New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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JS-1* JS-1* November 23, 2012 · Vol. LXXXII · No. 9 · $1.00 JSTANDARD.COM 2011 80 NEW JERSEY JewishStandard Just a heartbeat away Local Jews bound up in Israel

description

This week's Jewish Standard highlights the community's connection to Israel during Operation Pillar of Cloud.

Transcript of New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

Page 1: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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November 23, 2012 · Vol. LXXXII · No. 9 · $1.00 JSTANDARD.COM

201180N E W J E R S E Y

JewishStandard

Just a heartbeat away Local Jews bound up in Israel

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2 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

This year Chai Lifeline will touch the lives of more than 4,300 children and families around the corner and across the globe. Become a partner. See how much more we can do together.

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Celebrating Hope

Please join us for a very specialevening that brings hope and help to Chai Lifeline’s children and families around the world.

MaiMonides Legacy awardArthur A. KLein, MD

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North Shore - LIJ Health System

i-shine Founders awardDeenA intrAtor

Annette KAufMAnStACey Zrihen

caMp siMcha appreciaTion awardMoShe & tovA BoLLAG

caMpaign chair AAron DoBrinSKy

caMpaign chairs neLSon & StACey BrAff

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riCK & roBin SChottenfeLDdinner chairs

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PUBLISHER’S STATEMENTJewish Standard (USPS 275-700 ISN 0021-6747) is published weekly on Fridays with an additional edition every October, by the New Jersey Jewish Media Group, 1086 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Periodicals postage paid at Hackensack, NJ and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to New Jersey Jewish Media Group, 1086 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Subscription price is $30.00 per year. Out-of-state subscriptions are $45.00, Foreign countries subscriptions are $75.00.The appearance of an advertisement in The Jewish Standard does not constitute a kashrut endorsement. The publishing of a paid political advertisement does not constitute an endorsement of any candidate political party or political position by the newspaper, the Federation or any employees.The Jewish Standard assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic materials. All rights in letters and unso-licited editorial, and graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to JEWISH STANDARD’s unrestricted right to edit and to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. © 2012

FYI

letters to the edItor PAGe 17

The choice is either to cave in or else to resist. I pick resistance. Am Yisrael chai!

Eric Weis, Fair Lawn

CANdlelIGhtING tIMe: FrIdAY, Nov. 23, 5:14 P.M.shABBAt eNds: sAtUrdAY, Nov. 24, 5:16 P.M.

Noshes ...................................................................................................5oPINIoN ..............................................................................................14Cover storY...................................................................... 18torAh CoMMeNtArY ..................................36Arts & CUltUre ........................................................37

lIFeCYCle ..................................................................................40ClAssIFIed ..............................................................................42GAllerY .........................................................................................44reAl estAte ...................................................................... 45

Contents No 0%

Yes 100%

Should Bergen County repeal its blue laws?

What are you most thankful for this week: electricity, family and friends, or Iron Dome?

To vote, log onto jstandard.com

loCAl

Interview with a hero 6

loCAl

Hurricane clean-up continues 8

loCAl

Grazing Kosherfest 9

loCAl

How a prime minister decides 10

Arts & CUltUre

L.A. cantor turns to spiritual music 30

Arts & CUltUre

Joseph Schmidt, the ‘Jewish Caruso’ 37

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No dessert for you!

Yes, of course we know Twinkies are not kosher (Yodels, Devil Dogs, and Ring Dings are!), but no matter where you went this past weekend, everyone was talking about those artery-

clogging delights.In a eulogy for Hostess, Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post

wrote, “Twinkies, the unpretentious, freakishly versatile and seem-ingly indestructible snack pastry dubbed ‘the cream puff of the pro-letariat,’ died Friday of complications from economic reality.”

And then there was this from a Facebook post: “I feel like my last fond memory of a happy, carefree childhood are gone. Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Zingers, Snow Balls, Wonder Bread ... farewell my friends.”

The best one, though, was the Blessed Box of Twinkies, a ten pack, “brand new,” and offered on Ebay.

Want to bid? It’s auction #221154455213 at a buy-it-now price of $1,500.

Here’s the description:Up for your consideration is a blessed box of Twinkies consisting

of 10 individually wrapped Twinkies.This box has been blessed for the following: Good will, Good

Fortune, Good Digestion, Peace, and Serenity for the purchaser.Of course other matters come into play with a person’s life and

future, however it would be nice to get a little kickstart from time to time and this is the box of Twinkies for you.

No life altering promises guaranteed or implied, your future is what you make of it.

Overnight weekday shipping. — James Janoff

AbouT The coverThe Israeli scouts — Tzofim Shevet Mezada — who meet every Sunday at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades show their support for Israel. For more about local support, see page 18.

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We take that adage to heart at Village Apartments of the Jewish Federation. In addition to being in the heart of the bustling South Orange neighborhood -- near restaurants, parks, the library, a movie theatre, supermarket and doctors offices -- we offer residents the opportunity to enjoy a more carefree lifestyle. This includes kosher dining, transportation, a live-in super and medical

professionals on-site, as well as a reason to keep laughing.

Village Apartments of the Jewish Federationwww.jchcorp.orgOwned and managed by theJewish Community Housing Corporation of Metropolitan New Jersey

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old.You grow old because you stop laughing.”

We invite you to an Open House with hors d’oeuvres

Participate in a drawing for a digital camera

Tuesday, November 27th (2:30 – 5:30 p.m.)Village Apartments of the Jewish Federation

110 Vose Avenue, South Orange

RSVP 973-763-0999

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Community

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Interview with a heronatan sharansky visits the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in tenafly

Joanne Palmer

Natan Sharansky is a hero.That is a simple truth.There aren’t any politics that get in the way of

that truth, either. That’s not to say that he has not been involved in politics. He is a consummate politician. And, of course, there is nothing mutually contradictory about politics and heroism; it is as foolish to think that there must be as to think that there never is.

In 1986, when Sharansky — then still Anatoly Scharansky — a human rights activist and survivor of nine years of harsh imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag, was released, set free to go first west to freedom and then east to Israel, he was told to walk straight across the bridge leading to his new life. A congenital rebel, possessing a courage that most of us cannot imagine, he instead walked in zigzags. That corkscrew walk, each twist representing another challenge surmounted, and of course another challenge to his temporarily disarmed antagonists, was heroism put to motion. And it had legs — it was broadcast around the world, and many of its viewers never forgot it.

Meeting Sharansky for an interview, then, has built-in

magic. What is a hero like?This hero, to begin with, is very short,

maybe five feet tall. He is rumpled and balding, and entirely normal looking, ordinary except for his eyes — light, bright, and piercing, they hold your gaze steadily, focusing on nothing but you. He speaks very quickly, in a thick and purely Russian accent. He is surrounded by a phalanx of people — local officials, handlers, security men. And he is warm without being anything other than businesslike.

He is entirely normal and undeniably charismatic.Sharansky, who is now the chairman of the Jewish

Agency for Israel, was in the boardroom at the Kaplan JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly on Nov. 14 for a long-planned talk, right after the conclusion of the annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations, held this year in Baltimore.

The talk was in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Dec. 11, 1987, Freedom Rally on the mall in

Washington, the culmination of the Soviet Jewry movement, where a recently freed Sharansky, there with his elderly mother, addressed the crowd. The meeting in Tenafly was co-sponsored by both the exclusively Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Bergen County and the multi-denominational North Jersey Board of Rabbis, in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. Excitement was high.

And then that day rockets from Gaza reached more deeply into Israel, in response

to Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas’ Ahmed al-Jabari, itself a response to the missiles from Gaza constantly raining misery on Sderot. And everything changed, even in Tenafly.

We had blocked out half an hour for the interview; part of that time was pre-empted by a phone call between Sharansky and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, which Sharansky took in a corner of the room. It was about real people’s lives. No matter what your politics, you feel it.

Teens inspired by a ‘special man’

On Nov. 13, Natan Sharansky met with a group of students from the Bergen County High School

of Jewish Studies’ leadership course, a program co-sponsored by JFNNJ.

Harry Cohen, a 10th grader at Fort Lee High School, was struck that afternoon by Sharansky’s physical appearance and his obvious power. “I’d never really imagined such a powerful and inspiring man being so short,” he said. “I’ve never seen such a short person hold so much weight, who conveyed that much stature.

“You can just feel that he is a special man.”

Cohen felt empowered by Sharansky’s message. “He said that it’s important that we as kids have the same passion for Israel that our parents did when they were our age. He said that we have to be involved with kids our age because that is a new generation that has to support Israel. That was powerful, because it showed me that as a Jewish kid in America I can do something for Israel.”

Michael Sobelman, a 10th grader at Paramus High School, said that all the students had the chance to ask a question. He asked about the “status of Israel and America in terms of involvement in the Middle East — does

he think it’s on the right track.“And he answered that we share a

unique relationship, and he sees it as very positive and trending well, but he said that something Americans don’t always seem to get is that they always shout ‘peace peace peace peace,’ but peace might not be the optimal solution in every case. We need to take things as they come.”

Sobelman was personally moved by Sharansky. “I thought he’s a very sharp man,” he said. “He knows his stuff.

“And he’s a hero. He freed my mom from the Soviet Union, and my grandparents.

“I spoke Russian to him,” he said. “After the class had left I lingered back. I shook his hand, and I said ‘spacebo’ — thank you in Russian.”

Cheli Kalina, an 11th grader at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, said that she got “a very warm feeling” from Sharansky. “I felt like he really wanted to be there,” she said. “It seemed like it was very important to him to listen to us. You could see by the way he was sitting, by his body language. He was very inviting, he made lots of eye contact with us.

“It was very cool.” –Joanne Palmer

Natan Sharansky meets with the leadership class. Seated, from left, Joshua Weiss, Marcelle Katri, Scott Koszer, Natan Sharansky, Kayla Silow-Carroll, and Ori Manahan. Avinoam Segal-Elad, the federation’s shaliach, is at left in the top row. Beside him are Martha Cohen, Julia Baer, Miranda Alper, Steven Gottlib, Jakob Hess, Michael Sobelman, Greg Vaks, Harry Cohen, Michael Aboody, and Cheli Kalina. Bess Adler, principal of Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies is at far right.

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Back from his call, Sharansky talked about the important lessons learned from the campaign to free Soviet Jews. “We were united then,” he said. “Soviet Jews discovered their identity, and American Jews felt that there was an opportunity for them to do something for other Jews. That was the power that changed the world.

“In order to strengthen the connection from generation to generation, we always talk about the exodus from Egypt. A big part of our people went out of slavery in the Soviet Union, and the dictatorship fell apart, and that was done through the army of students and housewives.

“We should always remember our power, and the source of that power is our identity.”

And what’s going on now? What about the missiles coming from Gaza? “There are two ways in which they tried to destroy us,” Sharansky said. “In the beginning, in 1948, our enemies believed that because there were so very many Arab states, with such big armies, that they could destroy us physically. It is clear that Israel, with the support of the Jewish people around the world, succeeded very quickly in becoming a very strong state, with a strong economy and a strong army. They can’t destroy us physically.

“So now they try to delegitimize us, by keeping five generations of Palestinians in refugee camps, hoping the world eventually will tire of our problems.

“What is the power of terror?” he asked rhetorically. Israel’s enemies can terrorize, he said. “The freer you are, the more solidarity you feel with all your citizens. One soldier can be worth thousands of prisoners.

“And because Israel is such a small country, the threat of missiles can keep the whole country in shelters. We can afford it for a few days, but it’s damaging for the economy, and it’s demoralizing.

“Almost one million Israelis are in shelters, and that

is a challenge of huge proportions for Israel, and for the Jews of the world — how to guarantee the continuation of the State of Israel when there is an attempt to delegitimize it on the one hand and destroy it through terror on the other.

“It is clear that we cannot tolerate it. Everyone — right, left, everyone — was demanding action, so our army took dramatic steps.”

As Israel confronts its external enemies, problems that have been built into its structure continue to press from the inside. Most recently, there was yet another group arrest of six Women of the Wall, this time for wearing tallitot draped across their shoulders as tallitot rather than tossed around their necks like scarves. This was just weeks after the group’s leader, Anat Hoffman, was arrested for saying the Shema in public at the women’s side of the Kotel. These issues tend to peel liberal

diaspora Jews away from Israel, something Israel can ill afford.

“We just had a meeting of the board of the Jewish Agency,” Sharansky said. “It is unique because it is the only government agency representing all the streams. We passed by consensus the Woman of the Wall resolution, which demands that the Jewish Agency immediately will start discussing the problem with the government, on the basis of the understanding that every Jew in the world must have access to the Western Wall.

“Israel is a democratic state,” he continued. “We have a Supreme Court. In a democracy you vote and you have the courts and the legislative branch.

“In the future, we hope that the Reform and Conservative movements will be influential enough so that they will be able simply to use the power of the vote, but now, when they are still very small — and for the majority of Israelis it is a nonissue — you have to use the dialogue between all Jews and the government to make sure those interests are taken into consideration.

“In the specific case” — Anat Hoffman’s — “there is consensus on one thing: The police overreached. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to arrest Hoffman and keep her in prison.

“The practical thing that has to be done now is to make the decisions of the Supreme Court more effective in preventing the increased control of the ultra-Orthodox over the Western Wall. That’s exactly what we’re discussing now.”

As to last summer’s problems in Bet Shemesh, when ultra-Orthodox men attacked small girls going to a modern Orthodox day school on the grounds that their clothing was insufficiently modest, “I propose not taking them out of proportion,” Sharansky said. “This is a small group of extremists, and everyone, including the leading

see SHArANSKy page 35

Natan Sharansky talks to Eva Gans, in the brown jack-et, her mother, Lilo Olendorf-Thurnauer, and rabbi Larry Zierler, whose back is to the camera.

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From the trenches‘Fun, exhausting, sad, empowering’ hurricane cleanup work

Lois GoLdrich

When Jewish Standard editor Joanne Palmer began her story about the Minnesota-

based Nechama disaster relief organization several weeks back (“Getting Dirty Doing Good,” Nov. 9), she suggested that cleanup is not glamorous work.

When I sat down to write this piece — covered with

muck from head to toe — I had the same thought.Like the troupe from Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School

for Girl in Teaneck, working with Nechama the same day to make a dent in the wreckage of what used to be a synagogue basement in Brooklyn, I wore mud-spattered boots, dirt-covered work gloves, and a jacket with suspiciously gelatinous dark stains. Glamorous indeed.

Nechama volunteers begin the cleanup.

What once was the Derech Ayson Rabbinical Seminary’s kitchen A pile of books in the storm-tossed seminary. Photos by Jamie NorthruP

FIRSTPERSOn

How to help with the Sandy clean-up

Larry yudeLson

It’s not too late to lend a hand to help clean up from Hurricane Sandy.

“We’re still recruiting for volunteers on a daily basis,” says Stacy Orden, who coordinates the Bonim Builders program for the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Requirements: A willingness to roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty. (And be 16 years old or older).

Email Orden at [email protected]; give her 24 hours advance notice about when you want to volunteer, and she’ll connect you with the Nechama disaster relief organization, which is working six days a week.

Not only are there individual volunteers, groups have been volunteering as well.

On Monday, Federation President David Goodman and other members of the federation’s “Klene Up Krew,” who had traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild the city, worked with Nechama in Hoboken.

The men’s club at Temple Emanu-El of Closter was one group that volunteered, as have some local Jewish day schools, said Robert Hyman, director of community planning at the federation.

Overall, Hyman said, the post-Sandy relief “is concluding the emergency phase, and transitioning to the intermediate and long-term recovery phase.”

The federation was able to close the books on one piece of the emergency response with its food drive, which collected three truckloads of nonperishable food

and supplies.This enabled the Jewish Family Service agencies to

replenish their food pantries; their stocks had been cleaned out by the emergency need of seniors and others who lost their refrigerated and frozen food to the storm’s power outages.

In addition, the federation distributed food to the Center for Food Action in Saddlebrook, which has been serving the area’s hardest-hit towns, Moonachie and Little Ferry.

And there was enough left over still to fill a classroom at the Teaneck Jewish Center, where the surplus material will be stored until needed by the Jewish Family Services.

Meanwhile, Hyman said, home cleanup will continue for the foreseeable future. “You first have to substantially clean out and prep the existing structure for follow-up repair and building.”

Who at the shul would have thought when storing last year’s Chanukah decorations, or putting back a Hebrew schoolbook, that it all would float away? Actually, had they floated, it would have been a lot easier. Waterlogged books are heavy. Bagging entire ruined libraries is hard, heartbreaking work.

The group leaders from Nechama were a diverse lot: funny, irreverent, committed to their work. Not for one moment, beneath the jokes and bravado, did they forget why they were there. Some had driven from Minnesota, some from Chicago, some from Virginia. One guy, last week, came from California. All were based at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, eating and sleeping when they could. I was among the volunteers recruited by Bonim Builders, a project of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

The Chicago volunteer who drove some of us back to the JCC after our gig said he had done several stints with Nechama since Katrina. Maneuvering through traffic

The rubble-strewn Derech Ayson Rabbinical Seminary.

See cleANup page 35

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Fish, fowl, and good red meatOur intrepid reporter visits the Kosherfest expo in the Meadowlands

Josh Lipowsky

Shalom Ber Cadaner spent the past year trying to get carp to taste like salami.

The result was a line of pareve “meats” all made out of carp, which he unveiled for the first time last week during the annual Kosherfest Expo at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, where thousands of food retailers, restaurateurs, and food journalists were looking to keep abreast of the latest trends in kosher food.

Crystal Springs, which is distributing Cadaner’s faux meats, was one of the more than 600 companies dis-playing its latest kosher options at the show. Kosherfest drew big names like Manischewitz and Aaron’s, as well as smaller companies looking for distributors and to intro-duce their products.

“I’m just amazed honestly,” Cadaner said. “Everybody’s very excited about it. I look at people’s faces and they’re just shocked” that it’s fish.

Kosher food is a $12 billion a year industry, according to expo founder Menachem Lubinsky, CEO of Lubicom Marketing. The key words in the kosher industry right now, he said, are market share.

A customer might decide to go to one store instead of another because the produce is fresher, the coleslaw at the deli counter looks better, or the store’s layout is more appealing. Store owners have to keep all of these ele-ments in mind, Lubinsky said, and make their products and stores stand out.

To gain market share, the industry needs to focus on product enhancement, and relationships must be built between the brand, the store, and the customer.

“You need to think beyond kosher, you need to think about the store,” he said. “Know that the kosher consum-er is sometimes evaluating the store based on things that have nothing to do with kosher.”

