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NOSHES ...................................................4PINION .................................................... 18COVER STORY .................................... 22SPRING DINING AND CATERING .29TORAH COMMENTARY ....................41CROSSWORD PUZZLE ....................42ARTS & CULTURE ..............................43CALENDAR ..........................................44GALLERY .............................................. 47OBITUARIES ........................................49CLASSIFIEDS ......................................50REAL ESTATE ...................................... 52

CONTENTS

Candlelighting: Friday, April 25, 7:27 p.m.Shabbat ends: Saturday, April 26, 8:30 p.m.

This Passover story will make your rabbi cry Eric Afriat skipped both family sed-ers to play poker, but all is forgiven.Not only did his mother not lay on

any guilt, he won more than a million dollars as champion of the Seminole Hard Rock poker tournament.Thats not to say that Mr. Afriat, 45,

didnt feel some pangs of conscience when night began to fall on Monday, April 14, the first night of Passover.He was one of nearly 1,800 contes-

tants at the tournament, which began at noon on Pesach eve. As night be-gan to fall and the family seder was beginning at his mothers house 30 miles away, he began to question his decision to take a pass over the seder.Here I was moving up the ladder

in a big poker tournament, yet I kept getting more depressed, he told the Florida Sun-Sentinel.He even thought about making his

own exodus from the game, and join-ing his wife and extended family at his mothers.But his consistently good hands

would not let him go. Tuesday night

he was still there, missing the second seder.Wednesday night, he won the tour-

nament with a pair of eights, winning $1,081,184. On hand was the extended family he had ditched the previous nights.Mr. Afriat has been playing poker

for 25 years, but he was the only ama-teur among the final six. He already had won a $110,128 prize in Las Vegas in 2012.I couldnt be prouder, his mother

said. LARRY YUDELSON

Not quite the spirit of St. Louis It surely seemed like a good idea at the time.May 13 marks the 75th anniversary of

the departure of the SS St. Louis from Hamburg. It left in 1939 with 937 Jewish refugees aboard. The trip was dubbed the voyage of the damned after the ship was denied permission to dock in Cuba and then turned away from the United States and Canada. After the St. Louis returned to Europe, 200 of the refugees it carried died in Nazi concen-tration camps.So it is a timely moment for the SS

St Louis Legacy Project to sponsor a unique educational cruise that for two weeks in November will enable pas-sengers of the Crystal Serenity to meet survivors of the St. Louis, watch the projects new documentary, Complicit: The untold story of why the Roosevelt Administration denied safe haven to Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Lou-is, and see original State Department documents.We will breathe life into history by

using this unique cruise experience aboard the Crystal Serenity to trace the voyage of the SS St. Louis in a deeply respectful and meaningful way, explained Dr. Ruth Kalish, the projects associate director. To keep this history alive, its essential that our efforts are brought forth in todays environment. One way to do that is by using drama to educate, but were finding another way is to incorporate this particular commemoration into a modern cruise experience.But then theres the aspect that

journalist Jeffrey Goldberg described as really creepy on Twitter. It was this paragraph of the cruises press release:The sailing also coincides with the

acclaimed Crystal Wine & Food Festi-val on the Crystal Serenity and features famous chefs and wine authorities, thus providing guests with unparalleled ex-periences.Ouch. Maybe not such a good idea

after all.LARRY YUDELSON

The Clinton grandchild and the Jewish problem Chelsea Clintons announcement last week that she and Jewish hubby Marc Mezvinsky are expecting their first child has set off a fairly predict-able wave of reactions Jewish-wise, not unlike the interest their 2010 wedding generated.Interfaithfamily.com quickly seized

the pregnancy as an opportunity to share with ALL expecting parents its various resources for new interfaith parents, including a booklet called To Circumcise or Not: That is the Question.Meanwhile, at the other end of the

spectrum, the Jewish Press chose this headline: Chelsea Clinton Preg-nant With Non-Jewish Child. Calling the former first daughter Americas poster child for intermarriage, the Brooklyn-based Orthodox newspa-per noted that in marrying four years ago the pair was effectively prun-ing away that 3,300 year old Jewish branch of the Mezinsky family. (And apparently also pruning away the v from the grooms name.)The Jewish Press also reminded its

readers of Rabbi David Stavs appar-ently clairvoyant question posed to Union for Reform Judaism President

Rabbi Rick Jacobs at a meeting back in November about Israels adherence to Orthodox standards: Do you want me to recognize Chelsea Clintons child as a Jew?Under the traditional policy of

matrilineal descent, adhered to by Orthodox and Conservative Jews, the child will not be Jewish unless s/he undergoes a conversion, but Reform and Reconstructionist Jews will rec-ognize the baby as a Jew if s/he has a Jewish upbringing.Not surprisingly, Stormfront, the

anti-Semitic website, does recognize the child as a Jew, as evidenced by its charming headline: Chelsea Clinton pregnant with jew spawn.And now, bring on the months of

intense speculation: If a boy, will the child have a brit milah? Will s/he be given a Jew-y name? Jewish nursery school? Hebrew school? How will all this affect Grandma Hillarys pros-pects in 2016? And if, as is widely expected, the not-yet-born Clinton heir is elected president in 2060, will he or she be the first to celebrate a Tu BShevat seder in the White House?

JULIE WIENER / JTA WIRE SERVICE

Page 3Page 3

The Clinton grandchild

Page 3Page 3Page 3

On the cover: State Senator Loretta Weinberg, right, honors Joan Grzenda, the executive director of the Womans Rights Information Center in Englewood, at the State Senate last month to mark Womens History Month.

Noshes

4 JEWISH STANDARD APRIL 25, 2014

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I was bar mitzvahed, which was hard. I feel it was the hardest thing I ever had to do; harder than making a movie. 19-YEAR-OLD CLARA MAMET, FILMMAKER, ACTRESS, AND DAUGHTER-OF, SPEAKING TO THE FORWARD

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was raised in the UK, but he has dual American/British citizenship. My sense is that he has little Jewish religious back-ground. However, I am sure he was not raised in another religion. The actor has called himself Jewish in interviews and says that when he visits New York, he visits Jewish delis in order to consume copious amounts of matzah ball soup, which he loves.

Big Bang Theory, the megahit CBS

sitcom, was just renewed for three full seasons and now is scheduled to run thorough 2016-17 (which would be its ninth season). I believe it is now the most Jewy show on broadcast TV

more than half the cast of starring and recurring characters are played by Jewish thespians (SIMONHELBERG/Wolowitz: MELISSA RAUCH/Ber-nadette; MAYIM BIALIK/Amy; KEVIN SUSSMAN/Stuart; BRIAN GEORGE/Rajs father). Heres a fun fact: SIMON HELBERG, 33, has been married since 2007 to JOCEYLYNTOWNE, an independent filmmaker, and they had their first child in 2012. Jocelyns uncle is screen-writer ROBERT TOWNE, 79, who wrote some great films in the 70s, including Chinatown. I was surprised to learn in 2006 that he was Jew-ish and was born Robert Schwartz.

N.B.

Andrew Garfi eldAndrew Garfi eld

WHO KNEW?

