HELPING IMMIGRANTS, IN STORIES AND DEEDS page 6

ISRAELI-AUSTRIAN FILM TO SCREEN IN TENALFY page 10

JEWISH JUSTICES HE DOETH PURSUE pages 14
PREVIEWING MANHATTAN'S ISRAEL FILM FESTIVAL page 49

JUNE 1, 2018
VOL. LXXXVII NO. 37 $1.00 87 2018

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 Page 3
Eilat gets big blue visitor
● Call him (or her) Israel.
Or rather, Israel called him. (Or her.)
In any event, a 65-foot blue whale
was sighted off Eilat this week.
Blue whales, Earth’s largest mam-
mals, can range around the entire
world, but they rarely make it to the
Red Sea.
“This is a very exciting observa-
tion as whales sometimes travel great
distances and occasionally increase
their range of migration for various
reasons: availability of food, damage
to other habitats, climate change
and other causes,” Israel’s Nature and
Parks Authority explained in a Face-
book post. LARRY YUDELSON

Forverts progress for the MTA?

● Some day, one hopes,
the current crisis of subway
overcrowding and disrepair will
be history. And when the history
books are written, one hopes there
will be room for this: a Yiddish
sign announcing weekend subway
outages on the beleaguered F line.
Proving that you can’t please all
the people all the time, and less
than that when you’re talking about
(or to) Jews, Yiddish Twitter users
registered their kvetches.
First, “Vikends” is a rather lazy
translation for the original “week-
end” of the outage; “sof vuch” is
much better.
Second: Come on already. Even
the most poorly educated cha-
sidim can read enough English to
understand a subway notice. As

Auctioning a first lady’s letter the Twitter user dubbed “hasidic_1”

● “Here’s to you, Mrs. Roosevelt,”
Paul Simon wrote in the first draft
of his song “Mrs. Robinson,” be-
fore changing the name to Mrs.
Robinson when Mike Nichols
wanted a song for “The Graduate.”
commented while posting this
picture, “ver darf des havn” — “who
will realize that Israel was not an needs this?” LARRY YUDELSON
aggressor. The Charter of the UN
allows self defense and Israel’s case
was purely one of self defense.
“I do not agree with you about the
establishment of the state of Israel. CONTENTS PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT: (USPS 275-700 ISN 0021-6747) is pub-
lished weekly on Fridays with an additional edition every October,

Was he praising the widow of
America’s 32nd president for de-
fending Israel’s actions during the
Suez Crisis?
Probably not. But if you want
to own a piece of the former first
lady’s support for Israel, you just
may have missed your chance. A
1957 letter on the topic, written on
her personal “Mrs. Franklin D. Roos-
evelt” letterhead, was scheduled to
be auctioned off this week by Nate
D. Sanders Auctions in Los Angeles
with an opening bid of $22,500.
In the letter, Mrs. Roosevelt re-
sponds directly to criticism of her
newspaper column “My Day,” in
which she defended Israel’s actions
in the 1956 crisis.
Mrs. Roosevelt wrote: “If you
follow step by step in the UN and
understand the difficulties, you
The Israelis have a right to their land
and I think it is nonsense to suppose
that they plan to plunge us into a
war. They want peace as much, if
not more, than other nations.
“We lead in the United Nations,
so it would not be a case of our fall-
ing for any plot.”
The auction catalog calls the
two-page missive an “exceptional
letter, with rare content by the First
Lady showing her commitment and
refusal to equivocate on the state
of Israel.”
Other items being auctioned
on the same day include a Nobel
Prize awarded to Thomas Schelling
in 2005 for his game theory; a
bomber jacket owned by John F.
Kennedy; and a Richard Nixon let-
ter about Vietnam.
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JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 3

Noshes
STERN WARNING:
Can Howard field
David’s questions?
The David
Letterman
Netflix talk show,
“My Next Guest Needs
No Introduction,” began
its premiere season with
a rare interview with
President Obama. It ends
its first season with an
interview with HOWARD
STERN, 64, who often
calls himself the “King of
All Media.” (interview
began streaming on May
31.) If you have caught
only bits of Stern’s most
shocking or raunchy
shtick, you might not be
aware that he is really
smart and quite articu-
late. He also is a strong
and pretty informed
supporter of Israel
(although I doubt that
topic will come up with
Letterman). I don’t
believe that Stern has
been the guest (and not
the host) for a full
one-hour ad-free
interview. It will be
interesting to see if
Letterman, with a lot of
interview time, will be
able to explore some
issues in depth.
Certainly, the topic
of President Trump will
come up. Stern inter-
viewed Trump many
times from 1993 to 2005
and asked him many
more questions over
that time than any other
interviewer (including
Fox News personalities).
It was on Stern’s show
where then-business-
man Trump made two
remarks that constantly
are brought up: that
Want to read more noshes? Visit facebook.com/jewishstandard
4 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
“What is being done to silence this
man? Medieval Jews would have known
what to do with him.”
— Rabbi Emmanuel Rackman writing to the Anti-Defamation League about Philip
Roth in 1959, after Roth published “Defender of the Faith” in The New Yorker.
avoiding STDs in the firmed they are an item—
1970s was his Vietnam, but nobody believes
and that he would date they aren’t. Jon Lovett
IVANKA if she weren’t shouldn’t be confused
his daughter. with comedian JON LO-
The TVLand cable se- VITZ, 60. (And Lovett’s
ries “Nobodies” features partner in Pod Save
three real-life comedians America, Obama speech-
who are trying to make writer Jon Favreau, 36,
the big time. The series’ shouldn’t be confused
gimmick is that they with film producer and
run into many showbiz actor JON FAVREAU, 51.)
people and solicit their If Lovitz and Farrow were
advice or help. Every ep- Howard Stern Steven Spielberg Richard Goodwin an item, that would have
isode has a well-known been a May-December
guest star playing him or oddball pairing that
herself. STEVEN SPIEL- would rival Woody Allen
BERG, 71, is the guest and Soon-Yi.
star in the season finale
episode first which first At the movies
aired Thursday at 10 “How to Talk to
p.m. (with many encore Girls at Parties”
showings). One of the is a sci-fi film
three “Nobodies,” Larry based in part on the
Dorf, may be Jewish, but writings of our Brit lands-
there is very little biog- man, superstar fantasy
raphy available on him. writer NEIL GAIMAN, 57.
The History Channel (Gaiman recently played
marks the 50th anni- Ronan Farrow Jon Lovett Neil Gaiman himself in a small, but
versary of the death of important part on “The
Robert F. Kennedy with Robert Kennedy delivered You may recall the very Farrow wasn’t easy. I did Big Bang Theory.”)
a documentary about to South African students good movie “Quiz Show” note that Farrow says Adding to Gaiman’s work
his life, featuring new in 1966. Goodwin also (1994) about the scan- that the late diplomat was “Parties” script
interviews with fam- is credited with writing dal surrounding “The RICHARD HOLBROOKE co-writer John Cameron
ily members. (First airs the 1965 speech in which $64,000 Question.” was “as close a thing as I Mitchell (who had a
on June 4 at 10 p.m.). Lyndon Johnson urged ROB MORROW, now 55, have ever had to a co-starring Jewish
Worth noting here is the passage of the Vot- played Goodwin (they father.” Well, a friend tells character in his most
the death of RICHARD ing Rights Act. Goodwin used Goodwin’s real me that I should have famous work, “Hedwig
GOODWIN, age 86, on managed to persuade name), and the Goodwin looked closer at Farrow’s and the Angry Inch”).
May 20. Johnson to mention the character was the hero of personal life. Elle Fanning co-stars
Goodwin, who was famous Civil Rights move- the film. Farrow, I learned, long in “Parties” as a 1970s
married to presidential ment song “We Shall has been romantically teen who sneaks out of
biographer and historian Overcome” in this speech. I didn’t know linked to JON LOVETT, her house to attend punk
Doris Kearns Goodwin, The effect of using that In my last 35, a former speechwriter parties. One night, she
was a speechwriter for phrase was electric. column, I had a for President Obama, and other friends meet
President Kennedy, Presi- Goodwin, a Harvard long item on who now is well known up with a particularly cool
dent Johnson, and Rob- Law grad who clerked for RONAN FARROW, 30, as one of the founders group of teens. These
ert Kennedy. He wrote Justice FELIX FRANK- the biological son of of the popular political teens are really from an-
the groundbreaking and FURTER, investigated WOODY ALLEN, 83. podcast Pod Save Amer- other planet. Romance
incredibly powerful anti- 1950s TV quiz show scan- Frankly, finding Jewish- ica. Lovett and Farrow and other stuff ensues.
apartheid speech that dals for a federal agency. related items about haven’t absolutely con- –N.B.
California-based Nate Bloom can be reached at
Middleoftheroad1@aol.com
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 4
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JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 5

Local
Coming to America
Reporter Matt Katz will air immigrant voices at Kaplen JCC in Tenafly
JOANNE PALMER last year. club in Maplewood. “I was fascinated by

I
mmigration is a vast topic, and there
are many ways to approach it.
If you look at it statistically, you
see huge numbers, and those num-
bers are impersonal. According to the
United Nations, in 2015 there were 47 mil-
lion immigrants living in the United States.
That’s a lot of people. It is, in fact, a stag-
gering number of people.
And each one of those people has a
story.
That’s because immigration also is an
entirely personal thing, a cataclysmic
event at the core of each immigrant’s life.
Everyone came from somewhere, left
there for some reason, and left something
behind — maybe something as physical
as a home and the land that surrounds
it, or maybe something as intangible as
unhappiness or as ultimately malleable as
memory.
That understanding of immigration — as
intensely personal narrative threads mak-
ing up a vast industrial carpet — is what
brought reporter Matt Katz to Elizabeth
Mr. Katz is a reporter for the New York
public radio station WNYC. Until recently,
he covered New Jersey’s former gover-
nor, Chris Christie; he wrote a book on
Mr. Christie, who is outsized in every way,
including in personality. “But I think that
it’s good in general for reporters to change
beats every few years,” Mr. Katz said. “And
Christie was leaving office.
“And also he had stopped talking to me.
That didn’t make covering him impossible,
but it did make it a little more difficult, and
a little less enjoyable.”
He will be talking about immigration at
the JCC U at the Kaplen JCC on the Pali-
sades on Thursday. (See box.)
Mr. Katz is Jewish. His interest in immi-
gration was sparked “toward the end of my
time covering Christie, when I read a short
story in the Newark Star-Ledger about a
synagogue in Montclair that hosted several
Syrian Muslim refugee families for dinner
on Christmas Eve,” he said. “They served
takeout Chinese food.
“I loved the convergence of all those cul-
tures. The idea of Muslims and Jews getting
Matt Katz
together on Christmas, in such a uniquely
American way.”
When he began to write about immigra-
tion, Mr. Katz wrote about a Syrian supper
some of the very positive local things that
have come out of the very divisive immi-
gration moment now,” he said.
At the JCC, his talk will “focus on immi-
gration policy in New York and New Jer-
sey,” he said. “Most of what I have done is
in New Jersey. I hope to explain some of
the changes in immigration policy — there
have been so many changes that they’re
hard to follow. And I’ll tell stories about
the people who are affected by it.”
He’s recorded conversations, and he
plans to play some of them, “to get a sense
of what their experiences have been.
“People have different opinions about
immigration policy, but it is clear that we
have a very unclear, inconsistent, make-
shift approach to how we admit immi-
grants and how we determine who can
stay,” Mr. Katz said. “I’ll talk about some
of that using the voices of some of these
folks.”
One of the most compelling stories Mr.
Katz tells aired on public radio; he will talk
about it at the JCC as well. It’s the story of
SEE IMMIGRATION PAGE 8

Learning what works and what’s ‘feasible’

United Synagogue of Hoboken takes steps to settle refugees
LOIS GOLDRICH offered support, we’d really housing for immigrants and volunteerism. The shul also invited the

P
reparing to support refugees in
the community is a long, com-
plicated process. Hope Koturo,
who is heading the outreach
effort for the United Synagogue of Hobo-
ken, has learned this lesson well.
“We’ve spent at least two years in pre-
paratory work,” she said, adding that the
synagogue “still has a long way to go.
“Our synagogue is very involved in
social justice issues, and we’ve had many
conversations within the community
about this,” she said. In 2016, Rabbi Rob-
ert Scheinberg, the shul’s religious leader
since 1997, sent out an email looking for
someone to lead such a project.
While Hoboken itself does not have
many refugees — “It’s way too expensive”
to live there, Ms. Koturo said — neighbor-
ing Jersey City does have a large immi-
grant community.
“We began by wanting to support a refu-
gee family,” she said. “But we knew if we
have to be there. Since few who have been released Rev. Deacon Jill Singleton, a staff member
congregants could offer that from detention, people at the Church of the Incarnation, where the
kind of commitment, the “who were forced to flee Lighthouse is based, to address the congre-
group decided to approach persecution in their home gation, together with some of the residents
the issue in a different way. countries due to race, reli- living at the facility.
“We tried to raise aware- gion, nationality, politi- Following a “natural progression,” Ms.
ness of refugees’ needs in our cal opinion, or member- Koturo reached out to the Church World
congregation,” Ms. Koturo ship in a particular social Service in Jersey City, a nonprofit agency
said. She cited, as an exam- group.” Lighthouse’s goal working to resettle refugees in New Jersey.
ple, a Shabbaton featuring is to house five guests “We’re trying to figure out how to work
the president of HIAS, Mark at a time; immigrants with them,” she said. “We have held
Hetfield, who came to speak Hope Koturo would go there after being catered dinners sponsored by the con-
about the refugee crisis and released from one of four gregation,” where meals were cooked
resettlement. The congregation also got detention facilities in New Jersey. “Often, by a Kurdish refugee and a woman from
in touch wtih First Friends of New Jersey these released individuals have spent Eritrea. So far, dinners have been held
and New York, which, according to its upwards of six months to a year languish- at a synagogue in Jersey City, an art gal-
website, “upholds the inherent dignity ing in detention, even though they have lery in Hoboken, and in people’s homes.
and humanity of detained immigrants and never committed a crime,” the group’s Proceeds from the dinners are donated
asylum seekers.” The group offers volun- website says. directly to the refugees.
teer visitation, resettlement assistance, Ms. Koturo said that one way the syna- “We’ve also started to do some ESL
and advocacy, helping to get people out gogue can contribute to this effort is by tutoring, as well as a stationery drive
of detention. becoming a congregational partner of the with First Friends,” Ms. Koturo contin-
In 2017, First Friends helped create the Lighthouse, providing it with supplies. This, ued. “People in detention centers have no
Lighthouse, which provides temporary she said, involves both financial support SEE HOBOKEN PAGE 8

6 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

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Local
Immigration
FROM PAGE 6
Andre Twendele and Lisette Lukoji, both from the Demo-
cratic Republic of Congo. He was shot and left for dead,
lying on top of executed men who really were dead. She
was arrested and imprisoned; her baby daughter was
pulled away from her. Lisette has no idea what happened
to Lorette; she doesn’t even know if the baby survived the
attack.
The couple met in a refugee camp in Malawi, and they
married. She’s still there. He’s in Elizabeth. They don’t
know if they ever will meet again, but their strong Chris-
tian faith has taken them to this point, and although it is
highly stressed, even tattered, it is not yet gone.
Mr. Katz has interviewed Mr. Twendele in Elizabeth,
and he has gone to Malawi to interview Ms. Lukoji. His
radio interviews — which are available in transcription
on the internet, at njspotlight.com — are both factual and
emotional.
“The common feature of immigration, of migration, is
family separation,” Mr. Katz said. “Parents from children,
spouses from each other. When you are talking about the
refugee crisis, this is what it means in human terms.”
As a reporter, he is able to distance himself somewhat
from the stories he hears as he is hearing them, Mr. Katz
said. “I get into a certain mode when I am working. You
are observing everything — you’re also thinking about
whether the microphone is on properly, about who else
you could talk to, and what else you should talk about.
So I am not experiencing it in the moment as a listener
might.” For example, when Ms. Lukoji talked about her
daughter being pulled from her arms, he could listen.
“And then I feel it later,” he said. “You have to feel it, to
understand it, and to understand how that one story fits
into a larger narrative.”
Listening to immigrants’ stories and retelling them has
gotten Mr. Katz interested in his own story. “I constantly
think about what my great grandparents and grandpar-
ents experienced when they came to this country, and
it makes me want to learn more about it,” he said. “So I
started on ancestry.com, and I have found out more about
how and when they got here.
“I found my great-grandfather’s naturalization papers,”
Mr. Katz continued. “His name was Morris Russakow; he
was born in 1872, in what I believe is modern-day Belarus,
was beaten and almost killed for being Jewish. He got here
in 1904, and was naturalized in 1923, in Connecticut. He
was a kosher butcher there.
“And I found another great-grandfather, who lived in
Rockland, Maine. The census form had his address, so I
google-mapped it, and I found that across the street was
an old synagogue, so I googled it. He arrived in 1892; the
synagogue opened there just a few years later.
“A small group of Jews arrived there, and clearly the
first thing they did was open a synagogue. I think that if
I went there, I probably could find his name on a ledger
somewhere in the basement.”
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8 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
Matt Katz interviews Edafe Okporo, an asylee from
Nigeria who fled to New Jersey after he was beaten
up at home for working with gay people who
have AIDS. They’re at the Lighthouse, a shelter for
asylees in Jersey City. FRED CONRAD
The shul, google says, is Adas Yoshuron Synagogue. It’s
still open.
As a Jew, Mr. Katz said, and as a reporter who has cov-
ered many immigrants’ stories, “I think I kind of viscerally
understand the experience of immigration. Even though
I was born in this country, and even though as a white
man I can pass as a Mayflower American, I don’t feel that
way inside.
“The way we take in refugees was created in the wake
of the Holocaust,” Mr. Katz said. “It was in response to the
often abysmal way the country handled the question of
whether to accept Jews fleeing Europe during the war, so
it is a constant backdrop to the stories of the refugees.”
And that’s why Mr. Katz tells the immigrants’ stories
with such heart.
Who: WNYC reporter Matt Katz
What: Will talk about “How Trump’s Immigration Poli-
cies Impact Lives and Change America”
Where: At the JCC U at the Kaplen JCC on the Pali-
sades, 411 East Clinton Ave., Tenafly
When: On Thursday, June 7, at 10:30
And also: After a break for lunch, Dr. Seth Gopin will
talk about “Frank Lloyd Wright and the West,” as he
looks at what the extraordinary American architect did
after he moved to Arizona and settled in Taliesin West.
How much: The full day costs JCC members $35; non-
members $42.
For more information or to register: Go to jccotp.org/
adult-JCC-university or call (201) 408.1454.
Hoboken
FROM PAGE 6
way to communicate with friends and family. We cre-
ate folders of stationery and stamps that are given to
these refugees. We meet with them once a week.”
In addition to these activities — and efforts such as
participating in a nationally simulcast screening of the
documentary “Human Flow” — “we have members of
the community who are actively supporting recently
resettled families.”
That cohort includes United Synagogue member
Bess Morrison, who, together with her husband, Fred
Miller, is actively involved with Welcome Home Jersey
City, an all-volunteer organization devoted to helping
newly arrived refugees and asylees begin their lives in
the greater Jersey City area.
By partnering with local government, businesses,
and nonprofits, the group helps people who have been
resettled by the Church World Service, cleaning and
furnishing apartments for new arrivals in Jersey City,
teaching ESL classes, providing individual tutoring and
support, giving them donated items, and doing what-
ever else needs doing.
“After the last election, we were looking to give back
and we knew people tutoring refugees in English in Jer-
sey City,” Ms. Morrison said. “I was trying to figure out
how to do this. Finally, I realized that there were lots
of ways to help incoming refugees.” Among them was
helping to set up an apartment, and she volunteered to
do that. “I have a flexible schedule, so I could move the
family in,” she said; she is a singer, a cantorial soloist,
and a piano and voice teacher, so she can arrange her
schedule to find the time to help when needed.
Since she already had started to develop a relation-
ship with the newly moved family — parents and three
children from Eritrea — “I offered to take them as the
people I’m tutoring.” Almost immediately, she learned
that no one had registered the children for school.
“Somebody told CWS that they couldn’t get registered
until they had a permanent address,” she said. “They
got here in April and they hadn’t been in school for two
months. I asked, ‘How can they not be in school?’ and I
took it upon myself to get them registered.”
As it happened, the school told her that it wasn’t true
about needing a permanent address. If that were the
case, homeless children could not get an education. “It
was a miscommunication, but it’s been fixed, though
they may have lost an extra year of school,” Ms. Mor-
rison said.
In addition to tutoring the children, Ms. Morrison
“helped find a job for the dad. Unfortunately, it didn’t
work out,” due mainly to difficulty in communication.
She will try again. She has also signed one of the chil-
dren up for a soccer team.
Ms. Morrison said that she has become friendly with
the Eritrean family, “and they’ve become part of our
extended family.” Inevitably, she said, there is some

Bess Morrison and Fred Miller
imbalance in the relationship, “because
they need a lot of things. I help as much
as I can.” She and her husband practiced
interview techniques with the father, and
discussed such issues as “how to deal with
your boss.” While Ms. Morrison hasn’t
worked with many other families, “every-
one pitched in when two families were
burnt out by a bad fire. I took one family
to see an apartment.”
United Synagogue member Razel
Solow of Hoboken has been teaching
ESL to the children in the Eritrean fam-
ily for a year. “After Trump won the 2016
election, I felt motivated to choose vol-
unteer work that would directly affect
the issues that I felt he was hurting,” she
said. “I’d volunteered for most of my
life, but at that point I wanted to choose
something that I thought would counter-
act his detrimental policies.”
During her training, “I was told not
to ask about the refugees’ past experi-
ences because it was probably highly
traumatic. So I didn’t. However, I work
with children, and some of their prior
life reveals itself as we work together. I
work with two boys, who are intelligent,
hardworking, motivated, cheerful, and
delightful. We have a lot of fun.”
Ms. Solow said that the work she is
doing is important because “the history
of the U.S. is the history of immigrants.
My grandparents emigrated from Lithua-
nia to Canada, but they shared the same
experience as American immigrants. If
you’ve studied history, you’ll know that
the immigrant experience, especially for
refugees, has been full of profound chal-
lenges and enormous adjustment.
“I’m grateful that Canada and the U.S.
gave my persecuted Jewish ancestors a
safe place to live. I want to do the same
for others.”
The experience of working with the
family makes her happy, she said. “The
boys are so positive about the ESL expe-
rience that I feel grateful. It makes me
happy. They have an ESL class in school,
but getting one-on-one experience is
invaluable. They make that clear by
asking me to come to their home for
lessons even when they have days off
from school. We work through the sum-
mer, too. I always ask the boys directly
whether they want a day off on holi-
days. They decide for themselves; they
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JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 9
Local

Building a life on truth

Israeli-Austrian film, “The Testament,” will be shown and discussed at Kaplen JCC
LARRY YUDELSON

N
ot until 21 years after he finished film school in
1997 did Amichai Greenberg release his first fea-
ture film, “The Testament,” which is playing in
Tenafly next week as part of the Israeli Ameri-
can Council’s Cinametic series of Israeli films. (See box.)
Along the way, Mr. Greenberg held a number of differ-
ent jobs. Perhaps the one most relevant to “Testament,” the
story of how a Holocaust researcher’s identity is upended
when he discovers a secret about his mother, was the year
he spent traveling the length and breadth of Israel filming
Holocaust survivors for the Spielberg video archive.
“This was a very, very intense experience,” Mr. Green-
berg said. “I collected two testimonials a day. Every day,
two stories.
“They could be in different parts of the country. In the
morning I could be in Beersheva, with a new immigrant
who just came from Russia in a one-room apartment,
where I would put the camera on one side of the bed and
the witness would be on the other side, with just enough
space for the camera to focus. Then in the afternoon I
could be in a very rich, successful neighborhood of Tel
Aviv, sitting in an enormous house with one of the scien-
tists who developed Israel’s nuclear weapons as he gives
his testimony. Seeing all these pieces of the country, and
the people having these stories….
“You would hear those horrific stories and then, at the Israeli actor Ori Pfeffer plays the protagonist, Yoel, in “The Testament,” screening at the Kaplen JCC on the
end of each testimony, they would invite their family to Palisades on June 10.
join. You understand that their children and grandchildren
don’t think about the story their father or grandfather went were a bit of a fluke. He was two weeks back from his post- He realized he wanted to make a film. “I was trying to
through. It was quite shocking to realize that I knew this per- army trip to South America, walking around Jerusalem find a plot that would manifest the situation” of his iden-
son for only two or three hours and now I know something in the middle of the winter, trying to figure out what to tity crisis, Mr. Greenberg said. He came upon the question
about them that their relatives will never know.” do next, when he stumbled across Ma’aleh, the modern of losing your Jewish identity.
Mr. Greenberg understood how survivors were reluctant Orthodox film school that had opened only recently. “It’s nothing and everything at the same time,” he
to share the details of their stories with their family. His “Let’s try that,” he thought, and went in, convincing said. “If it turns out your mother is not Jewish — on the
father, Ari Greenberg, who had been a child when the Nazis administrators to accept him in the middle of the year. one hand, nothing happens. You’re the same person. On
invaded, did not want to share his story for the cameras.
“He was born in 1935,” Amichai said. “He was in the
ghetto of Krakow. He was hidden by his father, along with
his mom and a sister and a relative, in a warehouse where
the Nazis stored the leftover furniture from the Jews after This was a very, very intense experience. I collected
they were sent to the camps. My grandfather was able to
smuggle them out and give them false identities. With their
two testimonials a day. Every day, two stories.
false identities, they went through Poland to Hungary and
stayed in Budapest until the end of the war. My grandfather He found a productive chaos in Ma’aleh, “a bohemian the other, everything changes. I thought that could be
stayed and went through the camps.” environment with a big sense of freedom and introspec- the center of my plot.”
His grandfather, Efraim Greenberg, survived, and tion.” At 22, he was one of the younger students — some “Testament” was filmed in part in Austria. It was the
came to New York after the war. Ari Greenberg studied at were 30, 45, even 60. Some were newcomers to religious first Israeli movie to be co-produced by Austria, which
Yeshiva University before making aliyah in 1969. Amichai observance. Some were not religious. supported the film financially. Austrian complicity with
was born shortly afterward, in Haifa. “This whole balagan” — this mixed up jumble — “created the Holocaust is at the core of the movie. The protago-
Some film students have known that they wanted to be a very cozy feeling that was an inspiration to me.” nist, Yoel, played by Israeli actor Ori Pfeffer, is a Holocaust
behind a camera for almost their whole lives. Mr. Green- Ma’aleh gave him the skills to make a movie, but the researcher who is trying to find proof of a massacre before
berg was not one of them. As he tells it, his film studies impetus was a personal crisis he had 10 years ago. “It was a building is built over what he believes to be a mass grave.
an existential experience of being lost,” Mr. Greenberg While the village in the film is fictional, the details are
What: “The Testament,” a film by Amichai Greenberg, said. “Everything went wrong. Nothing worked. I was based on the massacre in Rechnitz, Austria, in March,
followed by discussion led by Dr. Stuart Liebman, an depressed. I remember just sitting home, not knowing 1945, when 200 Jewish slave laborers were hunted down
emeritus professor of film studies at Queens College what to do with myself. and killed for entertainment by local notables attending
and the CUNY Graduate Center. “I found myself taking a camera, walking down the a party at a castle. “The Testament” incorporates footage
When: Sunday, June 10. street, just taking photos, coming home and working on from a documentary about the massacre.
Reception, 7 p.m; screening, 7:30 p.m. them in Photoshop. I realized it nourished me. I said to Filming a movie about a Holocaust massacre in Austria
Where: Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, myself, this is something I can build on, something truth- was not a simple experience.
411 East Clinton Ave., Tenafly ful that nourishes me, that doesn’t depend on money, on “The crew we had there were extremely involved,” Mr.
How much: $12 JCC members, $14 public. whether people like it or not. Greenberg said. “The actors were very touched, really
“Since then, I started building my life on things that felt wanted to help the film. Even the production assistants
Advance tickets: (201) 408-1427.
truthful to me.” read the script, which is kind of rare.

10 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

 More than
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“The Testament” addresses the crisis of a loss

of Jewish identity.

“That was on one hand.

