North Jersey Jewish Standard, February 19, 2016

7/24/2019 North Jersey Jewish Standard, February 19, 2016

1/56

Using music to helpteach students withspecial needs

201685NORTH JERSEY

REMEMBERING VERA GREENWALD page 6

THE END OF AN ERA IN WEST NEW YORK? page 10

A LUTHERAN MINISTERS JEWISH ROOTS page 12

LEARNING FOR ALL AGES AT LIMMUD page 14

FEBRUARY 19, 2016VOL. LXXXV NO. 24 $1.00

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Myths and memes on the Middle EastlThe backstory is

convoluted, as is often

the case in comic bookmythology. Briefly,

though, the title

character of Angela,

Queen Of Hel, meets

her long-dead grand-

father, Bor, father of

Odin.

Bor turns out to be

a deeply unpleasant

individual, in the

words of BleedingCool.

coms Rich Johnston,

so rather than transcribe his dialogue, the comic book blacks out the actual words and

instead puts a summary in brackets. Such as: [A LOT OF MISOGYNIST FILTH]

And in the speech balloon of interest to this page, [UNSOLICITED OPINIONS ON

ISRAEL???]

Hmm.

Okay, were not exactly sure what to make of it.

But comic books fans with time on their hands knew what to make of it: a series of

memes in which unsolicited opinions on Israel play a key role in comic book events.

Just for the record, Professor X and Bane: Whether youre a superhero or a supervillain

or even a cranky Norse god, we want to know what you think about Israel. Consider your

opinions hereby solicited. LARRY YUDELSON

Page 3

JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 19, 2

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

OPINION ............................................................18

COVER STORY ................................................24

HEALTHY LIVING

& ADULT LIFESTYLES ..................................33

DVAR TORAH ................................................42

ARTS & CULTURE ..........................................43

CALENDAR ......................................................44

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ................................46

GALLERY ..........................................................47

OBITUARIES ....................................................49

CLASSIFIEDS ..................................................50

REAL ESTATE ..................................................52

CONTENTS

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For convenient home delivery,

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NY FASHION WEEK

Jewish prayer shawlgets moment of glamlHas a tallit become a fashion

statement?

An unidentified mens fashion

enthusiast was recently spotted

wearing a real tallit not

one of the faux H&M ones outside a Tommy Hilfiger event

in Manhattan, Racked reported

last week.

Vogue photographer Phil Oh

captured the New York Fashion

Week: Mens participant

wearing a black wool coat and

a black beanie to go with the

dark-striped prayer shawl.

The tallit has been an inspiration

for retail fashion for a long time.

Last month, H&M offered a near-

tallit scarf; later, it apologized. The

company also sold a tallit-esque

poncho back in 2011. Old Navy had a

similar cardigan last year.

But real Jewish prayer gear hitt

the fashion circuit in New York n

to mention the webpages of Vogu

seems like a new development.

GABE FRIEDMA

lAttempted genocide.

Binge drinking. Royal

concubines. Assassina-

tion plots. Inter-ethnicbloodshed. Clearly, the

Book of Esther has all

the makings of a won-

derful childrens holiday.

And with Purim barely

a month away, we bring

you a page from My

Giant Purim Fun Book.

It came to our attention

when it was posted

to the WTF section of

Reddit.com.

A friend from New

Jersey found it in a store

called Amazing Savings

in their Jewish holiday

aisle, explained the user

who posted it.

Her 5-ish-year-old daughter found

it actually, asking her

what was going on in

the picture. She said she

jokingly replied with Im

not sure .... Hey, whats

that glittery thing over

there?!

The best comment,

though, came from a user posting

as Nyawk: I can say for a fact, being

raised Christian, that there are coloring

books with a near naked guy nailed to a

cross. Beat that. LARRY YUDELSON

Hanging Purim-styleon the coloring book shelf


4/56

Noshes

4 JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 19, 2016

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

and after the Olympics.Glickman went on to

be a famous and reallygreat sportscaster. As forStoller, I say this whilemost Wikipedia entriesare uneven, his is verywell-written and sourced so Google Stoller andread it for much moreinfo on him. It containsan excellent section onGlickmans and Stollerstreatment at the Games.

JAMESBURROWS,75, is often calledthe best TV sitcom

director of all time; onSunday, February 21, at 9p.m., NBC will broadcasta tribute to him. Most of

the cast of Friends isexpected to appear onthe show, including LISAKUDROW, 52, andDAVIDSCHWIMMER, 49.Burrows is the son of thelate composer/writerABEBURROWS(Howto Succeed in BusinessWithout Really Trying).Jim Burrows, a ten-timeEmmy winner, co-creat-ed and directedCheers. He alsodirected dozens of othergood sitcoms, includingFriends and Big BangTheory. Still active, hejust directed his 1000thTV episode.

N.B.

Jeremy Ferdman

AT THE MOVIES:

Race depictscareer of

Jesse Owens

James Burrows

Lisa Kudrow David Schwimmer

Race is the first

dramatic film

about Jesse

Owens, the great

African-American track

star who won four gold

medals at the 1936

Olympics, which were

held in Nazi Germany.

The film covers Owens

college career, hisdifficult time as a

movement to boycott

the Games grew in the

United States, his

performance at the

Games, and the bench-

ing of the Jewish

members of the U.S.

track team. I havent

seen the film, so I dont

know how it covers a

couple of big myths

about the Games first,

that Hitler snubbed

Owens after his wins

because Owens was

black (didnt happen),

and that Owens symboli-

cally won the Games by

establishing that blacks,

who the Nazis regarded

as sub-humans, could

beat the Nazi master

race. While reasonable

people could agree with

the latter point, the Nazis

shrugged off Owens

wins. Overall, the Games

were a great propaganda

coup for the Nazis

Germany won the most

medals and the film of

the Games, Olympia,

directed by the evil

genius Leni Riefenstahl,

greatly aided the Nazis

image.

An American boy-cott of the Games washeaded off by OlympicCommittee head Av-ery Brundage, an odi-ous anti-Semite who isplayed by Jeremy Irons

(who plays odious verywell). As shown in thefilm, at the last minute heordered the head of theAmerican track team toreplace two Jewish run-ners (MARTYGLICKMANand SAMSTOLLER) ona four-man relay teamwith two non-Jews. Themotive was clear notto embarrass Germanyby having its team loseto two Jews after losingto Owens in four events.Of course, this motivewas denied at the timewith absurd excuses,but the evidence wasso clear that in 1998 theU.S. Olympic Commit-tee awarded a specialmedal to Glickman andStoller by way of apolo-gy. (JEREMYFERDMAN,29, a Canadian lands-man with a lot of small-ish acting credits, playsGlickman.) By the way,Stoller and Owens, bothOhio natives, frequentlycompeted in high schooland college. Owens wonevery race but one, butthey were friends before

The fallout continuesfrom Gibson scandalHeres a karmic footnote to an old scandal. No

doubt you will recall that back in 2006, Mel Gibson

was arrested for drunk driving by Los Angeles Cou

deputy sheriff JAMESMEEand Gibson said to Ofi

Mee, F-cking Jews... the Jews are responsible for al

wars in the world. Are you a Jew? (Mee is Jewish.)

Gibson was friends with Lee Baca, then head of the

County Sheriffs ofice, and many suspected that Mwritten report of Gibsons behavior and statements

put into a vault at Bacas orders. The report was lea

to TMZ, and Mee was suspected of doing the leakin

but he denied it. However, Mee was on the departm

bad list, and he was ired in 2011 for allegedly violat

department rules during the arrest of a speeding m

ist. This iring was overturned in September 2015 an

he was reinstated with full back pay. Mee had hardl

write-ups before the Gibson arrest, and his lawyer

his iring was payback by Baca and others. As for G

his career has never recovered, and Baca, no longe

sheriff, was sentenced to six months in jail on Febr

ary 10 after pleading guilty to charges of lying to the

about county jail conditions in 2013.