Kosher spider

Simon Helberg

Melissa Rauch Mayim Bialik

Normally, I cover mov-ies the week they open but I am making an exception for Amaz-ing Spider-Man Part 2, which opens on Friday, May 2. Why? Because the films star, ANDREW GARFIELD, gave a long quote to the Indepen-dent, a British paper, about Spider-Man being Jewish. I figure you are likely to have read this quote somewhere in the last week and maybe you want a bit more back-ground on Garfield and the film now. Most of you probably know that Mar-vel rebooted the Spider-Man movie series back in 2012 by replacing Tobey Maguire in the title role with Garfield, now 30. The first Garfield/reboot flick retold the story of how a teenage boy named Peter Parker became Spider-Man, a superhero. The sequel finds Spider-Man fighting off a veritable hoard of super baddies.Part 2 features STAN

LEE, 93, the co-creator of Marvel Comics and the co-creator of Spider-Man, in a cameo role. Stan Lee never laid out Parkers ethnic or reli-gious background in the Spider-Man comics he wrote. However, Garfield told the Independent that Parker/Spider-Man is culturally Jewish. Here is most of his expla-

nation, in his own words: Spider-Man is neurotic. Peter Parker is not a sim-ple dude. He cant just switch off. He never feels like hes doing enough. And Peter suffers from self-doubt. He ums and ahs about his future because hes neurotic. Hes Jewish. Its a defin-ing feature. Hes an over-thinker. It would be much easier if he was a life-saving robot. I hope Jewish people wont mind the clich, because my fathers Jewish. I have that in me for sure.Garfield, who will

host Saturday Night Live on May 3, is not a super-easy biographi-cal subject. But this is the Jewish story Ive pieced together His fa-ther, RICHARD, was born in 1950 in America to English-born parents of Eastern European Jewish descent. Richards par-ents immigrated to the States in 1945, and not long after, they changed the family name from Garfinkel to Garfield. Around 1980, Richard met and wed Linda Hill-man, a Brit working in Los Angeles, and they co-ran a design firm. (I am now virtually sure that Linda is not Jew-ish.) In 1986, Richard and Linda decided to settle in the UK, and of course Andrew, then 3 years old, went with them. Andrew

Going to any lengthto get a position If you want to see a very Jewish web comedy video featuring SETH ROGEN, 32, and Zac Efron and the cast of the Comedy Central series Workaholics, simply google Rogen, Efron, and Workaholics and youll find it. Its a tie-in of sorts with Neighbors, a movie that will open in two weeks and co-stars the duo. In the video, the two play regular guys who show up for a job interview conducted in a large office cubicle. Rogen suggests at one point that the company would do well to hire a minority and Efron says that he is Jewish and proceeds to show that he is circumcised. No, he doesnt really show us but he does show his prospective male bosses and their remarks are unexpectedly funny, without being mean. In real life, Efron is not Jewish he was raised in no religion, and his paternal grandfather was Jewish. He has reportedly just started dating HALSTON SAGE, 20 (NBCs Crisis). I can certainly understand Sages attrac-tion to Efron. He recently was photographed shirtless and he is as ripped as anyone in Hollywood, including Ryan Gosling.

Seth Rogan and Zac Efron on the set.

California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at [email protected]

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were crammed up check by jowl.The people who ran the barrack make

sure they had classes for these kids. They taught them Jewish history, they taught them math. Life was happening even in this unbelievable pressure cooker.

Not all of their life had been sapped from their spirits.

For Alex Moscovic, the hardest part of the film was basically to go back to Buchenwald, and seeing it. Though Buch-enwald by the time we went back there didnt look like the original Buchenwald. All the barracks were destroyed while the East Germans were in control. The rest of it is still there: the barbed wire, the main building the SS had, one other building. But barrack number 66 no longer exists.

As a filmmaker, Mr. Cohen found shoot-ing in Buchenwald a thrill. It created an enormous visual opportunity to make interesting abstract pictures.

Mr. Cohen said Buchenwald felt like the Holocaust memorial in Berlin.

None of the barracks exist but there are these fabulous low-to-the-ground outlines of where they were, he said. Youre walk-ing among the ghosts of all these buildings. This entire, huge, acres and acres of space is surrounded on four corners by guard towers and completely surrounded by barbed wires.

Its extraordinary. Its a visual state-ment. Its a landmark as opposed to a pre-served historical artifact.

After the war, at 15, the senior Mr. Moscovic came to the Bronx. Excited by the new technology of television, he stud-ied at the RCA Institute and had 30-year career as a film editor at ABC Sports before retiring to Florida.

He was more than just a subject of Kinderbloc 66.

Because my son was also the executive producer, I had a lot of input, he said. I said we should concentrate on the positive side, on what has become of the boys who were in barracks 66. So there are a few parts of when the Americans arrived and the atrocities, after that the film is basi-cally concentrating on the four of us, on

Local


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How the boys survivedParamus-born filmmaker tells story of Buchenwalds barrack 66

Larry yudeLson

For Rob Cohen, the road to Buch-enwald started at Paramus High School.It was a high school English teacher who saw the hint of an interest in filmmaking in Mr. Cohen. He encour-aged me, made it possible for me to make a couple of small films with a Super Eight camera, he said. His interest sparked, he crafted a film major at Yale, which was not yet formally offering one when he gradu-ated in 1974.

A few years ago, Mr. Cohen, who now lives in New York, created two future-focused documentaries for CBS and the Discovery Channel: FutureCar and NextWorld.

But his project opening in two New Jer-sey theaters this week looks backward. Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald tells the story of four boys who survived Buchenwald, and chronicles their return visit there in 2010, on the 65th anniversary of their liberation.

Mr. Cohen wrote the documentary, but the lead force behind it was Steven Mosco-vic, a friend whose father was one of those boys. The two had become friendly as col-leagues, so when Mr. Moscovic decided to make a documentary about his fathers experience, he brought Mr. Cohen on board.

It looked like an extraordinary gift a son was giving a father, Mr. Cohen said. I wish I could do something like that for my dad.

In 1945, Stevens father, Alex, was 13 years old. Born in Sobrance, which had

alternately belonged to Hungary and Slo-vakia, he had been in Auschwitz-Birke-nau in Poland, and then, as the Germans retreated on the eastern front, he was shipped by train to Buchenwald in Ger-many, enduring nine January days in an open coal car.

Day-to-day control of Buchenwald was in the hands of a Communist-led under-ground, whose international connections made them useful to the SS officers who ruled over them. The man in charge of the barracks where Alex Moscovic and his brother were assigned told them there was a better place they could go to, Alex Moscovic said last week. He said that they have a barrack, number 66, that only had children. He suggested that it would be much better for us to be with other boys.

He made the arrangements, and a few days later we were transferred. Thats when we met Antonin Kalina.

Mr. Kalina was a Czech Communist who had been imprisoned in Buchenwald since 1939. He oversaw a barracks that was des-ignated for the children who were arriving from the East. Located in the most remote part of the camp in an area rife with dis-ease, it was far from the eyes of the SS. He did everything he could to save the chil-dren in his care. He exempted them from labor obligations and twice-daily roll call. And when, on the eve of liberation, the SS wanted to gather the inmates for a final death march, Mr. Kalina changed the boys badges to read Christian and told the SS that there were no Jews in the barracks.

More than 900 Jewish boys survived this way, among them Elie Wiesel and another Nobel laureate, Hungarian novelist Imre Kertsz.

Mr. Kalina returned to Prague after the war, and died with little recognition. Last December, he was honored by Yad Vashem as a righteous among the nations, following entreaties by the Moscovics.

He deserves it, Mr. Moscovic said. I dont have too many heroes, but hes one of my heroes.

Mr. Cohen found the story Mr. Moscovic and the three other survivors told amazing for what it said about human resilience.

Sixteen hundred of these boys were crammed into a barrack, formerly a house barn, a tiny little space that shouldnt have accommodated more than 40 people, Mr. Cohen said. They were from all these different countries. They were Hungarian and Czech and Polish and Lithuanian, and they fought like teenage boys do. They

How to watchKinderbloc 66: return to Buchen-wald will be screened starting sun-day, april 27, at the digiplex sparta theater in sparta and digiplex Cran-ford in Cranford.You can rent or buy a digital copy,

or order a dVd, at http://bit.ly/kinderblock

Flowers commemorate memorial sites at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Rob Cohen filming at the Buchenwald crematorium.