“On the other hand, when I was going to scout
for the village where it was going to be shot, 70 kilo-
meters from Vienna, in each and every village you
would find this big stone with a plaque ‘In memory
of our beloved soldiers’ with SS and Wermacht sol-
diers named. And fresh flowers on it.
“I saw this and stopped breathing for a second. I
was shocked.
“There’s a sense of the split screen when you are
there. I cannot forget that my father was running for his
life not far away. Yet most of the people I met with, if not
all, were extremely generous and extremely passionate.”
Mr. Greenberg worked with a local scouting agent to
find his Austrian actors; among his casting needs was a
woman who could play an Austrian politician. “I know
a great actress, but she’s quite famous,” the scout told
him. Her name was Michaela Rosen. “I don’t know if
she would do the part.”
Don’t worry, Mr. Greenberg said. “Worst case, if she’s
offended, tell her it’s an Israeli director who doesn’t
have manners,” he reported telling the scout.
“Two days later, I get a phone call from Vienna,” he
continued. “The agent is really excited and moved. She
would like to audition. The next trip, we do this audi-
tion. She was brilliant. I immediately gave her the part.
“She said, ‘Do you want to know why I’m interested
in the role? I’m 59. Four years ago I learned for the first
time that I am Jewish.’ She said that only her relatives
knew. She had never said it to anyone publicly.
“When we premiered in Venice, we had a great
screening. There was great applause. A 10 minute
standing ovation. And then we had a Q and A. Someone
asked, ‘What’s your personal connection to the film?’
“She stood up and said to all of them: ‘This is the
first time I’m speaking about it, but I’m Jewish.’ It was
extremely moving.”

JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 11

Local
Standing out or blending in?
Rabbi explores texts on looking like everyone else
— or not — at a partnership minyan in Tenafly
JOANNE PALMER
There is a fact that is exciting for some
of us, unnerving for some of us, and
supremely uninteresting for some of us,
but true for every single one of us — we
each make a statement with the way we
choose to look every time we leave the pri-
vacy of our own homes.
We each have a multitude of looks to
choose from — put together, casual, for-
mal, colorful, bland, in style, out of style,
beyond style.
And we also can choose whether or not
to look Jewish.
We cannot, mind you, choose our fea-
tures, and that is not the point. Some of us
have stereotypically Jewish features, and
some of us — probably more of us — do not.
That’s not optional. But the way each of
us chooses to present to the world abso-
lutely is.
Rabbi Sarah Mulhern of the Shalom
Hartman Institute of North America will
discuss the choice of looking Jewish, based
on texts as old as “first century and as
recent as last week on Facebook,” as she
put it — the way Jews have addressed look-
ing Jewish across both time and space — at
a lunch and learn after davening this Shab-
bat at Minyan Tiferet (see box).
“I’m interested in the question of how
people display their identities through
their clothing, and that obviously is a ques-
tion we can ask about many things — about
gender, culture, political affiliations, and
marital status, among many others. People
can articulate all sorts of things about who
they are.”
Although it is hard to understand with
any degree of dispassion why “there is a
human desire for someone walking down
the street, some stranger who you will
never interact with, to know how you
voted, or what your favorite team is,”
Rabbi Mulhern said, that desire is real.
“And I’m also interested, as a rabbi,
about Jewish identity.” Given our need to
be public about at least some aspects of
who we are, “what does that say about
how we understand Jewish identity, both
for ourselves and for the community?” she
asked.
On Shabbat, Rabbi Mulhern said, she
will explore three categories into which
the texts about choosing to look Jewish fall.
“A group of texts says that it is a strong
Jewish value to look different,” she said.
“A second one says that it would be a nice
thing to be able to do that — to have the
luxury to do that — but we can’t. And the
third says that it is important to look like
everyone else.”
Each group includes a range of ideas.
12 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
Rabbi Sarah Mulhern
The texts that fall into the first group
range from the goal of dressing distinc-
tively to show your separateness from the
corrupt culture in which you are forced to
live to “helping build your own internal
culture cohesion,” Rabbi Mulhern said.
In our culture today, “do we want to look
different to say something positive about
American multi-ethnic pluralism?” Do we
not care much about the surrounding cul-
ture and choose to focus the message on
the community we’re accepting rather
than the one we are rejecting, at least visu-
ally? Or “do we want to be a minority? Do
we choose not to pass as white?”
The middle group, Rabbi Mulhern said,
is largely “instrumental. It says ‘It would
be nice — but we need economic success.
I have to be able to walk in the halls of
power” — and it’s hard to do that in peyes
and a black hat.
“And then there are texts that say that
we should dress in a way that is respectful
of the culture and the time that we’re part
of,” she said. “We value the society, and we
want to be part of it, to take part in it. We
want our respectful dress to be intelligible
to the people around us.”
Rabbi Mulhern plans to open with a dis-
cussion, move to the text, and then go to a
discussion. “It will open to a broader con-
versation about what these texts tell us and
what their implications may be.”
Rabbi Mulhern, 32, has a bone-deep
understanding of how it feels to be an out-
sider in a culture that is not at all hostile
but still in many ways is deeply foreign.
“I grew up in Salt Lake City,” she said.
“My family of origin was deeply Jewishly
involved, we were Jewishly committed,
we were ethnically and politically Jewish,
but I wasn’t observant then. And I was the
only Jewish girl in my high school. The vast
majority of the other kids were Mormon. I
grew up with a sense of distinctness.”
She chose to go to Brandeis, Rabbi Mul-
hern said, because “I knew that there
would be many Jews there.
“That was the first time I ever encoun-
tered Jewish text study,” she said. It was
the first time she’d ever seen a page of
Talmud. The effect was electrifying. “I fell
in love with Jewish observance, and with
text,” she said. “I became obsessed with it.
“I was supposed to go into public pol-
icy,” she added. “My undergraduate
degree was in Middle East studies and eco-
nomics; really, my background in econom-
ics has been useful.”
That love affair with Jewish text started
a years-long course of studies in yeshivot.
“I really started quite literally not know-
ing which way to hold the siddur,” she
said. “And then I was blessed to have the
opportunity to learn for a number of years
in Israel.” She studied at Pardes; back in
New York, she also studied at both Hadar
and Drisha. Understanding that the Jewish
world was the world in which she had to
live, she worked at the American Jewish
World Service developing service learning
programs.
But even that wasn’t enough.
“It became clear that I had to go to rab-
binical school,” Rabbi Mulhern said. “I
really fought it — but God can yell in your
ear for only so long.
“So I went to Hebrew College.”
Hebrew College is in suburban Boston;
it’s a pluralistic school that ordains rabbis
and cantors and offers degrees in Jewish
thought and practice. “It was an amaz-
ing experience,” Rabbi Mulhern said. “I
learned with people who had radically
different perspectives and experiences. It
was really a gift. I learned so much.”
Rabbi Mulhern is a complicated person.
As much as she loved Hebrew College, it
did not fully satisfy her. Now, she said, “I
am completing Orthodox smicha.” It’s pri-
vate, from Rabbi Daniel Landes, who lives
in Israel and is a former director of the
Pardes Institute. “I spent one year study-
ing in Israel full time, and now I’m finish-
ing remotely.”
Why does she want the second smicha
so different from the first? “They offer
such different fields of study,” she said.
“In Hebrew College, I learned how to be an
American rabbi. I learned talmud Torah,
pastoral care, and how to run a nonprofit
organization. The Orthodox smicha is
much more focused on very deep study of
Jewish law. It’s about supplementing the
education I got in Hebrew College, which
didn’t tightly focus on questions of adjudi-
cating Jewish law.
“It’s about the art and science of learning
how to answer halachic questions.
“I live a halachically observant life,”
she said. “People were coming to me
with questions, and I want to be able
to be authoritative in answering those
questions.”
So what does she call herself? Not sur-
prisingly, Rabbi Mulhern is not a big fan
of labels. “I describe myself as halachic,”
she said. “Everyone else can decide what
I am. I am interested in being the best per-
son I can be Jewishly, and in being the best
rabbi I can be. I don’t need to be involved
in turf wars.”
She is not pleased by the idea that the
question of gender — of what a woman
legitimately can do in the Orthodox world,
of what her place should be — is “the divid-
ing line,” she said. “That is a strange thing.
That’s the line, rather than belief in God,
or commitment to the legal system?
“There are a lot of places where we can
draw a line, and it is interesting that we are
drawing it on women’s bodies.
“I understand that many Orthodox peo-
ple do not see me as Orthodox because of
my belief about what the Torah demands
of Jewish women, but I just want to teach
Torah and defend the Jewish people.”
Rabbi Mulhern lives in Riverdale, N.Y.,
with her husband, Rabbi William Fried-
man, and their toddler, Eliana Mulhern-
Friedman. She is the manager of rabbinic
and lay education at Hartman, “foster-
ing teachers of Torah,” she said. She also
teaches there.
“My deeply held belief is that Torah can
grow and expand only if different people
and different beliefs and different perspec-
tives come into the beit midrash,” she said.
“There are things that my female collabo-
rators can see that haven’t been seen in
thousands of years. We are doing impor-
tant work.”
Who: Rabbi Sarah Mulhern
What: Will teach at a lunch-and-learn
program after Shabbat davening
Where: At a private home at 36 Oak
St., Tenafly
When: Davening starts at 9:30; the
potluck lunch-and-learn begins at
about 12:15, more or less.
For more information: Go to minyan-
tiferet.com
You might want to know: Minyan
Tiferet is an Orthodox partnership
minyan; there is a mechitzah, men lead
the parts of the service that need a
shaliach tzibur, and women can lead
the other parts. Both men and women
read Torah. It is based on the model of
Shira Hadasha in Jerusalem.
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JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 13

Local
Jewish justices — and more
Historian brings his perspective of Supreme Court and White House to Fort Lee series
LOIS GOLDRICH
If Dr. David Dalin did not exactly go into
the family business — his father, grandfa-
ther, great-grandfather, and brother all
were congregational rabbis — he at least
took a step in that direction. More than 25
years ago, he was ordained by the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
He did not, however, take up a pulpit.
Rather, guided by his lifelong fascination
with “the history of Jews in politics and
public life,” Rabbi Dr. Dalin — who received
a doctorate from Brandeis University in
history and now is the senior research fel-
low at the Bernard G. and Rhoda G. Sarnat
Center at that university — has written, co-
written, or edited some 12 books, primarily
on American Jewish history and politics.
Dr. Dalin, who now lives in Boca Raton,
Fla., describes himself as “a full-time
author, and rabbi without portfolio.” His
wife, Miriam Dalin, teaches American Jew-
ish history at Florida Atlantic University.
Dr. Dalin, who grew up in San Francisco,
noted that his father was a chaplain during
World War II and the Korean War, “one of
two chaplains who served at DP camps.”
In 1997 — together with Professor Jona-
than D. Sarna, whom Dr. Dalin describes
as one of his oldest and closest friends —
Dr. Dalin produced “Religion and State in
the American Jewish Experience,” pub-
lished by the University of Notre Dame
Press and named by Choice Magazine as
an Outstanding Academic Book of 1998.
His most recent book, “Jewish Justices
of the Supreme Court, from Brandeis to
Kagan,” published by Brandeis University
Press, was selected as a finalist for the 2017
National Jewish Book Award.
Dr. Dalin will speak about that book, and
several of his other works, at the Jewish
Community Center of Fort Lee on June 8–
9, as scholar-in-residence there (see box).
With a B.A. from the University of Cali-
fornia at Berkeley and an M.A. and Ph.D.
from Brandeis — together with a second
M.A. as well as rabbinic ordination from
JTS — Dr. Dalin has no shortage of material
to draw from. His focus, however, will be
Who: Scholar-in-residence
Dr. David Dalin
What: Will present four lectures
When: June 8-9
Where: At the Jewish Community
Center of Fort Lee, 1449 Anderson Ave.
Also: Lectures are free. Friday evening
dinner at 6 p.m. is optional and
reservations are required; it costs $10
for members and $12 for non-members.
Children under 12 are free. For more
information and reservations, call the
synagogue office at (201) 947-1735.
14 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
on his first love, American Jewish politics.
“I wrote a major article 20 years ago
about Jewish presidential appointees,
and that got me interested in Jews and the
Supreme Court,” Dr. Dalin, who calls him-
self “basically, a historian of Jewish politi-
cal thought,” said. He was surprised to
learn that although there were books on
Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and Ben-
jamin Cardozo, there were no other works
about Jewish justices; he set out to fix that.
Dr. Dalin said that as a group, Jew-
ish Supreme Court justices tend to differ
from other justices in terms of both their
politics and their Jewishness. “All of those
appointed have been liberal Democrats,”
he said, and except for Benjamin Cardozo
— who was appointed by the Republican
Herbert Hoover — all were appointed by
Democratic presidents.
Today, he said, Justice Ruth Bader Gins-
burg is considered the most liberal member
of the Supreme Court. She is now the lon-
gest serving Jewish justice, beating Frank-
furter’s 23-year record. She and Justice Ste-
phen Breyer, who also is Jewish, both were
appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Interestingly, Dr. Dalin said, while Jus-
tice Ginsburg is in her mid-80s and Jus-
tice Elena Kagan, also Jewish, is 28 years
younger, they both have the same per-
sonal trainer. ( Justice Ginsburg works
out two or three times a week.) He also
noted that Ginsburg’s closest friend on
the court was the conservative Justice
Antonin Scalia, whom she met during
the 1970s at a law conference at Colum-
bia and with whom she shared a love
of opera. “They took family vacations
together, to the surprise of their support-
ers and critics,” Dr. Dalin said. “There is
a great photo of them in India, Ruth on
one elephant and Scalia on another, shak-
ing hands.”
With President Trump’s list of possible
Supreme Court appointments including 21
conservative Republicans, “it’s very diffi-
cult” for Ginsburg to retire, Dr. Galin said.
“She has become an icon.”
Dr. Dalin said that Louis Brandeis,
despite being the acknowledged leader of
the American Zionist Movement, “had the
least Jewish background of any justice.”
Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, his parents
and his children all celebrated Christmas,
“and his favorite dish was ham.” Justice
Cardozo, on the other hand, came from a
traditional Sephardic family. This proved
awkward when Brandeis invited him for
a Sunday dinner — the main course was
ham. Cardozo did not go to synagogue
often, Dr. Dalen said, “but when he did, it
was Orthodox.”
Felix Frankfurter, born in Vienna and
raised as an Orthodox Jew, left Judaism as
a teenager, later marrying the daughter
Dr. David Dalin
of a Protestant minister. Nevertheless,
he too was a leader of the Zionist move-
ment. “He wanted to become a Boston
An active and
informed Reform
Jew, Goldberg
was the first
Jewish justice to
have a seder.
Brahmin, and he accomplished that,” Dr.
Dalin said. And yet, he added, in his will,
Frankfurter asked one of his law clerks,
an observant Jew whom he admired, to
say kaddish for him.
Justice Arthur Goldberg “had more of a
Jewish and Zionist background,” Dr. Dalin
said. “He and his wife, both Yiddishists,
were close friends with Golda Meyerson —
later Meir — before she made aliyah. “An
active and informed Reform Jew, Gold-
berg was the first Jewish justice to have a
seder,” inviting both Jewish and non-Jew-
ish notables.
“His invitation list was the talk of Wash-
ington,” Dr. Dalin said. “The labor leader
George Meany added Irish folk songs” to
the traditional seder songs of the seder.
And then there’s this — “On his Supreme
Court letterhead, he sent a caterer the
Goldberg family recipe for charoset.”
An anecdote: Goldberg, who was visit-
ing his mother, overslept. The phone rang
and his mother answered. “Who’s this?”
she said. “This is the president,” John F.
Kennedy answered. “The president of
what synagogue?” his mother replied.
In 2000, Dr. Dalin tackled a different
political subject, with “The Presidents of
the United States and the Jews.” He will
talk about that in Fort Lee. “That came
about when a friend of my father’s heard
that I gave a lecture on the subject and
asked me to collaborate on a book. It goes
through the Clinton administration.”
Asked whether any American presi-
dents were overtly racist, Dr. Dalin said
that ironically, while “stereotypical com-
ments about Jews” can be found on the
Nixon tapes, “he appointed more Jews
to high office than any president before
him. And when push came to shove dur-
ing the Yom Kippur war, he came to Isra-
el’s help.”
Harry Truman, however, who is
remembered for his help in securing
recognition for the state of Israel, was
no friend of the Jews. “His wife, Bess,
wouldn’t allow Jews in the house, includ-
ing his business partner Eddie Jacobson,”
Dr. Dalin said. As for Franklin Roosevelt’s
refusal to bomb Auschwitz or to accept
the passengers from the SS St. Louis, if
this was not a reflection of his racism, it
certainly reflects his indifference.
“He took the Jewish community’s vote
for granted,” Dr. Dalin said. He did not care
about what was happening to the Jews in
Europe. “He was oblivious.” In fact, “Most
people said that if FDR had still been presi-
dent, there would have been no recogni-
tion of the Jewish state.”
Dr. Dalin will also speak about another
of his books, “Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti
and the Rise of Radical Islam,” published
by Random House.
“I have taught courses on the Holocaust
and I was amazed to discover that in most
books on the Shoah, he only gets a para-
graph — two at the most,” Dr. Dalin said.
The mufti, a great admirer of Adolf Hitler,
ultimately became a close member of the
dictator’s inner circle, working with Goe-
bbels and charged with mobilizing the
Muslims in Europe. “He spoke on Ger-
man radio several times a week and was
responsible for mobilizing hundreds of
thousands of Muslims to support Hitler.
He was not indicted at Nuremberg because
the Vichy government in France hid him
for 10 months in a palatial villa. He left
Paris in the dead of night and returned to
the Middle East.”
In addition, Dr. Dalin added, the mufti
became a mentor to Yasser Arafat, Gamal
Abdel Nasser, and Anwar Sadat. “He
brought in former SS men to train them,”
Dr. Dalin said, adding that the mufti also
was responsible for translating “Mein
Kampf” and “The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion” into Arabic and distributing the
works throughout the Middle East.
“This should be better known,” he said.
 The
Jewish Community Center of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvah

The Harold Lerman Fund for

Israel Education and Engagement*
invites you to attend our third annual event on

Sunday ~ June 3 ~ 6:15 pm

Israel@70: What Does the Future Hold for Israel
and the Middle East?
A conversation on Israel featuring

Bret Stephens

Bret Stephens is an op-ed columnist at

The
New York Times and the former
deputy editorial page editor of the Wall
Street Journal. He is also a former
editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post. He
won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in
2013 for his foreign-affairs column
Global View in the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Stephens published his first book,
America in Retreat: The New
Isolationism and the Coming Global
Disorder, in 2014. In 2005 the World
Economic Fund named him a Young
Global Leader. Mr. Stephens is a regular panelist on the political talk show
Journal Editorial Report. He holds the distinction of having interviewed every
Israeli prime minister since Shimon Pe
*The Harold Lerman Fund for Israel Education and Engagement
was established by the children of the late Harold Lerman,
to honor his passion for Jewish life and the State of Israel.
304 East Midland Ave., Paramus, NJ · (201) 262-0063 or JCCParamus.org

JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 15

Rubin Run

Runners of all ages begin the 5K race at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades. PHOTOS COURTESY JCCOTP

37th Rubin Run attracts

a fast crowd at the JCC
More than 1,100 runners came out for the JCC’s 37th annual Rubin Run on Moth-
er’s Day, celebrating family and fitness and at the same time raising funds for
programs for people with special needs. In addition to the 5K and 10K runs, this
year’s USA Track and Field-sanctioned event featured a challenging 8k trail run
through the scenic Lost Brook Preserve, maintained by the Tenafly Nature Center.
Runners came from 26 cities and five countries; they ranged in age from 3 to
90. A third of the runners were under 18 and half of them were newcomers. Nick
Strain, 17, of Tenafly was the 5K winner; Betsy Eickelberg of Leonia, 26, was the
10K winner; and Mathew Posh, 32, of Quebec was the 8K winner.
The JCC offered specialized training programs, including running clubs, one-
on-one personal training, and a 5K training program for 6- to 13-year-olds to help
prepare for the race, achieve new fitness goals, and maximize performance.
Race day also included athletic warm-ups, DJ entertainment, and a perfor-
mance by the JCC’s dance company. Trophies were awarded to the top three male
and female winners in each age category, and all the children younger than 9 who
finished the race were given medals. Participating moms received a rose as they Brian Tyrrell, Romeo Venegas, Arlene Flores, and Wilson Kwok represented the
crossed the finish line in honor of Mother’s Day. Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
“The Rubin Run exemplifies everything we stand
for at the JCC,” Jordan Shenker, the JCC’s chief execu-
tive officer, said. “It brings our community together to
share in something meaningful on a very special day.
It also acknowledges the importance of fitness and
healthy lifestyles. This year, we raised a very impressive
$100,000 in much-needed funds to support important
programs that allow people with special needs to flour-
ish to their best potential, including valuable life skills
opportunities and confidence-building community vol-
unteer experiences.”
The Kaplen Foundation was the presenting sponsor.
Lead sponsors included the Englewood Hospital and
Medical Center, BSecure, the Rubin family, the Rubach
family, the Jewish Standard, and the North Jersey Media
Group. The Rubin Run is named for the late Leonard
Rubin, a founder and past president of the JCC, who
established this community-wide athletic event to
encourage and promote healthy living. Stephane Zwirn, chair of the Rubin Run, is flanked by JCC board chair Jodi Scherl, and JoJo Rubach,
her children, Bessie, Max, and Renee Zavidow former JCC board chair, enjoy the event.

16 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

 Jewish Federation
OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY 2018 Annual Spring
Luncheon
On May 16, almost 500 women gathered at the Rockleigh Country Club to celebrate Jewish
Federation and the impact women have in the Jewish community.
This year, Stacey Weiss, Joan Krieger, and Barbara Joyce were honored for their commitment and
passion for our community. We pay tribute to them and all the women of Women’s Philanthropy.

Lily Sponsor

JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 17

Briefly Local

JFNNJ officials join governor

to mark Israel’s 70th birthday
Governor Phil Murphy signed a reso-
lution on May 14, recognizing the 70th
anniversary of the establishment of the
State of Israel. Ambassador Dani Dayan,
the consul general of Israel in New York,
who was at the signing at the Trenton
statehouse, spoke about Israeli’s desire
to deepen economic, cultural, and social
ties withs New Jersey. Stephanie Gold-
man, the president of the Jewish Federa-
tion of Northern New Jersey, and Ariella
Noveck, the director of federation’s Jew-

BARBARA BALKIN
ish Community Relations Council, repre-
sented the federation at the meeting.
Ariella Noveck, Governor Phil Murphy,
and Stephanie Goldman COURTESY JFNNJ

Longtime Temple Emeth members

New mezuzah singled out at Teaneck service
Last month, Temple Emeth in Teaneck honored congregants who have been mem-
for El Al at bers for multiples of five years, from five to 55. Each member was give a certificate and
Newark Airport was blessed by Rabbi Steven Sirbu, at right, and Cantor Ellen Tilem, left.

Bris Avrohom maintains a Jewish infor-

mation stand at El Al Airlines at Newark
Liberty International Airport, offering
assistance to travelers flying to Israel with
tefilat haderech (traveler’s prayer) and
Sharsheret expands
helping them wrap tefillin. It’s all under board of directors
the direction of Rabbi Avremy Kanelsky,
BA’s youth and Torah education director. Sharsheret, the only
He is shown here putting up a new mezu- national not-for-profit
zah on a newly renovated El Al office at the organization dedicated to
airport. addressing the needs of
Jewish women and fami-
lies of all backgrounds
who face breast and ovar-
ian cancer, has expanded
its national board of

COURTESY SHARSHERET
directors.
Sharsheret held its larg-
est and most successful
fundraiser on May 6. More
than 600 people attended
the annual luncheon, in
Teaneck. Sisters Gila Pfef- Sisters Gila Pfeffer and Miryam
fer and Miryam Reinitz- Reinitz-Kops flank Jonathan Blinken.
Kops were honored for
their efforts in educating the broader announced that Dana Norris, a for-
community about their risk for hered- mer board president, returned to
PHOTO PROVIDED

itary cancer and supporting women Sharsheret as a member of the honor-

facing breast cancer and ovarian can- ary advisory board.
cer. Jonathan Blinken of Englewood, “This past Sunday, we held our larg-
who received the Lisa Altman Volun- est and most successful fundraiser,
Elias Kirshner blows the shofar presented to Ed Asner, left, as Richard teer Tribute award for his efforts on much to the credit of our wonder-
Kind and Dori Frumin Kirshner, Matan’s executive director, listen. behalf of the organization, was named ful honorees and an incredible com-
the new board president. mittee of volunteers,” Elana Silber,
Matan celebration honors three Sharsheret also welcomed two new Sharsheret’s executive director, said.
board members, Lizzy Greif of Dallas “Building on this amazing energy and
Matan held its annual celebration last month Matan is a national organization that and Michael Shapot of New York City. momentum we are thrilled to wel-
at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. The party, educates Jewish leaders, educators and Board member Leslie Sidell of Denver come new leadership to our board
with more than 140 attendees, honored communities, empowering them to create was named treasurer of the execu- who will guide the organization’s
Pam Schuller, Liane Carter, and Ed Asner learning environments supportive of chil- tive board. Dalia Shoretz Nagel, who efforts locally and across the country,
for their perseverance, advocacy, and sup- dren with special needs, through training is completing her term as president, saving more lives with greater aware-
port of ensuring all children and all learners Institutes and consultations. Its executive will stay on as immediate past presi- ness, and improving more lives with
are able to access a Jewish education. director, Dori Frumin Kirshner, lives in dent. Earlier this year, Sharsheret expanded support.”
Actor Richard Kind introduced his Closter.
friend, fellow actor, Ed Asner.
18 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
 UPCOMING AT KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades
Need After School Help?
Kids Club is the Answer!
Kids Club is an incredible solution to your after school
needs. It runs Mon-Thur and seasonally on Fridays, after
school until 6 pm. Kids Club offers:
• School-to-JCC transportation
• English and Hebrew homework help
• Healthy Snacks
FOR KIDS IN GRADES K-5
• Games, special activities, & monthly mitzvah projects
• $25 credit to use on an after school class
• Escort service to & from any JCC after school class
All for less than the cost of a babysitter!
Register by 6/15 & save!
BARBARA BALKIN

For more info contact Leron Bensoussan at

201.408.1467 or lbensoussan@jccotp.org

19th Annual Sandra O. Gold

Founder's Day Concert
An annual celebratory event featuring our incomparable
student ensembles and honoring Dr. Sandra O. Gold,
who had the vision to create a community music school
at the JCC.
Thur, Jun 14, 6:30 pm
jccotp.org/thurnauer

Trip to Princeton
The Princeton University Art Museum is one of
the finest university art museums in the world. Go
on a docent-led highlights tour and see the new
Frank Stella exhibit. Stroll around the beautiful Ivy
League campus, which is revered for its natural and
architectural beauty.
Lunch is on your own. Bus leaves from the JCC.
Thurs, Jun 28, 9 am–5:30 pm, $80/$96

FILM CHILDREN ADULTS

IAC Cinematec: The Testament Early Fall Registration Open Bridge Intermediate 3
DIRECTOR AMICHAI GREENBERG for Members! WITH AMY NELLISSEN

A mystery about a man willing to risk
everything to discover the truth, featuring
Yoel, a meticulous historian leading a
significant debate against Holocaust deniers
in Austria who discovers that his mother
carries a false identity. 6:30 pm Reception,
7:30 pm Screening & Discussion with Stuart
Liebman, Professor Emeritus, Queens
College and CUNY Graduate Center.
Sun, Jun 10, $12/$14/At the door $17
In collaboration with New York Israel
Film Center Film Festival.
Don’t miss out on all your favorite Early Childhood
and After School classes at the J. From swimming to
music and everything in between, we have it all. Why
should you register now for Fall 2018 classes? Great
question!
REGISTERING NOW:
• Guarantees you a spot in the class your kid loves
and that works best for your schedule
• Makes back-to-school season way less hectic
• Allows you to take advantage of our full-year
registration discounts!
Visit jccotp.org/children for complete schedule
Sharpen your defense, bidding and declarer play.
Topics include defensive signals, second and third
hand play, practice with Jacoby transfers, Stayman
and finesses. Optional practice follows.
8 Tuesdays, Jun 12-Aug 14, 1-3 pm
(Except: Jun 26 & Jul 24), $205/$245
TO REGISTER OR FOR MORE INFO
VISIT jccotp.org
STAY IN THE KNOW! LIKE US ON
facebook.com/KaplenJCCOTP

