Jewish Voice and Opinion July 2011

Team OneFamily Triathalon ............ 3The Current Crisis ......................... 4Kol Ami:Recognizing Sharia Law? .5From OK to Israel ........................ 12Retiring with the Kids ................. 14Dalia on the Ice ........................... 18

LMS for Credit ............................ 23 The Log ....................................... 32New Classes the Month .............. 29Mazal Tov .................................. 30Chesed Opportunities .................. 31Ess Gezint: Norene’s Kitchen ..... 38

Tante Frieda Haberman, z”l ....... 38 Index of Advertisers ................... 41Voca People Off-Broadway ........ 42 Honor the Professional ................ 43 Letters to the Editor ................... 45Walk to Shul ............................... 47

Inside the Voice

THE JEWISH VOICEAND OPINION

Promoting Classical Judaism

continued on page 32

July 2011 Vol. 24 • No. 9 Tammuz 5771


Last month the Zionist Orga-nization of America issued

a statement demanding that Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, rectify “the hostile antisemitic environment on campus, which has had a detrimental effect on Jewish students who have been physically threatened—even with death threats—and made to feel intimidated and unsafe.”

At first glance, it seems counterintuitive. With approxi-mately 5,000 Jewish undergradu-

ates and 1500 graduate students, Rutgers has the fourth largest Jewish population of any campus in the country. Jews comprise a full 16 percent of the student body. Kosher food is readily available, and the campus boasts many Jewish organizations, including an active Hillel with separate services for all Jewish denominations, a Chabad House with a magnificent dining room and dormitory, and Jewish fra-ternities and sororities.

The Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life of-

Jewish Student Receives Death Threats and a University Official Calls Him “That Racist Zionist Pig”: ZOA Demands Rutgers Respond to Campus Antisemitism

Almost immediately after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced President Barack Obama’s plan to open a dialogue with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt, the administration learned that, as in any Oriental bazaar, once the customer seems eager to make a purchase, the seller can up the price.

“We are ready for dialogue with the US administration, if it so decides, within a frame-work of mutual respect,” said MB spokesman Mahmoud

Obama Says His Decision to Open Dialogue with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Is Old Policy; Critics Say: Who Is He Kidding?

Ghozlan. He added that his group, which had been out-lawed as too extreme under the regime of ousted Presi-dent Hosni Mubarak, “hopes the US administration has revised its previous policies and decided to side with the rights of the people and their demands.”

Mr. Ghozlan’s first demand was that the US should “stop supporting the corrupt and tyrannical regimes backing the Zionist occupation using double standards.”

Ending Camp David AccordsLeaders of the MB have

refused to commit to con-tinuing the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

“Israel is a Zionist entity occupying holy Arab and Islamic land, and we will get rid of it no matter how long it takes,” said former MB Supreme Guide Muhammed Mahdi Akef.

Some analysts say even if the MB wins the next elec-tion, Cairo will not go so far as to abrogate the treaty, mostly

because it would mean a loss in revenue in tourism, trade, and US aide. But MB leaders have been quoted as saying that the Camp David Accords “have lost all credibility” and run counter to the teachings of Islam.

In fact, the MB retains virtually all the virulent an-tisemitism with which it has historically been associated. Supporters of the Nazis, in 1946, the MB paved the way for Nazi collaborator and Pal-

“The hostility in the room was unmistakable. Every attack against Israel- including the mention of suicide bombings, which have murdered innocent Jewish civilians, and other forms of violence against Israel-was chillingly greeted with cheering and loud ap-plause. Rutgers needs to start affirmatively address-ing the problems that are plaguing the campus and harming Jewish students.” ZOA’s Mort Klein

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http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Tammuz 5771 The Jewish Voice and Opinion Page - 3

On Sunday, August 7, some 75 athletes, many of them

from the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, will swim, run, and bicycle in the New York City Triathlon, compet-ing as Team OneFamily. Their goal is to raise money for the Teaneck-based OneFamily Fund, an organization dedi-cated to aiding victims of ter-ror in Israel.

Michelle Napell, events and special projects coordinator for the OneFamily Fund, recognizes that many organizations collect funds for victims of terror. Her group is different, she says, because “we collect not only money, but all human resources,

bringing together people who have suffered through terror at-tacks with caring people who thankfully haven’t.”

“The athletes competing as part of Team OneFamily are not just pushing themselves merely to see how much they can do and how fast they can go, although that is certainly part of it; they are also dedi-cating their race to victims of terror. This makes the event a win-win situation for every-one,” says Ms. Napell.

Grueling CourseAll New York City Tri-

athlon participants will swim 1500 meters (almost one mile)

Team OneFamily Athletes Get Ready for the NYC Triathlon for Love of Sport and Devotion to Israeli Victims of Terror

Teaneck’s Binyamin Muller, left, and Jeffrey Berger

The Current Crisis: “Even in Laughter, the Heart Can Ache”


Our dear Charlie Aptowitzer sent us some Jewish Haiku. He assures us he did not write them, so don’t blame him:

Lacking fins or tailThe gefilte fish swims withGreat difficulty.

On Passover weOpened the door for ElijahNow our cat is gone.

Her lips near my ear,Aunt Sadie whispers the nameOf her friend’s disease.

Today I am a man.Tomorrow I will returnTo the seventh grade.

Like a bonsai tree,Is your terrible postureAt my dinner table.

Jews on safari—Map, compass, elephant gun,Hard sucking candies.

The same kimonoThe top geishas are wearing:I got it at Loehmann’s.

Seven-foot Jews inThe NBA slam-dunking!My alarm clock rings.

Today, mild shvitzing.Tomorrow, so hot you’ll plotz.Five-day forecast: feh

Yenta. Shmeer. Gevalt.Shlemiel…Shlimazl…MeshuganahOy! To be fluent!

Quietly murmuredAt Shabbat Shul services,Yanks 5, Red Sox 3.

A lovely nose ring,Excuse me while I put myHead in the oven.

Hard to tell under the lights.White Yarmulke orMale-pattern baldness.

Kol Ami: Recognition of Sharia by US Courts?http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Tammuz 5771 The Jewish Voice and Opinion Page - 5

Recently, there have been reports that Sharia (Muslim-religious) law has received increased recognition by US courts. Many Americans have reacted with horror. The question last month was: Should observant Jews, who are used to settling civil and marital issues according to halacha, object to Sharia law being used similarly to beit din rulings? Y

Halacha has never over-ridden or been accepted in lieu of US law in the courts of this country. Observant Jews hold by the dictum dina d’malchutah dina, the law of the nation [in which you reside] is the law.

Marcia FeldmanWest Orange, NJ

Recently, Rabbi Michael Broyde, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta and a member of the Beth Din of America, noted that, in the United States, there is “freedom of contract.” He explained that if two people agree to conduct themselves according to halacha, the courts will enforce that agreement, “not because the courts believe

I am not aware of any instance in which a halachic ruling has been declared illegal according to the US Constitution. However, there are aspects of Sharia law which are not only unconsti-tutional, but illegal according to US law. Therefore, Sharia law has no place in the United States. Those who want to live according to Sharia law should move to a country in which it is the law of the land.

Joanne AsherWest Orange, NJ

Sharia is a Trojan horse. It is part of the Muslim deter-mination to seek hegemony. It seeks to downgrade Jews and Christians to dhimmitude (second-class citizen status), and its ideas, such as its at-titude towards women and physical punishment, shade into barbarism. Throughout history, it has shown itself ut-terly inimical to human rights and, more importantly, Biblical values. The Islamic concept of “separateness” has nothing in

common with Jewish values and practices, rather, it is su-premacist and coercive.

Christopher BarderOxford, England

Kimi WeiFair Lawn, NJ



in the Hudson River, which is now recognized as one of the cleanest rivers in New York; bike for 40 kilometers (almost 26 miles), mostly on the Henry Hudson Highway; and then run 10 kilometers (6 miles) in Central Park.

The swim will start at 5:50am at 99th Street and the Hudson River, and the run will end at about 2pm at Dead Road in Central Park.

The triathlon’s organizers have asked all participating athletes to come to Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, August 6, to prepare their equipment. Team OneFamily, however, which attracts many observant-Jewish donors and volunteers, obtained permission to instruct its athletes to make all such preparations after Shabbat.

On Friday night, August 5, Team OneFamily participants are invited to a Shabbat meal at a kosher restaurant. The par-ticipants will then stay at one

of several hotels on the Upper West Side, with easy access to the many Orthodox shuls in the area. Home Shabbat hos-pitality has been arranged for many of the athletes.Providing Direct Assistance

Each year, the NYC Tri-athlon draws more than 3,000 athletes to Manhattan. While many come to raise money for a variety of causes, Team OneFamily has set its sights on raising at least $250,000 to fund activities such as send-ing bereaved and injured Is-raeli children to a therapeutic summer camp and sponsoring an “orphans retreat,” to allow children who have lost both par-ents in terror attacks to share a weekend with others who have endured similar tragedies.

Born after the August 2001 deadly suicide bomber attack in the crowded Sbarro’s pizze-ria in downtown Jerusalem, in which 15 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered

and more than 130 wounded, OneFamily is now a world-wide, volunteer-based non-profit organization that provides as-sistance to thousands of terror victims throughout Israel on a daily basis. It provides direct financial, legal, and emotional assistance to victims of terror-ism in Israel and has become the Jewish state’s central address for offering personalized care and support to victims.

“OneFamily forges a sense of family among all survivors and provides a family network for world Jewry to express and actuate their natural sense of brotherhood and respond just as any loving family member should,” says Ms. Napell.

Part of the DemographicNo one knows that better

than 19-year-old Pia Levine, who will be competing as part of Team OneFamily. This past March, the Stern College stu-dent who currently resides in Bradley Beach was also a vic-tim of terror.

“Terrorism is something most of us are familiar with from a distance, but this year I actually joined that demo-graphic,” she says.

On March 23, at 3pm, a bomb loaded with shrapnel and almost four pounds of explo-sives, went off in a bus station in downtown Jerusalem, near the Jerusalem International Convention Center compound. Placed near a bus stop, the bomb detonated when an Egged bus passed the station.

David Amoyal, the owner of nearby kiosk, had noticed a sus-picious bag near the bus station, and immediately told a group of people to evacuate the site. While he was attempting to alert the po-lice, the bomb exploded.

Two weeks earlier, a pipe bomb had exploded in a gar-bage bag on a traffic island in southern Jerusalem. In that

blast, a municipal sanitation worker lost his hand.

No WarningFor Miss Levine, who gradu-

ated from Shaarei Tzion elemen-tary school in Piscataway and then Manhattan High School for Girls, Wednesday, March 23, started just like any other day in Israel. A student at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim, she was registered to run in the Jerusalem Marathon two days later, and then, motzei Shabbat, was scheduled to fly home to New Jersey.

She spent the first few hours on Wednesday shopping with her friend, Sara Siegelman, for last-minute souvenirs in the Old City.

On the way back, the young women hiked up the hill between the Mamilla Mall and the cen-ter of town, and then, pressed for time, they decided to catch a bus back to school.

Because their regular bus was running late, they boarded the Number 74, which stops an eight-minute walk from their school.

“A combination of laziness and gratis citywide transfers” usually persuaded Miss Levine to switch buses at Binyanei Hauma, a major transfer stop, to one that would take her right to her dormitory.

“Sometimes, I would even wait 20 minutes or more, if it meant avoiding that walk. However, on that Wednesday, I decided to stay on the bus. The Number 74 would take Sara to her weekly babysitting job, and I liked traveling with her,” says Miss Levine.

ExplosionAt 3:22pm, the bus pulled in

Binyanei Hauma, as scheduled. The doors opened. People got off, and the door closed. Then, there was an explosion.

“The bus began to shake. The doors and windows across

continued on page 8

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from us shattered from the middle out. There was glass and shrapnel flying ev-erywhere,” says Miss Levine.

Miss Siegelman pulled her to the floor.

“In my 20-plus visits to Israel, I had never witnessed anything like this, a first-hand act of terrorism, a bus bombing. I re-cited the Shema, begging G-d to protect me from what was happening,” she says.

Bus Driver’s DecisionShe remembers people screaming in

the background, “Open the doors! Open the doors!” She believed it was “only the beginning.”

“There was crying and panic. I thought

it would be like all the videos they showed us in school. Soon, I thought, the bus would be engulfed in flames, and I would be burned alive,” she says.

She quickly realized that the bus driver understood what was happening.

“He just drove and drove, until he thought he was a safe distance from the bus stop, in case there was going to be a second attack, which is not unusual. Then he opened the door,” she says.

“Miracle”Immediately upon leaving the bus, the

two young women called their parents back in the US. Miss Levine also called her brother who was studying at Bar Ilan University.

“We told them we were alive and on our way to safety,” says Miss Levine.

For 15 minutes, they ran, without stop-ping, until they reached the school.

“Only halfway there did I notice the tears streaming down my face. I could have been killed or burnt alive, and yet, I escaped unscathed. It was a miracle,” she says.

VictimsThere was no such miracle for the

39 people who were injured in the blast or for Mary Jean Gardner, a 59-year-old Scottish student at the Hebrew University, who died at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital of wounds sustained in the attack.

Ms. Gardner was a Christian Bible translator who, for the past 20 years, had been translating the Bible into the Ifè lan-guage of the African nation of Togo.

According to Danny Ronning of the Home for Bible Translators and Scholars in Jerusalem, where Ms. Gardner stayed, Ms. Gardner had absorbed most of the bomb’s shrapnel, thereby saving the lives of three children who were on another bus that was pulling up to a stop a few feet away from the bomb.

Post-Traumatic ShockBut the story for Miss Levine did not

end after the bombing and certainly not when she discovered that she and Miss Siegelman were the only ones in the di-rect line of the explosion who emerged without a cut or bruise.

Shaken by the trauma of the incident, the two young women began to experience what Miss Levine calls “trouble coping.” Experts call it post-traumatic shock.

“I was scared to go outside. The flash-backs became unbearable. Every time I stopped moving, I could hear the boom and the screaming; I could picture the glass shat-tering. I did not look back, could not look back, fearing that what I would see would haunt me. I couldn’t accept that others may have been hurt while I had been protected,” she says. “I was scheduled to run the Jerusalem Marathon a day and a half later, but how could I when I could barely go outside?”

TreatmentWhen things looked bleakest for Miss

Levine and Miss Siegelman, they received a call from Chantal Belzberg, executive vice-chairman of the OneFamily Fund, who insisted the two young women come to the hospital for treatment.



“I had not realized that something was wrong, because I couldn’t see the physical wounds. Shock, it turns out, is a serious injury,” says Miss Levine.

Helping victims of terror, from the most seriously wounded to those suffer-ing from shock, has been Mrs. Belzberg’s calling since 2002. She had her husband, Marc, founded the OneFamily Fund after their daughter, Michal, opted to donate the money earmarked for her bat mitzvah party to help those who had been affected by terror attacks in Israel.

Mrs. Belzberg drove Miss Levine and Miss Siegelman to the hospital, filed the paper work for them, and filled their pre-scriptions. Finally, she drove Miss Levine to the hotel where she was to meet with the rest of her team’s marathon runners.

On March 25, Miss Levine ran the Jerusalem Half Marathon in two hours, ten minutes, and then returned to New Jersey as scheduled.

Continued ContactEven after Miss Levine returned home,

Mrs. Belzberg continued regular contact with her. Eventually, she introduced Miss Levine to Ms. Napell, who organized trauma counseling for the young woman and then persuaded her to participate in the New York Triathlon.

“As much as OneFamily has done for me, they have done so much more for countless others. People who have lost limbs or loved ones, rely on OneFamily. They connect people who need support and provide aid and love to victims and their families,” says Miss Levine.

She is determined to raise $3,000 for the fund through people who are sponsor-ing her participation in the triathlon.

“I am happy to be part of such a won-derful organization, despite the horrible attack that caused it. Without OneFamily Fund’s help, I, like many others, would be lost and overwhelmed. I am so excited for my chance to give back,” she says.

Training in TeaneckAlso preparing to join the NYC Tri-

athlon as part of Team OneFamily are the event’s youngest participants: Jeffrey Berger and his friend, Binyamin Muller, both 17 and from Teaneck. Mr. Berger just graduated from the Torah Academy of Bergen County and is scheduled to at-tend Yeshivat Torat Shraga in Jerusalem in the fall. Mr. Muller will be a senior at TABC.

Since last September, both young men have been training with their fellow-congregant at the Young Israel of Teaneck, David Roher, who is also competing in the triathlon for Team OneFamily.

After biking and running with Mr. Berger for one month, Mr. Roher became convinced the high school senior had what it takes to complete a triathlon.

Mr. Muller had a slight edge. The son of a doctor who regularly bikes to work at Mount Sinai Hospital, Mr. Muller, in the summer of 2010, rode his bike from Tea-neck to his father’s office, and back.

Not to be outdone, Mr. Berger has since biked from Teaneck to his own father’s office in Lower Manhattan. And back.

Serious RoutineAs Messrs Berger and Muller im-

proved, their bike rides and running ses-sions were stepped up, and Mr. Roher gave his young disciples athletic and nutritional tips.

By May, Messrs Berger and Muller were part of Team OneFamily and training at Asphalt Green Tri Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The team swam on Sundays and Mondays, biked on Sun-days, and ran on Thursdays.

Mr. Berger says the routine was tough. He would awaken at 4:45am on Sundays and bike from Teaneck, across the bridge, to Asphalt Green, ready for swim prac-



tice by 7. He would swim for an hour and then bike from 8 to 10:30am.

“I occasionally ran, biked, or swam more depending on how much free time I had,” says Mr. Berger.

According to his mother, Sharon, Mr. Berger has always been athletic and enjoyed sports, but, she says, he had never par-ticipated in anything as competi-tively grueling as a triathlon.