Local

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Jewish standard aPriL 25, 2014 7

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Y O M H A S H O A H ,H O L O C A U S T R E M E M B R A N C E D A Y ,

I S M O N D A Y , A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 .

Photograph of Yocheved Farber, July 10, 1939. Yocheved lived with her mother and father during the Nazi occupation of the Vilna Ghetto. She was abducted by the Nazis during one of their many roundups of children; she was killed. Collection of Rabbi Kalman Farber.

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Visit the Museum without charge and speak with Holocaust survivors.(Survivors in galleries until 2 P.M.; Museum open until 5:45 P.M.)

In our Keeping History Center, access 2,500 Holocaust video testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.

Take time to reflect in Andy Goldsworthys memorial Garden of Stones.

At the Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, we remember the six million Jews who were murdered,

and reflect upon the meaning of their loss.

the type of life we led.Immediately after the war, some of the

boys ended up going to Paris. There was a psychiatrist who took care of a hundred of the boys. She was a young woman and had just finished school; psychologically she was not ready for that kind of job. She wrote that by us going through the Holo-caust we would never be normal again. She thought we would never be able to have children because of what we went through.

I felt that we can show that four of us out of 900 were able to overcome what happened in the camps. We had normal families. We had children, we have grand-children, he said. (Steven the filmmaker is one of Mr. Moscovics two sons; he has six grandchildren.)

All of our lives turned out pretty good, Mr. Moscovic said. The memories are still there but we are able to live a nor-mal life. Thats the big difference in this documentary.

Mr. Cohen agrees that this was the approach to take with the film.

I think the film is wonderfully optimis-tic, he said. The four men and who they are and what theyve done with their lives, the lack of hate thats in their lives, its very

uplifting. People came through this. These men came through this.

Did they get robbed of their child-hoods? I guess they did, on some very obvi-ous level, maybe most levels. But theyre full human beings, fully generous, certainly generous in letting us make this film about

their lives and they were very sharing.The film is very much in the present as

well as in the past.One present-day touch that Mr. Cohen is

proud of: He gave the four survivors mini-ature video cameras. Thats a marvelous thing, seeing 80-year-old men being taught to use and embrace this modern technol-ogy. It serves as a real basis for a lot of the material in the film. A lot of the filming is done when theyre sitting by themselves. Theyre kind of narrating their lives into it. It was just them and their stories and their secrets and their thoughts. Its the most personal kind of testimony, he said.

Since retiring, Alex Moscovic has told his story hundreds of times, speaking at local schools.

Its a subject that has to be told, he said. The more people who know about what happened in Europe dur-ing the Second World War, the better off we are. Hopefully because of that in the future theyll do something about it, and we wont have anything like that repeat again.

Mr. Moscovic didnt know how eighth graders would react to the film the first time he showed it at a school near his home in Hobe Sound, roughly a hundred

miles north of Miami. The presentation was for the entire grade about 300 students.

Would these boys and girls be able to sit through a Holocaust documentary for an hour and a half? he wondered.

I introduced the documentary, and then went in back of the group and sat down to see what their reaction was.

Theres no talking. Its quiet. Now we are into about 10 minutes. Its still quiet. Every once in a while I hear one of the girls sob. Then from another part of the group, I heard some more sobbing. And so on. We went through the hour and a half docu-mentary until the credits came on.

I start to answer the questions the questions kept coming and coming. The next thing I know the bell sounds, the stu-dents have to leave their classes and go to their buses.

The teachers said they had never seen anything like this before, a class of eighthgraders sitting through a film of an hour and a half, and then another hour and a half of questions and answers. I came home and called up Steven. I said, If we can keep the attention of eighthgraders for this period of time, I think we have a winner.

Alex Moscovic gazes across the land-scape of Buchenwald concentration camp.

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Join us on the morning of June 15th (Father's Day) for the 4th annual Ride to Fight Hunger and make a real difference in the community.

Ride! Walk! Donate! Volunteer! Fun Walk: for all ages 50 Mile Ride: for advanced cyclists 25 Mile Ride: for a fun challenge 10 Mile Ride: great for teens 3 Mile Ride: for families and youngsters

JFS Wheels for Meals is a family-friendly cycle and walk event for people of all levels and ages. Breakfast and lunch provided. Funds raised support JFS Meals on Wheels, emergency aid and the JFS food pantry.

Register at: RideToFightHunger.org or call 201-837-9090

A Torahs journeyFair Lawn shul learns about the Holocaust scroll it houses

Lois GoLdrich

Housing a Holocaust memorial Torah in your own synagogue is a privilege and an honor.Learning where that Torah came from who touched its parchment and read its words is a blessing. But it is not one that is gained easily.

Indeed, says Rabbi Ronald Roth, reli-gious leader of the Fair Lawn Jewish Cen-ter/Congregation Bnai Israel, it is only after months of research that he now understands the journey his shuls memo-rial Torah has taken, and the people it has reached.

The Torah has been with the Fair Lawn synagogue for several decades.

Congregant Ed Davidson brought it here from London in 1978, Rabbi Roth said of the Czechoslovakian Torah, now encased in a glass cabinet in the synagogue sanctuary.

He explained that the Torah was one of some 1,564 scrolls stored in Pragues Michle Synagogue during World War II.

The damp 18th-century shul served as a ware-house for scrolls from Prague and surround-ing communities in Bohemia and Moravia.

According to a docu-ment from the Memo-rial Scrolls Trust , founded more than 30 years ago to help get these scrolls back into the life of Jewish con-

gregations, a British philanthropist who was a member of Londons Westminster Synagogue bought the scrolls in the 1960s. On February 7, 1964, two trucks filled with scrolls arrived at the synagogue, ready to be sorted, examined, and catalogued.

Some could be made kosher, but the vast majority could not, so the people in

London offered them on permanent loan to synagogues around the world as memo-rials to the Holocaust, Rabbi Roth said.

This year the 50th anniversary of the scrolls arrival in London the West-minster synagogue asked each Torah recipient to make a poster, which would be displayed at a major commemoration ceremony.

Up to this point, Rabbi Roth knew only that the Torah came from the city of Pacov. Writing to the Trust for more information, he learned little, so the synagogue planned to use a picture of a Holocaust survivor holding the Torah, surrounded by his grandsons, on its poster.

Then [in January] I found that there were photos of both the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery in Pacov online, Rabbi Roth said. So I downloaded them and put them on the poster. We shipped it off to London and it was on display there with the other posters.

Not stopping there, he realized that doing further research into the origins of the Torah could be a valuable educational experience for students in the synagogues religious school.

I wanted to work with a religious school class, so I started doing research with the seventh-graders, he said. So far, weve found a couple of things.

For example, he said, the students pointed out to me the existence of Wiki-media, which contains another series of photos. Two years ago, a Czech man went [to Pacov] and took a series of photos. The cemetery has a building at the entrance with a historical exhibit about the Jews of Pacov.

Because the Wikimedia entry included the photographers name, Rabbi Roth reached out to him, asking him to trans-late some of the material in the photos he took of the exhibit.

The photographer responded, and included the translations. From these Rabbi Roth learned that the cemetery dates from 1680 and has been preserved as a cultural monument by the Czech Repub-lic. One or two photos showing the interior of the synagogue before the war also were

on Wikimedia.Spurred on by his success, Rabbi Roth

decided to learn even more. Looking at the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, he found not only more photographs but also the names and history of some Pacov residents. He also found some home movies.