James Mee

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

arent the birds frozen socialistsArent the snowclouds blocking the airfieldSocial Democratic appearances?

From a poem that Allan Ginsburg wrote in 1986 about Burlington, Verm

when Democratic (well, actually Independent, but whatever) preside

candidate Bernie Sanders was the towns mayor and the poets clear inspira

benzelbusch.com

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Local

6JEWISH STANDARD FEBRUARY 19, 2016

A lifes journeyRemembering Vera Greenwald of Presov, Vineland, Milford and TeaneckJOANNE PALMER

Vera Greenwald of Teaneck, who

died at 78 on February 2, knew

all about making the most of

almost anything. The little girl

who hid in the woods with her parents

while the Nazis rampaged became a teen-

ager on a chicken farm in Vineland and

then grew up to become a Jewishly obser-

vant young wife and mother in a part o f

Pennsylvania where there were almost no

Jews.

Its not surprising that when she began

her career selling real estate, many yearslater, in Bergen County, her ability to read

people and size up situations, learned over

the course of her eventful life combined

with a kindness that may well have been

inherent to her helped her as she helped

shape Jewish Teaneck.

Vera Goodman was born in 1937 into

a large and flourishing Jewish family in

Presov, Czechoslovakia she was her

parents irst child, and until the war had

ended and theyd found a new home in

the United States, she was their only child.

Her grandfather was a successful, chari -table, and highly respected businessman

who owned a lumber and coal business;

her father worked for his father, eventu-

ally struck out on his own in the same busi-

ness, and flourished.

When the war came, almost all of Veras

parents siblings were murdered; one of

her fathers sisters had gone to the United

States before the war, a fact that was to

prove vitally important later.

When the Nazis began to coniscate

Jewish-owned businesses, the Goodmans

decided that they did not want the Nazis

to beneit from theirs, Veras son, Joel

Greenwald of Englewood, said. Instead,

they gave everything away; then they

headed for the forest, which was wild and

forbidding, but safer than home.

My mother spent about 3 1/2 years

of the war hiding in the woods with her

parents, Mr. Greenwald said. Out of the

90,000 or so Jews in Slovakia, roughly

5,000 survived, and very few of them werechildren.

My mother and her parents hid in a

makeshift bunker with 26 other Jews,

none of them children, but they soon had

to leave. The Nazis were on their trail, and

they burned down the bunker, he contin-

ued. They eventually came to another

bunker, which housed 46 people , and

they remained there for several months.

My mother was the youngest. This all hap-

pened from 1942 to 1945, so my mother

was about 4 1/2 to about 7 1/2. There also

were many Russian partisans who roamed

the woods. Once, they warned everybody

to run away. My mother ran into the woods

with her parents, and they esc aped, but

most of the other people in the bunkerswere caught and sent to the camps.

The family suffered many close calls and

escapes. With the help of the Russians,

my mother and her parents climbed over

the frozen snow-capped mountains. My

grandmother was able to locate a couple

in a village they came to who had no chil-

dren, and they took them in.

At one point, my grandfather was out-

side, helping his rescuer chop wood, and

a group of Germans drove by with a hos-

tage. The hostage recognized my grand-

father from the forest. They locked eyes,

and Mr. Goodman knew he was in danger.

Later, the hostage denounced him, and

the Germans announced that a German

family was housing Jews and they would

be shot if they were caught. The Germans

surrounded the house, but my mother

and her parents escaped through the back

door into the woods. My mother remem-

bered that.

Mr. Greenwald thinks that the family

who saved his mother survived, because

there no longer were any Jews in the

house. In fact he thinks that his mother

stayed in touch with that family for years,but the nightmare collage of his mothers

Holocaust memories makes it impossible

for him to be sure. A lot of this stuff came

to me piecemeal, he said.

The Goodmans found the survivors of

other bunkers in the woods, and joined

forces, but there was no food, just scraps

of garbage. They started to starve, Mr.

Greenwald said. For a few months, they

lived off rose hips.

There are more horror stories. Once,

Mr. Greenwald said, his mother and her

parents hid behind one tree. A few feet

away, a man and his grown daughter hid

behind another tree, but they wer

tured. My mother remembered the s

of screaming and of gunire and e

sions, he said.

Ninety-ive percent of Slovakian

died but she and her parents surv

Vera Goodman had not yet turned 8

old.

Eventually, a Russian appeared an

them that the war was over, gave

bread, and told them where to me

Russian army.

Mr. Greenwald doesnt have a details about his mothers postwar t

Europe he does know that for a ye

went to school in Prague but can p

the story in 1947, when she and he

ents, sponsored by her fathers siste

a Swedish ship called the Gripsholm

the Atlantic. Once in the United Stat

family settled in Vineland, where he

ents, like many others in that largel

ish town, owned a chicken farm.

sister, Eva who is now Eva Nordh

of Del Ray, Florida, and Suffern, N.Y.

born in Vineland, and Vera went t

school there.

Vera Greenwald recently, and with her younger sister, Eva, on the family chi

farm in Vineland.

My mother raninto the woods

with her parents,and they

escaped, butmost of the

other people inthe bunkers werecaught and sent

to the camps.


7/56

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After being in this country for four years, my

mother won an American Legion statewide essay

contest on what it means to be an American, Mr.

Greenwald said. She also learned English, which she

spoke entirely colloquially, without even the hint of

an accent, he added.

Ms. Goodman went to Douglass College, where she

majored in political science. She met my dad Mar-tin Greenwald, who died in 2012 who was a phar-

macist from Wortsboro, N.Y., at a Catskill resort called

the Sha-wan-ga Lodge.

She was a switchboard operator that summer, and

he parked cars. Think Dirty Dancing. They married

on March 20, 1960, in Philadelphia.

The couple soon moved to Milford, Penn., about 90

miles from New York City, and Mr. Greenwald bought

a pharmacy. There were not many Jews there. There

were six Jewish families in our county, Mr. Green-

wald said. Unlike the rest of those families, the Gre-

enwalds kept kosher, and they always wanted a more

Jewish life. There was a family there, a Jewish family,

that had a Christmas tree, and eventually, through my

mothers influence, the family became kosher. They

moved to Atlanta, and then to Israel, and now the

family we keep in close touch with them numbers50, and they are all black hat. They owe it all to my

mother.

The Greenwald family which soon included Joel,

his sister Shari (now Shari Mendes), and his brother

Daniel moved to Teaneck in 1973, when I was 9 and

my sister was 12, Mr. Greenwald said. My mother

wanted us to get a Jewish education and a Jewish cul-

tural life.

As soon as they got to Teaneck, the children were

enrolled in the Moriah School in Englewood; Mar-

tin Greenwald commuted 75 miles each way every

working day to his Pennsylvania pharmacy, and Verabecame an integral part of local life. After her chil-

dren were grown, Ms. Greenwald became an interior

designer, but she craved working with people, so 25

years ago, she embarked on a real estate career, her

son said. She and her business partner, Nechama

Martin and Vera Greenwald

Vera and her father in Prague after the war.

SEE GREENWALDPAGE 16


8/56

Local


This Purim be like Esther and Mordechai

Become a hero by purchasing JFS Purim cardsand help to change our corner of the world.

Cards available in packs of 10 for $36.

To purchase cards please call JFS at 201-837-9090

Civil rights and being chosenMoriah students learn from state legislator at Museum of Tolerance

ABIGAIL KLEIN

LEICHMAN

Martin Luther King

Jr. Day was not a

school holiday for

pupils at Engle-

woods Moriah School.

Instead, its 250 sixth- through

eighth-graders marked Moriah

Reads Day last month with a

variety of activities culminating

their six-week interdisciplinary

unit on the American civil-rights

movement.