“As the middle child of three and the only boy, Jeffrey took his love of biking, which is the major part of the triath-lon, to a new level. Thanks to the training he’s had, he can swim a mile much more com-petitively now, and I think he’s just about ready for the run-ning portion of the race,” says Mrs. Berger.

Engaging StudentsMr. Berger had heard about

OneFamily Fund long before he anticipated trying to help victims of terror by participat-ing in a race. When OneFamily visited TABC to raise funds, Mr. Berger found the group “an amazing organization.”

“I was 100 percent sup-portive of their cause and what they do,” he says.

Mr. Berger interned for the OneFamily Fund during the school year last year. He says the three or four days a week that he donated to OneFamily “really motivated me to keep at it.”

“I love to do chesed and tzedakah. If my efforts can put a smile on the face of a victim, it’s worth keeping going,” says Mr. Berger.

Continuing in IsraelA few weeks after the tri-

athlon, Mr. Berger will leave Teaneck for a year of learning at Torat Shraga. He knows OneFamily has an office not far from the school.

“I’m hoping to speak to them about volunteer work I can do over the course of the year, because I really have no intention of lessening my con-nection with them,” he says.

He is aware of the two major terror attacks thus far this year: the one at Itamar in March in which the Fogel family—parents and three youngsters, ages 11, 4, and 3 months—were massacred; and the bus incident in Jerusalem which Miss Levine survived.

“It was OneFamily im-mediately on the scene to as-sist in any way possible and begin the healing process,” says Mr. Berger.

Like Miss Levine, Mr. Berger says his goal is to raise $3,000 for OneFamily.Confidence-Building Experience

In any case, Messrs Berger and Muller have already im-pressed Ms. Napell.

“Jeffrey is one of our young-est members, and, from the start, he’s been going to area busi-nesses to ask them to sponsor

him,” says Ms. Napell.According to his mother,

Mr. Berger’s confidence has greatly improved. When he started training with Mr. Ro-her, he had mastered a 50-mile bike ride, but had never raced competitively.

“With nearly a year’s training under his belt, Jef-frey isn’t worried that he’ll be unable to pull it off,” says Mrs. Berger.

Other ParticipantsIn addition to Miss Levine

and Messrs Berger, Muller, and Roher, other New Jersey-based athletes participating in Team OneFamily include Tammy Abramowitz, Eli Fuld, Jason Kessler, Daniel Levine, Judah Miller, Adam Napell, Derek Saker, Yoni Saposh, Leya Schwartz, and Eric Silverberg.

Those from New York in-clude Eytan Lombroso, David Mann, Yonina Rosenbaum, Suffy and Jonathan Rudman, Ira Rudman, and Jill Schanzer.

Four young men from New Jersey—Gilad Amozeg, David Solowiejczyk, David Niewood, and Yitzhak Zahavy—are par-ticipating independently, but nev-ertheless dedicating their races to victims of terror. According to Ms. Napell, Messrs Amozeg and Zahavy “have personal con-nections to victims who have been assisted by OneFamily and hold our organization close to their hearts.”Bringing People Together

Ms. Napell sees the triath-lon as just one event for Team OneFamily, “the multi-sports training and fundraising program which facilitates participation in endurance events, while si-multaneously incorporating a fundraising element to benefit OneFamily Fund.”

Team OneFamily provides programs to train athletes for century (100-mile) cycling rides, walking and running

marathons, half marathons, and other races.

“Team OneFamily pro-grams bring like-minded people together of all ages and levels whether beginner or advanced. Our programs are a gateway to get in shape or realize your athletic goals, a way to change your lifestyle and get healthy, all while joining a great group of people who care about the future of Israel. Through each program, Team OneFamily mem-bers commit to raising money, which helps alleviate the suf-fering of victims of terrorism in Israel,” says Ms. Napell.

Cheer SticksAll those who pledge sup-

port for Team OneFamily will be given cheer sticks to raise during the race to encourage team members.

Those who want to pledge support specifically for Miss Levine can go to https://tea-monefamily.org/pialevine. For Mr. Berger, the site is https://teamonefamily.org/Jeffrey-Berger. For more information about Team OneFamily or the OneFamily Fund in general, visit https://www.teamonefam-ily.org/Default.asp? or http://onefamilyfund.org.

Mr. Berger understands why he identifies so readily with Team OneFamily and the organization behind it. “I really never like to back down. I never accept failure,” he says. S.L.R.


Pia Levine


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One year ago, Taylor Fogle, a high school senior from

Bartlesville, Oklahoma, had the opportunity to meet young Israelis her own age and travel with them in the United States and Israel. She is convinced that, when it comes to news about the conflict between Is-rael and the Palestinians, it is wise to take all media reports “with a grain of salt.”

“Much of what you see is blown out of proportion,” she said. “Israel is an amazing place, and I want to go back and see more. The people in Israel are the same as the people here. They may have a different cul-ture and lifestyle, but they are basically the same as us.”

Her classmate, Melissa Neel, who participated in the same program, agreed. For the most part, said Miss Neel, news re-ports about Israel and her Arab neighbors are based on “what the

media wants you to know.”Visiting the region, she

said, has afforded her “a better view of the reality of the situa-tion between the nations.”

“Now that I have expe-rienced the culture and the people, I can relate more when the news comes on and I hear decisions being made or more difficulties facing the country. I can see the anxiety of the Is-raelis in that they do not want to give up more of their own country that has taken them so long to obtain. The people who live there appreciate what they have wholeheartedly and are willing to defend it. It is more personal to me because now I have friends who live there, will join the IDF in a year or so, and call Israel their home,” she said.

YASEThe two young women

gained this experience by par-

ticipating in the Youth Am-bassador Student Exchange (YASE), a program sponsored by the America-Israel Friend-ship League (AIFL). Since 1977, YASE has been broadening the horizons of thousands of young American students, virtually all of them non-Jewish, as well as Israelis who also represent a wide variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds.

A non-sectarian, non-po-litical organization, the AIFL encompasses Americans and Israelis of all faiths, ethnic backgrounds, and political affiliations. Its mission is to promote the mutually benefi-cial relationship between the United States and Israel.

The AIFL’s YASE pro-gram is designed to provide approximately 120 high school students each year with the opportunity to participate in an intercultural exchange with students from Israel. One of the program’s goals is to help the Israeli and American students become familiar and friendly with different groups of people. For most of the participants, the YASE trip is a first experience with such a diverse group.

OKIEOklahoma began its affili-

ation with AIFL in 2005, after the state’s Attorney General, Drew Edmonson, participated in AIFL’s Attorneys General Mission to Israel.

But Oklahoma’s exchange programs with Israel go back even further. The state, which has a Jewish population of just over 5,000, or 1/10 of one percent of the total, began its Oklahoma-Israel Exchange (OKIE) in 1992, when then-Governor David Walters saw the possibilities for mutually beneficial projects.

Two years later, the Okla-homa legislature established

the permanent OKIE Commis-sion to develop joint projects in energy, agriculture, trade, water use, and conservation. It also oversees cultural and educational exchanges.

“The US-Israel relationship is based on the twin pillars of shared values and mutual inter-ests,” said OKIE executive di-rector Susan Robertson. “Given this commonality of interests and beliefs, it is not surprising that support for Israel is one of the most pronounced and con-sistent foreign policy values of the American people.”

Host Schools and CitiesAccording to Ms. Robert-

son, the partnership between AIFL and OKIE is “a match made in heaven.”

Since 2005, different schools throughout the state have had the opportunity to participate in the YASE program. While only a handful of students each year have the opportunity to experience the entire package, which includes extensive trav-eling with their Israeli coun-terparts, virtually the entire school and often the city enjoy the chance to meet the visiting Israeli students and learn more about the Jewish state.

The program begins when the Israeli youth ambassadors and their chaperones arrive in the United States in mid-November and are sent to reside with their carefully screened host families in participating cities. Virtually all host families have at least one child who attends the participat-ing high school.

“We have found that the visiting Israeli students just love Oklahoma. The host families open their homes and hearts to these youngsters, offering them everything from NBA basketball games and parties to shopping trips and touring,” said Ms. Robertson.

America-Israel Friendship League’s Youth Ambassador Student Exchange Program Is a Hit in Oklahoma


Washington and New YorkAfter spending time in

Oklahoma, the Israeli stu-dents and those Oklahoman students participating in the complete YASE program travel to Washington, DC, and New York, where they engage in workshops and seminars aimed at increased appreciation for diversity, tolerance, and an en-hanced awareness of international affairs. The youth ambassadors are encouraged to participate in presentations and discus-sions about their countries and home cities as it pertains to the programmatic theme.

There is also ample time for sightseeing in these important centers of American govern-ment, history, and culture.

For several years, the stu-dents from Oklahoma teamed up with their counterparts from Tucson, Arizona, where an in-dependent chapter of AIFL has existed since 1990. Tucson usu-ally sends eight to ten students each year on the YASE program, and OKIE, which usually sends

two to four students, found it convenient to share chaperones with the Arizona group.

IsraelSometime after their stay

in New York, the American youth ambassadors depart for Israel, where they enjoy a week of home hospitality, workshops, seminars, and sightseeing.

When the Oklahoma and Arizona students return home from Israel, OKIE and the Tuc-son Chapter of AIFL expect them to speak and write about their experiences for school and community groups.

“Every student who has participated has called this a life-changing experience,” said Ms. Robertson.

She recalled one young woman who participated in the program three years ago. After graduating from high school, she went on to college, but has decided to return to Israel to study.

“Not one of our participants has been Jewish, but each of them returns from Israel with a clear appreciation of the country, its aspirations, and its struggles,” said Ms. Robertson.

“On the Map”It was certainly true for Miss

Neel, who said there is a “huge difference” between “hearing real-life stories from people with whom you have a relationship” and “just reading some article.”

“Now I feel more con-nected to the people and feel as if I have some sort of loyalty to keep with them, by support-ing their country as a whole. This trip will forever change my perspective, and I am so grateful for that,” she said.

Similarly, said Ms. Robert-son, Oklahoma’s participation in the YASE program has put the “state on the map” for the young Israelis.

“This is a great opportunity for all students participating in the program. Part of OKIE’s mission is educating Israelis and Oklahomans about each other’s culture. To be able to travel and experience not only the educational process in each country, but also how the other students live their lives, is in-valuable,” she said. S.L.R.

OKIE director Susan Robertson

“Every Oklahoma student who has participated has called this a life-changing experience. Given the com-monality of interests and beliefs in Israel and the US, it is not surprising that sup-port for Israel is one of the most pronounced and con-sistent foreign policy values of the American people.”


Elaine Goldberg, who helps plan the curriculum for the America-Isra-

el Friendship League’s (AIFL) Youth Ambassador Student Exchange (YASE) teenagers when the American and Is-raeli participants visit Washington, DC, and New York, knew 32 years ago that she was going to volunteer some day for the AIFL. It happened in 1979, when she met her future husband at the B’nai Zion building on East 39th Street in Manhat-tan. She noticed that AIFL was one of the organizations housed in the building and the group’s mission—to promote the

mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and Israel—appealed to her greatly.

“I had been to Israel ten years earlier, when I was 16, and had a phenomenal time in that very special place. I knew helping others have a similar experience would be extraordinarily rewarding,” says Mrs. Goldberg, who retired in 2009 from her position as CEO of the New York City school system, charged with reorganizing 164 public schools in all five boroughs.

Before that, she had served as deputy

superintendent of schools for NYC’s Re-gion Eight in Brooklyn, encompassing Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Park Slope.

Role ModelHer decision to work for the AIFL

was strengthened because in 1985 she had the opportunity to hear Dr. Char-lotte Frank, then Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the NYC Public Schools.

“I thought to myself: oh, my good-ness, I want to be just like her, articulate, smart, and self-directed,” she says.

In 2009, she met Dr. Frank in an-other capacity. By that time, Dr. Frank was serving as senior vice-president of research and development at McGraw Hill Education, but it was as chair of AIFL’s executive committee that she drew Mrs. Goldberg’s attention. Mrs. Goldberg had the opportunity to travel to Israel as one of 13 school superintendents on an AIFL mission led by Dr. Frank, and, on that trip, she and Dr. Frank became friends.

“Besides having a marvelous time and gaining a great deal professionally, I learned a lot about AIFL from Char-lotte. I loved her love for Israel, and I had a chance to discuss my own discomfort with the politics of the New York City public schools,” she said.

Two weeks after returning from Israel, Mrs. Goldberg decided to retire from her position with the school system and to devote her time to fundraising and working for AIFL, especially its YASE program.

Provocative ThemesAmong her first projects was the re-

organization of the workshop programs in Washington and New York for the Ameri-can and Israeli student participants.

In 2010, recognizing that illegal im-migration is a problem affecting not only the US, but also the Jewish state, she presented the students with the theme of “Immigration Reform in the United States and Israel.”

“Trips, such as the one we took to Ellis Island, provided them with back-ground for truly fabulous debates. It was thrilling to watch how, over a period of a few days, these students, representing such diversity of backgrounds, could bond

Volunteering for American-Israel Student Exchange Program Makes for a Meaningful Retirement


while they learned skills in leadership and debating,” she says.

This year’s theme, she says, will be “Democracy in Light of the Arab Spring.”

“We are going to explore questions such as ‘is it an overreaching quest?’ and ‘to what extent should democratic governments deal with other repressive regimes?’” she says.

Ending HateShe finds working with the YASE

program “immensely gratifying.”“It was amazing watching American-

Muslim students sitting on the bus with Jewish Israelis. They did homework to-gether, and, after a session of heavy de-bating, the Muslim kids learned Israeli folkdances. They were all so happy and excited,” she says.

One of her more memorable recol-lections was the experience of a Muslim student from Tucson who participated in last year’s delegation. One of his goals was to see the Dome of the Rock, the mosque located on top of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, there was a disturbance at the time, and the tour guide taking the YASE students around Jerusalem announced that a visit to the Dome of the Rock would be im-possible.

When the Muslim student arrived back at his Israeli-Jewish hosts’ home in Nahariya, a coastal town about a three-hour drive from Jerusalem, he told them about his disappointment. Their response was to pack up the family and drive him back to Jerusalem, speaking to whatever officials were necessary to grant him ac-cess to the mosque.

“The boy was so grateful. I am certain he will never forget that experience, and, more to the point, it will forever be hard for him to hate Israelis. Even if he may

not agree with certain policies, he will not hate. The one-on-one relationships estab-lished by the YASE participants will last a lifetime,” said Mrs. Goldberg.More Participants

Her new goal is to increase the num-ber of American high schools participating

in the program.Families or students interested in

having their high schools participate in the YASE program can contact AIFL’s executive director, Dr. Alex Grobman, at 212-213-8630 or by email at [email protected].

According to Kenneth Bialkin, AIFL’s chairman, the reactions witnessed by Mrs. Goldberg are not unique.

“We have learned that the exchange program has a transformational effect on the American and Israeli students which follows them for life. Besides the lasting friendships that are formed, the students return to their schools and later to univer-sities where the seeds of knowledge and awareness flourish and influence those whom they encounter through life. Many of our program alumni recognize the profound impact the program has had in shaping their lives and continue to carry their experience with them in their pro-fessional careers. In doing so, they have remained connected and continue to play integral roles in the subsequent growth of the program,” he says. S.L.R.

Elaine Goldberg“We have learned that the exchange program has a trans-formational effect on the American and Is-raeli students which follows them for life.”


in Jewish law, but because they believe in contract law.” Further, he said, in civil disputes, “the courts can and do enforce binding arbitrations of all stripes, includ-ing those carried out by a beth din.” Cer-tainly, the same would hold true for two people who agree to abide by Sharia as interpreted by an imam.

I recall that, in 1997, Annette Sorensen, a Danish visitor in New York, was arrest-ed on charges of child endangerment for leaving her baby in the fresh air outside a restaurant, while she relaxed inside the restaurant for an hour. Her baby was next to the restaurant window, and Ms. Sorensen claimed she could watch the child. The charges were eventually dropped against Ms. Sorensen, who did not actually harm her child. Rather, her “misdeed” was only the perception of Americans based on the fact that the Danish woman was not behaving according to American norms. She was, however, behaving according to the custom in Denmark, and her defense was that, as a foreign national, that should be taken into consideration.

For me, the line should be drawn when the matter to be adjudicated involves the integrity of families or personal choice and physical-safety issues for women and/or children. Under no circumstances should the US permit religious laws that are used to justify taking children away from loving mothers or that dictate severe physical pun-ishments to force compliance with someone’s interpretation of religious morality.

Kimi WeiFair Lawn, NJ

Kol Ami cont. from p. 5

estinian Mufti al-Husseini to be granted asylum in Egypt.

This past May, the MB’s current “Supreme Guide,” Muhammed Badi, said, “Allah warned us the tricks of the Jews and their role in igniting the fire of wars and they labor hard to spread cor-ruption on earth; and Allah does not love the spreaders of corruption.”

Wrong MessageSuch statements prompted Rabbi

Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, to criticize the White House for opening talks with the MB.

“The political landscape in Egypt may have changed since the end of the Mubarak regime, but the Brotherhood’s hatred of Jews and Israel has not changed at all,” he said.

He stressed that the US should not be talking to “an organization that can lay claim to being the world’s leading purveyor of antisemitism and hatred of Jews.”

“Legitimizing the MB sends the wrong message that you can hate Jews and still sit and talk with world leaders,” said Rabbi Hier, adding that he hoped this new move does not signal that the “the US will acquiesce to Europe and begin

talking to Hamas as well.”Nothing New?

In her remarks concerning dialogue with the MB, Mrs. Clinton did not say anything about Israel, only that “given the changing political landscape in Egypt, it is in the interests of the US to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency.”