Who would have thought it, he said. It was purely random and by luck.

The movies were donated by Gabrielle Reitler, now Rosberger.

Her mother came from a large family, Rabbi Roth said. The family photos and movies were entrusted to a non-Jewish family during the war. Surviving both

The exterior and interior of the old synagogue in Pacov, now in the Czech Re-public. wikimedia commons

Rabbi Ronald Roth

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Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, Ms. Ros-bergers mother, Blanka Bruck (later Reitler), returned to reclaim these items. Later, she married and moved to Canada.

I looked online for Gabrielle and found a Facebook page, Rabbi Roth said. I sent her a message, but she didnt respond. However, the page said we had a mutual friend, a woman named Linda Shecter. Shes an old friend of Gabis.

Another random and fortunate occurrence. The rabbi had known Ms. Shecter in Nashville, when he headed the West End Synagogue. She and her husband had lived, among other places, in Montreal.

So I sent a message to Linda, who sent an email to Gabi, who then responded, Rabbi Roth said. She told me that in the home movies were her young cousins Nina and Peter. They were the happy little kids walking down the street.

Sadly, the two children later were sent to Theresienstadt. While she was there, Nina drew a number of pictures, including one, Girl looking out of the window, which appears in I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of drawings and poetry by Jewish children who lived in that concentration camp.

Its on pages 38 and 39, Rabbi Roth said. It was made by this little girl who had been so happy as an 8-year-old. In the back of the book, it gives her name and says she was a member of Group 2. She did the drawing in the spring of 1944. She died in Auschwitz on May 15, 1944, at age 12 and a half.

In Auschwitz, Ms. Rosberger said, her aunt Ninas mother, who came from Pacov made a fateful decision. Because Peter was too young to work, he was selected for the gas chamber. Unwilling to let him die alone, his mother decided that the three of them

she, Nina, and Peter would enter the chamber together.

Religious school teacher Debbie Propper Lesnoy said that her seventh-grade students took the research proj-ect very seriously, as it was a hands-on way of approaching a topic that we have been studying all year. Each stu-dent contributed in his or her own way, with artwork, poetry, and an incredibly informative PowerPoint.

Ms. Lesnoy noted that it was particu-larly moving when we researched the [U.S. Holocaust Memorial] museum to locate an old video of a family in Pacov that we knew from our cemetery research had perished. We saw young children and typical-looking family members enjoying life as if all were well. My students faces dropped when we realized that all but one of these people were killed not long after.

Every student in the class gathered around the video, she said. Though many things we learned impacted us, this connection between typical life and impending death, and the Torah we now have that these people used, affected my students in a profound way and me, too.

Another moving moment occurred when we connected a cemetery plot with the family name, Lederer, of a synagogue leader. The cemetery plot told us that Emil Lederer had died in the Holocaust. We had just seen his pic-ture and name in our research of [life in] Pacov.

Ms. Lesnoy said that when the class saw a Google street view of the synagogue as it is today, the students reacted strongly. It is the only build-ing that has not been kept up. Why? asked one, while another mused on the fact that so many who had attended the synagogue had died.

Ms. Lesnoy said the students used technology during the whole year to learn about the Holocaust.

The way they approached this through technology, art, and poetry showed me how each student pro-cessed the information differently, and how important it is as a teacher to use a variety of strategies when approaching such an emotional and critically impor-tant topic, she said.

Now that he has learned more about Pacov and the people who lived there, Rabbi Roth is eager to preserve that information. He is working on a slide show featuring the photos he has found, and he plans to work with the students to create some narration as well.

The research has put a human face on the Holocaust, especially for the kids, he said. Now we have a real picture of where [the Torah] was the synagogue, town, and the people who no doubt were in the synagogue getting aliyot and lifting that Torah. It makes it much more personal and touching.

Gabrielle Reitler Rosbergers moth-er survived Auschwitz and donated home movies of murdered children to the United States Holocaust Mu-seum. courtesy GabrieLLe rosberGer

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Welcome to RadzynLocal man finds a new way to tell sort-of old storiesJoanne Palmer

It is 1896 in Radzyn, a small town hid-den deep in a Polish forest. There, Mottel the musician tries to find a few zlotys for Shabbat.It is 1933 in Radzyn, a small town hid-

den deep in a Polish forest. There, the rebbe warns about lost children for whom nobody will hunt and who never will be found.

Radzyn, as it unfolds in 1896, is home to a collection of chasidim who at first glance embody the timeless archetypes who seem to replace real people in such mythic towns.

But it is also 2014 in the United States. The story of Radzyn, which will jump from era to era, from character to character, and eventually from the web and mobile devices to other media as well, has just

begun to unfold. It will follow the form and conventions of Jewish folktales, but it is being devised to speak most clearly to its own generation.

We believe that the Jewish folktale is singular, unique, and powerful, Michael Weber said. Mr. Weber, 28, now lives on the Upper West Side, but he grew up in Teaneck, where his parents still live, and he graduated from the Yavneh Academy and the Frisch School, both in Paramus, before going on to the University of Maryland.

They are a very interesting combination of Jewish humor, Jewish perspectives, and Torah, he continued.

Veering from the conventional defini-tion of a folktale as a piece of folk art that cannot be attributed to a particular writer but instead to a group, and as a work that has changed over time and from place to place, instead Mr. Weber broadened it to

include author-written stories with folk-loric themes. I think the Torah aspect ranges from someone like I.L. Peretz, the 19th century Yiddish writer, who was not interested in the Torah aspect at all, to someone like Reb Shlomo, who was trying to relate to Jewish tradition in a mystical way, to someone like Rebbe Nachman the 18th-century mystic Nachman of Brat-zlov, founder of the Breslov chasidim who was telling Torah truly in story form.

But, Mr. Weber continued, the folk-tale really hasnt been approached in a new way since Reb Shlomo Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, that is in the 1960s and 70s. The struggles that people were going through in the 60s were different than the ones we are going through in the Internet age.

A new generation has to absorb these

Michael Weber wrote and Joel Golombeck illustrated the new online fictional world called Radzyn.

Michael Webersee rADZYN Page 12

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Spring LuncheonJ E W I S H F E D E R AT I O N O F N O R T H E R N N E W J E R S E Y W O M E N S P H I L A N T H R O P Y

2014

Wednesday, May 14Rockleigh Country Club, Rockleigh, New Jersey

Lauri Bader and Jodi EpsteinWomens Philanthropy Co-Presidents

Karen Farber, Gail Loewenstein and Tara MersonSpring Luncheon Co-Chairs

Register online at www.jfnnj.org/sl or for more information call 201-820-3953.

Minimum gift to attend, a dollar a day ($365) to help support Federations mission to take care of people in need locally, in Israel and around the world, while supporting a

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For fi rst time contributors, 50 cents a day ($180) welcomes you to this event.

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Honoring

Gale S. BindelglassPast Womens Philanthropy President

Rita MerendinoLifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Tiffany KaplanRising Star

Geraldo RiveraAttorney, Journalist, Author,

Reporter and Talk Show Host

Speaker

ARTISTIC TILELily SponsorMichael Weber

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stories, and we think that there is an oppor-tunity to approach them in a new way.

It is still beautiful and compelling and rich, but the story, the characters, and the plot can be re-imagined in a way that we millennials are used to reading plots and approaching characters. We have differ-ent reading habits and different literary expectations.

His generation, Mr. Weber continued, is used to such fiction as Games of Thrones and The Hunger Games. They do not feel comfortable with characters who are archetypical but lack depth, he said. There-fore, we are taking a lot of the tropes, like the holy street sweeper and the poor Yid collecting rubles before Shabbes, and we are delving into the characters. What do they really feel? We take it in our own direction, in a way that we think resonates better for readers who are more used to going into characters depths, into seeing the 3-D version.