KAPLEN JCC on the Palisades TAUB CAMPUS | 411 E CLINTON AVE, TENAFLY, NJ 07670 | 201.569.7900 | jccotp.org
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 19
 Briefly Local

ELLEN DUBIN PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY JTS

Front row, from left: Jessica Stern, Julia Ganbarg, Madison Gold, Sarah
Gordon, Rebecca Brandon. Back row, from left: Mikaela Bichler, Kayla
124th commencement ceremony Seigel-Laddy, Eric Levine, Jarod Forer, Eitan Ahdoot, Simon Castiel,

brings JTS graduates together Adam Alper, Noah Mandelman, and Jonathan Marcus. COURTESY BCHSJS

The Jewish Theological Seminary’s chan-
cellor, Dr. Arnold M. Eisen, spoke at the
school’s 124th commencement ceremony
at the historic International House. The
graduating class included rabbinical,
cantorial, bachelor’s, master’s, and doc-
toral degree students. Honorary degrees
were also presented to innovative leaders
including actress and performer Tovah
Feldshuh; Rabbi Rachel Cowan, an innova-
tor in the field of Jewish spirituality; Felice
Gaer of Paramus, the director of the AJC’s
Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of
Human Rights; and Dr. Jonathan D. Sarna,
the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun professor
of American Jewish history at Brandeis.
The graduates will go on to lead congre-
gations at synagogues all over the world
Learn with Lamdeinu
Join Lamdeinu on Monday, June 11, at 10:30 a.m., for “Yours,
Mine & Ours: Minhag & Marriage,” led by Sara Tillinger
Wolkenfeld.
and become leaders at Jewish communal 14 receive diplomas at BCHSJS
organizations, in academia, and at other
institutions. Some graduates will pursue The Bergen County High School of
advanced degrees or have accepted offers Jewish Studies held its annual grad-
at leading companies and organizations. uation, honoring 14 students at the
Undergraduates received bachelor’s Glen Rock Jewish Center.
degrees from List College and also earned Board member Rabbi Dr. Wal-
simultaneous degrees from Columbia Uni- lace Green led the “Star-Spangled
versity or Barnard College. Master’s degree Banner” and “Hatikvah.” The
recipients who completed their studies at school’s principal, Fred Nagler,
the Gershon Kekst Graduate School and the introduced board members, rab-
William Davidson Graduate School of Jew- bis, and congregational principals
ish Education also received degrees. Can- and highlighted school programs.
tors were invested by the H. L. Miller Can-
torial School and College of Jewish Music,
and rabbis were ordained by the Rabbini-
cal School. A number of students received
many degrees from various JTS schools.
Zahal Shalom dinner pays tribute to founder
Zahal Shalom of Bergen
County’s annual dinner on
June 7 will be dedicated to
the organization’s founder,
Jerry Margolis of Glen Rock,
who died in August. The
gala at Barnert Temple in
GRJC’s president, Robert M. Weiss,
extended greetings; the shul’s Rabbi
Jennifer Schlosberg gave the d’var
Torah, and BCHSJS board president
Sy Blechman and teacher Barnett
Goldman spoke to the seniors. Four
graduates shared reflections of their
years at BCHSJS. Rebecca Brandon
received the senior academic award
for five years of excellence in stud-
ies. A reception followed.
families; they also are con-
nected to a buddy family.
That second family acts as
co-host, helping to be sure
that all the veterans’ needs
are met. Veterans and their
hosts spend two weeks tour-
COURTESY ZAHAL

Lamdeinu’s summer semester begins June 5 and all are wel- Franklin Lakes, which pro- ing the metropolitan area
come to join. Lamdeinu, a center for Jewish learning founded by vides an opportunity to and Washington, D.C. They
Rachel Friedman, its dean, is at Congregation Beth Aaron, 950 interact with the veterans, also participate in special
Queen Anne Road, in Teaneck. For information, go to www. lam- begins at 6:30 p.m. The programs within the Jewish
deinu.org or email lamdeinu@aol.com. fundraiser also will include Jerry Margolis z”l community.
Sara Tillinger a silent auction. The group’s slogan, “In
Wolkenfeld This month, Zahal Shalom families will Our Homes for Two Weeks — In our
welcome the 26th delegation of disabled Hearts for a Lifetime,” sums up families’
Israeli veterans into their homes. Each experiences hosting these soldiers. Many
year since 1993, a delegation selected by participating families stay in touch with
NCJW will tour the Boston area an Israeli disabled veterans organization is their veterans for years after they leave,
brought to northern New Jersey as part of and visit with them in Israel.
The Jersey Hills section of the National breakfasts are provided and the three a rehabilitation program to create bonds For more information, go to www.
Council of Jewish Women is sponsoring a dinners will be at Calitri’s, Durgin-Park, between Israelis and their American zahalshalom.org or call Zahal program
four-day, three-night trip to Boston — July and the Gloucester House. hosts. Veterans stay in the homes of host director Scott Krim at (201) 560-1282.
23 to 26. It will leave from Fair Lawn. The package price includes lodging, six
Trip highlights include tours of his- meals, motor coach transportation, tours
toric Boston, Salem, Gloucester, the Cape and admissions, luggage handling, taxes,
Ann peninsula, Lexington, Concord, meal gratuities, and a souvenir gift.
JFK Library and Museum, and a Boston For information, call Joan Donow at www.thejewishstandard.com
duck boat water/land tour. Lodging is at (201) 796-0524.
the Best Western Plus Danvers. Three

9 20 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018


Nate and Lyn Light Geller Jackie and Michael Kates
Beth Sholom to honor congregants
On Sunday, June 10, Teaneck’s Con-
gregation Beth Sholom will hold its
annual black-tie-optional gala at the
shul, beginning with a buffet dinner
at 5 p.m. A tribute program follows at
6:45, then dessert and dancing. Lyn
and Nate Light Geller and Jackie and
Michael Kates will be honored for their
many years of dedication and service to
the shul and to the wider Teaneck and
Jewish communities.
Nate and Lyn Light Geller have been
members of Beth Sholom since 1986.
One of the first things they did at the shul
was to arrange child care for the High
Holy Days. Lyn chaired a social action
committee and then the outreach to wel-
come new immigrants from the former
Soviet Union to Beth Sholom. Nate, who
was working for the National Conference
on Soviet Jewry, worked with his wife on
that project. Lyn, who chairs the shul
board, has been the shul’s vice presi-
dent, president, co-chaired the ritual
and strategic planning committee, and is
a member of the personnel committee.
Nate, who is d’var Torah coordinator
for Minyan Koleinu and on Ayin L’tzion,
was a member of the building usage,
youth, and kesher committees. He also
has been on the boards of the Jewish
Federation of Northern New Jersey and
the federation’s Jewish Community Rela-
tions Council, and he chaired the JCRC’s
Israel and world affairs committee. He
has been a member of the federation’s
Hillel Committee, an officer of the Jew-
ish Community Council of Teaneck, and
a member of the strategic planning com-
mittee of the Solomon Schechter Day
School of Bergen County.
Nate works for 70 Faces Media, a
non-profit Jewish digital media organi-
zation, and Lyn works for UJA-Federa-
tion of New York, where she is execu-
tive director of the Wiener Center for
Leadership and Learning. They have
three children, Aliza, Koby and his
wife, Tali, and Ariana; and a grand-
daughter, Annaelle.
Jacqueline and Michael Kates became
members of Congregation Beth Sho-
lom in 2010. Both have been active
members of the Bergen County Jewish
and general communities. A member
of the CBS strategic growth initiative,
Jackie has been on the shul’s board and
co-chaired its Shabbaton and legacy
Briefly Local
PHOTOS COURTESY CBS
Bernice and Lawrence and Warren and
Bernie Gola Elana Bibi Esther Feldman
committees. Michael is on the task
force considering what to do with the
adjacent synagogue-owned house. He
was the attorney for the Township of
Maddy Gold Mitchell Bloom
Teaneck and its planning board and has
been president of the Teaneck Jewish
Community Council, the Jewish Family
and Children’s Services of North Jersey, Valley Chabad celebrating 18 this week
and the Jewish Association for Develop-
mental Disabilities, and he chaired the Valley Chabad hosts “Celebrate 18 — Celebrate Life,” a gala dinner marking 18 years
North Jersey Friendship House. of community, education, and outreach, on Tuesday, June 5, at 6:30 p.m., at the
Jackie was mayor of Teaneck and a Rockleigh.
member of the Township Council as Bernice and Bernie Gola are the Chai Life recipients, Esther and Warren Feldman
well as a trustee and president of the are the Shem Tov awardees, and Elana and Lawrence Bibi will receive the Young Lead-
Teaneck Board of Education. She was ership award. The Teen Volunteer “Our Future” award will go to Maddy Gold and
chair of the New Jersey State Human Mitchell Bloom.
Relations Council, the Bergen County For information, call (201) 476-0157, email celebration18@valleychabad.org, or go to
Human Relations Commission, the fed- Celebration18.com or valleychabad.org.
eration’s Jewish Community Relations
Council, the Township Advisory Board
on Community Relations, and the Ber-
gen-Passaic chapter of the American
Conference on Diversity, and she was
a member of the executive commit-
tee of the National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council. She is the
coordinator of Teaneck’s Age-Friendly
Community Initiative, secretary of
the Teaneck Historical Society, and an
appointed member of the Fort Lee His-
toric Preservation Commission.
Jackie recently retired as coordina-
tor of community relations and pub-
lic affairs for Holy Name Medical Cen-
ter. She had a career in public sector
roles at Fairleigh Dickinson University,
as a legislative aide to state Assembly-
woman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, and
in the Bergen County Department of
Human Services.
She received the Hannah B. Solomon
award from National Council of Jewish
Women and the Township’s Matthew
Feldman Community Relations award.
Together, the Kates have been honored
by the Anti-Defamation League, the
Jewish Family Service, Bergen County
Friends of Lubavitch, Boys Town Jeru-
salem, the Jewish National Fund, State
of Israel Bonds, Teaneck B’nai B’rith,
the Teaneck Jewish Center, and the
Teaneck Political Assembly. They are
the parents of Meredith and David and
Brian and Jonathan, and the grandpar-
ents of Maya.
For more information, call (201) 833-
2620 or go to www.cbsteaneck.org.
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 21
Cover Story
Writing
the Jewish
story in
Jerusalem
In ‘Letter to My
Palestinan Neighbor,’
Yossi Klein Halevi
finally has a best-seller
Y
LARRY YUDELSON
ossi Klein Halevi first set out
to write books in the fourth
grade. (He was just Yossi
Klein then — he added Halevi
after he made aliyah in 1982;
he was 29 then.)
“I was writing two books simultane-
ously,” Mr. Halevi said last week, back in
America promoting his fourth published
book, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor-
hood,” which became his first to make the
New York Times bestseller list.
“One was a novel about an American
foreign correspondent named Taylor, who
got caught in Japan after Pearl Harbor,” he
continued. “The other book was going to
be a history of World War II. I would sit in
front of the TV and take notes on Channel
13 series about the war, I would write it up,
I would dictate it to my mother, and she
would type it up.
“She was very dutiful.”
It was his father, Zoltan Klein, however,
whose presence was felt behind these two
juvenile manuscripts, which were, as Hal-
evi now understands, “indirectly about the
Holocaust.” Zoltan was a native of Tran-
sylvania who, when the Nazis came, hid
with two other Jews in a four-foot deep,
six-by-eight foot hole in the Transylvanian
forest. His experiences, and the deaths of
22 Jewish standard JUne 1, 2018
his family, overshadowed the experiences
of Yossi’s mother, Breindy, who had come
to America from Hungary with her family
before the war.
It was Zoltan Klein who was the subject of
Yossi’s first published piece of journalism.
This was when Yossi, who lived in Bor-
ough Park, Brooklyn, was in sixth grade.
There were typos
and spelling
mistakes. It didn’t
matter. I was a
published author.
He interviewed his father about his expe-
riences, wrote them up, and sent them to
the Jewish Press.
“One Friday afternoon I opened up the
paper, and there’s my article as the center
spread, with all these great and gruesome
Holocaust pictures,” Mr. Halevi said. “There
were typos and spelling mistakes. It didn’t
matter. I was a published author. I couldn’t
think of anything more exciting to do with
my life than try to publish.
“It helped that I wasn’t good at anything
else. I was failing at math and science.
I was thrown out of Talmud class. I
had a teacher in fifth grade, Mrs. Dan-
iel, who told my mother, ‘Your son is
never going to be a student, is never
going to get math or science right. But
it doesn’t matter, because he knows
how to write and that’s what he’s
going to be.’
“She’s the only teacher I ever had
who saw that and encouraged me.
She failed me in most of the other
subjects. She helped me understand
that if you have one thing you’re good
at in this world, that can carry you.
“Just do that as well as you can.”
During that sixth-grade year, Mr. Halevi He found a role model in Ben Hecht,
also started his first newspaper. “It was
a mimeographed two pages,” he said. “I
whose first assignments working for Chi-
cago newspapers were to steal photos of
think it was called Voice of Jewish Youth.” murder victims from the mourning fam-
And he became an activist. He joined ily’s piano, so his paper could publish the
Betar, the Zionist youth movement picture before the competition could get
founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and he began it. Mr. Hecht went on to become a Holly-
reading the Zionist classics. wood screenwriter and a Zionist activist
“The more I read about early Zionism who worked with Jabotinsky’s followers
the more excited I became about becom- to rally American public opinion during
ing a journalist. Zionism was written into the Holocaust.
existence. The founders of Zionism were “I became a passionate reader of ‘A
journalists and writers: Herzl, Jabotinsky, Child of the Century,’” Hecht’s nearly 600
Bialik — even those who weren’t officially page autobiography, Mr. Halevi said.
writers all wrote. There was this moment Yossi started his second paper when
of revelation that I could fulfill these two he was in high school. This was called
passions of mine and one would reinforce “Achdut,” and the Jewish Agency paid
the other.” for 15,000 copies of each issue to be
 Cover Story

From his Jerusalem balcony, Yossi Klein Halevi can see a neighboring Palestinan
village on the other side of the separation barrier. “I hope to host you in my
home — ­ in my sukkah,” he writes in “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.”

distributed to Jewish high schools across
New York City. “It was kind of dream that
you can actually do this,” he said. “Not
only write, but that you could put together
a whole newspaper. There’s nothing quite
like that thrill,” he said.
“Achdut” means unity.
“I took the title seriously,” he said. He
had joined Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense
League and was taking part in the JDL
demonstrations. “The paper was promot-
ing JDL-style activism and a JDL worldview,
but it was open. We had contributors from
Hashomer Hatzair,” the left-wing, social-
ist Zionist youth group. (It’s worth noting
that Kahane, too, like Herzl and Jabotinsky,
was a journalist, a co-founder of the Jewish
Press that gave Yossi his first byline.)
“I really believed then, and it’s always
been a basic commitment to me, to try
to keep the Jewish people minimally
together,” Mr. Halevi continued. “To keep
us from our worst instincts and devouring
each other and disintegrating as a people.
That’s our yetzer hara,” our temptation.
If Zionist history had him turning pages,
it was the immediate challenge of saving
Soviet Jews that kept him in the streets
and out of school. He was involved with
the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry,
which began holding protests and rallies
in 1964, when Yossi was 11. By the end of
the decade, as Yossi became a teenager,
the road to Kahane’s more militant Soviet
Jewry activism wasn’t far. It was a path that
paralleled the one taken by the activists
of the Students for a Democratic Society,
who were drafting manifestos in 1962 but
by the end of the decade were inspiring
bombings by the Weather Underground.
“My high school years were the peak
years of JDL,” Mr. Halevi said. “1969, ‘70,
‘71. The turning point of the Soviet Jewry
movement was the Leningrad trial of
1970,” when 16 young refuseniks faced
the death penalty for planning to hijack
a plane out of the Soviet Union to get to
Israel. The trial focused world attention on
the plight of Jews seeking to leave Russia.
The protests worked: On appeal, a Soviet
court commuted the capital sentences to
15 years in prison.
“I basically dropped out of school,” Mr.
Halevi said. “I was at the Soviet mission in
Manhattan all the time. We used to harass
the diplomats with round-the-clock dem-
onstrations. I didn’t quite graduate, and I
didn’t care.”
One day, his principal at the Brooklyn
Talmudical Academy called him into the
office.
“Are you happy here?” he asked.
“Sure,” Yossi said.
“I hope that school isn’t interfering with
your extracurricular activities,” the princi-
pal said.
“No worries,” Yossi replied.
The principal told Yossi that he would
be expelled.
“I said, ‘What’s the point of that? Do you
really want me to end up in public school?’
That was always the big fear of the rabbis

Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018 23

 Cover Story

in yeshiva — that one of their kids would
end up in public school. So he kept me,
as an act of kindness.
“I had a Talmud teacher who said, ‘I
pity your poor parents.’ For him, I was
this Jewish boy who didn’t seem to be
able to read Talmud. Like I was slightly
mentally incapacitated. That’s how I was
treated by my teachers, and that was fine
by me. It meant they would leave me
alone. I was writing and demonstrating.”
After high school, he went to Brooklyn
College. There too he was “a pretty apa-
thetic student,” involved with JDL more
than with homework.
In 1972, the summer of his 19th birth-
day, Mr. Halevi again began to write a
book. “I heard somewhere that writers
get up very early to write,” he said. “I
would get up at five in the morning and
write. I found that I could sit at a desk
and write for hours. It was my first expe-
rience of total immersion as a writer.
“The book I thought I was writing was
a defense of Jewish militancy. I was writ-
ing to explain who we were, to defend
the use of violence on behalf of Soviet
Jewry,” he said.
To help with the book, he started tak-
ing notes of all his JDL experiences. “I
would go to demonstrations with a note-
pad, and write down funny incidents,
snippets of dialogue that I liked between
a demonstrator and a cop,” Mr. Halevi
said. “I understood enough about writ-
ing to know that the book needed to be
funny. An activist should be humorous.
“One of the exhilarating aspects of the

MICHAEL WILDES
FOR ENGLEWOOD MAYOR
VOTE DEMOCRAT COLUMN 3 THIS TUESDAY
Dear Englewood Neighbor:

This Tuesday, June 5, our community has an opportunity to

elect a true leader as our next Mayor in our friend Michael
Wildes. We’re writing to you today to urge you to join us in
voting for Michael Wildes on Column 3. Portraits of
Yossi Klein
Halevi as a
Former Mayor and Council member from 1998-2010 young activist.
Faithful member of Congregation Ahavath Torah
27-year veteran of Hatzoloh, provided emergency
medical services to hundreds of people
Served in a Chevra Kaddisha since the age of 14
Instrumental in expansion of Jewish community in
Englewood
Committed to renewing Englewood and fighting for
taxpayers

As former presidents of our respective synagogues, we hope

that you will join us in supporting Michael Wildes for Mayor.
Vote Wildes for Mayor and the Wildes team for County
Committee on Column 3. Polls will be open from 6:00am to
8:00pm this Tuesday, June 5.
Yossi Klein Halevi
Kol Tuv,
and his father,
Zoltan Klein

Drew Parker James Schwalbe Evan Sohn

Drew Parker James Schwalbe Evan Sohn

Paid for by Michael Wildes for Mayor

24 Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018

 Cover Story

JDL was just how funny the people were,
starting with Meir Kahane, by the way,
who had a great sense of humor, at least in
his early years.
“I wanted to not only defend and
explain and harangue. I wanted to record
the culture, the experience.”
The peak of Yossi’s experience as a JDL
activist was his arrest at a sit-in for Soviet
Jews that he organized — in Moscow.
“In 1973, on Pesach, a group of eight of
us — mostly, not all, from the JDL — went
to Moscow and sat in OVIR — the immigra-
tion office — and were arrested,” he said.
“We were not deported, as it turned out,
because unbeknownst to us there was, at
the same time, a group of American sena-
tors visiting Moscow. They had come to
negotiate with the Kremlin about the Jack-
son amendment,” which linked American
trade with the Soviet Union to its allowing
Jews and others to emigrate. “They appar-
ently got us out of jail.”
Yossi and his friends had arranged for
the press to be notified about their sit-in.
The calls were made, “but by the time the
journalists showed up, we had already
been arrested,” he said. “We thought we
would hold out much longer. We were
thinking a sit-in can go on for an hour
or two. That’s in American terms. In the
Soviet Union, it didn’t work that way.”
But while there was no coverage of the
event itself, Yossi and his friends held a
press conference at their hotel. That got
coverage. Other friends held a press confer-
ence in New York, which got coverage there.
The next day was the seventh day of
Passover, a holiday. The group went
to Moscow’s only synagogue. “It was
packed,” Mr. Halevi said. “The old Jews
were inside. Hundreds of young Jews were
outside in the streets.
“Someone comes over to us and says,
‘OVIR?’
“We said ‘Da.’”
The word spread through the crowd
that the demonstrators from the sit-in at
the immigration office now were in the
shul. Apparently everyone knew about it.
It had been reported on Radio Free Europe
and the Voice of America. There also had Yossi Klein Halevi is flanked by his sister, Karen, and their father, Zoltan.
been some Jews in the office, and word got
around. The demonstration had two goals, he in this to the end. Hold on, stay strong, and
“This was a thrilling moment for us,” continued. “One was to convince the we’re going to win.”
Mr. Halevi said. “Two of us were whisked Soviet regime that American Jews were At that meeting, Mr. Halevi had no doubt
away to an apartment of one of the lead- serious about this campaign and ready to he would see all those people again in
ing refuseniks. The leaders were there, go all the way, to put ourselves in the posi- Israel.
waiting for us. It was a fantastic experi- tion of Soviet Jews.” The other was to get a And he did. “Eventually, they all came,”
ence of reunion.” similar message to the Soviet Jews: “We’re he said.

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Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018 25

Cover Story

Yossi Klein Halevi speaks with a Muslim group in North Carolina and in a mosque in Texas.

After being arrested in Moscow, what
comes next? For Mr. Halevi, the answer
was activist burnout. “I felt I had given my
youth to this cause,” he said. “I needed
to figure out who I was. What was I going
to do in the world besides being a profes-
sional demonstrator? What was I going to
do in the world?”
That fall was his junior year of college.
He spent it in Israel. And his second month
there, in October 1973, the Yom Kippur
war broke out.
“Being an Americ an student in
Israel during the war was a traumatic
experience,” he said. “My Israeli friends
were all at the front, and I was picking
tomatoes on a moshav as a volunteer.
That was a really humbling moment for
a professional activist who always saw
himself as part of the avant garde of the
Jewish people. “I always knew I wanted to
live in Israel. That was the moment when
I became conscious that it was just a mat-
ter of time.
“It took me nine years. Meanwhile I
went to journalism school in Northwest-
ern. It was the first real education I had. It
taught me how to do it professionally. How

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 Cover Story

to be disciplined, how to structure stories,
how to interview people. It was exactly the
education I needed.”
In 1980, Mr. Halevi started writing for
the Village Voice. It was the beginning of
a career as a professional journalist. His
first piece, “Nice Jewish Boys,” was about a
group of friends in the JDL. The next year,
the Voice and Moment magazine sent him
to Israel. He covered the World Gathering of
Holocaust Survivors for Moment. The Voice
wanted him to cover Menachem Begin’s
re-election. “When I was there I realized
I wanted to write a much more ambitious
piece than just the election,” Mr. Halevi
said. “I ended up spending a full year writ-
ing what ended up being a two- part piece
in the Voice. I did a lot of things like that,
spending too much time on pieces.”
He spent a year working on a piece about
Kiryat Arba, the Jewish settlement outside
Hebron. This was for Moment, whose
editor, Leonard Fein, was sending him a
monthly stipend of $200, “whether or not
I wrote for him. He was very delicate with
me. Very respectful of the writer’s process.
“Finally, like 10 months in, I get a letter
from him. This was the era of letters. He
writes, ‘I’m sure what you’re working on
is great, but when do you think it will be
ready?’ I remember feeling very put upon.
Why was he rushing me?
“I put my soul into that piece,” which was
published as a special section in Moment,
Mr. Halevi continued. “I thought it was
going to be a book. In the end, I realized I
actually did not want to write a book about
Hebron because it was just too painful.”
He had broken with the Jewish far right.
In Hebron, he saw a version of Jewish
pride that couldn’t see anyone else, that
was painfully, oppressively, blind to its
neighbors.
Along the way, he realized that he was
following the path of the protagonist of his
fourth-grade novel by becoming a foreign
correspondent. In the years to come, he
would write for American Jewish newspa-
pers, for the Jerusalem Report, and for the
New Republic.
The book he finally wrote, a dozen years
after his visits to Hebron, drew heavily on
the notes he had taken when he was 19. It
was his story, the story of growing up as a
child of a Holocaust survivor, of gravitat-
ing to the Jewish hard right, and finally
of being disillusioned. “I don’t know why
I kept those incredible notes,” he said. “I
transported them across the ocean. I’m
very reluctant to throw out old material
because of that experience. You never
know when you might need to look at
something you wrote years earlier.
“The book told of how and why I left that
world, but I had enough of that material
from the activist period to make the book
alive. A lot of the dialogue in the memoir is
simply notes I had taken. It wasn’t recon-
structed from memory.”
“Memoir of a Jewish Extremist” was
published in the fall of 1995 — two days
after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was
assassinated.
It was not a good week to sell books with
“Jewish extremist” in their title.
Mr. Halevi’s next book, “At the Entrance
to the Garden of Eden: A Jew’s Search
for Hope with Christians and Muslims in
the Holy Land,” reflected the euphoria of
the post-Oslo era. Israel and the PLO had
signed a peace accord, and Mr. Halevy ven-
tured into Palestinian areas to explore Pal-
estinians’ religious life. How did they wor-
ship? What did they believe?
But this was not a reference book. This
was the record of a very intimate encoun-
ter, one that opened Mr. Halevi up to other
religious experiences. It was a first-person
yet profoundly humble effort to create a
new vision of religion and spirituality, one
that aimed to unify, not divide; one that
remained deeply traditional.
The book was published on September
11, 2001.
That was not a good week to launch a
book — particularly one with a positive,
hopeful depiction of Islam.
It was somewhat to Mr. Halevi’s surprise,
then, when October 1, 2013, turned out to
be a perfectly fine week to launch a book.
That’s when “Like Dreamers: The Story
of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited
Jerusalem and Divided a Nation” was
released. At 600 pages, it was bigger than
his first two books put together — it was
the size of Ben Hecht’s mammoth autobi-
ography. It won the National Jewish Book
Awards Book of the Year award. It told
the story of the State of Israel through the
life of a half dozen Israelis just a few years
older than Yossi Klein Halevy — the para-
troopers who liberated the Western Wall in
1967. He had run across a short news story
about them, and realized that the disparate
course of their lives — one was a leader of
the West Bank settlement movement,
another went to jail for spying for Syria out
of Communist convictions, to take the two
extremes — became a way to tell the story
of the changes Israel underwent from the

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Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018 27

 Cover Story

years immediately after the founding of
the state, when the soldiers were chil-
dren, up into the 21st century, when they,
like the state, were pushing 60.
It was compelling reading. But “it was
an excruciating book to write,” Mr. Hal-
evi said. “It took eleven years. For most
of those years it was not going well. It
was the dark night of the writer’s soul.”
Mr. Halevi lives in Jerusalem, in the
neighborhood called French Hill. His is
the last building in the neighborhood.
KaplEn JCC on the Palisades Look out his window and you see a Pal-
the pieces back together and recreate a
coherent Jewish story?
“What I’ve been writing my whole life
are Jewish stories in an attempt to under-
stand the one Jewish story,” he said.
In “Letters,” Halevi set out to defend
Zionism and the Israeli story. The osten-
sible audience is his Palestinian neigh-
bor, the ultimate hostile audience, but
he had the rest of us in mind as well.
“‘Letters’ is an attempt to reclaim our
narrative,” he said. “I fear we’re losing
our ability to tell the story not only to the

Play Fore!
estinian village; since the Second Inti- world, but even to ourselves.
fada in the early 2000s it’s been sepa- “We’re getting hit from so many direc-