“We welcome, therefore, dialogue with those MB members who wish to talk with us,” said Mrs. Clinton, adding that the Obama administration is continuing “the approach of limited contacts with the MB that existed on and off for about

Muslim Brotherhood continued from page 1


five or six years.”She said the shift “is not a new policy,

but it is one that we’re re-engaging in” and added that the US would continue to “emphasize the importance and sup-port for democratic principles, respect for minority rights, and the full inclusion of women in any democracy.”

New and RashThe words did not fool columnist

Andrew McCarthy, who said, “In typical Obama fashion, this disastrous decision to engage America’s avowed enemies has been couched as the mere continuation of prior policy. But make no mistake about it, this is a new policy.”

Without knowing who will be running Egypt’s next permanent government, Mr. Obama has already promised billions of dollars in aid to Egypt. Even though, for months, Middle East experts have warned that the MB is the only group sufficiently organized to win an election, Mr. Obama tried to downplay the prospect of the MB dominating Egyptian politics. He argued that it is just one faction in the country and, he said, it doesn’t have the support of the majority.

“There are a whole bunch of secular

folks in Egypt. There are a whole bunch of educators and civil society in Egypt that want to come to the fore as well. It’s important for us not to say that our only two options are either the Muslim Brotherhood or a suppressed Egyptian people,” said Mr. Obama on Fox News last February.

Violent MottoAfter hearing Mrs. Clinton’s an-

nouncement, many skeptical observers seemed confused by her use of the terms “peaceful” and “Muslim Brotherhood” in the same sentence. The MB, which has already created a broad super-coalition of opposition parties in hopes of either heading Egypt’s next government them-selves or serving as “king-makers” to support the candidates of their choice, has publicly announced that, should they gain power, they will implement Muslim Sharia law in Egypt.

Their motto is: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu akbar.”

Founded in 1928 for the express purpose of creating an Islamist state, the

MB’s goal has been to restore the caliph-ate and strict Islamist law, first in Muslim lands and, ultimately, the world. Today, it has chapters in 80 countries, including Hamas in Gaza.

“It is in the nature of Islam to domi-nate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet,” said MB founder Hassan al-Banna.

JihadMr. Badi, explained that his group

calls for jihad against “the Muslims’ real enemies, not only Israel, but also the US.”

“Waging jihad against both of these infidels is a commandment of Allah that cannot be disregarded,” he said last Sep-tember.

He has made it clear he does not mean a PC jihad, but, rather, the violent sort because “the change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can be attained only through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life.”

The MB has no problem using de-mocracy to attain power, but once in con-



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It would be hard to mistake Teaneck resident Cheryl Rivkin’s obvious parental pride when she discusses the achievements of her 11-year-old daughter, Dalia, who, last December, became the 2011 US Ju-venile Ladies champion ice skater. But, as significant as Dalia’s accomplishment is, for the Shomer Shabbos Rivkin family it is just one more triumph attained by their quartet of uber-successful children.

For starters, all four Rivkin children, which, in addition to Dalia, include older brother, Naphtali, 17; older sister, Ariela, 15; and younger brother Binyamin, 7, are budding piano virtuosos who give frequent recitals at their school, the Lucy Moses School of Music (formerly the Hebrew Arts School) in Manhattan.

The children come by their musical prowess naturally. Both parents play piano, but their father, Oleg, who immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1975 at the age of 11, studied at Juilliard and the New York High School of the Per-forming Arts, and at one time considered a career as a concert pianist.

Instead, he studied law and married Mrs. Rivkin, who is now chief compliance manager at a Manhattan financial firm.

Political ConservativeBut the Rivkin children’s accomplish-

ments extend well beyond music. Naphtali, a graduate of the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge and, now, a se-nior at the Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, is a prolific political writer with

his own politically conservative blog. He is a frequent speaker for Tea Party events and serves as the national high school chairman of the politically conservative organization Young Americans for Freedom, founded by the late William F. Buckley.

In September, Naphtali will be at-tending Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, primarily because he is eager to assume the role of builder of observant-Jewish life at the 260-year-old academically elite school while enrolling in the ROTC program at neighboring Vir-ginia Military Institute.

“Before the 1960s, when Harvard, Yale, and Princeton dropped their quotas limiting the number of Jewish students allowed on their campuses, there used to be a large number of Jews at Washington and Lee,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Asked why, with all his accomplish-ments, Naphtali was not looking to attend one of those Ivy League Schools, his mother wrinkled her nose. “We absolutely refused to spend upwards of $40,000 per year so that he could be immersed in a sea of left-wing, politically correct nonsense masquerading as academia. Washington and Lee is much more politically conser-vative and, through ROTC, Naphtali feels he will be giving back something to this amazing country, which literally saved his father’s life,” she said.

ActivismAriela, 15, is no less politically in-

volved. Like her brother, she, too, is a member of Young Americans for Free-dom, and this past year she and Naphtali successfully helped in the effort to have Rep Ron Paul (R-TX) removed from the organization’s advisory board, based on his anti-Israel rhetoric.

A graduate of Yavneh in Paramus, she was the NJ state-winner and third in the country in the Patriots Pen essay competition, which is sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Binyamin is a student at Yavneh, and this year gave his first recital at the Merkin Concert Hall at the Lucy Moses School.

Full ScheduleIf the rest of the Rivkin children make

the household a busy place, Dalia’s schedule takes it to a whole different level. Before the decision was made to homeschool her, the tiny

Ice Skater Dalia Rivkin Took Gold Last Winter, but Then She Comes from a Family of Champions


four-foot-six-inch athlete and her mother were up at 4am so that she could be at the Ice House in Hackensack, where she trains, by 5.

After three hours of practice, she would change into school clothes in the car and be driven to Yavneh in Paramus. When school was dismissed at 3:30, she would head back to the Ice House in order to participate in the last practice session, which was over at 6:30,

Then came her evening activities: besides homework and practicing piano, she had all her important off-ice training sessions, including ballet, jazz dancing, weight-lifting, and jumping exercises.

“She does one-arm pushups and crosses the jump rope three times per jump,” said Mrs. Rivkin, who sounded tired just talking about it. But, she said, Dalia has never complained about work related to ice skating.

Chance EncounterShe was introduced to the sport in

the course of a play date four years ago when, on the Presidents Day vacation from school, a friend’s mother took the two little girls to the Ice House.

Dalia initially slipped on the ice, but she quickly got up and, after two hours, the friend’s mother reported, “everyone

was watching her in amazement; that’s how good she was.”

Dalia began taking lessons once a week, and, on one occasion, because Ariela also

wanted to skate, Mrs. Rivkin took both her daughters to a rink in Manhattan.

“My heart was in my mouth because they were both pianists and I was afraid they would hurt their hands,” she recalled.

In fact, after 20 minutes, Dalia ran breathlessly to her mother to report her bleeding hands. “She had a blade mark on her hand and blood running down four fingers, but she didn’t care. She just ran back to the ice,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

HomeschoolingAt the beginning of the 2010 school

year, the schedule became too much for all the Rivkins, and Dalia left the sixth grade to be schooled at home.

“She used to call me during the day, and complain, ‘Why am I here when I could do all this at home and have more time to be on the ice?’” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Working with Yavneh, the Rivkins found strong curriculum materials online for her secular studies, and, for religious studies, the family depended on Rachel Bednarsh, who had taught both Dalia and Ariela at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey.

“She was a favorite of both our daughters at RYNJ and now Dalia has her for one-on-one lessons, lucky girl,” said Mrs. Rivkin.


Dalia Rivlin


Homeschooling has made mornings a little less hectic. Now, Dalia does not have to be at the Ice House until 7 be-cause she can stay later. The rink empties out when other children head off to school.

For her social life, Dalia relies on the computer to keep in touch with her friends from school. On Shabbos, she man-ages to socialize with young-sters at Teaneck’s Congregation Arzei Darom. This year, when she and most of her friends are turning 12, she has made time for bat mitzvah parties.

CompetitionsBut all too frequently, Dalia

and her mother are away for Shabbos, traveling to various skating competitions and hoping she can be squeezed in before or after the Sabbath. She does not skate on Shabbat.

When obligations of her job preclude Mrs. Rivkin’s ability to travel with Dalia, the little

girl goes with her coach, Ju-lia Lautowa, a Russian skater who is a seven-time Austrian national champion and world and Olympic competitor. Mrs. Rivkin catches up with them as soon as possible.

“We do what we can to make it work,” said Mrs. Rivkin who uses all her vacation days to be with Dalia when she competes, which is usually the only time she sees her daughter skate. When Dalia routinely practices, Mrs. Rivkin is at work.

While Mrs. Rivkin and Dalia are away at competi-tions, Mr. Rivkin manages at home in Teaneck with the other three children.

Nervous MomLike most parents, Mrs.

Rivkin faces Dalia’s competi-tions with a mixture of pride and terror. “It’s nerve-racking. After her competitions, I’m just exhausted because of the anxi-ety level. My heart just races

all the time,” she said.It is not very different from

the way she feels when any of her children perform. “I can’t breathe when they play piano in public, but skating is even worse. A child playing piano can only hurt his pride. The stakes are much higher for a skater,” she said.

Afterwards, she feels “ex-hilaration.”

Applications What all of this compet-

ing means for Dalia (who is in the qualifying system that eventually may allow her to represent the United States in international competitions) and her mother is the comple-tion of an endless series of applications for competitions throughout the country.

“I am constantly work-ing to arrange competition opportunities for her,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Usually, these events are

spread out over several days, but frequently they include a Shab-bat or a Jewish holiday. So the Rivkins try to work around it.

“No one knows beforehand what the exact schedule of the com-petition will entail. So we book as many competitions as we can; we book a hotel, if we can; and then we wait,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

HotelsSometimes, when they

are lucky, there is a hotel suf-ficiently near the competition enabling them to leave the rink before Shabbat on Friday and return as quickly as possible after havdala.

Sometimes other arrange-ments are necessary, such as renting a camper to ensure being near enough to the stadium to get back Saturday night.

For Mrs. Rivkin, Dalia’s competitions mean hours online, completing tons of paperwork, hauling equipment and costumes, and packing kosher food.

Dalia Rivkin continued from page 19


“It’s great when we can find a hotel with a kitchenette,” she said.

Shabbat NegotiationsBefore the competition schedule is

set, Mrs. Rivkin begins “negotiations,” explaining their Shabbat observance to officials and asking if there is any way to accommodate Dalia’s needs.

“About one-third of the time, it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes they return our money, but not always. Often, though, there are very good people who try to help,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

On some occasions, Dalia has done sufficiently well during the early part of a competition to merit going forward, only to find out that to participate, she would have to skate on Shabbat. Then the com-petition is over for her.

“It’s hard to leave without a medal she has qualified to win, but the impor-tant thing is that just by skating in the competition, she has gained experience, and equally importantly, the judges have seen her skate. There are never connip-tions when things don’t work out, no fits or arguments. We just do what we can,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

The issue of being seen by the judges is important, she said. Because the same judges show up at many different compe-titions, the better they know a skater, the more accurate their judgment.

Skating UpSometimes, the Rivkins have been

told that while Dalia cannot compete on her own level because that part of the com-petition is taking place on Shabbat, she would be allowed to compete at a higher level, against girls who are older and, presumably, more experienced.

That suits the Rivkins just fine. Dalia has often won competitions under those circumstances.

“She performs better when she com-petes at a higher level. She always wants to win,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

North Atlantic RegionBy this past fall, Dalia, who is a member

of the North Jersey Figure Skating Club, had won dozens of competitions. The deci-sion by her mother and coach to allow her to gain experience was bearing fruit.

Winning the Juvenile Ladies division at the North Atlantic Region competition last October paved the way for her gold medal performance at the US Junior Na-tionals in December.

The October competition, held at Lake Placid, began on Shabbat just after Sukkot. “We had explained the situation to them and, without saying anything to us, the officials simply scheduled Dalia to skate on Sunday and Monday,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

The year before, Dalia had com-peted in the North Atlantic Regionals, but missed qualifying for the final round by one point.

Salt Lake CityHaving won at Lake Placid, Dalia and

her family prepared for the Junior Nation-als, which were held in Salt Lake City. There, Dalia would be competing against the winners of nine other regions.

On Monday, December 13, Dalia flew

to Utah with Ms. Lautowa. By the time Shabbat came, she had already succeeded in the qualifying round.

“The officials had agreed to work with us, telling us that if she qualified for the final round, they would schedule her for the last event, at 6pm, right after Shabbat ended, and Dalia was ready,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

No Warm-UpIt was not as simple as it sounds. While

Dalia was able to compete, she could not take advantage of her scheduled official practice time, which would have been on Shabbat. And she had no time to warm up during the day before competing on the ice.

This is not unusual for Dalia. Accord-continued on page 22


ing to Mrs. Rivkin, her daugh-ter has had to get used to being able to “skate cold” right after Shabbat or holidays, with no practice or warm-up time.

“If she wants it to work, she must be prepared to be at her best and win whenever she has the opportunity to skate. There is no room for moaning about what can’t be helped. Taking off Shab-bat used to hurt her on the ice, but now she doesn’t need a warm-up as much. She just skates,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Stealing the ShowThat is exactly what she did

at the Junior Nationals, where sports reporters said she “stole the show.” Her gold medal-win-ning program was highlighted by a double Lutz-single loop-double Salchow combination. Her highest grade of execution came on her Level 4 change-of-foot combination spin.

Dalia told reporters she felt as if she were flying.

“If she was nervous, she hid

it,” said Mrs. Rivkin. “She told herself she was going to land it all—the jumps, the spins, the execution. She is an incredibly hard-working child, and that’s gratifying for us, as her parents. She didn’t just win the compe-tition. She earned it.”Preparing for the Next One

But, as all competitors know, winning one competi-tion is simply prelude to the next. Dalia and Ms. Lautowa have spent the months since the Junior Nationals preparing new programs with new music, new costumes, and even some new triple jumps.

In April, Dalia was one of four young skaters to perform in a production called “Skating Stars of the Future” at Rock-efeller Center, and in May she performed at Ice House along with several top Senior US skating stars in a Skate-to-Learn exhibition to benefit Boys and Girls Clubs of NJ and Brooklyn.

Her first competition of the season was at the Southern Connecticut Open where, due to Shabbat scheduling, she was able to participate only in the short programs. She is no longer competing as a Juvenile, but rather in the Intermediate and Novice levels, which include skaters up to age 18.

In Connecticut, Dalia took the Silver medal as an Inter-mediate, and the Pewter medal (fourth place) at the higher, Novice level.

“She debuted a triple jump in her program for the first time. There is a lot of work ahead for this season, but it was a very helpful start. We all learned a lot,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Olympic DreamsDalia’s ultimate goal is to

represent the US in the Olym-pics. “Two,” Dalia told report-ers. “If I win one, I’ll try to win another.”

While she would love to compete in the 2014 Olympics in

Russia, she will not have reached the qualifying age of 16. She will have to wait until 2018.

Her mother said it would have been “poetic justice” for her to compete in Russia, given her father’s history as a refugee from the then-Soviet Union.

“To have his child go back there as a strong athlete and strong Jew would have been a sanctification,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Role ModelOf course, all this skating

does not come cheap. Mrs. Rivkin admitted she and her husband “work like crazy” to finance Da-lia’s lessons, trips, and costumes. They are hoping the publicity she has garnered will help find her some sponsorships.

She already has a growing list of friends and fans who tell her how much they enjoy watching her on YouTube or at her practices at the Ice House every morning and following her website, www.daliarivkinskate.com.

Dalia Rivkin continued from page 21


Perhaps most gratifying to the Rivkins is the number of young Jewish fans and future ice skaters who look to Dalia as a role model because she has not skated on Shabbat.

“We certainly have spoken to many, many people about Judaism and how we observe it. It’s given us the most unex-pected role of emissary,” said Mrs. Rivkin.

Asked if it has enhanced Dalia’s sense of Jewish identity, Mrs. Rivkin said she thinks Dalia is increasingly aware of “who she is and what she represents.”

“People constantly tell me that Dalia skates with more conviction than anyone they have ever seen. I think that conviction comes from Dalia’s skating for a higher purpose,” she said. S.L.R.

Teaneck TaxiDalia Rivkin continued from page 22

LMS and Associates for Credit-Repair and Financial ServicesApplying for credit can be

a tricky exercise these days. Sam Lunger, head of the New City-based LMS and Associ-ates, a credit-and-financial in-dustry company specializing in helping clients with their credit and financial needs, says people who are denied credit without reason may be the victims of faulty reports.

According to Mr. Lunger, approximately 70 percent of credit reports have incorrect informa-tion or outright errors.

“By law, you have the right to challenge items listed on a credit report and to have them corrected,” he says, pointing out that many people are un-aware of the importance of a good credit history.

“If you apply for a loan or to lease a car, the bank will check your credit. When you apply for a job, or a rental, your credit will be screened. If there

are negative items, even if they are there by error, you can be denied. Our job is help-ing people restore their credit and resolve their financial problems,” he says.

Getting Out from UnderHe recalled a client from

Rockland County, a successful contractor who had a business line of credit with a reputable bank to help with cash flow. But when the market collapsed, he lost a great deal of money and became unable to continue making his regular payments. After a few months, the bank initiated collection procedures again him and he was threat-ened with a lawsuit.

Several attorneys and ac-countants advised him to file for bankruptcy. But when he came to LMS, their attorney worked with his bank to set-tle his account, lowering the amount he originally owed—

$118,000—to a much more manageable $12,500.

“This is just one of our success stories, showing how we help people get out from under their debts,” says Mr. Lunger. “We are in constant contact with banks, creditors, collection firms, and attorneys to work out settlements or payment plans for our clients. Our attorney has helped many people, even after the other professionals they consulted had already given up.”