While some companies have started putting recipes on their packaging, not enough manufacturers are teach-ing consumers how to use their products, according to Lubinsky. “Teaching consumers how to use the product

can, in many cases, double the sales of a product, be-cause if you do teach the consumer how to use it, they will use it; they experiment with it; they will try it.”

The kosher market can be a gateway to larger ven-dors as well, said Elie Rosenfeld, CEO of Joseph Jacobs Advertising in New York, which handles big brands Manischewitz and Empire. General market companies or specialty brands that are kosher and want to break into larger markets are turning first to specialty stores as step-pingstones to build their brands. And in the big chain stores these companies will play up the kosher connec-tion as a way to break into crowded markets.

“If you’re a chip company you can’t go up against

Frito-Lay,” he said. “But if you’re a specialty kosher chip company, you can say, ‘I’ll go in the kosher aisle. It’s a foot in the door.’”

Getting onto the shelf is only part of the battle. Once there, products have to set themselves apart from the competition.

“Packaging and shelf-presence is in a sense the most important thing beyond quality and taste for the product because the biggest hurdle any brand is going to have is getting the product into the supermarket,” Rosenfeld said. “You’re competing against very similar and very comparable products in the same category. There are going to be 12 cookie people, 12 rugelach people. Having a product that appeals to the buyer, to have something different, allows the retailer to look more high tech, more with it.”

Companies are looking to “green” their packaging, he said. Packaging is becoming more contemporary by be-coming minimalistic as consumers increasingly look for biodegradable or recyclable packages.

With so much competition around, recyclable pack-aging might be what makes the difference between brand A and brand B getting on the store shelf, he said. More companies are turning to resealable packaging, and for Empire, which began using resealable tubs for its sliced turkey a few years ago, this has been a hit with customers, he said.

“People are loving those tubs,” he said, noting people reuse them for everything from food storage to arts and crafts.

Almost 20 Israeli companies attended this year’s show, trying to find North American distributors, or, in the case of established companies like Osem, unveiling new products.

As in previous years, Osem had a large display high-lighting its products, including its Pearl Couscous with Rice, Roasted Garlic & Sun-Dried Tomatoes, which won the Best in Show award in the new pasta or rice category. The company also revealed new mixes for Passover rolls and pancakes, and an all-natural macaroni and cheese mix. The company is trying to answer the growing de-mands of health-conscious consumers, said Kobi Afek, Osem’s head of marketing.

“Today the consumer looks for short time of prepara-

Kosherfest’s show floor

Clockwise from upper left: Two entries from Skinny; Jessica Taft, CEO of Taft Foodmasters of Whitestone, N.Y., making her new product, seitan gyros; Bayonne resident and food blogger Elizabeth Bland; Menachem Lubinsky with William Rapfogel, CEO of the Met Council, the official charity of Kosherfest, which distrib-uted 20,000 meals in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

see KOSHERFEST page 35

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About UsAt Teaneck Radiology Center (TRC), you will feel welcomed into a warm and caring environment where you will get individual concern. And yet, as we are aligned with radiologists from both Columbia University Department of Radiology and University Radiology Group, your tests will be interpreted by top specialists in their field - such as neuroradiologists, women’s imaging specialists, pediatric radiologists, and musculoskeletal experts.

The first outpatient imaging center to open in Bergen County over 25 years ago, TRC has earned the reputation as a center of excellence for all age groups, and takes care of more pediatric patients than any other outpatient facility in the region. At TRC, our commitment is to provide our patients with excellent service and an abundance of compassion. As the field of radiology evolves, the practice at Teaneck Radiology evolves as well. Our entire department is now digital, from digital Xrays, digital mammography to our short-bore MRI scan and 16 slice multidetector CT scan. We have recently installed new Xray, Mammography, MRI, and Fluoroscopy suites. We offer sedation services for both children and adults.

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How does a prime minister decide?Yehuda avner, former aide to Begin and rabin, shares insights

Larry yudeLson

This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced one of the toughest decisions of his career.

Should Israel accept a cease-fire with Hamas, with the possibility that the price of quiet in the south would be allowing the terrorist organization that rules Gaza to claim a partial victory?

Or should it send in the tens of thousands of reserve soldiers who mustered outside Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion, with the possibility of causing a mea-sure of defeat to Hamas, but with the certainty of many more Israeli casualties?

Netanyahu spent many hours this week discussing these issues with his advisers and cabinet members.

And while it was unclear at press time on Tuesday af-ternoon what the final decision would be, Yehuda Avner understood as well as anybody not in the room what was happening where the decisions were being made: He had served as adviser and speech writer to prime ministers Levy Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, and Menachem Begin, and had been there when those decisions were made.

In fact, Avner, who also served as ambassador to Britain, Ireland, and Australia, was taking notes. Though it wasn’t his intention at the time, those notes became the basis for his 2010 book, “The Prime Ministers.”

Next week, Avner will be speaking at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, in an event co-sponsored by Israel Bonds. (The advertised topic was the decision-

making behind Begin’s decision to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak, but in an interview Tuesday he allowed that in light of the current events, the actual topic was up in the air.)

One day, Avner said, we’ll learn the details of the closed-door discussions.

“There’s always a written record of everything,” he said. “There’s always somebody who is either taking notes or taking minutes. There’s a difference between notes and minutes: Notes can be one of the partici-pants, or a senior aide. A person who takes minutes is a secretary.”

Now, Avner said, Israel’s decision process will start with Netanyahu, who will begin by consulting his most trusted and senior aides — among them his military secretary, who is his liaison with the military and intel-ligence agencies.

Then came meetings between Netanyahu and his two senior cabinet members, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. These meet-ings went on for several hours.

Typically, Avner said, the IDF chief of staff would be in those meetings.

Once the three senior officials have agreed, the deci-sion is taken to “the nine” — a committee of nine senior cabinet members, representing all the parties in the coalition. With 30 members, the full cabinet is “rather unwieldy,” Avner said, though its formal approval is re-quired for some decisions.

Avner’s experience taught him something about military operations: “We know how they begin. We don’t know how they end.” The present conflict with Hamas is not considered to be a war but “an operation. It’s not a war in the fullest sense.”

But, said Avner, when Begin launched the invasion of Lebanon 30 years ago, “it was meant to be an operation. It was meant to be surgical. It was meant to push the PLO terrorists 40 kilometers back from the northern border.”

Instead, “we ended up in the heart of Beirut” and the first Lebanon war.

Yehuda Avner speaks with Menachem Begin in 1978.

see Minister page 34

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Four years ago, Avner said, when Israel went back into Gaza with Operation Cast Lead, “among the goals of the operation was rescuing Gilad Shalit and toppling the Hamas regime. We succeeded in doing neither,” though Israel did succeed in weakening Hamas’s and Islamic Jihad’s ability to continue shelling the south. It created a relative quiet that held until about six months ago.

“This time the aims of the operation are much more modest,” Avner said.

The impact of Cast Lead is heavy on Operation Pillar of Defense.

Avner said that the Goldstone Report — which ac-cused Israel of committing war crimes during the 2008 operation — “is casting a giant shadow over many as-pects of our decision-making. We’re very sensitive to the international law aspects of all that we’re doing. We have legal advisers embedded in our larger units. This is a new development.

“Now there is an international law of ‘proportionality of response.’ If he shoots with pea shooters, you can’t re-spond with atom bombs.

“General Patton would turn in his grave if he heard the word ‘proportionality.’ He was asked by journalists dur-ing World War II what he considered to be an appropriate proportion of forces. His answer was, ‘to hell with pro-portionality; I say use overwhelming force.’”

So far, Avner said, there has been no complaint of disproportionality with Israel’s actions in Gaza. “They are shooting rockets and we are shooting back, mainly with our air force, hitting targets that are plainly defined. Bull’s-eye hits. The casualties among civilians on the other side are low.

“There’s a justified fear that if we were to go in with the full might of our army, civilian casualties would enormously increase, as would an increase of our own casualties. The real hero of this operation is Iron Dome,” he said.

If these are broad parameters by which this week’s de-

cisions are being made, when will we know what went on behind closed doors?

“I reckon you’ll have a quick book out in about six months. An authoritative review of the whole things — that takes quite some while. You’ll read it in Bibi’s mem-oirs, which he will write after he steps down from office,” he said.

Avner’s book was praised by reviewers for its clear and warm portrayal of Begin — giving voice to a prime min-ister who never wrote his own memoir about his political career. (Two books Begin wrote in the 1950s focused on the pre-state Irgun underground that he led, and on his time in Soviet prison camps.)

So why didn’t Begin ever write a memoir of his time in power — and his decades before that heading the oppo-sition in the Knesset?

“He had every intention of writing his memoirs,” Avner said. “I heard him say more than once that he was going to write a number of volumes. He even had a title: ‘From Destruction to Redemption.’ It would tell the story of the Holocaust and the struggle for Israel’s independence.

“After he retired, he lived nine years in seclusion. People were urging him — myself included — to get down and write his books. He would always say, ‘od me’at. Presently. Soon, soon.’ He never did.

“I remember when he was prime minister, a Time Magazine correspondent asked him whether he intends to write a book, and his answer was yes. And then the correspondent asked him, ‘How would you like to be re-membered in history?’

“On the spot he gave the answer: as a decent man and as a proud Jew,” Avner said.

Minister frOM page 10

Who: Yehuda avner, adviser to four israeli prime ministers

Where: Congregation Keter torah, teaneck

When: Monday, nov. 26, at 8 p.m.

Minutes later, a siren blares across the neighbor-hood, growing louder as the seconds pass. Shteiner and his crew leap over a ledge and press their backs against the building’s rear wall, taking cover under an overhang. For the moment it is the safest place they can find.

After half a minute that feels like 10, they hear the boom, nowhere near them. Shteiner exhales.

“They don’t give us rest,” he said. The crowd already is dispersing. The third victim’s funeral begins in 10 minutes.

The slow procession to the cemetery brings to-gether Lubavitchers in suits and young Sephardic men in T-shirts and jeans. Elderly religious women wearing headscarves walk alongside secular Russian immigrants.

Shteiner calls Kiryat Malachi “one big neighbor-hood,” and more than 100 residents pack a small, ex-posed building to mourn 24-year-old Itzik Amsalem, a newly religious yeshiva student.

Men sob on each other’s shoulders in a tight embrace. A woman walks arm in arm with a girl, lamenting the “hit after hit, hit after hit,” that southern Israel has absorbed in the days and years before that Friday afternoon.

The weeping continues while a Chabad rabbi, Yaakov Shvika, eulogizes Amsalem — “a great wound, an in-credible wound.”

Minutes after Kiryat Malachi’s mayor, Moti Malka, takes the podium, another siren blares. Mourners scramble in the crowded building. Most take cover once more under the roof and against its only walls.

The chaos only grows after the rocket from Gaza ex-plodes in the distance. After the siren, it seems the sad-ness has turned to rage.

“Disengagement criminals!” scream the men who had been crying, turning their curses against those who led Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the so-called disengagement, into a chant.

Calls for silence add to the cacophony.“Conquer the strip!” the men yell, obscuring the rest

of Malka’s eulogy for Amsalem.Quiet returns by the time Likud Party Knesset mem-

ber Michael Eitan, a Cabinet minister, addresses the crowd. But the mood has not changed.

While Eitan declares that the terrorists “want to rain fear on us, but they won’t succeed,” the chants of the crowd and the sound of the siren linger in the air. For the roomful of mourners, the next rocket is not far away.

JTA Wire Service

resilience frOM page 26

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briefly local

Dr. Jacqueline C. Brunetti Photos Provided

Dr. Harvey and Beth Gross Terry and Gail Novetsky

JNF selects Teaneck honorees for service to community and IsraelThe Teaneck Council of the Jewish National Fund has honored local residents for the past 48 years, beginning with the late New Jersey State Sen. Matthew Feldman. Honorees from Teaneck are selected for their work for the State of Israel and the local Jewish community.

Continuing in that tradition, Dr. Harvey and Beth Gross and Terry and Gail Novetsky will receive JNF Circle of Excellence awards and Dr. Jacqueline C. Brunetti will be feted with the Guardian of Israel award. The event, with a buffet and dessert reception catered by Ma’adan, is set for Monday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth Sholom, 354 Maitland Ave., Teaneck.

Harvey and Beth Gross have been members of CBS since 1979. Harvey Gross, a family physician/geriatrician in Englewood, has been voted first place in the Jewish Standard’s family doctor category in its annual Readers’ Choice publication. He also is the chief of family practice at Englewood Hospital & Medical Center and is associate clinical professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Beth Gross, a life member of Hadassah, manages her husband’s medical practice and was a co-founder of the Chesed Committee at CBS. Harvey Gross is a life trustee of the synagogue and has served in several positions on its board.

Terry and Gail Novetsky are longtime active members of Congregation Rinat Yisrael. Terry Novetsky, a lawyer in New York, has served as chair of the Etzion Foundation, executive board member of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, and president of Rinat during its years of expansion. Gail Novetsky also has served on the boards of various Bergen County organizations.

Dr. Jacqueline C. Brunetti, director of diagnostic imag-ing services at Holy Name Medical Center and associate professor of clinical radiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, went on a mission to Israel in 2008 with philanthropist Angelica Berrie to see developments initiated by the Or Center in southern Israel.

Zevi Kahanov, JNF/KKL shaliach from Israel, the guest speaker, will discuss the need for a new medical center in the Sapir Center in the Arava region. Funds raised will go toward such a center, which would provide health care and medical support to the residents of the Bikah who now do not have those services.

For information about the event, call (201) 836-3061 or (212) 879-9300, email Bob Levine at [email protected], or email Janice and Jerry Rosen at [email protected].

White House chief of staff to keynote YU dinnerWhite House Chief of Staff Jack Lew will be the key-note speaker at Yeshiva University’s 88th annual Chanukah Convocation and Dinner on Sunday, Dec. 16. The universi-ty will bestow honorary doctorates upon Lew; Stanley Raskas, the chair of Yeshiva College’s board of overseers; communal leader, philanthropist and financier Moise Y. Safra, and Diane Wassner, national vice president of the Yeshiva University Women’s Organization.

The dinner draws nearly 1,000 of the country’s lead-ing Jewish philanthropists and community leaders. Past speakers at the black-tie gala have included Secretary of State (then senator) Hillary Clinton, Sens. John McCain and Kirsten Gillibrand, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Vice President Al Gore, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Call Robyn Hartman, Yeshiva University’s senior direc-tor of events management and donor relations, at (212) 960-5468 or email [email protected].

Jack Lew Courtesy yu

Jewish war veterans recalled at memorialSeventy-five family members remembering Jewish war veterans who had died in the last 18 months joined Rabbi Simon Feld, chaplain at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, at a me-morial service sponsored by Gutterman and Musicant Funeral Directors and Wien & Wien Memorial Chapels.

The names of 204 veterans, mainly of World War II,

will be added to the plaques in the funeral home; they already hold 612 names.

Standing by the plaques, above from left to right, are the commander of the Jewish War Veterans, Nelson L. Mellitz; Gutterman-Musicant manager Alan Musicant; Lt. Col. Feld, and Martin Kasdan, manager of Riverside Chapel of New Jersey.

SRVJCO hosts annual senior gift driveThe Saddle River Valley Jewish Community Organization will host its third annual senior holiday gift drive from Dec. 1-19. A gift board will be displayed in the Saddle River post office with suggestions for needy seniors in the Saddle River Valley and surrounding areas. Participants can donate new, unwrapped gifts.

The SRVJCO is a nonprofit organization serving the Saddle River Valley area. Activities are focused on raising needed funds for local and national charities. For more information, email [email protected] FROM THE STORM?

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Suddenly it’s personalshMuleY BoteaCh

I was a boy of 7 on Oct. 6, 1973. I still remember early that morning, walking with my father to synagogue. It was Yom Kippur. He had promised me that I could

break my fast shortly after arriving, but now that was about to change.

We stopped en route so that he could tell me that war had broken out in Israel and the situation was dire indeed. He asked me to show God added devotion by fasting a few hours longer in deference to the mortal struggle then facing my fellow Jews. I was upset, I was starving, but I did as he asked. I broke my fast after midday.

That Yom Kippur was my first memory of an Israeli war. We feverishly watched the news over the next few days until Israel finally began to turn the tide and push its enemies back.

There were moments of elation as well. I remember being in a Chabad sleepaway camp in Homestead, Fla., on July 4, 1976, American’s bicentennial, when an excited head counselor began screaming over the loudspeaker that Israel had pulled off a daring rescue of Jewish hostages in some far-off place called Entebbe, in the heart of Africa.

Fast forward to November 1982. I was a student at Chabad High School in Los Angeles. I traveled on a Friday, at the height of Israel’s war in Lebanon, to attend the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the Century Plaza hotel before Shabbat so that I could show my solidarity with the beleaguered leader. I still remember Begin arriving in his dark limousine, looking ashen-faced, having just heard the terrible news that tens of soldiers had died in an explosion when a building

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s latest book, “The Fed-up Man of Faith: Challenging God in the Face of Tragedy and Suffering,” will be published next week. His column appears here every other week.

14 JewiSh Standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

Whom can we trust?

We believe in a free and unfettered press. We just do not believe in a dishonest one, but that is what the mainstream media seem to

be these days.When it comes to news from the Middle East, the

need to separate fact from fiction is not merely an annoy-ance; it is a dangerous trend with potentially explosive consequences. The volatility of the region requires that the reporting be as accurate and as free of bias and spin as possible.

Yet name the media outlet and evidence of distorted and inaccurate reporting is there to find, from the left and the right. Much is said, for example, about how the Israel-Gaza fighting came about because Israel killed the leader of Hamas’ military wing. Because of that action, Hamas launched more than 1,000 missiles into Israel in the last week or so.

Nothing, however, is said of the nearly 700 missiles that Hamas launched against Israel before it moved against the chief perpetrator of that murderous barrage, Ahmed al-Jabari. There were 171 missiles in October, 80 of them in a single day. Nearly 140 fell in the first half of November, before Operation Pillar of Defense was launched.

We read and see and hear much about how Gaza’s children must stay in shelters, but little to nothing is said about, say, the 40,000 school children in Beersheva who are in shelters, or about how the people of Sderot live under a daily threat of missile attacks.

One CNN anchorperson, when asked a rhetorical question about how she might react if Cuba sent missiles daily into Florida, responded with words like “But I’m not occupying anyone else’s country.”

Some media, in the name of “fairness,” give each side’s claims equal weight. It is as if in reporting on the murder of a shopkeeper in Queens, say, the reporter first tells us that police allege that the perpetrator shot the shopkeep-er in cold blood, but then adds that perpetrator insists the shopkeeper deliberately stood in the way of a bul-let as it exited aimlessly from the perpetrator’s gun. It is absurd. Applying such a “fairness doctrine” all too often results in dishonest reporting, however unintentional.