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rated from Jerusalem — and from Yossi tions all the time that our story on Israel
— by a concrete wall. Beyond the village has become a collection of talking points
lies the desert, and beyond that you can to deflect the latest assaults. I respect
Golf, Tennis & Games make out the hills of Jordan. If you crane talking points. I have used talking points
your neck in the right direction, you can in my defense of Israel. But we need to
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montammy golf club, alpinE, nJ Mr. Halevi’s new book, “Letters to My that we’re carrying. What does it mean
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tHE HEcHlER family an imagined resident of that village. It is ereignty, and an ongoing assault on our
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Dreamers,” he was thinking of the Pales- becomes the way we tell our story, than
tinians outside his window. “Every time our story is going to die of boredom.
I would reach a dead end in my writ- “The job of a Jewish writer is to try to
TEANECK
IT’S
IT’S
IT’SGOING
GOING
GOINGTO
TOFARMERS’
TOBE
BE
BEANOTHER
ANOTHER MARKET
ANOTHERGREAT
GREAT
GREATSEASON
SEASON
SEASONAT
AT
AT
ing, I would start writing a letter to my
imaginary neighbor,” he said. “The letters
tell our story in an alive way, to make
our story vital. This book is an attempt
were just flying out of me. They were my to renew the Israeli story, the Jewish
deeply satisfying writing. I would have to story, to explain how we managed the
stop and drag myself back to ‘Dreamers.’” extraordinary feat of maintaining a
Then, when “Like Dreamers” was pub- vicarious indigenous connection that we
lished and catastrophe didn’t strike and never lost even when we lost our land,
the book tour was over, he returned to the and then managed the more incredible
letters, this time with a clear awareness feat of returning there and re-establish-
that he was not just writing letters of self- ing our sovereignty.”
defense to an imaginary correspondent. He also thinks it’s time to change the
Instead, he actually was writing a book. story the Jewish people tells about itself. “I
“It seemed to write itself,” he said. “I grew up, understandably, on a Holocaust-
never had a writing experience quite like centered Israel narrative,” he said. “That
this.” made sense for my generation. That no
••• longer makes sense. A majority of Israelis
“Dear Neighbor,” Halevi’s new book are not descended from European Jews.
begins. “I call you ‘neighbor’ because They come from families that moved from
••Farm
•Farm
FarmFresh
Fresh
FreshFruits
Fruits
Fruits&&&Vegetables
Vegetables
Vegetables••Plants
•Plants
Plants••Flowers
•Flowers
Flowers&&& I don’t know your name or anything one part of the Middle East to another and
Herbs
Herbs
Herbs••Pickles
•Pickles
Pickles••Olives
•Olives
Olives••Freshly
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stances, ‘neighbor’ may be too casual a ing to do with the Holocaust.
International
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••Senior
•Senior
Senior Coupons
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Coupons
Coupons • •• violators of each other’s sense of home. Holocaust narratives about Israel. It
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more!
more! worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?” enemies. Why should the Palestinians
Thursdays
Open
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Open Every
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Thursday
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Mr. Halevi admits that “in a way, every- to the Jews? When we tell a story about
thing I’ve written is a variation of the Jewish need rather than Jewish longing,
Noon
Weather
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Permitting
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same article or the same book: Who are we step right into the trap of the anti-
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of-Israel era? What does it mean to be Israel as a European colonialist project.”
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28 Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018


Yossi Klein Halevi and Imam Abdullah Antepli
of speaking about the conflict that allows for empathy
with the Palestinians without compromising the integ-
rity of our own narrative. I’m trying to hold the tension
between those two approaches.
“Jews today tend to speak about the Palestinians in
one of two ways, either with anger or with apolo�y. I’ve
tried to avoid both of these dead-end conversations and
present a book that tells our story with the intention of
beginning the conversation with people in the Middle
East about Israeli legitimacy and our shared future with
the Palestinians.”
Part of the genesis of “Letter” was Mr. Halevi’s earlier
“Garden” — his exploration of his neighbors’ faith. “Gar-
den” was the product of a journey and an openness to
his Palestinian neighbors “that really came to an end for
me with the Second Intifada, the suicide bombings, Ara-
fat’s rejection of Barak’s peace offer in 2000,” he said.
“My capacity for reaching out was exhausted. Like most
Israelis, I shut down, shut the Palestinians out of my con-
sciousness, and pretty much tried to forget about that
book. It seemed irrelevant.”
But it did not seem irrelevant to everyone. A couple of
years after it was published, Mr. Halevi received an email
from a Turkish-born imam, Abdullah Antepli, who was
a chaplain at Wesleyan University.
“Abdullah wrote that he had read the book and was
deeply touched by the outreach, and he wanted to take
a reciprocal journey into Judaism,” Mr. Halevi said. “We
became friends and kept in touch.”
In 2012, Mr. Halevi was working at the Shalom Hart-
man Institute when Imam Antepli came to the institute
for a theological conference. Imam Antepli suggested
that Hartman set up a program for young Muslim lead-
ers in America that would explain Judaism, Jewish iden-
tity, and the meaning of the land and the state of Israel.
“I was certain nothing would come from it,” Mr. Hal-
evi said. “Credible Muslim leaders wouldn’t come to a
Zionist institution.” But he turned out to be wrong. The
credible leaders did come, and he and Imam Antepli
became co-directors of Hartman’s Muslim Leadership
Institute, which has now taught more than a hundred
people — among them Teaneck’s Mayor Mohammed
Hameeduddin.
This engagement with American Muslims shaped Mr.
Halevi’s book in two ways.
“First, it forced me to re-engage with Palestinian
issues in a way that I didn’t want to,” he said. “To start
seeing my neighbors again.
“I had forced myself not to see them. I didn’t want
anything to do with them. Many Israelis, perhaps most
Electrical
Cover Story Plumbing
and
Israelis, are still at that point, and I completely under- All Home
stand. But being engaged actively with Muslim Ameri-
can leaders who are pro-Palestinians forced me into a Repairs
relationship again with Palestinians. I would accompany
the MLI group to the West Bank — until it became too 347-470-3832
dangerous — to Jenin, to Hebron. I began to see this con- References Upon Request
flict through their eyes, in the way they were seeing the
conflict through my eyes.
“That’s the meaning of a dialogical relationship. You
actually have a kind of a transplant of vision, of how you
see the world. The fundamentalists are right to oppose
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“For me, it led me back to a longing for a relationship
again with the Palestinians.
Traditional. Modern.
“The second thing MLI did for me is that it helped me Contemporary.
understand what Muslims generally don’t understand
about Jews. For Muslims — and I think this is normative
in the Muslim world — the Jews are a religion and only a
religion. They don’t understand the significance of peo-
plehood, of land, of longing for national sovereignty, of
all these things that have nothing to do with religion.
MLI taught me the elements of Jewish identity we need
to emphasize. For Muslims, the notion of a Jewish athe-
ist is inconceivable, because in Islam if you’re an atheist,
you’re not a Muslim. That means they can’t understand
peoplehood, they can’t understand the significance of
the Land of Israel, and they can’t understand the State
of Israel. One of the reasons the State of Israel lacks legit-
imacy for the Arab and Muslim world is because they
don’t understand the connection between peoplehood
and land and faith.”
His experience explaining these issues to MLI partici-
pants showed Mr. Halevi that “when you explain these
ideas in a religious context, Muslims tend to respond,
they tend to respect you. It doesn’t mean they’ll agree
with us about Gaza, but the denial of Israel’s legitimacy
becomes increasingly difficult for Muslims who are
exposed to the Jewish self-understanding of peoplehood.”
Of course, a letter written in English and published in
a book by Harper Collins is not really going to reach the
Palestinians whom Mr. Halevi sees beyond his porch. So
the book is being translated into Arabic and published
on the Times of Israel’s Arabic website. So far, the first Traditional. Modern. Contemporary.
chapter, the first letter, has been posted, and Mr. Halevi
has begun receiving replies. Traditional. Modern. Contemporary.
“Much of it is to be expected. ‘You Jews don’t belong
here and we’re going to throw you out.’ Some of it is curi-
ous. And some of it is grateful and moving,” he reported.
“I’ve been invited for coffee across the West Bank. I
got a very moving letter from a young woman in Gaza,
a journalist writing in Hebrew. “I have people who are
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Jewish World

What are
extremists
Paul Nehlen, doing in
Republican
who is running for
Paul Ryan’s House

primaries?
seat in Wisconsin, is
openly anti-Semitic.
SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE

And what can the

party do about it?
RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON — “Republicans seek alternative to

‘Nazi’ candidate after he secures nomination,” one
headline reads.
“GOP House candidate in Illinois is a 9/11 truther,
said Beyonce had ties to the Illuminati,” another says.
Both headlines would be alarming enough if they
weren’t about two separate congressional races. The
emergence of fringe candidates as the top challengers
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Is it Donald Trump and his “America First” popu-
lism? An emboldened alt-right? Social media’s mega-

Gifts for
phone effect?
In Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, in the state’s
northwestern corner, Democratic incumbent Cheri

DAD S
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$99 who believes, according to CNN research posted last

GRA DS
Friday, that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside
job, and that Beyonce and Taylor Swift are stumping
for the Illuminati, an imaginary worldwide domina-
tion sect that some conspiracists insist exists.
In the same state’s 3rd district, made up of south-
west Chicago and its suburbs, Arthur Jones, a Nazi —
Lario silk tie
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What’s going on? Here are some answers.
Funds are limited when you’re fighting for your
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In the 17th, Illinois Republicans declined to run a
viable nominee in a district where Trump won by less
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Republicans are very much on the defensive this
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30 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

 Jewish World

of Representatives back to the Democrats. It doesn’t

make sense under those circumstances, party leaders
say, for a state or national party to throw away fund-
raising on unwinnable districts, and if there’s no real
apparatus within the district to run a credible candi-
date, anyone can sneak in.
“With the map of competitive races so extensive
this cycle, neither the national party or local par-
ties have the luxury of working to attract candidates
to run as a suicide mission in an unwinnable race,”
Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s execu-
tive director, wrote in an email. (We also have sent
a query to the Illinois State Republican Party. We
haven’t heard back yet.)
Suicide mission, you say? Extremists like suicide
missions.
Mark Pitcavage, the director of investigative
research at the Anti-Defamation League, says that
extremists have a longstanding tradition of lying in
wait for establishment parties to abandon “unwin-
nable” primaries and then rushing in — often at the
last minute to avoid legal counteractions — to seize
the prize. And both major parties have been targets.
The tactic dates at least to 1980, when Tom Metzger,
a white supremacist, won the Democratic nomination
in California’s 43rd District, which is in the San Diego
area. Democrats ended up endorsing the Republican
incumbent to keep Metzger out of Congress. (He lost.)
“They know they have no chance to win the con-
gressional or senatorial seat they’re running for,” Pit-
cavage said. “But then they become the nominee, and
for the rest of their lives they can use that — major

This June 5th, Vote

party nominee — for credibility or attention.”
The alt-right is emboldened.
Nehlen in Wisconsin and Little in California are not
stealth candidates — not this time anyway. (Nehlen

DEMOCRATIC COLUMN 1
obscured some of his more toxic views when he first
ran against Ryan in 2016.) Now the candidates are
upfront about their views and affiliations; Little was

Phil MEISNER
forcibly removed from the California State Party con-
vention earlier this month, kicking and dragging an
Israeli flag. He has opined at length on YouTube about
the “Jewish problem.” Nehlen obsesses about Jews in
the media.
Coming out makes sense at a time when there is

for Englewood Mayor

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their views. A number of past and current officials in
the Trump administration have affiliations with the alt- Phil Meisner for Mayor, 3 Daniel Drive, Englewood, NJ 07631

right, and the president has not wholly repudiated the

movement’s views.
JS-1*
Pitcavage said that the resulting media oxygen for
the alt-right emboldens some of its members into
believing their ideas can fly in an election.
Sign up for the
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“There’s been more attention given this year to peo-

'BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY' page 53 CHOICE
SEE PAGE 60

APRIL 27, 2018

VOL. LXXXVII NO. 32 $1.00 87 2018

ple like Nehlen and Jones,” he said.

THEJEWISHSTANDARD .COM
NORTH JERSEY

What to do?
Nothing, said the RJC’s Brooks. Bad apples are the Jewish Standard daily newsletter!
price one pays for an open system. “In a democracy,
ballot access is sacrosanct and anyone can run.”
Wake up, the ADL’s Pitcavage said. Run party-sanc- Visit www.thejewishstandard.com and click on
tioned candidates even in unwinnable districts.
“This is true for both parties. Even if you can’t win,
it’s never a good idea to not have a candidate for an SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY
important seat,” he said. “What if something happens
Going
to the [opposition party] incumbent which might International

JewishStandard
N E W J E R S E Y R O C K L A N D
make the contest viable? If you cede the ground, New Milford’s
Schechter helps build
crazy people might come forward to take it and an African library page 28
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Jewish World

Congress wants to define anti-Semitism for you

Here’s how that can get messy
RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON — Republican and Democratic lawmakers

are lining up behind a bill that would define anti-Semitism.
The measure introduced Thursday by Reps. Ted Deutch
(D-Fla.), who is Jewish, and Pete Roskam (R-Ill.), a leader
on pro-Israel issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, at
first looks like a bipartisan slam dunk. The principal target
is harassment of Jewish students on university campuses.
But civil libertarians and some liberals hate the legisla-
tion, because it includes a controversial definition of some
anti-Israel expression as anti-Semitic. And at least one pre-
vious attempt to have a government body declare against
anti-Semitism on campus was frustrated by conservative
worries that it would impinge on Christian expression
on campus.
Underscoring both arguments: It’s dangerous when the
government attempts to define dangerous thought.

What the legislation says

In 2010, the assistant attorney general, Tom Perez (who
now heads the Democratic National Committee), wrote a
letter determining that anti-religious bias violates the 1964
Civil Rights Act — specifically its Title VI section. A number Demonstrators protest against Israel in New York City on June 2016.
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32 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

them — had longed for the legal protec-
tions afforded to racial minorities.
The current legislation would cod-
ify the Perez letter and a subsequent
instruction from the Department of Edu-
cation to Title VI institutions.
Making the Obama-era action law
would protect it from rescission by
future presidents.
What are the objections?
The Arab American Institute outlines
most of the objections in some detail.
The pro-Palestinian community worries
that the law relies on a State Department
definition of anti-Semitism that includes
certain types of anti-Israel expression.
Among these: “Denying the Jewish
people their right to self-determination,
e.g., by claiming that the existence of a
State of Israel is a racist endeavor; Apply-
ing double standards by requiring of it a
behavior not expected or demanded of
any other democratic nation; Using the
symbols and images associated with clas-
sic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews kill-
ing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize
Israel or Israelis.”
Opponents say the State Department
language is too vague.
“The proposed bill risks chilling con-
stitutionally protected speech by incor-
rectly equating criticism of Israel with
anti-Semitism,” the American Civil Lib-
erties Union said in a statement released
last Thursday.
The objectors have a notable ally in
one of the co-authors of the State Depart-
ment language. Kenneth Stern, who now
directs the Justus & Karin Rosenberg
Foundation, has said the definition was
meant to assist diplomats in identifying
anti-Semitic trends in their host coun-
tries and was not crafted to the more
stringent standards that a law should
aspire to.
Who are its supporters?
Jewish groups backing the bill include
the Anti-Defamation League, the Ameri-
can Israel Public Affairs Committee, the
American Jewish Committee, and the
Jewish Federations of North America.
The groups say that much anti-Jewish
hostility on campus now takes the guise
of anti-Israel protests. They say the spe-
cifics of the definition precludes singling
out students engaging in legitimate criti-
cism of Israel.
Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of inter-
national Jewish affairs at the American
Jewish Committee, defended the legis-
lation in a JTA op-ed earlier this month.
He noted that the proposed bill recom-
mends merely “taking into consider-
ation” the definition of anti-Semitism.
“We cannot let these extreme
thejewishstandard.com
Jewish World
possibilities serve as reason to reject
an important educational tool in these
difficult times,” he said, referring to
the doomsday scenarios predicted by
groups on the left. “Instead they remind
us that we must employ it with care
and consideration.”
The authors of the bill added a caveat
at the end that they say will protect
against speech freedom infringements:
“Nothing in this Act shall be construed
to diminish or infringe upon any right
protected under the First Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States.”
O pp o n e n ts say it i s a l au g h -
able afterthought.
“This clause addresses no actual con-
cerns, it merely allows the passage of
a law with language that will chill con-
duct, cause individuals to self-censor,
and remain enforced by the govern-
ment for years until legitimate speech
is targeted, a suit is brought, and the
slow machinery of the judiciary strikes
down the legislation,” the Arab Ameri-
can Institute said.
Who else might object?
The last time something like this came
up, in 2005, some conservatives
objected that a bill could end up defining
some Christian or political expression as
anti-Jewish activity.
“I am extremely nervous about admin-
istrative oversight on university cam-
puses,” said Abigail Thernstrom, then
the vice chairwoman of the U.S. Com-
mission on Civil Rights, who has faced
heat for opposing remedies meant to
enfranchise black and minority voters.
“You do not want administrators walk-
ing into classrooms and deciding what
a professor is teaching is acceptable
or unacceptable.”
Does legislation omit
other target groups?
Others object that the bill singles out bias
against Jews though ostensibly it is aimed
at protecting members of all faiths. The
bill “does not address the similar rise of
anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, or anti-Sikh dis-
crimination that the bill itself notes in
the Findings sections,” the Arab Ameri-
can Institute said.
South Carolina
will show the way.
Is there room for abuse of a law regulat-
ing anti-Semitic speech and actions, or is
it a necessary curative? Watch South Car-
olina. Backers of a similar bill in the state
could not pass the legislation separately
but wrote its language into a budget bill,
which means it’s the law until the next
budget is passed in a year.
 JTA WIRE SERVICE
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 33
Jewish World

For reporters covering Gaza, charges of bias

overshadow the stories they witness and tell
SAM SOKOL Layla Ghandour. oppression, elevating the infant to the status of mar-
Layla, an 8-month-old girl, died after an uncle, who tyr and blaming the Israeli army for her death. Many
JERUSALEM — Of the more than 60 deaths that occurred was only 12, brought her to the edge of the protest zone, Israelis, meanwhile, countered in angry social media
during the recent clashes between Israel and Palestinians where she was reported to have inhaled Israeli tear gas. posts that it was irresponsible to allow a child into
at the Gaza border, none was as divisive as the death of Palestinians immediately raised Layla as a symbol of Israeli what essentially was a war zone. Both Hamas and
the Israel Defense Forces issued statements, even as
reports filtered out that the child had suffered from a
pre-existing heart ailment that may have contributed
to her untimely death.
Prominent newspapers such as the Los Angeles
Times and New York Times ran long features on Layla,
probing the circumstances surrounding her death,
describing how she had become a symbol, and laying
out the arguments of both sides. Others, especially
tabloid papers such as Great Britain’s Daily Express
and the Sun, didn’t hesitate to take sides, publishing
headlines such as “Drones drop lethal canisters” and
describing Israeli tear gas agents as “toxic gas.”
Layla became a pawn in a by-now-familiar game
played whenever Israel and the Palestinians clash.
Flare-ups follow a pattern in which initial impres-
sions — and condemnations — are replaced by a more
nuanced understanding of events as more information
becomes available. Next come bitter partisan battles
SPRING SCHEDULE 2018 Register at lamdeinu.org
over what actually happened. Finally, among pundits,
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JUNE SEMESTER the discussion shifts from what happened to the cred-
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Yours, Mine, Ours: Parashah
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Palestinians protest at the border fence
Lamdeinu at Congregation Beth Aaron 950 Queen Anne Road Teaneck, NJ | Dean Rachel Friedman | Program Director, Ruth Hartstein with Israel in Gaza City on May 14, 2018.

34 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018


“It shouldn’t really be that difficult
to determine what is happening and
... it shouldn’t be that difficult to deter-
mine what is objectively the news, but
it turns out that it is actually quite com-
plex,” he added.
This month’s clashes were a case study
in split-screen journalism — literally. On
May 14, cable news channels around the
world juxtaposed footage of happy, smil-
ing Israelis celebrating the opening of the
U.S. embassy in Jerusalem with images
of Palestinians running away from Israeli
gunfire through the clouds of smoke.
According to Baden, such events fol-
low a general pattern in which one or
two days of confusion are followed by
three to five days of interpretation, after
which the “meta-debate kicks in” and
“the question of what really happens on
the ground becomes secondary because
we are no longer debating facts, we are
debating stories.”
After every development here, pro-
Israel media watchdog organizations
usually are among the first to wade into
the debate. This wave of media criti-
cism usually comes in response to the
“knee jerk reaction” of “hold[ing] Israel
responsible for whatever happens,” said
Simon Plosker, managing editor of Hon-
estReporting, whose stated mission is
“defending Israel from media bias.”
Plosker blames what he sees as skewed
coverage on a mix of bias and parachute
journalism by inexperienced or under-
informed reporters and editors abroad
who approach the conflict with “a certain
level of preconceived framing” already
in mind. He said that the narrative
Jewish World
presenting the Gaza protesters as peace-
ful “was skewed from the very start.”
Experts on media ethics, however,
have a slightly different take. Alan
Abbey, a former journalist and adjunct
professor of journalism at National Uni-
versity of San Diego who is now the
director of internet and media at the
Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem,
said that real-time coverage of conflicts,
even by the best reporters, is “incom-
plete at best, simply because details are
continuing to emerge, outcomes are
unclear, sources have agendas and a
complete picture of a complicated situ-
ation is impossible to obtain. The cover-
age of the violence at the Gaza border
was no different.”
Abbey said that media watchdogs, on
both the left and the right, usually are
quick to “assign blame, generalize, and
ascribe baked-in, conspiratorial bias
where none may exist.” He added that a
“laser-like focus on individual headlines
or even stories misses the sweep and
breadth of a news organization’s ongoing
coverage of people, places, and events,”
which taken together give a more accu-
rate picture of an outlet’s approach.
“Such groups don’t really understand
how news organizations work,” Abbey
said. “Media operations are more hap-
hazard, sloppy, and improvisatory than
self-proclaimed watchdogs understand
or believe.”
Baden agreed, noting that there is a
“perceptual bias” in how we read the
news. Called the “hostile media phenom-
enon” by researchers, this bias manifests
SEE GAZA PAGE 36
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGE
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 35
Caption
 Jewish World

S aam m yy’s’s Gaza

S m m FROM PAGE 35
itself in how news consumers view
reportage of divergent viewpoints.
Baden explained that people tend to
North Jersey’s Premier Italian equate reporting of their opponents’
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ence is smart enough to read it and draw their own
www.inapoli.com conclusions.”
While Hamas did want journalists to tell the story of
a tragic clash between peaceful protesters and trigger-
happy soldiers, the reality on the ground was more com-
plicated than that simple narrative, the correspondent
said, noting that participants had a range of motivations
who sold photos to many international outlets, also was
a member of Hamas who was using his media business
as cover to obtain drone footage of IDF positions. The
Washington Post, meanwhile, said that Murtaja had
recently been vetted and approved for a U.S. govern-
ment grant.
According to Baden, the fight over media coverage

ZUMBA WITH US for joining the protests.

“The situation is always more complicated … and
that’s the value of having someone on the ground,” he
ON TEANECK’S CEDAR LANE said. “I’d like people to know that journalists in Gaza
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Cedar Lane Pedestrian Plaza at Chestnut Avenue opinions?’ I’ve been very impressed with my colleagues’
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Bring a Towel and a After the Gaza clashes, reporters asked why thou-
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fire and if it was necessary or disproportionate. At
June 7 times the IDF provided reporters with detailed break-
downs of casualties, listing their affiliations and the
actions that led to their deaths, but other times report-
ers were brushed off.
June 14
However, the foreign correspondent said, he and
many of his colleagues also were careful to cover Israel’s
June 21 security concerns.
“You talk to all sides who have an interest and who are
involved,” he said. “Of course, I would talk to an Israeli
June 28 and also talk to a Palestinian about a conflict between
Israelis and Palestinians, which is elementary.”
Sponsored by One flashpoint in the media war was the death of
Gazan photojournalist Yaser Murtaja, who was shot
Cedar Lane Management Group while wearing a flak jacket marked “press” as he pho-
www.cedarlane.net • 201-907-0493 tographed the clashes. The Foreign Press Association,
isn’t new, but the participation of the broader public in
what was once an elite discourse certainly is. One of the
consequences of this shift is that the views of journal-
ists have come under increasing scrutiny, especially by
people posting on social platforms such as Twitter.
One correspondent, an American based in Lebanon
who also asked to remain anonymous, was pilloried
by Israelis after a series of tweets expressing her dis-
pleasure with the death toll in Gaza. These posts, she
said, were held up as an example of a more generalized
media bias, which she found ironic given that she is also
regularly dubbed a “a Mossad spy and an Israeli stooge
almost daily” for her coverage of the Lebanese militia
Hezbollah.
“I firmly believe that good journalists should be able
to put aside their opinions when they work, and I try my
best to do so — with success, I believe,” the correspon-
dent said. “I follow all the rules I learned at Columbia
Journalism School. I make sure to include a variety of
perspectives in my stories and present them as objec-
tively as possible. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
is not my beat, therefore I felt comfortable tweeting
personal opinions on the events in Gaza knowing they
would not color my coverage.”
Meanwhile, the debate over the infant Layla Ghan-
dour goes on. Last week, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Min-
istry said she had been taken off a list of Palestinians
killed in the Gaza border clashes and that they are await-
ing results of a pathologist’s report. JTA WIRE SERVICE

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5 36 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

Martin Hizer, right, argues with people at Kaddish for Gaza in London on May
16, 2018. 
Gaza victims’ kaddish
provokes a storm
among British Jews
Cnaan Liphshiz
M
artin Hizer was driving
his taxi through London
when he learned that a
group of Jews were saying
a public mourning prayer for Palestin-
ians killed in Gaza.
“Frankly, I was fuming,” Hizer, who is
Jewish, said in an interview on YouTube
for a pro-Israel channel. The video shows
him confronting the 50 Jewish protesters
in Parliament Square on May 16 as they
said kaddish for the 61 Palestinians killed
that week in clashes with Israeli troops.
“Fifty of them were identified as
Hamas operatives,” he booms, pointing
his finger at a male protester. “And you
f•••ing pricks, you’re saying kaddish for
them?! They would’ve f•••ing killed you
if you were there!”
Hizer’s tirade was brief. But his
response was part of an unusually
toxic debate that featured online
shaming, insults and threats directed
by Jews against Jews — and that is
Demonstrators at Kaddish for Gaza in London. 
Jewish World
Screenshot from YouTube
uncharacteristic for British Jewry.
The comment section of a YouTube
video of the event features an outpour-
ing of hatred and incitement to violence
toward the young men and women
who attended.
“I’d suggest gathering them within a
space of three meters and throwing a
grenade there,” YouTube user Moshe
Harmanov wrote.
Jonathan Hoffman, a pro-Israel activ-
ist from London, posted a link on Face-
book to a page containing participants’
names headlined “Traitors behind Kad-
dish for Hamas.”
Hundreds of comments, some appar-
ently breaking laws against threats and
incitement to violence, were directed at
organizers and participants of the event
and left-leaning organizations — includ-
ing Zionist ones — with which some of
the people in attendance were affiliated.
Nina Morris Evans, an Oxford stu-
dent who attended the Kaddish for Gaza
demonstration, said no one who came
See Kaddish page 38
Screenshot from YouTube
Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018 37
Jewish World