Getting CreditEven people without fi-

nancial problems may have trouble obtaining business credit in this turbulent eco-nomic climate. Many banks require security, such as busi-ness assets, which many people simply do not have.

“Our business experts work to establish business credit for our clients through

specialized banks and ven-dors who can help our clients’ companies with the financial help they need to succeed and build. We can also help secure equipment leasing plans to help clients move forward to expand their businesses,” said Mr. Lunger.

Mr. Lunger says LMS’s friendly team, including the company’s attorney, will work confidentially with clients to devise the best plan for suc-cess.

“If you are someone who prefers quality, individual at-tention and positive results then LMS & Associates will be able to assist you with all your credit profile and repair needs,” he says.

To contact LMS, call 201-258-7443 or email [email protected]. An associate can meet with you in your office or other location. Y

The Log: “Separate Yourself Not from the Community” Page - 24 The Jewish Voice and Opinion July 2011 Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice & Opinion”

Do It NowBlack Box Studios at the Jewish Cen-

ter of Teaneck, is seeking submissions of new works for the theater that reflect the lives of Bergen County residents, includes full-length plays and musicals as well as short works, [email protected]

Breicha, a new magazine for observant-Jewish teens, is accepting submissions of ar-ticles and short stories from adults and teens, [email protected]

Register for the Mitch Gross Basket-ball League, for boys and girls entering grades 2-8, in separate divisions by sex and age, with Stephanie Amos and Dovey Forman, to ben-efit NNJKIDS for Jewish day school educa-tion, www.mgblnj.com or 917-293-9128 or 201-928-1267

Nominations open for the Obermayer German-Jewish History Awards, seeking names of Germans who protected Jews during the Holocaust or who have contributed to the preservation of Jewish history, culture, cem-eteries, or synagogues, spons by the Berlin Parliament, deadline is Sept 23, 2011, chaired by Arthur Obermayer, 617-244-0180

Wed., July 6Caregiver’s Support Group, for those

caring for a patient with Alzheimer’s Disease, Jewish Home at Rockleigh, 10am, 201-784-1414 ext 5340

“Practical Halacha of Tefillah for Women: I Have Only a Few Minutes to Daven, What Should I Say?” Rabbi Ari Zahtz, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 10:15am, 201-836-8916

Women’s Torah Study Group, Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Ventnor Chabad, 11am, 609-822-8500

BBQ for Holocaust Survivors, with Orna Zak, CareOne, Teaneck, 6pm, 201-421-7469

Simply Tsfat in Concert: Music of Breslov Chassidim and Other Niggunim, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 7pm, 917-747-3240

Confidential Abused Women’s Sup-port Group, Jewish Family Service, Tean-eck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090

Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jew-ish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Per-sons, and Significant Others, Jewish Fam-ily Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-837-9090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071

Pre-College Learning Center Infor-mation Session, new Jewish High School for grades 8-10, East Brunswick, 7:30pm, [email protected]

“The Ins and Outs of Baby Naming: Hints from the Torah to Keep This Occasion Joyous,” for women, Yehudis Samet, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 8:30pm

Thurs., July 7Parenting Shiur: “Isolation vs Inocu-

lation: The Parental Role in Managing the Internet,” for women, Dr. David Pelcovitz, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 9:30am, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Riverdale Jewish Center Women’s In-stallation and Luncheon, Ginger Grill, Riv-erdale, 12:30pm, 718-884-9494

“Thursday Night Madness: Dinner and Juggling Josh,” for boys and girls grades 1-8, parents welcome, spons by Yeshiva Uni-versity, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

Simply Tsfat in Concert, Chabad Jew-ish Community Center, New City, 7:30pm, 845-634-0951

Fri., July 8“A Taste of Shabbat,” for parents and

babies under one year, Aviva Kohl, JCC Rock-land, West Nyack, 10:30am, 845-362-4400

Community Shabbat Dinner, Rabbi Av-rohom Rapoport, Ventnor Chabad Shul, ser-vices, 7pm, dinner, 8pm, 609-822-8500

Shabbat, July 9“But There Are No Jews in Senegal:

Why Did I Spend Two Weeks There with Rabbinical Students?” Rabbi Dov Linzer, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 10:30am

Women’s Shabbos Shiur, Chana Frumit Stern, Cong Adas Israel, Passaic, 5:30pm

“Hilchos Berachos: Homotzi: Cake, Pizza, Wraps, Challah, Pancakes, Waffles, Mezonos Rolls,” Rabbi David Pahmer, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, 7:20pm, [email protected] or 973-778-7117

“Ayin Hara: A Bubbe Maaseh or Hala-cha Limaaseh?” Rabbi Aaron Kraft, Cong Keter Torah, 8pm

Parent-Daughter Pearls of Prayer Learning, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-1850

“The Jewish Underworld: Crime in the Medieval Jewish Community—A Syn-agogue Break-In, Jewish Gangs, and a Priest Shake-Down,” Prof Effie Shoham-Steiner, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 8pm, 718-796-4730

Motzei Shabbat, July 9Tiferes: A Chofetz Chaim Heritage

Foundation Program, for women, speakers and ideas on DVD, private home in Edison, 10pm, 732-572-4713

Sun., July 10Film: “Everything Is Illuminated,” spons

by HudsonJewish, at Temple Emanu-El, Bayonne, 9:30am, 201-437-7926 or 201-436-4499

Kavvanah: A Tefillah Experience with Meditation, Study, and Song, Rabbi Steven Exler, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 9:30am, 718-796-4730

“The Role of American Jewry in the Destiny of Israel: Understanding Cur-rent Events Using Classical Jewish Texts,” Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, includes brunch, Cong Ahavat Yisrael, Wesley Hills, 10:30am, 845-354-3494

NJ Jewish Music and Art Festival, in-cludes Moshe Hecht Band, SoulFarm, Reality Addiction, rides, kosher BBQ, Chabad Jewish Center, Basking Ridge, noon-7pm, [email protected]

Jewish Singles Scavenger Hunt, ages 30+, rain or shine, bring cell phone or digital camera and team up to hunt and then photo-graph items, registration at Is-A-Berry Fro-zen Yogurt on Palisade Ave in Englewood, 12:30pm; hunt begins in Englewood, 1pm, 201-264-9515

The Log: “Separate Yourself Not from the Community” http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Tammuz 57671 The Jewish Voice and Opinion Page - 25

Meet the Artist Reception: Stanislav Shpanim, now an adult émigré from Azerbai-jan, he was listed, at age 12, in the Guiness Book of World Records as the Young Pro-fessional Artist in the World, JCC, Tenafly, 1-3pm, 201-408-1411

Boomer Jewish Singles, 46-64, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 2pm, 845-362-4400

Babysitting Training, for 11-15 year olds, JCC, West Orange, 973-530-3400, 3pm, 973-530-3499

Film: “My So-Called Enemy,” discus-sion on Israeli and Palestinian women led by Prof Jonathan Golden, JCC, Tenafly, 7:30pm, 201-408-1468

Sunset Walking Tour of Downtown Jersey City Waterfront, Joshua Parkhurst, Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy presi-dent, spons by HudsonJewish, meet at Ex-change Place PATH Station, Jersey City, rain date, Sun, July 17, 7:30pm, [email protected]

Singles Summer Fest, for Jewish singles 45-60, spons by JCC of Middlesex County, at Mei Garden kosher restaurant, Highland Park, 8pm, 732-494-3232

Lawyers’ Networking and Mentoring Night Out, Judge Mark Friedlander and Ezra Levine, Esq, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-1850

One Israel Fund Backyard Event, fea-turing cigar bar, Israeli wine-tasting, and sushi, private home in Teaneck, 8pm, 201-837-7530

Mon., July 11“Facing History and Ourselves: Ho-

locaust and Human Behavior,” Manhattan College, Riverdale, 9am, through Fri., July 15, 212-992-7380

AARP Driver Safety, for seniors, Lauten-berg JCC, Whippany, 9:30am, 973-428-9300

“Acquiring Free Information Tech-nology for Non-Profits,” includes Google docs and Apps, internet marketing, iContact Free, TechSoup, and Smartphones, Richard Luna of Protected Harbour, a computer ser-vices outsourcing provider, Volunteer Center of Bergen County’s Non-Profit Training and Resource Center, Hackensack, 10am, 201-489-9454 ext 114

“Is Your Child Smart in Everything but Not in School? Neurobiological Research and Exciting Treatment Options,” for parents and professionals who work with children, private office in Monsey, 7pm, 845-369-3235

An Evening of Comedy and Music: Improv Comedy, Play Readings, and Mu-sicals-in-Progress, featuring Black Box Studios, at Teaneck General Store, 7:30pm, 201-530-5046

Screening of the Israeli Hit Series on

Israeli Modern-Orthodox Singles: “Se-rugim,” spons by West of the Hudson, a new singles group of Orthodox young profession-als in their 20s and 30s, at the Jewish Center of Teaneck, 7:45pm, [email protected] or 201-833-0515 ext 200

“Just in Time for the Nine Days: Dairy Recipe Exchange,” Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 8pm

“Religious Zionism: What Is the Dream?” for men and women, Mrs. CB Ne-ugroschl, Cong Rinat Yisrael, 8pm, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Achdus Teleconference for Sholom Mor-dechai Rubashkin, Rabbi Noach I. Oelbaum, spons by the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foun-dation, 9:30pm, 718-258-2008

Tues., July 12Film: “The Mad Adventures of Rabbi

Jacob,” spons by Together on Tuesdays, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:15am, 973-736-1407 ext 240

Blood Drive, Senior Home Care Services, Morristown, 2:30-8:30pm, 973-538-4357

Parsha and Pizza, for grades 1-8, for boys and girls in separate classes by age, Rabbi Josh Shulman, spons by Yeshiva Uni-versity, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

Summer Soul Searching: Psalm 24, Rab-bi Nathaniel Helfgot, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-408-1426



The Log is a free service provided to the Jewish com-munity in northern and central New Jersey, Rockland County and Riverdale. Events that we list include special and guest lectures, concerts, boutiques, dinners, open houses, club meetings, and new classes.

Announcements are requested by the 25th of the month prior to the month of the event. Due to space and editorial constraints, we cannot guarantee publication of any announce-ment. Please email them to :

[email protected].

Young Israel of Teaneck Sisterhood Spa Night, 8pm, 201-837-1710

“From Servitude to Sal-vation: Connecting the Dots: Semichah Geulah l’Tefillah,” for men and women, Rabbi An-drew Markowitz, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910

Positive Parenting: “Par-enting for the Three Rs—Ratio-nal, Responsible, and Resilient Teens,” Dr. Aliza Frohlich, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 862-377-3375

Wed., July 13Women’s Torah Study Group,

Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Ventnor Chabad, 11am, 609-822-8500

Support Group for Caregiv-ers, those caring for an older adult who is physically frail or suffering from memory loss, JCC, Tenafly, 7:30pm, 201-408-1450

“Chicks with Sticks Knitting Circle,” hats for preemies, children with cancer, and IDF soldiers in Israel, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-339-8492

Community Synagogue of Monsey Book Club: “Cutting for Stone” by Dr. Abraham Ver-ghese, private home in Monsey, 8pm, 845-425-7935

“Jewish Women in 20th Cen-tury American History: Boycot-ters and Balaboostas—Gender and Politics on the Lower East Side,” Shira Kohn, spons by Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, at a private home in West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-669-3742, 973-243-7274, or 973-736-1407

“Churban Beit Hamikdash: Just Ancient History?” Rabbi Aaron Kraft, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8:45pm 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Thurs., July 14Parenting Shiur: “Healthy

Sons, Healthy Daughters: Beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate,” for women, Dr. Shani Bechhofer, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 9:30am, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Book Club: “Wherever You Go” by Joan Leegant, Lauten-berg JCC, Whippany, 10:30am, 973-428-9300

“Thursday Night Mad-ness: Dinner and Capture the Flag-Torah Style,” for boys and girls grades 1-8, spons by Yeshiva University, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-596

Jewish Center of Teaneck Trustees Dinner, honoring Eva Lynn Gans, at the center, 7:30pm, 201-833-0515 ext 200

“Tisha B’Av and Kinos: The Seventh Million: The Survivors’ Unspoken Tragedy—An Analy-sis of the 23rd Kinah,” Rabbi Ste-ven Weil, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm

Challah Baking in Mer-it of Gilad Shalit, the IDF sol-dier kidnapped and still held by Hamas in Gaza, baking starts at sundown and continues through Fri., July 15, [email protected]

Fri., July 15Deadline to Apply to the New

Global Institute for Values Edu-cation, Dedicated to Advancing Jewish Values in Mainstream American Culture, for young adults 18-35, under the leader-ship of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, will include training in the art of advancing Jewish values through writing, broadcasting, and entre-preneurship, http://www.thisworld.us/images/uploads/NJVI_Appli-cation.pdf or [email protected], or 201-221-3333

“Positive Jewish Marriage Retreat,” featuring Drs. Scott Chudnoff, Alex Bailey, Nina Glick, Marcy Schaffer, Sylvan Schaffer, and David Pelcovitz; Rabbi Dr Mordechai Glick; Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, Tobias Jungreis; Rachel Pill; Lauren Roth; and Josh Kohl, spons by the Orthodox Union, at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton, through Sun., July 17, 212-613-8188

Shabbat, July 16Rabbi Shlomo Weissman,

Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, 10:30am, [email protected] or 973-778-7117

“Choose Your Own Drasha,” Rabbi Steven Miodownik, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 10:30am, 732-247-0532

Scholar-in-Residence Shi-fra Rabenstein, Cong Ahawas Achim, Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, “Bitachon: A Per-sonal Journey (Beit Midrash),” for women, 4:30pm; seudah shlishit, for women, 5:30pm; “Grudges: Grin but Don’t Bear It,” 5:45pm, 973-736-1407

“Hilchos Berachos: Expired Brachot—Shinui Makom,” Rab-bi David Pahmer, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, 7:20pm, [email protected] or 973-778-7117

Sun., July 17Explanatory Morning Ser-

vice, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experi-ence, at Cong Keter Torah, Tean-eck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490

Shechita Event, in connec-tion with the start of Masechet Chullin in the Day Yomi Cycle, includes “Shechita-Ante Mortem: The Knife, the Act of Shechita, Relevant Halachot, and a Demon-stration,” “Shechita-Post Morten: Skimming and Eviscerating, Si-manim of Kosher Animals, Identi-fying Helev, Checking the Lungs, and Declaring the Animal Kosher or Not,” and “The Craft of Niqur: Deveining, Defatting, Dealing with Membranes, Nerves, Other Fats, Gid Hanasheh, Full Niqur of the Saddle, Flanks, and One Leg,” at Medina Custom Hallal, Paterson, 10am, 201-287-1077

Babysitting Training, for 11-15 year olds, JCC, West Orange, 973-530-3400, 3pm, 973-530-3499

Torah Enrichment Center of Cong Shomrei Torah Young Families BBQ, private home in Fair Lawn, 6pm, 201-797-2126

Mon., July 18“Facing History and Our-

selves: Holocaust and Human Behavior,” Drew University, Madison, NJ, 9am, through Fri., July 22, 212-992-7380

AARP Driver Safety, for seniors, Lautenberg JCC, Whip-pany, 9:30am, 973-428-9300

Webcast: “Basic Goals for People in Transition: Changing Fields of Employment: Who Can Help You?, Realistic Expecta-tions, How to Get an Interview,” Alex Freund, spons by the Ortho-dox Union, 5:30pm, www.oujobs.org or 212-563-4000

“Misinterpreting and Rein-terpreting the Message of Proph-esy,” Shani Tarragin, for men and women, Cong Rinat Yisrael, 8pm, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Meditation Workshop, Sheri Klugmann, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Or-ange, 8:30pm, 973-736-1407

Achdus Teleconference for Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, spons by the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foun-dation, 9:30pm, 718-258-2008

Tues., July 19Fast of 17th of TammuzAARP Driver Safety, for

seniors, Lautenberg JCC, Whip-pany, 9:30am, 973-428-9300

Together on Tuesdays, for seniors, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:15am, 973-736-1407 ext 240

“From Servitude to Sal-vation: Will the Real Messiah Please Stand Up: Failed Mes-siahs in History,” for men and women, Rabbi Andrew Markowitz, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910

Wed., July 20 “Managing Large Scale

Days of Service,” spons by the Northern NJ Business Volun-teer Council, private office in Westwood, 8:30am, 201-489-9454 ext 114

“Practical Halacha of Tefil-lah for Women: My Child Started Crying and I’m in the Middle

The Log continued from page 25


of Shemoneh Esrei, What Do I Do?” Rabbi Ari Zahtz, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 10:15am, 201-836-8916

Book Club: “The Three Weissmans of Westport” by Catherine Schine, JCC, West Orange, 11am, 973-530-3499

Infant and Child CPR, JCC, West Orange, 3pm, 973-530-3499

Book Club: “Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahirir, fa-cilitated by Arlene Sander, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7pm, 845-362-4400

JEC Elmora Ave Shul Sis-terhood Dinner, Glatt Star Res-taurant, Elizabeth, 7pm, 908-355-4850

Confidential Abused Wom-en’s Support Group, Jewish Fam-ily Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090

Israeli Film Club: “Metal-lic Blues,” with English subtitles, discussion led by Daniel Sonnen-schein, JCC Rockland, West Ny-ack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400

Book Club of Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David and Cong Ohr: “As a Driven Leaf” by Milton Steinberg, facilitated by Elaine Woods, private home in West Orange, 8pm, 973-669-0938 or 973-669-1247

“Jewish Women in 20th Cen-tury American History: Beyond the ‘Feminine Mystique’—Jewish Women’s Involvement in Reli-gious, Social, and Political Life in the Post-War Period,” Shira Kohn, spons by Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, at a private home in West Orange, 8:30pm, 973-669-3742, 973-243-7274, or 973-736-1407