One of the most memorable

moments came during their tour

of the Museum of Tolerance in

Manhattan, where they met withAssemblyman Gordon M. John-

son of New Jerseys 37th District.

The district includes Englewood,

Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Leo-

nia, Teaneck and Tenafly, all

home to Moriah students.

Mr. Johnson was glad that

Moriah chose to use the day for

learning about racial tolerance

and equality. He told them, If

youre the chosen people, then

you are chosen to shed light

on equality for all peoples,

said Rachel Schwartz, the chair

of the middle-school English

department.He told the children its

important to recognize that there

are people across New Jersey

and the United States who dont

have the educational opportu-

nities they have at Moriah, and

they should learn how to come

together with different com-

munities to combat racism and

anti-Semitism, Ms. Schwartz

said. Assemblyman Johnson

also talked about the historical

connection between African-

Americans and Jews, including

the participation of many Jews in

the 1963 March on Washington,

and reminded them that we face

similar challenges as minorities

in America.

Englewood eighth-grader Jona-

than Comet said he learned from

his tour of the museum that the

ight for equal rights is far from

over in many parts of the world.

In North Korea and other places,

people are dying for standing up

for what they believe in, he said.The annual Moriah Reads Day

is designed to infuse school

spirit through academics and

to open doors that the children

have never opened before, Ms.

Schwartz said. Every year we

choose a book that challenges

them academically, spiritually,

and emotionally. The teachers of

both general and Judaic studies

also read the book, so we have a

community of readers.

The title this year was March:

Book One by John Lewis,

Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell.

This graphic novel is based on

Congressman Lewis life story,

from his early years in segregated

Alabama to the March on Wash-

ington to receiving the Medal of

Freedom from President Obama

in 2011.

We have a kickoff event over

Chanukah and then the children

read the book in English class

while learning the historic per-

spective in history class, Ms.Schwartz said. We end the unit

with a day of learning, which this

year was on Martin Luther King

Jr. Day.

Rabbi Daniel Alter, Moriahs

head of school, led a learning

session with the middle-school-

ers exploring the question of

whether it is racist for Jews to

consider themselves as the cho-

sen people.

Rabbi Alter talked to us about

what a chos en people rea lly

means, Jonathan said. It sounds

like it means everyone else

doesnt matter, but weve learned

that everyone does matter. He told

us it really means that different

nations and people are chosen for

different things. We were chosen

to spread monotheism, and the

Greeks were chosen to spread phi-

losophy, for example. Its some-

thing we are good at.

Later in the day, each middle-

school student worked with one

or two ifth-grade students to cre-ate a poster about a prominent

civil-rights leader. Every com-

puter-generated poster included

a picture and short description

of the leader as well as a related

biblical verse, and each will be

displayed in the school.

We wanted it to be about Jew-

ish identity as much as about civil

rights, to inform our understand-

ing of who we are as Jews in a sec-

ular world, Ms. Schwartz said.

Jul ia Sc hwa rt z, an Engle-

wood eighth-grader, guided her

ifth-grade partner in making

a poster about Roy Wilkins, a

key leader in the NAACP

1950s and 1960s, whom shresearched before the tr

was very cool to get to talk

him, she said. In this

unit I learned so much

tolerance, and that if you

have tolerance youre not

to get very far.

Jul ia said she took aw

strong Jewish message, too

civil-rights movement wa

20 years after the Holocau

it shows how important i

accept everyone.

A short ilm about genoc

the museum introduced M

students to the fact that th

have not been the only grsuffer atrocities.

It opened their eyes to

tice across the globe and

notion that every perso

the ability to stand up and

for justice, to ind cause

believe in, Ms. Schwartz

That was our overarching

tion: What do you value en

to ight for?

At school, the stud

watched movies about civil

issues, including Rememb

Titans, based on actual

that happened in a newly

grated high school in Virg1971, when an African-Am

was brought in as head fo

coach.

The children learned

there are people over the c

of history who have been

with adversity and failure

in the midst of these chal

showed true grit and per

ance to ight for their rights

Schwartz said. At the same

there are many people w

extraordinary things and d

receive notoriety and fam

need to look up to both ty

people.

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson talks to Moriah fifth-graders at the Museum of Tolerance.

MORIAH SCHOOL


9/56

Local


Where theres awheel, theresa way.

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Whats the storywith the Temple Mount?Scholar talks about background, foreground at Teaneck shulABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

The Temple Mount (Har Habayit, in Hebrew) has

been called a tinderbox and a flashpoint, a

place where few Jewish leaders dare to tread for

fear of starting a holy war.

It is a place where Jews and Christians are forbidden to

pray and visitors often have experienced verbal abuse, and

sometimes worse, from Muslim women and youth paid to

harass them.

It is dominated visually by the golden Dome of the Rock,

a seventh-century Muslim shrine built on the spot where

two Jewish temples once stood the irst commissioned by

King Solomon in 950 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians

in 586 BCE, the second (of Chanukah story fame) built over

a long period, expanded by King Herod, and destroyed by

the Romans in 70 CE.Since the 1967 Six-Day War, when the Israel Defense

Forces liberated the Old City of Jerusalem and almost imme-

diately handed sovereignty of the Temple Mount back to the

Muslim Waqf, the main focus of Jewish prayer has become

the Western Wall the Kotel a small segment of the Herod-

era western retaining wall of the Temple Mount complex.

Though carefully monitored visits are permitted, and

thousands of Israelis and tourists of all faiths have toured

the Temple Mount since 1967 including Israeli brides and

grooms on their wedding day the Waqf sees Jewish vis-

its as provocative, while Israels ultra-Orthodox-dominated

chief rabbinate oficially forbids Jews from entering its pre-

cincts out of concern that they may violate the sites perma-

nent sanctity.

This proscription is not accepted by a growing number

of mainstream Orthodox rabbis, who maintain that whileJews should avoid the speciic areas where the Temple and

its courtyard stood, they are permitted to walk around the

rest of the Temple Mount, accompanied by a knowledge-

able guide.

Among these proponents is Professor Jeffrey Woolf, asso-

ciate professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and

director of Bar-Ilans Institute for the Study of Post-Talmudic

Halakhah (Jewish law). One of his many areas of specialty

is the interaction between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

The Kotel is not the most sacred place in Judaism; Har

Habayit is, Dr. Woolf told congregants at Teanecks Keter

Torah, when he presented Whats the Story with Har

Habayit? Halacha, History and Politics as part of a scholar-

in-residence Shabbat program recently. (The lecture is avail-

able online at YU Torah; google YU Torah Dr. Jeffrey Woolf

and Har Habayit.)

This is the message Dr. Woolf conveys during globalspeaking tours and interviews, including to media outlets

that include Time magazine, Al Jazeera, NBC Nightly News,

CBS Evening News, WABCTV, and the BBC.

A student of the late Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, from

whom he received rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva Univer-

sitys Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1982,

Dr. Woolf also earned a doctorate in medieval Jewish history

and literature from Harvard. He is a leading advocate and

spokesman for the development of modern Orthodoxy in

the United States and Israel.

I have been on Har Habayit a number of times, and per-

sonally found it one of the most moving, and spiritually

formative, experiences of my life, he said in an interview

during his latest U.S. speaking tour. I am in favor of Jewish

prayer rights on the Temple Mount, and I believe this could

be a paradigm for Jewish-Muslim coexistence.

Dr. Woolf said that until modern times, the Temple Mount

was the northern star of Jewish spirituality and national

awareness. Religious anthropologists emphasize there are

places in religious life that draw believers and rivet their

attention, he said. For Christians its the Holy Sepulcher

in Jerusalem, for Muslims its the Kaaba in Mecca, and for

Jews its the Temple Mount.