Kaddish deaths in Gaza, which came on the same day that the United the border.
from page 37 States dedicated its new embassy in Jerusalem. Some Ameri- Among British Jews, however, the fallout of Kaddish
anticipated the backlash. can Jews on the left criticized Israel for using disproportion- for Gaza was so unprecedented that it prompted Rabbi
“It’s upsetting, especially people who send me rude pri- ate force on the thousands of Gazans who had massed at Laura Janner-Klausner, a leader of the Reform move-
vate messages on Facebook,” she said. The author of one the border to demonstrate, at times violently, for their right ment in Britain who rarely engages in hyperbole, to
message called her a “disgrace to her heritage.” Another to return to their ancestral lands in Israel. Most centrist and warn in an interview with the Jewish News that her
wrote: “This is who you are. A feeble excuse, self-loathing, right-wing groups supported Israel’s actions, saying many community is on “a path to self-destruction.”
weak, traitorous.” protesters were armed with Molotov cocktails and that People take this path when “one Jew wishes
Left- and right-wing Jews elsewhere were divided over the Israel had the obligation to repel those who tried to breach another dead,” she said, crossing “the boundaries of
decency. We are now into violent, harassing, bully-
ing behavior.”
Disagreements over Israel often result in acrimoni-
ous exchanges between Zionist Jews and those belong-
ing to the anti-Zionist minority, Keith Kahn-Harris, a
London-based writer and sociologist, said. But he
said the vitriol around the Kaddish for Gaza affair was
unprecedented because “for the first time, the same
kind of venom also [was directed at] some Zionist left-
of-center groups.”
Kaddish for Gaza was advertised on the personal
Facebook page of a staff member of Yachad, a dov-
ish group that identifies itself as pro-Israel and anti-
2018 ANNUAL MEETING occupation, and that is represented at the Board of
Deputies of British Jews, British Jewry’s main umbrella
federation. Yachad said none of its staff attended the
demonstration, and the organization did not partici-
Thursday, June 7 | 7:00pm pate in organizing it.
The United Kingdom branch of the left-wing Meretz
party in Israel also advertised the event on its official
Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey Facebook page. Meretz U.K. did not reply to a request
for an interview. Members of LJY Netzer, a mainstream
50 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus youth movement from the Liberal Synagogue in Lon-
don, also attended.
Marco Schneebalg, an organizer of the event, said
he was aware at the time that a Hamas official had said
that 50 of the 61 people killed belonged to the terror-
ist group, and it was possible that some of them might
have liked to kill him because he is Jewish. He came to
Keynote Speaker protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and to
“mourn the dead” anyway, because he believes that
“their political opinions are not the issue.”
Gurbir Grewal, Schneebalg, 27, added that if Israelis had died dur-
ing the latest clashes, he would have mourned their
Attorney General of the State of New Jersey deaths also.
At Kaddish for Gaza, one participant was filmed say-
& ing “When Palestinians stand resolute on the Gazan
border [asserting] their freedom and their right to
Elections and Presentation of Community Awards return, they are not committing acts of terrorism, they
are performing a mitzvah.” Another said: “I am here
Paula Cantor Carol Silver Elliott because I refuse to sit by as my community doesn’t
Marge Bornstein Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Howard E. Charish Award for Professional Excellence condemn outrageous acts of violence.” A third par-
ticipant said: I’m here because I’m sick of listening to
Adi Rabinowitz & Avi Vogel [people] equivocate and make excuses for Israel.”
Russell Berrie Community Leadership Award The Board of Deputies of British Jews published a
statement on the May 14 riots blaming only Hamas,
which organized the demonstrations.
Ruth Beckman Laura Marks, a former vice president of the Board
Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Jewish Education
of Deputies, said the mourning for Hamas members is
“deeply problematic.” But she lamented branding as
traitors and enemies the young men and women who
Jayne Petak and Zvi S. Marans, MD “will be the future bedrock of our community.”
Annual Meeting Co-Hosts The backlash, Marks said, is connected to what she
described as a recent recession in tolerance for dissent
within the community’s ranks because of uncertainty
and the rise of anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom.
Stephanie Goldman Roberta Abrams Jason M. Shames Last year, the CST watchdog on anti-Semitism in
President Incoming President Chief Executive Officer Britain recorded a record 1,382 anti-Semitic incidents,
of which 145 involved physical violence against Jews.
Free and open to the community Many of the perpetrators were described as Muslims
or Arabs.
Kosher dessert reception The increase, CST said, possibly owed to the prolifer-
RSVP | marlac@jfnnj.org | 201.820.3915
ation of anti-Semitism in the ranks of the Labour Party,

38 Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018


The Kaddish for Gaza demonstration sparked backlash online.
 Screenshot from YouTube
once a political home for British Jewry.
The outgoing president of the Board of
Deputies, Jonathan Arkush, said in 2016
that most British Jews “cannot trust”
Labour following the 2015 election of
Jeremy Corbyn, a hard-left politician, as
party leader.
Amid signs that Corbyn’s popularity is
rising considerably despite his involve-
ment in a number of scandals featur-
ing anti-Semitic and harsh anti-Israel
speech, some British Jews are saying
they will leave the United Kingdom if he
is elected prime minister.
And then there’s the United King-
dom’s impending departure from the
European Union, which CST says has
Brief
Poll: 52 percent of French public
believe Zionism is a ‘racist ideology’
An online poll in France this month
found that 52 percent of the French public
believe that Zionism is a “racist ideology,”
and 54 percent believe that Zionism is an
“international organization that seeks to
influence the world and societies in favor
of Jewish interests.”
The poll of 1,007 people was carried
out by the French Institute of Public
Opinion for the Union of Jewish Students
in France.
It also discovered that 38 percent
believe that the very existence of Israel
“nourishes anti-Semitism.”
More than a quarter, 26 percent, said
international calls to boycott Israel (most
notably, by the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement) were justified.
More than half, 57 percent, agreed
with the statement “Israel is a threat to
regional stability.”
A 51 percent majority also agreed with
the statement that “Israel is a theocracy.”
The survey also revealed a significant
level of ignorance on Israel. A little less
than a quarter of respondents thought
Israel was established after 1980, and did
not know that Jewish holy sites are located
Jewish World
triggered a wave of nationalist sentiment
and many xenophobic assaults.
“The community is feeling very vul-
nerable, fearful on all fronts,” Marks
said. “And when you feel vulnerable, you
feel fearful and you lash out.” The par-
ticipants at the Kaddish event, she said,
“were definitely no Israel haters.”
Janner-Klausner, the Reform rabbi,
also traced the outpouring of hostility
over the Kaddish for Gaza event to exter-
nal threats.
“We have spent so long focusing on
other people attacking us,” she told
the Jewish News, that “we have inter-
nalized that and are now turning it on
each other.” JTA Wire Service
in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.
French parliamentarian Meyer
Habib, who represents French citizens
living abroad in Israel and other coun-
tries, issued a statement in response to
the survey’s findings.
“There is a saying here that anti-Zion-
ism is the new anti-Semitism in France.
It’s not me saying it, but rather Presi-
dent Emmanuel Macron. Today, sadly,
we are seeing data that underscores
this saying,” he said. “Unfortunately,
the atmosphere surrounding Israel,
most recently in the coverage of the
riots in Gaza, adds fuel to the flames
every time. The unrelenting attacks by
the radical left, compounded by the
biased reporting in most French media
outlets, are making an impact.”
Habib stressed that “these days, I am
worried about France, but not about
Israel. I have no doubt that the Zion-
ist enterprise is one of the most moral,
ethical endeavors of the 19th and 20th
centuries. But if a majority of French
people believe that it is a ‘global con-
spiracy,’ as the survey found, France is
in deep trouble.” JNS.ORG
Jewish Standard JUNE 1, 2018 39
Editorial
Thinking about
immigration
T O
his country used to be
wide-open.
When it was first created,
the 13 colonies stretched
westward, into barely imagined
lands, open to the incursions of
stagecoaches and wagon trains and
settlers pushing forever forward.
This new country welcomed
immigrants. Everyone except for the
Native Americans were immigrants,
or immigrants’ descendants — and
the Native Americans were pushed
around, pushed out, shoved into
undesirable lands, and often they
were murdered. In this young coun-
try’s first two centuries, there was
no particular premium put on not
descending from immigrants.
Meanwhile, immigrants kept com-
ing. Many of them were not wel-
come — it was far better to be white,
fair, Protestant, northern European,
and English-speaking than to be, say,
swarthy (a word that has fallen out of
favor, for good reason), Catholic, and
southern or eastern European. It
was not good at all to be Asian. And it
wasn’t particularly good to be Jewish.
Still, the gates were open, and
although there often was anti-immi-
grant sentiment, there also was a feel-
ing that this vast land needed people,
laborers, big shoulders, and strong
hands. (Yes, romanticizing is a trap,
but it’s hard to avoid it entirely.)
Virtually all of us Jews are immi-
grants or the descendants of immi-
grants. (Yes, there is a remote pos-
sibility that someone might be
descended from native Americans
who converted, but that possibility is
vanishingly slim.)
It is hard not to keep thinking of
that when we read about the immi-
grants who are coming unwelcome
into this country today. Our govern-
ment now separates parents and
their children, even young children.
Just reading the stories about it is
painful.
Jewish Editor
Joanne Palmer
Standard Associate Editor
Larry Yudelson
1086 Teaneck Road
Community Editor
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Beth Janoff Chananie
(201) 837-8818
Fax 201-833-4959 About Our Children Editor
Heidi Mae Bratt
Publisher
James L. Janoff
Associate Publisher Emerita
Marcia Garfinkle
thejewishstandard.com
40 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
I think about the stories I’ve read
and heard about young Jews who
came to this country alone, because
they had to. (Those children, to be
clear, are older than many of the
ones separated from their parents
now. Not even the hardiest infants
and toddlers can travel alone.) The
stories are wrenching.
Those immigrants were incredibly
brave. They left everything behind,
most of them in search not of lux-
ury but of survival. They left their
families at a time when they could
not Skype or Facetime with them.
They couldn’t let them know they’d
arrived safely. They had no way of
knowing if they’d ever see each other
again, and often they did not.
Some of them foundered when
they got here, when they sailed into
New York Harbor, past the Statue
of Liberty, with her torch held high
in welcome, but many not only sur-
vived, but were able to see their chil-
dren flourish.
Yes, America did turn away Jews.
Our record during and immediately
after World War II was not good. But
on the whole, the Jewish commu-
nity has done remarkably well in this
great country.
And now we are turning away refu-
gees, at a time when the need for ref-
uge from the carnage of horrific wars
is climbing. We understand that not
all refugees are innocent, that not
all immigrants are pure, but we also
know that most of them are.
And just a few generations ago, they
could have been us. Just a few genera-
tions ago, it was our ancestors stand-
ing on Ellis Island, hoping to be let in.
As we listen to Matt Katz talk about
the immigrants he’s interviewed, as
we follow the work of United Syna-
gogue of Hoboken as its members
help immigrants, we must not allow
ourselves to remain unmoved. We’ve
been lucky. We can’t shut the doors
behind us. —JP
Correspondents
Warren Boroson
Lois Goldrich
Banji Ganchrow
Abigail K. Leichman
Miriam Rinn
Dr. Miryam Z. Wahrman
Advertising Director
Natalie D. Jay
Classified Director
Janice Rosen
KEEPING THE FAITH
The vote: A primary way
to honor America’s fallen
n Monday, I participated in a Memo- unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
rial Day observance co-sponsored Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
by American Legion Post #126 In 2016, more than four out of every 10 regis-
and the Borough of Cliffside Park. tered voters in the United States did not exercise
Unless it rains, the annual event always is held their right to vote. In 2017, only 3.5 voters out of
in Memorial Park, sandwiched on a little island every 10 cast ballots in New Jersey’s governor’s
between the municipal building and library on race. Last year, only 24 percent of New York City’s
one side, and the Cliffside Park High School on registered voters turned out. As a result, Mayor
the other. In other words, you cannot find a Bill DeBlasio was re-elected by fewer than 16 per-
more central, public location. cent of the city’s registered voters — and by a mere
Yet as I looked out from the podium at the 8.5 percent of its 8.5 million people.
crowd, I was disheartened by the absence of so This Tuesday is Primary Day in New Jersey. It is
many more people. It is the same story year after almost certain that voter turnout will hover on or
year, in community after community, and it is about last year’s turnout of 13 percent (and that
symbolic of a trend of which none was not even a record low).
of us should be proud. We Ameri- Government “of the people,
cans take our liberties too much for by the people, for the people”
granted — and we take too much for requires we the people to partici-
granted the lives that were lost to win pate, and the most direct way we
those liberties and to keep them. do that is by voting in primaries
Memorial Day is not about barbe- and in elections. If we sit at home
cues, ball games, and treks to shop- on Primary Day or Election Day,
ping malls. It is about remembering those 1.4 million men and women
the sacrifice made by the more than will have died in vain. By “voting,”
1.4 million men and women who Shammai by the way, I do not mean merely
served this nation from Lexington Engelmayer turning out to cast a ballot. I mean
and Concord to this day — 69 of them learning what the issues are, learn-
since this past January 1 alone. They ing who the candidates are, and
gave up their lives to preserve and protect an ideal, then choosing the candidates who best reflect our
yet too few of us can spare a few moments to give views on the issues we care about most.
them or that ideal much more than lip service, if We Jews, especially, should know what it
we give even that much. means to live in nations in which all people are
Our nation’s honored dead deserve to be not created equal, in which there is no equal pro-
remembered not just because they died, but for tection under the law, in which a person’s fate is
why they died: for “that cause for which they gave decided by the religion he or she espouses, or
the last full measure of devotion…, that govern- by the color of her or his skin, or by any of the
ment of the people, by the people, for the people, other artifices created by some to discriminate
shall not perish from the earth,” as Abraham Lin- and subjugate others.
coln so eloquently put it on the bloodied battle- We Jews should know something else, as well
field at Gettysburg. —that the values that make this country great,
In other words, the best way to honor those that make it stand out above all the nations that
nearly one and a half million men and women preceded it throughout history, are values we
is by honoring and respecting and living our brought into this world when we brought the
lives according to the values for which they Torah and the rest of the Bible to the world.
died — values that are summarized in a few I have written about this many times, but these
pointed words in the Declaration of Indepen- facts are worth repeating.
dence: “that all [people] are created equal, that “The [Hebrew] Bible was nothing short of
they are endowed by their Creator with certain the underlying fabric upon which American
Shammai Engelmayer is rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of the Palisades, now in Fort Lee.
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society was founded,” Dr. John Wood-
land Welch wrote in the Brigham Young
University Law Review some years ago.
“[T]he profound influence of biblical law
on early American colonial law…was
not a passing fancy in colonial America.”
The facts support Dr. Welch. In 1641,
for example, the Massachusetts Bay
Colony adopted a law code that was
, based almost entirely on Torah law. In
1655, the New Haven colony’s legisla-
- tors created a law code that contained
79 statutes, 38 of which came from the
f Bible (and most of those came from the
Torah). In doing so, they declared that
“the judicial laws of God, as they were
r delivered by Moses, and as they are a
- fence to the moral law…, [shall] gen-
erally bind all offenders, till they be
branched out into particulars hereafter.”
Long before Plato ever dreamed of
r a “Republic,” the Torah legislated for
t one that began with the premise that
all humankind, whether citizen or
, stranger, are created equal, and should
” be treated as such. Our Torah did that,
- and it did it in a time and in a place
where such notions were unheard
of. In the words of the biblical scholar
Richard Elliot Friedman, “In the whole
, ancient Near East, in all those lands,
through several millennia, we have
” found 52 references to equal treatment
y of aliens, and all 52 are in the first five
books of the Bible,” meaning the Torah.
- Into the 19th century, ownership of
property was the basis for suffrage in
r the United States and elsewhere. The
Torah dealt with that by making every-
t one a property owner.
The Torah set the stage for elect-
- ing a king (electing!) who rules over a
nation of equals and is not above the
r law. In the courtroom, Torah law zeal-
ously guards the rights of the defendant,
from the right to confront witnesses, to
vigorous cross-examinations, to protec-
tion against self-incrimination, to equal
, treatment under the law, and even to
t the right of appeal.
The Torah protects the rights of the
wage earner (he must be paid on time,
and is entitled to one day off each week),
and the rights of society’s underprivi-
leged classes; and it protects an individ-
f ual’s right to privacy.
n Memorial Day represents remember-
ing those who gave their lives for these
ideals. Primary Day this Tuesday and
Election Day in November are two essen-
tial ways of giving meaning to those lost
lives by turning these ideals into action.
The opinions expressed in this section
are those of the authors, not necessarily
those of the newspaper’s editors, publishers,
or other staffers. We welcome letters to
the editor. Send them to
jstandardletters@gmail.com.
Opinion
Talking about race and class(room):
Here’s the educational squirm version
D
uring the course of this school year, I’ve had the
opportunity to attend a number of conferences that
dealt with how we should talk about race and class in
Jewish education.
Having these conversations is a welcome development, since
these issues don’t get a lot of air time in our schools. While it’s true
that students are exposed to these subjects in history and English
classes, they often don’t extrapolate what they’ve learned so they
can understand why their reality looks different from other peo-
ple’s reality in America. The consensus, as educators talked to each
other at the conferences, was that it’s crucial for civic life that kids
see themselves within the larger tapestry of the American story to
see how we arrived at where we are today.
Location is a good place to start a discussion of race, since many
of our Jewish communities are suburban, and by now we have a
clear understanding of how racial discrimination carved out the
lovely enclaves where so many of us live. Redlining — the practice
of refusing loans or other services based on race or ethnicity — and
restrictive covenants — agreements made between property own-
ers not to sell to particular groups of people, usually
African Americans, and upheld by real estate boards
and neighborhood associations — were part of a system
that denied blacks in America a place in the middle
class and resulted in de facto segregation, especially
once legal segregation became outlawed.
It’s easy to see how the history of Jews in America
prevented us from assessing the full picture of discrim-
ination against blacks and other minorities. Many of
our families — including mine — came to this country
in the early 20th century, when the practices of redlin- Tikvah
ing and creating restrictive covenants first were getting Wiener
started, and when we were struggling to succeed. My
childhood was filled with reminiscences of the Depres-
sion and the trials my great-grandparents and grand-
parents endured then.
The Holocaust caused another wave of immigration from Europe,
and ensured that the Ashkenazi American community primarily was
focused internally, set on rebuilding after the Shoah. The 20th cen-
tury saw similar waves of immigration from Sephardic communi-
ties; many of those immigrants also were fleeing persecution in their
home countries and had to focus their energies on their own survival
when they reached the new land.
But that doesn’t mean we’re free from blame in the story of race
relations in America. In the mid-20th century, James Baldwin wrote
an article called “Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-
White” The essay starts like this:
“When we were growing up in Harlem our demoralizing series of
landlords were Jewish, and we hated them. We hated them because
they were terrible landlords, and did not take care of the building.
A coat of paint, a broken window, a stopped sink, a stopped toilet, a
sagging floor, a broken ceiling, a dangerous stairwell, the question of
garbage disposal, the question of heat and cold, of roaches and rats
— all questions of life and death for the poor, and especially for those
with children — we had to cope with all of these as best we could. Our
parents were lashed to futureless jobs, in order to pay the outrageous
rent. We knew that the landlord treated us this way only because we
were colored, and he knew that we could not move out.
“The grocer was a Jew, and being in debt to him was very much
like being in debt to the company store. The butcher was a Jew and,
yes, we certainly paid more for bad cuts of meat than other New
York citizens, and we very often carried insults home, along with
the meat. We bought our clothes from a Jew and, sometimes, our
secondhand shoes, and the pawnbroker was a Jew — perhaps we
hated him most of all. The merchants along 125th Street were Jewish
— at least many of them were; I don’t know if Grant’s or Woolworth’s
are Jewish names — and I well remember that it was only after the
Harlem riot of 1935 that Negroes were allowed to earn a little money
in some of the stores where they spent so much.
“Not all of these white people were cruel — on the contrary, I
remember some who were certainly as thoughtful as the bleak
circumstances allowed but all of them were exploiting us, and that
was why we hated them.”
When I shared this essay with a group of educators at a conference
I attended, one woman told us that her Haitian housekeeper’s experi-
ence with a Jewish landlord was similar to the one Baldwin described.
Baldwin continues:
“The Jew’s suffering is recognized as part of the moral history of
the world and the Jew is recognized as a contributor to the world’s
history: this is not true for the blacks. Jewish history, whether or
not one can say it is honored, is certainly known: the black history
has been blasted, maligned and despised. The Jew is a white man,
and when white men rise up against oppression, they are heroes:
when black men rise, they have reverted to their native savagery.
The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto was not described as a riot, nor
were the participants maligned as hoodlums: the boys and girls in
Watts and Harlem are thoroughly aware of this, and it certainly con-
tributes to their attitude toward the Jews.”
One of the things I’ve noticed when I’ve entered into discussions
about race with friends and acquaintances is that there’s sometimes
a tendency to hold up our own oppression story as an
example of the success of the American dream, and
to dismiss the differences that exist between ours and
others’. When English teacher, activist, and educa-
tion theorist Clint Smith, who is African-American,
addressed the Jewish Futures Conference in Novem-
ber 2017, he told us that we need not be in competition
about whose oppression story is worse.
We need to put down our fists and listen to each
other, so we better understand where each of us is
coming from, he told us. Smith is fond of saying that
we’ve got to “complicate the narrative”; that is, we
have to stop seeing the world in binary terms and
understand that each part of the American story is
endlessly nuanced. Acknowledging that he has cer-
tain privileges as a man and therefore must listen attentively when
women speak about gender bias, he notes that he encounters preju-
dice as a black man that others need to understand.
I know, for example, that my parents never yanked me inside on a
hot summer day when I was playing with a water gun in public. Smith,
who grew up attending schools with diverse populations and had
friends who were white and black, recalled his parents’ anger when
they grabbed him, telling him, “You are NOT like your friends.”
At the more recent conferences I’ve attended, one of which was at
Brandeis’ Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, some sug-
gestions emerged for how to educate students more deeply about the
experiences of other minorities in this country. These included:
• More direct instruction about discriminatory practices that have
prevented minorities from succeeding in America
• More explicit discussions about what race and identity mean,
and how our students think about their own identities
• More hiring of people of color as faculty in our schools
• More direct conversations and encounters between our students
and more diverse student populations in other schools
I’d like to address class in a different article, and end by noting that
we’re sometimes afraid to have discussions about important topics,
such as race, because they’re so loaded and uncomfortable. A few years
ago, in a discussion about race with an African American friend who’s
a professor, he told me of a college course he had taken on race rela-
tions. At one point in the middle of the first class, a student got up and
said she couldn’t do this. Having these discussions was too hard, she’d
said. I asked my friend how he had felt, and he said that he too had
been uncomfortable, but he had stayed. He felt it was important to stay.
We’re all here in this melting pot called America. Unless we don’t
want to stay, we have to find a way to reach out to each other, even if
it means having some squirming-in-our-seats conversations. It’s too
important not to do it.
Tikvah Wiener of Teaneck is head of school of the Idea School, a coed
Jewish high school opening in Bergen County in September. Learn
more at www.theideaschool.org.
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 41
Opinion

The Presbyterian Church Assembly

has been hijacked by anti-Israel activists

S
ince 2004, the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) has engaged
in a biennial ritual of obses-
sive, relentle ss anti-Israel
demonization.
That ritual will continue at the church’s
upcoming General Assembly in St. Louis.
Many mainline Protestant denomina-
tions have considered anti-Israel resolu-
tions and initiatives, but no denomination
is more clearly associated with anti-
Israelism than the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.). Indeed, some of its actions have
flirted with or crossed over to anti-Semi-
tism, most notably its publication and dis-
semination of the anti-Semitic “Zionism
Unsettled,” a congregational study guide
that distorts Jewish and Israeli history. The
sheer volume of anti-Israel resolutions dis-
cussed and debated reveals a deep animus
that needs to be called out.
The church’s General Assembly next
month will consider at least eight Israel-
related resolutions. By stark contrast, it
will consider one on the massive carnage
in Syria. Does the Israeli-Palestinian con-
flict deserve eight times as much attention
as the hundreds of thousands killed and
millions displaced in the Syrian civil war?
Something is awfully wrong here.
Within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
a small but vocal minority of activists has
managed to keep anti-Israelism on the
agenda through eight assemblies, span-
ning 14 years. This faction even has its
own committee, dubbed #12 — Middle
East Issues, allowing a concentration of
Israel-denunciatory time and energy in
one place throughout the weeklong Gen-
eral Assembly.
For American Presbyterians and Jews,
this is an interreligious relations tragedy.
There is no scintilla of evidence that these
anti-Israel propaganda shows reflect the
views of Presbyterians in the pews. Presby-
terians, like most Americans, overwhelm-
ingly support Israel, which they correctly
see as a lone beacon of democracy in the
Middle East and a frontline
bulwark against global ter-
rorism. What takes place on
the assembly’s national stage
is a farce.
Across the country, Pres-
byterian-Jewish relations on
the local level generally are
superb. Rabbis have devel-
oped close relationships Noam E.
with Presbyterian minis- Marans
ters, churches collaborate
with synagogues in a host
of endeavors, and Jewish organizations,
including the American Jewish Commit-
tee, partner with Presbyterians in many
communities.
Indeed, at a time when many Jews
and Presbyterians are mobilizing to aid
the most marginalized in America, the
ability of these two faith groups to work
together has been compromised seri-
ously by the Israel obsession at the Pres-
byterians’ assembly.
To make matters worse,
this anti-Israelism has pro-
vided a platform for the
misnamed Jewish Voice for
Peace, which has positioned
itself as a vocal ally of the
Israel-haters within the Pres-
byterian Church (U.S.A.).
This clearly violates the
principle in interreligious
dialogue that a faith commu-
nity should be understood
the way it understands itself.
The anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace
is not representative of American Jewry,
which remains overwhelmingly support-
ive of Israel and sees its Jewish identity
as inseparable from the existence of the
Jewish state. Romanticizing Jewish anti-
Zionism raises serious questions about
the church’s full embrace of the concept
of a Jewish state as an essential element
of modern Judaism.
To be clear, Israel is not perfect. No

A Jewish village that escaped the exile

A
small Druze village nestled
in the hills of Israel’s Galilee
region hides an unbelievable
Jewish story. I discovered this
story by accident a few weeks ago, and it
has affected me deeply, in ways that I am
only now beginning to understand.
We were on the way to the grave of the
famous sage and mystic, Rabbi Shimon bar
Yochai, on the mountain of Meron. There
we planned to celebrate the holiday of Lag
B’omer, together with thousands of other
visitors, and to mark the personal occasion
of our 3-year-old grandson Dovi’s upshei-
rin — his first haircut.
To best avoid the inevitable traffic jams
leading to Meron’s summit, we arranged
for an overnight stay in the nearby village
of Old Peki’in. It was a visit I will never
forget.
At first I simply was captivated by the
fact that we were spending the night in a
Druze village. The Israeli Druze long have
fascinated me as a people who couple a
deep devotion to their own culture with a
strong loyalty to the country in which they
live. As we walked that evening through
twisting streets and alleyways, evidence of
this balance could be seen in the repeated
appearance of the flag of Israel and the flag
of the Druze, harmoniously flying side by
side in the wind.
When, however, we reached the village’s
ancient synagogue, where the fascinating
Jewish story of Peki’in began to unfold for
us, all else faded away.…
The plaques at the synagogue site
explained that during of the destruction of
the Second Temple by the Romans in 70
C.E., a number of priestly Jewish families
refused to join in their nation’s forced exile
from the Land of Israel. Fleeing north-
ward, they reached the Galilee region;
they built the village that would become
known as Peki’in next to a natural spring
they found there. They erected a syna-
gogue — on the spot where we were now
standing — and placed in it stones that they
had carried with them in their flight from
Jerusalem. Upon these stones were carved
images of many Jewish symbols — a meno-
rah, a lulav, an etrog, and more.
For two thousand years, the descendants
of these kohanim lived in peace with their
neighbors. They experienced the consecu-
tive invasions and conquests of Israel at the
hands of Romans, the Byzantines, the Mus-
lims, the Christians, and the Muslims again.
As time went on, the Jews of Peki’in began
to resemble the neighboring Druze and
Moslems in dress and demeanor — but they
steadfastly maintained their identities and
practices as Jews.
Entranced by what I had read, I
researched further that evening, and I
discovered that evidence of continued
Jewish presence in Peki’in emerges from
varied sources across the ages. The Tal-
mud records that Rabbi Joshua ben Hana-
niah lived and established a beit midrash
(house of study) in the village, and the
cave where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and
his son, Elazar, hid from the and images of Peki’in on the
Romans for more than 12 other.
years was nearby. Records The Arab revolt against
from the Crusader, Ottoman, Jewish settlement in Pales-
and English periods clearly tine in 1939 caused the only
testify to the presence of Jew- official break in the centu-
ish families in the village. In ries-long Jewish presence
the early 1900s, two ancient in Peki’in. While Muslim
stone tablets engraved with neighbors saved their lives
Jewish symbols were uncov- Rabbi Shmuel from marauders, the Jews of
ered and identified as possi- Goldin Peki’in were forced to flee
bly among the stones the ear- their beloved village in favor
liest Jewish settlers brought of nearby cities, including
to Peki’in from Jerusalem. The more Hadera. Only a few families ultimately
recent find of an ancient column bearing returned to Peki’in. Finally, in 2007, more
an inscription that speaks of dedications riots forced the last full Jewish family in
to the synagogue further bolsters the nar- Peki’in to flee. Only one woman, Margalit
rative of uninterrupted Jewish presence in Zenati, believed to be a descendent of
this village across the centuries. Both the the original settlers of Peki’in, insisted on
engraved stones and the column can be remain behind.
found in the Peki’in Synagogue today. Today, Zenati, more than 80 years old,
In 1922, Yitzchak Ben Tzvi, a scholar of remains the only Jewish inhabitant of
Jewish history who ultimately would rise Old Peki’in. She cares for the synagogue
to become Israel’s second president, dis- site and the surrounding area zealously.
covered the Jewish community of Peki’in A museum honoring her story and that
while on a foot trip through the Galilee of the entire Peki’in Jewish community
with his wife. Ben Tzvi became entranced stands next to the synagogue; tourists visit
by the story of continuous Jewish settle- it regularly. This year, Zenati was further
ment in the Galilee and conducted exten- honored by the State of Israel when she
sive research directed toward proving was chosen to light an Independence Eve
that phenomenon. He established a close torch marking the 70th anniversary of the
relationship with the Jews of Peki’in and founding of the State.
sponsored renovations of the synagogue By any standard, the story of the Jews
site and the surrounding area. One of the of Peki’in is astounding. It is the story of
editions of the Israeli hundred dollar bill two thousand years of uninterrupted Jew-
contains the image of Ben Tzvi on one side ish life in a small village in northern Israel.