My experience with Jewish stories has been that they are very deep, but you only see the characters for a few pages, so you cant go into them deeply.

To change that, Mr. Weber and his busi-ness partner, Joel Golombeck, also 28, have created the world of Radzyn, which he said, is a fantasy Jewish folktale about a chasidic shtetl that survived the Holocaust, and the generations of spiritual legacy that inspired it.

As much as a clich the idea of Jewish journey gen-erally has become, it seems so true when applied to Mr. Webers life story that the term itself is refreshed.

When Mr. Weber was a child, his parents belonged to Congrega-tion Beth Sholom in Teaneck. I kind of grew up Conservative, but all four of us kids went to an Orthodox school, so it was a very open environment, he said. We are now all over the place religiously. We have been given an open landscape to dis-cover and explore.

From Beth Sholom, the family moved to the Teaneck Jewish Center, which then was more or less Conservadox it since has become unequivocally Orthodox and then Mr. Weber went to Congregation Beth Aaron, then as now Orthodox. He spent a year in Israel in Mevaseret before college. Now, he davens at the Kasnetz shtiebel on the Upper West Side. I was always very religiously minded, but I didnt really feel like I found my place until I discovered cha-sidus, he said. In Israel, and even more in college, and even more after college, I knew what I liked, but I didnt know what it was called. Then he found it and that passion is relevant because it is reflected in Radzyn. Love of chassidut animates the town.

I have seen the products that modern

Orthodox yeshivas produce, Mr. Weber said. It seems that there is a failure at some level with what theyre producing, whether its the relationship to ourselves, or to Judaism, or to our community. There is a lack of commitment on some level.

I think that the chasidic message resonates more with this generation than the mod-ern Orthodox experience does. What I am trying to do is

embed chasidic thought in the story itself, and share that with the community.

Of course, as much as Radzyn lovingly displays centuries-old Jewish tradition, it uses brand-new technology to do so.

His partner, Mr. Golombeck, Mr. Weber said, is the founder and creative director of Rocket Chair media, a digital storytelling studio that explores new ways to read in the digital age. Their mission is to find new ways to tell stories that dont need to be paginated. Now a lot of the ebooks that we read are paginated, in book form. You turn the pages digitally, like you do in a book. What Rocket Chair does is figure out how we can tell stories in ways that are native to phones, tablets, or web experiences.

Mr. Webers own background took him from a college major in science and a job in finance to marketing in tech startups. He is a writer as well, and when his last startup job ended, about six months ago, he decided to devote most of his time to writing. Thats when Radzyn was born, he said. I have the writing and the tech design and marketing approach. Its not just thinking about it as a story, but about

how it will be prepared and how it will be consumed.

Joel is very much the same way. He is an artist, he graduated from Tisch thats NYUs Tisch School of the Arts and went on to Parsons the school of design in digital reading experiences, specifically for the tablet. So he approaches Radzyn as an artist, but also in a very technical way. Mr. Golombeck does all the art for the project, as well as its technical back end. Mr. Weber handles both writing and marketing.

So far, the pair has released the prologue and introduction. The next part, due out on May 18, will tell a related story. All the stories will be connected to the main nar-rative, but the vision we have is that it will be like an good television episode. You can

watch any good episode on its own and enjoy it, even though it will be a little hard to understand all of it.

We want each story to be a singular folk tale, but if it is consumed as part of Radzyn it will be an even better experience. Unini-tiated readers should still be able to enjoy it.

He also assures readers that he and Mr. Golombeck plan to introduce some women and their stories to what is now an almost entirely male world. Radzyn will continue to expand, he said.

To read the unfolding story of Radzyn, go to www.radzynstories.com. The web-site offers readers the opportunity to sign up for email alerting them to each new episode.

Joel Golombeck

radzyn from Page 10

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To regisTer or for more info, visiT

jccotp.org or call 201.569.7900.

upcoming aT Kaplen JCC on the Palisades

Kaplen JCC on the Palisades Taub campus | 411 e clinTon ave, Tenafly, nJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org

Yom Hazikaron CommemorationJoin us for Yom Hazikaron, Israels Memorial Day, as we remember Israels fallen soldiers and victims of terror with a ceremony prepared by members of our Israeli Center. Evening will conclude with singing solemn Israeli songs together. Free and open to the community. Ceremony in English and Hebrew. Songs will be sung in Hebrew.Sun, May 4, 7 pm, Free

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransporta film/Discussion series wiTh harolD chaplerFilm features the stories of eleven young Jewish children sent by their parents from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to England. Now, years later, the children, a mother, an English foster mother, a survivor of Auschwitz who didnt go to England, and two Kindertransport organizers remember their experiences and reunions. Narrated by Judy Dench.Mon, Apr 28, 7:30 pm, $3/$5

Yom Haatzmaut CelebrationCelebrate the 66th anniversary of Yom Haatzmaut, Israels Independence Day, with this fun, open-to-the-community celebration featuring Israeli food, arts and crafts inspired by Israeli cities, a Kibbutz style petting zoo, activities for teens and adults, a musical program, Israeli dancing and more.Tues, May 6, starting at 3:30-6:30 pm, Free

Yom Hashoah CommemorationOur annual commemoration will include keynote speaker Herbert Kolb, a survivor of the Theresienstadt Ghetto Camp, a choir performance and a candle-lighting ceremony by survivors and their families. It will also feature the presentation of the Abe Oster Holocaust Remembrance Award to a high school student winner who created a poetry slam project that conveys the continuing relevance of the Holocaust in the 21st century. Chairs: Leah Krakinowski and Andy Silberstein.Sun, April 27, 7 pm, Free

film

film screening

Making Trouble: To Be Funny, Jewish and FemaleA fascinating documentary that spans more than a century of theater, film and television to profile funny, Jewish, female personalities, who made an indelible impact on the entertainment world. Sponsored by the Jewish Womens Connection. For more info or to register, call Jessica at 201.408.1426Tues, May 20, 12:15 am-1:45 pm, $10/$12

Kaplen JCC on the Palisades Annual MeetingLooking over the past year, we have a lot to celebrate. Please join us as we share the State of the Center at our Annual Meeting.evening chairperson Steve RogersvolunTeer of The year awarD presented to The Danzger Familychairperson of The year awarD presented to Lisa Beth Meisel sTaff recogniTion awarD presented to Steven Lebson, Printshop Associate

save The DaTe Tuesday, May 20, 7:45 pm

for all

for all

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NEWS ANALYSIS

The politics of recognitionIs Israels Jewish state demand a dead end?

Josh Lipowsky

Can the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be solved without the Palestin-ians recognizing Israel as a Jew-ish state?Is it enough for a future state of Pales-

tine to recognize the reality of Israel but not the Jewish character of Israel?

The issue of recognition has been a sticking point throughout the Israeli-Pal-estinian conflict. From the time of its cre-ation in 1964, until Yasser Arafats 1988 declaration renouncing terrorism and calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the PLO refused to recognize Isra-els legitimacy. The declaration paved the way to mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and 20 years of on-and-off negotiations. When the sides resumed negotiations last year, Israels Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a new demand: that the Palestinians rec-ognize Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has steadfastly refused, arguing that the PLO already recognized the fact of Israel and its not up to the Palestinians to recognize Israels character.

Such recognition would be a humiliation for the Palestinians, said Khaled Elgindy, a former adviser to the Palestinian nego-tiating team from 2004 to 2009. He called recognition a technical legal act and emphasized there is no precedent for rec-ognizing a countrys character. The Jewish state demand is an ideological condition, he said, dismissing Israeli claims that the demand at its core signals an end of Pales-tinian claims and an end of conflict.

