october 26, 2012
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The Jewish StarTRANSCRIPT
VOL 11, NO 41 ■ OCTOBER 26, 2012 / 10 CHESVAN 5773 WWW.THEJEWISHSTAR.COM
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By Karen C. Green
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founding chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Efrat, and founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, spent last Shabbos in Woodmere where he spoke at both Irving Place Minyan and Young Israel of Woodmere. Rabbi Riskin is also Chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone institutions, a net-work of high schools, colleges, and graduate programs in Israel.
Hosted by Helene and Robbie Rothenberg of Woodmere, Rabbi Riskin spoke Motzei Shabbos at a Melave Malka at the home of Mi-chelle and Jeff Klahr. Klahr’s eldest daughter Rebecca spent a post high school year at Riskin’s Midreshet Lindenbaum, one of the most prominent colleges for Orthodox Women.
“Rabbi Riskin represents Achdut of Israel and Achdut of the world,” noted Robbie Rothenberg in his introductory remarks to those in attendance.
“I had two Rebbes in my life that I learned from, Rabbi Joseph
B. Soloveitchik and my maternal grandmother,” said Riskin. “My fi rst Rebbe was my grandmother. I watched my grandmother daven; she spoke to G-d like he was her friend. I learned Gemara with my grandmother. My model of a grandmother was someone who can teach Chumash and Gemara,” added Riskin. “I learned from her that Judaism is a religion that had to encompass everything.”
Ohr Torah Stone, under Rabbi Riskin’s direction, has literally lived up to its name, “Torah is light,” as its work has illuminated and en-lightened the world through its commitment and dedication to tikkun olam. Riskin has charted new educational, legal and social paths to ground-breaking change in the realms of women’s rights within Ju-daism. Specifi cally, Rabbi Riskin challenged Israel’s High Court on the laws which prevented women from serving as Toanot - advocates in the Rabbinic Courts. Riskin won the case and established the fi rst program for the training of women advocates in the religious courts. Graduates of the program now defend the rights of Agunot in the re-
Woodmere welcomes Rabbi Riskin
Election day jitters By Malka Eisenberg
Sweaty palms and a racing heart may bepart of the voting process on Election Day. A recent study found measurable increas-es in the levels of a stress-related hormone inpeople who were tested immediately beforevoting. In a study of voters on the way to the poll-ing station published in the journal Europe-an Neuropsychopharmacology, those testedhad almost three times the level of cortisol,also known as the “fight or flight” hormone,than the level of cortisol in a control group. The test was done on Israel’s Election Dayin 2009. Subjects were asked to fill out a ques-tionnaire describing their emotional stateand give a sample of their saliva at a standthirty feet from the polling station. The con-trol group was drawn from people from thesame area who were tested on post-electionday, and also asked for a saliva sample and tofill out the same questionnaire. The study was led by Professor HagitCohen from the Anxiety and Stress ResearchUnit at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’sFaculty of Health Sciences. The research indicated that people’s
Continued on page 3
Students meet Gilad Shalit and his unitBy Malka Eisenberg
After years of praying and hoping, letter writing and vigils, students from DRS, SKA and Rambam Mesivta were able to meet with Gilad Shalit and members of his army unit over the course of a ten-day visit to the Unit-ed States.
A year after his release from captivity in Gaza in exchange for 1,027 Arab prison-
ers, Shalit, 13 members of his platoon, his commanding offi cer, Captain Yoav Belkes, and three psychologists, came to the United States on a therapeutic mission: to heal and fi nd closure for the severe and personal at-tack on their unit perpetrated on June 25, 2006. Early that morning, Hamas and Popu-lar Resistance Committee terrorists infi ltrat-ed into Israel through a tunnel from Rafah and attacked Israeli forces with mortar and
anti-tank fi re, killing an Israeli offi cer and a soldier, wounding four others and kidnap-ping Shalit. Gilad remained captive in Gazaby Hamas for over fi ve years and was freedand returned to Israel on October 18, 2011.
During that time, Dr. Chagit Hadar, chair-man of the Hebrew Department at Magen David’s Celia Esses Yeshiva High School in
Continued on page 3
Continued on page 14
Photo by Karen C. Green
(From left), Helene and Robbie Rothenberg , Rabbi Shlomo and Vicky Riskin, Michelle, Rebecca, and Jeff Klahr.
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Sh’or Yoshuv offi cially certifi ed as college in New York StateBy Malka Eisenberg
In a last minute scramble, Sh’or Yoshuv managed to confi rm its status as a college in New York State, to retain state funding for their students.
An application for TAP was accidentally fi led with the name Sh’or Yoshuv Institute rath-er than the acceptable name of Sh’or Yoshuv Rabbinical College, noted Mrs. Sharon Jaco-bowitz, the registrar there. She noted that the school goes by both names legally, and with the designation of “college” is eligible for the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), New York State funding for post secondary schools.
“They refused to give us aid unless we for-mally call it the Sh’or Yoshuv Rabbinical Col-lege,” explained Jacobowitz. “We didn’t have documentation (for New York State), and had to do a name change, fi le the legal name as Sh’or Yoshuv Rabbinical College (SYRC), to get an offi cial certifi cate of assumed name. We had to go through the process; it is very time consuming.” She noted that the “bureaucratic procedure” did not take that long in the De-partment of State but was taking a longer time in the processing through the Board of Educa-tion. “It’s a very lengthy procedure,” she said. The problem was that “TAP gave us a deadline for when we need the assumed name and if we didn’t hit that deadline we wouldn’t be eligible for TAP. There was no way that would hap-pen that quickly, it was not going to be done in time,” she said. “That’s when we turned to Assemblyman (Harvey) Weisenberg’s offi ce. I spoke to Marie; she was very nice, extremely professional and very helpful.”
