North Jersey Jewish Standard, December 12, 2014

8/10/2019 North Jersey Jewish Standard, December 12, 2014

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2 JEWISH STANDARD DECEMBER 12, 2014


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JEWISH STANDARD DECEMBER 12, 2014 3

PUBLISHERS STATEMENT: (USPS 275-700 ISN 0021-6747) is pub-lished weekly on Fridays with an additional edition every October, bythe New Jersey Jewish Media Group, 1086 Teaneck Road, Teaneck,NJ 07666. Periodicals postage paid at Hackensack, NJ and additionaloffices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to New Jersey JewishMedia Group, 1086 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666. Subscriptionprice 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 doesnot constitute a kashrut endorsement. The publishing of a paidpolitical advertisement does not constitute an endorsement of anycandidate political party or political position by the newspaper orany employees.

The Jewish Standard assumes no responsibility to return unsolic-ited editorial or graphic materials. All rights in letters and unsolic-ited editorial, and graphic material will be treated as uncondition-ally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subjectto JEWISH STANDARDs unrestricted ri ght to edit and to commenteditorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without writ-ten permission from the publisher. 2014

NOSHES ...................................................4OPINION ............................................... 22COVER STORY ........... ............ ............. 26CHANUKAH GREETINGS ................48CROSSWORD PUZZLE ....................55TORAH COMMENTARY ............. ...... 56ARTS & CULTURE .............................. 57CALENDAR ..........................................58OBITUARIES ........................................62CLASSIFIEDS ......................................66HOME DESIGN ....................................68REAL ESTATE ............. ............ ............. 69

For convenient home delivery,call 201-837-8818 or bit.ly/jsubscribe

CONTENTS

LETTERS, P. 24

JFNNJ was in the forefront. The national Jewish denominational movementsare just now putting together initiatives to deal with congregational mergers.

JUDY BECK, ESSEX FELLS

Candlelighting: Friday, December 12, 4:10 p.m.Shabbat ends: Saturday, December 13, 5:14 p.m.

When we light our Chanukah candlesthis week, we will be performing themitzvah of publicizing the miracle pirsumei nisa, as the ancient phrase hasit. The Talmud decrees that one oil lampwill suffice, but one for each night is

even better. Still, weve started to won-der whether ancient lighting technol-ogy, output measured in single candlepowers and burnout before bedtime,really measures up to the publicitydemands of the 21st century. Maybe its

time to supplement our candles and goelectric?

So bravo to our neighbors who arewilling to get behind the Maccabeemiracle in a big way. That includes theBergen County family who placed this

giant inflatable holiday decoration on itsfront lawn.

In that spirit, we at the JewishStandard wish you as much miraculousChanukah joy as you can bear.

. LARRY YUDELSON

Deck the lawns

Wondering how youll stay up for thelate, crazy nights of Chanukah? Won-dering how youll waken for a morning

minyan that starts early to include acelebratory Hallel?

Luckily, Java Factory, whichmanufactures single-serving coffeepackets for Keurig coffee brewers, hasthe holiday brew youre looking for.

Java Nagila.Its not clear whether the Chanukah-

themed variety, which like all Java

Factory coffees is certified byBaltimores Star-K kashrut agency, hasany special holiday properties. Does

one pod brew enough for eight nights?Have no Greeks handled the beans?

In any case, its wonderful to seeChanukah cheer in the coffee aisle ofTeanecks Stop and Shop (where thisphoto was taken).

And we hope that this is only thebeginning, and that soon well bedrinking Joes Bshvat. LARRY YUDELSON

Toasting the Macca-beans


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Noshes


Anyone who dares do this will be takencare of and will pay for it dearly. Rabbi Mordechai Blau of Israels United Torah Judaism, warning charedi womennot to launch their own political party after existing charedi parties refused toinclude them as candidates in the upcoming elections.

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

Lisa Edelstein

BELATED PRAISE:

Girlfriends Guide...a first-time hit

Liza Weil

Irwin Corey Norman Lloyd

Im sorry that Ididnt clue youinto the premiere,

on December 2, of thenew scripted Bravo se-ries, A Girlfriends Guideto Divorce. But I caughtthe pilot and I can tellyou that its muchogood. (New episodes airTuesdays at 10 p.m. Many

same-week encores. Alsoonline). The lead char-acter, Abby McCarthy( LISA EDELSTEIN , 49), isan affluent middle-agedwoman with a teenagedaughter and a five-year-old son. She makes agood living from advicebooks, which include alot of stuff about howgood her own marriageis. Problem is that Abbyand her husband, Jake( PAUL ADELSTEIN , 45),have been unhappy fora long time. Divorce islooming.

I completely agreewith the Hollywood

Reporter review: A bitof a shocker in that al-most everything aboutit works; for a first ef-fort, thats defying theodds and then somethis series is the clos-est anything in recentmemory has come toSex and the City whenthat series was at its zeit-geisty best.Of particu-lar note is star Edelstein(House), whose perfor-mance is exceptional theres really no oversell-

ing how outstanding sheis in every scene, whichis essential to convincingviewers that the showis not only worth a look,but a full commitment.

Adelstein, as I said in aSeptember column, hasbeen married since 2006to actress LIZA WEIL ,37, a native of Passaic,

and they have one child.Weil is now in an ABCseries, How to Get Awaywith Murder. By the way,that is CARRIE FISHER ,58, briefly appearing asAbbys literary agent inthe pilot.

The comedianProfessor IRWIN COREY and actor

NORMAN LLOYD bothhit the century mark in2014 Corey in June,Lloyd in November. Justbefore a big 100th birth-day party at a New Yorkactors club, Corey toldthe Daily News: I hopethey give me an 18-year-

old girl.Lloyd, who appearedin several Hitchcock filmsand produced the Al-fred Hitchcock Hour TVshow, is probably bestknown for playing Dr.Auschlander on the TVshow St. Elsewhere. Hestill plays tennis twice aweek and has a biggishsupporting role in Train-wreck, a JUDD APA-TOW film that will openin July, 2015.

HOWIE MANDEL , 59,

Father Time People magazine had some egg on its face onNovember 30, when it accidentally posted an obituaryof actor KIRK DOUGLAS on its website. Douglas, whoturned 98 on December 9, quoted Mark Twain (whosedeath was also misreported) when he spoke to a USAToday reporter on December 1: The announcement ofmy death is premature.

The false report created much internet chatter, someof which was fairly amusing. NY Daily News readers webcomments included, I am not dead, and I am Sparta-cus! and Hey, Kirk, say hello to ABE VIGODA ! Youmay recall that Vigoda (The Godfather and BarneyMiller) was reported as dead in a 1982 People articleand that a TV reporter repeated the mistake in 1987.Vigoda, now 93, has often joked about his death withTV hosts. N.B.

Kirk Douglas

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

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a St. Elsewhere co-star,said: I love NormanLloyd. He is a legend. Ihave spent hours like alittle kid while he regaledus with stories of Hitch-cock. He teaches, he en-tertains. He is a legend!

Director RidleyScotts $140 mil-

lion dollar bibli-cal opus, Exodus: Godsand Kings, opens widetoday. There will be nolack of reviews. As I writethis, the consensus ofadvance reviews is whatI expected as this MosesStory was being made:some good acting froma cast that includes first-rate actors like ChristianBale (Moses) and somegood special effects.

But the screenwriterhasnt crafted a strong

or moving script, reviewssay, and then theresthe fact that there isnta single Jewish actorin the cast. Also, blackactors only appear asslaves, which isnt exactlyhistorically accurate.(FYI: cast member BenKingsley may have had

one Jewish grandpar-ent; cast member BenMendelsohn also had oneJewish grand).