A Palestinian leader should not have to sacrifice his own legitimacy in order to get Americas approval or an agreement with Israel, Mr. Elgindy said. End of claims will come at the end of negotiations neces-sarily because all of the claims have been satisfied. You dont get the end of claims up front.

Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1985 to 1988, said he under-stands why Prime Minister Netanyahu insists on recognition of Israel as Jewish, given the number of voices in the region who would like to expel the Jewish people, but he also understands why its so diffi-cult for Mr. Abbas. Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would mean abandoning the Palestinian right of return to Israel, and the bankruptcy of their own internal nar-rative, said the ambassador, who grew up

in Rutherford.The interesting thing is nobody any-

where, certainly the Palestinians, can contest Israels right to call itself what it wishes, Mr. Pickering said. In a peace treaty, the Palestinians will have to deal with an Israel that declares what it is.

While Mr. Arafat and the PLO recog-nized the reality of Israel, it is questionable whether they accepted its legitimacy. The

PLOs 1988 transition came after the orga-nization spent years building influence and legitimacy in the international com-munity, while coupling its political track with deadly terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets, carried out by Mr. Ara-fats Fatah party and other PLO factions.

Fatah in its purest form is not that dif-ferent from Hamas, Mr. Elgindy said. Where they really differ is on the ques-tion of recognizing Israel.

Hamas, the potential spoiler to any agreement between Israel and the PLO,

remains steadfastly opposed to recog-nizing Israel. Its leaders believe that the PLOs recognition of Israel without recip-rocal recognition of Palestine was a mis-take. Hamas has remained ideologically opposed to Israels existence and its 1988 charter declares that Israel will exist until Islam will destroy it, elevating the organi-zations opposition from a nationalist posi-tion like the PLOs to a religious obligation. And this is what makes moderation so dif-ficult for Hamas.

Hamas will never go down the road of even recognizing Israel as a member of the United Nations, let alone as a Jewish state, Mr. Elgindy said. Imagine what Hamas will do if Abu Mazen Mr. Abbas nom de guerre recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, abandoning negating the Pales-tinian narrative?

The international community has demanded that Hamas renounce terror-ism, recognize Israel, and accept past agreements signed by the PLO before it can receive recognition, but declarations such as those in Hamas charter make recogni-tion of Israel impossible and stand in the way of Mr. Abbas attempts to pull Hamas under the PLO umbrella. Mr. Elgindy rec-ognizes why the international community is so fixated on the language of Hamas charter, but said in the end it is the actions of the organization that matter more than its founding documents. He pointed to the Likuds revisionist Zionist ideology, which at one point included all of the West Bank in its map of Greater Israel an idea that is antithetical to the existence of a Palestin-ian state, and yet a Likud government now is negotiating just that.

Charters are important but theyre not really what motivate the day-to-day political decisions of any organizations, Mr. Elgindy said. When the PLO formally

renounced violence in 1988, that was more important than changing the words in the PLO charter. The same is true for Hamas.

Asked if the Palestinians might be will-ing to accept a different wording, perhaps a more generic recognition of two states for two peoples, Mr. Elgindy said this is a matter of semantics for the negotiators.

This hints that even the most seemingly intractable issues can be resolved with some creativity, which brings us back to the initial question of how much of a road-block is the recognition demand.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has evolved through the years but it has always revolved in some form around a combina-tion of territory, national identity, religion, historical narratives, and a sense of injus-tice, Daniel Kurtzer said. Mr. Kurtzer, who lives in New Jersey, was U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005. Despite the hur-dles in the start-and-stop negotiations, there is nothing necessarily unsolvable about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he added.

Both sides will not be happy with an outcome and therefore an outcome cant aspire for mutual satisfaction, but an out-come can aspire to meet the minimum requirements of both sides, he said.

Khaled ElgindyThomas PickeringDaniel Kurtzer

In a peace treaty, the Palestinians will have to deal

with an Israel that declares

what it is.ThomAS PIcKErINg

End of claims will come at the end of negotiations

necessarily because all of

the claims have been satisfied. You dont get

the end of claims up front.

KhALED ELgINDY

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Author Edwin Black to speak in WayneJoanne Palmer

On April 27, author Edwin Black, about whom we wrote on March 21, just before his talk for United4Unity in Englewood, will be back in our area. He plans to key-note the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jerseys Yom HaShoah commemo-ration in Wayne.

Mr. Black, according to his website, has focused much of a long career on exploring and writing about genocide and hate, corporate criminality and cor-ruption, governmental misconduct, aca-demic fraud, philanthropic abuse, oil addiction, alternative energy and histori-cal investigation. At the bottom of most of his reporting is the act of evil that has spurred all of his work the Holocaust.

The investigative work uncovering the truth that some U.S. companies were at least in part responsible for financing and administering the Shoah underlies much of his work.

He thinks that the timing of Yom Ha Shoah this year is fitting, given whats going on in Eastern Europe right now. The methodologies of the Holocaust that I document in IBM and the Holo-caust including registration and prop-erty itemization instantly come flood-ing back to our collective consciousness the very moment unrest subsumes the Ukraine, he said.

I intend to remind the Wayne audi-ence of this event as a prelude to my more specific revelations about IBMs role in the Holocaust. And what was that role? A prime mission of IBM was to reg-ister all the Jews of Europe for the Nazis.

You see that the impulse never dies. In this century it would be accomplished not with punch cards, but with comput-ers. Not with a painstaking 1940s clerical process, but in the twinkling of a digital eye.

Mr. Blacks work on IBM and the Holocaust might well result in a movie, according to such media outlets as the Vulture, New York Magazines

entertainment blog. According to the Vulture, Brad Pitt is developing the film, which, it says, might go straight to video, or might end up as a feature film.

The movie, like the book, will answer the question of how the Nazis were able to round up Jews so efficiently. Accord-ing to Mr. Black, as filtered through the book, IBMs head, Thomas Watson, used punch cards, then a brand-new and highly effective technology, to slice and dice data. As we now know, it worked.

Mr. Black added that he had chosen to speak about the Shoah in northern New Jersey on Yom HaShoah because this observance is our nations oldest, commencing in the late 1940s, when the horrors of the Holocaust were just being assessed.

We have to ask ourselves how much has really changed when the grandchil-dren of the perpetrator generation are now reliving old habits in France, across the Arab world, in Eastern Europe, in Scandinavia, and even in Great Britain.

Mr. Black plans to enlarge some of documents so that audiences will be able to see them clearly. This is the first time he has done that, he said, and he thinks that it will provide viewers with sober-ing data.

Who: Prolific journalist edwin Black, who specializes in holo-caust-related investigations

What: will give the keynote ad-dress at the Yom hashoah com-memoration

Where: at shomrei torah: the wayne Conservative synagogue, 30 hinchman ave. in wayne

When: at 3 p.m.; the photo exhibit will be on view starting at 2:30

Why: to remember the holocaust and learn its lessons.

Sponsored by: the Jewish Federa-tion of northern new Jersey

For more information: Call (973) 696-2500 or dr. wallace Greene at (201) 873-3263.

Schreiber is man of the yearTemple Israel & JCC in Ridgewood recently honored Howard Schreiber of Ramsey, left, as its Brandeis Mens Club Man-of-the-Year. Freddie Kotek, last years honoree, is pictured giving him the honorary clas-sic bowler that belonged to Harry Grant, a longtime Brandeis Mens Club member.