“She pushed it through,” continued Jaco-bowitz, “but when she saw that it wasn’t go-ing to happen in the time frame, she asked Weisenberg to call and within days we had the certifi cate of assumed name. Without that we wouldn’t have gotten TAP.” She said this hap-pened during July and August. She noted that students graduate from Sh’or Yoshuv with a
fi rst Talmudic Degree, a Bachelor of Arts de-gree, and use that degree for law school or business. “We have a boy who went to Harvard Law School after that degree,” she said.
Sh’or Yoshuv’s story was highlighted by Rebbitzen Rivka Wakslak, of the Young Israel of Long Beach. She noted that Assemblyman Weisenberg also facilitated a grant of $4.9 mil-lion from HEAL-NY, the Health Care Effi ciency and Affordability Law, signed into law by Gov-ernor Andrew Cuomo as part of last year’s bud-get.
Rabbi Dr. Chaim Wakslak, Rav of the Young Israel of Long Beach and Clinical Director of the Hebrew Academy of Children (HASC) in Brooklyn, pointed out his personal experience with Weisenberg, indicating that “Weisenberg has been a strong advocate for the developmen-tally disabled for many years. He has helped shape the programs and policies of the state of New York so that today, New York offers the best programs and services to that population of any state that I am aware of. New York has the highest level of funding and the most com-prehensive programs and the most protective legislation – all directed at helping this popula-tion achieve the highest possible quality of life.”
“We help a lot of people,” noted Weisenberg (A.D. 20 and deputy speaker pro tem in the State Assembly). “The sad truth is that nobody understands that the job involves working day and night. It’s public service, trying to help people, with quality of life and dignity.” He stressed that he was a special education teach-er and principal for 20 years in East Meadow and that he spoke in Washington about his bill to put defi brillators in schools.
Weisenberg explained that he called to help Sh’or Yoshuv because he is “proud of the peo-ple who graduate from this facility; they make it a better world. It is my privilege to help. I love the Rabbi there; you can feel the climate of love between the faculty, staff, parents and students. They bring that dedication to society and make the world a better place.”
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Brooklyn, took a personal interest in Gilad Shalit. “Gilad’s father is from France and my father is from France,” Hadar pointed out. ”We knew each other but not personal-ly.” She contacted the Shalits and offered to help them use the “power and connections” of the Jewish communities in America to raise awareness of Gilad’s plight. Over that time, Gilad’s father Noam came to America through Hadar to work for his son’s release. Hadar has been instrumental in bringing Shalit’s unit as guests of the Syrian Jewish Community in Brooklyn and Magen David Yeshiva.
The goal, she said was to “close the whole circle. Two were killed, one was injured and Gilad was kidnapped. The whole unit was in trauma. They had meetings in Israel and the IDF decided to have treatment, interven-tion, outside of the country, to disconnect from the country, news, pressure and fam-ily and concentrate on closure.” The com-munity here fi nanced the trip; the IDF could not fund a visit for ten days for the group. Hadar said that they had a session every day for four to six hours a day, where they talked about the “captivity, loss of friends, guilt, ‘how come nothing happened to me,’ to deal with the situation as a group and as individu-als. They didn’t come for pr for the IDF, just therapy. They also wanted to give back to the community, that’s why they held panels in different communities.”
Shalit and his unit visited a number of schools, including Yeshiva University, Ma-gen David and DRS. “The IDF allowed the unit to do therapy outside of Israel,” said Ms. Elyse Nadjar, director of chesed activities at Magen David. “The focus is on therapy. The IDF can’t pay to go overseas. The community supported it and so they paid to have it here.” Magen David High School invited 15 schools
from New York and New Jersey, said Nadjar, each school sending a group of six students and one chaperone to a panel session to meet Gilad and his unit on October 12th. There were also representatives from Brooklyn Col-lege, Baruch College and Columbia Universi-ty. Both Magen David’s elementary and high schools, about 2,000 students, held welcome meetings with the group. “It was a positive, moving, incredible opportunity to recognize the Israeli army, what they do in Israel and the Diaspora and to show the love and sup-port we have for them,” explained Nadjar. In Israel, the soldiers see that the army is “part of everyday life,” she added. “Here they see that it is part of the Jewish world. It strengthens their resolve and commitment to serving.”
At all the schools that the soldiers met with the community, they were praised as soldiers and representatives of Am Yisrael by the rabbis and administrators. At the panel session in Magen David, students in the audi-ence were able to ask the soldiers questions and they responded. One soldier recounted how they withheld fi re from a terrorist tar-get to prevent injuring some children who were nearby. Another discussed their moti-vation for fi ghting for Israel, some for Zion-ism, some for their country, some for their friends. They also pointed out that the IDF has taught them not to leave Jews behind, that they would risk their lives to save others and noted that the release of 1000 terrorists for one person shows the world the value of each individual, of each Jew. Students no-ticed the special bond between the men in this unit.
When Gilad was asked about his captivity, he responded “softly and slowly,” wrote Avi Gross, a student at Rambam Mesivta, in a re-port of the event. “He described how he had a blindfold on for weeks, not knowing where
he was or who was around him. Contact be-tween himself and his captors was limited to a few curses or a jeering remark. After a while, his blindfold was removed, but he then spent months in isolation without any lasting or meaningful human contact. After what seemed like an eternity, his guards felt comfortable enough to talk with him about sports. He was careful never to discuss poli-tics. His news of the outside world was re-stricted to teams and games. Months later, he earned enough trust to receive a radio. At this, he stopped… and slumped back down in his chair….”
Rabbi Elly Storch, Assistant Principal of Judaic Studies at DRS, noted that Gilad
made three three-point shots in the gym be-fore the program. “They have been througha lot,” said Storch of the soldiers, “and to givethem chizuk, strength, was special. The boysreally appreciated it and learned of the selfsacrifi ce that they do on behalf of Israel.” Hepointed out that Miriam Peretz the mother of two soldiers who were killed in separatebattles, and the mother of a currently serv-ing soldier, came to give chizuk, strength to Gilad as well.