This inds expression in classical Jewish law and religious

culture. There is a clear sense that Har Habayit is where

everything starts and ends. You see it even in art, and not

only Jewish art. Medieval maps of the world always had Jeru-

salem at the center, and thats not just an artistic device. The

Temple Mount was always on the Jewish agenda.

Regarding the question of whether Jews may ascendto the site, he explained that prevailing tradition is to

avoid the place where the Temple actually stood, given

that in post-Temple times it is not possible to cleanse

yourself of certain forms of ritual impurity that would

deile the holy site.

However, the overwhelming majority of the area we call

the Temple Mount was part of a platform built by Herod

and does not have inherent sanctity, though portions of it

do possess a lower level of sanctity according to Jewish law,

so not everybody can go and not under all conditions, Dr.

Woolf said. Jews who go must immerse in a mikvah before -

hand, and they may not wear shoes made of leather.

There are Orthodox rabbis who say a Jew should not go

because it is not clear where the Temple actually stood,

Dr. Woolf said. Those who do go are absolutely convinced,

based on literary and archeological evidence, that we cer-

tainly know where the Temple was not, and there is noproblem going up if we prepare properly.

Jews went to the Temple Mount regularly throughout his-

tory, he added, and surprisingly Muslim authorities did not

restrict this practice until Saladin reconquered Jerusalem

from the Crusaders in 1187.

There is documented evidence that there was a syna-

gogue and house of study on the Temple Mount until the

Crusader conquest in 1099, Dr. Woolf said. Maimonides

reported in 1166 that he went and prayed on the Temple

Mount, but not where the Temple itself once was, because

he believed you couldnt go there.

So how is it that the Muslim world has come to see any

Jewish presence on the Temple Mount as provocative?

Dr. Jeffrey Woolf BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

SEE TEMPLE MOUNT PAGE 16


10/56

Local


LARRY YUDELSON

It has been a long time since the town

of West New York boasted three

kosher poultry shops each with its

own shochet to butcher the chickens

it sold.

West New York once was a center of the

embroidery industry. It was said that 90

percent of the insignia on the uniforms

worn by the millions of American G. I.s

during World War II were embroidered

in West New York. Back then, most of the

embroiderers were Jewish, and the citys

enormous Shaare Zedek Synagogue was

illed with more than a thousand peopleon the High Holidays.

In the years that followed the war, the

Jews who lived in the one-square-mile

town were replaced by other demographic

grou ps; in the 1960s West New York

became known as Little Havana. Six miles

south of Fort Lee and the George Wash-

ington Bridge, two miles north of Wee-

hawken and the Lincoln Tunnel, bypassed

by the New Jersey Turnpike, West New

York and its Jewish history was mostly

forgotten.

Yet until late last year, a minyan con-

tinued to meet on Shabbat mornings at

Shaare Zedek. It was a minyan that brought

together old-timers who never left West

New York; Cuban Jews who had settled in

West New York to be with fellow Cubans

but were grateful to have found a syna-

gogue they could walk to, and descendants

of the founders who commuted from the

suburban diaspora in Bergen County to

help make the minyan.

Dan Kaminsky, who lives in Oradell,

is one such commuter. His great grand-

father was one of the congregations

founders, back in 1912. His great

recruited him to join the minyan, a

a time it looked like the synagogue

hold out long enough to beneit from

triication bleeding in from increa

pricey Hudson County neighbor

Has time run out for West New York shul?Barely a minyan, Shaare Zedek faces price of maintenance deferred

The sanctuary at Shaare Zedek.

Shaare Zedek, pictured in a Google Streetview image taken during Sukkot.


11/56

Local


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Jersey City and Hoboken.

Time may have run out.

With the old-timers not getting any younger, last fallShabbat attendance began to dip below the required

ten men. (Shaare Zedek is Orthodox.) And when a

building inspector came by to approve a minor plumb-

ing repair, he closed down the whole building.

Sometimes, it turns out, maintenance deferred

inally explodes.

Its ready to collapse, Mr. Kaminsky quoted the

building inspector as saying. The womens balcony is

loose. The electricity was never updated when build-

ing codes changed. There are no ire extinguishers or

sprinklers.

Its not easy or cheap retroitting an early 20th cen-

tury building for the 21st century.

Generally, the Shabbat minyan had been meeting

in a small side building. (The congregation did use the

main sanctuary to celebrate the 70th anniversary of

Mr. Kaminskys fathers bar mitzvah.) Nobody wassaying that the womens balcony actually was safe.

Now, though, the side building is off limits until the

whole complex is repaired and that requires money

and resources that the 13 or so local synagogue mem-

bers dont have.

The easiest course of action would be to sell the

property to a developer who would tear down the

building.

Destroying the synagogue, however, is everyones

least favorite choice. My great grand parents started it

so Im emotionally attached to it, Mr. Kaminsky said.

But can they ind an institution a yeshiva, a public

school, a homeless shelter that would be willing to

keep the building and repair it?

Can they ind a deep-pocketed donor who could

help them make repairs while they keep waiting for anew generation of Jews to come to town to re-inhabit

the gorgeous old building?

Morris Herzig, 86, remembers when the build-

ing was full. He irst came to Shaare Zedek when he

was six years old. That was in 1935, when his father

moved his family from the Lower East Side to work as

a shochet at one of the chicken stores. The elder Mr.

Herzig and his wife had come to America from Galicia

in 1927, two years before Morris was born.

He remembers when Bergenline Avenue, the towns

main shopping strip, was illed with Jewish-owned

clothing stores and kosher delicatessens. It was a very

thriving Jewish environment, he said. It was a typi-

cal immigrants world. They were not shomer shabbos.

They were shul oriented they came to shul in the

morning and kosher.

Post World War Two, children left West New Yorkwhen they got married because it was basically a blue-

collar town. The housing stock was very old and they

wanted to get out of there, he said.

Jews have moved into the new upscale buildings

that have gone up in West New York. But not Jews who

want to join Shaare Zedek.

When they see whats there, with a mechitza and

everything, they dont want to get involved with that

kind of environment. Every time a high rise building

went up, the consensus was to go canvas for Jews. In

my building, something like 45 apartments are Jewish.

Theyre not interested.

Its very painful to speak about this because

SEE SHAARE ZEDEKPAGE 16


12/56

JOANNE PALMER

First, a warning about what this story

about a Lutheran pastor who discov-

ered that her apparently solidly German

Lutheran father actually was a German

Jew whose parents died in the Holocaust

is not.

It is not a conversion story.

It does not end with the Reverend Heidi

Neumark throwing over her deeply held

Protestant theoloy to become Jewish.It is a far more complicated, far more

real, far less sentimental story than that

imaginary one would have been.

So, with that out of the way, here is the

Rev. Neumarks story. It is a story that she

has told in a new book, Hidden Inheri -

tance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith,

and will tell in person at the Kaplen JCC

on the Palisades this week. (See box for

details.)

Growing up in Summit, a deeply loved

only child, Ms. Neumark knew that her

father, who was 20 years older than her

mother, was born in Germany. But thats

all she knew of his family history. True, as

a young child Heidi had gone to Switzer-land a few times to meet her grandmother;

and her aunt, her fathers sister, lived in

Queens. Heidi knew her. But her grand-

mother had been very old, she died when

Heidi was 12, and the two had no language

in common; and Aunt Lore never said a

word about the past.

So when her father implied that he was

not only baptized as Lutheran when he

was a child, the son of parents who also

had been baptized as Lutherans which

was true his daughter inferred that the

family was Lutheran all the way back. That

inference was not true.

Late one night, years after her father

died, Rev. Neumark was reading in bed

when she got a text . It was from herdaughter, Ana, who was downstairs,

gobsmacked by something she had found

while googling family names.