Then there is the current reality of television and print reporting. Dramatic footage or photographs are much preferred to words spoken or written, even if the images distort truth. Israel’s missiles more often than not directly land on their Gazan targets. The results unfortunately are images of injured children, grieving family members, and the like. They make for great television but terrible reporting.

Another lack is the sin of omission. We are shown bombed-out civilian homes and are treated to the warn-ings by the United Nations Secretary General to Israel against causing civilian casualties. Little or nothing is

said, however, about how Hamas callously uses civil-ian homes and innocent Gazans as shields, so that their homes may be damaged, and they may be injured, or killed. Hamas understands the propaganda value of such images to shape world opinion. The media need dra-matic imagery; Hamas sets it up, and Israel, reluctantly but necessarily, accommodates.

In the print media, a dramatic photograph of a bloody child trumps a missile in an open field any day.

Is there anything anyone can do to change this?We hope not.One of the great strengths of any democracy is a free

and unfettered press. We do not want to see any diminu-tion of the First Amendment, no matter what the excess-es or the failings of the media may be.

We do believe, however, that these excesses and fail-ings of the mainstream media underscore the need for and the importance of the English-language Jewish me-dia. By its nature, the Jewish media have a pro-Israel bias, or at least we hope they do; we do not suggest that we are any better than our mainstream counterparts. We do try, however, to paint a more complete and honest picture.

More to the point, we deal with the kinds of informa-tion that Jews need but the mainstream media will not supply.

People do not need a New Jersey Jewish Standard or a Philadelphia Exponent or a Los Angeles Jewish Journal to review films, or cover sports events, or report on fashion trends, although it is nice to get a Jewish slant on such things now and then. They do need a Jewish newspaper, however, to cover their world and to alert them to issues that have an impact on their lives and the lives of their communities.

The New York Times may be the newspaper of record, but it will not record how the Jewish community fared during Sandy or what its needs are in the superstorm’s wake. Fox News may be “fair and balanced” way over on the Israel side of the report, but it will not provide viewers with information on how they can help Israel in this time of crisis. NPR may do 12 minutes on the sex lives of sala-manders, but it will not report on what Chanukah events are available this year.

It is easy to dismiss the Jewish media as “not real journalism,” or as wannabe newspapers staffed by ama-teur reporters who cannot tell the difference between an ad and an adverb. For sure, most Jewish media lack the financial resources available to their mainstream counterparts, but for the most part they are professional organizations that make the most of the resources they do have, so that their audience can get the best available perspective on the news that affects them as Jews.

How sad it is that it takes a crisis of the Operation Pillar of Defense variety to get us all to appreciate how important that is.

EDItOrIAL

From left, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, his daughter, and Harabbanit Deborah Boteach. CoUrtesY tHe BoteaCH FamiLY.

Page 15: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

collapsed in Lebanon. Tragically, even more bad news awaited him; his wife Aliza would die a few days later, while he was still in Los Angeles.

There were other pressing moments in Israel’s histo-ry that I remember well. None, however, come near the current crisis, which has touched deeper than previous occurrences. This time, my wife Deborah and I have a daughter in the Israeli army and her base is just a few kilometers outside Gaza. As much as it grieves me to do so, in keeping with a request from Tzahal (the Israel Defense Forces), I will not publish her name.

She was standing at a ceremony on Thursday morning when Hamas’ murderous rockets began to fall near her base. Everyone was ordered to a bunker. They watched as Israel’s ingenious Iron Dome went to work. Tragically, it was not enough to stop a rocket from hitting Kiryat Malachi and murdering three people, including a pregnant woman. My daughter heard the nearby explosion.

The base was evacuated and my daughter moved to the relative safety of Jerusalem on Thursday night. Here at home, we breathed a sigh of relief. Then, before Shabbat began, we were informed that she and a skel-etal crew were ordered to return to the base on Saturday night for guard duty. She would have to remain there for a few days thereafter. That Shabbat, I was a scholar-in-residence in Palm Beach, Fla., and during one of my speeches, I asked the congregation to pray with me for her safety and the safety of all of Israel’s soldiers. Never before had the prayer for Tzahal meant so much to me, or had I felt it so deeply.

Over the next few days, when I called my daughter on the base, our phone conversations often were inter-rupted by blaring sirens telling her to rush to safety in a nearby bunker. I was amazed at her courage and sense of normalcy. This was her new life, and she would get used to it without panic.

Over the last quarter-century, I have given countless lectures on Israel’s safety, security, and right to defend itself, and have written many columns on the subject. Yet it is different now. It has gone from the abstract to the very real.

Parents who have children in the military during a war try not to think about it. You tell yourself the chanc-es, God forbid, of anything happening are too negligible to warrant worrying about. Yet you are forever aware that you and your child are in God’s hands. You turn to Him for comfort and safety. Your daughter is an adult. She made the decision to serve. You honor and respect it even if it leaves a pit in your stomach at all times.

When my daughter first made aliyah, she was a student at Hebrew University. After a year, she called me and told me she was enlisting. “I can’t be a student when I have not served. Everyone here has. I have a responsibility to protect the country, just like they did.”

“Okay,” I argued, “but don’t interrupt your degree. It doesn’t make sense. You should first finish and then serve.”

She was adamant. Studying could wait. Protecting Israel could not. It was her responsibility as a Jew to defend her people.

My first reaction should have been, “I can’t be more proud of you for wanting to defend the Jewish people,” which is how I feel now and what I constantly tell her. So why did those words not come out of my mouth at the time? Was it because of a subconscious fear of mo-ments like these, where my baby girl would be on a base with rockets falling nearby, and I would be thousands of miles away, unable to protect her?

She is not a girl any more. She is a grown woman. Unlike me, she has donned the uniform of the Jewish people, to help ensure that we who have suffered eternal oppression are granted a birth of freedom and protection through the courage of its fighting men and women.

The father is just a man. But the daughter? She is a hero.

A ‘disproportionate’ response?Someone ought to check the history books

Rafael Medoff

The fact that the casualty toll from the first days of the Gaza fighting was three Israelis and 30 Arabs “under-scores what critics of Israeli policy called Israel’s dispro-portionate use of military force,” The New York Times reported on Nov. 17.

If the body count determines whether an army’s actions are justified, then the historical record contains more than a few surprises.

In early 1916, Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries murdered 16 Americans in northern Mexico, and then 18 more in a cross-border raid into New Mexico. President Woodrow Wilson responded by sending United States troops, led by Maj. Gen. John Pershing, after Villa. In a series of battles between March and June, the Americans lost 15 men, while Villa’s forces suffered about 200 dead.

Did anybody accuse Pershing of using too much force?

Fast forward 25 years. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 left 2,330 Americans dead. The United States responded not with a raid of similar size but with a full-scale war against the Japanese throughout the Pacific, culminating in the dropping of atomic bombs on Nagaski and Hiroshima. By the time the war was over, Japan had lost an estimated one million soldiers and two million civilians, including the approximately 200,000 civilians killed by the Enola Gay’s frightening payload.

Was the United States’ response disproportionate?President Harry Truman did not think so. Here is what

he said about using an atomic bomb: “We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.”

The German blitzkrieg rained terror on London and other British cities every night for eight straight months from September 1940 to May 1941. About 40,000 British civilians were killed in those German bombings.

In just three nights, however, the Allied bombing of the German city of Dresden claimed an estimated 20,000 lives. Other Allied bombings of Germany brought the civilian death toll there to far more than what the British had suffered.

The chief marshal of the British air force, Arthur Harris, had this to say about Dresden: “Attacks on cities like any other act of war are intolerable unless they are strategically justified. But they are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and preserve the lives of Allied soldiers. To my mind, we have absolutely no right to give them up unless it is certain that they will not have this effect. I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.”

Altogether, an estimated 3.2-million German soldiers, and 3.6-million German civilians, died in the war. Compare that to United States and British losses. The United States suffered 362,561 military deaths in World War II. The British lost 264,433 soldiers, 30,248 merchant sailors, and 60,595 civilians, for a total of 355,276.

By the standards of today’s Middle East pundits, would that mean the Allies’ military actions were disproportionate?

More recent conflicts raise similar questions.The Korean War, for example. Casualty figures are

impossible to determine precisely, but there is no doubt that the North Koreans and their Chinese allies suffered many more losses than the United States and South Korea.

The United States lost 36,576 soldiers; the South Koreans, more than 100,000 soldiers and some 300,000 civilians. By contrast, North Korean military losses were probably around 400,000, and Chinese fatalities were probably in the vicinity of 500,000. Together with North Korean civilian deaths, the casualty total on their side was well over one million. Does that indicate the Americans used disproportionate force?

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States and its allies came to Kuwait’s defense. About 25,000 Iraqi soldiers, and more than 3,000 Iraqi civilians, were killed. The United States suffered 294 losses; the other members of its coalition lost a combined total of 188. Did the Americans overdo it?

Consider Afghanistan. About 3,000 Americans were killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The United States and its allies responded by attacking Al Qaeda and its Taliban supporters in Afghanistan. As of this writing, more than 2,000 United States soldiers, and more than 1,000 other allied soldiers, have died in Afghanistan, as well as some 10,000 Afghan soldiers. Estimates for al Qaeda and Taliban casualty totals vary, but they certainly number in the tens of thousands — far more than the United States and its allies. Should we conclude that the Bush and Obama administrations have used disproportionate force in Afghanistan?

Israel does not claim its army is perfect. It knows that when fighting a war in which terrorists station themselves in civilian neighborhoods, some civilians will be harmed. And the Israelis regret that. They simply want to be judged by the same standard that the international community has used in judging other conflicts in which the aggressors end up suffering more casualties than their intended victims.

JNS.org

Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and co-author with Professor Sonja Schoepf Wentling of the new book “Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the ‘Jewish Vote’ and Bipartisan Support for Israel.”

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JewiSh Standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 15

OP-ED

People look at a wreckage of the car in which Ahmed al-Jabari, head of the Hamas’s military wing, was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Nov. 14. Wissam Nassar/FLasH90.

Page 16: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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Israel’s image warthe world is in its corner — for now

Boaz BisMuth

Tzahal (the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF) is bomb-ing the Gaza Strip, and the world, for the most part, is silent. In fact, the IDF is bombing Gaza

and the world is, for the most part, supporting Israel.How is this happening? Wars today are fought not

only with bullets, but also with images. During Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel has succeeded in appearing as the victim, even though it is acting with strength and determination. But don’t get too excited. This could turn around in a moment.

Israel’s advocates so far have had a much easier time than they did during Operation Cast Lead, in 2008. Tzahal has focused on attacking specific terrorists and has been extremely careful to not harm innocent civil-ians, even if this has meant calling off planned strikes. The government’s instructions on this have been clear.

Israel understands that wars today are fought not only on the physical battlefield. The war of images is no less important than the war of bullets. Israel’s public relations officials gained enough experience from the days of the second intifada to internalize the equation that fewer civilian casualties lead to less criticism and more interna-tional legitimacy.

The start of Operation Pillar of Defense went well. Israel opened the operation by killing Hamas military wing chief Ahmed al-Jabari and taking out long-range missile sites. It would be hard for the West to criticize strikes on such targets.

At the same time, Israel asked the West this question:

What would you do if Paris or London were attacked? Pictures of sites in Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Kiryat Malachi that had been hit by Hamas missiles were broadcast. This time, the world saw an injured Israeli baby, not just a Palestinian one. In the world’s eyes, the heroes in Israel are not the country’s pilots, but the civilians taking cover in bomb shelters. An image of a civilian huddling in a bomb shelter is received much more favorably than one of a pilot in a fighter jet.

Tzahal’s pinpoint attacks have spoiled Hamas’s public

relations efforts. Hamas, along with its allies in the radi-cal Arab world, can continue to talk about “barbaric” IDF attacks, but it has no photos to back up such accusations.

There is no cause for euphoria, however, because everything can change in an instant. One mistake and the picture is reversed. Do you remember Qana (where Tzahal accidentally killed large numbers of Lebanese civilians in both 1996 and 2006)?

Also, the diplomatic clock is continuing to tick. The world’s support is conditional and time-limited. Israel is walking on very thin ice.

The first days of the operation were very successful, even with the air raid sirens that sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Paradoxically, these long-range rocket attacks showed the limits of Hamas’s potency.

Israel will not resolve the conflict with the Palestinians in this round or the next one. The current military op-eration, however, is meant to bring quiet to the south, restore Israel’s deterrence, and weaken Hamas. As a bo-nus, Israel is receiving support from the West and under-standing from many segments in the media.

In a war of images, victory does not necessarily come on the battlefield. So a ground operation must be consid-ered cautiously. It may be tempting, but it would also be risky.

JNS.org

This column first appeared in Israel Hayom. It is distributed with the permission of that newspaper.

A Gaza rocket that fell in an Eshkol Regional Council field in Israel during the ongoing conflict. roNit miNaker

Page 17: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

Opinions expressed in the op-ed and letters columns are not necessarily those of The Jewish Standard. Include a day-time telephone number with your letters. The Jewish Standard reserves the right to edit letters. Write to Letters, The Jewish Standard, 1086 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666, or e-mail [email protected]. Hand-written letters are not acceptable.

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17 JewiSh Standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 JewiSh Standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 17

Rabbis, blogs, and credibilityRegarding the racist tirade that Rabbi Steven Pruzansky posted on his blog: That there is an Orthodox Jewish Father Coughlin, or three, given the size and conserva-tive nature of the Orthodox movement, is not all that shocking. (“Decline and fall of the American empire,” Nov. 16.) That our rabbis could remain mute as one of their ranks publicly models behavior that our sages say will cost the perpetrator his or her share in the world to come is where the tragedy resides. Do our rabbis un-derstand that their credibility as teachers, and the cred-ibility of Orthodoxy as a halachah-based movement, is being tested? Do they feel the eyes of their students and congregants upon them?

Steven EidmanEnglewood

Reading the remarks made on the results of the recent election by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, I am reminded of the remarks made on the same topic by that other font of political wisdom, Donald J. Trump. The only question remaining is whether the members of Rabbi Pruzansky’s congregation want to continue to be led by someone as intolerant, denigrating, and infantile as he seems to be.

Richard J. AlexanderTeaneck

Blue laws stifle commerceRegarding your editorial “Opting out of Sunday clos-ings” (Nov. 16): I cannot agree with you that the mayor “and the residents of Paramus have every right to keep their retail stores closed on Sundays.” To begin with, those stores are not actually “theirs.” They do not belong to the people of Paramus, they are private property and belong to their owners.

Like everyone else, I find traffic unbelievably annoy-ing. But traffic — perhaps especially the traffic at issue here — is a direct consequence of people living their lives. If traffic is truly a problem, the solution shouldn’t be less freedom, it should be more progress. Let’s solve the traffic problem with reason and ingenuity. We can build more and better roads. We can design more intel-ligent traffic control systems. We can build an amazing public transportation system. We can wisely implement incentives and disincentives.

The founders of our nation did not declare indepen-dence from Great Britain so that they might exchange King George for another tyrant. They did so in order that they might secure for the people their unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Surely the right to conduct business, to pursue a better life for oneself and one’s family, is foundational to our democ-racy and ought not be subject to the whims of a King George, the traffic-weariness of the People’s Republic of Paramus, or even the supposedly more enlightened communities in the rest of Bergen County.

Having abnegated your right to freely engage in com-merce, it seems petty to quibble over which tyrant will relieve you of that right.

Adam SchorrEnglewood

Choosing resistanceI am the most peace-loving guy you are likely to find. I always get into arguments about the militarization of Israel, something our sages would have abhorred.

To them, God was our protector. Our kings were not rewarded for military conquest. I am not a supporter of Bar Kokhba. Chanukah to me is a sham. We survived 2,000 years by not becoming the next Roman empire.

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I am also fully aware of the provocations that Israel inflicted on the Palestinians in the days leading up to last week. These were no doubt related to Bibi Netanyahu, political realities with the upcoming Israeli elections, and the now-completed U.S. presidential election. Bibi probably wanted to make a statement to his supporters, to the U.S. and to Iran — “Look, you can-not push me/us around.”

All that being said, I believe that air wars solve noth-ing, and that infantry and ground ops are the keys to victory. I was not in favor of Operation Cast Lead, but once it started, I felt we had to make the sacrifice and stay in Gaza.

I feel that way now. I know Jewish lives will be lost. But the context here is not whether or not Jabiri was a nice fellow who somehow wanted to stop the rockets. The context is that the rockets have never stopped.

So this is really simple. Either the Palestinians figure out a way to control their thugs (and resist Israel without resorting to rockets), or else we have to do it for them (to them). And by the way, don’t you think that Syria and Iran are behind the escalation — and don’t we need to send them a signal, too?

I am afraid that we will lose more lives — and I am equally afraid that we will pull back again, and that nothing will change. But one cannot live in fear. The

status quo is intolerable. So the choice is either to cave in (to the likes of Jabiri, Syria, Iran) or else to resist ... and in so doing, incur the wrath of the nations.

I pick resistance. Am Yisrael chai!Eric Weis

Wayne

Tragedy comes from cultureIt is heartbreaking to witness the loss of innocent life among the civilians of Gaza. However, a review of not- so-distant history reveals that tragedy is inevitable for civilians whose culture produces radical/destructive extremists obsessively consumed with inflicting their way on neighbors and the world beyond.

I cite the terrible suffering of the many thousands of innocent Germans and Japanese who gave strength (willingly or unwillingly) to vicious and tyrannical re-gimes during World War II.

The ultimate responsibility for the horror of the Israeli/Palestinian war rests with the culture that gives birth and sustenance to these murderers.

Jerrold Terdiman MDWoodcliff Lake

LEttErs

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Cover story

18 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

Israel and New Jersey

just a heartbeat away

Israel might be a continent away from northern New

Jersey, but distances contract when hearts connect.

And then, of course, there is the technology that helps with the connection.

Many people who live here have family members now under fire in Israel, either because they have made aliyah or because their visits coincided with Hamas’s missiles. Here, we offer some stories: A local man tells of his eventful trip to the Kotel; Israelis who live here talk about their families there; and a young woman who made aliyah recounts her first time in a bomb shelter. The ADL’s Jeffrey Salkin discusses media bias, and we offer some practical ways everybody can help Israel.