Storch also said that he received a mes-sage from Shalit after the program: “I so ap-preciate the warmth you and Jews all overhave shown me. I don’t take it for granted.”
Continued from page 1
stress increased immediately prior to voting.“Emotional changes are related and affect various physiological processes, but we were surprised that voting in national democratic elections causes emotional reactions accom-panied by such physical and psychological stress that can easily influence our decision-making,” said Cohen. Stress triggers the adrenal glands near the kidneys to release the steroid hormone cortisol to direct the different body functions to assist the brain in dealing with the source of this stress, be it physical or psychological. It is also key in the regulation of many bodi-ly systems including carbohydrate metabo-lism, immunity, the cardiovascular system and blood pressure. In an email interview, Cohen cited the motivation for the study. “It is well known that situations involving decision-making tasks and emotions can cause an increase in cortisol levels,” she noted. “Emotions have been found to play a major role during elec-tions. Israeli elections are always emotional ordeals. However, this election was particu-larly emotional, coming on the heels of two wars in less than three years.” She pointed out that the election was a “struggle” between Kadima and Labor on one side and Likud and Israel Beiteinu on the other. “Given that emotions are a key element in many decision-making situations in which
much is at stake, and choosing one alterna-tive over the other involves risk and uncer-tainty, there is reason to believe that voters will feel anxious and exhibit higher than normal cortisol levels,” she emphasized. The study was conducted in Omer, a small southern town near Be’er Sheva, 70 miles from Tel Aviv, said Cohen. The first group in the study was tested before voting and the second group was tested at the same time of day but on their day off from work and not in connection to voting. “Our voters exhibited extremely high levels of cortisol, more than
five times higher than expected from healthy individuals on a regular day (matching each voter to an expected normal cortisol value on a regular day) and almost two times higher than these same individuals on a regular day. To capture the mood of voters prior to cast-ing their ballot, we also used a questionnaire (the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).” “Our data demonstrate that elections are exciting yet stressful events, and it is this stress, among other factors, that elevates the cortisol levels of voters,” she concluded.
“Since elevated cortisol has been found toaffect memory consolidation, impair memo-ry retrieval and lead to risk-seeking behav-ior, these outcomes of elevated cortisol levelsmay affect voting in general and the field ofelectoral studies in particular. Only addition-al research will determine if that stress iscapable of altering voting decisions.” Dr. Michael J. Salamon, Senior Psycholo-gist and Director, ADC Psychological Servic-es in Hewlett, commented on the study.“While cortisol is considered a stress hor-mone, it is more accurately labeled an emo-tional arousal hormone,” he pointed out. “Itis a bit of a leap to say that all emotionalarousal is stressful. I am not surprised that astudy of elections in Israel may be seen asextremely stressful because it is a matter oflife and death. In other countries the rhetoricof voting can certainly increase emotionalarousal, but would not be necessarily calledstressful from a psychological or biologicalperspective.” Cohen cited a 2010 study that reportedvaried cortisol levels in subjects on Electionnight in 2008 in the United States. She saidthat that seems to indicate that “stress andhormonal levels (other than testosterone)may be related to political decisions.” Shesaid that she thought that American voterswill exhibit higher stress levels throughoutthe campaign and election.
Election Day jitters or fear and loathing at the polling boothContinued from page 1
Local students meet Gilad Shalit and his unit
Gilad Shalit and members of his unit receive a standing ovation at YeshivaUniversity
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Opinion
The thirtieth debate of this presidential season (including all the GOP primary debates) took place in our ancestral
homeland—not Israel, the other one, Boca Raton. And while many of the town’s resi-dents may have been asleep when the debate began, this third and last contest between the two presidential candidates may have been the most interesting from a strategic stand-point.
Going into tonight’s third debate, Mitt Romney’s task was to “pass the commander-in-chief test,” to look presidential. His basic task was to seem like a reasonable alternative to President Obama. As a bonus, anytime he could bring the discus-sion back to the econ-omy was a plus, as the economic situation is the number one issue in this campaign.
President Obama’s task was turning the momentum around; make the challenger look like a warmonger on the level of Attila
the Hun.If you were in suspended animation for a
decade and woke up just in time to watch the debate, you might have thought Romney was the president and Obama was the chal-lenger. Obama seemed desperately trying to lure Romney into the same kind of “battle” they had at Hofstra, but the GOP candidate wasn’t biting.
At times, Obama seemed petty. For exam-ple, when the question was about tightening sanctions on Iran, his answer was:
And the fact is, while we were coordinating an international coalition to make sure these sanctions were effective, you were still invested in a Chinese state oil company that was doing business with the Iranian oil sector.
One may have expected Obama to add “nah-nah.”
When Romney spoke about the need to modernize and add ships to our Navy the president’s answer was a condescending:
But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works.
You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear sub-marines.
In a debate where he could have won by acting presidential, the President lost points by acting nasty.
Romney tried to score points also, but they were based on Obama’s actions as presi-dent: he brought up the abandonment of the “star wars” missile defense system without discussing it with Poland, Obama’s comment to Russia’s Medvedev that he would have more fl exibility in a second term, and how Obama has shown weakness to our enemies:
I think from the very beginning, one of the challenges we’ve had with Iran is that they have looked at this administration, and felt that the administration was not as strong as it needed to be.
I think they saw weakness where they had expected to fi nd American strength. And I say that because from the very beginning, the pres-ident in his campaign four years ago said he would meet with all the world’s worst actors in his fi rst year, he’d sit down with Chavez and Kim Jong-il, with Castro and President Ahma-dinejad of Iran.
And I think they looked and thought, well, that’s an unusual honor to receive from the President of the United States. And then the president began what I have called an apology tour, of going to various nations in the Mid-dle East and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness.
Then when there were dissidents in the streets of Tehran, a Green Revolution, holding signs saying, is America with us, the president
was silent. I think they noticed that as well.And I think that when the president said he
was going to create daylight between ourselves and Israel, that they noticed that as well.