“Churban Beit Hamikdash: Just Ancient History?” Rabbi Aaron Kraft, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8:45pm 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Thurs., July 21Parenting Shiur: “Social Lives

and Social Issues: Helping Chil-dren with Friendships, Bullying, Cliques, and Popularity Issues,” for women, Dr. Rona Novick, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 9:30am, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

La Leche League of Bronx/Riverdale, Mia Damond Padwa, pregnant women, babies and small children welcome, healthy snacks,

Riverdale YMHA, 9:30am, 718-543-0314

“Thursday Night Mad-ness: Fun with the Friendship Circle,” for boys and girls grades 1-8, including those with special needs,” spons by Yeshiva Univer-sity, at Cong Keter Torah, Tean-eck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

“Helping Your Child Deal with Divorce,” workshop for men and women, OHEL’s Teaneck Regional Office, 7pm, 201-692-3972

Book Club: “The Three Weissmans of Westport” by Catherine Schine, JCC, West Or-ange, 7:30m, 973-530-3499

“Tisha B’Av and Kinos: The One Man Who Could Have Stopped the Churban—An Anal-ysis of the 11th Kinah,” Rabbi Ste-ven Weil, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm

Fri., July 22Deadline to Apply for a

Grant for the 2011 Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film, http://jewishculture.cuerate.org/orgs/fjc/kroll/guidelines2011.pdf

Call of the Shofar Retreat for Men, for those over 18, pro-gram endorsed by Rav Michel Twerski of Milwaukee and Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer of Baltimore will present the Torah’s fundamental principles of healthy relationships, spirituality, and character devel-opment, at Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center, Reistertown, MD, transportation available from NJ/NY, 443-827-8420

Uri L’Tzedek Fellows Shab-baton: “Social Justice in a Glo-balized World,” with director Rabbi Avi Weiss, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, through Shabbat, July 23, 718-796-4730

Shabbat, July 23Bnot Summer Family Lun-

cheon, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, noon, [email protected]

“Hilchos Berachos: Des-sert—When to Recite a Bracha,” Rabbi David Pahmer, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, 7:20pm, [email protected] or 973-778-7117

Sun., July 24Last Day for Art Exhibit:

“The Crypto Jews” by Gloria Golden, JCC, West Orange, Mon-Thurs, 9am-6pm; Fri, 9am-4pm; Sun, 10am-5pm, 973-530-3413

“Extreme Makeover: The

Beit Hamikdash,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at the Shore, Vent-nor, 10:15am, 609-822-8500

Yeshiva Gedolah of Teaneck Dinner, honoring Dr. Jonathan and Sherry Lewin, Rabbi Mena-hem Meier, Dr. Mark Apfel, and Dr. David and Susan Richman, in memory of Walter Rubinstein, z”l, at Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Tea-neck, 6pm, 201-833-5920

Film: “The Life and Lega-cy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveit-chik,” for men and women, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910

Mon., July 25Film: “Schndler’s List,” dis-

cussion led by Stan Goldberg, JCC, Tenafly, 1:30pm, 201-408-1456

Nechama: To Understand What Families Experience When They Have Gone through the Loss of an Infant and/or a Preg-nancy, Reva Judas, at OHEL Re-gional Center, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-692-3972

“Post-Exilic Judaism: Con-tinuity and Innovation in Ezra Nechemia,” Yael Leibowitz, for men and women, Cong Rinat Yisrael, 8pm, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Achdus Teleconference for

Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson, spons by the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foun-dation, 9:30pm, 718-258-2008

Tues., July 26“Osteoporosis and Your

Health,” with the Kessler Institute, spons by Together on Tuesdays, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:15am, 973-736-1407 ext 240

Parsha and Pizza, for grades 1-8, for boys and girls in separate classes by age, Rabbi Josh Shul-man, spons by Yeshiva Universi-ty, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

“Helping Your Child Deal with Divorce,” workshop for men and women, OHEL’s Teaneck Regional Office, 7pm, 201-692-3972

“From Servitude to Salvation: Memorializing the Mikdash,” Rab-bi Andrew Markowitz, for men and women, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910

Positive Parenting: “Tired of Yelling: Handling Children’s Resistance without Yelling, Brib-ing, or Punishing,” Aviva Schwab, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 862-377-3375



Wed., July 27“Practical Halacha of Tefil-

lah for Women: If I Arrive at Shul during Leining, in What Order Should I Daven? Do I Stop to Listen to Leining?” Rabbi Ari Zahtz, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Tea-neck, 10:15am, 201-836-8916

Car Seat Safety Check, YMHA, Wayne, 3-7pm, 973-595-0100 ext 280


“Churban Beit Hamikdash: Just Ancient History?” Rabbi Aaron Kraft, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8:45pm, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Thurs., July 28Parenting Shiur: “Kibbud Av

V’Eim: What Parents Might Not Have the Right to Ask of Their Child,” for women, Rabbi Yosef Adler, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 9:30am, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Teacher Expo, for schools, curriculum enhancement, class trips, and programs, Hilton Gar-den Inn, Edison, 10am-4pm, 201-634-0338

Support Group for Caregiv-ers, those caring for an older adult who is physically frail or suffering from memory loss, JCC, Tenafly, 11am, 201-408-1450

“Thursday Night Madness: Theater in the Park,” performed by the YU Keter Torah Kollel and the Rinat Yisrael Women’s Beit Midrash, for boys and girls grades 1-8, spons by Yeshiva University, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

Film: “Live from Jerusa-lem: The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Jerusalem,” delayed live broadcast of concert with con-ductor Zubin Mehta, soprano Renée Fleming, and tenor Joseph Calleja, at Middlebrook Galleria Cinema 10, Asbury Park; Burlington 20, Burl-ington; AMC Clifton Commons 16, Clifton; Edgewater 16 Multiple Cin-emas, Edgewater; AMC Hamilton 24, Hamilton; Town Center Plaza, Hightstown; Hamilton Commons 14, Mays Landing; Commerce Center 18, North Brunswick; AMC Garden State 16, Paramus; Parsip-pany Cinema 12, Parsippany; AMC Rockaway 16, Rockaway; Show-place Theatre, Secaucus; Movies

16, Somerdale; and Ritz Center 16, Voorhees, 7pm

“Tisha B’Av and Kinos: The Millennial Generation: A Water-shed Moment in Ashkenazic Jew-ry—An Analysis of the 22nd and 25th Kinah,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm

Fri., July 29Community Shabbat Dinner,

Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Vent-nor Chabad Shul, services, 7pm, dinner, 8pm, 609-822-8500

Shabbat, July 30Carlebach Minyan, Cong

Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn, 8:45am“I Wish I Understood Ev-

erything I Was Saying” Minyan, Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8:45am

Rabbi Elchanan Adler, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, 10:30am and 7:20pm, [email protected] or 973-778-7117

Sun., July 31Deadline to Enter Glucose-

Free, Lactose-Free, or Kosher Recipe for a Chance to Win a Trip to San Francisco or NYC, other prizes include $100 and $250, spons by My Grocery Master, helping peo-ple find specialty food products on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads, www.mygrocerymaster.com

Blood Drive, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 9am-1pm

Explanatory Morning Ser-vice, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experi-ence, at Cong Keter Torah, Tean-eck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490

Torah Tour of the New York Botanical Garden, Dr. Jon Greenberg, Bronx, 10am, [email protected]

“Extreme Makeover: The Beit Hamikdash,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at the Shore, Vent-nor, 10:15am, 609-822-8500

JACS Meeting, 12-steps meeting for Jews in recovery, Rabbi Steven Bayar, Cong B’nai Israel, Millburn, 6pm, 973-379-3811

Mon., Aug 1Films That Struggle with

Jewish Identity: “The Appren-ticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” Lau-tenberg JCC, Whippany, 10:30am, 973-428-9300

Café Europa Holocaust Survi-vor Group, Linda Storfer, Riverdale

YMHA, noon, 718-548-8200Caddy Camp Workshop

for Women, Nancy Siegel, to benefit the Alan T Brown Foun-dation to Cure Paralysis, Ridge-wood Country Club, Paramus, 1pm, 201-836-3381

Rosh Chodesh Women’s Circle: “Coping with Challenges and Adversity—a Science and Torah Perspective,” Dr. Ann Borden and Tova Rapoport, Cha-bad at the Shore, Margate, 7pm, 609-992-4900

Tues., Aug 2Bike 4 Chai, 50-, 75-, or 100-

mile ride to benefit Camp Simcha of Chai Lifeline, for children with can-cer and other illnesses, begin with a pre-ride pasta party and evening at Berkeley Hotel, Asbury Park, ride continues on Wed. Aug 3 (stop at Crystal Springs Resort, Vernon, NJ), and ends of Thurs., Aug 4, at Camp Simcha, 646-727-8294

Parsha and Pizza, for grades 1-8, for boys and girls in separate classes by age, Rabbi Josh Shul-man, spons by Yeshiva Universi-ty, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

Contemporary Israeli Po-etry Group, in the original with English translation and discussion, Atara Fobar, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7pm, 718-796-4730

“From Servitude to Salva-tion: Unearthing the Depths of Eichah,” for men and women, Joseph Winkler, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910

Cong Ahavas Achim Sister-hood Book Club: “The Postmis-tress” by Sarah Blake, private home in Edison, 8:30pm, 732-572-6634 or 732-819-0296

Wed., Aug 3Confidential Abused Wom-

en’s Support Group, Jewish Fam-ily Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090

Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jewish Alcoholics, Chem-ically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-837-9090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071

Thurs., Aug 4Teacher Expo, for schools, cur-

riculum enhancement, class trips,



New Classes this Month

and programs, Doubletree, Tinton Falls, 10am-4pm, 201-634-0338

“Thursday Night Mad-ness: Beit Hamikdash Scavenger Hunt,” with prizes, for boys and girls grades 1-8, spons by Yeshiva University, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

Chinuch HaBanim Seminar: “A Foundation to Structure and Run Your Home Smoothly, with the Goal of Instilling Torah Val-ues in Your Child for Life,” for parents of children 3-10, Rebbetzin Sima Spetner, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 7:30pm, 201-232-2390

“Tisha B’Av and Kinos: The Death Knell of Israeli Jewry: The Aftermath of the Roman Genocide and the Hadrianic Decrees—An Analysis of the 21st Kinah,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm

Fri., Aug 5“A Taste of Shabbat,” for

parents and babies under one year, Aviva Kohl, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 10:30am, 845-362-4400

Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Dr Jonathan Rosenblatt, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, through Shabbat, Aug 6

Shabbat, Aug 6“A Pre-Tisha B’Av Experi-

ence,” Prof Shalom Holtz, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, “Babylon and Jerusalem: The Poli-tics of a Split Community,” 11:30am; “Who Came to Destroy Jerusalem? New and Newer Discovering from Babylonia,” 6:45pm; “Nebuchad-nezzar on the World Stage and the Geopolitics of Churban Bayit Ris-

hon,” 8:05pm, 732-247-0532Ya’ad Raffle, to win two

tickets anywhere in the US, an I-Pad 2, or a Flip camera, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 2pm, 732-247-0532

Parent-Daughter Pearls of Prayer Learning, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-1850

Sun., Aug 7“Extreme Makeover: The

Beit Hamikdash,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at the Shore, Vent-nor, 10:15am, 609-822-8500

First Aid, for babysitters, JCC, West Orange, 3pm, 973-530-3499

Chinuch HaBanim Semi-nar: “A Foundation to Structure and Run Your Home Smoothly, with the Goal of Instilling Torah Values in Your Child for Life,” for parents of children 3-10, Reb-betzin Sima Spetner, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 7:30pm, 201-232-2390

“Narcissism: Nowadays It Is All about Me,” Rabbi Yis-sochor Frand, at Cong Bnai Ye-shurun, Teaneck, 8pmMon., Aug 8, Erev Tisha B’Av

Films That Struggle with Jewish Identity: “Joshua Then and Now,” Lautenberg JCC, Whip-pany, 10:30am, 973-428-9300

The Fast Begins at 8:04pmTues., Aug 9, Tisha B’Av

The Fast Ends at 9:32pmWed., Aug 10

Dealine to Submit Art Work for Art Response Series; the aim is to create art work which supports the

right of Israel to exist in peace and security, spons by Artists 4 Israel, [email protected]

Teacher Expo, for schools, curriculum enhancement, class trips, and programs, Police Ath-letic League, Wayne, 10am-4pm, 201-634-0338

Chinuch HaBanim Seminar: “A Foundation to Structure and Run Your Home Smoothly, with the Goal of Instilling Torah Val-ues in Your Child for Life,” for parents of children 3-10, Rebbetzin Sima Spetner, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 7:30pm, 201-232-2390

Support Group for Caregiv-ers, those caring for an older adult who is physically frail or suffering from memory loss, JCC, Tenafly, 7:30pm, 201-408-1450


“From Servitude to Salva-

tion: Counting the Keitz: Are We Permitted to Calculate When Mashiach Will Come?” for men and women, Rabbi Andrew Markowitz, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 8:15pm, 201-791-7910

Thurs., Aug 11Book Club: “”The Tenth

Song,” by Naomi Ragen, Laut-enberg JCC, Whippany, 10:30am, 973-428-9300

“Thursday Night Madness: Pre-Shabbat Nachamu Rock-out,” includes live music, BBQ, and games, for the entire family, spons by Yeshiva University, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm, 201-923-5960

Chinuch HaBanim Semi-nar: “A Foundation to Structure and Run Your Home Smoothly, with the Goal of Instilling Torah Values in Your Child for Life,” for parents of children 3-10, Reb-betzin Sima Spetner, Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 7:30pm, 201-232-2390 Y

SundaysGemara Shiur, Rabbi Avrumy Fein, Riverdale Jewish Center,

9:15am, 718-548-1850Avos U’Banim Learning Program, for boys leaving grade 1 and

up and their fathers, includes nosh and raffles, spons by the Passaic-Clifton Community Kollel, at Kehillas Bais Yosef (Rabbi Hirsch’s Shul), Passaic, 9:30am, 484-620-6187

“Journeys from Exile to Redemption: A Journey into the Book of Jeremiah,” for women, Chaya Lerman, Chabad House, Ventnor, 10am, 609-822-8500

Shiur, Rabbi Michel Klughaput, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 8pm

MondaysOne-on-One Tutoring and Chavruta Learning, for boys and girls,

5-18, Rabbi Josh Schulman, spons by Yeshiva University, at Cong Keter

Torah, Teaneck, 5pm and 5:45pm, 201-923-5960, begins July 11Hebrew Crash Course, Sara Kinberg, 6:30pm, 718-796-4730Tai Chi and Karate, for adults, Cong Ahavath Torah, Engle-

wood, 7:30pm, 201-568-1315“Perspectives on Mitzvos Ben Adom LeChaveiro, including Bi-

kur Cholim, Nichum Aveilim, Kibus Av V’Em, Aveilus, and Arvus,” Rabbi Yonason Sacks, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, mincha, 8pm; shiur, 8:15pm, 201-836-8916

Gemara, Rabbi Yossi Adler, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8:30pm

“Become Self-Sufficient in Your Learning,” Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim, Passaic Torah Institute, 8:30pm

Gemara Masechet Megillah, Rabbi Steven Miodownik, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 9pm, 732-247-0532




TuesdaysKollel Boker: Gemara, Rabbi Daniel Feldman, Cong Bnai Ye-

shurun, Teaneck, 6:20amHadassah Walkers, for brisk walkers, three miles, Highland Park

Post Office, 7:45am, 732-819-9298“Gems of Torah,” Rabbi Moshe Goldberger, Cong Ahavas Achim,

Highland Park, 8:30am, 732-247-0532“Mishnayot Yoma/Rosh Hashana,” Rabbi Avigdor Weitzner,

Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 9:30am, 732-247-0532Beginners Knitting, Joanna Samad, Teaneck General Store,

10am, 201-530-5046Summer Kollel for High School and College Students: Explor-

ing the Mitzvot of Tzizit, Tefillin, and Shabbat,” Rabbi Mordechai Gershon, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 10am, 201-568-1315

“Studies in the Weekly Parsha,” Yehuda Goldin, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 10:30am, 201-568-1315

Parshat Hashauva, for women, Rabbi Ari Zahtz, Cong Bnai Ye-shurun, Teaneck, 10:30am

“Topics in Jewish Thought,” Yehuda Goldin, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 11am, 201-568-1315

Coffee and Class, Riverdale Jewish Center, 11am, 718-548-1850A Touch of Class, Riverdale Jewish Center, noon, 718-548-1850Baldwin Jazz Series, Jed Levy and Mark Soskin, Whole Foods

Market, West Orange, 6-8pm, 973-669-3196Open Beit Midrash and Parshat Hashavua, Harry Glazer, Cong

Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 7pm, 732-247-0532Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Aharon Ciment, Cong Arzei Darom, Tea-

neck, 8:10pm, 201-530-0043Partners in Torah, YMHA, Clifton, 8:15pm, 862-591-2920Women’s Shiur, Dr. Chaim Presby, private home in Highland

Park, 8:30pm, 732-572-6231 or 732-572-9455Parsha, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, Riverdale Jewish Center,

8:30pm, 718-548-1850“The Laws of Shechita and Terefus,” Rabbi Duvie Weiss, Cong

Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8:30pmGemara Shiur: Tractate Kiddushin, for men, Rabbi Eliyahu

Kaufman, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 9:30pmWednesdays

Kollel Boker: Gemara, Rabbi Daniel Feldman, Cong Bnai Ye-shurun, Teaneck, 6:20am

Tanach Shiur: “Philosophical Themes in Bereishit,” for women, Dr. Shira Weiss, Cong Rinat Yisrael, 9:30am, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Intermediate Spanish, Rhonda Stock, Hebrew Institute of Riv-

erdale, 10am, 917-620-5726Hadassah Walkers, for leisurely strollers, Donaldson Park, 10am,