At left, emergency med-ical personnel carrying the body bag of one of three Israelis killed in a rocket attack on their apartment building in Kiryat Malachi. Moshe

Milner/GPo/Flash90/JTa

Below, A ZAKA volun-teer going through the wrecked apartment in Kiryat Malachi. Yossi

ZeliGer/Flash90/JTa

Page 19: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 19

A report from JerusalemHenry FriscH

We were at Newark airport waiting for our flight Wednesday, the 14th, when the news of the killing of the Hamas mastermind came

through.On Friday night we went to the Kotel, and suddenly

during the Maariv service I realized that women were rushing into the men’s section. Our minyan kept davening, even though there was a mad rush for the tunnel rooms that adjoin the plaza area. I thought there was a problem with stone throwing but then the police came onto the loudspeaker and announced that the siren — which I had not heard at all — was a legitimate warning.

Still the minyan I was participating in continued.My wife, Shelly, had been pushed into the tunnel.

As we walked back from the Kotel we heard noise that I thought sounded like firecrackers and that my wife thought sounded like shots. Then we saw fireworks from the Arab section below, I assume in celebration of what we later learned were two missiles that passed in the vicinity.

On Shabbat during the day the Kotel was normal, but after the afternoon service someone we met told us a wild rumor that 10 rockets had been fired from the west bank. (We later learned that was not true.) Because it was Shabbat, information was in short supply.

On Saturday night we visited relatives in Bet Shemesh and found out that several had been called up during Shabbat. One cousin who had come from her home seven kilometers from the Gaza border on Friday afternoon left to return home with her husband, leaving their young children in Bet Shemesh.

Most things are functioning normally, and we have been going about our trip doing the things we intended. Malls, restaurants, and museums all are open. Our children in Teaneck were nervous because they had

heard about the Friday night events on Friday afternoon. We had to reassure them immediately after Shabbat via email to calm them.

One of the strangest experiences is opening the Huffington Post, which automatically offers the British version, which is quite hostile to Israel, and then switching the setting to the American version. That one is far more evenhanded in reporting the truth.

I have been posting extensively on Facebook for the benefit of my many hundreds of Facebook friends. Fortunately, there has been excellent material to forward, including great information directly from the IDF. Only some of my Facebook friends are fully informed and the new alternative media of Facebook and Twitter are very valuable in drowning out the many lies Hamas and its allies have been promulgating.

Henry Frisch lives in Teaneck. He was in Israel when the first missiles fell.

‘This is the hand that Israel has been dealt’The sense that the Israel-Palestine conflict never will end was very much on Lauren Forman’s mind. Forman, who lives in Tenafly, has been keeping in touch with close cousins through Facebook and email on a regular basis since the conflict escalated.

“There’s this feeling that it’s never going to end,” she said. “This is the hand that Israel has been dealt — being surrounded by Arab countries that want them dead and don’t want to live peacefully.”

She has been in regular email touch with her father’s first cousin, Dovid Eckstein, who lives in Jerusalem and had served in several of Israel’s wars. She also emails with some younger cousins, Liam, Elinor, and Nir, who are in their 20s and 30s.

Forman, 35, has been amazed at how Facebook and other forms of social media have been used during the fighting with Hamas.

“Facebook has been a great tool for me to understand what’s going on. It even has a translator tool,” she noted. Her family, who also live in Tel Aviv, takes things one day at a time.

“My cousins are trying to look at the positive things. One took her bar exam and became a lawyer yesterday, so that was the bright side. And then there was the dark news that her husband was just called up to the reserves.”

After the 9/11 terror attacks, Forman recalled how worried she was every day. Still, there was a sense that life eventually would return to normal. For Israelis, she said, the stress that comes from living with daily missiles and warning sirens is normal.

“It’s upsetting to wake up every morning to hear missiles, and that this dark cloud hovers over this beautiful country,” Forman, who has two young children, said. “The instability in Israel is so unfortunate. It make me hesitant to bring my own family over there.”

-Marla Cohen

Shelly and Henry Frisch

The Iron Dome defense system firing missiles to intercept incoming rockets from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod. TsaFrir abaYov/Flash90/JTa

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Lauren stays strong

Michael Silvermintz was meeting with his accountant late Friday

morning when he got a text from his daughter, Lauren, 18, that would sink most parents’ hearts.

“It was just about Shabbat in Jerusalem, and she’s texting me, ‘If you heard a missile was coming into Jerusalem, it’s true and we are heading to the bomb shelter.’”

The accountant wanted to know why Silvermintz wasn’t running to board the next flight out of New York for Ben Gurion Airport. But Silvermintz said that he and his wife, Randi, had raised their four children to be strong, supportive Zionists.

“When you bring them up with Yiddishkeit and a love of Israel, you don’t cut and run at the first danger,” said Silvermintz, who lives in Wesley Hills, N.Y

In some ways he was glad that Lauren, a 2012 graduate of the Frisch School in Paramus, was seeing what Israelis have to contend with on a daily basis, he said. (His daughter is on a gap-year program, studying at

Midreshet Amit. She will begin her freshman year at NYU next fall.)

“I think the Israeli people are a great example of how to remain stoic, to have that stiff upper lip,” he said. “It’s a good lesson to learn.” While he did not think Lauren was having any problems in dealing with the missiles, Beit Amit had made counselors available to the students should they need extra support.

Because he can stay in close touch with his daughter by text messaging, Silvermintz feels that he can put any worries he might have to rest quickly. His bigger concern is what Iran could possibly do, “because you aren’t talking small missiles there, but hopefully she will be safely back in the U.S. by then.”

Nonetheless, there were some limits for Lauren. “She said she wanted to go to Tel Aviv because there was a concert she wanted to attend,” her father said. “But I said, ‘Number one, no Tel Aviv, and number two, no concert.’”

-Marla Cohen

Sirens near Kiryat Malachi

How do you get out of your car, lie on the ground, and cover your head at the

siren’s wail when you are the only adult and your passengers are a six-year-old and infant twins?

That’s the dilemna that faced Inbar Rozmarin, Donna Arbietman’s sister, who lives near Kiryat Malachi, where bombs have fallen. Her husband is out of the country — who knew this was going to happen? — so she fled to her parents’ house in Herzylia with her three young sons, hoping not to get stuck in the car when the sirens went off.

Arbietman is the director of the marketing and communications department at the Jewish Federation of North Jersey. “It was nerve-wracking,” she said. “We were really scared for her until we heard from our parents.

“The mood is somber in Israel,” she reported. “People are nervous. My dad says that they don’t hear the sirens in Herzylia, so theoretically everything is normal, and they’re not affected.” But it’s not, and they are.

Back home in Norwood, Arbietman said, “we watch Israeli TV nonstop, through

Apple TV and online. We’re glued to Ynet and Ha’aretz. We’re constantly on the phone with friends and family in Israel, making sure that everything is fine. And here too, it’s the major topic of conservation among Israelis.”

This time, Arbietman said, she senses a different mood. “With previous conflicts, the Israeli community here was not as united as they are now. Now people finally understand that Israelis cannot continue to live like this.

“They understand that we have to stand united, stand firm, and put and end to it once and for all.”

-Joanne Palmer

Inbar Rozmarin’s sons

Page 21: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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‘He looks like a man now’

For Nancy Friedman of Teaneck, the war in Gaza meant that her son Jesse wasn’t coming home for Thanksgiving.

Jesse began service in the IDF in March. He is a student in the hesder military track at Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem, where he has been studying since he graduated from the Torah Academy of Bergen County in 2010. He finished his basic training two weeks ago, and was scheduled to return for a month’s leave.

“I haven’t seen him since last Sukkot,” his mother said.But with the outbreak of hostilities, leave was canceled — or

perhaps he chose not to take it. “He said it’s not an option,” his mother recalled.

Until now, Jesse and his family in Teaneck would speak by phone four or five times a week. But on Sunday night, as Israel announced the callup of 75,000 reservists for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, Jesse called his mother to let her know that the army was taking away the soldiers’ phones. Jesse is now a tank driver, and “before all of this” he was stationed up north, where Israel borders Syria and Jordan.

When he first enlisted, his mother was nervous.“But I felt, he fully believes in what he’s doing, I believe in what

he’s doing, somebody has to do it. If not my child, then it’s some other Jewish mother’s child.

“Of course, I’m more nervous now,” she said on Monday afternoon. “They could call him down to Gaza. Somebody else could try to be a hero and infiltrate where he is. But I can honestly say I’m less nervous than if he were standing outside of Gaza now.”

She has a cousin in Israel whose son, a medic, was one of the first called to the front line in Gaza. “That’s scary,” she said.

Meanwhile, she’s following the news from Israel even more closely than usual, reading articles from Israel and listening to news on the radio. And she doesn’t know when she’ll next see the son she last saw more than a year ago — before he entered the army.

“Everybody who sees him tells me that he looks like a man now,” she says.

-Larry Yudelson

‘What are you going to do?’

Einat Mazafi of Closter has been keeping in touch with her parents, sis-

ter, and two brothers regularly, speaking with them up to three times a day since hostilities in Israel escalated. She worries most about her parents, who are elderly — especially her mother, who cares for her infirm father on her own.

“It’s not like the Gulf War, when I was there, helping,” said Mazafi, who was a teenager in 1991 when Iraq fired Scud missiles on Israeli cities. “They have to go somewhere, a shelter. They don’t have a safe room in their building.”

Her family, who lives in Givat Shmuel near Tel Aviv and Hod HaSharon, to its north, hears the missile explosions nearby and feels fortunate compared to those who live in the south of Israel, where they are under constant barrage. That they go on in the face of such adversity is what gives Israel its strength, she said.

“People ask how they can keep doing things like going to the mall,” said Mazafi, who came to the United States 13 years ago, after her army service and college. “The only way people can

survive is not to stay home, not to get scared. They are going to the mall, going to work, and just doing everything normal.

“That’s the way we are winning the war.”

Nonetheless, while trying to keep to things as normal as much as possible, her family has altered its daily routines slightly. They stay close to home and avoid open areas, she said, just running their

errands, going to work, and then coming home.“What are you going to do, not continue?” she

said.Her cousin in Beer Sheva recently has started

to experience panic attacks and is too worried about the situation to travel to Jerusalem to stay with Mazafi’s mother, she said.

Mostly her family has a sense of having been there and done this all before. During the 2006 Lebanon War her grandmother’s house in Kiryat Shimona was bombed repeatedly, and her aunt decided afterward to move to Haifa.

“It’s very exhausting, to be honest,” Mazafi said. “You feel like it’s never going to end.”

– Marla Cohen

Einat Mazafi

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Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 23

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24 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

Newest sabra on the blockLottie Kestenbaum

My dad told me last night that maybe if I write a good blog, this whole Hamas sending rockets

over thing will end.Not likely but I’ll try.Things on my end of Israel — at least for

me — have been very on edge. Suddenly every sound I hear I need to double think. I feel like a two year old telling myself, “Now, that’s a car alarm so sit back down and calm down.” And that whistle of wind, ya that’s wind.

A week ago I never thought it was possible for someone to jump from wind ... and then came this week.

I made myself a little survival pack that I put by my main door. It was pretty hard to decide what I would want to eat if I was in a bomb shelter. It couldn’t be anything that smelled bad or gave me bad breath because who knew how long I would be in there for. If I am meeting the neighbors for the first time down there I don’t want to smell bad. Also, it would mean I would need to bring my toothbrush and toothpaste. Once I’m bringing that I might as well bring a change of clothes and my laptop. I didn’t really want to be that person, with the bag and all. It also couldn’t be anything that needed refrigerating. When my life is on the line I am not going to say “oh wait I just needed to get my Caesar salad and dressing from the fridge. Oh and does anyone know where the plastic forks went.” This needed to be an on-the-go sort of thing.

Fletzels — flat pretzels. The only solution. So I have fletzels and water (which I keep drinking because I am too lazy to walk an extra 10 steps into the kitchen and get so technically a basically empty bottle of water) are ready and waiting.

Over Shabbat thank gd things were quiet here. I just kept wondering what have I ever done to Hamas to make them want to kill me? Pretty much all I do all day is sit on a couch. I am the most harmless of beings. I’m guilty of killing a bug once or twice, but I don’t think that’s a legitimate reason for all this.

Granted, I have an amazing blog, but that’s really the one thing I have going for me. I come in peace. And so do the rest of Israel. So leave us alone.

I never thought the words bomb shelter, siren, and rockets would come out of my mouth when talking about my life. I’m this little nothing from Teaneck. We don’t do this. Unfortunately Israelis do though. I am honored to be a part of it, however frightening it may be.

This morning I was up for a little but decided to turn my phone off and take a little catnap before the day starts. You know, because it was 10:30 a.m. Everyone goes back to sleep at 10:30 a.m.

All of a sudden I heard the siren. Me and Ronit flew down the steps. Just imagine two normal Americans. At the time it was far from funny but secretly maybe if someone

recorded it we could have a little laugh now.We are on floor 6 and a half (which is the

most annoying-est floor on the face of the planet. You need to explain it to people. You can either take the elevator to floor 6 and walk up a flight or to floor 7 and walk down. If I was going apartment hunting now I would not even look at apartments on the half floor. The effort it takes to explain it to people is just not worth it) and the miklat is on floor negative 1. We got to floor 4 and a woman told us to stay in the stairwell with her on that floor since we may not make it to the miklat. There was another woman there too.

It was really the best of first impressions to meet people for the first time when you are in the middle of hyperventilating and are wearing polka dot pajama pants and some T-shirt with the “five guidelines to marry Prince Harry.”

At least now they know I like polka dots and plan on marrying Prince Harry.

And I was shoeless. May that be the first and last time I am ever shoeless outside of my apartment.

Ronit and I were shaking like leaves.One of the woman said that her brother

is living in Boca and told her to go to Florida and stay by him until this all dies down. Her response was “Israel’s where it’s at. I got my family and my Tehillim and I’m not going anywhere!”

I’m telling you I highly advise this ice-breaker for meeting the neighbors. They know I don’t react well to rockets coming straight at me from Gaza and I know they are totally chill by it.

Thank gd I didn’t hear a boom and the Iron Dome intercepted both rockets that were heading in the Tel Aviv direction. Unfortunately I did forget to bring down my snack pack with me. May there not be a next time, but just in case I put it a little closer to the door. Food is important in times of distress!

My little medicine for most hard times is a good sense of humor and lots of emunah so I got my “Rock It Out To The Iron Dome” playlist sorted out. We got “Don’t Rain On My Parade” “I Dare You To Move” “I’m A Believer”, the Jewish classics and some more. This whole situation is so surreal.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever guessed that I would get a glimpse at what Israelis in the south have been experiencing for years. This is real and scary stuff.

In a nutshell, I would be lying if I said it’s not scary and it’s all great. Hearing hundreds of planes flying overhead during all hours of the night, saying bye to friends in the army, hearing sirens whether it’s the real one or a noise that catches me off guard, it’s petrifying, but I am honored that I can at least be a footnote in Israeli history.

Lonnie Kestenbaum, who recently made aliyah from Teaneck, writes the blog “Newest Sabra on the Block.”

Salkin faults media coverage for lack of ‘nuance and context’

Lois GoLdricH

Sometimes it comes down to context, says Jeffrey Salkin, the

Anti-Defamation League’s New Jersey director.

Noting the tendency of the mainstream American media to oversimplify events in the Middle East, Salkin said that “by and large, the American media has been appro-priately sympathetic to the plight of everyday Israelis.” But, he added, “this is a complex situation and we have to make room for nuance.

“There are those in the media who appear to think that if it cannot be said in a tweet or a sound bite, it’s almost as if it’s not worth saying,” he said. “You cannot discern the truth about what is going on with Israel and the Palestinians in a few short sentences. I wish people had more patience to learn this very complex tale.”

Salkin said that while Americans are generally supportive of Israel, “there are sectors of American society that are cooler than they need to be — and some would include the media in that department.”

Assessing media coverage of the current hostilities between Israel and Hamas, the ADL director said “while most of the media affirm Israel’s right to defend her citizens, there’s also a good deal of focus on losses in Gaza itself. The American eye moves very quickly to photographs of victims.”

That pattern of reporting has ex-isted for as long as he has been watch-ing developments in the Middle East, he said, adding that “many choose to portray the Israelis as the aggressors, even when they are responding to aggression. Things that would be per-mitted and celebrated [when done by] other nations are forbidden to Israel.”

Salkin emphasized that “it is cru-cial to understand geographic dis-tances. Imagine Hamas operating out of Times Square. Residents of Edison, Morristown, Boonton, and Rockland County would all be within firing range. I challenge anyone to say they would find this tolerable.

“Certainly, people are dying,” he said. “That’s what happens in a war. But while we all mourn the death of innocents, the media needs to remind its readers that children and civilians have died because Hamas hides out in populated areas, such as schools, mosques, and hospitals. You might even say that they manipulate the situation so as to create the biggest media bang for the buck.”

In addition, Salkin noted that Palestinian media sources may be engaged in distorting the news.

There is some specula-tion that those sources are providing photographs of wounded and dead chil-dren who, in fact, were killed in riots in Syria.

“When Israel was weak, it was celebrated. But ever since 1967, when Israel

showed that it would no longer accept a vulnerable position, the world has in some measure found that lack of weakness difficult to understand and accept,” he said, adding that this pos-ture is more prevalent in Europe than in the United States.

“It has been my experience that many Americans understand and ap-preciate what Israel is enduring and what it must do,” Salkin said, recalling that during the 2006 Israeli incursion into Lebanon, he was approached by a man who overheard him discussing the Mideast situation.

Bracing himself “for what might have been a barrage of invective,” he instead received a high five. “I want to thank you for fighting that war for us,” said the stranger, “demonstrating his recognition that Israel is the front line of the West and an Israeli defeat would be a defeat for us all.”

Salkin said the ADL’s job is to be vigilant against local manifestations of anti-Semitic behavior, monitor the media, and lend its support to the Jewish community by interpreting on-going events and advising on security concerns.

While one of his jobs is to challenge the media, that is something everyone should be doing, he said.

“Every Jew needs to know he or she is an ambassador for Israel,” he said, pointing out that when an anti-Israel group recently placed ads in a net-work of local newspapers featuring a distorted map and accusing Israel of stealing land, the ADL sent a memo to rabbis and lay leaders reminding them how they could take action against this kind of falsehood.

“Whenever we at the ADL see a gross distortion of the truth in the media, we immediately act on it, but we all have a responsibility to be able to interpret the situation for friends, relatives, colleagues, and neighbors,” he said. “In fact, there is far more sup-port of Israel’s position than anyone might have thought.”

Salkin noted as well that people should be very circumspect about the websites and media outlets they consult.

“Not all of them are reliable,” he said. “Many are biased and have their own agendas. Stick to the known — the tried and the true.”