Romney’s money comment came on his next answer when Obama denied the apol-ogy tour:
Number two, Mr. President, the reason I call it an apology tour is because you went to the Middle East and you fl ew to Egypt and to Sau-di Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq. And by the way, you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region, but you went to the other nations.
And by the way, they noticed that you skipped Israel. And then in those nations, and on Arabic TV, you said that America had been dismissive and derisive. You said that on oc-casion America had dictated to other nations.
Mr. President, America has not dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations from dictators.
Through it all President Obama looked small, making petty comments, interrupting Romney over thirty times.
Romney: I want a great relationship with China. China can be our partner, but — but that doesn’t mean they can just roll all over us and steal our jobs on an unfair basis.
Obama: Well, Governor Romney’s right, you are familiar with jobs being shipped over-seas because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas.
Romney kept bringing the discussion back to the economy and the importance of a strong economy to our national security.
But in order to be able to fulfi ll our role in the world, America must be strong. America must lead. And for that to happen, we have to strengthen our economy here at home. You can’t have 23 million people struggling to get a job. You can’t have an economy that over the last three years keeps slowing down its growth rate. You can’t have kids coming out of college; half of them can’t fi nd a job today, or a job that’s commensurate with their college degree. We have to get our economy going.
Just before the fi rst GOP primary debate in May 2011, I commented that debates nev-er change people’s minds. This has been an unusual political season; most of the twenty-six debates during the primary season were effective in changing people’s minds perhapsto excess.
But surely, I believed these presidentialdebates wouldn’t matter; that belief was in-correct.
The three Presidential debates changed the entire structure of the campaign. Beforethe fi rst debate, Obama was winning by aslight margin and clearly had the momen-tum. By showing he was not the evil mon-ster portrayed in Obama’s commercials, Gov-ernor Romney won the fi rst debate and madea signifi cant turnaround. It was the Romneycamp that became energized, as he became the slight leader with the momentum.
The second debate was seen by most as anObama victory, but those same polls showedRomney the victor on most key issues: theeconomy, jobs, and leadership.
To change the structure in the fi nal de-bate, President Obama needed to score adecisive victory. That did not happen. Noone’s mind was changed tonight, but somewho were leaning towards Romney may havefi rmed up their support.
Last night was “the fi nal argument” of these two candidates. Sure, there will becampaigning and commercials, especially in the battleground states, but the real task ahead, especially in an election this close, will be for both sides to get out the vote. And in the end, that get out the vote effort maydetermine which of these two become ournext president.
Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com). Jeff contributes to some of the largestpolitical sites on the internet including Amer-ican Thinker, Big Government, Big Journal-ism, NewsReal and Pajama’s Media, and has been a guest on national radio shows in-cluding G. Gordon Liddy, Tammy Bruce and Glenn Beck. Jeff lives in Long Island.
THE JEWISH STARIndependent and original reporting from the Orthodox communities of Long Island and New York City
All opinions expressed are solely those of The Jewish Star’s editorial staff or contributing writers
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POLITICO TO GO
Jeff Dunetz
Debate #3: The Battle In Boca
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A s cliché as this sounds...boy have times changed since I was a teenager in the 70s. In those days most of us babysat
on Saturday nights. You know, to make mon-ey to buy those “frivolous” things that our moms said wasn’t necessary to buy, and if we wanted it, we could pay for it with our own money....I actually fi nd myself saying the same thing to my daughter, but usually end
up buying it for her. We didn’t take trains
into the city to eat Thai, sushi or drink $5 lattes, we didn’t even know what lattes were, come to think of it. We didn’t take the LIRR to meet up with friends from all the other boroughs and we certainly didn’t manage to get hold of fake IDs, that looked nothing like ourselves and were of people about seven years older
than us. The guys checking out the IDs these days seem to have the same vision issues as the umps in the post season.
When I was a teenager, every now and then we went out for pizza or went to a friend’s house. One Saturday after Shabbat, my friends decided they all wanted to go bowling. That was not going to fl y with my mom. She was always nervous to let me out at night and stayed up till I returned home. But the whole “chevra” was going, including boys she knew and liked. I was just going to make my pitch and hoped it worked. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak though, I changed my mind. How bad could a little white lie be? It was, after all for their sake, wasn’t it? Why should they worry when I was gone? I didn’t want them to worry, so, I told my parents it was my friend Fay’s birthday and we were going to make a surprise party for her at my friend Lynn’s house. She only lived two blocks away so that would not be a problem. To make it sound realistic, I asked my dad how much lox I needed per person as we were going to stop off at Miller’s ap-petizing to buy the food. To this day, I ques-tion myself as to why in the world I would have asked about lox; we were 15 years old for heaven’s sake. I still remember his re-sponse, 1/4 lb per person when ordering lox. Anyway, it worked and we all had a blast. It was a warm night and the walk to Maple Lanes and back was uneventful. We bowled, laughed had a great time and then went to Amnon’s on 13th Avenue for pizza and falafel (aside from the best pizza they had the most awesome falafel balls.) When I returned home, my mom stuck her head outside her bedroom door to say good night. Hmm, that wasn’t that bad. I had fun, and my parents weren’t nervous, a win-win situation.
Unlike today, when the kids can text each other at all hours of the night, I had to wait till the morning to hear the conversation Fay had with her mom. When she got home, her mom was up and excitedly asked her how it went. Fay responded, “It was fi ne, the usual, we bowled two games then went out for piz-za. It was fun.” Her mom said, “No, really how was it? Were you really surprised?” Fay said, “Mom, what are you talking about?” “It’s ok, you can tell me all about it,” her mom said. “Judy’s mom fi lled me in on the party when I called to see if she was home yet, as it was getting late. Her mom told me to relax and not to worry as you were all at Lynn’s house for your surprise party, and you were
all going to be driven home.” Fay, a bit con-fused said, “Um, no we went bowling......but something tells me you probably shouldn’t discuss this with Mrs. Feig any further.”