Local


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YU to mark 83rd commencementDr. John S. Rus-kay, execut ive vice president and CEO of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jew-ish Philanthropies of New York, will deliver the key-note address and receive an honor-ary doctorate at Yeshiva Universitys 83rd commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 22, at the Izod Center in East Rutherford. YU President Richard M. Joel also will confer honorary doctorates on Joshua Gortler, president of the Kline Galland Center Foundation and alumnus of YUs Wurzweiler School of Social Work, and Dorothy Schachne, a YU benefactor. Dr. Morton Lowengrub, provost and senior vice president for aca-demic affairs, will receive the presidential medallion.

NORPAC event to hear Lowey Rabbi Steven and Yael Weil host a NORPAC meet-ing in Teaneck for Congresswoman N i t a L o w e y (D-N.Y.) on Sun-day, April 27, at 5 p.m. Congress-woman Lowey, now serving her 13th term in Congress, represents parts of Westchester and Rockland counties. Call (201) 788-5133 or email [email protected].

John S. Ruskay

Nita Lowey

Local student awarded prestigious scholarshipKayla Applebaum of Teaneck, a junior at Stern Col-lege for Women, received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a highly competitive grant that sup-ports undergraduates who intend to pursue careers in science, math, or engineering.

She was among 271 college sophomores and juniors across the country selected for the scholarship, which covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Ms. Applebaum, a molecular biology major, will

use her scholarship to continue her research of tar-geting molecular pathways of breast cancer with Dr. Marina Holz, associate professor of biology at Stern, with whom she has worked with for the last three years. After graduation, Ms. Applebaum, who is also a member of the colleges S. Daniel Abra-ham Honors Program and a recipient of the Anne Scheiber Science Academic Scholarship, hopes to attend medical school and launch her a career in cancer research.

Kayla Applebaum

David and Jayne PetakDebbie and Ron Eisenberg Jason and Jennifer Auerbach

YJCC names honorees for May 15 spring galaThe Bergen County YJCC will hold its annual Spring Gala on Thursday, May 15, at the Rockleigh Country Club. The gala begins at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails, fol-lowed by the program, dinner, and danc-ing. An ad journal will be published in conjunction with the event.

This years honorees are the couple of the year, Debbie and Ron Eisenberg of Woodcliff Lake; community builders Jayne and David Petak of River Vale, and young leaders Jennifer and Jason Auer-bach of Woodcliff Lake.

The Eisenbergs have three children, 24, 21, and 20, all graduates of the YJCCs nursery school. Debbie and Ron took

leadership roles in a variety of YJCC projects throughout the years, and are involved in the YJCCs Open Hearts, Open Homes, the program that welcomes Israeli teens affected by violence and terror to enjoy respite in northern New Jersey.

Jayne and David Petak have been involved with the YJCC since it opened in 1987, enrolling one son in its nurs-ery school and the other in after-school karate. Their involvement has ranged from chairing the golf outing or the annual dinner-dance to serving on the board. Jayne Petak also is a board mem-ber of the Jewish Federation of North-ern New Jersey and the Jewish Home at

Rockleigh. Jennifer and Dr. Jason Auerbach, also

of Woodcliff Lake, have two daughters, 9 and 6, who are YJCC nursery school grad-uates. The Auerbachs have been leaders and supporters of a variety of YJCC events and committees; Jennifer Auerbach has been a member of the board. Jason Auer-bach also is president of the New Jersey Dental Society of Anesthesiology.

Sharry and Mark Friedberg and Joan and Dan Silna are the galas event chairs, and Martin Kornheiser is the ad journal chair. For information, call Ashley War-ren at (201) 666-6610, ext. 5832, or email her at [email protected].

Sharsheret highlights bnai mitzvah for its 12th anniversary benefitSharsheret, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to addressing the needs of women and families facing breast cancer and ovarian cancer, will celebrate its 12th anniversary on Sun-day, May 4. More than 500 people are expected at the celebration, held at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe. This years benefit also marks Sharsherets bat mitzvah year; it will include highlights of the organizations bnai mitzvah program and its participants.

Blair Muss of Manhattan, an active Sharsheret peer supporter, is the guest

of honor. Batya Paul of Teaneck is this years Lisa Altman Volunteer Tribute award recipient. The event also will fea-ture a silent auction showcasing valuable gift packages, electronics, jewelry, Juda-ica, sports memorabilia, and fine dining gift certificates.

So far, Sharsherets bnai mitzvah pro-gram has welcomed nearly 100 young adults from across the country, who have coordinated creative projects, including Sharsheret Pink Shabbat, challah baking, basketball tournaments, design and craft sales, fashion shows, and outreach to

local health care professionals and com-munity leaders.

For information, call (866) 474-2774, go to www.sharsheret.org/benefit, or email Ellen Kleinhaus at [email protected].

Batya PaulBlair Muss

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keeping the faith

Let all who are hungrystarve?

Right now, we are in the midst of a seven-week journey that began on Pesach and will end on Shavuot.There are 38 days left on our trek from Egypt to Sinai, where we will receive our instructions as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

In the words of Isaiah, the task we received at Sinai was to unlock fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of lawlessness; to let the oppressed go free; to share [our] bread with the hungry, [and] when you see the naked, to clothe him.

How sad it is that too many of us prefer not to fully comprehend the meaning of those words.

This Shabbat, in synagogues across the world, we receive a condensed version of what those words mean, and what the task is that we were given. That task is why we were enslaved in the first place, and why we were freed. It is why the sea parted on the sev-enth day, and why the journey to the Land of Promise had to begin at Sinai, not in Egypt.

The alien seer Balaam called us a people apart, and he was correct. We are a people apart, but not because of our rituals. The body of law we were given at Sinai is what sets us apart, that and the reason for that Law: to create a world in which all are equal, a world that is ruled by the princi-ples of justice, equity, and mercy.

That world did not exist before the Torah was given. In the ancient world, the

haves always were more important than the have-nots, and they were considered more valuable.

For example, in the Code of Hammurabi, if someone accidentally killed a person higher up on the societal pecking order, that persons relatives had the right to kill two members of the accidental murderers family.

Blood vengeance, after all, was accepted in the ancient world. Because this was too much a part of accepted practice 3,500 years ago, the Torah did not challenge it directly. Instead, it made blood vengeance

Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Temple Israel Community Center | Congregation Heichal Yisrael in Cliffside Park and Temple Beth El of North Bergen.


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Yom HaShoah

This Monday is Yom HaShoah.It is a day when we think about the genocide carried out, with stunning efficiency and naked evil, against our people. (Note that we cannot say that Yom HaShoah is the day because when we do so, that implies that we think about it only once a year, and that is not true.)

As is true every year, there are many commemorations in northern New Jersey, as we detailed in last weeks Jew-ish Standard there are more details about one of them, featuring Edwin Black, held in Wayne, and sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, on page 15 this week. Each of them is bound to be profound and heart-stirring.

(To find our list, just google Jewish Standard and Yom HaShoah.)

Across the Hudson River, on Manhattans Upper West Side, the tradition of reading the names of Holocaust vic-tims continues. A consortium of the rabbis and represen-tatives of most of the local shuls, including Orthodox, Con-servative, Reform, and Reconstructionist, come together

to read the names throughout the long dark night. This year, the reading begins on Sunday at 10 p.m. at Congre-gation Ansche Chesed, goes until 8 a.m. there, and then, half an hour later, moves to the JCC of Manhattan, where it continues until Kaddish is recited at 7 on Monday evening.

Every year, now, the calculus of Yom HaShoah changes. The survivors age, and so do their children. New genera-tions grow into awareness.

As we mourn the victims of the Holocaust we cannot truly be said to remember them, because they died before the overwhelming majority of us had a chance to meet them we also see and glory in the huge number and variety of their descendants.

