

space left for children and a babysitter.

But those neighborhoods do not include

— and are not zoned to include — the sorts

of businesses that have space to rent for

occasional meetings.

So Tiferet can never be too big, and with

its relatively small size comes the kind of

intimacy, along with the chance for genu-

ine leadership, that many people crave.

“People can have the kind of experi-

ences that they don’t get in synagogue

every week,” Sarah Adler of Tenafly,

Tiferet’s other co-chair, said. “One of thethings that makes it special is that you

feel that you’re part of a group that really

needs you.”

Three Tiferet meetings draw large

crowds, which stretch its physical capac-

ity. One of those days, a lunch and learn

on the second day of Sukkot, “got a very

large turnout,” Mr. Schwartz said. “Every

woman who came brought her own lulav

and etrog set.” He found that both power-

ful and moving. Another of those times is

a potluck kabbalat Shabbat dinner, “which

had an enough turnout,” [?]he said. “Peo-

ple love the conviviality.” The only down-

side is that “it’s very hard to ind a space

that can contain us.”The third such meeting is Tiferet’s

annual lunch and learn series. Last year,

Rachel Rosenthal, a doctoral student in

Talmud at the Jewish Theological Semi-

nary who is also a gifted teacher, drew

crowds. This year, prompted by Ms.

Rosenthal’s acknowledgment of another

teacher, Dr. Jeffrey Rubenstein, last year,

Dr. Rubenstein will teach.

Dr. Rubenstein, who lives in Engle-

wood, is the Skirball Professor of Talmud

and Rabbinics at NYU. He, his wife, and

their four children belong to Kehillat Kes-

her, which is Orthodox, and Kol Hanesha-

mah, which is Conservative. He straddles

the Conservative and Orthodox worlds;

although he works in academia, he is arabbi, ordained at JTS. Looking for a seri-

ous Shabbat community, he and his fam-

ily frequently ind themselves in Orthodox

settings. “It’s hard to ind a large, serious

observant Conservative community, and

for various reason we sent our kids to

Moriah,” Dr. Rubenstein said. He and his

wife have four children. “They developed

friends in the Orthodox communities, so

we spent more time at Kesher.

“This is a predicament faced by a lot of

serious Conservative Jews,” he added. “As

a family, we like going to Kol Haneshamah,

but my kids don’t have so many friends

there.”

But life always is complicated. “M

teenage daughters like reading To

Dr. Rubenstein said. “They read To

women’s services for their bat mit

but they can’t do that at Kesher.

“And it’s important not just fo

daughters but for my sons, too,

involved in expanding the role of w

as much as possible.”

Tiferet “provides an opportuni

women, and it also understands th

sions with the tradition as Orth

itself tries to grapple with traditio

change in the modern context,” he

“It is important to look for precede

resources within the tradition. Thatmotivation for the talk I will give.”

The talk, about feminist stories

Talmud, “provides one angle on th

tory, tradition, and role of women,

tensions between men and women

safe way,” Dr. Rubenstein said. “It c

addressed in other ways — more d

polemical ways — but this is an oppor

to pursue the subject through trad

learning and the sources themselves

He will teach three talmudic s

with women protagonists . “They

have a conflict with a man — the hu

or another rabbi — and in these stor

women are presented as s trong i

not simply taking what the rabbi sauthoritative, but resisting.

“In a sense, to me they are a k

voice within the tradition, with a di

image of a woman than what you u

see in a patriarchal story — and all of

uity was patriarchal.

“The stories are complex, and it

completely clear what the storytelle

saying,” Dr. Rubenstein said. “The

different ways of looking at the st

but at least one avenue of interpre

sees the storytellers as trying to p

the women in a self-assertive and au

tative way.

“I wonder if in a sense they can p

a kind of role model.”