Scott defended hisdecision not to cast moreJewish or Egyptian-look-ing actors in big partsin economic terms. Hecouldnt get money tomake the film if he didntuse big-name verywhite actors. Maybe thisis true.

But that doesnt ex-cuse reinforcing the

stereotype that in theancient world all sub-Saharan blacks wereslavesand, my biggerkvetch: do we really needanother biblical moviewhose major sellingpoint is special effectsequal to that in movies

based on Marvel comics?Scott, 78, would have

served his legacy andposterity better if hehad made that very rarething: a literate, mov-ing, thought-provokingmovie based on a biblicaltheme. N.B.


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Norpac hosts fundraiser for HuckabeePossible presidential candidate talks about support for IsraelJOSH LIPOWSKY

The dust is still settling from the 2014midterm elections, but the race to 2016is already on. Potential presidential can-didates already have started lining updonors.

Norpac, the North Jersey pro-Israelpolitical action committee, regularly holdsfundraisers for incumbents. When there isno incumbent, as there will not be in thepresidential race in 2016, it raises fundsfor candidates who have strong records onIsrael. On Saturday night, the Englewood- based group held a fundraiser that drewabout 35 people and collected at least$40,000 for Mike Huckabee, the formerArkansas governor and one-time Repub-lican presidential hopeful who now is acommentator on Fox News.

But Mr. Huckabee hasnt declaredhimself a candidate for 2016 yet, so thefundraiser of icially was for Mr. Hucka- bees 501(c)4 non-pro it, America TakesAction.

Many candidates have issue-relatedorganizations, such as Bill Clint ons Clin-ton Global Initiative. Fundraising eventsfor such organizations dont contributedirectly to a political campaign. They doallow the candidate to send a messageabout which issues are important to himor her, however, and they create opportu -nities for Norpacs members to gain accessto the potential candidate.

Who has announced of icially yet?Nobody. But everybodys raising money,Dr. Ben Chouake of Englewood, Norpacspresident, said. You can look at the real-ity or you can look at the technicality. Atthe end of the day, you have a lot of people who are exploring their candidacies, try-ing to raise money.

Senator Ted Cruz (R Texas), for whomNorpac held a fundraiser earlier this year,is another example of a potential presiden-tial candidate who is exploring his options.If somebody wanted to throw an event forHilary Clinton, Norpac would support thatas well, Dr. Chouake said.

Dr. Alan Berger of Englewood and his brother, Marc, of New Rochelle, N.Y., orga -nized Saturday nights fundraiser. My goal was to have an event to support the man,Dr. Berger said. I was in Israel with himin June. He truly loves the Jewish people.

Mr. Huckabee is an ordained Baptistminister. Gods prophecy is for the Jewsto be in Israel, and hes not broken thatcovenant, Mr. Huckabee said on Saturdaynight. Israel and the United States both were founde d in opposition to t yranny,

and they have an organic as well as anorganizational relationship, he added.

Governor Huckabee has been to Israelsome 30 times, but his trips usually have been with Christian groups. The trip this June was a Jewis h mis sion organized by Joe Frager, who organizes the annual IsraelDay concert in Central Park after the Saluteto Israel Parade. The group met with members of the Knesset, rabbis, the U.S. casinomogul and Republican inancier SheldonAdelson, and the family of Naftali Fraenkel,one of the three teens murdered in June by Hamas. Dr. Berger already had knownGovernor Huckabee for a few years, butthe trip strengthened the relationship and gave him the push to organize a fundraiserthrough Norpac, he said.

He uses his bully pulpit very effectively

to promote our issues, Dr. Chouake said.This is important to him, and Im grate-ful for it.

While the former governors stand onIsrael appears solid, he has also been miredin controversies stemming from his reli-

gious perspective. The Council on Ameri-can Islamic Relations criticized him in 2011,after he suggested Islam considers Jesus anin idel and criticized churches for allowingMuslims to hold worship services there.

Shortly after the December 2012 SandyHook school shooting in Connecticut, Mr.Huckabee claimed that America has somany school shootings because it tookGod out of the school system. In 2008, hefounded Huck PAC to help elect conserva -tives to every level of of ice. In September, before the midterm elections, he told the2014 Values Voter Summit, an annual con-fab in Washington promoting traditionalconservative values, that the public shouldire politicians who do not hear Godsheart.

So how does a Norpac fundraiser workexactly? Norpac does not make donationsto candidates war chests. It typically usesa bundling process called earmark dona -tions, in which donors write a check toNorpac and specify in the memo line to whom they want it to go. Norpac submitsa donation under its name. The campaignknows the donations are because of a spe -ci ic issue a strong U.S.-Israel relation-ship, in Norpacs case.

Legally and functionally its a donationdirectly to the candidate, Dr. Chouakesaid. Norpac is just a pass through.

The Federal Election Commission lim-its election campaign donations to $2,600per person per candidate per election.If, for example, a candidate is running inthe primary and then the main election,the FEC allows a maximum donation of$2,600 to that candidate in each election.Norpac has the same limitations on directdonations, but bundled donations are lim-ited only by the number of donors. If 10people gave Norpac checks earmarkedfor a speci ic candidate, the group canthen bundle those donations and make a$26,000 contribution.

Its as if theyre giving i t directly, Dr.Chouake said. For Norpac its just a passthrough. It does make an impact and helpsour cause, because generally speaking if I write a check by myself or any 10 or 100people write a check by themselves, U.S.-Israel relations shows up a little bit but is generally invisible.

Norpac will hold a fundraiser for anycandidate if one of its members is willing

From left, Alan Berger, Mike Huckabee, Marc Berger, and Ben Chouake standtogether at the Norpac meeting. NORPAC

Weighing in on the state of the U.S.-Israel relationshipIts hard to sign on to social mediathese days without seeing a right-wing news article decrying PresidentObamas relationship with Israel.Despite a plethora of stories of howthe president is abandoning Israel,the current status of the U.S.-Israelrelationship is very strong, Dr. BenChouake, Norpacs president, said.

You have a gazilli on rumors goingaround, and rumors are rumors, hesaid. Maybe some of them are true,but most of them are fabricated. Thesupport that the United States hasshown Israel has been tremendous.

One recent Internet rumor has thepresident refusing to use the UnitedStates U.N. Security Council veto if

the Palestinian Authority asks for avote on a Palestinian state, while an -other has the president consideringsanctions against Israel for settle-ment activity. The State Depart-ment denied that it might imposethose sanctions, calling the rumorcompletely unfounded and withoutmerit.

Dr. Chouake said that he wouldbe surprised if the United Statesdoesnt veto a Palestinian state, add-ing that the Obama administrationhas been among the most support-ive administrations of Israel at theUnited Nations level.

Partisanship is at the core of manyof the rumors surrounding the presi-

dents relationship with Israel, accord-ing to Dr. Chouake, who served onthe finance committee for RepublicanSenator John McCains failed 2008presidential bid. While there are manypartisan opinions to the contrary, andhe may disagree on other issues, Dr.Chouake credited the Obama admin -istrations stance toward Israel.

Its harder because people viewthe administration in much morepartisan terms than they do Con-gress, which has large support forIsrael on both sides of the aisl e, hesaid. I would say this president has apretty good record as well. If you docompare it to other administrations, itcompares favorably.

SEE HUCKABEE PAGE 70


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Shul with pool or pool with school?Teaneck Jewish Center plans to sell its building to yeshivaLARRY YUDELSON

Teanecks oldest synagogue and its young-est yeshiva high school are getting readyto tie the knot.