42 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018


country is. Just ask its robust citizenry and
its press, which contend with and debate
some of the issues raised in the Presbyteri-
ans’ resolutions. But — and this is a big but
— the church resolutions are articulated as
a kind of zero-sum game warfare in which
Israel, by definition, must be evil and the
Palestinians must be blameless.
Presbyterians will not be taken seriously
as peacemakers as long as their judgments
against Israel are a foregone conclusion
and they are unable to see the immense
complexity in the conflict. Resolutions
calling for support of BDS initiatives and
the like ultimately will have no impact in
achieving the peace that anti-Israel advo-
cates claim to desire. To the contrary, they
surely will make it still more difficult, by
lifting any responsibility from Palestinian
shoulders.
We are grateful to our Presbyterian
friends who have labored against difficult
odds to counter anti-Israelism within their
church. Their valiant efforts have served
to mitigate the overwhelming Israel-bash-
ing at the church’s assemblies. We pray
that they will succeed in taking back their
hijacked church.
But the American Jewish Committee,
Year after year of patient allegiance, reach-
ing back to the period of the Second Tem-
ple, powered forward by a deep belief in
that Temple’s ultimate rebuilding.
A quote found in the 1931 diary of a
Peki’in Hebrew student, however, further
deepens and personalizes the message of
the Peki’in story for each of us.
“I was once asked [the student relates],
‘Who are you?’
I replied, ‘I am a simple Jew, not Ashke-
nazi, nor Sephardic. My ancestors always
lived here. I have never been in exile.’”
How amazing! A reality that perhaps we
had never contemplated. Jews who never
went into exile; who never experienced so
much of what we fundamentally consider
to be Jewish. No Yiddish, no Ladino, no
chassidut, no hitnagdut; neither Litvaks,
Galitzianers, nor Eidot Hamizrach. The
story of Peki’in reminds us that there is no
one Jewish experience. So much of what
we each consider to be Jewish is an overlay
from our own communities’ and families’
experiences and travels over the centuries.
Even more significantly, the story of
Peki’in also throws the extraordinary times
in which we live into stark relief. Thou-
sands of years of separation, thousands of
years of individual communal experience,
all coming together in a miraculous return
to our land. The rich human tapestry that
has become our nation walks today in the
streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and
Peki’in. We’ve entered a new phase, a
phase for which the Jews of Peki’in stead-
fastly waited for more than 2,000 years.
It’s time to come home and join those
who never left, to learn about and from
whose decades-long record in interfaith
relations is second to none, will not engage
with the General Assembly farce anymore.
Unlike previous years, we will not be pres-
ent in St. Louis at the assembly, which
opens on June 16.
No longer can we participate in a Gen-
eral Assembly drama whose best-case sce-
nario is exaggerated Jewish relief that anti-
Israel resolutions are marginally toned
down before they are passed. Instead, we
will devote our energy to where it matters,
by redoubling our effort to create, sustain,
and expand relationships with Presby-
terians at the local level through our 22
regional offices across the United States.
A famous chasidic tale tells of two peo-
ple who are lost separately in the forest
and are relieved to find one another. They
know that the paths they took were not
the right ones, so they go on a new path
together. It is long past time for a new path
in national Presbyterian-Jewish relations.
 JTA WIRE SERVICE
Rabbi Noam Marans of Teaneck is the
American Jewish Committee’s director of
interreligious and intergroup relations.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, his son Yossi,
his daughter-in-law Shifra, and three
of their kids stand together at the
entrance to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s
cave, right outside the town of Piki’in.
each other, and to build our own Jewish
experience together.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin and his wife,
Barbara, made aliyah this year, after
he spent more than 40 years in the
American rabbinate (33 of them as
rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Torah in
Englewood). They now live in Jerusalem,
where Rabbi Goldin, now rabbi emeritus
of CAT, is senior scholar at Nefesh
B’Nefesh and continues to write and teach
in various settings.
We are everywhere
T
here is much to say about New
Zealand, but no words do its
landscapes, mountains, for-
ests, lakes, and fiords justice.
When I was thinking about writing
this article I had hoped that descriptive
words would not fail me, but they have.
Only the photos can reveal the magnifi-
cence of New Zealand.
That being the case, I’ll share a few
vignettes about meetings with people
who — in lands that have more sheep
than people — were highly unexpected.
Rotorua
Rotorua is the center of the earliest indig- vacationing, surrounds the lake. In the
enous native culture in New Zealand,
the Maori. The Maori couldn’t resist
applying decorative carving to every-
thing they used or dwelled in. Rotorua
also is the center of the most active gey-
sers and thermal pools of
water, heated from deep
within the earth. The sight
of water leaping tens of feet
into the air, and of mud
bubbling like a witch’s caul-
dron, simply is amazing.
There was a living and
thriving Maori village
close by our hotel; every
home there was heated by Rabbi Dr.
the boiling underground Michael
streams found everywhere Chernick
in Rotorua. So on Shabbat
we decided to take a walk
to the village. We also had heard about
a park that is filled with these steaming
pools. There was a nice young Indian
man who occasionally was on duty as
concierge. We asked him for some help
in finding these sites. Nosy me asked
where he was from in India, and he
replied “Mumbai.” Given some of our
“special needs,” he knew we were a Jew-
ish couple, so then added, “I’m Jewish.
My Hebrew name is Noah.”
That of course was the beginning of a
family story. “No, I am not religious, but
my family is,” he said. “Granny keeps the
Shabbat, but keeping kosher in India is
getting harder since the present regime
has outlawed the slaughter of beef.” “Are
your people descended from the Iraqi
Jews who went to India for business rea-
sons, or from the native Beni Israel?,” we
asked him. It turned out to be the latter.
He told us that the Mumbai Jewish com-
munity was disappearing, and that most
of the Beni Israel community had moved
to Israel.
A Jew in Rotorua?! Out of the 6,867
Jews in the whole country — most of
whom live in the cities of Aukland and
Wellington —what were the odds? And a
Beni Israel Indian Jew to boot.
The feelings this reality engendered
were interesting. We had the sense of
a special bond with Noah. He went by
Opinion
some other British-sounding name, but
he enjoyed us calling him by his Hebrew
name and connecting it to that of the bib-
lical character. He noted that his name
was given to him during a flood that
occurred in monsoon season in India.
Our stay in Rotorua came to an end,
and we said “Shalom,” quite literally,
to Noah, and we realized our people
indeed are everywhere.
Queenstown
Queenstown, as seen from its heights,
which overlook its huge lake, is breath-
taking. The city, mostly dedicated to
hills we can see the homes of those peo-
ple who can afford to have the best view
of the water and the greenery surround-
ing it. Our hotel had one of these spec-
tacular views, which meant that getting
to the town’s center was
easy, but getting back was
a real cardio exercise.
One morning at break-
fast a waiter named Jona-
than seated us. We found
ourselves putting together
the name Jonathan with the
tinge of a rolling r coming
from the back of his throat.
“Jonathan, where are you
from?,” we asked. With-
out missing a beat, he said
“Israel.” To his surprise,
we immediately switched
to Hebrew. He nearly fainted.
Of course, there’s always a story. His
family had emigrated to Israel from
Chile. He had spent several years in
New Zealand and was considering fur-
ther travel. He liked the country a lot
and even could imagine settling there,
but it was not easy to get New Zealand
citizenship.
I always have mixed feelings about peo-
ple who leave Israel for what they con-
sider greener pastures, and for sure New
Zealand is green. But still it was a plea-
sure to be greeted with “boker tov” (good
morning.) and “mah inyanim” (what’s
doing?), and to speak the Jewish national
language with a member of the Tribe.
Very quickly Jonathan became Yeho-
natan, and he and we felt a connection
that was qualitatively different from
what we felt for the other very polite ser-
vice people at our hotel in Queenstown.
There definitely was a warmth there and
a palpable feeling of relationship.
Flying in a one-engine plane over Mil-
ford Sound and being drenched in a
speeding jet boat on the Dart River was
great, but a taste of home in the person
of Yehonatan was grounding.
A Jewish waiter and ma’tre d’ in
Queenstown, NZ? Who would have
thought?
SEE EVERYWHERE PAGE 44
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 43
Opinion
Everywhere
FROM PAGE 43
Port Douglas, Australia
Port Douglas is the Florida of Australia. Its climate is tropi-
cal; it was hot there, even though autumn was beginning in
Australia. It is the place where you go to set sail for a day of
exploring the beautiful colors and creatures that inhabit the
Great Barrier Reef and the nearby tropical rain forests. Port
Douglas’s beaches are pristine and vast, and its tourist traps
are as numerous as the sand grains on the beach.
The hotel we stayed at had a nice, mostly unused salt-water
swimming pool, with the de rigeur hot tub connected to it.
After a few refreshing laps in the pool, I decided to have a soak
in the hot tub, when suddenly I heard a voice calling, “Sholom
aleichem, landsman.” A woman walked over to Miriam and
me, and I asked, “How did you figure out I’m Jewish?” Her
reply was, “How many people come to the pool with a kippah
on?” Usually I travel wearing a baseball cap, but in my rush to
get in a swim, that got left behind.
The woman introduced me and Miriam to her husband
and son and went off to organize dinner. As it turned out,
the family was from Chicago. The son was studying at a
university in Sydney and living in a suburb there called
Bondi (pronounced Bond-eye). It turned out that the
young man was a Shabbat and kashrut observer, which
was quite common for the Bondi Jewish community. His
father was observant, but not as rigorously as his son. The
family was hoping he’d come home for his next term, but
he was having such a wonderful time in Australia and
clearly was making a pitch for staying another year.
Meeting committed Jews in a hot tub and chatting about
our Jewish lives at home in the States filled in the occasional
longing for our community, which is so rich in Jewish oppor-
tunities. We definitely were reminded that we were not in
Bergen County, where so much Jewish infrastructure makes
Jewish life easy. Still, we were not yet in the “There’s no place
like home” mode.
Melbourne
We had a Shabbat in Melbourne and one in Sydney. Jewish life
in Australia is centered in these cities, but mostly in the sub-
urbs rather than in the cities’ centers. There was a synagogue
in walking distance of our Melbourne hotel. I found davening
hours a little strange, especially the 10 a.m. Shacharit service,
and a bit of a warning in the shul’s announcements that there
was no guarantee of a minyan on Friday evening.
Anyway, on Shabbat morning I walked to Mikveh Israel
through beautiful gardens and past the old Parliament build-
ing, only to find a shul reminiscent of the once beautiful but
now dilapidated synagogues of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
At 9:50 a man decked out in the long coat and fedora of a
Lubavitcher chasid appeared, accompanied by two children.
I assumed that he was the rav — the rabbi. Not sure that the
synagogue was going to make a minyan even that morning,
I stood across the street and counted attendees (male, of
course). The rav caught me standing and watching, crossed
the street, and wished me “gut Shabbes.” I returned the greet-
ing, played a little Jewish geography with him, and got an invi-
tation to attend shul that I couldn’t turn down.
The synagogue, still beautiful but in need of repair and
attendees, did not get a minyan until about 10:45. We had
started at 10:15, hoping we’d at least be able to read the Torah
— we said Shacharit without the requisite number of men to
make the minyan, though women were in plentiful atten-
dance. Finally, the magical number of 10 men was reached
— later that number climbed to 15 — and the Torah reading
and the rest of the service proceeded in somewhat unusual
fashion.
What I mean is that the service times were announced as
10 a.m. to noon. I had never heard of a Shabbat service that
44 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
could be held in that short time. Nevertheless, with a nicely
delivered mini-sermon and a truncated Musaf (“heikhe kedu-
shah”), we were out by 12. There was a nice kiddush. A little
schmooze. Heimish.
If we had stayed in the suburbs, the experience would have
been different. But I must say that this encounter moved me. I
admire the perseverance of this man, the rav, and his family,
who little by little are re-establishing an inner-city shul, which,
given some gentrification, has a chance of being restored to its
former glory. God should give him and his family good luck
and success.
Sydney
Sydney is a laid-back playland. There is an amazing number
of bars and restaurants for the locals and for Sydney’s many
tourists. Given how the restaurants always were filled, Miriam
wondered whether anyone ever cooked there.
Sydney has a Jewish population that is centered in the sub-
urb of Bondi. We spent our last day there, and it was good
practice for our return to Teaneck. On the bus to Bondi we
encountered a man in black suit, white shirt, black hat, and
beard, who was perusing what looked like an Ipod Talmud
passage. Not exactly a Teaneck experience, but one that
spoke somewhat of home.
Not exactly a Teaneck
experience, but one
that spoke somewhat
of home.
Bondi Beach is a magnificent stretch of sand abutting
the Pacific. There were few swimmers; the weather was
getting cold, though children will go into water no matter
what temperature it is. Where the water was particularly
rough, surfers tried their luck at coming as close to shore
as possible.
The beach got colder and colder, so we went to search for
Katzy’s Deli, which had supplied much of what we ate in Aus-
tralia, especially on Shabbat. We got there before its evening
opening time, so we decided to explore Bondi. It’s definitely
not Monsey, Borough Park, or even Teaneck in terms of its
Orthodox coloration. But there was Gold’s Judaica Store,
watched over by a nice woman with a sheitel. On our walk
around the block, we saw a young man coming home from
his day at a local yeshiva. This without a doubt is Sydney’s
growing traditional Jewish section.
Katzy’s Deli was great, and we knew, since it was our last
day down under, that we’d soon be back on Restaurant Row
in Teaneck, after 24 hours in the air. Bondi’s ambience, which
its varied styles of Jewish observance, was a kind of prepara-
tion for coming home.
As I said at the outset, New Zealand and Australia cannot
be described fully in words. But the unexpected encounters
with Jews from everywhere reminded us of the special con-
nection we have with one another. It can be described only
as that almost mystical sense of being related to one another
as part of klal Yisrael.
We are everywhere, and we are more intimately related
than we often think.
Rabbi Dr. Michael Chernick and his wife, Miriam Stern, live
in Teaneck. He received his doctorate from the Bernard Revel
Graduate School and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary. He holds the Deutsch Family
Chair in Jewish Jurisprudence and Social Justice at the Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York; his area
of expertise is the Talmud.
Letters
Denouncing anti-Semitism
The recent increase in anti-Semitism is abhorrent.
With waves of threats aimed at Jewish commu-
nity centers and the desecration of synagogues and
cemeteries across our nation, and growing threats
around the world, meaningful action is overdue.
This past week, I proudly joined with colleagues
in sending a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo urging him to fill the special envoy
for anti-Semitism position at the State Department.
Additionally, in recent weeks, my office in Wash-
ington, D.C., welcomed leaders from the American
Jewish Congress, the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, and the Zionist Organization of Amer-
ica, and my senior staff and I were able to speak
extensively with them on formulating policies for
fighting anti-Semitism and on other subjects.
It is incumbent on all aspects of our government
to consistently denounce religious intolerance. The
appointment of the special envoy to monitor and
combat anti-Semitism would demonstrate the com-
mitment of the United States to the well-being of
Jewish communities around the world.
I look forward to continue working with Secre-
tary Pompeo and my congressional colleagues to
make this appointment a swift and effective reality.
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Member of Congress, 9th District
Paterson/Washington
Federation’s group insurance
plan should be open to all
Jewish organization employees
Regarding “On the federation’s plan” (May 26), I
think that the Jewish Federation of Northern New
Jersey’s Group Health Association Plan is a benefi-
cial plan to employees in Jewish day schools and
should be an option to employers who are part of
other Jewish organizations as well.
Nowadays, many health insurances are extremely
expensive, and the prices for insurance are only
increasing. With this new plan, people who are
unable to afford health insurance are receiving the
top care that they deserve. People who work for
Jewish organizations are all contributors to creat-
ing a thriving Jewish community, so they should be
given the option to receive health care benefits as
well. All contributors to a successful Jewish com-
munity are essential and should be treated the
same as employers at Jewish day schools.
Ariella Cohen
Englewood
More on the situation in Gaza
Bravo to Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff (“Sorry, but I’m
not sorry,” May 25) and Joshua Borenstein (“Some
journalists are misleading readers and contributing
to the loss of Palestinian life,” May 25) for finally
stating the real facts about the situation on Israel’s
border.
They did however leave out information about
the Arabs flying a kite with a Nazi swastika on it.
Practically no news media covered this info. By the
way, most of these “kites” have explosives attached
to them, which are meant to and did indeed strike
orchards inside Israel, causing thousands of dollars
in fire damage. If only the Arabs used their terror-
filled inventiveness for positive means, like prop-
erly teaching their children, instead of using them
as human shields.
Roberta H. Simon
Bergenfield
 Keeping Kosher

One Book One Community culminates with a talk by author Serving The Kosher Way Since 1976

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Michael Solomonov shows a
cookie with a graphic of his
cookbook at the reception that
followed his talk.

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Dear Rabbi Zahavy

Your talmudic advice column

Dear Rabbi Zahavy, may be about mixing milk tribal impact. As Cooper sums up the novel interpre-
Though I was raised observant of the com- and meat on the surface, But perhaps it would help tation of his student, “Seething a kid in
mandments in the Orthodox Jewish tradi- it’s more likely you may be if I review some of the clas- its mother’s milk might have been accept-
tion, I woke up one day recently and realized awakening from a simple sic explanations: That the able quotidian practice, but in the sacrifi-
that I don’t understand the ban on cooking acceptance of your faith to a quintessential case of mix- cial cult, the feminine fluid could not be
or eating dishes that combine dairy and more complicated encounter ing milk and meat — seeth- blended with the masculine flesh. Meat
meat ingredients. The logic of those laws with some of its components. ing a kid in its mother’s milk (masculine) is the officially sanctioned rit-
suddenly puzzles me. If the milk and meat Maybe you are in the midst — was an idolatrous practice ual substance in a sacred activity in which
foods are kosher separately, why are they of developing “a valid per- in the ancient Near East. (Mai- milk (feminine) has no part.”
forbidden when they are mixed together? sonal position” to your own Rabbi Tzvee monides suggested that view.) I’ll extend this insight further. We rab-
Flustered in Fair Lawn devotions. Zahavy Or that it was a magical prac- binic Jews believe that our kitchens and
So it’s not going to be tice to increase the fertility of dining tables represent an image of the
Dear Flustered, enough for me to tell you to the land. (Some Protestant Temple, that we ordinary Jews try to act
You do understand that most of the time, cherish these practices solely because they scholars thought this was the case.) Or that in purity and sanctity at home, as if we
each religion is based on its own brand of define a major part of rabbinic Judaism it was deemed by some to be too indulgent, were priests carrying out the rituals of the
logic. You don’t apply the general laws of over two millennia. or too cruel and unethical. (Philo of Alex- sacred space of the Beit Hamiqdash, the
deduction and inference to a religion. You Let’s see if in this case of milk-meat andria opined along this line.) It does seem holy Temple of antiquity.
accept how the system works internally, taboos some background explanation of the inhumane to kill a baby animal and cook it For ancient Israelites and for contempo-
and you build on it. That buy-in and accep- origins and working of the system will pac- in the milk of its own mother. rary Orthodox Jews, sanctity is achieved
tance of the reasoning of your own religion ify your doubts. I know that’s not a direct Other authorities feel that no logical by the segregation of the feminine and
is a big part of what we call faith. answer, but in the tradition of our people, explanation is needed, and we do this masculine, represented today in syna-
Apparently, you do accept that God presenting myriad details may distract you, mitzvah “because it is a commandment.” gogues by the mechitzah separating the
decreed that his chosen people avoid mix- dazzle you, and encourage you to go back to Or we do this as “a bulwark against inter- seating areas of men and women, and, for
ing milk and meat. Unique beliefs and the roots of keeping your faith. That’s one marriage and assimilation.” For someone the most part, in Orthodox education by
practices like this one can be found in Juda- approach rabbis can take to “explain” the who keeps kosher, eating and socializing maintaining separate classes or schools for
ism — and in all the major world religions. rules. For many people that suffices. with non-Jewishly observant people can be boys and girls, and separate seminaries for
You would like to apprehend the deeper And trust me. The laws of kashrut in gen- awkward or challenging. women and men.
meanings in this set of Jewish rules. eral and milk and meat taboos in specific If all the above discussion fails to satisfy Such segregation is not accidental to
Jews have been questioning the rele- are complex and varied. In my rabbinic your query, I’m glad to report that beyond Orthodoxy — it is essential to the fiber of its
vance of these laws for some time. In 1885, training, I cherished most highly of all such traditional reasons and explanations I religious society. In Orthodox terms, the
classical Reform Judaism officially scuttled mastering the details of the arcane chemis- discovered a fresh spin on the issue, which separation of male and female is a critical
the laws of kashrut, calling them “foreign tries of the laws of forbidden mixtures that I hope will serve as a more “meaningful” way that we sanctify our lives.
to our present mental and spiritual state. are part of the Shulhan Arukh, the codes potential answer for you. And yes, it means that to foster sanctity
They fail to impress the modern Jew with a of Jewish law of Rabbi Joseph Caro. The At the end of a 2012 article, “Once Again we also segregate and separate the feminine
spirit of priestly holiness; their observance laws of kosher food, including the separa- Seething a Kid in its Mother’s Milk,” Pro- milk foods from the masculine meat dishes
in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to tion of milk and meat, are a major part of fessor Alan Cooper, provost of the Jewish on a deeply symbolic level. I believe that is
further modern spiritual elevation.” the curriculum in the course of study for Theological Seminary, provides a new and a powerful deep meaning that we can point
But in 1979, backtracking speedily (that traditional rabbinic ordination. interesting angle into your query. to in our religious rules for cuisine.
is, speedily for religious leaders), the After I was ordained, I spent several After reviewing many sources, texts, Of course, our modern American cul-
Reform rabbinical association proclaimed years in academic research studying and and previous studies, Cooper found signif- ture does not embrace such gender segre-
that “It is reasonable to ask the Reform translating the entire rabbinic Talmud icant meaning for this taboo in the work of gation values. Quite the contrary. Liberal
Jew to study and consider kashrut so as tractate of Hullin, which addresses the those who view the practice of separating society considers gender segregation to
to develop a valid personal position.” In kosher laws from all angles. meat and milk through the prism of gen- be a profane anathema. Hence Orthodoxy
2011, the Reform movement’s Central But I won’t go into all that, since I sus- der studies. finds itself in a tense relationship with sec-
Conference of American Rabbis pub- pect you are looking for a more direct and In specific, Cooper’s student Nicole ular culture at large. And, respectfully, that
lished “The Sacred Table,” which encour- to-the-point explanation to satisfy your Ruane, an anthropologically oriented bib- is not something we can address or resolve
ages an “ethical, health-based, spiritual needs for this religious observance, an lical scholar, sees milk as a quintessen- in this advice column.
approach to culinary culture in the Pro- explanation that is consistent with general tial feminine fluid. That instantly makes I do hope you appreciate this discus-
gressive Jewish community.” logic, or at least with general religious or sense to us all. In contrast, she (and oth- sion, especially the final fresh perspec-
We know that Orthodox and Conserva- ethical instructions. You want to know the ers) see meat as a masculine substance. tive on the meaning inherent in the laws
tive Jews endorse laws of kashrut that are meaning of the mixing ban. This makes sense in large degree because of segregating milk and meat foods, and
not spelled out explicitly in the Torah text, Oddly, in your quest for larger meaning the animal sacrifices of the biblical Tem- that it provokes for you even more such
since they accept the authority of the Oral you picked out one set of rules that resists ple were designed and run by men in an questions about our food practices and
Torah, those rabbinic laws thought to be explanation in logical or in other terms. entirely patriarchal mode. And beyond beyond. And of course, I wish you a hearty
equal in importance to those spelled out Strange as it may seem, there aren’t any that we know that in today’s world, red kosher bon appetit!
in the Torah. Since 2008 the Conservative obvious valid meanings in the meat-dairy meat often is related to a manly image.
movement has promoted Magen Tzedek, taboo system. The sacrificial offerings in the Temple Tzvee Zahavy of Teaneck has been a
the certification of kosher food products I won’t try to dazzle and distract you with focused on masculine animal meat and professor of advanced Talmud, halachic
“based on a whole spectrum of food issues spelling out what in all this massive system blood, along with grains and oils and wines. and Jewish law codes, Jewish liturgy, Jewish
from labor practices to health concerns.” is biblical, rabbinic, science, health, culi- No overtly feminine entities such as milk history, Near Eastern and Jewish studies,
I’m guessing that while your question nary, what has social impact, what has and honey were offered up in the cultic wor- and religious studies at major U.S. research
ship in ancient Israel. Yes, Israelite women universities and seminaries. He is a prolific
The Dear Rabbi Zahavy column offers mindful advice based on talmudic
were entitled to bring some sacrifices to God author who has published numerous
reasoning and wisdom. It aspires to be equally open and meaningful to all the at the ancient temple. After childbirth they articles and books about Judaism and
varieties and denominations of Judaism. You can find it here usually on the first could offer the burnt offering of a bull, ram, Jewish texts. He received his Ph.D. from
Friday of the month. Please mail your questions to the Jewish Standard or email goat, doves, or pigeons, and sin-offering of Brown University and his rabbinic
them to zahavy@gmail.com fine flour or an animal. But the priestly men ordination from Yeshiva University. Visit
ran the sacrifice system. www.tzvee.com for details.