The question of the status of woalong with other issues of person

tus, including homosexuality, “is ce

one of the most important issues

ing the Orthodox world,” Dr. Rube

said. “It is the tension between m

Western values and traditional Jewi

ues. The Orthodox model has been

u’Madda” — the guiding value of Y

University, the phrase means Tora

secular knowledge. “Madda there li

means science, but really it mean

cal thinking,” he continued. “I thin

these issues take a while to work th

Who: Dr. Jeffrey Rubenstein

What: Will teach at a lunch and learn at

Minyan Tiferet

When: On Saturday, May 20; davening

at 9:30, potluck lunch at 12:30

Where: At a private home in Tenafly

What will he teach: In “Feminist Sto-

ries from the Babylonian Talmud (?)”

Dr. Rubenstein will look at three talmu-

dic figures: Yalta, the wife of Rav Nach-

man; Homa, the wife of Abaye, and an

anonymous woman who gets into a

fight with her anonymous husband.

For information: www.minyantiferet.

org

Dr. Jeffrey Rubenstein

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Being a Conservative Jew on campusGrassroots movement invigorates egalitarian Jewish college life

JOANNE PALMER

Historically, the Conservative movement

has prided itself on its programs for young

people.

For 65 years, starting in 1951, United

Synagogue Youth brought high school stu-

dents into shuls for social programming,

brought them together from around the

region and kept them overnight on Shab-

bato nim, packed them into bus es to

tour the country on USY on Wheels, and

brought them to Israel on Pilgrimage. The

Ramah system, a flourishing network of

mainly overnight and some day camps

across the country, with a few outposts

around the world, gave children and teen-

agers an intensive, immersive, deeply lived

Jewish experience. Nativ, an early gap-yearprogram, took recent high-school gradu-

ates to Israel and kept them immersed in

Conservative Judaism.

And then, often it would all end in col-

lege, when Conservative students would

flounder as they tried to establish their

Jewish lives as young adults. Some would

give it up, some would ind their Jewish

lives in Hillel, and some, deciding that a

strong Jewish life and a Shabbat commu-

nity was more important than their oth-

erwise-deeply-felt need for an egalitarian

worldview, joined the Orthodox world or

flirted with Chabad.

For about 20 years, Koach, the Conser-

vative movement’s eternally underfunded but always hopeful college organization,

established itself as a presence on some

college campuses. Its annual kallah, which

drew students from around North Amer-

ica for a weekend of davening, text study,

friendship, and, when everything worked

as it was meant to, joy, became a vitally

important part in Conservative Jewish

students’ lives. In fact, in 2011, the United

Synagogue of Conservative Judaism,

which funded Koach, put out a strategic

plan, which declared that it “recognized

that a continuing presence on campus for

Conservative Judaism is vital to maintain

the bridge between our high school stu-

dents and the young adult post-college

generation.”Despite that recognition, in 2013, the

United Synagogue, which was facing

inancial problems, cut funding for Koach,

claiming that the program was “on hiatus.”

It has not been revived.

There has been a core of Conservative

students on campus who have not been

willing to let their movement go. They

have established Masorti on Campus —

Masorti is the name the Conservative

movement uses outside North America —

and for the third year are offering a kallah,

set this year for June 3 to June 5 at Hofstra

University on Long Island.

Masorti on Campus also plans to estab-

lish internships for college students. This

semester, in a pilot program, it has one

intern — Michal Karlin of Teaneck, a fresh-

man at Rutgers.

Michal was born into the Conserva-

tive movement. Her father, Gary Karlin,

a Conservative rabbi, was a member of

Koach as a college student. She graduated

from the Solomon Schechter School of

Bergen County and then from the Golda

Och Academy in West Orange; she went

to Ramah Nyack all the way through, irst

as a camper and then as a counselor. Shealways had assumed that she would join

Koach as soon as she began her freshman

year of college.

As a member of Congregation Beth Sho-

lom in Teaneck, Michal remembers the

anger arising from United Synagogue’s

decision to defund Koach. “I was in 10th

grade; I rememb er everyo ne tal king

about it. I remember my parents saying,

‘Oh, Michal, what are you going to do in

college?’

“Masorti on Campus was started to ill

that void,” she said.