The precise terms of the relationship between the Jewish Cente r of Teaneckand Yeshiva Heichal HaTorah remain to

be hammered out.But by a close vote on Sunday night,

the Jewish Center board agreed toexplore a proposal from the yeshiva in

which the boys h igh school, which nowrents space in the synagogue, wouldshare responsibility for the synagogues

building , while the congregation wouldmaintain its independence. Under theproposed terms, the school will pay onlya fraction of the estimated 5 million valueof the building, which includes a ymand a swimming pool.

The vote was 15 to 14, with the syna - gogues president, Isaac Student, castingthe deciding vote.

Those who voted against it preferred a

plan offered by the Chabad of Teaneck, whi ch would have off ered even les smoney.

An offer from the Holy Name MedicalCenter, across the street from the Jew-ish Center, was not debated at all. The

hospital had offered a partnership in which it would use most of the buildingsfacilities, while the congregation wouldcontinue to use its sanctuary for servicesand the hospital and congregation would jointly employ a rabbi to serve as both

congregational rabbi and hospital chap-lain. It also offered to have the buildingappraised and to pay fair market value forit. Neither of the buildings other two suit-ors proposed such an arrangement.

There was a very strong consensusthat the Jewish Center of Teaneck shouldnot go to a non-Jewish organization, saidAbbe Rosner, a board member, explain-ing why that proposal was not seriouslyentertained.

Theres a lot of negotiations that stillhave to happen, between the school andthe shul, Mr. Student said.

Once those negotiations are concludedand rati ied by the synagogue board,the agreement will have to be rati ied bya two-thirds vote of the congregationsmembership.

Three years ago, two thirds of the mem- bership gave their approval to installing amechitza in the main sanctuary, to sepa-rate men and women during services. Thatenabled the synagogue, which at one time

SEE JEWISH CENTER PAGE 14


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What did he know?When did he know it?State Senate majority leaderLoretta Weinberg discussesGWB scandal interim report

JOANNE PALMER

On Monday, the New Jersey statelegislative committee investi- gating Bridgegate submitted aninterim report.

Anyone expecting a inalanswer to the question of whatdid he know and when did heknow it or to be more speci ic,how much did Governor ChrisChristie know about the closureof the three local lanes leading tothe George Washington Bridge,creating potentially lethal havocin Fort Lee, and when did helearn that his aides had beenresponsible for it would bedisappointed.

Still, there are nuggets thereabout the scandal, lying readyfor gleaning.

This is very much an interimreport , Lore t ta Weinbergstressed. Ms. Weinberg, a Demo-crat, is the state Senates majorityleader. She lives in Teaneck, andFort Lee is in her district.

The report is a chronologicallisting of all the documents, testi-mony, and results of the subpoe-nas gathered over the last fewmonths, she said. It is interim because th e four people whoseactions are key to the investiga-tion Mr. Christies one-timetwo top appointees to the PortAuthority of New York and New Jersey, his former campaign man-ager, and his now- ired deputychief of staff would have to be given i mmunity if they were totestify to the commission. Butthe U.S. attorneys of ice in New-ark still is at work on its owninvestigation. Any clear-thinking

person and that includes us would choose not t o give themimmunity yet, Ms. Weinbergsaid. So we havent had theopportunity to talk directly withthose folks.

That chance may come fairlysoon. NBC News is reportingthat indictments may be handeddown, perhaps in January.

The report does not show thatthe governor knew about thelane-closing project. What itdoes show is that at the upper-most levels of the governorsof ice, people were directlyinvolved, Ms. Weinberg said.Although that is not new, theextent of their involvement islaid out in great detail. Anybodyreading the report also will comeaway with the fact that there wasa concerted effort at a cover-up,she added.

She talked about David Wild-stein, whom Mr. Christie hadappointed the director of thePort Authoritys interstate capitalprojects and later ired. Mr. Chris-tie and Mr. Wildstein were in Liv-ingston High School together, but after Bridgegate broke, Mr.Christie downplayed any pos-sible friendship between thetwo. In fact, he said, they didnttravel in the same circles in highschool. He was class presidentand an athlete. Mr. Wildstein,on the other hand, was pub-licly accused by his high schoolsocial studies teacher of decep-tive behavior.

Mr. Wildstein claims that hetold the governor about the ongo-ing traf ic situation on September11, roughly halfway through it,

Ms. Weinberg said. We cantascertain whether or not that istrue, because the governor sayshe doesnt recall such a conver -sation, and we cant interviewDavid Wildstein because of theongoing U.S. attorneys investi- gation. But there is still a shoe or perhaps a hobnailed boot waiting to drop.

There is much in the reportabout the traf ic study that waspurported to be the reason forthe traf ic jam. Some of thedetails surrounding that icti-tious study make far more sense or perhaps far less sense topeople who take the GeorgeWashington Bridge from east-ern Bergen or northeasternHudson counties than they doto anyone else, and those detailsare rehashed in the report. It was just a little over a year agothat Bill Baroni, then the PortAuthoritys deputy executivedirector, testi ied under oathat the senate transportation com-mittee with this weird story.

He said that they looked atthe addresses of EZ Pass hold-ers in Fort Lee. There are about4,000 of them. They came to theconclusion that only about 4,000people a very small percentageof Bergen County were able touse three lanes of the bridge.Those are the easternmost of the12 lanes on the bridges upperlevel; they are more easily acces -sible to local traf ic than from themajor highways that carry mostriders to the bridge.

It was the Monday afterThanksgiving last year, Ms.Weinberg said. I always spend

Thanksgiving in California withmy kids. I was there, my grand -children had gone off to school,and I was listening to Bill Baronitestify on my iPad. I was wonder-ing to myself, what was he talkingabout?

While he was still testifying, Icalled Mark Sokolich, the mayorof Fort Lee, and said, Are thereany roads that only residents ofFort Lee can use? And he saidto me, I dont know what youretalking about. I said, I think youshould listen to this testimony.

It was during this hearing, sheadded, that Regina Egea, who was then Mr. C hristi es li aisonto the Port Authority and since

has become his chief of staff,texted the governor at least 10times. Those texts all have beendeleted. We dont know whatthey said, Ms. Weinberg said.But it is dif icult to believe thatthey were discussing somethingunrelated to what was going on.

Musing on the complicated sto-ries devised to explain the traf icstudy, because how could there be a traf ic study when there wasnothing to study? Ms. Weinbergsaid that it brought to mind theold adage that the cover-up can be worse than the act itself. Thereport shows Mr. Sokolich trying, with higher and higher degreesof desperation, to get in touch

Earlier this year, Loretta Weinberg talked about the ongoingBridgegate probe.


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with Mr. Baroni, with the governors of ice, with otherof icials at the Port Authority. They were gettingemails saying that this is a tragedy waiting to happen.

This report backs up the picture of people at thehighest level of the administration and Port Authorityacting with impunity and then trying to cover it up.

There is no doubt that it was done for political ret-ribution of some kind, she continued. Gov. Christie wanted to win his re-election campaign in a landslide;that would help him as he moved toward his next goal,the Republican presidential nomination. To that end,Ms. Weinberg said, some of his team was giving outsome remnants of steel from the World Trade Center.Even that. That was the atmosphere that led to this.

Mr. Christies operatives had been wooing Mr. Sokol -ich, a Democrat; the morning after he made it clearthat he would not endorse Mr. Christ ie, the governorsdeputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, sent out the infa-mous Time for some traf ic problems in Fort Lee.That was in late August; the lanes were closed in Sep-tember. It was September 9, the irst Monday afterLabor Day, the irst day of school, the week of RoshHashanah, and the week of 9/11, Ms. Weinberg said.It is almost as if they purposely wanted to make it asdif icult for people as they could.

