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THE JEWISH HOM

E DECEMBER 4, 2014

5CONTENTS

The Jewish Home is an independent bi-weekly newspaper. Opinions expressed by writers are not neces sarily the opinions of the publisher or editor. The Jewish Home is not responsible for typographical errors, or for the kashrus of any product or business advertised within. The Jewish Home contains words of Torah. Please treat accordingly.

Dear Readers,On one side there is a beautiful light.

At our community level, we continue to hear of selfless people who have dedicat-ed themselves to a valuable cause. On an individual level the Jewish people go be-yond the tremendous challenges. We al-ways rise up and try our best to do what’s right and what’s G-dly. Every week seems to bring another breakthrough in the field of medicine, science and technolo-gy. There’s also the daily miracles taking place in Israel, often in the form of de-fense. Another concealed knife is found, a gun or a plan to cause terror is outed. Israel continues to blossom in so many ways despite the extreme chaos on all of her borders. Jewish scientists and tech. leaders continue to innovate as if they were living on some peaceful island.

Sadly, the side of darkness is never far behind and still there are more heinous events that receive media attention and move us to fear. Yet, the two sides are just two realities of the same coin. Just as a seed rots so that it can grow into a tree, so does society have to flush out the dirt and “shed its skin.” In this fight it’s the specific man and women who wield the most power. It will be the singular people in each country who will decide whether they will support corruption by allowing the status quo. Will they dedicate them-selves to being a source of positivity to themselves, their family, their communi-ty and beyond?

We are all constrained each in our own way. We need to tap into our deeper

selves, bringing forth the powerful reser-voirs of goodness and holiness. There’s no limit to what can be accomplished by a group of individuals selflessly dedicated to a good cause.

The days of our being in exile are clear-ly winding down. Rabbis in all our com-munities are calling this the end of days about which we have been told since the beginning of time. It’s apparent in the world at large. The focus on the future re-demption is not meant as an easy escape from present responsibilities, rather it’s a mind-set. Knowing “where the train is going,” helps us prepare for when it ar-rives. More importantly though, even at the present time it helps us look deeper into reality and raise ourselves upwards. Then we can view life with a broad mind which greatly enhances our potential.

This is true in the physical as well. Fear is the number one obstacle to accomplish-ing all that we can. A palliative nurse has shared the reality of end of life regrets. She summarized the number one feeling of remorse as, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life oth-ers expected of me.” Personal redemption is linked to global redemption as a hand to a glove.

We will very soon see its expression in the world stage as well.

Wishing you a most inspiring and rest-ful Shabbos,

Shalom

COMMUNITYCommunity Happenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

JEWISH THOUGHTTorah Study for Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Life & Torah of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz . . . 17

Eternal Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

The Halachik View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

COVER STORYPanhandlers; Misery and Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

HUMOR & ENTERTAINMENTCenterfold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Quotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Wacky Lawsuit Trivia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

LIFESTYLESTravel Guide: Vail, Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Kosherology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Your Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

JWI Cookbook – A Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

EDUCATIONParenting Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Forgotten Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

NEWSGlobal News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

National News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

That’s Odd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

ISRAELRecent Israeli Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Israel News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Believers in the Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

T H E P R E M I E R J E W I S H N E W S PA P E R H I G H L I G H T I N G L A’ S O R T H O D OX C O M M U N I T Y

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On Monday, November 17th, Emek Hebrew Academy Teichman Family Torah Center filled their downstairs lunchroom with 30 of the top Jewish educators from 12 West Coast Jewish day schools. Travel-ling from Portland, Las Vegas, Dallas, San Diego, Long Beach, San Jose, and from three Los Angeles schools, these teachers travelled the distance so they could learn and share resources for the L’Havin U’Le-haskil Chumash program recently intro-duced at Emek.

The creator and coordinator of the program, Morah Tamar Nusbaum, and the Director of the Consortium of Jewish

Day Schools, Rabbi Heshy Glass came in from New York City to train the group, presenting the materials, concepts and progress markers and engaged in discus-sions with the attendees. Emek’s Rabbi Levi Solomon, also the L’Havin U’Le-haskil West Coast representative, hosted and organized the seminar, reaching out to his colleagues across the region and cre-ating the opportunity to gather, network, and advance their expertise in the L’Havin U’Lehaskil Chumash curricular system.

In assessing the success of the semi-nar, Rabbi Solomon commented that, “It was impressive to see so many teachers

get together and share useful, practical ideas that can put to work in their class-rooms, immediately and effectively.” He added, “Emek is at the forefront of this new curriculum. This new program will allow faster progress in Chumash studies and offers the “out of the box” learning opportunity in Limudei Kodesh which is also found across the academic spectrum at Emek.”

This innovative new approach to teaching and learning Chumash provides a step-by-step process for the student to de-velop the unique Hebrew language skills required to read, break down and decode

the Chumash. L’Havin U’Lehaskil fea-tures a data driven instruction technique with more individual assessments and state of the art evaluations. The focus on skill development is implemented through the use of beautifully prepared workbooks and texts. The ultimate goal is for each student to possess the skills to read, trans-late and understand the Chumash text in-dependently and to be able to share.

Emek Hosts Learning Seminar for New Chumash Curriculum

Following up on last year’s success-ful Israel Gap-Year Fair, after an almost 10 year absence on the West Coast, YE-SHIVA HIGH TECH and its co-sponsors – NCSY, YULA Boys and Girls High Schools, Shalhevet High School, Valley Torah, and MASA – will again affirm their commitment to the importance of the Is-rael Gap-Year Experience by hosting the 2014 Israel Gap-Year Fair, December 8th from 7 - 10pm at Yeshiva High Tech at 5555 West Olympic Blvd. This event is especially important for high school ju-niors and seniors and their parents, in both private and public schools.

The gap-year phenomenon continues to build momentum. Colleges around the country, from Ivy’s to State Universities, are encouraging graduating high school seniors to explore the world in organized programs that help build communities, deepen personal spirituality, promote ma-turity and create college readiness.

“The importance of the Israel experi-ence is a priceless opportunity for Jewish students to solidify their years of learning and attachment to the land of Israel, either through academic engagement or by way of community or army service. College deans and admissions committees believe that gap-year programs support future aca-demic success,” says Phyllis Folb, Yeshiva High Tech’s College Counselor and Israel Gap-Year Fair Director.

“We don’t see this as a ‘gap year,’ but rather as a ‘growth year.’ It’s a chance for young adults to be inspired spiritually and grow in terms of their maturity and inde-pendence. A positive and fulfilling year in Israel will help teenagers make good choices about their Jewish identity, educa-tion, and personal development for many years afterwards”, said Natalie Menaged, Bar Ilan Israel Experience.

The importance of a community-wide fair is that it provides a rare opportunity for

students and parents to consider a broad range of programs and organizations. More than 30 programs located in Israel are on offer at the fair, emphasizing a di-verse range of programs from traditional learning to community and army service. Students and parents will be able to meet and engage with members of programs and institutions that might not be available at any other time.

“The exposure that the Yeshiva fair will give us is fantastic,” said Ross Sing-er of Yeshivat Maale Gilboa. Each of the co-sponsors brings a unique aspect to the night. Annie Lascoe, Western Region Di-rector of MASA, emphasized that, “Masa Israel Journey, in its capacity of providing grants to most of these programs, sees the Los Angeles Israel Gap Year Fair as a won-derful way for students to explore the wide array of options for their gap year, help-ing them create their own special lifelong bond with Israel.”

MASA has funding options for stu-dents that make the Israel experience af-fordable as well as enjoyable. NCSY pro-vides Jewish/Israel events and services to public high school students. The com-bined endorsement of the four Orthodox high schools shows not only the commit-ment and encouragement of each school to its own students, but the communal recog-nition that all students benefit from spend-ing a year in Israel. .

The LA Gap-Year Israel Fair will be held on December 8, 2014 from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm at Yeshiva High Tech, locat-ed at 5555 West Olympic Blvd, Los An-geles, 90036. Admission is free. Anyone interested in learning more about Israel programs is welcome to attend. For more information, contact: 310-556-0663 or info@yeshivahightech.org.

Yeshiva High Tech Hosts 2014 Israel Gap Year Fair Over 35 Israel Schools to Participate

Rabbi Levi Solomon, principal of Emek Hebrew Academy, addressing the seminar

THE JEWISH HOM

E DECEMBER 4, 2014

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This past Sunday, November 23rd, the Israeli- American Council (IAC) hosted a successful Toy and Book Drive. The event was held at the Hebrew Discovery Center and was part of the IAC’s volunteer pro-gram IAC-Care, who teamed with Jewish Federation and Sifriyat Pijama B’ Ameri-ca, to put together a community volunteer project.

More than 200 new and lightly used toys were collected, including books, games, art supplies, preschool toys and more. Alongside the fast-filling collection boxes, there was a popular brunch with Toast Café bagels, cream cheese, coffee and a colorful selection of cookies.

The kids were entertained by a visitor from the Disney hit movie Frozen, Hebrew

story-telling and an impressive Transform-ers character who had the children jump-ing and laughing until they were awarded a balloon creation on their way home.

Ori Pikoos, Manager of Communi-ty Events for the IAC, was pleased with the turnout. “We arrange several events through the year to help the Los Angeles Jewish Community but in the weeks be-fore Chanukah, this Toy Drive is the most important. Many of these donations will be given to children from low income fam-ilies who will really appreciate the gifts. Also, we send gifts into hospitals where sick children are being treated. The event has gone well; People forget they can cre-ate so much happiness by buying or pass-ing on toys.”

IAC-Care organizes monthly volunteer opportunities and their next project is a dog rescue on December 5th.

To make a donation to IAC-Care,

please contact Ori Pikoos at ori@israe-liamerican.org www.israeliamerican.org/los-angeles

Toy and Book Drive; IAC Program Helps Kids for Chanukah

Monday, November 10, marked a monumental day for mechanchim and mechanchos of the Los Angeles commu-nity. Torah Umesorah spearheaded and delivered one of the most successful and awe-inspiring Yemei Iyun/Professional Development Days that the West Coast has experienced. From their cadre of pre-senters, Torah Umesorah brought in stellar presenters to speak on an array of topics that targeted an audience of more than 250 educa-tors. This eclectic group included both Limudei Kodesh and General Studies teachers from a spectrum of 11 Yeshi-vos and Day Schools. The participants walked away enriched and em-powered with tools and strategies to implement in their classrooms.

The day began with opening remarks from Rabbi Yaakov Krause, longstanding friend of Torah Ume-sorah and Dean of Yeshiva Rav Isaacson Toras Emes, which graciously hosted the event. He expressed his sincere gratitude to Torah Umesorah for all they have pro-vided for his teachers and all of the West Coast schools.

Rabbi Yisroel Meir Rubinfeld was the first address. Rabbi Rubinfeld spoke to an audience of Limudei Kodesh teachers at Toras Emes Yeshiva Day School. “Culti-vating a Caring Classroom” was the title of the lecture and this truly encompassed the message that Rabbi Rubinfeld eloquently imparted to his audience. He highlighted the importance of building and modeling

sensitivity in talmidim and talmidos, in a day and age where kindness and caring are no longer in vogue. Rabbi Rubinfeld spoke of many Gedolim whose care and concern for their talmidim were para-mount in their roles as manhigim. He also touched on the topic of bullying in a school setting which had many heads and the au-dience nodded in assent. This all-too-of-ten occurrence constitutes a situation of

which many teachers are aware but are not always certain how to respond. Rab-bi Rubinfeld discussed the importance of creating awareness among students, staff members and parents in order to properly combat this pressing challenge. He raised an awareness of the red flags of bullying and suggested ideas and strategies for pre-vention, along with appropriate responses. His audience gained a deeper understand-ing of the need to foster a strong relation-ship with every student, even before learn-ing can occur.

The second morning session was pre-sented by Mrs. Rochel Zimmerman, Na-tional Director of the NCYP Women’s division of Torah Umesorah. Mrs. Zim-

merman’s presentation, entitled “Teaching with Intention” was a true eye opener for attendees. In her engaging yet crystal-clear style, she delivered a workshop that was packed with new information. The objec-tives were so clearly structured and devel-oped that participants were enriched and empowered, yet not overwhelmed. Mrs. Zimmerman discussed with her audience the pivotal need for every teacher to tap

into the emotional needs of their students by sharing with them Maslow’s hierarchy of development. She underscored the im-portance of smiling at students, making eye contact, initiating conversation that is not related to school, keeping the brain well hydrated. These were small but highly sig-nificant examples of ways to fill a child’s emotional bank account. Mrs. Zimmerman then went on to provide her participants with skills for planning and implementing well designed lessons. She discussed the need to begin with a clear objective, while utilizing the gradual-release model of in-struction where the teacher slowly gives students more and more opportunities to become independent learners and thinkers.

The assembled teachers gained a multitude of ideas that were both practical and rele-vant at every grade level. They agreed that their new found knowledge would prove to help develop them into better facilitators and coaches, thereby increasing student confidence and learning.

The afternoon session was presented by the acclaimed Dr. Jerry Lob of Chica-go, Illinois. Dr. Lob brought to the table

his experience as a clin-ical psychologist and his years of teaching expe-rience as an elementary school rebbi. Dr. Lob’s practical presentation on meeting the needs of special education stu-dents in a regular edu-cation classroom was a topic to which each and every educator could relate. He discussed the value of inclusion

in a regular classroom whereby students learn tolerance, acceptance, diversity and “stretching oneself.” Dr. Lob gave mechanchim and mechanchos ideas for differentiated instruction in the classroom, thus meeting the needs of each and every learner who is in the class.

This professional development day of Meeting the Needs of the Individual Stu-dent was a resounding success for all the participating schools and educators, touch-ing the hearts and minds of its participants. Torah Umesorah filled the need of educat-ing and developing those who are entrust-ed with Klal Yisroel’s most precious asset – our children.

Torah Umesorah Professional Development Day in Los AngelesBy Hadassah Igelman

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The 7th Annual Kosherfest Culinary Competition was fought by three finalists. Judges considered the creations of three top chefs who each prepared mouthwatering dishes using their favorite secret ingredi-ents, as well as the key items; tender lamb and exotic couscous. Chef Katsuji Tanabe was announced as the winner and on No-vember 12th he was awarded the trophy with a grand $1000 prize.

The judges were Chef Philippe Kaem-merle from The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts, Jack Silberstein, from Jack’s Gourmet and Naomi Nachman, who hosts the show “Table for Two” on the Nachum Segal Net-work. The event was mc’d by Paula Shoy-er, a popular Kosher Chef and the author of several cookbooks, including The Kosher Baker: Over 160 Dairy-Free Recipes from Traditional to Trendy and The Holiday Ko-sher Baker.

Winning chef, Katsuji Tanabe is chef-partner at LA’s Mexikosher restaurant, the first authentic Kosher Mexican restau-

rant in Los Angeles and the first kosher

Mexican eatery in the United States He also serves as a personal mentor and celebrity representative for Jewish Big Brothers & Big Sisters, Los Angeles, where he gives time and expertise as he teaches healthy eating and cooking alternatives to the chil-dren that the group supports. Katsuji has recently released his own private label of spices and sauces with flavors that link him back to his Japanese Mexican parents.

The other contestants were Chef Itta Werdiger-Roth from Mason & Mug Kosher Beer and Wine Bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Werdiger-Roth is a professional

chef, an Australian expatriate and a Hasidic

Jew. In 2013, she partnered up with Sasha Chack to open Mason & Mug, which was reviewed by the New York Daily News as, “The world’s coolest kosher restaurant.”

The third contestant was Chef David Blum. Blom has been spicing up classic European desserts with modern appeal for nearly two decades. Born into a family of bakers, Blum often receives prestige for his traditional Polish cakes best known as baba and savarin.

Kosherfest is the world’s largest ko-sher-certified products Tradeshow. Held on November 11 and 12th in Secaucus, NJ, the

founder and President is Menchem Lubin-sky. He explained the success of the show, which has been an annual event for more than 25 years.

“Today, the show actually fulfills a need for any professional in the food industry. There was somewhat of a vision in the early days that kosher food could be understood as being more than a certification; that it could emerge as a cuisine. Incredibly, ko-sher has reached that level and its populari-ty is still rising.”

Lubinsky’s firm, Lubicom Marketing has researched the makeup of the US ko-sher market and the studies are meaningful. The US Kosher market is worth $12.5bil-lion each year, supported by more than 12 million Americans who choose to eat Ko-sher food. This market size has an impact on the business far greater than the 1.3mil-lion Jews who keep kosher all the time and all year round. This large consumer base is the reason that US supermarkets now offer approximately 125,000 kosher products.

Los Angeles Chef Wins Kosherfest Culinary Competition

It was just two days after the massa-cre. The bullet holes were still visible in the windows, but the sight was a display of one of the most powerful examples of the ideal of ‘netzach Yisrael lo yishaker, the eternal nature of Yisrael will never cease. Kehil-las Bnei Torah of Har Nof is the same shul where the massacre transpired two days ear-lier but now it hosted tens of avreichim tak-ing their monthly Dirshu tests.

Hundreds of teary-eyed visitors could be found everywhere. With broken hearts they came to look at the place where the four holy korbanos, the Kedoshim of the Har

Nof slaughter, met their deaths. Simultane-ously, tens of Dirshu test takers blocked out the commotion as they concentrated on the questions on the test.

Rabbi Shalom Yachnes, Dirshu’s repre-sentative in Har Nof and himself a resident of the neighborhood related, “On the day of the test, I received many phone calls from local Dirshu test takers asking if the test would be held at Kehillas Bnei Torah as it is every month. I answered, ‘Yes’.” Indeed, the Kedoshim who were supremely dedicat-ed to limud haTorah represented the ideal of mesiras nefesh for limud haTorah. Taking

the test in the very place where they gave up their lives would be an appropriate display of the eternity of Torah and the eternity of Klal Yisrael in galus, despite the terrible tri-als and tribulations.

Rabbi Yisrael Cohen, Dirshu’s proctor at that testing site, had difficulty expressing the mixed emotions of the test takers, all resi-dents of the Har Nof community who were in some way connected with the Kedoshim. “It was difficult to take the test. The room was quiet, you couldn’t hear a pin drop other than the scratching of pens on paper. All of us were thinking of the difficult sights that

we had seen in this very shul just two days before. Blood, taleisim… nevertheless we realized that we must continue our avodas hakodesh. We did not contemplate changing to a different testing site. On the contrary, taking the test in such close proximity to the horrible terror attack was a declaration that effectively said, “Yes, tragically Eisav and Yishmael engaged in their mission, r”l. Our response will be to engage in our mission! We will continue, with even greater alacrity to learn, to chazer, to retain, to take tests and most of all, to continue toiling to understand the Torah hakedosha!”

The Eternity of Klal Yisrael and the TorahBy Chaim Gold

The Jewish Women’s Repertory Com-pany (“JWRC”) is holding dress rehearsals starting December 1st for their 10th show, Into The Woods. The musi-cal is produced by an eclectic cast of Jewish women. Ticket sales are busy for the Decem-ber 13 and 14 performances at the beautiful Nate Holden Per-forming Arts Center on West Washington Blvd.

Into The Woods is the brainchild of the invincible Margy Horowitz. A graduate from Bais Yaakov of Chicago, Horowitz went to music school and trained as a pia-nist. Ten years ago, Horowitz conceived the JWRC program after listening to a powerful Shabbat lecture by Rabbi Weil at Beth Jacob Synagogue. The subject was women as vic-tims of domestic abuse. On the one hand, Jewish life prides itself on violence-free,

harmonious relationships, but there are many rabbis who will tell you that the prob-lem of domestic violence exists in their com-

munities. There are training programs designed to

teach Rabbis how to address this topic with their congregations, yet it is to the Family Violence Project, a program of Jewish Fam-ily Service of Los Angeles, that JWRC do-nates a portion of its proceeds. More than $40,000 has been donated so far. Horowitz

explained, “I heard that lecture and I knew I didn’t earn enough as a piano teacher to make a meaningful financial donation. On

the other hand, I remembered the joy of putting on a show in high school and at Stern College and I thought this was a perfect way to raise a meaningful sum. This would be a project I could make happen outside of my nor-mal life, outside of parenting and teaching, and I’m blessed with a husband who supports me.”

The show takes several months of preparation but more than 1,000 tickets are generated for each production. Ticket sales are just one part of how the shows are funded. Support also comes from donations and sponsorship.

Horowitz admits the production is more than a charitable venture. “I never realized that the shows would create such comrad-

ery between women from all levels of reli-giosity and all sizes of family. One of our performers is an orthodox lady who teaches at Bais Yaakov; she has a delightful friend-ship with another women who has kids at the conservative Pressman Academy. After performing in 4 shows together, their friend-ship extends to recipe swaps, child-rearing techniques and discussions of social issues. We’re normally so insular in our own groups and this makes us quick to judge others. On the other hand, after rehearsing two or three evenings a week for several months, the company builds deep and meaningful rela-tionships. This is a production that our hus-bands are not even going to watch; it’s just for women, but when our kids come and see what we have put together, they are so proud of us. That’s the greatest gift of all.”