732-819-9298“Finding the Black Box: Tefillin and Beyond,” Rabbi Eli Ba-

ruch Shulman, Cong Keter Torah, 12:45pm, 201-742-5164Lunch and Learn, for seniors, Rabbi Michael Taubes, Cong Bnai

Yeshurun, Teaneck, lunch, 1pm; shiur, 1:30pmOne-on-One Tutoring and Chavruta Learning, for boys and

girls, 5-18, Rabbi Josh Schulman, spons by Yeshiva University, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm and 5:45pm, 201-923-5960

Chicks with Sticks, knitting hats for Israeli soldiers, Riverdale Jewish Center, 7:30pm, 718-548-1850

Schmooze on the News B’Ivrit, Daniel Sonenschein, JCC Rock-land, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 ext 115

Pottery Class, for women, Michael Preston, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-4750

Intermediate Ulpan, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of River-dale, 8pm, 718-796-4730

“Perspectives on Mitzvos Ben Adom LeChaveiro, including Bi-kur Cholim, Nichum Aveilim, Kibus Av V’Em, Aveilus, and Arvus,” Rabbi Yonason Sacks, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, mincha, 8pm; shiur, 8:15pm, 201-836-8916

Phone Leadership Workshop: “Clarity,” spons by Aish HaTo-rah, 8:30pm, [email protected], begins July 13

“Become Self-Sufficient in Your Learning,” Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim, Passaic Torah Institute, 8:30pm

Gemara for Women, Rabbi Michael Stein, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8:30pm, 201-575-5691 or 718-548-1850

Topics in Masechta Brochos, Rabbi Yisroel Hoffman, Cong Agu-dath Israel, Highland Park, 8:30pm, [email protected]

“Hidden Secrets of the Three Mitzvot of Women,” Mandana Bolour, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 8:30pm, 201-568-1315

Shiur in Moreh Nevuchim, Dr. Isaac Chavel, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8:40pm, 718-548-1850

Parenting Workshop Teleconference: Learn Skills to Help Discipline and Guide Children Simply and Easily, Adina Soclof, 9pm, [email protected]

Chinuch, Rabbi Tzvi Sobolofsky, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Tean-eck, 9:15pm

Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Shlomo Ziegler, Cong Ohav Emeth, High-land Park, 9:30pm

Thursdays“Summer Kollel for High School and College Students: “Un-

derstanding Judaism—The Book of Kuzari,” Rabbi Mordechai Ger-shon, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 10am, 201-568-1315

Summer Kollel for High School and College Students: “Ask the Rabbi—Q&A on Fascinating Torah Topics,” Rabbi Mordechai Gershon, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 11am, 201-568-1315

Beginners Ulpan, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 6:30pm, 718-796-4730

Gemara Shiur, Rabbi Chaim Poupko, private home in Englewood, 8pm, [email protected]

Gemara Sukkah (Iyun), Rabbi Shlomo Nussbaum, Cong Aha-vas Achim, Highland Park, 8:35am, 732-247-0532

Siddur Hebrew, Sara Kinberg, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7:30pm, 718-796-4730

Parsha and Cholent, for teenage boys, Rabbi Becker and guest speakers, Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park, 9pm, 732-247-0532

Chumash Shiur, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, via satellite, Cong K’Hal Zichron Mordechai, Monsey (845-356-7188);Young Israel of Fair Lawn (201-797-1800); Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck (201-907-0180); Cong Ohr

Mazal TovMazal Tov to the Bar Mitzvah Boys: Jacob Adler; Abraham

Benjamin; AJ Book; Julius Danishefsky; Ezra Epstein; Nissim Leib Farkas; Zachary Friedman; Zack Greenberg; Arthur Greenfield; Yair Gros;, Aharon Michoel Haas; Ari Hiller; Jeremy Horowitz; Shmuel Kerzner; Sam Korbman; Yaakov, Yosef, and Aron Kurlantzick; Chezkie Lauer; Matan Leff, Yehoshua Naor; Harry Ottensoser; Joshua Ritter; Eliyahu Moshe Solomon and Yeshaya Yehuda Savetsky; Shmaryahu and Akiva Shulman; Menachem Singerman; Yoshi Spivack; and Benjamin Taitel; and the Bat Mitzvah girls: Elisheva Feld-man, Leora Gellman, Emily Gross, Shoshana Jeselsohn, Tamar Leah Kinderlehrer, Reva Lewitter, Shandy Marchuck, Aliza Novogroder, Aliza Pavel, Dalia Planer, Shira Chaya Rach-lin, Simmi Sausen, Sara Schapiro, Daniella Schulhof, Shira Waltuch, and Avital Miriam Zeldin Y

New Classes continued from page 29


Torah, West Orange (973-669-7320); Cong Tifereth Israel, Passaic (973-773-2552), Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park (732-247-0532), 9pm

Internet Shiur: Parsha Plus, Tova Cohen, 9pm, www.jewish-radionetwork.net

“Searching for a Philosophy of Halacha,” Eli Weber, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 9:15pm

Parsha and Halacha, Rabbi Michael Taubes, Cong Bnai Ye-shurun, Teaneck, 10pm

FridaysKollel Boker: Halacha, Rabbi Daniel Feldman, Cong Bnai Ye-

shurun, Teaneck, 6:20amChallah Baking Workshops, for children, spons by Chabad at

the Shore, Margate, 10am, 11am, and noon, 609-992-4900Shabbat

Halacha, Cong Arzei Darom, Teaneck, 8:15am, [email protected]

Parshas Hashavua through the Limmud of Rav Eliyahu Dessler, z”l, Mark Berman, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 10:15am, 201-568-1315

The Shabbos Party, for children, includes games, snacks, and stories, Cong Ohav Emeth, 3:15pm, begins July 9

Mother-Daughter Learning, Cong Ohr HaTorah, Bergenfield, 4pmParent & Child Learning, for children, parents, and grandpar-

ents, with raffles and prizes, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 4:45pm, [email protected]

Father-Son Learning, Cong Ohr HaTorah, Bergenfield, 5pmPirkei Avos In-Depth, for men and women, Rabbi Mordechai

Becher, Passaic Torah Institute, 5:15pmWomen’s Shiur, Cong Adas Israel, Passaic, 5:30pmGemara Brachos Shiur, private home in Fair Lawn, 7:15pm, avi-

[email protected] Shabbat

Teaneck Poker Networking Group, for men and women over 21, includes poker plus networking for professional and job recommen-

dations in Orthodox communities throughout the NY/NJ metropolitan area, private homes in Teaneck, 10pm, [email protected]

Navi, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, live via satellite, Young Israel of Fair Lawn (201-797-1800); Cong Ahavas Achim, Highland Park (732-247-0532); Cong Tifereth Israel, Passaic; JEC, Elizabeth (908-591-5929); Cong Khal Zichron Mordechai, Monsey (845-356-7188); Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck; Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange (973-669-7320), 10:30pm

SpecialCong Keter Torah Sumer Kollel, Mon-Thurs, Morning Seder:

“In-Depth Shiur on Moed Katan,” Rav Eli Baruch Shulman; 9am; lunch, 12:45pm; Afternoon Seder: “Practical Laws of Aveilut,” Rav Eli Baruch Shulman, 1:45pm; Youth Programming, 5pm; dinner, 6:30pm; mincha/ma’ariv, 8pm; Night Seder: “Back from Israel,” Rabbis Eli Be-lizon and Shalom Baum, 8:45pm; including chavruta opportunities, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, [email protected]

Rinat Yisrael Summer Beit Midrash for Women, chavruta opportu-nities with Stern College undergraduates and shiurim in Gemara, Halacha, and Tanach, at Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 212-960-5400 ext 6350

Krafts for Kids, Spons by Chabad at the Shore, Margate, Sun-Fri, 10am-1pm, 609-992-4900

New MinyanimShacharis, Cong Ahavas Yisrael, Edison, Mon and Thurs, 6:10am;

Tues, Wed, and Fri, 6:15am,[email protected] Ops

Jewish Education for Special Children in River Edge is seeking male and female assistants, students in 10th grade and up, to work Sun-day mornings in September from 9am-noon. Chesed credit for younger students; salary for older ones. Call Rabbi Schwab, 201-262-1090

Shearit HaPlate collects extra food from kosher restaurants, ca-terers, and simchas and special events, for distribution to members of the Bergen County community who are having difficulty making ends meet; to be a beneficiary or to recommend a beneficiary, contact [email protected] Y

ONLYA FEW SPOTS

AVAILABLE


fers courses, lectures and symposia, and Jewish cultural events; students can major or minor in Jewish studies, and the uni-versity has a program in Israel.

Bias and BullyingNevertheless, according to ZOA presi-

dent Morton Klein and Susan B Tuchman, Esq, director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, Middle East studies courses at Rutgers “are so biased against Israel that Jewish students avoid them or are afraid to speak up in class and express their support for Israel.”

One Jewish student, who has written some pro-Israel columns in the Rutgers

student newspaper, the Targum, has re-ceived death threats and been bullied by a self-identified Palestinian-Arab woman who serves as the “Outreach Coordina-tor” for the Rutgers Center for Middle East Studies.

Further, according to Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman, “on a regular basis, an ex-tremist anti-Israel student group called BAKA (Belief, Awareness, Knowledge, and Action)—Students United for Mid-dle East Justice, has sponsored and pro-moted events on campus that demonize Jews and Israel, thereby inciting hatred of them.”

On the FrontlineHillel is well aware of the problem. At

its gala dinner last month, held in Livings-ton, undergraduate Raffi Mark of Wayne, who was honored at the event, said, “Since November of 2010, we have been subjected to numerous anti-Israel events and a signifi-cant increase in campus tensions. Rarely has a day gone by when we have not had dem-onstrations, op-eds, or events that seek to falsely cast Israel as an aggressive, apartheid state, or even draw comparisons between the Jewish state’s defensive actions and Nazi Germany’s Final Solution.”

Rutgers Hillel executive director An-drew Getraer agreed. “Rutgers has found itself on the frontlines of international anti-Israel efforts, as well as some visit-ing programs that can only be described as anti-Jewish,” he said.

According to ZOA, even when univer-sity officials were apprised of the situation, they “distorted and dismissed virtually all of the concerns that were raised.”

“Rutgers needs to start affirmatively addressing the problems that are plaguing the campus and harming Jewish students. It’s not only Rutgers President Richard McCormick’s moral duty to eliminate antisemitic harassment and intimidation; it’s also his legal obligation under Title VI. The Office for Civil Rights has made it clear that Jewish students are entitled to the kind of college experience that every student needs and deserves: one that’s physically and emotionally safe and con-ducive to learning,” said Mr. Klein.

Feeling UnsafeIn a letter to Dr. McCormick, written

last April, Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman presented a detailed account of antisemitic events and episodes that took place during the 2010-2011 academic year.

On February 7, in a piece published in the Targum, Rutgers Hillel reported that “Jewish students have been threatened with violence, made to feel unsafe in their dorms, and sought formal counseling because of physi-cal threats as well as emotional and verbal attacks on them. This includes individuals who BAKA has publicly targeted.”

Mr. Klein said the Hillel report is consistent with information ZOA has received from Jewish students.

“One student told us he is afraid to wear anything with the Israeli Defense Forces

Antisemitism at Rutgers continued from page 1


logo on it. He is even uncomfortable discuss-ing on campus his experience of studying abroad in Israel. Other students describe be-ing afraid even to say on campus that they support Israel,” said Mr. Klein.

One student characterized his fear of BAKA protesters as “a constant worry.” Another described feeling physically unsafe at BAKA events. This student told ZOA that when he tried to videotape a BAKA program to document and expose the “hateful false-hoods being promoted on campus about Jews and Israel,” he was forced to leave.

A Jewish female student told ZOA that after BAKA had targeted her di-rectly, “she couldn’t leave her house and was so riddled with anxiety that she couldn’t sleep.”

Bedouin DiplomatAccording to ZOA, the tone was set

on Oct. 29, 2010, when Ishmael Khaldi, the first Bedouin to serve as an Israeli deputy consul and the Jewish state’s first high-ranking Muslim diplomat in the state’s foreign service, came to speak for Rut-gers Hillel. Hillel members told ZOA that approximately 25 anti-Israel individuals came to the event with the obvious inten-tion of disrupting Mr. Khaldi’s talk.

“Their verbal attacks on the speaker were greeted with wild cheers and ap-plause from the rest of the anti-Israel group. The anti-Israel group interfered with Mr. Khaldi’s freedom of speech and also interfered with other students’ right to hear him and express their own opin-ions, and all because they disagreed with Mr. Khaldi’s views,” said ZOA.

Ten EventsThe letter from ZOA to Dr. McCor-

mick lists ten separate events held by BAKA, some of which may have violated US law as well as university policies and standards. All of them, according to ZOA, contributed to the hostile atmosphere felt by many Jewish students.

On November 4, 2010, BAKA sponsored “US to Gaza,” a fundraiser to purchase an American ship to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The blockade, which is legal according to international law, was established to prevent weapons from entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where they would be used to attack Israeli civilians in southern Israel.

ZOA pointed out that seeking to provide material support to Hamas, which has been designated by the US as a foreign terrorist

organization, is a violation of US law.According to student reports, the

event itself incited hatred of Jews and Israel. One of the speakers exhorted the students to “transform this conflict from one between Israel and the Palestinians to one between the rest of the world and Israel.” Another speaker encouraged a boycott against Israel and compared Zi-onism to “white supremacy.”

“The hostility in the room was un-mistakable. Every attack against Israel—including the mention of suicide bombings, which have murdered innocent Jewish civilians, and other forms of violence against Israel—was chillingly greeted with cheering and loud applause,” said Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman.

Equating Nakba with the ShoahA few days later, on November 10,

BAKA, along with two Rutgers academic departments, the Center for Middle East Studies and the Department of Journalism and Media, hosted a program called “Arabs and the Holocaust: A History of Compet-ing Narratives,” during which the speaker, Gilbert Achcar, claimed that denial of the “Nakba” (the “catastrophe,” which is how Palestinians refer to the founding of the State of Israel) is more serious than the Palestinians’ denial of the Holocaust.

In their letter to Dr. McCormick, Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman explained that to call the establishment of the Jewish state a “catastro-phe” is itself “a distortion of history intended to incite hatred of Jews and Israel.”

On November 16, BAKA brought Norman Finkelstein, a notorious Holocaust minimizer and Israel-basher, to campus. The New York Times has compared Mr. Finkelstein’s book, “The Holocaust In-dustry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering,” to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and described it as “verg[ing] on paranoia and…serv[ing] antisemites around the world.”

OccupationOn November 19, BAKA sponsored

a screening of the film “Occupation 101,” whose premise is that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria, including eastern Jerusalem, amounts to the occupation of Palestinian land.

“In fact, Israel, which has an undeni-able right under international law to be present in those areas, has the strongest claim to those areas,” said ZOA.

On December 5, BAKA sponsored a

“Palestine Culture Festival” that celebrated the Palestinian “legacy of resistance,” which has become a code for the endorsement of suicide bombings, terrorist attacks, and the murder of Israeli Jews.

“Gaza Vigil”On January 20, 2011, BAKA spon-

sored a “Gaza vigil” to commemorate the “massacres” of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza during the Israeli incursion into Gaza in December 2008 through January 2009. ZOA called this program “another in-flammatory falsehood that incites hatred of Jews and Israel.”

“The notion that there were any ‘mas-sacres’ is false,” said ZOA, pointing out that most of the Palestinians who died during the three-week war, “were not in-nocent civilians, but rather operatives for the terrorist group Hamas.”

“The truth is that Israel did what any country in its position would and must do—defend its people, after innocent men, women and children in southern Israel were subjected to years of rocket and missile attacks by Palestinian Arabs in Gaza,” said ZOA, pointing out that even Richard Goldstone, who was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the Israeli operation, recanted his previous findings and concluded that Israel did not intentionally target civilians and that any civilian deaths were inadvertent.



The Goldstone report deter-mined that Hamas, on the other hand, had purposefully aimed its rockets at civilians.

What Ethnic Cleansing?On January 29, BAKA

organized an event entitled “Never Again for Anyone,” which was timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and obvi-ously intended to equate the deliberate and systematic mur-der of Jews and others during World War II with Israel’s poli-cies toward Palestinians.

The program’s goal was to decry the so-called “ethnic cleansing of Palestine,” a piece of propaganda ZOA called “patently absurd.”

“The dramatic increase over the years in the number of Palestinian Arabs in Israel, including Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, completely invalidates the ridiculous claim that Israel is engaging in ethnic cleansing: In 1948, there were 200,000 Palestinian Arabs in these ar-eas, while today, there are over two million,” said ZOA.

False AdvertisingThe event itself had been

advertised as free to the pub-lic with a suggested donation. When the organizers saw that a large number of Jewish stu-dents and supporters of Israel had shown up, some with tee shirts with the message “Don’t Politicize the Holocaust,” they

said the advertising had been a “mistake” and that there would be a $5 entrance fee.

Observers were convinced that people who, by their attire or the signs they carried, were deemed friendly to BAKA’s cause, were admitted without charge. A very large number of students were given green wrist-bands and permitted to enter the auditorium without charge allegedly because they were “volunteering” at the event.

When the organizers an-nounced that BAKA members would be admitted without charge, some of the Jewish students tried to join the organization. Although Rutgers’ policy is that student organizations cannot deny membership on the basis of religion, ancestry, or other categories protected by law, BAKA refused to admit Jewish students to their group.