At irst, she said, Mr. Sokolich did not know whythe lanes were closed, according to the phone callsand messages. The irst notion came through whena Port Authority policeman told an irate motorist tocall the mayor; its because of something he did. Mr.Sokolichs reaction, she said, was, Im not importantenough. But as the people he had always been incontact with at the Port Authority ignored him, hestarted to think that maybe it was real. He startedto send emails asking, Who is mad at me? Why areyou mad at me? And because they wouldnt pick upthe phone, he called one of his contacts at the PortAuthority from another phone, so they wouldnt rec -ognize the number.

That call got answered; later, the man who answeredit was questioned by his supervisors for having pickedup the phone.

My irst reaction, when I got involved a week later, was that this was so bizarre, I couldnt believe it, Ms.Weinberg said. I couldnt believe that this is how you would get back at the mayor.

The minority the Republicans can say thatthis is a witch hunt, that they werent consulted, but we took documents, we took testimony, and the com -mittees lawyer wrote this report.

Ms. Weinberg referred to the Gibson Dunn Report,a publicly inanced, privately conducted, $6.5 millioninvestigation by the law irm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher,led by Randy Mastro. That report pointed at Mr. Wild-stein, Mr. Baroni, and Ms. Kelly as responsible forBridgegate, she said. It said basically that Bill Baroni was washed up and tired, and he wasnt going to bereappointed in the governors campaign; David Wild-stein was a cuckoo guy, bringing in a hundred crazyideas a day, and Bridget Kelly was a hysterical woman.

But who appointed these three crazy people? If hisown report is talking about the governors two highestemployees at the Port Authority and his deputy chiefof staff why were they there?

There is a parallel to Bridgegate, she said, and it isthe obvious one the Ur-gate itself, Watergate. Peo-ple said then that this was the stupidest thing they hadever heard of, she said. Having third-rate burglars breaking in that was nuts. And thi s is pretty nutstoo.


10/72

Local


Transplanting the heart of the worldIDF war vets speak in Englewood for Panim el PanimJOANNE PALMER

What does it feel like to be 18, or 20, or 22,and to go to war?

Most of us, thankfully, do not know. Itis one of those things that we can imag-ine but we know that we are imaginingit wrong.

On Monday, a group of Israeli men, mostyoung, some Israeli-born and some olim,all veterans of Israeli wars, talked about

what it felt like. They spoke haltingly andsparingly; there were no details, no heart-rending stories, just ellipses where the badstuff would have been.

The talk at Congregation AhavathTorah in Englewood, sponsored by thatshul and Kehilat Kesher and organized bythe Jewish Federation of Northern New Jer-sey featured IDF veterans from the orga-nization Panim el Panim.

Some of the men simply introducedthemselves, with brief explanations. Oneof them is the cousin of Naftali Fraenkel,

one of the three Israeli teenagers mur-dered this summer, just before the warin Gaza broke out. One is a lawyer, newly

graduated from Cardozo in Manhattan.One made aliyah from Perth, Australia.Some have children; some were childrenthemselves a very few years ago.

Four others spoke a bit more. Lt. BentziGross, a platoon commander who foughtin densely populated Gaza, said, Youdont understand it until youre there. Itslike a dream.

You go into the irst house, and you seea picture on the second floor of a kid with

guns. In my area we found Hamas terroristtunnels under houses. This is for real. It isnot a joke. It is something soldiers have todeal with. We educate ourselves in a moral

way to deal with these dilemmas.His brother, Sgt. Naftali Gross, a medi -

cal student who spent the war in the emer- gency medical corps, said, I rememberone of the Arabs who learned beside mein medical school, an Israeli Arab, posteda Facebook status in Arabic maybehe thinks we dont have Google trans-late and he asked, What is the differ-ence between IDF soldiers and Hamas

terrorists? They are both baby killers.So I sat with him, and I said that Hamas

terrorists shoot at schools. When we attackin Gaza, we try to hit the speci ic people who are involved, and if other people gethurt, that hurts us. It burns us. The dif-ference is whether your mindset is if you want to hit babies or i f you want to savethem.

The other medical student had noresponse, he said.

At times, Mr. Grosss work as an EMThas taken him into east Jerusalem, whereat times he is met with curses, and even with thrown stones. He also works in west Jerusalem. Two weeks ago, I respondedto Har Nof, my own neighborhood, hesaid. An Israeli Arab came in and slaugh -tered people. It looked like the Holocaust, with men lying in puddles of blood, withtallit and te illin.

The lesson he takes from that is howimportant it is for Israels story to be told.Our enemies believe the lies they hear; wemust counter them with the truth.

Major Shai, an IDF commander and F16ighter pilot who wears visible tzitzit (and

who does not use his last name for securityreasons), said that he saw the irst movieof the tunnels that Hamas dug, through which they planned to att ack Isr ael.There were 20 terrorists who came out

from the tunnel. When I saw that, I remem- bered the Einsatzgruppen, the part of theNazi army that slaughtered Jews in theirhomes. Hamas planned to send terroriststhrough 30 tunnels to slaughter Jews in 30kibbutzim on Rosh Hashanah, he said, butthey were stopped. I know for sure that we will not let them bring another Holo-caust to our borders. The question is, what will prevent it?

It all depends on what we have insideour heads.

One of the members of his squadron isRoni Zuckerman, the irst Israeli womanto be a ighter pilot, Shai continued. Her grandfather was Ante k Zuckerman , aleader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.If the Jews in Warsaw could have knownthat Antek Zuckermans grandchild was going to be a ighter pilot in the Israeli airforce he said, letting his sentence trailoff.

Sgt. Rafael Wein, a lone soldier fromAustralia, said that he had been upset when he was not posted to G aza at thestart of this summers war. It was a bit ofan anticlimax, after all his training, to beleft behind, he said. But Hamas tunnelsended right in his territory. Five soldiers were killed not ive feet from where I was with my sold iers, he said. Working onintelligence about where the tunnels let

out, he and his men laid ambushes for theterrorists.

Panim el Panim is an Israeli organi -zation, founded a little under 10 yearsago, at the time when Israel disengagedfrom Gaza, Dov Goldman, founder anddirector of American Friends of Panim elPanim, said. There was a massive amountof friction between the left and the right,the secular and the religious, and the orga-nization was created to remind us that weare all Jews.

The groups mission, he said, is to teachabout Jewish unity and Jewish iden-tity. Most of its work is in Israel, where itteaches IDF soldiers and students in sec-ular high schools and kibbutzim to know

who they are and to take joy and pride init. In the diaspora, it works to show Jewsthe truth about Israel, and of course toraise the funds that are necessary for its

work.I like to remind people that the mes-

sage we get in the media is that Israelisoldiers are violent, oppressive brutes.The soldiers who they see are sensitive,re ined people. Part of what we are try-ing to do is show that the soldiers are inehuman beings. That comes back to ourcore mission.

Colonel Geva Rapp, Panim el Panims

Colonel Geva Rapp addressing IDF soldiers.

SEE IDF VETS PAGE 16

Our enemies believe the lies

they hear; we must

counter themwith the truth.


11/72


Gifted.

l l .


12/72

Local


Spend your gap year in Eilat?Rabbi offers program heavy on adventure as well as text studyABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

Its no secret that despite the popularityof gap-year yeshiva programs in Israel,many Jewish 18-year-olds, newly gradu-ated from high school, do not relish theidea of hours-long intensive Torah studysix days a week. Seeking to ill the gap inthe gap year, so to speak, several creativeprograms have sprung up in recent yearsto offer travel-and-study or volunteer-and-study alternatives.