For tickets to any of the 3 shows, visit http://www.itsmyseat.com/intothewoods/ or call 323 964 9766.

Into The Woods with JWRC... A Talent for Theater, Charity and Friendship

At a rehearsal a couple of days ago

THE JEWISH HOM

E DECEMBER 4, 2014

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��������������

While in the middle of their morning prayers, davening men were interupted by ruthless cleaver-wielding

murderers who stormed the shul, leaving blood and bullets in their path. Unbelievable pain, fear, disbelief and cries

washed over all Jewish Communities worldwide who mourn this barbaric and senseless loss.

The gruesome crime left behind many orphans, as well as families of the injured,

who are in great need of assistance.

Let's Help them now.

Assistancefor the

famillies of the

Kedoshimand Wounded

Under the Auspices of Harav Y. M. Rubin shlit"a Rav of K'hal Bnei Torah

-Har Nof

The Kedoshim

Har Nof Hy"dof

Donate Online: www.kupat.org

Call 24 Hours: 1-888-KUPATHAIR555555555555 88888888888888 777777777777 22222222222 888888888888 444444444444 22222222222222222

Mail to: American Friends of Kuuupat Ha’’ir | 44415 14tth AAvvenuee, BBBBrooookklyyn NYYY 1111221119

Please specify that funds are for fund #2159

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My Soviet education was relentless-ly atheist. I still remember my first grade teacher talking to us about religion. “Raise your hand if your grandparents sometimes take you to church,” she said. Several chil-dren raised their hands. Being Jewish, I had never been to church, so I didn’t. The word “synagogue” was not even in my vo-cabulary. The teacher urged the ones who had raised their hands to stop going. She told us that G-d didn’t exist, that He was invented by primitive people who did not have science to guide them, and that all forms of worship were no longer necessary in the progressive Soviet society that was so close the ideals of communism.

I was fortunate however; the Soviet Union collapsed when I was a teenager, and I was able to attend a newly opened Jewish school and learn about my heritage. Not many Jews from the former Soviet Union had this opportunity. While my grandpar-ents’ generation always remembered some mitzvos and traditions that they had grown up with, my parents’ generation was left with barely any trace of Judaism.

As a Russian-speaking religious Jew, I’ve always felt an obligation to reach out to those Russian Jews who were less for-tunate than me and who remained most-ly ignorant of the beauty of their Jewish heritage. Twelve years ago, when my family moved to Los Angeles, I looked for ways to get involved in local Russian Jewish outreach. Then I met Moshe and Esther Davidoff who are passionate about bringing Russian Jews closer to Torah. They founded Simxa Company, an edu-cational non-profit organization for Rus-sian-speaking Jews, and they organize annual Shabbatons where Russian Jews are able to connect and learn from other Russian-speaking Jews. I immediately offered to help, and I have been involved with Simxa Shabbatons ever since.

Simxa Shabbatons are held over the Thanksgiving weekend and this year was the fourteenth such event. Over three hun-dred people attended, from all ages and stages in life. The participants came from Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, as well as Seattle, Chicago, and even Toron-to. While some were unaffiliated, others were fully observant and more than this, the group shared a common background. Everyone came so they could learn and

grow, regardless of their level of obser-vance.

The lecture rooms were full to capacity as the speakers taught and inspired the audi-ence. This year’s Russian speaking lecturer was Rabbi Shimon Grilius, a well-known Soviet dissident who had spent five years in Soviet labor camps due to participation in the Jewish underground movement, and who had become observant while living in Russia. After his release, Rabbi Grilius moved to Israel, where he founded the first yeshiva for Russian-speaking Jews. Rab-bi Grilius continues teaching all over the world, and Simxa Shabbaton attendees had the privilege to learn from Rabbi Grilius over the weekend. His lectures were espe-cially popular, perhaps because he teaches in Russian, providing a rare opportunity for the attendees to hear a world-renowned Torah teacher in their native language.

The lectures in English also drew large audiences. Chana Weisberg, a best-selling author and sought-after speaker, shared a feminine perspective on Judaism, which elicited many questions and sparked live-ly discussions. Rabbi Sholom Rodal, of Chabad of Mount Olympus, touched on

several controversial topics. In addition to his popular lectures he also led a bonfire event for children on motzei Shabbos, with songs and stories, and the proverbial roast-ed marshmallows.

Rabbi Yaakov Ephraim Parisi brought a special energy to the Shabbaton with his lively l’chaims and many personal stories as he encouraged the attendees to remain strong in their Judaism even when dealing with the secular world. Rabbi Parisi is a former Christian pastor who began discov-ering discrepancies in Christian doctrines and eventually converted to Judaism. He shared his fascinating story with the au-dience, injecting a unique sense of humor and inspiring the crowd of listeners.

Many Shabbaton attendees learned from the speakers. “Their speeches were very educational and lively,” shared Zhan-na Kimelblat from Los Angeles. Michael Sigal from Palos Verdes, said he found the

Shabbaton was a “great experience, fan-tastic learning.” Anna Levi, a psychologist from the San Fernando Valley, said, “It’s a great vacation because I am free to attend lectures with amazing speakers that give me a spiritual lift for the whole year, while my children are excited about the enrich-ing children’s activities and they get to en-joy a children’s program for all four days of the Shabbaton!”

Indeed, Simxa Shabbatons provide baby-sitting alongside the fun-filled chil-dren’s program. The 2014 girls’ program was directed by Ms. Tzippy Kin and run by students from Bais Yaakov of Los An-geles. The boys’ program was directed by Rabbi Yisroel Majeski and Rabbi Dovid Morris. The programs included a harbor cruise, a moon bounce, an animal show for younger children, a duct tape activity for older girls, and even a Bas Mitzvah celebration for one of the attendees. “The children’s program was well organized, the girls were exceptional, very qualified,” enthused Jessica Yuz, mother of a two-year-old girl.

“We have first attended 10 years ago,” said Anna Levi, “and we have been com-ing every year because we cannot miss reconnecting with wonderful families that have become our friends and their chil-dren are our children’s friends!” Jessica Yuz agreed, “We get to see people from a similar background and we are learning and growing so much every year. We are always happy to see each other.”

It is especially beautiful to see extend-ed families get together at the Shabbaton. Russian Jews have always maintained close family ties. Often several gener-ations attend the Shabbaton together. This year was particularly special for me because my mother and my sister and brother-in-law attended the Simxa Shab-baton for the first time. It was wonderful to spend the Shabbaton together and en-joy our family bond, and it was especial-ly meaningful to attend a lecture together with my mother and my teenage daughter – three generations learning Torah togeth-er. This is a powerful proof that the Soviet regime completely failed in its attempt to eradicate Judaism. The light of Torah has reached us all.

Simxa Shabbaton 2014: Bringing the Light of Torah to Russian-speaking JewsBy Yehudis Litvak

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Four community leaders spoke with The Jewish Home about their motiva-tion to learn and teach and captivate others through Torah study.

Mrs. Nomi Freeman is the daughter of the renowned Argentinean Kabbalist, Pro-fessor Avraham Polichenco, o.b.m.. She is well known for her seminars that teach spirituality to children and she counsels people looking to find their spiritual path.

Mrs. Adinah Sher was previously a shlucha (emissary) for the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Northern California (S.Crus). A wife, mother and grandmother, she cur-rently lives in Los Angeles with her hus-band. For over twenty years, she has spe-cialized in learning and teaching about the intricacies of the Beit Hamikdash.

Mrs Neima Solomon has been an edu-cator for over twenty years and is present-ly the Hebrew Studies Director for Girls at Tashbar Sephardic Yeshiva Ketana in Los Angeles. She has taught in various schools and also mentor teens and women in the city.

Mrs. Shulamith May is a proud mother of 7 married couples, and a grandmother to 30 grandchildren. She has been involved in chinuch in Los Angeles for over 35 years. She presently operates as the Men-

aheles (Head of School) of Bnos Devorah High School.

How do you motivate women in your community to learn Torah?

Mrs. Nomi Freeman (“NF”): I was asked to give classes and people came. Audiences feel motivated when the class is compelling, relatable, and applicable. I think people want spirituality that relates to them in that they can use it to improve their personal lives. I want that too, so I try to deliver it and that’s what draws people come to the classes.

Mrs. Adinah Sher (“AS”): Well, part of it would be by giving classes and trying in the class to be inspiring. Then it does whet other people’s appetite. And also I have chevrutas (learning partners) that I meet up with. Part of it is setting an example and part of it is teaching and putting an ef-fort in the teaching to try to be exciting and inspiring.

Mrs. Neima Solomon(“NS”): It’s a very hard question. To really learn you have to work hard and not many always want to invest in it. My role is really in children’s education and I believe if a young wom-an had positive responses to learning in high school and elementary school, too, then it is a natural consequence that she

herself will desire to continue when she leaves school and seminary. If she had a good connection with her Hebrew teachers (or her Rebbe) and she had positive feed-back for her effort, I believe that she will be more likely to continue learning. Oth-erwise, the general attitude would be the relief of “Yay! I’m done with school! Now I can live my life!”

I find that learning is very personal. There are more and more classes for wom-en, but because women tend to be more fo-cused on raising their families, they won’t necessarily be looking for additional types of learning. I can see it on a personal lev-el. I teach a Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fa-thers) shiur on Shabbat and there you get a specific kind of crowd. Only those who are serious about learning will come; other women will prioritize with other happen-ings and preoccupations unless it’s a com-pelling subject. Pirkei Avot is not deep. It’s a light subject and we’re also discussing a lot of current events. The committed ones that learn more seriously always show up but it’s easy to find other things that will engage your time

I want to add something. The way the community is set up is that the young com-munity want to connect with their peers. You have to attract them from an element outside of learning, so their peers will want to come and will be supportive. If their peers have something in their house involving food or artsy events, people are more motivated to come. In kiruv circles, they offer a lot more classes regarding light subjects where they also have food, activities, or crafts, or a lot of other ways of attracting people.

How do you motivate your daugh-ters to learn?

AS: Well it’s interesting. I feel that each child needs to find their own path and they have to relate and have their personal relationship to G-d with their own individ-ual connection. I try to set an example for them but really the thing is they’re so dif-ferent from me and that’s great. I’ve got six kids and they’re each different, which is wonderful. They each have their unique and private relationship with G-d. They have to find a way to continue to learn. They have to be motivated from within, from their own inner striving to create a closer relationship with G-d.

NS: I have a very hard time with that. When my daughter sees how passionate I am in Torah learning and that I’m really well versed and I’m strong with my con-victions, she becomes inspired to engage with Torah in more than a superficial lev-el. She’s inspired to motivate the women around her to be connected.

Each child needs to create her own ar-eas of interest and knowledge because oth-erwise, when she gets older, she will never

have appreciated learning. There are also different levels of maturity. The more aca-demic or more spiritually inclined students get further in learning in terms of self-mo-tivation. Bottom line, it can’t be forced on them because pressure to learn will cause it to backlash.

NF: My daughters like to learn. I think that is because they grow up in a home where learning is an essential part of life. We have a learning environment in the home. I try to spend time with them learning together. Actually I have a lot of pleasure in learning with my kids so I think they feel how much I enjoy learning with them. I don’t tell them directly you should learn—that would be a big mistake—but the environment, positive attitude, and their parents’ joy of learning has to affect them in some way. I think children nat-urally love to learn. It’s just that schools sometimes destroy that if they have a rigid structure.

What creates the best learning envi-ronment?

NF: Well the children see that their fa-ther and mother spend a lot of their time in front of a book (chuckle). They see that their parents enjoy learning. During family meals the discussion often revolves around learning. At the dinner table, my husband, my children, and I discuss ideas that we learn. I bring up an idea that I find fas-cinating. We all ask a questions and the children bring up topics they are learning as well. Basically, the children see and experience that learning is valuable. They don’t need to be told.

How can learning be made more stimulating for those women who are not academically inclined?

Mrs. Shulamith May (“SM”): Through alternative means that appeal to people such as monthly Rosh Chodesh text mes-sages. It is a subtle reminder that it is Rosh Chodesh so they can daven properly, dress and eat in a special way, learn something special about that month’s power and re-ceive a bracha (blessing).

AS: One thing I found in teaching for over 20 years is that there’s teaching and there’s learning how to teach. These are two separate things and both are import-ant. For instance, I’ve learned that using power points was powerful in making the topic personal and exciting. Anything vi-sual, such as a handout, will help, too. The other thing is there has to be an emotional component so that it’s not just academic. In other words, you frame it as ‘this is what we are learning but how does it affect our personal life?’

NF: I think that every person has to find what is inspiring to them. Everyone has to find their love within learning. Some love Halacha, others love learning chumash, some find this author to be interesting, that

Torah Study for Women by Bracha Turner

THE JEWISH HOM

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lecturer to be inspiring; it’s very personal. You don’t need to be very academic in or-der to learn.

Women are juggling a lot of priori-ties on a day to day basis. How do we reframe learning as one of those prior-ities?

NF: Personally, learning is a first pri-ority. As soon as I can, I begin each day with learning. I get up in the morning, send my kids to school, I daven and then I learn. When I do that I feel that my day is more successful. For some people this is not possible due to the age of the chil-

dren, or if the mother has a job. When that was not possible for me, I made sure there was learning immediately as soon as it was possible. In other words, learning is a pri-ority so I always put it at the top of the to-do list.

AS: It’s very hard isn’t it? We have so many things drawing us. It’s the sweetness of learning. When you taste the sweet-ness that’s what has to be what draws you. You’re right; you have many things com-peting for your attention and time. One method is setting up a chevruta (learning partner) because she’s going to be there.

That helps me make sure the learning will happen. You’ve got another person there that you have to deal with, so you can’t make excuses. You have to dig out the beauty from learning and the excitement and the delight will follow. That’s a moti-vating factor.

SM: Women today are exceedingly busy; running a home, raising children and often being involved outside the home with a career or Chesed organizations. Finding time for formal classes is often not practical. I often listen to Torah CDs in my car to and from work. It is something that

I look forward to as I enter my car. It is my spiritual injection for the day. I also make sure to do some bite size learning before I go to sleep - whether it is the daily dose of the Chofetz Chaim’s Laws of Speech or a Jewish magazine article on some con-temporary issue. These are suggestions for even the busiest women.

How do you make time for learning? NF: It’s simply a priority. I create a

time in my day that’s my learning time. Exceptions to that are, of course, taking care of the children--which comes first—or making sure the home is decent. But once the children are in school and you have cleared the kitchen table from break-fast, it’s time for learning.

SM: As one gets older and has less con-centrated responsibilities at home, i.e., no daily homework and lunches to prepare, it would certainly be worthwhile to exercise one’s brain in a weekly type of Torah class. Just as women find time for their Yoga classes several evenings a week, they can certainly find time to build up their spiritu-al muscles as well.

What is lost if a woman does not learn or has no desire to learn?

NS: It’s preconceived that learning is for men. Talmud Torah is indeed a mitz-vah for men and it’s not a requirement for women. And yet the Lubavitcher Rebbe had a chiddush (new insight) on that—if you want women to raise children, the woman needs to be inspired in order to teach correctly. And I think many rabbis do realize that women need to be educated like men if they are to raise the next genera-tion because oftentimes how you saw your grandmother do things is vague. When you have a proper base in Torah then it’s a lot easier to keep the Torah and mitzvot.

NF: Living without learning is like liv-ing in a house without windows. Without learning there is no light, no renewal, no perspective, and no inspiration. For some people who are passionate, learning could be two hours a day; for some people, it could be a shiur a week. But I think people should consider learning as a necessity, not a luxury. Even mothers who are very busy will find time to eat, shower, and brush their teeth, so some minimal amount of learning could be allocated.

AS: This is an interesting question because there are those who believe that women shouldn’t really learn. They would say you’re not losing anything by leaving Torah study to the men. Here we have in Rambam’s Sefer Hamitzvot, that the first two mitzvot are loving HASHEM and fearing HASHEM and for a woman we don’t have the mitzvah to learn, but learn-ing Torah will certainly help you fulfill the first two mitzvot. You can love G-d with-out learning Torah but it definitely helps to make the mitzvot happen. Not to mention, everyone needs to learn Halacha (Jewish law). Everyone needs to know Halacha.

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With G-d’s help, my plan is to spread the biographical notes over the three arti-cles and also present an outline of 3 of his teachings. The biography herein is by no means exhaustive and the Torah chosen doesn’t reflect the Rosh Yeshiva’s “best” but rather 3 classic pieces.

History #1This past week marks the 75th yahr-

zeit of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz (1864-1939). Who was Reb Boruch Ber? There is no quantifiable way to determine the greatest Roshei Yeshiva in history, howev-er, in any good informal list Reb Boruch Ber qualifies.

Like many of the greatest Yeshiva stu-dents he had the mark of a prodigy at a very young age. Garnering the reputation of being a genius when your hometown is Slutsk is like being called Sherlock in Scotland Yard; talmudic greatness meant something in Slutsk, Belarus. Slutsk was home to all-star names such as Rav Isser Zalman Metlzer, Rav Aharon Kotler, and Rav Yechezkel Abramsky and many other great halachik minds.

At the age of 16, the young and in-novative Boruch Ber was invited to the esteemed Volozhin Yeshiva. Legend has it that he had a difficult time adjusting to the new curriculum and fitting in with his peers. A mind like Reb Boruch Ber can’t easily be contained. His will to develop new ideas (chiddushim) got in the way of simple steady learning. In many ways his mind worked in the same way as the mind of his brilliant Rebbe, Reb Chaim Brisker.

Reb Chaim took the young Boruch

Ber under his wing and developed this burgeoning titan. He helped hone his un-bridled and boundless intellectual pow-er. With time he became known for his knack of calling every sevara (logical distinction) into question. As Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer proclaimed “with Reb Boruch Ber, no sevara was safe.” Ultimately Reb Boruch Ber’s style was epitomized by precision. He argued that you must speak the answer clearly or not say it at all. The solution to any Talmudic problem must come from the text itself. No imposed answer could resolve any challenge adequately. A resolution must resonate with the daf, with the words.

In 1904 Reb Boruch Ber got the call

that elected him to become the head of the Kneses Beis Yitzchak Yeshiva in Kamaneitz. With the onset of WWI, Reb Boruch Ber was forced to move the loca-tion of the yeshiva on three occaisions. His final stop was just outside the city of Vilna in 1939, where he would spend the remaining few months of his life. His grave was found in 2012.

Torah #1According to the gemara in Gitin (8b)

–If a slave brought his Get (document)

of freedom, and it says ‘yourself and my property are acquired to you’, the slave goes free, but does not acquire the proper-

ty of his previous owner.Rashi, commenting on this passage,

says that we are speaking of a slave who brought his document from oversees while he assumes the role of messenger and wit-ness of Court X (this role is called sheli-ach l’holacha.)

Rabbi Akiva Eiger asks why Rashi had to ‘twist himself like a pretzel’ to say that we are referring to a slave that brought his freedom document in the role of a she-liach l’holacha. Why didn’t he simply say the case is referring to a slave who brought his own document that he used to go free with and now he is holding it so that he can marry a free women? When it comes to freedom we don’t assume any

forgery (just like we believe a women about her get document). However, he is not believed when it comes to his property as no such lenient dispensation was given in terms of his financial believability.

This is what we call palginan dibura – split his words and therefore as the gemara stated we believe him about the freedom and not about the property. Why then the need to label him as a sheliach l’holacha? Rabbi Eiger answers that we deploy pal-ginan dibura in cases where, for example, one writes all his property to his slave (a demonstrative act of freedom) but leaves out an unspecified amount. We allow such a document to be used as a freedom document but not as a transfer of prop-

erty because we don’t know the specific excluded amount. That is a proper usage of palginan dibura because the semantic contradiction between giving “all proper-ty” and “leaving out a portion” eliminates that part of the document, thus leaving the other clause about freedom in place.

In contrast to that is our case where we would have to declare the document a forgery in one sense and not a forgery in another. That would leave us with a doc-ument of confused identity. Therefore, a more creative solution needed to be found and this would explain why Rashi went with his thesis.

Remember what I said in the biograph-ical sketch; Reb Boruch Ber was a war-rior at undoing almost any sevara. Reb Ber claims that Rabbi Eiger is against the Rambam. The Rambam rules that a slave who brings his document of freedom and it says, “you and my property are acquired to you,” we believe him as far as his free-dom but not as far as the property for we utilize palginan dibura.

While Reb Boruch Ber has used the Rambam to call Rabbi Eiger into question, it leaves us with a bigger problem – how do we understand the Rambam in light of Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s definition of pal-ginan dibura? Either this document would be a forgery or is it not? Reb Boruch Ber has a beautiful explanation.

Most early commentaries assume that the reason why when it comes to aget, when the party who was freed by that get utilizes it we don’t claim that it’s a forger because בה אקילו עגונא משום for the plight of the chained one the –רבנןRabbis were lenient. The Rambam, how-ever, never cites that as the reasoning for the leniency by a get. Rather the leniency, according to him, is based on the notion that a woman (and by extension a slave) will be very careful before using such a device to remarry. There is too much at stake with a forged get. Therefore, with regard to freedom, such a document has a chazaka [definition: the presumption of ownership of a personal status] and he will be believed. But on property, where he had no prior chazaka – we won’t believe him. Therefore we can say palginan dibura.