U.S. positions ships for ‘remote’ possibility of evacuationWASHINGTON – The United States po-sitioned three warships in the eastern Mediterranean reportedly to evacuate Americans in the “remote” possibility the Israel-Gaza conflict requires it.

CNN reported Monday that the 2,500 Marines on board the USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall had been scheduled to return to Norfolk, Va., for Thanksgiving, but now are on standby near Israel.

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Larry yudeLson

The sirens wail.Israelis run for cover.And in America, Jews ask: How can

we help?To a large extent, they already have.Of the more 850 missiles that Gaza

fired into Israel in the past week, more than 300 were knocked down by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which was funded in large part with hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid. This has been a key leg-islative accomplishment of pro-Israel activists and legislators in recent years.

But for those seeking a more direct way to help Israelis in a time of cri-sis, the Jewish Federations of North America announced that it has created the Israel Terror Relief Fund. The um-brella organization of Jewish federa-tions has authorized up to $5 million to help Israelis, particularly in the south,

who are affected by the missile bar-rages from Gaza.

Donations can be made through the website of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey: www.jfnnj.org. Checks marked Israel Terror Relief Fund can be mailed to the federation, at 50 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, N.J., 07652.

You also can text “Israel” to 51818.The Union for Reform Judaism and

the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism are asking their synagogue members to support the fund.

JFNA is disbursing the money it raises to four groups in Israel: The Jewish Agency for Israel; the American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; World ORT; and the Israel Trauma Coalition.

The Israel Trauma Coalition was founded by the UJA-Federation of New

How to help Israel York in 2001, in response to the violence of the second intifada and increas-ing rocket attacks in Israel’s north and south. It coordinates the efforts of more than 50 local agencies to help provide post-traumatic treatment and resilience counseling.

The director of the Trauma Coalition was in New York this weekend, address-ing a federation discussion on the long-term impact of Hurricane Sandy (See page 33.)

World ORT maintains a network of high schools in Israel, and the relief fund will help them provide distance learning alternatives while schools in the south are closed in response to missile threats. It also will take students to ORT schools in the north for respite.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is distributing food and emergency kits to the elderly and disabled in the south. It has sent caseworkers to provide emotional and physical support to the most severely disabled or frail elderly in their homes. It is also helping children in their shelters.

For its part, the Jewish Agency is pro-viding a range of care, including respite programs for schoolchildren and psy-chological treatment for children and parents. The Jewish Agency’s Fund for the Victims of Terror provides medical equipment, treatment, and other help that is not provided by the state; emer-gency cash grants; basic furnishings, repair, and home equipment, and other services to help restore and rebuild lives.

U.S. positions ships for ‘remote’ possibility of evacuationWASHINGTON – The United States po-sitioned three warships in the eastern Mediterranean reportedly to evacuate Americans in the “remote” possibility the Israel-Gaza conflict requires it.

CNN reported Monday that the 2,500 Marines on board the USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall had been scheduled to return to Norfolk, Va., for Thanksgiving, but now are on standby near Israel.

The online report quoted two officials as saying that such a contingency was still seen as “extremely remote.” The officials said that the ships would not be used in combat.

Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza on Nov. 14 after an intensification of rocket fire from Gaza. It has since called up thousands of reserve troops and is con-sidering a ground offensive pending the outcome of truce talks in Cairo.

Murdoch apologizes for ‘Jewish-owned press’ tweetMedia mogul Rupert Murdoch apolo-gized for a tweet in which he slammed the “Jewish owned press” for its “anti-Israel” coverage of the Gaza conflict.

On Sunday, Murdoch tweeted, “‘Jewish owned press have been sternly criticized, suggesting link to Jewish reporters. Don’t see this, but apologize unreservedly.”

Murdoch followed up his apology with a letter to the Anti-Defamation League in which he called his tweet about the news media “awkward and inappropriate.” He wrote, “I feel very strongly about the righ-teousness of Israeli’s cause, particularly when its citizens are under missile attack. So I do get very upset when I see coverage that I feel is unfair and biased towards Israel. But I should have stuck to the

substance of the issue and not bring in irrelevant and incorrect ethnic matters.”

He reportedly received angry re-sponses to his tweet from Saturday that asked, “Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?” And in a second tweet Murdoch, who has positioned himself as a supporter of Israel, added, “Middle East ready to boil over any day. Israel position precarious. Meanwhile watch CNN and AP bias to point of embarrassment.”

Murdoch is the founder and chief ex-ecutive of News Corp., which owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and many other media properties.

JTA Wire Service

Ben Gurion flight paths rerouted around Iron DomeJERUSALEM – The flight path of planes arriving at and departing from Ben Gurion Airport have been rerouted from regular takeoff and landing paths to pro-tect them from Iron Dome.

The paths were rerouted in order to avoid being hit if the Iron Dome anti-missile system must intercept a rocket over central Israel, Ynet reported, citing

Israel Defense Forces officer Itamar Abo, who is the former commander of an Iron Dome battery.

Passenger and cargo jets have been diverted.

Ben Gurion is located near Tel Aviv in the city of Lod. An Iron Dome battery was deployed to the Tel Aviv area on Saturday and has intercepted at least four rockets.

brIefS

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As it pummels Gaza, Israel is facing a Hamas with stronger missiles, closer alliesBen SaleS

KFAR AZA, Israel – In some ways, Israel’s latest confronta-tion with Hamas looks like past conflicts in the Gaza Strip. Operation Pillar of Defense has left some key Hamas lead-ers dead, depleted weapons supplies, and hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza.

“We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations” in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his Sunday Cabinet meeting.

But there are also some important — and more worry-ing — differences that Israel is seeing in Hamas this time around. The terrorist organization that rules Gaza is using more powerful missiles, with a range that can reach the Israeli heartland, and Hamas has closer and stronger allies at its side.

In the past, Hamas rockets threatened only Israel’s south. At their farthest, the projectiles could reach the des-ert metropolis of Beersheva and the southern coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod.

This time, however, the rockets have flown nearly 50 miles, reaching the densely populated center of the coun-try, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, making Hamas rockets no lon-ger just a problem for Israel’s “periphery.” Taken together with Hezbollah’s increasing firepower from Lebanon, ter-rorist missiles can reach virtually all of Israel.

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system, which shoots incoming missiles out of the air, has helped limit the dam-age from Hamas rocket attacks. The system is deployed to eliminate missiles headed for Israeli population centers, and Israeli officials say the interception rate is near 90 percent. As of Monday, Iron Dome shot down 350 of 1,000 missiles aimed at Israel; most landed in unpopulated areas and were not targeted by Iron Dome.

Complicating matters further for Israel, Hamas has a steadfast ally in Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood-led government. Last week, Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil visited Gaza and voiced support for Hamas. Egypt

also recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv after the as-sassination of Hamas military chief Ahmed al-Jabari, which marked the beginning of the Israel Defense Forces’ Operation Pillar of Defense.

On Saturday, Hamas hosted Tunisia’s foreign minister, Rafik Abdessalem, who condemned “blatant Israeli aggres-sion” during his visit to the Gaza Strip.

Cairo’s sympathies make the conflict especially com-plicated for Israel, which hopes to safeguard its treaty with Egypt even as it attempts to subdue Hamas. So far, the government of Egypt is playing the role of mediator be-tween Israel and Hamas as the two sides discuss a possible cease-fire.

By Monday, the conflict had claimed three Israeli fa-talities — from a missile strike on an apartment building in the town of Kiryat Malachi — and dozens of injuries. In Gaza, about 100 Palestinians were reported dead and more than 600 injured.

Even as cease-fire negotiations took place, some 75,000 Israeli reserve troops were activated, and military person-nel and equipment arrived at the Gaza frontier in prepa-ration for a possible ground invasion. On Saturday night, rows of military jeeps and armored cars sat parked at a gas station near the border while dozens of young soldiers in full uniform — some with helmets and others with vests — stood in groups or clustered with middle-aged officers around tables. For many, the immediate concern was about where to find some food.

“There’s nothing open,” one soldier complained as he watched a nearby restaurant shutter its doors.

Chaim, a soldier who did not give his last name due to IDF restrictions on speaking to the media, said that Israel should act forcefully.

“Everyone wants to go in,” he said of a ground inva-sion. “We’ve waited too long. I’m calm. We have a father in heaven.

“We need to keep going,” he said, until the terrorists

“don’t exist.”Yossi, a soldier from Ashkelon, a frequent target of

Gaza’s missiles, said he’s excited to serve.“I take it,” he said of the rocket fire, “and I also defend.”Polls show Israelis strongly support the operation in

Gaza, and Netanyahu’s political opponents have lined up behind him, notwithstanding the elections in January.

“Israel is united in the war against terror,” Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich, a Netanyahu rival, wrote last week on her Facebook page. She called al-Jabari an “arch-terrorist,” writing, “His assassination is right and just.”

The Obama administration also supported the Israeli operation.

“There’s no country in the world that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its bor-ders,” President Obama said at a news conference Sunday. “We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces, and potentially killing civilians.”

JTA Wire Service

Fear, rage and resilience prevail in Kiryat Malachi amid rocket fireBen SaleS

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel – They pick through the tangled foliage, Orthodox men with long beards and black kippot, wearing white gloves and bright yellow vests, searching for body parts.

A few yards over and four stories up, construction work-ers drive drills into a bombed apartment building. They speak to each other in Arabic. Can they read the Hebrew banner hanging one floor above them vowing to exact a price for Jewish blood? Or the sign on the other side of the building calling on Israel to conquer Gaza?

Noon has just passed on Friday — a little more than 24 hours after the apartments on the top floor had taken a direct hit from one of Hamas’ Grad missiles, killing three people. As of Sunday, the dead were Israel’s only fatalities since the launch last week of Operation Pillar of Defense.

The Israeli offensive, which started with the killing of the senior military commander of Hamas and has targeted the terrorist group’s governing infrastructure and killed and injured Palestinians, aims to stop the rocket fire rain-ing down on Israel from Gaza. Last week, those rockets reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.

In Kiryat Malachi, the ill-fated apartment building, like others in the low-income Har Chabad neighborhood, contains aging apartments and a peeling yellow exterior. Now its highest floors look like a scene out of 1980s Beirut: a bare skeleton of concrete framing a gaping hole where people used to live.

“Can you get a ladder?” yells Chaim Shteiner, one of the men in a yellow vest. Maybe the remains of the dead are stuck in the next tree, inside clothes that hang from burnt branches.

“They go all over the place,” Shteiner said. “I feel bad, but this is what you have to do.”

Kiryat Malachi’s deputy mayor, Shteiner also is a mem-ber of the city’s charedi Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch com-munity, founded about 30 years earlier to reach out to a growing population of Russian immigrants here.

As Shteiner picks through leaves, 22-year-old Moshe Zackles stands next to a small table on the building’s other side, offering a pair of t’fillin to passersby. Unlike Shteiner, Zackles wears the traditional Chabad uniform, a black wide-brimmed hat and matching suit.

The t’fillin serves, he said, as a spiritual antidote to

the raw physical tragedy — the “expression of the Jewish people, a symbol.”

Now Chabad needs some outreach as well. Two of the three victims — Aharon Smadja and Mira Scharf — were Lubavitchers. Along with her husband, Scharf had been a Chabad emissary in New Delhi, India, where four years earlier to the day terrorists had killed the Chabad emissar-ies in Mumbai, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, as part of a broad terrorist attack.

Shteiner said he feels shaken but undeterred. “This is holy work. We feel we are on a mission. When you’re on a mission, you get strength from the people who sent you and from above.”

Israeli soldier praying next to a tank along the Israel-Gaza border on Nov. 18. Tsafrir abayov/flash90/JTa

NEWS ANALYSIS

A wrecked house in Timorim, a village in central Israel, after being hit by a rocket fired from Gaza. yossi Zeliger/flash90/JTa

see ResIlIeNce page 34

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THE STRENGTH OF A PEOPLE. THE POWER OF COMMUNITY.

Donate Today!jfnnj.org

Please conti nue your support.TOGETHER, we CAN make a diff erence!

Thank You!Your support of the Israel Terror Relief Fund

has been overwhelming!

It’s because of you…and people like you all over North America…that the Jewish Federati ons of North America have committ ed to raising $5 million for the immediate needs of the people of Israel and have already rushed funds to Israel to provide needed services in Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, and all the communiti es of the South of Israel that lie within reach of Hamas rockets.

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We do know we have to conti nue our steadfast support of Israel to ensure that the needs of the frail elderly at home, the severely disabled, and the many aff ected by the constant bombing are met.

We have been able to accomplish as much as we have accomplished in just this past week because of you.

Visit to the www.jfnnj.org to donate to the Israel Terror Relief Fund.

Page 29: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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Ethiopians make aliyah — into a war zoneBen SaleS

IBIM, Israel – The explosion happened close enough to Stesyahu Alema to shake his apartment, where he sat with his wife and two of his five children.

But he didn’t flinch. None of them did.“There are a lot of people with me, so I don’t need to

worry,” Alema said. “I don’t worry.”The Alemas were among 91 Ethiopian immigrants

who arrived in Israel last week, just a day after Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense began. The new olim im-mediately were sent to the Ibim immigrant absorption center, a former aliyah youth village run by the Jewish Agency for Israel about three miles from the Gaza bor-der. Other immigrant absorption centers were full.

During a visit on Sunday, two explosions rocked the area in the space of just a few minutes. The first, a rocket launched from Gaza into Israel, had prompted a warn-ing siren, sending the Alema family into the reinforced room that doubled as their children’s bedroom. One of the Alema daughters slept through the echoing impact that followed.

The Alema family knew that bombs were falling all around them, but they didn’t know much about Israel’s five-day-old operation. They didn’t even know its name. They didn’t know about the senior Hamas officials that Israel had killed or about the frantic push for a cease-fire that day in Cairo.

What was clear was that their world had been turned upside down, having moved from a subsistence exis-tence in a sleepy town in rural Ethiopia to the epicenter of an escalating conflict. And they knew when the siren sounded to get into the children’s bedroom.

Usually when a planeload of Ethiopian immigrants arrives at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, the Ethiopians go through the same process as any other group of im-migrants: They receive some food, temporary identity cards and health insurance, and some cash to see them through the month.

But when the Alemas landed, along with their health insurance, documents, and money they received a se-curity briefing from the Jewish Agency, which helped facilitate their immigration.

Ethiopian families at Ibim this week did not seem preoccupied with the war next door. Children played in a yard outside their apartments, while parents became accustomed to amenities they never had in Ethiopia, like refrigerators and electric stoves. Some had never even slept in beds.

“In Ethiopia, we slept on the floor, on top of each

other,” Alema said. His wife, Yikanu, added, “We had no light. We had leeches. That’s why we’re happy here.”

The Ethiopian immigrants didn’t venture far from their apartments in case an alarm sounded and they had to run back inside.

The group also avoided congregating: Instead of a communal Shabbat meal, each family remained in its apartment to eat the traditional meal with flat, thick injara, the pancake-like Ethiopian staple.

“Instead of dealing with them, trying to absorb them, I’m trying to explain the security situation,” said Moshe Bahta, who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia in 1980 and now runs Ibim. “I told them the Arabs want to throw us into the sea and we’re not ready to acquiesce. Since Israel was established, until today, there’s never been quiet — always war.”

Alemnh Yeshuas, another immigrant, said his apart-ment feels spacious enough, even if he can’t always leave it.

“We have four rooms in our apartment here, running water and a bathroom,” he said. One of his daughters had a faint blue cross tattooed on her forehead.

Bahta said that to give the immigrants a sense of nor-malcy, he “broadcasts security to them,” always remain-ing calm — even as rockets land.

“It’s OK to be scared, but don’t lose control,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going to be tomorrow, but mean-while we don’t panic. If you go into the reinforced room, nothing will happen.”

Yeshuas said any fear of rockets paled in comparison to the spiritual fulfillment he got from finally living in Israel.

“We’ve dreamed many years of getting to Israel,” he said. “The dream is realized and we’re very happy. I be-lieve in God — God knows.”

Bahta said Ethiopians are used to thinking in terms of survival. “If you have food, good. If not, you die,” he said.

None of them would refuse an opportunity to move to Israel, he said. Many Ethiopians see Israel as a land of plenty and a way out of Africa’s desperate poverty. For many, aliyah is the realization of a lifelong dream.

“Every beginning is hard, but the hardship gets can-celed out because of the happiness,” Bahta said. “You realized the dream. What, they shouldn’t come? There’s nothing like that. This will change their lives.”

JTA Wire Service

Moshe Bahta, director of the Ibim absorption center, briefs his staff. AdAm Soclof

“I told them the Arabs want to throw us into the sea and we’re not ready to acquiesce. Since Israel was established, until today, there’s never been quiet — always war.”

— Moshe Bahta

Page 30: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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30 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

L.A. cantor turns to Jewish spiritual musicRebecca Spence

LOS ANGELES – In 1999, Hillel Tigay was one half of the now defunct Jewish rap group M.O.T., which stood for Members of the Tribe.

On songs like “Kosher Nostra” and “Oh God, Get a Job,” Tigay’s “Hebe-hop” alter-ego, Dr. Dreidel, riffed on such timeworn subjects as Jewish gangsters and gelt-minded mothers.

Nearly 15 years later, Tigay, 43, still is taking his musical inspiration from the Jewish experience. But with his lat-est project, “Judeo,” the rap-inspired send-ups of Meyer Lansky and Yiddishe mamas have given way to heartfelt Hallelujah choruses and the ancient sounds of Middle Eastern instruments.

“There is nobody more surprised by this entire project than me,” said Tigay, sitting barefoot in his wood-paneled living room in West Los Angeles. “If someone had told me 10 years ago that I’d be doing this, I would have laughed like Sarah in the Bible story.”

Now a cantor at the progressive Los Angeles congre-gation Ikar, Tigay’s latest musical undertaking is a CD of Jewish spiritual music, sung in both Hebrew and Aramaic, that he hopes will cross over into the spiritual and world music markets. Like M.O.T., which Tigay describes as a kind of “performance art,” this latest project is concept-heavy. Set for a Dec. 11 release, “Judeo” is based on Tigay’s interpretation of what music might have sounded like at the Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

While the Bible describes the instruments that were played there — cymbals, drums, lyres, and reed flutes, among them — as well as the Levites who sang Psalms during sacrifices, there is, of course, no way to reproduce authentically what the music would have sounded like in the Second Temple period. After its destruction, the rabbis forbade Jews from playing instruments during prayer ser-vices as a sign of mourning. The music was lost.

“I had two choices,” Tigay said of the album. “Either go for historical veracity or go for real beauty and resonance. For me it was a no-brainer.”