Mom, do you know that you are from a

prominent Jewish family, and your grand-

father died in a concentration camp? Ana

asked her mother.

I said, Ana, thats not true, Rev. Neu-

mark said. But of course it was.Rev. Neumarks father, Hans, came from

a large, close-knit family of active Jews,

who had been leaders of their synagogue,

in a German town called Wittmund, for

generations . They were indus tria list s,

wealthy people whose busine sses sup-

ported many workers.

His parents, Moritz and Ida, left Wit-

tmund soon after they married, and to

some extent shed their Jewishness, which

apparently seemed a hindrance. They

were baptized, but it seems to have been a

legal iction, and they did not pretend not

to have Jewish ancestry.

Their three children knew that they had

been born to Jewish parents, but seemed

to have identiied as Protestant. Theirparents managed to get all of them out of

Local


Who:The Reverend Heidi Neumark

What:Will tell her story, Hidden Inheritance, at the JCC U

When:On Thursday, February 25, from 12:45 to 2 p.m.

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

What Else:In another session that day; from 10:45 to noon, Dr. Betty Boyd Caroli will

talk about Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a Presi-

dent. Also, coffee starting at 10:30, and a lunch break (supply your own) between

sessions

How Much:$32 for members; $40 for nonmembers

Information or registration:(201) 408-1454

Christianor Jew?Lutheran pastor to talk at the JCC aboutdiscovering her German Jewish family

Germany. Hans, Rev. Neumarks father,

was a chemical engineer; he came to the

United States in 1938 with the connec-

tions that got him a good job and a solid

life here.

His parents, on the other hand, went

through a long period of degradation, and

inally were deported to Theresienstadt

a deportation that they were told was to

some sort of retirement village, an

which they had to pay where Morit

died.

Ida, on the other hand, survive

years in Theresienstadt, a statistical u

lihood for anyone, but even more

ishing for someone who was 70 wh

arrived in that monstrous place.

Reverend Heidi Neumark

A young Heidi with her grandmother in Switzerland.

Rev. Neumarks grandfather,

above, and both grandpar-

ents. Both pictures were

taken before the war.

SEE NEUMARKPA



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14/56

Local


FIRST PERSON

Living the learning lifeReflections on Limmud NY

LARRY YUDELSON

Magical bowls. Yiddish lullabies.

The three ways by which a

persons character is mea-

sured, as per Rabbi Ilai in the

Babylonian Talmud.

Those are just a couple of moments at the

weekend extravaganza of Jewish learning at

Limmud NY last weekend. Yes, New York is

in its name, but Limmud took place in Con-

necticut, and New Jersey was well repre-

sented. It brought together 700 people from

the tristate area (and beyond) for four days of

study, conversation, camaraderie, and Jewish

geography.

Limmud NY is an independent group

inspired by the original Limmud conference,which meets during Christmas week in Eng-

land. There are dozens of Limmud confer-

ences across America and worldwide, includ-

ing in Russia and Israel. Most of the American

conferences pale besides Limmud NY, which

stretches over the Presidents Day weekend.

Limmud stands out from the other confer-

ences and retreats that ill the Jewish commu-

nal calendar in three ways.

First, it is run primarily by volunteers. Lim-

mud NY has one staff member, but the bulk

of the planning, organizing, and even on-site

running is handled by people committed to

the idea of Limmud and its underlying ethic

of hey, kids, lets put on a show!

Secondly, it is proudly ideologicallydiverse. On Shabbat, you could choose from

a two varieties of Orthodox services (one tra-

ditional, one a partnership minyan with

expanded roles for women), a traditional

egalitarian service, a Reform service with a

dash of Indian customs, a Jewish Renewal ser-

vice, or even just prayer-free morning yoga.

Limmud is a rare space where Jews come

together across the lines that divide them.

Name tags highlight irst names, and leave off

institutional afiliations entirely. If you dont

know the name Arnie Eisen, youd have no

way of knowing that the person youre speak-

ing to in the cholent line is the chancellor of

the Conservative movements Jewish Theo-

logical Seminary.

Thirdly, and no less importantly, Limmudis age diverse. Mine was not the only fam-

ily with three generations represented. (My

children have been going for years; this year

I convinced my father to join us. He plans on

returning next year.) There are babies and

toddlers, and middle school students and

teens, and college students and seminary

students and twentysomethings and beyond.

And while there are programs organized

for children by Camp Ramah and a teen

lounge and teenagers playing games in the

lobby on Shabbat afternoon, all Limmud ses-

sions are welcoming to children interested in

learning.

Which is how I ended up being challenged

by Eliana, a third grader from Glen Ridge.

She was one of a group of about seven peo-

ple discussing the Torah portion on Shabbat

afternoon; the rest of us were adults. One

woman I think was a rabbi, and at least three

denominations were represented. When the

conversation turned to the idea that the Tem-

ples altar symbolized peace after all, the

Torah says it could not be made of stones cut

by metal Eliana asked, penetratingly, how

could it be peaceful if it was a place of blood

and slaughtered animals?

Unexpectedly new ways of looking at old

texts was one of the threads that ran through

my Limmud experience. I heard Maggie

Anton, the author of the Rashis Daughters

series, talk about the talmudic magic that

became the background for her latest books,

Rav Hisdas Daughter and Enchantment.

The Talmud talks of magic and takes it seri -

ously, but this, she said, is only a hint at an

entire world of magical practice that archae-

ologists have uncovered. In recent years,

thousands of pottery bowls inscribed with

magical prayers to angels in Aramaic, the

language of the Talmud, have been discov-

ered in Iraq. They were buried at the corners

of houses to protect babies and pre

women.

This might all seem very esoteric e

Ms. Anton said, that the formula used in

magical inscriptions are in several ca

prayers for healing and welfare tha

made their way to our prayer books.

Magic appeared in another class I att

this one taught by Dr. Jeffrey Rubens

Englewood, a professor at New York U

sity. His work, in books like The Cul

the Babylonian Talmud, has looked

talmudic stories changed betweenappearance in the Jerusalem Talmu

their reappearance in the somewha

Babylonian Talmud. In one of the tex

Rubinstein taught on Saturday night, th

salem Talmud tells of two students wh

saved from death by snakebite becaus

had shared their bread with a starvin

They foiled the prediction of a gentile

sayer. The storys moral: The Jewish G

be satisied with half a loaf of bread.

As retold in the Babylonian Talmu

story loses a bit of its artistic symmet

it gains a new focus on saving a m

Its not all learning at Limmud.

Above, a concert featuring SoulF

Left, the dinner buffet.LIM

SEE LIMMUDPA



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Funds raised will support the Stephanie I. Prezant

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Adults $30/Students $15

TEENS

A Sunday of Strong WomenAUTHORS, LUNCH, INSPIRATION

Join us for a day of inspiration (lunch included) as four

women authors teach us how to empower ourselves.

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empower you in ways you never thought possible. Great

occasion for a girls day out!

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Communication; and GERALYN LUCASThen Came Life.Visit jccotp.org/ssw for details

Sun, Mar 13, 10am-2pm, $36/$44

JCC U Film School SeriesJoin us as we explore film noirHollywood crime

dramas from the years immediately following

World War II.Connect with fellow movie lovers and top film

studies expert, Philip Harwood, as he leads a

discussion on threefilm noirfeatures: Mar 23,

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fresh one home.

Thu, Feb 25, 7:30-9 pm, $18/$22

Lavish LunchesA DAY OF CULINARY ADVENTURES

Join us for a light breakfast at the home of

Stephanie & Daniel Cohn and enjoy this years

guest speaker, Award-winning New York Chef,

Seamus Mullen, followed by your choice of a

delectable themed luncheon at a local venue

or home of your choice. Proceeds support vital

programs and services for seniors at the JCC.