I did fess up a few years later and we all had a good laugh.
So if you’re too old to go “clubbing,” not in the mood for designer coffee and don’t want to drag into the city, try these falafel balls and invite some friends over on a Saturday night. Might just make you think of the good ole’ days.
FALAFEL BALLS Ingredients•24 ounces chickpeas (canned) •1 1/2 large onions, chopped •4 cloves of garlic, chopped or 2 cubes
frozen garlic cubes •4 tablespoons of fresh pars-
ley, chopped •1 1/2 teaspoon coriander •1 1/2 teaspoon cumin •3 tablespoons fl our •Salt •Pepper •Oil for frying
Preparation•Drain and combine chick-
peas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) in medium bowl. Add fl our.
•Mash chickpeas, and mix ingredients to-
gether. If you like you can also mix ingredi-ents in a food processor. End result should be a thick paste.
•Form the mixture into small balls, aboutthe size of a walnut.
•Place in a pot of oil, enough to cover thefalafel balls, and fry for about 7-8 minutes. Check one tomake sure they are done.
Now you’re set to make your falafel. You can buy a va-riety of pitas from local stores. I like to chop up fresh cucum-bers, tomatoes, lettuce andsour pickles and toss the saladtogether with the falafel balls inside the pita and top with
techina and a touch of sour kraut.
Judy Joszef can be reached at [email protected]
Who’s in the kitchen
Times they are a changin’
Judy Joszef
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As a 2012 Stern College graduate and a graduate student in accounting at the Sy Syms School of
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By Rabbi Eugene Labovitz, z”l, and Dr. Annette Labovitz
Reproduced from “The Legendary Maggidim: Stories of Soul and Spirit,”
Rebbe Levi Yitzchak, the Berditchever Rebbe (1740 – 1809), was a truly powerful personality. Under his leadership, the Jews of Berditchev were so imbued with eager-ness to do mitzvoth, that they rose earlier than usual on the day a newborn was to be circumcised. They wanted to perform the mitzvah even before davening. Yet, on one occasion, the bris milah of the rebbe’s own grandson was delayed until late afternoon. Why?
The beis midrash was fi lled with the reb-be’s chassidim, having traveled from near and far to experience the holiness of the moment when the rebbe’s new grandson would en-ter into the covenant of our father Avraham. They waited patiently for the rebbe to arrive. They sang a niggun. They studied, they re-cited tehillim, but the rebbe was nowhere to be found. Reb Yosef Bunim, the father of the newborn, was admittedly impatient. He walked toward the rebbe’s private room, and upon reaching it, rapped loudly on the door, but there was no response from inside. The morning hours melded into early afternoon, and still the rebbe made no appearance. Fi-nally the shamash decided to investigate. He
quietly walked to the door, bent over and peered through the keyhole. Stepping away, he whispered, “The rebbe seems to be deep in thought. His face is fi ery red, his eyes are staring into the distance, and he is breathing heavily. We will just have to wait.”
Instead of the shuffl ing movement that pervaded the room previously, the restless-ness reverted into hushed silence.
A little past noon, the rebbe emerged. The Chassidim rushed to greet him, relieved that he appeared to be in good health. “Quick! Bring the newborn to me! It is time to per-form the mitzvah of brit melah.” The rebbe performed the mitzvah, and intoned:
“Our G-d…preserve this child for his fa-ther and mother, and may his name be called in Israel Moshe Yehudah Leib, the son of Yosef Bunim.” It happened so quickly that the father realized that his newborn son had been named without him having been con-sulted. He was understandably upset. He did not know the origin of the name; no one in his family or his wife’s family had carried that name. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak whispered, “I know you have a lot of questions. I will explain everything. Very early this morn-ing, I received a message that Rebbe Moshe Yehudah Leib of Sassov, of blessed memory, one of our contemporary leaders, had passed away. I sat down to contemplate this sad news. I visioned that his soul was not di-
Continued on page 14
The soul that would not enter Gan Eden
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RE-ELECTJUDGE ANDREW M. ENGELDISTRICT COURT JUDGE
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• Elected to Supreme Court in 1999
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• Adjunct Professor of Law, Touro College, Jacob Fuchsberg Law Center
• Adjunct Professor at Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School
• Instructor, United States Dept. of Justice, Advocacy Institute
• Lecturer, Practicing Law Institute
• Lecturer, American Law Institute of the American Bar Association.
A life-long resident of Long Island Jim Catterson is a graduate of St. John’s Law School and Colgate University. He and his wife Jennifer reside
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W ell, it is almost here, Election Day, that is. In just two weeks the nation goes to the polls to elect the next president
and the excitement can be felt in just about every social venue, with this column being no exception.
This week, I hope to briefl y cover several works that, through the prism of history, will serve to convey the role that our religious community played in previous crucial elec-tions. Personalities count, and we begin with that of Herbert Hoover, whose little known profi le is given front row treatment by one of our community’s premier historians, Dr. Ra-fael Medoff and Dr. Sonja Schoepf Wentling.
Titled, “Herbert Hoover and the Jews,” this book goes into great detail in describ-ing the involvement of the future president in the safety and wel-fare of East European Jewry after World War I, spanning the years, 1919 – 1922. Till now, little was known of his efforts that saved thou-sands of Jews from both starvation and
murder at the hands of pogromists both left and right. This is followed by a detailed de-scription of his involvement with the yishuv and the Arab riots in 1929.
Some of the most riveting sections in this work deal with Hoover’s long unknown activ-ities during this era, and the follow up in the Holocaust years. Hoover was the fi rst presi-dent to be confronted, according to Medoff, with the Arab-Jewish confl ict. As a commit-ted Christian Zionist, Hoover resisted much pressure from the State Department to side with the Arabs. This book is the fi rst major literary work to acknowledge Hoover’s his-toric role in Jewish history.