The result is evident on the album’s 10 songs, which owe as much to New Wave and classical music as they do to the haunting sounds of the santur, a steel-stringed harp used on the album, or the ney, a reed flute played since antiq-uity. In a sense, “Judeo” represents an amalgam of Tigay’s diverse influences, including the 1980s pop group Tears For Fears, Peter Gabriel, and the Bach fugues he has loved since he was a student of musicology at the University of Pennsylvania.

During his last semester at Penn, Tigay left Philadelphia for L.A., where he hoped to land a record deal. He man-aged to secure one at A&M, but ultimately it fell through. His next break, with M.O.T., faltered when the album was released with no marketing budget the same week as new albums from Seal and Madonna.

His dream of pop stardom effectively crushed, Tigay took a job as the cantor at Ikar, where a young rabbi named Sharon Brous was building a synagogue commu-nity more dynamic than any he had known growing up in Philadelphia’s Main Line suburbs.

As the son of a renowned Bible scholar and Jewish edu-cator, Tigay was heavily steeped in Judaism and had spent parts of his childhood in Israel, where his father, Jeffrey Tigay, would take sabbaticals.(Tigay also is the brother of former JTA reporter Chanan Tigay.)

But despite his Conservative Jewish upbringing, and the fact that he was getting paid to sing at High Holy Days services while he still was in high school, Tigay never imag-ined he’d follow in the family tradition.

Seven years later, Tigay does not regret his decision to “go into his parents’ business,” as he puts it. If anything, Ikar has given him a solid platform for creative expression and experimentation.

“Judeo” marks the first official project of the Ikar Music

Lab, which Tigay and Brous hope one day will become a physical studio space when Ikar acquires its own building. The community has held Shabbat services at the Westside Jewish Community Center since its founding in 2004.

Over the last several years, as Tigay composed the melo-dies for “Judeo,” he would bring them to services, where he regularly sings to the accompaniment of a hand drum.

“Our community is a living laboratory for the music that Hillel has been creating,” Brous said. “As we learned how to pray more deeply than ever before, there was this beautiful interplay between the real live community and a profoundly talented composer.”

Luckily for Tigay, that interplay between composer and community didn’t end with davening. Ikar member Jeff Ayeroff, a music executive who greenlighted Madonna’s career and spearheaded the marketing campaign for Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” proved instrumental in the making of “Judeo.”

With a taste for Kirtan, the Hindu devotional music popularized in the United States by such artists as Krishna Das (the Long Island-born Jeffrey Kagel), Ayeroff encour-aged Tigay to create something equally transcendent and

uplifting.“I felt like there was a place for something like that in

Jewish music,” Ayeroff said.Ayeroff’s involvement also took the album to the next

level. To ensure that “Judeo” had broad appeal, Ayeroff turned to Shiva Baum, who had been the executive pro-ducer for Krishna Das’s “Breath of the Heart” album. When it came time for mixing, he called on Brandon Duncan, who had worked on albums by the Rolling Stones and Lucinda Williams. Finally, Ayeroff, who is credited as an executive producer, secured distribution through Warner Music Group’s independent arm, ADA.

Whether or not “Judeo” finds an audience beyond the confines of the Jewish community, as Ayeroff and Tigay hope it will, is yet to be determined. But in the meantime, Tigay said he would be happy if the album brought a few unaffiliated members of the tribe back into the fold.

“I want to attract disaffected Jews and change things for them,” he said. “If I can give them the religious experience they get from U2 or Coldplay in a Jewish context, then I’ll have accomplished my goal.”

JTA Wire Service

Hillel Tigay’s new album, “Judeo,” in Hebrew and Aramaic, is based on his interpretation of what music may have sounded like 2,000 years ago at the Temple in Jerusalem. Courtesy Ikar MusIC Lab/Pr

Page 31: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 31

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In Sandy’s wake, the human and economic costs become clearerChavie Lieber

K enny Vance’s multimillion-dollar beach house has stood proudly on the Long Island shore and weath-

ered all manner of storms since 1916.Then came Sandy.Vance, a 68-year-old musician who has

lived in Belle Harbor, N.Y., for most of his life, was preparing to perform on a cruise ship when newscasters first warned of a major storm heading for the East Coast. But Vance had seen this movie before and knew the protocol. He boxed up his most precious belongings, rolled out the storm shutters, and left.

From a ship docked in Puerto Rico, Vance watched superstorm Sandy destroy everything he owned.

“Once I saw the size of the storm, and heard the winds were coming from the south, I knew I was screwed,” Vance, who gained fame as the lead singer of the Planotones, said. “The winds blew off the top of my house, and the rest of the structure basically crumbled. Everything is gone.”

Among his losses are countless pieces of precious memorabilia accumulated over the course of a nearly 50-year music career: his priceless collection of vintage guitars, a slot machine from the 1900s valued at $20,000, and a lamp that belonged to the late New Mexico artist Tony Price. And Vance is now homeless and living at a hotel on Staten Island.

“There’s just no way to get these things replaced, and I just redid my kitchen and bathrooms,” Vance said. “My grandkids would come stay here with me every sum-mer; I’ve lost all that. And my feral cat I lived with for over fours years, she’s gone, too.”

Some three weeks after Sandy washed ashore, power largely has been restored in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and life has gradually re-turned to normal for most people. But for some, normal has been redefined forever.

“The history of our temple is now just moldering pulp,” said Amy Cargman, pres-ident of the West End Temple in Neponsit, a neighborhood just west of Belle Harbor on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.

“Everything was completely decimat-ed,” she said. “We took the Torahs out, for-tunately, but everything from prayer books to pews to the rabbi’s personal library is gone.”

Residents of Belle Harbor and Neponsit, both affluent areas, perhaps were better equipped than most to ride out a cata-strophic weather event. They had cars and cash and cruise ship evacuation routes — unlike many of their neighbors in the Rockaways and nearby Brooklyn and Staten Island. But even with comparatively deep pockets and up-to-date insurance payments, few will ever restore their lives fully.

“Even if I fix my home, our banks, our schools, our gyms, our temples, our restau-

rants are all gone,” said Laurie Musumeci, a 56-year-old real estate agent who lives near Vance and also is a member of the West End Temple. “It doesn’t feel like home. I’m right on the ocean but it’s hard for me to look at it right now. I can’t believe something I’ve loved my whole life did this to us.”

Musumeci’s family lost the five cars that were in her driveway when the storm hit, as well as the basement of her home, which her grandfather built in 1939 and had served as her office and her son’s apartment. Musumeci estimates she needs $64,000 for repairs — the $2,700 she’s re-ceived so far from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is “a joke,” she says – and has had to tap into savings set aside for her daughter’s college tuition.

“Our insurance will only cover things they say are expected in the basement, like our boiler and heat system,” she said. “Everything else is gone.”

Elsewhere in the Northeast, residents had more immediate concerns than inad-equate insurance payouts and lost guitars. In Atlantic City, which produced some of the most dramatic images of the storm’s devastation, some 6,000 homes were es-timated to have been severely damaged and more than 600 people were made homeless.

Three weeks later, city shelters are closed, and in a city that already had a homeless population of about 3,000, other agencies are stepping in to fill the void.

“We’re providing 150 families a day ba-sic necessities of clothing, supplies, food,” said Beth Joseph of Jewish Family Services of Atlantic and Cape May counties. “Many people’s houses were flooded with their electrical systems and furnaces destroyed, so you’re looking at hundreds of people displaced. Also, tons of businesses were ruined and it might be a year before they are opened, so we need to account for the unemployed who can no longer support themselves.”

Joseph’s organization has raised more than $50,000 to provide temporary housing for families ineligible for federal assistance, a sum that hardly scratches the surface of what is needed. And the situation is likely to get worse once FEMA pulls out.

“There’s still so much to do, and the money we’ve raised so far will not be enough,” Joseph said.

Millions of dollars have been raised by Jewish organizations and countless vol-unteer efforts have been mobilized. UJA-Federation of New York has allocated some $10 million for relief in eight counties, including the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester and Long Island. The federation, the country’s largest, raised an additional $2.5 million through its website.

So far, $3.2 million has been disbursed to beneficiary agencies to provide food, water, shelter and other necessities, but the organization is beginning to look ahead as well — to permanent housing, trauma

treatment, and services for the poor and elderly who don’t have insurance.

“Even though it’s a few weeks after the storm, the basic needs are not going to go away so fast,” said Alice Blass of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, which has raised $54,000 for storm relief. About half of that amount has been disbursed to agencies.

Nationally, the Jewish Federations of North America, the umbrella group of all the local federations, has raised about $3 million for hurricane relief — about $2.2 million from other federations and the rest from its own coffers. About $250,000 was allocated to New York and $350,000 to federations in New Jersey and Rockland County, north of New York City.

That’s not counting dozens of smaller volunteer efforts that have drawn support from across the Jewish community. More than 60 carloads of supplies were do-nated by area synagogues to coastal New Jersey communities. And a synagogue in Baltimore bused hundreds of volunteers to the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood

of Seagate, which even now still has the feel of a disaster zone.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, volun-teers wearing boots and masks filled the streets. Kids worked on assembly lines to help rip out the basements of homes and teenagers weaved through the narrow streets on ATVs handing out cleaning sup-plies. Shomrim, the Jewish neighborhood watch group, had set up a command unit and was handing out hot food and drinks. Along the beach, gaping holes in water-front homes offered a peek at what was lost inside. Broken china, pieces of detached roofing, and scattered electronics littered the beach and sidewalks.

Pinny Dembitzer, the president of the Seagate Homeowners Association, put on a brave face as he helped organize the clean-up, directing ambulances, food trucks, and cleaning supplies to the proper destina-tions while answering three cell phones. Dembitzer hopes the neighborhood will come back stronger than ever. But sur-rounded by ruination and confronting untold rebuilding costs, that future seemed perilously hard to imagine.

“Nobody here was spared,” Dembitzer said. “Every single house you’re looking at had damage, and it will take millions to see repairs. I’ve been here 30 years, and I’ve never had a flood. Ninety-five percent of the people here don’t have insurance.”

JTA Wire Service

Page 32: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 33

Community leaders briefed on treating trauma from SandyChavie Lieber

Community support is vital for victims of Sandy, the head of the Israel Trauma Coalition told a symposium on helping those still reeling from the

superstorm.The coalition is among the four recipients of the Jewish

Federation of Northern New Jersey’s fundraising initiative. (See page 25.)

At the symposium — held at the headquarters of UJA-Federation of New York on Nov. 15 — the coalition’s director, Talia Levanon, touched on some ways that communities should help people who are suffering from the storm. Three weeks since Sandy — among the worst storms ever to hit the tristate area — thousands were displaced and homeless, and tens of thousands still were without power.

“There are a lot stress and emotions that come with weather-related trauma. I’ve seen it firsthand in Sri Lanka and Haiti,” Levanon said after the symposium. “People are unstable, physically and emotionally; they deal with fear and anger and are unsure if they can take care of themselves. Community support is what will help pull them together.”

Levanon said not to put a time frame on expected recovery for trauma victims, but added that a strong community will help people feel that they have some control over their lives.

Levanon talked about the importance of sharing useful information, including where to find food, shelter, medicine, and counseling, and suggested leaders make informational fliers to keep everyone informed.

“We need to work with people on a local level,” she said. “If you are coming in to help a community, make sure to include the voices of people living locally. They know the people, they will know what is needed.”

Levanon also emphasized business continuity and said volunteers should be working to get businesses reopened.

“When businesses close, the morale is very low. We see this in Israel when areas are paralyzed from fear of terrorism,” she said. “Try and find a way to get them open so their life’s social continuity will be restored.”

Many at the symposium spoke of the trauma they had seen.

“It’s nice to see how many have volunteered for the community. But then what? When they disappear, it is us who have to pick up the pieces,” said Ali Gheith of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who spoke before Levanon. “Some communities in New York have been tight knit and can help each other, but there are others who have suffered serious trauma and they need us.”

Gheith warned the crowd not to make any false promises, because it’s impossible to know how long it will take people to return to their routines.

With many families who have lost their homes, cars and personal belongings, along with family photos and memories, Levanon said it was especially important to treat victims of the hurricane with kindness.

JTA Wire Service

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Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 35

rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox movement, condemn them.”

The underlying challenge, he said, comes back to basic definitions. “Since I was released, three times we had a crisis of who is a Jew. Each time we reached a compromise, which has to include two basic demands. On the one hand, the State of Israel has to be connected to each Jew in the world, and on the other hand it is a state that is unlike any other state in the world, and it has the Law of Return, so there must be a definition of who you are giving citizenship to.

“In the United States, you can have Reform Jews in San Francisco and Chabad in Brooklyn, and they can go to the same demonstration and not interfere with each other.” It doesn’t matter how each group defines Jewishness, he said. That’s not true in Israel.

“In Israel, you have the Law of Return. The definition is up to bureaucrats. The moment it is the decision of a bureaucrat it is the decision of the government, and that is why there is the tendency to become political.

“My theory is that every 12 years or so” — when there is a major fight over defining who is a Jew — “the Jewish people have to recharge their batteries, and then they start over again.

“No doubt this is the process of our moving from simply being Jewish communities of the diaspora to Jewish people who are building our own state. There are no books. There are no instructions. We have to find our own instructions, our own principles.

“Every democracy is built on one man or one woman, one vote, so there always will be some political influence. And it also must be the state of all Jews who live outside the state, so it cannot rely only on the Jews of Israel.

“There are no simple recipes.“There are many episodes that upset me, but when I

hear that because of this episode or that episode world Jewry will desert Israel, I don’t think that there are any episodes that can destroy the bond between us. When people come to Israel they think ‘This is my house,’ and we are trying to improve it.”

In the evening, Sharansky talked to a small group of philanthropists at the major gifts dinner, where he answered questions posed by the evening’s honorary co-chair, Eva Gans of Teaneck, and later still to a large

audience at the JCC.“What is so very amazing about Natan Sharansky is

not only that he’s such a wonderful human being, but how very smart he is,” Gans said. “It’s a pleasure watching that.” She has met Sharansky several times and read all his books. “I asked what seemed to be tough questions, and he gave such extraordinary answers to all of them.

“I asked him what kept him going in prison; he said that when they put him into solitary he was cold, he had

no food, physically he was in horrible shape, but it was a wonderful opportunity to have no distractions. He could play chess in his head.

“‘I played 900 some odd games, and I won every one of them,’” Gans reported that Sharansky said. “‘I’d play a game as white, and I’d win, and then I’d turn it around for black, so black could win.’”

Gans recalled that Sharansky once had won a game against one of the world’s best chess players, Gary Kasparov. True, it had been a simultaneous game, Kasparov against 25 opponents, but still that was a feat. Sharansky was one of just three of those 25 to prevail, and he was the first.

“He is very personable, very charming,” Jason Shames, JFNNJ’s chief executive officer, said. “He made all of us feel good about all the work we did to support him.

“That’s the key thing for us as philanthropists, and for all of us who lived in America and who went to the rallies in D.C., to the Soviet compound in the Bronx, and to the consulate in Manhattan. He showed a tremendous amount of appreciation. There was genuine warmth, inspiration, and pride. You feel good being around him.

“It shows what power there is in the Jewish community, in terms of Jewish philanthropy, group activism, and social justice. His story brings all of those elements together in a unique way.”

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tion, ease of preparation, no more than 10 to 15 minutes at most,” he said. “There is an increasing demand for all-natural and gluten-free items; and high kosher supervi-sion. So when they get it from Osem, they get all three.”

Pointing to the yellow color scheme on the mix pack-ages, Afek said that the company is trying to make it easier for consumers to recognize Osem brands.

“It’s a color that’s been associated with kitchens. It’s a warm color. [And] it’s part of our corporate brand colors.”

Skinny Kosher Creations, a Woodstock, N.Y. company that unveiled a line of kosher vegetarian weight-loss foods at the show, is trying something a little different with its packaging. There’s no picture of the product on the box. The company plans to use barcodes on the pack-aging that customers can scan with their smartphones, which will direct them to the company’s website.

“When you walk into a supermarket, we’re always inspired by the marketing,” Brenda Laredo, one of the company’s founders, said. “I’m looking at pictures of food everywhere and I’m not sure where to direct myself. We want to set ourselves apart from everybody else. The skinny speaks for itself.”

Most manufacturers realize that new products drive sales, Lubinsky said, but many still don’t factor in the consumers, and that is where variables like packaging come into play. Kosher food is no longer just a basic staple, it’s an experience and a social phenomenon, he added, noting that Jewish bookstores sell more kosher cookbooks than religious books today.

“It’s become sort of a culture” of its own, he said.

Kosherfest frOM page 9

as only an former taxi driver can, he simultaneously dis-cussed the fine points of the Lewis and Clark expedition. (His long drive had given him an opportunity to catch up on audiobooks and he was a history buff.)

One group leader, from Minnesota, boldly announced that he could operate and fix any machine in the Nechama trailer. No doubt he could. Yet beneath his tough guy veneer lay unbridled curiosity and genuine enthusiasm. On the way to the worksite, his questions were nonstop: “What river is that?” “Where’s the Empire State Building?” “How far are we from Manhattan?”

While he stumped me half the time, my fellow Bergen County volunteer, a resident of Ridgewood, helped us locals save face by actually knowing the answers to some of those questions. A first-timer, he said he came because he had the day off.

Actually, everyone underplayed their motivation. None of us said, “We feel helpless when something like Sandy happens. We need to do something.” But it was on everyone’s mind, as was genuine compassion for those affected by the storm.

The retired teacher from Virginia said she simply wanted to help and had found Nechama on the internet. Like me, she had checked off the volunteer line reading (and I paraphrase), “I want to help but don’t have any particular skills.” So, working in tandem, we

swept, shoveled, carried, and pushed whatever former synagogue treasures could now fit into dumpsters.

(Disclaimer: Everyone was put on notice that if we saw anything that looked like a ritual object or religious document, we should put it on the side.)

Dan Hoeft, Nechama’s operations director, went out after several long hours of concentrated labor to buy lunch for some of the troops. He returned hours later, having paid what was meant to be a short visit to an elderly couple nearby who needed help. Needless to say, lunch hour yielded to the reality of people in need – and

everyone back at the site understood that. (Though the coffee was indeed welcome when he finally brought it.)

Midway through the day, Hoeft asked me how I was doing. I didn’t know if I should say I was enjoying it, but he said I should absolutely say that. It is fun, he said.

It was, actually. Fun, and exhausting, and sad, and empowering.

We can’t fight hurricanes, but we can lend a hand to the survivors.

Cleanup frOM page 8

“What is so very amazing about Natan Sharansky is not only that he’s such a wonderful human being, but how very smart he is.”