As soon as she got to Rutgers, Michal

became active in Hillel. Like some otherHillels, the branch at Rutgers has its own

student egalitarian group, which has

retained the name Koach. That’s the part

of Hillel that most interested her.

Soon, Michal was asked to join Hillel’s

board, and soon after that she was asked

to become Masorti on Campus’s intern.

Koach holds student-led services every

Friday night and about every other week

on Shabbat mornings; it also has social

programming, offering such food-centric

events as the annual fried iesta for Cha -

nukah and kosher fat sandwich night. (Fat

sandwiches, of the unkosher variety, are a

thing at Rutgers, Michal explained.)

With the budget that comes with the

internship, she has been able to add iveevents, Michal said. They range from mak-

ing a new cover for the table that holds

the Torah when it is being read, to a rosh

chodesh celebration and a USY/Ramah-

style oneg Shabbat, and a shiur by Rabbi

Joel Alter, the dean of admission at the Jew-

ish Theological Seminary.

Next year, Michal — who is majoring in

costume design and technoloy, and who

is passionate not only about Masorti on

Campus but also about her school, Mason

Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers Univer-

sity, which is both small and top-notch,

she says — will be co-chair of Rutgers

Koach. The search to ind her replac

as Masorti on Campus intern is undeEric Leiderman of Englewood, a

at Binghamton University and an

lifelong Conservative Jew, Ramahni

Nativ alum, was one of the two co-f

ers of Masorti on Campus. (The oth

Douglas Kandl of Cranford, who sin

graduated). He’s now the organiza

interim executive director, a volunte

time-consuming post. (It now also h

paid staff member, program coord

Amanda Goodman.)

Masorti on Campus is trying to

out how best to strengthen Conser

student groups on campus, workin

the limited resources it has, Eric sai

funding it does have comes “mostly

private donors and from JTS and Ra(The Ramah Commission, which exe

no authority but provides some se

to the camps, itself is funded by JTS

fairly autonomous.

The Conservative movement’s

ture is complicated.) “United Syna

no longer has anything to do with u

added.

Eric keenly feels the competition

other Jewish groups on campus — g

that he respects and values, but he fe

not adequately embody all of his v

“Part of the driving force behind M

on Campus is that we want to presen

selves as authentic Judaism,” just as

dox and Chabad groups do, he saidaim to create an open, pluralistic en

ment on campus that allows stude

express themselves fully in their Ju

without making them give up their

tarian beliefs.”

It’s important to ind a Jewish co

nity where all your values can be em

ied, he said. Often, students ind

communities “if they are willing to

look the gender separation. You

think that this is something that

drilled into teenagers, but it seem

they’re willing to put it aside for frien

and connection to others. The stru

whether they should look for like-m

people in terms of philosophy or in

of practice.“Our thinking is that having a Con

tive minyan is fantastic, but it’s not e

just to have a minyan. It’s about hav

group of people. People tend to be c

so your clique should be made of p

who are ine with women reading

and having full participation. It sho

even have to be something you

about. It should be a given.

“We’re not presenting Conser

Judaism as an alternative. We are

that it is authentic. That we are doing

ism in the way that Judaism is mean

done.”

Masorti on campus met at the Jewish

Theological Seminary in 2014.

Students read Torah at Koach at Rut-

gers Hillel.

Eric Leiderman Michal Karlin


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HERSHEL SCHACHTER

The Masorti on Campus Shabbaton will

be similar to an old Koach Kallah, but it

will not be identical, Eric said. “The kal-

lah was always focused on being a massive

Shabbaton, with a lot of learning for the

sake of learning, which is fantastic. OurShabbatonim have been more focused on

learning leadership skills, meeting people,

and sharing ideas. We’ve been running it

more like a conference than another ver-

sion of Limmud.”

This year’s Shabbaton, which will be the

third, “will be not only for college students

but also for incoming college students

— students coming back from gap years

or straight from high school — and at the

other end for graduate students and rab-

binical students. We will have Jewish pro-

fessionals there too.” Those professionals

will include Rabbi Esther Reed of RutgersHillel and her husband, Rabbi Mordecai

Schwartz of JTS.