The newest program in this categoryis unusual for its location. It is based inthe southernmost Israeli city of Eilat, the beach resort better known for snorkelingthan davening.

The El-Ami (To the Nation) ChallengeProgram is for Orthodox 18- to 23-year-oldsseeking a very different kind of year expe -rience in Israel, its founder, Rabbi MosheGottesman, said. Rabbi Gottesman wasin Bergen County recently to spread the word about the nine-month program hehopes to launch next September. A sum-mer option may be offered, depending oninterest.

Eilat is a city with the most extraor-dinary opportunities for adventure andpersonal growth, from mountain rangesand Red Sea coral to awesome desert-land, Rabbi Gottesman said. We wantedto build something that would challengeour students both physically and spiritu-ally. We will be able to give our studentsthe opportunity to hike in the mountains,swim with dolphins, learn to sail with theIsraeli Navy, rappel down the red canyon,and navigate through desert survivalexperiences.

All participants will have the optionof earning an international scuba-divinglicense and taking master kite-sur ingclasses.

The emphasis will be on self-discov -ery, learning half a day about faith andGod, and what it means to be a Jew,Rabbi Gottesman said. Well have tripsto meet different kinds of people in Israel.And after nine months, if someone wantsto go into the army we can be like a fam-ily for him.

Rabbi Gottesman, who was born in Buf-falo, N.Y., and rai sed in Kiryat Arba nearHebron, spent ive years at Eilats hesderyeshiva, during which he served in the IDFas a combat medic. (Hesder is an arrange-ment that allows religious young men tocombine Torah study with a shortenedperiod of military service.)

After marrying and living in Eilat fortwo years, Rabbi Gottesman moved tothe Jordan Valley to direct the boys divi-sion of Israels Ariel youth movement.Seven years later, he moved east to PetachTikvah to run a high school program for

seniors from disadvantaged backgrounds,to strengthen their self-esteem and pre-pare them for the army and a meaningfullife.

When he started hearing about a grow-ing number of American teens from Ortho-dox communities who dont it into the tra-

ditional programs offered in Israel, he felthis experiences could be helpful in formu-lating a solution.

We discovered a niche of kids who grew up in religiou s familie s but dontreally have a place to come for their gapyear, he said. They dont want to learn ina yeshiva or midrasha a womens semi-nary and they have religious questions.

El-Ami grew out of Rabbi Gottesmansdiscussions with the head of the Eilat hes-der yeshiva. It may have some sort of infor-mal partnership with the yeshiva, thoughthe programs are not af iliated.

The program is modeled not on hesder but rather on the Israeli mechina, a prepschool for teens who opt for a gap-yearexperience of study and physical training before their military service.

El-Ami will have separate mens and womens divisions. Their activities will be

similar, and they may join for some mutualactivities.

The program focuses a lot on iden-tity, connecting to the Jewish people,heritage, and values, but although it is aneducational program the style is far morerelaxed and informal than a traditionalyeshiva program, Rabbi Gottesman said.Im not looking to compete with existingprograms. Im looking for boys and girls who want to come to Israel but dont seethe right setting, or those who come andind they dont it in.

While he was in Teaneck during

November, he introduced the program tomembers of the Orthodox Union youth group NCSY as well as to students at TorahAcademy of Bergen County, a boys highschool. He also met with TABCs Israel guidance counselors.

El-Ami will be housed in a high school building in Eilat, the sunny city to whichhe and his family have relocated. The stu-dents will live in a neighborhood whereabout 100 national-religious families (theIsraeli equivalent of modern Orthodox)have moved in.

Many young religious Israeli womenin National Service, an alternative to thearmy, also are stationed in Eilat to do com-munity volunteering. Joint activities andprogramming are possible, Rabbi Gottes-man said, adding that the mayor of Eilathas placed his full support behind theprogram.

Tuition will be $22,000, similar toother gap-year programs despite higherexpenses resulting from the more fre -quent off-campus activities and trips.Rabbi Gottesman hopes to offset the dif-ference through partnerships with non-pro it organizations, North American fed-erations, and Masa Israel Journey, whichprovides scholarships for Israel programparticipants.

El-Amis website, still under construc-tion, is rejew-il.org, and Rabbi Gottesmansemail address is [email protected].

El-Amis Rabbi Moshe Gottesman stands on the beach in Eilat.

Eilat is a city with the mostextraordinary opportunities for

adventure and personal growth, from mountain ranges and Red Sea

coral to awesome desert-land.RABBI MOSHE GOTTESMAN


13/72


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14/72

Local


was a flagship of the Conservative move-ment, to join the Orthodox Union, andcame ive years after the congregationhired Rabbi Lawrence Zierler with theunderstanding that the mechitza would be installed.

That change, it was thought, would help bring members from Teanecks Orthodoxcommunity, but it proved too little, toolate. The synagogue had spent decadesstraddling the no-mans land betweenConservative and Orthodox as its member-ship declined.

Last week, its longtime rabbi, DavidFeldman, died.

It now has 69 member families, accord-ing to a board member who chose not touse his name. At its height, it had 1,500.

And two months ago, the Jewish Cen-ter let Rabbi Zierler go, citing budgetdif iculties.

Yeshiva Heichal HaTorah is now in itssecond year, with 33 students in ninthand tenth grade. Its largest continent ofstudents comes from Teaneck, but it also boasts students from Passaic and Mon-sey, N.Y., both outposts of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.

Yeshiva Heichal HaTorah offers what itdescribes as a classic yeshiva educationand a superior general studies program with excitement, warmth and a passion

for growth.Its head, Rabbi Aryeh Stechler, is a grad-

uate of Yeshiva University, as are many ofits faculty. But in contrast to Torah Acad-emy of Bergen County, Teanecks longtime boys yeshiva high school, Heichal HaTo-rah adheres to a typically ultra-Orthodoxschool calendar of Sunday and eveningTalmud classes, above and beyond thestandard yeshiva high school schedule.

In a statement, Rabbi Stechler and theschools president, Yehuda Jacoby, said:The Yeshiva is pleased to announce thatthe Board of the Jewish Center has agreedto enter into partnership negotiations with Heichal th at will enable Heich al tocontinue to grow and will ensure the con -tinuity of the Jewish Center of Teaneck.We are excited about the opportunitiesthis collaboration affords Heichal HaTo-rah and the larger Bergen County Jewishcommunity.

Both Rabbi Stechler and Mr. Studentdeclined to comment on the details of theproposal. But sources on the synagogues board said the scho ol offe red to paythe synagogue $1 million at closing, and$120,000 a year over 10 years.

This contrasted with the Chabad offer, which sources said did not offer as muchmoney. Supporters of the Chabad pro-posal, however, felt that the Jewish groupcould best replicate the Center in its glory

days, as a full service, multigenerational Jewish center.

I felt the Chabad proposal offered the Jewish Center a fut ure t hat would havecome close to the heyday, said boardmember Abbe Rosner.

They promised lots of activity, lots ofprogramming, she said.

Another board supporter of the Chabadproposal, Zalmen Mlotek, noted thatChabad drew 700 people to a Purim eventat the Jewish Center last year.

What does the Center need more des-perately than traf ic? he said.

Chabad has a packed preschool andkindergarten. That attracts people to acommunity, he said.