DiscriminationInside the hall, Sara Kersh-

nar, founder of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), which had co-sponsored the event with BAKA and Ameri-can Muslims for Palestine, re-portedly told student volunteers to admit without charge anyone who appeared to be a supporter of the program’s agenda. She later reportedly told audience members, “When we saw that there were Zionists outside, we decided to change [the admis-sion policy].”

“In short, Jews and sup-porters of Israel were deliber-ately excluded from an event that was supposed to be open to Rutgers students and the public, and BAKA endorsed this discriminatory and antise-mitic policy,” said ZOA.

Rather than support BAKA with $5 each, the pro-Israel pro-testers held their demonstration outside the event’s doors.

Exploiting the HolocaustAlthough BAKA had claimed

the event was not intended to exploit the Holocaust or create moral equivalence between World War II’s Jewish victims and Palestinians, during the event, Ms. Kershnar reportedly said that Israel’s policies toward Palestinians “mirror the murder, starvation, and dehumanization that Jews experienced at the hands of the Nazis.”

Other speakers maintained that “Zionists” manipulated the experiences of Jews in Europe to justify Israel’s supposed mis-treatment of Palestinians.

The event’s final speaker claimed, “You have the offspring of the victims of the Holocaust justifying a Holocaust committed against another people.”

“In short, the event did ex-actly what BAKA claimed it would not do. BAKA used the Rutgers campus to distort and exploit the Holocaust, demean its

victims, and promote hatred of Jews and Israel,” said ZOA.

Trying to ExplainThe following day, Rutgers

officials issued a statement ex-plaining that American Mus-lims for Palestine and IJAN, which are not affiliated with the university, had leased the hall and paid for the cost of the event, including security.

The school did not take issue with the fact that BAKA had engaged in false advertising or with the fact that admission to the event was discriminatory. There was also no mention of the statements made during the program itself.

“To all appearances, Rut-gers simply pushed the matter under the rug, at the expense of Jewish students who view the campus as increasingly hostile to them and to Israel. The uni-versity’s seeming indifference to Jewish students’ concerns has intensified the climate of hostility,” said ZOA.

Promoting BDSOn March 1, as part of its

“Palestine Awareness Week,” BAKA sponsored a panel dis-cussion entitled “Israel, the Apartheid Analogy, and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanc-tions Movement” in which Israel’s treatment of its Arab citizens was equated with South Africa’s treatment of blacks


Shehnaz Sheik Abdeljaber:“Racist Zionist pig!!!! I’m a Palestinian. Do you want to take me on? Do you want to fight? I have thick blood. Try me.”


under apartheid.“Speakers falsely accused

Israel—the only established democracy in the Middle East, where all citizens, including Arabs, have equal rights to free speech, to practice their religion, and to vote, and where Arabs serve in the govern-ment and on the courts—of discriminating against Arabs, and they advocated in favor of hurting Israel by boycotting Israeli products and cultural exchanges,” said ZOA.

One day later, as part of “Israel Apartheid Week,” BAKA erected a so-called “apartheid wall,” which it said represented Israel’s security checkpoints. ZOA told Dr. McCormick Is-rael was forced to construct a security fence to protect in-nocent Israeli civilians from drive-by shootings and other terrorist attacks.

“If there were no Arab ter-rorism against Israel, there would be no fence,” said ZOA.

Competing AttractionsAccording to ZOA, the wall

erected by BAKA was set up outside the entrance to one of Rutgers’ main dining halls on campus, making it impossible for students to avoid it. Students in the dormitory adjacent to the dining hall were forced to walk around the wall in order to get to the rest of the campus.

“Students were unable to escape the wall and its hateful and false propaganda message,” said ZOA.

Hillel students responded by setting up a booth near BAKA’s apartheid wall where they handed out cake with an Israeli flag design in the icing as well as pamphlets, Israeli candy, and snacks.

Hillel students said the pro-Israel side attracted far more passers-by than did the wall.

Death ThreatAt least one Jewish student

leader on campus has stood up to BAKA, and paid for it with

threats and episodes of official bullying.

Aaron Marcus, a junior whose column, “Marcus My Words,” appears in the Tar-gum several times a week, was one of the Jewish lead-ers who organized the protest of BAKA’s “Never Again for Anyone” event.

When relevant, Mr. Mar-cus writes about Israel, and, as a result, he said, he has been subjected to name-calling, ha-rassment, attempts at intimida-tion, and death threats.

After Mr. Marcus published a column entitled “BAKA Must End Hateful Tactics,” another Rutgers student responded with a posted message on Facebook: “As I was reading the Aaron Marcus column this morning, I realized how Im [sic] a pretty angry person. Id [sic] be happy to see him beat with a crow-bar. Violence doesnt [sic] solve problems but it shuts up people who shouldnt [sic] speak.”

At least seven of the stu-dent’s Facebook friends clicked “like” on this message, indicat-ing their approval of the threat of violence. One responded with a threat of his own: “Or makes them martyrs, furthering the strength behind their beliefs. And skinning them alive so they see the afterlife.”

Seeking HelpFeeling threatened and in-

timidated, Mr. Marcus sought police protection and removed his contact information from the Rutgers directory. He also filed a bias incident report with the Dean of Students. The Rutgers Code of Conduct specifically states that threat-ening the use of force against a person is prohibited and the violator is subject to suspen-sion or expulsion.

Although Rutgers maintains that victims of bias will be con-tacted within 24 hours of filing a report, it took school officials



more than a month before get-ting back to Mr. Marcus. He was notified by the Dean of Students that, based on the evidence, there were insufficient grounds to for-mally charge the other student with a violation of the code of student conduct.

“The student’s Facebook posting, threatening to ‘shut up’ Aaron by beating him with a crowbar should have been suf-ficient evidence of a threat,” said ZOA.

According to Mr. Marcus, neither the dean nor any other university official reached out to him for more information after he filed his bias report. The Dean of Students said he would meet with the student who issued the threat and give him “a warning.”

The second student who threatened Mr. Marcus suffered no consequences at all.Palestine Children’s Relief

On another occasion, Mr. Marcus wrote an opinion piece critical of the decision by the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) to support a group called the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). In his piece, Mr. Marcus raised concerns about PCRF’s ties to terrorist groups and ques-tioned whether this was an ap-propriate organization for the student government of Rutgers to support financially.

PCRF has had financial

dealings with the Holy Land Foundation, which was shut down by the US government on suspicion of funneling do-nations to terrorist organiza-tions, and the Zayed Founda-tion, whose website promoted Holocaust denial and declared that the attacks on Sept 11 were a hoax.

PCRF’s spokeswoman, Rosemary David, also known as Shadya Hantouli, ran a website called Palestine4Ever, which featured a photo gallery of sui-cide bombers. PCRF’s director, Steve Sosebee, has been quoted as saying he thought his orga-nization “was a good way to contribute to the struggle and provide humanitarian service at the same time.”

In response to Mr. Marcus’s piece, the then-RUSA treasurer, now president, posted on Face-book a hateful comment, filled with four-letter expletives, say-ing he wanted to take out a full-page ad in the Targum to write an obscenity about Mr. Marcus “and all the other people trying to pass off rooster entrails as a smoking gun that PCRF funds terrorists.”

Official AntisemitismEven more shocking was

the fact that Mr. Marcus’s col-umn prompted antisemitic bul-lying from a university official. Shehnaz Sheik Abdeljaber, the Outreach Coordinator at Rutgers’ Center for Middle East Studies,

responded to the RUSA trea-surer’s comment with a note of her own in which she referred to Mr. Marcus as “that racist Zionist pig!!!!”

Ms. Abdeljaber, who has designated herself as a spokes-man against bullying, then pro-ceeded to encourage others to post such comments attacking and maligning Mr. Marcus.

“It is unacceptable for anyone—particularly a uni-versity official—to publicly disparage, malign, and bully a student for expressing his personal views about Israel or anything else,” said ZOA.

Physical ConfrontationBut Ms. Abdeljaber did more

than just attack Mr. Marcus in writing. After an RUSA meet-ing during which PCRF was discussed, she rushed at Mr. Marcus, who was talking with friends, and began yelling, “I’m a Palestinian. Do you want to take me on? Do you want to fight? I have thick blood. Try me.”

According to students who were present, Ms. Abdeljaber repeatedly pounded on her chest, pointing to her necklace, which was a silhouette of Israel cov-ered by a Palestinian flag. One of the students with Mr. Marcus described Ms. Abdeljaber’s con-duct as “very intimidating and trying to provoke a fight.”

Mr. Marcus and his friends urged Ms. Abdeljaber to “calm down,” and, when that was un-

successful, another university official called police to diffuse the situation.

ZOA has urged Rutgers to investigate the incident and, if warranted, impose appropriate sanctions.

“If the investigation shows that Ms. Abdeljaber did in fact threaten, intimidate, bully, and malign Mr. Marcus, she should be fired. It is elemen-tary that the Outreach Coor-dinator for Rutgers’ Center for Middle East Studies should be reaching out to all Rutgers students—including those who support the Jewish State of Israel—and not bullying, threatening, or intimidating them,” said ZOA.

Unproductive MeetingAt the beginning of Feb-

ruary 2011, a few Jewish stu-dents met with two university officials—Gregory Blimling, vice-president for student affairs, and Kerri Willson, director of student involvement—to dis-cuss their concerns about the hostile campus atmosphere. According to the students, the meeting was unproductive. The students said the univer-sity officials put them on the defensive and were dismissive about their issues.

When the students tried to discuss what had happened at the “Never Again for Anyone” event, Dr. Blimling said he




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and other university officials had already heard about the incident and would not ad-dress it again.

One of the students at the meeting had already filed a bias complaint and had been led to believe by Dean Cheryl Clarke of the Bias Prevention and Education Committee that her complaint would be addressed at the meeting with Dr. Blim-ling and Ms. Willson.

She said that when she and the other students tried to explain why the campus felt hostile to them, Dr. Blimling changed the subject to discuss “Islamaphobia,” “how Muslims are portrayed on Fox News,” and “the objections that have been raised to building a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan.” None of these is-sues had any relevance to the Jewish students’ request for the meeting.

Imaginary SpeakerAccording to the students,

Dr. Blimling and Ms. Willson repeatedly brought up griev-ances expressed by the BAKA students. Their chief complaint seemed to focus on a speaker whom the BAKA students said Hillel was planning to bring to campus. In fact, neither Hillel nor, as far as the students knew, any other Jewish pro-Israel group on campus had plans to host this particular speaker.

“Dr. Blimling and Ms. Will-son made the Jewish students

feel as if they were the aggres-sors against BAKA students and that they had engaged in hostility toward Muslims, when nothing could be further from the truth,” said ZOA.

Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuch-man said it was unimportant whether Hillel or any other group wanted to bring the speaker whom BAKA found objectionable.

“To the Jewish students, who had been forced to endure one hateful antisemitic speaker after the next, all sponsored by BAKA, without one word of condemnation from Rutgers of-ficials, it was difficult to believe that Dr. Blimling and Ms. Will-son now appeared to be making a judgment about a speaker that Hillel might have been consid-ering,” said Mr. Klein.

Ugly BiasThe Rutgers officials had

originally suggested a follow-up to that first meeting, per-haps with leaders of the Jew-ish students and BAKA, but it never materialized. When the female student who had filed a bias report asked for a meet-ing to discuss her concerns, Dean Clarke told her, “If Kerri [Willson] has time. But we if we are not going to cover any new ground, what will be the use. We will not say anything you will agree with.”

The Jewish students were even unable to broach the issue

of the harassment and intimida-tion they find in the classroom. They told ZOA that Middle East studies courses are “so unfairly biased against Israel that they are too uncomfort-able or intimidated to enroll in any of these courses.”

“When they do enroll, they go in expecting that the professor will be biased against Israel and it is simply a ques-tion of just how ugly the bias will be,” said ZOA.

SuggestionsIn their letter to Dr. Mc-

Cormack, Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman offered several con-crete suggestions that, they said, could be taken to elimi-nate “the hostile antisemitic environment on campus.”

These included (1) speaking out and publicly condemning an-tisemitism in all its forms when it occurs at Rutgers, including when anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment crosses the line into antisemitism;(2) investigating Ms. Abdeljaber’s behavior and, if the allegations are substanti-ated, firing her; (3) investigat-ing thoroughly and resolving fairly every bias report that Jewish students have filed; (4) investigating thoroughly what occurred at the “Never Again for Anyone” event to “deter-mine whether BAKA should be disciplined for violating university policies;” and (5) undertaking a comprehensive

review of university course descriptions and materials “to correct anti-Israel bias that per-meates the classroom, creating a hostile learning environment for Jewish students.”

In his response to ZOA, Dr. McCormack indicated he was trying to balance Free Speech with the government’s Title Six requirements. He argued that “the First Amendment limits the ability of Rutgers to disci-pline its students for intolerant statements,” but, he said, the school “addresses allegations of antisemitic statements or of-fensive expressions that do not constitute violations of the Code of Student Conduct or rise to the level of criminal harassment, with education about how such state-ments affect other members of the university community.”

Other MeetingsHe explained that, after

the “Never Again for Anyone” episode, Dr. Blimling had met with Rutgers Hillel and Chabad House leaders and has been “actively involved in mediating conflicts between Jewish stu-dents and students in the Muslim and Arab community.”

Regarding the “Never Again for Anyone” event, Dr. McCor-mack said that while neither American Muslims for Palestine nor the IJAN was affiliated with the university, several Rutgers student groups, including BAKA,




supported the program and that the $5 fee was imposed “as a crowd-control measure by one of the non-university hosts against the advice of the Rutgers personnel who attended the event.”

Dr. McCormack said that although Rutgers Hillel acknowledged that no one was actually denied access to the event, the university has forbidden the IJAN to use any Rutgers facility until 2013.

Unclear AgendaThe agenda for the meeting with the

Jewish students and Dr. Blimling and Ms. Willson seems to have been misinterpreted by all the players.

According to Dr. McCormack, its purpose was not to discuss the Jewish student’s feelings, but, rather, to have them “understand” the Muslim students’ perspective.

He said there had been similar meet-ings held for BAKA students and that while Rutgers officials were prepared to conduct more such sessions, faculty advisors for Hillel and BAKA said they were not necessary because “relation-ships between the two student groups had improved.”

Addressing the LawHe would not comment on the legality

of the “US to Gaza” event beyond saying that he believed the school “has handled that matter appropriately.”

In a letter to Chabad and Hillel fac-ulty advisors, Dr. Blimling said that, on the issue of the fundraiser for the boat to attempt to break the Israeli blockade of

Gaza, Rutgers had consulted an “out-of-state law firm with expertise in inter-national law to assist us in deciding the appropriate response to legal questions regarding student financial support for the US to Gaza flotilla.”

Regarding the episodes of the death threats against Mr. Marcus, Dr. McCormack said the university “is aware of each incident and has conducted appropriate investigations.”

“Any reports of physical intimidation and threats of harm are regularly referred to the Rutgers University Police Depart-ment,” he said.

Taking StepsAlong with his letter to ZOA, Dr.

McCormack included one from Dr. Blim-ling to Rabbi Yosef Carlebach, director of Rutgers Chabad, and Mr. Getraer, sum-marizing their meeting.

Dr. Blimling told Rabbi Carlebach and Mr. Getraer that Rutgers was ad-dressing tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups on campus by: (1) encouraging the Targum to discontinue publishing anonymous comments in its electronic edition and to print only letters that are newsworthy rather than merely provocative; (2) meeting with student groups and their advisors; (3) restricting access to university facilities by the IJAN “for conduct that was inconsistent with our principles of open access to programs and activities;” and (4) engaging “mem-bers of the Jewish community and Middle Eastern community in discussions about how we can move forward with civil dis-

cussions on important issues when people of goodwill disagree.”

In a follow-up letter to Dr. McCormick from ZOA, dated June 21, Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman said Dr. Blimling’s letter to the Jewish faculty advisors, in which he referred to “Jewish students” on one hand, and “student members of a group dedicated to political and human rights issues in the Middle East” on the other, displayed “possible bias” on the part of the vice-president for student affairs.

“What a perplexing and disconcerting way to characterize Jewish students versus the student membership of BAKA. It certainly sounds like Dr. Blimling is implying that Jewish students are not dedicated to politi-cal and human rights issues in the Middle East, and that BAKA is. Had Dr. Blimling accurately described BAKA, he would have noted that this group is viciously anti-Israel, advocating harming and even destroying the Jewish State. Dr. Blimling’s characterization of BAKA is preposterous and offensive,” said Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman.

While Dr. Blimling did not recom-mend limiting free speech, he told the Jew-ish faculty advisors that “membership in the university community carries with it a duty…to respect the rights of those whose views may differ from our own.”

“It is not necessary that such dia-logues result in agreement, but they must not result in contempt, open hostility, or personal attacks,” he said.

Inadequate ResponseIn their follow-up letter, the ZOA

called Rutger’s response “inadequate.” Mr. Klein said he was particularly irked that Dr. McCormack “completely ignored the threats, harassment, and intimidation that Rutgers student Aaron Marcus has been subjected to by other students and shockingly by a university official.”

“There’s no doubt that if a university official engaged in bigoted and hateful name-calling against a gay or African-American student, or threatened and tried to provoke a physical fight with a gay or African-American student, Rutgers wouldn’t tolerate that behavior for one second. And it shouldn’t. We are shocked that Rutgers is allowing someone who’s been given the title ‘Outreach Coordinator’ of Rutgers’ Middle East Studies Center to continue in




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that position, after she bullied and threatened a Jewish student simply because he exercised his right to express his views. What Jewish and pro-Israel student would ever feel comfortable taking a Middle East studies course when the coordinator of the center has shown such viciousness toward Jews and Israel?” said Mr. Klein.