The Life and Torah of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz

PART 1 OF 3 By Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn, Rav and Dean at Yeshivat Yavneh

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Lessons

Every year, on Rosh Hashanah, just before the shofar is sounded, the Jewish heart pounds with anticipation and awe. During one of the most exalted moments of the year, as we are about to hear the sho-far blown, we recite kappitel 47 of Tehil-lim seven times in succession. The perek is replete with references, hidden and re-vealed, to the avodas hayom.

Among other hints to our destiny, in those pesukim we praise “gaon Yaakov asher oheiv selah, the pride of Yaakov, which Hashem loves forever.” Referring to the Jewish pride which is ingrained in us, we point to Yaakov as the paragon of the middah of gaavah dekedushah.

Why is this trait most associated with Yaakov Avinu? Didn’t Avrohom, with his wealth and influence, and Yitzchok, who stood dignified and noble, imbue us with this middah as well? Why is Yaakov, the ish tom yosheiv ohalim, who studied Torah in the seclusion of his tent, linked with this attribute?

Yaakov was unique in his role. He led his children into golus, instilling in them the qualities that they would need to per-severe and thrive through a long exile. He dealt with Eisov and his malach. Although Yitzchok married the daughter of a rasha, he never lived with him or had any deal-ings with him. Yaakov, however, lived with, worked for, and negotiated with his infamous father-in-law, Lovon.

Yaakov fled from one wicked person, his brother Eisov, into the clutches of an-other, Lovon. And when he finally left Lo-von, he was confronted once again by his brother and his intentions to kill him and

his family. Yaakov is the av who epitomized Jew-

ish pride, the gaon Yaakov, because his entire life - from the time he was in his mother’s womb - was spent wrestling with evil schemers. He was able to proclaim, “Im Lovon garti vetaryag mitzvos shomar-ti.” He was unaffected by them, “velo lo-madeti mimaasov haro’im.” Not only did his adherence to the mitzvos remain firm, but he was not influenced by Lovon. He remained as holy and pure as he was in the home of his parents, or when he studied in the yeshiva of Sheim and Eiver.

The ma’asei avos, each account of the avos and their travels recounted in Sefer Bereishis, is replete with life-lessons and directives. Yaakov’s experiences guide us, his children, of a long and bitter journey through many nations, and remain as true today as they were in previous periods of our history. We have to remain focused not only on shemiras taryag mitzvos but on the ability to remain untouched by pervasive dishonesty and depravity.

Parshas Vayishlach is a guidebook on relations with the umos ha’olam. Chazal recount that chachomim who traveled to

Rome to meet with their overlords would carefully study the parsha prior to setting out on their precarious journeys.

The Ramban writes that this week’s parsha “contains a hint for future gener-ations, for all that transpired between our forefather Yaakov and Eisov will happen to us with Eisov’s children, and it is fitting for us to follow the path of the tzaddik (Yaakov).”

As our chachomim throughout the ages studied this parsha and Yaakov’s behavior before traveling to the seat of power, they internalized that nothing has changed. The rulers of our exiles have changed in de-portment and title, from dictators and des-pots to well-dressed diplomats with wide smiles, but Eisov remains Eisov and Yaa-kov remains Yaakov. The modus operandi

is the same. Beneath all the veneers, the children of

Eisov are the same Eisov. Sometimes they present themselves as achim, brothers, concerned about our welfare, and other times their evil intentions are apparent.

Our response to Eisov also remains the same throughout the ages. We deal with Eisov the same way Yaakov did.

The parsha opens with the account of the malochim Yaakov sent to approach his advancing brother to seek his favor. Rashi teaches that the messengers were malo-chim mamesh, actual angels. Why couldn’t this mission be carried out by humans? Why did it require angels to fulfill the task?

Yaakov immediately assumed there was malice in the heart of his approaching brother. How did he know that Eisov in-tended to harm him? Perhaps upon hearing that his brother was returning home after having found success, he wanted to greet him, express his love and begin a new chapter in their relationship.

The Baal Haturim in Parshas Tol-dos (25:25) calculates that the numerical equivalent of Eisov is shalom, peace. Per-haps we can understand the significance

of this gematria by noting that even when Eisov seeks to do battle, he presents him-self as a man of peace.

He speaks in peaceful tones and his actions appear to be motivated by a desire to spread peace and brotherhood in the world. He presents himself as an intelli-gent, thoughtful person. Many people are impressed by his guile.

Rav Chaim Vital and the Ohr Hachaim write that Yaakov feared that if he would send a human to scout out his brother’s intentions, the messenger would be in-fluenced by Eisov’s outward appearance and comments, and would be fooled into thinking that he really seeks a peaceful ex-istence with Yaakov.

When he heard that Eisov was ap-proaching, Yaakov sensed that he was in

danger. The Torah doesn’t recount that the malochim warned Yaakov that Eisov was planning to do battle. It only says that he was on his way. But Yaakov understood that if Eisov was coming towards him, it could only mean trouble.

Success in any interpersonal dealing depends on clear knowledge of the per-son you are meeting and what they really want. Yaakov well understood Eisov’s es-sence, and he had the vision to see beyond the exterior and appreciate his opponent. When we deal with other people, we must possess the awareness of our grandfather Yaakov. He gifted us this ability as part of his legacy to us.

When dealing with others, whether brothers or opponents, we must be honest with ourselves and not permit outside in-fluences and considerations to impress us. Whether it is shtadlonim representing us in the halls of power or in other confronta-tions, we must preserve the gaon Yaakov with doron, tefillah and then milchomah.

We have to ensure that we are not tak-en in by sweet talk and that we do not fall for back-slapping and empty promises. We don’t have malochim to act as envoys and discern the true intentions of modern-day Eisovs, but we do have the message of Yaakov Avinu, who taught us the halacha of Eisov sonei l’Yaakov, an ever-relevant message.

One of the futile activities in which well-meaning Jews frequently engage is headline-watching. They look for hints that the general media is biased against Is-rael. Time and again, they expose the slant and prejudice that indicate that media re-porting is skewed and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. They are certainly right in their conclusions. What I don’t under-stand is why they are still surprised. What expectations do they have? What hopes do they harbor? If we accept that the sinah is real and enduring, then we should know better than to try to engender their sympa-thy to our side. Why do we work so hard to curry favor and glean compliments from them?

Learn the parsha and our role becomes clear. Encounters with Eisov mean trouble. Yaakov had no expectations of genuine love. The most he hoped for was peaceful co-existence. If you examine the pesukim,

THE ERA WILL SOON ARRIVE WHEN AM YISROEL WILL EXACT PUNISHMENT ON EISOV FOR HIS GUILE

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you will note that although Chazal says that Yaakov prepared himself for milcho-mah, in essence what his preparation con-sisted of was a defensive posture. He di-vided the family into two camps. If Eisov would beat one, the other would escape and survive.

We convince ourselves that some na-tions of the world care about us, like us, and have our best interests at heart. We forget the admonishment of Chazal (Pirkei Avos 2:3): “Hevu zehirin barashus she’ein mikarvin lo l’adam ela letzorech atzmon.” We hobnob with politicians, deluding our-selves into thinking that they are actually interested in our issues. We forget the les-sons Yaakov Avinu taught about how to deal with governments. We should lobby and seek to soften the edges, convincing good people to advocate for our causes, but we should not be surprised at the all-too-present moral equivalence and the hypo-critical double-standards.

Too many of us look at Eisov with re-spect and high regard, as if he is concerned about us and our welfare. We are im-pressed when he throws some nice sound-bites our way and stunned when we read of increasing anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews around the world. We are incredulous when Eisov turns on us, as he has been do-ing ever since he lived with Yaakov in the home of Yitzchok and Rivka. Too many of us crave Eisov’s recognition.

Under the banner of peace, with nice-ties and catch-phrases, diplomats seek to destroy the lone lamb that exists amongst seventy wolves. With innocent procla-mations, they betray their arrogance and anti-Semitism, disguised by a mask of re-spectability and concern for justice.

A prominent askan once referred to Rabbi Moshe Sherer as his rebbi. He ex-plained: “Some rabbeim give shiur on sugyos in Shas, some in sugyos in hala-cha or aggada. Rabbi Sherer gave shiur every day on the sugya of ‘Yisroel Bein Ho’amim,’ our role and proper mode of conduct interacting with the nations of the world.”

The middah of Eisov is very much alive and ever-present. Eisov is bege-matria shalom, for that is the card he uses to gain entry into our camp and upend us. His mantra has always been, “I only want to save you from yourselves. Metzitzah b’peh is dangerous for you, so we’ll help. We want peace, you want war. Chareidim really want to work; they’re just scared of social pressures, so we’re bringing your community up to date, because you can’t help yourselves. Palestinians desire peace, but your imperialism robs them of oppor-tunity and leaves them no choice but to savagely murder your citizens.”

Our answer has always been that while we appreciate their friendship and concern, the goal is not necessarily to earn their re-spect and friendship, but to reach a proper working relationship, with each of us dis-tinct and comfortable in our differences.

This is what is meant by “gaon Yaa-kov.” Yaakov not only understood Eisov’s true colors, he appreciated his own. With pride, he was confident and clear about his own mission. The ability to swallow when necessary is just as important as the strength to react with courage. It takes poise and precision, and a perfect aware-ness of our role, to be able to prepare for battle by assuming a defensive posture and not always choosing to be confronta-tional. The gaon Yaakov has allowed us to flourish despite centuries of oppression. Our focus always remains the same: Not only to exist, but to exist as shomrei Torah. Thus, our desire to fight is in that context. We determine which course of action will best promote our agenda. It is not neces-sarily by being on the offensive. Often, it is achieved by retreating and waiting for a better opportunity.

Those who, like Yaakov, are steeped in the Torah of Sheim and Eiver are charged with determining the course of action to pursue. It is to them that the nation turns for guidance, not to the people who think superficially and operate rashly without an appreciation for the larger mission and goal.

Yaakov Avinu also wanted to achieve shalom, but he wasn’t prepared to forfeit his goal for that ideal. The posuk (ibid. 32:8) relates, “Vayira Yaakov meod.” He feared that he would either get killed him-self or he would have to kill someone. But capitulation to Eisov was not an option.

Shalom is only an attribute when it is achieved within the framework of emes. Great men, descendants of Yaakov, have always opted for the emes of Yaakov, stat-ing the facts as they are and accepting the ramifications.

The novi Michah said (7:20), “Titein emes l’Yaakov.” Yaakov Avinu, the foun-tain of emes, sent malochim to Eisov to gauge his positions. Yaakov yearned for shalom, but his primary concern was that it be within the context of emes.

He sent malochim mamesh, who could discern the truth of Eisov’s intentions. Yaa-kov was sending a message: “If you speak of peace, but under your smile lies a dag-ger, I will have no choice but to kill or be killed. I will not compromise on the emes. I won’t change and will not adapt it to con-form to your evil path.”

This is so relevant, because, often, es-pecially in times when we face acts of ter-ror and war from Eisov and Yishmoel, the first reaction is to scream and threaten re-venge. Our instincts tell us that fighting is the only way. However, Yaakov Avinu pre-pared a three-pronged approach, perceiv-ing that at different times, Eisov could be defeated in different ways. Sometimes it is through the force of tefillah. Other times it is through diplomacy and submission. And in some situations, there is no recourse oth-er than combat.

The Torah guides us and instructs us. Through the Torah, we know when doron

is appropriate and when it isn’t.Rav Dovid Soloveitchik related that his

grandfather, Rav Chaim, once traveled to the capital city of St. Petersburg accom-panied by the Brisker, dayan, Rav Simcha Zelig Rieger, to plead on behalf of their people. They had an appointment with the minister of education, but as the time for the audience approached, the minister stepped into the waiting room and insisted that only one of them may enter.

“The more important one should come in. Alone,” he said.

Rav Chaim explained that they had come together and were of equal impor-tance, but the minister refused to accept two petitioners. He indicated that Rav Chaim should follow him into his office.

When the door closed, Rav Chaim de-cided to forego the arguments and claims he had so carefully prepared. Instead, he reached into his pocket and withdrew an envelope filled with money. The minister’s eyes bulged with desire and the rov handed him the money. The minister assured him that he would repeal the decree and honor the request of the Jews.

Rav Chaim later explained why he de-cided to immediately offer money rather than attempt dialogue. “When he made it clear that he would only accept one visi-tor,” Rav Chaim said, “I understood that his wish for privacy stemmed from a sense of embarrassment about what he was about to do and a desire to keep it a secret.”

He had prepared himself well for the engagement with Eisov, and when he sized up his opponent, Rav Chaim determined that for that descendant of Eisov, at that time, doron was the preferred means of hishtadlus.

We look forward to the day the novi Ovadiah speaks about in this week’s hafto-rah: “Ve’olu moshi’im beHar Tzion lishpot es har Eisov.” The era will soon arrive when Am Yisroel will exact punishment on Eisov for his guile, when the gaon Yaakov will radiate as our pride fills the world. May it be soon.

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The most important area of rais-ing children that parents should focus on is being a good role

model for their children, as the Steipler Rav once remarked, “Role modeling is 50% of child-raising.”

A story is told of a young man who asked a Torah sage when and how he should prepare himself for child-rais-ing. When the sage asked him where he was holding in life, he replied, “My wife just gave birth to our first child.”

“Mazel tov,” replied the sage, “but you are a few years too late!”

The sage was conveying an import-ant message: Chinuch starts when par-ents are still single, when they create and mold themselves to be the best role models possible for their future chil-dren.

Thus, for parents to raise well-bal-anced children, they must project a good model of the Torah personality and of middos tovos so that their children will follow in their footsteps.

The Dynamics of Role Modeling Parental role modeling can be

broadly defined as: actions, behavior or conducts that have a subtle and very powerful influence on their children. The reason for this influence is because children naturally imitate and emulate their parents’ behavior.

The former Kaminetzer Mashgiach, Rav Moshe Aharon Stern, explained the dynamics of role modeling as follows:

“The greatest people in a child’s eyes are his parents, and what they do is like Torah from Sinai. Children observe and study their parents’ every action and behavior and record them in their subconscious minds, leaving lasting im-pressions. Why is this so? Because par-ents are the most reliable source for pri-orities and values in their children’s life. Children have the simple trust that their parents won’t transmit any non-Torah or non-ethical ideals to them. Parents

are the children’s prime rebbis and edu-cators, and their actions are the basis for their chinuch.”

Moreover, since children’s intellects are not fully developed, they function mostly from their emotions rather than from logic. The result is that they learn and absorb more from what they see than from what they hear. Therefore, showing one’s children how to properly fulfill mitzvos and be a yireh shamayim has a greater impact and influence than telling them so.

In a shiur on child-raising, Rabbi

Yissocher Frand told the following sto-ry to illustrate this concept:

One day when he left his home and was on the way to giving his shiur in Yeshivas Ner Yisrael when he sudden-ly remembered that he hadn’t bentched. Since it was a hot and humid summer day, he was debating with himself if it was permissible to bentch away from home b’di’eved.

In the end, he decided not to look for any leniencies, and he returned home, perspiring from the sweltering heat. That day, his young daughter hap-pened to be home and asked her father in amazement why he had suddenly re-turned home.

When he told her that he had forgot-ten to bentch, she exclaimed, “What! You came back to bentch?!” Rav Frand realized that he had just “scored a win.” Seeing her father’s great effort to fulfill the halachos of bentching prop-erly made a greater impression than countless times of telling her the impor-

tance of bentching. Rav Frand further notes that since it

was done inadvertently, it made an even greater impression because it showed true sincerity.

Imitating & Retaining Children also have the tendency to

imitate their parents’ actions and behav-ior, and they observe and retain more than we realize, as illustrated by the fol-lowing story:

It was the night of bedikas chametz, and in order to facilitate the bedika, the

father assigned different parts of the home to his children, while he would do the most difficult task of checking the sefarim. After the father finished re-citing the bracha of Al biyur chametz, each child went to his assigned room to do the bedika. Twenty minutes lat-er, the children finished their bedikos and returned to their father only to find him intensely involved in looking over the sefarim. Innocently, one of the sons asked, “Tatty, what are you doing?” In total amazement, the father turned to his child, “Nu, ah-ha” and pointed to his flashlight and feather.

The children returned to their rooms and started tidying up for Pesach.

Ten minutes later, the children re-turned to their father who was still occupied with checking the sefarim. Again, one of his sons asksed, “Tatty, why are you so busy with the sefarim?”

The astonished father turned to his son and in a raised voice shouted, “Nu sha!” and motioned for the boy to leave

the room.After the father finally finished

checking the sefarim and saying Kol chamira etc., he called over his children and exclaimed, “What chutzpa you have for interrupting my bedika! Did you suddenly forget that tonight is bedi-kas chametz night?”

The same son innocently re-plied, “But Tatty, we never saw you study from these sefarim the entire year, so why was it necessary to check them?”

Main point to work and focus on for the coming week:

> Parents should start becom-ing more aware of what they do and say in front of their children so that they will be proper role models for their children to imitate. More examples will appear in the forth-coming articles.

Rabbi Morgenstern does family counsel-ing and lectures extensively in Israel and abroad on shalom bayis, chinuch habanim, family communication, shidduchim, dating and personal growth, and has produced a popular CD series on these topics. His ar-ticles on these topics and Jewish hashkafa have appeared internationally in Jewish newspapers and magazines. For more in-formation or to schedule a lecture, contact Rabbi Morgenstern at 952-236-4197, 612-845-0872 (Cell number when he’s in the U.S. or Canada), or at rabbi@toras-chaim.org. You can also request to receive his weekly Parsha Pearls and chinuch articles by e-mail. Please include your name in the request.

Articles are dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Morgenstern’s parents, Reb Yerach-miel Yisroel Nesanel ben Reb Moshe Dov z”l and Leah Gittel bas Reb Nachman Tzvi a”h. T.N.T.B.H.

Rabbi Chaim Morgenstern

Parenting Today

Chinuch Workshops: Practical Torah Guidelines and Strategies for Achieving Successful ChinuchThe following series of articles will conclude with a project for parents to focus on each week to improve their parenting skills.

Children naturally imitate and emulate their parents’ behavior.

Workshop 1Role Modeling – The Foundation Of Chinuch

NEW COLUMN!

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Yankel had an incredible talking parrot which he loved very much. The only problem was that the parrot used awful language when it didn’t get its way. Yankel was about to host a large group of people for Chanukah so he needed to train his beloved parrot very quickly to stop using foul language.

The next time the parrot said a not nice word, Yankel decided to put him in the freezer for two minutes. After two minutes Yankel opened the freezer, took the parrot out and said, “So, have you learned your lesson about not using foul language?”

The parrot replied, “I sure have. But I have one question for you: What in the world did the turkey do?!”

TwainismsIn honor of Mark Twain’s birthday, here are some of his witty lines on this thing we call life

• Tosucceedinlifeyouneedtwothings:ignoranceandconfidence.

• AllthingsaremortalbuttheJew.

• Getyourfactsfirstthenyoucandistortthemasyouplease.

• Itisbettertokeepyourmouthclosedandletpeoplethinkyouare a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

• Wheneveryoufindyourselfonthesideofthemajority,itistimeto pause and reflect.

• Theonlywaytokeepyourhealthistoeatwhatyoudon’twant,drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

• Itusuallytakesmemorethanthreeweekstoprepareagoodimpromptu speech.

• Neverputofftilltomorrowwhatyoucandothedayaftertomorrow.

• Themanwhoisapessimistbefore48knowstoomuch;ifheisan optimist after it, he knows too little.

• Whatisthedifferencebetweenataxidermistandataxcollector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.

• Civilizationisthelimitlessmultiplicationofunnecessarynecessities.

• Buyland—they’renotmakingitanymore.

• Whenyourfriendsbegintoflatteryouonhowyoungyoulook,it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.

• Iftheworldcomestoanend,IwanttobeinCincinnati.Everything comes there ten years later.

• Itisbettertodeservehonorsandnothavethemthantohavethem and not deserve them.

• Golfisagoodwalkspoiled.

• “Classic”:Abookwhichpeoplepraiseanddon’tread.

• Fewofuscanstandprosperity.Anotherman’s,Imean.

There are two men walking in the desert, but neither knows each other. One of them is dying of thirst andtheotherhasafulljugofwater.The man with the jug offers theman a drink, but only if he follows three simple rules.

Rule1:Hecannothavethejug,because it is his only one.

Rule 2: He cannot remove the cork from the spout and drink this way.

Rule 3: He cannot poke a holeintothecorkorthejug.

So, the thirsty man accepted his rules and then he finished his drink and left. How did he do it?

Answer on next page

Riddle!

You Gotta beKidding!