Today, he said, the Jewish Center suf-fers from a lack of children and young par-ents in the congregation. Whats going tochange with bringing in Heichal HaTorah,a right-wing yeshiva? Mr. Mlotek said. Idont understand that. Chabad is comingin with hundreds of families ready to cometo our preschool.

The main difference was that Heichal was plunking down a million dollars forthe future of a minyan that frankly hasnt grown, he said.

By the numbers, the Holy Name pro-posal was far and away the best offer. It would have paid the synagogue its fair mar-ket appraised value, which the synagogue

board has estimated to be $5 million.We would buy the building at its

appraised value, said Michael Maron, thehospitals president. We would allow thecongregation to continue to use the mainsanctuary. We would employ the rabbi forthe congregation, jointly selected by thecongregation and us.

Mr. Maron said the hospital woulduse the centers pool and itness area toexpand its physical therapy and itnessprograms; it would use the classroomspace for its nursing school.

And it would offer speci ic health programs targeted at the Jewish community.We would keep the heritage alive, he said.

Board member Eva Gans, however, is very pleased with the partnershi p wi ththe school. The inancial arrangement with them will assure the viability of thesynagogue into the future, she said.

We already have had experience withthem. The boys in the building are verypositive, and have been helping the congregation with its daily minyan.

They respect our history. Theyre eventalking about maybe making a museumkind of exhibit. It was the Jewish Centerthat was the center for a lot of Jewish lifein Bergen County. Synagogues came fromus, schools came from us. They recognizethat, they appreciate it, they want to showit to everyone.

Jewish Center FROM PAGE 7

Questioning justiceTwo local rabbis march for Eric Garner

LARRY YUDELSON

Two Teaneck rabbis Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, director of programs for Truah:The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, andRabbi Rebecca Sirbu, director of Rab- bis Without Borders took part in last weeks protest against police brutality inManhattan.

Many Jews joined in the demonstration,at 96th Street and Broadway; it was orga -nized at least in part by the Jewish com-munity. Four rabbis Sharon Kleinbaum, Jill Jacobs, Shai Held, and David Rosenn were arrested there.

The protest last Thursday night followeda Staten Island grand jurys decision theday before not to indict policeman Dan-iel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner todeath in July, in what the New York Citymedical examiner found to be a homicide.

Theres a lot of anger and frustration inthe Jewish community that the cops can killpeople of color and can use deadly forceand that is permitted under their job,Rabbi Kahn-Troster said. The idea thatyou can have an encounter with a cop andhave that become a deadly encounter is justso shocking. The Jewish community is just

waking up to those realities, she said.Rabbi Sirbu said the verdict in the Gar-

ner case, as well as the decision by a Mis-souri grand jury the previous week not toindict the policeman who killed MichaelBrown in Ferguson, motivated her to go toNew York City for a protest. That was theirst time she had done so in the 11 yearsshe has been living in Bergen County.

The verdicts show that something is very wrong right now in our country, both with police tactics and power dynamics and with the justice system, Rabbi Sirbu said.

Demonstrators recited Kaddish forpeople killed by New York policemen.It was extremely powerful and chilling,Rabbi Kahn-Troster said. It was just a realmoment of solidarity with the communi-ties that are affected.

The demonstration, on ManhattansUpper West Side, was organized by the group Jews for Racial and Economic Justiceand followed the groups annual awardsceremony. At the demonstration, 27 peo-ple were arrested after blocking traf ic on96th Street and Broadway, including Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Truahs executive director.

There is a deep, cultural racism in thiscountry that many people live with, and

it is becoming very apparent to the largercommunity through these recent cases,Rabbi Sirbu said. We need to step up, toencourage changes in terms of policing andthe culture of racism in this country.

Why did Rabbi Sirbu not choose to blocktraf ic and be arrested?

Honestly, I was scared. I was not surethat I wanted to put myself in the posi-tion of having to deal with the legal sys-tem since I have my doubts about it at themoment, she said.

Rabbi Kahn-Troster said the killings bypolice reflect systemic problems.

We have a police that is heavily milita-rized, that has been trained to jump to thedisproportionate use of force extremelyquickly, she said.

Its very hard to convict a police of icerof brutality. The laws have been written tothat if a police of icer believes they are indanger they have permission to use dispro-portionate force.

Its easy for people who identify as white to think of the problem as individual bad cops, or that if we just train the police better we coul d solve i t. There ha s beena lot of study of unconscious bias againstpeople of color. We have to acknowledgethe racial bias in our system and speak outon it as people who bene it from it, shesaid. We bene it from racial discrimina-tion in ways we dont really understand.

She said that at a workshop on facilitating

discussions about racial justice, she cameto appreciate how events that appear one way to the Jewish community have a differ-ent meaning for African Americans.

We talked about the GI Bill. For the Jewish community, the GI Bill i s how we became middle class. People went off tothe Second World War, and when theycame back their move to the suburbs wasinanced by education and loans that camefrom the GI Bill, she said.

At the same time, however, The army was still segregated, and a lot of the ben-e its around housing were not available forAfrican Americans. Here you have a storyessential to who Jews became as Americansthat was a negative for African Americans.Learning to unpack stories like that, abouthow we bene it from who we are even if we dont think of ourselves as racist , i san important challenging conversation tohave.

Rabbi Kahn-Troster said that as anincreasing number of Jews adopt AfricanAmerican and African children, the issuesof skin color become questions that Jewishfamilies confront irst hand.

Over Pesach, right after Trayvon Martin was shot, a friend raising an African childsaid, my Jewish friends dont understandthat we cant give our son all of our whiteprivilege.

Just having him say that was astound -ing for me.


15/72


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16/72

Local


CheckmateLocal chess whiz brings home another prizeLOIS GOLDRICH

Its not really surprising. After all, he began playing chess when he was 5.

So to learn that Gilad Drillichof Harrington Park a senior at

Northern Valley Regional High School atOld Tappan won the New Jersey GradeSchool Chess Championship for the thirdconsecutive year should come as no shock.

Still, it is quite an accomplishment forthe 17-year-old, who won ive out of iveone-hour games at the tournament, held

recently at Brookdale Community Collegein Lincroft.

Gilad explained that the participants, inkindergarten through twelfth grade, werematched with one another according to achess rating system.

According to Gi lads mother, Michal,

there is a lot of pressure involved in thecompetition, and the amount of concen-tration needed to compete in ive hour-long games is immense. After each game, Itexted him that he should be calm.

I enjoy playing good people, Giladsaid. Its more fun, because they dontmake mistakes.

The chess whiz who took up the gamein kindergarten said he learned the game when one of his fathers friends gavehim a chess set and taught him how to useit. Once he realized how much he likedto play chess, he began attending chessclasses and chess camps.

Noting that he has made different chessfriends over the years, Gilad said, Weplay each other. Its fun.

Not all those friends are in his own grade.

Its your own world, he said, addingthat you dont really know who plays the game until you st art playing yourself. Alot of people play chess, he added.

The young man credits his success to thesupport of his parents, Michal and Dan and yes, he said, there has been a lot ofdriving involved and his coach, DianaTulman, co-founder and owner of theInternational Chess Academy.

She has always made it her per -sonal mission to get me to go to more

tournaments and more classes, he said.I have been so lucky to have her as mycoach.

He pointed out that his grandfather alsoplays chess online.

I dont play him much, he said.Gilad thinks that playing chess has

enhanced his life, adding to his skills, giv-ing him more patience as well as a morestrategic outlook.

I can sit down for a long time and thinkabout a problem, he said, something thatno doubt will help him as heads off tocollege next year. He plans to become anengineer.