“The Shabbaton’s theme is Jewish iden-

tity,” Eric said. “It’s also about iguring out

our identity as Masorti on Campus.

“We want to keep going as student-run,

grass-roots, not top-down. Students shape

our mission and message. There will be

people teaching about personal identity,

Jewish identit y, college identi ty. If you

spent three, four, ive years in college, you

will reinvent yourself over and over again.

“We want to help. We want to be a main-

stay in people’s lives, whether they iden-

tify as Conservative egalitarian Jews or not.

Some people have come to our Shabbaton

who are Reform, open Orthodox, modernOrthodox. To me it’s great to see the blur-

ring of lines, because it’s about philosophy

and ideoloy. It’s not about labels.”

To learn more about Masorti on Campus,

or about the June 35 Shabbaton at Hofstra

University, go to masorticampus.org

Part of thedriving force

behind Masorti

on Campus isthat we want to present ourselves

as authentic Judaism, just as

Orthodox andChabad groups do.

the system. We have seen changes in

America vis a vis marriage and the role

of women. I think that Orthodoxy has

been a little slow to really grapple with

these issues, and for some reason it is becoming more urgent now.”

Part of the change, he added, is the

internet. “The Orthodox, like people in

general, have more access now to biblical

criticism, to historical criticism, to aware-

ness of the diversity of religion in gen-

eral. Until now, these were questions [for

which] you have to go to library and seek

answers. And this is percolating and trou-

bling a lot of people, in terms of revelation

and Jewish authority, and it really can’t

be ignored. The democratization of the

access to knowledge raises a lot of ques-

tions about the cohesion of the authority

of traditional narrative, and that raises

questions about rabbinic authority.

“And then people are open to askingabout the pronouncements about the

role of women in prayer, or women func-

tioning as leaders,” he said.

On the other hand, he added, “you

have to balance that with an awareness

that observant traditional Jewish life is a

very rich way to live, and it prov

great amount of good.

“You might say that commu

morality, tradition offer a way of

ing up children, and no one wa

undermine those things, or to co

mise too much. So the dilemma —

is shared by Jofa,” the Jewish OrtFeminist Alliance — “is to understa

riches of living traditionally, but try

change it slowly, and whenever p

without completely leaving the tra

“It is a very tricky path,” he sa

will be intere sting to see how

traction this kind of partnership

yan gains as time goes on, and

whether the liberal Orthodox w

integrated into modern Orthodox

substantial left-wing presence, or r

marginal.

“My sense is that there has b

slow and steady increase not o

the number of partnership min

but also in the more standard O

dox shuls,” he said. “But these take a long time to change. I re

ber having a conversation 30 yea

about whether there would be O

dox women rabbis, and I said yes

would be. And you almost hav

now. In another 30 years, who kn

Women FROM PAGE 12


16/60

Local


FIRST PERSON

Running for the homeTeam Jewish Home’sco-captain on being part of

the Kaplen JCC’s Rubin Run

SUNNI S. HERMAN

“The Lucky Runner” was my favorite book

when we were kids.

A young boy depends on his striped socks

to win races. My siblings and I would hang

onto every word as Mom would read to us

at night, especially the ending: “You never

needed lucky socks to win races. You win

because you practice hard, you want to win

— and because you are a champion.”

We created Team Jewish Home as a fun

way to build camaraderie and promote it-

ness for our staff. We believe that a healthy,

happy staff makes for a healthy happy, home— and for a happy Jewish Home Family. (The

Jewish Home Family is the organization that

includes the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, Jew-

ish Home Assisted Living, the Jewish Home

@ Home, and the Jewish Home Foundation

of North Jersey.) We try all sorts of ways to

promote staff happiness — we’ve had a lip

sync battle, Purim costume contests, educa-

tional opportunities, and simply supportingeach other in dificult times. Wellness is a key

component of happiness.