He noted that ZOA was not the only organization to complain about Ms. Abdeljaber’s conduct. In May, the Anti-Defamation League wrote to Dr. McCor-mick, urging the school to in-vestigate and take appropriate disciplinary action against the “Outreach Coordinator.”

Jayne Grandes, director of Rutgers’ Office of Employ-ment Equity, told the ADL that Ms. Abdeljaber’s comments on Facebook and during her face-to-face confrontation with Mr. Marcus “did not rise to the level of harassment actionable under university policy.”

DisingenuousMr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman

found that response disingenu-ous. “We wonder whether Ms. Grandes would have reached the same conclusion had a university official maligned an African-American or Hispanic student on Facebook, by engaging in bigoted and racist name-calling. We believe the university would have immediately condemned such conduct and found those comments actionable. Bigotry directed against a Jewish stu-dent must be taken just as seri-ously,” they said.

They told Dr. McCormick they were not suggesting that any students be disciplined for “intolerant statements,” but, rather for “violating university policies that prohibit false adver-tising, engaging in discrimina-tory conduct, and threatening another student.”

“The university’s inaction violates university policy and shows a complete insensitivity

to and lack of concern for the problems that Jewish students are facing,” they said.

They noted that Rutgers’ deci-sion to sanction the IJAN demon-strates that there was “wrongdo-ing” at the “Never Again for Any-one” event. “Why wasn’t BAKA also sanctioned for enforcing and implementing the unadvertised fee?” they asked.

What Hillel Programs?To Dr. McCormick’s claim

that BAKA, too, had concerns about programs sponsored by Rutgers Hillel, Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman said they would like to know specifi-cally which Hillel programs were problematic.

“Hillel sponsors positive cultural programs about Israel, without attacking, maligning, or demonizing anyone. Unfor-tunately, the same cannot be said of the programs BAKA has sponsored and promoted,” they said, adding that “it is offensive and wrong” for Rutgers to equate the two groups’ activities.

“They are not compara-ble,” said Mr. Klein and Ms. Tuchman.

Among Hillel’s programs were IsraelFest, which includ-ed a large inflatable rock wall labeled Masada that could be climbed, and numerous Jewish religious and cultural events.

“This year has been stressful with constant reminders of the antisemitic, anti-Israel move-ment on campus, but Hillel has

remained not only supportive but a true safe haven against the negativity,” said Mr. Mark.

Efforts NeededConcluding their letter

to Dr. McCormick, Mr. Klein said it was “simply not true” that relations between the Jew-ish groups and BAKA made a second meeting unnecessary. In fact, ZOA said, there never was even a first meeting because BAKA refused to sit down with the Jewish student groups.

“BAKA members have shown contempt and open hos-tility, and launched personal at-tacks on other students, which is exactly what Dr. Blimling described in his March 2011 let-ter as antithetical to the values of the university. If BAKA is going to continue as a recog-nized student group at Rutgers, it should be held to the standards of respect, tolerance and civil-ity that other student groups adhere to,” said ZOA.

ZOA stressed that to com-ply with the school’s legal obligations until Title VI, Dr. McCormick would have to eliminate antisemitic harass-ment and intimidation.

“The impact has been serious: Jewish students feel threatened and intimidated, their emotional well-being has suffered, and their ability to participate in and benefit from Rutgers’ programs and activities has been impaired,” said ZOA. S.L.R.

A few years ago, Lior Kalfo, an Israeli-based award-

winning writer, director, and comedian, and Shai Fishman, a musical director, arranger, and composer, started fooling with the idea of a show built around eight white-faced, ruby-lipped aliens whose energy system is based on music produced solely

by the human voice. These are the Voca People,

now performing at the Westside Theater, 407 W 43rd Street, in Manhattan, but Messrs Ka-lfo and Fishman did not fool 10-year-old Judy Rosenbluth or her 9-year-old cousin Avi-gayil. After listening to the ferociously talented troupe

combine a cappella songs and beat-box music with dance and pure onstage fun, they under-stood: These “aliens,” who came to New York courtesy of the talented Israelis, were actually performers looking for a Shabbos simcha.

Well, it may not be what Messrs Kalfo and Fishman

had in mind, but it works as well as their premise. To hear them tell it, the Voca People are from outer space—some-where just beyond the sun—who were forced to crash land in upstate New York, at least, that’s what they say now that they’re playing Off-Broadway.

Intergalactic Music Off-Broadway Courtesy of Israel


Theatre Review


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To The Fine Whisky Distillers of West Dunbartonshire, including Morrison Bowmore Distillers Ltd., Auchentoshan Distillery, Distillers of Auchintoshan, Loch Lomond Distillery Co. Ltd, Lomond Industrial Estate Distillers of Loch Lomond, Littlemill, Chivas Brothers, Kilmalid, Distillers of Ballantine’s, Something Special, Aberlour, Tormore, Walker Special Old

I have enjoyed your fine whisky products for many years, and believe they are truly world-class. Unfortunately, due to the actions of your esteemed West Dunbartonshire council members, I will not be able to enjoy your whisky for the foreseeable future.

It has come to my attention that the West Dunbartonshire Council claims to have voted unanimously to boycott Israeli products, arguing that “loss of life in Palestine now numbers well over 1,000” and that officers of the council will “immediately cease the purchase of any goods which were made or grown in Israel. Officers should also ensure we procure no new goods or produce from Israel until this boycott is formally lifted.”

I find it disturbing that the esteemed council found no reason to mention the reason for the IDF’s operation in Gaza: the inten-tional targeting of civilian infants, children, women and men by Gaza’s Hamas government; the thousands of rockets they launched at Israel’s civilian population; and the restraint that Israel employed over the previous years when attacked on a daily basis.

The IDF does not target civilians. The vast majority of Pal-estinians that Israel killed have been terrorists. Palestinians ter-rorists routinely use hospitals, mosques, and schools to launch their rocket attacks on Israel. Try defending your population from terrorists and see if you can guarantee zero collateral damage.

How would you deal with Gazas’ Arabs’ targeting Scotland’s babies? We are not talking about isolated attacks on Israelis, but about thousands of rockets launched at Israel’s civilian population.

The restraint of Israel under attack is astounding, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently told the US Congress: “Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights!”

Lastly, PA President, Mahmoud Abbas insists the future state of Palestine will be “free of Jews.” The State of Israel, on the other hand, offers equal freedom for all its citizens, Jew, Arab, and Christian alike, but the West Dunbartonshire Council boycott unfortunately attempts to undermine the very success of Israel as a democracy.

Therefore, it saddens me to inform you that the global coun-ter-boycott of Scottish whisky products distilled in the West Dur-banshire Council region is beginning. When, your local council representatives boycott my country, under the most unethical and immoral of pretexts, you cannot expect your market to sit idly and pretend you are not perverting justice.

• The counter-boycott is on the purchase of Scottish Whisky distilled in the West Durbanshire council region.

• The counter-boycott is not retroactive and applies only to purchases made from July 2011 onwards.

• The counter-boycott will not prevent global residents from purchasing whisky products, distilled outside of West Dunbartonshire.

• The counter-boycott is instigated in response to conduct and boycott initiated by the West Durbanshire Council and ap-plies to no specific ethnic or religious group. This is in direct opposition to the West Durbanshire Council which refuses to condemn the actions of Palestinian terrorists targeting Israeli civilians and the antisemitic, racist declarations of the PA, which calls for a “Jew-free” apartheid, State of Palestine.

Rabbi Dr. Jeremiah UntermanFair Lawn, NJ

The Counter-Boycott of Scottish Whiskey from West Durbanshire

Rep West: Obama, Don’t Send Israel Back to Pre-1967 The endorsement by President Barack Obama of the cre-

ation of a Hamas-led Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, signals the most egregious foreign policy decision his administration has made to date, and could be the beginning of the end as we know it for the Jewish state.

From the moment the modern-day state of Israel declared statehood in 1948, to the end of the 1967 Six Day War, Jews were forbidden access to their holiest site, the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, controlled by Jordan’s Arab army.

The pre-1967 borders endorsed by President Obama would deny millions of the world’s Jews access to their holiest site and force Israel to return the strategically important Golan Heights to Syria, a known state-sponsor of terrorism.

Resorting to the pre-1967 borders would mean a full with-drawal by the Israelis from the West Bank and the Jewish neigh-borhoods of eastern Jerusalem. Make no mistake, there has al-ways been a Nation of Israel and Jerusalem has been and must always be recognized as its rightful capital.

In short, the Hamas-run Palestinian state envisioned by President Obama would be devastating to Israel and the world’s 13.3 million Jews. It would be a Pavlovian-style reward to a declared Islamic terrorist organization, and an unacceptable policy initiative.

America should never negotiate with the Palestinian Author-ity—which has aligned itself with Hamas. Palestine is a region, not a people or a modern state. Based upon Roman Emperor Hadrian’s declaration in 73 CE, the original Palestinian people are the Jewish people.

It’s time for the American people to stand by our strongest ally, the Jewish State of Israel, and reject this foreign policy blunder of epic proportions.

While the winds of democracy may blow strong in the Middle East, history has demonstrated that gaps in leadership can lead to despotic regimes. I have questions for President Obama: Who will now lead in Egypt? and Why should American taxpayers provide foreign aid to a nation when the next chapter in their his-tory may be the emergence of another radical Islamic state?

President Obama has not stood for Israel or the Jewish peo-ple and has not made it clear where the United States will stand when the Palestinians attempt to gain recognition of statehood by the United Nations. The President should focus on the real obstacle to security—the Palestinian leadership and its ultimate goal to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people.”

Rep Allen West (R-FL)Washington, DC


“Thought Is the World of Freedom” (R’ Dov Ber of Mazeritch)

The Jewish Voice and Opinion welcomes letters, especially if they are typed, double-spaced, and legible. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and style.

Please send all correspondence to POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631.

The phone number is (201) 569-2845. The FAX number is (201) 569-1739.

The email address is [email protected]

When will newspapers begin to add “sic” after each mention of “1967 borders?” There are no such borders, even if journalists, politicians, and writers of “letters to the editor” use the term.

The 1967 lines are actually the 1949 armistice lines, which supposedly ended hostilities between Israel and the Arab states which attacked it following our 1948 Declaration of Indepen-dence. By repeatedly mentioning “1967 borders,” newspapers add to the confusion surrounding the issue of establishing lawful borders, should genuine peace negotiations ever be held.

Mentioning the erroneous borders validates President Obama’s idea of “one-for-one land swaps” between Israel and a future Palestinian state. This is contrary to Security Council Resolution 242, which explicitly and definitively makes no men-tion of Israel handing over land to the Arabs (Palestinians were not mentioned in the document) following their aggressive war against us. The resolution merely requires Israel to withdraw its armed forces “from territories [some, not all] occupied in the recent conflict,” upon the achievement of a “peaceful and accepted settlement.”

Stephen KramerAlfei Menashe, Israel

O CanadaIt would be most appropriate for our community to send

letters of appreciation to Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, for singlehandedly preventing an unfair statement against Israel at the recent G-8 meeting.

Mr. Harper opposed a G-8 declaration reiterating President Obama’s statement regarding the 1967 borders. The declaration as it stood did not include President Obama’s suggestions for Palestinian concessions, such as recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and acceptance of Palestine as a de-militarized state.

Mr. Harper, who has a proven record of support for Israel, was the only member of the G-8 to demand a balanced declara-tion. As a result, no declaration was issued.

His address is: The Right Honourable Stephen HarperPrime Minister of CanadaOffice of the Prime Minister80 Wellington StreetOttawa, ONCanada His email address is [email protected] Let’s do it.

Charles IckowiczTeaneck, NJ

What We Should Ask President Obama To DoIn his letter to the Jewish Voice and Opinion [“It Would Be a

Non-Starter,” June 2011], Rep. Steven Rothman praised President Obama for telling Jews of his “unshakable commitment to the safety and security of Israel.” Jews have heard this mantra many times before from politicians seeking Jewish votes and money. Rep. Rothman would have more credibility if he had:

1. demanded that Obama apologize for his disgraceful treatment of Prime Minister Netanyahu on his recent trips to Washington.

2. demanded that Obama explain why he refuses to obey the law that requires moving the American Embassy to Jeru-salem.

3. Protested Obama’s strong preference for the Palestine Arabs over Israel and supplying them with money and an Amer-ican-trained and armed military force.

1967 Borders [Sic]

4. expressed his shock over Obama’s rejection of all requests to free Jonathan Pollard and not to allow him to visit his 95-year-old father before he died or to attend his funeral.

It made little difference to the former community orga-nizer that Morris Pollard was a distinguished researcher on viral diseases and a retired biology professor from Notre Dame University.

George RubinNew York, NY


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When they perform in Spain, Italy, France, England, Israel, Japan, or South America, the landing is someplace else.

Extraterrestrials without a smartphone to call home, they can energize their kaput spacecraft only with music, and they do not use any de-vice except the human voice. Their range of sounds and simulated instruments make not only beautiful music, but truly exciting theater.

They rarely get through a whole song, but, rather, rifts from every genre, from rock to orchestral classics, show music to country, movie music to 40s and 50s pop and folk. If you listen carefully, you can even hear some Israeli favorites. Those aliens must have picked up something from Messrs Kalfo and Fishman.

This is an interactive show. The fourth wall disappears,

and there the aliens are, right in the audience, dancing, sing-ing, and having as much fun as, well, two little girls from New Jersey.

Mr. Kalfo knows. He and his wife, Ravital, and their own two little girls, Yasmin, 6, and Mika, 3, live in the lovely town of Binyamina, south of Haifa and north of Netanya, known for its production of wine and honey.

Now it will also be known for producing Voca People.

Mr. Fishman, who currently resides in Los Angeles, is also originally from Israel, where he taught and served as musical director at the Beit Zvi High School for the Performing Arts in Ramat Gan and the Yoram Levinstein School of Acting in South Tel Aviv.

Before moving to the US, he served as musical direc-tor and arranger for a host of

shows, ranging from A Chorus Line to West Side Story. Pro-ficient on piano, trumpet, French horn, sax, flute, drums, and bass guitar (all of which he plays as in-struments, not with his voice), he is the house composer and music produc-er for NASA and has scored, conducted, and produced 15 feature films—before getting involved with aliens.

By the time the show is over, you could lose your heart to these strange characters, each of whom blossoms into

Voca People continued from page 42

a funny and often touching personality.

Messrs Kalfo and Fishman say Voca People is for ages 4-104; Judy and Avigayil figured six would be the youngest. S.L.R.

Judy, left, and Avigayil Rosenbluth and the Voca People

Live Where You Can Walk to Shulhttp://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Tammuz 5771 The Jewish Voice and Opinion Page - 47

trol, its leaders say, they will replace Western democratic values with Sharia law be-cause, they say, it is the “true democracy.”

Drastic ChangesEgyptian women may well

be the first to recognize dras-tic changes. The MB, which supports female genital mu-tilation, says it will institute a “campaign against ostentation in dress and loose behavior.” Male and female students will be segregated and private meet-ings between men and women, unless they are closely related, will be a crime. Dancing and other such pastimes will be forbidden.

The second group to see changes would be tourists if indeed that industry is ever revitalized in Egypt. Under the MB, visitors would be expected to “familiarize themselves with Muslim religious boundaries so as not to transgress them in public during their stay.”

Some observers said that clause in the MB’s platform in-furiated Egypt’s tourist agen-cies who claimed the MB’s goal is to sabotage the Egyptian economy.

No ChristianityDuring the uprising, some

members of the MB seemed caught up in the ethos of the Arab Spring, announcing to

the media that they would open their party to participa-tion by all Egyptians, includ-ing Christian Copts.

In the months since those heady first days, there have been numerous murders in the Coptic-Christian community, which accounts for 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 83 million.

Salafi Muslims, members of a Saudi-linked sect related to the Wahhabi-brand of Islam practiced by Al Qaeda, once re-stricted themselves to preaching hate against all those with whom they disagreed. Now that they are working closely with the MB, the Salafis have been actively persecuting the Copts.

“We won’t leave any Chris-tians in this country,” one Salafi member told his torture victim who then reported his story to the Wall Street Journal. His at-tackers were never arrested.

Same ConcernsSalafi leader Safwat Hegazy,

a Saudi-trained cleric who is also a member of the MB, told reporters, “We found out after the revolution that the Salafis and the Brotherhood have the same concerns.”

One of their issues is to prevent any reforms to Egypt’s school curriculum, which is cur-rently laden with antisemitic and anti-Christian sentiments.

“Egypt’s schools present Islam as the ‘only true faith.’ The textbooks define Chris-tians and Jews as infidels,” said Yohanan Manor, chairman and co-founder of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, a Jerusalem-based think-tank that just completed a report showing that the Egyptian curriculum needs to under-go “drastic reform” before it can comply with international standards.

No Educational ReformBefore his expulsion from

office, Mr. Mubarak had an-nounced plans for comprehensive reforms to “purge school cur-ricula of erroneous views and material that incites extreme violence,” such as references to “jihad in Allah’s name.”

That seems quite out of the picture now.

“Terms like civil or sec-ular state are misleading,”

MB’s Sobhi Saleh told the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm. “Islamic Sharia is the best system for Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Statements like that prompt-ed Israeli columnist Barry Ru-bin to dismiss articles which insinuate that only the Jewish state and its supporters would be upset by this development. According to Mr. Rubin, it would affect those who care about US interests, moderate Arab regimes, and Muslims who oppose revolutionary Is-lamism.

“We are supposed to be-lieve that only Israel and the Jews will be upset about the Obama administration moving closer to a radical antisemitic, anti-Christian, anti-American, anti-Western, pro-terrorist group that wants to repress women, kill gays, and overturn pretty much every existing government in the region?” he said. S.L.R.

Muslim Brotherhood cont. from p. 17

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