Also, most relevant to us today, are the chapters dealing with the role of the Jewish vote and its role in the modern day political scene, starting with the political career of Hoover and the Republican Party of his day.
During the Roosevelt years, Hoover and his fellow Republicans consistently challenged FDR and his underlings on such matters as immigration policies for Jewish refugees fl eeing Nazi persecution, especially after Kristallnacht.
Truth be told, it was Prof. Ben Zion Netanyahu who persuaded Hoover and the Republican Party to include an unprecedented plank in their 1944 plat-form calling for the creation of a Jewish state. This event was to have far reaching im-plications in the years to come on both the domestic political front and in the conduct of foreign affairs as they concern the Middle East.
By 1944, FDR was most concerned that the Jews in New York State would bolt the Democratic Party and vote for their popu-lar Republican governor, Thomas Dewey for president.
After passage of the pro-statehood plank in the GOP platform, Dewy met with Zionist leader Dr. Abba Hillel Silver on October 12th. As a result of their discussions, Dewey issued a statement affi rming his support for a free Jewish state in accordance with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. He further insisted on an unlimited immigration policy, as well as land ownership by Jews in the Holy Land, thus becoming the fi rst presidential candi-date in history to ever articulate such a direct policy.
As detailed in an excellent chronology of the 1944 race, “FDR, Dewey and the Election of 1944” by historian David M. Jordan [In-diana University Press, 2011] the following then happened:
“Several days later, President Roosevelt sent a message to the convention of the Zion-ist Organization of America pledging his aid in fi nding ‘appropriate ways and means of effectuating establishment of Palestine as a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.”
Ironically, this was the only time a Jew-ish issue was ever personally articulated by FDR that year. Please keep in mind that at this very time, the Jews of Hungary were fac-ing their fate in the Holocaust with nary a word of sympathy and concern coming from FDR during his campaigning in New York City that October.
Despite this, by Election Day, 1944, the Jewish vote still went for FDR by more than 90%. However, the GOP plank that year set in motion a growing relationship between Republican leaders and certain elements in the Jewish community that was to grow in the many years to come. The 1944 elections were the fi rst time that both parties com-peted for the Jewish vote; this, according to Medoff, represented the birth of the “Jewish vote” in American politics. What occurred in 1944 was to play a signifi cant role in 1948, with President Truman’s recognition of Is-rael, in open defi ance of his own secretary of state. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing that year, politically, served to help save the lives of those Jews who were to be doomed to the gas chambers of Europe.
A CONCLUDING IRONYHowever, the current and disturbing shift-
ing political climate insofar as our nation’s foreign policies in the Middle East are con-cerned, potentially can have a telling affect upon the behavior of the normally Demo-cratic leaning Jewish vote this year. In an interesting work, titled, “License To Murder”
by Dr. Alex Grobman, executive director of the American – Israel Friendship League, the following ideological observation was made:
“The emergence of the anti-globalist Left that is viscerally ob-sessed with anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism is increasingly hostile to Israel and the Jewish people. Among those who have benefi ted the least from globaliza-tion are the Arabs and Muslims, who blame the Jews and America under Jewish domination for con-
spiring to control the world, rather than tak-ing responsibility for their own shortcom-ings.”
Further on, Grobman notes the follow-ing historic irony that is starting to make its ideological impact upon the American politi-cal scene:
“Sol Stern, a contributing editor to City Journal, and once a prominent leader of the American left, explains that historically, the European left opposed right-wing anti-Semi-tism and oppression of the Jews, because the Jews were at the forefront of socialist and progressive movements. ‘The left loved Jews when they could be portrayed as victims of monopoly capitalism and its alleged progeny, fascism.’ ”
However, today, we Jews are attacked for just the opposite reasoning and the anti-Semitism that is of liberal/leftist origin is be-ginning to have the same scent and sense of the Nazi and fascist past. This development is of immediate concern to all committed Jews and is fi nding its electoral response among many American Jews this fall.
Alan Jay Gerber
The Kosher Bookworm
The Literature of Politics
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Hebrew only please!
On this Sunday, the 12th of Cheshvan, we will mark Yitzchak Rabin’s yahrtzeit. Many (myself included) disagreed with his po-litical views. However, that should not diminish our appreciation for all he did for the Jewish people. From his days in the Palmach, through his leadership of Tzahal leading up to the Six Day War; from Ambassador to the United States to Prime Minister (twice) of Israel, during which the Entebbe operation took place, and through the signing of a peace treaty with Jordan, he always acted as he felt was correct for Israel.
Yitzchak Rabin: Dedicated to his People
Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of the IDF. He has taught in yeshiva high schools, post-high school women’s seminaries, and headed the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusa-lem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.
By Rabbi Noam Himelstein
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O ver the last seven months, circumcision has appeared as a regular conversation topic in media outlets. Between metzit-
zah discussions, European nations becoming enlightened about cir-cumcision and banning it (historians note that all that has changed in Europe, is that Eu-ropean anti-Semitism now comes in the guise of liberalism – to save the babies!), and the pro vs anti circumci-sion debate which con-tinues to rage on in the blogosphere, there is no shortage of topics to be covered.
Reading Parshat Lech Lecha this
week, the parsha in which the Covenant of Circumcision is fi rst presented in the Torah, it is a good time to refl ect on what Bris Milah is and why we are so attached to it.
Dr. Jon Levenson, professor of Jewish studies at Harvard University, noted a (not) surprising phenomenon in his article, “The New Enemies of Circumcision,” in Com-mentary Magazine, March 2000.
“…circumcision, itself a divine command-ment (mitzvah), is emblematic of the Jews’ fi delity to the G-d who formed them as a people and gave them the Torah.
“It is hardly surprising, therefore, that even in modern times, Jews across the de-nominational spectrum have continued to
have the procedure performed on their sons on the eighth day of life, just as the Torah pre-scribes. What may be more surprising is the durability of circumcision among those Jews for whom traditional theology is unaccept-able. All sorts of other practices bearing the warrant of tradition--Sabbath, dietary laws, daily prayer--have fallen by the wayside, but circumcision, ( britmilah), endures.”