Using money from the Seid Memorial

Fund (generously donated by Ronnie

Aroesty and his family speciically for staff

itness), we bought neon yellow shirts as a

way to help us ind each other in a crowd.

Team Jewish Home members wore their

shirts throughout the building before

the run to recruit participants and build

enthusiasm. Since we have a Rubin Unit at

the home, it was most apropos that our irst

event would be the 2016 Mother’s Day Rubin

Run at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades.

In the days before the run, we emailed tips

to our team: Runkeeper is a great free app to

pace you. Get a good night’s sleep. Carry aslittle as possible. And most important, go to

the bathroom before the race. After all, there

are no porta-potties along the way.

The morning of the run was grey and

pouring. I received texts from our team

members asking if the run was on and I

texted back: “I’m here. See you soon.” A

year ago I had biked to work while practic-ing for my irst triathlon. That day, Chris

Pableo, our nursing admin assistant, said

to me, “Next year, I’ll race with you.” So

Sunday morning, I said to Chris, as it driz-

zled on us, “Come on, co-captain. Let’s do

this together.”

The 10K started promptly at 8:15, a

shot down the JCC driveway. We ran that after awhile I felt myself hydrop

Along the way I sang aloud, and I th

“Rain can’t stop me — the sun is o

despise litter, but there is something

rating about sipping and then throwi

cup of water across to the side wh

Team Jewish Home members are ready to go. Team captains Chris Pableo a

Sunni Herman are in front at the left; Sunni’s embracing her team.

Surviving togetherLocal author tells herfamily’s Holocaust story

ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

Ann Arnold of Norwood always knew

that her father, aunt, and grandmother

had survived the Holocaust by going into

hiding. But it wasn’t until well after her

grandmother Sala’s death in 2002 that she

got a fuller picture and a greater apprecia-

tion for their ability to maintain a positive

approach to life despite their traumatic

wartime experiences.

Ms. Arnold and her father, Mark Schon-

wetter, will be on hand for a book signing

of “Together: A Journey for Survival” on

May 19 at 7 p.m. at Books & Greetings in

Northvale. The book is the realization of

Ms. Arnold’s long-held wish to record herfamily story.

“Together” refers to Sala Schonwet-

ter’s determination never to part from her

young children, Manek (Mark) and Zosia,

throughout their harrowing odyssey to

escape the Nazis.

Against heavy odds, she did manage to

keep the three of them together through

three hungry, dangerous years, hiding out

in forests, barns, and holes in the ground.

Her husband had been arrested before

their escape, and they found out after

the war that he’d been shot. In 2012, the

mass grave in which Israel Schonwetter is

buried was discovered, thanks to a marker

placed there by a Polish gentile.

“In 2009, I had the opportunity to

go back to Poland to the tiny village of

Brzostek, where my father’s family lived

before the war,” Ms. Arnold said. Theoccasion was the rededication of the Jew-

ish cemetery in Brzostek, which is near

several former concentration camps in

southern Poland. The mayor invited Mr.

Schonwetter, his sister, and their families.

“There were 1,500 inhabitants of the vil-

lage in 1939, 500 of them Jewish, and of

those 500 fewer than 50 survived, includ-

ing my dad, Aunt Zosia, and my grand-

mother,” Ms. Arnold said. “Not one Jewish

person has lived there since 1942.”

To Ms. Arnold’s great surprise, when

their entourage stopped in front of her

father’s childhood home, neighbors came

out to greet them.

“People were saying, ‘You’re the Schon-

wetters. We remember you. We used

to play with you,’” she said. “They were

only children then. They told us things

they remembered from the war years, like

watching a woman being beaten to deathoutside my dad’s house and not being

allowed to help her. These people actually

cared.”

Ms. Arnold was astounded to see more

than 300 townspeople arrive at the grave-

yard for the ceremony. She learned that

when the cemetery renewal project had

begun and the townspeople heard that

the Germans had used headstones for

masonry work, many of

Jewish Standard, May 13, 2016

Documents

Transcript of Jewish Standard, May 13, 2016