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The benefits of male circumcision have become more and more clear over the last 10 years.- One of the doctors involved in the just-released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report which found that the benefits of male circumcision outweigh the risks

The reason I have a clean conscience is I know I did my job right.-  Police Officer Darren Wilson, in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, discussing his shooting of Michael Brown

We gonna die anyway. Let’s die for something. Elijah Mohammed said 40 years ago, maybe near 50 years ago – there were 20 million of us then – he said if 10 million of us lost our lives, 10 million would be left to go free...As long as they kill us, and we go to Wendy’s and have a burger and go to sleep – they gonna keep killing us. But when we die and they die, then soon we gonna sit down at a table and talk about – we tired. We want some of this earth. We tear this…country up.- Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan in a sermon about Ferguson

Hands up, don’t shoot. It’s a rallying cry of people all across America. - Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaking on the House floor in Congress

All week long, the Rams and the NFL were on the phone with the St. Louis Police Department asking for assurances that the players and the fans would be kept safe from the violent protesters who had rioted, looted, and burned buildings in Ferguson. Our officers have been working 12 hour shifts for over a week, they had days off including Thanksgiving cancelled so that they could defend this community from those on the streets that perpetuate this myth that Michael Brown was executed by a brother police officer and then, as the players and their fans sit safely in their dome under the watchful protection of hundreds of St. Louis’s finest, they take to the turf to call a now-exonerated officer a murderer—that is way out-of-bounds, to put it in football parlance.- Statement by the chairman of the St. Louis Police Officers Association after five members of the St. Louis Rams entered the football field exhibiting the “hands up, don’t shoot” pose that has been adopted by protestors who accuse Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson of murdering Michael Brown in cold bloodAmericans eat and drink

about one-third of their calories away from home, and people today expect clear information about the products they consume. - Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on new regulations requiring restaurants to post calorie counts

President Obama was asked this week whether he thinks that Hillary Clinton will try to distance herself from him in 2016 and he said, “Look, she is not going to agree with me on everything.” Of course, Obama just sent more troops to Afghanistan so even he doesn’t agree with himself on everything. – Seth Myers

I did nothing wrong at all.- Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, after he was acquitted for the deaths of protesters during a 2011 uprising

The clear suggestion is that the White House does indeed still want a doormat — Hagel just forgot whose doormat he was supposed to be.- Former Obama administration official Rosa Brooks

If I have to drink another Coke in 1,000 years it would be one Coke too soon.- George Prior, 50, who just completed one month of drinking ten 12-ounce cans of Coca Cola daily to see how it would affect his physical health

This week, President Obama is scheduled to meet with superintendents to discuss his plan to provide students with high-speed Internet in the classroom. Then teachers will meet with Obama and say, “Any other ideas for making my job impossible? Wanna give each kid an iPad with Minecraft and a couple of Red Bulls? Leave me alone!”- Jimmy Fallon

When the president goes through three secretaries, he should ask, “Is it them or is it me?” - Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., as the Obama White House began looking for its fourth secretary of defense

I got the haircut to fit into the hairstyles I see people wearing on the street.- Radu Mazare, the mayor of Constanta, Romania, who in 2009 was photographed wearing a Nazi uniform, explaining why he has a “Hitler-style” haircut

“Say What?”

Compiled by Nate Davis

Notable QuotesCompiled by Nate Davis

Notable Quotes

“Say What?”

THE JEWISH HOM

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2391The Taliban attacked our village and my son’s outpost at dawn. After seeing my young son’s body, I picked up his gun and decided to fight off the killers of my son until I die. - The mother of an Afghan policeman gunned down by the Taliban explaining why she went on a revenge-fuelled spree in which she killed 25 Taliban militants

I said getting into another plane crash, it’s never going to happen. It’s like a one in a 10 million chance, and to survive is a one in 20 million chance. I survived. I love flying, I always have.- “Pilot” Dan Hall of Connecticut who just survived his second small plane crash in five years

When I opened the goat house in the morning, dead goats were everywhere. - Chinese farm owner Guo Yulin, after a rare Siberian tiger released into the wild by Russian President Vladimir Putin killed 15 of his goats

C-SPAN set up a phone line for undocumented immigrants to call and share their perspective on the immigration debate in the U.S. Although it was awkward when the immigrants said, “Can I call you back? I’m going through a tunnel.” – Jimmy Fallon

The “uberification” of our economy signals a fundamental shift in the way that local services are discovered and fulfilled.- Steve Schlafman, a venture capitalist with RRE Ventures, on apps that deliver services such as doctor visits, security guards and haircuts

I know some will call this amnesty.- President Obama joking during the traditional White House turkey pardon

Prime Minister Netanyahu has failed in his management of the country and in dealing with the needs of the Israeli public. The firing of ministers is an act of cowardice and loss of control. We are sad to see that the prime minister has chosen to act without consideration for the national interest and to drag Israel to unnecessary elections which will harm the economy and Israeli society, all for narrow political interests and a surrender to the ultra-orthodox parties, the powerful central committee of the Likud and outside lobby groups. – Statement by Yair Lapid, chairman of Yesh Atid and Israel’s finance minister, after being fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday

Today, President Obama finalized his executive action to protect undocumented immigrants by signing a “presidential memorandum” during a rally in Las Vegas. Because if there’s one thing that always works out, it’s a commitment made in Las Vegas.– Jimmy Fallon

Before the announcement, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn warned that the country was— quote—“going to go nuts” and predicted the possibility of violence and civil disobedience. Then today Americans were like, “No, that’s next Friday... at Walmart.”- Ibid

Yeah, Obama’s taking a lot of heat from Republicans. In fact, some are saying that Obama thinks he’s an American king. When Obama heard this, he was like, “Hey, at least they finally admit I’m American. That’s some progress, I’ll take it. I’ll take whatever I can get.”- Ibid

Want to go somewhere, but don’t know where?- A promotional tweet sent out by Malaysia Airlines last weekend which was quickly removed by the airline for have “unintentionally caused offense to some”

Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as “thugs”? It’s precisely this kind of “otherization” that fuels the problem. Not once did I consider our attackers to be “bad people.” I trust that they weren’t trying to hurt me. In fact, if they knew me, I bet they’d think I was okay. The fact that these two kids, who appeared younger than I, have even had to entertain these questions suggests their universes are light years away from mine. We should look at ourselves first. Simply amplifying police presence will not solve the issue. Until we do so, we should get comfortable with sporadic muggings and break-ins. I can hardly blame them. The cards are all in our hands, and we’re not playing them.- Oliver Friedfeld, a senior at Georgetown University, writing in the school’s newspaper after he was mugged

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reportedly gave into pressure from the White House to resign. Hagel realized it was over when Obama started responding to his memos with “k.”- Seth Myers

Defense secretary Chuck resigned after sources say the White House became frustrated with his often embarrassing and contradictory remarks, at which point Biden started packing his things. – Jimmy Fallon

I hope that all of you will follow me.- Adolf Eichmann’s actual last words before he was hanged by Israel in 1962, according to a newly released documentary

I’m fed up. My iPod doesn’t work anymore here. I have to come back.- From a letter written by a French citizen who joined ISIS to his parents (The letter was obtained by Le Figaro newspaper)

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Artificial pancreas: Thanks to Israeli company Beta O2, type 1 diabetes patients might have an alternative to painful daily insulin shots and glucose level monitor-ing. The company has developed an arti-ficial pancreas called ßAir. This device’s main advantage over previous designs is that it protects islet cells which are respon-sible for converting sugar, starch, and oth-er foods into energy. The only downside is that getting these cells enough oxygen has proven tricky: ßAir users must inject oxygen daily. Results so far have been promising, and the device has already been implanted in eight Swedish diabetes patients in a $1 million human trial. The company is looking to develop an auto-mated oxygen supply for the device in the near future.

Mental health therapy in New York streets: Therapy is no longer restricted to an office and a lounge chair. To promote their services, Israeli start-up Talkspace has created plastic therapy bubbles right on the streets of New York where anyone who enters can receive free online coun-

seling. The company was founded by Tel Aviv married couple Oren and Roni Frank after they witnessed the suicide of a friend who had failed to get counseling for de-pression. According to them, most people with mental health problems don’t see a therapist due to financial problems and/or reluctance to discuss their problems face-to-face. The public bubbles are meant to reinforce the idea that mental health prob-lems are nothing to be ashamed of and that patients should be open and honest about their issues. Talkspace recently raised $2.5 million to deliver care from licensed men-tal health professionals to those in need. Their highly secure, encrypted text thera-py service costs as little as $25 per week.

New alarm app figures out your sleep schedule: Figuring out when you’d have to wake up to make it to school or work on time used to be a matter of guess-work. Now, a new phone app called Smar-tAlarm, developed by Israeli teen Zach Bamberger, manages your time for you. Alarm programs usually assume that a person’s schedule is constant. But we all know this isn’t the case. SmartAlarm’s in-novative algorithm considers factors such as weather, traffic, flight delays, and, of course, a person’s daily routine. For exam-ple, a traffic accident near your worksite would cause the program to wake you up a bit earlier than planned so you make it on time. Bamberger developed the app with three of his classmates at American Hebrew University in Greensboro, South Carolina. The program is still under devel-opment but has already attracted potential investors. Bamberger expects SmartA-larm to make its debut next year.

World’s first 3D printed car: 3D printing is a relatively new technology, but it’s proven incredibly useful, making everything from guns to shoes to human organs. Due to the pioneering research of Israeli company Stratasys, in collabora-tion with scientists at Aachen University, we can now add cars to the list. Every part of the StreetScooter C16 electric car’s exterior from the door to the bumper was made with Aachen U’s super-powerful Objet1000 3d printer which uses a plas-tic-like material called Digital ABS. The car has a minimum range of 80 miles and top speed of 60mph, making it perfect for city driving. With the advent of 3d print-

ed cars, customers have a wider range of options for customizable cars, and the cars

can be completed and delivered in months instead of years. As Aachen U professor Achim Kampker notes, compared to the traditional car manufacturing process,

3d printing saves an enormous amount of time and money. A total of 80 compa-nies were involved in the StreetScooter’s design and manufacture. The car is ex-pected to be sold for under 10,000 euros ($12,400).

Tel Aviv is the world’s smartest city: Tel Aviv beat out 250 other cities to win the World Smart Cities Award. The prize was sponsored by the Barcelona-based Smart Cities Expo, an annual conference where cities show off their tech. Tel Aviv won due to such innovations as citywide Wi-Fi, smart phone integration, loca-tion-based tech tools, public round tables, and a collaborative budget. One of Tel Aviv’s most innovative pieces of tech is its Digi-Tel service which allows every resident to get services and info through email, text message, and a personalized website that is tailored to the resident’s residence, interests and more. Another highlight is the city’s geographic informa-tion system (GIS) which is an interactive

digital map that shows information such as property values, demographics and oth-er things. In the words of Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai, “I’m happy about the recog-nition the municipality is receiving for its technological knowledge and creativity in the city that is used to improve public service and make city services more ad-vanced, efficient and transparent.”

New produce preservation method could end world hunger: It’s a sad fact that a huge amount of food is spoiled be-fore it even gets to a market. This is due mainly to transportation, storage, and other logistical issues. Now, Israeli start-up Pimi Agro has developed a new way of keeping food fresh and fighting world hunger. Their method, relying on a hydro-gen peroxide-derived formula, preserves fruits and vegetables for up to 10 weeks, a significant improvement compared to conventional techniques. The company’s safety tests have been successful enough to gain approval from agricultural regula-tors around the world including the U.S., U.K., China and others. They’ve also at-tracted the interest of mega retailers Wal-Mart and SunPacific, both of whom have extensively tested the method in the field. An added benefit of Pimi Agro’s preserva-tion process is that it can cut down dras-tically on the fungicides farmers need to use. As it is now, produce would rot even faster if it weren’t for fungicides, so food safety advocates will likely embrace this new method.

Recent Israeli Innovations By Aaron Feigenbaum

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Shabbat Lunch @ Pat’s$50/pp. Pre-registration required. RSVP to westcoast@ou.org Shabbat Afternoon young Israel of cenTury cITy4:30pm Rabbi Weinberger “Keeping Torah Values in a Challenging World”

Motzaei Shabbat community-Wide Eventwith Rabbi Moshe Weinberger8:00pm aT yeshIvaT yavneh 7:30pm SPonSoRS MelAVe MAlkAH in PRiVAte HoMe

sunday, december 14*crowne Plaza beverly hIlls hoTel9:30 - 11:30 Sessions open to Men & Women dr. beTh sharon samuels, a”h, annual memorIal beIT mIdrash9:30 Rebbetzin yael Weil “A Female Eliyahu: One Woman’s Journey Across the Generations”10:30 Mrs. geri Wiener “Ma’ayanei HaYeshuah: Life-Giving Waters & a Paradigm Shift”

yom iyun9:30 Rabbi Hershel Schachter “Chanukah in Halacha & Hashkafah”10:30 Rabbi Daniel Feldman “Lifnim Mishurat HaDin: Ethical Conduct in the Broader World” 9:30 - 11:30 Mcle Sessions2 Mcle credit Hours – Free of charge

9:30 Rabbi Dr. Moshe goldfeder Professor, emory University School of law “Religion in the Courtroom: American & Jewish Law Perspectives on How Religion Affects Trials” 10:30 leonora ‘lenny’ Schloss, esq. Shareholder, Jackson lewis Pc “What Employers, Employees & Lawyers Need to KnowAbout Religious Discrimination”california licensed attorneys: This activity has been approved for Minimum continuing Legal Education

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Panhandlers; Misery and Meaning By Ruth Judah

It is a truth of city life that pan-handlers exist. Sometimes prosecut-ed, usually ignored, the panhandler forces you to confront yourself. To give, or not to give? Racing around the supermarket, 20 minutes before Shabbat comes in, you speed through the store and grab the missing item. As you turn for home where your wife and children are already greeting guests, you are stopped in your tracks by an unkempt man who is standing at the exit. His wide eyes are now fixed on you, his breath smells rancid, his hands are shaking, his sign is un-mistakable and reads, “Can you spare a little change?” Do you throw a dol-lar in his hat, or a Danish in his hand, or do you ignore him? Do you ask him if he’s hungry? Do you – should you – care?

Panhandlers are the people who verbally ask a stranger for mon-ey. Sometimes it’s a lonesome man who places a mucky sign in front of him, making clear his request for a financial donation. Other times, it’s a young woman with a pained face, or an African American amputee, an unemployed veteran or an old woman with poor sight. 100 cities in Amer-ica have laws against panhandling, 16 are cities in California, but mostly the police force has more important issues than prosecuting passive beg-gars. These are the unkempt down-and-outs you meet outside the library, the hospital, the post office or along-side the freeway ramp.

The Center for Problem-Orient-ed policing at the University of Ala-bama, distinguishes the community of panhandlers as passive or aggres-sive. Panhandlers, by and large, are not aggressive during daytime hours, in well-populated areas. Prosecution

of aggressive panhandlers is inevita-ble but for the gentle person who is begging in Los Angeles, the success rate of panhandling for money en-sures the business model stays strong.

New York has a tougher stance on the issue. In 2014 the new appointed Police commissioner ramped up ar-rests of panhandlers and peddlers on the subway system to approximate-ly 90 arrests per month; a threefold increase on the 2013 numbers. But New York is many miles away; LA doesn’t prioritize this pursuit of low level criminal behavior in the same way.

A November 2013 GLS research report in San Francisco showed that 94 percent of beggars use the money for food, although other studies note that an equal amount is spent on to-bacco, alcohol and drugs. The ma-jority, perhaps more than 80 percent, are homeless and panhandling earns them approximately $75 a day, even more for those who are clean, who have pets, disabilities, or purport to be a veteran. The earnings potential varies in different reports. Some earn less than $10, the average is $25 but it is not unusual to earn $100 a day; not dissimilar from minimum wage.

Reports identify the profile of people who beg as follows: general-ly a man in his forties, probably an unemployed laborer, without family and facing substance abuse or mental instability, frequently with physical ailments including AIDS and am-putation. Many are homeless, yet there is no obligatory link between the two groups. There are homeless people who have never begged for a penny. For others, begging for mon-ey and collecting free handouts is a desperate way of life. Fortunately, in

approximately half the cases, the cir-cumstances change over a few years. The average time most people stay homeless is approximately 2 years at any one time.

It is difficult to know how to re-spond to a panhandler. The image of someone so desperately in need is heartbreaking and makes us uncom-fortable. Even if the drifter is not honest with their needs and is actual-ly receiving free housing even a free car or a free phone, the mental state of a person who fills his days with begging, is pitiful. It can be just as much work to beg for money as doing a paid day’s work. The mindset is heavy with attitude, “It is a beggar’s pride that he is not a thief,” says a Japanese proverb.

Already bombarded with request for political campaign donations, lo-cal politician funds and much need-ed school events, it is not surprising that many of us pull change from our pocket and donate. The problem is that we have to give without strings. Many a panhandler resents the money that is given with the words, “Please don’t spend this on alcohol or drugs.” If the addict had a choice, he would be spending the money on a healthy lifestyle but the very reason for his situation is that he cannot handle that part of living. A homeless person in Los Angeles summarizes their situ-ation on a scrap of cardboard, “Just trying to get through another day.”

When beggars cross our path, we are just as likely to give them some-thing to eat as opposed to giving them money which, we fear, will be used to perpetuate their addiction. Donat-ing food gives us a sense of achieve-ment that we have solved someone else’s hunger. In fact, street people

will tell you that hunger is the least of their problems. There are many food kitchens and shelters in Los Angeles and many communities offer a filling meal, if repetitious and nutritionally vague. Don’t believe the sign that reads, “Will eat for food!”

Panhandlers needs have been re-searched so many times. Electronic donations are not a priority, although it’s common to see panhandlers in poor Asian countries squatting on the side of the filthy streets, iPad in hand, flip phone in their pockets. Donations of clothing can be helpful, as long as the clothing is generic, sturdy and easy to maintain. Reports show that the most meaningful exchange is to ask what is needed. You may be told that money is everything, but specific food or medical requests are also on the list, and there is hope that you will purchase and maybe give them later. Street people note that the least useful donation is unprepared food because there is no kitchen facility in which to cook or clean. Food should be cold and easy to consume, not too fragile or complicated. Raisins and chewing gum are particularly good choices.

“It’s good to hear kindness,” says Joe, who has been homeless in Port-land, Oregon for much of the past 16 years. He added, “Remember that asking a homeless person their name can be empowering and humanizing for you and them.” Many of those who beg are limited in their ability to make a living, although their in-telligence is not handicapped; most beggars have actually completed high school. There are many witty signs. One reads, “My wife was kidnapped and I’m short 98c of the ransom. Can you help?” and, “I’ll bet you $1 that you’ll read this sign!”

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Being charitable is a central value of eth-ically minded people. Sympathizing with those in dire need is a human requirement that is equally fundamental. But should our charitable efforts be focused on the need that is the most visual, the most immediate? The reality is that panhandling would not exist if we did not support it. Without this source of income, those in need of food and accom-modation, healthcare and medical attention, would turn to the institutions and charities which already exist. Panhandlers are actually double dipping into the pool of donators.

Panhandlers represent a cornucopia of sad individual stories and many of these heart-breaking tales are connected to homeless-ness. The number of homeless is far higher than the number of beggars. The homeless situation in America is estimated at approx-imately 60,000 in every major city. 610,000 Americans are homeless at any given time. Homeless people are most likely to be facing schizophrenia or an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol. There are rehab programs avail-able, but for many, these temporary homes are poorly run, unsafe and otherwise unde-

sirable, especially for the mentally unstable who refuse medication. Medical reports show that schizophrenia, more common in men than women, is successfully treated with medication, however there are many with the disease who strongly dislike the side effects and reject the pills. This is the right of the individual, but makes it hard for charities to productively reach out to them.

The Jewish response to organized char-ity has resulted in endless donations. The expanse of services is endless, like the needs of those Jewish and non-Jewish people who are stricken in some way. Charities support the hungry, the homeless, those with medical needs, orphans, those with litigation issues and other areas that support peace and hu-manity.

In Midrash Vayikra Rabbah we are told that poor people will ask for help and we must comfort them, at the very least with words of kindness. If we cannot give money, we must acknowledge them with words, “My soul goes out to you, for I have nothing to give you.” In Proverbs, Mishlei 10:2, we read that charity saves from death. In giving char-ity we help those less fortunate but also, save ourselves from negative happenings. It is our obligation and also our protection.

The Talmud teaches that if you give a small donation to a poor person who asks for money, you will receive six blessings, and

if you comfort that person with your words, you receive 11 blessings. The Rambam not-ed the six levels to giving charitably and the highest of them all is to give money and help to prevent another person from becoming so poor. For example, we should encourage in-dependence, mentor where we can, help find someone a job and metaphorically teach the hungry to fish.

The blessing of our panhandlers is that they remind us to make a donation. The de-cision is not whether to give a coin or a dollar bill. The voice we should hear is the urging to contribute something to a quality charity that helps those in need. Today we can give but G-d forbid, it could be our friends, our family or ourselves who might someday need help. A panhandler sign reads, “Everyone needs help sometimes.”

TOP RATED CHARITIESThese highly rated charities work successfully and meaningfully in America and

overseas. They are large, complex organizations with budgets exceeding $100 million, and at least $65 million in net assets. They became household names in part because of their exceptional financial management, no easy feat considering the scope and size of their operations.

DIRECT RELIEF provides medical assistance to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty and disaster.

THE UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION created with Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities.