Levinson went on to discuss different opinions as to the prophylactic effects of cir-cumcision, noting that they are irrelevant to the Jew who will be circumcising regard-less of medical opinion. This notion was ad-
equately noted by Herman Wouk in his “This is My G-d” where he wrote, “[F]or Jews cir-cumcision … is not a detail of hygiene, [but] the seal of the pledge between Abraham and his Creator… The Jews have followed the Mosaic law with a confi dence which modern medicine progressively ratifi es. The medical endorsement is not, however, the glory of Ju-daism. It is a footnote.”
In many Jewish circles, the question of cir-cumcision is not a Hamletian question of “to circ or not to circ,” but is merely a question of when and where. This is something the non-Jewish or the non-circumcising world,
who view circumcision as barbaric, willnever understand. Circumcision is a practicethat has defi ned our people for thousands ofyears. We have done it openly, in secret, en-joying the support of local government or indefi ance of laws against it. The practice hassurvived hatred, bigotry, persecution, andgenocide for many reasons including thosediscussed in Talmud Nedarim 32a-b. It is the fulfi llment of our side of the agreement ofBereshit 17, in hopes of the continued fulfi ll-ment of the promises G-d made to Avraham.
Parshat Lech Lecha
The covenant of circumcision
Rabbi Avi Billet
Continued on page 15
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Paid for by Friends for the Election of Dean Skelos
LOWER TAXES FOR MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIESPassed into law a reduction in personal income tax rates for working families, bringing most rates to their lowest levels in over fifty years.
RESPONSIBLE BUDGETSWorked with Governor Cuomo to deliver two consecutive on-time state budgets that
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Oct 27Shabbat Guest Speaker Tzipi HotovelyKnesset member & rising star of the Likud party, Ms. Hotovely is a religious Zionist, graduate of Bar Ilan’s Law School & doctoral student at Tel Aviv’s Law School. She serves as the head of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women. Congregation Beth Sholom390 Broadway, Lawrence, NY 11559 www.bethsholomlawrence.org516-569-3600 Fax 516-569-3105 Eruv 516-295-4212
Oct 28Hachnasas Sefer TorahThe Esformes Sefer Torah In memory of Harav Shlomo Freifeld, zt’lDedicated by Rabbi Morris and Delecia Esformes9 a.m. Shiur by Rav Naftali Jaeger12 noon K’sivas Osios1:30 p.m. Torah Procession accompanied by Live MusicStarting at the corner of Nassau Expressway and Cedar Lawn Avenue2:30 p.m. Seudas Mitzvah For opportunities and information, please callRabbi Moshe Rubin516-239-9002 ext 124
For Women Only Information SessionThe Impact of Breast and Ovarian Cancer on the Jewish CommunityYoung Israel of West Hempstead,located at 630 Hempstead Avenue, in conjunction with Sharsheret is sponsoring a free informative session. Shera Dubitsky, Sharsheret’s Clini-cal Director will be speaking. Handouts of prevention/signs/symptoms, etc. Discussion and question and answer period will follow. Refreshments will be served.Sponsorships in honor of a survivor or in memory of a loved one. Reservations pre-ferred, but all are welcome at the door.For more information, please contact Betty Aboff at 516-996-6309 or email [email protected].
Hachnassat Sefer TorahDedication of a Torah in Memory ofRabbi Dr. Noah and Pearl Rosenbloomthe Parents ofMichaelle Gorman & Leah BulkaProcession12:30 PM from Central Avenue &Prospect Avenue to theWoodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care CenterRefreshments Will Be Served
Gala Classical ConcertPianists, Arbie Orenstein and Audrey Sch-neider as well as distinguished guest artist, fl utist Keith Underwood will perform. The program will consist of piano compositions by Chopin, Schubert, Debussy and Ravel, as well as fl ute works by Barber, Rachmaninov, Bloch and Schulhoff. There will be a colla-tion following the concert and all concert ticket holders are invited.Tickets are for the concert are $20 each and $15 for students. If you would like to be a patron, for $100 you will get 4 tickets for reserved seating and also have your name in the program.For additional information and/or to pur-chase tickets, call Fran Welner at 516-485-
1682 or the Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead offi ce at 516-481-7448.The Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead is located at 711 Dogwood Ave, West Hempstead.
Oct 30Breast Cancer ScreeningsFrom the NUMC Mammography Van9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noonEast Rockaway Recreation Center/John Street Complex17 John Street, East RockawayFor additional information, or to make an appointment, please callLegislator Howard Kopel’s offi ce at (516) 571-6207Appts are scheduled on a fi rst come, fi rst served basis
Nov 4CHAZAQ Renowned Lecturer R’ Zecharia WallersteinRefreshments will be served at 8:00 PM Lecture Scheduled for 8:30 PMMen & Women are Welcome! Admission is Free!Beth Gavriel Community Center 66-35 108th St. Forest Hills NY 11375For More Info Call or Text 917-617-3636or Email: [email protected] www.CHAZAQ.org
Nov 11Young Israel of North Woodmere 29th Annual Dinnerhonoring Zipora and Aron Neuman and Joyce and Dr. Phil Levineat Congregation Ohr TorahCocktails 5:30 p.m. Dinner 7:00 p.m.To place an ad or to make your dinner reser-vations, pleasecontact Shapsie Markus or Glernn Skolnick at [email protected]
OngoingCalling all Senior Song Birds THE JCC OF THE GREATER FIVE TOWNS, located at 270 Grove Avenue in Cedarhurst, hosts a choir for seniors every Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. for a joyful hour of singing with choir master Zvi Klein.We sing songs in all languages and we perform for local venues. There is a $5.00 optional con-tribution requested per session. For information please call Sheryl at 516-569-6733 x222.