Every single Holocaust survivor, every Holocaust ref-ugee, has an important and entirely unique story. We should listen to every story, and be sure that it is not lost.

We also should look around, realize that it is springtime, realize that we all are still here, and that no matter what demographic challenges face us we can surmount them.

As unlikely as it seems, were still here. -JP

More Jewish groups should offer paid parental leave

When it comes to man-dated paid maternity or paternity leave, this nation has some catching up to do.

The United States is the only indus-trialized country not to mandate paid maternity leave. In the private sector, only 11 percent of employees have access to maternity leave.

A recent JTA report shows that although Jewish organizations also have to catch up in providing paid maternity leave, they are showing favorable growth. At the urging of the advocacy group Advancing Women Professionals, Jewish nonprofits are working to provide the paid leave.

AWP organized itself in 2010 with the goal of enlisting 100 Jewish orga-nizations as a catalyst for making healthy work-life policy the norm in our community, according to

its website. Our ultimate goal is to make these same standards through-out the non-profit sector and Ameri-can society, it continues.

One of its framing principles reads: By adopting healthy work-life policies, the Jewish community will enact its stated priorities around family, education, community and spirituality.

More than 80 groups have been enlisted on AWPs Better Work/Bet-ter Life list. To be listed, a Jewish non-profit must offer at least four weeks of paid maternity leave or have flexible scheduling policies to make it easier for parents to care for their newborn children.

Twenty groups on the list, includ-ing the Jewish Federations of North America and the American Joint Dis-tribution Committee, offer 12 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks

of paid parental leave for fathers, partners, and adoptive parents.

But even though those groups have signed on, there still are no individ-ual Jewish day schools enrolled. One school, Manhattans Rodeph Shalom School, affiliated with the Reform movement, is referred to as being in the pipeline.

And RAVSAK, a network of 130 nondenominational Jewish day schools, is enrolled.

So what we have is a start.The Jewish communal world,

which does so much good work for others, has to provide its own workers what they need to support the very ideals for which they are employed.

It all starts will families.Lets let the new parents of these

families have the paid time they need. PJ

Shammai Engelmayer

Op-Ed

virtually impossible by creating the concept of the city of refuge (first mentioned at Sinai [see Exodus 21:13] and elaborated on elsewhere, especially in Numbers 35). Then it also imposed a trial and set rules of evi-dence that included the requirement that no one could be convicted of a capital crime without the tes-timony of at least two qualified eyewitnesses (see Deu-teronomy 17:6).

The Code of Hammurabi, however, went beyond simple blood vengeance. Law No. 210 states that if a man strikes a freeborn woman and she dies, the mans daughter is put to death. Law No. 230 states that if a poorly constructed building collapses, killing the own-ers son, the son of the builder shall be put to death.

This the Torah did address directly. Parents shall not be put to death for children, it declared, nor chil-dren be put to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime. (See Deuteronomy 24:16.)

Justice, equity, mercy.Just as there is no hierarchical nature to the society

Gods kingdom of priests was tasked to create, so there also was no hierarchy of law. This is made clear in Leviticus 19, where no distinction is made between our obligations to God and our obligations to other people, and even to the world around us.

Reverence for parents is followed by Shabbat observance; is followed by a ban on idol worship; is followed by rules about a voluntary sacrifice; is fol-lowed by laws about what we owe to the poor and the stranger; is followed by a rule against misusing Gods Name to defraud others; is followed by a prohibition against fraud itself; is followed by a prohibition against robbery; is followed by a requirement to pay labor-ers in a timely fashion; is followed by laws about not speaking ill of people, and not leading them astray; is followed by rules requiring fair and equal treatment under the law; and so on.

At Sinai, when we accepted Gods assignment as His kingdom of priests and holy nation, we agreed to obey Gods mitzvot, period. Whatever classifica-tion people gave to each mitzvah was irrelevant. All the mitzvot were Gods mitzvot; all had to be observed equally.

This message, however, seems to have escaped us or, perhaps more accurately, we allowed it to escape us. We adopt the values of the society around us rather than try to reform those values to meet the Torahs requirement.

One example should suffice: Last year, 49 million Americans were considered food insecure, meaning that at one point or another during the year they were unable to put food on their tables. That is almost one in every six people living in arguably the richest coun-try in the world.

Yet the U.S. Congress recently voted to further cut food aid programs to these people. Where is our out-rage? As Gods kingdom of priests, we should be leading massive protests, yet for the most part we are silent.

What is the point of journeying from Egypt to Sinai if not that?

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keeping the faith

Let all who are hungrystarve?

Right now, we are in the midst of a seven-week journey that began on Pesach and will end on Shavuot.There are 38 days left on our trek from Egypt to Sinai, where we will receive our instructions as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

In the words of Isaiah, the task we received at Sinai was to unlock fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of lawlessness; to let the oppressed go free; to share [our] bread with the hungry, [and] when you see the naked, to clothe him.

How sad it is that too many of us prefer not to fully comprehend the meaning of those words.

This Shabbat, in synagogues across the world, we receive a condensed version of what those words mean, and what the task is that we were given. That task is why we were enslaved in the first place, and why we were freed. It is why the sea parted on the sev-enth day, and why the journey to the Land of Promise had to begin at Sinai, not in Egypt.

The alien seer Balaam called us a people apart, and he was correct. We are a people apart, but not because of our rituals. The body of law we were given at Sinai is what sets us apart, that and the reason for that Law: to create a world in which all are equal, a world that is ruled by the princi-ples of justice, equity, and mercy.

That world did not exist before the Torah was given. In the ancient world, the

haves always were more important than the have-nots, and they were considered more valuable.

For example, in the Code of Hammurabi, if someone accidentally killed a person higher up on the societal pecking order, that persons relatives had the right to kill two members of the accidental murderers family.

Blood vengeance, after all, was accepted in the ancient world. Because this was too much a part of accepted practice 3,500 years ago, the Torah did not challenge it directly. Instead, it made blood vengeance

A resurgence of anti-Semitism in a different world

This year, Passover was met with two terrible reminders that the dangers posed by anti-Semitism continue to haunt us.First, a white supremacist in Kansas went

on a shooting rampage at a Jewish commu-nity center and an assisted living facility, kill-ing three people. Then, worshippers leav-ing synagogue services in Donetsk, Ukraine, were accosted by masked men who handed out pamphlets ordering all Jews to report to a state registry or prepare to be denationalized.

These two shocking outbreaks put a pale over the celebration of Passover. It was reminiscent of Passovers of old, when the Jews would fear Easter-time anti-Jewish violence. And yet there are differences, new aspects to these current events that mark our times as dis-tinct and more blessed than those that came before.

The violence in Kansas was recognized by everyone, from the president of the United States down to the local authorities, as no mere triple murder. The seriousness of the hate crime charges that the alleged shooter will face are a symbol of the zero tolerance that our society has for anti-Semitic violence. I know this on a smaller scale. As the local rabbi, I have been called from time to time by local authorities regarding an anti-Semitic incident. Usu-ally graffiti, usually teenage perpetrators acting out their own complex issues of identity. What has connected each unrelated incident was not only the traditions of anti-Semitism but also the priority with which the crime was handled by the authority of that jurisdiction. Responsible government and society no longer tolerate what all too often was accepted in the past.

Something more marks the recent tragedy in Kansas. All three victims were Christian. No doubt the perpetrator intended to kill Jews. That his three victims were Chris-tians speaks to the successful integration of the Jewish community in America. It means that Jewish communal institutions are no longer enclave institutions, but inte-gral componen

North Jersey Jewish Standard, April 25, 2014

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