Wed, Mar 9, Breakfast 10:15 am, Lunch 12:15 pm

Starting at $180 per person

To register visit jccotp.org/lavishlunches


16/56

Local


Polak, founded Vera & Nechama Realty.

They helped build and grow the Jewish

community in Teaneck, New Milford, Ber-

genield, and Englewood in a big way, Mr.

Greenwald said. About 700 people came toher funeral, and so many came to pay shiva

calls, and they all said that the irst person

they met in Teaneck was her, a wonderful,

welcoming spirit and that was whether or

not they had bought through her.

She was a people person, her son said.

She read people very well, very comfortably

and very quickly. She knew how to interact

with people because she was comfortable

meeting them and understanding them. And

she had a tremendous amount of warmth

and conidence.

Nechama Polak was struck by her part-

ners compassion. She listened when people

spoke, Ms. Polak said. In our line of busi-

ness, we sometimes encounter people who

are in the depths of despair they have just

lost somebody, or have inancial dificulties.This is not always a happy business, and she

was always very compassionate.

She was very beautiful physically, she

added. She had beautiful blue eyes, and car-

ried herself regally.

She also had fun. In later years, the Gre-

enwalds owned a farm in Pennsylvania, and

sometimes the owners of Vera & Nechama

would retire there on Sundays. We would

each get into a tube and have an executive

meeting in the middle of the lake, Ms. Polak

said. She was larger than life.

I am crying a lot, she added. I am griev-

ing a lot. But as devastating as this has been

emotionally, it is the greatest tribute to her

that everyone here at Vera and Nechama

is carrying on as a group.

Betty Kay lived down the street from Ms.Greenwald in Teaneck. Since her husband

passed away, she joined us frequently for Sab-

bath meals, Ms. Kay said. She would share

her stories with us, and we would listen to

them with great excitement and at times

deep thought.

Ms. Greenwald often would speak publicly

about the Holocaust. She did not like that

task, but she thought it was incumbent upon

her to do it, Ms. Kay said. She knew that

this might be some of these children

chance to see a survivor, and she felt th

den of keeping the Holocaust from ha

ing again, a very real and very persona

Vera was someone who enriched

in every way, Ms. Kay said. She was

interesting, exciting, effervescent, inte

and experienced, and she had street sShe had so many connections to p

in this community that since her hu

passed on, I dont think there was on

that she ate by herself on Friday night

urday afternoon.

She was just one of those people

Ms. Greenwalds survivors includ

three children, her sister, her two d

ters-in-law and her son-in-law, and

grandchildren.

GreenwaldFROM PAGE 7

When Jerusalem was conquered by Sala-

din, it acquired a degree of religious signii-cance that it had not previously possessed,

Dr. Woolf said. In line with the Islamic view

that there is no other religion than Islam, it

laid exclusive claim to any number of sacred

places to which it claimed a connection. That

is the reason why Muslims assert that the

Temple Mount and the Cave of the Patriarchs

in Hebron are exclusively theirs.

More recently, Rachels Tomb in Bethle-

hem, to which they never laid claim, has also

been included. The same thing happened to

churches.

So, from the late 12th century on, Jews

stopped going not because they didnt want

to but because they werent allowed to. Their

presence, certainly their worship there, wasviewed as a blatant contradiction of Muslim

hegemony.

Now that more Jews are visiting the Temple

Mount again, the Islamic Movement in Israel

has fomented an organized campaign of

intimidation to stop them, using hired groups

of harassers who only recently were barred

from the site by the Israeli government. In

addition, the Islamic Movement has revived

the claim that Jews intend to blow up the Al-

Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount complex

and build a third Temple in its place.This libel that the Jews are planning on

blowing up Al Aqsa was irst fomented by Hit-

lers ally, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj

Amin al-Husseini, in 1920, Dr. Woolf said.

Every single major wave of anti-Jewish vio-

lence in Israel since then has been carried out

under the same banner. Ironically, Al-Aqsa is

not even on the Temple Mount proper. Its on

the Herodian platform extension.

Jews who even look as if they might be

praying on the Temple Mount are subject to

arrest or banishment by the Israeli police,

in deference to Muslim sensibilities and the

specter of violence. Thats a violation of the

basic human right of a person to pray any-

where, Dr. Woolf said.There are all kinds of people, but I can

say without hesitation that the overwhelming

majority of Jews who go there do not wish to

be provocative, he continued. They simply

wish to be in a place where according to our

tradition Gods presence never leaves. As far

as building the third Temple is concerned, I

believe that to be in Gods hands.

Dr. Woolf is among Jewish historians who

see the issue of control of the Temple Mount

as profoundly theological and emblematic

of the entire conflict between Muslims andJews.

Traditionally, Islam takes the position that

land once ruled by Muslims can never legiti-

mately be ruled by non-Muslims, he said.

Theres no such thing as shared sovereignty.

From a Jewish point of view, however, there is

nothing wrong with having both a synagogue

and a mosque there. The prophet Isaiah said:

My house will be called a house of prayer for

all nations, and Allah is the same God whom

we worship, said Prof. Woolf.

Dr. Woolfs talk in Teaneck did not address

the issue of pluralistic prayer at the Kotel.

When asked about the recently agreed-

upon compromise that would maintain the

Orthodox status quo for worshippers at theWestern Wall Plaza while establishing a new

space for Jewish prayer in other forms at the

southern section of the Western Wall, he

commented: I am happy they found a solu-

tion and I hope and trust they will set up the

new area in a way that will provide for mean-

ingful prayer while not impacting upon the

priceless archeological inds there.

He said he is deeply bothered by t

ultra-Orthodox hegemony over the

pointing out that when the Wester

Plaza was built after the reuniicatJerusalem in 1967, the divider betwee

and women was mobile (it has since

nailed down) and the womens sectio

30 percent larger than it is now. In ad

following a 2004 earthquake that ca

mudslide and damage on the women

there is no shelter from inclement w

for female worshipers.

The other religious streams have g

new place to daven but Orthodox wom

disadvantaged, Dr. Woolf said. Thats

upsetting downside of the deal. The

changing of the women there is indefe

and inexcusable.

A native of Boston, Dr. Woolf irst

to Israel in 1983 for a year at the HUniversity as a Lady Davis Graduate F

He has been a visiting professor at

Yeshiva, and New York universitie

he has written 40 scholarly monog

and written or edited four books. A

them is the most recent translation of

Soloveitchiks Kol Dodi Dofeq.

Temple MountFROM PAGE 9

obviously theres no shul now in West New

York. It has gone the way of all flesh. Its

over, he said.

Emmanuel de Miranda wouldnt be the

Jew he is were it not for Shaare Zedek.De Miranda, 73, came to America from

Cuba in 1985. His parents already were here.

His father was from an old Sephardic Jewish

family that had lived in Cuba for three gen-

erations. His mother was Catholic.

He settled into West New York, two blocks

away from the shul. One day, he noticed a

sign: This Passover, learn how to read from

right to left.

He joined the beginners Hebrew class,

studying with the congregations rabbi,

Leon Mozeson. That led to his converting to

Judaism, with all the Orthodox procedures.

I had my bar mitzvah after I was a grown up

man.

For 28 years, all my life has been around

this shul, he said. Ive attended every

Shabbos.

Before coming to America, the situa-

tion in Cuba was not very good, with com-

munism and so forth. People tried not toshow their religiousness. He had studied

international law and languages in Russia,

but he never joined the Cuban Commu-

nist Party so he couldnt work as a lawyer.

Instead, he became a language teacher and

translator. In America, he found work at a

school teaching adult ed, and later became

its director.

Back in the late 80s, when he irst came

to the synagogue, We had a membership of

almost 200. We had minyans every morning

and 50 to 60 people attended regularly on

Shabbos. We had members that had already

retired or moved to other towns nearby but

couldnt attend on Saturdays. We had a

sisterhood and regular monthly meetings

of the board of directors. We had a lot of

activities.