HADASSAH, THE WOMAN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA is committed to strengthening the unity of the Jewish people. In Israel, they fund progres-sive healthcare, education, youth institutions, volunteerism, and land reclamation. In the U.S. they fund Jewish and Zionist education programs, Zionist Youth programs, and they advocate for issues of importance to women and to the American Jewish community.

AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE was started in 1914 and works today in over 70 countries. JDC acts on behalf of North America’s Jewish communities and others to rescue Jews in danger, provide relief to those in distress, revitalize overseas Jewish communities, and help Israel overcome the social challenges.

Forbes collates a list of the largest charitable organizations in 2013 Ameri-ca. The top earners total revenue is as-tronomical; United Way, raised nearly $4.2billion, Salvation Army raised $4bil-lion, The Task Force for Global Health raises $1.6billion, and Feeding America raises $1.5billion.

see http://www.forbes.com/top-char-ities/

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Ask the Attorney

Guerrilla warfare is a type of fighting using unconven-tional soldiers who weren’t

always accepted by “proper” armies. The term guerrilla, meaning “little war,” was used by Spaniards in the 1700s but the concept is much older. It wasn’t until the 20th century that using locals to fight became ac-cepted in major wars. Manuals were written to train these in-digenous forc-es as well as to train regular soldiers in close combat fighting. One of these manuals was written by the eccentric Bert “Yank” Levy who served in many ways for multiple countries during several wars.

Isaac Meyer Levy—at some point he took on the name Bert and later was given the nickname Yank—was born in 1897 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His family of ten children moved to Buffalo and then to Cleveland when Bert was seven. As a child, Yank was weak so he joined the Boy Scouts and took up boxing to make himself stronger. Throughout his life, he was an active boxer, an amateur champion in the bantamweight division and at times fought professionally. In 1916, he joined the British Merchant Navy and aboard the beef supply ship Man-dalay he experienced a bombing raid. Two years later, he joined the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which was part of the Jewish Legion.

The Jewish Legion was comprised of five battalions in the British Army during World War I and served in the Middle East and in Israel in particular. They were involved in a few actions, suffering over 100 fatalities in battle. Yank was a machine gunner when his unit entered the Jordan Valley. In September 1918, he met up with two

scouts who told of amazing stories of their legendary commander Lawrence of Arabia. This was his first introduc-tion to guerrilla warfare and Yank de-cided there to make it a career. Before his time was up in the Middle East, he contracted malaria. After the war, he went back to Cleveland, married and

began to start a family.

H o w e v e r , Yank Levy still had that itch in him to fight and in 1920, he went to Mexico to fight in a rev-olution. When he heard that his enemy shot at prisoners for target practice, he resigned in disgust. Soon he was employed again to help a

revolution. This time it was to supply weapons to Nicaraguan guerrillas un-der General Sandino. He also advised them on proper fighting techniques and made several trips there until the American Marines showed up. Levy didn’t want to fight his own country-men, so he returned peacefully to the States.

In 1927, Yank was arrested, and after serving time, he moved back to Canada. He was employed in many fields but when he heard about the Spanish Revolution in 1937, he went there to fight and train irregulars. Yank served in the International Brigade but was captured by fascists after he was wounded during the Battle of Jarama. After six months, the Canadian gov-ernment was able to bring him home in a prisoner exchange. He wanted to go back to the fighting but he was sick with diseases he contracted in Spain. Friends also convinced him that it wasn’t the best idea to go back to fight, so he recruited over 1,000 Cana-dians to fight against the fascists.

When WWII broke out in 1939, Levy tried to enter the Canadian army. He was rejected because he had a

problem with his toe. Instead, he went to England and became a commando trainer in tactics for a group of civil-ians known as the Home Guard. They were to protect England in case the Nazis pulled off Operation Sealion—the invasion of England. The opera-tion was called off because the Ger-man Air Force didn’t gain control of the skies during the Battle of Britain. However, the training of the Home Guard went on and Yank was a prima-ry instructor, teaching thousands from his experiences in battle. The school was in Osterley Park and Levy was joined by other former Internation-al Brigade members including Tom Winteringham who had been his com-mander in Spain. The school became so popular that Levy and his staff were training over 400 new recruits every week. Eventually, it was closed by the government because of its radical political views and lack of “official” training.

Wintering-ham helped Levy write his book called Guerrilla Tac-tics in 1941 and wrote an intro-duction to the book. He wrote about Yank’s accolades and how he made his way to En-gland to train the Home Guard. At the end Winter-ingham writes, “That is why I recommend this book not only to every member of the Home Guard but to every soldier who under-stands that we may need to do a little thinking for victory, and to every ci-vilian who wants to understand what is happening and can happen in this war, how to help if invasion comes to this country, how the Nazis are going to be defeated.”

In the book Yank goes on exact-

ly about that point—a little thinking can go a long way. Time Magazine wrote about the book, “Anyone who thinks his country will be invaded… [would] do well to read “Yank” Levi’s [sic] Guerrilla Warfare for instruction on to harass invaders.” Yank stressed in the book that everything possible to harass the enemy should be done and anything can be used to an advantage. Some of the methods described aren’t for this article (I’m afraid I’ll get an email from a worried mother won-dering why her son has been digging irregular shaped trenches in the back-yard!) but the book was so popular that it was distributed worldwide.

Yank Levy returned to the U.S. in 1943 and unsuccessfully tried to mar-ket a combat knife. He was billed as an expert on the subject of guerrilla warfare and went around the country lecturing on the topic. Given the hon-orable title of “the greatest instructor

in defensive fighting,” he wanted to go back to Israel to help his fel-low Jews after World War II ended. In the end, his pass-port request was denied by the U.S. because they were afraid that his “dirty tricks” may pose a politi-cal threat to the British Man-date.

Yank died in 1965 at the

age of 67 but his legacy still lives on through his popular book that is still being sold today.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your com-ments and suggestions.for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

Avi Heiligman

Yank LevyMaster of Guerrilla Warfare

Forgotten Heroes

A guerrilla soldier destroying a tank

Yank Levy on the cover of Life Magazine in 1942

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Ask the Attorney

Guerrilla warfare is a type of fighting using unconven-tional soldiers who weren’t

always accepted by “proper” armies. The term guerrilla, meaning “little war,” was used by Spaniards in the 1700s but the concept is much older. It wasn’t until the 20th century that using locals to fight became ac-cepted in major wars. Manuals were written to train these in-digenous forc-es as well as to train regular soldiers in close combat fighting. One of these manuals was written by the eccentric Bert “Yank” Levy who served in many ways for multiple countries during several wars.

Isaac Meyer Levy—at some point he took on the name Bert and later was given the nickname Yank—was born in 1897 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His family of ten children moved to Buffalo and then to Cleveland when Bert was seven. As a child, Yank was weak so he joined the Boy Scouts and took up boxing to make himself stronger. Throughout his life, he was an active boxer, an amateur champion in the bantamweight division and at times fought professionally. In 1916, he joined the British Merchant Navy and aboard the beef supply ship Man-dalay he experienced a bombing raid. Two years later, he joined the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which was part of the Jewish Legion.

The Jewish Legion was comprised of five battalions in the British Army during World War I and served in the Middle East and in Israel in particular. They were involved in a few actions, suffering over 100 fatalities in battle. Yank was a machine gunner when his unit entered the Jordan Valley. In September 1918, he met up with two

scouts who told of amazing stories of their legendary commander Lawrence of Arabia. This was his first introduc-tion to guerrilla warfare and Yank de-cided there to make it a career. Before his time was up in the Middle East, he contracted malaria. After the war, he went back to Cleveland, married and

began to start a family.

H o w e v e r , Yank Levy still had that itch in him to fight and in 1920, he went to Mexico to fight in a rev-olution. When he heard that his enemy shot at prisoners for target practice, he resigned in disgust. Soon he was employed again to help a

revolution. This time it was to supply weapons to Nicaraguan guerrillas un-der General Sandino. He also advised them on proper fighting techniques and made several trips there until the American Marines showed up. Levy didn’t want to fight his own country-men, so he returned peacefully to the States.

In 1927, Yank was arrested, and after serving time, he moved back to Canada. He was employed in many fields but when he heard about the Spanish Revolution in 1937, he went there to fight and train irregulars. Yank served in the International Brigade but was captured by fascists after he was wounded during the Battle of Jarama. After six months, the Canadian gov-ernment was able to bring him home in a prisoner exchange. He wanted to go back to the fighting but he was sick with diseases he contracted in Spain. Friends also convinced him that it wasn’t the best idea to go back to fight, so he recruited over 1,000 Cana-dians to fight against the fascists.

When WWII broke out in 1939, Levy tried to enter the Canadian army. He was rejected because he had a

problem with his toe. Instead, he went to England and became a commando trainer in tactics for a group of civil-ians known as the Home Guard. They were to protect England in case the Nazis pulled off Operation Sealion—the invasion of England. The opera-tion was called off because the Ger-man Air Force didn’t gain control of the skies during the Battle of Britain. However, the training of the Home Guard went on and Yank was a prima-ry instructor, teaching thousands from his experiences in battle. The school was in Osterley Park and Levy was joined by other former Internation-al Brigade members including Tom Winteringham who had been his com-mander in Spain. The school became so popular that Levy and his staff were training over 400 new recruits every week. Eventually, it was closed by the government because of its radical political views and lack of “official” training.

Wintering-ham helped Levy write his book called Guerrilla Tac-tics in 1941 and wrote an intro-duction to the book. He wrote about Yank’s accolades and how he made his way to En-gland to train the Home Guard. At the end Winter-ingham writes, “That is why I recommend this book not only to every member of the Home Guard but to every soldier who under-stands that we may need to do a little thinking for victory, and to every ci-vilian who wants to understand what is happening and can happen in this war, how to help if invasion comes to this country, how the Nazis are going to be defeated.”

In the book Yank goes on exact-

ly about that point—a little thinking can go a long way. Time Magazine wrote about the book, “Anyone who thinks his country will be invaded… [would] do well to read “Yank” Levi’s [sic] Guerrilla Warfare for instruction on to harass invaders.” Yank stressed in the book that everything possible to harass the enemy should be done and anything can be used to an advantage. Some of the methods described aren’t for this article (I’m afraid I’ll get an email from a worried mother won-dering why her son has been digging irregular shaped trenches in the back-yard!) but the book was so popular that it was distributed worldwide.

Yank Levy returned to the U.S. in 1943 and unsuccessfully tried to mar-ket a combat knife. He was billed as an expert on the subject of guerrilla warfare and went around the country lecturing on the topic. Given the hon-orable title of “the greatest instructor

in defensive fighting,” he wanted to go back to Israel to help his fel-low Jews after World War II ended. In the end, his pass-port request was denied by the U.S. because they were afraid that his “dirty tricks” may pose a politi-cal threat to the British Man-date.

Yank died in 1965 at the

age of 67 but his legacy still lives on through his popular book that is still being sold today.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your com-ments and suggestions.for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

Avi Heiligman

Yank LevyMaster of Guerrilla Warfare

Forgotten Heroes

A guerrilla soldier destroying a tank

Yank Levy on the cover of Life Magazine in 1942

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78 Forgotten HeroesAvi Heiligman

In the past centu-ry, the world has seen the United

States military as the global police-man to protect its political and finan-cial interests. Some call it imperialism while others think of it as a world power extending its long reach to make the world a safer place. Certain areas required the attention of the Amer-icans more than once. Places like the Philippines, Somalia and Iraq have seen American ground troops trying to stabilize these nations and reorganize the local government. Haiti is another one of these coun-tries which first got American attention in 1915 right at the beginning of World War I.

For five years, Haiti was in political turmoil. Five presi-dents had come and gone (a couple of them were assassi-nated), and General Vilbrun Sam took over establishing a dictatorship. As with the previous presidents, he faced uprisings and at-tempted coups. Determined to squelch the rebellions, he resorted to brutal

tactics. After ex-ecuting hundreds of political prison-ers, an angry mob lynched him. The country was leader-less again. The next potential president was anti-American.

The U.S. had economic interests in Haiti especially in the sugar planta-

tions. In order to protect these interests, President Woodrow Wilson sent 330 marines to restore order. They landed in the capital city, Port-Au-Prince, in July and established a government with several marines and sailors in tempo-rary positions of power. Establishing

a police force, the marines then sought to bring down the rebels with a group called the Gendar-merie. The fight between the rebels, also known as Ca-cos, and the govern-ment’s Gendarmerie force reinforced by the Americans was known as the Caco Wars. The first battle was at Fort Dipitie on October 24, and the Americans were quick to quell the 400 rebels holding

the fort.The marines, led by Captain Smed-

ley Butler with the Gendarmerie in reserve, continued pushing the rebels back but came upon the formidable Fort Riviere. The fort was built by the French in the 1700s and was on top of a mountain with formidable defenses. However, the rebels had no artillery and were known to be poor shots. The 200 defenders only had a few rifles and assorted medieval weapons like swords and knives. Still, Butler was taking no chances and pre-pared to attack with three companies of 24 hand-picked ma-rines each.

At about 7 PM on November 17, the Americans moved stealthily into posi-tions around the fort. A half an hour later, Butler blew a whis-tle and the attack started. The way into the fort from the direction they were attacking was a small tunnel. The first two men into the tunnel were Sergeant Ross Iams and Private Samuel Gross followed by But-ler. They were under fire the entire time but suffered no casualties at this point. As they came out of the tunnel, over 60 Cacos opened fire but the three Amer-icans were soon reinforced by the ad-vancing marines and in about 10 min-utes forced the Cacos to flee. About 50 Cacos were killed and only one Amer-ican was injured. The rebels weren’t trained to use their guns for short dis-tances so they threw them away and picked up stones instead. One of these stones hit an American officer in the face. Aside from the lieutenant needing dental work, the Americans captured the fort while facing superior numbers.

What was interesting about the af-termath of this battle was the awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to Butler, Iams and Gross. The medal is the highest decoration for an American in the military. Gross, who was one of only a handful of Jewish servicemen to win the medal, was born in 1891 in Philadelphia. His real name was Samu-el Marguiles and was credited with sav-ing the life of Butler who was issued his second Medal of Honor. Gross’s cita-

tion reads, “In company with members of the 5th, 13th, 23d Companies and the marine and sailor detachment from the USS Connecticut, Gross participat-ed in the attack on Fort Riviere, Haiti, November 17, 1915. Following a con-centrated drive, several different de-tachments of marines gradually closed in on the old French bastion fort in an effort to cut off all avenues of re-

treat for the Caco bandits. Approach-ing a breach in the wall which was the only entrance to the fort, Gross was the second man to pass through the breach in the face of con-stant fire from the Cacos and, thereaf-ter, for a 10-minute period, engaged the enemy in desperate hand-to-hand com-bat until the bas-tion was captured and Caco resistance neutralized.”

This battle ended the first Caco War. A few years later, there was an-other uprising against the American occupation known as the Second Caco War. That rebellion was also squelched pretty easily even though it was bigger than the first war. However, the Battle of Fort Riviere was the most widely known battle of the American occu-pation which ended in 1934. Samuel Gross retired from the marines in 1918 and is believed to be the only Jewish marine to receive the Medal of Honor.

The men who fought in Haiti were not only protecting American interests but were showing the world that the U.S. has the power to defeat anyone who threatens world peace. Indeed, a couple of years later, America entered WWI and defeated the German military juggernaut in just one year of fighting, restoring peace to Europe.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your com-ments and suggestions.for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.

American Victory in the Battle of Fort Riviere

Painting of Samuel Gross in action

Smedly Butler

Painting of the action at the fort. Gross is on the right, Smedly in the center

and Iams on the left

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As the Israel Defense Force has long established itself as an effective and consistently moral organization, Israel’s internal security has had

difficulty maintaining the same standards. The IDF overwhelmingly commands respect from the people whom they protect and defend, yet the Mishtarat Yisra-el, the Israel Police, has developed a regrettably tough reputation amongst many of the citizens it serves and protects.

Multiple factors have led to the deterioration of public opinion. The religious sector harbors resent-ment towards the police for its role in the events that occurred in Gush Katif during the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, as well as for the violent clashes in Amona in 2006. The general public has lost faith in the police force’s ability to act impartially and to fight crime. The police force has had very little success in dealing with pervasive community issues like delinquency and do-mestic disputes. A recent international study revealed that the Israel Police ranked lowest among 20 national police forces.

A new program, Maaminim B’Mishtara, Believ-ers in the Police, aims to change this reality. Joining with top police officials and the Inter-

nal Security Ministry and with the haskama of many rabbanim in Israel, the leaders of the organization have created a system to recruit highly skilled and ethical candidates from amongst the religious population in ef-forts to boost both the police capabilities as well as its

public image.The initiative was spearheaded three years ago by

Nachy Eyal after an unfortunate encounter with the Israel Police. He realized that the existing situation required drastic changes. Determined to boost the in-tegrity of the Israel Police, Eyal set out to fix the system from within. Amongst the challenges he faced was the fact the Israel Police has had difficulty recruiting da’ati

graduates of IDF combat units into its ranks. Of the 29,000 policemen in the Mishtara, a mere 6,000 are at least traditional and the halachic aspects of police work has never been formally addressed.

Under the direction of CEO Uriel Cohen and Rabbi Rami Brachyahu, rav of Talmon and head of the pro-gram’s beit midrash, religious police officers are gradu-ally gaining traction in the police force. Located in Tel

Aviv, the Maaminim B’Mishtara program begins with a year of Torah study, focusing on relevant halacha and ethics, alternating with basic training. The follow-ing year the recruits are more fully immersed in police training, with the continued connection to the beit mi-drash. Through this specialized program, promotion to officer is possible within two years rather than five years in the typical police program.

The target candidates are graduates of hesder yeshi-vot and mechina pre-military academies, ages 22-32, who have completed combat service. As religious Zi-onists, these individuals have the ability to infuse the police force with a strong Jewish mindset and Israeli spirit found in the IDF. Ideally, the program seeks to recruit representatives from the national religious com-munity, the Ethiopian immigrant community and the chareidi ultra-orthodox community.

A metamorphosis is taking place. Relationships are improving. More and more young people want to be a part of this elite program, and the police are embrac-ing them as well, recognizing that these recruits are the best of the best; they are ethical, well-trained and have a strong sense of duty and commitment to the commu-nity. They have served their country with pride and bring an increased sense of nationalism and integrity to the police force.

60 policemen have been trained to date and are now deployed throughout the country. Many station houses throughout the state have an Orthodox representative. Spread throughout the country from Eilat to the Golan

How Religious Officers in Israel’s Police Force are Protecting their Nation with Honor

BY TAMMY MARK

Believers in the Police

THE JEWISH HOM

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3595Heights, positive changes are taking place within the

police force. The use of crude language, commonplace in the police environment, is diminishing as the police become more aware and conscientious when a religious officer works in their midst. Kashrut is now strictly adhered to during formal and informal events.

Rabbi Brachyahu relates how the program has in-fluenced even the non-religious members of the police force. For the past few years, the officers were given cards in order to purchase meals at local stores, Shabbat included. With the inclusion of Orthodox recruits, not only are meals being served on Shabbat in the station-houses, but kiddush and other Shabbat customs are now part of police life.

As there has never been halachic guidance for po-lice work, complicated questions are directed to Rabbi Brachyahu constantly. Consideration is spent on what police activity can be done on Shabbat, since so many police responsibilities do not fall under the category of life-saving. Israel Police are responsible to protect Arab and other non-Jewish citizens at all times as well, adding other considerations to the complexity of the rul-ings. Exploring issues like how to properly interrogate a prisoner and how much can the truth be stretched to question a suspect requires examining Jewish laws as well as the study of ethics.

Officers have to con-stantly be on their guard to ensure that they are work-ing within the halacha. For example, Rabbi Brachyahu points out, when called to a scene on Shabbat to find a cat caught in a tree, an officer cannot assist in the creature’s escape, unless there is danger to a person involved. The police officer has to explain that they cannot violate the Shabbat to free the cat and the of-ficer cannot refer the situation to another non-religious police officer. After all, whatever a religious officer cannot do, a non-religious officer should not be doing as well.

Ethics classes are part of the continuing educa-tion classes for the established police. Visible acts of chessed are common from members of the force. Po-lice are now quoting from the halacha booklets Rabbi Brachyahu has authored and there is a new desire and encouragement for them to learn in the beit midrash. They are learning and relearning what it means to be a police officer in the land of Israel. These nuances fos-ter a renewed sense of pride across the spectrum, from young recruits to 20 year veterans.

Throughout the year, Rabbi Brachyahu visits the station houses to give lectures to the officers. He also visits them in their homes to provide chizuk to their wives and children. He fields calls from those in the program and other officers who reach out to him with their questions—even from those who are non-religious who are seeking moral guidance from one whom they respect.

In a country where the focus is largely on national security issues, local community issues often take a back seat. Through this new initiative, inroads

are being made in community life as well. This infu-sion of ethics and compassion will facilitate progress in dealing with at-risk youth and abusive domestic situa-tions. Situations can be diffused and mindsets trans-

formed in a few minutes with kind words and the right demeanor. Having the police function as positive role models will assist in minimizing and ultimately pre-venting young transgressors from going to jail.