To some extent, chess and engineeringrequire the same kinds of skills solvingproblems, inding solutions, he said

His mother agreed that chess has car -ried over to so many levels of Gilads life.Her son thinks things through before mak-ing decisions and has the ability to concen-trate for hours, she said.

We are all so proud of Gilad, sheadded. Through chess he has found him-self. Chess and Diana, his coach, have

given him the self-con idence to try newthings. We are proud of his accomplish-ments and are eager to see what greatthings he will do in the future.

In the meantime, Gilad, who likes tokeep busy, also participates in track andcross-country Im not as good at thoseas I am in chess, he said and has beenthe class president for the past two years.

Its nice having something youre very good at, he said. Its both a hobby anda passion. I want to continue in college,maybe on a team.

Gilad Drillich says his chess skills willhelp in engineering studies.

Its nice having something

youre very good at.

founder, also spoke in Englewood, andlater in a phone interview.

I was raised in a nonreligious family inIsrael, Mr. Rapp, 57, said. He joined theIDF and became a paratrooper. He left when he was 25, determined to becomea nuclear physicist. But on my way touniversity I had the idea that I would goto research a yeshiva, see what its reallyabout. After a couple of months I becamea baal teshuva, and I stayed for a coupleof years.

Then he was called back to the army.They needed me for my skills as a com-mander. I consulted my rabbi, and hesaid that we are told that if you see some-one in danger, you must go and help.That person is the nation of Israel. So Ileft my yeshiva, and went back for oneyear in the army.

I stayed for 18 years.Eleven years ago, he inished that stint,

but found that he could not leave fully; hehas been in the reserves since then. Eightyears ago, he was one of three command-ers in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

Last summer, he said, An Aish rabbi

in England asked me to come and tell thetruth about what is happening in Israel.I said that I had been home from the warfor less than a month, but he said that it was cruc ial. So we went to L ondon, tospeak to schools in the morning, busi-nessmen during the day, and communi-ties in the evening.

I asked them not to publish my sched-ule, but it was published anyway. I wassupposed to talk to a Hillel center in Lon-don, but I was informed that I couldntcome. There was a huge Arab demonstra-tion. They wanted me to be arrested for war crimes.

Mr. Rapp was tempted to stay and ightit out, but his wife, who was with him,did not want to do that, and they left,after his local Israeli consulate told himthat he couldnt do anything to get himout were he to land in jail. So we went back home.

There is a great deal of hate aimed atIsrael all around the world, Mr. Rappacknowledges.

In The Kuzari, Judah HaLevi saidthat the nation of Israel was created to be the heart of the world, Mr. Rapp said.That was 800 years ago. Today, baruchHashem, we see in our history that there

is a transplant of a new heart of the world.

For two thousand years, there wasno heart. We Jews were spread all overthe world, but there was no nation. Now we are here. We have transplanted a newheart in a sick body, and it is rejecting us.

From the very beginning of Zionism,Herzl decided that there was no chance

that we would have Israel. The whole world was against us. Maybe we should go to Uganda. And then there was WorldWar II, and we established Israel with nohelp from anybody. We were boycotted

from the very beginning.Thats because the world doesnt

want a new heart . A heart t hat is teach -ing them love for all mankind and realcomplete peace. Not pieces of peace, butreal peace.

The war against Israel is being foughton many fronts, he said. Some are physi-cal, and obvious Gaza, Syria, Lebanon.Others are less so the media, culture,international courts, publicity.

But he has hope.Sometimes we use smoke, he said.

When everything is covered withsmoke, we can maneuver without any-one seeing what were doing or under-standing where were headed.

He sees the attacks against Israel onall those fronts as a smokescreen. The

world is saying that when they do that,everything is okay; we accuse them of

war crimes, they run away. Everything isunder control.

Meanwhile, we are building. Every-thing in eretz Yisrael is getting bigger and

better every day.For more information about Panim

el Panim, email Dov Goldman at [email protected] or call him at(646) 450 5991.

IDF vets FROM PAGE 10

We are building.

Everything in

eretz Yisrael is getting biggerand betterevery day.


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Local


Letter from IsraelCrane crazy in the Hula ValleyABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

Common cranes make anuncommon racket.

I now know this because myhusband and I took a three-

hour hike around the Agamon-Hula Lakein the Upper Galilee a couple of Fridaysago, in the midst of the mighty birdmigration.

The Hula is the largest of several Israelipit stops for half a billion thats 500million! migratory birds making their

way from Europe and Asia to Africa in theearly winter and back again in the earlyspring. Some stay no longer than a day,

while others linger.According to the Israel Birding Portal,

the Hula Valley is a migration flyway fortens of thousands of common cranes, as

well as somewhere between 300 and 400other species. That includes white peli-cans, ducks, waders, passerines, eagles,pallid harriers, buzzards, and rare Euro-pean birds of prey.

My husband and I barely know a cranefrom a canary, and we certainly wouldnt

be able to identify, say, a Humes leaf war - bler or a buff-belli ed pipit if one shouldhappen to fly over our heads as appar-ently they do here in Israel with someregularity.

But we had visited the Jerusalem BirdObservatory and were fascinated to learnabout the importance of Israel as a refu-eling station for migratory birds, andto watch the pros catch, weigh, band,and release the visitors in order to track

their journeys from season to season.Amazingly, these winged creatures flythousands of miles and return to rest inexactly the same points along the wayeach year without assistance from GPSor Waze.

We had seen breathtaking photo- graphs o f t he cranes descen t over theHula. Everyone we knew whod beenthere urged us to go in season to wit-ness the sedges thats the proper wordfor a group of cranes coming in for alanding.

But nobody prepared us for thenoise generated by thousands of cranesswooping in to gobble up the corn thatthe nature reserve spreads for them. Itreminded me of a giant Kiddush scene where everyones exchanging exuberant greet ings as they descend on tempti ngplatters piled with herring, cholent, andkugel, and you can barely hear yourselfthink.

The hungry, tired birds would land inthe Hula even if the corn were not pro- vided , of cours e. Spreadi ng it in a s in- gle ield is a wi se t actic , dev ised out o fnecessity the need to keep the avian visi tors from decimat ing the croplandsof the Galilee. An unintended side effectis that the cawing is super-concentrated.You start hearing the holy hullabaloo well before you come in view of the vast cranecongregation.

You can watch only from a carefuldistance, so binoculars are a must. Thepath purposely doesnt get too close tothe cranes, but observation posts with

telescopes are set up along the way andstaffed by knowledgeable park rangers.

You may choose to explore the reserve by foot, as we did; rent a single, double,or triple bike or golf cart, or book a seaton a sort of open truck in which you geta narrated tour. The paths also are illed with recreational bikers from the area.

We saw many other residents of theHula, including many coypus semi-aquatic rodents also known as nutria.Signs explained that they were intro-duced to Israel from Argentina in themid-20th century by would-be furriers, but the warmer cl imate made for unde-sirable fur, and so the lucky coypus gotreleased to the wild. They seem to coex-ist peacefully with all the ducks and otheraquatic birds dotting the shores of theHula (which is spelled with a chet andpronounced with the guttural ch as inChanukah).

As in many areas of Israeli life, natureand innovation come together in a spec-tacular way at Agamon-Hula. Back in the

pioneering days of the 1950s, the marsh-lands around Lake Hula famously weredrained in order to create agriculturalplots and to wipe out the malaria-carry-ing mosquito population.

The success of this project nearly eradi-cated the lakes complex ecosystem andmade it inhospitable for the migrating

birds, however. To remedy the situation,environmentalists oversaw the refloodingof a section of the valley the Agamon torestore the wildlife in a controlled way. Andthe birds came back. Boy, did they ever!