Support groupTHE JCC OF THE GREATER FIVE TOWNS will sponsor a new support group for the economi-cally challenged as a result of the economic downturn. Key themes will include unemploy-ment, fi nancial issues, empowerment and support. Please join us on Thursday mornings at 10:15 a.m. at Temple Israel, 140 Central Ave, Lawrence until January 20th. This group is part of Connect to Care, an initiative funded by UJA-Federation of NY. For further information and to pre-register, please contact Talia Rapps, L.M.S.W. at 516-569-6733 x213.
Participants in the Masbia Bike Tour include Eitan Blumstein, organizer Yaakov Hawk, Aaron Neufeld, and Elie Hawk. The bike tour raised over $6,000 for the cause
ON THE
CalendarSubmit your shul or organization’s events or shiurim to [email protected].
Deadline is Wednesday of the week prior to publication.
Donovan Berthoud/Herald
AMIT’S NEW HORIZONS FOR CHILDREN(Back row) Barbara Nordlicht, Hope Berger Nathan, Nancy Karp, Front Row: Faye Krawitz, Sheri Feldman, Elisheva Stein collectively represent the outstanding honorees that were recognized at the Amit Greater Long Island Gala. Supporters came out Tuesday evening for a fun evening to support the cause that enables Israel’s youth to realize their potential.
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rectly on the way to the next world. I imag-ined that as his soul ascended, he stopped to gather those souls that were in limbo, that were not completely righteous, and not com-pletely wicked. The Heavenly Court watched and was stymied; never had a worthy soul delayed entrance into Gan Eden because it was busy searching for those who were not completely righteous, not completely wicked. In my vision, I heard him talking to the Heav-enly Court and demanding time to round up all those souls that were even partially wor-
thy to ascend with him to Gan Eden. I sat here, as if in a trance, watching Rebbe Moshe Yehudah Leib Sassov ransom all those souls that he deemed worthy to ascend with him to Heaven. I knew that you, and the entire community were waiting for me, but I was transfi xed by the image. I could not move until the tzaddik had completely ascended to his deserved place in Gan Eden, the World to Come. And now you understand,” the rebbe concluded, “why your newborn son was des-tined to bear the name of that holy tzaddik, may he be for a blessing.”
Gan Eden...Continued from page 6
ligious courts, helping them to secure a Get.Rabbi Riskin’s outstanding contributions
to Israel and to world Jewry over the course of his career have made him one of the leading voices of today’s Modern Orthodox world. Rabbi Riskin is especially renowned for his innovative educational and social action programs, which are based upon his unique vision of an authentic Judaism sensi-tive to every human being and responsive to all universal concerns.
“I’m a halachic existentialist. Halacha and the details when understood properly deal with the most existential problems of hu-manity, “ stressed Rabbi Riskin. “Ohr Torah Stone begins with Efrat. I believe in halachic Judaism that expresses human sensitivity. I needed a community to be a backdrop for the institution.”
Rabbi Riskin’s visit to the Woodmere and Great Neck communities are a prelude to Ohr Torah Stone’s annual dinner on Decem-ber 4, 2012 at the Museum of Jewish Heri-tage. Guests of honor are Helene and Robbie Rothenberg, Rain and Stanley Silverstein, along with their grandchildren Mindy and Michael Leventhal. Distinguished educator awardees are Rav Tuvia Kaplan and Mrs. Tova Rhein. Midor L’dor awardees are Dr. Michelle Friedman and Mr. Benjamin Belfer and their three daughters, Midreshet Lin-denbaum alumni, Emily (’06), Sarah, (’08) and Rachel(’11) The dinner will feature a panel discussion on women as spiritual lead-ers with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Dr. Michelle Sarna, and Mrs. Shani Taragin, moderated by Dr. Michelle Friedman. For more informa-tion please contact Ohr Torah Stone at (212) 935-8672.
Rabbi Riskin in WoodmereContinued from page 1
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Many people who are anti-circumcision like to quote a passage of Maimonides from “The Guide to the Perplexed” [3.49 (118a), 609] in which Maimonides expressed how circumcision decreases physical sensitivity. But their quotation of Maimonides is always incomplete, and therefore intellectually dis-honest.
In the part they don’t quote, Maimonides outlines why we circumcise. Avraham was the fi rst to recognize the power of the male “drive” and the need to have other pursuits in life [see Hilchot De’ot 3:2]. More important-ly, in his day (certainly before any notion of routine circumcision that exists in the United States today), circumcision gave our people a common physical sign of our peoplehood, along with the faith that this is what G-d has asked of us. (Levenson addresses the fact that women do not bear a sign of the covenant.)
The covenant forged with Avraham, in which G-d agreed “to be a G-d for you and for your children after you” [as described in Bereshit 17] is the source for declaring G-d’s oneness.
Maimonides states unequivocally that the Torah cannot be properly fulfi lled with-out circumcision. He shares three points of
wisdom in the process of circumcising at thisage: 1. Were we to leave it for the child to dowhen he grows older, there’s a great chancethat he wouldn’t do it. 2. The long-term painexperienced by an older person, who willadd emotional stress to the ordeal, does not compare to the when-it’s-over-it’s-done expe-rience of a newborn. 3. Submitting a new-born to circumcision is much easier than anolder child, for whom our love only growsover time, who experiences pain differentlyand who might remember it.
These days, even many Muslims have switched from the older practice of circum-cising at 13 or a younger age of childhood,opting for the newborn period, which is farless traumatic and entirely forgettable.
Small groups of Jews claim, “choosingnot to circ is the more Jewish thing to do.”Discounting the Torah is hardly “more Jew-ish,” but those who don’t “get it” will try touse any argument they can to pursue theiragenda.
For us, our covenant with G-d is whatwill keep this mitzvah alive. May we merit to bring many more babies into the Covenant(though only boys bear the physical mark) as the Jewish people continue to grow in antici-pation of the fi nal Redemption.
The covenant of circumcisionContinued from page 11
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