— Eva Gans

“What river is that?” “Where’s the Empire State Building?” “How far are we from Manhattan?”

– Nechama group leader

Page 35: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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36 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

Vayetze: Leah, Judah, and the meaning of thanksgivingRabbi akiva block

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“Is There A Mitzvah of Simcha on Chanukah?”8:30 p.m. Chavruta learning in Glueck Beit Midrash 9:00 p.m. Shiur followed by maariv, cholent and kumzits

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Bring your chavruta, son or father to learn and hear a shiur from one of our Roshei Yeshiva

D’var Torah

Thanksgiving is a time when we all come together to be thank-

ful for our many blessings. With family, friends, feast, and football, it is a day of time-honored tradition which warms the hearts and the homes of virtually all who participate.

It has been nearly 150 years since Abraham Lincoln’s declaration of a Day of Thanksgiving in 1863. Needless to say, the notion of giving thanks is one which was featured prominently in the Jewish tradi-tion long before then. Three times a day, we recite in the Amidah prayer, a blessing of thanksgiving to God: “Modim anachnu lach… al nisecha sheb’chol yom imanu, v’al nifle’otecha v’tovotecha sheb’chol

et, erev vavoker v’tzahoraim.” “We thank you, Lord… for your miracles which are with us each and every day, and for your wonders and your goodness which are ever-present, in the evening, the morning and the afternoon…”

In light of our daily prayers we may be moved to ask, “Isn’t every day Thanksgiving? Why limit thanksgiving to just one day?”

It is quite fortuitous that Thanksgiving often comes out on the week of the Torah portion of Vayetze. Upon further reflection, this week’s portion provides profound insight on the notion of giving

thanks, and offers an op-portunity to relate to the holiday with new-found appreciation. The Talmud (Berachot 7b) comments that in the history of the world, no one offered thanks to God until Leah did so, when she named her son Judah, saying, “this time I will thank (odeh) God, and she

called him Judah (Genesis 29:35).”While the heroism and faith of Leah is

unquestioned, thanking God despite her second class status in the house of Jacob, this comment by our sages is nonetheless quite jarring. Are we to believe that none of the greats of the previous generations ever offered thanks to God? Not Adam or Noah? Not Abraham or Sarah, or Isaac or Rebecca? Not even Jacob himself? Certainly they owed a debt of gratitude for all God had done for them. So what was unique about the gratitude of Leah?

Perhaps Leah brought the concept of thanksgiving to a whole new level. While those before her were thankful, Leah actually concretized that thanks. She showed her gratitude by calling her son by the name Judah, a name whose very meaning is gratitude. In naming her son, she offered a lasting testament to her in-debtedness to God, taking the sentiment and doing something about it, making it real.

In truth, every day is Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, it is of inestimable value to take a day and designate it as a day called Thanksgiving. We are offered the oppor-tunity to concretize our gratitude, to take our feelings of indebtedness that we all have and bring them to the fore. Just as Leah eternalized her gratitude by mak-ing it her son’s name, so too we take ours, which we express verbally thrice daily, and devote a day to reflection and expres-sion of our thanks.

Through the lessons of Leah, may the feelings and emotions of gratitude and Thanksgiving permeate within all of us. Shabbat Shalom.

“While those before her were thankful, Leah actually concretized that thanks. She showed her gratitude by calling her son by the name Judah, a name whose very meaning is gratitude.”

Page 36: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

Arts & culture

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JEWISH STANDARD NOVEMBER 23, 2012 37

WARREN BOROSON

A conductor once said to Joseph Schmidt, the singer,

“It’s too bad that you’re not small.”

“But I AM small,” replied Schmidt, very much surprised. He was less than 5 feet tall.

“No,” said the conductor. “You are VERY small.”His height was one of Schmidt’s problems. It explains

why he rarely appeared in operas. Mimi and Violetta and Lucia would tower over a 4-foot-11-inch tenor. (One reason Joan Sutherland sang with Luciano Pavarotti so often was that he was tall for a tenor, so she wasn’t all that much taller.) So Schmidt sang mostly in concerts and on the radio, although he did make a few movies — where his height could be concealed. A few films are still available, including the popular “My Song Goes Round the World” (1934), about the problems of a short opera singer.

Another problem Schmidt had, of course, given widespread anti-Semitism, was his Jewishness. He even had been a cantor, in Czernowitz (now Chernovtsy, now in Ukraine), and remained active as a cantor all of his life.

He and Hermann Jadlowker may be the two most famous tenors who benefited from cantorial training before becoming secular singers. (Two famous American tenors with cantorial backgrounds were Jan Peerce [Jacob Pincus Perelmuth] and Richard Tucker [Reuben Ticker], who were brothers-in-law. A contemporary tenor, Neil Shicoff, sang in a synagogue as a child.)

Offsetting these problems was Schmidt’s wonderful voice. Sweet, expressive, seemingly effortless, and — for his size — powerful. He was called the Jewish Caruso. And the Pocket Caruso.

He was born in Romania on March 4, 1904. His father was a tenant farmer, not interested in the arts; his mother encouraged her son’s interest in singing. He gave his first concert when he was 20. When he was 24, an uncle took him to Berlin, where after an audition (he sang an aria from “Il Trovatore”) he promptly was offered radio and recording contracts. He became, someone has said, Berlin’s talk of the town.

He also sang in Vienna, and critics in both Vienna and Berlin fell all over themselves in praising his voice. One wrote, “Whether he sings Mozart or Puccini, Tchaikovsky or Verdi, everything sounds as if it had been rendered in

glowing colors.”The Jewish tenor Richard Tauber, a friend of his,

spent much of his life fleeing the Nazis. He tried to help Schmidt and even conducted concerts at which Schmidt sang. Tauber eventually escaped Europe for England.

When Nazi Germany banned Jewish musicians in 1934, and Austria did the same thing in 1938, Schmidt went to sing in the Netherlands and Belgium, where he was very popular.

He toured the United States in 1936, singing at Carnegie Hall with such famous sopranos as Grace Moore and Maria Jeritza. Later he returned to Ukraine to visit his mother, whose husband had died recently. He then fled the Nazis via Belgium, then Switzerland, where he landed in an internment camp as an illegal immigrant. He complained of feeling ill after digging ditches; the guards accused him of malingering. Shortly after being released, he suffered a fatal heart attack.

He died on Nov. 16, 1942, at age 38, 70 years ago this month. He is buried in a grave near Zurich.

Schmidt has been described as “affable,” but not much is known about him. If he had lived, he could have answered such usual questions as: What’s your favorite role? What’s your most difficult role? What role might you want to play in the future? Who are your role models? What have you learned about singing, and what do you do differently now? And so forth.

The distinguished English music critic J.B. Steane, wrote about Schmidt: “His many recordings preserve a fine voice, well produced except for a certain nasal quality, with an exceptional upper range and a distinctive personality.”

Mario Lanza, the famous American tenor of the 1950s and 1960s, is said to have admired Schmidt’s voice.

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, liked Schmidt’s singing so much that, it’s been reported, he considered making him an “honorary Aryan.” (Tauber tried to become one, without success.)

In 2004, Germany issued a postage stamp to commemorate Schmidt’s 100th birthday.

Had Schmidt lived and returned to the United States, he might have joined the Metropolitan Opera, which — because the war had kept many European artists away — was in need of fine singers.

There’s a half-hour film about him, available on videocassette from Amazon.com for $1.83 to $8.99, plus $2.98 shipping. It’s called “Bel Canto 2: The Tenors of the 78 Era.”

To appreciate the beauty, expressiveness, and power of his voice, readers can listen to these recordings on YouTube. Just google these three videos and the name Schmidt there:

Una furtiva lagrima, L’elisir d’amore,from La boheme, with Grace Moore, andLast Rose of Summer (Medley)There are a few wonderful CDs, too, including one

from EMI.

The ‘Jewish Caruso’ died 70 years ago

Joseph Schmidt’s short stature limited his operatic career. He died at 38 in an internment camp.

The career of Joseph Schmidt is featured on a stamp, a concert notice, and a recording.

“His many recordings preserve a fine voice, well produced except for a certain nasal quality, with an exceptional upper range and a distinctive personality.”

— J.B. Steane

Page 37: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

Calendar

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sunday [nov. 25]

Cantorial concert in Tenafly The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades offers its annual cantorial concert, “The Great American Jewish Songbook,” featuring many local cantors, 2 p.m. Sponsored in part by the Weinflash Family Cantorial Concert Endowment Fund. (201) 408-1429 or .

monday [nov. 26]

Senior program in Wayne The Chabad Center of Passaic County continues its Smile on Seniors (SOS) program with its “Chanukah Extravaganza,” including brunch, 11:30 a.m. 194 Ratzer Road. Chani, (973) 694-6274 or [email protected].

Feature film in Tenafly The Treasure Hunting in Film series at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly continues a series with Harold Chapler, “Top Films You Might Have Missed,” with “Trouble in Paradise,” 7:30 p.m. Chapler introduces the film and leads a discussion afterwards. $5. (201) 408-1492.

tuesday [nov. 27]

Pauline Frommer Courtesy NCJW

Travel author in Teaneck Pauline Frommer is the guest speaker for National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County Section’s meeting at Temple Emeth, 12:30 p.m. Frommer is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and radio talk show host. 1666 Windsor Road. (201) 385-4847 or www.ncjwbcs.org.

Engaging Israel The community-wide program “Engaging Israel” continues with “Power and Powerlessness” at Temple Israel, Ridgewood, 7:30 p.m. Co-sponsored with Glen Rock Jewish Center, Temple Beth Sholom, Fair Lawn, Fair Lawn Jewish Center, and Progressive Havurah of NNJ. 475 Grove St. (201) 444-9320.

Edith Sobel

Hadassah meets Paramus-Bat Sheva Hadassah meets at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus to hear Edith Sobel, a former Jewish Community News editor, discuss “Every Life has a Story — Tell Yours — It’s A Lot Cheaper than Psychoanalysis,” 7:45 p.m. E. 304 Midland Ave. (201) 342-5065.

friday [nov. 30]

Barry Holtz Courtesy CBs

Shabbat in Teaneck Barry W. Holtz, dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and the Theodore and Florence Baumritter professor of Jewish education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, is the Rabbi Barry Schaeffer scholar-in-residence at Congregation Beth Sholom. His talks, about “Conflict and Confrontation in the World of Family, Friends and Community,” will be after dinner, at 7:15 p.m., as a d’var Torah after Shabbat morning services, and again after lunch. Meals are open to the public for a fee. 354 Maitland Ave. (201) 833-2620.

Deborah FeldmanCourtesy JCCotP

Author speaking in Tenafly Deborah Feldman discusses her book, “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My chasidic Roots,” to begin the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades’ James H. Grossmann Memorial Jewish Book Month series, 7:30 p.m. Light reception. Book signing and sale. Co-sponsored with the JCC special events department and chaired by Debbie Schindler, Naomi Spira, and Amy Zagin. (201) 408-1411 or www.jccotp.org.

thursday [nov. 29]

Author in Washington Township Lucette Lagnado, award-winning Jewish author of “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit,” discusses her latest memoir, “The Arrogant Years,” at Temple Beth Or’s book club, 7:30 p.m. 56 Ridgewood Road. (201) 664-7422 or www.templebethornj.org.

wednesday [nov. 28]

David Podles

Violinist in Tenafly Concert violinist David Podles performs in a “Celebration Of Classical Composers From Centuries Past” at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, 11 a.m. Co-sponsored by the Thurnauer School of Music, Adult, Judaic, and Senior Adult departments. (201) 408.1429 or www.jccotp.org.

Engaging Israel The Jewish Community Center of Paramus continues “Engaging Israel: Foundations For A New Relationship,” a Hartman Institute lecture/study series led by Rabbi Arthur Weiner. Sessions include video lectures by Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, text study, and group discussion. Seven Wednesdays through Dec. 19. Each session offered at 3 and again at 8:15 p.m. (201) 262-7691.

Menorah lighting in Paramus A menorah will be lit at Borough Hall, 7 p.m. Winter carnival follows until 9. 1 Jockish Square. (201) 265-2100 or www.paramusborough.org.

Film in Paramus The JCC of Paramus screens “Symphony of Six Million,” 8:15 p.m., as part of its Jewish film festival. Discussion with Cantor Sam Weiss follows. (201) 262-7691.

Rabbi Gerald Friedman Photo Provided

Yiddish in Teaneck Rabbi Gerald (Reb Yossel) Friedman begins a six-session, “Unzer Yiddish Vinkel,” through Jan. 16, at the Teaneck General Store, 7:15 p.m. 502 Cedar Lane. (201) 530-5046 or www.teaneckgeneralstore.com.

38 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff ushers in Chanukah on Friday, Dec. 7, at 6 p.m., with a congregational dinner and services. The Strauss/Warschauer Duo performs with Cantors Ilan Mamber and Jenna Daniels along with the Kol Rishon adult choir and the Zemer Rishon teen choir. (201) 891-4466 or www.bethrishon.org.

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saturday [dec. 1]

Shabbat in Bayonne Temple Emanu-El celebrates 25 years with Rabbi Clifford B. Miller. Service with Cantor Marshall Wise and guest speaker Dan Friedman, managing editor of the Forward, discussing “Twenty-Five Years of Jewish American Culture,” 9:15 a.m. Kiddush. 735 Kennedy Boulevard. (201) 436-4499.

Arnold Eisen

Shabbat in Closter Dr. Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, is the scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El, 9 a.m. Babysitting, 9:30; tot Shabbat, 10:15. 180 Piermont Road. (201) 750-9997.

sinGLes

saturday [dec. 1]

Young professionals meet Bergen Connections hosts an event in Teaneck for modern Orthodox professional singles, 21-29, with Charlie Harary discussing “Strategies for Success in Today’s Economy,” 7:30 p.m. Food from Carlos & Gabby’s Glatt Kosher Mexican Grill. (201) 837-0164 or [email protected].

Winter bash in NYC The 92nd Street Y offers an event for singles, 40-55, at the Y, 7:30 p.m. Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street. (212) 415-5500 or www.92Y.org.

saturday [dec. 8]

Chanukah dance party The North Jersey Jewish Singles group (45-60) at the Clifton Jewish Center hosts a Chanukah “Boomers’ Dance” with a DJ, 7-10:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30. Refreshments. Bring a grab bag gift value $5-$10. Martine or Karen, (973) 772-3131 or www.meetup.com (use group name).

Clare Cooper Judy sChiller

Cafe night Fair Lawn’s own Clare Cooper performs original music and old favorites at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation B’nai Israel, 7:30 p.m. She is the musical director of “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding,” the assistant musical director of “Memphis,” and performing in “Don’t Tell Mama,” a piano/cabaret bar in NYC. Refreshments. 10-10 Norma Ave. (201) 796-5040 or [email protected].

Music in Leonia Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble performs Hebraic melodies in various jazz, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and neo-classical styles at Congregation Adas Emuno, 7 p.m. Cantorial soloist Shira Lissek will also perform as guest vocalist. Coffee and dessert. 254 Broad Ave. (201) 592-1712 or www.adasemuno.org.

Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 39

‘The Nutcracker’ at BergenPACThe New Jersey Ballet performs “The Nutcracker” at the Bergen Performance Arts Center in Englewood, on Sunday, Dec. 2, at 1 and again at 4 p.m. Call (201) 227 1030 or www.bergenpac.org.

Chanukah store to openChabad of Passaic County’s Chanukah Wonderland store holds its grand opening on Monday, Nov. 26. The store in the Wedgewood Shopping Center in Wayne, formerly the T-Bowl Shopping Center, will be open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday until 3. For informa-tion, call (973) 694-6274 or jewishwayne.com.

Job workshop features social media, networkingJewish Family Service of Bergen & North Hudson of-fers a Social Media and Traditional Networking--- Job Search Workshop, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 11:30 a.m. at JFS, 1285 Teaneck Road, in Teaneck.

Participants should wear business casual attire, bring copies of a resume or cards with contact information, and pen and paper for notes. The workshop will in-clude an interactive Q&A. To register call and ask for IRA (Information and Referral) at (201) 837-9090 or email [email protected] Space is limited.

Klezmer meets Gospel

The Klezmatics Featuring Joshua Nelson

December 1 • 8:00 p.m.

Celebrate the Holidays with Songwriter

Jimmy Webb

December 15 • 8:00 p.m.

Musical Salon Series-

Beethoven Birthday Bash-Featuring Piano, Cello and Clarinet

December 16 • 2:00 p.m.

Hobart Manor- For a map of the William Paterson main campus, please visit

http://www.wpunj.edu/directories/directions-and-map.dot#

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

January 26 • 8:00 p.m.

David Bromberg and His Big Band

March 22 • 8:00 p.m.

Shea Center for Performing Arts

William Paterson University

Wayne, NJ • 973.720.2371

wppresents.org

Gail Shube • Woodbine Design201•317• 0814 • [email protected]

Friday Jewish Standard- WP Presents - November6.5”x 6.5”

Announce your eventswe welcome announcements of upcoming events. announcements are free. accompanying photos must be high resolution, jpg files. not every release will be published. Please include a daytime telephone number and send to:

NJ Jewish Media Group1086 Teaneck Rd.

Teaneck, NJ [email protected]

201-837-8818

www.jstandard.com

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40 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

B’nai mitzvah

Charlie AlbertCharlie Albert, son of Dana and David Albert of Woodcliff Lake and brother of Daniel, cel-ebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Temple Beth Or in Washington Township.

Ian BolkinIan Bolkin, son of Corey Bolkin and grandson of Denise and Stuart Bolkin, all of Fort Lee, celebrated becoming a bar mitz-vah on Nov. 17 at Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge.

Simon Castiel

Simon Castiel, son of Susan and Moshe Castiel of Woodcliff Lake and brother of Alexandra, 15, celebrated becoming a bar mitz-vah on Nov. 10 at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake.

Jason GertnerJason Gertner, son of Irving Gertner and Carol Fisher-Gertner of Teaneck and brother of Jake and Brett, celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Oct. 13 at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck.

Eitan Goldberg

Eitan Goldberg, son of Raymond Goldberg and Elana Daniels Goldberg of Teaneck and broth-er of Allon, Ayal, Leor, and Noam, celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Nov. 10 at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck.

Ross Goodman

Ross Goodman, son of Syma and Eric Goodman of River Edge, brother of Madison, and grandson of Edna and Ronald Goodman of Boynton Beach, Fla., celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge.

Matthew Harris

Matthew Shawn Harris, son of Adrianne and Warren Harris and brother of Rachael, 15, celebrat-ed becoming a bar mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake.