Meanwhile, the Galilee indeed becamea center for agriculture and commercialish farms. Over years of trial and error,ish growers have invented clever pondcoverings to keep out the migratory birds

without injuring them, as the early netsdid, and without smothering the ish forlack of oxygen.

The whole enterprise therefore has become a win-win, both for people andfor birds.

If youre planning a trip to Israel duringmigration season, I recommend puttingthe Hula Valley Bird Festival on your itiner -ary in mid-November or the Eilat Bird Fes-tival on your itinerary in mid-March. Formore information, see natureisrael.org or

go to YouTube, search for The Man WhoTaught Me To Fly, and watch the videothat comes up as the top result.

Abigail Klein Kleichman, our Israelcorrespondent, lived in Teaneck for many years. She frequent iles a Letter from Israel.

Migrating cranes in the Hula Valley. ISRAEL GOVERNMENT TOURIST OFFICE

Nature and innovation come

together in a spectacular wayat Agamon-Hula.


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20/72

Local

YU Chanukah dinner this weekendPhilanthropists and community lead-ers will gather at the Waldorf Astoria inManhattan for Yeshiva Universitys 90thannual Chanukah dinner and convoca-tion on Sunday, December 14. The galarecognizes distinguished members of theYU community who have demonstrated

committed leadership and dedication tothe universitys mission.

YU President Richard M. Joel will conferhonorary degrees on Michael Gamson ofHouston, Texas; Judith Weiss of Cleveland,Ohio; and Anita G. Zucker of Charleston,S.C.

Michael Gamson Judith Weiss Anita G. Zucker

RYNJ annual dinner coming The Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jerseyhas set its 77th annual dinner for Sunday,

January 11, at Congregation Keter Torah inTeaneck, at 6 p.m. Cindy and Israel Wieselare guests of honor, and Shira and DavidGreenberg will receive the Keter Shem Tovaward. A virtual ad journal will be com-piled in conjunction with the dinner.

The Wiesels, valued and respected members of the RYNJ staff, have been an inte- gral part of the schools growth and success

during the last 21 years. They are the parentsof Tzvi, Eli, Dafna, Avishai, a sixth grader,and Ariella, who is in second grade.

The Greenbergs have worked tirelesslyfor RYNJ during the last 13 years, ensur-ing the success of many school functionsand committees. They are the parents ofSheva, Efraim, an eighth grader; Dani, afourth grader, and Ari, who is in pre-K.

For information, go to www.RYNJ.org/dinner or call (201) 986 1414.

Cindy and Israel Wiesel David and Shira GreenbergTeaneck shul thanks firefightersCongregation Beth Aaron in Teaneckheld its second annual Project Thanks.The program gives thanks to the townsire ighters by providing a dinner withall the trimmings to the 17 ire ighters onduty on Thanksgiving Day.

Battalion Chief Joseph Berchtold wel-comed the group and expressed histhanks and appreciation. The project

chair, Alden Leifer, and Rabbi LarryRothwachs, the shuls spiritual leader, were among the speakers.

The ire ighters also gave a tour ofthe ire station to a group of congre- gants. Member famili es contributed tothe endeavor, which was prepared byMaadan of Teaneck.

More than 1,000 attend Ohel galaMore than 1,000 Ohel friends, support-ers, and family members attended the groups annual dinner, which was heldin the grand ballroom of New YorksMarriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.Moishe Hellman and Mel Zachter, co-presidents of Ohel Childrens Home andFamily Services, led the celebration,called Looking Back, Moving Forward.

Special guest speakers included NewYork State Assembly Speaker SheldonSilver, New York City Mayor Bill de Bla-sio, New Yorks U.S. Senator Charles E.

Schumer, and Councilman David Green-ield. Richard Bernstein, a MichiganSupreme Court Justice-elect and a dis-abled-rights activist who has been blindsince birth, was the keynote speaker.

The evening included a memorialtribute to Miriam Lubling, Ohels Angelof Mercy, a beloved longtime boardmember and the founder of the BikurCholim movement. In her memory,Ohel is establishing Ohel Miriam-theMiriam Lubling Center for Trauma andBereavement.

Richard Bernstein, Michigan Supreme Court Justice-elect (with redtie), is shown with Ohel board vice president Jay Kestenbaum, hiswife, Chani, and their family. COURTESY OHEL

Yachad 30th anniversary awards dinnerYachad will present its 30th anniver-sary awards dinner on Monday, Dec. 15,at 6 p.m. at Congregation Keter Torah inTeaneck. Isabelle and Aharon Orlansky

will receive the Yachad Family award;the Marder family, the Community Lead-ership award; and Rachel Frohlich Oren-

buch and Yisroel Orenbuch are the YoungLeadership award recipients. The occasion

will also mark the inauguration of the JoelDaner ah Yachad Communal Fellowship.

Yachad, the flagship program of theOrthodox Unions National Jewish Councilfor Disabilities, provides inclusive social,educational, and recreational programsfor individuals with learning, developmen-tal, and physical disabilities with the goalof inclusion in the total life of the Jewish

community.Eli Hagler, associate director of Yachad,

supervises the Joel Daner Yachad Commu-nal Fellowship. The fellows are recent col-lege graduates who contribute to Yachadsmission.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, inter-national director of Yachad, Joel was aconsummate professional who mentoredand counseled so many of todays leading Jewish communal professionals. There isno more itting an individual than Joel tomodel for our own distinguished fellowsthe values and practices that de ine profes-sional excellence and service.

Call Elaine Grossman, developmentassociate at the OU, at (212) 613 8350 oremail [email protected].

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22/72

Editorial

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The world is poorer now

than it was last week.O

n Saturday, George Hant- gan died.

Mr. Hantgan lived along and full life. He was

98; he was a husband, father, and grandfather.

He also was the founder of theinstitutions that shaped Jewish life innorthern New Jersey and in fact far beyond our borders and he createdthe culture of giving that has allowedthis community to flourish.

We wrote a cover story about Mr.Hantgan in the March 21 issue of the Jewish Standard. There, we describedhow the boy from Brooklyn, bornduring World War I, ended up meet -ing three presidents. The irst one hemet, for having been a particularlyenterprising newsboy, was HerbertHoover we marveled at that then, as

we do now.His second was Franklin Roosevelt

he sat in the White House for lunch with FDR and Eleanor, and he endedup killing a cockroach that crawledunder the table.

His third was Jimmy Carter, a dourman whom Mr. Hantgan disliked.Youre no better than Hitler, Mr.Hantgan recalled telling the man fromPlains.

Just those three stories tell a greatdeal about Mr. Hantgan. He was verysmart, he worked hard, he had greatdrive, he perservered, he was lucky,he was plucky, he was principled, andhe saw everything around him with great clarity.

Using those talents and skills, andhis training as a social worker, Mr.Hantgan began to work in the Jewishcommunity. In 1950, George and his beloved wife, Hon, who was as much apart of George as his heart or his lungsor his soul were, moved to Englewood,and he became the irst director of theEnglewood Jewish Community Center.

He presided over the building of thenew JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly.Concurrently, for many years, healso was the executive director of the

United Jewish Fund of Englewood andSurrounding Communities (whichnow, many name changes and merg -ers later, is the Jewish Federation ofNorthern New Jersey).

He built both those institutions,and many others. He trained peo-ple to give money, time, ener y, andlove to them, and to the commu-nity. He established the world viewthat said that if you have more thanyou need, you give some of it away.Doing that will make the world bet-ter, it will help other people and it

will make yo

North Jersey Jewish Standard, December 12, 2014

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