“We need to show them how to behave, not send them to jail. Sending them to jail is like sending them to a school for criminals,” Uriel Cohen points out.

Additionally, when religious officers show up to as-sist with a potentially-explosive situation and are able to calmly diffuse the tension in a home or at the scene of a crime, relationships between the religious and non-religious communities are fostered. A respect for the Torah and those who observe halacha is strengthened.

While the first priority is to train the new recruits to function as ethical leaders, there is a larger vision for the future. Rabbi Brachyahu’s next goal is to complete a book of halacha for use by all members of the Is-rael Police. Efforts are also being directed towards the development of an ethical empowerment curriculum as part of continuing education for all police officers.

While most organiza-tions in Israel are based on building yeshivas and do-ing chessed, the founders of Maaminim B’Mishtara are doing innovative work by bringing halacha to this commonly aggressive institution. “It’s a beauti-ful partnership,” Rabbi Brachyahu points out with a smile, “bringing some-thing G-dly into something that has historically func-

tioned as not G-dly.” Funding is now needed to sustain and expand the

program. The costs are the highest during the first year of learning, as Maaminim B’Mishtara pay the recruits 65% of their police salary. They are also seeking to include additional rabbinical students to study the com-plex police issues and write books on the halachot for police officers. Both Uriel and Rabbi Brachyahu em-phasize that although the program is relatively small now, the recruits are energized, and in the long term, the program will be changing the entire face of the nation’s security force. “How wonderful it is for these men to be able to protect the State of Israel and their brothers and sisters within the parameters of halacha!” Rabbi Brachyahu pronounces.

Uriel adds that they hope to supply 500 new reli-gious officers to the Israel Police force within the next 6 years. Currently, only 7% of officers in the force are religious—in stark contrast to 50% of IDF officers who are religious.

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President Emeritus of the National Council of Young Israel, sees the importance of supporting this endeavor as he be-lieves the small, day-to-day actions of these respect-able officers will have a major ripple effect—impacting society, transforming the police force, and providing more opportunity for the religious community.

“It is important that a Torah presence be part of the national police force so that all parts of society can see the beauty and ethical behavior of Torah as they interact with the young policemen,” says Rabbi Lerner.

The name, “Believers in the Police,” says it all. It is a clear statement of the dual goals that the leaders set out to achieve: to increase the civilian community’s belief in their national police force and to have G-d-fearing believers serving their country in the Israel Police.

“How wonderful it is for these men to be able to protect the State of Israel and their brothers and sisters within the parameters of halacha!”

In the Beit Medrash

Learning in the Beit Medrash

Members of Israel’s frum police force at the Kotel

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GlobalMuhammad Number 1 Boys’ Name in UK

This year, the most popular boys’ name in the United Kingdom was Mu-hammad—a name that jumped 27 places to claim the top spot in 2014. There has been a surge in Arabic names in the UK this year—with Omar, Ali and Ibrahim all taking spots in the top 100 for the first time. For girls’ names, the top spot was claimed by Sophia, but Maryam is now at number 35—up 59 places—and Nur is a new addition to the top 100—claiming the 29th spot.

Sarah Redshaw, managing editor for BabyCentre, pointed out, “With the in-crease of Arabic names, the top 100 shows the ever-increasing diversity of the UK to-day.”

George no longer is at the top ten, fall-ing to number 13. Other royal names—such as Harry and William—were not as popular this year. Parents seemed more enchanted with celebrity names than with names of the royal family.

Following Sophia as the most popu-lar girls’ name in the UK in 2014, Emily, Lily, Olivia and Amelia came in at the top five. Isla, Isabella, Ava, Sophie and Chloe rounded out the top ten. In terms of boys, following Muhammad, the top names in 2014 were Oliver, Jack, Noah, Jacob, Charlie, Harry, Joshua, James and Ethan.

A January 2014 census revealed that nearly one in every ten babies born in En-gland and Wales is Muslim.

Russia Still Supporting Rebels in Ukraine

NATO’s top military commander has reported that Russian forces are still oper-ating in eastern Ukraine and are providing essential backing for separatist rebels fight-ing the Kiev government. U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, visiting Kiev as head of U.S. forces in Europe, said Rus-sia’s “militarization” of the Crimea pen-insula it annexed from Ukraine in March meant Moscow could exert influence over almost the entire Black Sea region.

Breedlove met Ukrainian Presi-dent Petro Poroshenko and others in the pro-Western leadership to discuss ways the United States could assist Kiev’s de-fense in the conflict. Russia denies send-ing troops or equipment to the rebels but accuses Kiev of using indiscriminate force against civilians in the two eastern territo-ries of Donetsk and Luhansk. Breedlove said Russian forces were also helping the rebels “understand the advanced weapon-ry that is being brought across,” referring to military equipment which Kiev and the West says is being funneled into Ukraine from Russia.

Breedlove’s visit came after Vice Pres-ident Joe Biden’s visit to Kiev. Last week, Biden announced strong U.S. support for a democratic Ukraine – but made no statement of any new non-lethal military aid. Despite appeals by Kiev, NATO and NATO member countries have drawn the

line at providing weapons to Ukraine for fear of being embroiled in a conflict with Russia on behalf of a country that is not a member of the U.S.-led alliance.

Switched at Birth… and Staying That Way

This story is straight out of a work of fiction. Two South African toddlers were born in the same hospital on the same day in 2010. They were accidentally swapped before being sent home to their families and now a court-appointed expert has de-cided that the children should stay with the families who raised them and not be returned to their biological parents.

The two children had their identities exchanged when the nurses at the Johan-nesburg hospital mixed up the infants. The families were unaware of the mistake until one of the mothers underwent DNA tests when her ex-husband refused to pay child support. One of the mothers had initially wanted to get her biological child back, while the other preferred to keep the one she had raised, leaving the North Gauteng High Court to decide.

The court asked the University of Pre-toria’s Center for Child Law to investigate and report back on what would be in the children’s best interests, which are given a prominent position in matters concerning minors under South African law. “The rec-ommendation is that the children should stay with the parents who have raised them and should also be permitted to have con-

tact with their biological parents,” said Ann Skelton, director of the center.

The court has not set a date to decide the final fate of the children but Skelton said she was hopeful its recommendation would be followed because it was now what both parents wanted. “There was one mom who originally wanted to get her bio-logical child back but she has softened her position and she accepts now that it’s not really possible,” Skelton said.

More Taliban Terror in Kabul

On Sunday, the Kabul police chief re-signed after Taliban gunmen killed three members of a South African family in the capital. The attack happened after officials said Afghan forces had ousted insurgents trying to seize the former U.S. and British base of Camp Bastion in the south. Taliban fighters breached the perimeter of Camp Bastion just one month after the base was handed over to the Afghan army.

Despite tendering his resignation, Gen-eral Zahir Zahir was reinstated to his post “on the request of high-ranking officials.”

“Based on the request of high-ranking officials and in order to avoid disruption of security affairs, General Zahir was asked to continue his duties,” Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai announced on Monday.

The latest Taliban attacks have dented confidence in the country’s security force and added to concern the police and army will struggle to hold strategic territory after most foreign troops pull out at the end of 2014. The attack on a guesthouse in Kabul, which marks the third attack on a foreign guesthouse in 10 days, was home to staff of the U.S.-based charity Partnership in Academics and Development (PAD). PAD said on its website that three people were killed by insurgents who used guns and ex-plosives. They were identified as members of the same South African family – a father and his two teenage children. The fami-ly had lived in Afghanistan for nearly 12 years, with the father running the charity and the mother working as a doctor at a

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Kabul clinic. The children were 17 and 14.The Taliban said they had attacked the

foreign guesthouse because they believed it to be a Christian center. This was the sec-ond time this year the Taliban targeted a group that it said had links to Christianity.

Violence across Afghanistan has surged this year as the Taliban and their al-lies have stepped up their activities ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of most inter-national troops by the end of next month. Over the past 10 days, armed attackers have hit three compounds used by foreign organizations. In separate attacks in Kabul, two American soldiers, two British embas-sy workers and dozens of Afghan civilians have died.

Thai Princess’s Family Punished for Corruption

Thailand has been in the news lately for corruption at all levels of government. The latest move by the Crown Prince Va-jiralongkorn to crackdown on usury and bribes came this week when he had seven relatives of his wife’s family stripped of their royally-issued names. The relatives were arrested last week in a corruption probe. They are accused of misusing their royal status to amass vast wealth and carry out a number of abuses.

The prince ordered his wife’s family to stop using the name, Akrapongpreecha, which he gave them after he married Prin-cess Srirasmi in 2001. The king and the crown prince both have this privilege, akin to knighthoods in the UK. Interestingly, the crown prince has not revoked the prin-cess’s royal title, “Mom,” which translates roughly as “princess,” nor her use of the royal family’s name, Mahidol na Ayuttha-ya. She is his third wife, and if he divorces her, she will lose her royal name and sta-tus.

The investigation has attracted nation-al attention in Thailand, where the private lives of the royal family are generally dis-creet. But many questions remain unan-swered, primarily because of strict laws

that carry a penalty of up to 15 years in prison for insulting the monarchy.

The recent crackdown on dishones-ty has included the arrest of at least eight police officers, who face serious charges ranging from bribery and extortion to de-faming the monarchy. Thailand’s police department has a reputation as one of the country’s most corrupt institutions.

The crackdown comes at a sensitive time for the monarchy with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, the world’s longest-reign-ing monarch, in poor health. Worries about the king’s health and succession have con-tributed to Thailand’s political instability over the past eight years. As the wife of the crown prince, Srirasm would potential-ly become the next queen of Thailand.

Notorious Nazi Confirmed Dead in Syria

The world’s most wanted Nazi, Alois Brunner, has been confirmed dead by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Brunner, who was the top aide to the Final Solution ar-chitect Adolf Eichmann, is thought to have died four years ago in Syria, where he lived for decades after sending nearly 130,000 Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II.

Though the Nazi’s death was first sus-pected nearly four years ago, the ongoing Syrian civil war made independent confir-mation impossible. Brunner would have turned 102 years old this week.

Efraim Zuroff, noted Nazi hunter, summed up Brunner’s legacy in a press in-terview. “He was a notorious anti-Semite, sadist, fanatic Nazi,” Brunner explained. “The only known interview we have with him was to a German newsmagazine in 1985, in which he was asked if he had any regrets, and he said, ‘My only regret is I didn’t murder more Jews.’”

Brunner’s story is not just one of a mass killer who escaped, but rather a man who found a way to continue killing long after he fled Europe. While living in Syr-ia under the pseudonym Dr. Georg Fisch-er, Brunner taught former Syrian dictator Hafez Assad how to torture. In the ongo-ing Syrian Civil War, Hafez Assad’s son, Bashar, has carried on this legacy of terror

and torture.

Yemen: Worst Country for Women

According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), not one single country in the world has been com-pletely successful in eliminating gender gaps. Even so, there has been much im-provement in many countries and the in-equality gap has narrowed tremendously in some regions.

The WEF’s 2014 Global Gender Gap Report measured disparities between men and women in 142 countries. It considered several categories including economic par-ticipation, educational attainment, political empowerment, and basic health outcomes.

Yemen, is the worst country in the world for women. It has been the lowest ranked nation in the report since 2006, when the WEF began measuring gender inequality.

Countries with the most severe in-equality consistently failed to give its fe-male residents the same access to educa-tional opportunities than they give to the male residents. In many of these nations, disparities were clear as early on as prima-ry school. For example, in Chad, just 55% of school-aged girls were enrolled in pri-mary school, among the worst rates in the world and far worse still than the 71% for boys. Côte d’Ivoire, Pakistan, and Yemen also had large disparities in enrollment. Subsequently, in many of these nations, there is a tremendous literacy gap, one of the most critical educational outcomes. For instance, in Mali, just 25% of wom-en were considered literate, versus 43% of men. Similarly, Chad had female and male literacy rates of 28% and 47%, respective-ly.

Generally, in countries with extreme gender gaps, women do not hold office. In each of the 10 worst countries for women, men accounted for at least 80% of minis-terial positions.

Economic participation opportunities also varied widely between men and wom-en in the world’s worst-ranked countries. In fact, in many of these nations, men are at least three times as likely to participate in the labor force as women. Syria is the most extreme example of this, with 76%

of men in the labor force versus just 14% of all women. And of the women who do work in these countries, they tend to earn far less in salary than their male counter-parts. In Iran, women earned an average of less than $5,000 annually. Men with jobs, on the other hand, earned more than $26,000 per year. Similarly, in Lebanon, men earned more than $26,000 per year, versus $7,106 for women.

According to the report, the worse countries in the world for women are:

1. Yemen2. Pakistan3. Chad4. Syria5. Mali6. Iran7. Cote d’lvoire8. Lebanon9. Jordan10 Morocco

IsraelHeading to New Elections

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, amid the imminent breakup of the coali-tion and dissolution of the Knesset ahead of new elections.

“In recent weeks, ministers Lapid and Livni attacked harshly the government I head,” Netanyahu said in a statement re-leased by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“I will no longer tolerate an opposition within the government. I will not tolerate ministers who, from within the govern-ment, attack government policies and the person who leads the government,” he added.

The Yesh Atid party responded to Lapid’s dismissal, saying that Netanyahu’s “haphazard move of firing the ministers is an act of cowardice and loss of control.”

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has failed in his management of the country and in dealing with the needs of the Israeli pub-lic,” the party said in a statement. “We are sad to see that the prime minister has chosen to act without consideration for

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the national interest and to drag Israel to unnecessary elections which will harm the economy and Israeli society, all for narrow political interests and a surrender to the ul-tra-orthodox parties, the powerful central committee of the Likud and outside lobby groups.”

It added that the remaining Yesh Atid ministers would tender their resignations.

Livni and Netanyahu met earlier on Tuesday. At the end of their meeting, Livni remarked that “already yesterday at mid-night it was clear that we’re going to elec-tions.” Sources close to Livni told Army Radio that the reason she was fired was her support for a bill which would curb Israeli daily Israel Hayom’s free distribution.

“Netanyahu and I came from the same political home, but each of us took it in a different direction,” said Livni, who served as an MK and minister in Likud governments before joining Kadima and then establishing Hatnua.

The move came a day after Netanya-hu issued a series of demands to Lapid for the continuation of the government coali-tion agreement, which the Yesh Atid party leader rejected.

Netanyahu and Lapid met Monday evening following weeks of tension be-tween the leaders of the Knesset’s two largest parties. The prime minister de-manded Lapid cease his criticism of the government, transfer NIS 6 billion to the defense budget, release funds needed by the IDF to relocate to the south, back the prime minister’s “Jewish state” legislation, and spike his affordable housing plan, or else risk a breakup of the governing coali-tion. Lapid refused to concede to the prime minister’s demands.

Elections would likely be held in March 2015 if, as expected, Knesset mem-bers vote in the next few days to dissolve parliament.

Abbas: We’ll Never Recognize Jewish State

This week showcased the latest case of anti-Israel rhetoric to come from Palestin-ian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Speaking in Cairo, Abbas said that the Pal-estinians would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state and accused Israel of estab-

lishing an apartheid government.The Palestinian leader was speaking at

an emergency session of the Arab League with foreign ministers from around the Arab world. His remarks came following a week of intense debate among Israeli politicians about a Knesset bill that would enshrine Israel’s status as a Jewish state in law. Abbas also threatened to terminate all security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank unless peace negotiations are revived. Talks collapsed in April, and Israel will not resume them so long as Abbas is partnered with the Hamas terror group in a Palestin-ian unity government.

”Return to negotiations is possible if Israel agrees to a full freeze of settlement [construction], including Jerusalem, release of the fourth group of long-term prisoners, and setting a timetable for ne-gotiations which will begin with setting borders,” Abbas said. Israel had agreed to release four groups of Palestinian prison-ers as a precondition for American-mediat-ed negotiations that began last year. After Palestinian demands that Israeli-Arab pris-oners be included, Israel refused to release the fourth group of prisoners.

Abbas said on Saturday that the Pales-tinians weren’t willing to wait any longer for progress and were determined to peti-tion the United Nations Security Council to demand a timetable for the end to Isra-el’s occupation of the Palestinian territo-ries. The Palestinian leader is expected to receive Arab League approval to lodge the UN petition in the coming days, but did not say when he would do so.

The resolution is likely — but not cer-tain — to fail, either because it falls short of the needed votes or because the U.S. will veto it. But it will likely add momen-tum to international backing for Palestin-ian statehood.

Netanyahu Pledges Support for Druze Community

When Druze police officer Zidan Saif, 30, stormed into the Kehilat Bnei Torah shul that was under attack, he did not real-ize that he was about to become a national hero. Saif perished in the attack while at-tempting to save Israeli citizens, bringing

the Druze community to the spotlight. In the aftermath of the attack and Saif’s

heroic actions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced via his Facebook page that he will submit a plan for gov-ernment approval calling for “significant investment” in Druze and Circassian com-munities. The bid proposes to devote more funds to education, infrastructure, and em-ployment within Druze villages.

Israel’s 130,000 Druze live on the Car-mel Range and in the Galilee and Golan Heights. They serve in the IDF and recog-nize the Jewish state; some have integrated into the upper reaches of the military and political establishment.

Netanyahu met with Druze community leaders last Wednesday to express his con-dolences on the recent death of Saif and of Border Police Chief Inspector Jedan Assad who was killed earlier in the month when a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into a crowd of people at a light rail station in Je-rusalem.

“You are our very flesh. You are an or-ganic part of Israeli society. Your heroic policemen and soldiers have fallen in order to defend the state and all its citizens, but we will defend your rights and your securi-ty,” Netanyahu told the Druze leaders.

“There is a deep emotional commit-ment here that found expression in the crowds who came to the funeral. This emotionally underscored what Israeli cit-izens feel and what I feel,” he said.

“This is our fight against radical Is-lam,” he added.

On Thursday, Likud MK Danny Danon said he was seeking to have an addendum added onto the controversial “Jewish state” bill calling for affirmative action for minority communities who take an active part in defending the state. The amend-ment would affect the country’s Druze and Circassian communities, which take part in mandatory military service. There are around 4,000 Israeli Circassians, a Cauca-sian Muslim people that was settled in the Galilee by the Ottomans in the late 19th century.

France Votes in Favor of Recognizing Palestinian State

On Tuesday, French lawmakers voted in favor of recognizing Palestine as a state, following similar, recent moves in Britain and Spain. Sweden recently voted to rec-ognize Palestine as a state.

The highly symbolic vote in the lower house National Assembly is not binding on French government policy but sparked criticism from Israel, whose Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned it would be a “grave mistake.”

“Israel believes the vote in the National Assembly, which supports recognition of the state of Palestine, will only distance the chances of reaching an agreement be-tween Israel and the Palestinians,” said the spokesperson of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon.

“Such decisions will only make the Palestinian positions more extreme and sends the wrong message to the leaders and peoples of this region,” he said. A solution to the conflict will only be found through direct negotiations between the two parties and not through unilateral ac-tions, Nahshon added.

MPs voted 339 to 151 in favor of the motion, which invites Paris to recog-nize the state of Palestine “as an instru-ment to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict.”

“France today chose the wrong partner

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and I fear repercussions in relations with Israel, the only democracy in the region,” said Meyer Habib, a center-right lawmak-er who also holds Israeli citizenship and is close to Netanyahu. “While radical jihad killed citizens of France and other parts of the free world, legitimization is given to the establishment of a state run my corrupt people and terrorists,” he said in a state-ment published minutes after the vote.

Palestinians are seeking to achieve statehood in Gaza and the Israeli-held West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. With little progress on reaching a settle-ment, they have been lobbying foreign powers for international recognition.

NationalApple iOS vs. Google Android

It seems like everyone has an iPhone—even though only 42 percent of smartphone users own an iPhone—but the company is truly dominating when it comes to online shopping. On Black Friday, Apple’s iOS beat out Google’s Android smartphone op-erating system on a slew of shopping-relat-ed fronts. For instance, iOS users averaged $121.86 per order compared to $98.07 for Android users, a difference of 24.3 per-cent. iOS traffic online accounted for 34.2 percent of total online traffic—more than double that of Android. Lastly, iOS sales accounted for 21.9 percent of total online sales, nearly quadruple that of Android, which drove 5.8 percent of all online sales.

So despite the fact that Android has a bigger market share, Apple users seem to be devoted to the brand—and are will-ing to pay for it. Business Insider writes: “Android’s market share advantage means nothing because iOS is more popular when it comes to usage, as demonstrated by these shopping data points. If you’re making an app or a website, you want it to work best on iOS because that is where the most lucrative customers are.” The arti-cle concludes, “So, in practice, Apple gets the best apps and the best web experience because that’s what makes sense for com-panies and developers.”

American Smokers on the Decline

Americans may be slow to commit to eating healthy and exercising but there is one category where we are living a health-ier lifestyle: cigarette smoking has hit an all-time low in the United States. A new report finds that the percentage of U.S. adults who smoked cigarettes in 2013 was 17.8%, a decline since 2005 when it was at 20.9%, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention (CDC). This is the lowest figure since 1965 when researchers began track-ing this data.