Maxwell HarrisMaxwell Harris, son of Cheryl and Brian Harris and brother of Mia, celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Temple Emanu-El in Closter.

Moshe KarlinMoshe Karlin, son of Rabbi Gary Karlin and Carol Weinstein Karlin of Teaneck and brother of Michal Brett, celebrated becom-

ing a bar mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck. A student at Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, his mitzvah project was to collect winter clothing to ben-efit Bergen County Community Action Partnership and Project Ezra on the Lower East Side.

Tara Maier

Tara Nicole Maier, daughter of Sheila and Gary Maier of Old Tappan, sister of Andrew, and granddaughter of Natalie Jay, advertising director of the NJ/Rockland Jewish Media Group, celebrated becoming a bat mitz-vah on Nov. 17 at The View in Piermont, N.Y.

Josh QuiatJosh Quiat, son of Susan and Ira Quiat of Glen Rock and brother of Matthew and Jake, celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff.

Jason Rock

Jason Rock, son of Abby and Mitchell Rock of Woodcliff Lake, celebrated becoming a bar mitz-vah on Nov. 3 at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake.

Sabrina SashSabrina Sash, daughter of Joyce Garland and Elliot Sash and sister of Sareena, celebrated be-coming a bat mitzvah on Nov. 14 at Temple Emanu-El in Closter.

Sara TesserSara Tesser, daughter of Amy and Lee Tesser of Wyckoff and sister of Mitchell, celebrated becoming a bat mitzvah on Nov. 17 at Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff.

OBituaries

Audrey BurdickAudrey ”Aud” Burdick, 73, of Paramus, died on Nov. 14.

Born in the Bronx, she was a social worker and homemaker.

Predeceased by her husband, Martin Burdick, she is survived by children Jeffrey (Sharon), Debra (Robert), and David (Kyra); sister, Alma Katz (William); and nine grandchildren.

Donations can be sent to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; arrangements were by Robert Schoem’s Menorah Chapel, Paramus.

Polina GrinbergPolina Grinberg, 100, of Palisades Park, died on Nov. 15. Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.

Jeanne SturmJeanne Sturm, née Berman, 83, of Paramus, died on Nov. 14.

She was a former member of the Jewish Community Center of Paramus.

Predeceased by her husband, Frederick Sturm, she is survived by children, Alan of Cedar Grove, Susan N. Russo (Robert) of Paramus, and Lawrence (Olinda) of Oradell; a sister, Ruthie Lutsky of Brooklyn; and grandchildren, Jessica and Francine Russo and Alexandra, Marissa, and Zachary Sturm.

Donations can be sent to the JCC of Paramus; arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.

David TesserDavid Tesser of Secaucus, Boca Raton, Fla., Hackensack, and North Bergen, died on Nov. 18 in Passaic.

Born in Passaic, he was an Army Air Force veteran of World War II. He owned the West Side Kosher Meat Market in Jersey City, was a partner in E & F Kosher Butchers in North Bergen, and later worked for Ma’adan in Teaneck.

Predeceased by his wife, Betty, née Golipsky, brothers, Murray (Dorothy), Charles, and Alvin “Ushy, and sister, Rose Tesser Balk (Hyman), he is survived by children, Steven (Judy), and Irving “Bill” of Teaneck, and Arlene Tesser Lichtenfeld (Sam) of Bayonne; siblings, Pearl Tesser Hirschbein (Joe), Frances Tesser, Arthur (Barbara), and Herbert (Nanette); six grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Arrangements were by Gutterman and Musicant Jewish Funeral Directors, Hackensack.

MOHELRabbi Gerald Chirnomas

TRAINED AT & CERTIFIED BY HADASSAHHOSPITAL, JERUSALEM • CERTIFIED BYTHE CHIEF RABBINATE OF JERUSALEM

(973) 334-6044www.rabbichirnomas.com

engagement

Solomon/KaplicerElisa Paula Solomon of Manhattan, daughter of Jayne and Noal Solomon of Wayne, and Austin Michael Kaplicer of Manhattan, son of Neil and the late Anna Kaplicer of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., are engaged.

The bride’s grandparents are the late Federal Judge Bender and Mildred Solomon of Albany, N.Y., and Bill and Phyllis Katz of Pittsburgh, Pa. The groom’s grandparents are the late Edward and Lillian Kaplicer and the late Sidney and Adele Leib, all of New York.

The future bride, a University of Michigan graduate, owns a jewelry business, Elisa Solomon Jewelry and elisasolomon.com. The future groom, a Pennsylvania State University graduate, is director of accounting policy with Time Warner Corporation in Manhattan.

An August wedding is planned at Temple Emanu-El in Closter.

Birth

Tehila Hava LeichmanTehila Hava Leichman, daughter of Chaim (Kenneth J.) and Miriam Ellis Leichman of Jerusalem, was born on Oct. 17. She joins a brother, Yehuda Mordechai, and a sis-ter, Elisheva. Tehila’s paternal grandparents are Steven and Abigail Leichman (pictured, a correspondent for this news-paper) of Ma’aleh Adumim, Israel, formerly of Teaneck. Her paternal great-grand-mothers are Pearl Leichman of Hackensack and Nancy Klein of Yonkers, N.Y.

LifecycLe

Page 40: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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loved ones.

Planning for a funeral is another milestone.You make arrangements at your convenience,without obligation and all funds are secured in aseparate interest bearing account in your name only.

Call Mr. Ron Bloom, Advance Planning Director, foran appointment to see for yourself what peace ofmind you will receive in return.

GUTTERMAN AND MUSICANTJEWISH FUNERAL DIRECTORS

800-522-0588

WIEN & WIEN, INC.MEMORIAL CHAPELS

800-322-0533

402 PARK STREET, HACKENSACK, NJ 07601ALAN L. MUSICANT, Mgr., N.J. Lic. No. 2890

MARTIN D. KASDAN, N.J. Lic. No. 4482IRVING KLEINBERG, N.J. Lic. No. 2517RONALD BLOOM, N.J. Lic. No. 4545

(Advance Planning Director)

GuttermanMusicantWien.com

Bernard WillenskyBernard Willensky, 86, of The Villages, Fla., formerly of Linden and Bayonne, died on Nov. 17 at home.

Born in Brooklyn, he was an Army Air Corps veteran of World War II. Before retiring, he was the manager of Siperstein’s Paint Store in Linden for many years and a member of the Bayonne Hebrew Benevolent Association.

He is survived by his wife, Harriet, née Helfand; children, Ava Pantell of Basking Ridge, Jane McKenna of Lady Lake, Fla., and David of Branchburg; and three grandchildren.

Arrangements were by Eden Memorial Chapels, Fort Lee.

Ethel ZarittEthel Zaritt, 90, of Hackensack, formerly of Fair Lawn, died on Nov. 18.

She worked at the Fair Lawn Community School for Adult Education.

Predeceased six days before by her husband of 71 years, Ezra, she is survived by a daughter, Mona Hahn (Ariel); two granddaughters; and three great-grandchildren.

Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel, Fair Lawn.

This week’s Torah commentary is on page 36.

Obituaries are prepared with information

provided by funeral homes. Correcting errors is the responsibility

of the funeral home.

Page 41: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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We don’t blame you for feeling tired of hearing stories about the ever-growing number of families struggling with hunger.

Page 43: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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gallery

1 Teens, led by Rabbi Yosef Orenstein, director of Valley Chabad’s Teen Leadership Initiative,

assisted in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in Belle Harbor, N.Y. The event was in cooperation with Chabad of Belle Harbor, whose own rabbi, Levi Osdoba, had more than seven feet of water in his home. Courtesy Valley Chabad

2 The Men’s Club of Temple Beth Sholom in Fair Lawn sponsored a recognition program

for veterans on Nov. 11. Lt. Col. Peter Kilner, right, who has led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a professor of leader development and organizational learning at West Point, was the guest speaker. Courtesy tbs

3 Congregants of Congregation B’nai Israel in Emerson, Grace Episcopal Church in

Westwood, and the First Congregational Church of Park Ridge recently hosted a blood drive in conjunction with Community Blood Services. Pictured with a CBS representative, right, are blood donors Rev. Rob Rhodes of Grace Episcopal Church and Rabbi Debra Orenstein of Congregation B’nai Israel. The drive, part of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey’s Mitzvah Day on Nov. 4, was one of three that took place. Hurricane Sandy forced JFNNJ to postpone most Mitzvah Day activities; they will be rescheduled. Courtesy CbI

4 The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey coordinated a drive between the

Wayne YMCA, pictured, the Bergen County YJCC, and the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades. Food and baby and cleaning supplies went to clients of Jewish Family Service of Bergen and North Hudson and Jewish Family Service of North Jersey who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. Courtesy Wayne yMCa

5 On Nov. 8, the J Teen Club at Bris Avrohom of Fair Lawn packed and delivered challot

to seniors living alone as part of a new program, Gen 2 Gen. The initiative links teens and seniors with weekly visits, phone calls, and care packages before Shabbat and holidays. Courtesy ba

6 Lisa Fedder of Jewish Family Service of Bergen & North Hudson, left, and Leah

Kaufman of JFS of North Jersey accept food cards totaling nearly $500 from Rabbi Ely Allen, director of Hillel of Northern New Jersey, and Andrea Nissel, Hillel program coordinator. Hillel of Northern New Jersey, represented by students from Ramapo College of New Jersey, William Paterson University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Bergen Community College, raised money for the cards to be donated to food banks. Courtesy

hIllel nnJ

7 Zoe Greenwald and her seventh grade class created their own tallitot at the Gerrard

Berman Day School, Solomon Schechter of North Jersey in Oakland. The event was under the tutelage of the head of school, Rabbi Ellen Bernhardt, and Rabbi Yaakov Traiger. Courtesy Gbds

8 A post-Hurricane Sandy event brought 400 youngsters in two shifts to the Bergen

County YJCC on Nov. 10. The free event, created to counter cabin fever in the aftermath of Sandy, included face painting, video games, swimming, basketball, a DJ and dancers, and pizza. Attendees brought nonperishable items to aid others in the community. Courtesy yJCC

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44 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

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Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012 45

Interest Rates Are At An All Time Low!

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FIRST PLACEREAL ESTATE AGENCY

Teaneck Open Houses890 Belle Ave $375KBrick Tudor Col. State of the Art Kit w/ Skylites, Brkfst Rm. 1st Flr Lndry. Stained Glass Windows, LR/Fplc, FDR, 3 BRs, 2.5 Bths. Lovely Fin 3rd Flr Rm. Pol. Oak Flrs. Deck. Gar.

156 Grayson Pl. $379KSidehall Col. Lg Rms. LR, FDR, Fam Rm, Newer EIK. MBR Suite + 2 Add’l BRs and Add’l 1.5 Bths. Fin Bsmnt. H/W Flrs. Gar. Slate Roof.

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REAL ESTATE & buSinESS noTES

Toy drive is under way at the bergenPACEnglewood Fire Department and Bergen Performing Arts Center are teaming up again to collect toys for children in need Bergen County. Beginning with bergenPAC’s Nov. 25 performance of the children’s show, ImaginOcean, and con-

tinuing through the holidays, bergenPAC will be collecting new, unwrapped toys to be distributed to area children.

Toys can be dropped off at the bergen-PAC lobby, located at 30 North Van Brunt St. in Englewood.

Traveling with disabled seniors requires planningWhile retirement is the time for many to travel, it can pose challenges for disabled seniors. A free seminar on travel options and services will be presented by Linda Cutrupi, a founding partner with Mainly Meetings Travel of Englewood Cliffs. The discussion will be held Thursday, Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at The Atrium Assisted Living at The Allendale Community for Mature Living.

Mainly Meetings Travel assists seniors with their travel needs by reserving ac-

cessible accommodations, and arranging dialysis and other medical treatments or services.

Pre-registration is preferred and din-ner will be served.

The Allendale Community for Mature Living is located at 85 Harreton Road in Allendale, which is conveniently accessed via private driveway off Route 17 South. For more information on upcoming events, topics, or to pre-register, please call Marion at (201) 825-0660 ext. 7997.

Children with Mariann’s School of Dance in Paramus performed for residents at the Heritage Pointe of Teaneck.

Monday is Mah Jongg day at Five StarThe monthly Mah Jongg social hosted by Five Star Premier Residences of Teaneck will be held on Monday, Nov. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon. This program is for area seniors who have at least a basic knowledge of the game. Experienced players of all ages are also needed to help coach those who may be rusty at the game.

Seniors are encouraged to sign up either singly or with friends to make their own foursome. If you have a set, please bring it. Five Star will provide some Mah Jongg sets and copies of this year’s cards in large print. There is no charge to attend, but a response is required. If you are interested in becoming a coach, please call for more information and to volunteer. RSVP Kathy Frost at (201) 836-7474.

Five Star Premier Residences, formerly The Classic Residence by Hyatt, is located at 655 Pomander Walk in Teaneck, just off River Road.

Page 45: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

46 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

JS-46*

APR: 3.25%*

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*APR = annual percentage rate. The APRs shown for Home Equity include a discount of .50% for automatic payment from a Community Bank of Bergen County NJ checking account. This loan containsa variable rate feature. The APR will increase if at any time during the term the automatic payment deduction is discontinued. APR shown is for our Fixed Rate Home Equity Loans up to Maximum of$200,000. Owner-occupied 1-4 family properties located in New Jersey. Monthly payment shown above does not include amounts for real estate taxes and insurance, if applicable, thus resulting inthe actual payment obligation being greater. Maximum Loan to Value (LTV) 75 percent, 70 percent for condos and townhouses. Properties purchased within the past 12 months are subject to LTV of75 percent of cost or appraisal, whichever is less and 70 percent for condos and townhouses. You must carry insurance on the property that secures the plan. Flood insurance may be required. Titleinsurance is required for loan amounts over $125,000. Other third party fees may apply. No fees will be collected until after the borrower has received the GFE and TIL disclosures. This offer is not forpurchase mortgages. Offer is subject to credit approval. Borrower must be of legal age to apply. APR is accurate as of 11/23/2012 and is subject to change at any time. Other rates and terms available.

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BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com Cell: 201-615-5353

Space-age rapid transit to debut in Tel AvivAbigAil Klein leichmAn

If all goes as planned, within two years Israelis will be the first people to try out a futuristic rapid transport sys-

tem designed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, Calif.

The skyTran uses two-person modules that drive along a guide rail suspended from existing power lines. Magnets in the vehicle create a magnetic field around the metal coil inside the rail, causing the vehi-cle to lift up and glide 60 miles per hour on a cushion of air. The system uses very little energy and potentially could be powered entirely by solar panels.

“Our objective is to build a pilot project here so that we can make Israel the center of the skyTran world,” CEO Jerry Sanders told ISRAEL21c.

The first route, on which construction could begin next spring, would run from the high-tech center in Atidim through the Tel Aviv University train station to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Port. Another installation might be placed on Netanya’s congested east side and a third would take people into and around Ariel Sharon Park, a huge public “green belt” in central Israel.

Personal rapid transit (PRT) alternatives are in hot demand worldwide — especially in big countries such as China and India — as a means to relieve traffic jams and en-ergy consumption. Underground solutions are expensive and street-level solutions just add more congestion.

“We are the most sophisticated PRT on the market … and also the least expen-sive, greenest and most efficient,” asserts

Sanders.The space-age skyTran combines as-

pects of public and private transportation.“People often don’t use mass transit be-

cause they don’t like to share vehicles, they don’t like having to get to a station and they don’t like to follow someone else’s sched-ule,” Sanders says.

With skyTran, riders order a vehicle by tapping an icon on their smartphone. Once inside the pod, the passenger choos-es a destination from an on-board console.

The vehicles, which provide full Internet access, can be owned by individuals, by companies as a fleet to pick up work-ers, and by municipalities — all running together at the same time. Traffic control is accomplished through a sophisticated computer program.

The cost of implementing skyTran is es-timated at $9 million per mile, as opposed to $100 million per mile for a light rail system and $20 million per lane for buses. The fare will probably be competitive with Tel Aviv’s sherut (taxi van) service, says Sanders. And maintenance costs would be remarkably low.

“The vehicles don’t encounter resis-tance like wheel-based systems do, so there is no wear and tear from wheels hitting pavement or track,” says Sanders. “When the vehicle comes to a station, it rests on little rollerblade wheels.”

A former Wall Street lawyer and serial entrepreneur who teaches a graduate busi-ness seminar at Oxford University, Sanders was contacted by NASA to provide direc-

tion to the Ames engineering group that had pioneered the skyTran concept.

“They showed me the technology and I fell in love with it, so they appointed me chairman and CEO two years ago,” says Sanders, a Silicon Valley resident.

“As I learned more about the technol-ogy and opportunities, it became clear Israel would be the perfect beta site be-cause it has a very sophisticated popula-tion with no fear of technology, and great pain suffered every morning and evening when they hit the roads.”

Sanders has found that Israel’s bureau-cracy “is not as onerous as in some other Western countries. It’s a ‘two-telephone call’ country. Once the government knows about something and is interested in it, they find a way to clear the bureaucratic hurdles and that is what is going on with us.”

When he predicts that Israel will be-come the center of the skyTran world, he is not only talking about passengers. While right now the modules and support poles are mass-produced in the same Austrian factory that manufactures aluminum parts for Mercedes-Benz, Sanders believes they could be made in Israel. In addition, the job of continuously upgrading the pro-gramming could be done by Israeli soft-ware engineers.

“Right now Ames is the headquarters for the company, but if and when we start a pilot in Israel, without a doubt we will train and qualify many local engineers and blue-collar workers working with lo-cal companies. Israel will become a base of knowledge for the skyTran system and if the first system is built here, people will come from all over to learn about it,” Sanders said. Israel21c.org

Magnets pull skyTran vehicles off the ground in this artist’s rendering.

Page 46: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

JS-47

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Contact us for your complimentary consultation

We specialize in residential and commercial rentals and sales.We will be happy to assist you with all your real estate needs.

Jeffrey SchleiderBroker/Owner

Miron Properties NY

Ruth Miron-SchleiderBroker/Owner

Miron Properties NJ

NJ: T: 201.266.8555 • M: 201.906.6024NY: T: 212.888.6250 • M: 917.576.0776

Page 47: New Jersey Jewish Standard - 11/12/2012

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48 Jewish standard nOVeMBer 23, 2012

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As we celebrate the

week of Thanksgiving, the Glatt Express family

would like to thank all of our customers for their patience, loyalty,

and support during Hurricane Sandy.

We are pleased to offer charitable organizations a

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Hurricane Sandy.

their patience, loyalty, and support during and support during Hurricane Sandy.

and support during Hurricane Sandy.