Now, We dont know how were going to

save the building, a landmark that nobody

seems to care about, he said.David Babani was also a member of the

shul for just more than a quarter of a cen-

tury. He came to America from Cuba when

he was 19. His parents were Sephardic Jews

from Turkey. He lived in Union City for

three years before he moved to West New

York. After Rabbi Mozeson retired, and the

rabbi who followed also retired, he took on

the role of assistant gabbai, helping to orga-

nize the services.

He recalls the hardships of growing up in

Havana but being Jewish there wasnt one

of them.

Castro took everybodys business

the shuls he didnt bother, Mr. Baban

Canadian Jews helped the Jewish co

nity in Cuba. They managed to get

matzah for Pesach, the wine, koshe

every week. In Havana we had a sh

and everything, he said.

America was a big, big change, hThe irst thing is freedom. You have f

buy and clothes to buy. In Cuba ever

is restricted, unfortunately.

Right now we need a big pocket t

his heart and to help us out, to do a

the basics of what the town expects,

the roof properly ixed and solve so

the electrical problems we have. We

somebody to help us with fundrais

pointing us in the right direction, he

This is a beautiful building thats

dred years old. Lets hope people wil

their hearts.

Shaare ZedekFROM PAGE 11


17/56

Loc


Cantor Romalis to behonored during servicesOn Shabbat, February 20, at 10 a.m., the Renaissance Club of

Temple Beth Tikvah in Wayne will lead services, assisted by

the shuls Hebrew school students. Cantor Charles Romalis

will be honored for the work he has done for the Renais-

sance Club. A kiddush luncheon will follow.The special Shabbat service is among the jubilee celebra-

tions in Cantor Romalis honor. He is the only Reform cantor

in North America to have served in one congregation for 50

years.

The Renaissance Club is a product of the Reform move-

ment. Its purpose is to provide meaningful and fun activities to adult members

congregation. Cantor Romalis was instrumental in bringing the club to the sh

information, call (973) 5956565.

Cantor Charle

Romalis

Philanthropist/Patriots ownerto keynote YU graduation

Robert K. Kraft

COURTESY YU

Dining to benefitunderprivileged in IsraelIf you eat in a local kosher restaurant

on March 6, you might participate in

Eat4Israel, a WIZO NJ program. Partic-

ipating restaurants will send 10 percentof their gross proits that day to WIZO

NJ, earmarked for hot meals for Israels

underprivileged children.

WIZO, The Womens International

Zionist Organization, is a worldwide

non-proit organization that op

more than 800 social welfare pr

in Israel. Next to the Israeli govern

WIZO is one of the largest providsocial welfare services that impro

lives of women, children and the e

living in Israel.

For information, go to www.w

org.

Agencies represented at chessed fairLast week, Areyvut and Yeshivat Noam

hosted a Chessed Fair for students and

their parents. Participants met with

representatives from a variety of orga-

nizations, including American Friends

of Leket, AMIT, the Hebrew Free

Association, Ohel, and the Hacke

Riverkeeper, pictured, to learn

volunteering and getting involved

community.

Maayanot celebrating 20 years

Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls

invites the community to mark the

schools 20th anniversary at its annual

dinner on Saturday, March 5, at 8:30

p.m. at Congregation Keter Torah in

Teaneck.

This years dinner is dedicated to the

memory of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein,

Maayanots posek (rabbinic authority)

from the schools inception. Honorees

include Ria and Tim Levart, who are

the Keter Shem Tov awardees; Chumiand Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, the Amudei

Maayanot honorees; Shera and Doug

Dubitsky, Parents of the Year; and Dr.

Julie Goldstein, Teacher of the Year.

The Levarts are being honored for

their commitment to Maayanots mis-

sion, growth, and success, including a

recently established legacy gift. In addi-

tion, Mrs. Levart has been a member of

the schools executive board, board of

trustees, and education committee,

and she is a founding chair of its adult

education committee. She also was on

the assistant principal search and board

nominating committees.

The Gottliebs are being honored for

the many signiicant ways they have

contributed to life at Maayanot. Ms.

Gottlieb has been on the board of direc-

tors and many parent committees,

including the schools recruitment and

open house committees. Rabbi Gottlieb

has worked closely with the administra-

tion, irst as a member and then as chair

of the education committee.

The Dubitskys are being honored fortheir devotion to enhancing Maayanots

academic community. In addition to

working on school recruitment events,

Ms. Dubitsky has consulted on curricu-

lum development for teenage issues.

Mr. Dubitsky has been on committees

including the schools dinner fundrais-

ing committee.

Dr. Julie Goldstein is the schools

Jewish history chair and senior grade

encounter coordinator.

For information, call Pam Ennis at

(201) 8334307, ext. 265, or email her at

[email protected].

Ria and Tim Levart

Shera and Doug Dubitsky

Rabbi Mark and Chumi Gottlieb

Dr. Julie Goldstein

YU establishes Athletics Hall of FamYeshiva University has announced the

establishment of the Maccabees Hall of

Fame, which honors Yeshiva Univer-

sity alumni and others who have dis-

tinguished themselves in NCAA com-

petition and who best exemplify the

universitys highest ideals and mission.The Hall of Fame is a testament to the

contributions Yeshiva University ath-

letes, coaches, and others have made

to the world of sport over more than a

century.

The Hall of Fame is accepting

nations of former Yeshiva athlete

coaches for consideration for indu

Nominations can be submitted th

May 31, at www.yumacs.com/hallo

The selection committee will bework in June and announce the i

ees in July 2016. The inaugura

induction ceremony will be held i

2017.

Yeshiva University will confer an honorary Doctor of Humane Let-

ters degree on Robert K. Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots,

at its 85th commencement on May 25. Mr. Kraft, also the founder,

chairman, and CEO of the Kraft Group, will deliver the commence-

ment address to the undergraduate and graduate students receiv-

ing their degrees.

YUs president, Richard M. Joel, noted that Mr. Kraft is well

regarded for his dedication to Israel. The Patriots observed a

moment of silence after the murder of Ezra Schwartz, a Sharon,

Mass., native studying in Israel, at a Monday Night Football game

in November.


18/56

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Conceived in liberty

Ithought Id be moved by Rabbi

Joseph Prousers reading of theGettysburg Address, which he

translated into Hebrew and set

to a haftarah trope on Monday Presi-

dents Day but I hadnt imagined that

it might make me cry.

First, there was the setting. Rabbi

Prousers shul, Temple Emanuel of

North Jersey, is set back on a low hill in

Franklin Lakes, way up in Bergen Coun-

tys outer limits, a warm old brick build-

ing, once a Dutch Reformed Church,

overlooking a lake, partially frozen on

that gray, blustery, nasty day. The sanc-

tuary, a long, narrow, white-painted

room with dark wood beams, show-

cased the ark, bimah, and furnishings

that had come from the congregationsearlier home in Paterson. Its straight-

lined and vertical, all dark wood, red

velvet, and discreet brass; very urban,

very Deco, very early 20th century.

So look at that! Already there are

potentially discordant notes a shul

in an old church, an urban interior in a

nearly exurban setting. But it all works

together harmoniously, and it escapes

the curse that can entrap the unwary

suburbanite blandness.

The haftarah was part of Shacharit.

Many local dignitaries were there. Rabbi

Prouser welcomed them graciously and

offered many of them parts in the ser-

vice. The Jews were given aliyot, askedto raise the Torah, or open the ark; the

non-Jews were given the few English-

language readings, all prayers for the

United States or Israel. But he did not

cut the service short lest the guests be

off-put by the Hebrew or bored by the

length.