46 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

 D’var Torah
Beha’alotcha: Igniting souls

A
couple of weeks ago, shortly
before Shavuot, I received a text
from a rabbi in Riverdale who
needed a mohel for the Shabbos
before the holiday. “Would you consider
sleeping Friday night in Riverdale and walk-
ing home Shabbos afternoon?” he asked.
It was simple to understand his problem.
It is not easy to be away from home on a 3
day Yom Tov. On the other hand, if a baby
is ready to have his bris on the eighth day,
shouldn’t we do all we can to fulfill the mitz-
vah? In fact, the Torah commands us to do
the brit milah specifically on the eight day
(unless the baby is not medically ready),
when the baby is still very small, before he
can make the decision on his own. This is
to stress the fact that the connection we
have with Hashem is beyond comprehen-
sion and intellect; it is an eternal and supra-
rational bond. Circumcision reflects the
eternal nature of our connection to Hashem
by being the only mitzvah that alters the
human body in a permanent way.
So what about that baby in Riverdale?
Google Maps reported that Riverdale to
Tenafly was a four-hour walk — not your
typical Shabbat afternoon stroll. This was
not going to be easy. But why make the baby
wait, even for one day?
This week’s parshah sheds an interest-
ing perspective on this topic. It begins by
explaining how the priest, the kohen, lights
the menorah in the holy Temple. The light
of the menorah wasn’t just a physical light
for illumination; it was a powerful spiri-
tual light that touched souls and inspired
people to be closer to our Father in heaven.
Our sages teach us that each of us is, like the
priest, a lamplighter. We all have the respon-
sibility to kindle each other’s souls and illu-
minate our surroundings.
The parshah is named Beha’alotcha,
which in context means “when you light”
but literally translates to “when you cause
to rise”. Rashi explains that the priest in
charge of the lighting of the menorah had to
kindle the lamp until the flame rose by itself
and became a self-sufficient luminary. The
lesson, then, is that each one of us should
ignite and awaken that latent potential
within the souls of those around us. And in
a deeper sense, the way in which we light
must be to kindle the lamp “so that a flame
arises of its own,” implying that when we
influence someone else, the goal should be
to assist in developing their own potential
and talents so that their light can shine inde-
pendently and consequently they can light
the lamps of others.
Each day, the kohen would enter the
Temple to kindle the menorah and would
find the lamps fully prepared for light-
ing. Earlier that day the lamps had been
cleaned and new wicks had
been inserted. The only
thing the priest had to do
was bring the torch he car-
ried near to the wicks. His
closeness to the waiting lamp
would reveal the potential
for illumination which the
lamp already contained.
From this we learn another Rabbi Yossi
important lesson for the spir- Katz
itual lamplighter: Don’t think Lubavitch on the
Palisades, Tenafly,
that you’re accomplishing Orthodox
anything that your fellow
could not accomplish on
his own. You are not giving
him something he does not already have.
Every soul is a ready lamp, which contains
the purest oil and all that is necessary to
transform its fuel to a shining flame. It
only needs the closeness of another lamp
to ignite it.
After talking to my wife, I replied to
the text from Riverdale that I would be
happy to perform the bris and then walk
back home. Thank God, it was a beautiful
Shabbos. I got to meet the wonderful com-
munity at the Ohab Zedek shul, its rabbi,
Shmuel Hain, and be part of the vibrant
services. Baruch Hashem the bris went
as planned. Various congregants came to
express appreciation for going out of my
way and some shared with
me moving personal stories
in which someone did some
kind of sacrifice that touched
or inspired them in different
ways. My walk home from
Riverdale to Tenafly was not
that bad either.
Every one of us is a lamp-
lighter. Wherever we find
ourselves at any given
moment, that’s exactly where
God wants us to be, with
the mission of looking for
another lamp to be ignited. If
obstacles come our way, we
shouldn’t let them stop us, even if it means
a long walk across the bridge. As we can
see, a little bit of light can dispel a lot of
darkness. When an opportunity arises to
do an act of kindness, we never know the
full consequences it will cause. A smile, a
listening ear, some words of encourage-
ment and love, or any way of giving and
reaching out has the potential to kindle
someone’s soul and in turn make them
into another lamplighter.
May we be all empowered to ignite and
enlighten our surroundings and may we
soon light the menorah in the holy Temple
in Jerusalem, with the upcoming redemp-
tion and Moshiach, speedily in our days.

she added, “In these tough times, I

Hoboken want my children to know that there
FROM PAGE 9

but take a family that needs non-

crisis help.”
Volunteer Simone Crespi, who
has been working on the refugee
support project for more than a
year, said, “There is something
about refugees’ seeking safety that
resonates deeply in me. We all saw
the image of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian
toddler whose little body washed
up on shore in Turkey back in 2015.
At that point, I knew I couldn’t keep
quiet and that I had to do some-
thing, but at that time didn’t know
what to do.
“In addition, I am acutely aware
that my grandmother fled Nazi
Germany. Her beloved sister was
murdered in Auschwitz. A lot of
the rhetoric that was employed to
exclude Jews from the U.S. in the
1940s is similar to the language used
now. I am deeply motivated by my
is always something you can do to
make life better and to improve our
community. I want them to know
in their heart of hearts that their
mother did something to make the
world a better place.”
Right now, Ms. Crespi said, she
is working directly with one Syrian
Kurdish family. “The main surprise
has been how happy and optimis-
tic the family is,” she said. They’re
genuinely happy to be here, despite
obvious challenges and a difficult
path. In particular, the older daugh-
ter, 20 years old, is such a bubbly,
happy, optimistic person. Con-
sidering how much she has gone
through, including the death of her
father in Turkey, she’s so enthusias-
tic about life and being here. Spend-
ing time with refugees really drives
home that what is being debated on
a national and international level
affects real people who are not at
Sign up for the
Jewish Standard
daily newsletter!
Simone Crespi
Visit
well, allows me to more personally
push back on some of the rhetoric
www.thejewishstandard.com
I hear. It also make me much more
passionate in what I do.” And, she
and click on
added, “getting involved in refugee
support work has opened my eyes
to all the wonderful grassroots work
that is being done on the intercon-
SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY
nected issues of immigration, asy-
lum seekers, and refugees.
“There are so many wonderful

JewishStandard
N E W J E R S E Y R O C K L A N D

conscience to take action and be for all the way detractors portray them. people who are active and working
someone now what others couldn’t “Having worked with this fam- diligently for the betterment of our
be for the Jews of the 1940s.” And, ily, and some asylum seekers as communities.”

JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 47

Crossword
“REMEMBERING ROTH”
BY YONI GLATT, KOSHERCROSSWORDS@GMAIL.COM
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: MANAGEABLE
Across
1. Org. with Finals happening now
4. Was on offense, in baseball
10. “The ___ thickens!”
14. Bobby of hockey
15. She ended the Soup Nazi’s reign
16. “Skip ___ Lou”
17. 2000 Philip Roth novel, with “The”
19. Bronze and Iron, e.g.
20. Aka ISIS
21. 1973 #1 Rolling Stones hit
23. “Where did ___ wrong?”
24. Believer in the Almighty, unlike Roth
27. With 55-Across, novel that got Roth
the Pulitzer
29. Esau, e.g.
31. Helper: Abbr.
32. Do sums
35. Purim’s month
37. “Sports Center” network
41. Roth’s winner of the 1960 National
Book Award
46. Penultimate fairy tale word
47. Slain Genesis figure
48. Jacuzzi
49. “Back in Black” band
53. Little hopper, Down Under
55. See 27-Across
59. Roth’s New Jersey hometown
63. Fire, in Hebrew
64. Maples or Sokoloff
66. Madison Avenue award
67. “Moby Dick” captain
69. Roth was the first recipient of this
award named after another great
Jewish writer
72. ___ Martin (cognac)
73. “Pleased ___ you”
74. Theologian’s subj.
75. One of two basic test options
76. Play settings
77. Chapter in history
The solution to last week’s puzzle is on page 55.
48 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
Down
1. Kind of shutout, in baseball
2. Comb alternative
3. Actor Hammer in “The Social Network”
4. Jacob’s youngest, for short
5. Jolsen and Pacino
6. “Adieu”
7. “The Princess and the Frog” princess
8. Conundrum
9. Says “I didn’t do it!”
10. Grade-sch. supporter
11. Sound reasoning
12. 24th Greek letter
13. 1980s-’90s ring champ
18. Came down on the tarmac, say
22. MD locales
25. Stick with cotton
26. Having everything in its place
28. Thing, in dating
30. Highlands negative
32. Synonym for 77-Across
33. Sal’s “Exodus” role
34. Fawn’s mother
36. Color TV pioneer
38. Stats for Rickey Henderson
39. One in a litter
40. U.S. security org.
42. “Nuts!”
43. Star receiver on the NYG
44. Writer Uris
45. 1997 title role for Peter Fonda
50. Net alternative
51. Pub quaffs
52. Nosh for Bugs?
54. Female leadership org.
55. Drumming great Neil of Rush
56. Potok protagonist
57. SeaWorld performer
58. Camel cousin
60. Actress Woodard of “Primal Fear”
61. Captain Picard’s first officer Will
62. A 53-Across might come by one of
these
65. Rare blood type, briefly
68. “Shalom”
70. Middle of a calzone?
71. Gold purity measures: Abbr.
The Frazzled Housewife
All you need is a
friend with a grabber
Y
ou’ve got a friend
with a grabber —
that’s all ya need!
I have often
spoken about the joy and
magic of having three boys.
I am not really sure what it
is like NOT having boys, so
I needed to tell the tale of
what happened this week- Banji
end in my house filled with Ganchrow
love, testosterone, and
geniuses. (The genius part is to be read
with a twinge of sarcasm because I do
think my boys are smart, but, in this
particular instance, not so smart.)
As I sit at my kitchen table writing this keys decide to try to pull the bed, which
column, Son #2 is playing his recorder
from fifth grade. Why is he playing it?
Because he dropped his phone behind
his bed. When you drop your phone
behind a piece of furniture that has not
moved in almost 20 years, it becomes
an adventure in discovering many other
treasures that have “disappeared” over
the years. The recorder seems to be one
of those things … can you hear it? “Mary
had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb…” the bookshelf to replace them with the
Ah, so soothing. Wonder where else you
can lose, I mean use, a recorder?
We also found the library book that
the same son lost and I had to pay
almost $30 for. But at least we found
it. Even library books need closure. We
also found a note that I wrote to him
apologizing for yelling at him about
some cleat incident — oops, sorry about
that, kid. Must’ve been pretty scary to
get me to write a note about it. And then
there were all of the crayons and legos
and baseball cards and kippah clips
and a lovely collection of dust bunnies.
Out came the pretty pink vacuum and
cleaned up almost 20 years of dust and
lord knows what else.
Before Son #2 went to Israel for almost
two years, if he had dropped his phone
right before leaving for shul to welcome
the Shabbos queen, he might have got-
ten a little upset about it, and I would
have had to come to the rescue. (I guess
all those years ago, I was able to move
very large pieces of furniture.) But this
post-Israel Son #2 is an entirely different
person. He comes down stairs, wishes
me a “Good Shabbos,” and then says,
“Mom, I have something to tell you and
it’s bad for the Jews.” “What is it, my
precious boy?” “Well, I seem to have
dropped my phone behind my bed — but
it’s okay because it is on airplane mode
and has a few hours left before the bat-
tery dies.” Umm, but we know where
you dropped the phone, so even if the
battery dies, we don’t have to worry
about calling it to try and find it. “Oh
right, mom, you are right.” I am always
right. Just saying….
So a lovely Shabbos
went by and then it was
time to get back the
phone. This is where the
genius part comes in.
First, Son #2 moves the
toy chest from the end of
the bed. Then we have to
take all of the new seforim
(books with talmudic or
some kind of non-secular
content, which have been multiplying
like rabbits all over the house). Then we
have to take out the high riser, and then
the really fun part starts. My three mon-
is attached to a Formica headboard,
away from the wall. But we don’t realize
that the bed and headboard are securely
attached to the full-size dresser.
And that is when all of the baseballs
start raining down on everyone’s head.
How did that happen? If you have
only boys do baseballs just fall from
the sky?
Well, I had to move the baseballs from
new books that Son #2 brought home
Mom, I have
something to tell
you and it’s bad
for the Jews.
from Israel. I thought the top of the
dresser would be a good place for them.
To make a long story longer, the
bed, dresser, and headboard finally
move. But no one’s arms are skinny
enough to reach the phone. (You would
think as the only female in the house,
I would have the most delicate arms,
but, alas, that is hardly the case.) And
that is where my friend with the grab-
ber comes in.
Because I’d gone to visit my friend
earlier in the day — she cannot leave
her house due to an injury — I noticed
her grabber. I told her the phone pre-
dicament. Abracadabra, the grabber
got the phone, the phone was back in
Son #2’s hands, and his whole room is
back in order.
And I didn’t have to do a thing except
supervise. Hey, maybe I did something
right after all.
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck will try to
return the library book, but she cannot
imagine she will get her money back.
Oh well.

ARTS & CULTURE
The Israeli Film Festival is at
the JCC in Manhattan this week
ERIC A. GOLDMAN
T
here is little doubt that over
the decades cinema has deeply
affected our special connection
with Israel.
In the mid-1950s, Jewish audiences
squirmed while watching “Hill 24 Doesn’t
Answer,” seeing Jerusalem Jews being
forced from their homes in the Old City.
We were treated to “Exodus” and “Cast A
Giant Shadow” in the 1960s, and experi-
enced the miracle of the birth of the state
of Israel, aided by the sheer joy of seeing
Paul Newman and Kirk Douglas helping to
make a difference. In the 1970s, we were
treated not just to one Entebbe movie, but
to three of them, with Charles Bronson,
Richard Dreyfuss, and Yehoram Gaon all
playing hero Yoni Netanyahu.
But beginning in the 1980s and stretch-
ing into his millennium, that unqualified
love the movies showed for Israel quickly
dissipated. Most filmmakers around the
world avoided Israel, and some of the great
directors who chose to make films about
the Jewish state, including Costa-Gavras’s
Eric Goldman is writing a book about
Israeli society seen through the lens of its
cinema.
Shai Avivi plays a self-absorbed bachelor who learns he is the father of a
20-year-old in Savi Gabizon’s “Longing.”
“Hanna K” in 1983 and Steven Spielberg’s
“Munich” in 2005, were vilified, I believe
unfairly, for telling a story that many per-
ceived as anti-Israel. That left a great void,
as movie producers worldwide seemed
too intimidated to now consider a film
about Israel.
When was the last time that you saw
an American or European film narrative
that unfolded a deep love for Israel? In
this year’s “Seven Days in Entebbe,” as an
A scene from “Shelter,” Eran Riklis’ new film about a Mossad
agent protecting a Lebanese informant hidden in Germany.
example, the epic tale that the three 1970s
films made so powerful, Israeli valor is
obscured. When Yoni Netanyahu, a hero of
Entebbe, appears on screen, it is barely for
a minute. The writer and director of the
film seemed more focused on the conflict
between Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres
than they were on the remarkable rescue
of hijacked Jews.
We therefore would expect that Israeli
film producers would pick up the slack
and share the miraculous story of their
country with the world. As the movie
industry took off in Israel in the years after
the birth of the state, filmmakers did focus
on a kind of romantic heroism. But by the
1960s, rather than sharing stories of cour-
age or state-building, narrative moviemak-
ers in Israel began using cinema largely to
muckrake and expose some the perceived
ailments within Israeli society. The most
famous early example of this was Ephraim
Kishon’s 1964 “Sallah Shabbati,” the film
that took a hard look at the Zionist dream
of the ingathering of the exiles and Israel’s
imperfect execution of that vision when it
opened its doors to immigrants in 1948.
From then on, filmmakers in Israel have
been struggling with subjects like the
second-class status of Mizrahi Jews, the
Arab-Israeli conflict, the problems faced
by foreign workers and refugees, women’s
inequality, political corruption, and the
many unseemly aspects of Army service.
Many of these films have triggered exten-
sive debate within Israel, and have brought
about change.
As its cinema has evolved and grown
in stature worldwide, Israelis are paying
greater attention to the movies its filmmak-
ers create, as well as the positive impact
SEE FILM FESTIVAL PAGE 56
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 49
Calendar
Friday  lunch and the program,
JUNE 1
Shabbat in Closter:
Temple Beth El holds
services led by Rabbi
David S. Widzer and
Cantor Julie Staple and
featuring the Shabbat
Unplugged Band with
guest artist Benjamin
Baron, 7:30 p.m. 221
Schraalenburgh Road.
(201) 768-5112.
Saturday  new J-ADD offices,
JUNE 2
Dr. Elana Stein Hain
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Teaneck native Dr. Elana
Stein Hain, director of
faculty for the Shalom
Hartman Institute of
North America, is the
scholar-in-residence
at Congregation Rinat
Yisrael. After Shacharit
at 9 a.m., she will discuss
“Would That All of God’s
People were Prophets!
On Discourse and
Polarization in the Jewish
Community.” At pre-
Mincha at 6:45 p.m., the
topic will be “Considering
Religious Materialism:
Challenges and
Opportunities,” and after
Mincha, scheduled for
7:45, she will ask “What
Makes Legal Loopholes
Religious?” 389 West
Englewood Ave.
(201) 837-2795.
Lunch and learn in
Tenafly: Rabbi Sarah
Mulhern, the manager
of rabbinic and lay
education for the Shalom
Hartman Institute of
North America, joins
a lunch and learn
sponsored by Minyan
Tiferet at a private home.
Shacharit is at 9:30 a.m.,
50 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
followed by a potluck 1:30 p.m. 111 Avenue
Concert in Englewood:
at 12:15. minyantiferet. Englewood Hospital
B. (201) 858-2020 or
templebay111@gmail.com.
com. and Medical Center
presents “Survivors Life care planning:
Women’s song circle Rock,” a rock concert The Jewish Association
in Teaneck: Join a featuring No Evidence for Developmental
z’mirot song circle for of Disease (NED) — Five Disabilities offers an
women only at Netivot Surgeons on a Mission ID/DD informational
Shalom, 5-6 p.m. to Save Lives, and workshop, “Residential
Doors open at 4:45. dedicated to cancer Housing For Your
811 Palisade Ave. Email survivors and their Special Needs Child,”
WomensZmirot+owner@ families, at bergenPAC, 7 p.m. Courteney Davey
groups.io. 7 p.m. Special opening from the Department
performance by Jamie of Developmental
Janoff and friends. Free Disabilities is the guest
tickets: englewoodhealth. speaker. Program at
org/SR2018.
50 Eisenhower Drive,
Paramus. Register,
(201) 754-1835.
Wednesday 
JUNE 6
Hank Greenberg JUNE Bret Stephens, a
New York Times
Baseball talk in
Teaneck: Mark
Sommer talks about
Dara Horn
Author in Teaneck:
3 op-ed columnist,
former Jerusalem
the “Boychicks of
Novelist Dara Horn Post editor-in-chief, and Wall Street
Summer: Jewish
Aspects of Baseball” discusses her new book, Journal Pulitzer Prize-winning
“Eternal Life,” with journalist, discusses “Israel @ 70:
twice at Congregation
Sandee Brawarsky, the
Beth Aaron, tonight
Jewish Week’s culture What Does the Future Hold for
at 6:55 p.m., and June
9 at 7. Tonight’s topic editor, at Congregation Israel and the Middle East,” at the Christina M. Kamilaris
is “Jewish Aspects of Rinat Yisrael, 8 p.m. Ms. JCC of Paramus/CBT on Sunday at Memory super foods:
Horn is the author of
Baseball,” Mr. Sommer
five critically acclaimed 6:15 p.m. The talk is sponsored by Christina M. Kamilaris,
is a member of the
Society for American novels, including “In the the shul’s Harold Lerman Fund for registered dietitian at
ShopRite of Paramus,
Image,” “The World to
Baseball Research, the
Come,” and “A Guide
Israel Education and Engagement. offers a wellness
National Baseball Hall
for the Perplexed.” 389 East 304 Midland Ave. (201) 262- community outreach talk,
of Fame and Museum, “Improving Memory and
and the Vintage Base West Englewood Ave. 7691 or www.JCCParamus.org. Energy with Superfoods,”
(201) 837-2795.
Ball Association. The for River Dell Hadassah at
program is sponsored River Edge Public Library,
by the men’s club. Monday  Betrayers,” noon. Lunch
served. 10-10 Norma Ave.
named Woman of the
Section, and this year’s
12:30 p.m. Refreshments.
(201) 836-6210 or www.
bethaaron.org.
JUNE 4 (201) 796-5040. officers will be installed.
685 Elm Ave.
(551) 206-8801.
(201) 385-4847.
Sunday  Tuesday  Yiddish cinema: Visiting Friday 
JUNE 3 JUNE 5 scholar Dr. Eric Goldman
begins a series, “The
JUNE 8
Celebrating NCJW- Yiddish Cinema Then
Brunch and music in
Bayonne: Temple Beth BCS in Demarest: The and Now: A Celebration
Bergen County section of Jewish Life,” at
Am offers brunch and
of the National Council the JCC of Fort Lee/
entertainment by the
Jewbadors, including of Jewish Women Congregation Gesher
Shalom. Series continues
Jewish music, jokes, will celebrate its 95th
and stories, 10 a.m. 111 anniversary at a luncheon June 5. Refreshments at
12:30 p.m.; program at 1.
Avenue B. Reservations, Book discussion: The at the Alpine Country
(201) 858-2020 or Club, 11 a.m. Record 1449 Anderson Ave., Fort
Fair Lawn Jewish Center/
templebay111@gmail.com. columnist Bill Ervolino Lee. (201) 947 1735.
Congregation B’nai
Israel holds its Book of is the guest host. The
Hannah G. Solomon Jewish history in Dr. David Dalin
the Lunch program with Bayonne: Rabbi Cathy
a discussion by Eileen award will be given to
Dr. Shelly Wimpfheimer; Felix discusses “Jewish Shabbat in Fort Lee:
Wallerson on David History in 5 Easy Steps”
Carole Benson will be Author Dr. David G.
Bezmozgis’ book “ The at Temple Beth Am, Dalin is the scholar-in-

residence at the JCC of
Fort Lee/Congregation
Gesher Shalom, through
Shabbat. Tonight’s talk,
at 5 p.m., is “Jewish
Justices of the Supreme
Court,” followed by
dinner at 6, services, and
a talk at 7:15, “Icon of
Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the
Rise of Radical Islam.”
During Shabbat morning
services at 9:30 a.m., he
will ask “Was Pius the
XII Hitler’s Pope?” and
at 1 p.m., he will focus on
“The Presidents of the
United States and the
Jews.” 1449 Anderson
Ave. Dinner reservations,
(201) 947-1735.
Saturday  Israel @ 70 — Israel
JUNE 9
Music in Paterson: The
Clifton Community Band
returns to the Lambert
Castle Concert Series
with “Music at the Castle:
A Welcome to Summer,”
at Lambert Castle, 5 p.m.
June 10 rain date. 3 Valley
Road. (973) 247-0085 or
lambertcastle.org.
Rabbi Dr. Michael
Shmidman
Shabbat in Teaneck:
Rabbi Dr. Michael
Shmidman discusses
Jazz photography at bergenPAC
The Sandy Bennett Art Gal-
lery in the Bergen Perform-
ing Arts Center displays
photography from the
estate of iconic jazz photog-
rapher Chuck Stewart, who
used to live in Teaneck,
through June 30. There will
be a reception on Wednes-
day, June 6, at 7 p.m.
“It’s probably easier for
you to ask me whom haven’t
I photographed than to have
me tell you whose photo-
graphs I have,” Stewart,
who died last year at 89,
once said. “But if there’s a
historic moment in Ameri-
can music, social, or cultural history that
you’re curious about, chances are I was
there or have photographs of someone
who was.”
His photographs illustrated more than
2,000 album covers and liner pages.
Calendar
“The Messiah, Messianic
Age, and Olam Haba,”
Singles Gallery show at JCC will feature
at Congregation Rinat
Yisrael, 6:50 p.m., artwork by senior citizens
as part of the shul’s Sunday  The Waltuch Art Gallery at the
“Rambam and Moreh
Nevuchim: Innovation
JUNE 3 Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in
and Controversy” Tenafly presents “Aging and Cre-
Seniors meet in West
shiurim in memory of ativity,” an exhibition of artwork
Rabbi Ozer Glickman. Nyack: Singles 65+
meets for a social by senior adults who go to the
389 W. Englewood Ave.
(201) 837-2795 or get-together at Club, a new social group for older
Rinat.org. the JCC Rockland, people that is connected with the
11 a.m. Refreshments
and entertainment by a
JCC’s Kaplen Adult Reach Cen-
Sunday  Mediterranean dancer. All ter. The show will be on display
JUNE 10 are welcome, particularly through June 29, with a meet-the-
those from Hudson, artist-reception on Sunday, June
Passaic, Bergen, or
Celebrate Israel: The
Rockland counties. 450 3, from 1 to 3 p.m.
Jewish Federation of
West Nyack Road. Gene, This exhibit, for young and old,
Northern New Jersey
offers “Celebrate (845) 356-5525. features paintings, photographs,
prints, mosaics, fiber arts, crafts,
in the Park,” a family
Barbecue: North Jersey
and other imaginative works created
Jewish Singles (45s-60s)
PHOTO COURTESY JCCOTP
celebration including at the Clifton Jewish by Club participants. The program’s
food trucks, craft tables, Center hosts a barbecue,
ice cream, photo booth, goal is to foster personal growth and
3:30 p.m. (973) 772-3131
giveaways, 2-5 p.m. The or search for North individualism and give participants
Maccabeats will perform Jersey Jewish Singles at a sense of purpose. They garden,
at 3. 50 Eisenhower
Drive. Preregister and
the CJC at www.meetup. exercise, reminisce, and dance, and
com. then settle in to create works of art.
be entered in a raffle
for an Apple watch, In many cases, they work collabora-
SodaStream, and more. tively. A mentor from the Metropoli-
(201) 820-3900 or
JFNNJ.org/Israel70. tan Museum of Art makes monthly visits to exhibitions, email Nina Bachrach at
Book discussion in
Announce spark everyone’s creativity. nbachrach@jccotop.org or call (201)
Fo r i n f o r m a t i o n o n g a l l e r y 408-1406.
Teaneck: The Jewish your events
Center of Teaneck hosts
the Leaves of Faith Book
We welcome announce-
Club with a discussion
ments of upcoming events.
of stories from Dara
Announcements are free.
Horn’s “Eternal Life,” Accompanying photos must
8 p.m. 70 Sterling Place. be high resolution, jpg files.
(201) 833-0515. Send announcements 2 to 3
weeks in advance. Not every
release will be published.
Include a daytime telephone
number and send to:

pr@jewishmediagroup.
com • 201-837-8818 x 110
COURTESY JCCOTP
Kaplen JCC on Palisades to host
annual Yoga on the Lawn event
The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in times a year. They bring our community
Tenafly will host its sixth annual all-level together in a private, peaceful, spa-like
yoga class on Sunday, June 10, from 9 to setting for amazing experiences. Our
COURTESY BERGENPAC
10:30 a.m. Held on the expansive JCC ongoing hope is to encourage everyone
camp field, the free 75-minute outdoor in our community to engage in health-
class will be led by inspirational yoga ful activities and to educate them about
instructors Alison Miller, Robert Hoon, all the incredible fitness options open
Zasha Delvalle, and Justeen Nason. Peo- to them.”
ple of all ages and levels are encouraged Participants should bring a mat, towel,
Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie in a photograph by to attend. water bottle, and sun screen and be
Chuck Stewart. “Yoga promotes relaxation, reduces prepared to stretch out. If the weather
stress, and clears the mind,” says Hagit is bad, the class will be held in the JCC
The gallery is on the mezzanine level of Tal, the JCC’s group exercise director. Taub Gym. Raffles will be available for
bergenPAC and is open to the public from “The benefits are enormous, and as health and wellness prizes, including a
Monday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., health professionals at the JCC, we are so three-month membership to the JCC. For
and on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. For proud to offer important health-focused more information, call Hagit Tal at (201)
information, call (201) 227-1030 or go to community events like this several 408-1477 or go to jccotp.org.
www.bergenpac.org.
JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 51
Jewish World
FIRST PERSON
Elaine Holstein, last surviving parent
of Kent State shooting victims, dies at 96
STEVE NORTH
F
or nearly half a century, Elaine
Holstein periodically was con-
fronted with one of the most
haunting images in modern
American history: the bone-chilling pic-
ture of Kent State University student Jef-
frey Miller lying on the pavement seconds
after being fatally shot in the mouth by an
Ohio National Guardsman during an anti-
war protest.
Photographer John Filo later said, “The
volume of blood that was flowing from
his body was as if someone tipped over
a bucket.” And, of course, there was the
teenage girl kneeling over Jeff, screaming
in horror, her arms raised in anguish.
Most baby boomers remember that
photo as a symbol of May 4, 1970, the day
four unarmed college students were killed
on their own campus. For Elaine Holstein,
however, the photograph depicted the
cruel death of her beloved 20-year-old son.
Holstein died Saturday at 96; she was
the last surviving parent of the four Kent
State victims. (Three of the four students
were Jewish; nine other students also
were wounded in the gunfire.) I’d known
her since May 1980, when as news direc-
tor of the Long Island radio station WLIR, I
invited her to my studio to speak about Jeff
on the 10th anniversary of what became
known as the Kent State Massacre.
I immediately was impressed with
this tiny typical Jewish mother. She had
worked as a high school secretary in Pla-
inview, on Long Island, before returning
to college, earning her master’s degree,
and becoming a psychiatric social worker
when she was nearly 60.
As we began the interview, Holstein
kvelled, proudly telling me about her boy.
“He was a cute kid; dark curly hair, very
bright and precocious,” she said. “He did
very well in school and skipped first grade,
which became a problem because he was
short and always felt like a baby.
“When he was little, he wasn’t that easy
to get along with because I think he was a
protester from the very beginning. Jeff had
a kind of strong will. But his saving grace
was he had a great sense of humor and a
great intelligence, so he was marvelous
company and I always enjoyed him. We
had a very good, close relationship.”
As a teenager, Holstein recalled, Jeff was
typical of the times.
“He liked the Mets, music, math and
motorcycles. He had posters up all over
his room: Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane. ... I don’t think that’s
the group’s name anymore, right? I got a
good education from him. He was very
insistent that I share in what he loved so
52 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
Author Steve North and Elaine
Holstein, whose son Jeffrey Miller
was killed in the 1970 Kent State
shootings, together in 2016.
COURTESY STEVE NORTH
much,” she said.
In early 1970, on a visit to New York City,
she and Jeff strolled around Greenwich Vil-
lage, and he bought a small leather ring
with a peace insignia. He had been an anti-
Vietnam War activist since the age of 16,
when he wrote a poem titled “Where Does
It End?” It included the lines “A teenager
from a small Ohio farm clutches his side in
pain, and, as he feels his life ebbing away,
he too, asks why, why is he dying here,
thousands of miles from home?”
At the time, Jeff had never been to Ohio
and had no idea his own life would end in
the state.
In 1970, Jeff transferred to Kent State
from Michigan State University.
That May, Holstein received a phone call
from her mother.
“She heard on the radio there were
protests at Kent State, and she was wor-
ried about Jeff. So I called Jeff and told
him Nana was upset,” Holstein said. “He
said it’s nothing to worry about. We talked
about him getting a summer job in which
he’d make those posters that said ‘War is
unhealthy for children and other living
things.’
“Two days later, Jeff called me in my
office. He was concerned I might hear
about more demonstrations and get ner-
vous about it, and he wanted to reassure
me. He mentioned Nixon’s speech call-
ing the antiwar students ‘bums,’ and the
impression I got wasn’t so much of anger
but of wry amusement. There was going
to be a rally at noon, and he said ‘I think
I’ll go over there; is that OK with you?’ I
thought, what power do I have to tell him
no, from Long Island?”
Her voice breaking, Holstein said “And
John Filo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-
old runaway, kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was fatally
shot by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.
JOHN PAUL FILO/VALLEY NEWS-DISPATCH/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
that was the last …”
Miller took part in the May 4 protest
against the expansion of the Vietnam War
into Cambodia and against the presence of
the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State
campus. The shooting of those unarmed
protesters led to massive demonstrations
across the country. A federal commission
later determined that the shootings were
unjustified, although no criminal convic-
tions were obtained against any National
Guardsman.
Holstein, who was divorced from Jeff ’s
father, Bernard, heard about the shootings
on the radio as she drove home from work
and thought to herself, “I’m going to call
Jeff and tell him to come home and wait
until this blows over.” She dialed his num-
ber at college; a young man answered, and
she asked to speak with Jeff. After a pause,
he said, “He’s dead.”
As Holstein sank onto her bed, thinking
it had to be a mistake, her soon-to-be sec-
ond husband, Artie, grabbed the phone
and was given the name of the hospital
where the victims had been taken.
“I thought maybe somebody had bor-
rowed Jeff ’s wallet. This doesn’t happen
to people you know,” Holstein said. “But
then I heard Artie say, ‘Oh, he was wearing
a leather ring with a peace insignia?’ And I
knew it was Jeff.”
Within hours, the entire country had
seen the iconic photograph, which won
the Pulitzer Prize later that year. I asked
Holstein how she managed to deal with it.
“In the first year,” she remembered, “I
was just running. We drove across coun-
try to California, and walked into a place,
and there was that photo, wall-sized, of Jeff
lying there. I felt like someone was hitting
me on the head, just pounding me. I think
what’s happened over time is that’s how
Jeff looked when he was lying in bed, so
the only way I can bear to look at it is to
think that’s Jeff sleeping.
“I kind of resent the fact that everyone
knows Jeff as the figure on the ground and
not as he really was.”
We ended our interview, I shut off
the mike and Holstein grabbed her
pocketbook.
“I don’t want you to only think of Jeff
like that either,” she said, taking out a well-
worn red wallet. “Come, look.”
She showed me pictures of Jeff with her
older son, Russell, photos from elemen-
tary school, of his bar mitzvah, of him play-
ing drums. It was beyond heartbreaking.
Holstein gave me a copy of Jeff ’s 1966
poem that day, which I’ve had framed on
my wall ever since. I began a tradition of
calling or writing her every May 4, on what
I call Jeff’s secular yahrzeit.
Three years ago, she emailed saying “It
means so much to me that you still keep
Jeff in your thoughts. It’s amazing, so long
after his death, you and other people who
never knew Jeff still think of him. How he
would love that!”
In 2016, at 94, Holstein drove to my
SEE HOLSTEIN PAGE 56

Leonore Albert
Leonore Albert, née Raff, 98, of Paterson died May 23.
She was a teacher at Public School 18 in Paterson and was
the oldest member of Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes.
Predeceased by a sister, Joan Hockman, she is survived by
a daughter, Amy Albert (Andrew Kwasnicki), and nephew
and niece, Edward Hockman and Karen Hockman.
Donations can be sent to Barnert Temple Lifelong Learn-
ers Fund. Arrangements were by Louis Suburban Chapel,
Fair Lawn.
Obituaries
Betty Anton
Betty Anton, 91, of Emerson died May 25.
She attended New York University.
Predeceased by her husband, Harvey, she is survived
by her children, Bruce (Andrea) and Lynne (Alex); a sister,
Judy; grandchildren, Ashley ( Joshua), Emily, Jamie (Adam),
Malie, and Melanie, and a great-grandchild, Zoe.
Arrangements were by Robert Schoem’s Menorah
Chapel, Paramus.
Adolph Rubin
Adolph Rubin, 96, of Teaneck died May 22.
An Army World War II veteran and recipient of the
Purple Heart, he was a chemistry professor at City College
of New York.
Predeceased by his husband, Jacob Gotlieb, he is
survived by cousins. Arrangements were by Eden
Memorial Chapels, Fort Lee.

APPRECIATION

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30 books, each one containing a differ-
ent blend of humor, wit, irreverence,
pathos, and trenchant social commen-
tary. But he gave us even more than
this. He gave American literature an
unforgettable character: himself.
In the mid-20th century, critics such
as Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Karl Sha-
piro, and others struggled to define
the emergent Jewish American litera-
ture heralded by the likes of Saul Bel-
low and Bernard Malamud. If there
now existed a Jewish American litera-
ture, they asked, who was the Jewish
American writer? The Jewish American
writer was primarily defined, accord-
ing to these critics, by a set of tensions:
caught between the past and the future,
between Yiddish and English, between
tradition and assimilation, between the
Old World and the New, between high
culture and low culture. For the Jewish
American writer, writing was a mad-
dening compulsion, both a form of and
a result of Jewish neurosis.
Enter Philip Roth, who not only
exemplified this burgeoning writer type
but built upon these characterizations,
turning the critics’ sketches into a full-
color portrait. He achieved this primar-
ily through the use of his writerly alter
ego — the Newark-born, University of
Chicago-educated Nathan Zuckerman,
Miranda Cooper is a fellow at the
National Yiddish Book Center.
Philip Roth
who shares Roth’s demographics and
many of his biographical facts.
Zuckerman, introduced in “The
Ghost Writer,” both bears the burden
of and the desire to escape the past
(whether it be the Holocaust, the expe-
rience of first-generation immigrants,
or the Jewish writers who came before).
He is caught in the double bind of being
alienated from his Jewishness because
of his Americanness and alienated from
his Americanness by his Jewishness; he
is a hypochondriac obsessed with his
own mortality; he is a philanderer who
perceives a link between his sexual viril-
ity and writerly productivity and often
struggles with both.
Roth’s work goes to great lengths to
encourage readers to conflate the real
Roth with his fictionalized alter egos.
In many cases, he even reinforces this
(known as the biographical fallacy)
through the very act of seeming to reject
it. In “The Anatomy Lesson” and “The
Counterlife,” Zuckerman responds to
family, friends, acquaintances and lit-
erary critics who attack him on the
basis that he and his protagonists —
especially “Carnovsky,” who bears a
close resemblance to Roth’s infamous
creation Alexander Portnoy — are one
and the same. “The Anatomy Lesson”
includes a cutting portrait of one Milton
of himself to such an extent that he
turned himself into a literary charac-
ter. The success of this fictional project
is evident in works by other writers. In
Adam Levin’s mammoth 2010 novel
“The Instructions” and Sam Apple’s
brilliant 2015 short story “The Butcher
of Desire,” for instance, Philip Roth
appears as not only a major influence
on content and form, but as a charac-
ter within the fiction.
Similarly, in Elisa Albert’s “Etta or
Bessie or Dora or Rose” (2004), Albert
contends with Roth’s legacy. On the
one hand, she tips her proverbial
hat to it as she writes, in traditional
Rothian style, from the perspective
of a writer alter ego also named Elisa
Albert (“a lobotomized Philip Roth
writing chick lit”). On the other hand,
she rails at it as she confronts Roth’s
misogyny and questions how to go
about being a Jewish American woman
writer in the wake of Roth’s gendered
dominance over the type.
Lisa Halliday, too, confronts this dif-
ficult dynamic in her recent critically
lauded novel “Asymmetry,” in which a
young female literary agent (modeled,
of course, after Halliday herself ) has
an affair with a thinly veiled Roth.
These Roth characters — these “ghost
writers” — can be found beyond the
pages of books, too. In Daniel Gold-
farb’s play “Legacy,” which was staged
SEE ROTH PAGE 56
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Arts & Culture/Jewish World
Film festival
FROM PAGE 49
those films have on Israeli society.
While Israeli cinema increasingly has
become a catalyst for conversation within
the country, many American Jews are
appalled that these are the films Israel is
sending to the world. “Why share our dirty
laundry with the world?” some ask. When
many communities pick films for their Jew-
ish or Israeli film festivals, they simply will
not screen “problematic” ones. But given its
high quality, Israeli cinema today no longer
is relegated only to Jewish festivals. We now
can watch a broad selection of Israeli mov-
ies and television on Amazon Prime and
Netflix, as well as with a growing number
of streaming services, including FilmStruck.
Still, there is no better a way to watch
a movie than as part of an audience, and
then have the opportunity to listen to a
post-screening discussion with the film’s
director, a leading actor, or a scholar. This
week’s Israel Film Center Festival in New
York, which will show 12 new Israeli mov-
ies, affords just such an opportunity.
The first Israel film festival in New York
began decades ago, initiated by the Israeli
actor and musician Meir Fenigstein. But
for nearly a decade, the Israel Film Center
in Manhattan has screened Israeli movies
throughout the year and has hosted the
annual Israel Film Center Festival at the
Holstein
FROM PAGE 52
house for lunch and for the first time I
showed her Jeff ’s poem on the wall. She
beamed. This year, on May 4, I emailed
her, as usual. The next day my phone rang.
“Steve? It’s Elaine. Thank you for the
email. I actually was planning to fly to Kent
State this week to speak at the annual cer-
emony. But I was just diagnosed with ter-
minal cancer, and I was about to call you
and let you know,” she said.
I expressed my sorrow and concern,
but Holstein immediately said, “Really,
I’m perfectly content to settle for this. I’m
96, a good age, and it looks like this will go
pretty fast.”
And then, she sighed.
“I had a good life. The only horrible
thing that ever happened to me was Jeff’s
death.”
Holstein raised her children in New
York, first in the Bronx and later in
Plainview.
After her 1969 divorce from Jeff’s father,
she lived in Queens with her second hus-
band, Artie Holstein, a high school princi-
pal, whom she married in 1971.
Elaine remained in Queens after Artie’s
death and spent the winters in Florida
until her cancer diagnosis. She then
moved to an assisted living facility in Way-
land, Massachusetts, near her son Russell’s
home.
56 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018
“The Cakemaker” features emotional intensity from director Ofir Raul Graizer.
Marlene Meyerson JCC. Isaac Zablocki, the
Film Center’s director, has done an excel-
lent job in bringing contemporary Israeli
movies, which tackle a broad variety of
subjects. His lineup for this week is excep-
tional. Not every film will portray a land of
milk and honey — Zablocki has not shied
away from controversy — but in each case
you will be treated to a movie that reflect
Israeli film artists’ feelings about their
society.
Though it is not possible to review all
12 films that the festival will screen, there
are several worth highlighting. Eran Riklis
Elaine Holstein once told me that on May
4, 1970, she woke up as one person, and by
the time she went to sleep that night, she
was someone else entirely. I think many
of us who remember that horrendous day
can say exactly the same thing.
JTA WIRE SERVICE
Roth
FROM PAGE 53
in 2015 at the Williamstown Theatre Festi-
val, a neurotic, philandering Jewish writer
(whose oeuvre includes novels about a
Zuckerman-like writer character and a
shockingly sexual, “Portnoy”-esque novel
called “Foreskin”) turns to fatherhood as
a substitute for a failing literary legacy.
And in Alex Ross Perry’s indie film “Lis-
ten Up Philip,” whose plot mirrors that
of “The Ghost Writer,” the protagonist,
played wonderfully unappealingly by
Jason Schartzman, is modeled on a young
Philip Roth.
To write about Philip Roth, to put him
into various fictional situations, has become
a worthy niche within contemporary fic-
tion. Roth may be gone, but if the past
decade is any indication, readers can expect
to continue to come across him in a context
they know and love: in fictionalized form,
within the pages of novels and stories.
 JTA WIRE SERVICE
is one of Israel’s finest filmmakers, who
often explores boundaries and relation-
ships. In his new film, “Shelter,” which
opens the festival, he delves into the rela-
tionship between a Mossad agent, Nomi,
and a woman, a Lebanese informant, who
is hidden in Germany. Nomi is asked to
protect the informant. German-Israeli rela-
tions also plays a part in Ofir Raul Graizer’s
excellent film “The Cakemaker,” which is
about an affair between Thomas, a Ger-
man baker, and an Israeli man. Thomas
goes to Israel to search for his lover’s wife
and child. Amichai Greenberg’s powerful
U.S. asks U.N. to condemn
mortar and rocket attacks
by terrorists from Gaza
United States Ambassador to the United
Nations Nikki Haley called on the U.N.
Security Council to hold an emergency
meeting on Wednesday to condemn
rocket and mortar attacks against Israel
by terrorists in Gaza.
The U.S. circulated a draft statement
asking the council to condemn “in the
strongest terms the indiscriminate fir-
ing of rockets by Palestinian militants in
Gaza” against Israel.
“The Security Council should be out-
raged and respond to this latest bout
of violence directed at innocent Israeli
civilians, and the Palestinian leadership
needs to be held accountable for what
they’re allowing to happen in Gaza,” she
said, noting that the mortars are being
fired at “civilian infrastructure, including
a kindergarten.”
Just this month, the U.N. Security Coun-
cil convened an emergency meeting to
condemn Israel for using “excessive force”
in fighting tens of thousands of Gazans
who attacked the border with Israel.
The U.S. blocked the council from
issuing an official statement censuring
Israel for the deaths of 102 people who
“The Testament” delves into an historian’s
efforts to uncover an atrocity hushed up
by townspeople at the end of World War
II. “Azimuth,” actor/singer Mike Burstyn’s
outstanding first foray into directing, looks
at men, an Israeli and an Egyptian, who
had been wartime enemies but later are
forced by circumstance to interact with
each other as human beings. Savi Gabi-
zon’s impressive “Longing” is about a
self-absorbed presumed-to-be-childless
bachelor who learns that he is the father
of a 20-year-old. Nir Bergman’s standout
“Saving Neta” looks at family relation-
ships and parenthood, while Asaf Saban’s
“Outdoors” studies the foundation of rela-
tionship that evolves as a couple’s dream
house is built. Teacher Matan Yair used
his high school students as the actors in
his amazing film “Scaffolding,” which is
about troubled teenagers. And one of my
personal favorites in this year’s mix is Eliav
Litti’s “Kishon,” a documentary with ani-
mation, about the life of writer/filmmaker
Ephraim Kishon, who died in 2005.
The Israel Film Center Festival begins
this Tuesday, June 5, and runs for a week,
through June 12, at the Marlene Meyer-
son JCC in Manhattan. The JCC is at 334
Amsterdam Ave. at 76th Street.
Call (646) 505-4444. Tickets sell for
$15-$36. For tickets and schedule, go to
israelfilmcenter.org/festival.
took part in the attacks, most of whom
were identified as members of Hamas or
Islamic Jihad.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N .Danny
Danon called on Secretary General Anto-
nio Guterres and the Security Council to
“unequivocally condemn Hamas and
hold it responsible for the last day’s ter-
ror incidents,” adding that Israel had
been trying to draw attention to Hamas
incitement in the last several weeks, but
that the latest attacks “leave no doubt
as to the true intentions of those who
incited, encouraged and even paid for
those demonstrations.”
The European Union said, “The rocket
and mortar fire by Palestinian militants
from Gaza towards Israel must stop
immediately.” British Foreign Secre-
tary Alistair Burt tweeted his condem-
nation of attacks against Israel, calling
the rocket fire “indiscriminate attacks
against civilians.”
Canada issued a statement calling the
Palestinian rocket attacks “unaccept-
able,” while the Czech Foreign Ministry
stated that it “fully supports Israeli right
for security.” JNS.ORG

New Jewish attorneys group meets June 5
with an opening talk by Chief Justice Rabner
The Association of Jewish Attorneys will celebrate the
recent founding of the organization with the AJA launch
event on Tuesday, June 5 at Factory 220 in Passaic.
The event provides an opportunity to network and
socialize with lawyers from across New Jersey and
New York, and to participate in a series of interesting
and informative panel sessions. The program has been
approved by the Board on Continuing
Legal Education of the Supreme Court
of New Jersey for two hours of CLE
credit, including one ethics credit.
During dinner, guests will be treated
to introductory remarks by State Senate
Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, fol-
lowed by the evening’s guest speaker,
the Honorable Stuart Rabner, chief jus-
tice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
“The AJA Launch is a perfect exam-
ple of the type of networking and pro-
fessional development experience the
AJA seeks to provide the Jewish legal Chief Justice Stuart Rabner
community,” said Sara Weinberg, the
AJA’s executive director. “Attorneys at the June 5 event
can earn CLE credits at the panel sessions, and at the
same time network with attorneys from across the state,
hear from an amazing guest speaker and eat some good
food.”
The Association of Jewish Attorneys is a new full-service of legal positions — Dror Futter (Rimon), Debra T. Hirsch
bar association that launched a few months ago with its web- (Fox Rothschild LLP) and David H. Nachman (Visaserve,
site, www.ajanj.org, and its New Jersey chapter. The plan is NPZ Law Group, P.C.), moderated by Elise Holtzman (The
to quickly follow with the New York chapter and other state
chapters. The main focus of the organization is to facilitate
opportunities for networking and referrals, and to provide
a variety of day-to-day benefits to help attorneys in their
practice of law. The AJA offers regular CLE and networking
events, a robust online networking platform, online practice tion or additional questions, please email info@ajanj.org.
Neurosurgeons act to inspire students
with ‘live’ Liberty Science Center program
IGEA Brain & Spine neurosurgeons fully understand the
critical importance of giving back to the community and
inspiring the next generation of surgeons. That’s why
the premiere neurosurgical and spine care practice in
the tristate area is providing New Jersey middle and high
school students the very unique opportunity to witness
live surgeries through their Live From Surgery program
at Liberty Science Center.
The procedures are performed by neurosurgeons Dr.
Adam Lipson, Dr. David Poulad and Dr. Ciro G. Ran-
dazzo. For Dr. Lispon, IGEA’s commitment to educating
young people through a first-hand, exciting experience
is a chance to come full-circle.
“As a high school student, I was fortunate enough to
participate in a similar program,” Dr. Lipson said. “I was
inspired on the spot to become a physician. Now that
I’ve achieved my dream, it’s important to me to give
today’s students the same possibility.” Dr. Poulad said
he’s proud of IGEA’s dedication to motivating young
people to explore the medical field. “At IGEA, we feel
it is incumbent upon us that we mentor students in the
medical field and spotlight the leading technologies and
thirst for continuous learning that propels and inspires
our own world-class team of surgeons.”
The team at IGEA Brain & Spine is comprised of medi-
cal professionals with top-notch education and training
 Real Estate & Business
Golf event aids research
The 3rd Annual Frank A. Cosimano Memorial Golf Clas-
area discussion forums, an attorney referral service, an sic presented by Bergen Risk Managers to benefit David’s
online career center for posting job openings and resumes, Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation (DDBCF), with sup-
and negotiated discounts on goods and services. port from Hackensack Meridian Health, Otterstedt Insur-
The panel sessions at the AJA Launch event on June 5 will ance Agency, and Jetty will take place on Monday, June
explore a variety of topics relevant to today’s lawyers. The 4 at White Beeches Golf and Country Club in Haworth.
first panel, Law, Religion & Ethics, with panelists Edward J. There are a limited number of openings for individual
Dauber (Greenberg Dauber Epstein & Tucker), Akiva Shap- players to experience the exceptional views and well-
iro (Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher), and David groomed fairways of this world-class private course. Visit
Yolkut (Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP), will http://bit.ly/Cosimano to register.
discuss religious issues that have been
litigated in U.S. courts, as well as the ethi-
cal and legal challenges that arise in such
contexts.
Attendees will then be given the
choice of two panels. The first, Law &
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the development of legal and “lawyering” skills, through a
discussion with panelists who have succeeded in a variety
Lawyer’s Edge).
Visit www.ajanj.org/event/Launch for more information
about the AJA Launch event, and to register. To get mem-
ber pricing on the AJA Launch and all other events, visit
www.ajanj.org to join the AJA. For sponsorship informa-
639 Churchill Rd. $749,000 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
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JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 57
 Real Estate & Business

Project SEARCH connects students

SELLING YOUR HOME? with disabilities to job opportunities
High school seniors who participated in a
Bergen County job skills training program
called Project SEARCH held a joint press
conference with Holy Name Medical Center
and Bergen County officials to discuss how
the program has positively impacted par-
ticipants and businesses in the community.
This program allows students with dis-
abilities to spend their last year of high
school working in various departments
in the hospital, exploring career options,
and developing transferable job skills.
This year, students worked in various
departments at Holy Name, including
nursing, pediatrics, environmental ser-
vices, patient and family relations, main-
tenance and food services, among others.
“This program allows students with
disabilities to explore their talents, iden-
tify their unique skills, and apply them in
a workplace environment,” said Tammy
Molinelli, executive director, Bergen
Call Susan Laskin Today
County Workforce Development. “That’s
To Make Your Next Move A Successful One!
what Project SEARCH is all about — giving
BergenCountyRealEstateSource.com Cell: 201-615-5353 students the opportunity to develop job
©2018 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. skills and transition successfully from a
An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Owned and Operated by NRT LLC.
school environment to the workforce.”
Project SEARCH is a collaborative part-
NVE-3524 Revise Rate Spring Mortgage Ad 5x6.5_NVE-3518 5/16/18 2:49 PM Page 1 nership between business, education,
workforce and government agencies,
vocational rehabilitation, community
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port agencies and families. Holy Name
Mortgage rates and options are blooming at NVE Bank. is one of only two hospitals in Bergen
County to partner with the county on the
initiative, now in its second year.
“This marks our second year of partici-
15-YEAR
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7-YEAR 25-YEAR
MORTGAGE said Michael Maron, president and CEO
MORTGAGE
at Holy Name. “It has been our privilege
3.875% to work once again with County Execu-
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they will be successful as they pursue
their career goals.”
“We are so proud of the remarkable
young people who have participated in
Project SEARCH in Bergen County over
the past two years,” said James Tedesco.
“With the support of our outstanding
partners, these differently-abled stu-
dents have learned skills and gained
experience that will serve them well
as they enter the workforce. These tal-
ented, highly-motivated young women
and men will be welcome additions in
any Bergen County workplace.”
Students also shared insights on their
involvement in this program.
Adam Jeetoo, a Ridgefield Park High
School student, will work in Holy Name’s
food services department when he gradu-
ates from the program in June.
“I achieved my goal of working at
Holy Name in food services,” he said. “I
want to work my way up in the kitchen,
from prep, to cook, to chef. You have
to work hard to prove yourself, and be
efficient to earn it.”
Elizabeth Gongora participated in the
program at Holy Name in its inaugural
year and is now approaching her one year
anniversary as a full time employee with
the medical center.
“It was a very rewarding experience
and I recommend it to any students who
have developmental disabilities,” said Eliz-
abeth Gongora, help desk coordinator at
Holy Name Medical Center. “No matter
how hard it gets, pick yourself up and
keep going. Don’t give up. Even if some-
one says you can’t do something, you
won’t know unless you try.”
“Today these young people under-
scored the amazing abilities that the

3.611% Tracy Zur, the New Jersey Department of
APR*
APR* 4.430% APR* Labor & Workforce Development, Bergen
County Special Services, and the young
adults who have spent the better part of
a year integrated among our health care
team. We are proud to have played a role
in developing the skills of these talented
Make your arrangements today! and ambitious students. I have no doubt
Finding the right mortgage to fit your needs should be quick, easy and
differently-abled bring to the work-
force. Our first year placed 90 percent
of the students who participated in
meaningful, sustainable employment.
This program not only successfully
imparts portable job skills, but it gives
graduates input into their futures,” said
Freeholder Tracy Silna Zur.

Jimmy J
J
painless — exactly what you’ll find when you work with our Mortgage
Specialist at NVE. Plus, our decision makers are local — providing a 88
1

7 2018
smooth and hassle-free process from start to finish.

Call today at 201-816-2800, ext. 1233,

or apply online at nvebank.com
the Junk Man
NMLS #733094
RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL
*APR = Annual Percentage Rate. APR is accurate as of 5/15/18 and may vary based on loan amounts. Loans
WE CLEAN OUT:
are for 1-4 family New Jersey owner-occupied properties only. Rates and terms are subject to change without Basements •Baseme
Attics • Garages • Fire Damage
notice. The 7-year loan at the stated APR would have 84 monthly payments of $13.44 per thousand borrowed
based on a 20% down payment or equity for loan amounts up to $750,000. The 15-year loan at the stated
Construction Debris • Hoarding Specialists
Constru
APR would have 180 monthly payments of $7.33 per thousand borrowed based on a 20% down payment or
WE RECYCLE
CALL
equity for loan amounts up to $750,000. The 25-year loan at the stated APR would have 300 monthly
payments of $5.49 per thousand borrowed based on a 20% down payment or equity for loan amounts up to
$500,000. Payments do not include amounts for taxes and insurance premiums, if applicable. The actual CALL TODAY FOR A FREE ESTIMATE
201-66•1845-600-5941
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payment obligation will be greater. Property insurance is required. Other rates and terms are available.
Subject to credit approval.

Bergenfield I Closter I Cresskill I Englewood I Hillsdale I Leonia I New Milford I Teaneck I Tenafly
We do not transport solid or hazardous waste
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58 JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018

 Are you or a loved one a
Holocaust Survivor?

Jewish Family & Children’s Services, through generous funding from

Jewish Federation of North America, can now assist Holocaust Survivors with
the cost of home health aides while in a hospital or rehabilitation facility.

• For 90% of the survivors we assist, their home health aides

are their primary caretakers.
• When survivors need to be placed out of the home
temporarily, they lose their connection to the person who has
become their day-to-day lifeline.
• This causes disorientation, decreased communication,
agitation, and anxiety as they are not cared for in the way in
which they are accustomed.

Our survivors deserve to be cared for with dignity and consideration.

We are proud to be able to offer this bridge funding to cover to the cost of
personal care services during hospital or rehab stays.

For information on this program or other services for Holocaust Survivors including:

Café Europa, Shabbat meal delivery, home assessments, dental assistance and care management,
please call (201)837-9090 or email PattyS@JFCSNNJ.org.

17-10 River Rd, Fair Lawn, NJ 1485 Teaneck Rd, Teaneck, NJ 1 Pike Dr, Wayne, NJ
www.jfcsnnj.org
201-837-9090

JEWISH STANDARD JUNE 1, 2018 59

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