Despite the increasing population in the U.S., the number of cigarette smok-ers was 42.1 million in 2013, a significant drop from 45.1 million in 2005.

“There is encouraging news in this study, but we still have much more work to do to help people quit,” Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said.

Researchers were able to track where the most and least smoking is happen-ing. In people who live below the pover-ty level, smoking remained particularly high. The report found that smoking was also high amongst less educated individ-uals and those who suffer from a disabil-ity or limitation. The smoking rate is also high among Americans of multiple races, American Indians and Alaska Natives, compared with people of other ethnicities.

Among U.S. regions, people in the Midwest had the highest smoking rate—of 20.5 percent. The smoking rate was 19.2 percent among people in the South, and 16.9 among people in the Northeast. People who live in the West had the lowest smoking rate—13.6 percent.

Each year over 480,000 Americans die due to diseases caused by smoking ciga-rettes. Research has proven that smoking leads to cancer, and it is also a factor in heart and metabolic diseases, which ac-count for 40 percent of tobacco-related deaths.

“We can bring down cigarette smoking rates much further, much faster, if strate-gies proven to work are put in place,” Dr. McAfee pointed out. These strategies in-clude funding tobacco control programs, increasing prices of tobacco products, im-plementing smoke-free laws, and produc-ing hard-hitting media campaigns.

The report also analyzed the habits of

smokers. The average smoker is cutting down the average of cigarettes he or she smokes. About 76.9 percent of smokers confessed to smoking every day in 2013, decreasing from 80.8 percent in 2005. Peo-ple who smoked daily reported smoking on average 14.2 cigarettes per day in 2013, compared with 16.7 cigarettes in 2005.

It’s important to break the habit now—even if a person has years of smoking behind them. “Smokers who quit before they’re 40 years old can get back almost all of the 10 years of life expectancy smoking takes away,” Brian King, a senior scientific adviser with the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said.

CDC: Circumcision Benefits Outweigh the Risks

On Tuesday, U.S. health officials re-leased a draft of long-awaited federal guidelines on circumcision, saying med-ical evidence supports having the proce-dure done and health insurers should pay for it.

Although, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines do not tell parents to have their boys circum-cised, “the scientific evidence is clear that the benefits outweigh the risks,” said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin.

According to the CDC, being circum-cised can prevent some diseases and can-cers.

“The benefits of male circumcision have become more and more clear over the last 10 years,” said Dr. Aaron Tobian, a Johns Hopkins University researcher in-volved in one of the African studies.

The guidelines were published in the federal register this week. For the next 45 days, the CDC will receive public com-ment before finalizing them next year. They are likely to draw intense opposition from anti-circumcision advocacy groups.

Stores are Saying Ca-Ching! With Black Friday Shopping

‘Tis the season for shopping and sales!

According to experts, this year’s Black Friday was considerably calmer as com-pared to other years at malls across Amer-ica. Experts believe that consumers are opting to shopping on the night of Thanks-giving and online rather than making a mad dash for stores early Friday morning. In addition, many retailers now extend hol-iday deals and specials rather than limiting them to just Friday in an attempt to keep consumers coming over the entire week-end. The natural result is less of a frenzy on Black Friday.

According to ShopperTrak, since 2005, Black Friday has ranked the busiest shop-ping day in the U.S. However, due to these new trends, the research firm predicts that “Super Saturday,” December 20, will be the most active day for shopping in 2014.

Don’t be fooled—less of a crowd does not mean no crowd, as more than 15,000 people lined up early Friday morning for the doors of Macy’s Herald Square to open.

Shares of Macy’s, Wal-Mart and Tar-get Corp closed from 2 to 3 percent higher on Friday as investors were encouraged by the long lines on Thursday night and ex-ecutives made optimistic comments about demand for this holiday season. Analysts believe that the decline in gasoline prices also helped boost sales; if shoppers are savings on gas, they have more to spend on retail.

“My budget is pretty tight this year and gas is a tremendous expense because I have to drive my daughter around a lot,” Kristen Akeley, 46, who works at an elementary school, said while shopping for clothes at a Target in Connecticut over weekend. “My gas expense has fallen from $150 a week to $80 a week and that is big savings at this time of the year.”

According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, for Thanksgiving Day, online sales were up 14.3 percent and for Black Friday, there was about an 8 percent in-crease from last year. Best Buy’s website crashed for just over an hour due to heavy traffic earlier on Friday, but was back up and running by the afternoon, a company spokesman said.

Target CEO Brian Cornell report-ed that his company had a record day of online sales on Thursday, and was seeing high demand in its stores as well. Accord-ing to Cornell, Target stores sold 1,800 televisions a minute between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Thursday night.

This year also rang in some crowds that had no intention of shopping. Pro-testors flooded the parking lots of malls and stores, petitioning for higher wages at Walmart Stores Inc. In downtown Chi-cago, police arrested 11 people associated with workers’ rights group OUR Walmart for blocking traffic in front of a Walmart store. The protest was one of 1,600 planned across the United States by the group, which is pushing for higher wages and benefits for the retailer’s employees.

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“Walmart, Walmart you’re no good. Treat your workers like you should,” a throng of protestors chanted outside the store.

Despite the protests, Walmart revealed that on Cyber Monday it saw the most on-line orders in a single day in the retailer’s history.

Survivor and Rescuer Reunite after 69 Years

Very few eyes were not dry this week

as a Holocaust survivor met with her res-cuer at JFK International Airport for the first time in 69 years. The Jewish Founda-tion for the Righteous (JFR) organized the meeting between Mira Wexler and Helena Weglowski, who flew in from Poland.

During the Holocaust, Weglowski, with the help of her brother, hid Wex-ler and her mother on a farm and in the woods, secretly bringing them groceries to give them sustenance during the war. Be-cause of their brave and selfless acts, Wex-ler and her mother survived the war and later moved to Brazil. Mira Wexler now lives in Rio de Janeiro, while Weglowski remained in Poland. The Weglowski fami-ly also hid Mira’s uncle, Joseph.

“In the many years we have worked with survivors and their rescuers, I con-tinue to be amazed by the heroism of the thousands of Christian rescuers who risked their lives to save Jews from certain death,” said JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl. “We owe a great deal of gratitude to these Righteous Gentiles, and through our work, hope to improve their lives and pre-serve their stories of heroism,” she added.

More Findings in Etan Patz Case

A 35-year-old tragic missing child case is close to being solved. Pedro Her-nandez, the suspect in the case, watched TV reports on the case of Etan Patz and started to wonder if he was the killer. “‘Did I [do] it?’ It was just a thought that came into my head,” Hernandez questions in the psychologist’s report, part of a recent court filing that adds new details about his defense in a case that galvanized the miss-ing-children’s movement. “I was, like, ner-vous and questioning myself ... trying to make sense.”

Hernandez would soon tell police he did kill 6-year-old Patz in 1979, confess-ing after investigators were tipped that

he’d spoken of having harmed a child. But defense psychological experts later found him unsure of whether the brutal scenario he’d described was real or imaginary. “I believed it in my mind that I did it, but I don’t think I did it,” Hernandez, 53, told one psychologist.

His defense says it was fiction from a man with an IQ in the bottom 2 percent of the population and mental illness that makes it difficult for him to distinguish real life from fantasy. Prosecutors say his confession was legitimate, and they’re seeking to limit proposed expert testimony on the psychological phenomenon of false confessions. “We believe the evidence that Mr. Hernandez killed Etan Patz to be credible and persuasive and that his state-ments are not the product of any mental illness,” the Manhattan district attorney’s office has said.

Etan vanished while walking to his school bus stop May 25, 1979, now me-morialized as National Missing Children’s Day. Hernandez then worked at a nearby corner store. Etan was never found, and the investigation spanned decades. After police followed an ultimately fruitless lead to a Manhattan basement in April 2012 — the news Hernandez watched on TV

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— they received a tip about him. Author-ities eventually learned that in the 1980s, he told a friend, his now-ex-wife, and a church prayer circle he’d hurt an unnamed child in New York City.

After more than six hours of police questioning, Hernandez gave a calm, con-sistent account to police and prosecutors on video in May 2012. He detailed the events of the sad day. “I felt like something just took over me,” he said. He told defense doctors that a voice told him to approach Etan and that several mysterious people followed him during the attack, though he also said the memory “feels like a dream,” according to the psychologists’ reports.

Prosecutors haven’t disclosed their own psychologists’ evaluations. But they’ve noted that Hernandez was never hospitalized for psychological problems before his arrest and that he’d shown the mental wherewithal to hold jobs, apply for government benefits and discuss religion.

America’s Most Jammed Roads

We all know that Thanksgiving time is the worst time of year for travel. A lack of new highways and an increase in cars per household has only made commuting worse. As the commuting nightmares of this time of year have come to a close, here is a list of the five most traffic-laden roads in the U.S.—keep your car pointed in the other direction!1. Interstate 110 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles has the second-worst grid-lock of any major city in the U.S., behind only Honolulu. This highway runs north and south through California’s biggest city, and is the worst commute in the coun-try. According to the Texas A&M Trans-portation Institute, I-110, also known as the Harbor Freeway, had gridlock in 2010 that resulted in 1,440 hours of delays per mile and 2,170 wasted gallons of gasoline. Seems like driving in the City of Angels requires lots of patience.

2. Interstate 80 in San FranciscoSan Francisco falls closely behind Los

Angeles in terrible traffic. I-80 runs all the way to Teaneck, New Jersey, but traffic on one 3.6-mile segment in San Francisco re-sulted in 600 hours of delays per mile for drivers in 2010. It also cost drivers 1,005 gallons of wasted gas, which is a massive expense even if gas has dipped below $3 per gallon. 3. Interstate 35 in Austin, Texas

Houston and Dallas are Texas’ big-gest population centers, but the Lone Star state’s capital city ranked higher than both of its major metropolitan areas’ terrible

traffic.I-35 runs from Texas’ Mexican border

to Minnesota, and it is home to a high-pro-file bridge collapse in 2007 that transpor-tation advocates were sure would have spurred more congressional action to fix highways in the U.S. But seven years later, traffic on Austin’s portion of I-35 is still notoriously clogged. One 6.7 miles stretch of the highway in Austin produced 546 hours of delays per mile for drivers and cost them 1,698 gallons of wasted gas. I guess everything really is bigger in Texas.

4. Interstate 678 in New YorkAhhh the Van Wyck!! We all know it’s

bad, but how many of us knew it was the worst road in the East Coast, according to Texas A&M?! The 3.1-mile stretch of highway running from John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Bronx pro-duced 690 hours of delays per mile and 1,086 wasted gallons of gasoline. Fuhget-taboutit!5. Interstate 95 North and South of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. has been associated with Congressional snarls in recent years,

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but there has always also been gridlock on its highways. Interstate 95 runs along the entire length of the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. But the portion of the heavi-ly-traveled highway that circles around Washington on the perimeter highway that is known as the “Beltway” is always backed up with drivers who are either leav-ing town or passing through on their way to destinations that are further north or south. Spending too much time in D.C. can really give you a headache.

That’s OddTwice as Smashed

On Saturday, a single-engine plane lost power and crash landed on a road that was under construction in Connecticut. The pi-lot, though, walked away unscathed. Af-ter all, he is an expert pilot—an expert at crashing planes, that is.

This is the second time Dan Hall crashed his single-engine plane. In 2008, his Cessna lost power and crashed into Pawcatuck River in Rhode Island.

“I said getting into another plane crash—it’s never going to happen,” Hall explained. “It’s like a one in a 10 million chance—and to survive is a one in a 20 million chance. I survived. I love flying; I always have.”

Seems like he loves crashing, too.

A Mouse, a Movie, and a Lost Masterpiece

When Gergely Barki was watching a children’s movie with his daughter, he was doing more than just spending quality time with his child; he was searching for long-lost art.

It was reported on Friday that back in 2009 when the art historian, who is a re-searcher at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest, was watching the movie “Stu-art Little” with his daughter, he spotted a work of art last seen by the public in 1928.

“I could not believe my eyes when I saw Bereny’s long-lost masterpiece on the wall behind [the actor],” Barki related.

“Sleeping Lady with Black Vase,” an avant-garde work by Hungarian painter Robert Bereny wound up as a prop in the 1999 children’s movie about a cute mouse.

“A researcher can never take his eyes off the job, even when watching movies at home,” Barki, who is writing a biography on Bereny, told AFP.

In the film, the painting hangs over the fireplace in the Little family’s New York City apartment. “It was not just on screen for one second but in several scenes of the film, so I knew I was not dreaming. It was a very happy moment,” said Barki, 43, who knew the work from a faded photo taken in 1928. “I started to write e-mails to every-one involved in the film.”

Eventually, he reached a set-designer assistant who said she bought the piece for $500 at an antique shop in Pasadena, Cali-fornia. “She had snapped it up for next to nothing,” Barki pointed out.

But despite the low price tag for the piece of art, the assistant liked it so much, she bought it from the studio for herself. “It was hanging on her bedroom wall in Wash-ington,” Barki said. “Within a year, I had a chance to visit her and see the painting and tell her everything about the painter. She was very surprised.”

She sold the painting to Barki, who will auction it off on December 13 in Budapest with a starting price of $110,000.

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he’s doing the backstroke.Want to drink your tea and smile as you

sip? Charm Villa will soon be offering tea bags with goldfish swimming instead. No, the fish aren’t live, but as you tug on your teabag, the fish seem to be swimming in the brew.

For now, the Taiwanese company has not put the fishy bags up for sale but once

they do, it probably won’t come cheap. These paper fish take 16 steps to make—and that’s before you start boiling your wa-ter for your chamomile.

It’s a great way to turn your teacup into a fishbowl just by adding water.

World’s Heaviest Gown

Want to weigh 400 pounds at your wedding? Wear the Fantasy gown by Gail Be and you’ll surely tip the scales.

The designer from Minnesota has cre-

ated the world’s largest and heaviest wed-ding gown—weighing a whopping 380 lobs. It took over three years to create the beaded confection, with 22 seamstress-es and one million beads used. There are 500,000 glass pearls and 400,000 crystals held together with seven miles of wire on the Fantasy gown. There is no fabric on the gown.

“Today’s bride, whether she is spend-ing $1,500 or $15,000 on her wedding dress, wants to have a wedding-day look that reflects her personal style,” comments Terry Hall, Fashion Director at Kleinfeld, the famed bridal salon in New York. “And while Fantasy is very much a fantasy gown, there is a lot of inspiration brides can find from it, whether it be the silhou-ette, the pattern of the beads, or even the headdress.”

An award-winning beader, Be set out to create this one-of-a-kind wedding dress out of her own personal collection of beads. After losing her vision in the early 1990s, Be moved from bead weaving to bead col-lecting, but thanks to a corneal transplant and Lasik surgery, her vision came back and she could resume her passion.

“I thought I’m going to build the big-gest wedding dress in the world,” Be told the Mail Online. “Didn’t know what the stats were, didn’t know how to do it, but knew that I was going to be doing the big one.”

Now that her work is complete—and will surely ensure her a spot in Guinness Book of World Records—Be is content knowing that no one will ever wear her piece of masterpiece.

“It’s an art piece,” notes celebrity wedding planner Marcy Blum. “She set out to draw attention to her work, and she wouldn’t have gotten any press at all if it were just a tapestry.”

The Day of I Do

On Sunday, nearly 2,000 couples tied the knot in the largest collective wed-ding Rio de Janeiro has ever seen. The state hosted the mass marriage ceremony for low-income couples who can’t afford to get married. With relatives joining in the festivities, there were nearly 12,000 people gathered to wish the newlyweds

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parabens—that’s congratulations in Portuguese.

Rio de Janeiro has promoted the mass wedding for eight years in a tradition called “The Day of I Do” for people with a monthly family in-come of less than $1,000. At the end of the ceremony, the couples receive a free marriage certificate.

Wonder who pays for the shmorg.

$127K in a Drawer

When Phillip LeClerc bought a desk for $40 at an auction, he got more than he bargained for.

When the Massachusetts man brought the desk home, he discov-ered an envelope sticking out from under a drawer. Inside the enve-lope was a stack of bonds—worth $127,000—that matured in 1992.

“The first piece I saw was $500 and that was enough to shake me up,” LeClerc related.

“First I said, ‘Oh, this can’t be real. This doesn’t happen,’” he said incredulously.

The Good Samaritan gave the bonds back to the auction house, which delivered them to their right-ful owner.

Marg-e Kelley, president of the auction company, was extremely impressed with LeClerc’s integrity. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years and every day the stories get stranger and better and (more) fabulous,” she said. “The gentleman whose family the bonds belong to, he can’t even believe it. He said, ‘I’m over the moon.’”

Tresses of TimeNapoleon Bonaparte once said,

“There is only one step from the sub-lime to the ridiculous.” Well, you may just venture into the realm of ridiculousness if you purchase the newest watch by DeWitt with the

intention of wearing it for the hair that’s stuck inside.

The $10,000 timepiece will have a piece of Napoleon’s hair sliced into a half millimeter thick—and only 500 will be sold initially.

The founder of DeWitt, Jerome de Witt, is a fifth generation descen-dant of the emperor. Viviane de Witt, Jerome’s wife, recently attended a private auction of items owned by HRH Prince Louis II of Monaco. She walked away with two lots, both containing strands of Napoleon’s hair, which she purchased with the “intention of enclosing them into De Witt watches so that admirers of the emperor can carry his DNA on their wrists,” the company wrote in a statement. She spent over $37,000 on the hair, nothing compared to the almost 2.4$ million one man spent on Napoleon’s hat at the auction.

Unbelievably, there are people lining up to have a strand of the French leader’s hair wrapped around their wrists. It’s not certain when the watches will be ready for sale, al-though the first pieces of hair were sliced in preparation for being put into the watches this week.

In Napoleon’s will, the emperor made plans for his hair, “Marchand shall preserve my hair, and cause a bracelet to be made of it, with a little gold clasp, to be sent to the Empress Maria Louisa, to my mother, and to each of my brothers, sisters, neph-ews, nieces, the Cardinal; and one of larger size for my son.”

Unfortunately, he forgot to men-tion the strands meant for people who have too much money in the 21st century.

Getting Married on the N Train

Next stop, marriage.On Friday, a couple got married

on the N subway line as it crossed the

Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Hector Irakliotis, 26, and Tatya-na Sandler, 25, love the subway and couldn’t wait to start their life togeth-er onboard the city’s train system.

As Hector, a game designer, boarded the train at the Kings High-way stop around 3:30pom with his groomsmen, he announced, “Every-one, hi. I have an announcement to make,” the groom told the other rid-ers. “I am going to be getting married in 20 minutes.” He invited everyone to stay, but asked if they would move to the back of the car. The New Yorkers—ever unflappable—will-ingly obliged. His groomsmen then decorated the poles and seats with white ribbons.

Tatyana, the radiant bride, en-tered the train at 36 street in her white gown, accompanied by her maid of honor. She walked down the subway aisle as the best man blasted music from his iPhone.

“We’ve been through a lot. Good times, bad times, and a lot of the good times have taken place on the train,” Hector said. “In New York, you spend so much time on the train, we thought why not?”

As the couple said their “I do’s,” subway riders spontaneously burst into applause.

Tatyana, beaming with joy, said the unorthodox wedding venue was just another example of her new hus-band’s incredible thoughtfulness.

“I’m originally from Ukraine, and each time we’d come back here, I’d say to Hector, ‘It doesn’t feel like home until I see the skyline as we’re crossing the bridge.’ And he remem-bered that. He planned it out specifi-cally so that we’d see the skyline as we were married,” she explained.

We hope the couple has “unlim-ited” wonderful times—and many great subway rides—together. Per-haps you’d like to chip in for a Met-rocard for the newlyweds?

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Nestled in the majestic Rocky Moun-tains of Colorado, the picturesque town of Vail is home to one to North Ameri-ca’s largest and most popular ski resorts. Thousands of visitors are drawn every

winter to Vail’s rocky slopes, perfect pow-der, and European-like village filled with beautiful luxury boutiques. Despite Vail’s

seeming remoteness, it’s actually just 100 miles outside Denver.

Whether you’re there to ski, snow-board, snowmobile, shop, or simply ride the gondola up to the mountain top and

take in the awe-inspiring views, Vail of-fers a world of adventure and excitement for the whole family. Even if Vail’s rather

steep winter prices don’t match your bud-get, there’s just as much, if not more, to do in the other seasons. If you’re not hit-ting the slopes, come in the summer and go horseback riding through Vail’s idyllic

forests and fields, or go rafting down the Eagle and Colorado rivers, among other things. No matter what time of year you visit, Vail is a nature-lover’s dream just waiting to be explored.

The area now known as Vail was first inhabited by the Ute Native American tribe who named nearby Gore Valley’s peaks the “Shining Mountains.” In WWII, the U.S. Army set up a training base called Camp Hale where the 10th Mountain Di-vision trained for alpine warfare. Many of these soldiers went on to fight in the snowy peaks of northern Italy. A 10th Mountain veteran, Pete Seibert, came back to Colorado after the war and estab-lished a ski school at Aspen. Later, Seibert was joined by fellow ski enthusiast Earl Eaton and the pair decided in 1957 that the area surrounding Vail Mountain would be an ideal place for a ski resort. They purchased the land from the U.S. Forest Service and the resort officially opened in 1962. Vail started out from humble begin-nings: it only had one gondola, two lifts, eight ski instructors, and nine ski runs. But the resort’s managers were determined to put Vail on the map as an unrivaled ski ex-perience.