The visiting politicians represented

both parties, and Rabbi Prouser made

a point of the nonpartisan nature of the

day and the service.

He prefaced the Gettysburg Address

with one of the morning blessings from

the Conservative litury. Thank you,

God, he sang in Hebrew, for having

made me free. And then he moved on to

the story of how, four score and sevenyears ago, our fathers brought forth on

this continent a new nation, conceived

in liberty, and dedicated to the proposi-

tion that all men are created equal.It was impossible for me to sit there,

listen to those great, clear, hard, real

words roll over me in Hebrew, to read

them in English, and not be moved to

(yes, quiet, discrete) tears by them.

It also was impossible not to think of

how far from them we have gone, and

how wrong our recent direction seems

to be.

Lincoln wrote the Address, according

to mytholoy, on the back of an enve-

lope, on a train taking him from Wash-

ington to Gettysburg. That might not be

true, but his skill as a writer, as a politi-

cian, and as a human being are unde-

niable. He was a backwoodsman and

a Victorian, a melancholic, a roman-tic, and a great, thunderous political

thinker.

He was also a Republican.

It is hard to think of the candidates

running for the Republican nomina-

tion for president at the same time that

we think of Lincoln, who grew up in a

log cabin but was not a vulgarian, who

was self-educated but intellectual ly

agile, who came from poverty but nei-

ther bullied nor allowed himself to be

bullied as he rose, who endured great

personal tragedy but did not let it deine

him. It is not fair to expect anyone to be

another Lincoln, of course but maybe

they could try? Just a little?Rabbi Prouser ended Shacharit that

morning with a jaunty Adon Olam, set

but of course! to Yankee Doodle.

If only we all could hold onto the

spirit in that room that morning rev-

erence for the past, hope for the future,

and a great deal of cleverness, resource-

fulness, an understanding of what can

be played with and what cannot be, and

plain old hard work put into bridging

what otherwise would have been a huge

gap maybe we could look forward to

the coming election with something

other than dread.

That this nation, under God, shall

have a new birth of freedom and that

the government of the people, by thepeople, for the people, shall not perish

from the earth. JP

TRUTH REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCES

Were Jews gassed

because they rejected Jesus?

Recently Senator Ted Cruz came

under ire for accepting an endorse-

ment from evangelical Pastor Mike

Bickle of Kansas City, who said that

Jews were punished by the Holocaust for failing

to embrace Jesus. Hitler had become the hunter

promised by the prophet Isaiah.

Well destroy Bickles repulsive arguments in

a moment.

But the attack against Cruz is absurd for the

simplest of reasons. Ted Cruz has shown time

and again that he will not only

support but be hated for his

attachment to Israel.

At a 2014 gala held by a non-

partisan Christian organization,Cruz addressed the crowd on the

topic of Christian persecution.

The speech started well. But then

the topic turned to Israel. ISIS,

Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and

their state sponsors like Syria and

Iran, are all engaged in a vicious

genocida l c ampaign to destroy

religious minorities in the Middle

East In 1948 Jews throughout

the Middle East faced murder and extermina-

tion and fled to the nation of Israel. And today

Christians have no better ally than the Jewish

state.

On hearing this unflinching support of

Israel, Cruz was loudly booed. But he contin-ued, Christians have no greater ally than Israel.

Those who hate Israel hate America.

The boos grew louder.

Unfazed by the show of animosity, Cruz con-

tinued. The very same people who persecute

and murder Christians right now, who crucify

Christians, who behead children, are the very

same people who target Jews for their faith, for

the same reason.

Then he shocked the crowd by cutting his

speech short, ending with, If you will not

stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not

stand with you. Good night, and God bless.

And he walked off the stage.

This column is not a political endorsement.

It need not be. I will defend any candidate who

shows sacriice in support of Israel. And

defend any candidate who is prepared

the support of a core constituency to

with the Jewish State. Cruz is among the

est friends the Jewish people have ever

the history of the United States Senate.

Compare his actions to those of se

who took millions of dollars from the J

community over the past few years, o

play politics with Israels survival and fu

government of Iran, which promises th

holocaust.

Still, Cruz had a respon

to repudiate Bickles state

and did so. His ofice rele

statement categorically rejBickles comments abou

and the Holocaust. The

ments from Pastor Bickl

cerning Adoph [sic] Hitl

not statements with which

tor Cruz agrees. It is ind

able that Adoph [sic] Hitl

the embodiment of evil; h

a grotesque murderer wh

mitted one of the gravest

depravity in the history of mankind. G

not intend anything in Hitlers evil, an

wrong to suggest otherwise.

Now to Bickle.

Those who claim to understand Gods

tions, especially when it comes to genocifools, fakers, and fundamentalists.

Fools because they could never kno

mind of God. Fakers because, in the na

religion, they blame the victims for the

ties perpetrated against them. And fund

talists because, in their embarrassing igno

they take verses from the Bible and int

them shallowly and without any context

Hey, Pastor Bickle? When it says tha

stretched forth his hand over the Eyptia

you think he was wearing a Rolex?

Bickle, in the ultimate spiritual abomi

makes Hitler and the SS the agents of God

faithful Jews are turned into ash and

shades. That is not God but the devil.

Bickle is not offensive to Jews b

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is the author of 30 books, including his upcoming Th

Israel Warriors Handbook. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.


RabbiShmuley

Boteach


19/56

Opinion

Christians. He has turned Jesus into a mass executioner.

If that isnt blasphemy then the word has no meaning.

Would a pastor in the name of Christian love consign

1.5 million children to death by poison gas? Would a rev-

erend, in the name of his faith, claim that Nazi oficers

slept comfortably on pillows made of murdered Jewish

womens hair because it was the will of Jesus?

It would actually be much worse if Bickle were right.Then we would have to share the cosmos with a God

who views gas chamber s as c athedra ls of doctr inal

enforcement.

Anyone feel like praying?

I dont know why God allowed the Holocaust. Nor

do I care. No explanation would minimize the hor-

ror of it. Nor would it bring back my six million mur-

dered Jewish brothers and sisters. Indeed, asking for

an answer is itself immoral insofar as it attempts to rec-

oncile ourselves to the irreconcilable and to accept the

unacceptable.

Bickle himself has now written an op-ed titled What

Hitler Did Was an Utter Atrocity, in which he clariied

that When Ted Cruz thanked me for my support, he

did not endorse everything I have said during my life-

time, and I do not expect him to. For those times when I

have communicated my beliefs poorly, I apologize.Bickle continued, To be clear: Scripture is clear that

the friends of God are friends of Israel. It is the enemies

of HaShem who oppose Israel. I pray that I may always

be counted among the former.

Thank you, Pastor. Your friendship is much appre-

ciated. Now, you must repudiate utterly any previous

mentions of the Holocaust as punishment. We Jews have

suffered enough without you inflicting upon us the inal

indignity of saying that we actually deserved it.

Critics were right in asking Ted Cruz to repudiate

Bickles ugly comments. The senator did so and rose to

the occasion.

Now it is the turn of Hillary Clinton.

As I wrote in a previous column, Hillarys emails

reveal her admiration for one of the worlds most pas-

sionate Israel haters, Max Blumenthal, who comparesthe IDF to the SS, calls Israel a Nazi state, and demands

that Israel be disbanded and all the land returned to the

Arabs.

We have emails that Hillary penned personally prais-

ing and extolling Maxs disgusting anti-Israel screeds

that were sent to her by his father, Clinton conidante

Sidney Blumenthal. We have access to the dozens of

anti-Israel op-eds and advice that he forwarded from

his son.

Here are some examples of Hillarys responses regard-

ing Maxs opinion pieces on Israel.

7/6/2010

North Jersey Jewish Standard, February 19, 2016

Documents

Transcript of North Jersey Jewish Standard, February 19, 2016