This dream came true as the resort continued to expand and soon attracted big names such as President Gerald Ford, who visited every year and bought prop-erty. Vail’s big break came when it host-ed the 1976 Winter Games but when Vail celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1988, it hosted the China Bowl which finally made it North America’s largest ski area. Vail expanded further in 1997 when it pur-chased Keystone and Breckenridge, thus giving it a total of four huge ski areas and making it the undisputed titan of Colorado skiing. Blue Sky Basin, the most recent expansion, was completed in 2000 and offers some of Vail’s most breathtaking

views and best ski runs.What to See and Do:Vail Mountain/Resort: The world-re-

nowned Vail Mountain ski resort is set at a base elevation of 8,120 feet and

boasts over 5,000 acres of downhill skiing and cross-country trailing. As you ascend to the Back Bowls via gondola, you’ll be met with spectacular views, crisp moun-tain air, and the fun and excitement of blasting through fresh powder. Vail Nor-dic School offers classes for every winter sport and every proficiency level. Whether you’re completely new to skiing or want to learn cross-country skiing, an extreme-ly demanding sport that burns up to 1,100 calories per hour, Nordic School can set you up for a reasonable cost.

Kids can have plenty of fun too at Ad-venture Ridge, a football stadium-sized snow park set on the top of Vail Mountain. Family activities there include tubing, ski biking, snowmobiling, ziplining, bun-gee trampolining, and snowshoeing. The adult version of Adventure Ridge is Vail’s three terrain parks, the largest of which is Golden Peak. They feature half-pipes and log slides for those who aren’t quite ready to hit the slopes. Plus, there are beginner ski courses specifically for kids including Coyote’s Escape, Sherwood Forest, and Porcupine Alley. Finally, check out the Moonlight Snowshoe tour to learn about Vail’s nocturnal wildlife. Be sure to being a telescope on the tour for superb sky-gaz-ing.

To ski at Vail, you can purchase a Sea-son Pass starting at $409 per adult and $229 per child. A one day ticket is $104 per adult and $72 per child. A basic one day equipment rental package costs $40 while the more advanced Demo Package costs about $58. Whether you’re staying a day, a week, or somewhere in between, Vail.com or snow.com will have a pack-age that suits your needs. You can also find discounted tickets on Ebay (beware of counterfeits) as well as Denver grocery stores.

Summer activities: Though the snow

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is gone, Vail in the summer is just as beau-tiful and action-packed as in the winter. Take the gondola to the top and ride one of Vail’s many mountain bike trails, each rated according to difficulty. Bike rentals and guided bike tours are available. An-other popular summer activity is hiking. There are six main hiking trails on Vail Mountain itself and plenty of others in the surrounding area. A guided hiking

tour takes you on a 2.5 - 3 hour journey through Ridge Route and Grand Escape. A hike through Vail is an unforgettable ex-perience in which you’ll see beautiful foli-age, grassy slopes, tall trees, and views of snowcapped peaks that look like they’ve been transplanted from the Swiss Alps. Some exceptional, lesser known trails include Missouri Lake and Shrine Pass. Vail’s water adventures are also top notch.

The village has Whitewater Park where you can kayak in view of the crowds situated along the promenade. If you want a more demanding, off the beat-en path experience, then there are several tour companies that will take you for a ride on the Eagle, Colorado, and Arkansas rivers. Horseback riding is another option for exploring Vail’s great outdoors. Set-ting out from the Eagle’s Nest at the top of the gondola, you can take a 40-minute horseback tour through the scenic Game Creek Bowl. Kids can also enjoy a pony ride at Adventure Ridge.

For those who want to fish, Vail has plenty of excellent opportunities. Lion-shead Village next to the gondola offers free daily lessons perfect for those who are new to fishing. After you’ve got the know-how, head out to one of the many nearby lakes, streams, and rivers to test your skills. One of Vail’s best fishing spots is the majestic Piney Lake, offering one of Vail’s most stunning views. Vail Mountain is also well known for its unique high ele-vation golf courses and tennis courts.

The Village: Downtown Vail is a charming little hamlet modeled on Eu-ropean alpine ski villages. In the winter, the town glows with thousands of lights, and snowy mountains stand in the back-ground giving the Village a fairytale-like atmosphere. Boutique shops have every-thing from clothes to jewelry to artwork. The town has many excellent high-end

hotels such as The Lodge which features a state-of-the-art spa, and the magnificent-ly designed Arrabelle, one of the Village’s most prominent architectural landmarks. For those on a budget, Destination Resorts Vail and Manor Vail Lodge are just some of the many fine mid-range hotels Vail has to offer.

Winter sports junkies will definitely want to visit the Colorado Ski Museum/

Hall of Fame. This free museum displays the history of skiing and snowboarding, the U.S. Winter Olympics of 1976, and the proud legacy of the 10th Mountain Di-vision. For more info about the U.S. Ar-my’s alpine division, head to Camp Hale, located not far from the village. Several plaques there commemorate the heroic story of these men who trained to fight in some of nature’s harshest conditions. An-other highlight of Vail Village is the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, one of the world’s highest botanical gardens. The expertly manicured gardens feature a wide array of flowers, as well as waterfalls and a beau-tiful log cabin. Admission to the gardens is free.

Events: Vail offers great fami-ly-friendly events in both winter and sum-mer. Perhaps the biggest one for 2015 is the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Featuring over 700 athletes representing over 70 countries, the Ski Championships show off some of the world’s most talent-ed skiers in an event second only to the Olympic Winter Games. This will be the third time the U.S. has hosted the event with Vail having previously hosted it in 1999 and 1989. Vail also has plenty of free concerts including the unrivaled Bra-vo! Vail summer festival held from late July through early August. It brings to-gether three of the world’s finest classical orchestras in a free concert series that has gained international acclaim. Another one of Vail’s most notable, and bizarre, events is Spring Back to Vail where participants dress in costumes, skim across icy wa-ters, and jump off snow slopes in hopes of coming out the other side. Spring Back also has live music and a mountain-based obstacle course with prizes for the winner.

Daven and Eat:The main shul in Vail is the Chabad

Community Center located about twenty

minutes from the Village at 1000 Lions Ridge Loop inside Vail Run hotel. You can contact them at (970) 476-7887 or visit their website at jewishvail.com.

Chabad of Vail also offers glatt ko-sher catering delivered right to your hotel room. You can either order directly from their website or from their kosher partner SkiCountryGrocer.com. Citi Market in the Village has a limited selection of kosher

breads and pastries.For those visiting in the summer, a

great option is to buy a tour package from KMR (718-395-9040/kmrtours.com). Not only will they show you all the best high-lights of Vail, but you’ll also be provid-

ed with strictly supervised kosher food throughout.

Getting There:Vail is located a relatively short dis-

tance of 100 miles from the Denver Air-port just off the I-70. Flights from LAX to Denver currently start at about $200 per person round trip. You can also fly direct-ly in to the Eagle County Airport, located 35 minutes away from Vail by shuttle, for

about $630 per person round trip. A round-trip Greyhound fare costs about $460 per person round trip from Denver. Driving to Vail from L.A. is a straightforward 13 hour trip along the I-15 and I-70 highways. For more information visit Vail.com.

Vail VillageStreet View

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Summer is just around the corner....the days are growing longer and the weather is starting to get warm (hopefully!), and when the weather is warm, it’s time to break out that favorite summer treat: ice cream! Or better yet...travel to the source of one of the world’s favorite ice cream factories: Ben & Jerry’s.

The Ben & Jerry’s Factory is located in the beautiful countryside of Waterbury, Vermont, (5 ½ hours from the NY metro area) and is “must-do” summer activity for every ice cream enthusiast. The Ben & Jerry’s Factory tour is a fun and educational 30 minute guided tour around the real factory...think “Willy Wonka,” only minus the Oompa Loompas and crazy tour guide. The price for admission is $4 for an adult, $3 for senior citizens, and kids 12 and under are free...which is pretty awe-some considering that the tour includes a free scoop of the day (and a scoop of ice cream alone at a B & J shop costs around the same price).

After purchasing your tickets, the tour begins with meeting your tour guide who proceeds to take you to the “Cow over the Moon” theater where you are shown a short film on what makes Ben & Jerry’s, well, Ben & Jerry’s. From there you go to a glass-enclosed mezzanine where you look down into the actual factory where all of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in the U.S. is made (no pictures allowed from hereon in). Thankfully, I was at the factory on a day that there was ice cream production sched-uled, so I actually got to see them packaging the ice cream, as they had already fin-ished mixing the batch that day. Any part of the production process is cool to watch. Of course, the most exciting part of the tour is the final visit of the guided portion of the

tour: the flavo-room. In the flavo-room, you get to sample a fresh batch of ice cream (the flavor of the day when I went was mint chocolate chip), and if you don’t care for the featured flavor, they always have a backup option for you to sample. In the flavo-room, you also get to see a real Ben & Jerry’s food scientist and culi-nary artist developing new flavors for Ben & Jerry’s (talk about a cool job—liter-ally!). The guided portion of the tour ends there, and then you are free to explore the B & J’s awesome gift shop and their famed flavor graveyard, where you can pay your respects to retired flavors (they have tombstones and all…).

Ben & Jerry’s is under the hashgacha (kosher supervision) of the Chof-K. The factory is located at 1281 Waterbury-Stowe Rd, Waterbury, VT 05676

KosherologyAlex Idov

Fun for the DayTravel with Kosherology

On a recent trip to the Monsey/Monroe area of New York, my father and I decided to venture off to Pocantico Hills (Westchester county), home of the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. Located less than an hour away from Monsey in the beauti-ful Hudson River Valley, the Stone Barns Center is a must-see tourist attraction for any hardcore foodie. Figuring that I would soon be attending college with a major in culinary sustainability, we made visiting the center a high priority trip, as it paints a vivid picture of the “farm-to-table” culinary world. The Stone Barns Center is a non-profit farm that acts as an educational center which promotes the knowledge of sustainable agriculture and local farming. The beautiful farm sits on 80 acres of colorful pastures which were once home to a Rockefeller estate (I guess that explains why it’s the most beautiful barn I’ve ever seen—commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, himself). While there you can get up close and take a good look at all of the livestock including sheep, cattle, chickens, turkeys, and pigs.

The premises also contain vegetable gardens (greenhouses) and outdoor fields, which are used to grow over 200 varieties of produce year round. Here they grow an array of vegetables, many of which are

rare varieties, by only natural means (no pesti-cides, etc.). The only downside about visiting Stone Barns Center is that the restau-rant on the premises, which serves food that was raised and grown on their farm, is un-fortunately not ko-sher. But don’t let that deter you from going to visit this beautiful and edu-cational farm with the family. I’m still trying to get over the fact that this place and its surrounding towns and villages are located only 27 miles from the bustling streets of Manhattan. True it is a little cold outside, but the warm spring weather is just around the corner!

Visitors can get more information about the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture at www.stonebarnscenter.org. Located at 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills (Tarrytown) NY, 10591; (914) 366-6200.

Stone Barnes Center for Agriculture

Ben & Jerry’s Factory

Alex Idov is a kosher food blogger who runs the award-winning site ‘Kosherology’ and a regular contributing food columnist to The Jewish Home magazine. He is currently studying for his bachelor’s degree in Culinary Sustainability & Hospitality. Visit ‘Kosherology’ at www.exploretheworldofkosher.com and like ‘Kosherology’ on Facebook.

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Alex Idov

Kosherology

As a student majoring in Culinary Sustainability & Hospitality and a kosher food blogger, I think it goes

without say that I have a great interest in the culinary world. Unlike many other “foodies,” however, my interest reaches far beyond sim-ply procuring gourmet kosher products and enjoying all things food. What some people would call a quirk of mine is that I also en-joy food history (particularly with regards to kosher brands), grocery stores, and food marketing (again, mainly with regards to ko-sher foods). The demand for kosher certified products and services in the United States has grown exponentially in the last three de-cades and it has been an amazing experience to see national companies such as Nabisco, Mars, Kraft, and Miller’s gain kosher certi-fication and begin marketing toward the ko-sher consumer. I have enjoyed every moment of it (oh, and it tastes good, too!).

“There is no doubt that kosher product buyers represent an attractive market seg-

ment for many value-added producers,” boasts the 2006 marketing report by Pennsyl-vania State University. According to a survey performed in 2011 by the Mintel marketing research firm and the Lubicom marketing and consulting agency, there are approximately 12,250,000 kosher consumers in the U.S., with 21% of American consumers purchas-ing kosher products solely because they are certified kosher. The marketing report put out by Penn State states that in 2006, when the report was published, the kosher food prod-uct industry was estimated at approximately $100 billion. I am sure that the number must

have grown greatly since then, as the demand for a kosher market keeps growing. The re-port brings proof to this by bringing the fact that there were approximately 60,000 kosher certified products in 2000, growing to around 75,000 certified products in 2002.

It is easier today than ever before to gain kosher certification from one of the many

certifying agencies and many companies al-ready produce products that contain all ko-sher ingredients, making it easier for them to receive approval. The funniest fact about the growing kosher market is that the Orthodox Jewish consumer is no longer the common buyer in the kosher segment; it only makes up about 20% of the market. The majority of the kosher market consists of a growing number of Jewish and non-Jewish consum-ers who value quality, specialty food prod-ucts which they find healthier and more ap-pealing.

The kosher market is further catego-rized into two segments: “mainstream ko-sher” and “ethnic kosher.” My understand-ing and personal belief is that the majority of kosher certified products that the general public purchase are those in the “mainstream kosher” category. These are products that “happen” to be kosher and are not necessar-ily purchased for their kosher mark. This includes foods produced by national man-ufacturers like Hershey’s, Pepsi Cola, and General Mills. The other segment, “ethnic kosher,” encompass the food products that are typically manufactured by strictly ko-sher/Jewish-owned companies like Kedem grape juice, Yehuda matzah, or jarred gefilte fish (what I like to call the universal grocery store kosher stock). These products are char-acteristically purchased due solely in part to their kosher mark and identification as a traditional Jewish food. It is my belief that the “ethnic kosher” products are a remnant of a dwindling market and most American kosher consumers today are apt to purchase “mainstream kosher” products, though there is a small percentage of Chassidic and other sects of Orthodox Jews who will strictly buy

“ethnic kosher” brands (and this phenome-non is mainly restricted to parts of the New York tri-state area).

The growing demand for a kosher market is not restricted to food manufacturers, but has become an increasing trend in the hospi-tality industry. Ever since I can remember, I have been enthralled by the hospitality indus-

try and watch with amazement as world-re-nowned hotels and resorts take on the task of catering to kosher consumers. My hometown of Atlanta currently has five upscale venues that boast kosher kitchen facilities, includ-ing the Georgia Aquarium, Westin Peachtree North, The Intercontinental Buckhead, and the Grand Hyatt Buckhead. The Ritz Carlton hotel chain announced earlier this year that they will be offering kosher catering in con-junction with Mark David Destinations at se-lect resorts throughout the nation (including Atlanta). Many hotels, mainly in New York, Florida, and Chicago, also have kosher dine-in options. Co-founder of getaroom.com, Bob Diener, noted, “Hotels are being more creative in targeting different markets, and this [kosher] is an upscale market… There’s a big market of people who keep kosher, and hotels are getting better and savvier at data mining and using the data and acting on the data, which they didn’t do in the past.”

And that is the past, while kosher is the wave of the future. While it has been fun observing the growth of the industry both in the manufacturing and hospitality sectors, I hope to join the field myself sometime after I graduate. Until then, I look forward to con-tinue watching the industry grow. Watch out, kosher: here I come!

Alex Idov (AKA ‘The Kosherologist’) is a food blogger who runs the blog ‘Kosherology’ and a contributing food columnist to Jewish publica-tions across the U.S. He is currently attending Kennesaw State University (near Atlanta, GA) for his bachelor’s degree in Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality. Visit his website, ‘Kosherology’ @ www.thekosherologist.com

The Growing Kosher Industry

The Orthodox Jewish consumer is no longer the common buyer in the kosher segment; it only makes up about 20% of the market.

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With winter vacation plans on the hori-zon, the last thing you’d want is to get sick. Keep your family’s immune system strong this December with these natural remedies that have been proven to work for my fam-ily, friends and clients year after year.

The first line of defense against the common cold is sleep. Sleep is vastly over-looked as a natural immune booster. Stud-ies have shown that when sleep deprived, our T-cell (natural cold killers) production is lower and circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines are higher. One study even gave 153 participants, ages 21 to 55 years old, nasal drops of the rhinovirus for 14 con-secutive days while reporting their sleep duration and quality. Results found that those who slept less than seven hours per night were 3x more likely to develop the cold, when compared to those who slept at least 8 hours per night (1).

In addition to sleeping, we also need to nourish our ever replicating and evolving cells with effective nutrition. What we put in our body can directly impact our body’s ability to prevent and/or recover from a cold. Some of the best sources of immune boosting nutrition can be blended together in my immune boosting smoothie recipe, found below.

The first ingredient is filtered water be-cause fluids are essential for flushing out your body of your illness and loosening mucus. 100% pure lemon juice is added because although acidic in taste, lemons are actually very alkalizing to the body and

helps clean the liver so that the liver can function optimally as the premiere detox-ifying organ and clean the body of toxins and waste products. Lemons are also rich in vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant.

The next ingredient is cucumber. The water content in cucumbers are also packed with enzymes that naturally hy-drate the body and increase the rate and effectiveness of healthy bodily functions such as detoxification and cleansing. Cu-cumbers also contain caffeic acid, which lowers inflammation and thus reduces ir-ritation. I then love to add organic celery. Celery is also a natural laxative and helps support kidney and liver function that helps to remove waste and toxins from the body. Celery also contains polyacetylene, which is a compound with strong anti-in-flammatory properties.

Additionally, the more greens the bet-ter, which is why I try to consume as many as possible when fighting and preventing a cold. Greens, including kale, collard greens and romaine lettuce, are extremely high in vitamin A, C, E, chlorophyll, mag-nesium, and B vitamins, which promote clean blood, removal of toxins and waste, and improved circulation. They also con-tains high amounts of manganese, iron, copper and calcium essential for support-ing blood flow to tissues. Greens are also rich in chlorophyll and magnesium, which can ease stress and improve mood when you are feeling blue.

Cilantro and parsley not only con-tain the positive attributes of green veg-etables mentioned above, but they have been shown to chelate mercury and help excrete mercury out of the body through urine. Cilantro also has this effect on other toxic metals such as lead and aluminum. This can help prevent flu-like illnesses be-cause bacteria and viruses are attracted to organs saturated with heavy metals, which can build up in the body when eating a diet high in processed foods.

The last nutrient powerhouses I try to incorporate into my immune boosting smoothies is Turmeric and ginger. These ingredients have been long studied and used for centuries for their anti-inflamma-tory properties.

In addition to adequate rest, fluids, and an immune boosting smoothies, I also highly recommend lots of rooibos tea which is naturally caffeine-free (as to not interrupt your rest) and packed with won-derous polyphenols and antioxidants such as aspalathin and nothofagin, which protect the body from free radicals, and chysoeri-ol, which promotes circulation. And lastly my favorite snack when under the weath-er is ripe bananas. They are perfectly soft as to not scratch or sting your throat and contain potassium and magnesium, which can relax muscles. Bananas also contain the amino acid L-tryptophan that later gets converted to melatonin and serotonin, a re-laxing neurotransmitter so you can rest and recover happily and healthily.

ILANA’S IMMUNE-BOOSTING SMOOTHIE

Recipe makes approximately 2- 16 oz. servings

Ingredients10 ounces of filtered water1 medium cucumber 3-4 stalks celery *1 head of romaine lettuce *1 cup chopped kale *1 chopped apple *2-4 medjool dates

2 tablespoons of 100% pure lemon juice

1 thumb-size worth of fresh gingerApproximately 2 tablespoons of fresh

parsley or cilantro¼ to ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, to

taste

Directions:Blend all together until smooth with

3-4 ice cubes in a high powered blender. Enjoy!

1. Cohen, Sheldon et al. “Sleep Hab-its and Susceptibility to the Common Cold.”Archives of internal medicine 169.1 67–62 :(2009). PMC. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

Ilana Muhlstein, R.D.N., is a Regis-tered Dietitian Nutritionist with a Private Practice in Los Angeles. She also works at UCLA where she meets with patients and leads a weekly seminar on weight loss and health promotion. ilanamuhlstein.com

Ilana Muhlstein, R.D., is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a Private Prac-tice in Los Angeles. She also works at UCLA where she meets with patients and leads a weekly seminar on weight loss and health promotion. ilanamuhlstein.com

Natural Remedies for Fighting a Cold This Winter By Ilana Muhlstein, R.D.Registered Dietitian in Private Practice and at UCLA

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